they would become Romane Catholiques nor did I know of any conspiracy against them with minde or purpose to reveale it unto them may be a preservative more than sufficient a soveraigne Antidote against the sinne of perjury which hee had swallowed or harboured in his brest specially if the concealement of his treason make for the good of the Church To put the like interrogatory unto the Almighty Iudge concerning the ruine or welfare of men no Magistrate no authority of earth hath any power Yet hee to free himselfe from that foule aspersion which the Iewes had cast upon him as if such as perished in their sinnes had therefore perished because it was his will and pleasure they should not live but dye hath interposed his often mentioned voluntary oath As I live I will not the death of him that dyes but rather that he should live Shall it here bee enough to make answer for him interpretando by interpreting his meaning to be this I doe not will the death of him that dyes so he will repent which I know he cannot doe nor doe I will his non-repentance with purpose to make this part of my will knowne to him however according to my secret and reserved will I have resolved never to grant him the meanes without which he cannot possibly repent whereas without repentance hee cannot live but must dye But did Gods oath give men no better assurance than this interpretation of it doth I see no reason yet heartily wish that others might see more why any man should so much blame the Iesuites for secret evasions or mentall reservations in matter of oath For the performance of our oaths in the best manner that wee are capable of is but an observance of a particular branch of that generall precept Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Who then can justly challenge the Iesuite of imperfection or falshood much lesse of perjury for secret evasions or mentall reservations when his life is called in question if once it bee granted that the God of truth in matter of oath concerning the eternall life or death of more men than the Iesuites have to deale with doth use the like 6 In matters then determined by Divine Oath the distinction of voluntas signi and beneplaciti can have no place specially in their doctrine who make the bare entity or personall being of men the immediate object of the immutable decree concerning life and death everlasting For the entity or personall being of man is so indivisible that an universall negation and a particular affirmation of the same thing to wit Salvation falling upon man as man or upon the personall being of men drawes to the strictest point of contradiction Farre ever be it from us to thinke that God should sweare unto this universall negative I will not the death of the man that dyeth and yet beleeve withall that he wils the death of some men that dye as they are men or as they are the sonnes of Adam that hee should by his secret or reserved will recall any part of his will declared by oath that hee should proclaime an universall pardon to all the sonnes of Adam under the seale of his oath and yet exempt many from all possibility of receiving any benefit by it 7 Shall we then conclude that the former distinction hath no use at all in Divinity Or if this conclusion be too rigorous let us see in what cases it may have place or to what particulars it may bee confined First it hath place in matters of threatning or of plagues not denounced by oath Thus God by his Prophet Ionas did signifie his will to have Nineveh destroyed at forty dayes end this was voluntas signi and he truly intended what hee signified yet was it his voluntas beneplaciti his good will and pleasure at the very same time that the Ninevites should repent and live And by their repentance his good will and pleasure was fulfilled in their safety But in this case there was no contrariety betweene Gods will declared or signified .i. voluntas signi and his good will and pleasure .i. voluntas beneplaciti no contradiction in the object of his will however considered for that was not one and the same but much different in respect of Gods will signified by Ionas and of his good will and pleasure which not signified by him was fulfilled One and the same immutable will or decree of God did from eternity award two doomes much different unto Ninevch taking it as it stood affected when Ionas threatned destruction unto it or as it should continue so affected and taking it as it proved upon the judgement threatned All the alteration was in Nineveh none in Gods will or decree and Nineveh being altered to the better the selfe same rule of Iustice doth not deale with it after the selfe same manner The doome or sentence could not bee the same without some alteration in the Iudge who is unalterable And in that hee is unalterably Iust and Good his doome or award was of necessity to alter as the object of it altered Deus saepe mutat sententiam nunquam consilium Gods unchangeable will or counsell doth often change his doome or sentence The same rule holds thus farre true in matter of blessing or promise not confirmed by oath upon the parties alteration unto worse unto whom the promise is made the blessing promised may be revoked without any alteration of Gods will or counsell Yet may we not say that the death or destruction of any to whom God promiseth life is so truely the object of his good will and pleasure as the life and salvation of them is unto whom he threatneth destruction The same distinctiō is of good use in some extraordinarie cases or as applyed to men after they have made up the full measure of their iniquity and are cut off from all possibility of repentance Thus God willed Pharaoh to let his people goe out of Egypt and signified this his will unto him by Moses and Aaron in mighty signes and wonders This was voluntas signi onely not voluntas beneplaciti For though it were his good will and pleasure that his people should depart out of Egypt yet was it no branch of this his good will and pleasure that Pharaoh should now repent or bee willing to let them goe Rather it was his good will and pleasure specially after the seventh plague to have the heart of Pharaoh hardned And yet after his heart was so hardned that it could not repent God so punished him as if it had beene free and possible for him to repent and grant a friendly passe unto his people But Pharaohs case was extraordinary his punishment so exemplary as not to be drawne into example For as our Apostle intimates it was an argument of Gods great mercy and long suffering to permit Pharaoh to live any longer on earth after he was become a vessell of wrath destinated to everlasting punishment in
definition doth though very artificial Aeternitas est duratio manens uniformis sine principio fine mensurâ carens Eternity is a duration uniforme and permanent without beginning or end uncapable of measure 4 But Plotin in mine opinion gives a more deepe and full apprehension of it in fewer tearmes Aeternitas est vita infinita Eternity is infinitie of life And such we gather it to be because it is the university or totality of life and can lose nothing in that nothing of it is past nothing to come He addes withall that these termes of Being All whole or losing nothing are added onely for explication of that which is sufficiently contained in these words Infinite life In the same Treatise he excellently observes when we say That is Eternal which alwayes is as the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verbatim signifies this alway is added for declaration sake and yet being assumed to expresse the uncorruptiblenesse or indeficiency of that which is Eternall it breeds a wandring imagination of plurality or indivisibility of duration The best medicine by his prescription for purging our brains of this erroneous fancy were to enstyle Eternity onely with the name of Entity or Being But as being is a name sufficient to expresse Essence and Essence it selfe or essence independent a full expression of Eternity yet because some Philosophers comprise generation or the being of things generable under the name of Essence it was behooveful for our better instruction to say that is Eternall which alwaies is cannot cease to be Whereas in true Philosophicall contemplation it is not one thing truly to bee and alwayes to Be. There is no greater difference betwixt these two than to be a Philosopher and to be a true Philosopher Now there can be no truth in saying he is a Philosopher who is no true Philosopher for ens verum convertuntur The Entity of every thing necessarily includes the truth of every thing Notwithstanding because some doe counterfeit Philosophy or falsly usurpe the name of Philosophers we give the title with an addition to such as wel deserve it and enstyle them by way of difference from the others true Philosophers And in like manner when we say That is eternall which alwayes is wee seeke to notifie no more by this universall note Alwaies then that it hath a true and no counterfeit no second-hand or dependent Being Another secondary and subordinate use of the universall signe alwayes added to entity is to intimate the interminable indistinguishable indivivisible power which needeth nothing besides that which it actually