because Moses has recorded it in his Writings who we know was Divinely inspired And we know also that there has been no satisfactory account given yet from the Principles of Nature and Philosophy how the whole World could be drowned at least none that will agree with the Mosaical History either of the Creation or of the Deluge and it is better to have no Account than such an Account as confutes Moses could any such be given for this confutes or at least discredits the Story it self for which we have no Authentick Authority when the Authority of Moses is lost But indeed it is no service to Religion to seek after Natural Causes for the destruction of the World any more than it is to resolve the making of the World into Natural Causes for it is great good nature in men to own a God if they can make and destroy a World without him there can be no such thing as natural Causes till the World is made and every thing endowed with its Natural Vertues and Powers and united into a regular frame with a mutual dependance and connexion and therefore it is a vain thing to talk of making the World by Natural Causes when it is demonstrable that there can be no Natural Causes till the World is made And it is as certain that Nature must move unnaturally and be put into an universal disorder before the World can be destroyed for while Natural Causes keep their Natural Course they will preserve not destroy the World and therefore the destruction of the World is not owing to Natural Causes but to praeternatural Disorders and what Philosophy can give an account of that What can put Nature into such an universal disorder but the same Divine Power which put it into order and gave Laws to it And this is what God intended in the destruction of the Old World to give a visible and lasting proof of his Being and Providence to the New by such a Miraculous Deluge as could be attributed to no other Cause but a Divine Vengeance That universal Corruption of Mankind would persuade us that the very belief and notion of a God was lost among them or if it be hard to conceive how that should be when the World by computation was not Seventeen hundred years old and Lamech Noah's Father lived fifty years with Adam himself that it seems impossible that the Tradition of God's creating the World should have been lost in so short a time yet at least they could have no sense of God's Justice and Providence they could not believe that God took any notice of their Actions or would execute such a terrible Vengeance on them for their sins We do not read of any one Act of Judgment which God exercised before the Flood and it is not improbable that his sparing Cain when he had killed his Brother Abel might encourage them with hopes of impunity whatever wickedness they committed and therefore the Divine Wisdom saw it necessary to put an end to the Old and to begin the New World with a visible demonstration of his Power and Justice to teach men the fear and reverence and worship of that God who not only made the World but has once destroyed it and therefore can destroy it again with all its wicked Inhabitants whenever he pleases Now to make this a lasting proof of God's Power and Justice it must be evident beyond all contradiction that it was God's doing and therefore it was necessary that God should destroy the world in so miraculous a manner as could be attributed to no other Cause for it is the true Spirit of Atheism and Infidelity to attribute nothing to God which they can ascribe to any visible Cause Had all Mankind excepting Noah and his Sons been destroyed by Plague or Famine or Wild Beasts though such a general destruction would have convinced Wise and Reasonable men that the Hand and the Vengeance of God was in it yet if we may judge of the rest of Mankind by the wonderful improvements in Wit and Philosophy which our Modern Atheists have made they would think scorn to attribute Plague or Famine or such like evil Accidents to God though all Mankind were destroyed by them But when they hear of a World drowned and know not where to find water to drown it without a miraculous dissolution of Nature they must either laugh at the Story which men in their wits can't well do or they must believe a God and a Providence But whatever shift the Infidels of our Age may make to disbelieve the Universal Deluge it must be confessed that it was a very wise and most effectual means to convince that new Generation of men while the uncorrupted Tradition of the Deluge was preserved 2dly The Wisdom of the Divine Providence was seen in destroying that wicked Generation of men without destroying the Earth God did not intend to put a final end to the Race of Mankind but the Earth was to be again inhabited by a new Generation and a Deluge of Waters was best fitted to this purpose which did no hurt to the Earth when it was dried up again but rather moistened and impregnated it with new Seeds and Principles of life There are but two ways we know of to destroy this Earth either by Water or Fire it has already been destroyed by Water and will be destroyed by Fire and it is enough to satisfy any man that this is not Accident but a Wise Design to consider that a Deluge of Water was made use of to purge and reform the World but Fire is reserved for the final destruction of it Whereas had this Order been inverted as it might have been had it been mere Chance it is evident that the Earth could neither have been preserved from Fire nor utterly destroyed by Water without a perpetual Deluge A Deluge of Water does not destroy the Earth nor make it uninhabitable after the Deluge ceases but Fire destroys the Frame and Constitution of it and melts all into one confused mass there is some defence against a Deluge Noah and his Sons were preserved in the Ark to people the New World but there is no defence against Flames the whole Earth and all the wicked Inhabitants of it must burn together And this is one wise Reason why God chose to drown the World not to burn it because the end of all things was not yet come 3dly There is great variety of Wisdom to be observed in God's preserving Noah and his Sons in the Ark from perishing by Water For first as I observed before this was very necessary to preserve the Race of Mankind to new-people the World which much more became the Divine Wisdom than to have created man a-new When all flesh had corrupted his ways it became God to try new Methods of reforming the World for this opens new and surprizing Scenes of Providence and displays such a multifarious Wisdom in the government of Mankind as is much more wonderful
begin with Preserving Providence which commences from the first instant of the Creation for as soon as Creatures are made they need a Divine Power to preserve them For this is the strict Notion of Preservation as distinguished from a Governing Providence That God upholds all things in being from falling back into their first Nothing and preserves their natural Vertues Powers and Faculties and enables them to act and to attain the ends of their several Natures Which distinguishes this Preserving Providence from those many Acts of Preservation which belong to Government Such as preserving the Lives of men from unseen Accidents and visible Dangers nay of Beasts and of Birds too as our Saviour assures us That not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father in which sense the Psalmist tells us That God preserves both man and beasts supplies them with Food and all other things necessary to life and preserves their Lives from violence or accident as long as he sees fit This Preservation as distinguish'd from Government St. Paul expresly teaches 17. Acts 28. For in him we live and move and have our being We were not only made by him but we live and move and have our being in Him as the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us of Christ That he upholds all things by the word of his power 1. Hebr. 3. The Schools have divided this into two distinct Acts. 1. God's upholding and preserving the Being and Natures of all things 2. His Co-operating with all Creatures and by a perpetual influx and concourse actuating their natural Powers to perform their natural Actions that is That we have our being in him that we live and move and act in him or by a new influx of power from him As for the first The preservation of all things in being besides those Texts of Scripture which expresly attribute this to God the Schools urge several Arguments for the proof of it which I think may be resolved into this one That whatever does not necessarily exist by the internal Principles of its own Nature must depend on its Cause not only for its Being but for its Continuance and Preservation For there is no medium between necessary Existence and dependance on its Cause The very notion of a Creature does not only include in it its being made but its dependance on its Maker for its continuance in being For whatever does not necessarily exist must not only be made at first but must be upheld and preserved in being for it can no more preserve than it can make it self It was nothing once and what was once nothing may be nothing again and therefore cannot subsist of it self but in dependance on its Maker It is not with the Being and Natures of things as it is with the Works of Art which though they cannot make themselves yet when they are made can subsist without the Artist that made them As a House cannot build it self but when it is built it continues of it self as long as the Materials and Workmanship last when the Workman has left it for the Workman does not give being to the Materials but only to the Form which subsists in the Matter and that in its first Cause but whatever receives its Being from another as all Creatures do has nothing to support its Being but the Cause that made it This is so certain that I should make no scruple to say That God can no more make an Independent Creature which can subsist without him than he can make an Eternal Creature which shall have no beginning which is not want of Power in God but a repugnancy and contradiction in the Nature of Creatures That which once was not can never be so made as to have no beginning that which has not a necessary existence as nothing has which once was not cannot be made to exist necessarily without dependance on its Cause because necessary existence is not in its Nature for then it would always have been Suarez has another Argument to prove the dependence of Creatures on the perpetual influx of Power from the first Cause which possibly some may think only a School-subtily but seems to me to have great weight in it and it proceeds upon this Supposition which all men must grant That if God made the World out of nothing he could annihilate all things and reduce them into nothing again if he so pleased Now he says That Annihilation is not an Act of Power for all positive Acts of Power must have some real and positive effect whereas to annihilate is to make nothing and therefore to do nothing Now if to annihilate be no Act of Power then it can be nothing else but a withdrawing that Power which supported all things in being and that proves That all things are upheld in being by the Divine Power if they cannot subsist but fall into nothing again when that Upholding and Preserving Power