the suddain death of her Child Cryed out to the Prophet Art thou come unto me to call my Sin to remembrance and to Slay my Son 1 Kings 17. 18. And thus Iosephs Brethren upon the Severity he used towards them Said one to another we are verily Guilty Concerning our Brother in that we Saw the Anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Gen. 42. 21. God saith Hosea 5. 15. I will go and return to my Place or I will withdraw my Protection from them till they acknowledge their Offence and seek my Face In their Affliction they will seek me Early And it is said Psal. 78. 34. When He Slew them then they Sought Him and they Returned and Enquired after God And they Remembred that God was their Rock and the High God their Redeemer Or then they called this to mind who till they were Afflicted could never be perswaded to Consider it As Stubborn a Wretch as Pharoah was his Hard heart was quickly from time to time Softned by the Plagues and it reteined its Softness under each Plague till it was removed When the Prodigal Son was brought to extream Penury he soon came to himself and Returned to his Father King Manasseh was a Prodigy of Wickedness yet When he was in Affliction as the Text saith he besought the Lord his God and Humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers And Prayed unto Him and He was intreated of him c. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He is God Or he had a Powerful Sense thereof upon his Mind 2 Chron. 33. 12 13. Afflictions are so necessary to the Conversion of Sinners that those who have spent many years in a Loose Sort of Life are very rarely Effectually Reclaimed otherways than by Gods Blessing upon some Sharp Affliction II. Evil things or Afflictions are very Needful and Necessary for Imperfectly Good as well as for Bad People They greatly need them in order to their Growing in Grace and rising to higher degrees of Goodness Particularly in order to their being more Watchful against Temptations to Sin This Experience King David had of the Benefit of Afflictions Before I was Afflicted saith he I went Astray but now have I kept thy Word Psal. 119. 67. In order to the more weaning them from this Vain World and the Mortifying of all Remainders of Sensuality In order to the more Humbling them under a Sense of their Frailty and Impotence and their more close dependence upon God In order to the more Softning of their Hearts and more opening their Bowels of Compassion towards others in Affliction None have such a sympathy with their Suffering Brethren as those who are made sensible of the Sadness of their Condition by their own Feeling In order to their more loving of God and Trusting in Him To which the Experience they have had of Divine Supports under Afflictions and Deliverances out of them doth greatly Contribute In short by Afflictions The Iniquity of Jacob is purged and this is all the Fruit to take away his Sin Isaiah 22. 14. III. Evil things are needful too even for the Eminently Good And that as upon some of the forementioned Accounts so more Especially 1. For Prevention For which End the most Healthy Persons do sometimes take Physick St Paul as Eminent a Saint as he was had a Messenger of Satan sent to Buffet him lest he should be Exalted above measure through the Abundance of his Revelations as he tells us 2 Cor. 12. 7. There are none so Good as to be out of all danger while they remain in this World as to be able to bear long and uninterrupted Prosperity without being lyable to be the worse for it in several respects Who is so Humble who so Heavenly minded as to have no Reason to fear his being too much Opinionated of himself and loving the world too much if God did not sometimes mind him what an infirm and weak Creature he is by Afflictions of one kind or other and never imbittered his Comforts to him 2. The Best People need them likewise for the Tryal and Exercise of some Graces and Virtues which cannot be exerted without them What Exercise can there be of the Grace of Contentment while all things succeed according to a man's desire and expectation Of Patience while he feels no pain Of Submission to God's Will while God never Crosseth his Own Will Of Meekness and Forgiveness of Enemies while he hath no Enemies to forgive or meets with no Provocations from them And this leads me to Add 3. That the Best do need Afflictions in Order to their doing so much the more Credit to Religion and the more benefiting the World by their Examples For we have now seen that they cannot be Examples of all Virtues without them 4. The Best need them also to make them so much the more to Value and consequently to be the more Thankful for the Good things they enjoy There is no Man so good but he prizeth Health the more for being some times Sick No man can be so affected with his Obligations to God for any Blessing who never was without it as he who hath felt how uneasie and