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
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
good may come This St. Paul rejects with the greatest abhorrence and tells us that such mens Damnation is just 3. Rom. 8. for it is the greatest contradiction in the World to do evil in order to do good for how can a Man who can for any reason be persuaded to do evil be a hearty and zealous lover of Goodness It is certain that he who does any evil does not heartily love that goodness to which the evil he does is opposed and he who does not heartily love all goodness is a hearty lover of none There is no reconciling good and evil no more than you can reconcile contradictions a good man will love and do that which is good and an evil man will do that which is evil and though the Divine Wisdom can bring good out of evil yet evil is not and cannot be the natural cause of good no more than Darkness can be the cause of Light and therefore a Good Design can never justify a Bad Action For that Bad Actions should do good is contrary to the nature of Bad Actions and whatever men may intend I 'm sure no man can alter the nature of things and therefore can never justify himself in doing evil that good may come It is certain a Wise and Holy God requires no such thing of us and though he very often brings about great and admirable Designs by mens Sins yet no man knows how to do it nor knows when God will do it nor did ever any man who ventured upon sin in order to do some greater good ever do the good he intended though many times he runs himself into more and greater sins than ever he intended Nay I dare boldly say That no man ever deliberately ventured upon a known sin to do some greater good by it but there was always some base worldly Interest at the bottom coloured over with a pretence of doing good either to deceive the world or sometimes to deceive their own Consciences The Church of Rome among whom there are those who teach and practise this Doctrine are an undeniable Example of it and we have had too many sad Examples of it nearer home This seems to me one reason why those Prophesies which concern future Ages are generally so obscure that no man knows when nor how they shall be fulfilled that no man may be tempted to any sin to serve Providence and to fulfil Prophesies As obscure as these Prophesies are yet we see some heated Enthusiasts very forward to venture on any thing to fulfil Prophesies to pull down Antichrist to set up the Kingdom of Christ especially when they hope to set up themselves with him But God conceals Times and Seasons from us and though he many times fulfils Prophesies by the Sins of men yet he allows no man to sin to fulfil Prophesies And therefore never lets us know when nor by what means Prohesies shall be fulfilled Let us lay down this as a certain Principle That God needs not our Sins and that we can never please him by doing evil whatever the Event be He makes use of the Sins of men to serve his Providence but he will punish them for their Sins CHAP. VII The Goodness of Providence 3. THE next Inquiry is concerning the Goodness of Providence Though methinks it is a more proper Subject for our devout Meditations than for our Inquiries for we need not look far to seek for proofs and demonstrations of the Divine Goodness The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord We see and feel and taste it every day we owe our being our preservation and all the comforts of our lives to it There is not so mean nor so miserable a Creature in this world but can bear its testimony to the Divine Goodness Nay if you would pardon the harshness of the expression I would venture to say That the Goodness of God is one of the greatest Plagues and Torments of Hell I mean the remembrance of God's Goodness and their wicked and ungrateful abuse of it This is that Worm that never dieth those sharp Reflections men make on their Ingratitude and Folly in making themselves miserable by affronting that Goodness which would have made them happy Whatever other Objections fome wanton and sporting Wits make against Providence one would think it impossible that any man who lives in this world and feels what he enjoys himself and sees what a bountiful provision is made for all Creatures should question the Goodness of Providence by which he lives moves and has his being We should think him an extraordinary Benefactor who did the thousandth part for us of what God does and should not challenge his goodness though he did some things which we did not like or did not understand but Atheism is founded in Ingratitude and unless God humour them as well as do them good he is no God for them Nay I cannot but observe here the perverse as well as the ungrateful Temper of Atheists when they dispute against the Justice of Providence then God is much too good for them though he give us Examples enow of his Severity against Sin yet his Patience and Long-suffering to some few Prosperous Sinners is thought a sufficient Argument that God is not just or that he does not govern the world When they dispute against the Goodness of Providence then God is not good enough for them Though they see innumerable Instances of Goodness in the government of the world yet this is not owing to a Good God but to Good Fortune because they think they see some of the careless and irregular Strokes of Chance and Fortune intermixt with it in the many Evils and Calamities of life Now it is impossible for God himself to answer these two Objections to the satisfaction of these men and that I think is a sufficient answer to them both For should God vindicate his Justice to the satisfaction of these men by punishing