make a conscience as well of their words as of their wayes herein perhaps especially faulty that they are too zealously sollicitous not to speake amisse make no scruple of entertaining these and the like inferences following as naturally descending from the former Maxime It is impossible ought should fall out otherwise than it doth all things in respect of God and his Omnipotent Decree are necessary Contingencie is but a solecisme of secular language or if any thing may without offence be termed contingent it must be reputed such onely with reference to second causes 2 Howbeit such good men as doe thus write and speake will give us leave I know to take it in the first place as granted that God is wiser than we are and knowes the nature of all things and their differences better than they or we doe This being granted we will in the second place suppose that Contingency is not a meere fictitious name of that which is not as Tragelaphus nor altogether Synonymall to Necessity The question about Contingency and of its difference from necessity is not such as one in merriment once proposed in schools An chimera calcitrans in vacuo terat calceos The very names of Contingency and Necessity to ordinary Latinists differ more than Ensis and Gladius than Vestis and Indumentum betwixt which perhaps the ancient Latine Artificers or Nomenclators knew some difference Yet was it impossible for them to know any thing which God knew not who out of all controversie knowes the true difference betweene Contingency and Necessity much better then we can doe For both of them are Entities of his making and serve as different Lawes to the diversity of his creatures or their different actions All the reasons that can be drawne from the immutability of Gods Decree to the contrary may with greater facility and strength of the same Decree be retorted than brought against us For God immutably decrees mutability Now who will say that things mutable are in respect of Gods decree or knowledge immutable The Heavens and other bodies moveable according to locall motion are truly moveable in themselves absolutely moveable not immoveable in respect of Gods decree or knowledge for he knowes them to bee moveable because he decreed them so to be hee doth not know them to be immoveable because he decreed them not to be such unlesse for a time by interposition of miracle It implies lesse contradiction to say Deus immutabiliter decernit mutabilia than to say which hath beene accounted an ancient orthodoxall Maxime Stabilis dat cuncta movere For Mobility is a branch of Mutability 3 Every thing in respect of Gods decree or knowledge is altogether such as God hath decreed it should be If then God hath decreed there should be contingency as well as necessity it is altogether as necessary that some events should be contingent as others necessary and as truly contingent as the other is necessary in respect of Gods decree Albeit to speake properly the natures of contingency and necessity consist not in meere relation or respect For in as much as both are immediate and reall effects of Divine Omnipotency both must have absolute being the being of neither is meerly relative Now if Contingency have a true and absolute being it is neither constituted in the nature of contingency by any respect or relation to second causes nor can any respect or relation to the first cause deprive it of that absolute nature which the Omnipotent efficacy of the cause of causes hath irrevocably bestowed upon it Briefly if Contingency be any thing it is that which it is by the Omnipotent Decree and being such it is altogether as impossible that some effects should not be absolutely contingent as that such effects as the Divine Decree hath appointed to bee necessary should not be at all Or if we would make impartiall inquiry into the originall of all things nothing without the precincts of the most glorious and ever blessed Trinity is absolutely necessary 4 By Contingency lest haply we might be mistaken we understand the possible meane betweene necessity of being and necessity of not being or of being such or of not being such or betweene necessity of doing and necessity of not doing or necessity of being done or necessity of being left undone This meane betweene necessity of doing and necessity of not doing is that which in agents intellectuall as in men and Angells wee call freedome of will or choice Vnto which freedome necessity is as contradictory as irrationability is to the nature of man and contingency as necessarily presupposed as life and sense are to reason Adde reason to contingency and we have the compleat definition of Free-will In those cases wherein the Creator hath exempted man from restraint of necessity his will is free The divine will it selfe is not free in those operations which are essentiall though most delectable God the Father is more delighted in the eternall generation of his Sonne so is God the Father and the Sonne in the eternall procession of the Holy Ghost than in the creation production or preservation of all the creatures Yet are not these or other internall operations of the blessed Trinity so free in respect of the divine nature as is the production of the world Whatsoever God decrees he decrees it freely that is so as he might not decree it Whatsoever he makes he makes it freely that is he so makes it as that it was not necessary for him to make it CHAP. 13. Contingency is absolutely possible and part of the object of Omnipotency as formall a part as necessity is 1 IT is an unquestionable rule in the Art of Arts that propositions for their forme not incompatible may from the necessity of their matter or subject