grievous a thing it is to want it Nay were there no Life after this we should think tolerable Evils necessary to give the better Gusto a more pleasing Relish to the Gratifications of our Senses The more Hungry or Thirsty a Man is the greater is the Pleasure he takes in Eating or Drinking How pleasant is a Bed or Couch to a Man tyred with hard Labour a cool Shade to one parched with Heat Liberty after Confinement the Enjoyment of a dear Relation or Friend after a long Absence and even Indolence or mere Ease after great Pain As Socrates observed in his last Discourse with his Friends after he was rid of his Shackles And perhaps there are not many Evils which we are able to bear with any patience and that continue not over-long which do not make us a good Recompence by the much more pleasant Enjoyment we have of the Opposite Good things upon their Leaving us Fourthly The last Consideration I named which gives great Weight to the Motive in the Text To Receive Evil things at the Hand of God is That they are Ordered and Appointed to us by God from the Self-same Principle that Good things are viz. That of Good Will And therefore as was said the Evils which come from Him are Good as they come from Him There is an Excellent Saying to this Purpose of an Heathen Philosopher viz Simplicius We do not say that the Divine Iustice is the Cause of Evil but of Good because the Evil which proceeds from thence is in order to Good We have seen that all sorts of Men do need Evil things as well as Good and we are now to shew that God inflicts them because we need them We have shewed That they are Spiritual
You see I shall take it for granted that Good things are all from God and well I may since Tully could ask Why do we Worship Him or Pray to Him if it were otherwise And he thought with Posidonius before him that a Man cannot deny this but he must be an Atheist and therefore made no better Men of Epicurus and his Followers tho' none did more Profess the Belief of a Deity But we will a little Enquire Whether Evil things do come also from God's Hand because those who have the Highest Thoughts of the Divine Goodness may be most apt to Question how God can be the Author of any Evil How out of the same Fountain can Flow both Sweet Streams and Bitter Or rather How Bitterness can issue forth from the Fountain of Sweetness Now that this is very Accountable will chiefly appear from what we are to say hereafter Our present Business is to shew That Evils do proceed from the Hand of God as also what Hand He hath in thâ—m That they do proceed from His Hand is so evident from the Holy Scriptures that nothing is more evident God Almighty saith by His Prophet Isaiah Ch. 45. 7. I form the Light and create Darkness I make Peace and create Evil I the Lord do all these things And by His Prophet Amos Ch. 3. 6. Shall there be Evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it And by His Servant Moses Deut. 32. 39. See now that I even I am He and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my Hand And all the Threatnings in the Book of God do suppose this And therefore we there find Good Men still acknowledging God's Hand in their Afflictions Thus Upright Iob upon his receiving the Tydings of his Prodigious Losses saith The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away c. Ch. 1. 21. The Lord hath taken away as well as given King David we find frequently making such Acknowledgments And our Blessed Saviour calls his Sufferings The Cup which his Father had given him to drink And indeed the Pagans had generally this sense of the Evils especially the Greater that befell them as well as of their Good Things And therefore they had their Catharmata and many Expiatory Rites for the Pacifying of their Gods whensoever Calamities of any kind did light upon them Now in order to our Understanding What Hand God hath in Evils we are to take Notice 1. That they do not ordinarily proceed immediately from His Hand Nay we have no reason to believe that any Evils ever do but 't is probable that those do proceed from Invisible second Causes which do not from Visible 2. Nor is it necessary to make Evils at least Ordinarily the Effects of Second Causes by any positive Act of God whereby he useth those Causes as his Instruments in the most proper and strict sence of that Word But it may be enough to say upon the falling out of Disasters that His good Providence did not interpose in preventing those Evil Effects being produced by their Causes Nor can we certainly conclude that ever God doth any more than withhold his wonted Protection in such Cases 3. Evils may be truly of God's Appointing tho not caused by any Positive Act of His. And whensoever His Providence suffers us to fall into such Circumstances as that certain Evils inevitably light upon us and no Care could prevent them then at least we may look upon them as being of the Divine Appointment no