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<DATE>2013-09-06</DATE>
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<NAME>Alexis Jakobson</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P><HI>ANIMADVERSIONS UPON A FATAL PERIOD.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Or, a Brief DISCOURSE Concerning The Pre&s;ent State of the Body, And The Future State of the Soul.</HI></P>
<P><HI>By</HI> Tho. Collard, <HI>M. A.</HI></P>
<Q>O Jeru&s;alem, Jeru&s;alem, thou that kille&s;t the Prophets, and stonest them which are &s;ent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as an hen ga|thereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not? <BIBL><HI>Matt.</HI> 23. 37.</BIBL></Q>
<P>LONDON, <HI>Printed by</HI> T. D. <HI>for</HI> Thomas Ba&s;&s;et <HI>at the</HI> George <HI>near St.</HI> Dun&s;tans <HI>Church in</HI> Fleet-&s;treet. 1678.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="dedication">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD><HI>To the judicious, knowing, and skilful Phy&s;icians, Apothe|caries, and Chirurgians:</HI> The&s;e Animadver&s;ions upon a fatal Period, are mo&s;t humbly dedicated by the Author.</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>Honoured Sirs,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P><HI>I</HI> Hope I may beg, and ea&s;ily obtain your pardon, for prefixing your names to the&s;e few Sheets; &s;ee|ing your whole Profe&s;&s;ion, by the clearest Con&s;equence, is, by &s;ome mens endeavours, likely to be defam'd and ca&s;hier'd, as one great Imposture.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="to the reader">
<PB REF="3">
<PB REF="3">
<HEAD>To the READER.</HEAD>
<P>THe Notion of a De&s;tiny, of the Fatal Event of all things, of peremptory and ab&s;olute Decrees, being once im|bibed by the Vulgar, or even by their great Abettors; they &s;oon commence &s;uch excellent Sophi|&s;ters as to argue and cajole them|&s;elves out of all morality and ho|ne&s;ty: Abold and Hectoring
<PB REF="4"> confidence, an idle and fruitle&s;s faith, Yeas and Nays, grave nods, &s;adtones and accents, wrie Mouths, &s;ullen and lugubrious looks, Hypocri&s;ie and meer For|malities with the more <HI>precious</HI> Sort of them; and oaths, cur|&s;es, imprecations, and notorious frolicks and debaucheries with the <HI>Prophaner:</HI> have the like influence (they think) on God, concerning their pre&s;ent and fu|ture State; as truth, &s;incerity, temperance, ardent zeal, emient piety, real charity and devotion. For the Almighty, in their judgments, before they had a Be|ing
<PB REF="4"> de&s;ign'd their Fate either of bli&s;s or mi&s;ery, which neither Vice nor Virtue can alter.</P>
<P>Death 'tis confest, is very formidous, of a tragical and au|&s;tere A&s;pect, and Life, e&s;peci|ally eternal, is &s;weet and eligible, de&s;ir'd and courted by all; but &s;hould they endeavour to u&s;e all the Means and Methods ima|ginable to e&s;chew the One, and to enjoy the Other; yet a previ|ous and dormant Decree might frustrate their de&s;igns, and pre&s;s them to the infernal Pit, whiles, Ideots like, they were a&s;piring for Heaven. This &s;uper&s;edes their
<PB REF="5"> care and industry, makes them re|&s;pect an extravagant Romance, a Dithyrambick, or a hymn of their own making, as good for the Health of their Souls, as the whole Duty of Man, <HI>Te Deum,</HI> or one of Davids Penitentials; and Chalk A&s;hes, and Sawdust as efficacious for the Health of their Bodyes, as the riche&s;t Ju|lips and Cordials; and &s;o Both oftentimes peri&s;h either by Pre|&s;umption or De&s;pair: the&s;e be|ing the direful Effects and &s;ad re&s;ults, which naturally i&s;&s;ue, like in&s;ipid rivulets from putrid &s;prings, from &s;uch brain-&s;ick and vertiginous Phancies.</P>
<PB REF="5">
<P> There are many (I know) ela|borate and judicious Di&s;cour&s;es, both from the Pre&s;s and the Pul|pit, which &s;ince the ble&s;&s;ed and miraculous Restauration of our exil'd <HI>KING</HI> and <HI>CHURCH,</HI> have like &s;o many holy Engines batter'd down tho&s;e prodigious Opinions concerning Gods most just and &s;acred Decrees: Yet the Con|tagion &s;till remaining in the&s;e Parts, as was evident from W. C's Pulpit-Prate in Vindicati|on of a Fatal Period, and the Turks Aphori&s;m, <HI>Quod termi|nus vitae e&s;t immutabilis;</HI> and even as it now appears from the
<PB REF="6"> Pre&s;s in its new form, after two years licking: (for there are &s;ome things added, as that of Bp. H. and more omitted;) yet the zea|lous Harangue is still a Bear, able to &s;tartle all that have any good thoughts of a Deity, or any real e&s;timate for Truth, Rea&s;on, Piety, Religion, and the Sincerity of the Sacred Writ&punc; tho 'tis re|ceiv'd by his infatuated Pro&s;e|lytes with as great veneration, as one of St. <HI>Pauls</HI> Epi&s;tles. And this is no Novelty nor wonder neither: for 'tis storied of a Ge|neva Innocent (I might &s;ay a bla&s;phemous Zealot) that &s;aid,
<PB REF="6"> <HI>Si veniret Sanctus Paulus qui eadem hor&acirc; concionaretur qu&acirc; &amp; Calvinus, ego relicto Paulo audirem Calvinum,</HI> If St. <HI>Paul</HI> &s;hould come from Heaven, and Preach at the &s;ame time that Calvin did; I would de&s;ert <HI>Paul,</HI> and attend and hear precious Mr. <HI>John Calvin.</HI> Compari&s;ons (I know) are odious; and I mu&s;t needs confe&s;s, that there is as va&s;t a difference between <HI>J. C.</HI> the Master, and <HI>W. C.</HI> the Di&s;|ciple, as there is between a &s;ub|tile Politician that can Argue and Rhetoricate, and one of his talkative Bigots.</P>
<PB REF="7">
<P> Our Plebeans and Artizans, and most that formerly frequent|ed the illegal Meetings, being in|fected with the &s;owr Leaven of ab&s;olute and irre&s;pective Decrees of Election and Reprobation, which are us'd by them as Catho|licons to free them from all the di&s;ea&s;es both of body and mind, from all faults and Errors: for after the most detestable acts and hainous offences, they u&s;ually &s;o|lace them&s;elves (as I have often known,) That all was decreed, allotted, and appointed for them: that Gods will mu&s;t be done: and that if God had given them <HI>bet|ter</HI>
<PB REF="7"> <HI>Grace,</HI> (as they u&s;ually word it) they had been better men, and le&s;s peccant. So that the poor ig|norant Creatures (tho highly con|ceited of their own, as well as of their Teachers knowledg) dream, that the Almighty is oblig'd in honour to pardon their mo&s;t de|liberate and blacke&s;t crimes; they being (according to their own Principles,) nece&s;&s;itated thereto by his own eternal and immuta|ble Act and Deed. This Con|tagion, I &s;ay, being yet amongst us: This mean Antidote may not, I pre&s;ume, prove altogether ineffectual, tho not totally to Al|lay
<PB REF="8"> and expel, yet in &s;ome mea&s;ure to put a &s;top to the Increa&s;e and &s;preading of it; which has been one of the grand Cau&s;es of that va&s;t Empire Sin has got in En|gland &s;ince the publick Preaching of it, in (and a little before) our late intestine Commotions. I &s;hall not apologize, but &s;hall leave the en&s;uing Lines to thy &s;erious and impartial Con&s;ideration.</P>
</DIV1>
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<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="discourse">
<PB N="1" REF="8">
<HEAD>A brief Di&s;cour&s;e.</HEAD>
<EPIGRAPH>
<BIBL>Ezek. 18. 31,</BIBL>
<Q>Ca&s;t away from you all your tran&s;gre&s;&s;ions, where|by ye have tran&s;gre&s;&s;ed, and make you a new heart, and a new &s;pirit; for why will ye die, O hou&s;e of I&s;rael?</Q>
</EPIGRAPH>
<P>THE many Mi&s;apprehen&s;ions of God, e&s;pecially concerning the &s;ecret pur|po&s;es of his Will, which he neither commands us to &s;earch after, nor will permit us to know; (and &s;urely then were we but half a&s;hamed of notorious
<PB N="2" REF="9"> Contradictions, we &s;hould never pretend to know Gods Decrees, which we call hidden and &s;ecret;) and the divers Mi&s;per|&s;wa&s;ions of the Divine Attributes, e&s;peci|ally concerning his Ju&s;tice and Mercy; are none of the &s;malle&s;t Cau&s;es of tho&s;e gro&s;s Errors and &s;candalous practices that are found among&s;t the Propugners of them. The Pulpit, Chair, and Pre&s;s, (when we found by woful experience that Maxim verified, <HI>No Bi&s;hop, no King)</HI> in&s;inuated un|to us &s;uch Opinions and Doctrines, (one of the mo&s;t bla&s;phemous that ever I heard, was vented, when the Good Old Cau&s;e was rampant, by Mr. <HI>W.</HI> at a Soul-edifying Le|cture; <HI>viz. That we are not &s;aved by Je&s;us Chri&s;t.)</HI> as infer fal&s;hood in God, and &s;et an oppo&s;ition between his revealed and his &s;e|cret Will, his holy Commands and ju&s;t Decrees, making the one a blind for the better execution of the other; as if all the love and mercy he expre&s;&s;es, all the pa&s;&s;ionate invitations he makes were only to mock and delude us. And as &s;everal ills (&s;aith the mo&s;t judicious, and ever to be admir'd Author of the Cau&s;es of the Decay of Chri&s;tian Piety) are hereby
<PB N="3" REF="9"> countenanced and authoriz'd, &s;o is all Virtue in general di&s;couraged and di&s;heart|ned; the&s;e benumb us in our Chri&s;tian cour&s;e, &s;ub&s;tract that &s;pirit and vigour, which &s;hould carry us through the weary &s;tages of duty: indeed they cut the very &s;inews of Indu&s;try, baffle and make ridicu|lous all purpo&s;es of Labour, the Mini&s;ters Preaching, and the Peoples Hearing and Doing: for what &s;hould invite a man to &s;trive for that, from which he knows he is either irrever&s;ibly precluded, or el&s;e &s;o infallibly a&s;certain'd of, that his negli|gence cannot defeat him.</P>
<P>GOD has given us Rules of Life, which upon the &s;evere&s;t Penalties he requires us to &s;tudy and practi&s;e; and we divert from the&s;e, and make it our bu&s;ine&s;s to trace his Coun&s;els. We are gazing at the Stars to read our De&s;tiny, and look not to our feet; and by that negligence experi|ment the wor&s;t fate they could have por|tended: for I think we may &s;ay our wild Phancies about Gods Decrees, have in event reprobated more than tho&s;e Decrees, upon which they are &s;o willing to charge their ruine, and have bid fair to the dam|ning
<PB N="4" REF="10"> of many, whom tho&s;e left &s;alvable. We often forget our Calling by contem|plating our Prede&s;tination; and let the Opinion of our Fate be at once the En|couragement and Excu&s;e of our &s;loth, than which nothing can more evacuate the pur|po&s;e and de&s;ign of our Chri&s;tianity, which Divines have truly defin'd to be not a contemplative but active Science.</P>
<P>THE Almighty interrogates the hou&s;e of I&s;rael, <HI>Why will ye die?</HI> and tells them in the &s;ub&s;equent Ver&s;e, <HI>I have no plea&s;ure in the death of him that dieth; wherefore turn your &s;elves, and live ye?</HI> Yet &s;ome bold In|qui&s;itors into Gods Decrees and hidden Coun&s;els dream, That his &s;ecret Will is of a very di&s;tant nature to his revealed; <HI>Et Deus ita terminum &s;eu horam mortis homini praefinierit decreto ab&s;oluto; ut h&acirc;c ips&acirc; hor&acirc;, &amp; non ali&acirc;, hoc ip&s;o mortis genere, quo homo mo|ritur, &amp; non alio, mori illum &s;impliciter ab&s;o|lute&abque; &s;it nece&s;sarium:</HI> and that the Soul likewi&s;e is liable to the &s;ame fatality. That Myriads do what they can, are from Gods eternal and immutable purpo&s;e ordain'd for death and endle&s;s mi&s;ery; and a very few Favourites only, in compari&s;on of the
<PB N="5" REF="10"> re&s;t, do what they will, are prede&s;tin'd to life and immortal Glory. This wounds the Credit both of the Divines and the Phy|&s;icians, of their Pro&s;elytes and Patients; and by the cleare&s;t con&s;equence makes the former Cheats, and the later Fools. But whether true or no, we come now to con|&s;ider.</P>
<P>THE Que&s;tion here, <HI>Why will ye die?</HI> and the Prote&s;tation, <HI>I have no plea&s;ure in the death of him that dieth;</HI> may clear Gods ways of being either cruel or unequal; and evidently demon&s;trate the Almighty's Philanthropy, and his high re&s;entment of the ruine and Perdition either of Body or Soul. And fir&s;t concerning the pre&s;ent State of the Bo|dy. <NOTE PLACE="marg">The pre&s;ent &s;tate of the Body.</NOTE></P>
<P>THE Protopla&s;t, had he continued in his integrity, (as he might, for God gave him &s;ufficient power to &s;tand, and did not withdraw the lea&s;t de|gree of his Grace, or infu&s;e into him any &s;ecret impul&s;e or motion, whereby he might deviate from that &s;acred &s;tation in which he was plac'd;) he had been free from death; but having once eaten the prohi|bited
<PB N="6" REF="11"> fruit, 'twas nece&s;&s;ary by Gods Decree (but not before) that Death &s;hould arre&s;t him for it; for the immutable Creator had &s;aid, <HI>That in the day thou eate&s;t thereof, thou &s;halt &s;urely die,</HI> Gen. 2. 17. So that we may not before the Fall (altho it be true &s;ince) term death, with <HI>Socinus,</HI> to be <HI>naturae &s;eque|la per &s;e. For as by Adam Sin enter'd into the world, &s;o death by &s;in,</HI> Rom. 5. 12. And as it follows; <HI>&s;o death pa&s;&s;ed upon all men, for that all have &s;inned:</HI> that is, All meer men that were after born, were &s;inners, born after the image and likene&s;s of <HI>Adam</HI> that was now a &s;inner, and had begotten no Child in his innocence. Sinful men then we are all, and die once we mu&s;t by rea&s;on of our Fore-father's Apo&s;ta&s;ie. 'Tis true, we read that <HI>Lazarus</HI> and others being rai&s;ed from the dead, without controver&s;ie died twice; but the Author (St. <HI>Paul</HI> doubtle&s;s) of the <HI>Heb<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">. Chap.</HI> 9. 27. &s;peaks of the natural Law, whereby it is appointed unto all or|dinarily once to die; &s;o that 'tis not op|po&s;ite to this truth, becau&s;e others have died twice, which by an extraordinary manner happen'd only to a few. And as for tho&s;e that &s;hall be found alive at the
