given nor can the natures whence they are propagated convey them a better title of being then themselves have This as the seale communicates his fashion to the waxe so doth the limited force or vertue of causes alwayes imprint bounds and limits upon their effects If further it be demanded why the Elements having the opportunity of mutuall vicinity to wreake their naturall enmities or hostilities doe not each trespasse more grievously upon other as why the restlesse or raging water swallowes not up the dull earth which cannot flye from any wrong or violence offered or why the Heavens having so great a prerogative by height of place largenesse of compasse and indefatigable motion do not dispossesse the higher Elements of their seat The naturalist would plead the warrant of Natures Charter which had set them their distinct bounds and limits by an everlasting undispensable law Yet is nature in his language alwaies an internall or essentiall part of some bodies within which it is necessarily confined As the nature of the Heavens hath not so much as liberty of egresse into neighbour Elements nor the proper formes of these upon what exigence or assaults soever made against them in their territories so much as right of removall or flitting into lower Elements Or in case it be pretended that these particular natures have a nature more generall for their president yet this whether one above the rest or an aggregation onely of all the rest is still confined to this visible world and both so hidebound with the utmost sphere that they cannot grow greater or enlarge their strength So that nature taken in what sense the Naturalist lists cannot be said so properly to set bounds or limits to bodies naturall as to bee bounded or limited in them Or to speake more properly Nature her selfe did not make but is that very domestique law by which they are bounded and therefore in no case can dispense with it And in that she is a law for the most part but not absolutely indispensable shee necessarily supposeth a Lawgiver who if he have no Law set him by any superiour as we must of necessity come in fine to some one in this kinde supreame hee can have no such limits or bounds as he hath set to nature and things naturall He neither is any part of this visible frame which we see nor can he be inclosed within the utmost sphere And thus by following the issue of the former fountaine we are arived in the latter which fully discovered opens it selfe into a boundlesse Ocean Whatsoever hath no cause of being can have no limits or bounds of being 4 And Being may bee limited or illimited two wayes Either for number of kindes and natures contained in it or for quantity and intensive perfection of every severall kinde Of things visible we see the most perfect are but perfect in some one kinde they possesse not the entire perfection of others and that perfection whereof they have the just propriety is not actually infinite 〈◊〉 finite and limited Whatsoever thus is it was as possible for it not to have beene and is as possible for it not to be as to be but of this or that kinde not all that is or hath being Even those substances which we call immortall as the heaven of heavens with all their inhabitants be they Angels or Archangels Principalities or Thrones enjoy the perpetuall tenour of their actuall existence not from their essence but from the decree of their Maker Manent cuncta non quia aeterna sunt sed quia defenduntur curâ regentis Immortalia tutore non egent haec conservat artifex fragilitatem materiae vi sua vincens Seneca Epist 58. All things continue in being not because they are eternall but because they are defended by the providence of their Governour Things immortall need no guardian or protector But the maker of all things preserveth these things which we see continue in being overmatching the frailty of the matter by his power In this mans philosophy nothing which is made can be by nature immortall though many things be perpetually preserved from perishing Nothing which is immortall can bee made He grossely erred if hee were of the same opinion with some others of the Ancient that God had a desire to make things immortall but could not by reason of the frailty or untowardlinesse of the matter But that things made out of the matter or made at all could be immortall by nature he rightly affirmed For to be immortall in his language is to be without beginning without dependance And what so is hath an eternall necessity of existence Absolute necessity of existence or impossibility of non-existence or of not being alwayes what it is and as it is implies an absolute necessity of being or of existence infinite which cannot reside save only in the totality or absolute fulnesse of all being possible The greatest fulnesse of finite existence conceiveable cannot reach beyond al possibility of non-existence nor can possibility of non-existence and perpetuall actuall existence be indissolubly wedded in any finite nature save only by his infinite power who essentially is or whose essence is to exist or to be the inexhaustible fountaine of all being The necessary supposall or acknowledgement of such an infinite or essentially existent power cannot more strongly or more perspicuously be inferred than by the reduction of known effects unto their causes of these causative entities whose number and ranks are finite into one prime essence whence al of them are derived it self being underivable frō any cause or essence conceivable In that this prime essence hath no cause of being it can have no beginning of being And yet is beginning of being the first prime limit of being without whose precedence other bounds or limits of being cannot follow 5 If that which Philosophers suppose to be the root of incorruption in the heavens can brooke no limits of duration but must bee imagined without end or beginning why should it content it selfe with limits of extension seeing duration is but a kinde of extension seeing motion magnitude and time by their rules in other cases hold exact proportion Things caused as induction manifesteth are alwayes limited and moulded in their proper causes Nor are there two causes much lesse two causalities one of their being another of their limitation or restraint to this or that set kinde of being For whatsoever gives being to any thing gives it the beginning of being As Sophroniscus was the true cause why Socrates was in that age wherein he lived not before or after why he was a man not a beast an Athenian not a Barbarian Quicquid dat formam dat omnia consequentia formam whatsoever gives forme of being to any thing gives all the appurtenances to the forme is a Physicall Maxime which supposeth another Metaphysicall Quicquid dat esse dat proprietates esse That which gives being unto any thing gives likewise the properties of such being as
time coequall to his eternitie But what could they answere us if we should demand whether this duration or locall distance wherein they imagine God to have beene before the Creation were created by Him or not whether they were truly something or meerly nothing If they held them to be meerly nothing they should have told us that they had a reall imagination of an infinite space which really was not and therefore could not bee truely tearmed imaginary space before the world was created For it is one thing to imagine an infinite space and another to avouch there was an infinite imaginarie space before they could have any imagination of it Hee that made the world and all that is in it is not much beholding to those men for building him an infinite Castle not in the Ayre which had no being before the Creation but in that which neither thē was nor since hath had any being save onely in the vanishing imaginations of men which have perished For if this imaginary space were any more thā a meere imagination it was surely created by God Had then this imaginary space another space or distance-locall or this imaginary time or successive duration another duration wherin to be produced or doe they make this imaginary time or place fully commensurable to eternity or immensity If God from eternity had been in any other infinity besides himselfe hee could not be said to be incomprehensible By this imaginary space no realty can bee truely meant besides God himselfe whom the Hebrews enstyle by the name of place to wit infinite 2 But what shall we answer unto these or the like captious demands of the Atheist If the world if time if place which now are had not been from everlasting where was your God when these were not some where or no where If no where Hee and Nothing might be fellow residents In respect of eternity or immensity no creature no positive essence no numerable part of this Vniverse is so like unto Him as this negation of all things which we describe by the name of Nothing It hath no beginning or end of dayes Nothing or the negation of all things as it is the object of our positive conceit is more like unto Him than any one thing in that no distinct or proper place of residence can bee assigned to nothing or to the negation of all things Yet most unlike him in that it is truly and absolutely no where not in it selfe Non entis non est actio non est qualitas non conditio That which is not can have no capacity to accept any condition of being it can have no right or title to bee termed it selfe We may truly say some objective conceipts are nothing but we cannot rightly conceive that nothing should have any degree or kinde of being and want of being is the worst kinde of barrennesse that can be imagined We cannot imagine it should bring forth any degree or ranke of being It cannot be mother to that which possibly may bee it cannot be nurse to that which is But of God wee cannot absolutely say He was no where before the world was made we must use this limitation Hee was no where save in Himselfe But such and so in Himselfe that He was more than all things longer than time greater than place more infinite than capacity it selfe uncapable of circumscription or commensurability able to limit time and place or whatsoever we conceive to be by succession or addition infinite by his essentiall presence or coexistence more than penetrative being so in both in all things that are as nothing possibly could have beginning or continuance of being unlesse He were in them as the center of their supportance yet so as they cannot environ or encompasse him The absolute infinity of his being includes an absolute impossibility of his being onely in things that are or may be though by his power those may be in number by succession infinite 3 Had the evaporations of proud phantasticke melancholy eclipsed the lustre of his glorious presence in that late prodigious Questionists braine which would bring us out of the sunne-shine of the Gospell into old Aegyptian darknesse For as some well conjecture this error of inclosing God in the heavens and excluding his essentiall presence from this inferiour world was first brought