at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it By this we see that Gods Law was that the undutiful Son should not be long-liv'd should not live so long as the dutiful and obedient Yea sometimes God executes this vengeance with his own hands as upon Corah and his rebellious Associates The Story of the Kings of all ancient and modern Records will assure us That the Disobedient Thieves Murtherers Rebels Traytors were not long-liv'd but perished often by the sword and immature death BUT our Lover of Humility at the end of his Paraphrase on this Commandment flatly deny'd all this from the Pulpit and I must tell you in a Parenthesis that I first animadverted on what W. C. preacht tho 't is wisely omitted by the Press and affirm'd with no small confidence as G. S. W. G. and several others besides my self will be depos'd viz. That we do see by Experience That the rebellious and undutiful to Parents do live so long as those that are dutiful and obedient A pure Catechist For this I presume is no infinitely Soul-concerning point if I may speak in his own Dialect or precious Doctrine to inspirit either men or children to duty and obedience but a grand Incentive for Villains to continue in their infernal plots and designes or when being detected a Salvo for them and is if we may believe our own Experience and the Word of truth it self a notorious falsity and delusion and clearly evacuates Gods promises For Myriads we know of Rebels and Murtherers in the most flourishing part of their lives have been cut off by the sword of Justice But Mat. 5. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Ham. very often hath a peculiar Critical signification in the Gospels and refers to the Land of Judaea and here by being promised to the meek and obedient looks distinctly on the fifth Commandment in it on the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee i. e. a fruitful prosperous being here on earth viz. long life and tranquillity which is here said to belong by promise of God peculiarly to the meek But when the exercises of this virtue of meekness and obedience in some singular conjunctures of time brings losses or death upon them they shall richly be rewarded in another world and be made amends abundantly there for all that the practice of this virtue hath brought on them BUT it may be said and that truly too for ought I know that W. C. had not this viz. That we do see by Experience c. in his Notes But this will not excuse him for should I extol and preach up the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as in Duty and Conscience I ought and my Notes should be very sound and orthodox yet if I should tell my Auditors ex tempore or without my Notes That the Doctrines of Transubstantiation of Purgatory Invocation of Saints c. are agreeable to Gods word I know I ought and should be questioned for it and my Notes would not keep me in my Parsonage without an open Recantation seeing there are honest Witnesses enough to prove it BUT to do W. C. all the right imaginable I shall transcribe verbatim his new-model'd Answers to two Texts of Scripture which he thought might contradict as indeed they doe his former Assertions FIRST Solomon saith Eccles 7. 17. Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldest thou die before thy time ANSW pag. 8. He that dies before his time dyes not before the time which God hath determined an unseasonable death to man doth not prevent Gods season To clear which we must distinguish about death which is Twofold First Natural Secondly Violent A man that dies a violent death is said to dye before his time which he might have reached unto by the course of nature Sin cuts him off before God cuts him off But then God cuts him off for sin Thus many dye before their time and except in this sense no man dies before his time TRULY Sir in this sense without aping you straining for Rimes and Quibles 't is perfect nonsense for how can a man that dies a Violent death be properly said in any sense to dye before his time when according to your own words pag. 11. God in his unchangeable purpose hath appointed and determined the very moment manner and place of every mans death whether Natural or Violent whether by burning at the Stake or hanging on the Gallows And besides we cannot truly affirm of many sincere pious and virtuous men that were remov'd hence by a Violent death Jeremy was stoned Ezekiel beheaded Isaiah cut asunder Eleazar at the age of fourscore years cudgel'd to death none of the easiest doubtless most of the Prophets and Apostles persecuted and slain St. Peter endur'd crucifixion with his head downward according to his own request and St. Paul decollation in one day at Rome as Eusebius tells us some burnt others devoured by wild Beasts or the like deaths as St. Polycarpus Ignatius St. Laurence Cyprian and Myriads which suffer'd under Nero Trajan Antonius Severus Maximinus and Dioclesian who everted Churches and made the sacred Bibles become fuel to devouring flames We dare not I say judge That Sin did cut those glorious Saints off because they suffer'd Violent deaths before God did cut them off and that then God did cut them off for sin for this were a signe of Gods justice wrath and fury But rather that God did cut them off before Sin did cut them off either for the advancement of his honor and glory the good of the Church for sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae or to free them from future miseries and calamities which otherwise might befal them So Isaiah 57. 1. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come All which are infallible Tokens of Gods infinite mercy and immense love SECONDLY David saith Psal 55. 2. That bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days ANSW pag. 9. For answer to this you must know Beloved that there is a general and special or personal limit of man's Life 1. The general Limit is Seventy or Eighty years Psal 90. The few exceptions which some have made by exceeding this limit weakens not this general Rule 2. There is a particular limit upon every person the limit of one may be Forty years when another is tied to Thirty a third to Twenty a fourth to Five and a fifth perhaps may be tied to Four years these are special Limits upon special men Now when the Psalmist saith That a bloody and deceitful man shall not live out half his days the meaning the subverting of it is that he shall not live out half the days of mans general limit As suppose a bloody man be cut off at Thirty he hath not lived out half Seventy or Eighty
Mahometan phrenzies TO affirm dogmatically that decollation suspension felo de se or any other miserable death that happen to men yea and all the cursed means thereto as fraud rapine treason sacriledge murther c. are all absolutely appointed by Gods immutable counsel and purpose these conceptions I say of the Almighty derogate much from his goodness mercy and truth and are not only diametrically opposite to his very nature who is Love in the abstract 1 Epist St Joh. 4. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cannot be the Author of sin but to all the sacred Monuments Records which evince That the Period of every mans Life is mutable and may be extended or shortned by Providence or Art by God or Man For THE great God may as all must yield that will not deny his Attribute of Omnipotency or make him a necessary Agent prolong or shorten the days of any man and our Prayers Repentance the salubrity and purity of the Air and Water our temperance and choice in eating and drinking and the knowing and prudent Physitian may by Gods blessing extend our days Whereas prophaneness our immoderate passions and desires the corrupted and impure Elements our excess in any respect exposing our selves to any great and eminent perils as the Sword or Pestilence or an ignorant and confident Quack with his strong and improper Medicaments may shorten our days And he that denies this as W. C. out of abundance of humility or rather ignorance doth may as well contradict and deny not only his own reason reason did I say that is a most scandalous and impious thing for a meek and mortified man that is full of Raptures and Illuminations to own but also his own experience and the sacred History it self First 'T IS evident from the Scriptures That there is no fatal Period but that our lives may be extended or shortned OUR gracious Maker has promised long life to those that fear him and observe his Mandates Deus his qui ipsum timent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fore promittit Exod. 20. 12. Deut. 4. 40. 5. 16 33. 8. 1. Psal 9. 16. Prov. 4. 10. Eph. 6. 2 3. 1 Tim. 4. 8. AND God threatens the wicked that for their impieties he will cut them off in the midst of their Age that they shall not live so long as otherwise they might Lev. 26. 25. Deut. 5. 25 26. 6. 15. 7. 10. 8. 19. Psal 55. 23. 104. 35. 109. 8. Prov. 10. 27. FROM the Examples of Er and Onan Gen. 38 7 10. of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. 32 33. of the Jews Exo. 31. 14 15 of the Egyptians Exod. 14. 28. of Absolon 2 Sam. 18. 9 of Ananias and Saphira Acts 5. 5 10. But were there a fatal Period all these Promises and Menaces must needs be vain false and ridiculous which to affirm or imagine would be no small blasphemy And the sad Catastrophes of the forementioned of Er and Onan of Ananias and Saphira c. were the results of his eternal and absolute Decrees and not of his wrath and just Judgments And that tho Corah and his Confederates did not die the common death of men but the earth open'd her mouth and swallowed them up yet in W. C's Opinion pag. 9. they liv'd out all the days of their special and personal limit or all the days appointed as their portion in the land of the living This methinks looks Legerdemain than honest and sound Theology THERE are two places of holy Writ amongst several others some whereof anon I shall have occasion to nominate which may cause W. C. to strike sail and yeeld to right and truth if the simple Encomiums of the Vulgar and of the factious Party have not metamorphoz'd and puft him up into a carnal state which he tells us is very dangerous and in this we believe him of arrogancy and self-adoration THE first is Jer. 21. 