but we must represent God to our minds under a more lovely and charming Character as the Universal Parent who has a tender and compassionate regard for all his Creatures Who does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men who corrects us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness and proportions the severity of his Discipline either to the ends of Publick Government or to our Spiritual wants Such an Idea of Providence as this will reconcile us even to Sufferings when we know they are good for us and intended for our good When we know that it is a kind hand which strikes we shall kiss the Rod and submit to Correction with as equal a mind as we do to the prescription of a Physician how severe the methods of cure are Were our minds thoroughly possessed with this belief how easy would it make us under some of the most severest trials Nothing indeed can make pain easy for that is matter of sense but a good perswasion of the Providence of God will fortify our minds to bear it and that is much the same thing whether our pains be less or our minds stronger But as for other Afflictions which depend very much upon Opinion and afflict us more or less as we apprehend them a firm belief of the Wisdom and Goodness of God who inflicts them on us will in a great measure cure the pain and trouble of them We have it may be lost some part of our Estates a dear Friend or near Relation a Child it may be an only Child but all these are uncertain Comforts and when the case is doubtful whether it be good for us or not we ought in all reason to acquiesce in the Divine Will and conclude that is best for us which God does because he is infinitely wiser than we are and more concerned for our happiness if we will make a wise use of his Providence than we our selves are Nay this will teach us an implicit faith in God beyond our own prospect of things though we can no more guess the reasons of our Sufferings than Iob could yet while we believe God to be wise and good we are secure a wise God can never mistake and a good God will consult our happiness and that is reason enough in the most difficult and perplext cases to submit patiently to Providence Secondly There is a submission also due to the Will of God with respect to the several states conditions and relations of life which the Divine Providence hath placed us in We can no more chuse our own state and condition of life than we can chuse when and where to be born what our Parents shall be how they shall educate us and dispose of us in the world what success we shall have what Friends or what Enemies we shall meet with what Changes and Revolutions we shall see either in our private Fortunes or in publick Affairs Nothing of all this is at our own choice and therefore whatever our Circumstances are any farther than it is our own fault they are not imputable to us Now since we cannot chuse our own Fortune nor order Events as we please the only submission we can owe to God in such cases is humbly to acquiesce in what God does and faithfully to discharge the duties which belong to that state and condition and circumstances of life which the Providence of God has placed us in This is to submit to the Providential Will of God to submit to the disposals of Providence and to submit to God's disposal is to act in that sphere and station which Providence assigns us and to comply with the Laws of it And thus the Providence of God though it be not the rule of our Actions yet may change our duty and must do so as it changes our condition for every condition and relation having peculiar duties belonging to it our duty must change as our condition does The duties of Princes and Subjects of Magistrates and private Men of a low and mean and of an exalted and plentiful Fortune of Parents and Children of Masters and Servants are of a very different nature and as these relations change our duty must change with them and when we conform our selves to our condition we submit to Providence which gives us no new rules of life but may impose new duties on us by putting us into a new state This ought to be carefully considered because there are dangerous extreams on both sides Some think the visible appearances of Providence are sufficient to alter our duty without changing our state and relations that the Successes of Providence will justify such Actions as neither the Laws of God nor men will justify and that to serve Providence when a fair opportunity is put into their hands they may dispence with the most known and unquestionable duties Others have such a just abhorrence of this which overturns all Divine and Human Laws that they run into the contrary extream and for fear of allowing that Providence can change our duty and alter the nature of good and evil they will not allow that Providence can so much as change our relations and state of life and with such a change of our condition change our duty For no man can deny but that if our condition and relations are changed our duty must change too To give a plain Example of this When Saul pursued David and God delivered Saul into David's hands while he was asleep in the Cave The men of David said unto him behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou mayst do to him as it shall seem good to thee Here is an Argument from Providence to justify David's killing Saul whom God had so wonderfully delivered into his hands but David did not think that Providence would justify him against a Divine Law Providence gave him an opportunity to kill Saul but the Divine Law forbad him to take it for Saul was his King still and he was his Subject And therefore He said unto his men the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Lord 's anointed 1 Sam. 24. 4 6. The same Answer David gave to Abishai when he found Saul the second time sleeping in the Trench And Abishai said to David God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day now therefore let me smite him I pray thee with the spear even to the earth at once and I will not smite him the second time And David said to Abishai destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless 1 Sam. 26. 8 9. Providence had not unkinged Saul nor made David King that is it had not altered the relation and therefore could not absolve him from the duties of his relation from those duties which a Subject owes to his
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
and not only restored Peace to the Christian Church but made Christianity the Religion of the Empire And if the Wisdom of Providence consists in giving us wise Instructions I am sure this furnishes us with many When things are reduced to that extremity as to be past Human relief it makes it visible to all the world that it is God's doing Where there is Force against Force and Counsels against Counsels though Providence determines the Event Human Power and Counsels very often monopolize the Glory and leave God out but when God does that which men are so far from being able to do that they can't think it possible to be done this awakens a sense of an Invisible Power and makes the Divine Glory and Providence known to the world When God exposes his own Church and People to such a suffering state and threatens them with Final Ruin it is a severe Summons to repentance and warns them not to trust in vain words crying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord for God will purge his own House and no External Relation or Priviledges shall secure us from Vengeance if we walk not worthy of that holy vocation wherewith we are called But such Deliverances as these give us great reason never to despair they teach us That no case is desperate when God will save and therefore the less expectation we at any time have of Human Succors the more earnestly ought we to implore the Divine Protection and learn to live upon Faith and Trust in God When Good men are reduced to such Extremities it makes them more fervent and importunate in their Prayers more serious in their Repentance more sensible how much they stand in need of God and such surprizing and unexpected Deliverances inflame their Devotions make their Praises and Thanksgivings more hearty and sincere which gives great glory to God and betters their own minds 5thly The sudden Revolutions of the world and the various and unexpected Changes of mens Fortunes which is thought one great Calamity of Human Life is intended by God to instruct us in some necessary and excellent parts of Wisdom Some Crafty Politicians like Mariners steer their course as the Wind blows and change as it changes They have no other Rule for their Actions but to guess as well as they can where their advantage or safety lies but Providence very often disappoints them in this by such hasty changes and short turns as make them giddy and this teaches us to act by Rule not by a politick foresight of Events our Rule can never deceive us what is just and right and true is always safe but our Politicks may for things may not go as we expect The various changes of mens Fortunes teach us to treat all men with great humanity not to be insolent when we are prosperous nor to despise our Inferiors for we know not what they nor we may be before we die Civility and modesty of conversation is always safe but pride and insolence may create us Enemies who may in time how mean soever they are at present be able to return our insolence The Divine Providence so orders Human Affairs as to teach us most of the wisest Rules of Human Life both for our Religious and Civil Conversation and this I take to be a manifest proof of the Wisdom of Providence 6thly The Wisdom of Providence is often seen in the wise mixture and temperament of Mercy and Judgment when he corrects but not destroys humbles but does not cast down when he makes us sensible of his displeasure and gives us just reason to fear but without despair when as the Psalmist speaks He lifts up and casts down keeps us under the discipline of hopes and fears and tries our Faith and Patience and Submission and both threatens and invites us to repentance by the interchangeable Scenes of prosperous and adverse Events Thus the Psalmist tells us it is with good men The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way though he fall he shall not utterly be cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand 37. Psal. 23 24. Thus 94. Psal 14 15. For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance but judgment shall return unto righteousness and all the upright in heart shall follow it And he proves this by his own Experience Vnless the Lord had been my help my soul had almost dwelt in silence When I said my feet slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up 17 18 Verses An Example of this ye have 27. Isaiah Hath he smitten them that is Israel as he smote those that smote him He smote Israel but not as he smote the Enemies of Israel Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him In measure when it shooteth forth wilt thou debate with it He stayeth his rough wind in the day of his east wind This is to sing to God of Mercy and of Judgment to learn righteousness by the things which we suffer but still to trust in his help CHAP. IX Concerning those Duties which we owe to Providence I Have now finished what I intended with relation to the Nature and Justification of Providence and all that remains is to explain and enforce those Duties which we owe to Providence Natural Religion is founded on the belief of a God and a Providence for if there be no God there is no Object of our Worship if there be no Providence there is no Reason for our Worship But a God that made the world and takes care of all the Creatures that are in it deserves the Praises and Adorations of all A God who neither made the world nor governs it is nothing to us we have no relation to him he has nothing to do with us nor we with him but a God in whom we live and move and have our being is the Supream Object of our love and fear and reverence and hope and trust and of all those religious and devout Affections which are due to our Maker and Soveraign Lord. This is so plain that it is enough to name it but the nature and extent of those Duties which we owe to Providence deserves a more particular consideration As to instance in some of the chief 1. To take notice of the Hand of God in every thing that befalls us to attribute all the Evils we suffer and all the good things we enjoy to his Soveraign Will and Appointment This is the foundation of all the other Duties which we owe to Providence and the general neglect of this makes us defective in all the rest Now if the Divine Providence has the absolute government of all Events you must confess it your duty to take notice of Providence and to acknowledge God in every thing for this is only applying the general Doctrine of Providence to particular Events without which particular application the general belief of a
his Promise does honour to his Truth and Faithfulness but to trust God to chuse our condition for us to do for us either what we desire or what he likes better argues such an entire dependence on God and an absolute resignation to his Will with a perfect assurance of his Wisdom and Goodness that it is impossible a Creature can express a greater veneration for the Divine Perfections I am sure we do not think that any man does us so much honour by taking our word for what we expresly promise to do for him as that man does who commits all his Concernments with a secure confidence to our disposal without knowing what we intend to do But for a more particular explication of this let us consider what this trust in God signifies and what security it gives us 1. What this trust in God signifies since it does not signify an assurance that God will do what we desire what is the meaning of it Now this signifies 1. That all the Good we hope for or expect we expect from God alone that we have no other reliances and dependences but only on God though we justly value the kindness of our Friends and the Patronage and Protection of Princes and powerful Favourites and thank God when he raises up such Friends and Patrons to us yet our entire trust and hope is in God That since we know that all Events are in God's hands we are sure none can help us but by God's appointment and we desire to be at the disposal of none but God and therefore in Scripture our trust in God is always opposed to our trust in men in Princes in Human Counsels Policy or strength It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes 118. Psalm 8 9 Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God they are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright 20. Psalm 6 7 8. All wise men are greatly satisfied and pleased to see the probable means and instruments of their safety and defence because God ordinarily works by means but Good men know that they are but instruments in God's hands and no Wise man puts his trust in the instruments be they never so good but in the Workman Thus much our trust in God must necessarily signifie that we have no reliance but only on God who is the Supreme Disposer of all things that we depend as entirely on him as if there were no second and intermediate Causes which are to be employed and used but not to be the final Objects of our trust 2dly Our trust in God signifies our absolute dependence on the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God to take care of us It is a committing our selves to God putting our selves absolutely into his hands with a full persuasion that he will do what we desire or do what shall be better for us that he will answer our requests or deny them with greater Wisdom and Goodness than he could grant them All men must grant that this is a perfect trust in God and such a trust and dependence as we owe to Providence for if God Govern the World and take care of all his Creatures with infinite Wisdom and Goodness does it not become all reasonable Creatures to give up themselves securely to the Government of Providence If we believe that infinite Wisdom and Goodness takes care of us what need we know any more Would we desire any thing else or can we wish for any thing better than what infinite Wisdom and Goodness can do for us or would we have any thing which infinite Wisdom and Goodness does not think fit to give us This indeed does not give us that security which some men desire that we shall never suffer those particular evils which we fear and which we see coming upon us or that we shall obtain some other blessings which we are passionately fond of but it gives us a much better security than this that we shall have always what is good for us which is more than we can promise our selves should God always grant our own desires This gives us a most profound rest and peace of mind delivers us from all careful and solicitous thoughts for times to come which are many times more terrible than the evils we fear it teaches us to do our Duty with the best prudence and industry we can but to leave all Events to God's disposal to make known our requests to God and to cast all our care upon him for he careth for us It will not make us wholly unconcerned and indifferent whatever happens because the natures of things are not equal or alike indifferent Riches and Poverty Health or Sickness Honour or Disgrace War or Peace Plenty or Famine cannot be alike indifferent to any man who has his senses about him but it will make us quiet and patient under all Events and help us to bear the most adverse Fortune with such an unbroken greatness of mind as is natural to a firm and stedfast Trust and Hope in God This is properly to trust Providence not to trust that God will do every thing for us which we desire which is to command and govern or at least to direct Providence not to trust it but to live securely under the Care and Protection of God without disturbing our selves with unknown and future events in a confident assurance that we are safe and happy in God's hands 2dly Tho our Trust in God does not signify an absolute security what God will do for us yet it is the most certain way to obtain whatever we wisely and reasonably desire of God When we trust in God he reserves to himself a liberty to judge whether it be good for us but if what we desire be good for us our trust and dependence on God will engage Providence on our side Trust in God refers our Causes to him to judge for us and to do what he sees fit and we have God's Word and Promise for it That if we do trust in him he will take care of us that we shall want nothing that is good and shall be delivered from all evil 31. Psal. 21 22. O how plentiful is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee before the sons of men thou shalt hide them privily by thy own presence from the provoking of all men thou shalt keep them secretly in thy Tabernacle from the strife of tongues Thus 37. Psal. 40 41. The salvation of the righteous cometh of the Lord who is also their strength in the time of trouble And the Lord shall stand by them and save them
