to common sense wherein euery common obseruation may claime a share Should wee search with more subtiltie either as sound Diuines or deep Philosophers into the mysterious manner of Gods working wee shall finde no small argument to bee drawne from the disparitie betwixt Diuine prouidence and Worldly policie The plots and counterplots of men are vsually grounded either vpon open Resistance or slye Diuersion The one is taught vs in the Booke of Nature wherein wee may reade the interchangeable conquest of the elements in their mutuall conflicts and operations the other is grounded on Ciuill obseruation as well as nature which in the shortest and easiest way commonly findes the safest victorie But Gods Almighty hand which neuer knew Resistance or needes Diuersion easily knows how to worke his own ends by his supernaturall concurrence with worldly agents in their most affected proiects The same meanes which wicked men propose to themselues as the safest agents for their desired ends hee makes the instruments of their owne ruine that the most exacteft plot wherein policie could euer hug her own inuention may seeme the most exquisite example of her owne shame Easie was it for that great King of Heauen and Earth with thunder and lightning from heauen to haue pashed Absolon in pieces and scorched vp his seditious army more easily could he haue broken the subtile nets of Achitophels politicke inuention than Sampson the Philistines bands or an Elephant a Spiders webbe But intending rather to make them their owne executionâ—…rs hee suffers them to runne in their owne Labyrinth till they meet their owne ruine What way in Nature could Pharaoh deuise more exquisite to increase the strength of Israel and make them populous than to tye them to their daily burthens Whence could Moses haue better deriued his greatnesse in Pharaoh's Court than from the bulrush cradle floating on the teares of the weeping riuer How could Pharaoh haue feared or expected euen in his own tyrannous decree proiected for his owne safeguard and Israels extirpation to haue found Israel ransomed and himselfe ruined that his owne daughter should preserue that as a Cabinet of pleasure which Moses mother bestowed on him as a mournefull Coffin Little thought Iosephs brethren in selling him to the Egyptians to haue purchased their own shame and his future greatnesse Little thought those Romane Emperours in their raging persecutions to haue sowne the seede of the Church in the blood of the Martyrs and haue seene Christianitie most triumphant in her greatest wounds Little thought Pope Leo the tenth in sending his Indulgences into Germany to haue met with such an opportunitie as the peoples discontent and the Heremite Fryars defeat to haue stirred vp the hot spirit of Luther to haue giuen such a fatall blow to his owne greatnesse and see his tyrannous Hierarchie in such a terrible combustion Such is the infinite wisedome of that Prouidence to ordaine worldly policie to afford not onely the aptest instruments but the exactest opportunities to destroy it selfe and there to declare our greatest weakenesse where we repose our greatest strength Whence by way of application wee may draw two other consectaries expressing no lesse apparant footsteps of Gods Almighty prouidence in disposing the affaires of men First that in preuention of worldly plots stratagems he commonly shewes not himselfe but at the last push and seldome discouers our danger till wee suppose our selues most secure Had Gods wisedome ranne the course of humane policie he might haue preuented as well as defeated Achitophels designe he might haue stirred vp Dauids iealousie betime to haue shut vp Absolon in prison or according to the preposterous rules of the Ottonian Iustice haue rewarded his future treason with a present execution Absolon might haue failed as well in the first as last precept or at least Achitophel might haue read in Absolons disposition his wilfull weakenesse or inconstancie But God pursues not ours but his owne glory as one who is then most willing to shew his power when our hopes or abilities can challenge least 8 Our second Consectary drawne from Gods omnipotent prouidence is That God sits not as an idle spectator but interposeth himselfe as a chiefe actor on the Theatre of worldly actions It was not only an idle but a wicked dreame of Epicurus and his followers that God busied in the contemplation of heauenly matters gaue ouer the gouernment of the World to Chance or Nature as if he supposed it a Mill or Water-worke which once framed by an Artificer and animated by an actiue power should worke of its owne accord and preserue in it the principles both of motion and continuance Which opinion for ought that I know might bee fastned on our Master Aristotle who not only in his Physickes seemes to deny a Prouidence but in the whole course of his Phylosophy seemes to preferre Nature as a Deitie whom God should rather serue than command yet here should I freely discouer mine opinion I should thinke our Philosopher mistaken in diuiding one and the selfe same thing into diuers names To separate God from Nature is to diuorce Nature from her selfe which seemes of it selfe absurd but to ascribe act