where in this world it is from the Lord. Whatsoever affliction be it punishment chastisemēt or triall Befalleth any one wicked or Godly Any where in this world either here or else where in the city of this world It is from the Lord either immediatly and primarily of himselfe or mediatly and secundarily by Angels men and other creatures the instruments executioners of his holy and iust iudgements This doctrine thus confirmed and explained is profitable many waies First it may serue for reproofe of some olde Hereticks the Coluthians and Florinians The k August de haeres cap. 65 Coluthians affirmed that God doth no evill contrary to my present text and doctrine The Florinians affirmed that God createth evill contrary to that Gen. 1.31 God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good These two sects of Hereticks are one against the other but both against the dictates of the holy Spirit S. Austine cap. 66. lib. de haeresib hath fitted one answer for both Creat Deus mala poenas iustissimas irrogando quod Coluthus non videbat non autem malas creando naturas atque substantias in quantum sunt naturae atque substantiae vbi Florinus errabat The summe of his answer is God may bee said to create evill to doe evill by laying vpon offenders iust punishments which Coluthus saw not but not by making evill natures and substances which was Florinus his errour God createth evill God doth evill vnderstand it not l Paulus de Palatio de malo culpae criminū but de punitione poenâque scelerum vnderstand it not of the evill m Rupertus of iniquitie but of the evill of affliction you are in right For Whatsoever affliction befalleth any one any where in this world it is from the LORD Is it from the LORD Then in the second place this doctrine serueth to reproue such as doe voluntarily and wilfully thrust themselues into afflictions not expecting the good houre when God should lay his rod vpon them The offenders in this kind are the Papists such as betake themselues to the discipline as they cal it n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beat themselues naked with rods whips such as superstitiously o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weare sackcloath p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goe barefooted and q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lie vpon the ground thinking by these and such toies to expiate their sinnes and to demerite vnto themselues eternall life A vaile for this their hypocrisie they thinke they haue in 1. Cor. 9.27 where St Paul saith of himselfe I keepe my body vnder and bring it into subiection The words are much stood on by Gretser lib. 1. de Disciplinis cap. 4. Hee collecteth from them that St Paul did discipline himselfe that is did punish himselfe with strokes of rods or whips For what else saith hee is ὑποπιάζειν but to beate with mightie strokes And what is that but facere disciplinam to vse discipline vpon himselfe This vaile we easily take from them St Paule takes his ὑποπιάζω tropically as translated from the manner of fight betweene a champion and his antagonist But what is this to the Iesuites purpose who takes it literally St Paule kept his body vnder and brought it into subiection I graunt it So should we after his example Jt's our parts also ὑποπιάζειν it 's our parts to keepe our bodies vnder to bring them into subiection The meaning is not that wee should afflict and macerate our bodies with whips with scourges with hairecloths with lying vpon the ground and the like St Paule did not do so but the meaning is that we should subdue the reliques of the old man within vs that wee should keepe vnder the body of sinne within vs that we should bring into subiection the corrupt nature within vs that thus mortified in the flesh we may bee quickned by the Spirit as St Peter speaketh 1. Epist chap. 3.18 Thus mortified in the one and quickned by the other wee shall bee armed with patience to beare whatsoever affliction shal light vpon vs being well assured that every such affliction is from the LORD according to the truth of my doctrine Whatsoever affliction befalleth any one any where in this world it 's from the LORD Is it so beloued Then in the third place this doctrine serueth to confute the vaine opiniō of Fortune wherevnto like the Philosophers of old some carnal ignorant people now adaies vse to ascribe such their afflictions whereof they see not an apparant cause If by fire by lightning by tempests by windes by waters by vnseasonable weather by theeues or otherwise they receaue losse they ascribe all to Fortune quasi Deus otium coleret in coelo non curaret res humanas as if they were to hold it for an article of their beleefe that God liueth idlely in Heaven and hath no care of mans affaires Noli fortunam quae non est dicere caecam Foolish man why dost thou for thy losses accuse blinde fortune when there is no such thing Looke vp to Heavē There is the seate of Maiestie whereon he sitteth who ordereth all thy losses Be patient towards him He is the Lord. How knowest thou whether hee will not deale with thee as he dealt with Iob cha 42.12 It may be hee will make thy latter ende better then thy beginning was Forget not therefore what