is withdrawn This is a very sensible Argument if we distinguish between what we call destroying and annihilating which is apt to confound us in this matter To destroy is only to change the present form and compages of things while the matter and substance continues the same thus God destroyed the Old World by Water and will destroy this World by Fire again which is like pulling down a House without destroying the Materials and this is an Act of Power and has a positive effect but to annihilate is to reduce something to nothing which is to do nothing and therefore is no Act of Power but only a Cessation of Power And if not to uphold is to annihilate then all things subsist as well as are made by the Power of God I shall only add That God cannot make a Creature independent on himself without bestowing on it a self-subsisting Nature or necessary existence for whatever does not necessarily exist by the internal Principles of its Nature must depend on something else to uphold it in being Now besides what I observed before That whatever necessarily exists can't be made but must be eternal For that which exists necessarily must always exist without a Cause and without a Beginning for nothing can begin to have a necessarily self-subsisting Nature I now add That whatever necessarily is can't be changed destroyed annihilated for whatever necessarily is necessarily is what it is which proves That if God can annihilate whatever he has made then all things subsist by the Will and Pleasure and Power of God not by the internal Principles of their Natures for whatever necessarily exists can never be annihilated for that is a contradiction How God upholds all things in being we no more know than how at first he made all things when there was nothing and therefore it is a vain Inquiry of the Schools which no man can resolve and which serves no End in Religion Whether Creation and Preservation be the same or two different Acts Whether Preservation be a continued Creation or whether they be
Works of Nature prove that the World was at first made by a wise and powerful Being the continuance and preservation of all things the regular motions of the Heavens the uniform productions of Nature prove the World is upheld directed and governed by the same Omnipotent Wisdom and Counsel As St. Paul tells us The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead 1 Rom. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Dominion and Soveraignty or his governing Providence this visible World does not only prove an Eternal Power which made it but a Soveraign Lord who administers all the Affairs of it And 14. Acts 17. He proves the Being of God from his Providence Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness And 17. Acts 28. He proves that God governs the World and takes care of all the Creatures that are in it because he made it For in him we live move and have our being as certain of your own Poets have said for we are also his off-spring which is very improperly alledged by St. Paul if we may be the Off-spring of God and yet not live and move and have our Being in him that is if God's making the World does not necessarily prove his constant care and governmet of it But the Apostle knew in those days that no man who confessed that God made the World questioned his Providence and therefore makes no scruple to prove that we live and subsist in God because he made us This is a noble Argument to prove both the Being and Providence of God which cannot be separated from the Works of Nature and the Wise Government of the World It would give us a very delightful entertainment to view all the Curiosities and suprizing Wonders of Nature with what beauty art and contrivance particular Creatures are made and how the several parts of this great Machine are fitted to each other and make a regular and uniform World How all particular Creatures are fitted to the use and purposes of their several Natures and yet are made serviceable to one another and have as mutual a connexion and dependance as the Wheels of a Clock What an equal and steady Hand governs the World when its motions seem most excentrick and exorbitant and brings Good out of Evil and Order out of Confusion when things are so perplext that it is impossible for any one but a God to disentangle them There is no need of the subtilty of Reason and Argument in this Cause would but men attentively study the Works of God and dwell in the contemplation of Nature and Providence for God is as visible in his Works as the Sun is by its Light when all the Wonders of Nature are unfolded and exposed particularly to our view it so over-over-powers the mind with such infinite varieties of that most Divine Art and Wisdom that modest men are ashamed to ascribe such things to a blind Chance which has no Design or Counsel Indeed to say that a World full of Infinite Marks and Characters of the most admirable Art a World so made that no Art could make it better was not made by a wise Mind but by Chance by a fortuitous concourse of Atoms which without any Design after infinite fruitless Trials happened into this exact useful beautiful Order that now they are in know when they are well and in despight of Chance move as constantly regularly artificially in all new Productions as the divinest and most uniform Wisdom could direct I say to affirm this is to put an end to all Disputes by leaving no Principles of Reason and Argumentation to dispute with An Atheist is the most vain Pretender to Reason in the World The whole strength of Atheism consists in contradicting the universal Reason of Mankind They have no Principles nor can have any and therefore they can never reason but only confidently deny or affirm They can assign no Principles of Reason which the rest of Mankind allow to be Principles from whence they can prove that there is no God and no Providence but they only reject those Principles which all other men agree in and from whence it must necessarily follow that there is a God and a Providence It will be of great use briefly to explain this which will teach you to reject Atheism and Atheists without troubling your selves to dispute with them for they have no common Principles with the rest of Mankind to reason upon nor indeed any Principles of Reason at all A few words will suffice for this purpose Mankind who have been used to thinking and reasoning have universally agreed That there must be something that had no beginning and no cause for nothing can produce nothing that had there ever been a time when there was nothing there never could have been any thing unless there can be an effect without a cause which is too absurd for Atheists themselves to say in express words who do not boggle much at Absurdities and therefore they make their Atoms and their Vacuum to be eternal It is agreed also That whatever had a beginning had a cause and the most easy and natural progress of Human Understandings is to reason from one cause to another till we ascend to and center in a first Cause For it is as easy and natural to believe one first Eternal Cause as to believe an Eternal Being but though it is natural to believe something Eternal it is as unnatural to believe all things to be so we have no notion of all things being Eternal though we have of an Eternal Cause for the very reason why we are forced to confess something Eternal is because there must be an Eternal Cause of all other things that is because all things are not eternal But if any thing which has not an eternal and unchangeable Nature but is capable of being made and unmade changed and altered as all the things of this World are might be without a Cause then every thing may be without a Cause and if the Eternity of all things be a natural Notion it cannot be a natural Notion that there is a first Cause For that very Notion supposes that something had a beginning and was originally made when it was not before and therefore that all things are not eternal For to be made in this Axiom primarily relates to the being of things and is so understood by all men And how can such a notion of the making and giving being to any thing be natural if it be a natural notion that all things are eternal and that nothing was made Hence it is that seen and visible Effects which have no visible Cause adequate to the producing such Effects are allowed by all Mankind to be a sufficient proof of some Invisible Cause as St. Paul tells us
with the Natural Faculties of Understanding and Will to judge and to chuse for himself and he preserves these Faculties and gives them a natural Power to act to understand and will But this natural Co-operation of God can extend no farther than to the natural Power of acting not to any specifical Acts it does not improve any man's Understanding nor incline his Judgment nor determine his Choice it makes no alteration in the Powers of Nature but only enables them to act according to their Natures it is only like winding up a Clock which puts it into motion but gives no new preternatural motions to it but leaves its motions to be guided by its own Springs and Wheels Whatever this Co-operation of God be which is thought necessary to actuate our Natural Faculties it gives no new Byas to us but leaves us perfectly in a state of Nature and only enables us to do that which we should do of our selves without any such Co-operation of God could we act without it But in the Government of Mankind God exercises a very different Power over the minds of men He changes the Hearts and Counsels of men imprints new thoughts upon their Minds claps a new byas upon their Wills and Affections the Hearts of Princes are in his hands and he turneth them as Rivers of Waters He renews and sanctifies Good men by his Spirit enlightens their Understandings changes their Wills inspires them with Divine Affections He gives up Bad men to the impostures of wicked spirits to their own affected Ignorance Blindness Inconsideration to the Obstinacy and Perverseness of their own Wills and to the Empire of their Lusts. Every one must perceive that this is a very different thing from God's co-operating with our Natural Faculties to will and to understand for that makes no change in our Natural Understandings and Wills but only enables them to act but this improves and heightens and regulates our Faculties enlarges our Knowledge and rectifies our Choice and directs and governs our Passions and yet these things have not been well distinguished which has very much obscured and perplexed the Doctrines both of Providence and Grace as I shall now shew you For having thus briefly explained the difference between a Preserving and Governing Providence that this may not be thought a more subtil than useful Speculation it will be necessary to shew you of what great use this is to answer some of the greatest Difficulties in the Doctrine of Providence Now as the foundation of all I shall ask but one thing which every man must grant That it becomes God to preserve the Creatures which he has made to uphold them in being and to actuate their Natural Powers as far as is necessary to enable Creatures to perform those Natural Actions which their Natures are fitted and made for If it became the Wisdom and Goodness of God to make Creatures with such Powers and Faculties of