and to arbitrate the Differences of Princes and the Fate of Men and Kingdoms And if God govern men by Nature he must govern Nature too for necessary Causes cannot be fitted to the government of free Agents without the direction and management of a Divine Providence which guides exerts or suspends the Influences of Nature with as great freedom as men act Men do not always deserve well or ill and if the kind or malign Influences of Nature must be tempered to mens deserts to punish them when they do ill and to reward them when they do well Natural Causes which of themselves act necessarily without Wisdom or Counsel must be guided by a Wise Hand Thus reason tells us it must be if God govern the world and God challenges to himself this Absolute and Sovereign Empire over Nature God has bestowed different Vertues and Powers on Natural Causes and in ordinary cases makes use of the Powers of Nature and neither acts without them nor against the Laws of Nature which makes some unthinking men resolve all into Nature without a God or a Providence because excepting the case of Miracles which they are not willing to believe they see every thing else done by the Powers of Nature and if it were not so God had made a World and made Nature to no purpose to do every thing himself by an immediate Power without making use of the Powers of Nature But the ordinary government of Nature does not signifie to act without it or to over-rule its Powers but to steer and guide its motions to serve the Wise Ends of his Providence in the government of Mankind For as God does not usually act without Nature nor against its Laws so neither does Nature act by steady and uniform motions without the direction of God But while every thing in the material world acts necessarily and exerts its Natural Powers God can temper suspend direct its Influences without reversing the Laws of Nature As for instance Fire and Water Wind and Rain Thunder and Lightning have their Natutral Vertues and Powers and Natural Causes and God produces such effects as they are made to produce by their Natural Powers he warms us with Fire invigorates the earth by the benign Influences of the Sun and Moon and other Stars and Planets refreshes and moistens it with Springs and Fountains and Rain from Heaven fans the Air with Winds and purges it with Thunders and Lightnings and the like but then when and where the Rains shall fall and the Winds shall blow in what measure and proportion times and seasons Natural Causes shall give or withhold their Influences this God keeps in his own Power and can govern without altering the standing Laws of Nature and this is his government of Natural Causes in order to reward or punish men as they shall deserve Thus God reasons with Iob concerning his Power and Providence 38. Job 31 32 c. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons knowest thou the ordinances of heaven or canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds that abundance of waters may cover thee canst thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee here we are This is above Human Power but belongs to the Government and Providence of God Fire and hail snow and vapour and stormy winds fulfil his word 148. Psal. 8. Sometimes God restrains the influences of Nature shuts up heaven that it shall not rain 2 Chr. 7. 13. At other times he calls to the clouds that abundance of water may cover the earth He gives the former and the latter rain in its season and preserveth to us the appointed weeks of harvest 5. Jer. 24 as he promised to Israel 11 Deut 14 15. I will give you the rain of your land in his due season the first rain and the latter rain that thou mayst gather in thy corn and thy wine and thy oyl and I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle that thou mayst eat and be full He prescribes in what proportions it shall rain 2. Joel 23 24. Be glad ye children of Sion and rejoyce in the Lord your God for he hath given you the former rain moderately and he will cause to come down for you the former rain and the latter rain in the first month Nay God appoints on what place it shall rain 34. Ezek. 26. And I will make thee and the places round about my hill a blessing and I will cause the shower to come down in his season there shall be showers of blessing 4. Amos 7 8. And also I have withholden the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city One piece was rained upon and the piece whereupon it rained not withered So two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water but they were not satisfied It is impossible to give any tolerable account of such Texts as these without confessing That God keeps the Direction and Government of all Natural Causes in his own hands for particular Effects and all the Changes of Nature can never be attributed to God unless the Divine Wisdom and Counsel determines Natural Causes to the producing such particular Effects Great part of the Happiness or Miseries of this Life is owing to the good or bad Influences of Natural Causes that if God take care of Mankind he must govern Nature and when he promises Health and Plenty or threatens Pestilence and Famine how can he make good either if he have not reserved to himself a Soveraign Power over Nature The sum is this That all Natural Causes are under the immediate and absolute Government of Providence that God keeps the Springs of Nature in his own hand and turns them as he pleases For meer Matter though it be endowed with all Natural Vertues and Powers which necessarily produce their Natural Effects yet it having no wisdom and counsel of its own cannot serve the Ends of a Free Agent without being guided by a Wise Hand and we see in a thousand Instances what an Empire Human Art has over Nature not by changing the nature of things which Human Art can never do but by such a skilful application of Causes as will produce such Effects as unguided and if I may so speak untaught Nature could never have produced and if God have subjected material Nature to Human Art surely he has not exempted it from his own Guidance and Power This shews how necessary it is that God by an immediate Providence should govern Nature for Natural Causes are excellent Instruments but to make them useful they must be directed by a Skilful Hand and those various Changes which are in Nature especially in this Sublunary World which we are
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
be surely put to death And if a man lie not in wait but God deliver him into his hands then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee Where God's delivering him into his hands is opposed to him that smiteth a man so that he die and to him that comes presumptuously upon his neighbour to slay him 15. verse and therefore signifies one who kills his Neighbour by meer Accident As it is explained in 19. Deut. 4 5. And this is the case of the slayer that shall flee thither i. e. to the City of Refuge Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly whom he hated not in time past As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree and the head slippeth from the helve and lighteth upon his neighbour that he die he shall flee unto one of these cities and live What can be more accidental than this And yet we are assured that this is appointed by the Divine Providence that God delivers the man who is killed into the hands of him that killed him Is any thing more casual than a Lot and yet Solomon tells us The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord 16. Prov. 33. Which is not confined to the Case of Lots but to signify to us That nothing is so casual and uncertain as to be exempted from the disposal of Providence For what seems accidental to us is not Chance but Providence is ordered and appointed by God to bring to pass what his own Wisdom and Counsel has decreed As is very evident from some remarkable Instances of Providence which are recorded in Scripture By how many seeming Accidents and casual Events was Ioseph advanced to Pharoah's Throne His Dreams whereby God foretold his Advancement made his Brethren envious at him and watch some convenient opportunity to get rid of him and so confute his Dreams Iacob sends Ioseph to visit his Brethren in the Fields where they were keeping their Sheep this gave them an opportunity to execute their Revenge and at first they intended to murther him but the Ishmaelites accidentally passing by they sold Ioseph to them and they carried him into Egypt and sold him to Potiphar Potiphar's Wife tempts him to Uncleanness and being denied by Ioseph she accuses him to his Lord who cast him into the King's Prison Whilst he was there the King's Butler and Baker were cast into the same Prison and dreamed their several Dreams which Ioseph expounded to them and the Event verified his Interpretation The Butler who was restored to his Office forgat Ioseph till two years after Pharaoh dreamed a Dream which none of the Wise-men could interpret and then Ioseph was sent for and advanced to the highest place of Dignity and Power next to Pharaoh The years of Famine brought Ioseph's Brethren into Egypt to buy Corn where they bowed before him according to his Dream this occasioned the removal of Iacob and his whole Family into Egypt where Ioseph placed them in the Land of Goshen by which means God fulfilled what he had told Abraham Know of a surety That thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years 15. Genes 13 How casual does all this appear to us but no man will think that Prophesies are fulfilled by Chance and therefore we must confess that what seems Chance to us was appointed by God Thus God intended to deliver Israel out of Egypt by the hands of Moses Moses was born at a time when the King of Egypt had commanded That every Son that was born to the Israelites should be cast into the River His Mother hid him three months and being not able to conceal him any longer exposed him in an Ark of Bulrushes among the Flags by the River-side Pharaoh's Daughter came down to wash her self in the River and finds the Ark with the Child in it puts him to his own Mother to nurse whereby he came to know his own Kindred and Relations and to be instructed in the Knowledge and Worship of the God of Israel Afterwards Pharaoh's Daughter takes him home and breeds him up as her own Son whereby he was instructed in all the Learning of Egypt and in all the Policies of Pharaoh's Court which qualified him for government When he was forty years old he had lived long enough in Pharaoh's Court and God thought fit to remove him into better Company and to accustom him to a more severe life and this was done by as strange an Accident He slew an Egyptian in defence of an oppressed Iew and was betrayed by his own Brethren and forced to flie from Pharaoh to save his own Life till the time was come for the Deliverance of Israel and then God sent him back into Egypt to bring his people out from thence with Signs and Wonders and a Mighty Hand Thus God had foretold Ahab by the Prophet Micaiah that if he went up against Ramoth-Gilead he should perish there and this was accomplished by a very great Chance For a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king between the joynts of the harness of which he died 1 Kings 22. 34. The Blood which came from his Wound ran into the Chariot and one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria and the dogs licked up his blood which was a very Casual thing and little thought of by him who did it and yet fulfilled God's threatning against Ahab In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood even thine 21. ch 29. v. I shall add but one example more of this nature and it is a very remarkable one God's deliverance of the Iews in the days of Esther from the wicked Conspiracy of Haman This Haman being advanced to great Power and Authority by King Ahasuerus took great offence at Mordecai the Iew who refused to reverence him as others did and for his sake obtained a Decree from the King to destroy all the Iews in the Provinces of his Dominions Mordecai sends to Queen Esther to go to the King and to petition him about this matter This was a very hazardous Attempt it being Death by the Law for any Person Man or Woman to go to the King without being called unless the King held out his Golden Scepter to them But the Queen at last after three days fasting ventured her own Life to save her People and obtained Favour in the King's sight who held out the Golden Scepter to her All that she requested at that time was That the King and Haman would come to the Banquet which she had prepared and being then asked What her Petition was with an assurance that it should be granted she begged That the King and Haman would come the next day also to her Banquet and then she would declare it Haman was much
upon mount Zion and on Ierusalem I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his proud looks 10. Isai. 5 6 7 12. A great many Examples might be given of this nature but these are sufficient to show what different Intentions God and Men have in the same actions and how easily God can defeat what men intend and accomplish by them his own Wise Counsels which they never thought of When God has no particular Ends of Providence to serve by the Lusts and Passions and evil Designs of men he commonly disappoints them that when they intend evil and imagine a mischievous device they are not able to perform it 21. Psal. 11. Or he turns the evil upon their own heads The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made in the net which they hid is their own foot taken the Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands 9 Psal. 15 16. Or he doubly disappoints their malice not only by defeating the evil they intended but by turning it to the great advantage of those it was intended against which was visible in the case of Haman whose malice against Mordecai and all the Iews for his sake did not only prove his own ruin but the great advancement of Mordecai and the Glory and Triumph of the Iewish Nation Having thus briefly shewn what Government God has both of the Hearts and the Actions of men how easily he can alter their Counsels and manage their Passions make them do what good they never intended and disappoint the evil which they did intend or turn it into good this is a sufficient Demonstration how Absolute the Divine Providence is for he who has such an Absolute Government of Nature of what we call Chance and Fortune and of the Wills and Actions of men can do whatsoever pleaseth him But that we may have the clearer and more distinct apprehension of God's government of mankind to make them the Instruments of his Providence I shall more particularly but very briefly state this matter both with respect to good and to bad men 1. As for Good men there is no difficulty in their case for they are the Ministers of a good and beneficent Providence they do good out of Temper and Inclination and a Habit and Principle of Vertue and out of Reverence to the Divine Laws and are ready to obey every extraordinary impression to excite and determine them to such particular good offices as God thinks fit to employ them in And this is nothing but what is very honourable for God and what becomes good men for to do good is the Glory of Human Nature as well as of the Divine Providence and good men will observe the Laws of Vertue in doing good and while good is done by honest and vertuous means there can be no Objection against Providence 2dly But as Bad men are most difficulty governed so the greatest difficulty is in vindicating Providence in making use of the Ministries of Bad men for it is commonly thought a great blemish to Providence when Glorious and Admirable Designs are brought to pass by the Sins of men Now the Foundation of this Objection is a great mistake as if God could not serve his own Providence by the Sins of men without being the Cause of mens sins for there is no colour nor reasonable pretence of an Objection against God's making the Sins of men serve wise and good ends if he can do this without having any hand in mens sins It is the great Glory of Providence to bring good out of evil and while all the Events of Providence are Just and Righteous and Holy and Wise and such as become a God it is much more admirable to consider that all this should be while there is so much wickedness and disorder in the world The true state of this matter in short is this God never suggests any evil designs to men that is owing to their own wicked hearts or to the Temptations of other wicked men or of wicked Spirits but when men have formed any wicked Designs he sometimes as you have heard changes their purposes or deters them from putting them in execution and when he suffers them to proceed to action he either shamefully disappoints them or serves some wise and good end by what they wickedly do And if Providence consists in the Care and Government of mankind how can God govern mankind better than to permit bad men to do no more hurt than what he can turn to good God does not govern the world by an immediate and miraculous Power but governs men by men and makes them help and defend reward and punish one another and therefore there is no other ordinary way of punishing bad men excepting the Civil Sword which reaches but a few Criminals but to punish them by the Wickedness of other bad men and what can more become the Wisdom and Justice of Providence than to make bad men the Ministers and Executioners of a Divine Vengeance upon each other which is one great End God serves by the Sins of men I 'm sure it is for the great good of the world that God has the government of bad men that they cannot do so much hurt as they would and that the mischief God permits them to do is directed to fall on such persons as either want Correction or deserve Punishment For this is another thing very observable in God's government both of the good and bad actions of men that as in the government of Natural Causes God directs where and when and in what proportion Nature shall exert its Influences that it shall rain upon one City and not upon another so God does not only excite men to do good but directs and determines them where to do it chuses out such persons as they shall do good to and appoints what good they shall do and in what measures and proportions they shall do it And he not only sets bounds to the Lusts and Passions of bad men but when he sees fit to permit their wickedness he directs where the hurt and mischief of it shall light We need no other proof of this but the very Notion of Providence which is God's Care of his Creatures for that requires a particular Application of the good or evil which men do to such particular persons as God thinks fit to do good to or to afflict and punish which is the most material and most necessary exercise both of the Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of Providence For if God suffered men to do good or evil at random without directing them to fit and proper Objects the Fortunes of particular men would depend upon as great a Chance as the mutable Lusts and Passions and Fancies of men The only Use I shall make of this at present is to convince you how perfectly we are in God's hands and how secure we are in his
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