less than Permission And even those may be so which are the Effects of other Peoples Wickedness As when the Pride or Covetousness or Malice of another makes me a Sufferer For the Opportunities and Advantages which a wicked Man may at any time have against me are from the Divine Providence So that tho' it be infinitely unworthy of God to infuse Evil Affections Inclinations or Dispositions into any man or to excite any one to Sin yet He knowing such Affections and Inclinations to be in such Persons and that they only want Objects or Opportunities for the Acting of them He may make use of them for the scourging of such Particular Sinners or for the Tryal of such or such of His Servants We have an Instance hereof in Shimei ' s Cursing King David Upon Abishai ' s saying Why should this dead Dog Curse my Lord the King Let me I pray thee go over and take off his Head The King thus Reply'd Let him Curse because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David who shall then say Wherefore hast thou done so David could not mean by these Words that God had laid His Command upon that Wretch to Curse him This would have been to make him no Sinner herein but His Obedient Servant But his Meaning was That God had by his Providence given Shimei this Opportunity of insulting over him and venting his Spite upon him And therefore the good King concluded that God in just Judgment did not scourge him with the Tongue of Shimei as He had done by the Sword of his Son Absalom And thus God calls the Assyrian The Rod of his Anger and saith that He will send him against an Hypocritical Nation And by this Phrase we are to understand God's so Ordering it as that all Difficulties and Discouragements should be removed out of his way to the invading of the Israelites which He knew he was prepared in mind to do as soon as he could have an Opportunity Nor are we to think it strange that such Words as Sending Commanding Doing Determining and many other like them should be used onely to Express either removing Rubs out of the way to certain Evils whether Natural or Moral or bare Permissions since these ways of Speaking are Hebrew Idioms and as ordinary as can be in the Iewish Language Of which there are innumerable Instances in Holy Scripture I will Name one more viz. that in Acts 4. 28. where God's Hand and Counsel and Determination are said to be in the Horrible Death and Sufferings of His Holy Child Iesus But 't is as evident as that 't is impossible for God to be the Author of Sin that those Phrases signifie no more than His Permitting or Decreeing to permit those Sufferings to be inflicted by His Enemies and His so Ordering it in His Wise Providence as that all Impediments to the Executing of their Malice should be removed And we may well say that God's Hand is in the Evils which befal Men tho' there should be no positive Act of His Hand in them since the Evils of which Iob saith Shall we not receive them at the Hand of God Were all inflicted by the Hand of the Devil through His Permission All his Heavy Calamities were the Effects of Satan's Malice and consequent upon God's not restreining him from venting it as he did It appears by the Story that it was the
Devil who stirred up the Sabeans and others to Rob him of his Cattle and to destroy his Servants That it was the Devil that brought down the Fire on the remainder of them altho' it be called the Fire of God from Heaven That it was the Devil who raised the Storm which blew down the House upon his Sons and Daughters That it was He who filled his Body with Blains Botches And these Terrible Evils were not onely Permitted by God but Appointed too but His Appointment took place through His mere Permission As knowing that Satan was enough his Enemy to bring all these Calamities upon him and worse too if He would but suffer him There is no more than Permission or not hindering to be understood in that Saying of the Divine Majesty to him Behold all that he hath is in thy Power c. Chap. 1. 12. Or in that Behold he is in thine Hand c. Chap. 2. 6. Not that God gave him a Commission or so much as Leave or Licence thus to Torment the Upright Man He onely withdrew the Restreints he was before under from thus Worrying him This is evident from the Account which the Devil himself gives of his having hitherto spared him Chap. 1. 