become equivalent to propositions directly contradictory whose indispensable law or rule it is that if the one be true the other must needs be false they admit of no meane betwixt them Now there is no matter or subject in the world which is so absolutely necessary as the existence of the Divine Nature or the internall operations of the Trinity Whence it is that betweene these two propositions The generation of the Sonne is necessary the not generation of the Son is necessary there is no possible meane which can be capable of truth The first is so absolutely necessary and so necessarily true that the latter is eternally false But such is not the case or condition of these two propositions following The Creation or Existence of the World is necessary The not Creation or non existence of the World is necessarie These are not contradictories for their form nor equivalent to contradictories for their matter or subject and therefore may admit a meane betweene them To say the creation or existence of the world was absolutely necessary hath no truth in it for it had a beginning of existence and being and may have an end and the other extreame or contrary The not
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
cannot bee contained in them but necessarily containes them Hee is so without them or if you will beyond them that albeit a thousand more Worlds were stowed by His powerfull hand each above other and all above this Hee should by vertue of His infinite Essence not by free choyce of will or mutation of place bee as intimately coexistent to every part of them as Hee now is to any part of this Heaven and Earth which wee see This attribute of Divine immensitie was acknowledged and excellently expressed by many of the Ancient Philosophers but most pithily by some of the Ancient Fathers Before all things saith Tertullian God was alone and hee was to himselfe world place and all things The manner of his coexistence with the world Philo the Iew well expressed God filleth all things yet is contained in none containing all The vicinity of His Essence preserveth their Essences more truly than the symbolizing qualities of their naturall places doe And even this efficacy of symbolizing or preserving qualities flowes as immediately from his essentiall presence as the passive aptitude of bodies preserved by them doth The more the places are through which bodies naturall swiftly move the lesse properly they are in them In analogy to this condition of naturall bodies the more capable man is of all knowledge the more lyable his capacity is to distraction as consisting rather in united perfections than in firme and indivisible unity of perfection And therefore it is often said of most pregnant wits qui ubique est nusquam est He that is every where is no where Or he that ingageth himselfe to all courses of life goeth through with none But of God who is perfection it selfe not by aggregation but by absolute unity of Essence that of Saint Bernard is most admirably verified Nusquam est â—bique est Hee is no where because no place whether reall or imaginary can comprehend or containe him He is every where because no body no space or spirituall substance can exclude his presence or avoid the penetration of his Essence But Saint Gregories Character of Gods ubiquitary presence and immensity is more lively and full Deus est intra omnia non inclusus extra omnia non exclusus supra omnia non elatus God is within all things yet not shut up or inclosed in them he is without all things yet not excluded from them hee is above all things yet not elevated or exalted by them hee is below all things yet not burdened or depressed by them Greg. in Psal 139. 7 Anselmus notwithstanding had not long custome or generall consent prescribed too stroÌ„gly against him would have reformed this kinde of speech Deus est in omni loco God is in every place by changing one particle Deus est cum omni loco God is with every place This Criticisme of his though well approved by some good writers whilest they dispute against such as say God was every where before any place was yet in my opinion the use of it were it as common as the other which he sought by this to correct would coÌ„ceale much matter of admiration which the description of immensity used by Saint Bernard and others promptly suggests if not occasion or suggest an erroneous imagination of coextension in the Divine Essence The bodies which are contained in places are truly said to be with the places which containe them and the places with them and wee may distributively averre that every body is with every place and every bodily substance is with its mathematicall dimenâ—ions in the same place with it But so to be in every place in every least part of every body as not to bee contained in any or all of them though we should multiply them in infinituÌ„ doth exclude all conceipt or coextension with theÌ„ and much better notifie the indivisible unitie of Gods immensity the incoÌ„prehensiblenes of his essentiall presence than if wee should say he were with every place But as no Characters of the incomprehensible Essences ubiquitary presence doe so well befit it as these that intimate more to our cogitations than we can in words expresse So of this kinde I have found none from which I have received so full instruction or reaped the like fruits of admiration as from that of Trismegist Deus est sphaera cujus Centrum est ubique cujus peripheria nusquam God is a sphere whose Center is every-where whose circumference is no where Not the least particle of this universall Globe or sphere but is supported by the indivisible unity of his Essence as by an internall Center And