The darknes of atheism dispelled by the light of nature a physico-theologicall treatise / written by Walter Charleton ...

SECT. III.

AS for the Second Opinion, viz. that the Term of mans Life is not fixt beyond possibility of either Anticipation, or Postposition; this, I profess, my judgement inclines me to prefer, as that which seem's to be drawn in the directest line from the point of Truth; and that for two mighty Reasons.

First, because there are very few places, or testimonies of Scripture, which may be thought to advantage the doctrine of Absolute Fatality; but, on the contrary, very many alle∣gable in defence of this.

Secondly, because those Texts, which make for this, have their importance so perpendicular, that nothing but a violent

perversion can wrest, so perspicuous, that nothing but obscure interpretations can darken, so soft and easy, that nothing but over nice and unnatural Exceptions can harden it. And Justice will frown on that stupid partiality, that shall prefer paucity to multitude, obscurity to clarity, and difficult to genuine and familiar solutions.

To explain and justify this by Instance; the Hercules, or most▪ champion Text usually brought into the field to assert the opinion of Absolute Fatality, in the precise manner and time of every mans Dissolution into his first matter, is that of Job; Definiti sunt dies ejus, & numerus mensium ejus tecum est; statuta ejus fecisti, & non praeteribit:

His days are determined, the number of his moneths are with thee; thou hast appoin∣ted his bounds, that he cannot pass. (chap. 14. vers. 5.)

Now this place hath much of obscurity, and little of strength for the supportation of their opinion, more then ours. (1) Much of obscurity; since, though racked to the highest extension of its importance, no Logique can extort any other Conclusion from it, but this, that the Term of mans Life is fixt by God, so that impossible it is for man to remove it forwards to a greater longitude; the concession whereof no way infringeth our asser∣tion. For hence it follows not, that tis impossible for man, by intempetance, by the temerarious obtrusion of himself upon the jaws of danger, or other means whatever, to Anticipate that Term, or remove it backwards to a greater Brevity. Again, I have yet met with no substantial reason, that may countermand our construction of these words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or in the latitude of Generality; and therefore may safely understand them, as an expression of the brevity of mans life, in specie, not in individuo; their whole Mass weighing no more then this: that the life of man, being included within a certain Circle, or round of days and moneths, and circumscribed by a short succession of minutes flowing into a stream of Time, cannot possibly be extended to a longer duration then what our Creator hath prefixt to all man∣kind: i. e. then that moment to which he hath determined and adapted the durability of mans specisical Temperament, or

Principles of Vitality. And thus interpreted, this place runs pa∣rallel to that of Moses (Psalm. 90. vers. 10.) Dies nostrae vitae septuaginta anni, & si in fortudinibus sit, octoginta anni, & fortitudo eorum molestia ac labor, quoniam recedit citò & avo∣lamus: as also that of David (Psalm. 39. vers. 5.) Ecce, ut palmos posuisti dies meos, & aevum meum tanquam nihil coram te; profectò universae Vanitas est omnis homo stans; Behold, thou hast made my days as a hands breadth, and mine age is nothing before thee: every man, verily, at his best state is altogether Vanity.

True it is (nor have I heard many, besides Helmont, and a Fanatique Brother or two of the mystical Order of the Rosy Cross, impugne it) that the Life of Man doth consist in a Peacefull Discord maintained between the 4 First Qualities (I understand them, according to the Physiology of Epicurus, and Cartesius, as certain Modifications of Matter, or Quantity) a rising from the commixture of them in a proportionate Dose, or commensurate symmetry, respective to the Activity of some and Patability of others; and proximly, in a requisite harmo∣ny, of the Primigenious Heat and Radical Moysture: which harmony being more or less durable according to the more or less exquisite temperament of body assigned to each single per∣son, by the free dispensation of the Divine Will; it follows, unavoidably, that the Longitude or Brevity of every mans life must naturally depend upon the perfection, or imperfection of his Idiosyncrasy, or individual Constitution.

Nor doth it carry less semblance of truth, that by the decrees of that Councel, which is all Wisdome, and can therefore will nothing but what is superlatively Good, it was enacted, that the ordinary Duration of this Humane Temperament should be cir∣cumscribed and limited to some certain general, though not pre∣cisely adstrict, term or space of years, conceive of 70. 80. 90. or 100. over or under: and that our ingenerated Protogenitors, even before the depravation of their Vital Principles by their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or precipitous Fall, held their lives by the same common lease; for manifest it is, that the Tree of Life was

planted in Paradise to this purpose, that the fruit thereof being frequently eaten might instaurate the vital Balsam of man as fast as it suffered exhaustion from the depredatory operation of his Implantate Spirit, and by a continual refocillation of im∣paired nature keep her up fresh and vigorous to longevity. To which I ask leave, with due submission to the correction of maturer judgements, to tender my private conception; that the like extraordinary means of making the sands of life run slowly and long in the glass of Time, was by the special indulgence of the great Preserver of men, permitted to Methusalem and other 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the worlds youth; whose registers amounted to more Centuries of years, then ours usually to Decads, and who outlived all the titles of Consanguinity.

