their motions but leave them to fend for themselves If the Almightie Creator should doe no better by his most perfect Creatures their returne to nothing would be as speedy as their production from it All of them have a perpetuall and undispensable dependance upon his power not onely whilst they are in making but as great after they are made And thus great and perpetuall it is not in respect of their substances onely but as truly in respect of their motions or operations The imperfect masse or matter whereof bodies naturall are made is not onely his sole worke or effect of his Omnipotency but that it is workable or fashionable unto any set forme this likewise is an effect of his operative power it could not be perpetually thus fashionable but by his perpetuall working That the most perfect naturall Agent should worke or dispose this matter to any set forme this likewise is his worke He doth not onely support both Agent and Patient in that being which he gave them but doth perpetually cooperate with them in their motions doth apply and direct their motions unto those ends and uses whereto his wisdome hath ordained them 2 Concerning the manner of that perpetuall dependance which all finite Agents with their effects have on the one Omnipotent and supreame illimited efficient whether in respect of their existence or operation the disputes in Schooles are intricate and the questions perplexed But the best is the ingenuous Reader may quit them if he will be but pleased to take unto himselfe if not an ocular demonstration yet a visible representation of this truth in that perpetuall dependance which light diffused whether through the celestiall bodies as the moone or starres or through the ayre or other inferiour elementary bodies capable of enlightning hath on the Fountaine of Light to wit the body of the Sunne or which the light in rooms otherwise dark hath on the light of Fire or candles by night So perpetuall so essentiall is this dependance which light in bodies inlightned by others hath on the bodies which enlighten them that some good Philosophers from observation of this dependance have concluded that Lumen non est inhaesive in corpore illuminato sed in corpore lucente The lightsomnesse which appeares in these inferiour bodies or in bodies not lucent in themselves is not inherently or subjectively in the borrowers or bodies enlightned but in the bodies which enlightens them To prove this conclusion they use this Antecedent that light borrowed or participated doth follow the motion of the body which bestowes or lends it and this Antecedent they thinke sufficiently proved by sense For if we hold a looking-glasse to a candle by night the light which for the present appeares either in the whole glasse or in some part of it will alter its place or seat according to the motion of the candle If you move the candle higher or lower than it was the light in the glasse will remove with it from the highest place to the lowest and from the lowest to the highest as it shall please the mover to alter the aspect betwixt them so will the light move from one part of the roome to another as the candle is removed And if you take the candle quite out of the roome the light will follow it and leave nothing but darknesse behind The same observation holds as true in a Dyall in which the light or shadow constantly followes the motion of the Sun But to hold this conclusion That light borrowed from the Sunne or a Candle should be inherently or subjectively in the Sunne or Candle is more than true Philosophy will warrant more than the unquestionable truth of the former experiment can logically inferre For though light in bodies not lucent in themselves bee not their owne but borrowed yet in that it is borrowed it must bee truly in the borrower not in the body which lends it For every one which lends is presumed to transfer the use of what hee lends unto him that borrowes the borrower must have the possession of what is lent him during the time of the loane As for the former experiments they may be retorted upon such as use their helpe for inferring this pretended conclusion That light diffused is not inherently in the body enlightned but in the body lucent or enlightning For the mutation of the seat of borrowed light whether in a looking-glasse held to a candle or in a Sun-dyall will be the very same albeit the Candle or Dyall stand still in the same place if so we move the Looking-glasse the same way from the Candle or the Dyall the same way from the Sunne by which the Sun did move from the Dyall or the Candle was moved from the Looking-glasse This conclusion is most certaine That the motion of light according to the motion of the body which diffuseth it doth no way inferre the light not to be inherently according to the inherency which it hath in the body through which it is diffused but rather that this light however inherent in the body enlightned hath a perpetuall indispensable dependance upon the light of the body which produceth it a dependance on it not onely in fieri that is whilest it is in production which is in an instant but a dependance in facto so long as it continues in the body enlightned And we cannot better conceive the manner how a line should be made by the continued fluxe of a point or a surface by the continued motion of a line or how time should receive its continuation from the continued fluxe of an instant than by observing the manner how light being produced in an instant in the body which borrowes it the extremity of it being terminated to a mathematicall point or line doth vary its place of residence in the same body moving continually from one part to another according to the degrees of motion either of the body which gives the light or of the body which is enlightned one from the other If either body could move or bee moved from the aspect of the other in an instant the light would remove from the body enlightned in the same instant But moving as it doth the motion of the light from one part of the same body or roome into another is perpetuall there is no interruption in the motion so much as momentary no interposition of darknesse so long as the motion lasts And yet it is not the same numericall light which thus moveth in the bodie or roome enlightned There is a continuall production of light fully answerable to the continuall succession of the motion The light whilest in motion continues no longer the same than the aspect betweene the bodie enlightning and enlightned continues the same And it may be questioned whether there be not a perpetuall production of new light even whilest neyther the body enlightning nor enlightned remove one from the other whilest both stand or rest upon their severall centers 3
creation or non existence of the world is absolutely necessary hath lesse appearance of truth in it It remaines then that the two contradictorie propositions to these false ones must be true The contradictory to the former is this The creation or existence of the world is not absolutely necessarie The contradictory to the latter is this The not creation or non existence of the World is not absolutely necessary Now seeing the world is created and yet it was not necessary that it should be created both these propositions following seeing either of them is a true meane betweene the two former extreames or false ones are most true 1 The creation of the world was possible 2 The not creation of the world was possible And if as well the not creation as the creation of the world was possible wee may not deny that God did freely create it seeing freedome properly taken includes or is a possibility of doing or not doing It was likewise free for the Almighty to create or not to create Man or Angell But his free purpose to create them after his owne Image being supposed it was not meerly possible but altogether necessary that they should bee created good In as much as he is goodnesse it selfe it is not possible that evill should bee created by him that he should be the Author of it As is his being so is his goodnesse perpetually absolute eternally necessary But though Men and Angels were necessarily created good yet their goodnesse in the beginning was mutable not perpetually necessarie The question is whether continuance in that goodnesse wherein God created them were truly possible in respect of Gods decree unto such as have not so continued or their non continuance necessary Or whether neither their continuance or non continuance were necessary or both alike possible To say that Adams continuance in goodnesse was in respect of Gods decree necessary is â—vidently convinced of falshood by his fall So that the other part onely remaines questionable whether Adams non continuance in the state of goodnesse were so absolutely decreed by God that it was not possible for him to continue For resolution of this point we are to inquire First whether in respect of Gods power it were possible Secondly whether in respect of his goodnesse it were necessary or most congruent to ordaine or decree neither a necessitie of continuance nor a necessitie of non continuance in goodnesse but the meane betweene them that is an absolute possibilitie of continuance and an absolute possibilitie of non continuance That it was possible to decree such a mutuall possibilitie may thus be proved 2. Whatsoever implies no contradiction is absolutely possible and fals within the object of omnipotencie