forth in Aegypt but so ill taken as it could not be propagated to many nations entertained by few Philosophers of better sort Aristotle or the Author of the Booke de mundo ad Alexandrum excepted from whose opinion Verstius did herein dissent that hee held God to be everywhere by his power and immediate providence His error notwithstanding is exceeding grosse and unsufferable in that hee makes his infinite power wisedome and goodnesse in whose sweet harmony Divine Providence especially consists but as Agents or Ambassadors to his infinite Majesty as if his infinite Majesty onely were full compere to his Essence unfitting to bee imployed abroad or to keep residence any where save in the Court of Heaven Or if his power and wisedome be joynt assessors with his Essence in the heavens and yet reach withall unto the earth unto every thing within this Canopy which is spred betwixt us and his glorious presence His power his wisedome c. may in some sort be held more infinite than his Essence as being in many places where it is not But for God to be everywhere here on earth or in the region under the earth by his wisedome by his power or by his goodnesse is perhaps in his language no more than that the effects of these Attributes are every where that all things as well in earth as in heaven are essentially subject to that eternall Law which he hath appointed them that every creature doth as constantly fulfill his will and obey his power in his absence as if it were penetrated by his presence that the eye of his knowledge pierceth every corner of the world and seeth the secrets of mens hearts as clearly as if it were resident in their centers And in part unto this purpose some great Schoolemen distinguish the manner of Gods being in all things by his essence by his power by his presence Let us take it as possible to supposition or imagination what by the habit of Christian faith we are fully perswaded to bee in it selfe impossible what by light of reason might be demonstrated to imply a manifest contradiction to any well-setled understanding viz. That infinite Essence or Being it selfe should not be every-where essentially present or that infinite power should not bee able to reach every possible effect yet should al things that are be present to him whose name whose best description is I am Nothing could be done or said without his presence that is without his perfect notice And in this sense perhaps it hath beene rightly avouched by some good Authors whose meaning hath beene much mistaken or wilfully perverted by others That all things as well
future as past are alike present to Him who was every where before there was any distinction of times because nothing can bee said or done without his perfect knowledge or just notice Nothing can be begun continued or finished without his expresse warrant or intuitive permission He hath a vigilant eye over all things that are or possibly can be Or taking it againe as not impossible to imagination that divine knowledge were not so truly infinite as wee beleeve it is yet admitting his power to bee truly infinite nothing could be done said or intended without its concourse operation or assistance So that he might be everywhere by his infinite power albeit his knowledge were not infinite or every-where by his infinite knowledge albeit his power were but finite But by the infallible consequence of these indemonstrable principles it will necessarily follow That his Essence being as was shewed before truly infinite nor world nor time nor place nor power nor wisedome nor any thing possible can be where it is not it must needs be where any thing is or possibly may be He is in every center of bodily or materiall substances in every point imaginable of this visible Vniverse as an essentiall root whence all and every part of what is besides him spring without waste or diffusion of his substance without nutriment or sustentation from any other root or element The conservation of immaterial or illocall substances is from the benefit of his essentiall presence Materialls are daily made and renewed by the transient efficacy of his creative power 4 Doe we make these collections only or doth not the Scripture teach this Philosophy also Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God farre off Ier. 23. 23. Nothing is nothing can be without the reach of his power his omnipotency cannot be confined within the places that are for his hand hath made them all not as Prisons to inclose his Essence not as manicles to hinder the exercise of his mightie arme Can any hide himselfe in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Ibid. vers 24. This is a formall demand of our assent unto the infinitie of his knowledge These are two speciall but not the onely wayes of his being every where which the Scripture teacheth for there followes a third which after the manner of our understanding is the root or foundation of al the rest that indeed from which the two former branches are most necessarily inferred Doe not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord. Doth He fill heaven and earth by his power or by his knowledge onely Nay but most properly and in the first place by his essentiall presence For his Essence is infinitely powerfull infinitely wise His filling the earth as well as heaven by his essentiall presence cannot be denyed but from one of these two reasons following Either That his Essence is altogether uncapable of intimate coexistence with such grosse and base creatures as the parts of this inferiour world Or else Because it is his will to abstract or withhold his essentiall presence from them To affirme the former part to wit That his nature is uncapable of intimate coexistence with any nature created by Him is to deny his omnipotency as all by necessary consequence doe which grant not the immensity of his Essence For what can withstand or withdraw his Essence from piercing the earth as well as heaven Not the hardnesse of it not the loathsomnesse of the vile bodies contained in it If either of these qualitites or ought besides could deny the admission of his essentiall presence he were not omnipotent because not able to place his Essence in that locall space in which were it filled with more subtill or more glorious bodies it might as well reside as in the heavens Suppose he should as no doubt hee is able annihilate the earth and create a new heaven in the space wherein it now is or demolish his present heavenly seat or turne it into a baser masse then this earth is were it not possible for him to bee in this new heaven by his essentiall presence or should he be neither in it nor in the new earth If hee could not be here he were in this respect more impotent than the Angels who can change their mansions when they mislike them 5 Shall wee then take the latter part of the former division and say It is his will and pleasure to withdraw his Essence from this lower roome of his own Edifice whiles it remaines so ill garnished as now it is If hee have made heaven his habitation by choice not by necessity of his immensity with which all places as we contend must necessarily be filled hee might relinquish it by the like free choice of some other mansion which he could make for himselfe as pleasant and beautifull yea Hee might by the like freedome of will come and dwell with us here on earth So that in conclusion he which admitteth Gods wil to be free but denies the absolute immensity of his Essence makes him capable of locall motion or migration from place to place And such motion necessarily includeth mutability which is altogether incompatible with infinity Reason grounded on Scripture will warrant us to conclude from the former principle that hee which hath no cause of being can have no limits of being no bounds beyond which it cannot be Essence or being illimited cannot possibly bee distinguished by severalties of internall perfections though united much lesse can it be distinguished or limited by any place whether reall or imaginarie In that he is the authorlesse Author of all being it is altogether as impossible for Him not to bee in every thing that is as it is for any thing to be without Him The indivisible unity of his infinite Essence is the center and supporter of all things the conservation of place and that which holdeth things divisible from resolving into nothing 6 Dominus ipse est Deus in coelo sursum in terra deorsum The Lord saith Moses hee is God in heaven above and in the earth below Deut. 4. 39. yet saith Salomon 1 King 8. 27. Behold the heavens and the heavens of heavens are not able to containe thee May we say then Hee is as truely without the heavens as he is in them or that he is where nothing is with Him surely hee was when nothing was and then hee was where nothing was besides himselfe Or peradventure before the creation of all things numerable there neither was whē nor where but only an incomprehensible perfection of indivisible immensity and eternity which would still be the same though neither heaven nor earth nor any thing in them should any more be We may not so place him without the heavens as to cloath him with any imaginary space or give the checke to his immensity by any parallel distance locall But hee is said to be without the heavens in as much as his infinite Essence
that as he can doe whatsoever he will so nothing can be done or willed by him which may derogate from the endlesse exercise of his infinite Majestie power truth or goodnesse The use of this doctrine concerning the prerogative of Omnipotencie and the absolute impossibilitie of doing any thing that may derogate from it is in generall this As no opinion in the judgement of Philosophers can be convinced of absurdity untill it be resolved into a contradiction either unto it selfe or unto some principle of nature from which it pretends some Originall title of Truth so the only rule for the discovering impiety of opinions in Divinitie or for cōvincing their Authors of heresie or infidelitie is by manifesting their repugnancie or contradictiō to some one or other divine Attribute or to some special promise or asseveration made by the Almightie in Scriptures and whosoever denies or contradicts any part of Gods word doth contradict the divine truth or veracitie which no man hath any temptation either to deny or contradict but from some doubt or deniall of his Omnipotencie Of such opinions as either contradict this Article of Omnipotency or falsely pretend some colourable title of truth from it wee shall have occasion to speake in the particular Articles against which these Errors are conceived or whose truth they prejudice Having hitherto declared the object and meaning of this Arcle we are in the next place to proove the truth of it against the Atheist CHAP. 3. This visible world did witnesse the invisible power and vnitie of the Godhead unto the Ancient Heathens LEst any man should misconceive the former title of Almightie to bee but as a faire promising frontispice to an