pretence in wishing to be the King of Israel in David's stead 2 Sam. 15.4 If patience be a giving God the honour of his righteousnesess in his Judgments Psal 191.75 I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me impatience must be a charge against God for unrighteousness in his judicial proceedings and a saying the way of the Lord is not equal Ezek. 18.25 'T is implied in that complaint Isa 58.2 3. They ask of me the ordinances of justice c. wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge We demand justice of thee since thou dost nor seem to do that which is fit and righteous in not regarding us in our suits and not bestowing that which we have fasted for God governs the World according to his will our murmuring implies that God's will is not the rule of righteousness We affront the care of God towards his Creatures as if the products of our shallow reasons were more beautiful and just than god's contrivances for us who hath higher and more glorious ends in every thing both for our selves and the world of which we are members and for his own glory to which we ought to subject our selves when perhaps our projects rend immediately to gratifie some sensual or spiritual lust in us 'T is the commendation the Holy Ghost gives of Job Job 1.22 in all this Job sinned not neither charged God foolishly as a Character peculiar to him implying that most men in the World do upon any emergency charge God with their crosses as dealing unjustly with them in inflicting punishment when they think they have deserved rewards Jeremiah is not innocent in this case Jerem. 20. 7 O Lord thou hast deceived me and I was deceived in the ill success of his prophecy as though an immense goodness would and a Soveraign power needed to deal in a fraudulent way with his Creatures to bring his ends about 3. 'T is a wrong to the wisdom of Providence We would degrade his O uniscience and Wisdom and sway him by our foolish and purblind dictates 't is as if we would instruct him better in the management of the world and direct him to a reformation of his methods Job 40.2 shall he that contends with the almighty instruct him he that reproves God let him answer it 'T is a reproving God and reproofs imply a greater authority or righteousness or wisdom in the person reproving we reprove God as if God should have consulted with us and asked our advice 't is to take upon us to be God's counselors and to conclsude the only wise God by our imperfect reason Rom. 11.34 Who hath been his counsellor 'T is a secret boasting of some excellency in our selves as if God did not govern well or we could govern better Shall a silly passenger that understands not the use of the Compass be angry that the skilful Pilot will not steer the Vessel according to his pleasure Must we give out our orders to God as though the Counsels of infinite wisdom must roul about according to the conceits of our fancy Is nto the language of our hearts in our fits of impatience as prodigiously proud against God's providence as the Speech of that Monster was against the creation who said if he had been by God at the Creation of the World he could have directed him to a better platform all this and much more is vertually in this sin of impatience 10. In charging our sins and miscarriages by them upon providence In this we contemn it Some think Cain doth so Gen. 4.9 am I my brother's keeper Thou art the keeper and governor of the World why didst thou not hinder me from killing my Brother 'T is certain the first man did so Gen. 3.12 the woman thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree thy gift is the cause of my sin and ruine 'T is as certain David laid the Sin of Vriah's murder at the door of providence 1 Sam 11.25 when he heard that Vriah was dead the Sword soith he devours one as well as another Man conjures up trouble to himself when by his folly he brings himself into sin and from thence to misery and then his heart frets against the Lord layes the blame both of his sin and following mischiefs upon him Pro. 19.3 the foolishness of man perverts his way and his heart frets against the Lord. There are many other wayes wherein we deny or slight providence 1. When we do things with a respect to the pleasure of men more than of God As though God were careless both of himself and his own honour and regarded not the principles and ends of our actions 2. In vain boasting and vaunting of our selves As Benhaded would have such a multitude of men in his army as that there should not be dust enough in Samaria to afford every man a handful * 2. King 20.10 wherein he swaggers with God and vaunts as if he were the Governour of the World yet this man with his numerous Host was routed by a troop of Lacquies v. 15 20. they are called the young men of the Princes Such is the folly of men against the orders of God when they boast in their hearts that their house shall continue for ever * Psal 49.11 3. Oppression They slay the fatherless and say the God of Jacob shall not regard it * Psal 94.6 7. Their denial of providence was the cause of their oppression of the poor and where this is found in any it is an argument it ariseth principally from a like cause this is also made the cause why they eat up God's people as they eat bread * Psal 14.1 4. 