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
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
his owne hands 3 But the unerrable rule of everlasting Iustice who from eternity decrees whatsoever may bee and foresees whatsoever will be because Heaven and Earth may sooner passe than his words or acts passeth no act to the prejudice of his absolute and eternall power of Iurisdiction What grant or promise soever he make cannot binde the exercise of his everlasting libertie for a moment of time they last no longer than durante beneplacito seeing gracious Equity and onely it is his everlasting pleasure He ever was ever is and ever shall be alike indifferent and free to recompence every man according to his present wayes And in that hee alwaies searcheth the very hart and secret thoughts and never ceaseth to decree his one and indivisibly everlasting decree without any variety or shadow of change in it selfe fits all the changes severall dispositions and contingent actions of Men and Angels as exactly as if he did conceive and shape a new Law for every one of them and they are conceived and brought forth as wel befitting them as the skin doth the body which nature hath enwrapped in it No man living I take it will avouch any absolute necessity from all Eternity that God should inevitably decree the deposition of Elies line from the Priesthood or his two sonnes destructions by the Philistims For this were to bereave him of his absolute and eternall liberty I demand then whether within the compass of time or in eternity as praeexistent to Elies dayes he past any act that could restraine his eternall liberty of honouring Elies families as well as any others in their time To say He did were impiety because it chargeth the Almighty with impotent immutability What shall we say then The deposition of his race the sudden death and destruction of his sonnes were not at all absolutely necessary but necessary onely upon supposed miscariage of the possible meanes and opportunities which hee had given them for honouring him And that eternall decree They that dishonour mee them will I dishonour as coexistent to the full measure of this their transgression by it shapes their punishment 4 To thinke of Gods eternall decree with admiration void of danger we must conceive it as the immediate Axis or Center upon which every successive or contingent act revolves and yet withall that wherein the whole frame of succession or contingency is fully comprehended as an unconstant movable Sphere in a farre greater quiescent or rather in such a one as in the description of Eternity was imagined which hath drawne all the successive parts of motion into an indivisible unity of duration permanent Every part of the larger Sphere this swallowing up motion in vigorous rest should have coexistence locall with all and every part of the next moveable Sphere under it move it as slowly and swiftly as the latitude of successive motion can admit Whilest we thus conceive of Gods eternall decree and of his foreknowledge included in our conceipt of it according to the Analogy of what we must beleeve concerning the manner of his ubiquitary presence or immensity we shall have no occasion to suspect that his necessary foreknowledge of what we doe should lay a necessity upon our actions or take away all possibility of doing otherwise Rather we may by this supposall beleeve that as probable and perceive in part the manner how it is so which shall by Gods assistance be demonstrated to be de facto most true As first that the Omnipotent doth eternally decree an absolute contingency in most humane acts Secondly that this eternall act or decree which we thus conceive to be throughout the whole succession of time in every place indivisibly coexistent to each humane thought or action doth not only perpetually support our faculties but withall uncessantly inspire them with contingency in their choice that is it so moves them as they may without lett or incumbrance move themselves more wayes then one And yet even whilest it so moves them it withall inevitably effects the proportioned consequents which from everlasting were fore-ordained to the choices which we make be they good or bad or according to the severall degrees of good or evill done by us or of our affections or desires to doe them CHAP. 11. Of transcendentall goodnesse and of the infinity of it in the Divine nature 1 IF in assigning reasons of Maximes or proverbiall speeches wee might not bee thought to fetch light beyond the Sunne we should say Life unto things living is therefore sweet because it is a principall stemme of being as sweetnesse likewise is of goodnesse However we may resolve this Physicall Axiome into a Metaphysicall Omne ens qua ens est bonum Vnto every thing it s owne proper being is good Poyson though noysome to man to the Aspe is pleasant so is venome to the Toad and the Adder delighteth in his sting In things inanimate there should be no reluctance of contrary or hostile qualities unlesse each had a kinde of gratefull right or interest in their owne being and were taught by nature to fight for it as men doe for their lives or goods This is that goodnesse which we call entitative or transcendentall A goodnesse equally alike truly communicated to al things that are from his goodnesse who onely is but not participated equally or according to equality by all For as the least vessell that is filled to the brimme is as full as the greatest that can be and yet the quantity of liquor contained in them equally full is most unequall So albeit the entitative being of the Flye Ant or Worme be unto them as good as mans being is to man For even the Ant or Flye being vext or Wormes trod upon will bewray their spleene and labour as it were to right themselves for the losse or prejudice which they suffer in their Entitative goodnesse by doing harmes to their tormentors yet is mans being simply much better