or need these or such kind of Punishments or Corrections and such vast numbers of bad men who are ready every day to commit such outrages did not God restrain them is it not very visible how easily God can order and appoint such sufferings for men without ordering or appointing any man's sins It requires no more than to bring those whom God appoints for suffering into the reach of such men and to put them into their power and their own malice and wickedness will do the rest It is like exposing Condemn'd Malefactors to Wild Beasts whose nature and inclination is to devour and if God chains up bad men as we do wild beasts that they cannot touch any one but whom God delivers up to them and lets them loose only to execute his own Just and Righteous Judgment can any thing be more Honourable to Providence or a greater Security to Mankind To form an Idea of this in our minds let us suppose this to be the case of an Earthly Prince That he perfectly understood all the Deserts and all the Inclinations of his Subjects and had such an invisible and insensible Authority over them that without giving them any directions or letting them know any thing of his Intentions or offering any violence to their own Inclinations he could determine them to do that hurt which they had a mind to do to those and to those only whom he intended to punish and to do the good they are desirous to do to those and to those only whom he intends to reward in case such a Prince took care that no man should suffer more from the wickedness of others than what he deserved and the Reasons of Government required would any man charge such a Prince with all the Wickedness that is committed in his Kingdom only because he so wisely orders it that some bad men shall execute his Vengeance upon other bad men and serve instead of Judge and Jury and Executioners Nay would not every man say That this is the most Perfect and Absolute Form of Government in the world Earthly Princes indeed cannot do this but this is the Government of God who accomplishes his own Wise Counsels by the Ministries of Men. And this may satisfie us in what sense all the good and all the evil that happens either to private Men or to Kingdoms and Nations is said to be God's will and God's doing and what pleaseth him because no Man or Nation is rewarded or punished but by God's order and appointment That as many good men as there are in the world who are ready to do good to all they can and as many bad men as there are who are ready to do all the mischief they can none of them can do either good or hurt to any but to those whom God has appointed for either which makes God the Absolute Lord and Sovereign of the world since whatever men intend all mens Fortunes and Conditions depend upon his Will And since God absolutely orders and appoints nothing but the Event if the Event be holy just and good that is if men be rewarded and punished according to their works as far as the Justice and Goodness of Providence is concerned in this world there can be no reasonable Objection against Providence for by what wicked means soever men be rewarded or punished if the Reward or Punishment by holy just and good this vindicates the Holiness and Justice and Goodness of Providence of which more hereafter Let mens Wickedness be to themselves for that is their own but that the Wickedness of men is over-ruled by an Invisible Hand to accomplish Wise and Just Decrees that is the Glory of Providence And this suggests another evident Reason why all the good or evil that befals men is called God's will and God's doings because in a strict and proper sense it is not man's Will nor man's Doings What is done is either what those who did it never intended to do or else serves such ends and is ordered by God for such ends as those who did it never thought of which proves men to be only Instruments but God the Supreme Disposer of all Events If we must attribute all things that are done either to God or Men then what is not done by Men must be done by God and Men can't be properly said to do what they never intended and therefore whatever is either beyond or contrary to what Men intended must either be attributed to Chance or to a Divine Providence I observed before what different Intentions God and men have in the same actions what is intended by men is their doing what is intended by God is his doing and wholly his doing when what God intended was not intended by men For this reason Ioseph tells his Brethren that it was not they but God that sent him into Egypt 45. Gen. 4 5 6 7 8. for they thought nothing of sending him into Egypt but this was what God intended when he permitted them to sell him to the Ishmaelites This was their sin as he adds 50. Gen. 20. But as for you ye thought evil against me but the good that was done was wholly God's doings but God meant it unto good And thus it is in other cases which shows us what the Scripture calls God's doings The punishment of sinners and those evils he brings on them is God's doings but not the sins whereby they are punished The Punishment of David's Adultery by the Incest of Absalom was God's doing but not Absalom's Incest The sending Ioseph into Egypt and advancing him into Pharaoh's Throne was God's doing but not the Sin of his Brethren in selling him for a Slave And thus it is throughout the Scripture nothing is called God's Will or God's doing which has any Moral Evil in it all wicked actions are mens own will and own doings which God permits for wise ends but never orders or appoints but the good or evil which is done by mens sins that is God's doing and I hope by this time you all know how to distinguish between God's government of mens Actions and his government of Events and then we may safely attribute all Events to God's order and appointment without danger of charging God with the sins of men whereby such Events are brought to pass 3dly Let us now consider What difference there is between God's Absolute Government of all Events and Necessity and Fate for many men are very apt to confound these two If no good or evil befals any men but what God orders and appoints for them this they think sounds like Fate and Destiny that every man's Fortune is writ upon his Forehead and that it is impossible for any man by all his Care and Industry and Prudence to make his Condition better than what God has decreed it to be in the Irreversible Rolls of Fate And yet an Unrelenting Immutable Fate is so irreconcilable with the liberty of human actions with the nature of good and evil of rewards and
punishments that if we admit of it there is an end of all Religion of all Vertuous Endeavours of all Great and Generous Attempts it is to no purpose to pray to God or to trust in him or to resist temptations or to be diligent in our business or prudent and circumspect in our actions for what will be will be Or if any means be to be used that is no matter of our choice or care but we shall do it as necessarily and mechanically as a Watch moves and points to the Hour of the Day for Fate has by the same Necessity determined the Means and the End and we can do no more nor less than Fate has determined I shall not now trouble you with an account of the various Opinions of the Ancient Philosophers about Fate none of whom ever dreamt of such a terrible Fate as some Christians have fancied which reaches not only to this world but to all Eternity What I have already discoursed is sufficient to vindicate the Doctrine of Providence from the least imputation of Necessity and Fate For 1. Though God over-rules the actions of men to do what he himself thinks fit to be done yet he lays no Necessity upon human actions men will and chuse freely pursue their own interests and inclinations just as they would do if there were no Providence to govern them and while men act freely it is certain there can be no Absolute Fate God indeed as you have already heard sometimes hinders them from executing their wicked purposes and permits them to do no more hurt than what he can direct to Wise Ends but no man is wicked or does wickedly by Necessity and Fate Tho he may be restrained from doing so much wickedness as he would yet all the wickedness he commits is his own free Choice even when it serves such ends as he never thought of and therefore he is and acts like a free Agent notwithstanding the Government of Providence 2dly Tho God determines all Events all the good and evil that shall happen to Men or Nations yet it is no more nor no other than what they themselves have deserved and therefore they are under no other Fate than what they themselves bring upon themselves by the good or bad use of their own liberty that is they are under no other Fate than to be rewarded when they do well and to be punished when they do ill but this is the Justice of Providence not the Necessity of Fate Those who do ill and deserve ill and suffer ill might have done well and have made themselves the Favourites of Providence and therefore are under no greater Necessity of Suffering ill than they were of Doing ill The reason why God keeps all Events in his own hands is not because he has absolutely determined the Fates of all men but that he may govern the world wisely and justly and reward and punish men according to their deserts as far as the Reasons of Providence require in this world Now while the liberty of human actions is secured and the Events of Providence are not the execution of Fatal Absolute and Unconditional Decrees but acts of Government in the Wise Administration of Justice and dispensing Rewards and Punishments how Absolute soever God's Govenment be of all Events it is not Necessity and Fate but a Wise and Just and Absolute Government This indeed is what some of the Wisest Heathens called Fate and all that they meant by the Name of Fate That God had fixed it by an irreversible Decree that Good men should be rewarded and the Wicked punished and thus far we must all allow Fate and Providence is only the Minister and Executioner of these Fatal Decrees and to that end God keeps the Government of all Events in his own hands Now whether we say That God determines what good or evil shall befal men at the very time when they deserve it or That foreseeing what good or evil they will do and what they will deserve did beforehand determine what good or evil should befal them according to their deserts this makes no alteration at all in the state of the Question for if all the good or evil that befalls men have respect to their deserts this is not Fate but a Just and Righteous Judgment In a word God's Government of all Events is indeed so Absolute and Uncontroulable that no good or evil can befal any man but what God pleases what he orders and appoints for him and this is necessary to the good Government of the World and the Care of all his Creatures but then God orders no good or evil to befal any men but what they deserve and what the Wise Ends of his Providence require and this is not Fate but a Wise and Just Government of the World 4. That the Exercise of a Particular Providence consists in the Government of all Events I have often wondred at those Philosophers who acknowledg'd a Providence but would not acknowledge God's particular Care of all his Creatures Some confined his Providence to the Heavens but would not extend it to this lower world and yet this world needs a Providence as much and a great deal more as being a Scene of Change and Corruption of furious Lusts and Passions which need the Restraints and Government of Providence No Creatures need God's Care more than the Inhabitants of this Earth and if he take Care of any of his Creatures one would think he should take most Care of them who need it most Others who would allow That the Providence of God reached this lower world yet confined God's care to the several Kinds and Species of Beings but would not extend it to every Individual as if God took care of Logical Terms of Genus and Species but took no care of his own Creatures which are all Individuals or as if God could take care of all his creatures without taking care of any particular creature i.e. That he could take care of all his creatures without taking care of any one of them Thus they would allow God to take care of the great Affairs of Kingdoms and Commonwealths but to have no regard to particular Men or Families unless they made a great Figure in the world as if Kingdoms and Commonwealths were not made up of particular Men and particular Families or that God could take care of the whole without taking care of every part or as if there were any other reason for taking care of the whole but to take care of those particulars who make the whole To talk of a General Providence without God's Care and Government of every Particular Creature is manifestly unreasonable and absurd for whatever Reasons oblige us to own a Providence oblige us to own a Particular Providence If Creation be a Reason why God should preserve and take care of what he has made this is a Reason why he should take care of every creature because there is no creature but what he made and
if the whole world consists of particulars it must be taken care of in the care of particulars for if all particulars perish as they may do if no care be taken to preserve them the whole must perish And there is the same reason for the Government of Mankind for the whole is governed in the Government of the parts and Mankind can't be well governed without the Wise Government of every particular Man I 'm sure that the Objections against a Particular Providence are very foolish Some think it too much trouble to God to take care of every particular as if it were more trouble to him to take care of them than it was to make them or as if God had made more creatures than he could take care of as if an Infinite Mind and Omnipotent Power were as much disturbed and tired with various and perpetual Cares as we are Others think it below the Greatness and Majesty of God to take cognizance of every mean and contemptible creature or of every private man as if it were more below God to take care of such creatures than it is to make them as if numbers made creatures considerable to God that tho one man is below God's care yet a Kingdom is worthy of his care and notice when the whole world to God is but as the drop of the bucket and the small dust of the balance Now it is certain there can be no particular Providence without God's Government of all Events for if any good or evil happens to any man without God's Order and Appointment that is not Providence whatever other name you will give it So that if God does take a particular care of all his creatures this is a demonstration that he has the Absolute Government of all Events for without it he cannot take Care of them and if God have the Government of all Events as the Scripture assures us he has this confirms us in the belief of a particular Providence for if all the Good or Evil that happens to every particular man is appointed by God that is proof enough that God takes Care of every particular Man God's Government of all particular Events and his Care of all Individuals include each other in their very Natures The Care of particular Creatures consists in the Government of all particular Events and the Government of all Events is the Exercise of a particular Providence as our Saviour represents it 10. Matth. 29 30 31. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbred Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many sparrows Where God's particular Providence over all his Creatures is expressed by his particular care of all Events which extends even to the Life of a Sparrow and to the Hairs of our Heads Thus much is certain That without this belief That God takes a particular Care of all his Creatures in the Government of all Events that can happen to them there is no reason or pretence for most of the particular Duties of Religious Worship For most of the Acts of Worship consider God not merely as an Universal Cause could we form any Notion of a general Providence without any Care of particular Creatures or particular Events but as our particular Patron Protector and Preserver To fear God and to stand in awe of his Justice to trust and depend on him in all Conditions to submit patiently to his will under all Afflictions to pray to him for the supply of our Wants for the relief of our Sufferings for Protection and Defence to love and praise him for the Blessings we enjoy for peace and plenty and health for friends and benefactors and all prosperous Successes I say these are not the Acts of Reasonable men unless we believe that God has the Supreme Disposal of all Events and takes a particular Care of us For if any Good or Evil can befal us without God's particular Order and Appointment we have no reason to trust in God who does not always take Care of us we have no reason to bear our Sufferings patiently at God's hand and in Submission to his Will for we know not whether our Sufferings be God's Will or not we have no reason to love and praise God for every Blessing and Deliverance we receive because we know not whether it came from God and it is to no purpose to pray to God for particular Blessings if he does not concern himself in particular Events But if we believe that God takes a particular Care of us all and that no Good or Evil happens to us but as he pleases all these Acts or Religious Worship are both Reasonable Necessary and Just. But of this more hereafter CHAP. IV. Concerning the Sovereignty of Providence HAving in the former Chapter shewn That the Government of the Divine Providence consists in Over-ruling and Disposing all Events For the better understanding of this and to prevent a great many ignorant Objections against it besides what I have already said it will be necessary more particularly to explain the Nature and Essential Characters and Properties of God's Governing Providence And I shall begin with 1. The Sovereignty of Providence For God being the Sovereign Lord of the World must Govern with a Sovereign Will For a Sovereign Lord is a Sovereign and Absolute Governor For which reason the Scripture so often resolves all things into the sole will and pleasure of God and in many cases will allow us to seek for no other Cause He doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth Whatever the Lord pleased that did he in heaven and in earth in the seas and all deep places That the Will of God is Sovereign and Absolute and Unaccountable needs no other proof but that his Power is Absolute and his Wisdom Unsearchable for Absolute Power makes an Absolute Will He who has Power to do whatever he will can do whatever he will and that is the definition of a Severeign and Absolute Will And thus the Scripture resolves the Sovereignty of God into Power That none can stay his hand or say unto him what dost thou He is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered And indeed a Power which is Supreme and Absolute which can do all things and which has no greater Power above it none equal to it has a right to Sovereignty For Absolute Power must be the Maker of all things and that must give an Absolute Right to all things and that gives a Right to Absolute Government if there be any such thing as a Natural Right to Government for if God have a Natural Right to Govern his Creatures he must have a Right to Absolute Government because the Right he has in his Creatures is Absolute and Uncontroulable No Creature has