(2) Little of strength for the supportation of their opinion, more then of ours; for though we should concede, what these ea∣ger Patrons of Fatality principally insist upon, viz. that the sense of these words of Job is restrained only to that precise Term, or prestitute Date appointed by God to the life of every individu∣al man: yet notwithstanding can they not from this concession extort more advantage to their plea, then what doth naturally result from thence towards the justification of ours. For Job doth not so much as tacitly insinuate, by what kind of Decree, manner of institution, or computation that Definition or Cir∣cumscription of daies and moneths was made by God: nor is there ought to hinder us from affirming, that the tenor of his words remains sincere and inviolate, when we understand that kind of statute, concerning the circumscription of mans life to belong to that Classis of Decrees, which God, either upon his own infallible Previdence of the future demeanour of every man, or upon the Hypothesis of mans good or evil use of the li∣berty of his will, hath made, or may occasionally make. Besides all this our equitable conference of many other Texts of Scripture, which we shall have occasion, in the remaining dilucidation of this Theorem to alleadge, with this of Job; will plainly, and almost unavoydably ascertain us, that his words are to be interpreted in our sense, de specie, and not de individuo.

But, in the present, it is sufficient for us to have declared, that from that place of such reputed validity amongst the Defendants of Destiny, no firme Argument can be extracted to protect them, or impugne us.

And therefore I find my self at liberty to discharge my proper duty, viz. the Confession of those Reasons, which charmed my judgement to an adherence to their perswasion, who contend for the Mobility of the Term of mans Life.

The First of those is desumed from the Testimonies of the Oracle of Truth, the Book of God; and in our list of those Testimonies, those deserve to stand in the front, which in am∣ple, elegant, and express terms warrant our Assertion, that the life of man hath bin, and may be, both Abbreviated and Pro∣longed.

The Coryphaeus, or leading Text is that of the Wise King (Proverb. 10. vers. 27.) Timor Domini apponit (aut prolongat) dies; anni verò impiorum abbreviantur: the Fear of the Lord prolongeth daies; but the years of the wicked shall be shortned. Then which nothing can be more express, perspicuous, and po∣sitive; and so nothing less subject to detorsion or altercation.

The Lievtenant, or second to that, is the gracious encouragement to filial reverence and obedience annexed to the 5^th. Precept in the Decalogue; Honora Patrem tuum, & matrem tuam, ut pro∣longentur dies tui super terram quam Jehov ah Deus tuus dat tibi: which the Apostle of the Gentiles (in Epist. ad Ephes. 6. ver. 2.) call's the first (understand it of the second table) Commande∣ment with promise, viz. of a singular reward; or the first with a peculiar promise, and such as hath ever bin held distinct from the promise made in the second Precept of the Decalogue, in∣somuch as that is common and universal, comprehending all kinds of Blessings, but this only peculiar and determined to that of diuturnous subsistence, or Longevity. In Exhod. 24. ver. 25. and many other places, the Pen-man of God earnestly inculcates the benefit of the Fear of God, by this forcible impulsive; that he would crown them with length, health, and serenity of days, who should revere his most sacred name and conscientiously

observe his laws. Si colatis Deum vestrum, benedicet pani ve∣stro, & aquis vestris, auferetque infirmitatem è medio vestri, non crit abortiens aut sterilis in terra vestra: numerum dierum in terra vestra complebo. Which importune incitement to pie∣ty, those Commentators have no way enlarged, who have ex∣tended it to this just height of intention; that to those happy Sonnes of Israel, who subjugated their Wills to the written Will of God, and cherished no desires so much, as those of cordial obedience to the rules of his Law, demeaning themselves reve∣rently towards their Maker, and righteously toward their Neighbour; to these God would vouchsafe, not only that they should accomplish that lease of life, which they held by the grant of Nature, or the condition of each mans Idiosyncrasy; but even that their Temperament should be meliorated, made more symmetrical, compact, tenacious and consequently more durable, as well by the soveraign, balsamical, and restorative Faculties of their Aliment, impregnated or inriched by the tin∣cture of his continual Benediction, as by the benigne and salu∣tiferous disposition of the Aer, and propitious influences of the Host of Heaven, which otherwise are wont to induce sensible Exorbitances and Anomalies upon the blood, spirits, and solid parts of mans body, and from those seeds of morbosities produce various both Acute and Chronique Diseases, which either con∣sume, or corrupt the Vital Nectar, and accelerate the exe∣cution of that Sentence, Pulvis es, & Pulvis eris. So that of infirme, languid, and valetudinarious persons, they should be made robust, athletical, and longevous; no less then the Barren should be made Fertil: the one by the Conservatory, the other by the Prolifical virtue of Gods special Grace. The same pro∣mise we read frequently repeated by God, in most of his Em∣bassies delivered by his Secretary, Moses, to his People; and more particularly in Deuteron. 4. vers. 40. and chap. 30. vers. 20. And as he proposeth length of days for the desiderable reward of obedience: so, on the contrary, he makes Immaturity of Death, the affrighting penalty of Disobedience. For (Deuteron. 30. vers. 19. and 28. vers. 20.) contain a large Catalogue of insirmities, diseases, and corporal calamities feircely comminated

to the immorigerous and disobedient: and in vers. 62. tis em∣phatically sayd of Transgressors, ye shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the starrs of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldst not obey the voyce of the Lord, thy God.

