onely but impossible may be done or made by power Omnipotent Or may wee say that impossibilitie is eyther something or at least as some have taught a degree or part of non esse or of nothing But how can that which is not have any degrees or parts Or admit we might conceive things impossible or impossibilities to be degrees or parts of nothing yet so conceived wee must needs conceive them to have the same negative conditions or properties which are attributed to non esse to simple not being or to nothing that is they might be such objects of infinite power as non esse or not being is Yet he that made all things that are of nothing and can resolve them into nothing againe doth never attempt or profer to resolve them into impossibilities nor did hee make any thing of impossibles Whether then impossibilitie or impossibles be something or nothing how is it possible they should so resist the power Omnipotent which can doe all things as that nothing can be made of them Lastly if impossibilities can be no objects of Gods power then things possible or possibilities must be the onely object of it and so we shall fall into the former circle that God can doe those things onely that are possible and those things onely are possible which God can doe 4 Here the Schooles acutely distinguish betweene possibilitie relative and absolute Possibilitie relative being the first draught or capacitie of all being or perfection limited must needs be founded upon Omnipotencie nothing is relatively possible but by reference to or by denomination from this Almighty power Absolute possibilitie they conceive ad modum objecti as it were an object that doth terminate Omnipotent power not positively as colours do sight but privatively as darknesse doth sight or as an empty sphere without which Omnipotencie it selfe doth never worke This absolute possibilitie or possibilitie meerly Logicall which is presupposed to relative possibilitie as light or colour is to visibilitie cannot otherwise be notified or expressed than by this negative of not implying contradiction But here the former difficultie concerning impossibilities meets with us in another shape For it will be againe demanded whether contradiction be any thing or nothing or how it should come to oppose Gods Almightie power more then eyther non esse simple not being or all things that are possibly can doe Can it bee lesse then nothing That is impossible rather it is if not so much more yet so much worse then nothing as that it cannot possibly beare the true forme or character of any thing and for this reason can be no object of power Omnipotent Vnder that notion which wee have of Omnipotencie or infinite Beeing Truth it selfe and Vnitie it selfe or Identitie are as essentially included as Entitie or Being it selfe It is no impotency in God but rather the prerogative of his Omnipotencie that he cannot weaken his power by division nor admit any mixture of imbecilitie that he cannot deny or contradict himselfe In that hee is infinitely true or infinite Truth it selfe the ratification or approbation of contradictions is more incompatible with his nature or Essence than falshood is with truth than weaknesse with power than malice with goodnes There is no falshood unlesse it include some degrees or seeds of contradiction as all Truth is the offspring of unitie or Identitie In conclusion as all things which are or possibly may be can be no more then participations of his Beeing who is Beeing it selfe so they must by an eternall Law whensoever they begin to be beare a true though an imperfect resemblance of his unitie of his Identitie of his veracitie as well as of his power which is omnipotently true omnipotently just 5 In answer to the last difficultie proposed it must be said that impossibilitie is neyther any positive Entitie nor is it any part or branch of non esse or of nothing For in respect of him who is All more then all things there can be no absolute non esse Hee calleth things that are not as if they were that is hee can by his sole wrod make all things which yet are not which yet have not beene to have true being Hee can make any thing of nothing That then which we call impossibilitie must not be derived from non esse nor from falshood which is finally resolved into contradiction So that the rule of contradiction is the Test by which impossibilities as well as falshood must be discovered and it is more to bee impossible then to bee false From what fountaine then doth impossibilitie spring From absolute and Omnipotent power or from the infinitie of the Divine nature But seeing in him all power and being is contained seeing the very possibilitie of limited being takes its beginning from him the possibilitie of weakening his power the possibilitie of contradicting or opposing himselfe must by the eternall Law be excluded from the object of Omnipotencie As we say two negatives make an affirmative so to be unable to dis-enable it selfe is no imperfection no impotencie but the greatest perfection the highest degree of power wherof any nature is capable because the impossibilitie of dis-enabling or weakning himselfe is a