Justice of Providence and to agree very exactly with the actual Administration of Providence For it is manifest that all good men are not rewarded nor all wicked men punished in this world that a Righteous Cause is sometimes oppressed and that Oppression and Injustice is very often prosperous which must needs appear a great Difficulty to those who make no difference between the Justice of God and Men who think that the Justice of Providence is as much concerned to defend all mens Rights and Properties as the Justice of a Prince is This makes them quarrel against Providence when they are hardly and unjustly used by men and so blinds their minds that they see not the true Reasons why God afflicts them and neither reverence his Judgments nor make a wise use of them The Reasons of this seem very plain the only Question is How it agrees with that account which the Scripture gives us of God's Justice and Righteousness For the Righteousness of God is represented in Scripture by loving Righteousness and favouring a Righteous Cause Thus 11. Psalm 7. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance doth behold the upright And the Psalmist very often encourages himself to expect the Divine Favour and Protection from his own Innocence and Integrity and the Righteousness of his Cause 35. Psal. 19. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause Stir up thy self and awake to my judgment even to my cause my God and my Lord. Iudge me O God according to thy righteousness and let them not rejoice over me Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at my hurt Let them be cloathed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous cause yea let them say continually Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant 23 24 26 27. v. The Lord shall judge the people Iudge me O Lord according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end but establish the just for the righteous Lord trieth the heart and reins God judgeth the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day If he turn not he will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready And concludes I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praises to the name of the Lord most high 7. Psal. 8 c. Where the Righteousness of the Lord for which the Psalmist praises him is his Judging and Defending a Righteous Cause Thus in 9. Psalm 8 9 10. He shall judge the world in righteousness he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness The Lord also will be a refuge to the oppressed a refuge in time of trouble And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee It were easy to multiply Texts to this purpose where God is expresly declared to be an irreconcilable Enemy to all Injustice and Violence the Protector of the Widow the Fatherless and Oppressed and of all just and righteons men But those conclude a great deal too much who would prove from such Texts as these That no Righteous Man nor Righteous Cause shall ever be oppressed That good men shall always be prosperous and the wicked always miserable for it is evident that this was not the state of the world when these Psalms were penned and therefore this could not possibly be the meaning of them How many Complaints does the Psalmist make against his Enemies those who were wrongfully his Enemies 69. Psalm 4. That his Enemies were lively and strong and they that hated him wrongfully were multiplied 38. Psalm 19. How passionately does he pray for Protection against his Enemies How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me how long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me 13. Psalm 1 2. The 37th Psalm is a plain proof that wicked men were very prosperous in those days tho they are threatned with final destruction And to the same purpose the 73d Psalm gives us a large description of the Prosperity and Pride of bad men many of whom spend their lives and end their days prosperously I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked For there are no bands in their death but their strength is firm They are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued as other men Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they encrease in riches The Prosperity of bad men and the Miseries and Afflictions of the good were in those days a great Difficulty in Providence and were so to the Psalmist himself and therefore it is certain that whatever he says of the Righteousness of God and his care of Righteous men and his abhorrence of all Wickedness and Injustice cannot signify That God will always defend men in their just Rights that he will always prosper a Righteous Cause and Righteous Men for this was against plain matter of fact and we cannot suppose the Psalmist so inconsistent with himself as in the same breath to compalin that wicked men were prosperous and good men afflicted and to affirm That the Just and Righteous Judge of the World would always punish Unjust Oppressors and protect the Innocent Nay indeed the very nature of the thing proves the contrary for there can be no Unjust Oppressors if no body can be oppressed in their just Rights and therefore it is certain the Divine Providence does at least for a time suffer some men to be very prosperous in their Oppressions and does not always defend a just and innocent Cause for if he did there could be no innocent oppressed man to be relieved nor any Oppressor to be punished And if it be consistent with the Justice and Righteousness of Providence to permit such things for some time we must conclude that it is at the discretion of Providence how long good men shall be oppressed and the Oppressor go unpunished The plain account then of this matter as it is represented in Scripture is this 1. That as God is infinitely Just and Righteous himself so he loves Justice and Righteousness among men he loves Righteousness and Righteous Men and hates all Injustice Violence and Injuries for the Righteous Lord must love Righteousness and hate Iniquity and therefore though the Divine Justice is Superior to all Human Rights and his Authority Absolute and Sovereign to dispose of all his Creatures and of all they have as his own Wisdom directs yet men cannot invade each other's Rights without Injustice and when Rights and Properties are setled by Human Laws it is
must be punished then they must allow that God may spare a sinner a great while and then very great sinners may be prosperous a great while and if they repent at last may finally escape the Judgments of God and then the Prosperity of Sinners can never be an Argument against Providence unless they can prescribe to God just how long and no longer he may justly spare sinners It is an easy matter to complain of any thing and to start Difficulties and Objections but it is impossible for the Wit of man to reduce Providence to such a Certainty as these men desire Tho God govern the world by never such fixed and steady Laws we can never see it in external Events so as to be able to assign a reason of all that good and evil which happens to particular men For would they have God reward every good man and punish every wicked man or reward and punish every man for the good and evil that he does There is a great mixture of good or bad in most men that for different reasons they may deserve both Rewards and Punishments and tho God knows when it is fit to reward or punish such men yet it is impossible we should and therefore whether they be rewarded or punished we can give no account of it There is also a great mixture of good and bad in most actions some very bad actions may not deserve Punishment as being the effect of Ignorance or Surprize or such invincible Temptations as Human Nature without an extraordinary measure of Grace cannot conquer and there are a great many good actions which deserve no Reward as being done by Chance besides the intention of the doer or done from a very bad Principle or for very bad ends now we only see the good or evil that is in the action and Human Laws can punish or reward nothing but what is seen but I suppose you will not say that God ought to regard nothing else but the material and visible action and then it may be very Wise and Just in God neither to punish men for very bad actions nor to reward them for very good actions and this is another Uncertainty of Events which men ignorantly complain of Thus some men are guilty of a great many secret sins or do a great many good actions which no man knows of but only God and their own Consciences and when God visibly rewards or punishes men for the secret good or evil they have done the reasons of such rewards or punishments must be unknown to us because the good or evil for which they are rewarded or punished is unknown All these things make the Reasons and Events of Providence very uncertain and unaccountable to us and yet we see there may be very wise Reasons for them which we cannot understand and which no man in his Wits would desire should be understood For would you desire that every sin you commit should be immediately punished without any time to repent without any hope of Mercy Would you have God reward and punish as Human Laws do to consider only what is done without making any allowances for ignorance and surprize or without taking any notice of the Principles or Ends of our actions Would you have a Casement into every man's breast or have all their secret Sins or Vertues written upon their Foreheads that every man may be as perfectly known to all the world as he is to himself If you do not desire this you must be contented to be ignorant of the Reasons of Providence of those good and evil Events which happen to men why God punishes one man and spares or rewards another why he does not punish those whom we judge to deserve Punishment nor reward those whom we think worthy of a Reward God has wise Reasons for all this but we cannot understand them and it is happy for us all that they are not understood This shews how absurd it is for us to demand a Reason and to complain that we cannot give a Reason of all the Events of Providence And I shall only observe this by the way That if men would in other cases take the same course that I have done in this they would quickly perceive how vain and senseless all their Objections against Providence are That is Whatever they object against Providence let them turn the other side of it and try whether that would be better Let them consider how they would have what they call the Defects and Blemishes of Providence rectified and whether it would be more for the wise and happy Government of the World if it were so I dare challenge the greatest Pretenders to Wit and Reason to give any one Instance of this nature to name any one thing which they quarrel at which they know how to mend And if the world be so wisely ordered already that those who complain most can't tell how any thing could be better done it is Ridiculous and Impudent to find fault which are no hard words in such a Cause as this But this is not all I intend merely to shew That this is an Unreasonable Objection against Providence That the Events of it are many times very uncertain hidden and mysterious and such as we cannot give the particular Reasons of but likewise to satisfy you That the Wise Government of Mankind requires it should be so and to represent to you The great and excellent Advantages of it Now I suppose you will all grant That what is most for the Glory of God for the advancement of true Piety and the Restraints of Wickedness is the Wisest way of Governing the World And if you will grant this I doubt not but I shall presently satisfy you That the Wise Government of the World requires secret and hidden Methods of Providence such uncertain and surprizing Events as at least we can give no account of till it comes to its last and concluding Issue 1. For what is there that excites in us a greater Admiration of God than to see great and glorious things brought to pass by a long and winding Labyrinth of surprizing and perplex'd Events which we know nothing of nor whither they tend till we see where they end Mankind never greatly admire what is plain and obvious and every man's thought because there is nothing in it which shews any extraordinary Contrivance But when unexpected Events are brought to pass by unsuspected means and yet designed and directed by a steady and unerring Counsel When great things are done by such means as have no Natural Causality to produce such Effects and therefore can give no notice nor the least suspicion of what is a-doing When our very Fears are turned into Triumphs and that which seemed to threaten us with some great evils is made the Instrument of some great and surprizing Blessings When bad men are ensnared in their own Counsels and fall into the Pit which they have digged for others When God turns their Curses into Blessings
