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
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
upon mount Zion and on Ierusalem I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his proud looks 10. Isai. 5 6 7 12. A great many Examples might be given of this nature but these are sufficient to show what different Intentions God and Men have in the same actions and how easily God can defeat what men intend and accomplish by them his own Wise Counsels which they never thought of When God has no particular Ends of Providence to serve by the Lusts and Passions and evil Designs of men he commonly disappoints them that when they intend evil and imagine a mischievous device they are not able to perform it 21. Psal. 11. Or he turns the evil upon their own heads The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made in the net which they hid is their own foot taken the Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands 9 Psal. 15 16. Or he doubly disappoints their malice not only by defeating the evil they intended but by turning it to the great advantage of those it was intended against which was visible in the case of Haman whose malice against Mordecai and all the Iews for his sake did not only prove his own ruin but the great advancement of Mordecai and the Glory and Triumph of the Iewish Nation Having thus briefly shewn what Government God has both of the Hearts and the Actions of men how easily he can alter their Counsels and manage their Passions make them do what good they never intended and disappoint the evil which they did intend or turn it into good this is a sufficient Demonstration how Absolute the Divine Providence is for he who has such an Absolute Government of Nature of what we call Chance and Fortune and of the Wills and Actions of men can do whatsoever pleaseth him But that we may have the clearer and more distinct apprehension of God's government of mankind to make them the Instruments of his Providence I shall more particularly but very briefly state this matter both with respect to good and to bad men 1. As for Good men there is no difficulty in their case for they are the Ministers of a good and beneficent Providence they do good out of Temper and Inclination and a Habit and Principle of Vertue and out of Reverence to the Divine Laws and are ready to obey every extraordinary impression to excite and determine them to such particular good offices as God thinks fit to employ them in And this is nothing but what is very honourable for God and what becomes good men for to do good is the Glory of Human Nature as well as of the Divine Providence and good men will observe the Laws of Vertue in doing good and while good is done by honest and vertuous means there can be no Objection against Providence 2dly But as Bad men are most difficulty governed so the greatest difficulty is in vindicating Providence in making use of the Ministries of Bad men for it is commonly thought a great blemish to Providence when Glorious and Admirable Designs are brought to pass by the Sins of men Now the Foundation of this Objection is a great mistake as if God could not serve his own Providence by the Sins of men without being the Cause of mens sins for there is no colour nor reasonable pretence of an Objection against God's making the Sins of men serve wise and good ends if he can do this without having any hand in mens sins It is the great Glory of Providence to bring good out of evil and while all the Events of Providence are Just and Righteous and Holy and Wise and such as become a God it is much more admirable to consider that all this should be while there is so much wickedness and disorder in the world The true state of this matter in short is this God never suggests any evil designs to men that is owing to their own wicked hearts or to the Temptations of other wicked men or of wicked Spirits but when men have formed any wicked Designs he sometimes as you have heard changes their purposes or deters them from putting them in execution and when he suffers them to proceed to action he either shamefully disappoints them or serves some wise and good end by what they wickedly do And if Providence consists in the Care and Government of mankind how can God govern mankind better than to permit bad men to do no more hurt than what he can turn to good God does not govern the world by an immediate and miraculous Power but governs men by men and makes them help and defend reward and punish one another and therefore there is no other ordinary way of punishing bad men excepting the Civil Sword which reaches but a few Criminals but to punish them by the Wickedness of other bad men and what can more become the Wisdom and Justice of Providence than to make bad men the Ministers and Executioners of a Divine Vengeance upon each other which is one great End God serves by the Sins of men I 'm sure it is for the great good of the world that God has the government of bad men that they cannot do so much hurt as they would and that the mischief God permits them to do is directed to fall on such persons as either want Correction or deserve Punishment For this is another thing very observable in God's government both of the good and bad actions of men that as in the government of Natural Causes God directs where and when and in what proportion Nature shall exert its Influences that it shall rain upon one City and not upon another so God does not only excite men to do good but directs and determines them where to do it chuses out such persons as they shall do good to and appoints what good they shall do and in what measures and