94. Psalm 7 8 9 10. Yet they say The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Iacob regard it Vnderstand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise He that planted the ear shall he not hear And he that formed the eye shall he not see He that chastiseth the heathen shall not he correct And he that teacheth man knowledg shall not he know The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity So that these men took it for granted That if God did see and hear and know what was done in the world he would reward men accordingly And therefore the Providence of God is described in Scripture by his seeing and observing the Actions of men 31. Job 4. Doth not he see my ways and count all my steps 33. Psal. 18 19. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy that is to protect them and to do good to them as it follows to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine And therefore when good men pray for help and succour they only beg God to see and take notice of their condition 1. Lam. 11. See O Lord and consider for I am become vile 64. Isa. 9. Behold see we beseech thee we are all thy people Thus in Hezekiah 's Prayer Incline thine ear O Lord and hear open thine eyes O Lord and see and hear all the words of Senacherib which hath sent to reproach the living God And therefore God's seeing is made an argument that he will reward or punish 10. Psalm 14. Thou hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand And indeed it is not to be imagined that a holy and just God who sees and observes all the good and evil that is done in the world should not reward the good and punish the wicked for there is no other Holy and Just Being in the world that has authority to reward and punish but would certainly do it And if the Proof of a Divine Providence be resolved into God's knowing what is done in the world the Dispute will be soon ended for those who believe that there is a God and that he is an Infinite Omnipresent Mind cannot doubt whether he sees and knows all things As the Psalmist elegantly expresses it 139. Psalm 1. 13. O Lord thou hast searched me and known me Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising thou understandest my thought afar off Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways For there is not a word in my tongue but lo O Lord thou knowest it altogether Thou hast beset me hehind and before and laid thine hand upon me Such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is too high I cannot attain unto it Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me If I say surely the darkness shall cover me even the night shall be light about me yea the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee for thou hast possessed my reins thou hast covered me in my mother's womb How is it possible that an Omnipresent Mind should be ignorant of any thing or that the Maker of the World should not be present with all his Creature or that being present and seeing all their Actions he should be an idle and unconcerned Spectator 4thly For I think in the next place it is past all dispute that he who made the World cannot be unconcerned for his Creatures He hath implanted in most Creatures a natural care of their Offspring and it is made an argument of want of understanding in the Ostrich That she leaveth her Eggs in the Earth and warmeth them in the dust and forgetteth that the foot may crush them or that the wild Best may break them She is hardened against her young ones as if they were not hers Her labour is in vain without fear because God hath deprived her of wisdom neither hath he imparted to her understanding 39. Job 15 16 17. And can we think then that an infinitely wise Being should be as unconcerned for the World as the Ostrich is for her Eggs It is certain the Maker of the World is no sluggish unactive Being for to make a World is a Work of infinite Wisdom and Counsel of Divine Art and Power and not only to give being to that which was not is it self an act of excellent Goodness but there are so many legible Characters of a Divine Bounty and Goodness stamped upon all the Works of Nature that we must conclude the World was made by an infinitely good Being and it is impossible that a wise and good Being who is a pure Act and perfect Life can cast off the care of his Creatures Besides the Laws of God and Men natural Affection will not suffer men to forget their Children and though God has no Superior his own Nature is a Law to himself This is sufficient to shew how necessarily the belief of a God infers a Providence and therefore no Philosophers excepting Epicurus and his Sect who acknowledged a Deity ever denied a Providence and Tully tells us that he retained the name of a God but destroyed his Being The Stoick in Tully concludes a Providence from the acknowledgment of a God And therefore tells us that Providence signifies the Providence of God And those Philosophers made no scruple of calling God Providence and Fate and the Power of an Eternal and Perpetual Law For indeed Mankind had no other notion of a God than that he is an Excellent and Perfect Being who made and who governs the World This is the notion which the Philosophers who acknowledg'd a Deity defended against Epicurus and other Atheists this is the notion of a God which Atheists oppose the God whom they fear an Eternal Lord who observes and takes notice of every thing and thinks himself concerned in all the Affairs of the World And therefore the Dispute Whether there be a God or no principally resolves it self into this Whether this World and all things in it is made and governed by Wisdom and Counsel or by Chance and a blind material Necessity and Fate which proves that the very notion of God includes a Providence or else either to prove or to overthrow the Doctrine of Providence would neither prove nor overthrow the Being of a God This I am sure is very plain That the same Arguments which prove the Being of a God prove a Providence If the beauty variery usefulness and wise contrivance of the
nor happier State after this yet it were very desirable to come into this World and live as long as we can here to enjoy the Pleasures and Satisfactions which may be enjoyed in this Life And though we know there is a happier Life after this yet there is so much to be enjoyed in this World as generally makes even Good men very well contented to stay here as long as God pleases 2dly But still we must confess That though men may live very happily in this World yet there may be such a state of things as if we only compare the sensible Advantages and Disadvantages of Life may make Death much more desirable than life I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive For the understanding of which we must consider That this is one of those Sayings which must not be strictly and Philosophically examined nor stretched to the utmost sense the words will bear it has some truth and something of Figure and Rhetorick in it as many of our Common and Proverbial Speeches have which must be expounded to a qualified sense We must observe then That the design of this whole Book of Ecclesiastes is not to put us out of conceit with Life but to cure our vain Expectations of a compleat and perfect Happiness in this World to convince us that there