than the being of Ants or Wormes And much worse were that Man than any Beast that with Gryllus in the Poet would like to change his humane nature for a bruitish This excesse of entitative goodnesse by which one creature excelleth another accreweth partly from the excellency of the specificall Nature of Entity which it accompanieth as there is more Entitative goodnesse is being a Man than in being a Lyon and more in being a Lyon than in being some inferiour ignoble Beast it partly accreweth according to the greater or lesser measure wherein severall creatures enjoy their specificall Nature Men though by nature equall are not equally happy either in body or minde Bodily life in it selfe is sweet and is so apprehended by most yet is lothsome to some who as we say doe not enjoy themselves as none of us fully doe Sensitive appetites may be in some measure satisfied by course not all at once The compleat fruition of goodnesse incident to one defeats another though capable of greater pleasure for the time of what it most
they would become Romane Catholiques nor did I know of any conspiracy against them with minde or purpose to reveale it unto them may be a preservative more than sufficient a soveraigne Antidote against the sinne of perjury which hee had swallowed or harboured in his brest specially if the concealement of his treason make for the good of the Church To put the like interrogatory unto the Almighty Iudge concerning the ruine or welfare of men no Magistrate no authority of earth hath any power Yet hee to free himselfe from that foule aspersion which the Iewes had cast upon him as if such as perished in their sinnes had therefore perished because it was his will and pleasure they should not live but dye hath interposed his often mentioned voluntary oath As I live I will not the death of him that dyes but rather that he should live Shall it here bee enough to make answer for him interpretando by interpreting his meaning to be this I doe not will the death of him that dyes so he will repent which I know he cannot doe nor doe I will his non-repentance with purpose to make this part of my will knowne to him however according to my secret and reserved will I have resolved never to grant him the meanes without which he cannot possibly repent whereas without repentance hee cannot live but must dye But did Gods oath give men no better assurance than this interpretation of it doth I see no reason yet heartily wish that others might see more why any man should so much blame the Iesuites for secret evasions or mentall reservations in matter of oath For the performance of our oaths in the best manner that wee are capable of is but an observance of a particular branch of that generall precept Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Who then can justly challenge the Iesuite of imperfection or falshood much lesse of perjury for secret evasions or mentall reservations when his life is called in question if once it bee granted that the God of truth in matter of oath concerning the eternall life or death of more men than the Iesuites have to deale with doth use the like 6 In matters then determined by Divine Oath the distinction of voluntas signi and beneplaciti can have no place specially in their doctrine who make the bare entity or personall being of men the immediate object of the immutable decree concerning life and death everlasting For the entity or personall being of man is so indivisible that an universall negation and a particular affirmation of the same thing to wit Salvation falling upon man as man or upon the personall being of men drawes to the strictest point of contradiction Farre ever be it from us to thinke that God should sweare unto this universall negative I will not the death of the man that dyeth and yet beleeve withall that he wils the death of some men that dye as they are men or as they are the sonnes of Adam that hee should by his secret or reserved will recall any part of his will declared by oath that hee should proclaime an universall pardon to all the sonnes of Adam under the seale of his oath and yet exempt many from all possibility of receiving any benefit by it 7 Shall we then conclude that the former distinction hath no use at all in Divinity Or if this conclusion be too rigorous let us see in what cases it may have place or to what particulars it may bee confined First it hath place in matters of threatning or of plagues not denounced by oath Thus God by his Prophet Ionas did signifie his will to have Nineveh destroyed at forty dayes end this was voluntas signi and he truly intended what hee signified yet was it his voluntas beneplaciti his good will and pleasure at the very same time that the Ninevites should repent and live And by their repentance his good will and pleasure was fulfilled in their safety But in this case there was no contrariety betweene Gods will declared or signified .i. voluntas signi and his good will and pleasure .i. voluntas beneplaciti no contradiction in the object of his will however considered for that was not one and the same but much different in respect of Gods will signified by Ionas and of his good will and pleasure which not signified by him was fulfilled One and the same immutable will or decree of God did from eternity award two doomes much different unto Ninevch taking it as it stood affected when Ionas threatned destruction unto it or as it should continue so affected and taking it as it proved upon the judgement threatned All the alteration was in Nineveh none in Gods will or decree and Nineveh being altered to the better the selfe same rule of Iustice doth not deale with it after the selfe same manner The doome or sentence could not bee the same without some alteration in the Iudge who is unalterable And in that hee is unalterably Iust and Good his doome or award was of necessity to alter as the object of it altered Deus saepe mutat sententiam