10. Hast thou not saith he made an Hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side And whereas he saith in the next Verse But put forth thine Hand now and touch all that he hath and he will Curse thee to thy Face It is plain he meant no more by these Words but Cease to protect him from my hand And in so Expressing this his Meaning he complyed with the fore-mentioned Hebrew Idiom or Manner of Speaking Before we proceed further Let us stop a while to take Notice how infinitely we are obliged to the Divine Protection in that we find not our present State far more Sad and Calamitous than it is Many Afflictions we meet with in this World and sometimes very Heavy ones But for One Exercise of our Patience we should have a Thousand and those much more intolerable than we have ever yet felt did not the good Providence of God continually guard us were not The Lord of Hosts with us were not The God of Iacob our Defence and Refuge There are not a few things in all places which would be both Mischievous and Destructive to us but for the Care which God Almighty takes of us by the Ministry of His Angels and very many other invisible Ways We know both by Observation and Experience that there is no Creature so inconsiderable as not to be able to make us Miserable with the Divine Permission or to put a Period to our Lives And therefore that was a good Reply which Theodorus made to Lysimachus when he threatned to Kill him viz. What a mighty Matter is that the most contemptible things is as able to do this as thy self The ill Accidents to which we are dayly liable are innumerable and so are the Natural Causes both without us and within us of a great Number of Diseases so that if they were not over-ruled by Providence and that by such secret Means as make it impossible for us to understand how we could never have one hours freedom from Sickness or Pain and should be always running into Mischief But if the Devils were our onely Enemies who are still watching all Advantages against both our Souls and Bodies were it not for the Divine Protection the Case of both would be most deplorable St. Peter compares the Head of them to A Roaring Lyon and saith that he walketh about seeking whom he may devour Of these malignant Spirits and their Malevolence to Mankind the Pagans had an Undoubted Tradition the poor Americans especially need no such Tradition to whom to this day they make themselves Visible and make them feel sad Effects of their Malice And we find enough in the History of the Gospel to incline us to think it very probable that many of the Diseases and other Evils which happen to us are of their Procurement And there needs no more but God's saying to any one of them concerning any of us what he said of Iob Behold they are in thine hand to make this Life a very hell to us I say therefore how unspeakably are we obliged to our Good God for protecting us as He doth with His Watchful Eye and Almighty Arm We have seen that He needs not do any thing nor Exert His Power in any one Act to make our Being in this World most miserable He needs in Order thereto onely not to continue His Care of us which the Bad as well as Good and those who provoke Him every day such is His Goodness and Long-suffering are every Moment protected by though not alike protected nor the same Persons alwaies alike And how fearful should we be of disobliging such a Friend lest we at length provoke Him to pluck up His Hedge of Protection Secondly We come next to shew What is meant by Receiving Evil at the Hand of God which Iob's Question here speaks to be a most necessary Duty Shall we not receive Evil This implyeth these Four Things 1. Heartily Acknowledging the Hand of God to be in the Evils that befal us 2. Submitting Patiently to His Will under them 3. Doing this also Thankfully 4. Complying with God ' s Great End and Design in them First Heartily Acknowledging the Hand or Providence of God to be in the Evils which befal us Since God's Hand is as hath been shewed in them we must needs be obliged to receive them as from Him and with a great sense of the Truth of that Saying of Eliphaz Affliction cometh not forth of the Dust neither doth Trouble spring out of the Ground Or it is not to be ascribed merely to Earthly or Natural Causes And therefore as we have observed we find Pious Men in Scripture still owning God's Providence in their Afflictions Those consequently who look no farther than the immediate Causes of them or who look not beyond those which are Visible cannot behave themselves like Religious Men under them nor scarely like Men But do too often resemble those silly Currs that fly furiously upon the Stones which are flung at them taking no Notice of the Hand from whence they come Those must either not believe that God takes care of Men and deny that there is any such thing as Providence which is as bad as slat Atheism if it be ever separated from it who when for instance they are visited with Sickness think of no higher Cause thereof than the noxious quality or quantity of what they have eaten or drank or infectious Steams or bad Air or the like and never consider that none of these things could hurt them had not God seen it good not to keep them by some Providence or other out of Harms way or not to Over-rule such Causes And the like may be said of those who upon the