is no such thing to be found in mere external Enjoyments which are nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit And the end of all this is not to make us weary of Life but to teach us to moderate our love to present things and to seek for Happiness in the practise of Vertue in the knowledge and love of God and in the hopes of a better Life For this is the application of all Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole of man Not only his Duty but his Happiness too For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil 12. Eccl. 13 14. Among other Arguments to prove how vain it is to expect a compleat Happiness in this World the Wise-man instances in the many Oppressions and Sufferings which men are liable to and which sometimes befall them which may be so sore and grievous and make Life so uneasy and troublesome as may tempt men who only consult their own sensible satisfaction to prefer Death before Life And this seems to be all that the Wise-man means That we may live in such a troublesome and tempestuous state of things that the mere external Enjoyments of this Life cannot recompence the Troubles of it for this is all that his Design required him to prove The vanity of all external Enjoyments And if ever the Case be such That a Wise-man would chuse rather to leave this World and to leave all these Enjoyments behind him than to endure the Troubles and Calamities wherewith they are attended they are vain indeed But this does not prove That a Wise-man ought to despise Life for the Troubles of it that he should chuse to run out of the World to be eased of its Troubles or that a Wise-man notwithstanding all these Troubles cannot make himself easy and happy in it and consequently it does not prove That a Wise-man in such Cases should prefer Death before Life though it may reasonably enough cure his fondness for Life and make him welcome Death whenever God pleases to send it Let us then briefly consider these things And 1. Let us take a view of those Troubles and Disorders which may make a Wise-man willing to part with all the external Enjoyments and Pleasures of Life to be rid of the Troubles of it and make him think those men happy who are escaped out of this World or are not yet come into it King Solomon the Preacher gives us two Accounts of this the first before the second immediatly after this Text. In the 1st Verse he tells us So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun and beheld the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressors there was power but they had no comforter And hence he concludes Wherefore I praised the dead that are already dead more than the living who are yet alive Which signifies the Publick Oppressions either of the Supream Power or of Subordinate Magistrates The Second relates to Private Factions Envyings Emulations which many times make Life as uneasy as the Publick Miscarriages of Government Again I considered all travel and every right work that for this a man is envied of his neighbour This is also vanity and vexation of spirit v. 4. These two contain most of those Evils in them which disturb and distract Human Life but I shall not discourse this matter according to Rules of Art and Method but shall beg leave to give you a short view of such a state of things as might make a man who consults only his own ease very contented to slip out of the World and to leave foolish Mortals to end the scuffle as well as they can When a Kingdom is in a strong Convulsion assaulted by powerful Enemies abroad and divided by busy and restless Factions at home when men live in perpetual fear and suspence know not what to call their own nor how long they shall enjoy it when some men think themselves bound in conscience to ruin themselves their Countrey and their Religion others will sacrifice their Countrey and consequently themselves too to private Ambitions Resentments or Revenge and try their Fortune over again in some new Changes and Revolutions of Government When such publick Disputes as these influence all Inferior Societies and as sometimes they have done corrupt Publick Justice dissolve the most Intimate Friendships make Conversation uneasy or dangerous set every man's Sword or which is almost as fatal every man's Tongue against his Brother when no man's Fame no man's Life is secure but a Slandering Tongue may blast one and a Perjured Tongue destroy the other When Zeal and Faction make Characters of men disposes of Life of Honour of Estates and Religion it self serves for little else but to inspire men with Zeal and Faction When we cannot live in the World without seeing or hearing or feeling ten thousand Villanies that are committed in it what should make any man fond of Life why should we not come to good Old Simeon's Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Such a troublesome state of things in this World must needs make all considering men think of a better and as glad to get out of this as a Mariner is to recover the Haven after a violent Storm at Sea Thus I say it must be if we consider only the present Advantages or Disadvantages of Life for perpetual Fears and Cares Strife and Contention Oppression Injustice Defamation
Protection what little reason we have to be afraid of men whatever their Power how furious soever their Passions are how vain it is to trust in men and to depend on their favour for they can neither do good nor hurt but as they are directed by God and therefore he alone must be the Supreme Object of our Fear and Trust If God be for us who can be against us If we make him our Enemy who can save us out of his hands So that we have but one thing to take care of and we are safe Let us make God our Friend and he will raise us up Friends and Patrons and Protectors will deliver us out of the hands of our Enemies or make our Enemies to be at peace with us Secondly Having thus explained God's government of Causes let us now consider his government of Events And I think it will be easily granted me That if all those Causes by which all Events are brought to pass are governed by God God must also have the Absolute Government of all Events in his own hands But yet the government of Causes and of Events are of a very different consideration and to represent this as plainly and familiarly as I can I shall 1. shew you What I mean by Events when I attribute the government of all Events to God 2. Wherein God's government of Events consists 3. The Difference between God's Absolute government of all Events and Necessity and Fate 4. That the Exercise of a particular Providence consists in the government of all Events 1. What I mean by Events Now every thing that is done may in a large sense be called an Event and is in some degree or other under the government of Providence as all the actions of men are but when I speak of God's government of Events I mean only such Events as are in Scripture called God's doings as being ordered and appointed by him that is to say all the good or evil which happens to private men or to Kingdoms and Nations in this world Every thing that is done is not God's doing for there is a great deal of evil every day committed which God does not order and appoint to be done but has expresly forbid the doing of it but there is no good or evil which happens