Pausanias a famous Antiquary or to describe him better to a meere English Reader the Cambden of Greece hath observed as much as now we doe in his narrations of the warres between the Romans and the Corinthians or Achaians managed by Metellus and Critolaus The History though briefe as being but an appendix of his intended Topography is fraught with many remarkable circumstances pointing out unto us a Divine Providâ—nce of which two concerning the selected band of Arcadia put to flight but with more honour than the rest of Critolaus army are more specially parallell to the rule of retaliation These Arcadians after the foile retyred safe to the number of a thousand unto Elatea a City of the Phocenses where they found good welcome at the first upon some â—ermes of ancient confederacy or alliance But the sudden noise of Critolaus and his companies overthrow dissolved the links of former amity The poore Arcadians were commanded by the State of Phocis forthwith to relinquish Elatea and in their returne to Peloponnesus meeting unexpectedly with Metellus forces were all slaine by the Romans in the selfe same place in which their fore-elders had forsaken the Grecian Lâ—â—guers or conâ—â—derates against Philip of Macedon Honest Countrimen see Meteors or other appearances as perfectly as Philosophers do but they often erre in guessing at the place or subject where in the appearance is made Thus many imagine the Sunne to be reddish in a foggy morning when as the rednesse is in the ayre So did this heathen Antiquary expresly and fully discern the power of Divine Iustice in this event from the circumstance of the persons a race of truce-breakers and from the place of their discomfiture His eyesight or apprehension herein was as cleare as any Christians Wherein then consists his error In attributing this award of Divine Iustice unto the Gods of Greece But did any Southsayer of Greece foretell that the fathers breach of truce should be thus visited upon their children as Elias foretold that the dogs should lap Ahabs blood and eate Iezebel and their childrens flesh in the same place where they had lapt the blood of Naboth whom Iezebel had caused to be stoned to death The identity of Iustice done upon divers people and Nations rightly argues that the God of Israel did then rule and execute judgement unto the ends of the world although he did not deale so with any Nation as he did with Israel neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Lawes much lesse such distinct foreknowledge of his judgements or visitations as was usuall in Israel unlesse it were in some cases extraordinary 4 To have seene with our eyes what we have read in a faithfull and judicious Historian one to dye in a fit of the Falling-sicknesse or as it was then presumed to bee vexed to death by an evill spirit at the time appointed for his consecration even whilest he did prostrate himselfe before the Altar to receive the Holy Ghost by the imposition of his Metropolitans hands would have moved the like question to that of Christs Disciples concerning him that was borne blinde Lord who did sinne this man or his parents Whose shame did he fome out with his last breath his owne or some others Such as is here expressed was the â—ate of Strachyquaz sonne to Bâ—leslaus the first and brother to Bâ—leslaâ—s the second King of Bâ—hâ—me who with the Bishop of Mentz was an eye witnesse of this prodigious fearefull accident And if consecration dinners were then in use as doubtlesse they were when Kings sonnes and brothers thought it no scorne to be consecrated Bishops Respondent ultima primis Strachyquaz did better brooke his name after his death than at his birth or baptisme or as my Author speakes on his lustration day The realitie answering to his name and portended by it he left behinde him The dinner provided was indeed terribile convivium a banquet of dread or horrour to all spectators a feast of whose dâ—â—â—â—ies few I thinke would eate And thus much doth the name Strachyquaz in the Bohemiaâ—â— language import A name imposed upon this unfortunate person at his birth in triumphant memorie of that bloody banquet unto which his father Bolestaus the first had invited Wenceslaus the King his Elder brother with intent to murther him as he did taking opportunitie to accomplish this impietie in the Temple of God where this King afterwards Sainted was at his midnights devotions 5. To sit as Coroners upon the soules of men deceased is a thing which I have ever misliked though sometimes practised by men otherwise of deserved esteeme And whosoever in this case will take upon him to sit as Iudge my request shall bee not to serve upon the Iury. Yet if my opinion were in this particular demanded Whether this man dying as the story presumes of a Deuill the manner of his death were any certaine prognosticke or probable presumption of his damnation my verdit should goe in mitiorem partem That thus to dye of a Devill unlesse his former life had beene devillish which the historie no way intimates doth no more argue his damnation than the untimely death of Ieroboams Child did argue him to have beene guiltie of his Parents actuall sinnes in the manner of whose death notwithstanding as wel as in Strachyquaz his tragicall end the sinnes of their Parents were remarkeably visited according to that rule of Iustice which now we treat of that is by way of counterpassion in respect if not of time yet of the places wherein they were visited That Ieroboams child dyed in Gods favour the text instructs us 1 King 14. 13. All Israel shall mourne for him and bury him for hee onely of Ieroboam shall come to the grave because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel c. 6 But to returne to Strachyquaz the maner of whose death as is apparent was more fearefull and prodigious yet no signe of damnation For as there is vates praeteritorum futurorum a branch of prophesie in discovering times past as well as events to come so there may bee and oft-times are prodigious and portentuous accidents which point at nothing de futuro sâ—â— a retro which looke backwards not forwards The best use or signification of this fearefull disaster was to advertise the present generation and their successors that the execrable and sacrilegious murder committed by Boleslaus father to Strachyquaz was not expiated as yet but to be visâ—â—â—d upon more generations without heartie repentance and confession of this wicked usurpers and his complices sinnes wherewith the land of Boheme had beene polluted The first borne of Egypt was slaine for their fathers offences against the infant males of the Hebrewes And Strachyquaz dyed this fearefull death by the visitation of his fathers sinnes upon him But he might perhaps have lived much longer and have dyed in peace had he lived according to that rule whose profession hee had taken upon him that is
if hee had continued as hee once resolved to doe a true pâ—nitentiarie and not affected to be a prelate For if God would not suffer his Temple to be built by David a man otherwise after his owne heart onely because hee had beene a man of warre wee may from the morall Analogie of this sacred embleme collect that the same holy Lord would not suffer the sonne of that malignant cruell Pagan Fratricide which had imbrued his hands in the blood of his Priests and murthered his annointed King in the holy place to beare rule over his house or Church This his unseasonable ambitious humor without any other actuall remarkable crime might in Divine Iustice exact some print of the supreame Iudges indignation All this notwithstanding being granted doth not prove there was no good thing found in the partie that was thus punished as well as in Ieroboams child It was a fauour to the one that he dyed in peace though in his infancie and it might be some matter of honour or favour to the other that he had Christian buriall in the Church wherein hee died and that hee was not made a prey to the fowles of the ayre But this wee speake skeptique wise what became of Strachyquaz after his fearefull end we leave it for the eternall Iudge to determine 7 Whatsoever became of him the death of his grandmother Drahomira was much more terrible as she had lived so she dyed a malitious blasphemous Pagan a cruell bloody step-dame to Christs infant Church in that Kingdome The storie I know will unto many seeme strange yet in my observation very capable of credit if we consider the exigence of those times and the then desperate state of Boheme Christianity and paganisme lay then at stake whether should be entertained whether expelled the Pagans by their unconfeionable policie which aymes at nothing but some private end alwayes readie to hazard whatsoever lyes within their levell rather then misse of it had so cunningly played the foregame and by their bloody plots removed so many principall men out of the way that there was no possibilitie left save onely in the Almighties immediate hand to make any thing of the aftergame Now in case of such desperate extremities specially when they happen during the infancie of any particular Church it cannot to mee seeme incredible if the good spirit of God doe out vy those prodigious cruelties which Sathan deviseth against the Saints by sudden miraculous executions upon