unresponsible worke we have the fabricke of this Vniverse the whole world it selfe and all things in it produced as witnesses of the Almightie fathers alsufficiencie for effecting whatsoever either this grand Attribute of Omnipotencie or any other Article of this Creed may promise or intimate unto us For when wee professe our beliefe that there is a father Almightie who made the heaven and earth wee must beleeve not onely that hee made both but that hee which so made them both is both able and willing to effect all things for us for which wee have his promise euen things which neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard things which cannot possibly enter into the heart of man by any bodily sense To this purpose the Nicene Creed expresseth this article more fully I beleeve in one God the Father Almightie maker of Heaven earth and of all things visible and invisible Hee that hath already made many things to us invisible cā prepare those things for us which neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard The inspection of this great visible sphere did convince the understandings of such as had no other booke besides this great booke of nature to instruct them the understandings of men altogether unacquainted with Moses writings that the Author of this great Booke was the onely God the onely invisible power which deserved this soveraigne title For though it be probable that Plato had read Moses his historie and his Law there is no probabilitie that either Orpheus or Pythagoras both farre more ancient then Plato had read or seene them or could understand the language wherein they were in their times onely extant Yet Iustin Martyr one of the most ancient Christian writers produceth the testimonie of Pythagoras an heathen Philosopher against the Heathen as a Second to Orpheus for confirmation of that truth which we Christians in this Article beleeve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him that sayes I am a God win homage by his deed And lay a world like this to pawne before I give him creede 2. Now albeit neither Orpheus nor Pythagoras were Canonicall writers though their joynt authoritie be not infallible yet the holy Ghost a teaer most infallible hath declared the reasons which they used to be most infallible by the testimonie of two Canonical writers The first is that of the Psalmist Psal 96. 4 5. The Lord is great greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all gods For all the gods of the Nations are Idols or gods no-gods but the Lord made the heavens The Prophet Ieremy is more expresse and more peremptorie chap. 10. vers 10 11 12. But the Lord is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King at his wrath the earth shall tremble and the Nations shall not bee able to abide his indignation Thus shall yee say unto them The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under those heavens Hee hath made the earth by his power he hath established the world by his wisdome and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion 3. The consonancie between the live oracles of God and the dictates of reason in heathen men afford us this Aphorisme that it is not nature her selfe which is never otherwise than negatively or at the most Privatively opposed to the goodnesse of God but the corruption of nature which is alwaies contrarie to the good Spirit of God whereby men are seduced unto Atheisme And seeing this corruption of nature whereof Atheisme is the symptome is the onely disease of the soule the disease and the symptome cannot more kindly be cured then by reviving the strength of nature The receipt for reviving and strengthning nature must be compounded of these two Truths both evident by light of reason not eclipsed by interposition of corrupt affections or malignant habits or freed from these by illumination of the spirit The first truth is that this visible world did not make it selfe but had a maker which gave it beginning and continuation of being the second that the making of this visible world doth evince the maker of it to be Omnipotent and able to effect whatsoever he hath promised But before the former truth can have its operation upon the humane soule which is misaffected the objections of the Atheists must bee removed All his objections may be reduced to these two ex nihilo nihil fit of nothing nothing can bee made whence seeing we acknowledge Creation either to be a making of all things of nothing or at least to suppose that some things are made of meere nothing the truth which we Christians in this Article beleeve may seeme directly to contradict a Philosophicall truth or principle in nature This first objection is seconded by another To create or to make something of nothing is to bee active or thus Creation supposeth an agent and euery agent presupposeth a patient Now if there were any patient or passive power praeexistēt to the Act of creation this passive power or patient wherein it lodgeth was not created but must have a beeing from Eternitie From the difficultie included in this last objection some philosophers did conceive an unfashioned or
indivisibly present to all and every part of things divisible His presence againe is herein like to magnitude actually infinite in that it can have no circumference But whether the divine Essence may have as perfect actuall coexistence to every point or Center as it hath to every least portion of magnitudes divisible cannot so cleerely bee inferred from the indivisibility of divine immensity because the indivisibility of Centers or points and of spirituall substances are Heterogeneall and Heterogenealls are oft-times assymmetrall that is not exactly commensurable Hence the most subtill Schoole-men or metaphysicall Divines as well ancient as moderne resolve it as a point irresoluble by humane wit whether a mathematicall point or Center can be the compleat and definitive place of an Angell albeit they hold the Angelicall natures to bee as truely indivisible as points or Centers are But it is one thing for an immateriall or spirituall Essence to have true coexistence with every Center another to be confined to a Center or to have a definitive place or coexistence in it And whatsoever may bee thought of Angells of the Divine Essence we may say that he is as properly in every Center as in every place seting wee acknowledge Him to bee alike incomprehensibly and indivisibly in both The manner of his indivisibility we conceive by his coexistence to a Center His incomprehensiblenesse by his coexistence to all spaces or places imaginable without coextension to any without comprehension in all We may in no case imagine that there is more of God or that God is more fully in a great space than in a little in the whole world than in a man or little world For this once granted an Asses head should participate the essentiall presence of the Deity in greater measure than a mans heart doth But in what respects God is said to bee more specially present in one place than in another or to be present with some and absent from others hereafter 9 The absolute perfection of this Attribute in whose right apprehension or conceipt many other divine perfections according to our manner of conceiving them are as it were couched or lodged may best bee gathered by opposition to the imperfections of bodies or materiall magnitudes A body though of Homogeneall nature suppose a Pole or stone fixed in the earth invironed above with water and the ayre can have no coexistence with these divers bodies otherwise than according to the diversity of its owne parts that part of it which hath coexistence with the ayre can have no coexistence with the earth or water Farre otherwise it is in God whose absolute infinity in that it is not composed of parts but consists in perfect unity cannot bee coexistent to any place after any other manner than He is coexistent to all that is by indivisible unity or identity Wheresoever He is and Hee is every where He is unity it selfe infinity it selfe immensity it selfe perfection it selfe power it selfe All these branches of quantity in which we seek to ingrasse so many sorts of infinities thereby to expresse or resemble His incomprehensible nature do flow from participation of his infinite presence Vnlesse He were infinitie or immensity it selfe there could be no magnitude no measure quantitative by whose multiplication wee could in any sort gather or guesse what immensitie or infinitie meant That imaginary infinitie which wee conceive by succession or composition of parts for their severall extensions finite though in number infinite is but a transient raye or beame of that actuall and stable infinitenesse which Hee possesseth in perfect unitie without any imaginary diversity of parts united Had his immensity any diversity of parts there should be more power in many parts than in one or few unto the full exercise of his whole power or force there should bee a concurrence of all parts required this concurrence of parts in number infinite would perhaps be impossible Infinitum transire non potest At the least were divine power so lodged in divine immensitie as strēgth or power is in our bodily faculties it could not bee so omnipotent as we beleeve it is Our strength or force is alwaies increased by unition or cōtraction of severall parts His power can receive no increase seeing his immensity excludes al division doth not so properly include but rather properly is Vnity it selfe 10 The Prophets and other holy men in their patheticall expressions sometime speake of God as farre absent because his powerfull presence is not manifested in such sort as they could wish Oh that thou wouldest rend the Heavens saith the Prophet Esa c. 64. 1. that thou wouldest come downe that the mountaines might flow down at thy presence As when the melting fire burneth the fire causeth the waters to boile to make thy name knowne to thine adversaries that the Nations may tremble at thy presence When thou diddest terrible things which wee looked not for thou camest downe the mountaines flowed downe at thy presence But to indoctrinate us that this description of his powerfull presence did include no dogmaticall assertion of his locall descent no denyall of his being everywhere or filling every place by his essentiall presence the same Prophet elsewhere pictures out his immensity to us under the shape of a Gyant able to squeze the whole Globe of Heaven Earth waters Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand meted out heaven with his span and comprehended the dust of the earth in his three fingers after such a manner as men take up dust or sand and weighed the mountaines in scales and the hills in a ballance Esay 40. 12. Behold the Nations are as a drop of a Bucket and are counted as the small dust of the Ballance Behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing All Nations before him are as nothing and they are accounted to him lesse than nothing and vanity vers 15. 17. Thus hee linketh his essentiall presence with his power and knowledge Why sayest thou O Iacob and speakest O Israel My way is hid from the Lord and my Iudgement is passed over from my God Hast thou not knowne hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is wearie there is no searching of his understanding vers 27 28. Yet Iob in his anguish had almost said as Iacob did O that I knew where I might finde him that I might come even to his seat I would know the words which he would answer me understand what he would say unto me Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him On the left hand where he doth worke but I cannot behold him he hideth himselfe on the right hand that I cannot see him Iob 23. 3 5 8 9. But though he might hide himselfe from Iob yet could not Iob hide himselfe or his wayes from him for so he confesseth in the next words He