confess that they cannot tell by their own sense and feeling that they are thus moved and inclined by God but only charge their Sins on God to excuse themselves Every man feels what it is that tempts him his love of Riches of Pleasures or Honours and that the temptation and impulse is weaker or stronger in proportion to his fondness and passion for these tempting Objects but yet he feels himself at liberty to chuse and determine himself and finds a Principle within him which resists and opposes his compliance with the temptation as contrary to the Will and Law of God and the dictates of right Reason and that for which God will Punish him And is there any reason for men to charge their Sins upon God when the only thing that gives check to them and makes Sin uneasy is the conviction of their own Consciences that it is what God has forbid and what he will punish This I think is no evidence of God's tempting and inclining men to Sin that he has imprinted on our minds such a natural sense of his abhorrence of all Evil and such a natural awe and dread of his Justice that while we preserve this sense strong and vigorous no temptation can fasten on us If we appeal to Reason the Reason of all Mankind proves That God does not and cannot tempt incline and over-rule men to chuse or to act any Wickedness for this is a direct contradiction to the Holiness and Purity of his Nature and the Justice of his Providence All mankind believe God to be perfect Holiness which is essential to the very notion of a God and Reason tells us that such a Pure and Holy Being cannot be the Author of Sin nor were it possible to vindicate the Justice of Providence in the punishment of sin did men sin by Divine Impulses or by Necessity and Fate And the Scripture teaches this in express words Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man 1. James 13. And all the Laws and Promises and Threatnings Exhortations Reproofs and passionate Expostulations which we meet with in Scripture if they mean any thing sincere do necessarily suppose that men sin freely and that God is so far from inclining and tempting men to sin that he does all that becomes a Wise and Holy Being to restrain and deter them from it Now when we have such direct and positive Proofs that God is not and cannot be the Author of Sin it is certain that we can have no direct and positive Proof that he is nor is any such Proof pretended and then some remote and uncertain Consequences which are owing to our Ignorance or confused and imperfect notions of things or to some obscure Expressions of Scripture are not and ought not to be thought sufficient to disprove a direct and positive Evidence no more than the difficulties about the nature of motion are a just reason to deny that there is any motion when we daily see and feel our selves and the whole world move And yet such kind of Difficulties as these is all that is pretended to charge the Providence of God with the Sins of men the most material of which I intend at this time to examine 1. One and that the most plausible pretence to destroy the Liberty of Human Actions and to charge the Sins of men upon God is his Praescience and Foreknowledge of all Future Events That God does foreknow things to come is generally acknowledged by Heathens Jews and Christians and Prophesy is a plain demonstration of it for he that can foretell things to come must fore-know them Now from hence they thus argue What is certainly fore-known must certainly be and what is thus certain is necessary and therefore if all future Events are certain as being certainly foreknown then all things even all the Sins of men are owing to Necessity and Fate And then God who is the Author of this Necessity and Fate must be the Cause and Author of mens Sins too Now in answer to this I readily grant That nothing can be certainly fore-known but what will certainly be but then I deny that nothing will certainly be but what has a necessary Cause For we see ten thousand effects of free or contingent Causes which certainly are though they might never have been for whatever is certainly is and whatever certainly is now was certainly though not necessarily future a thousand years ago That man understands very little who knows not the difference between the necessity and the certainty of an Event No Event is necessary but that which has a necessary Cause as the rising and sitting of the Sun but every Event is certain which will certainly be though it be produced by a Cause which acts freely and might do otherwise if it pleased as all the free Actions of men are some of which though done with the greatest freedom may be as certain and as certainly known as the rising of the Sun Now if that which is done freely may be certain and that which is certain may be certainly known then the certainty of God's Fore-knowledge only proves the certainty but not the necessity of the Event And then God may fore-know all Events and yet lay no necessity on mankind to do any thing that is wicked In the nature of the thing fore-knowledge lays no greater necessity upon that which is fore-known than knowledge does upon that which is known for fore-knowledge is nothing but knowledge and knowledge is not the cause of the thing which is known much less the necessary cause of it We certainly know at what time the Sun will rise and sit every day in the year but our knowledge is not the cause of the Sun 's rising or sitting Nay in many cases in proportion to our knowledg of men we may with great certainty foretel what they will do and how they will behave themselves in such or such circumstances and did we perfectly know them we should rarely if ever mistake for though men act freely they do not act arbitrarily but there is always some byass upon their minds which inclines and draws them and the more confirmed habits men have of Vertue or Vice the more certainly and steadily they act and the more certainly we may know them without making them either vertuous or vicious Now could we certainly know what all men would do before they do it yet it is evident that this would neither make nor prove them to be necessary Agents And therefore though the perfection of the Divine Knowledge is such as to know our thoughts afar off before we think them yet this does not make us think such Thoughts nor do such Actions How God can foreknow things to come even such Events as depend upon the most free and contingent Causes we cannot tell but it is not incredible that Infinite Knowledge should do this when Wise men whose Knowledge is so very
never become a Holy God to infuse hardness into mens hearts yet when men have hardened themselves and will abuse all the Wise methods of Providence to harden themselves and are now ripe for destruction it very much becomes a Just and Righteous God to exercise them with such Providences as he knows will still harden them till they make themselves such infamous examples of Wickedness as may deserve a more glorious and exemplary Vengeance Which is another thing to be considered in the case of Pharaoh and very necessary to the full understanding this difficult case of God's hardening mens hearts God had peremptorily decreed not only to deliver Israel but to punish Egypt both King and People for the cruel oppression of Israel And therefore he might without any more solemnity have destroyed Pharaoh his People and Land and have carried Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand But when they had deserved to be Punished and Destroyed and God had resolved to Punish them the manner of their Punishment was at the free disposal of the Divine Wisdom and therefore he chose to Punish them in such a way as might make the Glory and Power of the God of Israel known to the World And this is the very account which God himself gives why he took such a course with Pharaoh as he foresaw would harden and confirm him in his resolutions of not parting with Israel when he could have forced him at the expence of fewer Miracles to have sent them away if he had so pleased I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them 7. Exod. 3 4 5. The same thing he tells Pharaoh I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the earth And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up have all this time preserved thee and not cut thee off for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth 9. Exod. 14 15 16. And this reason God gives why he hardened Pharaoh's heart to pursue Israel I will be honoured upon Pharaoh and upon all his host that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord 14. Exod. 4. This is diligently to be observed to vindicate the Holiness and Justice of Providence For though God infuses no hardness into mens hearts yet if he exercise them with such Providences as he foresees will harden them and does this with an intention and design to harden them this signifies his Will to harden them and such a moral Efficiency in using hardening Providences as will as certainly harden them as if he had infused hardness into them And this makes little difference whether God hardens men by external Providences or by an internal Operation on their minds when he intends such Providences to harden them and knows that they will effectually do it Now I readily grant that tho God infused no hardness into Pharaoh's heart nor did any thing which unbecomes a holy God to do yet he did intend to harden him and did intend to harden him on purpose to multiply his Judgments on Egypt and to destroy him and all his Host in the Red Sea for this is so plainly expressed that we cannot deny it Nay I readily grant that the Providence of God would be justly chargeable with mens Sins did he without any respect to the merit and desert of the Persons by such insensible methods betray them into sin with an intention to harden them For what man is there of such a firm and constant vertue as to be able to resist all Temptations which a long series of Providences chosen and directed for that purpose by a Divine Wisdom could bring him into But yet when men have sinned themselves into such a hardened state as to deserve to be destroyed and when God is so far provoked by their Sins as to resolve to destroy them it becomes the Wisdom and the Justice of God without any impeachment of his Holiness to harden men by external Events and Appearances not in Sin which can never become a Holy God but in such ruinous Courses as their own wicked hearts betray them to and as will bring inevitable ruin on them And this is the true resolution on this Case 1. That God never hardens any men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them 2. That then he does not harden them in Sin but in such Ruinous Counsels as their own Sins betray them to 3. That all this is done not by the natural or moral efficacy but by their own wicked abuse of the Divine Providence 4. To compleat all When God has thus determined to destroy any Person or People he many times inflicts on them a penal blindness and infatuation not to see the things which concern their peace These four Particulars contain a full and easy account of this perplext Doctrine of God's hardening mens hearts and therefore I shall speak distinctly but briefly to them 1. That God never hardens men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them This must be laid as the foundation of all for by what means soever God hardens men how innocent soever they may appear if he intends to harden them not because they deserve and he has determined to destroy them but only that they may deserve to be destroyed and that he may with some fair appearance of Justice destroy them it would be impossible to satisfy equal and impartial Judges of the Justice and Holiness of Providence But if men have hardened themselves in Sin beyond all the ordinary methods of recovery and have so provoked a good and merciful God that he gives them over to ruin and destruction then by what means soever they are hardened which are not directly sinful there can be no just reason to question either the Justice or Goodness or Holiness of God upon this account For when men have sinned to that degree as to deserve immediate destruction and to provoke God to pass a final Sentence on them God may either immediately destroy them or keep them in that hardened state like condemned Malefactors reserved in Chains for a more publick and solemn Execution And this is all that is meant by God's hardening men and this all mankind must allow to be just and holy This was the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians who
