for you The manifestation of the Spirit to any man is given to profit withal 1 Cor. 12.7 And this is the great end for which men should seek to excel viz. for the edifying of the Church 1 Cor 14.12 For as much as you are zealous of Spirtual gifts seek that you may excel to the edifying of the Church 2. The gists and common graces of bad men There is something that is amiable in men though they have not grace As in Stones Plants and Flowers though they have not sense there is something grateful in them as colour and smell c. And all those things that are lovely in men are for the Churches good the best life and the worst death things present let who will be the possessor all things between Life and Death are for the good of Believers because they are Christs 1 Cor. 3.22 Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world i.e. Whether the gifts of the prime lights in the Church or the common gifts of the world are all yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods God is the dispencer of them Christ is the Governour of them and all for your sakes As the medicinable qualities of waters are not for the good of themselves but the accommodation of the indigencies of men By the common works of the Spirit God doth keep his children from suffering much evil in the World For it cannot be supposed that the Spirit whose mission is principally for the Church should give such gifts out of love to men which hate him and are not the objects of his eternal purpose but he hath some other ends indoing it which is the advantage of his Church and people and this God causes by the preaching of the Gospel which when it works gracious works in some produceth common works in others for the good of those gracious ones As a seed of corn hath straw husks and chaff come up with it which are shelters to that little seed which lies in the midst so in the preaching of the Gospel there are some husks come up among natural men which God makes to be shelters to the Church as those common works and restraining men through the knowledge of Christ God gives gifts to them not out of love to them but love to his Church As Nurses of great mens Children are fed with better meat than the other Servants not out of any particular personal respect to them but to their office that the milk whereby the child is nourished may be the sweeter and wholesomer were it not for that Relation she must be content with the Diet allowed to the rest of the Servants Some stinking plants may have medicinal virtues which the Physician extracts for the cure of a disease and flings the rest upon the Dunghil God bestows such qualities upon men otherwise unsavoury to him which he draws forth upon several occasions for the good of those that are more peculiarly under his care and then casts them away These gifts are indeed the ruin of bad men because of their pride but the Churches advantage in regard of their excellency and are often as profitable to others as dangerous to themselves As all that good which is in plants and animals is for the good of man so all the gifts of natural men are for the Churches good for they are for that end as the principal next the glory of God because every inferior thing is ordained to something superior as its end Plants are ordained for the nourishment of Beasts and both Plants and Beasts for Men. The inferior men for the service of higher and all for the community yet still there is a higher end beyond those viz. the glory of God to which they are ultimately ordained which is so connected with the Churches good that what serves one serves the other 3. Angels the top Creatures in the Creation are ordered for the good of the Church If the Stars are not Cyphers in the World only to be gaz'd upon but have their influences both upon Plants and Animals As the Sun in impregnating the Earth and enlivening the Plants and assisting the growth of fruits for the good of mankind If the stars have those natural influences upon the sensible world the Angels which are the morning-stars have no less interest as instruments in the government of it The Heathens had such a notion of Daemons working those things which were done in the world but according to the will and order of the supream God The Angels are called Watchers Dan. 4.13 a Watcher and an holy one vers 17. this is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones they watch for Gods orders and watch for Gods honour and the Churches good There are orders of state among them for we read of their decree 't is called their decree ministerially as they execute it By way of approbation By way of Authority approbative as they subcribe to the equity and goodness of it As the Saints are said to judge the world not authoritative as in commission with Christ but as they approve of Christs sentence They seem to request those things of God which may make for his glory and they decree among themselves what is fit to be presented to God in order to his glory They cannot endure that men should trample upon Gods authority despoil him of his right and tread down his inheritance and therefore they send such requests to God to act so as men may acknowledg him and his govenment to the intent that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdoms of men Their care therefore must be for the Chuch since God rules all things