that out of this earth was brought forth hearb yeelding seede and fruit trees yeelding fruit with seed in them before there was any propagation by seede So he tels us againe vers 21. That God created great Whales and every living creature â—at moveth in the waters after their kinde before there was any Spawne of fishes or seede of fowles For so it followes in the 22. ver That God blessed them after hee had made them saying Be fruitfull and multiply and fill the waters and the Seas and let fowle multiply on the earth And it was this blessing upon fish and fowle thus created at once that is made perfect in their kinde not by growth or succession but by present operation of his Omnipotent power which gave first beginning to the naturall propagation of Fishes and Fowles by Seede or Spawne Againe in as much as the greatest Whales or other creatures most perfect in their kinde though produced in a moment did presuppose a possibilitie of their being and in their most perfect actual beeing include more than a possibilitie of not beeing a necessary inclination to returne unto the matter or masse out of which they were made This beeing which they have presupposeth an infinite and pure act which every way hath precedencie of them as having no cause at all of his beeing but is beeing it selfe without possibilitie of not beeing The manner or method which Moses observed in the Creation was this Hee made the Heaven and Earth and first masse of meere nothing that is without any masse or subject visible or invisible praeexistent whereon to worke That imperfect masse of this great Spheare now distinguished into its severall parts and within sixe dayes adorned and beautified in every part beyond all skill of Art was the first effect or prime worke in order of time or nature of his all sufficient active power or efficiencie Out of this masse hee made all things visible in their kind not by meanes or efficiencie naturall but by the same supernaturall or Omnipotent power by which he made the first masse out of nothing In the prime and Cardinall workes of the sixe dayes the Almighty did proceede though by supernaturall efficiencie in that order or method which Nature by his appointment since hath followed Man which is the most perfect visible creature was the last made next before him the beasts of the field which are next in perfection to him Next before them the fowles of the Ayre and fishes of the Sea and immediately before them the Sunne the Moone and the Stars But in the severall fountaines or roots of propagation by seede hee baganne the contrary way Hee first made man perfect before hee gave him the power of propagation So did hee make every living creature actually perfect in his kinde before he gave them power to increase and multiply by naturall seede or inchoation of now being 3. It is a conceipt groundlesse either in Philosophy or Divinitie which some late Divines aswell of the Romish as of Reformed Churches not without faire pretence of Saint Augustines Authoritie have taught that all things were created at once or in one day by the Almightie maker that the mention of Gods six daies worke is interserted by Moses onely for distinction sake or in respect of our incapacitie to conceive distinctly of Gods workes But if all things had beene made in this sense at once that is upon one day no reason could be given why Gods commendation of something which hee made should bee omitted and exprest upon the making of others or why the commendation of his workes should have beene oftner exprest than once if the productioÌ„ or finishing of al things which he made had beene momentarie or in the compasse of one day Now in the first part of Moses his historie In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth we doe not reade that God saw it was good What is the reason because as yet they were not perfected in their kind but destinated onely unto more perfection Of the light which was created the first day saith Moses God saw that it was good But so he saith not of the second dayes worke which was the separation or division betweene the waters which are above the firmament and the waters beneath it What doth this omission of the divine approbation intimate unto us thus much if no more That the second dayes worke did not bring the waters to that perfection and use whereunto they were destinated But of the third dayes worke in which the earth was severed from the waters under the firmament and enabled by his creative power to bring forth Hearbes and other Vegetables God saith Moses saw that it was good And so it is likewise said of the fourth dayes worke in which the Sun and Moone and the Stars were made and so likewise of the fift wherein the water was authorized to bring forth fowles and fishes perfect in their kind and lastly of the sixt day wherein man was made it is said that God saw all that he had made and it was exceeding good To explicate every dayes worke in particular would require a larger Treatise then we project our intended Commentaries upon the Apostles Creede shall bee Of such Euangelicall mysteries as the Historie of the sixt dayes worke and the seaventh dayes rest did by way of Embleme portend or foreshadow wee shall have occasion to treate when wee come unto the Sonne of Gods consecration unto his everlasting Priesthood or of the Sonne of mans residing three dayes and three nights in the wombe of the earth which speech of our Saviour cannot bee verified either of three naturall dayes or of three artificiall dayes and nights but hath a peculiar reference to three of those evenings and mornings which Moses mentioneth in the historie of the Creation The taske for the present undertaken was to shew the possibilitie of the Creation or making all things of nothing and that there is a necessitie in nature that things generable should have a beginning that the propagation of living Creatures could not be from Eternitie not before all times imaginable And if sublunarie substances or vegetables had a beginning Not the Elements onely whereof they are made but the Heavens themselves the Sunne the Moone the Starres by whose influence they are produced must have their beginning too because the end of their beeing of their operation of continuance in their course or order is for the continuall propagation of vegetables and living bodies I may conclude this first point with that acute collection of Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there were no Sunne there could be no use of the eye and if there were no eye there should be no use of the great eye of this world at least of its light But in asmuch as the Sunne is necessary for the eye and the eye for the Sun there is a necessitie that both of theÌ„ should have a beginning of Beeing For