Works of Nature prove that the World was at first made by a wise and powerful Being the continuance and preservation of all things the regular motions of the Heavens the uniform productions of Nature prove the World is upheld directed and governed by the same Omnipotent Wisdom and Counsel As St. Paul tells us The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead 1 Rom. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Dominion and Soveraignty or his governing Providence this visible World does not only prove an Eternal Power which made it but a Soveraign Lord who administers all the Affairs of it And 14. Acts 17. He proves the Being of God from his Providence Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness And 17. Acts 28. He proves that God governs the World and takes care of all the Creatures that are in it because he made it For in him we live move and have our being as certain of your own Poets have said for we are also his off-spring which is very improperly alledged by St. Paul if we may be the Off-spring of God and yet not live and move and have our Being in him that is if God's making the World does not necessarily prove his constant care and governmet of it But the Apostle knew in those days that no man who confessed that God made the World questioned his Providence and therefore makes no scruple to prove that we live and subsist in God because he made us This is a noble Argument to prove both the Being and Providence of God which cannot be separated from the Works of Nature and the Wise Government of the World It would give us a very delightful entertainment to view all the Curiosities and suprizing Wonders of Nature with what beauty art and contrivance particular Creatures are made and how the several parts of this great Machine are fitted to each other and make a regular and uniform World How all particular Creatures are fitted to the use and purposes of their several Natures and yet are made serviceable to one another and have as mutual a connexion and dependance as the Wheels of a Clock What an equal and steady Hand governs the World when its motions seem most excentrick and exorbitant and brings Good out of Evil and Order out of Confusion when things are so perplext that it is impossible for any one but a God to disentangle them There is no need of the subtilty of Reason and Argument in this Cause would but men attentively study the Works of God and dwell in the contemplation of Nature and Providence for God is as visible in his Works as the Sun is by its Light when all the Wonders of Nature are unfolded and exposed particularly to our view it so over-powers the mind with such infinite varieties of that most Divine Art and Wisdom that modest men are ashamed to ascribe such things to a blind Chance which has no Design or Counsel Indeed to say that a World full of Infinite Marks and Characters of the most admirable Art a World so made that no Art could make it better was not made by a wise Mind but by Chance by a fortuitous concourse of Atoms which without any Design after infinite fruitless Trials happened into this exact useful beautiful Order that now they are in know when they are well and in despight of Chance move as constantly regularly artificially in all new Productions as the divinest and most uniform Wisdom could direct I say to affirm this is to put an end to all Disputes by leaving no Principles of Reason and Argumentation to dispute with An Atheist is the most vain Pretender to Reason in the World The whole strength of Atheism consists in contradicting the universal Reason of Mankind They have no Principles nor can have any and therefore they can never reason but only confidently deny or affirm They can assign no Principles of Reason which the rest of Mankind allow to be Principles from whence they can prove that there is no God and no Providence but they only reject those Principles which all other men agree in and from whence it must necessarily follow that there is a God and a Providence It will be of great use briefly to explain this which will teach you to reject Atheism and Atheists without troubling your selves to dispute with them for they have no common Principles with the rest of Mankind to reason upon nor indeed any Principles of Reason at all A few words will suffice for this purpose Mankind who have been used to thinking and reasoning have universally agreed That there must be something that had no beginning and no cause for nothing can produce nothing that had there ever been a time when there was nothing there never could have been any thing unless there can be an effect without a cause which is too absurd for Atheists themselves to say in express words who do not boggle much at Absurdities and therefore they make their Atoms and their Vacuum to be eternal It is agreed also That whatever had a beginning had a cause and the most easy and natural progress of Human Understandings is to reason from one cause to another till we ascend to and center in a first Cause For it is as easy and natural to believe one first Eternal Cause as to believe an Eternal Being but though it is natural to believe something Eternal it is as unnatural to believe all things to be so we have no notion of all things being Eternal though we have of an Eternal Cause for the very reason why we are forced to confess something Eternal is because there must be an Eternal Cause of all other things that is because all things are not eternal But if any thing which has not an eternal and unchangeable Nature but is capable of being made and unmade changed and altered as all the things of this World are might be without a Cause then every thing may be without a Cause and if the Eternity of all things be a natural Notion it cannot be a natural Notion that there is a first Cause For that very Notion supposes that something had a beginning and was originally made when it was not before and therefore that all things are not eternal For to be made in this Axiom primarily relates to the being of things and is so understood by all men And how can such a notion of the making and giving being to any thing be natural if it be a natural notion that all things are eternal and that nothing was made Hence it is that seen and visible Effects which have no visible Cause adequate to the producing such Effects are allowed by all Mankind to be a sufficient proof of some Invisible Cause as St. Paul tells us
and he spoke the Language of Human Nature in it That the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made 1. Rom. 20. For if that which is made must have a Cause if there be no visible Cause there must be an invisible Maker And therefore this World which has no visible must have an invisible Cause And as it is natural to the Reason of Mankind to conclude the Cause from the Effect so is it to learn the Nature of the Cause from the Nature of the Effect for whatever is in the Effect must be either specifically or virtually in the Cause for whatever is in the Effect which is not in the Cause that has no Cause for nothing can be a cause of that which it is not it self And therefore whatever has life and understanding must be made by a living and understanding Cause whatever has art and skill and wise contrivance in its frame as every Worm and Fly has must have a wise designing Cause for its Maker And then it is certain that this whole World was not made by chance or the fortuitous concourse of Atoms but by an infinitely wise Mind This way of reasoning is easy and natural to our minds all men understand it all men feel it Atheists themselves allow of this kind of proof in all other cases excepting the proof of a God or a Providence and therefore it is no absurd foolish way of reasoning for then it must not be allowed of in any case and they have no reason to reject it in this case but that they are resolved not to believe a God and a Providence And yet this way of reasoning from Effects to Causes must be good in all Cases or in none For the Principle is universal That nothing can be made without a Cause and if any thing can be made made without a Cause this Principle is false and can prove nothing And I challenge the wisest and subtilest Atheist of them all to prove from any Principle of Reason that the most beautiful and regular House that ever he saw which he did not see built for that is a proof from Sense not from Reason was built by men and is a work of Art and that it did not either grow out of the Earth nor was made by the accidental meeting of the several Materials which without knowledge art or design fell into a regular and uniform Building Had these men never seen a House built I would desire to know how they would prove that it is a work of Art built by a skilful Workman and not made by chance and by what medium soever they will prove this I will undertake to prove that God made the World though we did not see him make it But the present Enquiry is only this Whether this be Human Reason the natural Reason of Human Minds If it be then men who will be contented to reason like men must acknowledge and assent to this Argument from Effects to Causes which unavoidably proves a God and a Providence and this is all I desire to be granted That those who will follow the Notices and Principles of Human Reason must believe that God made and governs the World for I know not how to reason beyond Human Reason those who do may please themselves with it Those who have found out a Reason which contradicts the natural Principles of Reason must reason by themselves for Mankind cannot reason with them But let us consider how Atheists reason when they have laid aside this Principle of Reason from Effects to Causes They tell us That a most Artificial World may be made without Art or any wise Maker by blind Chance without any designing Efficient Cause That Life and Sense and Reason may result from dead stupid sensless Atoms Well! we hear this and bear it as patiently as we can but how do they prove this why they say it may be and they can go no farther But how do they know this may be Have they any such notion in their minds have they any natural sensation that answers these words does Nature teach them that any thing can be without a Cause adequate to the Effect that any thing can be wisely made without a wise Cause that one contrary can produce the other that sensless stupid Matter can produce Life Sensation and Understanding Can they then tell me what it is that can't be I desire to know by what Rule they judge what may be and what can't be And if they can find any can't be more absurd and contradictious than their may be I will renounce Sense and Reason for ever If nothing can be without a Cause according to the Reason of Mankind this can't be and therefore all that their may be 's can signify is this That if the Reason of Mankind deceive us such things may be as the most unquestionable Principles of Reason tells us can't be And this is the glorious triumph of