But this mixt possibilitie of continuing or not continuing being a meane betwixt the necessitie of Adams continuance and the necessitie of not continuance in the state of integritie implies no contradiction Ergo it was possible for God to decree it That it implies no contradiction in respect of the forme is a point so cleare from the first principles of argumentation that hee which vnderstands not this is neither fit to dispute nor to be disputed with But the same forme notwithstanding of contrarietie applied to the divine nature the persons in Trinitie or their internall operations admits no meane What is the reason The nature and attributes of the Deitie are absolutely necessary and precedent to all divine decrees or effects of Gods power And it implies a contradiction that any thing which is absolutely necessarie should admit any mixture of contingency or of possibilitie of the contrary But the nature state condition or existence of man are not proper obiects of the divine decree yet proper effects of his power and being such they are not absolutely necessary and not being necessary in themselves they cannot incomber or involve propositions for their forme not necessarie with absolute necessitie Whatsoever had a true possibilitie of beeing before it was may bee actually such as it was absolutely possible for it to be or such as it might please the Almightie Creator who is free in all his actions ad extra to make it It was possible for him to make mans goodnesse or his continuance in it not to be necessary but contingent He that made man of nothing had nothing to resist or hinder him from squaring or framing his nature to that abstract forme of truth which was in its selfe or as we say objectively possible For absolute Omnipotencie includes an abilitie to ingrosse or fill meere logicall possibilities with true and Physicall substances or qualities as truely answerable unto them as naturall bodies are to bodies mathematicall But concerning Gods power to decree an absolute contingencie in the state Condition or Actions of men there can bee no question amongst such as grant his Omnipotencie to be out of question What could necessitate his will to lay a necessitie of sinning upon Adam whose fall or first sinne if it were necessary in respect of Gods decree the necessitie must needs proceed from Gods Omnipotent decree without which nothing can haue any reall possibilitie or true title of beeing much lesse a necessitie of beeing For Divine Omnipotencie is the first and sole Foundation of all Beeing otherwise then by it and from it nothing can come to passe either necessarily or contingently 3. Whatsoeuer is and hath not beene must of necessitie have some cause of now beeing And as is the event or effect such must the causalty bee If the one be necessarie or inevitable it is impossible the other should bee contingent or meerely possible Both or neither must bee necessarie Man we suppose did once stand upright his first sinne or fall That action what soever it were which brought him downe the evils which thence ensued are not meere nothing Evill it selfe got some kinde of beeing by his negligence which from the beginning it had not Of all or any of these the question still revolves whether they were necessary or not necessarie but Contingent If Contingent we have no more to say but Gods peace be on them which so speake and thinke If any reply that they were necessarie he must assigne a necessary cause of their beeing For without some cause they could not be and without a necessitating cause there was no necessitie that they should bee Was this supposed necessitie then from man or from God from any second cause or from the first cause of all things if from man onely or from other second causes then were they necessary not in respect of the first cause but in respect of the second that is some second cause did make them necessarie when as the first cause had left them free or meerely possible which to affirme is contrary to their positions with whom we dispute and in it selfe unconceiveable For who can make that necessarie which God hath made contingent or subject to change What can be said then that God did make mans fall
of the former rule of decorum in their comparisons than the holy Prophets are Thus hath the Lord spoken unto mee saith Esaias cap. 31. vers 4. Like as the Lion and the young Lion roring on his prey when a multitude of shepheards is called forth against him hee will not bee afraid of their voice nor abase himselfe for the noise of them so shall the Lord of hosts come downe to fight for mount Sion and for the hill thereof Saint Austin hath noted three sorts of errors in setting forth the divine nature of which two go upon false grounds the other is altogether groundlesse Some saith he there be that seeke to measure things spirituall by the best knowledge which they have gotten by sence or art of things bodily Others doe fit the Deity with the nature and properties of the humane soule and from this false ground frame many deceiptfull and crooked rules whilest they endeavour to draw the picture or image of the immutable Essence A third sort there be which by too much straining to transcend every mutable creature patch up such conceipts as cannot possibly hang together either upon created or increated natures and these rove further from the truth then doe the former As to use his instance He which thinkes God to be bright or yellow is much deceived yet his errour wants not a cloke in as much as these colours have some being from God in bodies His errour againe is as great that thinkes God sometimes forgets and sometimes cals things forgotten to minde yet this vicissitude of memorie and oblivion hath place in the humane soule which in many things is like the Creator But hee which makes the Divine nature so powerfull as to produce or beget it selfe quite misseth not the marke onely but the Butt and shoots as it were out of the field for nothing possible can possibly give it selfe being or existence 5 But though in no wise wee may avouch such grosse impossibilities of him to whom nothing is impossible yet must we often use fictions or suppositions of things scarce possible to last so long till we have moulded conceipts of the Essence and Attributes incomprehensible more lively and semblable then can be taken either from the humane soule alone or from bodies naturall To maintaine it as a Philosophical truth that God is the soule of this universe is an impious errour before condemned as a grand seminary of Idolatry Yet by imagining the humane soule to be as really existent in every place whereto the cogitations of it can reach as it is in our bodies or rather to exercise the same motive power over the greatest bodily substance in this world that it doth over our fingers able to weild the Heavens or Elements with as great facility and speed as we doe our thoughts or breath We may by this fiction gaine a more true modell or shadow of Gods infinite efficacy then any one created substance can furnish us withall But whilest we thus by imagination transfuse our conceipts of the best life and motion which we know into this great Sphere which we see or which sute better to the immutable and infinite essence into bodies abstract or mathematicall we must make such a compound as Tacitus would have made of two noble Romanes Demptis utriusque vitiis solae virtutes misceantur The imperfections of both being sifted from them their perfections onely must be ingredients in this compound Yet may we not thinke that the divine nature which we seeke to expresse by them consists of perfections infinite so united or compounded We must yet use a further extraction of our conceits ere wee apply them to his incomprehensible nature CHAP. 2. Containing two philosophicall Maximes which lead us to the acknowledgement of one infinite and incompreâ—ensible Essence VNto every Student that with observance ordinary will survey any Philosophicall tract of causes two maine springs or fountaines doe in a manner discover themselves which were they as well opened and drawne as some others of lesse consequence are wee might baptize most Atheists in the one and confirme good Christians in the other The naturall current of the one directly caries us to an independant cause from whose illimited essence and nature the later affords us an ocular or visible derivation of those generall attributes whereof faith infused giveth us the true taste and relish The former wee may draw to this head Whatsoever hath limits or bounds of being hath some distinct cause or author of being As impossible it is any thing should take limits of being as beginning of being from it selfe For beginning of being is one especiall limit of being 2 This Maxime is simply convertible Whatsoever hath cause of being hath also limits of being because it hath beginning of being for Omnis causa est principium omne causatum est principiatum Every cause is the active beginning or beginner of being and an active beginning essentially includes a beginning passive as fashionable to it as the marke or impression is to the stampe Or in plainer English thus Where there is a beginning or beginner there is somewhat begunne Where the cause is praeâ—xistent in time the distinction or limits of things caused or begun are as easily seene as the divers surfaces of bodies severed in place But where the cause hath onely precedence of nature and not