the wisdom and justice of God in making such a Law which will appear to you if you please to consider 1. The influence which it hath upon those who shall be saved as a means to bring them to Heaven this appeareth from that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.11 We knowing the terrors of the Lord perswade men as also from the frequent use which both our Saviour and his Apostles make of this argument to deter men from sin and to engage them to that duty which they owe unto God in the performance of which they shall obtain everlasting life and salvation John Baptist useth it Matt. 3.7 Our Saviour useth it Matt. 25. The Apostle useth it 1 Thes 1.10 and in many other places of Scripture 2. Such a Law hath undoubtedly a great influence upon the worst of men and keepeth them in awe so as they dare not be so vile as they otherwise would be I have told you of that Heathen who is reported to have said That if God had not established death by his Law it was yet so necessary for mankind that it had been reason that Governours should have established some Law to have determined mens lives at such or such times The Heathens knew nothing of the Revelation of Gods Will as to the eternal destruction of any but saw such a sanction so necessary for the rule and government of the World that they figured such a thing a place where thirsty Tantalus should have rivers just washing up to his lips and yet he should not be able to drink of them where weary Sisyphus should be always labouring to roll a stone up the hill for which he should never be able to find a resting-place The Heathens saw the necessity of frighting the world with a Sanction for eternal punishments for the punishment of wickedness It is a saying of Cicero Itaque ut aliqua in vita formido improbis esset posita apud infero ejusmodi quaedam supplicia impiis antique constituta esse voluerunt quod videbant his remotis non esse mortem ipsam pertimescendam Orat. 4. in Catilinam That is That wicked men might in this life have upon them some fear of punishment the Ancients would have some punishments appointed in Hell for they saw that without this even death it self would not be feared Hence it was that Origen one of the Ancients though as he had many other errors he thought the punishment of the damned should one day have an end yet as they say he would never openly publish his opinion being aware what a deluge of wickedness it would let in upon the world I would offer it to any reasonable mans thoughts to consider what less than a threatening of eternal destruction could be in prudence judged to bear any proportion to the impetuous lust of rage and passion that disturbeth humane nature Governors affix to their Laws the penalties of perpetual imprisonment banishment whippings brandings burning hanging hanging drawing and quartering we see this is not sufficient hundreds of persons throughout England in a year are cut off notwithstanding these Laws and these punishments It is true some hope of escaping and not being detected may a little encourage but this is not the main they know if the worst comes that can come it is but exercising patience for an hour or two and they are out of their misery I appeal to every considerate persons judgment whether he doth not think that if the aw of an eternal destruction were of the world the world would not be a Thousand times more full of Traytors Murtherers Blasphemers Adulterers Thieves Defiers of all Divine and humane Laws than it is at this day though it be now full enough if they do not think so their thoughts are very shallow and they will be at a loss to tell us how the Christianized parts of the world are more civil and have fewer of these exorbitancies than are to be found amongst Indians and Barbarians if they do think the world would be much worse I would fain know of them whether the establishing a law for the eternal destruction of sinners were not both just and a piece of infinite Wisdom in God Now if it were just for God to establish such a Law I am sure it must be a piece of distributive Justice in God to put it in execution yea and his truth must be also concerned in it he hath spoken it and he must do it for he cannot alter the thing that hath gone out of his lips It is I think reasonably said by an ingenious Author That it more concerneth the glory of God to keep many from sin than to keep a few from Hell The Glory of God is far more highly his concern than the salvation of particular persons Gods Glory is more advanced by the restraint of sin in the universality of mankind than it is hindred by the damnation of any part of them And methinks we might without any great difficulty agree this when-as it appeareth both by our Laws and the daily proceedings of our Courts of Judicatory we agree it to be more for the publick good of a Nation that the Government and Laws of a Nation should be maintained than that the lives of hundreds of Traytors Murtherers Thieves and other miscreants that are disturbers of humane polities and societies should be preserved 3. But this is further advantaged from the consideration That this righteous Sanction of eternal destruction is executed under the Gospel upon none to whom it hath not been a mean before to keep them from it I have told you that as to those ordained to life it is a means to preserve them from wrath to come to hear of it the Ministers of the Lord knowing the terrors of the Lord perswade men and by the consideration and the hearing of these terrors as by a partial mean they are brought into a state opposite to it a state of eternal joy and felicity To the whole of mankind it is a mean to restrain them from sin I now add that these poor wretches who at last drop into the Pit as the demerit of their sins continued in without repentance have or might have formerly heard of it denounced against them as a means to keep them from it and to bring them to an eternal felicity Now doth man judge it a righteous thing having made and promulged Laws to his Subjects telling them what shall be judged Treason and what shall be the punishment of a Traytor and therefore promulged his Laws that they might take heed of Treasons Murthers or other enormous crimes If afterwards they will commit them that his Law should be rigorously executed upon them to the confiscation of their goods the depriving them of their liberties yea and lives too I say doth man thus judge and shall we think it an unrighteous thing with God when he doth not surprize sinners in their heaps of sin but publisheth his Law in his word promulgeth it by Ministers
Vse 1. In the first place let then all men that live upon the Earth praise the Lord but especially such as are superiors and rulers over others and more especially such as are his Church The Psalmist Psal 135.1 calls to all saying Praise the Lord praise ye the name of the Lord and ver 19 20 21. He calleth in particular Bless the Lord O house of Israel Bless the Lord O house of Aaron Bless the Lord O house of Levi you that fear the Lord bless the Lord Blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Hierusalem 1. This observation calleth to all the sons and daughters of men to bless the Lord. We are all sociable creatures and much of the comfort of our lives lyeth in our societies and fellowships one with another either in our family-societies or in our civil-societies or in our Church-societies We should think it a life worse than death to be condemned to live like a wild Ass alone in the wilderness Now there are some lusts of men that would spoil us of all this comfort God peculiarly sets himself against them and makes these the marks for his arrows of vengeance The Jews said of the Centurion He hath loved our nation and hath built us a synagogue We may say of our good God he hath loved mankind for he hath taken care to preserve order in humane societies and severely to chasten the invaders upon the rights of others What an ingagement doth this lay upon all men to praise the Lord Certainly sirs there is a great deal of praise and glory and homage due to God from all men as they are concerned in their several societies There is a great deal of glory due to God from families for his testimony against those lusts of men such as are murtherers and adulterers which in a short time would spoil all the comfort of those societies Certainly every family is bound to worship God and to walk with God But particularly 1. Let Rulers praise the Lord. Let all the Princes of the Earth give homage to him that ought to be served they are more especial marks for furious and ambitious mens lusts Gods Providence as you have heard is eminently seen in preventing their dangers in revenging their harms 2 Sam. 23.3 4 5. Surely then as David saith those that rule over men should be just ruling them in the fear of the Lord their light should be like the light of the morning without clouds God hath not only set them up as lights upon an hill but he hath made his special Providence to be a lanthorn about them that 't is rarely that the wind of sedition and treason prevails to blow them out and then 't is ordinarily for some eminent Provocation of God But I am not speaking to persons in that capacity You that are parents praise the Lord Gods special Providence you see reacheth you and in a great measure secureth you from that great heart-ach of rebellious and disobedient children I know you will say How then cometh this to be the great affliction of many good parents To which I answer 1. There is many a good parent may have been but like good old Ely too indulgent and cockering to their children ordinarily God keepeth up the authority of parents over their children until themselves have prostituted it and in the rebellion and disobedience of their children they may read their own sin and see as much cause to be humbled for that as any thing else as David in the case of Adonijah 1 King 1.5 6. And herein the goodness of God towards parents will be seen that if he doth not upon their endeavours secure to them the duty of their children yet he will not fail to revenge their quarrels against them 2. Let the poor and weak of the earth praise the Lord he hath declared himself the father of the fatherless and the judg of the widows a refuge for the oppressed Psal 68.5 Exod. 22.5 Psal 10.11 How are all the widows and fatherless children all the poor and oppressed people of the world bound to praise and to serve this God who hath taken upon himself the special patronage and protection of them This indeed would be the best use we could possibly make of this Observation relating to the special Providence of God if it might lay a special obligation upon all those who are thus especially concerned to magnifie God as their great patron and defender And how can they praise God more effectually than in doing those particular duties which concern them all in their respective relations or with reference to those peculiar circumstances of Providence under which they are acted I shall add but one branch of Application more and indeed it is not a new Use for it is a part of our praise and homage which we owe unto God upon this Reflexion viz. Vse 2. To all to take heed of those sins which God in his word declares himself more eminently to abhor and in the execution of Providence doth most severely punish All sin is in it self a filthy and abominable thing and the just object of every good mans hatred for should not we hate what God hateth and what hath of all things the greatest opposition to God yes we ought to hate it with a perfect hatred But such is the naughtiness of our heart that we are not so led to an hatred and abhorrence of sin from the intrinsecal evil and obliquity of it as from the dangerous and pernicious consequence of it Death eternal death is the wages of every sin but this being only matter of faith to bold sinners none having ever come from the dead to give them an account of those flames the punishments of sin in this life are those things which most deter carnal sensual men But if men will look no further nor believe any more yet let this lay some law upon us and make us afraid of those sins which I have instanced in being such whose judgment the Providence of God seldom letteth sleep so long as to another life Let this mind us not to meddle with them that are given to change that curse Kings and Rulers in their bed-chambers and are of turbulent and unquiet spirits always plotting and contriving seditions and treasons and disturbances to civil governours it is very rarely that God suffereth their designs to come to issue or their persons to come to the grave in peace 2. What a law should it lay upon the rich and great men of the earth to take heed of violent perverting justice and judgment of turning away the causes of the widows and the fatherless in judgment To consider that he who is the highest doth consider the matter and there is one higher than the highest of them who abuse their power to trample the poor under foot If men be not turned Atheists and have banished all the fear of God from their eyes and hearts it must a little give them law and lay
the holy Prophet Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously 2. There is nothing in the world so contrary unto God as sin is nothing so repugnant to his nature nothing so prejudicial to his glory nothing that he hateth with so perfect an hatred 3. That it always was and is in the power of God to hinder sin God could have hindred Adams fall and all the sin which hath since that been committed in the world Now these things considered that yet God should not hinder sin but suffer men to walk in their own ways and to fulfil their unbridled lusts seems at first view of difficult apprehension It hath been so hard a Chapter to some that they have fancied two Gods the one to be the Principle of all the good the other of all the evil that is in the world they were not able to conceive how a pure and holy God could permit sin The Operations of Providence about sin I have heretofore more largely discoursed Amongst others I have instanced in these two 1. He doth permit and suffer it when he might hinder it 2. Providence doth co-operate as to the natural action though not as to the malice and sinfulness of the action It is most certain that in him every man lives and moves The blasphemer the lyer the profane curser and swearer could not speak if the Providence of God did not in the mean time uphold the natural faculties whose operations are necessary to such actions Now this is that which sometimes startles our deliberate thoughts if God indeed be so holy and pure a God as we have heard he is if he so hateth and abhorreth sinful actions and if he be so mighty and powerful a God why doth not God withdraw that Providence of his which upholdeth the sinner to the natural action while he seeth and knoweth which way the lust in the sinners heart will incline his action I conceive now my text gives some relief to our disquieted thoughts about this particular Why did God first suffer the law to enter That sin might abound that the offence might abound saith the Apostle v. 20. But why should sin abound why did the Providence of God suffer sin to abound That grace might much more abound For saith the text where sin abounded grace did much more abound That as sin hath reigned unto death even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ The Apostle is here doubtless speaking with a great respect to the first mans sin of which he had been speaking in the former verses Death passed over all men for that all have sinned and v. 15. Through the offence of one many be dead and so in the following verses you read of one mans sin one mans offence one mans disobedience c. But yet he is not speaking only of Adams sin for he tells you Many were made sinners and all have sinned and he is also speaking of sin as consequent to the law given which I do not think is to be understood of the law given to Adam and the Covenant made with him but of the law given by Moses and in that latitude I shall discourse this subject shewing you that God in a great deal of wisdom did first suffer sin to enter into the world and still suffereth sin to abound in the world You may take that for the Proposition Prop. The holy and omnipotent God in an infinite wisdom of Providence suffereth sin and sinners to abound in the world though himself be of purer eyes than to behold iniquity he hates and abhorreth every sin nothing so grieveth and dishonoureth him yet I say in infinite wisdom his Providence doth permit it suffering men to fulfil the lusts of their own hearts and to walk in their own ways My business must be to give you some account of the Divine Wisdom in it and to make Gods ways of Providence in this thing to appear unto you equal It is a true saying of one of the School-men Plus est bonum vel numero vel quantitate quod Deus elicit per mala quam quod destruitur per mala Al. Al. There is one way or other either in number or in quantity more good which God fetcheth out of sin than is destroyed by sin We may be confident of this or God would never suffer it And indeed the Doctrinal part of my discourse will be nothing else than a justification of that maxim I shall therefore this day entertain you with a resolution of this riddle much like that of Sampson when he had killed the Lyon and eaten of the honey the Bees had made in the carcase Jud. 14.4 shewing you how out of the eater cometh meat and out of the strong cometh sweetness How out of sin which is the vilest thing in the world the most opposite and repugnant thing to the glory of God the glory of God is yet fetched and that in a proportion to compensate the loss and prejudice to his glory from the sin of the sinner It is certain which Augustine long since said and gave as a reason of Gods permission of sin Deus judicavit melius de malis benefacere quam mala esse non permittere God judged it better to bring good out of sin than not permit sin to be committed 1. In the first place let me shew you how many Attributes of God are glorified by his permission of sin and sinners in the world 1. In the first place it is I think well observed by an acute Author That God in this motion of Providence magnifieth his equity to our humane nature Equity indeed is but a piece of justice But when I come to speak to that Attribute I shall restrain my discourse to Gods Punitive and Vindicative Justice Our great master who hath commanded us to give unto our servants that which is just and equal will much more do it himself and it is said of God He shall judg the people with equity Psal 98.9 and he took it very ill when his people said That his ways were not equal The equity of God required that he should leave humane nature to its liberty man was created with a reasonable soul and the very nature of it had been destroyed if it had been left under a coaction and in this the condition of humane nature had been worse than that of sensitive creatures which freely use their natural faculties and exercise their natural motions It is a saying of Aquinas That it is not the work of Providence in its government of man to destroy its nature but to heal and save it God in suffering men to walk in their own ways doth but leave men to their natural liberty and thus magnify the Equity of God to humane nature But this is one of the least 2. God by the permission of sin and sinners and the aboundings of