4. Misinterpretations of providence Such cursed jealousies had the Jews of God Numb 14.3 and wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword were it not better for us to return into Egypt As tho God in that mighty deliverance had cheated tem with a design to destroy them in the wilderness when one of those plagues poured out upon Pharaouh being turned upon their heads had destroyed them in Egypt So foolish are they to think that God would ruin them upon dry Land who might have drowned them as well as their enemies in the Red Sea so unreasonable is man in his dispates against god 5. In limiting providence In bounding it to time manner to other circumstances as they did Psal 78.41 they limited the holy one of Israel for they remembred not his hand As though God must manage every thing according to the will of a simple Creature It was a forgetfulness of providence at least that was the cause of it The Second Vse is of Comfort Vse 2. As the justice and righteousness of God is the highest comfort to a good man since the Evangelical dispensation In that he hath to deal with a righteous God who can
tells them this was for their good when there was no present appearance of any good in it It should be good in respect of Gods Favour towards them which retired to return with the greater force ver 6. I will set mine eyes upon them for good I will build them and not pull them down God would give them a more durable settlement In respect also of that frame of heart they should have toward God their knowledg of him and cleaving to him ver 7. I will give them a heart to know me and they shall return to me with their whole heart God had but a moiety of their hearts before but then he should have the whole And indeed it was remarkably for their good for they who before were addicted to Idolatry were never guilty of the same sin after And God kept them from being drawn away to it by the example and solicitation of those among whom they were The Church grows by tears and withers by smiles Gods Vine thrives the better for pruning God makes our Persecutions fit us for that for which we are persecuted As Saul by his persecution of David for the Title God had given him to the Kingdom made him fitter to succed him in the Throne and manage the Government God uses persecutors as lances which whiles they wound us let out the purulent and oppressive matter and makes them instruments of his Providence to work out his Peoples Happiness and thus makes the very wrath of man to be an occasion of his Peoples Praise Psal 76.10 The wrath of man shall praise thee God doth in this as a Father deals with his Son sends him to a sharp school that he may be Trained up in Learning 2. In the increase of the church The Jews Crucified our Saviour to diminish the multitude of his followers and by this means the number is increased The whole World runs after him by that means they used to stop their Course which Christ fore told that when he was lifted up he should draw all men after him And that a grain of Corn brings not forth more seed unless it be cast into the ground and dye 1. In the increase of it within its own bounds When the Israelites were most opprest in Egypt the more they multiplied †Exod. 1.20 When the Dragons fury did most swell against the Woman she brought forth a Man child ‡ Rev. 12.1 3 4 When the Roman Empire was at the highest and was most enflam'd with Anger against the Christians When the Learning of the Philosophers the Witchcrafts of Hereticks the Power of the Emperors and the Strength of the whole World was set against them the Christians grew more flourishing and unmerous by those very means which were used to destroy them Not only a new succession of Saints sprung up from the Martyrs Ashes but their Flames were the occasion of warming some so much with a heavenly fire that some persecutors have become Preachers Their very bonds for the Truth have sometimes a seminal Vertue in them to beget men to Faith in Christ Phil. 1.12 The things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel 2. In the increase of it in other parts Pauls Prison made his Preaching Famous in Rome and was an occasion of bringing Christianity into Nero's Court that Monster of Mankind * Phil. 1.13 one might have looked for Saints in Hell as soon Phil. 4.22 his bonds were as great a confirmation of the Truth of his Doctrine as his Eloquence When Saul made havock of the Church and by that storm dispersed the Christians they like so many grains of Corn seattered in serveral parts of a greater Field produced the greater Harvest Acts 8.3 4. therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word As Clouds scattered by the Winds they Rain'd down the Gospel in several Quarters The Jews when scattered in their several slights did scatter among the Heathen the Notions of the true Religion When they shall go down to Egypt to secure themselves from Senacheribs Invasion they shall be a means to make many Converts among that Idolatrous Nation Isa 19.18 In that day the day of the Jews Trouble shall five Cities in the land of Egypt speak the Language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of hosts so one expounds it but I rather think it meant of the times of the Gospel The flight of the Israelites shall be the occasion of some Egyptians Conversion A poor Slave in Naamans Family was an occasion both of the cure of his Body and of that of his Soul 2 Kings 5.2 3 17. So much for the first Reason drawn from an enumeration of things 2. Reason To prove that