take away his life pursueth him with an Army from place to place David had a pitiful company with him is forced to flee to Gath there to dissemble himself mad would any one have thought that had seen David among the Philstines scrambling on the walls that he should ever have been King over Israel and Judah At length Saul and Jonathan the next heir are slain in Battel then Ishbosheth is set up but yet after all these oblique and seemingly contradictory motions of Providence it cometh home to the promise David is setled in the Throne of Israel and Judah 4. Let a fourth instance be that of the Gospel Church God had promised that he would set his King upon the holy hill of Zion Psalm 2.6 v. 8 That he would give him the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession and promises of this nature are everywhere multiplyed by the Prophets Isaiah especially Our Lord when he ascended up into Heaven gave out a Commission to his Disciples in order to this effect Go preach and baptize all Nations c. Now at the first the Providence of God seemed to move as if the thing should presently have been done You read Acts 2 That the Spirit of God descended and there were then at Jerusalem saith the Text devout men of every Nation under Heaven Parthians Medes Elamites Mesopotamians Jews Cappadocians men of Pontus Asia Phrygia Pamphilia Egypt Lybians Cyrenians Romanes Cretes Arabians and heard the Apostles in their own language speaking of the great works of God Here were now Preachers made for all the World would not one have thought that surely at this time all the ends of the Earth should have been given unto Christ Peter at one Sermon converts two thousand soon after there were five thousand added to the Church But all on the sudden the Providence of God turneth the Gospel groweth out of repute and the Apostles that preached it too both with Jews and Gentiles James is put to death Peter hardly escapes The Church the only Gospel church God had at that time at Jerusalem was scattered and broken the Apostle complains That they were made as the filth of the world and as the off scouring of all things The Jews persecute them the Gentiles in all places rise up against the Preachers of the Gospel bonds stripes and imprisonments waited for the Apostles in all places where they came Paul saith he thought that God had set them forth as men appointed unto death spectacles to the World Angels and men Few of the great Ministers of the Gospel died their natural death the Christians were a sect everywhere spoken against all courses almost imaginable taken to root them out of all places for three hundred years together But at length the Providence of God cometh in a great measure to work up to the direct fulfilling of the many promises of this nature Constantine an Emperour of a great part of the World ariseth and commandeth and encourageth the preaching of the Gospel And thus it came to be spread and accepted in most known parts of the World Indeed there is hardly any instance can be given of any great work of Providence respecting Churches Nations or particular persons as to which this Observation will not justifie it self 5. For another instance may we not bring in if not all yet very many of your particular Souls who fear the Lord. You also upon believing receive the promises The promises are made of old but we receive them we come to have a title to them in the day when God opens our eyes and opens our hearts to a receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ turning our hearts from dead lusts and sins to serve the living God In that day I say we have a first right to all the Promises whether respecting joy and peace or spiritual strength and assistances Now very-often at the first of our conversion the Providence of God moves directly towards them the Soul finds a great life to Duty a great zeal against sin great joy and peace in believing glimpses of the glory of God But after this very ordinarily follow very dark hours and the Soul like Jonah cryes out of the belly of Hell The Soul that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his Servant yet walketh in the dark and seeth no light cryeth out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and hath a thousand fair and foul days in its journey to Heaven I know particular cases must here be excepted but I speak of the ordinary Methods of Divine Providence with Souls whom God bringeth to glory 6. I will conclude this Discourse with the instance of the great work of Providence in the Reformation of his Church in this latter age whether you look upon it in Germany France or England In Germany it began with Luther an eminent Servant of of God though like Elias of like passions and infirmities with other men how strangely did the Providence of God in the beginning work towards the accomplishment of it That Luther who was a poor Monk should be preserved to plant the Doctrine of the Gospel and should diffuse it so far as he did and be preserved to do it against all the rage both of the Pope and Emperour 28 or 29 years was a great favour of Providence to the infantile Reformation but afterwards how the Providence of God gave check to it is sufficiently known yet it kept its ground and gained For England we know from our story That King Hen. 8 laid the first stone we also know how Providence at first favoured the work during all the reign of Edward the sixth but in Queen Maries time for five years together it seemed to move directly cross the Popish Superstitions were restored in all parts of the Nation Multitudes burnt for the profession of the Gospel others fled into foreign parts to secure their lives But the Providence of God returned again to its work in the time of Queen Elizabeth But I have spoken enough to justifie the Observation Let me in the next place endeavour to give you a reasonable account of these transverse motions of Providence not that I dare presume to give you the reasons why God moveth thus or thus for who hath been his Counsellor at any time but so far forth as to shew you that these motions of Providence are approvable to our Reason so as we may judg the Lords ways but proportioned to his wise and great designs 1. In the first place certainly one reasonable account to be given of these motions must be the variety of designs which the Providence of God ordinarily carries on together I have hinted this to you before suffer me here to enlarge a little upon it again I then compared Providence to a man of great business and dealings in the World who though London or some other great place be in his Eye as the end of his Journey where his business lies
Lastly Reason creates in the soul at best but a faint assent to this Proposition That the worlds are made by God and still leaveth the mind under incertain fluctuations and doubts about it By faith we understand saith the Text we are not properly said to understand those things of which we have only a general confused indistinct knowledg and to which we only give an incertain languid assent The great Philosopher in the world as you have heard hath doubted whether the world were made at all or had an eternal existence Others whether it had not its Original from a casual concourse of Atoms infinitely vain have been unsanctified mens imaginations as in other things so concerning the Original of the world and optimus Philosophus we say non nascitur We are disputing still the most confessed conclusions which are no more than the structures of Reason So that indeed we are beholden to Faith to the Revelation of the word which is the object of Faith and to the habits of Grace habits of faith for the settlement of our minds in Propositions of truth It is but an auxiliary advantage as to Divine Propositions which Reason gives us our mind is not set at rest and settled by them A luxuriant wit and fancy maketh all the perswasion and confirmation of them from Reason very incertain Faith only brings the Soul to a rest about them and gives the soul a clear distinct certain notion and understanding of them By Reason we rather think and opine than understand and certainly know that the worlds were made by God But this is enough for the Explication I come to the Application of the Doctrine This in the first place may help to confirm our Faith concerning the Divine Being the Vnity of it Vse 1 and the Trinity of persons in it the worlds were made by God Then there must be a God whose being was pre-existent to the world and this God must be infinite in Power and in Wisdom The producing of things out of a not-being into a being required an infinite power the producing of such a variety of Beings many of which were furnished and adorned with such excellent perfections and qualities the kniting and joynting of all together and putting them in such an excellent subjection and subordination each to other required an infinite wisdom a wisdom paramount to any created wisdom yea above all the wisdom of the Creatures had all their wisdoms been united This being infinite in Power and Wisdom must be God In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Gen. 1.1 God alone spread out the heavens Job 9.8 He made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that therein is Yea thus the Lord proveth himself to be God I am the Lord and there is none other forming the light and making the darkness vers 7. And thus the true and living God standeth distinguished from Idols Jer. 10.11 The Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens He hath made the earth by his power he hath established the world by his wisdom and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion Thus the Apostle argues Heb. 3.4 Every house is builded by some but he that made all things is God yea and this God is one The uniformity of this great structure the beauty and order and subordination of all things in it do abundantly prove this by Reason But Faith yet more confirmeth it Mal. 2.10 Have we not all one father hath not one God created us Indeed as I before said the structure and fabrick of it sheweth that one will willed it one wisdom contrived and directed it and that one hand framed it And this one God is three persons the Father of whom are all things 1 Cor. 8.6 The Son by whom are all things for without him was nothing made that is made Joh. 1.3 By him he made the worlds Heb. 1.3 The Holy Spirit that moved at the first upon the face of the waters Gen. 1.1 Thou sendest forth thy spirit and they were created Psal 104.30 Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Hebrew Gods created I think it is well said of a grave Author Constans aliqua certa ratio pluralis numeri de Deo usurpati reddi alia nequit quam personarum pluralitas There can be no other steady certain reason given why the Hebrew word so ordinarily translated God should be in the plural number but to notifie to us the plurality of persons in the Divine Being all three are but that one God who made heaven and the earth The School-men determine right that there is an infinite space from nothing to something and therefore nothing but the infinite power of an infinite God could bring any thing out of a not-being into a being From hence we may easily conclude what a God we serve Vse 2 we serve him that made heaven and earth and consequently one who is 1. Infinite in power 2. Excellent in wisdom 3. Admirable in goodness and mercy 1. Infinite in Power and Greatness To produce the least thing and bring it out of a not-being into being as I argued before speaketh an unmeasurable infinite power What power doth it then require to produce all the various kinds and species of Creatures the great bodies of the Heavens and the Earth and all those great bodies in them both out of a meer nothing and not-being into an existence and being Ex magnitudine creaturarum Deus magnus intelligitur c. From the greatness of the Creatures saith Augustine we may understand the greatness of God What an infinite and immense God do we serve What nothings of being and of power must we be compared with him All the nations of the earth are to him as the drop of a bucket as the small dust of the ballance 2. Excellent in wisdom The contrivance of the fabrick and structure of the world speaketh this But what an abundance of wisdom hath the great Creator scattered up and down the Creation What a natural sagacity is not in man only but in many brute Creatures What abundance of moral prudence and discretion is observed and to be found in many earthly Princes Their Ministers of State and Counsellers and in others of an inferior order What infinite wisdom appears in joynting the world and making the several parts of it to fit and to serve one another and to compound the different qualities of creatures to the service each of other and of the Universe Oh the infinite wisdom of the only wise God! yet how little do we see of it 3. Yea and his infinite goodness also is apparent in the Creation of all things Whoso looketh upon the usefulness of the Creatures to each other their joynt subserviency to their end and particularly their usefulness and subserviency to
variety of diseases in all parts of his body from the predominance of humours the ill affections of the air of his food c. The Heathens had some notion of this Their Elegant Poet cries out Audax Japete Genus Ignem fraude malâ Gentibus intulit Post ignem aetheriâ domo Subductum macies nova febrium Terris in cubuit cohors c. That was their Fiction That one Prometheus stole fire from Heaven which Jupiter had hid up and distributed it amongst men whence he saith came sickness and a whole troop of agues and fevers and death Faith makes a better discovery it tells us man fell from the state wherein he was created lost the Image of God brake Covenant with him and so became subject to sicknesses unto death c. Yea so subject are we that if every one that falls sick should die men especially would fail from the Earth but to prevent this as God in the day when he made Heaven and Earth created divers qualities in his creatures by which they have a sanative or healing vertue for various Diseases so his Providence is daily working and daily seen in this thing in two particulars 1. In discovering to some of his creatures these hidden vertues The Physitian indeed studies and makes experiments and upon the exercise of his reason and the demonstrations he makes directs the Apothecary to compound Medicines but his God instructeth him to this discretion and we may reasonably so conclude when we find the Prophet Isaiah ch 27. v. 29 affirming it concerning the discretion of the Thresher not threshing the fitches nor turning the Cart-wheel upon the Cummin and this is a work of daily Providence as every day produceth new Methods of the Physisitians practice new Medicines and Compositions c. 2. Secondly In upholding the Vertues of those herbs roots c. that are made use of in order to our healing so as they have their effects in removing our distempers and healing us The strength of the body must be upheld and the faculties by which it is enabled to take in and apply and retain the Medicine and the vertues faculties and powers also of the drugs herbs plants seeds c. must be upheld also both of them are by the mighty powerful concourse and power of God hence the Scripture attributeth our healing unto God I am the Lord that healeth you Exod. 15.26 And the Psalmist saith He healeth all our diseases I wound and I heal Deut. 32.39 Hence Asa is rightly blamed for trusting in Physitians more than in God Physicians are Gods Ordinance they are to be used but not to be trusted in God must discover the healing-Medicine to them God must uphold the healing-vertue in the Medicine when used by them and the faculties also in their Patients by which they must be inabled to take use and apply the Medicines they administer And thus now have I shewed you how God by the ordinary workings of his Providenee every day worketh in the preserving man and beast consider'd as Individuals 5. But as in the production of things into being notwithstanding the ordinary rule and law of Nature generally observed there are some Anomalies or deviations so in the preservings of the creature in the workings of Divine Providence God who will not be tracked in any of his ways maketh some Anomalies turns out of his ordinary road in some special cases Ordinarily he worketh by means natural and to the Eye of Reason probable means sometimes he will do his work without means or without such apparent probable means or by what our Reason shall judg quite contrary to the end He will walk sometimes in a natural course sometimes contrary to it These we call Miraculous Acts of Divine Providence The Bodies of some of his people shall be sometimes upheld a long time without nourishment without natural Rest without sensible breathing healed without proper applications of Physick Many instances of which we have in the story of the Evangelists and of the Acts of the Apostles but these are ertraordinary and special and my business is not to discourse those workings of Providence which are unaccountable to us 6. Lastly There is a special providence of God in preserving man that is yet further considerable by us We have hitherto only considered the preservation of men as Individuals man considered as a single person by himself I must further consider him as a political creature involved in Society and shew you the workings of Divine Providence in preserving Bodies-Politick and the Societies of men and then 3dly as a spiritual creature capable of the Grace of God and being made partaker of it Nisi vegitaret Deus cum ego dormio nisi me defenderet custodiret cum ego sim securus fieret ut omni momento more c. Luther I shall conclude this Discourse so far as I have already carried it on with that saying of Luther If God watched not when I sleep if God did not defend and keep me when I am void of care I should die every moment and every moment be losing either an hand or an Eye or an Ear or a Foot I shall further at this time only apply what part of this Discourse concerning preserving-Providence you have already heard Vse 1 This in the first place may serve to give you a view of the immense and glorious Nature of God Oh! that men would fear this great and dreadful Name of the Lord our God The Lord who preserveth both man and beast How great how glorious must the God whom we serve be if what you have heard be true But to open this a little in a few Particulars 1. It may satisfie you in that great truth of Gods Immensity The Schoolmen say God filleth the Heavens and the Earth infinitum ultra Spatium an infinite space beyond The Scripture Jer. 23.24 saith Do not I the Lord fill Heaven and Earth It must needs be so The Heavens and the Earth are creatures and they are all full of living creatures So are the great and wide Seas all these creatures must breathe be nourished rest grow and increase multiply their species be renewed daily they have all their several and various motions and operations for these they have powers and faculties all these as you have heard are upheld by God by the daily concourse and influence of his Divine Providence he must heal their diseases restore their lapses and decays How could all this be if he were not every where filling it with his Essence Presence and Power 2. Secondly From hence you may conclude The Activity of the Divine Essence You must not think that the great God is in any place as a stone which indeed filleth the place but moveth not acteth nothing He is in the World say the Heathen Philosophers as a Master of a ship is in a ship as a Moderator as the Soul is in the Body which is in every part of the Body
and law of Nature the fire burneth the hungry Lions devour men God suspendeth both these Laws in the case of the three Children and of Daniel by an Ordinance of Nature the Sun keepeth its course and is in a continual progressive motion God suspendeth its motion in Joshuah's case altereth it and maketh it to come back in the case of Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.10 by the Ordinance of Nature the Earth brings forth her fruit so doth the womb ordinarily God suspends this Law in Judgment the Earth is made as Iron the Heaven as Brass men commit whoredom yet do not encrease they eat and have not enough Hos 4.10 This both demonstrates the governance of Divine Providence and also sheweth how God exerciseth it This is a third Particular 4. A fourth Particular wherein God sheweth his Dominion over all and exerciseth his Government over the whole Creation is his influencing all creatures to their natural actions either in a more ordinary or extraordinary manner Every living creature hath its natural motions and actions and powers and faculties in order to them which are the principles of those operations and in the upholding of those powers to those natural motions and actions God exerteth and putteth forth his preserving power of Providence but his extraordinary influencing of them to some motions and actions which are not in a natural course and order doth more eminently shew the Governing power of Divine Providence That Locusts and Caterpillers should feed upon grass and green herbs this is but their natural motion and action according to their nature and the kind of their being but that they should come in troops and rather feed upon one place than upon another till they had devoured all the grass and green herbs in Egypt this was extraordinary Psalm 105.24 He spake and the Caterpillers came and did eat up all the herbs in their land and devoured all the fruit of their ground And again Psalm 74.46 He gave their increase to the Caterpiller The same may be said for the Flies Lice Frogs and other creatures used as a plague upon Pharaoh but indeed this is rather a specialty of Providence than belonging to the ordinary Government of it though very demonstrative of the governing power of Providence 5. A fifth act by which the Providence of God exerciseth its governing power and influence is His daily raising up and influencing Governours for the Housholds and Societies of men and giving checks to them upon their miscarriages and mal-administrations The governing Providence of God exerteth it self either more immediately or mediately Other creatures God ordinarily governeth by men many of them I mean influencing man with Reason and Discretion by which he ruleth ordereth and governeth them though many of them be much more mighty and powerful than he the mouth of the horse and mule which have no understanding by the Providence of God so influencing man are held with the bit and bridle lest they come near unto us Psalm 32.9 The Whale is smitten with a spear wild bulls and boars are hunted down c. The Ox is tamed and brought to serve our uses who are much less in strength than he is Men also are governed by men the weaker by those that are more wise and powerful but whence have the Governours their wit and power their wisdom and understanding prompting them to make Laws acceptable to the greater part of Subjects so as conspiracies are of the lesser number and subdueâ—â—o the greater and keeps them in order Is it not from the Lord great in wisdom and wonderful in counsel Psalm 75.7 God is the Judg he pulleth down one and setteth up another and by him Kings reign God ruleth the World by Magistrates which if well considered would aw men to that duty of honour and obedience which they owe to those that are their Superiours and may make us to understand how we ought to be subject for conscience-sake and for Gods sake in things commanded which we cannot say are contrary to the Divine Law nor so appear to us and have any manifest appearance of good for the government and peace of the whole As on the other side it calls to Kings to be wise and the Judges of the Earth to be instructed to serve the Lord with fear and to rejoyce before him in their great capacities with trembling Psal 2.10 11 they are but the Lords Vice-Roys and as Jehosaphat told his Judges they judg not for themselves but for the Lord for him whose Throne is prepared in the Heavens and whose Kingdom is over all They ought therefore according to the command to the Kings of Israel to have the book of the law before them and to be reading therein all the days of their life and where that doth not give them particular direction to have the honour and glory of God yet in their Eye to measure all their laws and actions according to that Rule to remember God is the Judg and hath only exalted and dignified them to rule the World or this or that part of the World by them still the Government is the Lords 6. A sixth particular act by which God providentially governeth the World is By influencing the souls of some in it to such actions as more immediately tend to his honour and glory God hath an honour and glory from the natural complexion and constitution and motions of inanimate Beings Psal 148.6 8. Thus the Heavens and in them the Sun Moon Stars from them the snow rain hail meteors the lightning and thunder the cold and heat the vapours and stormy winds bring glory to God stormy winds fulfilling his word saith the Psalmist The heavens declare the glory of God the Earth sheweth his handy-work Psalm 19.1 God hath made in the Heavens a tabernacle for the Sun a course for the Moon and Stars the very complexions of them their natural and necessary motions bring God abundance of glory Now this ariseth from a necessary causation they cannot but do it The same may be said of brute creatures though animate not acting upon Election The Whale in the Sea the Lion and Tiger amongst the beasts the Eagle and others amongst the birds the Bee the Silk-worm and others amongst Insects several sorts of creeping things glorify God but it is necessarily Man only amongst earthly creatures glorifieth God voluntarily from a principle within himself and upon choice Take mankind in the general it is a noble piece of Gods Creation and necessarily glorifieth God Man is fearfully and wonderfully made his body is an admirable structure but the great glory which God hath is from his spiritual actions Man is not a mute Preacher of Gods glory as the Heavens and the Earth the Sun Moon and Stars are or brute creatures are He hath a Soul and understanding will affections from these God expects a great homage and glory But now take man in his depraved estate and he doth nothing less No creatures but the evil Angels so much
Reign and the necessity of it Isa 52.7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth salvation that saith unto Zion thy God reigneth It is good news to all the World that God reigneth but particularly to Sion to the Church and the people of God to the whole visible Church it is good tidings but particularly to the invisible part that is militant here on Earth and the individual members thereof 1. This Doctrine first is of great use to comfort them against and under all their disturbances for things which happen to the Church in general or themselves in particular A ship at Sea were but in an ill case if it were not for him that sate at the Helm a skilful Pilot there ordereth her well enough so as the winds serve his design so it is with the Church tossed with winds and waves she is only safe in the Lords government of all the affairs of the World Luther I remember saith thus of himself I saith he have often attempted to prescribe God ways and methods in the government of his Church and other affairs I have said Ah Domine hoc velim ita fieri hoc ordine hoc eventu I would have this thing thus done in this order with this event But saith he God did quite contrary to what I asked of him Then saith he I thought with my self what I would have had was not contrary to the glory of God but would have been of great use for the sanctifying of his Name In short it was a brave design well advised but undoubtedly God laught at at this wisdom of men and said Go to now I know you are a learned man and a wise man But it was never my manner to allow Saint Peter or Saint Martin or any other to instruct teach govern or lead me Non sum Deus passivus sed activus I am not a passive but an active God That great man and Melancthon were two famous Instruments in the Reformation of Germany but of different tempers Melancthon was a man of a more mild and gentle Spirit and melancholick timerous temper Luther was of a more fierce and bold temper Melancthon would often write very troubled Letters to Luther about the state of the Church affairs Luther would constantly make use of this argument from the Governing-Providence of God to support Melancthon Melancthon saith he Let God alone to govern the World The Lord reigneth It pleaseth God so to order it in his Providence that the face of affairs relating to the Church often looks very sadly and there is nothing which giveth the spirits of the people of God a greater disturbance Now all these disturbances are caused from our Not-attending to this Principle which yet every good Christian professeth to receive and to believe Were we but rooted and grounded in the faith of this one Principle That the Kingdom of God ruleth over all and that he exerciseth a special care and Government relating to his Church and ruleth the World with a special regard to the good of his little flock we could neither be immoderately disturbed for the concern of the glory of God nor yet for the Church of God 1 Chron. 16.31 Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoyce and let men say amongst the Nations the Lord reigneth let the Sea roar and the fulness thereof let the fields rejoyce and all that is therein Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord because he cometh to judg the Earth Say therefore unto Zion Thy God reigneth Let Papists rage and Atheists scoff and threaten and do what they can Let all their Favourites take counsel together and join hand in hand when they have done all they can they will find that the Lord reigneth And this is enough to say unto Sion or to any of her sons and daughters Two things are sufficient in the most troublesom and tumultuous times to still support and comfort the spirits of Gods people 1. That the Lord reigneth and hath an unquestionable superintendence upon all the Beings of his creatures all their motions and all their actions He is higher in power than the highest of them 2. That this God is our God The Psalmist hinteth both in that excellent 46 Psalm v. 10 Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted amongst the Heathen I will be exalted in the Earth The Lord of Hosts is with us The God of Jacob is our refuge Let not therefore those that fear the Lord trouble themselves about the motions of the World and commotions in it about the ragings of lewd men against the interest of Christ Let them not trouble themselves further than is their duty viz. to be sensible of the rebukes of Divine Providence The Lord reigneth He that sitteth in the heavens laugheth The Lord shall have them in derision and shall one day speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure and let the World know that yet he hath set his King upon his holy hill of Sion I remember a passage of Luther Si nos ruamus ruet Christus unus Christus scilicet magnus ille regnator mundi c. If we perish saith he Christ must fall too Christ that great Governour of the World 2. If we did consider this as we might or ought we should also see as little reason to be disturb'd as to the concerns of our own Souls with the fear of two things as to their own Souls ordinarily the people of God are troubled 1. The prevailings of their own lusts and corruptions 2. The prevailings of Satans temptations This Doctrine of Divine Providence excellently serveth to still our unquiet spirits as to either of these troubles If the Lords Kingdom be over all both these fears must be vain and causeless for supposing the faithfulness of the Promises Sin shall not have dominion over your mortal bodies God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly He will with the temptation give an happy issue If the Lords Kingdom be over all neither shall corruption prevail nor Satan by temptations prevail to destroy the work of God in our Soul or to prevent us or hinder us as to the Kingdom which God hath prepared for us for as he that hath promised is faithful or cannot repent or lye so he is powerful and hath a dominion over all beings persons things c. My father saith Christ is greater than all none can pluck you out of my fathers hand 3. Lastly It affords us a relief against the sad prospect we have almost continually before our eyes of the malicious actions of wicked and ungodly men There is and always was a generation in the World which sleep not unless they do mischief they are continually devising mischievous devices against the little flock of Christ Their counsels designs works have a plain and