would pose the thoughts of any intelligent person I think I do indeed know that some tell us that Christ as to all men expiated the guilt of Adams sin some add also original sin others tell us that is all washed off in Baptism I want one clear Scripture for any thing of this but yet Arminius never denied so far as I have read him that infants have not upon them the guilt of original sin which God may punish certainly if not with eternal yet with temporal punishments for even past and pardoned sins may be thus punished as I have before shewed you in my Observations upon the motions of Actual Providence Every infant cometh into the world under the guilt of the first mans transgression reckoned to him as he was in the loyns of Adam and under the want of original righteousness with an innate pravity and corruption of nature averse naturally to all that is good prone and inclined unto that which is evil Supposing now what Arminius would have and can never be proved that God will eternally condemn none meerly for this sin yet surely he may justly scourge and correct with the utmost punishments short of eternal punishment even this guilt in children which have not actually finned It was Gods threatning annexed to his Covenant with Adam In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Some question how God justified it when Adam lived to nine hundred and thirty years before he dyed Divines therefore expound it by eris mortalis thou shalt be subject and liable unto death in the day in which he did eat he became mortal from that day he began to dye and was made liable to that change Every child assoon it cometh into the world eateth of this forbidden fruit I mean becomes liable to the guilt of its proparents eating and so is liable unto death It is true the Lord doth not cut off all children how then should the world be replenished and stand but yet he cutteth off some for the declaration of his justice as a Prince when a whole City or Province is in a rebellion he will not cut them off all because he will not waste and depopulate a Country but he will cut off some for the declaration of his justice Thus you see this motion of Providence is easily reconcileable to the justice of God upon this hypothesis that children are sinners and under an original guilt and if we could be so confident as some are that none shall be damned for that sin only or that it is expiated on the behalf of all or washed away in Baptism as to all born within the pale of the Church Yet nothing hinders but by the same justice by which God punisheth past and pardoned sins which I have formerly at large opened to you God might yet justly trouble and afflict little ones they might be sick and they might dye as Jeroboams child mentioned in the Text did though vers 13. saith of him expresly That there was some good thing found in him towards the Lord God of Israel Let this be a second consideration to satisfie you as to the righteousness of God in these dispensations But I proceed yet further 3. This motion of Providence seemeth very reasonable and competent to the wisdom of God That he might declare to the world that he is that God in whom all breath he in whom they live they move and have their being If we should see none dye but in an old age we should be ready to think that our candle never went out but for want of oyl and should not understand how much we were beholden to God for every hour of life how much we depended upon him for our daily breath as well as for daily bread Now it is but reasonable that the world should understand God to be the fountain of life that sickness and death do not meerly depend upon second causes but there is a first cause that is the efficient the principal efficient cause of these changes though he useth a variety of second causes he will therefore suffer irregular motions of humours in children which shall in them cause sicknesses and death though they never were surfeited with meats nor Inflamed with drinks He bloweth out Candles newly lighted to let us know that the issues of life and death are in his hand and that the breath of man is not meerly in his own nostrils and it is but reasonable that God should make himself thus known to us as the God of our lives 4. Again this dispensation of Providence is reconcileable to the goodness of God God by this means doth deliver little ones from the evil to come This is the very case in the Text God was bringing evil upon the house of Jeroboam as he threatneth vers 10 11 12. he intended to take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man taketh away dung from the earth Abijah falls sick and dies and this out of mercy to him that his eyes might not see nor he have any share in the evil which God was about to bring upon his Fathers house God gathereth up the Lambs before the storm cometh It is said of Babilon Psal 137. That he should be happy that should take their little ones and dash them against the stones and we read in Scripture of such famines as inforced women to eat their own children Now God often cuts off little ones in his mercy to them I might here further add that God by this dispensation preventeth much sin in those that are thus taken away But I pass on yet to some further considerations clearing Gods justice 5. It is but reasonable that God should do this to punish the sins of the Parents and to do them good It was one of my observations concerning the motions of Actual Providence That God doth very ordinarily punish Relations in their Correlates Parents in their Children and I shewed you the reasonableness of Divine Providence in this motion It was for the punishment of Davids sin that his child by Bathsheba died and the death of it was threatned by Nathan as a part of Davids punishment 2 Sam. 12.14 Possibly God may sometimes do it to abate our affections to our children and that he might have more of our heart and affections as the Gardiner cutteth off the suckers which draw too much from the root and the country Housewife takes away the Calf when it sucketh so much as it leaveth no milk for the pail 6. Finally Why may not this motion of Providence seem reasonable That room might be left in the world The world is a great Theatre in which he hath many to act their parts God at first lengthned out the lives of the Patriarchs to seven eight nine hundred years that the world might be replenished with Inhabitants He now shortneth the lives of those that are born into the world that the world might not be overburdened with Inhabitants More might be added By the death
infinite wrong to God it cannot be expressed how he dishonoureth God there is no measuring the depth of the guilt in sin Sin is indeed a finite thing but it is punished with an infinite punishment proportioned well enough to the infinite wrong done to the Divine being by it Let this be a sixth Demonstration of the justice of God 7. The justice of God in the eternal punishment of finite temporary sins is cleared in this That the sinner hath sinned in suo aeterno in his eternity There is in every sinner infinita voluntas peccandi a will to sin infinitely and without end This I remember a learned Author calleth pessimam adhaesionem peccati one of the worst circumstances of sin That the sinner doth not sin eternally is from Gods quicker cutting asunder the thred of his life had the thred of a sinners life run out to eternity he would have sinned to eternity Suppose one amongst the damned who had not spent above twenty or thirty years in the world in sinning I would appeal to the judgement of any deliberate man whether this man would not willingly have lived fifty sixty or an hundred years and if he therefore did not desire to live so long that he might take his fill of sin satiate himself with his lusts he who saith otherwise must charge God with damning a soul who he knew would have repented if God would have suffered him to have lived long enough and can any entertain such a thought of God If the sinner had lived for ever he would have gone on in his sins for ever then there was in him a kind of infiniteness in willing sin This account of the justice of God in the eternal destruction of sinners is given us by Greg. Mag. I will give you his words in English They who cavil saith he at the justice of God in this speak right if the just Judge of the whole earth did not proceed against men as well for their thoughts as their actions wicked mens sins are therefore finite because their lives are so They would have lived eternally that they might have sinned eternally for they more desire to sin than to live and therefore they desire to live always that they might never cease to sin Gr. Mag. mor. l. 4. c. 18. It is therefore righteous with God that their punishment should never end whose sinful hearts knew no end in their willingness and lustings to sin The sinner hath no end as to Divine Vengeance because as long as he could he would know no term in sinning It is not just with man to punish the intentions and motions of the heart because he can but guess at them he cannot certainly know them till they appear by some overt actions Our Law makes it treason to imagine the death of the King indeed the Traytor is not punished till his imagination be discovered by some overt words or actions by which alone man can judge of intentions and imaginations but to shew us how just even man sometimes judgeth it especially in some great crimes to punish intentions very small overt actions will sometimes serve to judge of the counsels designes and intentions of a malefactors heart 8. The justice of God in punishing sinners with everlasting destruction is apparent by his proposal of an eternal reward to the greatest sinners if they will repent and turn unto him God setteth before every sinner an eternal life as well as an eternal death the sinner maketh his choice he chooseth death rather than life so as the proportion of Justice in the punishment is justified by the proportion of the reward offered in case the sinner would leave his sins and turn unto God This account Aquinas gives of the justice of God in this particular The sinner saith he refuseth and putteth from him an infinite good and despiseth an unchangeable good for things that are mutable Gods punishments are no greater nor of longer duration than his rewards are which are proposed to the same persons if they would have turned from their sins that they might have lived 9. Who can so much as in a secret thought charge God with injustice in the eternal punishment of a sinner who remembreth that God for the sin of man laid a punishment upon an infinite person who was the Son of his eternal love and this the Apostle saith Rom. 3.26 Was to declare his righteousness To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus Now in this we are so far from quarrelling at the justice of God that there is no Christian that doth not adore and admire it what is the difference There God punished an infinite person for a time here he punisheth finite persons in an infinity of time that what they cannot suffer in the intension of their suffering they might be ever doing in the extension of time yea and this difference more is observable God in punishing his Son laid our iniquities upon another here the sinner beareth none but his own burthen and doth but suffer the punishment due to his own iniquity Now if we will quarrel at Gods righteousness in this loading of his own Son with the burthen of his wrath we quarrel at the highest contrivement of Divine and Infinite Wisdom for the salvation of men yet it is much more reasonable to dispute that than the justice of God in the eternal personal punishment of a sinner It is the saying of Nierembergius Illud mihi videtur ridiculum mirari Divinam severitatem in aeterna scelestorum punitione nec intendere infinitam illam justitiam in innocentia unigeniti dilecti sui Quid mirum torqueri in aeternum scelestos pro peccatis suis si passus est pro alienis justissimus Dei filius Qui potuit sustinere sine contumelia suae bonitatis charissimum natum una hora pati injuste multo melius tolerabit aeternis injustos suppliciis affligi justissime Nieremb It to me saith he seemeth ridiculous to admire at Divine severity in the eternal punishment of wicked men and not to attend to that infinite justice in the innocency of his only beloved Son What wonder is it that wicked men should be for ever tormented for their own sins if the most righteous son of God suffered for the sins of others He that without a reproach to his goodness could endure his most dear Son to suffer so long as one hour will much better endure unjust sinners to be tormented with eternal punishment 10. Lastly It is the greatest error and madness imaginable for any soul to dream of mercy in God after the contempt and despising of his goodness and mercy to a final impenitency What is Divine goodness and mercy but the will of God inclining him to do good to miserable creatures This we say is to be found in God and that to an infinite degree and is abundantly seen in his long-suffering and forbearance of them
in me is thy help I Am now come to the second general Proposition which I promised you to discourse upon a little In my last exercise I discoursed to you of the Fountain of Life and Grace which we found to be the free-will of God There is no other account to be given of Gods shewing mercy but because he will shew mercy which is most certainly true as of Gods eternal acts of Grace so of his Acts of Providence as to the dispensation of his first Grace The next Proposition I mentioned was this 2. Prop. That God in his providential Dispensations of punishment never acteth by meer Prerogative but according to the demerit of his Creatures In his Dispensations of Grace and the means of it he acteth meerly from his own Will he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and there is no other account to be given of those Dispensations he sendeth the Gospel to this place rather than another because he will send it he changeth this Man or Womans heart and turneth it to himself because he will shew mercy But the case is otherwise in his penal Dispensations there God acteth not upon Prerogative God there hath a Prerogative for may not the Potter do what he will with his Clay But it is one thing to have Jus absolutum an absolute right and power which we must claim for God so long as we know him to have an absolute right and Soveraignty over the works of his hands 't is another thing for God agere secundum jus absolutum to act according to his Soveraignty and absolute power this we say God doth not I pray observe I restrain my Discourse to Gods Dispensations of actual Providence I shall not meddle with the eternal Councils of God in this case that is quite beyond my Subject propounded It is unquestionable that the punishments of Sinners both in this Life and that which is to come as well as the other great issues of his Providence concerning the rewards of righteous men were set in order by an Eternal deliberation but whether by a meer negative or positive Decree whether upon consideration of sin or no are points I am not at all concerned to interest my self in having all along restrained my discourse to the motions of Actual Providence and certain it is that God in those Dispensations doth punish none either here or hereafter meerly because he will but upon consideration of Sinners demerits Shewing mercy is an Act of Grace punishments are Acts of Justice The gift of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Eternal Life that is a guift and what is freer than gift But the Wages of Sin is Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man must earn Death before he hath it from the hand of a merciful God but Eternal Life must be given him if ever it be his Portion so saith my Text. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self I will open this in two or three conclusions 1. I understand it of all kind of destructions possibly the Text may chiefly relate to temporal destructions 't is Ephraim to whom the Prophet is speaking and it is about a bodily destruction but the Conclusion is general and the Text is well enough applyed by Divines to Eternal destruction all destructions whether of Body or Soul are of our selves yea I take the Aphonimy of the Text to be more eminently true of the destruction of the Soul than of the destruction of the Body A Child may dye for the sins of the Parents Subjects may dye for the sin of their Prince as in the case of Saul's Children that were hanged in David's time and in the case of those many thousands which in David's time were cut off for his sin in numbring of the People The Children of God may be involved in a common destruction and suffer as they are a part of a sinful Nation God may take them off to deliver them from an evil to come as in the case of Abijam the Son of Jeroboam God may punish his people with afflictions of this Life for the trial and exercise of their graces but in Eternal destructions God can have no other end than the punishment of the person and all such destruction is for a mans sin his personal sin 3. When we say that Mens destruction is of themselves you must understand of themselves as the meritorious cause not of themselves as the principal efficient cause God is rightly enough entituled to all the Evil of punishment in the City It is no dishonour to his Majesty to be the Author of his own Judgments which is all that Mr. Calvin or any of the same mind with him have said which hath made some so clamour against them as having asserted God to be the Author of Sin For God to be the Author of punishments is no stain to his Glory but a Declaration of his Justice and of his Righteousness Christ himself shall come as the Apostle telleth us in flaming fire to take Vengeance upon them who know not God and obey not his glorious Gospel God shall say to those on his left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But our destruction is from our selves as the proximate and meritorious cause though from God as the efficient cause It is not from the Soveraign will of God meerly but from the stubborn and rebellious will of Man that any Soul perisheth Divines do say that though God cannot will the doing of any Sin yet he may will that it should be done The Holy Ghost telleth us that Herod and Pilate and the Jews employed in accusing condemning crucifying of Christ did no more than what the Council of God had determined should be done But I say notwithstanding this the proximate cause of mans Damnation is not because God hath willed their Damnation it is the guilt of their own Sins the demerit of their own Transgressions which bringeth them to the Pit of Destruction The Gracious God sheweth mercy and saveth all who are saved by Prerogative by Grace you are saved saith the Apostle he hath the same Prerogative in matters of Death that he hath in matters of Life but he useth it not but there acteth according to his Statute-Law The Soul that sinneth shall dye He who saveth men without themselves damneth none without themselves Men are saved by Grace but they are damned by Sin The wages of Sin is Death Omne peccatum est voluntarium all Sin is of ourselves it must have something of our own will and consent to and in it 3. Thirdly Although this be certain that all destruction all punishment is for Sin yet the particular proximate cause of some punishments is unknown to us I will instance in one particular a punishment undoubtedly a most severe punishment The withholding the Gospel and so the ordinary means of Grace and Salvation from the far greatest part of the world They hear nothing of the Lord Jesus
