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
apparent tendency to the ruin of the whole interest of God in the World if possibly not to leave Christ a Name in the Earth nor Religion pure and undefiled Religion a footing in any place he that runs may read this day that the malice of some is against no form in Religion but the life and power and practice of Holiness The Devil their Master hath given them a command like that of Benhadads Fight neither against small nor great Neither against Conformists nor Non-conformists but against the life and practice of Religion only Who seeth not that although a man hath a further latitude than others of his brethren as to matters of Conformity yet if he liveth an holy life if he presseth Holiness in his Pulpit and practiseth it in his Conversation he maketh himself a prey to the common Enemies both of Gospel Faith and conversation But trouble not your selves Christians The Lord reigneth the Frogs out of the bottomless pit may through Gods permission get out and croak a while but to the pit they must return again A sad time it was when the Enemy said to the Soul of the man according to Gods own heart Flee as a bird to the mountains when the wicked bent their bows and made their arrows ready upon the string that they might privily shoot at the upright in heart Psalm 11.2 When the foundations were destroyed and the godly knew not what to do what comfort at such a time Observe the same Psalmist v. 4 The Lord is in his holy temple the Lords throne is in heaven his eyes behold his ey-lids try the children of men I shall conclude this branch of Application with that Psalm 99. v. 1 The Lord reigneth let the people tremble he sitteth between the Cherubims let the Earth be moved the Lord is great in Zion and he is high above all people Let them praise the Lords great and terrible Name for it is holy Lastly Vse 3 This Doctrine is a foundation for a great deal of Exhortation Every good Christian upon hearing this Doctrine concerning Gods providential Kingdom should be saying What now is my Duty what ought I to do if the Lord reigneth I will tell you in five or six particulars and so shut up this Discourse concerning the main and principal acts of Divine Providence 1. An exercise of Faith seems a very reasonable piece of duty to be concluded from these premises By Faith here I understand not an assent to the Proposition of the word nor yet a resting upon the person of the Mediator which is the justifying-act of faith but committing of our selves unto God and casting our care upon him in all estates and conditions a thing often called for in Scripture Cast thy burthen on the Lord Psal 55.22 Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you 1 Pet. 5.7 Commit thy way unto the Lord Psal 37.5 So Job 5.8 Prov. 16.3 Sometimes it is called a Trusting in God Psalm 4.5 and 7.1 Pro. 28.25 and 29.5 Isa 57.13 c. Power and Love are the things that support and justifie one in trusting and putting confidence in another This Doctrine concerning the general Providence of God in governing all justifies him as to his Power to be the true and sole Object of our confidence We can trust in none else but may be controuled The greatest Princes of the Earth are but men under the authority of one who is higher than they and a mans trust in them oft-times is but like the Jews trusting in Egypt which the Prophet compareth to a leaning to a bruised reed and upon a broken staff which are not able to bear the weight of a mans body but if he leaneth upon them they will run into his hand If God be against us man cannot protect from him nor deliver out of his hand therefore saith the Psalmist Psalm 118.8 9. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes but he whose Kingdom is over all must needs be a proper Object of our confidence and as our confidence in God is warranted from general Providence as to the power of God so as to his love it is secured from special Providence but of that I hope to speak distinctly only a word here lest any should say But although the Kingdom of God be over all so that upon the account of his Power I may trust in him yet how doth it appear his Power shall be put forth for me I shall but offer four Meditations to you 1. That the glory of God is the great end that he aimeth at in all his actions He made all things for himself he preserveth he governeth the World for himself 2. That whereas God hath a twofold glory from his Creation Passive and Active One wherein the creature doth nothing from an inward principle thus the Heavens declare the glory of God and every creature speaks of his glory The other wherein the creature is Active acting out of intention and design and from the principle of its own will This latter is that which is most pleasing to God and acceptable 3. That God is capable of receiving no further glory from his creatures than what floweth from the predication of his praise and the doing of his Will 4. Lastly That from hence it must needs follow That God is more glorified by his Church and by his Saints than by all the Creation besides God is mutely and passively glorified by other creatures but in his Temple men speak of his glory The children of men and amongst them only those who are born of God do voluntarily and out of choice bring glory to God God if I may so speak wrests his glory from others as from Pharaoh c. God indeed in some sense may be said to be actively and voluntarily glorified by all Professors but only by that little flock whom he hath chosen to himself with