positive branch of the prerogative of Omnipotencie 2. It is not so true an argument of power in men to be illimited by law or to be able to doe what they list as to bee willing to doe nothing but that which is lawfull and just unlesse mans will be a law to his power and goodnesse a law unto his will how absolute and illimited soever his power may bee in respect of other men or of any coactive law which they can make to restraine it it may quickly come to make an end of it selfe And the end or cessation of power absolute is the worst kind of limit that can be set unto it The power of the Persian kings was sometimes so absolute and so illimited that Cambyses having no possitive law to curbe his will fell in love with his owne sister And yet so naturall is the notion of mans subjection unto some law even unto men of corrupt mindes that this lawlesse King consulted his Iudges whether his desire to enjoy the love of his sister might be countenanced by law The effect of these Sages answer was that they knew no law in speciall which might warrant the brother to marry the sister but they had found a transcendent law by which the Kings of Persia might doe what they list By the like prerogative of this transcendent law another King upon her request did delegate his absolute power unto his Queene for a day And she by delegation of this power having libertie to doe what she list did use it to the destruction of him that gave it her for shee cut off his head before she surrendred it It is then a branch of the Almighties prerogative that his omnipotent power cannot for a moment be delegated or bequeathed to any other
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
made upon like accidents in generall That law or rule of equity saith he which wretched men in effect deny whilest they doe wrong to others the sâ—mâ— law the samâ— men desire might be in force whilst they suffer wrong or harms by â—t heâ—s For example he thâ—◠〈◊〉 wrong doth wish what the Fâ—â—le saith in his heart there were no God for so he might hope to escape that vengeance which whilest he thinks of a God or justice divine hangs over his head uncessantly threatning to fall upon him But hee that suffers wrong is willing to beleeve there is a God and heartily wisheth it so to be that by his assistance he may bee supported against the evills which he suffers It is for this reason saith this Philosopher expedient that such as grieve and afflict others should have experience of the like affliction to the end that being taught by their owne losse or grievance they might learne that truth which being blinded by avarice or other unruly desire they could not see before And this truth or good lesson they may easily learne so they will undergoe the mulct or punishment due to their offence with submission or patience 6 Albeit the Cardinall had beene a flat Atheist before or one at least that had not God in his thoughts whilest he sought to please the rigorous humour of this King with an invention so displeasing unto others yet after experience had taught him how exactly that misery had befalne himselfe which by his furtherance had befalne many or was likely to befall them hee did no question often wiâ—h in his heart that the rule of retaliation wherwith he was visited might be constant and unpartiall that King Lewis himselfe might not bee exempted from its visitation Now unto what rule or law could so great a King bee subject besides that one everliving rule or eternall Law it selfe He that heartily wisheth Iustice might bee done on such as have full power and authority to doe it but will not doe it doth implicitely yet necessarily acknowledge a Law or Iudge supreame Iustice it selfe so is God And he that seriously desires mitigation of that paine or misery which by the irresistible force of humane authority is inflicted on him doth acknowledge a mercy more soveraigne than any earthly power and this can be no other than God who is mercy it selfe Many may cast the feare of God out of their thoughts but none all notions of divine Iustice out of their hearts These notions or apprehensions of an everliving rule of equity mercy and justice are so deeply rooted in the consciences of all and are themselves of such an immortall nature as they can never be so utterly extinguished in any but that affliction will inspire them with fresh life and motion and make them breathe out supplications to the supreme Iudge either for mercy towards themselves or for justice upon other 7 The particular evills which Lewis by Divine Iustice in this life suffred haply had never come to the exact notice of posterity unlesse Cominaeus his wits had beene set on worke to observe them by his experience or foresufferance of the like evills from Lewis or by his procurement Besides this Authors imprisonment eight months in the iron Cage another evill there was wherein no ancient servant or follower of this King but had a large portion For he had either a naturall inclination or a disposition acquired by custome to hold them whom he did not formally sentence to any set punishment in a perpetuall feare or anxiety of minde Now the consciousnesse