A Third egregious text, is that where God, gratefully resen∣ting Salomons Election of Wisdome before all other Accom∣plishments temporal set before him, supererogates to his vote, by the additional concession of long life (2 Kings 3. 14.) And if thou wilt walk in my wayes, to keep my Statutes and com∣mandements, as thy Father David did; then will I lengthen thy days.

A fourth, is that definitive sentence of David (Psalm. 55. vers. ult.) Bloody and deceitfull men shall not live out half their days.

A Fifth, that of the same Author (Psalm. 102. vers. 25.) O my God take me not away in the midst of my days: and in like manner, (Psalm. 6. and 30. and 88. and 111.) he with fer∣vent importunity supplicates, that God would be pleased not to cut off the thread of his life, while he was then in the spring and vigour of his age, but restore him from that languor and marcid Consumption, introduced by his grievous disease, to his pristine sanity, that he might thereby be enabled to chant his praises in the Sanctuary, and do good to the children of Sion.

A Sixth, that remarkable Precedent of the prolongation of life beyond the term presixt, King Ezechias (Esai. 38. vers. 10.) who being infested with the most mortiferous of diseases, the Plague, and convulst with the horror of death, denounced by the thundering Prophet; in the intervalls betwixt the showers of heavy tears, he sighes out this lamentation: in the cutting off my days I shall go to the gates of death; I am deprived of the residue of my years. Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepards tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life (vitam meam veluti textoris telam praecidi, as some read it) he will cut me off with pining sickness. Which signifies as much as this, that he was adjudged to dye before his time. But this night of sorrow was dispelled by a comfortable morn, caused by the light of that Sun, which riseth with healing in his wings;

for immediately after, his contrition, sincere resipiscence, and earnest supplications obtaining a repreive from the mercifull hands of him, who desireth not the death of a sinner, the exe∣cution of that fatal sentence was suspended, and a paroll lease of 15. years supernumerary annexed to that old one of his life, fully, to some few anxious minutes, expired. And can any Pre∣judice be so inslexible, as not to stoop to the conversion of this pregnant Example, which on one side, testifies the possibility of the Decurtation of the Term of mans Life, by any mortal dis∣ease; and, on the other, manifesteth the possibility of the Prolongation of the same, by the seasonable and right use of the means conductive thereunto, viz. remorse of Conscience, repen∣tance, supplication, and medical remedies. For, prescribed it was by Isaiah, thus: Let them take a Bunch of Figgs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boyle (or Carbuncle) and he shall re∣cover.

And, to bring up the reare of these Sacred Arguments, mi∣litant on our side, let us instance in the semblably pertinent story of the Ninivites; who, by the counter-violence of those holy spells, Penitence, severe Humiliation as well of the outward, as of the inward man, and Prayer distracted with nought but tears and groans, seem to have abrogated the Decree of Destiny. For the Bowels of Divinity yearning with paternal compassion towards so populous a City; wherein though all were guilty, yet many millions must have bin blended in the chaos of com∣mon ruine, who were yet too young to share in the actual Depravities; smoothed the brow of his Justice, and prevailed with him to interpret their universal mortification of Impiety, as an Allegorical accompletion of his resolve concerning the ge∣neral devastation and mortality denounced against their Persons and Habitations; to accept the slames of their thick sacrifi∣ces as Expiatory and preventive to the impendent Combustion of their City; and heighten the wholsome virtue of their Ab∣stinence, observed in the strict Fast, to a generous Prophyla∣ctique or Preservative against the Pestilence now ready to be kindled by the breath of his Indignation.

Nor are we destitute of Instances, in holy Chronicles, to

teftify the Reverse part of our assertion, viz. That the Term of mans life hath bin Abbreviated. For who can read the story of the General Deluge, and not observe, that the whole stock of Humanity (except 8. beleivers, who committed themselves pri∣soners to the Ark of Preservation) was immaturely extinguished, and by the most proper and expedite way of corruption, resol∣ved into its Hyle, or Watery Principle? Who can rehearse Moses his relation of those many thousands of incredulous and murmuring Israelites, buried in the wilderness, to whom God had promised, nay sworn to give them possession of the land of Canaan; and not be satisfied, that their Rebellion and Infi∣delity anticipated their funerals? and who examine the fate of those Cowards, who being sent to explore the fertility of the pro∣mised Land, and the forces of the Amalekites, returned a dis∣couraging answer to their brethren, and were therefore cut down by the revenging sword of the Lord of Hosts, in the noon of their lives; and not be convicted, that the Wages of Sin is Death, and may be paied as justly, though not so naturally, in the morn, or noon, as evening of life?