and motion vnto the latter and appoint the former to sit idle as a spectator or at least as a necessary agent to serue Nature is more absurd to thinke a finite more excellent than an infinite which is strange how so great a wit should once imagine But we out of the principles of Christian Philosophy may easily be taught a double concourse of the Creator with the creature the one Generall which I hold to bee no other than that wee vsually call Nature the other Speciall which humane Ignorance or Admiration hath tearmed Miracle Neither can reason imagine the naturall generation of things to be any other than a continuate Creation wherein Almighty God according to the Aptnesse and Preparation of the subiect daily ministers new formes or conserues the same which the Diuines tearme Preseruation For to giue a Creature without Gods immediate concurrence an abilitie of producing the like or equall substance to it selfe or by his owne power to deriue out of that first Chaos a new forme or nature seemes to me to trench too farre on Gods Prerogatiue I had almost said to emulate God in the second part of his Creation But to leaue this Common-wealth of Nature to its first institution and enter into the view of mens actions we shall finde a more speciall concurrence of Diuine prouidence than in the former To what other cause else should wee owe that miraculous preseruation of Gods Church which through the violence of so many ages hath saued it selfe entire with so small a number and great an opposition Time which hath seene the Rise and Fall of so many famous Kingdomes the inuention and decay of so many learned labours the erection and defacing of so many stately Trophees Time which in her vast gulfe hath not onely swallowed vp antiquitie but for the
aduancement Hee thought it ill siding with a doubtfull rebell or inconstant friend Absolon howsoeuer professedly hee had engaged himselfe to Treason might deceiue his opinion or faile his expectation His pretended discontent towards his father might for ought he knew bee onely personated to make triall of their allegeance or his resolution inconstant to forfeit them to danger Absolon though a Traytor was yet a Sonne Dauid though prouoked was yet a Father No Gordian knot was euer so cunningly knit by policie which nature cannot cut or time dissolue The priuiledge of youth or prerogatiue of a Sonne may make this action seeme rather a scape than a sin His faults how great soeuer will seeme rather Achitophels than his owne And that which Iustice in others will tearme Treason indulgence in him will interpret weakenesse Dauid may remit and Absolon reconcile what the one suffered and the other acted and then must Achitophel and his associates eyther stand at stake to maintaine their Masters action or hazzard their liues on the brittle confidence of the Kings mercy The breach of a sonnes disloyaltie may perchance bee peeced vp with filiall submission but Achitophels reuolt seemes to expect no issue but death or victory The middle way in policie is alwayes reiected as dangerous and the extreame requires the most desperate and extreame attempts Achitophel is not here wanting to himselfe Absolon must yet be engaged to a more Notorious action vncapable of forgiuenesse where in all Israel may reade his absolute reuolt and his Fathers greatest indignation Absolon must be known neither to regard or hope for his fathers reconcilement Dauids anger must bee thought inexorable as that which Iustice requires and the honour of a king commands If Absolon hope to wedde the Throne of Israel hee must first violate his Fathers Bed and to this his notorious act of treason let him further adde the sinne of incest Petty crimes are the effects of inferiour offenders Absolon must bee thought as great as himselfe as one who would play the King as well in his sins as his ambition Neither can this wickednesse bee safe or shamefull enough if secret Secrecie which in other matters commonly proues the mother of securitie is here reputed the nurse of danger and Guilt which vsually shunnes the light is here desirous of discouerie To sinne closely argues either feare or modestie neither of which can protect a rebell or beseeme a King Set up a Tent quoth Achitophel on the house toppe that all Israel may witnesse thy sinne and thy fathers shame and make the world at once both blush and wonder Let thy Brother Ammon sinne in a corner to decline censure Sinne thou in publicke to strike censure speechlesse and out-face the seuerest frownes of Iustice. Let Ammon commit incest with his Sister Go thou in vnto thy Fathers Concubines What was the weakenesse of lust in him ought to be the strength of thy aspiring greatnesse Thy greatest safety consists in thy greatest villany and the least blush seemes to betray thy cause to dissidence and danger Let Ruben trespasse with one of his Fathers wiues Go thou in vnto ten of thy Fathers Concubines that this thy fact at once may surmount both example and imitation Then the hands of all that are with thee shall be strong They shall speede no worse than Absolon and therefore ought to feare no more To fall with our Captaine seemes the least duty To rise with him the greatest honour and who but