free in Giving and Applying the Means to bring-about the End it hath chosen us to For if the Effect of the Means should depend upon somthing to be done by Men which Grace is not the Doer of then works would put-in for a share in the glory of Mens salvation and so the Grace of God would be dethron'd and be as if it were not Grace is no more Grace as is argued in Rom. 11. 6. III. III. Spiritual blessings must be given freely and of pure Grace because the Natural Man cannot perform any such Act as might be Motive for such a gift Things materially good they may doe as Cain in offering the first fruits but not acceptable because not done in the due manner that is in Faith the want of which makes Incense it self an abomination Isa 1. 13 14. If without Faith it be impossible to please God then it must be impossible to doe ought asore you believe that may move God to give you Faith Salvation is promised to Faith Remission of sins to Repentance The blessed vision to Purity of heart But we find not these Graces promised to any Act or Qualification inferiour to 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 3. 5. or precedeing the Graces themselves Our holy Calling and the washing of Regeneration we are not entit'led-to by works of our own IV. IV. If any of the Requisites to Salvation should be given upon conditions Reason would it should be That which in worth and virtue containeth all the Rest and without which the Rest had never been or been of none effect And that is Our Lord Jesus Christ of whom it is said That all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily Coll. 2 9. Joh. 1. 16. Rom. 5 8. and that Out of His Fullness all Grace is received The giving of whom was the most superlative commendation of God's love to Men and is therefore termed That Gift of God Ioh. 4. 10. And as touching the Free and Vnconditionate giving of Christ we have an authentic Record in Gen. 3. 15. It shall bruise thy head Which words doe contain an Absolute free Promise to send the Son of God in the Nature of Man to be a Redeemer And we evidently know That His actual coming and performance thereof was not suspended upon any good thing to be done by Men How could it when after the Fall they did not nor could doe any thing but what might turn His heart against them For evidence hereof We need not go out of the Context Doe but observe the First Adam's Carriage and the Manner of it just afore the Promise was made First They believe the Serpent rather than God Then they break the Commandment of life when they had neither need nor occasion so to do This done and finding themselves lost they do not so much as seek after God for help but rather to hide themselves from Him so farr from confessing themselves faulty that they charge God foolishly and shift the blame of their miscarriage upon Him The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the Tree And the Serpent which also is a Creature of thy Making he beguiled me c. Here 's nothing in their deportment that looks like the Motive of such a Promise But tho they Run from God He will not so part with them yea He follows them finds them out and for a door of hope freely pronounceth this gracious Promise of sending One to destroy this old serpent the Devil and consequently the Serpentine Nature that had now instill'd and Mingled it self with theirs It is the first promulgation of the Gospel and speaks with as much absoluteness as words can express It Shall bruise thy head This I shall stand the more upon because it is the First that was made in Time and That out of which all following Promises are educed The intent of this Promise was Adam's Recovery and Comfort who doubtless at this time was in a very disconsolate Condition as lying under a fresh sense of the happiness he had lost and the wofull estate he was now plunged into And therefore 't was necessary if Adam shall have Comfort by it that the terms thereof be altogether free and Absolute For suppose them to be Conditional as namely If Adam shall now repent and Convert himself If he shall better improve a second stock or rather the cankered Remnant of that he had at first My Son Then shall come into this lower World to still that Enemy and Avenger His life shall go for thy life I will be friends with thee and restore thee to thy first Estate All this and more of this kind had yielded but little comfort or hope to a guilty and defiled Conscience who found himself not onely naked and wholly bereft of his Primitive Righteousness but at enmity with his Creatour and a bondslave to Satan For such Reasonings as these would have broke-in like a floud to bear-down and stifle all hopes of future success viz. If when I was in so blessed a state and endued with power to keep it upon so slight a temptation I yeilded and fell How should I Rise now I am down and my strength is gon If when I had freedom of Will and stood upright so easily I warp'd into crooked paths How can I hope to Return and do better now my Will is perverted and bent to a contrary course If whilst I had eyes in my head and saw things with cleerness I yet lost my way and wandred How should I think to recover it being now both sadly bewildred and my eyes put-out How should I bring a clean thing out of an unclean who kept not my heart clean when it was so How should I gain more with fewer talents who ran my self out of all when I had abundantly more Grapes will not grow upon Thorns nor Figgs on Thistles Nay were my Primitive'state restored agen on the former terms I could not expect to keep it having this wofull experience of so causless and dreadfull an Apostacy c. It was therefore importantly necessary that this first Promise made upon so great and solemn an occasion and bearing in it all the hopes and comforts of God's People to Eternity should be thorowly free and absolute and not depend in the least upon any good thing to be done by Men as a condition of it And if Christ be given freely there 's good ground of arguing thence the free-giving of lesser things as doth the Apostle in Rom. 8 He that spared not His Son how shall He not with Him freely give us all things Math. 6. 