their Actors Sathans instruments The Tragedy of Drahomira was briefly thus This Queen-mother had animated her Pagan-sonne Boleslaus surnamed Savus the Cruell to murder his elder brother and Liege Lord Wenceslaus onely because he had approved himselfe a zealous professor of the doctrine of life To terrifie others from taking the sacred function upon them she caused the bodies of those Priests and Prelates whom Boleslaus had â—assacred to lye unburied and one Podivivus a man of principall note in his time to hang two intire yeares upon the gallowes Vpon these and many like provocations of Gods just vengeance her grave was made before she felt her selfe sicke her buriall like to that of Corah of Dathan and Abiram Whether this opening of the earth were truly miraculous or whethet it happened in the period of some naturall declination the supporters or pillars of it being digged up or undermined before the opening of it at that time wherein this wicked woman was to passe over that very place in which she had caused the Priests bodies to lye unburied was the Lords doing and no lesse wonderfull to Christian eyes than if it had beene as perhaps it was a meere miracle The truth of this story wanted not the testimony of many ages For passengers from the day of her death untill the day wherein mine Author wrote this Story which was within this age current eschewed the place wherein she dyed as execrable and accursed by God CHAP. 37. What manner of sinnes they be which usually provoke Gods judgements according to the rule of Counterpassion And of the frequency of this kinde of punishment foresignified by Gods Prophets 1 IVstice as was intimated before doth not formally consist in retaliation and yet is retaliation a formall part or branch of Iustice And of this branch Nemesis amongst the Heathen was the ordinary Arbitresse Shee was in their Divinity a Goddesse of Iustice not Iustice her selfe nor did every wrong in their opinion belong unto her cognizance but such insolent wrongs onely as deserved vengeance or indignation Nor doth the righteous most mercifull Lord and onely God usually punish ordinary or private but publique and outcrying sinnes by the severe Law or Rule of Counterpassion And it is observable that most Prophesies which are powred out against any Land City or People with fuller indignation are so intermingled with threats of judgement by way of Counterpassion that the quality and circumstances of the crimes may seeme to serve the Prophets as glasses for representing the nature and quality of the judgements to come And if the crimes were as well knowne to mâ—n as the judgements are we would thinke the one were moulded in the other This exact proportion betwixt the patterne of sinnes which Babylon had set and the manner of Gods judgements upon her for them hath beene observed before and I will not make the prophesies concerning her destruction any part of this observation The prophesies concerning other Nations and Cities will afford plenty of instances to this purpose 2 Samaria shall be as an heape of the field and as plantings of a Vineyard and I will powre downe the stones thereof into the valley and I will discover the foundations thereof And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with the fire and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot and they shall returne to the hire of an harlot Micah 1. 6 7. The wound of Samaria as the Prophet addes vers 9. was incurable but so was not the wound of Iudah as yet although it was come to Iudah by infection and had touched at the very gates of Ierusalem For so he saith vers 12. The inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good but evill came downe from the Lord unto the gate of Ierusalem Thither it came but it found no entrance in for the present as it did into the gates of other Cities of Iudah Lachish of all the Cities of Iudah was the first which tooke the impression of Israels idolatry and did in part derive it unto Sion And as she was the first and principall in sinne so she was the first in the plagues here threatned The Chariots of Ashur did first triumph in her streets and her inhabitants felt the dint of the Assyrian swords when Ierusalem escaped with the lash of Rabshakehs tongue That which is afterwards related in the sacred story concerning Ierusalems
Lancaster that he might become a more skilfull slaughterman of the House of York Thus did blood touch blood and for a long time run in the blood of his royall race untill the issue was staunched by the blood of the cruell Tyrant slaine in battaile by Henry the seventh All these instances mentioned in this with some others in the former chapters will fall under another more usefull consideration in the Treatise of Prodigies or Divine forewarnings betokening blood CHAP. 35. Grosser sinnes visited upon Gods Saints according to the former Rule of Counterpassion 1 AS it is generally more safe to speake the truth of times past than to open our mouths against the iniquity of times present so to trace the prints of Divine Providence in thus fitting punishments to mens enormities will be lesse offensive whilest this search is made abroad than it would be were it or the like made neerer hand or at home Yet were it well and it might goe much better with this Land and People if every ancient every noble or private Family specially such as have had much dealings with other men would make the like search within their owne pale Few Families there be of greater note but either have or might have had undoubted experience of some visitations upon them according to the rule of Counterpassion within two or three descents That most private men doe not finde experiments of this rule in themselves this falls out for want of observation or because they keepe not a true Register of their owne doings or sufferings No man can plead any personall exemption from this Canon by reason of his righteousnesse or integrity none can altogether secure his posterity that some one or other of his sinnes shall not bee visited upon them Nor can it justly be accounted any taxe or prejudice unto any Family to undergoe with patience that mulct which the righteous Iudge hath laid upon them To murmure or grudge at our owne or others visitation whose welfare we wish or tender is blame-worthy with God and good men And albeit this distemper be not onely meritorious of death yet is it this which for the most part brings a necessity of dying upon such as have otherwise deserved death whether bodily or spirituall For no man which with patience and humility acknowledgeth the equity or justice of his punishment as it proceeds from God but will in some measure recall himselfe or inhibit his progresse in that sinne the smart of whose punishment he feeles And unto every degree of sincere revocation or repentance some degree of mitigation is awarded The best meanes for instilling the Spirit either of meeknesse or patience in suffering for offences past or of feare to offend in the like kinde againe will be to take the punishments or corrections of Gods Saints into serious consideration 2 If for the manifestation of Gods justice it must be done unto his dearest Saints as they have done unto others either whilest they themselves were his enemies or made him their enemy after their reconcilement had beene wrought what may they looke for in the end which still continue adversaries to the truth David was a man after Gods owne heart excepting the case of Vriah yet not therefore free from disgrace danger or harme after the Prophet had solemnly denounced his pardon Thy sinnes are forgiven thee In respect of the adultery committed by Bathsheba Absolons offence against his Father David was much greater than Davids had beene against Vriah The one was done in secret the other in the open Sunne The death if not of Bathshebaes childe yet of his Son Absolon was more bitter unto David than his owne death could have beene So much he confesseth himselfe and testifies the truth of his confession with his teares And the King was moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept and as he went thus hee said O my sonne Absolom my sonne my sonne Absolom would God I had dyed for thee O Absolom my sonne my sonne 2 King 18. 33. So that here was more than a full retaliation if we consider his offence as it had reference onely unto Vriah For one mans life is as much worth as anothers and Vriah lost but one life David was to suffer the losse of two Yet this is not all that the Prophet had to say to him for this offence for so he saith 2 Sam. 12. 