will be made worse by punishments 519. The reasonableness of such punishments 522 523. What use we should make of it 524 525 526 527 c. God is just and holy in punishing Children v. Children In punishing Relates in their Correlates v. Relates In the punishment of Sin with Sin 549 550 551. Gods holiness and justice in this cleared 554 555. Grace Varieties in the dispensation of the first Grace 663. ad p. 681. Of further Grace what 681. Strengthening Grace 694 695. Varieties in the dispensation of it 696 697. In what 697 698. How reasonable 698 699. Quickening Grace 605. Varieties in it 705. Whence 706. How reasonable Varieties as to it are 706 707. Consolatory Grace v. Comforts Growth in Grace what it is 713. How different from improvements in gifts 714. Mistakes about it 714. Reasons of different sizes in Christians 715 716 717. H Happiness of a Soul in what it truly lieth 591 592. Hearkening to the Gospel Call perswaded 472 473 474 475 476. I Intentions good oft rewarded where the action is not allowed 362 363. Indefinite proposal of the Gospel why 465 466 467. Justice of God in the punishment of Children v. Children In the punishment of Relates in their Correlates v. Relates In the punishment of his own people v. Afflictions In the punishment of incorrigible Sinners 519 520 521. In punishing Sin with Sin 549.550 551. In punishing sinners with everlasting Destruction 561 562 to p. 581. Improvement of means and habits of common Grace perswaded 474 475 476. Of Afflictions how 514 515. K Knowledge How it is or may be improved by the observation of the Motions of Actual Providence 167 168. 177. L The Law How it maketh Sin to abound 478 Limiting God What how Sinful 240. Lusts of men made use of to serve the good designs of Gods Providence relating to his Church 324 325. Several Lusts instanced in and the proof of the use God made of them 273 274 275 276. The reasonableness of it 280 281. The use we should make of it 332 333 M Magistrates Their relation to God as his Ordinance his Creatures his Vicegerents their usefulness to men 287 288 289. How under Special Providence 285 286. Means How little considerable in the effects of Providence 212 213 214. Means of Grace-how sufficient how not v. Sufficient Measures of sinful acts how to be taken 570 571 572. Methods of Providence when God intendeth his Churches tranquillity or trouble 266 267 268. Ministers faithful under special Providence how 312 313. Proved 314 315 316 317 318 319 320. Applyed 321 322. Miscarriages in a good cause in two cases what 253. Motions of Providence to be observed 173. Always in pursuance of some word of promise or threatning 188. Not always direct sometimes oblique 189 190. Sometimes in appearance contrary to the word of promise or threatning to the fulfilling of which they are levelled 191 192 193 194. A reasonable account of such motions 194 195 196 197. O Observation of Providence our duty 174. In what it lyeth 175. The advantages of it 175. Men exhorted to it 183. Some rules to direct it 183 184. Twenty observations upon the motions of Providence 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 c. The ordering of our lives advantaged by observation of Providence 175 176 177. Oblique motions of Providence why 193. Obedience How inferred our duty from Creation 30 31 32. P Passive patience How our duty upon the acknowledgment of an Actual Providence 57 58. Permission Of sin why 478 479. What attributes of God are by it Glorified 481 482 483 484. What exercises of Grace are occasioned by it 485 486. How holiness is advantaged by it 487. Why so many sinners 488 489 490. Why so much Sin is permitted 493 494 495. It ought to be no incouragement to Sin Why 496 497 498. What use to be made of it 499 500. What God doth in Permission of Sin 479 480. Philosophers Vain in their Notions of the Worlds Original 29. Praise Given to God from inanimate brute Creatures much more due from all reasonable beings 30. Otherwise they are the most ingrateful and self-condemned Creatures 31 32. Preservation Of the World how wonderful 62 63. The Nature of it 63 64 65. By what particular acts 66 67 68 69 c. Preservantion of men in political capacities opened in 7 particulars 87 88 Preservation of Saints in their Spiritual capacities by 5 acts 96 97 98 99 100. Polities How preserved by God 87 88. Powers In living creatures wholly by Providence v. Faculties Power In lapsed man to repent and believe whether rightly concluded from Gods universal call to both 486. Why else God calleth 487 488 489 490 c. Proportions of Punishment what the due measure of them is 570 571 572. Prosperity of Sinners v. Anger Envy c. Piety promoved from the Observation of Providence how 176 177 178. Piety and Policy of moral vertue and keeping close to God in his worship 269 270. Promises conducive to waiting 616 617. Predetermination of all things according to the Counsel of Gods will p. 3. Proved from foreknowledge 5. and the certainty of existence of things necessary to such prescience 6. Vorstius lost in fixing a cause of such certain existence out of the Divine will acknowledgeth it best to fix it there p. 7. Proved from actual Providence ib. It lays no necessity upon the Act but the Event 11. It s usefulness to quiet Souls under ingrateful contingencies 10 11 12 13 14. Yet we ought to be piously affected at sad Providences and for sin 15 16. Prayer and Praise Both ordinary and more solemn urged from the Consideration of the influence of Providence 59 60. Providence worketh all things according to the Counsel of the Divine will this proveth such a Counsel p. 9. It is not incertain in its effects 9. Whence the term Providence is derived 34 35. What actual Providence is 35. That there is an actual Providence 36 37. From the work of Creation 37 38. The nature of God 39 40 41. From events and effects in the world 42 43. From the acknowledgment of wiser Pagans 44 45. The objects and extent of it 45 46 47. Denyed Atheistically unreasonably 49. It necessitates not motions of rational agents 50. It supercedeth no indeavouers why 50 51. Faith Patience Prayer Praise inferred from the Doctrine of Providence 53 54 55 56. It preserveth the worlds 61. How it worketh in the preservation of all beings 63 64 65 66. Animate beings 67 68 69 70 71 72. The several faculties 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 c In persecuting men in political capacities Opened in 7 things 87 88 89 90 91. In preserving the Saints in their Spiritual capacity 96 97 98. Our duty from thence 99 100. Providence Governeth all things 103 104. The objects and acts of its Government Seven particulars instanced in 105 106 107 108 109. Faith Prayer Praise Love Patience under evils Vniversal obedience
greatness and power of others and so for other perfections it is not because they want means but because they want an heart to seek after God as to this there is no want of any thing but a wise contemplation of them and a rational concluding from the perfections of the effects to the greater excellency and perfection of the first cause and being The Book of Creation will learn us much of the nature and admirable perfections of the Divine Being The Book of Scripture will learn us more of it and instruct us in sublimer Mysteries than Reason could discover The Doctrine of the Trinity the two Natures united in the Person of the Mediator They will tell us of Gods Covenants of Christs performances of the Covenant of Redemption of the Will of God to be done by us and the Will of God to be done unto and upon us in his Promises and threatnings The Apostle sums up all when he tells us they are able to make the man of God wise to salvation throughly furnished to every good work But there is yet another Book which is less obvious to the eye of sense than the Book of Creation is and to the eye of Reason too and upon which fewer Commentaries have been wrote than upon the Books of holy Scripture that is the Book of Actual Providence A Book in which much of God is written and from which much of God may be learned but it is commonly taken for the Vision of a book that is sealed which is given to one who is learned with a command to read it but he saith I cannot for it is sealed Some more brutish than the Heathens deny any such Book dreaming of the old Pagan Fate or blind Fortune Others will allow it in part but will have much of it spurious dreaming that the World is like a Clock which once set in order and wound up goes alone without further use of the Workmans hand Others will allow Divine Providence a more universal influence but yet love not to hear of any Specialties of it Some again highly conceited of their own reason will subject the Providence of God to their rational Conclusions Few or none make any observations upon the motions of Divine Providence though certainly nothing more conduceth to true Spiritual wisdom Others stumbling at some difficulties relating to the motions of Providence either wholly deny it or form to themselves strange Ideas of God which no way agree to his most holy and perfect essence This Madam hath encouraged me to attempt something both to recover the Actual Providence of God from the Atheism of this age and the groundless prejudices which vain men have taken up against it and by it to recover for God that just Fear Faith Love Patience and other homage which both the excellency of his being and of his holy working calleth for And certainly Madam if learned men have thought it worth their while as some have done to give the World a rational account of Divine Offices of the Modes and circumstances of Ecclestastical constitutions in Rites and Garments Liturgies and Ceremonies c. It must needs be a noble work to undertake to give the world a Rational of Divine Operations Such especially which seem to be the hardest Chapters in the book of Providence and least easie to be understood and indeed this was my original design But while my thoughts were exercised in this my work grew upon my hand considering especially the Atheism of the age in which we live together with the circumstances of the Church and people of God in most European parts of the world and the particular temptations I have observed attending many and those very excellent persons I was further drawn on by the pleasantness and usefulness of the subject in all but especially in evil times and the apparent tendency of it to make men fear and love hope and trust in and with patience to wait upon God These things Madam made me resolve to open the Doctrine of Providence more fully though not in its full compass and latitude resolving always to carry along with me the capacity of those to