and raised an expectation even among the Romans of some great Prince who was to rise in the East as Tacitus observes And though the knowledge of the God of Israel did not reform Nations yet we have reason to believe that it made a great many private Converts who secretly forsook the Idolatries of their Countries and Worshipped the only True God It is reasonable to think it should do so and we must confess it was wisely designed by God for that purpose and some few examples of this kind which we know may satisfie us that there were many more On the Famous Day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles in a Visible appearance of cloven tongues like as of fire there were at Ierusalem great Numbers not only of Iews but of Proselytes out of every Nation Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Iudaea and Cappadocia in Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphilia in Egypt and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene and strangers of Rome Iews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians 2. Acts 9 10 11. Whether these were Circumcised or Uncircumcised Proselites is not said but Proselites they were out of all these Nations who came up at the Feast to Worship at Ierusalem from whence we learn that the dispersion of the Iews into all Nations made great Numbers of Proselites who either undertook the observation of the Mosaical Law by Circumcision and became Iews or at least renounced all the Heathen Idolatries and worshipped no other God but the God of Israel The number of these last seems to have been much greater than that of Circumcised Proselites and if we believe some Learned men there is frequent mention made of them in Scripture under the names of worshipping Greeks and devout men and those which feared God When Saint Paul preached at Thessalonica there consorted with Paul and Silas of the devout Greeks a great multitude 17. Acts 24. The very name of Greeks proves them to be Gentiles not Iews who are always distinguished from each other and that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devout or worshipping Greeks proves that they were the Worshippers of the God of Israel for that Title is never given in Scripture to Idolaters and their frequenting the Iewish Synagogue sufficiently proves it for no Gentiles resorted thither but those who worshipped the God of Israel Of this number was Lydia 16. Acts 14. and Cornelius the Roman Centurion who was not only a devout man and one who feared God himself but all his Family were so too 10. Acts 2. and the Eunuch 8. Acts 27. and almost in every place where St. Paul preached the Gospel we find great numbers of these worshipping Gentiles at Thessalonica and Philippi as you have seen at Corinth 18. Acts 4. at Antioch of Pisidia 13. Acts 43. and we have reason to conclude that thus it was in other places which shews what a great effect the dispersion of the Iews into all these Countries had in making Proselites some to the Iewish Religion but many more to the Worship of the God of Israel which prepared them to receive the Gospel when is was preached to them For they were the Worshippers of the True God and were instructed in the Law and the Prophets as appears from their frequenting the Iewish Synagogues and therefore were in expectation of the Messias and were capable of understanding the Scripture Proofs of the Christian Faith It is certain the first Gentile Converts were of this sort of men who more readily embraced the Faith than the Iews themselves for they had all the preparations for Christianity which the Iews had but none of their Prejudices neither a fondness for their Ceremonial Worship nor for the Temporal Kingdom of the Messias And therefore a very Learned man expounds that Text 13. Acts 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed of these devout and worshipping Gentiles that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready disposed and prepared to receive the Doctrine of Eternal Life by Christ Jesus And thus we are come to the days of Christ whose appearance in the world was the last and most effectual means God used for the recovery of Mankind to consider the Divine Wisdom in the Redemption of the world by Jesus Christ relates to the wisdom of the Christian Religion not of Providence and therefore does not concern my present Argument but if we take a brief review of what I have said we may the better understand in what sense Christ is said to come in the fulness of time for he came as soon as the world was prepared to receive him For I would desire any man who complains that the coming of Christ was too long delayed to tell me in what sooner period it had been proper for him to appear In every Age as I have already shewn God took the wisest methods that the Condition of Mankind would at that time allow to reform the world and if Christ appeared at such a time as the Divine Wisdom saw most fit and proper for his appearance he appeared as soon as he could if we will allow God to dispense his Grace and Favours wisely That he did so no man can doubt who believes the Wisdom and Goodness of God But my business at present is to give you a fair representation of all those wise Advances God made to this last compleating and stupendious Act of Grace and Love God had promised our first Parents immediately upon the Fall That the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head and by vertue of this Promise all truly good men were saved by Christ from the beginning of the world But the more to recommend the Love of God in the Incarnation and Death of our Saviour it seems very congruous to the Divine Wisdom that all other Methods should be first tried for the reforming of Mankind before the coming of Christ and that he should come in such a time when the world was best prepared to receive Him and as little as we understand of the unsearchable Counsels of God it may satisfy us that upon both these accounts Christ appeared in the fulness of time When all flesh had corrupted his ways and there was but one Righteous Family left the only probable means of restoring Piety and Vertue to the world was to destroy all that Wicked Generation of Men and to preserve that Righteous Family to new-people the world When that New Generation began to corrupt themselves God separated them from each other by confounding their Languages and formed them into distinct Societies and Kingdoms which was the most effectual way to stop the Infection and to force on them the practise of many Moral and Civil Vertues When notwithstanding this they all declined to Idolatry God chose Abraham and his Posterity to be his peculiar People to preserve the Faith and Worship of the One Supream God in the world he gave them his Laws committed to
End explains them and then we admire the Skill and Art of the Poet. Now the great Obscurities and Difficulties of Providence are in such intermediate Events before we know what God intends by them As to give an Instance or two of it Had we heard no more of Ioseph but that he was sold by his Brethren into Egypt and there falsly accused by a Wanton Mistress and cast into Prison we should have thought that God had dealt very hardly with him but when we understand that all this was the way to Pharaoh's Throne there is no man but would be contented to be a Ioseph Thus the Story of Iob's Afflictions strikes Terror and Astonishment into all that hear them Iob himself knew not what account to give of his Sufferings and his Friends gave a very bad one by falsly and uncharitably accusing Iob of some unknown Wickedness to vindicate God's Severity towards him and we should have been as much puzzl'd with it to this day had we not been acquainted with the Reason of Iob's Sufferings and with that long and great Prosperity wherewith God rewarded his Faith and Patience and now no man thinks the Sufferings of Iob any Difficulty in Providence much less any Objection against it Thus it is with reference to single men when we see only a Scene or two of their lives we may meet with such prosperous or adverse Events as we cannot account for but could we see from the beginning to the end in most cases the Divine Providence would