brought his Design near to an Issue then the King cannot sleep but calls for the Book of the Records of the Chronicles and they read to Hâ—m of the good Service of Mordecai in discovering the Treason that was plotted against his Person and one thing falls in after another to defeat Haman's cruel design and ruine the whole fabrick of his strong built and almost perfected Contrivance In this sence Time and Chance happens to men of greatest Sufficiency which they cannot either foresee Eccl 9. 12. or prevent or help themselves against them when they come upon them and hereby their Counsels and Undertakings are defeated and ruined sometimes Prop. 5. Time and Chance which happens to men in the way of their Vndertakings is effectually ordered governed by the Lord. God is the Lord of Time and Orderer and Governour of all Contingences Time and Chance that further or hinder the Designs of men are under the Rule and Management of the Lord. His Counsel sets the Times appoints the Chances His Providence dispenses the Times and frames the Chances that befall men The Lord hath in his own power the Dispensation of Times Eph. 1. 10. The Times and Seasons He hath put in his own power Act. 1. 7. He hath such a Dominion over the Times that He changeth Times and Seasons according to his own pleasure Dan. 2. 21. My Times saith David Ps. 31. 15. are in thy Hands He means the state and condition of his Times his Prosperities and Adversities his Successes and Disappointments and universally whatever should befall him in the Times that should pass over Him Moreover all the Chances that happen to men as the Scripture but now mentioned shews are in the Hand of God My Times i.e. the Chances of my Times No Contingency or Emergency or Accident so casual but it is ordered governed by the Lord. The Arrow that was shot at a venture and smote Ahab throw the joints of his Hâ—rness was directed at him by the Hand of God So in that case of Man-slaughter and killing a man casually as if a man be hewing Wood and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the Axe to cut down a Tree and the head slippeth from the helve and lighteth upon his Neighbour that he die Deut. 19 5. God is said in that case to deliver that man that is slain into his hand Exod. 21. 13. God ordereth that sad event All Casualties in the World are guâ—ded by the steady Hand 〈◊〉 the great God Thou saith David Ps. 16. 5. maintainest â—y Lot The Lord makes and disposes the Lot or Chance of every man whatever it is He hath appointed all Times and Chances in his Eternal Counsel and in Time executes accordingly in the course of his Providence Prop. 6. The great God hath the absolute and infallible Determination of the Successes and Events of all the Operations Vndertakings of created Agents Second Causes in his own Power His Counsel and soveraign Will appoints what they shall be and his Providence which is not determined by any Second Cause but is the Determiner of them all Executes accordingly And it must needs be so if you consider these two Particulars 1. God is the Absolute First Cause and Supream Lord of all Of Him and to Him and through Him are all Things Rom. 11. 36. He that understands any thing of God indeed knows this to be a Truth Here we might be large as they that are acquainted with the Doctrine of Creation and Providence in Conservation and Gubernation of all Things will readily apprehend for here we might shew you 1. That God is the absolute first Cause of all the causal power and virtue that is in Creatures He gives them power to act furnisheth them with a Sufficiency for their Operations He gives Swiftness to the Runner Skill and Strength and Courage to the Souldier 2. That He supports and continues the active power of the creature He continues Swiftness Wisdom Strength Courage as He pleaseth If He withdraw all is gone The Swift is lame or slow-footed the Strong is weak timorous the Wise is foolish and besotted the man of Skill is a meer Bungler at any thing 3. That He doth by a previous Influx excite and stirre up and actuate the active power of the Creature and set all the wheels agoing For the most operative active created Virtue is not a pure Act but hath some Potentiality mixed with it and therefore cannot put forth it self into Action unless it be set agoing by the first Cause And the creature cannot be the absolute first Cause of any physical action In Him we live and move Act. 17 28. Again 4. That He determines and applyes Second Causes to the Objects of their Actions When they stand as it were in Bivio as it is said of Nebuchadnezzar when he was marching with his Army He stood at the parting of the way at the head of the two wayes to use Divination as doubting which way he had bâ—st to march whether to Ierusalem or some other way Ezek. 21. 