whom I spake or wrote I was Madam the more encouraged in this from my observation that amongst the many excellent Books with which this age doth abound there are fewer of this Argument than any other Mr. Obadiah Sedgwick a great Divine treats in two or three Sermons about the Specialties of Providence and the late eminent Bishop Wilkins hath in a short Tract learnedly and piously discoursed the symmetry and beauty of it Another in a larger Discourse called an Introduction into the Doctrine of Providence hath made and a little enlarged upon several Observations upon the motions of it I projected and have at last finished a fuller Discourse than any of these though possibly much more imperfect so far as they did discourse this excellent argument and resolved to divide my discourse into three parts which accordingly I have done In the first Part Madam after two Preliminary Discourses the first concerning Gods Predeterminations where I had no mind to meddle with any present Controversies that was not a popular work the second concerning Creation Your Ldiship will find me plainly discoursing of the Nature of Providence in the notion in which alone I intended to speak to it There I have from Scripture and Reason proved That there is a constant care of God extended to the whole Creation That the Creature stands not in its own strength nor moveth meerly from a principle within it self nor is governed meerly by its fellow-creatures in a superior order much less acteth casually or under the necessity of any fate but is under the daily inspection government care and influence of the first cause its great Creator who both preserveth and governeth it There I have shortly shewed the particular acts by which God preserveth and governeth created Beings in their several capacities A point Madam of inexpressible use to possess us of a true notion of God of our daily dependencies upon him and consequently our duty toward him David saith he was fearfully and wonderfully made we are fearfully and wonderfully preserved In the second Part I have discoursed 1. Of the Specialties of Providence more especially to the Church and to every individual soul that loves and fears him shortly opening wherein they lye and shewing the reasonableness of it 2. Then I more shortly discourse the unsearchable things of it for Madam who dare pretend more than to shew a part of his ways Who can by searching find out God Who can find out the Almighty to Perfection This I have done to check curiosity and keep off good people from vain guesses and Prophetical conclusions without bottom 3. From that the discourse will lead your Ladiship to consider the duty of a good Christian in the observation of the motions of Providence and the advantage from it resulting to an observing soul To help my Reader in this
man who hath by the Law of Creation a Dominion and Rule over all must cry out Who is like unto thee O Lord who is like unto thee glorious in holiness fearful in praises working wonders We may from hence observe the vanity of those Philosophers of this world who would either make the world Vse 3 as fitted and joynted together to be eternal and without a beginning or at least some Chaos or heap of confused matter to have been so as also of those who as to the Creation of the world will have God at first to have made such a confused Chaos or Mass and then out of that to have made all things The Potter indeed must have such an heap of Clay before he can make his Pots of several sizes and fashions but if he were to create this Clay certainly he would go the furthest way about for by the same power that he must first have to give being to his Clay he might make his several sorts and sizes of Vessels and save himself that double labour I conclude by Faith we understand that the worlds were made by the Power or by the Word of God His Power was the efficient cause of it his Goodness the final cause of its Creation his Wisdom the exemplary cause 4. Vse 4 We may from hence learn the usefulness necessity and excellency of faith Faith taken for the object of it Faith taken for the habit and act of it The Word of God the habit of Faith the exercise of it they are all useful We have great magnifyings of Reason and indeed Reason is a noble faculty it is that to the soul which the eye is to the body which light is to the eye but Faith is not useless because Reason is useful yea Reason must ride but in the second Chariot Reason would have taught us little of Spirits indeed we by Faith know little of them but we know so much as God will please to reveal we had known much less if left only to what conclusions we could have raised from natural principles Reason would have taught us nothing in particular how and in what order or in what time the world was made Nay 2ly There is not an use of Faith only but a necessity of it The Creation of the world is an object of our Faith and to be received upon the credit of the Word of God we must so assent to it as by our assent to give an homage to Gods Authority in revealing it this we cannot do but by Faith Finally from this discourse appeareth the Excellency of Faith it maketh us to understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God it puts our mind beyond doubts and endless disputes and incertain fluctuations it leaveth us not to the endless inquiries of Philosophy how these things could be c. Lastly Vse 5 Learn hence how every inanimate and brute creature praiseth God and how infinitely all rational creatures are obliged to the service and obedience of God 1. How every inanimate and brute creature praiseth God The heavens saith the Psalmist declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night declareth knowledg there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard their line is gone out to the end of the earth and their words to the end of the world In them hath he set a tabernacle for the Sun c. Psal 19.1 2 3 4. There is no Creature but giveth a mute praise to God they shew the Lords Glory and praise him as the picture finely drawn doth praise the Limner or the building praiseth the Mason or Carpenter as any great effect praiseth its efficient cause And this is a thing we ought to attend and observe in our Contemplation and use of the Creatures we should view God in them see how God is glorified in their brave and useful structure and composition Oh how sweet a Contemplation would this be if we could view the Glory Power Wisdom infinite Goodness of the Creator in them all But secondly How particularly is man concerned to praise love and serve God the Creator of Heaven and Earth to man he hath alone given Reason to make conclusions to man hath he given the word of Faith for man he hath made all these things and given him a Dominion over the work of his hands Now who planteth a vineyard saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 9.7 and eateth not of the fruit thereof The world is a great Vineyard God hath planted it he hath let it out to the Sons of men as his husband-men Should he not eat of the fruit thereof The inanimate Creatures they declare the glory of God the Heavens declare his Glory the Earth sheweth his handy-work the Sun the Moon the Stars carry the high Praises and Glory of God to the utmost ends of the Earth Do not you that are Fathers think your Sons obliged to serve and to honour you Yet you were but partial causes of their being God did much more than you to their production Doth not the Master think his servant is obliged to serve and to honour him because he hath made him he hath raised him up to some capacity of living in the world to some dignity The Potter thinketh that he may command the Pots which he hath made and shall not man be the servant of the most high God who made him and who made the world for him 1. In Reason he ought to be so he oweth his being his well-being all that he hath all the accommodations of his life unto God 2. God expecteth it from him Nulla necessitate coactus saith Holy Augustine nulla sua cujusdam utilitatis indigentia permotus sed sola bonitate ac liberrima voluntate fecit Deus quicquid fecit God was not compelled to make the world he needed it not he made it meerly of his own goodness and for the use of man Can any one think that God doth not expect homage and service from man And from hence three things must follow 1. That the presumptuous sinner must necessarily be the most unnatural creature he serveth not the end of his Creation The grass was made for the food of the beast that serveth its end it grows is cut down c. The beasts serve their end they were made for the use of man for his food his covering they dye daily are clipped shorn flea'd and all for man only the sinner serveth not his end He was made for the Honour and Glory of God he doth nothing less yea his whole life is a dishonouring God an abusing of his holy name and things 2. That this sinner is the most ingrateful creature in the world he acts from his will and choice with the use of Reason Now doing so considering that not only he is born in the Lords house and is his Creation but all the Creatures upon which he lives by the use of which his life