9. Thou hast killed Vriah the Hittite with the sword hast taken his wife to be thy wife and hast slaine him with the sword of the children of Ammon Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and taken the wife of Vrias the Hittite to bee thy wife 3 But when it is said that David was a man after Gods owne heart excepting the matter of Vriah this exception includes if not an interruption in the bond of grace by which he had beene intirely linked unto Gods favour yet some wound or breach in the estate of his wonted favour and liking with God And no marvell if that sinne which made this breach and for a time removed the fence of Gods favourable protection were visited upon his person and upon his posterity But are the sins which men commit whilst they are Gods enemies thus visited upon any after their full admission into the estate and favour of Gods sonnes or whilest the bond of their reconciliation remaines unwounded and entire We doe not reade of any grosser sinnes committed by Saint Paul after our Saviour had effectually called him We may without breach of charity perswade our selves that he was as free from that time forward from wronging any man Iew or Gentile as Samuel had beene from wronging Israel Saint Stephen at his death prayed for him not against him But though hee freely forgave him yet will not the righteous Iudge suffer the wrongs which he had done unto this blessed Martyr passe without some solemn remembrance Those which stoned Saint Stephen laid downe their garments at Pauls feet and his willingnesse to take charge of them argues he was consenting to his death so I thinke was not Barnabas And for this reason we doe not reade that Barnabas was stoned as Paul was by the Iewes which came from Antioch and Iconium unto Lystra and Derbe albeit both had beene alike offensive for preaching the Gospell at Iconium where the same violence had beene likewise joyntly attempted against both Vpon the matter then betwixt Saint Paul and Saint Stephen albeit Saint Stephen make himselfe no partie this is the onely difference Stephen dyed by the hands of his persecutors so did not Paul Yet it seemes the righteous Lord suffered these malignant Iewes to doe as much unto Saint Paul as had beene done by his consent unto Saint Stephen even as much as they themselves desired which did despite him no lesse than their countrimen and brethren in iniquity had done S. Stephen For they drew him out of
danger doe willingly drinke it And the lesse suspitious or more charitably affected hee is to his professed Physitian the greater wrong he hath in being thus uncharitably dealt with It would little boote the malefactor in this kinde to plead Albeit I gave it him hee might have chosen whether he would have drunke it because I did not inforce him with a drawen Dagger or other weapon to be his owne executioner In many cases one may be the true cause of anothers death and deserve death himselfe although he be not any necessarie cause of his death or plot his destruction without possibilitie of avoidance But if our willing choyse of those waies which lead to death be necessarie in respect of the Almighties decree so that there be no possibilitie left to escape it hee is a more necessarie and more immediate cause of all their deaths that thus perish then any man can be of his death whom he poisons And if the case stood thus with any their miserie were greater by how much they did lesse suspect his goodnesse However most miserable because most desperate Reason and knowledge the two ornaments of the humane nature should be to them a curse He that neither knowes nor doth his Masters will shall be beaten because it was possible for him to have known it but w th fewer stripes because not knowing it there was no possibility left for him to doe it But he that knowes it and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes because the knowledge of his will to punish sinners and reward the righteous did include a possibilitie to avoyd death and to be made partaker of life If otherwise there bee no possibilitie left for him that knowes Gods displeasure against sinne to avoid the wayes of sinne those are death his case before and after death is much more miserable than his whom God in just judgement hath deprived of knowledge And the Praeserver of men should be accounted much more favourable to stocks and truncks than unto many men upon whom hee bestoâ—es his best gifts in great plentie if these be bestowed upon the Conditions now mentioned or be charged with remedilesse miserie 4 But admitting their miserie to be fatall and inevitable by divine decree is it not possible to acquit this decree or the Author of it from being the Author of evill did the Stoick condemne all Iudges of injustice that sentenced malefactors unto violent death whereto by their opinion all that suffered it were inevitably destinated Perhaps the feare of censure in publique Courts did make them silent in this point But was not this care to keepe themselves harmelesse or feare not to offend Magistrates altogether fatall Galen 〈◊〉 my remembrance in his Stoicall discourse quòd mores animi sequuntur temperamentum corporis hath framed this answer to the question proposed We doe not offend in killing Snakes or Toades or other like venemous creatures albeit their naturall temper or disposition be unaltrably harmefull unto men And if nature or temper of bodie make some of our owne stamp and ranke more noysome than these creatures are unto their neighbours to fit the one sort with the same measure of punishment which is due unto the other is no injustice no inequality And Lipsius a man not too much abhorrent from any opinioÌ„ that was fashionable to his new stile or might serve to set forth the point which for the present he much affected gives this briefe placet in favour of the Stoicks opinion Fatali culpae fatalis paena punishment is fatall to fatall crimes But this is principium petere to take that for granted which is questioned For if the harmes which malefactors do and suffer be truly fatall the one is no true crime the other is no just punishment To Galen I answer that if we could by any skill in physick or complexions discerne some men to bee as naturally disposed to mischiefe all that come in their way or by chance offend them as are the Snake the Sloworm or other serpent it would be the wisest way for such as love their lives to rid the world of these fatally mischievous reasonable creatures as fast as they met with them or to appoint some certaine daies for hunting them as wee do noysome beasts But to examine their suspitious intentions to question their actions to arraign their persons or put them upon a formall or legall tryall of their life would be as ridiculous as to produce witnesses against a Snake to empannell a Iury upon a mad Dog or to take bale for a Wolfes appearance before a Butcher in an assembly of Mastives 5 The common notions of good and evill the ingraffed opinion of contingency in humane actions have taught the Lawgivers of every nation to put notorious malefactors unto more exquisite tortures than we do harmfull creatures either to enforce them to utter what no destiny nor complexion makes them voluntarily confesse or else to deterre others that are as naturally disposed to evill as they were from doing the like Scarce any malefactor unless he be poysoned with this opinion of absolute necessity but will acknowledge that it was possible for him to have done otherwise theÌ„ he hath done possible for him to have avoided the doome which is passed upon him by man which to have avoided had been absolutely impossible if it were to be awarded upon him by Gods eternall decree or which is all one if in respect of this decree it had been necessary As ignorance of the true God and his saving truth makes the former error more excusable in the Stoicks than in such Christians as shal maintain it so might impotency exempt that God which the Stoicks worshipped whether Nature Fate or some other distinct celestiall power from those imputatioÌ„s unto which omnipotency makes the God of Christians lyable if all things were by vertue of his decree absolutely necessary It was a received opinion among many Heathens that the gods themselves were subject unto Fate for this reason when any thing fell out in their judgement amiss Fates commonly did either intirely bear the blame or the greatest part of it And their gods indeed had deserved pity rather than blame if they could do no better than they did as being over-mastered by Fates But for a Christian to inveigh against Fates is to accuse or deny his God If Fates be nothing hee hath no reason to complaine of them if any thing they bee they are of the true Gods making who made all things who cannot possibly be subject to any thing that he hath made Nor can it stand with our allegiance to say when any disasters befall us that our God could no otherwise choose that our mischances were the absolutely necessary effects of his Omnipotent decree One speciall cause of this error and of some mens adherence to it is a jealousie or zealous needlesse feare lest they should grant God to be impotent or not so omnipotent but that