a Coward would feare to hazzard the life of a Subiect to make a King Great dangers and great honours beginne and end in the same circle Neyther is the path strowed with Violets and Roses but death and slaughter which leades to the tents of Victorie This was Achitophels first counsel as dangerous to decline as desperate to execute But desperate and extreame purposes are engaged to the like meanes and sincere honesty in the course of policie where she findes not her selfe admitted as the chiefe Mistresse will seldome proue a trusty seruant 7 Out of this counsell of Achitophel not onely plotted by himselfe but acted by Absolon will arise two especiall obseruations The first is the fulfilling of Gods iudgement and Nathans prophecie threatned before to Dauid for his sinning with Bathsheba and 〈◊〉 murder Behold saith God through the mouth of Nathan I will raise vp euill against thee out of thine owne house and will take thy Wiues before thine eyes and will giue them vnto thy neighbour and he shall lye with thy Wiues in the sight of the Sunne for thou diddest it secretly but I will doe this thing before all Israel and before the Sunne Such is the wisedome of Almighty God which can worke his owne good out of our wickednesse and make ourvniustest actions the instrumentall examples of his owne iustice Our very sinnes though false traytors to the owners proue trustie executioners of Gods iudgements and an easie matter it is for that wise disposer of all worldly actions to turne mans greatest shame into his greatest glory Secondly we may obserue it as a Maxime in worldly policie That a sinne can seldome secure it selfe but by addition of greater Where the house is swept and garnished and one Deuill is too little to enter seuen Deuils greater than himselfe are prest to giue a fresh assault For there is no way left for sinne to propagate its power but sinne nor can truth euer be entreated to aduenture her selfe as a pledge for falshood or stake her credit for a professed enemy Religious prouidence and worldly policie may I confesse sometimes runne together but seldome shake hands The path of the one as a strait line we finde alway as one and like it selfe of the other crooked and various and engaged to many difficulties If euer they chance to meete it is but as in a point and so soone part The further then we runne in this maze of worldly policie the further we estrange our selues from Pietie and the distance which at first seemed below the Seâ—…se will at length be found aboue the vnderstanding Euery ponderous substance as Naturalists obserue the more it descends the faster the motion No moment of space or time wherein we trauerse the way of wickednesse which addes not some weight to the massie burthen of our originall impietie and hastens not our passage to perdition One sinne seekes to secure it selfe by many and smaller crimes finde no safe protection but in the shelter of the greater Treason and vsurpation cannot support themselues but by the sword of Tyrannie Malice iâ—…uokes Reuenge to helpe her assisted with her seruants Murther and Detraction Ingratitude will soone breake into open defiance and neglect of Gods precepts is commonly seconded with Contempt at the least when all others withdraw their forces Impudence and Hypocrisie are sworne to backe their quarrell whereof the former can out-face the seuerest censure the latter blinde the eies of the strictest inquisition Who cannot here obserue a great distance
between Christian and worldly policie The one counsailes vs to make vp the breach of our sinnes by a sincere repentance the other to enlarge it with greater villany Binde not two sinner together for in one thou shalt not scape vnpunished saith the wisest of Kings But these Politicians holding themselues wiser than the wisest hold repentance base and perseuerance in sinne generous Nobler they suppose it to aduenture forward with danger than retire backe with shame as though they meant to shew themselues industriously resolute to sell their part in heauen and purchase their owne damnation But these we must leaue a while to their owne resolutions perhaps we shall find them againe with Achitophel hanging on the gallowes whose second and last counsaile offers it selfe in the next place to our examination 8 Hitherto hath Achitophels care bin to strengthen the faction both to secure himselfe and vnite the hearts of Israel more firmely to Absolon their leader His second Direction concernes the speeding of the execution Let me now choose out quoth Achitophel twelue thousand men and I will arise and pursue after Dauid this night and I will come vpon him while he is wearie and weake-handed and make him affraid and all the people which are with him shall flie and I will smite the King onely and I will bring back all the people vnto thee The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned So all the people shall be in peace In which politicke aduice of Achitophels three remarkeable circumstances offer themselues to our obseruation which by reason of the scantling of time and your wronged patience I shall be constrained rather to touch than handle In the first place his desire was to haue as well as his Head in the