concomitants of it from him for ever he imprisoneth him during life banisheth him from his Country never to return confiscates his estate for ever Yet who quarrels with him as if he did unjustly Object But will some say God doth not only adjudge a sinner to an eternal loss of his life estate liberty this indeed man doth but God adjudgeth him also to eternal torments to a never-dying worm a fire that never shall be quenched Sol. I answer Had man the same power he would also do the same thing and yet hope to be acounted guiltless where eminent injuries are done to persons of great place and power How many are angry and will not be reconciled though they be under a Divine Law obliging them to the contrary How doth man sometimes divide a Malefactors last punishment and suffers him not to dye at once but by piece-meal to make his punishment as long-lived as he can What will you say of those condemned to be starved to death Yet in some great crimes who calleth this cruelty or injustice The greatness of the offence is in this case judged to justifie the extraordinariness of the punishment 2. What injustice can it be in God to be ever exacting satisfaction to a debt which is never paid especially when the debtor hath also refused his pardon for it Suppose one of us hath a debtor who oweth us a great sum of Money we offer him that if he will come to us and upon his knees but ask pardon we will forgive him the debt he refuseth we lay him up in Prison still he payeth us nothing Which of us counteth it unjust to keep this wretch in Prison as long as we can The reason why we do not for ever keep him in Prison is because that neither we nor he are of eternal duration If indeed the suffering of the sinner a Thousand Ten thousand years did give any satisfaction to God this were unjust But who counteth a debtors lying in a Gaol any payment of or satisfaction for his debt There are two things may be said of every sin which should make the thoughts of sin very dreadful to every understanding Christian 1. That all the holy actions of all the men in the world cannot make God amends for one sin It is a true saying of Drexellius Omnium bonorum sanctae actiones unius lethalis noxae pondere superantur 2. That the severest punishment which any poor wretch can suffer for sin cannot give God satisfaction for the least sin 3. What pretence can there be of charging God with unjustice for continuing a punishment upon that sinner that continueth his impenitency If a sinner in everlasting torments indeed either ever could or did repent there might possibly be some pretence for this imputation of injustice to God or at least something might be colourably said to derogate from the goodness and mercy of God in not delivering him from those torments Though that Text Rev. 16.9 11 possibly be not to be understood of Hell yet you have in it a true picture of such as are under the condemnation of it When the fourth and fifth Angels poured out their vials and had power to scorch men with fire it is said vers 9 That they were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God which had power over those plagues and repented not to give him glory And again vers 11 They blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds I say these two verses give you as to this thing a true picture of Hell Sinners are there plagued and scorched with heat but they repent not to give glory to God Had they in this life repented they had never come into those flames In that state indeed there is no place no means for repentance nor hath any sufferer there any heart for it Non decebat justitiam dei poenitere non poenitentium injustitiae humanae It did not become the justice of God to repent as to their punishment who never repent of their own injustice and unrighteousness What man pitieth a person laid in Gaol for contriving Treason against his Prince or Country Because he continueth there whiles even in Prison he goes on to revile and threaten and act what mischief is in his power under his circumstances And will not so much as say that he hath done amiss nor beg his Princes pardon This is the case of the damned soul in this life he sinned but refused to repent though he was often called to and admonished to repent God throws him for his sin continued in impenitently into Hell there he repenteth not he saith not so much as I have sinned Lord have mercy upon me Is God think you unjust in keeping this hardened stubborn and impenitent sinner in an eternal Prison In this the sinner is like to the Devil and to his evil Angels as the Saints in the resurection are made like to the good Angels so sinners are like to the evil Angels The Devils never repent they never say what have we done they never ask God pardon no more do sinners that are once condemned to a fellowship and society with them for ever 4. What injustice can there be in God never to cease from punishing that sinner who never ceaseth from his acts of sin I shall not here concern my self in that question whether the blasphemies of the damned be sins yea or no For my own part I see no reason why they should not be called sins they are the acts of rational creatures contrary to the Law of God If the sinner had in this life ceased to do evil he had never come in those torments if he ceased not to sin in this life I ask when he ceased or by what other name we can call the blasphemies of damned souls because of their torments than that of sins against God If they be sins I say damned souls never cease to sin Are not the blasphemies of the Devils sins And are not the blasphemies of damned souls of the same nature But I will not enlarge upon this for it hath a great cognation to the former 5. If it were not unjust with God to annex the penalty of eternal destruction to his threatning against sin it cannot be unjust with him having enacted a Law under such a penalty to execute it The truth of this dependeth upon this principle That it can be no injustice to put a just Law in execution which is so plain as that it demonstrateth it self to every mans reason For what is Justice in the execution or practice of it but the putting of just laws in execution Besides what is necessary cannot be unjust Hath the Lord spoken it and shall he not do it saith the Prophet God having enacted such a Law and affixed such a threatning to it is concerned in truth to give being to the execution of it So that all I have to do is to evince
them under some restraints as to those horrible sins of murther persecution defiling their neighbours wives c. To consider that these are some of the sins which go ordinarily before-hand to judgment and which God usually revengeth by some special remarkable Providences in this life But it is time to finish this discourse Let us beg Gods blessing upon it SERMON XXIII Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am in a discourse about the observable things of Divine Providence When do you think shall I have finished it Day unto day uttereth speech night unto night declareth knowledg When I have said all that I can I must conclude with Job Lo these are parts of his ways but how little a portion of him do we understand However it is wonderfully sweet to know the least of God If a learned man could think it worth his while to write a book of the admiranda Nili the admirable and observable things of the famous River of Nile What a book might be written and how much worth a pen-mans hand would it be to write a book and call it Admiranda or Observanda Providentiae Divinae the admirable and observable things of Divine Providence But leaving Prefaces I proceed to a ninth Observation which is this Observ 9. The Providence of God often repayeth both good and evil and especially charity and cruelty in this life in its own kind 1 Cor. 3.8 2 Cor. 5.10 That God will reward every man according to his works is most certain and is a piece of Divine Justice he cannot condemn the innocent nor clear the guilty there will be a now when God will visit for all sin and though sinners do evil an hundred years yet the day of vengeance will come And to let us know the certainty of it oftentimes the Prophets of God in the denouncing of judgments yet a far off cryed out It is come It is come and gave the alarum as if the enemy had already entred the gates But God doth not recompence all sinners in this life Judgment comes afterward But for those whom God doth chastise in this life he doth not punish them all the same way some are punished with temporal judgments and those some of them of one sort some of another others he punisheth with spiritual judgments blindness of mind hardness of heart And it is the same case for rewards of grace some have little reward for all their service for God until they come in Heaven others are rewarded in this life but in different manners The Observation which I am making concerneth charity and mercy and the vices opposite to it such as are cruelty hardheartedness to those in want and misery In these cases I observe Gods Providence often retaliates I say 1. The Providence of God doth often recompence other sins in this manner but especially sins against charity and brotherly love God many times repayeth other sins in their kind our Saviour by this argument dissuades from rash censuring and censorious judging of others Matth. 7.1 2. For with what judgment you judg you shall be judged and with what measure you mete it shall be meted to you again A text which if well thought upon should deter Christians from the too common practice of censuring and judging one another especially in doubtful things where they are not of a mind as if sincerity and uprightness were the Prerogative of a party in Religion or annexed to some particular forms You know God threatned David for his adultery with Bathsheba That he would take his wives before his eyes and give them to his neighbour and he should lye with his wives in the sight of the Sun 2 Sam. 12.11 and it was fulfilled by the permission though not by the instigation of Divine Providence in 2 Sam. 16.22 Spoiling and plundering of others taking away their goods without a just warrant from God is another sin we find thus threatned Isa 33.1 Wo to thee that spoilest and thou wert not spoiled those that thou so rifledst never did thee any wrong and dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee when thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously they shall deal treacherously with thee But that indeed referreth to the more special observation as to sins opposite to that Charity we should exercise to our brethren to which I now come I say it is very observable that God punisheth sins against charity and rewardeth deeds and acts of charity in their kind secundum legem Talionis ordinarily giving the Authors of both like for like I will first shew it you in the motions of Providence as to the execution of Vindicative Justice in the punishment of sins against Charity Against which men may sin either by omissions hardening their hearts from their brother in distress not relieving him when it is in their power according to their ability or by commissions murders oppressions cruelty are all sins against Charity 1. For omissions It is a dreadful text Prov. 21.13 He that stoppeth his ear against the cry of the poor he also shall cry himself and shall not be heard A text worth deliberating upon by those who find their hearts so shut up in cafes of Charity not that we are bound to hear the cry of all that are poor There are some poor that the greatest act of Charity we can shew them is not to relieve them that they may learn not to be idle and wander up and down begging refusing to work The poor we are concerned in are Gods poor I hope we favour none that are lazy idle or leud and by that means bring themselves to and continue themselves at a morsel of bread far be it from me or any Minister of Jesus Christ to plead for such You from us hear the cries of the Lords poor take heed of stopping your ears at their cry remember Solomons word Gods word by Solomon He that doth so he also shall cry and not be heard you may also come into such a condition or you may have a child may come to it through age through Gods hand upon him You remember the story of Naomi she went out full she returned empty the story of Job and others in Scripture I could tell you the stories of Belisarius of divers persons of far greater estates some of them than any that hear me this day yet brought to live upon the baskets of others who knows what you or yours may come to Do you think the great fire at London 1666 that at Northampton but the last year That at a Town in this County two or three years ago at Cottenham in Cambridg-shire the other day hath not given many instances of this nature for God of late hath very remarkably contended with England as by such a plague as our forefathers never knew so by a multitude of such
Providence of God did ordinarily execute this Justice by the hands of Magistrates But you must not mistake to think this rule of God was without exceptions for oftentimes exceptions were made with respect to the quality of the persons and this by the Law of God Exod. 21.16 He that cursed his father or mother was to dye the death that now was more than like for like and ver 26. If a master had struck a servant and put out his eye the masters punishment was only to manumit his servant not to pay eye for eye the reason was the disparity of persons I might observe to you that the Providence of God directed other Magistrates then those he set up amongst his own people to enact laws to render like for like in many cases especially where offences were eminently against mercy and charity though with the like respect to persons and other circumstances which is enough by the way to evidence the justice of such laws in many cases But further the Providence of God in this retaliating sins of this nature is eminent in those whom he took to punish with his own hand In the case of Pharaoh he cruelly caused the male-infants of the Jewish children to be drowned God causeth him and his host to be swallowed up in the red Sea In the case of Adonibezek Judg. 1.6 The Israelites took him and cut off his thumbs and great toes You never read that the Israelites served any Enemy so either before or after that time and doubtless what they did was by an extraordinary instinct from God Ver. 7. Adonibezek acknowledgeth the hand of God in it Threescore and ten Kings saith he having their thumbs and great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table as I have done so God hath requited me 1 Sam. 15.33 When Samuel cometh to slay Agag by Gods Commandment observe what he saith As thy sword hath made many women childless so this day thy mother shall be made childless as to thee and he cut him in pieces before the Lord. And this is that which God hath said Rev. 13.10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity he that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword and in Rev. 18.6 speaking of mystical Babylon by which our Forefathers have understood Rome though late Authors have otherwise endeavoured to interpret it and the fall of it saith God Reward her even as she hath rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works in the cup which she hath filled fill her double You see still those whom God hath thus punished from time to time have ordinarily been great offenders against mercy and charity great actors of cruelty the wickedness of these men God hath ordinarily retaliated and payed them in their own kind I have hitherto justified the first part of my observation that God very ordinarily doth repay eminent sinners against charity in their own kind what hath been wanting there 's hardly any observing Christian but will be able to make up in his daily observation 't is very seldom but God gives cruel and bloody and mischievous men blood to drink and cruelty to digest if he gives it not to them he ordinarily doth it to their children as he did to Saul and to Ahab and to Jehu Sauls children were hang'd by David at Gods command for his bloody house Ahab's seventy Sons were slain for his bloodshed and cruelty And God repaid the blood which Jehu shed in Jesreel though in it he executed Gods counsel unto his children as the Prophet saith expresly God gave Manasses his children Josiah only excepted blood to drink to requite him for his filling of Hierusalem with innocent blood 2. Let me now justifie the Observation as to the second part of it Gods retaliation of charity Charity is a word of a very vast extent and comprehendeth under it all acts of kindness done unto our brethren standing in need of our help It is a saying I have met with somewhere A man seldom himself experienceth in himself that misery which he hath truly felt in others Many great and exceeding pretious promises are made to it as if it were all Godliness what the Apostle saith of Godliness is applicable unto it It hath promises both of this life and that which is to come Blessed are the merciful saith our Saviour Mat 5.7 for they shall receive mercy He that giveth to the poor shall not want Prov. 28.22 I have been young saith David and now am old yet I never saw the righteous forsaken nor their seed begging their bread he is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed It were a great work to reckon up all the promises of this nature made to mercy and charity so many that the hard-hearted the niggardly-handed person must necessarily be either an Atheist or a notorious Unbeliever either not believing there is any such God as the Scriptures speak or such Scriptures as are the word of God or not daring to trust God upon his word either of them hath a soul in state bad enough But my work is to shew you how the Providence of God justifieth this word I told you before how David observed it in the whole course of his life he never saw such a man forsaken nor his posterity beggers What an experience was that he was a good man a wise and observing man much acquainted with the world he had seen more than most of us he lived to be an old man he doth not say he had rarely seen no that was too little I have been young saith he and now am old I never saw the righteous forsaken If you would know what righteous man he means he telleth you One that is ever merciful and lendeth I think in this case we may as to the motions of Providence distinguish as St. Paul doth in another case between a righteous man and a good man Rom. 5. The Providence of God doth sometimes so order it that we see religious men though it is a hard task I would not willingly be employed in it to reconcile an hardness of heart in this kind to Religion yet so it is that we find sometimes persons that in other things we cannot say but they are devout religious men and just men and were it not for that of St. John how dwelleth the love of God in him after a very imperfect manner certainly his brother can scarce tell how for that of St. James He that keeps the whole law and in the constant track and course of his life offends but in one point is guilty of all One would think they had love for God and were righteous men yet when you come to them for an act of charity oh it grateth them a six-pence comes at two or three pulls and with many a grudg and excuse You may possibly see such a man decay God distributes his estate because he would not and such a mans seed you may see begging bread