now thou hast learned Whatsoever affliction befalleth any one any where in this world it is from the LORD Is it from the LORD Here then in the fourth place we haue wherewith to comfort our selues in the day of affliction Whatsoever affliction shall befall vs it s frō the LORD the LORD he is omnipotent he is merciful he is ever present with vs he will not suffer vs to be tempted aboue our abilities but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that wee may be able to beare it So saith S. Paule 1. Cor. 10.13 Well we may be troubled on every side but we shall not be overpressed we may bee perplexed but shall not be in despaire we may be persecuted but shall not be forsaken wee may be cast downe but shall not bee destroyed The same Apostle doth assure vs hereof 2. Cor. 4.8 Say it is our case Wee are troubled perplexed persecuted cast downe what shall wee doe Wee will support our selues with Davids confidence Psal 23.4 Though we walke through the valley of the shaddow of death we wil feare no evil for thou LORD art with vs. Thou LORD art with vs r Rom. 8.13 Quis contra nos We ſ Hebr. 13.6 will not feare what man can doe vnto vs. Wherefore to conclude sith there is no affliction that befalleth any man in this world but it 's from the LORD and he is a bastard not a sonne that is not partaker of afflictions as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrewes witnesseth chap. 12.8 Let vs with S. Iames chap. 1.2 account it exceeding ioy when we are afflicted The Patriarches the Prophets the Evangelists the Apostles haue found the way to Heavē narrow rugged and bloody and shall wee thinke that God will strew carpets for our nice feete to walke thither He that is the dore and the way our LORD Saviour Iesus Christ hath by his owne example taught vs that by many afflictions we must enter into the kingdome of Heaven There is but one passage thither and it is a strait one If with much pressure we can get through and leaue but our superfluous rags as torne from vs in the throng we shall be happy Let vs therefore whensoever any adversity crosse calamity miserie or affliction shall betide vs let vs with due regard to the hand that smiteth vs receiue it with thankes keepe it with patience digest it in hope apply it with wisedome bury it with meditation and doubtlesse it shall end vnto vs in peace and glory in peace of Conscience in this life and in glory eternall in the highest Heavens Of this peace of Conscience in this life and that immarcessible crowne of glory in the life to come vouchsafe gracious Father to make vs all partakers for thy best beloued Sonne Iesus Christ his sake to whom with thee in the vnitie of the Holy Spirit be all praise and power might and Maiestie dignitie and dominion for evermore Amen FINIS
by way of question when they will most of all affirme it Gen. 18.14 the LORD saith to Abraham Is any thing too hard for the LORD It is as if he had said al things are easie with the LORD there is nothing impossible nothing too hard for him Mar. 12.24 Iesus answering the Sadduces said vnto theÌ„ Doe yee not therefore erre because yee knowe not the Scriptures neither the power of God It is as if he had said doubtlesse yee therefore erre because yee knowe not the Scriptures neither the power of God 1. Cor. 10.16 St Paul saith The bread which we breake is it not the communion of the body of Christ It is as if he had said The bread which wee breake is the communion of the body of Christ Many other places of like nature I might produce But by these wee see that an Interrogation vseth to be put from an Affirmation as in my text Shall there bee evill in a city and the LORD hath not done it It is as if our Prophet had said There shall be no evill in a city but the LORD will doe it Or whatsoever evil is in a city the LORD hath done it Durus est hic sermo happyly will some say as those fleshly hearers of Christ said to Christ Ioh. 6.60 When Christ had told them that they were to eate his flesh to drinke his blood else they should not liue Durus est hic sermo This is a hard saying who can endure to heare it Shall there be no evil in a city but the LORD will doe it but he hath done it Durus sermo This is a hard saying This stumbling blocke this stone of offence will easily be remoued if you will bee pleased to consider with me three circumstances expressed in the letter of my text Quis Quid Vbi An Agent an Action The place of performance The Agent is the LORD the ActioÌ„ is a doing of evill the place where this action is to bee performed is a City Shall there be evill in a city and the LORD hath not done it Follow me I beseech you in these three I will passe them over as briefly and as plainely as I may If in my discourse I shall seeme for a while somewhat thorny or perplexed helpe me with your attention Shall there be evill in a city the LORD hath not done it The first circumstance to bee now considered is Quis. The Agent My text cals him IEHOVAH IEHOVAH It is the most proper name of God No creature is made partaker of it nor man nor Angel It betokeneth first the essence of God secondly the truth and complement of his promises First it signifieth that God is verè τὸ ὂν à quo πάντα Ï„á½° ὄντα that God is so of himselfe that e Rom. 11.36 of him and through him and to him are all things Secondly it signifieth that God is ever faithful in his promises From whence two things should deeply and perpetually bee fastned in the memory of every Christian one is that our God is an everliuing God is the chiefest good is the author of all good and is therefore alwaies and aboue al things to be loued the other is that our God is ever true in his promises and therefore that our whole trust must ever lie on him For he only is IEHOVAH IEHOVAH is his name for ever it is his memoriall vnto all generations So it is called Exod. 3. 