25. Is not the life more than meat Is not Christ more than Faith and all Grace Has God given us the flesh of His Son which is Meat indeed and will He not restore our withered hand to receive it It cannot be especially considering That this may be done with a Word and without This the Other would be lost and as water
they are falling Or He so Orders and limits the matter that they fall not into mischief Hos 14. 4. as others do And to be sure He 'l set them on their feet agen The Absolute Promise cannot be Null'd or discertain'd by Cautionary words elsewhere delivered Gal. 3. 17. It cannot therfore by meant of a Total and Final falling away which the Scripture-Current expresly Runs against 2. There are Considerations enough and of great weight Why Believers should take heed of Falling without supposing a Total loss of their Faith The breaking of a Man's bones is ground sufficient for such a Caution altho' he be sure that his Neck shall be safe The dishonour done to his Father The shame that is put upon Christ Grieving the Comforter Scandalizing the good ways of God stumbling the Weak Strengthening the Wicked The unfitting of him for his duty Interrupting his Peace and Communion with God c. Every of which will weigh deep with a soul that is born of God 3. The Lord brings-about His Purposes for most part by Means Of which Cautions are a part and by which as a Means He keeps-off the evill Caution'd-against In the 1 John 2. 28. the Apostle exhorts them to abide in Christ whom certain Professors had relinquished v. 19. And as purposely intending to obviate this objection he tells them That they shall abide in him v. 27. Whereby he strengthens them to their duty For the other place objected viz. Look to your selves that we lose not the things we have wrought It is one thing to lose for a time the Sense and Comfort of Our state as David Heman and Others did and another thing to lose the state it self which a Believer shall never do as is shewn afore Of much like Import is that in 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 8 9. verses where he exhorts them To give all diligence to add one Grace to another And to help them in their work he tells them 1. What advantages they shall have by their So-doing They shall not be unfruitfull in the knowledge of Jesus Christ i. e. It shall evidence to them that the knowledge ledge they have is a real knowledge which cannot be known from that which is formal only but by such an effect That also by this Means it shall be increased The using of things well and to their proper End being the readiest way to their Improvement according to john 7. 17. He that will do my Will shall know of my Doctrine 2. He then sets afore them the loss they shall have in case they neglect this great Duty of Adding Grace to Grace They will become blind that is Unable to see afarr off And forget That they were purged from their old sins that is Their Remisness in this duty will bring obscurity upon their Evidences That which was cleer to them afore will Now become Clouded and be as if it were not It may seem to them That they are short of that Rest Heb. 4. 1. which yet is sure to them And so they 'l be put to begin their work Anew Whereas if they do these things they shall never fall i. e. They shall not fall from their stedfastness Nor lose that cleer sight and assurance which now they have touching their good estate viz. as being partakers of the Divine Nature and Purged from their old Sins Which those Neglects might put out of their sight and so lose them the sense and comfort of what they had wrought We read in John 6. 60. That many of Christ's disciples forsook him In Timothy Of some who as concerning the Faith had made Shipwreck And of Simon Magus who once believed and was afterwards found in the bond of Iniquity The Objection has an intire Answer made-ready to its hand 1 Tim. 1. 19. Acts 8. 13 23. in 1 John 2. 19. They went out from us because they were not of us For if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us Seeming Faith may really be lost as theirs was And Real Faith may Seemingly be lost as was the Apostles Luke 24. 21. Heb. 4. 1. Seeming Faith is really lost Phil. 1. 18. Rom. 2. 20. 1 Tim. 6. 5. because it was but Seeming Real Faith cannot be lost because it is Real Yet we shall find That that which is but seeming is frequently call'd by the name of that it seems to be As in Matth. 13. 12. It is said That which he hath In Luke 8. 