matter though of things created most imperfect is of creatures sublunary most like unto the Creator in being ingenerable and incorruptible in that it is the Alpha whence all things generable spring and the Omega into which they are resolved Yet is the prime matter most contrary to its Maker in that wherein it doth resemble Him It is in a sort or manner all things generable but perfectly nothing as wanting the true unity of Entity or determinate Being The Creator or Essence it selfe is the incomprehensible perfection of all things without participation of their imperfections The Earth againe is like the Eternall Founder in permanency and immobility but this it hath from its naturall dulnesse whereas the perfection of this shadow is in Him from the infinite vigour of his vitality The swift motions of the Heavens or motion as swift as we may imagine is as a middle terme of proportion between the Earths immobility and the supermotion or more then infinite mobility of the Deitie which we tearme the infinite vigour of his vitality Instants in this are most like Eternity in that an infinite number of them added together yeelds no increase of quantity Nor doth Eternity receive addition from succession infinite which most unlike it in being divisible doth yet better expresse the positive infinity of it than instants can doe Eternity againe is like a fixed Center because indivisibly immutable yet withall most like a circle And Trismegists description of the Deity commutatis commutandis as well exemplifies the Eternity as the immensity of his nature Eternity is a circular duration whose instants are alwayes whose terminations or extremities never were never shall be It is coexistent to every parcell of time but not circumscriptible by any succession infinite cannot be coequall to it For albeit the motion of the Heavens or other notifications of duration divisible should continue the same without interruption or End yet every period and draught of time we can imagine shall still fall within Eternity now totally existent and which hath beene is and ever will be unto every minute or scrupe of time that hath beene is or shall be alike everlastingly coexistent not by acquisition of any new successive parts but by indivisible and interminable unity 7 We cannot perhaps properly say that God shall be after all times or durations to come for duration must flow from His Everlasting Being without end And what can be after that which hath no end And here we suppose that albeit time or duration successive had their actuall beginning with the creatures yet there shal be or may be if not a time yet some duration successively infinite And that onely is after this manner infinite unto which somewhat of the same kinde may still bee added Thus as in the continued and divisible quantities non datur minimum There is no fraction so little but may be lesse and as in numbers non datur maximum There is no number so great but it may be made greater by addition so in successive duration non datur ultimum It may be truly said to last for ever because it can have no last portion But howsoever we cannot properly or without exposing our speech to captious exceptions say that eternity shal be after all time or duration successive seeing this may seeme to import that duration or succession shall finally cease yet that eternity being duration actually interminably and indivisibly not successively infinite now is and ever was as infinitely praeexistent or precedent to all ages or successions comming towards us one way as it is and was to the worlds nativity or the first out-going of time the other way This is a point which we must beleeve if we rightly beleeve God to bee Eternall or know what Eternity is A point which would to God they had seriously and in heart considered which have had Gods eternall decree and the awards of it most frequently in their mouthes and pens And he is no Christian that would deny whatsoever is by God decreed was so decreed before all worlds So is he no Christian Philosopher much lesse a true Christian Divine that shall refer or retract the tenor of this speech Before all worlds to that only which is past before the world began Whatsoever can be more properly said or conceived to be past then to be yet to come or to bee in every moment of time designable can have no property of Eternity For that onely is Eternall which alwayes is and so alwaies is that it hath precedence or praeexistence infinite to all successions which way soever wee looke upon them or take their beginning whether backwards or forwards It was a great oversight or rather want of insight into the nature of this great Sphere or visible world in Lactantius otherwise a learned Christian not onely to deny there were any Antipodes but to censure the Philosophers which had gone before him of grosse ignorance or infatuation for avouching this truth now manifested to meaner Scholars or more illiterate Christians than any which Lactantius taught A greater ignorance it would be in us which acknowledge this truth to say these Antipodes were under the earth and the inhabitants of Europe and Africa onely above it or that the Heavens were as farre under our Antipodes as they are above us For whosoever walkes on the earth whether in this Region or that whether at the halfe or full Antipodes is above the earth And every part of the Heavens unto which the lookes of men are erected as well the Nadir as the Zenith as well the South pole as the North-pole is above the earth And as the Heavens are every way above the Earth so is Eternity every way before all worlds before all times As we beleeve this visible world and all things in it had a beginning so we expect it shall have an end Now the eye of Eternall Providence lookes through the world through all the severall ages successions or durations in the world as well from the last end to their first beginning as from their first beginning to their last end There is no period of time to us imaginable which is not so invironed by Eternity as the Earth or Center is with the Heavens save onely that the Heavens are finite and Eternity infinite So that the Heavens though far every way are no way infinitely above the Earth whereas Eternity or Gods eternall decree are every way infinitely before all worlds before all times In this sense were it possible the world might have beene created or motions continued from everlasting the Eternall notwithstanding should have been everlastingly before them For that period of motion which must terminate the next million of yeares shall have coexistence with Eternity now existent whose infinity doth not grow with succession nor extend it selfe with motion but stands immovable with times present being eternally before times future as wel in respect of any set draught or point whence we imagine time future to
fixed instant and of motion in vigorous rest cannot bee exprest by motion so swift and strong as would beare levell from the Sunne setting in the West to the Moon rising in the East To cast the fixed Starres downe to the Center or hoyse the Earth up to the Heavens within the twinkling of an eye or to send both in a moment beyond the extremities of this visible world into the wombe of vacuity whence they issued would not straine his power motive For all this we suppose to be lesse then to bring nothing unto something or something to such perfection as some of his creatures enjoy Howbeit even such as take the fullest measure of perfection from his immensity must derive their pedigree by the mothers side from meere nothing or vacuity Homo saith S. Austine terrae filius nihili nepos Man is the son of the earth and the grandchilde of nothing And when he shall come unto the height of his glory he cannot forget he must remember that the worme was his sister and the creeping thing the sonne of his mother To produce as many worlds out of nothing as the Sunne each yeare doth Herbes or Plants out of the moistned Earth would breed no cumbrance to his power or force productive To maintaine repaire or continue all these in the same state whilest he makes as many moe would neither exhaust nor hinder his conservative vertue Multiplicity or variety greater than wee can imagine of workes most wonderfull all managed at one and the same time could worke no distraction in his thoughts no defatigation in his Essence From the unity of these and the like branches of power all in him most eminently infinite doth the attribute of Omnipotency take its denomination whose contents so farre as they concerne the strengthning of our faith shall hereafter be unfoulded CHAP. 8. Of the infinity of Divine Wisedome That it is as impossible for any thing to fall out without Gods knowledge as to have existence without his power or essentiall presence 1 BVt power in every kinde thus eminently infinite could not be so omnipotent as we must beleeve it did it not in this absolute unity of all variety possesse other branches of being according to the like eminency or infinity of perfection Strength or power if meerely naturall or destitute of correspondent wisedome to comprehend manage and direct it might bring forth effects in their kinde truly infinite whose ill forecast or untowardly combinations neverthelesse would in the issue argue lamentable impotency rather then omnipotency And hard it would be to give instance almost in any subject wherein a double portion of wit matched with halfe the strength would not effect more or more to the purpose then a triple portion of strength with halfe so much wit Archimedes did not come so farre short of Polyphemus in strength or bulk of body as the wonderfull works wrought by his Mathematicall skill did exceed any that the Gyant could attempt 2 Every choice is better or worse accordingly as it more or lesse participates of true wisedome And most unwise should that choice justly be esteemed which would not give wisedome preheminence to power Knowledge then might wise men choose their owne endowments would be desired in greater measure then strength Wisedome saith the Wiseman is the beginning of the wayes of God And shall not that branch of being by which all things