Now so fiduciary are these Testimonies, that whoever shall justly compute their Number, perpend their Gravity, and clearly discern their Perspicuity; must confess it no less then open injustice to all the Inducements of beleife, to debase them so much as to a Competition for the priority of perswasion, with those Few, Light, and Obscure Allegations, upon whose Cre∣dit the Factors of Immoveable Destiny have adventured to take up their opinion. However, that we may add a brighter po∣lish to this our Gold, by scouring off the rust of all Exceptions made against it: it deserves our time, and sweat to dispossess our Adversaries of all their pretended interest in the importance of Three the chiefest of our Testimonies.

First they attempt to infirme our title to that definitive and emphatical sentence of the Psalmist, The bloody and deceitfull men shall not live out half their days; and this under the pre∣text of several perverse Interpretations: as (1) by understan∣ding the place thus; Impii & sanguinarii non dimidiabunt

negotia sua, they shall not accomplish half their Designes, or, contrary to their expectation they shall fall before they have brought their evil Purposes to pass.

To this unlawfull Construction we reply, that this subterfuge was contrived by that profest Libertine of Christianity, Luther, to the end he might support his doctrine of Absolute Fate, which with so much Ardor and Pertinacy he had once maintained a∣gainst that ornament not only of Germany, but of Europe also, Erasmus. But the Connexion of these with the former words, manifestly prohibite any such Comment. Thou, O God (sayth David) shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction, i. e. thou shalt irretiate or insnare them, and suddainly preci∣pitate them into the same pit, which they have digged for me, thy servant; or thou shalt, according to the concernment of the Hebrew phrase, destroy them subita praematura morte, by a suddain premature death; that from the experiment of their unexpected ruine, the world may learn thy justice, and be sa∣tisfied of thy favour and indulgence to the pious, and thy ha∣tred and indignation to the impious. For if we accommodate this text meerly to the Natural expiration of the term of life, which is appointed as well to the Righteous as to the Reprobate, and generally to all men: pray, what Energy or Emphasis can remain to that saying of David, Tu facies eos descendere in pu∣teum foveae; for then we shall reduce all the meaning only to this, illi morientur statuto suo tempore, sicut mortales alii om∣nes, they shall dye in their appointed time, as all other mortal men: and if so, who might not have justly made this retort up∣on David; & te etiam tuo tempore, sive cum finis vitae tuae praestitutus aderit, Deus faciet descendere in puteum foveae, and thee also, when thy appointed time shall come, or when the temperamental lease of thy life shall be worn out, shall God bring inro the pit of destruction.

Again, if we exchange Negotia for Dies; then must we re∣nounce the appropriation of the sense to the Wicked, and make it common also to the Godly. For, who ever lived to accom∣plish all his purposes? But the expression sufficiently illustrates the intention; for it exactly responds to many other phrases used

by the Holy Spirit to the same scope, as, They shall not fulfill the number of their days, their days shall be abbreviated &c.

(2) By Translating the Text thus; Non dimidiabunt dies suos, (i. e.) peribunt antequàm sperent: they shall perish in the immaturity of their Hopes, not of their Lives. For the sensuall Affections of their earthly minds having determined their judgements only to the expectation of enjoying blessings inservient to the satisfaction of their domineering Concupiscence, make them promise to themselves long subsistence in this their paradise; nay extend their vain projects as far as the impossi∣ble period of Eternity: so though they survive even life it self, by dwindling out their bedrid days, till the marasmus of ex∣tream old age hath embalmed them before-hand, pined them into perfect Skeletons, and so defrauded their hungry Credi∣tors, the Wormes; yet since they drop away full of youthfull and green hopes, their departure is premature and inopine; and so they may be sayd, not to dimidiate their days.

We return that this illegitimate Desoant ought to be reject∣ed for 4, considerable Causes. (1) Because it cannot be justly charged upon the words, no not in the greatest latitude of Con∣struction. For tis not there sayd, the Wicked shall dye sooner then they expect; but positively and expresly, they shall not dimidiate their days: now every Ideot can tell, that it is one thing, not to live out half their days, and another, not to beleive they shall live out half their days. (2) because it argues the sacred Psalmist of a manifest Falsity. For when the ungodly expire, they do not only Dimidiate their days, but Accomplish them, Death being at any time the December of life. (3) Be∣cause it imports a double repugnancy to Truth. For first, now there are, and in all ages, since the first experiment of death, have bin millions of Vicious men, who even in the wildest paroxysme of their Vanity, and highest orgasme of their Pride and Am∣bition, have still cooled themselves with E〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and felt a dejecting horror from within, at the remembrance of that Motto, Statutum est omnibus semel mori; so far is our Nature from entertaining any hopes of Immortality, though but in a dreame, or melancholy depravation of Phansy.