and for the present hath Now it hath All that is or can bee in that it truly Is for true entity is absolute totality and unto totalitie nothing is wanting But that which is in time comprehended how perfect or totall soever it may bee in its kinde besides other wants alway needs somewhat to come never fully besped of time On the contrary that which so is as it needs no after being and cannot be brought within the lists of time either determinate or in succession infinite but now hath whatsoever is expedient to bee had this is that which our notion of Eternity hunteth after That which thus is hath not its Essence or Being delivered unto it enwrapt in quantity but is precedent to all quantity or mensuration Farre otherwise have things generable their being as it were spun out from divisibility The very first being which they have supposeth quantity and as much as is cut off from the draught or extension of their duration so much they lose of their being or perfection 5 Ignorance of this Plotinicall Philosophie hath much perplext some Logiâ—ians questioning whether Socrates in the instant of his dissolution or corruption be a man or corps or both To be both implyes a contradiction these two negative propositions being simply convertible No corps can be a man no man can bee a corps And yet there is as much reason that he should in this instant bee both as either For true resolution we are to say He was a man and shall be a corps or he ceaseth to bee the one and begins to be the other But the Being or existence of both being mensurable by time must needs bee divisible and for this reason not comprehensible by an instant which is indivisible But Plotins conclusion is whilest wee seeke to fit that which truly is with any portion of measure or degree of quantity the life of it being thus divided by us loseth its indivisible nature We must then leave it as it is indivisible as well in life or operation as in Essence and yet infinite in both Of time no part truly is but the present which is never the same and as one questioned in that age wherein the Art of Navigation was imperfect whether Navigators were to be reckoned amongst the dead or the living So it is more doubtfull then determinable whether time participate more of being or of not being yet as is time such is the nature of things brought forth in time But Eternity being the duration of Him who onely Is being made of none but Maker of all things and the dispenser of Time it selfe into its portions as Ficinus describes it is as a fixed instant or permanent Center which needs no succession for supply all sufficient to support it selfe and all things else The same Writer not unfitly compares Eternity to a Center in a Circle and time to the points or extremities of the lines in the Circumference alwayes so moving about the Center that were it an eye it might view them all at once Yet must we not hold Eternity to be indivisible after the same manner that points or Centers are These are indivisible because they want the perfection of that quantity whose parts they couple Eternity is indivisible by positive infinite as containing all the parts or perfections possible of succession in a more eminent manner then they can be contained in time it selfe which as Plato wittily observes is a moveable image of Eternity This difference betwixt the indivisibility of an instant or moment and Eternity may perhaps make the solution of that seeming contradiction lesse difficult then it is to some great Schoolemens apprehensions Petrus in aeternitate agrotat Et Petrus in aeternitate noÌ„ aegrotat Peter is sick in eternity Peter is not sicke in eternity This affirmation deniall in one and the same indivisible instant or limited portion of time would inferrean indivisible contradiction which in eternity they doe not And yet is Eternity more indivisible than an instant but indivisible after another manner 6 But I know not how it comes to passe that the true shadow of perfection it selfe is oft-times more apparant in things most imperfect Natures more perfect by a borrowed perfection hold the meane betweene them Out of both we may spell more than we can put together for right expressing the nature of perfectioÌ„ it selfe The prime
any branch of goodnesse or perfection This is the first foundation of our Faith layd by his onely Sonne Aske and it shall be given unto you seeke and ye shall finde knocke and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened Or what man is there of you whom if his sonne aske bread will he give him a stone Or if he aske a fish will hee give him a serpent Math. 7◠vers 7 8 9 10. Every Father that heard Him would have beene ready to have answered no yet none so ready or carefull as they should be to give or provide best things for their children because all besides him are evill Fathers If ye then being evill know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that aske him ver 11. Hee is then so much more willing to give good things to his children as he is better or greater than other Parents His love to all men seeing all are his sonnes by a more peculiar reference than Abraham was Adams or Isaac Abrahams is infinitely greater than any Parents beare to the fruits of their bodies Mortall fathers love children when they have them but love to themselves or want of means to immortalize their owne persons makes them desire to have children The onely wise immortall God who is all-sufficient to all most to himselfe unacquainted with want of whatsoever can bee desired out of the abundance of his free bounty and meere loving kindnesse did first desire our being and having given it us doth much more love us after we are instamped with his Image For he sowes not wheate to reape tares nor did he inspire man with the breath of life that he might bring forth death 3 The Heathens conceived this title of Father as too narrow for fully comprehending all references of loving kindnesse betwixt their great Iupiter and other Demigods or men Iupiter omnipotens regum rex ipse Deusque Progenitor genitrixque Deum Deus unus omnis And another Poet Iupiter mas est nescia faemina mortis And because the affection of mothers especially to their young and tender Ones is most tender the true Almighty hath deigned to exemplifie his tender mercy and compassion towards Israel as David did Ionathans love towards him far surpassing the love of women yea of mothers to their children Sion had said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten mee But her Lord replyes Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Esay 49. ver 15. And if his love could sufficiently bee expressed by these dearest references amongst men whose naturall affection towards their tender brood in respect of meaner creatures is much abated by wrong use of reason as many mothers by greatnesse of place or curiosity of education are lesse compassionate towards their children then other silly women are he hath chosen the most affectionate female amongst reasonlesse creatures to blazon his tender care and loving protection over ill-deserving children How often would I have gathered thy children together even as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Math. 23. ver 37. Finally as he gives much more to our being than our earthly Parents whom we suppose to give us being so all the sweet fruits or comforts of love whether of fathers and mothers towards their children of husbands towards their wives or of brethren to brethren sisters to sisters or one friend to another their sinfulnesse onely excepted are but distillations or infusions of his infinite love to our nature To witnesse this truth unto us the son of God was made both father and brother and husband to our nature c. Every reference or kinde office whereof reasonable creatures are mutually capable every other creature though voyd of reason so not voyd of love and naturall affection may expresse some part of our heavenly Fathers loving kindnesse but the love of all though infinitely increased in every particular and afterwards made up in one could no way equalize his love towards every particular soule created by him Feare of death or other danger hath such joynt interest with love as well in the heart of man as in other creatures that albeit they would doe more for their yong ones than they doe if they could yet they doe not usually so much as they might not so much for their model of wit or strength as God for his part though infinite in wisedome power doth for the sonnes of men He that feareth none but is feared of al he that needs no Counsellor but hath the heart of Prince and Counsellor in his hand makes protestation in his serious griefe that he hath done all for his unfruitfull vineyard that he could as much as possibly could be done for it Or if his serious protestations cannot deserve credit with deceitfull man his solemne oath is witnesse of greater love than hath beene mentioned of greater than the heart of man is able to conceive even towards such as all their life time have hated Him As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of him that dyes If besides the authority of these and infinite more sacred texts most perspicuous in themselves the interpretation of the