or consulting but onely of power to appoint successe unto its owne projects or devises Thus much to my apprehension is included in the wise Kings Maxime Many devises are in the heart of man but the counsell of the Lord that shall stand This freedome or liberty of mans wil in devising or projecting and the want of all liberty or power to allot successe unto his projects doth more truly argue that which the Latines call servum arbitrium that is mans servitude so misery and sinne than if he had no more liberty in the one case than in the other The more ample the spheare of his liberty in projecting or devising is or by divine permission may be the more admirable doth the Counsell of the Lord appeare in directing and ordering his free courses most infallibly unto such ends as hee appoints by meanes for their kinde ordinary and naturall And if we would diligently consider the works of God in our dayes they are as apt to establish true beleefe unto the rules of Christianity set downe in Scripture as were the Miracles of former ages wherein Gods extraordinary power was most seene yea the ordinary events of our times are more apt for this purpose in this age than use of miracles could be For the manifestations of Gods most extraordinary power cease by very frequencie to be miraculous and men such is the curiosity of corrupted nature would suspect that such events were they frequent or continuall did proceed from some alteration in the course of nature rather than from any voluntary exercise of extraordinary power in the God of nature But the continuance of these ordinary events which the all-seeing wisedome of our God daily and hourely brings to passe is most apt to confirme the faith of such as rightly consider them For by their successive variety the amplitude of his unsearchable wisdome is daily more and more discovered and by their frequency the hidden fountaine of his Counsell whence this multiplicity flowes appeares more clearly to be inexhaustible Only the right observation or live-apprehension of these his works of wisedome is not so easie and obvious unto such as minde earthly things as his workes of extraordinary power are For such works amate the sense and make entrance into the soule as it were by force whereas the effects of his Wisedome or Counsell make no impression upon the sense but upon the understanding only nor upon it save onely in quiet and deliberate thoughts For this reason true faith was first to be planted and ingrafted in the Church by Miracles but to be nourished and strengthned in succeeding ages by contemplation of his providence The limits of this present contemplation shall be by example or instance to shew in what manner the wisedome of God doth sometimes defeat the cunningest contrivances or deepest plots of Politicians and sometimes accomplish matters of greatest consequence by meanes or occurrences light and slender in the esteeme of men But how weake or slender soever they bee for their particular nature or in themselves yet the combination or contexture of them must needs be strong because it is woven by the finger of God 2 What plot could have been invented against any land or people more deadly then that of Hamans against the people of God storied Ester 3. 8 9. His information against them was bitter and easie to finde entrance into an absolute Monarchs eares whose words must be a Law to all especially to his captivate and conquered subjects And the Iewes on the other side more likely to change their lives than the lawes of their God for any Princes pleasure What hope in humane sight for Mordecai to finde any favour when as He was to execute this bloody Law whose particular spleene and revengefull mind against Mordecai had for his sake procured it in most absolute forme against the whole Iewish Nation You will say that Ester lately received to greatest favour with the King and now made consort of his bed might prevaile much And for a barbarous King to shew mercy at his Queenes entreaty unto such as had done him so good service as Mordecai had done Assuerus is but an ordinary thing I confesse as much that many occurrences which seem to conspire for Mordecai and his peoples deliverance are not extraordinary For a King in his cups to take a displeasure at his former Queene that would not consent unto his folly or for his displeasure unto the divorced to shew greater love unto his late espoused Queene is a matter neither strange nor unusuall but that Queene Vashti should bee displaced and Ester unknowne to bee of the captive Hebrewes kinde admitted to be Assuerus his mate just at that time when Haman the Iewes sworne enemy was exalted next to the King and Queene in dignity this can only be ascribed to him who as the wise sonne of Syrach speakes hath made all things double one against another Ecclus 42. v. 24. Againe that the King the very night before hee came to the banquet which Ester had prepared should take no rest this was the Keeper of Israels vigilant care over his people who neither slumbers nor sleepes whilest his enemies are a plotting mischiefe against them Againe that the King taking no rest should seeke to solace his restlesse thoughts by reading the Chronicles that reading them hee should light on that place wherein the now distressed Mordecaies faithfull service in bewraying the treason intended against his person by Bigtan and Teresh his Eunuches was registred All this doubtlesse was only from his wisedome that hath the disposition of al the lots much more of all the plots which man can cast Many other occurrences might here be considered no one of which considered apart from the rest but is ordinary and usuall and yet the entire frame or composture of them such as cannot bee referred to any but his workmanship who hath created all things in number waight and measure Yet a Politician that should have read this story in the Persian Chronicles could at the first sight have discovered a great oversight in Haman in not putting sooner in execution this his absolute commission Semper nocuit differre paratis Perhaps this conditionall proposition may bee true that if he had executed his Commission with speed the Iewes had fared worse but for this cause the Lord did not suffer him to entertaine this resolution Yet let us see whether haste in execution could accomplish the like designes against a State in like case 3 Fliscus that nobly descended and potent Genoesi with his familiar Verina had enacted as cruell a Law against the Dorian Family and the other Nobility of Genoa which they had resolved to have writen first with characters of blood upon their pretended enemies brests after their death to have condemned them by proclamation when as Fliscus through popularity should have got the Diadem Their plot for effecting their enemies death and their owne advancement was layed as exactly