hang himself that his friend may shew him kindness to cut the halter or commit Treason against his Prince to give him occasion to pardon him We use to account it no prudence to lye at the mercy of another either as to our lives estates or reputations Who will give away his estate that the charity of his friends may appear in relieving him The mercies of God are indeed beyond the mercies of men but as infinite as they are presumptuous sinners have no reason to lean upon them Oh consider sinner that it must be through grace if thou ere be saved And though where sin hath abounded God sometimes doth make grace to abound yet it is not thy wisdom to sin that grace may abound 1. Because Grace pardoning grace doth not abound towards all in whom the aboundings of sin are found grace aboundeth but to some that have sinned How knowest thou seeing grace is nothing else but love acting freely that it shall abound towards thee If it doth not thou perishest for ever that it shall thou dost not know Thousands sin towards whom grace never aboundeth in the pardon of their sins 2. Because presumptuous sinning is as great a block as it is possible for thee to lay in the way of Divine grace The soul that doth ought presumptuously the same reproacheth the Lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be cut off from his people because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be upon him Numb 15.30 Now what soul can possibly sin presumptuously if he doth not who saith in his heart I will sin that grace may abound Cons 2. Secondly Consider duty is never to be measured by the event of our actions but by the rule of our actions If thou sinnest thou breakest the Law of the Lord thou violatest his commandment and despisest his word Sin in it self is an inordinate action and therefore to be avoided though the Providence of God ordereth these actions very often both to his own glory and for the particular good of sinners we are to measure our actions by the Divine rule and by that to square them not from the event of them which Divine Grace and Power maketh Certainly thou wilt say that Judas and Pontius Pilate and Herod and the rest of those who were in a confederacy against the life of Christ were all exceeding guilty before God and will some of them in the great day most righteously be turned into Hell for crucifying him who was the Lord of life though God used their action as a means to procure the expiation and atonement of the World thousands shall be saved by the effusion of that blood for the spilling of which yet they will be damned What though God will suffer sin to abound that his Grace may much more abound yet this is no license for thee to suffer sin to abound thou art to guide thy action by the Divine rule God governeth his by his own infinite Wisdom God makes the best of thy bad market but yet it is thy concern to make the best market thou canst both for thy own soul and for the glory of God Cons 3. Thirdly What if God may get himself glory and may get himself glory from peoples sins yet this glory 1. May be from others not from thee 2. It may be only a glory gotten upon thee 1. I say first possibly the glory which God will get from thy sins shall be from others not from thy self Many times the sin which maketh the sinner worse subjecting him to the wrath and vengeance of God debauching and defiling his soul makes others better so God hath a glory from his sin The persecutor tries the faith and patience of the Saints and is a means to help them to the Kingdom of Heaven and so God hath glory from his sin but it is from others not from the sinner he in the mean time damneth and destroyeth his own soul 2. Possibly God will get himself glory upon thee upon occasion of thy sin as he said I will get me honour upon Pharaoh That was by breaking him in pieces by destroying both him and his Army in the Red Sea This is small encouragement to thee to go on in sinning because God will get glory from thy sins thou canst not assure thy self that he will get himself the glory of his pardoning or sanctifying grace from them 4. Wilt thou say But if I may bring glory to God I ought to do it though it be by my damnation Consider That no man can in any sincerity pretend to the willing of the glory of God by sinning The Reason is because sin is directly opposite to Gods Glory What sense is it to will the glory of God by dishonouring him Sin is a thing which of its own nature dishonoureth and reproacheth God Canst thou pretend to design the honour and glory of God by doing that which is directly contrary to it It is a question whether our reasonable natures will suffer us to will the glory of God in our own damnation but it is impossible that any should sincerely wish the glory of God and pursue this wish by wilful and presumptuous sinning Object But still will the poor creature say Why am I judged as a sinner What reason hath God to condemn me for my sins if he getteth glory by them Sol. 1. I answer Because the judgment of God is a righteous judgment he proceedeth against men according to their actions and the merit of them not according to the event of their actions wisely ordered besides and beyond their natural tendency to the glory of his own holy name That the sinners works issue in the glory of God is Gods work not theirs and they can therefore expect no reward upon that account Besides the eventual necessity which the Providence of God puts upon things doth by no means justifie the obliquity of the actions Our Saviour tells us it must needs be that offences come but woe be to those by whom they come It must needs be that sin should be committed in the World God hath determined to permit them mens lusts hurry them into the commission of them Gods Providence must fetch him a great deal of glory from them but yet woe be to the sinner without a timely repentance Vse 3. In the last place Doth God in infinite Wisdom as you have heard permit sin in the World and that for the end that I have shewed you that he might be glorified Let us then make it our business to make such uses of the sin that we see in the world and the sins our selves have committed in the world as by occasion of them God may be more glorified by us If you ask me how this may be it may easily be gathered from my preceding discourse but yet for the sake of those who are of meaner capacity let me in this branch of
Application recapitulate a little 1. For the sins of others which we see permitted in the World 1. Let us be quickened upon the view of them to adore the patience and long-suffering of God Dost thou hear a wretch curse and blaspheme and profane the great and dreadful name of God and defie the God of Heaven challenging his own damnation and doest thou see God suffering him to live from year to year and to go on in this course Doest thou see another in the heighth of rage against the people of God endeavouring if it were possible to root out all Religion and dayly devouring those that are more righteous than himself Let it help thee to recognize the patience of God do thou upon occasion of others profaneness and blasphemy give God the glory of his patience Let it make thee many a time reflect and say O what a patient God is the God in whom I trust he seeth these vile wretches he could as easily crush them as I with my foot can crush a worm yet he spareth them and with much long suffering endures the vessels of wrath fitted for Hell 2. Let the view of the sins of others which thou seest God permitting for his own wise ends make thee adore the wisdom of God Thou art posed to think what glory God can procure to himself from the profaneness and blasphemy of wicked men but God will certainly do it and would never suffer their profaneness if he did not know how to do it O! the infinite wisdom of God that can make the wrath of man to praise him Let thy heart be affected with that meditation 3. Again Doest thou see the world of sin that abounds doest thou hear of prodigious lusts blasphemies cruelties c. which make thy soul tremble Let God upon this occasion have the glory of his free-free-mercy and grace towards thy soul Bless God that he hath given thee another spirit Say Lord why was not I as one of these I had the same seed of sin in me my heart was as full of original lust and corruption as theirs Oh! what reason have I to adore the free grace of God that I am not as this beastly drunkard as this unclean wretch as this monstrous blasphemer If it had not been for free and rich grace I had been as bad as they It is that which made me to differ 2. But let God have glory from us upon the occasion of his so long suffering us to walk in our own ways Now that may be many ways let me a little particularly direct here also 1. Let it make thee live in a dayly admiration of free-grace both in pardoning thy former guilt and in renewing and changing thy heart This this is a work not for a rapture not for an hour or a day but for eternity It will doubtless be a great piece of our work when we come to Heaven to cry salvation to our God and to the Lamb. Blessing and glory and honour and wisdom and thanksgiving be to the Lord for ever and ever It should be much of our work upon the earth if we have either obtained the sense of the pardon of our sins or a good hope through grace you shall find St. Paul beginning most of his Epistles with such a blessing of God O you redeemed of the Lord you that are come out of a state of deep guilt you can never think nor speak enough what God hath done for your souls It is a great work of God and he doth his great works that they may be had in remembrance Let God have some glory from thee for pardoning those sins by which he hath been much dishonoured by thee and as for his pardoning so for his sanctifying grace Admire God bless God upon the view of thy former hard heart profane and unclean spirit say Ah Lord that ever such an Ethiopian as I was should through grace change my skin that ever such a rebellious spirit should be made obedient such a profane wretch should ever have an heart toward Heaven that ever one that loved his lusts so well as I have done should be taught of God to love him and fear him and delight in him that a Saul should be amongst the Prophets a Paul a persecutor a blasphemer should be amongst the Apostles a Mary Magdalen should wash her Lords feet and be so humbled as to wipe them with the hairs of her head the offering up of these praises glorifieth God 2. Let thy former sins make thee more abundant in penitential tears and in confessions of thy sin unto God God delighteth to hear a soul acknowledg its iniquities and take shame to it self Let thy reflection upon thy former ways make thee with Peter to weep bitterly make thee go alone and confess thy sins unto him that hath forgiven them the more vile thou makest and ownest thy self the more thou glorifiest God as a God of free grace and infinite mercy 3. Let thy former sins ingage thee to love God more Hath much been forgiven thee O love much Say with thy self O I can never love God enough I can never do enough for him I that have done so much against him I that have been so profane so vile that have spent my youth and strength in the service of my base lusts and pleasures and am yet received to mercy at last What shall I render unto the Lord Let my burning love to God and whatsoever beareth his image and superscription make some amends for my burning lusts which had consumed my poor soul if God had not mercifully quenched them 4. Let thy former sins and thy reflections upon them make thee to walk softly and humbly with God all the days of thy life Doest thou find thy heart at any time begin to swell in an high opinion of thy self Say my soul What hath a sinner to be proud on what hast thou that hast been so filthy so polluted to glory in High thoughts become not one that hath been so dirty so polluted and unclean as thou hast been 5. Let your reflections upon your sins bring forth that brood of graces which the Apostle mentioneth 2 Cor. 7.11 Indignation carefulness fear vehement desires revenge Indignation at your selves for your former errors Anger never hath a truer object than when it is exercised upon our selves for our miscarriages Revenge a revenge upon our selves this doubtless lieth much in acts of mortification and self denial mens denying themselves in the lawful use of the liberty of those things which they had before smfully abused Fear a fear of again salling into such remptations as they had before been overcome with A Care in looking to your ways and vehement desires in all things to please God and to walk more perfectly before him 6. Finally You shall make an improvement of your sins if your reflexions upon your former sins both of omission and commission shall engage you to more frequent acts of homage to him to be
and patience to them in his waiting upon them all the days of their life giving them his Gospel sending them his Ministers beseeching them to be reconciled unto God knocking by his Spirit at the doors of their hearts Thus the merciful God extendeth his goodness unto all sinners a long time he declareth that he desireth not the death of any sinner but is willing that all should be saved by coming to the acknowledgment of the truth The vile sinner through the pride of his heart will not seek after God but vexeth grieveth resisteth his holy Spirit from time to time refuseth to repent and to turn unto God defieth him mocketh at the tenders of Divine grace thus he liveth thus he dieth yet hath heard of and knoweth the threatnings of eternal destruction he looketh upon them as bug-bear things not to fright such men as he is but children only he drinks he swears he curseth and blasphemeth God lyes breaketh Sabbaths he will venture it Who is that God that shall restrain the lusts of his heart He will try whether there be such an Hell such an eternal destruction yea or no. What do we talk of mercy after this to such a bold defier of the Divine Majesty What kind of being must we fancy the eternal God if we should imagine him to have one drop of mercy for such a contemner and defier of Divine goodness Surely he that made this man will have no mercy on him he that formed him can shew him no favour without a dethroning himself and making himself the contempt of his creature This every sinner doth one more openly and boldly another more secretly and tacitly Every fool if he doth not speak it with his tongue yet saith in his heart there is no God Whiles vain man talks of mercy in God in this case I am afraid he fancieth mercy in God to be a passion as it is in us which necessarily stirs to compassionate every object of misery Alas it is no such thing it is nothing else but the good will of God to do good to sinners if they will be made partakers of his goodness The same will moveth and that justly too otherwise after this life the red flag is then held out The last grains of sand in the glass of mercy are dropt out when this life is determined There is no more sacrifice for sin remaining but a dreadful looking for of Judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law died without mercy of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy who have trodden under foot the blood of the Son of God and have counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified as an unholy thing Heb. 10.26 27. These men have done despight to the Spirit of Grace and we know who hath said vengeance is mine and I will repay it I will recompense saith the Lord and again the Lord shall judge his people I conclude then with the Apostle in that place It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God There is a time for all things and as it is so with men so it is with God There is a time for mercy that is the time of this life and there must be a time for the execution of Justice when God shall declare his righteousness upon sinners who have despised his goodness and patience that is the time after this life The inch of Candle is out when the sinners life is expired no more coming to the waters and buying then what before was offered without money and without price Mercy hath done its utmost as to such sinners no more mercy is to be found in God for them no more compassion in that God who is full of mercy and tender compassion Nor shall we need at all to stumble at this for to oblige Magistrates to be always pitiful to them that are in misery though they have been the causes of it to themselves and have brought themselves into misery by the highest contempts of Authority and Government yea and of the clemency and patience of the Magistrate were quickly to prostitute all Government and to expose those that manage it to the basest contempt and scorn imaginable and if the Princes and Judges of the earth and Generals of Armies upon the prospect of this see a necessity of setting limits to their bowels of compassion and no one judgeth them either unjust or cruel in so doing why may not the same be allowed to the holy and righteous God But I have spoken enough to convince those who observe the principles of justice allowed in the practice of all States and Governments with the general observation of the wiser sort in the world That God is neither cruel nor unrighteous in punishing with an eternal destruction those that know not God and obey not his Gospel although their time and pleasure of sinning hath born no proportion either to the time or degree of their torments I shall apply it but in a word or two 1. The first To sinners who are yet impenitent who have not yet by repentance and faith saved themselves from this wrath to come 2. The second to those who through grace have saved themselves from this wrath Vse 1. To the first I shall only speak after the great Apostle of the Gentiles We knowing the terrors of the Lord perswade you 1. Not to stand disputing with God about the justice and equity of his ways 2. While your time lasteth to save your selves from these eternal burnings from this worm which never dieth this fire which never goeth out 1. Dispute not then Divine Justice as to the eternal Destruction of sinners You see if you do you will fall in judgement though you should be tried by the common laws of men by the customs and practices of all Nations Flatter not your selves that whatever your Ministers tell you the goodness and mercy of God will not allow him to see his creatures eternally tormented or that the justice of God cannot allow him to punish the sinnings of a few hours or years with an eternity of torments What have they to do with mercy who have out-sinned their days and years of mercy and despised the long-suffering patience and forbearance of God that for twenty thirty forty years together was leading them to repentance and waiting for their conversion and turning to him who had a day and time of repentance but repented not an eternal life and happiness offered them but refused it and have judged themselves unworthy of eternal life O let all sinners cease disputing Divine Justice and presuming upon I know not what mercy in God and let them to day while it is called to day not harden their hearts but study to save themselves from this wrath that is to come Let me but offer you one or two Meditations 1. Consider with your selves how often you have deserved this eternal destruction from the presence of
the Lord and from the glory of his power and how many are dropped into it who never lived so long nor sinned so much as you have done Do not you think that an High-way-man or some other notorious villain as he passeth by a pair of Gallows upon the road hath many such a cold thought as this How many have perished upon this tree for stealing but a few shillings or some things of little value how often have I deserved the same punishment though I as yet escape Oh that you who are yet in a state of guilt and impenitency would reflect upon your selves and say Lord how many are dropt into the pit of eternal destruction who never lived so long as I have lived nor sinned to that degree that I have sinned yet they are perished and for ever perished yet I live and am out of that pit 2. Consider what an hairs-breadth there is betwixt you and this eternal destruction You see some in a moment going down into the pit some in an hours time some in a weeks time you sleep over it every night you tread over it every day you need not be told how little there is betwixt us and death every day How suddenly do you see some snatched away on your right hand others snatched away on your left hand Ananias and Saphira drop into the pit with a lye in their mouths What know you what this day what the next night may bring forth upon our souls Let me conclude this with an Exhortation much of that nature which Daniel used to that great King Wherefore O Sinners let my counsel be acceptable unto you break off your sins by a true repentance and your iniquities by a coming unto Christ if so be you may save your selves from this wrath to come Vse 2. In the second place Let the People of God who are delivered from this wrath and by grace translated into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ look back with thankful hearts upon this danger which they have escaped They tell a story of a person who being disordered with drink and riding over a bridg where he very narrowly but insensibly escaped the danger of his life coming back the next day and viewing his danger he was so astonished as that he dropt down dead your reflexion upon this eternal destruction which through grace you have escaped ought to have no such influence upon you But from the sight of this dreadful wrath to come which you have escaped reflect these two more profitable Meditations upon your souls 1. What hath God done for me delivering me from such a death Oh how patient was God with me how many nights did I sleep over hell how many days how many years did I tread over these endless torments Oh! what hath God done for me in plucking my foot out of this snare as a brand out of this fire 2. What shall I do what can I do enough for that God who hath saved me from such a death how often might he have thrown me into Hell O Lord I am thy servant I am thy servant thou hast saved me from that wrath which is to come What an engagement should this lay upon us in nostro aeterno to serve the Lord while we have any being Let us therefore go away singing with David We will extol thee our God our King we will praise thee for ever and ever every day we will bless thee and we will praise thee for evermore Psal 145.1 Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquity who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction yea from eternal destruction who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies Psal 103.1 2 3 4. SERMON XLIII Psal LXXIII 12 13 14. Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency For all the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning I Am indeavouring as I have before told you to make the seemingly rough ways of Actual Providence plain expounding to you the hard Chapters of Divine Providence I am still speaking to such questions as relate to distributive justice considered as in the hand of Actual Providence and here also I have already spoken to several things I am now come to the last which I intend to speak to It is the great question which hath posed the great Philosophers of the world and hath made some of them deny the being of God others deny the care and Providence of God or at least restrain it to some particular objects How it standeth with the justice of God to punish and chasten his own people whiles in the mean time he suffereth the way of the wicked to prosper To handle this I have made choice of this Text it is no wonder that the greatest Philosophers have been posed here when we find the most eminent servants of God whose names stand upon Sacred Record at a loss to find out this riddle and finding it a sad temptation to them You shall find that Job stumbled at it Job 21.7 and Jeremy though he humbly prefaceth his complaint Jer. 12.1 with Righteous art thou O Lord in thy judgements yet he must he must talk with God about his judgements in this thing Habbakuk was also something disturbed at it Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to endure any iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is better than himself In my Text you find the man according to Gods own heart stumbling also at this stone you have an account of his fall by this temptation from the first ver to the 16. 2. His recovery of himself vers 17 18 19 20. The Propositions which may be observed from this verse are two Prop. 1. That in this life ungodly men often prosper and increase in riches when in the mean time holy men are plagued and chastened 2. Prop. That this is often a temptation to the best of men to think that they have cleansed their hearts in vain I say first God in this life doth often measure out prosperity to the worst and afflictions to the best of men The truth of the Proposition as to matter of fact is evident both from the Records of Scripture and the whole course of Divine Providence in the dispensations of it as through all ages so in our present age so as I shall not need spend any time in the proof of it The Question is Quest How this is consistent with the Justice Wisdom or Goodness of God that the ungodly should prosper in the world and increase in riches when his people are visited with afflictions every night and chastned every morning I shall add further to make use of the