Atheistical Reason it can get no farther than a may be and such a may be as is absolutely impossible if the Reason of Mankind be true Set aside the relation between Causes and Effects and all the Arguments from Causes to Effects and from Effects to Causes and there is an end of all Knowledge and set aside all those first Principles and Maxims of Reason which all men assent to at the first Proposal the truth of which they see and feel and there is an end of all Reason For there can be no reasoning without the acknowledgment of some first Principles which the mind has a clear distinct and vigorous perception of And if men will distrust their own minds in such things as they have an easy natural perception of and prefer some Arbitrary Notions which seem absurd Contradictions and impossible to the rest of Mankind and which they can have no Idea of beyond the sound of words they may be Atheists if they please at the expence of their Reason and Understanding that is they may be Atheists if they will not judge and reason like Men But if we are as certain of the Being of a God and of a Providence as we are that nothing can be without a Cause we have all the certainty that Human Nature is capable of CHAP. II. The general Notion of Providence and particularly concerning a Preserving Providence HAving proved as largely as my present Design required That the same God who made the World is the Supream Lord and Governour of it I proceed to consider the Nature of Providence The general Notion of Providence is God's care of all the Creatures he has made which must consist in preserving and upholding their Beings and Natures and in such Acts of Government as the good Order of the World and the Happiness of Mankind require which divides Providence into Preservation and Government which must be carefully distinguished in order to answer some great Difficulties in Providence I
not to have made an Immortal Creature who could sin and be miserable for ever I shall conclude this whole Argument with some few Inferences 1. If Creatures must be preserved as well as made by God then the present continuance and preservation of all things is a visible Argument of the Being of God Some men will not believe that God made the world because they did not see him make it but they see a world preserved when there is no one thing in the world more able to preserve than to make it self and who then is it that preserves this world and all things in it This must be a work of Reason and Wisdom as well as Power and the only reasonable Creature in this visible world is Man and Man cannot preserve himself and knows that he can preserve nothing else and therefore the Preservation of all things must be owing to some Invisible Cause whom we call GOD. 2. If we live and move and have our being in God we are entirely his and owe all homage and obedience to him for he did not only make us but we have our constant dependance on him we live and subsist in him Had he only made us at first that had given him a title to us for ever but could we have lived without him when he had made us tho it had not been a less fault yet it had been less foolish and absurd to have lived without any notice or regard of him as some ungrateful persons deal by their Friends and Patrons when they have set them up in the world and enabled them to live by themselves but to forget that God in whom we live who preserves and upholds us in being every moment is to affront a present Benefactor if we value being and tho we cannot tempt God by this to let us fall into nothing yet we shall make it just for him to punish us to preserve us in being to feel the weight of his Wrath and Vengeance which is infinitely worse for happy had it been for such a man that he had never been born 3. For if he not only made but upholds and preserves us in being he must be our Sovereign Lord and Governor for no other has any original and absolute interest in us we are in his hands and none can take us out of them nor touch us but by his order To give being and to preserve it is the foundation of all other acts of Government no other Being has a Right to govern no other Power can govern He alone can give Laws can reward or punish can govern Nature can direct over-rule controul all other Powers for all things are in his hands and therefore he commands them all 4. And this may convince us how irresistible the Divine Power is for all the power of Creatures is derived from him and depends on him as Light does on the Sun and therefore they can have no power against him and what distraction then is it to provoke that Almighty God whom we cannot resist Humble thy self Sinner before thy Maker thy Preserver and thy Judge obey his Will to whose Power thou must submit let him be thy Fear and thy Dread thy only Fear for thou needest fear none else all Power is his none can resist him none can act without him he sets bounds to the Raging of the Sea to the Fury of Princes to the Madness of the People Thou art safe in his hands safe in obedience to his Will but thou canst never escape him never flie from him never defend thy self against him for thou livest in him 5. This also proves that God must see and know all our actions for we live and move in him He is always present with us privy to our most secret thoughts and counsels observes all our wandrings sees us in all our retirements There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves This the Scripture in express words teaches and the reason of the thing speaks it for if we cannot think nor move nor subsist without God he must be always intimately present with us which should possess us with a constant Awe and Reverence of his Pure and All seeing Eye CHAP. III. Concerning God's Governing Providence NEXT to Preservation as that signifies God's upholding all things in being and preserving and actuating their Natural Powers we must consider God's Government of the world for God is the Supreme and Sovereign Lord of the world who doth whatsoever pleaseth him both in heaven and in earth and therefore the Absolute Government of all things must be in his hands or else something might be done which he would not have done This all men grant in general words who own a Providence but when they come to particulars there are so many excepted cases which they will hardly allow God to have any thing to do in that they seem to mean little more by God's Government than a general Inspection of Human Affairs his looking on to see the World govern it self for three parts of four of all that is done in the world they resolve into bare Permission as distinguish'd from an Ordering and Disposing Providence and then it can signifie no more than that God does not hinder it and if this be all God governs the world in such cases no more than men do The only difference is that God can hinder when he don 't but men don't hinder because they can't but still merely not to hinder does not signifie to govern But rightly to understand this matter the best way is to consider how the Scripture represents it and because there are great variety of acts in the government of the world of a very different consideration I shall distinctly enquire into God's government of Causes and his government of Events 1. God's government of Causes and we must consider three sorts of Causes and what the Scripture attributes to God with respect to each 1. Natural Causes 2dly Accidental Causes or what we call Chance and Accident and Fortune 3dly Moral Causes and free Agents or the government of mankind 1. Natural Causes or God's Government of the Natural World of the Heavens and Earth and Seas and Air and all things in them which move and act by a Necessity of Nature not by Choice Now the Scripture does not only attribute to God all the Vertues and Powers of Nature which belongs to Creation and to a Preserving Providence but the direction and government of all their Natural Influences to do what God has a mind should be done God does in some measure govern the Moral by the Natural World he rewards or punishes men by a wholsome or pestilential air by fruitful or barren seasons he hinders or promotes their designs by winds and weather by a forward or a backward Spring and makes Nature give Laws to men and set bounds to their Passions and Intriegues to overthrow the most powerful Fleets and Armies to defeat the wisest Counsels
thus it is whenever God sees fit to interpose which he does as often as he has any wise end to serve by it Thus we are told That when a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him 16. Prov. 7. And it is a very remarkable Promise God makes to the Children of Israel that when all their Males should come Three times every Year to Worship God at Ierusalem by which means their Country was left without defence exposed to the Rapine of their Enemies who dwelt round about them That no man should desire their land when they go up to appear before the Lord. 34. Exod. 24. We have many Examples of this in Scripture and some of those many ways whereby God does it When Abraham sojourned in Gerar he said of Sarah his Wife that she was his Sister and Abimelech the King of Gerar sent and took her but God reproved Abimelech in a dream and tells him that he had withheld him from Sinning and not suffered him to touch her 20. Genes 1. c. Thus when Iacob fled from Laban with his Wives and Children and Laban pursued him God appeared to Laban in a dream and Commanded him that he should not speak to Iacob either good or hurt 31. Genes 24. Such appearances were very common in that Age though they seem very extraordinary to us but God does the same thing still by strong and lively impressions upon our minds by suggesting and fixing such thoughts in us as excite or calm our Passions as encourage us to bold and great Attempts or check us in our career by frightful Imaginations and unaccountable Fears and Terrors or by such other Arguments as are apt to change our Purposes and Counsels Sometimes God does this by a Concurrence of External Causes which at other times would not have been effectual but shall certainly have their Effect when God inforces the impression Thus God in a moment turned the Heart of Esau when he came out in great Rage against his Brother Iacob It was an old Hatred he had conceived against him for the loss of his Birthright and of his Blessing and he had for many years confirmed himself in a resolution to cut him off the first opportunity he had to do it And could it be expected that the Present which Iacob sent him which he could have taken if he had pleased without receiving it as a Gift and that the Submission of Iacob when he was in his Power should all on a sudden make him forget all that was past and the very Business he came for and turn his bloody Designs into the kindest Embraces No! this was God's work the effect of that Blessing which the Angel gave to Iacob after a whole Nights wrestling with him in Peniel 32. and 33. Genes and when God pleases the weakest means shall change the most sullen and obstinate Resolutions Of the same nature with this is the Story of David and Abigail Nabal had highly provoked David by the churlish Answer which he sent him and David was resolved to take a very severe revenge on Nabal and his House but God sent Abigail to pacifie him who by her presence and dutiful and submissive Behaviour and wise Counsels diverted him from those bloody resolutions he had taken as David himself acknowledges Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou who hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging my self with my own hand 1 Sam. 25. 32 33. Saul pursued David in the Wilderness to take away his Life and God delivered him Twice into David's hands and the kindness David shewed him in not killing him when he was in his Power did at last turn the Heart of Saul that he pursued him no more 1 Sam. 26. 27. ch Thus God confounded the good Counsel of Ahitophel by the advice of Hushai which Absolom chose to follow and the Text tells us this was from God who had purposed to defeat the good counsel of Ahitophel to the intent that he might bring evil upon Absolom 2 Sam. 17. 