conspiracie so his Hand in the execution perhaps because hee hated Dauid hee was ambitious to shew himselfe the executioner of his owne reuenge and Dauids ruine perhaps out of vaine-glorie that he might seeme as able to act as wise to proiect a mischiefe perhaps out of an officious flattery to engage Absolons thankfulnesse by a doâ—…ble seruice But that which seemes to mee most probable was his extreame iealousie not daring to trust so young an experience with a matter of so great moment Absolons youth seemed perchance too shallow to entertaine the depth of his directions his bloud too neare to out-face the frowns of a fathers anger or the awe of filiall duety could not be supposed a fit actor in Dauids Tragedie The hardest Iron at the first touch of the Load stone is restored to its first temper and conceiues a Magneticke inclination And why might not Dauids fiery assault or gracious countenance in his rebellious sonne Absolon enforce nature to return vnto herselfe and kindle in him the sparkes of filiall duty and obedience Here may a man reade the state and condition of wicked poâ—…icie exposed to a thousand dangers and subiect to a thousand iâ—…alousies Well may such men as Damocles at Dionysius Table feed their hopes with the choisest dainties yet Gods fearfull iudgements as a sword pendulous ouer their heads is alwaies ready to threaten a destruction 'T is not then a good but an euill conscience which makes men cowards Onely hee who wants guilt wants feare and nothing but a cleare conscience can challenge true mother-hood in a couragious resolution The second point we obserue in Achitophels counsaile was a stratagem of Diuersion His quarrell was not against the people but Dauid his purpose to preserue the Kingdome but destroy the King and therefore thought it not so meete to hew out his passage to Dauids ouerthrowe through the bloud of the subiects as by the Kings forfeit to purchase them to Absolons obedience His first care was to strike at the roote it selfe well knowing the branches would fall of their owne accord and the peoples alleageance once dead in Dauid would soone quicken againe in Absolon The strength of Israel is shut vp in the Princes palace and the same power which conquers the one is soone master of the other This counsaile seemes to partake as well of good as bad with the death of one to redeem the life of many in the rigorous lawes of hostility seemes not a duety but a great courtesie But to sell a King to buy a kingdome and stake one Prince for many subiects is lesse than courtesie and more than cruelty Neither was this course affected by Achitophel to spare the liues of innocents or auoide a greater mischiefe but that he found it an easier way to conquer Dauid and reduce the people vnder the yoake of Absolons iurisdiction The good which politicians vse to pretend commonly swels in shew but shrinkes in substance as the Ocean they would seeme to flow in their kindnesses and embrace vs with twining armes as the waues the continent but seeking to lay hold on them we find them commonly to ebbe into nothing and snatch backe their owne with some aduantage If they chance to be authors of any good it serues only to flatter opinion and deceiue simplicity not that they loue good but that they may be the better armed to worke mischiefe To commit euill for a good end seemes to beare a better pretence before men than excuse before God but to suffer or act some good for an euill end is the height of mans wickednesse and the Diuels institution The third and last circumstance in this Achitophels counsaile was by a suddaine and vnexpected assault to take the best aduantage of his owne strength and Dauids weaknesse I will saith he suddenly fall on Dauid while he is wearie and weake-handed and the people shall flie To ioyne with mens misfortunes and adde to misery serues rather basenesse of the man than confidence of the cause and to second Gods afflictions with our owne reuenge is a marke of Gods instrument but the Diuels seruant The apprehension of an apt opportunity is of it selfe I confesse a matter indifferent as well to good as wicked policie Yet hasty and vnexpected actions commonly carry with them a greater suspicion of guilt than discretion as that which seekes to preuent a tryall and feares discouery Time the father of truth would questionlesse haue betrayed Absolons cause to common examination and reduced the discontented Commons to their first temper Dauid might haue giuen satisfaction allegeance haue reuiued in his subiects hearts Necessity which perhaps begat the effects of ill gouernment might haue vrged the causes and reason which at the first seemed to fawne on their discontent might afterwards be taught to correct her errors and suppresse their insolence All this Achitophel knew right wel and therfore chose rather to take aduantage of the peoples sudden passion than their maturer iudgements as one who had good cause to shunne a legall â—…ury where he could promise himselfe no other than losse in the fatall verdict Hitherto beloued haue we traced the foote-steps of our grand traytour Achitophel through all his politicke counsailes and