to any man or to any Society of men but what God orders and appoints for them and this is God's government of all Events This is the proper exercise of Providence to allot all men their Fortunes and Conditions in the world to dispense Rewards and Punishments to take care that no man shall receive either good or evil but from the Hand and by the Appointment of God this is the Subject of all the Disputes about the Justice and Goodness and Wisdom of Providence and all the Objections against Providence necessarily suppose that thus it is or thus it ought to be if God governs the world For unless Providence be concerned to take care that no men be happy or miserable but as they deserve which cannot be without the Absolute Government of all Events the prosperity of bad men and the sufferings of the good the many miseries that are in the world and the uncertain changes and turnings of Fortune can be no Objection against Providence And indeed were not this the case Providence would be so insignificant a Name that it would not be worth the while to dispute for or against it for a Providence which neither can do us good nor hurt or which cannot always and in all cases do it is worth nothing or worth no more than it can do good or hurt And therefore all the good or evil which does or can befal Men or Kingdoms is in Scripture attributed to Providence and promised or threatned by God as men shall deserve either such as Length of Days or a sudden and untimely Death Health or Sickness Honour or Disgrace Riches or Poverty Plenty or Famine War or Peace the changing Times and Seasons the removing Kings and setting up Kings and with respect to all such Events as these whatever the immediate Causes of them be God is said to do whatsoever pleaseth him 2dly But we shall better understand this by enquiring into the Nature of God's Government Now God's Government of Events consists in ordering and appointing whatever good or evil shall befal men for according to the Scripture we must attribute such a Government to God as makes all these Events his Will and Doing and nothing can be his Will and Doing but what he Wills and Orders Some men think it enough to say That God permits every thing that is done but will by no means allow that God Wills and Orders and Appoints it which they are afraid will charge the Divine Providence with all the evil that is done in the world and truly so it would did God order and appoint the evil to be done but tho God orders and appoints what evils every man shall suffer he orders and appoints no man to do the evil he only permits some men to do mischief and appoints who shall suffer by it which is the short Resolution of this Case To attribute the evils which some men suffer from other mens sins merely to Gods Permission is to destroy the Government of Providence for bare Permission is not Government and those evils which God permits but does not order cannot be called his will and doing and if this be the case of all the evils we suffer from other mens sins most of the evils which men suffer befal them without God's Will and Appointment and yet to attribute all the evil which men do to God's Order and Appointment is to destroy the Holiness of Providence and therefore we must necessarily distinguish between the evils men do and the evils they suffer the first God Permits and Directs the second he Orders and Appoints How God governs men hearts and actions I have already explained and this is the place to consider God's Permission of Evil for Permission relates to actions Mens own wicked hearts conceive and form wicked designs and they execute them by God's Permission but no man suffers by them but by God's Appointment God's Care of his creatures requires that no man should suffer any thing but what God orders for him and if such sufferings be just and righteous how wicked soever the Causes be it is no reproach to Providence to order and appoint them Suppose a man have forfeited his Life or Estate or Reputation to Providence or tho he have made no Criminal Forfeiture of it yet God sees fit for other Wise Reasons to remove him out of the world or to reduce him to Poverty and Contempt is it any fault in Providence to deliver such a man into the hands of Murderers Oppressors Slanderers who are very forward to execute such Decrees when Providence takes off the restraint and sets them at liberty to follow their own lusts And when there are so many that deserve
Power in transferring Estates and Properties and all men would allow it to be very just and righteous Now this is the Case with respect to God as I observed before for he is the sole Lord and Proprietor of the world and therefore no other bounds can be set to the just exercise of his Authority but to do what is wise and good He may give or take away any man's Estate or Honour or Power whenever he can serve any wise or just or good ends by it for they are all but several Trusts we are but God's Stewards and must give an Account of our Stewardship and if we do not use our Riches and Honours well or when he has no longer any use of us he has as Absolute Authority to lay us aside as a Lord has to change his Steward when he pleases Thus God is the Absolute Lord of all men we are all his Creatures and are in his hands as Clay in the hands of a Potter and therefore he may deal with us as he pleases and may serve the ends of his own Glory and Providence of us as far as his own Wisdom and Goodness will direct Thus for instance we think it very unjust in Human Governments to punish a vertuous and innocent man to strip him of his Estate or Honours to afflict his body to expose him to publick scorn and confine him to a noisom Prison and at last to take away his life with exquisite Pains and Torments But the Sovereign Authority of God extends to all this when he can serve his own Glory and the wise ends of his Grace and Providence by it without doing any real injury to his Creatures The Wisdom of God requires that there should be very great and excellent Reasons for doing this and the Goodness of God requires that such good men should be greatly supported under their sufferings and greatly rewarded for them but then the Sovereignty of God gives him Authority to use the Services of his Creatures in doing or suffering his Will This was the Case of Iob whom God exercised with great sufferings to make him an eminent Example of Faith and Patience but we know what was the end of Iob and how greatly God rewarded his Sufferings tho Iob himself while he was under these sufferings knew not what other account to give of them but to resolve all into the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of God The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away and blessed be the name of the Lord. And Shall we receive good at the hands of God and shall we not receive evil Which indeed is Answer enough to all such Cases while we have an implicate Faith in the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence Thus God dealt with Ioseph made him the Instrument of transplanting his Father and all his Family into Egypt and rewarded his sufferings by advancing him to Pharaoh's Throne Nay thus God dealt with Christ himself who as man was Perfect and Innocent who did no evil neither was any guile found in his mouth