there was a Power and therefore a God above them all whom all Mankind ought to fear and worship This convinc'd Nebuchadnezzar of the Power of the God of Israel when he had delivered Shadrach Meshach and Abed-nego from the fiery Furnace he made a Decree That every people nation and langage which spake amiss against the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abed-nego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort Thus when God had delivered Daniel from the Lion's Den Darius made a Decree That in every dominion of his kingdom men should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel For he is the living God and stedfast for ever and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall be even unto the end He delivereth and rescueth and worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth who hath delivered Daniel from ihe power of the lions Both these Kings were convinced by these great and wonderful Works that the God of Israel was the Supream God but Nebuchadnezzar's Decree only forbids men to blaspheme God Darius seems to command all People to worship him for to tremble and fear before him signifies a religious veneration but neither of them appointed any solemn Worship to be paid him much less did they forbid the Worship of any other Gods But a little consideration would have carried them farther for those mighty Works which proved a Power superior to all Gods proved a Sovereign Providence too that this Supream God had not so committed the Government of the world to any Ministers or inferior Deities but that he reserved the supream disposal of all things in his own hands as Nebuchadnezzar was convinced that His dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him What dost thou This cut off all reasonable Pretences of paying Divine Worship to their Country-goods for if there be a Superior Power and Providence over them at most they could be only Ministers of the Divine Will and therefore could have no title to Divine Honours no more than Ministers of State have to the Royal Dignity And it was very reasonable to conclude this when they saw that this Supream God would not suffer Israel whom he had chosen for his peculiar People to worship any other God besides himself This was not unknown to the Egyptians but was more manifest in After-ages when God so severely punished them for their Idolatry and was made evident to Nebuchadnezzar and Darius when God delivered Shadrach Meshach and Abednego out of the fiery Furnace who refused to worship the Golden Image which he had set up and delivered Daniel from the power of the Lions when he was cast into the Lions Den for praying to his God This shews the strange power of Prejudice and Custom but yet we must confess that this was wisely designed by God for the cure of Polytheism and Idolatry Having thus vindicated and explained the Wisdom of Providence both with respect to the removal of Israel out of the Land of Canaan into Egypt and the hard bondage they suffered there and their deliverance out of Egypt with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm with Signs and Wonders and Miracles let us now follow them into the Wilderness God having chose Israel for his peculiar People and delivered them out of Egypt before he shewed them openly to the world under such a peculiar Character it was necessary first to form their Manners to take care that they should own him for their God and behave themselves as it became so glorious a Relation this could not be done in Egypt where they were oppressed by hard bondage and therefore God first leads them into the Wilderness remote from the conversation of all other People and upon all accounts a fit place both to instruct and try them I do not intend as I said before to inquire into the Mystical Reasons of those various Providences with which God exercised them in the Wilderness to which our Saviour and his Apostles so often refer and which they apply to the Gospel-state but shall only consider the Wisdom of Providence as to the external and visible conduct of that People to make them fit to be owned before all the World for his peculiar People They had lived two hundred years in Egypt and were tinctur'd with the Idolatries and had learnt the corrupt Manners of that People and had all that meanness and stupidity and perverseness of humour that a state of Servitude and Bondage is apt to create of which we have too many visible Instances in their behaviour towards Moses All this was to be corrected before their entrance into Canaan which will give us the reasons of some very wonderful Providences The first remarkable thing to this purpose to be observed is God's delivering the Law to them with all the most formidable Solemnities in an audible Voice from Mount Sinai Which Moses tells them was such a thing as was never known before since the day that God created man upon the earth Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as thou hast heard and live And the use Moses makes of it is very natural to confirm them in the Belief and Worship of the One Supream God Vnto thee it was shewed that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God there is none else besides him Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice that he might instruct thee and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath there is none else For what can convince men that there is One Supream God if such a terrible Appearance as that on Mount Sinai and the Law delivered in an audible Voice from Heaven will not convince them Numa pretended to receive his Laws from the Goddess Aegeria as some other Lawgivers pretended to do the like but no man knew any thing of it but themselves but here a whole Nation heard God speak to them and saw such an Awful Appearance upon the Mount as made Moses himself fear and tremble I desire any man to tell me how God who is a Pure Invisible Mind could possibly give a more visible Demonstration of his Presence and Power I desire the Wittiest and most Philosophical Atheists only for Experiment sake to suppose the Truth of that Relation which Moses gives us of this matter and that they themselves had been present at Mount Sinai had seen the Smoke and Fire
two distinct and different Acts of Power to Make and to Preserve For how can any man know this who neither knows how God creates nor how he preserves Thus much is certain That to Create is to give being to that which was not before to Preserve is to continue that in being which was made before and when any thing is once created it can never be new created till it fall into nothing again for to create is to make out of nothing not to make a thing which already is but by what Acts of Power either of these is done we cannot tell nor are we concerned to know for what way soever this is done we equally depend on God we live and subsist in him But there is one thing fit to be observed That this Act of Preservation which consists in upholding all things in being is fixt by a perpetual and unchangeable Decree That though God will dissolve this present frame of things and it may be cast the World into a new Mould yet nothing that is made neither Matter nor Spirit shall be annihilated or reduced into nothing again This I think we may safely conclude from the Promises and Threatnings of Eternal Rewards and Punishments which supposes that both Good and Bad men shall live for ever the one to be happy the other to be miserable to Eternity and then we may reasonably conclude That the World whatever Changes it may suffer will continue as long the Inhabitants of it do This is the first Act of what we call Preserving Providence to uphold all things in being in distinction as I observed before from those several Acts of Preservation which concern a Governing Providence A Second Act of Preserving Providence is what the Schools call God's Co-operation and Concourse with Creatures in all their Actions that we not only live and have our being but that we move in God that whatever we do we do by a natural Power received from God and this is as certain as that we have our being in him for if we live we must move in him But then whether God's Co operation and Concourse be a different Act from his preserving the natural Vertues and Powers of Action is a nicer and more intricate Speculation and neither the thing nor the reason of it is easy to be conceived Natural Powers are Internal Principles of Action when a Creature acts from an inward Principle of Nature but if these Natural Powers while they are preserved in their full force and vigour by God can do nothing themselves without a new extrinsick determining motion from God then they seem to be no Natural Powers for they cannot act by Nature if this be true the Fire don't burn by nature for though God preserves its nature it cannot burn without some new co-operating Power which is not in its nature A man don't reason and judge chuse and refuse by Nature for though God preserve his Natural Powers and Faculties of Understanding and Will yet he can neither understand nor will unless he be moved acted determined by God This seems to make the whole World a meer Apparition and empty Scene which has nothing real Whatever we see done in the World is not done by Creatures who seem to do it for they are only acted like Machines not from the Internal Principles and Powers of Nature but from External Motion But God does every thing himself by an immediate Power even all the Contradictions and Contrarieties we see in the World This is a very great difficulty which I will not undertake to determine one way or other but thus much I think we may safely say That if we will attribute any thing to Creatures if we will allow that they ever act from a Principle of Nature we must confess that God co-operates only to the natural Power of Action that is That he only enables them to act according to their Natures without changing influencing determining their Natures otherwise than these Natural Powers would naturally act For this is all that is necessary to Action when God has created the Natural Powers and this is all the co-operation that can belong to God as the Maker and Preserver of all things Whatever is more than this as I acknowledge there is a great deal more that God does it belongs to a Governing not to a Preserving Providence God does a great deal more than merely co-operate with our Natural Powers to perform Natural