life and peace A carnal mind doth not onely bring a Soul to eternal death in the last issue of it but it puts a great death upon his Life and Peace I mean his Spiritual Life and Peace It is impossible that the Soul that is intangled in the businesses of the World in a more than ordinary manner should find his Soul either so free for or so strong in the performances of spiritual duty as that Soul who hath less of the cares and business or concerns of the world upon it The Soul of a Man is not infinite in its powers and cannot be with equal degrees of intention employed upon two different much less contrary things While we are in the world we must be conversing with the men of the world and handling the things of the world we must else as the Apostle speaks in the case of converse with sinners Go out of the world but the less the Soul is ingaged in them the less the Heart is set upon them and its intention and affections taken up with them therefore it will be more free as to its spiritual business and stronger in the performance of it Let every one therefore learn that excellent lesson of the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Let those that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as they that possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it 3. Thirdly Be diligent in waiting upon God in the institutions of his publick worship and consciencious in such attendance The Preaching of the Word of God is the great Ordinance of God for perfecting the Saints both as to their number by the work of Conversion and as to their graces by giving out further measures and manifestations of himself to his peoples Souls he createth the fruit of the Lips peace Christians therefore who wait for these influences are concerned to wait upon the Lord in his own way It was Gods ancient promise That wheresoever he recorded his name to dwell there be would meet his people and bless them And considering that although the blessing of Grace doth not depend upon the Instrument let Paul plant and Apollos Water God must give the increase and he that planteth is nothing nor he that watereth any thing yet God dealing with reasonable Souls useth to deal with them in reasonable wayes I do not think it enough for Christians to go to Church and hear Discourses out of Pulpits but to wait upon God under such Preaching of his Word as may appear and approve it self to them as having a rational tendency to the improvements of their Soul in Grace There are kinds of Preaching under which a Christian may sit long enough before he find his Soul quickened or strengthened or improved by them You may remember I gave you that as one reason why some receive more gradual manifestations of Divine Love than others because they have better means than others have or make a better use of means than others do I take a consciencious use of the more external means to lie much in three things 1. In a good election of them 2. In a sincere and diligent attendance upon them 3. In an after repetition of them to our selves and a more private application of them to our own hearts 1. I say first in a good election of them Though Preaching of the Word be the general means yet the Preacher and way of Preaching makes a vast difference in this means and the concurrence of God to all the purposes of Grace is upon experience found to be evidently more where the means appear in the eye of reason more proper If the Preacher ordinarily preacheth not to the understanding and capacity of the hearer or not to the conscience and hearts of hearers but fills up his time with other things impertinent to the Souls Spiritual Duty or wraps up his Duty in such Parables and Mysteries of Phraise and Abstruseness of Notions that the hearer can make nothing of it he can have little hope to profit by it and he will shew little conscience in attendance upon them Our Saviour you know gives this account why he spake to the Scribes and Pharisees and ordinary Jews in Parables but to his Disciples opened those Parables and spake more plainly and intelligibly Mat. 13.13 14. Therefore speak I to them in Parables because they in seeing see not and in hearing bear not neither do they understand and in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of the Prophet Isaias c. but v. 16. Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear 2. Secondly In a sincere and diligent attendance upon them That Soul which will meet God in his Ordinances must in hearing hear he must go out with a design to meet God and he must hoc agere while he is waiting upon God Our Saviour asks his Disciples when they had been hearing John the Baptist What they went out for to to see It is a question we should all propound to our selves when we go to wait upon God in his Ordinances Now what doth my Soul go out for to do what is its end in this motion God ordinarily meeteth his People according to the sincerity of their designs which indeed maketh their attendances upon God seekings or not seekings of Gods Face 3. It lies in a practical application and whetting the Word hard upon our hearts and consciences This is the digesting of the Word this now is a piece of Holiness of great import to those that seek after the further manifestations of God and higher measures of Grace any growing whether it be in Faith or Love Nor is the Reading andPreaching of the Word onely to be attended but the Holy Sacraments also Baptism which we have generally received in our Infancy to be improved And the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be conscienciously attended There is a great improvement to be made of Baptism in order to our Spiritual Strength and Vigour I have handled that in a particular Discourse in some of your hearing and must not now enlarge upon it it is our great error that we make no more use of our Baptism than we do The Apostle Rom. 6. draweth great arguments from it to strengthen us unto Holiness The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is called by the Apostle The Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ The meaning of that I do not understand if it doth not signifie That it is an Ordinance wherein if it be duly and conscienciously attended upon Christ doth communicate the vertue of his death Now I am sure all Christs manifestations to the Souls of his People are a part of that purchase It is true it doth not necessarily work these effects nor is God bound necessarily in this manner to concurre with it he is a free agent in all his effluxes of Divine
But for a good man one that disperseth abroad and gives to the poor Prov. 3.9 10. David never saw such a mans seed begging their bread and 't is no wonder thousands of men grow poor by lending but he that gives to the poor lends to the Lord saith Solomon never any man lost by that lending The great God never yet failed never yet was unfaithful I could fill your ears with stories I will only give you one or two It is reported in the life of that famous Junius Minister in France and Holland he died but in the year 1602 he met with the Lot of many godly Divines in all ages as well as ours and came to be pinched with want and resolved for the supply of his necessities every each day to dig in the Town-ditch But see the Providence of God there lived near a Taylor a young man whose Mother had in France lived near to this Junius's mothers house and being very poor Junius's mother had often relieved her Her son remembreth this kindness and though but a poor man inviteth Junius to his house and provideth meat and lodging for him for seven months I could tell you many and strange stories of Gods repaying Charity in its kind of little pieces of silver given in this kind repaid with an hundred fold even in this life But this is an observation which justifieth it self in the experience of every one of you I shall rather shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence which will be evident to you I will open it to you in five particulars 1. God doth this to evidence his general love to mankind and special care of Providence for the needy the poor and the fatherless the stranger and the widow Justice and Charity are the two pillars of the world all humane society is dependent upon them Justice because as I told you before from Solomon oppression makes the wise-man mad mens spirits will never be calm under a course of oppression hence Tyrants must have constant standing-armies to secure their lusts The Turkish Empire is little but injustice and oppression it could not stand but for his Janizaries Charity is another pillar of the Earth the reason is because as our Saviour told us The poor we shall have always with us Now God sheweth his great love to societies of men in eminent upholding of both these And besides the Scripture speaketh God to have taken the special patronage of the poor and needy the stranger and widow and fatherless God doth this by raising them up friends and it is a great means to raise them friends to incourage them by sensible rewards and that of the same kind 2. It is necessary that as our Saviour oft saith all righteousness should be fulfilled The promises might have a being given them I told you before that the promises made to mercy and charitableness are very many now some of these promises are made for a term within this life He shall not lack saith Solomon that must be a promise respecting reward in this life and so for the threatnings against cruelty and hard-heartedness towards them in misery or that exercise any barbarous dealings towards their brother so that it is necessary God should in this life retaliate such wickedness 3. It is necessary for the terror of such sorts of sinners God himself gives this as one of his ends in establishing the law of Retaliation in the case of false witnesses Deut. 19.16 17 18 19 20. And those which remain shall hear and fear and from henceforth commit no such evil more amongst you The most of men hearing that Adonibezek who cut off so many Princes thumbs and great toes came to be served in the same kind himself are afraid of such kind of Inhumanity 4. Again It is necessary for the conviction of unbelievers There are many sins against which there are dreadful Revelations of Divine Wrath in holy Writ and the Providence of God gives them a being every day but yet sinners will not believe when they see the vengeance that comes upon them that God designs to punish them for their unmercifulness and cruelty to their brethren no all things fall alike to all men and those that judg otherwise are with them in no better repute than as bold priers into the secrets of God and judges of his Counsels God therefore will please sometimes to write their sin in their plague It shall be wrote over the Gallows fifty cubits high upon which Haman was hanged this was the Gallows which he prepared for Mordecay The accusers of the three Children shall be thrown into the same fiery furnace which they had caused to be heated for the three children and Daniel's accusers into the same den of Lyons in which they would have had him perished He that leadeth into captivity shall be led into captivity and he that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword When men see this if they will believe any thing they will believe this 5. Lastly It is also reasonable for the more perfect demonstration of Gods favour to these exercises of grace and vertue Our Saviour faith All men have not faith The most of men live either meerly by sense or by reason The promises of a reward of Heaven are matters of faith A true believer only from these understands Gods favour to merciful men his faith being the evidence of things not seen indeed evidenceth to him Gods love sufficiently Inward rewards of grace are like the new-name given unto the People of God only known to them that have them The most of men are acted by sense and convinced by that mostly for in this cafe Reason will do little God is therefore pleased to reward such persons to great degrees in this life and that in the same kind too that all the Earth may know what he will do for such persons But I come to the Application which I shall dispatch in two branches making it a foundation Vse 1. First for Admonition to all that hear me to take heed of these sins I would have you brethren take heed of all sin for the wages of every sin is without repentance eternal death but especially take heed of sins eminently against charity Take heed of stopping your ears against the cry of the poor God will be even with you you or yours shall cry and not be heard It is a woful folly for a man so to govern himself in his Conversation as if he were not subject to changes it speaketh the man that doth it to be void of understanding and it is a most unreasonable madness for a man to expect that from another which himself would not do to another Abraham checks Dives in the parable for thinking that Lazarus should go to fetch him a cup of cold water when as he in his life-time would not afford him a cup of drink take heed of cruelty of false-witnessing of any eminent act of uncharitableness Remember
not so slow with all but either immediately by his own hand as in the case of Ananias and Saphira Acts 5. or else by the sword of the Magistrate he cuts them off presently and giveth them a sudden recompence of their evil deeds Now it may possibly be asked by some what are those sins or in what case is God so quick with sinners nor may the inquiry be unprofitable for us for because judgement is not executed speedily the heart of man is set in him to do evil Gods deferring judgment and giving day for the execution of his wrath doth much embolden sinners Let us therefore see in what cases God seldom grants reprieves but is very quick with sinners and sendeth them down to Hell reeking with their lusts this I shall indeavour to shew you in several particulars 1. It is hard to name any species of sins as to which God hath not made or doth not make some present examples of his vengeance So as no sinner can promise himself the reprieve of an hour or day 1. In the case of Idolatry which is a grievous sin against the first and second commandment you will find that God proceeded very slowly to judgment for this sin both in the Canaanites and in the Israelites with the Canaanites though they were abominable idolaters God bare many hundreds of years With the ten tribes who were idolaters from the time of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin unto the time when they were finally destroyed and carried away captives God bare with them a long time but you shall find God quicker at another time Exod. 32. The people make themselves a golden Calf Moses comes down from the Mount and findeth them at their idolatrous worship Moses commandeth the sons of Levi to put every man his sword by his side and to go in and out from gate to gate throughout the Camp and to slay every man his Brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbour and v. 28. it is said that the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men There God was very quick with idolaters Blaspheming Cursing and swearing is a sin against the third commandment God as to the punishment of these sins sometimes proceedeth very slowly but not alwaies Look into Levit. 24.10 There was the son of an Israelitish woman that blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed he was put in prison God presently giveth order concerning him v. 14. That he should be brought forth without the Camp and stoned to death presently Sabbath-breaking it is a sin against the fourth precept of the Decalogue God is ordinarily very slow in the punishing of this sin many a Sabbath-breaker goeth on year after year and yet is not punished but God doth not do thus with all The man that did but gather sticks upon the Sabbath-day was stoned to death by Gods express order and command Numb 30.35 Rebellion against Parents cursing them and dishonouring them is a very great sin yet God beareth with many wretches a long time that are guilty of it as we see in the experience of our own lives A wretched Child is a plague to his Parents many years but God doth not always bear with sinners in this case See what a Law God gave the Israelites in this case Deut. 21.18 19 20 21. God ordered That he should be presently stoned to death that would not obey the voice of his Father and Mother For Murther which is a sin against the sixth Commandment I shall not inlarge I shall shew you anon that it is a sin which God rarely suffereth to go long unpunished The Law of God determined present death for wilful murder and the laws of most nations are accordingly and we daily see the providence of God strangely working to make murtherers examples of his vengeance Adultery is a sin against the seventh Commandment God sometimes is very patient and proceedeth very slowly but yet not always sometimes he strikes a dart through his liver sooner God established a law in the Jewish polity That the Adulterer should be put to death Lev. 20.10 Deut. 22.22 and you know Phinehas presently took a Javelin and ran it through an Adulterer and an Adulteress and had an ample reward given him from God for it In the case of theft God may sometimes be very patient and doubtless there are many old Thieves in the world who yet will not escape the vengeance of God at last But God is not always patient with all these sinners Achan was an eminent Thief he laid his hands upon Gods goods God had first seized upon the goods of the Canaanites and set them a part for a sacrifice by fire to himself Achan steals a wedge of Gold and a Babilonish garment God presently revengeth it first upon all the Army of Israel of which he was a member then upon himself and his family who were stoned to death with stones For lying and bearing a false testimony witnessing against the life of another as a criminal who was not a criminal they are sins against the ninth Commandment God is often very patient with these sinners he doth not presently enter into judgement with every liar every Informer and accuser of the servants of God Some he reserveth in the chains of an hard and impenitent heart unto the judgement of the great day but yet with some of these sinners God is much quicker Ananias and Saphira as you know fell down dead with a lye in their mouths and the Accusers of the three children and Daniel were presently destroyed the first by the heat of that Furnace which they had made so hot for others the second by those Lions which they had procured Daniel to be thrown unto But this is enough to have said in justification of my first conclusion That it is hard to name any species of sinners but God hath been very quick with some individuals of their company 2. I find some Divines observing That God is ordinarily most severe upon the first violators of his laws and this is the reason that is given by some why the Sabbath-breaker was ordered to be stoned to death God had newly revealed his will upon Mount Sinai Exod. 31.14 and repeated it Exod. 35. Now God picks out one of the first open presumptuous violators of it to make him an example you know this is after the manner of men who are usually very severe upon the first execution of their laws Ananias and Saphira were not the first that had told a lye but they were the first that we read of who had told a lye in that business It was the Will of God that to supply the necessities of his Church at that time the Christians should have all things for a time common amongst them and it was not without a divine instinct at least that so many of them sold their goods and came