necessity be done and no man can doe it by doing evill seeing it is set onely on that which is truly good the punishment of such as continue to doe evill is absolutely necessary that is altogether as unavoydable as if they had beene appointed to it from all eternities or created to no other end then that they might be punished For the punishment of evill is good and is for this reason a part of Gods will or rather a part of the object of his irresistible will or inviolable decree yet may we not say that God simply willeth evill or delighteth in punitive justice which he never willeth but upon supposall of evill deserts in the Creature As for the evill it selfe which deserveth punishment that God is not said in true Divinity to will at all either voluntate signi or beneplaciti either by his secret or revealed or by his antecedent or consequent will For nothing is evill but that which swarveth from or is contrary to the rule of goodnesse and other rule of goodnes there is none besides Gods goodnesse nor doth he wil any thing that is not consonant to his goodnesse so is not any thing that is truly evill They which otherwise teach that God in any sort can will that which is morally evill have mightily forgot the rules of Logick For if nothing be evill but that which God would not have done then nothing which God would have done can be evill CHAP. 18. Of the distinction of Gods will into Antecedent and Consequent Of the explication and use of it 1 GOds will being as all confesse indivisible some there bee which hold all distinctions concerning it no lesse unfitting then the division of Christs seamlesse coate Others mislike that distinction of his antecedent and consequent will and yet are content to distinguish his will into revealed and secret or into voluntatem signi beneplaciti The use notwithstanding of the first distinction of his antecedent and consequent will is most ancient warranted by the authority of Chrysostom and well exemplified by Damascene And of this distinction I have made choise in other meditations as most commodious to my apprehension for resolving many problemes arising out of Propheticall and Euangelicall passages concerning the fulfilling of Gods will in his threats or promises The ingenuous Reader will not bee so uncharitable or injurious towards Chrysostom or Damascene as to suspect that either of them imagined two wills in God unto which imputation they are more justly liable which affect the distinction of Gods secret and revealed will or of voluntatis signi beneplaciti For every distinction of Gods will must bee framed ex parte volitorum non ex parte volentis in respect of the things willed not in respect of him that willeth them We must in charity and good manners permit Chrysostom and Damascene that liberty of speech which we take our selves Now it is usuall with all of us to attribute that verbo tenus unto the cause which really and properly belongs only unto the effect or to denominate the intellectual faculty from the qualitie of the object to which it hath reference as when we say the Sunne is hot the understanding is practique c. The meaning of those two good Authors whom we follow in the use of the distinction of Gods antecedent or consequent will was this or the like That God by one and the same indivisible will might differently affect or approve divers objects according to the nature quality or degrees of goodnes contained in them And certaine it is that the immensity or greatnesse of our God doth not make his power or will to bee unweildy Though he be in power truly infinite yet he alwayes worketh not according to the infinity of his power but oft-times more gently and placidly then the weakest or softest spirited of his reasonable creatures can doe Though his will likewise be alwayes irresistible yet is it not alwayes so peremptorily set on this or that particular object willed by him as mans will for the most part is The variety of particular objects which hee truely willeth in different measure is much greater than the wit of man can comprehend So is the liberty or variety of choise which hee alloweth unto his creature much greater then we can without grudging afford to such as have dependance on us Some things he willeth in the first place and directly though not so peremptorily but that things lesse willed by him or contrary evills which hee willeth not may get the start or take place of them in humane choise Other things he willeth in the second place or by consequence as in case that which in the first place he willed be by abuse of mans free will rejected The former he is said to will by his antecedent will because the object willed by him hath antecedence or preeminence in respect of his beneplacitum or acceptance the latter he is said to will by his consequent will that is not in the first place or directly but by consequent as supposing those objects which he better approved to be neglected Whatsoever is good in it selfe and good withal for a reasonable creature to make choise of that God is said to will by his antecedent will as the repentance of a sinner and the joyfull fruits which the sinner shall reape by his penitencie Whatsoever in it selfe is not evill or contrary to the rule of goodnesse but evill to the reasonable creature which must suffer it as sicknesse death all kinde of torture or calamity that God willeth onely by his consequent will We may not deny but that he truly willeth the death of obstinate sinners yet this he willeth by his consequent will Their obstinacy in sinne he willeth not at all for if he did he would not punish it for punishment is the necessary consequent of his will neglected Both these branches of one and the same will which from the reference onely which they have unto their different objects wee conceive to bee two or divers are subordinate to his absolute and peremptorie will which is that man should have a libertie of doing and not doing those things which in the first place he willed or liked better But is not this libertie of man an imperfection 2 An issue though a blemish to youth and livelihood is ofttimes a good meane or principall cause of health to an unsound and crasie bodie So possibility of declining to evill albeit in it selfe an imperfection and not possibly incident to aeternall and immutable goodnesse is no way contrary to the participated actuall goodnesse of the reasonable creature whereof it is an essentiall or constitutive part at the least a necessarie ingredient or condition precedent to the constitution of it And imperfection with reference to this end may be the object of Gods antecedent will or part of that which in the first place he willeth and principally intends But inasmuch as actuall evill is formally dissonant to
their fury can procure unto their subjects In the case betweene Kings and Subjects properly so called or betweene superiour and inferiour subjects there is a kinde of allowance to bee made according to Geometricall proportion without swerving from the exact rule of Retaliation It is a memorable comparison which Cominaeus according to this allowance hath made betweene the evills which Lewis the eleventh French King had done to others and the like evils which God in the end of his raigne did bring upon him 2 To be disrespected by them whom hee had advanced far above their deserts and graced with dignities whereof their education and profession was uncapable could not but be a great griefe unto this great King as the like ungratefulnesse would be unto any other yet a just usuall award of Divine Iustice upon such Princes as thus neglect the rule of humane distributive justice in the dispensing of honorable favours But for a Prince which had alwayes required exact obedience alwayes accustomed to expect an observance from his Subjects more than ordinarily is given unto other Princes to be in his old age inforced to observe and flatter the churlish humour of his Physitian whose untoward service hee had recompenced with a standing fee of a thousand Crownes a month besides other gratuities extraordinary this was a perpetuall torment whereof Lewis in his perplexity could not but often complaine unto others yet could not remedy For this was a disease which he durst not make knowne unto his Physitian whose displeasure he feared more than any thing else besides death which was the only cause why he so much feared his displeasure And is it not as the wise King speakes a vanity of vanities or more than so a misery of miseries that the feare of this last point or close of life should make great men slaves for the most part of their lives and bring a necessity upon them of fearing every one with more than a slavish feare that may in probability be conceived as an instrument or messenger of its approach Now this King was so excessively afraid of death that he had given it in strict charge unto his friends and followers not to give him warning of this his last enemy by name whensoever it should to their seeming approach but to exhort him onely to a confession or expiation of his sinnes Yet was it his ill hap or fate after he had set his house in order and after his dejected spirits had beene somewhat raysed with new hopes of recovery to have death rung into his eares by his servants after such an indiscreet and unmannerly fashion as if they had sought to put him into purgatory whilest he was alive His Barber with others whom he had rewarded farre above their deserts without any preamble or circumlocution of respective language as if they had come unto him rather as Iudges to pronounce the sentence of death upon him than as gentle remembrancers of his mortality told him bluntly and peremptorily that his houre was come that hee was not to expect any further comfort from his Physitian or from the Hermit who as he thought had prolonged his life 3 If we could unpartially weigh the quality and condition of the parties who were thus uncivilly and unseasonably bold with him in the one scale of just estimation and the greatnesse of his person his natively timorous disposition and accustomance