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
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
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
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
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
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
things motions or actions that have any goodness in them himself hath willed to do 'em and to concur as a principal efficient cause The A postle telleth us that every good and perfect gift cometh down from above which is not only true of spiritual gifts habits and influences but of natural actions and motions such as are purely so and abstractly considered from any malice and filthiness or irregularity cleaving to them for the Apostle telleth us In him we live and move Now whereas all motions and actions are either good or evil as to the first it is readily granted the first mover must be the efficient of motions God is the fountain and original of all good And in this sense that of our Saviour is true There is none good but God There is a goodness in natural habits and actions a goodness of being considering the motions and actions purely as natural without the tincture of a vitiated will or affections and passions debauched There is a further goodness in spiritual habits and actions All is from God and concerning every good action or motion in either sense there hath passed an eternal purpose or counsel The only doubt can be is concerning evil actions vitiated from the corrupt and debauched will and affections and passions of men As to which it is on all hands most readily granted That God is not the author of them as such nor willed to effect them he hath neither commanded them nor approved them but he hath willed that these should be done he hath willed the permission of them And this is so evident both from Scripture and from Reason raising conclusions from scriptural principles that it can with no modesty be denied I will prove it but from one instance of Scripture but that so high as nothing can be higher and so plainly asserted as nothing can be plainer You shall find it Acts 4.27 Acts 4.27 28. 28. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the children of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done There certainly never was nor is it possible there ever should be an higher act of wickedness committed in the world than the adjudging to death and crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ who was the eternal Son of God and the most just and righteous person that ever was in the world There was a great Combination as to this murther Herod Pontius Pilate Judas the Jews the Gentiles Judas betrayed him Herod mock't him Pontius Pilate condemned him the Jews accused him the Jews and Gentiles crucified him They all did their highly sinful parts Now one would think and may reasonably conclude that if there ever had been or could have been an action done in the world which had slipped the eternal will and counsel of God and come to pass whiles the watchman of Israel had been asleep or which God never thought on it should have been this action But saith the Apostle they all in this act this horrid act did no more than what Gods hand and counsel had before determined to be done The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Counsel determined not to do it but that it should be done The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in holy writ and usually it is translated predestinated as ver 5. of this Chapter and in my Text and so also Rom. 8.29 Whom he predestinated in 1 Cor. 2.7 it is translated ordained It apparently signifieth a Predetermination of persons or things and is used with reference to both and that both as to good and evil things I shall only further give you the note of a very great Divine upon it that it signifieth such a Predetermination of things as not only comprehendeth the end but the means leading to that end But in a further evidence of this let us use our reason a little though still exercising it upon scriptural Principles My first argument shall be First From Gods certain fore-knowledg of all things I will open it in three things 1. God from all eternity did certainly and infallibly foreknow whatsoever should come to pass in the world The holy Scripture is very plentiful in asserting the perfection of the Divine knowledg Prov. 5.21 The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all their goings Prov. 15.3 His eyes are everywhere beholding the evil and the good Psal 139.3 Thou art acquainted with all my ways Jer. 16.17 Mine eyes are upon all thy ways Heb. 4.13 Neither is there any creature but is manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open to that God with whom we have to do 1 John 3.20 God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Now all things considered from eternity were either such things which it was possible might be but never were nor are nor shall be God knew these things He calleth the things that are not as if they were Rom. 4.17 he saw them in suo potenti as he was able to have produced them This Divines call scientiam simplicis intelligentiae Or secondly They are such things as have been now are or shall be These things also God knew from eternity Divines say God knoweth these In suo volenti per scientiam visionis He from eternity saw them in a certain futurity as things which should certainly be for God doth not know things as we do by succession one thing to day another thing to morrow for then there must have been a time when God was ignorant of some things which were blasphemy to assert but such is the perfect nature of God that he must by the same Act and at the same time have a perfect knowledg of all things that ever were to come to pass in the