and destruction when they approached were armed with absolute necessitie derived from Gods decree to punish them for their fathers sinnes and in this conceipt many yeelded unto them when they might easily haue conquered them To discover the vanitie of this skale and to acquit his omnipotent decree from the suspected imposition of necessitie As I live saith the Lord God yee shall not have occasion any more to use this Proverbe in Israel The Fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the Childrens teeth are set on edge Behold all soules are mine as the soule of the father so also the soule of the son is mine the soule that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 18. ver 2 3 4. Have I any plasure at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord God And not that he should returne from his wayes and live ver 23. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will yee dye O house of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live ye vers 31 32. If the returning of this people wherein God tooke pleasure were not necessary as the event hath proved for the most part of them did not returne it must needs argue a spice of their frenzy to think their death wherein he tooke no pleasure should be necessary The onely orthodoxall resolution of this point then must be this It was Gods good will and pleasure the formall dictate and absolute injunction of his eternall and irresistible decree that neither the life or death of such as perished should be necessary but that both should be possible albeit the choise of life had beene more pleasant to God who had complained with griefe Perditio tua ex te O Israel CHAP. 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not done and many done which he willeth should not be done 1 AVt erit aut non erit is a Prophecie which will never bee out of date impossible ever to bee impeached of falshood an answer as universally true to all as unsufficient to any question concerning things to come The truth of every disjunctive proposition as Logicians teach is fully salved if any one member though of never so many be true Or if the disjunction or division be artificially formall the actuall existence of one part or member excludes the actuall existence of the other so doth the absolute necessity of the one exclude all possibility of the others reduction into act If I should wage any summe that it would either raine all day to morrow or be faire all day to morrow no man of understanding would put me to prove that it did both raine all the day and hold up all the day The proofe of either part would be sufficient to evince the truth of my disjunctive assertion that both should be actually true is impossible Or if my adversary could substantially prove either any intermission of raine or interruption of faire weather His advantage against mee would bee as evident because the proposition which he was to make good against me was but disjunctive so that of any two minutes in the whole day if the one were rainy and the other faire my universall disjunctive must needs be false and his apparantly true because directly contradictory unto mine That it should at one and the same time raine and not raine is impossible and comes not within the compasse of any contradictory contestation it can be no object of lay or wager 2 When wee say that God in many humane actions decrees a mixture or multiplicity of possibilities our meaning is that the tenour of Gods eternall omnipotent word from which all things derive as well the law and maâ—â—â—â—â— of their being as their being it selfe is in respect of the severall possible events decreed not conjunctive or categoricall but disjunctive And we hold it a sinne to thinke or say that the onely wise Almighty Creator is not able to conceive or make propositions as truly disjunctive as any of our making are or not able to make as formall and contradictory opposition betweene their severall parts as any humane wit can conceive Thus much being granted our intended inference is an everlasting truth Gods decree or determinate proposition concerning the supposed multiplicity of possibilities or manifold events all alike possible is alwaies exactly fulfilled when any one of the events whose possibilities are decreed goes actuall existence To reduce more of them then one into act at one and the same time is in many cases altogether impossible and falls not within the object of Omnipotency If the reduction of any one of them into actuall possession of its owne being were in respect of his decree or by any other meanes altogether necessary his decree should necessarily be broken and his omnipotency might be overborne For the necessity of ones being takes away all possibilitie of being from the contradictorie which omnipotency as is supposed had bestowed upon it Finally Gods decree in respect of all and every part of its proper object is alike Omnipotent and therefore it is as impossible for any necessity by vertue or respect of what cause soever to incroach upon those events the Law or manner of whose production God hath decreed to be contingent as for Contingency to hinder the production of those events the law or manner of whose production or existence he hath decreed to be necessary As impossible for necessity to mingle with absolute contingency from which God hath separated it as for contingencie to be wedded to absolute necessity whose mariage God hath forbidden by an everlasting decree 3 The onely difficulty wherewith these conclusions can as I conceive with probability bee charged may be conceived thus Admitting Gods decree concerning the house of Israels life or death were as evidently it was disjunctive and did essentially include a possibility of life and a possibility of death in respect of all or most of their persons or of their publike state Yet no man will denie but that amongst the severall or opposite members of this or the like decree God wills one more than another For so he saith That hee willed not the death but the life of him that dyed Now if that which God willeth not may come to passe and that which he willeth may not come to passe or if of two possible events that whose actuall being he willeth tenne thousand times more ardently never get actuall being or existence as being prevented by the actuall accomplishment of the contradictorie or incompatible event which he lesse willeth How can his will in this case bee fulfilled and if his will be not fulfilled his decree must needs bee broken and if his decree may be broken how is his will said to be irresistible how do we beleeve him to be Omnipotent Some perhaps would hence conclude that
they would become Romane Catholiques nor did I know of any conspiracy against them with minde or purpose to reveale it unto them may be a preservative more than sufficient a soveraigne Antidote against the sinne of perjury which hee had swallowed or harboured in his brest specially if the concealement of his treason make for the good of the Church To put the like interrogatory unto the Almighty Iudge concerning the ruine or welfare of men no Magistrate no authority of earth hath any power Yet hee to free himselfe from that foule aspersion which the Iewes had cast upon him as if such as perished in their sinnes had therefore perished because it was his will and pleasure they should not live but dye hath interposed his often mentioned voluntary oath As I live I will not the death of him that dyes but rather that he should live Shall it here bee enough to make answer for him interpretando by interpreting his meaning to be this I doe not will the death of him that dyes so he will repent which I know he cannot doe nor doe I will his non-repentance with purpose to make this part of my will knowne to him however according to my secret and reserved will I have resolved never to grant him the meanes without which he cannot possibly repent whereas without repentance hee cannot live but must dye But did Gods oath give men no better assurance than this interpretation of it doth I see no reason yet heartily wish that others might see more why any man should so much blame the Iesuites for secret evasions or mentall reservations in matter of oath For the performance of our oaths in the best manner that wee are capable of is but an observance of a particular branch of that generall precept Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Who then can justly challenge the Iesuite of imperfection or falshood much lesse of perjury for secret evasions or mentall reservations when his life is called in question if once it bee granted that the God of truth in matter of oath concerning the eternall life or death of more men than the Iesuites have to deale with doth use the like 6 In matters then determined by Divine Oath the distinction of voluntas signi and beneplaciti can have no place specially in their doctrine who make the bare entity or personall being of men the immediate object of the immutable decree concerning life and death everlasting For the entity or personall being of man is so indivisible that an universall negation and a particular affirmation of the same thing to wit Salvation falling upon man as man or upon the personall being of men drawes to the strictest point of contradiction Farre ever be it from us to thinke that God should sweare unto this universall negative I will not the death of the man that dyeth and yet beleeve withall that he wils the death of some men that dye as they are men or as they are the sonnes of Adam that hee should by his secret or reserved will recall any part of his will declared by oath that hee should proclaime an universall pardon to all the sonnes of Adam under the seale of his oath and yet exempt many from all possibility of receiving any benefit by it 7 Shall we then conclude that the former distinction hath no use at all in Divinity Or if this conclusion be too rigorous let us see in what cases it may have place or to what particulars it may bee confined First it hath place in matters of threatning or of