the old Philosophers of Gods Providence extending not to all but to some particular Beings observed to have a great influence upon sublunary Beings And our Judicial Astrologers seem to inherit though not their wisdom in all other natural things yet their error in this Astra regunt homines sed regit astra Deus is their Song But alas this is but to set up an Idol in our hearts And indeed if we could conceive any earthly Prince to be present in every place we could hardly imagine him so neglective of his Government What Prince will not rule all motions and actions which he seeth and heareth to what he apprehendeth the wisest and best ends for his own honour So that if we could suppose an earthly Prince in all places where he hath Children Servants or Subjects and to have his senses open to see and hear them he would certainly contribute his best help to preserve and govern them Especially if he be a person of ordinary humanity and goodness and hath a sufficiency of Power and Wisdom Do not we see how naturally the parent to his finite capacity careth for preserveth and governeth the Child How the Master of a Family cannot neglect a care for and government of his Family till he hath debauched himself to a beast Nay do not the birds of the air and beasts of the field naturally care for their young seed and govern them Whence had they their natural propensions and inclinations to this goodness towards those to whom they have stood in any order of causation Was it not from the great Creator who thus disposed them If it be a piece of goodness in the creature so to care for preserve and govern its fellow-creature certainly we must allow it to be so in God What goodness of this nature there is in the creature floweth from him as the stream from the fountain And is certainly much more in him he having lost nothing by the Communication of the Creatures shares to them So that whosoever will acknowledg a Being that is infinitely good must also acknowledg that Being infinitely provident for the Creatures that derive from him and every creature thus deriving God who wanteth neither Power nor Activity must as naturally care for them all as a Father or Mother careth for every Child and a bird for every young one And it is nothing but some mens Atheistical conceptions and others more imperfect notions of God not considering the Divine Being in the extent of his Immensity Activity Power and Goodness which maketh any so much as in the least to hesitate as to the Doctrine of Divine Providence 3. Let us once more turn our eyes to the strange effects and events which we see in the world of which we see great variety and many of them which appear to us of great moment and consequence Now supposing that there were not a Divine Providence directing and governing them and being the first cause to them they must either be the products of so many Machines or Engines moving necessarily or of the imperate acts of some creatures endued with wisdom and counsel We shall find the effects in the world such as are impossible to be products of any such nature 1. Were they the products of the first Man might have a previous knowledg of and not at any time be surprised by them 2. Were they meerly the products of the second God himself could hardly be conceived to have a previous certain knowledg of them so as by his Prophets to give the world a warning 1. I say first Were the effects we see in the world necessary depending upon a certain fate and moving in a certain order What then hindereth but man might have a certain previous knowledg of them things which work necessarily work certainly and evenly Thus indeed the Sun Moon and Stars and all natural agents move Every Almanackmaker therefore will tell you how many hours the Sun will shine in a day six twelve months hence when the Eclipses shall be of either Luminary and to what degrees they shall be obscured But can they also tell us when the next great Plague the next Innundation or Fire we shall hear of shall be or when and where shall be the next great mutation in an Empire or a Kingdom We see men sometimes infinitely surprised in the product of second causes so contrary to their expectation and to what appeared to us would have been their probable effect If things had moved by a Law of Fate the world is now so old that the course of its motions would have been matter of science and demonstration to us but alas there is nothing less Who can tell what to morrow will bring forth not only as to his own particular concerns but the far greater and more general concerns and interests of mankind and the Church of God in particular 2. How then are they produced Is it from the will of man I ask whether from the wills of men working necessarily as the first and only principle of them or working freely and at perfect liberty the first surely none will assert that considers what he saith If from the wills of men working freely then they might also work and move otherwise than they do Then I say it is hard to conceive how God himself should have a certain knowledg of things previous to the event or effect for there was no certainty of such an event or effect But that God hath such a certain previous fore-knowledg is evident from all the Prophecies where by his Prophets he foretold things that were to come to pass many hundreds of years after and that with all their circumstances The great effects of created Beings must have some cause I mean some first cause If this were Nature or Fate i. e. a necessary law imposed upon them their motions would be even uniform subjected to our art and fore-knowledg which they are not If the first cause of them be the wills of men working upon choice there could then have been no certainty of them before they had existed for they might as well not have been as have been If any say but though the wills of men move freely yet he who calleth the things that are not as if they were he knew which way things should be and how the wills of men would move This we most freely grant but we also say That he knew them because he willed either to effect or to permit them and that supposing this Decree of Providence there must also be a working of it upholding created Beings conducting their effects and many times over-ruling them and this is that which we call Providence 4. In a further evidence of this I might call in a plentiful Testimony from the most learned and wise amongst the Heathens But I shall not much trouble my self or you with that discourse but refer those that desire to be satisfied herein to the excellent discourse of Du-Plessis Lord of Morney in
men are subdued under them by him that they have wisdom to make Laws and liberty to execute them that men in their dominions are disposed into their several orders ranks and stations so as mutually to serve one another and to uphold the whole Oh that Subjects would praise the Lord for his goodness that they have wise Magistrates good Laws that their lives are not Sacrificed to murtherers that their houses are not fired that their Wives and Virgins are not ravished that they are disposed to Trades and Occupations that they have wisdom for them a spirit to them Let every Citizen every Subject see and acknowledg the hand of the Lord in these things and bless his holy name But lastly Let the Redeemed of the Lord particularly Vse 3 see and acknowledg the Providence of God in the preserving of them in their spiritual capacities Were it not for the preserving Providence of God our spiritual life would be extinguished every moment God preserveth it by repeating his Gracious Acts in the remission of our sins in the imputation of Christs righteousness Our habits of grace would weaken we aâ—â— preserved and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation It is a great mercy and deserves a great acknowledgment that we have our lives preserved our estates preserved our wives and daughters preserved But oh how much greater is it that we have our state of Justification maintained Our principles of Spiritual Operations our habits of Grace our power to repent believe love God preserved that the influences of Grace are continued that we have the Word and Ordinances preserved Let the redeemed of the Lord say his mercy endureth for ever let them adore preserving-Providence let them consider what a subtil adversary they have Who goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour What abundance of lusts and corruptions they have in their own hearts what a law in their members warring against the law of their minds and they will say that the seed of God which is in them is wonderfully preserved But thus much may serve to have spoken of the first great act of Providence which I called Preservation My next work is to speak concerning Government SERMON VIII Psal CIII 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all I AM as you know discoursing concerning the Principal Acts of Actual Providence which I told you were two 1. Preservation 2. Government All things were at first created by a Divine word of Power all things are preserved by a Divine Power He upholdeth all things by the word of his Power saith the Apostle This I have done with but Gods actual Providence doth not extend only to the upholding and the preserving of all his creatures but he governeth them also Preservation respecteth their several beings and capacities Government respecteth their motions and actions For a Discourse upon this I have made choice of this Text and chusing it with that design only I do not take my self so much concerned to enquire into its relation to what went before or followeth I shall only consider it in it self and so it giveth you an account 1. Of the Royal Seat of the Divine residence or place where God more gloriously manifests that Presence which yet filleth Heaven and Earth He hath saith the Psalmist his throne prepared in the heavens 2. The vastness of his Imperial royal influence and dominion His Kingdom saith the Text ruleth over all I shall not meddle with the first part it is the second only which I have to do with The Proposition shortly is this Prop. That he whose Throne is in Heaven governeth the whole Creation The Scripture speaketh plentifully to this point of Gods Universal dominion 1 Chron. 16.31 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoyce and let men say amongst the Heathen The Lord reigneth Psalm 96.10 Say amongst the heathen the Lord reigneth Psalm 93.1 The Lord reigneth he is clothed with Majesty c. Psalm 97.1 The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce Psalm 99.1 The Lord reigneth let the people tremble An Heathen Prince acknowledgeth it Dan. 4.3 34. But not to multiply Texts Reason will evince it every Superiour being hath a kind of natural right to rule over those that are inferiour to it and God being the Supreme Being and the Creator of all other beings too hath a natural right to extend a Kingdom and Dominion over all and that not only as he is Superior to them and greater than they are but also as he is the efficient cause of all the Creator of all things But to speak more particularly we will enquire 1. What Government is 2. What are the Objects of this vniversal Government and Dominion which the Proposition ascribeth unto God 3. What are those special acts by which God exerciseth this Dominion and Government Government implieth three things 1. The fixing of some ends 2. A power invested in some one or more persons upon others ordering and directing them in order to that end 3. The exercise of this Power The end of Government amongst men is usually the peace quiet and settlement of a place Gods End is his own glory He hath made all things for himself and he doth all things for himself for the fulfilling of his own Counsels and Will in order to the glorifying of his holy Name The Apostle saith Of him and for him are all things 2. Secondly Government implieth a power invested in one or more persons in order to an end Now that God hath such a power none can deny and acknowledg him to be God Once have I spoken yea twice have I heard it saith the Psalmist that power belongeth unto God He who confesseth God to be almighty and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth must own him to have a power sufficient for an Universal Government If we take Power for Authority i. e. a Right to exercise a power over such and such objects that also God hath by the very law of Nature Hath not the potter a power over the clay and is not the creature the clay and God the potter 3. But thirdly Government implieth yet something more viz. an actual exercise of this power and indeed this is the main Actual Government is the exercise of a power wherewith a person or persons are invested over some persons or things in order to some wise ends But let me come to the second Question viz. Quest What are the particular Objects of this Divine providential Government The Text saith His Kingdom ruleth over all I think that term all is to be expounded by three general heads 1. The beings and existences of his creatures 2. The motions and actions of his creatures 3. The omissions and obliquities of his creatures all these as I shall shew you fall under the government of Providence 1. The Beings and existences of his creatures the production and cessation of them the giving of them Being belongs to Creation