15. and Hos 12.5 This our God the Lord IEHOVAH who is of himselfe alone and is only true in all his sayings hee is not that God of those shamelesse blasphemers the f August de Haeresib c. 46. Manichees and g Ibid. c. 22. Marcionites h Zanchius de Attribut Dei lib. 4. cap. 1. qu. 1. thes 4. Deus malus à quo sit omne malum an evill God from whom commeth all evill Our God is no such God there is no evill in him there proceeds no evill froÌ„ him he is wholly i Ps 33.5 73.1 103.11 17. 136.1 c. good good k In se Deê° bon ' est suâ esseÌ„tiâ summè PolaÌ„ Syntag. Theol. lib. 2. cap 20. of himselfe by his essence Now if hony of its owne nature and essence sweet hath no bitternesse in it if the Sunne of its owne nature and essence light hath no darknesse in it without doubt God of himselfe of his owne nature essence good hath no evill in him Wee confesse with David Psal 5.4 O our God thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickednesse neither shall any evill dwell with thee Thus you see Quis who this Agent is It is IEHOVAH the Lord our God whose being is of himselfe who is true in all his sayings who is absolutely good in whom there is no staine of evill Such is the Agent The next circumstance is Quid the Action a doing of evill Shall there be evill in a city and the LORD hath not done it The naturalist saith l Mat. 7.17 A good tree bringeth forth good fruit the Philosopher saith Omne m Arist 2. Phys Aquin. 2. Dist 18. qu. 2. Art 1. ad 4. Zanch. de Attrib l. 2. cap. 7. qu. 3. agens agit sibi simile Such as the Agent is such is the Action if the Agent be good the Action cannot be evil How then is it that God of himselfe and absolutely Good is here in my text noted for a doer of evill For answer herevnto wee must with St Austin cap. 26. contra Adimantum Manichaeum distinguish of evils there is malum quod facit homo and malum quod patitur there is an evill which man doth and there is an evill which man suffereth the first is sinne the other is the punishment of sinne of this not of that must God be said to be the doer This distinction is more plainely delivered by Tertullian contra Marcion lib. 2. cap. 14. There is malum delicti and malum supplicij there is malum culpae and malum poenae there is an evill of sinne an evill of paine Suum cuique parti definimus autorem saith that Father malorum quidem peccati culpae Diabolum malorum verò supplicij poenae Deum creatorem Of the evills of sinne and fault the Devill is the author but in the evils of paine and punishment wee acknowledge the hand of God the Creatour This distinction of evils saith n Annot. 82. in locum Tertulliani Pamelius is worth the noting against Calvin and his followers as if Calvin or the rest who maintaine the truth of that doctrine which Calvin professed denied this distinction of Evils to make God the cause and author of sinne This horrible blasphemie and impietie wherewith o De amiss Grat. statu reccati lib. 2. cap. 4. Bellarmine p Octavâ ratione Campian q Defensione praefationum Bellarm. Tom 1 pag. 5 6. Gretser r Tom. 1. Opusc 3. de
serious and religious meditations is Whatsoeuer affliction befalleth any one any where in this world it is from the LORD By affliction in this proposition I vnderstand the suffering of any thing the sense or cogitation whereof our nature shunneth Whatsoever is any way grievous or offensiue to our humane nature I call AfflictioÌ„ The temptations of the flesh the world the Devil the diseases of the body an infortunate husband or wife rebellious children vnthankfull friends losse of goods reproaches sclaunders war pestilence famine imprisonment death every crosse and passion bodily or ghostly proper to our selues or appertaining to such as are of our blood private or publike secret or manifest either by our owne deserts gotten or otherwise imposed vpon vs I call Afflictions In a word all manner of miseries calamities vexations or molestations in this life from the least to the greatest from the paine of the little finger to the very pangs of death I call Afflictions There are two sorts of men shall I say in this city I say in the city of this world there are two sorts of men visited with afflictions the one the Scriptures cal the reprobate the other the elect they are the wicked these the godly Whatsoever Affliction befalleth the first sort the Reprobate the wicked it is as Divines call it τιμωία a punishment wherewith God as a fearefull iudge avengeth himselfe vpon the wicked for their sins properly a punishment a punishment inflicted on men sinning that the iustice of God may thereby bee satisfied With the