18 speaking of the same thing it is rendred That which he Seemeth to have So those who forsook Christ they were disciples but in shew They never believed in truth as appeares by the 64 verse of the 6. John Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not And this viz. because it was but a seeming faith they had He gives as the Reason of their Now-forsaking Him As for Simon Magus the Answer is as cleer concerning him where let us consider 1. That a Man may be said to believe and yet not be a Believer As a Rightâ—ous Man To Sin and yet not be a Sinner To be a Believer is to be thorow-paced in faith To believe all that is to be believed and to have the heart united to it Thus Simon believed not and if he had he could not have thought the Holy Ghost vendible for Money 2. His faith seems to be onely such a belief concerning Philip as the Samaritans sometimes had concerning Simon viz. Acts 8. That he was the great power of God For finding himself over-matcht by Philip who cast-out the Spirits which he perhaps had possessed them with he could not now but give the precedency to Philip as having a greater power than himself and therefore he continued with Philip wondring at what he did v. 13. 3. Simon 's believing might be only an outward professional faith taken-up for by-respects which may well be supposed to preserve his interest and repute among the people who now began to fall from him and to follow Philip whose disciple he himself will profess to be rather than be quite cashier'd Besides this profession of his might in his conceit be a step towards his purchasing the gift of the Holy Ghost which if he could obtain he had then been agen in as good a Condition for reputation and profit as before If any would say We read not of this distinction of faith into true and false I answer The Scripture frequently speaks of persons and things according to Vulgar Esteem or what they professâ—d themselves to be 2 Chr. 28. 23. Ahaz is said To Sacrifice to the Gods of Damascus that smote him and yet neither were they Gods nor did they smite him but it 's spoke according to his own superstitious opinion of them So those 400 Men who prophecied afore Ahab 1 King 22. 6. They are called Prophets Not that they were so indeed but because they So professed themselves or because So reputed
Peradventure they will save us a live So do ye although ye have but a May be we shall be hid Zeph 2. 3. Minde your Duty and leave the issue to God Believe above hope and against hope Follow God in the dark as your father Abraham did Not knowing whether He would lead him Thus to do is To give Glory to God Therefore Fear the Lord and Obey the voice of His Servant even then when ye are in Darkness and have noe light Namely of His special Favour and love to you in perticular And though never so great discouragements are afore you from the Guilt of sins Committed the power of Indwelling Corruption and your present Aversness to Beleiveing and hear withall That Faith is the Great Commandment let your heart answer Is it my Duty my Duty to believe Nay then I must Remember His Greatness His absolute Dominion The â—ncontrollableness of His Matters That He hath concluded All in unbelief That He might have mercy upon All Rom. 11. 32. that is That the Salvation of Those who shall be saved might appear to be of Mercy and be so acknowledged To him therefore Commit your Cause and Commit it to Him as your Sovereign Lord and so leave it with Him And see that you take it not out of His hand again by your doubting the issue of it And know that then is your Soul nearest to Peace and settle ment when brought to this Submission Be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits Heb 12. 9. and live But let not the Word be misconstrued I do not mean by Submission That you should be satisfied under a denial of Mercy on the accompt of God's Absolute Dominion I cannot think That a Necessary term or qualification in your â—reating with God for Salvation For 1. I do not find That God requires such a Submission as the Condition of obtaining Mercy Nor that He hath made any Promise to give such a Submission in order to that end Nor any Instance in scripture of Mens having or indeavouring such a frame of spirit in that business Nor yet That Men are any where tax'd for-Not attâ—ning to it They are blamed indeed and that worthily For not submitting to the Righteousness of God that is For not Renouncing their own and flying to That of Christ And this blame-worthiness you cannot escape if finding your self lost and undone you will not presently run to Christ without first finding in your self Something that may seem to commend you to him 2. Such a Submission seems Repugnant to God's revealed Will For if this be the Will of God even our sanctification That we should believe in His Son and love Him with our whole heart Then it cannot be his Will That we should be willing to Remain in an unsanctified estate in unbelief and enmity against Him which are the inseperable Conjux of Willingness to be Seperated from God 3. Because the promise of Ease and Rest is made to the Weary and Laden coming to Christ Not to a Contentedness to be divided from him And the promise of Satisfaction is to your bungring and thirsting after Righteousness Not to the Câ—ssation of your desire without the Thing which onely can satisfie 4. Because To be satisfied without obtaining Mercy is to be satisfied with an utter incapacity to Glorify the Grace of God and to enjoy Communion with Him which are the principal End and Duty of Men. 5. It is Crosse to the Genius and Concreated Principle of the Reasonable Creature which is to seek its own happiness In