Church be required for establishing of the doctrine delivered the whole ancient Church some peeces of Saint Austine onely excepted which may bee counterpoyzed with other parts of the same Fathers writings is ready to give joynt verdict for us And whether the restrictions which some reformed Churches have endeavoured to lay upon Gods promises be compatible with the doctrine of the English Church comes in the next place to be examined CHAP. 15. What the Church of England doth teach concerning the extent of Gods love of the distinction of singula generum and genera singulorum of the distinction of voluntas signi and voluntas beneplaciti 1_WHat middle course soever the Church of England doth hold or may take for compromising contentions betweene some other reformed Churches in points of Election and Reprobation of free wil or mans ability before the state of regeneratiō She doth not in her publike and authorized doctrine come short of any Church this day extant in the extent of Gods unspeakable love to mankind No nationall Councell though assembled for that purpose could fit their doctrine more expresly to meet with all the late restrictions of Gods love than the Church our mother even from the beginning of reformation hath done as if she had then foreseene a necessity of declaring her judgement in this point for preventing schismes or distraction in opinions amongst her sonnes First she injoynes us to beseech God to have mercy upon all men This was the practice of the Ancient Church which in
her opinion needed no reformation A practice injoyned by S. Paul I exhort or desire first of all that supplications prayers intercessions and giving thankes be made for all men If any man shall seeke to lay that restraint upon this place which S. Austine somewhere doth as if the word all men did import only genera singulorum all sorts of men not singula generum every particular man the scanning of the words following the sifting of the matter contained in both with the reason of the exhortation and other reall circumstances will shake off this or other like restriction with greater ease than it can be laid upon it Wee are commanded to pray for no more than them whose salvation we are unfainedly to desire otherwise our prayers were hypocriticall Are we then to desire the salvation of some men onely as they are dispersed here and there throughout all nations sorts or conditions of men or for every man of what condition soever of what sort or nation soever he be The Apostle exhorts us to pray for Kings not excepting the most malignant enemies which the Christians then had and for all that be in authority And if we must pray for all that are in authority with fervency of desire that they may come unto the knowledge of the truth then questionlesse wee are to desire wee are to pray for the salvation of all and every one which are under authority God is no accepter of persons nor will the Omnipotent permit us so to respect the persons of the mighty in our prayers as that we should pray that all and every one of them might become Peeres of the heavenly Ierusalem and but some choice or selected ones of the meaner sort might bee admitted into the same society Wee must pray then for high and low rich and poore without excepting any either in particular or indefinitely The reason why our prayers for all men must be universall is because wee are bound to desire the spirituall good of all men not as they fall under our indefinite but under our uniuersall consideration The reason againe why wee are bound to desire the spirituall good of all men universally considered is because wee must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Vnto this universall desire wee must adde our best endeavours that saving truth may be imparted unto all because it is our heavenly Fathers will his unfaigned will that all should come to the knowledge of truth 2 Both parts of this inference as first that it is our duty to pray for all sorts of men and for every man of what sort soever And secondly that we are therefore to pray thus universally because it is Gods will not onely that we should thus pray but that all without exception shold come unto the truth and be saved are expressely included in the prayers appointed by the Church of England to bee used upon the most solemne day of devotions The Collects or Praiers are in number three The first Almighty God we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family for the which our Lord Iesus Christ was contented to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men and to suffer death upon the Crosse c. The tenour of this petition if we respect onely the forme is indefinite not universall but every Logician knows and every Divine should consider that the necessity of the matter whether in prayers or propositions will stretch the indefinite forme wherewith it is instamped as farre as an absolute universall That the forme of this petition is in the intention of the Church of England to be as farre extended as we have said that is to all and every one of the congregation present the prayer following puts out of question For in that wee are taught to pray for the whole Church and for every member of it Almighty and everlasting God by whose spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Congregation that every member of the same in his vocation and ministery may truly and godly serve thee c. If here it be excepted that albeit this prayer be conceived in termes formally universall yet is the universall forme of it to be no further extended than its proper matter or subject and that as will be alleaged is the mysticall live-body of Christ whose extent or the number of whose members is to us unknowne the third and last prayer will clearely quit this exception and free both the former petitions from these or the like restrictions For in the last prayer wee are taught to pray for all and every one which are out of the Church that they may bee brought into the Church and bee made partakers with us of Gods mercy and the common salvation Mercifull God who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldest the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted and live have mercy upon all Iewes Turkes Infidells and heretiques and take from them all ignorance hardnesse of heart and contempt of thy Word And so fetch them home blessed Lord to thy flocke that they may bee saved among the remnant of the true Israelites and be made one fold under one shepheard Iesus Christ our Lord. If God therefore will not the death of any Iew Turke or Infidell because of nothing hee made them men wee may safely conclude that he willeth not the death of any but the life of all whom of men or infidells hee hath made Christians to whom he hath vouchsafed the ordinary meanes of salvation and daily invites by his messengers to imbrace them Hee which made all things without invitation out of meere love made nothing hatefull nor is it possible that the unerring fountaine of truth and love should cast his dislike much lesse fix his hatred upon any thing that was not first in it nature odious Nothing can make the creature hatefull or odious to the Creator besides its hatred or enmity of that love by which it was created and by which he sought the restauration of it when it was lost Nor is it every degree of mans hatred or enmity unto God but a full measure of it which utterly exempts man from his love as that reverend Bishop and glorious Martyr one of the first Reformers of the Religion profest in this Land observes 3 If with these authorized devotions we compare the doctrine of our Church in the publike catechisme what can bee more cleare then that as God the Father doth love all mankind without exception so the Sonne of God did redeeme not some onely of all sorts but all mankind universally taken First wee are taught to beleve in God the Father who made us and all the world Now if the Church our mother have in the former prayers truly taught us that God hateth nothing which he hath made this will