<PB N="7" REF="11"> &s;econd and &s;udden coming of Chri&s;t, they &s;hall be changed in a moment, and in the twinckling of an eye; which mutation or change &s;hall be to them in&s;tead of death. 'Tis then mo&s;t apparent, that 'tis ordina|rily appointed unto men once to die; and then certainly to come to judgment, to be puni&s;hed or rewarded according to their actions. <HI>Rom.</HI> 14. 10. 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 5. 10.</P>
<P>OUR brittle and terre&s;trial Bodies, we all grant, mu&s;t be di&s;&s;olved; for our Bounds are &s;et, and our lives limited within &s;uch a number of years, beyond which, by the ordinary cour&s;e of nature we cannot pa&s;s; but our Days are not &s;o &s;trictly and fatally limited and determin'd, as if neither God nor man could extend or &s;horten them. The fifteen years added to <HI>Hezekiah</HI>'s days, a&s;&s;ure us of Gods power to prolong the life of man; and Rea&s;on, Experience, and all Hi&s;tory both &s;acred and prophane, pro|claim his power to &s;horten it. And thou|&s;ands of Examples too &s;adly evince, how expert and indefatigable many are in put|ting a Period to their own and other mens days, in the mid&s;t and prime of their &s;trength and &s;plendor. A man may de|&s;troy
<PB N="8" REF="12"> him<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">e<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters">, his Friend, Neighbour, or Enemy, before he hath &s;een thirty years, that otherwi&s;e might have &s;een three&s;core. And therefore a fatal Period, in the judg|ment of all con&s;idering men, is no le&s;s than a Stoical, A&s;trological, and Mahometan Dream; or at be&s;t but a popular Error, as our immortal Dr. <HI>Hammond</HI> terms it in his Po&s;t&s;cript of new Light.</P>
<P>AND we likewi&s;e confe&s;s, That God does know, and may foretel the very time, manner, and place of any mans death; but 'tis a &s;imple Logician, and a giddy and hot-braind Chri&s;tian, that from Gods Predictions and Revelations of the period of &s;ome mens lives, as of <HI>Aaron, Pa&s;hur, Hophni</HI> and <HI>Phineas,</HI> and of the holy Je&s;us; will hence infer, (as <HI>W. C.</HI> mo&s;t irrationally doth) that therefore the very moment, the very kind, (tho it be &s;elf-murther) and place of every mans death, are fatally, and ab&s;olutely decreed and appointed.</P>
<P>I &s;hall tran&s;cribe our famous Preacher's very expre&s;&s;ions and words, which indeed would have &s;ounded better from the mouth of a bold Gladiator, with a Sword in his hand ready for Combat, or from a
<PB N="9" REF="12"> Magi&s;terial Adventurer, than from a <HI>Lover of Humility;</HI> as our great lover of popular applau&s;e is characteriz'd, and in all humility publickly proclaim'd by his friend and neighbour, his profound Champion; who doubtle&s;s hath an equal in&s;pection both into the Law and the Go|&s;pel.</P>
<P><HI>W. C.</HI> pag. 7. <HI>Death</HI> (as to all the parti|cular circum&s;tances of it) <HI>is foreappointed and determined by Gods Eternal purpo&s;e.</HI> 1. <HI>As to the time when a man &s;hall dye: It mu&s;t be &s;uch a time, &s;uch a day, and &s;uch a moment. Thus for the time when.</HI> 2, <HI>The next circum&s;tance</HI> (pag. 10, 11.) <HI>I &s;hall &s;peak of is, the place Where we mu&s;t (or if you will, rather where we &s;hall) dye;</HI> (mu&s;t or &s;hall, a great choice and kindne&s;s truly) <HI>this is al&s;o appointed by God, whether at home or abroad, whether in the field or in the hou&s;e, whether in the lower or upper rooms, whether at table</HI> (the round or long) <HI>or by the fire &s;ide,</HI> (or in the mid&s;t of the fire) <HI>whether in the bed</HI> (the flock, feather, or doun-bed) <HI>or in a Chair,</HI> (the blew or the red.) 3. <HI>As to the manner of dying, or kind of death,</HI> mille modi Lethi, <HI>as the Poet &s;aith; whether it &s;hall be a &s;udden or a lingring death,</HI>
<PB N="10" REF="13"> (an Apoplexy or Con&s;umption,) <HI>whether it &s;hall be a natural or a violent death,</HI> (by old age or by poy&s;on) <HI>whether in Peace or in War,</HI> Foraign or Dome&s;tick, <HI>(whether by &s;ickne&s;s, and by what &s;ickne&s;s</HI> (whether great or &s;mall, by the biting of a Flea or a Viper, by a &s;tab with a Stelletto or a &s;traw, by the &s;hot of a Blunderbus or a Pop-gun; for &s;uppo|&s;ing the very time, manner, and place of every mans death are fatally determined, there is no more danger in the one, than in the other,) <HI>or by the hand of Ju&s;tice; whe|ther by burning at the &s;take, hanging on the Gal|low, or lo&s;ing ones head on the Scaffold.</HI> I&s;a. 22. 18. Jer. 11. 12. Jer. 34. 5. Joh. 12. 31. 32. Joh. 21. 19. Mat. 23. 34. 1 Pet. 4. 19. (And &s;o from the fir&s;t Chapter of <HI>Gene&s;is</HI> to the la&s;t of the <HI>Revelations.) All the&s;e circum&s;tan|ces, I &s;ay,</HI> (but &s;hall never be able to prove) <HI>are appointed, determined, and limited by Gods unchangeable purpo&s;e.</HI> (The&s;e comfortable Doctrines are calculated for <HI>New-gate.</HI></P>
<P>THE fir&s;t &s;ix Quotations out of the Pro|phets and Apo&s;tles, are Predictions only of &s;ome certain mens death; as of <HI>Shebna,</HI> King <HI>Zedekiah,</HI> the men of <HI>Judah</HI> and In|habitants of <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> and of the ble&s;&s;ed
<PB N="11" REF="13"> <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> who&s;e death upon all accounts is to be re&s;pected as a Ca&s;e extraordinary; and therefore they argue nothing for a fatal Period, as I intimated before. And the la&s;t <HI>(viz.</HI> 1 Pet. 4. 19.) is as impertinent and ridiculous, as if I &s;hould cite the fir&s;t Chap. of St. <HI>John,</HI> or any other, to prove that there be as many Worlds, (as &s;ome with their Tele&s;copes would per&s;wade us) as there are Stars in the Firmament. The words run thus, <HI>Wherefore let them that &s;uffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.</HI> No man in his Wits would ever think, that this place could in the lea&s;t prove, or &s;eem to favour a fatal Period; or, to u&s;e his own words, <HI>That God in his unchangeable purpo&s;e hath ap|pointed, and determin'd the time, the manner,</HI> (tho it be hanging on the Gallows for Mur|ther, for Patricide; or lo&s;ing ones head on the Scaffold for Trea&s;on;) <HI>and place</HI> (Ty|burn, Tower-hill;) <HI>of mens death;</HI> unle&s;s it be becau&s;e there is one word in it, viz. <HI>Suffer.</HI> This was ever a fanatical Trick to amu&s;e and delude the Vulgar; for let them hear a Legion of Allegations from the Pul|pit,
<PB N="12" REF="14"> (tho not one of them to the pur|po&s;e, as here.) they in&s;tantly admire, and adore the man as an Angel or Me&s;&s;enger from Heaven; &s;tyle him a Gifted, Scrip|ture-learned, and powerful Preacher, that he hath all the Bible at his Fingers end, and had a Text for every word he thun|der'd out of his wide Throat. Whereas others are for Rea&s;on, ancient Records, Councils, Fathers, and the like humane Learning. Thus having the credulous Multitude fa&s;t by the No&s;e, 'tis no diffi|cult Province to in&s;til into them the mo&s;t erroneous, &s;chi&s;matical, and factious Te|nents, as the mo&s;t per&s;picuous Truths; well knowing that they want either Wit or Time to try and examine them. Read the &s;even preceding Ver&s;es, and you will find, that the Apo&s;tle there only predicts, what great pre&s;&s;ures and afflictions the pri|mitive Converts would be loaded with, for the &s;ake of their new (and therefore as their Enemies, both Jews and Gentiles thought fal&s;e) Religion. That &s;o by know|ing this before-hand, Per&s;ecution might not unexpectedly &s;urpri&s;e them, and cau&s;e them either to fluctuate or apo&s;tatize,</P>
<PB N="13" REF="14">
<P> <HI>Beloved, think it not &s;trange concerning the fiery tryal</HI> (terrible fire of Per&s;ecution) <HI>which is to try you: But rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Chri&s;ts &s;ufferings; that when his glory &s;hall be revealed, ye may be glad al&s;o with exceeding joy, If ye be reproached for the Name of Chri&s;t, happy are ye; for the &s;pirit of glory and of God re&s;teth upon you: on their part he is evil &s;poken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you</HI> (pray ob&s;erve it, for this Caution is directly again&s;t a fatal Period, and intimates that the kind or manner of their death, was not ab&s;o|lutely appointed; for they might &s;uffer death for their wickedne&s;s, as well as for their Religion; or el&s;e the Precept or Ad|vice (call it which you will) mu&s;t needs be very ridiculous) <HI>&s;uffer as a murtherer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a bu&s;ie-body in other mens matters. But if any &s;uffer as a Chri|&s;tian, let him not be a&s;hamed; but let him glo|rifie God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment mu&s;t begin at the hou&s;e of God;</HI> (for the tryal of the righteous) <HI>and if it fir&s;t begin at us,</HI> (the true Pro&s;elytes of Chri&s;t) <HI>what &s;hall be the end of them</HI> (the Cru|cifiers of the holy Je&s;us, and the obdurate
<PB N="14" REF="15"> Per&s;ecuters of Chri&s;tianity) <HI>that obey not the Go&s;pel of God?</HI> (but utter exci&s;ion.) <HI>And if the righteous &s;carcely be &s;aved,</HI> (have afflictions in this life,) <HI>where &s;hall the un|godly and &s;inner appear?</HI> (how dreadful then is the expectation of the prophane?) <HI>Wherefore let them that &s;uffer according to the will of God,</HI> (that &s;uffer in the cau&s;e of their Saviour,) <HI>commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator.</HI> (bear their pre&s;&s;ures patiently, and commit their lives to God, who will, if he &s;ees good, pre&s;erve them; or el&s;e make their &s;ufferings a way and pa&s;&s;age to Eternity.) This is enough to demon|&s;trate (tho we &s;hall have other occa&s;ions hereafter) to his knowing Editor, with the re&s;t of his Sticklers; or to any other that hath but common rea&s;on; how gro&s;ly Gods Word is abu&s;ed and wre&s;ted from its ge|nuine and proper &s;en&s;e, to prop and Pa|tronize his Heterodoxies and Mahometan phrenzies.</P>
<P>TO affirm dogmatically, that decollati|on, &s;u&s;pen&s;ion, <HI>felo de &s;e,</HI> or any other mi|&s;erable death that happen to men; yea, and all the cur&s;ed means thereto, as fraud,
<PB N="15" REF="15"> rapine, trea&s;on, &s;acriledge, murther, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> are all ab&s;olutely appointed by Gods im|mutable coun&s;el and purpo&s;e; the&s;e con|ceptions (I &s;ay) of the Almighty, dero|gate much from his goodne&s;s, mercy, and truth; and are not only diametrically oppo&s;ite to his very nature, who is Love in the ab&s;tract, 1 Epi&s;t. St <HI>Joh.</HI> 4. 8. <GAP DESC="foreign">, and cannot be the Author of &s;in; but to all the &s;acred Monuments &amp; Records which evince, That the Period of every mans Life is mutable, and may be extended or &s;hortned by Providence or Art, by God or Man. For,</P>
<P>THE great God may (as all mu&s;t yield, that will not deny his Attribute of Omni|potency, or make him a nece&s;&s;ary Agent.) prolong or &s;horten the days of any man; and our Prayers, Repentance, the &s;alubri|ty and purity of the Air and Water, our temperance and choice in eating and drink|ing, and the knowing and prudent Phy&s;i|tian, may by Gods ble&s;&s;ing extend our days: Whereas prophanene&s;s, our immo|derate pa&s;&s;ions and de&s;ires, the corrupted and impure Elements, our exce&s;s in any re&s;pect, expo&s;ing our &s;elves to any great
<PB N="16" REF="16"> and eminent perils, as the Sword or Pe&s;ti|lence; or an ignorant and confident Quack with his &s;trong and improper Medica|ments, may &s;horten our days. And he that denies this, (as <HI>W. C.</HI> out of abun|dance of humility, or rather ignorance doth) may as well contradict and deny not only his own rea&s;on, (rea&s;on did I &s;ay? that is a mo&s;t &s;candalous and impious thing for a meek and mortified man, that is full of Raptures and Illuminations, to own;) but al&s;o his own experience, and the &s;acred Hi&s;tory it &s;elf. Fir&s;t,</P>
<P>'TIS evident from the Scriptures, That there is no fatal Period, but that our lives may be extended or &s;hortned.</P>
<P>OUR gracious Maker has promi&s;ed long life to tho&s;e that fear him, and ob&s;erve his Mandates. <HI>Deus his qui ip&s;um timent,</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>fore promittit.</HI> Exod. 20. 12. Deut. 4. 40. 5. 16, 33. 8. 1. P&s;al. 9. 16. Prov. 4. 10. Eph. 6. 2, 3. 1 Tim. 4. 8.</P>
<P>AND God threatens the wicked, that for their impieties he will cut them off in the mid&s;t of their Age, that they shall not live &s;o long as otherwi&s;e they might. <HI>Lev.</HI> 26. 25. <HI>Deut.</HI> 5. 25, 26. 6. 15. 7. 10. 8. 19.