nunquam consilium Gods unchangeable will or counsell doth often change his doome or sentence The same rule holds thus farre true in matter of blessing or promise not confirmed by oath upon the parties alteration unto worse unto whom the promise is made the blessing promised may be revoked without any alteration of Gods will or counsell Yet may we not say that the death or destruction of any to whom God promiseth life is so truely the object of his good will and pleasure as the life and salvation of them is unto whom he threatneth destruction The same distinctiō is of good use in some extraordinarie cases or as applyed to men after they have made up the full measure of their iniquity and are cut off from all possibility of repentance Thus God willed Pharaoh to let his people goe out of Egypt and signified this his will unto him by Moses and Aaron in mighty signes and wonders This was voluntas signi onely not voluntas beneplaciti For though it were his good will and pleasure that his people should depart out of Egypt yet was it no branch of this his good will and pleasure that Pharaoh should now repent or bee willing to let them goe Rather it was his good will and pleasure specially after the seventh plague to have the heart of Pharaoh hardned And yet after his heart was so hardned that it could not repent God so punished him as if it had beene free and possible for him to repent and grant a friendly passe unto his people But Pharaohs case was extraordinary his punishment so exemplary as not to be drawne into example For as our Apostle intimates it was an argument of Gods great mercy and long suffering to permit Pharaoh to live any longer on earth after he was become a vessell of wrath destinated to everlasting punishment in
unquestionable earnests of thy everlasting love since more fully manifested For thou so lovedst the world not Israel onely that thou gavest thine onely begotten son to the end that who so beleeved in him should not perish but have everlasting life What further argumeÌ„t of Gods infinite love could flesh blood desire thaÌ„ the Son of Gods voluntary suffring that in our flesh by his Fathers appointment which unto flesh and blood seemes most distastfull That this love was unfaignedly tendered to all at least that have heard or hereafter may heare of it without exception what demonstration from the effect can be more certaine what consequence more infallible thaÌ„ the inference of this truth is froÌ„ a sacred truth received by all good Christians viz. Al such as have heard Gods love in Christ proclaimed and not beleeved in it shall in the day of Iudgement appeare guilty of greater sinnes than their forefathers could be endited of and undergoe more bitter death than any corruption drawne from Adam if Christ had never suffered could have bred I shall no way wrong the Apostle in unfolding his exhortations to the Athenians thus farre but they rather offer the spirit by which hee spake some kinde of violence that would contract his meaning shorter The times of this ignorance before Christs death God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent Because hee hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom hee hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that hee hath raised him from the dead Acts 17. 30 31. 3 Why all men in the world have not heard of Gods infinite love thus manifested many causes may hereafter bee assigned all grounded upon Gods infinite Iustice or Mercy Of Christs death many which heard not might have heard many which are not might have bin partakers save only for their free and voluntary progresse from evill to worse or wilfull refusall of Gods loving kindnesse daily profered to them in such pledges as they were well content to swallow foolishly esteeming these good in themselves being good onely as they plight the truth of Gods love to them which he manifested in the death of his Sonne With this manifestation of his love many againe out of meere mercy have not beene acquainted lest the sight of the medicine might have caused their discase to rage and make their case more lamentably desperate CHAP. 18. Want of consideration or ignorance of Gods unfeigned love to such as perish a principall meanes or occasion why so many perish 1 BVt if the most part of men as we cannot deny doe finally perish what shall it availe to revive this doctrine of Gods infinite love to all by whose fruitlesse issue he rather is made an infinit looser than men any gainers As for God he hath froÌ„ eternity infallibly forecast the entire redemption of his infinite love which unto us may seeme utterly cast away And of men if many dye whom he would have live for his will is that all should bee saved and come to the knowledge of the truth the fault is their owne or their instructers that seeke not the prevention of their miscariage by acquainting them with this coelestiall fountaine of saving truth whose taste we labor to exhibite unto all because the want of it in observation of the heathen is the first spring of humane misery Or in language more plaine or pertinent to the argument proposed most men reape no benefit from Gods unspeakeable love because not considering it to be his nature they doe not beleeve it to be as he is truly infinite unfeignedly extended to all that call him Maker But had the doctrines which those divine Oracles God is love and would have all men to bee saued naturally afford beene for these forty yeeres last past as generally taught and their right use continually prest with as great zeale and fervency as the doctrine and uses of Gods absolute decree for electing some and reprobating most in that space have beene the plentifull increase of Gods glory and his peoples comfort throughout this land might have wrought such astonishment to our adversaries as would have put their malicious mouths to silence Who would not be willing to be saved if hee were fully perswaded that