And, again, no Chronicle is barren in the stories of prosperous Libertines, who have wanted nothing but some Cross to in∣deare the Felicity of their lives, have unravelled their vital web in the highest blandishments of Sense, attained to miraculous Longevity, and being sated with the profuse treatments of Fortune, have outlived their own large stock of Hopes; so that a Poet might take the Liberty to say of them, they dyed for grief, that they had nothing left to wish for, which they had not already surfetted in the fruition of. (4) Because the admis∣sion there of loseth the Singularity or Determination of Davids speech to Sanguinary and Nefarious Persons. For, if to Dimidiate their days, import no more then to dye by the same common kind of Death, and at the same period of their Temperamental Lease, when, by the ineluctable laws of Destiny, it is enacted that all men shall revert to Dust: certainly, there can remain no reason why Impious men, so dying, should be thought more unhappy, because they were Cruent and Unjust, then others. To con∣clude; of all those just Persons mentioned in the old Testament, who were translated from this Vale of tears to the Celestial Hils of permanent delight, by early and premature deaths (amongst whom the Apostle (Heb. 11. vers. 38.) hath accounted some so excellent above the common rate of humanity, that the world was not worthy of them) of such, I say, 'twas true, according to this erroneous paraphrase, that they did not Dimidiate their days, because they dyed sooner then they expected. For they did not only hope, but upon the faithfull promise of God even assure themselves of a longer continuation heer below to do him further service. And confidently to expect, nay by a lively hope to anticipate the fruition of a promised blessing; is a privilege peculiar only to those, to whom the promise doth properly and solely belong: but the blessing of Longevity was only then promised to the pious observers of the Divine laws; as is ma∣nifest from the places formerly cited.

(3) By fixing the scope of the Text only upon that mature Term of life, to which many ordinarily attain, viz. to 60. 70. 80. 90. years, more or less, according to the respective Durati∣on of every individual Constitution; and so concluding the verity

of Davids speech only in this respect. For (say they) the An∣nales of Impious men seldome arise to so large an account; be∣cause either the sword of war, or justice, or some Accident oc∣casioned by their Villanies takes them off, before the completion of their natural Term of years.

But this sinister Detorsion of the Text ought also to be repu∣diated for two Reasons.

(1) In regard tis manifestly heterodox, and dissimilar to the express sense of the words; since they say not, Wicked men shall not live out half the days of Others, but their own. Now the days of their lives amount not to so many years, as are requi∣red to the commensuration of the natural space betwixt the Animation and Disanimation of the posterity of Adam, pre∣fixt by the decree of him, who is the Breath of our nostrils: and therefore, when they fully and wholly accomplish that common compute, with what semblance of truth can they be sayd to Di∣midiate their days? Moreover, if those Sanguinary Miscreants, against whom David directly denounceth this judgement of Premature Mortality, be sayd not to dimidiate their days, only in this respect, that they seldome arrive at that provect and silver-headed Age, wherein the Tapor of life, by the ordinary deflux of Nature, burns dim and languid, and at last, for want of oyle, winks out into pepetual night: then with equal right may it be affirmed also of many Holy and Just persons, that they do not dimidiate theirs; nay tis a question not easily answered, whether the same may not be asserted of these, with more justice then of those. For, how rarely doe we observe the pulse of Pious men to beate, till their Arteries grow hard from the Hectick distemper of old age? How small a manual would the Legends of all those Saints, whose names and stories yet sur∣vive, make, who have lived till the Almond tree hath budded and flourished: and how vast a volume would theirs make, who have bin gathered green into the Granary of God, and never lived to see one revolution of Saturn about the solary Orbe? and how frequently have we occasion to comfort our selves, after the transplantation of Junior Virtue, with that adage, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉? Nor hath Piety always proved a Coat of maile

against the danger of Malice; or the Panoplie of a Christian▪ defence against the sword of war; or perfect Charity, an Anti∣dote to Poyson; or Temperance, an Alexipharmacon against the Pestilence; or religious Abstinence, a Preservative against Fa∣mine; or Innocence awarded the stroke of the Executioner: in short, as to the time of Death, in this concernement, there is one event to the Righteous, and to the Wicked, to the clean, and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not; as dies the Good, so dies the Sinner, and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

(2) In respect it disarmes the Text of all its Force and Purpose. For to what end could David say, they should not dimidiate their days, if thereby he intended no more then this, that they should not run over half their stage of life, or subsist untill grey haires; unless the ground or reason thereof be also subjoyned, viz. because of their impious and bloody Inclinations and Pra∣ctises: and so consequently our present opinion be admitted? For if he beleived it constituted by the immutable law of Fate, that such should then, and at no other time be taken off; with∣out any relation at all to the contracting and anticipating merit of their Impiety: what makes it to the principal scope, that he sayd, they shall not dimidiate their days? since, according to this inconvenient interpretation, they do not only not Dimi∣diate theirdays, but fully Accomplish them, as any the most mortified and conscientious observers of Gods sacred laws: and so neither Piety shall retain its attribute of having the power to prolong, nor its Contrary longer weare the just imputation of having the power to abbreviate the Term of Life. To which we may add, that David could not, without special Revelation from that omniscient Light, that penetrates the darkness of Futurity, deliver this certain Prognostick concerning the non-dimidiation of their days. For since he could not but have ob∣served that many the most accursed Vassals of Satan, (the Pro∣vidence of God so permitting, for considerations privy onely to his Wisdome) attained to extreme old age: whence could he acquire that prophetique knowledge, that those particular Vil∣laines, whom he levelled at, should be taken in their own snares,

