they have not the Oracles of God the ordinary means of Grace are hidden from them There is no doubt but their own wilful sinning is the cause of it But whether the Sin of their Progenitors who had the Gospel and sinned it away which to me seemeth a little hard for I can hardly be brought to agree that God for the sins of Relations punisheth their Correlates in Spiritual things Or that prodigious sinning which they are guilty of not living up to what may by them by their natural Light be seen of God for the Apostle Rom. 1. gives you a true Copy of the lives of all Heathens is not so easie to determine I should incline much to fix the cause here they have though not the Book of Scripture yet the Book of Gods Works and Nature though not Men Ministers of the Gospel to them yet the Heavens declaring the Glory of God and the Earth shewing his handy-work those standing Preachers of the Power Glory and Greatness of God whose sound is gone out and going dayly out over all the world they have the Sun and Moon they see much of God in and by them and may learn much of God from them but knowing God and not glorifying him as God but becoming vain in their imaginations they worship Devils and Stocks and Stones the work of their own hands and shutting their eyes against the Light of those common notions which are engraven in all reasonable Natures they give up themselves to commit all filthiness and unrighteousness So not using the Light of Nature and Reason which God hath given them God justly with-holdeth from them the Talent of the Gospel If God doth grant it to others which yet it may be are guilty of the same sottish abuse of their natural Light and Reason therein he is good and gracious but if he denieth it unto them therein he is not unjust or unrighteous But I say there may be some particular instances as to which it may be hard for us to assign what particular sins God so securely proceedeth against the Nations Families or Persons for but this is certain Sin is certainly the next cause of all severe dispensations of punishment Now this will appear to us 1. From the evidence of Scripture 2. From the evidence of Reason concluding from Scripture-Principles 1. First from the plain evidence of Scripture In the case of the Heathen amongst whom the Devil hath the greatest harvest of perishing Souls of these the Apostle speaketh Rom. 1.18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Observe the words God doth not reveal his wrath against the Heathen meerly upon the account of his Soveraign Power because he will do it but against the ungodliness and unrighterusness of men he goeth on declaring their ungodliness and their unrighteousness Vers 21. Because when they knew God they glorified him not as God They had light enough from the Works of God in Nature to shew them other kind of Ideas of the Divine Being than it was possible for them to find amongst created beings but they turned the Incorruptible God into the image of a corruptible man yea of creeping things and four-footed beasts The Apostle telleth them also of their unrighteousness Vers 29. Fornication wickedness covetousness malitiousness they were full of envy murders debates deceits c. Now for these things the wrath of God was revealed against them The Apostle telleth us Rom. 2.14 That when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things which are contained in the Law they are a Law to themselves And Vers 26. If the uncircumcision keep the Law their uncircumcision shall be accounted to them for circumcision I am not of their mind who think that the Heathen have light enough to shew them the way to Heaven I know not Isa 9.2 Mat. 4.16 Luk. 1.7 9. if that were true why the Scripture should set them out under the notion of persons or people that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death until Christ as the day-spring from on high hath visited them But I am sure they have sin enough to justifie God in damning them and permitting them to walk in their own ways until they have filled up the measure of their iniquities and brought judgment upon themselves I also believe that if there be found a Job in the Land of Vz If there be one found amongst the Heathen who feareth God and escheweth evil who walketh up to his natural light God hath his secret way to reveal and apply Christ to them so as he shall not perish But yet I cannot believe that his natural light shall save him because the Scripture telleth us That there is no other name under heaven than the name of Jesus Christ by which any can be saved neither is there Salvation in any other There are several things in nature that we know are so but we do not know the way of them In the matters of grace there are several things also which we understand not the way of God in Three come into my mind at present The way of God with an infant we are not sure that all infants no not that all Baptized infants shall be saved but we doubt not but of many such is the Kingdom of God but for the way of God with the Soul of one that liveth not up to the exercises of reason and the intelligentness of the ordinary means of Faith and Regeneration this we do not understand 2. The way of God with a thief upon the Cross I mean with a sinner forgetting or neglecting to turn unto God until his last hour we do believe that God hath mercy upon some such Souls but how God worketh in them these habits of grace which are necessary according to the ordinary rule how they are born again of the Spirit and Baptized not with water only but with the Holy Ghost and with fire this we do not understand And so Thirdly The way of God with an Heathen that never cometh to the light of the Gospel nor hath any external Revelation of Christ I say how the Spirit of God moveth and which way it cometh into such a Soul this we do not understand but leave it amongst the unsearchable things of Divine Providence which we believe and revere If there be as I said before a Job in the Land of Vz he shall know that his Redeemer lives and that he shall stand at the last day upon the earth and he shall see him with his eyes But which way God revealeth this to him we understand not In the mean time these hidden things being left to God revealed things belong to us and to our children and this is revealed That the wrath of God as to the Heathen is revealed against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men 2. But this is much more evident concerning such as live under the means of grace and offers of salvation Oh
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
is a divine stamp too though of a different nature what means are proper must be used how mean soever they appear in our eyes What proportion was there betwixt Jonathan and his Armour-bearer and the whole Garrison of the Philistines between Jeroboams Army and Abijahs This but four hundred the other eight hundred thousand between the Army of Asia and that of the Ethiopians and Lubims 2 Chron. 14. God often works yea he ordinarily worketh by small means and Providence brings forth its great work in the day of mans small things If we be sure that we are in Gods way and about his work let the means be what they will if lawful and rational it is our duty to use them God must be honoured in his own Institutions and sought in his own way though the means be small and our humane hopes small yet if we expect Gods blessing this mercy must be sought in the use of those means which the Providence of God layeth before us 2. But secondly The duty of a Christian will lye much in the exercise of his Faith in God beyond the probability of the means This is the great duty of a Christian and the very end which God aimeth at in cutting us short of means many times I think we may say Vbi media deficiunt ibi fides incipit where means begin to fail there faith begins to work Where we are out of sight as to means there 's a room for faith For it is saith the Apostle the evidence of things not seen By faith here I mean a trusting and relying upon God as a God able and faithful But to open this a little more clearly to you I will shew you 1. In what cases we may warrantably exercise a faith in God beyond the vertue and probability of means 2. What means we