justify it self But then the hidden and Mysterious Designs of Providence relating to Churches and Kingdoms which comprehend so many great and wonderful Revolutions the Translations of Empires the removing the Gospel from one Countrey and planting Churches in others where there were none before the Increase and Flourishing State of Religion in one Age and its great Declension and almost total Eclypse in another those surprizing Changes which may be observed in the Genius Tempers and Inclinations of Princes and People in several Ages the unaccountable Beginnings of War and the as unaccountable Successes and unaccountable End of it the long Prosperity of Persecuting Tyrants and their sudden Fall These and such like Events must needs be very obscure and unknown to us who know not what God aims at in all this nor what Designs he is carrying on The Designs of Providence many times reach from one Age to another nay do not come to perfection in many Ages and yet have all a mutual dependance and relation to each other and are subservient to some last great End The Prophesies of Daniel and the Revelations of St. Iohn as Mysterious Books as they are and as difficult as it is to apply the several parts of them to their particular Events yet thus much is plain in them That there is a long Series and Chain of Events which reach from Age to Age with Infinite Turnings and Variety of Wisdom directed by a steady and unerring Counsel to some Unknown but Glorious Conclusion And when the Divine Counsels are so deep and mysterious and so far out of our sight when we see so little a part of what God does and know not what end God aims at in it how impossible is it that we should understand the reason of particular Events Had we a certain and particular History of what God has already done and could we certainly understand the Prophesies of what is still to be done in every Age and in all succeeding Ages that we could have one View of Providence from the Beginning to the End we should be more competent Judges of the Wisdom Beauty and Justice of Providence but when our Accounts of what is past are so imperfect and uncertain and our Knowledge of what is to come much more imperfect than of what is past when we know so little of our own Age of our own Countrey of our own Neighbourhood it is as impossible to understand the Reasons of Providence as it is to understand the wise Contrivance and Design of a Comedy by reading one Act or it may be but one Scene of that Act. This is certain that we can never understand the Reasons of Providence without understanding the Counsels of God and for what end every thing is designed for every thing is well or ill contrived as it serves the end for which it is intended and therefore we may as reasonably pretend to understand all the secret Counsels of God as all the Reasons of Providence This very Reason St. Paul gives why the Providence of God is so unsearchable 11. Rom. 33 34. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor 3dly We are very ignorant also of the state of the other world and while we are so it is impossible we should be able thoroughly to comprehend the Reason of God's Providence in this world It is a vain thing to talk of Providence without taking the other world into the account Were there no other life after this it were not worth the while to dispute Whether there be a Providence or not for whether there be or be not a Providence things are as they are and if Death put an end to us it is of no great consequence which is truest The only reason why some men so zealously dispute against a Providence is because they are unwilling to believe that there is a God or another world and the reason why we so zealously contend for a Providence is to support our selves against all cross Events with the Care and Protection of a Wise and Good God at present and with the Hopes of a more Blessed and Happy Life hereafter So that in truth this Dispute is not so much intended against Providence as against the Being of God and another Life and therefore both these must be taken into the account when they make their Objections against Providence or all their Arguments signify nothing As for Instance It is not enough for them to say and to prove too That there are such Difficulties in Providence for the Difficulties of Providence are their great Objection as no man can give a reasonable account of but that there are such Difficulties as Infinite Wisdom it self cannot account for for tho there may be many Difficulties which we cannot particularly answer as all wise men acknowledge that there are yet unless they can positively prove That Infinite Wisdom it self cannot answer these Difficulties the world may still be governed by an Infinitely Wise Being and it is demonstrable that they can never prove this for nothing less than Infinite Wisdom can tell what Infinite Wisdom knows and what Difficulties it can answer Which shews how vain all these Arguments against Providence are which at last resolve themselves into the Ignorance of Human Understandings That there is no Providence because
we see such things done in the world which for ought we know Infinite Wisdom can give very wise Reasons for but we can't Thus to come to the business in hand It is not enough to prove That there are such Difficulties in Providence as we can give no account of if there be no other life after this but they must positively prove That there are such Difficulties as the next world can give no account of All men must acknowledge this to be very reasonable for if there be another life after this it is evident that the Reasons of Providence must in many cases be wholly fetched from the other world If we must live in another world when we remove out of this then this life is but one short Scene of Providence and the government of Mankind in this world is chiefly in order to the next and then the Reasons of God's government also must relate to the next world And if we must judge of the Providence of God by its relation to the next world it will give a general Answer to all the Difficulties of Providence and give us a satisfactory Reason why we must not expect to understand all the particular Passages of Providence in this world The general Answer is this That all the seeming Irregularities of Providence in this world will be rectified in the next and when we see this done we shall then see the Wisdom of what we now call the Irregular and Eccentrick Motions of Providence It is certain this may be so and no man can prove it can't be so and if we had no other Evidence for it the reason and nature of things upon the supposition of the other world makes it highly probable that it will be so All men who believe another world believe also that good men shall be greatly rewarded and the wicked punished in the next life and we Christians are assured that it shall be so by the express Revelations of Scripture that good men shall be eternally rewarded in Heaven and bad men eternally punished in Hell-fire And it is wonderful to me that any Christians who profess to believe this should puzzle themselves about the Difficulties of Providence for what Difficulties are there which Eternal Happiness and Eternal Miseries will not answer The great Prosperity of bad men especially when they openly defy God and Religion and oppress all within their power and persecute the true Disciples of Christ and do all the mischief they can in the world and the Poverty and Disgrace Persecutions and Sufferings of good men are thought great Difficulties in Providence but could these Objectors but look into the next world and see Dives tormented in Flames and hear him beg only for a Drop of Water to cool his Tongue could they see Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom no longer begging an Alms but entertain'd with all the Delights of Paradise Could they see the Punishments of Tyrants Persecutors and Oppressors and the Glorious Crowns of Martyrs would they then any longer complain of Providence Would they think God too kind to bad men or too hard and severe to the good If the final Rewards and Punishments of good and bad men are reserved for the next world there is no difficulty at all in