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
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
we owe to Providence 345 A particular Acknowledgment of Providence in all Events Ibid. Submission to the Providential Will of God 347 Concerning Submission to God under Afflictions and Sufferings 348 Submission to the Will of God with respect to our several states and conditions of life 354 Concerning Hope and Trust in the Divine Providence 366 Concerning the Duties of Prayer and Thanksgiving 378 A DISCOURSE OF THE Divine Providence The INTRODUCTION MY Chief Design in this following Treatise is So to Explain the Nature of Providence as to reconcile men to the Belief of it and to possess them with a Religious Awe and Reverence of the Supreme and Absolute Lord of the World For it is very evident That the Mistakes about the Nature of Providence are the principal Objections against it which tempt some men to deny a Providence or so weaken the sense of it in others that they are very little the better for believing it That a Divine Providence does Govern the World I have proved largely enough for my present Design in the Discourse concerning a Future Iudgment which I refer my Reader to But that this Work might not seem to want a Foundation I have not wholly omitted the Proof of a Providence but have at least said enough to convince those of a Providence who believe That there is a God which must be supposed in a Discourse of Providence The Whole is divided into Nine Chapters I. The necessary Connection between the Belief of a God and of a Providence II. The General Notion of Providence and particularly concerning a Preserving Providence III. Concerning God's Governing Providence IV. The Soveraignty of Providence V. The Justice of Providence VI. The Holiness of Providence VII The Goodness of Providence VIII The Wisdom of Providence IX The Duties we owe to Providence The Explication of these Things will not only answer many Difficulties in Providence but will give us a clearer Notion of the Divine Attributes and of some of the principal Duties of Religion CHAP. I. The necessary Connection between the Belief of a God and of a Providence INstead of other Arguments to prove a Providence I shall at present insist only on this That the Belief of a God infers a Providence That if we believe there is a God who Made the World we must believe that the same God who Made the World does Govern it too 1. For first It is as absurd and unreasonable to think That the World is Governed by Chance as to think That it was Made by Chance for Chance can no more Govern than it can Make the World One principal Act of Providence is to uphold all things in being to preserve their Natures Powers Operations to make this lower World again every Year by new Productions For Nature seems to decay and dye and revive again in almost as wonderful a manner and as unintelligible to us as it was first made Now tho it is very absurd to say That Chance which acts by no Rule nor with any Counsel or Design can make a World which has all the Marks and Characters of an admirable Wisdom in its Contrivance yet it seems more absurd to say That Chance can preserve that it can uphold the things it has made that it can repair the decays of Nature nay restore it when it seems lost That it can not only do the same thing twice but repeat it infinitely in new productions That Chance can give Laws to Nature and impose a Necessity on it to act regularly and uniformly that is That Chance should put an end to Chance and introduce Necessity and Fate Were there not a Wise and Powerful Providence it is Ten thousand times more likely that Chance should unmake and dissolve the World than that it should at first make it for a World that came together by Chance and has nothing to keep it together but the Chance that made it which is as uncertain and mutable as Chance is will quickly unmake it self Should the Sun but change his place come nearer this Earth or remove farther from it there were an end of this lower World and if it were placed there by Chance it is wonderful that in so many Ages some new unlucky Chance has not removed it And therefore the Psalmist attributes not only the Creation but the Preservation of all things to God Praise him sun and moon praise him ye stars of light Praise him all ye heavens and ye waters that are above the heavens Let them praise the name of the Lord for he spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created He hath made them fast for ever he hath given them a law which shall not be broken 148. Psal. 3 4 5 6. 2dly The same Wisdom and Power which Made the World must Govern it too It is only a Creating Power that can preserve That which owes its very Being to Power must depend upon the Power that made it for it can have no principle of Self-subsistence independent on its Cause It is only Creating Wisdom that perfectly understands the Natures of all things that sees all the springs of Motion that can correct the Errors of Nature that can suspend or direct the Influences of Natural Causes that can govern Hearts change mens Purposes inspire Wisdom and Counsel restrain or let loose their Passions It is only an Infinite Mind that can take care of all the World that can allot every Creature its portion that can adjust the Interests of States and Kingdoms that can bring Good out of Evil and Order out of Confusion In a word the Government of the world requires such Wisdom and such Power as no Being has but he who made it and therefore if the World be governed it must be governed by the Maker of it 3dly If there be any such Being as we call God a Pure Infinite Eternal Mind it is a Demonstration That he must Govern the world Those who deny a Providence will not allow that God sees or takes notice of what is done here below The Epicureans tho in Civility and Compliment to the Superstition of mankind rather than from a real belief and sense of a Deity they did own a God nay a great many Gods such as they were yet never allowed their Gods to know any thing of our affairs which would have disturbed their profound Ease and Rest the sole Happiness of the Lazy Unactive Epicurean Deities and this secured them from the fear of their Gods who lived at a great distance from them and knew nothing concerning them And in the same manner this is represented in Scripture That wicked men would not believe that God saw or heard or took any notice of what they did 64. Psalm 5. They encourage themselves in an evil matter they commune of laying snares secretly they say Who shall see them 10. Psalm 11. He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see it
with the Natural Faculties of Understanding and Will to judge and to chuse for himself and he preserves these Faculties and gives them a natural Power to act to understand and will But this natural Co-operation of God can extend no farther than to the natural Power of acting not to any specifical Acts it does not improve any man's Understanding nor incline his Judgment nor determine his Choice it makes no alteration in the Powers of Nature but only enables them to act according to their Natures it is only like winding up a Clock which puts it into motion but gives no new preternatural motions to it but leaves its motions to be guided by its own Springs and Wheels Whatever this Co-operation of God be which is thought necessary to actuate our Natural Faculties it gives no new Byas to us but leaves us perfectly in a state of Nature and only enables us to do that which we should do of our selves without any such Co-operation of God could we act without it But in the Government of Mankind God exercises a very different Power over the minds of men He changes the Hearts and Counsels of men imprints new thoughts upon their Minds claps a new byas upon their Wills and Affections the Hearts of Princes are in his hands and he turneth them as Rivers of Waters He renews and sanctifies Good men by his Spirit enlightens their Understandings changes their Wills inspires them with Divine Affections He gives up Bad men to the impostures of wicked spirits to their own affected Ignorance Blindness Inconsideration to the Obstinacy and Perverseness of their own Wills and to the Empire of their Lusts. Every one must perceive that this is a very different thing from God's co-operating with our Natural Faculties to will and to understand for that makes no change in our Natural Understandings and Wills but only enables them to act but this improves and heightens and regulates our Faculties enlarges our Knowledge and rectifies our Choice and directs and governs our Passions and yet these things have not been well distinguished which has very much obscured and perplexed the Doctrines both of Providence and Grace as I shall now shew you For having thus briefly explained the difference between a Preserving and Governing Providence that this may not be thought a more subtil than useful Speculation it will be necessary to shew you of what great use this is to answer some of the greatest Difficulties in the Doctrine of Providence Now as the foundation of all I shall ask but one thing which every