who went about doing good and was obedient to his Father's Will in all things and yet him God delivered into the hands of sinners to suffer an ignominious and painful Death for the Redemption of the world And the Sovereignty of God will justify the greatest Sufferings of the most innocent men when they serve such admirable Ends and are so greatly rewarded And thus God has dealt with some of the best men that ever lived in the world Witness the Sufferings of Prophets and of other good men under the Old Testament and of the Apostles and Martyrs of Christ who have trod in the steps of their Lord who have suffered with him that they might be glorified together I know not what the Sovereignty of God signifies if he may not serve the wise ends of his Grace and Providence even by the Sufferings of his Creatures when such Sufferings how uneasy and grievous soever they are at present shall turn to their much greater good when they shall be so greatly rewarded that good men themselves shall think the reward an abundant recompence for their sufferings and glory in those very sufferings which will have so great a reward Thus let us consider God as the Supreme and Absolute Judge of the World Now a Sovereign and Absolute Judge must do that which is just but he is tied up by no Rules or Formalities of Law as Inferior Ministers of Justice are if he reward the good and punish the wicked he may do it at what time and in what manner he pleases He is under no rule but his own Sovereign Will and Wisdom When men have deserved Punishment he may spare them as long or execute Vengeance on them as soon as he sees fit for he is the Absolute Judge of time and place and other circumstances of executing Judgment This Prerogative all Sovereign Princes challenge and it is indeed an inseparable Right of Sovereignty So that it is no reasonable Objection against the Justice of Providence That God does not immediately reward all great and vertuous actions nor immediately punish wickedness for a Sovereign Justice is under no obligation to do this All that we can expect from the Divine Justice is That good men shall be rewarded and the wicked punished and that whenever God does reward or punish good men shall have no reason to complain that their reward was delayed nor bad men to glory in the long delays of punishment but the greatness of the Rewards or Punishments shall recompence for all delays for then God is just in rewarding good men and punishing the wicked how long soever he delay either Sovereign Justice is not confined to time and when the Sufferings of good men who deserve a Reward and the Prosperity of bad men who deserve Punishment and the delays of both are taken into the account God is very Just and Righteous how long soever he delay to reward or punish From what I have now discoursed concerning the Sovereignty of the Divine Justice you may easily observe That all the Objections against the Justice of Providence have no other Foundation but our Ignorance of the Nature of God's Justice we measure the Justice of Providence by the Rules of Justice among men without considering that God is the Sovereign Lord of the world and therefore has a Right and Authority superior to men and therefore a superior Justice too It is unjust for men to deprive one another of their Just and Legal Lights and therefore they think this a Reflection on the Justice of Providence too when men suffer wrongfully but no man has any Right against God who is the sole Proprietor of the world and therefore he may give and he may take away he may set up and pull down and do whatsoever pleaseth him both in Heaven and in Earth It is unjust for men to afflict and oppress the innocent and vertuous or to encourage and prosper the wicked and therefore they
against the Justice of Providence So that these men have taken care always to have an Objection against Providence for according to their Notions of Justice and Goodness God cannot be both which is a certain demonstration that they mistake the true Notion of Justice and Goodness they are both great and excellent Vertues both are essential to the Idea of God both are necessary to the good government of the world and therefore both of them must be very consistent and reconcilable with each other both in Notion and Practise I have already vindicated the Justice of God's Providence and there is no great difficulty in vindicating his Goodness the Objections against which are founded in plain and evident Mistakes and therefore will receive an easy Answer And I shall first consider what the Mistakes are and then particularly answer the Objections 1. As for the first The Mistakes either relate to the nature of God's Goodness or to the nature of Good and Evil or to the Goodness of Providence and Government 1. The Mistakes concerning God's Goodness And the fundamental Mistake is this That men consider the Goodness of God absolutely without relation to the Nature Quality or Desert of the Subjects who are to receive good They contemplate Goodness in its abstracted Idea and Notion and whatever they conceive belongs to the most Perfect Goodness that they expect from God in the Government of this world and if they do not find it they conclude that the world is not governed by a Good Providence As for instance It is certainly an Act of the most Perfect Goodness to make all Creatures happy not to suffer any Miseries to enter into the world that there be nothing to deface the Beauty or to disturb the Harmony of it No lamentable Sights nor doleful Complaints to move our pity nor to terrify us with the melancholy presages of our own Sufferings nor to make frightful impressions on us of a Severe and Inexorable Deity Could they see such a world as this they would thankfully own the Divine Goodness and securely rejoyce in it But this world wherein we live gives us a very different prospect we see a great many Miserable people and feel a great many Miseries our selves and many times expect and fear a great many more and how unlike is this world to what we should have imagined the world to have been had we never seen it but only heard of a world made and governed by Infinite and Perfect Goodness Indeed all the Objections against the Goodness of Providence do ultimately resolve into this That the world is not so happy as a Good God can make it and therefore a Good Providence does not govern the world and a plain Answer to this will enable any man to answer all the rest And the Answer to this is short and plain That Infinite and Perfect Goodness will do all the good which can be wisely done but not all the good which men may expect from Infinite Goodness for the external exercise of Goodness must not bear proportion to the Infinite Fulness of the Divine Nature but to the State Condition and Capacities of Creatures and therefore we must not measure the Goodness of Providence merely by External Events which may sometimes be very calamitous but by that proportion such Events bear to the State and Deserts of Mankind or of particular men in this world The best man in the world does not think himself bound to do all the good he can to every one he meets he will make a difference between a Child and a Servant between a Friend and an Enemy between a Good and a Bad man and much more must a Good Prince