cloudy and his actings to be in obscurity but when by an eye of faith the godly can see thorow all these clouds they have wherewith to comfort their spirits in the midst of all confusions namely that the Lord reigneth When we see a new face of things and great mutations in the world we are apt too much to look upon Instruments Now such a party is cry'd up anon cry'd down Some will inveigh against one party some against another according to mens several affections principles interests ingagements It is true Some sin grievously that are the grand Instruments in great Revolutions and Changes yet is it not in their power to change times and seasons it belonging to God alone to remove Kings and set up Kings Dan. 2.21 as Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar and as for men Time and Chance happeneth to them all God hath appointed changes unto men in their condition and no wisdom riches or strength can defend them from his appointment Dr Preston of God's Attributes as a Learned man hath noted Neither is it in the power of the most haughty Instruments to change the face of times and things according to their own wills as we have seen of late by large experience in divers instances No this is the work of him who is a God unchangeable and when he determineth to change times and seasons to root up such and such Governments or to change the form of any Government he maketh use of Instruments of divers sorts good and bad and these do strive and struggle one with another and do all work together in accomplishing his secret counsel known to himself though to them altogether unknown the temper of the times carrieth upon it the impressions of Eternity and the two great Wheels of the Worlds Charet Motion and Mutation are driven by him with whom there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning And though the great Changes that have of late befallen this Nation seem new to us yet they are but God's counsels of old and his Eternal Purpose brought into Act Acts 15.18 For known unto God are all his workes from the beginning of the world God's people then may comfort themselves That the Kingdome and Government of the most High shall stand as Mount Zion which cannot be removed but abide for ever firm in the midst of all the Concussions Revolutions and turnings of the time and shall be upheld when all earthly Kingdoms shall be destroyed And therefore as the Sunne alwayes keeps one tract and way in a steady course because his way is above the Air where winds and storms and tempests are So the glorious Sun of Righteousnesse is alwayes going on without any stop to bring to passe his Act his strange Act and to doe his worke Isa 28.21 his strange worke because his Kingdom and Government is above the power of time Senault Treat 2. Disc 5. and of all creatures subject to time and chance God's Providence still leads men to their end with as much force as sweetnesse his power hurts not their liberty because accompanied with sweetnesse and his sweetnesse wrongs not his Majesty Duc me summe Pater vasti Moderator Olympi Quacunque placuit nulla parendi est mora Adsum impiger fac nolle comitabor gemens malusque patiar facere quod licuit bono August de civ Dei c. 8. l. 8. because attended with power What ever he doth he acteth alwayes like a Sovereign I conclude all with that prayer of St Augustine O Sovereign Father who governest the vast frame of Heaven I submit to thy direction lead me to the right hand lead me on the left turn to what side thou pleasest I follow thee without reply or delay For what should I get by resistance but to be dragged weeping and to bear being evil what I might do sincerly by becoming good FINIS
even in sinfull actions as he is Gods creature upheld and maintained by him In him we live move and have our being but he sinneth by reason of the corruption of his nature having no free-will to any thing that is good since the fall of Adam but free-will and full power to that which is evil 2. When God withholdeth or suspendeth that power from sinners by which they might avoid that which is evil Thus when God departeth from Saul withdrawing the common aid of his Spirit then an evil spirit vexeth him and he groweth worse and worse The degenerate nature of man which one termeth sins Coach doth then runne which way the Devil driveth Claphâ—m in Cantic as Wheels and Axel-tree till Jesus Christ free our Chariot-nature from the power of hell and withall joyn himself by his own spirit to our nature that so with Ezekiels Chariot it may go forth and return according to the conduct of his holy Spirit 3. When God permits and suffers men to go on long in a course of sin and doth not restrain them for if it pleased him he could hinder men from doing evil Now the will of God is two-fold An approving Will A permitting Will. 1. An approving Will whereby he decreeth the actions of all good men 2. A permitting Will whereby he decreeth not to worke any evil but onely permit it to be wrought The actions of men are either good or evil God willeth good actions by his approving will Evil actions may come under a double consideration 1. In regard of the entity and being of them so God decreeth them by his permitting will for no sinne could be without his permission Act. 17.18 2. In regard of the evil adjunct and vitiosity of them Et potentius melius est bonum ex malo elicere quam esse mala nòn sinere August Bonum est mala esse vel fieri alioquìn summè bonus nòn permitteret ea fieri Lombard Sent. lib. 1. distinct 46. and so they proceed not from God but from the corrupt will of man as a deficient cause We may consider