in this world every sin that is committed according to its desert there would be very little room for the exercise of Goodness If every man must suffer as much as he sins the very best men will be great Sufferers much greater Sufferers than any of them now are tho their Sufferings are made another Objection against Providence and there will be as many formidable Examples of Misery as there are Atheists and Profligate Sinners and this would be an unanswerable Objection against the Goodness of Providence for how good soever God might be if he must punish every sin he has no opportunity to shew his Goodness And on the other hand should God be as good as these men would have him that is that to prove himself good he should not inflict any Evils or Calamities on men whatever their Sins or Provocations are that whereas God planted Paradise only for man in innocence the whole world should be now a Paradise though there is not an innocent man in it this would be as unanswerable an Objection
A DISCOURSE Concerning the Divine Providence By WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Dean of St. Paul's Master of the Temple and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties IMPRIMATUR Maii 9. 1693. Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet street MDCXCIV TO THE QUEEN's Most Excellent Majesty May it please Your Majesty TO Accept this Treatise which did the Composition answer the Subject would recommend it self to the Perusal of Princes who are the peculiar Care and the great Ministers of Providence For it is this Good Providence which is the Security of the Royal Throne and the most perfect Patern of a Just and Equal Government without Contempt of the meanest or Partiality to the greatest That Experience YOUR MAJESTY has had of a Kind and Watchful Providence and that constant dependence the most Potent Monarchs have on the Divine Protection especially in the great Shakings and Convulsions of the World I hope may excuse this Dedication as neither improper nor unseasonable And may the same Good Providence which has advanced YOUR MAJESTIES to the Throne and so signally preserved the King from the greatest Dangers still preserve Your Sacred Persons establish Your Throne and deliver You from all Your Enemies Which is the hearty and daily Prayer of YOUR MAJESTIES Most Humble most Obedient and most Dutiful Subject and Servant WILLIAM SHERLOCK The CONTENTS THE Introduction Page 1 Chap. 1. THE necessary Connexion between the belief of a God and of a Providence 3 The World can be no more governed than made by chance Ibid. An Infinite and Eternal Mind which sees and knows all things must govern the Word 5 He who made the World cannot be unconcerned for his Creatures 7 No Philosophers except the Epicureans who acknowledged a Deity denied a Providence 8 The same Arguments which prove the Being of a God prove a Providence 9 The strength of Atheism consists in contradicting the Vniversal Reason of Mankind 11 Chap. 2. THE general Notion of Providence and particularly concerning a preserving Providence 16 The Nature of Preservation as distinguisht from a governing Providence Ibid. The first Act of Preservation in upholding and preserving the Being and Natures of all things 17 The second Act of Preservation God's Co-operation and Concourse with Creatures in all their Actions 21 Some difficulties of Providence answered as God's Concourse with Creatures in sinful Actions 25 Concerning the Eternity of Punishments 28 Some Practical Inferences 31 Chap. 3. COncerning God's Governing Providence 33 God's Government of Causes and of Events 34 God's Government of Natural Causes and wherein it consists Ib. God's Government of Accidental Causes or what we call Chance and Accident 39 God's Government of Moral Causes or Free Agents 47 The difference between God's Government of Men considered as reasonable Creatures and as Instruments of Providence 48 Concerning God's Government of mens Minds their Wills and Passions Page 51 Concerning God's Government of mens Actions 54 God's Government of Good and Bad men more particularly considered 57 God's Government of Events 59 What is meant by Events in this Question 60 Wherein God's Government of Events consists 61 Concerning Gods Permission Ibid The difference between God's Government of all Events and Necessity and Fate 66 That the Exercise of a particular Providence consists in the Government of all Events 68 Chap. 4. COncerning the Sovereignty of Providence 73 Concerning God's Absolute Power 75 That true Absolute Power can do no wrong explained at large Ib. The Vnsearchable Wisdom of Providence 85 Infinite Wisdom can do no wrong 88 That the Wisdom of Providence must be as unaccountable as the Wisdom of the Creation 91 That the wise Government of the Word requires secret and hidden Methods of Providence 97 That we are ignorant of a great many things without the knowledg of which it is impossible to understand the reasons of Providence 110 In what cases the Vnsearchable Wisdom of God is a reasonable Answer to the Difficulties of Providence 123 Chap. 5. THe Iustice and Righteousness of Providence 137 That the Iustice of Providence does not consist in hindring all Acts of Injustice and Violence 138 God may do that very justly which men cannot do without great Injustie 139 What the Nature and Exercise of God's Iustice requires 141 What Acts of Iustice the present Government of this World requires Page 147 The Account the Scripture gives us of God's Iustice and Righteousness 150 Chap. 6. THE Holiness of Providence 161 What the Holiness of Government requires Ib. What the Holiness of God's Providence does not require of him 168 God is not