and a Good Magistrate do so and much more must God who is the Supream and Soveraign Lord of the world We shall better understand this if we view Man in his several States and observe how the Divine Goodness suits it self to those different States The Divine Goodness made the World and made Man and hence we may take our estimate what the Goodness of God is and what it can and will do when Goodness freely exerts it self without any external impediment to set bounds to it And if we believe the History of the Creation the Divine Goodness displayed it self in a most beautiful and glorious Scene the New-made World and the new-created Man were as perfect and happy as the perfect Ideas of their Natures in the Divine Mind This was the World which God made such a happy world as it became Perfect Goodness to make and hence we learn what the Goodness of God is and what it would always do for when the Divine Goodness made the World he made it what he would have it be But Man did not continue what God had made him He sinned and by Sin brought Death and Misery into the world And therefore though we do not now see such a happy state of things we must not hence conclude that the world is not governed by Perfect Goodness but that a perfect state of Ease and Happiness in this world does neither become the Providence of God nor is good for Sinners and we have reason to conclude this not only because God made Innocent man happy but because he has prepared a much greater Happiness for Good men in the next world Which shews that the change is not in God but in Men He made man happy at first and he will make Good men perfectly happy hereafter but though he be always the same as good now as he was when he at first made the world and as he will be when he shall reward all Good men in the Resurrection of the Just yet the degenerate state of Mankind requires such a mixture of Good and Evil as we now see and feel and complain of in this world For it is a very different case to see Goodness acting alone and pursuing its own gracious Inclinations and to see it limited and confined by Justice which must be the case when Mankind are Sinners For then Goodness cannot do what is absolutely best but what is best in such Cases and when Goodness and Justice are reconcilable as they are in a probation State there Wisdom must prescribe the temperament Justice requires the punishment of Sinners but Goodness is inclined to spare and Wisdom judges when and in what manner it is fit to punish or to spare An Incurable Sinner is the Object of strict and rigorous Justice a Corrigible Sinner is the Object both of Justice and Goodness his Sin deserves correction and punishment but that he is corrigible makes him the Object of Patience and Discipline And this we must suppose to be the difference between the Case of Apostate Angels and of Fallen Man and therefore Justice immediately seized on those Apostate Spirits but God in infinite goodness promised a Saviour to Mankind This makes the present state of Mankind in this world to be a state of Trial and Discipline to reclaim and
good of Nature and therefore whatever is the Happiness or any part of the Happiness of Man is the good of Nature the good of the End is that which is good to make men happy and the more effectual it is to promote our Happiness the greater Good it is tho it may be a great Natural Evil and whatever will hinder or destroy our Happiness is a great Evil though it may be a great Natural Good In all such Cases things are good or evil with respect to their End or to their Natural or Moral Consequences When we are in health that is good Food which is pleasant and wholsome and will preserve health but the same Diet may be very hurtful and fatal when we are sick Indulgence or Severity to Children is either good or evil in proportion to their Tempers and Inclinations as it is apt either to corrupt their Manners or to train them up to Piety and Vertue And therefore when we speak of Discipline and Government which is the true notion of God's Providence in this World we must not consider so much what is naturally good and evil as what the state of those is who are the Subjects of Discipline and what is good for them in such a State for how many Natural Evils soever there are in the World the Evils of Afflictions and Judgments of Plague and Famine and Sword if such Severities be good for Mankind it is as great an argument of the Goodness of Providence to inflict them as it is for a Parent or a Prince to reclaim and reform his Children or his Subjects by great Severities And an easy and prosperous State when the Wickedness of Mankind require severe Restraints is no more an Act of Kindness and Goodness than the fond Indulgence of Parents is to disobedient Children So that this takes away the very foundation of this Objection against the Goodness of Providence The principal Objection is That there are a great many Evils and Miseries in the World we grant it but then we say That God is very good in it and that these Natural Evils tho they are grievous are not Evils to us because they are and are intended for our good We can neither prove nor disprove the Goodness of Providence merely by external Events especially with respect to particular men For Prosperity is not always good for us nor is Affliction always for our hurt God may make some men prosperous in his Anger and chastise others in great love and goodness and this I take to be the meaning of the Wise-man 9. Eccl. 1 2. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them For all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Which does not signify that the Divine Providence makes no difference between Good and Bad men for God does love Good men and hate the Wicked and his Providence makes a great difference between them though this difference is not always visible in external Events For when the same Event happens to both whether it be a Natural Good or Evil it may be an Act of Favour to Good men and of Judgment to the Wicked For external Prosperity and Adversity in a State of Discipline may either be good or evil and may be good for one when at the same time it is evil to another and therefore the Providence of God may make a difference when the external Event makes none The Wise-man confesses This is an evil among all things that are done under the Sun that there is one event unto all Bad men who look no farther than external Events make a very bad use of it and conclude that God makes no difference when they see none made And thus the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness is in their heart while they live and after that they go to the dead 3. v. But those who consider wisely see no reason from external Events from such a promiscuous distribution of good and evil either to deny a Providence or the Goodness and Justice of Providence since good and evil in this State are not in the things themselves but in the End for which they are intended and which they serve It is of great consequence rightly to understand this matter to give us a firm persuasion of the Goodness of God even when he corrects and punishes and to cure our discontent at the Prosperity of the Wicked and therefore I shall briefly represent to you the State of Mankind in this World and what is good in such a