of time as it falleth out in things caused by concomitance or resultance the limits or confines of their being seeme confounded or as hardly distinguishable as the divers surfaces of two bodies glued together Yet as wee rightly gather that if the bodies be of severall kindes each hath its proper surface though the point of distinction bee invisible to our eyes so whatsoever we conceive to have dependance upon another wee necessarily conceive it to have proper limits of being or at least a distinct beginning of being from the other though as it were ingrafted in it But whether we conceive effects and causes distinctly as they are in nature or in grosse so long as wee acknowledge them this or that way conceived to be finite and limited wee must acknowledge some cause of their limitation which as we suppose cannot be distinct from the cause of their being 3 Why men in these dayes are not Gyants why Gyants in former were but men are two Problems which the meere naturalist could easily assoyle by this reason for substance one and the same The vigour of causes productive or conservative of vegetables of man especially from which he receiveth nutrition and augmentation is lesse now then it hath beene at least before the Flood though but finite and limited when it was greatest Why vegetables of greatest vigour ingrosse not the properties of others lesse vigorous but rest contented with a greater numericall measure of their owne specificall vertues is by the former reason as plaine For in that they have not their being from themselves they can take no more then is
come towards us as in respect of the first revolution of the Heavens whence time tooke beginning Or to speake as we thinke it is impossible to conceive any duration to be without beginning and ending without conceiving it circular and altogether void of succession Notwithstanding if any list to imagine time both wayes everlasting the continuity of it may be best conceived by the uninterrupted fluxe of an instant and the stability of eternity by the retraction of such a perpetuall fluxe into one durable oâ— permanent instant 8 Oâ— not to suffer the remembrance of childish sports altogether to passe without any use or observation if not for composing some greatest controversies amongst learned men yet for facilitating contemplation in one of the greatest difficulties that Philosophy whether sacred or humane affords to the conceit of the most curious The difficulty is how eternity being permanent and indivisible should have coexistence with succession or motion We have seene a Top turne so swiftly upon the same center in a manner that it seemed rather to sleepe or rest than to move And whilest it thus swiftly moved any bright marke or conspicuous spot how little soever seemed to be turned into an entire and permanent circle Seeing motion thus swift may be procured by a weake arme it will be no hard supposal to conceit that a mover of strength and vigour infinite should be able to move a body in a moment Admit then the highest visible sphere should be moved about in a moment all the several parts of successive motion which now it hath would be contracted into perfect unity which whether it should be called a cessation from motion or a vigorous rest or a supermotion actually containing in it parts of motion successively infinit were not so easie to determine If thus it were moved about in an instant the nature of it supposed to be incorruptible and the mover immortall remaining still in the same strength and minde he would not move it more slowly this day or yeare than he did the former This supposition admitted there should bee not onely parts successively infinite of one revolution but revolutions successiuely infinit in one and the same instant Or to speake more properly As these revolutions should not properly be termed motion but rather the product of motions infinitely swift united or made up into a vigorous permanency so should not the duration of one or of all these revolutions bee accounted as an instant or portion of time but a kinde of eternity or duration indivisibly permanent The motion of the eight sphere supposed to be such as hath beene said that is motion infinitely swift or not divisible by succession the Sunne moving successively as now it doth should have locall coexistence to everie starre in the eight Sphere to every point of the Eclipticke circle wherein it moves at one and the selfe same instant or in every least parcell of time Every Star in the eighth sphere every point should be converted into a permanent circle and so in one circle there should be circles for number infinite as many circles as there bee points or divisibilities in the Ecliptique circle Thus in Him that is eternall are Beings infinite and in Eternity are actually contained durations in succession infinite The former supposition admitted we could not say that the inferiour Orbes moving as now they doe did move after the eighth Sphere but that the times of their motion were eminently contained in it For the eighth Sphere being moved in an instant should lose the divisibility of time and the nature of motion with all the properties that accompany them not by defect as if it no way comprised them but by swallowing up time or division successively or potentially infinite into an actuall permanency By this supposition of passive motion made infinitely swift by the strength of the mover and improved into a kinde of actuall indivisible permanency we may conceive of the first Movers Eternity as Mathematicians conceive the true nature of a Sphere by imagining it to be produced by the motion of a semicircle upon the Axis For let the Eternall be but thus imagined to bee an intellectuall sphere capable of momentary motion or revolution throughout this world and the indivisible coexistence of his infinity to every part of time and place will be very conceivable Yet as Mathematicians perswade not themselves their figures are produced by motion but rightly conceive their nature to be such without any production as if they were so produced so let eternall duration bee esteemed more indivisible than the unity of motion conceived as infinitely swift yet not made indivisible by such swiftnesse of motion but indivisible onely of it selfe and by the infinite vigour of his vitall essence wherein all the perfection of motion or rest are if I may so speake indivisibly tempered or lest I should bee mistaken eminently contained The same proportion which motion contracted into stability hath unto succession hath divine Essence to all other Essences eminently containing all no one kinde formally This divine Essence whose essentiall property we conceive Eternity to be is truly the totality of being a totality not aggregated of parts but rather as Plotine intimates producing all other parts or kindes of being Eternity likewise is a totality of duration not aggregated of parts nor capable of accesse or addition but rather a totality from which all durations or successions flow without resolution or diminution of its infinite integrity As if a body should cast many shadowes of divers shapes in a running streame the shadowes vanish and are repayred in every moment without any diminution of the bodie CHAP. 7. Of the infinity of Divine Power 1 THe circumstances of time and place are presupposed the one as spectator the other as stage to all things which wanting place or time or being it self present themselves anew in their proper shape and forme But of things so presented operation or power in their kinde is the native and immediate property Nothing that hath any proper seat or existence numerable in this spacious Amphitheatre but is fitted for acting some part or other usefull for the maintenance of the whole Now all operation or power which according to the variety of things created is manifold and diverse doth give but such a shadow of that infinite power which is eminently contained in the union of infinite Essence as time and place did of his immensity and eternity The force and vertue of some things may perhaps more properly be termed strength or power passive then operation Howbeit even in the earth and earthly bodies by nature most dull there is a power or strength to sustaine waights laid upon them a power to resist contrary impulsions which perhaps essentially includes an active force or operation a power of swaying to the center which is no more passive than active but a meane betwixt both Even in the dullest body that is there is a secret force or slow