plagues not denounced by oath Thus God by his Prophet Ionas did signifie his will to have Nineveh destroyed at forty dayes end this was voluntas signi and he truly intended what hee signified yet was it his voluntas beneplaciti his good will and pleasure at the very same time that the Ninevites should repent and live And by their repentance his good will and pleasure was fulfilled in their safety But in this case there was no contrariety betweene Gods will declared or signified .i. voluntas signi and his good will and pleasure .i. voluntas beneplaciti no contradiction in the object of his will however considered for that was not one and the same but much different in respect of Gods will signified by Ionas and of his good will and pleasure which not signified by him was fulfilled One and the same immutable will or decree of God did from eternity award two doomes much different unto Ninevch taking it as it stood affected when Ionas threatned destruction unto it or as it should continue so affected and taking it as it proved upon the judgement threatned All the alteration was in Nineveh none in Gods will or decree and Nineveh being altered to the better the selfe same rule of Iustice doth not deale with it after the selfe same manner The doome or sentence could not bee the same without some alteration in the Iudge who is unalterable And in that hee is unalterably Iust and Good his doome or award was of necessity to alter as the object of it altered Deus saepe mutat sententiam nunquam consilium Gods unchangeable will or counsell doth often change his doome or sentence The same rule holds thus farre true in matter of blessing or promise not confirmed by oath upon the parties alteration unto worse unto whom the promise is made the blessing promised may be revoked without any alteration of Gods will or counsell Yet may we not say that the death or destruction of any to whom God promiseth life is so truely the object of his good will and pleasure as the life and salvation of them is unto whom he threatneth destruction The same distinctiō is of good use in some extraordinarie cases or as applyed to men after they have made up the full measure of their iniquity and are cut off from all possibility of repentance Thus God willed Pharaoh to let his people goe out of Egypt and signified this his will unto him by Moses and Aaron in mighty signes and wonders This was voluntas signi onely not voluntas beneplaciti For though it were his good will and pleasure that his people should depart out of Egypt yet was it no branch of this his good will and pleasure that Pharaoh should now repent or bee willing to let them goe Rather it was his good will and pleasure specially after the seventh plague to have the heart of Pharaoh hardned And yet after his heart was so hardned that it could not repent God so punished him as if it had beene free and possible for him to repent and grant a friendly passe unto his people But Pharaohs case was extraordinary his punishment so exemplary as not to be drawne into example For as our Apostle intimates it was an argument of Gods great mercy and long suffering to permit Pharaoh to live any longer on earth after he was become a vessell of wrath destinated to everlasting punishment in
his owne hands 3 But the unerrable rule of everlasting Iustice who from eternity decrees whatsoever may bee and foresees whatsoever will be because Heaven and Earth may sooner passe than his words or acts passeth no act to the prejudice of his absolute and eternall power of Iurisdiction What grant or promise soever he make cannot binde the exercise of his everlasting libertie for a moment of time they last no longer than durante beneplacito seeing gracious Equity and onely it is his everlasting pleasure He ever was ever is and ever shall be alike indifferent and free to recompence every man according to his present wayes And in that hee alwaies searcheth the very hart and secret thoughts and never ceaseth to decree his one and indivisibly everlasting decree without any variety or shadow of change in it selfe fits all the changes severall dispositions and contingent actions of Men and Angels as exactly as if he did conceive and shape a new Law for every one of them and they are conceived and brought forth as wel befitting them as the skin doth the body which nature hath enwrapped in it No man living I take it will avouch any absolute necessity from all Eternity that God should inevitably decree the deposition of Elies line from the Priesthood or his two sonnes destructions by the Philistims For this were to bereave him of his absolute and eternall liberty I demand then whether within the compass of time or in eternity as praeexistent to Elies dayes he past any act that could restraine his eternall liberty of honouring Elies families as well as any others in their time To say He did were impiety because it chargeth the Almighty with impotent immutability What shall we say then The deposition of his race the sudden death and destruction of his sonnes were not at all absolutely necessary but necessary onely upon supposed miscariage of the possible meanes and opportunities which hee had given them for honouring him And that eternall decree They that dishonour mee them will I dishonour as coexistent to the full measure of this their transgression by it shapes their punishment 4 To thinke of Gods eternall decree with admiration void of danger we must conceive it as the immediate Axis or Center upon which every successive or contingent act revolves and yet withall that wherein the whole frame of succession or contingency is fully comprehended as an unconstant movable Sphere in a farre greater quiescent or rather in such a one as in the description of Eternity was imagined which hath drawne all the successive parts of motion into an indivisible unity of duration permanent Every part of the larger Sphere this swallowing up motion in vigorous rest should have coexistence locall with all and every part of the next moveable Sphere under it move it as slowly and swiftly as the latitude of successive motion can admit Whilest we thus conceive of Gods eternall decree and of his foreknowledge included in our conceipt of it according to the Analogy of what we must beleeve concerning the manner of his ubiquitary presence or immensity we shall have no occasion to suspect that his necessary foreknowledge of what we doe should lay a necessity upon our actions or take away all possibility of doing otherwise Rather we may by this supposall beleeve that as probable and perceive in part the manner how it is so which shall by Gods assistance be demonstrated to be de facto most true As first that the Omnipotent doth eternally decree an absolute contingency in most humane acts Secondly that this eternall act or decree which we thus conceive to be throughout the whole succession of time in every place indivisibly coexistent to each humane thought or action doth not only perpetually support our faculties but withall uncessantly inspire them with contingency in their choice that is it so moves them as they may without lett or incumbrance move themselves more wayes then one And yet even whilest it so moves them it withall inevitably effects the proportioned consequents which from everlasting were fore-ordained to the choices which we make be they good or bad or according to the severall degrees of good or evill done by us or of our affections or desires to doe them CHAP. 11. Of transcendentall goodnesse and of the infinity of it in the Divine nature 1 IF in assigning reasons of Maximes or proverbiall speeches wee might not bee thought to fetch light beyond the Sunne we should say Life unto things living is therefore sweet because it is a principall stemme of being as sweetnesse likewise is of goodnesse However we may resolve this Physicall Axiome into a Metaphysicall Omne ens qua ens est bonum Vnto every thing it s owne proper being is good Poyson though noysome to man to the Aspe is pleasant so is venome to the Toad and the Adder delighteth in his sting In things inanimate there should be no reluctance of contrary or hostile qualities unlesse each had a kinde of gratefull right or interest in their owne being and were taught by nature to fight for it as men doe for their lives or goods This is that goodnesse which we call entitative or transcendentall A goodnesse equally alike truly communicated to al things that are from his goodnesse who onely is but not participated equally or according to equality by all For as the least vessell that is filled to the brimme is as full as the greatest that can be and yet the quantity of liquor contained in them equally full is most unequall So albeit the entitative being of the Flye Ant or Worme be unto them as good as mans being is to man For even the Ant or Flye being vext or Wormes trod upon will bewray their spleene and labour as it were to right themselves for the losse or prejudice which they suffer in their Entitative goodnesse by doing harmes to their tormentors yet is mans being simply much better than the being of Ants or Wormes And much worse were that Man than any Beast that with Gryllus in the Poet would like to change his humane nature for a bruitish This excesse of entitative goodnesse by which one creature excelleth another accreweth partly from the excellency of the specificall Nature of Entity which it accompanieth as there is more Entitative goodnesse is being a Man than in being a Lyon and more in being a Lyon than in being some inferiour ignoble Beast it partly accreweth according to the greater or lesser measure wherein severall creatures enjoy their specificall Nature Men though by nature equall are not equally happy either in body or minde Bodily life in it selfe is sweet and is so apprehended by most yet is lothsome to some who as we say doe not enjoy themselves as none of us fully doe Sensitive appetites may be in some measure satisfied by course not all at once The compleat fruition of goodnesse incident to one defeats another though capable of greater pleasure for the time of what it most