any thing short of which it ought not to acquiesce 6. Such a submission cannot be Requisite in Preparatory work because That would suppose the highest pitch of Grace attain'd if yet it be a Grace and attainable before you beleive and consequently That it is not a Grace out of Christ's fullness for ye are supposed to have it before ye go to Him And therefore when I say ye must submit without Capitulating or making terms my meaning is ye are not to Treat upon terms of your own Making Nor propound any thing to God but What Sovereign Mercy propounds to you as the Way and Means of obtaining your Great End And great Reason ye have for this Submission for herein lies your Interest Those being in truth the onely Terms by which a lost and sinfull Creature can be rendred salvable or capable of being saved as may further appear in the Sequel of this discourse I think with humble Submission That if any Point of time may be supposed before the Decree It was Then that Absolute Dominion borâ— sway But ever since Election came in It is Grace that Reignes Not That Sovereignty is Ceased but Transferr'd Before it was in Power but Now in Grace In Grace as touching the Elect and in Justice as touching the Rest Grace is the Attribute God delights to honour And all the Other are if I may so speak Subjects of This Even Christ Himself was made a Servant to perform the pleasure of His Grace So then That you are to Submit unto is the good pleasure of God's will as held forth in the Covenant of Grace undertaking for and perfectly able to save you and as having His Sovereign Power engaged to make it good Which seems the scope of that passage in Moses his prayer for the people Numb 14 17 18 19. when they had highly provoked God Let the power of my Lord be Great according as Thou â—ast spoken c. It was to pardon and still Own them for His people And to this agree all those Scriptures which hold forth the Power of God as the ground of Faith as that by which He is Able to pardon sin Isa 27. 5. To subdue miquity and to hold your Souls in life you are therefore directed If ye will have peace with God to take hold of His strength Which cannot be meant of Contentedneâ—sâ— in having that strength put forth to destroy but as being perfectly Able and engaged by His Covenant to Save you As to the time When He will manifest His love to you As also touching the manner and measure of His dispensing it the good pleasure of God's Will is expressly and with all quietness of spirit to be Submitted unto But as to the Thing it self You ought not to be said Nay but as he who had power with God and prevail'd Hos 12. 14. Gen. 32. 26. He wept and made supplication but still resolv'd I will not let thee 〈◊〉 except thou bless me 2. As for the other nearest Concernment touching your Children deal in like manner for them by submitting them to the same Mercy It is true That next to your own personal salvation there cannot be a greater evidence of God's love to you than to Choose your Children after you Nor any thing more desireable to you Therefore Command them Gen. 18. 19. and Instruct them to keep the way of the Lord That He may bring on them the
spilt on the ground But though this Promise of Christ be virtually a Promise of all Grace yet because of our slowness of heart to believe and to win us off from our legallizing Notions the Lord condescends to gratify His People in Words as well as Substance And therefore V. To make it expresly evident that all Spiritual blessings are perfectly free He hath put them all into Absolute Promises Not that all Promises run in that tenor Many of them have Conditions annex'd which also in their place are of very significant usefullness Gen. 22. 12-18 Joh. 3. 16. chap. 14. 6. Math. 5. 8. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Mark 16. 16. Joh. 10. 9. 1. As proofs of our willing Subjection to God 2. Directives by what Mediums we must get-to the Blessedness design'd us 3. How we must be qualified for the enjoyment of it 4. As Marks and Evidences of our being in the way to it and of those to whom it doth belong But this Annexion of Conditions does not imply a power in Men to perform them tho' perform'd they must be before we enjoy the promised Good Nor does the effect of those Promises depend upon any Act to be done by us which some other Promise doth not provide us with But That Great Fundamental Promise on which is founded our hopes of Eternal life Tit. 1. 2. was Absolute 't was given afore the world Though dearly conditional to Him with whom the Compact was made yet perfectly free and Absolute to us And therefore the adding of Conditions to After-Promises may not be taken as invalidating that First Promise Or as a Defeazance to it It 's a Scripture Maxim That the Covenant which was before confirmed of God in Christ Gal. 3. 17. the Law which was Four hundred and thirty years after cannot disannul that it should make the Promise of none effect The like may be said of Promises made in Time viz That the Conditionalness of Some does not make-void the Absoluteness of Others As the Law was to Christ such are Conditional Promises to the Absolute They shew what we should be and do and by consequence that we can neither be nor do as we should and thence Inferr The Necessity of Divine Grace to undertake for us And then indeed is the Freeness of Grace adorable which promiseth help in terms of an Absolute tenor And accordingly we find That whatever is in one Scripture made the Condition of Acceptance with God and Eternal life In other Scriptures those very Conditions are promised without Condition Some of which we have a Prospect of in the following ballance Conditional Promises Wash ye make you clean Cease to doe evil learn to doe well Come now and tho' your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow Isa 1. 