Mahometan phrenzies TO affirm dogmatically that decollation suspension felo de se or any other miserable death that happen to men yea and all the cursed means thereto as fraud rapine treason sacriledge murther c. are all absolutely appointed by Gods immutable counsel and purpose these conceptions I say of the Almighty derogate much from his goodness mercy and truth and are not only diametrically opposite to his very nature who is Love in the abstract 1 Epist St Joh. 4. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cannot be the Author of sin but to all the sacred Monuments Records which evince That the Period of every mans Life is mutable and may be extended or shortned by Providence or Art by God or Man For THE great God may as all must yield that will not deny his Attribute of Omnipotency or make him a necessary Agent prolong or shorten the days of any man and our Prayers Repentance the salubrity and purity of the Air and Water our temperance and choice in eating and drinking and the knowing and prudent Physitian may by Gods blessing extend our days Whereas prophaneness our immoderate passions and desires the corrupted and impure Elements our excess in any respect exposing our selves to any great and eminent perils as the Sword or Pestilence or an ignorant and confident Quack with his strong and improper Medicaments may shorten our days And he that denies this as W. C. out of abundance of humility or rather ignorance doth may as well contradict and deny not only his own reason reason did I say that is a most scandalous and impious thing for a meek and mortified man that is full of Raptures and Illuminations to own but also his own experience and the sacred History it self First 'T IS evident from the Scriptures That there is no fatal Period but that our lives may be extended or shortned OUR gracious Maker has promised long life to those that fear him and observe his Mandates Deus his qui ipsum timent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fore promittit Exod. 20. 12. Deut. 4. 40. 5. 16 33. 8. 1. Psal 9. 16. Prov. 4. 10. Eph. 6. 2 3. 1 Tim. 4. 8. AND God threatens the wicked that for their impieties he will cut them off in the midst of their Age that they shall not live so long as otherwise they might Lev. 26. 25. Deut. 5. 25 26. 6. 15. 7. 10. 8. 19. Psal 55. 23. 104. 35. 109. 8. Prov. 10. 27. FROM the Examples of Er and Onan Gen. 38 7 10. of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. 32 33. of the Jews Exo. 31. 14 15 of the Egyptians Exod. 14. 28. of Absolon 2 Sam. 18. 9 of Ananias and Saphira Acts 5. 5 10. But were there a fatal Period all these Promises and Menaces must needs be vain false and ridiculous which to affirm or imagine would be no small blasphemy And the sad Catastrophes of the forementioned of Er and Onan of Ananias and Saphira c. were the results of his eternal and absolute Decrees and not of his wrath and just Judgments And that tho Corah and his Confederates did not die the common death of men but the earth open'd her mouth and swallowed them up yet in W. C's Opinion pag. 9. they liv'd out all the days of their special and personal limit or all the days appointed as their portion in the land of the living This methinks looks Legerdemain than honest and sound Theology THERE are two places of holy Writ amongst several others some whereof anon I shall have occasion to nominate which may cause W. C. to strike sail and yeeld to right and truth if the simple Encomiums of the Vulgar and of the factious Party have not metamorphoz'd and puft him up into a carnal state which he tells us is very dangerous and in this we believe him of arrogancy and self-adoration THE first is Jer. 21. 8 9. Thus saith the Lord Behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death He that abideth in this City shall die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence but he that goeth out and falleth to the Caldeans that besiege you he shall live and his life shall be to him for a prey Which clearly demonstrates that the time manner and place of their death were not limited and determined by any absolute and unchangeable purpose or Decree of God for 't was in their own choice and power either to extend or shorten their days If they would remain in the City they should die if forsake it they should live THE second is the fifth Commandment Exod. 20. 12. which only hath a Promise annext to it Honour thy father and mother that is thy civil Parents the King Magistrates thy Ecclesiastical Parents Bishops Pastors as well as thy natural Parents that brought thee into the world that thy days may be long in the land That here intimates not the final cause but the event 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Grammarians speak for this is not the end of our obedience but an event and a consequent to follow upon it and the Promise is used as a motive to give honor to whom honor is due To clear the truth of this we must observe first That all the Promises of God for temporal things as for life health wealth are conditional not absolute Psal 34. 12 13 14. 1 Pet. 3. 10 11. Mat. 6. 33. and shall so far be performed as may make for our good and therefore in Deut. 5. 16. the Promise is thus limited and declar'd Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee So that the meaning is saith the most Reverend and Learned Bp. of Glocester in his Exp. that so long as it may go well with any man his life shall be prolonged as no farther but if his life prove to him a displeasure and no benefit it shall be taken away and an eternal which is far better bestowed on him Thus it happen'd to Josiah 2 Kings 22. 20. Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring on this place Or secondly That it may go well with thee may carry this sense which St. Paul intimates 1 Tim. 1. 2. Honor and pray for Kings that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life for where this holy Order is broken and abrogated all peace and quietness as our civil Dissentions prov'd is disturb'd and nothing but blood wounds and confusion follow Or thirdly This might shew Gods Ordinance For the Almighty commonly gives a healthy and long life to crown our obedience even before the Sons of men Psal 37. 22. Jer. 17. 11. In this particular the disobedient Son was to be cut off by the hand of the Magistrate and was to be stoned Deut. 21. 18. And Solomon tells us Prov. 30. 17. The eye that mocketh
of a bold Gladiator with a Sword in his hand ready for Combat or from a Magisterial Adventurer than from a Lover of Humility as our great lover of popular applause is characteriz'd and in all humility publickly proclaim'd by his friend and neighbour his profound Champion who doubtless hath an equal inspection both into the Law and the Gospel W. C. pag. 7. Death as to all the particular circumstances of it is foreappointed and determined by Gods Eternal purpose 1. As to the time when a man shall dye It must be such a time such a day and such a moment Thus for the time when 2 The next circumstance pag. 10 11. I shall speak of is the place Where we must or if you will rather where we shall dye must or shall a great choice and kindness truly this is also appointed by God whether at home or abroad whether in the field or in the house whether in the lower or upper rooms whether at table the round or long or by the fire side or in the midst of the fire whether in the bed the flock feather or doun-bed or in a Chair the blew or the red 3. As to the manner of dying or kind of death mille modi Lethi as the Poet saith whether it shall be a sudden or a lingring death an Apoplexy or Consumption whether it shall be a natural or a violent death by old age or by poyson whether in Peace or in War Foraign or Domestick whether by sickness and by what sickness whether great or small by the biting of a Flea or a Viper by a stab with a Stelletto or a straw by the shot of a Blunderbus or a Pop-gun for supposing the very time manner and place of every mans death are fatally determined there is no more danger in the one than in the other or by the hand of Justice whether by burning at the stake hanging on the Gallow or losing ones head on the Scaffold Isa 22. 18. Jer. 11. 12. Jer. 34. 5. Joh. 12. 31. 32. Joh. 21. 19. Mat. 23. 34. 1 Pet. 4. 