activity to assimilate other things to themselves or to preserve symbolizing natures In bodies lesse grosse and more unapt to resist violence offered as in the windes vapours or exhalations or in the spirits or influences which guide our bodies we may perceive an active force or power motive fully answerable to the greatest passive strength or resistance Other Elements or mixt bodies are indued with an operative power of producing the like or destroying contraries Celestiall bodies the Sunne especially have a productive force to bring forth plants out of their roots to nourish and continue life in al things It is perhaps impossible for any thing that hath not being of it selfe to receive infinity of being in any kind from another though infinite Impossible for the fire because the substance of it is finite to be infinitely hot but were it such it would be infinite in operation 2 As the Author or first setter forth of all things operative who alone truly is surpasseth all conceit of any distinct or numerable branch of being so is his power more eminently infinite in every kinde than all the united powers of severall natures each supposed infinitely operative in its owne kinde and for number likewise infinite can bee conceived to be Now what was generally observed before that things by nature most imperfect doe oftentimes best shadow divine perfections hath place againe in this particular Gods infinite power is clearliest manifested in creatures which seem least powerful Where wast thou said God to Iob when I laid the foundations of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest Or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened or who laid the corner stone thereof The excellent majesty of this speech sufficiently testifies it was uttered by God himselfe though taken from his mouth by the pen of man But setting aside the majesticke phrase or resemblance farre surmounting all resemblance all observance of poeticall decorum What cleerer fountaine of deeper admiration can the eye of mans understanding looke into then this that not onely every corner stone in the world with its full burthen but all the mighty buildings or erections which are seene upon the whole surface of the earth yea the whole earth it selfe with all the mountaines and rockes upon it with all the metalls or massie substance that are within it should be borne up by that which is lesse than any corner stone by that which indeed is no body or substance not so much as a meere angle or corner Yet so it hath pleased Him by whose wisedome the foundations of the earth were layd to make that little point or indivisible Center which is farthest removed from our sight the most conspicuous place and seate of that indivisible power which is infinite Let Mathematicians imagine what rules or reasons of equipendence they list their last resolution of all supportance into the Center must suppose the same truth which the Aegyptian Magicians confessed Hic digitus Dei est The finger of God is here Impossible it were for that which in it selfe is matter of nothing impregnably to support all things supportable unlesse it were supported by the finger of God And yet if we conceive of Him as Isaias describes Him all the strength and power that is manifested in the supportance of the whole earth and all therein is not the strength of his little finger Yea though wee should imagine that as the waight of solids amounts according to their masse or quantity so the sustentative force which is chambered up in the Center should be multiplyed according to the severall portions or divisibilities of magnitude successively immensurable yet this imagination of force so multiplyed it being divisible could not equalize that true and reall conceipt of force divine which ariseth from consideration that it is indivisibly seated throughout immensity To uphold earths innumerable much weightier and massier than this is which borne by him beareth all things would be no burthen to his power sustentative so from the effects his power though in it selfe one must receive from us plurality of denominations And yet fully commensurable to this power sustentative is his active strength or power motive He that spans the Heavens with his fist could tosse this Vniverse with greater ease than a Gyant doth a Tennis Ball throughout the boundlesse Courts of immensity Rocks of Adamant would sooner dissolve with the least fillep of his finger than bubbles of water with the breath of Canons 3 Our admiration of this his active power which we conceive as incomprehensible and altogether uncapable of increase may bee raised by calculating the imaginary degrees of active powers increase in creatures divisible as well in quantity as operation Though Powder converted into smoake be the common mother of all force which issueth from the terrible mouth of the Gunne yet the Canon sends forth his bullet though more apt to resist externall motion with greater violence than the Sachar and every Ordinance exceeds other in force of battery according to the quantity of the charge or length of barrell But were it possible for the same quantity of steele or iron to bee as speedily converted into such a fiery vapour as gunpowder is the blow would be ten times more irresistible then any that Gunpowder out of the same close concavity can make The reason is plaine the more solid or massie the substance to be dissolved is the greater quantity would it yeeld of fire or other rarer substance into which it were dissolved And the greater the quantity the more violent is the contraction of it into the same narrow roome and the more violent the contraction is the more vehement is the eruption and the ejaculation swifter Thus from vapours rarified or generated in greater quantity than the concavities of the earth wherein they are imprisoned without vent is naturally capable of doe Earthquakes become so terrible These and the like experiments bring forth this generall rule The active strength of bodies multiplieth according to the manner of contraction or close unition of parts concurring to the impulsion or eruption So doth the active force or vigour of motion alwayes increase according to the degrees of celerity which it accumulates Now though the most active and powerfull essence cannot be encompassed with walls of brass nor chambred up in vaults of steele albeit much wider than the heavens yet doth it every where more strictly gird it selfe with strength then the least or weakest body can be girt For what bonds can we prescribe so strict so close or firme as is the bond of indivisible unity which cannot possibly burst or admit eruption wherein notwithstanding infinite power doth as intirely and totally encampe it selfe as in immensity How incomparably then doth His active strength exceed all conceipt or comparison The vehemency of his motive power whose infinite Essence swallowes up the infinite degrees of succession in a
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
weild so high a prerogative with upright constancy But in that Holy and mighty One the reservation of such liberty as anon we intimate is a point of high perfection 6 That to be able to decree an absolute contingency as well as necessity is an essentiall branch of Omnipotency or power infinite shall by the assistance of this Power be clearly demonstrated in the Article of Creation That God did omnipotently decree a contingency in humane actions that the execution of this decree is a necessary consequent of his communicative goodnesse a consequent so necessary that unlesse this be granted we cannot acknowledge him to be truly good much lesse infinitely good shall by the favour of this his Goodness be fully declared in the Treatise of mans fall and of sinnes entrance into the World by it That which in this place wee take as granted is That Gods wisedome is no lesse infinite than his power that he perfectly foreknowes whatsoever by his omnipotency can be done that his power and wisedome are fully commensurable to his immensity and eternity that all these rules following are exactly parallell in true Divinity Gods Presence is not circumscriptible by the coexistence of his creatures He is in every one of them as a Center and all of them are in Him as in a circumference capable not of them only but of all that possibly can bee onely uncapable of Circumscription or Equality His Eternity is more than commensurable to time or any duration of created Entities It is in every duration as a permanent instant and all durations are contained in it as a fluent instant in a set time or as noonetide in the whole day His Power likewise may not be confined to effects that are have beene or shall bee the production of every thing out of nothing argues it to be truly infinite and yet the production of all is to the infinity of it not so much as a beame of light which is strained through a needles eye is to the body of the Sunne or to all the light diffused throughout the world Least of all may his infinite wisedome be comprehended within those effects which by his power have been produced or which it now doth or hereafter shall produce But looke how farre his immensity exceeds all reall or compleat space or his Eternity succession or the duration of things created or his Power all things already reduced from possibility to actuall existence so farre doth his infinite Wisedome surmount the most exact knowledge that can bee imagined of all things already ereated and their actions Nothing that is could have borne any part in the world without the light or direction of his Knowledge and yet that measure of his Knowledge which can bee gathered from the full harmony of this Vniverse is lesse in respect of it absolutely considered then skill to number digits is to the entire or exact knowledge of all proportions or other arithmeticall rules or affections that can arise from their multiplications or divisions The causes properties hidden vertues of each thing created are better knowne to Him than so much of them as we see or perceive by any other sense is to us and yet He knowes whatsoever by infinite power possibly might have beene but now is not whatsoever hereafter may be though it never shall be as perfectly as he doth the things which at this instant are heretofore have beene or hereafter must be 7 The