in me is thy help I Am now come to the second general Proposition which I promised you to discourse upon a little In my last exercise I discoursed to you of the Fountain of Life and Grace which we found to be the free-will of God There is no other account to be given of Gods shewing mercy but because he will shew mercy which is most certainly true as of Gods eternal acts of Grace so of his Acts of Providence as to the dispensation of his first Grace The next Proposition I mentioned was this 2. Prop. That God in his providential Dispensations of punishment never acteth by meer Prerogative but according to the demerit of his Creatures In his Dispensations of Grace and the means of it he acteth meerly from his own Will he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and there is no other account to be given of those Dispensations he sendeth the Gospel to this place rather than another because he will send it he changeth this Man or Womans heart and turneth it to himself because he will shew mercy But the case is otherwise in his penal Dispensations there God acteth not upon Prerogative God there hath a Prerogative for may not the Potter do what he will with his Clay But it is one thing to have Jus absolutum an absolute right and power which we must claim for God so long as we know him to have an absolute right and Soveraignty over the works of his hands 't is another thing for God agere secundum jus absolutum to act according to his Soveraignty and absolute power this we say God doth not I pray observe I restrain my Discourse to Gods Dispensations of actual Providence I shall not meddle with the eternal Councils of God in this case that is quite beyond my Subject propounded It is unquestionable that the punishments of Sinners both in this Life and that which is to come as well as the other great issues of his Providence concerning the rewards of righteous men were set in order by an Eternal deliberation but whether by a meer negative or positive Decree whether upon consideration of sin or no are points I am not at all concerned to interest my self in having all along restrained my discourse to the motions of Actual Providence and certain it is that God in those Dispensations doth punish none either here or hereafter meerly because he will but upon consideration of Sinners demerits Shewing mercy is an Act of Grace punishments are Acts of Justice The gift of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Eternal Life that is a guift and what is freer than gift But the Wages of Sin is Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man must earn Death before he hath it from the hand of a merciful God but Eternal Life must be given him if ever it be his Portion so saith my Text. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self I will open this in two or three conclusions 1. I understand it of all kind of destructions possibly the Text may chiefly relate to temporal destructions 't is Ephraim to whom the Prophet is speaking and it is about a bodily destruction but the Conclusion is general and the Text is well enough applyed by Divines to Eternal destruction all destructions whether of Body or Soul are of our selves yea I take the Aphonimy of the Text to be more eminently true of the destruction of the Soul than of the destruction of the Body A Child may dye for the sins of the Parents Subjects may dye for the sin of their Prince as in the case of Saul's Children that were hanged in David's time and in the case of those many thousands which in David's time were cut off for his sin in numbring of the People The Children of God may be involved in a common destruction and suffer as they are a part of a sinful Nation God may take them off to deliver them from an evil to come as in the case of Abijam the Son of Jeroboam God may punish his people with afflictions of this Life for the trial and exercise of their graces but in Eternal destructions God can have no other end than the punishment of the person and all such destruction is for a mans sin his personal sin 3. When we say that Mens destruction is of themselves you must understand of themselves as the meritorious cause not of themselves as the principal efficient cause God is rightly enough entituled to all the Evil of punishment in the City It is no dishonour to his Majesty to be the Author of his own Judgments which is all that Mr. Calvin or any of the same mind with him have said which hath made some so clamour against them as having asserted God to be the Author of Sin For God to be the Author of punishments is no stain to his Glory but a Declaration of his Justice and of his Righteousness Christ himself shall come as the Apostle telleth us in flaming fire to take Vengeance upon them who know not God and obey not his glorious Gospel God shall say to those on his left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But our destruction is from our selves as the proximate and meritorious cause though from God as the efficient cause It is not from the Soveraign will of God meerly but from the stubborn and rebellious will of Man that any Soul perisheth Divines do say that though God cannot will the doing of any Sin yet he may will that it should be done The Holy Ghost telleth us that Herod and Pilate and the Jews employed in accusing condemning crucifying of Christ did no more than what the Council of God had determined should be done But I say notwithstanding this the proximate cause of mans Damnation is not because God hath willed their Damnation it is the guilt of their own Sins the demerit of their own Transgressions which bringeth them to the Pit of Destruction The Gracious God sheweth mercy and saveth all who are saved by Prerogative by Grace you are saved saith the Apostle he hath the same Prerogative in matters of Death that he hath in matters of Life but he useth it not but there acteth according to his Statute-Law The Soul that sinneth shall dye He who saveth men without themselves damneth none without themselves Men are saved by Grace but they are damned by Sin The wages of Sin is Death Omne peccatum est voluntarium all Sin is of ourselves it must have something of our own will and consent to and in it 3. Thirdly Although this be certain that all destruction all punishment is for Sin yet the particular proximate cause of some punishments is unknown to us I will instance in one particular a punishment undoubtedly a most severe punishment The withholding the Gospel and so the ordinary means of Grace and Salvation from the far greatest part of the world They hear nothing of the Lord Jesus
some means The very Heathens have something of God manifested to them and manifested in them For the invisible things of God saith the Apostle are manifested by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead they have natural light and a natural reason and something of a natural conscience too The works of Creation they have and the works of Providence shewing them a great deal of the eternal power and God-head of God sufficient to convince them that there is a God a Great Infinite Powerful God for he leaveth not men without witness giving the very Heathens fruitful times and seasons But I am not speaking unto Heathens you that are Christians have yet further means though in different degrees too All have the Scriptures Protestants have them in their own Language so as they may read and in a great measure understand what they read all have the Ministry of the Word they have the Gospel preached to them though it is true that also is in very different degrees yet all have something of what they call a moral Season and are perswaded and intreated to turn unto God This we say is not a sufficient means to bring a Soul unto Heaven if God doth not more for Souls than let them have the benefit of the works of Creation shewing them his glory and the benefit of the light of Nature and Reason and the works of his common Providence yea and of the Scriptures and the preaching of them and that not only in a cold flat and dead and dull manner but in the most lively powerful manner they will never repent never believe and turn unto God Paul may plant and Apollo may water long enough if God doth not give the increase It is not in him that Preacheth and perswadeth nor in him that Prayeth and heareth but in God that sheweth mercy he must give both to will and to do he must give repentance unto life and be both the Author and the finisher of our Faith But yet I say all these are means some of them very great and excellent means and the highest in the order of external means And though they be not sufficient though used with the best natural improvements of our own will and power to bring us to Heaven yet sufficient to render us without excuse unto God if we do not make a due and just improvement of them Let me therefore plead with you that you would live up to the means of grace which God giveth you That sort of people amongst us whom we call Quakers call to men to Hearken to the light within them I do not well understand what they mean by the light within us but thus much is certain that all men have a light within them and they have a light without them The light without them is the light of the works of God in Nature and of his works of Providence The Scriptures and the Ministry of the Word all men have some or other or all of these All men have also a light within them the light of Nature and of Reason This light as I have shewed you is not sufficient to shew a man the way to Heaven but it is enough to shew a man much of God and much of his duty and the way to obtain a full and sufficient light to bring him to glory is for him to walk up to the light which he hath This will be the condemnation that when light is come into the world men love darkness more than light because their hearts because their deeds are evil But to shut up this Discourse 3. Vse In the last place What an obligation doth this lay upon the children of God to cry out with holy David Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and sing of all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquity and healeth all thy diseases Who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercy To heighten your souls apprehensions of the Divine goodness extended to you and raise up your hearts in the high praises of God I shall but offer Two things to your Meditation with which I shall shut up this Discourse 1. Consider What is done unto you God hath undoubtedly given unto you a sufficient grace The sufficiency lost in Adam is restored to you by the Lords giving Christ to you I can do all things saith the Apostle through Christ that strengtheneth me So that God may say to you as to his Vineyard Isa 5. What could I have done more for my Vineyard than I have done What could I have done more for such a soul than I have done God hath display'd the riches of his grace upon your souls God could do no more for you than he hath done God hath nothing more to give than grace and glory he hath given you grace special distinguishing grace Glory is hereafter to be revealed in the mean time special effectual grace is glory begun 2. Consider Secondly Why to you to you rather than unto others others may easily understand Why not to them because they despised the riches of his Grace they sinned against their natural light they lived not up to their light of Revelation But Why to you Did not you also sin against your light Did you make that improvement of the works of God the light of your natural Reason or Conscience that you ought to have done If not Why hath God done more for you than for them discovered more of Christ unto you than unto them Here you will be lost and at last be forced to resolve it into this God hath shewed me mercy because he would shew me mercy and hath extended compassion to me only because he would extend compassion Oh sit down alone sometimes and say My soul Why should the God of grace shew mercy unto thee Hast thou not sinned often against the very light of Nature and Reason Hast thou not despised the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and trampled under foot the blood of the Son of God What high praises of God are high enough for every true believers heart How precious should Christ be unto his soul How can he ever have thoughts of God high enough or with his tongue sing the praises of God loud enough How doth he stand concerned to cry out with David Awake my glory Oh! What manner of person should a believer be in all boliness of conversation He can certainly never do enough for that God who hath done so much for him and hath made such a difference betwixt him and others This is praising of God not in word and in tongue only but indeed and in truth Oh this is to perfect holiness It is for that God who hath from eternity chosen you to obtain everlasting life and hath left others to perish in their iniquity for that God who in the dispensations of his gracious Providence in the
men are subdued under them by him that they have wisdom to make Laws and liberty to execute them that men in their dominions are disposed into their several orders ranks and stations so as mutually to serve one another and to uphold the whole Oh that Subjects would praise the Lord for his goodness that they have wise Magistrates good Laws that their lives are not Sacrificed to murtherers that their houses are not fired that their Wives and Virgins are not ravished that they are disposed to Trades and Occupations that they have wisdom for them a spirit to them Let every Citizen every Subject see and acknowledg the hand of the Lord in these things and bless his holy name But lastly Let the Redeemed of the Lord particularly Vse 3 see and acknowledg the Providence of God in the preserving of them in their spiritual capacities Were it not for the preserving Providence of God our spiritual life would be extinguished every moment God preserveth it by repeating his Gracious Acts in the remission of our sins in the imputation of Christs righteousness Our habits of grace would weaken we aâ—â— preserved and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation It is a great mercy and deserves a great acknowledgment that we have our lives preserved our estates preserved our wives and daughters preserved But oh how much greater is it that we have our state of Justification maintained Our principles of Spiritual Operations our habits of Grace our power to repent believe love God preserved that the influences of Grace are continued that we have the Word and Ordinances preserved Let the redeemed of the Lord say his mercy endureth for ever let them adore preserving-Providence let them consider what a subtil adversary they have Who goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour What abundance of lusts and corruptions they have in their own hearts what a law in their members warring against the law of their minds and they will say that the seed of God which is in them is wonderfully preserved But thus much may serve to have spoken of the first great act of Providence which I called Preservation My next work is to speak concerning Government SERMON VIII Psal CIII 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all I AM as you know discoursing concerning the Principal Acts of Actual Providence which I told you were two 1. Preservation 2. Government All things were at first created by a Divine word of Power all things are preserved by a Divine Power He upholdeth all things by the word of his Power saith the Apostle This I have done with but Gods actual Providence doth not extend only to the upholding and the preserving of all his creatures but he governeth them also Preservation respecteth their several beings and capacities Government respecteth their motions and actions For a Discourse upon this I have made choice of this Text and chusing it with that design only I do not take my self so much concerned to enquire into its relation to what went before or followeth I shall only consider it in it self and so it giveth you an account 1. Of the Royal Seat of the Divine residence or place where God more gloriously manifests that Presence which yet filleth Heaven and Earth He hath saith the Psalmist his throne prepared in the heavens 2. The vastness of his Imperial royal influence and dominion His Kingdom saith the Text ruleth over all I shall not meddle with the first part it is the second only which I have to do with The Proposition shortly is this Prop. That he whose Throne is in Heaven governeth the whole Creation The Scripture speaketh plentifully to this point of Gods Universal dominion 1 Chron. 16.31 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoyce and let men say amongst the Heathen The Lord reigneth Psalm 96.10 Say amongst the heathen the Lord reigneth Psalm 93.1 The Lord reigneth he is clothed with Majesty c. Psalm 97.1 The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce Psalm 99.1 The Lord reigneth let the people tremble An Heathen Prince acknowledgeth it Dan. 4.3 34. But not to multiply Texts Reason will evince it every Superiour being hath a kind of natural right to rule over those that are inferiour to it and God being the Supreme Being and the Creator of all other beings too hath a natural right to extend a Kingdom and Dominion over all and that not only as he is Superior to them and greater than they are but also as he is the efficient cause of all the Creator of all things But to speak more particularly we will enquire 1. What Government is 2. What are the Objects of this vniversal Government and Dominion which the Proposition ascribeth unto God 3. What are those special acts by which God exerciseth this Dominion and Government Government implieth three things 1. The fixing of some ends 2. A power invested in some one or more persons upon others ordering and directing them in order to that end 3. The exercise of this Power The end of Government amongst men is usually the peace quiet and settlement of a place Gods End is his own glory He hath made all things for himself and he doth all things for himself for the fulfilling of his own Counsels and Will in order to the glorifying of his holy Name The Apostle saith Of him and for him are all things 2. Secondly Government implieth a power invested in one or more persons in order to an end Now that God hath such a power none can deny and acknowledg him to be God Once have I spoken yea twice have I heard it saith the Psalmist that power belongeth unto God He who confesseth God to be almighty and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth must own him to have a power sufficient for an Universal Government If we take Power for Authority i. e. a Right to exercise a power over such and such objects that also God hath by the very law of Nature Hath not the potter a power over the clay and is not the creature the clay and God the potter 3. But thirdly Government implieth yet something more viz. an actual exercise of this power and indeed this is the main Actual Government is the exercise of a power wherewith a person or persons are invested over some persons or things in order to some wise ends But let me come to the second Question viz. Quest What are the particular Objects of this Divine providential Government The Text saith His Kingdom ruleth over all I think that term all is to be expounded by three general heads 1. The beings and existences of his creatures 2. The motions and actions of his creatures 3. The omissions and obliquities of his creatures all these as I shall shew you fall under the government of Providence 1. The Beings and existences of his creatures the production and cessation of them the giving of them Being belongs to Creation
