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
VERA EFFIGIES IOHANNIS COLLINGS S.T.P. ANNO DOM 1678. AETATIS 55. Man 's but a shadow and a Picture is That shadow's shadow yet don't judge amiss Though here you onely on the shadow look What followes read The Substance is i'th'book R. White ad Vâ—â—um delin et sculp 167â— SEVERAL DISCOURSES Concerning the Actual Providence OF GOD. DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS The First Treating concerning the Notion of it establishing the Doctrine of it opening the principal ACTS of it Preservation and Government of created Beings With the particular Acts by which it so preserveth and governeth them The Second Concerning the Specialties of it the Vnsearchable things of it and several Observable things in its motions The Third concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hard Chapters of it in which an attempt is made to solve several appearances of difficulty in the motions of Providence and to vindicate the Justice Wisdom and Holiness of God with the reasonableness of his dealing in such Motions By JOHN COLLINGES D.D. LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and are to be sold by Edward Giles Bookseller in St. Andrews Parish in Norwich 1678. To the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Thompson MADAM I Beseech your Honour to believe me telling you that I have been these thirteen years ever since I had the happiness to know your Ladiship watching an opportunity as to let your Ladiship know the sense I have of the obligations you have been pleased to lay upon me so to let the world know the honour I have for your Ladiship growing up from my first observations of you which was in your Ladiships near approaches to and in your state of Widowhood I then observed Madam that your Ladiship like the child of so Honourable and pious Parents had very early entertained just noble and most honourable thoughts of the living God which had produced in you as early a choice of him as your God and of his ways as your ways with a zeal beyond the proportion which could be expected from your years Having therefore perfected the following Discourses I congratulated my self when I had thought of your Ladiship as a fit person to entitle to them and the rather because your Ladiship having not yet seen many years shall I hope have many days to observe the motions of Divine Providence both as to Polities and Persons and from thence both to conclude how true those few Observations are which I have made and to give some more eminent Divine many a subject more of this nature from your own observation Madam in the few years you have yet lived you have seen as many and as quick and inexpected rotations of Providence as the like number of years have at any time as yet produced or are like to produce and yet the wheel seems to run nimbly and a further multitude of years may add to your Ladiships wisdom in this thing I crave leave most humbly to recommend to your Honour as the observation of Issues so the confirmation of Divine Promises and Threatnings in the fulfilling of them I doubt not but your Ladiship will every day see that it is that God who cannot lye who hath commanded his Ministers at all times to say unto the righteous it shall be well with them for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings and to say Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with them for the reward of their hands shall be given them If Madam the actual Providence of God at any time seemeth to look another way it is but keeping your patient foot a while at the Promise and Providence like the Bee will come home to the word of Promise or Threatning bringing along with it a body laden with honey to reward the godly and righteous man and a sting to smite and pierce those through who have wrought wickedness and provoked a jealous God Our blessed Lord Madam tells us Joh. 17.3 That it is life eternal for men to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent The promise or predication in the proposition of that Text makes it evident that by the knowledg of the Father and Jesus Christ is meant more than the bare comprehension of the nature and things of God in our understanding as indeed knowledg and most other terms of sense do ordinarily signifie in Scripture the Greek complying with its elder sister the Hebrew which hath a great penury of words so that to know God and Christ in the true sense of that text is not only in our understandings to comprehend what may be and is necessary to be known of God but to adore love fear him believe in him to chuse him for our God In short it comprehends all those acts of our minds which are either just consequents or may rationally be inferred as duties from a just understanding and due comprehension of him but in regard according to the workings of our reasonable natures those acts will not indeed cannot be exerted without a praevious apprehension of him proportionable to what he indeed is and so as to make him an adequate object for our affections a just comprehension of God in our understandings is necessary in order to those other acts of internal homage wherein the Creature standeth indebted to his great Creator So that Solomon Prov. 19.2 did but conclude rationally That the soul should be without knowledg is not good And the great Apostle of the Gentiles askt but a reasonable question Rom. 10. How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard All Knowledg comes into the Soul either by the Exterior senses or by reasoning and discourse or thirdly by Divine impression and revelation The two former are the more ordinary the latter a rarer and more extraordinary means of knowledg in these latter days since God hath spoken to us by his Son I speak of Knowledg strictly taken for the comprehension of things in our understanding for if we take it in the large sense even now mentioned neither sense nor reason is a sufficient mean to it By sense we can directly comprehend nothing of God for who hath seen him at any time he is an Incorporeal immaterial substance and cometh not under the cognisance of any sense nor indeed can we so know any spiritual being but in regard the effects both of him who is the Father of Spirits and of spiritual beings that are creatures are sensible Our Senses afford us oft-times an auxiliary help from which our reason draweth just conclusions concerning God from Principles which it at first it establisheth by the help of sense For example That the World is and Man is are matters of sense Now Reason concludes Nothing unless a first being can be the cause of its own existence Hence it gathers there must be a God a first being and a first cause Again when Sense hath shewed us Man a reasonable creature Reason works and tells us He that made this noble Creature must needs be more noble
more reasonable more excellent What we know then of God must needs be from Reason or Revelation Reason brings us in knowledg by raising Conclusions from Principles These Principles are of two sorts Philosophical or Scriptural I call those Philosophical Principles which reason as it now resideth in us justifieth and which without the help of the Word of God are allowed by all or the most of men especially if cultivated by any ingenuous education being either common natural principles or such as are established by studies upon deliberate thoughts with the help of sense and improvement of discourse and ratiocination Thus Reason will tell us that there is a God but one God That he must be the first being the first cause more excellent in the perfections of his being than any creature and an hundred things of a like evidence Or else it concludeth from revealed Principles having first a sufficient evidence That the holy Scriptures are the word of God who cannot speak falsly These Principles now are such propositions as without the surer word of Prophesie we could never have had any just evidence of Such now are the Doctrines of the Trinity The Incarnation of Christ The Personal union of the Divine and Humane Nature in him and many others In the discovery and justification of such Conclusions as