the Cause and Author of Sin 175 The Divine Prescience does not destroy the Liberty of Human Actions 178 God decrees no mens sins 181 Some Texts of Scripture considered which seem to make God the Author of sin 183 Concerning God's hardning Pharaoh's heart Ib. Some other Texts considered which seem to charge God with the sins of men 200 Chap. 7. THE Goodness of Providence 214 Mistakes concerning the Nature of God's Goodness 216 The difference between Absolute Goodness and Iustice and the Goodness and Iustice of Discipline 220 That God exercises all Acts of Goodness which a state of Trial and Discipline will admit 221 Another Mistake concerning the Nature of Good and Evil and what Good and Evil is in a state of Discipline 226 Another Mistake about the Nature of Government and what Goodness is required in the Government of the World 233 Two Objections against the Goodness of Providence answered 1. From the many Miseries which are in the world 238 A second Objection is God's partial and unequal Care of his creatures 265 Chap. 8. THE Wisdom of Providence 269 The Wisdom of Providence considered in some great Events recorded in Scripture 270 The Destruction of the World by Noah's Flood Page 271 Concerning the Confusion of Languages and the Dispersion of Mankind over all the earth 285 God's chusing Abraham and his Posterity for his peculiar People 289 Concerning the removal of Jacob and his Family into Egypt 299 The Oppression of Israel in Egypt 300 The Miracles wrought by Moses in Egypt 302 God's delivering the Law from Mount Sinai 309 All that came out of Egypt excepting Joshua and Caleb died in the Wilderness 311 The frequent Relapses of Israel into Idolatry 313 Concerning the Captivities and Dispersions of Israel especially their Captivity in Babylon 319 In what sense Christ came in the Fulness of Time 326 The Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans 328 The Wisdom of Providence in some more common and ordinary Events 331 That God rewards or punishes men in their Posterity 332 God's punishing sin with sin 339 God's disappointing both our Hopes and Fears 340 God's deferring the deliverance of good men and the punishment of the wicked to the utmost extremity 341 Concerning sudden Changes and Revolutions 343 The wise mixture of Mercy and Iudgment 344 Chap. 9. THE Duties
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
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
Justice of Providence and to agree very exactly with the actual Administration of Providence For it is manifest that all good men are not rewarded nor all wicked men punished in this world that a Righteous Cause is sometimes oppressed and that Oppression and Injustice is very often prosperous which must needs appear a great Difficulty to those who make no difference between the Justice of God and Men who think that the Justice of Providence is as much concerned to defend all mens Rights and Properties as the Justice of a Prince is This makes them quarrel against Providence when they are hardly and unjustly used by men and so blinds their minds that they see not the true Reasons why God afflicts them and neither reverence his Judgments nor make a wise use of them The Reasons of this seem very plain the only Question is How it agrees with that account which the Scripture gives us of God's Justice and Righteousness For the Righteousness of God is represented in Scripture by loving Righteousness and favouring a Righteous Cause Thus 11. Psalm 7. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance doth behold the upright And the Psalmist very often encourages himself to expect the Divine Favour and Protection from his own Innocence and Integrity and the Righteousness of his Cause 35. Psal. 19. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause Stir up thy self and awake to my judgment even to my cause my God and my Lord. Iudge me O God according to thy righteousness and let them not rejoice over me Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at my hurt Let them be cloathed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous cause yea let them say continually Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant 23 24 26 27. v. The Lord shall judge the people Iudge me O Lord according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end but establish the just for the righteous Lord trieth the heart and reins God judgeth the righteous and 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 And concludes I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praises to the name of the Lord most high 7. Psal. 8 c. Where the Righteousness of the Lord for which the Psalmist praises him is his Judging and Defending a Righteous Cause Thus in 9. Psalm 8 9 10. He shall judge the world in righteousness he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness The Lord also will be a refuge to the oppressed a refuge in time of trouble And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee It were easy to multiply Texts to this purpose where God is expresly declared to be an irreconcilable Enemy to all Injustice and Violence the Protector of the Widow the Fatherless and Oppressed and of all just and righteons men But those conclude a great deal too much who would prove from such Texts as these That no Righteous Man nor Righteous Cause shall ever be oppressed That good men shall always be prosperous and the wicked always miserable for it is evident that this was not the state of the world when these Psalms were penned and therefore this could not possibly be the meaning of them How many Complaints does the Psalmist make against his Enemies those who were wrongfully his Enemies 