Actions but this he does as a Governour not merely as a Preserver The not distinguishing of which has occasioned great mistakes in the Doctrine of Providence as to show this briefly God has endowed all Creatures with such Natural Powers and Vertues as may answer the End for which they were made He has made the Sun to shine to enlighten and refresh the World the Fire to burn the Earth to bring forth all sorts of Herbs and Grass and Corn and Fruit the Vapours to ascend out of the Earth to purge and fan the Air with Winds and to fall down again in fruitful Showers every Herb and Flower and Tree has its peculiar Seeds to propagate its Kind as all living Creatures have Now as it had been to little purpose for God to have made a World without upholding it in being for Creatures can no more preserve than they can make themselves so it had been to as little purpose to have endowed all Creatures with such Vertues and Powers as belong to their several Natures without such a natural Co-operation whatever that be as shall enable their Natural Powers to act and to attain the ends of their Natures and therefore God established this Natural Concourse and Co-operation to actuate all the Powers of Nature by a perpetual Law which is that Blessing God bestowed upon all Creatures at the time of the Creation For though this Blessing to Encrease and Multiply and to replenish the Sea and Air and Earth which preserves and invigorates the Powers of Nature be expressed only of living Creatures the Fish and Fowls and Beasts and Men yet it equally belongs to the whole Creation as will be easily granted and makes Nature regular and constant in all its Motions and Productions But there are other Acts belong to God's Government even of the Material World as I shall shew you more hereafter As to direct the Vertues and Influences of Nature or to suspend and restrain them To make the Earth fruitful or barren the Air wholsome or Pestilential to withhold the Dews and Showers of Heaven or to give the former and latter Rain in its Season to cause it to Rain upon one City and not upon another and so to temper the Influences of Nature as to punish the Wickedness or to reward the Obedience of Mankind these are Acts of Government and of a quite different kind from actuating the Powers of Nature to attain their Ends and to do what they were made for Thus to consider the Rational World God has endowed Man
most acquainted with without any certain and periodical returns prove that it is not all Mechanism for Mechanical Motions are fixt and certain and either always the same or regular or uniform in their Changes It is of great use to us to understand this which teaches us what we may expect from God and what we must attribute to him in the government of Nature We must not expect in ordinary Cases that God should reverse the Laws of Nature for us that if we leap into the fire it shall not burn us or into the water it shall not drown us and by the same reason the Providence of God is not concerned to preserve us when we destroy our selves by Intemperance and Lust for God does not work Miracles to deliver men from the evil Effects of their own Wickedness and Folly But all the kind Influences of Heaven which supply our wants and fill our hearts with food and gladness are owing to that good Providence which commands Nature to yield her encrease and those disorders of Nature which afflict the world with Famines and Pestilence and Earthquakes are the effects of God's Anger and Displeasure and are ordered by him for the punishment of a wicked world We must all believe this or confess that we mock God when we bless him for a healthful Air and fruitful Seasons or deprecate his Anger when we see the visible Tokens of his Vengeance in the disorders of Nature For did not God immediately interpose in the government of Nature there would be no reason to beg his Favour or to deprecate his Anger upon these Accounts 2dly Let us consider God's Government of Accidental Causes or what we call Chance and Accident which has a large Empire over human Affairs not that Chance and Accident can do any thing properly speaking for whatever is done has some proper and Natural Causes which does it but what we call Accidental Causes is rather such an Accidental Concurrence of different Causes as produces unexpected and undesigned Effects as when one Man by Accident loses a purse of Gold and another Man walking in the Fields without any such expectation by as great an Accident finds it And how much of the Good or Evil that happens to us in this World is owing to such Undesigned Surprizing Accidental Events every man must know who has made any Observations on his own or other mens Lives and Fortunes The Wise Man observed this long since 9. Eccl. 11. I returned and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong neither yet bread to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding nor yet favour to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all Some unusual and casual Events change the fortunes of men and disappoint the most proper and natural means of Success What should conquer in a Race but Swiftness or win the Battel but strength What should supply mens wants and