the Prosperity of some bad men and the Afflictions of the good in this world for they are not intended so much for Rewards and Punishments as for Methods of Discipline and Government that the Justice of God is not so much concerned in it as the Wisdom of Providence which we who know not what belongs to the government of the world are very unfit judges of This leaves room for God as his own Infinite Wisdom shall direct to exercise great Patience and Long-suffering towards bad men to make them the Ministers and Executioners of his Vengeance upon a wicked world or to lead them to Repentance and to correct the sins and follies of good men to rectify the temper of their minds to govern their passions to exercise and improve their Graces and Vertues in a word to make bad men good and to make good men better and to serve the wise ends of his Government and Providence by both So that the belief of another world gives a general Answer to all the Difficulties of Providence and it does not become a Christian to call any thing a Difficulty in Providence which the other world will answer That there are such Difficulties as we can give no account of without another life we all acknowledge and know that it must be so for if this life have a relation to the next the Reasons of Providence in many cases must of necessity be fetched from the next world and therefore when an Atheist disputes with a Christian against Providence if he will say any thing to the purpose he must dispute against Providence upon the supposition of another life and prove that the Eternal Rewards and Punishments of the next world cannot vindicate the Wisdom and Justice of Providence in this This is the true state of the Controversy and bring them to this Issue and they will find little to say which will give any trouble to a wise man to answer But after all we must confess That we know so little of the other world that it is impossible for us to give a particular reason of every passage of Providence which relates to the next world I say which relate to the next world which are the greatest difficulties of all to good men The belief of another life will answer all the Difficulties of Providence which concern this life but those Difficulties which concern the state of the other world it cannot answer but then there is a plain reason why we cannot answer such Difficulties viz. Because we do not know enough of the state of the other world to say any thing to them and therefore we ought not to trouble our selves about them here but to stay till we come into the next world and then it is very probable they will be no Difficulties I shall instance in one very great one and that is the state of Religion in this world which is no Objection against Providence with respect to this life but the whole Difficulty of it relates to the next life That since all men have Immortal Souls and must be happy or miserable for ever God should for so many Ages suffer the whole World excepting the Iews to live in Ignorance and in Pagan Idolatry and Superstition That Christ came so late into the world to reveal the True God and to publish the Gospel to them and that so great a part of the World still are Pagans and Mahometans nay that so little a part of the Christian World retain the True Faith and Worship of Christ This is Ten thousand times a greater Difficulty than any present evils and calamities because the consequences of it reach to Eternity But then the whole Difficulty is no more than this That we know not
heart He who intends and resolves it and wants nothing but an opportunity to commit adultery is an Adulterer If God then must not permit sin he must not suffer men to will and to chuse any thing that is wicked for this is the sin herein the immorality of the Act consists Consider then what the meaning of this is that God must not leave men to the liberty of their own choice but must always over-rule their minds by an irresistible Power to chuse that which is good and to refuse the evil But will any one say that this is to govern men like men Is this the natural government of free Agents to take away their liberty and freedom of choice Does government signify destroying the nature of those Creatures which are to be governed does this become God to make a free Agent and to govern him by necessity and force This I confess is a certain way to keep Sin out of the world but it thrusts Holiness out of the world too for where there is no liberty of choice there can be neither moral good nor evil and this would be a more reasonable objection against the Holiness of Providence that it banishes Holiness out of the world I grant that God governs the minds of men as well as their external Actions directs and influences their Counsels suggests wise thoughts to them excites good men to great and vertuous Actions and lays invisible restraints upon the Lusts and Passions of Bad men turns their Hearts changes their Counsels and diverts them from ill-laid Designs especially when they have no external restraints on them and the pursuing such Counsels would be very hurtful to the world or to the Church of God nay I deny not but in such cases God may by an irresistible power and influence govern the minds of men not to make them good but to make them the instruments of Providence in doing such good as they have no inclination to do and to chain up their Passions that they may not do that hurt which they intended to do as I have shewn at large above And I see nothing in this which unbecomes the Wise and Soveraign Lord of the world sometimes by an immediate power to govern the minds as well as the bodies of men that they shall no more be able to will and chuse than they are to do what they themselves please For though God has made man a reasonable Creature and free Agent he has not wholly put him out of his own power but that when he sees fit he can lay invisible restraints upon him or clap a counter byass upon his mind which shall lead him contrary to the natural tendency of his own Will and Lusts Thus it is in the natural World though God has endowed all Creatures with natural Vertues and Qualities and in the ordinary course of his Providence suffers them to produce their natural effects yet he has reserved to himself a Sovereign Authority over Nature to reverse its Laws or suspend its influences by an immediate and supernatural Power and I see no reason why God may not do this in the moral as well as in the natural world when the good government of the world requires it But though God may thus sometimes by a Supernatural Power influence the minds of men and chain up their Lusts and Passions yet this is not the natural government of mankind consider'd as free Agents and it would no more become God always to over-rule mens Wills in this manner than it would always to over-power Nature and to govern the natural world not by its natural Vertues and Powers but by constant Miracles And if the ordinary and natural government of mankind considered as reasonable and free Agents requires that God should leave men to the liberty and freedom of their own choice which is the only thing that can be judged and that is capable of Rewards and Punishments then it is no reasonable objection against the Holiness of Providence that God permits men to chuse wickedly that he does not always by an Irresistible and Sovereign Power hinder the internal acts of Sin Especially when we consider that God gives men all those internal assistances of his Grace and lays all those internal restraints upon their Lusts and Passions which are consistent with the liberty of Human Actions Though we know not in what manner the Holy Spirit works upon the minds of men yet this we know if we believe the Gospel of our Saviour That God worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure That he gives his holy spirit to those who ask him to be a principle of a spiritual life in them And Bad men themselves if they will but confess what they feel must tell you what strugglings they find in their own minds before they can yield to the temptations of sin How in some cases especially at their first entrance upon a sinful course of life natural modesty in others natural pity