all Providence is for the good of the Church is Secondly Because God hath sometimes preferred Mercy to the Church and Care of it above his own concernments of Justice He values his mercy to them above his Justice upon his Enemies He consults their safety before he brings ruin upon the Wicked whose sins are full He first prepared the ark for Noah and sees him lodged in it before he begins to showr down destruction upon the World He hath sometimes punished a Nation more for their Offences against his People than their Sins against himself Amalek was guilty of many Idolatries and other sins against God but God chargeth none of them upon them but their malicious hindring the Israelites in their March to Canaan 1 Sam. 15.2 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts I remember that which Amalek did to Israel how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt He shews his love to them and how much he values them that when he is acting Justice and pouring out his Wrath when he is as it were cutting and slashing on all sides and is in fury with wicked Men he hath nothing but sweetness and tenderness towards his own Amos 9.9 10. in the sifting of Israel and the Nations Not the least grain shall fall upon the earth All the sinners of my people shall dye by the sword While he thunders out his Fury upon wicked Men he hath his Eyes upon the least grain of the true Israel What would it be for God when he is raising the Glory of his Justice upon the People that have provoked him not to regard the concernments of this or that or many sincere Souls but put no stop to his Fury Yet he doth not a grain shall perish He is more desirous to hear of the preservation and welfare of a few Righteous than of the just Punishment of the Wicked wherein his Justice is gloriously interessed The Man cloathed with Linnen that was to mark the Mourners return'd to God and gave an account that he had done according to his Command * Ezek 9.11 the other five which were to kill returned not to give any account of their severe and sharp proceeding The Angels that held the
he loved too and sollicited upon his friendship to relieve him v. 3. Behold he whom thou lovest is sick and our Saviour glad he was not there to prevent it yes not glad of Lazarus his extremity nor of the Churches But of the opportunity to give them greater ground of Faith and encouragement to trust him The Churches Faith is Gods Glory He that hath many things to trust to is in suspence which he should take hold of But when there is but one left with what greediness will he clasp about that God cuts down worldly props that we might make him our stay How will the Church in extremity recollect all the deliverances of it in former ages and put them up in pleas to God for a renewal of his wonted kindness and new successions of deliverance whereby God gets the glory of his former work and his Church the present comfort in renewing fiducial acts upon him How doth Jehosaphat put God in mind of his gracious assistance acted some ages before when he was in a straight by the Invasion of a powerful Army 2 Chron. 20.7 Art not thou our God that didst drive out the Inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel v. 12. We know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee Never are the Churches eyes so fixed upon God never Gods eyes so sixed upon the Church as in times of their distress Then there is a sweet Communion with and recounting of all their former friendships The Church then throws it self wholly upon God Its prosperity is but like a troubled Sea its distress is the time of its rest So Asa when assaulted by a million of men under Zerah the Ethiâ—pian how doth he throw himself and the whole weight of his concerns upon the hands of God and makes his Cause Gods 2 Chron. 14.11 Help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee oh Lord thou art our God let not man prevail against thee And there is an encouragement also in the deliverance for future Faith It gives a ground fro future Faith from the riches of the present experience In such distress there is the highest experience of God and hope is the fruit of experience How apt are we to believe God in other straits when we have had assistance like they that dream'd come unexpectedly upon us God overthrew Pharaoh's Host in the Red Sea when they were upon the heels of the affrighted Israelites and ready to crush them but God gave them to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness * Psal 74.14 as a standing excellent dish to feed their hopes for all future deliverances upon their trust in God And indeed that deliverance was an earnest of their perpetual security by special Providence in any succeeding trouble And God often gives them a particular charge to remember that deliverance with a practical remembrance to still their Fear and support their Faith Deut. 7.18 Thou shalt not be affraid of them but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh and to all the Egyptians He would have them remember it as a Covenant-mercy what the lord thy God did thy God in Covenant not what the Lord did barely by an arm of Power but what he did by a vastness of affection and as a God of truth and firmness in his Covenant 3. In sitting them by the extremity for a holy reception of the Mercy intended God keeps up the distress of the Church to expel self-considence Trust in earthly