vnnaturall rebellions Your expectation I know though almost tyred hath long ere this runne to the place of execution and proclaimed his comming But your wronged patience and my want of time hath enforced mee to repriue him till another Session COmmon censure hath stampt it for a currant Prouerbe That it is better for a man to bee fortunate than wise For worldly wisedome though she seeme alwaies to fawne on fortune yet can neuer command and seldome entreate her serâ—…ice It hath been thought the pride and priuiledge of that power which we call Fortune to bestow her best fauours where she findes least worth to crowne folly and crosse wisedome to make fooles happy and the wise vnfortunate As a Queen she is supposed to shew her greatest Maiesty in Mans weaknesse to pity sloath and enuie industry as most iealous lest mans wit or endeauours should challenge any part in her prerogatiue But he that knowes wisely to arbitrate betwixt the clouds of Pagan ignorance and the cleare Sun-shine of Christianite betwixt Poeticke fancies and Propheticall visions shall finde vulgar opinion only mistaken in the name ascribing that transcendent power of disposing worldly actions to a Deitie which they called Fortune which Christian knowledge might have taught them more properly to haue termed Prouidence And howsoeuer they haue bounded her large Empire beyond their owne reason yet Christianity hath trauelled much farther and yet can prescribe no limits as that which transcends into an infinite and out-reacheth the eye of all discouerie And though no place hath beene found so base in the Theater of Nature or Ciuill actions wherein Prouidence cannot shew the abundant Trophees of her magnificence Yet there desires she to triumph most where to men she seemes to haue least power Her chiefest glory is to set vp her Ensignes on the gates of mans pride and tread on the necke of worldly policy No maruell then that in the great politician Achitophel in whom neither loyalty could command restraint or perswade duety whom neither vndoubted valour could checke or danger terrifie onely Prouidence could challenge a iurisdiction His politicke obseruation of Absolons disposition and rare endowments designing him out as a fit subiect for his treason seconded by his craftie and irreligious counsell of abusing Dauids Concubines through which in my former Sermon in this place I vshered forth your attention had hitherto passed currant and found in euent as much as it promised in expectation Absolon had hitherto expressed himselfe no worse a learner than he a teacher that the world might well doubt whether the one were more happy to proiect or the other to put in practice Nothing now seemes remaining behinde but to strike the last stroke and giue the fatall on-set Dauids ouerthrowe and Absolons aduancement together appeare in sight and his long and tedious ambition as it were within a league arriued at the port of victory Let not Absolon play the truant in his last lesson and within a few houres the voice of Israel shall salute him King But the change of a good Master oftentimes makes a non proficient Scholler Achitophels precepts must be corrected by Chusay his second Tutor Two eyes are presumed to discerne more than one and the rugged and vneuen knots in our first inuention ought to be filed by the second Though Achitophel in counsell be a Politician yet Absolon in ambition is a King and therefore ought to arrogate to himselfe as well the honour of the Conquest as of the Scepters Too much it might seeme for Achitophel to haue both too little for Absolon to haue no hand at all in this Kingly proiect If Absolon dare not trust his owne aduice yet let him shew his liberty of consent Wisedome consists as much in choice as in inuention neither seemes it the least of Absolons prerogatiue amid diuers counsellors to declare himselfe a King Achitophel shall be suffered to speak his minde as an assistant not to determine causes as a Iudge and therefore must pardon Absolon if approuing him in all the rest he in this one dissent But oftentimes he that can best act can worst pen his owne part And therefore no maruell if Absolon vsurping the office of Achitophel beganne to faile in his last act But to leaue Absolon to his head-strong will wee must here search more neerely into the neglect of Achitophels counsell which being the second part in the former subdiuision of my Text offers it selfe as a subiect for this dayes exercise And when Achitophel saw that his counsell was not followed c. 2 Achitophels counsell thus defeated as you haue heard offers it selfe to our enquiry vnder the obseruation of the causes and their concomitant circumstances The causes preceding the fact we may obserue to bee twofold either Primarie or Secondary The primary we finde to be no other than Almighty God from whom all other inferiour agents deriue their strength and action Where Nature begins and Reason ends there must we place that omnipotent and eternal power as the centre from which all operations first spring and the boundlesse circumference into which all discourses runne Betwixt this Eternall and Inferiour Agents as the distance knowes no proportion so Reason could neuer finde resistance or opposition and easie was it for that omnipotent prouidence