<PB N="17" REF="16"> <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 55. 23. 104. 35. 109. 8. <HI>Prov.</HI> 10. 27.</P>
<P>FROM the Examples of <HI>Er</HI> and <HI>Onan</HI> Gen. 38 7, 10. of <HI>Corah, Dathan,</HI> and <HI>Abi|ram</HI> Numb. 16. 32, 33. of the <HI>Jews,</HI> Exo. 31. 14, 15; of the <HI>Egyptians,</HI> Exod. 14. 28. of <HI>Ab&s;olon</HI> 2 Sam. 18. 9; of <HI>Ananias</HI> and <HI>Saphira</HI> Acts 5. 5, 10. But were there a fa|tal Period, all the&s;e Promi&s;es and Menaces mu&s;t needs be vain, fal&s;e, and ridiculous; which to affirm or imagine would be no &s;mall bla&s;phemy: And the &s;ad Cata|&s;trophes of the forementioned, of <HI>Er</HI> and <HI>Onan,</HI> of <HI>Ananias</HI> and <HI>Saphira,</HI> &amp;c. were the re&s;ults of his eternal and ab&s;olute De|crees, and not of his wrath and ju&s;t Judg|ments. And that tho <HI>Corah</HI> and his Con|federates did not die the common death of men, but the earth open'd her mouth, and &s;wallowed them up; yet in <HI>(W. C</HI>'s Opinion, pag. 9.) they liv'd out all the days of their &s;pecial and per&s;onal li|mit; or all the days appointed as their portion in the land of the living. This methinks looks Legerdemain, than hone&s;t and &s;ound Theology.</P>
<P>THERE are two places of holy Writ,
<PB N="18" REF="17"> (among&s;t &s;everal others, &s;ome whereof anon I &s;hall have occa&s;ion to nominate,) which may cau&s;e <HI>W. C.</HI> to &s;trike &s;ail, and yeeld to right and truth, if the &s;imple En|comiums of the Vulgar, and of the factious Party, have not metamorphoz'd, and puft him up into a carnal &s;tate (which he tells us is very dangerous, and in this we be|lieve him;) of arrogancy and &s;elf-adora|tion.</P>
<P>THE fir&s;t is, <HI>Jer.</HI> 21. 8, 9. <HI>Thus &s;aith the Lord, Behold I &s;et before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this City &s;hall die by the &s;word, and by the famine, and by the pe&s;tilence; but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Caldeans that be&s;iege you, he &s;hall live, and his life &s;hall be to him for a prey.</HI> Which clearly demon&s;trates, that the time, manner, and place of their death, were not limited and determined by any ab&s;olute and unchangeable purpo&s;e or De|cree of God; for 'twas in their own choice and power either to extend or &s;hor|ten their days. If they would remain in the City, they &s;hould die; if for&s;ake it, they &s;hould live.</P>
<PB N="19" REF="17">
<P> THE &s;econd is the fifth Commandment, <HI>Exod.</HI> 20. 12. which only hath a Promi&s;e annext to it: <HI>Honour thy father and mother,</HI> that is, thy civil Parents, (the King, Ma|gi&s;trates;) thy Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Parents, (Bi|&s;hops, Pa&s;tors;) as well as thy natural Parents, that brought thee into the world; <HI>that thy days may be long in the land. [That]</HI> here intimates not the final cau&s;e, but the event; (<GAP DESC="foreign"> not <GAP DESC="foreign">, as the Grammarians &s;peak) for this is not the end of our obedience, but an event and a con|&s;equent to follow upon it: and the Pro|mi&s;e is u&s;ed as a motive to give honor to whom honor is due. To clear the truth of this, we mu&s;t ob&s;erve fir&s;t, That all the Promi&s;es of God for temporal things, as for life, health, wealth, are conditional, not ab&s;olute; <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 34. 12, 13, 14. 1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 3. 10, 11. Mat. 6. 33. and &s;hall &s;o far be performed as may make for our good; and therefore in <HI>Deut.</HI> 5. 16. the Promi&s;e is thus limited and declar'd: <HI>Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee.</HI> So that the meaning is, (&s;aith the mo&s;t Reverend and
<PB N="20" REF="18"> Learned Bp. of <HI>Gloce&s;ter</HI> in his Exp.) that &s;o long as it may go well with any man, his life &s;hall be prolonged as no farther; but if his life prove to him a di&s;plea&s;ure and no benefit, it &s;hall be taken away, and an eternal, which is far better, be&s;towed on him. Thus it happen'd to <HI>Jo&s;iah,</HI> 2 Kings 22. 20. <HI>Thou &s;halt be gathered into thy grave in peace, and thine eyes &s;hall not &s;ee all the evil which I will bring on this place.</HI> Or &s;econdly, That it may go well with thee, may carry this &s;en&s;e, which St. <HI>Paul</HI> intimates, 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 1. 2. <HI>Honor and pray for Kings, that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life;</HI> for where this holy Order is broken and abroga|ted, all peace and quietne&s;s (as our ci|vil Di&s;&s;entions prov'd) is di&s;turb'd, and no|thing but blood, wounds, and confu&s;ion follow. Or thirdly, This might &s;hew Gods Ordinance: For the Almighty commonly gives a healthy and long life to crown our obedience even before the Sons of men, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 37. 22. <HI>Jer.</HI> 17. 11. In this par|ticular the di&s;obedient Son was to be cut off by the hand of the Magi&s;trate, and was to be &s;toned, <HI>Deut.</HI> 21. 18. And <HI>Solomon</HI>
<PB N="21" REF="18"> tells us, <HI>Prov.</HI> 30. 17. <HI>The eye that mocketh at his Father, and de&s;pi&s;eth to obey his Mother, the Ravens of the valley &s;hall pick it out, and the young Eagles &s;hall eat it.</HI> By this we &s;ee that Gods Law was, that the undutiful Son should not be long-liv'd, should not live &s;o long as the dutiful and obedient. Yea &s;ometimes God executes this ven|geance with his own hands, as upon <HI>Co|rah</HI> and his rebellious A&s;&s;ociates. The Story of the Kings, of all ancient and modern Records will a&s;&s;ure us, That the Di&s;obedient, Thieves, Murtherers, Rebels, Traytors, were not long-liv'd; but peri&s;hed often by the &s;word and immature death.</P>
<P>BUT our Lover of Humility, at the end of his Paraphra&s;e on this Commandment, flatly deny'd all this from the Pulpit, (and I mu&s;t tell you in a Parenthe&s;is, that I fir&s;t animadverted on what <HI>W. C.</HI> preacht;) tho 'tis wi&s;ely omitted by the Pre&s;s; and affirm'd with no &s;mall confi|dence, (as <HI>G. S. W. G.</HI> and &s;everal others be&s;ides my &s;elf, will be depos'd;) viz. <HI>That we do &s;ee by Experience, That the re|bellious and undutiful to Parents do live &s;o</HI>
<PB N="22" REF="19"> <HI>long as tho&s;e that are dutiful and obedient.</HI> A pure Catechi&s;t; For this, I pre&s;ume, is no <HI>infinitely Soul-concerning point</HI> (if I may &s;peak in his own Dialect) or precious Doctrine to in&s;pirit either men or chil|dren to duty and obedience; but a grand Incentive for Villains to continue in their infernal plots and de&s;ignes; or, when being detected, a <HI>Salvo</HI> for them; and is, if we may believe our own Experience, and the Word of truth it &s;elf, a notorious fal&s;ity and delu&s;ion, and clearly evacu|ates Gods promi&s;es. For Myriads, we know, of Rebels and Murtherers, in the mo&s;t flouri&s;hing part of their lives, have been cut off by the &s;word of Ju&s;tice: But <HI>Mat.</HI> 5. 5. <HI>Ble&s;&s;ed are the meek; for they &s;hall inherit the earth.</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> (Dr. <HI>Ham.)</HI> very often hath a peculiar Critical &s;ignificati|on in the Go&s;pels, and refers to the Land of <HI>Judaea,</HI> and here by being promi&s;ed to the meek and obedient, looks di&s;tinctly on the fifth Commandment, &amp; in it on the Land, <HI>which the Lord thy God giveth thee,</HI> i. e. a fruitful pro&s;perous being here on earth, <HI>viz.</HI> long life and tranquillity;
<PB N="23" REF="19"> which is here &s;aid to belong by promi&s;e of God peculiarly to the meek. But when the exerci&s;es of this virtue of meekne&s;s and obedience in &s;ome &s;ingular conjun|ctures of time brings lo&s;&s;es, or death up|on them; they &s;hall richly be rewarded in another world, and be made amends abundantly there for all that the pra|ctice of this virtue hath brought on them.</P>
<P>BUT it may be &s;aid, (and that truly too, for ought I know;) that <HI>W. C.</HI> had not this <HI>(viz.</HI> That we do &s;ee by Expe|rience, <HI>&amp;c.)</HI> in his Notes. But this will not excu&s;e him; for &s;hould I extol and preach up the Doctrine and Di&s;cipline of the Church of <HI>England,</HI> (as in Duty and Con&s;cience I ought,) and my Notes &s;hould be very &s;ound and orthodox; yet if I &s;hould tell my Auditors <HI>ex tempore,</HI> or without my Notes, That the Do|ctrines of Tran&s;ub&s;tantiation, of Purga|tory, Invocation of Saints, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> are agree|able to Gods word; I know I ought and &s;hould be que&s;tioned for it, and my Notes would not keep me in my Par&s;onage
<PB N="24" REF="20"> without an open Recantation, &s;eeing there are hone&s;t Witne&s;&s;es enough to prove it.</P>
<P>BUT to do <HI>W. C.</HI> all the right imagi|nable, I &s;hall tran&s;cribe <HI>verbatim</HI> his new|model'd An&s;wers to two Texts of Scrip|ture, which he thought might contra|dict (as indeed they doe) his former A&s;&s;ertions.</P>
<P>FIRST <HI>Solomon</HI> &s;aith, <HI>Eccle&s;.</HI> 7. 17. <HI>Be not overmuch wicked, neither be thou fooli&s;h, why &s;houlde&s;t thou die before thy time?</HI></P>
<P>ANSW. (pag. 8.) <HI>He that dies before his time, dyes not before the time which God hath determined; an un&s;ea&s;onable death to man, doth not prevent Gods &s;ea&s;on: To clear which, we must di&s;tingui&s;h about death, which is Two|fold. Fir&s;t, Natural; Secondly, Violent. A man that dies a violent death, is &s;aid to dye be|fore his time which he might have reached un|to by the cour&s;e of nature; Sin cuts him off, before God cuts him off: But then God cuts him off for &s;in. Thus many dye before their time; and except in this &s;en&s;e, no man dies before his time.</HI></P>
<PB N="25" REF="20">
<P> TRULY Sir, in this &s;en&s;e (without aping you, &amp; &s;training for Rimes and Quibles,) 'tis perfect non&s;en&s;e; for how can a man that dies a Violent death, be properly &s;aid in any &s;en&s;e to dye before his time? when, according to your own words, <HI>(pag.</HI> 11.) God in his unchangeable pur|po&s;e hath appointed, and determined the very moment, manner, and place of eve|ry mans death; whether Natural or Vi|olent, whether by burning at the Stake, or hanging on the Gallows. And be|&s;ides, we cannot truly affirm of many &s;incere, pious, and virtuous men, that were remov'd hence by a Violent death; <HI>Jeremy</HI> was &s;toned, <HI>Ezekiel</HI> be|headed, <HI>I&s;aiah</HI> cut a&s;under, <HI>Eleazar,</HI> at the age of four&s;core years, cudgel'd to death, none of the ea&s;ie&s;t doubtle&s;s; mo&s;t of the Prophets and Apo&s;tles per&s;ecuted and &s;lain, St. <HI>Peter</HI> endur'd crucifixion with his head downward, according to his own reque&s;t, and St. <HI>Paul</HI> decollation, in one day at <HI>Rome,</HI> as <HI>Eu&s;ebius</HI> tells us; &s;ome burnt, others devoured by wild Bea&s;ts, or the like deaths, as St. <HI>Polycar|pus,</HI>
<PB N="26" REF="21"> <HI>Ignatius,</HI> St. <HI>Laurence, Cyprian,</HI> and Myriads which &s;uffer'd under <HI>Nero, Tra|jan, Antonius, Severus, Maximinus,</HI> and <HI>Diocle&s;ian</HI> who everted Churches, and made the &s;acred Bibles become fuel to devouring flames; We dare not, I &s;ay, judge, That Sin did cut tho&s;e glorious Saints off, (becau&s;e they &s;uffer'd Violent deaths,) before God did cut them off; and that then God did cut them off for &s;in: for this were a &s;igne of Gods ju|&s;tice, wrath, and fury. But rather that God did cut them off, before Sin did cut them off; either for the advancement of his honor and glory, the good of the Church, (for <HI>&s;anguis Martyrum e&s;t &s;emen Eccle&s;iae;)</HI> or to free them from fu|ture mi&s;eries and calamities, which otherwi&s;e might befal them. So <HI>I&s;aiah</HI> 57. 1. <HI>The righteous is taken away from the evil to come.</HI> All which are infallible To|kens of Gods infinite mercy and im|men&s;e love.</P>
<P>SECONDLY, <HI>David</HI> &s;aith, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 55. 2. <HI>That bloody and deceitful men, &s;hall not live out half their days.</HI></P>
<PB N="27" REF="21">
<P> ANSW. (pag. 9.) <HI>For an&s;wer to this you mu&s;t know (Beloved) that there is a general and &s;pecial, or per&s;onal limit of man's Life.</HI> 1. <HI>The general Limit is Seventy or Eighty years.</HI> P&s;al. 90. <HI>The few exceptions which &s;ome have made by exceeding this limit, weak|ens not this general Rule.</HI> 2. <HI>There is a par|ticular limit upon every per&s;on; the limit of one may be Forty years, when another is tied to Thirty, a third to Twenty, a fourth to Five, and a fifth perhaps may be tied to Four years; the&s;e are &s;pecial Limits upon &s;pecial men. Now when the P&s;almi&s;t &s;aith,</HI> That a bloody and deceitful man &s;hall not live out half his days; <HI>the meaning</HI> (the &s;ubverting) <HI>of it is, that he &s;hall not live out half the days of mans general limit: As &s;uppo&s;e a bloody man be cut off at Thirty, he hath not lived out half Seventy or Eighty years, which are the common terms of Life pre&s;cribed unto Man|kind, beyond which they cannot pa&s;s; but this man lives out all the days of his &s;pecial and per|&s;onal limit, or all his days which are appoint|ed as his portion in the Land of the living. Thus the bloodie&s;t man that is, let him dye</HI>