19. And so from the first Chapter of Genesis to the last of the Revelations All these circumstances I say but shall never be able to prove are appointed determined and limited by Gods unchangeable purpose These comfortable Doctrines are calculated for New-gate THE first six Quotations out of the Prophets and Apostles are Predictions only of some certain mens death as of Shebna King Zedekiah the men of Judah and Inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the blessed Jesus whose death upon all accounts is to be respected as a Case extraordinary and therefore they argue nothing for a fatal Period as I intimated before And the last viz. 1 Pet. 4. 19. is as impertinent and ridiculous as if I should cite the first Chap. of St. John or any other to prove that there be as many Worlds as some with their Telescopes would perswade us as there are Stars in the Firmament The words run thus Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator No man in his Wits would ever think that this place could in the least prove or seem to favour a fatal Period or to use his own words That God in his unchangeable purpose hath appointed and determin'd the time the manner tho it be hanging on the Gallows for Murther for Patricide or losing ones head on the Scaffold for Treason and place Tyburn Tower-hill of mens death unless it be because there is one word in it viz. Suffer This was ever a fanatical Trick to amuse and delude the Vulgar for let them hear a Legion of Allegations from the Pulpit tho not one of them to the purpose as here they instantly admire and adore the man as an Angel or Messenger from Heaven style him a Gifted Scripture-learned and powerful Preacher that he hath all the Bible at his Fingers end and had a Text for every word he thunder'd out of his wide Throat Whereas others are for Reason ancient Records Councils Fathers and the like humane Learning Thus having the credulous Multitude fast by the Nose 't is no difficult Province to instil into them the most erroneous schismatical and factious Tenents as the most perspicuous Truths well knowing that they want either Wit or Time to try and examine them Read the seven preceding Verses and you will find that the Apostle there only predicts what great pressures and afflictions the primitive Converts would be loaded with for the sake of their new and therefore as their Enemies both Jews and Gentiles thought false Religion That so by knowing this before-hand Persecution might not unexpectedly surprise them and cause them either to fluctuate or apostatize Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery tryal terrible fire of Persecution which is to try you But rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you on their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified But let none of you pray observe it for this Caution is directly against a fatal Period and intimates that the kind or manner of their death was not absolutely appointed for they might suffer death for their wickedness as well as for their Religion or else the Precept or Advice call it which you will must needs be very ridiculous suffer as a murtherer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busie-body in other mens matters But if any suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God for the tryal of the righteous and if it first begin at us the true Proselytes of Christ what shall be the end of them the Crucifiers of the holy Jesus and the obdurate Persecuters of Christianity that obey not the Gospel of God but utter excision And if the righteous scarcely be saved have afflictions in this life where shall the ungodly and sinner appear how dreadful then is the expectation of the prophane Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God that suffer in the cause of their Saviour commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator bear their pressures patiently and commit their lives to God who will if he sees good preserve them or else make their sufferings a way and passage to Eternity This is enough to demonstrate tho we shall have other occasions hereafter to his knowing Editor with the rest of his Sticklers or to any other that hath but common reason how grosly Gods Word is abused and wrested from its genuine and proper sense to prop and Patronize his Heterodoxies and
at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it By this we see that Gods Law was that the undutiful Son should not be long-liv'd should not live so long as the dutiful and obedient Yea sometimes God executes this vengeance with his own hands as upon Corah and his rebellious Associates The Story of the Kings of all ancient and modern Records will assure us That the Disobedient Thieves Murtherers Rebels Traytors were not long-liv'd but perished often by the sword and immature death BUT our Lover of Humility at the end of his Paraphrase on this Commandment flatly deny'd all this from the Pulpit and I must tell you in a Parenthesis that I first animadverted on what W. C. preacht tho 't is wisely omitted by the Press and affirm'd with no small confidence as G. S. W. G. and several others besides my self will be depos'd viz. That we do see by Experience That the rebellious and undutiful to Parents do live so long as those that are dutiful and obedient A pure Catechist For this I presume is no infinitely Soul-concerning point if I may speak in his own Dialect or precious Doctrine to inspirit either men or children to duty and obedience but a grand Incentive for Villains to continue in their infernal plots and designes or when being detected a Salvo for them and is if we may believe our own Experience and the Word of truth it self a notorious falsity and delusion and clearly evacuates Gods promises For Myriads we know of Rebels and Murtherers in the most flourishing part of their lives have been cut off by the sword of Justice But Mat. 5. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Ham. very often hath a peculiar Critical signification in the Gospels and refers to the Land of Judaea and here by being promised to the meek and obedient looks distinctly on the fifth Commandment in it on the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee i. e. a fruitful prosperous being here on earth viz. long life and tranquillity which is here said to belong by promise of God peculiarly to the meek But when the exercises of this virtue of meekness and obedience in some singular conjunctures of time brings losses or death upon them they shall richly be rewarded in another world and be made amends abundantly there for all that the practice of this virtue hath brought on them BUT it may be said and that truly too for ought I know that W. C. had not this viz. That we do see by Experience c. in his Notes But this will not excuse him for should I extol and preach up the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as in Duty and Conscience I ought and my Notes should be very sound and orthodox yet if I should tell my Auditors ex tempore or without my Notes That the Doctrines of Transubstantiation of Purgatory Invocation of Saints c. are agreeable to Gods word I know I ought and should be questioned for it and my Notes would not keep me in my Parsonage without an open Recantation seeing there are honest Witnesses enough to prove it BUT to do W. C. all the right imaginable I shall transcribe verbatim his new-model'd Answers to two Texts of Scripture which he thought might contradict as indeed they doe his former Assertions FIRST Solomon saith Eccles 7. 17. Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldest thou die before thy time ANSW pag. 8. He that dies before his time dyes not before the time which God hath determined an unseasonable death to man doth not prevent Gods season To clear which we must distinguish about death which is Twofold First Natural Secondly Violent A man that dies a violent death is said to dye before his time which he might have reached unto by the course of nature Sin cuts him off before God cuts him off But then God cuts him off for sin Thus many dye before their time and except in this sense no man dies before his time TRULY Sir in this sense without aping you straining for Rimes and Quibles 't is perfect nonsense for how can a man that dies a Violent death be properly said in any sense to dye before his time when according to your own words pag. 11. God in his unchangeable purpose hath appointed and determined the very moment manner and place of every mans death whether Natural or Violent whether by burning at the Stake or hanging on the Gallows And besides we cannot truly affirm of many sincere pious and virtuous men that were remov'd hence by a Violent death Jeremy was stoned Ezekiel beheaded Isaiah cut asunder Eleazar at the age of fourscore years cudgel'd to death none of the easiest doubtless most of the Prophets and Apostles persecuted and slain St. Peter endur'd crucifixion with his head downward according to his own request and St. Paul decollation in one day at Rome as Eusebius tells us some burnt others devoured by wild Beasts or the like deaths as St. Polycarpus Ignatius St. Laurence Cyprian and Myriads which suffer'd under Nero Trajan Antonius Severus Maximinus and Dioclesian who everted Churches and made the sacred Bibles become fuel to devouring flames We dare not I say judge That Sin did cut those glorious Saints off because they suffer'd Violent deaths before God did cut them off and that then God did cut them off for sin for this were a signe of Gods justice wrath and fury But rather that God did cut them off before Sin did cut them off either for the advancement of his honor and glory the good of the Church for sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae or to free them from future miseries and calamities which otherwise might befal them So Isaiah 57. 1. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come All which are infallible Tokens of Gods infinite mercy and immense love SECONDLY David saith Psal 55. 2. That bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days ANSW pag. 9. For answer to this you must know Beloved that there is a general and special or personal limit of man's Life 1. The general Limit is Seventy or Eighty years Psal 90. The few exceptions which some have made by exceeding this limit weakens not this general Rule 2. There is a particular limit upon every person the limit of one may be Forty years when another is tied to Thirty a third to Twenty a fourth to Five and a fifth perhaps may be tied to Four years these are special Limits upon special men Now when the Psalmist saith That a bloody and deceitful man shall not live out half his days the meaning the subverting of it is that he shall not live out half the days of mans general limit As suppose a bloody man be cut off at Thirty he hath not lived out half Seventy or Eighty
Inchantments it follows Pharaoh's heart was hardned not he as if it were God hardned Pharaoh's heart but Pharaoh's heart waxed hard was strong or by an ordinary acception of Kal for Hithpahel Pharaoh's heart hardned it self And so it follows v. 14. the Lord said unto Moses Pharaoh's heart is waxen hard he refuseth to let the People go But after the judgment that of Boyls and Blains Exod. 9. 10. then 't is said in a new Stile the Lord hardned Pharaoh's heart v. 12. Which was the very time at first referr'd to by the prediction of God to Moses IN like manner it happen'd to the perverse Jews who having resisted Christ after all the rest of the Prophets kill'd the Son after the Servants and rejected the Apostles Preaching after Christs Resurrection God then but not before gave them up to obduration to become Vessels of Wrath fitted for Destruction And after this the great Jehovah that is a most free and gracious Agent and is not bound to this People or that to primogeniture or the like as appears by the tipical Stories of Ismael and Isaac of Jacob and Esau Rom. 9. out of his gratuitous Mercy by the Preaching of the Gospel call'd and invited the Gentiles to Christianity to save them upon Christian without legal performances upon internal and Evangelical without external and Mosaical obedience Peruse the most elaborate and Orthodox Writings of the most Learned Reverend and Pious Dr. H. Hammond concerning these and the like difficulties and thou mayst receive the clearest satisfaction BUT it could never enter into my Breast to imagine that God from Eternity did absolutely decree the Fall and the inevitable Perdition of the major part of mankind or as W. C. words it pag. 13. that God drew out Death's Commission before the Fall but did not set his Hand and Seal to confirm it till after the Fall and that in the counsel and purpose of God Death was appointed unto men from Eternity Which Calvin himself terms a dreadful and horrible Decree Unde factum est ut tot gentes unà cum liberis eorum infantibus aeternae morti involverat lapsus Adae absque remedio nisi quia Deo ita visum est Decretum quidem horribile fateor Cal. Inst l. 3. c. 23 s 7. 'T is strange I say that some men should be of such sour and morose I had almost said Diabolical natures as peremptorily to maintain That God Created Souls purposely to damn them or to use the Doctrine and the very words of J. M That God takes as great glory and delight in damning of men as he doth in saving of them Monstrous Divinity and such as is not to be found amongst the sottish Turks or the rude Indians and Americans and therefore I should much wonder did I not know what Charitable and good-natur'd and how free from Pride and Selfishness our Olivarian Speakers were that Saints as most shamefully they stiled one another that liv'd in the Sun-shine of the Gospel should yet contradict the most perspicuous Truths in it For THE Sacred Bible from Genesis to the Revelations asserts That the Divine Goodness Clemency Mercy and Love are exhibited to all Mankind really upon Condition of Faith Repentance and amendment of Life John 3 16 17. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life For God sent not his Son to condemn the World but that the World all mankind through him might be saved Herein Dr. Hammond hath Gods unspeakable Love been exprest to mankind that he hath sent his Eternal Son to assume our nature and to teach and give Examples of Holy Life and at last to dye for them and rise again and ascend the Heaven all on this one Design that every Person in the World that shall receive and obey him shall be rescued from Eternal Death and then made partaker of Eternal Life For this my mission from God my Father was design'd all in Mercy and Charity not to punish or condemn any man but on purpose that all men might be rescued from Punishment MAT. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Mar. 1. 15. Repent ye and believe the Gospel Mat. 18. 11. The Son of man is come to save that which was lost Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us 1 Ep. St. Joh. 2. 1 2. Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the whole World Non solum Bro. pro peccatis Electorum sed singulorum hominum Nam vox Mundi nuspiam usurpatur in literis sacris pro sclis electis By the word World is never meant in the Sacred Writ only the Elect but either signifies the whole Compages consisting of the Heaven and Earth or the whole race of mankind both pious and wicked or else the whole number of the wicked And therefore 't is very evident That Christ came not only to save the Elect that is those that have believed in him and have thereby obtained Mercy but also the Prophane that have rejected his Counsels and would not submit to his easy Yoke and Golden Scepter 1 TIM 1. 15. This is a Faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation a Truth of an huge price and fit to be the only Tradition or true Cabala among us Christians instead of all the Jewish Secrets and Misteries that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners to rescue men out of their evil courses and upon reformation to obtain Pardon and Salvation for the greatest Sinners none excepted Psal 145. 8 9. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great Mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his Works 'T is the Title by which God was pleas'd to make known and proclaim himself to his People Exod. 34. 6. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious c. God is very forward and willing to pardon repentant Sinners and not denying them that Grace or proceeding in Judgment against them till he be provoked to it by great ingratitude and obdurations and this Mercy of his is not inclosed to a few special Favourites of his but inlarged and vouchsafed to all and every man in the World upon the Title of his Fatherly Mercy to his Creatures till by their impenitence persisted in against his means of Grace they render themselves incapable of it H. H. Paraph. GOD does seriously invite us to discard our Sins and tells us That all our calamities issue from our own putrid Fountains and not from the Divine will or any Eternal and Inconditional Decree For God cannot do or will Evil viz. malum culpae the Evil of Sin tho he may malum paenae the evil of Punishment Amos 3. 6. Shall there be evil in the City and