in order to that and since that is Gods portion and inheritance so that as they have a care of Gods glory they must also have a care of Gods portion and his peculiar treasure Exod. 25 1. The inward part of the Temple was to be adorned with Cherubims to note the speceial attendance of the holy Angels in the assemblies of the Saints As evil Angels plot against the Church Trap. on Numb p. 58. so good Angels project for it Though in the Scripture we find Angels sometimes employed in affairs of common providence and doing good to them that are not of the Church as one is sent to comfort Hagar and relieve Ishmael upon his cry though he had scoffed at Isaac the heir of the covenant when he was in Abraham's Family * Gen. 21.17 yet for the most part they were employed in the concerns of some of his special Servants Angels thrust Lot out of Sodom * Gen. 19.15 16. An Angel stopt the Lyons mouths when Daniel was in the Den Dan 6.18 My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lyons mouths God emploies Angels in the preserving and ruining of Empires which is clear in the prophecy of Daniel and some understand Isa 10.34 And lebanon shall fall by
his hand upon the wheels moves them he is the cause of the motion but it is the flaw in it or deficiency of something is the cause of its erroneous motion that error was not from the Person that made it or the person that winds it up and sets it on going but from some other cause yet till it be mended it will not go otherwise so long as it is set upon motion Our motion is from God Acts 17.28 In him we move but not the disorder of that motion 'T is the foulness of a mans stomach at Sea is the cause of his sickness and not the Pilots government of the ship 2. God doth not infuse the lust or excite it though he doth present the object about which the lust is exercised God delivered up Christ to the Jews he presented him to them but never commanded them to crucifie him nor infused that malice into them nor quickned it but he seeing such a frame withdrew his restraining grace and left them to the conduct of their own witiated wills All the corruption in the World ariseth from lust in us not from the object which God in his providence presents to us 2 Pet. 1.4 the corruption that is in the World through lust The Creature is from God but the abuse of it from corruption God created the grape and filled the Wine with a sprightliness but he doth never infuse a drunken frame into a man or excite it Providence presents us with the Wine but the precept is to use it soberly Can God be blamed if that which is good in it self be turned into Poyson by others No more than the flower can be called a criminal because the Spiders nature turns that into venome which is sweet in it self Man hath such a nature not from Creation wherein God is positive but from corruption wherein God is permissive Providence brings a man into such a condition of poverty but it doth not encourage his stubbornness and impatience There is no necessity upon thee from God to exercise thy sin under affliction when others under the same exercise their graces The Rod makes the Child smart but it is its own stubbornness makes it curse In short though it be by Gods permission that we can do evil yet it is not by his inspiration that we will to do evil that is wholly from our selves 3. God supports the faculties wherewith a man sinneth and supports a man in that act wherein he sinneth but concurrs not to the sinfulness of that act No sin doth properly consist in the act it self as an act but in the deficiency of that act from the rule No action wherein there is sin but may be done as an action though not as an irregular action Killing a man is not in it self unlawful for then no Magistrate should Execute a Malefactor for murdering another and justice would cease in the World man also must divest himself of all thoughts of preserving his Life against an invader but to kill a Man without just cause without authority without rule contrary to rule out of revenge is unlawful So that it is not the act as an act is the sin but the swerving of that act from the rule makes it a sinful act So speaking as speaking is not a sin for it is a power and act God hath endued us with but speaking irreverently and dishonourably of God or falsly and slanderously of man or any otherwise irregularly therin the sin lyes So that it is easie to conceive that an act and the viciousness of it are separable That act which is the same in kind with another may be laudable and the other base and vile in respect of its circumstances The mind wherewith a man doth this or that act and the irregularity of it makes a man a criminal There is a concurrence of God to the act wherein we sin but the sinfulness of that act is purely from the inherent corruption of the creature As the power and act of seeing is communicated to the eye by the Soul but the seeing doubly or dimly is from the vitiousness of the Organ the eye God hath no manner of immediate efficiency in producing sin as the Sun is not the efficient cause of darkness tho the darkness immediately succeeds the setting of the Sun but it is the deficient cause So God withdraws his grace and leaves us to that lust which is in our wills Act 14.16 Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own wayes He bestowed no grace upon them but left