a full intention voluntarily and sincerely They are the favourites of him whose Kingdom is over all Supposing then God to have a Dominion and Government over all and to be continually in the exercise of it surely if Haman could say Whom should the King delight to honour but me They may with much better right and advantage say For whom should the great King of kings and Lord of lords exercise a Rule and a Dominion For whose advantage should the Lord govern the World if not for those who most freely chearfully voluntarily serve the greatest end and design which he hath in the World viz. his own glory and can sincerely sum up all the desires of their Souls in that one Petition Let the Lord be glorified surely therefore the children of God have all obligations imaginable upon them under all vicissitudes of Providence to trust in God and to commit their ways unto the Lord. But this is but the first Duty 2. A Second Duty which this Doctrine of
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
uniform This must be true Shall not the judg of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 It is in the nature of God to do justly far sooner shall a good tree bring forth corrupt fruit than a righteous God do an unrighteous act It is written in the Will and Promises of God and in the threatnings which declare the Will of God against sinners Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with them for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him Isa 3.9 10. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely it shall be well with them that fear God that fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days Eccles 8.12 But it may be better for your edification that I should open the Observation in the branches of it The subject of my discourse you see is the vindicative and remunerative Justice of God considered as in the hand of Actual Providence I say of both 1. That it is certain both the one and the other is certain for the sinner that swears and drinks and wallows in his beastly lusts that lies and cheats and oppresseth and breaks Sabbaths that murthereth and committeth adultery and lives in the violation of the Commandments of God his Judgment is certain his damnation sleepeth not the Providence of God shall most certainly meet him as a Bear robbed of her whelps to tear him in pieces and there shall be none to deliver On the contrary for him that worketh righteousness that herein exerciseth himself to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men that liveth an holy life and conversation his reward is certain The certainty of both these depends 1. Vpon the immutable nature of God The righteous God loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity he cannot clear the guilty he cannot but reward the righteous as soon shall God cease to be God as the persisting sinner go unpunished or the persevering Saint be unrewarded 2. It dependeth upon the irrevocable will of God God hath said it the Lord hath spoken it and it shall come to pass Heaven and Earth shall pass away before a word shall fail of all which the mouth of the Lord has spoken 3. It dependeth upon the faithfulness of Divine Providence in acting conformably to the Divine Nature in the execution of the Divine Counsels and in pursute of the Divine Will Providence is Gods action in time God cannot act contrary to himself nor contrary to his revealed Will. But this is what none without great impiety can so much as doubt But I added 2. That both the punishment of the sinner and the reward of the righteous man is constant This is not now a matter of so sensible demonstration but equally true with the other Psal 7.11 The holy Psalmist tells us He judgeth the righteous and is angry with the wicked every day Anger in God signifieth nothing of passion as it doth in us It only signifieth Gods just will to punish sinners and the execution of this his just will and pleasure Now I take that phrase God is angry with the wicked every day to be true in both senses not only that God hath an immutable will purpose and resolution to punish resolved and impenitent sinners but also that he is every day doing of it and so he is every day rewarding the righteous man But this will better appear in my Explication of the third thing where I told you 3. That neither the reward of the one nor the punishment of the other are uniform or always sensible And indeed the not-attending to this is all that gives the least advantage to the complaints of Job David Jeremiah and Habakkuk concerning the prosperity of the wicked God sometimes punisheth sinners by temporary afflictions and judgments these now are obvious to every eye and incur into all mens senses All men take notice of mens being afflicted in their persons crossed in their relations in their estates c. But thus God doth not always punish the worst of men 2. He hath another way of punishing and that more dreadful that is by spiritual judgments ubi poenalis nutritur impunitas a punishing them by suffering them to go unpunished God never more smartly threatned the ten Tribes than when he told them by the Prophet Hos 4.14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouse when they commit adultery He never spake more severely than when he said Why should they be smitten any more they will revolt more and more Isa 1.5 Hence impenitency hardness of heart hence they bless themselves in their sinful courses this makes them shut their eyes and stop their ears This is indeed an insensible judgment but as it is