to Pharaoh and to demand the dismission of the Israelites God suffereth not Pharaoh nor any of his Courtiers notwithstanding their threats to do them any hurt Caleb and Joshuah adventure to bring up a good report of the land of Canaan God protecteth them from the mutiny of the people and they are the only two are suffered to go over into the promised land Numb 14.6 7 10 24. Elijah the three children and Daniel were great adventurers in the case of God so was Esther in her going in to the King to speak for the Jews so were the Apostles in the first Plantation of the Gospel The Providence of God strangely watched over them and delivered them as you read in the story of their Acts. A man cannot be too bold if he keeps within the latitude of his duty Indeed we read of some whom God strangely watched over in the doing of some actions that we cannot evince to have been their duty as that of Phinehas Numb 25.7 8. in killing the Moabitish-woman and the Israelite in the act of adultery That of Elijah's killing Baals Priests 1 King 18 yet God protected them and rewarded them there are many things said in the defence of Phinehas and Elijah to reduce their actions to the ordinary rule of Justice It is certain that by the Laws of God the adulterers ought to have dyed so also the false Prophets but for the persons that executed the vengeance of God upon them all that we can say is this Their call was doubtless clear to themselves their actions were most certainly approved by God he protects them upon the doing of them he rewards them for doing of them but non fueâ—unt ordinaria sed facta quaedam extra usum ordinem communem they were not ordinary actions but depended upon a special call of God By vertue of such a call too it doubtless was that Moses slew the Egyptian for which St. Stephen justifieth him Acts 7. But a man cannot be too bold for God if he keeps within the latitude of his certain duty 2. Provided secondly He keepeth to reasonable rules of prudence our rule obligeth us to be wise as serpents But I will not enlarge upon this Theme for the truth is the Providence of God strangely watcheth over bold adventurers in his cause and service who have acted under such circumstances as are hardly reconcileable to what our reason calls Prudence yet certainly that will not warrant a rash and imprudent managery of a good cause I need not give you more instances than I have done to justifie this Observation in sacred History Moses and Aaron Caleb and Joshuah Elijah and Elisha Esther Daniel the three Children all the Apostles afford a plentiful proof of this Observation and in other stories the instances are without number Luthers whole life was an instance of this the Archers shot sorely at him he ventured as high as any in opposition to them yet his bow abode in his strength Luther dyed in his bed in peace Nor doth this seem an unreasonable motion of Divine Providence if we either consider how far the honour of God is concerned in the upholding and maintaining his Embassadors and rewarding his servants or the faithfulness of God in justifying his promises or the further use that God will make of men in the accomplishment of his designs in the world 1. Let us but consider the relation wherein the Ministers of Christ stand to him they are his Missionaries be hath sent them as the father hath sent him so he hath sent them nay they are no ordinary servants they are the Lords Embassadors they come in Christs name and as in Christs stead they intreat men to be reconciled unto God It is beneath the honour of a Prince to suffer an Embassador to starve or any way to perish for want of that protection which he is able to afford him indeed if any run before they are sent or instead of Gods work to their own Gods honour is not concerned in them unless to chastise their presumption and to take vengeance upon them as in such a case no Prince would think himself further concerned but supposing Ministers of the Gospel to be sent by him and to be ready faithfully to deliver their masters messages and this we must suppose and believe or disown the Scriptures which expresly assert this God is highly concerned in point of honour having power in his hand and the command of all the hearts of men to provide for his faithful Ministers and they shall not want 2. God secondly is not only concerned in honour as a great King and God above all but as a God of truth and faithfulness that can sooner suffer Heaven and Earth to pass away then a word to fail of what he hath spoken he hath made many promises to his faithful servants in the Ministry and to those that he hath employed in hazardous employments for him he of old promised to satiate the souls of his priests with fatness Jer. 31.14 He of old appointed no inheritance to the sons of Levi amongst their brethren because he was their inheritance as he had promised them Deut. 10.9 he hath told them he will cloath them with salvation Psal 132.16 he told Jeremiah and Ezekiel he would be with them to deliver them Jer. 1.7 8 18 19. Ezek. 2.6 He hath told Gospel Ministers he will be with them to the end of the world Matth. 28. he hath bidden them take no thought what they should eat drink or put on when he sent out the twelve Matth. 10.9 10. he bid them to provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in their purses nor scrip for their journey nor two coats nor shooes for the workman is worthy of his meat Now after all this if God should suffer his Ministers to want bread to sustain their lives or their families what would men say of the faithfulness of God 3. Lastly Let us but consider God as having many designs yet to accomplish a great deal of work yet to be done in the world to be done by the hands of men who can imagine God should not eminently protect and provide for those that are and have been faithful who would work for that Master that will not find them bread What subject would be free to go as an Embassadour for that Prince that would never protect him in the faithful discharge of his trust or reward him proportionably to his affronts or losses Now God knows that we are flesh and much led by our sense and reason and must not be encouraged to our duty only by rewards which are the objects of our faith but by sensible rewards at least to such a proportion as is necessary to uphold us to our work It is therefore not to be wondred at that God should in a way of special Providence eminently take care of the Ministers of his Gospel he hath call'd them and sent them to his work he hath by that call
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
the face of the Earth God at first said Let the earth bring forth grass Gen. 1.11 He sendeth the grass of the field Deut. 11.15 He causeth it to grow for the cattel and herb for the service of man He multiplyeth the beasts of the field the birds and fowls of the air He leaveth us not without witness but giveth fruitful times and seasons filling the hearts of men with food and gladness 3. From whence is it but from the influence of God upon his Creatures that Creatures universally and ordinarily avoid the eating of such things as would be noxious to them and many creatures if they be distempered are directed to such things as will cure them But this is enough to have spoken to the second Conclusion 3 Concl. Thirdly God preserveth living Creatures by upholding those faculties in all living creatures upon the operations of which their lives are preserved their species are propagated and they are to propagate their species and to perform those actions which are proper to their several Beings and natures To uphold the Creation as to those things in it which have life there are divers faculties necessary which must be upheld here are four sorts mentioned in the Conclusion Let me speak a little to each of them It will be of excellent use to convince you of the necessity of a Divine influence or Providence upon you every moment 1. The first sort are those By which the Beings the lives and beings of Creatures are preserved and encreased to their due proportion These are those which belong to those principal faculties which the Philosophers calls Facultatem altricem auctricem I will put them together and instance in divers particulars We are craving changeable creatures subject to wasts and decays in our beings and we must have a Nutritive faculty or we could not live The action of this faculty is called Nutrition or Nourishing Now our nourishing depends upon our food the change of our food in our stomachs by the natural heat of our stomachs and this dependeth upon several powers which God hath created in all sensitive creatures in the upholding of which the daily Providence of God is wonderfully experienced although possibly not so wistly observed and considered by us as it ought to be Let me a little awaken you to a due consideration of it by instancing in several Particulars 1. In the first place We have a power a natural power to crave and desire food Without an appetite the creature desires no food can take none though it be set before him but instead of it the very sight of it maketh him sick he loatheth and abhorreth it and calleth to have it taken away out of his sight as we see in daily experience Now I would know by what this faculty is upheld but by the concourse and daily operation of Providence I do not intend to divert here into a Philosophical discourse concerning the causes of a decay of our appetite It is sufficient to tell you that the causes may be various and the variety of the causes which may produce such an effect is sufficient evidence that nothing but the upholding power of Divine Providence can hinder it It is God that must give us our daily food and it is God that must give us a stomach or appetite to it and the causes are so many which may abate and destroy our appetite that did not God daily watch over us and influence us as to this very thing it were an hard thing to conceive how it should keep preserved a few days much less as it is with many to very many years 2. But suppose us to have an appetite to say nothing of our power to take and chew and swallow our food We see by a daily experience if we have not a power to digest it if the natural heat of our stomachs be from any cause abated so as it will not change our food and this continueth upon us for any time and no remedy can be apportioned to it the creature dyeth whether it be man or beast If the nap of the stomach be but worn off our bodies soon appear thredbare we pine away and presently sink into our graves by which we learn that a