increase Riches but Wisdom and Understanding in Human affairs What more likely way to gain the Favour of Princes and People than a dextrous and skilful Application and Address And yet the Preacher observed in his days and the observation holds good still that it is not always thus Time and chance some favourable Junctures and unseen Accidents are more Powerfull than all Human Strength or Art or Skill Now what an ill state were Mankind in did not a Wise and Merciful Hand Govern what we call Chance and Fortune How can God Govern the World or Dispose of mens Lives and Fortunes without Governing Chance all unseen unknown and surprizing Events which disappoint the Counsels of the Wise and in a moment unavoidably change the whole scene of Human Affairs Upon what little unexpected things do the Fortunes of Men of Families of whole Kingdoms turn And unless these little unexpected things are Governed by God some of the greatest Changes in the World are exempted from his Care and Providence This is reason enough to believe That if God Governs the World he Governs Chance and Fortune that the most unexpected Events how Casual soever they appear to us are foreseen and ordered by God Such Events as these are the properest Objects of God's Care and Government because they are very great instruments of Providence many times the greatest things are done by them and they are the most visible demonstration of a Superiour Wisdom and Power which Governs the World By these means God disappoints the Wisdom of the Wise and defeats the Power of the Mighty Frustrateth the tokens of the liars and maketh diviners mad turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish 44. Isai. 25. Did Strength and Wisdom always prevail as in a great measure they would were it not for such unseen disappointments Mankind would take less notice of Providence and would have less reason to do it since they would be the more absolute Masters of their own Fortunes a powerful combination of Sinners managed by some crafty Politicians would govern the World But the uncertain turnings and changes of Fortune keep Mankind in awe make the most prosperous and powerful Sinners fear an unseen Vengeance and give security to Good men against unseen Evils which cannot befall them without the order and appointment of God That there are a great many accidental and casual Events which happen to us all and which are of great consequence to the Happiness or Miseries of our Lives all men see and feel that we cannot defend our selves from such unseen Events which we know nothing of till we feel them is as manifest as that there are such Events and what so properly belongs to the Divine Care as that which we our selves can take no care of The Heathens made Fortune a Goddess and attributed the government of all things to Her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereby they only signified the government of Providence in all casual and fortuitous Events and if Providence governs any thing it must govern Chance which governs almost all things else and which none but God can govern As far as Human Prudence and Foresight reaches God expects we should take care of our selves and if we will not he suffers us to reap the fruits of our own Folly but when we cannot take care of our selves we have reason to expect and hope that God will take care of us in other Cases Human Prudence and Industry must concur with the Divine Providence in Matters of Chance and Accident Providence must act alone and do all it self for we know nothing of it so that all the Arguments for Providence do most strongly conclude for God's government of all Casual Events And the Scripture does as expresly attribute all such Events to God as any other Acts of Providence and Government In the Law of Moses when a man killed his Neighbour by accident God is said to deliver him into his hands 21. Exod. 12 13. He that smiteth a man so that he die shall
and in annexing such rewards and punishments to the observation or to the breach of these Laws as may reasonably invite him to obedience and deter him from sin and as this degenerate state requires in laying such external restraints on him and affording him such internal assistances of Grace as the Divine Wisdom sees proportioned to the weakness and corruption of Human Nature and when this is done it becomes God to leave him to his own choice and to reward or punish him as he deserves for a forced Vertue deserves no Reward and a necessity of sinning will reasonably excuse from Punishment The nature of a reasonable Creature of Vertue and Vice of Rewards and Punishments represent it as very becoming the Wisdom and Justice of God to leave every man to the freedom of his own choice to do good or evil to deserve Rewards or Punishments as far as he himself is only concerned in it But when we consider man in Society the case is altered for when the good or evil of their actions extend beyond themselves to do good or hurt to other men the Providence of God becomes concerned either to hinder or to permit and order it as may best serve the Wise Ends of Government as those other men who are like to be the better or the worse for it have deserved well or ill of God Tho God has