were made by which every created essence hath its bounds and limits be possest by Him who gave them being and set them bounds without all bounds or limits above all measure Yes whatsoever branch of being wee could rightly desire or make choice of before others the inexhaustible fountaine of being hath not chosen but is naturally possest of as the better And therefore if we may so speake though both be absolutely infinite his wisedome is greater then his power to which it serves as guide or guardian And as the excellency of the Artificers skill often recompences the defect of stuffe or matter so the infinity of wisedome or knowledge seemes in a manner to evacuate the necessity of power or force distinct from it Howbeit I will not in this place or in our native dialect enter that nice dispute which some Schoolemen have done Whether Gods Essence and Knowledge be formally his Power But whilest we conceive Power and Wisedome as two attributes formally distinct at least to ordinary conceipts we may conceive Wisedome to be the father and Power the mother of all his workes of wonder As for Philo and other Platonicks that make Knowledge the mother of all Gods workes it is probable they dreamed of a created Knowledge or perhaps under these termes they cover some transformed Notion of the second person in Trinity who is the Wisedome of the Father by whom also he created all things who as he is the onely begotten Sonne from eternity so is hee likewise a joint Parent of all things created in time by the Father as Eve was in some sort Adams daughter and yet a true mother of all that call him father But here we speake not of that wisedome of God which is personall but of the wisedome of the Godhead as it is essentially and indivisibly infinite in the whole Trinity 3 Wisedome as all agree is the excellency of knowledge from which it differs not save only in the dignity or usefulnesse of matters knowne or in the more perfect maner of knowing them Though no man be wise without much knowledge yet a man may know many things and not be very wise But if we speake of Knowledge divine not as restrained in our conceipt to this or that particular but simply as it comprehends all things the name of Wisedome in every respect best befits it for though many things knowne by him whilest compared with others more notable seeme base and contemptible yet not the meanest but may be an object of divine contemplation to a Christian that considers not the meere matter or forme or physicall properties but the Creators power or skill manifested in it How much more may the vilest creatures whilest he lookes upon his owne worke in it and the use whereto he appointed it be rightly reputed excellent He knowes as much of every Creature as can be knowne of it and much more than man possibly can know and thus he knoweth not onely all things that are but all that possibly may bee This argues wisedome truly infinite whose right conceit must be framed by those broken conceipts which we have of the modell of it 4 Of wisedome then or usefull knowledge the parts or offices are two The one stedfastly to propose a right end The other to make and prosequute a right choice of meanes for effecting it Humane wisedome is oft-times blinde in both and usually lame in the latter Neither can we clearly discerne true good from apparent nor doe our consultions alwayes carry eaven to the mistaken markes whereat we ayme but be the end proposed good or bad
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
confused masse coëuall to the Eternitie of divine power which they acknowledged to be the Artificer or framer of this great worke into that uniformitie or beautie of severall formes which now it beares The first objection admits a double sense or doubtfull construction and hath no truth in respect of the Almightie maker saue onely in the impertinent sense The second objection universally taken is false CHAP. 4. The first objection of the Atheist Of nothing nothing can be made Of the doubtfull sense of this naturall how far it is true and how farre it is false WHen it is said by the naturalist that nothing can be made of nothing or that every thing which is made is made of something this particle ex or of hath not alwaies the same importance and in the multiplicitie of its significations or importances the naturalist either hood winks himselfe or takes opportunitie to hide his errour or at least makes advantage of the doubtfull phrase against such as seeke to resell him When we speake of naturall bodies or sublunary substances this particle of usually denotes the proper and immediate Matter whereof euery such body is made Thus we say the Elements are mutually made one of another or of the Matter which is common to them all mixt bodies are made of the Elements wrought or compacted into one Masse vegetables living substances indued with sense are made of mixt bodies as of their immediate and proper matter Sometimes the same particle of or that speech this body is made of that doth not denote the immediate proper matter whereof it is made but yet imports that that part of the bodily substance which was in the one becomes an ingrediēt in the other which is made of it So of water wine was made by miracle Iohn 2. yet not made of water as of its immediate or proper matter not so as vapors are made of moysture ordistilled waters of fume or smoake for so that great worke had beene no true miracle had included no creation but a generation only Now it is impossible unto nature to generate wine of water without the ingredient of any other Element It cannot be made by generation otherwise then of the juyce or sap of the Vine which is not a simple Element but the Expression of a bodie perfectly mixt Howbeit in this miraculous conversion of water into wine some part of the corporeall substance of water did remaine as an ingredient in the wine There was not an utter annihilation of the water and a new production of wine in the same place where water had beene but a true and miraculous Transubstantiation of water into wine And thus we must grant that Trees and vegetables were on the third day made not immediately of nothing That fishes and beasts were made the one of the bodily substance of the earth the other of the bodily substance of the waters neither immediately made of nothing albeit both were made not by generation but by creation that is not of any bodily matter naturally disposed to bring forth or receive that forme which by the creators hand was instamped upon them For in true Philosophy That which Philosophers call the matter of all things generable was not the first sublunary substance which was produced nor was it comproduced or concreated with them but created in them after they were made God had gathered the waters into one place and the drie land into another before either of them had power to conceive or become the common mothers of vegetable and living things Thus were the heaven and the earth first made and the waters divided by the firmament whereas the earth did not become the Matter or common mother of things vegetable before the third day wherein God said Let the earth bring forth grasse the hearb yeelding seed and the fruit tree yeelding fruit after his kind whose seed is in it selfe upon the earth and it was so Gen. 1. 11. Nor did the waters become the common Matter or mother of fishes before the fift day Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life c. Now this production of hearbs or plants out of the earth of fish and fowle out of the substance of the water was not a meer conservation or actuation of that power which the earth waters had before but the Creation of a new power in them the continuation of which power is part of that which we call the passive power of the matter Nor had the fishes or whales which God created this passive power in themselves from their first creation but received it from that blessing of God ver 22. Be fruitfull and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let fowle multiply in the earth Nor did the earth become the Common mother of vegetables as of hearbs grasse trees c. and of more perfect livings creatures at the same time It received power to bring forth the one upon the third day not enabled to bring forth the other untill the fift day God said Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattell and creeping thing and beast of the earth So that all these and man himselfe were not immediately made of nothing though immediately made by God himselfe for they were made by him of the substance of the earth which was visible praeexistent to their making though not made of it as of the matter But when it is said in the first of Genesis God in the beginning made the heaven and earth it cannot be supposed or imported that he made them of any visible or invisible substance praeexistent and if hee made them or their common masse of no substance praeexistent here was something made of nothing but how of nothing or what doth this particle import not that nothing should remaine as an ingredient in the first masse or as if it had the like precedency to it as the earth had to living things the Almightie did not so turne nothing into something as our Sauiour did water into wine To say any thing could be made of nothing in this sense or according to the former importances of the particle of doth indeed imply an evident contradiction for so nothing should be something and simple not beeing should haue a true being To make nothing to be something fals not within the object of power Omnipotent it can be no part of the Almightie makers worke As Cyphers cannot bee multiplied into numbers by any skill in Arithmetique though supposed infinite so neither can nothing be converted into something nor become an ingredient in bodies created by any power though infinite As the Omnipotent Creator is one vnitie it selfe so euery thing which he makes must have its unitie or Identitie it cannot consist of contradictories 2. When then it is said that all things were made of nothing or that creation supposeth some things to be immediately made of nothing this particle of can onely