of it I think is that to David which we have Psal 89. from the 20 to the 35. v. Vers 28. he tells him That he will keep his mercy with him for evermore and his covenant should stand fast with him but yet he reserveth himself a liberty to punish him and his seed for sins vers 30. If his children for sake my law and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving-kindness I will not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail my Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips So that notwithstanding the Covenant of Grace for eternal life and pardon of sin and all grace in order to the obtaining of this life and notwithstanding the blood of Christ which was the blood of this Covenant God hath yet a liberty to visit the transgressions of his people even their past as well as renewing transgressions with rods and their iniquity with stripes yet he doth not break his Covenant nor alter any thing that is gone out of his lips 3. Nor is it reasonable that any should fancy that God by the establishment of the Covenant of Grace or by acceptance of the satisfaction of his Son as the blood of this Covenant to make an atonement and reconciliation for iniquity should have barred himself of his liberty to punish the sins of his people or that any who hath accepted this Covenant upon the exhibition of it in the Gospel should be excused from such chastisements if we consider 1. That some of these chastenings are made the matters of a promise Mark 10.30 Persecutions are reckoned amongst Christs rewards in this life Heb. 12.6 7 8. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth c. Thence the ancients were wont to call Martyrdom a Crown and Luther was wont to complain That God would not honour him to wear that Crown Saint Paul prayeth to be made conformable to the death of Christ if the Saints did not fight how could they triumph how should they conquer yea be more than conquerers 2. That afflictions are the path-way to death and death the door into eternal life Every affliction is a blow at the root of our tree preparing it for its fall and if we did not dye how should we live in Heaven We must all dye or be changed or our corruptible could never put on incorruption nor our mortal put on immortality It is reported of Zaleucus a lawgiver amongst the Indians that he should say If God had not appointed that all should dye it had been reasonable for men to have made a law in the case and we read of some Indians who being asked why they worshipped the Sun gave this reason Because it was the Author of death Give me leave to say That death is so necessary and afflictions are so wholesom for Christians that they deserve rather to be reckoned amongst those things which Christ hath purchased for them than such things as he hath purchased them a liberty from 1. All sorts of afflictions of this life are means of grace not so much means of begetting as reviving and increasing grace for as the fire softneth the wax and hardneth the clay so I have usually observed That afflictions make the wicked man worse but godly men better they revive repentance they are times when usually men call sin to remembrance they draw out the exercises of faith and both work and exercise patience Tribulation saith the Apostle worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope David before that he was afflicted went astray after he learned to keep Gods Statutes God while he punisheth his people for their sins doth not barely chasten them but he also teacheth them out of his Law 2. They secondly prepare the Saints for glory and this not only as they restrain sin and tend to perfect grace but as it pleaseth God of his grace to reward the sufferings of his people and the faith and patience of his people shewed in and under their sufferings with the greater glory Thus the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.17 That our light and momentany afflictions work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And thus much may serve to have cleared this Objection that I may hasten to the practical Application of this Observation This motion of Divine Providence in punishing with temporal punishments past and pardoned sins even in the best of Gods People appears exceeding reasonable 1. In regard of the Justice of God The Justice of God having taken a satisfaction in the blood of his Son and been paid a price for the sins of his people will not allow him to punish them with an eternal punishment yet it is reasonable they should not go altogether unpunished that the world may see that he is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity in any I remember what God said by the Prophet Jeremiah to the Jews Jer. 30.11 I will not make a full end of thee but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished You have the same again Jer. 46.28 2. It is reasonable secondly in order to the eternal salvation of their souls 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world It is P. Martyrs note upon that Text that the Apostle in that passage particularly respecteth such as fear God for the case is otherwise with wicked men whose punishment but begun in this life shall be perfected in the world that is to come But I have spoken enough to the Doctrinal part of this Observation Let me now come to some practical Observation shewing you what use we may and ought to make of it Vse 1. This in the first place serves to justifie God in those sore afflictions which we often see him bringing upon his own people When we look upon the holiness of a Job and see him a man fearing God and eschewing evil and see such a person under sharp tryals of affliction we are ready to startle at it and cannot understand Divine Justice in it But God is many ways to be justified 1. Who liveth and sinneth not enough against God to justifie the severest dispensations under which God exerciseth him 2. If he did not yet it is an ordinary thing and very righteous for God to write bitter things against his people for the sins of their youth though past and pardoned Now who hath so passed his youth that he hath not been guilty of sin enough to justifie God in his punishments yea and to make him acknowledg that he hath been punished seven times less than he hath deserved And if neither of these could be seen as a meritorious cause yet God hath a liberty by afflictions to try the faith
the justice and goodness of God and the revelation of his will in Ezech. 18.4 and other Texts This dispensation at first view seemeth not to comport with the justice of God which must give every man his due and recompence to every one according to his work Now the work of the Father is not the work of the Child how then cometh it to be recompensed to the Child much less doth it seem to comport with the goodness of God to visit the iniquity of the Father upon the child and then it seemeth to cross what God hath said Ezech. 18.4 The soul that sinneth shall dye and again Jer. 31.29 30. Every one shall dye for his own iniquity every man that eateth the sowre grape his teeth shall be set on edge But I beseech you observe 1. How ready we are to quarrel with God for what is done every day with men and no man accuseth it of injustice to take away the estates of Children for the treasons of Parents for the debts of Parents c. How ordinarily in war do innocent Children suffer for their Parents yet as to man the law of God is plain Deut. 24.16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children neither shall the children be put to death for the parents every man shall be put to death for his own sin and reason holds much stronger for Gods punishing even with death the sin of the parent upon the child For 1. God can compensate the loss of a temporal life to the child with an eternal life this man cannot do This was Augustines reason 2. God seeth guilt enough in children to justifie his vengeance To man they are innocent yet according to that barbarous custom in war nothing is more ordinary than to take away the lives of children for the fathers faults yet the world doth not much clamour at this 2. The justice of God is sufficiently cleared in this That God never punisheth any for the sin of their correlate in whom there is not personal guilt enough to justifie God in that proceeding Every one in his punishment beareth his own burden though possibly his sin and the sin of his father be punished together 3. Correlates are the goods of their Relations Children are the great portion of Parents so are people the riches and goods of Princes thus Aquinas solveth this difficulty Filii sunt res parentum Thus the learned Rivet saith children have in them aliquid parentis indeed that is something more children are not only the portion and goods of their parents but they are pieces of their parents and their parents are punished in them As David was punished in the death of his first child by Bathsheba Some may say this is something if children were only punished during the life of their parents but how are their parents punished in them when they are dead before vengeance cometh upon the child Answ The fear of it all their life-time is a punishment 2. Is it no punishment to them though dead to have their names blotted out 4. The goodness of God is seen in this That it is a rational means to do good to the parents and parents are often advantaged by the punishment of the children David was so you know If God will say to the child I will punish you and use your punishment to do good to your parents what have we to say to it If we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren as St. John determines certainly if God calls children to it they ought to be willing to lay down their lives for their parents if God impose it upon them Debent parentibus hoc officium saith Augustine Plutarch disputing the justice of the gods he was a Heathen and that his dialect in this particular saith that Physitians use to bleed the arm for a pain in the head and by a parity of reason so excuseth the Divine Justice The Parents have been instruments of giving life to the Children and God giveth Children many advantages for the Parents sake 5. In the mean time if the children be good and holy their afflictions are but fatherly chastisements Their deaths do but remove them to a better life so that they have no wrong not suffering in their souls nor by eternal punishments for the sins of their parents 6. Lastly saith Augustine God by this means doth maintain discipline and keep up his authority and government in states in the world in his Church in particular families Now who shall deny God the liberty of exercising an act of meer Power and Soveraignty if it were no more when by it a discipline and government is kept up in the Universe and by it many greater disorders and wickednesses are prevented Sinners are terrified and the thoughts of the miseries their children may feel for their sins may affright those who would adventure their own skins and necks and souls too I have now done with the Doctrinal part of this Observation I come to the Practical Application of this discourse Vse 1. In the first place this may serve to satisfie us as to the Justice of God in the distribution of some rewards of this life to the worst of men by the rewards of this life I understand riches honours outward prosperity and blessing It is a saying usually imputed to Hierom Omnis Dives est vel injustus vel injusti haeres every rich man is either an unrighteous man or the son of an unrighteous man I do not know but we may say the contrary That every prosperous man is either justus aut haeres justi either himself a good and righteous man or the child of such a one I mean not the immediate child but descended from such a one I will not assert it too universally but shall refer it to your Observation If you see a leud and wicked man growing great rich prospering much in the world observe whether he be not one who like Jehu hath not personally done some eminent service for God so Jehu did so Assyria did so Nebuchadnezzar did he made his Army to do a great service against Tyre 2. If you cannot find that enquire if he were not a descendent from some that had done some such service Jeroboam the Son of Joash Jehu's Grandchild was a naughty man yet the Kingdom of Israel had no such time of prosperity as in his Reign God did not reward any personal vertue in him but he rewarded the service which his Grandfather Jehu had done against the house of Ahab The prosperity therefore of wicked men should not trouble us nor be a temptation to us we should only conclude thus How much more will the Lord reward his faithful servants who worship and serve him in truth and with a perfect heart Vse 2. In the second place This may serve to rectifie the mistakes of those who may be under a temptation to say with David That they have washed their hands in vain and cleansed their hearts
designed Discourse In my first I asserted the Doctrine of Divine Providence against ancient and modern Atheists I opened it in the nature and principal Acts of it In the Second I 1. shewed you the specialties of it 2. Wherein you must stand still and admire it in the depths and unsearchable things of it 3. I directed you how to make some observations upon the more ordinary and intelligible motions of it I am now come to open some hard Chapters in this great and excellent book and to reconcile this great work of God to his most holy nuture and that infinite justice goodness wisdom and truth which are inseparable from it I take it to be a work worthy of a Divine to make a rationale divinorum operum to give a reasonable account of the Divine works humbly adoring God in them yet inquiring into them and that non tam ad mentis otium quam ad cordis usum as Nierembergius saith not so much for the exercise of our wits as for the use of our souls It advantageth the works of God to our souls when they appear no other than reasonable to us and I think the same Author speaketh well when he saith Nullum puto consilium Divinum cujus non aliqua ratio reddi potest nullum cujus omnis reddatur ita inscrutabilia sunt divina opera digna ut scrutemur facilia that is I do not think any Divine Counsel can be named of which we may not give some reasonable account though there be likewise none of which we can give a perfect account so as the Divine works are at the same time both unsearchable and also worthy and easie to be searched out I shall not so much as propound to my self or you to resolve all the seeming riddles and difficulties of Actual Providence I shall only discourse some of them which seem most obvious and readiest to stumble our thoughts and those which I shall speak to shall chiefly refer to these heads 1. The exhibition of the Covenant of works after the establishment of the Eternal Covenant of Redemption and Grace and the exhibition or tender of grace indefinitely to all after the decree of election and the fall of man 2. The permission of sin and so much sin in the world 3. The punitive Providence of God 4. The dispensation of the external or internal more effectual means of grace I shall speak to divers seeming difficulties that will fall under these four heads and at this time begin with the first of these It was one of the first acts of Divine Providence that we read of immediately succeeding the creation Gen. 2.15 And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou maist freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Under that threatning is a promise of life upon condition of obedience as to the Law of God written in Adams heart So to that positive Law given him for the trial of his obedience I shall not engage my self deeply in the question what death it is which God there threatneth to Adam I am aware of the varieties of opinions I take it for granted that whatsoever falleth under the notion of death in Scripture is all comprehended under that threatning In dying thou shalt dye saith the Hebrew phrase which we translate Thou shalt surely dye The threatning mentioneth neither one death nor another but is indefinite and of the same force as if universal and it is accordingly used in Scripture to signifie all kind of death as Ezek. 18. and in many other places and out of doubt there falleth under that threatning whatsoever was contrary to the felicity of Adam in that estate I do therefore agree with the ancient and modern Divines who understand death Corporal Spiritual and Eternal there threatned in case of disobedience and life Corporal Spiritual and Eternal there promised in case of obedience Now hence ariseth a great difficulty there were two great Acts of God with relation to man passed before this Act of Providence 1. The decree of Election by which God had not only stated the number of those that should be saved but chosen us in him before the foundation of the world Ephes 1.6 2. The eternal Covenant of Redemption and Grace By which the salvation of man was setled to be obtained not by working but by believing in him that justifieth the ungodly that is not to be obtained by the merits of our own works but by the merits of Christ imputed to us for righteousness and to be by faith apprehended and applied Now here ariseth the difficulty Quest How it could consist with the wisdom and truth of God having thus in his eternal counsels resolved that there should be no other name under heaven no other way or means of salvation but by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ to propound a way of salvation to be obtained by mens working and obedience to the Law of God especially when he did aforeknow that man would break this first Covenant and no man should be saved upon the terms of it That I might speak something to shew you the reasonableness of this motion I have made choice of this Text in which you have 1. An assertion The Scripture hath concluded all under wrath 2. The end or reason of the thing asserted That the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe A text much parallel to that Rom. 11.32 He hath concluded all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all This Text saith the Scripture hath done it that text saith God hath done it there 's no contradiction in it the Scriptures are the word of God if the Scripture hath concluded all under wrath God hath done it Now how hath the Scripture done this or how hath God done it but by first making man in his own image writing his law in his heart then adding that positive law forbidding him to eat of the tree of forbidden fruit after this suffering him to eat by which not Adam only but all mankind then in him lost the Image of God and all were concluded under sin and to what purpose was all this The text telleth us That the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to all that believe If you please I shall make my whole discourse but a demonstration of this Proposition Prop. That God in infinite wisdom by his Providence gave out the Law or Covenant of works suffering the first man to fall and all in him by the fall to be concluded under wrath My business must be to shew you the exceeding reasonableness and wisdom of God in this dispensation I shall open this to you in five or six particulars 1. It neither was nor could be Gods
