III. use of the free dictates of their reason in these cases. CHAP And such persons, when they come to reason the case like philosophers, and men out of passion, have given satisfactory and rational accounts why God in his wise providence may sometimes suffer the worst of men to go on in impunity, when good men may go through the troubles of this world. As, sero puni Ed. Fr. 1. God forbears wicked men, to propound the example of his goodness to their imitation, to teach them not to revenge. their injuries too greedily on each other. This Plutarch, in Plutarch. that admirable discourse of his on this subject, insists on, de his qui as his first reason, why God doth not presently punish untur a nuwicked men. For, saith he out of Plato, God hath set mine, tom. forth himself in the midst of the world for our imitation, I. p. 550. and true virtue is nothing else but an imitation of the Divine nature. And therefore God, saith Plato, gave man the use of sight, that by the sight of the heavenly bodies, and the exact motions which are in them, men should learn tÒ SUσXNμou xai Teтayμévov, that which was comely and orderly, and hate all disorderly and irregular motions; for, as he excellently speaks, Οὐ γάρ ἐσιν ὅ, τι μείζον ἄνθρωπος ἀπολαύειν Θεοῦ πέφυκεν, ἢ τὸ μιμήσει, καὶ διώξει τῶν ἐν ἐκείνῳ καλῶν καὶ ἀγαθῶν εἰς ἀρετὴν καθίσασθαι, There is no greater benefit man can receive from God, than to attain true virtue by the imitation and pursuit of those perfections which are in him. And thence, saith Plutarch, God forbears to punish wicked men presently, not lest, if he should punish them, he might do that he would repent of afterwards; x ἡμῶν τὸ περὶ τὰς τιμωρίας θηριώδες καὶ λάβρον ἀφαίρων, but that he might take away the fury and violence of men in revenging their injuries on each other, that they should not do it in wrath and anger, with as much eagerness as they satisfy their hunger and thirst, whereby they do, štiπndžu Tois XeλUTηxóa, leap upon them who have injured them, with as much fury as a wild beast upon his prey; but men should learn to imitate τὴν ἐκείνου πραότητα καὶ μέλληow, God's gentleness and patience, whereby he gives the offender time to consider with himself what he hath done before he doth severely punish him. As Plato, when his boy had angered him, stood still awhile without striking him, zòv Juμòv xoλágwv, as he said, punishing himself first for his anger, before he would chastise the boy for his fault; and Archytas, when he saw how negligent, his workmen had been, and began to be very angry with them, told them, εὐτυχεῖτε ὅτι ὀργίζομαι ὑμῖν, It is well for you that I am angry with you. Now, saith Plutarch, if : BOOK the consideration of this forbearance in men should tend III. to moderate men's heat and violence, how much more should the consideration of the lenity and patience of God do it! καὶ θεῖον ἡγεῖσθαι μόριον ἀρετῆς τὴν πραότητα καὶ τὴν μεγαλοπάθειαν; and to account gentleness and forbearance to be an imitation of Divine perfections. Now what can be more rational and agreeable to our apprehensions of a Divine nature than this is, that he should shew his goodness to all, and, by his forbearance of so many, teach the world more meekness and gentleness towards each other? For if offences rise by the quality of the person against whom they are committed, no injuries can be so great in one man to another, as those affronts are which men put upon God by their continual provocations of him and if God then be of so infinite patience to forbear such who have offended him, what justice and reason is there, but that men should express more lenity and patience towards each other? So Hierocles excellently speaks, μιμεῖται καὶ ἐν τοῖς φιλίας μέτροις τὸν Θεὸν, ὃς μισεῖ μὲν οὐδένα ἀνθρώπων, τὸ τῆς φιλανθρωπίας ἀγαθὸν κοινῷ τῷ γένει @gorelvwv, A good man imitates God in the measures of friendship, who hates no man, and extends his loving-kindness to all mankind. Of which Seneca likewise someSen. de Be- where speaks: Ne Deos quidem immortales ab hac tam effusa benignitate sacrilegi negligentesque eorum deterrent; utuntur natura sua, et cuncta, interque illa ipsos munerum suorum malos interpretes, juvant. The Divine benignity extends itself to all; even to such as affront and dishonour them, and abuse the gifts they bestow upon them. And since there is so much truth and reason in that of Plato, τέλος τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὸ ὁμοιωθῆναι Θεῷ, it is the height of goodness to be like to God; we see what excellent reason there is Luke vi. 35, for that command of our Saviour, Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father is merciful. neficiis, 1. i. c. I. 36. 