the sins of men as they are evil and so God is not the authour of them but as they may be reduced to some good as the manifestation of his own glory c. and so he suffereth evil to be committed being able to bring good out of evil as water out of a flinty Rock for though evil be not good yet out of evil God can bring good It is better and more powerfull saith Austin to draw and bring good out of evil than not at all to suffer evil to be out of the greatest evil God can produce the greatest good So then God is the Author of every action but not of the deformity enormity and obliquity of the action as the Planets are moved by a direct motion by the primum mobile the obliquity of their motion is à suâ naturâ The Sunne maketh the Earth hard the Wax soft flowers to smell sweetly dead Carrion to stink noisomly so then the diversity of effects proceedeth not from the nature of the cause but of the things wrought upon and God moveth and ruleth things according to their natures Multa sine voluntate Dei geruntur nihil sine providentia providentia est quae dispensat providet voluntas quae vult nòn vult aliquid Origen To explain this point by an instance or two In the selling Joseph into Aegypt Josephs brethren were agents and God was an agent and had an hand in the businesse but their ends were divers they sold him to be rid of him because they thought their father loved him better than themselves and because they thought so to falsifie his dreams that he might not rule over them but God's end was to provide succour and shelter for their father and themselves and all their families Gen. 50.20 Item in the temptations and afflictions of Job the Devil was an agent the Chaldeans and the Sabeans agents God an agent and all these had their several ends The Devils end was to have made Job forsake God that so he might have fallen to his share the Sabeans and Chaldeans end were to impoverish him and enrich themselves and God's end was to prove the Devil a liar and to manifest and declare the faith and patience of Job and make him famous for the same to the whole world In the divers and sundry captivities of the children of Israel by the Caldeans Babylonians Assyrians and lastly in their finall ruine by the Romans their enemies had their ends and God had his The ends that the Caldeans Assyrians Babylonians and Romans aimed at was their own pride and ambition and the enlargement of their Territories and Dominions but Gods end was the punishment of them to admonish others and to fulfill the prophesies and predictions thereof To be brief in the death of Christ the Devil had his end Judas his end the Scribes and Pharisees their end the Jews theirs God his end the Devils end was to make so many murderers and guilty of shedding innocent bloud Judas his end was covetousness to get thirty pieces of silver the Scribes and Pharisees end was envy and malice because they thought he eclipsed their glory Pilates end was partly to please the people but principally not to displease the Emperour the Jews end was hatred and malice because he reproved their sins but Gods end was to fulfill the Prophesies and to bring to pass the salvation of mankind by that means which he had appointed Shimei by cursing would shew his hatred of David but God would make known the patience of David Deus homo idem faciunt Deus pro aequitate laudatur homo pro iniquitate damnatur Aug. Epist 48. ad Vincent Non fit absque Dei voluntate quod fit contra ejus voluntatem efficit bona permittit mala dirigit universa Res mala nòn habet causam efficientem sed deficientem Aug. de civit Dei l. 12. c. 7. which was good Austin sheweth how God and man may will the same thing and God in willing it doth well and yet man sinneth in willing the same thing The Father of an ungracious child is sick God will have him to die in his just judgement the Son desireth the death of his father that he may the sooner come to his inheritance God willeth it justly the son wickedly And saith he further God and man do the same thing God is praised for equity and man is condemned for his iniquity When God the Father delivered his Son and Christ delivered his own body and Judas his Master why in this delivery is God just and man sinfull but only in all one thing which they did there is not all one cause for which they did it Great are the works of the Lord being sought out according to all his wills insomuch that by a marvellous and unspeakable manner that is not beside his will which yet is done against
Malta which he shook off into the fire to the amazement of the barbarous inhabitants who looked when he should suddenly swell fall down dead Acts 28.5 Calvin observeth Calvin in Act. 28. that this Viper came not by chance upon Paul's hand but was directed by a secret Divine Providence to innoble Paul as a Prophet of God upon the Land as before upon the Sea that his own company might be the more moved and there might be an occasion given for the Gospel to shine even among these Barbarians upon whom the sight of this miracle had a great influence for when they saw the Viper hang on Paul's hand they said among themselves No doubt this man is a murtherer whom though he hath escaped the Sea yet vengeance suffereth not to live The word translated vengeance is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mayer ad loc Hesiod saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the daughter of Jupiter and Themis others of Astreas and Aurora Hesiod in Ergis Orpheis made two Hymns to the honour of Dichis and Dicai a sonne and offered Frankincense the Astrologers and especially Aratus describe her to