God did will his salvation in particular because hee protests hee wills not the death of any but the repentance of all that all might live Or were the particulars of this doctrine unto whose generality every loyall member of the Church of England hath subscribed generally taught beleeved all would unfeignedly endeavour with fervent alacrity to be truely happy because none could suspect himselfe to bee excluded from his unfeigned and fervent love who is true happinesse Whose love and goodnesse is so great that hee cannot passe any act whereby any of his creatures should bee debarred either from being like him in love and goodnesse or being such from being like him in true happinesse But alas while the world is borne in hand that the Creator oft-times dispenseth the blessings of this life not as undoubted pledges of a better but deales with most men as man doth with beasts feeding them fattest which are appointed first to bee slaine the magnificent praises of his bounty secretly nurseth such a misperswasion in most men of his goodnesse at least towards them as the Epigrammâ—tist had of a professed Benefactor that shewed him as he thought little kindnesse in great Benevolence Munera magna quidem misit sed misit in hamo Et Piscatorem piscis amare potest Great gifts he sent but under his gifts there covered lay an hooke And by the fish to be belov'd can th'cunning Fisher looke 2 The frequency of sinister respects in dispensing of secular dignities or benevolences makes such as are truly kind to be either unregarded or mistrusted by such as stand in neede of their kindnesse And as fishes in beaten waters will nibble at the bait although they suspect the hooke so the world hath learned the wit to take good turnes and not to be taken by them as suspecting them to bee profered in cunning rather than in true kindnesse and cunning where it is discovered or suspected is usually requited with craft love onely hath just title unto love The most part indeed are so worldly wise that none but fooles will easily trust them howbeit our naturall mistrust of others makes all of us a great deale worse than we would be And as if we thought it a sinne or point of uncharitablenesse to prove other mens conjectures that measure our dispositions by their owne altogether false wee fit our demeanours to their misdeemings of us and resolve rather to do amisse than they should thinke amisse Howbeit even in this perfidious and faithlesse age the old saying is not quite out of date Ipsa fides habita obligat fideÌ„ Many would be more trusty than they are and do much
on which Gods will is alwaies done by means infinite at least to man incomprehensible 4 The incarnation of our blessed Saviour was in the opinion of some of the Ancients absolutely necessary before the creation of mankind should in time infallibly have been accomplished for confirming or augmenting that happy estate wherein Adam was created if so he had continued stedfast in it untill the time appointed by God for his change or translation But however the Schooles may determine or wave this question I must confesse neither very usefull nor in this place much necessary there was no necessity questionlesse that the second Adam should become a bloudy sacrifice for our sinnes unlesse the first Adam had sinned but after he by his actuall transgression had utterly cut off that possibility of perseverance which the eternall decree had bestowed upon him the humiliation and bitter passion of the Sonne of God became as necessary in respect of Gods mercy and bounty towards man and of his infinite justice which notwithstanding his infinite mercy was to be fully satisfied as his incarnation After Cain had despised Gods 〈◊〉 and had slaine his brother Abel it was necessary the Messias should proceed from Seth yet not then so necessary that he should be the sonne of Abraham as the Son of Seth. Others lineally descended from Seth might have forfeited their reall possibilities or ordinary hopes of attaining unto this glorie At the least when God first made his promise to the Woman and her seed the birth of Abraham was not in respect of the eternall decree so necessary as Christs birth was It was possible to have written Terah as childlesse as Iechoniah after his mariage with Abrahams mother But after the same God had passed that promise unto Abraham and confirmed it by solemne oath In thy seed shall alâ— the nations of the earth be blessed It was thenceforth altogether as necessary that our Redeemer should be the seed of Abraham as of the Woman Yet not then so necessary that he should bee the sonne of Iudah or that Iudah should have a sonne called Iesse or that Iesse should have a son called David a man after Gods owne heart That glory which long after Gods oath to Abraham befell the Tribe of Iudah was for ought we know or can object unto the contrary a part of that dignity whose possibility was once really possessed by Reuben though utterly forfeited by his misdemeanour But after Iacob had prophesied that the Scepter should not depart from Iudah till Shilo come or rather after the Lord had sworne not to faile David in bestowing the prerogative promised to Iudah upon his seed the necessity becomes as great that our High Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck should bee the sonne of David as the son of Man or seed of Abraham Now if we can perswade our selves that God either speakes or sweares as he truly intends or that mortall man may certainly know where to have him or what to trust to wee must beleeve and acknowledge those events concerning which he hath sworne not to repent to be farre more necessary in respect of the irresistible decree from the first interposition of such oath then those ordinary blessings or cursings which hee seriously threatâ—eth or promiseth but disjunctively with expresse reservation of their repentance whom he threatneth or of their defection whom he incourageth