man must grant That it becomes God to preserve the Creatures which he has made to uphold them in being and to actuate their Natural Powers as far as is necessary to enable Creatures to perform those Natural Actions which their Natures are fitted and made for If it became the Wisdom and Goodness of God to make Creatures with such Powers and Faculties of acting it becomes him also to preserve their Beings and Natures and Powers of Action To Make is to give a Being and Nature to that which was nothing to Preserve is only to continue its Being and to enable it to act according to its nature and therefore we must either approve or disapprove of both alike Let us then lay down this as an acknowledged Principle That we must not quarrel with the Providence of God for any thing which is a mere Act of Preservation not an Act of Government For to uphold the being and nature and operations of all things is no fault whatever evil consequences may attend it and therefore those who have a mind to quarrel at Providence must find some fault if they can in God's government of Creatures not in the Acts of Preservation and this easily answers some of the most difficult Objections against Providence As for instance Since no Creature can move or act or do any thing without the Concourse and Co-operation of God some are wonderfully puzled to give an account why God should co-operate with any Creature in sinful Actions Why God should actuate mens Understandings and Wills and their other natural Powers and Faculties when he certainly knows that if he enables them to act they will act wickedly they will chuse that which is wicked and will execute their wicked Designs That if they have the exercise of their Natural Powers they will defile themselves with Adultery and Drunkenness and Theft or Murther and all manner of Wickedness And how can a holy God co-operate in all the Wickedness which is committed When men do wickedly by the Power and Co-operation of God without which they can do nothing how does the Sin come to be the man's when the Action is God's as done by his immediate Power I shall not trouble you with other Answers which are commonly given to this Difficulty for what I have now discoursed gives a plain and easy solution to it For all this however it be represented comes to no more than God's preserving the Natures of Creatures and actuating their Natural Powers to perform the Offices of Nature and if this be such a fault as intitles God to all the Wickedness they commit the original Fault is in making such Creatures for if it were no fault to make them it can be no fault to preserve their Natures Does it become the Wisdom of God to make Creatures who must act dependently on himself and to deny them the natural Powers of acting which is to unmake them again And if this does not become the Wisdom of God then it can be no fault in God to co-operate with the natural Powers of men even in their sinful Actions nor any more intitle God to their Sins than his making Creatures with such natural Powers For to preserve their Natures and to actuate their natural Powers is no more a cause of their Sin than to make such Natures and such natural Powers To represent this as plainly as I can Let us suppose that God had created Man with a natural power to act without needing such a perpetual concourse and co-operation to enable him to act would this charge God with the Sins of men because they act even when they sin by a power derived from him in their first Creation If this makes God the Author of Sin then God can't make a Creature who is capable of sinning by the abuse of its natural Powers without being the Author of Sin which is too absurd for any thinking man to say And yet if it does not How does God's perpetual concourse and co-operation with Creatures to enable them to act and to exert their natural Powers make God the Author of Sin for this is no more than a natural power to act and it makes no difference whether this natural power be given once for all as an inherent Power in Creatures or be supplied every minute for both ways the Power is the same and equally derived from God and if the natural power of acting charges God with
not to have made an Immortal Creature who could sin and be miserable for ever I shall conclude this whole Argument with some few Inferences 1. If Creatures must be preserved as well as made by God then the present continuance and preservation of all things is a visible Argument of the Being of God Some men will not believe that God made the world because they did not see him make it but they see a world preserved when there is no one thing in the world more able to preserve than to make it self and who then is it that preserves this world and all things in it This must be a work of Reason and Wisdom as well as Power and the only reasonable Creature in this visible world is Man and Man cannot preserve himself and knows that he can preserve nothing else and therefore the Preservation of all things must be owing to some Invisible Cause whom we call GOD. 2. If we live and move and have our being in God we are entirely his and owe all homage and obedience to him for he did not only make us but we have our constant dependance on him we live and subsist in him Had he only made us at first that had given him a title to us for ever but could we have lived without him when he had made us tho it had not been a less fault yet it had been less foolish and absurd to have lived without any notice or regard of him as some ungrateful persons deal by their Friends and Patrons when they have set them up in the world and enabled them to live by themselves but to forget that God in whom we live who preserves and upholds us in being every moment is to affront a present Benefactor if we value being and tho we cannot tempt God by this to let us fall into nothing yet we shall make it just for him to punish us to preserve us in being to feel the weight of his Wrath and Vengeance which is infinitely worse for happy had it been for such a man that he had never been born 3. For if he not only made but upholds and preserves us in being he must be our Sovereign Lord and Governor for no other has any original and absolute interest in us we are in his hands and none can take us out of them nor touch us but by his order To give being and to preserve it is the foundation of all other acts of Government no other Being has a Right to govern no other Power can govern He alone can give Laws can reward or punish can govern Nature can direct over-rule controul all other Powers for all things are in his hands and therefore he commands them all 4. And this may convince us how irresistible the Divine Power is for all the power of Creatures is derived from him and depends on him as Light does on the Sun and therefore they can have no power against him and what distraction then is it to provoke that Almighty God whom we cannot resist Humble thy self Sinner before thy Maker thy Preserver and thy Judge obey his Will to whose Power thou must submit let him be thy Fear and thy Dread thy only Fear for thou needest fear none else all Power is his none can resist him none can act without him he sets bounds to the Raging of the Sea to the Fury of Princes to the Madness of the People Thou art safe in his hands safe in obedience to his Will but thou canst never escape him never flie from him never defend thy self against him for thou livest in him 5. This also proves that God must see and know all our actions for we live and move in him He is always present with us privy to our most secret thoughts and counsels observes all our wandrings sees us in all our retirements There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves This the Scripture in express words teaches and the reason of the thing speaks it for if we cannot think nor move nor subsist without God he must be always intimately present with us which should possess us with a constant Awe and Reverence of his Pure and All seeing Eye CHAP. III. Concerning God's Governing Providence NEXT to Preservation as that signifies God's upholding all things in being and preserving and actuating their Natural Powers we must consider God's Government of the world for God is the Supreme and Sovereign Lord of the world who doth whatsoever pleaseth him both in heaven and in earth and therefore the Absolute Government of all things must be in his hands or else something might be done which he would not have done This all men grant in general words who own a Providence but when they come to particulars there are so many excepted cases which they will hardly allow God to have any thing to do in that they seem to mean little more by God's Government than a general Inspection of Human Affairs his looking on to see the World govern it self for three parts of four of all that is done in the world they resolve into bare Permission as distinguish'd from an Ordering and Disposing Providence and then it can signifie no more than that God does not hinder it and if this be all God governs the world in such cases no more than men do The only difference is that God can hinder when he don 't