at God is an old humour of corrupt hearts O house of Israel saith God Ezech. 18.25 Is not my way equal are not your ways unequal When a righteous man turneth from his righteousness and committeth iniquities and dieth in them for his iniquity that he hath done shall he dye again when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is right he shall save his soul alive When a sinner repenteth and believeth he shall live he shall be saved when he apostatizeth from his profession and returneth with the Dog to his vomit or goeth on impenitently in his course of sin and dieth in it his soul shall perish What then are not the Lords ways equal is not God in all this holy and righteous and just and good O but it is not equal say some that God should offer life and the benefits of the Covenant of Grace to those to whom he intendeth not to give them How doth it appear that God offers any such thing to them why may not Gods offer be only to the elect and others no further concerned than as they are in the company of those to whom such grace is offered But the Ministers of the Gospel who are Gods Messengers do offer life to all that will believe they do so and God will make it good where now is the inequality of Gods ways But why is the Gospel at all preached to those who shall have no benefit by it I answer What if God please to make use of this as a means the better to restrain the lusts of men and to keep the world in order and a temper fit for mutual society But why are they commanded to repent and believe that have no power to do either Had they never a power in Adam If they had surely God may require his debt although they be not able to pay Have they a power to do nothing toward these things If they would do what in them lay would God deny his grace Did ever any soul perish think you that did what was within its power in order to its salvation If there did not why do men quarrel with God their destruction is of themselves Vse 2. What remaineth then but that leaving our disputing with God or quarrelling either with the truths of his word or motions of his Providence all men apply themselves to be obedient to the Heavenly Command The days of ignorance God winked at but now saith my Text God commandeth all men to repent Supposing an election of grace and that not of qualities but of persons Supposing an eternal Covenant and that certain made betwixt the eternal Father and the Son of his Love for those that shall be saved Supposing that Christ did not dye intentionally for all but for such only as were fore-ordained of God to eternal life and salvation Supposing lastly that man in his lapsed estate hath no power to repent or savingly to believe Yet I shall shew you there is incouragement enough for any that will mind their eternal interest to do what in them lies that they may repent and believe to that end I beg of you to consider these things 1. That God commandeth all men to repent It was John Baptists work to call to all to Repent because the Kingdom of God was at hand It was the Apostles Doctrine it is our doctrine and the substance of our Preaching certainly the commands of God are the measures of our duty and every creature by the law of his creation standeth obliged to obey his Creator If God commandeth him to do something which he cannot do by his natural power yet surely he is bound to do what he can do and then to cry to God to help him where he is at a loss God commands you all to repent and to believe certainly none can pretend but he is under the highest obligation imaginable to go as far as he can or else his blood will lye upon his own head and his own Conscience will fly in his face and in the great day he will have nothing to say why the sentence of eternal death should not pass upon him 2. God hath prepared an object for the faith of every soul that will believe This is that now that some keep a mighty stir with that if Christ hath not died for all then they have not objectum paratum not an object prepared for their faith As if the counsels of God or Christs intention in dying were the object of our faith not the proposition and promise of the Gospel that is held forth indefinitely whosoever believeth shall be saved Now what is that which God requireth of man But that he should search and try his ways and acknowledge his offences and disclaim his own merits and righteousness and hearing the proclamation of the Gospel that whosoever believeth shall be saved that he should lay hold upon the promise Is not here an object prepared is not the indefinite propounding of the grace of the Gospel ground enough to encourage a soul to trust God upon his word 3 As thou dost not certainly know that thy name is written in the Book of Life that Christ hath covenanted and dyed for thee so neither dost thou know nor any one tell thee that thou art not chosen unto life or that Christ hath not covenanted or died for thee The Lepers in the famine which you read the story of 2 Kings 7. they did not know that the Syrians were fled nor that they should find any victuals amongst them but this they knew that if they sate still at the entring in of the gate they should dye and if they entred into the City they should dye vers 3.4 Now therefore come say they let us fall into the host of the Syrians if they save us alive we shall live if they kill us we shall but dye It was encouragement enough to these poor Lepers that it was possible they might save their lives by that motion Esther did not know that the King would hold out the Golden-Scepter to her if she went in to the King but she knew that if she did not go in she and her people would all be cut off and that in a short time she ventureth in Thou knowest that if thou fittest still in thy sinful state thou shalt perish if thou goest on from sin to sin thou shalt certainly perish without hope of mercy But thou hast heard that the number of them that God hath chosen unto life for whom God hath made a Covenant with his Son and his Son hath died and satisfied Divine-justice is a certain definite number and thou dost not know that thou art one of that number but thou dost not know on the other side that thou art none of that number thou maist be one for ought thou knowest there is no law against thee certainly this is ground and encouragement enough for thee to make the adventure if God will save thee
moneth in which God may take them The Children by adoption are picked out of the Children of wrath Reservat Deus injustos misericordiae per inducias justitiae God by the truce of his justice as Nierembergius phraseth it that is by forbearing the execution of his punitive and vindicative Justice reserveth unrighteous persons for mercy This is one end doubtless of Gods enduring so many sinners in the World that he might bring some of them even so many as he hath chosen unto life to obtain eternal Salvation But yet some will say why doth God permit such as he knows his long suffering and patience will never lead to repentance let me a little answer thy curiosity in this and shew thee that even in this the Lords ways are equal and his wisdom infinite 2. Whether they well repent and turn or no it is but reasonable that that God who hath sworn by his life that be desires not the death of a sinner but had rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live should give them a time to repent and how should this be if God should not bear with them and give them a space of life If they never were suffered to think a thought how should their own thoughts another day accuse them It is an aggravation of judgment against sinners That God gives them a space of repentance and they do not repent How should God condemn them for their filthy speeches their hard speeches their Oathes and Blasphemies if God should not suffer them to vent these things How should they repent if they had no time to repent If they will abuse the patience of God and after the hardness and impenitency of their hearts treasure up wrath against the day of wrath their blood is upon their own heads God is vindicated in his Justice 3. The permission of sinners in the world seemeth reasonable that if they will not be made better others may be made good by Gods patience toward them and forbearance of them If there were none of these Briars and Thorns in the world how could God teach his people by them Indeed this is one of Gods great ends in the permission of sinners But let me open this a little in two or three particulars 1. God by the exemplary punishment of them for their sins oft-times turns others from their sins It is true God doth not make all prodigious sinners examples of his judgment in this life but some he doth and by it makes others to fear and tremble and to avoid those Rocks upon which their Souls split If I remember right it is reported of Waldus the Father of the Waldenses that he was converted by the sudden death of one of his companions I know that examples of judgments are not Gods ordinary means of conversion nay they are rare instances of converts that are made that way especially where the word is ordinarily preached When Dives in the gospel fancied that if one were sent to his brethren from the dead they would believe and avoid those flames he was told by Abraham they had Moses and the Prophets and if upon the reading and hearing of them they would not believe if one should go from the dead they would not believe Those that harden their hearts under the word are ordinarily judicially hardned against judgments or other means that to the eye of reason seem probable means to change their hearts but are not under a Divine institution for that end as the word of God is But yet to some they are so far sanctified God sometimes goeth out of his ordinary road Besides though such examples of judgment seldom prove sole and principal causes or means yet they often prove partial causes and social means and together with the word conduce much to such a blessed end I have known one my self that hath owned the ringing of Bells giving notice of persons that he knew who probably died in their sins as a great means to awaken him to a consideration of his ways and a change of heart and life whiles his Soul reflected upon the sound and he said to himself what should become of me if this Bell now rang for me if my Soul as this poor wretched creatures Soul were now before the Judgment seat of Jesus Christ Princes the time they go to School use to have their Vmbraes some other person I forget it may be the name they use to give them that they may be corrected for them and their Prince by their correction might learn to take heed of errors The elect of God those whom he hath foreordained to eternal life they cannot die in their sins but God suffers some vile and wicked neighbours they have to perish in their reaking lusts and maketh this a means to awaken them to consider what sin will at last bring them to 2. God defameth sin by a plenty of sinners It is one of the idle pretences men in this age have for their filthy stage-plays that sin is there discredited by the representation of it and shewing the Spectators how ill it becomes men to be debaucht the truth is vertue and sobriety is discredited there for in the debauchery of them our age hath exceeded all Heathens But for those that will see the vileness and ugliness of sin they need not see it in a play in effigy they may see it more livelily in the converse of their neighbours and I doubt not but much sin is restrained in the world by the much sin that is committed in the world the reeling of the drunkard from one side of the street to another defameth drunkenness and the indecent immoralities of others both in their words and actions make sin more abominable to many considerate Souls as they say the fire is hotter in winter by the Antiperistasis of the cold so the heat of love to God and zeal for him is advantaged by the excess of hatred to God and his ways which they see in others 3. There is yet a third way by which the sinners of the world do good to the Saints and that is augendo fidem ampliando patientiam increasing their faith and patience every sinner is a grieving thorne and a pricking briar to the house of Israel and by these briars and thorns God teacheth them as it is said that Gideon taught the men of succoth It was the saying of an ancient writer Nullus bonorum habet inimicum nisi malum qui ideo esse permittitur ut vel ipse corrigatur vel per ipsum malus exerceatur that is no good man hath any enemy but a wicked man whom God doth therefore permit that either himself may be amended or the good man may by him be exercised Thou that wondrest why God permits so many sinners in the world wonder why there are so many rods and ferulars for Children why there are so many whipping-posts and racks so many bride wells c. Assyria is the rod of Gods anger Isa 10.
and night in his Temple Had they not been defiled with sin they needed not have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and having their robes so washed they are elevated in the praises of God 4. Finally We may as I said before be assured that God would not suffer so much sin in the world If much sin did not tend much to the glory of God at last Here may be applied all that I said before in the former part of my discourse on this Argument shewing you how the aboundings of sin conduce to the aboundings of grace 1. That grace wherein man is meerly passive and recipient aboundeth by the aboundings of sin The Apostle telleth us that love covereth a multitude of faults the more faults be covered the greater love is discovered God magnifieth grace in abundantly pardoning and there could not be abundant pardoning if there were not abounding sin a multitude of mercies could not be magnified but upon a multitude of Sin The bredth of the robes of Christs righteousness could never have been seen but for the extension of our nakedness it is the height and depth and length and breadth of Sin which maketh all Saints to comprehend what is the length and breadth and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg that we might be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3.17 18. 2. That grace in the exercise of which we are active is also advantaged by the much Sin which God permitteth Our Saviour telleth us Luke 7. those who have much forgiven will love much and those to whom little is forgiven will love but little It wonderfully aggravates pardoning mercy in the sense of a gracious heart to think how many are grinding at the same Mill of sin that he was formerly imployed in and that he should be taken and they left again we should never fight the good fight so well to the glory of God if we had not many enemies to fight with But I have inlarged far enough in the Doctrinal part of this discourse shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine providence in the sufferance of sin and sinners so much sin and so many sinners notwithstanding the opposition that sin hath to the honour and glory of God and to the purity and holiness of the Divine being nothing remains as to this discourse but to consider how this may be useful to us Vse 1. In the first place Let me appeal now to the reason of every one that hears me whether God in the sufferance of Sin and sinners doth not act consonantly to the wisdom of the Divine being It is nothing but our ignorance and inconsiderateness that can be any temptation to us to have any derogatory thoughts of God for these motions of his providence God doth all his own works in infinite wisdom and it is in infinite wisdom that he suffereth sinful men to walk in their own ways What though he be an holy God This will indeed conclude that himself cannot be tempted and that he tempteth no man but it will not argue that he may not suffer any one to be tempted that is as the Apostle James expoundeth it drawn away by his own lusts and enticed What though he hath a power to put a period to sin every moment yet certainly God is not obliged to do all that he can do but his power as ours also is is governed as to the exercise of it by his will What though sin dishonoureth God and impeacheth his glory he knoweth how to vindicate himself and to recompense himself as to his glory and that many ways from the sins of men True it is that it is from the lusts and wickedness of sinners hearts that so much sin is committed in the world yet it is also from the sufferance and permission of Divine Providence God being directed by his own infinite wisdom to govern the world in this method and thus to make a difference betwixt Earth and Heaven so to order it that hereby the vessels of wrath may be fitted for destruction and his chosen ones by many tribulations occasioned generally from the sins and sinners suffered in the world may be prepared for the Kingdom of God O the height and depth of Divine wisdom How unsearchable are Divine judgments how are the ways of God past our finding out Vse 2. But in the second place let every one take heed of taking any occasion from this discourse to give himself a liberty to sin This is the Apostles reflexion upon this he foresaw the ill conclusion which corrupt hearts would draw from these premises therefore adds Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid he makes it his business in that Chapter to shew that no gracious justified Soul can do so How saith he can they that are dead to sin live any longer therein So again Rom. 3. v. 7 He foresaw that some would say if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye why then am I judged as a sinner Such thoughts are ready to rise up in our hearts why am I blamed for sinning if God hath glory from my Sns Or why should I be judged as a sinner if the aboundings of sin advantage and make way for the aboundings of grace Surely God â—hen cannot so severely revenge himself upon me for sin To restrain such wild thoughts as these from entring or prevailing in any of your Souls let me offer some few things to your consideration 1. Consider first if any good come by sin to the particular soul that sinneth it must be from the abounding of graâ—e Sin doth not of it self or from any particular affection or disposition in it do any soul good God indeed sometimes turns it for good so that a soul may say it is good for me that God suffered me to fall into such a sin Sin in its own nature tendeth to nothing but the ruine and eternal destruction of a Soul it must be from the aboundings of grace if any good come to the soul from sin the aboundings of Divine grace in the free pardon and forgiveness of sin or the aboundings of grace in the infusion of gracious habits by which the soul is made more broken-hearted more humble in the sense of sin more watchful against it for the time to come and careful to avoid all temptations to it The wages of sin is death and the work of sin tendeth to death to debauch and to debase a soul If a sinner getteth to eternal Life it is through the gift of God if by reason of his former sinfulness he now loves God more and be more zealous for God and more afraid to offend God all this is of grace and grace is free Now reason teacheth every man not wilfully to run upon his own ruine in hope that he shall experience the kindness of a friend in such a ruined estate Who will
God to punish wicked men though he knoweth afflictions will do them no good but make them worse hardening their hearts and giving them occasion to blaspheme because of their plagues But we do not only see adult and grown persons smitten of God and afflicted and those as well such as fear God as those who have no fear of God before their eyes but we also see children smitten of God such of whom we say They have neither done good nor evil The Question is Quest How this dispensation of Actual Providence is reconcileable to the justice and goodness of God That which blindeth our eyes and maketh this motion of Providence appear more hard and difficult to be understood by us is the supposed innocency of children they perish oft-times before they come to exercise any acts of reason Concerning the eternal state of children dying in their infancy I shall determine nothing because indeed the Scripture that I know of no-where determines all so dying within the election of grace nor that Christ as to all such hath expiated the guilt of Adams sin or original corruption nor that effectual saving grace doth always attend the Ordinance of Baptism though they be brought under it which yet many are not This is a great secret what God doth with the souls of children dying in infancy But this is not what I have to do with what God doth with the souls of such we see not we have no sufficient means to understand and therefore freely leave them to the good pleasure of God But we see they are afflicted as well as others they dye as much as others if not in greater numbers Shall we say the hand of God is not in this thing Or that their sicknesses and deaths are no effects of punitive Providence or vindicative justice but the meer product of a disordered nature and temper this were certainly to contradict the holy Scriptures where we find the afflictions of children made the matter of threatnings the executions of punishments upon them ascribed to God God by his Prophet threatned the death of Davids child by Bathsheba and of Jeroboams child in this Text see vers 12. The afflictions and troubles of children rise no more out of the dust nor more spring out of the ground than others their afflictions come at his command work at his command bring forth the issues which he willeth them and are punishments as well as the afflictions of more adult and grown persons My business must be to reconcile this motion of Divine Providence to Divine justice and goodness In order to which I shall offer you several considerations 1. Could I assure you that all children dying in their infancy are undoubtedly saved either as being within the decree of election and all of them chosen in Christ to eternal life before the foundation of the world or as having their share in the guilt of Adams sin expiated by Christ and their original pollution washed away in his blood this question were determined and the objection of no value It is a priviledged soul that first gets out of the prison of the flesh into the liberty the glorious liberty of the sons of God Supposing this it would be no act of justice and severity but mercy and goodness of God to cut off our children from the womb and from the breasts to deliver them from the bodily pains and aches from all other vexations crosses and disturbances which they shall be sure to meet with in the world happy thrice happy is that soul certainly that makes but one leap from the womb into Abrahams bosom that takes but one step into the world and the next into Paradise and certainly this is the case of very many Christ hath told us that of such is the kingdom of God if all such be not there as to which the Scripture is silent yet many such are there all chosen in Christ are there There is good hopes of the seed of those that fear God the Covenant of God is with his people and with their seed and how happy are they that can get to Heaven with a groan or two with such a degree of pain and aches as those little bodies can only bear and that before their reason is improved by its reflections to make their pains and miseries more bitter So that as to all such as are ordained unto life the case is plain Divine goodness is eminently seen in giving them so short a passage through the vale of misery and shewing them a far shorter and nearer way to Heaven than what more grown persons must go through much tribulation Now though I cannot assure you this concerning all yet I can concerning many which makes the day of their afflictions and death to be much better than the day wherein it was said of them There is a child born into the world and surely if the Thracians who were heathens upon the prospect of no more than the miseries to which humane life is subjected could alter the common custom of rejoycing at Nativities and mourning at Burials into a mourning at the birth of their children and a rejoycing and triumphing at the death of their friends we to whom a life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospel and to whom the immediate transition of elect souls out of a state of mortality and misery into a state of happiness and eternal blessedness is matter of faith have much more reason to adore the goodness of God in the present determination of our childrens lives than to quarrel at Divine Providence for bringing such things to pass while it doth us nor ours any further harm than depriving us of the little pleasure we take in beholding those pictures of our selves dandling them in our laps hugging them in our bosoms while also this pleasure is embittered to us by a thousand fears and cares and sollicitudes and troubles for with and concerning them But because I cannot assure you this concerning all something further must yet be said to vindicate the justice of God in this dispensation 2. Therefore I say the original sin of children is enough to justifie God in all his afflictions of Children nor is this that I know denied by any valuable or considerable party It was indeed the opinion of Arminius That no person was damned meerly for original sin but upon what grounds none of his disciples have been able ever to tell the world to any satisfaction and it were strange if they should when the Scripture saith expresly Ephes 2.3 That we are by nature the children of wrath that is certainly heirs of wrath and exposed to the wrath of God and the Apostle tells us Rom. 5.18 That by the offence of one man judgement came upon all to condemnation Now when-as all men were by Adams sin subjected to wrath and condemnation and by their original sin children of wrath what ground hath any to assert that none shall be eternally condemned meerly for original sin
