who prosper in the world And the Prophet Jeremy makes bold to question with God about it in these words Jer. 12.1 2. Wherefore says he doth the wicked prosper and why are all they in wealth that rebelliously transgress and he rests satisfied with this verse 3. That God did by that prosperity of theirs fatten them as sheep to the slaughter and prepare them for the day of destruction And this is that prosperity of fools that the Wise man speaks of which will destroy them Prov. 1.32 It is not then our thriving in Temporals but in Spirituals that speaks us and our Faith to be accepted of God For the truth of Grace or Religion and the goodness of a mans Cause is not measured by the Souldiers Sword but by the Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit God Saints no man for his goodly Personage for his Riches for his politick head-piece of contriving and bringing about his own worldly and sinister ends or for his Arms and Conquests for then Saul and Croesus Ahitophel and Alexander the Great had been high in Gods book but he values Men only by their Spirituals as their graces of Faith Humility Patience Meekness Obedience and the like and where he finds these how unfurnished soever they are otherwise yet these are mine saith the Lord and in that day when I shall make up my Iewels I will spare them even as a Father doth his Son and then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked betwixt him that feareth God and him that feareth him not Indeed God may sometimes permit evil to prosper in the world but never approve of it for so acknowledges the Jewish Church Lament 3.35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High or to subvert a man in his cause the Lord approves it not And therefore to argue from Gods permission to his approbation is a gross Non sequitur nay more a laying our iniquity on Gods back as if he would take it well at our hands to be made a Pack-horse at every turn to bear all our execrable burdens and were as David speaks such a one as our selves to favour evil courses or else to own them as his off-spring Which made Dionysius the elder conclude Sacriledge to be no sin when he had rob'd the Temple at Locri because the Gods seem'd as it were to smile upon the action in giving them fair Winds and Weather both in their voyage thither and return back again But as it was a great Blasphemy says one for the Devil to personate God when he would be similis Altissimo so is it greater to make God personate the Devil And yet this he doth that makes God patronize his evil because he prospers in it for this brings in God saying That he will be like the Prince of Darkness and makes the Holy Ghost to leave his Dove-like shape and come only to us in the form of a greedy Raven or Vultur 2. As our prospering in worldly things swells us up too high with an opinion of our own Goodness and makes us think better of our selves than is meet so also doth it on the other side lift us up too far with thoughts of evil towards our brethren and make us think worse of them and the ways of God they walk in than we should by charging them as utterly deserted of God because we see not now the same hedge of Gods favour about them as heretofore we did but the stakes that then prop'd them up are now thrown away as useless and unserviceable Whereas Afflictions on this hand are every way as temporary and transient as Prosperity was on the other and being so must needs be as a broken reed or a reed of Egypt wherewith we cannot exactly measure Gods Temple nor the Spiritual estate of his Children It was a hard stumbling-block to the Prophet David for a time when he says that his feet were almost gone and his footsteps had well-nigh slipt upon his sight of the wickeds prosperity until he went into the Sanctuary of Gods Word where he learnt to settle his wavering and distrustful thoughts for there he saw that notwithstanding his outward afflictions that God held him up under that sore temptation with his right hand and would in opposition to transitory goods which are the proper blessings of the wicked because they have no others but these to trust unto guide him with that which should infinitely exceed them to wit his Counsel here and his Glory hereafter And it was the great question so much agitated betwixt Job and his Friends Whether those doleful changes that befel him were the cognizance of his insincerity to God and of Gods disfavour to him upon it yea or no. His Friends taking advantage upon his present weakness and distemper maintain it strongly against him in the affirmative that they were until at length God himself steps in to the rescue of the weaker side and makes the conclusion as all Logical conclusions do to follow the weaker part determining it for Job against his Opponents in the Negative and telling them that they spake not of Job nor of his proceedings towards him that which was right Job last verse 7. Seneca a Stoick Philosopher hath a set discourse to this purpose Cur bonis viris mala eveniant why the evils of this life most commonly fall out to good men and he concludes it thus That temporal evils are no sign of Gods hatred to them For dost thou think says he that the Lacedemonians hated their Children when as they experimented their disposition to virtue by stripes in publick No. So do we think Gods Children in disfavour with him because he lays here sore blows upon their Bodies and Estates by evil men as his rods