is exercised by his concurring Power as well as every moment of our Life supported by his preserving Power What an infinite variety of motions is there in the whole World in universal Nature to all which God concurs all which he conducts even the motions of the meanest as well as the greatest Creatures which demonstrate the indefatigable Power of the Governour 'T is an Infinite Power which doth act in so many varieties whereby the Soul forms every Thought the Tongue speaks every Word the Body exerts every Action What an Infinite Power is that which presides over the birth of all things concurs with the motion of the Sap in the â—ree Rivers on the Earth Clouds in the Air every drop of Rain fleece of Snow crack of Thunder Not the least motion in the World but is under an actual influence of this Almighty Mover And lest any should scruple the Concurrence of God to so many Varieties of the Creatures motion as a thing utterly unconceivable let them consider the Sun a natural image and shadow of the Perfections of God doth not the power of that finite Creature extend it self to various Objects at the same moment of time How many Insects doth it animate as Flies c. at the same moment throughout the World How many several Plants doth it erect at its appearance in the Spring whose Roots lay mourning in the Earth all the foregoing Winter What multitudes of Spires of Grass and nobler Flowers doth it Midwife in the same hour It warms the Air melts the Blood cherishes Living Creatures of various kinds in distinct places without tiring And shall the God of this Sun be less than his Creature 3. And since I speak of the Sun consider the Power of God in the Motion of it * A Lapide in 1. cap. Gen. 16. Lessius de Perfect divin p. 90 91. The vastness of the Sun is computed to be at the least 166 Times bigger than the Earth and its distance from the Earth some tell us to be about Four Millions of Miles whence it follows that it is whirl'd about the World with that swiftness that in the space of an Hour it runs a Million of Miles which is as much as if it should move round about the surface of the Earth Fifty times in one hour * Lessius de Providen p. 633. Voss de Idol lib. 2. cap. 2. which vastness exceeds the swiftness of a Bullet shot out of a Canon which is computed to fly not above Three mile in a Minute So that the Sun runs further in one Hours space than a Bullet can in Five thousand if it were kept in motion so that if it were near the Earth the swiftness of its motion would shatter the whole frame of the World and dash it in pieces so that the Psalmist may well say It runs a race like a strong Man Psal 19.5 What an Incomprehensible Power is that which hath communicated such a strength and swiftness to the Sun and doth daily influence its Motion especially since after all those years of its motion wherein one would think it should have spent it self we behold it every day as vigorous as Adam did in Paradice without limping without shattering it self or losing any thing of its natural Spirits in its unwearied motion How great must that Power be which hath kept this great body so intire and thus swiftly moves it every day Is it not now an Argument of Omnipotency to keep all the strings of Nature in tune to wind them up to a due pitch for the harmony he intended by them to keep things that are contrary from that Confusion they would naturally fall into to prevent those Jarrings which would naturally result from their various and snarling qualities to preserve every Being in its true nature to propagate every kind of Creature order all the Operations even the meanest of them when there are such innumerable Varieties But let us consider that this Power of preserving things in their station and motion and the renewing of them is more stupendous than that which we commonly call Miraculous We call those Miracles which are wrought out of the track of Nature and contrary to the usual stream and current of it which Men wonder at because they seldom see them and hear of them as things rarely brought forth in the World when the truth is there is more of Power exprest in the ordinary station and motion of Natural causes than in those extraordinary exertings of Power Is not more Power signaliz'd in that whirling motion of the Sun every hour for so many Ages than in the suspending of its motion one Day as it was in the days of Joshua That Fire should continually ravage and consume and greedily swallow up every thing that is offer'd to it seems to be the effect of as admirable a Power as the stopping of its appetite a few moments as in the case of the Three Children Is not the rising of some small Seeds from the ground Faucher sur Act. Vol. 2. p. 47. with a multiplication of their numerous posterity an effect of as great a Power as our Saviours seeding many Thousands with a few Loaves by a secret augmentation of them Is not the Chimical producing so pleasant and delicious a Fruit as the Grape from a dry Earth insipid Rain and a sour Vine as admirable a token of Divine Power as our Saviours turning Water into Wine Is not the cure of Diseases by the application of a simple inconsiderable Weed or a slight Infusion as wonderful in it self as the Cure of it by a powerful word What if it be naturally design'd to heal what is that Nature who gave that Nature who maintains that Nature who conducts it cooperates with it Doth it work of it self and by its own strength why not then equally in all in one as well as another Miracles indeed affect more because they testifie the immediate operation of God without the concurrence of second Causes not that there is mere of the Power of God shining in them than in the other II. This Power is evident in Moral Government 1. In the restraint of the Malicious nature of the Devil Since Satan hath the Power of an Angel and the Malice of a Devil what safety would there be for our Persons from destruction what security for our Goods from rifling by this invisible potent and envious Spirit if his Power were not restrain'd and his Malice curb'd by one more Mighty than himself How much doth he envy God the glory of his Creation and Man the use and benefit of it How desirous would he be in regard of his passion how able in regard of his strength and subtilty to overthrow or infect all Worship but what was directed to himself to manage all things according to his lusts turn all thing topsie-turvy plague the World burn Cities Houses plunder us of the supports of Nature waste Kingdoms c. if he were not held in