acting it becomes him also to preserve their Beings and Natures and Powers of Action To Make is to give a Being and Nature to that which was nothing to Preserve is only to continue its Being and to enable it to act according to its nature and therefore we must either approve or disapprove of both alike Let us then lay down this as an acknowledged Principle That we must not quarrel with the Providence of God for any thing which is a mere Act of Preservation not an Act of Government For to uphold the being and nature and operations of all things is no fault whatever evil consequences may attend it and therefore those who have a mind to quarrel at Providence must find some fault if they can in God's government of Creatures not in the Acts of Preservation and this easily answers some of the most difficult Objections against Providence As for instance Since no Creature can move or act or do any thing without the Concourse and Co-operation of God some are wonderfully puzled to give an account why God should co-operate with any Creature in sinful Actions Why God should actuate mens Understandings and Wills and their other natural Powers and Faculties when he certainly knows that if he enables them to act they will act wickedly they will chuse that which is wicked and will execute their wicked Designs That if they have the exercise of their Natural Powers they will defile themselves with Adultery and Drunkenness and Theft or Murther and all manner of Wickedness And how can a holy God co-operate in all the Wickedness which is committed When men do wickedly by the Power and Co-operation of God without which they can do nothing how does the Sin come to be the man's when the Action is God's as done by his immediate Power I shall not trouble you with other Answers which are commonly given to this Difficulty for what I have now discoursed gives a plain and easy solution to it For all this however it be represented comes to no more than God's preserving the Natures of Creatures and actuating their Natural Powers to perform the Offices of Nature and if this be such a fault as intitles God to all the Wickedness they commit the original Fault is in making such Creatures for if it were no fault to make them it can be no fault to preserve their Natures Does it become the Wisdom of God to make Creatures who must act dependently on himself and to deny them the natural Powers of acting which is to unmake them again And if this does not become the Wisdom of God then it can be no fault in God to co-operate with the natural Powers of men even in their sinful Actions nor any more intitle God to their Sins than his making Creatures with such natural Powers For to preserve their Natures and to actuate their natural Powers is no more a cause of their Sin than to make such Natures and such natural Powers To represent this as plainly as I can Let us suppose that God had created Man with a natural power to act without needing such a perpetual concourse and co-operation to enable him to act would this charge God with the Sins of men because they act even when they sin by a power derived from him in their first Creation If this makes God the Author of Sin then God can't make a Creature who is capable of sinning by the abuse of its natural Powers without being the Author of Sin which is too absurd for any thinking man to say And yet if it does not How does God's perpetual concourse and co-operation with Creatures to enable them to act and to exert their natural Powers make God the Author of Sin for this is no more than a natural power to act and it makes no difference whether this natural power be given once for all as an inherent Power in Creatures or be supplied every minute for both ways the Power is the same and equally derived from God and if the natural power of acting charges God with
not to have made an Immortal Creature who could sin and be miserable for ever I shall conclude this whole Argument with some few Inferences 1. If Creatures must be preserved as well as made by God then the present continuance and preservation of all things is a visible Argument of the Being of God Some men will not believe that God made the world because they did not see him make it but they see a world preserved when there is no one thing in the world more able to preserve than to make it self and who then is it that preserves this world and all things in it This must be a work of Reason and Wisdom as well as Power and the only reasonable Creature in this visible world is Man and Man cannot preserve himself and knows that he can preserve nothing else and therefore the Preservation of all things must be owing to some Invisible Cause whom we call GOD. 2. If we live and move and have our being in God we are entirely his and owe all homage and obedience to him for he did not only make us but we have our constant dependance on him we live and subsist in him Had he only made us at first that had given him a title to us for ever but could we have lived without him when he had made us tho it had not been a less fault yet it had been less foolish and absurd to have lived without any notice or regard of him as some ungrateful persons deal by their Friends and Patrons when they have set them up in the world and enabled them to live by themselves but to forget that God in whom we live who preserves and upholds us in being every moment is to affront a present Benefactor if we value being and tho we cannot tempt God by this to let us fall into nothing yet we shall make it just for him to punish us to preserve us in being to feel the weight of his Wrath and Vengeance which is infinitely worse for happy had it been for such a man that he had never been born 3. For if he not only made but upholds and preserves us in being he must be our Sovereign Lord and Governor for no other has any original and absolute interest in us we are in his hands and none can take us out of them nor touch us but by his order To give being and to preserve it is the foundation of all other acts of Government no other Being has a Right to govern no other Power can govern He alone can give Laws can reward or punish can govern Nature can direct over-rule controul all other Powers for all things are in his hands and therefore he commands them all 4. And this may convince us how irresistible the Divine Power is for all the power of Creatures is derived from him and depends on him as Light does on the Sun and therefore they can have no power against him and what distraction then is it to provoke that Almighty God whom we cannot resist Humble thy self Sinner before thy Maker thy Preserver and thy Judge obey his Will to whose Power thou must submit let him be thy Fear and thy Dread thy only Fear for thou needest fear none else all Power is his none can resist him none can act without him he sets bounds to the Raging of the Sea to the Fury of Princes to the Madness of the People Thou art safe in his hands safe in obedience to his Will but thou canst never escape him never flie from him never defend thy self against him for thou livest in him 5. This also proves that God must see and know all our actions for we live and move in him He is always present with us privy to our most secret thoughts and counsels observes all our wandrings sees us in all our retirements There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves This the Scripture in express words teaches and the reason of the thing speaks it for if we cannot think nor move nor subsist without God he must be always intimately present with us which should possess us with a constant Awe and Reverence of his Pure and All seeing Eye CHAP. III. Concerning God's Governing Providence NEXT to Preservation as that signifies God's upholding all things in being and preserving and actuating their Natural Powers we must consider God's Government of the world for God is the Supreme and Sovereign Lord of the world who doth whatsoever pleaseth him both in heaven and in earth and therefore the Absolute Government of all things must be in his hands or else something might be done which he would not have done This all men grant in general words who own a Providence but when they come to particulars there are so many excepted cases which they will hardly allow God to have any thing to do in that they seem to mean little more by God's Government than a general Inspection of Human Affairs his looking on to see the World govern it self for three parts of four of all that is done in the world they resolve into bare Permission as distinguish'd from an Ordering and Disposing Providence and then it can signifie no more than that God does not hinder it and if this be all God governs the world in such cases no more than men do The only difference is that God can hinder when he don 't but men don't hinder because they can't but still merely not to hinder does not signifie to govern But rightly to understand this matter the best way is to consider how the Scripture represents it and because there are great variety of acts in the government of the world of a very different consideration I shall distinctly enquire into God's government of Causes and his government of Events 1. God's government of Causes and we must consider three sorts of Causes and what the Scripture attributes to God with respect to each 1. Natural Causes 2dly Accidental Causes or what we call Chance and Accident and Fortune 3dly Moral Causes and free Agents or the government of mankind 1. Natural Causes or God's Government of the Natural World of the Heavens and Earth and Seas and Air and all things in them which move and act by a Necessity of Nature not by Choice Now the Scripture does not only attribute to God all the Vertues and Powers of Nature which belongs to Creation and to a Preserving Providence but the direction and government of all their Natural Influences to do what God has a mind should be done God does in some measure govern the Moral by the Natural World he rewards or punishes men by a wholsome or pestilential air by fruitful or barren seasons he hinders or promotes their designs by winds and weather by a forward or a backward Spring and makes Nature give Laws to men and set bounds to their Passions and Intriegues to overthrow the most powerful Fleets and Armies to defeat the wisest Counsels