2. God forbears presently to punish wicked men, to give Plutarch. them time to become better. This the same excellent moP. 551. ralist gives as another account of God's patience; that thereby he gives them χρόνον πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν, a space to Rev. ii. 21. repent in, as the Scripture calls it. For men, saith Plutarch, in their punishments look at nothing further than mere satisfying their revenge and malice, and that makes them pursue those that have offended them with so much rage and eagerness; but God, saith he, aims at the cure of those who are not utterly incurable; to such he gives μera- CHAP. Caλéodai xpóvov, a time to reform in. Here he brings in III. the examples of such who were bad at first, and came afterwards to be changed from what they were; for which he instances in Cecrops, who was thence called Aquns, because, from a cruel severe prince, he became gentle and mild; and so Gelon and Hieron of Sicily, and Pisistratus the son of Hippocrates, who, from being usurpers, became excellent princes. If Miltiades, saith he, had been cut off while he acted the part of a tyrant, and Cimon in his incest, or Themistocles in his debaucheries, what had become of Marathon, Eurymedon, Dianium, by which the Athenians got so great glory and liberty? And, as he well observes, Õudèv yàp ai μeyáλaι þú- Id. p. 552. σεις μικρὸν ἐκφέρουσιν, great spirits do nothing mean; Οὐδὲ ἀργεῖ δι ̓ ὀξύτητα τὸ σφοδρὸν ἐν αὐταῖς καὶ δραςήριον, ἀλλ ̓ ἐν σάλῳ διαφέρονται, πρὶν εἰς τὸ μόνιμον καὶ καθεςηκὸς ἦθος ἐλθεῖν, That sharp and active spirit that is in them can never lie at rest by reason of its vigour, but they are tossed up and down, as it were in a tempest, till they come to a settled composed life. But as the multitude of weeds argues the richness and softness of the ground, though for the sake of those weeds one not skilled in husbandry would not account such ground worth looking after, so, saith he, aroTA TOλλÈ καὶ φαῦλα προεξανθοῦσιν αἱ μεγάλαι φύσεις, great spirits usually bring forth no commendable fruits at first; which we considering the danger and hurtfulness of, are presently for cutting them down: but one that more wisely considers the generous nature which may lie under this ill fruit, waits time and leisure, till reason and age begin to master these headstrong passions. And therefore, according to the prudent law of the Egyptians, the woman with child must be reprieved till the time of her delivery. 3. God spares some wicked men from punishment, to make them instruments of his justice in punishing others. Ἐνίοις γὰρ ἀμέλει καὶ κολαςαῖς ἑτέρων πονηρῶν, ἅτε δημοκοίνοις, ἀπεχρήσατο τὸ δαιμόνιον, as Plutarch goes on, God spares some from punishment, that by them he might punish others. Which he supposeth to be the case of all tyrants: and thereby Cotta's difficulty concerning Marius, Cinna, Sylla, and those other cruel and tyrannical persons who usurped authority among them, is clearly taken off: for Divine Providence might let those trees grow, from whence he intended to take his rods to scourge others withal. God makes the same use of tyrants (saith Plutarch) to commonwealths, that physicians do of the gall III. BOOK of a hyæna and other hurtful creatures; which may be good for curing some dangerous diseases; so may the tyrannical severity and sharpness of such persons be continued ἢ τὸ νοσοῦν ἀπαλλάξαι καὶ καθάραι, till the diseases of the political body be cured by these sharp medicines. Such a one was Phalaris to the Agrigentines, and Marius to the Romans; and the Oracle told the Sicyonians in exId. p. 553. press terms, pasiyovóμar deTodaι, THY Tów, the city wanted some severe discipline. Thence Totilas, when he found what strange success he had in his enterprizes, called himself Flagellum Dei, and thought God raised him up on purpose to be a scourge for the sins of the world, And no doubt those strange passages of the Roman