made man a free Agent yet we must not think that he has made such a Creature as he himself can't govern No man doubts but that God can when he pleases by an Irresistible Power turn mens hearts and chain up their Passions and alter their Counsels the only Question is When it is fit for God to do this And no man can question the fitness of it when the good Government of the world requires it God makes no man good or bad vertuous or vicious by a perpetual and irresistible force for this contradicts the nature of Vertue and Vice which requires a Freedom and Liberty of Choice but God may by a secret and irresistible influence upon mens minds even force them to do that good which they have no inclination to do and restrain them from doing that evil which otherwise they would have done which does not make them Good men but makes them the Instruments of Providence in doing good to men and God who is the Soveraign Lord of all Creatures may when he sees fit press those men if I may so speak to his Service who would not do good upon choice This shows the difference between the Government of Grace and Providence the first has relation to Vertue and Vice to make men good to change their Natures and sinful Inclinations into habits of Vertue and therefore admits of no greater force than what is consistent with the freedom of Choice and the nature of Virtue and Vice but the Government of Providence respects the external Happiness or Misery Rewards or Punishments of Men or Nations and to this purpose God may use what Instruments he pleases and exercise such Authority over Nature or Men as is necessary to accomplish his own Wise Counsels of Mercy or Judgment And it was necessary to premise this distinction because the confounding these two has occasioned great difficulties and mistakes both in the Doctrine of Grace and Providence Let us then now more particularly consider How God governs Mankind so as to make them the Instruments and Ministers of his Providence in the world The Methods of the Divine Wisdom are Infinite and Unsearchable and we must not expectfully to comprehend all the Secrets and Mysteries of God's Government but something we may know of this enough to teach us to reverence God and to trust in him and to vindicate his Providence from the Cavils of Ignorance and Infidelity which is as much as is useful for us to know And I shall reduce what I have to say to Two General Heads 1. The Government of mens Minds of their Wills their Passions and Counsels 2. The Government of their Actions 1. God's Government of the Minds of Men their Wills and Passions and Counsels for these are the great Springs of Action and as free a Principle as the Mind of man is it is not ungovernable it may be governed and that without an Omnipotent Power against its own Byas and without changing its inclinations and what may be done certainly God can do and when it is necessary to the Ends of Providence we may conclude he will do it Let a man be never so much bent upon any Project yet hope or fear some present great advantage or great inconvenience the powerful intercession of Friends a sudden change of circumstances the improbability of success the irreparable mischief of a defeat and a thousand other considerations will divert him from it and how easie is it for God to imprint such thoughts upon mens minds with an irresistible Vigor and Brightness that it shall be no more in their power to do what they had a mind to than to resist all the Charms of Riches and Honours than to leap into the Fire and to chuse Misery and Ruin That thus it is the Scripture assures us 21. Prov. 1. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of waters he turneth it whither soever he will And if the King's heart be in the hand of the Lord we cannot doubt but he hath all other mens hearts in his hand also and can turn and change them as he pleases Thus the Wise man tells us A man's heart deviseth his ways but the Lord directeth his steps 16. Prov. 9. Men consult and advise what to do but after all God steers and directs them which way he pleases for tho there are many devices in a man's heart nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand 19. Prov. 21. Which made the Wise man conclude Mans goings are of the Lord how then shall a man understand his own ways 20. Prov. 24. That is God has such an Absolute Government of the hearts and actions of men when his Providence is concerned in the Event that no man can certainly know what he himself shall chuse and do for God can in an instant alter his mind and make him steer a very different course from what he intended as the Prophet Ieremiah assures us I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps 10. Jer 23. And Solomon tells us something more strange than this The preparation of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. 16. Prov. 1. or as the Hebrew seems to signifie the preparation of the heart is from man a man premeditates and resolves what he will say but notwithstanding that the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. When he comes to speak he shall say nothing but what God pleases Which sayings must not be expounded to an universal sense that it is always thus but that