8 9. Thus saith the Lord Behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death He that abideth in this City shall die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence but he that goeth out and falleth to the Caldeans that besiege you he shall live and his life shall be to him for a prey Which clearly demonstrates that the time manner and place of their death were not limited and determined by any absolute and unchangeable purpose or Decree of God for 't was in their own choice and power either to extend or shorten their days If they would remain in the City they should die if forsake it they should live THE second is the fifth Commandment Exod. 20. 12. which only hath a Promise annext to it Honour thy father and mother that is thy civil Parents the King Magistrates thy Ecclesiastical Parents Bishops Pastors as well as thy natural Parents that brought thee into the world that thy days may be long in the land That here intimates not the final cause but the event 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Grammarians speak for this is not the end of our obedience but an event and a consequent to follow upon it and the Promise is used as a motive to give honor to whom honor is due To clear the truth of this we must observe first That all the Promises of God for temporal things as for life health wealth are conditional not absolute Psal 34. 12 13 14. 1 Pet. 3. 10 11. Mat. 6. 33. and shall so far be performed as may make for our good and therefore in Deut. 5. 16. the Promise is thus limited and declar'd Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee So that the meaning is saith the most Reverend and Learned Bp. of Glocester in his Exp. that so long as it may go well with any man his life shall be prolonged as no farther but if his life prove to him a displeasure and no benefit it shall be taken away and an eternal which is far better bestowed on him Thus it happen'd to Josiah 2 Kings 22. 20. Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring on this place Or secondly That it may go well with thee may carry this sense which St. Paul intimates 1 Tim. 1. 2. Honor and pray for Kings that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life for where this holy Order is broken and abrogated all peace and quietness as our civil Dissentions prov'd is disturb'd and nothing but blood wounds and confusion follow Or thirdly This might shew Gods Ordinance For the Almighty commonly gives a healthy and long life to crown our obedience even before the Sons of men Psal 37. 22. Jer. 17. 11. In this particular the disobedient Son was to be cut off by the hand of the Magistrate and was to be stoned Deut. 21. 18. And Solomon tells us Prov. 30. 17. The eye that mocketh
be thus long or thus short SO the Metaph. tell us Quae Deus praescit non possunt non evenire sic habent necessitatem fiendi Idque propter infallibilitatem praescientiae divinae Res enim sic dicuntur necessariae non nisi per connexionem ad aliud hoc est praescientiam divinam Loquendo autem de rebus in se spectatis quae praesciuntur remota connexione ad praescientiam divinam non omnes res sunt necessariae quae necessit as est consequentis Sunt enim multa in mundo casualia fortuita libera quae omnia in se spectata non necessaria sed contingentia sunt Fiunt proculdubio cuncta ait Boet. quae futur a Deus praenoscit sed eorum quaedam proficiscuntur de libero quae quamvis eveniant tamen propriam naturam non amittunt sed priusquam fierent etiam non evenire potuissent AND says the other Causae naturales morales suos habent effectus in vita hominis conservanda Deus igitur illas in constituendo termino vitae ut omniscius respexit ita tamen ut eas uhi velit inhibere possit Natural and moral Causes as wholsom food air water continency temperance c. have their effects and operations in preserving mans Life and God in terminating and setting Boundaries to mans Life as he is Omniscient and foresees all things hath an eye and respect to these yet so that he can put a Stop to those natural and moral Causes can inhibit them as in his infinite wisdom he sees fit As for Example God sees that such a man living and doing thus and thus will according to the ordinary course of nature certainly live thus long suppose fifty sixty seventy years yet God may cause that this man that might live thus long shall dye much sooner as at twenty or thirty So God in his mercy may shorten the days of many righteous men take them away from the evil to come or in his justice cut off the wicked that according to the strength of nature and the set bounds thereof might have liv'd much longer Yea Job himself is against a fatal Period and therefore we cannot imagine if he intended it in the 14 Chap. he would have contradicted both himself and it in the 21 Chap. 19 20 21. ver God layeth up his iniquity for his children he rewardeth him and he shall know it His eyes shall see his destruction and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty For what pleasure hath he in his house after him when the number of his months are cut off in the midst W. C. being now forc'd from his strong Hold which he thought invincible 't will be his wisest way to address himself to the Alchoran where he may find more kindness and need not fear a second