21 22. Then the Lord easts the Scale and the Lot determines them this way and not another He doth not only stir up Second Causes to act at large and set them agoing and leave it to their own Inclination whither they shall go what they shall do but He leads them forth and determines them to this or that Object 5. That He cooperates and workes jointly with Second Causes in producing their Effects as He predetermins Second Causes so He concurres with them in their Operations And this Pradetermination and Concurse is so necessary that there can be no real Effect produced by the Creature without it And it is a Truth also that when God Improves Second Causes for the production of any Effect He so concurres with them that He doth withall most immediately intimously and without Dependence upon these Causes by which He acts produce the Entity or Esse of the Effect If this be considered it will appear that created Agents are as it were God's Instruments that act as they are acted by Him and cannot move of themselves The busy bustling proud Assyrian was so Is 10. 15. 6. That all the Ataxy Disorder Irregularity moral Evil that is found in the Actions of Rational Agents is by His Permission If it were not the Pleasure of God to permit it no Sin should be in the World nor in the Actions of Men. Though there is no Legal Permission or allowance of it for the Law of God forbids it yet there is a Providential Permission of it God could have kept it out of his World 7. That He limits and sets Bounds to the Actions of Second Causes what they shall do and how farre they shall proceed in this or that way He set bounds to Satan when he had Commission to afflict Iob. He limits and restrains the Eruptions of the Wrath Rage of the Churches Adversaries Ps. 76. 10. He sets bounds to the sinfull
alwayes to evade danger or win the Prize by Running Nor is the Battel to the Strong The Victory is not determined or the decision of the warre made alwayes on the side of the strongest and valiantest men Nor yet Bread to the Wise. Many wise men are not able to get their Bread or Livelihood in the World Nor Riches to men of Vnderstanding Many understanding men have not any success in their endeavours to gathâ—â— Râ—ches and get Estates Nor Favour to men of Skill Many times the most Skillful Artists and Artificers and the best Accomplished Persons find little Favour and Acceptation among men how deserving and ingenious soever they be 2. Illustrated by the Antithesis of a different and the true Cause of the Determination of Successes and Events signified in those words But Time and Chance happeneth to them all By which we are not to understand that the Determination of Events is reducâ—d and referred to meer Chance Fortune as the Epicurean Philosophers imagined but that the Counsel and Providence of God disposes and orders out all Successes or Frustrations of Second Causes casting in sometimes such unexpected Impediments and Obstructions as defeat the Labours and hopes of men of greatest Sufficiency which though they seem wholly casual and fortuitous Emergencies and are so indeed unto men themselves yet they are governed by the secret Counsel and effectual Providence of God The Summe is that no man how accomplish'd soever is Master of Events or absolute Determiner of the Issues of his own Actings and Endeavours but the soveraign Counsel and the Providence of God orders TIME and CHANCE to be an effectual Furtherance or Hindrance of the Designs of all men as seems good in His sight The Observation is Doct. That the Successes and Events of Vndertakings and Affairs are not determined infallibly by the greatest Sufficiency of Men or Second Causes but by the Counsel and Providence of God ordering and governing Time and Chance according to his own good Pleasure I have endeavoured to comprize and grasp the substance of Solomon's Intendment in this Doctâ—nal Conclusion and shall explicate and demonstrate the Truth of it as God shall help in the following Propositions Prop. 1. Second Causes may have a sufficiency in their Kind to produce these and those Effects an liability a congruous disposition or an aptness yea a kind of sufficiency in order to the putting forth this and that Act and the giving Existence to these and those Effects not indeed an absolute and universal Sufficiency which can be affirmed of none but Him that is All sufficient and Omnipotent but a limited sufficiency or a sufficiency in their Kind and order The Sun to shine the Fire to burn that which is combustible the Rational Creature to act or effect this or that in a way of counsel and with freedom of will the Swift to run the strong and valiant and well-instructed Souldier to fight well the wise man to get his bread to gather riches to gain acceptance among those with whom he hath to do This is no more than to say that created Agents and Second Causes may have the active power and virtue of causes all that is requisite on their parts in ordeâ—â— to the production of their peculiar and appropriate Effects all that sufficiency that dependent Beings and second Causes are capable of And indeed it belongs to the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of God to furnish his Creatures