rule without any purpose of man are to quicken the ingraffed notion of the Deity and to bring forth an acknowledgement of Divine Providence and Iustice 343 32 Of the Geometricall proportion or forme of distributive justice which the supreame Iudge sometimes observes in doing to great Princes as they have done to others 349 33 How the former law of retaliation hath beene executed upon Princes according to Arithmeticall proportion or according to the rule of commutative justice 359 24 The sinnes of parents visited upon their children according to the rule of retaliation 365 35 Grosser sinnes visited upon Gods Saints according to the former rule of Counterpassion 369 36 Of sinnes visited or punished according to the circumstance of time or place wherein they were committed 376 37 What manner of sinnes they bee which usually provoke Gods judgments according to the rule of counterpassion And of the frequency of this kinde of punishment foresignified by Gods Prophets 387 38 The conclusion of this Treatise with the relation of Gods remarkeable judgements manifested in Hungarie 398 A TREATISE OF THE Diuine Essence and Attributes THE SECOND PART Containing the Attribute of Omnipotency of Creation and Providence c. J beleeve in God the Father Almighty SECTION I. Of the Attribute of Omnipotency and creative power CHAP. 1. The Title of Almighty is not personall to the Father but essentiall to the Godhead IN further explication of this Article it is added in the NICENE CREEDE I beleeve in one God the Father Almighty This title of Almighty or Omnipotency is not given to the Sonne or to the Holy Ghost nor are either of them expresly enstyled by the name of God in the Creede The omission of the title of God and of the Attribute Almightie which is proper to the Godhead when the persons of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost with their severall offices are described may administer this scruple to men not much conversant in these great mysteries Whether the Father onely be God or onely Almightie or the onely God Almightie in such sort as the Sonne and holy Ghost are not To say the Father onely is God or the Father onely is Almightie were to wrong the Sonne and Holy Ghost to both whose Persons these titles are due and our Faith in this point of the Trinitie above all others must be uniforme and unpartiall without respect of Persons And for the better instruction of such as did not fully apprehend the right meaning of the Apostolique Creede this uniformitie of our Faith is expresly taught by Athanasius Such as the Father is such is the Sonne and such is the holy Ghost the Father is God the Sonne is God and the holy Ghost is God the Father is Almightie the Sonne is Almighty and the holy Ghost Almightie yet shall we often reade in Scriptures and in Writers Orthodoxal euen in Athanasius himselfe that the Father is the onely God So saith the Sonne of God Iohn 17. vers 3. This is life eternall that they may know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Doth Christ therefore deny himselfe to be the onely true God or rather is it a part of our beleefe and of our Saviours meaning in that place that wee must know not onely God the Father but Iesus Christ also whom hee hath sent to be the onely true God And though it be not in that place expressed yet it is necessarily implyed in other Scriptures that the holy Ghost is the onely true God No Christian may question this Proposition Pater est solus Deus The Father is the onely God nor this Filius est solus Deus The Sonne is the onely God nor this third Spiritus sanctus est solus Deus The holy Ghost is the onely God The Father likewise is the onely Almightie the Sonne likewise is the onely Almightie and the holy Ghost the onely Almightie on whom our Faith is joyntly and uniformly set This uniformitie of our Faith hath for its object the unitie of nature in the Trinitie But to say Solus Pater est Deus solus Pater est omnipotens The Father onely is God or the Father onely is Almightie The Son onely is God or the Sonne onely is Almightie The holy Ghost onely is Almightie were more then heresie grosse infidelitie For every one of these speeches include a deniall both of the coequalitie of their persons and of the unitie of their nature Of the ground of this distinction or of the difference betweene these severall Propositions Solus Pater est Deus Pater est solus Deus The Father onely is God and the Father is the onely God c. by the assistance of this blessed Trinitie wee shall discusse after wee have proved the Sonne to be truly God and the holy Ghost likewise to be truly God in the severall Articles which concerne their persons and offices Now the same Arguments which proves the Sonne to be truly God and the holy Ghost likewise to be truly God will likewise prove the Sonne to be the onely God the onely Almightie The point next in view and first to bee handled is the meaning of this Attribute Almighty and how it agrees to the Godhead or divine nature as it is presupposed one and the same in the three Persons CHAP. 2. Of Omnipotencie and of its object of possibilitie and of