of parts and as he sheweth his breeding and education upon any subject he honoureth his Father But the other Son is dutiful loves his Parent makes it his business to commend him to all you will say That this Limner though he receiveth some honour from his mute and dead Picture and some honour from his rude and rebellious Son yet the dutiful Son is he who bringeth most honour and repute to the Father This is the case betwixt God and his Creatures God hath made the Sun the Moon the Stars the Earth the Seas the Whales the Lions and Elephants the Eagles the little Silk-worms all these are pieces of the Divine Workmanship all give honour and glory to God but it is done mutely and passively The vile and wicked men of the world that are rebels against God yet give a glory to God The structure of their bodies the endowments of their minds honour God who made them and gave them those excellent features qualities and endowments God useth them some of their vile and malitious actions to bring about his wise and glorious ends but God doth but as it were extort his glory from them But now the people of God out of choice and design and by a voluntary act and constant study give honour and glory to him Obedience is better than sacrifice doing of his will is more acceptable to him than burnt-offerings The glory God hath in Heaven from Angels and the Souls of just men made perfect is from their voluntary praising of him and doing of his will therefore we pray Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Now I pray observe Fourthly Angels and men are the only creatures capable of an active voluntary designed glorifying of God The Heavens and in them the Sun the Moon the Stars glorifie God but they know it not they are inanimate creatures not capable of knowledg The brute creatures act not from any principle of reason they have no rational nature and though God hath glory from them yet it is not from any principle within them so that Angels and Men being rational Beings have a further capacity to serve the Lords great end in bringing glory to God than all the Inanimate Creatures yea than all the vegetative or sensitive Creatures in the World Fifthly Amongst men The whole Church of God in the general is that body of people where there is any voluntary glorifying of God Psal 29.9 In his temple doth every one speak of his glory The whole visible Church bringeth an active glory to God it is the Pillar upon which his Proclamations of truth and grace are hung forth to the view of the World Psal 76.1 His name is great in Israel In the Church whether in truth or in sincerity all men glorifie God by a professed subjection to his Ordinances and an outward owning of him Sixthly But Lastly God is most eminently glorified by his Saints 1. They do it most heartily steadily and fully What hypocrites do they do in a meer shew and outward appearance As they glory in appearance so they glorifie God but in appearance from the teeth outward as we say there is nothing of heart design and choice in it they indeed glorifie God but we may say of their honouring and glorifying of God as the Prophet said Isa 10.7 of Assyria's serving God Howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so but it is the godly mans choice design study and he doth it more steadily the hypocrite is in and out he glorifieth God one hour by confessing his sins putting up prayers to him reading his word singing his praise and spits in the face of God the next hour by swearing and cursing and blaspheming by drunkenness and disobedience and the godly man glorifieth God most fully the hypocrites action is but the action of his outward man he doth not glorifie God as the godly man doth in body and mind and spirit 2. Godly men glorifie God sincerely so do no hypocrites no formal professors All hypocrites aim at themselves they do what they do as our Saviour said of the Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be seen of men the godly man driveth no such designs nor hath a squint-eye in his actions which appear to be directed to the glory of God the glory of God is the first the main of his design 3. Lastly The godly man is he alone whom the Lord hath set apart for himself whom he intendeth to take up into Heaven to pursue the great end of his glory to all eternity Now the glory of God being the great end to which he directeth all the general and particular acts both of his preserving and of his Governing-Providence it from hence appeareth exceeding reasonable that Providence should work both in preserving and in governing the world by these different degrees and with these Specialties which I have shewed you God is more glorified by men than either by inanimate creatures or by any vegetative or sensitive creatures More by that body of men called his Church than by Heathens amongst whom his name is not known More yet by godly men whom he hath set apart for himself and who steadily designedly heartily sincerely set themselves to pursue the great design of his glory than by any hypocrites and formal professors therefore it is but reasonable they should in their degrees be cared for preserved and governed by God in a more special and eminent manner But I shall add no more to the Doctrinal part of this discourse The Application still remains for the subject of further discourse SERMON XI 1 Cor IX 9. Doth God take care for Oxen I Am come now to the Application of my former Discourse You have heard that God doth not only exercise some general acts of Providence in the preservation and government of all his creatures but some special acts of Providence in the preservation and government of some creatures in a more particular and eminent manner Though God doth take a care for Oxen yet he doth not take such a care for Oxen as he doth for Angels for men and amongst the children of men particularly for the members of his Church and amongst them for such as are not so only in an external visible profession but in truth and sincerity they are under the highest Specialties and care of Divine Providence The Doctrine of Gods Special Providence concerning Angels and mankind in the general and the Polities and Societies of men I much passed over The former being much a secret to us and not much concerning us and my Discourse being not amongst Heathens but to a Congregation which universally is within the pale of the visible Church I therefore most enlarged upon the Specialties of Divine Providence as you know with reference to the Church of God and those in it who truly fear God accordingly I shall sute my Application In the first place Vse 1 Let this instruct all that hear me this day in the
a special Providence But it is not to be thought that God should do much for Hypocrites and Formalists What advantages they have from the Providence of God they have for the sake of those better servants of God with whom they are joyned in an external communion And certainly in the last place this obligeth all within the Church of God to a more special duty Doth God subordinate all his great actions and motions in the world to his gracious designs and counsels relating to that body of people of which we are a part Surely then it were but reasonable for us to subordinate all our little actions in the world to the honour and glory of God Gods glorifying of himself is his great design he aims at no other end and it ought also to be our highest design He hath chosen a certain people out of the world and marked them out for himself as the people in whom and by whom he will be more especially glorified This people is called his Church God subordinateth all his great actions in the world to his gracious designs upon and for these certainly in reason Whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do we should according to the Apostles Precept do all to the glory of God His people are those whom he hath created whom he hath formed for himself all the world is nothing to God in comparison of them they are the dearly beloved of his Soul What love reverence obedience is but reasonable on our parts towards this great God What ingratitude must it argue on our part to prefer any thing in design or action to the Honour and Glory of this God We can never live enough unto nor do enough for that God who hath done and doth do so much for us This Observation might be many other ways improved but I shall add no more SERMON XXI Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Proceed yet in making some Observations upon the motions of Divine Providence A seventh Observation I shall make is this Observ 7. It ordinarily enforceth wicked men who mean nothing less yet to do the Lords work It is the great art of a Politician to serve himself of every humor A good Pen-man will write almost with any Pen and a good work-man will work with any tool and the great and wise God herein sheweth the greatness of his Wisdom that he also works with any tools and doth his business by any instruments The Stars shall fight in their courses against Sizera the Sun and the Moon against the Canaanites the Frogs the Lice and the Flyes against Pharaoh the Earth against Corah Dathan and Abiram Now in this there shines forth a great deal of Divine Power thus God sheweth himself to the world to be the Lord of hosts to have all the hosts of Heaven and Earth at his command So that as a great General who hath several Regiments under his Command at his pleasure he sometimes commandeth out one sometimes another as it pleaseth him upon a particular service so doth our great and mighty God and as that great Commander shewing his vast Army to his friend is reported to have said there is not one of these but if I bid him throw himself down a Precipice or into a River he will do it so there is not any company of inanimate or brute Creatures not one Company in the whole Army of the Lord of Hosts but like the Centurion's servants if he saith unto them Go they go if Do this they do it But though much of the Wisdom and Power of God be seen in this yet it is more eminently seen in the use he makes of wicked men to accomplish his designs which is a thing very usual in the motions of Divine Providence As that Politician doth most shew his Wisdom that maketh his Enemies serve him so God in this doth commend to us his infinite Wisdom to make use of the Sons of men that have a perfect hatred and enmity to God and all his holy designs that they shall serve him and accomplish his designs Now this Observation justifieth it self by a great variety of instances You have one in holy Writ very plain Isa 10.5 6 7. O Assyrian the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation I will send him against an hypocritical nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them like mire of the streets Howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so Assyria you see was the Rod of Gods anger Gods indignation was his staff Thou couldest do nothing against me saith Christ to Pilate if it were not given thee from above He went upon Gods errand when he went against Gods People the Jews they had proved an hypocritical people and God had determined to make the people that had been the dearly beloved of his soul the people of his wrath God gave him his charge to spoil to take the prey to tread down the people O but how should God perswade the Assyrian to serve him The Assyrians were Enemies to the true God the Text telleth you Howbeit he meaneth not so neither is it in his heart to think so He thought of nothing less than serving of Gods design that which he thought of was plunder and spoyl and prey for his Soldiers as the Apostle saith of himself 2 Cor. 12.16 Being crafty I took you by guile so we may say of God being wise infinitely wise he took the Assyrian by guile or rather by his infinite wisdom This is that which the Psalmist saith Psal 76.10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee The wrath of man shall praise God How can that be James tells us That the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God Well but for all that it shall praise God God will make use of their wrath and malice to bring forth his great designs Who would ever have thought that Pharaoh the King of Egypt should have been a great instrument to have brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt Yet he was rather a greater instrument in it than Moses was Moses did no more than lead out of Egypt a willing people and sollicit Pharaoh to give his consent Pharaoh was Gods instrument to make them willing he meant nothing less he saw the people grew great and mighty Come on saith he let us deal wisely that is subtilly with them lest they multiply and it come to pass when there falleth out any war they joyn also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get themselves out of our land here was all he aimed at in his oppressing them to bring them low and keep them still under his subjection Observe how God made use of this The Children of Israel were now seated and settled and multiplied in a fertile
may observe the Saints too shooting out upon their afflictions O how many of them have we seen shot out in humility in faith in patience in heavenly-mindedness and contempt of the world c. It is a saying of Salvian upon this Argument Ideo Sancti viri sunt infirmiores quia si fortes fuerint vix Sancti esse poterint Saints saith he are therefore weak because it is an hard thing to be strong and Saints too we may say it is hard to be rich in Gold and Silver and rich in grace too to be great in the world and great with God too to have an healthy body and an healthy Soul too It is true there is not an absolute inconsistency betwixt worldly presperity and grace Job and Abraham were rich Joseph and Daniel were both honourable and had great places Our Saviour doth not say that it is simply impossible for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God but he saith It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God Let the word be understood of the beast called a Camel or for a Cable-rope and by the Eye of a Needle whether you understand what we call so or a gate a little gate in Hierusalem which some say had that name It is not simply impossible for a Camel or a Cable rope to pass through the Eye of a Needle it is a thing may be done if you cut the one into pieces small enough or sufficiently untwist the other but it asks a great deal of labour it must be done with a great deal of difficulty There are three things in which the felicity of the Soul lieth 1. In its favour with God 2. In its conformation to God 3. In its beatifical vision of God I shall shew you that some of those things which we call evils have an influence upon all these 1. They do indeed none of them merit the love and favour of God but they are testimonies and indications of this love and this is eminently true of such as are sufferings for the name of Christ the Apostle speaketh of Afflictions in general whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Child whom he receiveth Christ saith particularly of the sufferings of his people for him They shall turn unto you for a testimony Luk. 21.13 And the blessed Apostle 2 Thes 1.5 saith of them that they are manifest tokens of the righteous judgment of God that saith he you may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you suffer It is a saying of Salvian Quis tam profundi Cordis c. He means who is so shallow as to think that the rewards of the Saints are carnes fortitudines abundance of the good things of this life the love of God saith he is seen in higher things than these and in things of a quite different nature from these It is a passage of Augustine Surgunt procellae hujus stagni vides malos florere bonos laborare tentatio est fluctus est dicit anima tua O Deus Deus Haeccine est justitiae tua ut mali floreant boni laborent Deus tibi respondet Haeccine est fides tua Haeccine tibi promisi aut ad hoc factus es Christanus ut in saculo floreres Aug. in Psal 25. The storms saith he of this Pit arise you see sinners flourish and Saints in adversity this is a temptation it is a wave and your Soul says O God! O God! Is this thy Justice That Sinners should prosper and thy Saints should be oppressed God answereth thee is this thy faith wert thou made a Christian for this that thou shouldest flourish in this life It was the rich glutton in the Gospel who had his good things in this life Gods Lazarus had evil things far be it from us saith Salvian to think that an Argument of Gods neglect of us which is an Argument of Gods further love to us 2. Doth the happiness of a Soul lie in its conformation to God to the image of his Son as the Apostle speaketh Afflictions highly conduce to this end 1. This is peculiarly true of such Afflictions as a Christian suffers for the gospel and for the name of the Lord Jesus and therefore the Apostle triumpheth in this 1 Phil. 20. That Christ should be magnified in his body whether by life or death and therefore speaks of his sufferings of this nature as the matter of his expectation his hope his boldness and what he was confident he should not be ashamed of and he prayeth for a fellowship with Christ in his sufferings Phil. 3.12 Ignatius is reported after all his sufferings to have said Now I begin to be a disciple Now saith Anthony Person a Martyr of our own Nation I am dressed like a Souldier of Christ when he had put some of the straw that was prepared to kindle the wood which was to burn him on the top of his Head 2. But All sorts of afflictions have an influence upon the Soul to make it more like to the Lord Jesus Christ Sufferings in the flesh for Christs sake make us conformable to Christs flesh to Christ in his state of humiliation to Christ upon the Cross but all the Afflictions of the Saints conduce to make them like unto the Lord Jesus Christ in his holiness and purity that now belongeth unto Christ and is inseparable from him in his estate of glory and exaltation in that he died he died once and but once and shall hang on the Cross no more wear a Crown of thorns no more but his purity and holiness that is essential to him now the Afflictions of Gods people make them like unto Christ in this This is an argument which I have had occasion before to touch upon and therefore I shall be the shorter in it now 1. They wonderfully conduce to take the hearts of the people of God off from the Earth and to six them upon Heaven Poverty takes off the heart from the love of riches and delivereth it from an evil covetousness sickness weaneth the Soul from the love of this life Now holiness lieth so much in the Sequestration of the heart from the world that in Greek an holy man signifies a man that is not earthly it is an hard thing for a man to be possessed of much of the Earth and not to have his heart buried in it it is true we should rejoyce as if we rejoyced not and possess as if we possessed not but this is an hard saying to flesh and blood Who is there almost who can hear who can learn it how rare is that Soul which liveth in the full fruition of the things of this life that can yet keep his heart loose from them and sequestred for God Prosperity plenty a great affluence of the good things of this life are as birdlime to a Souls wings and keep it from mounting up to God
God things which are seen were not made of things which do appear You have the work of Creation described in its Causes Negatively the world did not make it self one part of it did not make another then Positively it was framed by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word used 2. You have the way described how we come to comprehend this in our understanding By faith The Proposition of the Text is this Prop. That by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by God and the things which are seen were not made by those things which do appear Here are two things 1. The worlds were framed by the Word of God the things seen were not made of those things which do appear 2. We understand this Through faith In the opening of these I must enquire 1. What is here meant by the Worlds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 What is the meaning of this That the worlds were made by the Word of God 3. What is the meaning of this That the things which are seen are not made of those things which do appear 4. What is here meant by faith or through faith 5. How do we understand it by faith that the worlds were framed by God After this I shall come to the Application Quest 1. What is here meant by the Worlds The word here used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth often signifie an age sometimes and so generally in St. John's Gospel Eternity but is sometimes in Scripture translated World Matth. 12.32 The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Matth. 13.32 39 40 49. The harvest is the end of the world Heb. 1.2 By whom he made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the worlds The term properly signifieth The duration of the world but in Heb. 1.2 and here it must signifie the Mass the things of it It carries here its own Interpreter with it in the other part of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The things which are seen but neither is that term adequate to it the object of Creation is larger than the objects of Sense Spirits are not seen but yet they are created Let Moses expound it Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God created the heaven and earth In short all the Creatures whatsoever is not the Creator must here fall under the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world and all that is therein excepting him who as the Creator made all and filleth heaven and earth the world and the things thereof the world and the persons therein heaven and earth the world of things and the world of persons this world was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. The word in the Greek signifies to make to joynt or fit together to restore it signifieth to make or rather to make up according to our English Idiom to perfect It is used Matth. 21.16 Thou hast perfected praise we translate it perfect or perfected Luk. 6.40 And be you perfect 2 Cor. 13.11 1 Thes 3.10 That we might perfect that which is lacking in your faith Heb. 10.5 A body hast thou prepared or made me So Heb. 13.21 The world was made established made perfect by God Vt totum quidpiam quod suis omnibus partibus apte inter se cohaerentibus componitur The worlds gave not a being to themselves they were not eternal and of an original from themselves nor made of any casual concurrence of Atoms according to the Heathens Philosophy but they had their Original their perfection their establishment from God 2. The word signifieth to be made perfect to joynt to be put together The world is a beautiful composition it hath not only a Being but a beautiful Being all the parts of it being fitted and joynted together this is also from God it oweth not only its Being and Original unto God but whatsoever it hath of Beauty and Ornaments that one part of it is fitted to another the beautiful composition of it the subordination of the parts of it one to another all this is owing unto God This is part of the sense of it 1 Cor. 1.10 That you may be perfectly joyned together Whoso looketh upon the Creation wistly must see it consist of a great variety of things but all fitted together so as there is no discord but a beautiful subordination of things in that vast composition so as they serve one another and notwithstanding all their different affections and qualities yet they destroy not nor invade each other this also is from the Lord. The world was not only by God made and produced out of a not-being into a being but it was fitted ordered joynted together by God 3. The word signifieth also to restore and bring again into order what is disordered and so it is used sometimes to mend nets Rem lacer am aliquam resarcire collapsam reparare And this seemeth to be the primary and most proper signification of the word Thus it is translated restore Gal. 6.1 If a brother be fallen restore such a one A Metaphor say some taken from Chyrurgions putting a bone out of order into its place again The world at first made perfected established and joynted by God in the Fall of Adam was disordered and put out of joynt God by sending his Son put the world in joynt again set its broken bones created a new heaven and a new earth Thus also the worlds were made as it were made again and restored by God But I take the two former senses rather to agree to this place where the Apostle rather speaks of the first Creation of the world by God than of the Redemption of it by Jesus Christ The world then was made that is it had its first Original its Order Ornaments beautiful composure from a Divine creating Power it did not give a Being nor a Beauty and Perfection to it self The Verb is passive it had its Original from another and this other was he whom we call God But Quest 2. What is the meaning of this that the worlds were made by the Word of God None can understand here by the Word of God the Holy Scriptures which are called the Word that is the revealed will of God spoken by holy men as they were inspired by God Nor do I think that the same is meant here by the Word of God that is understood John 1.1 In the beginning was the word of that word it is said That it was with God in the beginning that it was God all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made that is to be understood of Christ Of him our Apostle saith Heb. 1.2 By whom also he made the worlds but besides that the Gospel of John seemeth to be the only Scripture in which the second person in the Trinity is stiled the Word neither is he there call'd the Word of God it is there said The word was God and in
The infinite variety with the different qualities of created Beings yet all conspiring together for the good and order of the whole the order we see amongst them their subserviencies and subordinations each to other they all speak that there is a God that by his Providence ruleth the world Whoso lifteth up his eyes to the Heavens and considereth the constant unwearied motions of those great celestial bodies with the evenness of them so as they are reducible to a science of all other most certain liable to little more exceptions than an extraordinary command to the Sun to stand still in Gibeon and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon or to go backward some few degrees as in Hezekiah's time or considereth the vast bodies of water sometime in the Heavens coming upon us not as water from a pail but through a water-pot must needs conclude a Superiour hand directing and guiding the motions and holding the thin Cloud that it is not rent while the rain makes its orderly passage by drops through the thin and subtil parts of it Whoso standeth by the Sea-side and observeth that vast body of water driven by fierce winds sometimes and constantly by its natural motion invading the Earth as if it would presently swallow it up and observeth it after the ceasing of the wind or a six hours progressive motion gradually retreating and leaving it out of fear yea and further leaving a water-mark for the following flow unless at some certain times before and after the full of the Moon must needs acknowledg a Supreme Being setting bounds unto it which it hath no reason to prescribe to it self nor is it subject to the Command of the greatest Potentate on Earth Finally he that standeth upon the Earth and considers its annual productions the variety of Creatures of all orders in it their Sympathies and Antipathies their Successions the varieties of their Beings Motions and Qualities and yet their mutual subserviencies to one another and subjection to each other must be no less than a most absurd and bruitish Atheist if he will not acknowledg that no less than the daily and mighty influence of an Almighty God could compound their living together upon the same soil in any harmonious agreement each with other That every thing should know its seasons and keep its bounds and be in subjection to man weaker than many of them and not transgress its order or end but when armed by God as a part of his Host to revenge his quarrels upon sinners must be from a knowledg which God gives them and a Law he daily puts upon them but as the Psalmist saith Psal 107.23 They that go down to the Sea in Ships that do business in great waters these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy winds which lift up the waves thereof they mount up to the heavens they go down to the depths their soul is melted because of trouble the breaking of a wave would swallow them up Who is he that maintaineth the continuity of the parts of the water that the waves break not nor the water divideth under the mighty weight that is upon it who but the mighty God could do it In short he seemeth to have taken a very cursory slight and overly view of the Works of Creation that doth not see a plain necessity of a Divine Providence to uphold the various Beings within the compass of it and their various Qualities to compound the disagreements of their natures into an harmony proportioned to the preservation of the Universe Whoso is wise and hath observed these things he must understand both the Power and Wisdom of God in all these things and consequently the loving-kindness of the Lord. I shall shut up this with that Pious foot of the Psalmists Song of Providence Psal 107. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness for his wonderful works to the children of men 2. If we consider the Nature of God we shall find that he who acknowledgeth a Divine Being and denieth a providential care of all created Beings hath but set up an idol in his heart and rather owneth a God with his tongue than in any truth and sincerity For what do we mean by that term God but an immense Being filling all places a first cause of all things Almighty in power of infinite activity wisdom and goodness We can hardly so much as fancy such a Being but by the same conception we must establish a Divine Providence 1. If we allow not God to be the first Cause we must grant a former cause of things and this were to deny God while we pretend to own him It is as much nonsense to assert one before the first as one higher than the highest But how is God the first cause if he hath no influence upon second causes nor they any dependance upon him If they say that second causes have a dependance on him and he an influence on them they establish what we contend for viz. a Divine Providence 2. If we allow God to be an immense and infinite being filling all places we must either allow him to fill all places as an oculate active being or as a sensless inanimate being A bulk of lead or stone filleth a place but takes no notice of any thing in it A man filleth a place which circumscribeth him but seeth and observeth all things It were an high blasphemy against God to affirm that he filleth all places only as a Log or a bulk of Lead filleth a particular place if he filleth all places as an animate being that hath eyes and ears he must needs see and hear and observe all things in all places which his Being filleth Whoso granteth this doth in a great measure own and acknowledg a Divine Providence 3. But this Doctrine is fully confirmed to us if we will but recognize God a being of infinite mercy and goodness God is not like the Ostrich of which Job saith 39.14 She leaves her eggs in the earth and warmeth them in the dust and forgetteth that the foot may crush them or the wild beast may break them she is hardned against her young ones It is our great vanity that labouring under a difficulty to conceive of any being above our own pitiful perfection and capacity we fancy to our selves strange Idea's of God We can hardly apprehend an immense being that should fill all places if we could we should easily conclude a Divine Omniscience If we can fancy any thing of that yet we are ready to conceive of him according to the lazy imperfections of our natures and think of God as of some great and mighty Prince that hath either through inactivity or for greater state mewed up himself in his Court and gives up himself instead of his business of Government to divertisements of pleasure leaving the care of Government upon his Counsellors or some principal Ministers of State Hence the mistake of
his Book of the Trueness of Christian Religion Chap. 13. where he sheweth Providence a bundantly owned by Plato Plotinus Hierocles Aristotle Cicero Seneca and others I shall therefore only add one passage of Seneca not I think particularly by him mentioned it is in his Book of Natural Questions Chap. 45. where he calleth God The keeper and governour of the whole world Custodem rectoremque universi animum spiritum mundani hujus operis Dominum artificem cui nomen omne convenit Vis illum fatum vocare non errabis Hic est ex quo suspensa sunt omnia causa causarum Vis illum Providentiam dicere rectè dices Est enim cujus consilio huic mundo providetur ut inconcussus eat actus suos explicet Seneca Nat. Qu. l. 2. cap. 45. a Mind a Spirit the Lord and Artificer or Creator of all the world he to whom every name agreeth Will you call him Fate you will not be out For he it is on whom all things depend Will you call him Providence you will say right for by his Counsel the world is provided and taken care for that it remains steady and performeth its operations Salvian upon this Argument tells us that the Heathens acknowledged God to be in the world as the Master of a great Ship is in that abiding always in it and stirring up and down Whence he cryeth out Quid potuerunt de affectu diligentiâ Dei religiosius sentire Salvian l. 1. What could they more religiously judg and speak of God than to compare him to the Governour of a Ship who is never in the Ship idle but continually at work either in one kind or another The Pythagoreans compared God to the Soul in the body filling each part and actuating each part of the body The Platonists call him the moderator of all things The Heathen Poets speak as well and fully Virgil telleth us God is continually moving throughout all the Earth Tractusque maris coelumque profundum and the Waters and the Heavens In short none but some of the most sensual and brutish Epicureans ever so much as called this in question 5. But hitherto I have been arguing this point with you as men to convince you of it if you were Heathens and had no knowledg of the Holy Scripture When I consider you in that notion I must say to you as the Apostle speaks in another case We have a more sure word of prophecy As we by faith understand that the worlds were at first made by God so by faith also we plentifully understand that the created worlds are upheld preserved protected and governed by God I shall hereafter more distinctly prove this in my following discourse when I shall come to speak of the distinct and particular acts and objects of this Divine Providence I shall only here make use of a few instead of very many Scriptures which might be produced Heb. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpholding all things by the word of his power He at first made all things by the word of his Power and he upholdeth all things by the word of his Power My Text saith He preserveth both man and beast Our Lord telleth us that he cloatheth the grass of the field and feedeth the Ravens Matth. 6. The Psalmist tells us that his kingdom ruleth over all And again Matth. 10.29 30. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing yet not one of them falls to the ground without the will of your heavenly father Acts 17.28 In him we live move and have our being Prov. 15.13 The eyes of the Lord are in all places beholding the evil and the good John 5.17 My father worketh hitherto and I work In short the places of Scripture confirming this Doctrine of Divine Providence are very many and will most of them fall under some part or other of my ensuing discourse referring to the particular objects and acts of Divine Providence And I therefore shall not in this place further enlarge upon them but come next to consider the extent or particular objects of Divine Providence I proceed therefore to a second Question Quest 2. What are the objects of Divine Providence or how far doth the Divine care extend Though the Epicureans of old would acknowledg no Providence and many of the Stoicks asserting a Fate destroyed it yet the wiser Peripateticks would grant it though but a limited one extended to some particular Beings and things and too many amongst those who are called Christians seem to inherit something of their spirit I remember that when Pharaoh saw Egypt almost destroyed he calls for Moses and Aaron and bids them go and serve the Lord but adds Exod. 10.8 But who are they that shall go When Moses replyed We will go with our young and with our old with our sons and with our daughters with our flocks and with our herds will we go He replyeth vers 10. Let the Lord so deal with me as I let you go and your little ones Thus many deal with God When they consider the vast bodies of the Creatures the great varieties of their beings and qualities their motions c. they are forced to acknowledg a Divine Providence That the world could not stand nor the parts of it hold together unless a Superior hand ruled upheld and governed them They therefore will acknowledg a Providence as to the great bodies of the Heavens c. But say they How far will you extend it When they hear us assert it as to all things the sound of the little ones in nature troubles them yea and as to the wills of men they are wonderfully disturbed We must therefore enquire what the Scripture saith which certainly cannot err as to the bounds and extent of Gods Providential care The Scripture tells us Heb. 4.13 That all things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do That the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good Prov. 15.3 My Text saith He preserveth both man and beast The Apostle to the Hebrews saith He upholdeth all things by the word of his power But to speak more distinctly we extend the Divine Providence 1. To all Beings 2. To all motions and actions of Beings 3. To all omissions suspensions or cessations of action 4. To all events of things 1. First I say to all Beings Beings are usually distinguished into such as have no life or such as have life Or if you please we may make use of that plain division of Beings into 1. Such as have no more than a meer Being neither life nor sense nor reason Such are the Heavens the Earth the Waters Or 2. Such as have Being and life but no sense Such are herbs and plants Or 3. Such as have Being and life and sense Such are Beasts Birds Fishes Insects c. Or Lastly Such as have not only Being life sense but Reason also Such are Angels and Men. I shall shew you that