with the wounds of the body the more secret they are and inward the worse they are so it is with judgments upon a man the more inward and insensible the more desperate and dangerous is the case The giving of sinners up to a blindness of mind as in the case of the Israelites Isa 6.9 to an hardness of heart as in the case of Pharaoh Exod. 4.21 to vile affections as in the case of the Heathen Rom. 1.26 to a reprobate mind c. These are of all other the greatest punishment one or other way God is angry with the wicked every day Although he is not every day plaguing them with sensible judgments yet when he is not doing this he is letting them alone as God spake concerning Ephraim Ephraim is joyned to idols let him alone suffering them to go on in their own ways by which means their hearts grow more hard and impenitent more blind and insensible and this is the reason that wicked men grow worse and worse more vile in their affections more sottish and reprobate in their minds and judgments more vile and abominable in their lives And as the punishment of the sinner so the reward of the righteous man though it be always certain and constant yet it is not uniform nor always sensible especially to others The certainty of their reward standeth upon the very same foundations that the certainty of the sinners punishment doth and so doth the constancy of it for as God is angry with the wicked every day so God is well-pleased with the righteous every day he can every day go to God and say unto him Thou art my father God is every day well-pleased with him and delighted in him But I say these rewards are not always uniform our heavenly Father hath more than one blessing sometimes he blesseth him that worketh righteousness after one manner sometimes after another but he always blesseth them Let me a little open to you the plenty of blessings which our heavenly Father hath and shew you how variously he rewardeth him that worketh righteousness
and hinteth that they ought to have glorified him as God that is to have paid an homage to God proportionable to the knowledg which they had of his glorious being But we who are within the pale of the Church have as the Apostle saith a more sure word of Prophecy Whereunto we shall do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.19 Besides this many have a common illumination of the Spirit so far ordinarily attending the Ministry of the word of such the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.4 And the Law of conscience ordinarily worketh according to this Light It is indeed true there are and will be differences as to all these Lights The light of nature varies according to mens parts and education The Light of Revelation according to the Ministry of the word men sit under and the other according to Gods pleasure who by his Spirit irradiateth some more than others but according to our light so doth conscience lay a Law upon us Now men and women are highly concerned to behave themselves both toward God and towards men according to the light they have that is according to the discoveries they have either from natural principles or from the word of God or the illuminations of the Spirit of God what God is and what God requireth of them either as acts of homage immediately towards him or as acts of Justice and brotherly love towards their neighbour especially to take heed of bold and impudent actings to the contrary for this cause it is that God judicially gives many up to blindness of mind hardness of heart vile affections a reprobate mind having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4.18 19. You see both from this Chapter in which my Text is and from that Text Eph. 4. That it is what may befal poor Heathens which have no more then a natural light yet even they for not living up to that may so far provoke God what do you think Christians may do then that besides the natural light have the light of the Law and Gospel the sure word of Prophecy that have consciences further enlightened and under a further Law than the Heathens could possibly have such as have as the Apostle speaketh Heb. 6.4 Tasted of the heavenly gift and been made partakers of the holy ghost as have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If the Heathens came under such a judgment because when they knew or might have known by the very light of nature that the Lord that made Heaven and Earth could not possibly be like a man nor a beast nor creeping things yet would not attend to the workings of their own reason nor give their consciences leave to speak nor hearken to them but in their practice changed the image of the incorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man c. were for this deserted of God and given up to that dreadful degree of judgment this Chapter mentioneth what shall become of those amongst Christians think you who besides the advantage which they have common with Heathens from that of God which is manifest in them and from the things that are made to know what manner of being God is have also the holy Scriptures telling them That God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and truth That images are teachers of lies and mediums by which God will not be worshippped and revealing his wrath so plentifully against those that in so idle and wretched a manner did worship the true and living God yet will worship him by images Doth not the light of nature and the light of Scripture shine in mens faces and clearly discover to them that God is not to be pleased with rude and confused