Absolute Power as you have already heard is to do the greatest good they should think it sufficient to justifie such actions as they have no other way to prove good and just merely by Absolute Power The Glory of Absolute Power is to do what all the world acknowledges to be good and just and therefore Absolute Power cannot prove those actions to be good and just nor make it self Glorious by doing such actions as mankind think very infamous and unjust Let us then lay down this as the Foundation of all That how Unaccountable soever Sovereign and Absolute Will and Power is it neither can nor will do any wrong for it is nothing else but Absolute and Sovereign Justice and Goodness We have no reason to be afraid of the Absolute Power of God no more than we have to be afraid of his Absolute Goodness Absolute Power is the only security we have against suffering wrong for it will do no wrong it self but will rectify all the wrongs which are done by Inferior Powers which none but a Sovereign and Absolute Power can do The firm belief of this will give great relief and satisfaction to our minds under all the unaccountable Passages of Providence for tho Absolute Power be always just and good yet its ways are sometimes past finding out Secondly Let us now consider How unsearchable the Wisdom of Providence is which doth great things past finding out yea and wonders without number 9. Job 10. Which may satisfy us how impossible it is for such ignorant creatures as we are to comprehend all the Wise Reasons of Providence and how impious it is to reproach and censure what we do not and cannot understand We all know the History of Iob and the Dispute betwixt him and his three Friends God exercised Iob with very severe and amazing Sufferings for the Trial of his Vertue his Friends conclude from his great Sufferings That tho his life were visibly very innocent and vertuous yet he had been a secret Hypocrite because God did not use to punish good men but only the wicked in such a manner On the other hand Iob justifies his own Innocence and asserts more truly That bad men were many times very prosperous and good men great sufferers in this world He complains very tragically of his sufferings and that he could not understand the reason why God dealt thus with him and this seems to be Iob's fault that he insisted too much on his own Justification and instead of vindicating the Divine Providence seems to accuse God of a causeless and unaccountable Severity for which Elihu so severely reproved him At last God answers Iob himself as he had often desired he would but instead of a particular Justification of his Providence or of giving Iob the Reasons for which he had thus afflicted him he gives him some sensible Proofs of his own Great and Admirable Wisdom and Power in the Works of Nature which Iob was so far from being able to imitate that he could not understand how they were done The Force of which Argument is this That so weak and ignorant a Creature as Man is ought not to censure the Divine Providence how mysterious and unaccountable soever it be when the very Works of Nature convince us That God is infinitely Wiser and more Powerful than we are This should teach us great Modesty and Humility to adore the Divine Judgments not to censure what we cannot understand for the Power and Wisdom of God can do great and excellent things above our understandings Vain man would be wise tho man be born like a wild asses colt They are impatient to think that God should do any thing which they cannot understand and yet there is not any one thing in Nature which they do understand And if we cannot understand the Mysteries of Nature why should we expect to understand all the unsearchable Depths and Mysteries of Providence If the Wisdom of God be unsearchable why should we not allow his Wisdom in Governing the World to be as unsearchable as his Wisdom in Making it For an Incomprehensible Wisdom will do Incomprehensible Things whatever it employs its self about and when we know that if the world be governed at all it is governed by an Infinite and Incomprehensible Wisdom there is no reason to wonder that there are many Events of Providence which we cannot fathom and much less reason to deny a Providence because we cannot comprehend the Reasons of all Events But this is a matter of such vast consequence to silence the Sceptical Humour of the Age and to shame those trifling and ridiculous Pretences to Wit and Philosophy in Censuring the Wisdom and Justice of Providence that it deserves a more particular Discourse For could we make men confess what all modest considering men must blush to deny That the Wisdom of God is unsearchable this would put an end to all the Disputes about Providence and teach us humbly to Adore and Reverence that Wisdom which we cannot comprehend And to prepare my way to give such full satisfaction in this matter as you may securely acquiesce in without Disputing the Reasons of Providence or being tempted to Deny a Providence when you meet with any Difficulties too hard for you I shall show you how impossible it is that is should be otherwise both from the Infinite Wisdom of God and our own great Ignorance of things which makes the Providence of God in many cases so much above our understandings that we are not capable of such knowledge And 1. I shall show you What reason we have securely to acquiesce in the unsearchable Wisdom of Providence and to trust God beyond our own knowledge because we are certain that Infinite Wisdom can never err or mistake or do wrong 2. That the Wisdom of Providence must be as unsearchable and unaccountable to us as the Wisdom of the Creation 3. That the wise Government of the world requires secret and hidden Methods of Providence and therefore at least in this present state we ought not to expect or desire a particular account or reason of all events 4. That our ignorance of other matters the knowledge of which is absolutely necessary to understand the reasons of Providence makes us utterly uncapable of such knowledge in this state 5. I shall enquire in what cases this is a reasonable answer to all Difficulties That the judgments of God are unsearchable and his ways past finding out 1. That Infinite Wisdom how unsearchable and unaccountable soever its ways are can do no wrong As I observed before that God's Absolute Power is Absolute Rectitude and Justice so all men must grant that Infinite and Perfect Wisdom is always in the right for to be in the wrong is Ignorance and Mistake If Infinite Wisdom will always judge and chuse and act wisely it is then impossible that Infinite Wisdom should ever do wrong for to do wrong is either not to judge or not to chuse wisely In Scripture all
mankind now is would destroy the good Government of the world and most of the Pleasures and Conveniences of Life and yet without this the Providence of God is not so uniform towards men as it is towards beasts and those who fare worse than others of the same nature with them will still complain If then Providence must not deal alike by all men do they mean by the Uniformity and Stability of Providence That mens Fortunes whatever they are shall always be the same That the Rich and Prosperous shall always be Rich and Prosperous and the Poor always Poor and Beggars and Slaves Unless these Objectors be all Rich and Happy I doubt they will never agree to this for the Poor and Miserable must needs think it hard usage to be always poor without room for better hopes But such a Stability of Providence as this would destroy the Wise and Just Government of the World for how should God restrain and punish Wickedness and reward and encourage Vertue if the Rich must always be Rich and the Poor always Poor Nay how can the Providence of God do this without making men Vertuous and Vicious too by Necessity and Fate When Wantonness and Prodigality Idleness and Folly will spend or lose an Estate and Frugality Prudence and Diligence will get one And when all men in this world must not be equal does it not more become the Wisdom and Justice of Providence that mens own Vertues and Vices shall in a great measure make the distinction and carve out their own Fortunes for them So that when men complain of the Uncertainty and Instability of Fortune as they call it they complain of they know not what and were it put to their own choice what to have in the room of it they would not know how to mend the matter The wise government of free Agents who so often change themselves requires very frequent sudden surprizing Turns of Providence the reasons of which must of necessity be as invisible to us as the thoughts of mens hearts and their most secret intrigues and counsels till we can make men all move alike as regularly and uniformly as the Heavenly Bodies do it is an absurd and unreasonable complaint That Providence does not act regularly and that the Events of Providence are not always the same Another great Complaint against Providence is That good men are not always rewarded nor bad men punished according to their deserts That many bad men are prosperous in this world and some good men great sufferers That 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 9. Eccl. 2. This makes the Events of Providence very sudden mysterious and unaccountable that no man knows what course to take to make his life easy and prosperous for whether he be good or wicked he may be happy or miserable as it happens As for the Objection it self I shall consider it more hereafter but at present I will only ask these Objectors Whether to remove these Difficulties and Uncertainties of Providence and that they may the better understand the Reasons of all Events they do in good earnest desire That God would reduce this matter to a Certainty by punishing all bad men and rewarding all good men in this world according to their deserts If they do I must tell them as Christ told the two Brethren who desired that they might sit one on his Right hand and the other on his Left in his Kingdom Ye ask ye know not what They ask the most dangerous thing that could possibly befal mankind and what they ask would be Ten thousand times a greater Objection against Providence than what they complain of Should every Sinner be punished in this world according to his deserts what man is there so just and innocent as to escape the Divine Vengeance If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand 130. Psal. 3. Were every Sinner punished as he deserves I doubt there would be no good man left to be rewarded for where is the man that doth good and sinneth not What room does this leave for Patience and Forbearance for the Repentance of Sinners for God's Pardoning-Grace and Mercy and what a Terrible Providence is this How contrary to all the Notions we have of God and his kind and gracious Government of his Creatures I grant God may exercise great Patience and Long-suffering towards sinners he may forgive the sins of true Penitents and yet punish sinners and reward good men even in this world these things are very reconcilable in God's Government of the world for thus he does govern the world but they are very irreconcilable with such a Providence and Government as these men desire which requires a present and visible Punishment of every sin as soon as committed and as present and visible a Reward of every good action for unless these Punishments and Rewards are present all the time they are delayed bad men may be prosperous and good men afflicted which is their very Objection against Providence which can never be removed but by speedy and visible Executions which leave no place for the Patience and Forgiveness of God or for the Repentance of Sinners And is it not much more desirable for ever to be ignorant of the Reasons of Providence than to have such Proofs and Demonstrations of Providence as this Let me desire these unthinking Cavillers at Providence to review their Objection over again and consider what is the meaning of every word in it and how upon second thoughts they like it themselves That they may have a plain and certain Reason of God's Judgments they desire that no man may suffer any external Calamity but only for sin and that every sinner may be punish'd in this world according to his deserts and then they will believe That there is a Providence that governs the world tho it is better for the world that they should continue Infidels than be thus convinced Well then who in the first place are these sinners whom they would have punished Do they mean every one who does a wicked action or every impenitent and incorrigible sinner If every one who at any time does any wicked action must be punished for it then it is plain that no man can escape then there is no place for Repentance or Forgiveness but a speedy Vengeance must pursue the sinner and God knows we are all sinners and must all be punished and if this removes one Objection against Providence I 'm sure it will very much encrease another from the many evils and miseries that are in the world which will be many more and much greater if every sin must receive its just punishment If they mean only That impenitent and incorrigible sinners
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
the Rule of Righteousness to us to give to every man that which is his own and it is the Justice of Government to punish those who invade another's Rights and this is that Justice which the Righteous Lord loves in men and the violation of which he hates So that the Justice of the Divine Nature makes God love Righteousness and Justice and hate all Injustice and Oppression and the Justice of Providence requires that God should punish Injustice and Violence and protect the Just and Innocent as far as the nature and ends of God's Government of the World requires and this the Scripture everywhere declares that God will do That he is angry with the wicked every day That he is a refuge and sanctuary and strong tower and rock of defence to Just and Righteous men Not that every particular bad man who does unjust things shall be immediately punished for his Unjustice nor that every man who has a just and righteous Cause shall be protected from the violence and injustice of the Wicked for the Experience of all the World proves that this never was done and therefore this cannot be the meaning of the Promises and Threatnings of Scripture But there is enough meant by it to vindicate the Justice of Providence in this World to be a support to good men and a terror to the wicked 1. For first it signifies That in the ordinary course of Providence where there is nothing but the justice or injustice of the Cause to be considered God will favour a just and righteous Cause There may be other wise Reasons why God may suffer a just Cause to be oppressed and Injustice to be prosperous and we ought to believe that there are always wise Reasons for it when God does suffer this because we certainly know that God is no favourer of Injustice but he who has a just Cause may for other Reasons deserve to be punished and then God may justly punish him by unjust Oppressors and thus Injustice may be prosperous and Justice oppressed but where the other sins and demerits of the man do not forfeit God's protection of a just Cause the Divine Providence will make a visible distinction between just and unjust 2dly And therefore no man can promise himself the Divine Protection but only when his Cause is just and right Which is the reason why the Psalmist as you have already heard so often pleads his own innocence and integrity and the righteousness of his Cause to move God to save and defend him For God has promised his protection upon no other terms and whenever Injustice prospers it is not in favour to the unjust man or his unjust Cause but in punishment to others whom God thinks fit to correct and chastise by such injustice Tho wickedness may prosper for a while there is no way to obtain the Divine Favour and Protection but by doing good for a Righteous God can have no favour for an unjust Cause and therefore if we believe that God governs the World we must expect his protection only in the ways of Righteousness and this will give us a secure hope and dependance on God That we shall not be ashamed while we have respect unto all his commandments 3dly And for the same Reason though Injustice may prosper for a time no unjust man can be secure from a Divine Vengeance God does not always punish bad men as soon as they deserve it but sometimes he does and he is always angry with them and therefore they are always in danger God is angry with the wicked every day if he turn not he will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death he hath ordain'd his arrows against the persecutors 7. Psalm 11 12 13. 4thly And therefore though every particular good man be not rewarded nor every bad man punish'd in this World yet the Divine Providence furnishes us with numerous Examples of Justice both in the protection and defence of good men and in the punishment of the wicked This is so notoriously known that no man can deny it That besides the ordinary Miseries and Calamities of Sinners which are the natural and necessary effects and rewards of their Sins and make them the scorn and the pity of Mankind God does very often execute very remarkable Judgments upon remarkable Sinners which bear the evident Tokens and Characters of a Divine Vengeance on them and does appear as wonderfully for the preservation of just and good men in a Righteous Cause Both Sacred and Prophane Story and our own observation may furnish us with many Examples of both kinds which are sufficient to vindicate the Justice of Providence and the truth of those Promises and Threatnings which are made in Scripture 2dly The better to understand that Account the Scripture gives us of the Justice of Providence I observe That the protection and defence of Providence is never promised in Scripture merely to a just and righteous Cause but only to just and righteous and good men This is not commonly observed and yet as soon as it is named it is so evident that it needs no proof and the consequence of it is very considerable We cannot indeed separate a just and righteous Man from a righteous Cause for as far as he is engaged in an unjust Cause he is an unjust Man but if the Divine Protection be promised to the righteous Man not to the righteous Cause then a righteous Cause may be oppressed when the man has no right to God's Protection without any impeachment either of the Righteousness or Justice of God Which shews the difference as I observed before between the Justice of Providence and the Justice of Human Governments The Justice of Human Governments considers mens Rights the Justice of Providence considers their moral Deserts Human Justice defends bad men in their just Rights the Divine Justice which is supreme and absolute has no regard to Human Rights when the men deserve to be punished For God challenges to himself such an absolute right and propriety in all things as to give or take them away when he pleases And therefore he threatens Israel by the Prophet Hosea that since they had served Baal with the Corn and Wine and Oyl and Silver and Gold which he gave them Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof and my wine in the season thereof and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness 2. Hos. 8 9. The 26. Levit. contains the Promises and Threatnings to Israel and the Condition of both is their keeping or transgressing his Laws and Statutes and Commandments if they observed his Laws he would bestow all good things on them if they transgressed his Laws he would take them all away without any regard to their Rights or Properties Among other Judgments he threatens them to deliver them into the hands of their Enemies who should oppress