be a Virgin placed in Heaven with a shining spear and call her Astrea Aratus in Phoenomo whereby they understood a certain Goddesse whom they called by this name whereas they condemned Paul by this event it appeareth to be ingraffed in nature that notorious wicked men are subject to divine vengeance though they escape for a time They feigned that revenge sate upon Jupiter's Throne which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Sometime he delivereth them by the means of Angels or men or other helps as he delivered Hezekiah from Sennacheribs Army by an Angel 2 Reg. 19. So he sent an Angel to shut the mouths of the Lions that they might not devour Daniel in their Den Dan. 6.22 So an Angel delivered Peter out of Herods prison Acts 12.7 or if he afford us not the aid of Angels then men like unto our selves shall serve our turns Thus he moved Ebedmelech the Ethiopian to save the Prophet Jeremiah from starving or being choaked Jer. 38. or poisoned in the dungeon and Pharaohs daughter to pity Moses and save him from drowning Thus he taught Noah to make an Ark to save himself and his Family Thus he provided boords planks and broken pieces of the ship sufficient to carry Paul and his company to shore Acts 27. 3. Sometime God delivereth his people openly and visibly that all the world may take notice of it as he dealt with the three children Dan. 3. and Daniel himself Dan. 6. Sometime secretly spiritually and invisibly as with such Martyrs whom though he suffer outwardly to perish and be food for the sword yet inwardly he preserveth them so that though they be slain yet they perish not but are crowned in secret In occulto coronari August Christi milites caedi possunt vinci nequeunt as Austin speaketh verifying the saying of the Ancients Christs souldiers may be killed but cannot be overcome so that they may say with the Apostle This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith 1 John 5.4 Or if we speak of the whole Church and body of believers than Michael and his Angels do ever overcome the Dragon and his company yea the Apostle saith That in all tribulations and afflictions they are more than conquerors Rom. 8.37 For 1. The bare Conquerour before the victory is in great danger full of fears and doubts concerning the issue of the battell but Gods children before the victory are fortified with sweet and strong consolations of the Spirit 2 Cor. 1.5 whereby they are assured of the victory and enabled to overcome all oppositions 2. Sole victors do sometime lose more at a battel then they gain by a conquest but the victorious Christian wins a thousand times more than he can lose in the fight 2 Cor. 4.17 18 he sometimes loseth temporals but always gaineth eternals Rev. 21.7 3. Conquerours being wounded in the battel survive not often to ride in triumph and enjoy the benefit of their victory but these after the end of their fight do wear a triumphant crown of glory 4. The Saints do more than conquer in that while they suffer bodily they triumph spiritually and others are converted and overcome by them while they seem to be overcome by others Sanguis martyrum semen Ecclesiae The bloud of the Martyrs being the seed of the Church their patience is invincible yea while they are overcome of persecutours and cruel enemies Nobile vincendi genus est patientia vincit Qui patitur si vis vincere disce pati Seneca they overcome greater enemies viz. by denying their own passions The more they suffer the greater conquerours they are as the Martyrs were most victorious whose triumphing faith made them flammis ipsis illustricres brighter than those flames that burnt their bodies to ashes 5. The Saints do overcome over and above in that they conquer by a kind of ease when others use their wits and weapons perplex themselves and are often at their wits end turning every stone to help themselves the Saints win Heaven vanquish their enemies and standing still behold the salvation of God Sect. 4. Of Gods Providence in bringing about the Salvation of his People THe Apostle tells us That all things worke together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 not divisim but conjunctim because God worketh in all things and over-ruleth all things in all their working There are many strange acts of God's Providence in promoting the work of his people's salvation As Rahab keeping a victualing house received those two Spies into her house whereby she was preserved when Jericho was destroyed and was afterward received into the Church and married to Salmon one of the Princes of the Tribe of Judah of whom came David and Christ according to the flesh How admirable was God's Providence toward Ruth the Moabitess Ruth 2.12 when her husband was dead she putteth her self under the wing of the God of Israel How wonderfully did God's Providence work for the salvation of the Gaoler when he sent him two such prisoners as Paul and Silas to shake the prison with an earthquake and cause the doors to flie open and every ones bands to be loosed and then strike his heart with fear upon the apprehension of their escape and immediately to throw himself down at their feet crying out unto them Sirs What must I do to be saved If the people of God consult their own experiences they will see Gods Providence admirable to them in this regard If they consider the means of grace to them or them to the means publick or private how God brought them to live in such a place planted them under such a Minister how the Lord hath come in upon upon their spirits in the use of means how God brought to their minds some notable passages of Scripture which the