unto him Indeed such a subjection or subordination the Heathens fancied amongst their idols Jupiter was their supreme idol others were subject unto him but he is no God that can truckle under another and be in subjection unto any Being And this greatness of God calleth to all men to fear before him and do reverence unto him who shall not fear before that God whose throne is prepared in the heaven and whose Kingdom ruleth over all and for a free and voluntary subjection to him for he ruleth over all not as a Tyrant and Oppressor whose title lies in his Sword but as one who is a native Prince and hath a rightful title not to obey whom is the highest Rebellion which Samuel compareth to the sin of witchcraft But I must leave the distinct and full application of this Doctrine for a further discourse SERMON IX Psal CIII 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all I Am at this time to make Application of what you have heard concerning the Governing-Providence of God I shall do it under three Heads shewing you how it may be useful for Instruction for Consolation and for Exhortation In the first place you may conclude from hence Vse 1 In what sense alone any thing can be said to be casual or necessary what to determine concerning Chance and Fortune or Fate As to the first I shall only lay down this Conclusion Concl. That although many things as to our eyes and apprehensions of them may appear casual yet there is nothing so with reference unto God the first universal cause It is truly said by Augustine that chance and fortune are but terms of humane ignorance as we say of the old Philosophers occult qualities they are but the refuges of ignorance so the same may be said of chance and fortune He described chance well that called it inopinatum rei eventum an event of a thing which man thought not of it is not inordinatus eventus but inopinatus there is no event of any thing that is a slip of Providence not ordered and disposed by him whose Kingdom ruleth over all Beings and existences motions and actions yea errours and obliquities nothing cometh to pass in the world but was foreseen fore-ordained fore-ordered and that in infinite wisdom but many things come to pass which we did not think of could not foresee whose causes are hidden from us these things we say come by chance and fortune A word indeed not very fit for a Christians mouth I remember Augustine more than once repents that he had defiled his tongue with it The Heathens ignorant of the true God and of his influence on all things devised such a blind God as Fortune and assigned it a place amongst their other Idols Te facimus fortuna Deum But Christians must own no such blind cause of things they believe there is a God whose throne is prepared in the Heavens and whose Kingdom ruleth over all and therefore can leave no place for chance or fortune You read of a case Deut. 19.5 which one would think if any thing in the world were casual and fortuitous that were so A man goeth into the Wood with his neighbour to hew wood and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the ax to cut down a tree and the head slippeth from the helve and lighteth upon his neighbour that he dye What can be imagined more casual and fortuitous than this for the head of an Hatchet to fly off from the helve and to kill a man at work with him who had the Hatchet such were the cases also mentioned Numb 35.22 23. Casting a thing upon a man without laying of wait or with any stone wherewith a man may dye seeing him not nor seeking his harm yet in these cases Exod. 21.13 God is said to deliver the person slain into his hand who involuntarily and unwarily hath been the cause of his death There are many things which indeed to us are casual nothing is so to God he hath ordered all he ruleth and governeth all actions Ahimaaz and Cushi knew not of each others journey or at least he that ran first knew nothing of the others journey they both met at the Court of David to carry tydings of Absaloms death but Joab had ordered the running of both Ahimaaz casually met Cushi there but though it was casual to him it was not so to Joab who sent him I say nothing is in it self casual or with respect unto God casual with respect to us many things are so that is we do not know the causes of them but God ordereth and directeth all his Kingdom his Rule and Government extendeth to it his hand is in it either permitting or effecting it Secondly You may from hence conclude how things are necessary Arminians make a great deal of stir about this and charge those whom they call Calvinists as maintaining a fatal necessity of all things Let us examine the word Fate a little we shall find a three or fourfold use of it there is two or three sorts of Fate which we shall condemn as freely as any of them but in a fourth sense we shall find the word honest enough and to destroy it will ask better arguments than any they have yet favoured the world with 1. There is a Stoical fate The Stoicks were a sort of ancient Philosophers you read of their name in Scripture Act. 17.18 They fancied an eternal necessity of things Cui Deum licet nolentem subesse fingebant nexum in rebus ipsis to which they conceived God himself though against his will was subjected according to this they fancied all things came to pass by an equal necessity and that the wills of men were forced by it This is a fate to be abominated by all those that own God and him as the first cause of all things 2. There is a Mathematical fate This was a necessity of things depending upon the motions and influences of the stars these men indeed make God to be the ruler of the Stars but the Stars to be the Rulers of mens motions and actions according to that verse in credit amongst them Astra regunt homines sed regit astra Deus as if God did not exercise a daily Dominion and Power over the Creation but had made the celestial bodies which being created and set in their order move other things by a fatal necessity Of both these Augustine saith Si cor tuum non esset fatuum non crederes fatum if thou hadst not a foolish heart thou wouldst not credit such a thing as fate 3. There is thirdly a Physical or Natural fate by which we understand that necessity which God hath established in natural causes according to which they cannot but produce such and such effects supposing them not hindered by the supreme cause thus the fire burneth necessarily and we say all natural causes move necessarily and produce their effects unless suspended hindered or
unsearchable are the ways of God in them How strangely are we every day mistaken in what we judged the design and tendency of many motions of Providence proving in the issue quite contrary to what we expected 3. A third unsearchable thing in Divine Providence is the track of it Necessary causes and such Natural causes are have a certain track you may follow the prints of their feet Moral and voluntary causes have not such a certain track moving not like Machines but as influenced from the will of man but yet there is something of ordinary certainty in them Reason in all men and in men of several ages is much a kin whence that certainty doth arise as well as from the finiteness of mens wisdom and understanding But here God is unsearchable he doth not always do the same things the same ways sometimes by humane means sometimes without means sometimes by improbable means sometimes adding by a preternatural power to natural causes sometimes by suspending their acts sometimes by over-ruling their motions and workings all in infinite variety so as his ways are like the ways of a Ship in the sea an Eagle in the air a Serpent upon a Rock you can track them in none of their ways By Faith we know that God will deliver his people but how and by what means or when we know not Sometimes prosperity shall slay the fool sometimes he shall perish by adversity sometimes the Sinner shall be cut off in the middle of his days sometimes he shall live to an extream old age men keep a path and a track in their motions but God keepeth none Naaman did ill when he came to the God of Israel to be healed of his Leprosie to be prescribing to him so much as in his thoughts thinking that the Prophet must needs come down and stroke the sore c. Gods way or method of Providence in bringing about the effects of his counsels and purposes is unsearchable 4. A fourth thing which in the motions of Divine Providence is unsearchable is the indications of it Solomon telleth us that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of the Lord Eccles 9.1 2. Unto all men there is one event both to the righteous and to the wicked No man can know either love or hatred by all that is before him in this life Esau is rejected yet he hath the mountains of Edom given him for his portion and the seed of Jacob must not dispossess him Jacob is beloved yet must he fly to Padan Aram endure the extremities of weather to feed his Uncles flocks c. and when he cometh away he must once and again run the hazard of his life No man can expound the Providences of God unto any to make them indications of Gods love or hatred Israel is the people beloved of the Lord yet they must serve an hard servitude in Egypt then forty years together by travelling through a desolate and howling Wilderness Dives is rich cloathed with purple and fareth deliciously every day yet when he dyeth goeth to Hell Lazarus is a poor beggar at his gates cloathed