of this his disposition and customary practice in his best and able dayes did as it were binde him over to indure the like torments in his feeble and declining yeares Metus pessimus Tyrannus To live in perpetuall feare is to live under the most cruell Tyranny that can bee And unto this Tyranny greatest Tyrants are more subject and more obnoxious than their inferiours can be to them For though it be possible for one man to keepe many thousands in perpetuall awe and feare yet is it not so much for every man of so many in his owne particular to feare one man how greatly soever as it is for one man how great soever to stand in feare but of halfe so many Yet can no man be so great or so well guarded as not to have often and just occasion to feare some harme or other from everie one whom he hath made to feare him more than is fitting Whence he that seekes to sowe the seedes of feare in the hearts of others doth but thereby as it were consecrate his owne heart or brest to be the receptacle or store-house of the multiplied increase or crop For even in this case that saying is most true As every one sowes so shall he reape What other issue could be expected from Lewis his rigid practise upon others and his owne native timorous and ignoble disposition than such tormenting jealousies and perplexities as Cominaeus tells us in his old age did seize upon him and enforce him to feare the vertue and worth of his dearest friends not daring to trust sonne or daughter or sonne in law Now it is more than a Purgatorie even an Hell upon earth for a man which can take no joy in himselfe to deprive himselfe of all comfort from his dearest friends and them of all comfort from him So uncomfortable was the Duke of Bourbon his Sonne in Lawes companie to Lewis and Lewis his company unto him that when he came to visit him in peace and out of loyall respect and duty he caused a slye search to be made of him and of another Earle his companion whether they did not beare offensive weapons under their garments thus polluting the nuptiall joyes of his late maried sonne and heyre with sordid jealousies of his sonne in Law CHAP. 33. How the former law of retaliation hath been executed upon Princes according to Arithmeticall proportion or according to the rule of commutative justice 1 BVt however Lewis of France were punished according to the rule of Retaliation or counterpassion yet in the manner of retribution the righteous Lord did observe a kinde of Geometricall proportion The affliction or visitation it selfe was the just award of punitive Iustice yet the form of proceeding bears the character of humane distributive Iustice which hath usually some respect to the dignity of the persons awarded So humane Laws which punish capital crimes with death are dispensed with by the favour of the Prince for the manner of death That is not so ignominious or dishonorable in the execution upoÌ„ Nobles as upoÌ„ inferiors involved in the same capitall crime or treason no not albeit the Nobles be principalls and inferiours but accessories or assistants But this favourable kind of punishment for the externall forme God doth not alwaies use towards Princes If many times he may seeme to beare respect or favour unto their place or persons this ariseth not
all things againe are in his power as strength or force to move our limbes is in our sinewes or motive faculty The perfections of all things are truly said to be in Him in as much as whatsoever is or can bee done by their efficacy or vertue Hee alone can doe without them Hee could feed all the beasts of the field without grasse heale every disease without herbe mettall or other matter of medicine by his sole word not uttered by breathing or any other kinde of motion not distinct from his life or essence Hee is life it selfe yet is not his life supported by any corporeall masse or praeexistent nature nor clothed with such sense as ours is for sense in as much as it cannot be without a corporeall organ is an imperfect kind of knowledge Paine hee cannot feele as we doe because that tendeth to destruction which is the period of imperfection yet what soever paine any sensible or materiall object can inflict upon us He alone can inflict the same in an higher degree The measure of paine likewise which we feele by sense He knows much better without sense or feeling of it But when wee say all things are in Him after a more excellent manner than they are or can bee in themselves Wee must not conceipt a multitude or diversity of excellencies in his Essence answering to the severall natures of things created We must not imagine one excellencie sutable to elementary bodies another to mixt a third to vegetables a fourth to sense c. one to the humane nature another to the Angelicall And if Plato meant there were as many severall Idaea's eternally extant whether in the first cause of things or without Him as there were substances specifically distinct one from another his opinion may neither be followed nor approved by any Christian In all these Divine Excellency as one face in many glasses of different frame is diversly represented being in it selfe more truly