more than its own iniquity Arminius I remember telleth us that he can see no reason but that Children may be equally punished eternally for the sins of their Parents as well as the whole posterity of Adam for his sin but certainly there is a vast difference the first Adam was a publick person with whom God made a Covenant for life or death for himself and for his posterity and he had a power as well to have conveyed life as death to all his posterity but surely none will assert this as to any Parent since his time 5. Consider how much comfort there is laid for parents mourning in that speech of our Saviour for of such is the kingdom of God Men that have large Gardens and Orchards have places for slips and Inlays as well as for old Stocks Nurseries for Plants as well as places for full-grown fruit-trees God hath his garden of Grace that is his Church and he hath his garden of Glory to both belong Nurseries The Children of believers are though imperfect members yet members of his Church and they may be heirs of Glory though they go out of this world under age as to any earthly inheritance Yet they may be of full age for the inheritance that is immortal incorruptible and which fadeth not away they will be of age in that Country where is no infant of days nor old man of years The possibility of little Childrens entering into the Kingdom of God yea the probability that the seed of such as fear God dying in infancy are so entred ought to be a wonderful relief to Godly parents mourning upon this account Some Mothers only people the earth with sinners God puts an honour upon thee if thou stockest Heaven with Saints and bringest forth to the kingdom of Glory 6. Consider Thou canst never lose a Child with more hope than in its infancy Some have thought that the death of Christ hath as to all expiated the guilt of Adams sin both the Socinians and Arminians seem so to judge Others think that by vertue of the New Covenant the water of Baptism washeth away original sin Augustine was called Durus pater infantum an hard Father to Infants because he thought all unbaptized Infants were damned by which it seems he deferred much to Baptism but I do not remember that I ever read in him or heard from him that he held that all baptized Infants should be saved if dying in infancy I durst not fix the comfort of mourning Parents upon these foundations But yet this is certain the Infant within the pale of the Church the Child of the believing the true believing Parent especially is in Covenant with God It hath not yet been defiled with wilfull presumptuous sinning we cannot say so of our Children when they are grown up to years A godly Parent can never lose a Child with more hopes of its eternal Salvation than in its infancy 7. Again Possibly what God hath done he hath done in mercy to thee to thy soul that thy affections may be more entirely upon him God knew thy heart better than thy self it may be by such a stroke he hath secured thy heart more unto himself it may be in mercy as to the comforts of thy life Zedekiah could better have followed his Children in their infancy to their grave than have seen them slain by a barbarous enemy before his face Thou knowest not what evil is coming upon the world 8. Lastly consider That for those that keep the Lords Sabbaths and chuse the things that please him and take hold of the Lords Covenant God hath Isa 56.45 promised a better name than that of sons and daughters even an everlasting name which shall never be cut off But I shall digress no further on this Argument 4. Lastly Having stilled thy impatience what hast thou to do but to fulfil the Lords will and ends under such a dispensation Let those do it that are patients under such providences Let us all do it who are spectators of them Are any of us patients under such Providences let us fulfil the Lords ends in them You will say what are they I Answer 1. Submission to his good will is doubtless one thing God by all afflictions of his people designeth to humble and to prove his people that he may do them good in the latter end Such dispensations are the rod of God upon us and his rod hath a voice and we are bound to hear his rod. God is now trying thy obedience Abraham's trial was a greater trial he had but one Child him a Son the Child of the promise God required him to kill him with his own hand he submitted and the Lord accepted his will for the deed Thy hearing the voice of one rod may prevent the Lords taking of another to scourge thee with 2. Humiliation for those sins which thou suspectest to have been the provoking cause of such a dispensation that 's another end which thou maist probably think that God aimeth at Afflictions are to humble us and to prove us 3. God calleth aloud to thee to take thy heart off thy creature-comforts Thou seest what gourds what blossoms they are what shadows they are which thou huggest what lyes thou hast in thy right hand he calls now to thee to fix thy heart and thine eyes upon him alone and to make him alone thy portion to fix all thy delight upon him For us that are spectators of such Providences let us also by them learn wisdom 1. By taking heed of such sins as may provoke God to such dispensations we stand concerned if we love our children to love God and to fear him to walk closely with him the wicked life of a Parent may shorten the life of a Child for that God in judgment may write him childless a man who shall not prosper nor his name out-live a present generation Take heed of those particular sins which may provoke God to such a stroke Take heed of murmuring at the blessing of a numerous off spring and distrusting the Providence of God as to a providing for them Take heed if Children be given you that you do not set your heart upon them Look upon them as fading flowers and such flowers as never fade sooner than while they are worn too near your heart Take heed of sins by which the enemies of God shall be made to blaspheme David for such sins lost his new born Child from his beloved Bathsheba 2. More especially take heed of neglecting your children Neglect not the ordinance of Baptism as to them I do not think that is damnable but I do think it is provocative of God I remember God met Moses in the Inn and was about to kill him for his omission of Circumcision Circumcision was in it self a pitiful thing but it was Gods ordinance it was his Covenant in the flesh with the seed of Abraham We are not upon a Divine institution to say To what purpose is it or what good
the Lord and from the glory of his power and how many are dropped into it who never lived so long nor sinned so much as you have done Do not you think that an High-way-man or some other notorious villain as he passeth by a pair of Gallows upon the road hath many such a cold thought as this How many have perished upon this tree for stealing but a few shillings or some things of little value how often have I deserved the same punishment though I as yet escape Oh that you who are yet in a state of guilt and impenitency would reflect upon your selves and say Lord how many are dropt into the pit of eternal destruction who never lived so long as I have lived nor sinned to that degree that I have sinned yet they are perished and for ever perished yet I live and am out of that pit 2. Consider what an hairs-breadth there is betwixt you and this eternal destruction You see some in a moment going down into the pit some in an hours time some in a weeks time you sleep over it every night you tread over it every day you need not be told how little there is betwixt us and death every day How suddenly do you see some snatched away on your right hand others snatched away on your left hand Ananias and Saphira drop into the pit with a lye in their mouths What know you what this day what the next night may bring forth upon our souls Let me conclude this with an Exhortation much of that nature which Daniel used to that great King Wherefore O Sinners let my counsel be acceptable unto you break off your sins by a true repentance and your iniquities by a coming unto Christ if so be you may save your selves from this wrath to come Vse 2. In the second place Let the People of God who are delivered from this wrath and by grace translated into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ look back with thankful hearts upon this danger which they have escaped They tell a story of a person who being disordered with drink and riding over a bridg where he very narrowly but insensibly escaped the danger of his life coming back the next day and viewing his danger he was so astonished as that he dropt down dead your reflexion upon this eternal destruction which through grace you have escaped ought to have no such influence upon you But from the sight of this dreadful wrath to come which you have escaped reflect these two more profitable Meditations upon your souls 1. What hath God done for me delivering me from such a death Oh how patient was God with me how many nights did I sleep over hell how many days how many years did I tread over these endless torments Oh! what hath God done for me in plucking my foot out of this snare as a brand out of this fire 2. What shall I do what can I do enough for that God who hath saved me from such a death how often might he have thrown me into Hell O Lord I am thy servant I am thy servant thou hast saved me from that wrath which is to come What an engagement should this lay upon us in nostro aeterno to serve the Lord while we have any being Let us therefore go away singing with David We will extol thee our God our King we will praise thee for ever and ever every day we will bless thee and we will praise thee for evermore Psal 145.1 Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquity who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction yea from eternal destruction who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies Psal 103.1 2 3 4. SERMON XLIII Psal LXXIII 12 13 14. Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency For all the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning I Am indeavouring as I have before told you to make the seemingly rough ways of Actual Providence plain expounding to you the hard Chapters of Divine Providence I am still speaking to such questions as relate to distributive justice considered as in the hand of Actual Providence and here also I have already spoken to several things I am now come to the last which I intend to speak to It is the great question which hath posed the great Philosophers of the world and hath made some of them deny the being of God others deny the care and Providence of God or at least restrain it to some particular objects How it standeth with the justice of God to punish and chasten his own people whiles in the mean time he suffereth the way of the wicked to prosper To handle this I have made choice of this Text it is no wonder that the greatest Philosophers have been posed here when we find the most eminent servants of God whose names stand upon Sacred Record at a loss to find out this riddle and finding it a sad temptation to them You shall find that Job stumbled at it Job 21.7 and Jeremy though he humbly prefaceth his complaint Jer. 12.1 with Righteous art thou O Lord in thy judgements yet he must he must talk with God about his judgements in this thing Habbakuk was also something disturbed at it Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to endure any iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is better than himself In my Text you find the man according to Gods own heart stumbling also at this stone you have an account of his fall by this temptation from the first ver to the 16. 2. His recovery of himself vers 17 18 19 20. The Propositions which may be observed from this verse are two Prop. 1. That in this life ungodly men often prosper and increase in riches when in the mean time holy men are plagued and chastened 2. Prop. That this is often a temptation to the best of men to think that they have cleansed their hearts in vain I say first God in this life doth often measure out prosperity to the worst and afflictions to the best of men The truth of the Proposition as to matter of fact is evident both from the Records of Scripture and the whole course of Divine Providence in the dispensations of it as through all ages so in our present age so as I shall not need spend any time in the proof of it The Question is Quest How this is consistent with the Justice Wisdom or Goodness of God that the ungodly should prosper in the world and increase in riches when his people are visited with afflictions every night and chastned every morning I shall add further to make use of the
Lord of life It is a dispensation that hath often put the servants of God into unseemly passions James and John would have had fire come down from Heaven as in Elijahs time to have destroyed the Samaritans Peter was out of patience to see the Informer come with a company with Swords and Staves to take his Master and in his passion draweth a Sword and with it cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest David himself when God offered him the choice of three Judgments desired rather to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men I say it is and hath often been a very sore temptation advantaged partly from Nature partly from some Religious reflections That which in humane nature advantageth this temptation is 1. The disdain every man naturally hath to suffer an injury from one beneath himself when Gideon would have had his Son Jether have fallen upon those two Eastern Princes Zeba and Zalmuna they said rise thou up and fall upon us men have a natural disdain and scorn to suffer from their inferiours we see it in every days experience Now although every child of God is low in his own eyes and in honour preferreth every Saint before himself yet as St. Paul sometimes magnified his office against the false Apostles and counterfeits of his age though he judged himself the least of the Apostles and unworthy of that great Name so they cannot but magnifie themselves in comparison of open profane miscreants that are the scum and off scouring of the place in which they live such as are common drunkards lyars swearers Sabbath-breakers and guilty of other debaucheries the very scabs of the body politick and spots of the Assemblies to which they are united 2. Every man naturally hath a regret at the receiving of injuries from those from whom he hath deserved no such thing Now the People of God are persons of innocence who have done no wrong to their worst Enemies they have loved their Enemies prayed for them been ready to do any offices of love to them and know not how to bear an injury from those to whom they have done no wrong This was that which troubled Davids Spirit Psal 35.12 13. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my Soul but as for me when they were sick my cloathing was sackcloath I humbled my Soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourned for my mother But in mine adversity they rejoyced and gathered themselves together yea the abjects gathered themselves together against me and I knew it not yea they did tear me and ceased not with hypocritical mockers at feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth Lord how long wilt thou look on Rescue my Soul from their destructions 2. This temptation is likewise advantaged from some Religious reflections 1. From a reflection upon the purity and holiness of God O Lord saith our Prophet in my Text thou art of purer Eyes then to behold iniquity How a just and pure and holy God should look on and hold his peace to see a company of vile wretches tearing and devouring his own people this is a knowledg at first view too wonderful for them 2. From a reflexion upon the promises and threatnings of God they look into the holy word of God and find that full of promises of good to Gods People of threatnings of wrath and vengeance to wicked men instead of this they see vile men building up Palaces to themselves upon their ruins and adorning themselves with their Ornaments the houses of the profane furnished and adorned with that which is not theirs instead of the wicked mans preparing garments and the just mans putting them on as Job speaketh they see good and righteous men preparing garments and leud and ungodly men put them on they see the spoil of such as fear the Lord in the tents of leud and ungodly men 3. From a reflexion upon the Decrees of God O Lord saith our Prophet thou hast ordained them for destruction O mighty God thou hast established them for correction they consider leud and wicked men as men whom God by a fixed act of his Will hath ordained to judgment as persons who by the established counsel of God are to be destroyed and they cannot expound the Providence of God into a consistency with his eternal purpose when they see them not only live prosper and grow old but also live by the death of such as fear God and build their nests on high with feathers which they have plucked from their wings From these and other causes ariseth this trouble and coil in the spirits of Gods people Fluctus est Tentatio est as Augustine saith it is a great wave a great temptation and trouble and even Gods own people here are ready to think they see a knot in the thred of providence a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence in the even ways of the Lords dealing Let me indeavour in a few words to unty this knot to remove this stone Four or five things I shall speak one or other of which or all together will make this way of the Lord plain to every sober and understanding Christian 1. How is God to his people more hard or unrighteous in such a dispensation than he was to the son of his dearest love Our blessed Lord hath taught us That the Disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his Lord it is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord Matt. 10.24 25. 'T is true the chief Informer against our Lord was one of his hoshold Judas but he was a son of perdition the only ill member of all the 12. Who were his witnesses but a company of perjured wretches who could not agree in their testimony Who mockt him and scourged him Herod a monster for all manner of wickedness Who were they that spit upon him that cried out crucifie him crucifie him that gave him Gall and Vinegar to drink were they not the abjects of the people Thou art not able to conceive of Gods righteousness in giving thee over and thy estate over to a Renegado an apostate from his former profession to wretches who make no conscience what they say what they swear what they do How was he righteous in giving over the Son of his love to such wretches We are never so like to our Lord and Master as when we are betrayed by a Judas informed against and testified against by false and perjured wretches mockt and abused by the abjects and off scouring of the people If God might be a just and righteous God in suffering these things to be done to the green tree surely he may suffer them to be done unto us who are dry trees Thou art troubled that God should suffer profane scoffers to call thee