may use for the help of our faith in this case 3. What encouragements we may take to our selves in such a case to set our faith on work 1 Quest In what cases may a Christian exercise faith in God for the accomplishment beyond the vertue efficacy and probability of humane means to be used in order to it 1. To this I answer The object of faith must be a Promise It is ridiculous to talk of an exercise of faith in God for an accomplishment for which we have no word to warrant us in the expectation of it But now a Promise may be either particular or General of old many had particular persons and the Nation of the Jews had particular promises made to them by God immediately or mediately by his Prophets we have no such God hath left us unto his written Word There are many general promises which shall be made good still to particular Churches and persons Hence is our difficulty to conclude what it is we may exercise a faith in God for bringing to pass To direct you a little 1. Where you have a particular promise the case is plain Some such there are as for the destruction of Antichrist c. 2. In the want of a special particular Promise a general promise is a sufficient object for our faith General promises made to the Church and people of God are applicable to particular Churches and particular Saints 3. Every Precept doth imply a Promise God hath certainly promised a blessing upon the doing of that which he hath commanded us to do no man serveth God for nothing 4 Whatsoever issue certainly conduceth to the glory of God is under a Promise God hath resolved to glorifie himself and he ordereth all his actions in order to that end The substance of all this amounts to thus much We may exercise a faith in God and trust in him for accomplishing by his Providence whatsoever in his Word he hath either more particularly or generally promised or whatsoever he hath commanded us to act in tendency unto or whatsoever doth certainly tend to the glorifying of his great and holy Name Now if any thing of this nature be upon the wheel although we see the present visible means in order to the accomplishment of it be small and in all appearance disproportioned to the greatness of the event yet a Christian using what lawful means the Providence of God lays before him may warrantably trust in God for the exerting a further power for the accomplishment of it than is in the means which at present are apportioned to it But this is now an hard thing to us Let me therefore secondly direct you what you should do in a day of small things for the advantaging of your faith in this noble Exercise I shall offer but two things in the Case 1. Keep your Eye as much off the means and as much upon God as you can We have so much of sense and reason in us that we are very prone from one or other of them to take all our measures about future events If we would keep our hearts steady in a time of such exigencies as these we must shut the Eyes both of our sense and reason Faith credits a Proposition neither upon the demonstrations of the one of these nor the conclusions of the other but the meer authority of God Men count it wisdom when they are upon precipices never to look downward but upward if they look downward their weak heads are apt to be giddy Christians in such stresses of Providence as these are have nothing else to do if they look downward their sense their reason saith how can these things be If God would make windows in heaven saith that Nobleman these things could not be Our poring upon means in the day of our small things hindereth the exercise of our faith in God If the foundations be destroyed saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 what can the righteous do Means are the foundations of our natural hopes now if these be destroyed if there be little or nothing of these what can we do Wicked men are indeed at their wits-ends they despond and despair but saith the Psalmist v. 4 The Lord is in his holy temple the Lords throne is in heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men God is still where he was and hath the same power the same knowledg of things the same rule and dominion Twice in Scripture Abraham is propounded to us as a noble Example and a father of the faithful in this thing Rom. 4. God had promised him a Son a Son of his Wife Sarah he grew to be an hundred years old his Wife many years past child bearing here was no means yet Abraham believeth for a Child and he was not weak in the faith saith the Apostle Rom. 4.18 19 20. How doth he behave himself The Apostle telleth you That he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old nor yet the deadness of Sarahs womb he staggered not at the Promise but was strong in faith giving glory to God being fully perswaded that what he had promised
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
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 beginning with God but he is no-where call'd the word of God I chuse therefore rather to interpret it of that word of Power and Command which Moses Gen. 1. telleth us God used in the making of the world and the fitting and joynting of it together He said Let there be light and there was light c. Thus the Worlds were made by the Word of God so as the term is both exclusive of any other instrumental cause in the Creation of the world and expressive of the true instrumentally efficient cause which was the mighty powerful commanding virtue of the Word of God And this is enough for the explication of this term But Quest 3. What is the meaning of this that the things which are seen are not made of those things which do appear The Vulgar Latin Version reads Vt ex invisibilibus visibilia fierent that visible things should be made of those which are invisible by a transposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but our Copies are otherwise If by the invisible things be meant those invisible things of God the Apostle speaks of Rom. 1.20 His eternal power and godhead So it is true and the sense much the same with what went before but else it is as Beza saith Perperam immo false Some would make the sense of the words this That the world was not made of those things which now do appear to us and are the objects of our senses but of invisible principles and elements which are not now the objects of our senses Others thus That it was made according to an invisible Platform and Idea which was Plato's notion Others say That by invisible things or things which do not appear is to be meant nothing that must be an invisible thing and the world was not made of any pre-existent matter but it was created that is produced out of a meer and total not being into a being Which sense if we allow the Apostle by it as to the Creation of the world asserteth the Truth of God against the Heathen Philosophers who could not by reason comprehend how something especially such a something as the world is should come out of nothing and therefore grew very vain in their imaginations about the pre-existing matter of which the world should be made Estius and Calvin also take notice of a much differing sense as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it were to be read thus We by faith understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God that they might be the looking-glasses of those things which do not appear The thing indeed is true for the Apostle telleth us Rom. 1.20 That the invisible things of God are known by the things that are made But I cannot agree it the sense of this Text not only for that which Beza noteth that it is a very harsh interpretation to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because as Pareus observeth it seemeth not to be any thing of the Apostle's design to express the end here why the World 's were made by God I do therefore take the Text to be a Divine assertion of the Creation of the World against the vain imaginations of the Heathens who either dream't that it was eternal or made of a casual concourse of Atoms or from some Idea's It was saith the Apostle made of nothing by the Word of God of nothing that doth appear And so I have done with the first Member of the Proposition That the worlds were framed by the Word of God the things