And to shew to you the exceeding great latitude of its objects SERMON V VI. Heb. I. 3. Psal XXXVI 6. Vpholding all things by the word of his power O Lord thou preservest man and beast I Have hitherto shâ—wed you no more Than that there is a Divine Providence extensive to all things influencing all Beings all motions and actions of Beings c. I am now come to discourse concerning the acts of God by which he exerciseth this Providential care Divines do usually reduce all to two Heads 1. Preservation 2. Government Preservation respecteth the creatures Beings and that in esse tali in such a kind of Being as he at first created them Government properly respecteth the motions or actions of these Beings or the omissions suspensions or cessations of such actions or motions and the events of the things The Proposition I shall a little enlarge my self upon is this Prop. That as the worlds were at first made by the power and word of God so they are by the same power and word preserved and upheld The Heathens had some notion of this as appeareth by their fiction of Atlas bearing up the world upon his Shoulders God is the true and only Atlas the Apostle saith He upholdeth all things by the word of his Power The Psalmist saith That he preserveth both man and beast You have a recognition of this in that solemn prayer of the Levites Neh. 10.6 Thou even thou art Lord alone thou hast made the Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their host the earth and all things that are therein the sea and all that is therein and thou preservest them all Job gives God the glory of this Job 7.20 I have sinned and what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of man But although the upholding and preservation of the world the influence of God upon the world in order to its standing and conservation be matter of clear and undoubted Revelation and demonstrable by reason and confessed even by the wiser amongst the Heathens themselves yet every one possibly doth not sufficiently understand the method and order of Gods sustentation and preservation of the world Nor dare I promise you fully to open it to you and make you to understand it for how little a portion of his ways do we know But something I will speak in particular I hope it may be of further use to you not only to expound Gods works but to make you understand how wonderfully we are preserved and what a necessity there is of the Divine hand to uphold our souls in life and us in any state of well-being Only let me first premise two or three things 1. That there is a more common and general preservation of all beings and a more special preservation of some 2. That there is a preservation common both to man and beast and a preservation more peculiar to man and yet more special to the people of God those amongst the sons of men whom God hath set apart for himself 3. That there is a preserving Providence respecting the body and outward man and a preserving Providence respecting the inward man 4. That as to man he is considerable in a threefold capacity 1. In his personal capacity as a reasonable creature endued with all the powers and faculties of vegetive and sensitive creatures and further with several powers and faculties suited to his reasonable nature 2. In his Political capacity as he makes up a member of a Kingdom or civil society 3. In his Ecclesiastical capacity as in society with others he makes up that body of people which is called the church of God God preserveth him in all these capacities of which when I come to it I shall speak more particularly and distinctly I shall lay down several conclusions The first of which shall be more general and extensive to such creatures as have meerly being and no life The other will concern living creatures and amongst them men as the nobler and more excellent of them 1. Concl. God by the word of his power upholdeth the Beings order and courses of all his creatures so as not only their natural inclinations and qualities and affections by which they are mutually serviceable to each other and to the upholding of the universe do not fail abate or decay but so that their power and opposite qualities work not to the ruin and destruction of the whole This now to him who will give his thoughts leave to stand upon it will appear a great and wonderful work of God and no less than a wonderful miracle of Divine Providence When God gave a being to the world and to all the things therein he indued them all with several qualities according to his infinite wisdom he set them in an excellent order so as they might be mutually subservient one to another and all of them to the whole he did not only make the world but he fitted and jointed it together so that one part of it corresponded with the other 2. He indued them with several qualities by which they are mutually serviceable each to other 3. He set the several creatures in their orders and stations so as they might be best serviceable Now I say the Providence of God worketh in the preserving of them 1. By upholding these qualities and keeping them in this order that they do not dislocate and fall out of joint but abide both in their station and in their full vigor and vertue 2. By keeping them that the qualities in them which are opposite one to another and would naturally encline them to a dislocation and falling out of order yet have no such operation nor produce any such effect but even inanimate Beings move and work orderly according to the Creators intention though they do nothing out of any counsel choice or deliberation Let me but illustrate this a little in the four great Inanimate Bodies of the World the Heavens the Air the Earth and the mighty Waters All exceeding great and vast bodies yet without life sense or reason so as their motions cannot be from reason and counsel of their own The order in which God set these things in the day of Creation was this The Heavens he placed uppermost the Air in the midst betwixt them and the Earth Then he placed the Earth and the Seas in the midst contiguous one to another In the Heavens he placed Waters the Sun the Moon the Stars all great bodies Now all these bodies have several qualities Gravity or weight levity heat cold moisture c. Who knoweth not that active qualities in creatures are subject to spend waste and decay To instance but in that one body of the Sun whose great qualities are light and heat We see candles and torches and fires give light and heat but they spend themselves their light goes out their heat wastes and spends it self in a short time How is it that it is not so with the Sun and the Stars but from the power
kept in order knitted and jointed together and the qualities and affections of one creature may not work to the ruin and prejudice of another and so to the ruin and destruction of the whole And thus I have opened to you my first Conclusion shewing you the Method and order of Gods working in the preservation of his creatures in their beings stations and orders and in upholding the useful qualities of them that they do not waste or decay and the restraining and governing of their opposite qualities that they shall not work according to their natural tendencies and inclinations to destroy the World or spoil the beauty comeliness and order of it Nor do they transgress but upon Gods withdrawing this Providence this ordinary Providence Whence come inundations of Waters infections in the Air strange motions of Celestial bodies in some places as the just and wise God at any time will please to make use of any part of the hosts of his Creatures to execute his Vengeance either upon particular Persons Countries or places But thus much shall serve to have been spoken for the illustration of the first Conclusion The others will respect such creatures as have life and sense I proceed to a second Concl. 2. God preserveth his creatures which have life or life and sense or life sense and reason by a daily providing for them food and nourishment and directing them to their proper food and an ordinary avoiding of what is noxious and destructive to their bodies Of living Creatures there are three orders 1. Such as have nothing but being and life such are Plants and Herbs 2. Such as have not only being and life but also Sense Such are Birds in the Air Beasts and creeping things in the Earth Fishes in the Sea Insects and other creatures that live on the Earth and in the Air which the Birds and Fowls also do 3. Such as have not only being and life and sense but also Reason These are upon the Earth only Men and these only have Bodies All these creatures having life and that in a bodily substance and so being in continual motion are of mutable perishing and decaying beings and the lapses and decays of their Natures must be daily repaired by nourishment to the taking of which they are naturally inclined by the passions of Hunger and Thirst and by this Nourishment all know that all sorts of creatures are preserved and without this they cannot live Now as to this the Providence of God is eminently seen in three things instanced in in this second Conclusion 1. God provideth it for them All Vegetables Trees herbs plants are nourished by heat and moisture The moisture is either the natural fatness of the Earth or the adventitious dew of Heaven or falling of water from thence either in a more fluid form which we call Rain or congealed as Snow and Hail The heat is from the Sun There is a natural moisture in the Earth it is also in part watered from the Springs and fountains of water into it from the contiguity of the waters to it but we see in a time of drought how all these fail The Earth is parched and dry God reneweth its moisture by showers from Heaven by Rain and Snow and Dew c. Moisture alone will feed sew plants if any They must have heat as well as moisture Some and the most must have the beams of the Sun all must have the heat of it diffused through the Air. Now who is he who in the Heavens hath set a Tabernacle for the Sun which as a Bridegroom cometh out of his Chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to run his Race Is it not Gods Psalm 19.4 5. Our Saviour tells us Matth. 5 He maketh his Sun to shine and his rain to fall upon the just and upon the unjust The Heathens lay under so much conviction of this that their Poets feigned a Chariot of the Sun which none but their God Phoebus could drive without burning the World For the Rain how plentifully doth the Scripture give unto God the Prerogative of it Hath the rain a father or Who begot the drops of dew Job 38.28 He causeth it to rain upon the earth 26. He giveth rain Jer. 5.24 He maketh lightnings with rain Jer. 10.3 Yea and none but he can do it Jer. 14.22 Are there any amongst the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain or can the Heavens give showers Art not thou he O Lord our God therefore will we wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things Thus the Lord provideth food for vegetables The sensitive Creatures are the Birds and Fowls of the air the beasts and creeping things of the Earth the Fishes of the Sea These live partly upon herbs and plants and the seed grain and fruit of them partly upon each other the greater devouring the lesser God in providing a nourishment for herbs and plants provides a nourishment for the most of them as also by upholding the procreating virtue of some creatures he provideth food for others Man liveth upon the creatures of inferiour order to him partly upon vegetables herbs roots the fruits of plants partly upon sensitive creatures God hath given him a commission to Kill and Eat God provideth food for Man by upholding the budding germinative seed-bearing qualities of plants and the growing vertues of them and by upholding the procreative vertue of birds beasts fishes c. without which those species would fail from the Earth and Man who lives upon them would perish also 2. Secondly The workings of Divine Providence are seen in directing them to their proper food Whence is it that each creature knoweth its proper food and is inclined by its appetite to that only Let me as to these two things shew you how plentifully the Scripture speaketh God takes the glory of this Job 38 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the Lion or fill the appetite for the young Lion V. 39 Who provideth for the Raven his food when his young ones cry unto God when they wander for want of meat Our Saviour telleth us Matt. 6.26 That it is God who feedeth the young Ravens The Psalmist giveth God the glory of this Psalm 104.27 These wait all upon thee that thou maist give them their meat in due season That which thou givest them they gather thou openest their hand they are filled with good These all wait upon thee Who are these the wild asses V. 11 He sendeth the springs into the valleys which run amongst the hills they give drink to every beast of the field the wild asses quench their thirst V. 14 He causeth the grass to grow for the Cattel and herbs for the service of man that he may bring forth food out of the Earth and wine that maketh glad the heart of man and oyl to make his face to shine and bread which strengtheneth mans heart V. 21 The young Lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God V. 30 Thou renewest
Scripture was written since which time Prophecy and unwritten Revelations are much ceased not further to be expected God may yet reveal himself to some particular servants of his but we are not to expect such Revelations nor are they the object of faith Now herein hath the stupendous Providence of God been eminently seen that when so many thousand books wrote since the Scriptures were written are lost and there is no memorial almost of them and the Scriptures have had more enemies than any of them more that have endeavoured to corrupt them and to destroy them yet God hath preserved this store-house of spiritual food and kept it from corruption by the extraordinary care of the Jewish Church the multiplying of translations guiding and governing of those who have been employed in them Nor hath the Providence of God been less seen in maintaining Ministers and Teachers of his word In the Jewish Church when the ordinary officers failed and were corrupted God from time to time raised them up Prophets who were his extraordinary Embassadors to teach his people In Christs time he calls Fishermen to the Apostleship and in all succeeding Ages though there have been sometimes more sometimes fewer able and faithful Ministers yet God hath so ordered that there never have wanted some and a competent number to break the bread of life and to feed his people with wisdom and with spiritual understanding No sort of men have been more maligned hated persecuted yet God hath upheld the order and taken care for the souls of his people that they have continually had faithful stewards of the mysteries of God 4. The Providence of God is admirable in preserving man in his spiritual capacity in the daily influence of his spirit attending his word and sanctifying his institutions The word is in it self but a dead letter the Preaching of the word is far from a mean adequate to so great an effect as is the conversion and edification of souls God is therefore pleased to join his quickening spirit to the word where he pleaseth blessing and sanctifying it I am not of their judgment who think that there is such a constant concurrence and influence of the Spirit with the preaching of the Gospel that if men will do what in them lies they may repent believe c. I know no Scripture which will justifie that notion but certain it is that the holy Spirit doth ordinarily join it self with the preaching of the word like the wind blowing where it pleaseth and none knoweth the motion of it convincing men of sin of righteousness and of judgment 5. Lastly The Providence of God preserveth men in their spiritual capacities by supplying them with strength and succour against their spiritual enemies their own flesh the world the Devil all which with a variety of temptations strike at our spiritual welfare But this is much of kin to what I said before I shall add no more to this discourse concerning Gods Act of Providence as in the preservation of beasts so of men and that in their single natural capacities In their Social and Political capacities and finally in their Spiritual capacities I shall only add some few words of application This in the first place may inform us Vse 1 How great that God must necessarily be whom we serve he is the Creator of the ends of the Earth of the Heavens of the Seas of all things and it is he who preserveth both man and beast he preserveth all men in their single and natural capacities this I opened before He preserveth all men in their Political capacities all his people in their Spiritual capacities It is an ordinary observation in the Kingdoms and Empires of the world that when they have grown to a great bigness they have perished with their own bulk and weight No Monarch hath been found sufficient to preserve them by his wisdom and Counsels And I remember the Historian speaks of it to the great honour and as a wonderful thing in one of the first Roman Kings that he put the Roman Kingdom it was no more then into such an order that it was governed as if it had been but one Family But how much doth it speak the Glory and Majesty the Immensity and Omnipresence the Efficiency and Activity of God who at the same time is working over all the Earth in all the Empires and Kingdoms in all the Cities and Towns in it defeating Ahitophels discovering Plots and Conspiracies ruling the spirits of unruly men so as the whole Universe is kept in order and the thousands and ten thousands of men in it that know not the yoke of Reason and Religion are yet bridled by his Providence and kept in some just order and decorum and made in stead of running one upon another and destroying one another mutually to be subservient one to another I say how great how wise how infinite how glorious in power must this God be Secondly Observe how much mercy passeth over our heads Vse 2 which we do take little or no notice of We are fearfully and wonderfully preserved and that in every capacity I shewed you it before as to our natural capacity few think of that what a strange working of Providence there must be to keep our souls in life but one day It is as much remarkable in our Political capacity I remember when Christ sent out his Disciples to Preach he told them That he sent them out as lambs amongst wolves It is true indeed not only of Gospel-Preachers but of all sober and vertuous men that would live in the world but according to the Laws of Reason and Moral vertue They are in the world as lambs amongst wolves Let but any one consider how many lewd unrighteous debauched men are in all places such whose only rule is their lusts how full the world is of men that make no conscience of murthers rapes thefts oppression and other enormities and then stand and wonder at the Providence of God that in any part of the world there is any thing of order and decorum observed that men have any thing which they can call their own that the lives of Princes or sober people are secured What can it be attributed to but the mighty power of Divine Providence that we have no more murthers rapes thefts c. we see laws punishments will not restrain all nor the same men at all times how or whence is it that they restrain any or at any time I will conclude this with what the Psalmist so often maketh the foot in that his admirable song of Providence Psal 107 Oh! that men would praise the Lord for his goodness for his wonderful works to the children of men Oh that Princes would praise the Lord for his goodness It is by him that they reign that they have a days liberty to decree justice by him that the Counsels of Ahitophel are defeated the conspiracies of ungodly men are discovered that the spirits of unruly and unreasonable
men are subdued under them by him that they have wisdom to make Laws and liberty to execute them that men in their dominions are disposed into their several orders ranks and stations so as mutually to serve one another and to uphold the whole Oh that Subjects would praise the Lord for his goodness that they have wise Magistrates good Laws that their lives are not Sacrificed to murtherers that their houses are not fired that their Wives and Virgins are not ravished that they are disposed to Trades and Occupations that they have wisdom for them a spirit to them Let every Citizen every Subject see and acknowledg the hand of the Lord in these things and bless his holy name But lastly Let the Redeemed of the Lord particularly Vse 3 see and acknowledg the Providence of God in the preserving of them in their spiritual capacities Were it not for the preserving Providence of God our spiritual life would be extinguished every moment God preserveth it by repeating his Gracious Acts in the remission of our sins in the imputation of Christs righteousness Our habits of grace would weaken we aâ—â— preserved and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation It is a great mercy and deserves a great acknowledgment that we have our lives preserved our estates preserved our wives and daughters preserved But oh how much greater is it that we have our state of Justification maintained Our principles of Spiritual Operations our habits of Grace our power to repent believe love God preserved that the influences of Grace are continued that we have the Word and Ordinances preserved Let the redeemed of the Lord say his mercy endureth for ever let them adore preserving-Providence let them consider what a subtil adversary they have Who goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour What abundance of lusts and corruptions they have in their own hearts what a law in their members warring against the law of their minds and they will say that the seed of God which is in them is wonderfully preserved But thus much may serve to have spoken of the first great act of Providence which I called Preservation My next work is to speak concerning Government SERMON VIII Psal CIII 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all I AM as you know discoursing concerning the Principal Acts of Actual Providence which I told you were two 1. Preservation 2. Government All things were at first created by a Divine word of Power all things are preserved by a Divine Power He upholdeth all things by the word of his Power saith the Apostle This I have done with but Gods actual Providence doth not extend only to the upholding and the preserving of all his creatures but he governeth them also Preservation respecteth their several beings and capacities Government respecteth their motions and actions For a Discourse upon this I have made choice of this Text and chusing it with that design only I do not take my self so much concerned to enquire into its relation to what went before or followeth I shall only consider it in it self and so it giveth you an account 1. Of the Royal Seat of the Divine residence or place where God more gloriously manifests that Presence which yet filleth Heaven and Earth He hath saith the Psalmist his throne prepared in the heavens 2. The vastness of his Imperial royal influence and dominion His Kingdom saith the Text ruleth over all I shall not meddle with the first part it is the second only which I have to do with The Proposition shortly is this Prop. That he whose Throne is in Heaven governeth the whole Creation The Scripture speaketh plentifully to this point of Gods Universal dominion 1 Chron. 16.31 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoyce and let men say amongst the Heathen The Lord reigneth Psalm 96.10 Say amongst the heathen the Lord reigneth Psalm 93.1 The Lord reigneth he is clothed with Majesty c. Psalm 97.1 The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce Psalm 99.1 The Lord reigneth let the people tremble An Heathen Prince acknowledgeth it Dan. 4.3 34. But not to multiply Texts Reason will evince it every Superiour being hath a kind of natural right to rule over those that are inferiour to it and God being the Supreme Being and the Creator of all other beings too hath a natural right to extend a Kingdom and Dominion over all and that not only as he is Superior to them and greater than they are but also as he is the efficient cause of all the Creator of all things But to speak more particularly we will enquire 1. What Government is 2. What are the Objects of this vniversal Government and Dominion which the Proposition ascribeth unto God 3. What are those special acts by which God exerciseth this Dominion and Government Government implieth three things 1. The fixing of some ends 2. A power invested in some one or more persons upon others ordering and directing them in order to that end 3. The exercise of this Power The end of Government amongst men is usually the peace quiet and settlement of a place Gods End is his own glory He hath made all things for himself and he doth all things for himself for the fulfilling of his own Counsels and Will in order to the glorifying of his holy Name The Apostle saith Of him and for him are all things 2. Secondly Government implieth a power invested in one or more persons in order to an end Now that God hath such a power none can deny and acknowledg him to be God Once have I spoken yea twice have I heard it saith the Psalmist that power belongeth unto God He who confesseth God to be almighty and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth must own him to have a power sufficient for an Universal Government If we take Power for Authority i. e. a Right to exercise a power over such and such objects that also God hath by the very law of Nature Hath not the potter a power over the clay and is not the creature the clay and God the potter 3. But thirdly Government implieth yet something more viz. an actual exercise of this power and indeed this is the main Actual Government is the exercise of a power wherewith a person or persons are invested over some persons or things in order to some wise ends But let me come to the second Question viz. Quest What are the particular Objects of this Divine providential Government The Text saith His Kingdom ruleth over all I think that term all is to be expounded by three general heads 1. The beings and existences of his creatures 2. The motions and actions of his creatures 3. The omissions and obliquities of his creatures all these as I shall shew you fall under the government of Providence 1. The Beings and existences of his creatures the production and cessation of them the giving of them Being belongs to Creation
others preserving your lives your health blessing you in your relations and estates and trades prospering and succeeding you in your undertakings above all what he hath done for your souls more than for the souls of others plucking you as brands out of the fire snatching you as the Angels did Lot out of Sodom 3. Lastly This observation of special Providence will more eminently engage and quicken you to duty God expects it from you as you may see by Moses his discourse to the Israelites in the four or five first Chapters of Deuteronomy and you will find your hearts more enlarged in duty from the sense and apprehension of them But of this more under the next branch of Application Secondly Vse 3 This Doctrine of special Providence calleth upon all mankind in general that part of them which make up the Church of God more especially and yet more particularly those that fear the Lord for more special homage and duty to God those gradations you know I observed in special Providence The objects the general objects of it I told you were Angels and Men. I baulked the discourse of Gods special Providence in the preservation and Government of the good Angels as that the particulars of which we know little of so neither are they those to whom we are to preach neither do those blessed Spirits need any of our exhortations they spontaneously perpetually and without ceasing give honour and glory to God and do his will and this in a degree proportioned to that special Providence by which they are both preserved and governed We are bid to pray that we might be able on earth to do the will of God as it is done in heaven it is to men to the sons and daughters of men that I am to speak 1. Let all the sons and daughters of men then praise God and glorifie him in a degree proportioned to that special Providence which God exerciseth toward them in general You will say what is that I answer in the general It is more than that which God exerciseth towards any degree of creatures that is beneath them There are three orders of creatures beneath man 1. Such as have only Being no life as the Earth the Waters c. 2. Such as have Being and life but no sense as berbs and plants 3. Such as have Being and life and sense but no reason as beasts birds fishes creeping things of all these God taketh a care as I have before shewed you but doth God take care for Oxen saith the Apostle in my Text God exerciseth a more particular special Providence for all the children of men than for any of these Then certainly every man is obliged to honour and glorifie God more than these do There is none of these but glorifieth God in its kind The Heavens declare his glory The little Bee and Silk-worm glorifieth God as they are his workmanship and indued with excellent qualities which speak the infinite wisdom of God every spire of grass glorifies God as it sheweth it self to the world and challengeth all the art of men to make such a thing Nay these inanimate and brute creatures use all the faculties and qualities with which they were created to the end for which God indued them with them Alas the best of men come much short none liveth and sinneth not None lives who useth not some of the faculties which God hath given him for his honour and glory to his disservice and dishonour Wherein then can man live up to the special Providence that watcheth over preserveth and governeth him I answer In the voluntary directions of his words thoughts and actions to the glory of God This no creature but man can do they have no reasonable souls they act meerly ex necessitate naturae according to the necessity of nature imposed upon them by the Law of creation God indeed hath an honour from every man as he is created in the image of God and is a noble and glorious creature One man may more speak the praises of God than another as he is indued with a greater wit or wisdom hath more dexterity sagacity more excellent parts than another but while the poor creatures heart is not right-set and bent and directed to the glory of God wherein doth he more than an Element or a brute Beast that man only in this excelleth a Stone or a brute Beast that with purpose of heart out of choice and designedly honoureth God and quotus quisque est how rare is the man in the world that sets his heart to bring God glory by his manlike actions God hath indeed an accidental glory by most mens actions but it is rather to be said that God is glorified by them than that they glorifie God Now what a sad reflection this is for a wicked man to think that his horse more glorifies God than he doth There 's no man liveth but partaketh more of a special Providence than any other creature not of his order certainly God expects from all of you some service proportionable to this particular Providence Say to your selves sometimes What do I more for God than the flower of my Garden the grass in my field the beast in my stall and see if the answer of your souls to such a Question will not reflect a shame upon you O study your special Providences and live up to them remember that where God hath given much he expects much But rest not here do not only study the special Providences which you are under as men and which are common to all men with your selves or to the most of men with your selves but observe and study also the particular Providences that have followed you for which God expecteth a return It may be you have more wit more wisdom than others you have a greater dexterity in business God hath better provided for you given you a better estate more comforts in your relations c. Oh live up to these Specialties of Providence you will expect it from those to whom you have at any time done any good you are mistaken if you think that God doth not expect it from you 2. This more especially calleth to you who are the members of the visible Church for a more special consecration and dedication of your selves unto God You have heard that the Church is an eminent object of special Providence many ways many special Promises are made to it and that is the body of people of the world whom God careth for see then what a particular obligation lieth upon all professors all members of the visible Church to give God honour and glory You are the only people in the world to whom the Oracles of God are committed you are the pillar of truth you are those who do alone enjoy the Ordinances of God you are the people in the midst of whom God dwelleth upon whom the eye of God is from one end of the year to the other Certainly there lies an high obligation