unfained penitence of Prince and People became the object of Gods antecedent will and fell under the former part of Gods Covenant with David The enemy shall not exact upon him nor the sonne of wickednesse afflict him And I will beat downe his foes before his face and plague them that hate him Psal 89. vers 22 23. The Assyrian by going beyond his commission in daring not Hezekiah only but the Lord of Hosts unto whose protection Hezekiah had fled becomes the object of Gods consequent will which by divine appointment he was at that time to execute upon Ierusalem but upon Ierusalem fallen away by disobedience not upon Ierusalem returning in heart unto her God 6 That this people might have some time of breathing and respite to gather themselves for the better accomplishing of so great a worke as Hezekiah had begun the Lord in his wisdome so disposed that Tirhakah King of Cush should make forward to entertaine Senacherib with battaile at that very instant wherein he had purposed to give the on set upon Ierusalem This unexpected removall of present terror was no doubt a sure pledge unto the people for strengthning their relyance on Gods promise for setling their hearts and continuing their constancy in fervent prayers during the time of the enemies absence And seeing the force of Egypt and Cush were not sufficient to dissipate Senacheribs mighty army perhaps not able to hold him play any longer the Lord sends Hezekiah and his people deliverance from heaven Then the Angell of the Lord went forth and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians a hundreth fourescore and five thousand and when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses Isaiah 37. vers 36. The noise of this great overthrow was as the joyfull sound of a Iubile unto Ierusalem and did portend another more admirable and victorious Iubile to bee accomplished in the same place of which elsewhere This for the present might witnesse to Hezekiah and the people that rather then one tittle of Gods Covenant with David should fal to the ground the host of heaven should leave their station and keepe garrison on earth A little after this miraculous deliverance the Sun is compelled to goe fifteene degrees backwards for setting forward the course of Hezekiah his life whom Death and Fate had now in the worlds sight arrested God hereby testified unto Prince and People that if they would continue such in health as they were in sicknesse so well-minded in peace and prosperity as they had beene in strait siege or other distresse of war Ierusalems good dayes might become as certaine and constant as the dayes of heaven seeing that great light which was appointed from the beginning to rule the day did now give place to Hezekiahs prayers But most of this people were most unlike their Prince albeit even he after he had received those two miraculous pledges of Gods loue did not render according to the reward bestowed upon him 2 Chron. 32. v. 25. For his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Iudah and Ierusalem Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himselfe for the pride of his heart both he and the inhabitants of Ierusalem so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the dayes of Hezekiah 7 After the yoake of Ashur was taken from off this peoples neck many of them became wanton others secure as not suspecting that a Cockatrice should spring out of this Serpents root that his fruit should be a fiery flying Serpent Isai 14. v. 29. Vnto Hezekiah himselfe though a most wise and prudent King the Babylonian tyranny being now in his infancy did seeme by nature morâ— mild and gentle than the Assyrian had beene And not content to entertaine the King of Babylons Ambassadors with curtesies sutable to their congratulations he shewed them his treasury and all the good things wherwith the Lord had blessed him willing perhaps to give their master and the world to wit that notwithstanding the former wars and exactions hee was no begger but a fit confederate for neighbour Princes to curbe the insolency of the Assyrian whose strength though much abated by the terrible blow which the Angell of the Lord had given Senacheribs host was not quite broken till many yeares after But the Prophet knew this fawning whelpe to be of wolvish kinde and discovered those implanted seeds of cruelty in him which when they came to be ripe would be more noysome to the Kings and Princes of Iudah than his predecessor the Assyrian had beene Isaiah said unto Hezekiah Heare the word of the Lord Behold the dayes come that all that is in thy house and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day shall be caried unto Babylon nothing shall bee left saith the Lord. And of thy sonnes that shall issue from thee which thou shalt beget shall they take away and they shall bee Eunuches in the palace of the King of Babylon 2 King Chapter 20. vers 17 18. 