one than any other entity that is termed one or then any bond of union betweene things united Of natures extant some to our capacity represent Him better some worse not the meanest or basest but is in some sort like Him not the most excellent creature that is not all the excellencies of all can so fully represent his nature as an Apes shadow doth a Mans body But what in other cases would seeme most strange infinite variety best sets forth the admirable excellency of his indivisible unity 3 Touching the question proposed Whether he were one excellency or all excellencies whether he were one perfection or all perfections Respondent ultima primis The answer is in a manner given in the beginning of this Discourse Though hee that saith God is all perfections excepts none yet hee includes onely perfections numerable and participated And to say He were onely one perfection implyes onely perfection limited and therefore perfection borrowed not independent Or admitting there be a meane betweene all or some perfections and one perfection which may fitly be expressed by all perfection yet he that should thus say God is the universall unity or totality of perfection had need to distinguish acurately of universality and totality and define Vniversale ante rem more exquisitely than the Platonickes doe that he may acquit his meaning from suspition of such totality or universality as ariseth not onely by aggregation of parts but whose extent is no more than equall to all its parts For every other universall or whole is fully equalized by all the parts taken together whereas the Divine Nature infinitely exceeds all particular natures or perfections possible though in number they could be infinite It is then if any man list so to speake such a totality or universality as cannot bee augmented much lesse made up by multiplication of any other perfection though prosecuted in infinitum neither diminishable or exhaustible by multiplicity or division of particulars derived from it But whether wee consider this His infinite Essence in it selfe or as it eminently containes all things possible the incomprehensibility of it is in both respects more fully intimated exprest it cannot be by indefinite formes of speech than by addition of any definite termes whether of singularity universality or totality Hee speakes more fully and more safely that saith God is being it selfe or perfection it selfe than he that saith he is the onely being or all being the onely perfection or all perfection the totality of being and of perfection So all plurality be excluded we expresse his being and perfection best by leaving them as they truly are without all quantity 4 That all plurality not onely of Idaeall perfections answering to the natures of things numerable or created but of internall perfections whose different titles necessarily breed plurality of conceits in us must be excluded from the true orthodoxall intellectuall apprehension of the illimited Essence may from the former maine principle be thus evinced In that Hee is without beginning without end without all cause of being without dependence we cannot imagine or at least our understanding must correct our imaginations if they shall suggest his power to bee as the stemme wisedome goodnesse and other like atributes as branches growing from his being or essence as from the Root For if his Being or Essence be absolutely independent it is absolutely illimited and being such what could limit or restraine it from being life from being power from being wisedome from being goodnesse from being infinitely whatsoever any thing that hath being is He that affirmes any of these attributes to bee what another is not or divine Essence not to bee identically what all those are must grant as well the Attributes as the Essence to be finite and limited If power in God have a being distinct from wisedome and wisedome another being distinct from goodnesse one must needs want so much of infinite being as another hath of proper being distinct from it and at the best they can bee but infinite secundùm quid or in their ranke Againe if any of them be what Essence identically is not Essence cannot bee infinite because wisedome power and being have their severall beings distinct from it And the nearer these come whether severally or joyntly considered to the nature of true infinity the more naked and impotent they leave their mother-Essence if we once grant Essence and them to bee distinct as Parents and children or as root and branch or to what use should powerlesse Essence serve to support these branches of infinity this it could not doe without infinite power And those branches if they need a root or supportance their being must needs bee dependent and therefore limited 5 From the former definition of absolute infinity Infinitum est extra quod nihil est We may conclude that unlesse all power unlesse all wisedome unlesse all goodnesse unlesse all that truly is or can possibly be supposed to have true being bee identically contained in Gods Essence He could not be