yet neither the utmost circumference of this visible world nor any circumference conceiveable can so circumscribe or comprehend his essentiall presence that it might bee said thus farre it reacheth and no further For albeit hee would crowne the convexity of these Heavens with others so much higher and more spacious than these Heavens as these are than the Earth and continue this course unto the worlds end yet all should bee comprehended in his Essence it could not be comprehended in any Their circumference should still be somewhere whereas his Essence though still inlarging by this supposed daily exercise of his power the bounds of its actuall coexistence with these new creatures is in it selfe altogether boundlesse Omnipotency it selfe cannot pitch a circumference to it because nothing can be but it must be in it which onely truly is and cannot bee contained in any thing imaginable In that all things are contained in him he is rightly resembled by a sphere which is of al figures the most capacious In that all things cannot comprehend him He is rightly resembled by a sphere whose circumference is no where 8 Two points notwithstanding in the former resemblance seeme difficult to mens conceipts but more difficult it is fully to expresse what may rightly be conceived concerning them The former difficulty is how a Center should be conceived to be every where The second how the indivisibility of Gods presence in every place should bee compared unto a Center To the former it may be sayd That as the divine Essence by reason of its absolute infinity hath an absolute necessity of coexistence with space or magnitude infinite so were it possible there should bee as some Divines hold it possible there may be a magnitude or materiall sphere actually infinite this magnitude could have no set point for its Center but of every point designable in it wee might avouch this is the Center as well as that Every point should have the negative properties of a sphericall Center there could be no inequality betweene the distances of severall points from the circumference of that which is infinite and hath no bounds of magnitude To the second difficulty it may bee said The manner of divine presence or coexistence to every place or parcell of bodies visible is rightly compared unto a Center in that it hath no diversity of parts but is
true happinesse might be inspired with life and sense they could not communicate halfe that happinesse to any one man though they wold choose his hart for their closet or actuate his reasonable soule as it doth the sensitive that is imparted by him to al his chosen who is entirely infinite happinesse but not happinesse onely For unto the impenitent and despisers of his bountie of his love his mercy grace and salvation he is justice indignation and severity it selfe Nemesis her selfe were she enabled with spirit life and power much greater then the Heathens ascribed unto her and permitted to rage without controle of any superiour law should not bee able with all the assistance the Furies could afford her to render vengeance unto Satan and his wicked Angles in such full and exquisite measure as the just Iudge will doe in that last dreadfull day Then shall he truely appeare to be as our Apostle speakes All in All the infinite abstract of all those powers which the heathens adored for gods as authors either of good or of evill Then shall he fully appeare to be mercy goodness grace and felicity Nemesis pavâ—r and terrour it selfe the indivisible and incomprehensible Idea of all things which in this life our love did seeke after or our feare naturally laboured to avoyd The onely loadstone whereto our love our desire in our creation were directed was his goodnesse and loving kindnesse And feare was implanted in our nature as an Helme or Rudder to divert us from his immutable justice or indignation which are as rockes immoveable against whom whosoever shall carelessely or presumptuously runne must everlastingly perish without redemption FINIS A TREATISE OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE AND ATTRIBVTES THE SECOND PART CONTAINING The Attribute of Omnipotency of Creation and Providence c. BY THOMAS IACKSON Doctor in Divinitie Chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinary and Vicar of S. Nicolas Church in the Towne of Newcastle vpon Tyne LONDON Printed for IOHN CLARKE and are to be sold at his shop under St. Peters Church in Cornehill 1629. THE CONTENTS OF THE SEVERALL Chapters in this ensuing TREATISE SECTION I. OF the Attribute of Omnipotency and creative power Chap. Folio 1 The Title of Almighty is not personall to the Father but essntiall to the Godhead 1 2 Of Omnipotency and of its object of possibility and of impossibility 4 3 This visible world did witnesse the invisible power and unity of the Godhead unto the Ancient Heathens 15 4 The first objection of the Atheist Of nothing nothing can be made Of the doubtful sense of this naturall how far it is true and how far it is false 19 5 By what manner of induction or enumeration of particulars universall rules or Maximes must bee framed and supported That no induction can bee brought to prove the Naturalists Maxime Of nothing nothing can be made 25 6 The second objection of the Naturalist Every agent praesupposeth a patient or passive subject to worke upon cannot be proved by any induction The contradictorie to this Maxime proued by sufficient induction 31 7 Shewing by reasons philosophicall that aswell the physicall matter of bodies sublunary as the celestiall bodies which work upon it were of necessity to have a beginning of their Being and Duration 45 8 Discussing the second generall