and impetuous rage of Lyons and Tygers And if you should ask him the reason of this his inhumanity he could answer nothing but Sic volo sic jubeo I have no more reason to object and delate against my eight Children that I have rejected than against the two that I have cherish't and embrac'd I might if I would have preserv'd all from perdition but 't was my will and pleasure only and nothing else that the far greater number maugre their sad cries and expostulations should fall and perish to eternity This doubtless is no Criterion or sure sign of a Paternal affection but an evident Demonstration of one of the most prodigious Monsters in nature I need not apply it In short THESE crude and fatal Assertions before mentioned concerning the Divine decrees and appointments cannot be palliated sweeten'd or well digested by their pleading that God is under no Law which saith a judicious Author is a very Lawless and unreasonable pretext for the everlasting rectitude of his spotless nature is more than any external Law and pray what can Truth and Justice do but what is holy and just Or by their subtile distinguishing inter jus Dei absolutum ordinatum inter reprobationem damnationem inter reprobationem privativam positivam inter praeteritionem damnationem For he that avers Gods absolute will and pleasure to be the Sole Cause of preterition and reprobation may with the same confidence affirm it to be the prime if not sole cause of damnation Tantum discriminis est inter praeteritionem damnationem quantum differentiae intercedit inter haec duo inferre mortem nolle vitam alicui continuare absque quâ vitae continuatione mors necessario sequitur Whereas the Scriptures the only Rule of our Faith unless we will admit of Enthusiasm assure us That 't is mens crying Sins their contumacy impenitency and incredulity non absolutum Dei in homines creaturas jus non Dei beneplacitum seu absoluta ejus voluntas that are the real Causes both of preterition reprobation and damnation Joh. 3. 18 19. Joh. 6. 40. Mark 16. 16. THE Consequences and results of these Calvinistical Dreams and fatal Doctrines are very sad dismal and numerous some whereof I shall nominate and then conclude 1. THEY confine and limit Gods power and make him a necessary Agent for he cannot punish or destroy the most blasphemous and bloodiest men before their appointed time nor shorten or extend the days of the virtuous 2. THEY derogate from Gods goodness mercy and justice for what greater tyrany and injustice than to judge men to endless flames without any intuition of faith or incredulity of obedience or disobedience For surely 't is not justice as some Hypochondriacks fancy but the highest cruelty to make men miserable that thereby he might take an occasion of shewing justice 3. THEY contradict Gods Veracity for what more false and perfidious than to say and swear That he willeth not the Death but the safety and conversion of those whom notwithstanding by an immutable and irresistable Decree he hath designed to eternal Death and Misery 4. THEY make God with Marcion Simon Magus the Manechees the prime and principal Author of all the Crimes and horrid Villanies acted under the Sun Cum enim Causa superior omnipotens ita moveat determinet causam inferiorem impotentiorem ut ea sic mota ac determinata non possit non peccare stupidus sit oportet qui non animadvertat constitui hac ratione Deum peccati causam quidem propriam principalem 5. THEY render Christs Nativity his Holy Life his bitter Death his glorious Resurrection and Ascention and his continual Intercession for us at the Throne of Grace yea all Preaching and Praying the Sacraments and all just and virtuous Actions to be vain useless and ineffectual For to what purpose all this if 't is absolutely decreed from Eternity who shall be sav'd and who shall be damn'd sine fide praevisa sine praevisis operibus Praedestinationem vocamus aeternum Dei decretum quo apud se constitutum habuit quid de unoquoque homine fieri vellet Non enim pari conditione creantur omnes sed aliis vita aeterna aliis damnatio aeterna praeordinatur Calv. Inst lib. 3. cap. 31. s 5. 6. THEY lead men especially the Vulgar and those of the weaker Sex as we have often known either into Presumption or Despair some poor deluded Souls think the Gate of Mercy shut when 't is wide open and become melancholy and distracted and others tho rebels traytors hereticks and schismaticks grow proud and censorious and dream that it will fall open to them tho precious and witnessing People Gods Cupboard of Plate as in modesty they stile themselves without the least knock or striving AND Lastly They are inlets and broad roads to security and all licentiousness if I shall live I shall live if I shall be sav'd I shall be sav'd do what I will if I shall dye I shall dye if I shall be damn'd I shall be damn'd do what I can for the Decree and Sentence either of Life or Death is eternal is immutable past and irrevocable Therefore Ede bibe lude THESE prodigious Effects and sad consequences being clear and demonstrative 't is prudence to stop our ears and if I may use W. C's martial phrase to buckle our selves against all such fatal Opinions and wild Whimsies that are contrary to reason and the very nature of a Deity to the purport and Oeconomy both of the Law and the Gospel What is asserted in this small Tract is I presume consonant to both to Gods word and to that Light viz. Reason he has seated in us to judge and ballance things by Here is no Popery no Pelagianisme or Semi-Pelagianisme which some cry for want of arguments as a sufficient confutation For we firmly believe that 't is by Gods grace and providence that we live move and have our Being in this World and by which by the merits of the Holy Jesus we expect Salvation in the Other We stedfastly believe the Apostles Symbole that God is true and just in all his ways and righteous in all his dealings that his secret Will is not opposite in the least punctilio to his revealed and that he that believeth and is baptized that sincerely repents of his former sins and forsakes them shall be saved shall receive plenary pardon and upon perseverance to the end eternal bliss but he and he only that stands out obstinately and impenitently shall be damn'd Our extravagant thoughts and foolish confiding and depending on our absolute Election may be a snare and stratagem to deceive and ruine us but our serious and hearty Perswasions That the Divine Decrees and appointments are conditional so that we are hereby mov'd and allur'd to come to God with a filial love and fear and incited to duty and action to real piety and honesty to do as we would be done by which comprehends both what the Law and the Prophets hath taught us This belief I am sure can never delude us no Decree can baffle this For Godliness 1 Tim. 4. 8. hath the Promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come THIS may suffice to demonstrate to all considering men that are not biassed by interest prejudice or prepossessions That the present State of the Body and the future State of the Soul are not limited and determined by any fatal absolute inconditional immutable and peremptory Decree but that both Body and Soul by the Divine grace and providence may if we be not defective in our own Duty be infinitely blessed and happy FINIS A Catalogue of some Books lately Printed for Tho. Basset at the George in Fleet-street DR Littletons Dictionary English-Latine and Latine-English in 4to Bp. Wilkins of the Principles and Dutyes of Natural Religion 8vo Dr. Sparks Devotions on the Feasts and Fasts of the Church 8vo Mr. Wanley of Coventry his History of Man wherein by many thousands of Examples is shewed what Man hath been from the first Ages of the World to these times in respect of his Body Senses Passions Affections c. in Folio Mr. Allingtons Reformed Samaritan a Visitation Sermon Preached in Coventry to which is annexed a Discourse about the Necessity and Expediency of Set forms in 4to Mr. Meritons History of England in 120. The 12. and 13th parts of Sr. Edw. Cooks Reports in Folio Dr. Browns Religio Medici in 8vo Sr. Thomas Herberts Travels in Folio Pools English Parnassus or a Help to English Poesie in 8vo Sr. Roger Manleys Russian Impostor or History of Muscovy in 8vo Pharmacopoeia Londinensis newly altered and Enlarged throughout the whole work according to the present Practice by the Colledge of Physicians London In Folio and 24to Pharamond or the History of France a fam'd Romance in 12 parts in Folio Sr. John Vaughan late Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas his Reports and Arguments in Folio Mr. Mieges New Dictionary French and English and English-French in 4to The History of France Containing all the Memorable Actions in France and other Neighbouring Nations in Folio Daltons Justice of Peace newly enlarged Folio Hudibras the first and second part in 8vo Swinburns Treatise of Wills and Testaments in 4to Doctrina Placitandi or the Art of Pleading in 4to The History of Don Quixot Folio Judg Hales of the Primitive origination of Mankind Folio FINIS Advertisement Now in the Press THE ten Volumes of Year Books with Tables to the whole and references never before Printed And also Guillims Heraldry with many Additions