which are seen were not made of those things which do appear I proceed to the second Mem. 2. That we understand this by faith Here I shall speak to two things 1. What is here meant by faith 2. How do we by faith understand this Faith in Scripture sometimes signifieth the object of faith the Word of God Thus Gal. 1.23 He which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which he once destroyed Thus you read of the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 Received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith that is of the Word of God particularly the Gospel sometimes it signifieth the act of faith which as it respecteth the Proposition of the word for its object is a firm and steady assent the agreement of the mind to the truth of the Proposition as it respecteth the person of the Mediator is a resting relying and recumbency upon him which is what we call the justifying act of faith you may understand the term Faith in either sense By the word of faith revealing it and by our souls acting faith in agreeing and assenting to the truth of that word we understand that the world heaven and earth was at first brought into being fitted and joynted together by the powerful Word of God commanding the production of all those Beings which are in the world and that beauty and order in which we see them placed But secondly How doth the Apostle say we understand it by faith May not this be understood by Reason if it may what need Faith in the case or why or how doth the Apostle say by faith we understand this Wherein doth Faith give us a further knowledg of this than Reason hath given the Philosopher To which I answer Undoubtedly reason hath gone a great way and may go a great way to make men understand that the world was made by God That the world was eternal was indeed the opinion of a great Pagan Philosopher but his master Plato was of another mind and he is said to have learned it from Hesiod and the most and wisest amongst the Heathens acknowledged that the world was at first by a Divine power produced out of a not-being into a being Nor indeed would their Reason allow them to judg otherwise the infinite motions the measures of things in the world their order and succession their alterations and corruptions duly considered forbiddeth reasonable souls with any consistency to themselves to affirm the world to have had an eternal existence All motions must be in time and have had a being all successions and corruptions of things plainly speak that they had a beginning if we had no assistance in the proof of it from the word of faith 2. The same Reason will agree that it gave not a first being to it self nothing is the efficient cause of it self experience tells us that it is not in the power of a man to make the least hair of his head white or black much less to make an hair Man is the noblest sublunary Creature but cannot make the meanest vegetable all that his art can do is but to counterfeit and dissemble nature if it be but as to a spire of grass or to the meanest flower of the field Now if it were not eternal if it did
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
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
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
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
judgment of probability we cannot pretend to an infallibility we are not of Gods counsel and his ways are great deeps 4. Lastly We ought so far to search into and to enquire into the workings of Divine Providence as may any way conduce to make us better by more adoring and revereing God more avoiding of sin more quickning up the habits and exercises of grace but to take heed of such an enquiry as will be of no use to us unless to make us Atheists or too curious searchers into the unsearchable things of God or uncharitable consurers of our brethren The reafon of this is because Duty is the End of all our beholding considering and observing the Lords works or any way enquiring and searching into them This is the main thing which God hath said to us Obey my voice Now so far as an enquiring into the Lords ways and works of Providence will help us to obey the Lords voice so far doubtless it is our Duty The voice of the Lord is in Scripture everywhere to us to fear before him to love him to trust in him to take heed of sinning against him Now so far as the searching into the causes of Divine Providence may conduce to quicken us up to these Exercises so far is it undoubtedly our duty and a very commendable practice but where it only tendeth to make us Atheists by seeing nothing of the hand of God in them but confirming a fancy in us that we have found out the reason of all in a necessary connexion or working of natural causes or only serveth us for an advantage or ground for us unwarrantably and uncharitably to judg and censure our brethren so far it is undoubtedly sinful Where the searching of the causes of Divine Providence to us or others may contribute and so far forth as it may conduce to quicken us up to repentance for them to a faith in and a dependence upon God to make us either more thankful or any way more holy so far forth it is our advantagious duty Thus Jona's reflection upon the storm he met with at Sea when he was fleeing from God Jonah 1.10 11 and Josephs brethrens reflection upon the imprisonment they met with in Egypt were both good and pious tending to bring them to a sense of their several sins against God Davids observation of Providence helped him in the exercise of his Faith 1 Sam. 17.34 35. Manoahs observation that God had accepted a sacrifice confirm'd his faith that he would not destroy them Oft-times the observing of and searching into the ways of Divine Providence hugely exciteth praise and thankfulness Psalm 107.8.15 21 31 c. Thus far now it is our duty to behold observe search into the ways of Divine Providence they are not called unsearchable to deter us from beholding seeing and considering them so far as it may help in the performance of any piece of that duty which we owe unto God God hangs out his great works of Providence to the world that men may behold them look upon them and that not superficially but wistly and considerately Well but how are they then unsearchable why doth the Apostle pronounce them past finding out That brings me to the last thing promised you in the Explication of the Proposition I shall open it to you in several particulars 1. They are unsearchable and past finding out as to the latitude and full compass of them Job ch 26 had been largely discoursing of the great works of Divine Providence his stretching out the North upon the empty places and hanging the Earth upon nothing Ver. 7 His binding up the waters in the thick clouds and the clouds not being rent under them ver 8 c. But then concludeth ver 14 Lo these are part of his ways but how little a portion is heard of him but the thunder of his power who can understand some read it These are but the borders some corners of Gods ways David telleth us Psalm 111.2 The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein It is our duty to seek out the works of the Lord and every good man hath a pleasure therein and will be modestly seeking out Gods works ay but though they will be seeking yet we shall be no more in this World than seekers Job 16.7 Who can find out the Almighty to perfection saith God Much of God is seen much of God may be found out but the perfection of Gods works as well as of his Divine Being is an unsearchable thing There are thousands of things in the workings of Divine Providence which we cannot find out infinite motions in the upholdings of it in the government of it of which we know nothing something we can by the helps of Scripture and Reason discourse how Providence upholds the great varieties of Beings in the World the Methods of God in governing the World but who can find out the Almighty to perfection Who can discourse the thunder of his power There is a terra incognita or rather a coelum incognitum in the Divine workings What Job said we may apply here A thing was brought unto me and my ear received a little thereof Many things concerning Gods workings are brought to our senses and our