things is the great check of Gods Kindness We hardly forsake this temper till we are forsaken by all those things we confide in Times of extremity make us more humble and humility like the Plow fits us for the seed of Mercy The Gardeners digging up the clods is but to prepare the earth for the receiving and nourshing some excellent Plants he intends to put into its Womb. There is a certain set time for Gods great actions He lets the powers of darkness have their hour and God will take his hour Psal 102.13 Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to favour her yea the set time is come He hath a set time for the discovery of his mercy and he will not stay a jot beyond it What is this time v. 9. c. When they eat ashes like Bread and mingle their drink with weeping When they are most humbled and when the servants of God have most affection to the Church When their humble and ardent affections are strong even to the ruine and rubbish of it when they have a mighty desire and longing for the reparation of it as the Jews in Captivity had for the very dust of the Temple ver 14. For thy Servants take pleasure in her Stones and favour the dust thereof For there notes it to be a reason why the set time was judged by them to be come That is Gods set time when the Church is most believing most humble most affectionate to Gods interest in it and most sincere Without Faith we are not fit to desire mercy without humility we are not fit to receive it without affection we are not fit to value it without sincerity we are not fit to improve it Times of extremity contribute to the growth and exercise of those qualifications 4. In securing them against future Streights For Gods disappointing Enemies when they think themselves sure of all is the highest discouragement to them and those of the like temper to renew the like attempts but if they do it is an evidence they shall meet with the like success 'T is the highest vexation to see their projects diverted when they have lighted their match and are ready to give fire Men may better take notice how God loves his people when he apprehends their adversaries in the very Pinnacle of their Pride and slings them down from the Mount of their hopes It doth not only dash the present designs but dishearten future attempts The Egyptians after their overthrow at the Bed Sea never attempted to disturb them in their journey in the Wilderness It was a Bridle to all their enemies except Amalek upon whose Country they travelled in the Wilderness when it was the interest of State in all those Nations to rout that swarm of People that must have some Seat to dwell in and every Nation might justly fear to be dispossessed by them yet we read of no League among those Nations bordering upon the Wilderness such a terror did God strike into them by that relief he gave his People in their extremity at the Red Sea whereby he provided for their future security in their whole Journey It was this metled the hearts of the Gibeonites one of the Nations of Canaan and brought them to a submission to Joshua as the sentiment of all their Neighbours Josh 9.9 We are come because of the name of the Lord thy God for we have heard the fame of him and all that he did in Egypt And
Brazen Serpent which were stung by the fiery ones whereas Brass is naturally hurtful to those that are bit by Serpents * Grotius Mat. 20.16 Es naturaliter nocet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Afflictions Joseph is sold for a slave and God sends him as a Harbinger his Brother sold him to destroy him and God sends him to save them Pauls bonds in the opinion of some might have stiflâ—d the Gospel but he tells us that they had fallen out to the furtherance of the Gospel Phil. 1.12 2. Sins * Hall contempl book 3. p. 806 807. God doth often effect his just Will by our weakness neither thereby justifying our infirmities nor blemishing his own action Jacob gets the blessing by unlawful means telling no less then two lies to attain it I am Esau and this is venison But hereby God brings about the performance of his promise which Isaac's natural affection to Esau would have hindred Jacob of The breach of the first Covenant was an occasion of introducing a better Mans sinning away his first flock was an occasion to God to enrich him with a surer The loss of his original righteousness made way for a clearer and more durable The folly of man made way for the evidence of Gods wisdom and the sin of man for the manifestation of his grace and by the wise disposal of God opens a way for the honour of those Attributes which would not else have been experimentally known by the Sons of men 3. Casual means The Viper which leapt upon Pauls hand out of the bundle of sticks was a casual act but designed by the providence of God for the propagation of the Gospel Pharaoh's Daughter comes casually to wash her self in the river but indeed conducted by the secret influence of God upon her to rescue Moses exposed to a forlorn condition and breed him up in the Aegyptian learning that he might be the fitter to be his Kindreds deliverer Saul had been hunting David and at last had lodged him in a place whence he could not well escape and being ready to seize upon him in that very instant of time a Post comes to Saul and brings the news that the Philistines had invaded the Land which cut out other work for him and David for that time escapes * 1 