absolutely infinite or illimited in being Whatsoever is uncapable of limit is uncapable of division or numericall difference For wheresoever it can be truly said This is one and that another or This is and is not That each hath distinct limits But seeing our imagination or phantasie is divisible and our purest intellectuall conceipts of infinity but finite we cannot thinke of God as infinite in power infinite in wisedome and in Essence but wee must frame a conceit of power distinct from our conceit of Essence and a conceit of wisedome distinct from both And this plurality of conceipts in us usually brings forth a conceit of plurality betwixt his Essence and his Attributes unlesse our understandings be vigilant and attentive to correct our phantasies by this following and the like knowne Philosophicall truth As we cannot contemplate incorporeal substances without imagination of some corporeall forme and yet the understanding constantly denyes them to bee like their pictures presented to it by the phantasie or to have any such corporeall forme as it doth paint them in so in this case notwithstanding the plurality of our imperfect conceipts or multiplicity of perfections imagined by us in our contemplations of the Godhead we must stedfastly beleeve and acknowledge that He infinitely is what all these severall representations intimate not by composition or mixture of perfections severally infinite but by indivisible unity of independent and illimited Being And as it is a maxime most infallible in naturall philosophie Vis unita fortior Force otherwise the same is alwaies greater united than being scattered or diffused so is the metaphysicall extract of it more eminently true in Divinity The indivisible unity of illimited being or perfection is in every respect imaginable more excellent and soveraigne than all infinite perfections by imagination possibly could be so they were though never so strictly but united From this fundamentall truth of Gods absolute infinity by indivisible unity wee may inferre He is powerfull above all conceit of infinite power rooted in the same Essence with infinite wisedome and partaker of all her fruits but not identically the same with her Wise He is beyond all conceit of infinite wisedome though sworne confederate with infinite power or linked with it or with other perfectioÌ„s in any other bond but not in absolute identitie Good likewise He is above all possible conceit of infinite goodnesse though indissolâ—bly matched with all other perfections that can bee conceived unlesse they be conceived as we must beleeve in Him they are different onely in name or mans conceit but indivisibly agreeing with it in the internall unity and identity of nature and Essence Lastly the immensity of his Majesty and infinity of duration common to his Essence and all his Attributes infinitely exceed all conceit of infinite succession or extension whose parts cannot be actually and indivisibly the same one with another or with the whole This is the bottomlesse and boundlesse Ocean of admiration wherein contemplative wits may bathe themselves with great delight but whereinto they cannot dive without great danger That the totality of every conceiveable excellency and perfection should be contained after a manner farre more excellent in unity indivisible then if their natures which they hold thus in common were laid out in severall without any bounds prescribed besides infinities proper to each kinde 6 But seeing our imaginations have a more sensible apprehension of greatnesse exprest under the notion of totality or divisible infinity then under the conceipt of indivisible unity and seeing every whole seemes much greater when it is resolved into parts as a mile by land whose severall quarters or lesse portions are distinctly represented to our eyes seemes much longer than two miles by water whose levell surface affords no distinct representation of parts or diversity of aspect it will bee very behoovefull to unfold some principall branches of being or perfection whose infinitie or totality is eminently contained in the unity of infinite Being For being thus sorted by imagination into their severall ranks like so many numbers in a table ready for addition the understanding may with admiration guesse at the product like an Arithmetician which had gone so far in Geometricall progression that he could not number the last and compleat summe yet acknowledgeth that the progresse in nature can admit no end or limit Or though we could thus proceed by addition or multiplication of perfections in infinitum we were still to allow the understanding to use the improovement of the former rule Vis unita fortior Or to admit the Platonickes conceipt concerning the masculine force of unity in respect of pluralities effeminate weaknesse to bee in this point more Orthodoxall than in any SECTION II. Of the severall branches of absolute infinitie or of the infinitie of the Divine Attributes as they are severally apprehended by us CHAP. 5. Of Divine Immensity or of that branch of absolute infinity whereof infinity in magnitude or space imaginary is the shadow ORder of nature leads us first to explicate two branches of perfection infinite that answer unto a kind of infinitie so frequent and obvious to our thoughts that our imaginations will hardly suffer it to be severed from those subjects which our understandings by light of reason may and by the eye of faith must confesse to bee finite to wit time and place The cause of this difficultie in abstraction was signified before to be this No event there is observed by sense but is husked in the circumstance of place and time whence it is that these two accompany many Phantasmes after they bee winnowed from all the rest into the closet of the understaÌ„ding The conceit of mathematicall or metaphysicall space is so naturally annexed to our imagination of time and place physicall that albeit reason aswell as Scripture demonstrate the world to be for Physicall magnitude finite yet our phantasies cannot be curbed from running into imaginary locall distance beyond the utmost surface of this goodly visible worke of God yea beyond the heaven of heavens The Philosopher which thought all place or locall distance to bee contained within the utmost sphere it beeing contained in nothing else for extra coelum nihil est was his saying might in congruity have granted a like termination or circumscription of succession or time unto which notwithstanding our imaginations will not easily subscribe For though our understanding oft refute their errour which deny the beginning of Time yet our senses still nurse an imaginary successive duration much longer before the creation of this visible world than the continuation of it hath beene And which is much to bee admired some Schoole-braines have beene so puzled in passing this unsoundable gulfe as to suspect that God which is now in every place of the world created by Him was as truly in these imaginary distances of place and time before the creation was attempted Thus have they made place commensurable to his immensitie and succession or
it hath Now limits of being are essentiall properties of that essence or being wherin they are found And distinct bounds or limits are included in the distinct forme of being which every thing hath from its cause Actuall essence or existence it selfe is distributed to every thing that hath cause of being as it were sealed up in its proper forme or kind of being It is as possible to put a new fashion upon nothing as for any thing that is to take limits or set forme of being from nothing That which hath nothing to give it being can have nothing to give it limits or bounds of being And as no entity can take its being or beginning of being from it selfe so neither can it take bounds or limits from it selfe but must have them from some other The prime essence or first cause of all things that are as it hath no precedent cause of existence nor can it be cause of existence to it self so neither can it have any cause of limits without it selfe nor can it be any cause of limits to it selfe It remaines then that it must bee an essence illimited and thus to be without bounds or limits is the formall effect or consequence of being it selfe or of that which truly is without any cause precedent to give it being or make it what it is 6 So essentially is the conceipt of being without bounds or limits included in our conceipt of being without cause precedent that if we should by way of supposition give any imaginary entity leave to take beginning or possession of being from it selfe without the warrant of any cause precedent to appoint or measure it out some distinct portion