never become a Holy God to infuse hardness into mens hearts yet when men have hardened themselves and will abuse all the Wise methods of Providence to harden themselves and are now ripe for destruction it very much becomes a Just and Righteous God to exercise them with such Providences as he knows will still harden them till they make themselves such infamous examples of Wickedness as may deserve a more glorious and exemplary Vengeance Which is another thing to be considered in the case of Pharaoh and very necessary to the full understanding this difficult case of God's hardening mens hearts God had peremptorily decreed not only to deliver Israel but to punish Egypt both King and People for the cruel oppression of Israel And therefore he might without any more solemnity have destroyed Pharaoh his People and Land and have carried Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand But when they had deserved to be Punished and Destroyed and God had resolved to Punish them the manner of their Punishment was at the free disposal of the Divine Wisdom and therefore he chose to Punish them in such a way as might make the Glory and Power of the God of Israel known to the World And this is the very account which God himself gives why he took such a course with Pharaoh as he foresaw would harden and confirm him in his resolutions of not parting with Israel when he could have forced him at the expence of fewer Miracles to have sent them away if he had so pleased I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them 7. Exod. 3 4 5. The same thing he tells Pharaoh I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the earth And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up have all this time preserved thee and not cut thee off for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth 9. Exod. 14 15 16. And this reason God gives why he hardened Pharaoh's heart to pursue Israel I will be honoured upon Pharaoh and upon all his host that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord 14. Exod. 4. This is diligently to be observed to vindicate the Holiness and Justice of Providence For though God infuses no hardness into mens hearts yet if he exercise them with such Providences as he foresees will harden them and does this with an intention and design to harden them this signifies his Will to harden them and such a moral Efficiency in using hardening Providences as will as certainly harden them as if he had infused hardness into them And this makes little difference whether God hardens men by external Providences or by an internal Operation on their minds when he intends such Providences to harden them and knows that they will effectually do it Now I readily grant that tho God infused no hardness into Pharaoh's heart nor did any thing which unbecomes a holy God to do yet he did intend to harden him and did intend to harden him on purpose to multiply his Judgments on Egypt and to destroy him and all his Host in the Red Sea for this is so plainly expressed that we cannot deny it Nay I readily grant that the Providence of God would be justly chargeable with mens Sins did he without any respect to the merit and desert of the Persons by such insensible methods betray them into sin with an intention to harden them For what man is there of such a firm and constant vertue as to be able to resist all Temptations which a long series of Providences chosen and directed for that purpose by a Divine Wisdom could bring him into But yet when men have sinned themselves into such a hardened state as to deserve to be destroyed and when God is so far provoked by their Sins as to resolve to destroy them it becomes the Wisdom and the Justice of God without any impeachment of his Holiness to harden men by external Events and Appearances not in Sin which can never become a Holy God but in such ruinous Courses as their own wicked hearts betray them to and as will bring inevitable ruin on them And this is the true resolution on this Case 1. That God never hardens any men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them 2. That then he does not harden them in Sin but in such Ruinous Counsels as their own Sins betray them to 3. That all this is done not by the natural or moral efficacy but by their own wicked abuse of the Divine Providence 4. To compleat all When God has thus determined to destroy any Person or People he many times inflicts on them a penal blindness and infatuation not to see the things which concern their peace These four Particulars contain a full and easy account of this perplext Doctrine of God's hardening mens hearts and therefore I shall speak distinctly but briefly to them 1. That God never hardens men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them This must be laid as the foundation of all for by what means soever God hardens men how innocent soever they may appear if he intends to harden them not because they deserve and he has determined to destroy them but only that they may deserve to be destroyed and that he may with some fair appearance of Justice destroy them it would be impossible to satisfy equal and impartial Judges of the Justice and Holiness of Providence But if men have hardened themselves in Sin beyond all the ordinary methods of recovery and have so provoked a good and merciful God that he gives them over to ruin and destruction then by what means soever they are hardened which are not directly sinful there can be no just reason to question either the Justice or Goodness or Holiness of God upon this account For when men have sinned to that degree as to deserve immediate destruction and to provoke God to pass a final Sentence on them God may either immediately destroy them or keep them in that hardened state like condemned Malefactors reserved in Chains for a more publick and solemn Execution And this is all that is meant by God's hardening men and this all mankind must allow to be just and holy This was the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians who
Miracles yet separated from this it was no moral evil not to part with Israel who had now been the Subjects of Egypt for above Two hundred years And therefore when the Dispute was not about believing and obeying God and Moses which Pharaoh had no regard to but only whether he should let Israel go to avoid these Plagues which he suffered for their sake though God did not harden him in his infidelity and disobedience yet he did harden him against parting with Israel that is he hardened him not in sin for the infidelity and disobedience which was the only sinfulness of it was wholly his own but he hardened him in the most Ruinous Counsel he could possibly have taken which would bring new Plagues on Egypt and end in his own final Ruin This was the case of Ahab God did resolve to send him to Ramoth Gilead to fall there and suffered a lying Spirit to enter into the Mouths of his Prophets and to harden him in that expedition against the Prophetick Threatnings of Micaiah that all things considered it may be said that God perswaded and that God hardened Ahab to go to Ramoth Gilead Now suppose this yet it is not to harden him in Sin for it was no Sin to go to Fight against Ramoth Gilead but it was only to harden him in a dangerous attempt and which God intended should be fatal to him A great many Instances of this nature may be given where God hardens men in such courses as shall and are intended by God to prove either a very sore punishment to them or their utter Ruin but there is no one instance can be given of Gods persuading or tempting or hardening men in any thing which is in its own nature evil And were this well considered it would answer and shame a great many ignorant Objections against Providence 3dly But we must farther observe That when God does thus harden men in Ruinous Counsels on purpose to punish or destroy them he does nothing which has either any natural or moral efficacy to harden them but by their own wickedness they abuse the Providence of God to harden themselves This I have particularly shewn in the Case of Pharaoh Those Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt and that undeniable Proof that they were sent by God in that they were inflicted and removed at the word of Moses and the Goodness of God in removing one Judgment after another at his request would have convinced and softned other men but hardened him St. Paul tell us That the natural end and use of God's Patience and Long-suffering is to lead us to repentance and therefore when it hardens some men in sinful and destructive Courses as we too often see it does there is no reason to charge this on the Patience of God but on the Wickedness of men God permitted a lying Spirit to enter into Ahab's Prophets to persuade him to go against Ramoth-Gilead and though God might very justly have left him in the hands of those False Prophets of his own making and chusing yet he sends his own Prophet Micaiah whom all Israel knew to be the Lord's Prophet to assure him That if he went against Ramoth-Gilead he should perish there And therefore God did not deceive Ahab but he deceived himself by preferring the Prophets of Baal before the Lord's Prophet which was owing to his own wicked Idolatrous heart God never deceives or hardens any men by the external Events and Appearances of Providence but those whose own lusts and wicked hearts deceive and harden them There is always enough even in those Providences which men abuse to harden themselves to have reclaimed and softened them if they would have made a wise use of it And when men have sinned themselves into such a hardened state as to forfeit the protection of Providence God may do what is wise and just and holy though he knows that they will abuse it to their own ruin and intends to bring ruin on them by it And it is a glorious vindication of the Wisdom and Goodness and Holiness of God when all the world shall see that such mens ruin is wholly owing to themselves to their wicked abuse of all those wise and gracious Methods which would have reclaimed and saved them if they would have been reclaimed and saved 4thly To understand the full and comprehensive notion of God's hardening men we must observe farther That when God has been so far provoked as to resolve the final destruction of any Person or People he many times inflicts on them a judicial blindness and infatuation which betrays them to such foolish Counsels as must inevitably prove their ruin That God many times does this the Scripture witnesseth He leadeth counsellors away spoiled and maketh the judges fools He removeth away the speech of the trusty in whose Counsel men used to confide and taketh away the understanding of the aged He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way That is entangles and perplexes their Counsels They grope in the dark without light and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man To reel from one Resolution to another in great uncertainty what to do 12. Iob 17 20 24 25. Thus 19. Isaiah 11 12 13 14. Surely the princes of Zoan are fools the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become bruitish How say ye unto Pharaoh I am the son of the wise the son of ancient kings Where are they where are thy wise men and let them tell thee now and let them know what the Lord of Host hath purposed upon Egypt The princes of Zoan are become fools the princes of Noph are deceived they have also seduced Egypt even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit We have a plain Example of this in Absalom whom God resolved to punish for his Rebellion against David his King and Father David had prayed that God would turn the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness and accordingly God so ordered it as to defeat the good Counsel of Ahitophel by the Advice of Hushai And the reason of it is given For the Lord had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahitophel to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom 2 Sam. 17. 14. This makes men as hard as they are blind they mistake their true interest flatter themselves with vain hopes run themselves into the most apparent and inevitable dangers without seeing them themselves though every body else sees them And something of this nature we must own in Pharaoh's Case For without such an infatuation it is impossible to conceive that he should have persisted so long in his Resolution not to part with Israel though it were to the utter ruin
him by the Prophet Nathan I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house and I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbour and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun For thou didst it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun 2 Sam. 12. 11 12. which we know Absalom accordingly did by the Advice of Ahitophel 16. chap. 20 c. Now that God did inflict this punishment upon David is plain from the Text but that he either instigated Ahitophel to give this Counsel or Absolom to take it is not said And if God could inflict this punishment on David without having any hand in the sin it is no reflection on the Holiness of Providence All that God expresly says he would do in the case was to put David's Wives into Absalom's power I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbour and then foretells what the effect of this would be and what he intended to permit for his punishment He shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun There was no evil in so ordering the matter that when David fled he should leave his Wives behind him which put them into Absalom's power and then God foresaw what Counsel Ahitophel would give and how ready Absalom would be to take it unless he hindered it which he decreed not to do in punishment of David's Adultary And thus to order the permission for such an end though it has nothing of the guilt of the sin yet entitles God to the event considered as a punishment upon which account God may be said to do this before all Israel and before the sun Thus when Shimei cursed David as he fled from Ierusalem David takes notice of God's hand in it and would no suffer Abishai to cut him off Let him Curse because the Lord hath said unto him curse David 2 Sam. 16. 10. But evey one sees that this must be a figurative expression for it is not true in the literal sense God never commanded Shimei to curse David nor did David believe in a literal sense that he did for then he would not have imputed the guilt of it to him Whereas we know though he had sworn to Shimei at his return when he came to meet him that he would not put him to death yet he left it in his dying Charge to Solomon not to hold him guiltless 1 Kings 2. 8 9. But when David said The Lord hath bidden him curse all that he meant by it or could mean by it is no more but this That the sad Calamity which the Providence of God had brought on him by the Rebellion of his Son Absalom had given free scope to Shimei's old and inveterate hatred of him and as effectually let loose his reviling Tongue as if God had in express words commanded him to curse David And therefore he patiently submits to this as part of his punishment and a very inconsiderable part when compared with the Rebellion of his Son Absalom which gave this confidence to Shimei to curse his King Behold my son which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life how much more now may this Benjamite do it 10. v. This is no more than what David elsewhere complains of That God had made him the song of the Drunkards For Bad men will take all the advantages which the Providence of God gives them to reproach and scorn and persecute the Good there needs no other command for this but a fair opportunity to do it Some object God's giving power to Satan first over the Goods and then over the Body of Iob excepting his life And God's permitting a lying Spirit to enter into Ahab's Prophets to persuade him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead But wherein the Objection lies I cannot tell for I suppose they will not say That God by permitting the Devil to hurt and to deceive made him a malicious and lying Spirit Those are very unreasonable Objectors who will not allow God to make use of the Ministry of wicked Spirits to wise and good ends without charging him with their sins too But God himself tell us That when a Prophet is deceived he hath deceived him now how is it reconcilable with the Holiness of his Nature or Providence to deceive 14. Ezek. 9. And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing I the Lord have deceived that prophet and I will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel Now to this it is commonly answered That God permits a Lying Spirit to possess such Prophets as he did in the Case of Ahab for he only speaks here of the Prophets of Baal such Prophets as he would cut off for their Lying Prophesies and how does it unbecome God to give up the Worshippers of Evil Spirits their Priests and Prophets to be inspired and deceived by them No true Worshipper of God was under any temptation to be deceived by them because they were not the Prophets of God and God had always his own Prophets among them to warn them against such lying Prophesies Nay it was the fault of these Prophets that they were deceived themselves for they did know that they did not receive their Prophesies from the Lord but from the Heathen Idols or that they were their own Inventions and when they chose to worship strange gods and to consult their Oracles or to divine out of their own hearts they chose to be deceived and therefore God threatens They shall bear the punishment of their iniquity the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him 10. v. We have a large account of these Prophets and severe Judgments denounced against them 13. Ezek. who are said to prophesy out of their own hearts and to follow their own spirits when they had seen nothing to see a vain vision and speak a lying divination and sometimes to attribute it to God too they say The Lord saith it albeit I have not spoken Now this Character the Prophet Ezekiel gives of these Lying Prophets inclines me to a very different sense of these words which seems plain and easy Not that God deceived them to prophesy Lies but that God deceived them in the event They deceived themselves into vain visions either by giving themselves over to Idolatry which betrayed them to the delusions of wicked Spirits or by heating their Imaginations into Enthusiastick Frensies and prophesying their own Hopes and Politick Guesses which is called prophesying out of their own hearts and following their own spirits and then God deceived all their Hopes and Expectations by bringing those evils on them which they with great assurance and confidence said should never come And the words plainly favour this sense God does not say If a prophet be deceived to speak a thing I the Lord have deceived him But if a
