they see nothing of God in these effects They say not this is the Lords doing and therefore it is not marvellous in their eyes They see Pestilences sweeping away Cities and Families fires laying populous Cities waste Enemies breaking in upon Countries and strangely over-running them the hand of God sweeping away whole Families but they see nothing of God in them they consider these as terrible things as misfortunes to which the state of Humane affairs is subjected their Eyes are upon the visible wheels that turn these things but they see not the wheel within the wheel the Psalmist calleth to us to come and behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath wrought in the earth Men see desolations wrought in the Earth but they see them not as the work of the Lord as desolations wrought by him This is what the Psalmist complained of and for which he prayeth against them Psalm 28.4 5 Give them according to the works of their hands c. Because they regard not the work of the Lord nor regard the operations of his hands he shall destroy them and not build them up This is a sign of an Atheistical heart to see great changes and not to see God in them the Heathens had more of Religion than this came to I remember the Poet in his description of the ruine of Troy bringeth in Venus taking Aeneas of his mettal in the last defence of his Country and from taking Revenge on Helena the cause of it by shewing him the gods at every corner and post of the City helping the Grecians to fire it and to over-turn the walls of it It is very sad that amongst Christians there should be any that in the great changes which God worketh in Nations Cities Families cannot see the great and living God at work and using creatures but as instruments in his hand but this is but a seeing and beholding the works of Providence highly useful for the production of pious affections and such acts of duty as God requireth We have a further Duty than this incumbent upon us 2. It is not only our Duty to see and behold but wistly to consider and observe these things Psalm 107.43 Whoso is wise will observe these things and he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord a Text which in this discourse I shall make a further use of Observation implieth the application of our minds unto the passages of Divine Providence which are before our eyes as we must not be careless and forgetful hearers of the word of God so we must not be careless and forgetful observers of the works of God It is said Gen. 37.11 that Jacob observed the saying Josephs saying in the repetition of his Dream relating to eminent providential workings So it is said Luke 2.19 That when upon the birth of our Saviour the Angels had spoke to the Shepherds and the Shepherds had published the glad tidings which they had brought to the City That all who heard it wondred at those things which were spoken by the Shepherds Mary kept all these sayings and pondered them in her heart To see a thing is one thing to make our minds to stand upon it to consider it and to ponder upon it is another thing This is also our Duty as to meditate on the Lords words so to meditate on the Lords works twice the Psalmist hath it I will meditate on all thy works Psalm 143.5 I muse on the works of thy hands So Psalm 77. v. 12 I will meditate also on all thy works and talk of thy doings It is our great fault that we suffer the impression of Gods works to go off our hearts too soon We hear of great changes we see great desolations God works in Kingdoms Cities and Families at first they make a little impression upon us we startle at them but by the next day they are as a tale that is told the sound is out of our ears the impression is off our minds this is now not to observe the works of the Lord not as we ought to consider the operation of his hands 3. It is thirdly our Duty modestly and humbly to search out the causes of Providences towards our selves especially We are commanded to hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Thus did Josephs brethren Gen. 42.21 when they were in prison they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother when we saw the anguish of his soul when he sought to us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Job prays Job 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me this is but a searching and trying our ways an excellent help and necessary medium in order to a true repentance Indeed it is our great errour that we are very prone to search out the causes of severe Providences upon others The Barbarians seeing a Viper cleave to Pauls hand conclude him a Murtherer but we are very slow and backward to enquire into the meritorious causes of Gods severe Dispensations to our selves Yet as to others as it is our Duty to observe the Providences of God to them so we may modestly and humbly search out the causes of them Thus did Jeremiah venia praefata having first recognized God in the Justice and righteousness of his proceedings Jer. 12.1 Righteous art thou O Lord in thy Judgments when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments why doth the way of the wicked prosper c So the Prophet Habbakuk ch 1.13 Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he But as to this searching into the causes of Divine Providences I put in those two words modestly and humbly Indeed God is so plain and open in his Judgments sometimes that the provocation is wrote and that in capital Letters in the front of the punishment Thus it was in the case of the Sodomites the Egyptians the Benjamites Sauls bloody house Haman the final destruction of the Jews c and thus it is still very often The Drunkard dies in his drunkenness but it is not always so The Judgments of the Lord are a great deep This enquiry therefore into causes must be modest and humble we must no more caecutire in revelatis as to the works of God than as to the word of God if we see a blood-thirsty and deceitful man not living out half his days a Dart striking through the liver of the Adulterer these are open things And when we see prophane vile wretches devouring those that are more righteous than they when we see God plaguing men according to his own heart chastening them every moment not giving them time to swallow their spittle These are secrets of Divine Providence of which we must be careful that we pass no ungrounded censure yea and we must search humbly too Our judgment in these cafes will amount to no more than a
to heaven ordinarily with broken bones and a bleeding heart So that you see that Gods getting himself glory from his peoples sin gives no man a ground of presumption to go on in a course of sin against God Vse 4. In the last place Let this observation mind us in this case to be workers together with God Have we sinned and come short of the glory of God Let us do our indeavour to make our sins to turn to the furtherance of the glory of God Let us indeavour to make the best of our own bad markets What is done we cannot re-call let us indeavour if possible to make an advantage of our former miscarriages You will say How should that be Answ 1. Let the sense of your sins hasten your pace to the Lord Jesus Christ God hath a great deal of glory from our believing in him whom he hath sent The soul that accepteth of the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour giveth unto God the glory of his Power Wisdom Justice Goodness Truth it gives him the glory of the exceeding riches of his free-grace 2. Make use of your sins to increase your Confession your Repentance and Humiliation Confession giveth glory to God my Son saith Joshua Confess and give glory to God Let your former sins give you the further advantage for sorrowing after a godly sort that will bring forth carefulness indignation fear vehement desires zeal revenge as it did in the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. 7.11 3. Let the remembrance of them cause you to walk softly all the days of your life This is that which God requireth of all to walk humbly with their God The remembrance of your sins may be of notable use to you for this to keep down that pride which is naturally in all our hearts that swelling in an opinion of our selves of our own duties and performances that uncharitable judging and censuring and triumphing over others when we see them fallen in the day of temptations 4. Lastly Let the consideration of how many sins God hath forgiven you make you love much Thus the woman Luk. 7.37 47 made an improvement even of her former sins her much that was forgiven ingaged her to love that God much who had forgiven her so much This improvement St. Paul made 1 Cor. 15.9 10. I am saith he the least of all the Apostles and not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God But by the grace of God I am that I am and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all O this will be an excellent improvement even of your sins if your former unholiness shall now help to make you more holy your former unrighteousness shall help to make you more righteous for the time to come your reflexions upon how much you have done against God and his Saints shall now engage you to do more for God and the cause and people of God A good husband and house-wife will lose nothing but make some advantage of every rag every bit of wood c. I would have you be like them you have been formerly great sinners and done much to the dishonour of God your consciences can shew you a great dunghil of sin which you made in your state of vanity God hath changed your state changed your hearts let not that dunghil be lost look upon it often to help to raise up your hearts in the praises and admiration of Gods free-grace and the engaging your hearts more for God in your contrary duties for the time to come But so â—uch shall serve for this Observation also SERMON XXVI Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am still going on instructing you to that spiritual Wisdom which the Text telleth you may be gained by and is declared in the Observation of the motions of Actual Providence I am now proceeding to a Twelfth Observation of this nature which I shall give you thus Observ 12. The Providence of God in the distribution of the good things of this life doth in a great measure move circularly though mostly to the seeming advantage of ungodly men In my enlargments upon this notion I shall keep much to the same method which I observed in the former 1. Opening it unto you 2. Justifying the observation by instances 3. Shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence And lastly Making some suitable Application 1. My observation as you see concerneth the motions of Actual Providence as to its distribution of the portions of this life The Pagan Philosophers distributed all the good things they had any knowledg of into three sorts The good things of the body amongst which they reckoned long-life health strength beauty c. The good things of the mind the rich endowments of it such as knowledg invention judgment wit memory and moral vertue c. and the good things of fortune such as birth ingenuous education honours riches All these have a goodness in them which lyeth in their suitableness to the use of humane life or society The blind Heathen not seeing the fountain-head of these beautiful streams ascribed them to fortune But they are all in the hand of Providence that giveth to one a longer to another a shorter life to one greater to another lesser measures of health and strength c. to one more judgment wit c. than to another But I chiefly understand my Observation of the good things which the Heathen called Bona fortunae the good things of fortune such as honours riches c. These also are the Lords he it is saith Moses That gives us power to get wealth And the Holy Ghost by another pen-man telleth us That promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west but God pulleth down one and setteth up another Promotion doth mostly depend upon the favour of the great men of the Earth and you shall observe the Scripture everywhere maketh God the Author of the favour and grace which persons have found in the eyes of the Princes of the world 2. Now I observe in the first place That the wheel of Providence in making this distribution doth for the most part move circularly My meaning is that good and evil of this nature hath as all humane things its turns and vicissitudes sometimes to good men sometimes to bad men The Heathen had some prospect of this though what we call Providence they ascribed to fortune to whom they gave a wheel to signifie the rotation of all these sublunary contentments in which you know the same spokes are not always up nor down but sometimes these spokes are uppermost by and by they are at the ground and those that but now were below are up in their place And this is most perspicuous in bodies of people which are made up of those two sorts of men that divide the world godly
of living bodies must be 1. Something that hath a capacity to be turned into the substance of our bodies else how can it nourish Hence it is that a man cannot feed or be nourished by stones or dirt there is not in these things a capacity to be turned into humane flesh 2. It must have something of contrariety in it to the body nourished otherwise the stomach would make no alteration of it And 3. It must have in it something of similitude else it would never incorporate with us and join it self to our flesh or mix it self with our blood All our food must have some qualities in it that must be accommodate to our nourishment and these qualities or faculties must be upheld in it and upheld too in some due proportion Hence we see that food when corrupted and putrified and so hath lost these faculties and vertues and they be extinguished it instead of nourishing us breeds diseases and destroyeth us Now God preserveth the life and being of his creatures by a daily concurrence of his Providence as well by upholding the nourishing vertues and qualities of their food as those natural faculties by which they crave concoct and digest or attract their nourishment or expel and throw out that part of it which is not proper for the nourishment of their bodies But this is enough to have spoken as to that first principal Faculty by which the life and being of all sensitive living creatures are preserved 2. A second principal Faculty by which the life of creatures is preserved is that of Respiration or breathing which is the motion of the breasts and lungs by which they draw in air and again puff it out thus continually cooling the heat of the heart which would else soon determine the life of the creature A Faculty so necessary that we daily see with what difficulty the creature liveth when it is any way incumbred daily experience we have of this in persons sick of Consumptions or Asthma's c. When any living creature is once wholly deprived of this it presently dieth This God giveth and maintaineth He giveth to all Life and Breath and all things Acts 17.25 He also taketh it away Thou takest away their breath and they die saith the Psalmist Psalm 104.29 God is said to be the God who spreadeth forth the Earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people and spirit to them that walk thereon Isa 42.5 Now God preserveth both man and beast by upholding this power or faculty in them by which they draw in and puff out the air yea and his daily Providence appeareth also in the preserving of the air which they suck in ordinarily from such affections and qualities as would destroy life in his creatures I say ordinarily to except those special remissions of Divine Providence in this case by which God sometimes punisheth persons and places by a noxious and infected air as the procreative causes of more Epidemical sicknesses and distempers And this sheweth us how reasonable a thing it is That all that hath breath should praise the Lord according to the Psalmists exhortation Psalm 150. 3. A third principal Faculty necessary to the upholding of the life and being of creatures is that by which they sleep and take their alternate rest Quod caret alterna requie durabile non est Experience tells us that we can live very little while without sleep we must therefore have a power to sleep There is no living creature that is always asleep or always awake we must have a power to sleep and a power to awake again or we cannot live Some sleep more some less all must sleep sometime Sleep is a cessation of the common sense and the exterior senses from action The Eye seeth not the Ear heareth not c. Now this is caused say the Philosophers from the ascending up of vapors out of the stomach which stop the passage of the animal spirits from the brain which vapours when they are spent and the passages are clear again man waketh and the senses return to their exercise Be the cause what it will certain it is it is necessary in order to the holding of our souls in life we must have a power both to sleep and to wake and this power must be preserved and by the upholding and preserving of this power and faculty both men and beasts are upheld preserved and kept alive Now I say this is Gods work he that made the deep sleep at first to fall upon Adam in the day in which he was created Gen. 2.21 makes ordinary sleep to fall upon all living creatures He giveth sleep to his Beloved Psalm 127. v 2. It is a piece of his promise Prov. 3.24 Thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet David complained that God held his eyes waking Psalm 77.4 And thus I have shewed you how God preserveth both man and beast by upholding and preserving those powers and faculties in their Bodies by which they are kept in life and their Being is preserved 2. But both men and beasts are very small when they first come into the World Their Beings afterward increase and this must be by a natural power which God the great Creator hath created in them at first and made every creature to be brought forth with without which it could not grow beyond its proportion in the first day of its production into the World This is that which the Philosopher calls Facultatem Auctricem the power by which the living creature grows and increaseth to a just perfection and measure I say a just measure for no creature groweth always The God of Nature hath set a just measure to every Being This Power also must be upheld or the World would be full of none but Children and very small beasts The Psalmist saith Psalm 104.14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattel and by a parity of Reason he must also cause the cattel to grow for the grass Christ hath taught us that we cannot add one cubit to our stature It is true man and beast grows to both their just dimensions by a natural faculty mans growth stops at thirty years or under by a natural Law But God at first created in them this Natural faculty and God by a daily concourse of his Providence upholdeth enliveneth and assisteth this natural faculty and by this particular act of his Providence he doth preserve and uphold both man and beast as in their Beings so in their just dimensions and proportions in which we see them supplying and adorning the World 3. But thirdly Supposing all living creatures preserv'd and upheld in their several lives and beings by Gods upholding and preserving those several powers and faculties in the object of their nourishment by which they are made fit nourishment for their bodies and those several faculties in their bodies which are the subjects to be nourished by vertue of which they desire their due food concoct