natural faculty power or ability to digest our food is necessary to the preservation of our beings As I said before of the Appetite so I shall say again of this I intend no discourse of the variety of causes from which such a thing may proceed but the possibility of such a thing and that as an effect of various causes evinceth a necessity of a daily influence of God upon us to uphold this faculty in its vigour and efficacy which ministreth to our nutrition 3. But thirdly suppose our food taken into our bodies concocted and digested in our stomachs that it may nourish the whole body it must be by several vessels and channels distributed to the several parts of the body So as there must be supposed a freedom from obstructions in those passages and an attractive vertue and faculty in the several parts If these passages be any way stopped or the attractive vertue abated the parts are not nourished but decay and wither the creatures being destroyed Of such obstructions we have daily examples and indeed whoso considereth the various passages in our bodies through which that part of our food which proves for nourishment passeth and the variety of obstructions to which we are subject must needs again acknowledg that our Souls must be kept in life our bodies in health meerly by a Divine Power 4. Again What we take into our bodies for our proper food being in part found either not proper for us or in too great a proportion when the stomach hath done its office there is a separation made that not proper for us or in a superfluous proportion for that end must be voided and cast out and a natural faculty to do it must be supposed which if it ceaseth but for a while or the freedom of the passages by which it passeth be obstructed the life of the creature quickly determineth Now whoso considereth the variety of powers and faculties in a living body which must be all upheld and the variety of causes from which they may be incumbred yea and quite destroyed will be forced to acknowledg the incessant influence of Divine Providence in upholding and preserving both the being and well-being of every creature that hath a sensitive life 2. But yet here is not all For in order to our nourishing not only those faculties in the body nourished which I have mentioned must be upheld But also the faculties and vertues in the bodies nourishing by which they are made nourishing to us In all nourishing there must be a body giving the nourishment as well as a body receiving it each of these must have its faculties upheld or there will be no nutrition and consequently no preservation of life Philosophy telleth us that the nourishment
of living bodies must be 1. Something that hath a capacity to be turned into the substance of our bodies else how can it nourish Hence it is that a man cannot feed or be nourished by stones or dirt there is not in these things a capacity to be turned into humane flesh 2. It must have something of contrariety in it to the body nourished otherwise the stomach would make no alteration of it And 3. It must have in it something of similitude else it would never incorporate with us and join it self to our flesh or mix it self with our blood All our food must have some qualities in it that must be accommodate to our nourishment and these qualities or faculties must be upheld in it and upheld too in some due proportion Hence we see that food when corrupted and putrified and so hath lost these faculties and vertues and they be extinguished it instead of nourishing us breeds diseases and destroyeth us Now God preserveth the life and being of his creatures by a daily concurrence of his Providence as well by upholding the nourishing vertues and qualities of their food as those natural faculties by which they crave concoct and digest or attract their nourishment or expel and throw out that part of it which is not proper for the nourishment of their bodies But this is enough to have spoken as to that first principal Faculty by which the life and being of all sensitive living creatures are preserved 2. A second principal Faculty by which the life of creatures is preserved is that of Respiration or breathing which is the motion of the breasts and lungs by which they draw in air and again puff it out thus continually cooling the heat of the heart which would else soon determine the life of the creature A Faculty so necessary that we daily see with what difficulty the creature liveth when it is any way incumbred daily experience we have of this in persons sick of Consumptions or Asthma's c. When any living creature is once wholly deprived of this it presently dieth This God giveth and maintaineth He giveth to all Life and Breath and all things Acts 17.25 He also taketh it away Thou takest away their breath and they die saith the Psalmist Psalm 104.29 God is said to be the God who spreadeth forth the Earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people and spirit to them that walk thereon Isa 42.5 Now God preserveth both man and beast by upholding this power or faculty in them by which they draw in and puff out the air yea and his daily Providence appeareth also in the preserving of the air which they suck in ordinarily from such affections and qualities as would destroy life in his creatures I say ordinarily to except those special remissions of Divine Providence in this case by which God sometimes punisheth persons and places by a noxious and infected air as the procreative causes of more Epidemical sicknesses and distempers And this sheweth us how reasonable a thing it is That all that hath breath should praise the Lord according to the Psalmists exhortation Psalm 150. 3. A third principal Faculty necessary to the upholding of the life and being of creatures is that by which they sleep and take their alternate rest Quod caret alterna requie durabile non est Experience tells us that we can live very little while without sleep we must therefore have a power to sleep There is no living creature that is always asleep or always awake we must have a power to sleep and a power to awake again or we cannot live Some sleep more some less all must sleep sometime Sleep is a cessation of the common sense and the exterior senses from action The Eye seeth not the Ear heareth not c. Now this is caused say the Philosophers from the ascending up of vapors out of the stomach which stop the passage of the animal spirits from the brain which vapours when they are spent and the passages are clear again man waketh and the senses return to their exercise Be the cause what it will certain it is it is necessary in order to the holding of our souls in life we must have a power both to sleep and to wake and this power must be preserved and by the upholding and preserving of this power and faculty both men and beasts are upheld preserved and kept alive Now I say this is Gods work he that made the deep sleep at first to fall upon Adam in the day in which he was created Gen. 2.21 makes ordinary sleep to fall upon all living creatures He giveth sleep to his Beloved Psalm 127. v 2. It is a piece of his promise Prov. 3.24 Thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet David complained that God held his eyes waking Psalm 77.4 And thus I have shewed you how God preserveth both man and beast by upholding and preserving those powers and faculties in their Bodies by which they are kept in life and their Being is preserved 2. But both men and beasts are very small when they first come into the World Their Beings afterward increase and this must be by a natural power which God the great Creator hath created in them at first and made every creature to be brought forth with without which it could not grow beyond its proportion in the first day of its production into the World This is that which the Philosopher calls Facultatem Auctricem the power by which the living creature grows and increaseth to a just perfection and measure I say a just measure for no creature groweth always The God of Nature hath set a just measure to every Being This Power also must be upheld or the World would be full of none but Children and very small beasts The Psalmist saith Psalm 104.14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattel and by a parity of Reason he must also cause the cattel to grow for the grass Christ hath taught us that we cannot add one cubit to our stature It is true man and beast grows to both their just dimensions by a natural faculty mans growth stops at thirty years or under by a natural Law But God at first created in them this Natural faculty and God by a daily concourse of his Providence upholdeth enliveneth and assisteth this natural faculty and by this particular act of his Providence he doth preserve and uphold both man and beast as in their Beings so in their just dimensions and proportions in which we see them supplying and adorning the World 3. But thirdly Supposing all living creatures preserv'd and upheld in their several lives and beings by Gods upholding and preserving those several powers and faculties in the object of their nourishment by which they are made fit nourishment for their bodies and those several faculties in their bodies which are the subjects to be nourished by vertue of which they desire their due food concoct