subject wherein this his incomprehensible wisedome exhibits the most liuely and surest apprehensions for drawing our hearts after it in admiration is the harmony or mixture of contingency with necessity And this most conspicuous in moderating the free thoughts of Men or Angells and ordaining them to the certaine and necessary accomplishment of his glory The contingent means which by his permission and donation these creatures may use for attaining their severall ends or private good may be successively infinite And yet albeit the utmost possibilities of their varieties and incōstancies were reduced to act the ends notwithstanding which his infinite wisedome hath forecast in their creation should by any course of many thousands which they may take be as inevitably brought to passe as if no choice or freedome had beene left them or as if every succeeding thought had been drawne on by the former and al linked to that which hee first inspired or by his irresistible power produced with indissoluble chains of Adamantine Fate We would esteeme it great wisdome or cunning to use S. Austines illustratiō in a Fowler to be able to catch againe all the Birds which he had formerly caught after he had permitted every one of them to take wings and flye which way they listed God hath nets every where spred for catching such as his wisedome suffers to flye farthest from him or most to decline the wayes which in his goodnesse he had appointed for thē and which is most of all to be admired the very freedome or variety of mens thoughts so they be permitted to imploy them according to their owne liking becomes their most inevitable and most inextricable snare For all their thoughts are actually numbred in his infinite wisedome and the award of every thought determinately measured or defined by his Eternall Decree So farre is freedome of choice or contingency from being incompatible with the immutability of Gods will that without this infinite variety of choice or freedome of thought in man and Angels wee cannot rightly conceive him to be as infinitely wise as his decree is immutable 8 Free it was for mee to have thought or done somewhat in every minute of the last yeare whereby the whole frame of my cogitations or actions for this yeare following might have beene altered and yet should God have beene as true and principall a cause of this alteration and of every thought and deed thus altered as he is of those that de facto are past or of that which I now thinke or doe Nor should his will or pleasure as some object depend on mine but mine though contingently free necessarily subject unto his For unto every cogitation possible to man or Angell he hath everlastingly decreed a proportionate end to every antecedent possible a correspondent consequent which needs no other cause or meanes to produce it but onely the reducing of possibility granted by his decree into Act. For what way soever of many equally possible mans will doth encline Gods decree is a like necessary cause of all the good or evill that befalls him for it Did we that which we doe not but might doe many things would inevitably follow which now doe not Nor doe the things which at this instant befall me come to passe because he absolutely decreed them and none but them as we say in the first place But because hee decreed them as the inevitable consequents of some things which hee knew I would doe which notwithstanding hee both knew and had decreed that I might not have done For
branches of the divine Attributes or perfections somwhat may be gathered not unusefull for rectifying or bettering our apprehensions of Gods absolute and omnipotent decree A point though in all ages most difficult yet in this age become so common and so farre extended that no Divine can adventure upon any other service profitable for the present estate of Christs Militant Church but he shall be enforced either to make his passage through it or come so nigh unto it that hee must in good manners doe homage unto it That this Decree is for its tenour immutable if wee take it in the abstract or as it is in God is cleare from the attribute last handled that the same Decree is irresistible in its executions or that the things decreed are inevitable is evident from the attribute of Gods infinite Power or Omnipotency That this immutable irresistible Decree is Eternall or before all Times no man questions Yet is it not agreed upon by all either what a Decree is or what it is to be Eternall All least the most part doe not perfectly beare in minde the true importances of an Eternall Decree To this purpose have the former speculations concerning Eternity and Gods infinite wisedome beene praemised Lest by the incogitant use of these and the like Scripture Phrases God foreknowes or hath decreed all things from Eternity that slumber might creepe upon the unvigilant or unattentive Reader with whose dreames many deceived have thought and spoken of Gods Decree or predetermination of things to come as of Acts already irrevocably finished and accomplished And by a consequent errour resolve that it is as impossible for any thing to be otherwise than it is will be or hath beene as it is to recall that againe which is already past In which conceipt though they doe not expressely speake or thinke it they necessarily involve thus much That God by his Eternall and powerfull Decree did set the course of nature a going with an irresistable and unretractible swingde and since onely lookes upon it with an awfull eye as Masters sometimes watch their servants whether they goe the way they are commanded But it is a rule in Divinity not contradicted for ought I know by any Christian that there is altogether as great need and use of power and wisedome infinite to manage the world as there was at first to make it Pater meus operatur adhuc saith the Wisedome of God et ego operor My Father worketh hitherto and I worke And as hee ceaseth not to worke so doth he never cease to decree Omnia operatur secundum consilium voluntatis suae Hee worketh all things according to the counsell of his Will So that albeit the Counsell of his Will by which hee worketh be Eternall yet all things are not yet wrought by it Shall we say then he hath not decreed whatsoever doth or shall befall us Yes in this sense we may He doth not now first begin to decree thē but in as much as his Decrees have no end wee should remember withall that hee now decrees them And it were much safer for every man in particular to looke on Gods Decree concerning himselfe as present or coexistent to his whole course of life rather than on it as it was before the world or in Adam for so we shall thinke of it as of an Act past and finished which hath denounced sentence upon us more irrevocable than the Lawes of the Medes and Persians Howbeit even these lawes whiles they were in making suppose that Liberty in their Makers which they utterly tooke from them being once enacted 2 Gods Decrees are like theirs in that they are in themselves unalterable but not in that they make some evills which befall others inevitable or some casuall inconveniences unamendable No wisedome but that which is infinite and an Eternall Law in it selfe foreseeing all things that possibly can bee hath just warrant to make Decrees for men everlastingly immutable Too strict obligement unto Lawes positive or Decrees unalterable deprives both Lawgivers and others of their native Liberty and opportunity of doing good Were the Popes wisedome and integrity parallell to that supereminent dignity which he challengeth it were not amisse for the body whereof hee is the lawfull head if he exercised the same power over his Grants or Acts that hee doth over his breath alwayes reserving a liberty to send them forth or call them in to enlarge contract or invert them according to exigences or occasions present To alter his opinion of men as they doe theirs in points of usefull doctrine or their demeanours in matters of life curbing him this yeare whom hee priviledged the last yeare now punishing where he lately rewarded and shortly after rewarding where now hee punisheth would argue no mutability of mind or unsetled fickle disposition but rather immoveable constancy if so in all these changes he truly observed the rule of Iustice which because it is alwayes one and the same and never varies must needs afford different measures to different deserts and fit contrary dispositions with contrary recompences But seeing Princes and Governours are made of the same corrupted mold with those whom they governe oft-times exposed by height of place to greater blasts of mutabilitie and inconstancy than their inferiours Publicke Lawes have beene sought out by most Nations to runne like a straight line betwixt two distorted and crooked ones and to bee as a firme or barre betweene the tumultuous and raging passions of Princes and subjects which every foot as we say would fall foule were they not thus fended off one from the other Vpon this consideration many Conquerours have beene content to sheathe up a great part of their illimited power retayning some competent prerogatives to themselves and their successors in publicke Edicts or Lawes not altogether so unalterable as the Lawes of the Medes and Persians yet lesse subject to change then Lords purposes or Princes pleasures and every Act wherto they passe their consent restraines them of some former liberty and abates somewhat of their present greatnesse to whose length or continnance as Theopompus observed much by this meanes is added and it were better to live an hundred yeares as hee said with ingenuous health and strength then to swagger it for twenty with gyantly force or Athleticall constitution And albeit the Law which is a common looking glasse to direct the Prince in commanding and the subject in obeying may sometimes lay out authority and sometimes obedience or inflict punishment one while and dispense rewards another while in measure greater or lesse than a wise just Arbitrator chosen for these particular purposes would allow of yet hath it beene thought fittest for all parts rather to brooke these interposed mischiefes then to be perpetually subject to the former inconveniences of the Papacie if the Popes such as they are or other Princes should practise according to the Canonists rule Papa nunquam ligat sibi manus The Pope never tyes
