any issue from pure love But God is love yea love is his Essence as Creator In that he is the Author of being hee is the Author of goodnesse to all things that are Being unto every thing in its owne proper being is good and goodnesse in an intelligent Donâ—r is alwayes the fruit of Love Hence saith the Wiseman of him that is wisest of all of him that can neither deceive nor be deceived He hateth nothing that he hath made For even their being and that goodnesse which accompanies it is an undoubted pledge of his love If to blesse God the maker and to curse men which are made after his similitude argue in the Apostles supposall a dissolution of that internall harmony which should be in the humane nature to hate some and love others of his best creatures all being made after his owne image would necessarily infer a greater distraction in the indivisible Essence besides the contradiction which it implyes to infinite goodnes To love the workes of his owne hands is more essentiall to him that made all things out of meere love than it is unto the fire to burn matter combustible and if his love be as he is truly infinite it must extend to all seeing all are lesse than infinite 2 Love were it perfect in us would perfectly fulfill Gods Law and make up a compleate body or System of morall goodnes Now the most absolute perfection of that love whereof the humane nature though uncorrupted could bee capable would be but an imperfect shadow of our heavenly Fathers most perfect love which hath the same proportion to his goodnesse that love in us were it as perfect as it possibly might bee should have to our morall goodnesse That is it is his compleat communicative goodnes And though these two in him bee rather different names than divers attributes yet wee love his goodnes better whiles it is attired with the name of Love For of men that doe us equall good turnes we love them best whom we conceive to love us most and loving kindnesse seemes good and lovely even in the eyes of such as reape no profit from it besides the sight of it The very exercise of it in others excites our weake inclinations to the like and our inclinations moved stir up a speculative assent or secret verdict of conscience to approve that truth which wee cannot follow in the practice Beatius est dare quam accipere It is a more blessed thing to give than to receive No man measureth that which wee call a good nature as of men some are better natured than others either by the means it hath to benefit or by the benefits bestowed but by the fervency of unfaigned good will and hearty desires of doing good to all This is that wherein especially when it is holpen by grace we most resemble the divine nature which is infinitely better than the humane nature though takeÌ„ at the best not only in respect of his ability to do good but of his good wil to do the best that may be And this his good will exceeds ours not intensively only but extensively For we are bound to imitate him as well in the extension of our unfaigned good will towards all as in the fervency of our desires to do the best good we can to some because his loving kindnes to man is both waies infinitly perfect Thus saith the Lord Let not the wise man glory in his wisedome nor the strong man glory in his strength neither the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindnes judgement and righteousnesse in the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. Ier. 9. 23 24. The first then most native issue of infinite goodnesse is the exercise of bounty or loving kindnesse which floweth from it without matter or motive to incite it This is that which gave being and with being some portion of goodnesse unto all things that are it alters the name but not the nature in the current To prevent others with good turnes before they can expect or deserve them is the highest point of bounty whereto the ability of man can reach But God gave vs that we most desire proper being with the appurtenances before we could desire it for it is the foundation of all desire From Bounty or loving kindnesse or from that Goodnesse whence they spring Mercy and Compassion differ only in the extrinsecall denomination taken from different objects Compassion is good will towards others provoked from notice of their miserie and Mercy is but an excesse of Bounty not estranged from ill deservers in distresse so long as the exercise of it breedes no harme to such as are more capable of bountifull love and favour This incompossibility betweene the exercise of Mercy and bounty towards particulars ill deserving and the preservation of common good occasioneth the interposition of Iustice punitive whose exercise is in a sort unnaturall to the Father of mercy For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lamen 3. 