8 Any Heathen which had held Esaias for an undoubted Sooth-sayer would instantly have concluded hence that the captivity of Hezekiahs successors and all the miseries which the Babylonian afterwards brought upon Iudah and Ierusalem were absolutely fatall altogether impossible to be avoided And many good Christians perhaps will question whether the plagues here threatned were not from this point of time necessary in respect of the Divine Decree To answer this question by interrogation Why should not the spirit of the Prophet Esay be as truly subject to the former propheticall rule as Micahs was Now God according to that rule was ready to repent him of all the evill which he had threatned whensoever the people should repent them of whatsoever they had done The Lord had given Hezekiah and his successors a farre larger and longer time for preventing the evill which Esay threatned than they had for avoiding the doome denounced by Micah The very tenour of the denunciation made by Esay shewes them a ready meanes for preventing the woe denounced so they would have laid it to their hearts or followed the advise of succeeding Prophets But mortality must needs be rife where variety of diseases and multitudes of unskilfull Empyricks do meer The common transgressions of the people are the epidemicall diseases of States and such projects as Princes or Statesmen without the prescript of Gods Word or suggestion of his Providence use for their recovery are like unseasonable ministration of Empyricall or old wives medicines to crased bodies They usually invite or entertaine the destruction or ruine of kingdomes otherwise ready to depart Not the best amongst the Kings of Iudah but were smatterers in empyricall or secular policy Some were more some lesse all too much given to put confidence in multitude of men and store of treasure And for increasing this supposed sinew of Warre and nutriment of Peace they used meanes neither warrantable by Gods written Law nor by the rule
confused masse coëuall to the Eternitie of divine power which they acknowledged to be the Artificer or framer of this great worke into that uniformitie or beautie of severall formes which now it beares The first objection admits a double sense or doubtfull construction and hath no truth in respect of the Almightie maker saue onely in the impertinent sense The second objection universally taken is false CHAP. 4. The first objection of the Atheist Of nothing nothing can be made Of the doubtfull sense of this naturall how far it is true and how farre it is false WHen it is said by the naturalist that nothing can be made of nothing or that every thing which is made is made of something this particle ex or of hath not alwaies the same importance and in the multiplicitie of its significations or importances the naturalist either hood winks himselfe or takes opportunitie to hide his errour or at least makes advantage of the doubtfull phrase against such as seeke to resell him When we speake of naturall bodies or sublunary substances this particle of usually denotes the proper and immediate Matter whereof euery such body is made Thus we say the Elements are mutually made one of another or of the Matter which is common to them all mixt bodies are made of the Elements wrought or compacted into one Masse vegetables living substances indued with sense are made of mixt bodies as of their immediate and proper matter Sometimes the same particle of or that speech this body is made of that doth not denote the immediate proper matter whereof it is made but yet imports that that part of the bodily substance which was in the one becomes an ingrediēt in the other which is made of it So of water wine was made by miracle Iohn 2. yet not made of water as of its immediate or proper matter not so as vapors are made of moysture ordistilled waters of fume or smoake for so that great worke had beene no true miracle had included no creation but a generation only Now it is impossible unto nature to generate wine of water without the ingredient of any other Element It cannot be made by generation otherwise then of the juyce or sap of the Vine which is not a simple Element but the Expression of a bodie perfectly mixt Howbeit in this miraculous conversion of water into wine some part of the corporeall substance of water did remaine as an ingredient in the wine There was not an utter annihilation of the water and a new production of wine in the same place where water had beene but a true and miraculous Transubstantiation of water into wine And thus we must grant that Trees and vegetables were on the third day made not immediately of nothing That fishes and beasts were made the one of the bodily substance of the earth the other of the bodily substance of the waters neither immediately made of nothing albeit both were made not by generation but by creation that is not of any bodily matter naturally disposed to bring forth or receive that forme which by the creators hand was instamped upon them For in true Philosophy That which Philosophers call the matter of all things generable was not the first sublunary substance which was produced nor was it comproduced or concreated with them but created in them after they were made God had gathered the waters into one place and the drie land into another before either of them had power to conceive or become the common mothers of vegetable and living things Thus were the heaven and the earth first made and the waters divided by the firmament whereas the earth did not become the Matter or common mother of things vegetable before the third day wherein God said Let the earth bring forth grasse the hearb yeelding seed and the fruit tree yeelding fruit after his kind whose seed is in it selfe upon the earth and it was so Gen. 1. 