unquestionable earnests of thy everlasting love since more fully manifested For thou so lovedst the world not Israel onely that thou gavest thine onely begotten son to the end that who so beleeved in him should not perish but have everlasting life What further argumeÌ„t of Gods infinite love could flesh blood desire thaÌ„ the Son of Gods voluntary suffring that in our flesh by his Fathers appointment which unto flesh and blood seemes most distastfull That this love was unfaignedly tendered to all at least that have heard or hereafter may heare of it without exception what demonstration from the effect can be more certaine what consequence more infallible thaÌ„ the inference of this truth is froÌ„ a sacred truth received by all good Christians viz. Al such as have heard Gods love in Christ proclaimed and not beleeved in it shall in the day of Iudgement appeare guilty of greater sinnes than their forefathers could be endited of and undergoe more bitter death than any corruption drawne from Adam if Christ had never suffered could have bred I shall no way wrong the Apostle in unfolding his exhortations to the Athenians thus farre but they rather offer the spirit by which hee spake some kinde of violence that would contract his meaning shorter The times of this ignorance before Christs death God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent Because hee hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom hee hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that hee hath raised him from the dead Acts 17. 30 31. 3 Why all men in the world have not heard of Gods infinite love thus manifested many causes may hereafter bee assigned all grounded upon Gods infinite Iustice or Mercy Of Christs death many which heard not might have heard many which are not might have bin partakers save only for their free and voluntary progresse from evill to worse or wilfull refusall of Gods loving kindnesse daily profered to them in such pledges as they were well content to swallow foolishly esteeming these good in themselves being good onely as they plight the truth of Gods love to them which he manifested in the death of his Sonne With this manifestation of his love many againe out of meere mercy have not beene acquainted lest the sight of the medicine might have caused their discase to rage and make their case more lamentably desperate CHAP. 18. Want of consideration or ignorance of Gods unfeigned love to such as perish a principall meanes or occasion why so many perish 1 BVt if the most part of men as we cannot deny doe finally perish what shall it availe to revive this doctrine of Gods infinite love to all by whose fruitlesse issue he rather is made an infinit looser than men any gainers As for God he hath froÌ„ eternity infallibly forecast the entire redemption of his infinite love which unto us may seeme utterly cast away And of men if many dye whom he would have live for his will is that all should bee saved and come to the knowledge of the truth the fault is their owne or their instructers that seeke not the prevention of their miscariage by acquainting them with this coelestiall fountaine of saving truth whose taste we labor to exhibite unto all because the want of it in observation of the heathen is the first spring of humane misery Or in language more plaine or pertinent to the argument proposed most men reape no benefit from Gods unspeakeable love because not considering it to be his nature they doe not beleeve it to be as he is truly infinite unfeignedly extended to all that call him Maker But had the doctrines which those divine Oracles God is love and would have all men to bee saued naturally afford beene for these forty yeeres last past as generally taught and their right use continually prest with as great zeale and fervency as the doctrine and uses of Gods absolute decree for electing some and reprobating most in that space have beene the plentifull increase of Gods glory and his peoples comfort throughout this land might have wrought such astonishment to our adversaries as would have put their malicious mouths to silence Who would not be willing to be saved if hee were fully perswaded that God did will his salvation in particular because hee protests hee wills not the death of any but the repentance of all that all might live Or were the particulars of this doctrine unto whose generality every loyall member of the Church of England hath subscribed generally taught beleeved all would unfeignedly endeavour with fervent alacrity to be truely happy because none could suspect himselfe to bee excluded from his unfeigned and fervent love who is true happinesse Whose love and goodnesse is so great that hee cannot passe any act whereby any of his creatures should bee debarred either from being like him in love and goodnesse or being such from being like him in true happinesse But alas while the world is borne in hand that the Creator oft-times dispenseth the blessings of this life not as undoubted pledges of a better but deales with most men as man doth with beasts feeding them fattest which are appointed first to bee slaine the magnificent praises of his bounty secretly nurseth such a misperswasion in most men of his goodnesse at least towards them as the Epigrammâ—tist had of a professed Benefactor that shewed him as he thought little kindnesse in great Benevolence Munera magna quidem misit sed misit in hamo Et Piscatorem piscis amare potest Great gifts he sent but under his gifts there covered lay an hooke And by the fish to be belov'd can th'cunning Fisher looke 2 The frequency of sinister respects in dispensing of secular dignities or benevolences makes such as are truly kind to be either unregarded or mistrusted by such as stand in