by his promises yet such was his covenant of life and death with his people such was his decree concerning the prosperity or calamity of Davids temporall Kingdome as the Prophets comments upon the promise made to David expresly testifie By these and the like oracles fully exemplified in the alternation of Ierusalem and Iudahs contrary fates or successe we may discerne the course of that eternall providence by whose irresistible unerring disposition all other States or Kingdomes have the certaine periods of their prosperity or calamity assigned and by which Princes and greatest statesmen stand or fall SECTION III. Of the manifestation of Divine Providence in the remarkable erection declination and periods of Kingdomes in over-ruling policy and disposing the successe of humane undertakings CHAP. 24. Of the contrary Fates or Awards whereof Davids temporall kingdome was capable and of its devolution from Gods antecedent to his consequent Will 1 HOMER was not so blinded with the heathenish misconceit of Fate as not-to-see more wayes to death than one In Achilles he described two courses of life the one shorter but decked with glory the other longer but bare and naked of â—ame both alike possible by Fates Thetis foresaw Fates by two wayes Might bring me to my end The one by Troy where if my time I should with honour spend It was but short but if at home A sluggard still I stayd My life was long but with no Fame Or praise to be repay'd Now as one poyson sometimes expels another so this opinion of double Fate if men be disposed to use this terme takes away the malignity of that error which holds all events to be fatall albeit of such twofolded fates or successe the one part or the other must by absolute necessity be fulfilled according to the parties choise unto whom they are awarded The body of that which Homer shadowed in Achilles is evidently contained in Gods forementioned covenant with Israell and sealed unto us by manifest experience in Davids line For of Gods speciall providence over the seed of Abraham or the Iewish nation in generall we have treated at large in the first Booke of the Comments upon the Apostles Creed The contrary Fates of Davids kingdome in succeeding ages seeme to wrastle strive as Iacob and Esau did in the womb or to countersway each other like two opposite scales unequally ballanced by turnes That thus it fared with Davids Kingdome doth not argue Gods decree concerning it to have beene mutable but rather immutably to have elevated depressed both Prince and People according to the degrees of their mutability in turning to him or from him 2 Salomon had the largest talent of wealth and the greatest measure of wit to use it that any earthly King either before or after him had His possibilities to increase his kingdome and propagate greatnesse to his posterity were much greater than any earthly Monarch since him might expect Many parts of Gods glorious promises made to David were literally meant of him which were never literally fulfilled in him or in his naturall linage because they did not performe the conditions which God required that they might bee more capable of his extraordinary undeserved favours The Covenant with David is expressed Psal 89. I have found David my servant with my holy oyle have I anointed him With whom my hand shall bee established mine arme also shall strengthen him The enemy also shall not exact upon him nor the sonne of wickednesse afflict him And I will beat downe his foes before his face and plague them that hate him This promise
pertaines to David and to his successors but however the promise was on Gods part unalterable yet the prerogative promised was subject unto change on contingency For so a little after the Psalmist distinguisheth betwixt Davids seed and Davids sonnes His seed will I make to endure for ever and his throne as the dayes of Heaven This he speakes not of many but of one to wit of Christ to whom onely the Kingdome of David was predestinated Of such as were ordained to this Kingdome he speakes in the plurall not absolutely but conditionally If his children forsake my Law and walke not in my judgements if they breake my Statutes and keepe not my Commandements Then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes The tenour then of Gods Covenant with David as it concerned Christ was absolute but as it concernes Davids other sonnes it was disjunctive or conditionall If any shall question why God for many generations did deale no better with Davids successors than with the successors of other Kings the answer from the tenour of the Covenant is plaine They forsooke his Lawes and would not walke in his Iudgements Psal 89. vers 32. and thus breaking his Statutes their visitation was altogether unevitable not on a sudden but by degrees The Lords arme even in Salomons time was stretched out ready to fetch the blow which after his death fell upon his son Rehoboam as heire to his chastisements The blow was sudden and smart for of twelve Tribes ten were rent from his Kingdome by Ieroboam The wounds Inflicted by the Egyptian upon Iudah and Benjamin and upon Ierusalem her selfe were grievous though as yet not uncurable So grievous as might give that people plainly to understand that the prosperity of Davids earthly Kingdome was not like the dayes of heaven nor the glory of Salomons throne like the Sunne in the Firmament altogether priviledged from change or mutability But albeit the motion of the creature appointed to execute Gods wrath were sudden yet the waight of Ierusalems burthen was not permanent because shee was not as yet frozen in sinne 3 Of Rehoboams successors some were good and these by their penitency and heroicall reformation set back the Diall of such dismall Fates as still did threaten them many were bad and did draw Gods plagues upon themselves and their people And whilest the blow of Gods stretched out arme is diverted and borne off by the fervent