and to arbitrate the Differences of Princes and the Fate of Men and Kingdoms And if God govern men by Nature he must govern Nature too for necessary Causes cannot be fitted to the government of free Agents without the direction and management of a Divine Providence which guides exerts or suspends the Influences of Nature with as great freedom as men act Men do not always deserve well or ill and if the kind or malign Influences of Nature must be tempered to mens deserts to punish them when they do ill and to reward them when they do well Natural Causes which of themselves act necessarily without Wisdom or Counsel must be guided by a Wise Hand Thus reason tells us it must be if God govern the world and God challenges to himself this Absolute and Sovereign Empire over Nature God has bestowed different Vertues and Powers on Natural Causes and in ordinary cases makes use of the Powers of Nature and neither acts without them nor against the Laws of Nature which makes some unthinking men resolve all into Nature without a God or a Providence because excepting the case of Miracles which they are not willing to believe they see every thing else done by the Powers of Nature and if it were not so God had made a World and made Nature to no purpose to do every thing himself by an immediate Power without making use of the Powers of Nature But the ordinary government of Nature does not signifie to act without it or to over-rule its Powers but to steer and guide its motions to serve the Wise Ends of his Providence in the government of Mankind For as God does not usually act without Nature nor against its Laws so neither does Nature act by steady and uniform motions without the direction of God But while every thing in the material world acts necessarily and exerts its Natural Powers God can temper suspend direct its Influences without reversing the Laws of Nature As for instance Fire and Water Wind and Rain Thunder and Lightning have their Natutral Vertues and Powers and Natural Causes and God produces such effects as they are made to produce by their Natural Powers he warms us with Fire invigorates the earth by the benign Influences of the Sun and Moon and other Stars and Planets refreshes and moistens it with Springs and Fountains and Rain from Heaven fans the Air with Winds and purges it with Thunders and Lightnings and the like but then when and where the Rains shall fall and the Winds shall blow in what measure and proportion times and seasons Natural Causes shall give or withhold their Influences this God keeps in his own Power and can govern without altering the standing Laws of Nature and this is his government of Natural Causes in order to reward or punish men as they shall deserve Thus God reasons with Iob concerning his Power and Providence 38. Job 31 32 c. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons knowest thou the ordinances of heaven or canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds that abundance of waters may cover thee canst thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee here we are This is above Human Power but belongs to the Government and Providence of God Fire and hail snow and vapour and stormy winds fulfil his word 148. Psal. 8. Sometimes God restrains the influences of Nature shuts up heaven that it shall not rain 2 Chr. 7. 13. At other times he calls to the clouds that abundance of water may cover the earth He gives the former and the latter rain in its season and preserveth to us the appointed weeks of harvest 5. Jer. 24 as he promised to Israel 11 Deut 14 15. I will give you the rain of your land in his due season the first rain and the latter rain that thou mayst gather in thy corn and thy wine and thy oyl and I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle that thou mayst eat and be full He prescribes in what proportions it shall rain 2. Joel 23 24. Be glad ye children of Sion and rejoyce in the Lord your God for he hath given you the former rain moderately and he will cause to come down for you the former rain and the latter rain in the first month Nay God appoints on what place it shall rain 34. Ezek. 26. And I will make thee and the places round about my hill a blessing and I will cause the shower to come down in his season there shall be showers of blessing 4. Amos 7 8. And also I have withholden the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city One piece was rained upon and the piece whereupon it rained not withered So two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water but they were not satisfied It is impossible to give any tolerable account of such Texts as these without confessing That God keeps the Direction and Government of all Natural Causes in his own hands for particular Effects and all the Changes of Nature can never be attributed to God unless the Divine Wisdom and Counsel determines Natural Causes to the producing such particular Effects Great part of the Happiness or Miseries of this Life is owing to the good or bad Influences of Natural Causes that if God take care of Mankind he must govern Nature and when he promises Health and Plenty or threatens Pestilence and Famine how can he make good either if he have not reserved to himself a Soveraign Power over Nature The sum is this That all Natural Causes are under the immediate and absolute Government of Providence that God keeps the Springs of Nature in his own hand and turns them as he pleases For meer Matter though it be endowed with all Natural Vertues and Powers which necessarily produce their Natural Effects yet it having no wisdom and counsel of its own cannot serve the Ends of a Free Agent without being guided by a Wise Hand and we see in a thousand Instances what an Empire Human Art has over Nature not by changing the nature of things which Human Art can never do but by such a skilful application of Causes as will produce such Effects as unguided and if I may so speak untaught Nature could never have produced and if God have subjected material Nature to Human Art surely he has not exempted it from his own Guidance and Power This shews how necessary it is that God by an immediate Providence should govern Nature for Natural Causes are excellent Instruments but to make them useful they must be directed by a Skilful Hand and those various Changes which are in Nature especially in this Sublunary World which we are
therefore are not Absolute themselves Now reason tells us That a Will which has a Superior Will and Law is not it self unerring Rectitude and Justice and therefore may deviate from what is right and just as experience tells us such Absolute Wills very often do and when the Will can chuse wrong the Power which is the Minister of such an erring Will must do wrong also But now reason tells us that the Supreme Will must be the Supreme Law that is Perfect and Absolute Justice and therefore can no more will any thing that is unjust than Justice it self can be unjust and if this Absolute and Soveraign Will be Absolute Power Absolute Power must be perfectly Just and Good as being inseparable from Perfect Justice And therefore the Absolute Power of God can no more do any wrong than his Absolute Will can chuse it 2. Nay if we do but consider the Nature of truly Absolute Power which can do whatever it will this alone may satisfy us That God who is this Supreme Powerful Being can neither will nor do any wrong For if we consider things well we shall plainly see that tho some degree of Power is required to enable men to do wrong yet it is always want of Power which tempts them to do wrong There are two visible Causes of all the Injustice that is committed in the world and both of them are the effects of weakness 1. That men want Power to do what they have a mind to do without doing some wrong or injury to others 2. That men are overpowered by their own passions to do what they know they ought not to do and which they would not do had they the perfect Government of themselves As for the first Is there any man in the world who is not a perfect bruit who does not wish that it were lawful for him to do what he has a mind to and that he might have what he desires to have without offering Violence or Injury to any body Would not a Thief much rather chuse to find a Treasure than to take a Purse upon the Road Would not an Ambitious and Aspiring Monarch rather chuse That all Princes should resign their Crowns to him and all Nations become his Subjects than to be forced to win their Crowns by his Sword and to make bloody Conquests with the lamentable Ravage and Spoils of flourishing Countries Do not men intend to supply some real or imaginary want in all the Injuries they do And does not this suppose weakness and want of Power to want any thing else For is it possible for Absolute Power to want So impossible is it for Absolute Power to do any Injury He who is the sole Lord and Proprietor of the world as he is and must be whose Power is Supreme and Absolute He whos 's all Creatures are and whose Wisdom and Power can accomplish whatever he would have done without doing the least Injustice can never be tempted to injure his own Creatures nor can ever want any thing which should tempt him to do an Injury and therefore Absolute Power must be Absolute Justice 2dly All the Injuries that are done are owing to the Lusts and Passions of men which are the weaknesses even of Human Nature when they are not under the government of Reason No man does any Injury but to gratifie some Lust or Passion and that is a weak and impotent mind where Passion reigns Reason is the Strength and Vigor of the Mind and a man who lives by Reason never does any Injury but through mistake which is the weakness of Reason But now Absolute Power is not an external adventitious thing but is a Powerful Nature and a Powerful Nature is all Power and there can be no place for the Rule and Empire of Passion and if it be one Passion or other which always does the Injury Absolute Power which is void of Passion can do none Excepting a Divine Love which is the true Image of the Divine Nature and never does any Injury and ought not to be reckoned among the Passions all our other Pasons are the effects of weakness and are Arguments of a weak limited and confined Nature Desire and Hope prove that we want something which we cannot certainly bestow upon our selves Fear is a sense of danger which argues want of Power to defend our selves Anger and Revenge is a resentment of some Injuries we have received and that argues want of Power to suffer Injuries Hatred and Malice are but greater degrees of Anger and Revenge and the greater they are the greater sense they argue of Fear and Danger of Injuries either expected or received These are the Passions which do all the mischief that is done in the world and it is demonstrable that Absolute Power is not capable of these injurious Passions can neither desire nor hope nor fear can suffer no Wants nor Injuries nor have any sense or resentment of them and therefore there is no danger it should do any Injury it is acted by calm and steady Wisdom which is unerring Justice too which never did and never can do any injury It is true some of these Passions are in Scripture attributed to God such as Anger Fury Hatred Revenge for the Scripture speaks of God after the manner of men but then all that this signifies is That God will be as severe in his Judgments as Anger and Revenge is tho it is not Passion in God but a Wise and Cool and Equal Justice which punishes which may be as severe as Anger and Revenge but never partial or unjust 3. Nay we may observe That Power it self is a Great and Generous Principle and inspires men with Great and Noble Thoughts Those whose Power secures them from receiving any hurt are never tempted to do any Power which is Cruel Insolent Mischievous is always conscious of its own weakness and danger for it is commonly weakness and fear which makes men cruel but a Power which knows it self out of danger out of the reach of envy and ill-will is always a very generous Adversary never insults over a prostrate Enemy for such great Power makes all its Enemies the objects of Pity or Scorn and then they cease to be the objects of Revenge And if Power that little Power which men have gives them such a Greatness of Mind as sets them above Affronts and Resentments and sense of Injuries if this be so natural to Power that it is always expected from men in Power That they should have a Greatness and Generosity of Mind proportioned to their Power That it is a Reproach to them when it is not so and makes them despised and scorned and hated with all their Power What then may we expect from the Perfect and Absolute Power of God We may fear his Justice but have no reason to fear his Power Justice will punish sinners but his Power will never oppress for that is below his Power that is too mean and base a thing for