Sam 23.26 27 28. Thirdly 3. Reason Such actions and events of things are in the world which cannot rationally be ascribed to any other cause than a supreme providence 'T is so so in common things Men have the same parts the same outward advantages the same industry and yet prosper not alike One labours much and gets little another uses not altogether such endeavours and hath riches flowing in upon him Men lay their projects deep and question not the accomplishment of them and are disappointed by some strange and unforeseen accident And sometimes men attain what they desire in a different way and many times contrary to the Method they had projected This is evidenced 1. By the restraints upon the passions of men The waves of the Sea and the tumults of the People are much of the same impetuous natures and are quelled by the same power * Psal 65.7 Which stilleth the noise of the Sea and tumult of the people Tumults of the People could no more be stilled by the force of a man than the Waves of the Sea by a puff of breath How strangely did God qualify the hearts of the Aegyptians willingly to submit to the sale of their Land when they might have risen in a tumult broke open the Granaries and supplied their wants * Gen. 47.19 21. Indeed if the World were left to the conduct of chance or fortune what work would the savage lusts and passions of men make among us How is it possible that any but an Almighty Power can temper so many jarring Principles and rank so many quarrelsom and turbulent Spirits in a due order If those brutish passions which boyl in the hearts of men were let loose by that infinite power that bridles them how soon would the World be run headlong into unconceivable confusions and be rent in pieces by its own disorders 2. By the sudden changes which are made upon the Spirits of men for the preservation of others God takes off the Spirit of some as he did the wheels from the Egyptian Chariots in the very act of their rage Paul was struck down and changed while he was yet breathing out threatnings c. God sees all the workings of mens hearts all those cruel intentions in Esau against his Brother Jacob but God on a sudden turns away that torrent of hatred and disposeth Esau for a friendly meeting * Gen. 33.4 And he who had before an exasperated malice by reason of the loss of his birth-right and blessing was in a moment a changed man Thus was Sauls heart changed towards David and from a Persecutor turns a justifier of him confesseth Davids innocence and his own guilt 1 Sam. 24.17 18. thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evil c. What reason can be rendred for so sudden a change in Saul's revengeful Spirit which had all the force of interest to support it and considered by him at that very time For vers 24. he takes special notice that his Family should be disinherited and David be his Successor in the Throne How suddenly did God turn the Edge of the Sword and the heart of an Enemy from Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 18.31 Jehosaphat cried out and the Lord helped him and God moved them to depart from him The Holy Ghost emphatically ascribes it to Gods motion of their wills by twice expressing it But stranger is the preservation of the Jews from Hamans bloody designs after the decree was gone out against them Mordecai the Jew is made Ahasuerus's Favourite by a strange wheeling of Providence First The Kings Eyes are held waking and he is inclined to pass away the solitariness of the night with a Book rather than a Game or some other Court past-time no book did he six on but the Records of that Empire no place in that voluminous Book but the Chronicle of Mordecai's service * in the discovery of a treason against the Kings life he doth not carelesly pass it over Estier 6.1 2. but inquires what recompence had been bestowed on Mordecai for so considerable a service and this just before Mordecai should have been destroyed had Ahasuerus slept Mordecai and all his Countrey-men had been sacrificed notwithstanding all his Loyalty Could this be a cast of blind chance which had such a concatenation of evidences in it for a superior Power 3. In causing Enemies to do things for others which are contrary to all rules of policy 'T is wonderful that the Jews a People known to be of a stubborn nature and tenacious of their Laws wherein they differed from all the Nations should in the worst of their
which he makes between uncertain riches and the living God * 1 Tim. 6.17 These and many more actions sutable to them are vertual denials of God's superintendency as though God had left off the government of the World to the wits or rather follies follies of men These are to magnifie the things we seek to above God as the chief Authors of all our good 'T is to imagine him less careful than man more insufficient then man 'T is a departure from a full fountain to a shallow stream not to desire God's assistance is either from some check of conscience that our business is sinful that we dare not interest him in it or a disowning God's care as if we could bide our counsels from him Isa 29.15 Wo to them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord and they say who seeth us and who knoweth us an bring our business to pass before he shall know of it At least it is a slighting God's government since we will not engage God by prayer in the exercise of it on our behalf and disdain