or forme of being thus much being once by imagination granted wee could not by any imagination possible debarre this entity from absolute necessity of being for ever after whatsoever it listed to be or from being all things rather than any one thing Of the Heathens many did hold an uncreated Chaos praeexistent to the frame of this Vniverse and Philosophers to this day maintaine an ingenerable matter which actually is not any body but indifferent to be made every body Let us but suppose First the one or other of them to be as Homogeneall in it selfe as the ayre or water Secondly to be able to actuate or Proteus-like to transforme it selfe into a better state than now it hath without the helpe of any agent or efficient and then as it could have no cause so can there bee no reason given to restraine it from taking all bodily perfection possible to it selfe And if it bee true which some teach that this prime matter hath neither proper quantity nor quality what should hinder it to take both without measure supposing it might bee its one carver of those endowments Or imagine there were such a vacuity where the world now is as we Christians beleeve there was before it was made and onely one of Democritus casuall Atoms or some meere possibility or appetite of the matter left free venire in vacuum to give it selfe full and perfect act without curbe or restraint of any superiour power or sharer to cry halfe mine with it or make claime to the nature of any actuall entity lost it being supposed to be able to take any one nature upon it what should either hinder or further it to assume the nature of earth rather than of water or of these two rather than of any other Element or of any simple bodies rather than of mixt or compounded substances or of bodily substances rather than spirituall or of all these rather than of their metaphysicall eminences and perfections Or whilst we imagine it without cause of existence or beginning no reason imaginable could confine it to any set place of residence or extension no cause could bee alledged why it should take possession of the center rather than of the circumference of this Vniverse as now it stands or of both these rather than of the whole sphere or of the whole sphere rather than of all extensive space imaginable Only the very supposition of taking beginning though without cause doth put a limit to its duration because this kinde of beginning being but imaginary depends upon our imagination as upon its true cause And yet even thus considered me thinks it should extend its existence both waies and draw a circular duration to the instant where it beginnes Or not imagining the beginning let us imagine it only to have true present being without any cause precedent to push it forward or superiour guide to appoint it a set course and it is not within the compasse of imagination why the duration of it should not reach as farre the one way as the other as farre beyond all imagination of time past as of time to come why it should not comprehend all duration imaginable by way of present possession or supereminent permanency without admission of any deflux division or succession for continuation of its existence 7 If it bee objected that any thing may follow from supposition or imagination of impossibilities the reply is easie The objection is either false or true in a sense which no way impeacheth but rather approves that kinde of arguing True it is there is almost nothing in nature so impossible as it may not be the possible consequent of some impossibility supposed or granted but of every particular impossibility supposed or imagined the possible consequences are not infinite neither such nor so many as we list to make them they are determinate by nature Now we cannot conceive it to be in nature more impossible for a meere logical possibility really and truely to take beginning of actuall being onely from it selfe then it is for that which is supposed imagined thus to take beginning to be restrained either to any determinat kind or part of being or to bee confined to any set place or residence Or if any mislike these imaginarie models let him now he hath givē us leave to make them and vouchsafed to looke upon them utterly cancell or deface them The everlasting edifice to whose erection they are destinated is this Such as we cannot cōceive that not to be which we conceive to take beginning of being from it selfe without any cause precedent such of necessity must we conceive and beleeve him to bee indeed who neither tooke beginning from himselfe nor had it given by any but is the beginning of being the sole maker of all things that bee being himselfe without beginning without dependance o◠any cause without subordination to any guide to appoint his kinde to limit his place or prescribe his time of being He is in all these and whatsoever branch or portion of being imaginable truely and really infinite the quintessence or excellency of all perfections whether numericall or specifical incident to al sorts or degrees of Beings numerable CHAP. 1. Of infinity in Beeing or of absolute infinitie and the right definition of it by the ancient
desires Venter non habet aures The Belly pinched with hunger must be satisfied with meat so must the thirsty throat bee with drinke before the eares can sucke in the pleasant sound of musicke or the eye feed it selfe with fresh colours or proportions Too much pampering bodily senses starves the minde and deepe contemplation feedes the mind but pines the body Of making many Bookes saith Salomon there is no end and much study is a wearinesse of the flesh The more Knowledge we get the greater capacity wee leave unsatisfied so that we can never seize upon the intire possession of our owne selves and contemplation as the wise King speaketh were vanity did we use the pleasures of it any otherwise thā as pledges or earnest of a better life to come And albeit man in this life could possesse himselfe as intirely as the Angels doe their Angelicall Natures yet could not his entitative goodnesse or felicity be so great as theirs is because the proper patrimony which he possesseth is neither so ample nor so fruitfull God alone is infinite in being infinitely perfect and he alone infinitely enjoyes his intire being or perfection The tenure of his infinite joy or happinesse is infinitely firme infinitely secured of being alway what it is never wanting so much as a moment of time to inlarge or perfect it by continuance uncapable of any inlargement or increase for the present But this entitative or transcendentall goodnesse is not that which wee now seeke whereto notwithstanding it may lead us For even amongst visible creatures the better every one is in its kind or according to its entitative perfection the more good it doth to others The truest measure of their internall or proper excellencies is their beneficial use or service in this great Vniverse whereof they are parts What Creature is there almost in this whole visible Sphere but specially in this inferiour part which is not beholden to the Sunne from whose comfortable heat Nothing as the Psalmist speakes can bee hid It is at least of livelesse or meere bodies in it selfe the best and fairest and farre the best to others And God as it seemes for this purpose sends forth this his most conspicuous and goodly messenger every morning like a bridegroome bedeckt with light and comelinesse to invite our eyes to looke up unto the Hils whence commeth our Helpe upon whose tops he hath pitched his glorious Throne at whose right hand is fulnesse of pleasures everlasting And from the boundlesse Ocean of his internall or transcendent joy and happinesse sweet streames of perpetuall joy and comfort more uncessantly issue than light from the Sunne to