noises with meer formalities and lip-labours but with a simple pure and Spiritual worship where the understanding the heart and the affections go along with the tongue and outward man and where these are wanting all the cringings and bowings and roarings in the world are abominable to him and no better than the howling of a Dog and grunting of a Swine O Sirs take heed of sinning against this light for fear of being given up of God to superstitious vanities for so it oft-times falleth out that as a lyar though at first he knew he told a lie yet by repeating and telling it often he hath forgot it was a lye and possibly himself thinks he is relating a true story So I am perswaded it falls out with many whose consciences at first grumbled a little at what they did and told them this was no service of God but through a just Judgment of God they shutting their Eyes against the light at last think there is no other true worship of God besides what they have taken up as to which it will at last appear that it was none at all for who required any such things at their hands We can hardly think otherwise of the Jews who at the first setting up of idolatry by Jeroboam and that worser idolatry by Ahab could not but think many of them that that was not the true worship of God but by practice in it afterward grew so warm for it that none else must be true but they must slay the Lords Prophets and persecute all those who either taught or practised any other way of worship more according to the mind and will of God 2. And do not only take heed of shutting your ears as to your duty towards God lest God judicially give you up to vile affections as to superstitious vanities but take heed also that you do not shut your eyes against convictions of your duty towards your selves and others in matters of morality Have you not startled sometimes to see to what brutish degrees of sensuality and immoralities many have fallen from high degrees of profession To me it hath been one of the prodigies of our age If one should have told some that were professors twenty or thirty years ago that within such a time they should be transgressors through wine so famous for impudent uncleanness such Apostates from all Religion such bruits almost in every part of their conversations such persecutors of those that fear God and with whom they sometimes professed to be of the same mind they would certainly have said with Hazael are we dogs that we should ever do any such things Yet we have lived to see it I am loth I tremble to speak what I think certainly God hath forsaken these poor creatures they professed the truth to have imbraced it in the love of it but they were hypocrites they received it not in the love of it but meerly in a faction and for some base sinister ends and for this cause
produced to demonstrate to the world and that we cannot see this before is our weakness and imperfection The malice of men in the persecutions of Gods People looketh upon us with an horrid aspect these indeed God doth not effect but he hath willed they should be and hath told us they must come yea and he worketh too permitting others to bring them about and suffering them in the execution of their malice whom he could easily hinder but when these things are over we often see both infinite wisdom and goodness too in them How should the salvation of Sinners have been purchased if God had not permitted Judas to have betrayed his Master Pilate to have condemned him and the Jews to have nailed him to the Cross had it not been for the persecution of the Jews how should the Gospel have gone to the Gentiles But yet for a close of this discourse and that we may not mistake our Duty we ought not to be so far satisfied upon the Contemplation of this great truth but that 1. We must be piously affected with the sad Providences which God measureth out to his Church and People What saith the Psalmist If I forget thee O Hierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning The sad rebukes of Gods Providence ought by us to be laid to heart Though persecutions and other punishments be contrivances of infinite wisdom and products of certain and infinite love yet to the present sufferers they may be punishments of sin and marks of Divine displeasure and therefore ought not to pass over our heads without our taking some notice of them and the causing of some sad thoughts within us the crucifying of Christ was the product of infinite wisdom and goodness to the People of God but yet a just cause of sadness to the Disciples of Christ We must take things as they appear to us being not able to see to the end and bottom of Gods designs That they shall at last issue in the Glory of God and the good of his People is indeed matter of faith and will be matter of joy to us when we see it but in the mean time it is matter of sadness to us to see Gods Vineyard rooted up his People eaten up like bread and wicked men suffered to devour those that are more righteous than themselves 2. Again We have reason to be afflicted both for our own sins and the sins of others Although it be as to the event true that both our own and others sins shall issue in Gods Glory yet it is as true that God hath no need either of ours or any others lyes for his Glory and that God is both by our sins and the sins of others actually dishonoured That they are made to issue in Gods Glory is the product of Gods Wisdom not our oblique and irregular action or intention and therefore they ought to be causes of sad reflexion to us But thus far we may