fully consonant to Gods owne words to Ionah Chap. 4. 10 11. Then said the Lord thou hast had pitie on the Gourd for the which thou hast not labored neither madest it to grow which came up in a night and perished in a night And should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discerne between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle Amongst great men many oppresse their tenants but what Lord would spoile his proper inheritance whereto no other can be intituled or eate out the heart of that ground which hee cannot alienate or demise What Architect would deface his owne worke unlesse the image of his unskilfulnesse whereof the Creator cannot bee impeached be so apparant in it as he cannot but blush to behold it Or who would leave a goodly foundation bare or naked unlesse he be unable to reare it up without injustice Now seeing the Entitative Good of proper being is the foundation of that true happinesse which flowes from more speciall participation of Gods presence wheresoever he hath laid the one it is to all that rightly consider his Wisedome Truth and Goodnesse an assured pledge of his will and pleasure to finish it with the other As his nature is immutable so are his gifts without repentance The current of his joyfull beneficence can admit no intermission much lesse admixture of any evill Sorrow woe and misery must seeke some other Originall they have no hidden vent or secret issue from the Ocean of Ioy and Happinesse 9 As the fountaine of bodily light cannot send forth darknesse but uniformly diffuseth light and light onely throughout this visible Sphere so cannot the infinite Ocean of true felicity send forth any influence but such as is apt to cherish the seeds of joy and happinesse wherewith every creature capable of them was sowne in its first creation And as it is the property of light propagated or diffused from the Sunne to make such bodies as are capable of its penetration as Glasses Chrystall Pearle c. secondary fountains of light to others so doth the influence of divine goodnesse inspire all that are conformable to his will with desire of doing to others as he hath done to them that is of being secondary authors or instruments of good to all But such as wilfully strive against the streame of his over-flowing goodnesse or boysterously counterblast the sweet and placide spirations of celestiall influence become creators of their owne woe and raise unto themselves those stormes wherein they perish Yet so essentiall it is unto this infinite Fountaine of goodnesse however provoked to send forth onely streames of life and such is the vertue of the streames which issue from him that as well the evill and miseries which miscreants procure unto themselves as their mischievous intentions towards others infallibly occasion increase of joy and happinesse unto all that give free passage unto their current And this current of life which issueth from this infinite Ocean never dryes up is never wasted by diffusion The more it is dammed or quarved by opposition of the sonnes of darkenesse the more plentifully it overflowes the sonnes of light All the good which one refuseth or putteth from thē returnes in full measure to the other But if the miseries which wicked spirits or their conforts either suffer themselves or intend to others worke good to those that receive the influence of infinite goodnesse might he not without prejudice or imputation inspire these castawayes with such mischievous thoughts or at least intend their woe and misery as these are occasions or meanes of others happinesse or of his glory Wee are indeed forbid to doe evill that good may ensue but if it bee his will to have reprobates doe or suffer evill for the good of his chosen shall not both bee good as willed by him whose will in that hee hath absolute dominion over all his creatures is the rule of goodnesse CHAP. 13. In what sense or how Gods infinite will is said to be the rule of goodnesse 1 BAd was the doctrine and worse the application or use which Anaxarchus would have gathered from some Hieroglyphicall devices of Antiquity wherein Iustice was painted as Iupiters assistant in his Regiment Hereby saith this Sophister unto Alexander then bitterly lamenting the death of his dearest Friend Clytus whom he had newly slaine in his temelent rage your Majesty is given to understād that the decrees of great Monarchs who are a kinde of Gods on earth must bee reputed Oracles of Iustice and their practices may not bee reputed unjust either by themselves or by others But this sophisticall inversion of these Ancients meaning was too palpable to please either the wiser or honester sort of Heathen though living in those corrupt times For albeit many of them conceived of Iupiter as of a great King subject to rage and passion yet all of them held Iustice for an upright milde and vertuous Lady ready alwayes to mitigate never to ratifie his rigorous decrees alwayes tempering his wrath with equity The true Iehovah as he needes no sweet-tongued consort to moderate his anger as Abigail did Davids so hath he no use of such Sophisters as Anaxarchus to justifie the equity of his decrees by his Omnipotent Soveraignty or absolute dominion over all his creatures 2 To derogate ought from his power who is able to destroy both soule and body in hell fire I know is dangerous to compare the prerogatives of most absolute earthly Princes with his would be more odious Yet this comparison I may safely make He doth not more infinitely exceed the most impotent wretch on earth in power and greatnesse than he doth the greatest Monarch the world hath or ever had in Mercy Iustice and Loving-kindnesse nor is his will the rule of Goodnesse because the designes thereof are backt by infinite power but because holines doth so rule his power and moderate his will that the one cannot enjoyne or the other exact any thing not most consonant to the eternall or abstract patternes of equity His will revealed doth sufficiently warrant all our actions because we know that he wils nothing but what is just and good but this no way hindereth but rather supposeth Iustice and Goodnesse to be more essentiall objects of his will than they are of ours And therefore when it is said Things are good because God wils them this illative infers only the cause of our knowledge not of the goodness which we know and the logicall resolution of this vulgar Dialect would be this We know this or that to be good because Gods will revealed commends it for such But his will revealed commends it for such because it was in it nature good for unlesse such it had bin he had not willed it These principles though unquestionable to such as fetch their Divinity from the Fountaine will perhaps in the judgement of others that never taste it but
hell The reason why God thus plagued Pharaoh for not doing that which now he could not doe all possibility of amendment being taken from him was to teach all generations following by his fearefull end to beware of his desperate beginnings of struggling with God or of persecuting them whose patronage hee had in peculiar manner undertaken And here again there is no contradiction betweene these two proposition God from all eternity did will the death of Pharaoh God from all eternity did not will the death but rather the life of Pharaoh For albeit Pharaoh continued one and the same man from his birth unto his death yet did he not all this time continue one and the same object of Gods immutable will and eternall decree This object did alter as Pharaohs dispositions or affections towards God or his neighbours altered There is no contrariety much lesse any contradiction betweene these God unfaignedly loveth all men God doth not love but hate the Reprobate although they be men yea the greatest part of men For here the object of his love and hate is not the same he loves all men unfaignedly as they are men or as men which have not made up the full measure of iniquity but having made up that or having their soules betroathed unto wickednesse he hates them His hate of them as Reprobates is no lesse necessary or usuall than his love of them as men But though he necessarily bates them being once become Reprobates or having made up the full measure of iniquity yet was there no necessity layd upon them by his eternall decree to make up such a measure of iniquity 8 How these deductions will consort with some moderne Catechismes I doe not know sure I am they are consonant to the opinion of that learned Bishop and blessed Martyr