but men don't hinder because they can't but still merely not to hinder does not signifie to govern But rightly to understand this matter the best way is to consider how the Scripture represents it and because there are great variety of acts in the government of the world of a very different consideration I shall distinctly enquire into God's government of Causes and his government of Events 1. God's government of Causes and we must consider three sorts of Causes and what the Scripture attributes to God with respect to each 1. Natural Causes 2dly Accidental Causes or what we call Chance and Accident and Fortune 3dly Moral Causes and free Agents or the government of mankind 1. Natural Causes or God's Government of the Natural World of the Heavens and Earth and Seas and Air and all things in them which move and act by a Necessity of Nature not by Choice Now the Scripture does not only attribute to God all the Vertues and Powers of Nature which belongs to Creation and to a Preserving Providence but the direction and government of all their Natural Influences to do what God has a mind should be done God does in some measure govern the Moral by the Natural World he rewards or punishes men by a wholsome or pestilential air by fruitful or barren seasons he hinders or promotes their designs by winds and weather by a forward or a backward Spring and makes Nature give Laws to men and set bounds to their Passions and Intriegues to overthrow the most powerful Fleets and Armies to defeat the wisest Counsels
begotten the drops of the dew out of whose womb came the ice and the hoary frost of heaven who hath gendred it By these and such like Questions expressed in unimitable words God convinces Iob how ignorant he was of the most common and familiar Works of Nature which made it great Presumption in so ignorant a Creature to censure the Wisdom of Providence And the Force of the Argument does not only consist in this That the very Works of Nature convince us that God is infinitely wiser than we are and can do great and excellent things which are above our understanding and therefore that we never ought to censure any thing that God does because he is so much wiser than we are that we are not competent Judges of what he does which is an unanswerable Argument to teach us the most profound Reverence and the most absolute Resignation of our selves to God But the Force of this Argument reaches farther That our ignorance of the Works of Nature is both the Cause and the Proof of our great Ignorance of the Works of Providence For no Being can know how to govern a world who does not know how to make it and he who does not know how to govern the world himself is a very unfit Judge of the Wisdom of Providence for he can never know when the world is well and wisely governed because he does not know what belongs to the government of the world The wise government of all creatures must be proportioned to their natures and therefore without understanding the Philosophy of Nature the Springs of Motion the mutual dependance of Causes and Effects what end things are made for and what uses they serve we can never know what is fit to be done nor what can be done or by what means it is to be done and then can never tell when any thing is done as it should be We know not what the Rules nor what the Ends of God's Government are which makes it impossible to judge of the Wisdom of Government Without understanding the Natures of things we must of necessity make as wild Conjectures about Providence as a blind man does of Light and Colours As for instance how is it possible to talk a wise word about God's Government of Mankind in what manner and by what means he turns their hearts directs and influences their counsels suggests thoughts to them and foresees their thoughts and how they will determine themselves when we know so little of the Make and Frame of our own minds where the spring of thoughts is and how we connect Propositions and draw consequences what the power of the Will is how we determine our selves in indifferent matters where the balance is equal for tho we feel all these Powers in our selves yet we know not whence they are nor how they act And yet how many intricate questions are there relating to the Disputes of Providence which are wholly owing to such Nice Philosophical Speculations which we know nothing of and yet which some men perplex themselves with and undertake very gravely to determine Such are the Disputes about Necessity and Fate Prescience and Predetermination and the liberty of Human Actions which as they are differently determined make very different and contrary Hypotheses of Providence and either charge God with the Sins of men or acquit him from any Partnership in Wickedness For all these questions at last resolve themselves into this How the Mind of man acts and determines it self Whether it be determined from abroad from a necessary Train and Series of Fatal Events or from the Decrees and Predetermination or Foreknowledg of God Or whether it be a self-moving Being and determines it self from the Principles of its own Nature and its own free Choice Now unless we understood the Philosophy or the Natural Frame and Composition of our own Minds it is impossible to say any thing to the purpose in this cause any farther than our own sense and feeling goes and that is on the side of liberty for unless we are strangely imposed on we feel our selves free But this may satisfy us that as to all the Difficulties of Providence which can be no other way resolved but by a knowledge of Nature we must of necessity be as ignorant of them as we are of the nature of things and therefore our confessed ignorance of Nature is a good Argument in all such cases to make us very modest in Censuring Providence We know enough both of the works of Nature and of the works of Providence to serve all the wise ends and purposes of living which is all that is useful for us to know and all that God intended we should know but the Reasons and Causes of things belong only to that Wisdom which can make and govern a world We know as much of Providence as we do of Nature and would men set bounds to their Enquiries here which is as far as Human Understandings can reach we should hear very few Objections against Providence Our ignorance of Nature and Natural Causes and the Natural Springs of Motion how things were made and how they act and for what ends they were made which in many cases we do but very imperfectly guess at is a plain demonstration That we never ought to admit any Difficulties in Nature as a sufficient Objection against the Being or the Providence of God in bar to all the Moral Evidence and Assurance we have of both We have all the Moral Evidence we can have for any thing That God governs the world by a Wise and Holy and Free Providence That he is not the Author of Sin That our Wills at least as far as Vertue and Vice is concerned are under no Foreign Force and Constraint but chuse and refuse and determine themselves with a Natural Liberty I say we have undeniable evidence of this from the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of the Divine Nature from the difference between Vertue and Vice and the nature of Rewards and Punishments these things are plain and such as we can understand and such as we cannot deny with any fair appearance of Reason but now all the Arguments against Providence and for Necessity and Fate are mere Philosophical Speculations which men vainly pretend to when it is demonstrable they can know nothing of them As for instance Some tell us That it is not a Wise and Free Providence that governs the world but that all things come to pass by a Necessary Chain of Causes which fatally determine the Will to Chuse and Act as these Causes move it Now whether there be such a necessary Chain of Causes or not it is certain no man can know it who does not as perfectly understand this great Machine of the World and all its Motions as an Artist does all the Wheels in a Watch or Clock nor can any man know how such a Chain of Causes should move and determine the Mind of Man without understanding the Philosophy of Human Souls how