making the one a blind for the better execution of the other as if all the love and mercy he expresses all the passionate invitations he makes were only to mock and delude us And as several ills saith the most judicious and ever to be admir'd Author of the Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety are hereby countenanced and authoriz'd so is all Virtue in general discouraged and disheartned these benumb us in our Christian course substract that spirit and vigour which should carry us through the weary stages of duty indeed they cut the very sinews of Industry baffle and make ridiculous all purposes of Labour the Ministers Preaching and the Peoples Hearing and Doing for what should invite a man to strive for that from which he knows he is either irreversibly precluded or else so infallibly ascertain'd of that his negligence cannot defeat him GOD has given us Rules of Life which upon the severest Penalties he requires us to study and practise and we divert from these and make it our business to trace his Counsels We are gazing at the Stars to read our Destiny and look not to our feet and by that negligence experiment the worst fate they could have portended for I think we may say our wild Phancies about Gods Decrees have in event reprobated more than those Decrees upon which they are so willing to charge their ruine and have bid fair to the damning of many whom those left salvable We often forget our Calling by contemplating our Predestination and let the Opinion of our Fate be at once the Encouragement and Excuse of our sloth than which nothing can more evacuate the purpose and design of our Christianity which Divines have truly defin'd to be not a contemplative but active Science THE Almighty interrogates the house of Israel Why will ye die and tells them in the subsequent Verse I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth wherefore turn your selves and live ye Yet some bold Inquisitors into Gods Decrees and hidden Counsels dream That his secret Will is of a very distant nature to his revealed Et Deus ita terminum seu horam mortis homini praefinierit decreto absoluto ut hâc ipsâ horâ non aliâ hoc ipso mortis genere quo homo moritur non alio mori illum simpliciter absoluteque sit necessarium and that the Soul likewise is liable to the same fatality That Myriads do what they can are from Gods eternal and immutable purpose ordain'd for death and endless misery and a very few Favourites only in comparison of the rest do what they will are predestin'd to life and immortal Glory This wounds the Credit both of the Divines and the Physicians of their Proselytes and Patients and by the clearest consequence makes the former Cheats and the later Fools But whether true or no we come now to consider THE Question here Why will ye die and the Protestation I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth may clear Gods ways of being either cruel or unequal and evidently demonstrate the Almighty's Philanthropy and his high resentment of the ruine and Perdition either of Body or Soul And first concerning the present State of the Body The present state of the Body THE Protoplast had he continued in his integrity as he might for God gave him sufficient power to stand and did not withdraw the least degree of his Grace or infuse into him any secret impulse or motion whereby he might deviate from that sacred station in which he was plac'd he had been free from death but having once eaten the prohibited fruit 't was necessary by Gods Decree but not before that Death should arrest him for it for the immutable Creator had said That in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2. 17. So that we may not before the Fall altho it be true since term death with Socinus to be naturae sequela per se For as by Adam Sin enter'd into the world so death by sin Rom. 5. 12. And as it follows so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned that is All meer men that were after born were sinners born after the image and likeness of Adam that was now a sinner and had begotten no Child in his innocence Sinful men then we are all and die once we must by reason of our Fore-father's Apostasie 'T is true we read that Lazarus and others being raised from the dead without controversie died twice but the Author St. Paul doubtless of the Hebâ— Chap. 9. 27. speaks of the natural Law whereby it is appointed unto all ordinarily once to die so that 't is not opposite to this truth because others have died twice which by an extraordinary manner happen'd only to a few And as for those that shall be found alive at the second and sudden coming of Christ they shall be changed in a moment and in the twinckling of an eye which mutation or change shall be to them instead of death 'T is then most apparent that 't is ordinarily appointed unto men once to die and then certainly to come to judgment to be punished or rewarded according to their actions Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. OUR brittle and terrestrial Bodies we all grant must be dissolved for our Bounds are set and our lives limited within such a number of years beyond which by the ordinary course of nature we cannot pass but our Days are not so strictly and fatally limited and determin'd as if neither God nor man could extend or shorten them The fifteen years added to Hezekiah's days assure us of Gods power to prolong the life of man and Reason Experience and all History both sacred and prophane proclaim his power to shorten it And thousands of Examples too sadly evince how expert and indefatigable many are in putting a Period to their own and other mens days in the midst and prime of their strength and splendor A man may destroy himâ—eâ—â— his Friend Neighbour or Enemy before he hath seen thirty years that otherwise might have seen threescore And therefore a fatal Period in the judgment of all considering men is no less than a Stoical Astrological and Mahometan Dream or at best but a popular Error as our immortal Dr. Hammond terms it in his Postscript of new Light AND we likewise confess That God does know and may foretel the very time manner and place of any mans death but 't is a simple Logician and a giddy and hot-braind Christian that from Gods Predictions and Revelations of the period of some mens lives as of Aaron Pashur Hophni and Phineas and of the holy Jesus will hence infer as W. C. most irrationally doth that therefore the very moment the very kind tho it be self-murther and place of every mans death are fatally and absolutely decreed and appointed I shall transcribe our famous Preacher's very expressions and words which indeed would have sounded better from the mouth