neede of their kindnesse And as fishes in beaten waters will nibble at the bait although they suspect the hooke so the world hath learned the wit to take good turnes and not to be taken by them as suspecting them to bee profered in cunning rather than in true kindnesse and cunning where it is discovered or suspected is usually requited with craft love onely hath just title unto love The most part indeed are so worldly wise that none but fooles will easily trust them howbeit our naturall mistrust of others makes all of us a great deale worse than we would be And as if we thought it a sinne or point of uncharitablenesse to prove other mens conjectures that measure our dispositions by their owne altogether false wee fit our demeanours to their misdeemings of us and resolve rather to do amisse than they should thinke amisse Howbeit even in this perfidious and faithlesse age the old saying is not quite out of date Ipsa fides habita obligat fideÌ„ Many would be more trusty than they are and do much
charity which hee hath injoyned every man towards all his greatest enemies not excepted though we consider it in the most charitably minded Martyrs in whose death it seemed to shine were but as weake sparkles or vanishing smoak of those infinite and eternall flames of love which burst out in him toward such as have deserved worse at his hands than any Tyrant of his tormented servants That truth and fidelity which he exacts of us the faithfulnesse of Abraham himselfe is but a little mappe or narrow surface of that infinite soliditie of truth whereon his promises are founded Betweene the chastity and temperance of purest virgins and his eternall purity there is the like true correspondency but not so great as there is betwixt the dross and corpulency and the refined or sublimated spirits of the same bodies Or could that rule which is the fulfilling of the whole Law the Prophets Doe unto every man as we would be done unto be exactly fulfilled by us it would be but a slender though a true modell or representation of his eternall equity He that honoureth me him will I honor For in this and the like he expects no more than the inward affection of mortall hearts or prayses of man whose breath is in his nostrils being ready out of his goodnesse to recompence these silly services with glory love and happiness everlasting But doth he intend thus well to all or destruction unto some as it is a meanes of blisse to those whom he loves If so he did we might be exempt from that negative precept of not doing evill that good might ensue For the only reason why we are bouÌ„d not to doe so is because in so doing we should become unlike our heavenly Father and not be perfect as he is perfect But as he turnes the voluntary evils of some to the good of others so may wee and ought to consecrate such forfeitures as legally fall into our hands to pious uses or better the states of such as tender publike welfare by others deserved harmes 6 Be it then granted which is the root of all objections against these resolutions that Gods glory must as well appeare in the punishment of the Reprobate as in the beatifying of the Elect the consequence will bee quite contrary to that which their objections would hence inferre For if the foundation of Gods glory bee as sure in the one case as in the other the manner of his dealing with both must be alike perfect and alike behovefull for us to follow Sine bonitate saith Seneca nulla majestas Goodnesse is the foundation of glory Now were it true that he did intend evill to some before they had committed any though not as evill to them but as a meanes of others good or absolutely ordained them to eternall inevitable misery for the advancement of his owne glory wee should not sinne but rather imitate the perfection of our heavenly Father in robbing Iudas to pay Peter or in feeding the hungry such especially as be of the houshold of Faith with the spoiles of ungodly rich men or unbeleevers More warrantable it were to guesse at the perfection of his Iustice towards the wicked and of his bounty towards the godly by the commendable shadow or imitatioÌ„ of it in earthly gods To procure the common good without intention of harme to any and with admission of as few private mischiefes as may be is the chiefe praise of great States-men And it is the glory of Princes to encourage all men unto vertuous courses by good example gratious exhortations and unpartiall distribution of publike honors or commodities and yet withall to inflict disgrace upon haughty contemners of those gracious allurements and to bee sterne in execution of Iustice without fauour upon notorious transgressors of wholesome Lawes Yet not to use severity without sorrow nor draw blood but by way of medicine for preserving of their Crownes and dignities for maintenance of publike peace or for preventing the like diseases in other particular members of the same body Magistrates that would mind these matters more than raysing themselves their friends or posterity more than life it selfe which they owe unto their Countrey should exhibite us a true model though God wot but a slender one of our heavenly Fathers wisdome and loving kindnesse first in drawing men to repentance by gratious promises and unfaigned proposalls of inestimable rewards for their service Secondly in making the wicked and obstinate despisers of his infinite goodnesse serve to the manifestation of his endlesse glory and confirmation of those that love him in the immortal state of happinesse These prints of his Fatherly care and Iustice are yet fresh to bee seene in his proceedings with ungratious Cain And the Lord said unto Cain why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance fallen if thou doe