proposed Whether the making something of nothing rightly argue a power Omnipotent 57 SECT II. OF Divine Providence in generall and how Contingency and necessity in things created are subiect unto it Chapter Folio 9 Of the perpetuall dependance which all things created have on the Almighty Creator both for their being and their operations 65 10 The usuall and daily operations of naturall causes with their severall events or successes are as immediately ascribed to the Creator by the Prophets as the first Creation of all things with the reasons why they are so ascribed 80 11 Containing the summe of what we are to beleeue in this Article of Creation and of the duties whereto it binds us with an introduction to the Article of His Providence 87 12 Though nothing can fall out otherwise then God hath decreed yet God hath decreed that many things may fall out otherwise than they doe 98 13 Contingency is absolutely possible and part of the object of Omnipotency as formall a part as necessity is 102 14 The former conclusion proved by the consent of all the Ancients whether Christians or Heathens which did dislike the errour of the Stoickes 109 15 The principall conclusions which are held by the favourers of absolute necessity may be more clearly justified and acquitted from all inconveniences by admitting a mixt possibilitie or contingency in humane actions 118 16 The former contingency in humane actions or mutuall possibility of obtaining reward or incurring punishment proved by the infallibile rule of faith and by the tenour of Gods Covenant with his people 126 17 That Gods will is alwayes done albeit many particulars which God willeth bee not done and many done which he willeth should not be done 137 18 Of the distinction of Gods will into Antecedent Consequent Of the explication and use of it 146 19 Of the divers acceptions or importances of Fate especially among the Heathen writers 151 20 Of the affinitie or alliance which Fates had to necessitie to Fortune or chance in the opinion of Heathen writers 160 21 Of the proper subject and nature of Fate 169 22 The opposite opinions of the Stoicks and Epicures In what sense it is true that all things are necessary in respect of Gods decree 179 23 Of the degrees of necessity and of the originall of inevitable or absolute necessity 184 SECT III. OF the manifestation of Divine Providence in the remarkable erection declination and periods of Kingdomes in over-ruling policie and disposing the success of humane undertakings Chapter Folio 24 Of the contrary Fates or awards whereof Davids temporall kingdome was capable and of its devolution from Gods antecedent to his consequent Will 194 25 Of the sudden and strange erection of the Macedonian Empire and the manifestation of Gods special providence in Alexanders expedition and successe 213 26 Of the erection of the Chaldean Empire and of the sudden destruction of it by the Persian with the remarkeable documents of Gods speciall providence in raising up the Persian by the ruine of the Chaldean Monarchy 224 27 Of Gods speciall providence in raising and ruinating the Roman Empire 259 28 Why God is called the Lord of Hosts or the Lord mighty in Battaile Of his speciall providence in managing Warres 288 29 Of Gods speciall providence in making unexpected peace and raising unexpected warre 314 30 Of Gods speciall providence in defeating cunning plots and conspiracies and in accomplishing extraordinary matters by meanes ordinary 320 SECT IV. OF Gods speciall Providence in suiting punishments unto the nature and qualitie of offences committed by men Chapter Folio 31 Of the rule of retaliation or counterpassion And how forcible punishments inflicted by this
preserved it I cannot exhibite this generall view more clearly or more succinctly than Iustin Martyr hath done in his answer to the fourth question of the Grecians The question was thus proposed An Deus faciat feceritve facturusve sit Et si facit suaptene voluntare an praeter voluntatem Whether God do make the things that are whether hee hath made the things that have beene whether hee will make other things which yet are not or the things which are after a better manner than as yet they have beene made or if he be or hath beene a maker or continue to make things better whether he do all this out of his owne free will or besides his will His full answer to this question is Fecit Deus facit facturus est suapte sponte voluntate nam creaturam ipse condidit quae antehac non fuerat volens Eam providentia sua in eo ut sit conservat quod quidem est facit Quam etiam instauraturus est in statum meliorem redacturus per restitutionem sive renovationem quod est facturus est ut repurget cam ab absurditate omni ex rationalium ignavia contracta Non quod per judicii considerationem deliberationem posterius id quod melius sit invenerit sed quod longe antea prius quam mundum condidit constitutum habuerit ut faceret Neque enim possibile est ut vel ad notionem vel ad potentiam Deo posterius quidquam accedat quod prius non habuerit Volentem autem Deum mundum creasse illud est documento quod cum Deus potuerit plures efficere soles non plures sed unum duntaxat effecerit Nam qui plures non potest condere soles neque unum condere potest qui unum solem creare potuit necessario quoque plures creare potuit Quomodo igitur quos facere potuit plures soles Deus non fecit nisi certe quod plures soles facere noluit Sin quos non fecit soles voluntate non fecit perspicuam utique fuerit cum etiam quem fecit voluntate fecisse Et veluti sol ita reliquae creaturae partes omnes quae vel obnoxiae vel non obnoxiae sunt corruptibilitati ex voluntate Dei id quod sint id quod hujusmodi sint