will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am still communicating to you some Observations which I have made concerning the motions of Divine Providence not only for your instruction but to quicken you also to make Observations your selves upon the motion of it that you may increase in spiritual Wisdom I proceed to a Tenth Observation Observ 10. That the Providence of God is eminently seen in the preservation and protection of his faithful Ministers and such both amongst them and other orders of men who keeping themselves within the latitude of their duty have been great adventurers for God in their generations 1. The Providence of God preserveth both man and beast it is God that upholdeth our souls in life and there is no man but in him lives moves and hath his being 2. Nor is there any man that liveth any considerable time in the world and keepeth any ordinary record of his life but will see reason as to say with David O Lord I am fearfully and wonderfully made so also Lord I have been fearfully and wonderfully preserved But yet as I have shewed you there are specialties of Divine Providence some persons that the Lord seemeth to carry upon eagles wings and to preserve in a more eminent and special manner sometimes in a way of miraculous Providence sometimes in a way of extraordinary Providence in a way beyond other men Now I have long since hinted you three sorts of men whom God thus preserveth 1. Such as are Gods Vicegerents Magistrates and Rulers of others This I have abundantly shewed you when I shewed you how eminently the Providence of God is seen both in discovering and bringing to light and also in punishing such sins as tend to the eminent disturbance of humane Societies 2. Such as God useth for the Ministers of his Word 3. Such as make the boldest adventures for God and in his service keeping themselves within the latitude of their duty I am to justifie now this Observation to you I will open it and prove it then shew you the reasonableness of Divine Providence in these extraordinary motions And lastly I shall make some Applications First let me open it to you 1. It is to be understood of godly faithful and painful Ministers and mostly of such of whom God hath made or doth make or intend to make an eminent use in his Church As there are no persons more justly a hatred in the house of God abominable to all men of any sobriety then leud or lazy Ministers so there is nothing of any special Providence promised to them and it is more than I have observed if God as to their issues in the concerns of this world hath not left them to a common share with others and if there hath been any difference made by his Providence it hath been to their disadvantage they are more vile than others and dishonour God more than others and God often makes them and their families to smart more than others It is that which God hath said in the case Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 We have had a great deal of enquiry in the times wherein we live into the causes of the contempt of the Clergy Lev. 10.2 3 4 one hath guest this thing another that for my own part I have been young and am growing old I never yet knew a painful able preacher living an holy and exemplary life be his perswasion what it would under a greater contempt than other men there are some Sons of Belial will contemn all that are not as much Atheists as themselves If Ministers will regard nothing but striking their flesh-hook with three teeth into the Lords pot to feed themselves if they will heap up parsonage upon parsonage till there be no room left in the Earth and grasp more souls than they can manage putting out some to pitiful nurses where they are starved and affording the other but dry beasts if they will make themselves vile like Hophni and Phineas it is no wonder if they be contemned by men of any sobriety The Psalmist Psal 15.4 makes it the mark of one that shall dwell in Gods holy hill in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord for others God secureth their honour eminently 2. Nor is it to be extended to every godly Minister and at all times The best of Ministers have their personal sin for which God may punish them by the common fate of others God eminently shewed himself for Moses and Aaron in the case of Corah Dathan and Abiram he made the Earth to open its mouth and to swallow up their opposers but when they had provoked the Lord at the waters of Meribah they took their common fate with the rest of the Israelites and dyed in the wilderness when they had had no more than a prospect of the promised land Several instances might be given of eminent Prophets of old and Ministers of the Gospel that have perished in common judgments more especially when it hath pleased God to pick out some of them for Martyrs and to make them witnesses with their blood to seal the Truths they have preached And indeed this special Providence of God hath been most remarkable in times when God hath been beginning some great work which was the case of the Apostles in the first Plantation of the Gospel and of those eminent servants of God which since that time he hath made use of in the reformation of the Church or upholding the interest of pure and true Religion in a time of great Apostacy and defection 3. The special Providence of God hath not been seen uniformly in those cases but several ways 1. Sometimes in providing food for them and theirs whereas otherwise they must have starved or at least been so employed as they could not have attended the work of God upon their hands 2. Sometimes in keeping them from such dangers which have been very near to them plucking them as brands out of the fire 3. Sometimes in the delivering of them out of their Enemies hands rescuing them from the Lyon when they have been in his paws sometimes one way sometimes another accordingly as it hath pleased the infinite wisdom of God to work for them 1. The Providence of God hath been eminently seen in the providing of necessaries for his Ministers I need not tell you what special Laws God made in the case of his Ministry among the Jews his Priests and Levites were particularly taken care of but this being the setled maintenance for those that were employed about the Tabernacle and the Temple when the Priests were generally corrupted and God to uphold a faithful Ministry amongst his people raised up some extraordinary Prophets that should faithfully reveal his will unto people they had little or no advantage but the Lord never failed to provide for them He provideth a
to heaven ordinarily with broken bones and a bleeding heart So that you see that Gods getting himself glory from his peoples sin gives no man a ground of presumption to go on in a course of sin against God Vse 4. In the last place Let this observation mind us in this case to be workers together with God Have we sinned and come short of the glory of God Let us do our indeavour to make our sins to turn to the furtherance of the glory of God Let us indeavour to make the best of our own bad markets What is done we cannot re-call let us indeavour if possible to make an advantage of our former miscarriages You will say How should that be Answ 1. Let the sense of your sins hasten your pace to the Lord Jesus Christ God hath a great deal of glory from our believing in him whom he hath sent The soul that accepteth of the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour giveth unto God the glory of his Power Wisdom Justice Goodness Truth it gives him the glory of the exceeding riches of his free-grace 2. Make use of your sins to increase your Confession your Repentance and Humiliation Confession giveth glory to God my Son saith Joshua Confess and give glory to God Let your former sins give you the further advantage for sorrowing after a godly sort that will bring forth carefulness indignation fear vehement desires zeal revenge as it did in the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. 7.11 3. Let the remembrance of them cause you to walk softly all the days of your life This is that which God requireth of all to walk humbly with their God The remembrance of your sins may be of notable use to you for this to keep down that pride which is naturally in all our hearts that swelling in an opinion of our selves of our own duties and performances that uncharitable judging and censuring and triumphing over others when we see them fallen in the day of temptations 4. Lastly Let the consideration of how many sins God hath forgiven you make you love much Thus the woman Luk. 7.37 47 made an improvement even of her former sins her much that was forgiven ingaged her to love that God much who had forgiven her so much This improvement St. Paul made 1 Cor. 15.9 10. I am saith he the least of all the Apostles and not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God But by the grace of God I am that I am and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all O this will be an excellent improvement even of your sins if your former unholiness shall now help to make you more holy your former unrighteousness shall help to make you more righteous for the time to come your reflexions upon how much you have done against God and his Saints shall now engage you to do more for God and the cause and people of God A good husband and house-wife will lose nothing but make some advantage of every rag every bit of wood c. I would have you be like them you have been formerly great sinners and done much to the dishonour of God your consciences can shew you a great dunghil of sin which you made in your state of vanity God hath changed your state changed your hearts let not that dunghil be lost look upon it often to help to raise up your hearts in the praises and admiration of Gods free-grace and the engaging your hearts more for God in your contrary duties for the time to come But so â—uch shall serve for this Observation also SERMON XXVI Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am still going on instructing you to that spiritual Wisdom which the Text telleth you may be gained by and is declared in the Observation of the motions of Actual Providence I am now proceeding to a Twelfth Observation of this nature which I shall give you thus Observ 12. The Providence of God in the distribution of the good things of this life doth in a great measure move circularly though mostly to the seeming advantage of ungodly men In my enlargments upon this notion I shall keep much to the same method which I observed in the former 1. Opening it unto you 2. Justifying the observation by instances 3. Shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence And lastly Making some suitable Application 1. My observation as you see concerneth the motions of Actual Providence as to its distribution of the portions of this life The Pagan Philosophers distributed all the good things they had any knowledg of into three sorts The good things of the body amongst which they reckoned long-life health strength beauty c. The good things of the mind the rich endowments of it such as knowledg invention judgment wit memory and moral vertue c. and the good things of fortune such as birth ingenuous education honours riches All these have a goodness in them which lyeth in their suitableness to the use of humane life or society The blind Heathen not seeing the fountain-head of these beautiful streams ascribed them to fortune But they are all in the hand of Providence that giveth to one a longer to another a shorter life to one greater to another lesser measures of health and strength c. to one more judgment wit c. than to another But I chiefly understand my Observation of the good things which the Heathen called Bona fortunae the good things of fortune such as honours riches c. These also are the Lords he it is saith Moses That gives us power to get wealth And the Holy Ghost by another pen-man telleth us That promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west but God pulleth down one and setteth up another Promotion doth mostly depend upon the favour of the great men of the Earth and you shall observe the Scripture everywhere maketh God the Author of the favour and grace which persons have found in the eyes of the Princes of the world 2. Now I observe in the first place That the wheel of Providence in making this distribution doth for the most part move circularly My meaning is that good and evil of this nature hath as all humane things its turns and vicissitudes sometimes to good men sometimes to bad men The Heathen had some prospect of this though what we call Providence they ascribed to fortune to whom they gave a wheel to signifie the rotation of all these sublunary contentments in which you know the same spokes are not always up nor down but sometimes these spokes are uppermost by and by they are at the ground and those that but now were below are up in their place And this is most perspicuous in bodies of people which are made up of those two sorts of men that divide the world godly