them to themselves As a man who lets a glass fall out of his hand is not the efficient cause that the glass breaks but it s own brittle nature yet he is the deficient cause because he withdraws his support from it God is not obliged to give us grace because we have made a total forfeiture of it He is not a debtor to any man by way of merit of any thing but punishment He is indeed in some sence a debtor to those that are in Christ upon the account of Christs purchase and his own promise but not by any merits of theirs 4. Gods providence is conversant about sin as a punishment yet in a very righteous manner God did not will the first sin of Adam as a punishment because there was no punishment due to him before he sinned but he willed the continuance of it as a punishment to the nature sub ratione boni This being a judicial act of God is therefore righteously willed by him Punishment is a moral good 'T is also a righteous thing to suit the punishment to the nature of the offence and what can be more righteous than to punish a man by that wherein he offends Hence God is said to give up men to sin Rom. 2.26 27. for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections And to send strong delusions that they may believe a lye And the reason is rendred 2 Thes 2.12 that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness What more righteous than to make those vile affections and that unrighteousness their punishment which they made their pleasure and to leave them to pursue their own sinful inclinations make them as the Psalmist speaks Psal 5.10 fall by their own counsels A Drunkards Beastliness is his punishment as well as his Sin Thus God delivers up some to their own lusts as a punishment both to themselves and others As he hardened Pharaohs heart for the destruction both of himself and his People 5. God by his providence draws glory to himself and good out of sin 'T is the highest excellency to draw good out of evil and it is Gods right to manifest his excellency when he pleases and to direct that to his honour which is acted against his Law The Holiness of God could never intend Sin as Sin But the Wisdom of God foreseeing it and decreeing to permit it intended the making it
gray hairs are upon them and they know it not strangers have devoured his strength c. There was a consumption of their strength the Assyrians and Egyptians to whom they gave gifts had drained their treasure but they would not consider God as the Author or acknowledg whence their misery came they would not seek God for all this v. 10. 'T is like a mans picking a pocket or cutting a throat under the gallows in contempt of Justice * Jenkin where as good men are both affected with and remember God's judgments Eber called his Son Peleg division because in his daies the Earth was divided that in the dayly sight of his Son he might remember that sharp Providence in scattering of the Babel builders Judgments affect us when they are before our eyes as the Thunder and Plagues did Pharaoh but when they are remoeved men return to their beloved wayes as though God had shot away all his arrows and was departed to mind them no more Take heed of this 't is a sin highly provoking God is so tender that his providence should be minded and improved that a sin of this nature he follows with his displeasure in this life at least Isa 22.12 13. And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and mourning and behold joy and gladness eating flesh and drinking wire let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die When God many judgment shews himself to be Lord God of Hosts and calls us to weeping and we behave our selves jollily in spight of his government it is a sin he will remember and bind the guilt upon us v. 14 and it was revealed in my ears by the Lord of Hosts suerly this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die 8. Envy also is a denial of providence To be sad at the temporal good or the gifts of another as counting him unworthy of them it is a reflection upon the Author of those gifts an accusing providence of an unjust or unwise distribution * Cajetan Summal p. 428. Since God may do what he will with his own if our eye be evil because God is good we intrench upon his Liberty and deny him the disposal of his own goods as if God were but our Steward and we his Lords 'T is a temper we are all subject to Psal 37.1 Fret no thy self because of evil doers neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity 'T is peculiarly the product of self-love which affects the principality in the world and particularly affects the conduct of God in distributing his goods that he must not give but to whom they please It ariseth indeed from a sense of our wants but the language of it is God is unjust in his providence to me because he bestows not upon me that good which he gives to another 'T is such a sin that it seems to be companion of our first parents Pride which was the cause of their fall They envied God a felicity by himself for they would be like him they would he as Gods Hence perhaps the Jews say Cain denied the providence of God as envying his Brother because God accepted Abel's sacrifice and not his Jonah's passion arose from this pride for fear he should be accounted a false Prophet whereupon he envies God the glory of his mercy and the poor Ninivites