impossibilitie ὈΥκ αδυνατήσει παÏα Ï„á¿· Θεῶ παν ῥὴμα Nothing shall be unpossible unto God saith the Angell to the blessed Virgin doubting or moving this question How shall I instantly conceive and beare a sonne seeing I know not a man That the accomplishing of that which the Angell had said was possible to God the event did prove But that nothing should be impossible unto God can neyther be proved by any event nor will it necessarily follow at least the necessity of its consequence is not so cleare from the words uttered by the Angel which admit of some restriction For to be God or to be equall with God is something more then meere nothing Is it then possible for God to make a God euery way equall unto himselfe The Sonne of God who was conceived by the holy Ghost and borne of the blessed Virgin was equall with God yet not so made but so begotten from all eternitie Hee is more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is not comprehended under the former Proposition For being God from all eternitie it was impossible hee should be made Must then the Angels speech or the Article of Omnipotencie bee restrained to things possible or is God said to be omnipotent onely in this respect that hee is able to doe all things that are possible to be done In respect of whom then shall they be counted possible In respect of God himselfe or in respect of Men or Angells Or with reference to Angelicall or humane knowledge onely or in respect of knowledge divine To be able onely to doe all things that man or Angels can doe or can
in trenches be liable to these exceptioÌ„s 3 If the goodnesse of every thing presuppose its being nothing can be without Gods wil what caÌ„ be good we speake in order of nature not of time before God wills it Of being or goodnesse actually existent in any creature it is most true neither can be without some precedent Act of Gods will But as there is a logicall possibility presupposed to the working of the Almighty power so is there a goodnesse objective precedent in order of nature to the Act or exercise of his will And unto some things considered as logically possible this goodnesse objective is so essentially annexed that if it bee his will to give them actuall being they must of necessity be actually good nor can hee that can doe all things will their contraries Hee might had it pleased him have taken life and existence from all mankind when he preserved Noah and his Familie But to reserve them men and no reasonable creatures was no object of power omnipotent much lesse doth his omnipotency enable him to worke ought contradictory to his owne nature or essentiall goodnesse As is the man so is his strength and as is the nature of the willer such are the objects of his will Simile gaudet simili To long after such meats as feed diseasefull humors is naturall to every disease And our nature being corrupted whets our appetites to such things as are agreeable to the praedominant corruption wherewith it is tainted not to the purity wherein it was created To will onely that which is consonant to his nature is so much more essentiall to God than unto us by how much his nature is more simple than ours is And seeing it is essentiall purity altogether uncapable of corruption his will cannot pitch but on that which is pure and holy Whence the prime rule of all goodnesse without himselfe is consonancy to his essentiall purity and Iustice For as much as thou art righteous thy selfe thou orderest all things righteously thinking it not agreeable to thy power to condemne him that hath not deserved to bee punished Wisedome 12. 15. He loveth truth and sincere dealing because he himselfe is true and just That veracity which is coeternall to his Essence includes an everlasting enmity unto treachery fraud and perjury his immortally spotlesse and unchangeable purity cannot approve of lust and intemperancy or condemne chastity in any person at any time Nor could he have given a Law as some lawlesse Lawgivers have done for the authorizing of promiscuous or preposterous lust To legitimate violence or entitle oppression unto the inheritance bequeathâ—d to conscionable and upright dealing is without the prerogative of omnipotency it cannot be ratified by any Parliament of the Trinitie blest for ever The practise or countenance of these and the like are evill not in us onely to whom they are forbidden but so evill in themselves that the Almighty could not but forbid and condemne theÌ„ as profest enemies to his most sacred Majesty 4 To square great mens actions to the dictates of reason or nature given in their good dayes or to bring their wills within compasse of any constant Law seemes greater violence than if we should seeke to fashion their bodies by handsome well proportioned garments but much too strait And yet we see by daily experience that such as are most impatient of regulation or restraint are most importunate to have their owne unruly wills the rules of their inferiours minds and consciences To doe otherwise than they would have them though they alleage the dictates both of reason and Gods word will admit no appeale