and scourges in it No for we see and feel many times says an experimental patient of our own well the deep lines and strokes of Gods hand upon us when as we cannot by our skill in Palmestry decipher his meaning in it no more than the Malteses could by the viper upon Saint Pauls hand judge of his condition to God-ward For God sometimes that we may not thus judge inverts humane order and runs out his dealings towards us in the ordinary chanel of his universal Providence Justice and Equity by which he waters here all alike Indeed they may seem I grant to go counter to our apprehended rules of common right yet are they always agreeing both with Gods secret and revealed will though like the Sun in its sphere not perceptible to us because too mysterious and dazzling however many pretend to interpret them by a blaze of fire lighted at the natural pride of their own private spirits and that dimme twilight of knowledge which is in them when as they are altogether in the dark to the true light of Gods word and works herein And here take in the opinion also of Epictetus another Stoick and Heathen man which speaks
the ordering and disposing of all things here below And this did the wiser sort among them confess as the Satyrist tells us Nullum numen abest si sit prudentia sed te Nos facimus Fortuna Deam Others again as the Stoicks make Fate or Destiny the cause of all Alterations which they say is an Event that necessarily falls out from a certain inevitable order and connection of Natural Causes working without the will of God as the Supreme Orderer and Disposer of them he being subjected to them and not they to him whereby they take away the very Nature of the Godhead which is to be a most powerful and free Agent that works what and by what means it pleases all secondary causes depending upon that and that upon none But enough of these For I must remember my self that I am now speaking to Christians who acknowledge the Divine Providence in all things and therefore shall speak no more of these Negative and supposed Causes but shall now give you the true Efficicent Causes of them by way of Affirmation And here know that Logicians tell us of two Efficient Causes Principal and less Principal And this is twofold Impulsive and Instrumental First then the Principal Cause of all Changes and Alterations is God for so said the Heathen man Valet ima summit Mutare insignem attenuat Deus Obscura promens But why borrow I weapons from the Philistins forge when as there is enough for this that may be drawn out of Gods Armory of the Scriptures as Psal. 75.6 7. Promotion says the Prophet comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South but God is the Iudge he puts down one and sets up another So also Job 34.29 When he gives Quietness who can make Trouble and when he hides his face who can behold him whether it be done says Elihu against a Nation or against a particular man only Again Amos 5.8 He makes the Seven Stars and Orion and turns the shadow of Death into the morning The Lord is his Name The Oratour expresseth this well by comparing Gods Omnipotency to the power of the Soul over the Members of the Body which upon the least intimation of the Mind do turn and move about with all facility Now God says he is the sole Mind of the Universe and hath all parts and parcels thereof at his beck and pleasure to be turn'd into any shape or form at his disposal Nay it is no dishonour for God to cast the eye of his Providence upon the alteration even of the meanest things for who is like says the Psalmist to the Lord our God who hath his dwelling on high and yet humbles himself to behold the things in Heaven and Earth Not only to behold the things in Heaven which is a great condescention to him whom the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain but also the things in Earth Now how unworthy these are of his taking notice of you may see by those diminutive expressions of them compared with Gods greatness Isa. 40.15 where the Prophet says Behold the Nations are but as the drop of a Bucket and are counted as the small dust of the Ballance Behold he takes up the Isles as a very little thing And if this be not low enough for them he says further v. 17. That all Nations before him are as nothing and are counted to him as less than nothing Now look what a wide difference there is betwixt the Sea and a Bucket of water yea the drop of a Bucket or betwixt a heap of dust and the small dust of the ballance betwixt very great and very little betwixt all things and nothing at all yea less then nothing if less could be so vast is the disproportion betwixt God and all Nations which are the greatest among all earthly things And yet for all this is God pleased so far to extenuate his own greatness and to take off from it as to look after them and run them about in their several stages from one point unto another And if you would have this truth to be made out further unto you our Saviour doth it Mat. 10.29 by two several instances The one is of two Sparrows which are little birds and of small value but the Greek yet runs it more diminutively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two little sparrows and so they must needs be for they were sold both even for a farthing and this is price little enough Yet the Arabick makes it less and hath for it Phals which is the least piece of money that can be and accordingly expresses the two Mites spoken of