in his Preface to his expositions of the ten Commandements a fit Catechisme for a Bishop to make Every man is called in the Scripture wicked and the enemy of God for the privation and lacke of faith and love that he oweth to God Et impii vocantur qui non omnino sunt pii that is They are called wicked that in all things honour not God beleeve not in God and observe not his Commandements as they should doe which we cannot do by reason of this naturall infirmity or hatred of the flesh as Paul calleth it against God In this sense taketh Paul this word wicked So must we interpret St. Paul and take his words or else no man should be damned Now we know that Paul himselfe St. Iohn and Christ damneth the contemners of God or such as willingly continue in sinne and will not repent Those the Scripture excludeth from the generall promise of grace Thou seest by the places afore rehearsed that though wee cannot beleeve in God as undoubtedly as is required by reason of this our naturall sicknesse and disease yet for Christs sake in the judgement of God wee are accounted as faithfull beleevers for whose sake this naturall disease and sicknesse is pardoned by what name soever S. Paul calleth the naturall infirmity or originall sinne in man And this imperfection or naturall sicknesse taken of Adam excludeth not the person from the promise of God in Christ except wee transgresse the limits and bounds of this originall sinne by our owne folly and malice and either of a contempt or hate of Gods word we fall into sinne and transforme our selves into the image of the devill Then wee exclude by this meanes our selves from the promises and merits of Christ who only received our infirmities and originall disease and not the contempt of him and his Law SECTION III. That Gods good will and pleasure is never frustrated albeit his unspeakeable love take no effect in many to whom it is unfeignedly tendered CHAP. 16. In what sense God may be said to have done all that he could for his Vineyard or for such as perish 1 TO found both parts of a contradiction in truth fals not within the Sphere of omnipotency and we may with consent of al Divines maintaine it to be impossible The true originall aswell of our aptnesse to conceive difficulties in the points proposed as our ignorance in assoyling them is because we extend not this Maxime so far as it naturally would reach and the reason why we extend it not so farre is our pronenesse to extend our owne power to the utmost and for the most part farther then justice or true goodnesse can accompany it It is our nature to be humorous and the nature of humor to be unconstant Fortunes character may be every sonne of Adams Motto Tantum constans in levitate Onely constant in unconstancy And being such nothing can imply any constant contradiction to our nature nothing that is truly and constantly the same but will one time or other contradict our changeable and inconstant humors And these enraged with contradiction doe Tyrant-like arme power without just tryall or examination without either respect or reverence against whatsoever contradicts them The right use of power in creatures meerely sensitive is to satiate their appetites of sense for nothing hath power to move it selfe but what is sensitive and all power whether of body or minde was bestowed on man for the execution of his will or accomplishing his desire of good but since his will by his fall became irregular and his desires corrupt his power is become like a common officer or undercommander to all his unruly appetites domineering by turne or succession all other inclinations being under the command of it So the wise man hath charactered the resolution of voluptuous men cap. 1. 6. Come on therefore let us enjoy the good things that are present and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth And ver 11. Let our strength be the Law of justice for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth Even in such as are by most esteemed good men and sober those notions of truth and equity which are naturall and implanted are so weake and ill taken that rather than upstart carnall appetites or desires which custome countenanceth should be enraged through their reluctance they presently yeeld their consents to such proposalls as were they resolute firme and constant would as offensively contradict them as punishment or paine doth our sense of pleasure Vnto such proposalls we often yeeld as are impossible to be approved by Equity to whom we usually professe our dearest love and allegiance with promises to frame our lives by her rules But love in us whether one simple and indivisible quality or an aggregation or cluster of divers inclinations all rooted in one Center is not alike set on divers objects Hence when it comes to opposition betweene sense and reason betweene our selves our private friends and common equity it divides it selfe unequally The particular inconveniences whereto we are daily exposed by the inordinate love of the world and the flesh are infinite all may be reduced to these
weale If God either by his omnipotent power or infinite wisedome had necessarily though without any violence restrained this possibility in man of declining from good to evill man had forthwith ceased to have beene truly and inherently good and ceasing to be such had utterly lost all possibilities of that estate whose pledge or earnest he received in his creation Gods goodnesse is his happinesse And his participative goodnesse is the foundation of mans happinesse So that not Gods justice onely but that loving kindnesse whereby hee created man and appointed him as heyre apparent of life eternall did remove all necessity from his will because the imposition of necessity whether laid upon him by power or wisdome infinite had utterly extinguished that goodnesse wherein it was onely possible for the creature to expresse the Creators goodnesse manifested in his creation Now that was not Gods essentiall or immutable goodnesse for that is incommunicable All the goodnesse man is capable of doth but expresse Gods goodnesse communicative It is the stampe of it communicated As God then did communicate his goodnesse to his creatures not by necessity but freely so could not the creature be truly good that is like his God by necessity but freely Nor was it possible for him to have beene either confirmed in such goodnesse as he had or translated to everlasting happinesse but by continuing freely good for some space or lesse evill than by the liberty which God by his immutable law had given him in his creation hee possibly might have beene Continuing good though but for a while without necessity the riches of Gods free bounty had beene continually increased towards him and had finally established him in everlasting blisse by confirmation of him in true goodnesse or by investing him with immortality Since his fall wee are not usually capable of mercy or of the increase of his bounty much lesse of these everlasting fruits whereof blessings temporall are the pledges but by free abstinence from some evills unto whose practices the possibility of our corrupted nature might be improved And albeit we doe not alway that which is in its nature evill yet we can doe nothing well but even the good which we do we doe it naughtily yet unlesse we doe both lesse evill and the good which we do lesse naughtily than we possibly might doe God still diminisheth the riches of his bounty towards us and by inhibiting the sweet influence of his gracious providence suffers us to fall from one wickednesse to another being prone to runne headlong into all if once the reines of our unruly appetites bee given into our unweildie hands Farre bee it from any sonne of Adam to thinke hee is able without Gods love and favour to withdraw himselfe from the extremities of mischiefe much lesse to doe such good as may make him capable of well-doing So strong is our love to sinfull pleasures since our first parents gave the reines unto our appetite that none can recall themselves or repent without the attractions of infinite love And yet many whom this infinite love doth daily imbrace because they apprehend not it are never brought by the attractions of it to true repentance Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse saith the Apostle Rom. 2. 