senses receive yea our reason receiveth a little and but a little thereof as to them we may say as the Apostle saith in another case Where is the Scribe where is the Wise man where is the disputer of this World We by study can dive a little into Gods ways but we must come out of our deepest studies crying out with our Apostle O the depth of the wisdom and knowledg of God! This knowledg is as Job saith ch 11.7 8 As high as heaven what canst thou do deeper than hell what canst thou know the measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea 2. A second thing unsearchable and past finding out in these ways of God is the tendency of them while we see them come to an issue Had one of us been a companion with Joseph and seen him thrown into a pit then sold into Egypt after this thrown into a prison upon the accusation of his Mistriss we could never have judged this a Method in order to his riding in the second Chariot and being the second man in Egypt but we see at last it was so Had we been in the Court of Persia or Babylon and have seen Haman's Exaltation and his power with the King obtaining a Decree from him for the destruction of all the Jews we should never have seen the tendency of this to the ruin of Haman the exaltation of Mordecai c. Had we seen Daniel thrown into the Lion's Den we could never have read the tendency of this to his greater exaltation and fuller preferment and conquest over his Enemies and yet so it was The tendencies of Divine Providence are sometimes by us boldly determined sometimes guessed at but how
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
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
But for a good man one that disperseth abroad and gives to the poor Prov. 3.9 10. David never saw such a mans seed begging their bread and 't is no wonder thousands of men grow poor by lending but he that gives to the poor lends to the Lord saith Solomon never any man lost by that lending The great God never yet failed never yet was unfaithful I could fill your ears with stories I will only give you one or two It is reported in the life of that famous Junius Minister in France and Holland he died but in the year 1602 he met with the Lot of many godly Divines in all ages as well as ours and came to be pinched with want and resolved for the supply of his necessities every each day to dig in the Town-ditch But see the Providence of God there lived near a Taylor a young man whose Mother had in France lived near to this Junius's mothers house and being very poor Junius's mother had often relieved her Her son remembreth this kindness and though but a poor man inviteth Junius to his house and provideth meat and lodging for him for seven months I could tell you many and strange stories of Gods repaying Charity in its kind of little pieces of silver given in this kind repaid with an hundred fold even in this life But this is an observation which justifieth it self in the experience of every one of you I shall rather shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence which will be evident to you I will open it to you in five particulars 1. God doth this to evidence his general love to mankind and special care of Providence for the needy the poor and the fatherless the stranger and the widow Justice and Charity are the two pillars of the world all humane society is dependent upon them Justice because as I told you before from Solomon oppression makes the wise-man mad mens spirits will never be calm under a course of oppression hence Tyrants must have constant standing-armies to secure their lusts The Turkish Empire is little but injustice and oppression it could not stand but for his Janizaries Charity is another pillar of the Earth the reason is because as our Saviour told us The poor we shall have always with us Now God sheweth his great love to societies of men in eminent upholding of both these And besides the Scripture speaketh God to have taken the special patronage of the poor and needy the stranger and widow and fatherless God doth this by raising them up friends and it is a great means to raise them friends to incourage them by sensible rewards and that of the same kind 2. It is necessary that as our Saviour oft saith all righteousness should be fulfilled The promises might have a being given them I told you before that the promises made to mercy and charitableness are very many now some of these promises are made for a term within this life He shall not lack saith Solomon that must be a promise respecting reward in this life and so for the threatnings against cruelty and hard-heartedness towards them in misery or that exercise any barbarous dealings towards their brother so that it is necessary God should in this life retaliate such wickedness 3. It is necessary for the terror of such sorts of sinners God himself gives this as one of his ends in establishing the law of Retaliation in the case of false witnesses Deut. 19.16 17 18 19 20. And those which remain shall hear and fear and from henceforth commit no such evil more amongst you The most of men hearing that Adonibezek who cut off so many Princes thumbs and great toes came to be served in the same kind himself are afraid of such kind of Inhumanity 4. Again It is necessary for the conviction of unbelievers There are many sins against which there are dreadful Revelations of Divine Wrath in holy Writ and the Providence of God gives them a being every day but yet sinners will not believe when they see the vengeance that comes upon them that God designs to punish them for their unmercifulness and cruelty to their brethren no all things fall alike to all men and those that judg otherwise are with them in no better repute than as bold priers into the secrets of God and judges of his Counsels God therefore will please sometimes to write their sin in their plague It shall be wrote over the Gallows fifty cubits high upon which Haman was hanged this was the Gallows which he prepared for Mordecay The accusers of the three Children shall be thrown into the same fiery furnace which they had caused to be heated for the three children and Daniel's accusers into the same den of Lyons in which they would have had him perished He that leadeth into captivity shall be led into captivity and he that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword When men see this if they will believe any thing they will believe this 5. Lastly It is also reasonable for the more perfect demonstration of Gods favour to these exercises of grace and vertue Our Saviour faith All men have not faith The most of men live either meerly by sense or by reason The promises of a reward of Heaven are matters of faith A true believer only from these understands Gods favour to merciful men his faith being the evidence of things not seen indeed evidenceth to him Gods love sufficiently Inward rewards of grace are like the new-name given unto the People of God only known to them that have them The most of men are acted by sense and convinced by that mostly for in this cafe Reason will do little God is therefore pleased to reward such persons to great degrees in this life and that in the same kind too that all the Earth may know what he will do for such persons But I come to the Application which I shall dispatch in two branches making it a foundation Vse 1. First for Admonition to all that hear me to take heed of these sins I would have you brethren take heed of all sin for the wages of every sin is without repentance eternal death but especially take heed of sins eminently against charity Take heed of stopping your ears against the cry of the poor God will be even with you you or yours shall cry and not be heard It is a woful folly for a man so to govern himself in his Conversation as if he were not subject to changes it speaketh the man that doth it to be void of understanding and it is a most unreasonable madness for a man to expect that from another which himself would not do to another Abraham checks Dives in the parable for thinking that Lazarus should go to fetch him a cup of cold water when as he in his life-time would not afford him a cup of drink take heed of cruelty of false-witnessing of any eminent act of uncharitableness Remember