Mark 12.42 which makes but one Farthing by Phalsain in the dual number as a late and learned Expositor notes The other is of the Hairs upon our Heads being a kind of Excrement belonging to our Bodies and no integral or necessitous part of them as the Heart Hands and Feet are and yet he tells us that God numbers these and takes such a particular account of them that not one of them falls to the ground without his disposal In the vision of the Wheels we read of a wheel within a wheel Now the wheel within is the wheel of Gods Providence that turns about the wheels of all outward things be they never so low and mean For as God doth not labour in doing the greatest things so neither doth he disdain either to do or undo the least but as he made the small and great says the book of Wisdom so also doth he care for both alike The Potter having power over his Clay either to make of it a vessel of honour or dishonour and being made either to preserve it in that form and being he hath bestowed upon it or else to deform and destroy it since it is equitable that every one should do with his own as he pleases Nay as he says of the gnat that Nusquam potentior natura quam in minimis So may we say that God doth no ways advance his Power and Wisdom more than in ordering of the least accidents to be disposed of to his Glory and the good of his Children And so much for the Principal Efficient cause The less Principal follows which as I said is either Impulsive or Instrumental Now the Impulsive cause of all Changes and Alterations is the sin of man This usher'd them in at the first and so it doth still For before Adam sinned he enjoyed a Paradise of constant and uninterrupted happiness but so soon as he sins against God then follows a great change presently For the Earth all fruitful before now becomes barren himself subject to labour his Wife to Travail and Sorrow and both to cares and troubles to weakness and dissolution And so it is also with Nations and Kingdoms If they be chang'd at any time sin is the cause of it and the greater their sin is the greater ususually is their change Great sinnings are the floud-gates to let in great
Alterations upon them For it is not a bare sinning in a Nation from which there is none that could ever plead exemption but a sinning in some high measure that is an in-let to Changes in the highest kind Which made David say Psal. 107.34 That a fruitful land is turn'd into barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwell therein which the vulgar Latine reads Propter malitiam i. e. for the malicious wickedness of those that dwell therein which notes a sin of a high nature viz. such a one as is persisted in both against Knowledge and Conscience And therefore it is a good observation which Musculus hath upon the words These strange Alterations says he of Nations and Kingdoms are not for the sinning of them from which no Nation can be free but for their malicious sinning And this you may see farther in Jerusalem Ezek. 21. where we read of a very great Judgment that should befal her from the Babylonian viz. Utter Destruction expressed by the threefold Overturn wherewith God threatens her v. 27. And v. 24. he laies down the Impulsive cause that mov'd him to it and this is an impudent and shameless sinning against God for they did not commit their sin in a corner as those that were asham'd of it but brazen-faced Wretches as they were they declar'd their sin as Sodom and discover'd it openly in the face of the Sun and this they did too not only in one or two particular acts but generally says the Text in all their doings Now there is some hope of a modest and bashful but none at all of a shameless and obdurate sinner Thus the Father when his Son hath done amiss yet is he well perswaded of his amendment if he but see him blush upon his reproving of him But when like Judah he hath once a Whores forehead and refuses to be ashamed then doth he give him over as a lost Child and not to be recover'd So that from hence we see that in what place soever we find such a Turn such an Eversion as this where all is turn'd upside down there hath been without question some great Aversio a Creatore ad Creaturam some great sinning against God as the Schoolmen call it Which was the reason that when the English were now upon their quitting of France in Henry the Sixth's days demanded of the French by way of derision when they would make their return thither it was feelingly answered by one of our Nation thus When your sins are greater than ours It is sin then that ruines particular persons that subverts Families that periods Kingdoms that wheels about Governments that overturns States that disjoynts Common-weals and says unto them as to the proud waves Thus far ye shall go and no farther And so I have done with the Impulsive Cause and come next to the Instrumental causes or means which God uses in effecting his Changes here and they are two The first is the Motion and Influences of the Celestial Bodies And this will the better appear if we consider their forcible workings upon the Mind of man For though they cannot work immediately upon it because it is immaterail yet may they and do work mediately upon it as by the Body which is the Instrument of the Soul to work by and the Case wherein it is put up here for a time and so make it either well or ill affected according to the Bodies present temper By which means it comes to pass many