but that He took Her hence in just Iudgment to Us tho' in infinite Mercy to Herself At least this sad Conclusion may be made from this Providence if we should be as insensible of the Hand of God in our Loss of Her as we have been of the Blessing we had in Her while we enjoyed Her And Her Kingdoms might have enjoyed Her more than Forty Years longer had they better deserved Her Had Her Life been prolonged to such a Number of Years it would have been no strange thing considering Her Temperance and the Healthfulness and Strength of Her Constitution We can assign no mere Natural Reason Why She might not at least have lived to the Age of Queen Elizabeth who dyed before She was Seventy Years Old and yet was Thirty Eight Years Elder than our Blessed Queen Mary And if it should prove That this sad stroke should be lost upon us what Cause may we have to dread a yet Sadder I mean the losing of our King too who may well be called The very Breath of our Nostrils since the Prophet Jeremiah did so stile a Prince who deserved not to be Named on the same day with Him And well may I say that the Loss of King William would be the Greatest that Humanly speaking can befal us Since those are worse than Blind who will not see That the Safety of these Nations and of at least all our Protestant Neighbours doth wholly under God Almighty depend upon His Precious Life and must necessarily so do in the Eye of Reason while our Circumstances continue as they are Abroad Should God call the King from us before our Danger from France is Over I can not think but the Faces of many of his Professed Enemies would soon gather Blackness at the Scaring Prospect which those who can see but one Inch before them must needs then have a Clear sight of And then it may Endanger their Losing that Sense they have left them to Reflect upon their Prodigious insensibility of their own interest whether they Ever Come or no to have any Concernment for the Publick And what Cause have we to Pray Heartily for the Kings Long and Prosperous Reign Over us from Affection to Him as well as to Our Selves Since to Him as Gods great Instrument We Owe the Preservation of our Religion and of all that is Dear to us To Conclude Those who are so Irreligious as to look no farther than the Natural Cause of the Queens Death are never like to be Bettered thereby But Such as are duly Sensible of Gods Hand therein who could easily have Prevented it without a Miracle and by his Ordinary Providence too had He seen it in His infinite Wisdom Fit Can not but See what an Awakening Providence This is Loudly Calling upon us to Attone His Wrath by deep Humiliation Hearty Repentance and Reformation But let the Consequents of this Stroke be never so Sad we ought with Holy King David To be dumb and not open our Mouths because it was Gods doing And to say Righteous art Thou O Lord and just most just are Thy Judgments And indeed to have such a Blessing as This Snatcht away from us and one so Qualified in all respects and so desirous too to make us in Conjunction with Her Royal Companion in the Throne both a Good and a Flourishing People and that in the very Flower of Her Years and in an Age which could worst Spare Her Religion being now at so low an Ebb and Wickedness and Infidelity so Abounding This is Such a Calamity as no Considerations can Support Good People under it like the Thoughts of His Hands being in it from whence we receive all our Good and therefore ought to receive Evil And the Assurance we have that Our Mighty Loss is Her Infinite Gain Edward Gloucester JOB II. X. What Shall we receive Good at the Hand of God and shall we not receive Evil THe Wicked Speech of Iob's Wife in the foregoing Verse was the occasion of these Words Observing his perseverance in his Integâ—â—ty and not onely his Patient Submission to but also Thankful Acquiescence in the Will of God under the Heaviest of Calamities she brake out into these most Impious and Blasphemous Words as they are in our Translation Dost thou still retein thine Integrity Curse God and dye Whereupon the Holy Man gives her this Reply Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women speaketh What Shall we receive Good at the Hand of God and shall we not receive Evil That speech of hers is variously rendred but I shall onely Observe that the Hebrew Word which is here Translated Curse properly signifies the contrary Bless The Old Latin Version so renders it in this Place but I acknowledge so it doth too in that saying of the Devil He will Curse Thee to Thy face where the same Word is used but our Translation there must needs be right But I have thought it strange that the Septuagint should render this Speech of Iob's Wife Blapheme God and dye where the Word may very well signifie Bless and yet render that other of the Devil He will Bless Thee to thy face where 't is manifest it must signifie Curse as it does in some few other Texts In short I see no reason why we should not with some of our most Learned Expositors understand this Word here according to its Proper signification and so make Iob's Wife to say to him Bless God and dye You may Object Why then should these Words so strike Iob to the heart as his Reply shews they did viz. Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women speaketh that is Thou speakest like a Wicked Wretch I Answer That 't is too evident these Words were spoken Tauntingly and therefore well deserved so severe a Rebuke They may be thus Paraphras'd I see thou art a wonderful Thankful Man Thou canst bless God when of a vastly Rich Man He makes thee a Beggar when of a Father of no fewer than Ten Children He makes thee Childless in a Moment Go on to Bless Him still since thou hast so great Encouragement the Reward He designs thee being the destroying of thee next after thy Children And this saying Bless God and dye used as a Taunt I need not tell you was highly daring and presumptuous tho' not so Horribly Profane as Curse God and dye In Discoursing on the Latter Part of Iob ' s Admirable Reply What Shall we receive Good at the Hand of God and shall we not receive Evil I shall endeavour to shew I. That Evil proceeds from the Hand of God as well as Good II. What is meant by Receiving Evil at His Hand III. How our Receiving Good is a Motive to receive Evil at His Hand too Or where in lies the Force of this Motive IV. I shall draw several Inferences from the whole First That Evil proceeds from the Hand of God as well as Good Or that Evil Events as well as good are from the Divine Providence
he hath Afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen Evil some unthought of Calamity may Suddenly Seize us as we have again and again found by Experience For how often have we seen cause to say with the Prophet We looked for Peace but no good came and for a time of Health but behold Trouble Ier. 8. 15. And to allude to that in the 18 th V. Many a time when we have been Comforting our selves against more Sorrow there hath presently happâ—ned one Cross thing or other which hath Caused our Hearts to Faint in us And so no doubt it will be for the future with us if we continue as Unreformed as Ever Except our Good God should give us Over for an Obdurate and incorrigible People and no farther concern Himself for our Amendment But as hath been intimated this is the Saddest of all Judgments and it speaks Eternal Destruction to be Sealed upon those People upon whom it lighteth But to return to the Matter in hand We seeing so great Reason while we remain in this World to look for New Afflictions it greatly Concerns us to be still preparing our selves for them that they may not come upon us before we are Aware For whensoever they do so we shall find them so much the Heavier and more â—ntolerable and that it requires much the longer time for the so subduing our Passions to our Reason as to be able to demean our selves decently and as becomes Men and much more as becomes Christians under them As the Son of Sirach saith Eccles. 41. 1. O Death how bitter is the Remembrance of thee to a Man that liveth at Rest in his Possessions unto the Man who hath nothing to Vex him and that hath Prosperity in all things So may it be said How bitter how unsupportable is a great Affliction to a Man when it falleth upon him all of a Suddain when he thought of nothing less than Afflictions How Weak doth a Sad Providence find a Man when at the time of its comming he had Put far from him the Evil day and did not in the least dream of any Alteration of his Condition What a Horrible Surprize must it have been to the Rich man in the Gospel had it been no Parable but a real History to hear those words Thou Foool this night shall thy Soul be required of thee then whose shall those Things be which thou hast Provided at that very instant when he was saying to himself Thou hast Goods laid up for many Years Take thine Ease Eat Drink and be Merry Fourthly I infer from the Text what a Wonderfully Powerful Motive the Hopes we have of Receiving such Glorious Things in the Future life must needs be To Receive Evil things at the Hand of God in this life If our Receiving the Good things of this Present State be such a Motive thereto as hath been shewed then What a Motive is that of the Hope of infinitely better Things in that to come I Confess that the Motive in the Text hath the Advantage as the Matter there of is Things present and the Matter of the other Things to come But considering all the other differences between these two sorts of Good things and that there is the greatest assurance imaginable given to good People of their hereafter Receiving those Good things there is no Comparison to be made between this and that Motive It is impossible that he should think God a Severe Master let him meet with never so many Evil things in this World who hath a Sure and Certain Hope of Ere long Receiving such Good things as Pass all Vnderstanding As the Eye of Man never saw nor his Ear ever heard nor