created world 2. Supposing now that God from all eternity had such a perfect knowledg of things it followeth of necessity That they were certainly to be and have a certain existence for God could not know and see those things in a future existence of whose future existence there was no certainty which by the way is a concludent argument against the new device of Molina Fonseca Suarez Lessius and some other Jesuites since embraced by Vorstius Arminius Grevinchovius and their followers who have devised a middle kind of conditional knowledg in God Thus they say that God knew that if Peter or James were in such circumstances they would believe But this is to say nothing for if there were no certainty of Peter's believing from eternity God could not certainly know what was not certainly to be 3. Now I would gladly be instructed by any who stumbleth at this Counsel and purpose of God what but the will of God determining the event could give a certainty of being or existence to any event If the things that are might not have been then as I said before God from
which then hindered his being revealed and would let until he should be taken away The Roman Empire hindered nor is that hinderance yet taken away 'T is true there is but a stump of that Empire remaining in Germany Spain France England many other great boughs are lop'd off it but most of them kept their Antichristian favour though they changed their temporal Lords and set up for and by themselves as to temporal subjection and dominion You see and hear how fierce the French the Spaniards the Portugals c. the house of Austria are for the Romish Religion 'T is true England hath broke that yoke off its neck so hath Holland the Gospel hath got a great foot in Germany France Denmark Poland Sweden Hungary but yet the Devil hath a large Chappel in most of those places It is the National Religion of France Spain Portugal Italy the Imperial Proper-territories God is fitting the circumstances of the World much to his promised Work of destroying this Antichrist with the spirit of his mouth with the brightness of his coming England is fallen off Holland is fallen off a great part of Switzerland many Cities and Territories in Germany Sweden and Denmark great numbers in France God is by degrees doing his work and a great deal is done within the space of a hundred and fifty years last past for it is no longer since Luther began to shake his Throne but yet the circumstances of the World do not look as if it were like to be a work we should see in our age nor it may be our childrens children Methinks the Scripture looks as if that man of sin should die a natural death not a violent one I mean that that Religion should be loathed out of the World not fought out of it God will consume it with the Spirit of his mouth and with the brightness of his coming Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord I tell you but my judgment that before the fall of Antichrist you must yet see a greater falling off from Popery by the Princes of other Nations and their people The Worlds circumstances do not yet seem fitted to that great Work God may work Miracles in the case but I know no ground we have to expect them I am very confident that Antichrist is in his wane much past his full declining every day and therefore the fears of some that that ridiculous Religion should again over-spread England or Holland or any other reformed Church do not much afflict me I take that for granted that Babylon is falling but when we shall hear that joyful sound Babylon is fallen Babylon is fallen that I cannot tell you but in the general I think we must first see the World otherwise circumstanced than it is 2. By this observation of the motions of Providence you shall also understand much of Gods set time as to shewing mercy to your own particular soul viz. when your bodily or spiritual circumstances are fitted for the desired mercy 1. I say first when your bodily circumstances are fitted to it There is nothing more evident than the dependance of our minds upon our bodies and the influence that some bodily distempers especially have upon our souls and minds now although it be true that God can work miraculously and by light can break through a darkness be it never so thick and ravish a Soul with unspeakable joy and peace though at that time it be yoked to a dark cloudy melancholick disturbed body yet God useth not to work Miracles ordinarily but to move in a more ordinary course of Providence by the use and application of means that are proper so that as it is seldom but God useth the disorders and disturbances of the body to influence and afflict the mind and to be at least an adjuvant cause when he will trouble a Soul so he usually restoreth health and a better constitution of body when he intends to restore peace and quiet and a composure of spirit I say ordinarily he doth so And hence again in the next place 3. We by giving attendance to this Observation may learn our duty in reference to the use of Means so as to use what is proper to its season for there is great wisdom to be used in apportioning means For Example as to the bringing down of Antichrist if Gods time be not come the means are not girding our swords upon our thighs c. I question whether that will ever be a Mean proper to be used in that case but endeavouring by all means possible to loath the World of Popish superstitions and ceremonies and all the idolatry of that Synagogue and of all the cheats they put upon the World and alienate the hearts of people from them So for calling the Jews the means to be used is not inciting them to get into a body and heading them c. but to convince them of their errours to endeavour the sweetning of their spirits the enlightning their minds with the knowledg of the truth of the Gospel