times that not only the dispositions of particular men but also of whole multitudes collected together in a Politick Body are much alter'd and chang'd either to labour or Sloth to Peace or Disquiet to good or evil actings according as they are inclin'd by the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies And that these Celestial Bodies have their energy upon all Sublunary things is plain First by Scripture as Job 38.33 where the Lord speaks thus to Job Know'st thou the Ordinances of Heaven and canst thou set the dominion thereof in the Earth which implies 1. That the Heavens have power and dominion in the Earth 2. That this power of theirs is set them from Gods ordinance and appointment Secondly by the constant Observation and Experience of all Ages Bodinus the French Lawyer speaks well to this point Many erre says he greatly who think the influence of the Celestial Spheres to be nothing when as their strength hath ever been most effectual as in Sacred Writ is to be seen and he cites the 38. chap. of Job before-mentioned to prove the same Adding further That many ancient Writers have noted the great Changes in Cities and Kingdoms upon the conjunction of the Superior Planets but to them only where they have been deputed of God to that end and purpose And that they have been instrumental towards the working of such effects he shews by an induction of some particular instances As that before the translation of the Roman Soveraignty unto Caesar there was a great Conjunction of the Superior Planets met together in Scorpio which fell out again seven hundred years after when the Arabian Legions received the Law of Mahomet rebell'd against the Greek Emperours and subdued the Eastern Asia from the Christians The same also came about again Anno Christi 1464. after which Ladamachus King of the Tartars was by his Subjects thrust out of the Chair of Soveraignty and Frederick the Third driven out of Hungary by Matthias Corvinus who from a Prisoner stept up to the Royal Throne c. And Alstedius tells us that the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in February 1642. did foretell and portend the revolution of some new Empire and Government to fall out after it in Europe The effect whereof in part it's like we have seen in this Nation already and may live if God so dispose of us to see further of it yet in time to come But to pass this and to come to that daily and usual course of Gods proceedings with us in the world Here methinks there should be few though of ordinary capacities among us but if we be a little observing may see this truth made good by the eye of our own experience which tells us that the Earth is either Fruitful or Barren and the Air either Wholsome or Infectious sutably to that measure and manner of influence they receive from them And therefore when God will at any time bring about some great change in the world it is then easie to see how usually he fits his inferiour means according to their several natures for the orderly transacting of it in those stations wherein he hath set them As when he will turn a fruitful Land into barrenness and again a barren Land into fruitfulness which he promis'd his own people Hos. 2.21 there he tells them in what order he will work it I will hear says he the Heavens and they shall hear the Earth and they shall hear Jezreel For this is a sure rule That the Supreme Cause
about his Vineyard with Peace and Prosperity but so soon as that Hedge was broken down and erroneous yea Heretical Doctrines were let in like so many Beasts of prey to devour then how quickly did these prove Turncoats and Apostates from the Faith But as for the true Christian he is like a Rock Mediis immotus in undis That although the waves are always swelling against him yet is he the same man still in his Reformed Religion and wavers not or else like that House built upon the Rock against which the Floods came and the Winds blew but it fell not because it was built upon a Rock And such a well-built house was St. Basil who being threatned with death by Valens if he would not advise further and turn Arrian answer'd with this brave resolution I need not any further advice than I have taken already about this matter for to morrow I shall be the same man that I am to day therein and no other And here know that some things are of Necessity wherein we cannot but change as in natural civil and moral things and to change in there is only humane Others again are of Duty and these either prohibited or enjoyn'd 1. Prohibited as in evil and erroneous things and to change here is pious and divine and not to change either Weakness or Obstinacy 2. Enjoyn'd as in sacred and religious and to change here is impious and Diabolical and not to change true Christian Fortitude and Constancy Whatsoever things we see then wheeling about in the world as Governments Families and the like nay howsoever we may change our selves or be chang'd in some things of an indifferent nature by those that have dominion over our Bodies and Estates yet is there no man that hath dominion over our Faith But this is Gods peculiar and therefore in this we must not change It is not with saving Truths as it is with Clothes which alter every year as the fashion doth for the fashion of the world passes away says St. John but true Religion is ever in fashion with good men and alters not And herein we may justly take occasion to bewail the unsteadiness of