with sufficient Ability for the opperations and effects He hath made them for and so He did at first when He made every thing good in its Kind and whatever Defect there is now in this respect it is the fruit punishment of Sin Though God is able to give Being to things in an immediate way yet it is his pleasure in the course of his Providence to use Means and to produce many things by the mediation and Agency of second Causes and so gives causal virtue and ability to these and those things in order to the producing of such and such Effects It is a good observation that the Lord is pleased not through any defect of power in Himself but out of the abundance of his goodness to communicâ—te causal power and virtue to his Creatures to honour them with that Dignity that they may be his Instruments by which He will produce these and those Effects whereby He takes them as it were into partnership fellowship with Himself in the way of his providential Efficiency that they may be Vnder-workers to yea Co-workers with Himself Hence He gives them an aptitude and sufficiency in their kind in order to their respective operations and effects though some have a greater aptitude sufficiency than others But without some degree of such sufficiâ—â—cy nothing can deserve the name of a Cause the very essence whereof consists in its power virtue ability to produce an Effect A cause cannot be a cause without an active power or sufficiency to give being to this or that Effect Prop. 2. The Successes and Events of Affairs and Vndertakings do ordinarily depend in some respects upon the Sufficiency of Second Causes I do not say in the Observation nor is it the meaning of Solomon that Successes and Events of Affairs and Undertakings do not depend at all in an ordinary course on the sufficiency of Second Causes For this were to deny and destroy their causality and to make nothing of their efficiency Second causes have their peculiar Influence into their Effects and contribute something to their Existence and to assert the contrary were to say that Causes are no Causes and to speak a flat Contradâ—ction This would be to suppose that the Lord hath set up an Order and course in Nature in vain and given to Second Causes a sufficiency in their Kind for Action to no purpose and to deny the ordinary Providence of God which is that whereby the Lord observes the Order which He hath set and that course of Nature which is originally of his own Appointment whereby one thing depends upon and receives Being from another Though the Lord is pleased sometimes upon great and important Occasions to leave the ordinary Road of Providence and act beyond and above the usual stated course of Things and not to concurre with and shine upon the endeavours of created Agents so as to crown them with that success which according to an ordinary course of Providence might be rationally expected yet it is not to be imagined that He should ordinarily dispence with the course and methods of his ordinary Providence For why then should it be called ordinary God who is the Lord of Hosts the great Leader Commander Ruler of Nature not only permits but also effectually commands and causes his whole Militia ordinarily to move and act according to their Natures and natural Properties respectively without Countermanding them or turning them out of their way For as I remember One argues He will not shew such a dislike to
his own workmanship as ordinarily to cross the Order and alter the course He hath set in the World Therefore the meaning of the Text is not that Swiftness conduces nothing to the winning of the Race or Strength to the winning of the Battel or Wisdom Vnderstanding to the getting of Bread and Riches or Prudence Art or Skill to the getting of the Favour and good will of Princes or People nor that the Race is never to the Swift or the Battel never to the Strong no nor yet that the Race is not more frequently to the Swift and the Battel usually to the Strong c. For the Lord doth most ordinarily award Success unto causes of greatest Sufficiency rather than Disappointment Defeatment Otherwise it would be a very heartless if not a foolish Thing in the eye of Reason to use means or to think to get the Race by Swiftness or Bread by Labour and Diligence or Favour by dexterous prudent Behaviour or Learning by Study and Industry or to win the Battel by good Conduct and Courage and numbers of men Yea then Wisdom would not be better than Folly nor Strength more desirable than Weakness nor Diligence more beneficial available than Idleness and sitting still This therefore is evident that the Issues and Events of Undertakings do in some respect ordinarily depend upon the Sufficiency of Second Causes insomuch as the greatest probability of Success according to an ordinary providence and in the eye of Reason is ordinarily on the side of Causes that are most sufficient in their kind of Efficiency Prop. 3. Second Causes though of greatest Sufficiency in their kind have not the certain