other sort with the Elect with the Godly it is not so Whatsoever afflictions befall them they are not properly punishments for their sinnes they are more rightly called Crosses Punishments they cannot properly be called because whatsoever punishment is due to any of the Elect for their sinnes it 's fully answered by Christ in his actiue and passiue obedience in his life and death He is become our λÏÏ„Ïον hee hath paid the price of our redemption he hath fully satisfied for all our sinnes our sinnes past present and to come And therefore if any afflictions be vpon vs we are not to call them properly punishments for our sinnes the name of crosses will befit them better These crosses of the godly are either παιδιεῖαι or δοχιμαâ—αι they are either chastisements for our sinnes already perpetrated to make vs the more wary for the time to come that we fall not againe into the same or the like sinnes or they are trials and exercises of our faith hope charitie patience and other like Christian vertues Now all these fore-mentioned afflictions either properly punishments for sinne such as are the afflictions of the wicked or chastisements or trials such as are the afflictions of the Godly they are all from the LORD according to the truth of my doctrine Whatsoever affliction befalleth any one any where in this world it is from the LORD The LORD he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the primary cause of all afflictions and of many the immediate cause Of the vniversall deluge and floud of waters in the daies of Noah Gen. 6.17 Of the burning of Sodom Gomorah and their sister Cities Gen. 19.24 Of the overthrow of Pharaohs host in the midst of the sea Exod. 14.27 Of the smiting of Nabal to death 1. Sam. 25.38 of all these was God the immediate cause Some afflictions it pleaseth God to effect mediatè by secundary and instrumentall causes by Angels by meÌ„ by other creatures First God afflicteth by Angels By an Angel he smote Davids people so that there died of the pestilence froÌ„ Dan to Beersheba seauenty thousand men 2. Sam. 24.15 By an Angel he smote in the campe of the Assyrians one hundred fourescore and fiue thousand 2. King 19.35 By an Angel he smote K. Herod so that he died Act. 12.23 Secondly God afflicteth by men Here might I tell you of the afflictions wherewith God exercised his people Israel by Cushan-Rishathaim K. of Mesopotamia for eight yeares Iudg. 3.8 By the Midianites for seaven yeares Iudg. 6.1 By the Philistines and the Ammonites for eighteene yeares Iudg. 10.8 By the Philistines againe for forty years Iudg. 13.1 Here might I relate vnto you the many afflictions wherewith God proved his people the people of Iudah by sending against them the Egyptians Assyrians and Chaldeans The bookes of the Kings and Chronicles are copious in describing them I need not remember you of Ashur Esai 10.5 how there he is stiled the rod the staffe of the wrath of God to signifie that he was organum siue instrumentum Dei the executioner of Gods vengeance vpoÌ„ Hypocrites I will not hold you with any long narration of Attila King of the Hunnes Medes Gotthes and Danes how in his title or inscription he called himselfe metum orbis flagellúmque Dei the terrour of the world the scourge of God I passe over the great Turke whom you know now to bee the hammer of the world and the rod of Christendome Come we home vnto our selues Here shal we find it made good that by men God afflicteth men Else why is it come to passe according to Ieremies words chap. 9.4 that a neighbour deceiueth his neighbour that a brother supplanteth his brother Why is it now according to Micah's words chap. 7 6. that the sonne dishonoureth his father that the daughter riseth vp against her mother Why are a f Micah 7 6. Matth 10.36 mans enimies now the men of his owne house Why doth the corrupt Magistrate g Amos 2.6 sel the righteous for siluer and the poore for a paire of shooes Why doth the cruell Landlord h Amos 2.7 pant after the dust of the earth on the head of his poore tenant Why behold we in our cities biting vsurie i Hab. 1.2 3. violence oppression false dealing Certainely God is even now pleased to afflict men by men Thirdly God afflicteth by other creatures also This the story of Gods visitation vpon Pharaoh and the Egyptians Exod. chap. 8 9 10. maketh plaine vnto vs. There we finde that frogges lice flies grashoppers thunder haile lightning murraine botches and sores did instrumentally avenge God vpon man beast in Egypt Not in Egypt only but every where else those other like creatures as fire and snow and vapours and stormy windes doe fulfill what God commandeth So saith the Spirit Ps 148.8 Infinite might I be in the prosecution of this point yet keepe my selfe within the limits of Sacred writ But I may not dwell hereon Only in summe I say Iehovah the Lord our God the Agent in my text is Deus exercituum a God of hosts All creatures Celestial Terrestrial Infernal the rest that are either in the aire or in water they are all of Gods armie and are ready to doe his Holy will By these God afflicteth vs. These are the instruments but God is the author of our afflictions Thus is my doctrine established Whatsoever affliction befalleth any one any