Apostle tells us Rom. 11.11 12. They did not stumble that they might fall but through their fall salvation came unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie The Apostles upon their going out to preach to the Gentiles gives this account of it Forasmuch as you have judged your selves unworthy of eternal life that was by not receiving the Gospel we turn unto the Gentiles What shall I need say more there is no soul brought to Heaven but is an eminent instance of this If they had not sinned they would have no need of any pardon or justification from the guilt of sin no need of a Saviour or Mediator God suffereth the souls of his People to be concluded under the guilt of sin that he might have mercy upon them It is also an ordinary observation of Divines That God often suffereth people to fall into some gross and scandalous sins that he might take that advantage to awaken them to repentance and make use of their falls to a rising again to a new life and this is often seen in those that have lived civilly and might be prone to trust to their own Moral Righteousness But I shall inlarge no further in the Justification of so obvious an Observation It follows that I should shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence 1. The truth is in the first place it is hard to conceive how otherwise some of Gods greatest works of Providence could have been produced What would the Revelation of a Covenant of Grace have signified to the world if the Covenant of Works had not first been violated by the first mans transgression How could else any man imagine that the salvation of the world should have been accomplished by the death of Christ if God had not made use of the wicked action of those who took him and by wicked hands crucified him The Apostle assureth us that in all they did against our Lord they did but execute what the counsel of the Lord had predetermined should be done If sin did not abound how should grace much more abound Rom. 5. In the pardon of sins the justification of a guilty soul the Scripture tells us That all are concluded under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe What should we say to the great work of Providence in trying his Saints by afflictions and persecutions from the hands of violent men God maketh use of the sins of Persecutors to perfect his Saints by the exercises of their faith and patience it could not be without the sins of those who persecute others for righteousness sake 2. Again God by this getteth himself a great deal of glory I have spoke something to this under the seventh Observation but let me here add a little 1. He gets himself the glory of his power There is a fancy hath possessed the Philosophers of the world That metals of a baser nature may by art be turned into nobler metals brass c. into gold and they will tell you that some such thing hath been done and aboundance of time and money hath been spent by the vain and covetous Philosophers of the world to little purpose to find out this Philosophers stone as they call it but supposing such a thing possible yet there must be some similar quality to help or they will not pretend to any such thing no Philosopher ever yet pretended by all his Chymistry to fetch gold out of a dunghil But now in sin there is nothing of a similar quality to the glory of God there is nothing so opposite to the glory of God as the sins of men and women For God to fetch water out of a rock argued great power to raise up Abraham children from the stones of the field it must speak great power but yet not so much as for God to fetch his own glory out of peoples sins There is in sin an infinite opposition to the glory of God nothing so diametrically opposite to God's honour and glory as sin is Sampson put forth a riddle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness But what is this riddle to that which I am speaking of for the glory of God to come forth out of the dunghil the woful dunghil of the worst of mens actions for God to work out his own righteousness out of the vilest actions of men O it speaketh an infinite Power in God! it is a greater work to fetch light out of darkness I will saith God get me glory upon Pharaoh For God to get himself glory out of Pharaoh's hard heart was more than to get his people water out of an hard rock 2. God by it gets himself the glory of his infinite wisdom I told you in my former discourse that he is accounted the best Politician that can make the best use of all humours and serve his own designs even of his utter Enemies this is the top of a Politicians wisdom How great then must the Wisdom of God appear in this nothing hath such an enmity to God and his glory as sin hath Job speaketh it to the great glory and honour of God Job 5.13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the crafty are carried head long It speaketh the wisdom of a man that he can make use of the capacious quality of a bird or a beast to catch a prey for him thus the faulconer maketh use of the hawk the huntsman of the dog the fisher-man of a fowl to catch birds or beasts or fish for him This I say speaketh the wisdom of a man above other creatures O how it speaketh the admirable Wisdom of God that he can make use of the worst belchings of lusts in mens hearts the most vile and rebellious actions of men and out of them fetch his own glory 3. But in the last place God above all doth by this magnifie the riches and freeness of his grace This is that wherein the Lord delights to have glory he predestinated adopted us c. to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.6 If God had taken man out of a state of innocency into Heaven we should never have admired free-grace so much as now it marvellously affects the heart of a child of God to see God make use of his falls of his sin and corruption and manifold rebellions to make his free-grace exceeding glorious We should never so much admire free-grace and mercy if we were not so great transgressors This is it which maketh grace precious in our eyes when we cry out of the belly of hell and he heareth us Thus far I have shewed you that God maketh a very ordinary use and a very remarkable use of peoples sins But I also added that it was a spotless use and thus it must be if God maketh it For he that is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity must be of a purer will
of sin the hearts of sinners are set in them to do evil because judgement is not executed speedily I indeavoured to discourage and check this presumption in my former observation where I confirmed to you that by how much the more slowly vindicative justice proceedeth to the punishment of sin by so much severer the punishment is when it cometh This Observation addeth further to that check for as that which men call slackness is but the long suffering and patience of God not willing that any should perish but that all should be saved by a seasonable repentance So as you have now heard at large discoursed to you neither is God thus long-suffering and patient with all and although God generally be more quick with those sorts of sinners which I have specified to you yet I desire you to observe what I first enlarged upon that there is hardly any kind or sort of sinners but God at some time or other hath picked out some or other of them to make them examples of his severity Thou maist be struck dead while the lye is in thy mouth It was the case you know of Ananias and Saphira Thou maist be cut off in the very Act of Adultery It was the case you know of Zimri and Cosbi Tremble therefore and do not sin God may grant thee many years of patience he may give thee leave to treasure up wrath to thy self against the day of wrath but thou canst not promise thy self an hours patience But above all fear those sins which God usually is so quick in punishing Fear blaspheming God or the King we live in a blaspheming age wherein have been more bold darings of God than in former times God hath revenged his glory upon some of them they have been cut off in their youth before they have lived out half their dayes If another generation riseth up and approveth their sayings wait but a while and you will see vengeance overtaking them also Fear doing any thing against the life of others who by the law of God ought not to dye Blood-thirsty men shall not live out half their days you fee Gods vengeance against this sin is very quick 2. This Observation affords a great encouragement to the service of God especially to eminent actings and sufferings for God There is a reward for righteous men if they go without it to their dying day yet they shall be recompensed in the generation of the just Heaven will pay for all but God doth not always take so long a day to recompence them Many have a reward in this life and that which is to come The Scripture is full of promises even of the good things of this life to godliness in the general and to the several parts and acts of godliness These promises indeed are not made good to every child of God in specie but only in equivalent yea transcendent mercies But even these promises are made good to many and they may be thy portion however thou shalt not miss of the greater things Particularly this layeth an engagement upon all that fear God as God calleth them to it and giveth them advantage for it to signalize themselves by eminent actings or by some eminent sufferings such you have heard God ordinarily payeth presently and besides that eternal recompence which they have in glory they are in more outward and sensible things or in more inward influences of grace recompensed in this life Those that eminently honour God he will honour and many of them have a double mess sent them from the Lord. SERMON XXXI Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am proceeding yet in my Observations upon the motions of Divine Providence that which we call Actual Providence in its administration of distributive Justice both in the punishment of sinners and the rewarding of the righteous Divers Observations I have already made I am come to the Observat 18. Which you may please to take thus That the Providence of God doth very ordinarily with the punishments of this life chastise the past and pardoned sins of people In the handling of which I shall 1. Justifie the Observation 2. I shall shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Providence and reconcile it both to the justice and goodness of God 3. Lastly I shall make some practical application of it That it is so I shall prove by two famous instances the first of David the second Job David you know had fallen into two grievous sins Adultery with Bathsheba and the murther of her Husband Vriah God sendeth the Prophet Nathan 2 Sam. 12. to David to convince him of his sin who doth it by a Parable Davids heart melteth v. 13. and he saith unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan tells him the Lord hath also put away thy sin The sin you see was both past and pardoned but mark what follows v. 14. Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye He had told him before v. 10. That the sword should not depart from his house and v. 11. That he would take his wives before his face and give them to his neighbour and he should ly with them in the sight of the Sun All this was afterward justified by the Actual Providence of God The Child died 2 Sam. 12.18 Amnon defloureth his Sister Thamar and is slain by her Brother Absolon 2 Sam. 13.14 29. Absalom Davids own Son lieth with his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel 2 Sam. 16.22 Absolom is slain in a rebellion against his Father c. Nay not only thus but God punisheth David with horrors and terrors in his mind with diseases in his body as you may gather from Psal 6. Psal 51. and the rest of those Psalms in which he expresseth his repentance David prayeth Psal 25.7 Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions Job complaineth unto God Job 7.2 3. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work so am I made to possess months of vanity I know the words are capable of another sense as vanity may be understood for affliction and misery or the frustration of his expectations but I should rather interpret it by the words of the same Job 13.26 27 28. For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the sins of my youth c. Moses and Aaron sinned against the Lord at the waters of Meribah I do not think that any of you doubt but that God pardoned their sin yet it is certain that God punished them and that for that sin God himself tells them so Deut. 32.50 51. That the Providence of God doth this is evident The second thing may seem to have more difficulty in it viz. How this is reconcileable either to
of it I think is that to David which we have Psal 89. from the 20 to the 35. v. Vers 28. he tells him That he will keep his mercy with him for evermore and his covenant should stand fast with him but yet he reserveth himself a liberty to punish him and his seed for sins vers 30. If his children for sake my law and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving-kindness I will not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail my Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips So that notwithstanding the Covenant of Grace for eternal life and pardon of sin and all grace in order to the obtaining of this life and notwithstanding the blood of Christ which was the blood of this Covenant God hath yet a liberty to visit the transgressions of his people even their past as well as renewing transgressions with rods and their iniquity with stripes yet he doth not break his Covenant nor alter any thing that is gone out of his lips 3. Nor is it reasonable that any should fancy that God by the establishment of the Covenant of Grace or by acceptance of the satisfaction of his Son as the blood of this Covenant to make an atonement and reconciliation for iniquity should have barred himself of his liberty to punish the sins of his people or that any who hath accepted this Covenant upon the exhibition of it in the Gospel should be excused from such chastisements if we consider 1. That some of these chastenings are made the matters of a promise Mark 10.30 Persecutions are reckoned amongst Christs rewards in this life Heb. 12.6 7 8. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth c. Thence the ancients were wont to call Martyrdom a Crown and Luther was wont to complain That God would not honour him to wear that Crown Saint Paul prayeth to be made conformable to the death of Christ if the Saints did not fight how could they triumph how should they conquer yea be more than conquerers 2. That afflictions are the path-way to death and death the door into eternal life Every affliction is a blow at the root of our tree preparing it for its fall and if we did not dye how should we live in Heaven We must all dye or be changed or our corruptible could never put on incorruption nor our mortal put on immortality It is reported of Zaleucus a lawgiver amongst the Indians that he should say If God had not appointed that all should dye it had been reasonable for men to have made a law in the case and we read of some Indians who being asked why they worshipped the Sun gave this reason Because it was the Author of death Give me leave to say That death is so necessary and afflictions are so wholesom for Christians that they deserve rather to be reckoned amongst those things which Christ hath purchased for them than such things as he hath purchased them a liberty from 1. All sorts of afflictions of this life are means of grace not so much means of begetting as reviving and increasing grace for as the fire softneth the wax and hardneth the clay so I have usually observed That afflictions make the wicked man worse but godly men better they revive repentance they are times when usually men call sin to remembrance they draw out the exercises of faith and both work and exercise patience Tribulation saith the Apostle worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope David before that he was afflicted went astray after he learned to keep Gods Statutes God while he punisheth his people for their sins doth not barely chasten them but he also teacheth them out of his Law 2. They secondly prepare the Saints for glory and this not only as they restrain sin and tend to perfect grace but as it pleaseth God of his grace to reward the sufferings of his people and the faith and patience of his people shewed in and under their sufferings with the greater glory Thus the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.17 That our light and momentany afflictions work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And thus much may serve to have cleared this Objection that I may hasten to the practical Application of this Observation This motion of Divine Providence in punishing with temporal punishments past and pardoned sins even in the best of Gods People appears exceeding reasonable 1. In regard of the Justice of God The Justice of God having taken a satisfaction in the blood of his Son and been paid a price for the sins of his people will not allow him to punish them with an eternal punishment yet it is reasonable they should not go altogether unpunished that the world may see that he is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity in any I remember what God said by the Prophet Jeremiah to the Jews Jer. 30.11 I will not make a full end of thee but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished You have the same again Jer. 46.28 2. It is reasonable secondly in order to the eternal salvation of their souls 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world It is P. Martyrs note upon that Text that the Apostle in that passage particularly respecteth such as fear God for the case is otherwise with wicked men whose punishment but begun in this life shall be perfected in the world that is to come But I have spoken enough to the Doctrinal part of this Observation Let me now come to some practical Observation shewing you what use we may and ought to make of it Vse 1. This in the first place serves to justifie God in those sore afflictions which we often see him bringing upon his own people When we look upon the holiness of a Job and see him a man fearing God and eschewing evil and see such a person under sharp tryals of affliction we are ready to startle at it and cannot understand Divine Justice in it But God is many ways to be justified 1. Who liveth and sinneth not enough against God to justifie the severest dispensations under which God exerciseth him 2. If he did not yet it is an ordinary thing and very righteous for God to write bitter things against his people for the sins of their youth though past and pardoned Now who hath so passed his youth that he hath not been guilty of sin enough to justifie God in his punishments yea and to make him acknowledg that he hath been punished seven times less than he hath deserved And if neither of these could be seen as a meritorious cause yet God hath a liberty by afflictions to try the faith
youth and David saw reason to pray that the Lord would not remember the sins of his youth against him We stand therefore deeply concerned with bitterness to remember what God hath not so forgotten but he may deeply chastise us for O then my Brethren let us all look back upon our youth and mourn over that first and wanton time And 2. When the hand of God is upon us and it may be we cannot find wherefore he contendeth us then let us remember former sins and humble our souls before the Lord for them and glorifie God in the fires by acknowledging the righteousness of God in the punishment of the sins of our former years But possibly some will say to me What is to be done in this case is there no way to prevent this after-reckoning with us Truly I cannot promise you there is for as a people may be grown in sin to such an height that there is no speaking to God for them so it is possible that our former sins may have so provoked God as notwithstanding our repentance and conversion God may be resolved that we shall smart in the flesh though our souls be saved in the day of Christ but if there be any hope for such a mercy it is certainly to be obtained 1. By frequent humiliations for past sins much fasting and prayer thus Josiah obtained mercy as to his person when the sins of his predecessors were coming like a storm upon him David knew that if any thing would do this was the way and therefore while the child was sick he humbled himself and would eat no bread 2. By shewing your selves eminent in the exercise of those vertues and graces which are most opposed to your former sins This was Daniels counsel to the King he had sinned by unrighteousness cruelty and injustice oppressing his subjects griping the poor c. Daniel adviseth him to break off his sins by righteousness and his iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it might be a lengthning out of his tranquillity Dan. 4.27 He could not assure him this would be a lengthning out of his tranquillity but if it were a thing to be done this was the way to obtain it Paul had eminently sinned by blaspheming persecuting the Lord Christ in his members he preacheth up Christ and laboureth in the work of the Gospel more than all the rest of the Apostles 3. Walk humbly in the third place with thy God do not be too censorious too rash in thy judgement God resisteth the proud thou wert once as others are it is by Grace thou art otherwise Now it cannot be pleasing but highly provocative to God to see a great sinner whom he hath pardoned and received to mercy triumphing over judging censuring them and doubtless doth often provoke God to call their former sins to remembrance that they may learn to pity others It is seldom that God by smart judgements makes them sensible of their errors who have a daily sense of them and in the sense of them walk softly all the days of their lives If we would judg our selves saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.31 we should not be judged 4. Be much in secret prayer to God begging of him That if it be possible those bitter cups might pass from thee but remember to add what our Saviour addeth yet not my will but thy will be done For these punishments are not in themselves evil and therefore not absolutely to be deprecated but with submission to the will and wisdom of God SERMON XXXII Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am still detained in a Discourse concerning the observable things of Divine Providence Actual Providence and more particularly I am recommending to your observation some things relating to its motions in the distributions of Rewards and Punishments I shall offer one thing more of this nature Observat 19. That it is a very ordinary motion of Divine Providence both to reward and punish Relations in their Correlations To visit the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children of the Magistrates upon the people c. And so on the contrary to reward the good and righteous actions of Parents unto their posterity c. In the prosecution of this keeping my method 1. I shall justifie the observation by several instances 2. I shall shew you the Reasonableness of this motion of Providence and clear it from all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appearances of injustice or contrariety to what God hath spoken in his word with reference to the distribution of punishments 3. Lastly I shall make some practical Application That the thing is true appeareth from so plentiful a testimony of Scripture-instances as hardly any thing is more clear and that both as to Rewards and Punishments I will begin with the first but shall be shorter in that Discourse because the difficulty lieth more as to the second thing viz. the distribution of punishments Now for Rewards besides many particular instances we have two that are more general those of Abraham the Father of the faithful and David the man according to Gods own heart They were both great and common Fathers Abraham was the Father of the Jewish Nation The father of many Nations and the father of the faithful I shall only consider him in the first capacity David was the father of the Kings of Judah Sauls family you know was extinguished presently Now how frequently in Scripture do you find God declaring his goodness and mercy to the Jewish Nation for his servant Abrahams sake or for the sake of Abraham Isaac and Jacob or for his servant Davids sake And God heard their groaning and God remembred his Covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob Exod. 2.24 Lev. 26.42 Then will I remember my Covenant with Jacob and also my Covenant with Isaac and also my Covenant with Abraham will I remember and I will remember the Land Hence it was that the Jews gloried so much that They had Abraham to their Father and the faithful amongst them ordinarily used it as an argument to plead in prayer with God for them It is plain concerning David from a multitude of Scriptures 1 Kings 11.11 God threatning to rend away the Kingdom of Solomon tells him that for David his servants sake he will not do it in his days and v. 12. For David his servants sake he would give one tribe to his Son So again v. 32 34. and 2 Kings 8.19 Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for Davids sake 2 Kings 19.34 I will defend this City save it for my own sake and for my servant Davids sake hence the Psalmist prayeth Psal 132.10 For thy servant Davids sake turn not away the face of thine Anointed and so in many other texts of Scripture The case as to punishments hath yet a far more plentiful evidence from holy Writ Exod. 17.8 9. Amalek smote Israel when they came out