good may come This St. Paul rejects with the greatest abhorrence and tells us that such mens Damnation is just 3. Rom. 8. for it is the greatest contradiction in the World to do evil in order to do good for how can a Man who can for any reason be persuaded to do evil be a hearty and zealous lover of Goodness It is certain that he who does any evil does not heartily love that goodness to which the evil he does is opposed and he who does not heartily love all goodness is a hearty lover of none There is no reconciling good and evil no more than you can reconcile contradictions a good man will love and do that which is good and an evil man will do that which is evil and though the Divine Wisdom can bring good out of evil yet evil is not and cannot be the natural cause of good no more than Darkness can be the cause of Light and therefore a Good Design can never justify a Bad Action For that Bad Actions should do good is contrary to the nature of Bad Actions and whatever men may intend I 'm sure no man can alter the nature of things and therefore can never justify himself in doing evil that good may come It is certain a Wise and Holy God requires no such thing of us and though he very often brings about great and admirable Designs by mens Sins yet no man knows how to do it nor knows when God will do it nor did ever any man who ventured upon sin in order to do some greater good ever do the good he intended though many times he runs himself into more and greater sins than ever he intended Nay I dare boldly say That no man ever deliberately ventured upon a known sin to do some greater good by it but there was always some base worldly Interest at the bottom coloured over with a pretence of doing good either to deceive the world or sometimes to deceive their own Consciences The Church of Rome among whom there are those who teach and practise this Doctrine are an undeniable Example of it and we have had too many sad Examples of it nearer home This seems to me one reason why those Prophesies which concern future Ages are generally so obscure that no man knows when nor how they shall be fulfilled that no man may be tempted to any sin to serve Providence and to fulfil Prophesies As obscure as these Prophesies are yet we see some heated Enthusiasts very forward to venture on any thing to fulfil Prophesies to pull down Antichrist to set up the Kingdom of Christ especially when they hope to set up themselves with him But God conceals Times and Seasons from us and though he many times fulfils Prophesies by the Sins of men yet he allows no man to sin to fulfil Prophesies And therefore never lets us know when nor by what means Prohesies shall be fulfilled Let us lay down this as a certain Principle That God needs not our Sins and that we can never please him by doing evil whatever the Event be He makes use of the Sins of men to serve his Providence but he will punish them for their Sins CHAP. VII The Goodness of Providence 3. THE next Inquiry is concerning the Goodness of Providence Though methinks it is a more proper Subject for our devout Meditations than for our Inquiries for we need not look far to seek for proofs and demonstrations of the Divine Goodness The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord We see and feel and taste it every day we owe our being our preservation and all the comforts of our lives to it There is not so mean nor so miserable a Creature in this world but can bear its testimony to the Divine Goodness Nay if you would pardon the harshness of the expression I would venture to say That the Goodness of God is one of the greatest Plagues and Torments of Hell I mean the remembrance of God's Goodness and their wicked and ungrateful abuse of it This is that Worm that never dieth those sharp Reflections men make on their Ingratitude and Folly in making themselves miserable by affronting that Goodness which would have made them happy Whatever other Objections fome wanton and sporting Wits make against Providence one would think it impossible that any man who lives in this world and feels what he enjoys himself and sees what a bountiful provision is made for all Creatures should question the Goodness of Providence by which he lives moves and has his being We should think him an extraordinary Benefactor who did the thousandth part for us of what God does and should not challenge his goodness though he did some things which we did not like or did not understand but Atheism is founded in Ingratitude and unless God humour them as well as do them good he is no God for them Nay I cannot but observe here the perverse as well as the ungrateful Temper of Atheists when they dispute against the Justice of Providence then God is much too good for them though he give us Examples enow of his Severity against Sin yet his Patience and Long-suffering to some few Prosperous Sinners is thought a sufficient Argument that God is not just or that he does not govern the world When they dispute against the Goodness of Providence then God is not good enough for them Though they see innumerable Instances of Goodness in the government of the world yet this is not owing to a Good God but to Good Fortune because they think they see some of the careless and irregular Strokes of Chance and Fortune intermixt with it in the many Evils and Calamities of life Now it is impossible for God himself to answer these two Objections to the satisfaction of these men and that I think is a sufficient answer to them both For should God vindicate his Justice to the satisfaction of these men by punishing in this world every sin that is committed according to its desert there would be very little room for the exercise of Goodness If every man must suffer as much as he sins the very best men will be great Sufferers much greater Sufferers than any of them now are tho their Sufferings are made another Objection against Providence and there will be as many formidable Examples of Misery as there are Atheists and Profligate Sinners and this would be an unanswerable Objection against the Goodness of Providence for how good soever God might be if he must punish every sin he has no opportunity to shew his Goodness And on the other hand should God be as good as these men would have him that is that to prove himself good he should not inflict any Evils or Calamities on men whatever their Sins or Provocations are that whereas God planted Paradise only for man in innocence the whole world should be now a Paradise though there is not an innocent man in it this would be as unanswerable an Objection
their Sufferings are the punishment of their Sins and the Fore-runners of Future Vengeance except they repent And when we know this it makes a vast difference between the Prosperity and the Sufferings of Good and Bad men and because this is not always visible in external Events God has taken care to reveal it to us But God has made this very visible in most of the ordinary Calamities of life which are the natural effects of Sin of Intemperance Luxury Lust Pride Passion Covetousness Idleness and Prodigality most of those Evils which Bad men suffer are owing to such Vices and all these Good men escape and sometimes their Vertues advance them to Riches and Honours and when they don't yet they make them contented and pleased But when Wickedness makes men great it commonly makes them a mark for Envy and advances them to tumble them down Nay though the Divine Providence does not always make a difference between Good and Bad men as to their external Fortunes yet sometimes God makes a very remarkable difference between them Gives such signal Demonstrations of his Anger against Bad men and of his Care and Protection of the Good that it forces men to acknowledge Verily there is a reward for the righteous verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth 58. Psal. 11. And a few such Examples as these though both Sacred and Prophane Story furnish us with very many are sufficient to make as visible a distinction between the Good and the Bad as the Providence of God in this World requires 4. But yet the Goodness of Providence in a state of Discipline will not allow of greater Evils and Calamities than are necessary to the good government of the World For this is a state of Discipline and Government not of Judgment Good men must suffer no more than what will encrease their Vertue not prove a temptation to sin The rod of the wicked must not always rest on the lot of the righteous lest he also put forth his hand unto iniquity The Sufferings of Bad men who are in a curable state must be only proportioned to their cure unless the evil of the Example requires a severer punishment to warn other Sinners As for hardened and incorrigible Sinners the Goodness of God is not concerned for them but he may serve his Providence on them as he pleases either by making them the Ministers of his Justice to execute such a terrible Vengeance on the World as none but such hardened Sinners would execute or by making them the lasting Monuments of his own Vengeance as he did a hardened and incorrigible Pharaoh for this is for the great good of the World and a state of Discipline requires such Examples And such Sinners are fit to be made Examples of And all such Severities as these are very reconcilable with the Goodness of God in a state of Discipline 5. The Goodness of God in a state of Discipline not only allows but requires great patience long-suffering and goodness to Sinners For this is necessary to reclaim Sinners to give them time for repentance and to invite and encourage them to repent by all the arts and methods of Goodness as well as to overawe them by Judgments and Severities Promises are as necessary to reform Sinners as Threatnings for Hope is as powerful a Principle as Fear and Love and Goodness work more kindly upon Ingenuous minds and melt those whom Judgments cannot bow nor break Thus a kind Parent deals with a Prodigal Son tries him with kindness as well as severity and thus God deals with Sinners He is good to the Evil and to the Good and maketh his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall upon the Just and upon the Unjust And this is such goodness as is proper only for a state of Discipline 6. The Goodness of God even in a state of Discipline requires that there should be a great deal more good than evil in the world For since Goodness governs the World even in this state the Good must be predominant that notwithstanding all the Evils and Calamities there are it may still be very visible that the World is governed by a Good God That this is so I think I need not prove for we all see and feel it The Evils that are in the World bear no proportion at all to the Good There are some few Examples of miserable people but the generality of Mankind are very happy and even these miserable people have great allays of their Miseries and if we take an estimate of their whole Lives have a much greater share of Good than Evil. The Judgments of God are sometimes very terrible but they come but seldom For a years Plague or Famine we enjoy some Ages of Health and Plenty And the Ruins and Desolations of War are recompenced and forgot by a more Lasting and Flourishing Peace But the Goodness of God moves in a constant and uniform round visits all Parts and Corners of the Earth as the Sun does with its Light and Heat That considering how little Mankind deserves of God in this Corrupt and Degenerate State how highly they provoke him every day and how constantly and universally he does good to them instead of complaining of the many Evils that are in the World we have reason to admire the Patience and Goodness of God to Sinners This I take to be a true Account of the Nature and Exercise of God's Goodness as it respects a State of Discipline and so it must be considered in the government of this World and then all the Objections against the Goodness of Providence vanish of themselves Though this World be not so happy as Perfect and Absolute Goodness can make it yet God abounds in all the Expressions of Goodness which a State of Trial and Discipline will allow which is all that we can reasonably expect and all that God can wisely do for us in this State 2dly Especially if we consider in the next place what the true notion of Good and Evil is in a State of Discipline for this is another occasion of most Objections against the Goodness of Providence That men consider Human Nature absolutely and appeal to their Senses for the Notions and Differences of Good and Evil without any regard to the present State of Human Nature that is by Good and Evil they mean only Natural Good and Evil such as Pleasure or Pain a State of Ease and Rest or of Trouble and Labour and Difficulty Riches or Poverty Honour or Disgrace and measure the Goodness of Providence by the Natural Good or Evil that is in the World if Mankind and particular men be happy and prosperous then God does good and they will acknowledge that Providence is good if they be afflicted this is very evil and therefore an Objection against the Goodness of Providence But does not every man know the difference between the good of the End and the good of the Means The End is Happiness which is the
That the Worship of the One Supreme God should be preserved entire among them or that if they did decline to Idolatry they should be visibly punished for it 4. That the Fame of this People and of their God should by degrees be known over all the earth Now not to take notice of the Mystical Reasons of God's Providences towards Israel which is a very large and nice Argument and not so proper to my present Design if most of the Remarkable Providences wherewith they were exercised did manifestly serve some one or more of these ends we have a visible Reason of them not only sufficient to justify Providence but to give us a ravishing Prospect of the Divine Wisdom I shall begin with the Removal of Iacob and his Family into Egypt the Occasion of which is well known but the Reason of it is not so well considered For it may seem strange that when God had promised Abraham to bestow the Land of Canaan on his Posterity for an Inheritance he should remove them out of the Land of Canaan into Egypt there to continue many years under grievous Oppression before he thought fit to deliver them and to give them Possession of the Promised Land But to understand the wise Design of this we must remember That God was to give a visible Demonstration to the world that he had chosen Israel for his peculiar People and given them the Land of Canaan for their Inheritance and it was not so agreeable to this Design that they should increase insensibly in Canaan and by degrees dispossess the old Inhabitants for there had been nothing singular and remarkable in this and therefore they were to be a great Nation before God so publickly and visibly owned them for his People and visibly bestowed an Inheritance on them and it was necessary they should have some place to encrease and multiply in till God thought fit to transplant them into the Promised Land For this purpose God chose the Land of Egypt and sent Ioseph before-hand thither and advanced him to Pharaoh's Throne to prepare a Reception for them And a very quiet and easy Retreat they found there for many years till Ioseph was dead and all the good offices he had done both for King and People forgot and the prodigious encrease of Israel made the Kings of Egypt jealous of their Numbers and Power and then they began to oppress that People with hard labour and cruel bondage till the time appointed for their Deliverance was come This Oppression of Israel may seem a very severe Providence but there were some very Wise Ends it served 1. To make the People willing to leave Egypt where they suffered such hard Bondage for whoever observes how ready they were upon all occasions to talk of returning into Egypt how they longed after the Onions and Garlick and Flesh-pots of Egypt notwithstanding all the hardships they suffered there will be apt to think that had they enjoyed Ease and Prosperity all the Miracles which Moses wrought would no more have persuaded Israel to have left Egypt than they could persuade Pharaoh to let them go 2dly The Advantage Pharaoh made of the Service of Israel made him obstinately resolve not to part with them and his cruel Oppression made it very just for God to punish him and all Egypt with him and this occasioned all those Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt by the hands of Moses whereby he visibly owned Israel for his People and made his own Power and Glory known 3dly The great proneness of Israel to Idolatry even when God had delivered them out of Egypt is too plain a proof that they had learnt the Egyptian Idolatries while they lived there the Golden Calf being as some Learned Men not without reason conclude an imitation of the Egyptian Apis And this made it very just for God to punish their Egyptian Idolatry with an Egyptian Bondage especially considering that this was the most likely way to give check to their Idolatry and to make them hate the Egyptian Gods like their Egyptian Task-masters and to remember the God of their Fathers and his Promise and Covenant to bestow the Land of Canaan on them 4thly The Oppression of Israel in Egypt was an effectual means to keep them a distinct and separate People This was absolutely necessary when God had chosen them for his peculiar People that they should be preserved from incorporating with any other People and this God took early care of by placing them by themselves in the Land of Goshen where they grew up into a distinct Body from Egypt which made Pharaoh so jealous of them when they began to multiply and that made him oppress them and that oppression preserved the distinction which a kind and friendly usage might in time have destroyed for it is rarely seen that two People can live amicably together in the same Countrey and under the same Prince without mingling and incorporating with each other till they forget all distinction between Nations and Families These are wise Reasons why God suffered the hard Bondage of Israel in Egypt and those mighty Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt were the most effectual means both to convince the Israelites of God's peculiar care of them and to convince the world that Israel was God's peculiar People and that the God of Israel was the Supream Lord and Governor of the World This account God himself gives of it 6. Exod. 6 7 8. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burthens of the Egyptians And I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you out from under the burthens of the Egyptians And as for the Egyptians God tells Moses I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the Land of Egypt But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them 7. Exod. 3 4 5. This is the first time we read of such Signs and Wonders as these and probably they are the first Miracles of this nature that ever were wrought and it becomes us to contemplate the Wisdom of Providence in it for the wisdom of Miracles and the surprize and wonder of them are two very different things Miracles offer violence to the order of Nature and would be no commendation of the Wisdom of Providence should we consider them as Causes not as Signs It would be a reproach to the Wisdom of Providence to say that God wrought all those Miracles in Egypt because he could not have punished the Egyptians nor