with rags abounding with sores yet when he dies is by Angels carried to Abraham's bosom Abraham and Lot and David and Joseph of Arimathea all rich men yet very good and heirs of the Kingdom of God Others very poor yet every-whit as poor spiritually and miserable as to their spiritual estate as they are in respect to their outward condition Grateful Providences speak the appearing love of God to us and oblige us to thankfulness but they do not speak special distinguishing love Adverse Providences appear as the frowns of God upon us yet may be but the chastenings of an indulgent father who chasteneth whom he loveth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth Hell begins with some in this life their life is but a life of misery and leadeth into that misery which shall never have an end sometimes men in the enjoyments of this life are lifted up to Heaven but it is ut lapsu graviore ruant that their fall may be the greater into the pit prepared for them The Indications of Divine Providence are altogether unsearchable No man can know love or hatred by any thing which is before him in this life 5. A fifth unsearchable thing in Divine Providence is the causes of them There is infinite wisdom and reason in all the dispensations of Providence In wisdom hath the Lord done and made whatsoever he hath done but this wisdom of God as to all his works of Providence is not always evident to us It is one of those things which Divines say we shall more perfectly understand at the day of Judgment and in another life than we yet do how wisely the infinite wise God hath managed the Government of the World We are oft-times startled and troubled and amazed to see the works of God in the World and at loss to compound them with the declarations of his love to his people and the great number of promises made to them What Christ said to Peter We may apply here what God is doing we do not know here but we shall know hereafter We cannot tell the reason of a thousand dispensations of God to his Church and people here but we shall know them hereafter Sometimes we know much of them in this life but what we do not know in this life we shall know in the day when all hidden things shall be made manifest and all the works as well as all the Saints of God shall praise him 6. Lastly The windings of Providence are unsearchable It is with the Providence of God as it is with a man of business that is riding to London that is his utmost journey but he doth not like a Post keep his road but rides out this way and that way to speak with this and that man as his business leadeth him The Providence of God drives at the securing of his Church the destruction of his Enemies the promoving of Gods glory c. But it carrieth on many designs together possibly the chastising of his people for their sins the suffering of the Amorites to make up their measure so it winds in its motions and the reason of the variety of its windings and turnings we do not understand But this is much co incident with what I told you before concerning the tracks of Divine Providence that they are past finding out I come therefore now to the Application I shall there only shew you the usefulness of this point 1. To check curiosity 2. To direct you in spiritual duty In the first place Vse 1 Let this check that curiosity which so much infecteth humane nature and to which the wiser part of men are mostly too subject It was the complaint long since of an acute Author Iste labor vexat homines ut plus Deum laborent intelligere quam diligere malumus vestigando laborare quam amando reperire malumus inquirere
up the Church are more peculiar and special objects of Providence than all others in the World 3. Amongst them such as fear and love God in sincerity are yet the more peculiar objects of Divine Providence and which God hath a most peculiar regard unto which maketh a cogent argument to prove That supposing the glory of God to be the great end of all his providential Dispensations that the Providence of God must most eminently work for the good of these as being such who most eminently serve the great end of his Glory So as he who observeth the motions of it must needs by them understand the loving-kindness of the Lord towards them Secondly The mercy and truth of Gods ways towards them that fear him are not to be read in the surface of present Providences The dark side of the cloud is sometimes towards the Israel of God and at such a time it must be by Faith that we understand that the ways all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth toward his own people Who could read the loving-kindness of the Lord towards Israel while they were in Egypt serving at the Brick-kilns and under their great oppression there but he who observed the Providence of God thus working to make them willing to go out and take possession of the promised Land he might understand this It is not every motion of Providence but the issues of it that demonstrate all the ways of the Lord to be mercy and truth and this evinceth to us that an observation of the motions of Divine Providence yea and a wist and diligent and continuing observation of them also is necessary to make us understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I come now to the Application of what you have heard upon this Argument This in the first place sheweth us one great reason of that ignorance which is in men both concerning God and concernng their own duty Men know little of God and little how to govern their actions according to any degree of Christian prudence As ignorance of and unbelief in the Word of God is one great cause so their not observing the motions of Divine Providence which have been in the World is another no small cause of it Men are much ignorant of God indeed there is but little of the knowledg of God in the World especially that knowledg which floateth not only in the brain but influenceth the heart and affections and men know little how to govern their actions by any spiritual wisdom but live directly contrary to what they own and pretend to as their highest end And we understand as little of the loving-kindness of the Lord I say one great cause of this is mens not observing the workings and motions of Providence They pass before their eyes every day but they observe them not Non tantum oculis intueri sed animum ad hanc considerationem ita exuscitare ut meliores inde evadamus To observe signifieth not only with our eyes to behold it but so to stir up our minds to the consideration of a thing that we may grow the better by it saith a grave Author Now in this Notion of it how few are they that observe these things they see stupendious Providences sometimes in the destruction of the Churches Enemies for the salvation of his people it may be at first they as all new things do affect men with a little passion according to the nature of them but they are like a flash of lightning which though at present it startles us yet the impression is presently off our spirits and I say this is one great reason why we are so ignorant of God so unskilful in the government of our lives to his ends and that we understand so little of his loving-kindness Hence it is that we cannot understand how much good God doth his Church and people by afflictions and trials They are the sensible frowns of Providence which blind our eyes that we cannot see the loving-kindness of God in all his ways We think sometimes we see God driving his Chariot in a direct road to his great ends the glory of his holy Name and the good and protection of such as fear him here we think we can easily discern Gods Wisdom and as easily understand his loving-kindness But now when the Lord drives his Chariot out of our sight and exerciseth his Church or the particular souls of his people with long and tedious Afflictions here we are at a loss and can neither read the wisdom nor loving-kindness of God But what is the reason of this but only our superficial view of Gods Providences without a wist and diligent observation of them If we would but bend our minds to observe what a wholsom influence Afflictions and adverse Providences have ordinarily both upon vvhole Churches and upon particular Christians we should even in them easily understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. The Husbandman can easily understand that he could as ill want the frosts and snows of Winter as the warmth heat and sun-shine of the Summer Gideon taught the men of Succoth with briars and thorns and God ordinarily doth so teach his people Blessed is he saith the Psalmist whom thou chastenest and teachest out of thy Law David tells us Psalm 119.61 that before he was afflicted he went astray but since that he had learned to keep the statutes of the Lord. It was an old saying The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church The Church is bettered and the Soul is bettered by adverse Providences That Text Isa 27.9 is very remarkable By this that is by this severe affliction by this captivity shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and all the fruit shall be to take away sin when the Lord shall make the stones of the altar as chalk stones that crumble in pieces the groves and the images shall not stand up As an hard Winter keepeth under and killeth the weeds so the winter of Affliction much helps to the purging out of corruptions both out of the Church and also out of the particular Soul Augustine as I remember somewhere lamenteth That a Fever had done more with him to subdue and mortifie a lust than before the love of God could do with him Now I say our not observing this which is matter of no difficult observation to him that wistly eyeth Divine Providence is one great reason that men do not understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Another reason of mens not understanding it is their making of a judgment of Gods works before they are perfect If any of us should go into a Limners shop and see his first draught of a lovely picture we should discern little loveliness in it which yet we should easily discern if we would but stay until he had finished his work and laid on his life-colours It is the same case with us as to works of Divine Providence we look on them while the Lords work is yet upon the