from the censure of peevishnesse or perversenesse But for them to set constant patternes of that morality or good behaviour whose defects in inferiours they either punish or make advantage of is reputed a kinde of Pedantisme or Mechanicall servitude To request such performances seemes as harsh as if we should intreat them to set us copies or songs or take pains in teaching us some honest trade And seeing inferiours are secretly blinded with this pride of heart which breakes forth more violently in superiours most of both rankes measure Gods will by their owne But if wee will condemne this impatience of restraint as a fault in our selves we must of necessity acquit the Almighty from the like The infinite greatnesse of his Majesty cannot wrest his most holy will from strict observance of such rules of Righteousnesse as he sets us to follow That integrity wherewith our first nature was cloathed was but the Image of his Holinesse And hee that requires us to be holy as He is holy or perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect exacts not of us that wee should be as holy and perfect as Hee is in any point of his imitable perfections Every part of that holinesse which becommeth Saints is in the best of them but as the materiall forme in an house built of untowardly stuffe by unskilfull hands but in Him according to the exactest Mathematicall or Idaeall forme that the cunningest Architect hath in his head The best examples of goodnesse we can conceive are but as dead pictures of those everliving ones which He expresseth in his workes All his decrees concerning man are not in themselves onely but to mans eyes that looke not on them a squint so straight and just that hee will referre the tryall unto the deliberate and sober thoughts of his Enemies Is not my way equall Are not your waies unequall Ezek. 18. 25. 5 This may instruct us that those patternes of Holinesse or perfections which wee are bound to imitate in Him are not to be taken from his bare Commandement or revelation of his will but from the objects of his will revealed or from the eternall practices which hee hath exhibited as so many expresse or manifest proofes that his will is alwayes Holy and Iust albeit wee cannot alwaies so expressely discerne the manner how it is just and holy in some particular Commandements but must implicitely beleeve it to bee such in them because it is so eminently and apparantly holy and just in those perfections whereof our generall duties are the imperfect representations Of all his morall commandements not one there is whose sincere practise doth not in part make vs truely like him we are bound to be conformable to his will revealed that we may be coÌ„formable to his nature without conformity wherevnto we cannot participate of his happinesse For Happinesse is the immediate consequent of his nature The antecedent of Lactantius Argument Qui nos irasci jubet is utique irascitur .i. He that biddeth us be angry is certainly angry himselfe is not so certaine or authentique and the inference is somewhat doubtfull But out of all question he that bids us unfaignedly blesse our persecutors doth unfaignedly tender his blessings to such as persecute Him in his members He that seriously exhorts us to bee mercifull and kind to all sheweth kindnesse to the most unkinde That
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
make a conscience as well of their words as of their wayes herein perhaps especially faulty that they are too zealously sollicitous not to speake amisse make no scruple of entertaining these and the like inferences following as naturally descending from the former Maxime It is impossible ought should fall out otherwise than it doth all things in respect of God and his Omnipotent Decree are necessary Contingencie is but a solecisme of secular language or if any thing may without offence be termed contingent it must be reputed such onely with reference to second causes 2 Howbeit such good men as doe thus write and speake will give us leave I know to take it in the first place as granted that God is wiser than we are and knowes the nature of all things and their differences better than they or we doe This being granted we will in the second place suppose that Contingency is not a meere fictitious name of that which is not as Tragelaphus nor altogether Synonymall to Necessity The question about Contingency and of its difference from necessity is not such as one in merriment once proposed in schools An chimera calcitrans in vacuo terat calceos The very names of Contingency and Necessity to ordinary Latinists differ more than Ensis and Gladius than Vestis and Indumentum betwixt which perhaps the ancient Latine Artificers or Nomenclators knew some difference Yet was it impossible for them to know any thing which God knew not who out of all controversie knowes the true difference betweene Contingency and Necessity much better then we can doe For both of them are Entities of his making and serve as different Lawes to the diversity of his creatures or their different actions All the reasons that can be drawne from the