4. his forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance Of whom speakes he thus of such onely as truly repent and by patient continuance in wel-doing seeke for glory honour and immortality nay but of them who for hardnesse of heart cannot repent but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God 4 Were the riches of his bounty therefore fained or did hee onely profer but not purpose to draw them unto repentance which repented not this is no part of our heavenly Fathers perfection no fruit of that wisedome which is from above but a point of earthly policy devoid of honesty a meere tricke of wordly wit to whose practice nothing but weaknesse and impotence to accomplish great desires can mis-incline mans corrupted nature But doth it not argue the like impotency though no such want of integrity in God not to effect what he wils more ardently and more unfainedly than man can doe the increase or continuance of his welfare or avoidance of endlesse misery No it being supposed as we have said that man is not capable of endlesse joyes unlesse he will be wrought by meere love without the impulsions of unresistible power unfaignedly to love him that hath prepared them for him the same infinite love which continually drawes him unto repentance was in congruity to leave him a possibility not to be drawne by it For coactive penitency would have frustrated the end to which repentance is but a meane subordinate The imployment or exercise of Gods almighty power to make men repent against their wils or before they were wrought to a willingnesse by the sweet attractions of his infinite love or by threatnings of judgements not infinite or irresistible would be like the indeavors of a loving Father more strong than circumspect who out of pity to his sonne whom he sees ready to be choked with water should strangle him by violent haling him to the shore Most men by ascribing that unto Gods power which is the peculiar and essentiall effect of his love doe finally misse of that good which both infallibly conspire to poure without measure upon all such as take right and orderly hold of them How shall wee then fasten our faith to them aright we are to beleeve that Gods infinite power shall effect without controule or checke of any thing in heaven or earth all things possible for their endlesse good that truly love him but constraines no mans will to love him being alwaies armed against wilfull neglectors of his unfaigned love No man would argue his love to be lesse than infinite because not able to produce the effects of infinite power and as little reason wee have to thinke that power though infinite should bee the true immediate parent of love which never springs in any reasonable creature but from the seedes of love or lovelines sown in the humane soule though they doe not alwayes prosper Constraint because it is the proper and immediate effect of power is a companion fit for lust whose satisfaction breedes rather a loathing of the parties constrained than any good wil or purpose to reward them for being unwilling unloving or impatient passives nothing but true unforced love can yeeld contentment unto love Needy man to whom benevolences though wrested are ever gratefull cannot bee induced to love the parties from whom they are wrested For Non tantum ingratum sed invisum est beneficium superbè datum Good offices whilest they are presented by pride are not onely ungratefull but odious But God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth no man as he esteemes no gifts howsoever given so he alwayes detests the niggardly
true happinesse might be inspired with life and sense they could not communicate halfe that happinesse to any one man though they wold choose his hart for their closet or actuate his reasonable soule as it doth the sensitive that is imparted by him to al his chosen who is entirely infinite happinesse but not happinesse onely For unto the impenitent and despisers of his bountie of his love his mercy grace and salvation he is justice indignation and severity it selfe Nemesis her selfe were she enabled with spirit life and power much greater then the Heathens ascribed unto her and permitted to rage without controle of any superiour law should not bee able with all the assistance the Furies could afford her to render vengeance unto Satan and his wicked Angles in such full and exquisite measure as the just Iudge will doe in that last dreadfull day Then shall he truely appeare to be as our Apostle speakes All in All the infinite abstract of all those powers which the heathens adored for gods as authors either of good or of evill Then shall he fully appeare to be mercy goodness grace and felicity Nemesis pavâ—r and terrour it selfe the indivisible and incomprehensible Idea of all things which in this life our love did seeke after or our feare naturally laboured to avoyd The onely loadstone whereto our love our desire in our creation were directed was his goodnesse and loving kindnesse And feare was implanted in our nature as an Helme or Rudder to divert us from his immutable justice or indignation which are as rockes immoveable against whom whosoever shall carelessely or presumptuously runne must everlastingly perish without redemption FINIS A TREATISE OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE AND ATTRIBVTES THE SECOND PART CONTAINING The Attribute of Omnipotency of Creation and Providence c. BY THOMAS IACKSON Doctor in Divinitie Chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinary and Vicar of S. Nicolas Church in the Towne of Newcastle vpon Tyne LONDON Printed for IOHN CLARKE and are to be sold at his shop under St. Peters Church in Cornehill 1629. THE CONTENTS OF THE SEVERALL Chapters in this ensuing TREATISE SECTION I. OF the Attribute of Omnipotency and creative power Chap. Folio 1 The Title of Almighty is not personall to the Father but essntiall to the Godhead 1 2 Of Omnipotency and of its object of possibility and of impossibility 4 3 This visible world did witnesse the invisible power and unity of the Godhead unto the Ancient Heathens 15 4 The first objection of the Atheist Of nothing nothing can be made Of the doubtful sense of this naturall how far it is true and how far it is false 19 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 prove the Naturalists Maxime Of nothing nothing can be made 25 6 The second objection of the Naturalist Every agent praesupposeth a patient or passive subject to worke upon cannot be proved by any induction The contradictorie to this Maxime proued by sufficient induction 31 7 Shewing by reasons philosophicall that aswell the physicall matter of bodies sublunary as the celestiall bodies which work upon it were of necessity to have a beginning of their Being and Duration 45 8 Discussing the second generall proposed Whether the making something of nothing rightly argue a power Omnipotent 57 SECT II. OF Divine Providence in generall and how Contingency and necessity in things created are subiect unto it Chapter Folio 9 Of the perpetuall dependance which all things created have on the Almighty Creator both for their being and their operations 65 10 The usuall and daily operations of naturall causes with their severall events or successes are as immediately ascribed to the Creator by the Prophets as the first Creation of all things with the reasons why they are so ascribed 80 11 Containing the summe of what we are to beleeue in this Article of Creation and of the duties whereto it binds us with an introduction to the Article of His Providence 87 12 Though nothing can fall out otherwise then God hath decreed yet God hath decreed that many things may fall out otherwise than they doe 98 13 Contingency is absolutely possible and part of the object of Omnipotency as formall a part as necessity is 102 14 The former conclusion proved by the consent of all the Ancients whether Christians or Heathens which did dislike the errour of the Stoickes 109 15 The principall conclusions which are held by the favourers of absolute necessity may be more clearly justified and acquitted from all inconveniences by admitting a mixt possibilitie or contingency in humane actions 118 16 The former contingency in humane actions or mutuall possibility of obtaining reward or incurring punishment proved by the infallibile rule of faith and by the tenour of Gods Covenant with his people 126 17 That Gods will is alwayes done albeit many particulars which God willeth bee not done and many done which he willeth should not be done 137 18 Of the distinction of Gods will into Antecedent Consequent Of the explication and use of it 146 19 Of the divers acceptions or importances of Fate especially among the Heathen writers 151 20 Of the affinitie or alliance which Fates had to necessitie to Fortune or chance in the opinion of Heathen writers 160 21 Of the proper subject and nature of Fate 169 22 The opposite opinions of the Stoicks and Epicures In what sense it is true that all things are necessary in respect of Gods decree 179 23 Of the degrees of necessity and of the originall of inevitable or absolute necessity 184 SECT III. OF the manifestation of Divine Providence in the remarkable erection declination and periods of Kingdomes in over-ruling policie and disposing the success of humane undertakings Chapter Folio 24 Of the contrary Fates or awards whereof Davids temporall kingdome was capable and of its devolution from Gods antecedent to his consequent Will 194 25 Of the sudden and strange erection of the Macedonian Empire and the manifestation of Gods special providence in Alexanders expedition and successe 213 26 Of the erection of the Chaldean Empire and of the sudden destruction of it by the Persian with the remarkeable documents of Gods speciall providence in raising up the Persian by the ruine of the Chaldean Monarchy 224 27 Of Gods speciall providence in raising and ruinating the Roman Empire 259 28 Why God is called the Lord of Hosts or the Lord mighty in Battaile Of his speciall providence in managing Warres 288 29 Of Gods speciall providence in making unexpected peace and raising unexpected warre 314 30 Of Gods speciall providence in defeating cunning plots and conspiracies and in accomplishing extraordinary matters by meanes ordinary 320 SECT IV. OF Gods speciall Providence in suiting punishments unto the nature and qualitie of offences committed by men Chapter Folio 31 Of the rule of retaliation or counterpassion And how forcible punishments inflicted by this
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