refresh this vale of misery That of men the chiefe inhabitants of this great Vale many are not so happy as they might be the chiefe causes are that either they doe not firmely beleeve the internall happinesse of their Creator to be absolutely infinite as his other attributes are or else consider not in their harts that the absolute infinitie of this his internall happinesse is an essentiall cause of goodnesse in it kinde infinite unto all others so farre as they are capable of it and capable of it all reasonable creatures by creation are none but themselves can make them uncapable of happinesse at least in succession or duration infinite Goodnesse is the nature of God and it is the nature of goodnesse to communicate it selfe unto others unto all that are not over growne with evill of which goodnesse it selfe can be no cause or author CHAP. 12. Of the infinitie and immutability of Divine goodness communicative or as it is the patterne of morall goodnesse in the creature 1 THe father of Epicures wil have more than his sonnes to consent with him that imbecility and indigence are the usuall parents of Pitie Bountie Kindnesse or other like branches of communicative humane goodness Whilest we ned not others helpe we little think in what need they stand of ours The Prince in his jollity can hardly compassionate the beggers misery nor knowes the Begger how to bemone decayed Nobles whose condition is more miserable than his owne though so it seemes not unto him who would thinke he had fully conquered want were hee but furnished with such supplies of meat drinke and clothing as these have alwayes ready at hand That sympathy which in livelesse or reasonlesse creatures naturally flowes from similitude of internal qualities seldome breaks forth in men but either from experimentall remembrance of what lately hath or from apprehension of what shortly may befall themselves sight of the like afflictions in others as wee have lately felt revives the phantasmes or affections which were companions of our mourning and by so pitying of our owne former plight we pity them 2 But albeit Epicurus observation may seeme in a manner universall whilest applyed to its proper subject Man in his corrupt state yet when he transcends à genere ad genus from our corruptible nature to the divine nature which is immortall his inference is of the same stampe with those fooles inductions that concluded in their hearts There was no God The divine nature saith he is not penetrable by mercy or pity Why so Will you heare a bruit make Enthymems Because these finde no entrance into the hearts of men but through some breach of defect or indigence It is well this slow-bellyed evill beast could grant mans nature not to bee altogether so bad or cruell as want might not tame it and make it gentle and kinde But would not bruit qeasts so they might speake disclaime his conclusion that true felicity or fulnesse of all contentment possible should make the divine nature worse than want and misery doth the humane Surely there is somewhat else amisse in that which is made better by defect Nor could wealth and honour make the mighty unmindefull of others but by making them first forget themselves The externalls whereon our desires fasten so captivate the humane soule that she cannot doe as she would or as nature teacheth her but these strings being cut she followes her native sway And in a good sense it was most true which a Master of a better sect than Epicurus founded hath taught Nemo sponte malus 3 Lust in old Age Pride in Beggars and shifting in men overflowing with wealth seeme to transcend the nature of sinnes and are monsters in corrupted nature because not begotten by temptations they in a manner beget themselves yet scarce shall we finde an old man so prone to Lust a rich man so delighted in shuffling an Epicure so addicted to his pleasure or any at all so ill affected either in himselfe or towards other that being askt wold not professe his desire to deserve well of others to be liberall to be upright compassionate just and bountifull For though continuāce in bad custome induce in a sort another nature yet can it not transport any man so farre beyond himselfe or miscarry his thoughts so much but he shall feele
hell The reason why God thus plagued Pharaoh for not doing that which now he could not doe all possibility of amendment being taken from him was to teach all generations following by his fearefull end to beware of his desperate beginnings of struggling with God or of persecuting them whose patronage hee had in peculiar manner undertaken And here again there is no contradiction betweene these two proposition God from all eternity did will the death of Pharaoh God from all eternity did not will the death but rather the life of Pharaoh For albeit Pharaoh continued one and the same man from his birth unto his death yet did he not all this time continue one and the same object of Gods immutable will and eternall decree This object did alter as Pharaohs dispositions or affections towards God or his neighbours altered There is no contrariety much lesse any contradiction betweene these God unfaignedly loveth all men God doth not love but hate the Reprobate although they be men yea the greatest part of men For here the object of his love and hate is not the same he loves all men unfaignedly as they are men or as men which have not made up the full measure of iniquity but having made up that or having their soules betroathed unto wickednesse he hates them His hate of them as Reprobates is no lesse necessary or usuall than his love of them as men But though he necessarily bates them being once become Reprobates or having made up the full measure of iniquity yet was there no necessity layd upon them by his eternall decree to make up such a measure of iniquity 8 How these deductions will consort with some moderne Catechismes I doe not know sure I am they are consonant to the opinion of that learned Bishop and blessed Martyr in his Preface to his expositions of the ten Commandements a fit Catechisme for a Bishop to make Every man is called in the Scripture wicked and the enemy of God for the privation and lacke of faith and love that he oweth to God Et impii vocantur qui non omnino sunt pii that is They are called wicked that in all things honour not God beleeve not in God and observe not his Commandements as they should doe which we cannot do by reason of this naturall infirmity or hatred of the flesh as Paul calleth it against God In this sense taketh Paul this word wicked So must we interpret St. Paul and take his words or else no man should be damned Now we know that Paul himselfe St. Iohn and Christ damneth the contemners of God or such as willingly continue in sinne and will not repent Those the Scripture excludeth from the generall promise of grace Thou seest by the places afore rehearsed that though wee cannot beleeve in God as undoubtedly as is required by reason of this our naturall sicknesse and disease yet for Christs sake in the judgement of God wee are accounted as faithfull beleevers for whose sake this naturall disease and sicknesse is pardoned by what name soever S. Paul calleth the naturall infirmity or originall sinne in man And this imperfection or naturall sicknesse taken of Adam excludeth not the person from the promise of God in Christ except wee transgresse the limits and bounds of this originall sinne by our owne folly and malice and either of a contempt or hate of Gods word we fall into sinne and transforme our selves into the image of the devill Then wee exclude by this meanes our selves from the promises and merits of Christ who only received our infirmities and originall disease and not the contempt of him and his Law SECTION III. That Gods good will and pleasure