repulse NEITHER may mens lives be shorten'd only but also extended whereof we have a pregnant example in the 2 Kings 20. beg For God plainly signified to Hezekiah that he should dye of that very distemper he then labour'd under for he was come to the set Bounds beyond which he could not pass except Omnipotency be pleased to remove them farther So ver 1. Hezekiah was sick unto death and the Prophet Isaiah came and said to him Thus saith the Lord Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live Yet the immutable Creator that decrees mutability as the learned Dr. Jackson words it and whose promises and menaces are not absolute but conditional hearing his Prayers and seeing his tears remov'd the Boundary recover'd him with a lump of figs to demonstrate the use and necessity of means and added to his Life fifteen years And therefore W. C's Gloss is very prodigious and Enthusiastick pag. 8. The fifteen years added to Hezekiah 's Life were added to Hezekiah 's date not to Gods Hezekiah looked upon himself as a dead man that he should dye of that very sickness and good reason seeing God told him so and so in all likelihood did his best Physiciaâ—s for he was sick of the Plague but both he and they were deceiv'd for God in his unchangeable purpose had appointed fifteen years more to Hezekiah 's Life STRANGE indeed For we find in the Chapter no such learned Cheats and Pick-pockets as all Physitians are supposing a fatal Period nor the least shadow of such an interpretation for God himself said by the mouth of his Prophet I have heard thy Prayer and I will add unto thy days fifteen years and I will deliver thee and this City c. And as a sign that God himself would effect this and did not prevaricate a Miracle is wrought he brought the shadow the Sun ten degrees backward by which it had gon down in the dial of Ahaz But were the former Paraphrase true God himself made and the Prophet told a Lie and was deceiv'd as well as Hezekiah and his Physicians and the words should not run The Lord will or did really add to Hezekiah's days fifteen years but Hezekiah the Prophet the Physicians with all the Nobles and Courtiers not well understanding this infinitely Soul-concerning Point viz. a Fatal Period were so simple and credulous as to believe that God had miraculously extended Hezekiah's Life and who can think otherwise that reads and believes this sacred History Whereas God had absolutely decreed from eternity or in his unchangeable purpose appointed there is not the least difference in the Phrases that Hezekiah should live fifteen years longer which being not expir'd 't was impossible for the Plague or for God himself to put an end to his days A feeble and impotent God that can neither extend nor shorten the Lives of his Creatures 'T is wonderful to see that one petty Distinction in Mans date but not in Gods should be of such mighty force as to enervate so many plain Texts of Scripture as have been and may be produc'd for the prolonging and shortning of mans Life and to make them speak quite contrary even to become like a Nose of Wax to turn either to this side or that to prove truth to be falshood and falshood truth Should I be troubled with such an airy and Atheistical Whimsie as to affirm with some of the ancient Peripateticks and Ethnicks That the World is eternal tho Aristotle himself doubted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And against it is objected Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth Ergo Mundus non fuit ab aeterno I shall most humbly crave W. C's leave borrow his almighty distinction and answer very magisterially as he did to the Lords adding to Hezekiah's days fifteen years 'T is true in mans date viz. in the date and account of Moses Aaron and their Bigots the World had a beginning but in Gods date 't was eternal for God in his unchangeable purpose had appointed it from Eternity Such stuff as this will pass for superfine Doctrine for powerful Preaching and sublime Raptures with
Inchantments it follows Pharaoh's heart was hardned not he as if it were God hardned Pharaoh's heart but Pharaoh's heart waxed hard was strong or by an ordinary acception of Kal for Hithpahel Pharaoh's heart hardned it self And so it follows v. 14. the Lord said unto Moses Pharaoh's heart is waxen hard he refuseth to let the People go But after the judgment that of Boyls and Blains Exod. 9. 10. then 't is said in a new Stile the Lord hardned Pharaoh's heart v. 12. Which was the very time at first referr'd to by the prediction of God to Moses IN like manner it happen'd to the perverse Jews who having resisted Christ after all the rest of the Prophets kill'd the Son after the Servants and rejected the Apostles Preaching after Christs Resurrection God then but not before gave them up to obduration to become Vessels of Wrath fitted for Destruction And after this the great Jehovah that is a most free and gracious Agent and is not bound to this People or that to primogeniture or the like as appears by the tipical Stories of Ismael and Isaac of Jacob and Esau Rom. 9. out of his gratuitous Mercy by the Preaching of the Gospel call'd and invited the Gentiles to