in the other the disparity would move us to bee of Cominaeus his minde in this point That this untoward remembrance or denunciation of death was more bitter and grievous unto Lewis than the sharp message of death which he had sent by Commissioners unto those two great Peeres of France the Duke of Nemours and the Earle of Saint Paul giving them but a short respite to marshall their thoughts and order their consciences before their finall encounter with this last enemie of mortality which they could not feare so much as Lewis did As this great King had done unto these great subjects so have his servants done to him 4 Lewis again had caused certain places of Little ease to be made or at least did well accept the invention of iron cages or grates little more in compass than the square of a tall mans length wherein he detained such as offended him some for divers months others for many yeares together And through consciousnesse of this his rigorous dealing with others he confined himselfe for a long time to a custody or durance as strait for his greatnesse as the iron cages were for their mediocrity They were not more desirous to see these close prisons opened or to heare of the day of their deliverance from them than he was carefull to cause the iron Fences wherewith he had incompassed the Castle wherein he had imprisoned himselfe to bee close shut save onely at such times as hee appointed them upon speciall occasions to be opened His miserable Captives were not afraid of passengers or of such as came to visit them they needed no guard to secure them Lewis caused certaine Archers to keep Centinell as well by day as by night to shoot at all that came neere his Castle gates otherwise than by his special command or appointment In fine he was more afraid to be delivered out of his Prison by the Nobility of France than his Captives were to be put in such cages That which he feared from his Nobility was not death or violence but his deposition or removall from the present government from which many wise Princes in their declining age have with honour and security sequestred themselves 5 Whether Lewis in entertaining the invention of iron cages and the use which he made of them or the Cardinall which to please his severe humor first invented them were more faultie I cannot tell nor will I dispute the rule of retaliation was more conspicuously remarkable in the Cardinall For as â—ominaeus tells us who himselfe had lodged eight months in one of them the Cardinall was by Lewis command detained prisoner fourteene yeeres together in the first that was made It was well observed whether by a Christian or Heathen I now remember not Neque lex hâc justior ulla est Quam necis artisices arte perire sua A law â—â—â—re just than this cannot beset Which cruell skill doth catch in ijs owne net One Perillus was the body or subject of the Embleme whereof this Motto was the soule He died a miserable death in that brazen Bull which he had made at the Tyrants request for the deadly torture of others And albeit this Cardinall did not dye for ought I reade in the cage of his owne invention yet had he a greater share of vexation in it than was intended for others What good effect this long and hard durance wrought in the Cardinalls soule is not specified by my Author But it is an observation of excellent use which an Heathen Philosopher hath
hate God is no accepter of persons in respect of the execution of his most righteous law as is the people so is the Prince his word must be alike fulfilled in both not only subjects that kill one another but Princes be they Kings or Monarks that authorize murder or suffer their subjects blood to be unjustly spilt by man shall their blood be spilt if other executioners faile even by the hand of their dearest friends such was Count Montgomery to this king 5 The caveat which from the untimely death of this Earle a judgement inflicted by divine justice not so much for this though this were pretended by the Queen Mother and Dowager to take away his life as for other offences hath beene elsewhere commended to yong gallants or Princes servants was to my remembrance this Not to be instruments thogh to Kings in the execution of manifest injustice seeing this noble Gentleman after much honor many victories â—otten by war in defence of those of the reformed Religion whom he had formerly wronged came at length to lose his head in that very place whither by Henry the seconds appointment he had brought divers noble Gentlemen to the fagot some of that honorable bench which afterward sentenced him to death CHAP. 34. The sinnes of parents visited upon their children according to the rule of retaliation 1 ALL the parties hitherto instanced in were visited by the rule of retaliation in their owne persons some of them not in their owne persons alone But it is usuall with the supreme Iudge to visit the ouâ—crying sinnes of irreligious parents upon their children according to the former rule And to this purpose the visitation of Ahabs and of Iezabels bloody sinnes against Naboth may by expresse warrant of Sacred Writ be improved But no Histories profane or sacred afford more fit instances for the proofe of this conclusion than our owne Chronicles doe It was a question amongst the Heathen Philosophers An res posterorum pertineant ad defunctos Whether the ill or welfare of posterity did any way increase or diminish the happinesse of their deceased ancestors The negative part is determined by the great Philosopher in his Moralls And I know no just cause or reason why any Christian Divine should either appeale from his determination or revive the doubt Yet if the affirmative part of the former question were supposed as true or were it lawfull to imagine or feign such interchange of speech or Dialogues betwixt deceased Grandfathers Vnkles and their Nephewes as our Saviour I take it not by way of reall history but of fiction doth betweene Abraham and Dives me thinks Edward the third and Lionel Duke of Clarence might have taken up Iothams parable against Bullinbrooke and the House of Lancaster If yee have dealt truly and sincerely with us and with the prime stemmes of this royall stock then rejoyce yee and your posterity in your devises but if not Let fire come out from among your selves or from our stock to devoure you and to make your posterity curse your dealings with us And in what region soever 〈◊〉 soule did in the third generation reside it might have framed its responsary unto this parable out of Adonibezeks song As I have done to you and yours so hath the Lord requited me and mine And had this or the like saying upon the deposition of Bullinbrookes heyre beene daily rung into the eares of Edward the fourth Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Amongst men none more happy is than he That can his owne by others harmes foresee it might have wrought better effects for the bodily or temporall good of his harmlesse sonnes than any dirge could after his death procure unto his soule Few Chronicles else will exhibit such a continued pedigree of unhallowed policies ill successe as our owne Annalls of those times doe 2 Vnto Richard the second and his misleaders it seemed a branch of plausible policy to banish his cozen Henry of Bullinbrook this land the vicinity of whose heroicall spirit was an heart-sore to this degenerate Prince But what successe did the Counsell of the Lord award unto this jealous devise Bullinbrook by his presence amongst foraine Nations which scarce knew him before gained so much honour and so much love with the chiefe Peeres of this Realme which had knowne him before by his absence that Richard the second was taken in his owne feare and his Crowne set upon Bullingbrookes head with generall applause But the lesse right he had unto it the greater was his jealousie lest Richard the second or some other more principall stemme of the royall Stock might take it off againe The only meanes as he thought for securing himselfe from this feare and for setling the Crowne upon the House of Lancaster was to put the poore deposed King to death whose errours deserved pitie and compassion from every true English heart if not for his Grandfathers yet for his heroicall Fathers sake that Gideon which had brought so much honour to the English Nation And after Richards death the master-piece of his policy was to suffer Mortimer the lawfull heyre unto the Duke of Clarence and now unto the English Crowne to live a miserable Captive under the enemy who had more reason to revenge himselfe upon the English by Mortimers death than Bullinbrook had to murther Richard the second This soule sinne of Bullinbrooke was visited upon the third generation His grandchilde and heyre Henry the sixt a man more free from staine of guiltlesse blood than either Richard the second or Bullinbrooke had beene is cruelly murthered by Edward the fourth a stemme of Mortimers stock and of Lionel Duke of Clarence For though God hath sworne not to punish the children for their fathers offences yet he hath professed it as a rule of his eternall justice to visit the sinnes of fathers upon the children And from the equity of this rule many Princely Races have utterly determined and expired in the dayes of such Princes as were most free from the actuall sinnes of their Ancestors which were the causes of their expiration as is in other Meditations shewed at large 3 But though it were just with God to visit Bullinbrookes sinne on Henry the sixt did Edward the fourth commit no injustice by doing that which God would have done yes he did therefore most unjustly because he did doe that which God would not have done by him And therefore the Counsell of the Lord which overthrew the bloody devises of Bullinbrooke for setling the Crowne of this Kingdome on himselfe and his heyre males did more speedily overthrow the devise of Edward the fourth God visits his sinne in the next generation upon his lovely and harmlesse Sonnes in their nonage before the devises of their hearts were capable of any evill or mischiefe towards men and did visit them by the hands of their bloody uncle Richard the third who by their Fathers appointment had practised butchery upon the House of