69. Psalm 4. That his Enemies were lively and strong and they that hated him wrongfully were multiplied 38. Psalm 19. How passionately does he pray for Protection against his Enemies How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me how long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me 13. Psalm 1 2. The 37th Psalm is a plain proof that wicked men were very prosperous in those days tho they are threatned with final destruction And to the same purpose the 73d Psalm gives us a large description of the Prosperity and Pride of bad men many of whom spend their lives and end their days prosperously I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked For there are no bands in their death but their strength is firm They are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued as other men Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they encrease in riches The Prosperity of bad men and the Miseries and Afflictions of the good were in those days a great Difficulty in Providence and were so to the Psalmist himself and therefore it is certain that whatever he says of the Righteousness of God and his care of Righteous men and his abhorrence of all Wickedness and Injustice cannot signify That God will always defend men in their just Rights that he will always prosper a Righteous Cause and Righteous Men for this was against plain matter of fact and we cannot suppose the Psalmist so inconsistent with himself as in the same breath to compalin that wicked men were prosperous and good men afflicted and to affirm That the Just and Righteous Judge of the World would always punish Unjust Oppressors and protect the Innocent Nay indeed the very nature of the thing proves the contrary for there can be no Unjust Oppressors if no body can be oppressed in their just Rights and therefore it is certain the Divine Providence does at least for a time suffer some men to be very prosperous in their Oppressions and does not always defend a just and innocent Cause for if he did there could be no innocent oppressed man to be relieved nor any Oppressor to be punished And if it be consistent with the Justice and Righteousness of Providence to permit such things for some time we must conclude that it is at the discretion of Providence how long good men shall be oppressed and the Oppressor go unpunished The plain account then of this matter as it is represented in Scripture is this 1. That as God is infinitely Just and Righteous himself so he loves Justice and Righteousness among men he loves Righteousness and Righteous Men and hates all Injustice Violence and Injuries for the Righteous Lord must love Righteousness and hate Iniquity and therefore though the Divine Justice is Superior to all Human Rights and his Authority Absolute and Sovereign to dispose of all his Creatures and of all they have as his own Wisdom directs yet men cannot invade each other's Rights without Injustice and when Rights and Properties are setled by Human Laws it is
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
who cried against the Altar at Bethel his hand immediatly dried up so that he could not pull it in again 1 Kings 13. 4. And that when Vzziah would have usurped the Priests Office to burn Incense he was immediatly smitten with Leprosy 2 Chron. 26. 19. And there is no other way but this for God by an immediate power to hinder the actual commission of sin to take away mens lives or their natural powers of acting which may be of great use sometimes when God sees fit to work Miracles but ought to be as rare as Miracles are for such a way as this of hindring sin would quickly put an end to the world or to the commerce and conversation of it and is properly to judge the world not to govern it 2dly And therefore though God does take care to prevent a great deal of wickedness which men intend and resolve to commit and watch for opportunities of committing yet he does it not by an immediate Supernatural Power but in Human ways and for this reason commands us not only to do no wickedness our selves but by our Advice and Counsels and Reproofs Authority and Power to hinder other men from doing wickedly and this is one way whereby God hinders the actual commission of many sins by obliging us to hinder the commission of them as much as we can Which shews how men are obliged to hinder the commission of those sins which God is not obliged by an immediate and Supernatural Power to hinder 3dly To be sure for God to permit the actual commission of sin can be no greater blemish to the Holiness of Providence than to permit men to conceive sin in their hearts for therein the moral evil consists when the Will chuses and consents to it The external Action may be a Natural Political or Oeconomical Evil but the moral Evil is in the Will and Choice And therefore the permitting or hindring the external commission of sin does not so properly concern the Holiness as the Justice and Goodness of Providence for to hinder the actual commission of sin does not prevent the guilt of sin for the man has the guilt of those sins which he would but could not commit but it hinders that mischief which the actual commission of sin would have done to other men by murthering their persons or defiling their Wives or robbing them of their Estates and good Names 4thly And therefore there may be wise reasons for God to permit the external commission of many Sins as acts of Judgment and Vengeance on other Sinners or as Acts of Correction and Discipline on Good men For since God very rarely Punishes Bad men or Corrects Good men by an immediate Power and yet Punishments or Corrections are the proper Exercise of Providence it cannot