so it be much affected the lesse choice of meanes is lest the more eagerly wee apply our selves unto their use and strive as it were to straine out successe by close embracing them And for this reason ignorance or want of reason to forecast variety of meanes for bringing about our much desired ends is the mother of selfe-will and impatience For what is selfe-will if a man should define it but a stiffe adherence to some one or few particular meanes neither onely nor chiefly necessary to the maine point And wits conscious of their owne weakness for conquering what they eagerly desire presently call in power wrath or violence as partiall or mercenary seconds to assist them Whereas hee that out of fertility of invention can furnish himselfe beforehand with store of likely meanes for accomplishing his purpose cannot much esteeme the losse or miscariage of some one or two Howbeit as mans wit in this case is but finite so his patience cannot be compleat Even the wisest will be moved to wrath or violence or other foule play if the game whereat he shoots be faire and good and most of his strings already broken Nor can he be absolutely secure of good successe so long as the issue is subject to contingency and may fall without the Horizon of his foresight and contrivance But wisedome infinite doth compleatly arme the Omnipotent Majesty if I may so speake with infinite patience and long-suffering towards such as every minute of their lives violently thwart and crosse some or other particular meanes which he had ordained for his glory and their good Hee is light saith the Apostle and in him is no darknesse He distinguisheth the fruits of light from fruits of darknesse before they are even before he gave them possibility of being As impossible it is for his will to decline from that which he discernes to be truly good as for his infinite Essence to shrinke in being Many things may as every thing that is evill doth fall out against his will but nothing without his knowledge or besides his expectation That which in its owne nature as being made such by his unalterable decree is absolutely contingent is not casuall in respect of his providence or eternall wisedome In that he fully comprehends the number of all meanes possible and can mixe the severall possibilities of their miscariage in what degree or proportion he list he may and oft-times doth inevitably forecast the full accomplishment of his proposed ends by multiplicity of meanes in themselves not inevitable but contingent So that successe is onely necessary to the last yet not absolutely necessary unto it All the necessity it hath is oft-times gotten by casuall miscariage of the possibilities bestowed upon the former as if he ordained the apprehension of a Traytor or of a Malefactor by an hundred meanes all by the immutable decree alike possible and equally probable if ninety and nine doe misse the hundreth and last by the rules of Eternall Wisedome must of necessity take But in that it was possible for the former to have taken successe falls to this last not by absolute necessity but as it were by lott for it might have beene prevented by the former by supposall onely of whose miscariage it is now necessary And yet successe it selfe or the accomplishment of the end proposed by infinite wisedome was absolutely necessary and immutable 5 There is a fallacy though the simplest one that ever was set to catch any wise man wherein many excellent wits of these latter ages with some of the former have beene pitifully intangled The snare wherein it were not possible for any besides themselves to catch them they thus frame or set Whatsoever God hath decreed must of necessity come to passe But God hath decreed every thing that is Therefore every thing that is comes to passe of necessity All things are necessary at least in respect of Gods decree The extract or corrallary whereof in briefe is this It is impossible for ought that is not to bee for ought that hath beene not to have beene for ought that is not to be impossible for ought to be hereafter that shall not be But if it be as here I suppose very consonant to infinite wisedome altogether necessary to infinite goodnesse and no way impossible for infinite power to decree contingency as well as necessity or that some effects should bee as truly contingent as others are necessary a conclusion quite contradictory to that late inferred wil be the onely lawfull issue of the former Maxime or major proposition matched with a minor of our choosing Let the major proposition stand as it did before Whatsoever God hath decreed must of necessity come to passe with this additionall Nothing can come to passe otherwise than God hath decreed it shall or may come to passe The minor proposition which if our choice may stand shall be consort to the major is this But God hath decreed contingency as well as necessity or that some effects should bee as truly contingent as others are necessary Therefore of necessity there must bee contingency or effects contingent The immediate consequence whereof is this There is an absolute necessity that some things which have not beene might have beene That some things which have beene might not have beene That some things which are not