the Citie supposing he had beene dead Howbeit as the Disciples stood round about him he rose up and came into the Citie and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe Acts 14. 19 20. Paul wee may conclude was more extraordinarily preserved by God not lesse rigorously dealt withall by the Iewes than Saint Stephen had beene That he was extraordinarily preserved we have reason to beleeve because he was appointed to be a patterne of suffring more violence than this from the time of his calling That he was appointed to bee a patterne of suffering evills we must beleeve because God himselfe doth expresly testifie as much at the time of his calling unto Ananius who was to ratifie his calling so farre as the notice of it concerned the visible Church For when Ananias did demurre upon his admission into the Church The Lord said unto him goe thy way for he is a chosen vessell unto mee to beare my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my names sake Act. 9. 15 16 And yet perhaps Saint Paul had not been made such a spectacle to the world of suffrance or persecutions unlesse he had persecuted more than Saint Stephen unlesse hee had made havocke of the Church 4 It is not probable that these Iewes had any minde to punish Paul for his offence against Stephen of which if they had any notice or remembrance this would have made them more ready to pardon him for preaching the Gospel at this time than to put him to death for persecuting such as had preached it before Their resolution to stone him at this time rather than beat him with rods as their usuall manner was argues that their wills though otherwise free more than enough to doe mischiefe were by the all-seeing Providence determined or guided in the manner of practising mischiefe To say the Author of beeing and Fountaine of goodnesse did instill this spirit of fury and malice into the hearts of these Iewes or did by any decree absolutely necessitate them to conceive so full a measure of mischiefe as now possessed them were I take it to swerve from the forme of wholsome words would give some advantage to the adversaries of truth It was Sathan thēselves which had charged their brests with this extraordinary measure of fury and malice But these being so overcharged as that without some vent or other they were ready to burst He who is as well the supreme moderator of mens thoughts and resolutions as Iudge of their actions did not onely permit or suffer but direct appoint and order that they should exonerate or discharge their furious malice upon Saint Paul not upon Barnabas and upon Saint Paul by that peculiar kinde of violence which now they practise rather than by any other unto which they were more accustomed CHAP. 36. Of sinnes visited or punished according to the circumstance of time or place wherein they were committed 1 IT may be the circumstance of the time wherein this visitation happened to S. Paul might suggest as much as wee have observed unto himselfe or unto others then living whom the remembrance or notice of his former trespasses might concerne But however it were in this particular the identitie whether of the time or of the place wherein men have done and afterwards suffer extraordinary evill are in their nature better Remembrancers of Gods justice than the exact identity or likenesse of the evills which they have done to others and from others suffer is If a man should meet with mischiefe in the same place or be overtaken by it on the same day wherein he had done the like mischiefe vnto others the event would naturally argue a legall and formall processe of Divine Iustice calling time and place which are alwayes witnesses of actions done in greatest secresie to give speciall evidence against him and to make his owne conscience confesse that which all the world besides were not able to prove Some within our memories have concluded their unseasonable sportings with death sudden and casuall in respect of men upon the same day after revolution of times wherein they had deserved or cunningly avoided the sentence of death being more than due unto them if Iustice might have had its naturall course And it might peradventure have gone better with them if they had hid themselves for that day in the house of mourning or not adventured upon the house of mirth or fields of sport 2 To particularize in or comment upon domestique moderne examples would bee offensive Beatus populus qui scit jubilationem That people or Family is happy which knows the times seasons of rejoycing and mirth but more happy are they which know the times and seasons of mourning or for preventing the day of visitation And the best meanes to foresee or prevent it would be to keepe an exact Calendar of our owne and of our forefathers sins for these we are bound to confesse with our owne And if we would unpartially judge our selves for both by unfaigned repentance and hearty contrition we might escape the judgements of God which by our neglect hang over us and without amendment will fall upon us It is a saying amongst the later Iewes Volvitur meritum in diem meriti Though punishments do not immediately pursue the fact which deserves it nor instantly overtake the party which committed such fact yet it resteth not but roules about untill it meet with them or their posterity at the same point of time wherein it was deserved The Temple by their calculation was twice destroyed upon the same day of the same month upon which Moses had broken the Tables Though so it were de facto yet this revolution infers not this destruction to be fatall It might have beene at both times prevented had that generation wherein it hapned beene as zealous of Gods glory as Moses had been or had they held idolatry or hypocrisie in as great detestation as Moses had done Some foraigne writers have observed that the hope of this Land whilest he lived Edward the sixt did dye upon the selfe same day after revolution of some yeares in which his Father had put Sir Thomas Moore to death a man otherwise faulty yet so true a pattern of morall justice as it cannot seeme strange if the righteous Iudge did take speciall notice of King Henries dealing with him and insert the day of his death in his everlasting Calendar to be after signed with the untimely death of King Henries only Son How the sins of parents are often punished in their harmlesse or lesse harmfull posterity is elsewhere discussed I will not interrupt this Discourse with any digression concerning Divine equity in this point nor with any Apology for these curious observations as some enstyle them I relate onely matters of fact or punishments answerable to offences as well for the circumstance of place as of time 3
foundation thereof The scope at which their wishes did ayme was that Ierusalem and the Temple might so be demolished that they should never be raised againe And according to this scantling of their malicious wish the Psalmist proportions that imprecation against Edom which in the issue proved a Prophesie Remember O Lord the Children of Edom in the day of Ierusalem who said rase it rase it c. The more full expression or ratification of this implicit prophesie we have in another Prophet who lived about eighty yeares after the Edomites had uttered that accursed cry against Ierusalem I have loved you saith the Lord yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us was not Esau Iacobs brother saith the Lord yet I loved Iacob and I hated Esau and layd his mountaines and his heritage waste for the Dragons of the wildernesse Whereas Edom saith wee are impoverished wee will returne and build the desolate places Thus saith the Lord of hoasts they shall build but I will throw downe and they shall call them the border of wickednesse and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever Mal. 1. 