and counsel of the heart is right there the heart must be right with God I say the heart is that which God requireth My son saith he give me thy heart and you shall find where that is right bent and inclined God passeth over a great many errors and failings in the conversation and this is what God said in this very case 1 King 8.18 Whereas it was in thine heart to build me an house thou didst well that it was in thine heart The Lord looketh on the heart and ordinarily in Scripture he accounteth men to have done good or evil according as their hearts were prepared or set Rohoboam did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord 2 Chron. 12.14 Now where there is a good intention design and purpose there the heart is right Only here I must caution you as to two things 1. That you do not think that a pretence of a good heart or intention will do you any service It is one thing to pretend a good heart another thing to have it Jehu pretended a great zeal for God but had nothing less 2. You must take heed of thinking that a good intention will justifie a sinful action but a sincere and good intention I say is accepted of God and often rewarded by him where the action is such as God approveth not and makes an error in action to be but a sin of infirmity for where the heart stands right and truly designs the honour of God the man cannot in that action wilfully dishonour God and this is enough to make this motion of Providence appear to you very reasonable Before I come to apply this Observation I shall only give you one or two Cautions 1. They are only rewards of this life by which God rewards the services of wicked men whose heart in the action is not right Jehis was rewarded but it was only with a temporary dominion his sons for four generations sate upon the Throne of Israel Assyria was rewarded for his service against Israel but it was only with spoil and plunder and the enlargment of his Dominions for the rewards of grace and glory they are never given to any whose heart is not right with God 2. They are but temporary rewards after the enjoyment of which for a time God usually punisheth the sinner Such was the reward of Jehu it lasted but four generations and then God visited the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu It was but a little time that Assyria that Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon joyed in the reward which God gave him for the great service with which he had made his Army to serve against Tyrus for the Prophets prophecied of the destruction of Babylon soon after and the Scripture tells us how it was by the Persian Monarch These things premised I now come to the Application And 1. By way of Instruction Vse 1. We may learn hence what a good God we serve no man serveth God for nothing The least service that men do for God shall have its proportionable reward His very Enemies shall not do actions for him but they shall have a recompence for them The liberality of God even to the worst of men serving him by the by and looking quite another way when they are at Gods Oars should commend God unto us all and may mightily help the People of God to conclude that their labour of love for God shall not be forgotten by him Vse 2. In the second place this will instruct you in one great reason of what is such a beam oft-times in the eyes of Gods best servants I mean the prosperity power and greatness of vile men I know it is not always the cause but oft-times it is They have done some actions from which God hath had a service it may be God hath used them to do some great piece of service for his Church so you know he used Cyrus upon which the Scripture calleth him Gods servant it may be they have done some service for God against his People apostatizing thus Assyria was the rod of Gods anger though he did not mean so God had sent him against an hypocritical Nation There are many ways by which wicked men may do God service while they intend nothing so It may be sometimes God will make use of them to relieve his poor servants in distress taking advantage of their good natures or some relation they have to them c. And this though it may be we cannot always give account of the particular cause is the reason why God doth great things for them as to the good things of this life But there are two more proper branches of Application which I further aim at the one concerning sinners more properly the other concerning such whose hearts are right with God Vse 3. In the third place this Observation looketh upon all men even the worst of men and speaketh to them for two things 1. That they would imploy all the talents which God hath given them in some service of God Sirs you can none of you work for a more liberal and bountiful master the world is the great thing in the eyes of worldly men they would be rich and great and honourable they have no faith for the riches of glory no sense of the riches of grace their language is What will you give me and understand no greater things that God hath to give than sensible things Now admit their judgment were right yet it were their greatest policy to be doing those things which are materially good and which are unquestionably within their power to do to be making use of their estates which they spend in luxury and wantonness in drinking and gaming c. in cloathing the naked feeding the hungry the power and interest which God hath given them in the protection of such as fear God and delivering of them from the hands of oppressors I remember it was the counsel of the Prophet Daniel to a Heathen King Dan. 4.27 Wherefore O King let my counsel be acceptable unto thee and break off thy sins by righteousness and thy iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity It is a text that is not without its difficulties and about which there hath been a great contention betwixt Papists and Protestants the Papists from it stifly contending for their Doctrine of Merits and Satisfaction by works of mercy and charity But whiles themselves grant that works by which we can merit must be such as are more than strict duty and Justice and Charity are the two only things which the Prophet doth here advise which we know are duties required of all in innumerable places of Scripture there can be little pretence for any such building upon this foundation Daniel is plainly giving counsel to that Prince how he might if not finally avoid yet for a time turn away that fierce wrath of God which he saw was began to kindle
life as they can I say which way soever men will consider themselves or whatsoever they will place their ultimate felicity in whether it be in the enjoyment and vision of God to eternity or in living long and happy Still it is their highest wisdom both in their personal capacities and in their relative capacities as they stand related to others in their political or oeconomical relations as Princes Subjects Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters or Servants to govern them according to the rules and by the square of the word of God Now the observation I say of these ordinary dispositions of Divine Providence must therefore be exceedingly conducive to the increase of spiritual wisdom in our souls 2. This Observation will also teach us to understand the loving kindness of the Lord. The glory of God is by all Christians confessedly the end of mans creation and ought to be made the end of his action but herein appeareth the transcendent goodness of God That no man can act for his glory but he must also by the same actions consult his own good and be wise for himself So that in truth there is no man serveth God for nothing but in the same action by and in which he obeyeth God he also consulteth his own life health riches success in business and whatsoever can contribute not only to his eternal felicity but to his felicity and happiness in this life Now how wonderfully doth this speak the love of God to the children of men Every mans reason will tell him that there is a duty of homage and honour which is due from man unto God God is our Creator we are his creatures In him we live move and have our being and equally depend upon him for our preservation and sustentation from his Providence as derive from him as our Creator and the first Author of beings to us Now as it is in the power of any man in the cause to prescribe the honour and homage which shall be grateful and acceptable to him so undoubtedly it was in the power of God and free to him to have prescribed us an homage and service that should have impeached and prejudiced or some way disadvantaged us as to our external felicity and the accommodations of this life which should make it sweet to us But in this see the great loving kindness of the Lord That no man can possibly at more advantage serve himself and the good of his Family or City or Country than by serving God and indeavouring to square his whole converse to the rule of Gods word governing himself by the Scriptures and the rules of life which it gives nor doth God require any thing of us that is ungrateful to that true Reason which is in every man All the commands of God do but pinch us in the exercise of our Lusts and Passions the exercise of which if they have their liberty and were not by a Divine Law restrained would have no better an effect from their natural tendency than the imbittering of our lives by aches and pains and grievous diseases by the rebellion crosness and undutifulness of our relations by a liberty to injustice fraud deceit and oppression This is a great demonstration of Gods loving kindness that in his rules for the government of us he hath twisted our interest with his own and made it necessary for those who most consult his honour and glory most to consult their own good and happiness and that not only as to a life to come but as to this life also Vse 2. We may learn from hence the true reason why the most of men are cursed with the want of temporal blessings I say the most of men for what I told you before must be remembred that from these general rules we must always except those particular causes where God either for the punishment of some sins in his people or for the trial of their faith and patience having reserved a better portion for them in the world to come doth think fit to exercise them with the denial of the sensible blessings of this life But setting aside those cases the general cause is their not living up to that conformity or square to the Divine rule to which they ought to live but either failing in the duties of piety and exercise of Religion to which the Divine law bindeth them or in the duties of probity and moral honesty justice temperance sobriety unity and amity which the same Law doth require of them What wonder is it to see the lazy sluggard poor Hath not God said to him Prov. 6.9 How long wilt thou sleep O sluggard when wilt thou arise out of sleep v. 11. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth and thy want as an armed man Or to see Oppressors and Gripers of their neighbour-poor God hath told them Prov. 10.15 The destruction of the poor is their poverty Or to see the penurious man grow poor hath not God told us That to withhold more than is meet tendeth to poverty Prov. 11.24 What wonder is it to see Drunkards and Gluttons poor Hath not God said The Drunkard and Glutton shall come to poverty and drousiness shall cloth a man with rags Prov. 23.21 what wonder is it to see those that are companions of leud persons drunkards adulterers Gamesters c. grow poor Hath not God again said Prov. 28.19 That he who followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough O Israel saith God by the Prophet Hoseah Thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help Hos 13.9 it is true as to mens eternal ruine but the Prophet there primarily speaks of mens destroying themselves by being the causes of punishments in this life to themselves men destroy their own lives healths bodys by drunkenness gluttony uncleanness their estates by sloth and luxury the comforts of their own lives by giving an unbridled liberty to their lusts and passions indulging the lustings of their flesh The righteous God is not to be accused for any of these things He hath given men a righteous law which to their reason approveth it self to be holy spiritual just and good but they are carnal sold unto sin slaves to their appetites to their sensual faculties and either ruine themselves by their irreligious or immoral behaviours and doing those things over which if God had not by his severe threatnings in his word hung a sword of Divine Vengeance yet in themselves and of their own nature they have a tendency to destroy life health to wast and consume estates and to deprive them of all those good things which may accommodate their lives and make them sweet and pleasant to them and in the day of their affliction they must lay the fault upon themselves and excuse God in the motions of his Providence acknowledging that it hath but fulfilled his word and brought to pass the just threatnings of his word nay not so only but that it hath only brought natural things to
followeth in the fourth place the necessity of a law to be given unto man in his state of innocency For saith the Apostle where there is no law there is no transgression sin being the transgression of the law Now this Law with the promise annexed to it was the Covenant of Works on Gods part and the restipulation on mans part must be presumed or man had been a transgressor before the fall by a rebellion to the Divine Will and this formally maketh up the Covenant of Works God promising him life upon condition of his Obedience and man accepting the promise and agreeing to the terms or condition of life imposed on him Now God having given this Law and made this Covenant man by the violation of it became guilty a debtor to the Justice of God and so capable of a Redemption a Remission and Justification 5. I desire you to consider That the Covenant of Grace and promise by faith on Gods part could not possibly have been made good without the destruction of the first Covenant of Works and the promise of life made upon that this is that which the Apostle saith in my text That the promise by faith of Jesus might be given to them that believe I pray observe here are three things to be considered 1. The matter of the promise 2. The means by which the promise is to be obtained 3. The objects of it The promise intended is doubtless the promise of eternal life so often called in Scripture as being indeed the great and most valuable promise what is the means of obtaining it On Gods part it must be given out on mans part it must be received by faith for it is given to them that believe and it is therefore called the promise by faith in Jesus Christ Now the promise of life by works under the first Covenant was wholly inconsistent with this promise of being saved by faith in Christ Though the first Covenant comprehended a faith in God as being a piece of that internal homage which every soul oweth to God yet it could not comprehend a faith in Christ as our Mediator there being no need of a Saviour till we were in danger nor of a Mediator till we were become transgressors How therefore was it possible that the promise of faith in Christ to those who believe in him should be given out till first the Covenant of Works was both given out and also violated Though the law by the promise of saith in Christ was not destroyed so far forth as it was a directive and obligatory rule of life and conversation unto all yet so far as it was a Covenant of life it must be both given out and also destroyed that the promise of faith might be given out 6. In the last place I desire you to consider That as on Gods part the promise of life by faith in Christ was inconsistent with the promise of life upon the doing of the works of the law so on our part we should never have come to Christ that we might have life if we had not first been concluded under wrath And this will appear to every intelligent soul that will but consider That the going out of the soul unto Christ for life is a disclaimer of its own righteousness and a very great piece of self-denial to which the soul will never move naturally but must see it self constrained to it by necessity Isa 57.10 Thou hast found the life of thy hand therefore thou wert not grieved so long as a man seeth help in himself and thinks that he hath found life in his own hands so long he is not grieved not at all concerned as to his eternal state And this is the true reason why you see the greatest brokenness of heart and sense of sin yea and the greatest holiness of life too in those men that yet look to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ for our free-will men that maintain a power in man to believe and repent or to keep the Law of God perfectly they have said they have found life in their own hands and then I hope they have none but themselves to blame if they miss and come short of it if they do not repent and turn unto God to day they can do it to morrow It was necessary as on Gods part in order to his giving out of the promise of faith in Christ and exhibition of the Covenant of Grace to the world so also on our part in order to our acceptation and taking hold of any such Covenant and the application of our souls unto God upon the terms of that Covenant for the sure mercies of it that there should first be a Covenant of Works made with man and a law of works given unto him for had there been no such Covenant made no such Law given man could not have broken and violated it and if he had not violated and broken it he could not have been a transgressor he could not have been a lost sinner and consequentially had needed no Saviour nor would man have ever been perswaded to have gone out of himself and to have accepted of the righteousness of Christ for his righteousness had he not first been rendred in a forlorn desperate and hopeless condition without Application unto Christ Vse 1. For the practical Application of what you have heard now in this discourse This in the first place should mind us not to be hasty to deny nor too forward to stumble at some things in the dispensations of God which at first seem to us hard to be understood Who can find out God or search out the Almighty unto perfection I do not know any thing that looketh more inconsistently in appearance to us at our first view of it than this That God should from eternity six the salvation of man upon a Covenant of Grace and write it in his book That there should be salvation in no other than in Jesus Christ nor any other name given under heaven amongst men whereby they might be saved that he who believeth should be saved and he who believed not should be damned for all these things were decrees in the rolls of eternity or they could never have been Revelations of Gods Will in Scripture Heb. 10.5 6 7. and Psal 40.7 In the volume of Gods book it was written of Christ that he should come into the world and do the Will of God relating to the salvation of man I say that God should thus setle mans salvation in the order of its causes and upon the terms of free-grace the merit and satisfaction of Christ and Faith in him and yet when mankind was created God should treat him upon a Law of Works and make a Covenant with him for life and salvation upon condition of his perfect obedience both to the Law written at that time upon his heart and this positive precept of not eating of the tree of forbidden fruit yet there is nothing clearer in Scripture than that God