to whom Achitophels counsels were from all eternitie discouered to decree as well the means as the end of his defeate For as in the vast frame of nature bodies compared one with the other seeme Heterogeneall consisting of diuers and opposite operations yet as so many wheeles in an artificiall engine are by the same hand directed to the same common vse so the actions and counsels of men howsoeuer casually they seeme to meete and iustle one the other are notwithstanding preordained by the same Infinite counsell to cooperate to the same vniuersall end Whence will naturally arise this obseruation That howsoeuer men may propose to themselues it is onely in the power of Almighty God to dispose A proposition better knowne as a Prouerbe among men than acknowledged in their practice Had yet the great Polititians of this world as much Logicke to iudge as cunning to contriue their owne plots they would questionlesse out of the combination of second causes without respect vnto the first rather suspect a fallacie than promise a demonstration Had they as much acquaintance with Gods Word as their owne wicked and prophane Axiomes they would haue heard the Lord often threatning in holy Scriptures to stagger the counsell of the wicked and turne the wisedome of the wisest into folly Had they rather desired to be instructed than flattered by experience they would haue found of their profession in steed of a few crowned happy by euent tenne thousand miscarry in the meanes A good successe like a slye Parasite rather soothes than commends our actions and like a coy Mistresse prostitutes her selfe to mens neglect but frownes on their ambition But these are popular arguments subiect almost
greatest part enuied her historie hath yet cherished in her bosome this one darling and kept a sure register of all her actions Should I descend to particular examples of Gods concurrence in mans actions I should sooner lose my selfe than finde an end The most irreligious Heathen through the thicke clouds of ignorance haue often espied the glimpse of Gods dreadfull lightning and often quaked at his thunder They haue felt his finger in their wounds and acknowledged his strength in their weaknesse Yea such hath beene the power of Almighty God to expose their owne wicked actions as a table of their confession and extort an acknowledgement of his victorie out of their blasphemy Iulian that wicked Apostate though as politicke to obscure as malicious to oppose the truth of Christ Iesus was yet in the end constrained to shut vp his tyrannie with a Viâ—…isti Galâ—…leae In like sort we reade of Mahomet the second the first Emperor of the Turkes that at the siege of Scodra against the Christians in the defence of so small a Citie against his mighty Army finding God his enemy he blasphemously asked by way of exprobation whether God had not enough to doe in Heauen that he should interpose himselfe in his affaires on earth He that will not deny a God must of necessity grant a prouidence and who knowes himselfe and sifts into his owne will and actions must needs acknowledge a supernall power which determines them to good or euill Here stood it with my time or your patience could I proceed to taxe Pelagius and his latter spawne the Iesuites and Arminians who imagining our will to be her owne mistresse haue admitted God no otherwise than as a seruant or assistant as though that Almighty power were not authorized to preordaine but onely bound to second our conuersion Their saluation they would rather owe vnto themselues than grace as though they sought the first cause in their own inclination and expected nothing of God but a Morall and strong perswasion But although in deede they will deny a certaine and speciall Predestination yet in words they will grant a Prescience Here would I willingly aske a question out of my Text Whether God absolutely foresaw Absolons inclination of reiecting Achitophels counsell or not If they grant the Negatiue they deny a Prescience If the Affirmatiue I demand againe whether this fore-sight could imply a necessity of euent or leaue Absolon to his owne free choice If the former they must deny him a Free-will of declining to the other side which they labour by all meanes to establish If the latter they must eyther acknowledge Gods prescience to bee vncertaine against the ground they haue already granted or at least affirme that a certaine knowledge may be of such things as shall neuer come to passe Here the Iesuites are better prouided to shift than answer like the subtile Sepâ—…s to make an escape by troubling the water and rather than they would be thought to know nothing they will say any thing Where the Scripture shewes no faire countenance and Reason faints their recourse to Schoole-subtilties must be their only refuge But were there no Smith in Israel yet might these Philistins be entreated to sharpen our sword for our defence against their battery God say they from all eternity foresaw the inclination of mans Free-will vpon which he grounded his decree of withholding or conferring farther grace Here I must aske againe Whether God foresaw it in his own decree or the disposition of the second causes If they assent vnto the former