to the will of his Merciful Father They therefore who would bear troubles well must live in a constant expectation of them and in their good days lay up a stock of Christian Graces against the Winter of Adversity They I say who in the height of their Prosperity will often and seriously reflect upon the great change that either by Losses and Pains or certainly by Death in a short time will overtake them and provide themselves with the suffering-Virtues against that dark season will be so far from having their spirits sink at the approach either of Afflictions or Death it self that it will raise them above the World and mount and carry their Hearts and Affections to God who is the Centre of all sound Peace and solid Joy How happy are those souls who when the World most smiles upon them do not trust it but furnish themselves with the Humility and the Meekness and the Patience of Jesus against the evil day that as no Sickness or Trouble can much surprize them so neither can it greatly or long discompose their minds but they discern the Finger of God in it and turn it to their spiritual advantage And they therefore count it joy when they fall into Temptations i. e. suffer affliction for they are assured that God will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able If they are troubled on every side yet they shall not be distressed if they are perplexed they shall not despair if they are persecuted they shall not be forsaken if cast down they shall not be destroyed SERMON II. III. THAT if we equally consider things we shall be constrain'd to acknowledg That God's Goodness and Mercy do appear in our greatest Sufferings and this will be evident from the following Reasons 1. Because if we look upon God as the Supreme Lord and Owner of the World who alone has the Right of all we shall find our selves to be but Tenants at will for every thing that we have And if God has given us nothing but during pleasure then let him take it away when he pleases he can do us no wrong Our Life that makes us capable of his other Favours our Health which makes life comfortable our Relations our Estates our Ease and Peace are all the free Gifts of the Bounty of him who had not the least Obligation to us and if he revoke them all or any of them we receive no Injury for he does but resume his own Right Insomuch as if God strips us of all down to nothing he will but leave us in the state he found us Wherefore we ought to be so far from charging him with unkindness for any temporal Evil that we must own it is his singular Goodness we have been permitted the Enjoyment of so many of his Blessings such a long time 2. We cannot but acknowledg the Goodness of God in our Troubles and Losses when we consider him as the great Judg of the Lives of Men and examine the Conditions upon which he was pleased to grant the use of his Creatures unto them and the Punishments he has threatned to inflict upon the disobedient Upon this Examination it will be plain to the greatest Sufferers that God has been merciful in that they in many particulars have broken the Conditions of the Covenant which was made between him and them and he has not taken the whole forfeiture There is no breach of God's Law in any great instance made coolly and deliberately but it does deserve not only a temporal punishment but the pains of Hell should God deal with us according to the measures of strict Justice Now when he who if he proceeded strictly against us might pass the Sentence of Death upon us and shut us out of his presence for ever does but gently correct us with such chastisements as are proper to reform our faults and cause us to grieve we have offended our best Friend What can we do but admire his Goodness and magnify the riches of his Mercy towards us If God did not let sinners who have lived a great while securely in their iniquity at length feel the weight of his Justice they would lay aside all fear of his Power and fall into ruin beyond a possibility of being recover'd But yet we may observe That there is a plentiful mixture of Mercy in the Punishments which God first inflicts upon the greatest sinners and that he does not proceed to high degrees of severity until their hearts are so hard that lighter Afflictions would make no impression upon them Wherefore when very bad Men are brought to Repentance by a terrible Judgment they discern God's Goodness in nothing more than the terrour which attended the Judgment wherewith he corrected them because they are sensible it would not have reclaim'd them from their wicked Courses had it been of a milder sort God then tempers Judgment with Mercy that as the contemplation of the one may preserve in Mens minds an awful regard of his Majesty so the consideration of the other may keep them from running into despair Where Sinners are become bold more of his Justice is requisite to make them dread his displeasure and to acknowledg the infirmities of their own Nature but on the contrary where such a tenderness is found in the Consciences of Men that they are extream fearful of their condition notwithstanding to the best of their ability they sincerely endeavour to serve him he is so far from putting any unnecessary hardship upon them that he letteth forth the treasures of his Compassion upon their disturb'd Souls does scatter their groundless fears and refresh and cherish them with his Mercies There is no want of proof to convince Men that as all the temporal evils they suffer are less than in rigour of justice God might lay upon