A27641:25
A learned treatise of the plague
A learned treatise of the plague wherein the two questions, whether the plague be infectious or no, and , whether and how far it may be shunned of Christians by going aside, are resolved / written in Latin by the famous Theodore Beza Vezelian.A learned treatise of the plague wherein the two questions, whether the plague be infectious or no, and , whether and how farr it may be shunned of Christians by going aside, are resolved / written in Latine by the famous Theodore Beza Vezelian.
London: printed by Thomas Ratcliffe, 1665
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But this also which they set down, upon what reason I know not how grounded: They say, that the Plague is sent unto men by the singular and especial providence of God; and what is here which may not be affirmed of every thing which cometh to pass in the world? for, as he saith, not so much as a Sparrow falleth to the earth without the providence of God, and the hairs of our head are numbered; which providence, if it be stretched unto singular things, doubtless it is in such sort universal in the general, that it is also singular in the singular. They say moreover, that so often as the Plague reigneth in the World, that all those are kept from this Infection whom God hath appointed to preserve alive; and that unto the others all places are infectious, though they be never so far from those which are sick of the Plague. And they add further and say, why then do we fear Infection? is it not a fond thing to sear that which is not? I for my part cannot discern how these things can hang together; for how can all places be infectious to any man, if there be no Infection? unless peradventure they out it to be the Case. But it cannot by any means be truly gathered by certainty of Gods providence that the Plague is not infectious; therefore this Argument runneth beyond the Question propounded.
But this also which they set down, upon what reason I know not how grounded: They say, that the Plague is sent unto men by the singular and especial providence of God; and what is here which may not be affirmed of every thing which cometh to passe in the world? for, as he saith, not so much as a Sparrow falleth to the earth without the providence of God, and the hairs of our head are numbred; which providence, if it be stretched unto singular things, doubtless it is in such sort universal in the general, that it is also singular in the singular. They say moreover, that so often as the Plague reigneth in the World, that all those are kept from this Infection whom God hath appointed to preserve alive; and that unto the others all places are infectious, though they be never so far from those which are sick of the Plague. And they adde further and say, why then do we fear Infection? is it not a fond thing to sear that which is not? I for my part cannot d•scern how these things can hang together; for how can all places be infectious to any man, if there be no Infection? unless peradventure they out it to be the Case. But it cannot by any means be truly gathered by certainty of Gods providence that the Plague is not infectious; therefore this Argument runneth beyond the Question propounded.