well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou dost not well sinne lyeth at the doore And unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him Gen. 4. ver 6 7. Severe punishment for doing evill without precedent loving instructions or good encouragement to doe well is the naturall off-spring of unnaturalnesse It beares no shadow of that justice or equity whose glorious patterne shines most brightly in our heavenly Father CHAP. 14. Of God infinite love to mankinde 1 IF the Apostles authority could not perswade us to beleeve his reasons would inforce us to grant that the issues of blessing and cursing from one and the same mouth are contrary to the course of nature and argue the nature of man in whom alone this discord is found to be much out of tune Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing my brethren these things ought not so to be Iam. 3. 10. For nature in other things gives you a better example Doth a fountaine send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Can the Figtree my brethren beare Olive berries either a Vine figs c. These and the like fountaines of naturall truth are as open to us as they were to him and wee should much wrong both this Ambassador of Christ and Gods image in our selves if we did beleeve them only for his authority and not for their owne native perspicuity The best use of Apostoliqueâ—authority in these allegations is to warrant our use of the like though in matters divine not one of his instances but holds as truly in God as in man not one but receiveth a necessary increase of strength from the indivisible unity of the divine Essence For a Fig-tree to beare Olive berries is lesse impossible than for the tree of life to bring forth death To cause the Vine bring forth Figs were not so hard a point of husbandry as to derive cursednesse or misery from the fountaine of blisse For a Spring to send forth water sweet and bitter fresh and salt at one and the same place is more compatible with any reasonable conceipt than for hate or harmefull intentions to have
any branch of goodnesse or perfection This is the first foundation of our Faith layd by his onely Sonne Aske and it shall be given unto you seeke and ye shall finde knocke and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened Or what man is there of you whom if his sonne aske bread will he give him a stone Or if he aske a fish will hee give him a serpent Math. 7◠vers 7 8 9 10. Every Father that heard Him would have beene ready to have answered no yet none so ready or carefull as they should be to give or provide best things for their children because all besides him are evill Fathers If ye then being evill know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that aske him ver 11. Hee is then so much more willing to give good things to his children as he is better or greater than other Parents His love to all men seeing all are his sonnes by a more peculiar reference than Abraham was Adams or Isaac Abrahams is infinitely greater than any Parents beare to the fruits of their bodies Mortall fathers love children when they have them but love to themselves or want of means to immortalize their owne persons makes them desire to have children The onely wise immortall God who is all-sufficient to all most to himselfe unacquainted with want of whatsoever can bee desired out of the abundance of his free bounty and meere loving kindnesse did first desire our being and having given it us doth much more love us after we are instamped with his Image For he sowes not wheate to reape tares nor did he inspire man with the breath of life that he might bring forth death 3 The Heathens conceived this title of Father as too narrow for fully comprehending all references of loving kindnesse betwixt their great Iupiter and other Demigods or men Iupiter omnipotens regum rex ipse Deusque Progenitor genitrixque Deum Deus unus omnis And another Poet Iupiter mas est nescia faemina mortis And because the affection of mothers especially to their young and tender Ones is most tender the true Almighty hath deigned to exemplifie his tender mercy and compassion towards Israel as David did Ionathans love towards him far surpassing the love of women yea of mothers to their children Sion had said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten mee But her Lord replyes Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Esay 49. ver 15. And if his love could sufficiently bee expressed by these dearest references amongst men whose naturall affection towards their tender brood in respect of meaner creatures is much abated by wrong use of reason as many mothers by greatnesse of place or curiosity of education are lesse compassionate towards their children then other silly women are he hath chosen the most affectionate female amongst reasonlesse creatures to blazon his tender care and loving protection over ill-deserving children How often would I have gathered thy children together even as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Math. 23. ver 37. Finally as he gives much more to our being than our earthly Parents whom we suppose to give us being so all the sweet fruits or comforts of love whether of fathers and mothers towards their children of husbands towards their wives or of brethren to brethren sisters to sisters or one friend to another their sinfulnesse onely excepted are but distillations or infusions of his infinite love to our nature To witnesse this truth unto us the son of God was made both father and brother and husband to our nature c. Every reference or kinde office whereof reasonable creatures are mutually capable every other creature though voyd of reason so not voyd of love and naturall affection may expresse some part of our