State Man has sinned and Man must die but God has in infinite goodness to Mankind sent his own Son into the World to save Sinners who by death hath destroyed him who had the power of Death that is the Devil and hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel This removes the Scene of Happiness from this World to the next and makes this present Life only a State of Probation for Eternity If we obey the Laws of our Saviour and imitate his Example he has promised to raise us again when our dead Bodies are putrified in the Grave into Immortal Life but has threatned all the Miseries of an Eternal Death against Incorrigible Sinners so that the greatest good that God or Man can do for us in this World is by all the wise methods of Discipline and Government to prepare us for the Happiness of the next and to preserve us from those Eternal Miseries which will be the portion of Sinners Tho there are thousands of foolish Sinners who never consider this yet all Mankind agree that that is best for us in this World which will make us eternally happy in the next and that is a very great Evil which will betray us to Eternal Miseries There are a great many Infidels who believe neither a Heaven nor a Hell but yet these very Infidels are not so void of common Sense as to deny supposing there were a Heaven and a Hell that to be the best Condition for us in this World whatever it be upon other accounts which will carry us to Heaven and keep us out of Hell Now if this be the Case there cannot be so great Evils in this World but what may be good for us and therefore may be an expression of God's Goodness to us For if Pain and Sickness Poverty and Disgrace wean us from this World subdue our Lusts make us Good men and qualify us for Eternal Rewards though they are great Afflictions yet they are very good as the way though a rough and difficult way to Happiness That prosperity does oftentimes corrupt mens Lives and Manners make them proud and sensual regardless of God and of Religion and so fond of
are in the World either the Disorders of Nature or the Wickedness of Men By the Disorders of Nature I mean unseasonable Weather Earthquakes excessive Heat or Cold great Droughts or immoderate Rains Thunders Lightnings Storms and Tempests which occasion Famines and Plagues great Sickness or a great Mortality these may very reasonably be attributed to the more immediate Hand of God who directs and governs Nature but besides that in such Cases the visible Corruption of Mankind justifies such Severities how rarely do these happen and how few suffer by them in comparison with those many and constant Evils which the wickedness of men every day bring upon themselves and others For most of the other Evils and Calamities of life are visibly owing to mens Sins Bodily Sickness sharp and painful Distempers which shorten mens lives or make them miserable are the common effects of Intemperance Luxury or Wantonness Children inherit the Diseases of their Parents and come into the World only to cry and die or to struggle some few years in the very Kingdom and Territories of Death and to languish under those mortal Wounds which they received with the first beginnings of life Another great evil is Poverty which many men bring upon themselves by Idleness or Prodigality and some expensive Vices It is not in every man's power by the greatest Prudence and Industry to make himself rich for time and chance happeneth to them all but in ordinary Cases Prudence and Industry joined with a religious regard for God and his Providence will preserve a man from the pressing Wants and Necessities of Poverty Others who do not make themselves poor by their own Sins are many times reduced to great poverty by the Sins of other men by Injustice and Oppression and Violence by the Miseries and Calamities of War which brings a thousand Evils with it which makes many helpless Widows and Orphans deprives men of their Patrons and Benefactors drives others from their plentiful Fortunes to seek their Bread in a strange Land plunders Poor and Rich lays a flourishing Countrey desolate puts a stop to Trade makes Provisions dear and leaves no work for the Poor Some others are reduced to Poverty more immediately by the Providence of God without their own fault Those who have no other support but their daily labour are quickly pinched by a long and Expensive Sickness or by the Infirmities of Age or by the loss of their Eyes or Hands or Legs others are undone by Fire or Shipwrecks or the various Accidents of Trade which the most wary and cautious men cannot escape but besides that there are few of these in comparison with the throngs and crowds of Idle Prodigal Self-made Poor God has made provision for all such Cases that no man shall suffer extreme want by commanding the Rich especially to supply the want of such Poor who are properly God's Poor or the Poor of God's making and commanding this under the penalty of their Eternal Salvation and the forfeiture of their own Estates if they prove unjust and unfaithful Stewards So that though God makes some men poor it is the fault of other men if they suffer want The poverty they suffer is owing to the Providence of God the wants and miseries they suffer are owing to the Sins to the Uncharitableness of Men For though the World be unequally divided of which more presently yet there is enough to supply the wants of all the Creatures that are in it and God never intended that any of his Creatures should want necessaries that one man's plenty and abundance should cause another man to starve And thus it is in most of the other miseries of life it is the sin and the folly of Mankind which makes them miserable which is so obvious to every one who will consider it that I need not expatiate on every particular I believe there is no man but will confess that were all men good and vertuous this World would be a very happy place and if the practice of moral and sociable Vertues would make Mankind happy it is no hard matter to guess what it is that disturbs the Peace and Happiness of the World 2dly Let us now consider how unreasonable it is to reproach the Divine Providence with those Evils and Miseries which Mankind bring upon themselves And laying down this as a Principle that most men make themselves miserable it is very easy to defend and justify the Goodness of Providence For these Evils which men complain of are not justly chargeable upon Providence and therefore are un unreasonable Objection against Providence God does not bring these Evils upon Mankind but men bring them upon themselves Supposing the nature of things and the nature of man to be what they now are and that men lived just as they now do there must be the same Miseries in the World that there now are though there were no Providence Though God did not interpose in the government of the World yet Intemperance Luxury and Lust would destroy mens health Sloth and Prodigality and expensive Vices would make men poor Pride Ambition and Revenge would make Quarrels raise Wars and bring all the Calamities of War upon the World if there were no Providence thus it must be for excessive eating and drinking will oppress Nature and those who will take no honest pains to get Money or will spend what they have upon their lusts must be poor and those