import terminum a quo the terme onely of the Action not any matter or subject and yet the tearme thus imported can bee no positive Entitie but a meere negation of any positive Entitie precedent To make the heauens and earth of nothing is in reall value no more then to make them not of any matter or Entitie praeexistent whether visible or invisible on which their Maker did exercise his efficient power or efficacie but to give them such beeing as they then first began to have that is a corporeall beeing or existence by the meere efficacie or vertue of his word As suppose the Sunne should in a moment be suffered to transmit his light into a close vault of stone we might truely say this heavenly bodie did make light of darknesse tanquam ex termino in that it made light to be there where was no light at all before but meere darkenesse And thus to make light out of darknesse doth no way argue that it turned darknesse into light or that darknesse did remaine as an ingredient in the light made After this manner did the Amightie make the heaven and earth of nothing that is he made the corporeall masse or substance out of which all things visible were made where no limited substance whether visible or invisible was before and by the same efficiencie by which this masse was made he made place or spatiousnesse quantitative which had no beeing at all before he did not turne indivisibilitie into spatiousnes or meere vacuitie into fulnes fulnes and spatiousnesse were the resultance of that masse which was first made without any Entitie or ingredient praeexistent To make something of nothing in this sense implies no contradiction there is no impossibilitie that the heaven and earth should be thus made but this will not suffice to refute the Atheist or infidell For many things are possible which are not probable and many things probable which are not necessary The next question then is what necessitie there is in the infallible rules of nature and reason that the Heavens the earth should be made of nothing Against the probabilitie onely of Moses his historie of the first creation the Atheist will yet oppose this generall induction That all bodily substances that begin to be what before they were not that all things which we see made are alwayes made by some efficient cause not out of meere nothing but of some imperfect being praexistent To examine then the general rule pretended to amount from this generall induction s or what truth there is in that philosophicall maxime ex nihilo nihil fit is the next point CHAP. 5. By what manner of induction or enumeration of particulars universall rules or Maximes must bee framed and supported That no induction can bee brought to proove the Naturalists Maxime Of nothing nothing can be made 1 TO frame a generall rule or principle in any facultie Art or science there is no other meanes possible besides induction or a sufficient enumeration of particular experiments to support it The particulars from which this sufficiencie must amount may be in some subjects fewer in others more How many soeuer the particular instances or alleaged experiments be the number of thē will not suffice to support an universall rule unlesse they erect our understandings to a cleare view of the same reason not onely in all the particulars instanced in but in all that can be brought of the same kind Vnlesse there bee a cleare resultance of the same reason in all the induction failes and the rule which is grounded on it must needes fall For this cause universall rules are easily framed in the Mathematiques or in other Arts whose subjects are more abstract or not charged with multiplicitie of considerations or ingredients from whose least variation whether by addition or subtraction whether by further commixture or dissolution the cause or reason of truth so varies that the rule which constantly holds in a great many like particulars will not hold in all because they are not absolutely or every way alike Hee which seriously observes the manner how right angles are framed will without difficultie yeeld his assent unto this universall rule That all right angles are equall because hee sees there is one and the same reason of absolute equalitie in al that can be imagined And this negative rule will by the same inspection win our assent without more adoe that if any two angles be unequall the one of them at least can be no right angle The consideration likewise of a few particulars will suffice to make up these universall never-failing rules 1. First that the greater any circle is the greater alwayes will the angle of the semicircle be 2. The second that the angle of the least semicircle which can be imagined is greater then the most capacious acute-angle that can be made by the concurrence of two right lines And yet it will as clearly appeare from the inspection of the same particulars from which the former rules do amount that the angle of the greatest semicircle imaginable cannot possibly be so capacious as every right angle is The consideration of the former rules specially of the first and third will clearly manifest that the quantitie contained in these angles how little soever they be is divisible into infinite indeterminate parts or divisible into such parts without possible end or limitation of division But albeit the difference of quantitie between a right angle and the angle of a semicircle bee potentially infinite or infinitely divisible according to parts or portions in determinate yet will it not hence follow that the one angle is as great againe as the other according to the scale of any distinct or determinate quantitie or expressible portions And this observation in Mathematicall quantitie would quickly checke or discover the weaknesse of many calculatory Arguments or inductions oft-times used by great Divines in matters morall or civill As for example that every sinne deserveth punishment infinite because every sinne is an offence committed against an infinite Being or Majestie And the greater or more soveraigne the Majestie is which wee offend the greater alwayes will the offence be and meritorious of greater punishment Yet all this onely proves an infinitie of indeterminate degrees in every offence against the divine Majestie by which it exceedes all offences of the same kinde committed onely against man it no way inferres an infinite excesse or ods of actuall determinate punishment or ill deserts For this reason wee have derived the just award of everlasting supernaturall paines unto temporarie and transeunt bodily or naturall pleasures from the contempt of Gods infinite goodnesse which destinates no creatures unto everlasting death but such as he had made capable of everlasting joyes nor were any of them infallibly destinated unto everlasting death untill they had by voluntary transgression or continuance in despising of the riches of his goodnesse made themselves uncapable of the blisse to which hee had
if of two objects which we suppose to bee alike truly possible there bee no necessity that that should come to passe which GOD willeth most or any probabilitie for that to come to passe which he lesse willeth or willeth not at all but rather the contrary Then there is a possibilitie or rather a necessitie that his will should not be alwaies fulfilled that he might sometimes sit downe with a kinde of losse and say with impotent man I have failed of my purpose The best preparation for fit and peaceable entertainment of the Orthodoxall solution to these difficulties will be to declare the evident and necessary truth of that assertion which they object unto us as a dangerous inconvenience able in their judgement to infer the last conclusion Truth fully and evidently declared will justifie it selfe against all gainsaiers The assertion which we grant will necessarily follow from our former discursions and comes now to justifie it selfe is this That such things as God no way willeth oft-times come to passe when as their contradictories which he wils most ardently come not to passe The principall instance for justifying this truth is the repentance and life of a sinner which God hath sworne that he willeth so doth hee not his death if we will beleeve his oath If any mans verdict shall scatter from mine or others which maintaine this doctrine I must call God and his conscience to witnesse whether he hath not left that undone which God wold have had him to do sometimes done that which God would have had him not to doe Let him that will answere negatively to this Interrogative indite that confession which we daily make in our Liturgy of falshood or slaunder Let him call for Iacobs Ladder downe from heaven and require a guard of Angels to conduct him safely into Gods presence For if hee have as truely and continually done Gods will here on Earth as the Angels doe it in heaven hee may justly challenge speedie admission into their societie But if he can with safe conscience communicate with us sinnefull men in that confession his exceptions against our assertion are but needlesse scrupulosities altogether against reason whatsoever they bee in respect of his conscience yet to his exceptions wee are to frame a further answere 4 There is an absolute necessity that Gods will should alwayes be fulfilled but there is no such necessitie that it should alwayes bee fulfilled by the parties to whom it is revealed or directed They are tyed indeed by necessitie of praecept and at their perill alwayes to doe it but the Almightie God doth not referre the fulfilling or evacuation of it to their fidelitie choice or resolution for so the certaintie or infallibilitie of executing his decree should bee but commensurable to the fragility of our Nature and that which some object unto us would fall directly upon themselves to wit That Gods will should depend upon mans will As hee alwayes grants the requests of the faithfull or as the Psalmist speakes gives such as delight in him their hearts desire albeit he alwaies gives them not the particulars or materialls which they request or heartily desire so he knows how to fulfill his own will or do his pleasure albeit those particulars or materials which he ardently wils and takes most pleasure in be not alwayes done by us And this answer might suffice unto a Reader not scrupulously curious But sophisticall and captious objections require artificiall and formall solutions The former objection may perhaps be framed more captiously thus Of more particulars proposed to the choise of men if that bee not alwayes done which God willeth most his will is not done at all For as a lesser good whilest it stands in competition with a greater is rather evill than good so that which is lesse willed or desired cannot be said to bee willed or desired at all in respect of that which is more desired specially in the language of Gods Spirit which expressely saith that God will have mercy and not sacrifice Whence it will follow that when sacrifice was offered without performance of duties of mercy or obedience Gods will was not done but broken It is Gods will likewise that we should goe unto the house of mourning rather then unto the house of mirth The duties to be performed in the house of mourning are many To mourne to fast to pray with other branches of humiliation all which God truly willeth in different measure according to the diversity of their nature or the more or lesse intensive manner of their performance The transgressions likewise usuall and frequent in the house of unhallowed mirth are many and much different as well in quality as degree all detested of God as contrary to his most holy will but more or less detested according to their nature quality or degree or other circumstance Suppose a man to whom choise of going into the house of mirth or mourning is solemnly proposed the inconveniences of the one and gracious acceptance of