prayers of godly Princes the waight of the whole Nations burthen is much increased by the iniquity of the people Either the number of the supplicants was not equall to the number of the delinquents or the fervency of their prayer and repentance not so constant as the others delight in sin and wickednesse The waight of their sinister Fates by this meanes secretly and insensibly increasing even whilest their motion was restrained or abated increased the swiftnesse or violence of the motion when by permission of the Divine Decree they had liberty to take their wonted course Ioas and Achas pulled them on so fast that Micha threatned judgement not against the King and Nobles onely but against City and Temple in such a thundring voice as if desolation had even then besieged the City round about and utter destruction was ready to enter in at the breach Therefore shall Sion for your sake be plowed as a Field and Ierusalem shall become heapes and the mountaine of the house as the high places of the Forest Micha 3. ver 12. Spake he this of his owne times or of some others following was it in respect of the Eternall Decree altogether impossible for this dreadfull sentence to have beene forthwith put in execution Indeed many of their Magistrates and Politicians most of their Priests and Prophets untill this very instant had said to the like purpose Is not the Lord among us none evill can come upon us vers 11. This vaine confidence presumptuously and falsly grounded upon the immutability of Gods promises made the doome menaced by Micha more necessary and fatall at this time than otherwise it would have beene though to such as understood the tenour of Gods Covenant with his people neither at this time nor many yeares after altogether unevitable 4 The good King Hezekiah knew the Lord did not threaten in jest and for this reason his feare was hearty and his prayers earnest Did he not feare the Lord and besought the face of the Lord Ier. 26. ver 19. But did this his feare or hearty prayes impaire the present possibility or necessity of the plagues threatned Yes The Lord repented him Of what that he had denounced all this evill against Ierusalem or intreated Hezekiah so roughly by his Prophet Micha no But the Lord repented him of the evill which he had denounced against him and meant to execute For who repents himselfe of that which he did not so much as truly intend Is God then as man that he should repent It is impossible that there should be any change of purpose in God herein he is most unlike to man or the son of mā whose repentance alwayes includes some internall alteratiō of wil or purpose not of the matter purposed only Our best intentions of good to others often expire upon particular respects and cannot be revived againe albeit we neither had just occasion to take dislike nor the same reasons to continue it which we had to take it Through the inconstancie of our nature we loath to morrow what we like to day our affections alter without any change in the matter affected by us Far otherwise it is with God whose will or purpose is still immutable and yet exactly fitteth every change or mutation in the creature To have punished Ierusalem continuing her wonted course but sixe moneths longer after the Prophet had thus warned her with such miseries as Senacherib had menaced was one part of the eternall and unchangeable decree another part of the same decree no lesse immutable was to avert these plagues from Ierusalem truly repenting upon their denunciation No former wickednesse could alienate his love from her or make him recall the blessings promised to David so long as this people was so affected as in that covenant was required 5 The possibility of the desolation menaced by Micha was for the present as great as the Assyrian was potent It might truly have beene said of this City in respect of his army what one saith of Navigators Est tua tam prope mors quà m prope cernis aquam That extraordinary power wherewith the Lord had armed this Tyrant to take vengeance upon his neighbour nations might well make the present avoydance of the plagues menaced by Micha seeme almost impossible But good Hezekiah by turning with all his heart and all his soule unto the Lord unto whom all things are possible did not only remove destruction threatned from the City and Temple but caused it to turne upon the destroyer Ierusalem and Iudah by the
unfained penitence of Prince and People became the object of Gods antecedent will and fell under the former part of Gods Covenant with David The enemy shall not exact upon him nor the sonne of wickednesse afflict him And I will beat downe his foes before his face and plague them that hate him Psal 89. vers 22 23. The Assyrian by going beyond his commission in daring not Hezekiah only but the Lord of Hosts unto whose protection Hezekiah had fled becomes the object of Gods consequent will which by divine appointment he was at that time to execute upon Ierusalem but upon Ierusalem fallen away by disobedience not upon Ierusalem returning in heart unto her God 6 That this people might have some time of breathing and respite to gather themselves for the better accomplishing of so great a worke as Hezekiah had begun the Lord in his wisdome so disposed that Tirhakah King of Cush should make forward to entertaine Senacherib with battaile at that very instant wherein he had purposed to give the on set upon Ierusalem This unexpected removall of present terror was no doubt a sure pledge unto the people for strengthning their relyance on Gods promise for setling their hearts and continuing their constancy in fervent prayers during the time of the enemies absence And seeing the force of Egypt and Cush were not sufficient to dissipate Senacheribs mighty army perhaps not able to hold him play any longer the Lord sends Hezekiah and his people deliverance from heaven Then the Angell of the Lord went forth