and perish immaturely in the nonage of their lives? Undoub∣tedly, he could desume that prediction from no oracle less pre∣scient, then that Spirit, whose Essence is Truth, and to whose cognition all things are actually present: but who can, though but with a specious or verisimilous argument, prove that David received any such special Revelation? Wherefore Reason ad∣viseth that we acquiesce in the judgement of most of the Fa∣thers, who unanimously resolve, that David reslected his thoughts upon that positive sentence in the Levitical Law, which (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) for the major part, comminates a short and calam∣tous life, and a repentine and miserable death to the Ungodly; but, on the contrary, promiseth longevous and peaceable days, to those, who should revere the sacred Majesty, and observe the wholsome ordinances of Jehovab: and upon the general infallibility of that Sentence, erected his particular prediction; that those Sanguinary traytors who had with so much detesta∣ble policy prepared stratagems to ensnare his feet walking in the ways of innocence and charity, should be entangled in their own mischievous wiles, and stumble into their graves in the midle of their race. To which we may accommodate that of Juvenal,

Ad Generum Cereris, sine caede ac sanguine pauci Descendunt Reges, & sicca morte Tyranni.

Few Tyrants goe late to th' infernal slood; But sink betimes in Cataracts of blood.

The second place they endeavour to betray out of our possession, is that promission of Longevity, whereby the Father of all things was pleased to invite Children to a due Veneration of their Pa∣rents: which they corrupt with this dangerous gloss. This (say they) was spoken Anthropopathically, or ad captum hominis, by the Holy Spirit, who frequently hath descended to discourse in the stammering and imperfect dialect of mortality; so that the days of obsequious children are said to be prolonged, then when they are blessed with diuturnity, tranquillity and sanity of life, which as it immediately depends on the immutable decree

of God, so cannot one moment be superadded thereunto beyond the term prefixt, unless we infer a manifest Inoonstancy upon that immutable Essence, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning. But that the Ancient of days had determined, that such should live to wear the honourable badge of Antiquity, who should con∣stantly beare a venerable regard toward those, from whom, un∣der God, they had derived their being: yet so, that if any obedient Child should chance to be snatched away by the tal∣lons of that sarcophagous Vultur, Death, before time had re∣duced his haires to the same colour with his skull; which is no rarity; yet notwithstanding doth God in no respect deflect from the point of his general determination, but persevere in the accomplishment of his promise, no less then a Prince, who bestows a million of crowns upon that servant, to whom he had promised only a hundred. For this life is no Mansion, but a narrow and incommodious Inne, standing in the way to a better, whose Term is Eternity: and therfore, ter felix ille, cui ante lassitudinem peractum est iter, thrice happy he, who arrives at his journies end, before he is weary of travell. And our Grand∣fathers tell us, that old Age is but the magazine of sorrows, the sowre Dreggs of life, the Portal to the Nosocomie or Hospital of Diseases, and indeed a kind of living-Death, wherein men only Breath and Doate; which though all men wish for, yet no man delights in when it comes: optima cum expectatur, cum advenit, onerosa sibi, aliis molesta; good only when expected, evil when enjoyed, because burdensome to it self, and trouble∣some to others. So that those Saturnine minds, which were most ambitious to wear the silver Crown of old Age; when they had obtained it, found it to gall their feeble temples, and enervate all their limbs: nor did they appear other then wea∣therbeaten and mouldring statues of their former selves, Human-Grashoppers, or Ghosts walking in Skeletons. In fine, that the whole concernment of this encouragement to Filial Duty, doth consist only in this; that Vivacity in this transitory World is promised unto morigerous Children, only in this capacity, that it is a Benediction of God: and a Benediction only in this re∣spect,

that it is a Document of Divine Grace, or an Evidence of Gods singular love toward them; which he doth infinitely more testify unto them by a timous and early delivery of them from this calamitous prison of Mortality into the glorious Li∣berty of the Sonnes of God.

We reply, that this plea of Exception against our lawfull right to the place, is not only frivolous and dilute; but even derogatory as well to the Sanction, as Excellence of the Promise. For, to transmute the serious and faithfull promise of him, whose words are yea and amen, into an Anthropopathical Sophisme, or affe∣cted expression in the stammering Dialect of Humanity; is fri∣volous, and not only to stagger, but subvert the Fidelity there∣of, and so demolish the comfortable hopes of Filial Piety, nay, what's a degree of Blasphemy, to insimulate Truth it self of Im∣posture. For, to promise Longevity to morigerous Children, when formerly and without any respect to their prevised obe∣dience, God hath prefixt unto them an Intransible Term of life: what els can it be, but to make him promise that, which cannot be promised Hypothetically, or upon condition; unless that which was Absolutely decreed long before the promise was made, be violently cancelled and altered. And so much the more intolerable indignity to the sacred majesty of God, doth this absurd Exception infer; by how much the more both of Im∣prudence and Inconstancy it must import, to play the uncircum∣spect Sophister with those, who (as our Adversaries themselves affirme) stood possessed with a full perswasion, that the Term of every mans life was absolutely, and without any respect to his future piety, or Impiety, predetermined. I profess sincerely, I am yet to be perswaded, that any Credulity can be so pedan∣tique and slavish, as to entertain a beleif; that even Man (I forbear to say, God) can thus openly and detectibly dissimulate with any the most stupid and indiscreet person alive; unless he be first resolved to expose himself to the just scorn and derision of all men, and by this loose and childish jugling forfeit that reputation, which he had acquired by his former grave and ora∣culous treaties, and the just performance of all Articles, to which he had subscribed. 'Tis one thing to admit, that the Holy