11. Nor did the waters become the common Matter or mother of fishes before the fift day Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life c. Now this production of hearbs or plants out of the earth of fish and fowle out of the substance of the water was not a meer conservation or actuation of that power which the earth waters had before but the Creation of a new power in them the continuation of which power is part of that which we call the passive power of the matter Nor had the fishes or whales which God created this passive power in themselves from their first creation but received it from that blessing of God ver 22. Be fruitfull and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let fowle multiply in the earth Nor did the earth become the Common mother of vegetables as of hearbs grasse trees c. and of more perfect livings creatures at the same time It received power to bring forth the one upon the third day not enabled to bring forth the other untill the fift day God said Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattell and creeping thing and beast of the earth So that all these and man himselfe were not immediately made of nothing though immediately made by God himselfe for they were made by him of the substance of the earth which was visible praeexistent to their making though not made of it as of the matter But when it is said in the first of Genesis God in the beginning made the heaven and earth it cannot be supposed or imported that he made them of any visible or invisible substance praeexistent and if hee made them or their common masse of no substance praeexistent here was something made of nothing but how of nothing or what doth this particle import not that nothing should remaine as an ingredient in the first masse or as if it had the like precedency to it as the earth had to living things the Almightie did not so turne nothing into something as our Sauiour did water into wine To say any thing could be made of nothing in this sense or according to the former importances of the particle of doth indeed imply an evident contradiction for so nothing should be something and simple not beeing should haue a true being To make nothing to be something fals not within the object of power Omnipotent it can be no part of the Almightie makers worke As Cyphers cannot bee multiplied into numbers by any skill in Arithmetique though supposed infinite so neither can nothing be converted into something nor become an ingredient in bodies created by any power though infinite As the Omnipotent Creator is one vnitie it selfe so euery thing which he makes must have its unitie or Identitie it cannot consist of contradictories 2. When then it is said that all things were made of nothing or that creation supposeth some things to be immediately made of nothing this particle of can onely
backwardnesse and loves the cheerfulnesse of the giver 5 From these discussions the truth of the former rule with the right solution of the maine probleme proposed may bee illustrated by examples of divers kinds in subjects knowne and familiar Be the charge never so great so the exonerations be well nigh equal the incoms are lesse than if their charge were little and their exonerations none Or be a mans revenues never so large so his necessary expences be no lesse hee shall not bee able to doe as much for his friend in some reall kindnesse as hee whose estate is not halfe so great if so his annuall expences be tenne times lesse In like case though mans love to his dearest friend be in respect of Gods love to us but faint and his power but small yet because his love to justice is much lesse or rather his partiality greater hee oft-times effects that for his temporall good which God though infinite in power doth not effect for those whom hee infinitely loves For the bequests or grants made unto man by his infinite love must undergoe the examination of justice and equitie What are alike infinite before they passe the irrevocable seale of infinite power one of these cannot attempt much lesse absolutely bring ought to passe without the others consent Infinite love cannot oversway either Gods incomprehensible wisedome to devise or his omnipotency to practise meanes for mans salvation which contradict the unchangeable rules of infinite equity His love is as truly indivisible as infinite and is for this reason more indissolubly linkt unto the unchangeable rules of his owne justice or equity than unto mankinde whose goodnesse in his best estate was but mutable nor are any of Adams posterity so capable of that infinite mercie wherewith God embraceth them as Gods Iustice and Majestie are of his infinite Love These being as He is absolutely immutable are throughout eternity immutably loved of him who indivisibly is Majestie Iustice Love immutable CHAP. 17. The truth and ardency of Gods love unto such as perish testified by our Saviour and by S. Paul 1 THese are no Paradoxes but plaine truth without whose acknowledgement wee shall hardly finde any true sense or good meaning in Gods protestations of sorrow for his peoples plagues or in his expostulations of their unthankfulnesse or in his kind invitations of them to repentance which never repent or in his tender profers of salvation to those which perish I have spred out my hands all the day long unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their owne thoughts c. Isay 65. 2. His infinite power expects their conversion as the Mariner doth the turning of the Tyde but may not transport them into the land of Promise untill his Loving-kindnesse have converted them The unremovable rules of eternall equity will not suffer him to stretch out his hands any farther than he doth towards the sonnes of men and when the measure of their iniquity is accomplished his infinite Iustice will not suffer him to stretch them out so farre any longer Albeit hee cannot then without unfaigned sorrow withdraw them from those to whom in love unfaigned hee hath stretcht them out Thus Ierusalems iniquity come to the full did fill our Redeemers heart with woe and his eyes with teares If thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Luke 19. 