14. Such an absolute Empire has God over the minds of men that he can turn them as he pleases can lead them into new thoughts and counsels with as great ease as the waters of a river may be drawn into a new Channel prepared for them 2dly When God does not think fit to change and alter mens Wills and Passions he can govern their Actions and serve the ends of his Providence by them When God suffers them to pursue their own Counsels and to do what they themselves like best he does that by their hands which they little expected or intended The same Action may serve very different Ends and therefore God and Men may have very different intentions in it and what is ill done by men and for a very ill End may be ordered by God for Wise and Good purposes Nay the ill Ends which men Designed may be Disappointed and the good which God intended by it have its Effect And this is as Absolute a Government over mens Actions as the ends of Providence require when whatever men do if they intend one thing and God another the counsel of God shall stand and what they intended shall have no effect any farther than as it is subservient to the Divine Counsels as to give some plain examples of it Ioseph's Brethren being offended at his Dreams and at the peculiar kindness which their Father Iacob shewed him resolved to get rid of him but God intended to send him into Egypt to advance him to Pharaoh's Throne and to transplant Iacob and his Family thither and therefore God would not suffer them to slay him as they at first intended but he suffered them to sell him to the Ishmaelites who carried him into Egppt which disappointed what they aimed at in it never to see or hear more of him but accomplished the Decrees and Counsels of God Another Example we have in the King of Assyria who came against Ierusalem with a powerful Army with an intention to destroy it but God intended no more than to Correct them for their Sins this God suffered him to do but he could do no more O Assyrian the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation I will send him against a hypocritical nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire in the street Thus far God gave him Commission that is thus far God intended to suffer his Rage and Pride to proceed but this was the least of his intention Howbeit he thinketh not so but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few but in this God disappointed him Wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole work
begotten the drops of the dew out of whose womb came the ice and the hoary frost of heaven who hath gendred it By these and such like Questions expressed in unimitable words God convinces Iob how ignorant he was of the most common and familiar Works of Nature which made it great Presumption in so ignorant a Creature to censure the Wisdom of Providence And the Force of the Argument does not only consist in this That the very Works of Nature convince us that God is infinitely wiser than we are and can do great and excellent things which are above our understanding and therefore that we never ought to censure any thing that God does because he is so much wiser than we are that we are not competent Judges of what he does which is an unanswerable Argument to teach us the most profound Reverence and the most absolute Resignation of our selves to God But the Force of this Argument reaches farther That our ignorance of the Works of Nature is both the Cause and the Proof of our great Ignorance of the Works of Providence For no Being can know how to govern a world who does not know how to make it and he who does not know how to govern the world himself is a very unfit Judge of the Wisdom of Providence for he can never know when the world is well and wisely governed because he does not know what belongs to the government of the world The wise government of all creatures must be proportioned to their natures and therefore without understanding the Philosophy of Nature the Springs of Motion the mutual dependance of Causes and Effects what end things are made for and what uses they serve we can never know what is fit to be done nor what can be done or by what means it is to be done and then can never tell when any thing is done as it should be We know not what the Rules nor what the Ends of God's Government are which makes it impossible to judge of the Wisdom of Government Without understanding the Natures of things we must of necessity make as wild Conjectures about Providence as a blind man does of Light and Colours As for instance how is it possible to talk a wise word about God's Government of Mankind in what manner and by what means he turns their hearts directs and influences their counsels suggests thoughts to them and foresees their thoughts and how they will determine themselves when we know so little of the Make and Frame of our own minds where the spring of thoughts is and how we connect Propositions and draw consequences what the power of the Will is how we determine our selves in indifferent matters where the balance is equal for tho we feel all these Powers in our selves yet we know not whence they are nor how they act And yet how many intricate questions are there relating to the Disputes of Providence which are wholly owing to such Nice Philosophical Speculations which we know nothing of and yet which some men perplex themselves with and undertake very gravely to determine Such are the Disputes about Necessity and Fate Prescience and Predetermination and the liberty of Human Actions which as they are differently determined make very different and contrary Hypotheses of Providence and either charge God with the Sins of men or acquit him from any Partnership in Wickedness For all these questions at last resolve themselves into this How the Mind of man acts and determines it self Whether it be determined from abroad from a necessary Train and Series of Fatal Events or from the Decrees and Predetermination or Foreknowledg of God Or whether it be a self-moving Being and determines it self from the Principles of its own Nature and its own free Choice Now unless we understood the Philosophy or the Natural Frame and Composition of our own Minds it is impossible to say any thing to the purpose in this cause any farther than our own sense and feeling goes and that is on the side of liberty for unless we are strangely imposed on we feel our selves free But this may satisfy us that as to all the Difficulties of Providence which can be no other way resolved but by a knowledge of Nature we must of necessity be as ignorant of them as we are of the nature of things and therefore our confessed ignorance of Nature is a good Argument in all such cases to make us very modest in Censuring Providence We know enough both of the works of Nature and of the works of Providence to serve all the wise ends and purposes of living which is all that is useful for us to know and all that God intended we should know but the Reasons and Causes of things belong only to that Wisdom which can make and govern a world We know as much of Providence as we do of Nature and would men set bounds to their Enquiries here which is as far as Human Understandings can reach we should hear very few Objections against Providence Our ignorance of Nature and Natural Causes and the Natural Springs of Motion how things were made and how they act and for what ends they were made which in many cases we do but very imperfectly guess at is a plain demonstration That we never ought to admit any Difficulties in Nature as a sufficient Objection against the Being or the Providence of God in bar to all the Moral Evidence and Assurance we have of both We have all the Moral Evidence we can have for any thing That God governs the world by a Wise and Holy and Free Providence That he is not the Author of Sin That our Wills at least as far as Vertue and Vice is concerned are under no Foreign Force and Constraint but chuse and refuse and determine themselves with a Natural Liberty I say we have undeniable evidence of this from the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of the Divine Nature from the difference between Vertue and Vice and the nature of Rewards and Punishments these things are plain and such as we can understand and such as we cannot deny with any fair appearance of Reason but now all the Arguments against Providence and for Necessity and Fate are mere Philosophical Speculations which men vainly pretend to when it is demonstrable they can know nothing of them As for instance Some tell us That it is not a Wise and Free Providence that governs the world but that all things come to pass by a Necessary Chain of Causes which fatally determine the Will to Chuse and Act as these Causes move it Now whether there be such a necessary Chain of Causes or not it is certain no man can know it who does not as perfectly understand this great Machine of the World and all its Motions as an Artist does all the Wheels in a Watch or Clock nor can any man know how such a Chain of Causes should move and determine the Mind of Man without understanding the Philosophy of Human Souls how
what the condition of such men is in the other world who lived in invincible ignorance of the True God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ in this This we confess we do not know but believe so well of God that we are verily perswaded could we see what their state is in the other world we should see no reason to quarrel with the Justice or Goodness of God upon their account And have we any reason then to quarrel with God only because we know not how he deals with the ignorant Heathens in the next world If we knew how God dealt with these men and knew that he dealt hardly by them as far as we could judge this would be a difficulty but what Difficulty is there in knowing nothing of the matter For if we know nothing of it we ought to say and judg nothing of it neither Men must be very much inclined to quarrel with God who will raise Objections from what they confess they know nothing of and yet I cannot guess how they should know any thing of the state of ignorant Heathens in the next world since the Scripture says nothing of it and yet this can be known only by Revelation for we cannot look into the other world The plain truth of the case is this Some men without any Authority of Scripture confidently affirm That ignorant Heathens shall suffer the same Condemnation which Christ has threatned aginst wilful Infidels and wicked Christians and then it may well be thought a great Difficulty That God should as severely punish men for not knowing Christ when he was never preached to them and they had no other possible way of knowing him as he will punish those who have had the Gospel of Christ preached to them but refused to believe in him or have professed the Faith of Christ but lived very wickedly This I confess is a great Difficulty but it is a Difficulty of their own making and I should think it much more safe for our selves and much more honourable for God to confess our Ignorance of such matters as we have no possible way to know and to refer all such unknown Cases to the Wisdom Justice and Goodness of God than to pretend to know what we cannot know and from thence to raise such Objections as we cannot answer Whatever Difficulties immediately relate to the state of the other world we must be contented should remain Difficulties till we go thither for we know so little in particular about the other world that it is impossible we should be able either to satisfy our selves or others in such matters but these are not properly Difficulties in Providence for they do not so much concern the government of this world as of the next Thus I have at large shewn not only That the Absolute Power of God makes him Unaccountable as the Sovereign Lord of the World but That his Infinite Wisdom is above the comprehension of our Narrow Understandings he is not bound to give any account of all the Wise Designs of his Providence and we are not capable of receiving it This indeed is so plain at the first hearing to all men who believe God to be Infinitely Wise and