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
to heaven ordinarily with broken bones and a bleeding heart So that you see that Gods getting himself glory from his peoples sin gives no man a ground of presumption to go on in a course of sin against God Vse 4. In the last place Let this observation mind us in this case to be workers together with God Have we sinned and come short of the glory of God Let us do our indeavour to make our sins to turn to the furtherance of the glory of God Let us indeavour to make the best of our own bad markets What is done we cannot re-call let us indeavour if possible to make an advantage of our former miscarriages You will say How should that be Answ 1. Let the sense of your sins hasten your pace to the Lord Jesus Christ God hath a great deal of glory from our believing in him whom he hath sent The soul that accepteth of the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour giveth unto God the glory of his Power Wisdom Justice Goodness Truth it gives him the glory of the exceeding riches of his free-grace 2. Make use of your sins to increase your Confession your Repentance and Humiliation Confession giveth glory to God my Son saith Joshua Confess and give glory to God Let your former sins give you the further advantage for sorrowing after a godly sort that will bring forth carefulness indignation fear vehement desires zeal revenge as it did in the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. 7.11 3. Let the remembrance of them cause you to walk softly all the days of your life This is that which God requireth of all to walk humbly with their God The remembrance of your sins may be of notable use to you for this to keep down that pride which is naturally in all our hearts that swelling in an opinion of our selves of our own duties and performances that uncharitable judging and censuring and triumphing over others when we see them fallen in the day of temptations 4. Lastly Let the consideration of how many sins God hath forgiven you make you love much Thus the woman Luk. 7.37 47 made an improvement even of her former sins her much that was forgiven ingaged her to love that God much who had forgiven her so much This improvement St. Paul made 1 Cor. 15.9 10. I am saith he the least of all the Apostles and not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God But by the grace of God I am that I am and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all O this will be an excellent improvement even of your sins if your former unholiness shall now help to make you more holy your former unrighteousness shall help to make you more righteous for the time to come your reflexions upon how much you have done against God and his Saints shall now engage you to do more for God and the cause and people of God A good husband and house-wife will lose nothing but make some advantage of every rag every bit of wood c. I would have you be like them you have been formerly great sinners and done much to the dishonour of God your consciences can shew you a great dunghil of sin which you made in your state of vanity God hath changed your state changed your hearts let not that dunghil be lost look upon it often to help to raise up your hearts in the praises and admiration of Gods free-grace and the engaging your hearts more for God in your contrary duties for the time to come But so â—uch shall serve for this Observation also SERMON XXVI Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am still going on instructing you to that spiritual Wisdom which the Text telleth you may be gained by and is declared in the Observation of the motions of Actual Providence I am now proceeding to a Twelfth Observation of this nature which I shall give you thus Observ 12. The Providence of God in the distribution of the good things of this life doth in a great measure move circularly though mostly to the seeming advantage of ungodly men In my enlargments upon this notion I shall keep much to the same method which I observed in the former 1. Opening it unto you 2. Justifying the observation by instances 3. Shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence And lastly Making some suitable Application 1. My observation as you see concerneth the motions of Actual Providence as to its distribution of the portions of this life The Pagan Philosophers distributed all the good things they had any knowledg of into three sorts The good things of the body amongst which they reckoned long-life health strength beauty c. The good things of the mind the rich endowments of it such as knowledg invention judgment wit memory and moral vertue c. and the good things of fortune such as birth ingenuous education honours riches All these have a goodness in them which lyeth in their suitableness to the use of humane life or society The blind Heathen not seeing the fountain-head of these beautiful streams ascribed them to fortune But they are all in the hand of Providence that giveth to one a longer to another a shorter life to one greater to another lesser measures of health and strength c. to one more judgment wit c. than to another But I chiefly understand my Observation of the good things which the Heathen called Bona fortunae the good things of fortune such as honours riches c. These also are the Lords he it is saith Moses That gives us power to get wealth And the Holy Ghost by another pen-man telleth us That promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west but God pulleth down one and setteth up another Promotion doth mostly depend upon the favour of the great men of the Earth and you shall observe the Scripture everywhere maketh God the Author of the favour and grace which persons have found in the eyes of the Princes of the world 2. Now I observe in the first place That the wheel of Providence in making this distribution doth for the most part move circularly My meaning is that good and evil of this nature hath as all humane things its turns and vicissitudes sometimes to good men sometimes to bad men The Heathen had some prospect of this though what we call Providence they ascribed to fortune to whom they gave a wheel to signifie the rotation of all these sublunary contentments in which you know the same spokes are not always up nor down but sometimes these spokes are uppermost by and by they are at the ground and those that but now were below are up in their place And this is most perspicuous in bodies of people which are made up of those two sorts of men that divide the world godly
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
Application recapitulate a little 1. For the sins of others which we see permitted in the World 1. Let us be quickened upon the view of them to adore the patience and long-suffering of God Dost thou hear a wretch curse and blaspheme and profane the great and dreadful name of God and defie the God of Heaven challenging his own damnation and doest thou see God suffering him to live from year to year and to go on in this course Doest thou see another in the heighth of rage against the people of God endeavouring if it were possible to root out all Religion and dayly devouring those that are more righteous than himself Let it help thee to recognize the patience of God do thou upon occasion of others profaneness and blasphemy give God the glory of his patience Let it make thee many a time reflect and say O what a patient God is the God in whom I trust he seeth these vile wretches he could as easily crush them as I with my foot can crush a worm yet he spareth them and with much long suffering endures the vessels of wrath fitted for Hell 2. Let the view of the sins of others which thou seest God permitting for his own wise ends make thee adore the wisdom of God Thou art posed to think what glory God can procure to himself from the profaneness and blasphemy of wicked men but God will certainly do it and would never suffer their profaneness if he did not know how to do it O! the infinite wisdom of God that can make the wrath of man to praise him Let thy heart be affected with that meditation 3. Again Doest thou see the world of sin that abounds doest thou hear of prodigious lusts blasphemies cruelties