bring forth another truth viz. That either there be some men which are not of Gods making or else that hee hateth no man not Esau as he is a man but as a sinner but as an enemy or contemner of his goodnesse And consequently to this branch or corollary of this former truth wee are in the same Catechisme in the very next place taught to beleeve in God the Son who hath redeemed us and all mankind And if all mankind were redeemed by him than all of this kind were unfeignedly loved none were hated by him And though in the same place wee are taught to beleeve in the holy Ghost as in the sanctifier of all that are sanctified yet this wee are taught with this caveat that he doth sanctifie al the elect people of God not all mankind All then are not sanctified by God the holy Ghost which are redeemed by God the Sonne nor doth God the Father bestow all his spirituall blessings upon all whom hee doth unfeignedly love or on whom hee hath bestowed the blessing of Baptisme as the seale or pledge of their redemption All these inferences are so cleere that the consideration of them makes us doubt whether such amongst us as teach the contrary to any of these have at any time subscribed unto the booke of Common prayers or whether they had read it before they did subscribe unto it or contradict it That this universall extent of Gods love and of the redemption wrought by Christ is a fundamentall principle whereon many serious and fruitfull exhortations in the booke of Homilies are immediately grounded shall by Gods assistance appeare in the Article concerning Christ For a concludent proofe that God doth unfeignedly will not genera singulorum all sorts of men onely but singula generum every one of all sorts to be saved take it briefely thus All they which are saved and all they which are not saved make up both parts of the former distinction or division to the full But God will have all to bee saved which are saved he likewise willeth the salvation of all such as are not saved that is of such as dye therefore he willeth the salvation of every one of all sorts That God doth will the salvation of all that are saved no man ever questioned that God did will not the life but death of such as dyed the Iewes Gods owne people did sometimes more then question and to prevent the like querulous murmurings of misbeliefe in others he once for all interposed his solemne oath As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of him that dyeth but rather that he should repent and live None then can be saved whom God would not have saved many are not saved whom God would have saved 4 But how or by what Will doth he will that they should be saved that are not saved Doth he will their salvatioÌ„ by his revealed not by his secret will Doth he give signification onely of his good will towards them whereas his good will and pleasure is not finally to doe them any reall good This I take to be the meaning of voluntas signi and beneplaciti But it being granted that God doth will the salvation of all men by his revealed will or voluntate signi This alone will sufficiently inferre our intended conclusion That he truly wils the salvation of all without the exemption of any Vpon such as contradict this doctrine it lyes upon them to prove not the negative onely that God doth not will the salvation of all by his secret will but this positive particular that God doth nill or unwill the salvation of some by his secret will whose salvation he willeth by his revealed will Now if it be answered that he doth by his secret will or good pleasure unwill or nill the salvation of the same parties to whom he willeth salvation by his will revealed or signified they must without remedy acknowledge the one or the other member of this division as either that there be two wils in God of as different inclinations ad extra as the reasonable and sensitive appetite are in man or that there is a manifest contradiction in the object of one and the same Divine Will That All men should be saved and that some men should not be saved implyeth as formall a contradiction as to say All men are living creatures some men are no living creatures Now that all men should bee living creatures and that some men should not be living creatures falls not within the object of Omnipotency And if the will of God be at truly undivided in it selfe as the omnipotent power is it is no lesse impossible that the salvation of all and the non-salvation of some should be the object or true parts of the object of one and the same divine will undivided in it selfe than that the actuall salvation of all and the actuall and finall condemnation of some or the non-salvation of all should be really effected by the omnipotent power Whether this divine will be clearly revealed or in part revealed and in part reserved or secret in respect of us all is one so this will in it selfe and in its nature bee but one and undivided The manifestation or reservation of it or whatsoever other references it may have to us can neither increase nor abate the former contradiction in the object Or if voluntas signi bee not essentially the same with voluntas beneplaciti there is a manifest contradiction or contrariety betwixt them If the salvation of all bee the object of the one and the non-salvation or reprobation of others be the object of the other 5 Yet doe we not like rigorous Critiques so much intend the utter banishment of this distinction out of the confines of Divinity as the confinement of it to its proper seat and place Rightly confined or limited it may beare faith and allegiance to the truth and open some passages for clearing some branches of it But permitted to use that extent of liberty which hath beene given to it by some it wil make way for canonization 〈◊〉 â—â—esuiticall perjuries for deification of mentall evasions or reservations Let us compare Iesuiticall practices with that patterne which is the necessary resultance of some mens interpretation of Gods oath in this case Were this interrogatory put to any Iesuiticall Assassinat imagine a powder-plotter Doe you will or intend the ruine of the King or State or doe you know of any such project or intendment there is none of this crue so mischievously minded but would be ready to sweare unto this negative As the Lord liveth and as I hope for life and salvation by him I neither intend the ruine of King or State nor doe I know of any conspiracy against him And yet in case the event should evidently discover his protestation to be most false yet would he rest perswaded that this or the like mentall evasion or reservation I neither intended the ruine of King or State so
unquestionable earnests of thy everlasting love since more fully manifested For thou so lovedst the world not Israel onely that thou gavest thine onely begotten son to the end that who so beleeved in him should not perish but have everlasting life What further argumeÌ„t of Gods infinite love could flesh blood desire thaÌ„ the Son of Gods voluntary suffring that in our flesh by his Fathers appointment which unto flesh and blood seemes most distastfull That this love was unfaignedly tendered to all at least that have heard or hereafter may heare of it without exception what demonstration from the effect can be more certaine what consequence more infallible thaÌ„ the inference of this truth is froÌ„ a sacred truth received by all good Christians viz. Al such as have heard Gods love in Christ proclaimed and not beleeved in it shall in the day of Iudgement appeare guilty of greater sinnes than their forefathers could be endited of and undergoe more bitter death than any corruption drawne from Adam if Christ had never suffered could have bred I shall no way wrong the Apostle in unfolding his exhortations to the Athenians thus farre but they rather offer the spirit by which hee spake some kinde of violence that would contract his meaning shorter The times of this ignorance before Christs death God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent Because hee hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom hee hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that hee hath raised him from the dead Acts 17. 30 31. 3 Why all men in the world have not heard of Gods infinite love thus manifested many causes may hereafter bee assigned all grounded upon Gods infinite Iustice or Mercy Of Christs death many which heard not might have heard many which are not might have bin partakers save only for their free and voluntary progresse from evill to worse or wilfull refusall of Gods loving kindnesse daily profered to them in such pledges as they were well content to swallow foolishly esteeming these good in themselves being good onely as they plight the truth of Gods love to them which he manifested in the death of his Sonne With this manifestation of his love many againe out of meere mercy have not beene acquainted lest the sight of the medicine might have caused their discase to rage and make their case more lamentably desperate CHAP. 18. Want of consideration or ignorance of Gods unfeigned love to such as perish a principall meanes or occasion why so many perish 1 BVt if the most part of men as we cannot deny doe finally perish what shall it availe to revive this doctrine of Gods infinite love to all by whose fruitlesse issue he rather is made an infinit looser than men any gainers As for God he hath froÌ„ eternity infallibly forecast the entire redemption of his infinite love which unto us may seeme utterly cast away And of men if many dye whom he would have live for his will is that all should bee saved and come to the knowledge of the truth the fault is their owne or their instructers that seeke not the prevention of their miscariage by acquainting them with this coelestiall fountaine of saving truth whose taste we labor to exhibite unto all because the want of it in observation of the heathen is the first spring of humane misery Or in language more plaine or pertinent to the argument proposed most men reape no benefit from Gods unspeakeable love because not considering it to be his nature they doe not beleeve it to be as he is truly infinite unfeignedly extended to all that call him Maker But had the doctrines which those divine Oracles God is love and would have all men to bee saued naturally afford beene for these forty yeeres last past as generally taught and their right use continually prest with as