them so they never overtake them before they are necessary either to make them reflect upon the Errors of their own ways or to put a stop to others in a bad Course The Servants of God who have been renowned for their Piety and whose holy deeds and glorious sufferings in the Cause of Religion have been recorded by the Holy Ghost for the imitation of the Followers of Christ and the support of all afflicted Saints these eminent instruments in the work of the Lord I say have ever been so sensible of their own frailty as to dread the Divine Justice They never did presume to insist upon their own Righteousness when they came before God as if they had lived with such exactness according to his Laws that he could not afflict them without being injurious They were not such strangers to themselves as not to be conscious that in a great number of respects their behaviour came short of perfection which alone can justify a Man Wherefore we shall never find that they appeal to their Innocence when they have to deal with their Righteous Judge but full of the apprehension of their guilt they cast themselves at his
OF THE VVisdom and Goodness OF PROVIDENCE TWO SERMONS Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On AUGUST 17 and 24 MDCXC By JOHN MOORE D.D. Rector of St. Andrews Holborn and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties Published by Her Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for W. Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet MDCXC OF THE VVisdom and Goodness OF PROVIDENCE TWO SERMONS BEFORE THE QUEEN Proverbs iii. 6. In all thy ways acknowledg him IT would not be easie for men with little Temptation to be drawn into great Sins if they were fully perswaded that God was present did behold the Affronts they were putting upon him and would call them to a strict account for them Neither would good Christians be so affrighted with the remote appearances of danger and sink so quickly under Affliction had they a firm belief that God was ever nigh them and ready to deliver and support them Those Holy Persons who accustom themselves to conceive God always present as they dread doing the least evil or neglecting any part of their Duty so the most terrible and cruel Attempts of the Wicked cannot make them withdraw their Dependance upon the Divine Providence or renounce the hopes they have in God's Mercy So that the Boldness and Security which does appear in bad men and the unreasonable and groundless Fears to be found in some Christians do both chiefly proceed from their want of a hearty Persuasion of the Omnipresence of God who observes their whole Behaviour and will certainly punish Sinners but protect and preserve his Servants Nothing then will more suppress Wickedness and dismay and terrifie Sinners than frequent Meditations upon the Divine Presence and nothing would so uphold our Spirits in all Conditions as to let it be our daily Practice to think of the unerring Providence of God which disposes all Affairs and Events by wise Rules and sends Good or Evil to men according as the circumstances of their present state do require and ever with a design to make them the better thereby If therefore men did believe that God governed the World and ordered all the Affairs thereof they could not ascribe the issue of things to their own Power and look upon the Prosperity of their Condition to be the effect alone of their own Wisdom and good Management Neither would they think that those Pains Losses and Calamities came by Accident and Chance which God sent on purpose either to try their love or to reform their Manners or to punish their Sins for an example to others It must much abate the Bitterness of Afflictions and Losses to be convinced that they who are humbled under them who bear them meekly and dutifully do submit to the Pleasure of God will thereby greatly improve the Graces and Virtues of their Soul and shall receive some extraordinary Blessing from the hand of God the relish of which will be much heighten'd by their past sufferings So as in due time they shall see good reason for that Calamity which was at present so grievous unto them They then who think God does not concern himself in the Affairs of the World nor regard the Lives of Men can never truly Reverence him nor Worship him sincerely but whereever there is a vigorous belief of Providence it will always be followed with the Love and Fear of God That therefore in the course of our Lives we may set the Lord before us and direct our Designs to his Glory that we may use the Goods he gives us discreetly and temperately and when he afflicts us that we may be patient quiet and humble and without Murmur or Complaint make an entire Resignation of our selves and of all we have unto his Righteous Will that we may be grateful for his Mercies and in all our ways acknowledg him and think of him I shall take leave to propose these following things to your Consideration 1. That nothing can come to us through the whole Course of this Life without the Order or Permission of Providence 2. That we should sometimes receive Evil from the Hand of God as well as good is very agreeable to his Wisdom 3. That if we equally consider things God's Goodness and Mercy will appear in our greatest Sufferings 1. That nothing can come to us through the whole course of this Life without the order or at least the permission of Providence When God had made the World he did not leave it to shift for it self without any farther regard of it But his Power does