commonwealth, (which made Cato at least dispute Providence, and say, Res divinas multum habere caliginis, when he saw Pompey successful as long as he served his ambition, but presently overthrown when he stood for the commonwealth;) these things, I say, had a higher end than they looked at, which was to make both Pompey and Cæsar the instruments of Divine justice to punish the Romans for their lusts, ambition, and cruelty; which were never greater than in that age. Now then, if God must justly punish offenders, why may he not spare some to make them his instruments in the punishing of others: especially since, after he hath used his rods, he may cast them into the fire too? As was evident in the instance of Cæsar, who, after all his slaughters and triumphs, was murdered in the senate, and that by some who had been as active as any for him. And herein Divine justice, both as to the punishment of the persons, and the means of it, hath been very remarkable in a multitude of instances; which every one's reading may afford him. 4. Therefore another account why God may spare wicked men a while, is, that Divine Providence might more remarkably be observed in the manner of their punishment afterwards. Plutarch tells us of Callippus, who was stabbed by his enemies with the same dagger with which he had killed Dion under a pretence of friendship. And when Mitius, the Argive, was killed in a tumult afterwards, upon the day of a solemn shew, a brass statue in the market-place fell upon his murderer, and killed him there. But most remarkable is the story of Bessus, recorded by the same author, who haying killed his father, and a long time concealed it, goes one night to supper to some friends; and while he was there, thrusts up his spear into a swallow's nest, and pulls it down, and III. kills the young ones. His friends asking him the reason CHA P. of so strange an action, Οὐ γὰρ (ἔφη) μοῦ πάλαι καταμαρτυροῦσιν αὗται ψευδῶς καὶ καταβοῶσιν, ὡς ἀπεκτονότος τὸν πατέρα, Do not you hear, saith he, how they falsely accuse me, and cry out that I have killed my father? Which being by the persons present carried to the king, and the truth of it found out, he was executed for it. Such strange ways doth Providence sometimes use to shew how vigilant it is, even when we think it sleeps the most! 5. Though God spares the persons of wicked men, he doth not defer their punishment, when the thoughts of their evil actions is the greatest torment to them; Maxima peccati poena est, peccasse, as Seneca speaks; sin bears its own punishment along with it. Wickedness is den Tis Bie dniepryds oixтps, the most exquisite contriver of misery, which fills the minds of those who commit it with continual consternations, anxieties, and perplexities of mind. But as that often and deservedly cited author on this subject, Plutarch, tells us, most men are in this like children, who when they behold malefactors in the theatres in their cloth of gold and purple robes, with their crowns on their heads dancing about, they admire them, and imagine them to be most happy men, till they see them lashed and beaten, and fire come out from their brave apparel; so, saith he, as long as men see others in their pomp and grandeur, they think them very far from punishment, till they behold their execution; which, adds he, is not so much the entrance of their punishment, as the perfection of it. So that the longer the time of their lives is, the longer is the time of their punishment here ; Οὐδὲ γηράσαντες εκολάσθησαν, ἀλλ ̓ ἐγήρασαν κολαζόμενοι. They are not punished when they grow old, but are grown old in punishments. Cannot we say a person is punished while he is in prison, and hath his fetters upon him, till his execution comes? nor that one that hath drunk poison, is a dying while he walks about, till the cold comes to his heart and kills him? If we deny, saith he, that all the inquietudes, horrors, and anxieties of mind, which wicked men have, are no part of their punishment, we may as well say that a fish which hath swallowed the hook is not taken, because he is not fried, or cut in pieces. So it is with every wicked man; he hath swallowed the hook when he hath committed an evil action, (rò yλuxù τῆς ἀδικίας ὥσπερ δέλεαρ εὐθὺς ἐξεδήδοκε,) and this conscience within him, as he expresseth it, |