great zeale and fervency as the doctrine and uses of Gods absolute decree for electing some and reprobating most in that space have beene the plentifull increase of Gods glory and his peoples comfort throughout this land might have wrought such astonishment to our adversaries as would have put their malicious mouths to silence Who would not be willing to be saved if hee were fully perswaded that God did will his salvation in particular because hee protests hee wills not the death of any but the repentance of all that all might live Or were the particulars of this doctrine unto whose generality every loyall member of the Church of England hath subscribed generally taught beleeved all would unfeignedly endeavour with fervent alacrity to be truely happy because none could suspect himselfe to bee excluded from his unfeigned and fervent love who is true happinesse Whose love and goodnesse is so great that hee cannot passe any act whereby any of his creatures should bee debarred either from being like him in love and goodnesse or being such from being like him in true happinesse But alas while the world is borne in hand that the Creator oft-times dispenseth the blessings of this life not as undoubted pledges of a better but deales with most men as man doth with beasts feeding them fattest which are appointed first to bee slaine the magnificent praises of his bounty secretly nurseth such a misperswasion in most men of his goodnesse at least towards them as the Epigrammâ—tist had of a professed Benefactor that shewed him as he thought little kindnesse in great Benevolence Munera magna quidem misit sed misit in hamo Et Piscatorem piscis amare potest Great gifts he sent but under his gifts there covered lay an hooke And by the fish to be belov'd can th'cunning Fisher looke 2 The frequency of sinister respects in dispensing of secular dignities or benevolences makes such as are truly kind to be either unregarded or mistrusted by such as stand in neede of their kindnesse And as fishes in beaten waters will nibble at the bait although they suspect the hooke so the world hath learned the wit to take good turnes and not to be taken by them as suspecting them to bee profered in cunning rather than in true kindnesse and cunning where it is discovered or suspected is usually requited with craft love onely hath just title unto love The most part indeed are so worldly wise that none but fooles will easily trust them howbeit our naturall mistrust of others makes all of us a great deale worse than we would be And as if we thought it a sinne or point of uncharitablenesse to prove other mens conjectures that measure our dispositions by their owne altogether false wee fit our demeanours to their misdeemings of us and resolve rather to do amisse than they should thinke amisse Howbeit even in this perfidious and faithlesse age the old saying is not quite out of date Ipsa fides habita obligat fideÌ„ Many would be more trusty than they are and do much
Seneca's Philosophy Hee that bids us be angry and sin not seeks not the utter extirpation but the moderation of anger Qui ergo irasci nos jubet ipse utique irascitur He that bids us be angry is doubtlesse upon just occasion angry himselfe Nor should we sin if we were angry onely as he is angry or at those things onely that displease him so far as they are displeasing to him And were we as much inclined to mercy and loving kindnesse as we are to anger the motions of the one would argue as great passion as the motiōs of the other But seeing Gods mercy which is proposed unto us for a patterne is if I may so speake more reall and trnly affectionate in him than his anger the difficulty how either should be in him is the same or not much different How can there be true compassion without passion without motion or mutation In many men it is observable that the better use they have of reason the lesse they participate of affection and to cary those matters with moderation which others can neither accomplish nor affect without excesse of passion or perturbation is a perfection peculiar to good education much choice experience or true learning And thus by proportion they argue that God who is infinitly wise must be as utterly void of passiō though he be truly said mercifull in respect of the event The conclusion is truer than the reason assigned And in most men whom the world accounteth wise or subtile reason doth not so much moderate as devoure affections of that rank we treat of The cunningest heads have commonly most deceitfull or unmercifull hearts and want of passion often argues want of religion if not abundance of habituated atheism or irreligiō Every mans passions are for the most part moderate in matters which he either least affects or minds the most Perpetuall minding especially of worldly matters coucheth the affections in an equall habit or constant temper which is not easily moved unlesse it be directly or strongly thwarted Desires once stifned with hope of advantage by close sollicitation secret cariage or cunning contrivance take small notice of violent oppositions which apparantly either overshoot or come short of the game they lye in wait for But even such moderate politiques if their nets be once discovered and the prey caught from them fall into Achitophels passion Indignation and mercy because incompatible with such meanes as serve best to politique ends are held the companions of fooles And unto the world so they seeme because they are the proper passions of reason throughly apprehending the true worth of matters spirituall For though gravity or good education may decently figure the outward motions yet is it impossible not to bee vehemently moved at the miscariage of those things which we most esteeme And the wiser we are in matters spirituall the higher wee esteeme the promulgation of religion the good of Gods Church and promotion of his glory The better experience we have of his goodnesse the more we pity their case which as yet never tasted it the more compassionate wee are to all that are in that misery whence we are redeemed Did we esteeme these or other duties of spiritual life as they deserve the extreamest fits of passion which any worldly wise man can be cast into wold seem but as light flashes to those flames of zeale and indignation which the very sight of this misguided world would forthwith kindle in our brests It is not then Gods infinit wisdome which swallowes up all passion or exempts him from those affections which essentially include perturbation for so the most zealous and compassionate should be most unlike him in heavenly wisdome But as the swift motion of the heaven better expresseth his immobility or vigorous rest then the dull stability of the earth So doth the vehemency of zeale of indignation or other passions of the godly so the motives be weighty and just exhibite a more lively resemblance of his immutability or want of passion then the Stoicall apathy or worldings insensibility in matters spirituall can doe 2 How we should in godly passions bee likest GOD in whom is no passion or how those vertues or affections which are formally in us should bee eminently in him cannot by my barren imagination bee better illustrated then by comparing the circle in some properties with other figures A circle in some mens definitive language is but a circular line and to any mans sense as in some respects perhaps reason must acknowledge it is rather one line then a comprehension of different lines or a multitude of sides inclosed in angles And from the unity of it perhaps it is that many flexible bodies as wands or small rods of iron brasse c. which presently breake if you presse them into angles or seek to frame them into any other figure will bee drawne without danger into a circular forme Notwithstanding some infallible mathematicall rules there be exprest in tearmes which in strict property of speech or univocally agree only to figures consisting of sides and angles whose truth and use reason experienceth to bee most eminently true in the Circle Take a Quadrangle ten yards in length and foure in bredth another eight yards in length and sixe in bredth a third seven yards every way The circumference of all three is equall 28. yards so is not the superficiall quantity but of the first 40. yards of the second 48. of the third 49. The same induction alike sensible in other many-sided figures affoords this generall unquestionable rule Among figures of the same kind whose circumference is equall that whose sides are most equall are most capacious Yet frame a five-angled figure whose whol circumference is but 28. yards though the sides be not equall the superficiall quantity of it will bee greater then the superficiall quantity of the former square and yet a sixe-angled figure of the same circumference though the sides be unequall will bee more capacious then that And still the more you encrease the number of angles though without any encrease of the circumference the greater will the capacity or superficiall quantity of the figures be specially if the sides be not unequall From this evident induction ariseth a second tryed rule in the Mathematique Amongst figures of divers kinds whose circumferences are equall that which hath most angles is alwayes most capacious The circle which to our sense seemes neither to have sides nor angles by a double title grounded on both the former rules hath the preheminence for capacity of all other figures It is more uniforme than any other or rather the abstract or patterne of uniformity in figures admitting neither difference of ranckes or sorts as triangles quadrangles or other many-sided figures doe nor of inequality betweene its owne internall parts or lines neither can one circle bee more capacious then another of the same circumference nor can any line in the same circle bee longer then