to us as a God that may at any time under any face of things be trusted We cannot see a worser face of things than when wickedness is at the heighth men in the heighth of rage and malice against the People of God when all kind of filthiness and sensuality abounds in a place when the vilest men are exalted and the wicked walk on every side they are put together Psal 12.8 But under such dispensations Christians trouble not your selves as to Gods care of his Church indeed it is and ought to be an afflicting dispensation 1. For the glory of God Under such a face of things the holy Name of God is blasphemed the honour of God is at present laid in the dust 2. Such a time must needs be a time of great suffering to the holy and innocent servants of God Many particular servants of God must be made great sufferers under such a Providence But yet incourage your self in God he that can bring light out of darkness can and will bring good out of such an evil as this is The Providence of God doth ordinarily compel even the worst of men to do his work howbeit that they mean not so one way or other they shall do the Lords work if no other way yet by making their own folly manifest to all men God often brings wicked men upon the stage to make them more abominable There are many in the world men of sobriety and vertue would not have believed there had been such horrible injustice and oppression such horrible and insatiable avarice such merciless cruelty in the hearts of many sinners if they did not see them play their parts upon a stage in the world In the mean time know that you trust in a God that knoweth how to make use of mens malice and to make the maddest and desperatest sinner serve his purposes Vse 2. In the second place what a foundation doth this notion lay for an Exhortation to all to break off their sins by true repentance and to give unto God a voluntary chosen service 1. To break off their sins by a true repentance I remember our Lords words to Saul out of Heaven Saul Saul saith he why persecutest thou me it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks Suppose a person whose heart the Devil hath filled with all malice that if he could he would pluck God out of Heaven and root out the Name of God from the Earth yet methinks this should discourage him in his fullest career and madness to think that he that sitteth in the Heavens laugheth him to scorn and when he hath done all he can he shall but have effected the Lords counsels and done the Lords work although he meant not so Let therefore the sinners of the Earth be instructed and learn wisdom they cannot do what they list and many times wherein they think and talk proudly God sheweth himself above them and they do Gods work quite besides and contrary to their own intentions There is no encountring with a God who can make the wrath of man to praise him and restrain the remainder of it when he pleaseth 2. If this be so certainly it is wisdom in men designedly and intentionally to serve God otherwise they lose their reward at least their spiritual and eternal reward We find God with temporal rewards sometimes rewarding men that do some things at his command though their hearts in the action be not right with God so Jehu was rewarded his Sons inherited the Throne to the 4th generation but God at last visited the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu But no man hath a spiritual reward inward joy and peace of conscience nor shall have an eternal reward but that man who with purpose of heart serveth the Lord. SERMON XXII Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Proceed yet in making some Observations concerning the motions of Providence in the preservation and government of the world An eighth Observation which I shall make and a little enlarge upon is this Observ 8. That the Providence of God is wonderfully seen in bringing to light hidden counsels of darkness and punishing of sins which tend to the disturbance of civil societies Indeed there are not many sins but have an ill influence upon humane society and the reason is because there is no law in the world so fitted to the prosperous beings of Societies as the law of the Lord is but yet there are some which tend to a more eminent disturbance and confusion in them Such are now plottings and treasons against Princes whom God hath made the heads of these Societies Seditions and raising up mutinies murthers c. These make great gaps and disorders in political bodies and you shall observe the Providence of God bearing an eminent testimony against them Eccles 10.20 Curse not the King nō not in thy thought and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter it shall be discovered it shall be suddenly discovered and by ways that one would never think of Two things you shall observe in the workings of Divine Providence as to this thing 1. That it is very rarely that the Providence of God suffereth any such designs to come to any effect and issue 2. That if at any time he doth for the punishment of flagitious rulers suffer them to come to issue he very rarely suffereth the actors in them to go down to their graves in peace This abundantly justifieth it self in the story of Scripture and in all other story 'T is very rarely that the Providence of God suffereth conspiracies to take effect Of an hundred plots that you read of in story to take away the lives of Princes and make disturbances in political affairs it is very rare to read of any that take effect Job 5.12 either the Lord makes their own hearts to fail them or weakneth their hands that they cannot find their enterprize or put 's it into the hearts of some of the conspirators to reveal the matter or causeth some strange impression and jealousies in those whose lives are aimed at some way or other the Providence of God worketh to crush the cockatrices egg before it hatcheth into a serpent Our Queen Elizabeth was a famous instance of the special Providence of God in this kind over such as God maketh rulers over others What a strange discovery had we of the Powder-treason in this Nation But this is but the first thing which I commended to you under this Observation 2. Sometimes the Providence of God for his wise ends doth suffer such conspiracies to come to issue either for the personal sins of such rulers or for the sins of the people over whom God hath set them but when he doth he rarely suffereth the actors in them to go down to their graves in
to Pharaoh and to demand the dismission of the Israelites God suffereth not Pharaoh nor any of his Courtiers notwithstanding their threats to do them any hurt Caleb and Joshuah adventure to bring up a good report of the land of Canaan God protecteth them from the mutiny of the people and they are the only two are suffered to go over into the promised land Numb 14.6 7 10 24. Elijah the three children and Daniel were great adventurers in the case of God so was Esther in her going in to the King to speak for the Jews so were the Apostles in the first Plantation of the Gospel The Providence of God strangely watched over them and delivered them as you read in the story of their Acts. A man cannot be too bold if he keeps within the latitude of his duty Indeed we read of some whom God strangely watched over in the doing of some actions that we cannot evince to have been their duty as that of Phinehas Numb 25.7 8. in killing the Moabitish-woman and the Israelite in the act of adultery That of Elijah's killing Baals Priests 1 King 18 yet God protected them and rewarded them there are many things said in the defence of Phinehas and Elijah to reduce their actions to the ordinary rule of Justice It is certain that by the Laws of God the adulterers ought to have dyed so also the false Prophets but for the persons that executed the vengeance of God upon them all that we can say is this Their call was doubtless clear to themselves their actions were most certainly approved by God he protects them upon the doing of them he rewards them for doing of them but non fueâ—unt ordinaria sed facta quaedam extra usum ordinem communem they were not ordinary actions but depended upon a special call of God By vertue of such a call too it doubtless was that Moses slew the Egyptian for which St. Stephen justifieth him Acts 7. But a man cannot be too bold for God if he keeps within the latitude of his certain duty 2. Provided secondly He keepeth to reasonable rules of prudence our rule obligeth us to be wise as serpents But I will not enlarge upon this Theme for the truth is the Providence of God strangely watcheth over bold adventurers in his cause and service who have acted under such circumstances as are hardly reconcileable to what our reason calls Prudence yet certainly that will not warrant a rash and imprudent managery of a good cause I need not give you more instances than I have done to justifie this Observation in sacred History Moses and Aaron Caleb and Joshuah Elijah and Elisha Esther Daniel the three Children all the Apostles afford a plentiful proof of this Observation and in other stories the instances are without number Luthers whole life was an instance of this the Archers shot sorely at him he ventured as high as any in opposition to them yet his bow abode in his strength Luther dyed in his bed in peace Nor doth this seem an unreasonable motion of Divine Providence if we either consider how far the honour of God is concerned in the upholding and maintaining his Embassadors and rewarding his servants or the faithfulness of God in justifying his promises or the further use that God will make of men in the accomplishment of his designs in the world 1. Let us but consider the relation wherein the Ministers of Christ stand to him they are his Missionaries be hath sent them as the father hath sent him so he hath sent them nay they are no ordinary servants they are the Lords Embassadors they come in Christs name and as in Christs stead they intreat men to be reconciled unto God It is beneath the honour of a Prince to suffer an Embassador to starve or any way to perish for want of that protection which he is able to afford him indeed if any run before they are sent or instead of Gods work to their own Gods honour is not concerned in them unless to chastise their presumption and to take vengeance upon them as in such a case no Prince would think himself further concerned but supposing Ministers of the Gospel to be sent by him and to be ready faithfully to deliver their masters messages and this we must suppose and believe or disown the Scriptures which expresly assert this God is highly concerned in point of honour having power in his hand and the command of all the hearts of men to provide for his faithful Ministers and they shall not want 2. God secondly is not only concerned in honour as a great King and God above all but as a God of truth and faithfulness that can sooner suffer Heaven and Earth to pass away then a word to fail of what he hath spoken he hath made many promises to his faithful servants in the Ministry and to those that he hath employed in hazardous employments for him he of old promised to satiate the souls of his priests with fatness Jer. 31.14 He of old appointed no inheritance to the sons of Levi amongst their brethren because he was their inheritance as he had promised them Deut. 10.9 he hath told them he will cloath them with salvation Psal 132.16 he told Jeremiah and Ezekiel he would be with them to deliver them Jer. 1.7 8 18 19. Ezek. 2.6 He hath told Gospel Ministers he will be with them to the end of the world Matth. 28. he hath bidden them take no thought what they should eat drink or put on when he sent out the twelve Matth. 10.9 10. he bid them to provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in their purses nor scrip for their journey nor two coats nor shooes for the workman is worthy of his meat Now after all this if God should suffer his Ministers to want bread to sustain their lives or their families what would men say of the faithfulness of God 3. Lastly Let us but consider God as having many designs yet to accomplish a great deal of work yet to be done in the world to be done by the hands of men who can imagine God should not eminently protect and provide for those that are and have been faithful who would work for that Master that will not find them bread What subject would be free to go as an Embassadour for that Prince that would never protect him in the faithful discharge of his trust or reward him proportionably to his affronts or losses Now God knows that we are flesh and much led by our sense and reason and must not be encouraged to our duty only by rewards which are the objects of our faith but by sensible rewards at least to such a proportion as is necessary to uphold us to our work It is therefore not to be wondred at that God should in a way of special Providence eminently take care of the Ministers of his Gospel he hath call'd them and sent them to his work he hath by that call
Apostle tells us Rom. 11.11 12. They did not stumble that they might fall but through their fall salvation came unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie The Apostles upon their going out to preach to the Gentiles gives this account of it Forasmuch as you have judged your selves unworthy of eternal life that was by not receiving the Gospel we turn unto the Gentiles What shall I need say more there is no soul brought to Heaven but is an eminent instance of this If they had not sinned they would have no need of any pardon or justification from the guilt of sin no need of a Saviour or Mediator God suffereth the souls of his People to be concluded under the guilt of sin that he might have mercy upon them It is also an ordinary observation of Divines That God often suffereth people to fall into some gross and scandalous sins that he might take that advantage to awaken them to repentance and make use of their falls to a rising again to a new life and this is often seen in those that have lived civilly and might be prone to trust to their own Moral Righteousness But I shall inlarge no further in the Justification of so obvious an Observation It follows that I should shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence 1. The truth is in the first place it is hard to conceive how otherwise some of Gods greatest works of Providence could have been produced What would the Revelation of a Covenant of Grace have signified to the world if the Covenant of Works had not first been violated by the first mans transgression How could else any man imagine that the salvation of the world should have been accomplished by the death of Christ if God had not made use of the wicked action of those who took him and by wicked hands crucified him The Apostle assureth us that in all they did against our Lord they did but execute what the counsel of the Lord had predetermined should be done If sin did not abound how should grace much more abound Rom. 5. In the pardon of sins the justification of a guilty soul the Scripture tells us That all are concluded under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe What should we say to the great work of Providence in trying his Saints by afflictions and persecutions from the hands of violent men God maketh use of the sins of Persecutors to perfect his Saints by the exercises of their faith and patience it could not be without the sins of those who persecute others for righteousness sake 2. Again God by this getteth himself a great deal of glory I have spoke something to this under the seventh Observation but let me here add a little 1. He gets himself the glory of his power There is a fancy hath possessed the Philosophers of the world That metals of a baser nature may by art be turned into nobler metals brass c. into gold and they will tell you that some such thing hath been done and aboundance of time and money hath been spent by the vain and covetous Philosophers of the world to little purpose to find out this Philosophers stone as they call it but supposing such a thing possible yet there must be some similar quality to help or they will not pretend to any such thing no Philosopher ever yet pretended by all his Chymistry to fetch gold out of a dunghil But now in sin there is nothing of a similar quality to the glory of God there is nothing so opposite to the glory of God as the sins of men and women For God to fetch water out of a rock argued great power to raise up Abraham children from the stones of the field it must speak great power but yet not so much as for God to fetch his own glory out of peoples sins There is in sin an infinite opposition to the glory of God nothing so diametrically opposite to God's honour and glory as sin is Sampson put forth a riddle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness But what is this riddle to that which I am speaking of for the glory of God to come forth out of the dunghil the woful dunghil of the worst of mens actions for God to work out his own righteousness out of the vilest actions of men O it speaketh an infinite Power in God! it is a greater work to fetch light out of darkness I will saith God get me glory upon Pharaoh For God to get himself glory out of Pharaoh's hard heart was more than to get his people water out of an hard rock 2. God by it gets himself the glory of his infinite wisdom I told you in my former discourse that he is accounted the best Politician that can make the best use of all humours and serve his own designs even of his utter Enemies this is the top of a Politicians wisdom How great then must the Wisdom of God appear in this nothing hath such an enmity to God and his glory as sin hath Job speaketh it to the great glory and honour of God Job 5.13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the crafty are carried head long It speaketh the wisdom of a man that he can make use of the capacious quality of a bird or a beast to catch a prey for him thus the faulconer maketh use of the hawk the huntsman of the dog the fisher-man of a fowl to catch birds or beasts or fish for him This I say speaketh the wisdom of a man above other creatures O how it speaketh the admirable Wisdom of God that he can make use of the worst belchings of lusts in mens hearts the most vile and rebellious actions of men and out of them fetch his own glory 3. But in the last place God above all doth by this magnifie the riches and freeness of his grace This is that wherein the Lord delights to have glory he predestinated adopted us c. to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.6 If God had taken man out of a state of innocency into Heaven we should never have admired free-grace so much as now it marvellously affects the heart of a child of God to see God make use of his falls of his sin and corruption and manifold rebellions to make his free-grace exceeding glorious We should never so much admire free-grace and mercy if we were not so great transgressors This is it which maketh grace precious in our eyes when we cry out of the belly of hell and he heareth us Thus far I have shewed you that God maketh a very ordinary use and a very remarkable use of peoples sins But I also added that it was a spotless use and thus it must be if God maketh it For he that is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity must be of a purer will
particular and special Laws Now if God by his Providence did not make some eminent examples of his severity and justice and proceed quickly against them how should his special Providence be manifested 3. It is but reasonable that God should make Persecutors quick examples of his vengeance if we consider what a complication of sin there is in the violent prosecution of others for the profession of the truth 1. There is eminent injury done to God he is hindered as to the calves of those lips which the persecutor shuts up All the immediate honour which God hath in the world is from the Preaching of the Gospel from the prayers and praises of his People Now if God hath any glory from the publication of his Gospel from the joynt-prayers and praises of his Saints the persecutor that hindereth these robbeth God of it and setteth himself against the God of Heaven and Earth in those things whereby he hath chosen to be honoured his business is to interrupt disturb and hinder the making known of Christ to poor souls to hinder Gods Peoples joynt-praises of him and prayers to him he saith to those whom he persecuteth You shall not serve God and thus bids an impudent and bold defiance to the Lord of Heaven and Earth 2. There is in persecution an eminent injury done to our neighbour God is not only the avenger of his own glory but concerning injuries done to men he hath said Vengeance is mine and I will repay it Now in all persecutions there must be some great wrong done to our neighbour either as to his name or liberty or estate or life And secondly it is an injury done to him causelesly not by way of retaliation In truth it is the Image of God which the persecutor flies upon and it is the holiness and righteousness of his brother which he is not able to endure seeing his own leud and abominable life condemned by his neighbours more righteous conversation It is therefore but reasonable that that God who is jealous of his own glory and the judg of the innocent person and who hath said Vengeance is mine and I will repay it should be severe in his dealings with such sinners and for his elect sake shorten the days of such blood-thirsty men But this is enough to have spoken to the first part of the Observation I told you secondly that the Providence of God is also sometimes very quick in the distribution of rewards and this you shall especially observe in these cases 1. In rewards of such as have been eminent sufferers for God God doth variously reward such persons sometimes by temporal rewards that are sensible and external sometimes such as are more inward and spiritual Now Gods Providence is often very quick in such distributions how quickly did God reward Daniel after he came out of the Lions den and the three Children after they came out of the fiery Furnace and Mordecai after hâ— had ventured himself so signally in the cause of God and saw the very gallows set up on which his great adversary thought to have had him hanged For those rewards that are more inward and discerned only by those that receive them how many instances might be given of strange incomes of joy and peace and strength with which the suffering servants of God have been rewarded so as their inward joy hath drowned their pain quenched as it were the flame c. 2. In the rewards of such as have done some great and eminent service for God bearing some signal testimony against sin as in the case of Phinehas who slew Zimri and Cosbi Num. 25.11 or been faithful in some great service in which others have made some great defection as in the case of Caleb and Joshua Num. 14.6 who brought up a true report of the land of Canaan and gave in a true testimony for God against all the rest of the Spies and when the whole people were in a mutiny 3. You shall observe that the Providence of God is ordinarily very quick in rewarding wicked men for any service they do him I might give you many instances of this that of Jehu is an eminent one God gave him and his posterity a present reward for the good service he had done against the house of Ahab and he gave the King of Assyria a present reward for the service wherewith he had made his Army to serve against Tyrus The like observation might be made in many other cases and it is no more than we may make a daily observation of when God rewards those whom he intendeth not to reward eternally he doth it in this life quickly And the motions of Divine Providence in these cases cannot but appear to be highly reasonable if we do but consider 1. That this is but after the manner of men to such as do signal and eminent services to give both present and great rewards for the encouragement of others though ordinarily common souldiers sometimes stay for their pay yet some persons that have signalized their valour are often Knighted in the field and some mark of great favour fastned upon them 2. That Divine righteousness is thus fulfilled and not only fulfilled but so conspicuously that all the world may take notice that God is a righteous God fulfilling his word and that no man serveth him for nothing Godliness as the Apostle tells us hath promise not only of that life which is to come but of this life also Mar. 10.29 30. There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children for my sake or the Gospel but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the life to come eternal life These and such-like promises respecting this life or that which is to come must be justified and so justified that the world may take notice that God is true to them which cannot be unless God to some such servants of his should dispense out quick and present rewards 3. On the other side it is but reasonable that God should presently reward the services that wicked men do him Because there is no portion provided for them in that life which is to come neither can they trust God for the life to come all they look at is present pay and reward Thus I have opened to you this Observation in the Doctrinal part of it and shewed you the reasonableness of these motions of Divine Providence I come now to the application which I shall shortly dispatch Vse This Observation affords us a new and potent argument 1. To perswade sinners from presumptuous sinnings 2. To engage men to more eminent services and sufferings for God 1. I say first To disswade sinners from presumptuous sinnings against God The flow motions of Divine Providence as to the punishment of sinners as I told you do much incourage sinners to go on in their courses
which it is called the Covenant of Grace God in and by it relaxing the rigour of the Law which required personal satisfaction to Divine Justice from the persons offending and a perfect performance of the whole Law and accepted the satisfaction given to Divine Justice by the nature offending hypostatically united to the person that was the Son of God and accepting from us sincerity instead of perfect obedience the sincerely willing mind instead of the perfect deed Such a Covenant we suppose and believe to have been made 2. We believe it not made for all but conformably to the purpose of Election if it had been made for all we could not understand but that all men must be saved 3. Nor can we think it was made for an uncertain number but as there are individual names written in the Book of Life so we believe the same concerning the rolls of this Covenant The Lord as the Apostle tells us knoweth who are his Christ was not Sponsor incerti foederis a surety of an incertain but of a certain Covenant Some would make Christs Covenant with his Father not to have been for these or those persons but indefinitely for those that should believe and so to have been conditional But certainly no considerate Christian can allow this who observeth that amongst men nothing but ignorance of future contingencies is the cause of incertain and conditional bargains the Parent that dieth and gives his Child a Portion conditionally that he or she marrieth so and so or be subject to such or such Governors would have left out that condition if he or she had certainly known what the Child would have done and it seems to us strangely to derogate from the eternal perfection of the Divine Being in point of Knowledge so much as to fancy that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who both from eternity knew who would or would not repent and believe and needs must know it because they could do neither but by vertue of special grace infused by and derived from God should make a Covenant each with other that such or such persons who they knew would not repent nor believe if they believed and repented should have a share in the satisfaction and death of Christ 4. We do suppose and believe the blood of the Covenant that is the blood of Jesus Christ was intentionally poured forth according to the Covenant and for the persons concerned in it The blood of Christ is called the blood of the Covenant Zech. 9.11 Heb. 10.29 Heb. 13.20 and the Antitype to those ancient types of the blood of Beasts which was so called Exod. 24.8 So that we think it a very unreasonable assertion to extend the blood of the Covenant beyond the persons concerned in the Covenant But yet notwithstanding all this there is nothing more evident in the issues of Divine Providence than that this Covenant is held out to all indefinitely Mar. 16.15 Christs commission to his Apostles runs thus Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Here both the benefit of the New Covenant eternal life and salvation is offered to all and the terms believing and being baptized are also propounded unto all and according to that direction and commission is all our Preaching Now hence ariseth the difficulty If there be not a possibility of salvation for all men if they all be not within the verge of the Covenant If Christ hath not died for all why is the Gospel preached to every creature how can it consist with the truth and honour of that God who cannot lie by his Ministers to tell men that if they will but repent and believe they shall be saved To what end is the Gospel preached unto them To which I answer 1. That the Gospel only asserteth the infallible connexion of faith and salvation What saith the Gospel He that believeth shall be saved and will any say that a believer shall be damned or did ever any penitent and believing soul perish if there had then indeed we might have quarrelled at the truth of God but God will be true though all men be found liars What though ten thousand be told and have it rung in their Ears That he who believeth shall be saved and but ten of those ten thousand should believe provided that they be saved God I hope is true and what he hath said is to a tittle made good But you will say why then are all told if they believe they shall be saved The Minister of the Gospel may go to every particular soul and say to him or her if thou repentest and believest thou shalt be saved I answer 2. God is pleased to hide from his Ministers his secret counsels concerning the salvation of individual souls They therefore may and must say whosoever believeth shall be saved and God will confirm in Heaven whatsoever they deliver on Earth and by vertue of this Commission they may say to every individual soul Believe and thou shalt be saved they know not who are ordained to life and shall have effectual grace bestowed upon them inabling them to believe but they know the general proposition of the Gospel is true But still you will say why hath God by his Providence so ordered it to what end should the Providence of God order the publication and tender of the Covenant of Grace to a greater number than are concerned in it 3. What if we should say It is O Father so because it pleaseth thee and be forced here to cry out with the great Apostle Rom. 9.33 O the depth of the ri hes both of the wisdom and know ledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out vers 34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor Who is able to give a just account of Gods designs and intentions to what purpose he doth things It is enough for us to know that God doth them and that God may do them and there is no unrighteousness with him if he doth do it We ought to believe that God hath wise ends in what he doth though we are not able to find out what they be Yet it may not be amiss to tell you what Divines do say in the case though they cannot by searching find out God nor find out the Almighty unto perfection 1. There are those that say that Reprobates are only called to faith and repentance as they are mixed with the elect and the exhortations reach them only by way of concomitancy and possibly it may be doubted if there were any society or company of people in the world amongst whom there were not any ordained to everlasting life whether God would at all send his Gospel to them or direct any of the Messengers of his word to go and call them to repentance God incouraging Paul Act.