Relapses into Idolatry for which they were as frequently and severely punished 2. Their Captivities and Dispersions among the Nations whereby God made himself and his Laws more universally known in the world 1. As for the first nothing could be more directly contrary to God's original Intention in chusing the Posterity of Abraham for his peculiar People than their falling into Idolatry and yet God foresaw that this they would do and threatens to punish them severely when they did which is the subject of Moses his Prophetick Song 32. Deut. and the whole History of the Iewish Nation may satisfy us that though God many times spared them when they were guilty of other great Sins yet they never fell into Idolatry but Vengeance soon pursued them and they were either oppressed by their Enemies at home or carried Captive into Foreign Countries When Ioshua was dead and all that Generation which Ioshua led into Canaan There arose another generation after them that knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel And they soon declined to Idolatry and served Baalim they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth 2. Judges 10 11 12 c. And what follows gives us a summary account of God's dealings with them all the time of the Judges And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about them Whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was against them for evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn unto them and they were greatly distressed Nevertheless the Lord raised up Iudges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them And yet they would not hearken unto their Iudges but they went a whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them They turned quickly out of the way that their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord but they did not so And when the Lord raised them up Iudges then the Lord was with the Iudge and delivered them out of the hands of their enemies all the days of the Iudge For it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them And it came to pass when the Iudge was dead that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them they ceased not from their own doings and from their stubborn way For this reason as it follows in the Text God resolved not to drive out any from before them of the nations which Ioshua left when he died God had promised to put out those nations by little and little not consume them at once lest the beast of the field should increase upon them 7. Deut 22. But withal Ioshua assured them That if they did in any-wise go back that is relapse into Idolatry and cleave unto the remnant of those nations even those which remain among you which Ioshua had not driven out know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you but they shall be snares and traps unto you and scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you 23. Joshua 12 13. And thus accordingly God dealt with them for he left the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon from mount Baal-Hermon unto the entring in of Hamath and they were to prove Israel by them to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses 3. Judges 1 4. This was a wise provision God made to correct and punish Israel whenever they should decline to Idolatry for these Idolatrous Nations who still lived among them or round about them were not more ready to tempt them to Idolatry than they were to oppress and afflict them when God thought fit to chastise Israel The whole Book of Iudges is a manifest proof of this and the Story is so well known that I need not insist on Particulars Let us then briefly contemplate the Wisdom of Providence in those severe Judgments God executed on Israel for their frequent Idolatries God had chosen Israel for his peculiar People to be the Worshippers of the One Supream God and a visible confutation of the Heathen Idolatries but their great propensity to Idolatry after all the Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt and in the Red-Sea and in the Wilderness and in giving them possession of the promised Land did threaten the final Apostacy of Israel which would have defeated God's wise and gracious Design in chusing them for his peculiar People For had they turned Idolaters like the rest of the Nations the Worship of the One Supream God had been totally lost in the world To prevent this God never suffered their Idolatries for any long time to escape unpunished and if we would understand the true reason of this we must not consider these Judgments merely as the punishment of their Idolatries but as the wise Methods of Providence to preserve his own Worship among them notwithstanding their Idolatrous Inclinations and to make his Name and Power and Glory known to the world The whole world were Idolaters but God did not punish other Nations for their Idolatry as he did Israel which shews that the punishment of Israel was not merely for the punishment of Idolatry but for the cure of it For God having chosen Israel for his peculiar People the world was to learn from them from their Examples and from their Rewards and Punishments the knowledge and worship of the One Supream God And could there be a more sensible confutation of Idolatry than to see a Nation which had been visibly consecrated to the Worship of the One Supream God as visibly punished whenever they declined to Idolatry That new generation which sprung up after the days of Ioshua who had not seen God's Wonders in Egypt and in the Wilderness nor known the Wars of Canaan soon forgot the God of their Fathers and wanted some new experiments of God's Power and Presence among them and whenever they declined to Idolatry God took care they should not want them though they paid very dear for them for he delivered them into the hands of their Enemies and brought many evils on them till they should remember the God of their Fathers This account God himself gives of it 31. Deut. 16 17. And the Lord said unto Moses Behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers whither they go to be amongst them and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them Then
Parents to imitate their Vertues that they may inherit all the Blessings of their Fathers We think it a great advantage for Children to inherit the fruits of their Parents Industry but to inherit the rewards of their Vertues is much greater And this none but vertuous Children can do A Prodigal Son may inherit the Estate of an Industrious Father but can't keep it but a wicked Son of a vertuous Father forfeits his Inheritance And though some Good men meet with very little or with no reward in this world nay suffer very severely for their Vertue this is no discouragement to their Children but gives them reasonoble hopes to expect the more For an exemplary Vertue shall have its reward at one time or other even in this world and if the Father had it not the Son and the Son's Son through all the Line of a vertuous Succession shall when Good men suffer or miss of the rewards of Vertue in this world they have the greater rewards in Heaven and their Children on Earth 3. To reward Good men and to punish the Wicked in their Posterity better answers the Wise ends of Providence in this world than the Personal rewards and punishments of every particular Good and Bad man I have already observed that there are very wise Reasons why some Bad men should be Prosperous and some Good men Afflicted in this world and since this world is not the place of Judgment the Divine Wisdom does not require that every Good or Bad man should be rewarded according to his works but yet the Wisdom and Justice of Providence does require that Vertue should be rewarded and Vice punished and that in such degrees and in such a manner as shall lay all reasonable restraints on the Lusts and Vices of men and encourage their Vertues Now Vertue is rewarded and Vice punished when it is rewarded or punished if not in the Persons yet in the Posterity of Good or Bad men which leaves room for the tryal of the Faith and Patience of Good men and for the exercise of God's Goodness and Patience to sinners and for the Ministries of Bad men in the service of Providence and yet very effectually discourages Wickedness and encourages Vertue 2dly Another instance of the Wisdom of Providence is That God very often punishes sin with sin and many times with sins of the same kind Our daily observation may furnish us with examples enow of it which are visible and publickly known and it may be there are few Sinners but know some which concern themselves which the rest of the world does not know Thus God punished the Murther and Adultery of David with the Incest and Rebellion of his Son Absolom and thus Oppression is often punished with Oppression Adultery with Adultery Murther with Murther and Wicked men are made Plagues and Scourges to each other And God thinks it no dishonour to the Holiness of his Providence to attribute all such retributions to himself for God can serve the Wise ends of his Providence by the sins of men without contributing to their sins and it is certain there is not a fitter Punishment in the world for Sinners than to suffer the Evils they do that is to be punished by the very sins which they commit Nothing more sensibly convinces them of a Just Providence than this nothing can give them a more just abhorrence of their sins than to feel the evils and mischiefs of them nothing can more awaken and rouse their Consciences than to suffer the Evils which they have done And one would reasonably think nothing should make them more afraid to do any Evil which they are unwilling to suffer So that nothing could better serve the Wise ends of Providence to convince men of a Divine Nemisis and Vengeance to give them an abhorrence of their sins and to make them afraid to commit them 3. Another instance of the Wisdom of Providence is in so often disappointing both our hopes and fears When we are in the greatest expectation of some great good either we are disappointed in what we expected or if we have what we wished for it does not answer our expectations we find our selves deceived in our enjoyments and that it had been better for us if we had been without them And when we are terrified with the apprehensions of some great evil which is just ready to fall on us either the evil does not come as we feared or it proves no Evil but a very great Good to us This is so often every man's case that I need only appeal to your own Observations for the proof of it Now what more effectual way could God take to convince us that we live in the dark and know not what is good for our selves that we disturb our minds with vain hopes and with as vain fears that it becomes us to leave all to God and to depend securely on his Providence who over-rules all things with a Sovereign Will That this is the only way to be easy and safe to chuse nothing for our selves not to prescribe to Providence but to do our duty and then quietly expect what God will do Is it possible there should be a happier temper of mind than this more honourable for God or more secure for our selves Does any thing more become Creatures Is there any more perfect act of Religion than to depend entirely on God without hopes or fears in a perfect resignation to his Will with a full assurance of his protection And could Providence more effectually convince us of this than to let us see by every days experience how apt we are to be mistaken and to chuse ill for our selves that our wishes and desires were they answered would very often undo us and that we are saved and made happy by what we feared and why then should we desire why should we fear any longer let us do our duty and mind our own business and leave God to take care of the world and allot our portion in it 4thly We may observe also that God very often defers the deliverance of Good men and the punishment of the Wicked to the utmost extremity When Wicked Tyrants and Oppressors are at the heighth of their Pride and Glory and Good men are reduced to a hopeless state beyond the visible relief of any Human Power This was the case of Israel in Egypt when God sent Moses to deliver them with a Mighty Hand and an outstretched Arm. This was several times their case in the days of the Iudges when they were oppressed by their Enemies and God raised up Saviours and Deliverers for them Thus it was in the days of Hezekiah when God in one night destroyed the mighty Army of the Assyrians Thus it was in Queen Hester's days when that Wicked Haman had conspired the destruction of the Iewish Nation And there want not Examples of it in Christian Story Never was there a fiercer Persecution of Christians than when God advanced Constantine to the Throne
Providence will and can have no effect upon us The Psalmist complains of those wicked men who regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands 28. Psal. 5. And a great many such there are who have a general notion and belief of a Providence but take no notice of what God does or take no notice of God in what is done Most men are too apt to attribute all Events to the immediate and visible Causes and though at other times they will own a God and a Providence yet as to particular Events take as little notice of God as if he had nothing to do in it Such a belief of Providence as this is of no use at all in Religion it neither gives glory to God nor has any influence upon the government of our lives But if we will own Providence to the true ends and purposes of Religion we must not content our selves with a general belief of God's governing the world but whatever our state and condition be or whatever extraordinary good or evil happens to us we must receive all as from the Hand of God If we are poor we must own this to be God's will and appointment that we should be poor if we be rich we must consider that it is God's Blessing which maketh rich if we lose our Estates by Injustice and Oppression we must acknowledge as Iob did The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away And whatever Evils and Miseries befall us we must say with good old Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Or with David I was dumb and opened not my mouth because it is thy doings Without believing God's government of all Events we deny a particular Providence and unless at the very time when any good or evil befals us we see and acknowledge God's hand in it we can have no present affecting sense of his Providence All such Acts of Providence are lost as far as our taking no notice of them can lose them God loses the glory of his Goodness Mercy Patience or Justice and we lose those Divine Comforts and Supports or those Spiritual Instructions and Admonitions which a due sense and acknowledgment of Providence would have furnished us with And therefore let us accustom our selves in all Events in the first place to take notice of God and his Providence which will teach us how to behave our selves in all Circumstances and how to make the best and wisest use of whatever happens and it was necessary to premise this for it is in vain to teach men their duty to Providence till they have learnt to attribute all particular Events to the Providence of God and to live under a constant sense and regard of it 2dly When we have thus affected our minds with a just sense of the Divine Providence in every thing that befalls us we must in the next place take care to compose our Souls to a quiet and humble submission to the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of God in all things All men confess that it is our duty to submit to the Will of God and if all the Events of Providence are God's doings and what God does is his Will as the Scripture assures us it is and Reason tells us it must be unless God does any thing against his own Will then we must submit to the Providential Will of God in all Events as well as to the Commanding Will of God in obeying his Laws The Soveraign Authority and Dominion of God requires this of us for we are his and he may dispose of our Condition and Fortune in the world as he pleases The Absolute Power of God makes it both prudent and necessary For who hath hardened himself against him and prospered that is against his Providential Will for that whole Dispute is about Providence And the Wisdom and Goodness of God makes it both reasonable and our interest to submit to him for all his Providences how severe soever they may appear are ordered for the good of those who do submit to him So that it is our duty to submit because he is our Soveraign Lord whether we will submit or no we must suffer his Will because we cannot resist his Power and there is no danger in submitting to God for he will consult our present and future Happiness and do better for us than we could chuse for our selves This is plain enough but that which I principally intend is to consider the nature and various acts of that Submission which we owe to Providence or to the Providential Will of God and I shall distinctly inquire what submission we owe to Providence under all the Evils Afflictions and Calamities of life and in those several states conditions and relations of life which the Providence of God placeth us in 1. What submission we owe to Providence under all the Sufferings and Afflictions which we meet with in this world I do not mention a happy and prosperous Fortune for it requires no great submission to be prosperous this is what all men desire and chuse but to submit is to make our own Wills and Desires and Fears and Aversions and natural Passions and Affections stoop and yield to the Will of God which there is no occasion for but in a suffering and afflicted state Now when we suffer such things as are very grievous to flesh and blood submission to the Will of God does not require that we should not feel our Sufferings that we should not be afflicted with them that we should not complain of them for to submit to God is not to put off the sense and passions of human Nature it does not alter the nature of things nor our opinions about them Afflictions are afflictions still and will be felt and though we must bear them in submission to God yet we must bear them as Afflictions can be born and as human Nature can bear them with pain and grief and reluctancy with sighs and groans and complaints with vehement and importunate desires and Prayers to God and man to help and deliver us We have frequent examples of this in Scripture The Psalms of David as they abound with all dutifull Expressions of Reverence and Submission to the Will of God so they are very full of complaints and of the most passionate sense of Sufferings represented so as to be felt in such a strain of moving Eloquence as not Art but Afflicted Nature teaches But we have one Example above all others and that is the Example of our Saviour Christ who suffered with Fear and Reluctancy and with earnest Prayers to his Father If it be possible let this cup pass from me The truth is the greater our fears and sorrows and aversions are the greater is our submission to God it may be thought a great weakness of Nature to be so much afraid of our Sufferings but it argues the greater strength of Faith and is a more glorious Victory over self to make our very