habent CHAP. 11. Containing the summe of what wee are to beleeve in this Article of Creation and of the duties whereto it binds us with an introduction to the Article of His providence TO beleeve that God is the maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible includes in it an acknowledgement not onely of the six dayes worke but that he still makes all things that are and shal make all things which hereafter shall be So long as any thing which hath beene continues in beeing so long as any thing which now is not shall beginne or not cease to be so long the Almighty continues a Maker And in as much as some things which are made or which hereafter shall be made shall have no end he continues an everlasting Maker This title of Maker is none of his Eternall Attributes but a denomination ascribed unto him from his workes which all had their beginning in time or rather with time or with duration finite or numerable It is an everlasting Attribute for that properly is everlasting which though it have beginning yet it hath no end But albeit the acts or exercises of his will or power had a beginning with the world for they are alwayes in the creature or effect yet his will and purpose to make the world are eternall So is the power by which he made it so is the combination of all these to wit his providence by which hee orders and governes all things coeternall to his essence All moderne controversies to my knowledge account it an heathenish solecism to say God only did make or hath made the world and all things in it he doth not now make them For this were to deny the necessity of his everlasting worke in preserving supporting and continuing all things in their proper being And to deny this would bee more than a solecisme of speech a reall branch of infidelity Is it then a lesse solecisme of speech to say or a smaller portion of infidelity to thinke that God only hath decreed before all times what shall fall out in time but doth not now decree nor shall any thing hereafter be decreed by him Questionlesse if his decree be coeternall to his power the same with his will or purpose if hee cease not to worke or will he ceaseth not to worke or decree He did decree to worke when he did not worke or produce any effect ad extra but hee never produced any effect or worke when hee did not decree For he worketh all things by the Counsell of his will not by the Counsell of his will as past and ended but by the Counsell of his will which was which is and which is to come And he decreeth all things for the times present after the selfe same manner that he decreed them from eternity otherwise his decree were not eternall could have no resemblance of eternity To infer that Gods decree is an act past or that God doth not now decree because he hath decreed al things before all worlds is a solecisme or ignorance to say no worse of the same nature quality scantling as if you shold say God was before the world was therefore God is not since the world was nor shall be after the end of this world For the world could neither begin continue nor cease to be but by his eternall and irresistible decree which neither hath beginning nor end nor can admit any interposition of change It is true that if we consider the Deity in himselfe or his decree as it is in him or the same with him there is neither praeteritum nor futurum no such difference in them as wee character or notifie by these termes past or to come yet if wee consider God or his eternall Decree as they include a reference of precedency to things temporall past or to come or as times current have coexistence with him wee may not deny that God was before all times and did decree things to come that he is in all times current and doth decree the issue of times present or ensuing Thus in all times and in all places the Almighty Father is present with us present in us as our maker and preserver present by his eternall providence to order and governe us And the government of the world specially of Men and Angels is in true Divinity the proper object of the Eternall Decree And if God be thus with us nothing can goe amisse with us save only by our ignorance by our misbeleefe or weake beleefe of this first Article 2 The true that is the firme and sound beleefe of every morall or sacred truth specially of such
contingency or al possibility of being recalled or avoyded were by the Heathens ascribed Fato majori to greater Fates The symptomes or characters of events becomming thus irresistibly absolutely necessary come elsewhere by Gods assistance to be deciphered Here it sufficeth to advertise the Reader that as divers things besides so necessitie may be enstyled absolute many waies but two especially Some things are said to be absolutely necessarie that is altogether inevitable albeit this necessitie or inevitablenesse did accrue from some occasions or set points of time lately past As many diseases in their nature curable and easie to have beene cured by ordinarie medicines if they had beene administred in time do by some few daies ill diet by carelesse attendance or casuall relapse become altogether incurable by any after-care or helpe of physick Other events there be which were absolutely necessarie in respect of all times their exhibition or production could not by any policie of man have beene prevented So our Saviours death was absolutely necessary from the beginning of the World but whether absolutely necessary from eternity or absolutely necessary without supposall of Adams fall which was not necessary shall not here be disputed Certaine it is that nothing decreed by God can be so absolutely necessary as the Divine Nature or blessed Trinity