and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians a hundreth fourescore and five thousand and when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses Isaiah 37. vers 36. The noise of this great overthrow was as the joyfull sound of a Iubile unto Ierusalem and did portend another more admirable and victorious Iubile to bee accomplished in the same place of which elsewhere This for the present might witnesse to Hezekiah and the people that rather then one tittle of Gods Covenant with David should fal to the ground the host of heaven should leave their station and keepe garrison on earth A little after this miraculous deliverance the Sun is compelled to goe fifteene degrees backwards for setting forward the course of Hezekiah his life whom Death and Fate had now in the worlds sight arrested God hereby testified unto Prince and People that if they would continue such in health as they were in sicknesse so well-minded in peace and prosperity as they had beene in strait siege or other distresse of war Ierusalems good dayes might become as certaine and constant as the dayes of heaven seeing that great light which was appointed from the beginning to rule the day did now give place to Hezekiahs prayers But most of this people were most unlike their Prince albeit even he after he had received those two miraculous pledges of Gods loue did not render according to the reward bestowed upon him 2 Chron. 32. v. 25. For his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Iudah and Ierusalem Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himselfe for the pride of his heart both he and the inhabitants of Ierusalem so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the dayes of Hezekiah 7 After the yoake of Ashur was taken from off this peoples neck many of them became wanton others secure as not suspecting that a Cockatrice should spring out of this Serpents root that his fruit should be a fiery flying Serpent Isai 14. v. 29. Vnto Hezekiah himselfe though a most wise and prudent King the Babylonian tyranny being now in his infancy did seeme by nature morâ— mild and gentle than the Assyrian had beene And not content to entertaine the King of Babylons Ambassadors with curtesies sutable to their congratulations he shewed them his treasury and all the good things wherwith the Lord had blessed him willing perhaps to give their master and the world to wit that notwithstanding the former wars and exactions hee was no begger but a fit confederate for neighbour Princes to curbe the insolency of the Assyrian whose strength though much abated by the terrible blow which the Angell of the Lord had given Senacheribs host was not quite broken till many yeares after But the Prophet knew this fawning whelpe to be of wolvish kinde and discovered those implanted seeds of cruelty in him which when they came to be ripe would be more noysome to the Kings and Princes of Iudah than his predecessor the Assyrian had beene Isaiah said unto Hezekiah Heare the word of the Lord Behold the dayes come that all that is in thy house and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day shall be caried unto Babylon nothing shall bee left saith the Lord. And of thy sonnes that shall issue from thee which thou shalt beget shall they take away and they shall bee Eunuches in the palace of the King of Babylon 2 King Chapter 20. vers 17 18. 8 Any Heathen which had held Esaias for an undoubted Sooth-sayer would instantly have concluded hence that the captivity of Hezekiahs successors and all the miseries which the Babylonian afterwards brought upon Iudah and Ierusalem were absolutely fatall altogether impossible to be avoided And many good Christians perhaps will question whether the plagues here threatned were not from this point of time necessary in respect of the Divine Decree To answer this question by interrogation Why should not the spirit of the Prophet Esay be as truly subject to the former propheticall rule as Micahs was Now God according to that rule was ready to repent him of all the evill which he had threatned whensoever the people should repent them of whatsoever they had done The Lord had given Hezekiah and his successors a farre larger and longer time for preventing the evill which Esay threatned than they had for avoiding the doome denounced by Micah The very tenour of the denunciation made by Esay shewes them a ready meanes for preventing the woe denounced so they would have laid it to their hearts or followed the advise of succeeding Prophets But mortality must needs be rife where variety of diseases and multitudes of unskilfull Empyricks do meer The common transgressions of the people are the epidemicall diseases of States and such projects as Princes or Statesmen without the prescript of Gods Word or suggestion of his Providence use for their recovery are like unseasonable ministration of Empyricall or old wives medicines to crased bodies They usually invite or entertaine the destruction or ruine of kingdomes otherwise ready to depart Not the best amongst the Kings of Iudah but were smatterers in empyricall or secular policy Some were more some lesse all too much given to put confidence in multitude of men and store of treasure And for increasing this supposed sinew of Warre and nutriment of Peace they used meanes neither warrantable by Gods written Law nor by the rule