As God by it fulfilleth his word All a good Christians comfort and hope is laid up in the Scriptures and he is highly concerned in the truth of them if they be true he is well enough if they be not he hath trusted in a lye The Scriptures are very full of threatnings of Divine Vengeance against impenitent sinners Now it is a great temptation to the People of God to question all the Scripture saith when they read it full of threatnings and revelations of Divine Wrath against blasphemers perfecutors oppressors and bloody men and yet see the world full of such vile miscreants and them prospering daring God to vengeance and yet having their houses safe from fear But when they see God after some months and years of patience hanging up these wretches in chains cutting them off it may be in the strength of their years however in their full career of persecution and mischief with their oaths curses and blasphemies in their mouths there they see God fulfilling his word and this is matter of joy and rejoycing though that such souls are gone down into the pit is a lamentation to them and shall be for a lamentation 3. It is matter of joy and thanksgiving as they are secured by it from those evils which they felt from those men Every good man hath reason to be thankful to the judg for doing justice upon such as are notorious murtherers high-way men firers of houses c. because his life his goods are by it in a measure secured Every good man hath reason to rejoyce and to bless God when he cuts off Sons of violence men of blood persecutors c. as their peace and quiet is by Divine Justice secured Who will not say that Joseph had reason to bless God when he told him He might now again return into his own Countrey for those were dead which sought the young childs life Mat. 2. It is said of the man according to Gods own heart 1 Sam. 25.39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead he said Blessed be the Lord that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal An Heathen Philosopher puts mischievous men in the same rank with Foxes and Serpents and defends mens natural right to destroy them I am sure it is matter of rejoycing when God keeps us from private revenge and lets us see his vengeance upon them 4. Again It is matter of praise and rejoycing as God by this means upholds the discipline and government of the world We ought to rejoyce and to give thanks unto God for all those acts of his Providence by which the world is kept in order and preserved from running into that confusion into which the exorbitancies of mens lusts and passions and the remission of the reins of government by Magistrates sometimes would presently hurry it if it were not for some extraordinary acts of Divine Justice by which God layeth a law upon men and strikes a terror into them It is therefore a great mistake for any to think they may not rejoyce upon occasion of the ruine and downfall of the Churches Enemies It is true in the ruine of others none ought to rejoyce But in the Vindication of Gods glory upon them in the deliverance of his people from them in Gods fulfilling of his word in their destruction in the preserving and upholding the peace government order and discipline of the world put out of order by them they ought to rejoyce and heartily to praise God for them Vse 3. In the third place Hath God other ends to be obtained in the punishment of wicked men besides their amendment and reformation Let us endeavour then that he may obtain them That a sinner by his trouble and afflictions should be amended reformed and made better must be the product of his personal endeavour with Gods blessing upon it But for those other ends I mentioned we may contribute to Gods obtaining of them when at any time we see any such tremendous dispensations as Gods subverting wretches in their heaps of sin making some dreadful examples of his vengeance 1. Let us first give God the glory of his Justice and Truth and Goodness reflecting upon these Attributes of God in our Meditations speaking of them unto others Do you see God executing vengeance upon some sinners for he doth not make all examples of his wrath but do you see him at any time remarkably punishing some notorious transgressors Be thinking with your selves Oh how righteous a God is our God who shall not fear before him how true is his word I have had sometimes Atheistical thoughts and been ready to think God is not so severe against sin as I have heard or his word is not so certain and faithful but as I have heard so I now see in the dealings of God he hath said Blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days Lo here men of violence blood-thirsty cruel men persecutors of the People of God cut off in their youth in the heighth of their rage and be speaking to your children to your servants to your friends of the Justice and Truth of God upon such occasions you have heard that God doth many times execute vengeance upon finners that he might get glory upon them that being they would not actively glorify him he might fetch his glory out of them and he may be taken notice of in the world as a just and righteous God and as a pure and holy God of purer eyes than to behold any iniquity and as a mighty and powerful God that is able to break in pieces the proudest and stoutest rebels that set themselves in opposition to him 2. Let us take example and warning from the harms of others This is one end that man aims at in his punishments to make others afraid of committing the same things and this is one thing which as you have heard God aims at It was Gods command Deut. 13.11 that those that tempted others to Idolatry should be stoned to death vers 9 10. God in this could not propound the good or reformation of the person so stoned Well what doth he then aim at Vers 11. And all Israel shall hear and fear and do no more any such wickedness you have the same thing in the case of the Rebel that should do any thing presumptuously Deut. 17.13 And all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously you see this is one thing God aims at in punishing notorious sinners and indeed what he doth most generally aim at where the punishment reacheth to death especially if sudden for although it be truth that that God who had mercy upon the theef upon the Cross may have mercy upon a profligate notorious wretch in the last hour yet there is little hopes of it but I say in such punishments undoubtedly next to the vindication of his own glory the great end which God aimeth at is the terror and affrightment of others
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
than my time will now allow me to do SERMON XLV Psal 37. v. 1 3 4 5 7. Fret not thy self because of evil-doers neither be thou envious at the workers of iniquity Vers 3. Trust in the Lord and do good Vers 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord. Vers 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him Vers 7. Rest in the Lord wait patiently for him Vers 8. Cease from anger and forsake wrath fret not thy self in any wise to do evil THe point I am upon is to clear up the justice equity and reasonableness of the motions of Gods Actual Providence in the prosperity of wicked men his afflictings and chastiseings of his own people and delivering them up into the hands of those who although the best of Gods People are sinners and deserve the severities of God yet are more wicked more unrighteous than they This I have cleared and made Application of my discourse so far as may concern wicked men That which only yet remains is to inform the People of God of their duty under such a dispensation This has been the case of God's people in former times the estates at least of many who truly fear God and desire to worship him according to his Will have been exposed to the vilest men and this may be a sore temptation to Gods own people I will therefore enlarge this discourse a little shewing you the duty of Gods People at such a time and for this I have chosen this Text. No other portion of Scripture so fully setting it out together as the 7 or 8 first verses of this Psalm which partly shew them 1. What they are to avoid 2. And then what they are to do The prohibitive directions are three 1. They must not fret this is repeated three times v. 1. Fret not thy self because of evil doers v. 7. Fret not thy self because of him that prospereth in his way because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to pass v. 8. Fret not thy self in any wise to do evil 2. They must not be envious v. 1. Neither be thou envious at the workers of iniquity 3. They must not be angry v. 8. Cease from anger forsake wrath The instructive directions are four The first is the exercise of faith v. 3. Trust in the Lord. v. 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust in him v. 7. Rest on the Lord. 2. The second is the practice of holiness 1. They must not do evil v. 8. so v. 27. They must depart from evil 2. They must do good v. 3. v. 27. The same is repeated 3. The third is They must delight themselves in the Lord. v. 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord. 4. They must wait patiently for God v. 7. You have it again repeated v. 34. Wait patiently for him Wait on the Lord and keep his way In these 6 or 7 particulars I shall open to you and press upon you your duty under such dispensations as these I will put the three first together because they have a great affinity and cognation one with another 1. It is your duty under such a dispensation Not to fret to be envious or angry The words in the Hebrew Text are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to inflame to kindle to burn and in a secondary sense to be angry because anger puts a man into an heat the heating of the blood about the heart by the disorder and disturbance of the gall is assigned as the natural cause of it The moral Philosopher calleth Anger the irrational perturbation of the mind others tell us it is a desire of Revenge and use to distinguish betwixt ira and iracundia making the first to be where we have a just cause the other where there is no cause but in short as to our purpose anger is to be considered 1. As a passion a natural passion and so is not in it self sinful it is a power created in us by God which we may use well or ill 2. As a Vertue when it is used in a good and justifiable cause when a man is troubled and desireth the punishment of another secundum ordinem rationis where according to Gods will he ought to be punished 3. As a Vice such the exercise of this passion proveth when a man is angry either for no just cause or in an irrational and undue manner When wicked men prosper we are commanded not to be angry not to fret wickedly and sinfully so as either to be displeased at Gods Providence as Jonah was for the gourd when God asking him if he did well to be angry plainly implieth that he did ill and not well or to desire an unjust and undue revenge upon him either when the person hath not deserved it or in an undue order or measure This