are sensible of their own Ignorance that I should have been ashamed to have insisted so long on it did not all men know who know any thing of this Dispute That most of the Objections against Providence are owing wholly to this cause That men will not allow God to do what they cannot understand And the best way I could take to teach these men more Modesty in censuring Providence was to shew them particularly That if God govern the world wisely there are a thousand things which they must of necessity be ignorant of and then it can be no Objection against the Wisdom Justice and Goodness of God in governing the world that they cannot in many cases give a satisfactory account of the Particular Reasons of Providence Fifthly Let us now enquire in what cases this is a reasonable Answer to all the Difficulties of Providence That God giveth no account of his matters That the judgments of God are unsearchable and his ways past finding out And there is great reason for this Enquiry that no man may presume to attribute any thing to God which can never be reconciled with the common Notions of Good and Evil Just and Unjust upon this pretence That the Ways and Judgments of God are unsearchable and unaccountable and that we ought not to demand a reason of them That there are such men in the world is sufficiently known to those who understand any thing of some modern Controversies in Religion I need instance at present only in the Doctrine of Eternal and Absolute Election and Reprobation on which a great many other such like unaccountable Doctrines depend That God created the far greatest part of mankind on purpose to make them eternally miserable or at least as others state it That he Order'd and Decreed or which is the same thing effectually Permitted the Sin and Fall of Adam that he might glorify his Mercy in chusing some few out of the corrupted Mass of Mankind to be Vessels of Glory and to glorify his Justice in the Eternal Punishment of all others even of Reprobated Infants as involved in the Guilt of Adam's sin Now thus far I confess they are in the right that these are very unaccountable Doctrines for to make creatures on purpose to make them miserable is contrary to all the Notions we have of Just and Good But tho we readily confess That the Ways and Judgments of God are unsearchable yet men must not think upon this pretence to attribute what they please to God how absurd unreasonable unjust soever it be and then shelter themselves against all Objections by resolving all into the Unaccountable Will and Pleasure of God for God has no such Unaccountable Will as this is to do such things as manifestly contradict all the Notions which mankind have of good and evil We find in Scripture That God abhors all such Imputations as these as infinitely injurious to him and appeals to the common Notions of what is Just and Equal to justify the general Rules of his Providence The whole 18th Chapter of Ezekiel is a plain proof of this where God complains of that Proverb as reflecting upon the Justice and Equity of his Providence The fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge That is that the Children are punished for the sins of their Fathers How unreasonable an Imputation this is God proves from that Equal Right which he hath in Parents and Children which will not admit of such Partiality Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the father so also the soul of the son is mine the soul that sinneth it shall dye And declares this to be the general Rule of his Providence That a good man who does what is just and right shall surely live That if
the Rule of Righteousness to us to give to every man that which is his own and it is the Justice of Government to punish those who invade another's Rights and this is that Justice which the Righteous Lord loves in men and the violation of which he hates So that the Justice of the Divine Nature makes God love Righteousness and Justice and hate all Injustice and Oppression and the Justice of Providence requires that God should punish Injustice and Violence and protect the Just and Innocent as far as the nature and ends of God's Government of the World requires and this the Scripture everywhere declares that God will do That he is angry with the wicked every day That he is a refuge and sanctuary and strong tower and rock of defence to Just and Righteous men Not that every particular bad man who does unjust things shall be immediately punished for his Unjustice nor that every man who has a just and righteous Cause shall be protected from the violence and injustice of the Wicked for the Experience of all the World proves that this never was done and therefore this cannot be the meaning of the Promises and Threatnings of Scripture But there is enough meant by it to vindicate the Justice of Providence in this World to be a support to good men and a terror to the wicked 1. For first it signifies That in the ordinary course of Providence where there is nothing but the justice or injustice of the Cause to be considered God will favour a just and righteous Cause There may be other wise Reasons why God may suffer a just Cause to be oppressed and Injustice to be prosperous and we ought to believe that there are always wise Reasons for it when God does suffer this because we certainly know that God is no favourer of Injustice but he who has a just Cause may for other Reasons deserve to be punished and then God may justly punish him by unjust Oppressors and thus Injustice may be prosperous and Justice oppressed but where the other sins and demerits of the man do not forfeit God's protection of a just Cause the Divine Providence will make a visible distinction between just and unjust 2dly And therefore no man can promise himself the Divine Protection but only when his Cause is just and right Which is the reason why the Psalmist as you have already heard so often pleads his own innocence and integrity and the righteousness of his Cause to move God to save and defend him For God has promised his protection upon no other terms and whenever Injustice prospers it is not in favour to the unjust man or his unjust Cause but in punishment to others whom God thinks fit to correct and chastise by such injustice Tho wickedness may prosper for a while there is no way to obtain the Divine Favour and Protection but by doing good for a Righteous God can have no favour for an unjust Cause and therefore if we believe that God governs the World we must expect his protection only in the ways of Righteousness and this will give us a secure hope and dependance on God That we shall not be ashamed while we have respect unto all his commandments 3dly And for the same Reason though Injustice may prosper for a time no unjust man can be secure from a Divine Vengeance God does not always punish bad men as soon as they deserve it but sometimes he does and he is always angry with them and therefore they are always in danger God is angry with the wicked every day if he turn not he will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death he hath ordain'd his arrows against the persecutors 7. Psalm 11 12 13. 4thly And therefore though every particular good man be not rewarded nor every bad man punish'd in this World yet the Divine Providence furnishes us with numerous Examples of Justice both in the protection and defence of good men and in the punishment of the wicked This is so notoriously known that no man can deny it That besides the ordinary Miseries and Calamities of Sinners which are the natural and necessary effects and rewards of their Sins and make them the scorn and the pity of Mankind God does very often execute very remarkable Judgments upon remarkable Sinners which bear the evident Tokens and Characters of a Divine Vengeance on them and does appear as wonderfully for the preservation of just and good men in a Righteous Cause Both Sacred and Prophane Story and our own observation may furnish us with many Examples of both kinds which are sufficient to vindicate the Justice of Providence and the truth of those Promises and Threatnings which are made in Scripture 2dly The better to understand that Account the Scripture gives us of the Justice of Providence I observe That the protection and defence of Providence is never promised in Scripture merely to a just and righteous Cause but only to just and righteous and good men This is not commonly observed and yet as soon as it is named it is so evident that it needs no proof and the consequence of it is very considerable We cannot indeed separate a just and righteous Man from a righteous Cause for as far as he is engaged in an unjust Cause he is an unjust Man but if the Divine Protection be promised to the righteous Man not to the righteous Cause then a righteous Cause may be oppressed when the man has no right to God's Protection without any impeachment either of the Righteousness or Justice of God Which shews the difference as I observed before between the Justice of Providence and the Justice of Human Governments The Justice of Human Governments considers mens Rights the Justice of Providence considers their moral Deserts Human Justice defends bad men in their just Rights the Divine Justice which is supreme and absolute has no regard to Human Rights when the men deserve to be punished For God challenges to himself such an absolute right and propriety in all things as to give or take them away when he pleases And therefore he threatens Israel by the Prophet Hosea that since they had served Baal with the Corn and Wine and Oyl and Silver and Gold which he gave them Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof and my wine in the season thereof and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness 2. Hos. 8 9. The 26. Levit. contains the Promises and Threatnings to Israel and the Condition of both is their keeping or transgressing his Laws and Statutes and Commandments if they observed his Laws he would bestow all good things on them if they transgressed his Laws he would take them all away without any regard to their Rights or Properties Among other Judgments he threatens them to deliver them into the hands of their Enemies who should oppress
them in their own Land or carry them captive into strange Countries This destroy'd all their Rights and Properties at once and yet I suppose no man will say that the Philistins or Moabites or Aramites had any right to invade Canaan and to bring Israel under their Yoke and Nebuchadnezzar had no better right than they when he destroyed the Temple and City of Ierusalem and carried the Iews captive to Babylon but God was very just and righteous in this though he did not defend them in their just Rights because they had deserved such punishments And thus throughout the Book of Psalms the protection of the Divine Providence is promised only to good and righteous men to those who love God who fear and reverence and worship and put their trust in him that if men be not thus qualified whatever their Cause is they have no right to the Protection of Providence And this is the Justice of Providence not to secure Human Rights but to protect and defend good men and to punish the wicked 3dly We may observe also in Scripture That notwithstanding the Justice of Providence and God's love to Righteousness and to righteous Men he still by a Sovereign Authority reserves to himself a liberty to correct and chastise good men and to exercise their Graces and Vertues and to serve the ends of his own Glory by their Sufferings We must distinguish between Acts of Discipline and Justice which have very different ends and measures as the Correction of a Child differs from the Execution of a Malefactor For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth He corrects us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness 7. Heb. 7 8 9. Very good men may fall into such great sins as may deserve a severe correction not only to give them a greater abhorrence of their sins and make them more watchful for the future but to be an Example to others and in such cases Repentance it self though it will obtain their pardon will not