unbecome God to make the Sins of some the Corrections and Punishment of others that it is so is so visible that I need not prove it For few men suffer any great Evils but from other mens Sins And if God take care as most certainly he does to direct the evil which mens Sins do to light upon those who deserve to suffer by them it is a mighty vindication of the Wisdom and Justice of Providence and a sufficient reason why God should permit the external Commission of Sin 5thly Especially considering how many Wise and Good ends God can serve by permitting Sin as to render Sin it self infamous and hateful by the great mischief it does in the World to expose the Sinner himself to shame and punishment which both deters other men from Sin and contributes very much to reform the Sinner Nay many times God brings about great and excellent designs by the Sins of men both for the advancement of his own Glory and the good of Mankind of which many instances may be given were it needful which is no excuse for mens Sins nor any reason why God should order and over-rule men by his Providence to commit such Sins but is a very justifiable reason why God should permit the actual commission of Sin when he can bring good out of evil and serve the Wise ends of his Providence by it 6thly And therefore lastly God does hinder the actual commission of Sin as often as he sees fit to hinder the evil and mischief which such Sins will do as I have already observed sometimes he very remarkably disappoints wicked Designs from taking effect as it was in the case of Haman and Mordecai when the Iews were devoted to destruction And we have as many instances of this nature as we have discoveries of Plots and Treasons against the Lives of Princes and the Peace of Church and State or private designs against the Lives and Fortunes of private men and how much unknown Wickedness the Divine Providence every day prevents we cannot tell but all the Wickedness Mankind would commit but can't must be attributed to the restraints and prevention of Providence and then I doubt not but every Bad man can give a great many instances of such disappointments which he himself has met with that as much Evil as there is committed in the World yet considering the great Wickedness and Degeneracy of Mankind we have reason to believe That God hinders a hundred times more than he permits And considering the Wisdom and Justice of Providence it becomes us to think That God never permits the actual commission of any Sin but he Orders it for some Wise and Good ends And this I hope is sufficient to vindicate the Holiness of Providence notwithstanding so much Wickedness as is daily committed 3dly The Divine Providence is not justly chargeable with any thing that is utterly inconsistent and irreconcilable with the Holiness of Government Now since the permission of Sin is very reconcilable with the Holiness of Providence there can be no other reasonable Objection against it unless we could prove by plain and undeniable evidence that God is the Cause and Author of Sin and this indeed would prove that God does not Govern the World with Holiness if he had any proper efficiency in the Sins of men That is did God tempt men to Sin or by any secret influences and impulses incline and even compel them to Sin But the least thought and imagination of this is a very great Blasphemy and the greater and more unpardonable Blasphemy because there is no temptation to suspect any such thing of God There is no way of knowing this but either by our own Sense and Experience or by Reason or by Revelation As for our own Sense and Experience this can prove nothing For no man finds any other force or impulse but from his own lusts and sinful inclinations Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed 1. Iames 14. Those who charge God with inclining mens hearts to Wickedness yet confess that this is done by such secret influences as no man can distinguish from the workings of his own mind which is plainly to
confess that they cannot tell by their own sense and feeling that they are thus moved and inclined by God but only charge their Sins on God to excuse themselves Every man feels what it is that tempts him his love of Riches of Pleasures or Honours and that the temptation and impulse is weaker or stronger in proportion to his fondness and passion for these tempting Objects but yet he feels himself at liberty to chuse and determine himself and finds a Principle within him which resists and opposes his compliance with the temptation as contrary to the Will and Law of God and the dictates of right Reason and that for which God will Punish him And is there any reason for men to charge their Sins upon God when the only thing that gives check to them and makes Sin uneasy is the conviction of their own Consciences that it is what God has forbid and what he will punish This I think is no evidence of God's tempting and inclining men to Sin that he has imprinted on our minds such a natural sense of his abhorrence of all Evil and such a natural awe and dread of his Justice that while we preserve this sense strong and vigorous no temptation can fasten on us If we appeal to Reason the Reason of all Mankind proves That God does not and cannot tempt incline and over-rule men to chuse or to act any Wickedness for this is a direct contradiction to the Holiness and Purity of his Nature and the Justice of his Providence All mankind believe God to be perfect Holiness which is essential to the very notion of a God and Reason tells us that such a Pure and Holy Being cannot be the Author of Sin nor were it possible to vindicate the Justice of Providence in the punishment of sin did