is Many errors have found opportunity to mingle themselves with divine truth for want of a commodious distinction or explication of this indistinct and confused terme Absolute the anatomy of it were worth the paines of the Learned Evident it is that some things which are not to day may to morrow be in their kind absolute 3 We truly say that the summe of mony wherin one man stands bound unto another is absolutely due from the time of the forfaiture or non-performance of the condition that is there is no plea left in Law no course or meanes of Iustice to avoyd the payment of it Yet was not the same sum absolutely due from the first date of the bond the performance of the Condition in due time had prevented the losse which negligence or breach of promise hath now made necessary and irrecoverable Moneys lent upon no other consideration but upon meere good will to be repayd whensoever the party lending shall demand them are absolutely due from the date of the recognizance and for that which is absolutely due there is a necessitie of payment or satisfaction 4. Some disasterous events become by divine providence irresistibly necessarie long before they be actually accomplished or inflicted such was the destruction of Pharaoh of Senacherib the desolation of Iudah and Ierusalem by Titus Others become fatally irresistible within some few dayes or houres before they happen other not till the very moment wherein they are awarded either for some grievous sinne then committed or for some remarkable document of Gods justice Some againe are for a long time totally irresistible and unpreventable others resistible quoad tantum though not quoad totum that is part of the evils might be prevented though not the whole All that we have said concerning the alteration of possibilities or contingencies or change of events contingent into necessary may easily be conceived without any surmise of alteration in the Omnipotent or in his everlasting decree The least degree of possibility or contingency is as necessarily derived from his absolute irresistible will as necessity it selfe in the highest degree It is impossible for possibility to have any right to actuall being without his speciall appointment To think that Fate Chance or Fortune should nestle in some certaine periods of time or be brought forth by revolutioÌ„s of the heavens is altogether heathenish But neither doth Scripture insinuate nor can reason justly suspect any danger in avouching that the Almighty suffers that contingency or multiplicity of possibilities betweene good and evill or the severall degrees of evill wherewith hee hath endued the reasonable creature to explicate or contract it selfe in every moment of time And according to the nature of the free motions of man the irresistible decree brings 〈◊〉 such events or issues as were truly possible from eternity but become necessary by revolutions not of the heavens but of mans hart and thoughts publike plague or calamities become necessary or inevitable by these meanes onely We must ever remember that God hath not so decreed all things before they come or the manner how they shall come as that he doth not yet decree them For he continually decrees as well necessity as contingency and brings forth effects as well contingent as necessary from this present houre both being sometimes meerly possible The truth of this our last assertion may be demonstrated from our former principle If one part of a disjunctive proposition be denied or faile the other may be necessarily inferred though neither bee absolutely and determinately necessary but become such by consequence or upon supposition of the others failing Many things which in respect of our present purpose or resolution are free or contingent may within a short while after become altogether necessary and unavoydable without any alteration or change in us Suppose a Iudge should be tied by oath to execute justice upon a malefactor within eight dayes there is no necessity that he should performe his vow the first second third or fourth day The execution or not execution of Iustice is during the first seven daies free and contingent without any breach or violation of oath but omitting the opportunities which the first seven dayes have offered the execution of Iustice upon the eighth day is as necessarie as his honesty or fidelity as necessary as if hee had beene tied by oath to execute it upon that day alone The parts of indefinite time or of the matter promised or threatned by man may be farre more than this instance implies So that the performance of those duties or promises which for a long time was free and arbitrarie and might have beene performed in different measure becomes at length absolutely necessary and necessary to such a determinate degree The parts of Gods disjunctive decree and the degrees as well of every matter decreed by him as of the time allotted for the execution of it may be numberlesse in respect of us And man by not entertaining the opportunities which by severall times have beene allotted him for reducing his possibilities of doing Gods antecedent will into act may forfeit the very possibilities themselves for ever or for a long time And by continuance of such neglect of many parts or kindes of successe all truly possible in respect of the eternal decree that only shall in the end become necessary which he least desires which his soule shall most deâ—est In respect of some future events not as yet become necessary the eternall decree leaves fewer branches of contrary contingencies or possibilities in respect of others more Their multitude may expire or revive every moment according to the diversity of mens waies