as truly appear in the Preservation and Government thereof as it did in its Creation What he thought fit for his Power to give Being and Life to he thinks becoming his Goodness and Wisdom to uphold and preserve as judging all the works of his Hands worthy of his Providence and Care So that there is not any thing which does come by inflexible Fate or depend upon the uncertainties of Fortune But God does look down upon every work he beholds the carriage of all his Creatures he perpetually supports the order among things and directs the whole course of Nature in such just manner as shall serve for the greatest good and happiness of the Creation and most illustrate his own Glory This all follows plainly from the Nature of God which consists in infinite Perfection but the denying of Providence or the supposal that matters go in the World either by Fate or Chance is most repugnant to the Blessed Nature of God and does contradict almost every one of his Attributes and Perfections who could not be Almighty if there was any Power independent upon his who would not be infinitely Wise if he Govern'd the vast productions of his Power by no Laws whose Goodness would not be boundless if he had no care of those who Loved Him if he did not rescue those who suffer'd for his sake whose Knowledg would not be immense if he did not see all that was acted in the World if he was not an observer of the words and deeds but also privy to the very thoughts of his Creatures Without all things done under the Sun lay open to the Divine view why should the Good hope in God's Mercy or the Wicked tremble at his Justice If he did not at all mind the ways of men they would have no motives to Love him nor reason to Fear they should fall under his displeasure by acting the most horrid Impieties Prayer is the primary Duty of Christians the great Instrument by which they obtain a supply of all necessaries Bodily and Spiritual and the chief support of their Minds in Trouble whereby they compose themselves to endure the sharpest Sufferings and become conquerors of their strongest Temptations But if God has no Knowledg of the affairs of this World the reason and very foundation of Prayer will be destroyed which supposes that God knows all the Circumstances of our particular case and does not only hear us when we call upon him in our
into the world In this Word of God we find an account not only of the uncertainty of our Lives but of all the other Goods we possess which belong unto the present state that the possession we have of them is very precaâ—ious and that of a sudden we may very many ways be put out of the enjoyment of those things we esteemed most had kept longest and were most secure of But tho the ways of turning us out of what we have be many yet the Holy Scripture gives us good assurance that we shall never be dispossest of the least good without the Appointment or License of Providence that as we may not set our hearts upon any of the things of the World which we have so we may bear Losses quietly and without ruffling the Peace of our Minds and making any abatement of our Love of God may submit to every change in our condition with the Patience of Job yielding back to the Lord what he had given Sometimes the Scriptures discourse of the strange Changes which are made in Kingdoms how God pulls men down and sets others up by unlikely means and when they least expected it and that in an instant he stript them of their vast Possessions when their Power and Plenty had thrust him out of all their thoughts and they placed their security in their own strength and did not attribute to his Providence the Glory of their Greatness Of the wonderful effects of Providence we have unquestionable examples in all Ages wherein the motion of God's hand hath been so visible that necessity will compel men to ascribe them to him How frequently hath the interposition of the Divine Power been clearly manifest in the Rise and Declension of Kingdoms and in the surprizing Periods which have been put to mighty Empires by small and improbable Causes notwithstanding they were founded in deep Policy and had been of long continuance he in a moment breaking the firm frame of things and turning up the Foundations which were laid by the Counsels of the most skilful and sagacious men VVhen the measure of the sins of a great People is full and their Iniquities are grown up to a ripeness fit for ruin so that God will no longer endure the abuse of his Mercies and the bold affronts which are put upon his Love and Kindness then Destruction comes swiftly upon them and they receive their terrible overthrow from those hands which they did despise Histories of all Countries furnish us with instances of this kind and we may read abundance of the mysterious variety of the workings of Providence in the quick turns and amazing changes which did happen to the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel Either the sick or the lame have strength enough to pull down the mightiest Nation when the crying sins thereof have provoked God peremptori 〈…〉 to resolve that there shall be an end put to all its Glory and Power Of this case we have a memorable declaration made from the Lord to the Jews by the Prophet Jeremy of the fatal Blow which should be given to their Kingdom even by those they themselves had beaten and that only the wounded men which remained should be sufficiently able to set Fire to their City and lay it in Ashes Thus saith the Lord Deceive not your selves saying