16 18. Repent and turn so iniquity shall not be your ruin Ezek. 16. 30. Make you a new heart and a new spirit v. 31. Hear and your Soul shall live Isa 50. 3. If thou shalt seek the Lord thy God thou shalt find Him if thou seek Him with thy whole heart Deut. 4. 29. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart Deut. 10. 6. Return O backsliding Children Jer. 3. 14. If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land Isa 1. 19. I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel Ezek. 36. 37. He that endureth unto the end the same shall be saved Math. 24. 13. Promises of the Condition Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean From all your filthiness will I cleanse you Ezek. 36. 25. I will forgive your iniquity and your sin I will remember no more Jer. 31. 33. I will put a new spirit within you Ezek. 11. 19. A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you chap. 36. 26. Thou shalt return and obey the voyce of the Lord Deut. 30. 8. They shall return unto Me with their whole heart Jer. 24. 7. I am found of them that sought me not Isa 65. 1. The Lord thy God will Circumcise thine heart Deut. 30. 6. I will heal their Backslidings Hosea 14. 4. Thy People shall be willing Psal 110. 3. I will cause you to walk in my Statutes Ezek. 36. 27. Phil. 2. 13. I will pour upon the House of David the Spirit of Grace and Supplications Zach. 12. 10. They shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. Who shall confirm you unto the End 1 Cor. 1. 8. Jer. 3. 19. These are some of those Many exceeding-Great and Precious promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. by which we are made partakers of the Divine Nature And if duly consider'd would much conduce to establish the present Truth which asserts the Absolute free-giving of All things pertaining to life and Godliness ver 3. And this nothing more plainly contradicts than to make the Dispensments of Grace to depend on the Wills and improvements of Natural Men To shut-out which is a principal scope of Absolute Promises 1 Cor. 1. 29. Ch. 12. 6. Phil. 2. 13. That no flesh should glory in His presence Since it is God that worketh all in all and That of His own good pleasure Now If any should ask by the way Wherein the special love of God to Elect persons discovers it self before their Conversion I cannot assigne any plain or Open discoveries of it by which the Elect may be known from other Men All outward things fall alike to all The heir whiles a Child differs nothing from a Servant altho' he be Lord of all by Election Gal. 4. 1. Yet there are divers gracious operations of that love towards them even in common providences Albeit they are not perceiv'd till afterwards As 1. In keeping-alive the Root or Stem they were to grow from which might be a principal cause of His adding 15. years to Hezekiah's life viz. for Josiah's sake who was to come of his lineage Manasseh his grandfather not being yet born So those dayes of tribulation were shortened and many of the Jewes kept alive by the Providence of God for the Elect's sake that should be of their progeny perhaps two thousand years after 2. In preserving the Elect themselves from many a death which they were obnoxious to before their Conversion As He also did Manasseh And this was the Cause when Satan had them in his Nett and had drag'd them to the pits brink That the Lord sent from Heaven and saved them Psal 57. 3. Job 33. 24. Deliver him I have found a Ransom He is Mine and I have designed him to another end 3. In keeping them from the unpardonable Sin Thus Paul being a Chosen Vessel was kept without that knowledg of Christ which some of the Pharisees had For otherwise his persecuting the Church of God had bin uncapable of pardon as appears by 1 Tim. 1. 13. I obtained Mercy because I did it ignorantly 4. In casting the lot of their habitation where He hath planted
virtually in them According with this is that of our Saviour John 3. 36. Ps 37. 31. He that believeth hath everlasting life It argues the certainty of their Perseverance The law of his God is in his heart None of his steps shall slide Isa 65. 8. And therefore he saith Destroy it Not there is a blessing in it III. Another proof rises from the Nature Arg. III. extent and design of Providence or from the Intent and Purpose of God in that great variety of things which believers are exercised with in the world There are three things considerable to make out this Argument 1. That there is a Divine Providence which Governs the World As in dividing to the Nations their inheritance and bounding their habitations at first so by continuing them in possession or Outing them at his pleasure and this oftentimes by very unlikely means and over-ruling things accordingly Seir being given to Esau and Ar to the Children of Lot and their term not being yet expired the Lord inclines them to let Israel pass thorow and to give them meat for their money whereas the Amorites who were destinied to destruction He hardens their spirits and makes them obstinate that they deny them passage and come out against them in battel Deut. 2. 