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return 3. Gen. 17 18 19. This was a very severe Sentence which deprived man of Immortality and of the easy and happy life of Paradise condemned him to labour and sorrow while he lived and then to return unto dust and yet the Wisdom as well as Justice of Providence is very visible in it it was not fit that when man had sinned he should be immortal in this World and an industrious and laborious life is the best and happiest state for fallen man as I have elsewhere shown at large We know little more than this of the Antediluvian World till we hear of the general corruption of Mankind That the earth was filled with violence for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth insomuch that it repented the Lord that he had made man upon the earth and it grieved him at his heart 6. Gen. This was so universal a Corruption that there was but one righteous Family left only Noah and his three Sons and therefore God resolved to sweep them all away with an universal Deluge excepting that one righteous Family whom he preserved in the Ark which he appointed Noah to prepare for that purpose The justice of this no man can dispute for if all Flesh corrupt its ways God may as justly destroy a whole world of Sinners as he can punish or cut off any one single Sinner But that which I am now concerned for is to shew the wonderful Wisdom of Providence in the destruction of the Old World by a deluge of Water and rightly to understand this we must consider the several Circumstances of the Story and what God intended by it Now though that wicked Generation of men deserved to be destroyed yet God did not intend to put a final end to this World nor to cut off the whole Race of all Mankind but to raise a new Generation of men from a Righteous Seed and to make the destruction of the Old World a standing Warning and a visible Lesson of Righteousness to the New And a few Observations will satisfy us that nothing could be more wisely designed for this purpose 1. Let us consider the Wisdom of Providence in destroying the Old World without the utter destruction of Mankind It was too soon to put a final end to the World which he had so lately made without reproaching his own Wisdom in making it There had been very little of the Wisdom of Government yet seen but one Act and that concluding in all disorder and confusion and had God left off here and put a final end to the Race of Mankind it had been but a very ill spectacle to the Angelical World to see a whole Species of Reasonable Beings so soon destroyed The Old Serpent who deceived our first Parents would have gloried in his Voctory that he had utterly spoiled and ruined the best part of this visible Creation and even forced God to destroy the most excellent Creature he had made on Earth But God had threatned the Serpent that the Seed of the Woman should break his head and therefore the whole Posterity of Eve must not be destroyed but a Righteous Seed must be preserved to new-people the World But besides this The destruction of the Old World being intended as a warning to the New it was necessary there should be some living Witnesses both of the destruction and the resurrection of the World to assure their Posterity of what they had seen and to preserve the memory of it to all Generations Of which more presently 2dly The Wisdom of God was very visible in delaying so terrible an Execution till there was no remedy To destroy a World carries great horror with it and makes a frightful representation of God if it be not qualified with all the most tender and softning Circumstances And I cannot think of any thing that can justify Providence in it excepting the last Judgment when the Divine Wisdom thinks fit to put a final end to this World but the irrecoverable state of Mankind and the absolute necessity of some new methods of reforming the World And therefore God delayed the destruction of the Old World till all Flesh had corrupted his ways and there was but one Righteous Family left which must be in danger of being corrupted too by the universal wickedness of the Age. However it is certain That though Noah might have preserved his own Integrity and have taught his own Family that Fear and Worship of God yet he could do no good upon the rest of the World he was a Preacher of Righteousness but his Sermons had no effect It is generally concluded by the Ancients that he was an hundred years in building the Ark and all this while he gave visible warning to them of the approaching Deluge Now when it was impossible by any ordinary means to put a stop to the wickedness of Mankind what remained but to destroy that corrupt and incurable Generation and to preserve righteous Noah and his Sons to propagate a new Generation of men and to train them up in the fear and worship of God Had he delayed a little longer the whole World might have been corrupt without one righteous man in it and then he must either have maintained or preserved a World of Atheists and profligate Sinners or must have destroyed them all But it more became the Divine Wisdom when Religion was reduced to one Family to defer Vengeance no longer while he had one righteous Family to save to preserve the Race of Mankind and to restore lost Piety and Vertue to the World 3dly The Wisdom of Providence in destroying the Old World is very visible in the manner of doing it 1st For first it was a Miraculous and Supernatural Destruction and therefore an undeniable evidence of the Power and Providence of God There are no visible Causes in Nature to do this and therefore it must be done by a Power Superior to Nature Some men think it sufficient to disparage the Mosaical Account of the Deluge if they can prove the natural impossibility of it and others who profess to believe the Story think themselves much concerned to give a Philosophical Account of it without having recourse to Miracles and a Supernatural Power which they say unbecomes Philosophers But if it unbecomes Philosophers to believe Miracles I doubt they will think it very much below them to be Christians which no man can be who does not believe Miracles and if they will allow of Miracles in any case methinks they should make no scruple to attribute the destruction of the World to a Miraculous and Supernatural Power The comfort is the truth of the Story does not depend upon any Philosophical Hypothesis we do not believe that the whole World was drowned because we can tell by what Natural Causes it might be drowned but
because Moses has recorded it in his Writings who we know was Divinely inspired And we know also that there has been no satisfactory account given yet from the Principles of Nature and Philosophy how the whole World could be drowned at least none that will agree with the Mosaical History either of the Creation or of the Deluge and it is better to have no Account than such an Account as confutes Moses could any such be given for this confutes or at least discredits the Story it self for which we have no Authentick Authority when the Authority of Moses is lost But indeed it is no service to Religion to seek after Natural Causes for the destruction of the World any more than it is to resolve the making of the World into Natural Causes for it is great good nature in men to own a God if they can make and destroy a World without him there can be no such thing as natural Causes till the World is made and every thing endowed with its Natural Vertues and Powers and united into a regular frame with a mutual dependance and connexion and therefore it is a vain thing to talk of making the World by Natural Causes when it is demonstrable that there can be no Natural Causes till the World is made And it is as certain that Nature must move unnaturally and be put into an universal disorder before the World can be destroyed for while Natural Causes keep their Natural Course they will preserve not destroy the World and therefore the destruction of the World is not owing to Natural Causes but to praeternatural Disorders and what Philosophy can give an account of that What can put Nature into such an universal disorder but the same Divine Power which put it into order and gave Laws to it And this is what God intended in the destruction of the Old World to give a visible and lasting proof of his Being and Providence to the New by such a Miraculous Deluge as could be attributed to no other Cause but a Divine Vengeance That universal Corruption of Mankind would persuade us that the very belief and notion of a God was lost among them or if it be hard to conceive how that should be when the World by computation was not Seventeen hundred years old and Lamech Noah's Father lived fifty years with Adam himself that it seems impossible that the Tradition of God's creating the World should have been lost in so short a time yet at least they could have no sense of God's Justice and Providence they could not believe that God took any notice of their Actions or would execute such a terrible Vengeance on them for their sins We do not read of any one Act of Judgment which God exercised before the Flood and it is not improbable that his sparing Cain when he had killed his Brother Abel might encourage them with hopes of impunity whatever wickedness they committed and therefore the Divine Wisdom saw it necessary to put an end to the Old and to begin the New World with a visible demonstration of his Power and Justice to teach men the fear and reverence and worship of that God who not only made the World but has once destroyed it and therefore can destroy it again with all its wicked Inhabitants whenever he pleases Now to make this a lasting proof of God's Power and Justice it must be evident beyond all contradiction that it was God's doing and therefore it was necessary that God should destroy the world in so miraculous a manner as could be attributed to no other Cause for it is the true Spirit of Atheism and Infidelity to attribute nothing to God which they can ascribe to any visible Cause Had all Mankind excepting Noah and his Sons been destroyed by Plague or Famine or Wild Beasts though