meaning of it from what Noah had often told them and this must needs convince them of the terrible Justice and Vengeance of God And the gradual increase of the Flood gave them some time to repent in and to beg God's pardon and I 'm sure this makes a glorious representation both of the Goodness and Wisdom of God in the most terrible Judgment that ever was executed upon the world if we had sufficient reason to believe as there want not some fair appearances of it that God intended the Deluge as well to convince and save all that could be brought to repentance in the Old World as to reform the New Thus since God had determined to destroy that wicked Generation of men and to preserve only Noah and his three Sons to destroy the Earth by a Deluge and to shut up Noah in the Ark was as great or a greater mercy to Noah than his preservation was Let us suppose that instead of drowning the world God had at once destroyed all Mankind by Plague or Thunder from Heaven or some other sudden stroke excepting Noah and his Sons who should be Eye-witnesses of this Terrible Execution and live to see the Earth covered with dead Bodies and none left to bury them and their Cities lie waste and desolate without Inhabitants who can conceive what the horror of such a sight would have been who would have been contented to live in such a world to converse only with the Images of Death and with noisome Carkasses But God in great mercy shut up Noah in the Ark that he should not see the Terror and Consternation of Sinners when the Flood came and he washed away all their dead Bodies into the Caverns of the Earth with all the marks and signs of their Old Habitations that when Noah came out of the Ark he saw nothing but a new and a beautiful World nothing to disturb his imagination no marks or remains of that Terrible Vengeance This indeed destroyed all other living Creatures as well as Sinners excepting those that were in the Ark with Noah but this I suppose is no great objection against Providence that the Creatures which were made for man's use were destroyed with man since God preserved some of each Kind for a new increase and yet the Wisdom of God was very visible in this for had the World been full of Beasts when there were but four men in it the whole Earth would quickly have been possessed by Wild and Savage Creatures which would have made it a very unsafe habitation for men To conclude this Argument the sum of it in short is this When the wickedness of Mankind was grown universal and incurable it became the Wisdom of God to put an end to that Corrupt State and to propagate a new Race of men from a Righteous Stock and to take the most effectual course to possess them with a lasting belief of his Being and Providence and with a religious awe of his Justice and Power To this end he destroyed the Old World with a Deluge of Water and preserved Noah and his Sons in the Ark which had all the advantages imaginable to deter men from sin which brought a Deluge upon the Old World and to encourage the practise of true Piety and Vertue which preserved Noah from the Common Ruin We see in this Example that numbers are no defence against the Divine Justice and therefore no security to Sinners when all flesh had corrupted his ways God destroyed them all nay we see that the more wickedness prevails in the world the nearer it is to destruction that the great multitude of Sinners is so far from being a reasonable temptation and encouragement to sin that it is a fair warning to considering men to separate and distinguish themselves from a wicked world by an exemplary Vertue that God may distinguish them also when he comes to Judgment which an universal corruption of manners shews to be very near and it is a dangerous thing to sin with a multitude when the multitude of Sinners will hasten Vengeance Here we see that though Sinners may be very secure they are never safe as our Saviour observes it was in the days of Noah they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriages until the day that Noah went into the Ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away 24. Matth. 37 38 39. God may delay punishment a great while and seem to take no notice of what is done below till Sinners begin to think that he is such a one as themselves but their Judgment all this while neither slumbers nor sleeps there may be the greatest Calm and the serenest days before the most terrible Earthquakes and the longer God has kept silence the more reason have we to expect a severe and surprizing Vengeance which makes the Psalmist's Advice in such Cases very seasonable Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver And who would be afraid or be ashamed of Noah's singularity to be good alone and to be the single Example of Piety and Vertue that remembers that he alone with his three Sons were saved from the Deluge and he that would be a Noah in the Ark must be a Noah in a wicked World But this is sufficient to justify the Wisdom of Providence as to Noah's Flood which put an end to the Old World and now let us take a view of the New Notwithstanding that late terrible Example of God's Power and Justice in the destruction of the Old World that new Generation of men began to grow very corrupt as God foresaw they would but resolved to try some new methods and not to drown the world any more When Noah had offered a Burnt-offering to