to acquaint him with our concerns 'T is a reflection upon God's Wisdom to do so which the Prophet mentions with a wo. Isa 31.1 2. Wo to them that go down to Egypt for help but they look not to the holy one of Israel yet he also is wise It is a disparagement of God's providential wisdom not to look to him in our concerns yea and of his righteousness too they look not to the holy one of Israel In this they neither regard his Holiness nor his Wisdom When we consult not with him upon emergent occasions we trust more to our own Wisdom Counsel and Sufficiency than to God's and set up our selves as our own Lords and independent upon him as though we could manage things according to our pleasure 4. When upon the receiving any good they make a more grateful acknowledgment to the instruments than to God the principal Author of it As if God had no hand in bestowing those blessings upon them as if the instruments had dispossessed God of his governing providence and engrost it in their own hands This men are guilty of when they ascribe their Wealth to their own wit and fortune their health to their own care or the Physician 's skill their learning to their own industry their prosperity to their friends or merits When men thus return their thank-offering to second causes and ascribe to them what is due to God they give the glory of his providence to a miserable creature Thus was the foolish boasting of the Assyrian Isa 10.13 14. By the strength of my hand I have done this and by my wisdom for I am prudent for I have removed the bounds of the people c. It was Belshazzar's offence also Dan. 5 23. thou hast lifted up thy self against the Lord of heaven and praised the Gods of silver as though they were the authors of all thy greatness so Hab. 1.16 they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their drag because by them their portion is fat Alluding to those that then worshipped their warlike weapons and the tools whereby they had got their wealth in the place of God as the Heathen used to do * Dought. Analect Sacr. Ex curs 182. How base a usage is this of God to rifle him of all his glory and bestow it upon the unworthiest instruments inanimate creatures 'T is as high Idolatry as that of the Heathens in as much as it is a stripping God of the glory of his providential care though the object to which we direct our acknowledgments is not so mean as theirs which was a stock or stone But is it not the same injury to a person to rifle him of his goods to bestow it upon a begger as to give it to a Prince * Amiraut de diverses religions 'T is a depriving a man of his right Yet is not this ordinary Do not men ascribe more to the Physician that saves an eye in danger of being lost by a defluxion than to God who hath given them both with the enjoyment of the light of the Sun yea more to the Medicine than to that God who hath a witness of his Deity in every Drug 'T is as if the kindness a Prince shews to his subjects should be attributed to a Scullion in his Kitchin rather than to himself This is to bely God and say it is not he * Ier. 5.12 'T is applicable to the case of mercies as well as afflictions and judgments of which it is properly meant And this contempt is the greater by how much the greater mercy we have received in a way of providence Hos 2.8 she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oyl and multiplyed her silver and gold which they prepared for Baal She that had most reason to know because she had enjoyed so much she that had experience how by a strong and mighty hand I brought her out of Egypt into the Land now possessed by her She would not know that I gave her those good things she prepared for Baal It would be a natural consequent from this Scripture that those that employ the good things they enjoy upon their lusts do deny the providential goodness of God in their possession and enjoyment of them because they prepare God's goodness for their sinful pleasures as though their own lusts had been the Authors of them and also their instruments that receive too high and flattering thanks of this nature are much like Herod that tickled himself with the Peoples applause that his voice was the voice of God and not of man 5. When we use indirect courses and dishonest waies to gain wealth or honour This is to leave God to seek relief at Hells gates and adore the Devil's providence above God's When God doth not answer us like Saul we will go to the witch of Endor and have our ends by Hell when Heaven refuseth us 'T is a convenanting with the Devil and striking up a bargain and agreement with Hell and acknowledging Satan to be the God of the World No man will doubt but in express Covenants with the Devil as Witches and Conjurers are reported to make that the Devil shall give them such knowledge such wealth or bring them to such honour 't is no doubt I say but such do acknowledge the Devil the God of the world because they agree by articles to have those things conferred upon them by Satan which are only in the power of God absolutly to promise or bestow So when a man will commit Sin to gain the ends of his ambition or covetousness does he not implicitely covenant with the Devil who is the head of sinners and set up his sin in the place of God because he hopes to attain those things by sinful means which are only in the hand of God and on whom he only can have a dependance This is the Devil's design