and sicknesses of little ones all are warned to be continually upon their watch not knowing when the Lord will call for them every little Bell that telleth us a child is gone soundeth to us would we but understand it Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil days come Further yet God by this dispensation in which as you have heard he is just doth mind all of the duty they owe unto their children to bring them up in the knowledge of the Scriptures in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and particularly not to defer the ordinance of Baptism beyond a reasonable time It is doubtless Gods ordinance as to children not only a sign of Gods Covenant but a medium in order to salvation though efficacious only when God is pleased to make it so not ex opere operato upon the work done I have now shewed you the equity of God in this particular way of his Providence Vse It is a dispensation under which there are few Parents that are not brought Let me therefore enlarge a little upon some practical Application of this Discourse shewing you what may be our duty reasonably concluded from this dispensation I shall open to you something of it in three or four particulars 1. It is doubtless our duty yea the duty of all flesh To be silent before the Lord under such Providences The loss of a child especially if it be a first-born or an only child sometimes goeth very near us But oh let us not be tempted from it to open our mouths against the God of Heaven nor to entertain a thought in our souls derogatory to the justice and goodness of God Our children are sinners and obnoxious to the justice of God God may in justice punish them for their own sins or for our sins I hinted to you before that it was a beam of Arminius his new light that none should be condemned for original sin only and he is followed in it by all the Remonstrants in their Confessions Apologies as also by others of that tribe Socinus also and his followers shake hands with them in that notion Yet Arminins answering Mr. Perkins who to disprove Arminius his doctrine of Gods rejection of any because he foresaw they would reject the grace of the Gospel had pinched him telling him this could be no cause of the rejection of infants out of the pale of the Church God could not foresee they would reject the Gospel who he foresaw should never have the Gospel preached or tendred to them answereth him thus At inquam ego in parentibus abavis avis atavis tritavis evangelii gratiam repudiarunt quo actu meruerunt ut a Deo deserantur That is But I say saith he they rejected the Gospel in their Parents their Grandfathers their great Grandfathers or former Progenitors Now how this is consistent with his other doctrine I cannot understand for certainly if God may be justified in rejecting the souls of some infants from eternity because he foresaw that their Great-Grandfathers would reject and refuse the Gospel when-as they by no personal act should do any such thing he may be justified even in the eternal condemnation of children for the sin of Adam or the personal obliquity and corruption of their natures and so it is not unrighteous with God eternally to condemn a child for its original corruption only But we are not now speaking of eternal condemnation but of bodily and temporal yea and temporary punishments which may very well consist with the eternal salvation of the soul and it is very absurd for us to think that for such punishments the infant may not be punished without the impeaching of the justice of God though it hath been guilty of no actual sin deserving so early a chastisement of it Oh therefore suffer not in such cases your hearts or lips to transgress God may do it in righteousness He may thus justly punish original sin in the child he may justly punish our sins upon the backs of our children Speak not a word against God in this Providence 2. Do what in thee lyeth secondly to find out the cause When the Jews queried our Saviour concerning the man that was born blind for whose sin it was whether his or his parents Our Saviour answereth them that it was neither for his sin nor yet for his Parents but that the glory of God might appear in that famous miracle which our Saviour wrought in restoring him to his sight It is an hard thing to find out Gods ends in his dispensations of punitive Providence God may sometimes afflict and take away little ones for their own sins for the sin of Adam for the iniquity in which they were conceived and the sin in which they were brought forth God may sometimes do it for the Parents sins Sometimes he may do it principally neither for the one nor for the other of these ends but for the good of the Parents or for the good of the Children you have heard that this motion of Divine Providence is highly reasonable upon more then one account But yet when we feel the smart of such a dispensation we know not how to look upon it otherwise than as a punishment but now our business under such providences is to enquire what sin in us God doth in that manner revenge The Scripture will guide us a little in the finding out of this and we may possibly find out some other helps to make us understand these dispensations It was threatned to David 2 Sam. 12. For his sins in the matter of Vriah and his wife and for that by them he had given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme It is one of those common scourges with which God chastiseth some Parents for their sinful lives and whoso is conscious to himself of a sinful course of life need not enquire much for what cause God brings him under such dispensations It is matter of more narrow enquiry why God thus chasteneth his own people Possibly if they will search narrowly under such a Providence they may find if not the very sin for which God contendeth with them yet some laps of their lives of that nature as may give them a just ground of jealousy and suspicion that that is the sin for which God so troubleth them I shall not be positive in this determination lest I seem too boldly to inquire into the secret counsels of God men should do well under these Providences to listen to their own consciences which oft times tell them the truth in such cases But let me ask of thee or rather desire thee to ask thy self these two or three following Questions 1. Didst thou never sinfully distrust the Providence of God concerning thy Children And secretly repine at Gods bounty to thee in them this is now a temptation incident to such as are of meaner condition in the world and not so able as others to maintain their Families God promiseth the
and hinteth that they ought to have glorified him as God that is to have paid an homage to God proportionable to the knowledg which they had of his glorious being But we who are within the pale of the Church have as the Apostle saith a more sure word of Prophecy Whereunto we shall do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.19 Besides this many have a common illumination of the Spirit so far ordinarily attending the Ministry of the word of such the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.4 And the Law of conscience ordinarily worketh according to this Light It is indeed true there are and will be differences as to all these Lights The light of nature varies according to mens parts and education The Light of Revelation according to the Ministry of the word men sit under and the other according to Gods pleasure who by his Spirit irradiateth some more than others but according to our light so doth conscience lay a Law upon us Now men and women are highly concerned to behave themselves both toward God and towards men according to the light they have that is according to the discoveries they have either from natural principles or from the word of God or the illuminations of the Spirit of God what God is and what God requireth of them either as acts of homage immediately towards him or as acts of Justice and brotherly love towards their neighbour especially to take heed of bold and impudent actings to the contrary for this cause it is that God judicially gives many up to blindness of mind hardness of heart vile affections a reprobate mind having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4.18 19. You see both from this Chapter in which my Text is and from that Text Eph. 4. That it is what may befal poor Heathens which have no more then a natural light yet even they for not living up to that may so far provoke God what do you think Christians may do then that besides the natural light have the light of the Law and Gospel the sure word of Prophecy that have consciences further enlightened and under a further Law than the Heathens could possibly have such as have as the Apostle speaketh Heb. 6.4 Tasted of the heavenly gift and been made partakers of the holy ghost as have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If the Heathens came under such a judgment because when they knew or might have known by the very light of nature that the Lord that made Heaven and Earth could not possibly be like a man nor a beast nor creeping things yet would not attend to the workings of their own reason nor give their consciences leave to speak nor hearken to them but in their practice changed the image of the incorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man c. were for this deserted of God and given up to that dreadful degree of judgment this Chapter mentioneth what shall become of those amongst Christians think you who besides the advantage which they have common with Heathens from that of God which is manifest in them and from the things that are made to know what manner of being God is have also the holy Scriptures telling them That God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and truth That images are teachers of lies and mediums by which God will not be worshippped and revealing his wrath so plentifully against those that in so idle and wretched a manner did worship the true and living God yet will worship him by images Doth not the light of nature and the light of Scripture shine in mens faces and clearly discover to them that God is not to be pleased with rude and confused noises with meer formalities and lip-labours but with a simple pure and Spiritual worship where the understanding the heart and the affections go along with the tongue and outward man and where these are wanting all the cringings and bowings and roarings in the world are abominable to him and no better than the howling of a Dog and grunting of a Swine O Sirs take heed of sinning against this light for fear of being given up of God to superstitious vanities for so it oft-times falleth out that as a lyar though at first he knew he told a lie yet by repeating and telling it often he hath forgot it was a lye and possibly himself thinks he is relating a true story So I am perswaded it falls out with many whose consciences at first grumbled a little at what they did and told them this was no service of God