saith the Lord that I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander and shall emptie his vessels and breake their bottles And Moab shall bee ashamed of Chemosh at the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence How say yee we are mightie and strong men for the warre Moab is spoyled and gone up out of her cities and his chosen young men are gone downe to the slaughter saith the King whose name is the Lord of hoasts The calamitie of Moab is neere to come and his affliction hasteth fast Ier. 48. 12 13 14 15 16 c. The horne of Moab is cut off and his arme is broken saith the Lord. Make yee him drunken for he magnified himselfe against the Lord. Moab also shall wallow in his vomit and he also shall be in derision For was not Israel a derision unto thee was he found among theeves for since thou spakest of him thou skippedst for joy ver 25 26 27. They shall howle saying How is it broken downe how hath Moab turned the backe with shame so shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to al them about him For thus saith the Lord Behold he shall flee as an Eagle shall spread his wings over Moab Kerioth is takeÌ„ the stroÌ„g holds are surprised the mightie mens hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs v. 39. 40 41 As for Babylon if she were stupid and blinde without all foresight feare or apprehension of that hideous stormes approach wherein shee perished the wonder is lesse to any Christian then their stupiditie who thinke her destruction might by rules of policy have bin preveÌ„ted For though her defendants had beene more in number then her proud wals could containe though every one had beene more stout then Hector armed with more hands then Briarius had though every one of her staâ—gazing statesmen had had more politick eyes then Argos had all had beene one totidemque occulos nox occupatuna A messenger from the Lord of hoasts had called for a dimnesse of sight upon her Seers and sung a lullaby to her souldiers everlasting sleepe I will make drunke her Pinces and her Wisemen her Captains and her Rulers and her mightie men and they shall sleepe a perpetuall sleepe and not awake saith the King whose name is the Lord of hoasts Ier. 51 vers 57. So infallibly doth divine Iustice observe the rule of retaliation whereof I shall hereafter speake Though Babylon should mount up to heaven and though shee should fortifie the height of her strengh yet from me shall spoylers 〈◊〉 unto her saith the Lord. Ier. 51. ver 53. For seeing her people hath entred into the sanctuary of the Lords house the Lord wil doe judgement upon her grauen Images vers 52. 15 To conclude The reason of Babels stupiditie and whatsoever oversights the Politician can discover in her related by Xenophon or Herodotus was that the fulfilling of Ieremies Prophesies against her might become more manifest to succeeding ages How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations I have layd a snare for thee and thou art also taken O Babylon and thou wast not aware thou are founde and also caught because thou hast striven against the Lord. The Lord hath opened his armorie hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation for this is the worke of the Lord God of hoasts in the land of the Caldeans Come against her from the utmost border open her storehouses cast her up as heapes and destroy her utterly let nothing of her bee left Ier. 50. vers 23 24 25 26. For she had carried away all that was in Ezekias house all that his father had laid up in store nothing was left as Esaiah had foretold c. 59. v. 36. the exact fulfilling of whose Prophecie is registred by the sacred Historian 2 Chron. 6. verse 18. The sudden surprizall of the Citie and Court of Babylon made the finding of the treasure of Darkenesse and the riches of secret places which the Lord by his Prophet had promised to Cyrus more easie then if his entrance at that time had beene suspected or feared for so the besieged might have had leisure to have hid their treasure where the enemy should hardly have found it 16 But what speciall comfort is this to Sion that Cyrus had done to Babylon as Babylon had done to her This might satiate or somewhat allay the boyling heat of a revengefull minde But is the miserie of an enemy of like use unto Gods people as was the Brazen serpent Can the sight of it cure their griefe or beget true happinesse in such as looke on it It is very probable that Babylons spoiles did helpe to reedifie Ierusalem And albeit the God of Sion had other meanes in store more by many then man can number or conceive for reducing his people into their owne Land we may notwithstanding without censure of curiositie safely conjecture that the disgraces which Nebuchadnezzar his successors has done unto the royall seed of Iudah were the first seedes of their speciall favour and grace with Cyrus Of the plagues threatned by Esaiah unto Ezekiah for shewing his treasures unto the Babylonians it was one part that of his sonnes some should bee Eunuches in the Palace of the King of Babylon Is 39. 7. Now it is unlikely that Cyrus would eyther make the Persians Eunuches or trust the Caldeans about his bodie Daniel and other his fellowes of the royall seed of Iudah being made such unto his hand were men as fit for his purpose as hee could seeke And it was his purpose upon consultation as Xenophon tels us to have Eunuches next about him as men most likely to be trusty Daniel or others of good note amongst this people being admitted to favour for to be of Cyrus bedchamber would not bee defective in procuring their countries good And easie it was for him that causeth darkenesse to bring forth light that turneth the shadow of death into the morning to raise vp a blessing unto his people out of their expiring curse But whether by this meanes or others certaine it is that such of Iudah as escaped Nebuchadnezzars sword were detained captives to him and his sonnes untill the erection of the Persian monarchy 2 Chron. cap. 36. vers 20. Now in the first yeare of Cyrus King of Persia that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Ieremiah might bee accomplished the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdome and put it also in writing saying Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia All the kingdomes of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given mee and he hath charged mee to build him an house in Ierusalem which is in Iudah who is there among you of all his people the Lord his God be with him and