2 c. Some good expositors have from the litterall sense of this place collected that Edom not long after the Babilonish captivitie did utterly cease to be a Nation And whether any of Esaus posteritie bee left upon the face of the Earth some have questioned and to my remembrance determined for the Negative These whatsoever besides were the Effects of Gods professed hate to Esau But there is a seed or Nation yet on earth which shall at the time appointed be made partakers of his blessing so often promised to Ierusalem and enjoy the fruites of his professed love to Iacob 7 These Prophetical passages cōcerning Ammon Moab and Edom afford many usefull speculations did either these times afford us freedome or this place opportunitie to dilate upon them But leaving the rest unto the juditious Readers owne collection out of the seuerall Expositors of the places by mee quoted I shall onely request him to take this one admonition from mee Not to rejoyce much lesse to triumph in any others calamitie although hee knew it to be the speciall award of divine justice or a condigne punishment purposely suted by the All seeing Providence to some peculiar sinne Edom and Babylon knew that Ierusalem and Iudah were justly punished for their offences against the righteous Lord and themselves to be the appointed executioners of his justice yet all this doth no way excuse them for their presumption in the manner of execution My people have beene lost sheepe their Shepheards have caused them to goe astray c. All that found them have devoured them and their adversaries said Wee offend not because they have sinned against the Lord the habitation of Iustice even the Lord the hope of their Fathers Yet all this acquits not Babylon from guilt of Gods judgments in spoyling Gods people for so it followes Remove out of the midst of Babylon and goe forth out of the Land of the Caldeans and be as the hee-goats before the flockes Ier. 50. 6 7 8. And againe Verse 10 11. Caldea shall be a spoile all that spoyle her shall be satisfied saith the Lord because yee were glad because yee rejoyced ô yee destroyers of mine heritage Not onely the practise or reall intention of mischiefe but the delight or joy which men take in the calamitie of others by whomsoever it bee procured or intended doth make men lyable to the rule of Retaliation For every degree of delight or joy in others misery includes a breach of that fundamentall Law of equitie Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris VVhatsoever wee would not have done vnto our selves wee should bee vnwilling to doe or to see done vnto others And all visitation by the rule of Counterpassion as it concernes wrongs intended or done by one man to another is but a resarcination or making up of that breach which hath beene made in the fundamentall Law of equitie that is of doing as wee would be done unto 8 But besides the wrongs which Potentates or priuate men practise upon or intend to others there is a peculiar disposition which makes men liable to the iudgements which they feare or at least hasten the execution of iudgements otherwise deserved And that is a tempting God by the curiositie of superstitious feare or by dissimulation An instance to this purpose and that is all which at this time I meane to use we have in Ieroboam and his wife who went disguised unto the Prophet Ahijah as if it had beene unto some cunning man to know what should become of her young sonne Abijah then visited with sicknesse The doome or punishment doth so well befit the temptation that the circumstances of the time and place c. wherin the discovery of her dissembling was by the spirit revealed unto the Prophet may seeme to have suggested unto him the time of the Childes death with other circumstances The Prophets eies were dimme that he could not discerne her by sight but the Lord so supplyed this defect that hee knew her by the sound of her feete before shee came in at the doore The Lord said unto Ahijah Behold the wife of Ieroboam commeth to aske a thing of thee for her sonne for hee is sicke Thus and thus shalt thou say unto her for it shall bee when shee commeth in that shee will faine herselfe to bee another woman And it was so when Ahijah heard the sound of her feete as shee came in at the doore that hee said Come in thou wife of Ieroboam why fainest thou thy selfe to be another for I am sent unto thee with heavie tidings c. Arise thou therefore get thee to thine owne house and when thy feet enter into the Citie the childe shall dye c. And Ieroboams wife arose and departed and came to Tirzah and when shee came to the threshold of the doore the childe dyed But of that peculiar branch of Divine Providence which takes men in the nets of their owne superstitious feare or imaginations wee shall have fitter occasion to speake in the Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Fore-warnings CAP. 38. The conclusion of this Treatise with the relation of Gods remarkable judgements manifested in Hungary 1 DID GOD alwayes fit his plagues to exorbitant or out-crying sinnes immediately after their commission men would suspect that hee did distrust his memory Should hee deferre all as long as hee doth sundry for many yeares and some speciall ones till the second third or fourth generation this would tempt us in the interim to thinke hee tooke just notice of none Because sentence against an evill worke is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to doe evill Ecclesiastes 8. 11. But the same Preacher to counterpoyze the sway of this inbred temptation addeth Though a sinner doe evill an hundred times and
Were these meere wishes of winde which vanished with the avouchers breath did the Pslmist utter them out of tender affection to his people and country without commission from his Maker or was He lesse affected towards his people then this his messenger that his message wants the waight of everlasting truth To these and the like demands of many bad answers this is the best and most common God would undoubtedly have made his promise good and done aswell by Israell as here hee wisheth if Israell could have turned to him or done what he requires But that say the same men was in repect of Gods decree or secret will impossible WheÌ„ce seeing the condition neither was nor could be performed by Israel God was not bound to bestow these blessings upon them but free to reserve his store unto himselfe or for some other people which was profered but upon conditions impossible to bee performed unto Israell Might not churlish Naball have promised abundance of bread of wine and flesh to Davids servants upon like tearmes May not cutthroate Vsurers assure bags of Gold to bedridden or decrepit limbs upon condition they will fetch them from the toppe of high towers or sleep mountains But what kindnesse what synceritie could there be in such lavish profers specially if the impotent wretches were by covenant excluded from al use of crutches Yet is it more possible for a creeple to goe without his crutches then for Israell to walke in the waies of God without his aide or assistance Necessitie therefore constraines us to confesse the one of these two Either that there was no more synceritie in the Almighties protestations then in Nabals or the Vsurers supposed bountie which they never meant to use but upon performance of impossibilities Or else his promises if they had any syncerity in them did include his furtherance and assistance unto Israell for performing the condition required Now unto whatsoever effect or event the furtherance or speciall assistance of Omnipotent power is upon the truth and synceritie of divine promise alwaies ready and assured the same effect cannot truly be deemed impossible in respect of the aeternall decree And whatsoever is not in respect of this decree impossible the non existence of it or the existence of the contrary effect cannot in respect of the same decree be necessarie So then neither was Israels well-doing and prosperitie nor their ill-doing and calamitie at any time absolutely necessarie in respect of Gods decree both were possible both contingent 4 The truth of these collections from Gods word or rather of these infallible consequences of his essentiall goodnesse sincerity and truth though necessarie and evident unto Artists may from other positive authorities of the same word be ratified à fortior to common sense If Neither these good things which God sincerely purposeth and expressely promiseth nor that evill which he seriously and expressely threatens bee necessary in respect of his decree much lesse can that good which is neither particularly promised or avouched or that evil which is not expressely threatned or foretold by his infallible messengers be held necessary in respect of his decree Now that the prosperity which he expresly promiseth by such messengers is not so necessary as to exclude all possibilitie of coÌ„trary Evill nor the evill which he solemnly denounceth so necessarie as not to leave a true possibilitie for a contrary blessing his Prophet hath given such a generall and evident assurance not to Israell onely out to all the Nations of the earth as we caÌ„not deny but that it was devised of purpose by the Lord himselfe as a post statute to prevent this strange misconstruction which his people had then made which he then foresaw would afterwards be enforced upon his decrees or lawes by this praejudâ—cate opinion of absolute necessitie At what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to pluck up and to pull downe and to destroy it if that nation against whom I have pronounced turne from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to doe unto them And at what instant I shall speake concerning a nation and concerning a kingdome to build and to plant it If it doe evill in my sight that it obey not