years which are the common terms of Life prescribed unto Mankind beyond which they cannot pass but this man lives out all the days of his special and personal limit or all his days which are appointed as his portion in the Land of the living Thus the bloodiest man that is let him dye when he will dyes in the particular season appointed unto him A prolix frivolous and childish Answer tho perhaps he may think it very Scholastick the substance whereof in short is this David Beloved dreams That bloody men shall not live out half their days but I your Oracle assure you That the bloodiest man that is lives out all the days of his special and personal limit or all his days which are appointed as his portion in the Land of the living If this is sound and Authentique profound Sir What difference then in respect of a long Life or a short is there between the blood-thirsty and merciful the fraudulent and just For a precious Saint can but live out all the days of his special and personal limit or all the days which are appointed as his portion in the Land of the Living and so in your judgment doth every notorious and precious Rogue But suppose a Felon or Murtherer is executed at three or fourscore years as hath often happen'd then according to your own account his days cannot be said to be shortned in any respect for he hath liv'd out all the days both of his general and special limit If our popular Holderforth is not past shame and all goodness he may do well if the Parcae will permit to recal his Pamphlets which with a great deal of ostentation he has scatter'd amongst the Vulgar and resign them to Vulcan or my Lords-house for necessary uses for he that hath but half an eye may without an Optick-glass see how notoriously the sacred Writ is contradicted tortur'd and scandaliz'd by his petty Distinctions THE Almighty we concede may permit but not absolutely and peremptorily determine and appoint the fall either of this man or that yea he may permit for ends best known to himself the meek obedient and virtuous to suffer by or with the prophane As we have known Royal Innocency to be arraign'd as the vilest Criminal and he that was inferior to God only to be murther'd like the holy Jesus by the fury and out-cry of the unstable Multitude the very Scum and Rabble Yet this Heroick and ever blessed Martyr never repin'd and exclaim'd against Gods methods and dealings as unjust or unequal but gave us the reason of all our sad disasters and heavy pressures Our Sins saith he in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being ripe there was no preventing of Gods justice from reaping that glory in our calamities which we rob'd him of in our prosperity For punishments are but the results of sins and therefore whatsoever Malignity lies in the effect becomes entirely chargeable upon the Cause and we are to look upon our Vice not only as our greatest but our only unhappiness Our numerous and gygantick Provocations did call for judgments and that the expiring of the Breath of our Nostrils was a great one the whole Nation soon felt lay gasping ready to bid adieu to all sublunary comforts For God in his justice to Us shorten'd his days and suffer'd for a time Tyrants on his Throne to become Sirens and Crocodiles to fascinate and trapan and Lictors to scurge us but in his mercy to Him remov'd him hence from the evil and miseries approaching and crown'd him first with Martyrdom and then with glory Una eademque manus vulnus opemque The rod of our Maker when it falls upon the virtuous being like that of an indulgent Parent upon his only Child the strongest argument of love and affection He intends the greatest pity when to the Spectators that are ignorant of his designes he seems most cruel and inexorable and when he seems to patronize and favour the Stratagems of the vicious 't is only that Their fall and His glory might be the greater and that they might in the height of their arrogancie and presumption like lofty Pharaoh and his army eternally sink and perish But many inconsiderate men we know are much startled and secretly murmur Qui cumres hominum tantac aligine volvi Aspicerent laetosque diu florere nocentes Vexarique pios So holy David had a zealous indignation against the successes of the wicked and repin'd to see them thrive in wealth and grandeur but when he had recourse to Gods Sanctuary and enter'd into a serious consideration of his counsels and providence he soon perceiv'd the Scene to be alter'd and that their Prosperity was no more but like that of a dream whilst it lasts 't is imaginary not real Fret not thy self then because of evil doers neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb But those that wait upon the Lord those shall inherit the earth Psal 37. 1 2 9. The general common end of the wicked is untimely excision signal punishments even in this Life mind the sad Exits of the Sodomites of Herod Judas Simon Magus Arius Julian the Apostate of the Conspirators and Murtherers of our late dread Soveraign Dorislaus and Ascham stab'd Hoyle hang'd himself Norton being disquieted in mind dyed raving mad Harrison Scot Carew Jones Scroop Axtel precious Hugh Peters hang'd and quarter'd But we shall not ascribe their deplorable and immature deaths as happening unto them from the eternal Decrees or from Gods unchangeable purpose but from their own demerits and Gods just judgments Whereas the Lot of the pious and obedient is length of days and prosperity in this World but if that fail as God in his infinite wisdom sometimes sees good tha◠it should an abundant compensation of bliss in the Life to come shall be most certain He that loseth his life for my sake saith our Saviour shall find it Mat. 10. 39. The loss of a short temporary Life shall be rewarded with an eternal THERE is one place upon which W. C. wholy depends that at the first aspect may seem to favour a fatal Period Job 14. 5. His days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which he cannot pass Upon which words two learned Criticks comments thus Significat hic apud Deum esse certissimam praescientiam dierum mensium quibus homo victurus sit ex qua tamen non sequitur necessitas rei nam res est contingens sed tantum necessitas consequentiae The days and years of mans life in respect of Gods prescience are determined and most certain but from hence it doth not follow that the thing it self mans time is necessarily determined for 't is contingent and vareable but only the necessity of the consequence because God whose eyes cannot be deceiv'd sees all things uno intuitu that our days and months will
be thus long or thus short SO the Metaph. tell us Quae Deus praescit non possunt non evenire sic habent necessitatem fiendi Idque propter infallibilitatem praescientiae divinae Res enim sic dicuntur necessariae non nisi per connexionem ad aliud hoc est praescientiam divinam Loquendo autem de rebus in se spectatis quae praesciuntur remota connexione ad praescientiam divinam non omnes res sunt necessariae quae necessit as est consequentis Sunt enim multa in mundo casualia fortuita libera quae omnia in se spectata non necessaria sed contingentia sunt Fiunt proculdubio cuncta ait Boet. quae futur a Deus praenoscit sed eorum quaedam proficiscuntur de libero quae quamvis eveniant tamen propriam naturam non amittunt sed priusquam fierent etiam non evenire potuissent AND says the other Causae naturales morales suos habent effectus in vita hominis conservanda Deus igitur illas in constituendo termino vitae ut omniscius respexit ita tamen ut eas uhi velit inhibere possit Natural and moral Causes as wholsom food air water continency temperance c. have their effects and operations in preserving mans Life and God in terminating and setting Boundaries to mans Life as he is Omniscient and foresees all things hath an eye and respect to these yet so that he can put a Stop to those natural and moral Causes can inhibit them as in his infinite wisdom he sees fit As for Example God sees that such a man living and doing thus and thus will according to the ordinary course of nature certainly live thus long suppose fifty sixty seventy years yet God may cause that this man that might live thus long shall dye much sooner as at twenty or thirty So God in his mercy may shorten the days of many righteous men take them away from the evil to come or in his justice cut off the wicked that according to the strength of nature and the set bounds thereof might have liv'd much longer Yea Job himself is against a fatal Period and therefore we cannot imagine if he intended it in the 14 Chap. he would have contradicted both himself and it in the 21 Chap. 19 20 21. ver God layeth up his iniquity for his children he rewardeth him and he shall know it His eyes shall see his destruction and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty For what pleasure hath he in his house after him when the number of his months are cut off in the midst W. C. being now forc'd from his strong Hold which he thought invincible 't will be his wisest way to address himself to the Alchoran where he may find more kindness and need not fear a second repulse NEITHER may mens lives be shorten'd only but also extended whereof we have a pregnant example in the 2 Kings 20. beg For God plainly signified to Hezekiah that he should dye of that very distemper he then labour'd under for he was come to the set Bounds beyond which he could not pass except Omnipotency be pleased to remove them