immutability of Gods Decree to the contrary may with greater facility and strength of the same Decree be retorted than brought against us For God immutably decrees mutability Now who will say that things mutable are in respect of Gods decree or knowledge immutable The Heavens and other bodies moveable according to locall motion are truly moveable in themselves absolutely moveable not immoveable in respect of Gods decree or knowledge for he knowes them to bee moveable because he decreed them so to be hee doth not know them to be immoveable because he decreed them not to be such unlesse for a time by interposition of miracle It implies lesse contradiction to say Deus immutabiliter decernit mutabilia than to say which hath beene accounted an ancient orthodoxall Maxime Stabilis dat cuncta movere For Mobility is a branch of Mutability 3 Every thing in respect of Gods decree or knowledge is altogether such as God hath decreed it should be If then God hath decreed there should be contingency as well as necessity it is altogether as necessary that some events should be contingent as others necessary and as truly contingent as the other is necessary in respect of Gods decree Albeit to speake properly the natures of contingency and necessity consist not in meere relation or respect For in as much as both are immediate and reall effects of Divine Omnipotency both must have absolute being the being of neither is meerly relative Now if Contingency have a true and absolute being it is neither constituted in the nature of contingency by any respect or relation to second causes nor can any respect or relation to the first cause deprive it of that absolute nature which the Omnipotent efficacy of the cause of causes hath irrevocably bestowed upon it Briefly if Contingency be any thing it is that which it is by the Omnipotent Decree and being such it is altogether as impossible that some effects should not be absolutely contingent as that such effects as the Divine Decree hath appointed to bee necessary should not be at all Or if we would make impartiall inquiry into the originall of all things nothing without the precincts of the most glorious and ever blessed Trinity is absolutely necessary 4 By Contingency lest haply we might be mistaken we understand the possible meane betweene necessity of being and necessity of not being or of being such or of not being such or betweene necessity of doing and necessity of not doing or necessity of being done or necessity of being left undone This meane betweene necessity of doing and necessity of not doing is that which in agents intellectuall as in men and Angells wee call freedome of will or choice Vnto which freedome necessity is as contradictory as irrationability is to the nature of man and contingency as necessarily presupposed as life and sense are to reason Adde reason to contingency and we have the compleat definition of Free-will In those cases wherein the Creator hath exempted man from restraint of necessity his will is free The divine will it selfe is not free in those operations which are essentiall though most delectable God the Father is more delighted in the eternall generation of his Sonne so is God the Father and the Sonne in the eternall procession of the Holy Ghost than in the creation production or preservation of all the creatures Yet are not these or other internall operations of the blessed Trinity so free in respect of the divine nature as is the production of the world Whatsoever God decrees he decrees it freely that is so as he might not decree it Whatsoever he makes he makes it freely that is he so makes it as that it was not necessary for him to make it CHAP. 13. Contingency is absolutely possible and part of the object of Omnipotency as formall a part as necessity is 1 IT is an unquestionable rule in the Art of Arts that propositions for their forme not incompatible may from the necessity of their matter or subject become equivalent to propositions directly contradictory whose indispensable law or rule it is that if the one be true the other must needs be false they admit of no meane betwixt them Now there is no matter or subject in the world which is so absolutely necessary as the existence of the Divine Nature or the internall operations of the Trinity Whence it is that betweene these two propositions The generation of the Sonne is necessary the not generation of the Son is necessary there is no possible meane which can be capable of truth The first is so absolutely necessary and so necessarily true that the latter is eternally false But such is not the case or condition of these two propositions following The Creation or Existence of the World is necessary The not Creation or non existence of the World is necessarie These are not contradictories for their form nor equivalent to contradictories for their matter or subject and therefore may admit a meane betweene them To say the creation or existence of the world was absolutely necessary hath no truth in it for it had a beginning of existence and being and may have an end and the other extreame or contrary The not