the more eminent sins which you read of in Scripture thus punished are 1. Corruption in the worship of God and especially Idolatry which is the highest sin in that kind This is verified in the instance of the punishment for the Calf made by Aaron at the importunity of the people Exod. 32. and in all the cases of the Kings of Israel before mentioned Princes were punished for it not only personally but in their families and the people too for willingly walking after the commandment The worship of God is a very tender thing and God more severely punisheth no sin than he doth corruptions in that 2. Blood Cruelty and Oppression and especially the blood of righteous men God Numb 35. commands that no satisfaction should be taken for the life of the murderer he tells us there blood polluteth a land and so as that it cannot be cleansed but by the blood of him that shed it This was the case of Saul he had shed the blood of the Gibeonites for this vengeance came in a famine upon all Israel and particularly upon his family This was the case of Ahab also he had shed the blood of Naboth and of the Lords Prophets This was the case of the Jews That saith our Saviour upon you may come all the righteous blood shed from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah and the blood of Christ by them shed lieth upon that whole people unto this day But secondly How far may this Vengeance extend 1. I answer Not to the inward man The spiritual or eternal punishment of any man consisteth of two Essential parts the soul and the body both these are capable of punishment both in this life and that which is to come hence ariseth the distinction of punishment into that which is Corporal and that which is Spiritual that which is Temporal and that which is Eternal Now I do not think that God punisheth the souls of succeeding generations not going on in the same or equal sins for the sins of a preceeding generation or the souls of correlates for the sins of their Relations In this sense I take that Text Ezech. 18.4 The soul that sinneth shall dye the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father nor the father the iniquity of the child As also that Jer. 31.29 They shall not use this Proverb The Fathers have eaten sour grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge but every one shall dye for his own sin but whether that be the strict sense of those Texts or no I will not dispute this seemeth to me a sufficient reason for this determination Because the soul of the child is no part of the parent All souls are Gods and derive immediately from him One thing which is said by Divines in maintenance of the justice of God in this dispensation is this That children are the goods of their parents and parts of them flesh of their flesh but it cannot be said so of their souls Hence it followeth that none for the sins of their Parents or Correlates is given up to hardness of heart reprobacy of mind or vile-affections nor to any other spiritual wickedness nor shall any perish eternally for the sins of others 2. For punishments of this life they may extend to the third and fourth generation even upon those who do not tread in the steps of their fore fathers nor approve their sayings You know the words of the second Commandment visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those that hate me There are that think that those later words are a limitation upon the former and that God only threatens vengeance to the third and fourth generations in case those two generations go on to hate God and thus the Caldee Paraphrast glosseth but this will not agree with the Hebrew I desire you to observe 1. Those that hate him in that Commandment are opposed to them that love him in the same Commandment so that if the threatning be to be limited only to those children who persist in the hatred of God the promise also must be expounded only of those thousands that love God and it would rather have been that he would shew mercy to the third and fourth generation of those that love God 2. Again What had there been extraordinary in the commination God will most certainly punish them that hate him for their personal hatred of him certainly God brings it as a further argument to deter men from sin that he would not only revenge their sins upon them but upon their posterity 3. This vengeance is not so necessary or certain but that by the repentance and humiliation of a present generation though it will at last most certainly come it may be deferred The threatning against Ahab and his posterity was 1 Kings 21.22 23. Ahab was a little smitten upon it God promiseth to defer it but tells him it should come in his sons days v. 29. Ahaziah succeedeth him and dyed by a fall Jehoram or Joram succeedeth him then it began to work Jehu slayeth him and also all the family of Ahab God threatned Jeroboam but because there was good found in his young son Abijam it fell not on him 1 Kings 14.7 8 9 16. but in his Grand-childs time it came Hezekiah was thus threatned for shewing the hid treasures to the King of Babylons servants 2 Kings 20.17 Josiah was his Grand-child the third generation from Hezekiah he humbled himself and God yet deferred it Thus we find vengeance of this nature coming on Jeroboam in the second generation upon Ahab in the third upon Hezekiah in the fifth or sixth generation We find this vengeance taken off from Abijam by some good thing found in him put off in Ahabs time by his though hypocritical humiliation by Josiahs real humiliation 4. Lastly When a generation goes on and continues in their Fathers sins we find vengeance following them to many generations In that case saith God I will not keep silence but will recompence your iniquities and the iniquities of your Fathers together who have burnt incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills therefore will I measure their former work into their bosome Isaiah 65.6 7. This was the case of the Jews Matth. 23.35 They continued shedding the blood of Prophets and righteous men and added to it the blood of Christ and they continued still in their blasphemies against Christ They are not in a state indeed to execute their malice against Christ and his Gospel but their hatred and blasphemy continueth and the vengeance of God to this day continueth upon them and God is this day visiting upon them their iniquities and the iniquities of their Fathers together And thus much may serve to have spoken concerning the extent of this vengeance I have but one thing more to do before I come to the practical application of this observation that is to reconcile this motion of Divine Providence to
You shall observe it often repeated in Scripture Such a one did evil and walked in the steps of his Father in all the sins of his Fathers c. you shall constantly observe that it is set as a mark of dishonour upon those that did so and they perished in their transgressions God according to what he threatned the Jews Isa 65.7 punished upon them their iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together We are very prone to walk in the steps of our Fathers especially if they have trodden awry and turned aside from the Commandments of God and usually in matters of Religion though we have nothing to say for the superstition and vanity of former generations yet we think it a sufficient plea that our fathers did thus or thus and indeed this was the old plea of the woman of Samaria Joh. 4. Our father 's worshipped in this mountain Thus the Heretick said in one of the Councils but was well answered Immo errantes ab errantibus yes erring children from erring parents The wickedness of a preceding generation especially in the matters of Divine Worship is so far from being a plea for us or excusing us that it doth but increase and aggravate guilt upon us The most righteous persons may without due and seasonable humiliation smart for the sins of their Fathers but if they go on in the same sins they have nothing to expect but that God should punish their sins and the sins of their Fathers together Vse 5. In the last place This observation layeth upon us all a new engagement to holiness and serviceableness to God in the stations in which the Lord hath set us As sin entaileth a curse so holiness and eminent service for God entaileth a blessing to our posterity Godliness hath not only the promise of this life and of that which is to come to our own persons but it hath promises of blessing to those that shall come after us God sheweth mercy to thousands of those who love him and keep his Commandments Jehu was no godly man yet his service he did for God procured him a reward to the fourth generation Abraham was a godly man David a perfect man a man according to Gods own heart Blessings for their sakes came upon their posterity to many generations But I shall add no more to this Observation SERMON XXXIII Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Proceed yet to offer you some further Observations concerning the motions of Actual Providence I have already made many Last of all some with reference to its distributions of rewards and punishments Let me now go on to a Observ 20. When God calleth any to any new work or relation he ordinarily giveth them a spirit suited to it Every work and relation requires some particular dispositions fitting the persons for it Now I say you shall observe in the motions of Actual Providence that it fitteth those persons for work whom God calleth to it you shall see it in several instances God called Moses to go in to Pharaoh to require him to let the children of Israel go and so to conduct the children of Israel out of Egypt Moses saith to God Exod. 3.11 Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt God saith vers 12. I will be with thee Again chap. 4.10 Moses excuseth himself that he was not eloquent but slow of speech and of a slow tongue see what God saith to him ver 11. Who hath made mans mouth or who maketh the dumb or deaf or seeing or blind Now therefore ver 12. go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say When God called Saul to be King over Israel the text 1 Sam. 10.9 saith That God gave him another heart When God called David to the Kingdom what a spirit of government did God give him What courage and valour that coming from keeping of sheep he durst adventure to encounter Goliah Concerning Solomon the case is plain 1 King 3.8 9. he begged of God a wise and understanding heart to judg his people The text telleth you that God gave it him Lo saith God ver 12. I have given thee a wise and understanding heart As to the Ministry the case is plain as to Jeremiah God ordained him to be a prophet to the nations Jer. 1.5 Jeremiah excused himself he was a child and could not speak vers 6. But the Lord said to him Say not I am a child for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee saith the Lord then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me Behold I have put my words into thy mouth vers 7 8. The like you have concerning Ezekiel Ezek. 2. The like you find upon Christs sending out the seventy and the twelve It is true God doth this several ways and by several rites and ceremonies but God never yet call'd any to any new relation or new work but he gave them a spirit fit for it But let us a little understand what the meaning of that is Quest Wherein lyeth the sutableness of a persons spirit to his work or relation I answer It lyes in two things 1. An inclination or willingness to it 2. A fittedness or preparedness for it 1. An inclination or willingness to it Indeed Gods first call of a person to a work doth not always meet with a willing mind it did not in Moses in Jeremy in Saul but God always makes those willing whom he calls to any service Whom shall I send here am I send me saith the Prophet Isaiah God made Moses and Jeremy willing before he sent them The gravity and burthen of the work to which God calleth may discourage flesh and blood at first but God makes them willing before they take their Commission Hence that in Timothy He that desireth the office of a Bishop c. 2. But this is not all God never sendeth any to any work but he fitteth and prepareth them for it giving them a frame of spirit and abilities of mind capacitating them for the parts of their work or duties of that relation several callings require several gifts and endowments For the magistracy courage and wisdom is necessary for the ministry is necessary not only courage and wisdom but knowledg utterance c. a sound understanding in the holy Scriptures which he is to open to the people and apply to their consciences and so in inferiour relations even Bezaliel the son of Vri whom the Lord called by name to the building of the Tabernacle Exod. 35.31 Was filled with the spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledg and in all manner of workmanship and to devise curious works to work
the first place it will appear to be but a reasonable motion of Providence there to distribute sensible blessings where men either in their single capacities or in their political societies live in the exactest square and conformity to the Divine Rule in matters of distributive and commutative justice and brotherly love and amity if you but consider the natural tendency of these things to promove the felicity of any persons or societies together with the direct tendency of a contrary converse to the ruin and undoing of them Justice and Vnity or amicable living each with other are the two pillars of humane society as the Scripture saith of Rachel and Leah Ruth 4.11 They two did build up the house of Israel so it must be said of these two Justice and brotherly love they are the two things which build up humane society and the Nation which keepeth not up these two pillars and preserveth them not in those due repairs which the lusts and corruptions of men will make them to stand in a daily need of will quickly fall under the ruins of them it must necessarily be a Kingdom divided against it self which as our Saviour hath told us cannot stand Where the first viz. Justice faileth no man knoweth what to call his own every mans estate is exposed to the fraud violence and rapines of his wicked neighbour Where Amity and Vnity which is the other fails men are continually biting and devouring rending and tearing one another none are willing to trade or traffique or to have any commerce with any such people or if they have it is so sparingly and with so much caution as is no way consistent with that liberty and freedom and that mutual confidence each in another which such a state requireth as is capable of those kind of blessings or in a rational or probable way to receive them You cannot but observe how every one is willing to be acquainted and to deal with persons that have a reputation for moral honesty and matters of justice in bargains and barters in buyings and sellings and exchange Now the outward blessing of riches and prosperity as to business depending much upon society good understandings betwixt each of other and good opinions of persons engaged in the same societies which may dispose men to just and mutual confidences each in other it is not at all to be wondred at if those places and persons thrive best amongst whom these are found which are the rational means agreeing to such an end The like might be said of other moral vertues such as are temperance and sobriety being rational means tending to the preservation of mens lives and health which are other sensible blessings It is not at all to be wondred that these blessings which are the end do naturally follow the proper means even as the thred followeth the needle in the hands of the sempstress God hath so ordered it that ends shall be ordinarily obtained in the use of means always supposing the ordinary Providence of God which must give the blessing upon any means used in order to any end 2. But secondly There is more than this in it God in the pursuance of his many promises doth there command the blessing I am speaking of ordinary cases for Gods particular design to chasten any persons or to try them makes an exception to these however general rules God hath promised his sensible things Matth. 6.32 To those who first seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof he hath told them that these things shall be added to them Godliness hath the promise as of that life which is to come so of this life as the Apostle tells us the promise to brethren living together in unity Psal 133. you heard before there God commandeth the blessing saith the Psalmist and mark what blessing it is it is like the oyl poured upon the head of Aaron which ran down to the skirts of his garment like the dew upon the hill of Hermon which made the Earth fruitful the blessing of plenty and prosperity And for promises to the doing justice and judgmâ—nt they are so many in Scripture that it were almost infinite to repeat them I shall only commend this observation to you That you shall quite through the Scripture find the execution of justice and judgment made one term that God puts upon people in order to the receiving of any mercy from him and injustice violence and oppression constantly enumerated as those sins to which are annexed all the threatnings of taking away those temporal blessings which a Nation doth enjoy Indeed unless prophaneness and irreligion or idolatrous and undue worship of God almost all the sins for which you find threatnings of the deprival of temporal sensible blessings are reducible to one of these heads either being failers in matters of civil justice or of that brotherly love and amity which God hath required So that this is as a very ordinary so a most reasonable motion of Divine Providence and what we cannot but in reason expect from its hand But I come to the Application of this discourse Vse 1. As my other Observations so this also is of great use to us to increase in us spiritual wisdom and to make us understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. 1. To increase in us spiritual wisdom Wisdom is a practical habit disposing us to order our affairs in the best manner in order to our own good Good is that which every man desires who will shew us any good is the general language of the world There be many saith the Psalmist that say Who will shew us any good And though the hearts of Gods People be after spiritual good Lord saith David lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me yet this is not that good which the many look after but the increase of their corn and wine and oyl We will take men at that advantage and suppose the question to be what course a man should take to be blessed with corn wine and oyl with the good things of this life long life riches trade success in worldly affairs if this observation be true the best course is for Nations Cities Persons to govern themselves by the Divine Rule to set up and promove the profession and practice of Religion to execute justice and judgement to live in brotherly love unity and amity one with another Whoso therefore would be wise for himself according to the worlds measures of wisdom is obliged to this hence it is that in Scripture and especially in the book of Proverbs the sinner is called a fool the godly man is counted a wise man and the truth is whether persons consider themselves as beings ordained to an eternity or meerly as flesh and blood and bodily compositions who as is natural to all creatures have a natural desire to live as long as they can and as free from pain and misery as they can and with as many sweetnesses and advantage of