is never frustrated albeit his unspeakeable love take no effect in many to whom it is unfeignedly tendered CHAP. 16. In what sense God may be said to have done all that he could for his Vineyard or for such as perish 1 TO found both parts of a contradiction in truth fals not within the Sphere of omnipotency and we may with consent of al Divines maintaine it to be impossible The true originall aswell of our aptnesse to conceive difficulties in the points proposed as our ignorance in assoyling them is because we extend not this Maxime so far as it naturally would reach and the reason why we extend it not so farre is our pronenesse to extend our owne power to the utmost and for the most part farther then justice or true goodnesse can accompany it It is our nature to be humorous and the nature of humor to be unconstant Fortunes character may be every sonne of Adams Motto Tantum constans in levitate Onely constant in unconstancy And being such nothing can imply any constant contradiction to our nature nothing that is truly and constantly the same but will one time or other contradict our changeable and inconstant humors And these enraged with contradiction doe Tyrant-like arme power without just tryall or examination without either respect or reverence against whatsoever contradicts them The right use of power in creatures meerely sensitive is to satiate their appetites of sense for nothing hath power to move it selfe but what is sensitive and all power whether of body or minde was bestowed on man for the execution of his will or accomplishing his desire of good but since his will by his fall became irregular and his desires corrupt his power is become like a common officer or undercommander to all his unruly appetites domineering by turne or succession all other inclinations being under the command of it So the wise man hath charactered the resolution of voluptuous men cap. 1. 6. Come on therefore let us enjoy the good things that are present and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth And ver 11. Let our strength be the Law of justice for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth Even in such as are by most esteemed good men and sober those notions of truth and equity which are naturall and implanted are so weake and ill taken that rather than upstart carnall appetites or desires which custome countenanceth should be enraged through their reluctance they presently yeeld their consents to such proposalls as were they resolute firme and constant would as offensively contradict them as punishment or paine doth our sense of pleasure Vnto such proposalls we often yeeld as are impossible to be approved by Equity to whom we usually professe our dearest love and allegiance with promises to frame our lives by her rules But love in us whether one simple and indivisible quality or an aggregation or cluster of divers inclinations all rooted in one Center is not alike set on divers objects Hence when it comes to opposition betweene sense and reason betweene our selves our private friends and common equity it divides it selfe unequally The particular inconveniences whereto we are daily exposed by the inordinate love of the world and the flesh are infinite all may be reduced to these
true happinesse might be inspired with life and sense they could not communicate halfe that happinesse to any one man though they wold choose his hart for their closet or actuate his reasonable soule as it doth the sensitive that is imparted by him to al his chosen who is entirely infinite happinesse but not happinesse onely For unto the impenitent and despisers of his bountie of his love his mercy grace and salvation he is justice indignation and severity it selfe Nemesis her selfe were she enabled with spirit life and power much greater then the Heathens ascribed unto her and permitted to rage without controle of any superiour law should not bee able with all the assistance the Furies could afford her to render vengeance unto Satan and his wicked Angles in such full and exquisite measure as the just Iudge will doe in that last dreadfull day Then shall he truely appeare to be as our Apostle speakes All in All the infinite abstract of all those powers which the heathens adored for gods as authors either of good or of evill Then shall he fully appeare to be mercy goodness grace and felicity Nemesis pavâ—r and terrour it selfe the indivisible and incomprehensible Idea of all things which in this life our love did seeke after or our feare naturally laboured to avoyd The onely loadstone whereto our love our desire in our creation were directed was his goodnesse and loving kindnesse And feare was implanted in our nature as an Helme or Rudder to divert us from his immutable justice or indignation which are as rockes immoveable against whom whosoever shall carelessely or presumptuously runne must everlastingly perish without redemption FINIS A TREATISE OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE AND ATTRIBVTES THE SECOND PART CONTAINING The Attribute of Omnipotency of Creation and Providence c. BY THOMAS IACKSON Doctor in Divinitie Chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinary and Vicar of S. Nicolas Church in the Towne of Newcastle vpon Tyne LONDON Printed for IOHN CLARKE and are to be sold at his shop under St. Peters Church in Cornehill 1629. THE CONTENTS OF THE SEVERALL Chapters in this ensuing TREATISE SECTION I. OF the Attribute of Omnipotency and creative power Chap. Folio 1 The Title of Almighty is not personall to the Father but essntiall to the Godhead 1 2 Of Omnipotency and of its object of possibility and of impossibility 4 3 This visible world did witnesse the invisible power and unity of the Godhead unto the Ancient Heathens 15 4 The first objection of the Atheist Of nothing nothing can be made Of the doubtful sense of this naturall how far it is true and how far it is false 19 5 By what manner of induction or enumeration of particulars universall rules or Maximes must bee framed and supported That no induction can bee brought to prove the Naturalists Maxime Of nothing nothing can be made 25 6 The second objection of the Naturalist Every agent praesupposeth a patient or passive subject to worke upon cannot be proved by any induction The contradictorie to this Maxime proued by sufficient induction 31 7 Shewing by reasons philosophicall that aswell the physicall matter of bodies sublunary as the celestiall bodies which work upon it were of necessity to have a beginning of their Being and Duration 45 8 Discussing the second generall proposed Whether the making something of nothing rightly argue a power Omnipotent 57 SECT II. OF Divine Providence in generall and how Contingency and necessity in things created are subiect unto it Chapter Folio 9 Of the perpetuall dependance which all things created have on the Almighty Creator both for their being and their operations 65 10 The usuall and daily operations of naturall causes with their severall events or successes are as immediately ascribed to the Creator by the Prophets as the first Creation of all things with the reasons why they are so ascribed 80 11 Containing the summe of what we are to beleeue in this Article of Creation and of the duties whereto it binds us with an introduction to the Article of His Providence 87 12 Though nothing can fall out otherwise then God hath decreed yet God hath decreed that many things may fall out otherwise than they doe 98 13 Contingency is absolutely possible and part of the object of Omnipotency as formall a part as necessity is 102 14 The former conclusion proved by the consent of all the Ancients whether Christians or Heathens which did dislike the errour of the Stoickes 109 15 The principall conclusions which are held