Reason gathereth from the first sort of Principles lyeth the work of a Philosopher as a Philosopher In the discovery and proof of such Propositions as are partly evidenced from Reason but more fully from Scripture lies the work of a Christian Philosopher In the discovery proving and applying of such Propositions as have their Evidence partly from Reason and more fully from holy Writ or as cannot be at all concluded unless building upon Scriptural foundations but are founded in Scripture and may be illustrated imperfectly from reason and shewed not to be improbable nor unreasonable lyes the work of the Minister of the Gospel who is to convey the knowledg of God to his people And the true reason why some even of these silver Trumpets which belong to the Sanctuary give an incertain sound is because neither the Principles of natural Reason nor Revelation appear to all men in the same light We say The best Philosopher is not as yet born Our age tells us how generally Principles of Philosophy are exploded and it may be some of them justly too which we when we were boys thought to lye very near Demonstration and doubtless in the next age something now admitted will be judged as faulty It hath pleased God to subject our understandings to this vanity Now we having no way unless God would from Heaven speak to us to know any proposition of Truth but from the exercise of our Reason concluding either from Principles purely natural or from Propositions of Revelation in Scripture every one naturally judging himself obliged to believe according to the evidence he hath from his understanding there must and will be different apprehensions until which will never be men have all either the same degrees of Natural Reason or Scriptural knowledg which will be advantaged if there be any who think that all Propositions are to be weighed by the ballance of Natural Reason and that the holy Scripture as to the sense of it must come into that scale and make but in-weight giving only an auxiliary help to the Evidence of the most sublime Propositions of truth Nor is there any help for this The Church of Rome which your Ladiship knows pretends to wondrous Miracles hath indeed devised a palliating cure for this setting up an Infallible cheat to judg of all Controversies and by fire and faggots and all barbarous cruelties and inhumanities forcing men to acquiesce in the Decisions of that ridiculous Judg. But in the mean time mens Consciences apprehend themselves before one who is no Judg in the ease and the sore festreth and rotteth to the bone for the Pope can make none to alter his mind And a little reason might tell the Quacks of that Colledg that if it be not in the power of a man to believe what he hath a mind to believe it is much less in the power of a foreign power to compell him to it The Protestant cure is certainly more humane and reasonable yea and more Apostolical too They set forth sums of sound Doctrine to which they only annex that of the Apostle Phil. 3.15 Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if any in any thing be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Only Protestants require as the same Apostle directs Rom. 14. That if any hath a particular faith different from that of the Church wherein he liveth he should have it to himself before God Thus the Knowledg of God is acquired from his word reading it being Catechised out of it hearing it opened and preached by the comparing of spiritual things with spiritual by the use of reason and discourse in the Velitation of Questions arising from the seeming contradictions in Holy Writ c. But there is also another mean of Divine Knowledg that is by his exterior works by which much of the Knowledg of God is gained improved and encreased These works are either of Creation or of Providence Creation was the work of the first six days from which God hath ceased long since but the things created remain and much of the Knowledg of God is to be gained from thence by the help of sense which sheweth us the things and reason which helpeth us to conclude that there being so many noble effects there must be a first and more noble cause there being so many excellent Beings there must be a first and most perfect and excellent Being Nothing created could give an Existence to it self Hence the Apostle telleth us That the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen from the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 So that they are without excuse because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God For the Book of Scriptures we blessed be God! have it in our Vernacular Tongue we have means to teach us to read we have Catechisms and Confessions of Faith containing the Epitome and substance of them we have the various labours of holy and learned men to make us to understand them scarce any thing seemeth to be wanting to this age for the gaining of this excellent knowledg by this mean but persons giving themselves up to Reading Hearing Meditation Christian Conferences and Prayer For the Book of Creation methinks it is like a great Bible in some Religious Gentlemans Hall that lyes always open we cannot move a step in the world nor lift up an eye to Heaven but our eye is upon one page or another of it If men will not read the Wisdom of God in the sagacity and wisdom of some Creatures nor the power and greatness of God in the
the beginning with God but he is no-where call'd the word of God I chuse therefore rather to interpret it of that word of Power and Command which Moses Gen. 1. telleth us God used in the making of the world and the fitting and joynting of it together He said Let there be light and there was light c. Thus the Worlds were made by the Word of God so as the term is both exclusive of any other instrumental cause in the Creation of the world and expressive of the true instrumentally efficient cause which was the mighty powerful commanding virtue of the Word of God And this is enough for the explication of this term But Quest 3. What is the meaning of this that the things which are seen are not made of those things which do appear The Vulgar Latin Version reads Vt ex invisibilibus visibilia fierent that visible things should be made of those which are invisible by a transposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but our Copies are otherwise If by the invisible things be meant those invisible things of God the Apostle speaks of Rom. 1.20 His eternal power and godhead So it is true and the sense much the same with what went before but else it is as Beza saith Perperam immo false Some would make the sense of the words this That the world was not made of those things which now do appear to us and are the objects of our senses but of invisible principles and elements which are not now the objects of our senses Others thus That it was made according to an invisible Platform and Idea which was Plato's notion Others say That by invisible things or things which do not appear is to be meant nothing that must be an invisible thing and the world was not made of any pre-existent matter but it was created that is produced out of a meer and total not being into a being Which sense if we allow the Apostle by it as to the Creation of the world asserteth the Truth of God against the Heathen Philosophers who could not by reason comprehend how something especially such a something as the world is should come out of nothing and therefore grew very vain in their imaginations about the pre-existing matter of which the world should be made Estius and Calvin also take notice of a much differing sense as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it were to be read thus We by faith understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God that they might be the looking-glasses of those things which do not appear The thing indeed is true for the Apostle telleth us Rom. 1.20 That the invisible things of God are known by the things that are made But I cannot agree it the sense of this Text not only for that which Beza noteth that it is a very harsh interpretation to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because as Pareus