and reconciling them to the Christian Religion and shewing them the Examples of an holy life and conversation So in case of particular Souls where the discomposure of the mind is originated in or further advantaged by bodily distempers which is a thing very frequently happening I do not take it to be the duty of a Christian meerly to pray and hear but also to use natural means proper for the abating of these distempers yet not this without Prayer and use of Ordinances both for the blessing of God upon such means and for the further influences of his supernatural grace for God fitteth the circumstances of the person that is to receive the mercy to the desired mercy when he intendeth the bestowing of it as well as the circumstances of the World to the mercy which in his set-time he intendeth for his Church so as I say this observing of this method of Providence duly attended to addeth spiritual Wisdom to a Christian as in discerning of Gods time for mercy so also in directing him to his duty as to proper means to be used by him in the way of his duty in order to the obtaining of the mercy teaching him to know what Israel ought to do what a good Christian ought to do under the circumstances under which God hath brought him 2. By an attendance to this working of Providence you shall understand much of the loving-kindness of the Lord very much of the goodness and love of God to Nations and Churches is seen in this his fitting of the worlds circumstances to his designs before he produceth them as his designs are effected without tumult and bloodshed which otherwise through mens opposition to it would not be avoided With how much bloodshed in all humane probability must the Children of Israel have first came out of Egypt then out of Babylon had not God fitted the circumstances of the world to those designs of his Providence
peace You read 2 Sam. 4. that Baanah and Recab two servants of Ishboseth conspired against him and slew him ver 9. David causeth them both to be slain Baasha 1 King 16.27 conspireth against Nadab and slayeth him indeed the Scripture doth not express the particular kind of his death but he threatned him by Jehu the Prophet 1 King 16.3 4. and tells us ver 7. That the wrath of the Lord came against him for all the evil that he did in being like to the house of Jeroboam and because he killed him that is he killed Nadab the Son of Jeroboam And against Elah his Son Zimri killed him ver 20. Had Zimri peace that slew his master no he killed himself when he had reigned but seven days ver 28 after him Ahab a most wicked man dyed in war his Son Jehoram was slain by Jehu and Jehu executed both the Lord's counsel and command in what he did so the Lord spared him and three or four after him of his generation to fulfil his promise to Jehu After this 2 King 15 Shallum conspireth against Zechariah and slayeth him but reigns only one month and Menahem requiteth his bloodshed and slayeth him Joash was slain for the blood of the Sons of Jehojada 2 King 24.23 Amaziah his Son succeedeth him 2 Chron. 25.1 ver 3. He slayeth his servants that had slain the King his father And as this notion is justified everywhere in sacred story so civil story also maketh it good Solomon saith He that breaketh an hedg a serpent shall bite him Government is the hedg of a Nation and rulers are the stakes in that hedg that keep it together and it is very rare but the Providence of God ordereth it so that a serpent biteth him who breaketh this hedg which the Providence of God hath set up about a Nation or People Princes and Rulers are in a great measure priviledged persons and have great prerogatives from Divine Providence And this motion of Divine Providence seemeth very reasonable 1. If we consider the relation that they have unto God 2. Or their usefulness unto men I say first if we consider their relation unto God which I shall open to you in three things ◠They are the Ordinance of God 2 They are Gods Creatures 3. They are Gods Vicegerents 1. Rulers are Gods Ordinance This is the reason which the Apostle giveth Christians for subjection to governours Rom. 13.1 2. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God God is a God of order and not of confusion as well in States as in Churches and for the conservation of this order he hath been pleased to ordain Government a subordination and subjection of some unto others and a man cannot rise up against this but he must rise up in opposition to a Divine Ordinance In 1 Pet. 2.13 Rulers are called the Ordinance of man or as it is in the Greek an humane creature but that must not be understood of Government in it self that is the Ordinance of God I am aware that that is a Text that is much made use of to prove Christians duty of Obedience to humane Laws and Sanctions But this seemeth not to be the sense For 1. We cannot submit thus to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake Men may command us things which are contrary to the Will and Command of God and in such cases our Allegiance is first due unto the great God 2. Again The distribution that followeth seemeth not to favour this sense whether to the King as supreme or unto rulers sent by him Let the form of Government under which you live be what it will let the persons entrusted with the execution of this Government be what they will their qualities are not so much to be regarded as the office which they bear 3. Thus both the Syriack version and some of the antients interpret it the Syriack version interprets it Be you subject to all the Sons of men 4. But lastly The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is there used is always applied to persons not to such constitutions as laws are Besides there are that think that the Apostle useth a dialect then in use there is nothing more ordinary in