proportions they shall do it And he not only sets bounds to the Lusts and Passions of bad men but when he sees fit to permit their wickedness he directs where the hurt and mischief of it shall light We need no other proof of this but the very Notion of Providence which is God's Care of his Creatures for that requires a particular Application of the good or evil which men do to such particular persons as God thinks fit to do good to or to afflict and punish which is the most material and most necessary exercise both of the Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of Providence For if God suffered men to do good or evil at random without directing them to fit and proper Objects the Fortunes of particular men would depend upon as great a Chance as the mutable Lusts and Passions and Fancies of men The only Use I shall make of this at present is to convince you how perfectly we are in God's hands and how secure we are in his
the Rule of Righteousness to us to give to every man that which is his own and it is the Justice of Government to punish those who invade another's Rights and this is that Justice which the Righteous Lord loves in men and the violation of which he hates So that the Justice of the Divine Nature makes God love Righteousness and Justice and hate all Injustice and Oppression and the Justice of Providence requires that God should punish Injustice and Violence and protect the Just and Innocent as far as the nature and ends of God's Government of the World requires and this the Scripture everywhere declares that God will do That he is angry with the wicked every day That he is a refuge and sanctuary and strong tower and rock of defence to Just and Righteous men Not that every particular bad man who does unjust things shall be immediately punished for his Unjustice nor that every man who has a just and righteous Cause shall be protected from the violence and injustice of the Wicked for the Experience of all the World proves that this never was done and therefore this cannot be the meaning of the Promises and Threatnings of Scripture But there is enough meant by it to vindicate the Justice of Providence in this World to be a support to good men and a terror to the wicked 1. For first it signifies That in the ordinary course of Providence where there is nothing but the justice or injustice of the Cause to be considered God will favour a just and righteous Cause There may be other wise Reasons why God may suffer a just Cause to be oppressed and Injustice to be prosperous and we ought to believe that there are always wise Reasons for it when God does suffer this because we certainly know that God is no favourer of Injustice but he who has a just Cause may for other Reasons deserve to be punished and then God may justly punish him by unjust Oppressors and thus Injustice may be prosperous and Justice oppressed but where the other sins and demerits of the man do not forfeit God's protection of a just Cause the Divine Providence will make a visible distinction between just and unjust 2dly And therefore no man can promise himself the Divine Protection but only when his Cause is just and right Which is the reason why the Psalmist as you have already heard so often pleads his own innocence and integrity and the righteousness of his Cause to move God to save and defend him For God has promised his protection upon no other terms and whenever Injustice prospers it is not in favour to the unjust man or his unjust Cause but in punishment to others whom God thinks fit to correct and chastise by such injustice Tho wickedness may prosper for a while there is no way to obtain the Divine Favour and Protection but by doing good for a Righteous God can have no favour for an unjust Cause and therefore if we believe that God governs the World we must expect his protection only in the ways of Righteousness and this will give us a secure hope and dependance on God That we shall not be ashamed while we have respect unto all his commandments 3dly And for the same Reason though Injustice may prosper for a time no unjust man can be secure from a Divine Vengeance God does not always punish bad men as soon as they deserve it but sometimes he does and he is always angry with them and therefore they are always in danger God is angry with the wicked every day if he turn not he will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death he hath ordain'd his arrows against the persecutors 7. Psalm 11 12 13. 4thly And therefore though every particular good man be not rewarded nor every bad man punish'd in this World yet the Divine Providence furnishes us with numerous Examples of Justice both in the protection and defence of good men and in the punishment of the wicked This is so notoriously known that no man can deny it That besides the ordinary Miseries and Calamities of Sinners which are the natural and necessary effects and rewards of their Sins and make them the scorn and the pity of Mankind God does very often execute very remarkable Judgments upon remarkable Sinners which bear the evident Tokens and Characters of a Divine Vengeance on them and does appear as wonderfully for the preservation of just and good men in a Righteous Cause Both Sacred and Prophane Story and our own observation may furnish us with many Examples of both kinds which are sufficient to vindicate the Justice of Providence and the truth of those Promises and Threatnings which are made in Scripture 2dly The better to understand that Account the Scripture gives us of the Justice of Providence I observe That the protection and defence of Providence is never promised in