her opinion needed no reformation A practice injoyned by S. Paul I exhort or desire first of all that supplications prayers intercessions and giving thankes be made for all men If any man shall seeke to lay that restraint upon this place which S. Austine somewhere doth as if the word all men did import only genera singulorum all sorts of men not singula generum every particular man the scanning of the words following the sifting of the matter contained in both with the reason of the exhortation and other reall circumstances will shake off this or other like restriction with greater ease than it can be laid upon it Wee are commanded to pray for no more than them whose salvation we are unfainedly to desire otherwise our prayers were hypocriticall Are we then to desire the salvation of some men onely as they are dispersed here and there throughout all nations sorts or conditions of men or for every man of what condition soever of what sort or nation soever he be The Apostle exhorts us to pray for Kings not excepting the most malignant enemies which the Christians then had and for all that be in authority And if we must pray for all that are in authority with fervency of desire that they may come unto the knowledge of the truth then questionlesse wee are to desire wee are to pray for the salvation of all and every one which are under authority God is no accepter of persons nor will the Omnipotent permit us so to respect the persons of the mighty in our prayers as that we should pray that all and every one of them might become Peeres of the heavenly Ierusalem and but some choice or selected ones of the meaner sort might bee admitted into the same society Wee must pray then for high and low rich and poore without excepting any either in particular or indefinitely The reason why our prayers for all men must be universall is because wee are bound to desire the spirituall good of all men not as they fall under our indefinite but under our uniuersall consideration The reason againe why wee are bound to desire the spirituall good of all men universally considered is because wee must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Vnto this universall desire wee must adde our best endeavours that saving truth may be imparted unto all because it is our heavenly Fathers will his unfaigned will that all should come to the knowledge of truth 2 Both parts of this inference as first that it is our duty to pray for all sorts of men and for every man of what sort soever And secondly that we are therefore to pray thus universally because it is Gods will not onely that we should thus pray but that all without exception shold come unto the truth and be saved are expressely included in the prayers appointed by the Church of England to bee used upon the most solemne day of devotions The Collects or Praiers are in number three The first Almighty God we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family for the which our Lord Iesus Christ was contented to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men and to suffer death upon the Crosse c. The tenour of this petition if we respect onely the forme is indefinite not universall but every Logician knows and every Divine should consider that the necessity of the matter whether in prayers or propositions will stretch the indefinite forme wherewith it is instamped as farre as an absolute universall That the forme of this petition is in the intention of the Church of England to be as farre extended as we have said that is to all and every one of the congregation present the prayer following puts out of question For in that wee are taught to pray for the whole Church and for every member of it Almighty and everlasting God by whose spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Congregation that every member of the same in his vocation and ministery may truly and godly serve thee c. If here it be excepted that albeit this prayer be conceived in termes formally universall yet is the universall forme of it to be no further extended than its proper matter or subject and that as will be alleaged is the mysticall live-body of Christ whose extent or the number of whose members is to us unknowne the third and last prayer will clearely quit this exception and free both the former petitions from these or the like restrictions For in the last prayer wee are taught to pray for all and every one which are out of the Church that they may bee brought into the Church and bee made partakers with us of Gods mercy and the common salvation Mercifull God who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldest the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted and live have mercy upon all Iewes Turkes Infidells and heretiques and take from them all ignorance hardnesse of heart and contempt of thy Word And so fetch them home blessed Lord to thy flocke that they may bee saved among the remnant of the true Israelites and be made one fold under one shepheard Iesus Christ our Lord. If God therefore will not the death of any Iew Turke or Infidell because of nothing hee made them men wee may safely conclude that he willeth not the death of any but the life of all whom of men or infidells hee hath made Christians to whom he hath vouchsafed the ordinary meanes of salvation and daily invites by his messengers to imbrace them Hee which made all things without invitation out of meere love made nothing hatefull nor is it possible that the unerring fountaine of truth and love should cast his dislike much lesse fix his hatred upon any thing that was not first in it nature odious Nothing can make the creature hatefull or odious to the Creator besides its hatred or enmity of that love by which it was created and by which he sought the restauration of it when it was lost Nor is it every degree of mans hatred or enmity unto God but a full measure of it which utterly exempts man from his love as that reverend Bishop and glorious Martyr one of the first Reformers of the Religion profest in this Land observes 3 If with these authorized devotions we compare the doctrine of our Church in the publike catechisme what can bee more cleare then that as God the Father doth love all mankind without exception so the Sonne of God did redeeme not some onely of all sorts but all mankind universally taken First wee are taught to beleve in God the Father who made us and all the world Now if the Church our mother have in the former prayers truly taught us that God hateth nothing which he hath made this will
bring forth another truth viz. That either there be some men which are not of Gods making or else that hee hateth no man not Esau as he is a man but as a sinner but as an enemy or contemner of his goodnesse And consequently to this branch or corollary of this former truth wee are in the same Catechisme in the very next place taught to beleeve in God the Son who hath redeemed us and all mankind And if all mankind were redeemed by him than all of this kind were unfeignedly loved none were hated by him And though in the same place wee are taught to beleeve in the holy Ghost as in the sanctifier of all that are sanctified yet this wee are taught with this caveat that he doth sanctifie al the elect people of God not all mankind All then are not sanctified by God the holy Ghost which are redeemed by God the Sonne nor doth God the Father bestow all his spirituall blessings upon all whom hee doth unfeignedly love or on whom hee hath bestowed the blessing of Baptisme as the seale or pledge of their redemption All these inferences are so cleere that the consideration of them makes us doubt whether such amongst us as teach the contrary to any of these have at any time subscribed unto the booke of Common prayers or whether they had read it before they did subscribe unto it or contradict it That this universall extent of Gods love and of the redemption wrought by Christ is a fundamentall principle whereon many serious and fruitfull exhortations in the booke of Homilies are immediately grounded shall by Gods assistance appeare in the Article concerning Christ For a concludent proofe that God doth unfeignedly will not genera singulorum all sorts of men onely but singula generum every one of all sorts to be saved take it briefely thus All they which are saved and all they which are not saved make up both parts of the former distinction or division to the full But God will have all to bee saved which are saved he likewise willeth the salvation of all such as are not saved that is of such as dye therefore he willeth the salvation of every one of all sorts That God doth will the salvation of all that are saved no man ever questioned that God did will not the life but death of such as dyed the Iewes Gods owne people did sometimes more then question and to prevent the like querulous murmurings of misbeliefe in others he once for all interposed his solemne oath As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of him that dyeth but rather that he should repent and live None then can be saved whom God would not have saved many are not saved whom God would have saved 4 But how or by what Will doth he will that they should be saved that are not saved Doth he will their salvatioÌ„ by his revealed not by his secret will Doth he give signification onely of his good will towards them whereas his good will and pleasure is not finally to doe them any reall good This I take to be the meaning of voluntas signi and beneplaciti But it being granted that God doth will the salvation of all men by his revealed will or voluntate signi This alone will sufficiently inferre our intended conclusion That he truly wils the salvation of all without the exemption of any Vpon such as contradict this doctrine it lyes upon them to prove not the negative onely that God doth not will the salvation of all by his secret will but this positive particular that God doth nill or unwill the salvation of some by his secret will whose salvation he willeth by his revealed will Now if it