such a general destruction would have convinced Wise and Reasonable men that the Hand and the Vengeance of God was in it yet if we may judge of the rest of Mankind by the wonderful improvements in Wit and Philosophy which our Modern Atheists have made they would think scorn to attribute Plague or Famine or such like evil Accidents to God though all Mankind were destroyed by them But when they hear of a World drowned and know not where to find water to drown it without a miraculous dissolution of Nature they must either laugh at the Story which men in their wits can't well do or they must believe a God and a Providence But whatever shift the Infidels of our Age may make to disbelieve the Universal Deluge it must be confessed that it was a very wise and most effectual means to convince that new Generation of men while the uncorrupted Tradition of the Deluge was preserved 2dly The Wisdom of the Divine Providence was seen in destroying that wicked Generation of men without destroying the Earth God did not intend to put a final end to the Race of Mankind but the Earth was to be again inhabited by a new Generation and a Deluge of Waters was best fitted to this purpose which did no hurt to the Earth when it was dried up again but rather moistened and impregnated it with new Seeds and Principles of life There are but two ways we know of to destroy this Earth either by Water or Fire it has already been destroyed by Water and will be destroyed by Fire and it is enough to satisfy any man that this is not Accident but a Wise Design to consider that a Deluge of Water was made use of to purge and reform the World but Fire is reserved for the final destruction of it Whereas had this Order been inverted as it might have been had it been mere Chance it is evident that the Earth could neither have been preserved from Fire nor utterly destroyed by Water without a perpetual Deluge A Deluge of Water does not destroy the Earth nor make it uninhabitable after the Deluge ceases but Fire destroys the Frame and Constitution of it and melts all into one confused mass there is some defence against a Deluge Noah and his Sons were preserved in the Ark to people the New World but there is no defence against Flames the whole Earth and all the wicked Inhabitants of it must burn together And this is one wise Reason why God chose to drown the World not to burn it because the end of all things was not yet come 3dly There is great variety of Wisdom to be observed in God's preserving Noah and his Sons in the Ark from perishing by Water For first as I observed before this was very necessary to preserve the Race of Mankind to new-people the World which much more became the Divine Wisdom than to have created man a-new When all flesh had corrupted his ways it became God to try new Methods of reforming the World for this opens new and surprizing Scenes of Providence and displays such a multifarious Wisdom in the government of Mankind as is much more wonderful
have delivered Israel without them for it would argue a great defect in the ordinary methods of Government if God could not at any time save good men and punish and destroy the wicked without a Miracle God can do whatever he pleases by the wise direction and government of natural and moral Causes and therefore does not work Miracles because he needs them to supply the defects of natural Powers but to bear testimony to his own Being and Providence and to give authority to his Ministers and Prophets and we must learn the wisdom of this from the state and condition of the world at that time Mankind at that time were so far from being Atheists that they would worship any thing the meanest and most contemptible Creatures rather than have no God and they were so sensible how much they stood in need of a Divine Providence that one God would not serve them but they wanted as many Gods not only as there were Nations but as they had wants to supply This was a great corruption of the Light of Nature and those Notions of One Supream God imprinted on our minds and proclaimed by the whole visible Creation but yet was so universal and so prevailing that their wisest Philosophers who had better notions of the Deity were not able to resist the Torrent and durst not openly oppose the Worship of those Countrey Gods for fear of a popular Rage and Fury Now when neither the Light of Nature nor the Works of Creation and of a common Providence could secure the belief and worship of the One Supream God what remained but for God to make some more sensible manifestation of himself to the world and let any man consider what more effectual way could have been taken to convince men of the Divine Power and Providence than by Miracles especially such Miracles as are for the deliverance and protection of good men and the punishment and overthrow of the wicked When the Corruption of Mankind is such that they will not learn from Nature there is no way of teaching them but by something which is supernatural and when the beautiful and regular and uniform Order of Nature will not convince men that there is a God at least not that there is One Supream God who made and who governs this World Miracles will Those who will not believe that the World was made or had any Wise and Intelligent Cause must confess that Miracles have a Cause because they see them produced and that that Cause is not Nature because they see them produced without any Natural Cause or against the Laws of Nature nor Chance and Accident because they are done at the command of a Free Agent at the word of a man as all the Signs and Wonders in Egypt were wrought at the word of Moses whose word had no natural vertue and efficacy in it to work Wonders And therefore Miracles certainly prove that there is an Invisible Intelligent Cause who if he did not make the World could have made it if he had pleased for whoever can in any one instance act without or against Nature can create Nature too For to do any thing which Nature cannot do is in that particular to make Nature and he who can make Nature in one instance can do so in all and this is a good reason to believe that the World was made when we know that there is a Cause that can make the World And that Superior Power he exercises over Nature proves that he both can and does govern the World for he has the supream and absolute Government of Nature who can when he pleases give new powers to it or suspend and reverse its Laws So that Miracles are a Supernatural Proof of a Divine Power and Providence and no man who believes that there ever was a true Miracle wrought can be an Atheist and therefore it is no wonder that Atheists are such professed Enemies to the belief of Miracles but it is a great wonder that they can persuade themselves to reject all those Authentick Relations we have of Miracles both from the Law of Moses and from the Gospel of Christ which are the most credible Histories in the world if we look upon them as no more than Histories and have obtained the most universal belief Especially this is very unaccountable in those men who pretend to Deism to acknowledge a God who made the World for cannot that God who made the World and made Nature act without or above or against Nature when he pleases And may it not become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to do this when it is necessary for the more abundant conviction of Mankind who are sunk into Atheism or Idolatry when Signs and Wonders are necessary to awaken men into the sense and belief of God and his Providence which was the case in the days of Moses or to give Authority to Prophets to declare and reveal the Will of God to men which was a reason for Miracles as long as God thought fit to make any new and publick Revelations of his Will when it is as reasonable and credible that God who can when he pleases should some times work Miracles as it is that he should take care to preserve the knowledge of himself and his Will and to restore it when it is lost or to make such new discoveries of his Grace as the fallen state of Mankind requires when I say the thing it self is so credible and so worthy of God what reasonable pretence can there be for rejecting Miracles for which we have the Authority of the best attested History in the World But Atheism was not the Disease of that Age which had run into the other Extreme of Polytheism and Idolatry and therefore though Miracles do prove the Being and Providence of God the Miracles of Moses were principally intended to prove the Glory and Power of the God of Israel that the God of Israel is the One Supream God and that he had chosen Israel for his peculiar People and this he did by doing such things as no other God could do such as made the Egyptian Magicians confess that it was the Finger of God and what more effectual way could be taken to convince the world of One Supream God than such visible demonstrations of an Absolute and Soveraign Power superior to all Those who worshipped a plurality of Gods either had no notion of One Supream God whose Power ruleth over all or if they had yet they believed that this Supream God had committed the care and government of Mankind to inferior Deities whom they therefore worshipped with Divine Honours as the Disposers of their Lives and Fortunes and either paid no worship to the Supream God which was the more general practice or worshipped their Country-gods together with him and that with the most frequent most solemn and pompous Worship Now such great and wonderful Works as these which none of their Country-gods could do was an evident proof that