might be That some things which are might not be That some things which shall not be hereafter might bee That some things which shall be hereafter might not be But as ill weeds grow apace so the late mentioned errour once conceived was quickly delivered of a second which derived the infallible certainty of Gods foreknowing things future from an infallible necessity as they conceived it laid upon them before they had being by his immutable decree But every wise decree presupposeth wisedome and wisedome essentially includeth knowledge shall we then grant that Gods Knowledge is antecedent and his foreknowledge consequent to his decrees or shall we say he did inevitably decree the obliquity of Iewish blasphemy against his Sonne because he did most certainly foreknow it or that hee did therefore certainly foreknow it because hee had irresistibly decreed it Most certaine it is that he did as perfectly foresee or foreknow all the obliquities of their malice blasphemy against Christ as he did their very acts or doings if those could be distinguished from their acts or doings Briefly to admit the former conclusion That the Eternall foreknowes all things because he decrees them or that they are absolutely necessary in respect of his decree were to imprison his infinite wisedome in his selfe-fettered power to restraine the Eternall Majestie from using such liberty in his everlasting decrees as some earthly Monarchs usurpe in causes temporall or civill For Papae nunquam ligat sibi manus The Pope as they say never tyeth his owne hands by any Grant or Patents which is a fault in him onely because he is otherwise very faulty and unsufficient to support or
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
his first sinne or appetite of the forbidden fruite to bee necessarie or necessitate his will in his sinister choyces This were all one as to say that God were the immediate and necessarie cause of sinne of death of all the evills that have befallen mankinde since Adam For he is the sole immediate and necessarie cause of all things which hee so decrees as they cannot possibly fall out otherwise For him to erre in decreeing or for the execution of his decree to bee defeated is impossible In respect of his proper and adaequate object and peremptorily intended effect his will is a more irresistible more powerfully necessitating cause than any other cause whatsoever Now if Gods will had beene to leave no possibility for Adams perserverance his fall had beene the compleat object of Gods decree concerning our first estate and by consequence Gods decree or will had beene the first cause of sinnes first entrance into the world CHAP. 14. The former conclusion proved by the consent of all the Ancients whether Christians or Heathens which did dislike the errour of the Stoikes THE incommodious or inconsiderate speeches which some of better note and antiquitie have let fall were as I perswade my selfe but symptomes of their provoked zeale or eager desire to salve those grosse absurdities which they had rightly espied in others But it is alwaies more easie to expugne an errour or salve a particular inconvenience then to provide that no more shall follow upon the cure or medicine Had those famous lamps of Gods Church by whose light many grosse opinions have beene discried and reformed seene the inconveniences which follow upon their owne positions as clearely as many of their friends since have done it would bee a foule slander in us to suspect that they would not wil-willingly have altered their dialect or taken advise for expressing their good meaning in tearmes more safe more proper and scholastique If otherwise we abstract their speeches from that respect and reverence which we owe unto their memorie or that good opinion which best men have had of their sinceritie I cannot see wherein the necescesarie consequences of their opinions as they are usually expressed comes short of the Manichees errors or wherein they differ at all from the Stoicks The Manichees held all evill and mischiefe in the world to fall out by inevitable necessity but this necessitie they derived from an evill Author from a prime cause or Creator of evill onely not of any thing that was good And better it is for it is more consonant to our Saviours advise to acknowledge the tree for evill where the fruite is evill then to justifie it for good when the fruite is apparently and of necessitie naught The pertinacie or stiffenesse in this common error Evils and mischiefe or wicked actions fall out by necessitie being presupposed aequall they adde lesse sinne or errour to it which hence acknowledge a prime cause of evill or a cause evill by fatall necessitie then those which hold evill to be necessary in respect of his Omnipotent decree who is infinitely good In fine the Manichees were grosse haeretiques in holding evill and mischiefe to fall out by inevitable necessitie but this heresie once admitted it was rather a consonancy of error then any addition of new heresie to admit two prime causes or Creators the one of good the other of evill They durst not slander goodnesse with any crime or for being the