Apostolicum solium annos decem menses septem tenuisset praecipiti morbo ex humanis ereptus est Raynald ad an 1352. n. 21. as their own Writers witness But Luther had eat a lusty Supper and was merry and jocular the Evening before And so had several of their Popes the next Evening before they died Pope Paul II after he had supp'd most jollily and perswaded himself that he had many Years to live the same Night died of an Apoplexy (o) Et cum annos plurimos vivere sibi persuaderet anno salutis nostrae 1471. v. Kal. Augusti hora secunda noctis cum eo die laetum consistorium habuisset jocundissime caenasset Apoplexia correptus vitam cum morte mutavit Johan Stell Anno 1464. p. 262. Pope Leo X led constantly a merry Life but his Death happen'd in the highest excess of Feasting Mirth and Jollity and so suddenly that there was not time afforded for Absolution and Extreme Unction (p) Ex hujus victoriae nuncio Leonem Pontificem ingenti diffusum gaudio referunt in qua Apoplexia correptus nullis perceptis Sacramentis aetatis anno quadragesimo sexto nondum exacto decessit inopina morte Raynald ad an 1521. n. 108. Die insequenti laetitiae pompam sua morte clausit inopina quidem adeâ— ut ne Sacramentis quidem munitus suerit N. 109. And if Luther jested the Day before he died methinks it might have passed without any severe Censure since Sir Tho. More the Pope's Martyr was so sportful upon the Scaffold and died with a Jest in his Mouth But what credit is to be given to his Enemies we may learn from those monstrous Tales they spread concerning his Death not only after but long before it Such as that horrible Miracle wrought at his Funeral for the Conviction of Hereticks which he confuted with his own Hand And it is not unpleasant to read how they contradict one another One says That he purged out his Entrails like Arius Another That his Mouth was distorted and his whole right Side turned to a duskish Colour But above all commend me to Thyraeus the Jesuit He confidently tells us That in a Town of Brabant named Cheol there were many Persons possess'd with Devils who were brought thither to be cured by the Intercessions and Prayers of the Saint of the Place That these poor Creatures were on a sudden deliver'd from these Evil Spirits and that this was the very Day that Luther died That the day after the Devils return'd again into the same Bodies and being asked whither they were gon the day before answer'd That by the Commandment of their Prince they were call'd forth to attend the Soul of their Grand Prophet and Companion Luther This Fable as ridiculous as it is malicious is quoted at large and credited by as considerable a Man as Florimond de Ramond (r) De la Naissance de l' Heresie l. 3. c. 11. p. 332. He I say that shall reflect upon these things will not be apt to believe the Reports of his Adversaries If we take the account of his Death from Sleidan we shall find it very different and such as was every way becoming a most pious and devout Christian (s) Jo. Sleid. Comment l. 17. But it will be said that he was his Friend and therefore as little to be credited as his Enemies Hear therefore what many Learned Men of the Church of Rome say who cannot be suspected of any partiality in Favour of him The Fathers in Trent saith Father Paul and the Court of Rome conceived great hope seeing that so potent an Instrument to contradict the Doctrine and Rites of the Church of Rome was dead c. and the rather because that Death was divulged throughout Italy with many prodigious and fabulous Circumstances which were ascribed to Miracle and the Vengeance of God tho there were but the usual accidents which do ordinarily happen in the Deaths of Men of sixty three Years of Age (t) Hist of the Counc of Trent l. 2. p. 149. So that in Father Paul's judgment there was nothing in his Death but what was common Yea that the very worst Circumstances were no other than such Accidents which happen also many times to VERY GOOD CHRISTIANS is acknowledged by a late Adversary (u) Spirit of Mart. Luth. p. 104. who hath written a Book on purpose to disparage him Yea that he died in great Honour as well as piously another hath informed us After Supper says Thuanus immediately before the Night in which he departed when he was ask'd Whether in the Eternal Life we shall know one ather he said that we should and confirmed it by Testimonies of Scripture As many strove who should best express their Love to him while he lived so neither by Death could they be drawn from loving him The Citizens of Mansfield contended that he ought to be buried with them because that was his Native Soil but the Authority of Frederick the Prince Elector prevail'd