The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us for they shall not depart for tho ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burn this city with fire Now when only the wounded and shatter'd remains of a Conquer'd Army shall be able to attack and take a well fortified City the great disproportion between the Instruments and the Work must force the mouths of the Inhabitants to confess that it is the Lord's doings and that their Misery is justly pulled down from Heaven by their abominable sins Wherefore when we behold any Empire or Kingdom that hath been long setled taken deep root enlarged its Borders and was â— Terror to its Neighbours to dissolve on a sudden and tumble down and all the Limbs of this well-built and often-try'd Body at once to be dis-jointed will not in this strange and unaccountable Revolution the Prints be most conspicuous and plain of the All-seeing and All-disposing Providence of God who turns the Wisdom of the Wise into Foolishness does not give the Race to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong On the other hand to see a small Society or Body of Men preserv'd when environ'd with Powerful Enemies each of which could have devoured it and its State and Condition supported when they did all conspire to work its ruin and Peace and Safety restored by most improbable means where there was no appearance or likelihood of it must be a demonstration that God governs the world and orders all the affairs thereof From hence it is as the Divine Providence hath wonderfully put forth it self in all times so God shews himself highly displeased when his people presume to call his Care of them into question and make any doubt whether he observes their behaviour declaring it to be utterly impossible that he should either neglect or forget them For they say the Lord bath forsaken the earth and the Lord seeth not And as for me also my eye shall not spare neither will I have pity But Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking children that she should not have compassion on the Son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Thus I have dispatch'd the first Head of this Discourse namely that nothing can come to us through the whole course of this life without the Order or at least the Permission of Providence and shewn That not only the Prosperity and Adversity the Poverty and Riches the Wisdom and Understanding the Length of Days and Death of particular Persons but also the Growth and Fall of Nations and Kingdoms comes from the Lord Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are done in Heaven and Earth He sheweth loving kindness unto thousands and recompenceth the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their Children after them The great the mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his name great in counsel and mighty in works for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men to give every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings 2. That we should receive evil from the hand of God as well as good is very agreeable to his Wisdom In the miseries God sends or suffers to fall upon men in this life many of his great Ends in governing the world are serv'd and much Spiritual Profit may accrue to them who by the cross Events and Disappointments they here encounter are wean'd from the world and will not be drawn in
down with the brittle and deceitful Goods of the present state and only among them seeks for rest Thus it is manifest that real Felicity does consist in the Innocence and Tranquility of the Mind But notwithstanding in the general we may pronounce all those happy who have quiet and unblemish'd Souls yet we cannot speak with confidence as to the happiness or misery of particular men because by their outward Circumstances and appearance to the World we can never be certain of the sincerity of their minds nor whether they have those Virtues in their Possession which cause solid Happiness Wherefore seeing we are not competently qualified to judg either of the Piety or of the Happiness of particular men it evidently follows That there is very little in that Popular Objection against the Divine Providence taken from the seeming Adversity of the Good and flourishing state of the Wicked Further Neither is it any disparagement of Providence nor unkindness in God towards his faithful servants that sometimes he translates them early from hence and permits them to dye in the vigour of their years For can a greater favour be done them for their short and faithful service than for God to remove them not only from the dangers and temptations to sin but also from the manifold troubles and vexations of this life unto his everlasting Mercies He does this in honour to them that the wicked may behold and be concern'd they are no longer worthy of them nor of the Good they might receive from their Holy and Wise Conversation Besides when the Justice of God has decreed some dreadful Judgment against a wicked Nation he often takes away his own People from the Evil to come But tho the righteous be prevented with death yet shall he be in rest for honourable age is not which standeth in length of time nor that is measured by number of years but wisdom is the gray hair unto men and an unspotted life is old age He pleased God and was beloved of him so that living among sinners he was translated He being made perfect in a short time fulfilled a long time for his soul pleased the Lord therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked 3. It is to be consider'd that the condition of the World is such that there is a necessity the Virtuous should often be exposed to the same Troubles and Misfortunes which happen to the Ungodly And as the Wise Man speaks There will be one event to the righteous and to the wicked for the Calamities of War Pestilence Famine and Fire involve men of all Conditions and take in the Holy with the Sinners Neither the Nipping Frosts nor scorching Heats nor raging Floods nor blasting Winds make any difference between the lands of pious and bad Men nor can a storm at Sea distinguish between their Goods which are in the same Vessel For a Man to look that God should exempt him from these publick Evils is to expect he should alter the Course of Nature for his sake which is wisely establish'd and for great ends and therefore all such hopes can have no ground and must be deem'd very unreasonable 4. Notwithstanding such common Calamities cannot be avoided yet God always intends our good in every harsh disappointment which we meet with and it will admirably serve to mend the temper of our Minds By Adversity which God never le ts loose upon us before it is useful for us he makes an experiment of the reality of our affections towards him whom we ought infinitely to esteem above all other things by it God tries our Constancy whether we will equally Love him and preserve as great a Reverence for him in the days of our Sorrow as when he crown'd us with plenty And if upon this Trial we entertain as honourable thoughts of the proceedings of his Providence as when the World went well with us he has attained his end in Visiting us and will quickly deliver us from our Grievance For if under the sorest Crosses the heaviest Losses and sharpest Pains we uphold in our Souls as worthy opinions of God's Administration of Affairs as when he enricht us with his Blessings then we shall make an undoubted discovery of the sincerity of our Love of Him and it will be evident to men that we value the Peace of Conscience and his Favour above all sensual comforts Besides nothing will more lessen our esteem of these mean and despicable pleasures nor take off the edg of our desire for them than frequently to be disturbed in the enjoyment of them and to have them forced away when we were most delighted with them and confidently promised to our selves their long continuance It may indeed be a general Observation that much Prosperity corrupts mens Morals and tempts them to rely upon their own Powers but Adversity reforms their Lives and teaches them to know their own weakness and wants which they perceive would grow insupportable did God once withdraw his Assistance Wherefore seeing it is so much harder to walk uprightly before God in a flourishing condition that make us apt to forget him than in an afflicted state which naturally disposes us to seek the Lord is there any reason why we should thus murmur at his Rod and repine when he Corrects us with the tenderness of a Father and visits us with his Judgments only that he may heal our spiritual diseases How terrible soever any Calamity may appear to us yet it is fitted to our Circumstances and is not greater than the crazy state of our Souls does stand in need of For Troubles do not spring casually out of the Earth or fall upon us without measure or bounds But God in his Wisdom does order the time when we shall be Afflicted he determines the kind of Evil which shall fall to our Lot and metes the very quantity that we must Suffer Which as soon as it has Humbled our Vanity or extinguish'd our Lust or abated our Love of Riches and reduced us to just apprehensions of our selves be certainly will recall from us and let in the light of his countenance into our hearts Now this being the true state of things as will be plain to every honest enquirer it may be matter of wonder why men take Afflictions so ill at the hand of God when they know they proceed from his Love and behave themselves so untowardly under almost every degree of Adversity A great cause of all this I judge to be their making slight or no preparations for Afflictions before they come Now there is that distraction and disorder raised in the Spirit of a man who is surprized with any Calamity that he tosseth like a Bull in a Net and has not temper enough left to consider of the great Causes there were to move God to lay it upon him or of the sweet fruit he might gather from it by a modest and quiet carriage under the heavenly Discipline and a total Submission of himself
feet and address their Cause wholly to his Mercy David a Man after God's own heart openly confesses to him If thou Lord will be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it i. e. If God should reckon with the best Man in the World for his Sins and pass Sentence upon him according to his demerits his Punishment would be intolerable Therefore he flies to his Compassion Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Job who being assaulted with many violent Temptations and harass'd with a number of bitter Calamities yet sinned not durst not however stand upon his own Integrity or think he could make a compleat defence of his Life to God For in answer to his Friend who had wisely observed That mortal Man could not be more just than God or more pure than his Maker he says I know it is so of a truth but how should man be just with God or if he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand Jeremiah after he had made a large List of the Troubles and Calamities