heavenly Fathers loving kindnesse but the love of all though infinitely increased in every particular and afterwards made up in one could no way equalize his love towards every particular soule created by him Feare of death or other danger hath such joynt interest with love as well in the heart of man as in other creatures that albeit they would doe more for their yong ones than they doe if they could yet they doe not usually so much as they might not so much for their model of wit or strength as God for his part though infinite in wisedome power doth for the sonnes of men He that feareth none but is feared of al he that needs no Counsellor but hath the heart of Prince and Counsellor in his hand makes protestation in his serious griefe that he hath done all for his unfruitfull vineyard that he could as much as possibly could be done for it Or if his serious protestations cannot deserve credit with deceitfull man his solemne oath is witnesse of greater love than hath beene mentioned of greater than the heart of man is able to conceive even towards such as all their life time have hated Him As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of him that dyes If besides the authority of these and infinite more sacred texts most perspicuous in themselves the interpretation of the Church be required for establishing of the doctrine delivered the whole ancient Church some peeces of Saint Austine onely excepted which may bee counterpoyzed with other parts of the same Fathers writings is ready to give joynt verdict for us And whether the restrictions which some reformed Churches have endeavoured to lay upon Gods promises be compatible with the doctrine of the English Church comes in the next place to be examined CHAP. 15. What the Church of England doth teach concerning the extent of Gods love of the distinction of singula generum and genera singulorum of the distinction of voluntas signi and voluntas beneplaciti 1_WHat middle course soever the Church of England doth hold or may take for compromising contentions betweene some other reformed Churches in points of Election and Reprobation of free wil or mans ability before the state of regeneratiō She doth not in her publike and authorized doctrine come short of any Church this day extant in the extent of Gods unspeakable love to mankind No nationall Councell though assembled for that purpose could fit their doctrine more expresly to meet with all the late restrictions of Gods love than the Church our mother even from the beginning of reformation hath done as if she had then foreseene a necessity of declaring her judgement in this point for preventing schismes or distraction in opinions amongst her sonnes First she injoynes us to beseech God to have mercy upon all men This was the practice of the Ancient Church which in
her opinion needed no reformation A practice injoyned by S. Paul I exhort or desire first of all that supplications prayers intercessions and giving thankes be made for all men If any man shall seeke to lay that restraint upon this place which S. Austine somewhere doth as if the word all men did import only genera singulorum all sorts of men not singula generum every particular man the scanning of the words following the sifting of the matter contained in both with the reason of the exhortation and other reall circumstances will shake off this or other like restriction with greater ease than it can be laid upon it Wee are commanded to pray for no more than them whose salvation we are unfainedly to desire otherwise our prayers were hypocriticall Are we then to desire the salvation of some men onely as they are dispersed here and there throughout all nations sorts or conditions of men or for every man of what condition soever of what sort or nation soever he be The Apostle exhorts us to pray for Kings not excepting the most malignant enemies which the Christians then had and for all that be in authority And if we must pray for all that are in authority with fervency of desire that they may come unto the knowledge of the truth then questionlesse wee are to desire wee are to pray for the salvation of all and every one which are under authority God is no accepter of persons nor will the Omnipotent permit us so to respect the persons of the mighty in our prayers as that we should pray that all and every one of them might become Peeres of the heavenly Ierusalem and but some choice or selected ones of the meaner sort might bee admitted into the same society Wee must pray then for high and low rich and poore without excepting any either in particular or indefinitely The reason why our prayers for all men must be universall is because wee are bound to desire the spirituall good of all men not as they fall under our indefinite but under our uniuersall consideration The reason againe why wee are bound to desire the spirituall good of all men universally considered is because wee must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Vnto this universall desire wee must adde our best endeavours that saving truth may be imparted unto all because it is our heavenly Fathers will his unfaigned will that all should come to the knowledge of truth 2 Both parts of this inference as first that it is our duty to pray for all sorts of men and for every man of what sort soever And secondly that we are therefore to pray thus universally because it is Gods will not onely that we should thus pray but that all without exception shold come unto the truth and be saved are expressely included in the prayers appointed by the Church of England to bee used upon the most solemne day of devotions The Collects or Praiers are in number three The first Almighty God we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family