grace which bring glory to God if God should not sometimes suffer his own people to fall all the revenue of his glory from these exercises would be lost 5. Again hath God any glory from any more external Acts of Worship and Homage which we perform unto him from our Prayers Praises from our hearing his word receiving the Sacrament Prayer is made up of Confession of Sin and Supplications for pardon of Sin and strength against Sin Confession of Sin gives glory to God my Son saith Joshuah to Achan confess and give glory to God Supplication for good things gives God glory as it owns him to be the Fountain of all good and our whole dependance to be upon him It is true had Sin never entred into the World our daily dependence upon God would have evinced Prayer to have been our daily and a natural homage which derived inferiour beings do owe unto the first being But there would have been no need of Prayer either for the pardon of Sin or for strength against Sin For Praise that also is a piece of Homage which Adam would have owed unto God if he had stood in his first integrity and state of Innocency and the Angels of God who never fell are continually occupied in singing the praises of God But the praises of God both by his Saints upon the Earth and by his glorified Saints are highly advantaged by the forgiveness of their Sins and their having their garments washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now if no sin were committed in the World none would be remitted and forgiven and all the glory which the God of Heaven hath from his Saints on Earth or in Heaven for the free forgiveness of their Sins would have been lost Certainly the fall of the evil Angels advantages the praises of the elect Angel it being doubtless a piece of their song to bless God who suffered not them to fall as the infernal Spirits did and indeed this needeth no further evidence than what it hath from every gracious Soul that hath tasted any thing of the love of God in pardoning mercies I appeal to any such Soul to what a pitch it raiseth his Soul in the thoughts of God and the admirings of his Divine love and grace Psal 103.1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my Soul saith David and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases Thus I have shewed you a second way by which God gets himself glory from Sin the permission of Sin in the World 3. Holiness and Piety are advantaged by Sin Sin is a foil to holiness Pulchriora apparent bona ex malorum deformitate As the dark shadows are advantages to the Picture and the wanton thinks at least that her black Patches are advantages to her beauty so are the Sins and Debaucheries which God permitteth in the world advantages to holiness The beautiful and well-proportioned works of Nature are the more beautiful for the Monsters that it erreth in Sin is but monstrum morum a monster in mens manners I am perswaded that in the very times wherein we live God hath made use of the prodigious intemperance lust and luxury Atheisme and foolish superstitious vanities of some to make true Religion Godliness and Vertue appear more lovely unto thousands than before they did Lastly From what is said abundantly appears that it is not without infinite wisdom that the Lord though he be pleased to manifest the riches of grace upon some to change their hearts and to turn them from the wickedness of their ways plucking them as brands out of the fire yet suffers multitudes to walk in their own ways till they drop into that Pit from which there is no Redemption for ever We may all of us be assured that the wise God consulteth his own glory in this In the same Text Pro. 16.4 Where he tells us that he hath made the wicked for the day of evil he saith in the former part that he hath made all things for himself Though we be not able to see the particular reason of many dispensations of God yet we ought to presume they are not done without excellent Counsel admirable reason incomprehensible wisdom yea and infinite love toward those that shall be saved I shall close this discourse with an excellent saying of one of the Ancients If saith he an ignorant person goeth into a Smiths shop what matters it if he doth not knowof what particular use the Sleth the Anvil and other utensils are yet it is enough if the workman knoweth and can make use of every utensil in it's season what if we do not know if we cannot comprehend of what use some particular sinful actions of men should be for the glory of God it is enough for us that God knoweth the vilest action that was ever done in the World the crucifying of the Lord Jesus Christ was of the greatest use for the manifestation of the glory of God Now after this discourse of the reasonableness of Divine Providence in permitting Sin for the further manifestation of the glory of God and the acquisition of glory to his sacred name c. It may seem an idle question why the Lord suffereth so many sinners so as his own number is but a little flock in comparison of those Herds for sin being a quality must inhere in some Subject and if there were no sinners tolerated there could be no sin but yet let me a little further enlarge upon this Argument 1. God suffereth so many sinners that some of them might be made Saints by Nature there is none righteous no not one all are Children of wrath one as well as another all that are implanted into Christ were natural branches of the wild Olive they are made otherwise by an engraffing and implantation into the Lord Jesus Christ It is the Metaphor which the Apostle useth Rom. 11. v. 17 19. Those all those whom the Lord quickeneth were at first dead in trespasses and sins It is the saying of a very ingenious Author Non est sterilis Deo patientia sua ut saltem fatigatione taedeat peccatores voluptatum Gods patience saith he with sinners is not barren if it were only for this that God by suffering sinners many sinners doth at last tire and weary some out of their delight and pleasure in their lusts thou that sayest why doth a pure and holy God endure so many vessels of wrath fitted for destruction do but remember that thou thy self wert once a Child of wrath thou wert once a person fitted both by Original sin and by many actual sins for destruction God suffered thee to go on a long time in thy own ways that he might weary thee of thine own ways and bring thee home unto himself why may not God do so by many others They are yet as wild Asses but why may not they also have a
and night in his Temple Had they not been defiled with sin they needed not have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and having their robes so washed they are elevated in the praises of God 4. Finally We may as I said before be assured that God would not suffer so much sin in the world If much sin did not tend much to the glory of God at last Here may be applied all that I said before in the former part of my discourse on this Argument shewing you how the aboundings of sin conduce to the aboundings of grace 1. That grace wherein man is meerly passive and recipient aboundeth by the aboundings of sin The Apostle telleth us that love covereth a multitude of faults the more faults be covered the greater love is discovered God magnifieth grace in abundantly pardoning and there could not be abundant pardoning if there were not abounding sin a multitude of mercies could not be magnified but upon a multitude of Sin The bredth of the robes of Christs righteousness could never have been seen but for the extension of our nakedness it is the height and depth and length and breadth of Sin which maketh all Saints to comprehend what is the length and breadth and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg that we might be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3.17 18. 2. That grace in the exercise of which we are active is also advantaged by the much Sin which God permitteth Our Saviour telleth us Luke 7. those who have much forgiven will love much and those to whom little is forgiven will love but little It wonderfully aggravates pardoning mercy in the sense of a gracious heart to think how many are grinding at the same Mill of sin that he was formerly imployed in and that he should be taken and they left again we should never fight the good fight so well to the glory of God if we had not many enemies to fight with But I have inlarged far enough in the Doctrinal part of this discourse shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine providence in the sufferance of sin and sinners so much sin and so many sinners notwithstanding the opposition that sin hath to the honour and glory of God and to the purity and holiness of the Divine being nothing remains as to this discourse but to consider how this may be useful to us Vse 1. In the first place Let me appeal now to the reason of every one that hears me whether God in the sufferance of Sin and sinners doth not act consonantly to the wisdom of the Divine being It is nothing but our ignorance and inconsiderateness that can be any temptation to us to have any derogatory thoughts of God for these motions of his providence God doth all his own works in infinite wisdom and it is in infinite wisdom that he suffereth sinful men to walk in their own ways What though he be an holy God This will indeed conclude that himself cannot be tempted and that he tempteth no man but it will not argue that he may not suffer any one to be tempted that is as the Apostle James expoundeth it drawn away by his own lusts and enticed What though he hath a power to put a period to sin every moment yet certainly God is not obliged to do all that he can do but his power as ours also is is governed as to the exercise of it by his will What though sin dishonoureth God and impeacheth his glory he knoweth how to vindicate himself and to recompense himself as to his glory and that many ways from the sins of men True it is that it is from the lusts and wickedness of sinners hearts that so much sin is committed in the world yet it is also from the sufferance and permission of Divine Providence God being directed by his own infinite wisdom to govern the world in this method and thus to make a difference betwixt Earth and Heaven so to order it that hereby the vessels of wrath may be fitted for destruction and his chosen ones by many tribulations occasioned generally from the sins and sinners suffered in the world may be prepared for the Kingdom of God O the height and depth of Divine wisdom How unsearchable are Divine judgments how are the ways of God past our finding out Vse 2. But in the second place let every one take heed of taking any occasion from this discourse to give himself a liberty to sin This is the Apostles reflexion upon this he foresaw the ill conclusion which corrupt hearts would draw from these premises therefore adds Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid he makes it his business in that Chapter to shew that no gracious justified Soul can do so How saith he can they that are dead to sin live any longer therein So again Rom. 3. v. 7 He foresaw that some would say if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye why then am I judged as a sinner Such thoughts are ready to rise up in our hearts why am I blamed for sinning if God hath glory from my Sns Or why should I be judged as a sinner if the aboundings of sin advantage and make way for the aboundings of grace Surely God â—hen cannot so severely revenge himself upon me for sin To restrain such wild thoughts as these from entring or prevailing in any of your Souls let me offer some few things to your consideration 1. Consider first if any good come by sin to the particular soul that sinneth it must be from the abounding of graâ—e Sin doth not of it self or from any particular affection or disposition in it do any soul good God indeed sometimes turns it for good so that a soul may say it is good for me that God suffered me to fall into such a sin Sin in its own nature tendeth to nothing but the ruine and eternal destruction of a Soul it must be from the aboundings of grace if any good come to the soul from sin the aboundings of Divine grace in the free pardon and forgiveness of sin or the aboundings of grace in the infusion of gracious habits by which the soul is made more broken-hearted more humble in the sense of sin more watchful against it for the time to come and careful to avoid all temptations to it The wages of sin is death and the work of sin tendeth to death to debauch and to debase a soul If a sinner getteth to eternal Life it is through the gift of God if by reason of his former sinfulness he now loves God more and be more zealous for God and more afraid to offend God all this is of grace and grace is free Now reason teacheth every man not wilfully to run upon his own ruine in hope that he shall experience the kindness of a friend in such a ruined estate Who will
hang himself that his friend may shew him kindness to cut the halter or commit Treason against his Prince to give him occasion to pardon him We use to account it no prudence to lye at the mercy of another either as to our lives estates or reputations Who will give away his estate that the charity of his friends may appear in relieving him The mercies of God are indeed beyond the mercies of men but as infinite as they are presumptuous sinners have no reason to lean upon them Oh consider sinner that it must be through grace if thou ere be saved And though where sin hath abounded God sometimes doth make grace to abound yet it is not thy wisdom to sin that grace may abound 1. Because Grace pardoning grace doth not abound towards all in whom the aboundings of sin are found grace aboundeth but to some that have sinned How knowest thou seeing grace is nothing else but love acting freely that it shall abound towards thee If it doth not thou perishest for ever that it shall thou dost not know Thousands sin towards whom grace never aboundeth in the pardon of their sins 2. Because presumptuous sinning is as great a block as it is possible for thee to lay in the way of Divine grace The soul that doth ought presumptuously the same reproacheth the Lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be cut off from his people because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be upon him Numb 15.30 Now what soul can possibly sin presumptuously if he doth not who saith in his heart I will sin that grace may abound Cons 2. Secondly Consider duty is never to be measured by the event of our actions but by the rule of our actions If thou sinnest thou breakest the Law of the Lord thou violatest his commandment and despisest his word Sin in it self is an inordinate action and therefore to be avoided though the Providence of God ordereth these actions very often both to his own glory and for the particular good of sinners we are to measure our actions by the Divine rule and by that to square them not from the event of them which Divine Grace and Power maketh Certainly thou wilt say that Judas and Pontius Pilate and Herod and the rest of those who were in a confederacy against the life of Christ were all exceeding guilty before God and will some of them in the great day most righteously be turned into Hell for crucifying him who was the Lord of life though God used their action as a means to procure the expiation and atonement of the World thousands shall be saved by the effusion of that blood for the spilling of which yet they will be damned What though God will suffer sin to abound that his Grace may much more abound yet this is no license for thee to suffer sin to abound thou art to guide thy action by the Divine rule God governeth his by his own infinite Wisdom God makes the best of thy bad market but yet it is thy concern to make the best market thou canst both for thy own soul and for the glory of God Cons 3. Thirdly What if God may get himself glory and may get himself glory from peoples sins yet this glory 1. May be from others not from thee 2. It may be only a glory gotten upon thee 1. I say first possibly the glory which God will get from thy sins shall be from others not from thy self Many times the sin which maketh the sinner worse subjecting him to the wrath and vengeance of God debauching and defiling his soul makes others better so God hath a glory from his sin The persecutor tries the faith and patience of the Saints and is a means to help them to the Kingdom of Heaven and so God hath glory from his sin but it is from others not from the sinner he in the mean time damneth and destroyeth his own soul 2. Possibly God will get himself glory upon thee upon occasion of thy sin as he said I will get me honour upon Pharaoh That was by breaking him in pieces by destroying both him and his Army in the Red Sea This is small encouragement to thee to go on in sinning because God will get glory from thy sins thou canst not assure thy self that he will get himself the glory of his pardoning or sanctifying grace from them 4. Wilt thou say But if I may bring glory to God I ought to do it though it be by my damnation Consider That no man can in any sincerity pretend to the willing of the glory of God by sinning The Reason is because sin is directly opposite to Gods Glory What sense is it to will the glory of God by dishonouring him Sin is a thing which of its own nature dishonoureth and reproacheth God Canst thou pretend to design the honour and glory of God by doing that which is directly contrary to it It is a question whether our reasonable natures will suffer us to will the glory of God in our own damnation but it is impossible that any should sincerely wish the glory of God and pursue this wish by wilful and presumptuous sinning Object But still will the poor creature say Why am I judged as a sinner What reason hath God to condemn me for my sins if he getteth glory by them Sol. 1. I answer Because the judgment of God is a righteous judgment he proceedeth against men according to their actions and the merit of them not according to the event of their actions wisely ordered besides and beyond their natural tendency to the glory of his own holy name That the sinners works issue in the glory of God is Gods work not theirs and they can therefore expect no reward upon that account Besides the eventual necessity which the Providence of God puts upon things doth by no means justifie the obliquity of the actions Our Saviour tells us it must needs be that offences come but woe be to those by whom they come It must needs be that sin should be committed in the World God hath determined to permit them mens lusts hurry them into the commission of them Gods Providence must fetch him a great deal of glory from them but yet woe be to the sinner without a timely repentance Vse 3. In the last place Doth God in infinite Wisdom as you have heard permit sin in the World and that for the end that I have shewed you that he might be glorified Let us then make it our business to make such uses of the sin that we see in the world and the sins our selves have committed in the world as by occasion of them God may be more glorified by us If you ask me how this may be it may easily be gathered from my preceding discourse but yet for the sake of those who are of meaner capacity let me in this branch of
was corrected and which when he was a child he deprecated and would gladly have cut in pieces Let me shew you a little that these things which we disgrace with the name of Evils and of which the holy and gracious God is not ashamed to be the Author are not Evils but such as deserve a better name and such good things as are some of the greatest goods the child of God meets with on this side of Heaven To this purpose we will consider them 1. As they contribute to the Predication of the Holiness and Justice of God and the making him to be feared and adored in the world 2. As they many ways contribute to the happiness of those that shall be saved 1. I say first as they predicate the glory of Gods Justice and Holiness Justice and Holiness are two eminent Attributes of the Divine Being so essential unto it as if he should not be just and holy he could not be God Now the Holiness and Justice of God could never be so known in the world but for the afflictions troubles and punishments which are abroad in it God is infinitely removed from our senses we can only read him in his word and in his works The word of God evidenceth these two Attributes to us by faith for the word is the object of faith and faith is the evidence of things not seen The word of God speaketh God a just and holy God and therefore we believe it but as in a State the Justice of the Magistrates would never be seen in making good Laws and discoursing just things if he never put them in execution so neither should we ever have any demonstration of the Justice and Holiness of God if it were not for those afflictions and punishments of sinners by which he declareth to the world his abhorrence of sin and the exactness of his Justice I remember the Apostle Rom. 3.25 telleth us That Christ was set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare Gods righteousness and God being about to destroy Pharaoh saith I will get me honour upon Pharaoh What honour the honour of his Justice and Righteousness It is the great interest of God to declare unto the world his Justice and Holiness How else should he have the revenue of his glory from these Attributes Now I say Evils of punishment are upon this account great goods and were necessary if they were causative of no other than this good If God obtained no more from them than the Proclamation of his Holiness and Predication of his Justice and Righteousness yet this were enough and thus much he gains from his punishment of the worst of men if they be not made better by them yet God is by them made more glorious and declareth his righteousness The argument is this Those things cannot be evil however we may miscall them which immediately tend to make God more glorious in the eyes of the world but this all Evils of punishment do they speak God a pure and holy God and a just and righteous God But there is much more to be said than this is 2. They very much contribute to the good of such as shall be saved 1. They contribute to make us better while we live here and 2. To make us eternally happy hereafter It is only the foolish child that as I said before quarrelleth at the rods and ferula's that correct the wildness and wantonness of its youth The grown man blesseth God and thanks his master for them He that spareth the rod saith Solomon hateth the child but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes Prov. 13.24 and advising Parents again saith Prov. 23.13 14. Withhold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not dye thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell In short 1. By afflictions Souls ordained to life are kept from hell 2. By afflictions such souls are fitted for the Kingdom of Heaven 1. I say first By afflictions as by a divine sacred means the souls of such as are ordained unto life are saved from hell If mans rod may be a means to such a blessed end Gods rod will certainly do much more the rod and reproof give wisdom Prov. 29.15 Solomon tells us That foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him Prov. 22.15 It is as true as to the Children of God as it is with reference to the Children of men Have not you observed a tender Mother sometimes seeing a foolish child too busie with the fire or candle taking the childs hand or finger and holding it so near that it scalds or burns it self so learning the burnt child to dread the fire God hath never a child but is too too ready to be playing with hell-fire playing over the hole of the Asp and den of the Cockatrice God takes his childrens fingers and scalds them a little with the fire of Hell in their Consciences making them to be a continual terror instead of a continual feast or with the Candles of Afflictions and outward trials and thus they are delivered from Hell Adam had never seen death he had only heard of it in the threatning in case he did eat of the Tree that stood in the midst of the Garden he put out his hand and took of the fruit and did eat his posterity shall now see and feel death they shall be in deaths often and have leisure to think if the torments of the stone or the gout be so great what will the torments of Hell be If I am not able to stand under the terrors of an affrighted Conscience for a few months how shall I abide everlasting wrath That so he may be more wary and afraid Demonstrations of the truth of the word have a great force with our unbelieving hearts God hath therefore in infinite wisdom and goodness so ordered it that one while his people shall be in the fire of a Fever another while in the darkness of a divine desertion By the first they shall learn to conclude how hot the fire of Hell must be by the later how dreadful that utter darkness shall be which shall be the impenitent sinners portion what it is to be forsaken of God for ever upon the hearing that dreadful sentence Depart from me you cursed into everlasting burnings prepared for the Devil and his Angels They shall sometimes find Satan at their right hand to learn them what it is to be with the Devils to all eternity they shall sometimes want bread to eat and water to quench their thirst and left from thence to conclude what the condition of a Dives is that would in those flames be glad of a cup of cold water to cool his tongue they shall have extremities of pains for a little time in some particular joynts and limbs and thence gather what the torments of the whole body
and soul must be for ever and ever when all the Vials of Divine wrath shall be poured out upon them I do not doubt but many a soul in glory is this day blessing God for its life of trials pains and afflictions and could we hear them speak they would tell us they were beholden in a great measure to the thousands of little hells they suffered here for the Heaven to which they have crouded through much tribulation and waded through many waters of Marah which they found it difficult while they were in their delicate flesh to drink of because their tast was bitter 2. By afflictions and troubles the saints are fitted for the Kingdom of God They are such good things as accompany salvation and make the heirs of salvation fit for the Kingdom of God We must be made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light before we come to it Col. 1.12 and we are made so by afflictions in a great measure Do you sometimes see some beautiful stones in a famous structure shining with variety of Colours and adorning the places where they are How came they think you by this beauty were they only beholden to the Painter for an ingenious mixture and laying on of colours This would never have made them so without hewing and smoothing and polishing but both these together complete their beauty The Stone-cutter first hews off their roughness and polisheth them then the Painter layeth his colours upon them Amongst other expressions by which the Scripture expresseth the blessed state of the saints this is one promise Rev. 3.12 I will make him that overcometh a pillar in the house of my God To make a Soul a Pillar a beautiful glorious Pillar in the House of God it is not enough that the holy spirit comes and like a Painter adorneth the soul with its varieties of gracious habits but the Providence of God especially as to some of them who are of courser rougher constitutions must also come and hew and cut and polish them with varieties of trials and afflictions and thus they become at last beautiful Pillars beautiful for faith and patience for self denial and meekness strong to bear the cross and submissive to the burthen of it Thus by many tribulations they enter into the Kingdom of God by many tribulations not only as the road to Heaven the dark entry into that place of light but as means fitting them for Heaven Files filing off that rust with which they could never enter in there Even the man according to Gods own heart confessed that before he was afflicted he went astray and that his afflictions had contributed to his learning of the Lords Statutes We sillily call afflictions evils but consider thy self saith an acute Author how often hast thou been made better by those things those afflictions which thou defamest with the name of evils Augustine lamented that a Fever had corrected that lust in him which the love of God and the meditation of that could not extinguish Certainly the same reason which forbids us to call that good which maketh us worse will likewise restrain us from calling that evil which maketh us better God doth ex dispendio naturae parare compendium gratiae in the phrase of an ingenious Writer he maketh the outward man decrease that the inward man may by it increase so that troubles and afflictions seem but Divine inventions to make the saints both more holy and more happy How should we have lien grovelling on the earth if God had not prepared us there a bed of thorns and lien always sucking at the worlds breasts if God had not rubbed them with this wormwood How often would the pitifully wanton heart of a good Christian have been priding it self at a Looking-glass if God had not spoiled her smooth face with the Small Pox or some other deforming disease How often is the love and delight of a soul canton'd out to a Wife or an Husband to a Child or a Friend and how little a share hath God of it until he cuts off these suckers from the roots of our souls How little time can a man or woman oft times find for Meditation or Prayer for examining his heart and reflecting upon his ways till God shutteth him up in a Prison in a sick Chamber c. that he hath nothing else to do then he cries with the Church Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. How little how seldom should we with any seriousness or in any solemn manner remember God if God sometimes did not forget us When should we be willing to entertain thoughts of a better life of a more enduring substance if we always had full measures of the contentments of this life The uncertainty we have of earthly riches makes us look for the more enduring substance A banishment from our Country or daily persecution and vexation in it makes us think of and prepare for a better Country By dying daily we become willing to dye and to be with Christ If we did not see the gourds that refresh us and keep the heats of the world from our heads come up in a night and go down by an East wind the next night we should cry it is good for us to be here let us build us Tabernacles We should be married to the world and unwilling ever to think of a divorce or a being married to Christ if God did not sometimes let us experience that we had a lye in our right hand were fond of a picture and embraced a shadow The Gaols and prisons of the earth make the earth more bitter and the liberty of the sons of God more sweet The pains of the earth and the labours of the world make the rest of Heaven and the joys thereof more desirable Besides that faith and patience are no Summer-graces if we should never have any Winters when should they have any exercise Tribulation worketh patience and the hour of trial is the time for its perfect work But this were almost an infinite Theme to discourse in its latitude the variety of good which floweth to the souls of Gods people from afflictions and troubles they are by them tried purged made white they are by them made more holy and humble all which good justly entituleth God to a being the Author of them they do not only flow from his justice as the just punishments of sin but they are the noble effluxes of his goodness and are so far from derogating from the glory of that that they exceedingly tend to the commendation of it and we are mistaken in the notion of them when we call them evils and make up the judgement meerly from sense which indeed so nick-nameth them I know indeed there is another Phaenomenon of difficulty here and that is how it can stand with the justice of God to punish his people for those sins for which he hath accepted a satisfaction from the Lord Jesus Christ and given an