33. Nothing in good men can provoke it towards offenders but the good of others deserving either better or not so ill which might grow worse by evill doers impunity To take pleasure in the paine or torture of notorious malefactors is a note of inhumanity their just punishment is onely so farre justly pleasant as it procures either our owne or others welfare or avoydance of those grievances which they more justly suffer than wee or others of the same societie should doe The more kind and loving men by nature are the more unwilling they are to punish unlesse it be for these respects How greatly then doth it goe against his nature who is loving kindnesse it selfe to punish the workes of his owne hands Man especially who is more deare unto him than any child can be unto his Father for hee is the Father of all mankind For it is he that made us and not we our selves not those whom we call Fathers of our flesh for even they likewise were made by Him Hence he saith Call no maÌ„ Father on earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven Mat. 23. ver 9. Is the title his peculiar more than the realty answering to it Is he more willing to bee called the onely Father of all the sonnes of men than to doe the kinde office of a Father to them No like as a Father pittieth his owne children so the Lord pitieth them that feare him For he knoweth our frame he remembreth we are but dust Psal 103. 13 14. It seemes this Psalmist either was or had a most kinde and loving Father and hence illustrates the kindnesse of his Heauenly Father by the best modell of kindnesse which hee knew But if God truly be a father of all mankind he certainly exceeds all other fathers as farre in fatherly kindnesse as hee doth men in
of Craesus at that time when they marched by it Their written warrant if they could have read it was very expresse and their invitation to attempt full of hope Remove out of the midst of Babylon and goe forth out of the Land of the Caldeans and be as the hee goates before the flocks For loe I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the North countrey and they shall set themselves in array against her from thence she shall be taken their arrowes shall be as of a mightie expert man none shall returne in vaine And Caldea shall be aspoile all that spoile her shall bee satisfied saith the Lord. Ier. 50. vers 8 9 10. But such is the infinite wisedome of the Lord that ignorance or concealement of his purpose from men whom hee imploies in his service is oft-times the best meane to have it spedily executed by them In this assembly of great Nations from the North foretold by Esaiah besides the Armenians and Hyrcanians the Lydians and the Cappadocians with others mentioned by Xenophon were included without whose presence and assistance the enterprise had beene in vaine The opportunitie which Cyrus after his conquest of Craesus tooke was the definite time appointed by God but concealed from men perhaps from the Prophet himselfe which peâ—ned the Commission The entire presence of these nations now assembled and skilfully set in array before the Citie as God had commanded for representing their terrour and strength was yet nothing so terrible to the besieged spectators as the fame of their absence had beene when they were â—ewer The magnificence of Babylons wals did seeme to outface them in the height of their bravery made them contemptible in her proud childrens eyes Cyrus himselfe despaired of doing any good by violent assault his chiefe hopes were not in the multitude of his souldiers but in the multitude of his enemies more easie to bee vanquished by famine then if they had beene fewer But this his project seemed to them ridiculous being stored with provision for twenty yeares within which space some of those companies which hee had set by course to keepe quarter before the City would forsake him others they hoped would become their friends as they anciently had beene and in this confidence they rest secure as if they had thought to have out-laughed their sudden destruction 6 The doome which our Saviour gave upon the Foole in the Gospell doth so well befit the King of Babylon his wisest Counsellors and Followers as if it had beene framed of purpose for them Each of them had said unto his soule Soule thou hast store of provision layd up for many yeares take thine ease eate drinke and be merry but the Lord had said unto them all by his Prophet Daniel Yee Fooles in this night of your merriment and solemnity of your God shall your soules bee taken from you and whose then shall those things be that you have provided The hand which wrote that dreadfull sentence upon the wall Mene Mene Tekel Vpharsin was not more visible to Belshazzar himselfe then the finger of God in all this businesse is or may be to such as will conferre Xenophons Historicall Narrations with Propheticall Predictions 7 First Cyrus casts his trenches neere the River whether w th purpose to interrupt or divide its course or only for more commodious defence of his army or annoyance of his enemy Xenophon expresseth not Herodotus is of opinion that this opportunity was rather taken when it offered it selfe then sought by Cyrus when he first began to cast his trenches However the trenches being made were ready when opportunity served to rob the City of the deepe streame whose naturall course was through the midst of it and the streame diverted from its wonted chanell left an easie entrance for Cyrus and his army under the wals and â—loodgate through which it passed His stratagem to make this entrance into the City now drowned with wine opens to us the literall meaning of divers aenigmaticall prophecies A drought is upon her waters and they shall be dryed up for it is the Land of graven Images and they are madde upon their Idols Ier. 50. v. 38. Whatsoever Cyrus might intend it was Ierusalems and Syons curse upon Babylon which gave successe unto his stratagem The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon shall the inhabitants of Zion say