observeth it seemeth not to be any thing of the Apostle's design to express the end here why the World 's were made by God I do therefore take the Text to be a Divine assertion of the Creation of the World against the vain imaginations of the Heathens who either dream't that it was eternal or made of a casual concourse of Atoms or from some Idea's It was saith the Apostle made of nothing by the Word of God of nothing that doth appear And so I have done with the first Member of the Proposition That the worlds were framed by the Word of God the things which are seen were not made of those things which do appear I proceed to the second Mem. 2. That we understand this by faith Here I shall speak to two things 1. What is here meant by faith 2. How do we by faith understand this Faith in Scripture sometimes signifieth the object of faith the Word of God Thus Gal. 1.23 He which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which he once destroyed Thus you read of the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 Received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith that is of the Word of God particularly the Gospel sometimes it signifieth the act of faith which as it respecteth the Proposition of the word for its object is a firm and steady assent the agreement of the mind to the truth of the Proposition as it respecteth the person of the Mediator is a resting relying and recumbency upon him which is what we call the justifying act of faith you may understand the term Faith in either sense By the word of faith revealing it and by our souls acting faith in agreeing and assenting to the truth of that word we understand that the world heaven and earth was at first brought into being fitted and joynted together by the powerful Word of God commanding the production of all those Beings which are in the world and that beauty and order in which we see them placed But secondly How doth the Apostle say we understand it by faith May not this be understood by Reason if it may what need Faith in the case or why or how doth the Apostle say by faith we understand this Wherein doth Faith give us a further knowledg of this than Reason hath given the Philosopher To which I answer Undoubtedly reason hath gone a great way and may go a great way to make men understand that the world was made by God That the world was eternal was indeed the opinion of a great Pagan Philosopher but his master Plato was of another mind and he is said to have learned it from Hesiod and the most and wisest amongst the Heathens acknowledged that the world was at first by a Divine power produced out of a not-being into a being Nor indeed would their Reason allow them to judg otherwise the infinite motions the measures of things in the world their order and succession their alterations and corruptions duly considered forbiddeth reasonable souls with any consistency to themselves to affirm the world to have had an eternal existence All motions must be in time and have had a being all successions and corruptions of things plainly speak that they had a beginning if we had no assistance in the proof of it from the word of faith 2. The same Reason will agree that it gave not a first being to it self nothing is the efficient cause of it self experience tells us that it is not in the power of a man to make the least hair of his head white or black much less to make an hair Man is the noblest sublunary Creature but cannot make the meanest vegetable all that his art can do is but to counterfeit and dissemble nature if it be but as to a spire of grass or to the meanest flower of the field Now if it were not eternal if it did
of God that upholds these qualities that they neither waste nor abate from their continual motion The candle is fed from the tallow and wax the torch and taper from pitch wax rozin and other combustible matter when that fails it expireth Whence is the Sun Moon and Stars fed but from the immediate upholding power and hand of God Again these great bodies are not indeed so gross and heavy as mere sublunary and terrene bodies are but yet they must not be denied something of weight especially the Waters in the Heavens We know weight and heaviness is of the nature of Water yea of that Water which falleth from Heaven how come the Clouds which are a thin body to contain and restrain it and keep it as in bottles how come those vast bodies of Water to be contained in the thin body of the Clouds and to diffuse themselves so gradually upon the Earth 2. Let us look upon the Air from the agitation of which proceed the great and boisterous stormy winds The Air is cold and moist only heated and warmed from the Sun how comes it to pass that it is not in that continual agitation which we see it in sometimes sometimes we hardly discern it moved at all sometimes more violently and that sometimes from one quarter sometimes from another is this a natural a meer natural motion then it is necessary and would be uniform so we see it is not Who can give a reason sufficient to satisfie an inquisitive Philosopher of the heat and cold in the Air in several Countrys nay in our own Country or a sufficient reason of drought and moisture in the Air whence is it think you that it is not always dry nor always moist not always stormy nor always calm none of which would suit the conservation of the world but from Gods upholding those qualities in those bodies which influence it and by which these things are caused so that unless when the ordinary Providence of God is not withheld from the creatures in some particular places for the chastisement of the wickedness of them that dwell therein The Air keeps its motion and courses the winds their courses for the preservation of our bodies and the advantage of humane affairs God I say by a daily providence upholds these Beings to those motions and measures of motion which he at first set for them in order to keeping the World in joint The Air putrifieth not nor groweth infectious the Winds sometimes blow sometimes are still c. The Psalmist giveth God the great glory of his Providence in this particular very plentifully He raiseth the stormy winds Psalm 107. v. 25. He walketh upon the wings of the wind Psalm 104.3 He bringeth the winds out of his treasures Psalm 133.7 He causeth his winds to blow Psalm 147.18 The stormy winds fulfil his word Psalm 148.8 The Heathens had such a sense of the Necessity of a Divine Providence to rule this Creature that they devised a God on purpose whom they called Aeolus whom they feigned to have a care and dominion over them and the Poet saith That if he did not they would confound Heaven and Earth 3. From the Air let us come to the Earth a great and vast body Job saith It hangeth upon nothing Job 26.7 upon nothing but the Almighty power of divine Providence It hangeth in the midst of the Air and that upon nothing God did hang it there in the day of Creation the Seas are contiguous to it both of them make but one Globe or round body of a great weight We see it is of the nature of weighty Bodies to incline and press downward Suppose God did at first hang it there What is it keeps it there We should conclude it a great Miracle not to be effected by other than a divine Power to see but a great stone or Canon-bullet hang in the air how would a whole City come out and be astonished at so great a sight especially if it should hang there a month or a year or any considerable proportion of time But who sufficiently contemplateth this great sight Who thinks on the immense weight of the Earth and the Seas hanging in the midst of the thin body of the air Let the Atheists of this generation come near and see this great sight If there be no God or if this God exerciseth no Providence in the upholding and governing created Beings How cometh the Earth to hang upon nothing or how doth it abide one day in that station Let any of them in an open field climb up and hang up a Cannon-bullet so if they can I know the Philosophers tell us it is in its Center and every thing naturally rests there The Poet tells us That Ponderibus librata suis But this is all but an idle and an impertinent muffling us with