approve of every Event so as to command us to acquiess in it any more than of every Means but he approves or disallows of them as they are either just or unjust good or evil and because the last Events of things will be perfectly good therefore they are approved of by him and in the mean time he orders and disposes all lesser and precedent Events whether they be good or evil to the attainment of these The evil Events God neither approves in themselves nor gives any Right or Authority to the Persons whom he suffers to bring them about but whilst the Authors of them are disliked and disowned by him he permits the Events for the sake of that good which he has decreed to produce out of them and for that relation and subserviency which they have to the last Events of things which he has determined and ordained from Eternity 4. If there be no difference between what God permits and what he does as to the Events of things this will justifie all Events whatsoever as being of God's doing and therefore Robberies and all the Wickedness in the World besides that is successful and ends in the desired issue must be ascribed to him for these are as properly Events as any besides can be and the success of things respect not their Nature but their End and Actions attain their End not as they are of less or greater moment of publick or private Concernment but because they answer the Designs of the men that perform them And this will make it impossible as the Doctor says expresly That there should be any King who is not Rightful with respect to God which overthrows the Distinction he makes between the Kingdom of Judah and other Kingdoms For Athaliah must have been as Rightful Queen as Joash was Rightful King and both must have had God's Authority alike and so the Subjects must have been obliged to Contradictions that is to assist Athaliah against Joash and Joash against Athaliah at the same time because she had God's Authority by Providence and he by Promise and therefore both must have been obeyed and yet both resisted and the Subjects must have owed Allegiance to both and yet they must have owed Allegiance to neither of them Thus it would have been likewise in the Case of David himself to whom God first assigned the Kingdom of Judah and Ishbosheth who was possest of the greatest part of it for Two Years For either Ishbosheth and Athaliah had God's Authority or they had not if they had not then it is possible there may be a King who has not God's Authority and that there may be some Events which are only by his permission If they had then God must bestow Two Opposite Sovereign Authorities and Rights at once to Two several Princes over the same People and to the same Kingdom and both must be equally valid and obligatory upon the Subjects Consciences For by what way soever God conveys the Authority it is his Authority and God's Authority is always the same to whomsoever and in what manner soever it be conveyed 5. Since therefore God concurs with the Thoughts and Actions of Men in the Means and Causes as well as in the Ends and Events of Things and disposes all alike it follows that he can be no more the Author of Evil Events than of Evil Means or Actions or Thoughts But God may be said to do all that is done in the world because nothing can be done without him for his Providence concurs with Men in the performance of the worst Actions though not in the Wickedness of them Men contrive and practice Evil and God concurs with them in their Actions but only permits the Evil of them for every Action being a positive thing necessarily requires God's Concurrence and could not be done without it and every Action as such is Good But Evil is an Accident it is a Defect or a privation of Good and therefore this proceeds from the Imperfection and Wickedness of Man only and needs no Cause to produce it since it has no other Being but the want of Rectitude and Goodness in the depraved minds of men Thus to think is always the same Action of the mind whatever it be that we think about And Evil Thoughts differ from Good ones not in the Nature of the Act but only in the Object which employs the Thoughts and therefore though God never suggests Evil Thoughts yet he leaves the Will free to determine it self in the choice of the Evil Object and sustains the Mind in the Exercise of its Faculty of Thinking whatever the Object be about which it is conversant And so in all other Actions of the Body or Mind God concurs to the Action not as it has such or such an Object but as it is produced by its proper Faculty that is he concurs to it as it is a Natural not as it is a Moral Action 6. As God permits Wickedness to come to pass so he orders it for the Good or Evil that is for the Beward or Punishment of private Men or publick Societies yet still he does not approve of the Event but of the Consequences and Effects which his Infinite Wisdom and Power produces out of it And the Event gives no Right to the Persons who are permitted to bring it about For then a Thief would have a Right to stol'n Goods because it may be a just Punishment from God upon the Person from whom they are stol'n to suster him to have the possession of them I shall not venture to say That though God permits Wickedness in the Counsels or Designs of Men yet when it comes to Action he either disappoints what they intended or gives Success to them when he can serve the Ends of his Providence by their Wickedness For I believe there is no wickedness either in Thought or Action but God's Infinite Power and Wisdom can over-rule it to accomplish his own Counsels and Decrees And the difference between Evil in the Action and in the Design seems to be this That whilst it is designed and contrived in the minds of Men it can have no such Influence towards the Production of that Good which God causes to proceed from Evil as it certainly shall have one way or other when it is reduced to practice For though Evil Thoughts are over-ruled by God as well as Evil Actions and either suffered to proceed to Action or hindred and if suffered then upon this or that Occasion at this or that Time with respect to certain Persons and Accidents yet Thoughts as such have no Effect but upon the Mind it self whereas Actions have a further Effect upon divers Objects for the tryal of Good Men for their Admonition or Amendment or for the prevention of that Sin which they would otherwise run into or else perhaps for the Punishment and Correction of wicked men And therefore there can be no Evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it He concurs