Prerogative Acts and signifies to us That we must seek no farther for the Reasons of such things than the Sovereign Will of God as a Sovereign Prince while he keeps within the Legal Exercise of his Prerogative needs give no other account of it but that it is his Will and Pleasure But there are some men who will not be so civil to God as they are to a Sovereign Prince to take his sole Will and good Pleasure for a satisfactory reason of any thing but quarrel about these Prerogative Acts and ask a great many foolish Questions and make a great many impertinent Objections even against the exercise of a Free and Sovereign Goodness Now in truth this is to deny God the Rights of a Sovereign to demand a Reason of him beyond his own Will for the Acts of pure Sovereignty but yet I will grant these men That tho in all such Cases we must ask no other reason but the mere Will of God yet God never does any thing for mere Will and Pleasure in the sense that some men do but has always wise and hidden Reasons which we cannot comprehend And tho they will not allow the unsearchable Wisdom of God a just satisfaction to other Objections yet methinks where they ought to demand no other reason but the Will of God it should abundantly satisfy them to know That tho this Will of God is Sovereign and Unaccountable it is always guided by Infinite and Infallible Wisdom That you may the better understand this I shall give you some Instances of it in the Prerogative Acts of Goodness and Justice Goodness indeed is essential to the Notion of a God but yet there are some Sovereign Acts of Goodness which no creature could challenge from God which God might not have done and yet have been very good and why God exercises such Free and Prerogative Acts of Goodness must be resolved wholly into the good Pleasure of his own Will This is the account the Scripture gives us of that Mysterious Goodness in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ which is therefore every where in Scripture called Grace and Free Grace and the Love of God and the Will of God as Christ tells us That he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him And the whole Oeconomy of our Redemption is called the purpose of him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will And thus is every part of our Redemption as our New-Birth Of his own will he hath begotten us The Gifts of the Holy Ghost were bestowed upon the Apostles according to his own will God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure All which signifies no more but this That these are such Prerogative Acts of Goodness as we must seek for no other reason of but the Sovereign Will and good Pleasure of God Now in such Sovereign Acts of Goodness as these the time and manner and other circumstances and the rules and methods of administration are all perfectly free and voluntary where God has not bound up himself by Covenant and Promise and therefore we must satisfy our selves that God has very wise Reasons for what he does but must not critically examine whether every thing be done in the best manner that we can think on which would put an end to a great many foolish Enquiries with which men perplex themselves and disparage the Mysteries of our Salvation As Why God sent Christ into the world for the Salvation of Mankind Whether there was no other possible way to save sinners or whether this were absolutely the best Why God sent Christ so late into the world in the last days when it grew near its end and so many Generations of men had perished in ignorance and wickedness before his Appearance Why so great a part of the world to this day have never heard of Christ And a great many other such like Questions as these To all which it is sufficient to reply That our Redemption by Christ is an act of Sovereign Grace and therefore we must enquire no farther than the Will of God Had God never sent Christ into the world nor preached the Gospel to any one Nation we should have had no reason to complain for he did not owe such a Saviour to sinners and therefore we have less reason to complain of the time of his coming into the world and that his Gospel is not universally received by mankind Sovereign Grace is free and unaccountable and we need not doubt but that such stupendious Goodness is administred by as unsearchable Wisdom and it is reasonable for us to acquiesce in the belief of God's unerring Wisdom especially in such cases where we have no right to enquire beyond his Will When we receive all from God without his owing us any thing it is a good answer St. Paul gives Who hath first given unto him and it shall be recompensed to him again for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Thus the Divine Justice requires that God should punish obstinate and incorrigible sinners but then he executes Justice with a Free and Sovereign Authority that is he is not confined to time and place and manner of punishing sinners as the Inferior Ministers of Justice are but when men have made themselves vessels of wrath fitted for destruction then God may punish sooner or later publickly or privately and in what manner he pleases without giving any other reason for it but his own Will God has more reasons of punishing Sinners in this world than merely to take Vengeance of their sins and therefore he punishes them in such a manner as may best serve the ends of his Providence as may most advance his own Name and Glory and do most good in the world Thus God tells Pharaoh For this cause have I raised thee up that is either advanced thee to the Throne or preserved thy Life thus long in the midst of all the Plagues I have brought upon thy Land for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth that is to take such a remarkable Vengeance on thee as may make all the earth confess my Glory Would men but allow God the Authority of a Sovereign who can Spare and Reprieve nay Pardon in this world without the imputation of Injustice it would answer all the Cavilling Objections against Providence which relate to the Punishments of bad men God might then be allowed to execute speedy Vengeance upon some sinners and to delay the Punishment of others and to suffer them to be prosperous for a great while without giving any other reason for it than his own Will and Pleasure God hath always wise Reasons for these things tho we do not always know them but if the Sovereignty of God will justify all this without any other
mens Lusts for did not all Mankind suffer by one another's sins I doubt neither good nor bad men would be so zealously concerned to punish and suppress Vice and therefore the Divine Providence could not have taken a more effectual course to discourage Wickedness than to make all Mankind sensible of the evil of sin by making them all at one time or other feel the evil of sin in what they suffer by their own or other mens sins For were all men convinced and it is strange that their own sense and feeling will not convince them that all the evils and miseries of life are owing to sin and that it is impossible to be happy without reforming themselves and others as far as they can what more powerful Argument could Providence offer to us to reform the world There are another sort of Calamities and very terrible ones too which those who believe a Providence can attribute to nothing else but the just Judgment and Vengeance of God upon a wicked world Such as Plague and Pestilence and Famine Deluges and Earthquakes which destroy Cities and Countries and more ordinary Accidents when they act in such an extraordinary manner as if they were directed and guided by an unseen hand A great many such Instances are recorded in Scripture and expresly ascribed to the Judgment of God God has threatned such Judgments in Scripture and therefore when we see them executed we must conclude That they are inflicted by God as the just Punishment of Sin Nay those very evils and miseries which we suffer by other mens sins are in Scripture attributed to God who has the Supreme Disposal of all Events For as I observed before it is not sufficient proof that these Judgments are not ordered by God that we can find some immediate Causes for them that some of them are owing to Natural Causes others to Men others to some surprizing and unusual or it may be usual Accidents for whoever believes a Divine Providence does not therefore believe that God does every thing immediately by his own Power without the Ministry of any Second Causes either Natural or Free Agents or what we call Accidents but he is only obliged to believe That God governs all Second Causes to produce such Effects as he sees fit That all Nature moves at God's Command That fire and hail snow and vapours wind and storm fulfil his word 148. Psal. 8. v. That both good and bad men are under his Government and the Ministers of his Providence and that what seems perfect Chance to us is directed by his Wisdom and Counsel and then whatever evils we suffer and whatever the immediate Causes of them be we must ascribe them all to God especially when the same kind of Judgments which had the same kind of immediate Causes are attributed to God in Scripture it is reason enough for us whenever such Judgments befal us to ascribe them to the Providence of God But I need not dispute here Whether all those Evils and Calamities which befal sinners are ordered and appointed by God for till they can prove à priori by direct and positive Arguments That there is no God nor a Providence which none of our Modern Atheists pretend to do while they dispute only by way of Objection they must prove that things are not so ordered as they ought to have been ordered did God govern the world and if we can prove that they are their Objection is answered Now with respect to my present Argument to vindicate the Holiness of Providence it is plain beyond all contradiction that things are so ordered for the discouragement of Wickedness and the encouragement of Vertue as if they had been so ordered on purpose by the greatest Wisdom and the most perfect Holiness and therefore we have reason to believe that they were so ordered by a Wise and a Holy Providence As far then as to command and encourage all Holiness and Vertue and to forbid and discourage all Wickedness and Vice is a Proof of the Holiness of Providence I hope I have sufficiently cleared this Point and I must desire you to observe That these are direct and positive Proofs such as every man may understand and cannot avoid the evidence of and therefore are not to be shaken by every Difficulty objected against them For our knowledg is so imperfect that there is nothing almost which we so certainly know but is liable to such Objections as we cannot easily and satisfactorily answer