less vain must it be when the Bodies of Men are presented to supply the place of their Spirits As an omission of duty is a contempt of Gods Soveraign Authority so the omission of the manner of it is a contempt of it and of his amiable excellency and that which is a contempt and mockery can lay no just claim to the title of Worship Reason 4. There is in worship an approach of God to Man It was instituted to this purpose that God might give out his blessings to Man And ought not our Spirits to be prepared and ready to receive his communications We are in such acts more peculiarly in his presence In the Israelites hearing the Law it is said God was to come among them * Exod. 19.10 11. Then men are said to stand before the Lord * Deut. 10.8 God before whom I stand that is whom I worship And therefore when Cain forsook the worship of God setled in his Fathers Family * Kings 1.17 he is said to go out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 God is essentially present in the world graciously present in his Church The name of the Evangelical City is Jehovah Shammah * Ezek. 48.35 the Lord is there God is more graciously present in the Evangelical institutions than in the Legal He loves the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob * Psal 87.2 His Evangelical Law and Worship which was to go forth from Zion as the other did from Sinai Mic. 4.2 God delights to approach to Men and converse with them in the worship instituted in the Gospel more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graciously present ought not we to be spiritually present A liveless Carcass service becomes not so high and delectable a presence as this 'T is to thrust him from us not invite him to us 'T is to practise in the Ordinances what the Prophet predicts concerning mens usage of our Saviour Isa 53.2 There is no form no comeliness nor beauty that we should desire him A slightness in worship reflects upon the excellency of the object of worship God and his worship are so linkt together that whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care esteems the other not worth his inward affection How unworthy a slight is it of God who profers the opening his Treasure the reimpressing his Image conferring his blessings admits us into his presence when he hath no need for us who hath millions of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise He that worships not God with his Spirit regards not Gods presence in his Ordinances and slights the great end of God in them and that perfection he may attain by them We can only expect what God hath promised to give when we tender to him what he hath commanded us to present If we put off God with a Shell he will put us off with a Husk How can we expect his heart when we do not give him ours or hope for the blessing needful for us when we render not the glory due to him It cannot be an advantagious worship without spiritual graces for those are uniting and Union is the ground of all Communion Reason 5. To have a spiritual worship is Gods end in the restoration of the Creature both in Redemption by his Son and Sanctification by his Spirit A fitness for spiritual Offerings was the end of the coming of Christ * Mal. 3.3 He should purge them as Gold and Silver by Fire a Spirit burning up their dross melting them into a holy compliance with and submission to God To what purpose That they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousnes a pure Offering from a purified Spirit He came to bring us to God * 1 Pet. 3.18 in such a Garb as that we might be fit to converse with him Can we be thus without a fixedness of our Spirits on him The offering of spiritual Sacrifices is the end of making any a spiritual Habitation and a holy Priest-hood * Pet. 2.5 We can no more be Worshippers of God without a Worshippers nature than a man can be a man without humane nature As man was at first created for the honour and worship of God so the design of restoring that Image which was defaced by Sin tends to the same end We are not brought to God by Christ nor are our services presented to him if they be without our Spirits Would any man that undertakes to bring another to a Prince introduce him in a slovenly and sordid habit such a garb that he knows hateful to him Or bring the Clothes or Skin of a Man stuft with straw instead of the Person To come with our Skins before God without our Spirits is contrary to the design of God in Redemption and Regeneration If a carnal worship would have pleased God a carnal heart would have served his turn without the expence of his Spirit in Sanctification He bestows upon man a spiritual nature that he may return to him a spiritual service He enlightens the Understanding that he may have a rational service and new moulds the Will that he may have a voluntary service As it is the Milk of the Word wherewith he feeds us so it is the service of the Word wherewith we must glorifie him So much as there is of confusedness in our understanding so much of starting and levity in our Wills so much of slipperiness and skipping in our affections so much is abated of the due qualities of the worship of God and so much we fall short of the end of Redemption and Sanctification Reason 6. A spiritual worship is to be offered to God because no worship but that can be acceptable We can never be secured of acceptance without it He being a Spirit nothing but the worship in Spirit can be sutable to him What is unsutable cannot be acceptable There must be something in us to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for an actual acceptation No service is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ but as it is a spiritual Sacrifice and offered by a spiritual heart 1 Pet. 2.5 The Sacrifice is first spiritual before it be acceptable to God by Christ When it is an offering in righteousness it is then and only then pleasant to the Lord Mal. 3.3 4. No Prince would accept a gift that is unsutable to his Majesty and below the condition of the person that presents it Would he be pleased with a bottle of water for drink from one that hath his Cellar full of wine How unacceptable must that be that is unsutable to the Divine Majesty And what can be more unsutable than a withdrawing the operations of our Souls from him in the oblation of our Bodies We as little glorifie God as God when we give him only a corporeal worship as the Heathen did when they represented him in a corporeal shape * Rom. 1.21