whatsoever other undoubted Title by the Constitution of the Kingdom is alive and requires them to bear Faith and Allegiance to him The Sum of what can be said in the Affirmative seems to be this That as it is shewn at large in the Convocation Book Christ has reserved the Government of the World and the disposal of Kingdoms entirely to himself and can make or dispose Kings as he pleaseth notwithstanding any Claim Right Title or Interest which they can challenge to their Kingdoms and as he first ruled the world by frequent Revelations and Prophecies so since these are ceased he doth it by his Providence only for he always retains the same immediate Inspection with human affairs but now manifests his Pleasure and gives out his Commands as Governor of the world by the Declarations of his Providence that is by the Success and Event of things for he could not govern the World as supreme Lord and King of it or which is all one he could not require our Obedience in Compliance to his disposal of Kingdoms if his Will were not some way or other discovered to us and this being now the only way whereby he discovers it we must acquiesce in the Events of his Providence so as to obey Christ the Supreme Governor of the world in the Person of him whosoever he be whom he has set over us making no enquiry into the Justice of the Cause or into the means by which the Person now fully possessed of another Princes Power and Dominions came so possessed of them For God can take away and transfer any Right or Title as he pleaseth and the Conduct of his Providence in a Thorough Settlement of the Government is a sufficient evidence that he has transferred it because it is the only evidence we now can have And therefore we ought to look upon the Person thus setled as invested with God's Authority and to pay him a full and entire Allegiance as his Vicegerent with the same Submission and upon the same Reasons as if he had commanded us to do it by an express and immediate Revelation since his Providence is now the only Revelation or Manifestation of his will that we can expect and it must be instead of all other Revelations to us This seems to be the full of what can be fairly offered in the Affirmative and it is liable to the following Difficulties I. By Gods Providence must be understood either his Permission in concurring with Natural Causes to produce their Effects or his Appointment First If he only suffer or permit a thing to be done without denying his Concourse or interposing his Almighty Power to prevent it this by no means proves his Approbation of the Event or Success of it For he permits all the Wickedness that is committed in the World and suffers the worst men to prosper many times in their evil Courses Secondly If by Gods Providence be meant his Appointment this may signifie First that he from all Eternity decreed to permit the Event and designed and ordained it to advance his own Glory and to bring about some good to Mankind by it And so the Treachery of Judas was appointed Act. 2.23 that is God had decreed to suffer it to come to pass and had ordained it when come to pass for the Salvation of Mankind And there can be no doubt but the final Issue and ultimate event of all the worst Actions is ordained of God and approved of by him but the Case before us is of an intermediate and subordinate End which must be judged of whether it be good or bad by the Nature of the thing and not by any success or event That all will at last conclude in some good End in the long Series and Chain of Causes and Events which are ordained by God's Decree is most certain but then this doth not prove that the intermediate Causes and Events are approved of by him but we must enquire into the Justice of the Cause whereby we can only know whether the Event be pleasing to him or not Secondly By Gods Providence as it signifies his Appointment may be meant his Will or Command And this Will or Command is either for the doing of a thing or for our Submission and acquiescence in it after it is done His command for the doing of a thing cannot be known before the Event but by the Justice of the Action or by Revelation to neither of which the Doctor pretends And the Event cannot discover to us God's command to do a thing which is already done and past and I have in part shewn and shall more fully shew afterwards that it can as little discover to us his Approbation of the thing done or that it is his Will that we should acquiesce and submit to it II. Whereas it is said that since God now governs the World only by his Providence we must of Necessity acquiesce in the Event of things or else we should disobey him in not submitting to his disposal of the Governments of the World First God governs the World so as to require no Duty or Act of Obedience now of us but what the Laws of Nature or of Scripture enjovn And because Revelations are ceased it seems requisite that he should have revealed it in the Scriptures if he had required us to acquiesce in the Events of things and to look upon the most unjust Usurper as invested with his own Authority when he is once gotten into Possession of the Throne I say this seems necessary to have been revealed since Natural Reason cannot dictate it to us for in Gods permission of all othersort of Injustice in the World we never imagine that any Right can accrue to the Injuring Person by it Secondly God by his Power and Wisdom so orders things as to make the most unjust actions subservient to the Ends of Justice and Righteousness but not to reward Usurpation with the Investiture of his own Authority or to turn wrong into right And all that we learn from Scripture concerning God's Providence is that we must rely upon it for Protection in the performance of our known Duty and by consequence that we are to regard the Justice only of a Cause not the Success of it III. This would make it unlawful for any Prince who is dispossessed or excluded from the Throne to wage War against the Usurper in defence of his own Right For he is supposed to have no longer any Right after the Usurper is in full Possession because that Right which God gives to the Usurper the Lawful King must be divested of unless there can be two opposite Sovereign Authorities at the same time and both from God who severally retain the whole and entire Right at once to the same Kingdom But we read that David waged War against Ish-bosheth who was possessed of the Kingdom of all Israel for two years and against the Jebusites who were in possession of Jerusalem and he was in continual Wars before he