and sicknesses of little ones all are warned to be continually upon their watch not knowing when the Lord will call for them every little Bell that telleth us a child is gone soundeth to us would we but understand it Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil days come Further yet God by this dispensation in which as you have heard he is just doth mind all of the duty they owe unto their children to bring them up in the knowledge of the Scriptures in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and particularly not to defer the ordinance of Baptism beyond a reasonable time It is doubtless Gods ordinance as to children not only a sign of Gods Covenant but a medium in order to salvation though efficacious only when God is pleased to make it so not ex opere operato upon the work done I have now shewed you the equity of God in this particular way of his Providence Vse It is a dispensation under which there are few Parents that are not brought Let me therefore enlarge a little upon some practical Application of this Discourse shewing you what may be our duty reasonably concluded from this dispensation I shall open to you something of it in three or four particulars 1. It is doubtless our duty yea the duty of all flesh To be silent before the Lord under such Providences The loss of a child especially if it be a first-born or an only child sometimes goeth very near us But oh let us not be tempted from it to open our mouths against the God of Heaven nor to entertain a thought in our souls derogatory to the justice and goodness of God Our children are sinners and obnoxious to the justice of God God may in justice punish them for their own sins or for our sins I hinted to you before that it was a beam of Arminius his new light that none should be condemned for original sin only and he is followed in it by all the Remonstrants in their Confessions Apologies as also by others of that tribe Socinus also and his followers shake hands with them in that notion Yet Arminins answering Mr. Perkins who to disprove Arminius his doctrine of Gods rejection of any because he foresaw they would reject the grace of the Gospel had pinched him telling him this could be no cause of the rejection of infants out of the pale of the Church God could not foresee they would reject the Gospel who he foresaw should never have the Gospel preached or tendred to them answereth him thus At inquam ego in parentibus abavis avis atavis tritavis evangelii gratiam repudiarunt quo actu meruerunt ut a Deo deserantur That is But I say saith he they rejected the Gospel in their Parents their Grandfathers their great Grandfathers or former Progenitors Now how this is consistent with his other doctrine I cannot understand for certainly if God may be justified in rejecting the souls of some infants from eternity because he foresaw that their Great-Grandfathers would reject and refuse the Gospel when-as they by no personal act should do any such thing he may be justified even in the eternal condemnation of children for the sin of Adam or the personal obliquity and corruption of their natures and so it is not unrighteous with God eternally to condemn a child for its original corruption only But we are not now speaking of eternal condemnation but of bodily and temporal yea and temporary punishments which may very well consist with the eternal salvation of the soul and it is very absurd for us to think that for such punishments the infant may not be punished without the impeaching of the justice of God though it hath been guilty of no actual sin deserving so early a chastisement of it Oh therefore suffer not in such cases your hearts or lips to transgress God may do it in righteousness He may thus justly punish original sin in the child he may justly punish our sins upon the backs of our children Speak not a word against God in this Providence 2. Do what in thee lyeth secondly to find out the cause When the Jews queried our Saviour concerning the man that was born blind for whose sin it was whether his or his parents Our Saviour answereth them that it was neither for his sin nor yet for his Parents but that the glory of God might appear in that famous miracle which our Saviour wrought in restoring him to his sight It is an hard thing to find out Gods ends in his dispensations of punitive Providence God may sometimes afflict and take away little ones for their own sins for the sin of Adam for the iniquity in which they were conceived and the sin in which they were brought forth God may sometimes do it for the Parents sins Sometimes he may do it principally neither for the one nor for the other of these ends but for the good of the Parents or for the good of the Children you have heard that this motion of Divine Providence is highly reasonable upon more then one account But yet when we feel the smart of such a dispensation we know not how to look upon it otherwise than as a punishment but now our business under such providences is to enquire what sin in us God doth in that manner revenge The Scripture will guide us a little in the finding out of this and we may possibly find out some other helps to make us understand these dispensations It was threatned to David 2 Sam. 12. For his sins in the matter of Vriah and his wife and for that by them he had given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme It is one of those common scourges with which God chastiseth some Parents for their sinful lives and whoso is conscious to himself of a sinful course of life need not enquire much for what cause God brings him under such dispensations It is matter of more narrow enquiry why God thus chasteneth his own people Possibly if they will search narrowly under such a Providence they may find if not the very sin for which God contendeth with them yet some laps of their lives of that nature as may give them a just ground of jealousy and suspicion that that is the sin for which God so troubleth them I shall not be positive in this determination lest I seem too boldly to inquire into the secret counsels of God men should do well under these Providences to listen to their own consciences which oft times tell them the truth in such cases But let me ask of thee or rather desire thee to ask thy self these two or three following Questions 1. Didst thou never sinfully distrust the Providence of God concerning thy Children And secretly repine at Gods bounty to thee in them this is now a temptation incident to such as are of meaner condition in the world and not so able as others to maintain their Families God promiseth the
more than its own iniquity Arminius I remember telleth us that he can see no reason but that Children may be equally punished eternally for the sins of their Parents as well as the whole posterity of Adam for his sin but certainly there is a vast difference the first Adam was a publick person with whom God made a Covenant for life or death for himself and for his posterity and he had a power as well to have conveyed life as death to all his posterity but surely none will assert this as to any Parent since his time 5. Consider how much comfort there is laid for parents mourning in that speech of our Saviour for of such is the kingdom of God Men that have large Gardens and Orchards have places for slips and Inlays as well as for old Stocks Nurseries for Plants as well as places for full-grown fruit-trees God hath his garden of Grace that is his Church and he hath his garden of Glory to both belong Nurseries The Children of believers are though imperfect members yet members of his Church and they may be heirs of Glory though they go out of this world under age as to any earthly inheritance Yet they may be of full age for the inheritance that is immortal incorruptible and which fadeth not away they will be of age in that Country where is no infant of days nor old man of years The possibility of little Childrens entering into the Kingdom of God yea the probability that the seed of such as fear God dying in infancy are so entred ought to be a wonderful relief to Godly parents mourning upon this account Some Mothers only people the earth with sinners God puts an honour upon thee if thou stockest Heaven with Saints and bringest forth to the kingdom of Glory 6. Consider Thou canst never lose a Child with more hope than in its infancy Some have thought that the death of Christ hath as to all expiated the guilt of Adams sin both the Socinians and Arminians seem so to judge Others think that by vertue of the New Covenant the water of Baptism washeth away original sin Augustine was called Durus pater infantum an hard Father to Infants because he thought all unbaptized Infants were damned by which it seems he deferred much to Baptism but I do not remember that I ever read in him or heard from him that he held that all baptized Infants should be saved if dying in infancy I durst not fix the comfort of mourning Parents upon these foundations But yet this is certain the Infant within the pale of the Church the Child of the believing the true believing Parent especially is in Covenant with God It hath not yet been defiled with wilfull presumptuous sinning we cannot say so of our Children when they are grown up to years A godly Parent can never lose a Child with more hopes of its eternal Salvation than in its infancy 7. Again Possibly what God hath done he hath done in mercy to thee to thy soul that thy affections may be more entirely upon him God knew thy heart better than thy self it may be by such a stroke he hath secured thy heart more unto himself it may be in mercy as to the comforts of thy life Zedekiah could better have followed his Children in their infancy to their grave than have seen them slain by a barbarous enemy before his face Thou knowest not what evil is coming upon the world 8. Lastly consider That for those that keep the Lords Sabbaths and chuse the things that please him and take hold of the Lords Covenant God hath Isa 56.45 promised a better name than that of sons and daughters even an everlasting name which shall never be cut off But I shall digress no further on this Argument 4. Lastly Having stilled thy impatience what hast thou to do but to fulfil the Lords will and ends under such a dispensation Let those do it that are patients under such providences Let us all do it who are spectators of them Are any of us patients under such Providences let us fulfil the Lords ends in them You will say what are they I Answer 1. Submission to his good will is doubtless one thing God by all afflictions of his people designeth to humble and to prove his people that he may do them good in the latter end Such dispensations are the rod of God upon us and his rod hath a voice and we are bound to hear his rod. God is now trying thy obedience Abraham's trial was a greater trial he had but one Child him a Son the Child of the promise God required him to kill him with his own hand he submitted and the Lord accepted his will for the deed Thy hearing the voice of one rod may prevent the Lords taking of another to scourge thee with 2. Humiliation for those sins which thou suspectest to have been the provoking cause of such a dispensation that 's another end which thou maist probably think that God aimeth at Afflictions are to humble us and to prove us 3. God calleth aloud to thee to take thy heart off thy creature-comforts Thou seest what gourds what blossoms they are what shadows they are which thou huggest what lyes thou hast in thy right hand he calls now to thee to fix thy heart and thine eyes upon him alone and to make him alone thy portion to fix all thy delight upon him For us that are spectators of such Providences let us also by them learn wisdom 1. By taking heed of such sins as may provoke God to such dispensations we stand concerned if we love our children to love God and to fear him to walk closely with him the wicked life of a Parent may shorten the life of a Child for that God in judgment may write him childless a man who shall not prosper nor his name out-live a present generation Take heed of those particular sins which may provoke God to such a stroke Take heed of murmuring at the blessing of a numerous off spring and distrusting the Providence of God as to a providing for them Take heed if Children be given you that you do not set your heart upon them Look upon them as fading flowers and such flowers as never fade sooner than while they are worn too near your heart Take heed of sins by which the enemies of God shall be made to blaspheme David for such sins lost his new born Child from his beloved Bathsheba 2. More especially take heed of neglecting your children Neglect not the ordinance of Baptism as to them I do not think that is damnable but I do think it is provocative of God I remember God met Moses in the Inn and was about to kill him for his omission of Circumcision Circumcision was in it self a pitiful thing but it was Gods ordinance it was his Covenant in the flesh with the seed of Abraham We are not upon a Divine institution to say To what purpose is it or what good
have nothing of goodness in them further than that they are a viaticum things of necessary use to support us in our way to eternity and to uphold our beings in the world while we are here doing the work which God hath given us to do and finishing our course and for that what our Saviour said is true Our life doth not lye in the abundance of that which we possess 5. Though they be not things in themselves good nor absolutely and compleatly good yet having something of goodness in them and a great goodness relative to the fancy apprehension and desires of sinners for there be many that will say Who will shew us any good understanding nothing else but corn and wine and oyl a long-life an healthful body a great estate honour and power c. It is but equal that God should gratify their senses and please them with some such things as they account the goods the greatest goods That they might not be without some experience of the riches of divine liberality and bounty God must be allowed to have a relation unto the vilest men and women he is not indeed their Father by Adoption but he is their Father by Creation It is not reasonable that any of Gods Creatures Absque ulla liberalitatis experientia elabantur should go out of the world without some experience of the divine liberality and goodness I remember it is said of Abraham that for the Children he had by Concubines he gave them portions and sent them away Gen. 25.5 Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac but unto the sons of the concubines which Abraham had Abraham gave gifts and sent them away c. We may say the same of God he gives grace and glory to his Isaacs to the children of the promise but as for others he gives them gifts of the good things of this life festinat largiri saith an acute Author God makes hast to give out his largesses of mercy to them because they are not capable of the mercies of another life God hath time in eternity to reward his Saints but after this life he hath no time to give sinners any thing And this appeareth the more reasonable because the worst of men are not only Gods Creatures but may be in some things Gods Servants as the Assyrian and Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were Gods Servants there are very few wicked men but God maketh some use of if it be but to scourge his own people for that was the service which the Assyrian did God Isa 10. But this I have before spoken to more largely 6. It is very reasonable if we consider what there is in these good things of this life which God giveth out to sinners of the nature of means on Gods part to allure and perswade them to turn unto him The Apostle telleth us That the goodness of God leadeth men to repentance Rom. 2.4 It doth so ex natura sua of its own nature though through the wickedness of their heart it but makes them worse so Acts 14.17 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 this he did vers 16. to nations whom he suffered to walk in their own ways The business is not what these things prove eventually to sinners so indeed they prove but snares to their souls that is accidentally through the misimprovement they make of them by reason of the lust and corruption that is in their hearts nor is Gods intention and design in giving them the thing to be considered but what they are in themselves and of their own nature so they are things which they desire more than better things which are grateful and pleasant to them and should therefore oblige them to serve and please that God who so gratifyeth and pleaseth them in things which they make their delight and the matter of their choice 7. What in the last place if we should say that it is reasonable God should give them these things as one expresseth it In infortuniis apparatum that if they will not use them to their own good and advantage yet they might give Gods glory an advantage by justifying him in their condemnation upon their abusing the goodness of God They tell us a story of Philip King of Macedon and of some noble Romans that they were wont to pray to their Idols that they would mix their prosperity with some grains of adversity It is a dreadful speech Luk. 6. Wo to you that are rich for you have received your consolation It is a saying of an ingenious Author a Jesuite Insignitur solum titulus opulentiae ad justitiam damnationis quia licet ipsa crimen non sit multis fundatur criminibus aut fundat multa vel sceleribus paritur vel scelera parturit solitarius titulus fortunae infamis est nisi aliquid pietatis agnomen purget Merem That is Riches is only a famous title to justify God in the damnation of a sinner for though they in themselves be no crime yet they are a building founded on many sins or they lay a foundation for many they either are bred of many sins or else they bring forth many The title of outward prosperity alone is an infamous title if it hath not some addition of Piety The wrath of God smoaked against the Israelites whiles the flesh was betwixt their teeth God tells them by the Prophet Hosea chap. 13. v. 11. He gave them a King in his wrath There is a wonderful wisdom of Divine Providence seen in the prosperity of sinners their long-life health successes riches honours for one of these two things follow some of them are by them made better and brought home to God as children by some slighty rewards are won unto their duty or if the Providence of God obtaineth not this effect it faileth not in another viz. The justification of God before Angels and men in his righteous condemnation of them He hath given them time to repent and they repented not he hath given them mercies alluring them to their duty but they have not been won by them he hath piped unto them but they have not danced and thus much may serve to have justified the Providence of God and shewed you the reasonableness of its motion in the distribution of the good things of this life to sinners Quest 2. It remains in the second place to shew you how it consisteth with the righteousness and goodness of God to dispense out evil things to his own people Job complaineth of his sad tryals and David that he was visited every morning and chastened every moment and we see in our daily experience that many are the tryals of the most righteous servants of God and those of all sorts 1. I say in the first place This is not the lot of all the servants of God it is only the portion of some of them some of those who
honour successes c. David himself never had a slip like that he had when he came into the highest state Even the best of Gods people have great reason to rejoice with trembling in the midst of full cups but sinners have far more reason when they are not plagued as other men when there are no bands in their death when their eyes stand out with fatness and they have more than heart could wish that is the time when their mouths are set against Heaven then their day of destruction is not far of and indeed those are the two dreadful considerations and therefore they have reason to fear and tremble 1. Lest their prosperity should slay their souls There is a latent poyson in sinners hearts at all times but poverty and adversity keeps it in The poor man useth intreaties saith Solomon but the rich man speaketh proudly honour and power are great temptations to oppression Riches and abundance to all sorts of Luxury So as if a man be a fool and hath no spiritual wisdom to rule and to govern himself in a prosperous state his prosperity slayeth him giving advantages to those lusts that are in his heart to discover themselves It is the prosperous sinner that oppresseth his neighbour that does acts of injustice and thinks by his power to defend himself 2. Again Prosperity bodes ill The sinner is never so near a fall as when he is upon a pinacle of honour and power When the worldling saith Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years then comes the voice Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee and one reason of this is because that is the time when his sin ripeneth when he lifteth up his heart highest and openeth his mouth widest and lifteth up his hands most fiercely against the God of Heaven O then let the prosperous sinner fear and tremble 3. Lastly You have heard that it is but a righteous thing with God to give unto the worst of men the good things of this life because they have something in them of the nature of means to convince sinners both of their sins against God and also of their duty to God Indeed they ordinarily prove the quite contrary but this is not of themselves or from their own nature but from the lust and corruption of sinners hearts O then let the goodness of God lead you to repentance Rom. 2.4 The Apostle lets us know that the patience long-sufferance and goodness of God leads us to repentance The long-suffering and patience of God if there were no more ought to do it And certainly were there any ingenuity in the heart of a sinner it would do it For him to sit down and think I have been a drunkard a lyar a swearer a Sabbath-breaker these Twenty Thirty Forty years God hath seen and known me all this time there hath not been a thought of my heart but hath been naked before him I have not told a lye nor sworn an oath but as soon as the word hath been out of my mouth the news of it hath been in Heaven and it hath been written in Gods Book of remembrance God hath all this while been an Almighty God and hath had it in his power every moment of this time to throw me to Hell He could have struck me dead with my lye in my mouth as he did Ananias and Saphira Acts 5 or with my oath my curse my blasphemy in my mouth but God hath been long-suffering and patient with me willing that I should at last be saved Shall I yet go on in my sinful courses Shall all this patience of God be lost upon my desperate soul Surely I am bound humbly to acknowledg thus many years of patience and to sin no more lest I turn Divine patience into fury But then the riches of Gods goodness though it be but in the things of this life adds great weight to the argument for a poor creature to sit down and think that he hath not been plagued as other men he hath not had such a sickly body nor such a scant estate but God hath made his cup to overflow he hath had success in his trading whiles others have been blasted O shall not this goodness of God lead thee to an acknowledgment of God Shall it not lead thee to a repentance for thy sin wilt thou treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and the Revelation of the most righteous Judgment of God Consider that the good things thou hast enjoyed have a natural tendency to change thee if thou hadst not banished that common ingenuity which teacheth all to love those that love them and most certainly it will make thee worse if not better if it doth not soften thy heart it will harden thy heart if these things tend not to make thee more holy they will certainly make thee more leud and profane And think with thy self what an aggravation of thy eternal misery it will be to fall into it out of as high a state of content and external felicity as thou wert capable of I would have every prosperous sinner say with himself What hath God done to me that I should be thus vile and so presumptuously sin against him There are very many that if they would listen a little to their own consciences might hear God by them speaking to them and saying What could God have done more for you than he hath done Would you have strong and healthy bodies God hath given you them Would you have large possessions great and plentiful estates God hath given you such Would you have desired a loving Wife hopeful Children You have had them God aggravateth the sin of David from the outward blessings he had blessed him with he had raised him to be King over Israel from following the sheep he had given him his Masters Houses and his Masters Wives into his bosom 1 Sam. 11. Will not God think you from hence aggravate your sins another day Will not this make Hell twice more Hell to you will it not add more heat to the fire that never shall go out and pain to the gnawings of that worm that shall never dye Oh harden not your hearts to day while it is called to day hearken to God speaking to you not only by the voice of his Word but by the voice of his Mercies O let not that riches of Divine goodness make you worse which in reason ought to make you better Let not your honours your riches damn you Take heed that there be not cause to say of you that if God had not been so good to you you had not been so leud and profane so wicked and abominable in his sight Thus far I have applied this discourse as to wicked men it remaineth yet that I should apply it as to the people of God shewing them their duty under such dispensations of providence but it is a point fit in our times to be further enlarged upon
shall not fall Mat. 16.18 The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Psal 94.14 For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Mica 4.4 11 12. So quite through this Psalm there are many promises of the same import Now the work of faith is to perswade the soul of the certainty and undoubted verity of these words of God to settle the soul in this perswasion That sooner shall Heaven and earth pass away than any of these things shall fail which God hath spoken Then the work of faith is further to carry out the soul without any carping trouble or disputing to rest wholly upon these words A Christian seeth the word of God what he hath said for its relief now faith teacheth the soul to agree this as the word of him who cannot lye or repent and calleth upon the soul to trust in God for the fulfilling of it to roll it self upon the promise and to commit it self its cause its way unto the Lord the soul of a Christian is very solicitous and careful for the concern and interest of God in the world faith teacheth the soul to cast its care the burthen of its spirit upon the Lord assuring it that God careth for it Faith speaketh to the soul in the language of Solomon Eccles 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Justice and Judgment in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they I say this is a great piece of the Child of Gods duty in such a time when the vilest men are exalted and the wicked walk on every side and the people of God are troden under foot as the mire in the streets It is the Will of God concerning them The just shall live by faith This is the proper time for the exercise of Faith when the eye of sense faileth Faith is the evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for The proper operation of Faith is where sense faileth where God is trusted and not seen Blessed are they saith our Saviour who have not seen and yet believe This is Opus diei in die suo Though the people of God ought to be careful of all duty at all times yet they ought to have a special regard to the duty of their day the seasonableness of a duty addeth much to the weight and importance of it The foundations are shaken saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 4 What shall what can the righteous do Mark what follows The Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men This is that life which the Saints have lived yea and they have lived well upon it When David had lost all the Amalekites had taken Ziglag and in it all that he had 1 Sam. 30.6 the Text saith David encouraged himself in God the Truth Power and Goodness of God nor did he hope in God in vain as you shall read in that story What had Hezekiah to live upon but Faith when Sennacherib had besieged him with his mighty Army and ranted against him and the God of Heaven too after that rate you read What had all the Patriarchs all the Saints and Servants of God to live upon but Faith of whom you read Heb. 11. Nor is there any life which so glorifieth God as this it eminently glorifieth three Attributes of his his Power Goodness and Truth No man will trust in a bruised Reed or lean upon a broken Staff therefore the Apostle speaking of Abrahams faith Heb. 11. saith He believed that God was able to raise him from the dead and again Rom. 3 He believed that he who promised was able to perform It giveth God the glory of his goodness for the expectation of his soul is the Mercy and Goodness of God and it also giveth God the glory of his truth for the proximate object of Faith is the Word and Promise of God O therefore let this be your care when you cannot live by sense live by Faith It is the happiness of a Child of God he hath something to live on in the worst of times Psal 34.10 The young Lions shall be hunger-bit but there is no want to them that fear the Lord. One would think that of all creatures the Lion should be most out of danger of being hunger bit The Lion the King of the Forest all other Beasts are subject to this Beast yet if an old Lion that cannot run for its prey that hath lost much of its strength may be hunger-bitten one would think a young-Lion that is in its full strength should not Yes saith the Psalmist a young Lion may be hunger-bitten those that have most of the world wicked men that have greatest honours greatest power great advantages to provide for themselves they may be hunger bitten they may come to want but there shall be no want to them who fear the Lord there shall be no time so ill but they shall live if they cannot live upon bread they shall feed upon truth How much better is the estate of a godly man than that of his neighbour It is a great point this a great piece of duty Let me therefore a little further enlarge upon it three ways 1. Shewing you how a Christian may know if he liveth this life 2. Directing you in order to it 3. Perswading it by Arguments 1. Will some Christian say how shall I know if I live this life Suffer me to give you five or Six Characters of it 1. It is a Spiritual life Our life saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God What Christ sometimes said to his Disciples when they would have had him to have eaten something that a Child of God may say to all the world I have meat to eat you know not of His life is a spiritual life such is the life of Faith both with respect to the subject and to the object of it As to the subject of it it is the soul that lives the body lives by bread the soul lives by truth by the promise There are many that in evil days their bodies have enough to feed upon but their souls have nothing hence their hearts become like Nabals dead as a stone yea and as to the object it is spiritual too he that feedeth upon truth feedeth upon Jehovah It is the truth of God in the word which the soul liveth upon the soul of a Believer can no more live upon Words and Syllables than another soul No but it is the truth of God in these words his power and ability to perform what he hath said his inclination and good-will to the performance and his truth and faithfulness Every life in an evil day is not a life of faith some may live upon fancy and foolish hope some may live upon means with which their eye feedeth them another may live upon a Roman spirit of his own Tu