the other in Gods fight seriously prest by Gods Minister do vtterly reject the Preachers counsell and adventure upon the most desperate evill that is practised in the house of mirth shall wee say Gods will is in this case fulfilled Yes though the evils which he willeth not were tenne thousand and man did desperately resolve to doe the very worst and most contrary to his will yet that which he willeth most shall still be done for it is his absolute and peremptory will that all the particulars offered to mans choice as well those which his Holinesse most abhorreth as those which hee willeth most should bee truly possible for a man to choose without impediment that none should bee necessary Now this liberty being left to man which way soever his will inclineth Gods will shall be most infallibly fulfilled in the selfe same measure as if the very best had beene chosen by man seeing it is his absolute will to grant him freedome at his perill to choose the very worst and refuse the best And the perill is that Gods will shall be done upon him according to the measure it was neglected by him As this proposition The Sun will either shine or not shine this day at twelve of the clocke will be as true if the Sunne shine not as if it shine so Gods will being as is supposed in this case disjunctive shall bee as truly fulfilled albeit man doth that which he willeth not as if he did that which he willed most For his will as was now said may according to the same measure be fulfilled two wayes either by us or upon us whether it be this way or that way fulfilled it is all one to God but much better for us to doe it then to have it done upon us And though it be possible for us not to doe it yet not doing it there is no possibility left that it shall not be done upon us In as much then as Gods will must of
saith the Lord that I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander and shall emptie his vessels and breake their bottles And Moab shall bee ashamed of Chemosh at the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence How say yee we are mightie and strong men for the warre Moab is spoyled and gone up out of her cities and his chosen young men are gone downe to the slaughter saith the King whose name is the Lord of hoasts The calamitie of Moab is neere to come and his affliction hasteth fast Ier. 48. 12 13 14 15 16 c. The horne of Moab is cut off and his arme is broken saith the Lord. Make yee him drunken for he magnified himselfe against the Lord. Moab also shall wallow in his vomit and he also shall be in derision For was not Israel a derision unto thee was he found among theeves for since thou spakest of him thou skippedst for joy ver 25 26 27. They shall howle saying How is it broken downe how hath Moab turned the backe with shame so shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to al them about him For thus saith the Lord Behold he shall flee as an Eagle shall spread his wings over Moab Kerioth is takeÌ„ the stroÌ„g holds are surprised the mightie mens hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs v. 39. 40 41 As for Babylon if she were stupid and blinde without all foresight feare or apprehension of that hideous stormes approach wherein shee perished the wonder is lesse to any Christian then their stupiditie who thinke her destruction might by rules of policy have bin preveÌ„ted For though her defendants had beene more in number then her proud wals could containe though every one had beene more stout then Hector armed with more hands then Briarius had though every one of her staâ—gazing statesmen had had more politick eyes then Argos had all had beene one totidemque occulos nox occupatuna A messenger from the Lord of hoasts had called for a dimnesse of sight upon her Seers and sung a lullaby to her souldiers everlasting sleepe I will make drunke her Pinces and her Wisemen her Captains and her Rulers and her mightie men and they shall sleepe a perpetuall sleepe and not awake saith the King whose name is the Lord of hoasts Ier. 51 vers 57. So infallibly doth divine Iustice observe the rule of retaliation whereof I shall hereafter speake Though Babylon should mount up to heaven and though shee should fortifie the height of her strengh yet from me shall spoylers 〈◊〉 unto her saith the Lord. Ier. 51. ver 53. For seeing her people hath entred into the sanctuary of the Lords house the Lord wil doe judgement upon her grauen Images vers 52. 15 To conclude The reason of Babels stupiditie and whatsoever oversights the Politician can discover in her related by Xenophon or Herodotus was that the fulfilling of Ieremies Prophesies against her might become more manifest to succeeding ages How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations I have layd a snare for thee and thou art also taken O Babylon and thou wast not aware thou are founde and also caught because thou hast striven against the Lord. The Lord hath opened his armorie hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation for this is the worke of the Lord God of hoasts in the land of the Caldeans Come against her from the utmost border open her storehouses cast her up as heapes and destroy her utterly let nothing of her bee left Ier. 50. vers 23 24 25 26. For she had carried away all that was in Ezekias house all that his father had laid up in store nothing was left as Esaiah had foretold c. 59. v. 36. the exact fulfilling of whose Prophecie is registred by the sacred Historian 2 Chron. 6. verse 18. The sudden surprizall of the Citie and Court of Babylon made the finding of the treasure of Darkenesse and the riches of secret places which the Lord by his Prophet had promised to Cyrus more easie then if his entrance at that time had beene suspected or feared for so the besieged might have had leisure to have hid their treasure where the enemy should hardly have found it 16 But what speciall comfort is this to Sion that Cyrus had done to Babylon as Babylon had done to her This might satiate or somewhat allay the boyling heat of a revengefull minde But is the miserie of an enemy of like use unto Gods people as was the Brazen serpent Can the sight of it cure their griefe or beget true happinesse in such as looke on it It is very probable that Babylons spoiles did helpe to reedifie Ierusalem And albeit the God of Sion had other meanes in store more by many then man can number or conceive for reducing his people into their owne Land we may notwithstanding without censure of curiositie safely conjecture that the disgraces which Nebuchadnezzar his successors has done unto the royall seed of Iudah were the first seedes of their speciall favour and grace with Cyrus Of the plagues threatned by Esaiah unto Ezekiah for shewing his treasures unto the Babylonians it was one part that of his sonnes some should bee Eunuches in the Palace of the King of Babylon Is 39. 7. Now it is unlikely that Cyrus would eyther make the Persians Eunuches or trust the Caldeans about his bodie Daniel and other his fellowes of the royall seed of Iudah being made such unto his hand were men as fit for his purpose as hee could seeke And it was his purpose upon consultation as Xenophon tels us to have Eunuches next about him as men most likely to be trusty Daniel or others of good note amongst this people being admitted to favour for to be of Cyrus bedchamber would not bee defective in procuring their countries good And easie it was for him that causeth darkenesse to bring forth light that turneth the shadow of death into the morning to raise vp a blessing unto his people out of their expiring curse But whether by this meanes or others certaine it is that such of Iudah as escaped Nebuchadnezzars sword were detained captives to him and his sonnes untill the erection of the Persian monarchy 2 Chron. cap. 36. vers 20. Now in the first yeare of Cyrus King of Persia that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Ieremiah might bee accomplished the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdome and put it also in writing saying Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia All the kingdomes of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given mee and he hath charged mee to build him an house in Ierusalem which is in Iudah who is there among you of all his people the Lord his God be with him and
how little soever a surd number exceeds the next square yet the overplus is in division infinite And so are the events which the Politician seeks to rectifie or determine of and therefore not certainly rectifiable or determinable save onely by him whose wisdome is actually infinite It is an errour incident to little children to think they might easily shake hands with the man in the Moone or with Endymion kisse the Moone it selfe if they were upon the next hill where it seemes to them to set and if you bring them thither they think they came but a little too late if they could bee now at the next hill where they see it goe downe they imagine they might doe so yet Such for all the world is the practicall Politicians errour the cause of both in proportion the same Children are thus deceived because they imagine no distance betweene heaven and earth or betweene heaven and that part of earth which terminates their sight And so the secular Politicians minde reacheth no farther than the hemisphere of his owne facultie Either he knowes not or considers not how farre the height and depth of his wisedome and counsell that sits in the heavens and rules the earth exceeds the utmost bounds or horizon of his foresight and limited skill in this only different from the childe that his wit is more swift and nimble than the others body so that he is not so soone weary of his pursuit But if hee misse of his purpose at the first he hopes at his next flight to speed and thus in seeking after true felicity which was hard by him when hee beganne his course he runnes round all the dayes of his life even as he is led by him that daily compasseth the earth Better might Painters hope by looking on the multitude of men now living to draw accurate pictures of such as shal be in the Age to come than any Politician can expect either by observation of former times or experience of his owne to prescribe exact rules for managing of future projects For if we consider the whole frame or composition of circumstances or all the ingredients if I may so speake of every event there is as great a varietie in humane actions as there is in mens faces Never were there two events of moment upon earth altogether alike each differs from other either in the substance number or quality of occurrences or in the proportion of their consonancie or dissonancy unto the counsell of the Lord as there is no visage but differs from another if not in colour or complexion yet in shape or figure I have beene perhaps rather too long then too bold in decyphering the vanity of this proud Criticke which accuseth Christianity of cowardize in actions and devotion of stupiditie and dulnesse in