up amongst them so they have had an ambition still to arrogate this Name to themselves The Arians would be the only Church since that the Papists the Protestants think they have the best claim and great disputes there are for this Honourable Title I will not say this will determine the cause but it will go a great way That body of people professing Christ against whom the gates of Hell cannot prevail Matth. 16.18 In the midst of which God appears to be by a more special powerful Protection keeping it that it shall not fall Psalm 46.5 That people which the Lord keepeth and watereth every moment lest any should hurt it keeping it night and day Isa 27.3 That people round about whom the Lord is as the mountains are round about Jerusalem Psalm 125 v. 2 Who can say as Psalm 124 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us Then the waters had over-whelmed us the proud waters had gone over our souls I say that people amongst those that lay claim to the honourable Title of the Church of God seem to have the best claim for it is the Church for which God exerciseth a special Providence I will not say This alone will prove any party the true Christian Church but where-ever we see a people professing faith in Jesus Christ holding the Doctrine of the Gospel crying To the Law and to the Testimony for the trial of her Doctrine Worship and Discipline and God watching over this people strangely preserving multiplying and encreasing them using the ministry of his Word amongst them to convert and build up Souls delivering them in a constant series and succession of Providence from their Enemies far more and more mighty than they are we may join our selves to them The anointed of the Lord the Church of the true and living God is doubtless before us Though these special Providences will not make an argument alone yet they are a far better argument than the Popish pedegree they pretend to in a succession from St. Peter or Antiquity or their pretended Vnity or Miracles indeed rather to be called lying wonders I know no promises of these things to the Church to the end of the World but I know many promises for special Providence attending them And certainly that Body of Christian people called Protestants I mean that people in all the parts of the World that are now called by that name for the name beareth date but from the German Reformation but I say that Body of people united in their Doctrine and Worship can lay the fairest claim to this of any others No people hath been more strangely preserved than they witness those in the valleys of Piedmont and Lucerne and Bohemia none more strangely preserved nor whose number hath been more strangely encreased nor their Doctrines more strangely prevailed A Christian by observing which way special Providence hath most moved may get much wisdom and much help himself in making a judgment which is the true Church 2. Yea and he may also much help himself in judging of those in the World who are the true Saints and people of God who they are that dwell in the secret of the most High as the Psalmist speaketh for they generally abide under the more particular shadow of the Almighty It is true there are some rare instances of persons that walk close with God whom yet God followeth with a series of severe Providences such an instance was Job and such particular instances we see in our time to let us know that outward prosperity is not the Saints portion God hath provided some better things for his people But take now any considerable number of people in any City or Place that so far as we can judg walk more close with God and in a more strict observation of his law than others do and oppose these to a like number of persons in that place that give a liberty to their lusts and walk by no such rule and observe number for number who are most under the special Providence of God preserving them from dangers and in dangers who are most blessed with special Providences as to length of life health c. you will remember that I told you we must abate for particular instances of Gods own people whom he picks out to make examples of saith and patience and to be his witnesses unto the world in a time of trial Who observeth not how strangely God preserveth and blesseth some people that fear him and walk closely with him and I do believe the observation will justifie it self concerning any considerable number of such persons compared with a like number of others So that although none can conclude himself or herself a child of God from some particular special Providence no not from a series and course of them yet where men and women walk close with God Gods special Providences attending them will much evidence even to others that they are not hypocritical in their professions 2. But secondly The observation of Gods special Providences towards our persons our families our Church will much make us to understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. The love of our friend to us is not seen so much in some acts of his goodness which others experience as much as we as in some special things which he doth for us and doth not or will not do for others The observation therefore of special Providence helps much to affect our hearts with the love of God God in trying our love to him saith to us What do you do more than others and as our love to God is so tried so Gods love to us is so evidenced this is that which hath always set the hearts of the people of God admiring God This was that which set the Psalmist upon admiring Gods goodness to mankind Psal 8.4 What is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of man that thou shouldest remember him If you read on you will see that which affected the Psalmist was Gods special Providences to man making him little lower than the Angels cloathing him with glory and honour putting all things under his feet c. This made David understand the loving kindness of the Lord 1 Sam. 7.18 Who am I O Lord and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto and this was yet a small thing in thy sight O Lord. God aggravates our sins from the special Providences he hath blessed us with as in the case of David 2 Sam. 12. and Saul Moses argueth the Israelites to duty from Gods special Providences to them in the four first Chapters of Deuteronomy nothing makes us so much as them to understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Oh therefore observe consider what God hath done and what he daily doth for you more than
unsearchable are the ways of God in them How strangely are we every day mistaken in what we judged the design and tendency of many motions of Providence proving in the issue quite contrary to what we expected 3. A third unsearchable thing in Divine Providence is the track of it Necessary causes and such Natural causes are have a certain track you may follow the prints of their feet Moral and voluntary causes have not such a certain track moving not like Machines but as influenced from the will of man but yet there is something of ordinary certainty in them Reason in all men and in men of several ages is much a kin whence that certainty doth arise as well as from the finiteness of mens wisdom and understanding But here God is unsearchable he doth not always do the same things the same ways sometimes by humane means sometimes without means sometimes by improbable means sometimes adding by a preternatural power to natural causes sometimes by suspending their acts sometimes by over-ruling their motions and workings all in infinite variety so as his ways are like the ways of a Ship in the sea an Eagle in the air a Serpent upon a Rock you can track them in none of their ways By Faith we know that God will deliver his people but how and by what means or when we know not Sometimes prosperity shall slay the fool sometimes he shall perish by adversity sometimes the Sinner shall be cut off in the middle of his days sometimes he shall live to an extream old age men keep a path and a track in their motions but God keepeth none Naaman did ill when he came to the God of Israel to be healed of his Leprosie to be prescribing to him so much as in his thoughts thinking that the Prophet must needs come down and stroke the sore c. Gods way or method of Providence in bringing about the effects of his counsels and purposes is unsearchable 4. A fourth thing which in the motions of Divine Providence is unsearchable is the indications of it Solomon telleth us that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of the Lord Eccles 9.1 2. Unto all men there is one event both to the righteous and to the wicked No man can know either love or hatred by all that is before him in this life Esau is rejected yet he hath the mountains of Edom given him for his portion and the seed of Jacob must not dispossess him Jacob is beloved yet must he fly to Padan Aram endure the extremities of weather to feed his Uncles flocks c. and when he cometh away he must once and again run the hazard of his life No man can expound the Providences of God unto any to make them indications of Gods love or hatred Israel is the people beloved of the Lord yet they must serve an hard servitude in Egypt then forty years together by travelling through a desolate and howling Wilderness Dives is rich cloathed with purple and fareth deliciously every day yet when he dyeth goeth to Hell Lazarus is a poor beggar at his gates cloathed with rags abounding with sores yet when he dies is by Angels carried to Abraham's bosom Abraham and Lot and David and Joseph of Arimathea all rich men yet very good and heirs of the Kingdom of God Others very poor yet every-whit as poor spiritually and miserable as to their spiritual estate as they are in respect to their outward condition Grateful Providences speak the appearing love of God to us and oblige us to thankfulness but they do not speak special distinguishing love Adverse Providences appear as the frowns of God upon us yet may be but the chastenings of an indulgent father who chasteneth whom he loveth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth Hell begins with some in this life their life is but a life of misery and leadeth into that misery which shall never have an end sometimes men in the enjoyments of this life are lifted up to Heaven but it is ut lapsu graviore ruant that their fall may be the greater into the pit prepared for them The Indications of Divine Providence are altogether unsearchable No man can know love or hatred by any thing which is before him in this life 5. A fifth unsearchable thing in Divine Providence is the causes of them There is infinite wisdom and reason in all the dispensations of Providence In wisdom hath the Lord done and made whatsoever he hath done but this wisdom of God as to all his works of Providence is not always evident to us It is one of those things which Divines say we shall more perfectly understand at the day of Judgment and in another life than we yet do how wisely the infinite wise God hath managed the Government of the World We are oft-times startled and troubled and amazed to see the works of God in the World and at loss to compound them with the declarations of his love to his people and the great number of promises made to them What Christ said to Peter We may apply here what God is doing we do not know here but we shall know hereafter We cannot tell the reason of a thousand dispensations of God to his Church and people here but we shall know them hereafter Sometimes we know much of them in this life but what we do not know in this life we shall know in the day when all hidden things shall be made manifest and all the works as well as all the Saints of God shall praise him 6. Lastly The windings of Providence are unsearchable It is with the Providence of God as it is with a man of business that is riding to London that is his utmost journey but he doth not like a Post keep his road but rides out this way and that way to speak with this and that man as his business leadeth him The Providence of God drives at the securing of his Church the destruction of his Enemies the promoving of Gods glory c. But it carrieth on many designs together possibly the chastising of his people for their sins the suffering of the Amorites to make up their measure so it winds in its motions and the reason of the variety of its windings and turnings we do not understand But this is much co incident with what I told you before concerning the tracks of Divine Providence that they are past finding out I come therefore now to the Application I shall there only shew you the usefulness of this point 1. To check curiosity 2. To direct you in spiritual duty In the first place Vse 1 Let this check that curiosity which so much infecteth humane nature and to which the wiser part of men are mostly too subject It was the complaint long since of an acute Author Iste labor vexat homines ut plus Deum laborent intelligere quam diligere malumus vestigando laborare quam amando reperire malumus inquirere