42. Did he speake this as man or doth not the Spirit say the same Hee that spake this spake nothing but words of spirit and life nothing but the words of God if we may beleeve that he meant as he hath spoken I have not spoken saith Hee of my selfe but the Father which sent me hee gave me a commandement what I should say and what I should speake whatsoever I speake therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speake His bowels of compassion were freely extended towards thē from that exact conformity which his spotlesse and blessed soule held with Gods infinite love and yet restrained againe by that conformity which it as exactly held with the eternall rules of Gods infinite justice or equity and from these different motions or distractions thus occasioned from that indissoluble uniō of his divisible soule with these two different attributes of the indivisible nature were his teares squeezed out He wept then as man not as God and yet in this humane passion did visibly act that part which God before his incarnation had penned as a sensible memoriall of his unconceivable love O that my people had hearkned unto me and Israel had walked in my wayes I should soone have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them also with the finest wheat and with honey out of the Rocke should I have satisfied thee Psalm 81. vers 13 14 15 16. Wheat and Honey here promised were Emblemes of better blessings purposed towards them And thus avouching this his purpose under no character of courtly complement but in the forme of legall assurance his words are undoubted tokens of unfeigned love and desire unquenchable of their welfare that did not prosper Israel might have said as Ierusalem afterwards did of her sorrow Was there ever any love like unto this love wherewith the Lord imbraced mee in the dayes of my youth Notwithstanding this excessive fervency of His loving kindnesse whose will is infinite laid no necessity upon their wils to whom hee wished all this good They had a liberty left them by eternall equity to refuse it Hee out of the wishes of his bounty as he protesteth was ready to poure out his best blessings according to the immensity of his loving kindnesse so Israel would open his mouth wide to receive them But my people saith he would not hearken unto my voice and Israel would none of mee so I gave them up unto their owne hearts lust and they walked in their owne counsells Psal 81. vers 11 12. 2 Lord who had sinned the heathen people or their forefathers in like manner as Israel did that in times past thou sufferedst them all to walke in their owne wayes Acts 14. 16. They that observe lying vanities forsake their owne mercy saith the Prophet Ionah 2. 8. Never hadst thou given them up to their owne hearts lust to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath had they not despised the riches of thy bounty whose current neverthelesse was not altogether diverted from their posterity To them thou leftest not thy selfe without a witnesse in that thou didst good and gavest them raine from heaven in fruitfull seasons filling their hearts with food and gladnesse To all nations even in the time of darknesse when they were strangers from thee these and the like temporall and sensible blessings were
and formally included in Gods love of absolute goodnesse righteousnesse and true holinesse And the displeasure or indignation which he beares to these must needes seize on their persons that have covered thēselves with them as with a garment and to whose soules they sticke more closely than their skinnes doe to their bodies or their flesh unto their bones CHAP. 20. Whilest God of a loving Father becomes a severe Iudge their is no change or alteration at all in God but onely in men and in their actions Gods will is alwayes exactly fulfilled even in such as goe most against it How it may stand with the Iustice of God to punish transgressions temporall with tormens everlasting 1_THe summe of all is this love was the Mother of all his workes and if I may so speake the fertility of his power and Essence And seeing it is his nature as Creator and cannot change no part of our nature seeing every part was created by him can bee utterly excluded from all fruits of his love untill the sinister use of that contingencie wherewith hee indued it or the improvement of inclinations naturally bent unto evill come to that height as to imply a contradiction for infinite justice or equity to vouchsafe them any favour Whether naturall inclinations unto evill may bee thus farre improved in the children by their forefathers or no is disputable but in another place Concerning Infants save onely so farre as neglect of duties to be performed to them may concerne their Elders seeing the Scripture in this point is silent I have no minde here or elsewhere to dispute If faith they have or such holinesse as becommeth Saints neither are begotten by our writing or preaching nor is the written word the rule of theirs as of all others faith that are of yeares And unto them onely that can heare or reade or have the use of reason I write and speake this as well for their comfort and encouragement to follow goodnes or for their terror lest they follow evill Love much greater than any creature owes or performes or is capable of either in respect of himselfe or in others is the essentiall and sole fruit of Gods antecedent will whether concerning our nature as it was in the first man or now is in the severall persons derived from him And of this love every particular faculty of soule or body is a pledge undoubted all are as so many ties or handles to draw us unto him from whom we are separated onely by dissimilitude our very natures being otherwise linkt to his being with bonds of strictest reference or dependency On the contrary Wrath and Severity are the proper effects of his consequent will that is they are the infallible