that he should be carried to Wittenberg and there honourably Interr'd (w) Post caenani proxime ante noctem qua decessit cum rogaretur num in illa sempiterna vita simus alter alterum agnituri ita esse aiebat Scripturae testimoniis confirmabat Ut certatim eum vivum c. Thuan. Hist l. 2. And indeed the transcendent Honour that was done to his Memory seems to be that which chiefly provoked his Enemies to set their Inventions on work to defame him The Cardinal 's next Instance of an unhappy End is Zuinglius And why is his Death reckon'd unhappy Because he was slain in a War against Catholicks (x) Zuinglius in bello contra Catholicos trucidatus est Bellarm. But is it a strange thing for a Man to be kill'd in a War Does every one that so ends his Days die miserably If so How many Millions hath the Pope brought to a miserable End in sending them to the Wars against Saracens and Hereticks O that they 'l say is a glorious Death that merits the brightest Crown in Heaven But Zuinglius was kill'd in a War against Catholicks But stay the Cardinal makes them Catholicks too soon he supposes them Catholicks before Zuinglius was kill'd whereas he was to prove them Catholicks by his being kill'd for his unhappy Death is the Note now under debate by which they were to be known to be of the true Church But that his Death could be no Argument that God disapproved the cause in which he died is evident because to the great grief of our Adversaries the Reformed Religion which they hoped would have died together with him made a greater Progress after his Death than it had done before I shall speak but a word to the two next because the Cardinal's Spite is chiefly against Calvin who brings up the rear Oecolampadius says Bellarmin in the Evening went well to Bed and in the Morning was by his Wife found dead
prosperous Life hath an honourable Death and Burial for I saw says Solomon the Wicked buried (h) Eccles 8.10 that is as Cardinal Cajetan expounds the Words in such a pompous Sepulchre as transmits an honourable Memory of them to Posterity I grant that the Notes of Divine Vengeance are in some Mens Deaths fairly legible But then as I have before observed from God's Judgments against this or that Person nothing can be concluded against that Church of which they are Members 2. Besides these general Declarations the Scripture further assures us by a particular Instance that a true Church may be without this Mark and that the Enemies of the true Church may have it Thus the Church of Israel was without it and the uncircumcised Philistins had it when the High Priest fell backward and brake his Neck and his two Sons Hophni and Phineas with thirty thousand of the Israelites fell in one day by the Sword of the Philistins (i) 1 Sam. 3. Again when Zedekiah the Defender of the true Church was taken his Nobles slaughtered his Sons slain before his Eyes his Eyes then put out and he carried Captive to Babylon and put in Prison till the day of his Death If this was then a Note of the Church the Babylonians were the only true Church of God for their Enemies had then the most unhappy Ends So contrary is this Note to what we find in Scipture Secondly Nor is it less repugnant to daily Observation and the History of foregoing Ages For 1. All the World can testify that the same kind of Death happens to Men of different yea of opposite Churches That as dies the Christian so dies the Jew as dies the Catholick so dies the Heretick That the Protestant and Papist lie down ALIKE in the Dust to use Job's Phrase (k) Job 21.26 That as they often agree in their Deaths who while they lived were of different Churches so they often widely differ who were united in the same One hath a natural another a violent Death one falls by the Hand of God another by the Hand of his Neighbour one goes off gently in a Calm another is hurried away in a Storm one lives out the Term of Nature another is cut off in the midst of his Days one dies leisurely another is snatched away suddenly one finds a Grave in the Earth another in the Sea another finds none at all but is exposed as a Prey to Beasts and Birds This is so obvious that it is needless to produce Instances for the Confirmation of it 2. Whosoever has any Acquaintance with the History of the Christian Church knows that for several of the first Ages at least the best Men had generally the worst Deaths That the Apostles of our blessed Lord were set forth as a Spectacle to the World suffered the Deaths of the basest Malefactors that St. Peter and St. Andrew were crucified St. James the Just stoned and his Brains knocked out with a Club St. Bartholomew flead alive That not one of the Apostles can be named who did not end his Life by an unnatural Death except only St. John who escaped it by Miracle for he was cast into a Cauldron of boiling Oil. That the first Bishops their Successors followed them in the like Tragical Deaths That St. Clemens Bishop of Rome was thrown into the Bottom of the Sea St. Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem crucified St. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch exposed to the Lions St. Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna burnt at a Stake Yea that the Christians for the most part for three hundred Years together met with the most horrid Deaths One was torn in pieces by wild Beasts another was roasted on a Spit another was broiled on a Gridiron another had his Flesh scraped off to the Bones with sharp Shells and Salt and Vinegar poured into his green Wounds and for one of their bloody Persecutors an hundred Christians may be found who died a terrible Death These were the happy Ends that the first and best Christians were blessed with happy indeed if we respect the Cause for which they died and the blessed Reward they were crowned with but none ever more unhappy in the Eye of the World. As they had been of all Men the most miserable had they had Hope in this Life only so if this Note be true their Hope could not have reached beyond it 3. Nor is this Note more repugnant to Scripture and Experience than it is to Reason One prime fundamental Principle of Reason is That Contradictions cannot be true or that the same thing cannot be and not be This we are as sure of as that we our selves are or that any thing else is whatsoever therefore it be from whence it plainly follows that Contradictions may be true we are as sure that it is false and therefore that the Note now under consideration is so because if it be true the most palpable Contradictions will be true also Of those many that offer themselves I shall mention a few As 1. That that was a false Church which was most certainly the true Church For if the burning alive of Valens the Arian Emperor was a certain Sign that the Arian Faith is false the burning alive of many of the first Christians is as certain a Note that the Primitive Faith is false If it follows that Manichaeus was a damnable Heretick because he was flead alive must we not conclude that St. Bartholomew was as bad and by consequence all the holy Apostles because he suffered the same kind of Death 2. That a Church remaining the same without any Change in Doctrine Worship or Discipline may be to day a false Church to morrow the only true Church So the Church of Israel was a false one when the High Priest fell backward and brake his Neck within a few days after when the Hand of the Lord was against the Philistines and they were smitten with a foul Disease of which they miserably died it was a true Church again Thus the Church of Rome in the Year 1656 when a dreadful Pestilence for that is one of Bellarmin's unhappy Ends swept away three hundred thousands in three Months time in the Kingdom of Naples and made great havock at Rome and Genoa †Athanas Kircheri Scrutin Physico-Med Contag Luis quae dicitur Pestis P. 426. was a false Church but in the Year 1665 when the like dreadful Pestilence raged in London it became a true Church again Yea 3. That there is no one Church in the World but by this Note it may be and it may not be the true Church because the Opposers and the Defenders of any one and the same Church may have both of them unhappy and both of them happy Ends. Now as the Opposers have unhappy Ends it is a true Church as the Defenders have unhappy Ends it is by the fourth thing premised a false one Again as the Opposers have an happy End it is a false Church as the Defenders have
more boldly insisting again upon it he was then confuted by him openly in the Congregation exposed to publick Shame and by the Magistrate committed to Custody as a seditious Person and not long after by the Senate banished the City This publick Disgrace he would never forgive Calvin but ever after bore a mortal Hatred against him though he durst not openly proclaim it till after Calvin was remov'd into another World and out of a capacity of confuting his Calumnies This alone is enough the Romanists themselves being Judges to overthrow the Credit of this Story I might also add that Bolsec was a necessitous indigent Person and a Man of debauch'd Morals and so every way qualified for the feigning of a story which he was well assured would be amply rewarded 2. So gross are his Impostures that many Learned Papists who have made it their study to defame Calvin are asham'd to quote them Florimond de Raemond speaking