but one plain positive Proof is a better Reason to believe any thing than a hundred Objections against it are not to believe it because since it is confessed on all hands that our knowledg is very imperfect it is no reason to disbelieve what we do know and what we are as certain of as we can be of any thing because there are some things relating to the same subject which we do not know and therefore unless the Objection be as positive and evident as the proof is and I am sure there are no such Objections against the Holiness of Providence we may very reasonably acknowledge that there are some difficulties which we do not understand and yet may very reasonably believe on as we did 2dly Let us now consider What the Holiness of God's Providence and Government does not require of him And I shall name but one thing which some men make a great Objection against Providence viz. That there is so much Sin and Wickedness daily committed in the World Now if the being of Sin in the World or if the Wickedness of men were irreconcilable with the Holiness of Providence this were an unanswerable Objection against it for it cannot be denied but that Mankind are very wicked But what consequence is there in this that God can't be Holy nor his Providence Holy because Men are wicked We may as well prove that there is no God because there is a Devil Such conceits as these tempted some ancient Hereticks to assert Two Principles a Good and a Bad God because they thought that if there were but one God and he very good there could be no such thing as evil in the World But would any man think this a good Argument against the Holiness of a Prince and his Government that he has many Wicked Subjects and how then do the Sins of men come to be an Argument against the Holiness of Providence To state this in a few words When we speak of God's permitting Sin we either mean the internal or the external Acts of Sin 1. The internal Act of sin which is nothing else but the choice of the Will When men chuse that which is wicked and fully resolve and purpose as they have opportunity to do it This is the sin this makes us guilty before God who knows our hearts though Human Laws can take no cognizance of it as our Saviour tells us He that looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his
never become a Holy God to infuse hardness into mens hearts yet when men have hardened themselves and will abuse all the Wise methods of Providence to harden themselves and are now ripe for destruction it very much becomes a Just and Righteous God to exercise them with such Providences as he knows will still harden them till they make themselves such infamous examples of Wickedness as may deserve a more glorious and exemplary Vengeance Which is another thing to be considered in the case of Pharaoh and very necessary to the full understanding this difficult case of God's hardening mens hearts God had peremptorily decreed not only to deliver Israel but to punish Egypt both King and People for the cruel oppression of Israel And therefore he might without any more solemnity have destroyed Pharaoh his People and Land and have carried Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand But when they had deserved to be Punished and Destroyed and God had resolved to Punish them the manner of their Punishment was at the free disposal of the Divine Wisdom and therefore he chose to Punish them in such a way as might make the Glory and Power of the God of Israel known to the World And this is the very account which God himself gives why he took such a course with Pharaoh as he foresaw would harden and confirm him in his resolutions of not parting with Israel when he could have forced him at the expence of fewer Miracles to have sent them away if he had so pleased I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them 7. Exod. 3 4 5. The same thing he tells Pharaoh I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth For now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the earth And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up have all this time preserved thee and not cut thee off for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth 9. Exod. 14 15 16. And this reason God gives why he hardened Pharaoh's heart to pursue Israel I will be honoured upon Pharaoh and upon all his host that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord 14. Exod. 4. This is diligently to be observed to vindicate the Holiness and Justice of Providence For though God infuses no hardness into mens hearts yet if he exercise them with such Providences as he foresees will harden them and does this with an intention and design to harden them this signifies his Will to harden them and such a moral Efficiency in using hardening Providences as will as certainly harden them as if he had infused hardness into them And this makes little difference whether God hardens men by external Providences or by an internal Operation on their minds when he intends such Providences to harden them and knows that they will effectually do it Now I readily grant that tho God infused no hardness into Pharaoh's heart nor did any thing which unbecomes a holy God to do yet he did intend to harden him and did intend to harden him on purpose to multiply his Judgments on Egypt and to destroy him and all his Host in the Red Sea for this is so plainly expressed that we cannot deny it Nay I readily grant that the Providence of God would be justly chargeable with mens Sins did he without any respect to the merit and desert of the Persons by such insensible methods betray them into sin with an intention to harden them For what man is there of such a firm and constant vertue as to be able to resist all Temptations which a long series of Providences chosen and directed for that purpose by a Divine Wisdom could bring him into But yet when men have sinned themselves into such a hardened state as to deserve to be destroyed and when God is so far provoked by their Sins as to resolve to destroy them it becomes the Wisdom and the Justice of God without any impeachment of his Holiness to harden men by external Events and Appearances not in Sin which can never become a Holy God but in such ruinous Courses as their own wicked hearts betray them to and as will bring inevitable ruin on them And this is the true resolution on this Case 1. That God never hardens any men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them 2. That then he does not harden them in Sin but in such Ruinous Counsels as their own Sins betray them to 3. That all this is done not by the natural or moral efficacy but by their own wicked abuse of the Divine Providence 4. To compleat all When God has thus determined to destroy any Person or People he many times inflicts on them a penal blindness and infatuation not to see the things which concern their peace These four Particulars contain a full and easy account of this perplext Doctrine of God's hardening mens hearts and therefore I shall speak distinctly but briefly to them 1. That God never hardens men till they have deserved and he is resolved to destroy them This must be laid as the foundation of all for by what means soever God hardens men how innocent soever they may appear if he intends to harden them not because they deserve and he has determined to destroy them but only that they may deserve to be destroyed and that he may with some fair appearance of Justice destroy them it would be impossible to satisfy equal and impartial Judges of the Justice and Holiness of Providence But if men have hardened themselves in Sin beyond all the ordinary methods of recovery and have so provoked a good and merciful God that he gives them over to ruin and destruction then by what means soever they are hardened which are not directly sinful there can be no just reason to question either the Justice or Goodness or Holiness of God upon this account For when men have sinned to that degree as to deserve immediate destruction and to provoke God to pass a final Sentence on them God may either immediately destroy them or keep them in that hardened state like condemned Malefactors reserved in Chains for a more publick and solemn Execution And this is all that is meant by God's hardening men and this all mankind must allow to be just and holy This was the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians who
of particular Creatures but of the good of the whole And this in some Cases may make the greatest and most terrible Acts of Severity such as are enough to afright and astonish the World Acts of the greatest Goodness and Mercy too which will vindicate the Goodness of Providence when God seems to be most severe and to have forgot all Goodness and Compassion As to explain this in some particular Cases The good government of the World requires the defence and protection of Mankind from violent and unjust Oppressions and the most exemplary Vengeance executed upon such private or publick Oppressors is a great Act of Goodness and a great deliverance to the Oppressed 136. Psalm the Psalmist exhorts us To give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever And among other Expressions of the Divine Goodness and Mercy he mentions the Plagues of Egypt and the Deliverance of Israel by the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red-Sea To him that smote Egypt in their first-born for his mercy endureth for ever And brought out Israel from among them for his mercy endureth for ever With a strong hand and with a stretched-out arm for his mercy endureth for ever To him which divided the Red-sea into parts for his mercy c. and made Israel to pass through the midst of it but over-threw Pharaoh and his host in the Red-sea for his mercy c. To him who smote great kings and slew famous kings Sihon king of the Amorites and Og the king of Bashan and gave their land for an heritage even for an heritage to Israel his servant for his mercy endureth for ever This ought to be well considered before we object the Evils and Calamities which befall Bad men against the Goodness of Providence For there are few Bad men who suffer any Remarkable Vengeance but that their Sufferings are a great kindness and deliverance to others and it may be to the Publick in breaking their Power or taking them out of the World And in all such Cases the Psalmist has taught us a very proper Hymn I will sing of mercy and judgment unto thee O Lord will I sing 101. Psal. 1. Thus the good government of the World requires some great and lasting Examples of God's Justice and Vengeance against Sin And as terrible as such Examples are they are a great publick Good to the World Some few such Examples as these will serve to warn an Age nay many succeeding Ages and Generations of men which prevents the more frequent Executions of Vengeance and justifies the Patience and Long-suffering of God to Sinners If such Examples in any measure reform the World as God intends they should it makes this World a much happier place for the better men are the less hurt and the more good they will do and the less evil there is committed in the World the less Mankind will suffer and the greater Blessings God will bestow on them And though there be a great deal of Wickedness committed in the World after such Terrible Warnings as these God may exercise great Patience and Forbearance towards Sinners without the least blemish to his Holiness or Justice For such Frightful Executions convince the World of God's Justice and when God has publickly vindicated the Honour of his Justice he may try gentler Methods and glorify his Mercy and Patience towards Sinners And thus God punishes that he may spare is sometimes very terrible in his Judgments to prevent the necessity of striking often that Sinners may have sufficient warning and that he may be good to Sinners without encouraging them in sin Thus the destruction of the Old World by a Deluge of Water when they were past being reformed is a warning to all Sinners as long as this World lasts and is a publick and standing Confutation of Atheism of such Scoffers as say where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation The constant and regular course of Nature without any Supernatural Changes and Revolutions tempts men to think that there is no God in the World who changes Times and Seasons but this St. Peter tells us is visibly confuted by the destruction of the Old World for this they are willingly ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished And this is reason enough to fear and expect what God has threatned That this present World shall be burnt by fire But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 2 Peter 3. 