second place get an acquaintance with the promises of God Two Sorts of promises you must be acquainted with if you would bring your hearts into this frame of silent waiting for God 1. All those promises that are made to the Church and people of God for support and comfort in and under troubles and deliverance out of them of which the Scripture is full such as these Psal 94.14 The Lord will not cast off his people nor forsake his inheritance Read at your leisure Psal 128.6 Jer. 29.10 Mic. 4.4 11 12. Isa 27.5 7 8. Isa 33.20 Jer. 33.6 A second sort of promises are those that are specially made to this waiting upon God Psal 37.9 Psal 27.14 Isa 40.13 Wait upon the Lord and he shall strengthen your heart They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength like the Eagle they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint The promises in Scripture of this nature are very many These are but a specimen of them 3. Lastly Labour to be acquainted with the ways and methods of Divine Providence which is to deal out dispensations of mercy to his people not presently but after their waiting upon him some time Habakkuk 2.3 The vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak it shall not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry The Church in her Song saith Lo this is our God we have waited for him to this is our God we have waited for him we will rejoyce and be glad in his Salvation 2. Secondly Beg of God a waiting frame of Spirit As there is nothing more sinful in it self nor more tormenting to our selves in an evil day than an impatient hasty Spirit so there is nothing more conducive to our glorifying of God nor to the quiet of our own Spirits than a silent waiting Spirit This the God of Heaven must give and he giveth it to them that ask him beg of God those graces which may dispose thee to this patient waiting I might instance in many habits of grace necessary to bring the soul into this waiting temper I will touch only upon 4 or 5. 1. Beg Faith of God Faith in his Word and Promise He that believeth maketh not haste The hastiness and impatience of the Soul floweth from its distrust in God for the fulfilling of his Word 2. Hope is another gracious habit which disposeth the Soul to waiting we hope for what we see not for what we see why do we any longer wait for 3. Humility is a third the proud soul thinks much to wait he looketh upon mercy as his due and thinketh that God wrongeth him whiles he withholds it from him the humble soul believeth that it deserveth nothing and is therefore willing upon the least crevis of hope to wait upon God 4. Pray for patience a passive patience this is necessary in order to the bearing of evils Lastly Pray for meekness a froward Spirit is always an hasty Spirit and knows not how to wait Now to press this duty upon you I shall but name to you several Considerations leaving them to be digested and inlarged upon in your private thoughts 1. Consider first It is the work of thy day The question is what God would have a child of his do when the enemies of Religion and godliness are very high and rampant and the people of God are low poor and afflicted and God suffereth wicked men to devour those who are more righteous than themselves as if men were under the same providence as the Fish of the Sea and the Beasts of the Earth where without any regard to right or wrong the greater devoureth the less at such a time as this what should a good and righteous man do Let Solomon answer Prov. 20.22 Say not I will recompence evil but wait on the Lord and he shall save you Hence you shall every-where in Scripture find the Church and people of God resolving upon it and the Lord when he instructs his people what to do in an evil day this is that which he directeth Isa 60.9 Zech. 3.8 Hab. 4.5 Isa 8.17 2. It is that which God hath alone left for you to do in such a day Our Eyes of sense in such a time are quite put out we have nothing to do at such a time but to stand still and see the Salvation of God Jer. 14.22 Are there any amongst the Gentiles that can give rain therefore we will wait upon thee we have nothing else to do we have none else we can wait upon therefore we will wait upon thee 3. It is that which hath been the practice of all the people of God and what they have called their souls to in evil times Psal 52.9 Psal 62.5 Indeed it is the whole business and life of a child of God It was the practice of the Church Mic. 7.7 And of Job The Saint hath the promise of heaven but he must wait for it 4. Thou hast ground enough to do it the Power of God the Goodness and Truth of God are certainly a sufficient ground of encouragement to any soul to wait upon God who hath promised help and is so true that he cannot lie who is able to help and to do more abundantly than we stand in need of and who is Infinite in Goodness and wanteth no love to prompt him to come in to the relief and succour of his people 5. Waiting upon God gives God the honour of many Attributes It giveth Him the glory of his Soveraignty His Wisdom His Power His Truth and His Goodness 6. It is a great evidence of your Faith He that believeth maketh not hast 7. It is that which in a day of evil will distinguish you from wicked and ungodly men they cannot wait upon God but break out into fits of impatience c. 8. There is nothing so effectual in an evil day to help thee to keep down thy corruptions to silence thy temptations You have heard it in that to which many promises are made That your waiting upon God is pleadable as an argument for the mercy which you desire In short there are very many Arguments might be used to perswade this silent waiting upon God but I have before spake to many of them and shall therefore add no more to this Discourse SERMON XLIX Rom. IX 15. For he saith unto Moses I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion I Am as you know attempting to expound the hard Chapters of Divine providence giving you some account of those Motions of it which to us appear most difficult I have brought these under some heads propounding to speak 1. First To such as concerned the exhibition of the Covenant of works after the establishment of the Eternal Covenant of Redemption and Grace And 2. The Exhibition or tender of grace to all indefinitely after the Decree of
in the actual exercise of it whether we consider the one way or the other we shall find that both flow from the free-will and goodness of God and have no other cause but because God will shew mercy to whom he will shew it 1. Let us consider it first in the purpose Gods purpose of grace was nothing else but his Eternal willing of some persons to obtain everlasting life and salvation in and through Christ and in the use of that means which he appointed thereunto for the counsels of God ordered the means as well as the end we do therefore suppose that God from all eternity knew who should be saved and that he therefore must needs know it because he will'd it for whereas all mankind from eternity are to be considered alike nothing but the Will of God could bring any part of them more than another into a salvable estate especially into a certain state of Salvation God therefore decreed or willed some persons to so glorious an end Now the question is what made God to will these not others what can be imagined but his will of which we are able to give no account Eph. 1.5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will hence it is called the election of grace Rom. 11.5 and 2 Tim. 1.8 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began Arminians and Papists tell us of Gods electing men out of a foresight that they would believe and obey If indeed men were to have risen out of the Earth like Mushromes and to have given a being to themselves and to have created their own Souls they might have quarrelled the Scripture a little upon this point but when the bodies of all men were to be of the same clay and all souls were Gods which were to inform those bodies how they should any of them have a disposition to believe or obey more than others unless God had created it in them or willed that in time they should have it I cannot understand and if they say that they had it from the will of God the matter as to our point cometh much to the same issue God purposed them grace from his own meer good-will and pleasure he willed them in time to have a disposition to believe and obey and upon their Faith and Obedience to have everlasting life 2. If we consider Gods acts of grace in time they are distinguished either into the more external means Or secondly those gracious habits which accompany salvation and make a soul meet for the inheritance of the Saints in Light The means of Salvation are either the means of Purchase and Redemption such was the giving of Christ of which Saint John Joh. 3.16 could give us no other account but God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son For the means of application they are either more external or internal The more external is the promulgation or publication of the Gospel See what our Saviour saith as to this Mat. 11.25 26. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth who hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes Even so O Father because it pleased thee 2. For these acts of grace by which the Soul is prepared and made fit for the inheritance of the Saints in Light they are Effectual Calling Justification and Sanctification or Regeneration 1. For Effectual Calling we are said to be called with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace Not according to our works so that any thing in our selves is denied but according to his purpose Now what is the purpose of God but the will of God determining this or that and it is further added And grace which speaketh the free love and good-will of God in the case for grace is nothing else but free love So 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of all grace who hath called you so that God in the calling of Souls acteth as a God of grace yea of all Grace Who can give a reason why God by the Preaching of the Gospel effectually calleth one and not another out of darkness into marvellous light but meerly because he willeth The Evangelist 1 John 13. telleth us that we are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 2. Justification is another act of grace whereby God pardoneth our sin looketh upon us and accepteth us as righteous only for the righteousness of Christ reckoned unto us for righteousness Herein also God acteth freely being justified freely by his grace he giveth of the fountain of life freely To this purpose is that I will heal your backsliding and love you freely 3. For Regeneration or Sanctification which is that act of grace by which we are renewed in the inward-man and made conformable to the image of God This is our being born of the Spirit and our Saviour compareth the motion of the Spirit to the wind which bloweth where it listeth 2. But further yet the dispensations of grace by the hand of Providence must necessarily bear proportion to the purpose of grace We are blessed in Christ with all spiritual blessings according as he hath chosen us in him saith the Apostle Eph. 1.4 5. Nothing cometh to pass in the world either as an act of grace or a paenal dispensation but it is in pursuance of some purpose of God Now it was impossible that the purpose of God should have any other foundation than his Will for the eternal purpose must be antecedent to any good or evil done by us we are but of yesterday That man or woman knoweth nothing of God and hath very false conceptions and apprehensions of the Divine Being that doth not conceive of him as a God from all eternity knowing whatsoever should come to pass in the world nor is it possible for us to apprehend how God should know any future thing but because he willed it for what but the will of God should bring it out of a not being into a being out of the order of a contingency into a certainty which it must have or God could have no certain knowledg of it Now it was not possible that any thing in the creature should move God from eternity to will any one grace because there was no creature pre-existent to this eternal act of God nor yet co-existent with it It is true say some but yet God did foresee that such or such would believe repent obey c. using the liberty of their wills better than others and to such God willed eternal life But I cannot understand any thing in this more than trifling For I demand from whence is that better inclination and disposition of one mans will than
for his not repenting not believing according to his Word Is there any unrighteousness with God in this case more than in the Fathers dealing with the Child upon the former Supposition What pretence is there for it The Sinner you will say could not repent could not believe without the special Grace of God which was never given him No more could the Child buy those things the Father willed it to have and come before him with unless the Father first gave it mony the Child had no mony of its own But the Child might have left its play it might have read and heard the Word he might have come to God by Prayer and begg'd of him a soft and contrite heart and a believing heart he had power to do all this and had he done this God had not been wanting to him in his further Grace To him that hath shall be given saith our Saviour that is to him that hath and useth and proveth what Gifts and Graces he hath as he ought to do shall be given more Grace But this the poor wretch hath not done but dieth an hard-hearted an impenitent and unbelieving wretch what unrighteousness is there with God in his condemnation he perisheth in his own iniquity his blood is upon his own head his damnation lieth at his own door his destruction is of himself his help might have been from God if he had not been wanting to himself O sinful men are not the Lords ways equal Yes yes they are our own ways that are unequal the straight ways of the Lord are only made crooked by our idle fancies our proud hearts and corrupt reasons and foolish misprisions Vse 4. In the last place let me apply this discourse by way of Exhortation it will afford matter of Exhortation 1. To the people of God 2. To the men of the World those I mean that are not yet converted unto God 1. To Gods People 1. To you it speaketh to make you more afraid of sin for the time to come Sin in Scripture is ordinarily resembled by sickness and a disease Now what is true of sickness is true of Sin every sickness is not unto death but every sickness hath something of death in it it leadeth to the Grave it is not the last stroke at the giving of which the Tree falleth but it is a blow in order to the fall of it Every sin doth not bring forth death yea as to you No sin shall bring forth death because Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ but every sin hath something of the nature of a self-ruining and destruction in it The wages of every sin is death the natural tendency of every sin is unto death It is the Gift and Free-Grace of God that as to you prevents it and although your sins do not bring forth an Eternal ruine and destruction to you because the Blood of Christ and the Intercession of Christ hath prevented and will prevent that yet your sins may bring forth many lesser deaths to you for them you may be in deaths often for them there may be a death of your peace and comforts as there are no temporal Evils which sin may not bring upon the people of God so there are few spiritual Evils on this side of Hell to which it doth not subject them So that although you be not under the danger of an Eternal ruine yet you are under the danger of so many deaths so many destructions as may justly lay a Law upon you and make you afraid of sinning against God 2. But Secondly This calleth to all of you to admire the Divine Grace by which you are saved I hope it is the portion of many of you to whom I am speaking you are not yet got up to the new Hierusalem but you are in the right way that leadeth thereunto O cry Grace Grace unto the hand which set you upon that Shore It is true of you you also by sin had destroyed your selves by Grace you are saved you were once Fire-brands as well as any others are you now brands pluckt out of the Fire It was the hand of Grace that pluck'd you out You hath he quickned saith the Apostle Ephes 2.1 who were dead in Trespasses and sins Amongst whom also we had our conversation of old according to the Lusts of the Flesh you also were once acted by the Prince of the Air who yet worketh in the Children of Disobedience and were by Nature the Children of Wrath as much as others It is a sweet though in some sence a bitter meditation to cast a thought back and think Lord How had I also destroyed my self How near was I going to the Pit of Eternal ruine and destruction Nay how often yet is our Salvation from God We are every day destroying our selves we lye down with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Morning and rise up every day with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Evening By Grace we are saved 2. But Secondly let me speak to those which can have no such good hope through Grace They yet are in their natural State and condition in the Gall of bitterness and in the very bands of iniquity Sirs it is that which I have often told you and I wish the sound of it may never be out of your Ears you are Creatures ordained to Eternity when you dye you dye not like brute-Beasts Death will not determine your beings you shall be either Eternally happy or Eternally miserable All that I have to say to you is to plead with you that you would not ruine your selves and let me tell you that if ever you perish it must be because you have destroyed your selves Do not fright your selves with thoughts of Gods eternal decrees secret things belong to God revealed things to us Whatever Gods secret counsels and purposes be this is his revealed will The Soul that sinneth and that alone shall dye Trouble not your selves with any such thoughts as these If I be not elected do what I will I shall be damned If God hath cast me off I shall labour in vain It is the Sluggard saith Solomon which saith There is a Lion in the way We cannot ascend up into Heaven to search Gods Books there is no need of it The Word is near us even in our mouths that telleth us that God never destroyeth any Soul but the meritorious cause of it is in himself and this we know that all sin is voluntary O then take heed of destroying your selves by wilful and presumptuous sinning against God Nature teacheth every Man to look to himself as to his Life Health Estate and shall not our reasonable Nature instructed by the Word of God prompt us to take care of our selves as to our Eternal Interest You will say unto me what shall we do that we may not de destroyed for who liveth and sinneth not against God I have before told you that
some means The very Heathens have something of God manifested to them and manifested in them For the invisible things of God saith the Apostle are manifested by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead they have natural light and a natural reason and something of a natural conscience too The works of Creation they have and the works of Providence shewing them a great deal of the eternal power and God-head of God sufficient to convince them that there is a God a Great Infinite Powerful God for he leaveth not men without witness giving the very Heathens fruitful times and seasons But I am not speaking unto Heathens you that are Christians have yet further means though in different degrees too All have the Scriptures Protestants have them in their own Language so as they may read and in a great measure understand what they read all have the Ministry of the Word they have the Gospel preached to them though it is true that also is in very different degrees yet all have something of what they call a moral Season and are perswaded and intreated to turn unto God This we say is not a sufficient means to bring a Soul unto Heaven if God doth not more for Souls than let them have the benefit of the works of Creation shewing them his glory and the benefit of the light of Nature and Reason and the works of his common Providence yea and of the Scriptures and the preaching of them and that not only in a cold flat and dead and dull manner but in the most lively powerful manner they will never repent never believe and turn unto God Paul may plant and Apollo may water long enough if God doth not give the increase It is not in him that Preacheth and perswadeth nor in him that Prayeth and heareth but in God that sheweth mercy he must give both to will and to do he must give repentance unto life and be both the Author and the finisher of our Faith But yet I say all these are means some of them very great and excellent means and the highest in the order of external means And though they be not sufficient though used with the best natural improvements of our own will and power to bring us to Heaven yet sufficient to render us without excuse unto God if we do not make a due and just improvement of them Let me therefore plead with you that you would live up to the means of grace which God giveth you That sort of people amongst us whom we call Quakers call to men to Hearken to the light within them I do not well understand what they mean by the light within us but thus much is certain that all men have a light within them and they have a light without them The light without them is the light of the works of God in Nature and of his works of Providence The Scriptures and the Ministry of the Word all men have some or other or all of these All men have also a light within them the light of Nature and of Reason This light as I have shewed you is not sufficient to shew a man the way to Heaven but it is enough to shew a man much of God and much of his duty and the way to obtain a full and sufficient light to bring him to glory is for him to walk up to the light which he hath This will be the condemnation that when light is come into the world men love darkness more than light because their hearts because their deeds are evil But to shut up this Discourse 3. Vse In the last place What an obligation doth this lay upon the children of God to cry out with holy David Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and sing of all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquity and healeth all thy diseases Who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercy To heighten your souls apprehensions of the Divine goodness extended to you and raise up your hearts in the high praises of God I shall but offer Two things to your Meditation with which I shall shut up this Discourse 1. Consider What is done unto you God hath undoubtedly given unto you a sufficient grace The sufficiency lost in Adam is restored to you by the Lords giving Christ to you I can do all things saith the Apostle through Christ that strengtheneth me So that God may say to you as to his Vineyard Isa 5. What could I have done more for my Vineyard than I have done What could I have done more for such a soul than I have done God hath display'd the riches of his grace upon your souls God could do no more for you than he hath done God hath nothing more to give than grace and glory he hath given you grace special distinguishing grace Glory is hereafter to be revealed in the mean time special effectual grace is glory begun 2. Consider Secondly Why to you to you rather than unto others others may easily understand Why not to them because they despised the riches of his Grace they sinned against their natural light they lived not up to their light of Revelation But Why to you Did not you also sin against your light Did you make that improvement of the works of God the light of your natural Reason or Conscience that you ought to have done If not Why hath God done more for you than for them discovered more of Christ unto you than unto them Here you will be lost and at last be forced to resolve it into this God hath shewed me mercy because he would shew me mercy and hath extended compassion to me only because he would extend compassion Oh sit down alone sometimes and say My soul Why should the God of grace shew mercy unto thee Hast thou not sinned often against the very light of Nature and Reason Hast thou not despised the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and trampled under foot the blood of the Son of God What high praises of God are high enough for every true believers heart How precious should Christ be unto his soul How can he ever have thoughts of God high enough or with his tongue sing the praises of God loud enough How doth he stand concerned to cry out with David Awake my glory Oh! What manner of person should a believer be in all boliness of conversation He can certainly never do enough for that God who hath done so much for him and hath made such a difference betwixt him and others This is praising of God not in word and in tongue only but indeed and in truth Oh this is to perfect holiness It is for that God who hath from eternity chosen you to obtain everlasting life and hath left others to perish in their iniquity for that God who in the dispensations of his gracious Providence in the