29 30. So when he would translate the Chaldean Monarchy to the Persians He enfeebles the one Jer. 51. 11. Isa 45. 1 5. but stirrs up the Others spirits and Girds them with strength How oft doth the Scripture repeat That the Lord reigneth Ps 93. 1. 97. 1. 75. 7. That He puts down One and sets up another That He doth according to His Will in the Armies of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the earth Dan. 4 35. How evident is it in his humbling of Pharaoh Nebuchadnezzar and others This Providence reacheth to all manner of Persons times and things and Circumscribes them It leaves not the least thing to a Contingency Even Ravens Sparrows and Lillies yea and the hairs of your head are all numbred and under the Conduct of the Providence of God Matth. 6. 26. 2. That the design and course of God's Providence Eezk. 24. 25. is to accomplish His Purpose As Providence governs the World so Purpose is the Director of Providence He is a Provident Man that orders his affairs prudently i. e. so that nothing is wanting nor any thing spent in waste Both these are in the Providence of God eminently for 1. It is All-sufficient supplies all needs Gives all things pertaining to Means and End 2. It does Nothing in vain Nothing superfluous or impertinent to His Purpose Things most casual to Men are levelled at a set and Certain End What the Lord speaks with His Mouth He fullfills with His Hand 1 Kings 8. 24. and His Act shall not vary a tittle from His Decree which is clearly the meaning of that in the Acts Known unto God are all His Works from the beginning of the world Whence was it that Esau tarried so long at his hunting that he was overfainted That Jacob was making pottage just when Esau comes home which set his appetite on edge after it But that the Purpose of God according to Election might stand The Elder must serve the younger which now came-to-pass by the sale of his birthright And thus the Providence of God makes even the prophaness of Men subserve to His End The Lord had determined to cast Judah and Jerusalem out of His sight for their obstinacy And to this end that is To make way for it it came-to-pass 2 King 24. 20. that Zedekiah rebelled against the King of Babylon It was to fullfill the word of the Lord declared in the 2 Chron. 36. 21. tho that was farr from the Rebellers intent So He gave Cyrus all the Kingdoms of the Earth that he might build His Temple at Jerusalem and it was to fullfill His Purpose before recorded by Jeremy the Prophet as ver 22. 23. In like manner Herod Pilate and the Jews they all conspire the death of Christ and each party on a several account not thinking in the least to fulfil the determinate Counsell of God yet That was it which Providence intended in permitting the Thing to be done as is plain by Acts 2. 23. As also the Soldiers in parting His garments and piercing His side It was their barbarous rudeness which put them upon it But Providence designed to make-good a Prophecy These things therefore the Soldiers did John 19. 24. All that God doth in the World is the Transcript or Impression of His Decrees 3. That the Providence of God never fails of Its End Our God is in Heaven and doth whatsoever He will Ps 115. 3. He will Work and who shall let it And what will He work The things that are coming and shall come Isa 44. 7. He hath both devised and done it Jer. 51. 12. His Purpose is To preserve His People Isa 54. 17. and therefore No Weapon that is formed against them shall prosper Whosoever gathers together against them shall fall for their sake Isa 54. 15. And As He hath purposed so shall it stand Chap. 14. 24. The Scriptures abound with instances to prove it As on the Contrary When the Lord will execute Judgment it shall be performed albeit the Means be never so weak and improbable Tho' the Army of the Chaldeans were all wounded men yet shall they burn Jerusalem with fire Judges 3. 31. ch 15. 15. Jer. 37. 10. SHAMGAR shall kill six hundred Men with an Ox-goad and SAMPSON a Thousand with the Jaw-bone of an Ass These things considered and laid together though chiefly referring to Temporal things doe strongly inforce the Argument for things of spiritual Concernment Inasmuch as things of Eternal Moment are worthy of more peculiar regard and security Now All a Believer's exercises which may seem to endanger him are either from the guilt of sins committed From the power of indwelling corruption From Satan's temptations or Persecution from the World None of which come on them accidentally but as things fore-appointed of God and for a good intent It is for the Elects sake that all things else have their being 2 Cor. 4. 15. And are all caused to work together for their good Rom. 8. 28. As namely to humble them for sin To wean them from the World To indear JESVS CHRIST to them To shew them the usefulness of Ordinances To exercise and try their Graces To purge out their dross To enable them to succour others To demonstrate the Wisdom Power and Faithfulness of God towards them To meeten them for Heaven And to make them groan and long to be clothed upon with their house from thence As might plentifully be made out by the Scriptures and the visible effects thereof upon those who have been exercised thereby To instance a few particulars David after that great miscarriage in the matter of Vriah with his broken bones upon it