but through a just Judgment of God they shutting their Eyes against the light at last think there is no other true worship of God besides what they have taken up as to which it will at last appear that it was none at all for who required any such things at their hands We can hardly think otherwise of the Jews who at the first setting up of idolatry by Jeroboam and that worser idolatry by Ahab could not but think many of them that that was not the true worship of God but by practice in it afterward grew so warm for it that none else must be true but they must slay the Lords Prophets and persecute all those who either taught or practised any other way of worship more according to the mind and will of God 2. And do not only take heed of shutting your ears as to your duty towards God lest God judicially give you up to vile affections as to superstitious vanities but take heed also that you do not shut your eyes against convictions of your duty towards your selves and others in matters of morality Have you not startled sometimes to see to what brutish degrees of sensuality and immoralities many have fallen from high degrees of profession To me it hath been one of the prodigies of our age If one should have told some that were professors twenty or thirty years ago that within such a time they should be transgressors through wine so famous for impudent uncleanness such Apostates from all Religion such bruits almost in every part of their conversations such persecutors of those that fear God and with whom they sometimes professed to be of the same mind they would certainly have said with Hazael are we dogs that we should ever do any such things Yet we have lived to see it I am loth I tremble to speak what I think certainly God hath forsaken these poor creatures they professed the truth to have imbraced it in the love of it but they were hypocrites they received it not in the love of it but meerly in a faction and for some base sinister ends and for this cause
in the actual exercise of it whether we consider the one way or the other we shall find that both flow from the free-will and goodness of God and have no other cause but because God will shew mercy to whom he will shew it 1. Let us consider it first in the purpose Gods purpose of grace was nothing else but his Eternal willing of some persons to obtain everlasting life and salvation in and through Christ and in the use of that means which he appointed thereunto for the counsels of God ordered the means as well as the end we do therefore suppose that God from all eternity knew who should be saved and that he therefore must needs know it because he will'd it for whereas all mankind from eternity are to be considered alike nothing but the Will of God could bring any part of them more than another into a salvable estate especially into a certain state of Salvation God therefore decreed or willed some persons to so glorious an end Now the question is what made God to will these not others what can be imagined but his will of which we are able to give no account Eph. 1.5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will hence it is called the election of grace Rom. 11.5 and 2 Tim. 1.8 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began Arminians and Papists tell us of Gods electing men out of a foresight that they would believe and obey If indeed men were to have risen out of the Earth like Mushromes and to have given a being to themselves and to have created their own Souls they might have quarrelled the Scripture a little upon this point but when the bodies of all men were to be of the same clay and all souls were Gods which were to inform those bodies how they should any of them have a disposition to believe or obey more than others unless God had created it in them or willed that in time they should have it I cannot understand and if they say that they had it from the will of God the matter as to our point cometh much to the same issue God purposed them grace from his own meer good-will and pleasure he willed them in time to have a disposition to believe and obey and upon their Faith and Obedience to have everlasting life 2. If we consider Gods acts of grace in time they are distinguished either into the more external means Or secondly those gracious habits which accompany salvation and make a soul meet for the inheritance of the Saints in Light The means of Salvation are either the means of Purchase and Redemption such was the giving of Christ of which Saint John Joh. 3.16 could give us no other account but God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son For the means of application they are either more external or internal The more external is the promulgation or publication of the Gospel See what our Saviour saith as to this Mat. 11.25 26. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth who hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes Even so O Father because it pleased thee 2. For these acts of grace by which the Soul is prepared and made fit for the inheritance of the Saints in Light they are Effectual Calling Justification and Sanctification or Regeneration 1. For Effectual Calling we are said to be called with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace Not according to our works so that any thing in our selves is denied but according to his purpose Now what is the purpose of God but the will of God determining this or that and it is further added And grace which speaketh the free love and good-will of God in the case for grace is nothing else but free love So 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of all grace who hath called you so that God in the calling of Souls acteth as a God of grace yea of all Grace Who can give a reason why God by the Preaching of the Gospel effectually calleth one and not another out of darkness into marvellous light but meerly because he willeth The Evangelist 1 John 13. telleth us that we are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 2. Justification is another act of grace whereby God pardoneth our sin looketh upon us and accepteth us as righteous only for the righteousness of Christ reckoned unto us for righteousness Herein also God acteth freely being justified freely by his grace he giveth of the fountain of life freely To this purpose is that I will heal your backsliding and love you freely 3. For Regeneration or Sanctification which is that act of grace by which we are renewed in the inward-man and made conformable to the image of God This is our being born of the Spirit and our Saviour compareth the motion of the Spirit to the wind which bloweth where it listeth 2. But further yet the dispensations of grace by the hand of Providence must necessarily bear proportion to the purpose of grace We are blessed in Christ with all spiritual blessings according as he hath chosen us in him saith the Apostle Eph. 1.4 5. Nothing cometh to pass in the world either as an act of grace or a paenal dispensation but it is in pursuance of some purpose of God Now it was impossible that the purpose of God should have any other foundation than his Will for the eternal purpose must be antecedent to any good or evil done by us we are but of yesterday That man or woman knoweth nothing of God and hath very false conceptions and apprehensions of the Divine Being that doth not conceive of him as a God from all eternity knowing whatsoever should come to pass in the world nor is it possible for us to apprehend how God should know any future thing but because he willed it for what but the will of God should bring it out of a not being into a being out of the order of a contingency into a certainty which it must have or God could have no certain knowledg of it Now it was not possible that any thing in the creature should move God from eternity to will any one grace because there was no creature pre-existent to this eternal act of God nor yet co-existent with it It is true say some but yet God did foresee that such or such would believe repent obey c. using the liberty of their wills better than others and to such God willed eternal life But I cannot understand any thing in this more than trifling For I demand from whence is that better inclination and disposition of one mans will than
for his not repenting not believing according to his Word Is there any unrighteousness with God in this case more than in the Fathers dealing with the Child upon the former Supposition What pretence is there for it The Sinner you will say could not repent could not believe without the special Grace of God which was never given him No more could the Child buy those things the Father willed it to have and come before him with unless the Father first gave it mony the Child had no mony of its own But the Child might have left its play it might have read and heard the Word he might have come to God by Prayer and begg'd of him a soft and contrite heart and a believing heart he had power to do all this and had he done this God had not been wanting to him in his further Grace To him that hath shall be given saith our Saviour that is to him that hath and useth and proveth what Gifts and Graces he hath as he ought to do shall be given more Grace But this the poor wretch hath not done but dieth an hard-hearted an impenitent and unbelieving wretch what unrighteousness is there with God in his condemnation he perisheth in his own iniquity his blood is upon his own head his damnation lieth at his own door his destruction is of himself his help might have been from God if he had not been wanting to himself O sinful men are not the Lords ways equal Yes yes they are our own ways that are unequal the straight ways of the Lord are only made crooked by our idle fancies our proud hearts and corrupt reasons and foolish misprisions Vse 4. In the last place let me apply this discourse by way of Exhortation it will afford matter of Exhortation 1. To the people of God 2. To the men of the World those I mean that are not yet converted unto God 1. To Gods People 1. To you it speaketh to make you more afraid of sin for the time to come Sin in Scripture is ordinarily resembled by sickness and a disease Now what is true of sickness is true of Sin every sickness is not unto death but every sickness hath something of death in it it leadeth to the Grave it is not the last stroke at the giving of which the Tree falleth but it is a blow in order to the fall of it Every sin doth not bring forth death yea as to you No sin shall bring forth death because Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ but every sin hath something of the nature of a self-ruining and destruction in it The wages of every sin is death the natural tendency of every sin is unto death It is the Gift and Free-Grace of God that as to you prevents it and although your sins do not bring forth an Eternal ruine and destruction to you because the Blood of Christ and the Intercession of Christ hath prevented and will prevent that yet your sins may bring forth many lesser deaths to you for them you may be in deaths often for them there may be a death of your peace and comforts as there are no temporal Evils which sin may not bring upon the people of God so there are few spiritual Evils on this side of Hell to which it doth not subject them So that although you be not under the danger of an Eternal ruine yet you are under the danger of so many deaths so many destructions as may justly lay a Law upon you and make you afraid of sinning against God 2. But Secondly This calleth to all of you to admire the Divine Grace by which you are saved I hope it is the portion of many of you to whom I am speaking you are not yet got up to the new Hierusalem but you are in the right way that leadeth thereunto O cry Grace Grace unto the hand which set you upon that Shore It is true of you you also by sin had destroyed your selves by Grace you are saved you were once Fire-brands as well as any others are you now brands pluckt out of the Fire It was the hand of Grace that pluck'd you out You hath he quickned saith the Apostle Ephes 2.1 who were dead in Trespasses and sins Amongst whom also we had our conversation of old according to the Lusts of the Flesh you also were once acted by the Prince of the Air who yet worketh in the Children of Disobedience and were by Nature the Children of Wrath as much as others It is a sweet though in some sence a bitter meditation to cast a thought back and think Lord How had I also destroyed my self How near was I going to the Pit of Eternal ruine and destruction Nay how often yet is our Salvation from God We are every day destroying our selves we lye down with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Morning and rise up every day with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Evening By Grace we are saved 2. But Secondly let me speak to those which can have no such good hope through Grace They yet are in their natural State and condition in the Gall of bitterness and in the very bands of iniquity Sirs it is that which I have often told you and I wish the sound of it may never be out of your Ears you are Creatures ordained to Eternity when you dye you dye not like brute-Beasts Death will not determine your beings you shall be either Eternally happy or Eternally miserable All that I have to say to you is to plead with you that you would not ruine your selves and let me tell you that if ever you perish it must be because you have destroyed your selves Do not fright your selves with thoughts of Gods eternal decrees secret things belong to God revealed things to us Whatever Gods secret counsels and purposes be this is his revealed will The Soul that sinneth and that alone shall dye Trouble not your selves with any such thoughts as these If I be not elected do what I will I shall be damned If God hath cast me off I shall labour in vain It is the Sluggard saith Solomon which saith There is a Lion in the way We cannot ascend up into Heaven to search Gods Books there is no need of it The Word is near us even in our mouths that telleth us that God never destroyeth any Soul but the meritorious cause of it is in himself and this we know that all sin is voluntary O then take heed of destroying your selves by wilful and presumptuous sinning against God Nature teacheth every Man to look to himself as to his Life Health Estate and shall not our reasonable Nature instructed by the Word of God prompt us to take care of our selves as to our Eternal Interest You will say unto me what shall we do that we may not de destroyed for who liveth and sinneth not against God I have before told you that
God hath given them up to strong delusions God hath thrown them off his hand of restraint withdrawn his common grace from them given them up to the Devil even in this life God is now punishing upon them their former falshood Give me leave to speak my fears I profess they are my thoughts my sad thoughts that we live in an age as full of persons that have sinned the sin that shall never be forgiven as any age ever was since our Lord was upon the Earth The sin unto death for which St. John saith we should not pray must certainly be prodigious sinning against light let but malicious be added to it in any Soul and I then shall believe he hath not sinned the sin against the holy ghost when I shall see God renewing such a one by repentance and not before To such persons I have little or nothing to say But O let them that stand take heed lest they fall Foelix quem faciunt c. That is an happy Soul that can learn to take heed by the dreadful falls of others it hath been the saying of others that Religion stands on tip-toes in our Land I can say nothing to that I hope better things but give me leave to say to those particular Souls in this City that hear me this day Your Souls stand on tip-toes I have now been a witness of the Gospels being preached to you thirty years if it be hid I fear it is hid to them that perish It is much to be feared that you who being of years of understanding have been hearers of the means of grace you have had for these years yet the faithful preaching of the Gospel did not commence with my first knowledg of this City are sealed one way or other either to Salvation or to damnation when I speak of being sealed to Salvation I do not understand blessed with a full assurance of it but the Spirit of God hath made ere this time such impressions upon their hearts as will make Salvation sure to them though it may be they have not within themselves sensibly the witness and assurance of it I say for those of you who are not thus far sealed it is much to be feared that you have another Seal upon you even a Seal of eternal condemnation It may be you are not in despair possibly if you had less hope it might be better for you hope slayeth the hypocrite but hath not God given you over Do not you find your hearts are grown more hard and insensible more filthy and vain and frothy there is a Seal and a dreadful one too For old professors to lose their profession to have cast off their awe and dread of God their practice of Religion in their Families and conversation to grow loose and vain to turn scoffers and enemies to Religion and Godliness You that yet stand O look to your standing I would have you look upon men that have had formerly much light made great profession and are fallen off to open courses of Sin as sad examples of Divine vengeance as if they were turned into Hell They are no better than brands of Hell-fire yet stinking and smoaking in the Land of the living that others may hear and fear and take heed of sinning against the degrees of light which they have sinned against O be afraid you that have yet light before you how you behave your selves towards it instead of disputing the justice holiness and goodness of God in punishing sin with sin be afraid lest this should be your portion shut not your eyes against the glorious light of the Gospel take heed of quenching the Spirit smothering the reflections of your conscience resisting your convictions struggling with and against the Spirit of God quarrelling with God for any lusts contrary to the Revelation of his will lest as God said of Ephraim Ephraim is joined to Idols let him alone so God should say concerning any of you such a one knows better but he is joined to his formalities to his vain superstitions Let him alone or such a one must have his Cups his Lusts his unjust gain Let him alone be assured if God once resolveth to Let thee alone thou wilt find thy Soul rouling to Hell fast enough Satan besides will not let that Soul alone of whom God hath pronounced Let him alone But this is enough to have spoken to this Subject SERMON XLII 2 Thes I. 9. Who shall be punished with Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his Power I Am yet indeavouring to make those ways of Divine Providence plain which to our apprehensions appear difficult and hard to be understood by our weak capacities In my last discourse I trod upon the brink of the infernal Pit clearing up to you the justice of God in punishing sin with sin giving men up for former sinnings to blindness of mind hardness of heart a reprobate mind vile affections that is in effect a placing them in the very Suburbes of Hell My discourse this day will be about the pit it self Atheists doubt whether there be such a pit or no it is their interest to deny it others cannot tell how to reconcile an everlasting punishment to the Divine Justice there being no proportion between the pleasures of sin for a season and the torments of Hell for ever My Text you see plainly mentions a punishment with everlasting destruction If you consider the words of my Text with their reference to what went before you will find the Apostle v. 3. Blessing God for the Thessalonians increase in their Faith Charity and v. 4. Their patience in all the tribulations which they had indeed You must know that these Christian inhabitants of Thessalonica lived in the first and most furious times for Gospel persecutions when the Heathen amongst whom they lived had gotten a law and by that law as the Jews said of Christ those that owned the name of Christ ought to die or to be plundered of their Estates and imprisoned and amongst so many Heathens it was not possible they should want Informers Nor did they want some Judges that would to the utmost execute those severe Laws upon them Now in the enduring of all those hard things for Christ and his Gospels sake these Christians had shewed admirable patience and for this the Apostle thinks himself bound to bless God For it is given to us on the behalf of Christ to suffer as well as to believe Phil. 21.9 Having mentioned these persecutions he inlargeth a little further v. 5 6 7. Comforting them under them 1. From the Consideration of the testimony in them of the righteous judgment of God Which he proveth v. 6. It is saith he a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble you 2. To give you who are troubled rest and peace Lest these Christians should say but when shall these things be He tells them When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed