him yet the fault onely is his owne because he willingly turned the Sword against himself When a Physitian according to the true rules of Art shall administer wholesome Physick to his Patient for such or such a disease and this meeting with some hidden distemper or corrupt humour in the body shall cause greater pain or it may be death yet here neither the Physick nor Physitian are to be blamed because the work of both these in their owne nature tended to health and was fit to procure it When Jason had his impostume cured by the thrusting of a Sword into his body by the hand of his enemy this was no thank to his enemy who intended not his health but his death so on the contrary it is no blame to the Physitian that intends health and useth fit meanes to procure it though death follows by accident When the same Sun beames lights upon a Garden and a Dunghil and raise a sweet smell from the one and an ill savour from the other neither the Sun nor the beames thereof are to be blamed because the efficacy of them did extend to both a like but the different effect did arise from the difference of the matter whereon they did light The like instances also may be brought from Scripture when a man is hewing wood with an Axe and the head of the Axe slippeth from the helve and slayes the stander by here neither the Axe nor the man are to be blamed though they have an efficiency in the death of the other because they are onely causes by accident the scope of neither being to hurt the stander by Deut. 19.5 When King Uzziah went into the Temple of the Lord to burn Incense Azariah with fourscore other Priests went in after him and withstood him telling him that it did not belong to him to burne incense to the Lord then it is said Vzziah was wrath 2 Chron. 26.16,17,18,19 Here the Priests were causes of the wrath of the King but no faulty causes because they did but their duty and their intention was onely to hinder him from doing that which was unlawful for him to do but not to provoke him to anger and wrath When the Pharisees were filled with wrath against Christ and the Jews breast with anger against Stephen because they justly reproved them they were accidental causes of their wrath and anger but no faulty causes The Apostle saith that the Law causeth wrath Rom. 4.15 It causeth wrath by meanes of Transgression for transgression onely properly causeth wrath as the Law is the cause of wrath so likewise is the cause of transgression namely an accidental cause yet no faulty cause for the proper end of the Law was neither to procure wrath nor to procure transgression but rather to be a meanes to preserve man from both these by directing him so to walke as he might please God so when he saith that the motions of sin were by the Law that is were stirred up by the Law Rom. 7.5 and that sin took occasion by the Commandement and wrought in him all manner of conceupiscence verse 11. here sin is said to be stirred up by the Law and to take occasion by the Commandement of working concupiscence and therefore the Law hath some kind of efficiency in producing of sin it is an accidentall cause but no faulty cause As the Law is in it selfe holy and just and good Rom. 7.12 so it is good that it should be brought to mans understanding by the knowledge of it and to his will and affections by the right application of it but the more this is done he being lest to himselfe the more doth it irritate and stir up corruption in him and his will by reason of the contrariety that is in it to the holy Law of God waxeth so much more stubborne and rebellious as the Law is more closely applyed to it When the Apostle saith that beleevers are not under the Law Rom. 6.14 and that they are delivered from the Law that being dead namely that corruption wherein we are held Rom. 7.6 this must needs be understood of the accidentall worke of the Law whereby by meanes of our corruption it stirs up sin in us for it cannot be understood of the Law as it is a rule of obedience because then the Law should be wholly abolished to which the Apostle gives an absit do we then make the Law of none effect through faith God forbid Rom. 3.31 neither can it be understood in this place of the condemning power of the Law for though it be true that believers are freed from the curse and condemnation of the Law yet this is an effect of justification and hath reference to that whereas the subject of the Apostles discourse in these two Chapters where he speakes of freedom from the Law namely the sixth and seventh is altogether about sanctification and he brings many arguments to prove the necessary connexion of these two together and this amongst the rest because they were not under the Law they were delivered from it they must not suffer sin to raigne in their mortall because they were not under the Law but under grace cap. 6.14 they were delivered from the Law lust and concupiscence being kild in them chap. 7.6 How were they not under the Law how were they delivered from it So far as they were truly sanctified they were no longer under the accidentall worke of the Law whereby it had power to irritate and stir up the rebellion and corruption of their natures and so to cause sin more to abound in them being implanted into Christ and made partakers of the vertue of his death and resurrection their old man was crucified and their body of sin destroyed so as they should no longer serve sin as they did before chap. 6.6 while they were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the Law which were stirred up by having the Law brought nearer to them did worke in their members to bring forth fruit unto death but they were delivered from the Law from that accidentall worke of the Law that being dead wherein they were held their sinfull lusts being in part mortified that they should serve God in newnesse of spirit and not in the oldnesse of the letter chap. 7.5.6 by both which places it appeares that the Law hath power to stir up sin and corruption in those that are in the a state of corruption that remaine as yet altogether unsanctified and so it is an accidentall cause of sin yet no faulty cause that remaining still holy and just and good In this sence likewise Christ saith of himselfe that be came not to send peace but the Sword that he came to set a man at variance against his Father and the daughter against the Mother Mat. 10.34,35 that he came to set fire on the earth Luk. 12.49 How is this to be taken that Christ came not to send peace but the sword is he not the Author and