the Lord of every clean beast and of every clean fowl after his coming out of the Ark The Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth Neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done 8. Gen. 20 21. The first Exploit we hear of them was their building the Tower of Babel which Story is so briefly related by Moses that we cannot give a perfect account of the Reasons and Circumstances of it The most probable Account seems to be this that Nimrod the Son of Cush and Grandson of Ham in which Line True Religion and Piety first decayed affecting an Universal Empire to prevent the dispersion of the People persuaded them to build a magnificent Seat for his Empire which should be a center of Union for them at what distance soever they should be forced to remove That the whole Earth should be but one Kingdom and Babel the Royal Palace Had this Design succeeded the whole world would have been but one People and the Universal Monarchy in the Line of
Works of Nature prove that the World was at first made by a wise and powerful Being the continuance and preservation of all things the regular motions of the Heavens the uniform productions of Nature prove the World is upheld directed and governed by the same Omnipotent Wisdom and Counsel As St. Paul tells us The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead 1 Rom. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Dominion and Soveraignty or his governing Providence this visible World does not only prove an Eternal Power which made it but a Soveraign Lord who administers all the Affairs of it And 14. Acts 17. He proves the Being of God from his Providence Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness And 17. Acts 28. He proves that God governs the World and takes care of all the Creatures that are in it because he made it For in him we live move and have our being as certain of your own Poets have said for we are also his off-spring which is very improperly alledged by St. Paul if we may be the Off-spring of God and yet not live and move and have our Being in him that is if God's making the World does not necessarily prove his constant care and governmet of it But the Apostle knew in those days that no man who confessed that God made the World questioned his Providence and therefore makes no scruple to prove that we live and subsist in God because he made us This is a noble Argument to prove both the Being and Providence of God which cannot be separated from the Works of Nature and the Wise Government of the World It would give us a very delightful entertainment to view all the Curiosities and suprizing Wonders of Nature with what beauty art and contrivance particular Creatures are made and how the several parts of this great Machine are fitted to each other and make a regular and uniform World How all particular Creatures are fitted to the use and purposes of their several Natures and yet are made serviceable to one another and have as mutual a connexion and dependance as the Wheels of a Clock What an equal and steady Hand governs the World when its motions seem most excentrick and exorbitant and brings Good out of Evil and Order out of Confusion when things are so perplext that it is impossible for any one but a God to disentangle them There is no need of the subtilty of Reason and Argument in this Cause would but men attentively study the Works of God and dwell in the contemplation of Nature and Providence for God is as visible in his Works as the Sun is by its Light when all the Wonders of Nature are unfolded and exposed particularly to our view it so over-powers the mind with such infinite varieties of that most Divine Art and Wisdom that modest men are ashamed to ascribe such things to a blind Chance which has no Design or Counsel Indeed to say that a World full of Infinite Marks and Characters of the most admirable Art a World so made that no Art could make it better was not made by a wise Mind but by Chance by a fortuitous concourse of Atoms which without any Design after infinite fruitless Trials happened into this exact useful beautiful Order that now they are in know when they are well and in despight of Chance move as constantly regularly artificially in all new Productions as the divinest and most uniform Wisdom could direct I say to affirm this is to put an end to all Disputes by leaving no Principles of Reason and Argumentation to dispute with An Atheist is the most vain Pretender to Reason in the World The whole strength of Atheism consists in contradicting the universal Reason of Mankind They have no Principles nor can have any and therefore they can never reason but only confidently deny or affirm They can assign no Principles of Reason which the rest of Mankind allow to be Principles from whence they can prove that there is no God and no Providence but they only reject those Principles which all other men agree in and from whence it must necessarily follow that there is a God and a Providence It will be of great use briefly to explain this which will teach you to reject Atheism and Atheists without troubling your selves to dispute with them for they have no common Principles with the rest of Mankind to reason upon nor indeed any Principles of Reason at all A few words will suffice for this purpose Mankind who have been used to thinking and reasoning have universally agreed That there