sin in the world hath infinitely magnified his own goodness It is the saying of a very ingenious Author Satis usui sunt scelera si artem peritiam divinae beneficentiae provocant Sin is of use enough to God in the business of his glory if by it the act and skill of the Divine Goodness and Bounty be made appear to the world the goodness and mercy of God is that Attribute of his which above all others he hath made choice of to glorify himself in and by it is that in which he delighteth which is above all his works Now without the permission of sin yea of the aboundings of sin it had been impossible that Divine Goodness and Bounty should have been so commended to the world Let me open this a little 1. Christs coming and dying for sinners was the greatest act of love that was ever shewed to the children of men What greater love could the eternal Father shew than to give his Son out of his own bosom to be a sacrifice for sins God so loved the world saith John 3 Chap. 16. that he gave his only begotten son Moralists make a question about taking the true measures of the magis and minus of love whether the greatness of love be to be measured from the affliction intention and self-denial of the party loving or the benefit redounding to the person beloved but measure which way you will it was the greatest love on the Fathers side and the greatest that Christ could shew for greater love than this hath no man shewed John 15. and herein God commends his love towards us Rom. 5.8 Besides the inhabitation of the spirit was a benefit of Christs death an effect of his purchase And what greater love could be shewed on the part of the Holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ than for it to come down and to dwell in the heart of a poor creature for the person of a believer to be made the temple of the Holy Ghost the receptacle of the Spirit of Grace Now if there had been no sin no sinners in the world what room had there been for a Saviour what needed one to have turned away iniquity from Jacob to have been wounded for our iniquities bruised for our transgressions He dyed for our sins saith the Apostle How could the love of the eternal Father in sending his Son or the love of the Son in taking upon him our nature and dying for us or the love of the Holy Spirit in sanctifying us and renewing us and dwelling in us been manifested to the world If a strong man had not kept the house what need had there been of a stronger than he to have come and dispossessed him All the love of the Father Son and Holy Ghost magnified in the business of mans Redemption and the whole Oeconomy of a Gospel-salvation had been conceal'd and not known to the world 2. Again How could the love of God in the conversion of sinners in the pardon of their sins in their justification the sense they oft have of his love have been manifested to the world What need were there of any pardon if no sins were permitted where were the aboundings of grace in pardoning if there were no aboundings of sin What love of God could be seen in the conversion of sinners if no sinners were permitted in the world How should God magnify his grace by saying to any soul Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee if he did not suffer sins to be committed Thus you see the greatness of Divine Goodness and Mercy could never have been declared to the world but for the motions of Providence in the permission of sins and sinners yea and of the aboundings of them 3. Did not the Actual Providence of God thus permit sin and much sin in the world How should the long-suffering and patience of God be magnified in the world This also is a piece of Gods Name and such a one by which he designeth to make himself glorious he stileth himself Exod. 34.6 Gracious merciful long-suffering slow to anger and Numb 14.18 The Lord is long-suffering and full of tender compassion Now sin and sinners are the objects about which the long-sufferance of God is exercised He endured with much long-suffering saith the Apostle Rom. 9.22 vessels of wrath fitted for destruction How often do we find this in our own experience when we hear wretches blaspheming God and daring Divine Justice how often are we ready to say and it is a good reflexion O what a patient God do we serve which of us would endure such affronts and defiances as God endureth every day The aboundings of sin in the world make the considerate part of the inhabitants of it admire and adore the long-suffering and patience of God 3. The wisdom of God is also wonderfully magnified by Gods permission of sin The Apostle calleth God the only wise God None so wise as God is and the wisdom of God is eminently magnified by his permission of sin One great business of wisdom is to make an Election of the best end but this is not that which I am here speaking to God hath fixed his end it is his own glory and as I have often told you he can aim at no other end than himself and his own glory But next to a good Election of an end wisdom is eminently seen in the choice and conduct of means in order to a proposed end but herein is the heighth of wisdom to be able to make use of the most unlikely means and make them to serve our purpose It is a point I have touched something largely upon in my former discourses upon this Argument and therefore I shall not here enlarge upon it To bring a not-being into a being to make a thing out of nothing argueth an infinite power though there be aliquid materiae something of a matter yet if there be nihilum subjecti no aptitude in the matter to produce an effect of that nature as when God took the rib of a man and made of it a woman this argued also an omnipotent infinite power But yet methinks for God to produce his glory out of the aboundings of sin argueth yet something more if not of power yet of wisdom to make the wrath of men to praise him and the lyes of men to glorify him O how doth this commend the infinite wisdom of an only wise God! Sin all sin is quite opposite and repugnant to the glory of God it speaks the great Wisdom of God to bring out his glory from it Thus God hath glory by accident from the permission and sufferance of sin in the world 4. But let me further shew how God is further glorified by reason of the aboundings of sin in the manifestation of his Justice his Punitive and Vindicative Justice Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted
for destruction there is a great deal in that verse 1. The Apostle hinteth us in that text that we are Clay and God is our Potter it was what God had said of old by his Prophet Jeremiah chap. 18. vers 6. and Isaiah chap. 45. vers 9. and what the Apostle himself had said in the two verses immediately preceding upon this account it is that he here calls such as perish vessels of wrath Earthen-vessels with relation to the Potter before-mentioned 2. Being such Potters vessels God had undoubtedly a jus absolutum an absolute right and dominion over the Sons of men vers 21. Hath not the Potter power over the Clay of the same lump to make one a vessel of honour another a vessel of dishonour 3. He sheweth that God doth destinate some to dishonour not using his absolute right and prerogative meerly but for just and righteous causes and he instanceth in three things 1. Gods will to shew his wrath The wrath of God is nothing else but his just will to punish Violaters of his Law God is willing to shew his hatred of sin in the just punishment of it 2. Gods will to make his power known that is in breaking the stubbornness of sinners thus ver 17. it is said of Pharaoh For this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth and this God calleth a getting himself glory upon Pharaoh Exod. 14.17 18. 3. The third reason he gives is That they are fitted for destruction Divines start a question from these words How or from whom they are fitted for destruction Some say of God as their Potter others will have it to be from Satan others from themselves the different notions may be reconciled Paraeus telleth us there are three things to be considered in these vessels of wrath their nature their sin the end as to their nature they are not from themselves nor from Satan but from God he is the Maker of all As to their pravity and natural corruption that is not from God but from themselves and from the Devil the end is either preximate that is their own dishonour and destruction or remote and ultimate that is the shewing forth the Justice and Power of God Neither of these saith that learned Author is from themselves for they do not ordain themselves to destruction nor design the manifestation of the Lords Power and Justice Thus therefore saith he are the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction according to nature they are created and made by no other than by God as to their sin and corruption by which they are made children of wrath guilty of sin and subject unto wrath they are made so by Satan by their own spontaneous fall and that sin which followed it as to the ends they are from God and according to his eternal Counsel of predestination And this is the reason as is not only observed by Paraeus but by P. Martyr probably why the Apostle only saith fitted and not by whom fitted for destruction that fittedness referring partly to God partly to themselves as they are by sin fitted it is their own act Now when he speaks of the vessels of mercy he speaks in the active voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 23. Which he had before prepared unto glory So that it being the work of the sinner to fit himself for destruction by the multiplyings and aboundings of sin and God glorifying his Justice and Power in breaking and destroying sinners it is easie to understand how Gods suffering the aboundings of sin tendeth to the glorifying of his Power and Vindicative Justice And thus I have shewed how the various Attributes of God are glorified by his permission of sin But this is but one way by which God hath glory from the permission of sin 2. He hath glory from it from those exercises of grace which are occasioned by it from his own people and these are more internal or more external for such as are more internal repentance faith humility several other graces have either their Original motions from this Providence or are greatly advantaged in their exercise by it 1. For repentance that is considerable either in the inward affection or more external act As to the former if no sin were permitted how could there be any humiliation for sin any godly shame or sorrow any bleeding or brokenness of heart in the sense of sin Were no sin permitted there could be no repentance no godly sorrow for sin c. 2. God hath a great deal of glory by mens believing on the Lord Jesus Christ It is a great piece of the Will of God that men should believe on him whom God hath sent and God is glorified by our doing his Will It were a large Theme to discourse to you how variously God is glorified by mens receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ and believing in him But God had had none of this glory if there had been no permission of sin in the world what is it to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but to accept of him as our Saviour to expect Salvation from free grace through the merits of Christ and to depend upon him for it Now should God permit no sin there would be no need of a Saviour no occasion for a redeemer no need of going out of our selves relinquishing all confidences in the flesh and in our selves Believing in Christ as our redeemer and Saviour supposeth sin making us lost undone Creatures to stand in need of such a Salvation 3. Again Humility is another habit of grace in the exercise of which God is glorified it is one of those things which God by his Prophet telleth us that he requires of man to walk humbly with his God nothing more contributes to this than a Child of Gods continual walking in a view of his own past and renewing Sins Thus far even the best of Gods people are beholden to their sins they make them walk more softly and to have more humble and mean opinions of themselves and to be more low in their own eyes neither exalting themselves against God nor censoriously and rashly judging their brethren and the more or less that any Christian looks at home and considereth himself and his own ways the more or less he walks humbly towards God and charitably towards his brethren 4. Finally in the 2 Cor. 7.11 You shall find a whole quire of graces all singing forth the praises of God and all occasioned by sin The Corinthians had offended in the business of the incestuous person the Apostle in his former Epistle had brought them to a sense of their sin and to a godly sorrow for it Now saith he this self-same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you Yea what clearing of your selves Yea what indignation what fear what vehement desire yea what zeal what revenge these now are all exercises of
and night in his Temple Had they not been defiled with sin they needed not have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and having their robes so washed they are elevated in the praises of God 4. Finally We may as I said before be assured that God would not suffer so much sin in the world If much sin did not tend much to the glory of God at last Here may be applied all that I said before in the former part of my discourse on this Argument shewing you how the aboundings of sin conduce to the aboundings of grace 1. That grace wherein man is meerly passive and recipient aboundeth by the aboundings of sin The Apostle telleth us that love covereth a multitude of faults the more faults be covered the greater love is discovered God magnifieth grace in abundantly pardoning and there could not be abundant pardoning if there were not abounding sin a multitude of mercies could not be magnified but upon a multitude of Sin The bredth of the robes of Christs righteousness could never have been seen but for the extension of our nakedness it is the height and depth and length and breadth of Sin which maketh all Saints to comprehend what is the length and breadth and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg that we might be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3.17 18. 2. That grace in the exercise of which we are active is also advantaged by the much Sin which God permitteth Our Saviour telleth us Luke 7. those who have much forgiven will love much and those to whom little is forgiven will love but little It wonderfully aggravates pardoning mercy in the sense of a gracious heart to think how many are grinding at the same Mill of sin that he was formerly imployed in and that he should be taken and they left again we should never fight the good fight so well to the glory of God if we had not many enemies to fight with But I have inlarged far enough in the Doctrinal part of this discourse shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine providence in the sufferance of sin and sinners so much sin and so many sinners notwithstanding the opposition that sin hath to the honour and glory of God and to the purity and holiness of the Divine being nothing remains as to this discourse but to consider how this may be useful to us Vse 1. In the first place Let me appeal now to the reason of every one that hears me whether God in the sufferance of Sin and sinners doth not act consonantly to the wisdom of the Divine being It is nothing but our ignorance and inconsiderateness that can be any temptation to us to have any derogatory thoughts of God for these motions of his providence God doth all his own works in infinite wisdom and it is in infinite wisdom that he suffereth sinful men to walk in their own ways What though he be an holy God This will indeed conclude that himself cannot be tempted and that he tempteth no man but it will not argue that he may not suffer any one to be tempted that is as the Apostle James expoundeth it drawn away by his own lusts and enticed What though he hath a power to put a period to sin every moment yet certainly God is not obliged to do all that he can do but his power as ours also is is governed as to the exercise of it by his will What though sin dishonoureth God and impeacheth his glory he knoweth how to vindicate himself and to recompense himself as to his glory and that many ways from the sins of men True it is that it is from the lusts and wickedness of sinners hearts that so much sin is committed in the world yet it is also from the sufferance and permission of Divine Providence God being directed by his own infinite wisdom to govern the world in this method and thus to make a difference betwixt Earth and Heaven so to order it that hereby the vessels of wrath may be fitted for destruction and his chosen ones by many tribulations occasioned generally from the sins and sinners suffered in the world may be prepared for the Kingdom of God O the height and depth of Divine wisdom How unsearchable are Divine judgments how are the ways of God past our finding out Vse 2. But in the second place let every one take heed of taking any occasion from this discourse to give himself a liberty to sin This is the Apostles reflexion upon this he foresaw the ill conclusion which corrupt hearts would draw from these premises therefore adds Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid he makes it his business in that Chapter to shew that no gracious justified Soul can do so How saith he can they that are dead to sin live any longer therein So again Rom. 3. v. 7 He foresaw that some would say if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye why then am I judged as a sinner Such thoughts are ready to rise up in our hearts why am I blamed for sinning if God hath glory from my Sns Or why should I be judged as a sinner if the aboundings of sin advantage and make way for the aboundings of grace Surely God â—hen cannot so severely revenge himself upon me for sin To restrain such wild thoughts as these from entring or prevailing in any of your Souls let me offer some few things to your consideration 1. Consider first if any good come by sin to the particular soul that sinneth it must be from the abounding of graâ—e Sin doth not of it self or from any particular affection or disposition in it do any soul good God indeed sometimes turns it for good so that a soul may say it is good for me that God suffered me to fall into such a sin Sin in its own nature tendeth to nothing but the ruine and eternal destruction of a Soul it must be from the aboundings of grace if any good come to the soul from sin the aboundings of Divine grace in the free pardon and forgiveness of sin or the aboundings of grace in the infusion of gracious habits by which the soul is made more broken-hearted more humble in the sense of sin more watchful against it for the time to come and careful to avoid all temptations to it The wages of sin is death and the work of sin tendeth to death to debauch and to debase a soul If a sinner getteth to eternal Life it is through the gift of God if by reason of his former sinfulness he now loves God more and be more zealous for God and more afraid to offend God all this is of grace and grace is free Now reason teacheth every man not wilfully to run upon his own ruine in hope that he shall experience the kindness of a friend in such a ruined estate Who will
more in prayer in praise in hearing c. Thus it was with St. Paul he reflected upon himself as not meet to be called an Apostle because he had persecuted the Church of Christ But saith he by the grace of God I am that I am and his grace bestowed on me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly 1 Cor. 15.9 10. SERMON XXXVIII Job V. 6 7. Although affliction cometh not out of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward THe words which I have read to you are the words of Eliphaz the Temanite unto his friend Job who Chap. 3. had made so bitter a complaint of his afflictions whether he had this title from his Ancestors as some think Gen. 36.11 where we read of one Eliphaz a descendent from Esau who begat Teman or from his Countrey which I take to be most probable for we read Jer. 49.7 concerning Edom thus saith the Lord of Hosts Is wisdom no more in Teman Teman was certainly a City in the dominion of Edom famous both for wise and valiant men as you may learn from vers 8. of the Prophecy of Obadiah Shall I not in that day saith the Lord even destroy the wise-men out of Edom and understanding out of the Mount of Esau and thy mighty men O Teman shall be dismayed It is not much material This Eliphaz in probability was an Edomite an inhabitant of Teman a friend of Job who by appointment was come with the two others to visit Job upon the report of his great affliction he began his discourse in the former Chapter and continueth it in this I shall not concern my self in the other part of Eliphaz his discourse in the Verses which I have read to you he seemeth to comfort Job from a twofold Consideration 1. That the hand of God was in his affliction for that is implied when he saith Affliction cometh not out of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground 2. From the consideration of the fate of man Man saith he is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward The Proposition of these two Verses is plainly this Prop. That God hath a great hand in all the evils that come upon us Man is born unto trouble and it is as natural to him as for the sparks to move upward and his afflictions come not out of the dust It is the observation of an Eminent Divine of our own in his excellent commentary upon this Verse that this is a Proverbial speech and the sense of it That affliction cometh not by chance or fortune and so the dust and the ground in my Text stands opposed 1. To God and 2. To our selves What if I should offer my thoughts that it is an Eliptical speech and much parallel to that Psal 75.6 7. For promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South But God is the Judg he putteth down one and setteth up another So here affliction springeth not out of the dust nor trouble out of the ground but God hath an hand in all only this latter part is left to us to be understood My present design will not lead me to consider how far man is felo de se and the author of his own evils having the meritorious cause in his own soul but I shall only discourse of God as the efficient cause the other will fall in as that which moveth God to such an execution of Providence Here are two branches in the Proposition 1. That man is born unto affliction and trouble as the sparks fly upward it may be understood that he hath a right to it as the sparks have by the Law of Creation disposing and ordaining them to such a motion so man hath a legal right to trouble by vertue of the first Covenant In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Now this man hath as a sinner depraved and fallen from that Original rectitude in which God created him 2. He hath a natural fitness and disposition to it and is by his nature subjected to a variety of afflictions and troubles As the sparks by reason of their levity have an aptness to move upward so hath man through his natural constitution ever since the crasis of his humours was impaired and spoiled upon the fall a native fitness and disposition to receive impressions of affliction and trouble 2. That this trouble these afflictions come not upon us by chance but by the hand of God It was the saying of a good Prophet 2 Kings 6.33 This evil is of the Lord. The Prophet speaks of evils more generally Amos 3.6 Shall there be any evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it and vers 5. Can a bird fall in a snare on the earth where no gin is for him And this is true of all species of penal evils which we call troubles and afflictions whether they fall upon our bodies or spirits or in our estates or from our relations c. The Question is Quest How this is consistent with the goodness and mercy of God Can God be the Author of evil Lam. 3.33 34. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the Earth Sol. The answer is very easie there is an evil of sin of this God cannot be the Author he can neither be tempted with evil nor tempt any man but there is an evil of punishment indeed in it self not evil as I shall shew more by and by Of this none doubteth but God may be the Author yea there is no evil of this nature in the City which he hath not done 2. Nor is this at all inconsistent either with the purity and holiness or the mercy and goodness of God for as I said before these kind of evils are only nuncupatively so and have no more evil in them than as they are ingrateful to our pallats and but nick-named evils by us following the fallible judgment of our senses Quae vulgus infamat malorum titulo arcanis suae benignitatis decrevit God in his eternal thoughts of love hath decreed the effecting those things which we scandalize with the name of Evils Evils of punishment are good under a disguise and we should not call them Evils if sense did not cast a mist before our eyes 'T is sense deceivable sense that both makes us call the real evils of sin good and the real good things of afflictions and troubles evil When God once dispelleth this mist and opens the eyes of the spiritual understanding it sees after another manner and it then crys out with David Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy word Vers 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes Thus the child when it comes to understanding blesseth the rods and ferula's with which he