unintelligible terms for what do they mean by the center of things the center of the Heavens or the center of the Earth or of the Waters unless they understand the place which God ordained for them or wherein God fixed them in Creation in that they abide and we say there Providence keepeth them Let them try if the art of all the men in the World can so poise a great weight in the air that it shall not fall but abide hanging there any considerable time 4. Lastly let us view the great body of the Waters in continual flux and reflux whether they be placed higher than the Earth is a little question But suppose they be not certain it is that the winds oft raise them much higher than the Earth they are of a fluid Nature of a great weight in continual motion whence is it that they do not drown the World or at least a great part of it It is a matter of demonstration that in many places they rise higher every side than the Earth next adjacent to them How comes it that the Sands check them that in many places they bring their bridle in their mouth an huge quantity of small stones or sands which make a bank on every side to protect the adjacent Earth against their rage certainly no reason can be given but what the holy servants of God have long since given Job 26.10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds until the day and night come to an end And Jer. 5.22 He hath placed the sand for a bound to the sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass Now suppose such a Decree these inanimate Creatures obey it not out of election and choice but being natural Agents they work and move necessarily according to the affections and inclinations which God hath created them with So as the water being fluid and heavy would from a necessity of natural working overflow and drown the Earth did not God by his Providence continually work establishing his Decree and seeing to the execution of it and to that end governing these inanimate Creatures contrary to their natural inclinations that the World may be
unto him Indeed such a subjection or subordination the Heathens fancied amongst their idols Jupiter was their supreme idol others were subject unto him but he is no God that can truckle under another and be in subjection unto any Being And this greatness of God calleth to all men to fear before him and do reverence unto him who shall not fear before that God whose throne is prepared in the heaven and whose Kingdom ruleth over all and for a free and voluntary subjection to him for he ruleth over all not as a Tyrant and Oppressor whose title lies in his Sword but as one who is a native Prince and hath a rightful title not to obey whom is the highest Rebellion which Samuel compareth to the sin of witchcraft But I must leave the distinct and full application of this Doctrine for a further discourse SERMON IX Psal CIII 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all I Am at this time to make Application of what you have heard concerning the Governing-Providence of God I shall do it under three Heads shewing you how it may be useful for Instruction for Consolation and for Exhortation In the first place you may conclude from hence Vse 1 In what sense alone any thing can be said to be casual or necessary what to determine concerning Chance and Fortune or Fate As to the first I shall only lay down this Conclusion Concl. That although many things as to our eyes and apprehensions of them may appear casual yet there is nothing so with reference unto God the first universal cause It is truly said by Augustine that chance and fortune are but terms of humane ignorance as we say of the old Philosophers occult qualities they are but the refuges of ignorance so the same may be said of chance and fortune He described chance well that called it inopinatum rei eventum an event of a thing which man thought not of it is not inordinatus eventus but inopinatus there is no event of any thing that is a slip of Providence not ordered and disposed by him whose Kingdom ruleth over all Beings and existences motions and actions yea errours and obliquities nothing cometh to pass in the world but was foreseen fore-ordained fore-ordered and that in infinite wisdom but many things come to pass which we did not think of could not foresee whose causes are hidden from us these things we say come by chance and fortune A word indeed not very fit for a Christians mouth I remember Augustine more than once repents that he had defiled his tongue with it The Heathens ignorant of the true God and of his influence on all things devised such a blind God as Fortune and assigned it a place amongst their other Idols Te facimus fortuna Deum But Christians must own no such blind cause of things they believe there is a God whose throne is prepared in the Heavens and whose Kingdom ruleth over all and therefore can leave no place for chance or fortune You read of a case Deut. 19.5 which one would think if any thing in the world were casual and fortuitous that were so A man goeth into the Wood with his neighbour to hew wood and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the ax to cut down a tree and the head slippeth from the helve and lighteth upon his neighbour that he dye What can be imagined more casual and fortuitous than this for the head of an Hatchet to fly off from the helve and to kill a man at work with him who had the Hatchet such were the cases also mentioned Numb 35.22 23. Casting a thing upon a man without laying of wait or with any stone wherewith a man may dye seeing him not nor seeking his harm yet in these cases Exod. 21.13 God is said to deliver the person slain into his hand who involuntarily and unwarily hath been the cause of his death There are many things which indeed to us are casual nothing is so to God he hath ordered all he ruleth and governeth all actions Ahimaaz and Cushi knew not of each others journey or at least he that ran first knew nothing of the others journey they both met at the Court of David to carry tydings of Absaloms death but Joab had ordered the running of both Ahimaaz casually met Cushi there but though it was casual to him it was not so to Joab who sent him I say nothing is in it self casual or with respect unto God casual with respect to us many things are so that is we do not know the causes of them but God ordereth and directeth all his Kingdom his Rule and Government extendeth to it his hand is in it either permitting or effecting it Secondly You may from hence conclude how things are necessary Arminians make a great deal of stir about this and charge those whom they call Calvinists as maintaining a fatal necessity of all things Let us examine the word Fate a little we shall find a three or fourfold use of it there is two or three sorts of Fate which we shall condemn as freely as any of them but in a fourth sense we shall find the word honest enough and to destroy it will ask better arguments than any they have yet favoured the world with 1. There is a Stoical fate The Stoicks were a sort of ancient Philosophers you read of their name in Scripture Act. 17.18 They fancied an eternal necessity of things Cui Deum licet nolentem subesse fingebant nexum in rebus ipsis to which they conceived God himself though against his will was subjected according to this they fancied all things came to pass by an equal necessity and that the wills of men were forced by it This is a fate to be abominated by all those that own God and him as the first cause of all things 2. There is a Mathematical fate This was a necessity of things depending upon the motions and influences of the stars these men indeed make God to be the ruler of the Stars but the Stars to be the Rulers of mens motions and actions according to that verse in credit amongst them Astra regunt homines sed regit astra Deus as if God did not exercise a daily Dominion and Power over the Creation but had made the celestial bodies which being created and set in their order move other things by a fatal necessity Of both these Augustine saith Si cor tuum non esset fatuum non crederes fatum if thou hadst not a foolish heart thou wouldst not credit such a thing as fate 3. There is thirdly a Physical or Natural fate by which we understand that necessity which God hath established in natural causes according to which they cannot but produce such and such effects supposing them not hindered by the supreme cause thus the fire burneth necessarily and we say all natural causes move necessarily and produce their effects unless suspended hindered or