and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea shall Ierusalem say Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold I will plead thy cause and take vengeance for thee and I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry Ier. 51. ver 35 36. All these plagues here threatned are exactly fitted to the patternes of cruelty which Nebuchadnezzar had exhibited in the destruction of the holy City and the derision of her and other captivated Princes Ierusalem in the present sense and fresh memory of her griefe had thus complained Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon hath devoured me he hath crushed me he hath made mee an empty vessell therefore must Babylon bee drawne dry of water he hath swallowed mee up like a Dragon hee hath filled his belly with my delicates he hath cast me cut Ier. 51. vers 34. Therefore must Babylon become as heapes a dwelling place for Dragons an astonishment and an hissing without an Inhabitant vers 37. It is significantly foretold by Habakkuk that Nebuchadnezzar had consulted shame to his house Habak 2. And it is the opinion of good interpreters that the woe following should be particulatly directed unto him and to his family Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drinke that puttest thy bottle to him and makest him drunke also that thou maist looke on their nakednesse Thou art filled with shame for glorie drinke thou also and let thy foreskinne bee uncovered the cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned unto thee and shamefull spewing shall be on thy glorie Habak 2. vers 15 16. Divers Authors of good note have left written whether upon any better authoritie then tradition of the Hebrews I know not though that I know in many cases worthy of respect and credence that Nebuchadnezzar did use to make himselfe sport by making his captive Princes drunke This and the like insolencies the Lord avengeth upon his sonne and people In their heate I will make their feasts and I will make them drunken that they may rejoyce and sleepe a perpetuall sleepe and not awake saith the Lord. Ier. 51. vers 39. and when the time appointed was come whether that were the first or second yeare after the hand writing upon the wall the Lord gave Cyrus notice of the Babylonians intended aniversary revellings whom hee had now more infatuated then they at other times used to infatuate themselves Cyrus his stratagem to drie up the water either first conceived or put in execution upon this notice of their drunken festivall and whatsoever purposes of his that tooke
weale If God either by his omnipotent power or infinite wisedome had necessarily though without any violence restrained this possibility in man of declining from good to evill man had forthwith ceased to have beene truly and inherently good and ceasing to be such had utterly lost all possibilities of that estate whose pledge or earnest he received in his creation Gods goodnesse is his happinesse And his participative goodnesse is the foundation of mans happinesse So that not Gods justice onely but that loving kindnesse whereby hee created man and appointed him as heyre apparent of life eternall did remove all necessity from his will because the imposition of necessity whether laid upon him by power or wisdome infinite had utterly extinguished that goodnesse wherein it was onely possible for the creature to expresse the Creators goodnesse manifested in his creation Now that was not Gods essentiall or immutable goodnesse for that is incommunicable All the goodnesse man is capable of doth but expresse Gods goodnesse communicative It is the stampe of it communicated As God then did communicate his goodnesse to his creatures not by necessity but freely so could not the creature be truly good that is like his God by necessity but freely Nor was it possible for him to have beene either confirmed in such goodnesse as he had or translated to everlasting happinesse but by continuing freely good for some space or lesse evill than by the liberty which God by his immutable law had given him in his creation hee possibly might have beene Continuing good though but for a while without necessity the riches of Gods free bounty had beene continually increased towards him and had finally established him in everlasting blisse by confirmation of him in true goodnesse or by investing him with immortality Since his fall wee are not usually capable of mercy or of the increase of his bounty much lesse of these everlasting fruits whereof blessings temporall are the pledges but by free abstinence from some evills unto whose practices the possibility of our corrupted nature might be improved And albeit we doe not alway that which is in its nature evill yet we can doe nothing well but even the good which we do we doe it naughtily yet unlesse we doe both lesse evill and the good which we do lesse naughtily than we possibly might doe God still diminisheth the riches of his bounty towards us and by inhibiting the sweet influence of his gracious providence suffers us to fall from one wickednesse to another being prone to runne headlong into all if once the reines of our unruly appetites bee given into our unweildie hands Farre bee it from any sonne of Adam to thinke hee is able without Gods love and favour to withdraw himselfe from the extremities of mischiefe much lesse to doe such good as may make him capable of well-doing So strong is our love to sinfull pleasures since our first parents gave the reines unto our appetite that none can recall themselves or repent without the attractions of infinite love And yet many whom this infinite love doth daily imbrace because they apprehend not it are never brought by the attractions of it to true repentance Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse saith the Apostle Rom. 2. 