<PB N="28" REF="22"> <HI>when he will, dyes in the particular &s;ea&s;on ap|pointed unto him.</HI></P>
<P>A prolix, frivolous, and childi&s;h An|&s;wer, tho perhaps he may think it very Schola&s;tick; the &s;ub&s;tance whereof in &s;hort is this: <HI>David</HI> (Beloved) dreams, That bloody men &s;hall not live out half their days; but I (your Oracle) a&s;&s;ure you, That the bloodie&s;t man that is, lives out all the days of his &s;pecial and per&s;o|nal limit; or all his days which are ap|pointed as his portion in the Land of the living. If this is &s;ound and Authentique, (profound Sir) What difference then (in re&s;pect of a long Life or a &s;hort,) is there between the blood-thir&s;ty and merciful, the fraudulent and ju&s;t? For a precious Saint can but live out all the days of his &s;pecial and per&s;onal limit, or all the days which are appointed as his portion in the Land of the Living; and &s;o (in your judgment) doth every notorious and pre|cious Rogue. But &s;uppo&s;e a Felon or Murtherer is executed at three or four|&s;core
<PB N="29" REF="22"> years (as hath often happen'd,) then, according to your own account, his days cannot be &s;aid to be &s;hortned in any re&s;pect; for he hath liv'd out all the days both of his general and &s;pecial limit. If our popular Holderforth is not pa&s;t &s;hame and all goodne&s;s, he may do well (if the <HI>Parcae</HI> will permit,) to recal his Pamphlets, which with a great deal of o&s;tentation he has &s;catter'd among&s;t the Vulgar, and re&s;ign them to <HI>Vulcan,</HI> or my Lords-hou&s;e for nece&s;&s;ary u&s;es; for he that hath but half an eye, may without an Optick-gla&s;s &s;ee, how notoriou&s;ly the &s;acred Writ is contradicted, tortur'd, and &s;candaliz'd by his petty Di&s;tinctions.</P>
<P>THE Almighty, we concede, may permit (but not ab&s;olutely and peremp|torily determine and appoint,) the fall either of this man or that; yea he may permit (for ends be&s;t known to him&s;elf,) the meek, obedient, and virtuous to &s;uf|fer by or with the prophane: As we have known Royal Innocency to be ar|raign'd as the vile&s;t Criminal, and he that was inferior to God only, to be mur|ther'd,
<PB N="30" REF="23"> like the holy Je&s;us, by the fury and out-cry of the un&s;table Multitude, the very Scum and Rabble. Yet this He|roick and ever ble&s;&s;ed Martyr never re|pin'd, and exclaim'd again&s;t Gods me|thods and dealings as unju&s;t or unequal; but gave us the rea&s;on of all our &s;ad di&s;a&s;ters and heavy pre&s;&s;ures. Our Sins (&s;aith he in his <GAP DESC="foreign">) being ripe, there was no preventing of Gods ju&s;tice from reaping that glory in our calami|ties, which we rob'd him of in our pro|&s;perity. For puni&s;hments are but the re&s;ults of &s;ins; and therefore what&s;oe|ver Malignity lies in the effect becomes entirely chargeable upon the Cau&s;e, and we are to look upon our Vice not only as our greate&s;t but our only unhappine&s;s. Our numerous and gygantick Provoca|tions did call for judgments, and that the expiring of the <HI>Breath of our No&s;trils,</HI> was a great one, the whole Nation &s;oon felt, lay ga&s;ping, ready to bid adieu to all &s;ublunary comforts. For God in his ju|&s;tice to Us &s;horten'd his days, and &s;uf|fer'd for a time Tyrants on his Throne,
<PB N="31" REF="23"> to become Sirens and Crocodiles to fa&s;ci|nate and trapan, and Lictors to &s;curge us; but in his mercy to Him, remov'd him hence, from the evil and mi&s;eries approaching; and crown'd him fir&s;t with Martyrdom, and then with glory. <HI>Una eadem&abque; manus vulnus opemque.</HI> The rod of our Maker when it falls upon the virtuous, being, like that of an indulgent Parent upon his only Child, the &s;trong|e&s;t argument of love and affection. He intends the greate&s;t pity, when to the Spectators that are ignorant of his de|&s;ignes, he &s;eems mo&s;t cruel and inexora|ble; and when he &s;eems to patronize and favour the Stratagems of the vici|ous, 'tis only that Their fall and His glory might be the greater; and that they might in the height of their arro|gancie and pre&s;umption, like lofty <HI>Pha|raoh</HI> and his army, eternally &s;ink and peri&s;h. But many incon&s;iderate men, we know, are much &s;tartled, and &s;ecretly murmur;</P>
<Q><PB N="32" REF="24"> Qui cumres hominum tantac aligine volvi A&s;picerent, laeto&s;&abque; diu florere nocentes Vexari&abque; pios.</Q>
<P>So holy <HI>David</HI> had a zealous indignation again&s;t the &s;ucce&s;&s;es of the wicked, and repin'd to &s;ee them thrive in wealth and grandeur; but when he had recour&s;e to Gods Sanctuary, and enter'd into a &s;eri|ous con&s;ideration of his coun&s;els and providence, he &s;oon perceiv'd the Scene to be alter'd, and that their Pro&s;perity was no more but like that of a dream whil&s;t it la&s;ts 'tis imaginary not real. <HI>Fret not thy &s;elf then becau&s;e of evil doers, neither be thou envious again&s;t the workers of iniquity. For they &s;hall &s;oon be cut down like the gra&s;s, and wither as the green herb. But tho&s;e that wait upon the Lord, tho&s;e &s;hall inhe|rit the earth.</HI> P&s;al. 37. 1, 2, 9. The gene|ral common end of the wicked is un|timely exci&s;ion, &s;ignal puni&s;hments even in this Life; mind the &s;ad Exits of the <HI>Sodomites,</HI> of <HI>Herod, Judas, Simon Magus, Arius, Julian</HI> the Apo&s;tate; of the Con|&s;pirators
<PB N="33" REF="24"> and Murtherers of our late dread Soveraign, <HI>Dori&s;laus</HI> and <HI>A&s;cham</HI> &s;tab'd, <HI>Hoyle</HI> hang'd him&s;elf, <HI>Norton,</HI> being di&s;quieted in mind, dyed raving mad; <HI>Harri&s;on, Scot, Carew, Jones&punc; Scroop, Axtel,</HI> precious <HI>Hugh Peters</HI> hang'd and quar|ter'd: But we &s;hall not a&s;cribe their de|plorable and immature deaths as happe|ning unto them from the eternal Decrees, or from Gods unchangeable purpo&s;e; but from their own demerits, and Gods ju&s;t judgments. Whereas the Lot of the pious and obedient is length of days, and pro&s;perity in this World; but if that fail, as God in his infinite wi&s;dom &s;ometimes &s;ees good tha<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> it &s;hould, an abundant compen&s;ation of bli&s;s in the Life to come &s;hall be mo&s;t certain. <HI>He that lo&s;eth his life for my &s;ake</HI> (&s;aith our Saviour) <HI>&s;hall find it.</HI> Mat. 10. 39. The lo&s;s of a &s;hort temporary Life &s;hall be rewarded with an eternal.</P>
<P>THERE is one place (upon which <HI>W. C.</HI> wholy depends that at the fir&s;t a&s;pect may &s;eem to favour a fatal Period; <HI>Job.</HI> 14. 5. <HI>His days are determined, the number</HI>
<PB N="34" REF="25"> <HI>of his months are with thee, thou ha&s;t appoint|ed his bounds which he cannot pa&s;s.</HI> Upon which words two learned Criticks com|ments thus: <HI>Significat hic apud Deum e&s;&s;e certi&s;&s;imam prae&s;cientiam dierum &amp; men&s;ium quibus homo victurus &s;it, ex qua tamen non &s;equitur nece&s;&s;itas rei (nam res e&s;t contingens) &s;ed tantum nece&s;&s;itas con&s;equentiae.</HI> The days and years of mans life, in re&s;pect of Gods pre&s;cience are determined and mo&s;t cer|tain; but from hence it doth not follow that the thing it &s;elf, mans time is nece&s;|&s;arily determined, (for 'tis contingent and vareable,) but only the nece&s;&s;ity of the con&s;equence; becau&s;e God, who&s;e eyes cannot be deceiv'd, &s;ees all things <HI>uno intuitu,</HI> that our days and months will be thus long, or thus &s;hort.</P>
<P>SO the Metaph. tell us: <HI>Quae Deus prae&s;cit non po&s;&s;unt non evenire, &amp; &s;ic habent nece&s;&s;itatem fiendi. Id&abque; propter infallibili|tatem prae&s;cientiae divinae. Res enim &s;ic di|cuntur nece&s;&s;ariae non ni&s;i per connexionem ad aliud, hoc e&s;t, prae&s;cientiam divinam. Loquen|do autem de rebus in &s;e &s;pectatis, quae prae&s;ciun|tur, remota connexione ad prae&s;cientiam divi|nam,</HI>
<PB N="35" REF="25"> <HI>non omnes res &s;unt nece&s;&s;ariae, quae ne|ce&s;&s;it as e&s;t con&s;equentis. Sunt enim multa in mundo ca&s;ualia, fortuita, libera, quae omnia in &s;e &s;pectata non nece&s;saria &s;ed contingentia &s;unt. Fiunt proculdubio cuncta, ait</HI> Boet. <HI>quae futur a Deus praeno&s;cit; &s;ed eorum quaedam profici&s;cuntur de libero; quae quamvis eveni|ant, tamen propriam naturam non amittunt, &s;ed priu&s;quam fierent etiam non evenire po|tui&s;sent.</HI></P>
<P>AND &s;ays the other; <HI>Cau&s;ae naturales &amp; morales &s;uos habent effectus in vita homi|nis con&s;ervanda. Deus igitur illas in con&s;ti|tuendo termino vitae, ut omni&s;cius re&s;pexit, ita tamen ut eas, uhi velit inhibere po&s;sit.</HI> Natu|ral and moral Cau&s;es, as whol&s;om food, air, water, continency, temperance <HI>&amp;c.</HI> have their effects and operations in pre|&s;erving mans Life; and God in termina|ting and &s;etting Boundaries to mans Life, as he is Omni&s;cient and fore&s;ees all things, hath an eye and re&s;pect to the&s;e; yet &s;o that he can put a Stop to tho&s;e natural and moral Cau&s;es, can in|hibit them, as in his infinite wi&s;dom he &s;ees fit. As for Example, God &s;ees that
<PB N="36" REF="26"> &s;uch a man living and doing thus and thus, will, according to the ordinary cour&s;e of nature, certainly live thus long, &s;uppo&s;e fifty, &s;ixty, &s;eventy years; yet God may cau&s;e that this man that might live thus long, &s;hall dye much &s;ooner, as at twenty or thirty. So God in his mercy may &s;horten the days of many righteous men, take them away from the evil to come; or in his ju&s;tice cut off the wicked, that according to the &s;trength of nature, and the &s;et bounds thereof, might have liv'd much longer. Yea <HI>Job</HI> him&s;elf is again&s;t a fatal Period, and therefore we cannot imagine if he intended it in the 14 Chap. he would have contradicted both him&s;elf and it in the 21 Chap. 19, 20, 21. ver. God layeth up his iniquity for his children, he rewardeth him, and he &s;hall know it. His eyes &s;hall &s;ee his de&s;truction, and he &s;hall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. For what plea&s;ure hath he in his hou&s;e after him, <HI>when the number of his months are cut off in the mid&s;t. W. C.</HI> being now forc'd from his &s;trong Hold, which he thought
<PB N="37" REF="26"> invincible;; 'twill be his wi&s;e&s;t way to addre&s;s him&s;elf to the Alchoran, where he may find more kindne&s;s, and need not fear a &s;econd repul&s;e.</P>
<P>NEITHER may mens lives be &s;hor|ten'd only, but al&s;o extended; whereof we have a pregnant example in the 2 Kings 20. beg. For God plainly &s;igni|fied to <HI>Hezekiah,</HI> that he &s;hould dye of that very di&s;temper he then labour'd un|der; for he was come to the &s;et Bounds, beyond which he could not pa&s;s, except Omnipotency be plea&s;ed to remove them farther. So ver. 1. <HI>Hezekiah</HI> was &s;ick unto death, and the Prophet <HI>I&s;aiah</HI> came, and &s;aid to him. <HI>Thus &s;aith the Lord, Set thy hou&s;e in order, for thou &s;halt dye, and not live.</HI> Yet the immutable Creator that decrees mutability, (as the learned Dr. <HI>Jack&s;on</HI> words it,) and who&s;e promi&s;es and menaces are not ab&s;olute but condi|tional; hearing his Prayers, and &s;eeing his tears, remov'd the Boundary, reco|ver'd him with a lump of figs, (to demon|&s;trate the u&s;e and nece&s;&s;ity of means,) and added to his Life fifteen years. And
<PB N="38" REF="27"> therefore <HI>W. C</HI>'s Glo&s;s is very prodigious and Enthu&s;ia&s;tick, (pag. 8.) <HI>The fifteen years added to</HI> Hezekiah<HI>'s Life, were added to</HI> Hezekiah<HI>'s date, not to Gods.</HI> Hezekiah <HI>looked upon him&s;elf as a dead man, that he &s;hould dye of that very &s;ickne&s;s,</HI> (and good rea&s;on, &s;eeing God told him &s;o;) <HI>and &s;o in all likelihood did his be&s;t Phy&s;icia<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">s, for he was &s;ick of the Plague; but both he and they were deceiv'd: for God in his unchangeable pur|po&s;e, had appointed fifteen years more to</HI> He|zekiah<HI>'s Life.</HI></P>
<P>STRANGE indeed: For we find in the Chapter no &s;uch learned Cheats and Pick-pockets, (as all Phy&s;itians are, &s;up|po&s;ing a fatal Period;) nor the lea&s;t &s;ha|dow of &s;uch an interpretation: for God him&s;elf &s;aid by the mouth of his Prophet, <HI>I have heard thy Prayer, and I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this City</HI> &amp;c. And as a &s;ign that God him&s;elf would effect this, and did not prevaricate; a Miracle is wrought, he brought the &s;hadow (the Sun) ten de|grees backward by which it had gon down in the dial of <HI>Ahaz.</HI> But were the