must be something that had no beginning and no cause for nothing can produce nothing that had there ever been a time when there was nothing there never could have been any thing unless there can be an effect without a cause which is too absurd for Atheists themselves to say in express words who do not boggle much at Absurdities and therefore they make their Atoms and their Vacuum to be eternal It is agreed also That whatever had a beginning had a cause and the most easy and natural progress of Human Understandings is to reason from one cause to another till we ascend to and center in a first Cause For it is as easy and natural to believe one first Eternal Cause as to believe an Eternal Being but though it is natural to believe something Eternal it is as unnatural to believe all things to be so we have no notion of all things being Eternal though we have of an Eternal Cause for the very reason why we are forced to confess something Eternal is because there must be an Eternal Cause of all other things that is because all things are not eternal But if any thing which has not an eternal and unchangeable Nature but is capable of being made and unmade changed and altered as all the things of this World are might be without a Cause then every thing may be without a Cause and if the Eternity of all things be a natural Notion it cannot be a natural Notion that there is a first Cause For that very Notion supposes that something had a beginning and was originally made when it was not before and therefore that all things are not eternal For to be made in this Axiom primarily relates to the being of things and is so understood by all men And how can such a notion of the making and giving being to any thing be natural if it be a natural notion that all things are eternal and that nothing was made Hence it is that seen and visible Effects which have no visible Cause adequate to the producing such Effects are allowed by all Mankind to be a sufficient proof of some Invisible Cause as St. Paul tells us
mens Sins the Charge lies equally against a creating and co-operating Power if it does not God is no more chargeable with Sin for co-operating with mens natural Powers in every Action than he would be for creating such natural Powers as could act of themselves God's Government of the World must be fitted to the natures of the Creatures which he has made without denying them the natural Powers of Action and therefore while he co-operates with Creatures only to act according to the liberty of their own Natures this is no fault in this Government nor contributes any thing more to the Sins of Creatures than preserving their Natures which as much becomes God as it did to make them Thus some think it a great blemish to Providence that Adulterous Mixtures prove fruitful when encrease and multiply is an established Decree from the first Creation and the setled Course and Order of Nature must not be reversed by the Sins of men They may as well object against Providence That a man who steals his Neighbour's Grain and sows it in his own Land should have a plentiful Crop the next year from his stolen Seed And whatever Opinion men have concerning the origination of the Soul Whether it be propagated ex traduce or did praeexist or be immediately created by God and infused into prepared Matter it makes no difference in the case for when the Order of Nature is setled and the Blessing pronounced and established by the Divine Decree it does not unbecome God to preserve the powers of Nature to produce their natural Effects I am sure there want not wise Reasons in God's Government of the World why it should be so to restrain some mens Lusts and to shame and punish others Nay I believe whoever considers this matter well will acknowledge that it goes a great way in answering the greatest Difficulty of all viz. The Eternal Punishments of Wicked Men in the next World The Objection is not against God's punishing Wicked Men in the next World for no body pretends that this is unjust for God to punish the Wicked whether in this World or in the next Nor is the Objection against the nature of these Punishments for indeed we do not distinctly know what they are no more than we know what the Happiness of Heaven is Those Descriptions our Saviour gives of them of lakes of fire and brimstome blackness of darkness the worm that never dieth and the fire that never goeth out prove that they are very great because these Descriptions are intended to present to us very frightful and terrible images of the Miseries of the Damned But this is not the Complaint neither for it is confessed that Wicked Men deserve to be very miserable But the Objection is against that vast disproportion between Time and Eternity How it is reconcilable with the Divine Justice to punish Temporal Sins with Eternal Miseries that when men can sin but for a very few years they must suffer for it for ever Now the difficulty of this seems in part to be owing to a mistating the case There is no proportion indeed between Time and Eternity and it is therefore difficult to conceive that every momentary sin should in its own nature deserve eternal punishments but there is no difficulty to conceive that an immortal sinner may by some short and momentary sins sink himself into an irrecoverable state of misery and then he must be miserable as long as he continues to be and if he