of Calvin From this Head saith he as from Pandora 's Box are come forth all those Troops of Evils all those Legions of Miseries and those Torrents of Blood which have overflow'd the better part of Europe He that would know all these particulars let him read the Authors who have taken the pains to write them And then quoting Surius Bolsec and some others in the Margin he adds I have on purpose omitted many things for the fear I had that Hatred had sometimes more power over them than Truth (e) Qui en vondra scavoir toutes les particularitez lise les Auteurs qui ont pris la peine de l' Escriture I' enlaisse à dessein beaucomp de choses pour la crainte que j'ay que quelquefois la haine ait eu plus pouvoir sur eux que la verite De la Naâ—ssance de l' Heresie l. 7. c. 8. p. 879. Of those many things he omitted this foul Disease is one And Don Peter of St. Romuald a Priest and Monk As for Theodore Beza says he Jerome Bolsec and James Lingey all that they have written of Calvin is suspected of Flattery or of too great sharpness against him (f) Car pour Theodore de Beze Hierosme Bolsec Medicin de Lion Jaques Lingey Ecossois Docteur de Sorbonne tout ce qui ils en ont écrit est suspect de flaterie ou de trop grande aigreur contre luy Thres Cronolog Historiq l'an 150. 'T is no wonder he should say that Beza is suspected of Flattery but doubtless had not Bolsec's Calumnies been very broad and ill-colour'd a Monk would never have suspected them 2. The Falshood of this Tale will be farther manifest to all Men by considering what other Persons both Protestants and Papists whose Authority in this matter at least is unquestionable have written concerning Calvin's Diseases and Death 1. For Protestants I shall insist only upon Beza's History of his Life He pretending to tell us all his Diseases makes no mention of this besides that the account he gives of him some days before and at his Death is utterly inconsistent with it Bolsec says That from his Ulcers and from his whole Body issued most noisom Stinks by which he was loathsom to himself and his Family and that his Domesticks reported that for this very reason he would not be visited (g) Cum ex ulceribus totoque corpore gravissimi foetores emanarunt ob quorum graveolentiam sibi ipsi gravis quae eum circumstabat familiae erat Quam causam fuisse etiam hi ejus Domestici narrarunt quod visitari se nolletâ— Vit. Calv. c. 22. Now Beza tells us That after he had finish'd his Will viz. April 26. a Month and one Day before his Death he signified to the Syndicks and all the Senators that he had a desire to visit them once more in their Senate-House before he died and hoped to be carried thither the next Day they desired him to consult his Health and sent him word that they would come to him which accordingly they did After he had thanked them for their Favours and given them much good Advice he gave to every one of them his right Hand and dismissed them weeping April 28 at his request all the Ministers within the Jurisdiction of that City came to him to whom after he had given an Exhortation he likewise reach'd out his Right Hand to each one in particular and sent them away with heavy Hearts and wet Eyes May 19 and he died May 27 the Ministers being wont on that Day to eat together a Supper was prepar'd for them at his House and he being carried to them from his Bed into the next Room I now Brethren saith he come to take my last Farewell I shall never more sit at Table Before Supper was ended when he required to be carried back again to his Bed-Chamber he said with a Smiling Countenance This Wall between us will not hinder but tho absent in Body I shall be present in Spirit with you I need repeat no more If this already said be true what Bolsec says must be false And that this is true every one must grant considering the time when and the place where it was publish'd who grants that Beza was in his Wits For he publish'd it presently after Calvin's Death at Geneva where if but one tittle had been false every Citizen almost must have known it If the Senators had not all visited him and the Ministers all met at his House a few Days before his Death as Beza reports every one of those Senators and every one of those Ministers would have given him the Lye and proclaimed him to the World for an impudent Impostor Especially those who were Calvin's Enemies would have noised it abroad Whereas not one either great or small was found who contradicted one Word of it 2. But we need not the Testimony of Beza or any other Protestant the Papists themselves even those who have written much more than is true to defame him shall be his Compurgators For if they take no notice of this Disease who could they have found any colour for it would have made the World ring with it 't is certain they took it for a Fable Now whosoever will take the pains to peruse the Book quoted in the Margin (h) La Defense de Calvin contre l'outrage fait a sa memoire c. Par Charles Drelincourt he will find many of these collected to his Hands But because the Book is not in a Language that every one understands I shall touch upon two or three of them Florimond when he reckons up his Diseases gives not the least intimation of this (i) La Naissance de l'Heresie l. 7. c. 10. p. 888. Jaques Desmay insists vehemently on those Diseases Calvin was afflicted with toward the end of his Life as Impostumes Hemorrhoids Stone Gout in short no less than a dozen and then insults over him making them as visible Tokens of God's
only take notice of some other Conspiracies and Rebellions and that famous Invasion of Eighty eight The first open Rebellion was begun in the North and carried on by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland Girolam Caten vita del ' Gloriosiss Papa Pio 5o. solo per remetter la Religion Catholica c. p. 115. Cambd. Eliz. An. 1569. who having gotten together betwixt four and five Catena says twelve thousand Men they declare That they took Arms only to restore the Catholick Religion and the antient Laws of the Realm But upon the Approach of seventeen hundred of the Queens Forces and the Report of more that were to follow they suddenly disperse and fly into Scotland where Northumberland remaining 1572. is delivered up and beheaded at York Westmorland gets over into Flanders is allowed a small Pension from the King of Spain lives miserably all the rest of his days 1584. and at last dies in Exile The many Insurrections in Ireland in which the Cause of the Cardinal's Church was always pretended which were encouraged by the Pope and often strengthened with foreign Assistance were all of them happily suppressed Cambden An. 1062. The last was the longest and most dangerous of all but a few Months before her Death she received the joyful News of the Defeat and Submission of the Rebels and so left both her Kingdoms in a settled and peaceable Condition But among all the remarkable Successes of that great Queen the timely Detection of the grand Design against her Life and Government must not be forgotten tho it never came to the Decision of a Battel Pius the fifth who was resolved by all means to work her Ruine in a furious kind of Zeal Id. An. 1570. which by some is highly commended by his Declaratory Sentence deprives her of all her Dominions absolves her Subjects from their Allegiance and puts her and her Adherents under an Anathema These was one Ridolfi a Florentine Gentleman Giralamo Catena vit di Pio. 5o. p. 113. c. Gabut de vit rebus Gest Pii quinti. l. 3. cap. 9. who had long resided at London upon pretence of Trade to him he sends to prosecute his Business diligently and stir up all the discontented Spirits of the Kingdom against her which he did with great Industry and too much Effect Spain is heartily engaged in the Plot and the Duke of Norfolk a Person highly favoured by the People is constituted Head of the Holy Conspiracy as some of them call it Capo della Santa conjura Calen. Pié conspirantium Gabut Pius is so heartily bent upon the Execution of the Design that besides large Sums of Money already remitted he promises if need were to pawn all that the Apostolick See was worth Chalices Crosses and the very Cloaths to his Back nay to come himself in Person into England too A very unusual Kindness and such an Honour as never had been done this Nation before But while the Matter was thus zealously carrying on and all things in a readiness and Philip and he had swallowed the whole Kingdom in Conceit on a sudden all their Hopes are most unluckily dashed the whole Treaty is unexpectedly discovered by an unknown Hand from beyond the Seas the Duke is taken and receives the ordinary and just Reward of a Traytor How his Holiness was affected with this Miscarriage may be easily guessed the King of Spain lamented it mightily to Cardinal Alessandrino the Pope's Nephew he thought there never was a neater and better begun Plot in the World and that the Queen might have been surprized with a few Men from Flanders and the Business gone beyond Recovery before the News could get into France But the greater and nearer the Danger was the greater must her Happiness be that so narrowly escaped it I will only add to this the wonderful Success of Eighty Eight Camb. An. 1588. Grot. Hist de reb Belg. lib. r. Thuan lib. 89. Strada Dec. 2. lib. 9. Bentivoglio della Guerra di Fiandra