satisfie our selves 1. That as I said before the event was necessary and nothing that hath come to pass could with our utmost care and diligence have been otherwise than it is We may talk after the manner of men and reason after the measures of humane probabilities If such a thing had not been another had not followed but there is nothing issued in time but was ordered from all eternity 2. We ought again in this to be satisfied That of whatsoever the Lord hath promised nothing shall fail We are full of unbelief and when we see Gods Providence working as we judg directly contrary to what he hath promised we are presently giving up all for gone and lost but if every thing be wrought according to the Counsel of the Divine Will and the Holy Scriptures be such part of this will as he hath pleased to reveal to us God knoweth both what he hath said and how he hath laid things in his eternal thoughts and sooner shall Heaven and Earth pass away than any word he hath spoke Prov. 19.21 Isa 40.8 The counsel of the Lord shall stand and the word of our God shall stand for ever 3. And lastly As I have before told you we may be thus far satisfied That whatsoever doth or ever shall come to pass in the world shall serve Gods great ends because it is ordered by the Counsel of the infinitely wise God and therefore must necessarily serve his designs In the end of the world we shall say God could not have had so much Glory but for such a persecution such a disorder Surely the wrath of man shall praise him SERMON II. Heb. XI 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear THE last time I shewed you That God hath from eternity setled all events by an eternal purpose according to the Counsel of his Will nothing cometh to pass in time but what was determined before time I told you my design was to discourse concerning Gods Acts of Providence which are acts in time and particularly to discourse some things relating to actual Providence which do not fall into ordinary discourse and often give occasion of trouble to the spirits of Christians but in order to that I thought it reasonable First to discourse a little of Gods Settlement of all futurities things which were to be fulfilled in their season by an act of his eternal Counsel Nor can I yet come fairly at my intended subject without speaking to Gods first Act in time that was Creation concerning which we must suppose a Decree of God according to that known Rule in Divinity Decretum Dei ejus executio exquisitissime conveniunt nihil est in Dei opere quod non fuit in decreto nihil fuit in decreto quod non sequitur in opere That is the Decree of God and the execution of that Decree most exquisitely agree God worketh nothing but what he first decreed and he decreed nothing but hath had or shall have its issue in his working and when we say God doth any thing we by it do understand no more than a new effect of his eternal Will According therefore to the Counsel of his Will God first made of nothing the world and all that is therein And indeed according to some notion of Providence amongst Divines this is a part of it Now for a foundation of a short Discourse upon this subject I have chosen this Text. The Apostle subjoyneth the words of my Text to a description of Faith which he had given vers 1. Where he had told us That faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen In the second verse he had told us That by this the Elders had obtained a good report Here he saith By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God c. In the Text you have 1. A Divine assertion The worlds were framed by
devouring fires for number and greatness not to be parallel'd God make us to understand his Rod and how many ways he is as a moth unto England secretly and gradually and almost irreparably devouring and destroying us This maketh our days full of the cry of the poor God grant we be not also full of such as stop their ears at the cry of the poor either giving nothing or in no proportion to relieve them I wish we could consider and remember that Text and think what may be our portion and do as we would be done by and remember God often punisheth this uncharitableness in its kind Men of hard-hearts in prosperity ordinarily meet with hard-hearts in their adversity with what measure they mete to others it is meted unto them again The Apostle Gal. 6.1 perswadeth the restoring of a brother fallen in the spirit of meekness and useth this Topick Considering thy self lest thou also be tempted And to the Hebrews he speakes To remember them that are bound as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being your selves in the body Heb. 13.2 There 's much in those words Lest thou also be tempted and those as being your selves in the body In cases of true charity Christians as they should consider other things so they should consider that they themselves are in the body they may lose their estates their health their limbs they are not in Heaven yet they are in the world and they are in the body they are not meerly spirits invulnerable impenetrable Men should think my house may be fired and all I have lost in an hour or two I may lose my eyes my limbs as this poor creature hath I am in the body So in those words there 's a great Emphasis Lest thou also be tempted Tempted sometimes signifies as much as afflicted though indeed in that Text it seems to signifie sollicited to sin and overcome God saith the Apostle for thy rigid dealing with thy brother over-born with a temptation to sin may suffer the Devil to give thee