his Heart is able to Conceive any like unto them It must needs make this Vale of Tears not only a Tolerable but a Pleasant Place to Consider that at the End thereof is the Mount of Ioy Of Ioy Vnspeakable and full of Glory And that these comparatively speaking Light Afflictions which are but for a Moment will work out for us if we are not inexcusably wanting to our selves a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory Fifthly I infer How unreasonable it is to have the lower and more undervaluing thoughts of the Divine Goodness and Beneficence and the less Sense of our Obligations to God in regard of the Evils wherewith our Good things are mixed and our Earthly Comforts are allayed The great unreasonableness hereof will appear by the following Considerations over and above those we have been presented with from the words of the Text. I. Very many and perhaps the incomparably greater part of the Evils we suffer are not from the mere or immediate Providence of God It is Certain that innumerable are of Mens own inflicting upon themselves And not only deserved by them but also the necessary Effects of their Sinning or of their Inadvertency We will take Poverty for one Instance For the most part we may well adventure to say Men fall into it from Plentiful Fortunes through their wicked or foolish wasting their Estates by either Spending them upon their Lusts or their rash Engaging for Non-Solvent Persons or their Improvidence Idleness and Mindlesness of their Business Where one is brought to great Want by the mere Providence of God our observation I believe will tell us of Many who ought to impute it to themselves immediately Let Sickness be another Instance Men for Certain do ordinarily fall into Diseases by doing what they ought not to do or neglecting what they ought to do and for want of due Care and Caution From whence do too Commonly the Tormenting Diseases of the Gout and Stone and the Dropsy and Consumption come but from mens offending as to the Quantity or Quality of their Liquors or from such other Causes as by a greater Care of themselves might have been Prevented Feavers are some of the most common Diseases but are they not ordinarily Occasioned either by some intemperance in Meats or Drinks or Exercise or unseasonable Drinking when Over hot or not taking care to cool by degrees and the like And I am perâ—waded that in reflecting upon the Causes of our Sicknesses of most kinds there are few of us who are not sensible that they were the natural Consequents of some Sin or Imprudence or other much more frequently than of that which was wholly unavoidable Except in the Case of the Airs being infected with Pestilential or Malignant Vapours we have great reason to think that the much greater Number are laid upon Sick Beds by the Ordinary Maladies through some Neglect of their Health and therefore that there may be no more than the Permissive Hand of God in their being deprived thereof When we suffer in our Reputation or otherways from the Ill will of others ought we not too often to thank our selves for not being so Cautious as we should have been of giving them Offence and to impute it at least to Inconsideration and Rashness as to some Actions
or Words which gave occasion more or less to their being provoked against us Those that suffer from the Misbehaviour or Vndutifulness of their Children which must needs be especially to Good Men the greatest of all Afflictions are they not for the most part too well aware that these sufferings are in a great measure owing to themselves and that they might have had much better Children if they had set them a better Example and given them better Education And I need not add that the same is to be said in reference to the Divine Providence of those Afflictions which do arise from our Sympathy with those in Affliction who are dear to us when they suffer through their own default And the same thing is to be asserted of those Evils which we have not brought upon our selves but are occasioned by the Faults of our Parents or of such as whose Interests and Concerns are necessarily linked together with ours so that the one cannot suffer but the other also must As when a Man lives in Penury by means of his Fathers disabling himself by his Prodigality Sin or Folly to leave him a Subsistence Or when a Trades-man is made a Bankrupt by his means whom he hath taken into Partnership Or when Parents having by Debauchery Marred their own Bodies and vitiated their Constitutions Propagate their Diseases or Weaknesses to the Children which are afterwards born of them Now I say there is nothing more Unreasonable than to think God Almighty the less Good in regard of such Evils as those now mentioned And if it be well Considered I cannot I say doubt but that most of those which Men complain of are of that nature And what would we have God to do to keep off such Evils as these