import terminum a quo the terme onely of the Action not any matter or subject and yet the tearme thus imported can bee no positive Entitie but a meere negation of any positive Entitie precedent To make the heauens and earth of nothing is in reall value no more then to make them not of any matter or Entitie praeexistent whether visible or invisible on which their Maker did exercise his efficient power or efficacie but to give them such beeing as they then first began to have that is a corporeall beeing or existence by the meere efficacie or vertue of his word As suppose the Sunne should in a moment be suffered to transmit his light into a close vault of stone we might truely say this heavenly bodie did make light of darknesse tanquam ex termino in that it made light to be there where was no light at all before but meere darkenesse And thus to make light out of darknesse doth no way argue that it turned darknesse into light or that darknesse did remaine as an ingredient in the light made After this manner did the Amightie make the heaven and earth of nothing that is he made the corporeall masse or substance out of which all things visible were made where no limited substance whether visible or invisible was before and by the same efficiencie by which this masse was made he made place or spatiousnesse quantitative which had no beeing at all before he did not turne indivisibilitie into spatiousnes or meere vacuitie into fulnes fulnes and spatiousnesse were the resultance of that masse which was first made without any Entitie or ingredient praeexistent To make something of nothing in this sense implies no contradiction there is no impossibilitie that the heaven and earth should be thus made but this will not suffice to refute the Atheist or infidell For many things are possible which are not probable and many things probable which are not necessary The next question then is what necessitie there is in the infallible rules of nature and reason that the Heavens the earth should be made of nothing Against the probabilitie onely of Moses his historie of the first creation the Atheist will yet oppose this generall induction That all bodily substances that begin to be what before they were not that all things which we see made are alwayes made by some efficient cause not out of meere nothing but of some imperfect being praexistent To examine then the general rule pretended to amount from this generall induction s or what truth there is in that philosophicall maxime ex nihilo nihil fit is the next point CHAP. 5. By what manner of induction or enumeration of particulars universall rules or Maximes must bee framed and supported That no induction can bee brought to proove the Naturalists Maxime Of nothing nothing can be made 1 TO frame a generall rule or principle in any facultie Art or science there is no other meanes possible besides induction or a sufficient enumeration of particular experiments to support it The particulars from which this sufficiencie must amount may be in some subjects fewer in others more How many soeuer the particular instances or alleaged experiments be the number of thē will not suffice to support an universall rule unlesse they erect our understandings to a cleare view of the same reason not onely in all the particulars instanced in but in all that can be brought of the same kind Vnlesse there bee a cleare resultance of the same reason in all the induction failes and the rule which is grounded on it must needes fall For this cause universall rules are easily framed in the Mathematiques or in other Arts whose subjects are more abstract or not charged with multiplicitie of considerations or ingredients from whose least variation whether by addition or subtraction whether by further commixture or dissolution the cause or reason of truth so varies that the rule which constantly holds in a great many like particulars will not hold in all because they are not absolutely or every way alike Hee which seriously observes the manner how right angles are framed will without difficultie yeeld his assent unto this universall rule That all right angles are equall because hee sees there is one and the same reason of absolute equalitie in al that can be imagined And this negative rule will by the same inspection win our assent without more adoe that if any two angles be unequall the one of them at least can be no right angle The consideration likewise of a few particulars will suffice to make up these universall never-failing rules 1. First that the greater any circle is the greater alwayes will the angle of the semicircle be 2. The second that the angle of the least semicircle which can be imagined is greater then the most capacious acute-angle that can be made by the concurrence of two right lines And yet it will as clearly appeare from the inspection of the same particulars from which the former rules do amount that the angle of the greatest semicircle imaginable cannot possibly be so capacious as every right angle is The consideration of the former rules specially of the first and third will clearly manifest that the quantitie contained in these angles how little soever they be is divisible into infinite indeterminate parts or divisible into such parts without possible end or limitation of division But albeit the difference of quantitie between a right angle and the angle of a semicircle bee potentially infinite or infinitely divisible according to parts or portions in determinate yet will it not hence follow that the one angle is as great againe as the other according to the scale of any distinct or determinate quantitie or expressible portions And this observation in Mathematicall quantitie would quickly checke or discover the weaknesse of many calculatory Arguments or inductions oft-times used by great Divines in matters morall or civill As for example that every sinne deserveth punishment infinite because every sinne is an offence committed against an infinite Being or Majestie And the greater or more soveraigne the Majestie is which wee offend the greater alwayes will the offence be and meritorious of greater punishment Yet all this onely proves an infinitie of indeterminate degrees in every offence against the divine Majestie by which it exceedes all offences of the same kinde committed onely against man it no way inferres an infinite excesse or ods of actuall determinate punishment or ill deserts For this reason wee have derived the just award of everlasting supernaturall paines unto temporarie and transeunt bodily or naturall pleasures from the contempt of Gods infinite goodnesse which destinates no creatures unto everlasting death but such as he had made capable of everlasting joyes nor were any of them infallibly destinated unto everlasting death untill they had by voluntary transgression or continuance in despising of the riches of his goodnesse made themselves uncapable of the blisse to which hee had
the true Church would be unwilling to put our selves upon this tryall Scripture wee grant and are ready upon as high and hard termes as they to maintaine is the onely infallible rule of rectitude or obliquitie in opinions concerning God or mans salvation Yet are we not hereby bound to reject reason and infallible rule of Art as incompetent Iudges what propositions in Scripture are equipollent which opposite which subordinate or what collections from undoubted sacred Maximes are necessary or probable or what conclusions are altogether false and sophisticall Nor ought they to suspect reason in others to bee unsanctified because it is accompanied with rules of prophane sciences For even these are the gifts of God and are sanctified in every Christian by the rule of faith And in as much as both of us admit Scripture to be the onely rule of faith in it selfe most infallible both of us are tyed by infallible consequents of truth from this rule derived to admit of this Maxime following Gods threats and promises his exhortations admonitions or protestations whether immediately made by himselfe or by his Prophets containe in them greater truth and syncerity then is in our admonitions exhortations and promises His truth and syncerity in all his wayes are the rule or patterne which we are to imitate but which wee cannot hope to equalize 2 Put the case then a religious wise and gracious Prince should exhort a young gentleman that in rigour of Law had deserved death for some aemulous quarrell in the Court to behave himselfe better hereafter and he should be sure to find greater favour at his hands than any of his adversaries no man would suspect