can never die he must be always miserable and may be so without any Injustice in God We do not here consider the proportion between the continuance of the sin and the punishment between a short transient act and eternal punishments for it is not the sin but the sinner that is punished for his sin and therefore we must not ask How long punishment a short sin deserves but How long the sinner deserves to be punished and the answer to that is easy As long as he is a sinner And therefore an immortal sinner who can never die and will never cease to be wicked which is the hopeless and irrecoverable state of Devils and damned Spirits must always be miserable and it is just it should be so if it be just to punish sinners and there is nothing to quarrel with God for as to the Eternity of Punishments unless it be that he does not annihilate Immortal Spirits when they are become incurably wicked and miserable The Justice of God is only concerned to punish sinners that their punishents are eternal is a necessary consequence of their Immortality and this can't be charged on God unless it be a fault to make immortal creatures and to preserve and uphold immortal creatures in being or to punish sinners while they deserve punishment that is while they are sinners It may give some light to this matter to remove the Scene into this world We see the punishment of sin in this world bears no proportion to the time of committing it but to the lasting effects of the sin One short single act of Lust may not only leave a lasting Reproach on mens Names but destroy the health and ease of their bodies and the pleasure of their lives for their ever in this world and had Man continued immortal after the fall these miserable effects must have continued for ever and then there had been a visible Eternal Punishment for a very short transient sin and yet no man would have blamed the Justice of God for it which shews That a sin which is quickly committed may be eternally punished and that very justly too when the effects of it are incurable and the person immortal And thus it is in a great many other cases in this world where the effects of sin last as long as the Men last and if this be the case of the other world and of the miseries and punishments of the damned as we certainly know in a great measure it is that their punishments are the natural effects and consequents of their sins there can be no objection against the Eternity of their Punishments but that God does not annihilate them And how hard soever any man may think it to be that a sinner should be eternally miserable I believe no man will venture to say that God ought in Justice to annihilate creatures whom he has made immortal when by their own fault they must be eternally miserable if they live for ever To preserve and uphold creatures in being is in it self considered what becomes the Wise Maker of all things and I am sure there can be no reason given to prove that God ought to annihilate sinners to prevent their being miserable for ever but what will much more prove that God ought to have withdrawn his natural concourse from his creatures or to have annihilated them to prevent their sinning or which is the last result of all as I have already observed and the only fault if there be one That he ought
the Will is moved how it is determined or determines it self whether by the Constitution of its Nature it always necessarily chuses what it chuses or might have not chose or have chosen any thing else Now whatever other men may do I 'm sure I know nothing of the Philosophy of these matters and therefore they don't concern me Others make God himself to be nothing else but Necessity and Fate who by Eternal and Irreversible Decrees as necessary and essential to him as his own Being has determined whatever shall come to pass but no man can pretend to know this without an Immediate Vision if I may so speak of the Naked Essence of God His Attributes and Moral Perfections give us no notice of such Fatal Decrees his Wisdom Holiness Justice Goodness contain nothing of Fate and Necessity and those who can see the very Essence of God to be Fate must be able to contemplate his Pure Essence and to know God after another manner than he ever yet manifested himself to Creatures or it may be than it is possible for God to show himself to Creatures Others conclude the Fatal Necessity of all Events from God's Prescience for they say that God can foreknow things only in his own Decrees and therefore if God foreknows all things all things are decreed or however what God foreknows will come to pass will certainly and necessarily come to pass and therefore all Events are certain and necessary if they are all foreknown by God But these are Conclusions which no man can be certain of without pretending perfectly to understand the Nature of Prescience or how God foreknows things to come for if God can foreknow what he has not decreed and can foreknow what does not come to pass necessarily then the Prescience of God does not infer a Fatality of all Events And yet this may be for ought we know unless we perfectly understand the Nature of Prescience and how God foreknows things to come and then we may foreknow things our selves The like may be said of God's concourse with his Creatures in all their actions from whence they conclude That the Will of man in all its elections is determined