by the favourers of absolute necessity may be more clearly justified and acquitted from all inconveniences by admitting a mixt possibilitie or contingency in humane actions 118 16 The former contingency in humane actions or mutuall possibility of obtaining reward or incurring punishment proved by the infallibile rule of faith and by the tenour of Gods Covenant with his people 126 17 That Gods will is alwayes done albeit many particulars which God willeth bee not done and many done which he willeth should not be done 137 18 Of the distinction of Gods will into Antecedent Consequent Of the explication and use of it 146 19 Of the divers acceptions or importances of Fate especially among the Heathen writers 151 20 Of the affinitie or alliance which Fates had to necessitie to Fortune or chance in the opinion of Heathen writers 160 21 Of the proper subject and nature of Fate 169 22 The opposite opinions of the Stoicks and Epicures In what sense it is true that all things are necessary in respect of Gods decree 179 23 Of the degrees of necessity and of the originall of inevitable or absolute necessity 184 SECT III. OF the manifestation of Divine Providence in the remarkable erection declination and periods of Kingdomes in over-ruling policie and disposing the success of humane undertakings Chapter Folio 24 Of the contrary Fates or awards whereof Davids temporall kingdome was capable and of its devolution from Gods antecedent to his consequent Will 194 25 Of the sudden and strange erection of the Macedonian Empire and the manifestation of Gods special providence in Alexanders expedition and successe 213 26 Of the erection of the Chaldean Empire and of the sudden destruction of it by the Persian with the remarkeable documents of Gods speciall providence in raising up the Persian by the ruine of the Chaldean Monarchy 224 27 Of Gods speciall providence in raising and ruinating the Roman Empire 259 28 Why God is called the Lord of Hosts or the Lord mighty in Battaile Of his speciall providence in managing Warres 288 29 Of Gods speciall providence in making unexpected peace and raising unexpected warre 314 30 Of Gods speciall providence in defeating cunning plots and conspiracies and in accomplishing extraordinary matters by meanes ordinary 320 SECT IV. OF Gods speciall Providence in suiting punishments unto the nature and qualitie of offences committed by men Chapter Folio 31 Of the rule of retaliation or counterpassion And how forcible punishments inflicted by this
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
built unlesse the Lord doe afford not onely his concurrence but his blessing to the labours of the one and to the watchfulnesse of the other But in this argument wee may expatiate without impeachment of digression from the matter or of diversion from our ayme in the following Treatise of divine providence 6. This present Treatise requires an induction sufficient to prove that every visible or sublunarie substance aswell the common matter whereof all such things are made as the severall formes which are produced out of it have an efficient cause precedent to their making or production For the seuerall formes or bodies generable which are constituted by them the induction is as cleare to every mans sense or understanding as any mathematicall induction can bee The naturalist is neither able nor disposed to except against the universalitie of it or to instance in any sublunarie bodie which hath not a true efficient cause or an agent precedent from whose efficacie its physicall or essentiall forme was either made or did result The question onely remaines about the efficiencie or production of the prime or common matter Seeing it is the mother of generation wee will not vexe the Naturalist by demanding a generative cause efficient of its beeing but that it must have some cause efficient wee shall enforce him to grant from a generall Maxime most in request with men of his profession The Maxime is That the philosophicall progresse from effects to their causes or from inferiour to superiour causes is not like Arithmeticall or geometricall progressions it cannot bee infinite Wee must at length come to one supreme cause efficient which in that it is supreame is a cause of causes but no effect and being no effect nor cause subordinate to any other Agent it can have no limit of Beeing it can admit no restraint in working Whatsoever we can conceive as possible to have limited Beeing or beginning of such Beeing must haue both frō it by it Now if the perfect workes of nature bodies sublunarie of what kind soever suppose a possibilitie physicall included in the prime and common matter before they have actuall Being if it imply no contradiction for them to have beginning of Beeing it will imply no contradiction that the prime mater it selfe or imperfect masse whereof they are made should have a beginning of its imperfect beeing That Physicall beeing which it hath doth presuppose a logicall possibilitie of beeing as it is that is no contradiction for it sometimes to be and sometimes not to haue beene This supreame cause or agent which as we suppose did reduce the logicall possibilitie of the prime matter of sublunary bodies into Act cannot be the heavens or any part of the hoast of heavē neither the sun moon nor stars For albeit the Sun be the efficient cause by which most workes of nature in this sublunarie part of the world are brought to perfection yet is it no cause at all of that imperfect masse or part of nature on which it workes Vnlesse it had some matter to worke upon it could produce no reall or solid effect by its influence light or motion how ever assisted with the influence of other stars or planets Yet must this prime matter have some cause otherwise it should be more perfect than the bodily substances which are made of it For they all stand in neede both of this prime matter as a cause in it kinde concurrent to their production and of the efficiencie of the Sunne or other coelestiall Agents to worke or fashion the materialls or Ingredients of which they are made If either this common matter of sublunary substances or the Sunne which workes upon it had no superiour cause to limit their beeing or distinguish their offices both of them should bee infinite in Beeing both infinite in operation Now if the matter were infinite in beeing the Sunne or other coelestiall Agents could have no beeing but in it or from it For if the Sunne were infinite in operation the matter it selfe could bee nothing at all no part of nature unlesse it were a worke or effect of the Sunne Infinitie in beeing excludes all possibilitie of other Beeing save in it and from it And infinitie in operation supposeth all things that are limited whether in beeing or operation to bee its workes or resultances of its illimited efficacie CHAP. 7. Shewing by reasons philosophicall that aswell the physicall matter of bodies sublunary as the celestiall bodies which worke upon it were of necessitie to have a beginning of their Beeing and Duration 1 FOr further demonstration that as well the Sunne which is the efficient generall as the prime matter which is the common mother of bodies sublunary had a beginning of beeing there can be no meane eyther more forcible or more plausible then another Maxime much imbraced and insisted upon by the great Philosopher to wit that as well the efficient as the materiall cause derive the necessitie of their causalitie from the end or finall cause unto which they are destinated The Sunne doth not runne its daily course from East to West or make its annuall progresse from North to South to get it selfe heate or for the increase of its native force or vigour by change of Climates but for the propagation of vegetables for the continuance of life