Ghost doth sometimes descend to discourse in the stammering and amphibological Phrase of man, when he is pleased to hint unto us those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or ineffable Mysteries, which are too fine to be spun into words by the gross fingers of flesh, and are notions re∣served to entertain the Soul, when enfranchized from the bonds of Corporeity; such are those glances, whereby he affords us a dark landskip of the New Jerusalem, and allegorical descri∣ption of the joyes and glories of the Eternal Life, an idea of the majesty of his incomprehensible Essence, and three distinct Subsistences in one indivisible Existence, &c. and a far different, nay contrary, to say, that he doth speak Anthropopathically and conform to our unequall capacities, when he promiseth those things, which do not only not transcend our faculties of compre∣hension; but are familiar to our knowledg, nay such as the nee∣rest concernment of our nature requires us fully and perspicuously to know. And such is the quality of those Blessings, which the Bounty of Providence hath by promise assured unto the Vir∣tuous, in order to the demulsion and dulcification of the sharp condition of this life; and particularly that of longevous subsi∣stence upon earth. To conclude; the Spirit or Form of a Pro∣mise doth consist in this, that they, to whom the promise is made, do understand the good therein specified, to be really, bona fide, & in specie, intended to be performed by him, who made the promise. Now, if there arise any doubt, whether or no that promise be repugnant to a verity formerly declared; then doth the force and sanction, together with the Dignity thereof, totally vanish and become voyd.

Our Adversaries have rejoyned, that God doth therefore pro∣mise Longevity to obsequious Children, because he hath formerly decreed to qualifie their particular Constitutions with respective Durability.

But, alas! this subterfuge neither dissolves the Difficulty, nor prevents the Doubt. For if his Decree, concerning their Longevity, be Absolute, devoyd of all Suppositionality, and suspended upon no respect to his Prevision of their obedience: no reason can dis∣cover what Force or Energy the promise can pretend unto from the performance of the Condition required. Again, how can

that Promise 〈◊〉〈◊〉 way of invitation or allurement, affect those, who are already confirmed, that what the promise imports, is formerly, by the positive and non-conditionate Will of God, made inevitable, and hath the Possibility of its Futurition de∣termined to precise Necessity? In fine, the Postulation of that Condition can neither consist with the Eternal Identity of God that promises; nor effectually move those, to whom he makes the promise, to endeavour the Consequution of that ample re∣ward of filial obedience: for his Decree, concerning the Term of their life, doth and shall forever stand firm and immote, whe∣ther the Condition be performed, or not.

The last Testimony they have essayed to extort from us, is the Instance of Ezekiah; and this by a Fourfold Cavillation.

(1) By this Excuse, Singulare aliquod Exemplum non ever∣tere regulam, that one single denormous Example is not sufficient to evert the general obligation of a law; or one swallow makes no summer.

This Exception, I confess, might have had some colour, or slender pretext of Validity; had not our Opponents themselves totally excluded it, by asserting that the immutable law of Destiny was equally extended to all and every individual per∣son from Adam down to us. For most certain it is, that God never limited his free Omnipotence, by any fixt law, or bound up his own hands with the same setled Constitutions, whereby he circumscribed the definite activity and duration of his Crea∣tures: it being the Prerogative of his Nature, to know no Im∣possibility, but to be able to act either above, or against the statutes of his Deputy, whensoever, and upon what subject, and to what end soever he pleases. But I have no warrant to beleive, that among the Propugnators of Fate, any one hath deviated inro so remote an Alogie, as to opinion, that the Lots of all men are not delivered out of one and the same common urne; but that the Decrees concerning the Destinies of some particular persons, are not so definitive, precise, and immoveable, as those of all others in generall.

(2) By this Response, that under the seeming Absoluteness of the Prophets Sentence, Morieris, Thou shalt dye; there lay concealed a tacite Hypothesis, which was this: Nisi seria poe∣nitudine te ad Deum convertas, unless by serious and profound re∣pentance thou shalt mortify the old man of sin, and apply thy self wholly to the Mercies of God.