Author of any thing that was not good nor were they disposed to flatter greatnesse as if evill were no evill because it proceeded from it 2. That which the Ancients reprooved in the Stoicks opinion as most injurious to God and all good men was that they held all things and evill things amongst the rest to fall out by fate or unavoydable necessitie This foundation being once laied the rootes of vertue must utterly perish and that which we call vice should bee a meere name or matter of nothing there is no place left for just reward or punishment Whether by fate the Stoicks meant the influence of starres the course of nature or the decree of GOD who to them was all one with Nature all was one in respect of the former inconveniences which necessarily followed from admission of an inevitable necessitie in humane actions whence soever that be derived To say it comes from the first cause or from the second is meerly accidentall to the error or inconvenience so sharply justly reproved by the primitive Church In respect of a Tradesmans commoditie it is all one whether he be prohibited for setting up or trafiquing by the companie of his own profession or by some higher powers so the prohibition or restraint be as large peremptorie without hope of release or if he bee restrained upon his allegiance by the Prince or privy counsell his hopes of thriving will be much lesse then if he were tied onely by the locall statutes of some pettie Corporation Thus if the Stoick derived the necessitie of all things from the revolution of the Heavens or from other second causes as their supposed guides the impossibilitie of doing otherwise then we doe was in every Christians conceipt evidently much lesse then if we derive this necessitie from the Omnipotent decree Now the danger or incenvenience of their opinion did formally consist in nursing a conceipt in men that it was impossible for them to doe otherwise then they doe or to avoyd the evills and mischiefes into which they fall And these dangers or inconveniences are so much greater in Christians then they were in the Stoicks as the God which wee acknowledge is more Omnipotent then nature or the Stoicks god For the more Omnipotent he is the more impossible is it for any creature to avoid the necessitie which by his decree is layed upon him 3. In respect of the former inconveniences or of the opinion it selfe it is meerely accidentall whether this necessity bee layed upon us by coaction or willingly and cheerefully entertained by us whether it proceed from Gods power or impulsion or from his wisdome so our actions and their issues bee in respect of his Omnipotent power or will alike unavoidable If birds and fishes could speake I suppose the one would as much complaine of those that in hard frost or snow allure them with baites to come within the fall of the trappe as the other would doe of Fishers for driving them violently into their nets If the birds once taken be used as hardly their expostulations would be so much more just as their usage before their taking was more kinde To make a man willing to undoe himselfe upon faire promises made not with purpose to doe him good but to circumvent him is greater cruelty then can accompany open violence Hee that wittingly ministers poyson instead of Physick is in all mens judgement as true a Murderer as hee that kils with the sword albeit the partie to whom it is ministred having no reason to suspect any
or consulting but onely of power to appoint successe unto its owne projects or devises Thus much to my apprehension is included in the wise Kings Maxime Many devises are in the heart of man but the counsell of the Lord that shall stand This freedome or liberty of mans wil in devising or projecting and the want of all liberty or power to allot successe unto his projects doth more truly argue that which the Latines call servum arbitrium that is mans servitude so misery and sinne than if he had no more liberty in the one case than in the other The more ample the spheare of his liberty in projecting or devising is or by divine permission may be the more admirable doth the Counsell of the Lord appeare in directing and ordering his free courses most infallibly unto such ends as hee appoints by meanes for their kinde ordinary and naturall And if we would diligently consider the works of God in our dayes they are as apt to establish true beleefe unto the rules of Christianity set downe in Scripture as were the Miracles of former ages wherein Gods extraordinary power was most seene yea the ordinary events of our times are more apt for this purpose in this age than use of miracles could be For the manifestations of Gods most extraordinary power cease by very frequencie to be miraculous and men such is the curiosity of corrupted nature would suspect that such events were they frequent or continuall did proceed from some alteration in the course of nature rather than from any voluntary exercise of extraordinary power in the God of nature But the continuance of these ordinary events which the all-seeing wisedome of our God daily and hourely brings to passe is most apt to confirme the faith