who will quarrel and fight must take what follows these evils are not owing to Providence because Providence does not bring them no more than Providence makes men wicked Men make themselves wicked and wickedness makes them miserable and we may as well charge the Providence of God with all the wickedness of men as with those miseries which their own wickedness brings upon them Now since most of those evils which are in the World are not justly chargeable upon Providence the Goodness of God is very visible in those very Evils and Calamities which Mankind suffer For 1. God has in ordinary Cases put it into every man's power to preserve himself from most of the greatest evils and miseries of life even from all those which men bring upon themselves by their own sins What could be done more than this for a reasonable Creature to make it his own choice and to put it into his own power whether he will be happy or miserable God has not only in his Laws but in the nature of things set before us life and death happiness and misery All men see what the visible and natural punishments of Sin are and have a natural aversion to those evils and may avoid them if they will this is a plain proof not only of the Holiness of Providence as I observed before in deterring men from sin by those natural evils which attend it but also of the Goodness of Providence by shewing men a plain and natural method how to avoid the miseries of life and to make themselves easy and
meaning of it from what Noah had often told them and this must needs convince them of the terrible Justice and Vengeance of God And the gradual increase of the Flood gave them some time to repent in and to beg God's pardon and I 'm sure this makes a glorious representation both of the Goodness and Wisdom of God in the most terrible Judgment that ever was executed upon the world if we had sufficient reason to believe as there want not some fair appearances of it that God intended the Deluge as well to convince and save all that could be brought to repentance in the Old World as to reform the New Thus since God had determined to destroy that wicked Generation of men and to preserve only Noah and his three Sons to destroy the Earth by a Deluge and to shut up Noah in the Ark was as great or a greater mercy to Noah than his preservation was Let us suppose that instead of drowning the world God had at once destroyed all Mankind by Plague or Thunder from Heaven or some other sudden stroke excepting Noah and his Sons who should be Eye-witnesses of this Terrible Execution and live to see the Earth covered with dead Bodies and none left to bury them and their Cities lie waste and desolate without Inhabitants who can conceive what the horror of such a sight would have been who would have been contented to live in such a world to converse only with the Images of Death and with noisome Carkasses But God in great mercy shut up Noah in the Ark that he should not see the Terror and Consternation of Sinners when the Flood came and he washed away all their dead Bodies into the Caverns of the Earth with all the marks and signs of their Old Habitations that when Noah came out of the Ark he saw nothing but a new and a beautiful World nothing to disturb his imagination no marks or remains of that Terrible Vengeance This indeed destroyed all other living Creatures as well as Sinners excepting those that were in the Ark with Noah but this I suppose is no great objection against Providence that the Creatures which were made for man's use were destroyed with man since God preserved some of each Kind for a new increase and yet the Wisdom of God was very visible in this for had the World been full of Beasts when there were but four men in it the whole Earth would quickly have been possessed by Wild and Savage Creatures which would have made it a very unsafe habitation for men To conclude this Argument the sum of it in short is this When the wickedness of Mankind was grown universal and incurable it became the Wisdom of God to put an end to that Corrupt State and to propagate a new Race of men from a Righteous Stock and to take the most effectual course to possess them with a lasting belief of his Being and Providence and with a religious awe of his Justice and Power To this end he destroyed the Old World with a Deluge of Water and preserved Noah and his Sons in the Ark which had all the advantages imaginable to deter men from sin which brought a Deluge upon the Old World and to encourage the practise of true Piety and Vertue which preserved Noah from the Common Ruin We see in this Example that numbers are no defence against the Divine Justice and therefore no security to Sinners when all flesh had corrupted his ways God destroyed them all nay we see that the more wickedness prevails in the world the nearer it is to destruction that the great multitude of Sinners is so far from being a reasonable temptation and encouragement to sin that it is a fair warning to considering men to separate and distinguish themselves from a wicked world by an exemplary Vertue that God may distinguish them also when he comes to Judgment which an universal corruption of manners shews to be very near and it is a dangerous thing to sin with a multitude when the multitude of Sinners will hasten Vengeance Here we see that though Sinners may be very secure they are never safe as our Saviour observes it was in the days of Noah they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriages until the day that Noah went into the Ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away 24. Matth. 37 38 39. God may delay punishment a great while and seem to take no notice of what is done below till Sinners begin to think that he is such a one as themselves but their Judgment all this while neither slumbers nor sleeps there may be the greatest Calm and the serenest days before the most terrible Earthquakes and the longer God has kept silence the more reason have we to expect a severe and surprizing Vengeance which makes the Psalmist's Advice in such Cases very seasonable Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver And who would be afraid or be ashamed of Noah's singularity to be good alone and to be the single Example of Piety and Vertue that remembers that he alone with his three Sons were saved from the Deluge and he that would be a Noah in the Ark must be a Noah in a wicked World But this is sufficient to justify the Wisdom of Providence as to Noah's Flood which put an end to the Old World and now let us take a view of the New Notwithstanding that late terrible Example of God's Power and Justice in the destruction of the Old World that new Generation of men began to grow very corrupt as God foresaw they would but resolved to try some new methods and not to drown the world any more When Noah had offered a Burnt-offering to the Lord of every clean beast and of every clean fowl after his coming out of the Ark The Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth Neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done 8. Gen. 20 21. The first Exploit we hear of them was their building the Tower of Babel which Story is so briefly related by Moses that we cannot give a perfect account of the Reasons and Circumstances of it The most probable Account seems to be this that Nimrod the Son of Cush and Grandson of Ham in which Line True Religion and Piety first decayed affecting an Universal Empire to prevent the dispersion of the People persuaded them to build a magnificent Seat for his Empire which should be a center of Union for them at what distance soever they should be forced to remove That the whole Earth should be but one Kingdom and Babel the Royal Palace Had this Design succeeded the whole world would have been but one People and the Universal Monarchy in the Line of