be answered that he doth by his secret will or good pleasure unwill or nill the salvation of the same parties to whom he willeth salvation by his will revealed or signified they must without remedy acknowledge the one or the other member of this division as either that there be two wils in God of as different inclinations ad extra as the reasonable and sensitive appetite are in man or that there is a manifest contradiction in the object of one and the same Divine Will That All men should be saved and that some men should not be saved implyeth as formall a contradiction as to say All men are living creatures some men are no living creatures Now that all men should bee living creatures and that some men should not be living creatures falls not within the object of Omnipotency And if the will of God be at truly undivided in it selfe as the omnipotent power is it is no lesse impossible that the salvation of all and the non-salvation of some should be the object or true parts of the object of one and the same divine will undivided in it selfe than that the actuall salvation of all and the actuall and finall condemnation of some or the non-salvation of all should be really effected by the omnipotent power Whether this divine will be clearly revealed or in part revealed and in part reserved or secret in respect of us all is one so this will in it selfe and in its nature bee but one and undivided The manifestation or reservation of it or whatsoever other references it may have to us can neither increase nor abate the former contradiction in the object Or if voluntas signi bee not essentially the same with voluntas beneplaciti there is a manifest contradiction or contrariety betwixt them If the salvation of all bee the object of the one and the non-salvation or reprobation of others be the object of the other 5 Yet doe we not like rigorous Critiques so much intend the utter banishment of this distinction out of the confines of Divinity as the confinement of it to its proper seat and place Rightly confined or limited it may beare faith and allegiance to the truth and open some passages for clearing some branches of it But permitted to use that extent of liberty which hath beene given to it by some it wil make way for canonization 〈◊〉 â—â—esuiticall perjuries for deification of mentall evasions or reservations Let us compare Iesuiticall practices with that patterne which is the necessary resultance of some mens interpretation of Gods oath in this case Were this interrogatory put to any Iesuiticall Assassinat imagine a powder-plotter Doe you will or intend the ruine of the King or State or doe you know of any such project or intendment there is none of this crue so mischievously minded but would be ready to sweare unto this negative As the Lord liveth and as I hope for life and salvation by him I neither intend the ruine of King or State nor doe I know of any conspiracy against him And yet in case the event should evidently discover his protestation to be most false yet would he rest perswaded that this or the like mentall evasion or reservation I neither intended the ruine of King or State so
some things might take possession of beeing without his leave or notice The originall of this feare is want of distinction betweene chance or casualty and such contingency as hath beene expressed 6 Many reasons might be alledged sufficient to demonstrate the inevitable absurdities of this supposed absolute necessity But it is one labour to convince an error before indifferent hearers another to make men forsake the errours which have long possessed them a third to win them unto a liking of the contrary truth For effecting the two latter no meanes can be so effectuall in respect of their disposition with whom we have to deale as a plaine declaration how ill this opinion of absolute necessity how well this doctrine of mixt possibility or contingency consorts first with their owne resolution of other difficulties in this very argument whereof wee treate secondly with the perpetuall voice of Gods Spirit and his Messengers specially when they seeke ex professo to perswade to good and to disswade from evill CHAP. 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 possibility or contingency in humane actions 1 THe most I have met withall are afraid in plaine termes to maintaine That God did as immediately and as necessarily decree Adams fall or state of sinne as his originall justice or state of integrity For this were to make him as true as proper and necessary a cause of sinne and of all evill as he is of goodnesse To allay the harshnesse of some speeches heretofore used by those men whom they favour they will grant no more then this that God did decree to permit his fall But the speech is improper and very ambiguous and in what sense soever it may be taken it must plead its warrant or right use from our opinion theirs can afford it none Permission to speake properly is a vertuall part of the Decree it selfe not the object whereto the decree is terminated But to let this passe we will take Gods decree to perâ—it to be all one as if they had said Gods permissive decree Did God then by his decree permit Adam to sinne if he did this decree was either just or unjust Whatsoever is by just decree permitted is by the same decree sufficiently warranted At least the punishment otherwise due unto it is dispensed with Such divorces as were unlawfull from the first institution of Matrimony in Paradise were permitted to the Israelites for the hardnesse of their hearts by Moses and for this reason they were not punished by the judiciall Law If it should please our Soveraigne to permit sickly Students to eate flesh in Lent we would take his professed permission for a sufficient dispensation with the penall Statutes in this case provided God questionlesse would never have punished Adam for eating an Apple if by his eternall decrece he had permitted him to have eaten it But their meaning haply is not that God did allow or approve his eating of it seeing he threatned it with death But if by his decree he did not allow it he did permit it onely in such a sense as we may say the Lawes of our land permit men to be hanged because they keepe not men close prisoners nor so tye their hands that they cannot steale rob or kill before they bee suspected or convicted of felonie robbery or murder But no tyrant did ever before hand forbid such a fact under paine of death without a supposed naturall possibility to avoid it And just Lawes afford ordinary or civill meanes for satisfying nature in necessities lest these as they know no lâ—w enforce men to use their naturall possibilities or faculties amisse The lawes of this Land and others which make theft matter of death permit men the free imployment of bodily faculties to earne their bread or if they be impotent to crave or accept the benevolence of others lest they should perish for hunger or be enforced to steale If our lawes or Lawgivers not permitting any of these meanes or the like should punish the taking of a loafe of bread or cup of drinke with death they might be more truly said to enjoyne then permit theft to be more delighted with the bloud of the needy than with preservation of publike peace albeit they did not set other mens meat before theÌ„ when they are hungred nor lead their hands to take it In like manner he that saith God did permit Adam to eate the forbidden fruit and by eating to incurre death doth necessarily imply that God permitted him the free use of his externall and internall faculties to satisfie his appetite with some other meate Now the free use of any faculty includes the concourse or cooperation of God without which it is impossible any creature should move And this concourse was a part of his decree or will as it concerned this act More plainly He that permitted Adam to sinne did more than permit him to abstaine from sinne or to persevere in obedience If then God in permitting him onely to sinne did afford meanes necessary for reducing this possibility of sinning into a sinfull act not allowed his more than permission of him to abstaine from sinne his commandement to persevere in obedience did not onely suppose a true possibility for him to abstaine and persevere but include withall better meanes for reducing this possibility into act then were afforded for enabling him actually to sinne These two contrary possibilities and the severall meanes for accomplishing them must beare a proportion answerable to a meere permission without approbation or to a prohibition and to a peremptorie command of civill authoritie Now every just Lawgiver affords better meanes and incouragement for accomplishing his commands or requests then he doth for breaking or neglecting them 2 For conclusion when they say God by his aeternall deree did permit Adams fall their meaning rightly expressed is no more then this God did not decree that his perseverance should bee necessarie For necessitie of perseverance excludes all possibility of falling But if his fall had beene necessarie in respect of the aeternall decree it had not onely beene permitted but allowed and required It remaines then that both were possible neither necessary in respect of the divine decree Or to untwist the knot a little further God by his decree did permit and allow him a possibility to fall but he did not allow the reduction of this possibility into act that is he gave it him not to the end that he should fal but that his perseverance might be more beneficiall He did not onely permit or allow him a possibitie of perseverance but did command and require the reduction of this possibilitie into act 3 This forme of wholsome doctrine admitted will clearely enlighten the truth of another distinction or resolution much used but mightily obscured or rather quite stifeled by such as hold all things necessary in respect of the