4. his forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance Of whom speakes he thus of such onely as truly repent and by patient continuance in wel-doing seeke for glory honour and immortality nay but of them who for hardnesse of heart cannot repent but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God 4 Were the riches of his bounty therefore fained or did hee onely profer but not purpose to draw them unto repentance which repented not this is no part of our heavenly Fathers perfection no fruit of that wisedome which is from above but a point of earthly policy devoid of honesty a meere tricke of wordly wit to whose practice nothing but weaknesse and impotence to accomplish great desires can mis-incline mans corrupted nature But doth it not argue the like impotency though no such want of integrity in God not to effect what he wils more ardently and more unfainedly than man can doe the increase or continuance of his welfare or avoidance of endlesse misery No it being supposed as we have said that man is not capable of endlesse joyes unlesse he will be wrought by meere love without the impulsions of unresistible power unfaignedly to love him that hath prepared them for him the same infinite love which continually drawes him unto repentance was in congruity to leave him a possibility not to be drawne by it For coactive penitency would have frustrated the end to which repentance is but a meane subordinate The imployment or exercise of Gods almighty power to make men repent against their wils or before they were wrought to a willingnesse by the sweet attractions of his infinite love or by threatnings of judgements not infinite or irresistible would be like the indeavors of a loving Father more strong than circumspect who out of pity to his sonne whom he sees ready to be choked with water should strangle him by violent haling him to the shore Most men by ascribing that unto Gods power which is the peculiar and essentiall effect of his love doe finally misse of that good which both infallibly conspire to poure without measure upon all such as take right and orderly hold of them How shall wee then fasten our faith to them aright we are to beleeve that Gods infinite power shall effect without controule or checke of any thing in heaven or earth all things possible for their endlesse good that truly love him but constraines no mans will to love him being alwaies armed against wilfull neglectors of his unfaigned love No man would argue his love to be lesse than infinite because not able to produce the effects of infinite power and as little reason wee have to thinke that power though infinite should bee the true immediate parent of love which never springs in any reasonable creature but from the seedes of love or lovelines sown in the humane soule though they doe not alwayes prosper Constraint because it is the proper and immediate effect of power is a companion fit for lust whose satisfaction breedes rather a loathing of the parties constrained than any good wil or purpose to reward them for being unwilling unloving or impatient passives nothing but true unforced love can yeeld contentment unto love Needy man to whom benevolences though wrested are ever gratefull cannot bee induced to love the parties from whom they are wrested For Non tantum ingratum sed invisum est beneficium superbè datum Good offices whilest they are presented by pride are not onely ungratefull but odious But God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth no man as he esteemes no gifts howsoever given so he alwayes detests the niggardly
aeternall decree The distinction is God is the cause of every action but he is not the cause of the obliquitie which accompanies sinfull actions nor of sinne as it is sinne This is their last Apologie for avoyding that imputation of making God the author of sinne Herein wee both agree The coexistence of the all-working decree or divine cooperation is necessarily required to every action or effect Every action includes a motion and in him wee move wee live and have our beeing But hee that will grant this cooperation or actuall coexistence of the all-working decree to be the necessarie cause of every action unto which it is most necessarily required must upon the same tearmes grant God to bee not the necessarie onely but the onely cause of all and every obliquitie of all and every sinne of all that hath beene is or can be blame-worthy in men or devills from their creation to euerlasting The demonstration of this inconvenience or absurdity wherewith we charge the adverse opinion but no maintainer of it must be referred unto the discussions of the state of Innocency and the manner of sinnes entring into the world we are now engaged to extract a better meaning out of their other words than they themselves expresse or can truely be contained in them untill they abandon the opinion of absolute necessity in humane actions as they have reference to the aeternall decree Seeing it is agreed vpon that God and man