for the which our Lord Iesus Christ was contented to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men and to suffer death upon the Crosse c. The tenour of this petition if we respect onely the forme is indefinite not universall but every Logician knows and every Divine should consider that the necessity of the matter whether in prayers or propositions will stretch the indefinite forme wherewith it is instamped as farre as an absolute universall That the forme of this petition is in the intention of the Church of England to be as farre extended as we have said that is to all and every one of the congregation present the prayer following puts out of question For in that wee are taught to pray for the whole Church and for every member of it Almighty and everlasting God by whose spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Congregation that every member of the same in his vocation and ministery may truly and godly serve thee c. If here it be excepted that albeit this prayer be conceived in termes formally universall yet is the universall forme of it to be no further extended than its proper matter or subject and that as will be alleaged is the mysticall live-body of Christ whose extent or the number of whose members is to us unknowne the third and last prayer will clearely quit this exception and free both the former petitions from these or the like restrictions For in the last prayer wee are taught to pray for all and every one which are out of the Church that they may bee brought into the Church and bee made partakers with us of Gods mercy and the common salvation Mercifull God who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldest the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted and live have mercy upon all Iewes Turkes Infidells and heretiques and take from them all ignorance hardnesse of heart and contempt of thy Word And so fetch them home blessed Lord to thy flocke that they may bee saved among the remnant of the true Israelites and be made one fold under one shepheard Iesus Christ our Lord. If God therefore will not the death of any Iew Turke or Infidell because of nothing hee made them men wee may safely conclude that he willeth not the death of any but the life of all whom of men or infidells hee hath made Christians to whom he hath vouchsafed the ordinary meanes of salvation and daily invites by his messengers to imbrace them Hee which made all things without invitation out of meere love made nothing hatefull nor is it possible that the unerring fountaine of truth and love should cast his dislike much lesse fix his hatred upon any thing that was not first in it nature odious Nothing can make the creature hatefull or odious to the Creator besides its hatred or enmity of that love by which it was created and by which he sought the restauration of it when it was lost Nor is it every degree of mans hatred or enmity unto God but a full measure of it which utterly exempts man from his love as that reverend Bishop and glorious Martyr one of the first Reformers of the Religion profest in this Land observes 3 If with these authorized devotions we compare the doctrine of our Church in the publike catechisme what can bee more cleare then that as God the Father doth love all mankind without exception so the Sonne of God did redeeme not some onely of all sorts but all mankind universally taken First wee are taught to beleve in God the Father who made us and all the world Now if the Church our mother have in the former prayers truly taught us that God hateth nothing which he hath made this will
him Author onely of grace and favour towards men And I could wish their heresies had beene better refuted than they are or at least that men would bee better perswaded of such refutation as Lactantius hath bestowed upon them albeit I will not bind my selfe to stand to his decision of this point but rather illustrate by instance or experiment how extreame severity may stand with the fervency of fatherly unfaigned love 2 Few mens hearts would have served them to have dealt with their owne bowels as Torquatus did with his Howbeit in all that mighty people amongst whom he lived I am perswaded but a few had taken the like care and paines to traine up their children in the most commendable qualities of that age Not one would have adventured his owne person further to have rescued his sonne from the enemy or justified him in any honourable quarrell In these and the like points he had and upon just occasion would further have manifested as much unfained love as any father could unto his sonne more than the imbecility of sex would suffer a tender hearted mother to make proofe of Doth then the adjudging of this his owne son to death rightly argue he loved him lesse than other parents did their children whose worse deserts they would not have sentenced so severely No it rather proves love and care of martiall discipline and hate to partiality in administration of civill Iustice to have beene much greater in him than in other parents of his time The more just and equall the law hee transgressed was or might have beene as for illustration sake we will suppose it to have been a law most equall and just the more it commends his impartiall severity that would not suffer the violation of it goe unpunished in his dearest sonne whom the more desirous hee was to make like himselfe in religious observance of Martiall Discipline and practice of Iustice towards the enemy the readier he was to doe justice upon him for doing the contrary That excessive love which he bare unto his person whilest his hopefull beginnings did seeme to promise an accomplishment of those martiall vertues whose first draught hee himselfe had well expressed turnes