<PB N="39" REF="27"> former Paraphra&s;e true, God him&s;elf made&mdash;, and the Prophet told a Lie, and was deceiv'd, as well as <HI>Heze|kiah</HI> and his Phy&s;icians; and the words &s;hould not run, The Lord will, or did really add to <HI>Hezekiah</HI>'s days fifteen years; but <HI>Hezekiah,</HI> the Prophet, the Phy&s;ici|ans, with all the Nobles and Courtiers, not well under&s;tanding this infinitely Soul-concerning Point, <HI>viz.</HI> a Fatal Pe|riod; were &s;o &s;imple and credulous as to believe that God had miraculou&s;ly exten|ded <HI>Hezekiah</HI>'s Life: (and who can think otherwi&s;e, that reads and believes this &s;acred Hi&s;tory?) Whereas God had ab|&s;olutely decreed from eternity, or in his unchangeable purpo&s;e appointed, (there is not the lea&s;t difference in the Phra&s;es,) that <HI>Hezekiah</HI> &s;hould live fifteen years longer; which being not expir'd, 'twas impo&s;&s;ible for the Plague, or for God him|&s;elf to put an end to his days. A feeble and impotent God that can neither ex|tend nor &s;horten the Lives of his Crea|tures. 'Tis wonderful to &s;ee, that one petty Di&s;tinction (in Mans date, but
<PB N="40" REF="28"> not in Gods,) &s;hould be of &s;uch mighty force as to enervate &s;o many plain Texts of Scripture, as have been, and may be produc'd for the prolonging and &s;hort|ning of mans Life; and to make them &s;peak quite contrary, even to become like a No&s;e of Wax, to turn either to this &s;ide or that, to prove truth to be fal&s;hood, and fal&s;hood truth. Should I be trou|bled with &s;uch an airy and Athei&s;tical Whim&s;ie, as to affirm with &s;ome of the ancient Peripateticks and Ethnicks, That the World is eternal; (tho <HI>Ari&s;totle</HI> him|&s;elf doubted <GAP DESC="foreign">.) And again&s;t it is objected <HI>Gen.</HI> 1. 1. <HI>In the be|ginning God created the heaven and the earth,</HI> Ergo <HI>Mundus non fuit ab aeterno.</HI> I &s;hall mo&s;t humbly crave <HI>W. C</HI>'s leave, borrow his almighty di&s;tinction, and an&s;wer very magi&s;terially, as he did to the Lords ad|ding to <HI>Hezekiah</HI>'s days fifteen years. 'Tis true, in mans date, <HI>viz.</HI> in the date and ac|count of <HI>Mo&s;es, Aaron,</HI> and their Bigots, the World had a beginning; but in Gods date 'twas eternal: for God in his un|changeable purpo&s;e had appointed it
<PB N="41" REF="28"> from Eternity, Such &s;tuff as this will pa&s;s for &s;uperfine Doctrine; for power|ful Preaching and &s;ublime Raptures, with tho&s;e that have their In&s;tructers of the <HI>Geneva</HI> &s;tamp in as great admiration be|cau&s;e of advantage, <HI>Jude</HI> 16. as the &s;im|ple Papi&s;ts have their Monks and Confe&s;|&s;ors, or even as his Holine&s;s the Pope him&s;elf.</P>
<P>THE learned and judicious <HI>Beverovi|cius,</HI> before he could think that his Pro|fe&s;&s;ion could find any con&s;iderable enter|tainment among men, thought it fit to be &s;tated by the knowing men of his Age; <HI>viz.</HI> Whether there were a fatal end of every man's life, beyond which it were not in the power and compa&s;s of art, &s;o|briety, or good managery to extend it; and as little in the power of any Di&s;ea&s;e or Intemperance, or even the Famine, Plague, or Sword to &s;horten it? Should the &s;ame Que&s;tion be again &s;tarted, no con&s;idering men, I pre&s;ume, would hold the affirmative. For we daily &s;ee the &s;ad effects and re&s;ults of intemperance and inordinate living; we have often
<PB N="42" REF="29"> &s;een, felt, or heard of the impartial and mighty power of the Sword and Pe&s;ti|lence; how Myriads have been cut off, that according to the &s;trength and ordi|nary cour&s;e of nature, and Gods com|mon Providence, might have liv'd much longer. And therefore we are not &s;o &s;tupid and zealou&s;ly Lunatick, as not to fear the frequent Afterclaps (Feavers, Drop&s;ies, Surfeits,) of high and con&s;tant debaucheries, or the Fury of in&s;ulting Enemies, and infectious Di&s;ea&s;es. Our mo&s;t mortifyed and &s;toute&s;t Combatants for fatal and nece&s;&s;ary events, will &s;uffer their actions to contradict their Faith, (tho <HI>Prote&s;tatio contra factum non valet;)</HI> and be thought timorous and ignorant Creatures, even quake and fly, to &s;ave their Lives, from any imminent danger; which, &s;uppo&s;ing their firm belief and confidence of a fatal Period, is a piece of notorious Folly. For if neither intem|perance, the Sword, or Plague, can &s;hor|ten our days one minute; I would fain know, in re&s;pect of our Health and Safe|ty, why we &s;hould dread them, or avert
<PB N="43" REF="29"> from either; why <HI>Bacchus</HI> and <HI>Venus,</HI> dai|ly carouzing and ob&s;cene Embraces are re&s;pected, yea are known and profe&s;t Foes to Longaevity; why we may not re&s;t as &s;ecurely in a Pe&s;t-hou&s;e, as on a bed of Ro&s;es, as &s;afe before a Cannons mouth, as in our Clo&s;ets? And &s;o our Saviours Advice (who minds the wel|fare of our Bodies as well as of our Souls,) mu&s;t needs be vain and ridicu|lous, <HI>Mat.</HI> 10. 23. <HI>When they per&s;ecute you in this City, flee into another.</HI> For no A&s;ylum, or City of Refuge (granting a fatal Peri|od) can &s;ave us, or extend our days the lea&s;t point of time. And &s;o this precept or prudent Coun&s;el of Chri&s;t to his Di&s;ci|ples, (viz. <HI>To flee from Per&s;ecution,)</HI> is as <HI>thwarting</HI> to <HI>W. C.</HI>'s. Doctrine, as he tells us <HI>(pag.</HI> 18.) that of <HI>Martha</HI>'s to him was; If thou had&s;t been here my Brother had not dyed. Sir 'tis my hearty reque&s;t that you would not be pa&s;&s;ionate, and que&s;tion the Holy Je&s;us, as you &s;eem to do poor &s;illy St. <HI>Martha,</HI> for her confiding in our Saviours power, and love to her Brother; That if he had been there,
<PB N="44" REF="30"> <HI>Lazarus</HI> had not dyed; &s;aying, Is not this advice a thwarting of my Doctrine? Can fleeing from Per&s;ecution free us from Death, or extend our days one minute? &s;eeing <HI>all the particular circum&s;tance, rela|ting to it</HI> (viz. the time, manner, and place) <HI>are unchangeably appointed by Gods in&s;upera|ble Power.</HI> This Coun&s;el, 'tis confe&s;t, of the Theanthropos, is a thwarting to your fatal and dogmatical A&s;&s;ertions; and &s;o is <HI>Davids</HI> addre&s;s to the Lord, P&s;al. 102. 24. <HI>O my God, take me not away in the mid&s;t of my days.</HI> Here is thwart upon thwart to try your <HI>Job-</HI>like Patience, and preg|nant Wit, in forging &s;ome new Di&s;tincti|ons, and riming Eva&s;ions, &s;eeing the Old ones are detected, and already ca|&s;hier'd.</P>
<P>BUT farther, Were this Stoical Opini|on (fit indeed for &s;anguinary De&s;igns, to animate <HI>Turks</HI> and ambitious Rebels;) mo&s;t clear and demon&s;trative; the Phy|&s;icians then may burn their Books, <HI>Galen</HI> and <HI>Hypocrates;</HI> and the Apothecaries and Surgeons may pull down their Shops, and hang them&s;elves (if they are a&s;ham'd
<PB N="45" REF="30"> to beg,) for want of bread, or el&s;e the Magi&s;trates may do it for them, as being the vile&s;t cheats in Nature; but howe|ever let me advi&s;e them that for pity &s;ake, that they would no longer vex and torment their &s;imple Patients with Cau|&s;ticks and Scarifyings, nor &s;aw off Legs and Arms tho gangreen'd: the very mo|ment, manner, and place of their Death are fixt and unalterable; no Art imagi|nable, no fervent Prayers, no gracious Providence can do them the lea&s;t good. If the Eternal Decree is, that this Patient &s;hall dye of this gangrene, 'tis fru&s;trane|ous, yea cruelty to cut off the mortifyed member; but if the Decree is, that he &s;hall live longer, and dye of &s;ome other Di&s;temper; let the Part be never &s;o much putrifyed, he &s;hall certainly (tho you apply not the lea&s;t remedy,) live out all the days determined, or (as <HI>W. C.</HI> mo&s;t profoundly words it,) <HI>all the days of his &s;pecial and per&s;onal limit.</HI> What a ridicu|culous and &s;illy thing 'tis, (&s;uppo&s;ing a fatal Period) for pregnant Females &s;o highly to concern them&s;elves for fear of
<PB N="46" REF="31"> abortion, to be &s;o &s;ollicitous and inqui|&s;itive after a knowing Mid-wife, when old gooddy Tittle-tattle can perform the Office as well; and, when being deli|ver'd, to undergo &s;uch cruel thir&s;ts, and to take &s;uch care and pains about the New born Infant? If the Decree is, that both the Mother and the Child &s;hall live, a good Midwife or a bad, or none at all, quarts and pottles of &s;trong liquor, or clear Po&s;&s;ets, Fi&s;h or Fle&s;h, they cannot dye; but if the Decree is, that one or both &s;hall Dye, all the charges and care imaginable will be ineffectual. And therefore 'tis no &s;mall madne&s;s to ca&s;t away our Mony, and to be concern'd (as &s;ome &s;oft-natur'd Go&s;&s;ips are,) about this Nicety or that; for <HI>Praede&s;t. ad finem, praede&s;t. quoque ad media,</HI> if God has ordain|ed Life, he has likewi&s;e unavoidably, or in his unchangeable purpo&s;e ordain'd and appointed the means, or el&s;e he will pre&s;erve it without them; but if Death is in the Pot, there is no avoiding of the Broth. This <HI>W. C.</HI> (if he under&s;tands his own Principles, which is much to be
<PB N="47" REF="31"> doubted;) and all the Irre&s;pective Re|probatarians hold, and endeavour to ju|&s;tifie; which takes away the liberty of mans will, and makes him inferior to Brutes, that by natural in&s;tinct choo&s;e what may conduce to the pre&s;ervation both of them&s;elves and their &s;pecies, and avoid what&s;oever is noxious and injuri|ous to them; whereas poor man is as &s;en&s;ele&s;s, and incapacitated to do him|&s;elf either good or hurt, as a Stock or a Stone. For if the Decree is Life, it &s;hall be life, do what we will; if Death, do what we can, Death. How ab&s;urd and contrary to rea&s;on, experience, and to Gods frequent and &s;erious Prote&s;tations and Invitations this is, the meane&s;t ca|pacity may ea&s;ily judge?</P>
<P>SHOULD a man in a &s;udden and violent Di&s;temper, a Surfeit, Pleuri&s;y, Apoplexy, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> de&s;pi&s;e and deride the known and u|&s;ual Remedies, (as many of this Per&s;wa|&s;ion have done; tho the mo&s;t knowing of them will not tru&s;t and depend upon this fatal <HI>Faith,</HI> but in their Sickne&s;s are as willing to &s;end for a judicious Phy&s;itian
<PB N="48" REF="32"> as any;) and tell his mourning Friends and Relations, that he will not &s;o much &s;u&s;pect God as to try the skill of man, or be &s;o imprudent as to fee a Fool or a Cheat: for the time, manner, and place of his Death are unchangeably appoint|ed by Gods in&s;uperable Power. And therefore why do you talk of the u&s;e of Means? when the &s;tronge&s;t Poy&s;on can|not &s;horten my days; nor the riche&s;t Cordials, or God him&s;elf extend them one moment beyond my &s;pecial and per|&s;onal limit, beyond the time appointed as my Portion in the land of the living. And this I know to be true, for the Se|raphical Preacher that taught and con|firmed me in this <HI>&s;ecret and hidden point;</HI> (for Gods revealed word is again&s;t it,) is as infallible in the Pulpit, as the Pope is in Cathedra, and when there can ex|plicate all ob&s;cure doubts and hard Que|ries, as ea&s;ily as crack a nut with a ham|mer. I &s;hall for brevity &s;ake dilate only upon one, (tho I have been credibly in|form'd of many others, <HI>viz.</HI> How many Millions that were at Church one Lords
<PB N="49" REF="32"> day, yet were in Hell the next; And that Hell is <HI>Spatium infinitum in loco fini|to;</HI> infernally wi&s;e truly.) The next Sabbath day after he had inform'd us of the certainty of a fatal Period; from the &s;ame infallible Chair in <HI>O. C.</HI> Church, for the &s;atisfaction of a zealous and &s;crupu|lous Brother, he inform'd us likewi&s;e of what &s;ub&s;tance our immortal Souls were made, viz. <HI>That the Souls of men are made of the very &s;ame Sub&s;tance that the Angels are.</HI> Had our Angelical Praedicator a&s;&s;erted, That the Souls of men are made of the &s;ame Sub&s;tance that the Man in the Moon is; his credulous and all-ear'd Creatures might have believ'd him; tho others might have thought him either Luna|tick, or troubled with a Vertigo, or el&s;e a little crackt in the Pericranion. And indeed the truth of the one, is no more apparent than that of the other; for the be&s;t Metaphy&s;icians affirm, That the An|gels and Souls of men are of a divers &s;pe|cies, and &s;o doubtle&s;s of a divers &s;ub|&s;tance. <HI>Nam e&s;&s;entia animae ex natur&agrave; &s;u&agrave; e&s;t incompleta &amp; partialis, &amp; implicat natu|ralem</HI>
<PB N="50" REF="33"> <HI>propen&s;ionem ad materiam. At ver&ograve; tale quid e&s;sentiae Angelicae non convenit, quae e&s;t totalis &amp; completa: Id ergo indicium ma|nife&s;tum e&s;t diver&s;itatis &s;pecificae.</HI> And there|fore I &s;hall not make this an Article of my Creed, <HI>viz.</HI> That the Souls of men are made of the very &s;ame Sub&s;tance that the Angels are; before I am a&s;certain'd by this grand Philo&s;opher, who forget|ting his Humility talks as if he had com|menced Doctor with the Angels in Heaven; <HI>viz.</HI> That there is not the lea&s;t difference between Spiritual and immate|rial Sub&s;tances, tho there is between gro&s;s and corporeal. But to digre&s;s no farther; Should there, I &s;ay, be &s;uch a mad Zealot for a fixt and inevitable Pe|riod, that would try the truth of it by a plain hazard of his Life, <HI>felo de &s;e,</HI> or the violation of the &s;ixth Commandment, <HI>Thou &s;halt not kill,</HI> e&s;pecially thy &s;elf, by refu&s;ing lawful and nece&s;&s;ary means or|dain'd by God him&s;elf, will be none of his &s;malle&s;t Crimes at the great and ge|neral Audit.</P>
