God to do this or that there is no reason besides his will. Many times no reason known to us; but that there is no reason thereof I judge it most unreasonable to imagine, inasmuch as he worketh all things κατὰ τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ Beλnμaтos avтou, not only according to his own will, but the counsel of his own willm. And whatsoever is done with counsel or wise resolution hath of necessity some reason why it should be done, albeit that reason be to us in some things so secret, that it forceth the wit of man to stand, as the blessed Apostle himself doth, amazed thereat: O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, &c. That law eternal which God himself hath made to himself, and thereby worketh all things whereof he is the cause and author; that law in the admirable frame whereof shineth with most perfect beauty the countenance of that wisdom which hath testified concerning herselfo, The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, even before his works of old I was set up, &c.; that law, which hath been the pattern to make, and is the card to guide the world. by; that law which hath been of God and with God everlastingly; that law, the author and observer whereof is one only God to be blessed for ever: how should either men or angels be able perfectly to behold? The book of this law we are neither able nor worthy to open and look into. That little thereof which we darkly apprehend we admire; the rest with religious ignorance we humbly and meekly adore.

[6] Seeing therefore that according to this law he worketh, of whom, through whom, and for whom, are all things P; although there seem unto us confusion and disorder in the affairs of this present world, Tamen quoniam

m

Ephes. i. 11. n Rom. xi. 33. • Prov. viii. 22. p Rom. xi. 36.

bonus mundum rector temperat, recte fieri cuncta ne dubites, let no man doubt but that every thing is well done, because the world is ruled by so good a guide, as transgresseth not his own law, than which nothing can be more absolute, perfect, and just.

The law whereby he worketh is eternal, and therefore can have no shew or colour of mutability: for which cause, a part of that law being opened in the promises which God hath made, (because his promises are nothing else but declarations what God will do for the good of men,) touching those promises the Apostle hath witnessed, that God may as possibly deny himselfr and not be God, as fail to perform them. And concerning the counsel of God, he termeth it likewise a thing unchangeables; the counsel of God, and that law of God whereof now we speak, being one. Nor is the freedom of the will of God any whit abated, let, or hindered, by means of this; because the imposition of this law upon himself is his own free and voluntary act. This law therefore we may name eternal, being that order which God before all ages hath set down with himself, for himself to do all things by.

natural agents

III. I am not ignorant that by law eternal the learned The law which for the most part do understand the order, have given them not which God hath eternally purposed himself in all his works to observe, but rather

to observe, and

their

necessary

manner of keeping it.

that which with himself he hath set down as expedient to be kept by all his creatures, according to the several condition wherewith he hath endued them. They who thus are accustomed to speak apply the name of Law unto that only rule of working which superior authority imposeth; whereas we somewhat more

en

a Boet. lib. iv. de Consol. Philos. [p. 105. ed. Lugd. Bat. 1656. pros. 5.] r2 Tim. ii. 13. • Heb. vi. 17.

larging the sense thereof term any kind of rule or canon, whereby actions are framed, a law. Now that law which, as it is laid up in the bosom of God, they call eternal, receiveth according unto the different kinds of things which are subject unto it different and sundry kinds of names. That part of it which ordereth natural agents we call usually nature's law; that which Angels do clearly behold and without any swerving observe is a law celestial and heavenly; the law of reason, that which bindeth creatures reasonable in this world, and with which by reason they may most plainly perceive themselves bound; that which bindeth them, and is not known but by special revelation from God, Divine law; human law, that which out of the law either of reason or of God men probably gathering to be expedient, they make it a law. All things therefore, which are as they ought to be, are conformed unto this second law eternal; and even those things which to this eternal law are not conformable are notwithstanding in some sort ordered by the first eternal law. For what good or evil is there under the sun, what action correspondent or repugnant unto the law which God hath imposed upon his creatures, but in or upon it God doth work according to the law which himself hath eternally purposed to keep; that is to say, the first law eternal? So that a twofold law eternal being thus made, it is not hard to conceive how they both take place in all thingst.

tId omne, quod in rebus creatis fit, est materia legis æternæ.' Th. 1. 2. [Thom. Aquin. Summ. Theol. Ima 2dae] q. 93. art. 4, 5, 6. Nullo modo aliquid legibus summi Creatoris ordinationique subtrahitur, a quo pax universitatis administratur.' August. de Civit. Dei, lib. xix. cap. 12. [quoted by Aquin.] Immo et peccatum, quatenus a Deo juste permittitur, cadit in legem æternam. Etiam legi æternæ subjicitur peccatum, quatenus voluntaria legis transgressio pœnale quoddam incommodum animæ inserit, juxta illud Augustini, Jussisti Domine, et sic est, ut pœna sua sibi sit omnis animus inordinatus.' Confess. lib. i. cap. 12. Nec male scholastici, Quemadmodum,' inquiunt, videmus res naturales contingentes,

[2] Wherefore to come to the law of nature: albeit thereby we sometimes mean that manner of working which God hath set for each created thing to keep; yet forasmuch as those things are termed most properly natural agents, which keep the law of their kind unwittingly, as the heavens and elements of the world, which can do no otherwise than they do; and forasmuch as we give unto intellectual natures the name of voluntary agents, that so we may distinguish them from the other; expedient it will be, that we sever the law of nature observed by the one from that which the other is tied unto. Touching the former, their strict keeping of one tenure, statute, and law, is spoken of by all, but hath in it more than men have as yet attained to know, or perhaps ever shall attain, seeing the travail of wading herein is given of God to the sons of men, that perceiving how much the least thing in the world hath in it more than the wisest are able to reach unto, they may by this means learn humility. Moses, in describing the work of creation, attributeth speech unto God: God said, Let there be light: Let there be a firmament: Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place: Let the earth bring forth: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven. Was this only the intent of Moses, to signify the infinite greatness of God's power by the easiness of his accomplishing such effects, without travail, pain, or labour? Surely it seemeth that Moses had herein besides this a further purpose, namely, first to teach that God did not work as a necessary but a voluntary agent, intending beforehand and decreeing with

hoc ipso quod a fine particulari suo atque adeo a lege æterna exorbitant, in eandem legem æternam incidere, quatenus consequuntur alium finem a lege etiam æterna ipsis in casu particulari constitutum; sic verisimile est homines, etiam cum peccant et desciscunt a lege æterna ut præcipiente, reincidere in ordinem æternæ legis ut punientis.'

himself that which did outwardly proceed from him: secondly, to shew that God did then institute a law natural to be observed by creatures, and therefore according to the manner of laws, the institution thereof is described, as being established by solemn injunction. His commanding those things to be which are, and to be in such sort as they are, to keep that tenure and course which they do, importeth the establishment of nature's law. This world's first creation, and the preservation since of things created, what is it but only so far forth a manifestation by execution, what the eternal law of God is concerning things natural? And as it cometh to pass in a kingdom rightly ordered, that after a law is once published, it presently takes effect far and wide, all states framing themselves thereunto; even so let us think it fareth in the natural course of the world since the time that God did first proclaim the edicts of his law upon it, heaven and earth have hearkened unto his voice, and their labour hath been to do his will: He made a law for the rain"; He gave his decree unto the sea, that the waters should not pass his commandment». Now if nature should intermit her course, and leave altogether, though it were but for a while, the observation of her own laws; if those principal and mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this lower world are made, should lose the qualities which now they have; if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their wonted motions, and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen; if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now as a giant doth run his unwearied course y, should as it were through a languishing faintness begin to stand and to rest himself; if the u [Job xxviii. 26.] * [Jer. v. 22.] y Psalm xix. 5.