Latin Authors than those phrases of creare consulem creare dictatorem c. it is a phrase a little in use amongst us to express the conferring of some particular honours But I digress too far certain it is that as Government in the abstract so particular governours in the concrete are the Ordinance of God and so have a more eminent relation unto God All men are the creatures of God they are the works of his hands rulers are the Ordinance of God 2. Rulers are Gods creatures and that not in a large sense so every thing else is but in a more eminent way as Rulers in that capacity to which God hath called them they are Gods creatures Prov. 8.15 By me Kings reign and Princes decree justice by me Princes rule and nobles even all the Judges of the earth It must not be understood only by my sufferance and permission nor by me in an ordinary course of Providence as all things are by God but by me in a way of special Providence and designation for as the Psalmist saith Psal 75.6 7. Promotion cometh not from the east nor from the west nor from the south but God is the judg he pulleth down one and he setteth up another And this must be said of the worst of Rulers they came not up into that place of government without the Lord. Saul was a Prince bad enough God foretold by Samuel what he would be yet you know what a special hand God had in the setting of him up And God setteth up good or bad Rulers over a people according to his designs to bless and prosper or to chastise and punish them Rulers as rulers be they good or bad gentile or froward are God's creatures in an eminent way Now as a Prince thinks himself obliged in honour to maintain his creatures whom he hath set up in any place for any end so God will maintain Princes as they are his creatures raised up for his special designs 3. Nay further yet Rulers are Gods vicegerents Psal 82.6 I have said you are Gods and in this sense it is true which the Apostle saith There are Gods many and Lords many Every Prince is but a Vice-roy to the King of Kings a Deputy-Lieutenant to the great Lord of Heaven and Earth This createth a very near relation betwixt God and them and highly engageth the Providente of God for them Every Prince taketh a special care of persons which he sendeth abroad for Embassadors and which represent his person and authority Plots and conspiracies against Princes are much against God himself God giveth this reason for his severe Law
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
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
Apostle tells us Rom. 11.11 12. They did not stumble that they might fall but through their fall salvation came unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie The Apostles upon their going out to preach to the Gentiles gives this account of it Forasmuch as you have judged your selves unworthy of eternal life that was by not receiving the Gospel we turn unto the Gentiles What shall I need say more there is no soul brought to Heaven but is an eminent instance of this If they had not sinned they would have no need of any pardon or justification from the guilt of sin no need of a Saviour or Mediator God suffereth the souls of his People to be concluded under the guilt of sin that he might have mercy upon them It is also an ordinary observation of Divines That God often suffereth people to fall into some gross and scandalous sins that he might take that advantage to awaken them to repentance and make use of their falls to a rising again to a new life and this is often seen in those that have lived civilly and might be prone to trust to their own Moral Righteousness But I shall inlarge no further in the Justification of so obvious an Observation It follows that I should shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence 1. The truth is in the first place it is hard to conceive how otherwise some of Gods greatest works of Providence could have been produced What would the Revelation of a Covenant of Grace have signified to the world if the Covenant of Works had not first been violated by the first mans transgression How could else any man imagine that the salvation of the world should have been accomplished by the death of Christ if God had not made use of the wicked action of those who took him and by wicked hands crucified him The Apostle assureth us that in all they did against our Lord they did but execute what the counsel of the Lord had predetermined should be done If sin did not abound how should grace much more abound Rom. 5. In the pardon of sins the justification of a guilty soul the Scripture tells us That all are concluded under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe What should we say to the great work of Providence in trying his Saints by afflictions and persecutions from the hands of violent men God maketh use of the sins of Persecutors to perfect his Saints by the exercises of their faith and patience it could not be without the sins of those who persecute others for righteousness sake 2. Again God by this getteth himself a great deal of glory I have spoke something to this under the seventh Observation but let me here add a little 1. He gets himself the glory of his power There is a fancy hath possessed the Philosophers of the world That metals of a baser nature may by art be turned into nobler metals brass c. into gold and they will tell you that some such thing hath been done and aboundance of time and money hath been spent by the vain and covetous Philosophers of the world to little purpose to find out this Philosophers stone as they call it but supposing such a thing possible yet there must be some similar quality to help or they will not pretend to any such thing no Philosopher ever yet pretended by all his Chymistry to fetch gold out of a dunghil But now in