would pose the thoughts of any intelligent person I think I do indeed know that some tell us that Christ as to all men expiated the guilt of Adams sin some add also original sin others tell us that is all washed off in Baptism I want one clear Scripture for any thing of this but yet Arminius never denied so far as I have read him that infants have not upon them the guilt of original sin which God may punish certainly if not with eternal yet with temporal punishments for even past and pardoned sins may be thus punished as I have before shewed you in my Observations upon the motions of Actual Providence Every infant cometh into the world under the guilt of the first mans transgression reckoned to him as he was in the loyns of Adam and under the want of original righteousness with an innate pravity and corruption of nature averse naturally to all that is good prone and inclined unto that which is evil Supposing now what Arminius would have and can never be proved that God will eternally condemn none meerly for this sin yet surely he may justly scourge and correct with the utmost punishments short of eternal punishment even this guilt in children which have not actually finned It was Gods threatning annexed to his Covenant with Adam In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Some question how God justified it when Adam lived to nine hundred and thirty years before he dyed Divines therefore expound it by eris mortalis thou shalt be subject and liable unto death in the day in which he did eat he became mortal from that day he began to dye and was made liable to that change Every child assoon it cometh into the world eateth of this forbidden fruit I mean becomes liable to the guilt of its proparents eating and so is liable unto death It is true the Lord doth not cut off all children how then should the world be replenished and stand but yet he cutteth off some for the declaration of his justice as a Prince when a whole City or Province is in a rebellion he will not cut them off all because he will not waste and depopulate a Country but he will cut off some for the declaration of his justice Thus you see this motion of Providence is easily reconcileable to the justice of God upon this hypothesis that children are sinners and under an original guilt and if we could be so confident as some are that none shall be damned for that sin only or that it is expiated on the behalf of all or washed away in Baptism as to all born within the pale of the Church Yet nothing hinders but by the same justice by which God punisheth past and pardoned sins which I have formerly at large opened to you God might yet justly trouble and afflict little ones they might be sick and they might dye as Jeroboams child mentioned in the Text did though vers 13. saith of him expresly That there was some good thing found in him towards the Lord God of Israel Let this be a second consideration to satisfie you as to the righteousness of God in these dispensations But I proceed yet further 3. This motion of Providence seemeth very reasonable and competent to the wisdom of God That he might declare to the world that he is that God in whom all breath he in whom they live they move and have their being If we should see none dye but in an old age we should be ready to think that our candle never went out but for want of oyl and should not understand how much we were beholden to God for every hour of life how much we depended upon him for our daily breath as well as for daily bread Now it is but reasonable that the world should understand God to be the fountain of life that sickness and death do not meerly depend upon second causes but there is a first cause that is the efficient the principal efficient cause of these changes though he useth a variety of second causes he will therefore suffer irregular motions of humours in children which shall in them cause sicknesses and death though they never were surfeited with meats nor Inflamed with drinks He bloweth out Candles newly lighted to let us know that the issues of life and death are in his hand and that the breath of man is not meerly in his own nostrils and it is but reasonable that God should make himself thus known to us as the God of our lives 4. Again this dispensation of Providence is reconcileable to the goodness of God God by this means doth deliver little ones from the evil to come This is the very case in the Text God was bringing evil upon the house of Jeroboam as he threatneth vers 10 11 12. he intended to take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man taketh away dung from the earth Abijah falls sick and dies and this out of mercy to him that his eyes might not see nor he have any share in the evil which God was about to bring upon his Fathers house God gathereth up the Lambs before the storm cometh It is said of Babilon Psal 137. That he should be happy that should take their little ones and dash them against the stones and we read in Scripture of such famines as inforced women to eat their own children Now God often cuts off little ones in his mercy to them I might here further add that God by this dispensation preventeth much sin in those that are thus taken away But I pass on yet to some further considerations clearing Gods justice 5. It is but reasonable that God should do this to punish the sins of the Parents and to do them good It was one of my observations concerning the motions of Actual Providence That God doth very ordinarily punish Relations in their Correlates Parents in their Children and I shewed you the reasonableness of Divine Providence in this motion It was for the punishment of Davids sin that his child by Bathsheba died and the death of it was threatned by Nathan as a part of Davids punishment 2 Sam. 12.14 Possibly God may sometimes do it to abate our affections to our children and that he might have more of our heart and affections as the Gardiner cutteth off the suckers which draw too much from the root and the country Housewife takes away the Calf when it sucketh so much as it leaveth no milk for the pail 6. Finally Why may not this motion of Providence seem reasonable That room might be left in the world The world is a great Theatre in which he hath many to act their parts God at first lengthned out the lives of the Patriarchs to seven eight nine hundred years that the world might be replenished with Inhabitants He now shortneth the lives of those that are born into the world that the world might not be overburdened with Inhabitants More might be added By the death
fruit of the womb as a blessing and blesseth him that hath his quiver full of these shafts but now the poor man knoweth not how to understand this and it is hard for him not to repine at the multiplying of it a great error doubtless but such as for ought I know good people may fall into we cannot trust God to provide for those which he giveth us if this hath been thy error God but pays thee in thy own kind by shortning thy number and maketh thy own secret sinful wish now to be thy Plague and Torment but this ordinarily is the sin of the poorer and meaner sort of Christians 2. Didst thou not let thy heart run out too much upon thy Children God is jealous and it is the nature of jealousy not to suffer a rival in the object beloved be it a person or a thing God is the object and he will be the prime object of his peoples love desire and delight It is his Law Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy strength it may be thy Child had more of thy heart more of thy love and and delight than God had no wonder if he hath taken it from thee this is now usually the sin of those whose circumstances in the world are better they have a fair estate in the world and Children few enough to leave it to and in such cases it is a very hard thing to keep our hearts within due bounds but our affections are ready to overflow especially if there be nothing in the temper or behaviour of the Child that takes off the edge of our affections to it 3. Doth not thy heart smite thee for the neglect of thy duty to thy Child especially if it were of any years Thy duty in instructing it or thy duty in reproving and admonishing it Elie's Sons were indeed men grown but God cut off his Children though their personal guilt justified God in his severity against them yet Eli smarted in their punishments for honouring his Sons more than God for dealing too gently with them for their most enormous wickednesses Thou mayest also neglect thy duty towards them in instructing them in making them acquainted with the holy Scriptures in admonishing them to keep the Lords Sabbaths and seeing to their external Sanctification of them This is undoubtedly a second piece of thy duty upon such a dispensation and to be humbled before God for those sins which thy conscience smiteth thee for and suggesteth to thee as probable causes of this rod of God upon thee 3. It is doubtless thy duty whatsoever thou findest to be satisfied with Gods good pleasure Rachel mourned sinfully while she so mourned as that she refused to be comforted If thou findest that probably God hath punished thy sin in the sickness pain and death of thy Child it is indeed matter of humiliation to thee it offers thee a just opportunity to resolve for the time to come to amend thy errors as to any survivors which God shall lend thee but yesterday cannot be called back again God hath done what pleased him It may be in mercy to thy Child though it be in judgment unto thee thou hast no reason to quarrel or murmure at God for any of his dispensations If it be for thy Child 's Original sin still thou hast no reason to blame God he is just and righteous in what he hath done But if God hath done it to give thy Child a quicker passage to Heaven to bring it sooner to a state of perfection to deliver it from an evil to come here thou hast reason to admire and adore the Divine goodness rather than to quarrel at Divine Justice There are a great many things that may conduce to the relief of a godly man or woman disturbed at this dispensation of Divine Providence It is a very ordinary dispensation of God though therefore it may look like a digression from the principal argument of my discourse yet it may possibly be not so judged by some of you whose case it either at present is or may be to instance in some heads of arguments which occasionally you may make use of for the quieting of your Spirits 1. Consider what-ever was the moving cause on Gods part yet the will of God is revealed The will of God is such a thing to satisfy a Christian with as nothing can be more nothing greater We have our Heaven by the will of God fear not little flock it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdom We have all our grace all our glory from the will of God and shall we not thankfully accept a cross when it is the will of our Father to lay it upon our necks We pray thy will be done and shall we murmure against it when we see it done This silenced Aaron David Heli Hezekiah it leaves no room for a good Christians reply to it it is our Fathers will that is enough It is our Fathers will revealed by an Act of his Providence The Lord hath given saith Job and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. 2. Consider how many sadder cases than thine there have been Thou hast lost a Child an infant Job lost all his Children when they were grown up feasting at their elder Brothers house Aarons was a sad cause he lost his two Sons grown up in an act of sinning yet he held his peace Helies case was sad to lose two such wicked Sons in a Battel Davids case was sad God had expresly told him the Child should dye because of his sin and that by it he had made the enemies of God to blaspheme What doth David do He fasteth he prayeth he humbleth himself before God so long as the Child lived and while he had any hope but when the will of God was revealed when the Child was dead he ariseth and eateth bread as he was wont to do he saith that he should go to it it should not return to him 3. Consider Let the case be as sad as it will yet if thou lookest round about it there is mercy in it either mercy to thy Child or mercy to thee or mercy to both if thy Child be gone to Heaven there is mercy in that if it be delivered from evil to come upon the World or that part of the world where it should have had its portion there is mercy in that David's case was as sad as one can well think of any of this nature yet there was this mercy in it the living monument and remembrance of David's sin and shame was taken away 4. Suppose that God hath for thy sin taken it away and thou canst not satisfie thy self but it is so yet consider God eternally punisheth none for the sins of their correlates God may punish persons with bodily and temporal punishments for the sins of their Parents but not eternally as to those punishments every soul shall bear no
from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking Vengeance on them who know not God and obey not the Gospel of Christ who saith he in my Text shall be punished with everlasting destruction The Text will afford us two Propositions 1. Prop. That those persons who in this life have not known God or have not obeyed the Gospel of Christ when Christ shall come to judgment shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2. Prop. That amongst sinners the persecutors of others unjustly for their conscience toward God and for the Gospel of Christ shall least escape this righteous Judgment These above others shall be punished with everlasting destruction The Emphasis of the proposition so far as I desire to handle it lies in the word everlasting they shall saith the Text be punished with everlasting destruction which is no more than our Saviour had said Math. 25.46 And those shall go into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal and Math. 9.44 46 48. Where you read of a worm that never dieth and a fire that is not quenched The Revelation of Scripture in the case is plain enough only here is the Question Quest How it can stand with the Justice or goodness of God to punish momentary Sins with everlasting destruction The grounds of this Question or doubt are 1. The proportion which Justice seemeth to require betwixt the offence and the punishment Justice amongst men requireth a proportion as well as punishment it self and it is with us accounted injustice not to keep a measure in punishment Every one condemneth the Roman taking away the life of his Servant in compensation of a cup-board of glasses he had broken and we count it hardly just to do the like for little things stollen from us now there seemeth to be no proportion betwixt momentany singings and eternal punishments Tertullian rightly calls sins vaporata libidinum momenta And the holy ghost calls them the pleasures of sin for a season It is the same case as to the profits of sin man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live and no longer time to sin in then he hath to live 2. Eternal torments seem to bear no proportion to that infinite goodness and mercy of God which we have read of to be in God They say indeed of Nero that having condemned a malefactor to long torments and pleasing himself to see him so tormented when the poor wretch called to him for mercy he gave him no other answer then Nondum tecum in gratiam redii stay Sir you and I are not friends yet but is it possible without blasphemy to imagin any such thing of God of whose nature it is to forgive and to shew mercy Can he please himself with the eternal torments of a creature which he hath made No no saith the Atheist Hell is but a bugbear there can be no such thing consistent with the Justice and goodness of God as Eternal Destruction But the Scripture affirms it suffer me therefore in general to cry out O you Sons of men are not the Lords ways equal Are not your ways inequal who art thou O man who reasonest with God Shall the clay say to the Potter why hast thou made me thus Is not our Reason debauched think we when it can agree no better with the Reason and wisdom of God whence it deriveth and that in a lefs proportion than a drop of water beareth to the Ocean or the Fountain from which it deriveth Know therefore that all these vain and Atheistical reasonings of our hearts proceed upon one or more of these mistaken principles 1. That Gods compassion goodness or mercy must be Eternally extended to and exercised upon the most notorious desperate despisers and contemners of it Now this is indeed to fancy an idol to our selves instead of God we have no reason so to conceive of God partly because we find no humane nature so tame though we be under a Law of shewing pity and compassion partly because the Scripture no-where teacheth us such a notion of God Besides that such a notion of God as this is would disarm the most excellent and perfect being of all power to protect it self from the greatest injuries which the most debauched persons should offer to it I would gladly know what reason or what part of Scripture can induce any to dream of a goodness and mercy of God towards finners beyond this life 2. That the goodness and mercy of God must be estimated and measured by his dispensations to individuals Amongst men mercy to some particular persons that are eminent disturbers of humane Society is cruelty to thousands possibly Gods mercy may be exercised and he may be a God in whom all that the Scripture saith of that goodness that is in the Divine being may be verified and yet hundreds yea thousands of impenitent sinners may eternally perish 3. That the proportion which the Divine Justice observeth in punishing sinners must be measured by the proportion of time which the sinner hath to sin in Than which there nothing more false nor as I shall anon shew you is there any such rule kept to in the justice of men 4. That the Justice of God is to be measured by the same measures as the Justice of men and nothing which amongst men is injust can be just with God where-as among men we see the same rewards and punishments are not judged just as to all men all Nations though the fact be the same otherwise punish injuries done to superiours than to inferiours and it is thought but just to proportion the punishment to the quality and greatness of the person to whom the injury is done 5. That the condemned sinner satisfies by his suffering than which there is nothing more false No creditor takes his debtors lying in prison whatever misery he feeleth there to be any part of payment of his debt These are some of the mistaken Principles from which vain man quarrelleth at the Divine Justice in the eternal destruction of sinners Now these things premised I shall easily shew you that eternal punishment is not inconsistent with the Justice of God nor doth any way derogate from that infinite goodness and mercy which is inseparable from the Divine Being 1. Why should we not in the first place allow that to be just with God which we allow to be just and righteous in man What doth man less than this according to the extent of his power Doth not the Magistrate for his offence deprive the Traytor the Murtherer or other Malefactor of his life and all the comforts of it for ever Divines say that in Hell there is a pain of loss and a pain of sense and the Schoolmen argue the former to be greater than the latter you see man inflicteth an eternal pain of loss and counts it just he taketh away the malefactors life and all the sweet