by God without whose concourse it cannot act nor determine it self These are all Nice Philosophical Speculations which creatures who are so ignorant of the Natures of things can know nothing of and therefore they are not fit to be made Arguments for or against any thing The Sum is this That since we must confess our selves so very ignorant of the Works of Nature without the knowledg of which in Ten thousand Instances it is impossible to understand the Wisdom of Providence it is unreasonable and absured for us to demand an account of God's Providences but we ought to be satisfied to leave God to Govern the World with the same Sovereign and Unaccountable Wisdom which at first gave Being to all things Thirdly That the Wise Government of the World requires secret and hidden Methods of Providence and therefore at least in this state we ought not to expect or desire a particular Account or Reason of all Events The Wise-man tells us It is the glory of God to conceal a thing 25. Prov. 2. It is the Glory of the Divine Nature that it is Incomprehensible by us and it is the Glory of the Divine Providence to be Unsearchable and therefore many of the Ancient Philosophers and Poets forbid too curious an Enquiry into the Nature or Providence of God and Sophronius gives a wise Reason for it Because we are all born of Mortal Parents and therefore the perfect knowledge of an Infinite Immortal Being must be above us Which is much the same Reason that Zophar gives Vain man would be wise tho man be born like a wild asses colt 11. Job 12. This is a knowledge too great for our birth if our Natural Capacities bear proportion to it for God must be a very little Being himself could he be comprehended by such mean Creatures But that which I at present intend is only to shew you That the Wise Government of the World requires that the Divine Counses that the Events and Reasons of Providence should in a great measure be concealed from us and I hope that is a satisfactory reason why God should conceal them if he can't so wisely govern the world without it I would desire those persons who are so apt to quarrel at Providence and to take it so very ill that God does any thing which they don 't presently understand to sit down and agree among themselves How they would have God govern the world What it is that they would be pleased with But let them consider well of it before-hand that upon second thoughts they don 't find more reason to quarrel at their own ways and methods of governing the world than they now have to quarrel with Providence or that the rest of mankind do not find more reason to quarrel with them than they have now to quarrel with God As to give an Instance or two of this by way of Essay Some seem to be very much discontented at the Uneveness and Uncertainty of all Events that all things are in a perpetual Flux and Motion that no man knoweth what a day or an hour will bring forth The instability of Fortune which gives and takes away and every day shews a new face and opens new and surprizing Scenes has been an old Complaint Well then Would they have this rectified Would they have all the Events of Providence as constant and regular and unchangeable as the Motions of the Heavens as the Returns of Day and Night of Winter and Summer And when they see all things happen thus evenly and regularly will they then promise to believe a Providence I mightily suspect that they will be farther from believing a Providence then than they are now We see that the Regular Motions of the Heavens and the Uniform Productions of Nature which so seldom vary that it is thought Portentous and Ominous if they do cannot convince them That God governs the Heavens and the Earth and all the Works of Nature as far as all their Vertues and Powers move and act uniformly by constant and unerring Laws and if the regular uniformity of Nature is not thought by these men a sufficient Proof of a Providence I doubt a constant and uniform round of all Events would be thought much less so Those who now resolve all the uncertain Changes and Revolutions that happen into Necessity and Fate would have more reason to do so did Providence always shew the same face and appearances as the Heavens do But can they tell what kind of Uniformity and Stability of Providence it is would please them Would they have all mens Fortunes equal That there should be no distinction between Rich and Poor High and Low Princes and Subjects the Honourable and the Vile I believe few of them would like such a Levelling Providence which as the state of
there was a Power and therefore a God above them all whom all Mankind ought to fear and worship This convinc'd Nebuchadnezzar of the Power of the God of Israel when he had delivered Shadrach Meshach and Abed-nego from the fiery Furnace he made a Decree That every people nation and langage which spake amiss against the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abed-nego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort Thus when God had delivered Daniel from the Lion's Den Darius made a Decree That in every dominion of his kingdom men should tremble and fear before the God of Daniel For he is the living God and stedfast for ever and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall be even unto the end He delivereth and rescueth and worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth who hath delivered Daniel from ihe power of the lions Both these Kings were convinced by these great and wonderful Works that the God of Israel was the Supream God but Nebuchadnezzar's Decree only forbids men to blaspheme God Darius seems to command all People to worship him for to tremble and fear before him signifies a religious veneration but neither of them appointed any solemn Worship to be paid him much less did they forbid the Worship of any other Gods But a little consideration would have carried them farther for those mighty Works which proved a Power superior to all Gods proved a Sovereign Providence too that this Supream God had not so committed the Government of the world to any Ministers or inferior Deities but that he reserved the supream disposal of all things in his own hands as Nebuchadnezzar was convinced that His dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him What dost thou This cut off all reasonable Pretences of paying Divine Worship to their Country-goods for if there be a Superior Power and Providence over them at most they could be only Ministers of the Divine Will and therefore could have no title to Divine Honours no more than Ministers of State have to the Royal Dignity And it was very reasonable to conclude this when they saw that this Supream God would not suffer Israel whom he had chosen for his peculiar People to worship any other God besides himself This was not unknown to the Egyptians but was more manifest in After-ages when God so severely punished them for their Idolatry and was made evident to Nebuchadnezzar and Darius when God delivered Shadrach Meshach and Abednego out of the fiery Furnace who refused to worship the Golden Image which he had set up and delivered Daniel from the power of the Lions when he was cast into the Lions Den for praying to his God This shews the strange power of Prejudice and Custom but yet we must confess that this was wisely designed by God for the cure of Polytheism and Idolatry Having thus vindicated and explained the Wisdom of Providence both with respect to the removal of Israel out of the Land of Canaan into Egypt and the hard bondage they suffered there and their deliverance out of Egypt with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm with Signs and Wonders and Miracles let us now follow them into the Wilderness God having chose Israel for his peculiar People and delivered them out of Egypt before he shewed them openly to the world under such a peculiar Character it was necessary first to form their Manners to take care that they should own him for their God and behave themselves as it became so glorious a Relation this could not be done in Egypt where they were oppressed by hard bondage and therefore God first leads them into the Wilderness remote from the conversation of all other People and upon all accounts a fit place both to instruct and try them I do not intend as I said before to inquire into the Mystical Reasons of those various Providences with which God exercised them in the Wilderness to which our Saviour and his Apostles so often refer and which they apply to the Gospel-state but shall only consider the Wisdom of Providence as to the external and visible conduct of that People to make them fit to be owned before all the World for his peculiar People They had lived two hundred years in Egypt and were tinctur'd with the Idolatries and had learnt the corrupt Manners of that People and had all that meanness and stupidity and perverseness of humour that a state of Servitude and Bondage is apt to create of which we have too many visible Instances in their behaviour towards Moses All this was to be corrected before their entrance into Canaan which will give us the reasons of some very wonderful Providences The first remarkable thing to this purpose to be observed is God's delivering the Law to them with all the most formidable Solemnities in an audible Voice from Mount Sinai Which Moses tells them was such a thing as was never known before since the day that God created man upon the earth Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as thou hast heard and live And the use Moses makes of it is very natural to confirm them in the Belief and Worship of the One Supream God Vnto thee it was shewed that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God there is none else besides him Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice that he might instruct thee and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath there is none else For what can convince men that there is One Supream God if such a terrible Appearance as that on Mount Sinai and the Law delivered in an audible Voice from Heaven will not convince them Numa pretended to receive his Laws from the Goddess Aegeria as some other Lawgivers pretended to do the like but no man knew any thing of it but themselves but here a whole Nation heard God speak to them and saw such an Awful Appearance upon the Mount as made Moses himself fear and tremble I desire any man to tell me how God who is a Pure Invisible Mind could possibly give a more visible Demonstration of his Presence and Power I desire the Wittiest and most Philosophical Atheists only for Experiment sake to suppose the Truth of that Relation which Moses gives us of this matter and that they themselves had been present at Mount Sinai had seen the Smoke and Fire