5 6 7. Such Destructions as these can be attributed to no Natural Causes but the same Word which made the World destroyed the Old World by Water and will destroy this by Fire which makes it a visible Demonstration of the Power and Justice of God The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by Fire from Heaven is not only a general Warning to Sinners but an Example of a Divine Vengeance against all Uncleanness and Unnatural Lusts. As St. Iude tells us Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire v. 7. Thus the Destruction of Ierusalem by the Romans which was attended with the most terrible Circumstances that we ever meet with in Story is a lasting Confutation of Infidelity and a glorious Testimony to Christ and his Religion So that most of the terrible Examples of God's Vengeance how terrible soever they were to those who suffered are Acts of great Goodness to the World and therefore belong to the Goodness of Government by some severe Executions to protect and defend the Innocent and reclaim other Offenders without the necessity of terrifying the World in every Age with such repeated Severities Nay we may observe farther That when the World is grown very corrupt and degenerate and such Sinners if they be suffered to continue in it will certainly propagate their Atheism Infidelity and Lewdness to all Posterity it is great Goodness to all succeeding Generations to cleanse the World of its impure Inhabitants by some great Destruction by Sword or Plague or Famine to lessen the number of Sinners and to possess those who escape with a greater awe and reverence of God's Judgments Nay to observe but one thing more Many times these terrible Shakings and Convulsions of the World are intended by God to open some new and more glorious Scene of Providence Thus it was in the Four Empires which preyed upon each other and were at last swallowed up by the Roman Powers though they made great Destructions in the World yet they carried Learning and Civility into
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return 3. Gen. 17 18 19. This was a very severe Sentence which deprived man of Immortality and of the easy and happy life of Paradise condemned him to labour and sorrow while he lived and then to return unto dust and yet the Wisdom as well as Justice of Providence is very visible in it it was not fit that when man had sinned he should be immortal in this World and an industrious and laborious life is the best and happiest state for fallen man as I have elsewhere shown at large We know little more than this of the Antediluvian World till we hear of the general corruption of Mankind That the earth was filled with violence for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth insomuch that it repented the Lord that he had made man upon the earth and it grieved him at his heart 6. Gen. This was so universal a Corruption that there was but one righteous Family left only Noah and his three Sons and therefore God resolved to sweep them all away with an universal Deluge excepting that one righteous Family whom he preserved in the Ark which he appointed Noah to prepare for that purpose The justice of this no man can dispute for if all Flesh corrupt its ways God may as justly destroy a whole world of Sinners as he can punish or cut off any one single Sinner But that which I am now concerned for is to shew the wonderful Wisdom of Providence in the destruction of the Old World by a deluge of Water and rightly to understand this we must consider the several Circumstances of the Story and what God intended by it Now though that wicked Generation of men deserved to be destroyed yet God did not intend to put a final end to this World nor to cut off the whole Race of all Mankind but to raise a new Generation of men from a Righteous Seed and to make the destruction of the Old World a standing Warning and a visible Lesson of Righteousness to the New And a few Observations will satisfy us that nothing could be more wisely designed for this purpose 1. Let us consider the Wisdom of Providence in destroying the Old World without the utter destruction of Mankind It was too soon to put a final end to the World which he had so lately made without reproaching his own Wisdom in making it There had been very little of the Wisdom of Government yet seen but one Act and that concluding in all disorder and confusion and had God left off here and put a final end to the Race of Mankind it had been but a very ill spectacle to the Angelical World to see a whole Species of Reasonable Beings so soon destroyed The Old Serpent who deceived our first Parents would have gloried in his Voctory that he had utterly spoiled and ruined the best part of this visible Creation and even forced God to destroy the most excellent Creature he had made on Earth But God had threatned the Serpent that the Seed of the Woman should break his head and therefore the whole Posterity of Eve must not be destroyed but a Righteous Seed must be preserved to new-people the World But besides this The destruction of the Old World being intended as a warning to the New it was necessary there should be some living Witnesses both of the destruction and the resurrection of the World to assure their Posterity of what they had seen and to preserve the memory of it to all Generations Of which more presently 2dly The Wisdom of God was very visible in delaying so terrible an Execution till there was no remedy To destroy a World carries great horror with it and makes a frightful representation of God if it be not qualified with all the most tender and softning Circumstances And I cannot think of any thing that can justify Providence in it excepting the last Judgment when the Divine Wisdom thinks fit to put a final end to this World but the irrecoverable state of Mankind and the absolute necessity of some new methods of reforming the World And therefore God delayed the destruction of the Old World till all Flesh had corrupted his ways and there was but one Righteous Family left which must be in danger of being corrupted too by the universal wickedness of the Age. However it is certain That though Noah might have preserved his own Integrity and have taught his own Family that Fear and Worship of God yet he could do no good upon the rest of the World he was a Preacher of Righteousness but his Sermons had no effect It is generally concluded by the Ancients that he was an hundred years in building the Ark and all this while he gave visible warning to them of the approaching Deluge Now when it was impossible by any ordinary means to put a stop to the wickedness of Mankind what remained but to destroy that corrupt and incurable Generation and to preserve righteous Noah and his Sons to propagate a new Generation of men and to train them up in the fear and worship of God Had he delayed a little longer the whole World might have been corrupt without one righteous man in it and then he must either have maintained or preserved a World of Atheists and profligate Sinners or must have destroyed them all But it more became the Divine Wisdom when Religion was reduced to one Family to defer Vengeance no longer while he had one righteous Family to save to preserve the Race of Mankind and to restore lost Piety and Vertue to the World 3dly The Wisdom of Providence in destroying the Old World is very visible in the manner of doing it 1st For first it was a Miraculous and Supernatural Destruction and therefore an undeniable evidence of the Power and Providence of God There are no visible Causes in Nature to do this and therefore it must be done by a Power Superior to Nature Some men think it sufficient to disparage the Mosaical Account of the Deluge if they can prove the natural impossibility of it and others who profess to believe the Story think themselves much concerned to give a Philosophical Account of it without having recourse to Miracles and a Supernatural Power which they say unbecomes Philosophers But if it unbecomes Philosophers to believe Miracles I doubt they will think it very much below them to be Christians which no man can be who does not believe Miracles and if they will allow of Miracles in any case methinks they should make no scruple to attribute the destruction of the World to a Miraculous and Supernatural Power The comfort is the truth of the Story does not depend upon any Philosophical Hypothesis we do not believe that the whole World was drowned because we can tell by what Natural Causes it might be drowned but