the Land and our own Oaths and God himself by his Authority in his Vicegerents by whom these Laws are enacted laies upon us But it is said g. 12. That it makes no difference in this case to distinguish between what God permits and what he does for this distinction does not relate to the events of things but to the wickedness of Men which is the only reason for this Distinction for the Scripture never speaks of God's bare permission of any events but makes him the Author of all the good or evil which happens either to private Persons or publick Societies The events of all things are in his Hands and are ordered and disposed by his Will and Counsel as they must be if God go verns the World but God cannot be the Author of any wickedness cannot inspire Men with any wicked Counsels or Designs nor incline their Wills to the commission of it and therefore this we say God only permits but when it comes to Action he over-rules their wicked Designs to accomplish his own Counsels and Decrees and either disappoints what they intended or gives success to them when he can serve the ends of his Providence by their wickedness and herein consists the unsearchable Wisdom of Providence that God brings about his own Counsels by the free Ministries of Men He permits Men to do wickedly but all events which are for the good or evil of private Men or publick Societies are ordered by him as the Prophet declares Amos 3.6 Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it 1. I answer There is no Reason why we should distinguish in this case between the Counsels and Designs of wicked Men and their Actions in the execution of them for God concurs as much to the Physical Operations of the Mind in purposing and contriving Evil as he does to the corporal acts in the bringing it to effect for the Mind is as little capable of thinking as the Body is of moving without God's continual concourse both having a necessary dependance upon him in the exercise of their proper Faculties And the Resolution and Contrivance to do Evil is the event or result of Thought and Consideration as the success in the performance and accomplishment of the Evil designed and resolved upon is the event of the several outward Actions which are done in order to it so that God concerns himself no more in the events which proceed from the exercise of the bodily Powers in bringing about ill Designs than in those which proceed from the Operations of the Mind in the projects and contrivances of Evil he permits both and concurs with both as they are the acts of Natural Causes in the production of their effects but as they have a tendency to Evil he concurs with neither He leaves Men a Liberty of Acting and Thinking and concurs with them accordingly he suffers them to sin and does not take from them the use of their Natural Faculties of Body or Mind though they employ them to ill Purposes and about wrong Objects 2. Evil whether considered Physically or Morally that is as it signifies Affliction or as it signifies Sin is in the Action as well as in the Event and therefore the words of the Prophet Amos are applicable to both alike For not only the Events of all things but the Actions of all Creatures are in Gods hands and are ordained and disposed by his Will and Counsel and by the Doctors arguing in all Actions as well as in all Events there is no distinction between what God permits and what he does which he says relates only to the wickedness of Men and therefore it does not relate to the Actions of Men but only to the wickedness of humane Actions For God gives success he says to wicked Designs when they come to Action he sets up Kings he advances them to the Throne he gives them the Throne Pag. 12 13. that is he goes along with them and assists them in the attainment of the Supreme Power and at last puts it into their hands So that they have his concurrence and assistance as much before the settlement as after it and he that at last gives them the Plenitude of Power gave them all along the opportunity and the means of attaining it For God makes no immediate Donation of it but bestows it upon them by his Providence that is by affording them ways and means to come by it The plain consequence of which must be that God not only suffers Men by wicked means to get into Power and then bestows his Authority upon them but he conduct them in every step they take and at last when they arrive at the Throne he places them in it For what God gives by Providence he does not give all at once but by the several degrees of success by which it is attained and the success of every particular action must be his Gift as much as the event it self And if every Event be of Gods doing every Action must be so too because Events proceed from Actions and are no otherwise done or brought about than by the performance of those Actions which are requisite to produce them and to say that God is the Author of the Event but not of the Action is to say that he is the Author of the Effect but not of the Causes Acting whereas he cannot appoint the Effect without appointing the Cause to Act unless the Effect could be produced without its Cause 3. End and Event are both but relative Terms the end of one sort or series of Actions may be but the begining of another and the Event or Effect of one Enterprise the Cause of another For that which is an Effect in respect of its Cause is a Cause in respect of its Effect and that which in respect of the means is the Event is the means in respect of another Event If then the Event of all things is from God and therefore gives a Right a Rebel or Usurper would have a Right to every Fort or Castle he gets into his Possession in order to his Thorough Settlement in the whole Kingdom for that in its kind is as truly an Event as a Thorough Settlement it self is in a different kind for he that possesses himself of a Castle has gained his end as much for that time and in that particular design as he that is possessed of a Kingdom has gained his end in the full accomplishment of his desires and designs And when he has his wishes in this perhaps he stops not here but makes this End and Event only a step to another Enterprise upon a Neighbour Kingdom and then the obtaining the first Kingdom is but a means to gain the latter as the several degrees of success were the means of obtaining the first But all other Events whatsoever are as means in Gods Hands and are made use of by him for the bringing about the final Events of things God therefore does not