any determination in the Prince to take away his life for this offence or any purpose to intrap him in some other A minister of publique iustice in our memory told a Butcher whom he then sentenced to death for manslaughter that he might kill Calves Oxen and Sheepe but mankinde was no butchery ware hee might not kill his honest neighbours The solecisme was so uncouth and so ill beseeming the seat of gravity and of justice that it moved laughter though in a case to be lamented throughout the assembly and a young Student standing neare the barre advised the poore condemned man to entreat a Licence to kill Calves and Sheepe that Lent The wisest of men may sometimes erre sometimes place good words amisse or give wholsome counsell such as this was had it beene uttered in due time and place out of season But to spend good words of comfort and encouragement upon such as thou hast certainly appointed to dye to floute the children of destruction with faire promises of preeminence That be farre from thee O Lord. Shall not the Iudge of all the earth doe that which is right and just a thing welbeseeming the best and wisest Princes of the earth to imitate Was then the sentence of condenmation for Cains exile or utter destruction without possibility of revocation when thou entreatedst him as a most loving Father Why art thou worth and why is thy countenance fallen If thou doe well shalt not thou bee accepted and if thou doest not well sinne lyeth at the doore and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him Did that which the Text saith afterward came to passe come to passe by inevitable necessity And Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to passe when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slue him My adversaries for I am not theirs must be entreated to pardon me if I be as resolute and peremptory for my opinion hitherto delivered as they are for any other For reason and conscience ruled by Scripture perswades me it is possible for the Iudge of quick dead to be unjust in his sentences or unsyncere in his incouragement as that Cains destruction should be in respect of his decree altogether necessarie or impossible to have beene avoyded When the Lord tooke first notice of his aemulation and envie at his yonger brother God would not banish him from his brothers presence nor so tie his hands that he could not strike But he used all the meanes that aequitie in like case requires to move his heart that way which it was very possible for it to bee moved And unto this motion Cain had both Gods assistance and incouragement as readie as his generall concâ—urse to conceave anger in his heart or to lift up his hand against his brother 3 The very tenor of Gods grand covenant with the sonnes of Abraham includes this twofold possibilitie one of attaining his extraordinary gracious favour by doing well another of incurring miserable calamities by doing ill If yee walke in my statutes and keepe my commandements and doe them then will I give you raine in due season and the land shall yeeld her increase and the trees of the field shall yeeld their fruit And your threshing shall reach to the vintage and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time and yee shall eate your bread to the full and dwell in your land safely c. I am the Lord your God which brought you forth out of the Land of Aegypt that yee should not bee their bondmen and I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you goe upright Levit. 26. ver 3. ad 14. But if yee will not hearken unto mee and will not doe all these commandements And if yee shall despise my statutes or if your soule abhorre my judgements so that ye will not doe all my commandements but that ye breake my covenant I also will doe this unto you I will even appoint over you terrour consumption and the burning ague c. Levit. 26. ver 14 15 16 c. This tenor or condition was to continue one and the same throughout all generations But some generations as the event hath proved were de facto partakers of the blessings promised others have had their portion in the curses Shall wee hence inferre that prosperitie was in respect of GODS decree or good pleasure altogether necessarie unto such as prospered not so much as possible unto those that perished or that their calamity was absolutely necessary I would say rather I have Gods word yea his heartie wishes for my warrant that the most prosperous times which any of Abrahams or Davids posteritie enjoyed did come farre short of that measure of prosperitie which by Gods aeternall decree was possible to all even to the whole stocke of Iacob throughout all their generations O that my people had hearkned unto me and Israel had walked in my wayes I should soone have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever Psal 81. verse 13 14 15. But in what estate fed with the finest of the wheate and satified with hony out of the Rocke verse 16.
if of two objects which we suppose to bee alike truly possible there bee no necessity that that should come to passe which GOD willeth most or any probabilitie for that to come to passe which he lesse willeth or willeth not at all but rather the contrary Then there is a possibilitie or rather a necessitie that his will should not be alwaies fulfilled that he might sometimes sit downe with a kinde of losse and say with impotent man I have failed of my purpose The best preparation for fit and peaceable entertainment of the Orthodoxall solution to these difficulties will be to declare the evident and necessary truth of that assertion which they object unto us as a dangerous inconvenience able in their judgement to infer the last conclusion Truth fully and evidently declared will justifie it selfe against all gainsaiers The assertion which we grant will necessarily follow from our former discursions and comes now to justifie it selfe is this That such things as God no way willeth oft-times come to passe when as their contradictories which he wils most ardently come not to passe The principall instance for justifying this truth is the repentance and life of a sinner which God hath sworne that he willeth so doth hee not his death if we will beleeve his oath If any mans verdict shall scatter from mine or others which maintaine this doctrine I must call God and his conscience to witnesse whether he hath not left that undone which God wold have had him to do sometimes done that which God would have had him not to doe Let him that will answere negatively to this Interrogative indite that confession which we daily make in our Liturgy of falshood or slaunder Let him call for Iacobs Ladder downe from heaven and require a guard of Angels to conduct him safely into Gods presence For if hee have as truely and continually done Gods will here on Earth as the Angels doe it in heaven hee may justly challenge speedie admission into their societie But if he can with safe conscience communicate with us sinnefull men in that confession his exceptions against our assertion are but needlesse scrupulosities altogether against reason whatsoever they bee in respect of his conscience yet to his exceptions wee are to frame a further answere 4 There is an absolute necessity that Gods will should alwayes be fulfilled but there is no such necessitie that it should alwayes bee fulfilled by the parties to whom it is revealed or directed They are tyed indeed by necessitie of praecept and at their perill alwayes to doe it but the Almightie God doth not referre the fulfilling or evacuation of it to their fidelitie choice or resolution for so the certaintie or infallibilitie of executing his decree should bee but commensurable to the fragility of our Nature and that which some object unto us would fall directly upon themselves to wit That Gods will should depend upon mans will As hee alwayes grants the requests of the faithfull or as the Psalmist speakes gives such as delight in him their hearts desire albeit he alwaies gives them not the particulars or materialls which they request or heartily desire so he knows how to fulfill his own will or do his pleasure albeit those particulars or materials which he ardently wils and takes most pleasure in be not alwayes done by us And this answer might suffice unto a Reader not scrupulously curious But sophisticall and captious objections require artificiall and formall solutions The former objection may perhaps be framed more captiously thus Of more particulars proposed to the choise of men if that bee not alwayes done which God willeth most his will is not done at all For as a lesser good whilest it stands in competition with a greater is rather evill than good so that which is lesse willed or desired cannot be said to bee willed or desired at all in respect of that which is more desired specially in the language of Gods Spirit which expressely saith that God will have mercy and not sacrifice Whence it will follow that when sacrifice was offered without performance of duties of mercy or obedience Gods will was not done but broken It is Gods will likewise that we should goe unto the house of mourning rather then unto the house of mirth The duties to be performed in the house of mourning are many To mourne to fast to pray with