then must this foresight in the order of our vnderstanding not preuent but rather second the decree which they deny If they sticke to the latter as indeede they doe I demand how second causes may be supposed to work except they were predetermined and actuated by the first That second causes worke not in their owne but their owners strength is their owne principle and to grant them an operation not depending on the first Agent were to set an instrument to worke without a hand I would aske moreouer Whether God foreseeing Achitophels counsell and Absolons inclination bad the power to hinder it or not If so then was it in his power to foresee what himselfe could hinder which checkes the certainty of Gods knowledge and inuolues an apparant Contradiction If not how can we imagine him Omnipotent which cannot challenge so much power ouer second causes as to turne and diuert them to his owne vses This argument Vorstius and Episcopius found so strong against them that to backe their absurdity they must adde apparant blasphemy allowing God eyther no Prescience at all or such as is onely vncertaine and 〈◊〉 which impious and grosse opinion I hold sufficiently confuted in the mention But I haue stayed here too long and haue farre to goe wherefore hauing taken a generall suruey of the primary or chiefe cause of Achitophels defeate let vs descend to the second causes which in the next place offer themselues to obseruation 4 Gods power hath expressed it selfe legible as well in the Book of Nature as of Grace and naturall Agents as you haue heard as they deriue their operations from his strength so they are determined by his will and directed to his glory Here we finde Nature in second Agents not set against her selfe though raised a pitch beyond her priuate inclination and the first cause without eyther neede or violence to entertaine the seruice of the second Whence ere we descend to each particular inferiour agent will arise one generall obseruation That Almighty God bringing to passe miraculous and great euents commonly admits the cooperation of second causes As easie was it questionlesse for that great Architect of nature who out of waste and emptinesse begat a world to create as to command to cause as to entertaine the operation of inferior Agents Here might History shew her selfe prodigall of examples but neuer bank-rupt euery moment in the ordinary course of humane actions begets some instance or other to demonstrate Gods gracious loue and fauour to the world who able to dash both Policy and Nature out of countenance is notwithstanding pleased to admit them as his obedient hand-maides But to expresse the secret cooperation of God working by second causes is a matter which hath heretofore staggred Philosophy and puzled the apprehension of the sharpest and acutest Diuines Neuerthelesse so farre forth as the infinite power of God may dispense with mans enquiry we may reduce the manner of his working to certaine heads to decline as much as we can the two enemies of vnderstanding Obscurity and Confusion The action then of Gods concurring with second causes concernes either the beginning progresse or end of the same act In the beginning we may call it either Positiue or Negatiue The Positiue consists either in the furtherance or hinderance of humane actions both which may be either internall or externall The internall promotion or hinderance is againe diuided into two acts for
nor lustice seeme to entreate any other hands than his owne in his stately execution Behold here the last resolution of this matchlesse politician proposed afterwards as it seemes as a patterne to many high spirits amongst the Heathen whose iudgements infatuated with false principles misconster the badge of cowardise for the most honourable seale of courage as if it were a point of valour to shake hands with death faintly giue themselues ouer to his mercy with whom as an enemy they ought to combate True honour neuer feares to stare death in the face but seldome courts it as a friend often as a corriuall it struggles with it for victory but neuer giues vp the hilts or cryes quarter till ouer-mastred by a greater and disproportioned strength he finds them wrested from his hands So great an impression not with standing got this wicked opinion of selfe-killing amongst the ancient Romanes that a speedy dispatch of our selues in case of extremity seemed to challenge as much honour as with a Christian it deserueth shame as we find it not recorded only but in a maner recómended by that turn-coat Lipfius out of the principles of his Stoicall Philosophy whose broken rudiments he had as it seems better conned than Christianity But how far out of our voluntary disposition we ought to entertain the stroke of death is not easie to determine without distinction A concurrence of our wils we may interpret two waies either for a Passiâ—…e obedience indebted rather to constraint than choice wherin Nature submits her selfe to Iustice or necessity or an Actiue violence deriued for the most part from fear or rashnesse wherin reason suffers her self to be led captiue by boistrous frensie arming the strength of vnwilling Nature against her own bosome life her sweet companion The