and compassion in others a natural greatness and generosity of mind gives check to them how at first they blush at the thoughts of any wickedness and are reproached by their own Consciences for it how they tremble at the thoughts of a future Judgment or some present Vengeance to overtake them and can never sin securely till they have laughed away the thoughts of God and of another world Such care God has taken to make Sin uneasy to the minds of men and to reconcile them to the love of Vertue and if after all they will be wicked as free Agents may be if they will this can be no blemish to the Holiness of Providence because it is no fault of Providence to leave free Agents to the freedom of their own choice 2dly As for the external Acts of Sin it must be confessed that God permits a great deal of wickedness to be actually committed such as Thefts Murders Adulteries Perjuries and the like Now this requires a different consideration for in Human Governments this is thought a great miscarriage to suffer any wickedness to be actually committed which we can hinder the commission of No man would be thought innocent much less a Prince who should see a man murthered a Virgin deflowered a Robbery or any other Villanies committed without interposing to hinder the commission of such wickedness when it was in his power to do it and how then can we vindicate the Holiness of Providence which sees and observes and could easily hinder the commission of such wickedness as it daily permits Now rightly to understand this matter we must consider 1. That God cannot always by an immediate Power hinder the actual commission of sin without a perpetual violation of the order of Nature and therefore this does not properly belong to an ordinary Providence which is the government of all Creatures according to their Natures We know indeed That when Ieroboam in great anger stretched out his hand against the Prophet
this is enough in answer to an Objection which no considering man would seriously make The more considerable Objection relates to the many Evils and Miseries that are in the World and the only Objection which if it were true could have any weight in it is That the Miseries of this Life are so many so great and so universal that they overballance the Pleasures and Comforts of it that a wise man would rather chuse not to be than to live in this World And though the generality of Mankind are of another mind and therefore need no answer to this yet they think they have the Scripture on their side For the Wise-man 4. Eccl. 2 3. tells us Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive Yea better is he than both they who hath not yet been who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun This at first view looks like a very sharp Satyr upon Human Life that it is better to die than to live and that not to live at all is better than either And were this universally true it were a vain thing to think of vindicating the Goodness of Providence in the government of this World which has nothing good or desirable in it That this is not the meaning of the words we may certainly conclude from those many Promises which are made to Good men in this Life and God would not promise Good men what is worth nothing But the Explication of this Text will contribute very much to the understanding this whole matter and therefore I shall 1. Shew you That this is not universally true nor intended to be so understood by the Wise-man That it is better to die or not to be than it is to live 2. Shew you in what sense the Wise-man meant this viz. with respect to the many Miseries and Calamities which some Ages of the World and which some men in all Ages are exposed to And how this also is to be understood 1. That this is not universally true That it is better to die or not to be born than it is to live This I confess was taught by some of the Ancient Philosophers and Poets in too general terms That the first best thing is not to be born and the next to die quickly but no body believed them for most men felt it otherwise That light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun 11. Eccl. 7. There is a sense indeed wherein this may be true If we acknowledge that this Life in its greatest glory and perfection is the most imperfect state that a Reasonable Soul can live in as most certainly it is then those Philosophers who did believe that the Souls of men lived and acted before they were born into this World and were thrust into these Bodies in punishment for what they had done amiss in a former state had reason to say That the best thing is not to be born for upon this Supposition it is best for them to continue in that State of Happiness and not to come into this World and if when they die they return to their Original State of Happiness the next best thing for them is to die quickly and it is most probable that this was their secret meaning in it For if we only consider the Advantages and Disadvantages of Life in ordinary Cases Life is very desirable so desirable that it makes Death the King of Terrors It would be a great Reproach to the Wisdom and Goodness of Providence were this Life so contemptible or so calamitous a State that it were more desirable not to be than to live in this World but no man yet ever made Life an objection against Providence though we know they do the Miseries and Calamities of Life Men may make themselves miserable without any reproach to Providence and most of the Miseries that are in the World are owing to mens own fault or folly but had God made Life it self so contemptible or miserable a state as to be worse than not being this had been an unanswerable Objection I 'm sure we are very ungrateful to Almighty God if we do not acknowledge that bountiful provision which he has made for the Happiness of Mankind in this World For what is wanting on God's part to make Man as happy as he can be here We want no Sense which is useful to Life we want no Objects to gratify those Senses and which is very considerable the most useful and necessary and delightful Objects are most common and such as Mankind pretty equally share in There is not such a mighty difference as some men imagine between the Poor and the Rich In pomp and shew and opinion there is a great deal but little as to the true Pleasures and Satisfactions of Life They enjoy the same Earth and Air and Heavens hunger and thirst makes the Poor man's Meat and Drink as pleasant and refreshing as all the Varieties which cover a Rich man's Table and the Labour of a Poor man is more healthful and many times more pleasant too than the Ease and Softness of the Rich to be sure much more easy than the Cares and Solicitudes the Pride and Ambition Discontents and Envyings and Emulations which commonly attend an Exalted Fortune These indeed at best are but mean Pleasures the Pleasures of Sense which are the lowest Pleasures a Reasonable Soul is capable of but yet they are so entertaining that the generality of Mankind think it worth living to enjoy them nay most men know little of any other Pleasures but these and as philosophically as some may despise the Body and all it's Pleasures in words there are but a very few who can live above the Body and all its Pleasures while they live in it But how mean soever these Pleasures be it is certain they make Mankind notwithstanding all the common allays they meet with not only patient of living but desirous to live And yet there are more Noble and Divine Pleasures which men may enjoy in this World such as gratify the nobler Faculties of the Soul the Pleasures of Wisdom and Knowledg of Vertue and Religion to know and worship God to contemplate the Art and Beauty and Perfection of his Works and to do good to men These indeed are Pleasures that do not make us very fond of this Body nor of this World for they do not arise from the Body nor are they confined to this World We have reason to hope that when we get loose from these Bodies our Intellectual Faculties will be vastly improved that we shall know God after another manner than we now do and discover new and brighter Glories which are concealed from Mortal Eyes but yet the Pleasures of Knowledge and Wisdom and Religion in this World are very great and ravishing and therefore we either do or may enjoy at present such Pleasures as make Life very desirable Were there no other