I hear some of you saying to me But how should we come to live this life what should we do that in dark and troublesom times we might live this life of Faith Let me give you something of advice in the case and then conclude with two or three Arguments 1. Study the Scriptures and observe the promises reposited in that storehouse for the people of God at all times and for all sorts of mercies The promises are those words by which men live The Scripture is a rich Store-house of mercy it is full of promises promises for this life and that which is to come there is in them a salve for every sore and this is well worth a Christians observation to see how God in his word hath fitted him with a plaister for every wound when thou findest the promises respecting thy state in particular indeavour to whet them upon thy heart It is a metaphor which God useth as to his precepts Deut. 6. and as it is the duty of a Child of God to whet the Precepts upon his heart to engage and quicken him to obedience so it is his duty to whet the promises upon his soul for his consolation The Scripture is full of comfortable words O be not ignorant of them it is a large and full store-house O be acquainted with it 2. Learn to live upon God in prosperity and fulness The Soul that maketh the Lord its portion in a time of prosperity and fulness will scarce be to seek in a day of emptiness and adversity Our too much living upon the creature while we have it will hinder our wholly living upon God when we want it Take heed of living too much upon your creature-enjoyments when you have them learn in the greatest affluence of the creatures in the greatest overflowings of your cup to live upon God and to say of them This is not my portion Saint Paul had his heart crucified to the world and dyed daily O how hard doth the Soul find it to live upon God in an evil time that hath not learned to live upon God in a good day and while it goeth well with him as to outward enjoyments You that are at ease in the world and do not know the evil that others meet with learn this lesson before the evil day cometh upon you and surpriseth you Learn to live upon God before you have nothing else but a God to encourage your self in 3. Observe the practice and experience of the Saints of God David lived by faith when he had nothing in the world left him he encouraged himself in his God Job lived by faith when he said Though he kills me yet I will put my trust in him Say to your Soul my Soul why should not I go and do likewise Why should I not do as David and Job did I have the same promise the same power truth and goodness of God to trust to and to live upon which any of the Servants of God have formerly had 4. Call thy heart off its disquietments indeavour to convince thy self of the sinfulness of them there is much in this as to one that is a true Christian if one that is a Child of God can effectually perswade himself that it is his sin to have his heart dead in an evil day to have his heart dejected because the Providence of God bloweth a cross upon him it will go a great way with him to command his heart off its disturbance Thus doth David Psal 42.11 why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me trust still in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God 5. Lastly strengthen your hearts with a resolution to trust in God though he killeth me saith Job I will put my trust in him See what David doth Psal 55. He had been bitterly complaining of the prosperity of the wicked and his own afflicted state in the close of the Psalm he cometh to give both himself and others good counsel v 22.23 Cast thy burthen upon the Lord he shall sustain thee he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved But thou O God shalt bring them down into the Pit of destruction bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days but I will trust in thee I have done with this discourse when I have commended this life of faith to you by two or three arguments 1. It is a life in death light in darkness strength in weakness comfort in misery the Soul that can live this life is a great conquerour over tribulation anguish persecution famine nakedness peril Sword yea it is more than a Conquerour Rom. 8.35 You shall see how it is with a Christian which hath learned to live the life of faith 2 Cor. 8.9 he may be troubled on every side but he will not be distressed he may be perplexed but he will not be in despair he may be persecuted but he will not be forsaken cast down but he will not be destroyed is not this a rare life A persecutor may take away the life of nature from a Christian but he cannot deprive him of his life of faith faith will keep the head of a Christian above water in the greatest deeps of trouble and affliction Read Heb. 11. and observe in how many difficulties in how many deaths that noble army of Martyrs lived by virtue of faith Yea and they lived well and cheerfully as you will find there Our Saviour adviseth his disciples to lay up for themselves treasure in Heaven where no moth came to corrupt no thieves to break through or steal Is it not an excellent thing for a Christian to have a life beyond the gun shot of a persecution beyond the mercies or cruelties of bloody wretches The life of faith is such as makes a man post funera vivere nay in funere vivere to live when he is dying Paul was in deaths often yet lived by fatih he saith of himself and others of the servants of God that they were killed all the day long yet they lived still they lived by faith The life of faith cannot be taken away by any evil hand No nor can the comfort and sweetness of it be touched or empaired by the Sons of Belial 2. It is a distinguishing life The unbeliever may live the life of a beast which is the life of a beast he may live the life of a man which is the life of reason but notwithstanding this he may perish for ever but he that liveth the life of faith shall not perish he who liveth this life shall live for ever 3. Lastly It is a free and independent life We account in the world that that man liveth the best life that liveth the freest life in least dependency upon others Hence we do not account the life of a Beggar or a Servant or a Child so good a life as the life of him that lives upon none but upon what he
confess to be the supream and most free agent the liberty which we will yet claim and challenge for our selves Nor is this more unreasonable pride and arrogance than it is folly and Vanity It is searching for a bottom in an Abyss searching for a cause Antecedent to the first cause God they say from all Eternity foresaw that such and such would believe would obey would incline their hearts to his Testimonies it must be then certain that that they would do so God could have no certain knowledg of that of which there was no certainty Now I would fain understand whence this certainty should be otherwise than from the will of God determining their wills to these certain good inclinations more than the wills of others all others have Souls reasonable Souls as well as they whence is it that their Souls incline to that which is good and the wills of others to that which is evil Surely to will and to do are both from God Thus vain Man would be wise when as he indeed is but like a wild Asses Colt Proud men torture themselves in vain to find out a principle of good and of life in themselves And how unreasonable a thing is it to charge God with unrighteousness upon this hypothesis Shall a man be master of his own favours who is yet a debtor to the Law of God and under an obligation to do good to all because God hath so commanded him and shall not God who cannot in any wise become a debtor to his Creature farther than he is so made by his own Covenant and promise Shall it be a reasonable thing for a Man to say I will be kind to such a one because I will and doth he think he is not further to be accountable to his fellow Creature And shall not the Soveraign Lord of Heaven and Earth say I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and because I will have mercy but Man shall for it call him before the Tribunal of his own Reason Vse 2. In the second place what reason have we who are made partakers of this mercy of God which bringeth salvation to adore admire and be thankful to him for it Now this concerneth either all of us in general or else some particular Souls 1. Let us first consider this so far as it respecteth all of us whosoever liveth within the pale of the Church under the preaching of the Gospel may see reason 1. To adore and admire the goodness of God towards them 2. To tremble and fear lest we be found unprofitable under the means of grace The Apostle propoundeth the question concerning the Jews Rom. 3.1 2. What advantage then hath the Jew above the Gentiles Or what profit is there of Circumcision He answereth Much every way because unto them are commited the Oracles of God Whether the Gospel in the preaching of it be a sufficient means of Salvation having such a constant operation of the Spirit attending it that if men will they may believe and be saved and the ministration of the Spirit be little differing from the ministration of the Gospel and inseparable or at least never separated from it though affirmed by some may be justly doubted But that it is a great and high means of Salvation and there is no man living under the faithful and powerful preaching of it but if he misseth of Life and eternal happiness it will be his own fault and the proximate cause of damnation will be in himself I do not doubt Now God hath not dealt thus with every Nation O consider how many Nations and People there are in the World who never heard of Christ amongst whom the joyful sound of the Gospel did never come People that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death whom the day-star from on high did never yet rise upon Doth any say But what good doth the Gospel or how is the preaching of the Gospel such a mercy if God doth not give unto them that are under the sound of it effectual Grace so as their hearts are changed upon the preaching of it and they converted and eternally saved I answer The Apostle thought it a mercy and no small mercy that the Jews had the Oraeles of God committed to them to them and not to other People yet for all this it is most certain That there were many amongst the Jews who kept not the Laws Statutes and Ordinances of God the Jews might have said the same thing yet Moses crieth out Deut. 4.8 What Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord your God is to you in all things That hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous Again as I have oft told you though I dare not say with some That all men sitting under the sound of the Gospel have a sufficiency of grace given them that if they will they may turn unto God and live yet I do think that there is such a sufficiency of Light and means that if men will do what in them lies God will not be wanting to them in his effectual Grace Men shall never have this to say Lord I did what was in my power to do I would have repented believed but thou deniedst me that Grace which was necessary to it Now herein appeareth the greatness of the Grace of the Gospel The Heathen walk in darkness and in the shadow of Death they have not a sufficient Light to guide their feet into the way of Peace But where the Gospel is Preached there a great Light shineth a Light sufficient to direct men into the way of Life But 2. This looketh dreadfully upon all those who wilfully shut their eyes against Gospel-light and stop their Ears against this joyful sound This saith our Saviour is the condemnation that when Light is come into the World men love Darkness more than Light because their deeds are evil Matth. 11. Our Saviour upbraideth the Cities where his mighty works had been done and his Gospel preached Capernaum and Bethsaida he saith they had been lifted up to Heaven but they should be thrown down into Hell that it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah yea for Tyre and Sydon in the day of judgment than for them when the Gospel hath been long in a place faithfully preached it is much to be feared that God hath had mercy in that place upon as many Souls of that Age as he will have mercy But this is but a Digression we have reason to adore God for his free mercy to us in giving us the Gospel the faithful and powerful preaching under the Gospel many may and do perish but where the Gospel comes not there is no hope Now whence is it that the rain of the Gospel falleth upon one City not upon another Upon one Country not upon another That some Nations have not so much as the sound of it the feet of them which bring the glad tidings of Peace come not amongst them
for his not repenting not believing according to his Word Is there any unrighteousness with God in this case more than in the Fathers dealing with the Child upon the former Supposition What pretence is there for it The Sinner you will say could not repent could not believe without the special Grace of God which was never given him No more could the Child buy those things the Father willed it to have and come before him with unless the Father first gave it mony the Child had no mony of its own But the Child might have left its play it might have read and heard the Word he might have come to God by Prayer and begg'd of him a soft and contrite heart and a believing heart he had power to do all this and had he done this God had not been wanting to him in his further Grace To him that hath shall be given saith our Saviour that is to him that hath and useth and proveth what Gifts and Graces he hath as he ought to do shall be given more Grace But this the poor wretch hath not done but dieth an hard-hearted an impenitent and unbelieving wretch what unrighteousness is there with God in his condemnation he perisheth in his own iniquity his blood is upon his own head his damnation lieth at his own door his destruction is of himself his help might have been from God if he had not been wanting to himself O sinful men are not the Lords ways equal Yes yes they are our own ways that are unequal the straight ways of the Lord are only made crooked by our idle fancies our proud hearts and corrupt reasons and foolish misprisions Vse 4. In the last place let me apply this discourse by way of Exhortation it will afford matter of Exhortation 1. To the people of God 2. To the men of the World those I mean that are not yet converted unto God 1. To Gods People 1. To you it speaketh to make you more afraid of sin for the time to come Sin in Scripture is ordinarily resembled by sickness and a disease Now what is true of sickness is true of Sin every sickness is not unto death but every sickness hath something of death in it it leadeth to the Grave it is not the last stroke at the giving of which the Tree falleth but it is a blow in order to the fall of it Every sin doth not bring forth death yea as to you No sin shall bring forth death because Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ but every sin hath something of the nature of a self-ruining and destruction in it The wages of every sin is death the natural tendency of every sin is unto death It is the Gift and Free-Grace of God that as to you prevents it and although your sins do not bring forth an Eternal ruine and destruction to you because the Blood of Christ and the Intercession of Christ hath prevented and will prevent that yet your sins may bring forth many lesser deaths to you for them you may be in deaths often for them there may be a death of your peace and comforts as there are no temporal Evils which sin may not bring upon the people of God so there are few spiritual Evils on this side of Hell to which it doth not subject them So that although you be not under the danger of an Eternal ruine yet you are under the danger of so many deaths so many destructions as may justly lay a Law upon you and make you afraid of sinning against God 2. But Secondly This calleth to all of you to admire the Divine Grace by which you are saved I hope it is the portion of many of you to whom I am speaking you are not yet got up to the new Hierusalem but you are in the right way that leadeth thereunto O cry Grace Grace unto the hand which set you upon that Shore It is true of you you also by sin had destroyed your selves by Grace you are saved you were once Fire-brands as well as any others are you now brands pluckt out of the Fire It was the hand of Grace that pluck'd you out You hath he quickned saith the Apostle Ephes 2.1 who were dead in Trespasses and sins Amongst whom also we had our conversation of old according to the Lusts of the Flesh you also were once acted by the Prince of the Air who yet worketh in the Children of Disobedience and were by Nature the Children of Wrath as much as others It is a sweet though in some sence a bitter meditation to cast a thought back and think Lord How had I also destroyed my self How near was I going to the Pit of Eternal ruine and destruction Nay how often yet is our Salvation from God We are every day destroying our selves we lye down with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Morning and rise up every day with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Evening By Grace we are saved 2. But Secondly let me speak to those which can have no such good hope through Grace They yet are in their natural State and condition in the Gall of bitterness and in the very bands of iniquity Sirs it is that which I have often told you and I wish the sound of it may never be out of your Ears you are Creatures ordained to Eternity when you dye you dye not like brute-Beasts Death will not determine your beings you shall be either Eternally happy or Eternally miserable All that I have to say to you is to plead with you that you would not ruine your selves and let me tell you that if ever you perish it must be because you have destroyed your selves Do not fright your selves with thoughts of Gods eternal decrees secret things belong to God revealed things to us Whatever Gods secret counsels and purposes be this is his revealed will The Soul that sinneth and that alone shall dye Trouble not your selves with any such thoughts as these If I be not elected do what I will I shall be damned If God hath cast me off I shall labour in vain It is the Sluggard saith Solomon which saith There is a Lion in the way We cannot ascend up into Heaven to search Gods Books there is no need of it The Word is near us even in our mouths that telleth us that God never destroyeth any Soul but the meritorious cause of it is in himself and this we know that all sin is voluntary O then take heed of destroying your selves by wilful and presumptuous sinning against God Nature teacheth every Man to look to himself as to his Life Health Estate and shall not our reasonable Nature instructed by the Word of God prompt us to take care of our selves as to our Eternal Interest You will say unto me what shall we do that we may not de destroyed for who liveth and sinneth not against God I have before told you that