into extreame severity and indignation after he proves transgressor of those fundamentall rules by which he had taken his direction and unto whose observance his desire of posterity was destinated So it falls out by the unalterable course of nature or rather by a Law more transcendent and immutable than nature it selfe that a lesse love being chained by references of subordination betweene the objects loved with a greater cannot dislinke it selfe without some deeper touch of displeasure than if the bond or reference had beene none The neerer the reference or the stricter the bond the more violent will the rupture be and the dissociation more unpleasant As there is no enmity to the enmity of brethren if the knot of brotherly kindnesse once fully untie The reason is because our love to our brethren is neerest united with the love of our selves unto which all other love is in some sort subordinate True affection is alwayes most displeased where it is most defeated where most is deservedly expected and least performed Now as partiality towards our selves and indulgence to our inordinate desires oft-times begets desire of revenge upon unnaturall or unkinde brethren so doth the constant and unpartiall love of equity and wholesome Lawes naturally bring forth just severity towards presumptuous neglecters of them whose persons wee love no lesse than they do that would plead with teares for their impunity Towards them unto whom wee would give reall proofe of more tender and true affection than their partiall abetters doe could wee winne them by these or other warrantable means to link their love with ours or to love that best which most deserveth loue As Seleucus loved his son for saving the one of whose eyes both being forfait by the law he was cōtented to lose one of his own more dearely than most princely mothers do their children for he loved him as himselfe yet could not dispence either with himselfe or his sonne because he loved the publike law and common good that might accrue by this singular example of Iustice better than either better than both 3 For every man to love himselfe best is in our judgement no breach but rather a foundation of charitie Alaw to whose performance every man is bound in matters of necessity concerning this life or in whatsoever may concerne the life to come though not in cases of secular honour or preferment wherein Proximus quisque sibi must by the law of conscience and fundamentall rule of Christianitie give place to Detur digniori But nothing can be so worthy of love or honour as God who will we nill we doth and must enjoy this liberty or priviledge of loving himselfe best And if he love himselfe better than he doth any creature he must love equity and justice better than he doth any man for he himselfe is equity it selfe the eternall patterne as well of Iustice as of Mercy he cannot be unjustly mercifull towards those men whom he loves more dearely than any man doth himselfe And in as much as goodnesse it selfe is the essentiall object of his will he loves nothing absolutely and irrevocably but that which is absolutely immutably good So was not man in his first creation much less is he such in his collapsed estate and yet Gods love so super infinite is it extends it selfe unto our nature so collapsed and polluted with corruption which he infinitely hates This his love which knowes no limit in it selfe is limited in its effects towards men by the correspondency which they hold or lose with that absolute goodnesse or with those eternall rules of equity justice or mercy in which his will is to haue man made like him Such as have beene either in re or spe though not as they should bee yet such as either infinite loving kindnesse can vouchsafe to accept to cherish or encourage to goe forward as they haue begunne or infinite mercy to tollerate in expectation of their repentance or aversion from their wonted courses these if once they finally dissolve the correspondency which they held with Mercie or burst the linke which they had in Gods love with reference to that goodnesse wherto the riches of his bounty daily inviteth them his displeasure towards them kindles according to the measure of his former mercies or loving kindnesse If being illuminated by his Spirit they finally associate themselves to the sonnes of darknesse or having put on Christ in baptisme they resume their swinish habit and make a sport of wallowing in the mire the sweet fountaines of joy and comfort which were opened to them as they were Gods creatures not uncapable of his infinite mercy prove floods of wo misery to them as they are sworne servants of sinne and corruption For hate to filthinesse and uncleanness is essentially
actuall goodnesse hee which is actually and infinitely good cannot but hate or dislik actuall evill in whomsoever it is found as much as he loveth the contrary good Now punishment or malum poenae being as necessarie a consequent of Gods hate or dislike of sinne as reward or happinesse is of his loue to vertue and pietie the reasonable creature by declining from vertue to vice from good to bad doth ipso facto and inevitably bring evill malum poenae damni tribulation and anguish upon it selfe By reward and punishment in this place wee understand not onely life and death everlasting of whose reference to Gods aeternall decree we shall in particular dispute hereafter if Superiours shall so think fit but every temporall blessing or crosse all prosperity or calamitie specially publike remarkable Prosperitie we alwayes take to be a pledge of Gods love though not alwaies of the Person on whom it is bestowed yet of some good quality in him or in some of his serving for publique use or private imitation and is alwayes in the beginning