<P>SHOULD we &s;ee one in an exta&s;ie, in a furious rage or di&s;content, drink Poy|&s;on,
<PB N="51" REF="33"> Stab, Hang, or ca&s;t him&s;elf from a Precipice; would we peremptorily con|clude, (like <HI>W. C.)</HI> that this was the ve|ry moment, this the very kind and place of Death, where this de&s;perate and wretched Mi&s;creant &s;hould be hurried off the Stage of this World by a fatal and ab&s;olute Decree? The Lord forbid that we &s;hould harbor &s;uch cruel thoughts of him that made and form'd us; that hath proclaim'd him&s;elf, and we dare believe him, to be merciful; that he is no <GAP DESC="foreign">, and willeth not the death of a Sinner, but rather that he &s;hould turn and live. And can we then be &s;o prophane and &s;otti&s;h, as to aver, even in Print, that this mad Creature, and Legions be&s;ides that came to fearful and deplorable ends, by Melancholy, De&s;pair, the Temptations of Satan, by Venery, Debauchery, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> were inevitably de|creed by God, or in his immutable pur|po&s;e determined and appointed to be|come their own Executioners?</P>
<P>BUT <HI>W. C.</HI> to make his &s;ordid matter
<PB N="52" REF="34"> as clear as the Sun in its Meridian, in|informs us; <HI>(pag.</HI> 16.) <HI>That there are Two</HI> (he might &s;ay as truly, ten hundred thou|&s;and) <HI>&s;orts of Divine appointments, What &s;hould be. What &s;hall be. What &s;hould be: He hath &s;hewed thee, O man, what is right; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do ju&s;tly, to love Mercy, and to walk Humbly with thy God. God hath appointed that men &s;hould be &s;ober, temperate, true, hone&s;t, ju&s;t and &s;quare in their dealings; God hath appoint|ed that men &s;hould read, hear, pray, repent, believe, be convicted, and live holily. The&s;e appointments of the Divine Maje&s;ty, are dai|ly di&s;appointed and violated by wicked and ungodly men.</HI></P>
<P>HERE (and in &s;everal other places, which would be too tedious to tran|&s;cribe,) our Oracle contradicts him&s;elf; for he would have all Gods Decrees and Appointments to be peremptory and ab|&s;olute, impo&s;&s;ible to be di&s;appointed. So but three lines before the Mi&s;terious Di&s;tinction, he tells us; <HI>Human appoint|ments come to nothing, when God is again&s;t them, but Divine appointments &s;hall stand,</HI>
<PB N="53" REF="34"> that is cannot be di&s;appointed, And tho he &s;tiles <HI>What &s;hould be</HI> a Divine appoint|ment, as well as <HI>What &s;hall be;</HI> yet pre|&s;ently forgetting him&s;elf, he rightly in|forms us, (tho directly contrary to his former Po&s;itions,) That tho&s;e Divine ap|pointments of <HI>What &s;hould be, are daily di&s;|appointed and violated by wicked and ungod|ly men.</HI> And by this mo&s;t ridiculous Di|&s;tinction, he makes God to decree con|tradictions; that altho God in his un|changeable purpo&s;e hath appointed that All men &s;hould be Holy, do Ju&s;tly, and by con&s;equence be &s;aved; yet the ge|nerality (as the event proves,) <HI>&s;hould, or &s;hall (utrum horum mavis)</HI> be unholy, yea nece&s;&s;arily damn'd. Which directs me to &s;peak &s;omething concerning the Future State of the Soul.</P>
<P>THE great Potentate of the Univer&s;e, 'tis true, may per|mit, <NOTE PLACE="marg">The Future State of the Soul.</NOTE> but not <HI>decree to permit,</HI> (as we were once told by <HI>W. C</HI>'s. learned Champion:) or in his im|mutable purpo&s;e ab&s;olutely determine and appoint either this Sin, or that Evil: for
<PB N="54" REF="35"> then the Puni&s;her of Sin mu&s;t needs be the Author of it, and poor man mu&s;t &s;uffer for that which 'twas impo&s;&s;ible for him to avoid: and the Almighty, we know, is not oblig'd by a Miracle always to hinder men from mi&s;ery and perdition. For he has made us ratio|nal Creatutes, and gives us &s;trength and grace, if we will but u&s;e and im|prove it, to follow that which is good and laudable, and to e&s;chew the con|trary; to live well and contented, tho under the heavie&s;t pre&s;&s;ures, in this World, and after death, by the mer|rits of the holy Je&s;us, who hath tri|umph't over both Hell and the Grave, to a&s;cend the Heavens, and to be crown'd with glory and immortality.</P>
<P>AND God, we willingly grant, is immutable, <HI>James</HI> 1. 17. <HI>Heb.</HI> 6. 17. but then we mu&s;t know and remember, that this Immutability does not limit or confine God, or determine, con|&s;train, or force mens wills and actions; or certainly and nece&s;&s;arily appoint or
<PB N="55" REF="35"> infer either this man's bli&s;s, or that man's mi&s;ery.</P>
<Q>IMMUTABILITAS divinae volun|tatis non e&s;t intelligenda po&s;&s;itiv&ecirc;, hoc e&s;t qua&s;i Deus non po&s;&s;it velle mutatio|nem vel varietatem rerum: Nec in &s;en&s;u divi&s;o, hoc e&s;t, antequam qua&s;i uni oppo&s;itorum conjuncta e&s;t. An|tequam enim Deus decernit punire aliquem hominem, poterat uti&abque; non decernere. Et haec e&s;t ip&s;a radix li|bertatis. Unde &s;i aliquod Agens dice|retur immutabile in &s;en&s;u divi&s;o, re|vera non e&s;&s;et liberum, quia libertas con&s;i&s;tit in hoc, ut po&s;&s;it quis divi&s;iv&egrave; velle &amp; non velle idem. Sed immu|tabilitas voluntatis divinae intelligen|da e&s;t in &s;en&s;u compo&s;ito, hoc e&s;t, Si Deus actuali volitione &s;e ad aliquam rem determinaverit, e&s;t con&s;tans &amp; tenax propo&s;iti. Et haec e&s;t immuta|bilitas voluntatis, quae nihil pugnat cum eju&s;dem libertate.</Q>
<P>AND the &s;upreme Monarch of the
<PB N="56" REF="36"> whole World, 'tis confe&s;t on all &s;ides, &s;ees all things, all accidental and ca&s;ual events; but <HI>Prae&s;cientia nil ponit,</HI> this Fore|knowledg doth not nece&s;&s;itate or compel men either to this or that, to this Virtue or that Vice, to Life or Death.</P>
<Q>QUAE cau&s;as habent nece&s;&s;arias, prae|videt Deus eventura nece&s;&s;ario, quae ver&ograve; &agrave; cau&s;is contingentibus pendent, contingentur eventura praevidet: Et &s;ic rerum contingentia &s;eu mutabilitas abund&egrave; con&s;i&s;tere po&s;&s;it, cum divinae prae&s;cientiae infallibilitate; &s;iquidem cau|&s;as rerum non mutat, &s;ed qua&s;&abque; &s;uo loco relinquit. Porr<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">, nihil Deo prae|teritum vel futurum, &s;ed omnia prae|&s;entia. Res igitur ratione Divinae prae|&s;cientiae con&s;ideratae, non ut praeteritae, non ut futurae, &s;ed ut prae&s;entes con&s;i|derandae &s;unt. Veluti igitur res, quando &s;unt, nece&s;&s;ari&ograve; &s;unt, nec ta|men per hoc tollitur contingentia &s;eu mutabilitas rerum; poterint enim ali|ter fieri antequam ita fierent: Ita Deo omnes res infallibiliter notae &s;unt, ut
<PB N="57" REF="36"> pote ip&s;i prae&s;entes, quae tamen immo|ta &s;cientiae divinae certitudo non tollit aut libertatem arbitrij aut rerum con|tingentiam.</Q>
<P>THERE is a far greater di&s;parity be|tween Gods permi&s;&s;ion, his pre&s;cience, and his ab&s;olute decreeing and appoint|ing of Sin and final Mi&s;ery; than there is between one man's only permitting and &s;eeing another man to ruin him&s;elf wilfully, tho he hath often told him the Danger, and given him &s;uch Rules and Advice whereby he might have &s;e|cur'd him&s;elf from the lea&s;t peril;) and his forcing him to De&s;truction again&s;t his Will, again&s;t all Rea&s;on and Huma|nity.</P>
<P>YET <HI>Calvin,</HI> and his rigid polemick Pro&s;elytes contend, That all things, be they the mo&s;t Criminal and Prodigious Acts, happen <HI>ex Dei nutu, con&s;ilio, ordi|natione, &amp; impul&s;u.</HI> They endeavour in|deed to palliate this by telling us, That Sin is meerly privative, and that the
<PB N="58" REF="37"> Act is only from God, but not the Pra|vity of it; whereas Sin is po&s;itive, (as the Learned Dr. <HI>Pierce</HI> hath &s;ufficiently evinc'd;) and the Action and the Obli|quity of it cannot be disjoyn'd: and God doubtle&s;s upon no other account com|mands us to avoid every evil Action, but becau&s;e the <HI>ratio formalis</HI> of Sin re|&s;ides in the action it &s;elf.</P>
<P>I &s;hall tran&s;cribe &s;ome of their Melan|choly Dreams, concerning Gods mo&s;t Sacred Decrees and Actions; which may well make any &s;ober Chri&s;tian blu&s;h and tremble to read them.</P>
<Q><P>HOMICIDIUM aut adulterium, quan|tum Dei authoris, motoris ac impul&s;o|ris opus e&s;t, crimen non e&s;t; quantum autem hominis e&s;t, crimen ac &s;celus e&s;t.</P>
<P>DEUS movet latronem ad occi|dendum innocentem: <HI>E&s;au</HI> quoque in infantia mori non potuit, quem divina
<PB N="59" REF="37"> providentia in hoc creavit, ut viveret at&abque; impi&egrave; viveret.</P>
<P>DEUS poterit, &s;i minus propri lo|qui velimus, dici aliquo modo aut ini|tium aut cau&s;a peccati.</P>
<P>DEUS ita agit per mala in&s;trumen|ta, ut non tantum &s;inat illa agere, nec tantum moderetur eventum; &s;ed etiam excitet, moveat, regat, at&abque; hoc ip&s;o fine creet.</P>
<P>MALA, quae agunt impij, ideo a|gunt, quia ad haec fuere de&s;tinati.</P>
<P>DEUS homines ad adulteriam, ma|ledicta, mendacia, &s;anct&egrave; impellit, (&s;anct&egrave; <HI>here is well plac'd;)</HI> &amp; ad peccata quae palam prohibet, occulta ratione incitat.</P>
<P>HOMINEM non plus boni po&s;&s;e fa|cere, quam facit, nec plus mali omit|tere, quam omittit; imo Deum decre|vi&s;&s;e
<PB N="60" REF="38"> apud &s;e, quantum boni &amp; mali ab unoquoque prae&s;tari velit.</P>
<P>HOMO ad peccandum &agrave; Deo coar|ctatur.</P>
<P>FATEMUR ac docemus impios om|nes ita a divina providentia regi, ut nihil aliud efficere queant, quam quod Deus aeterno &s;uo &amp; immutabili con&s;ilio decrevit.</P>
<P>QUOD ais, iniquam &amp; hypocritam e&s;&s;e, &s;i Deus per decretum &s;uum nos ea facere nolit, quae ut faciamus praecipit; contraque facere non velit, quae nobis prohibet, fal&s;um e&s;t.</P>
<P>FRUSTRA de prae&s;cientia lis move|tur, ubi con&s;tat ordinatione potius &amp; nutu omnia evenire. <HI>Cal. In&s;t. l.</HI> 3. <HI>c.</HI> 23. <HI>&s;.</HI> 6.</P></Q>
<P>THEIR ancient and fir&s;t Ma&s;ters, the Gno&s;ticks and Manichees, could not ex|pre&s;s them&s;elves in har&s;her Notions,
<PB N="61" REF="38"> which make God not only to will and patronize Sin, but to impel and nece&s;&s;i|tate men to it; which is directly oppo|&s;ite to the Scriptures, which a&s;&s;ert, That our Merciful Creator is &s;o far from pro|moting or de&s;igning the lea&s;t Sin or Evil, that he prohibits and utterly abhors it, <HI>Zach.</HI> 8. 17. <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 5. 5. God, we concede, may deliver up without the lea&s;t inju|&s;tice, an impenitent Sinner to the obdu|ration of his Heart, e&s;pecially when all that is done, is not by infu&s;ing any ill quality into him, but by leaving him now to him&s;elf, who had &s;o often held out again&s;t Gods gracious calls and invi|tations. So <HI>Pharaoh</HI> having hardned his own heart after the &s;ixth Judgment, and over and above fru&s;trated <HI>Mo&s;es</HI>'s &s;pecial la&s;t warning: God then (but not before) is &s;aid to harden his Heart, and would have de&s;troyed him, but that he rai&s;ed him up, or pre&s;erv'd him alive, even for this purpo&s;e, to make the Divine Power more illu&s;triou&s;ly vi&s;ible in puni&s;hing &s;uch a notorious Offendor, that would not be moved with &s;o many Judgments
<PB N="62" REF="39"> of the Almighty. This indeed, <HI>viz. Pha|raohs</HI> obduration, was foretold by God from the fir&s;t of his &s;ending <HI>Mo&s;e<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> to him, <HI>Exod.</HI> 4. 21. But this foretelling it &s;o ear|ly is no argument that it was immedi|ately done, but on the contrary his own hardning his own heart is al&s;o foretold, <HI>Exod.</HI> 3. 19. God &s;hews Miracles and Signs before <HI>Pharaoh, Exod.</HI> 7. 10. and becau&s;e the Magicians did the like with their Inchantments, it follows <HI>Pharaoh</HI>'s heart was hardned (not he) as if it were God) hardned <HI>Pharaoh</HI>'s heart, but) <HI>Pha|raoh</HI>'s heart waxed hard, was &s;trong; or by an ordinary acception of <HI>Kal</HI> for <HI>Hithpa|hel, Pharaoh</HI>'s heart hardned it &s;elf. And &s;o it follows, <HI>v.</HI> 14. the Lord &s;aid unto <HI>Mo&s;es, Pharaoh</HI>'s heart is waxen hard, he refu&s;eth to let the People go. But after the judgment, that of Boyls and Blains, <HI>Exod.</HI> 9. 10. then 'tis &s;aid in a new Stile, the Lord hardned <HI>Pharaoh</HI>'s heart <HI>v.</HI> 12. Which was the very time at fir&s;t referr'd to by the prediction of God to <HI>Mo&s;es.</HI></P>
<P>IN like manner it happen'd to the per|ver&s;e