in Scripture I find three Answers to this Question The one is that of St. Peters Acts 2.31 Repent and be Baptized another is that of St. Paul Acts 16.31 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved The other is that of our Saviour to the young Man asking him What good thing he should do that he might inherit Everlasting Life Saith our Saviour Keep the Commandments Those three Texts will give you compleat directions 1. Keep the Commandments You will reply but you tell us that no Man is able to keep the Commandments but because you cannot do all which God doth require can you do nothing Well but you will say Shall we be saved if we do all that we can to keep the Moral Law I Answer No What then 2. St. Peter tells you Acts 2.38 Repent and be Baptized you will reply but it is God who must give repentance unto life True we say God must change the heart the Blackamore cannot change his skin nor the Leopard his spots But cannot you consider your sins Cannot you turn from open sins Do what in you lieth in order to your Repentance Well but you will say If we do this Is this enough I Answer No What then 3. St. Paul telleth you Act. 16. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved Still you will say But is not Faith the gift of God Have we a power to believe We Answer No It must be given to men on the behalf of Christ to believe But cannot you read the Word of God Cannot you come and hear the Word preached When you have heard it Cannot you meditate therein Cannot you apply your souls to the Word though it be Gods work to apply the Word to your souls and make it to dwell in you Cannot you beg of God a power to believe God will not be wanting to that soul that is not first wanting to it self The difference betwixt us and the bold Patrons of free-will lies here They hold that a man hath a natural power and ability to actions formally and spiritually good This we deny but yet say That man hath a power to actions that are morally and materially good and if he would go about as far as his Natural power would help him though indeed he could merit nothing at the hand of God We do not believe that God would be wanting to him as to habits of spiritual and effectual grace Now this is that which I am pleading with you for that you might not destroy you selves 1. That you would not give your self a liberty and let your selves loose to do things contrary to the Law of God wherein you might restrain your selves 2. That you would not neglect to do those things which God requireth of you and which are in your power to do I shall conclude this but with Two very weighty considerations 1. No punishment is more justly and smartly inflicted than that which a man hath chosen and wilfully brought upon himself when a man hath chosen death rather than life and judged himself unworthy of everlasting life and despised his own mercy certainly every man must say he is justly punished and adjudged to that portion which he hath chosen to himself 2. Secondly As no punishment is so justly and smartly inflicted so none is more intolerable to be born There will be in Hell another fire which shall never go out but this will be the worm that shall never die I have done and shall shut up my Discourse with the words of Moses I have this day set before you life and death blessing and cursing I have told you which way you must go down into the pit of destruction if ever you come there you must of your selves go into it O let not your destruction be of your selves especially considering what God hath done and what he is daily doing to evidence that in him is your help if you will apply your selves unto him SERMON LI. Rom. 2.12 For as many as have sinned without the Law shall also perish without the Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law THE business I am upon as you know is the expounding some hard Chapters in the Book of Divine Providence I am upon the last head upon which I propounded to speak to some appearing difficulties viz. Gods unequal dispensations of Grace whether such as are more common or such as are more special and saving as a basis to this Discourse I have premised and handled Two preliminary Propositions 1. Prop. That God in the dispensations of his grace acteth by Prerogative in a way of Soveraignty freely and unaccountably 2. Prop. That in his paenal dispensations of this nature he never proceedeth but justly upon the previous demerits of sinners I now come to speak to some Questions relating to these dispensations of Divine Providence The Two first of this nature which I shall speak to relate to Gods unequal distributions of common grace but such as are spiritual means in order to the obtaining of special and effectual grace and his unequal distributions of special and effectual grace without which none can be saved I shall put both these together and for a short Discourse upon these I have made choice of this Text. The business of the Apostle in this excellent Epistle is to establish the great Doctrine of the Gospel concerning the Justification of the soul before God by the righteousness of Christ on Gods part imputed and reckoned to sinners and on mans part apprehended and applied by Faith in opposition to the Doctrine of the Doctors of the Jews who held the Justification of the Soul by the works of the Law In opposition to whom he had laid down his grand Proposition Rom. 1.17 That the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith That is That righteousness wherein a Soul another day must stand just and righteous before God is not a righteousness of our own arising from our performance of the Law but the righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel which is apprehended and made ours by Faith His first Argument by which he proveth this is obvious to any considerate Reader If any be justified by works they must either be the Gentiles or the Jews but neither are the works of the Gentiles such as will justifie them Nor are the works of the Jews such as will justifie them As to the Gentiles he proveth at large Chap. 1. That their works were such as were so far from Justifying them That the wrath of God was revealed against them for the wrath of God is revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and as he at large sheweth the works of the Heathen were works of most notorious ungodliness and unrighteousness and therefore could not possibly justifie them So in this Chapter he proveth that the works of the Jews were not such as could justifie them before God for though they condemned
the meritorious cause If indeed God did either condemn any righteous person or were any way obliged to give out effectual grace to all and did not this indeed would argue unrighteousness with God but he doth neither of these his wrath will indeed one day be revealed against them to whom Christ and his Gospel were never revealed to whom grace sufficient to bring them to Heaven and Eternal life was never given but it shall never be revealed but as the Apostle saith against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men now certainly God cannot be unrighteous in punishing unrighteousness or ungodliness If God indeed were a debtor for his grace to his creature he might be charged with unrighteousness if he did not give it out but he doth not deal out death and destruction but as a wages nor Salvation and Eternal life but as free gift Who asketh a reason why August Caesar did not bestow gifts upon all his Courtiers in proportion with those bestowed on Maecenas We may say of God as to all his dispensations of grace Placuit hoc satis est ubi non aliud jus aut ratio ipsa voluntas jus ratio est that is It so pleased God that is enough where there is no other right or reason the very will of God is Law and reason enough Besides if the distributions of Divine grace were equal how should God to any shew forth the riches of his Grace Let me but acquaint you with a passage of Augustine upon this Argument Doest thou ask saith he why grace is not given to all according to desert I answer because God is merciful you will say Why is not God merciful to all I answer saith he because he is just In this saith he that grace is given freely he sheweth what grace doth and worketh in those to whom it is given Let us not therefore be unthankful to God that according to the good pleasure of his will and for the praise of the glory of his grace he hath delivered us from so great a death whereas if he should deliver none yet he would not be unjust Let him therefore who is delivered love grace let him who is not delivered acknowledg justice if Divine goodness be understood in remitting the debt Justice also may be understood in exacting of it no way is there any iniquity found with God But you will say then Why is there in the case of Infants yea of Twins such a difference Is it not saith he the like Question why in a diverse cause there is the same judgment and the Workmen in the Vineyard who wrought the whole day had but a Penny as they had who had wrought but one hour The Case was different the judgment the same they murmured what saith the Master of the Vineyard to them Volo I will make the last like unto the first Thus because bounty was shewed to some there was no iniquity toward others so far as respecteth Justice and Grace As to the guilty person that is saved God saith I will As to others he saith Take what is thy own and go thy way I will give unto this man that which I do ow unto him Is thine eye evil because mine is good If he shall say and why not unto me Here he shall hear Who art thou who disputest with God Whom thou findest as to one man a bountiful giver as to another a just exactor as to none at all unjust for whereas he should be just if he should punish both he that is saved hath indeed reason to give thanks he that is damned hath no cause to find fault I wish all those who so talk of Fathers would shew us that they were the Children of this ancient Father to whom that name is usefully given But I come to the Application of this discourse 1. Vse In the first place let this Caution you against an hasty listing your selves in the Number of those who so cry up Vniversal grace and a sufficiency of the means of grace for all both the means of purchase and of Application I must confess it is a plausible point and appears to us very pleasing as well as reasonable that God should not punish any nor condemn any to whom he hath not given a sufficiency of grace and assistances in order to their Salvation but as smooth and plausible as it appeareth take heed of too hasty imbracing it it leadeth to strange notions in Divinity as you may partly learn from this discourse the maintaining ordinatam sufficientiam an ordained sufficiency for we are not now speaking of the value of the merits of the blood of Christ in it self in the Death of Christ for all those who shall perish as well as for those who shall be saved it will lead you either to deny that Christ's death was any purchase at all or to affirm that Christ purchased a possibility for some to be saved but under an impossible condition let it be Natural or Moral the absurdity is the same for so it must be if there were an Eternal Election or except man hath a power of himself to repent and believe c. And the maintaining of a sufficiency of grace given to all for the Application of Salvation will lead you to maintain That there is a Salvation may be had without a Christ That the Heathens may be saved by the light of Nature And that any Christians may be saved without any special operation of the Spirit of grace indeed without any grace at all taken in a strict and proper sence Doctrines of that consequence that although it may be possible that those who hold such things may be saved as having some further work of God upon their hearts than they understand and will own yet I fear it will be found impossible that any who have tasted the grace of God no further should ever come in the Kingdom of God Let not therefore the smoothness and plausibility of such notions in the sound of them deceive any of you for it is but a sound and no more And if the consequences of those notions be throughly considered and examined they will be found at last to bottome in such strange notions and apprehensions of the Nature of God as do no way sute the perfect nature of the Divine and Supreme being and what the Scripture revealeth concerning God yea and the very light of Nature and natural reason will evince it to us upon the Hypothesis of Gods being the first and Supreme being and the Fountain of all good and the Lord Jesus Christ's being Eternal God and equal with the Father 2. Vse This discourse calleth once more aloud unto all To walk up to the light which they have Though we deny that God giveth unto all yea that he giveth to any unless such as are ordained unto life a sufficiency of grace and gracious assistances in order to their eternal Salvation yet we say God granteth to all though in very different degrees
the seventh part of our time which the Fourth Commandement hath consecrated so as those under a different perswasion in this thing are under a necessity of breaking Communion in solemn acts of Worship with all Churches and this is very sad and uncomfortable Study to be rooted and grounded in every Truth though every Proposition of Truth be not of that value as to break Unity and Peace for yet there is not any but is worth searching and inquiring after but if after all you cannot be reconciled to your Brethrens Opinions nor yet reconcile them to yours learn according to the Apostles Precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak to contend for to hold the Truth in love and to be charitable to those whom you may discern of different perswasions and apprehensions from you God as I have shewed you doth in great wisdom permit these different apprehensions in his people God may have received those that so differ do you receive them because God hath received them Thus I have shewed you how my fore-going Discourse may be useful to you for the improvement of your charity It may also be useful to you for the improvement of your piety and that divers wayes 1. Vse 2 To teach you to adore the divine wisdom in these different dispensations of his providence You cannot understand why God suffereth some of his people to be weak weak in faith weak as to their spiritual habits and exercises you think God might have more glory if they were stronger and their habits were more confirmed which is certainly true as to the actings of those particular persons the more strong any one is in faith the more confirmed he is in the habits of holiness the more undoubtedly that single person would glorifie God but the Government as of particular souls so of the whole Church is upon Christs Shoulders And in the government of his providence he so administreth the affairs of particular souls as he may have the most glory from the whole Besides God ordinarily governs his people not by miraculous operations but by ordinary reasonable means Which two things being supposed Gods infinite wisdom appears in the different sizes and statures of his people in their different states and complexions Every one hath that measure of grace and knowledge which best suiteth the good of the whole Body of his Church which as the body natural hath different members and those of different uses and must be so disposed as shall render them most serviceable one to another and the whole most serviceable to the great design of Gods glory Let us not therefore trouble our selves in disputing the equity and reasonableness of Divine Providence in its motions for though we cannot by searching find out the Almighty unto Perfection yet you see there is no such variety in Gods Dispensations of this nature but a reasonable account may be given of it And as to these Dispensations it will appear at the last that those who have least shares of this hidden manna will have no lack of enough to bring them to Heaven and those who have the greatest portions of it will find they have nothing over 2. But in the second place This Discourse affords a great argument to promote holiness in all our souls The subject of my Discourse hath been not the dispensations of the first grace but Gods further manifestations unto the souls of his people And you have heard it given as one reason of Gods variety in the Dispensations of them That some souls walk more closely with God are more afraid to offend him and more careful to please him than others are For though the soul as to the Reception of the first grace be meerly passive yet as to the receiving of these manifestations in the several degrees of them it is many ways Active All therefore that I have to do is to call upon you to perfect Holiness and to shew you what force there is in this Argument to ingage you to it Holiness is a great General comprehending whatsoever is the Duty of Man pursuant to the Will of God All Duties both to God and Man fall under the Motion of it as well Acts of Righteousness towards Men as Acts of Devotion towards God yea and not Acts onely but even secret Thoughts and those powers and habits of the Soul which are the Principles of such Acts. When I therefore upon this account call upon you to perfect Holiness my meaning is that you should study that perfection of Spirituality and Heavenly Duty which God requires of you but for the sake of those that are weaker and because there are some pieces of Holiness which do more properly and immediately trend towards the reception of these gradual manifestations and the omission of which may in a more peculiar and special manner hinder the reception of them and provoke God to deny them let me open this general in some few particulars 1. First Take heed of all wilful sinning for if we consider the with-drawings of these Divine Influences as punishments of sin as undoubtedly sometimes they are it is hard to say what wilful sinning God may not thus punish Davids sins of Murther and Adultery were acts of unright ousness towards men yet God punished them in this manner as we may gather from his penitential Psalms there is no sort of sin that I know but may for a time separate betwixt God and the Soul and make him to hide his Face from it That Christian therefore that would have these manifestations of God unto him these abidings of the Holy Spirit with him must be Holy in all manner of Conversation having a respect to all Gods Commandements as well those of the second Table as those of the first Conscience may check and reflect sourly upon the soul for any of them and where that doth so reflect and check there will be little Peace and Comfort little Life and Vigour unto duty little Growth and Progress in the Ways of God Herein therefore exercise your selves to keep a Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men to keep your selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit 2. Secondly In a more particular manner take heed of all earthy mindedness 1 Joh. 2.15 Love not the World nor the things of the World if any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him v. 16. For all that is in the World the lust of the Eyes the lust of the Flesh and the pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the World Pleasure Profit Honour is all that the World can afford any man A man given up to the pursuit of pleasure or of worldly profits and advantages or worldly honours and preferments scarce can have any true love for God and the promise of manifestation is made to him that loves God and keeps his Commandments The Apostle telleth us That to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is