consequents of our neglecting and despising his will revealed for our good or sweet promises of saving health The full explication and necessary use of this distinction hath taken up its place in the Articles of Creation or Divine Providence Thus much of it may serve our present turn That Gods absolute wil was to have man capable of Heaven Hel of joyes and miseries immortall That this absolute will whose possible objects are two is in the first place set on mans eternall and everlasting joy more fervently than man can conceive yet not so as to contradict it selfe by frustrating the contrary possibility which unto man it had appointed That Gods anger never kindles but out of the ashes of his flaming love despised Nor doth the turning of tender love and compassion into severity wrath presuppose or argue any change or turning in the Father of lights and everlasting mercy it is wholly seated in mens irregular deviation from that course which by the appointment of his antecedent will they should and might have taken whereto his fatherly kindnesse did still invite them unto whose crooked wayes which they doe but should not follow from which the same infinite goodnesse doth still allure them by every temporall blessing and deterre them by every crosse and plague that doth befall them 2 This bodily Sunne which wee see never changeth with the Moone his light his heat are still the same yet one and the same heat in the spring time refresheth our bodies here in this Land but scortcheth such as brought up in this clime journey in the sands of Affricke His beames reflected on bodies solid but of corruptible and changeable nature often inflame matter capable of combustion But as some Philosophers thinke wold not annoy us unless by too much light were we in that aethereall or coelestiall region wherein it moves At least were our bodies of the like substance with the heavens the vicinity of it would rather comfort than torment us Thus is the Father of lights a refreshing flame of unquenchable love to such as are drawne by love to be like him in purity of life but a consuming fire to such as he beholdeth a farre off to such as run from him by making themselves most unlike unto him No sonnes of Adam there be which in some measure or other had not some taste or participation of his bountie And the measure of his wrath is but equall to the riches of his bounty despised To whom this infinite treasure of his bounty hath beene most liberally opened it proves in the end a storehouse of wrath and torments unlesse it finally draw them to repentance According to the height of that exaltation whereunto his antecedent will had designed them shall the degrees of their depression be in hell for not being exalted by it Nor doth any man in that lake of torments suffer paines more against his will than he had done many things against the will of his righteous Iudge daily leading him to repenttnce The flames of hell take their scantling from the flames of Gods love neglected they may not they cannot exceede the measure of this neglect Or to knit up this point with evidence of sacred truth God alwaies proportioneth his plagues or punishments in just equality to mens sinnes And the onely rule for measuring sinne or transgression right must bee taken from the degrees of mans opposition to Gods delight or pleasure in his salvation Not so much as a dramme of his delight or pleasure can be abated not a scruple of his will but must finally be accomplished The measure of his delight in mans repentance or salvation shall beee exactly satisfied and fulfilled Mans repentance he loves as hee is infinite in mercy and in bounty mans punishment he doth not love at all in it selfe yet doth hee punish as hee is infinitely just or as hee infinitely loveth justice This is but the extract of Wisedomes speech Prov. 1. vers 24. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But yee have set at nought all my counsell and would none of my reproofe I also will laugh at your calamity I will mocke when your feare commeth When your feare commeth as desolation and your
pertaines to David and to his successors but however the promise was on Gods part unalterable yet the prerogative promised was subject unto change on contingency For so a little after the Psalmist distinguisheth betwixt Davids seed and Davids sonnes His seed will I make to endure for ever and his throne as the dayes of Heaven This he speakes not of many but of one to wit of Christ to whom onely the Kingdome of David was predestinated Of such as were ordained to this Kingdome he speakes in the plurall not absolutely but conditionally If his children forsake my Law and walke not in my judgements if they breake my Statutes and keepe not my Commandements Then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes The tenour then of Gods Covenant with David as it concerned Christ was absolute but as it concernes Davids other sonnes it was disjunctive or conditionall If any shall question why God for many generations did deale no better with Davids successors than with the successors of other Kings the answer from the tenour of the Covenant is plaine They forsooke his Lawes and would not walke in his Iudgements Psal 89. vers 32. and thus breaking his Statutes their visitation was altogether unevitable not on a sudden but by degrees The Lords arme even in Salomons time was stretched out ready to fetch the blow which after his death fell upon his son Rehoboam as heire to his chastisements The blow was sudden and smart for of twelve Tribes ten were rent from his Kingdome by Ieroboam The wounds Inflicted by the Egyptian upon Iudah and Benjamin and upon Ierusalem her selfe were grievous though as yet not uncurable So grievous as might give that people plainly to understand that the prosperity of Davids earthly Kingdome was not like the dayes of heaven nor the glory of Salomons throne like