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
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
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
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