hath it like Sampson riseth up and says it will do as at other times though in doing it discerneth that God is departed from it and is not with it as at other times Vse 5. Again How should this encourage us all in the ways of God notwithstanding the discouragements we may meet with from the temptations of our grand adversary or the suggestions of our consciences founded upon the demonstrable truth of the imperfections of our best services We say Use maketh perfectness and the Scripture saith That the man of clean hands will grow stronger and stronger but in the mean time acceptation doth not depend upon gradual perfection but upon the perfection of sincerity when the design the purpose the intention is sincere when the heart is set right for God and aims truly at the glory of God and the fulfilling of his Will then it is accepted and indeed it is the most reasonable thing in the world that we should agree with this For that man or woman hath either a strange imperfect notion of the nature of God or of the law of God that can expect that his duties should be accepted for their gradual perfections or any intrinsecal value in them I say he that thus thinks neither knows God as he ought to know him nor yet his own measures But if God will accept of and reward a good intention a good purpose and design while we find our hearts right bent and inclined for God we have no reason to be discouraged from action Vse 6. I shall conclude with an Exhortation unto all In this thing to be like God You have heard that God sometimes allows not an action where yet he rewardeth the good intention designing the action what an example is this for us who may dissent from some of our Forefathers Our Forefathers might be mistaken in the Utensils and Ornaments and Rites of Gods house and worship as well as David was in his design for the building of God an house and while we think they were so we cannot tread in their steps it would be wickedness to us SERMON XXIX Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am proceeding still in directing your Observation of the motions of Divine Providence especially in the distribution of rewards and punishments Two things I have already of this nature observed I now proceed to a third which will make a Fifteenth Observation Observ 15. It is a very ordinary thing for the Providence of God to distribute the afflictions and punishments of this life to the very best of his people and as to them sometimes to spare the very worst of men I must still mind you that there is no rule so general but it will admit exceptions as to particular cases though this hath as few as any The Apostle hath told us Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth if you endure chastening God dealeth with us as with sons for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not but if you be without chastening whereof all are partakers then are you bastards and not sons Hence that so usually quoted passage of one of the ancients Vnicum Deus habuiâ—t filium sine peccato nullum sine flagello God had one and but one Son without sin but he never had any Son without a cross Hence some particular servants of God have been under some temptations at some times to question their state as to the favour of God because their life hath had so little of the cross in it but they have been rare examples to whom Satan hath had an advantage to suggest such a thought And as Divines determine it difficult to determine what sin a child of God may not fall into and justly too when-as David fell into murther and adultery Lot into drunkenness and incest and even Peter cursed and sware and denied his master so it is a matter more difficult to say what punishment of this life may not fall upon the best of men Indeed some Antinomians have made it a question Whether the afflictions of Gods People may or ought to be called punishments or judgments but it is a strife which they would raise about words if they by punishments or judgments intend such legal demands as God should make for satisfaction to his Justice none who understandeth what he saith will call the afflictions of good men punishments in this sense if they mean any thing else they much betray their ignorance for the Scripture expresly calls them by both God telleth his People that they should not be altogether unpunished and the Apostle telleth us That when we are chastened we are judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.32 Most certain it is that it is a very ordinary thing for God in the motions of his Providence to distribute all kinds of temporary afflictions to such as most fear his glorious Name and sometimes as to such to spare even the worst of men Job expostulates it with God Job 21.7 Wherefore do the wicked live become old yea are mighty in power their seed is established in their sight with them and their off-spring before their eyes their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them David confessed that his feet were almost gone his steps had well-nigh slipt when he saw the prosperity of the wicked though v. 9. they set their mouths against heaven yet v. 4. their strength was firm and there were no bands in their death they are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued like other men v. 7. Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish In the mean time v. 14. David was plagued all the day-long and chastned every morning This motion of Providence hath been evident in the experience of all ages and there is none who liveth but may observe it every day but this is accounted one of the Chapters of Divine Providence which are hard to be understood I shall therefore reserve my further discourse upon it till I come to the last part of my intended discourse where I shall make it my business to give you an account of it and at present pass on to some further Observations Observ 16. The next thing I shall commend to your remark is this That where to humane appearance Providence moveth most flowly either in the punishment of the sinner or the rewarding the righteous there at last it distributeth most plentifully I observed to you before that both the punishment of the wicked and the reward of the righteous is certain and constant though not always sensible nor uniform Now I desire you to observe that by how much the slower it is in the punishment of sinners or in bringing rewards to the righteous by so much the greater the rewards of the godly men and the punishment of sinners are when they come I mean
than my time will now allow me to do SERMON XLV Psal 37. v. 1 3 4 5 7. Fret not thy self because of evil-doers neither be thou envious at the workers of iniquity Vers 3. Trust in the Lord and do good Vers 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord. Vers 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him Vers 7. Rest in the Lord wait patiently for him Vers 8. Cease from anger and forsake wrath fret not thy self in any wise to do evil THe point I am upon is to clear up the justice equity and reasonableness of the motions of Gods Actual Providence in the prosperity of wicked men his afflictings and chastiseings of his own people and delivering them up into the hands of those who although the best of Gods People are sinners and deserve the severities of God yet are more wicked more unrighteous than they This I have cleared and made Application of my discourse so far as may concern wicked men That which only yet remains is to inform the People of God of their duty under such a dispensation This has been the case of God's people in former times the estates at least of many who truly fear God and desire to worship him according to his Will have been exposed to the vilest men and this may be a sore temptation to Gods own people I will therefore enlarge this discourse a little shewing you the duty of Gods People at such a time and for this I have chosen this Text. No other portion of Scripture so fully setting it out together as the 7 or 8 first verses of this Psalm which partly shew them 1. What they are to avoid 2. And then what they are to do The prohibitive directions are three 1. They must not fret this is repeated three times v. 1. Fret not thy self because of evil doers v. 7. Fret not thy self because of him that prospereth in his way because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to pass v. 8. Fret not thy self in any wise to do evil 2. They must not be envious v. 1. Neither be thou envious at the workers of iniquity 3. They must not be angry v. 8. Cease from anger forsake wrath The instructive directions are four The first is the exercise of faith v. 3. Trust in the Lord. v. 