c. which make thy soul tremble Let God upon this occasion have the glory of his free-mercy and grace towards thy soul Bless God that he hath given thee another spirit Say Lord why was not I as one of these I had the same seed of sin in me my heart was as full of original lust and corruption as theirs Oh! what reason have I to adore the free grace of God that I am not as this beastly drunkard as this unclean wretch as this monstrous blasphemer If it had not been for free and rich grace I had been as bad as they It is that which made me to differ 2. But let God have glory from us upon the occasion of his so long suffering us to walk in our own ways Now that may be many ways let me a little particularly direct here also 1. Let it make thee live in a dayly admiration of free-grace both in pardoning thy former guilt and in renewing and changing thy heart This this is a work not for a rapture not for an hour or a day but for eternity It will doubtless be a great piece of our work when we come to Heaven to cry salvation to our God and to the Lamb. Blessing and glory and honour and wisdom and thanksgiving be to the Lord for ever and ever It should be much of our work upon the earth if we have either obtained the sense of the pardon of our sins or a good hope through grace you shall find St. Paul beginning most of his Epistles with such a blessing of God O you redeemed of the Lord you that are come out of a state of deep guilt you can never think nor speak enough what God hath done for your souls It is a great work of God and he doth his great works that they may be had in remembrance Let God have some glory from thee for pardoning those sins by which he hath been much dishonoured by thee and as for his pardoning so for his sanctifying grace Admire God bless God upon the view of thy former hard heart profane and unclean spirit say Ah Lord that ever such an Ethiopian as I was should through grace change my skin that ever such a rebellious spirit should be made obedient such a profane wretch should ever have an heart toward Heaven that ever one that loved his lusts so well as I have done should be taught of God to love him and fear him and delight in him that a Saul should be amongst the Prophets a Paul a persecutor a blasphemer should be amongst the Apostles a Mary Magdalen should wash her Lords feet and be so humbled as to wipe them with the hairs of her head the offering up of these praises glorifieth God 2. Let thy former sins make thee more abundant in penitential tears and in confessions of thy sin unto God God delighteth to hear a soul acknowledg its iniquities and take shame to it self Let thy reflection upon thy former ways make thee with Peter to weep bitterly make thee go alone and confess thy sins unto him that hath forgiven them the more vile thou makest and ownest thy self the more thou glorifiest God as a God of free grace and infinite mercy 3. Let thy former sins ingage thee to love God more Hath much been forgiven thee O love much Say with thy self O I can never love God enough I can never do enough for him I that have done so much against him I that have been so profane so vile that have spent my youth and strength in the service of my base lusts and pleasures and am yet received to mercy at last What shall I render unto the Lord Let my burning love to God and whatsoever beareth his image and superscription make some amends for my burning lusts which had consumed my poor soul if God had not mercifully quenched them 4. Let thy former sins and thy reflections upon them make thee to walk softly and humbly with God all the days of thy life Doest thou find thy heart at any time begin to swell in an high opinion of thy self Say my soul What hath a sinner to be proud on what hast thou that hast been so filthy so polluted to glory in High thoughts become not one that hath been so dirty so polluted and unclean as thou hast been 5. Let your reflections upon your sins bring forth that brood of graces which the Apostle mentioneth 2 Cor. 7.11 Indignation carefulness fear vehement desires revenge Indignation at your selves for your former errors Anger never hath a truer object than when it is exercised upon our selves for our miscarriages Revenge a revenge upon our selves this doubtless lieth much in acts of mortification and self denial mens denying themselves in the lawful use of the liberty of those things which they had before smfully abused Fear a fear of again salling into such remptations as they had before been overcome with A Care in looking to your ways and vehement desires in all things to please God and to walk more perfectly before him 6. Finally You shall make an improvement of your sins if your reflexions upon your former sins both of omission and commission shall engage you to more frequent acts of homage to him to be
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
that it is such a creature as by his rebellions hath reproached the Sovereignty of his maker but this is but one good which God obtaineth by those punishments 2. Again God by the punishment of sinners though he obtaineth not their amendment and reformation obtaineth yet another more Vniversal good and that two ways 1. In the reformation and preventing at least the wickedness of others 2. In the upholding of the government and discipline of the world This is one end of punishment by mens Laws therefore are some malefactors hang'd up in chains by the way-side that all who pass by may take notice and be afraid of committing such wickedness God by punishing and troubling sinners strikes a terror into the hearts of others that if he pleaseth not to sanctifie their affliction to their salvation yet by it much sin is hindred in the world from whence his name had been dishonoured Yea and Lastly Government and discipline is in some measure kept in the world and Gods authority is upheld These ends now God obtaineth in the punishment of the vilest and worst of men though it may be they instead of being reformed and amended do but blaspheme because of their plagues yet others seeing them are afraid and take heed of such courses O! what a place of murthers and frauds and beastly lusts and all sorts of disorders would the sordid passions of men make the world were it not for the troubles and afflictions with which God followeth some sinners for though some are to be corrected and restrained by nothing yet doubtless multitudes of people are at least restrained by the exemplary vengeance which they see God taking upon some sinners either immediately by his own hand or by the hands of magistrates who do not bear the Sword in vain but are a terror unto evil doers Now let us but consider the great God as willing his own glory and that in every attribute that of justice as well as that of mercy or consider God as the great and mighty soveraign of the world whose interest it is to keep up his authority amongst men and an aw and reverence of those rules which he hath pleased to prescribe for the regulation of mens lives Or as he is a most pure and holy God offended and injured by the sins of men whose concern it is to restrain the exorbitancies of creatures or finally as an only wise and prudent governor to whom it belongeth so to carry himself observing rules of justice still towards individuals as may best conduce to the peace good and tranquillity of the whole I say which way soever an intelligent person doth consider God it appears but an exceeding reasonable motion of Providence that he should plague and chastise some sinners though he knows they will get no good but instead of being amended will be made worse like Ahaz Vse 1. Let us observe from hence in the first place how just and reasonable the ways of Divine Providence are O house of Israel saith God are not my ways equal are not your ways unequal The reason of our quarrellings at the motions of Divine Providence is our weighing them with false weights and a deceitful ballance or our superficial and perfunctory consideration of them The truth is we do ordinarily accuse God as inequal in those things wherein he acteth after the manner of men whose equity yet we never question we will allow the Potter to have power over the clay and to make this piece