at least an effect of Gods antecedent will Calamitie we take alwayes for a token of Gods dislike though not alwaies of the person afflicted yet either of somewhat in him to bee amended or of somewhat formerly done by him to bee by others avoided and is an effect of Gods consequent will For hee wils no evill at all not malum poenae but as it is either a punishment or correction for evill done or good neglected or as it is a medecine to prevent the doing of evill or neglect of goodnesse 3 From the infinite varietie of possibilities authorized by the aeternall decree and their correspondent consequences which one time or other actually follow upon their reductions into Act by the irresistible award of the same decree wee may resolve many difficulties and abandon sundry inconveniences wherewith the Heathen in their vaine speculations and many Christians in more grievous temptations charge either the truth or goodnesse of Gods Providence The varietie of such possibilities amounts partly from the specificall nature of the objects made possible by the divine decree partly from the severall degrees of good or evill contained in such objects or in mens actions concerning them The whole latitude if I may so speake of Gods providence as it concernes kingdomes states or persons consists in moderating and ordering the possible devolutions or alternations of the resonable creature from his antecedent will to his consequent The alternations or devolutions themselves may be numberlesse save onely to God so may the degrees bee of mans dissonancie or consonancie to Gods antecedent will throughout the course of his life CHAP. 19. Of the divers acceptions or importances of Fate especially among the Heathen writers 1 THE very name of Fate will be I know to many very offensive unto whom I am unwilling to give the least offence The use of it I must confesse is in some cases prohibited by St. Austin a man too modest to vsurpe greater authoritie then he had and oecumenicall authoritie in this point hee had none or none so great as might impose silence upon all posteritie Would to God such as are most forward to presse us with this Reverend fathers interlocutorie sentence once or twice perhaps vttered for not vsing the name could be perswaded to stand to his definitive sentence often pronounced against the nature of the Errour which the Heathens against whom hee disputes covered under this name Vpon condition they would be pleased not to revive the nature of the errour or bury their opinions that way tending my heart and mouth should never give breath unto the name The opinion which some rigid Stoicks had of Fate is an haeresie not to bee named among the Heathen so deepely tainted with the very dregs of heathenisme that it is a wonder any Christian writer should come neere it that any at least should take infection from it especially seeing the Reverend and learned Fathers of the primitive church had provided so many excellent preservatives against it But albeit Fate according to that sense or meaning where in some heathens tooke it was become a wicked Idol yet seeing the word or name whether in the ordinary use of Greeke or Latine writers hath greater varietie of significations or importances then almost any other word in the world besides to abandon all for one ill sense or importance seemes to me as rude and uncivill a part as to roote out a whole clan or surname because one of the same name and stocke had beene at deadly sohood with our family or had otherwise deserved death Vpon diligent perusall of the best Philosophers historians or Poets amongst the Heathens of some historians and Moralists of best note amongst Christians we may finde realities or solid matter answering to this word Fate which cannot bee so well expressed by any other terme or name by any paraphrase more briefe than the true and proper definition of the matter or reality signified by it Now if the matter defined prove to bee no Idoll the name certainly is indifferent and of the definition there may be a good morall or historicall use For finding out the true and proper definition or description of it we are to explicate the divers acceptions or importances of the name 2 Fatum à fando dictum and sometimes imports no more then the dictate of nature or the certaine course appointed to things naturall Thus naturall death is by some accounted fatall And Dido according to this importance did not die by Fate because shee prevented Lachesis by cutting the thred of her owne life before this great Arbitresse of mortality had passed sentence upon her Sed quia nec fato merita nec morte peribat And according to this importance it is used by the Prince of Romane Historians in the sixt booke of his Annals Per idem tempus Lucius Piso Pontifex rarum in tanta claritudine fato obijt About the same time L. Piso High Priest died a naturall death being 80. yeares of age a matter rare in those times in a man of so great birth and place Sometimes againe Death it selfe howsoever it come upon men is termed Fate or Destiny perhaps because the comming of it is by course of nature certaine albeit the time and manner of it be unknown or incomprehensible So another Roman Poet saith The parthians poysoned arrowes carryed Fates upon their points able to let in Death at the least breach of skin Fatumque in sanguine summo est It may be Virgil held naturall death to be fatall because it cannot be avoided being otherwise of our opinion that Dido might have lived longer or that it was not absolutely necessary from the houre of her birth that she should live so many yeares and no more For so some of the wisest amongst the Heathens held death to be fatall that is simply necessary unto all albeit to dye at this or that set houre