excuse them from Temporal Punishments as we see in the Example of David when he had been guilty of Adultery and Murther upon his repentance God declared his pardon by the Prophet Nathan but would not remit his punishment which was not so much an act of Justice and Vengeance as of necessary Discipline And these are generally the many Afflictions of the Righteous out of which the Psalmist tells us God will at last deliver them whereas the Punishments of the Wicked when God after a long patience awakes to judgment are usually for their final ruin and destruction Thus good men may have many secret failings and miscarriages known to none but God and themselves which may deserve severe corrections which sometimes are made an argument against the Justice of Providence when the correction is visible but the causes for which they are corrected unknown Other good men suffer for the trial of their faith which is more precious than of gold which perisheth and are trained up by great severities to heroical degrees of Vertue All this is very reconcilable with God's love of Righteousness and righteous Men for it is the effect of this Love And thus good Men for a time may visibly suffer as much as the wicked which occasions such Complaints that all things fall alike to all but such Corrections as these are not properly Acts of Justice but of Discipline not so much for the punishment of Good men as to make them better not the effects of Anger but of Love 4thly We may observe in Scripture also That God exercises a Sovereign Authority in exercising his Judgments upon Wicked men He does not always punish them as soon as they deserve punishment but sometimes waits patiently for their return sometimes uses them as the Instruments of his Justice to punish other Bad men or to correct the Miscarriages and to exercise the Graces and Vertues of Good men and when he has finished what he had to do by them reserves them for a more publick and glorious Execution to be the Triumphs of his just Vengeance and standing Examples to the World which we know was the case of Pharaoh and the King of Assyria of Antiochus and some great Persecutors of the Christian Faith Thus have I shewn you wherein the Justice of Providence consists both from the nature of the Divine Justice and the Ends of God's Government in this World and from the Account the Scripture gives us of it which will enable us to answer all the Objections against the Justice of Providence I shall observe but one thing more That it is evident from this Discourse that we must not judge of the goodness of any Cause by external and visible Success much less make the oppression of a just Cause any argument against the Justice of Providence For Justice does not oblige God always to favour a just Cause when those who have a just Cause deserve to be punished God may justly punish Bad men by unjust Oppressors for he is the Sovereign Lord of the World and can dispose of his Creatures as his own Absolute Authority and Unsearchable Wisdom shall direct CHAP. VI. The Holiness of Providence THE next Enquiry is concerning the Holiness of Providence For God is a Holy Being as Holiness is opposed to all Impurity and Wickedness and such as God's Nature is such his Government must be and therefore the Psalmist 145. Psalm 17. assures us That the Lord is not only righteous in all his ways which signifies the Justice of Providence which I have already discoursed of but he is holy in all his works as he tells us more at large 5. Psal. 4 5 6 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all workers of iniquity thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man And yet there want not Objections and such as some men think inexplicable difficulties against the Holiness of Providence And therefore my design at present is to set this in as clear a light as I can and to that end I shall enquire 1. What the Holiness of God requires of him in the Government of the world 2. What it does not require of him And 3. What is Inconsistent and Irreconcilable with the Holiness of Providence And if God Governs the World as his Essential Holiness requires that he should Govern it if what men ignorantly Object against Providence be no just impeachment of his Holiness and if nothing be justly chargeable on Providence which is inconsistent and irreconcilable with the Holiness of the Divine Nature I suppose I need then add no more to vindicate the Holiness of Providence 1. Now as for the first the case seems very plain That the Holiness of a Governour in the Government of Reasonable Creatures and Free Agents can require no more of him
than the Creation of a New World would be But had God destroyed the whole Race of men and created a new Man to inhabit the New World this would have argued some defect in the first Creation for there can be no pretence for destroying Man to make him again but a design to make him better to correct that in a second trial which Experience had discovered to be faulty in the first But though the wisdom of Government will admit of various Trials and Experiments the Wisdom of Creation wont The Government of free Agents must be accommodated to their Natures and Dispositions not only to what God made them but to what they make themselves and therefore the Methods of Government must change as men change themselves but the Natures of all things are made only by God and if there be any fault in them it is chargeable upon the Divine Wisdom and to make Man and destroy him and make him again would argue a great fault somewhere 2dly I observed also before That to make the destruction of the Old World of any use to propagate Religion and Piety in the New it was necessary that some Inhabitants of the Old World should survive the Deluge to be Witnesses of that Terrible Destruction Had no man survived though God should have created man a-new that new Generation of men could have known nothing of the Deluge but by Revelation whereas God intended a sensible proof of his Power and Providence which Mankind wanted Besides that Revelation which we may suppose God made to Adam of the Creation of the World and his own sense that he himself was but just then made and was the first and the only man upon Earth there are such visible Marks of a Divine Wisdom and Power in the frame of the World as one would think should be sufficient to convince men that the World was made and is preserved and governed by God and yet because no man saw the World made neither Reason nor Revelation can persuade some men that God made the World And is it reasonable then to think that when there are no remaining signs of a Deluge left the belief of a Deluge should for any long time have prevailed in the world without any living Witnesses who saw the Deluge though we should suppose God to have revealed it to new-created man No man could see the Creation of the world because the world must be made before man was made to live in it but though no man saw the world made there were some who saw the destruction which the Deluge made which was as visible a proof of the Divine Power and a much greater proof of a Just and Righteous Providence No man who believes that God destroyed the Old World with a Deluge of Water can doubt whether God made the world and governs it and for this the New World had the testimony of Eye-witnesses which is as sensible a proof of a God and a Providence as we can possibly have 3dly The preservation of Noah and his Sons in the Ark was an evident proof that this Deluge was sent by God God fore-warned Noah of it an hundred years before it came and commanded him to prepare an Ark and gave him directions how to make it Thus much is certain That Noah did know of it before-hand and prepared an Ark which remained as a visible Testimony of the Flood to future Generations Now there being no Natural Causes of the Flood there could be no Natural Prognosticks of it Our Saviour himself observes That there were not the least Symptoms of any such thing till Noah entred into the Ark and therefore Noah had no other way of knowing this but by Revelation and it was so incredible a thing in it self that the rest of Mankind would not believe him though he warned them of it and they saw that he believed it himself by his preparing an Ark for his own safety And if we believe the Account that Moses gives of it that some of all sorts of Living Creatures both the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Air were preserved with Noah in the Ark as we must believe if we believe the Universal Deluge unless we will say that God new-made all Living Creatures after the Flood what account can be given of this that some of all sorts in such numbers as God had appointed and had prepared reception for should come of their own accord to Noah when he was ready to enter into the Ark had they not been led thither by a Divine Hand 4thly The preservation of Noah and his Sons in the Ark did not only prove that the Deluge was sent by God but was a plain Evidence for what reason God sent such a Terrible Judgment viz. To put an end to that wicked Generation of men and to new-people the world with a Righteous Seed This Reason God gave to Noah and the nature of the thing speaks it For when all the wicked Inhabitants of the world were destroyed and not one escaped the Deluge but only that one Righteous Family which had escaped the Corruptions of the Age too and that preserved by the peculiar Order and Direction of God this is a visible Judgment upon all the wicked of the Earth and makes a visible distinction between Good and Bad men When such Evils and Calamities befall the world as may be resolved into Natural or Moral Causes as Plagues and Famines and Wars Fires and Earthquakes and it may be Good and Bad men share pretty equally in the publick Misfortunes Atheists and Infidels will not allow these Evils to be inflicted by God much less to be the punishment of Sin when they make no visible distinction between the good and the bad but the Universal Deluge was both a Supernatural and a distinguishing Judgment none but God could thus destroy the Earth and none but the wicked were destroyed and therefore this is an undiable demonstration of the Justice and Righteousness of God that he hates wickedness and will punish wicked men There are some other Marks of Excellent Wisdom in the Universal Deluge which I shall only name because tho they are worth observing yet they are of less moment as to my present Design As the Deluge was to be a lasting proof of a Just Providence to the New World and as you have heard was upon all accounts admirably fitted to that purpose so we may reasonably suppose that when it came it convinced that wicked Generation of men and brought them to repentance which it gave them some time for and though it could not save them in this world who knows but that a sudden repentance upon such a sudden conviction might obtain mercy for them in the next Noah was a Preacher of Righteousness he had often reproved them for their sins and threatned them with a Deluge but they would not believe him though they saw him preparing the Ark but when they saw the Flood come they knew then the