of clay a vessel of dishonour and that a vessel of honour yet we will not allow the Lord of the whole earth the Potter to the whole world of men who are but so many pieces of clay in his hand to do the like we will allow a soveraign Prince a power to kill and to save alive whom he pleaseth but we will not allow that Princes maker to have the same jus absolutum the same soveraign power though it be granted that he never executeth it but upon the demerits of his creature we can allow an earthly Prince a power to punish Wives for the errors of their Husbands and to disinherit Children for the treasons of their Parents but we think it much to allow a power to God justly to punish relations for the sins of their correlates We can understand the justice and reasonableness of men in punishing some malefactors with such punishments as leave no room for repentance and amendment but must call Gods justice holiness and goodness in question if he doth but the same thing we do every day But O you sons of men are not the Lords ways equal Let us learn under tremendous dispensations of vindicative justice to lay our hands upon our mouths to acknowledg and confess the Lords righteousness and instead of disputing the issues of Divine Justice to adore them and fulfil the Lords ends in them Vse 2. This in the second place may shew us one cause of rejoycing in the executions of Divine Justice upon mischievous and incorrigible sinners The truth is it speaketh both an ill temper and worse Christianity to rejoyce meerly in the evils that befall the worst of men Charity wisheth well unto all and obligeth men to mourn with those that mourn But upon other accounts the cutting off of sinners is matter of joy Psal 58.10 The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance and he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked Gods coming with vengeance is made the matter of a promise Psal 35.4 It hath been made the matter of Gods peoples prayer Jer. 11.20 But O Lord of hosts that judgest righteously that triest the reins and the heart let me see thy vengeance on them for unto thee have I revealed my cause so Jer. 20.12 And certainly it is also matter of praise and thanksgiving and that upon more accounts than one 1. As God by it gaineth the glory of his justice and gets himself honour Gods glorifying of himself and making his name great is what the people of God ought continually to rejoyce in We see sometimes persons and parties in the world opening their mouths against Heaven and bidding a bold defiance to the God that reigneth there and daring Divine Justice a long time we cannot but stand and tremble at it The patient God at last taketh these wretches so doing and cuts them off in the midst of their bold defiances They have it may be some years as complements of their discourse challenged God to damn them and the Devil to take them God at length falleth upon them teareth them in pieces makes them to know there is a God in Heaven that judgeth the earth Now when the righteous man seeth this vengeance he hath reason to rejoyce that God hath made known himself vindicated his glory c. It is matter of trouble to them to see any go down into the pit but it is matter of rejoycing that by this they are made to know that there is a God 2.
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
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
Lord of life It is a dispensation that hath often put the servants of God into unseemly passions James and John would have had fire come down from Heaven as in Elijahs time to have destroyed the Samaritans Peter was out of patience to see the Informer come with a company with Swords and Staves to take his Master and in his passion draweth a Sword and with it cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest David himself when God offered him the choice of three Judgments desired rather to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men I say it is and hath often been a very sore temptation advantaged partly from Nature partly from some Religious reflections That which in humane nature advantageth this temptation is 1. The disdain every man naturally hath to suffer an injury from one beneath himself when Gideon would have had his Son Jether have fallen upon those two Eastern Princes Zeba and Zalmuna they said rise thou up and fall upon us men have a natural disdain and scorn to suffer from their inferiours we see it in every days experience Now although every child of God is low in his own eyes and in honour preferreth every Saint before himself yet as St. Paul sometimes magnified his office against the false Apostles and counterfeits of his age though he judged himself the least of the Apostles and unworthy of that great Name so they cannot but magnifie themselves in comparison of open profane miscreants that are the scum and off scouring of the place in which they live such as are common drunkards lyars swearers Sabbath-breakers and guilty of other debaucheries the very scabs of the body politick and spots of the Assemblies to which they are united 2. Every man naturally hath a regret at the receiving of injuries from those from whom he hath deserved no such thing Now the People of God are persons of innocence who have done no wrong to their worst Enemies they have loved their Enemies prayed for them been ready to do any offices of love to them and know not how to bear an injury from those to whom they have done no wrong This was that which troubled Davids Spirit Psal 35.12 13. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my Soul but as for me when they were sick my cloathing was sackcloath I humbled my Soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourned for my mother But in mine adversity they rejoyced and gathered themselves together yea the abjects gathered themselves together against me and I knew it not yea they did tear me and ceased not with hypocritical mockers at feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth Lord how long wilt thou look on Rescue my Soul from their destructions 2. This temptation is likewise advantaged from some Religious reflections 1. From a reflection upon the purity and holiness of God O Lord saith our Prophet in my Text thou art of purer Eyes then to behold iniquity How a just and pure and holy God should look on and hold his peace to see a company of vile wretches tearing and devouring his own people this is a knowledg at first view too wonderful for them 2. From a reflexion upon the promises and threatnings of God they look into the holy word of God and find that full of promises of good to Gods People of threatnings of wrath and vengeance to wicked men instead of this they see vile men building up Palaces to themselves upon their ruins and adorning themselves with their Ornaments the houses of the profane furnished and adorned with that which is not theirs instead of the wicked mans preparing garments and the just mans putting them on as Job speaketh they see good and righteous men preparing garments and leud and ungodly men put them on they see the spoil of such as fear the Lord in the tents of leud and ungodly men 3. From a reflexion upon the Decrees of God O Lord saith our Prophet thou hast ordained them for destruction O mighty God thou hast established them for correction they consider leud and wicked men as men whom God by a fixed act of his Will hath ordained to judgment as persons who by the established counsel of God are to be destroyed and they cannot expound the Providence of God into a consistency with his eternal purpose when they see them not only live prosper and grow old but also live by the death of such as fear God and build their nests on high with feathers which they have plucked from their wings From these and other causes ariseth this trouble and coil in the spirits of Gods people Fluctus est Tentatio est as Augustine saith it is a great wave a great temptation and trouble and even Gods own people here are ready to think they see a knot in the thred of providence a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence in the even ways of the Lords dealing Let me indeavour in a few words to unty this knot to remove this stone Four or five things I shall speak one or other of which or all together will make this way of the Lord plain to every sober and understanding Christian 1. How is God to his people more hard or unrighteous in such a dispensation than he was to the son of his dearest love Our blessed Lord hath taught us That the Disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his Lord it is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord Matt. 10.24 25. 