farther So ver 1. Hezekiah was sick unto death and the Prophet Isaiah came and said to him Thus saith the Lord Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live Yet the immutable Creator that decrees mutability as the learned Dr. Jackson words it and whose promises and menaces are not absolute but conditional hearing his Prayers and seeing his tears remov'd the Boundary recover'd him with a lump of figs to demonstrate the use and necessity of means and added to his Life fifteen years And therefore W. C's Gloss is very prodigious and Enthusiastick pag. 8. The fifteen years added to Hezekiah 's Life were added to Hezekiah 's date not to Gods Hezekiah looked upon himself as a dead man that he should dye of that very sickness and good reason seeing God told him so and so in all likelihood did his best Physiciaâ—s for he was sick of the Plague but both he and they were deceiv'd for God in his unchangeable purpose had appointed fifteen years more to Hezekiah 's Life STRANGE indeed For we find in the Chapter no such learned Cheats and Pick-pockets as all Physitians are supposing a fatal Period nor the least shadow of such an interpretation for God himself said by the mouth of his Prophet I have heard thy Prayer and I will add unto thy days fifteen years and I will deliver thee and this City c. And as a sign that God himself would effect this and did not prevaricate a Miracle is wrought he brought the shadow the Sun ten degrees backward by which it had gon down in the dial of Ahaz But were the former Paraphrase true God himself made and the Prophet told a Lie and was deceiv'd as well as Hezekiah and his Physicians and the words should not run The Lord will or did really add to Hezekiah's days fifteen years but Hezekiah the Prophet the Physicians with all the Nobles and Courtiers not well understanding this infinitely Soul-concerning Point viz. a Fatal Period were so simple and credulous as to believe that God had miraculously extended Hezekiah's Life and who can think otherwise that reads and believes this sacred History Whereas God had absolutely decreed from eternity or in his unchangeable purpose appointed there is not the least difference in the Phrases that Hezekiah should live fifteen years longer which being not expir'd 't was impossible for the Plague or for God himself to put an end to his days A feeble and impotent God that can neither extend nor shorten the Lives of his Creatures 'T is wonderful to see that one petty Distinction in Mans date but not in Gods should be of such mighty force as to enervate so many plain Texts of Scripture as have been and may be produc'd for the prolonging and shortning of mans Life and to make them speak quite contrary even to become like a Nose of Wax to turn either to this side or that to prove truth to be falshood and falshood truth Should I be troubled with such an airy and Atheistical Whimsie as to affirm with some of the ancient Peripateticks and Ethnicks That the World is eternal tho Aristotle himself doubted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And against it is objected Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth Ergo Mundus non fuit ab aeterno I shall most humbly crave W. C's leave borrow his almighty distinction and answer very magisterially as he did to the Lords adding to Hezekiah's days fifteen years 'T is true in mans date viz. in the date and account of Moses Aaron and their Bigots the World had a beginning but in Gods date 't was eternal for God in his unchangeable purpose had appointed it from Eternity Such stuff as this will pass for superfine Doctrine for powerful Preaching and sublime Raptures with
those that have their Instructers of the Geneva stamp in as great admiration because of advantage Jude 16. as the simple Papists have their Monks and Confessors or even as his Holiness the Pope himself THE learned and judicious Beverovicius before he could think that his Profession could find any considerable entertainment among men thought it fit to be stated by the knowing men of his Age viz. Whether there were a fatal end of every man's life beyond which it were not in the power and compass of art sobriety or good managery to extend it and as little in the power of any Disease or Intemperance or even the Famine Plague or Sword to shorten it Should the same Question be again started no considering men I presume would hold the affirmative For we daily see the sad effects and results of intemperance and inordinate living we have often seen felt or heard of the impartial and mighty power of the Sword and Pestilence how Myriads have been cut off that according to the strength and ordinary course of nature and Gods common Providence might have liv'd much longer And therefore we are not so stupid and zealously Lunatick as not to fear the frequent Afterclaps Feavers Dropsies Surfeits of high and constant debaucheries or the Fury of insulting Enemies and infectious Diseases Our most mortifyed and stoutest Combatants for fatal and necessary events will suffer their actions to contradict their Faith tho Protestatio contra factum non valet and be thought timorous and ignorant Creatures even quake and fly to save their Lives from any imminent danger which supposing their firm belief and confidence of a fatal Period is a piece of notorious Folly For if neither intemperance the Sword or Plague can shorten our days one minute I would fain know in respect of our Health and Safety why we should dread them or avert from either why Bacchus and Venus daily carouzing and obscene Embraces are respected yea are known and profest Foes to Longaevity why we may not rest as securely in a Pest-house as on a bed of Roses as safe before a Cannons mouth as in our Closets And so our Saviours Advice who minds the welfare of our Bodies as well as of our Souls must needs be vain and ridiculous Mat. 10. 23. When they persecute you in this City flee into another For no Asylum or City of Refuge granting a fatal Period can save us or extend our days the least point of time And so this precept or prudent Counsel of Christ to his Disciples viz. To flee from Persecution is as thwarting to W. C.'s Doctrine as he tells us pag. 18. that of Martha's to him was If thou hadst been here my Brother had not dyed Sir 't is my hearty request that you would not be passionate and question the Holy Jesus as you seem to do poor silly St. Martha for her confiding in our Saviours power and love to her Brother That if he had been there Lazarus had not dyed saying Is not this advice a thwarting of my Doctrine Can fleeing from Persecution free us from Death or extend our days one minute seeing all the particular circumstance relating to it viz. the time manner and place are unchangeably appointed by Gods insuperable Power This Counsel 't is confest of the Theanthropos is a thwarting to your fatal and dogmatical Assertions and so is Davids address to the Lord Psal 102. 24. O my God take me not away in the midst of my days Here is thwart upon thwart to try your Job-like Patience and pregnant Wit in forging some new Distinctions and riming Evasions seeing the Old ones are detected and already cashier'd BUT farther Were this Stoical Opinion fit indeed for sanguinary Designs to animate Turks and ambitious Rebels most clear and demonstrative the Physicians then may burn their Books Galen and Hypocrates and the Apothecaries and Surgeons may pull down their Shops and hang themselves if they are asham'd to beg for want of bread or else the Magistrates may do it for them as being the vilest cheats in Nature but howe-ever let me advise them that for pity sake that they would no longer vex and torment their simple Patients with Causticks and Scarifyings nor saw off Legs and Arms tho gangreen'd the very moment manner and place of their Death are fixt and unalterable no Art imaginable no fervent Prayers no gracious Providence can do them the least good If the Eternal Decree is that this Patient shall dye of this gangrene 't is frustraneous yea cruelty to cut off the mortifyed member but if the Decree is that he shall live longer and dye of some other Distemper let the Part be never so much putrifyed he shall certainly tho you apply not the least remedy live out all the days determined or as W. C. most profoundly words it all the days of his special and personal limit What a ridicuculous and silly thing 't is supposing a fatal Period for pregnant Females so highly to concern themselves for fear of abortion to