some in these times who are mere Scepticks in Religion always conceiving some new Opinions in it and always in pain till they be deliver'd of their new conceptions though never so monstrous and deformed That which was truth with them yesterday is no such thing to day and what is so to day is otherwise to morrow such Changelings there be in this last Age who like the Moon do never appear the same two days together And I would to God says St. Ambrose that their change were no worse than that of the Moon for she returns again within a little time to her full light but these never And he is blind that sees not this among us namely how some turn every day to Popish Superstition but more to Anabaptistical Fancies some unto Socinian Blasphemies but most unto Atheistical Notions and all into Sensuality this being the common Sewer into which all the former run and are ultimately resolved But as St. Paul said to his Galathians so do I to such O foolish Galathians who hath bewithc'd you that you should not obey the Gospel And it is a metaphor says one from Sorcerers who use to cast a mist before the peoples eyes that so they may not take a right view of what is presented to them As if he had said Who hath cast a mist before the eyes of your understandings to make that appear unto you for truth which indeed is not What Are ye so foolish that having begun in the Spirit ye will be perfected in the Flesh So Are ye so foolish that having begun in truth ye will end in falshood or can ye be so simple as to exchange Gold for Dirt Wheat for Chaff and your pretious Faith as St. Peter calls it which is the substance of things hoped for for Errours of all sorts and mere shadows of Truth I trow not For if Errour as our Kingly Divine said well have any advantage it consists in Novelty or if Truth any it consists in Constancy Was the Doctrine then of the Reformed Churches and the Harmony of our Confessions grounded upon evident and pregnant Scriptures maintain'd by the Orthodox and Primitive Fathers and conveyed to us by the constant tradition of the Universal Church the Faith of Christ once deliver'd to the Saints and the Truth of God yesterday why so it is to day and will be to morrow also And therefore to day in our profession of it we must be as yesterday and to morrow as this day because as God is the same yesterday to day and for ever so also is the Truth of God That which was once so will be so always and cannot be otherwise Oh that we would then be exhorted in the Apostles words To stand fast in the Faith to quit our selves like men and be strong and not to be as children toss'd to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine but to be as men in understanding stedfast and immoveable that so God may have cause to glory on our behalf as he did on Jobs Hast thou consider'd says God to Satan my servant Job So hast thou consider'd such a servant of mine Seest thou to how many changes I have subjected him to changes in his Children to changes in his Estate to changes in his Liberty to changes in his Friends and Acquaintance Nay seest thou how many of his Brethren are chang'd of late from a febrish distemper before now into a sleepy Lethargy Seest thou how indifferent they are for their Religion round about him and how many shaken reeds there are on every side of him And yet for all this as my servant Job did so doth he still hold his integrity But enough of this Secondly Gods end also in it is To reform our Lives and do us good by his so various dispensations towards us Hence we read Isa. 30.28 of a sieve of vanity wherein God says he will sift the Nations and shake them to and fro one after another that so he may winnow them from that chaff of sin that is within them For why was Moab at ease from his youth why setled he upon his lees and held still his corrupt tast but because he was never disquieted nor emptied from vessel to vessel Ier. 48.11 Thus a sedentary life we find very subject to Diseases and a long standing Prosperity to a Nation is like a standing Pool whose water doth soon puddle and putrifie And this is the reason of that speech of David Psal. 55.19 Because they have no Changes therefore they feare not God making by it the uncheckt prosperity of worldly men a great occasion of their continuance in sin and so an Index of Gods Wrath upon them rather than of his special Favour to them And therefore now we have seen the Angel of God moving the waters of
of all doth not take away the natures and workings of Secondary Causes but rather establish them which is the reason of that Speech of God to Job in the ordinary revolution of the times and seasons of the year Job 38.31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades and loose the bonds of Orion Now the Pleiades are those we commonly call the Seven Stars that have their influence on the earth by producing sweet showres to the opening and refreshing of it about the Spring of the year and Orion is a Constellation most conspicuous in the Winter-season as having a commissionary power to bind up the earth with Frosts Again canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season i.e. the twelve Signes successively after one another or guide Arcturus with his Sons i. e. the Polar Star as some will have it with those ignes minores that wait upon him or Bootes as others It is not then so much the Earth as the Heavens that give us either fruit or withhold it they being the first