a credit to his word if his faith be weak and languid the exemplifying of the thing revealed in the Word of God by the issues of Providence tendeth much to the confirmation of the souls faith and assent and therefore it is laid to the charge of the Israelites as a great aggravation of their sins That they believed not for all his wondrous works And this was the great aggravation of the sin of the Pharisees and the Jews that lived in the time when our Saviour was upon the Earth that although the Providence of God had declared Christ to be the Son of God by his doing such works as no man ever did and by such evident signs and tokens as never before were declared as to any man yet they believed him not to be the Son of God 2. As Faith is one great principle of all our spiritual actions so Fear is another Now the observing of Divine Providences much conduceth to this It is particularly remark't by the Holy Ghost upon the sudden death of Ananias and Saphira That a great fear came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard of those things And in the Law of Moses you shall find God commanding exemplary Justice to be done upon some remarkable offenders for this very end That all Israel might hear and fear It is particularly said Jonah 1.16 When Jonah had told them the cause of the storm and they had thrown him over-board Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered sacrifices and made vows Severe Providences without the word make men startle and put them into a passion of fear but when they follow a word of threatning and they do but see God doing what in his word he hath said he will do this must needs have a great power and influence upon the heart especially upon the hearts of such as before had an habit of Divine Fear wrought in them though it were smothered with the ashes of too much carnal security 3. Love to God is a third principle of spiritual action an habit wrought in the soul of every Child of God but not at all times so lively and quick and working as it ought to be Now the observation of Gods good and gracious Providences serves hugely to excite it and to blow up the Coals of it in the soul Psal 37.23 O love you the Lord all his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer But this will be further enlarged upon in my discourse upon the second branch of the Proposition which I now come to discourse upon Mem. 2. Whoso observeth the Providences of God he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I take the word understand here to signifie three things 1. Knowledg 2. A more clear and distinct knowledg 3. A more demonstrative and experimental knowledg 1. He shall know the loving-kindness of the Lord understand it with reference to the Church and People of God for Gods Providence is like the Cloud which conducted the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red-sea it hath a light-side which hath an aspect upon Gods Israel and it hath a black and dark-side towards his enemies Now he who observeth Divine Providence will know this That all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to those that fear God Psal 25.10 A slight and transient view of Divine Providence will not bring a man to the knowledg of this but a wist view and observation of Divine Providence in the course and series of it will do it The word of God speaketh much of the Love and Favour of God to his People Providence to the strict and constant observer of it will confirm all these words God himself speaking after the manner of men to Abraham speaks as if he had not known his love and obedience to him till he had made an experiment of it and saw that he would not have withheld from him his Son even his only Son We know nothing of the loving-kindness of God before we see it experimented and brought into demonstration in comparison with what we know upon such an evidence and this we gain by our considerate observation of the motions of Divine Providence 2. He who observeth the motions of Providence shall have a more distinct knowledg of the loving-kindness of God He shall not only know that God is good to Israel and to all that are of a clean heart but he shall also see something of the Methods of God in the exercise of his loving-kindness When we speak of the Love and Favour of God to his People we are prone to understand by it nothing but pleasing Providences grateful to our senses now the loving-kindness of God is not only seen in pleasing dispensations but in adverse Providences also Whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth All things are yours saith the Apostle This knowledg must be gained by observation Sense looks upon cross dispensations of Providence and it may be Reason judging of them from present appearances and effects cryeth out All these things are against me Here is nothing of promised loving-kindness in all this Is his mercy clean gone doth his promise fail for evermore But whoso observeth Divine Providence will in these things also understand the loving-kindness of the Lord and know that it is the method of Divine Providence to deal out the loving-kindness of God to the Souls of his People through crosses and tryals and afflictions in a way which at present they do not understand and know but shall know hereafter No affliction saith the Apostle is joyous at present but grievous but it bringeth forth afterward the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 3. Vnderstanding thirdly may signifie experience and indeed there is no such understanding as experience gives Every Child of God that observeth Divine Providence shall find it let the wind of it blow which way it will giving him an experiment and demonstration of the Love of God to his Soul But thus much shall serve to have spoken to the Explication of this Proposition in both branches I come to the proof of it to shew you how it appeareth That he who observeth the motions of Divine Providence and he alone shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. It will appear to you if you but consider 1. That however things go in the course of Providence yet it is most certain that they are mercy and truth to them who fear God For this we have a certain word Psalm 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his Covenant and his Testimonies And again Psalm 73.1 Truly God is good to Israel In my former Discourse I shewed you three Objects of special Providence 1. Rational creatures are a more special object of Providence than either inanimate or brute creatures 2. Amongst rational Creatures those men and women in the World which make
to him for his possession and to his seed after him when as yet he had no children Fourthly What if we should say That God doth this that he might be the more admired in the works of his Providence when they came to an issue and have the more of the praises and thanksgivings of his people We are never so deeply affected either with with the good or evil that be tideth us as when we are surprised with it and it comes upon us fearing or looking for the contrary Evils unthought-of are more heavy and more dejecting and afflictive Good things not look'd for are more affecting and raise up holy affections more to the high praises of God Now when the Providence of God hath moved obliquely and to our appearance quite contrary as we judged unto the Promise when it cometh home unto it to give it a being and issue it cometh upon us as it were upon the sudden and contrary to the expectation of our sense and reason and so wonderfully affects our hearts and enforceth from us great and high acknowledgments of the Omnipotency and power of God of his mercy and goodness of his truth and veracity It is the common infirmity of our Natures that we more know our mercies by wanting them than by enjoying them If the Providence of God moved in a right line to bring promised good to them who love and fear God he would neither have so much of the prayers and cryes of his people during the want of their desired good nor yet so much praise upon the bestowing of it You shall observe That God is not so much praised for mercies of common Providence which we receive every day how valuable soever as our sleep in the night our appetite to our meat c. As for such Dispensations as are more rare and extraordinary the reason is because we look for the former they are common with us and we expect them Providence more keâ—peth a road as to them than as to others But it is time I should come to the Application of this Observation In the first place Vse 1 This Observation should bespeak us aforehand that no such oblique and seemingly contrary motions of Providence may be any prejudice to our faith in the Promise Wâ—nder not if you still see the Providence of God keeping the same Methods that it hath alway in all the great things which it hath brought to pass in the World Particularly as to Gods great works relating to his Church God hath used to begin a work in one age which it may be he hath not finished or will not finish till that age be out Thus you have heard that it was in the first plantation of the Gospel begun in the Apostles time Thus it hath been in the Reformation of the Church when corrupted there is nothing more ordinary than this If therefore you see any-where foundations of Reformation laid and then the Providence of God seems to desert its work and the foundations laid seem to be plucking up again and all things to run