Scripture merely to a just and righteous Cause but only to just and righteous and good men This is not commonly observed and yet as soon as it is named it is so evident that it needs no proof and the consequence of it is very considerable We cannot indeed separate a just and righteous Man from a righteous Cause for as far as he is engaged in an unjust Cause he is an unjust Man but if the Divine Protection be promised to the righteous Man not to the righteous Cause then a righteous Cause may be oppressed when the man has no right to God's Protection without any impeachment either of the Righteousness or Justice of God Which shews the difference as I observed before between the Justice of Providence and the Justice of Human Governments The Justice of Human Governments considers mens Rights the Justice of Providence considers their moral Deserts Human Justice defends bad men in their just Rights the Divine Justice which is supreme and absolute has no regard to Human Rights when the men deserve to be punished For God challenges to himself such an absolute right and propriety in all things as to give or take them away when he pleases And therefore he threatens Israel by the Prophet Hosea that since they had served Baal with the Corn and Wine and Oyl and Silver and Gold which he gave them Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof and my wine in the season thereof and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness 2. Hos. 8 9. The 26. Levit. contains the Promises and Threatnings to Israel and the Condition of both is their keeping or transgressing his Laws and Statutes and Commandments if they observed his Laws he would bestow all good things on them if they transgressed his Laws he would take them all away without any regard to their Rights or Properties Among other Judgments he threatens them to deliver them into the hands of their Enemies who should oppress
than the Creation of a New World would be But had God destroyed the whole Race of men and created a new Man to inhabit the New World this would have argued some defect in the first Creation for there can be no pretence for destroying Man to make him again but a design to make him better to correct that in a second trial which Experience had discovered to be faulty in the first But though the wisdom of Government will admit of various Trials and Experiments the Wisdom of Creation wont The Government of free Agents must be accommodated to their Natures and Dispositions not only to what God made them but to what they make themselves and therefore the Methods of Government must change as men change themselves but the Natures of all things are made only by God and if there be any fault in them it is chargeable upon the Divine Wisdom and to make Man and destroy him and make him again would argue a great fault somewhere 2dly I observed also before That to make the destruction of the Old World of any use to propagate Religion and Piety in the New it was necessary that some Inhabitants of the Old World should survive the Deluge to be Witnesses of that Terrible Destruction Had no man survived though God should have created man a-new that new Generation of men could have known nothing of the Deluge but by Revelation whereas God intended a sensible proof of his Power and Providence which Mankind wanted Besides that Revelation which we may suppose God made to Adam of the Creation of the World and his own sense that he himself was but just then made and was the first and the only man upon Earth there are such visible Marks of a Divine Wisdom and Power in the frame of the World as one would think should be sufficient to convince men that the World was made and is preserved and governed by God and yet because no man saw the World made neither Reason nor Revelation can persuade some men that God made the World And is it reasonable then to think that when there are no remaining signs of a Deluge left the belief of a Deluge should for any long time have prevailed in the world without any living Witnesses who saw the Deluge though we should suppose God to have revealed it to new-created man No man could see the Creation of the world because the world must be made before man was made to live in it but though no man saw the world made there were some who saw the destruction which the Deluge made which was as visible a proof of the Divine Power and a much greater proof of a Just and Righteous Providence No man who believes that God destroyed the Old World with a Deluge of Water can doubt whether God made the world and governs it and for this the New World had the testimony of Eye-witnesses which is as sensible a proof of a God and a Providence as we can possibly have 3dly The preservation of Noah and his Sons in the Ark was an evident proof that this Deluge was sent by God God fore-warned Noah of it an hundred years before it came and commanded him to prepare an Ark and gave him directions how to make it Thus much is certain That Noah did know of it before-hand and prepared an Ark which remained as a visible Testimony of the Flood to future Generations Now there being no Natural Causes of the Flood there could be no Natural Prognosticks of it Our Saviour himself observes That there were not the least Symptoms of any such thing till Noah entred into the Ark and therefore Noah had no other way of knowing this but by Revelation and it was so incredible a thing in it self that the rest of Mankind would not believe him though he warned them of it and they saw that he believed it himself by his preparing an Ark for his own safety And if we believe the Account that Moses gives of