other branches of humiliation all which God truly willeth in different measure according to the diversity of their nature or the more or lesse intensive manner of their performance The transgressions likewise usuall and frequent in the house of unhallowed mirth are many and much different as well in quality as degree all detested of God as contrary to his most holy will but more or less detested according to their nature quality or degree or other circumstance Suppose a man to whom choise of going into the house of mirth or mourning is solemnly proposed the inconveniences of the one and gracious acceptance of the other in Gods fight seriously prest by Gods Minister do vtterly reject the Preachers counsell and adventure upon the most desperate evill that is practised in the house of mirth shall wee say Gods will is in this case fulfilled Yes though the evils which he willeth not were tenne thousand and man did desperately resolve to doe the very worst and most contrary to his will yet that which he willeth most shall still be done for it is his absolute and peremptory will that all the particulars offered to mans choice as well those which his Holinesse most abhorreth as those which hee willeth most should bee truly possible for a man to choose without impediment that none should bee necessary Now this liberty being left to man which way soever his will inclineth Gods will shall be most infallibly fulfilled in the selfe same measure as if the very best had beene chosen by man seeing it is his absolute will to grant him freedome at his perill to choose the very worst and refuse the best And the perill is that Gods will shall be done upon him according to the measure it was neglected by him As this proposition The Sun will either shine or not shine this day at twelve of the clocke will be as true if the Sunne shine not as if it shine so Gods will being as is supposed in this case disjunctive shall bee as truly fulfilled albeit man doth that which he willeth not as if he did that which he willed most For his will as was now said may according to the same measure be fulfilled two wayes either by us or upon us whether it be this way or that way fulfilled it is all one to God but much better for us to doe it then to have it done upon us And though it be possible for us not to doe it yet not doing it there is no possibility left that it shall not be done upon us In as much then as Gods will must of
Eudoxia in to the bragaine abuseth her as Valentinian had done his Lady Eudoxia more impatient than Maximus his wife had beene sollicites Gensericus King of the Vandalls to revenge her husbands death and her wrongs In the execution of Gods will or wrath upon Maximus the Romanâ—â— prevent him for they stone him to death but â—ould not prevent the ransacking of the City by him and the finall overthrow of the Romane Empire As for those imperiall titles which some afterwards tooke upon them these were but as ominous formalities for the more legall resigning up of the Romane Soveraignty into the hands of strangers as Momillus surnamed Augustulus the last of Italian blood which bare rule in Rome did it into the hands of the Hunnes the reliques of Attilas his race their inveterate enemies whose rage and cruelty when it was at the height of its strength had beene broken by Aetius his valour As the Romane Rulers and Senate had done to him so hath the Lord now done to them CHAP. 28. Why God is called the Lord of Hosts or the Lord mighty in Battaile Of his speciall providence in managing Warres 1 ALBEIT the sole authority of Scripture without the assignement of any reason be a warrant alsufficient for us to enstyle our God the Lord of Hosts yet why he is so often in Scripture thus enstyled as by a most speciall and peculiar attribute these reasons may without offence bee given His peculiar hand is not in any subject of humane contemplation more conspicuous then in the managing of Warres Why it should bee more conspicuous in this then in other businesses wherein men are much imployed the reason is plaine for Contingences are no where more ticklish than in Warre not is their number in any other subject so incomprehensible to the wit of man It is hard to use wit and valour both at once hard to spie an errour upon the first commission of it harder to redeeme the time or regaine opportunities lost It is a grosse errour which hath insinuated it selfe into some Politicians thoughts if wee may judge of their thoughts by their writings that the chances which may fall out contrary to Warriours expectations are not so many but that they may be forecast or numbred It is the Politicians errour likewise though would to God it were his alone to think all occurrences which are casuall in respect of man to be from the first occasions of warre begun so determined by him which gives successe in battaile as that victory must in deed and truth though to men she seeme not so incline to one party more than to the other These casualties of War or doubtfull inclinations of victorie are in succession infinite Their possibilities one way or other may every moment increase from misdemeanours either of them which fight the battailes or of the parties for whom they fight The fairest probabilitie of good successe may be abated from every good act or reformation of the adversarie Gods eternall freedome either in determining new occurrences or altering the combinations of others already extant cannot be prejudiced by any Act past He hath not so before all time decreed them that hee doth not still decree them at his pleasure as well during all the time of warre and fight as before Ita accidit saepenumero ut fortuna ad utrumque victoriam transferat quò Bellum extrahatur animosque nunc horum nunc illorum accendat So it oftentimes falls out that Fortune makes faire profer of victory to both sides and one while incourageth this partie another while that by which meanes warres are usually prolonged Now whatsoever in these cases befals men either beyond their expectation or contrary to their forecast is counted fortunate if it be for their good or fatall if it be for their harme Hence men not only of most accurate booke-learning amongst the Romanes but of best experience in matters of war have given more to Fortune then by-standers or Historicall Relators usually acknowledge to bee her due Had Caesar upon a diligent and accurate survey of the meanes by which he got his victories allotted Fortune her just part in severall or told us truly how much fell out beyond or above his expectation how much just according to his reckoning the world I think would have beene of the same minde with Machiavel in his forementioned contemplations of Romes surprisal by the Gaules which was That the most victorious do not deserve much glory either for wit or valour nor the conquered much dispraise for the contrarie imperfections seeing Fate or Fortune have alwayes the chiefest stroke as well in the exaltation of the one as in the dejection of the other Notwithstanding it is no part of mine whatsoever it was of Machiavels meaning to have any man deprived of that commendation which is due to him in respect of other men And it is not the least title unto true praise to be in favour with the supreame disposer of Martiall successe In respect of him the victorious have no cause to boast but rather to condemne their sloath and negligence in that the fruites of their successe was no better then usually it proves they having so good assistance and sure pledges of divine favour 2 Wheresoever Cicero Caesar Vegetius or other heathens could suspect or descrie the secret assistance of fate or fortune specially in matters more remarkeable as are the usuall consequents of warre there we may without solecisme say the finger of the Lord of hoasts did worke For if the least wound that is given or taken in fight doe not make it selfe but is made by the vigilant and working hand of man shall not the chiefe stroke or sway of battaile which usually falls without Warriers comprehension lead us to a direct a certaine and positive cause Now if this cause were otherwaies unknown by what name could we more properly call it then by the Lord of hoasts or great Moderator of warre If wee may guesse at Gods working in all by the manifestation of his speciall hand in some I am perswaded there was never any great battaile fought since the world began much lesse any famous warre accomplished with such facilitie or speed but that if it had pleased the Historians to expresse all circumstances of speciall moments or could the reader survey such as they expresse with as diligent and curious eyes as one Artificer will anothers worke the consultations of their chiefe managers the executions which seem to have most dependance on them would beare no better proportion w th their entire successe then the day laborers work doth with a curious edifice or then the Pioners paines doth w th the defence or expugnation of stroÌ„g forts or Castles And yet even in the maturest deliberations or most exact consultations of warre related by ordinary historians the finall determination may for the most part be resolved into some speciall Divine instinct the execution of that which men by such