sin there is nothing of a similar quality to the glory of God there is nothing so opposite to the glory of God as the sins of men and women For God to fetch water out of a rock argued great power to raise up Abraham children from the stones of the field it must speak great power but yet not so much as for God to fetch his own glory out of peoples sins There is in sin an infinite opposition to the glory of God nothing so diametrically opposite to God's honour and glory as sin is Sampson put forth a riddle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness But what is this riddle to that which I am speaking of for the glory of God to come forth out of the dunghil the woful dunghil of the worst of mens actions for God to work out his own righteousness out of the vilest actions of men O it speaketh an infinite Power in God! it is a greater work to fetch light out of darkness I will saith God get me glory upon Pharaoh For God to get himself glory out of Pharaoh's hard heart was more than to get his people water out of an hard rock 2. God by it gets himself the glory of his infinite wisdom I told you in my former discourse that he is accounted the best Politician that can make the best use of all humours and serve his own designs even of his utter Enemies this is the top of a Politicians wisdom How great then must the Wisdom of God appear in this nothing hath such an enmity to God and his glory as sin hath Job speaketh it to the great glory and honour of God Job 5.13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the crafty are carried head long It speaketh the wisdom of a man that he can make use of the capacious quality of a bird or a beast to catch a prey for him thus the faulconer maketh use of the hawk the huntsman of the dog the fisher-man of a fowl to catch birds or beasts or fish for him This I say speaketh the wisdom of a man above other creatures O how it speaketh the admirable Wisdom of God that he can make use of the worst belchings of lusts in mens hearts the most vile and rebellious actions of men and out of them fetch his own glory 3. But in the last place God above all doth by this magnifie the riches and freeness of his grace This is that wherein the Lord delights to have glory he predestinated adopted us c. to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.6 If God had taken man out of a state of innocency into Heaven we should never have admired free-grace so much as now it marvellously affects the heart of a child of God to see God make use of his falls of his sin and corruption and manifold rebellions to make his free-grace exceeding glorious We should never so much admire free-grace and mercy if we were not so great transgressors This is it which maketh grace precious in our eyes when we cry out of the belly of hell and he heareth us Thus far I have shewed you that God maketh a very ordinary use and a very remarkable use of peoples sins But I also added that it was a spotless use and thus it must be if God maketh it For he that is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity must be of a purer will
and constant one way or other Gods Providence is always doing them good and rewarding their righteous deeds and this must necessarily be true upon the Apostles Hypothesis That all things shall work together for the good of them that love God But I hasten to the Application Vse 1. In the first place let me recommend this to your observation Though there be such a vast difference between good and evil in their own intrinsick natures as might justly allure us into the embraces of the former and scare every man from the pursuit of the latter yet such is our nature that we stand in need of encouragements to the former by rewards and by the terrors of the Lord to be scared from the latter and there cannot be any thing more effectual with us to discourage sin and incourage goodness than if we can effectually perswade our selves that the punishment of sin is both certain and constant and the reward of righteousness is so also This is the point I have endeavoured to demonstrate and you have heard that the reason of any ones presumption of the contrary is their looking at nothing as a punishment or a reward but what is sensible than which we cannot be guilty of a greater mistake nor any of worser consequence as to the malign influence it will have upon our lives and consequently upon our eternal state But consider what hath been said and judg whether a man can do any thing to the greater ruin of himself than to go on in an impenitent and resolved course of sinning against God Possibly you do observe that as to outward things it is much one with a profane swearer and blasphemer as with the man that reverenceth the glorious God and feareth an oath Eccles 9.2 with the drunkard as with him that is sober with the chast as with the unclean with the Sabbath-breaker as with him that remembers to keep holy Gods day nay the profane lawless sinner is in greater honour and power than the other richer than the other and this incourageth thee to joyn with them But poor creature hath he that hath many blessings but one curse think'st thou Observe well that same prosperous sinner and tell me if every day he doth not grow worse if according to his pastures he be not filled with all the fruits of unrighteousness if he be not given up to a blind mind an hard heart vile affections if thou doest not observe that his conscience is seared and branded with an hot iron as it were that he grows past feeling If thou seest this say not he is not punished he is punished with a witness Is a sealing up to damnation no punishment According to our law you know malefactors are first seared with an hot-iron upon their next miscarriage they are hanged It is Gods method when once a soul is seared with an