in the old Channels trouble not your selves at it this is but an ordinary Method of Divine Providence But let us secondly from hence collect what is our duty with reference to such times Vse 2 when to our appearance the Providence of God seemeth to move obliquely or contrary to the Promise This I shall attempt to open to you 1. With reference unto God 2. With reference to the Promise 3. With reference unto Providence 1. Quest What is our duty relating more immediately unto God under the posing and astonishing Dispensations of his Providence In the first place we doubtless ought to take heed of charging God foolishly I borrow the expression from Job Chap. 1 In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly To charge God foolishly upon the account of his Providences is by occasion of them to utter vain and foolish things that are not fit to be spoken of the Majesty of God as if he failed either in his truth or mercy or goodness to his people It is an exellent precept of the Apostle in this case though given in another 1 Cor. 4.5 Judg nothing before the time There is a time when God will give us leave to judg of his ways whether they be not both mercy and truth to them that fear him Only Judg not before the time before God hath finished his work and brought off what he hath upon the wheel Now it is this hasty Judgment which is the cause of all our murmuring and repining of all our hasty sayings like the Psalmist in his passion Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever Doth his promise fail for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Selah Psalm 77.7 8 9. If this be the usual method of Providence in the accomplishment of Promises to move obliquely and contrary as to humane appearance and yet at last most certainly to bring the Promise to effect we have no reason under the oblique or seemingly contrary motions of Providence to charge God as if he failed in his truth or failed in his mercy he is only fetching a compass in order to the verifying and justification of both For us so much as to suspect or to think the contrary is to charge God foolishly not observing nor understanding the ordinary methods and courses of Divine Providence in accomplishing of his greatest Promises 2. It is our duty to admire God in those providential Dispensations which we do not understand Man vainly studieth to find out God in his unsearchable Counsels and motions of Providence Vain man would be wise Now the ways of God as I have shewed you are in many things past finding out Where we can fee God in his ways of mercy there is an opportunity for our love and thankfulness where we cannot see him there is an opportutunity for our fear and admiration stand upon this bottom That all the ways of God are mercy and truth to them that fear him Let nothing shake you from this foundation nor move you from this Rock where this is not matter of demonstration to your sense and reason let it yet be matter of admiration to you Be admiring at the wisdom of God that can out of a Chaos bring order out of darkness bring light But secondly 2d Quest What at such a time is our duty with reference to the Promise 1. I answer to stand fast by it I would have every good Christian think at such a time as Providence to his appearance moveth obliquely and contrary to the Promise to think that he heareth it speak unto him as Christ sometimes spake to his Disciples Matth 5 Think you that I am come to destroy the law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy them but to fulfil them I say I would have you think you hear the Providence of
can it do If the Jewish Child had dyed before the 8th day its want of circumcision doubtless did not endanger its salvation but the deferring it beyond that time might for ought I know endanger the wrath of God upon the Parent and that wrath might be executed in cutting off the Child I take the case to be much the same under the Gospel I am sure the Covenant is the same take heed of neglecting to instruct your Children betimes or to reprove and admonish them God may cut them off betimes and then your neglects will be a grief of heart to you Finally This calleth to all young ones not to neglect the remembrance of their creator in the days of their youth O let your tender years be no temptation to you to put off your duty towards God and your own souls in the morning of your life be plowing up the fallow ground of your hearts and sowing the seed of righteousness indeed in the evening our hands should not be slack but who knoweth whether he shall see an evening yea or no SERMON XLI Rom. I. 26. For this Cause God gave them up to vile Affections MY business is to clear up the equity of the Lord in the ways of his Actual Providence and to vindicate the justice and holiness of God from those who by the Sophistry of their humane wisdom seek to darken Divine knowledg I am resolving the difficulties relating to the motions of Divine Providence in punitive dispensations I have shewed you how just and reasonable it is that God should be the Author of the evil of punishment And that 1. to his own people notwithstanding the satisfaction of Christ accepted for them and the remission of their sins as to eternal punishment 2. As to those whom yet he knows to be such as will be worse for their afflictions and not better 3. As to children who have not been guilty of actual sins I proceed now a step further God doth not only punish sin with smart with pain diseases crosses c. but he sometimes punisheth sin with sin for sin giving men up to be led captive by their lusts The Text speaketh of such a Providence It relateth to the Heathens of whom the Apostle had been before speaking vers 19 20 he had been declaring what means they had to know God they had not indeed the light of the Gospel but they had the light of nature That which might be known of God was manifest in them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Then he sheweth how they abused and misimproved these means for v. 21 when they knew God in some measure as the light of nature and works of creation would discover him to them they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man to birds to four-footed-beasts and creeping things The business was this The Heathens had indeed but an imperfect knowledge of God no more than the light of nature and the works of God in nature shewed them but yet this was enough to have let them know that God could not be like a man or a beast or a creeping thing yet such images and representations of God they made and worshipped wherefore saith the Apostle vers 24. God also gave them up to lusts of uncleanness c. and so again in my Text vers 26. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections and so again vers 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are inconvenient Being filled with all unrighteousness c. Now the Question is Quest How it can consist with the holiness and purity of God thus to punish sin with sin for their committing of some sins to give them up to commit others The difficulty is because it is hard to conceive how God should do this without a willing of sin Although therefore it is plain enough in the Text and twice more repeated in the Chapter it be said God gave them up to uncleanness and God gave them up to a reprobate mind yet it will not be amiss for us from other Scriptures to take some auxiliary help for the proving of this That there hath been and doubtless are still such dispensations of God Then I shall attempt to reconcile these Providences to the justice holiness and goodness of God after that I shall make some application of my Discourse upon this Argument It is a known Text which you have Isaiah 6.9 10. Go and tell this people hear you indeed but understand not and see you indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed It is a Text which you find quoted six times in the New-Testament Mat. 13.14 Mar. 4.12 Luk. 8.10 Joh. 12.40 Act. 28.26 Rom. 11.8 In the first place Mat. 13. it is said that in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaias By hearing you shall hear and not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive For this peoples heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing c. That Text plainly makes it out that Gods judicial giving them over to their blindness was consequent to their sinful stopping of their ears and shutting of their eyes But Christ there saith that for this he spake to them in parables Mat. 13.13 but Rom. 11.8 it is said God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear and certain it is Isaiah had Gods commission chap. 6. and Acts 28.26 Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaias the Prophet to our Fathers saying Go unto this people and say Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive For the heart of this people is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed By all which it clearly appears that God punished the former sins of the Jews in their wilful shutting their eyes and stopping their ears against the revelation of the Divine will by a judicial giving them up to a blindness of mind and hardness of heart To this purpose is that 2 Thess 2.11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye for what cause vers 10. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Many other texts there are speaking of Gods hardning the heart of Pharaoh and the hearts of others but
shall not fall Mat. 16.18 The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Psal 94.14 For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Mica 4.4 11 12. So quite through this Psalm there are many promises of the same import Now the work of faith is to perswade the soul of the certainty and undoubted verity of these words of God to settle the soul in this perswasion That sooner shall Heaven and earth pass away than any of these things shall fail which God hath spoken Then the work of faith is further to carry out the soul without any carping trouble or disputing to rest wholly upon these words A Christian seeth the word of God what he hath said for its relief now faith teacheth the soul to agree this as the word of him who cannot lye or repent and calleth upon the soul to trust in God for the fulfilling of it to roll it self upon the promise and to commit it self its cause its way unto the Lord the soul of a Christian is very solicitous and careful for the concern and interest of God in the world faith teacheth the soul to cast its care the burthen of its spirit upon the Lord assuring it that God careth for it Faith speaketh to the soul in the language of Solomon Eccles 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Justice and Judgment in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they I say this is a great piece of the Child of Gods duty in such a time when the vilest men are exalted and the wicked walk on every side and the people of God are troden under foot as the mire in the streets It is the Will of God concerning them The just shall live by faith This is the proper time for the exercise of Faith when the eye of sense faileth Faith is the evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for The proper operation of Faith is where sense faileth where God is trusted and not seen Blessed are they saith our Saviour who have not seen and yet believe This is Opus diei in die suo Though the people of God ought to be careful of all duty at all times yet they ought to have a special regard to the duty of their day the seasonableness of a duty addeth much to the weight and importance of it The foundations are shaken saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 4 What shall what can the righteous do Mark what follows The Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men This is that life which the Saints have lived yea and they have lived well upon it When David had lost all the Amalekites had taken Ziglag and in it all that he had 1 Sam. 30.6 the Text saith David encouraged himself in God the Truth Power and Goodness of God nor did he hope in God in vain as you shall read in that story What had Hezekiah to live upon but Faith when Sennacherib had besieged him with his mighty Army and ranted against him and the God of Heaven too after that rate you read What had all the Patriarchs all the Saints and Servants of God to live upon but Faith of whom you read Heb. 11. Nor is there any life which so glorifieth God as this it eminently glorifieth three Attributes of his his Power Goodness and Truth No man will trust in a bruised Reed or lean upon a broken Staff therefore the Apostle speaking of Abrahams faith Heb. 11. saith He believed that God was able to raise him from the dead and again Rom. 3 He believed that he who promised was able to perform It giveth God the glory of his goodness for the expectation of his soul is the Mercy and Goodness of God and it also giveth God the glory of his truth for the proximate object of Faith is the Word and Promise of God O therefore let this be your care when you cannot live by sense live by Faith It is the happiness of a Child of God he hath something to live on in the worst of times Psal 34.10 The young Lions shall be hunger-bit but there is no want to them that fear the Lord. One would think that of all creatures the Lion should be most out of danger of being hunger bit The Lion the King of the Forest all other Beasts are subject to this Beast yet if an old Lion that cannot run for its prey that hath lost much of its strength may be hunger-bitten one would think a young-Lion that is in its full strength should not Yes saith the Psalmist a young Lion may be hunger-bitten those that have most of the world wicked men that have greatest honours greatest power great advantages to provide for themselves they may be hunger bitten they may come to want but there shall be no want to them who fear the Lord there shall be no time so ill but they shall live if they cannot live upon bread they shall feed upon truth How much better is the estate of a godly man than that of his neighbour It is a great point this a great piece of duty Let me therefore a little further enlarge upon it three ways 1. Shewing you how a Christian may know if he liveth this life 2. Directing you in order to it 3. Perswading it by Arguments 1. Will some Christian say how shall I know if I live this life Suffer me to give you five or Six Characters of it 1. It is a Spiritual life Our life saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God What Christ sometimes said to his Disciples when they would have had him to have eaten something that a Child of God may say to all the world I have meat to eat you know not of His life is a spiritual life such is the life of Faith both with respect to the subject and to the object of it As to the subject of it it is the soul that lives the body lives by bread the soul lives by truth by the promise There are many that in evil days their bodies have enough to feed upon but their souls have nothing hence their hearts become like Nabals dead as a stone yea and as to the object it is spiritual too he that feedeth upon truth feedeth upon Jehovah It is the truth of God in the word which the soul liveth upon the soul of a Believer can no more live upon Words and Syllables than another soul No but it is the truth of God in these words his power and ability to perform what he hath said his inclination and good-will to the performance and his truth and faithfulness Every life in an evil day is not a life of faith some may live upon fancy and foolish hope some may live upon means with which their eye feedeth them another may live upon a Roman spirit of his own Tu
another Where was the principle of this good was it to proceed from God then it little differeth from what we say at least in this case it doth not for still in the dispensations of his grace he moveth freely and from his own meer will only he willeth first to give grace then glory Will they say this foreseen good disposition as is pretended is from a mans self then there must be another fountain of good besides God all good acts proceed from some habits and powers as their principles I demand whence is that principle that power and habit in us which God should foresee and therefore will a Soul to life Will they say it is from man then say I every good gift cometh not from God man is thus made a fountain of good indeed of all good for he is thus made the fountain of that good upon the foresight of which it is according to this Doctrine that God willeth all his providential dispensations of grace and mercy and if this be not to set up man in the Throne of God and to take away from God the glory of that Attribute in which above all he delighteth I understand nothing 3. Again If acts of grace and mercy were not free and unaccountable only fountain'd in the good-will and pleasure of God grace could not be grace for what is grace but free love To him that worketh the reward saith the Apostle is reckoned not of grace but of debt Rom. 4.4 If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise works would be no more works Rom. 11.6 The very notion of grace importeth freeness grace not free is no grace if you take away liberty you take away grace I mean Original liberty I know when God hath promised he is just and righteous to forgive as the Apostle saith But God had an Original liberty to promise or not to promise In short they are no better than enemies to the grace of God who go about to found the reason of its acts any-where else than in the Divine Will God will have mercy because he will have mercy that 's all the account which we can give either of Gods purpose of grace or of any acts of grace pursuant to that purpose And so I pass to the Second part of the Proposition 2. Memb. That supposing this There is no unrighteousness with God This is consistent with the holiness justice and goodness of God and consonant to the Divine being and Nature It is exceedingly agreeing to the Nature of the Divine being to be the first cause of all that is upon any account good and in this sence it is true eminently true which our Lord telleth the Pharisee There is none good but one and that is God other things are derivatively good he is Originally good now I say it is but reasonable that he who is the first being should be owned the first cause of any good that is in the World all dispensations of Grace being effluxes of goodness he also must be the first cause of them and they could be originated in nothing but the Divine Will 2. Besides there is nothing more consonant to the Divine being than to be the Soveraign Lord and the sole cause of his own actions God every where in holy writ makes himself known to us under the notion of the Lord it is an impeachment of the Divine Soveraignty to assert God originally not at perfect liberty as to his own Acts to have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and extend compassion to whom he will extend compassion God in Scripture is set out under the notion of a Potter the Creature under the notion of Clay God shewed Jeremiah this when he carried him down to the Potters house Jer. 18. and shewed him the Potter at work making a Vessel of Clay and when it was marred in his hand making another Vessel as it seemed good unto him then telling him Ver. 6. O house of Israel Cannot I do with you as this Potter Behold as the Clay is in the Potters hand so are you in my hand O you house of Israel which also alluding to that Text confirmeth Rom. 9.21 Hath not the Potter power over the Clay of the same lump to make one Vessel of honour another of dishonour 2. Nor can this possibly be judged unrighteousness with God for for then would God be in a lower capacity than his Creature what man of us is there who doth not think he hath a free and absolute power over his own acts of goodness and mercy To shew them to whom he pleaseth and to withhold them from whom he pleaseth yet is there a vast difference betwixt the Creature and the Creator in this point for all Creatures are under the Law of their Creator they are things and persons under authority and are not soveraign Lords of their own actions yet which of us doth judg our selves accountable to our Neighbour for an act of mercy now if there be no unrighteousness with man in this case if a man doth not think himself bound to give any account to his Neighbour why he is more kind to one than to another Why gives he a gift to one which he giveth not to another How is God unrighteous in such a discrimination What if God willeth to shew mercy and the riches of Divine Grace to one not to another Though God in these motions be free and unaccountable yet he is also just and righteous and the reason is because he is neither bound nor a debtor unto any But this is enough to have spoken to the Explication and Confirmation of this Proposition For Application Vse 1. In the first place We may learn from hence what vain dreamers those are that go about to find out another Fountain for acts of Divine Grace and seek a cause in man for the Grace bestowed upon him They say the head of the great River Nilus could never yet be found It hath been sought for and many have travelled possibly some thousands of miles but yet it cannot be found But the head of Nilus will be found before men will find any cause of Divine Love out of the Divine Will It speaketh a wonderful arrogance in men to make God accountable for his acts of Divine Grace what greater arrogance and vanity can be imagined than this When a poor Creature will not himself be brought to an account why he gives one Begger mony and not another or why he giveth to one Child a greater Portion than another though they both be the acknowledged fruit of his Body that yet this Worm should dream that God must be accountable to his reason why he sheweth mercy to this man and not to another when they are both the work of his hands It is certainly enough to say He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and extend compassion to whom he will extend compassion What Pride what Arrogance is this not to allow to God whom we