fears and aversions submit to the Divine Will for the more what we suffer is against our own will the greater is our submission to the Will of God Submission to God does not consist in courage and fortitude of mind to bear Sufferings which men may have without any sense of God and which the profoundest Reverence for God will not always teach us but he submits who receives the Bitter Cup and drinks it though with a Trembling heart and hand This ought to be observed for the comfort of those who have a very Devout sense of God and Reverence for his Judgments but betray great weakness of Mind and disorders of Passions under their Sufferings who are very impatient of Pain and have such soft and tender Passions that every Affliction galls them and when they reflect upon these Disorders this creates new and greater Troubles to them for they conclude that all this is want of a due Submission to the Will of God But Religion was never intended to extinguish the Sense and Affections of Nature to reconcile us to Pain or to make all things indifferent to us and while there is any thing that we love it will be grievous to part with it and while there is any thing that we fear it will be grievous to suffer it Religion will rectify our Opinions of things and cure our fondnesses and set bounds to our Passions but when all these flattering or frightful disguises are removed which magnified the Good or Evil that is in things yet Good and Evil they are and will excite in us either troublesome or delightful Passions and this will exercise our Submission to God to part with what we love and to suffer what we fear and were not this the case there were no use of Submission To explain this in a few words let us consider how that man must suffer who suffers with Submission to God and that is the Submission which we owe to Providence Now a man who suffers with Submission must not reproach and censure the Divine Providence but think and speak honourably of God how hardly soever he deals with him he may complain of what he suffers both to God and men but he must not complain of God This was Iob's Behaviour Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away and blessed be the name of the Lord in all this Iob sinned not nor charged God foolishly I Job 21 22. And the Prophet David was an Example of the like Submission I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it 39. Psalm 9. He submitted silently and patiently as to God's hand opened not his mouth against God though he complains of the Wickedness of men and of the severity of his Sufferings Deliver me from all my transgressions make me not the reproach of the foolish remove thy stroke away from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand 8 10. To reproach and revile Providence to fret against God or as Iob's Wife advised him to curse God to be weary of his Government and impatient to think that we cannot resist and cast off so uneasy a yoke this is directly contrary to Submission Such men suffer God's Will because they cannot help it but they would Rebel if they could those who are so outragious against what God does and so impatiently angry with God for doing it only want power to stay his hand and to pull him from his Throne Submission to God is the Submission of our Wills to the Will of God Now though no man can absolutely chuse sufferings for suffering is a natural Evil and therefore not the object of a free choice yet men may chuse suffering against the natural byass and inclination of their own wills in Subjection to the will of God Of this our Saviour is a great Example who express'd a great aversion against suffering Prayed earnestly Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not my will but thy will be done Our own wills will draw back and recoil at suffering For no affliction is for the present joyous but grievous but yet a will that is subject to God will deny it self and chuse that God's will should take place And this is our Submission to the Will of God in suffering yet how uneasie soever it be to us we are so far from complaining against God that we would not have it otherwise when God sees fit it should be so that though we do not and cannot chuse sufferings yet we chuse that the Will of God should be done though it be to suffer Another act of Submission to God is when we wait patiently on God till he think fit to deliver us when notwithstanding all we suffer our hope and trust and dependance is still on God To submit to God is to submit in Faith and Hope to submit as to the Corrections and Discipline of a Father for it is impossible for any man to submit without Hope as impossible as it is to be contented with final Ruin When we cast off our Hope in God there is an end of our Submission then we shall come to that desperate conclusion Behold this evil is of the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer 2 Kings 6. 33. But never was there a greater expression of Submission than that of Iob Though he slay me yet will I trust in him he also shall be my salvation for a hypocrite shall not come before him 13. Job 15 16. This the Psalmist has fully express'd 27. Psalm 13 14. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. To Hope in the Mercy and Goodness of God even when he strikes to wait Patiently till he will be Gracious to make our complaints to him and to expect our Deliverance and Salvation only from him this is to Submit to the Will of God to make his Will our Will to attend all the motions of his Providence as patiently and diligently as a Servant does the commands of his Lord as it is elegantly represented 123. Psalm 1 2. Vnto thee lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens Behold as the eyes of servants look upon the hand of their masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us This is that Submission which we owe to Providence under all the Evils and Calamities of Life and if we would make this Submission easy and chearful we must possess our Souls with a firm perswasion of the Wisdom and Goodness of God We must not look upon him a meer Soveraign and Arbitrary Lord for to submit to meer Arbitrary Will and Power is and will be very grievous
of trusting in God they trust in him without hope or any comfortable expectations unless they have some more visible assurances to rely on This makes most mens hopes ebb and flow as their external circumstances change if they are prosperous and have great numbers of Friends and have their Enemies at their feet then they are full of hope and can trust securely in God when they have the means of helping themselves in their own hands and see no body that can hurt them but if their condition be perplext and calamitous and they see no prospect of human relief their spirits sink and as much as they talk of Providence and Trusting in God they find no support in it To understand this aright wherein the Glory of God and our own Peace and Security is so nearly concerned we must consider That our Faith and Hope and Trust in God must either rely on the Word and Promise of God or on the general Belief and Assurance of his Care of us and of the Goodness and Justice of his Providence as to trust in men is either to trust their Promise or their Friendship 1. As for the first we may and ought securely to rely on the Promises of God as far as they reach for he who hath promised is able also to perform But then we must have a care of expounding Temporal Promises to a larger sense than God intended or than Providence ordinarily makes good which calls the Truth of God or his Providence into question and discourages our Faith and Trust in God when we see Events not to answer God's Promises nor our Expectations To state this matter plainly we must proceed by degrees and distinguish between the Promises made to States and Kingdoms and to Private and Single Men or rather to men in their private and single capacities Most of the Temporal Promises under the Law of Moses concerned the Publick State of the Iewish Church and Nation that if they walked in the Laws and Statutes of God he would bless them with great Plenty and Peace or give them Victory over their Enemies That he would have respect unto them and make them fruitful and multiply them and establish his Covenant with them 26. Lev. which are Publick and National Blessings And tho there is a great difference between the Iewish and Christian Church with respect to Temporal Promises yet there does not seem to be any great difference between a Christian Nation and the Iewish State When a Nation has embraced Christianity and the Church is incorporated into the State and true Religion and Vertue is encouraged and Vice suppressed such a Religious Nation has a title to all the National Blessings which God promised to the Iewish Nation if they observed his Laws for Solomon's Observation is universally true That righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is the reproach of any people And excepting what was typical in the Iewish State there is much the same reason for God to protect and bless a Religious Christian Nation viz. for the publick encouragement of Religion and for the reward of a National Piety and Vertue and therefore as the Christian Church inherits all those Spiritual Blessings which were typified in the Iewish Church so a Christian Nation succeeds to all those Temporal Promises which were made to the Iewish State or else all these Promises of the Law would be of no use to us now So that these National Promises we may securely rely on as to their utmost extent and signification and I am satisfied there cannot be one Example given wherein these Promises have failed God has oftentimes suffered a wicked Nation to be prosperous to scourge their wicked Neighbours but he never suffers a truly righteous and religious Nation to be oppressed Now the largest and most comprehensive Promises in Scripture are of this nature such as concern the publick state of Kingdoms and Nations but even in the most flourishing state of the Iewish Church the case of particular men was very different some bad men were prosperous and good men afflicted and therefore those Promises which concern good men in their private and single capacities must be more cautiously expounded to a more restrained and limited sense accommodated to the different states and conditions of good men in this world and to their different attainments in Vertue As for example When Solomon tells us of Wisdom Length of days is in her right hand and in her left riches and honour 3. Prov. 16. Will any man expound this to signify That all wise men who are truly religious and prudent shall live till old age and attain to riches and honours Did God then intend that there should be no different ranks and degrees of men in the world that there should be no poor men as well as rich or did he intend that no poor men should be wise Wisdom indeed will advance a Prince to great riches and honour as Solomon tells us his Father David instructed him He taught me also and said unto me Let thine heart retain my words keep my commandments and live Get wisdom get understanding Forget her not neither decline from the words of my mouth Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep thee Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding Exalt her and she shall promote thee she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her she shall give to thine head an ornament of grace a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee 4. Prov. 4 9. This was the best Advice that could be given to a young Prince to make him rich and great for religious Wisdom will certainly advance him beyond all the Politicks of Machiavel and if Solomon in imitation of his Father David directs his Instructions to his Children and particularly to that Son who was to inherit his Throne as he himself seems to intimate 1 2 3. Verses we must not conclude that because he tells his Son that Wisdom will make him a glorious Prince that therefore Wisdom will advance all men to riches and honour Wisdom will give a lustre even to poverty it self and sometimes advances the poor to riches and honours and encreases the riches and honours of the Rich and Honourable but we must not always expect this much less pretend a promise for it for there always were and always will be poor wise men Thus when the Wiseman tells us That the hand of the diligent maketh rich 10. Prov. 4. And seest thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings he shall not stand before mean men 22. Prov. 29. No man can think that the meaning is that every diligent man shall be rich for there are such mean Employments as can never raise an Estate by the greatest industry much less can we think that diligence in such mean Employments shall make men known to Princes or that all diligent men whatever their
and possessed with a lively Sense of his Goodness can fear no Evil is out of the reach of solicitous cares is contented in every condition as allotted him by God nay is patient under Sufferings themselves which are the Corrections or Discipline of a kind Father He considers how much good he receives from God and how far it exceeds all the Evils he suffers and therefore he has reason to bless God still as Iob did for shall we receive good from the hand of God and shall we not receive evil especially when the good we receive proves the very evils we suffer to be good because they are inflicted by a good God All these Graces and Vertues are owing to the belief of a Divine Providence and cannot be had without it they belong to that Submission to God and trust in his Providence which I have already explained but it is Praise and Thanksgiving which awakens that vigorous Sense of God which exercises all these Vertues and gives us the ease and satisfaction of them Thus when God loses his Praise we lose the ease and security of our Lives But this is not all for the World also in a great measure loses the benefit and advantage of God's Government which as much disappoints the wise designs of Providence Not to own our Benefactor is to lose the sense of our dependence which makes all the Goodness of God lost on Sinners for the Goodness of God cannot affect any man cannot lead him to repentance can be no reason nor encouragement to Vertue if it be not owned This spoils the very Blessings which God bestows on us which we shall never use to our own happiness without owning and praising the Giver of them He who remembers that he receives all from God and is affected with the Divine Goodness and Bounty in giving will use the good things he receives according to the mind and intention of the Giver and this is the only way to enjoy the benefit of the gift God does not give men riches meerly to look on or to imprison or to spend on their Lusts nor advance them to Honours to make them proud and insolent nor give them a large Portion of This World to make them forget the Next he who is thankful to God for all his Blessings cannot do this for this is the highest ingratitude to affront and provoke God with the abuse of what he gives and he who does thus loses the Blessing though he has the Gift A Covetous man is never the better for his Riches because he cannot use them and a Voluptuous man is much the worse because he uses them to his own hurt When high Places and Dignities make men Proud and Insolent it forfeits the Honour of them and he who forgets and by forgetting loses the next World has a very hard purchase of this Nay such men do not only disappoint God's Goodness to themselves but frustrate the gracious designs of his Providence in making them the Instruments and Ministers of his Goodness to others For those who take no notice of the Divine Providence but are very unthankful to God for what they have are so far from doing any good that they generally do great mischief to others as well as to themselves Those who are sensible that they receive all from God and are thankful for it remember that they are but God's Stewards which is a great Honour but a great Trust too and requires Faithfulness in thankfulness to God who has so liberally provided for them they think themselves bound to imitate his Goodness to supply the Wants and undertake the Patronage of those who want their help and in the judgment of Prudence and Charity deserve it But an unthankful man has no more regard to his Fellow Creatures then he has to God a Covetous man who will not supply his own wants to be sure will not relieve the wants of others and if a Voluptuous man does any kindness the receivers pay dear for it for he makes them the partners or instruments of his lusts A Rich Sinner helps to Debauch a whole Neighbourhood and a powerful Sinner to Oppress them and the daily experience of the World tells us what mischief Riches and Honour and Power do in the hands of Wicked and Unthankful men This I think may satisfie any considering man in the absolute necessity of Praise and Thanksgiving which is not only such an acknowledgment of the Divine Glory as becomes Creatures but is necessary to our own Happiness to our wise improvement of the Blessings of God and to the good Government of the World and all men must confess that this is a Wise and Just reason for God to recal his Gifts to take away what he had given to unthankful men and to give them no more not only because they disown their Benefactor but because they abuse all that he gives them to their own and to other mens hurt All that he gives is lost on them He loses the Praise and they themselves and every body else the comfort and advantage of it And thus I have finished this Discourse of Providence whereby I hope it will appear that there are great Reasons to believe a Providence that the Objections against it are Ignorant Mistakes and that nothing tends so much to the Ease and Comfort and good Government of our Lives as to acknowledge God to be the Supreme and Sovereign Lord of the World THE END ERRATA PAge 11. line 3. r. and that p. 13. l. 27. del made p. 38. l. 17. for or r. and uniform p. 97. l. 34. r. counsels p. 189. l. 14. f. on r. of p. 208. l. 4. f. shold r. should p. 227. l. 3. f. end r. means p. 272. l. 9. r. victory p. 273. l. 3. f. that r. the. l. 17. f. or r. and. p. 280. l. 30. r. undeniable p. 287. l. 25. r. vertue p. 291. l. 16. r. that p. 327. l. 31. r. Messias l. 33. r. whatever p. 332. l. 26. f. an r. on p. 344. l. 19. r. foot p. 338 l. 34. r. reasonable p. 340. l. 20. r. Nemesis p. 353. l. 2. r. how severe soever l. 22. dele most Books Published by the Reverend Dr. Sherlock Dean of St. Paul's Master of the Temple and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties AN Answer to a Discourse entituled Papists protesting against Protestant Popery Second Edition Quarto An Answer to the Amicable Accommodation of the Differences between the Representer and the Answerer Quarto A Sermon preached at the Funeral of the Reverend Dr. Calamy Quarto A Vindication of some Protestant Principles of Church-Unity and Catholick Communion from the Charge of Agreement with the Church of Rome Quarto A Preservative against Poperty in Two Parts with the Vindication in Answer to the Cavils of Lewis Salran Jesuit Quarto A Discourse concerning the Nature Unity and Communion of the Catholick Church First Part Quarto A Sermon preached before the Lord-Mayor November 4th 1688. Quarto A Vindication