Page 92 - Absolute Predestination With Observations On The Divine Attributes

Mankind," p. 526, and seq.

55. The learned Lipsius thus writes to an unmarried friend, who appears to have referred himself to
his judgment and direction: "Sive uxor ducitur, sive omittitur, etc. Whether you marry or live single,
you will still have something or other to molest you, nor does the whole course of man's present
sublunary life afford him a single draught of joy without a mixture of wormwood in the cup. This is
the universal and immutable law, which to resist were no less vain than sinful and rebellious. As the
wrestlers of old had their respective antagonists assigned them, not by their own choice, but by
necessary lot, in like manner each of the human race has his peculiar destiny allotted to him by
Providence. To conquer this is to endure it. All our strength in this warfare is to undergo the
inevitable pressure. It is victory to yield ourselves to fate."—Lips. Epist. miscell, cent. 1, ep. 43,
oper tom., 2, p. 54, Edit. Vesaliens, 1675.

About two years after, this celebrated Christian Seneca wrote as follows to the same person
(Theodore Leewius), who had married and just lost his wife in childbed: "Jam fatum quid? Æterna,
ab æterno, in æternum, Dei lex: What is fate? God's everlasting ordinance—an ordinance settled in
eternity and for eternity, an ordinance which He can never repeal, disannul, or set aside, either in
whole or in part. Now, if this His decree be eternal, a retro, and immovable, quoad futurum, why
does foolish man struggle and fight against that which must be? Especially, seeing fate is thus the
offspring of God, why does impious man murmur and complain? You cannot justly find fault with
anything determined or done by Him, as though it were evil or severe, for He is all goodness and
benevolence. Were you to define His nature, you could not do it more suitably than in those terms.
Is, therefore, your wife dead? Debuit: it is right she should be so. But was it right that she should
die, and at that very time, and by that very kind of death? Most certainly. Lex ita lata: the decree so
ordained it. The restless acumen of the human mind may sift and canvass the appointments of fate,
but cannot alter them. Were we truly wise, we should be implicitly submissive, and endure with
willingness what we must endure, whether we be willing or not. A due sense of our inability to
reverse the disposals of Providence, and the consequent vanity of resisting them, would administer
solid repose to our minds, and sheathe, if not remove, the anguish of affliction. And why should we
even wish to resist? Fate's supreme ordainer is not only the all-wise God, but an all gracious Father.
Embrace every event as good and prosperous, though it may, for the present, carry an aspect of the
reverse. Think you not that He loves and careth for us more and better than we for ourselves? But as
the tenderest parent below doth oftentimes cross the inclinations of his children, with a view to do
them good, and obliges them both to do and to undergo many things against the bent of their wills,
so does the great Parent of all."—Ibid, epist. 61, p. 82.

56. De Serv. Arbitr., cap. 20. [sect. 12.]

57. Vide Lipsii Physiolog. Stoic. Lib. i. Dissert. 12.