hot-iron given up to be past feeling to damn him next without mercy Look well upon the sinner and thou wilt discern God is angry every day with him he is every day fitting for Hell flames Is this no punishment On the other side thou seest the man according to Gods heart walking sadly he is plagued every night chastned every morning he is poor and needy hungry and thirsty in prisons in deaths often pursued by the falcons of the world as a partridg upon the mountains persecuted on all hands Thou concludest contrary to the Scripture That he hath washed his hands in vain and cleansed his soul to no purpose verily there is no reward for the righteous But harken poor creature Had Esau's Father many blessings and hath Jacob's God but one sort Thou seest his poverty and want but doest thou see how he hath learned in all estates to be content and hath changed his name into a quod vult Deus And certainly godliness with contentment is great gain A poor contented Lazarus is an happier and richer man than a discontented covetous Dives Thou seest how he is afflicted every day how full of troubles his life is but thou doest not see the serenity of his spirit the peace of his conscience his joy in the Holy Ghost his glorying and rejoycing in tribulations as his tribulations work patience his patience experience and his experience hope Mark sirs the upright men consider the just men you will see their ends to be peace yea in this life you will see them more indisturbed by troubles and inconcerned in the ruffles of the world than other men The more you observe the more you will be confirmed in this truth that the Providence of God will certainly reward yea is constantly rewarding him that worketh righteousness Vse 2. But secondly what a trembling and terror should this Observation strike into the loins of every sinner what an engagement should it lay upon them to repent and turn from the wickedness of their way Each part of this Observation ought to be improved for this purpose Impunity in sinning is a great encouragement to the sinner the heart of man stands bent to his lusts and if he fancieth that he may escape the hands of Divine Justice or that he doth escape and thrive and prosper in his wicked courses it wonderfully imboldneth him to go on but if the vengeance against him be certain if his iniquity will certainly find him out that he may as well hope not to dye as not to be thrown into Hell when he dyes and if the wrath of God be already kindled against him and God be already punishing him What hope what incouragement can he then have Now this you have heard is the sinners case I remember when that great plague was began amongst the Israelites upon their murmuring against Moses and Aaron after the death of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16.46 Moses biddeth Aaron take a censer and put fire therein from the Altar and put incense thereon and go quickly to the congregation saith he and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun Is here an impenitent sinner before the Lord one that hath been a drunkard a swearer a profane person or that hath lived without God in the world that blesseth himself with vain hopes or presumptions that he shall escape the Judgment of God or may escape it that his soul is at present free from fears he thriveth he prospereth in the world and his prosperity blindeth his eyes that he cannot see the hell into which he is dropping and so maketh no haste to deliver himself from the wrath that is to come To such a one let me speak oh that my counsel might be acceptable take thy censer put fire thereon from the Altar and put on incense and go quickly and make an atonement for thy soul These are indeed things not in thy power but my meaning is Betake thy self quickly to the great work of repentance which lyes not so much in tears and humiliation as in the change of thy heart in thy
the justice or goodness of God To his justice who hath accepted a price and satisfaction for them at the hand of his Son concerning whom he hath said that in him as our Mediator he was well pleased How then can God punish mâ—n and women for those sins for which he hath accepted a price and satisfaction Or how is this reconcileable to the fulness of Gods pardoning grace How are those sins pardoned which God afterward punisheth But this Cavil proceedeth upon a double mistake or error 1. The first concerning the punishments of sin upon the Children of God 2. The second concerning the satisfaction of Christs death As to the first it supposeth that the afflictions and punishments of Gods people are all for satisfaction which if it were so they were of all men moâ—â— miseraâ—â—â— a their afflictions do ordinarily more abound than the afflictions of others It is true that the impenitent and irreconciled sinner hath no reason to look upon any affliction otherwise than as an arrest of divine vengeance upon every ague every feaver as Gods taking him by the throat and saying to him Pay me now what thou owest because they cannot apprehend any such thing as that Christ hath for them satisfied Divine Justice but the case is otherwise with a believer Supposing our afflictions and punishments of this nature these two things would follow from them 1. A Christian should never be able to see to the bottom of his bitter cup were satisfaction to be given by us when could we so much as hope to say All is finished We might burn but when could we hope to come out of the flames we might be paying and paying but when could we think to have paid the uttermost farthing Satisfaction in our persons must be an endless work the offended Justice being no less than infinite 2. We could never hope by our afflictions to be made gainers in grace If it were possible for us to apprehend that by our suffering we could