a foil would'st thou in such a case be roughly dealt with thy self With what measure men mete to others God measureth to them again Let me say to you take heed of omitting your duty in a charitable act lest thou also comest to be so afflicted as to need others charity and when thou art so God should repay thee in thy own kind so straiten mens hearts towards thee that from persons from whom thou mightest have expected pounds thou hast not so many pence think with thy self how such a thing would please you Let me here give you two rules which I think your Reasons will all concur with 1. It is a foolish thing for any person in circumstances of mortality so to govern himself in his conversation as if he were not subject to the common accidents of that state The Apostle saith of Elijah That he was a man subject to like passions with other men The Apostle speaks of humane weaknesses sinful infirmities and God considereth that and gives us allowances for it and therefore though Job had many ill fits of impatience when the hand of God was heavy upon him yet God saith Behold the patience of Job We are all of us also subject to the same sufferings and the Apostle from this Topick comforteth his Corinthians in those first and furious times of the Gospel 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but what is common to men Now I say there is nothing more foolish than for any of us in our conversation to govern our selves as if we were not so but out of the gun shot of the chastising Providence of God Our bodies are subject to death to sicknesses to old age and impotencies our estates are exposed to the fire to the thief to the merciless soldier to the oppressor Now for a man in his conversation to govern himself so as if he were never to dye as if he were never to be sick as if it were not possible that a fire should devour his pleasant things that he or his should not be brought to straits is no better than folly and madness 2. It is as foolish a thing for a man to promise himself that in case of such accidents others should be kinder to him than he hath been to others in the same circumstances We cannot so much as fancy such a thing without supposing them better-natured or more gracious either of which is at best a reproach to our selves And this is but reasonable for us to think although we consider not the influence of God in the case who hath told us That he who stoppeth his ear against the cry of the poor he also shall cry and not be heard and hath the hearts of all men in his hand and can easily shut them up in judgment against the cries of those who have sinfully stopped their ears against the cries of those who have cried to them in their distress Hence it follows that it is but reasonable for us in these cases thus to conclude I have now a fair estate but it is subject to decay a fire may consume it in a moment soldiers may devour it either in my or my childrens days I have now an healthy body sound and perfect limbs I may grow sickly lose my limbs my senses and be brought into the condition of a receiver who am now a giver Why should I think that any should consider me or mine in such circumstances more than I consider others Let me therefore do unto others as I would have others do unto me I have no reason to look that it should be meted to me again better measure then I measure unto others But I have dwelt too long upon this first shewing you how the Providence of God doth often retaliate hard heartedness by suffering the hearts of others to harden against men in straits who have stop't their ears against the cries of others to them in distress 2. But there are other kinds of uncharitableness which God doth ordinarily repay in their kind Those are acts bearing the highest opposition to charity tending to the utter ruin and destruction of their brethren such as murthers cruelties and barbarous and inhumane usage of others We shall find in the old Law that God in divers cases established a law of Retaliation If any mischief followed such a striking a woman with child as caused a miscarriage God ordained they should give eye for eye tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot burning for burning wound for wound stripe for stripe Exod. 21.23 24 25. and in the case of a false witness there was such a law Deut. 19.16 17 18 19 20 21. which you may read at your leisure It was Gods will that a witness who had testified falsly against any man if he were once found a false witness should suffer the very same thing that the other should have suffered So that throughout all the Jewish period the
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
was corrected and which when he was a child he deprecated and would gladly have cut in pieces Let me shew you a little that these things which we disgrace with the name of Evils and of which the holy and gracious God is not ashamed to be the Author are not Evils but such as deserve a better name and such good things as are some of the greatest goods the child of God meets with on this side of Heaven To this purpose we will consider them 1. As they contribute to the Predication of the Holiness and Justice of God and the making him to be feared and adored in the world 2. As they many ways contribute to the happiness of those that shall be saved 1. I say first as they predicate the glory of Gods Justice and Holiness Justice and Holiness are two eminent Attributes of the Divine Being so essential unto it as if he should not be just and holy he could not be God Now the Holiness and