Christianity to save them upon Christian without legal performances upon internal and Evangelical without external and Mosaical obedience Peruse the most elaborate and Orthodox Writings of the most Learned Reverend and Pious Dr. H. Hammond concerning these and the like difficulties and thou mayst receive the clearest satisfaction BUT it could never enter into my Breast to imagine that God from Eternity did absolutely decree the Fall and the inevitable Perdition of the major part of mankind or as W. C. words it pag. 13. that God drew out Death's Commission before the Fall but did not set his Hand and Seal to confirm it till after the Fall and that in the counsel and purpose of God Death was appointed unto men from Eternity Which Calvin himself terms a dreadful and horrible Decree Unde factum est ut tot gentes unà cum liberis eorum infantibus aeternae morti involverat lapsus Adae absque remedio nisi quia Deo ita visum est Decretum quidem horribile fateor Cal. Inst l. 3. c. 23 s 7. 'T is strange I say that some men should be of such sour and morose I had almost said Diabolical natures as peremptorily to maintain That God Created Souls purposely to damn them or to use the Doctrine and the very words of J. M That God takes as great glory and delight in damning of men as he doth in saving of them Monstrous Divinity and such as is not to be found amongst the sottish Turks or the rude Indians and Americans and therefore I should much wonder did I not know what Charitable and good-natur'd and how free from Pride and Selfishness our Olivarian Speakers were that Saints as most shamefully they stiled one another that liv'd in the Sun-shine of the Gospel should yet contradict the most perspicuous Truths in it For THE Sacred Bible from Genesis to the Revelations asserts That the Divine Goodness Clemency Mercy and Love are exhibited to all Mankind really upon Condition of Faith Repentance and amendment of Life John 3 16 17. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life For God sent not his Son to condemn the World but that the World all mankind through him might be saved Herein Dr. Hammond hath Gods unspeakable Love been exprest to mankind that he hath sent his Eternal Son to assume our nature and to teach and give Examples of Holy Life and at last to dye for them and rise again and ascend the Heaven all on this one Design that every Person in the World that shall receive and obey him shall be rescued from Eternal Death and then made partaker of Eternal Life For this my mission from God my Father was design'd all in Mercy and Charity not to punish or condemn any man but on purpose that all men might be rescued from Punishment MAT. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Mar. 1. 15. Repent ye and believe the Gospel Mat. 18. 11. The Son of man is come to save that which was lost Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us 1 Ep. St. Joh. 2. 1 2. Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the whole World Non solum Bro. pro peccatis Electorum sed singulorum hominum Nam vox Mundi nuspiam usurpatur in literis sacris pro sclis electis By the word World is never meant in the Sacred Writ only the Elect but either signifies the whole Compages consisting of the Heaven and Earth or the whole race of mankind both pious and wicked or else the whole number of the wicked And therefore 't is very evident That Christ came not only to save the Elect that is those that have believed in him and have thereby obtained Mercy but also the Prophane that have rejected his Counsels and would not submit to his easy Yoke and Golden Scepter 1 TIM 1. 15. This is a Faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation a Truth of an huge price and fit to be the only Tradition or true Cabala among us Christians instead of all the Jewish Secrets and Misteries that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners to rescue men out of their evil courses and upon reformation to obtain Pardon and Salvation for the greatest Sinners none excepted Psal 145. 8 9. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great Mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his Works 'T is the Title by which God was pleas'd to make known and proclaim himself to his People Exod. 34. 6. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious c. God is very forward and willing to pardon repentant Sinners and not denying them that Grace or proceeding in Judgment against them till he be provoked to it by great ingratitude and obdurations and this Mercy of his is not inclosed to a few special Favourites of his but inlarged and vouchsafed to all and every man in the World upon the Title of his Fatherly Mercy to his Creatures till by their impenitence persisted in against his means of Grace they render themselves incapable of it H. H. Paraph. GOD does seriously invite us to discard our Sins and tells us That all our calamities issue from our own putrid Fountains and not from the Divine will or any Eternal and Inconditional Decree For God cannot do or will Evil viz. malum culpae the Evil of Sin tho he may malum paenae the evil of Punishment Amos 3. 6. Shall there be evil in the City and