it that some of all sorts of Living Creatures both the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Air were preserved with Noah in the Ark as we must believe if we believe the Universal Deluge unless we will say that God new-made all Living Creatures after the Flood what account can be given of this that some of all sorts in such numbers as God had appointed and had prepared reception for should come of their own accord to Noah when he was ready to enter into the Ark had they not been led thither by a Divine Hand 4thly The preservation of Noah and his Sons in the Ark did not only prove that the Deluge was sent by God but was a plain Evidence for what reason God sent such a Terrible Judgment viz. To put an end to that wicked Generation of men and to new-people the world with a Righteous Seed This Reason God gave to Noah and the nature of the thing speaks it For when all the wicked Inhabitants of the world were destroyed and not one escaped the Deluge but only that one Righteous Family which had escaped the Corruptions of the Age too and that preserved by the peculiar Order and Direction of God this is a visible Judgment upon all the wicked of the Earth and makes a visible distinction between Good and Bad men When such Evils and Calamities befall the world as may be resolved into Natural or Moral Causes as Plagues and Famines and Wars Fires and Earthquakes and it may be Good and Bad men share pretty equally in the publick Misfortunes Atheists and Infidels will not allow these Evils to be inflicted by God much less to be the punishment of Sin when they make no visible distinction between the good and the bad but the Universal Deluge was both a Supernatural and a distinguishing Judgment none but God could thus destroy the Earth and none but the wicked were destroyed and therefore this is an undiable demonstration of the Justice and Righteousness of God that he hates wickedness and will punish wicked men There are some other Marks of Excellent Wisdom in the Universal Deluge which I shall only name because tho they are worth observing yet they are of less moment as to my present Design As the Deluge was to be a lasting proof of a Just Providence to the New World and as you have heard was upon all accounts admirably fitted to that purpose so we may reasonably suppose that when it came it convinced that wicked Generation of men and brought them to repentance which it gave them some time for and though it could not save them in this world who knows but that a sudden repentance upon such a sudden conviction might obtain mercy for them in the next Noah was a Preacher of Righteousness he had often reproved them for their sins and threatned them with a Deluge but they would not believe him though they saw him preparing the Ark but when they saw the Flood come they knew then the
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-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
and he spoke the Language of Human Nature in it That the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made 1. Rom. 20. For if that which is made must have a Cause if there be no visible Cause there must be an invisible Maker And therefore this World which has no visible must have an invisible Cause And as it is natural to the Reason of Mankind to conclude the Cause from the Effect so is it to learn the Nature of the Cause from the Nature of the Effect for whatever is in the Effect must be either specifically or virtually in the Cause for whatever is in the Effect which is not in the Cause that has no Cause for nothing can be a cause of that which it is not it self And therefore whatever has life and understanding must be made by a living and understanding Cause whatever has art and skill and wise contrivance in its frame as every Worm and Fly has must have a wise designing Cause for its Maker And then it is certain that this whole World was not made by chance or the fortuitous concourse of Atoms but by an infinitely wise Mind This way of reasoning is easy and natural to our minds all men understand it all men feel it Atheists themselves allow of this kind of proof in all other cases excepting the proof of a God or a Providence and therefore it is no absurd foolish way of reasoning for then it must not be allowed of in any case and they have no reason to reject it in this case but that they are resolved not to believe a God and a Providence And yet this way of reasoning from Effects to Causes must be good in all Cases or in none For the Principle is universal That nothing can be made without a Cause and if any thing can be made made without a Cause this Principle is false and can prove nothing And I challenge the wisest and subtilest Atheist of them all to prove from any Principle of Reason that the most beautiful and regular House that ever he saw which he did not see built for that is a proof from Sense not from Reason was built by men and is a work of Art and that it did not either grow out of the Earth nor was made by the accidental meeting of the several Materials which without knowledge art or design fell into a regular and uniform Building Had these men never seen a House built I would desire to know how they would prove that it is a work of Art built by a skilful Workman and not made by chance and by what medium soever they will prove this I will undertake to prove that God made the World though we did not see him make it But the present Enquiry is only this Whether this be Human Reason the natural Reason of Human Minds If it be then men who will be contented to reason like men must acknowledge and assent to this Argument from Effects