former concurrence of our assent or at least submission to such extremities we find warranted not only by permission but cómand so far forth as the Iustice of the cause conspiring with a regulated conscience imports necessity Those blessed Martyrs of the Church whose glorious wounds scars shine as so many orient pearles in their white robes of sanctity haue markt seald them out to posterity as examples of the highest imitation Those valiant champions in defence of their Country Religion exposed to the merciless iaws of death or the bloudie phangs of vncertain hazzards in a Christian warfare what age so enuious which will not crown with present honour register to future admiration Yea wicked malefactors themselues in whom Iustice often preuents Nature in an vntimely execution may seem to cancell some part of their former guilt in giuing by their submissiue patience the strictnes of the Law a iust satisfaction And therfore without question the sweetnes of life ought not to share so great a moyty in our affections as to shut out our obedience when either Religion stands at stake or our Country craues our assistance or Iustice challengeth her prerogatiue The other exposure of mens liues to certain death where necessity on either hand threatens apparant ruine without repriuall I could charitably interpret as of Sampsons designe in razing the house to his own the Philistins destruction or of Lucans and Seneca's aduice in making choice of their owne death by cutting their owne veines but that Gods Almighty prouidence in our greatest designes shewes it selfe most pregnant beyond mans expectation commands rather our patience than preuention But for such vntimely and vnnaturall designes where in the hands are made instrumentall executioners to the heart as prickt on with the horrour of a guilty conscience and distrust of Gods fauours neither Christianitie gaue euer president nor Stoicall Philosophy among all her strict axiomes a warranted precept as an action odious both to God man which begins with sin ends with shame Which leads our discourse from the immediate cause of his death to wit his despaire to the maner qualitie of it his shameful end 8 Shame is the sworne seruant vnto sinne an odious but officious hagge whom life could neuer entertaine without sorrow or death easily shake off till memory forfeit her records to time and time to obliuion T is the misery of guilt with constraint to cherish in her bosome the childe she hates and bequeath such a fatall issue to posteritie whose browes shall carry the true stampe and character of her owne deformitie And how great a soueraigntie soeuer sin might seeme to challenge in the spheare of humane nature which our first Parents by their disobedience forfeited to her iurisdiction yet shall in the end finde himselfe conquered in that sinne liuing for the most part in darkenesse shuts vp all her malice with death while her vntoward babe shall suruiue to vpbraid her actions in the light and arraigne her after death at the barre of Iustice. Had Achitophel been as prouident to preuent an ill report after death as ambitions to preserue reputation during life he had measured his actions by a betterend or at least in the euent directed his worst ends to a better purpose than lose at the last cast which he was so long a winning or haue stained the fame of his former actions with so base an execution His eminent gifts of Wisedome howsoeuer sorded and wicked in themselues as directed rather to his own priuate ends than Gods glorie or the honour of the Common-wealth might not with standing out of a foreconceiued opinion of his worth haue found in the common voyce a fauourable construction Old vices commonly find welcome vnder new names and nothing so witty as Sinne to inuent new Epithets to shut out shame and entertaine plausibilitie Luxuris and leacherie the bane of nature may passe currant vnder the title of Good-fellowship Ignorant pride and supercilious contempt may call themselues retyred grauitie or stout 〈◊〉 Grâ—…ping Couetousnesse and base Vsury may finde entertainement vnder the shew of thrifty husbandry 〈◊〉 and Oppression shall be stiled seuere Iustice and strict Government At least from each of these common conniuence would make a shift to extract somewhat which might sauour of ingenuitie to couer guilt from the strict inquisition of truth and stoppe the harsh mouth of censure wherein at least it should shew it selfe no lesse ingenious than Aristotle in his Ethickes who in painting out to the life his I doll 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is obserued to haue stolne the chiefest markes of many notorious vices to character one imaginary vertue No worse but rather better fauor might Achitophels life seeme to haue deserued especially amongst the common rout of his inferiours who valuing the worth of their superiours imagine them as eminent in wisedome as they transcend in greatnesse as if they conceiued them fashioned in another mould and wrought to another nature that the least slips or scapes which in ordinarie men wee can interprete no other than the effects of infirmitie should in them bee thought to proceede from premeditated counsell and mature deliberation