of God's People charges no Injustice upon him as if he had treated them more severely than their Case deserv'd but quite otherwise he humbly acknowledges That it was due to the Divine Goodness that they fared no worse It is the Lord's mercy we are not consumed because his compassions fail not And of this the Prophet gives a good reason because Life and all a Man enjoys by that capacity which is preferable to nothing is the free grant of God Wherefore doth a living Man complain a Man for the punishment of his Sins i. e. While a Sinner has Life he hath more than he can claim and therefore hath no cause to find fault with any smaller evil that God corrects him with for his crimes 3. We must acknowledg the Divine Goodness in our Losses and Sufferings when we consider that in the Gospel there is no express Covenant obliging God to bestow temporal prosperity upon Holy Men. In the Christian Religion there is no absolute promise of worldly Power Honour or Wealth even to them who do perform the Conditions thereof And if God has not tied himself to preserve the Saints always in a flourishing state Shall they who are wicked expect it from him Shall the Sinners demand that as justly belonging to them which he has not made a debt to the best of his Servants Wherefore if God be under no obligation in the Gospel to bestow a greater share of the things of the World which are by Men so fiercely sought after than what is necessary to Life he does not in depriving us of any of our superfluities break any one Condition of the Covenant between us since the smallest Secular conveniency in our possession is more than we can claim or than he contracted for Our Saviour was so far from making any engagement That they who are his Disciples should all be Rich or Rulers or Men of interest in the World that he has declared Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Houses and Lands must all be forsaken where they cannot longer be had without doing dishonour to his Holy Name or breaking the Laws of his Religion And because upon account of their Relations or Riches or Power Men would meet with the most prevailing temptations to transgress the Precepts of the Gospel it is that Christ does pronounce That it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of God May we not then be sure that Christ would not encourage his Friends to hope for a constant and steddy current of Plenty and Honours and Pleasure when these things powerfully draw their affections from him and tempt them to blot him out of their thoughts His Kingdom being of another World none of the Glories of this are necessary to the attainment of it And as we do not find that our Lord made any promise to Christians of an abundance of things highly valued by the Men of this World so neither do we observe that he treats Great Men with more respect or gives them cause to expect they shall have kinder usage or receive more favours from him than the Poor and those of low Rank He has made no special Promises to the Rich and Celebrated and Popular Persons But the Beatitudes descend upon the Heads of Men of quite other Qualification Not their outward Circumstances but the holy dispositions in their Souls procure and fetch down his Blessings He blesses the Humble the Poor in Spirit the Holy Mourners the Meek they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness and earnestly desire to fulfil God's Just and Good Will the Merciful the Pure in Heart the Peace-makers and they that suffer Persecution and are evil spoke of by all for Righteousness sake And hence it follows that no body by reason of their Wealth or Honour are greater objects of Christ's love or come more within the Verge of his Care but that men of mean and contemptible state are as much under the Protection of his Providence as those of highest Quality have as plentiful a Portion of his Grace and stand in as near a capacity to the Kingdom of Heaven Had our Lord come into the world incircled with all that Pomp and Power which the Jews expected the Messias should appear with as he could have been no Example of Sufferings to his Followers so would they have been tempted to arrive at some degrees of their Master's Glory and have set their Hearts upon the Greatness and Splendors of the present state when it was so principal a part of his work to teach his Disciples to neglect and despise them Since then the Possession of a large Portion of worldly Goods is no part of the Bargain Jesus Christ made with men in his Religion who only promises a Supply of the Necessaries of Life and since men for the most part have more than what is barely necessary to sustain them they must acknowledg their great Obligation to the Divine Goodness with respect of the fulness and ease of their condition here upon Earth How much men under the Christian Law owe to the Bounty of God more than by the terms of it they could demand is plain notwithstanding you suppose them to perform every condition of the Gospel and to live in a state of innocence but look upon them what really they are as vile sinners and then in God's usage of the greatest Sufferers enough will appear to clear the Justice of his dealings and to convince them who complain most bitterly That he has been Gracious and corrected them with Mercy But further When we reflect upon the utter averseness of the world to the designs of Christ's Religion and the deep Malice which it bears against those who sincerely profess it as we shall see reason to believe and expect that those who