to Causes which unavoidably proves a God and a Providence and this is all I desire to be granted That those who will follow the Notices and Principles of Human Reason must believe that God made and governs the World for I know not how to reason beyond Human Reason those who do may please themselves with it Those who have found out a Reason which contradicts the natural Principles of Reason must reason by themselves for Mankind cannot reason with them But let us consider how Atheists reason when they have laid aside this Principle of Reason from Effects to Causes They tell us That a most Artificial World may be made without Art or any wise Maker by blind Chance without any designing Efficient Cause That Life and Sense and Reason may result from dead stupid sensless Atoms Well! we hear this and bear it as patiently as we can but how do they prove this why they say it may be and they can go no farther But how do they know this may be Have they any such notion in their minds have they any natural sensation that answers these words does Nature teach them that any thing can be without a Cause adequate to the Effect that any thing can be wisely made without a wise Cause that one contrary can produce the other that sensless stupid Matter can produce Life Sensation and Understanding Can they then tell me what it is that can't be I desire to know by what Rule they judge what may be and what can't be And if they can find any can't be more absurd and contradictious than their may be I will renounce Sense and Reason for ever If nothing can be without a Cause according to the Reason of Mankind this can't be and therefore all that their may be 's can signify is this That if the Reason of Mankind deceive us such things may be as the most unquestionable Principles of Reason tells us can't be And this is the glorious triumph of Atheistical Reason it can get no farther than a may be and such a may be as is absolutely impossible if the Reason of Mankind be true Set aside the relation between Causes and Effects and all the Arguments from Causes to Effects and from Effects to Causes and there is an end of all Knowledge and set aside all those first Principles and Maxims of Reason which all men assent to at the first Proposal the truth of which they see and feel and there is an end of all Reason For there can be no reasoning without the acknowledgment of some first Principles which the mind has a clear distinct and vigorous perception of And if men will distrust their own minds in such things as they have an easy natural perception of and prefer some Arbitrary Notions which seem absurd Contradictions and impossible to the rest of Mankind and which they can have no Idea of beyond the sound of words they may be Atheists if they please at the expence of their Reason and Understanding that is they may be Atheists if they will not judge and reason like Men But if we are as certain of the Being of a God and of a Providence as we are that nothing can be without a Cause we have all the certainty that Human Nature is capable of CHAP. II. The general Notion of Providence and particularly concerning a Preserving Providence HAving proved as largely as my present Design required That the same God who made the World is the Supream Lord and Governour of it I proceed to consider the Nature of Providence The general Notion of Providence is God's care of all the Creatures he has made which must consist in preserving and upholding their Beings and Natures and in such Acts of Government as the good Order of the World and the Happiness of Mankind require which divides Providence into Preservation and Government which must be carefully distinguished in order to answer some great Difficulties in Providence I
Protection what little reason we have to be afraid of men whatever their Power how furious soever their Passions are how vain it is to trust in men and to depend on their favour for they can neither do good nor hurt but as they are directed by God and therefore he alone must be the Supreme Object of our Fear and Trust If God be for us who can be against us If we make him our Enemy who can save us out of his hands So that we have but one thing to take care of and we are safe Let us make God our Friend and he will raise us up Friends and Patrons and Protectors will deliver us out of the hands of our Enemies or make our Enemies to be at peace with us Secondly Having thus explained God's government of Causes let us now consider his government of Events And I think it will be easily granted me That if all those Causes by which all Events are brought to pass are governed by God God must also have the Absolute Government of all Events in his own hands But yet the government of Causes and of Events are of a very different consideration and to represent this as plainly and familiarly as I can I shall 1. shew you What I mean by Events when I attribute the government of all Events to God 2. Wherein God's government of Events consists 3. The Difference between God's Absolute government of all Events and Necessity and Fate 4. That the Exercise of a particular Providence consists in the government of all Events 1. What I mean by Events Now every thing that is done may in a large sense be called an Event and is in some degree or other under the government of Providence as all the actions of men are but when I speak of God's government of Events I mean only such Events as are in Scripture called God's doings as being ordered and appointed by him that is to say all the good or evil which happens to private men or to Kingdoms and Nations in this world Every thing that is done is