Determination of Successes Events in their own Hands but may be frustrated disappointed Though the Successes and Events of Undertakings ordinarily depend upon the sufficiency of Second Causes yet they are not infallibly determined thereby Created Agents have not Events in their own Hands but may be disappointed they cannot warrant the Events of their Undertakings or Success of their Counsels and Endeavours but may be defeated of their Hopes and Expectations Thus no man hath the absolute command of the Issue success of his own Undertakings He may be sure of this or that Event if the Lord Promise it to him or Reveal it to be His Pleasure to give such Success to such Endeavours but he cannot be secured of it from or by any Sufficiency of his own He may as a wise man foresee say what in an ordinary course of Providence is rationally to be expected but cannot warrant the Success of his Undertakings or carv out what Event he pleases to himself His Prudence and Providence and Diligence and Sufficiency for Action cannot assure him of the Event or determin the Success on his side And there is that Demonstration of it that created Agents of the the greatest Sufficiency are sometimes disappointed Two Things I would say here 1. Agents of greatest Sufficiency are subject to Disappointment as well I do not say as much or as ordinarily and often but as well as Agents of less sufficiency The Ablest Men in any kind may miss of the Success they expect as well as weaker men That Men of great Sufficiency in this or that way may be defeated of their Ends and Hopes Solomon from his own Experience assures us in the Text and who is it that upon his own observation cannot set his Seal to what He asserts He gives five Instances 1. The Race is not to the Swift not profitable or successful to him always but sometimes pernicious destructive Many agood Runner runs Himself into mischief and Ruine Thus Asabel that is said to be as light of foot as a wild Roe ran after Abner so fast that he lost his Life in that overhasty pursuit 2 Sam. 2. 18-23 There are Times when men that are swift would run from danger and cannot they have neither power to run nor success in attempting it Ier. 46 6. Sometimes the Flight perisheth from the Swift and he that is swift of foot or that rideth the Horse though it be at full speed cannot deliver himself Amos 2. 14 15. It is not absolutely in the power of the swiftest man to escape danger or win the prize by Running 2. The Battel is not to the Strong There is in Bello Alea the Chance of Warre as they use to speak There is as it were a kind of Lottery a great Uncertainty in Warre Great Armies are sometimes defeated by small and inconsiderable Forces the great Host of Midian by Gideon's three hundred men the Garrison of the Philistines by Ionathan and his Armour-Bearer This hath been often observed in the World Sometimes strong and valiant Men are overthrown by those that are in strength farre inferiour to them great Goliah by little David Well might David say as Psal. 33. 16 17. There is no King saved by the multitude of an host a mighty man is not delivered by much strength An Horse is a vain thing for safety neither shall he deliver any by his great strength There are Times when the mighty Ones are beaten down Jer. 46. 5. The mighty cannot deliver himself or the strong strengthen himself but the couragious among the mighty is put to flight Amos 2. 14 16. Sometimes the strong melt like water at approaching danger and the stouthearted are spoiled and sleep their sleep and the men of might cannot find their hands to make the least Defence or Resistance Psal. 76. 5. 3. Bread is not to the Wise. Wise men are not able to get their Livelihood but have much adoe to make a shift to get a bare Subsistence in the world and it may be are forc'd to beg for it or be beholding to the Charity of others There have been strange Instances of very wise and worthy Persons that have been reduced to such a Condition Some of you know the famous Story Date Obolum or as others have it Panem Belisario David was put to beg his Bread of Nabal 1. Sam. 25. Paul was often in Hunger and Thirst 2 Cor. 11. 27. 4. Riches are not to men of Vnderstanding Sometimes indeed wise men get Estates and gather Riches and one would think they should be best accomplish'd for it and yet it so falls out that some understanding Mâ—n cannot thrive in the World and grow rich notwithstanding all their Endeavours So it is that many men of great Understanding and rational Forecastings and Contrivances to gather wealth though they lay out their Parts and their Hearts this way and would be rich yet they cannot but are strangely defeated You read of the poor wise man Eccles. 9. 15. Many men of great Understandings are too wise and of too great Spirits to labour after wealth or if they do their designs are unsuccessful 5. Favour is not to men of Skill Many very wise and knowing skillfull men and experienced in Affairs and prudent also in their Deportment yet cannot get