make full payment to the Justice of God yet we could have no hope by affliction to grow more holy no man groweth richer by parting with money to pay his debts none could hope by afflictions to grow more holy that his affliction should purge away his dross or take away his tin or he by them be made more conformable to the Image of his blessed Saviour if our afflictions were for satisfaction But the holy Scripture giveth us quite another notion of afflictions so far as they concern the People of God it bottometh them in Divine Love it calleth them chastenings and calleth them fatherly corrections Heb. 12.6 7 8. We are bid not to despise the chastening of the Almighty we are told That they are blessed whom he chasteneth and teacheth out of his law we are told that he chasteneth whom he loveth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth Now it is true satisfaction is not consistent with the satisfaction of Christ but corrections and fatherly chastisements are consistent enough with the price which Christ hath paid and the satisfaction which he hath given for us hanging the malefactor or otherwise putting him to death is not consistent with pardon but I hope whipping him branding sending him a while to Bridewel banishment of him when he deserved death is consistent enough with it The Papists indeed fancy that Christ hath only satisfied for the eternal punishment but still we are bound to satisfie by temporal punishments Hence are their penances and purgatory founded but that is a very uncomfortable notion and the more we look into it the more dreadful it will appear On the other side the Antinomians are as much almost on the other hand denying the afflictions of Gods People to be punishment of sins or judgments when the Scripture so calls them The truth lyes in the middle betwixt these two extreams they are judgments they are punishments of sin but they are no legal demands of satisfaction nor giving satisfaction Christ hath satisfied for the whole guilt of their sins for whom he died All of that nature as to them was finished upon the cross so that the afflictions of the People of God their punishments for sin have now both another name and notion than satisfactions 2. A second mistake upon which this objection is founded is That Christ by his death paid a price into the hands of his fathers justice for all temporal punishments due to man for sin so as to excuse those for whom he died from them Now as to this whatsoever we may fancy 1. It is manifest that our Lord Jesus never did purchase for his people any such thing as a freedom from temporal death and the smart of bodily afflictions He hath taken away the sting of death but not death he hath delivered us from the curse but not from the cross This is all which the Scripture saith Gal. 3.13 He hath redeemed us from the curse by being made a curse for us himself hath told us That if any one will be his disciple he must deny himself and take up the cross and follow him And we are told by the Apostle That all who will live godlily in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution And accordingly the servants of God have experienced it even Paul himself was in deaths often and had his thorn in the flesh 2. Nor was it any branch of that Covenant of Redemption and Grace in which Christ was a party with or a surety to the eternal father I put in those two terms Redemption and Grace I know some make two Covenants the one they call the Covenant of Redemption the other the Covenant of Grace and that there are very different notions of the Covenant of Grace For my own part I see no need of asserting more than one Covenant and that eternal Isa 42.6 This I take to be a paction from eternity made betwixt the Father the eternal Father on the one part and the Lord Jesus Christ on the other wherein Christ Covenanted with his Father that he would do his whole will for the redemption of his chosen ones Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 and that we by grace derived from him should do what the father requires of us in order to our salvation in respect of which he is said to be made the surety of a better Covenant Heb. 7.22 The Father mutually Covenanted with his Son that he would be well-pleased in him that he would give him the souls for whom he should dye that he might give them eternal life and all that grace and good which should be advantageous for them but neither did Christ ask of his Father neither did his Father promise him on their behalf an immunity from temporal punishments afflictions or chastisements for sin We cannot understand the terms of the Covenant of Grace but from the Exhibition of it in Scripture which was very various sometimes more clearly sometimes more darkly to Adam Noah Abraham David c. One of the fairest copies
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
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
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
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
