An Answer to a Great Number of Blasphemous Cavillations

Yea if that any man by chance and not of set purpose be slain, he avoweth him self to be the cause of his death, and that so he had appointed that we shall judge nothing to come of fortune, but that all cometh by the determination of his counsel. And further it displeaseth him when we esteem any thing to proceed from any other. so that we do not behold him, and know him not only the principal cause of all things, but also as the author appointing all things to the one part or the other by his counsel.

Yea if that any mā by chāce and not of set purpose be slain, he auoweth him self to be the cause of his death, and that so he had appointed that we shall iudge nothing to com of fortune, but that all cometh by the determination of his counsell. And further it displeaseth him whē we esteme any thing to procede from any other. so that we do not behold him, and know him not onely the principall cause of all thinges, but also as the author appointing all thinges to the one part or the other by his counsell.

Thus let us then conclude that prosperity and adversity, rain, winds, hale, frost, fare weather, abundance, hunger, war, or peace, to be the works ⟨p. 159⟩of God, and that the creatures which be the inferior causes, are only instruments which he hath in readiness to execute his will, which he so useth at his pleasure, that he leadeth and moveth them to bring to pass what so ever he hath appointed. Moreover it is to be noted that not only he thus useth his insensible creatures, that by them he worketh his will, but also men them selves, yea and also devils, insomuch that satan and wicked men are executors of gods will: as he used the Egyptians, to punish his people, and a little after, he raised up the Assyrians and other such to revenge the sins of his people we see that he used the devil in tormenting Saul, and in deceiving Ahab. which things when the libertines do hear, rashly and without judgement beholding no further they conclude, That now the creatures do no more work, and so horribly do they confound all things nether do they only mingle and mixed the heavens with the earth, but also they join God with the devil. and that chanceth unto them because they do not observe two most necessary exceptions. The former is that Satan and the wicked are not so the instruments of God, but that they also do their own parts. Nether must we imagine that God so worketh by wicked men, as by a stock or a stone, but as by a creature participant of reason, &c. When we say then that God worketh by creatures, this impedeth not but that the wicked work also upon their part. which thing the scripture most evidently declareth, for as it pronounceth that God will whistle, and blow as it were the trumpet to call and bring forth to battle the unfaithful, so ceaseth it not to make mention of their own counsel, and ascribeth to them both a will and a work, which they did execute under the decree of God. The other exception of the which these unhappy libertines take no head, is, that there is a great difference betwixt the work of God, and the work of the wicked when that God useth him in stead of an instrument.