the advantage of it he woul dhave God conform the way of his providence to his pleasure and reputation Indeed it is to envy God the honour of his p rovidence in those gifts or good things another possesses whereby he is instrumental to glorifie God and advantage others Thus we would direct God what instruments he should employ when no Artificer in his own Art would endure to be directed by any ignorant person what tools he should use in his work 9. Impatience under cross providences is a denial und contempt of God's government Men quarrel with God's revealed will and therefore no wonder that they quarrel with his providential will whereby we deny him his right of governing and flight his actual exercise of his right As if God were accountable to us for his dispensations and must have only a respect to us or our humor in his government Job 18.4 he tears himself in his anger shall the earth be forsaken for thee and shall the rock be removed out of his place Must God alter the sence of his affairs according to our model and platform and because be doth not observe our rules and methods must we tear our selves in anger This is a secret cursing of God and flying in his face when we see providence so cross that there seems to be no help at any time either in Heaven or Earth Isa 8.21 22. they shall fret themselves and curse their king and their God and look upwards and they shall look unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness Take heed of fretting at God's management of things in the world or thy own particular concerns this may lead to a cursing of God and is indeed an initial secret swelling against him and cursing of him Man is ambitions to become a God Adam's posterity have in one sort or other imitated him This 1. Is a wrong to the Soveraignty of providence 'T was a good admonition of Luther's to Melanctoa when he was troubled much about the affairs of the Church monendus est Philippus ut desinat esse rector mundi By this temperawe usurp God's place and set our selves in his throne we invade his supremacy by desiring every thing to be at our beek and are displeased with him because he doth not put the reins of the worlds government into our hands As if we would command his will and become his Soveraigns 'T is a striving with our Maker for the superintendency when we will sit Judge upon him or censure his acts and presume to direct him Isa 45.9 Wo to him that strives with his Maker shall the clay say to him that fashions it what makest thou or thy work He hath no hands How do men summon God to the bar of their interests and expostulate with him about his works why he did not order them thus and thus and if he doth so to tell him he hath no hand no hand of providence in the World The design of that place is to stop such peevishness and invasions of God's right I will not have my Soveraign Will disputed as if I were but the creatures Servant I am content you should ask of me things to come v. 11. and pray to me but notwithstanding yet to submit to my pleasure without a peevish endeavouring to wrest the Soveraignty out of my hand and pull the Crown from my head T is a wrong to the goodness and righteousness of providence 'T is a charging God with ill management and an implicit language that if we were the commanders of providence things should be managed more justly and righteously as it was Absalom's
before he would use his interest in the Kings favour Nehem. 2.4 then the King said unto me for what dost thou make request So I prayed to the God of Heaven and I said unto the King c. So Abraham's Steward puts up his request to God before he would put the business he came upon in execution Gen. 24.12 David frequently in particular cases 1 Sam. 23.9 2 Sam. 2.1 2 Sam. 19.23 God only doth what he pleaseth in Heaven and in Earth He only can blese us he only can blast us Shall we be careless in any undertaking whether we have his favour or no 'T is a ridiculous madness to resolve to do any thing without God without whose assistance and preserving of us we had not been able to make that resolution 2. Trust Providence To trust God when our Ware-houses and Bags are full and our Tables spread is no hard thing but to trust him when our purses are empty but a handful of meal and a cruse of Oil left and all ways of relief stopt herein lies the wisdom of a Christians grace Yet none are exempted from this duty all are bound to acknowledg their trust in him by the dayly prayer for dayly bread even those that have it in their Cupboards as well as those that want it The greatest Prince as well as the meanest beggar Whatever your wants are want not faith and you cannot want supplies 'T is the want of this binds up his hand from doing great works for his Creatures The more we trust him the more he concerns himself in our affairs The more we trust our selves the more he delights to cross us for he hath denounced such an one cursed that maketh Flesh his arm * Jor. 17.5 though it be the best flesh in the world because it is a departing from the Lord. No wonder then that God departs from us and carries away his blessing with him While we trust our selves we do but trouble our selves and know not how to reconcile our varions reasons for hopes and fars but the committing our way to the Lord renders our minds calm and composed Prov. 16.3 commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be astablished Thou shalt have no more of those quarrelling disturbing thoughts what the success shall be 1. Trust providences in the greatest extremities He brings us into straits that he may see the exercise of our faith Zech. 3.12 I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. When we are most desolate we have most need of this exercise and have the fittest season to practise it he is always our refuge and our strength but in time of trouble a present help Psal 46.1 Daniel's new advancement by Belshazzar but a day before the City was taken by the Enemy * Dan. 5.29 the King slain and no doubt many of his Nobility and those that were nearest in Authority with him it being the interest of the Enemy to dispatch them was a danger yet God by wayes not expressed preserved Daniel and gave him favour with the Conqueror God sometimes leads his people into great dangers that they may see and acknowledg his hand in their preservation Daniel had not had so signal an experience of Gods care of him had he been in the lower condition he was in before his new preserment God's eye is always upon them that fear him not to keep distress from them but to quicken them in it and give them as it were a new life from the dead Psal 33.18 19. To deliver their Soul from death and to keep them alive in famine God brings us into straits that we may have more lively experiments of his tenderness in his seasonable relief If he be angry he will repent himself for his Servants when he sees their power is gone because then the glory of his providence is appropriated to himself Deut. 32.36 39. See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive No Creature can have any pretence to share in it He delights thereby to blow up both our affections to him and admirations of him and store up in us a treasure of experiments to encourage our trusting in him in the like straits We should therefore repose our selves in God in a desart as well as in the Cities with as much faith among Savage beasts as in the best company of the most sociable men * Durant de Tentat p. 168. And answer the greatest strait with Abraham's Speech to Isaac God will provide For we have to do with a God who is bound up to no means is at no expence in miraculous succors who delights to perfect his strength in the Creatures weakness We have to do with a God who only knows what may further our good and accordingly orders it what may hinder it and therefore prevents it He can set all causes in such a posture as shall conspire together as one link to bring about success and make even contrary motions meet in one gracious end as the Rivers which run from North and South the contrary quarters of the world agree in the surges of one Sea Though providences may seem to cross one another they shall never cross his word and promise which he hath magnified above all his name And his Providence is but a servant to his Truth 2. Trust it in the way of means Though we are sure God hath decreed the certain event of such a thing yet we must not encourage our idleness but our diligence Though Moses was assured of the victory when Amalek came armed against him yet he commands Joshua to draw up the valiant men into a body himself goes to the Mount to pray and is as diligent in the use of all means as if he had been ignorant of God's purpose and had rather suspected the rout of his own than his Enemies forces Neither doth Joshua afterwards though secured by promise in his conquest of Canaan omit any part of the duty of a wise and watchful General he sends spies disciplines his forces besiegeth Cities and contrives stratagems Providence directs us by means not to use them is to tempt our Guardian where it intends any great thing for our good it opens a door and puts such circumstances into our hands as we may use without the breach of any Command or the neglect of our own duty God could have secured Christ from Herod's sury by a miraculous stroke from Heaven upon his Enemy but he orders Joseph and Maries flight into Egypt as a means of his preservation God rebukes Moses for praying and not using the means in continuing the Peoples march Exod. 14.15 Wherefore criest thou unto me speak unto the children of Israel that they go forwards To use means without respect to God is proudly to contemn him to depend upon God without the use of means is irreligiously to tempt him in
their Countrey So let us enquire into the Providence of God to understand the mind of God the interest of the Church the wisdom and kindness of God and our own duty in comormity thereunto 6. Ascribe the glory of every providence to God Abraham Steward petitioned God at the beginning of his business Gen. 24.12 and he blesses God at the success of it ver 26 27. We must not thank the tools which are used in the making an engine and ascribe unto them what we owe to the Workmans skill Men is but the instrument God's Wisdom is the Artist Let us therefore return the Glory of all where it is most rightly placed We may see the difference between Rachel and Leah in this respect when Rachel had a Son by her maid Bilhah she ascribes it to God's care and calls his name Dan which signifies judging Gen. 30.6 God hath judged me and heard my voice That the very Name might put her in remembrance of the kindness of God in answering her