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
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
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
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