<PB N="63" REF="39"> Jews, who having re&s;i&s;ted Chri&s;t after all the re&s;t of the Prophets, kill'd the Son after the Servants, and rejected the Apo&s;tles Preaching after Chri&s;ts Re|&s;urrection: God then (but not before) gave them up to obduration, to become Ve&s;&s;els of Wrath fitted for De&s;truction. And after this the great Jehovah, that is a mo&s;t free and gracious Agent, and is not bound to this People or that, to primogeniture or the like, (as appears by the tipical Stories of <HI>I&s;mael</HI> and <HI>I&s;aac,</HI> of <HI>Jacob</HI> and <HI>E&s;au,</HI> Rom. 9.) out of his gratuitous Mercy by the Preaching of the Go&s;pel, call'd and invited the Gentiles to Chri&s;tianity, to &s;ave them upon Chri|&s;tian, without legal performances, upon internal and Evangelical, without exter|nal and Mo&s;aical obedience. (Peru&s;e the mo&s;t elaborate and Orthodox Writings of the mo&s;t Learned, Reverend, and Pious Dr. <HI>H. Hammond,</HI> concerning the&s;e and the like difficulties; and thou may&s;t receive the cleare&s;t &s;atisfaction.)</P>
<P>BUT it could never enter into my
<PB N="64" REF="40"> Brea&s;t to imagine, that God from Eter|nity did ab&s;olutely decree the Fall, and the inevitable Perdition of the major part of mankind; or (as <HI>W. C.</HI> words it, <HI>pag.</HI> 13.) <HI>that God drew out Death</HI>'s <HI>Commi&s;&s;ion before the Fall, but did not &s;et his Hand and Seal to confirm it till after the Fall; and that in the coun&s;el and purpo&s;e of God, Death was appointed unto men from Eternity:</HI> Which <HI>Calvin</HI> him&s;elf terms a dreadful and hor|rible Decree. <HI>Unde factum e&s;t, ut tot gen|tes un&agrave; cum liberis eorum infantibus aeternae morti involverat lap&s;us Adae ab&s;&abque; remedio, ni|&s;i quia Deo ita vi&s;um e&s;t? Decretum quidem</HI> horribile <HI>fateor,</HI> Cal. In&s;t. l. 3. c. 23 &s;. 7. 'Tis &s;trange I &s;ay, that &s;ome men &s;hould be of &s;uch &s;our and moro&s;e (I had almo&s;t &s;aid Di|abolical) natures, as peremptorily to main|tain, That God Created Souls purpo&s;ely to damn them; or to u&s;e the Doctrine and the very words of <HI>J. M, That God takes as great glory and delight in damning of men, as he doth in &s;aving of them.</HI> Mon&s;trous Divinity, and &s;uch as is not to be found among&s;t the &s;otti&s;h <HI>Turks,</HI> or the rude <HI>Indians</HI> and <HI>Americans;</HI> and therefore I
<PB N="65" REF="40"> &s;hould much wonder, did I not know what Charitable, and good-natur'd, and how free from Pride and Selfi&s;hne&s;s our Olivarian Speakers were; that Saints (as mo&s;t &s;hamefully they &s;tiled one another) that liv'd in the <HI>Sun-&s;hine of the Go&s;pel,</HI> &s;hould yet contradict the mo&s;t per&s;picu|ous Truths in it. For</P>
<P>THE Sacred Bible, from <HI>Gene&s;is</HI> to the <HI>Revelations</HI> a&s;&s;erts, That the Divine Goodne&s;s, Clemency, Mercy, and Love, are exhibited to all Mankind really, upon Condition of Faith, Repentance, and amendment of Life, John 3, 16, 17. <HI>God &s;o loved the World, that he gave his only be|gotten Son, that who&s;oever believeth in him, &s;hould not peri&s;h, but have everla&s;ting Life. For God &s;ent not his Son to condemn the World, but that the World</HI> (all mankind) <HI>through him might be &s;aved.</HI> Herein (Dr. <HI>Hammond.)</HI> hath Gods un&s;peakable Love been expre&s;t to mankind, that he hath &s;ent his Eternal Son to a&s;&s;ume our nature, and to teach and give Examples of Holy Life, and at la&s;t to dye for them, and
<PB N="66" REF="41"> ri&s;e again, and a&s;cend the Heaven, all on this one De&s;ign, that every Per&s;on in the World, that &s;hall receive and obey him, &s;hall be re&s;cued from Eternal Death, and then made partaker of Eternal Life. For this my mi&s;&s;ion from God my Father was de&s;ign'd all in Mercy and Charity, not to puni&s;h or condemn any man, but on purpo&s;e that all men might be re&s;cued from Puni&s;hment.</P>
<P>MAT. 11. 28. <HI>Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you re&s;t.</HI> Mar. 1. 15. <HI>Repent ye, and believe the Go&s;pel.</HI> Mat. 18. 11. <HI>The Son of man is come to &s;ave that which was lo&s;t.</HI> Rom. 5. 8. <HI>God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet Sinners Chri&s;t dyed for us.</HI> 1 Ep. St. Joh. 2. 1, 2. <HI>Je&s;us Chri&s;t is the propiti|ation for our Sins; and not for ours only, but for the Sins of the whole World. Non &s;olum</HI> (Bro.) <HI>pro peccatis Electorum, &s;ed &s;ingulorum hominum. Nam vox</HI> Mundi <HI>nu&s;piam u&s;urpatur in literis &s;acris pro &s;clis electis.</HI> By the word <HI>World</HI> is never meant in the Sacred Writ only the Elect,
<PB N="67" REF="41"> but either &s;ignifies the whole Compages con&s;i&s;ting of the Heaven and Earth, or the whole race of mankind, both pious and wicked; or el&s;e the whole number of the wicked. And therefore 'tis very evident, That Chri&s;t came not only to &s;ave the Elect, that is, tho&s;e that have believed in him, and have thereby ob|tained Mercy; but al&s;o the Prophane, that have rejected his Coun&s;els, and would not &s;ubmit to his ea&s;y Yoke and Golden Scepter.</P>
<P>1 TIM. 1. 15. <HI>This is a Faithful &s;aying, and worthy of all acceptation;</HI> (a Truth of an huge price, and fit to be the only Tradition or true Cabala among us Chri&s;tians, in&s;tead of all the Jewi&s;h Secrets and Mi&s;teries;) <HI>that Je&s;us Chri&s;t came into the World to &s;ave Sin|ners:</HI> (to re&s;cue men out of their evil cour&s;es, and upon reformation to obtain Pardon and Salvation for the greate&s;t Sinners, none excepted.) <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 145. 8, 9. <HI>The Lord is gracious and full of compa&s;&s;ion, &s;low to anger, and of great Mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies</HI>
<PB N="68" REF="42"> <HI>are over all his Works.</HI> 'Tis the Title by which God was pleas'd to make known and proclaim him&s;elf to his People, <HI>Exod.</HI> 34. 6. <HI>The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,</HI> &amp;c. God is very forward and willing to pardon repentant Sinners, and not denying them that Grace, or pro|ceeding in Judgment again&s;t them, till he be provoked to it by great ingratitude and obdurations: and this Mercy of his is not inclo&s;ed to a few &s;pecial Favou|rites of his, but inlarged and vouch&s;a|fed to all and every man in the World, upon the Title of his Fatherly Mercy to his Creatures, till by their impenitence per&s;i&s;ted in, again&s;t his means of Grace, they render them&s;elves incapable of it. <HI>H. H.</HI> Paraph.</P>
<P>GOD does &s;eriou&s;ly invite us to di&s;|card our Sins, and tells us, That all our calamities i&s;&s;ue from our own putrid Fountains, and not from the Divine will, or any Eternal and Inconditional Decree. For God cannot do or will Evil, <HI>viz. malum culpae</HI> the Evil of Sin, tho he may
<PB N="69" REF="42"> <HI>malum paenae</HI> the evil of Puni&s;hment. <HI>Amos</HI> 3. 6. <HI>Shall there be evil in the City, and the Lord hath not done it?</HI> that is, the Judg|ments and Afflictions, which befal men for their impieties are from God. So. <HI>v.</HI> 1. <HI>I will puni&s;h you for your iniquities.</HI> God is the Author of no Evil, but that of puni&s;h|ment. <HI>Nam idem e&s;t</HI> (&s;aith St. <HI>Ba&s;il) De|um a&s;serere peccati authorem, &amp; negare e&s;se Deum.</HI> 'Tis as impious to make God the Author of Sin, as 'tis to deny his very Being and E&s;&s;ence.</P>
<P>PROV. 1. 23. <HI>Turn ye at my reproof.</HI> Ezek. 18. 32. <HI>I have no plea&s;ure in the Death (violent or eternal) of him that dyeth, wherefore turn your &s;elves,</HI> for there is no fatal Remora, Sentence or Decree, or the lea&s;t defect on Gods part; <HI>and live ye.</HI> Mat. 23. 37. <HI>O Jeru&s;alem, how often would I (as I am God, as well as man) have gather|ed thy Children together, and ye would not?</HI> Ye have oppos'd all the methods of Di|vine Wi&s;dom, refus'd all my invitations (&s;aith the Holy Je&s;us to the ob&s;tinate
<PB N="70" REF="43"> Jews) tho never &s;o frequent and pa&s;&s;io|nate.</P>
<P><HI>SED re&s;p. Calvini&s;tae, Chri&s;tum voluntate humana volui&s;&s;e &s;alutem Judaeorum, quia jux|ta hanc voluntatem ei non erat notum, qui ex ijs convertendi e&s;&s;ent: At voluntate divin&aacute; eorum &s;alutem nolui&s;&s;e, alias conver&s;i fui&s;sent &amp; congregatt. Sed admi&s;&s;o hoc effngie, om|nes Chri&s;ti promi&s;&s;iones, earumque veritas vo|cabitur in dubium. Quoties enim Chri&s;tus quidquam promi&s;i&s;se legitur, toties animi pendebit homo, an promi&s;erit voluntate divin&acirc; an human&acirc;. Et fru&s;lra opponitur,</HI> Mat. 26. 39. <HI>I&s;te enim locus hoc tantum evincit, volun|tatem Chri&s;ti humanam, di&s;tinctam fui&s;&s;e a voluntate divini &s;ed ita ut ill&agrave; vo|luntati divinae &s;e &s;emper &s;ubmi&s;erit, nec ab diver&s;um quidquam voluerit: Non enim ab&s;olute petit ut tran&s;eat calix, &s;ed hac condi|tione, &s;i po&s;&s;ibile e&s;&s;et; &amp; additur &s;tatim haec correctio, non quod ego volo, &s;ed quod tu vis, fiat. Cert<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;&s;imum e&s;t</HI> (ait Ca&s;p. Er. Br.) <HI>Chri&s;tum &s;ecundum voluntatam tam divinam quam humanam volui&s;se rebellium Judaeorum &s;alutem: Nam verbum Dei di&s;ert&egrave; docet, Chri&s;tum nihil in officio &s;uo volui&s;&s;e, dixi&s;se,</HI>
<PB N="71" REF="43"> <HI>docui&s;se, quod non dixit, docuit, voluit, ad nutum, prae&s;criptum, &amp; mandatum Patris.</HI> Joh. 5. 30. 8, 26, 28, 40. 14, 24.</P>
<P>CAN any &s;ober and rational man then &s;uppo&s;e, That God by any &s;ecret, fatal, and ab&s;olute Decree willed and ordain'd, that the major part of this People, whom he had covenanted with, cho&s;en, and own'd by many mercies and deliveran|ces, &s;hould now nece&s;&s;arily continue blind, and oppo&s;e the means of grace of|fer'd to them by his Son, their promi&s;ed and long expected Me&s;&s;ias? The holy Hi&s;torian (Saint <HI>Luke</HI> the Phy&s;itian) tells us the contrary, <HI>Acts</HI> 3. 26. <HI>Unto you</HI> (the Jews) <HI>fir&s;t God having rai&s;ed up his Son Je|&s;us, &s;ent him to ble&s;s you, in turning away e|very one of you from his Iniquities.</HI> This doubtle&s;s then, <HI>viz.</HI> Gods eternal and immutable Decree, was not the cau&s;e of their rejection; but their own contuma|cy and contempt of the Go&s;pel, <HI>Acts</HI> 13. 46. <HI>It was nece&s;sary that the word of God &s;hould fir&s;t have been Preached to you,</HI> (the Jews,) <HI>but &s;eeing yee put it from you, (behave</HI>
<PB N="72" REF="44"> <HI>your &s;elves &s;o ob&s;tinately and perver&s;ly,) and judg your &s;elves unworthy of eternal life,</HI> (un|capable of receiving Benefit by the Go&s;|pel) <HI>lo, we turn to the Gentiles.</HI></P>
<P>GOD, we know, tells us, That 'tis his Will that all men <HI>&s;ingula generum)</HI> &s;hould be &s;aved, and come to the know|ledge of the truth. 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 2. 4. <HI>That none &s;hould peri&s;h, but that all &s;hould come to Repen|tance.</HI> 2 Pet. 3. 9. <HI>and</HI> Rom. 11. 32. <HI>God hath concluded them all under unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all,</HI> (Jews and Gentiles which comprehend all man|kind.)</P>
<P><HI>SALUTEM omnium voluit Deus no&s;ter clementi&s;&s;imus, non &s;olum &s;ecundum volunta|tem ejus revelatam, externam &s;eu &s;igni; &s;ed etiam &s;ecundum voluntatem ejus occultam, in|ternam, &amp; beneplaciti. Nam volitio in Deo una e&s;t, &s;icut e&s;sentia. Et voluntas &s;igni dici|tur, quia e&s;t &s;ignum beneplaciti divini, &s;eu quia &s;ignificat &amp; manife&s;tat beneplacitum di|vinum: At &s;i latet beneplacitum divinum, tum etiam &s;ignum illius beneplaciti latet, &s;er|vata</HI>
<PB N="73" REF="44"> <HI>eadem proportione. Deinde, Quid e&s;t hipocritam &amp; &s;imulatorem agere, &s;i hoc non e&s;t? Verbo &s;onoque exteriore ad vitam &amp; &s;a|lutem homines vocare atque invitare; &s;ed in|terno decreto eoque ab&s;oluto atque immutabili eo&s;dem a vita &amp; &s;alute arcere. Dei manda|tum e&s;t, ut &s;ermo no&s;ter &s;it ita &amp; ita; quo er|go jure dicere licebit, Deum aliud verbo ex|terius te&s;tari, aliud autem in corde &s;uo clau|&s;um &s;ervare; in voluntate &s;igni prae &s;e ferre animum benevolum, in beneplacito autem &s;uo habere animum inimicum. Notum e&s;t illud Homeri,</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">&mdash;'Tis an odious thing to let the tongue con|tradict the heart, to &s;peak fair and intend the contrary.</P>
<P>THE five Virgins, mentioned <HI>Mat.</HI> 25. had they not been fooli&s;h, that is, care|le&s;s and improvident, might have had as free admi&s;&s;ion into the Bridegrooms Chamber, as the five wi&s;e or provident. Hence the Prodigal Son, that made his Felicity expire with his E&s;tate, and by his Travels had gain'd nothing but the knowledge of iniquity and penury; yet no
<PB N="74" REF="45"> &s;ooner returns and leaves his mi&s;demea|nours, but he receives a paternal embrace. For Gods arms were, are, and ever will be open to enclo&s;e the meane&s;t Converts, and will give them &s;uch a &s;ufficiency of Grace, both internal and external, which bringeth Salvation, and hath appeared unto all men, <HI>Titus</HI> 2. 11. which, if they re&s;i&s;t not, will at la&s;t be found to be &s;a|ving and effectual: For &s;ufficient and effi|cacious grace are not two different &s;pe|cies of Grace, but one and the &s;ame; and the Divine Grace is term'd either this or that, only <HI>ab eventu,</HI> as 'tis improv'd by us.</P>