in me is thy help I Am now come to the second general Proposition which I promised you to discourse upon a little In my last exercise I discoursed to you of the Fountain of Life and Grace which we found to be the free-will of God There is no other account to be given of Gods shewing mercy but because he will shew mercy which is most certainly true as of Gods eternal acts of Grace so of his Acts of Providence as to the dispensation of his first Grace The next Proposition I mentioned was this 2. Prop. That God in his providential Dispensations of punishment never acteth by meer Prerogative but according to the demerit of his Creatures In his Dispensations of Grace and the means of it he acteth meerly from his own Will he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and there is no other account to be given of those Dispensations he sendeth the Gospel to this place rather than another because he will send it he changeth this Man or Womans heart and turneth it to himself because he will shew mercy But the case is otherwise in his penal Dispensations there God acteth not upon Prerogative God there hath a Prerogative for may not the Potter do what he will with his Clay But it is one thing to have Jus absolutum an absolute right and power which we must claim for God so long as we know him to have an absolute right and Soveraignty over the works of his hands 't is another thing for God agere secundum jus absolutum to act according to his Soveraignty and absolute power this we say God doth not I pray observe I restrain my Discourse to Gods Dispensations of actual Providence I shall not meddle with the eternal Councils of God in this case that is quite beyond my Subject propounded It is unquestionable that the punishments of Sinners both in this Life and that which is to come as well as the other great issues of his Providence concerning the rewards of righteous men were set in order by an Eternal deliberation but whether by a meer negative or positive Decree whether upon consideration of sin or no are points I am not at all concerned to interest my self in having all along restrained my discourse to the motions of Actual Providence and certain it is that God in those Dispensations doth punish none either here or hereafter meerly because he will but upon consideration of Sinners demerits Shewing mercy is an Act of Grace punishments are Acts of Justice The gift of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Eternal Life that is a guift and what is freer than gift But the Wages of Sin is Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man must earn Death before he hath it from the hand of a merciful God but Eternal Life must be given him if ever it be his Portion so saith my Text. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self I will open this in two or three conclusions 1. I understand it of all kind of destructions possibly the Text may chiefly relate to temporal destructions 't is Ephraim to whom the Prophet is speaking and it is about a bodily destruction but the Conclusion is general and the Text is well enough applyed by Divines to Eternal destruction all destructions whether of Body or Soul are of our selves yea I take the Aphonimy of the Text to be more eminently true of the destruction of the Soul than of the destruction of the Body A Child may dye for the sins of the Parents Subjects may dye for the sin of their Prince as in the case of Saul's Children that were hanged in David's time and in the case of those many thousands which in David's time were cut off for his sin in numbring of the People The Children of God may be involved in a common destruction and suffer as they are a part of a sinful Nation God may take them off to deliver them from an evil to come as in the case of Abijam the Son of Jeroboam God may punish his people with afflictions of this Life for the trial and exercise of their graces but in Eternal destructions God can have no other end than the punishment of the person and all such destruction is for a mans sin his personal sin 3. When we say that Mens destruction is of themselves you must understand of themselves as the meritorious cause not of themselves as the principal efficient cause God is rightly enough entituled to all the Evil of punishment in the City It is no dishonour to his Majesty to be the Author of his own Judgments which is all that Mr. Calvin or any of the same mind with him have said which hath made some so clamour against them as having asserted God to be the Author of Sin For God to be the Author of punishments is no stain to his Glory but a Declaration of his Justice and of his Righteousness Christ himself shall come as the Apostle telleth us in flaming fire to take Vengeance upon them who know not God and obey not his glorious Gospel God shall say to those on his left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But our destruction is from our selves as the proximate and meritorious cause though from God as the efficient cause It is not from the Soveraign will of God meerly but from the stubborn and rebellious will of Man that any Soul perisheth Divines do say that though God cannot will the doing of any Sin yet he may will that it should be done The Holy Ghost telleth us that Herod and Pilate and the Jews employed in accusing condemning crucifying of Christ did no more than what the Council of God had determined should be done But I say notwithstanding this the proximate cause of mans Damnation is not because God hath willed their Damnation it is the guilt of their own Sins the demerit of their own Transgressions which bringeth them to the Pit of Destruction The Gracious God sheweth mercy and saveth all who are saved by Prerogative by Grace you are saved saith the Apostle he hath the same Prerogative in matters of Death that he hath in matters of Life but he useth it not but there acteth according to his Statute-Law The Soul that sinneth shall dye He who saveth men without themselves damneth none without themselves Men are saved by Grace but they are damned by Sin The wages of Sin is Death Omne peccatum est voluntarium all Sin is of ourselves it must have something of our own will and consent to and in it 3. Thirdly Although this be certain that all destruction all punishment is for Sin yet the particular proximate cause of some punishments is unknown to us I will instance in one particular a punishment undoubtedly a most severe punishment The withholding the Gospel and so the ordinary means of Grace and Salvation from the far greatest part of the world They hear nothing of the Lord Jesus
will be made worse by punishments 519. The reasonableness of such punishments 522 523. What use we should make of it 524 525 526 527 c. God is just and holy in punishing Children v. Children In punishing Relates in their Correlates v. Relates In the punishment of Sin with Sin 549 550 551. Gods holiness and justice in this cleared 554 555. Grace Varieties in the dispensation of the first Grace 663. ad p. 681. Of further Grace what 681. Strengthening Grace 694 695. Varieties in the dispensation of it 696 697. In what 697 698. How reasonable 698 699. Quickening Grace 605. Varieties in it 705. Whence 706. How reasonable Varieties as to it are 706 707. Consolatory Grace v. Comforts Growth in Grace what it is 713. How different from improvements in gifts 714. Mistakes about it 714. Reasons of different sizes in Christians 715 716 717. H Happiness of a Soul in what it truly lieth 591 592. Hearkening to the Gospel Call perswaded 472 473 474 475 476. I Intentions good oft rewarded where the action is not allowed 362 363. Indefinite proposal of the Gospel why 465 466 467. Justice of God in the punishment of Children v. Children In the punishment of Relates in their Correlates v. Relates In the punishment of his own people v. Afflictions In the punishment of incorrigible Sinners 519 520 521. In punishing Sin with Sin 549.550 551. In punishing sinners with everlasting Destruction 561 562 to p. 581. Improvement of means and habits of common Grace perswaded 474 475 476. Of Afflictions how 514 515. K Knowledge How it is or may be improved by the observation of the Motions of Actual Providence 167 168. 