the Sunne in the Firmament altogether priviledged from change or mutability But albeit the motion of the creature appointed to execute Gods wrath were sudden yet the waight of Ierusalems burthen was not permanent because shee was not as yet frozen in sinne 3 Of Rehoboams successors some were good and these by their penitency and heroicall reformation set back the Diall of such dismall Fates as still did threaten them many were bad and did draw Gods plagues upon themselves and their people And whilest the blow of Gods stretched out arme is diverted and borne off by the fervent prayers of godly Princes the waight of the whole Nations burthen is much increased by the iniquity of the people Either the number of the supplicants was not equall to the number of the delinquents or the fervency of their prayer and repentance not so constant as the others delight in sin and wickednesse The waight of their sinister Fates by this meanes secretly and insensibly increasing even whilest their motion was restrained or abated increased the swiftnesse or violence of the motion when by permission of the Divine Decree they had liberty to take their wonted course Ioas and Achas pulled them on so fast that Micha threatned judgement not against the King and Nobles onely but against City and Temple in such a thundring voice as if desolation had even then besieged the City round about and utter destruction was ready to enter in at the breach Therefore shall Sion for your sake be plowed as a Field and Ierusalem shall become heapes and the mountaine of the house as the high places of the Forest Micha 3. ver 12. Spake he this of his owne times or of some others following was it in respect of the Eternall Decree altogether impossible for this dreadfull sentence to have beene forthwith put in execution Indeed many of their Magistrates and Politicians most of their Priests and Prophets untill this very instant had said to the like purpose Is not the Lord among us none evill can come upon us vers 11. This vaine confidence presumptuously and falsly grounded upon the immutability of Gods promises made the doome menaced by Micha more necessary and fatall at this time than otherwise it would have beene though to such as understood the tenour of Gods Covenant with his people neither at this time nor many yeares after altogether unevitable 4 The good King Hezekiah knew the Lord did not threaten in jest and for this reason his feare was hearty and his prayers earnest Did he not feare the Lord and besought the face of the Lord Ier. 26. ver 19. But did this his feare or hearty prayes impaire the present possibility or necessity of the plagues threatned Yes The Lord repented him Of what that he had denounced all this evill against Ierusalem or intreated Hezekiah so roughly by his Prophet Micha no But the Lord repented him of the evill which he had denounced against him and meant to execute For who repents himselfe of that which he did not so much as truly intend Is God then as man that he should repent It is impossible that there should be any change of purpose in God herein he is most unlike to man or the son of mā whose repentance alwayes includes some internall alteratiō of wil or purpose not of the matter purposed only Our best intentions of good to others often expire upon particular respects and cannot be revived againe albeit we neither had just occasion to take dislike nor the same reasons to continue it which we had to take it Through the inconstancie of our nature we loath to morrow what we like to day our affections alter without any change in the matter affected by us Far otherwise it is with God whose will or purpose is still immutable and yet exactly fitteth every change or mutation in the creature To have punished Ierusalem continuing her wonted course but sixe moneths longer after the Prophet had thus warned her with such miseries as Senacherib had menaced was one part of the eternall and unchangeable decree another part of the same decree no lesse immutable was to avert these plagues from Ierusalem truly repenting upon their denunciation No former wickednesse could alienate his love from her or make him recall the blessings promised to David so long as this people was so affected as in that covenant was required 5 The possibility of the desolation menaced by Micha was for the present as great as the Assyrian was potent It might truly have beene said of this City in respect of his army what one saith of Navigators Est tua tam prope mors quà m prope cernis aquam That extraordinary power wherewith the Lord had armed this Tyrant to take vengeance upon his neighbour nations might well make the present avoydance of the plagues menaced by Micha seeme almost impossible But good Hezekiah by turning with all his heart and all his soule unto the Lord unto whom all things are possible did not only remove destruction threatned from the City and Temple but caused it to turne upon the destroyer Ierusalem and Iudah by the
assuredly goe forth unto the King of Babylons Princes then thy soule shall live and this Citie shall not bee burnt with fire and thou shalt live and thy house But if thou wilt not goe forth to the King of Babylons Princes then shall this City bee given into the hands of the Chaldeans and they shall burne it with fire and thou shalt not escape out of their hand Ier. 38. ver 17 18 And Zedekiah the King said unto Ieremiah I am afraid of the Iewes that are fallen to the Chaldeans lest they deliver mee into their hand and they mocke me But Ieremiah sayd They shall not deliver thee obey I beseech thee the voice of the Lord which I spake unto thee so it shall bee well unto thee and thy soule shall live But if thou refuse to go forth this is the word which the Lord hath shewed me And behold all the women that are left in the King of Iudahs house shall bee brought forth unto the King of Babylons Princes and those women shall say Thy friends have set thee on and have prevailed against thee thy feet are sunke in the mire and they are turned away back So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans and thou shalt not escape out of their hand but shalt be taken by the hand of the King of Babylon and thou shalt cause this Citie to bee burnt with fire c. vers 19 20 21 22 23. 