have delivered Israel without them for it would argue a great defect in the ordinary methods of Government if God could not at any time save good men and punish and destroy the wicked without a Miracle God can do whatever he pleases by the wise direction and government of natural and moral Causes and therefore does not work Miracles because he needs them to supply the defects of natural Powers but to bear testimony to his own Being and Providence and to give authority to his Ministers and Prophets and we must learn the wisdom of this from the state and condition of the world at that time Mankind at that time were so far from being Atheists that they would worship any thing the meanest and most contemptible Creatures rather than have no God and they were so sensible how much they stood in need of a Divine Providence that one God would not serve them but they wanted as many Gods not only as there were Nations but as they had wants to supply This was a great corruption of the Light of Nature and those Notions of One Supream God imprinted on our minds and proclaimed by the whole visible Creation but yet was so universal and so prevailing that their wisest Philosophers who had better notions of the Deity were not able to resist the Torrent and durst not openly oppose the Worship of those Countrey Gods for fear of a popular Rage and Fury Now when neither the Light of Nature nor the Works of Creation and of a common Providence could secure the belief and worship of the One Supream God what remained but for God to make some more sensible manifestation of himself to the world and let any man consider what more effectual way could have been taken to convince men of the Divine Power and Providence than by Miracles especially such Miracles as are for the deliverance and protection of good men and the punishment and overthrow of the wicked When the Corruption of Mankind is such that they will not learn from Nature there is no way of teaching them but by something which is supernatural and when the beautiful and regular and uniform Order of Nature will not convince men that there is a God at least not that there is One Supream God who made and who governs this World Miracles will Those who will not believe that the World was made or had any Wise and Intelligent Cause must confess that Miracles have a Cause because they see them produced and that that Cause is not Nature because they see them produced without any Natural Cause or against the Laws of Nature nor Chance and Accident because they are done at the command of a Free Agent at the word of a man as all the Signs and Wonders in Egypt were wrought at the word of Moses whose word had no natural vertue and efficacy in it to work Wonders And therefore Miracles certainly prove that there is an Invisible Intelligent Cause who if he did not make the World could have made it if he had pleased for whoever can in any one instance act without or against Nature can create Nature too For to do any thing which Nature cannot do is in that particular to make Nature and he who can make Nature in one instance can do so in all and this is a good reason to believe that the World was made when we know that there is a Cause that can make the World And that Superior Power he exercises over Nature proves that he both can and does govern the World for he has the supream and absolute Government of Nature who can when he pleases give new powers to it or suspend and reverse its Laws So that Miracles are a Supernatural Proof of a Divine Power and Providence and no man who believes that there ever was a true Miracle wrought can be an Atheist and therefore it is no wonder that Atheists are such professed Enemies to the belief of Miracles but it is a great wonder that they can persuade themselves to reject all those Authentick Relations we have of Miracles both from the Law of Moses and from the Gospel of Christ which are the most credible Histories in the world if we look upon them as no more than Histories and have obtained the most universal belief Especially this is very unaccountable in those men who pretend to Deism to acknowledge a God who made the World for cannot that God who made the World and made Nature act without or above or against Nature when he pleases And may it not become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to do this when it is necessary for the more abundant conviction of Mankind who are sunk into Atheism or Idolatry when Signs and Wonders are necessary to awaken men into the sense and belief of God and his Providence which was the case in the days of Moses or to give Authority to Prophets to declare and reveal the Will of God to men which was a reason for Miracles as long as God thought fit to make any new and publick Revelations of his Will when it is as reasonable and credible that God who can when he pleases should some times work Miracles as it is that he should take care to preserve the knowledge of himself and his Will and to restore it when it is lost or to make such new discoveries of his Grace as the fallen state of Mankind requires when I say the thing it self is so credible and so worthy of God what reasonable pretence can there be for rejecting Miracles for which we have the Authority of the best attested History in the World But Atheism was not the Disease of that Age which had run into the other Extreme of Polytheism and Idolatry and therefore though Miracles do prove the Being and Providence of God the Miracles of Moses were principally intended to prove the Glory and Power of the God of Israel that the God of Israel is the One Supream God and that he had chosen Israel for his peculiar People and this he did by doing such things as no other God could do such as made the Egyptian Magicians confess that it was the Finger of God and what more effectual way could be taken to convince the world of One Supream God than such visible demonstrations of an Absolute and Soveraign Power superior to all Those who worshipped a plurality of Gods either had no notion of One Supream God whose Power ruleth over all or if they had yet they believed that this Supream God had committed the care and government of Mankind to inferior Deities whom they therefore worshipped with Divine Honours as the Disposers of their Lives and Fortunes and either paid no worship to the Supream God which was the more general practice or worshipped their Country-gods together with him and that with the most frequent most solemn and pompous Worship Now such great and wonderful Works as these which none of their Country-gods could do was an evident proof that
Providence will and can have no effect upon us The Psalmist complains of those wicked men who regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands 28. Psal. 5. And a great many such there are who have a general notion and belief of a Providence but take no notice of what God does or take no notice of God in what is done Most men are too apt to attribute all Events to the immediate and visible Causes and though at other times they will own a God and a Providence yet as to particular Events take as little notice of God as if he had nothing to do in it Such a belief of Providence as this is of no use at all in Religion it neither gives glory to God nor has any influence upon the government of our lives But if we will own Providence to the true ends and purposes of Religion we must not content our selves with a general belief of God's governing the world but whatever our state and condition be or whatever extraordinary good or evil happens to us we must receive all as from the Hand of God If we are poor we must own this to be God's will and appointment that we should be poor if we be rich we must consider that it is God's Blessing which maketh rich if we lose our Estates by Injustice and Oppression we must acknowledge as Iob did The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away And whatever Evils and Miseries befall us we must say with good old Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Or with David I was dumb and opened not my mouth because it is thy doings Without believing God's government of all Events we deny a particular Providence and unless at the very time when any good or evil befals us we see and acknowledge God's hand in it we can have no present affecting sense of his Providence All such Acts of Providence are lost as far as our taking no notice of them can lose them God loses the glory of his Goodness Mercy Patience or Justice and we lose those Divine Comforts and Supports or those Spiritual Instructions and Admonitions which a due sense and acknowledgment of Providence would have furnished us with And therefore let us accustom our selves in all Events in the first place to take notice of God and his Providence which will teach us how to behave our selves in all Circumstances and how to make the best and wisest use of whatever happens and it was necessary to premise this for it is in vain to teach men their duty to Providence till they have learnt to attribute all particular Events to the Providence of God and to live under a constant sense and regard of it 2dly When we have thus affected our minds with a just sense of the Divine Providence in every thing that befalls us we must in the next place take care to compose our Souls to a quiet and humble submission to the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of God in all things All men confess that it is our duty to submit to the Will of God and if all the Events of Providence are God's doings and what God does is his Will as the Scripture assures us it is and Reason tells us it must be unless God does any thing against his own Will then we must submit to the Providential Will of God in all Events as well as to the Commanding Will of God in obeying his Laws The Soveraign Authority and Dominion of God requires this of us for we are his and he may dispose of our Condition and Fortune in the world as he pleases The Absolute Power of God makes it both prudent and necessary For who hath hardened himself against him and prospered that is against his Providential Will for that whole Dispute is about Providence And the Wisdom and Goodness of God makes it both reasonable and our interest to submit to him for all his Providences how severe soever they may appear are ordered for the good of those who do submit to him So that it is our duty to submit because he is our Soveraign Lord whether we will submit or no we must suffer his Will because we cannot resist his Power and there is no danger in submitting to God for he will consult our present and future Happiness and do better for us than we could chuse for our selves This is plain enough but that which I principally intend is to consider the nature and various acts of that Submission which we owe to Providence or to the Providential Will of God and I shall distinctly inquire what submission we owe to Providence under all the Evils Afflictions and Calamities of life and in those several states conditions and relations of life which the Providence of God placeth us in 1. What submission we owe to Providence under all the Sufferings and Afflictions which we meet with in this world I do not mention a happy and prosperous Fortune for it requires no great submission to be prosperous this is what all men desire and chuse but to submit is to make our own Wills and Desires and Fears and Aversions and natural Passions and Affections stoop and yield to the Will of God which there is no occasion for but in a suffering and afflicted state Now when we suffer such things as are very grievous to flesh and blood submission to the Will of God does not require that we should not feel our Sufferings that we should not be afflicted with them that we should not complain of them for to submit to God is not to put off the sense and passions of human Nature it does not alter the nature of things nor our opinions about them Afflictions are afflictions still and will be felt and though we must bear them in submission to God yet we must bear them as Afflictions can be born and as human Nature can bear them with pain and grief and reluctancy with sighs and groans and complaints with vehement and importunate desires and Prayers to God and man to help and deliver us We have frequent examples of this in Scripture The Psalms of David as they abound with all dutifull Expressions of Reverence and Submission to the Will of God so they are very full of complaints and of the most passionate sense of Sufferings represented so as to be felt in such a strain of moving Eloquence as not Art but Afflicted Nature teaches But we have one Example above all others and that is the Example of our Saviour Christ who suffered with Fear and Reluctancy and with earnest Prayers to his Father If it be possible let this cup pass from me The truth is the greater our fears and sorrows and aversions are the greater is our submission to God it may be thought a great weakness of Nature to be so much afraid of our Sufferings but it argues the greater strength of Faith and is a more glorious Victory over self to make our very