and health in more perfect sublunary substances If then wee can demonstrate that those vegetables or more perfect sublunarie bodies for whose continuall propagation for the continuance of whose life and well-fare the Sunne becomes so indefatigable in its course had a true beginning of beeing that the propagation is not infinitely circular the cause will be concluded that as well the common matter whereof they are made as the Sunne it selfe which produceth them had a beginning of beeing and operation from the same supreame cause which appointed the Sunne thus to dispense its heate and influence for the reliefe and comfort of this inferiour world To prove that these sublunarie more perfect bodies as vegetables c had a beginning of beeing or propagation no Argument can be more effectuall to the Naturalist or others that will take it into serious consideration than the discussion of that probleme which Plutarch hath propounded Whether the Egg were before the Hen or the Hen before the Egg. The state of the question will be the same in all more perfect vegetables or living Creatures which usually grow from an imperfect or weake estate to a more perfect and stronger Whether the Acorne were before the Oake or the Oake before the Acorne Whether the Lyon had precedencie of nature to the Lyons whelp or the Lyons whelp unto the Lyon The induction may be for eyther part most compleate in respect of all times and of all places if with the Naturalist wee imagine the world to have beene without beginning or without ending No Naturalist can ever instance in any more perfect feathered fowle which was not first covered with a shell or contained in
But what ever Philosophers may dispute one way or other concerning the proper subject of light diffused or participated or concerning the identifie or multiplication of it in bodies not lucent in themselves but enlightned the dependance of borrowed or participated light upon the fountaine of light whence it is borrowed is the most perfect Embleme which the eye of man can behold of that dependance which all things numerable that are or can be have on the incomprehensible Essence or inexhaustible fountaine of Beeing Whether light participated or diffused have any true inherence or no in bodies enlightned or whether it be present with them or in them ad modum spiritalium after such a manner as spirits are in sublunary bodies or with them this is certaine that light participated is not deduced or drawne out of any matter praeexistent or out of any positive qualitie inherent it is produced out of darknes or want of light And herein it is the true Embleme of created Entities which were not made of any entities praeexistent but of nothing As light participated or diffused hath no permanent root in bodies enlightned So things created have not their root of beeing in any maetter praeexistent nor hath the prime matter of which things generated are made any root precedent out of which it groweth Such being as it hath it hath intirely by its perpetuall dependance upon beeing it selfe The most excellent numerable beeing that can be imagined is more truely participated or borrowed from beeing it selfe than the light of the Moone or Sarres than the light in the ayre water or yce is from the body of the Sunne And albeit the formes or perfect bodies which by operation of efficients naturall respectively result or are produced out of the matter have a being distinct from the matter out of which they are made or produced yet even these have the same immediate dependency upon the incomprehensible Essence or inexhaustible fountaine of Beeing which the prime matter hath As the resplendencie or irradiation of coloured glasses be they yellow greene or azure have the same immediate dependance upon the light of the Sunne which the light diffused throughout the heavens water ayre or pure glasses hath unlesse the Sun send forth his beames upon them these colours have no resplendencie they cannot affect the sense of sight Nor can any created Agent albeit endowed with qualities operative more forcible and permanent than any coloured glasses can bee produce any reall effect without the cooperation or coagencie of the incomprehensible Essence or inexhaustible fountaine of Beeing As impossible it is that any agent should move or be moved otherwise than by the vertue of his Almighty power as that it should have beeing or existence extra infinitum esse without his infinite Beeing or immensitie or that the continuance of it in such being should not be comprehended in his infinite and interminable duration which wee call Eternitie Againe as light borrowed or diffused throughout this inferiour world hath a beeing in its kinde distinct from that light which is permanently seated in the fountaine of light on which notwithstanding all borrowed light absolutely depends as being eminently contained in it so every numerable beeing or part of this world the Sunne the Moone the Starres the Elements mixt bodies vegetables man and beast have their proper kinde of Beeing distinct each from other and distinct againe from the incomprehensible fountaine of beeing on which notwithstanding all of them have more immediate more essentiall dependance than either the lights or different shapes in a glasse have on the Sunne which gives the light or on the bodies which they represent And in this incomprehensible fountaine of beeing all things not onely which are but which possibly may bee are more eminently contained than the least-sparkles or portions of borrowed light which appeare in broken glasses are in the body of the Sunne 4 In this point onely or in this especially is the production of light in this inferiour world by the Sunne unlike the Creation of all things by the Almighty Father of lights in that the Sunne produceth light or resplendency without any free choice or intelligence but by a necessitie of nature that is it so produceth light as it hath no power not to produce it So doth not the Almighty Father eyther create the things that are or preserve them in their estate of beeing or cooperate with them in the production of such effects as they in their severall kindes and rankes are truly said to produce For albeit the Almighty Father bee more immutable than the Sunne yet is hee immutably free For freedome of will by which creatures rationall exceede all creatures meerly naturall or capable of no better endowment then sense being a true and reall branch of beeing a perfection of the most perfect creatures must be as truely and really though in an eminent manner contained in the Maker of all things as any other branch of numerable beeing is Now the object of this freedome of will in the Omnipotent Maker is not onely the Creation or not creation of things that are or may bee not the preservation or destruction of things created or of the severall endowments or qualifications but part of this object of divine freedome is the enabling or inhibiting of all his creatures to exercise those qualities or faculties which are to them most naturall and in their kinde most powerfull Albeit Nebuchadnezzar had power to make the flames of intēded persecution much hotter than any ordinary fire though other Tyrants might have power to make the like againe much hotter than hee did or to environ Gods Saints with the fire of Hell yet if the Almighty Creator withdraw the influence of his power from such fire or flames they can have no more power to burne or scorch his Servants than they have to coole them although we suppose their nature and qualities to be preserved still entire by the same power by which they were created For as but now was said the inhibition or enabling of naturall qualities or faculties to exercise their native force is as truely the object of divine freedome as the preservation or destruction of the Agents themselves with their qualities or endowments is For the same reason the Sunne was no way wounded in his substance nor hurt nor tainted in its influence or other qualitie when by the divine power which is immutably and perpetually free it was inhibited in its course or motion 5 That the Almightie Creator neyther in our time nor in the times long before us hath laid any such restraint upon the Sunne that it should not move or upon the fire that it should not burne is not from any restraint which hee hath laid upon his power by his eternall decree but from his immutable and eternall freedome Wee may not say that he cannot for the times present or which are to come lay the like inhibition upon the Sunne upon the fire or upon other