11 This last neglect of Gods antecedent will so often revealed for his good procured the speedy execution of his consequent will without all possibility to avoid it Not a title of Ieremies or Ezekiels prophesie which his Politicians sought to set at variance but is exactly fulfilled upon him and so is Micahs prophesie upon this Citie The manner how Ieremies and Ezekiels prophesie which seeme to contradict each other were both fulfilled is admirable and might well move a man not well acquainted with the nature of prophecies and Gods speciall providence to think the Fates had plotted his ruine But this particular argument is prosecuted elsewhere more at large 12 To recapitulate the summe of many arguments to like purposes vnto every possible choise or resolution made by man whether concerning matters private or publique there is a distinct correspondent successe allotted by the omnipotent and immutable Decree Every actuall choise or resolution is as the drawing of a new lott whose just price or recompence be it good or bad is instampt upon it from eternity And for the awarding or payment of it in due time the whole host of Gods creatures stand bound by the very tenour of their beeing or dependancy upon their Maker Seeing all of them were made by his word and are continued by his meere will and pleasure sooner shall they forfeit their very beeing and be resolved into nothing than the least tittle of Gods will concerning any creature should not be fulfilled or that successe be it good or bad should not be awarded to private men or publike States in that exact degree and measure which God from eternity hath appointed From ignorance of this essentiall subordination which fate or conspiracy of second causes have unto Gods irresistible providence who by his infinite creative power can at all times dissolve their combination or compose them anew by wayes to man for number incomprehensible as pleaseth him the wisest amongst State wizards have erred and do erre more grossely in assigning the causes of Kingdomes ruines or erections or in prognosticating the successe of politick skill than a vulgar Astronomer should do which would take upon him to foretell the peculiar disposition of the Ayre or weather in every place throughout this Iland for every houre of the yeare following The observation which many of them gather from the inspection of times present or past are of as little use for future ages as an Almanack of this yeare is for the yeares following Sooner may moderne Scholars prove extraordinary Husbandmen by observing Virgils Calender of the rising and setting of Stars or other rules of that ancient husbandry which he describes than pragmaticall wits become wise Statesmen by reading Tacitus Livy or others better acquainted with the mysteries of State or Princely secrets than with Gods providence or with the Almighties Decree concerning the successe of their projects Though that decree bee as He is most immutable yet the variety of mens dispositions especially in sundry ages is greater than any alterations in the heavens the divers conjunctions or oppositions of mens wils to his are more then can be found amongst the Starres Now it is his immutable will to render unto every people and nation according to the degrees of that conformity or dissonancy which they hold with his mercy bounty or justice or with his most holy will CHAP. 25. Of the sudden and strange erection of the Macedonian Empire and the manifestation of Gods speciall providence in Alexanders expedition and successe 1 ARISTOTLE being born when Greece did flourish and living when the Halcyon dayes of Macedon beganne to dawne would gladly tie the light of GODS countenance which in his full age was inclining to the Meridian of Greece unto the situation of his Country and disposition of his Countrimen whose politick vertues in his Philosophicall vanity were intailed to the peculiar temper of that clime The people saith hee that live in cold countries and in Europe as distinct from Greece are stout and hardy but not so wise and politick more free then civill much apter to be their owne men then their neighbours masters The Asiatickes that want no wit are destitute of courage therefore they remaine in servitude and subjection unto others The Grecians as they enjoy the middle place for situation so they participate with the Asiaticks for wit and colder countries for courage in such proportion as enapts them to preserve their libertie and to beare rule and soveraignty over others Many Comets at their first appearance are usually mistaken for fixed Starres reputed next in glory unto the Moone untill their parallax bewray their place and their sudden end discover their orginall to bee corruption Thus the brightnesse of the Grecian Monarchy whilest it was in rising or comming unto its height misperswaded their hearts whose eyes it dazeled that it was to endure like the daies of heaven whereas it proved but like the glistring bubbles of the morning dew which dissolve with the strength of those beames that gave them lustre This is the onely difference the period of their splendor falls in the compasse of an houre and Comets usually continue not many months Wheras the rise and fall of Kingdomes commonly outreach any one mans age or observation and such as follow marke the occurrences of their owne times more then their connexion with former Whence it is that secular politicians are alwayes learning and never attaine unto the knowledge of what they seeke Howbeit Aristotle lived long enough to