begin with Preserving Providence which commences from the first instant of the Creation for as soon as Creatures are made they need a Divine Power to preserve them For this is the strict Notion of Preservation as distinguished from a Governing Providence That God upholds all things in being from falling back into their first Nothing and preserves their natural Vertues Powers and Faculties and enables them to act and to attain the ends of their several Natures Which distinguishes this Preserving Providence from those many Acts of Preservation which belong to Government Such as preserving the Lives of men from unseen Accidents and visible Dangers nay of Beasts and of Birds too as our Saviour assures us That not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father in which sense the Psalmist tells us That God preserves both man and beasts supplies them with Food and all other things necessary to life and preserves their Lives from violence or accident as long as he sees fit This Preservation as distinguish'd from Government St. Paul expresly teaches 17. Acts 28. For in him we live and move and have our being We were not only made by him but we live and move and have our being in Him as the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us of Christ That he upholds all things by the word of his power 1. Hebr. 3. The Schools have divided this into two distinct Acts. 1. God's upholding and preserving the Being and Natures of all things 2. His Co-operating with all Creatures and by a perpetual influx and concourse actuating their natural Powers to perform their natural Actions that is That we have our being in him that we live and move and act in him or by a new influx of power from him As for the first The preservation of all things in being besides those Texts of Scripture which expresly attribute this to God the Schools urge several Arguments for the proof of it which I think may be resolved into this one That whatever does not necessarily exist by the internal Principles of its own Nature must depend on its Cause not only for its Being but for its Continuance and Preservation For there is no medium between necessary Existence and dependance on its Cause The very notion of a Creature does not only include in it its being made but its dependance on its Maker for its continuance in being For whatever does not necessarily exist must not only be made at first but must be upheld and preserved in being for it can no more preserve than it can make it self It was nothing once and what was once nothing may be nothing again and therefore cannot subsist of it self but in dependance on its Maker It is not with the Being and Natures of things as it is with the Works of Art which though they cannot make themselves yet when they are made can subsist without the Artist that made them As a House cannot build it self but when it is built it continues of it self as long as the Materials and Workmanship last when the Workman has left it for the Workman does not give being to the Materials but only to the Form which subsists in the Matter and that in its first Cause but whatever receives its Being from another as all Creatures do has nothing to support its Being but the Cause that made it This is so certain that I should make no scruple to say That God can no more make an Independent Creature which can subsist without him than he can make an Eternal Creature which shall have no beginning which is not want of Power in God but a repugnancy and contradiction in the Nature of Creatures That which once was not can never be so made as to have no beginning that which has not a necessary existence as nothing has which once was not cannot be made to exist necessarily without dependance on its Cause because necessary existence is not in its Nature for then it would always have been Suarez has another Argument to prove the dependence of Creatures on the perpetual influx of Power from the first Cause which possibly some may think only a School-subtily but seems to me to have great weight in it and it proceeds upon this Supposition which all men must grant That if God made the World out of nothing he could annihilate all things and reduce them into nothing again if he so pleased Now he says That Annihilation is not an Act of Power for all positive Acts of Power must have some real and positive effect whereas to annihilate is to make nothing and therefore to do nothing Now if to annihilate be no Act of Power then it can be nothing else but a withdrawing that Power which supported all things in being and that proves That all things are upheld in being by the Divine Power if they cannot subsist but fall into nothing again when that Upholding and Preserving Power is withdrawn This is a very sensible Argument if we distinguish between what we call destroying and annihilating which is apt to confound us in this matter To destroy is only to change the present form and compages of things while the matter and substance continues the same thus God destroyed the Old World by Water and will destroy this World by Fire again which is like pulling down a House without destroying the Materials and this is an Act of Power and has a positive effect but to annihilate is to reduce something to nothing which is to do nothing and therefore is no Act of Power but only a Cessation of Power And if not to uphold is to annihilate then all things subsist as well as are made by the Power of God I shall only add That God cannot make a Creature independent on himself without bestowing on it a self-subsisting Nature or necessary existence for whatever does not necessarily exist by the internal Principles of its Nature must depend on something else to uphold it in being Now besides what I observed before That whatever necessarily exists can't be made but must be eternal For that which exists necessarily must always exist without a Cause and without a Beginning for nothing can begin to have a necessarily self-subsisting Nature I now add That whatever necessarily is can't be changed destroyed annihilated for whatever necessarily is necessarily is what it is which proves That if God can annihilate whatever he has made then all things subsist by the Will and Pleasure and Power of God not by the internal Principles of their Natures for whatever necessarily exists can never be annihilated for that is a contradiction How God upholds all things in being we no more know than how at first he made all things when there was nothing and therefore it is a vain Inquiry of the Schools which no man can resolve and which serves no End in Religion Whether Creation and Preservation be the same or two different Acts Whether Preservation be a continued Creation or whether they be
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
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
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
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
the Will is moved how it is determined or determines it self whether by the Constitution of its Nature it always necessarily chuses what it chuses or might have not chose or have chosen any thing else Now whatever other men may do I 'm sure I know nothing of the Philosophy of these matters and therefore they don't concern me Others make God himself to be nothing else but Necessity and Fate who by Eternal and Irreversible Decrees as necessary and essential to him as his own Being has determined whatever shall come to pass but no man can pretend to know this without an Immediate Vision if I may so speak of the Naked Essence of God His Attributes and Moral Perfections give us no notice of such Fatal Decrees his Wisdom Holiness Justice Goodness contain nothing of Fate and Necessity and those who can see the very Essence of God to be Fate must be able to contemplate his Pure Essence and to know God after another manner than he ever yet manifested himself to Creatures or it may be than it is possible for God to show himself to Creatures Others conclude the Fatal Necessity of all Events from God's Prescience for they say that God can foreknow things only in his own Decrees and therefore if God foreknows all things all things are decreed or however what God foreknows will come to pass will certainly and necessarily come to pass and therefore all Events are certain and necessary if they are all foreknown by God But these are Conclusions which no man can be certain of without pretending perfectly to understand the Nature of Prescience or how God foreknows things to come for if God can foreknow what he has not decreed and can foreknow what does not come to pass necessarily then the Prescience of God does not infer a Fatality of all Events And yet this may