177. L The Law How it maketh Sin to abound 478 Limiting God What how Sinful 240. Lusts of men made use of to serve the good designs of Gods Providence relating to his Church 324 325. Several Lusts instanced in and the proof of the use God made of them 273 274 275 276. The reasonableness of it 280 281. The use we should make of it 332 333 M Magistrates Their relation to God as his Ordinance his Creatures his Vicegerents their usefulness to men 287 288 289. How under Special Providence 285 286. Means How little considerable in the effects of Providence 212 213 214. Means of Grace-how sufficient how not v. Sufficient Measures of sinful acts how to be taken 570 571 572. Methods of Providence when God intendeth his Churches tranquillity or trouble 266 267 268. Ministers faithful under special Providence how 312 313. Proved 314 315 316 317 318 319 320. Applyed 321 322. Miscarriages in a good cause in two cases what 253. Motions of Providence to be observed 173. Always in pursuance of some word of promise or threatning 188. Not always direct sometimes oblique 189 190. Sometimes in appearance contrary to the word of promise or threatning to the fulfilling of which they are levelled 191 192 193 194. A reasonable account of such motions 194 195 196 197. O Observation of Providence our duty 174. In what it lyeth 175. The advantages of it 175. Men exhorted to it 183. Some rules to direct it 183 184. Twenty observations upon the motions of Providence 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 c. The ordering of our lives advantaged by observation of Providence 175 176 177. Oblique motions of Providence why 193. Obedience How inferred our duty from Creation 30 31 32. P Passive patience How our duty upon the acknowledgment of an Actual Providence 57 58. Permission Of sin why 478 479. What attributes of God are by it Glorified 481 482 483 484. What exercises of Grace are occasioned by it 485 486. How holiness is advantaged by it 487. Why so many sinners 488 489 490. Why so much Sin is permitted 493 494 495. It ought to be no incouragement to Sin Why 496 497 498. What use to be made of it 499 500. What God doth in Permission of Sin 479 480. Philosophers Vain in their Notions of the Worlds Original 29. Praise Given to God from inanimate brute Creatures much more due from all reasonable beings 30. Otherwise they are the most ingrateful and self-condemned Creatures 31 32. Preservation Of the World how wonderful 62 63. The Nature of it 63 64 65. By what particular acts 66 67 68 69 c. Preservantion of men in political capacities opened in 7 particulars 87 88 Preservation of Saints in their Spiritual capacities by 5 acts 96 97 98 99 100. Polities How preserved by God 87 88. Powers In living creatures wholly by Providence v. Faculties Power In lapsed man to repent and believe whether rightly concluded from Gods universal call to both 486. Why else God calleth 487 488 489 490 c. Proportions of Punishment what the due measure of them is 570 571 572. Prosperity of Sinners v. Anger Envy c. Piety promoved from the Observation of Providence how 176 177 178. Piety and Policy of moral vertue and keeping close to God in his worship 269 270. Promises conducive to waiting 616 617. Predetermination of all things according to the Counsel of Gods will p. 3. Proved from foreknowledge 5. and the certainty of existence of things necessary to such prescience 6. Vorstius lost in fixing a cause of such certain existence out of the Divine will acknowledgeth it best to fix it there p. 7. Proved from actual Providence ib. It lays no necessity upon the Act but the Event 11. It s usefulness to quiet Souls under ingrateful contingencies 10 11 12 13 14. Yet we ought to be piously affected at sad Providences and for sin 15 16. Prayer and Praise Both ordinary and more solemn urged from the Consideration of the influence of Providence 59 60. Providence worketh all things according to the Counsel of the Divine will this proveth such a Counsel p. 9. It is not incertain in its effects 9. Whence the term Providence is derived 34 35. What actual Providence is 35. That there is an actual Providence 36 37. From the work of Creation 37 38. The nature of God 39 40 41. From events and effects in the world 42 43. From the acknowledgment of wiser Pagans 44 45. The objects and extent of it 45 46 47. Denyed Atheistically unreasonably 49. It necessitates not motions of rational agents 50. It supercedeth no indeavouers why 50 51. Faith Patience Prayer Praise inferred from the Doctrine of Providence 53 54 55 56. It preserveth the worlds 61. How it worketh in the preservation of all beings 63 64 65 66. Animate beings 67 68 69 70 71 72. The several faculties 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 c In persecuting men in political capacities Opened in 7 things 87 88 89 90 91. In preserving the Saints in their Spiritual capacity 96 97 98. Our duty from thence 99 100. Providence Governeth all things 103 104. The objects and acts of its Government Seven particulars instanced in 105 106 107 108 109. Faith Prayer Praise Love Patience under evils Vniversal obedience
of it 494 495 496. How God is Just and Holy in punishing Sin with Sin what Sinnings so punished 547. to 561. Sins ordinarily but spotlesly used by Providence 329 330. Sinners not encouraged by it why 333 334. Sins What speedily punished 388 389 390 391 392. Silence how various what our duty what not 613 614. Slow motions of Providence to rewards and punishments most plentiful in the products 377. The reasonableness of such slowness 377 378 379 380 381. Small things of man what 221. Specialties of Providence v. Providence Special duty from whom due in consideration of Special Providence to them in what it lyes 128 129 130. to 156. Strengthening Grace against Temptations and sin 687 688. unto duty what how variously dispensed 689. How reasonably 690. The application of it 691 692 693 c. Sutableness to a work or Relation in what it lyes 424. Whence it is some are in relations not suted to them 425 426 427. Soul happiness in 3 things 591. Sufficient means of Grace in what sense all have it 650 651 652. In what sense they have it not 652 653. Proved that all have it not 653 654 655. Applyed 660. T Temptations of what sorts 684. Some more tempted than others 687. Whence it is 688. Why God suffers those to be tempted who he knows will fall in the hour of temptation 687. Means to be used in order to abating the force of the temptation 693 Arguments for Spiritual resistance 696 697 698. Thanksgiving Constant Solemn how evinced to be our duty from the Consideration of the influences of Providence 60. Threatnings ordinarily Justified when Gods Enemies are highest 205 206 207 208 209 210. Things good or evil what why good things are measured out by Providence to evil men and evil things to good men 582 583 584. to 595. V Varieties of Providence in the dispensation of the first Grace viz. Conversion 664. What varieties 665 666 667. a reasonable account of Variety in that as to time 668 669 670. As to means 673. As to manner 675 676. Vse of it 678 679 680. Varieties in dispensations of further Grace 681. What Grace 681. In what the Varieties lie or do not lie 682 683. Vertues upheld in creatures by which they serve others p. 72 73. Unsearchableness of Providence in its wayes 158 159 c. To Search and behold them our duty 160 161 162. How they are unsearchable 163. In the compass of them in the tendency track indications of them 164 165 166. Vse of that 167. W Waiting for God patiently what it implyeth 613 614 615 616. Several things recommended in order to it 616 617 618. Pressed by Arguments 618 619. How a duty resulting from a Consideration of Divine Providence 56 57. Wayes of God misjudged from what causes 517 518. Widows poor and fatherless obliged to praise the Lord 296 297. Wisdom Spiritual how to be learned from Gods Providential dispensations 175 176 177 178. Wisdom to sobriety cammended 167 168. Will of God the alone cause of Grace 620 621 622 623. Wicked men why suffered to devour such as are more righteous than they 596 597 c. It is just with God and reasonable 597 598 599. What use we are to make of it ibid. Et seque To the Reader WHat the Poet saith of men None lives without some errors He is best that hath fewest it 's true concerning Printed books Whoso considereth how much intension is required to the writing composure for the Press and correcting of so many Words and Letters as a Book of this bulk hath will easily conclude it a matter of no easie atchievement for any but tolerably to acquit themselves and must be very uncharitable if he will not give some allowances for the want of some letter in a word or the transposing of a letter or the mistake of a Point the want of a little particle or needless doubling of it being but common infirmities of a quick Pen or Press But there are some others of which I must give thee some account The Author who intended no more than the general Title to run through the leaves of the whole Book must not be charged if the Title of any leaf be not so properly set as he would have done who best knows the matter that business was done by another hand not knowing the Authors mind and finding the top of the pages without titles 2. Two Presses being imployed for expedition the Printer not casting the sheets punctually that he turned off to another thou wilt find a disorder in the figures of the pages from 594 to 601. The number of Sermons also miscounted next 45 follows 48 Sermon but that is supplied in the matter of the Sermons preceding 45. 2 of them making 4 but not distinguished by the Printer The Errataes troubling the sense are very few the greatest in p. 108. l. 21. These following the Author desires thee to be charitable to him and the Printer for ERRATA PAge 56. l. 9. r. suspicious 58. l. 7. r. but yet 75. l. 17. blot out he hath 66. l. 20. r. every tyde 68. l. 7. r. in it l. 16. r. not God 108. l. 21. r. Subdued so as the greater 120. l. 6. r. unà 121. l. 5. r. and cannot 126. l. 30. r. restraining 192 l. 5. r. Scrabling 200. l. 6. blot out think 211. l. 23. r. mens bearts 221. l. 31. r. of the land 222. l. 20. blot out of 226. l. 21. r. Asa 243. l. 5. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 252. l. 21. r. Adapting 328. l. 25. 26. r. rapacious 340. l. 18. r. Jotham was l. 29. r. tracked Grace is 341. l. 13. r Dives had a right 349. l. 3. r. despond 355. l. 23. r. as to find 373. l. 28. r. he hindred 416. l. 30. r. taking away 451. l. 32. r. evil thou maist not eat 488. l. 23. r. Stith 512. l. 9. r. Paris 530. l. 24. r. habits of Grace 530. l. 29. r. Gods Command 547. l. 22. blot out repeated 563. l. 14. r. Sinnings 568. l. 33. r. feigned such 583. l. 26. r. it is l. 31. blot out to good men l. 37. r. justifie God in 586. l. 48. r. infortunis 587. l. 11. r. Nierem 594. l. 11. r. is a temptation 597. l. 25. r. roil 604. l. 25. r. roiling l. 39. r. have 605. l. 18. r. high nature l. 13. r. heirs l. 21. r. add to this l. 37. r. roil his 606. l. 7 6. r. fourth terme 610. l. 28. r. Sense which is 602. l. 32. r. hence it is 606. l. 23. r. his Children 607. l. 3. r. extent of 620. l. 4. r. this temptation 619. l. 3. r. is that 621. l. 1. r. was Ishmael l. 37. r. particular nation 630. l 6. r. of the Gospel 634. l. 26. blot out aphonimy of 636. l. 36. r. Severely 643. l. 18. r. not come 644. l. 16. r. play So the man might l. 21. r. improveth 647. l. 24. blot out about 656. l. 6. r. no need 661. l. 3. r. Swasion 673. l 9. r. by thee 678. l. 27. r. wish any to 679. l. 38. r. make men 682. l. 18. blot out for 683. l. 1. r. by God 690. l. 9. r. delighteth 693. l. 8. r. as sweet 696. l. 19. r. by himself 714. l. 18. r. presently apt