Anger first boileth in the heart and there discovereth it self in evil wishes and thoughts of sinful revenge then breaketh out at the lips and sheweth it self in uncomely speeches reproaches and revilings and lastly sheweth it self in rendring evil for evil The anger which is here forbidden us under this dispensation of God is such as tendeth to the dishonor of God to the disturbance of our own Spirits wiling them and putting them into disorder and to the unjust disturbance of others From this anger it is the will of God that his people under such dispensations should cease This is the wrath they should forsake The word translated envy signifieth to envy or emulate Envy is properly an hatred of or a trouble for the felicity of another whether the cause of it be a fear of some hurt to our selves or a discontent that it is well with them or that they are in a better estate than our selves Hence is hatred detraction rejoicing in the evil of our neighbour Affliction at their prosperity c. There is a just anger at the prosperity of wicked men as God is dishonoured by reason of it and the interest of God in the world suffereth by it for the heart of a man to be hot and zealous for God yea and to desire Gods just revenge of his own name and glory upon sinners is but what he may and ought to crave and do Thus we find Moses the meekest men on the Earth often angry and executing the vengeance upon God but for a man to be displeased and discontented at Gods Providence for it or to be angry at their Bretherns good this is sinful the first is against the love which we owe to God the second against the love which we owe unto our Neighbour To desire an undue or unjust punishment of them is a sin against Justice that Justice which we owe unto all men this envying at the prosperity of sinners is forbidden also in other Texts Prov. 3.31 Envy not thou the oppressor chuse none of his ways Prov. 24.1 Be not envious as the evil doers neither desire thou to be with them In sum God in this precept forbiddeth his people under such
another Where was the principle of this good was it to proceed from God then it little differeth from what we say at least in this case it doth not for still in the dispensations of his grace he moveth freely and from his own meer will only he willeth first to give grace then glory Will they say this foreseen good disposition as is pretended is from a mans self then there must be another fountain of good besides God all good acts proceed from some habits and powers as their principles I demand whence is that principle that power and habit in us which God should foresee and therefore will a Soul to life Will they say it is from man then say I every good gift cometh not from God man is thus made a fountain of good indeed of all good for he is thus made the fountain of that good upon the foresight of which it is according to this Doctrine that God willeth all his providential dispensations of grace and mercy and if this be not to set up man in the Throne of God and to take away from God the glory of that Attribute in which above all he delighteth I understand nothing 3. Again If acts of grace and mercy were not free and unaccountable only fountain'd in the good-will and pleasure of God grace could not be grace for what is grace but free love To him that worketh the reward saith the Apostle is reckoned not of grace but of debt Rom. 4.4 If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise works would be no more works Rom. 11.6 The very notion of grace importeth freeness grace not free is no grace if you take away liberty you take away grace I mean Original liberty I know when God hath promised he is just and righteous to forgive as the Apostle saith But God had an Original liberty to promise or not to promise In short they are no better than enemies to the grace of God who go about to found the reason of its acts any-where else than in the Divine Will God will have mercy because he will have mercy that 's all the account which we can give either of Gods purpose of grace or of any acts of grace pursuant to that purpose And so I pass to the Second part of the Proposition 2. Memb. That supposing this There is no unrighteousness with God This is consistent with the holiness justice and goodness of God and consonant to the Divine being and Nature It is exceedingly agreeing to the Nature of the Divine being to be the first cause of all that is upon any account good and in this sence it is true eminently true which our Lord telleth the Pharisee There is none good but one and that is God other things are derivatively good he is Originally good now I say it is but reasonable that he who is the first being should be owned the first cause of any good that is in the World all dispensations of Grace being effluxes of goodness he also must be the first cause of them and they could be originated in nothing but the Divine Will 2. Besides there is nothing more consonant to the Divine being than to be the Soveraign Lord and the sole cause of his own actions God every where in holy writ makes himself known to us under the notion of the Lord it is an impeachment of the Divine Soveraignty to assert God originally not at perfect liberty as to his own Acts to have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and extend compassion to whom he will extend compassion God in Scripture is set out under the notion of a Potter the Creature under the notion of Clay God shewed Jeremiah this when he carried him down to the Potters house Jer. 18. and shewed him the Potter at work making a Vessel of Clay and when it was marred in his hand making another Vessel as it seemed good unto him then telling him Ver. 6. O house of Israel Cannot I do with you as this Potter Behold as the Clay is in the Potters hand so are you in my hand O you house of Israel which also alluding to that Text confirmeth Rom. 9.21 Hath not the Potter power over the Clay of the same lump to make one Vessel of honour another of dishonour 2. Nor can this possibly be judged unrighteousness with God for for then would God be in a lower capacity than his Creature what man of us is there who doth not think he hath a free and absolute power over his own acts of goodness and mercy To shew them to whom he pleaseth and to withhold them from whom he pleaseth yet is there a vast difference betwixt the Creature and the Creator in this point for all Creatures are under the Law of their Creator they are things and persons under authority and are not soveraign Lords of their own actions yet which of us doth judg our selves accountable to our Neighbour for an act of mercy now if there be no unrighteousness with man in this case if a man doth not think himself bound to give any account to his Neighbour why he is more kind to one than to another Why gives he a gift to one which he giveth not to another How is God unrighteous in such a discrimination What if God willeth to shew mercy and the riches of Divine Grace to one not to another Though God in these motions be free and unaccountable yet he is also just and righteous and the reason is because he is neither bound nor a debtor unto any But this is enough to have spoken to the Explication and Confirmation of this Proposition For Application Vse 1. In the first place We may learn from hence what vain dreamers those are that go about to find out another Fountain for acts of Divine Grace and seek a cause in man for the Grace bestowed upon him They say the head of the great River Nilus could never yet be found It hath been sought for and many have travelled possibly some thousands of miles but yet it cannot be found But the head of Nilus will be found before men will find any cause of Divine Love out of the Divine Will It speaketh a wonderful arrogance in men to make God accountable for his acts of Divine Grace what greater arrogance and vanity can be imagined than this When a poor Creature will not himself be brought to an account why he gives one Begger mony and not another or why he giveth to one Child a greater Portion than another though they both be the acknowledged fruit of his Body that yet this Worm should dream that God must be accountable to his reason why he sheweth mercy to this man and not to another when they are both the work of his hands It is certainly enough to say He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and extend compassion to whom he will extend compassion What Pride what Arrogance is this not to allow to God whom we
by the way of efficiency Therefore God must be the Author or these Divines make him the Author Or because God is the Author of his own judgments and paenal dispensations and God sometimes punisheth sin with sin therefore God must be the Author of sin taken properly as it is an oblique action contrary to his Law This is forsooth their proof of that crimination when-as there are no Divines in the world but think it not only blasphemy but non-sense to talk of God as the Author of sin which must be an action contrary to the will liking and approbation of God as the very nature of sin doth import 2. Their second Crimination is That God hath damn'd his creatures out of his meer Prerogative and Soveraignty We do indeed think and must so think till our Adversaries can possess us with other Idea's and notions of God than either Scripture or reason will help us with That there is nothing which either hath or shall come to pass in the world but God did know from all eternity neither can we conceive how God should know any thing but because he willed it either in a way of efficiency or to permit it We do say that God had a jus absolutum from eternity an absolute right over his creatures to determine how he pleased concerning them But we also say That in his paenal dispensations he acteth not according to his Soveraignty and absolute right and that every mans destruction is of himself and the proximate and meritorious cause of the punishment and eternal ruin of any Soul is his own sin God doth not condemn any Soul but for sin recompensing their own iniquities upon their heads and whatsoever is absolute and Soveraign right his Law from which he never varieth in the motions of his Providence is The soul that sinneth shall die Where is the difference then What maketh this great clamour and odious representation of eminent Divines as to the method of Gods proceedings in his actual Providence Papists Arminians Calvinists all are agreed That the wages of sin is death The soul that sinneth shall die God will condemn none but for sin Only it seems they are not agreed as to the Nature and Attributes and Prerogatives of God Those Divines whom they call