parte 2. lib. 4. The Spaniards had all the Advantages imaginable on their side they exceeded us much both in the Bulk and Number of their Ships and all manner of Naval Provisions they prided themselves in the Multitude Experience and Hardiness of their Souldiers But yet when their Invincible Armada as they vainly called it came to be engaged they are worsted by the English in several Encounters and at length after the loss of many of their principal Vessels of War and a great slaughter of Men they are forced to fly and take their Course through the rough Northern Seas at a very unseasonable time of the Year where many more perish by Tempest And when the poor Remains of this Mighty Fleet were arrived at last shattered and torn on the Coast of Spain many of those that had escaped the fury of the Waves and the Shot of the Enemy are taken away by a great Mortality occasioned probably Pocho altre impresefurono mai piu lungamente premeditate Phoce altre con piu grande apparecchio disposte e niuna forse con infelicitá maggiore poi eseguite by Grief or Shame or the Hardships they endured in this miserable Expedition almost as soon as they were come a-Shoar in nothing more fortunate than their Companions that had been buried in the Ocean but only that they found a Grave in their own Countrey Cardinal Bentivoglio having given a full Relation of the whole Matter reflects very sensibly upon it and tells us that there have been few other Designs that were ever longer in the projecting few carried on with greater Preparations and it may be not any after all more unhappy in the Execution Historians of all sides are perfectly agreed as to the Event But those that are unwilling to give the English Valour and Conduct any part of its just Commendation impute the Victory to the Winds and Weather only and it is readily granted that the Catholick Armada suffered very much by them But that and the Death of Sancta Cruz and some other Occurrences that might be named are an undeniable Argument that the Divine Providence appeared visibly for the preservation of the Protestant Religion For this was looked upon as a Holy War and many offered themselves to serve in it upon that account Sixtus Quintus then Pope promoted it vigorously and talked or paying vast Sums of Money towards it but all the Importunity that could be used could never persuade him to part with one Farthing by way of Advance Yet to shew his Good Will he assisted very freely in another way He renewed the Sentence his Predecessours had passed against the Queen deposed her from her Royal Dignity and Estate cursed Her and all that should dare to be obedient unto her and very kindly gave away all her Dominions at once And in Prosecution of his noble Designs he sent Dr. Allen a Cardinal's Cap and intended to make him his Legat here in
be no Note of the true Church III. That in case it were the Protestant Church would be the true Church rather than the Church of Rome I. I shall premise these five Things as preparatory to what follows 1. That by an unhappy End Bellarmin means That which is so in outward Appearance to the Eye of Sense or according to the Judgment of the World. Such as a violent or sudden or infamous or any kind of strange or unusual Death especially such in which there is an appearance of the Divine Vengeance As to be devour'd by Dogs or eaten up of Vermin to be flea'd or burnt alive for a Man to kill himself or to be kill'd by his Servants to be smitten by a Thunderbolt c. In a word any such End as either in its Nature or in its Circumstances is not the usual or common End of Men. 2. Bellarmin meant this not barely for the Note of a Church but of that which is the only true Church For since besides the common Faith in which all Christians agree there are many points in which they differ and by which they are divided among themselves into several Parties he supposing that no more than one of these can be a true Church and therefore that that one must be the only true Church his work was to furnish us with such Notes by which this one Church might be known and distinguish'd from all the rest And therefore 3. The Instances he produces of Unhappy Deaths are for the greater part impertinent because the Persons were such as were Enemies not to this or that Christian Church as distinguished from another but to Christianity it self and endeavour'd the total extirpation of it out of the World. So did the Emperors Nero Domitian Dioclesian the Apostate Julian c. And those Hereticks Simon Magus Manichaeus c. were not more opposite to the Church of Rome than to any other Christian Church There is nothing therefore in these Instances by which