be for ought we know unless we perfectly understand the Nature of Prescience and how God foreknows things to come and then we may foreknow things our selves The like may be said of God's concourse with his Creatures in all their actions from whence they conclude That the Will of man in all its elections is determined by God without whose concourse it cannot act nor determine it self These are all Nice Philosophical Speculations which creatures who are so ignorant of the Natures of things can know nothing of and therefore they are not fit to be made Arguments for or against any thing The Sum is this That since we must confess our selves so very ignorant of the Works of Nature without the knowledg of which in Ten thousand Instances it is impossible to understand the Wisdom of Providence it is unreasonable and absured for us to demand an account of God's Providences but we ought to be satisfied to leave God to Govern the World with the same Sovereign and Unaccountable Wisdom which at first gave Being to all things Thirdly That the Wise Government of the World requires secret and hidden Methods of Providence and therefore at least in this state we ought not to expect or desire a particular Account or Reason of all Events The Wise-man tells us It is the glory of God to conceal a thing 25. Prov. 2. It is the Glory of the Divine Nature that it is Incomprehensible by us and it is the Glory of the Divine Providence to be Unsearchable and therefore many of the Ancient Philosophers and Poets forbid too curious an Enquiry into the Nature or Providence of God and Sophronius gives a wise Reason for it Because we are all born of Mortal Parents and therefore the perfect knowledge of an Infinite Immortal Being must be above us Which is much the same Reason that Zophar gives Vain man would be wise tho man be born like a wild asses colt 11. Job 12. This is a knowledge too great for our birth if our Natural Capacities bear proportion to it for God must be a very little Being himself could he be comprehended by such mean Creatures But that which I at present intend is only to shew you That the Wise Government of the World requires that the Divine Counses that the Events and Reasons of Providence should in a great measure be concealed from us and I hope that is a satisfactory reason why God should conceal them if he can't so wisely govern the world without it I would desire those persons who are so apt to quarrel at Providence and to take it so very ill that God does any thing which they don 't presently understand to sit down and agree among themselves How they would have God govern the world What it is that they would be pleased with But let them consider well of it before-hand that upon second thoughts they don 't find more reason to quarrel at their own ways and methods of governing the world than they now have to quarrel with Providence or that the rest of mankind do not find more reason to quarrel with them than they have now to quarrel with God As to give an Instance or two of this by way of Essay Some seem to be very much discontented at the Uneveness and Uncertainty of all Events that all things are in a perpetual Flux and Motion that no man knoweth what a day or an hour will bring forth The instability of Fortune which gives and takes away and every day shews a new face and opens new and surprizing Scenes has been an old Complaint Well then Would they have this rectified Would they have all the Events of Providence as constant and regular and unchangeable as the Motions of the Heavens as the Returns of Day and Night of Winter and Summer And when they see all things happen thus evenly and regularly will they then promise to believe a Providence I mightily suspect that they will be farther from believing a Providence then than they are now We see that the Regular Motions of the Heavens and the Uniform Productions of Nature which so seldom vary that it is thought Portentous and Ominous if they do cannot convince them That God governs the Heavens and the Earth and all the Works of Nature as far as all their Vertues and Powers move and act uniformly by constant and unerring Laws and if the regular uniformity of Nature is not thought by these men a sufficient Proof of a Providence I doubt a constant and uniform round of all Events would be thought much less so Those who now resolve all the uncertain Changes and Revolutions that happen into Necessity and Fate would have more reason to do so did Providence always shew the same face and appearances as the Heavens do But can they tell what kind of Uniformity and Stability of Providence it is would please them Would they have all mens Fortunes equal That there should be no distinction between Rich and Poor High and Low Princes and Subjects the Honourable and the Vile I believe few of them would like such a Levelling Providence which as the state of
though the Troubles and Calamities which we often meet with in this World do not prove Life to be a contemptible State or worse than not being yet they do prove Life to be a very Imperfect State that the mere Sensible Pleasures and Advantages of Life together with these great allays are but vanity and vexation of spirit Wise men see that there can be no compleat Happiness in this World and that it is vain to expect it for how can this World make us happy which though it has its Pleasures has its Troubles and Cares and Disappointments too is an insecure and mutable State exposed to Chance and Accident to the Lusts and Passions of men is always chequered with Prosperous and Adverse Events has always a mixture of Good and Evil and many times the Evil is the prevailing Ingredient And therefore though the natural love of Life and the many Sweets and Comforts of it reconcile very miserable people to living yet a wise man sees no reason to be fond of this State much less to dream of perfect and lasting Happiness in it 2dly The many Troubles we are exposed to plainly prove That there is no Happiness to be had in this World but in the practice of Vertue It was a vain brag of the Stoicks That Vertue alone could make a man happy that their Wise-man could be perfectly happy in Phalaris's Bull for Vertue is not Meat and Drink and Clothes can't cure Bodily Pain and Sickness nor satisfy the Appetites and Desires of the Body and while a Wise man lives in a mortal Body he must feel the wants and pains of it and to be in want and pain is not happiness But yet thus much is certainly true That nothing can make a man happy in this World without the practise of Vertue and that when we must encounter with the Troubles and Difficulties of Life nothing can give us any degree of Ease and Satisfaction but the practice of Vertue We may meet with such Troubles as will sowre all our other Enjoyments and make them unable to bear up our spirits which sink under their own weight under the disorders of their own Passions Are tormented with Fears with Disappointments with Envy with Rage and when they cannot bear themselves can bear nothing else nor relish their wonted Pleasures But you have already heard that Vertue has its proper Pleasures in the greatest Difficulties inspires us with prudent Counsels to disintangle our selves animates us with courage and bravery to resist the Evil or to bear it sweetens our Labours with the satisfaction of great and generous Actions for the Publick Good keeps our own Passions under government and triumphs over an adverse Fortune by raising the mind above it By such helps as these a Good man may enjoy some competent measure of Ease and Satisfaction in the worst Condition but when such Troubles surprise a mind unarmed and unfortified with Vertue unable to resist and unable to bear we may then with great truth and reason apply this Text to him I praised the dead who are already dead more than the living who are yet alive Were the state of this World always easy and prosperous there would be little need of Passive Vertues though Vertue in general is always necessary to make men happy but all men must be sensible how necessary Passive and Suffering Vertues are for an inconstant troublesome and suffering state which is always in some degree the state of this World and that will convince those who will consider it how necessary the practice of Vertue is to make men happy 3dly Though the Troubles of this Life are no reason why a Good man should hasten his escape out of this World before his time yet they are a very good reason to make him contented to leave this World whenever God calls him out of it For though Vertue will sweeten Labours and Difficulties yet no man would chuse always to live in a state of War Ease and rest is very pleasant and refreshing after labour Though a Prince be glorious in the Field covered with dust and sweat and sprinkled with the Bloud of his Enemies yet the Triumphs of a secure and quiet Throne are greater and more desirable And this makes the Grave too in some degree acceptable after the toils and labours of Vertue that there the weary are at rest especially since this Rest is not a state of insensibility for all the Labours and Difficulties of a Vertuous Life are infinitely