ordinary means whereby God uses to work out alterations in sublunary things The second Instrumental cause of these strange Vicissitudes here below is the Will of Man for though it have not a liberty to Spiritual yet all grant it a liberty to external acts and moral goodness And this Liberty of Mans Will doth God use as an under-wheel to turn about most of those Alterations that are in the world It is true that Health and Sickness Peace and War Plenty and Scarcity Riches and Poverty proceed from God as the principal Efficient cause but yet for all this we deny not but that God makes use both of our selves and others as to the means of bringing them about The life of Joseph was checquer'd with variety of accidents for he is now a Slave to the Ismaelites and by and by a Prince in Aegypt Now these although they proceeded from God as the Author yet was the will of his Brethren as the will of Reuben and Judah the instruments of preserving his life and the wills of his other Brethren the means of selling him into Aegypt Now because it is the Nature of Instruments to be subservient to the principal Agent and to be determin'd by it therefore give me leave here by the way to fasten this exhortation upon you That in all Changes whatsoever you will look beyond the Instruments of them unto God the Principal Agent For so did Job in his losses beyond the plundring Chaldeans and Sabeans unto Dominus abstulit The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away looking upon them as we use to do upon an Index tantum in ordine ad Librum only in order to the Book it self Et in transitu ad Deum in his passage unto God who sets them a work as to their natural powers and faculties though to the evil of them no otherwise than by ordering and over-ruling it to the good of his Children And hence it is that the wicked are called Gods Sword as in the 17 Psalm v. 13. Deliver my Soul says David from the wicked which is thy sword And so must we in all those Losses that befal us here have in our eye not so much the Sword as the Hand that holds it which will be one means and a good one too to bring us to Davids calm temper in the 39 Psal. 19. who says in the like condition That he was dumb and did not open his mouth nor let fall an impatient word in it because it was Gods doing And therefore when Abishai would have taken away Shimei's life for cursing of David No says he Let him alone Iussit enim Dominus for the Lord hath bidden him curse who then shall say Wherefore hast thou done so q. d. Who then dare expostulate with God or call him to account about it as if he were unrighteous in it since evil men are but Swords in Gods hand who when he hath once done his work by them will either put them up again into his Scabbard and lay them by or else so blunt the edge of their power that it shall not cut or else break them a pieces and throw them quite away And so much for the Efficient Causes of Vicissitudes Next I shall speak to the Ends or Final Causes of them And these are either Ex parte Dei or Nostri in respect of God or our selves First in respect of God and so the Principal End why God rings such Changes upon all earthly things and will have them disposed of after so various a manner is to make them by it the more tunable to his own Glory which by this means is exceedingly magnifyed and advanced but especially in the Attributes of his Power Truth Wisdom and Goodness 1. In his Power and Omnipotency that so he may let the world know that the Finger of his Power is in all Transactions and that he can do whatsoever he will both in Heaven and Earth and yet changes not For why else did God work so many miraculous Changes in Aegypt by the hand of Moses Why turned he Moses Rod into aSerpent and the Aegyptian waters into Blood Why their Dust into Lice and Flies and their Light into Darkness for the space of three days together Why else Created he a new generation of Frogs and Locusts among them Why unheard-of Diseases upon themselves and upon their Cattel Why destroyed he their Herbs and Fruit-trees with Hail and their first-born with untimely death In a word Why caused he the Red-sea to go out of its natural course and chanel whereby it became a wall to the Israelites and a grave to the Aegyptians Did not God all this to make known the glory of his power in the preservation of the one and destruction of the other Yes For this cause says God to Moses I have raised thee up to shew in thee my power and that my Name may be declared in all the earth 2. He advances also his Glory this way by manifesting his Truth and Faithfulness in that those things which are accidental in regard of us and seem as impossible yet are they exactly brought to pass in their due times and seasons As in the bringing of the Israelites out of Aegypt wherein God was full as good as his word and kept touch with them to a day in their Deliverance as you may see Exod. 12.41 where we read That it came to pass in the end of four hundred and thirty years even the self-same day it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Aegypt All Pharaoh's oppositions and tergiversations could not prorogue their Bondage so much as one day beyond the time prefixed of God but serv'd only to fill up that Interim or void space of time betwixt Gods Promise made to Abraham and his performance of it And if you ask by what intervals of time the truth of his promise came about so punctually Divines will tell