are joynt agents in every sinfull action or in effects essentially evill such questionlesse was mans desire to be like God or his lusting after the forbiden fruite The Probleme remaines why both should not be aequall sharers in the sinne or how it is possible justly to condemne men of iniquitie without some imputation unto God who is the principall agent in all actions Shall wee bee partiall for him or seeke to excuse him by his greatnesse Shall wee say hee cannot doe amisse because he is supreame Lord over all and may doe with his creatures what hee list To such as count the donative of robbers a true boone or reall curtesie to such as can magnifie their owne integrity whereof they give no proofe save onely as he did by negatives non hominem occidi I am no murtherer The Poet hath shaped an answere as fit as pertinent non pasces in cruce corvos Thou shalt not feede Ravens upon a Gibbet To say God is the Author of sinne were hideous blasphemie yet to say he is no tempter no seducer of mankind to evill is not to offer praise unto him Let my spirit vanish with my breath and my immortall soule returne to nothing rather then suffer her selfe to be overtaken with such a dead slumber as can rest contented to set forth His Glory by bare negatives or by not being the Author of sinne who is most highly to be praised in all his works whose goodnesse is infinitely greater in concurring to sinfull actions then the goodnesse of his best creatures in the accomplishment of their most syncere intentions 4 The truth of this conclusion is necessarily grounded upon these assertions hereafter to bee discussed That mans possibilitie or hopes of attaining everlasting happinesse was of necessitie to bee tempered with a possibilitie of sinning or falling into miserie To permit or allow man this possibility of sinning to bestow upon him the contrary possibility of not sinning and hope of happines was one the same branch of divine goodnesse One the selfe same branch of Gods goodnesse it was to allow this possibilitie of sinning and to afford his concourse for reducing of it into Act. For unlesse he had decreed to afford his concourse thereto it had beene impossible for man actually to have sinned And if for man to sinne had beene made impossible by Gods decree it had been alike impossible for him to have done well or ill or to become truly happy Briefly God in that hee decreed a mixture of contrary possibilities decreed withall a concourse or cooperation sutable unto and sufficient for the actuall accomplishment of both To the probleme propounded the answere from these grounds is easie Albeit God and man bee joynt agents in every action or effect essentially evill yet the whole sinne is wholy mans because the nature of sinne consists either in mans using the possibility of sinne allowed of God for his good to accomplish such acts as God disallowes or in not using the contrary possibilitie unto such acts as he not onely alloweth and approveth but requireth and commandeth such as he most bountifully rewardeth and unto whose accomplishment hee affordeth not his ordinarie concourse onely but his speciall furtherance and assistance In every sin of commission we approve and make choice of those acts which his infinite goodnesse disalloweth In every sinne of omission we do not approve those acts which he approveth although perhaps it may be questioned whether there can be any sinne of pure omission or not mixt with commission that is any sinne wherein we doe not either like what God dislikes or reject and contemne what he likes cōmends unto us for good 5 From these resolutions we may finde some truth in an usuall position which without this truth presupposed is palpably false Every action or effect as it is an effect or action or as it proceeds from God is good The best meaning whereof it is capable must be this Gods goodnesse is seene in every action even in those which are most sinfull To vouchsafe his cooperation to them is a branch of his goodnesse because man could not be happy without a possibility of deserving to be miserable But humane actions or effects in their owne nature indefinitely considered or in the abstract as they are actions are neither morally good nor morally bad When it is said that every action as an action is good this must be understood of transcendentall goodnes only of which kind of goodnes moral evill or sin it selfe is partaker If every action as it is an actiō were morally good it were impossible any action shold be morally evill If we consider humane actions not indefinitely or with this reduplication as they are actions but descending unto particulars some are good some are bad and some perhaps positively indifferent but of this hereafter CHAP. 16. The former contingency in humane actions or mutuall possibility of obtaining reward or incurring punishment proved by the infallible rule of faith by the tenour of Gods covenant with his people 1 THough manifest deductiōs of ill sounding Consequences from their positiōs which we refute and more commodious explanations of other tenents common to both may somewhat move the Favourers of universall necessity to a dislike of their owne opinions in part incline them to the opposit truth yet is it positive proofe of Scriptures that must strike the maine stroak fasten their assents unto it And God forbid they should bee so uncharitable as to think that we or any sonnes of