have nothing of goodness in them further than that they are a viaticum things of necessary use to support us in our way to eternity and to uphold our beings in the world while we are here doing the work which God hath given us to do and finishing our course and for that what our Saviour said is true Our life doth not lye in the abundance of that which we possess 5. Though they be not things in themselves good nor absolutely and compleatly good yet having something of goodness in them and a great goodness relative to the fancy apprehension and desires of sinners for there be many that will say Who will shew us any good understanding nothing else but corn and wine and oyl a long-life an healthful body a great estate honour and power c. It is but equal that God should gratify their senses and please them with some such things as they account the goods the greatest goods That they might not be without some experience of the riches of divine liberality and bounty God must be allowed to have a relation unto the vilest men and women he is not indeed their Father by Adoption but he is their Father by Creation It is not reasonable that any of Gods Creatures Absque ulla liberalitatis experientia elabantur should go out of the world without some experience of the divine liberality and goodness I remember it is said of Abraham that for the Children he had by Concubines he gave them portions and sent them away Gen. 25.5 Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac but unto the sons of the concubines which Abraham had Abraham gave gifts and sent them away c. We may say the same of God he gives grace and glory to his Isaacs to the children of the promise but as for others he gives them gifts of the good things of this life festinat largiri saith an acute Author God makes hast to give out his largesses of mercy to them because they are not capable of the mercies of another life God hath time in eternity to reward his Saints but after this life he hath no time to give sinners any thing And this appeareth the more reasonable because the worst of men are not only Gods Creatures but may be in some things Gods Servants as the Assyrian and Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were Gods Servants there are very few wicked men but God maketh some use of if it be but to scourge his own people for that was the service which the Assyrian did God Isa 10. But this I have before spoken to more largely 6. It is very reasonable if we consider what there is in these good things of this life which God giveth out to sinners of the nature of means on Gods part to allure and perswade them to turn unto him The Apostle telleth us That the goodness of God leadeth men to repentance Rom. 2.4 It doth so ex natura sua of its own nature though through the wickedness of their heart it but makes them worse so Acts 14.17 He left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness and this he did vers 16. to nations whom he suffered to walk in their own ways The business is not what these things prove eventually to sinners so indeed they prove but snares to their souls that is accidentally through the misimprovement they make of them by reason of the lust and corruption that is in their hearts nor is Gods intention and design in giving them the thing to be considered but what they are in themselves and of their own nature so they are things which they desire more than better things which are grateful and pleasant to them and should therefore oblige them to serve and please that God who so gratifyeth and pleaseth them in things which they make their delight and the matter of their choice 7. What in the last place if we should say that it is reasonable God should give them these things as one expresseth it In infortuniis apparatum that if they will not use them to their own good and advantage yet they might give Gods glory an advantage by justifying him in their condemnation upon their abusing the goodness of God They tell us a story of Philip King of Macedon and of some noble Romans that they were wont to pray to their Idols that they would mix their prosperity with some grains of adversity It is a dreadful speech Luk. 6. Wo to you that are rich for you have received your consolation It is a saying of an ingenious Author a Jesuite Insignitur solum titulus opulentiae ad justitiam damnationis quia licet ipsa crimen non sit multis fundatur criminibus aut fundat multa vel sceleribus paritur vel scelera parturit solitarius titulus fortunae infamis est nisi aliquid pietatis agnomen purget Merem That is Riches is only a famous title to justify God in the damnation of a sinner for though they in themselves be no crime yet they are a building founded on many sins or they lay a foundation for many they either are bred of many sins or else they bring forth many The title of outward prosperity alone is an infamous title if it hath not some addition of Piety The wrath of God smoaked against the Israelites whiles the flesh was betwixt their teeth God tells them by the Prophet Hosea chap. 13. v. 11. He gave them a King in his wrath There is a wonderful wisdom of Divine Providence seen in the prosperity of sinners their long-life health successes riches honours for one of these two things follow some of them are by them made better and brought home to God as children by some slighty rewards are won unto their duty or if the Providence of God obtaineth not this effect it faileth not in another viz. The justification of God before Angels and men in his righteous condemnation of them He hath given them time to repent and they repented not he hath given them mercies alluring them to their duty but they have not been won by them he hath piped unto them but they have not danced and thus much may serve to have justified the Providence of God and shewed you the reasonableness of its motion in the distribution of the good things of this life to sinners Quest 2. It remains in the second place to shew you how it consisteth with the righteousness and goodness of God to dispense out evil things to his own people Job complaineth of his sad tryals and David that he was visited every morning and chastened every moment and we see in our daily experience that many are the tryals of the most righteous servants of God and those of all sorts 1. I say in the first place This is not the lot of all the servants of God it is only the portion of some of them some of those who
ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito These men may live at Sea in the midst of troubles and never think of God and Christ nor upon the power goodness and truth of God but upon an O socii neque enim ignâ—ri sumus ante malorum O passi graviora c. or some such thing but this is not to live upon faith if thy soul liveth the life of faith thy heart is alive in an evil time and the life and courage of it is maintained from God thy heart is maintained from the Truth Power and Goodness of God 2. This life of Faith is a quiet life It is a quiet life as to passions Faith hath a wonderful power to keep the mind in a calm serene temper It is the unbelieving soul that fretteth and sumeth and vexeth all turbulent passions upon Gods providence are the products of unbelief The Prophet telleth us He that believeth maketh not haste Faith dryeth up immoderate tears scatters the storms of fears maketh the soul to cease from anger and forsake wrath It quieteth the tongue so as it doth not charge God foolishly it keeps a man from all murmuring and flyings out against God from all indecent and extravagant flying out against men who are Gods instruments I held my peace because I knew it was thy doing David believed that God had done what was done he dust not mutter or repine because the Lord had done it And so as to action I mean irregular actions Take an unbeliever and let him be in any streight or distress he is unquiet and turbulent and makes no conscience what means he useth to set himself at liberty but he that believeth maketh not haste he who by faith eveth the promise gives credit to it and hath committed himself to the Power Goodness and Truth of God for the accomplishment of it as he is not hasty with his spirit to murmur fret and vex because it is not presently made good to him so he is not hasty with his tongue to charge God foolishly nor in his action He dareth not use any sinister or unlawful means to quit himself of any difficulty in which he is entangled he believeth that God will preserve uphold deliver him and in his own time find out some lawful way and means and the belief of this restraineth him from impatience or any thing which should be a fruit and indication of it 3. Again The life of Faith is an expectant life The Apostle telleth us that Faith is the evidence of things not seen Hence Faith hath always two daughters which are its genuine off spring 1. Hope which is the souls looking up or looking out for those things of which Faith giveth an evidence or assurance Faith assureth hope expecteth and this is so inseparable from Faith that it is often in Scripture put for Faith and only differeth in this that Hope is an expectancy upon faith's evidence and the certainty which it giveth the soul of the thing promised in the word Every hope indeed doth not speak faith but every grounded hope doth there is an hope of an hypocrite which groweth up like the rush without mire and the flag without water Patience is another daughter of Faith I shall have occasion to speak to that more fully hereafter Faith assureth the thing to the soul Hope looketh out for it and expects it Patience keeps the soul still and waiting for it If you ask me what the soul expecteth what it waiteth for it must needs be that of which Faith hath given the soul an evidence that is the Promise The Promises are of various natures for outward mercies such as Protection Deliverance c. Spiritual mercies such as inward Support Strength Consolations Eternal happiness 4 Again The life of Faith is an active life The operation of Faith doth not terminate in a meer speculation The activity of Faith lieth 1. In the diligent use of all natural and rational means which God hath appointed in order to the obtaining of the mercy of which faith hath given the soul an evidence and assurance As Faith doth quiet the soul and restrain it from the use of all unlawful means so it doth quicken and engage the soul in the use of all lawful and proper means The reason of which is because Faith can assure the soul of no mercy but in that manner and order and under those circumstances in and under which God hath promised to bestow it Now God hath promised mercies in the use of means so it quickeneth and engageth the soul to the use of means as a piece of the Will of God in order to the obtaining of our desired mercy 2. It lyeth in the use of all spiritual means and here Prayer in a special manner Prayer being the general spiritual means to be used for the obtaining of any mercy Daniel chap. 9 understood by Books that the time was come for the fulfilling of the 70 years captivity and this faith of his as to what he read in the Books quickned him up to pour out that fervent prayer unto God Dan. 9. 5. The life of Faith is a cheerful and joyous life you read in Scripture of a joy and peace which attendeth believing Rom. 15. Believing the glory of God is a great means to make the soul to rejoyce in the hopes of it Now the reason of this joy is the strength of that evidence which faith doth give the soul for joy is nothing else but the complacency of the soul or rather the expression of this complacency upon the souls union to its desired object Now according to the nearness and fulness of this union so is the joy Faith giving the soul a great and unquestionable evidence of the thing doth also give unto the soul a proportionable joy 6. The life of Faith is a crucifying dying life to the world This is the victory saith the Apostle by which we overcome the world even our faith Faith looketh up to the Cross of Christ and by it the heart of a Christian is crucified to the world and the world is crucified to his heart The proper operation of Faith is to work against hope for indeed if once the mercy cometh in sight so as sense cometh in play faith ceaseth as well as hope Hence the operation and exercise of Faith must needs crucifie the heart of a Christian to the world to sense and to all sensible objects Faith made Abraham overlook his own body which was now dead and Sarahs dead womb it made him to overlook the Knife and the Altar and the loss of Isaac's natural life and only to consider that God was able to raise him up from the dead it maketh a Christian overlook all seeming difficulties in regard of sense and all contrarieties whatsoever indeed seemeth to be in his way Now by these things you may try your selves whether you live the life of Faith under sad and dark Providences yea or no. By this time methinks
I hear some of you saying to me But how should we come to live this life what should we do that in dark and troublesom times we might live this life of Faith Let me give you something of advice in the case and then conclude with two or three Arguments 1. Study the Scriptures and observe the promises reposited in that storehouse for the people of God at all times and for all sorts of mercies The promises are those words by which men live The Scripture is a rich Store-house of mercy it is full of promises promises for this life and that which is to come there is in them a salve for every sore and this is well worth a Christians observation to see how God in his word hath fitted him with a plaister for every wound when thou findest the promises respecting thy state in particular indeavour to whet them upon thy heart It is a metaphor which God useth as to his precepts Deut. 6. and as it is the duty of a Child of God to whet the Precepts upon his heart to engage and quicken him to obedience so it is his duty to whet the promises upon his soul for his consolation The Scripture is full of comfortable words O be not ignorant of them it is a large and full store-house O be acquainted with it 2. Learn to live upon God in prosperity and fulness The Soul that maketh the Lord its portion in a time of prosperity and fulness will scarce be to seek in a day of emptiness and adversity Our too much living upon the creature while we have it will hinder our wholly living upon God when we want it Take heed of living too much upon your creature-enjoyments when you have them learn in the greatest affluence of the creatures in the greatest overflowings of your cup to live upon God and to say of them This is not my portion Saint Paul had his heart crucified to the world and dyed daily O how hard doth the Soul find it to live upon God in an evil time that hath not learned to live upon God in a good day and while it goeth well with him as to outward enjoyments You that are at ease in the world and do not know the evil that others meet with learn this lesson before the evil day cometh upon you and surpriseth you Learn to live upon God before you have nothing else but a God to encourage your self in 3. Observe the practice and experience of the Saints of God David lived by faith when he had nothing in the world left him he encouraged himself in his God Job lived by faith when he said Though he kills me yet I will put my trust in him Say to your Soul my Soul why should not I go and do likewise Why should I not do as David and Job did I have the same promise the same power truth and goodness of God to trust to and to live upon which any of the Servants of God have formerly had 4. Call thy heart off its disquietments indeavour to convince thy self of the sinfulness of them there is much in this as to one that is a true Christian if one that is a Child of God can effectually perswade himself that it is his sin to have his heart dead in an evil day to have his heart dejected because the Providence of God bloweth a cross upon him it will go a great way with him to command his heart off its disturbance Thus doth David Psal 42.11 why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me trust still in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God 5. Lastly strengthen your hearts with a resolution to trust in God though he killeth me saith Job I will put my trust in him See what David doth Psal 55. He had been bitterly complaining of the prosperity of the wicked and his own afflicted state in the close of the Psalm he cometh to give both himself and others good counsel v 22.23 Cast thy burthen upon the Lord he shall sustain thee he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved But thou O God shalt bring them down into the Pit of destruction bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days but I will trust in thee I have done with this discourse when I have commended this life of faith to you by two or three arguments 1. It is a life in death light in darkness strength in weakness comfort in misery the Soul that can live this life is a great conquerour over tribulation anguish persecution famine nakedness peril Sword yea it is more than a Conquerour Rom. 8.35 You shall see how it is with a Christian which hath learned to live the life of faith 2 Cor. 8.9 he may be troubled on every side but he will not be distressed he may be perplexed but he will not be in despair he may be persecuted but he will not be forsaken cast down but he will not be destroyed is not this a rare life A persecutor may take away the life of nature from a Christian but he cannot deprive him of his life of faith faith will keep the head of a Christian above water in the greatest deeps of trouble and affliction Read Heb. 11. and observe in how many difficulties in how many deaths that noble army of Martyrs lived by virtue of faith Yea and they lived well and cheerfully as you will find there Our Saviour adviseth his disciples to lay up for themselves treasure in Heaven where no moth came to corrupt no thieves to break through or steal Is it not an excellent thing for a Christian to have a life beyond the gun shot of a persecution beyond the mercies or cruelties of bloody wretches The life of faith is such as makes a man post funera vivere nay in funere vivere to live when he is dying Paul was in deaths often yet lived by fatih he saith of himself and others of the servants of God that they were killed all the day long yet they lived still they lived by faith The life of faith cannot be taken away by any evil hand No nor can the comfort and sweetness of it be touched or empaired by the Sons of Belial 2. It is a distinguishing life The unbeliever may live the life of a beast which is the life of a beast he may live the life of a man which is the life of reason but notwithstanding this he may perish for ever but he that liveth the life of faith shall not perish he who liveth this life shall live for ever 3. Lastly It is a free and independent life We account in the world that that man liveth the best life that liveth the freest life in least dependency upon others Hence we do not account the life of a Beggar or a Servant or a Child so good a life as the life of him that lives upon none but upon what he
in Scripture I find three Answers to this Question The one is that of St. Peters Acts 2.31 Repent and be Baptized another is that of St. Paul Acts 16.31 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved The other is that of our Saviour to the young Man asking him What good thing he should do that he might inherit Everlasting Life Saith our Saviour Keep the Commandments Those three Texts will give you compleat directions 1. Keep the Commandments You will reply but you tell us that no Man is able to keep the Commandments but because you cannot do all which God doth require can you do nothing Well but you will say Shall we be saved if we do all that we can to keep the Moral Law I Answer No What then 2. St. Peter tells you Acts 2.38 Repent and be Baptized you will reply but it is God who must give repentance unto life True we say God must change the heart the Blackamore cannot change his skin nor the Leopard his spots But cannot you consider your sins Cannot you turn from open sins Do what in you lieth in order to your Repentance Well but you will say If we do this Is this enough I Answer No What then 3. St. Paul telleth you Act. 16. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved Still you will say But is not Faith the gift of God Have we a power to believe We Answer No It must be given to men on the behalf of Christ to believe But cannot you read the Word of God Cannot you come and hear the Word preached When you have heard it Cannot you meditate therein Cannot you apply your souls to the Word though it be Gods work to apply the Word to your souls and make it to dwell in you Cannot you beg of God a power to believe God will not be wanting to that soul that is not first wanting to it self The difference betwixt us and the bold Patrons of free-will lies here They hold that a man hath a natural power and ability to actions formally and spiritually good This we deny but yet say That man hath a power to actions that are morally and materially good and if he would go about as far as his Natural power would help him though indeed he could merit nothing at the hand of God We do not believe that God would be wanting to him as to habits of spiritual and effectual grace Now this is that which I am pleading with you for that you might not destroy you selves 1. That you would not give your self a liberty and let your selves loose to do things contrary to the Law of God wherein you might restrain your selves 2. That you would not neglect to do those things which God requireth of you and which are in your power to do I shall conclude this but with Two very weighty considerations 1. No punishment is more justly and smartly inflicted than that which a man hath chosen and wilfully brought upon himself when a man hath chosen death rather than life and judged himself unworthy of everlasting life and despised his own mercy certainly every man must say he is justly punished and adjudged to that portion which he hath chosen to himself 2. Secondly As no punishment is so justly and smartly inflicted so none is more intolerable to be born There will be in Hell another fire which shall never go out but this will be the worm that shall never die I have done and shall shut up my Discourse with the words of Moses I have this day set before you life and death blessing and cursing I have told you which way you must go down into the pit of destruction if ever you come there you must of your selves go into it O let not your destruction be of your selves especially considering what God hath done and what he is daily doing to evidence that in him is your help if you will apply your selves unto him SERMON LI. Rom. 2.12 For as many as have sinned without the Law shall also perish without the Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law THE business I am upon as you know is the expounding some hard Chapters in the Book of Divine Providence I am upon the last head upon which I propounded to speak to some appearing difficulties viz. Gods unequal dispensations of Grace whether such as are more common or such as are more special and saving as a basis to this Discourse I have premised and handled Two preliminary Propositions 1. Prop. That God in the dispensations of his grace acteth by Prerogative in a way of Soveraignty freely and unaccountably 2. Prop. That in his paenal dispensations of this nature he never proceedeth but justly upon the previous demerits of sinners I now come to speak to some Questions relating to these dispensations of Divine Providence The Two first of this nature which I shall speak to relate to Gods unequal distributions of common grace but such as are spiritual means in order to the obtaining of special and effectual grace and his unequal distributions of special and effectual grace without which none can be saved I shall put both these together and for a short Discourse upon these I have made choice of this Text. The business of the Apostle in this excellent Epistle is to establish the great Doctrine of the Gospel concerning the Justification of the soul before God by the righteousness of Christ on Gods part imputed and reckoned to sinners and on mans part apprehended and applied by Faith in opposition to the Doctrine of the Doctors of the Jews who held the Justification of the Soul by the works of the Law In opposition to whom he had laid down his grand Proposition Rom. 1.17 That the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith That is That righteousness wherein a Soul another day must stand just and righteous before God is not a righteousness of our own arising from our performance of the Law but the righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel which is apprehended and made ours by Faith His first Argument by which he proveth this is obvious to any considerate Reader If any be justified by works they must either be the Gentiles or the Jews but neither are the works of the Gentiles such as will justifie them Nor are the works of the Jews such as will justifie them As to the Gentiles he proveth at large Chap. 1. That their works were such as were so far from Justifying them That the wrath of God was revealed against them for the wrath of God is revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and as he at large sheweth the works of the Heathen were works of most notorious ungodliness and unrighteousness and therefore could not possibly justifie them So in this Chapter he proveth that the works of the Jews were not such as could justifie them before God for though they condemned