not God's doing for there is a great deal of evil every day committed which God does not order and appoint to be done but has expresly forbid the doing of it but there is no good or evil which happens to any man or to any Society of men but what God orders and appoints for them and this is God's government of all Events This is the proper exercise of Providence to allot all men their Fortunes and Conditions in the world to dispense Rewards and Punishments to take care that no man shall receive either good or evil but from the Hand and by the Appointment of God this is the Subject of all the Disputes about the Justice and Goodness and Wisdom of Providence and all the Objections against Providence necessarily suppose that thus it is or thus it ought to be if God governs the world For unless Providence be concerned to take care that no men be happy or miserable but as they deserve which cannot be without the Absolute Government of all Events the prosperity of bad men and the sufferings of the good the many miseries that are in the world and the uncertain changes and turnings of Fortune can be no Objection against Providence And indeed were not this the case Providence would be so insignificant a Name that it would not be worth the while to dispute for or against it for a Providence which neither can do us good nor hurt or which cannot always and in all cases do it is worth nothing or worth no more than it can do good or hurt And therefore all the good or evil which does or can befal Men or Kingdoms is in Scripture attributed to Providence and promised or threatned by God as men shall deserve either such as Length of Days or a sudden and untimely Death Health or Sickness Honour or Disgrace Riches or Poverty Plenty or Famine War or Peace the changing Times and Seasons the removing Kings and setting up Kings and with respect to all such Events as these whatever the immediate Causes of them be God is said to do whatsoever pleaseth him 2dly But we shall better understand this by enquiring into the Nature of God's Government Now God's Government of Events consists in ordering and appointing whatever good or evil shall befal men for according to the Scripture we must attribute such a Government to God as makes all these Events his Will and Doing and nothing can be his Will and Doing but what he Wills and Orders Some men think it enough to say That God permits every thing that is done but will by no means allow that God Wills and Orders and Appoints it which they are afraid will charge the Divine Providence with all the evil that is done in the world and truly so it would did God order and appoint the evil to be done but tho God orders and appoints what evils every man shall suffer he orders and appoints no man to do the evil he only permits some men to do mischief and appoints who shall suffer by it which is the short Resolution of this Case To attribute the evils which some men suffer from other mens sins merely to Gods Permission is to destroy the Government of Providence for bare Permission is not Government and those evils which God permits but does not order cannot be called his will and doing and if this be the case of all the evils we suffer from other mens sins most of the evils which men suffer befal them without God's Will and Appointment and yet to attribute all the evil which men do to God's Order and Appointment is to destroy the Holiness of Providence and therefore we must necessarily distinguish between the evils men do and the evils they suffer the first God Permits and Directs the second he Orders and Appoints How God governs men hearts and actions I have already explained and this is the place to consider God's Permission of Evil for Permission relates to actions Mens own wicked hearts conceive and form wicked designs and they execute them by God's Permission but no man suffers by them but by God's Appointment God's Care of his creatures requires that no man should suffer any thing but what God orders for him and if such sufferings be just and righteous how wicked soever the Causes be it is no reproach to Providence to order and appoint them Suppose a man have forfeited his Life or Estate or Reputation to Providence or tho he have made no Criminal Forfeiture of it yet God sees fit for other Wise Reasons to remove him out of the world or to reduce him to Poverty and Contempt is it any fault in Providence to deliver such a man into the hands of Murderers Oppressors Slanderers who are very forward to execute such Decrees when Providence takes off the restraint and sets them at liberty to follow their own lusts And when there are so many that deserve
must be punished then they must allow that God may spare a sinner a great while and then very great sinners may be prosperous a great while and if they repent at last may finally escape the Judgments of God and then the Prosperity of Sinners can never be an Argument against Providence unless they can prescribe to God just how long and no longer he may justly spare sinners It is an easy matter to complain of any thing and to start Difficulties and Objections but it is impossible for the Wit of man to reduce Providence to such a Certainty as these men desire Tho God govern the world by never such fixed and steady Laws we can never see it in external Events so as to be able to assign a reason of all that good and evil which happens to particular men For would they have God reward every good man and punish every wicked man or reward and punish every man for the good and evil that he does There is a great mixture of good or bad in most men that for different reasons they may