Justice of God could never be so known in the world but for the afflictions troubles and punishments which are abroad in it God is infinitely removed from our senses we can only read him in his word and in his works The word of God evidenceth these two Attributes to us by faith for the word is the object of faith and faith is the evidence of things not seen The word of God speaketh God a just and holy God and therefore we believe it but as in a State the Justice of the Magistrates would never be seen in making good Laws and discoursing just things if he never put them in execution so neither should we ever have any demonstration of the Justice and Holiness of God if it were not for those afflictions and punishments of sinners by which he declareth to the world his abhorrence of sin and the exactness of his Justice I remember the Apostle Rom. 3.25 telleth us That Christ was set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare Gods righteousness and God being about to destroy Pharaoh saith I will get me honour upon Pharaoh What honour the honour of his Justice and Righteousness It is the great interest of God to declare unto the world his Justice and Holiness How else should he have the revenue of his glory from these Attributes Now I say Evils of punishment are upon this account great goods and were necessary if they were causative of no other than this good If God obtained no more from them than the Proclamation of his Holiness and Predication of his Justice and Righteousness yet this were enough and thus much he gains from his punishment of the worst of men if they be not made better by them yet God is by them made more glorious and declareth his righteousness The argument is this Those things cannot be evil however we may miscall them which immediately tend to make God more glorious in the eyes of the world but this all Evils of punishment do they speak God a pure and holy God and a just and righteous God But there is much more to be said than this is 2. They very much contribute to the good of such as shall be saved 1. They contribute to make us better while we live here and 2. To make us eternally happy hereafter It is only the foolish child that as I said before quarrelleth at the rods and ferula's that correct the wildness and wantonness of its youth The grown man blesseth God and thanks his master for them He that spareth the rod saith Solomon hateth the child but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes Prov. 13.24 and advising Parents again saith Prov. 23.13 14. Withhold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not dye thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell In short 1. By afflictions Souls ordained to life are kept from hell 2. By afflictions such souls are fitted for the Kingdom of Heaven 1. I say first By afflictions as by a divine sacred means the souls of such as are ordained unto life are saved from hell If mans rod may be a means to such a blessed end Gods rod will certainly do much more the rod and reproof give wisdom Prov. 29.15 Solomon tells us That foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him Prov. 22.15 It is as true as to the Children of God as it is with reference to the Children of men Have not you observed a tender Mother sometimes seeing a foolish child too busie with the fire or candle taking the childs hand or finger and holding it so near that it scalds or burns it self so learning the burnt child to dread the fire God hath never a child but is too too ready to be playing with hell-fire playing over the hole of the Asp and den of the Cockatrice God takes his childrens fingers and scalds them a little with the fire of Hell in their Consciences making them to be a continual terror instead of a continual feast or with the Candles of Afflictions and outward trials and thus they are delivered from Hell Adam had never seen death he had only heard of it in the threatning in case he did eat of the Tree that stood in the midst of the Garden he put out his hand and took of the fruit and did eat his posterity shall now see and feel death they shall be in deaths often and have leisure to think if the torments of the stone or the gout be so great what will the torments of Hell be If I am not able to stand under the terrors of an affrighted Conscience for a few months how shall I abide everlasting wrath That so he may be more wary and afraid Demonstrations of the truth of the word have a great force with our unbelieving hearts God hath therefore in infinite wisdom and goodness so ordered it that one while his people shall be in the fire of a Fever another while in the darkness of a divine desertion By the first they shall learn to conclude how hot the fire of Hell must be by the later how dreadful that utter darkness shall be which shall be the impenitent sinners portion what it is to be forsaken of God for ever upon the hearing that dreadful sentence Depart from me you cursed into everlasting burnings prepared for the Devil and his Angels They shall sometimes find Satan at their right hand to learn them what it is to be with the Devils to all eternity they shall sometimes want bread to eat and water to quench their thirst and left from thence to conclude what the condition of a Dives is that would in those flames be glad of a cup of cold water to cool his tongue they shall have extremities of pains for a little time in some particular joynts and limbs and thence gather what the torments of the whole body
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