prayer And the next Napthali she esteems as the fruit of prayer vers 8. Whereas Leah takes no notice of God but vaunts of the multitude of her Children vers 11 be hold a troop comes She imposeth the name of Gad upon them which also signifies fortune or good luck And the next Asher vers 13. which is fortunate or blessed And we find Leah of the same mind afterward ver 17. It is said God hearkned unto her so that her Son Issachar was an answer of Prayer but she ascribes it to a lower cause which had moved God because she had given her maid to her Husband vers 18. Not unto us not unto us O Lord but to thy name be the glory Doct. 2. All the motions of providence in the World are ultimately for the good of the Church of those whose heart is perfect towards him Providence follows the rule of Scripture Whatsoever was written was written for the Churches comfort * Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever is acted in order to any thing written is acted for the Churches good All the providences of God in the World are conformable to his declarations in his word All former providences were ultimately in order to the bringing a Mediator into the World and for the glory of him then surely all the providences of God shall be in order to the perfecting the glory of Christ in that mystical body whereof Christ is head and wherein his affection and his Glory are so much concerned See the Proof of this by a Scripture or two Psal 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his Covenant and his Testimonies Not one path but all the works and motions not one particular act or passage of providence but the whole tract of his proceedings not only those which are more smooth and pleasant but those which are more rugged and bitter All mercy and truth sutable to that affection he bears in his heart to them and sutable to the declaration of that affection he hath made in his promise There is a contexture and a friendly connexion of kindness and faithfulness in every one of them They both kiss and embrace each other in every motion of God towards them As mercy made the Covenant so truth shall perform it And there shall be as much mercy as truth in all Gods actings towards those that that keep it Rom. 8 28. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose we know we do not conjecture or guess so but we have an infallible assurance of it All things even the most frightful and so those that have in respect of sense nothing but Gall and Wormwood in them work together they all conspire with an admirable harmony and unanimous consent for a Christian's good One particular act may seem to work to the harm of the Church as one particular act may work to the good of wicked men but the whole series and frame of things combine together for the good of those that are affectionate to him Both the Lance that makes us bleed and the plaister which refresheth the Wounds Both the griping purges and the warming Cordials combine together for the Patients cure to them who are called according to his purpose Here the Apostle renders a reason of this position because they are called not only in the general amongst the rest of the world to whom the Gospel comes but they are such that were in Gods purpose and counsel from Eternity to save and therefore resolved to encline their will to Faith in Christ Therefore all his other Counsels about the affairs of the world shall be for their good Another reason of this the Apostle intimates vers 27. The spirit makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God The intercessions of the Spirit which are also according to Gods will and purpose will not be fruitless in the main end which both the intercessions of the Spirit and purpose of God and the will and desires of the Saints do aim at which is their good Indeed where any is the object of this grand purpose of God he is the object of God's infinite and innumerable thoughts Psal 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred The Psalmist seems to intimate that in all the wonderful works which God hath done his thoughts are toward his people He thinks of them in all his actions and those thoughts are infinite and cannot be numbred and reckoned up by any Creature He seems to restrain the thoughts of God to his people in all those works of wonder which he doth in the World and which others are the Subjects of But his thoughts or purposes and intentions in all for the word signifies purposes too are chiefly next to his own glory directed toward his people those that trust in him which vers 4. he had pronounced blessed They run in his mind as if his heart was set upon them and none but them Here I shall premise two things as the ground-work of what follows 1. God certainly in all his actions has some end that is without question because he is a wise agent to act vainly and lightly is an evidence of imperfection which cannot be ascribed to the only wise God The Wheels of Providence are full of Eyes * Ezek. 1.18 There is motion and a knowledge of the end of that motion And Jesus Christ who is Gods Deputy in the providential government hath Seven Eyes as well as Seven Horns * Revel 5.6 a perfect strength and a perfect knowledg how to use that strength and to what end to use it Seven being the number of perfection in Scripture 2. That certainly is Gods end which his