my voyce then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefite them Ier. 18. ver 7 8 9 10. And if wee may gesse at the nature of the disease by the medicine and the manner of applying it the house of Israell was at this time almost desperately sicke of this errour which we refute Or what need we frame conjectures from the qualitie of the medicine when as the working of it hath made the Crisis palpable and apparent The pestilence is best knowne by the botch or outbursting What then was the issue of that Cordiall which the Prophet ministred unto them being but the extraction of the former generalls Thus saith the Lord Behold I frame evill against you and devise a device against you returne yee now every one from his evill way and make your wayes and your doings good We have seene the application of the medicine what was the operation And they said there is no hope but wee will walke after our owne devises and wee will every one doe the imagination of his evill heart Ier. 18. ver 11 12. But did the Prophet take their answere verbatim as they uttered it No God did not appoint him to keepe a Register of their words but to make a comment upon the secret language of their hearts They are sufficiently convicted to have said wee will every one doe the imagination of his evill heart in that the imaginations of their heart were evill and they had resolved to retaine their wonted principles and not to hearken unto the Prophets doctrine The true and literall paraphrase of their replye no interpreter extant hath so fully expressed as the usuall language of some in our times briefly doth What shall bee will be there is no hope the world will amend if it bee Gods will to prosper the courses which are taken all will be well if not his will however must be done Thus we delude and put off our Maker with Ifs and And 's when as his will revealed aswell for private as publike good so wee would addresse our selves to doe it is plaine and absolute And it is impossible we should addresse our selves to doe it vnlesse wee would hearken 〈◊〉 to such as teach it To expect any other fruite or use of this doctrine of absolute necessitie then carnall securitie in time of peace and prosperitie and than desperate wilfulnesse in distresse and adversitie were a madnesse And seeing this frenzie did still grow greater and greater in the Iew as the destruction of Ierusalem whereof it was both times the principall cause and most fearefull prognostique grew neerer the Lord authorized another Prophet after Ieremie to interpose his oath for the cure of it They thought that death
and destruction when they approached were armed with absolute necessitie derived from Gods decree to punish them for their fathers sinnes and in this conceipt many yeelded unto them when they might easily haue conquered them To discover the vanitie of this skale and to acquit his omnipotent decree from the suspected imposition of necessitie As I live saith the Lord God yee shall not have occasion any more to use this Proverbe in Israel The Fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the Childrens teeth are set on edge Behold all soules are mine as the soule of the father so also the soule of the son is mine the soule that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 18. ver 2 3 4. Have I any plasure at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord God And not that he should returne from his wayes and live ver 23. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will yee dye O house of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live ye vers 31 32. If the returning of this people wherein God tooke pleasure were not necessary as the event hath proved for the most part of them did not returne it must needs argue a spice of their frenzy to think their death wherein he tooke no pleasure should be necessary The onely orthodoxall resolution of this point then must be this It was Gods good will and pleasure the formall dictate and absolute injunction of his eternall and irresistible decree that neither the life or death of such as perished should be necessary but that both should be possible albeit the choise of life had beene more pleasant to God who had complained with griefe Perditio tua ex te O Israel CHAP. 17. That Gods will is alwayes done albeit many particulars which God willeth bee not done and many done which he willeth should not be done 1 AVt erit aut non erit is a Prophecie which will never bee out of date impossible ever to bee impeached of falshood an answer as universally true to all as unsufficient to any question concerning things to come The truth of every disjunctive proposition as Logicians teach is fully salved if any one member though of never so many be true Or if the disjunction or division be artificially formall the actuall existence of one part or member excludes the actuall existence of the other so doth the absolute necessity of the one exclude all possibility of the others reduction into act If I should wage any summe that it would either raine all day to morrow or be faire all day to morrow no man of understanding would put me to prove that it did both raine all the day and hold up all the day The proofe of either part would be sufficient to evince the truth of my disjunctive assertion that both should be actually true is impossible Or if my adversary could substantially prove either any intermission of raine or interruption of faire weather His advantage against mee would bee as evident because the proposition which he was to make good against me was but disjunctive so that of any two minutes in the whole day if the one were rainy and the other faire my universall disjunctive must needs be false and his apparantly true because directly contradictory unto mine That it should at one and the same time raine and not raine is impossible and comes not within the compasse of any contradictory contestation it can be no object of lay or wager 2 When wee say that God in many humane actions decrees a mixture or multiplicity of possibilities our meaning is that the tenour of Gods eternall omnipotent word from which all things derive as well the law and maâ—â—â—â—â— of their being as their being it selfe is in respect of the severall possible events decreed not conjunctive or categoricall but disjunctive And we hold it a sinne to thinke or say that the onely wise Almighty Creator is not able to conceive or make propositions as truly disjunctive as any of our making are or not able to make as formall and contradictory opposition betweene their severall parts as any humane wit can conceive Thus much being granted our intended inference is an everlasting truth Gods decree or determinate proposition concerning the supposed multiplicity of possibilities or manifold events all alike possible is alwaies exactly fulfilled when any one of the events whose possibilities are decreed goes actuall existence To reduce more of them then one into act at one and the same time is in many cases altogether impossible and falls not within the object of Omnipotency If the reduction of any one of them into actuall possession of its owne being were in respect of his decree or by any other meanes altogether necessary his decree should necessarily be broken and his omnipotency might be overborne For the necessity of ones being takes away all possibilitie of being from the contradictorie which omnipotency as is supposed had bestowed upon it Finally Gods decree in respect of all and every part of its proper object is alike Omnipotent and therefore it is as impossible for any necessity by vertue or respect of what cause soever to incroach upon those events the Law or manner of whose production God hath decreed to be contingent as for Contingency to hinder the production of those events the law or manner of whose production or existence he hath decreed to be necessary As impossible for necessity to mingle with absolute contingency from which God hath separated it as for contingencie to be wedded to absolute necessity whose mariage God hath forbidden by an everlasting decree 3 The onely difficulty wherewith these conclusions can as I conceive with probability bee charged may be conceived thus Admitting Gods decree concerning the house of Israels life or death were as evidently it was disjunctive and did essentially include a possibility of life and a possibility of death in respect of all or most of their persons or of their publike state Yet no man will denie but that amongst the severall or opposite members of this or the like decree God wills one more than another For so he saith That hee willed not the death but the life of him that dyed Now if that which God willeth not may come to passe and that which he willeth may not come to passe or if of two possible events that whose actuall being he willeth tenne thousand times more ardently never get actuall being or existence as being prevented by the actuall accomplishment of the contradictorie or incompatible event which he lesse willeth How can his will in this case bee fulfilled and if his will be not fulfilled his decree must needs bee broken and if his decree may be broken how is his will said to be irresistible how do we beleeve him to be Omnipotent Some perhaps would hence conclude that