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust in him v. 7. Rest on the Lord. 2. The second is the practice of holiness 1. They must not do evil v. 8. so v. 27. They must depart from evil 2. They must do good v. 3. v. 27. The same is repeated 3. The third is They must delight themselves in the Lord. v. 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord. 4. They must wait patiently for God v. 7. You have it again repeated v. 34. Wait patiently for him Wait on the Lord and keep his way In these 6 or 7 particulars I shall open to you and press upon you your duty under such dispensations as these I will put the three first together because they have a great affinity and cognation one with another 1. It is your duty under such a dispensation Not to fret to be envious or angry The words in the Hebrew Text are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to inflame to kindle to burn and in a secondary sense to be angry because anger puts a man into an heat the heating of the blood about the heart by the disorder and disturbance of the gall is assigned as the natural cause of it The moral Philosopher calleth Anger the irrational perturbation of the mind others tell us it is a desire of Revenge and use to distinguish betwixt ira and iracundia making the first to be where we have a just cause the other where there is no cause but in short as to our purpose anger is to be considered 1. As a passion a natural passion and so is not in it self sinful it is a power created in us by God which we may use well or ill 2. As a Vertue when it is used in a good and justifiable cause when a man is troubled and desireth the punishment of another secundum ordinem rationis where according to Gods will he ought to be punished 3. As a Vice such the exercise of this passion proveth when a man is angry either for no just cause or in an irrational and undue manner When wicked men prosper we are commanded not to be angry not to fret wickedly and sinfully so as either to be displeased at Gods Providence as Jonah was for the gourd when God asking him if he did well to be angry plainly implieth that he did ill and not well or to desire an unjust and undue revenge upon him either when the person hath not deserved it or in an undue order or measure This Anger first boileth in the heart and there discovereth it self in evil wishes and thoughts of sinful revenge then breaketh out at the lips and sheweth it self in uncomely speeches reproaches and revilings and lastly sheweth it self in rendring evil for evil The anger which is here forbidden us under this dispensation of God is such as tendeth to the dishonor of God to the disturbance of our own Spirits wiling them and putting them into disorder and to the unjust disturbance of others From this anger it is the will of God that his people under such dispensations should cease This is the wrath they should forsake The word translated envy signifieth to envy or emulate Envy is properly an hatred of or a trouble for the felicity of another whether the cause of it be a fear of some hurt to our selves or a discontent that it is well with them or that they are in a better estate than our selves Hence is hatred detraction rejoicing in the evil of our neighbour Affliction at their prosperity c. There is a just anger at the prosperity of wicked men as God is dishonoured by reason of it and the interest of God in the world suffereth by it for the heart of a man to be hot and zealous for God yea and to desire Gods just revenge of his own name and glory upon sinners is but what he may and ought to crave and do Thus we find Moses the meekest men on the Earth often angry and executing the vengeance upon God but for a man to be displeased and discontented at Gods Providence for it or to be angry at their Bretherns good this is sinful the first is against the love which we owe to God the second against the love which we owe unto our Neighbour To desire an undue or unjust punishment of them is a sin against Justice that Justice which we owe unto all men this envying at the prosperity of sinners is forbidden also in other Texts Prov. 3.31 Envy not thou the oppressor chuse none of his ways Prov. 24.1 Be not envious as the evil doers neither desire thou to be with them In sum God in this precept forbiddeth his people under such
shall not fall Mat. 16.18 The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Psal 94.14 For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Mica 4.4 11 12. So quite through this Psalm there are many promises of the same import Now the work of faith is to perswade the soul of the certainty and undoubted verity of these words of God to settle the soul in this perswasion That sooner shall Heaven and earth pass away than any of these things shall fail which God hath spoken Then the work of faith is further to carry out the soul without any carping trouble or disputing to rest wholly upon these words A Christian seeth the word of God what he hath said for its relief now faith teacheth the soul to agree this as the word of him who cannot lye or repent and calleth upon the soul to trust in God for the fulfilling of it to roll it self upon the promise and to commit it self its cause its way unto the Lord the soul of a Christian is very solicitous and careful for the concern and interest of God in the world faith teacheth the soul to cast its care the burthen of its spirit upon the Lord assuring it that God careth for it Faith speaketh to the soul in the language of Solomon Eccles 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Justice and Judgment in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they I say this is a great piece of the Child of Gods duty in such a time when the vilest men are exalted and the wicked walk on every side and the people of God are troden under foot as the mire in the streets It is the Will of God concerning them The just shall live by faith This is the proper time for the exercise of Faith when the eye of sense faileth Faith is the evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for The proper operation of Faith is where sense faileth where God is trusted and not seen Blessed are they saith our Saviour who have not seen and yet believe This is Opus diei in die suo Though the people of God ought to be careful of all duty at all times yet they ought to have a special regard to the duty of their day the seasonableness of a duty addeth much to the weight and importance of it The foundations are shaken saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 4 What shall what can the righteous do Mark what follows The Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men This is that life which the Saints have lived yea and they have lived well upon it When David had lost all the Amalekites had taken Ziglag and in it all that he had 1 Sam. 30.6 the Text saith David encouraged himself in God the Truth Power and Goodness of God nor did he hope in God in vain as you shall read in that story What had Hezekiah to live upon but Faith when Sennacherib had besieged him with his mighty Army and ranted against him and the God of Heaven too after that rate you read What had all the Patriarchs all the Saints and Servants of God to live upon but Faith of whom you read Heb. 11. Nor