Would we have him to be continually laying irresistible Restreints upon Free Agents so as that it shall be impossible for them at any time to do wickedly or at any time to act foolishly If we think that this would well become Him we must think at the same time that to make Free Agents did disbecome Him But supposing such Agents so left to the Use of their Liberty as not to be so withheld from either Sinning or playing the Fools as that they can not do either the foresaid and such like Evils will necessarily follow from the Abuse thereof And therefore far be it from us to have the lower opinion of the Divine Goodness upon the account of them But I ought to add in order to our having a just Sense of Gods Goodness and that it may lose nothing of the Honour due to it that He doth innumerable times prevent by Special Providences our running into those Sins and those Rash Actions which we should most Certainly have otherwise been guilty of And He doth frequently and possibly as often in a Secret invisible manner so Over-rule Natural Causes of Evils as to prevent their producing them when they were ready to do it Not only History but many of our Own observations do furnish us with great Proofs hereof And if these Propositions were not both true it is not imaginable but that this world would be a far more intolerable Place than it is Considering how it Abounds with Wickedness and how Corrupt Human Nature is in this lapsed State and what Foolish Heady Creatures the Generality of Mankind are and what Dangers we are always Encompassed with And the worst objectino we can make against Almighty God for not always thus interposing is that He will not have His Goodness in any one instance to thwart and contradict that Wisdom by which He Governs the World But suppose we waved the Consideration of the Divine Wisdom in the Case what Reason can we have to complain of God's deficiency in Goodness because He is not more concerned to keep Evils off from us than we our selves are 'T is certain He is much more concerned for our Good than we can be and sad would it be for us if He were not but suppose Him onely equally so we should not have cause to think Him wanting to us but should see great Reason to Admire His Goodness considering that He is infinitely Above even the Glorious Angels and can get nothing by any of His Creatures being Happy nor lose any thing by their being Miserable II. Let us next Consider That as Abundance of the Evils which men groan under are not from the mere or immediate Providence of God so very many things which we are apt to account Evils and are matter of Discontent to us are not Evils That Stoical Maxim Mens Minds are not troubled with Things but with the False Opinions they have of Things would be very true if it ran thus Mens Minds are not so much troubled with Things c. For there are a multitude of things which greatly disturb men which are onely Evils of their own making and which they would make exceeding light of would they govern themselves more by Reason than by fond Phansy and the Childish Opinions of other Folk To have nothing of Superfluity but a bare Competency how many are there who account this a great Evil Tho' the Apostle saith Having Food and Rayment let us be therewith content And we have a good Old Saying Nature is content with a little and Grace with less How many lay it to heart as a grievous thing to be necessitated to Earn their Bread with the Sweat of their Brows nay not to be able to make such a Figure among their Neighbours as divers of them do And thereupon they take but slight Notice of the innumerable great Mercies which they enjoy and instead of being thankful for them murmur at the Divine Providence because they have not all they would have But as God Almighty asked the peevish Prophet Whether he did well to be Angry I ask these Whether they do well to be discontented and to have so little Sense of the Bounty of their Great Benefactor For not to mind them again that whatsoever the Good things are which they enjoy they are more than He oweth them or than their Deserts can claim they ought to consider that the whole World is God's Charge and not only some particular Persons and that His Goodness expresseth its self by so proportioning His Blessings to particulars as shall be most for the good of the Whole And that it would be extremely ill for the Whole for all to be alike Sharers in His Good things And it is necessary for the Well-being of the whole that there should be a great Variety of Ranks and Orders of Men By which means all necessary Offices have People sitted for them And withal they ought to Consider that if it be necessary that many should be in low Circumstances for the performance of the lower and meaner Offices which yet are every whit as necessary as the higher what Reason can they give why themselves should not be in the Number of those many And whether for the