A TREATISE TENDING To shew that the Just and Holy God may have a Hand in the unjust actions of Sinfull Men And that in such a way as shall be without any impeachment of his Justnesse and Holinesse or Diminution of his Power and PROVIDENCE By Thomas Whitfield Minister of the Gospel The Lord is just in all his wayes and holy in all his workes Psal 145.17 How unsearchable are his Judgements and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11.33 LONDON Printed for John Wright at the Kings Head in the Old-Bayley 1653. To the Right Honorable Edward Lord Mountague of Boughton a fruitfull increase of piety prosperity and all true happinesse both here and hereafter My Noble Lord IT would not a little conduce to the happinesse of our lives if our thoughts which are the immediate and to oft abortive issue of our minds were rightly employed and improved then are they well imployed when they are conversant about the most excellent object when they are taken up with the contemplation of the wisedome power providence justice holines and other excellent attributes of him who is excellency it selfe in the fruition of whom is our highest felicity this made the sweet Singer of Israel to say How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the summe of them Psa 139. As if he had said the thoughts of thy wisdome and wonderfull workings of thy providence things which before he had mentioned are of great price and worth being things of incomprehensible excellency yea they are as rare as precious the minds of most men being so seldom taken up with them I am bold to present to your Lordship this small Treatise that it might give you occasion to entertain such thoughts as these as also that it might be a testimony of my thankefull acknowledgement of all that honorable respect I have received from you Thus humbly imploring the Father of mercies that he would farther enrich you with the true treasure inable you inwardly with the graces of his spirit proportionably to those outward endowments wherewith he hath been pleased to dignifie you I resign you to his mercy rest Your Honors in all due observance and Christian service Tho. Whitfield The Preface IT hath been a question much controverted in all ages how the good and holy God can have a hand in the great evils that are done in the world Quomodo id non fieret praeter Dei voluntate quod fit contra voluntatem as Austin speaks this is done miro ineffabili modo as he saith this one of the mysteries and depths of divinity worthy our searching into Scripture expressions for the most part hold this forth by way of action As when it is said that God hardned Pharaohs heart that he sent Joseph into Egypt that he took away Jobs Cattle which were taken away by the Chaldaeans and Subaeans and the like Papists and Arminians confine this onely to a way of permission without action and calumniate our Orthodox divines as if they made God the Author of sin because they bring it within the compasse of his will and decree and make him to have a kind of action in it Thus Bellarmine chargeth Zunighlius Calvin Peter Martyr Beza The like impuration also Arminius seeks to fasten on Mr. Perkins I know well that it is far beyond my ability to untie this knot as may give satisfaction to all but if I may contribute any beame of light towards the clearer discovery of Gods manner of proceeding in the production of fin If I may helpe to vindicate the innocency and Orthodoxie of our worthy Writers from the unjust aspersion of their adversaries especially if I may in any sort vindicate the All wise and All-working providence and power of God from that overmuch streightning and diminution which hath been put upon them for the maintaining of his justice If I say I may by this discourse be helpefull any of these wayes I shall attaine the end which I aime at Whereunto I shall onely promise these things briefly 1. That this discourse is not so much intended for those of the learned sort who are better able to informe these lines as for such ingenuous Christians who when they meet with those Scriptures wherein by the sound of the words God seems to be made the proper cause of sin they stumble at them and not being able to satisfie themselves desire help this way 2. I shall desire the indifferent Reader that if in this discourse he shall meet with that which may seem to go higher then many of our Divines have done in making God to have an active hand in the actions of sinfull men he would forbeare either to reject or censure till he hath weighed the strength of the arguments brought to prove the thing propounded 3. If I shall let fall any thing in this Treatise which shall not be agreeable to cleare evidence of Scripture and this be made appear to be so I shall not refuse to unsay any thing which I have said and readily to imbrace any truth though not agreeing with my former apprehensions The good Spirit of truth make us all lovers of truth and lead us into all those wayes of truth which may bring us at length to the enjoying of him who is the author of truth Amen Exodus 9.12 And the Lord hardned Pharaohs heart c. IT is a principall priviledge belonging to the Covenant of Grace and a speciall promise which God hath made unto his people that he would take away their stony heart from them and give unto them hearts of flesh Ezek. 36.26 that is that he would take away the hardness of their hearts How God should take away the hardness of heart in some and yet harden the hearts of others is not easie to apprehend The scope of this Treatise is to shew how the just and holy God may have a hand in the sinfull actions of men and that not onely by way of permission but also by some kind of operation and working and yet this be done without any diminution of his justice or violation of his holinesse but still he remaine to be most just in all his waies and holy in all his works CHAP. I. Shewing what hardness of heart is HArdness of heart may be said to be an evill quality of the soul which makes it in a man insensible of the evill which he doth or the evill which he shall suffer when either he hath no feeling of it or feels it not in that measure which he should do then is his heart affected with hardness It is mans duty to be sensible of the sin which he commits and of the suffering which will most certainly follow after God hath placed in his soul that faculty of Conscience for this very end and purpose to give him warning and make him take notice of both these that he might be affected accordingly Now when after the comitting of sin there are no affections of grief sorrow