of such as rightly consider them For by their successive variety the amplitude of his unsearchable wisdome is daily more and more discovered and by their frequency the hidden fountaine of his Counsell whence this multiplicity flowes appeares more clearly to be inexhaustible Only the right observation or live-apprehension of these his works of wisedome is not so easie and obvious unto such as minde earthly things as his workes of extraordinary power are For such works amate the sense and make entrance into the soule as it were by force whereas the effects of his Wisedome or Counsell make no impression upon the sense but upon the understanding only nor upon it save onely in quiet and deliberate thoughts For this reason true faith was first to be planted and ingrafted in the Church by Miracles but to be nourished and strengthned in succeeding ages by contemplation of his providence The limits of this present contemplation shall be by example or instance to shew in what manner the wisedome of God doth sometimes defeat the cunningest contrivances or deepest plots of Politicians and sometimes accomplish matters of greatest consequence by meanes or occurrences light and slender in the esteeme of men But how weake or slender soever they bee for their particular nature or in themselves yet the combination or contexture of them must needs be strong because it is woven by the finger of God 2 What plot could have been invented against any land or people more deadly then that of Hamans against the people of God storied Ester 3. 8 9. His information against them was bitter and easie to finde entrance into an absolute Monarchs eares whose words must be a Law to all especially to his captivate and conquered subjects And the Iewes on the other side more likely to change their lives than the lawes of their God for any Princes pleasure What hope in humane sight for Mordecai to finde any favour when as He was to execute this bloody Law whose particular spleene and revengefull mind against Mordecai had for his sake procured it in most absolute forme against the whole Iewish Nation You will say that Ester lately received to greatest favour with the King and now made consort of his bed might prevaile much And for a barbarous King to shew mercy at his Queenes entreaty unto such as had done him so good service as Mordecai had done Assuerus is but an ordinary thing I confesse as much that many occurrences which seem to conspire for Mordecai and his peoples deliverance are not extraordinary For a King in his cups to take a displeasure at his former Queene that would not consent unto his folly or for his displeasure unto the divorced to shew greater love unto his late espoused Queene is a matter neither strange nor unusuall but that Queene Vashti should bee displaced and Ester unknowne to bee of the captive Hebrewes kinde admitted to be Assuerus his mate just at that time when Haman the Iewes sworne enemy was exalted next to the King and Queene in dignity this can only be ascribed to him who as the wise sonne of Syrach speakes hath made all things double one against another Ecclus 42. v. 24. Againe that the King the very night before hee came to the banquet which Ester had prepared should take no rest this was the Keeper of Israels vigilant care over his people who neither slumbers nor sleepes whilest his enemies are a plotting mischiefe against them Againe that the King taking no rest should seeke to solace his restlesse thoughts by reading the Chronicles that reading them hee should light on that place wherein the now distressed Mordecaies faithfull service in bewraying the treason intended against his person by Bigtan and Teresh his Eunuches was registred All this doubtlesse was only from his wisedome that hath the disposition of al the lots much more of all the plots which man can cast Many other occurrences might here be considered no one of which considered apart from the rest but is ordinary and usuall and yet the entire frame or composture of them such as cannot bee referred to any but his workmanship who hath created all things in number waight and measure Yet a Politician that should have read this story in the Persian Chronicles could at the first sight have discovered a great oversight in Haman in not putting sooner in execution this his absolute commission Semper nocuit differre paratis Perhaps this conditionall proposition may bee true that if he had executed his Commission with speed the Iewes had fared worse but for this cause the Lord did not suffer him to entertaine this resolution Yet let us see whether haste in execution could accomplish the like designes against a State in like case 3 Fliscus that nobly descended and potent Genoesi with his familiar Verina had enacted as cruell a Law against the Dorian Family and the other Nobility of Genoa which they had resolved to have writen first with characters of blood upon their pretended enemies brests after their death to have condemned them by proclamation when as Fliscus through popularity should have got the Diadem Their plot for effecting their enemies death and their owne advancement was layed as exactly