of charitie To prevent this mischiefe which is the root of all evill what perswasion could be more fit or pertinent than this prediction of the Prophet That the wealth which Hezekiah and his fathers had heaped together which his successors would be too carefull to increase would in succeeding ages steale their children for whom it was provided from them and make them miserable captives in a forraigne Land To heape up riches we know not for whom is a vanity to heape them up with care and toile to the destruction of our best private friends and advancement of the publike enemy is the extremity of folly mixt with misery Had Hezekiah his successors beene as ready to aske counsell of Gods Prophets as of Politicians these could have instructed them that the miseries foretold by Esay were fatall unto covetousnesse and unconscionable care for posterity yet not simply necessary after covetousnesse was much increased in Hezekiahs successors For long after the going out of this decree whensoever the Princes of Iudah repented for their owne oppression and the oppression of their fathers the Lord repented him of the plagues denounced and shewed himselfe ready to remove the oppressor from them And though in penitency in other sinnes did in part concur yet continuance in violence and oppression was the principall string and fatall cord by which the Princes of Iudah did draw captivity upon themselves and their children and desolation upon the City 9 To passe over the various alternation of Iudahs and Ierusalems different fates in the dayes of Manasses Ammon and Iosias and come to Iehoikim Iosias sonne in whose dayes the inveterate disease of Iudah came to a Crisis Did not thy Father saith the Prophet Ieremy to this untoward and Prince eate and drinke and doe judgement and justice and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poore and needy then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousnesse and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence to doe it Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Iehoiakim the son of Iosiah King of Iudah They shall not lament for him saying Ah my brother or ah sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or ah his glory He shall bee buried with the buriall of an Asse drawne and cast forth beyond the gates of Ierusalem Ier. 22. vers 15 16 17 18 19. Shortly after the execution of this sentence upon Iehoiakim in full measure Ieconiah his son with other of the royall seed according to Esaias former prophesie were caried captives unto Babell and all or some of them made Eunuches Howbeit the execution of the same decree upon Zedekiah and such as were yet left behinde was not as yet unavoydable or meerly fatall but such notwithstanding they made it at last by continuance of like covetousnesse and oppression When the City was more narrowly besieged by the Chaldean than it had beene by the Assyrian the Lord of hosts calls for the Aegyptian as he had done for the King of Cush to remove the siege The libertie and respiration which Zedekiah and his besieged people in the meane time got being much greater then Hezekiah had for two years space together was a true pledge of Gods antecedent will which in part they had fulfilled and which should undoubtedly have beene fulfilled in greater measure for their good so they had used this liberty to Gods glory or gone on so well in this time of breathing as in their distresse they had begun Ye were now turned and had done right in my sight in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name But ye returned and polluted my name and caused every man his servant and every man his hand-maid whom hee had set at liberty at their pleasure to returne and brought them into subjection to be unto you for servants and for hand-maids Therefore thus saith the Lord Yee have not hearkned unto me in proclaiming libertie every one to his brother and every man to his neighbour behold I proclaime a liberty for you saith the Lord to the Sword to the Pestilence and to the Famine and I will make you to be removed into all the Kingdomes of the Earth c. Ier. 34. v. 15 16 17. And Zedekiah King of Iudah and his Princes will I give into the hands of their enemies and into the hand of them that seeke their life and into the hand of the King of Babylons army which are gone up from you Behold I will command saith the Lord and cause them to returne to this City and they shall fight against it and take it and burne it with fire and I will make the Cities of Iudah a desolation without an inhabitant ver 21 22. 10 Too much skill in secular policy made them put too great confidence in the strength of Aegypt and this confidence in the helpe of man made them secure whilest they were conscious of breaking the Covenant which their Fathers had made and they lately renewed with their God The probabilities of the Aegyptians success against the Chaldean were in all politique esteeme very great and likely it is that the Chaldeans were brought back againe with speed unto Ierusalem by the speciall hand of the Almighty that they might execute his judgements upon this rebellious people How necessary how fatall and unevitable the execution of his consequent will alwayes becomes where his antecedent will hath beene thus openly and wilfully neglected may best be gathered from the same Prophets reiterated threats unto this people resuming as it seemes their former vaine confidence of the Chaldeans finall departure after his forementioned prophecy to the contrary Ier. 37. ver 9 10. Thus saith the Lord deceive not your selves saying The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us for they shall not depart For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them yet should they rise every man in his tent and burne this Citie with fire To extinguish this flame or prevent the extinction of Zedekiahs royall race and Iudahs earthly glory there was no possibility left so long as they wrestled with Fates and made policie their strength yet was there after this time a possibility as true as Gods promise can make any for escaping à tanto though not à toto a possibility for Zedekiah to have kept himselfe and his family in a better estate then they afterwards enjoyed a possibility to have left the City and Temple standing after death had disposed of them so he would at the time appointed by God have submitted himselfe unto the King of Babell unto whom he had sworne allegiance Then said Ieremiah unto Zedekiah Thus saith the Lord the God of Hostes the God of Israel If thou wils
as policy could devise their practise and execution of meanes invented was more exact then the patterne which Machiavel gives for like designes First because store of armour and munition was necessary for such an action and provision of such store of munition would be suspicious for a private man to undertake in a popular and factious State Fliscus perswades young Doria whose death he especially sought to be his partner in setting out a Man of Warre against the Turkes Doria kindly accepts the offer altogether ignorant of the others intent which was by this colour to furnish himselfe with armour and munition out of the Countrie for Doriaes overthrow And being once furnished with such tragicall attire without suspition of any tragedy to ensue for to provide himselfe of sutable actors hee invites a multitude of the Commons to a night feast where in stead of thanksgiving before meat hee makes a patheticall oration exhorting them to banquet it that night in the Nobilities blood assuring them that they should bee their owne carvers for ever after of the good things of that Citie Some for love to Fliscus others for hate to the Nobility some for feare of present danger and others for hope of greater dignities for one cause or other all at length save two who desired to be spared for their faint hearts offer themselves to Fliscus his service And by their forwardnesse the City gates next to the key whose command made most for their purpose are presently surprised yet not without some noise which comming unto Doriaes eare makes him suspect that his Mariners were quarrelling and rifing out of his bed to compose the supposed quarrell by his presence he falls immediately into his enemies hands before he was sought for But however this yong gallant had committed no actuall crime that by course of humane law deserved a violent death by such executioners yet the right hand of the Lord had found him out for consenting by Piracy to disturbe the publique peace lately concluded betwixt Charles the fift and the Turke which peace the Genoezes amongst others the Dorian faction above other Genoezes but especially this young Doria his Fathers house which had stood for Caesar against the French were bound in conscience to observe But leaving the cause of his death unto the righteous Iudge his sudden end in any Politicians judgement was a good beginning to Fliscus mischievous designes And what more could Machiavel have in the next place given in charge but that the Gallies which made some stirre at the noise should with all speed bee boorded to make all sure untill the Tragedy were fully acted This Fliscus sought to put in execution with as great speed as Machiavel in like case could have wished But haste as wee say makes waste his forward minde had made him forget that his body was not so nimble in armour as out of it not so apt either to avoid a slip or to recover himselfe when he began to slide By his hasty treading upon a loose plank as if the snare had been set for his soule by the Almighties hand he and one or two of his companions fell some yard or two short of their purpose and drowned themselves and their plot even whilest it was come to such perfection that the younger Fliscus yet hoped to make himselfe Duke of Genoa as haply he might have done if the Lord had lent him so much wit as to have concealed his elder brothers death scarce knowne to any till he bewrayed it to such as enquired for him in hope to finish all instantly by his presence But they partly amazed with the elder brothers sudden disaster and seeing no sufficiency in the younger to satisfie their expectation dissolve the rout and ceasing to project the ruine of others begin every