to be preferred before the ease and rest of knowing and feeling and being sensible of nothing which is the rest of a Stone and of things without life not the rest of a Man But they rest from their labours and their works follow them they rest in a peaceful and secure enjoyment of Endless Happiness they rest from all the Labours of Vertue and enjoy its Rewards This is a sufficient justification of Providence with respect to the present Evils and Calamities of Life for it is what exactly becomes the Goodness of Providence in this World such a mixt State of Good and Evil as may wean us from the tempting Vanities of this Life and convince us that there is no perfect Happiness to be found here which is necessary to raise our hearts above this World and to set our Affections upon things above which is an Eternal State of perfect Ease and Rest And since Religion and Vertue is necessary to our Future Happiness nothing can be better for us than such a state of things as shall make Vertue necessary to our present Happiness and since we must leave this World and Death is the King of Terrors whatever reconciles us to Death and makes it easy may be reckoned one of the greatest pleasures and securities of Human Life Secondly In answer to this Objection against the Goodness of Providence from those many Evils and Calamities that are in the World we must consider That most of the Evils of Human Life are owing to mens own wickedness and folly and it is very unreasonable to make those Evils an Objection against Providence which men wilfully bring upon themselves Thus the Wise-man long since stated this Question The foolishness of man perverteth his ways and his heart fretteth against the Lord 19. Prov. 3. Men make themselves miserable and then reproach the Divine Providence with their Miseries And therefore I shall briefly shew you that Mankind undo themselves and that the Evils which men bring upon themselves are no reasonable Objection against the Goodness of Providence 1. The first is a very proper Subject for a Satyr against the Folly and Wickedness of Mankind but needs no proof If we take a survey of the many Miseries of Human Life and resolve them into their immediate and natural Causes we shall find that most men take great care to leave very little for God to do in the punishment of Wickedness in this World There are but two visible Causes of all the Miseries that
are in the World either the Disorders of Nature or the Wickedness of Men By the Disorders of Nature I mean unseasonable Weather Earthquakes excessive Heat or Cold great Droughts or immoderate Rains Thunders Lightnings Storms and Tempests which occasion Famines and Plagues great Sickness or a great Mortality these may very reasonably be attributed to the more immediate Hand of God who directs and governs Nature but besides that in such Cases the visible Corruption of Mankind justifies such Severities how rarely do these happen and how few suffer by them in comparison with those many and constant Evils which the wickedness of men every day bring upon themselves and others For most of the other Evils and Calamities of life are visibly owing to mens Sins Bodily Sickness sharp and painful Distempers which shorten mens lives or make them miserable are the common effects of Intemperance Luxury or Wantonness Children inherit the Diseases of their Parents and come into the World only to cry and die or to struggle some few years in the very Kingdom and Territories of Death and to languish under those mortal Wounds which they received with the first beginnings of life Another great evil is Poverty which many men bring upon themselves by Idleness or Prodigality and some expensive Vices It is not in every man's power by the greatest Prudence and Industry to make himself rich for time and chance happeneth to them all but in ordinary Cases Prudence and Industry joined with a religious regard for God and his Providence will preserve a man from the pressing Wants and Necessities of Poverty Others who do not make themselves poor by their own Sins are many times reduced to great poverty by the Sins of other men by Injustice and Oppression and Violence by the Miseries and Calamities of War which brings a thousand Evils with it which makes many helpless Widows and Orphans deprives men of their Patrons and Benefactors drives others from their plentiful Fortunes to seek their Bread in a strange Land plunders Poor and Rich lays a flourishing Countrey desolate puts a stop to Trade makes Provisions dear and leaves no work for the Poor Some others are reduced to Poverty more immediately by the Providence of God without their own fault Those who have no other support but their daily labour are quickly pinched by a long and Expensive Sickness or by the Infirmities of Age or by the loss of their Eyes or Hands or Legs others are undone by Fire or Shipwrecks or the various Accidents of Trade which the most wary and cautious men cannot escape but besides that there are few of these in comparison with the throngs and crowds of Idle Prodigal Self-made Poor God has made provision for all such Cases that no man shall suffer extreme want by commanding the Rich especially to supply the want of such Poor who are properly God's Poor or the Poor of God's making and commanding this under the penalty of their Eternal Salvation and the forfeiture of their own Estates if they prove unjust and unfaithful Stewards So that though God makes some men poor it is the fault of other men if they suffer want The poverty they suffer is owing to the Providence of God the wants and miseries they suffer are owing to the Sins to the Uncharitableness of Men For though the World be unequally divided of which more presently yet there is enough to supply the wants of all the Creatures that are in it and God never intended that any of his Creatures should want necessaries that one man's plenty and abundance should cause another man to starve And thus it is in most of the other miseries of life it is the sin and the folly of Mankind which makes them miserable which is so obvious to every one who will consider it that I need not expatiate on every particular I believe there is no man but will confess that were all men good and vertuous this World would be a very happy place and if the practice of moral and sociable Vertues would make Mankind happy it is no hard matter to guess what it is that disturbs the Peace and Happiness of the World 2dly Let us now consider how unreasonable it is to reproach the Divine Providence with those Evils and Miseries which Mankind bring upon themselves And laying down this as a Principle that most men make themselves miserable it is very easy to defend and justify the Goodness of Providence For these Evils which men complain of are not justly chargeable upon Providence and therefore are un unreasonable Objection against Providence God does not bring these Evils upon Mankind but men bring them upon themselves Supposing the nature of things and the nature of man to be what they now are and that men lived just as they now do there must be the same Miseries in the World that there now are though there were no Providence Though God did not interpose in the government of the World yet Intemperance Luxury and Lust would destroy mens health Sloth and Prodigality and expensive Vices would make men poor Pride Ambition and Revenge would make Quarrels raise Wars and bring all the Calamities of War upon the World if there were no Providence thus it must be for excessive eating and drinking will oppress Nature and those who will take no honest pains to get Money or will spend what they have upon their lusts must be poor and those who will quarrel and fight must take what follows these evils are not owing to Providence because Providence does not bring them no more than Providence makes men wicked Men make themselves wicked and wickedness makes them miserable and we may as well charge the Providence of God with all the wickedness of men as with those miseries which their own wickedness brings upon them Now since most of those evils which are in the World are not justly chargeable upon Providence the Goodness of God is very visible in those very Evils and Calamities which Mankind suffer For 1. God has in ordinary Cases put it into every man's power to preserve himself from most of the greatest evils and miseries of life even from all those which men bring upon themselves by their own sins What could be done more than this for a reasonable Creature to make it his own choice and to put it into his own power whether he will be happy or miserable God has not only in his Laws but in the nature of things set before us life and death happiness and misery All men see what the visible and natural punishments of Sin are and have a natural aversion to those evils and may avoid them if they will this is a plain proof not only of the Holiness of Providence as I observed before in deterring men from sin by those natural evils which attend it but also of the Goodness of Providence by shewing men a plain and natural method how to avoid the miseries of life and to make themselves easy and