deserve both Rewards and Punishments and tho God knows when it is fit to reward or punish such men yet it is impossible we should and therefore whether they be rewarded or punished we can give no account of it There is also a great mixture of good and bad in most actions some very bad actions may not deserve Punishment as being the effect of Ignorance or Surprize or such invincible Temptations as Human Nature without an extraordinary measure of Grace cannot conquer and there are a great many good actions which deserve no Reward as being done by Chance besides the intention of the doer or done from a very bad Principle or for very bad ends now we only see the good or evil that is in the action and Human Laws can punish or reward nothing but what is seen but I suppose you will not say that God ought to regard nothing else but the material and visible action and then it may be very Wise and Just in God neither to punish men for very bad actions nor to reward them for very good actions and this is another Uncertainty of Events which men ignorantly complain of Thus some men are guilty of a great many secret sins or do a great many good actions which no man knows of but only God and their own Consciences and when God visibly rewards or punishes men for the secret good or evil they have done the reasons of such rewards or punishments must be unknown to us because the good or evil for which they are rewarded or punished is unknown All these things make the Reasons and Events of Providence very uncertain and unaccountable to us and yet we see there may be very wise Reasons for them which we cannot understand and which no man in his Wits would desire should be understood For would you desire that every sin you commit should be immediately punished without any time to repent without any hope of Mercy Would you have God reward and punish as Human Laws do to consider only what is done without making any allowances for ignorance and surprize or without taking any notice of the Principles or Ends of our actions Would you have a Casement into every man's breast or have all their secret Sins or Vertues written upon their Foreheads that every man may be as perfectly known to all the world as he is to himself If you do not desire this you must be contented to be ignorant of the Reasons of Providence of those good and evil Events which happen to men why God punishes one man and spares or rewards another why he does not punish those whom we judge to deserve Punishment nor reward those whom we think worthy of a Reward God has wise Reasons for all this but we cannot understand them and it is happy for us all that they are not understood This shews how absurd it is for us to demand a Reason and to complain that we cannot give a Reason of all the Events of Providence And I shall only observe this by the way That if men would in other cases take the same course that I have done in this they would quickly perceive how vain and senseless all their Objections against Providence are That is Whatever they object against Providence let them turn the other side of it and try whether that would be better Let them consider how they would have what they call the Defects and Blemishes of Providence rectified and whether it would be more for the wise and happy Government of the World if it were so I dare challenge the greatest Pretenders to Wit and Reason to give any one Instance of this nature to name any one thing which they quarrel at which they know how to mend And if the world be so wisely ordered already that those who complain most can't tell how any thing could be better done it is Ridiculous and Impudent to find fault which are no hard words in such a Cause as this But this is not all I intend merely to shew That this is an Unreasonable Objection against Providence That the Events of it are many times very uncertain hidden and mysterious and such as we cannot give the particular Reasons of but likewise to satisfy you That the Wise Government of Mankind requires it should be so and to represent to you The great and excellent Advantages of it Now I suppose you will all grant That what is most for the Glory of God for the advancement of true Piety and the Restraints of Wickedness is the Wisest way of Governing the World And if you will grant this I doubt not but I shall presently satisfy you That the Wise Government of the World requires secret and hidden Methods of Providence such uncertain and surprizing Events as at least we can give no account of till it comes to its last and concluding Issue 1. For what is there that excites in us a greater Admiration of God than to see great and glorious things brought to pass by a long and winding Labyrinth of surprizing and perplex'd Events which we know nothing of nor whither they tend till we see where they end Mankind never greatly admire what is plain and obvious and every man's thought because there is nothing in it which shews any extraordinary Contrivance But when unexpected Events are brought to pass by unsuspected means and yet designed and directed by a steady and unerring Counsel When great things are done by such means as have no Natural Causality to produce such Effects and therefore can give no notice nor the least suspicion of what is a-doing When our very Fears are turned into Triumphs and that which seemed to threaten us with some great evils is made the Instrument of some great and surprizing Blessings When bad men are ensnared in their own Counsels and fall into the Pit which they have digged for others When God turns their Curses into Blessings
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