one to seek the best meanes for his owne safety Thus hath this politique Gentleman consulted shame unto his house his stately Palace is demolished and his Noble Family almost extinct Yet were all the conditions which greatest plot-masters require in such projects exactly observed in this the plot it selfe as acurate as could by the reach of man be devised their counsell communicated but to a few at the first the execution of it so speedy that the appointed actors could have no leisure to deliberate whether it were better to relent or goe forwards and yet the successe more dismal and sudden than their enemies could expect or wish Thus Machiavels rules have their exceptions but the Prophets Calendar is never out of date Non est viri dirigere gressus ejus Not Machiavel himselfe had he been present could so have directed Fliscus his steps that his treadings should not slip yea he should have fallen though Machiavel had held the plank For his iniquity had overgrown his plot and being come to ful height it strikes upon that immutable irresistible doome which God by Moses had pronounced Deut. 32. v. 35. Vengeance and recompence are mine their feet shall slide in due time and the day of their destruction is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste These men we spake of hastned their owne destruction by making too much haste to destroy others 4 Perhaps the Politician will reply As Haman was too slow so Fliscus was too hasty and should have observed the contrary rule Differ habent parvae commoda magna morae Suppose this hot-spur were revived to re-act his former or the like cunning plot and for his better remembrance should take the Dolphin and Harrow for his devise with this inscription Festina lente it were not possible his speed should be better so long as his intentions were as bad or worse then they had beene and his adversaries no worse then they were when he conspired their death To omit more examples ancient or foraigne the fresh memory of the Powder treason eclipseth all that have gone before it No Politician can justly accuse the Actors of this intended Tragedy either of Hamans too long delay or of Fliscus his haste Such maturity and secrecie they used in their actions and consultations as none on earth could have used more considering the many lets and impediments which did crosse their projects Hell it selfe had gone so long with this hideous monster that it was weary and well content to make an abortive brood as fearing the pangs that must have accompanied the full delivery of what had beene conceived within her bowels would be unsufferable But Achitophel had wit at will to plot a treason to his Soveraignes overthrow yet herein blinded by him that gave him sight in other projects that he could not forecast what harmes might befall him by Absoloms folly And though the Arch-plotter were Vir profundae dissimulationis one that could give traiterous counsell as the destroying Angell of the Lord and hide his counsell as deep as Hell though he had this extraordinary quality in him of making his friends so sure unto him
from their greatnesse but from some other causes best knowne unto himselfe His judgements upon Princes and other Potentates are often executed according to the most strict arithmeticall proportion that can be required in the rule of Retaliation upon equalls as well for the manner as for the matter of punishment And although God in this life never plagueth any according to the full measure of their offences committed against himselfe yet he often visiteth Kings and Monarks with a fuller visible measure of calamity than they have brought upon others and with calamity of the same kinde Though Pharaoh had beene the greatest Monark and his Court the most glorious seat of Nobility till their time on earth yet because hee and his Nobles had plotted cruelty against the innocent without relentance or remorse the dignity of his or their persons procures no mitigation either for the matter or manner of punishment Their dues are fully paid them as we say in kinde the guiltlesse blood of poore Hebrew infants is rendred seven â—old into the bosome of the Aegyptian Nobility and men of Warre 2 Never did any State or Kingdome since the foundation of the world were laid receive so terrible a wound within its owne territories in one day as at this time Egypt did but females did in some measure feele the smart Yet in this last as in the former plagues no Egyptian woman had cause to lament for her selfe for her sister or daughter but many for their husbaÌ„ds their brothers or sons What was the reason The Egyptian Mid-wives and they were women if no other of their sex besides had beene more merciful to the infant males of the Hebrewes than the Egyptian men had been And as they had done so hath the Lord requited the one and rewarded the other To the mercilesse Courâ—iers Politicians and men of Warre he hath rendred vengeance and judgement without mercy and punished them with miserable and ignominious death shewing compassion on the weaker and more pitifull sex 3 It was a rare document of divine justice to ordaine of divine wisdome so to contrive that the dogges should lap King Ahabs blood in the same place where they had lapped the blood of Naboth stoned to death through his connivance or permission As sure a token it was of justice tempred with mercy and of the great Kings speciall grace or favour unto this gracelesse King of Israel that the dogs which lapped his blood should not so much as touch his body Being slaine in battell his death was honourable as the world accounteth honour yet was it not so much the dignity of his royall person as his humiliation upon the Prophets chalenge which made him capable of this favour but not a dram either of disgrace or misery from which Ahab was by Gods mercy in part released which did not fall into the scale of Iustice wherein the impiety of proud Iezabel was exactly waighed The measure of her husbands punishment is not so much less as hers was fuller than Naboths had been The sight of her coÌ„manding letters caused poore Naboth to be stoned to death by the men of his citie and at Iehues call her body is dashed against the stones by her owne servants The dogs lapped Naboths blood but they devoured Iezabels flesh she had beene shamelesly cruell in her life and she hath a most shamefull and a most fearfull death Nor would the all-seeing Iudge suffer that respect to be done to her corps which her cruell executioner intended upon remembrance that she had beene daughter to a King It was I must confesse a ruefull case and yet a judgement more righteous than rufull that she which had issued from royall womb she from whose wombe had issued royall progenie for she had beene respectively lawfull daughter lawfull wife and lawful mother unto three Kings should be entombed ere her corps were cold in the entrailes of dogs should have no better burial than the dead Ass or other carion albeit she died in her owne royall palace But thus the Almighties arme sometimes reacheth greatest Princes even in this life heavier blowes than they can give unto their poorest subjects But where the blow or matter of punishment which falls on them is much lighter the wound or torment may be more grievous as was observed before than their furie can procure unto their despised brethren 4 But neither doth the sacred relation concerning Pharaohs overthrow or Iezabels death containe a more perspicuous ocular demonstration of Divine Iustice executed according to the rigour of Retaliation than hath beene represented or rather really acted upon a publike Stage within the memory of some now living The subject of this rufull spectacle was Henry the second French King of that name The accident is not recorded by Gods Spirit yet the experiment as unpartiall Writers which I take it were eye witnesses of it have related is as exactly parallell to the rules of Gods Spirit and affords as good instruction for moderne Princes as examples in the Sacred Story did to posterity This youthfull King in the beginning of his reigne had licenced others to feed their eyes with the sight of a deadly Duell authorized by him in favour of Vivonus to the disgrace and prejudice as the Court of France expected of Chabotius whose hands notwithstanding the Lord did strengthen to kill the Favourite who after many bitter provocations had drawne him within the Lists more against his will than an old Beare is brought to the stake The death of Vivonus though most just doth no way excuse the barbarous injustice of this King who hath this justice done upon him hee had made a sport of shedding blood and he himselfe is slaine in Ludicro certamine running at Tilt and slaine by that hand which had beene his instrument to apprehend those Noble and religious Gentlemen which had been lately imprisoned and in whose misery the Court of France did then rejoyce and adding gall to wormwood solemnized these and the like triumphant shewes or sportings in their sight yet was it not Count Montgomeries hand but the right hand of the Lord which did at one and the same instant unty the Kings Bever and guide the splinter or glance of Montgomeries Speare into that eye which had beheld a Duell that could not be determined without the death of the one or other combatant both being Frenchmen his natural subjects with such delight as yong Gallants do ordinary prizes or other like spectacles of recreation Of Vivonus his death few or none but Frenchmen were eye-witnesses but of this Kings tragicall triumph Spain Germany with other countries were spectators by their proxies or Ambassadors As if the Lord would have these theÌ„ present to cary this message to their masters to be by theÌ„ directed to the rest of ChristiaÌ„ Princes Discite justitiaÌ„ moniti non temnere divos Take warning by this Princes Fate Not to approve what God doth