Calvinists must assert God to have the same Power over his creatures which a Potter hath over the clay This the other will not understand though God expressly told it the Prophet Jeremy and the Apostle from him hath expressly told it us and this is all the difference that I can understand 3. Vse Thirdly you may from hence learn How the Righteousness of God shall be cleared in the last day in the condemnation of sinners although it hath not pleased him to give to all a power to that which is truly and Spiritually good This is a point which very many in this Generation also will not understand but the fault is in themselves If God say they hath not given to all men a power to repent and to believe how shall he be righteous in the condemning of Sinners There is no consequence at all in this but upon this Hypothesis That except men have a power to do that which is Spiritually good they are in no capacity to do that which is morally evil Whether they have a power to repent or to believe without the effectual Grace of God yea or no Certainly they have a power in a thousand things to break the Law of God yea and to do also many things which are contained in the Law of God and although the doing of these things would not save them yet certainly the omiting of them or doing contrary to them may give God a righteous cause to condemn them Suppose one of you who are Fathers to have two Sons both of them wild and fond of their play and eager at it you call them both to come to you and tell them that if they will come you will give them both mony to go and buy such things but if by such a time they have not those things and appear to you in and with them you will certainly whip them One of these Children hearkens to you leaves his play comes running to you and begs the money you promised him then procures the things and appeareth to you in the habit you desired and you are well pleased with him The other Child is mad of his play which if he would he might leave he could not have the things without mony out of his Fathers Purse but he will not leave his play nor stir a foot towards his Father nor so much as ask his Father for mony his Father indeed sends him no mony but shuts him out of his sight and ordereth him to be severely whipt because that he would not leave his idle game and come to him and ask the mony of him which he promised and because he had not bought the things and appeared before him in that habit and dress which he had commanded will not one say this foolish Child is right served shall his Father be judged unrighteous or severe because he gave the Child no mony as he did the other and the Child could come by the things without mony and if it had them not could not appear in or with them before his Father The case is much the same betwixt God and us God seeth two Men or Women both his Creatures alike in Adam both born in Trespasses and Sins wildly playing over the hole of the Asp and the den of the Cockatrice sporting themselves in Sin and in an hourly danger of Hell-fire God calleth them by his Ministers to leave their Sins and to turn unto him he saith let him that hath been drunk be drunk no more let him that hath been unclean be unclean no more let him that hath told a lye that hath broke my Sabbaths lye and break my Sabbaths no more let him read my Word and hear my Word and let him come and pray unto me and beg of me an heart to believe and to repent and I will give it him and he that believeth shall be saved but in the great day it shall be found That he who hath not repented and hath not believed shall be damned One of these sinners leaveth off his leud courses falls to an external Discipline readeth the Word heareth the Word of God applyeth himself to God by Prayer beggeth of God an heart to repent and to believe his Gospel God hears him gives him a power gives him repentance unto Life and a saving Faith in Christ and he obtaineth everlasting Salvation The other is mad of his Lusts and after them he will go let what will be the issue of it he will not read the Word not hear that his Soul may live nor so much as ask special Grace of God not to plead with God for Faith or Repentance God giveth them not to him he dieth in his impenitency and unbelief God throweth him into Hell
and blesseth God 2 Cor. 11.4 Who saith he comforteth us in all tribulation that we may be able to comfort those which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God It is said of Luther that he was wont to say that Three things make a Divine Temptations Meditation and Prayers Luther was himself a man of great temptations and by them became able to succour those that were tempted No knowledg is like experimental knowledg none knoweth either how to sympathize with or how to succor those that are under temptations desertions or any Soul-troubles so well as those who themselves have been under them experience is a great Mistress when therefore God hath a design upon some Souls to make use of them for succor and relief of others under Soul-troubles and afflictions he often first brings themselves under them and supports and comforts them then they know how to speak a word in season how to comfort and relieve 2. Again God may be conceived reasonably to do it upon a gracious design in order to carrying on of his work in their own Souls we know not what manner of Spirit we are of God knoweth all our tempers seeth all our inclinations and dispositions 1. I have told you that some persons are more complexioned to some sins than others Every man hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper lust and corruption by which he more ordinarily offendeth than other ways God to prevent the breaking out of this corruption afterwards layeth the Soul under the load and burthen of it and maketh his former miscarriages of that Nature more exceedingly bitter unto him that so he may see how little fruit he may afterwards expect of those things of which he hath been to that degree ashamed and which he hath tasted to that degree bitter unto his Soul 2. He may possibly see some of more brisk and airy tempers more inclined to pride and being lifted up above measure and therefore thinks fit to keep them longer under the Spirit of bondage as he did with Paul after he had been rapt up into the third Heaven and heard unutterterable words lest as he saith he should be exalted above measure God gave him a thorn in the flesh Thus now I have given you some little account of the variety of Gods Providential dispensations toward Souls in the collation of the first grace but now I have done I can only say with Job Chap. 26.14 Lo these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him The end of all this discourse is not to pretend to give you all the reason of God in these his dispensations for who can by searching find out God who can find out the Almighty unto perfection we must say such knowledg is too wonderful for us but only to shew you that this various way of Gods dealing with Souls whom he intendeth to bring to Heaven is not such but it will approve it self to the reason of every reasonable Creature and such as is very equitable and proper for the wise God in order to the compassing of his most wise and glorious ends Let me now shew you what use is proper for us to make of these meditations and observations Vse 1. In the first place this may mind us to take heed of a rash judgment either in our own case or in the cases of others we are very prone to give our selves needless trouble and to pass unrighteous Judgments concerning the work of God upon our own and others Souls One concludeth he hath as yet no work of God upon his heart he was never humbled never so broken upon the Wheel never under such legal terrors nor so long under the Spirit of bondage as some others he cannot give an account to himself of any certain time nor of any certain Sermon when or whereby God wrought upon and changed his heart and we are too too ready to sit in Judgment upon the work of God also on the Souls of others You have heard that the ways of God are past finding out God doth not always tread the same path and the variety which God useth towards Souls under different circumstances and for different ends is very reasonable we have all of us reason enough to be troubled if we do not find this great work wrought in our Souls but if we do find that our hearts are changed that the work is done for the way or means or time which God hath taken or used to do it in or by we have no such reason to be sollicitous those who are come to work in the Vineyard at the Ninth or Eleventh hour shall have their Penny as well as those who were called and came in at the Sixth hour God doth not always work in the same order and method he is not to be tracked in his ways The conversion of the Soul lyeth in the change of the heart I would not with any trust to Baptismal conversion or regeneration If the heart be changed if the Soul be renewed according to the Image of God if old things be passed away in it and all things become new whether it was done this or that way by this or that means in this or that manner is no just cause at all of trouble to us God hath several ways to do his work by we must pass a judgment upon our selves from what we find within our selves the frames and tempers of our Spirits for what man knoweth the things of a man but the Spirit of a man which is within him But we must judge of others from the change we see in their lives and conversations Man looketh upon the outward appearance but God looketh upon the heart 1 Sam. 16.7 If we look upon our Neighbour and there appear no spots upon him but what may be the spot of Gods people no markes of profaneness or impiety towards God nor of unrighteousness toward man but he appeareth to us one who herein exercised himself to keep a good conscience both toward God and towards men we ought to judge this person one whose heart God hath changed If we look into our own hearts and can find that we truly love God and hate evil that we are afraid to sin against God and are desirous in all things to please him though we cannot find that the ways of God with our Souls in our conversion have been like the ways of God with the Souls of other men yet we ought not in this case to judge or to condemn our selves Gods ways are not alike with every Soul Its work in the effect as to the main is alike for it is true as to every man that except he be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God but his way of working is not the same Vse 2. In the Second place what you have heard affordeth great encouragement to every Soul under any circumstance to turn unto God