one Christian Church may be distinguish'd from another nothing by which the Church of Rome may be marked out for the true Church rather than the Church of Antioch or Alexandria And as those direful Deaths of the Heathen Persecutors and Apostate Christians gave no peculiar advantage to the Church of Rome then so they make much against the Church of Rome now For if they signified as Bellarmin would have them that Church to be the true Church which was then opposed by them it plainly follows that the Church of Rome now is not a true Church and that the Church of England is because the Church of Rome now is not the same Church it was then it hath now another Faith by which it is become another Church whereas the Church of England is the same now it was at first yea the same now that the Church of Rome was then it having purged her self from those Corruptions which have been since introduced by the Church of Rome and reduced it self to the Primitive Faith. Those other Examples of Tragical Deaths which if they had been true would have been more to the purpose shall be anon considered 4. Observe that the unhappy End of those who defend it must be a Note of a false Church if the unhappy End of those who oppose it be a Note of the true The Reason is plain because those who defend it in doing so they must oppose that Church that opposes it if they therefore have an unhappy End the opposite Church will have this Note of the only true Church and by Consequence that Church they defend in opposition to it must be a false Church 5. Observe that from God's Judgments against particular Persons nothing can be concluded against that Church of which they are Members The Reason is manifest because God's Judgments upon particular Persons are usually inflicted for particular personal Crimes as in the case of Nadab and Abihu Ananias and Sapphira These things being premised I proceed to shew II. That this can be no Note of the true Church which I might prove at large by shewing that it is destitute of all those Conditions which Cardinal Perron (b) Reply to K. James l. 1. c. 5. and Bellarmin himself (c) De Not. Eccles c. 2. makes necessary to every true Note But because this Method hath been already observed in the Examination of some of the foregoing Marks I shall therefore wave the Advantages it would afford me nor do I indeed stand in need of them because the Vanity and Falsity of it will be otherwise sufficiently manifest both by Scripture Experience and Reason First By Scripture And 1. By all those Scriptures which declare that all things come alike to all Men That in the common course of Providence there is no difference put between the Righteous and the Wicked between him that sacrificeth and him that sacrificeth not (d) Eccles 9.1 2 3. and by a plain Parity of Reason he that persecutes the true Religion and he that defends it he that worships God aright and he that worships him amiss or not at all as to outward Events hath frequently the same Lot As King Josiah the Restorer and Maintainer of the true Religion and who served the Lord with all his Heart died the same unnatural Death that Ahab did who served Baal and provoked the Lord to Anger more than all the Kings of Israel that were before him Nor was this promiscuous Dispensation of Events taken notice of only by wise Solomon but we find it long before affirmed by Job that God destroys both the Perfect and the Wicked (e) Job 9.22 Righteous Abel the first Man that ever died was a Proof of it he whose Sacrifice was by God accepted fell himself a Sacrifice to his wicked Brother's Envy Nor was it thus only before the Law and under the Law but it continues so still now under the Gospel The Tares and the Wheat though sown by different Hands the one by the Son of Man the other by the Devil yet as they grow up together in the same Field so they are gathered and cut down by the same Reapers by the same Sickle and are not sever'd the one for the Fire and the other for the Barn till the End of the World. Yea in plain Contradiction to this Note the Scripture tells us That there are just Men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the Wicked and there are wicked Men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the Righteous (f) Eccl. 8.14 And that not only in the Course of their Lives but when they die too For there is a just Man that perisheth in his Righteousness and there is a wicked Man that prolongeth his Days in his Wickedness (g) Eccl. 7.15 The good Man is sometimes cut off by an early Death because he is better than others and the Wicked whose Sins cry aloud for Vengeance prolongs his Days in his Wickedness and after a long and