have delivered Israel without them for it would argue a great defect in the ordinary methods of Government if God could not at any time save good men and punish and destroy the wicked without a Miracle God can do whatever he pleases by the wise direction and government of natural and moral Causes and therefore does not work Miracles because he needs them to supply the defects of natural Powers but to bear testimony to his own Being and Providence and to give authority to his Ministers and Prophets and we must learn the wisdom of this from the state and condition of the world at that time Mankind at that time were so far from being Atheists that they would worship any thing the meanest and most contemptible Creatures rather than have no God and they were so sensible how much they stood in need of a Divine Providence that one God would not serve them but they wanted as many Gods not only as there were Nations but as they had wants to supply This was a great corruption of the Light of Nature and those Notions of One Supream God imprinted on our minds and proclaimed by the whole visible Creation but yet was so universal and so prevailing that their wisest Philosophers who had better notions of the Deity were not able to resist the Torrent and durst not openly oppose the Worship of those Countrey Gods for fear of a popular Rage and Fury Now when neither the Light of Nature nor the Works of Creation and of a common Providence could secure the belief and worship of the One Supream God what remained but for God to make some more sensible manifestation of himself to the world and let any man consider what more effectual way could have been taken to convince men of the Divine Power and Providence than by Miracles especially such Miracles as are for the deliverance and protection of good men and the punishment and overthrow of the wicked When the Corruption of Mankind is such that they will not learn from Nature there is no way of teaching them but by something which is supernatural and when the beautiful and regular and uniform Order of Nature will not convince men that there is a God at least not that there is One Supream God who made and who governs this World Miracles will Those who will not believe that the World was made or had any Wise and Intelligent Cause must confess that Miracles have a Cause because they see them produced and that that Cause is not Nature because they see them produced without any Natural Cause or against the Laws of Nature nor Chance and Accident because they are done at the command of a Free Agent at the word of a man as all the Signs and Wonders in Egypt were wrought at the word of Moses whose word had no natural vertue and efficacy in it to work Wonders And therefore Miracles certainly prove that there is an Invisible Intelligent Cause who if he did not make the World could have made it if he had pleased for whoever can in any one instance act without or against Nature can create Nature too For to do any thing which Nature cannot do is in that particular to make Nature and he who can make Nature in one instance can do so in all and this is a good reason to believe that the World was made when we know that there is a Cause that can make the World And that Superior Power he exercises over Nature proves that he both can and does govern the World for he has the supream and absolute Government of Nature who can when he pleases give new powers to it or suspend and reverse its Laws So that Miracles are a Supernatural Proof of a Divine Power and Providence and no man who believes that there ever was a true Miracle wrought can be an Atheist and therefore it is no wonder that Atheists are such professed Enemies to the belief of Miracles but it is a great wonder that they can persuade themselves to reject all those Authentick Relations we have of Miracles both from the Law of Moses and from the Gospel of Christ which are the most credible Histories in the world if we look upon them as no more than Histories and have obtained the most universal belief Especially this is very unaccountable in those men who pretend to Deism to acknowledge a God who made the World for cannot that God who made the World and made Nature act without or above or against Nature when he pleases And may it not become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to do this when it is necessary for the more abundant conviction of Mankind who are sunk into Atheism or Idolatry when Signs and Wonders are necessary to awaken men into the sense and belief of God and his Providence which was the case in the days of Moses or to give Authority to Prophets to declare and reveal the Will of God to men which was a reason for Miracles as long as God thought fit to make any new and publick Revelations of his Will when it is as reasonable and credible that God who can when he pleases should some times work Miracles as it is that he should take care to preserve the knowledge of himself and his Will and to restore it when it is lost or to make such new discoveries of his Grace as the fallen state of Mankind requires when I say the thing it self is so credible and so worthy of God what reasonable pretence can there be for rejecting Miracles for which we have the Authority of the best attested History in the World But Atheism was not the Disease of that Age which had run into the other Extreme of Polytheism and Idolatry and therefore though Miracles do prove the Being and Providence of God the Miracles of Moses were principally intended to prove the Glory and Power of the God of Israel that the God of Israel is the One Supream God and that he had chosen Israel for his peculiar People and this he did by doing such things as no other God could do such as made the Egyptian Magicians confess that it was the Finger of God and what more effectual way could be taken to convince the world of One Supream God than such visible demonstrations of an Absolute and Soveraign Power superior to all Those who worshipped a plurality of Gods either had no notion of One Supream God whose Power ruleth over all or if they had yet they believed that this Supream God had committed the care and government of Mankind to inferior Deities whom they therefore worshipped with Divine Honours as the Disposers of their Lives and Fortunes and either paid no worship to the Supream God which was the more general practice or worshipped their Country-gods together with him and that with the most frequent most solemn and pompous Worship Now such great and wonderful Works as these which none of their Country-gods could do was an evident proof that
his Promise does honour to his Truth and Faithfulness but to trust God to chuse our condition for us to do for us either what we desire or what he likes better argues such an entire dependence on God and an absolute resignation to his Will with a perfect assurance of his Wisdom and Goodness that it is impossible a Creature can express a greater veneration for the Divine Perfections I am sure we do not think that any man does us so much honour by taking our word for what we expresly promise to do for him as that man does who commits all his Concernments with a secure confidence to our disposal without knowing what we intend to do But for a more particular explication of this let us consider what this trust in God signifies and what security it gives us 1. What this trust in God signifies since it does not signify an assurance that God will do what we desire what is the meaning of it Now this signifies 1. That all the Good we hope for or expect we expect from God alone that we have no other reliances and dependences but only on God though we justly value the kindness of our Friends and the Patronage and Protection of Princes and powerful Favourites and thank God when he raises up such Friends and Patrons to us yet our entire trust and hope is in God That since we know that all Events are in God's hands we are sure none can help us but by God's appointment and we desire to be at the disposal of none but God and therefore in Scripture our trust in God is always opposed to our trust in men in Princes in Human Counsels Policy or strength It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes 118. Psalm 8 9 Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God they are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright 20. Psalm 6 7 8. All wise men are greatly satisfied and pleased to see the probable means and instruments of their safety and defence because God ordinarily works by means but Good men know that they are but instruments in God's hands and no Wise man puts his trust in the instruments be they never so good but in the Workman Thus much our trust in God must necessarily signifie that we have no reliance but only on God who is the Supreme Disposer of all things that we depend as entirely on him as if there were no second and intermediate Causes which are to be employed and used but not to be the final Objects of our trust 2dly Our trust in God signifies our absolute dependence on the Wisdom Power and Goodness of God to take care of us It is a committing our selves to God putting our selves absolutely into his hands with a full persuasion that he will do what we desire or do what shall be better for us that he will answer our requests or deny them with greater Wisdom and Goodness than he could grant them All men must grant that this is a perfect trust in God and such a trust and dependence as we owe to Providence for if God Govern the World and take care of all his Creatures with infinite Wisdom and Goodness does it not become all reasonable Creatures to give up themselves securely to the Government of Providence If we believe that infinite Wisdom and Goodness takes care of us what need we know any more Would we desire any thing else or can we wish for any thing better than what infinite Wisdom and Goodness can do for us or would we have any thing which infinite Wisdom and Goodness does not think fit to give us This indeed does not give us that security which some men desire that we shall never suffer those particular evils which we fear and which we see coming upon us or that we shall obtain some other blessings which we are passionately fond of but it gives us a much better security than this that we shall have always what is good for us which is more than we can promise our selves should God always grant our own desires This gives us a most profound rest and peace of mind delivers us from all careful and solicitous thoughts for times to come which are many times more terrible than the evils we fear it teaches us to do our Duty with the best prudence and industry we can but to leave all Events to God's disposal to make known our requests to God and to cast all our care upon him for he careth for us It will not make us wholly unconcerned and indifferent whatever happens because the natures of things are not equal or alike indifferent Riches and Poverty Health or Sickness Honour or Disgrace War or Peace Plenty or Famine cannot be alike indifferent to any man who has his senses about him but it will make us quiet and patient under all Events and help us to bear the most adverse Fortune with such an unbroken greatness of mind as is natural to a firm and stedfast Trust and Hope in God This is properly to trust Providence not to trust that God will do every thing for us which we desire which is to command and govern or at least to direct Providence not to trust it but to live securely under the Care and Protection of God without disturbing our selves with unknown and future events in a confident assurance that we are safe and happy in God's hands 2dly Tho our Trust in God does not signify an absolute security what God will do for us yet it is the most certain way to obtain whatever we wisely and reasonably desire of God When we trust in God he reserves to himself a liberty to judge whether it be good for us but if what we desire be good for us our trust and dependence on God will engage Providence on our side Trust in God refers our Causes to him to judge for us and to do what he sees fit and we have God's Word and Promise for it That if we do trust in him he will take care of us that we shall want nothing that is good and shall be delivered from all evil 31. Psal. 21 22. O how plentiful is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee before the sons of men thou shalt hide them privily by thy own presence from the provoking of all men thou shalt keep them secretly in thy Tabernacle from the strife of tongues Thus 37. Psal. 40 41. The salvation of the righteous cometh of the Lord who is also their strength in the time of trouble And the Lord shall stand by them and save them