Nor shall wee by this assertion bee enforced to imagine any new act or determination in God either for daily awarding different successe or the same successe in different measure according to the diversitie or contingency of humane choise which may varie every moment For the infinite incomprehensible and all comprising essence as is before observed is fitnesse it selfe an vnchangeable rule aeternally fitting every alteration possible to the creature without any alteration in it selfe A rule it is which needes no application to the event the event by getting existence or actuall beeing is actually applied unto it The just measure and qualitie of that successe which is by the Idea of equitie bountie or mercie allotted to every event is no lesse essentially contained in goodnesse it selfe then the event it selfe or its beeing is in infinite essence or in Essence it selfe 3 The immediate and proper subject of Fate is Freedome of choise or contingencie in humane actions the genus proximum is the certaintie of Divine retribution according to the nature and qualitie of the choyse wee make Yet are not rewards or retributions but retributions extraordinary and remarkeable aswell for their manner of execution as for their matter or qualitie properly termed Fatall Of sinister Fates there is no contingent subject which can exhibit a more exact picture or modell for the manner how they come to passe then a game at Chesse or Tables Many games at both which at the beginning or untill the middle of time spent in them are very faire and more then tenne to one after some few oversights or ill dice become desperate and irrecoverable by any skill that can be vsed so events properly fatall become at length unpreventable irresistible but such they were not from the beginning of time or from their infancie or first attempts on whom they fall Such disasterous or dismall events for which the Heathens usually indited Fates were commonly remarkable checks given they know not by whom to humane policies or cunning contrivances They were as the unexpected winning of an after-game upon some great stake or wager Good or dexterous Fates were the unexpected issues of mens contrivances for their owne or associates good Fortunes The manner of accomplishing such fates or Fortunes is like a game wonne by a bungler against a skilfull player by extraordinarie dice or by the suggestion of some by-stander more skilfull then both This kinde of Fate or strange Fortune of which most of the Heathen knew not well what to make wee may define To be the incomprehensible disposition or irresistible combination of second causes conspiring for the infallible execution of Gods will maugre all plots or conspiracies of men to defeate the events which hee had purposed Sinister or disasterous Fates were the infallible execution of his consequent will Good fates or fortune were the infallible effects of his antecedent will both were sometimes strangely remarkeably accomplished against cunning and potent oppositions not so much for the parties sakes whom they befell as for others Many disasters have befallen some men though deservedly for their owne sins yet withall for the admonishing of others to prevent the like Hence it is that the Heathen Poets observation Multi committunt eadem diverso erimina Fato though in many cases most true is no way prejudiciall to the unchangeable rules of the All-seeing Providence which is alwayes full of equitie whose justice is still allayed with mercy CHAP. 22. The opposite opinions of the Stoicks and Epicures In what sense it is true that all things are necessarie in respect of Gods decree 1 THE Stoicks did well in contradicting the Epicures which held fortune and Chance to rule all things or at least to bee in themselves somethings not meere denominations of such events as had no certaine or constant cause apprehensible by man The Originall of their Errour was their desire to be extreamely contrary to the Epicureans in a matter contingent or rather in contingencie it selfe for that is the common subject of Fortune chance or fate Fortune and chance they deny to be any thing with no other purpose it seemes then that they may make Fate to bee all things They were Orthodoxall in acknowledging an infallible unerring providence but they â—rred againe as much in not acknowledging this infallible providence oft-times to hold the meane betweene Chance or Fortune and absolute necessitie or not to order and moderate contingencie it selfe From the same originall some have thought it to be the most safe and compendious course for rooting out errour and superstition to overthrow the aâ—tecedent when their commission directs them onely to deny or refute the consequence As not a few no lesse affraid and the feare it selfe is just to grant merit of workes then the Stoicks were to admit of Chance have taken away all contingency in humane actions save onely with reference to second causes Wherein they seeme to invert that rule of Tyrannicall policie He is a foole that kills the Father and leaves his braits behind to revenge his blood These take away the harmelesse Parents for the faultie issues sake seeking to destroy true and Orthodoxall antecedents for the incommodious consequences which others have falsely fathered upon them The reclaiming of men from this one Errour is my present and scope 2 For the better effecting whereof we will subscribe at length unto their general Maxime That all things are necessary in respect of Gods decree upon condition they wil not extend it beyond its naturall and proper subject or not take decree in the Stoicall but in a civill sense Now hee that saith All things are necessary in respect of Gods decree cannot in civill construction bee conceived to meane any more then thus All things which God hath decreed are necessary The question then is whether every thing that is may truly bee said to be the object or part of the object of Gods decree To which question our answer must be negative For those things onely are properly said to be decreed which are enacted and appointed for better ordering and moderating such things as either by nature custome or ill example are apt to grow worse or may be amended by good education wholesome advice or discipline Every decree of man supposeth the subject or party whom it immediately concernes to be capable of perswasion to good or evill to be alterable in his inclinations through feare of punishment or hope of reward Magistrates or Corporations take order that mad men or dogs should doe no harme yet are not these creatures the proper subject of their decrees or sanctions They do not tie Mastives by penall laws not to bite they do not bind mad men to good behaviour but they iâ—joyn men of reason and understanding to muzzle Mâ—stives lest they bite to keepe mad men or franticks close lest they should doe mischiefe by going abroad Now the Divine decree concerning the ordering of man is the rule or patterne of all humane decrees