is there any life which so glorifieth God as this it eminently glorifieth three Attributes of his his Power Goodness and Truth No man will trust in a bruised Reed or lean upon a broken Staff therefore the Apostle speaking of Abrahams faith Heb. 11. saith He believed that God was able to raise him from the dead and again Rom. 3 He believed that he who promised was able to perform It giveth God the glory of his goodness for the expectation of his soul is the Mercy and Goodness of God and it also giveth God the glory of his truth for the proximate object of Faith is the Word and Promise of God O therefore let this be your care when you cannot live by sense live by Faith It is the happiness of a Child of God he hath something to live on in the worst of times Psal 34.10 The young Lions shall be hunger-bit but there is no want to them that fear the Lord. One would think that of all creatures the Lion should be most out of danger of being hunger bit The Lion the King of the Forest all other Beasts are subject to this Beast yet if an old Lion that cannot run for its prey that hath lost much of its strength may be hunger-bitten one would think a young-Lion that is in its full strength should not Yes saith the Psalmist a young Lion may be hunger-bitten those that have most of the world wicked men that have greatest honours greatest power great advantages to provide for themselves they may be hunger bitten they may come to want but there shall be no want to them who fear the Lord there shall be no time so ill but they shall live if they cannot live upon bread they shall feed upon truth How much better is the estate of a godly man than that of his neighbour It is a great point this a great piece of duty Let me therefore a little further enlarge upon it three ways 1. Shewing you how a Christian may know if he liveth this life 2. Directing you in order to it 3. Perswading it by Arguments 1. Will some Christian say how shall I know if I live this life Suffer me to give you five or Six Characters of it 1. It is a Spiritual life Our life saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God What Christ sometimes said to his Disciples when they would have had him to have eaten something that a Child of God may say to all the world I have meat to eat you know not of His life is a spiritual life such is the life of Faith both with respect to the subject and to the object of it As to the subject of it it is the soul that lives the body lives by bread the soul lives by truth by the promise There are many that in evil days their bodies have enough to feed upon but their souls have nothing hence their hearts become like Nabals dead as a stone yea and as to the object it is spiritual too he that feedeth upon truth feedeth upon Jehovah It is the truth of God in the word which the soul liveth upon the soul of a Believer can no more live upon Words and Syllables than another soul No but it is the truth of God in these words his power and ability to perform what he hath said his inclination and good-will to the performance and his truth and faithfulness Every life in an evil day is not a life of faith some may live upon fancy and foolish hope some may live upon means with which their eye feedeth them another may live upon a Roman spirit of his own Tu
execution of that purpose hath given his Son for you to purchase a certainty of Salvation for your Souls who hath sent the Ministers of his Gospel to you publishing this Salvation by Christ when others never heard of the Gospel nay who hath done much more than this when others sate under the Gospel and their hearts were never wrought upon by the preaching of it God hath especially changed and wrought upon your hearts and conquered your souls into the obedience of his Gospel I shall conclude with that of the Psalmist Psal 107.1 2. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy SERMON LII Rom. 11.33 His ways past finding out I Have as you know in this Discourse formerly made use of this Text to found a Proposition upon concerning the unsearchableness of the ways of Divine Providence for of those ways it is that this Text speaketh I beheld saith Solomon Eccl. 8.17 all the words of God that a man cannot find out the ways of God which are done under the Sun yea though a man labour to find it out yet be shall not find it yea though a wise man think to know it yet he shall not find it I have shewed you that the ways of Divine Providence cannot be found out 1. As to the Compass and Latitude of them 2. As to the Tendencies of them 3. As to the Method and Tract of them 4. As to the Indication of them 5. Lastly As to the Reason of them This is as true with reference to the motions of special and effectual grace as to the workings of Providence in its more ordinary and common motions relating to the affairs of the World Now one of the Reasons why the ways of the Lord cannot be found out is because he doth not always tread the same steps God doth not always do the same work in the same method and this is true as to the motions of Providence in the distribution of special grace as well as with reference to its motions respecting the affairs of this life I shall not pretend to find out these depths I shall only Discourse some of these distributions so far as to shew you that they are reasonable motions I shall first Discourse shortly concerning the works of Divine Providence in the bringing home of Souls unto himself in the work of Conversion and Regeneration 2. Secondly In Gods carrying on of his work in the souls of his Saints thereby preparing and making them meet for the Inheritance of light That which I intend at this time to speak to is the variety of Gods ways in bringing home souls to himself Even there the way of God is like the way of an Eagle in the Air a Serpent on a Rock and a Ship on the Sea which can none of them be trackt nor found out in the methods of their motions God in the Converting of souls unto himself doth not keep an uniform motion nor tread certain steps but sometimes he worketh one way sometimes another sometimes by one means sometimes by another For some order in this Discourse I shall Discourse 1. Concerning the varieties of Divine Providence in the Conversion of souls 2. What reasonable account may be given of that variety of Gods motions in this thing 3. What practical conclusions may be drawn from hence or inferred upon this Discourse I begin with the first of these Quest 1. What varieties of Divine Providence are observable in this great work of changing hearts and the Conversion of souls unto God The truth is there are some that will understand none at all poor souls they will understand no other Conversion nor Regeneration but in Baptism every one that is Baptized is Regenerated There was indeed such a thing as Conversion when the world was all Jews and Heathens and to be brought to imbrace the Doctrine of the Gospel But for any such thing as the turning the heart from sin unto God this they understood not and indeed by their lives one would judg they did not But I am speaking to those whom I believe taught better things and who believe other things surely conversion or turning from Idols and erronious Opinions is not all that we read in Scripture of the change of the heart and turning unto God But in the Converting of sinners you shall observe a great variety chiefly remarkable in Three things 1. As to the time the particular time of mans life when God is pleased to call home souls unto himself some in their youth some in their age c. 2. As to the External means which God maketh use of in this work 3. As to the manner of Gods dealing with souls in the Converting Regenerating and bringing home souls unto himself 1. First As to the time This our blessed Lord excellently setteth out to us in that Parable Mat. 20. Where he telleth us That the Kingdom of heaven is like unto an housholder who went out early to find out labourers whom he might send into his Vineyard some he called early in the morning some about the sixth hour some about the ninth hour some at the eleventh hour he called them in at several hours The Kingdom of God is the Church of God which properly