and raised an expectation even among the Romans of some great Prince who was to rise in the East as Tacitus observes And though the knowledge of the God of Israel did not reform Nations yet we have reason to believe that it made a great many private Converts who secretly forsook the Idolatries of their Countries and Worshipped the only True God It is reasonable to think it should do so and we must confess it was wisely designed by God for that purpose and some few examples of this kind which we know may satisfie us that there were many more On the Famous Day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles in a Visible appearance of cloven tongues like as of fire there were at Ierusalem great Numbers not only of Iews but of Proselytes out of every Nation Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Iudaea and Cappadocia in Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphilia in Egypt and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene and strangers of Rome Iews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians 2. Acts 9 10 11. Whether these were Circumcised or Uncircumcised Proselites is not said but Proselites they were out of all these Nations who came up at the Feast to Worship at Ierusalem from whence we learn that the dispersion of the Iews into all Nations made great Numbers of Proselites who either undertook the observation of the Mosaical Law by Circumcision and became Iews or at least renounced all the Heathen Idolatries and worshipped no other God but the God of Israel The number of these last seems to have been much greater than that of Circumcised Proselites and if we believe some Learned men there is frequent mention made of them in Scripture under the names of worshipping Greeks and devout men and those which feared God When Saint Paul preached at Thessalonica there consorted with Paul and Silas of the devout Greeks a great multitude 17. Acts 24. The very name of Greeks proves them to be Gentiles not Iews who are always distinguished from each other and that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devout or worshipping Greeks proves that they were the Worshippers of the God of Israel for that Title is never given in Scripture to Idolaters and their frequenting the Iewish Synagogue sufficiently proves it for no Gentiles resorted thither but those who worshipped the God of Israel Of this number was Lydia 16. Acts 14. and Cornelius the Roman Centurion who was not only a devout man and one who feared God himself but all his Family were so too 10. Acts 2. and the Eunuch 8. Acts 27. and almost in every place where St. Paul preached the Gospel we find great numbers of these worshipping Gentiles at Thessalonica and Philippi as you have seen at Corinth 18. Acts 4. at Antioch of Pisidia 13. Acts 43. and we have reason to conclude that thus it was in other places which shews what a great effect the dispersion of the Iews into all these Countries had in making Proselites some to the Iewish Religion but many more to the Worship of the God of Israel which prepared them to receive the Gospel when is was preached to them For they were the Worshippers of the True God and were instructed in the Law and the Prophets as appears from their frequenting the Iewish Synagogues and therefore were in expectation of the Messias and were capable of understanding the Scripture Proofs of the Christian Faith It is certain the first Gentile Converts were of this sort of men who more readily embraced the Faith than the Iews themselves for they had all the preparations for Christianity which the Iews had but none of their Prejudices neither a fondness for their Ceremonial Worship nor for the Temporal Kingdom of the Messias And therefore a very Learned man expounds that Text 13. Acts 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed of these devout and worshipping Gentiles that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready disposed and prepared to receive the Doctrine of Eternal Life by Christ Jesus And thus we are come to the days of Christ whose appearance in the world was the last and most effectual means God used for the recovery of Mankind to consider the Divine Wisdom in the Redemption of the world by Jesus Christ relates to the wisdom of the Christian Religion not of Providence and therefore does not concern my present Argument but if we take a brief review of what I have said we may the better understand in what sense Christ is said to come in the fulness of time for he came as soon as the world was prepared to receive him For I would desire any man who complains that the coming of Christ was too long delayed to tell me in what sooner period it had been proper for him to appear In every Age as I have already shewn God took the wisest methods that the Condition of Mankind would at that time allow to reform the world and if Christ appeared at such a time as the Divine Wisdom saw most fit and proper for his appearance he appeared as soon as he could if we will allow God to dispense his Grace and Favours wisely That he did so no man can doubt who believes the Wisdom and Goodness of God But my business at present is to give you a fair representation of all those wise Advances God made to this last compleating and stupendious Act of Grace and Love God had promised our first Parents immediately upon the Fall That the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head and by vertue of this Promise all truly good men were saved by Christ from the beginning of the world But the more to recommend the Love of God in the Incarnation and Death of our Saviour it seems very congruous to the Divine Wisdom that all other Methods should be first tried for the reforming of Mankind before the coming of Christ and that he should come in such a time when the world was best prepared to receive Him and as little as we understand of the unsearchable Counsels of God it may satisfy us that upon both these accounts Christ appeared in the fulness of time When all flesh had corrupted his ways and there was but one Righteous Family left the only probable means of restoring Piety and Vertue to the world was to destroy all that Wicked Generation of Men and to preserve that Righteous Family to new-people the world When that New Generation began to corrupt themselves God separated them from each other by confounding their Languages and formed them into distinct Societies and Kingdoms which was the most effectual way to stop the Infection and to force on them the practise of many Moral and Civil Vertues When notwithstanding this they all declined to Idolatry God chose Abraham and his Posterity to be his peculiar People to preserve the Faith and Worship of the One Supream God in the world he gave them his Laws committed to