men sin by Divine Impulses or by Necessity and Fate And the Scripture teaches this in express words Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man 1. James 13. And all the Laws and Promises and Threatnings Exhortations Reproofs and passionate Expostulations which we meet with in Scripture if they mean any thing sincere do necessarily suppose that men sin freely and that God is so far from inclining and tempting men to sin that he does all that becomes a Wise and Holy Being to restrain and deter them from it Now when we have such direct and positive Proofs that God is not and cannot be the Author of Sin it is certain that we can have no direct and positive Proof that he is nor is any such Proof pretended and then some remote and uncertain Consequences which are owing to our Ignorance or confused and imperfect notions of things or to some obscure Expressions of Scripture are not and ought not to be thought sufficient to disprove a direct and positive Evidence no more than the difficulties about the nature of motion are a just reason to deny that there is any motion when we daily see and feel our selves and the whole world move And yet such kind of Difficulties as these is all that is pretended to charge the Providence of God with the Sins of men the most material of which I intend at this time to examine 1. One and that the most plausible pretence to destroy the Liberty of Human Actions and to charge the Sins of men upon God is his Praescience and Foreknowledge of all Future Events That God does foreknow things to come is generally acknowledged by Heathens Jews and Christians and Prophesy is a plain demonstration of it for he that can foretell things to come must fore-know them Now from hence they thus argue What is certainly fore-known must certainly be and what is thus certain is necessary and therefore if all future Events are certain as being certainly foreknown then all things even all the Sins of men are owing to Necessity and Fate And then God who is the Author of this Necessity and Fate must be the Cause and Author of mens Sins too Now in answer to this I readily grant That nothing can be certainly fore-known but what will certainly be but then I deny that nothing will certainly be but what has a necessary Cause For we see ten thousand effects of free or contingent Causes which certainly are though they might never have been for whatever is certainly is and whatever certainly is now was certainly though not necessarily future a thousand years ago That man understands very little who knows not the difference between the necessity and the certainty of an Event No Event is necessary but that which has a necessary Cause as the rising and sitting of the Sun but every Event is certain which will certainly be though it be produced by a Cause which acts freely and might do otherwise if it pleased as all the free Actions of men are some of which though done with the greatest freedom may be as certain and as certainly known as the rising of the Sun Now if that which is done freely may be certain and that which is certain may be certainly known then the certainty of God's Fore-knowledge only proves the certainty but not the necessity of the Event And then God may fore-know all Events and yet lay no necessity on mankind to do any thing that is wicked In the nature of the thing fore-knowledge lays no greater necessity upon that which is fore-known than knowledge does upon that which is known for fore-knowledge is nothing but knowledge and knowledge is not the cause of the thing which is known much less the necessary cause of it We certainly know at what time the Sun will rise and sit every day in the year but our knowledge is not the cause of the Sun 's rising or sitting Nay in many cases in proportion to our knowledg of men we may with great certainty foretel what they will do and how they will behave themselves in such or such circumstances and did we perfectly know them we should rarely if ever mistake for though men act freely they do not act arbitrarily but there is always some byass upon their minds which inclines and draws them and the more confirmed habits men have of Vertue or Vice the more certainly and steadily they act and the more certainly we may know them without making them either vertuous or vicious Now could we certainly know what all men would do before they do it yet it is evident that this would neither make nor prove them to be necessary Agents And therefore though the perfection of the Divine Knowledge is such as to know our thoughts afar off before we think them yet this does not make us think such Thoughts nor do such Actions How God can foreknow things to come even such Events as depend upon the most free and contingent Causes we cannot tell but it is not incredible that Infinite Knowledge should do this when Wise men whose Knowledge is so very