have delivered Israel without them for it would argue a great defect in the ordinary methods of Government if God could not at any time save good men and punish and destroy the wicked without a Miracle God can do whatever he pleases by the wise direction and government of natural and moral Causes and therefore does not work Miracles because he needs them to supply the defects of natural Powers but to bear testimony to his own Being and Providence and to give authority to his Ministers and Prophets and we must learn the wisdom of this from the state and condition of the world at that time Mankind at that time were so far from being Atheists that they would worship any thing the meanest and most contemptible Creatures rather than have no God and they were so sensible how much they stood in need of a Divine Providence that one God would not serve them but they wanted as many Gods not only as there were Nations but as they had wants to supply This was a great corruption of the Light of Nature and those Notions of One Supream God imprinted on our minds and proclaimed by the whole visible Creation but yet was so universal and so prevailing that their wisest Philosophers who had better notions of the Deity were not able to resist the Torrent and durst not openly oppose the Worship of those Countrey Gods for fear of a popular Rage and Fury Now when neither the Light of Nature nor the Works of Creation and of a common Providence could secure the belief and worship of the One Supream God what remained but for God to make some more sensible manifestation of himself to the world and let any man consider what more effectual way could have been taken to convince men of the Divine Power and Providence than by Miracles especially such Miracles as are for the deliverance and protection of good men and the punishment and overthrow of the wicked When the Corruption of Mankind is such that they will not learn from Nature there is no way of teaching them but by something which is supernatural and when the beautiful and regular and uniform Order of Nature will not convince men that there is a God at least not that there is One Supream God who made and who governs this World Miracles will Those who will not believe that the World was made or had any Wise and Intelligent Cause must confess that Miracles have a Cause because they see them produced and that that Cause is not Nature because they see them produced without any Natural Cause or against the Laws of Nature nor Chance and Accident because they are done at the command of a Free Agent at the word of a man as all the Signs and Wonders in Egypt were wrought at the word of Moses whose word had no natural vertue and efficacy in it to work Wonders And therefore Miracles certainly prove that there is an Invisible Intelligent Cause who if he did not make the World could have made it if he had pleased for whoever can in any one instance act without or against Nature can create Nature too For to do any thing which Nature cannot do is in that particular to make Nature and he who can make Nature in one instance can do so in all and this is a good reason to believe that the World was made when we know that there is a Cause that can make the World And that Superior Power he exercises over Nature proves that he both can and does govern the World for he has the supream and absolute Government of Nature who can when he pleases give new powers to it or suspend and reverse its Laws So that Miracles are a Supernatural Proof of a Divine Power and Providence and no man who believes that there ever was a true Miracle wrought can be an Atheist and therefore it is no wonder that Atheists are such professed Enemies to the belief of Miracles but it is a great wonder that they can persuade themselves to reject all those Authentick Relations we have of Miracles both from the Law of Moses and from the Gospel of Christ which are the most credible Histories in the world if we look upon them as no more than Histories and have obtained the most universal belief Especially this is very unaccountable in those men who pretend to Deism to acknowledge a God who made the World for cannot that God who made the World and made Nature act without or above or against Nature when he pleases And may it not become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to do this when it is necessary for the more abundant conviction of Mankind who are sunk into Atheism or Idolatry when Signs and Wonders are necessary to awaken men into the sense and belief of God and his Providence which was the case in the days of Moses or to give Authority to Prophets to declare and reveal the Will of God to men which was a reason for Miracles as long as God thought fit to make any new and publick Revelations of his Will when it is as reasonable and credible that God who can when he pleases should some times work Miracles as it is that he should take care to preserve the knowledge of himself and his Will and to restore it when it is lost or to make such new discoveries of his Grace as the fallen state of Mankind requires when I say the thing it self is so credible and so worthy of God what reasonable pretence can there be for rejecting Miracles for which we have the Authority of the best attested History in the World But Atheism was not the Disease of that Age which had run into the other Extreme of Polytheism and Idolatry and therefore though Miracles do prove the Being and Providence of God the Miracles of Moses were principally intended to prove the Glory and Power of the God of Israel that the God of Israel is the One Supream God and that he had chosen Israel for his peculiar People and this he did by doing such things as no other God could do such as made the Egyptian Magicians confess that it was the Finger of God and what more effectual way could be taken to convince the world of One Supream God than such visible demonstrations of an Absolute and Soveraign Power superior to all Those who worshipped a plurality of Gods either had no notion of One Supream God whose Power ruleth over all or if they had yet they believed that this Supream God had committed the care and government of Mankind to inferior Deities whom they therefore worshipped with Divine Honours as the Disposers of their Lives and Fortunes and either paid no worship to the Supream God which was the more general practice or worshipped their Country-gods together with him and that with the most frequent most solemn and pompous Worship Now such great and wonderful Works as these which none of their Country-gods could do was an evident proof that
usurping Powers as long as we can resist but the Providence of God which governs the world makes it lawful to submit when we cannot resist and when by such submissions new Kingdoms are erected and we are become the Subjects of new Powers then Providence has changed our Relations and made it our duty to submit 4thly There is another Inquiry also of great moment how our submission to Providence under all our Sufferings and Changes of Fortune requires us to behave our selves towards men who are the Causes and Instruments of such Misfortunes For if it be the will of God that we should suffer such things why should we be angry with the men who do them why should we punish them why should we revenge our selves of them when they only execute the Divine Counsels and do what God saw fit that we should suffer Does not Ioseph thus excuse his Brethren for selling him into Egypt that it was God who sent him thither And does not David for this reason forbear his revenge on Shimei Let him curse for God hath said unto him Curse David But the answer to this is short and plain that God's over-ruling mens wickedness to serve wise and good ends does not excuse their wickedness nor excuse them from the just punishments of their wickedness the sin is their own though it be wisely ordered by God for our trial or correction but the wise Government of God makes no change in the nature of mens Actions nor in their Deserts God himself will punish