be so sollicitous and inquisitive after a knowing Mid-wife when old gooddy Tittle-tattle can perform the Office as well and when being deliver'd to undergo such cruel thirsts and to take such care and pains about the New born Infant If the Decree is that both the Mother and the Child shall live a good Midwife or a bad or none at all quarts and pottles of strong liquor or clear Possets Fish or Flesh they cannot dye but if the Decree is that one or both shall Dye all the charges and care imaginable will be ineffectual And therefore 't is no small madness to cast away our Mony and to be concern'd as some soft-natur'd Gossips are about this Nicety or that for Praedest ad finem praedest quoque ad media if God has ordained Life he has likewise unavoidably or in his unchangeable purpose ordain'd and appointed the means or else he will preserve it without them but if Death is in the Pot there is no avoiding of the Broth. This W. C. if he understands his own Principles which is much to be doubted and all the Irrespective Reprobatarians hold and endeavour to justifie which takes away the liberty of mans will and makes him inferior to Brutes that by natural instinct choose what may conduce to the preservation both of themselves and their species and avoid whatsoever is noxious and injurious to them whereas poor man is as senseless and incapacitated to do himself either good or hurt as a Stock or a Stone For if the Decree is Life it shall be life do what we will if Death do what we can Death How absurd and contrary to reason experience and to Gods frequent and serious Protestations and Invitations this is the meanest capacity may easily judge SHOULD a man in a sudden and violent Distemper a Surfeit Pleurisy Apoplexy c. despise and deride the known and usual Remedies as many of this Perswasion have done tho the most knowing of them will
not trust and depend upon this fatal Faith but in their Sickness are as willing to send for a judicious Physitian as any and tell his mourning Friends and Relations that he will not so much suspect God as to try the skill of man or be so imprudent as to fee a Fool or a Cheat for the time manner and place of his Death are unchangeably appointed by Gods insuperable Power And therefore why do you talk of the use of Means when the strongest Poyson cannot shorten my days nor the richest Cordials or God himself extend them one moment beyond my special and personal limit beyond the time appointed as my Portion in the land of the living And this I know to be true for the Seraphical Preacher that taught and confirmed me in this secret and hidden point for Gods revealed word is against it is as infallible in the Pulpit as the Pope is in Cathedra and when there can explicate all obscure doubts and hard Queries as easily as crack a nut with a hammer I shall for brevity sake dilate only upon one tho I have been credibly inform'd of many others viz. How many Millions that were at Church one Lords day yet were in Hell the next And that Hell is Spatium infinitum in loco finito infernally wise truly The next Sabbath day after he had inform'd us of the certainty of a fatal Period from the same infallible Chair in O. C. Church for the satisfaction of a zealous and scrupulous Brother he inform'd us likewise of what substance our immortal Souls were made viz. That the Souls of men are made of the very same Substance that the Angels are Had our Angelical Praedicator asserted That the Souls of men are made of the same Substance that the Man in the Moon is his credulous and all-ear'd Creatures might have believ'd him tho others might have thought him either Lunatick or troubled with a Vertigo or else a little crackt in the Pericranion And indeed the truth of the one is no more apparent than that of the other for the best Metaphysicians affirm That the Angels and Souls of men are of a divers species and so doubtless of a divers substance Nam essentia animae ex naturà suà est incompleta partialis implicat naturalem propensionem ad materiam At verò tale quid essentiae Angelicae non convenit quae est totalis completa Id ergo indicium manifestum est diversitatis specificae And therefore I shall not make this an Article of my Creed viz. That the Souls of men are made of the very same Substance that the Angels are before I am ascertain'd by this grand Philosopher who forgetting his Humility talks as if he had commenced Doctor with the Angels in Heaven viz. That there is not the least difference between Spiritual and immaterial Substances tho there is between gross and corporeal But to digress no farther Should there I say be such a mad Zealot for a fixt and inevitable Period that would try the truth of it by a plain hazard of his Life felo de se or the violation of the sixth Commandment Thou shalt not kill especially thy self by refusing lawful and necessary means ordain'd by God himself will be none of his smallest Crimes at the great and general Audit SHOULD we see one in an extasie in a furious rage or discontent drink Poyson Stab Hang or cast himself from a Precipice would we peremptorily conclude like W. C. that this was the very moment this the very kind and place of Death where this desperate and wretched Miscreant should be hurried off the Stage of this World by a fatal and absolute Decree The Lord forbid that we should harbor such cruel thoughts of him that made and form'd us that hath proclaim'd himself and we dare believe him to be merciful that he is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and willeth not the death of a Sinner but rather that he should turn and live And can we then be so prophane and sottish as to aver even in Print that this mad Creature and Legions besides that came to fearful and deplorable ends by Melancholy Despair the Temptations of Satan by Venery Debauchery c. were inevitably decreed by God or in his immutable purpose determined and appointed to become their own Executioners BUT W. C. to make his sordid matter as clear as the Sun in its Meridian ininforms us pag. 16. That there are Two he might say as truly ten hundred thousand sorts of Divine appointments What should be What shall be What should be He hath shewed thee O man what is right and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love Mercy and to walk Humbly with thy God God hath appointed that men should be sober temperate true honest just and square in their dealings God hath appointed that men should read hear pray repent believe be convicted and live holily These appointments of the Divine Majesty are daily disappointed and violated by wicked and ungodly men HERE and in several other places which would be too tedious to transcribe our Oracle contradicts himself for he would have all Gods Decrees and Appointments to be peremptory and absolute impossible to be disappointed So but three lines before the Misterious Distinction he tells us Human appointments come to nothing when God is against them but Divine appointments shall stand that is cannot be disappointed And tho he stiles What should be a Divine appointment as well as What shall be yet presently forgetting himself he rightly informs us tho directly contrary to his former Positions That those Divine appointments of What should be are daily disappointed and violated by wicked and ungodly men And by this most ridiculous Distinction he makes God to decree contradictions that altho God in his unchangeable purpose hath appointed that All men should be Holy do Justly and by consequence be saved yet the generality as the event proves should or shall utrum horum mavis be unholy yea necessarily damn'd Which directs me to speak something concerning the Future State of the Soul THE great Potentate of the Universe 't is true may permit The Future State of the Soul but not decree to permit as we were once told by W. C's learned Champion or in his immutable purpose absolutely determine and appoint either this Sin or that Evil for then the Punisher of Sin must needs be the Author of it and poor man must suffer for that which 't was impossible for him to avoid and the Almighty we know is not oblig'd by a Miracle always to hinder men from misery and perdition For he has made us rational Creatutes and gives us strength and grace if we will but use and improve it to follow that which is good and laudable and to eschew the contrary to live well and contented tho under the heaviest pressures in this World and after death by the merrits of the holy Jesus who hath triumph't over