Pausanias a famous Antiquary or to describe him better to a meere English Reader the Cambden of Greece hath observed as much as now we doe in his narrations of the warres between the Romans and the Corinthians or Achaians managed by Metellus and Critolaus The History though briefe as being but an appendix of his intended Topography is fraught with many remarkable circumstances pointing out unto us a Divine Providâ—nce of which two concerning the selected band of Arcadia put to flight but with more honour than the rest of Critolaus army are more specially parallell to the rule of retaliation These Arcadians after the foile retyred safe to the number of a thousand unto Elatea a City of the Phocenses where they found good welcome at the first upon some â—ermes of ancient confederacy or alliance But the sudden noise of Critolaus and his companies overthrow dissolved the links of former amity The poore Arcadians were commanded by the State of Phocis forthwith to relinquish Elatea and in their returne to Peloponnesus meeting unexpectedly with Metellus forces were all slaine by the Romans in the selfe same place in which their fore-elders had forsaken the Grecian Lâ—â—guers or conâ—â—derates against Philip of Macedon Honest Countrimen see Meteors or other appearances as perfectly as Philosophers do but they often erre in guessing at the place or subject where in the appearance is made Thus many imagine the Sunne to be reddish in a foggy morning when as the rednesse is in the ayre So did this heathen Antiquary expresly and fully discern the power of Divine Iustice in this event from the circumstance of the persons a race of truce-breakers and from the place of their discomfiture His eyesight or apprehension herein was as cleare as any Christians Wherein then consists his error In attributing this award of Divine Iustice unto the Gods of Greece But did any Southsayer of Greece foretell that the fathers breach of truce should be thus visited upon their children as Elias foretold that the dogs should lap Ahabs blood and eate Iezebel and their childrens flesh in the same place where they had lapt the blood of Naboth whom Iezebel had caused to be stoned to death The identity of Iustice done upon divers people and Nations rightly argues that the God of Israel did then rule and execute judgement unto the ends of the world although he did not deale so with any Nation as he did with Israel neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Lawes much lesse such distinct foreknowledge of his judgements or visitations as was usuall in Israel unlesse it were in some cases extraordinary 4 To have seene with our eyes what we have read in a faithfull and judicious Historian one to dye in a fit of the Falling-sicknesse or as it was then presumed to bee vexed to death by an evill spirit at the time appointed for his consecration even whilest he did prostrate himselfe before the Altar to receive the Holy Ghost by the imposition of his Metropolitans hands would have moved the like question to that of Christs Disciples concerning him that was borne blinde Lord who did sinne this man or his parents Whose shame did he fome out with his last breath his owne or some others Such as is here expressed was the â—ate of Strachyquaz sonne to Bâ—leslaus the first and brother to Bâ—leslaâ—s the second King of Bâ—hâ—me who with the Bishop of Mentz was an eye witnesse of this prodigious fearefull accident And if consecration dinners were then in use as doubtlesse they were when Kings sonnes and brothers thought it no scorne to be consecrated Bishops Respondent ultima primis Strachyquaz did better brooke his name after his death than at his birth or baptisme or as my Author speakes on his lustration day The realitie answering to his name and portended by it he left behinde him The dinner provided was indeed terribile convivium a banquet of dread or horrour to all spectators a feast of whose dâ—â—â—â—ies few I thinke would eate And thus much doth the name Strachyquaz in the Bohemiaâ—â— language import A name imposed upon this unfortunate person at his birth in triumphant memorie of that bloody banquet unto which his father Bolestaus the first had invited Wenceslaus the King his Elder brother with intent to murther him as he did taking opportunitie to accomplish this impietie in the Temple of God where this King afterwards Sainted was at his midnights devotions 5. To sit as Coroners upon the soules of men deceased is a thing which I have ever misliked though sometimes practised by men otherwise of deserved esteeme And whosoever in this case will take upon him to sit as Iudge my request shall bee not to serve upon the Iury. Yet if my opinion were in this particular demanded Whether this man dying as the story presumes of a Deuill the manner of his death were any certaine prognosticke or probable presumption of his damnation my verdit should goe in mitiorem partem That thus to dye of a Devill unlesse his former life had beene devillish which the historie no way intimates doth no more argue his damnation than the untimely death of Ieroboams Child did argue him to have beene guiltie of his Parents actuall sinnes in the manner of whose death notwithstanding as wel as in Strachyquaz his tragicall end the sinnes of their Parents were remarkeably visited according to that rule of Iustice which now we treat of that is by way of counterpassion in respect if not of time yet of the places wherein they were visited That Ieroboams child dyed in Gods favour the text instructs us 1 King 14. 13. All Israel shall mourne for him and bury him for hee onely of Ieroboam shall come to the grave because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel c. 6 But to returne to Strachyquaz the maner of whose death as is apparent was more fearefull and prodigious yet no signe of damnation For as there is vates praeteritorum futurorum a branch of prophesie in discovering times past as well as events to come so there may bee and oft-times are prodigious and portentuous accidents which point at nothing de futuro sâ—â— a retro which looke backwards not forwards The best use or signification of this fearefull disaster was to advertise the present generation and their successors that the execrable and sacrilegious murder committed by Boleslaus father to Strachyquaz was not expiated as yet but to be visâ—â—â—d upon more generations without heartie repentance and confession of this wicked usurpers and his complices sinnes wherewith the land of Boheme had beene polluted The first borne of Egypt was slaine for their fathers offences against the infant males of the Hebrewes And Strachyquaz dyed this fearefull death by the visitation of his fathers sinnes upon him But he might perhaps have lived much longer and have dyed in peace had he lived according to that rule whose profession hee had taken upon him that is
if hee had continued as hee once resolved to doe a true pâ—nitentiarie and not affected to be a prelate For if God would not suffer his Temple to be built by David a man otherwise after his owne heart onely because hee had beene a man of warre wee may from the morall Analogie of this sacred embleme collect that the same holy Lord would not suffer the sonne of that malignant cruell Pagan Fratricide which had imbrued his hands in the blood of his Priests and murthered his annointed King in the holy place to beare rule over his house or Church This his unseasonable ambitious humor without any other actuall remarkable crime might in Divine Iustice exact some print of the supreame Iudges indignation All this notwithstanding being granted doth not prove there was no good thing found in the partie that was thus punished as well as in Ieroboams child It was a fauour to the one that he dyed in peace though in his infancie and it might be some matter of honour or favour to the other that he had Christian buriall in the Church wherein hee died and that hee was not made a prey to the fowles of the ayre But this wee speake skeptique wise what became of Strachyquaz after his fearefull end we leave it for the eternall Iudge to determine 7 Whatsoever became of him the death of his grandmother Drahomira was much more terrible as she had lived so she dyed a malitious blasphemous Pagan a cruell bloody step-dame to Christs infant Church in that Kingdome The storie I know will unto many seeme strange yet in my observation very capable of credit if we consider the exigence of those times and the then desperate state of Boheme Christianity and paganisme lay then at stake whether should be entertained whether expelled the Pagans by their unconfeionable policie which aymes at nothing but some private end alwayes readie to hazard whatsoever lyes within their levell rather then misse of it had so cunningly played the foregame and by their bloody plots removed so many principall men out of the way that there was no possibilitie left save onely in the Almighties immediate hand to make any thing of the aftergame Now in case of such desperate extremities specially when they happen during the infancie of any particular Church it cannot to mee seeme incredible if the good spirit of God doe out vy those prodigious cruelties which Sathan deviseth against the Saints by sudden miraculous executions upon their Actors Sathans instruments The Tragedy of Drahomira was briefly thus This Queen-mother had animated her Pagan-sonne Boleslaus surnamed Savus the Cruell to murder his elder brother and Liege Lord Wenceslaus onely because he had approved himselfe a zealous professor of the doctrine of life To terrifie others from taking the sacred function upon them she caused the bodies of those Priests and Prelates whom Boleslaus had â—assacred to lye unburied and one Podivivus a man of principall note in his time to hang two intire yeares upon the gallowes Vpon these and many like provocations of Gods just vengeance her grave was made before she felt her selfe sicke her buriall like to that of Corah of Dathan and Abiram Whether this opening of the earth were truly miraculous or whethet it happened in the period of some naturall declination the supporters or pillars of it being digged up or undermined before the opening of it at that time wherein this wicked woman was to passe