their wickedness though he serves wise ends by it and has commanded men to do so for no man sins by the will of God though no man suffers any thing but by God's will But yet Submission to Providence will greatly mitigate our Resentments and calm our Passions and keep them within the bounds of Reason and Religion When we consider that whatever we suffer is appointed for us by God that how wicked soever men are we can suffer nothing by their wickedness but what God for wise Reasons sees fit we should suffer this will satisfy us that we are more concerned with God than with men that tho Men be the Rod wherewith we are scourged it is God that strikes and a Reverence for the Divine Judgments will make us take less notice of the Instruments of our sufferings In short Submission to Providence leaves us nothing to be angry with men for but their own wickedness that we suffer tho we suffer by their wickedness yet it is not so much their doings as God's who orders these sufferings for us and without whose Order and Appointment no man can hurt us and therefore we must not be angry with men for our sufferings but reverence God Whatever their Personal Hatred or Malice or Revenge be how much soever they intend or desire to do us hurt we may securely despise them as out of their reach for we are in the hands of God And if our Sufferings are not owing to men any otherwise than as Instruments in God's hands why should we be angry with men for what we suffer Why should we revenge our Sufferings on them when we suffer by the Will of God We may be angry at their Wickedness and at their ill will to us but humbly submit to our Sufferings as the Will of God Now I need not say how this will calm and temper our Passions because it leaves so little of self in our Anger and Resentments let men be as angry with Wickedness as they please and punish it as it deserves this is a Virtuous Anger and never transports men to excess it is self-love which inflames our Anger and sharpens our Revenge not that such Wickedness is committed but that we are the Sufferers by it for men are never so angry in another man's Cause as they are in their own tho the Wickedness the Affront the Injury is the same but Personal Injuries and Affronts are most provoking that is we love our Selves more than we hate Wickedness when our Anger is excessive But now if men have nothing to do with us nor we with them as to the case of Suffering if all this be ordered and appointed by God here is little room for Personal Resentments for that we suffer by their Wickedness is God's doings and therefore we have nothing to be angry with them for but that they are wicked and then tho our own Sufferings will give us a greater sense and abhorrence of their Wickedness and make us more personally concerned to punish it yet our Passions will be more gentle and easy the more we attribute our Sufferings to God and the less to Men. Secondly Another Duty we owe to Providence is An entire Trust and Dependance on God The state of a Creature is all Dependance and Faith and Hope and Trust are the Virtues of a dependant state and can in reason have no other Object but that Being on whom we depend the great Creator and Governor of the world in whom we live move and have our being All other Dependancies are vain because none else can help us but God has all Events in his hands he can help us if he pleases and he will help us if we trust in him The Scripture abounds with Exhortations to trust in God with promises to those who do trust in him with Examples of God's Care and Protection of those good men who make him their only Hope and Trust but yet the Duty it self needs some Explication and therefore I shall consider the Nature of this Hope and Trust and what are the various Acts of it or wherein the Exercise of it consists 1. The Nature of this Faith and Hope and Trust in the Divine Providence What it is to hope and trust and depend on God or Men we all know and feel but the Question is What it is we must trust God for and how far we must depend on him For must we believe That God will do every thing for us which we trust in him to do If suppose we have a Child or a Friend dangerously sick must we firmly believe that God will spare their lives and restore their health if we trust in him to do it Must a Merchant confidently expect a safe and advantageous Voyage if he trust in God for it Has God any where promised to give us whatever we trust in him for Or does the Nature and Reason of Providence infer any such thing And yet what does Trust in God signify if we must not depend on him for those good things which we want and desire and trust him for What do all the Promises made to Hope and Trust in God signify if they give us no security that we shall obtain our Desires of God Nay indeed how can any man hope and trust in God when he has no assurance that he shall obtain what he hopes for I doubt not but such thoughts as these make most men so distrustful of Providence that tho they talk
and possessed with a lively Sense of his Goodness can fear no Evil is out of the reach of solicitous cares is contented in every condition as allotted him by God nay is patient under Sufferings themselves which are the Corrections or Discipline of a kind Father He considers how much good he receives from God and how far it exceeds all the Evils he suffers and therefore he has reason to bless God still as Iob did for shall we receive good from the hand of God and shall we not receive evil especially when the good we receive proves the very evils we suffer to be good because they are inflicted by a good God All these Graces and Vertues are owing to the belief of a Divine Providence and cannot be had without it they belong to that Submission to God and trust in his Providence which I have already explained but it is Praise and Thanksgiving which awakens that vigorous Sense of God which exercises all these Vertues and gives us the ease and satisfaction of them Thus when God loses his Praise we lose the ease and security of our Lives But this is not all for the World also in a great measure loses the benefit and advantage of God's Government which as much disappoints the wise designs of Providence Not to own our Benefactor is to lose the sense of our dependence which makes all the Goodness of God lost on Sinners for the Goodness of God cannot affect any man cannot lead him to repentance can be no reason nor encouragement to Vertue if it be not owned This spoils the very Blessings which God bestows on us which we shall never use to our own happiness without owning and praising the Giver of them He who remembers that he receives all from God and is affected with the Divine Goodness and Bounty in giving will use the good things he receives according to the mind and intention of the Giver and this is the only way to enjoy the benefit of the gift God does not give men riches meerly to look on or to imprison or to spend on their Lusts nor advance them to Honours to make them proud and insolent nor give them a large Portion of This World to make them forget the Next he who is thankful to God for all his Blessings cannot do this for this is the highest ingratitude to affront and provoke God with the abuse of what he gives and he who does thus loses the Blessing though he has the Gift A Covetous man is never the better for his Riches because he cannot use them and a Voluptuous man is much the worse because he uses them to his own hurt When high Places and Dignities make men Proud and Insolent it forfeits the Honour of them and he who forgets and by forgetting loses the next World has a very hard purchase of this Nay such men do not only disappoint God's Goodness to themselves but frustrate the gracious designs of his Providence in making them the Instruments and Ministers of his Goodness to others For those who take no notice of the Divine Providence but are very unthankful to God for what they have are so far from doing any good that they generally do great mischief to others as well as to themselves Those who are sensible that they receive all from God and are thankful for it remember that they are but God's Stewards which is a great Honour but a great Trust too and