and sicknesses of little ones all are warned to be continually upon their watch not knowing when the Lord will call for them every little Bell that telleth us a child is gone soundeth to us would we but understand it Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil days come Further yet God by this dispensation in which as you have heard he is just doth mind all of the duty they owe unto their children to bring them up in the knowledge of the Scriptures in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and particularly not to defer the ordinance of Baptism beyond a reasonable time It is doubtless Gods ordinance as to children not only a sign of Gods Covenant but a medium in order to salvation though efficacious only when God is pleased to make it so not ex opere operato upon the work done I have now shewed you the equity of God in this particular way of his Providence Vse It is a dispensation under which there are few Parents that are not brought Let me therefore enlarge a little upon some practical Application of this Discourse shewing you what may be our duty reasonably concluded from this dispensation I shall open to you something of it in three or four particulars 1. It is doubtless our duty yea the duty of all flesh To be silent before the Lord under such Providences The loss of a child especially if it be a first-born or an only child sometimes goeth very near us But oh let us not be tempted from it to open our mouths against the God of Heaven nor to entertain a thought in our souls derogatory to the justice and goodness of God Our children are sinners and obnoxious to the justice of God God may in justice punish them for their own sins or for our sins I hinted to you before that it was a beam of Arminius his new light that none should be condemned for original sin only and he is followed in it by all the Remonstrants in their Confessions Apologies as also by others of that tribe Socinus also and his followers shake hands with them in that notion Yet Arminins answering Mr. Perkins who to disprove Arminius his doctrine of Gods rejection of any because he foresaw they would reject the grace of the Gospel had pinched him telling him this could be no cause of the rejection of infants out of the pale of the Church God could not foresee they would reject the Gospel who he foresaw should never have the Gospel preached or tendred to them answereth him thus At inquam ego in parentibus abavis avis atavis tritavis evangelii gratiam repudiarunt quo actu meruerunt ut a Deo deserantur That is But I say saith he they rejected the Gospel in their Parents their Grandfathers their great Grandfathers or former Progenitors Now how this is consistent with his other doctrine I cannot understand for certainly if God may be justified in rejecting the souls of some infants from eternity because he foresaw that their Great-Grandfathers would reject and refuse the Gospel when-as they by no personal act should do any such thing he may be justified even in the eternal condemnation of children for the sin of Adam or the personal obliquity and corruption of their natures and so it is not unrighteous with God eternally to condemn a child for its original corruption only But we are not now speaking of eternal condemnation but of bodily and temporal yea and temporary punishments which may very well consist with the eternal salvation of the soul and it is very absurd for us to think that for such punishments the infant may not be punished without the impeaching of the justice of God though it hath been guilty of no actual sin deserving so early a chastisement of it Oh therefore suffer not in such cases your hearts or lips to transgress God may do it in righteousness He may thus justly punish original sin in the child he may justly punish our sins upon the backs of our children Speak not a word against God in this Providence 2. Do what in thee lyeth secondly to find out the cause When the Jews queried our Saviour concerning the man that was born blind for whose sin it was whether his or his parents Our Saviour answereth them that it was neither for his sin nor yet for his Parents but that the glory of God might appear in that famous miracle which our Saviour wrought in restoring him to his sight It is an hard thing to find out Gods ends in his dispensations of punitive Providence God may sometimes afflict and take away little ones for their own sins for the sin of Adam for the iniquity in which they were conceived and the sin in which they were brought forth God may sometimes do it for the Parents sins Sometimes he may do it principally neither for the one nor for the other of these ends but for the good of the Parents or for the good of the Children you have heard that this motion of Divine Providence is highly reasonable upon more then one account But yet when we feel the smart of such a dispensation we know not how to look upon it otherwise than as a punishment but now our business under such providences is to enquire what sin in us God doth in that manner revenge The Scripture will guide us a little in the finding out of this and we may possibly find out some other helps to make us understand these dispensations It was threatned to David 2 Sam. 12. For his sins in the matter of Vriah and his wife and for that by them he had given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme It is one of those common scourges with which God chastiseth some Parents for their sinful lives and whoso is conscious to himself of a sinful course of life need not enquire much for what cause God brings him under such dispensations It is matter of more narrow enquiry why God thus chasteneth his own people Possibly if they will search narrowly under such a Providence they may find if not the very sin for which God contendeth with them yet some laps of their lives of that nature as may give them a just ground of jealousy and suspicion that that is the sin for which God so troubleth them I shall not be positive in this determination lest I seem too boldly to inquire into the secret counsels of God men should do well under these Providences to listen to their own consciences which oft times tell them the truth in such cases But let me ask of thee or rather desire thee to ask thy self these two or three following Questions 1. Didst thou never sinfully distrust the Providence of God concerning thy Children And secretly repine at Gods bounty to thee in them this is now a temptation incident to such as are of meaner condition in the world and not so able as others to maintain their Families God promiseth the