to conclude that it is only our ignorance of the Eastern Language and Phrase which makes them obscure and difficult to us than to expound them to such a sense as contradicts all the rest of the Bible But I do not intend this for an Answer or as some will call it an Evasion but shall consider these Texts particularly And the first place relates to God's hardening Pharaoh's heart that he should not let the People of Israel go notwithstanding all the signs and wonders which Moses wrought in Egypt 4. Exod. 21. Where God expresly tells Moses that he would harden Pharaoh's heart and in the Story it self it is several times expressed that God did harden Pharaoh's heart and he who hardens the heart seems to be the efficient Cause of all those Sins which such a hard heart commits Now rightly to understand this which has given so much trouble to Divines there are many things to be considered Hardness of heart is a Metaphorical expression and signifies such a firmness and obstinacy of temper or resolution as will yield to no motives or perswasions that will no more receive any impressions than a hard and impenetrable Rock And therefore to harden the heart is to give it such a stiffness and obstinacy as will not yield But then there are several ways of hardening mens hearts and some of them very Innocent and Holy as well as Just and before we charge the Divine Providence upon this account we must know in what way God hardens immediately to infuse into mens hearts an unrelenting hardness and obstinacy in a sinful course is inconsistent with the Holiness of Providence and would in the most proper sense make God the Author of Sin but though God says he would harden Pharaoh he does not say that he would infuse hardness into Pharaoh's heart For we may observe That men who have first hardened themselves take the most innocent occasions to grow harder nay are hardened by such usage as would either break or soften other men And those who treat them in such a manner as their wicked hearts abuse to harden themselves may be said to harden them as in common speech we charge those with undoing and hardening their Children and Servants who have spoiled them by too much indulgence or by too great severity and this is the account that Origen gives of it And indeed when men are said to harden themselves as Pharaoh is often said to harden his own heart and yet God is said to harden them there can be no other account given of it but this that men take occasion from what God does take occasion where no occasion was given to harden themselves as St. Paul observes the Iews did from God's patience and long-suffering 2. Rom 4 5. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance i.e. should lead thee to repentance not harden thee in Sin though it have another effect through thy own wickedness But after thy hardness and impenitent heart growest more hard and impenitent by God's forbearance and treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God And thus God hardened Pharaoh or thus Pharaoh took occasion to harden himself from those Judgments which ought to have softened him and God foreseeing that this would be the effect of it says I will harden Pharaoh's heart not I will infuse hardness into him but I will do such things as I certainly know his hard and wicked heart will improve into new occasions and new degrees of hardness For it is no reason either for God or men to forbear doing what Wisdom and Justice and Goodness direct to be done because hardened Sinners will harden themselves the more by it And that this is the truth of the case appears from the whole Story That which hardened Pharaoh and made him so resolved not to part with Israel was the great advantage he made of their Service and Bondage which made him impatient to think of sending away a people which were so useful to him To conquer this obstinate humour God sends Moses to deliver Israel with a mighty arm and out-stretched hand Moses wrought such mighty Wonders and inflicted such miraculous and terrible Judgments on Egypt as any one would have thought the most proper means not to have hardened but to have broken and subdued the most hardened hearts but this had a contrary effect upon a hardened Pharaoh and it is visible what it was that hardened him Some of these Signs and Wonders were imitated by the Magicians as turning their Rods into Serpents and Water into Blood and bringing Frogs upon the Land and upon this he hardened his heart though the Plague of Frogs was so grievous that it made him somewhat relent and promise to let the People go and Sacrifice unto the Lord if the Frogs might be removed but then God's goodness in removing this Plague hardened him as it is expresly observed That when Pharaoh saw there was respite he hardened his heart 8. Exod. 15. And thus it was in the succeeding Judgments while any judgment was upon him he yielded and promised fair to let the people go that had any one of those Judgments continued on him till he had parted with Israel he had certainly sent them away long before but when he saw one Judgment removed after another he thought there would be an end of them at last and it were better to endure a while than to part with Israel and thus God hardened his heart and he hardened his own heart till the Death of all the First-born put him and his Servants and all the People into such a terrible fright that they were glad to get rid of Israel to save their own Lives And to compleat all God still hardened Pharaoh's heart to pursue after Israel that he might overthrow him and all his Host in the Red Sea And for that end God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the red sea that Pharaoh might say They are intangled in the land the wilderness hath shut them in and it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people and they said Why have we done this that we have let Israel go from serving us 14. Exod. 2 3 4 5. The report of their flying and the apprehension of their being intangled in the Wilderness made Pharaoh and his Servants quickly forget what they had suffered in Egypt and think of nothing but the loss of the Service of Israel which hardened them to a new pursuit and was ordered by God to that end that he might be honoured upon Pharaoh and upon all his Host. This is the account the Scripture gives us of God's hardening Pharaoh's heart which contains nothing that unbecomes a Wise and a Holy Being For though it can
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