Against this mistaken plea our defence shall be, that it wants the principal inducement to beleif, and so can afford no satisfacti∣on at all. For, (besides this, that it quadrates neither to their First Exception, nor their Thesis concerning the Immobility of Destiny) what Logick can tolerate the induction of an Hy∣pothetical upon a Categorical Proposition? or, more expresly, how can any Condition be comprehended under that message, which by a definitive and peremptory decree, and such as carried no respect to the performance, or non-performance of any con∣dition whatever, tels the K. in down right terms, that the date of his life was now expired, and that the severe Publican, Death, stood ready at the door of his chamber, within some few hours to exact from him the common tribute of Nature? Subordinata non pugnant, is an Axiome I well know, and am ready to receive a challenge from any singularity, that dares question the univer∣sality of its truth; but, that a condiiional Decree can be subor∣dinate to an Absolute, I am bold to deny, nor need I goe far for an Argument to prove the impossibility thereof; the very Anti∣thesis of those notions, Absolute and Conditional sufficiently declaring as much. To take the just dimensions of this Cloud; every Condition is moveable upon the hinge of Indefinity or Un∣certainty, as being suspended upon an uncertain and mutable Cause, viz. the Arbitrary Election of mans Free will: insomuch, that the Event thereof cannot be known, nay not unto the Om∣niscience of God, who is the only Cardiognostes, and sees beyond our very Essences, so long as it hangs in suspence or indecision, by reason of the Indifferency, or non-determination of its Cause, i. e. while it is not determined to either part by the Actual Vo∣lition of mans will. But as for an Absolute decree; that cannot but be Certain and Immutable; as being constitute without, and antecedent to any Prevision of a Condition, that is to be,

or hath bin performed, or is not to be, or hath not bin perfor∣med.

(3) By insinuating, that God made use of this sharp Com∣mination, in order to the more Expedite and effectual reduction of the K. to Penitence.

But, alas! this also is a broken reed, and he shall fall into the ditch of Error, who relies thereon. For who can be perswaded, that this Commination could be serious and in earnest, that must not at the same time dissolve the rigour and immutability of Gods decree concerning the fatal Term of the K^s. life? or how could it be serious, if it were fully constituted from all Eternity that the K. should not die, till full 15. years after the Sentence? This is a pure 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and something that no man can com∣prehend. For, to comminate suddain death to him, whom our Adversaries acknowledge reserved by the law of Destiny till the complete expiration of his prefixt Term of life: is not to comminate in earnest, but in jest, and argue the God of Truth, of Dissimulation. Again, what Efficacy or inforcing Virtue could that Commination have over the Affections of Ezekiah, if he firmly beleived, that he should not, could not dye before the precise term of his life constituted and made intransible from Eternity? Assuredly, if so; he had no just cause either to com∣plain of, or fear the abscission of his days.

(4) By recurring to this their last refuge, Deum hac ratione palam facere voluisse, quam Regi ab aeterno designarat 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that God was pleased to take this course for the promul∣gation of that Longevity, which he had from eternity designed to Ezekiah.

This is more impertinent, and less satisfactory then any of the precedént Exceptions. For extremely ridiculous it is, to opinion, that God would by a Commination suspended on a con∣dition, or by a hypothetical decree, make that known; which long before he had, by an Absolute Decree, without any con∣dition, or prevision of any condition, constituted firme and immoveable. Unworthy and disparaging thoughts both of the Wisdome and Justice of the Supreme Being doth that unhappy man entertain, who ascribes unto it the making of Decrees

subordinate, disparate, and irreconcileable. That Sacred, omniscient, omnipotent Agent, as himself makes nothing in vaine; so would he have us make him our Exemplar, and doe no action, but what points at some certain end, and conduces both to our benefit, and the last of ends, his Glory. But in vain had he promised, in vain threatned, had he either promised or threatned those things, which his own irrevocable Decree had formerly made immutable, which must of necessity, had they never bin promised or threatned, have come to pass in their predetermined opportunity: or such, to whose Existence it was wholly and absolutely necessary, that that very thing, under which the promise or commination was made, should be effected by such a power, to which no other power can resist.

And this (we hope at least) is sufficient to the ample justifi∣cation of our opinions right to those Three appropriate and Con∣vincing Testimonies, of the Mobility of the Term of mans life, desumed from holy Writ. ¶.

Notes

• Article 1. The Authors adhesion to the Second opinion, justified by two important rea∣sons.
• 1.
• 2.
• Article 2. The great ob∣scurity, & small validity of some Texts of holy writ, alleged by the Defen∣dants of Fata∣lity to warrant their opinion, detected.
• Article 3. The Natural Causes (proxi∣me) of the Lon∣gitude and Bre∣vity of mans life: and the Authors pri∣vate conjectu••e of the cause of Longevity in the first age of the world.
• Article 4. The Injustice of our Adversa∣rie, title of pa∣tronage from the foremen∣tioned text of Job, further manifested.
• Article 5. Seven testimo∣nies, out of ho∣ly writ, suppor∣ting the mobi∣lity of the Term of mans life, in indivi∣duo.
• Article 6. A full vindica∣tion of the Fourth Testimo∣ny, from the se∣veral Exceptions made against the appropria∣tion thereof to our scope, by the patrons of Fatality.
• Article 7. The second Testimony vin∣dicated from several Excep∣tions.
• Article 8. The sixth Testi∣mony cleared from 4. Excep∣tions.