and blesseth God 2 Cor. 11.4 Who saith he comforteth us in all tribulation that we may be able to comfort those which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God It is said of Luther that he was wont to say that Three things make a Divine Temptations Meditation and Prayers Luther was himself a man of great temptations and by them became able to succour those that were tempted No knowledg is like experimental knowledg none knoweth either how to sympathize with or how to succor those that are under temptations desertions or any Soul-troubles so well as those who themselves have been under them experience is a great Mistress when therefore God hath a design upon some Souls to make use of them for succor and relief of others under Soul-troubles and afflictions he often first brings themselves under them and supports and comforts them then they know how to speak a word in season how to comfort and relieve 2. Again God may be conceived reasonably to do it upon a gracious design in order to carrying on of his work in their own Souls we know not what manner of Spirit we are of God knoweth all our tempers seeth all our inclinations and dispositions 1. I have told you that some persons are more complexioned to some sins than others Every man hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper lust and corruption by which he more ordinarily offendeth than other ways God to prevent the breaking out of this corruption afterwards layeth the Soul under the load and burthen of it and maketh his former miscarriages of that Nature more exceedingly bitter unto him that so he may see how little fruit he may afterwards expect of those things of which he hath been to that degree ashamed and which he hath tasted to that degree bitter unto his Soul 2. He may possibly see some of more brisk and airy tempers more inclined to pride and being lifted up above measure and therefore thinks fit to keep them longer under the Spirit of bondage as he did with Paul after he had been rapt up into the third Heaven and heard unutterterable words lest as he saith he should be exalted above measure God gave him a thorn in the flesh Thus now I have given you some little account of the variety of Gods Providential dispensations toward Souls in the collation of the first grace but now I have done I can only say with Job Chap. 26.14 Lo these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him The end of all this discourse is not to pretend to give you all the reason of God in these his dispensations for who can by searching find out God who can find out the Almighty unto perfection we must say such knowledg is too wonderful for us but only to shew you that this various way of Gods dealing with Souls whom he intendeth to bring to Heaven is not such but it will approve it self to the reason of every reasonable Creature and such as is very equitable and proper for the wise God in order to the compassing of his most wise and glorious ends Let me now shew you what use is proper for us to make of these meditations and observations Vse 1. In the first place this may mind us to take heed of a rash judgment either in our own case or in the cases of others we are very prone to give our selves needless trouble and to pass unrighteous Judgments concerning the work of God upon our own and others Souls One concludeth he hath as yet no work of God upon his heart he was never humbled never so broken upon the Wheel never under such legal terrors nor so long under the Spirit of bondage as some others he cannot give an account to himself of any certain time nor of any certain Sermon when or whereby God wrought upon and changed his heart and we are too too ready to sit in Judgment upon the work of God also on the Souls of others You have heard that the ways of God are past finding out God doth not always tread the same path and the variety which God useth towards Souls under different circumstances and for different ends is very reasonable we have all of us reason enough to be troubled if we do not find this great work wrought in our Souls but if we do find that our hearts are changed that the work is done for the way or means or time which God hath taken or used to do it in or by we have no such reason to be sollicitous those who are come to work in the Vineyard at the Ninth or Eleventh hour shall have their Penny as well as those who were called and came in at the Sixth hour God doth not always work in the same order and method he is not to be tracked in his ways The conversion of the Soul lyeth in the change of the heart I would not with any trust to Baptismal conversion or regeneration If the heart be changed if the Soul be renewed according to the Image of God if old things be passed away in it and all things become new whether it was done this or that way by this or that means in this or that manner is no just cause at all of trouble to us God hath several ways to do his work by we must pass a judgment upon our selves from what we find within our selves the frames and tempers of our Spirits for what man knoweth the things of a man but the Spirit of a man which is within him But we must judge of others from the change we see in their lives and conversations Man looketh upon the outward appearance but God looketh upon the heart 1 Sam. 16.7 If we look upon our Neighbour and there appear no spots upon him but what may be the spot of Gods people no markes of profaneness or impiety towards God nor of unrighteousness toward man but he appeareth to us one who herein exercised himself to keep a good conscience both toward God and towards men we ought to judge this person one whose heart God hath changed If we look into our own hearts and can find that we truly love God and hate evil that we are afraid to sin against God and are desirous in all things to please him though we cannot find that the ways of God with our Souls in our conversion have been like the ways of God with the Souls of other men yet we ought not in this case to judge or to condemn our selves Gods ways are not alike with every Soul Its work in the effect as to the main is alike for it is true as to every man that except he be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God but his way of working is not the same Vse 2. In the Second place what you have heard affordeth great encouragement to every Soul under any circumstance to turn unto God
Divine Providence with reference to the different service which he hath for some to do It is said of Christ that he was therefore tempted that he might be able to succour them that are tempted We are not ignorant of his wiles saith the Apostle the Apostle not being himself ignorant of Satans wiles made him more fit to caution and instruct others with reference to them You know it is a great advantage to a Family with reference to the small Pox or other contagious Diseases to have some members of it to have laboured under and escaped those Diseases The Church of God which is his Family could not well be without some Souls that have been under temptations none knows so well how to speak to and apply themselves unto those that are tempted as those who themselves have gone through that fire they are best able to teach others in their own former circumstances what to do and what to avoid They know how to strengthen them with those words which themselves in their circumstances heard from God and to comfort them with those consolations with which they themselves were comforted by God It is therefore reasonable that some should be tempted because all are in subjection to temptations and may be tempted and therefore had need of some Nurses to be provided for them On the other side it is unreasonable that all should be tempted for who then should there be Ministerial to succour the tempted Nor let any say This were indeed something if none were tempted but such as conquered the tempters but how doth God suffer those to be tempted who he knoweth will fall 5. Fifthly therefore Neither is this unreasonable For there is a difference of fallings God suffereth none of his own People to be tempted who shall finally fall They may fall but let not their enemy rejoice over them though they fall they shall rise again Job fell but he rose again Peter fell in the hour of temptation he denied his Master and that with cursing and swearing but his Master looked upon him he went out and wept bitterly God indeed may suffer a reprobate to be tempted who he knoweth will fall and so fall as to rise no more but he never suffereth his Saints to fall finally Satan may stand at Joshua's right hand to resist him but God will say unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Hierusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand plucked out of the fire Believers may be tempted but God will bruise Satan under their feet shortly Now if the question be intended of mediate fallings not a final falling why suffereth God his People to be tempted who he knowes will get a fall under the temptation though they shall rise again I have answered it before when I shewed you why God permitteth his People to sin he would certainly not do it if he did not know how from their falls to extract his own glory An ancient Writer gives us a large account of this That saith he the wisdom of God might be manifested who can bring good out of evil for God is so good and infinitely wise that he would never suffer evil to be if he did not know how from it to elicit and draw out that which is good That the goodness of God might be made glorious in pardoning and raising up the elect and the Justice of God might be glorified in the righteous condemnation of others That men might be deprived of their natural freedom in acting nor saith he is it reasonable that the sinfulness of the Creature should hinder the exhibition of the Divine goodness That by his Saints repentance and victory at last they might have a more glorious Crown and that they might know and see what is in their own hearts and how much they live upon Divine grace and like burnt children they might more dread the fire and take heed afterward of having any confidence in themselves Finally which is all in short for enumeration of particulars in this case would be endless and incertain thus much we may be assured of God he would never suffer any elect Vessel to be bored through with a temptation if he did not know how to make it issue in his more abundant glory and their more abundant good Applic. Suffer me now before I proceed to the other Questions to make some short Application of this discourse the sum of which is no more but this That as to converted Souls God doth not equally distribute the influence of special grace Although he distributeth to all so much as is necessary to the upholding of the Union of their Souls with Christ and to maintain the Spiritual life so as the Oyl doth not fail from the Cruise nor the Meal shall not fail from the Barrel until they come into their glory yet for the manifestations of his love in such influences of grace as are only of further advantage unto Souls in their way to Heaven such as strengthening quickning and consolating influences God variously distributeth them according to his infinite wisdom he gives to some an Omer to others an Ephah particularly I have shewed it you in those influences of grace by which God strengtheneth the Soul in the resisting of temptations and I have shewed you the reasonableness and something of the wisdom God in these dispensations Now from this Discourse let us learn divers things 1. Inst First the differences betwixt the necessary influences of grace and such as are not absolutely necessary but of high advantage to a Soul in its way to Heaven Grace is necessary by grace ye are saved saith the Apostle but all grace is not necessary The grace of justification is necessary Except a man be born again saith our Saviour he can never enter into the Kingdom of God Every Believer hath this he is born again he is sanctified in body and mind and spirit But now there are further manifestations which make gradual differences in Christians and the receit of which also doth much depend upon our action For although in the first grace the Soul be purely passive yet as to the receiving of further grace it is active therefore the promise of Christs manifesting himself Joh. 14.21 is made to them who love Christ and keep his Commandments I pray observe this for it is a thing of no small concernment From hence 2. Inst Secondly you may easily conclude how unreasonable it is for any Soul to quarrel at God or murmur against his dispensations though it findeth not those gradual manifestations of Divine love unto it which others do experience from God If thou beest equally dealt with as to the necessaries of Salvation thou mightest sit down so far satisfied as not to murmur at God if as to the gradual manifestations of his love in some things he will give unto another more than unto thee Every thing of Divine grace is sweet you must not therefore mistake the tendency of my discourse
guilty soul therefore is but an heavy moving Soul in Spiritual performances Nay thirdly The tempted the deserted Soul though its temptations or desertions be not the punishment of Sin but only probatory of grace cannot be so free and lively as another Soul and if it be but a just and reasonable motion of Providence to let Satan sometimes stand at a Christians right hand and be continually buffeting it for a season and to withdraw from some Soul the influences of strengthning and consolatory grace It cannot be unreasonable to leave it under some Spiritual deadness and dulness which are but the proper consequents and effects of the other how can any one imagine that a Soul continually moved to some sinful actions and possibly so violently moved as the Soul knoweth not how to deny the motion should find as much freedom and chearfulness in the service of God as a Soul under no such incumbrance or that a Soul under doubts and fears and jealousies of Gods favour to it and its acceptance with God should at the same time enjoy the like freedom in the service of God and unto Spiritual duty as that Soul which walketh as at Noon-day in the full and brightest light of Gods countenance and under the fullest confirmations of the love of God unto it 4. Fourthly The freedom and liveliness of a Soul to and in Spiritual duty doth also much depend upon its freedom from entanglements and businesses of an Heterogeneous Nature 1. The Soul of a man hath not an infiniteness in its powers if they be eagerly working and busily exercised this way they cannot be as eagerly and busily exercised another way which is quite of another nature Christ hath told us that no man can serve two Masters No man can serve God and Mammon That is eagerly and intensly serve both he will serve the one and neglect or despise the other you never knew one deeply ingaged and intangled in worldly concerns freely lively and active in the service of God businesses and cares of the World are like thick clay which clog the Chariot-Wheels of the Soul and keep it from moving nimbly The Soul then acteth most lively and freely when it is most sequestred from the World and the concerns of it Souls in separation serve God with the greatest freedom alacrity and chearfulness as well because in that state they are freed from the cares and businesses of the World as from the impediment of the Body by whose Organs they act while they continue in a state of conjunction with it These now are some of the chief causes of this difference in Souls as to this freedom and liveliness in the service of God now God giving these influences of grace also in the way and use of means and dispensing his grace according to the circumstances of the Soul receiving it I mean his dispensations of further grace and manifestations of himself unto the Souls of those who are his own People while there are in the World Souls under such different circumstances as according to an order of Nature and reason they cannot be so free and lively as others in their Spiritual operations Gods inequal distribution of these dispensations must needs appear exceeding just and reasonable and thus much may serve to have spoken as to these I proceed to a Fourth Question 4. Quest Whence is the variety of Gods dispensations of consolatory grace Consolatory grace is that dispensation of Grace by which the Souls of such as fear God are filled with joy and peace The Psalmist telleth us That light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart Every child of God hath a right to a joy and peace for joy and peace in the heart and conscience is but the Copy of a peace with God Now every Child of God hath peace with God For that is the immediate product of justification Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have peace with God But a jus ad rem a right to peace is one thing that every Believer hath a jus in re or an actual possession of this joy and peace is another thing The light that is sown for them doth not always shine the peace that is for them in the Fountain is not always in their Souls as a River making glad their hearts Christ hath left them Peace as a Legacy John 14.27 Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you but as Legacies are ordinarily left to be paid at different times and oft-times upon certain conditions which not being performed the payment of the Legacy is withheld or deferred So it is as to this Legacy There is nothing more certain than that consolations of the Soul are the influences of the Spirit of God for he is upon this account called the Comforter and they are the effluxes of special grace for there is no peace to the wicked saith my God it is but an ignis fatuus or a false fire which sometimes flasheth in the face of an Hypocrite For all peace of Conscience being as I said before but a Transcript in our Consciences of the peace our Souls have ratified with God and confirmed in the Heavens a Soul whose iniquities are not forgiven is not subjectum capax a subject capable of this inward joy and peace which is consequent to believing and although not inseparable from it yet never but subsequent to it It is our unhappiness to live in times when all the influxes of special grace are denied by some so that it is no wonder if some make a mock of these Divine consolations and will allow no other Operations to relieve sad and comfortless Souls than conclusions from Reason either working upon Natural or revealed Principles taking no notice of the Spirit of Gods influence 1. Either to inable the Soul to make such Applications and conclusions from true Premises Or 2. Further to elevate and raise up the Soul beyond the force of these Principles But be their Sentiments what they will and their Discourses sutable to their Principles as they will we know that the Holy Spirit is not for nothing called a Comforter That we Read of the Consolations of God Job 15.11 And that God is called The God of Consolation and he that hath given us everlasting Consolation That in the midst of Davids perplexing thoughts they were Gods comforts which refreshed his Soul Psalm 94. v. 19. That it is God who comforteth those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7.6 And who comforteth us in all tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4 But it is as certain that the consolations of all Souls even those who are true Believers are not equal nay the same believing Souls are not always under the same consolatory influences of Divine grace David himself crieth out why art thou cast down O my Soul Why art thou so disquieted within me the instances of Job Heman Asaph David stands upon a Scriptural Record but if we had not them the experiences which we have every
provoke them unto love and good works Yet it is observable that such Christians do grow by a kind of spiritual Antiperistasis as they say the fire is hottest in the coldest weather so we often see that there is a great warmth and zeal against sin and for God nourished in those souls which have been most smothered and choaked with ill relations and company which discovereth it self as soon as those persons are freed from those intanglements and incumbrances but while they are troubled with them this growth is not so evident nor do we constantly find Grace thriving under such ill shadows so prone are our corrupt natures to receive contrary impressions and nothing so much as converse exposing us to the reception of them So that this is like an ill air to the Body which often hindreth the growth of it 4. Fourthly As the growth of the Body is hindred by some diseases the growth of a plant by some canker or some ill winds or by the check which it may have by the bitings of some beasts So may the growth of Grace in the Soul be much hindered 1. By the prevailings of some particular corruptions 2. Or by the wounds which the Soul receiveth from some temptations It is true There are some sicknesses in which persons shoot out and by which they are rather advantaged than hindered in their growth but there are other habituated distempers which hinder the growth of young persons There is no prevailing corruption but giveth a check to a growth in Grace though sometimes the prevailing of it doth by accident promote Grace in its exercise as it was with the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.11 But prevailing Lusts do wonderfully hinder proficiency in Grace To instance but in that one lust of Earthly mindedness Let but an earthly covetous mind prevail upon any it is a wonderful thing to observe how it checks all spirtual progress it betrayeth a Christian to so many practical errors both of omission and commission that his neighbour standing by and observing him cannot but cry out in the words of the Apostle How dwelleth the love of God in this man Though they see much in him which disposeth them to charitable thoughts and makes them that they cannot but conclude he is one that feareth God yet they know not how to reconcile the actions of his life to what the Scripture speaketh of the nature of grace Yea and long and violent temptations do also much hinder the souls growth They are like cold winds or the bitings of beasts to the plants which discourage the growth of them though they be not internal causes yet they are external causes of the plants unthriftiness So it is with long and violent temptations they indeed do not work as internal causes I mean such temptations as are ab hoste from our grand adversary to hinder a Christians growth but they are great external causes discouraging the soul in almost all its exercises of Communion with God and applications of it self unto him 5. Lastly Any Desertions or with-drawings of divine influences are great causes There are few plants which grow much in the shade ordinarily the influences of heaven both of the Sun and the Rain are necessary to the growth of the plants I am sure the influences of the Sun of righteousness are necessary to the spiritual growth of a good Christian and if they be with-drawn though the soul may live yet during the with-holdings of them it will not much grow or thrive The soul will live during the with-drawing of them for I have once and again told you that the Lord never withdraweth what of his spiritual influence upon the soul is necessary to uphold and maintain the spiritual union and life but no soul flourisheth and increaseth much under such a dispensation it standeth in the shadow and wanteth those beams which are necessary to its bearing and bringing forth much fruit These now are the great causes of that variety which we discern in Christians Growth other causes might be assigned but this is sufficient supposing God to have appointed the use of means in order to a spiritual growth and ordinarily to concurre with the use of those means to justifie Divine Providence in not equally making every Soul to grow There is yet one Question more which indeed doth not properly concern this place in which I am to discourse concerning the Reasonableness of Divine Providence in the inequal distributions of special distinguishing Grace yet I shall speak something too viz. 6th Quest Whence it is that good People have such different Apprehensions of the Truth of God 1. That which makes the difficulty in the Apprehension of this is 1. Partly Because there is but one Truth one Faith as well as one God one Baptism c. Two contradictory Propositions cannot be true nor can both proceed from the God of Truth for the same Fountain doth not send forth bitter Water and sweet One and the same God cannot speak different things God is Truth and every Truth is from God no lie no falshood cannot possibly be from God 2. Partly Because all the People of God have the same Spirit of God which is called the Spirit of Truth dwelling in them and are under the same Promise of this Holy Spirit leading them into all truth and the Annointings teaching them all things 3. Again They have all the same word of truth to guide them and to examine and measure Propositions by they have the Law and the Testimony and that is the Standard in the Market of Truth the Touch-stone by which every Proposition is to be tryed the Scale in which every Proposition is to be weighed Yet notwithstanding this There is nothing more obvious than that even such who if we may judge any thing do truly fear God have strangely different apprehensions concerning Divine Truth concerning the Sacraments the use of the Law the extent of the Death of Christ the power of mans Will the true notion of Faith c. Now the question is Whence this variety is why God permitteth it and how the motions of Divine Providence in these things may appear just and reasonable I shut out of this Discourse the different Apprehensions of Carnal wicked and ungodly men whose Creed is commonly dictated by their lust and their whole art and study is because they cannot allow the conforming of their hearts to Divine Truth to endeavour to interpret the Word of God into a fense consistent with their lusts as also all such as the Apostle speaketh of whom because they received not the truth in the love of it God gives up to strong delusions to believe a lie that they may be damned because they have had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.9 10 11 12. or because as the Astle speaketh Rom. 1. They have detained the truth of God in unrighteousness I say for all these I shall shut them out of my Discourse and onely inquire whence such as truly love and
the seventh part of our time which the Fourth Commandement hath consecrated so as those under a different perswasion in this thing are under a necessity of breaking Communion in solemn acts of Worship with all Churches and this is very sad and uncomfortable Study to be rooted and grounded in every Truth though every Proposition of Truth be not of that value as to break Unity and Peace for yet there is not any but is worth searching and inquiring after but if after all you cannot be reconciled to your Brethrens Opinions nor yet reconcile them to yours learn according to the Apostles Precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak to contend for to hold the Truth in love and to be charitable to those whom you may discern of different perswasions and apprehensions from you God as I have shewed you doth in great wisdom permit these different apprehensions in his people God may have received those that so differ do you receive them because God hath received them Thus I have shewed you how my fore-going Discourse may be useful to you for the improvement of your charity It may also be useful to you for the improvement of your piety and that divers wayes 1. Vse 2 To teach you to adore the divine wisdom in these different dispensations of his providence You cannot understand why God suffereth some of his people to be weak weak in faith weak as to their spiritual habits and exercises you think God might have more glory if they were stronger and their habits were more confirmed which is certainly true as to the actings of those particular persons the more strong any one is in faith the more confirmed he is in the habits of holiness the more undoubtedly that single person would glorifie God but the Government as of particular souls so of the whole Church is upon Christs Shoulders And in the government of his providence he so administreth the affairs of particular souls as he may have the most glory from the whole Besides God ordinarily governs his people not by miraculous operations but by ordinary reasonable means Which two things being supposed Gods infinite wisdom appears in the different sizes and statures of his people in their different states and complexions Every one hath that measure of grace and knowledge which best suiteth the good of the whole Body of his Church which as the body natural hath different members and those of different uses and must be so disposed as shall render them most serviceable one to another and the whole most serviceable to the great design of Gods glory Let us not therefore trouble our selves in disputing the equity and reasonableness of Divine Providence in its motions for though we cannot by searching find out the Almighty unto Perfection yet you see there is no such variety in Gods Dispensations of this nature but a reasonable account may be given of it And as to these Dispensations it will appear at the last that those who have least shares of this hidden manna will have no lack of enough to bring them to Heaven and those who have the greatest portions of it will find they have nothing over 2. But in the second place This Discourse affords a great argument to promote holiness in all our souls The subject of my Discourse hath been not the dispensations of the first grace but Gods further manifestations unto the souls of his people And you have heard it given as one reason of Gods variety in the Dispensations of them That some souls walk more closely with God are more afraid to offend him and more careful to please him than others are For though the soul as to the Reception of the first grace be meerly passive yet as to the receiving of these manifestations in the several degrees of them it is many ways Active All therefore that I have to do is to call upon you to perfect Holiness and to shew you what force there is in this Argument to ingage you to it Holiness is a great General comprehending whatsoever is the Duty of Man pursuant to the Will of God All Duties both to God and Man fall under the Motion of it as well Acts of Righteousness towards Men as Acts of Devotion towards God yea and not Acts onely but even secret Thoughts and those powers and habits of the Soul which are the Principles of such Acts. When I therefore upon this account call upon you to perfect Holiness my meaning is that you should study that perfection of Spirituality and Heavenly Duty which God requires of you but for the sake of those that are weaker and because there are some pieces of Holiness which do more properly and immediately trend towards the reception of these gradual manifestations and the omission of which may in a more peculiar and special manner hinder the reception of them and provoke God to deny them let me open this general in some few particulars 1. First Take heed of all wilful sinning for if we consider the with-drawings of these Divine Influences as punishments of sin as undoubtedly sometimes they are it is hard to say what wilful sinning God may not thus punish Davids sins of Murther and Adultery were acts of unright ousness towards men yet God punished them in this manner as we may gather from his penitential Psalms there is no sort of sin that I know but may for a time separate betwixt God and the Soul and make him to hide his Face from it That Christian therefore that would have these manifestations of God unto him these abidings of the Holy Spirit with him must be Holy in all manner of Conversation having a respect to all Gods Commandements as well those of the second Table as those of the first Conscience may check and reflect sourly upon the soul for any of them and where that doth so reflect and check there will be little Peace and Comfort little Life and Vigour unto duty little Growth and Progress in the Ways of God Herein therefore exercise your selves to keep a Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men to keep your selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit 2. Secondly In a more particular manner take heed of all earthy mindedness 1 Joh. 2.15 Love not the World nor the things of the World if any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him v. 16. For all that is in the World the lust of the Eyes the lust of the Flesh and the pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the World Pleasure Profit Honour is all that the World can afford any man A man given up to the pursuit of pleasure or of worldly profits and advantages or worldly honours and preferments scarce can have any true love for God and the promise of manifestation is made to him that loves God and keeps his Commandments The Apostle telleth us That to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is