over that very place in which she had caused the Priests bodies to lye unburied was the Lords doing and no lesse wonderfull to Christian eyes than if it had beene as perhaps it was a meere miracle The truth of this story wanted not the testimony of many ages For passengers from the day of her death untill the day wherein mine Author wrote this Story which was within this age current eschewed the place wherein she dyed as execrable and accursed by God CHAP. 37. What manner of sinnes they be which usually provoke Gods judgements according to the rule of Counterpassion And of the frequency of this kinde of punishment foresignified by Gods Prophets 1 IVstice as was intimated before doth not formally consist in retaliation and yet is retaliation a formall part or branch of Iustice And of this branch Nemesis amongst the Heathen was the ordinary Arbitresse Shee was in their Divinity a Goddesse of Iustice not Iustice her selfe nor did every wrong in their opinion belong unto her cognizance but such insolent wrongs onely as deserved vengeance or indignation Nor doth the righteous most mercifull Lord and onely God usually punish ordinary or private but publique and outcrying sinnes by the severe Law or Rule of Counterpassion And it is observable that most Prophesies which are powred out against any Land City or People with fuller indignation are so intermingled with threats of judgement by way of Counterpassion that the quality and circumstances of the crimes may seeme to serve the Prophets as glasses for representing the nature and quality of the judgements to come And if the crimes were as well knowne to mâ—n as the judgements are we would thinke the one were moulded in the other This exact proportion betwixt the patterne of sinnes which Babylon had set and the manner of Gods judgements upon her for them hath beene observed before and I will not make the prophesies concerning her destruction any part of this observation The prophesies concerning other Nations and Cities will afford plenty of instances to this purpose 2 Samaria shall be as an heape of the field and as plantings of a Vineyard and I will powre downe the stones thereof into the valley and I will discover the foundations thereof And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with the fire and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot and they shall returne to the hire of an harlot Micah 1. 6 7. The wound of Samaria as the Prophet addes vers 9. was incurable but so was not the wound of Iudah as yet although it was come to Iudah by infection and had touched at the very gates of Ierusalem For so he saith vers 12. The inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good but evill came downe from the Lord unto the gate of Ierusalem Thither it came but it found no entrance in for the present as it did into the gates of other Cities of Iudah Lachish of all the Cities of Iudah was the first which tooke the impression of Israels idolatry and did in part derive it unto Sion And as she was the first and principall in sinne so she was the first in the plagues here threatned The Chariots of Ashur did first triumph in her streets and her inhabitants felt the dint of the Assyrian swords when Ierusalem escaped with the lash of Rabshakehs tongue That which is afterwards related in the sacred story concerning Ierusalems
foundation thereof The scope at which their wishes did ayme was that Ierusalem and the Temple might so be demolished that they should never be raised againe And according to this scantling of their malicious wish the Psalmist proportions that imprecation against Edom which in the issue proved a Prophesie Remember O Lord the Children of Edom in the day of Ierusalem who said rase it rase it c. The more full expression or ratification of this implicit prophesie we have in another Prophet who lived about eighty yeares after the Edomites had uttered that accursed cry against Ierusalem I have loved you saith the Lord yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us was not Esau Iacobs brother saith the Lord yet I loved Iacob and I hated Esau and layd his mountaines and his heritage waste for the Dragons of the wildernesse Whereas Edom saith wee are impoverished wee will returne and build the desolate places Thus saith the Lord of hoasts they shall build but I will throw downe and they shall call them the border of wickednesse and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever Mal. 1. 2 c. Some good expositors have from the litterall sense of this place collected that Edom not long after the Babilonish captivitie did utterly cease to be a Nation And whether any of Esaus posteritie bee left upon the face of the Earth some have questioned and to my remembrance determined for the Negative These whatsoever besides were the Effects of Gods professed hate to Esau But there is a seed or Nation yet on earth which shall at the time appointed be made partakers of his blessing so often promised to Ierusalem and enjoy the fruites of his professed love to Iacob 7 These Prophetical passages cōcerning Ammon Moab and Edom afford many usefull speculations did either these times afford us freedome or this place opportunitie to dilate upon them But leaving the rest unto the juditious Readers owne collection out of the seuerall Expositors of the places by mee quoted I shall onely request him to take this one admonition from mee Not to rejoyce much lesse to triumph in any others calamitie although hee knew it to be the speciall award of divine justice or a condigne punishment purposely suted by the All seeing Providence to some peculiar sinne Edom and Babylon knew that Ierusalem and Iudah were justly punished for their offences against the righteous Lord and themselves to be the appointed executioners of his justice yet all this doth no way excuse them for their presumption in the manner of execution My people have beene lost sheepe their Shepheards have caused them to goe astray c. All that found them have devoured them and their adversaries said Wee offend not because they have sinned against the Lord the habitation of Iustice even the Lord the hope of their Fathers Yet all this acquits not Babylon from guilt of Gods judgments in spoyling Gods people for so it followes Remove out of the midst of Babylon and goe forth out of the Land of the Caldeans and be as the hee-goats before the flockes Ier. 50. 6 7 8. And againe Verse 10 11. Caldea shall be a spoile all that spoyle her shall be satisfied saith the Lord because yee were glad because yee rejoyced ô yee destroyers of mine heritage Not onely the practise or reall intention of mischiefe but the delight or joy which men take in the calamitie of others by whomsoever it bee procured or intended doth make men lyable to the rule of Retaliation For every degree of delight or joy in others misery includes a breach of that fundamentall Law of equitie Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris VVhatsoever wee would not have done vnto our selves wee should bee vnwilling to doe or to see done vnto others And all visitation by the rule of Counterpassion as it concernes wrongs intended or done by one man to another is but a resarcination or making up of that breach which hath beene made in the fundamentall Law of equitie that is of doing as wee would be done unto 8 But besides the wrongs which Potentates or priuate men practise upon or intend to others there is a peculiar disposition which makes men liable to the iudgements which they feare or at least hasten the execution of iudgements otherwise deserved And that is a tempting God by the curiositie of superstitious feare or by dissimulation An instance to this purpose and that is all which at this time I meane to use we have in Ieroboam and his wife who went disguised unto the Prophet Ahijah as if it had beene unto some cunning man to know what should become of her young sonne Abijah then visited with sicknesse The doome or punishment doth so well befit the temptation that the circumstances of the time and place c. wherin the discovery of her dissembling was by the spirit revealed unto the Prophet may seeme to have suggested unto him the time of the Childes death with other circumstances The Prophets eies were dimme that he could not discerne her by sight but the Lord so supplyed this defect that hee knew her by the sound of her feete before shee came in at the doore The Lord said unto Ahijah Behold the wife of Ieroboam commeth to aske a thing of thee for her sonne for hee is sicke Thus and thus shalt thou say unto her for it shall bee when shee commeth in that shee will faine herselfe to bee another woman And it was so when Ahijah heard the sound of her feete as shee came in at the doore that hee said Come in thou wife of Ieroboam why fainest thou thy selfe to be another for I am sent unto thee with heavie tidings c. Arise thou therefore get thee to thine owne house and when thy feet enter into the Citie the childe shall dye c. And Ieroboams wife arose and departed and came to Tirzah and when shee came to the threshold of the doore the childe dyed But of that peculiar branch of Divine Providence which takes men in the nets of their owne superstitious feare or imaginations wee shall have fitter occasion to speake in the Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Fore-warnings CAP. 38. The conclusion of this Treatise with the relation of Gods remarkable judgements manifested in Hungary 1 DID GOD alwayes fit his plagues to exorbitant or out-crying sinnes immediately after their commission men would suspect that hee did distrust his memory Should hee deferre all as long as hee doth sundry for many yeares and some speciall ones till the second third or fourth generation this would tempt us in the interim to thinke hee tooke just notice of none Because sentence against an evill worke is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to doe evill Ecclesiastes 8. 11. But the same Preacher to counterpoyze the sway of this inbred temptation addeth Though a sinner doe evill an hundred times and