requires Faithfulness in thankfulness to God who has so liberally provided for them they think themselves bound to imitate his Goodness to supply the Wants and undertake the Patronage of those who want their help and in the judgment of Prudence and Charity deserve it But an unthankful man has no more regard to his Fellow Creatures then he has to God a Covetous man who will not supply his own wants to be sure will not relieve the wants of others and if a Voluptuous man does any kindness the receivers pay dear for it for he makes them the partners or instruments of his lusts A Rich Sinner helps to Debauch a whole Neighbourhood and a powerful Sinner to Oppress them and the daily experience of the World tells us what mischief Riches and Honour and Power do in the hands of Wicked and Unthankful men This I think may satisfie any considering man in the absolute necessity of Praise and Thanksgiving which is not only such an acknowledgment of the Divine Glory as becomes Creatures but is necessary to our own Happiness to our wise improvement of the Blessings of God and to the good Government of the World and all men must confess that this is a Wise and Just reason for God to recal his Gifts to take away what he had given to unthankful men and to give them no more not only because they disown their Benefactor but because they abuse all that he gives them to their own and to other mens hurt All that he gives is lost on them He loses the Praise and they themselves and every body else the comfort and advantage of it And thus I have finished this Discourse of Providence whereby I hope it will appear that there are great Reasons to believe a Providence that the Objections against it are Ignorant Mistakes and that nothing tends so much to the Ease and Comfort and good Government of our Lives as to acknowledge God to be the Supreme and Sovereign Lord of the World THE END ERRATA PAge 11. line 3. r. and that p. 13. l. 27. del made p. 38. l. 17. for or r. and uniform p. 97. l. 34. r. counsels p. 189. l. 14. f. on r. of p. 208. l. 4. f. shold r. should p. 227. l. 3. f. end r. means p. 272. l. 9. r. victory p. 273. l. 3. f. that r. the. l. 17. f. or r. and. p. 280. l. 30. r. undeniable p. 287. l. 25. r. vertue p. 291. l. 16. r. that p. 327. l. 31. r. Messias l. 33. r. whatever p. 332. l. 26. f. an r. on p. 344. l. 19. r. foot p. 338 l. 34. r. reasonable p. 340. l. 20. r. Nemesis p. 353. l. 2. r. how severe soever l. 22. dele most Books Published by the Reverend Dr. Sherlock Dean of St. Paul's Master of the Temple and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties AN Answer to a Discourse entituled Papists protesting against Protestant Popery Second Edition Quarto An Answer to the Amicable Accommodation of the Differences between the Representer and the Answerer Quarto A Sermon preached at the Funeral of the Reverend Dr. Calamy Quarto A Vindication of some Protestant Principles of Church-Unity and Catholick Communion from the Charge of Agreement with the Church of Rome Quarto A Preservative against Poperty in Two Parts with the Vindication in Answer to the Cavils of Lewis Salran Jesuit Quarto A Discourse concerning the Nature Unity and Communion of the Catholick Church First Part Quarto A Sermon preached before the Lord-Mayor November 4th 1688. Quarto A Vindication
the Will is moved how it is determined or determines it self whether by the Constitution of its Nature it always necessarily chuses what it chuses or might have not chose or have chosen any thing else Now whatever other men may do I 'm sure I know nothing of the Philosophy of these matters and therefore they don't concern me Others make God himself to be nothing else but Necessity and Fate who by Eternal and Irreversible Decrees as necessary and essential to him as his own Being has determined whatever shall come to pass but no man can pretend to know this without an Immediate Vision if I may so speak of the Naked Essence of God His Attributes and Moral Perfections give us no notice of such Fatal Decrees his Wisdom Holiness Justice Goodness contain nothing of Fate and Necessity and those who can see the very Essence of God to be Fate must be able to contemplate his Pure Essence and to know God after another manner than he ever yet manifested himself to Creatures or it may be than it is possible for God to show himself to Creatures Others conclude the Fatal Necessity of all Events from God's Prescience for they say that God can foreknow things only in his own Decrees and therefore if God foreknows all things all things are decreed or however what God foreknows will come to pass will certainly and necessarily come to pass and therefore all Events are certain and necessary if they are all foreknown by God But these are Conclusions which no man can be certain of without pretending perfectly to understand the Nature of Prescience or how God foreknows things to come for if God can foreknow what he has not decreed and can foreknow what does not come to pass necessarily then the Prescience of God does not infer a Fatality of all Events And yet this may be for ought we know unless we perfectly understand the Nature of Prescience and how God foreknows things to come and then we may foreknow things our selves The like may be said of God's concourse with his Creatures in all their actions from whence they conclude That the Will of man in all its elections is determined by God without whose concourse it cannot act nor determine it self These are all Nice Philosophical Speculations which creatures who are so ignorant of the Natures of things can know nothing of and therefore they are not fit to be made Arguments for or against any thing The Sum is this That since we must confess our selves so very ignorant of the Works of Nature without the knowledg of which in Ten thousand Instances it is impossible to understand the Wisdom of Providence it is unreasonable and absured for us to demand an account of God's Providences but we ought to be satisfied to leave God to Govern the World with the same Sovereign and Unaccountable Wisdom which at first gave Being to all things Thirdly That the Wise Government of the World requires secret and hidden Methods of Providence and therefore at least in this state we ought not to expect or desire a particular Account or Reason of all Events The Wise-man tells us It is the glory of God to conceal a thing 25. Prov. 2. It is the Glory of the Divine Nature that it is Incomprehensible by us and it is the Glory of the Divine Providence to be Unsearchable and therefore many of the Ancient Philosophers and Poets forbid too curious an Enquiry into the Nature or Providence of God and Sophronius gives a wise Reason for it Because we are all born of Mortal Parents and therefore the perfect knowledge of an Infinite Immortal Being must be above us Which is much the same Reason that Zophar gives Vain man would be wise tho man be born like a wild asses colt 11. Job 12. This is a knowledge too great for our birth if our Natural Capacities bear proportion to it for God must be a very little Being himself could he be comprehended by such mean Creatures But that which I at present intend is only to shew you That the Wise Government of the World requires that the Divine Counses that the Events and Reasons of Providence should in a great measure be concealed from us and I hope that is a satisfactory reason why God should conceal them if he can't so wisely govern the world without it I would desire those persons who are so apt to quarrel at Providence and to take it so very ill that God does any thing which they don 't presently understand to sit down and agree among themselves How they would have God govern the world What it is that they would be pleased with But let them consider well of it before-hand that upon second thoughts they don 't find more reason to quarrel at their own ways and methods of governing the world than they now have to quarrel with Providence or that the rest of mankind do not find more reason to quarrel with them than they have now to quarrel with God As to give an Instance or two of this by way of Essay Some seem to be very much discontented at the Uneveness and Uncertainty of all