consisteth only of such as are Saints by effectual-calling though others that are visibly and professionally such have that denomination being mixed with others who are the true members of the Lord Jesus Christ Gods calling men into his Vineyard is his adding to the number of such as shall be saved Now God calleth some early in their youth some in their middle-age some but very few in their old age some even at their dying hour though of them there be of all the rarest examples As God had Nazarites from the womb so he sanctifieth some from the womb Samuel was from the very womb Dedicated to God and accepted of God God telleth Jeremiah Jer. 1.5 That before he came out of the womb he sanctified him I am a-ware that Sanctifying in that Text may be taken in another sense as it signifieth a Separation to the Office of a Prophet and so it may be understood to be interpreted by the following words and ordained thee to be a Prophet but why it should be limited to that sense I do not understand St. Paul saith He was separated from his Mothers womb and called by his grace but there separating must be understood of Gods design and purpose for we know Paul was a blasphemer a persecutor But certain it is that God calleth some very young Timothy from a child was acquainted with the Scriptures Josiah 2 Chron. 34.1 2. at eight years old began to reign and ver 2. did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and ver 3. at sixteen years of age he set upon his famous reformation It is said of Abijam the young Son of
day of believing Souls if we can make any Judgment of Believers do sufficiently evince this to our Souls my business is to inquire the Justice and the reasonableness of the motions of Divine Providence in the inequality of this distribution This will easily appear to you upon three hypotheses which I take to be all very true 1. That God doth ordinarily dispense out these influences of grace to souls which by his Providence he hath prepared for them This which I call Gods Providential preparation of souls for the reception of these influences I conceive lies chiefly in Two things 1. The freedom of it from those bodily incumbrances which in a natural working make the soul sad heavy and dejected such distempers we know there are as in a natural working sadden the spirit and fill it full of fear sorrow dejection and despondency which are all contrary to the comforts and serenity of a soul and as I have once and again told you it must be a miraculous operation contrary to the bias tendency and natural operations of a man for a soul to be filled with consolations while it is influenced with a body lying under these disadvantages God therefore when he intendeth any of these consolatory influences doth ordinarily prepare the soul for it by delivering it from those influences of an ill affected body which dispose it quite another way 2. A second way by which God prepareth the soul for it is by filling it with knowledg proportionable to it for the comforts of a gracious soul are not irrational and unaccountable things but the results of Scriptural conclusions which the soul is by the Comforter inabled to make God hath in his Word sown the seed of light and joy for them the Ministers of the Gospel who are the Interpreters of Scripture have an Office and Ministery in the Interpretation of this Word and working the souls of Gods people to understand the sense of them The soul it self hath an action in it using its reason and natural powers to conclude from the Scripture The Holy Spirit giveth unto the soul to see the things which are freely given it of God 1 Cor. 2. and further possibly setteth to its Seal and giveth it a further and more undoubted confirmation so as in an ordinary working the comforted soul must be a knowing and understanding soul It is true we sometimes find some honest souls full of joy and peace whose knowledg doth not appear proportionable God so relieving some particular souls after their lying under the discouragements of the spirit of bondage But commonly such comforts are not of long continuance rather present reliefs to the soul from an extraordinary working of the blessed Comforter than any settled consolation and the abidings of the Comforter with them Seldom any but knowing and judicious Christians have a settled and continued joy and peace upon their believing 2. Secondly That God doth ordinarily give out these dispensations more or less or nothing of them though not according to the merits of those souls that have them yet according to their behaviour and misbehaviour towards him That famous promise John 14.21 We will manifest our selves unto him is made to those that love Christ and who keep his Commandments And when Judas asks him Lord How is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not unto the world Christ answereth him saying ver 23. If any man love me and keepeth my sayings my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings as much as to say The reason why I manifest my self more to you is because you love me and demonstrate that love to me by keeping my Commandments For the world they love me not and proclaim that they love me not by their disobedience to my Commandments and therefore it is that I do not manifest my self to the world as I do unto you In the receiving of the first grace man is meerly passive and the subject of preventing and operating grace but as to the receptions of further grace the child of God is active and the subject of cooperative adjuvant and assisting grace and God gives out his assistances according to their motions 3. Lastly The reasonableness of this different dispensation may appear in this That in the dispensations of this grace God acteth often by Prerogative shewing mercy where he will shew mercy Indeed he doth so as to the first grace as I have before at large shewed you But now he doth not so as to these influences of grace which are necessary to the upholding of the mystical union between Christ and the Soul and the upholding of a Christians spiritual life if he did it were possible that a child of God might fall away from his state of grace and there might be an intercision of the state of Justification But Christ hath told us That if any man drink of the water which he shall give him he shall never thirst but it shall be in him a well-spring of living water springing up in his soul to eternal life c. so that in the dispensation of that God acteth upon a Covenant and as a debtor to his promise If any one saith God hath also promised to manifest himself unto his people I answer those promises are made to those that love him and keep his Commandments but for the upholding of the spiritual life he hath made a Covenant with his people as that he will never depart from them to do them good so that he will put his fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him which promise although it be not to be extended to a being kept from all sin yet it is to be extended to the preservation of souls from such degrees of sinning as shall extend to the alteration of the state of the soul and the extinguishing the spiritual life and killing the seed of God in the soul But for those manifestations of grace which are not necessary to a souls Salvation and the upholding of spiritual life in it God acteth more freely according to the counsel of his own Will derected by his own infinite Wisdom Now upon these Hypotheses supposing that all Christians are not of equal degrees of knowledg nor are equal as to their bodily circumstances that every soul that belongeth to God doth not walk up to an equal degree of duty but some may be and are guilty of more and more eminent failings than others Or that God may be by his infinite Wisdom directed to try one soul more than another to prove their patience or their faith which is most tryed when his people have least sensible consolations the motions of Divine Providence in distributing to several Christians nay to the same Christians several degrees of consolatory influences of grace cannot seem either unjust or unreasonable to any sober and intelligent Christians This is all I shall speak to this