consultation of State But so might Bats and Owles condemne the Eagle of blindnesse were tryall of sight to be made in that part of twilight wherein darknesse hath gotten the victory of light Some men not able to discern a friend from a foe at three paces distance in the open Sunne will reade their Pater noster written in the compasse of a shilling by moone shine much better than others clearer sighted can reade a Proclamation print The purblinde see best by night yet not therefore better sighted than others are because the absolute triall of â—ight is best made by day So is the meere Politician more quick fighted than Gods children in matters permitted by divine providence to the managing of the Prince of darknesse For albeit the righteous Lord do in no case permit or dispense with perjury fraud or violence yet he suffers many events to be compassed by all or some of these or worse meanes Now when matters usually managed by speciall providence come by divine permission once to catching hee that makes least conscience of his wayes will shew most wit and resolution For whatsoever falls to Satans disposalls shall assuredly bee collated on him that will adventure most It is his trade and profession to lend wit might and cunning for satisfying present desires upon the mortgage of soules and consciences And his Scholar or Client the politique Atheist perceiving fraud and violence to prosper well in some particulars imagines these or like meanes throughly multiplied to be able to conquer all things which he most desires But when Satans commission is recalled or his power by Gods providence contracted the cunningest intentions or violent practises of Politicians prove much like to a peremptory warrant out of date which being directed to one County is served in another Both indanger the party prosecuting and turne to the advantage of the prosecuted I conclude this Chapter and Section with the observation of a namelesse Author but set downe in verses related by Camerarius Si vitam spectes hominum si denique mores Artem vim fraudem cuncta putes agere Si propius spectes Fortuna est arbitra rerum Nescis quam dicas tamen esse vides At penitus si introspicias atque ultima primis Connectas tantum est Rector in orbe Deus Who looks on men and on their manners vile Weenes nought is wrought nought got sans force or guile Who nearer looks spyes who knows what her wheele Who coozneth fraud and oft makes force to reele But Eagle sights which pierce both far and neare Eye One who onely ruleth all this Spheare SECTION IV. Of Gods speciall Providence in suiting punishments unto the nature and qualitie of offences committed by men CHAP. 31. Of the rule of retaliation or counterpassion And how forcible punishments inflicted by this rule without any purpose of man are to quicken the ingraffed notion of the Deitie and to bring forth an acknowledgement of Divine Providence and Iustice 1 ARISTOTLE did rightly denie retaliation or counterpassion to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exact justice and yet it may be Pythagoras his thoughts did soare much higher than his when he pitched upon the affirmative In ordinary offences committed by unequall or extraordinary persons Pythagoras his tenent is not universally true As if a great person should beat his farre inferiour without just cause it stands neither with the Law of God or rule of equity to beat him in the same fashion or according to the same measure againe But when Kings and Monarks doe extraordinary wrongs unto their subjects or practise prodigious cruelties upon their inferiours they usually suffer the like harmes or plagues themselves But who saith Cominaeus shall call Potentates in question who shall accuse who shall condemne who shall punish them All as he resolves that can be required to a formall processe shall be supplyed by the complaints and teares of such as are agrieved by them by the sighes and grones of the fatherlesse and widowes These are more authentique than any witnesses of fact more powerfull then any Atturney or Advocate before the supreme tribunall of God So good and gratious a Iudge is He and so
compassionate to the oppressed that even in this life he often punisheth Kings for their sakes so evidently and so remarkably as there can be no place for doubt amongst the observant that he is a most just avenger of humane impietie But most Princes as the same Author notes are so unexperienced so inconsiderate that whiles prosperous fortune smiles upon them they feare no stormes no punishment no conviction And for want of this feare which is the beginning of wisedome God suddenly raiseth up some adversary or other when they least suspect Affliction in some kinde or other is the surest friend the most trusty Counsellor that any Prince can use for of all the rest of his retinue it onely knoweth not how to flatter And affliction or calamity of the same kinde which they have undeservedly brought upon others when that befalls them is the most sincere most powerfull Preacher that enters in at any Court gate for bringing Potentates to the knowledge of God and of his Lawes or to acknowledge him to be as well the Iudge of Iudges as Lord of Lords 2 For as Iustice cannot be done upon private offenders but by the warrant of supreame authoritie so when wee see such judgements befall supreme Magistrates themselves as to the notions of naturall reason are just and right and as it were exactly fitted to that which they have done to others this clearly argues there is a Supreme Tribunal in heaven which hath more soveraigne Authoritie over the highest Thrones and Principalities on earth than they have over the meanest subject that lives under them or filliest wretch that sojournes within their territories 3 And if the tallest Cedars be not without the reach of Divine Iustice shall it not controll the lower shrubs Never was there any man on earth I am perswaded save one who was more than man but upon a diligent survey of what hee had done suffered might have taken just occasion to repeat that lesson which the suffrance of such calamitie from the hands of men as he had procured unto others his neighbour Princes had taught Adonibezech to say by heart Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbes and their great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table as I have done so God hath requited me Iudg. 1. 7. This Tyrants offences had beene many and grosse more barbarous than many Princes in this age would perhaps commit yet an usuall practice upon the conquered in those ancient times a politique embleme of slavery in thus fitting their hands for the oar◠and disenabling them to use the Pike or other like instrument of warre However more at this day would be ready upon like provocation or custome to deale as boysterously with their vanquisht foes as Adonibezech did with his rather than to make the like ingenuous confession though God did call their sinnes to minde by such sensible remembrances as awaked him This I have generally observed that lighter touches of Gods afflicting hand did more affect the outragious people of the old world unlesse such as were delivered up into a reprobate sense than his severe blowes do many amongst us which have the reputation of moderate of civill yea of sanctified men The minds of most men are so blinded and choakt with cares of this world that they looke no further than into second causes and hence like idiots they suspect such blowes as are reached them from heaven to be given by such as are next unto them But even amongst such as look farre enough beyond second causes amongst such as see God in his word and daily heare his promises some there bee which either distinguish too nicely between Gods temporall punishments and his fatherly chastisements or else make not right application of this distinction to their owne particular From the one or other mistake perhaps from both whatsoever affliction befalls them after they have taken speciall notice of their regeneration is entertained as a meere loving correction sent for no other end than to worke for their future good not as a touch of Gods punitive justice requiring serious repentance for some particular sinnes past But whatsoever may be thought of the distinction it selfe this application of it was not in use amongst the ancient Saints and people of God 4 Few moderne Spirits of ingenuous birth and breeding but would scorne to be suspected of such rude and vast behaviour as some of Iacobs Sonnes used towards their Father others towards Ioseph or the Shechemites And yet how quickly doth the feare rather than the sufferance of lighter affliction than Ioseph suffered at their hands call their offences against him to their remembrance They knew themselves to bee as free from the crime wherewith he charged them as he was from merit of death when they put him into the pit or from desert of bondage when they sold him to the Madianites Notwithstanding his very not being so flexible to their requests as their instant occasions required though nothing so inexorable as they had been to him in his extremity when they knew him as now they do not to be their brother caused them to make this mutuall confession one to another We are verily guilty concerning our brother in that wee saw the anguish of his soule when hee besought us and we would not heare therefore is this anguish come upon us Gen. 42. 21. This speedy relentance upon this warning is an assured testimonie that the feare of God and of his just judgements did in some measure lodge in all their harts but most abundantly now in Reubens whose former sinnes against his father did equalize if not superabound his brethrens sinnes against young Ioseph of whose miscariage he was least guilty For unto the rest confessing their sinnes as was set downe before in the next verse hee thus replyes Spake I not unto you saying doe not finne against the childe and ye would not heare therefore behold also his blood is required Yet was this confession uttered thirteene yeares after the fact was committed untill that time never called in question CHAP. 32. Of the Geometricall proportion or forme of distributive justice which the supreame Iudge sometimes observes in doing to great Princes as they have done to others 1 BVt these Sonnes of Iacob were private men And God in putting them into the same feare anguish of soule into which they had put their harmlesse brother might observe the strict rule of retaliatiō or counterpassion without swerving from the rule of equitie seeing their brother was their equall but doth the righteous Lord observe the same rule betwixt parties for condition or state of life most unequall doth he mete out punishment unto Princes in just equality to the harmes which they have wrongfully done to their subjects or inferiours Surely he is no respecter of persons in cases of justice or revenge But where the blow or matter of punishment which lights on Potentates is much lesse the griese or smart may be fully as great as