'T is true the chief Informer against our Lord was one of his hoshold Judas but he was a son of perdition the only ill member of all the 12. Who were his witnesses but a company of perjured wretches who could not agree in their testimony Who mockt him and scourged him Herod a monster for all manner of wickedness Who were they that spit upon him that cried out crucifie him crucifie him that gave him Gall and Vinegar to drink were they not the abjects of the people Thou art not able to conceive of Gods righteousness in giving thee over and thy estate over to a Renegado an apostate from his former profession to wretches who make no conscience what they say what they swear what they do How was he righteous in giving over the Son of his love to such wretches We are never so like to our Lord and Master as when we are betrayed by a Judas informed against and testified against by false and perjured wretches mockt and abused by the abjects and off scouring of the people If God might be a just and righteous God in suffering these things to be done to the green tree surely he may suffer them to be done unto us who are dry trees Thou art troubled that God should suffer profane scoffers to call thee
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
are humbly and meekly managed there is nothing imaginable of greater advantage to settle and ground the Soul in truth For after them the Soul gives assent to Propositions not as Dictates of others and Traditions of men but because it seeth certain and unmoveable grounds upon which they are bottomed and hears those things made to appear of no value which are objected and can be said to the contrary and so becomes rooted and grounded in the faith as the Apostle speaketh Truth yet never lost in the end by any shaking but hath come out of every field a Conqueror Magna est veritas praevalebit It is great and it will prevail at last Different Apprehensions of Propositions especially when they have been amongst such as truly feared God have ordinarily caused great searchings of the Scripture ventilation of Arguments and tended much to the furtherance of the Faith although at present they have made but ill founds and noises in the Church of God 2. The Wisdom of God is much seen in permitting these Diversities To convince us that The Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approveable to Men Rom. 14.17 18. It is a great vanity in men to entail Religion yea and the Kingdom of Heaven too to a particular opinion yet we are so vain as we should most certainly do it if God by his Providence did not so order it that we should see many of whom we cannot say but that they fear God and walk closely with him yea that they are more righteous than our selves of different opinions and judgments from us in some particular things you cannot but observe in the world how fond and zealous some persons are for a particular opinion more than for the great things of Righteousness and Holiness which are certainly the far more weighty things of the Divine Law and how warm and zealous and bitter men are more against their Brethren for their differences from them in some matters of opinion wherein if they sin yet their sins proceed from meer infirmity and the weakness of their understandings must be sins of the least magnitude for it is not in the power of man to believe what he will than against those that are open and notorious transgressors of the Law of God in things as to which every man is condemned by his own Conscience 3. Thirdly The Wisdom of God is much seen in the permission of these different apprehensions in the Souls of his own People In his thus directing us to the exercise of charity We use to say That Precepts lead us to Duty but Examples draw us There is no duty more pressed upon us in Scripture than the duty of Charity and Brotherly Love nor any to which our hearts prejudiced by Pride Envy and Lust are more awke the heart of man naturally seeks some higher ground on which he may stand and triumph over his Neighbour and be able to say in this or that thing I am better and God! I thank thee I am not as others are amongst other things it sometimes finds an Opinion which it Christens with the name of Orthodox Catholick Truth and this shall distinguish him all that dissents from him shall be Hereticks or Schismaticks or Ignorant Persons he and his party onely shall make up the Catholick Church others know not the Law if you will believe him and are accursed Now though this may prevail very far with men of Carnal Principles and Designs yet when Gods People see that those who differ in some particular opinions from them yet walk so as they dare not but say God hath loved and accepted them this overcometh their hearts into their duty Should not say they we love those whom our Heavenly Father loveth Who are Sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus Christ as well as we Justified by the Grace of God and Sanctified through the Holy Spirit even as we It were an easie thing to assign many other things wherein the Wisdom of God is apparent in this permission of different Apprehensions of Truth in the Souls of his own People as to shew us our weakness and the imperfection of our state and what need we have to be daily flying to him to teach us and to guide us c. But this is sufficient both to have given you a reasonable account of the thing it self and also of the motion of Divine Providence in the permission and allowance of it I shall now shut up this whole Discourse with a few words more for the practical Application of my whole Discourse upon these five last Questions which to shorten my Discourse I have handled together The sum of my whole Discourse is this That God according to his infinite Wisdom never did nor yet doth unto the Souls of his own People dispense out equal measures of Grace 1. Strengthening them to Spiritual Duty Nor 2. Quickening them in the performance of it 3. Nor Comforting and refreshing their Souls with the sensible consolations of his spirit 4. Nor causing them all alike to grow nor giving them equal degrees of light to discern the truth of Propositions of Truth and then that these motions of Divine Providence are exceeding reasonable and God in them is infinitely wise and just the evidencing of this hath been all my Work Which I have done from several Topicks My whole Application shall be reduced to two Heads shewing you how useful this Discourse may be for the promoting of 1. Charity towards men 2. Of Piety towards God The later is indeed first in excellency I have put it in the last place because I intend my largest Discourse upon it and with it to shut up this whole Discourse concerning Actual Providence ' This whole Discourse must certainly teach us Charity towards men and that particularly toward such as we discern Vse 1 1. Weak unto their spiritual duty 2. More dull and heavy in the performance of it 3. Sad and dejected 4. Not growing so fast in the wayes of God as others 5. That dissent from our selves in some matters opinions that are not fundamental Towards all these we had need of an Exhortation to Charity Censoriousness and Judging are things that are too natural to us and to which we are too prone We judge others and in the mean time forget to judge our selves All this is indeed rooted in a Natural Pride We would fain find something in which we excel others for that onely will be matter of boasting and glory to us but this Discourse may learn us Charity The general argument arising from this Discourse is the same which the Apostle maketh use of in Rom. 14. v. 3. v. 1. He commandeth us to receive those that are weak in the faith though with prudence and caution not to doubtful disputations His argument is in the latter part of the third verse For God hath received