Events that all things are in a perpetual Flux and Motion that no man knoweth what a day or an hour will bring forth The instability of Fortune which gives and takes away and every day shews a new face and opens new and surprizing Scenes has been an old Complaint Well then Would they have this rectified Would they have all the Events of Providence as constant and regular and unchangeable as the Motions of the Heavens as the Returns of Day and Night of Winter and Summer And when they see all things happen thus evenly and regularly will they then promise to believe a Providence I mightily suspect that they will be farther from believing a Providence then than they are now We see that the Regular Motions of the Heavens and the Uniform Productions of Nature which so seldom vary that it is thought Portentous and Ominous if they do cannot convince them That God governs the Heavens and the Earth and all the Works of Nature as far as all their Vertues and Powers move and act uniformly by constant and unerring Laws and if the regular uniformity of Nature is not thought by these men a sufficient Proof of a Providence I doubt a constant and uniform round of all Events would be thought much less so Those who now resolve all the uncertain Changes and Revolutions that happen into Necessity and Fate would have more reason to do so did Providence always shew the same face and appearances as the Heavens do But can they tell what kind of Uniformity and Stability of Providence it is would please them Would they have all mens Fortunes equal That there should be no distinction between Rich and Poor High and Low Princes and Subjects the Honourable and the Vile I believe few of them would like such a Levelling Providence which as the state of
mankind now is would destroy the good Government of the world and most of the Pleasures and Conveniences of Life and yet without this the Providence of God is not so uniform towards men as it is towards beasts and those who fare worse than others of the same nature with them will still complain If then Providence must not deal alike by all men do they mean by the Uniformity and Stability of Providence That mens Fortunes whatever they are shall always be the same That the Rich and Prosperous shall always be Rich and Prosperous and the Poor always Poor and Beggars and Slaves Unless these Objectors be all Rich and Happy I doubt they will never agree to this for the Poor and Miserable must needs think it hard usage to be always poor without room for better hopes But such a Stability of Providence as this would destroy the Wise and Just Government of the World for how should God restrain and punish Wickedness and reward and encourage Vertue if the Rich must always be Rich and the Poor always Poor Nay how can the Providence of God do this without making men Vertuous and Vicious too by Necessity and Fate When Wantonness and Prodigality Idleness and Folly will spend or lose an Estate and Frugality Prudence and Diligence will get one And when all men in this world must not be equal does it not more become the Wisdom and Justice of Providence that mens own Vertues and Vices shall in a great measure make the distinction and carve out their own Fortunes for them So that when men complain of the Uncertainty and Instability of Fortune as they call it they complain of they know not what and were it put to their own choice what to have in the room of it they would not know how to mend the matter The wise government of free Agents who so often change themselves requires very frequent sudden surprizing Turns of Providence the reasons of which must of necessity be as invisible to us as the thoughts of mens hearts and their most secret intrigues and counsels till we can make men all move alike as regularly and uniformly as the Heavenly Bodies do it is an absurd and unreasonable complaint That Providence does not act regularly and that the Events of Providence are not always the same Another great Complaint against Providence is That good men are not always rewarded nor bad men punished according to their deserts That many bad men are prosperous in this world and some good men great sufferers That all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath 9. Eccl. 2. This makes the Events of Providence very sudden mysterious and unaccountable that no man knows what course to take to make his life easy and prosperous for whether he be good or wicked he may be happy or miserable as it happens As for the Objection it self I shall consider it more hereafter but at present I will only ask these Objectors Whether to remove these Difficulties and Uncertainties of Providence and that they may the better understand the Reasons of all Events they do in good earnest desire That God would reduce this matter to a Certainty by punishing all bad men and rewarding all good men in this world according to their deserts If they do I must tell them as Christ told the two Brethren who desired that they might sit one on his Right hand and the other on his Left in his Kingdom Ye ask ye know not what They ask the most dangerous thing that could possibly befal mankind and what they ask would be Ten thousand times a greater Objection against Providence than what they complain of Should every Sinner be punished in this world according to his deserts what man is there so just and innocent as to escape the Divine Vengeance If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand 130. Psal. 3. Were every Sinner punished as he deserves I doubt there would be no good man left to be rewarded for where is the man that doth good and sinneth not What room does this leave for Patience and Forbearance for the Repentance of Sinners for God's Pardoning-Grace and Mercy and what a Terrible Providence is this How contrary to all the Notions we have of God and his kind and gracious Government of his Creatures I grant God may exercise great Patience and Long-suffering towards sinners he may forgive the sins of true Penitents and yet punish sinners and reward good men even in this world these things are very reconcilable in God's Government of the world for thus he does govern the world but they are very irreconcilable with such a Providence and Government as these men desire which requires a present and visible Punishment of every sin as soon as committed and as present and visible a Reward of every good action for unless these Punishments and Rewards are present all the time they are delayed bad men may be prosperous and good men afflicted which is their very Objection against Providence which can never be removed but by speedy and visible Executions which leave no place for the Patience and Forgiveness of God or for the Repentance of Sinners And is it not much more desirable for ever to be ignorant of the Reasons of Providence than to have such Proofs and Demonstrations of Providence as this Let me desire these unthinking Cavillers at Providence to review their Objection over again and consider what is the meaning of every word in it and how upon second thoughts they like it themselves That they may have a plain and certain Reason of God's Judgments they desire that no man may suffer any external Calamity but only for sin and that every sinner may be punish'd in this world according to his deserts and then they will believe That there is a Providence that governs the world tho it is better for the world that they should continue Infidels than be thus convinced Well then who in the first place are these sinners whom they would have punished Do they mean every one who does a wicked action or every impenitent and incorrigible sinner If every one who at any time does any wicked action must be punished for it then it is plain that no man can escape then there is no place for Repentance or Forgiveness but a speedy Vengeance must pursue the sinner and God knows we are all sinners and must all be punished and if this removes one Objection against Providence I 'm sure it will very much encrease another from the many evils and miseries that are in the world which will be many more and much greater if every sin must receive its just punishment If they mean only That impenitent and incorrigible sinners