<P>PRAY con&s;ider, Should we la&s;h a Cripple for halting, or having clog'd and fetter'd a Slave, require him to run a race; &s;hould we exhort the Dumb to &s;peak, and the Deaf to her, or condemn and deride one born Blind, becau&s;e he cannot di&s;tingui&s;h colours; this would argue the highe&s;t Phren&s;ie and Fury. And can we then be &s;o &s;tupid and irreli|gious to imagine, that the great God of Heaven, that is full of Wi&s;dom, Equity,
<PB N="75" REF="45"> and Love, would invite (and upon re|fu&s;al torment to Eternity) tho&s;e men to walk in his Paths, and to behold the Light of the Go&s;pel, whom he him&s;elf had &s;hackled and blinded by a fatal and inevitable Decree? Far be it from us Chri&s;tians to judge thus of a Deity, that hath proclaim'd, and prov'd him&s;elf to be more merciful to the Sons of men, than the mo&s;t indulgent Parent can be to his only Child. And &s;urely 'twould be no &s;mall Wonder, if a Father that hath ten Sons of equal merit, &s;hould take two of them into his Favour and Protection; and expo&s;e the re&s;t to the mercile&s;s and impetuous rage of Lyons and Tygers. And if you &s;hould ask him the rea&s;on of this his inhumanity, he could an&s;wer nothing but <HI>Sic volo &s;ic jubeo&mdash;</HI></P>
<P>I have no more rea&s;on to object and delate again&s;t my eight Children, that I have rejected, than again&s;t the two that I have cheri&s;h't and embrac'd; I might, if I would have pre&s;erv'd all from perdi|tion, but 'twas my will and plea&s;ure on|ly,
<PB N="76" REF="46"> and nothing el&s;e, that the far great|er number, maugre their &s;ad cries and expo&s;tulations, &s;hould fall and peri&s;h to eternity. This doubtle&s;s is no Criteri|on, or &s;ure &s;ign of a Paternal affection; but an evident Demon&s;tration of one of the mo&s;t prodigious Mon&s;ters in nature. I need not apply it. In &s;hort,</P>
<P>THESE crude and fatal A&s;&s;ertions be|fore mentioned, concerning the Divine decrees and appointments; cannot be palliated, &s;weeten'd, or well dige&s;ted, by their pleading that God is under no Law, which (&s;aith a judicious Author) is a very Lawle&s;s and unrea&s;onable pretext; for the everla&s;ting rectitude of his &s;pot|le&s;s nature, is more than any external Law: and pray what can Truth and Ju|&s;tice do, but what is holy and ju&s;t? Or by their &s;ubtile di&s;tingui&s;hing <HI>inter jus Dei ab&s;olutum &amp; ordinatum, inter reproba|tionem &amp; damnationem, inter reprobationem privativam &amp; po&s;itivam, inter praeteritionem &amp; damnationem.</HI> For he that avers Gods ab&s;olute will and plea&s;ure to be the Sole
<PB N="77" REF="46"> Cau&s;e of preterition and reprobation, may with the &s;ame confidence affirm it to be the prime (if not &s;ole) cau&s;e of damnation. <HI>Tantum di&s;criminis e&s;t inter praeteritionem &amp; damnationem, quantum dif|ferentiae intercedit inter haec duo; inferre mor|tem &amp; nolle vitam alicui continuare, ab&s;que qu&acirc; vitae continuatione mors nece&s;sario &s;equi|tur.</HI> Whereas the Scriptures (the only Rule of our Faith, unle&s;s we will admit of Enthu&s;ia&s;m,) a&s;&s;ure us, That 'tis mens crying Sins, their contumacy, impeniten|cy, and incredulity, <HI>(&amp; non ab&s;olutum Dei in homines &amp; creaturas jus, non Dei be|neplacitum, &s;eu ab&s;oluta ejus voluntas,</HI> that are the real Cau&s;es both of preterition, reprobation, and damnation. <HI>Joh.</HI> 3. 18, 19. <HI>Joh.</HI> 6. 40. <HI>Mark</HI> 16. 16.</P>
<P>THE Con&s;equences and re&s;ults of the&s;e Calvini&s;tical Dreams, and fatal Do|ctrines, are very &s;ad, di&s;mal, and nume|rous; &s;ome whereof I &s;hall nominate, and then conclude.</P>
<P N="1">1. THEY confine and limit Gods
<PB N="78" REF="47"> power, and make him a nece&s;&s;ary Agent; for he cannot puni&s;h or de&s;troy the mo&s;t bla&s;phemous and bloodie&s;t men, before their appointed time; nor &s;horten or extend the days of the virtuous.</P>
<P N="2">2. THEY derogate from Gods good|ne&s;s, mercy, and ju&s;tice; for what great|er tyrany and inju&s;tice, than to judge men to endle&s;s flames, without any intu|ition of faith or incredulity, of obedience or di&s;obedience? For &s;urely 'tis not ju|&s;tice, (as &s;ome Hypochondriacks fancy,) but the highe&s;t cruelty to make men mi|&s;erable, that thereby he might take an occa&s;ion of &s;hewing ju&s;tice.</P>
<P N="3">3. THEY contradict Gods Veracity; for what more fal&s;e and perfidious than to &s;ay and &s;wear, That he willeth not the Death, but the &s;afety and conver&s;i|on of tho&s;e, whom, notwith&s;tanding by an immutable and irre&s;i&s;table Decree, he hath de&s;igned to eternal Death and Mi|&s;ery.</P>
<P N="4"><PB N="79" REF="47"> 4. THEY make God with <HI>Marcion, Si|mon Magus,</HI> the <HI>Manechees,</HI> the prime and principal Author of all the Crimes, and horrid Villanies acted under the Sun. <HI>Cum enim Cau&s;a &s;uperior &amp; omnipotens, ita moveat &amp; determinet cau&s;am inferiorem &amp; impotentiorem, ut ea &s;ic mota ac determinata non po&s;&s;it non peccare; &s;tupidus &s;it oportet, qui non animadvertat con&s;titui hac ratione Deum peccati cau&s;am, &amp; quidem propriam &amp; prin|cipalem.</HI></P>
<P N="5">5. THEY render Chri&s;ts Nativity, his Holy Life, his bitter Death, his glorious Re&s;urrection and A&s;cention, and his con|tinual Interce&s;&s;ion for us at the Throne of Grace; yea all Preaching and Pray|ing, the Sacraments, and all ju&s;t and vir|tuous Actions, to be vain, u&s;ele&s;s, and ineffectual: For to what purpo&s;e all this? if 'tis ab&s;olutely decreed from Eternity, who &s;hall be &s;av'd, and who &s;hall be damn'd, <HI>&s;ine fide praevi&s;a, &s;ine praevi&s;is ope|ribus. Praede&s;tinationem vocamus aeternum Dei decretum, quo apud &s;e con&s;titutum ha|buit quid de unoquoque homine fieri vellet.</HI>
<PB N="80" REF="48"> <HI>Non enim pari conditione creantur omnes, &s;ed aliis vita aeterna, aliis damnatio aeterna praeor|dinatur.</HI> Calv. In&s;t. lib. 3. cap. 31. &s;. 5.</P>
<P N="6">6. THEY lead men, e&s;pecially the Vulgar, and tho&s;e of the weaker Sex, (as we have often known,) either into Pre&s;umption or De&s;pair; &s;ome poor de|luded Souls think the Gate of Mercy &s;hut, when 'tis wide open, and become melancholy and di&s;tracted; and others, tho rebels, traytors, hereticks, and &s;chi&s;|maticks, grow proud and cen&s;orious, and dream that it will fall open to them (tho precious and witne&s;&s;ing People, Gods Cupboard of Plate, as in mode&s;ty they &s;tile them&s;elves) without the lea&s;t knock or &s;triving.</P>
<P>AND La&s;tly, They are inlets and broad roads to &s;ecurity and all licenti|ou&s;ne&s;s, if I &s;hall live, I &s;hall live; if I &s;hall be &s;av'd, I &s;hall be &s;av'd; do what I will: if I &s;hall dye, I &s;hall dye; if I &s;hall be damn'd, I &s;hall be damn'd; do what I can: for the Decree and Sentence either
<PB N="81" REF="48"> of Life or Death is eternal, is immutable, pa&s;t and irrevocable. Therefore <HI>Ede, bibe, lude&mdash;</HI></P>
<P>THESE prodigious Effects and &s;ad con&s;equences being clear and demon&s;tra|tive, 'tis prudence to &s;top our ears, and (if I may u&s;e <HI>W. C</HI>'s. martial phra&s;e,) to <HI>buckle our &s;elves</HI> again&s;t all &s;uch fatal O|pinions and wild Whim&s;ies, that are con|trary to rea&s;on, and the very nature of a Deity, to the purport and Oeconomy both of the Law and the Go&s;pel: What is a&s;&s;erted in this &s;mall Tract, is, I pre|&s;ume, con&s;onant to both, to Gods word, and to that Light <HI>(viz.</HI> Rea&s;on) he has &s;eated in us to judge and ballance things by. Here is no Popery, no Pelagiani&s;me or Semi-Pelagiani&s;me, which &s;ome cry for want of arguments, as a &s;ufficient confu|tation. For we firmly believe, that 'tis by Gods grace and providence that we live, move, and have our Being in this World; and by which, by the merits of the Holy Je&s;us we expect Salvation in the Other. We &s;tedfa&s;tly believe the
<PB N="82" REF="49"> Apo&s;tles Symbole; that God is true and ju&s;t in all his ways, and righteous in all his dealings; that his &s;ecret Will is not oppo&s;ite in the lea&s;t punctilio to his re|vealed; and that he that believeth and is baptized, that &s;incerely repents of his former &s;ins, and for&s;akes them &s;hall be &s;aved, &s;hall receive plenary pardon, and upon per&s;everance to the end, eternal bli&s;s; but he, and he only that &s;tands out ob&s;tinately and impenitently &s;hall be damn'd. Our extravagant thoughts, and fooli&s;h confiding and depending on our ab&s;olute Election, may be a &s;nare and &s;tratagem to deceive and ruine us; but our &s;erious and hearty Per&s;wa&s;ions, That the Divine Decrees and appointments are conditional; &s;o that we are hereby mov'd and allur'd to come to God with a filial love and fear, and incited to duty and action, to real piety and hone&s;ty, to do as we would be done by, which com|prehends both what the Law and the Prophets hath taught us; This belief, I am &s;ure, can never delude us, no Decree can baffle this: For Godline&s;s, 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 4. 8.
<PB N="83" REF="49"> hath the Promi&s;e of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.</P>
<P>THIS may &s;uffice to demon&s;trate to all con&s;idering men, that are not bia&s;&s;ed by intere&s;t, prejudice, or prepo&s;&s;e&s;&s;ions, That the pre&s;ent State of the Body, and the future State of the Soul, are not limi|ted and determined by any fatal, ab&s;o|lute, inconditional, immutable, and pe|remptory Decree; but that both Bo|dy and Soul by the Divine grace and providence may (if we be not defective in our own Duty) be infinitely ble&s;&s;ed and happy.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
<BACK>
<DIV1 TYPE="publisher's advertisement">
<PB REF="50">
<PB REF="50">
<HEAD><HI>A Catalogue of &s;ome Books lately Printed for</HI> Tho. Ba&s;&s;et <HI>at the</HI> George <HI>in</HI> Fleet-&s;treet.</HEAD>
<LIST>
<ITEM>DR. <HI>Littletons</HI> Dictionary, <HI>Engli&s;h-Latine</HI> and <HI>Latine-Engli&s;h,</HI> in 4to.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Bp. <HI>Wilkins</HI> of the Principles and Du|tyes of Natural Religion, 8vo.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Dr. <HI>Sparks</HI> Devotions on the Fea&s;ts and Fa&s;ts of the Church, 8vo.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Mr. <HI>Wanley</HI> of <HI>Coventry</HI> his Hi&s;tory of Man, wherein by many thou&s;ands of Ex|amples is &s;hewed what Man hath been from the fir&s;t Ages of the World to the&s;e times, in re&s;pect of his Body, Sen&s;es, Pa&s;|&s;ions, Affections, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> in Folio.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Mr. <HI>Allingtons</HI> Reformed Samaritan: a Vi&s;itation Sermon, Preached in <HI>Coventry,</HI> to which is annexed a Di&s;cour&s;e about the Nece&s;&s;ity and Expediency of Set forms in 4to.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Mr. <HI>Meritons</HI> Hi&s;tory of <HI>England</HI> in 120.</ITEM>
<ITEM>The 12. and <HI>13th</HI> parts of Sr. <HI>Edw. Cooks</HI> Reports, in Folio.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Dr. <HI>Browns</HI> Religio Medici, in 8vo.</ITEM>
<PB REF="51">
<ITEM> Sr. <HI>Thomas Herberts</HI> Travels, in Folio.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Pools</HI> Engli&s;h Parna&s;&s;us, or a Help to <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Poe&s;ie, in 8vo,</ITEM>
<ITEM>Sr. <HI>Roger Manleys</HI> Ru&s;&s;ian Impo&s;tor, or Hi&s;tory of <HI>Mu&s;covy,</HI> in 8vo.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Pharmacopoeia Londinen&s;is,</HI> newly alter|ed and Enlarged throughout the whole work, according to the pre&s;ent Practice: by the Colledge of Phy&s;icians, <HI>London.</HI> In Folio and 24to</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Pharamond,</HI> or the Hi&s;tory of <HI>France,</HI> a fam'd Romance in 12 parts, in Folio.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Sr. <HI>John Vaughan,</HI> late Chief Ju&s;tice of the Common-Pleas, his Reports and Ar|guments, in Folio.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Mr. <HI>Mieges</HI> New Dictionary, French and Engli&s;h, and Engli&s;h-French, in 4to.</ITEM>
<ITEM>The Hi&s;tory of <HI>France,</HI> Containing all the Memorable Actions in <HI>France,</HI> and other Neighbouring Nations, in Folio.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Daltons</HI> Ju&s;tice of Peace, newly enlar|ged, Folio.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Hudibras,</HI> the fir&s;t and &s;econd part, in 8vo.</ITEM>
<ITEM><HI>Swinburns</HI> Treati&s;e of Wills and Te&s;ta|ments, in 4to.</ITEM>
<PB REF="51">
<ITEM> <HI>Doctrina Placitandi,</HI> or the Art of Plead|ing, in 4to.</ITEM>
<ITEM>The Hi&s;tory of <HI>Don Quixot,</HI> Folio.</ITEM>
<ITEM>Judg <HI>Hales</HI> of the Primitive origination of Mankind, Folio.</ITEM>
</LIST>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="publisher's advertisement">
<PB REF="52">
<HEAD>Adverti&s;ement&punc;</HEAD>
<LIST>
<HEAD>Now in the Pre&s;s.</HEAD>
<ITEM>THE ten Volumes of Year Books, with Tables to the whole, and references&punc; never before Printed.</ITEM>
<ITEM>And al&s;o <HI>Guillims</HI> Heraldry, with many Additions</ITEM>
</LIST>
<PB REF="52">
</DIV1>
</BACK>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