yet he cannot but approve of that Law as it prohibits every man from doing him the like injury and disgrace The sutableness of the Law to the Consciences of men is further evidenced by those furious reflections and strong alarms of Conscience upon a transgression of it and that in all parts of the World more or less in all men So exactly hath Divine wisdom fitted the Law to the Reason and Consciences of men as one Tally to another Indeed without such an agreement no mans Conscience could have any ground for a Hue and Cry nor need any man be startled with the Records of it This manifests the wisdom of God in framing his Law so that the Reasons and consciences of all men do one time or other subscribe to it What Governour in the World is able to make any Law distinct from this revealed by God that shall reach all places all persons all Hearts We may add to this the extent of his Commands in ordering goodness at the root not only in action but affection not only in the motion of the Members but the disposition of the Soul which suting a Law to the inward frame of man is quite out of the compass of the wisdom of any Creature 4. His Wisdom is seen in the incouragements he gives for the studying and observing his will Psal 19.11 In keeping thy Commandments there is great reward The variety of them there is not any particular Genius in man but may find something sutable to win upon him in the revealed will of God There is a strain of Reason to satisfy the Rational of Eloquence to gratify the the Fanciful of Interest to allure the Selfish of Terror to startle the Obstinate As a skilful Angler stores himself with Baits according to the Appetites of the sorts of fish he intends to catch so in the Word of God there are varieties of Baits according to the varieties of the Inclinations of men Threatnings to work upon Fear Promises to work upon Love Examples of holy men set out for Imitation and those plainly neither his Threatnings nor his Promises are dark as the Heathen Oracles but peremptory as becomes a Soveraign Law giver and plain as was necessary for the understanding of a Creature As he deals graciously with men in exhorting and incouraging them so he deals wisely herein by taking away all Excuse from them if they ruine the interest of their Souls by denying Obedience to their Soveraign Again the Rewards God proposeth are accommodated not to the Brutish parts of man his Carnal Sense and Fleshly Appetite but to the Capacity of a Spiritual Soul which admits only of Spiritual Gratifications and cannot in its own Nature without a sordid subjection to the Humors of the Body be moved by Sensual Proposals God backs his Precepts with that which the Nature of Man longed for and with Spiritual Delights which can only satisfy a rational Appetite And thereby did as well gratifie the noblest Desires in man as Oblige him to the noblest Service and Work * Amytaut Indeed Vertue and Holiness being perfectly amiable ought chiefly to affect our Understandings and by them draw our Wills to the esteem and pursuit of them But since the desire of Happiness is inseparable from the Nature of Man as impossible to be dis-join'd as an Inclination to descend to be severed from heavy Bodies or an instinct to ascend from Light and A ry of Substances God serves himself of the Inclination of our Natures to happiness to engender in us an esteem and affection to the Holiness he doth require He proposeth the enjoyment of a supernatural Good and everlasting Glory as a Bait to that insatiable longing our Natures have for Happiness to receive the impression of Holiness into our Souls And besides he doth proportion Rewards according to the degrees of mens Industry Labour and Zeal for him and weighs out a Recompence not only suted to but above the service He that improves five Talents is to be ruler over five Cities that is a greater proportion of Honour and Glory than another Luke 19.17.18 As a wise Father excites the affection of his Children to things worthy of Praise by varieties of Recompenses according to their several Actions And it was the Wisdom of the Steward in the Judgment of our Saviour to give every one the portion that belonged to him Luke 12.42 There is no part of the Word wherein we meet not with the will and Wisdom of God varieties of Duties and varieties of Encouragement mingled together 5. The Wisdom of God is seen In fitting the Revelations of his will to after-times and for the preventing of the foreseen Corruptions of men The whole Revelation of the mind of God is stored with Wisdom in the words connexion sence It looks backwards to past and forwards to Ages to come A hidden wisdom lies in the bowels of it like Gold in a Mine The Old testament was so composed as to fortify the New when God should bring it to light The Foundations of the Gopel were laid in the Law The Predictions of the Prophets and figures of the Law were so wisely framed and laid down in such clear expressions as to be Proofs of the Authority of the New Testament and Convictions of Jesus his being the Messiah Luke 24.14 Things concerning Christ were written in Moses the Prophets and Psalms and do to this day stare the Jews so in the face that they are fain to invent absurd and Nonsensical Interpretations to excuse their Unbelief and continue themselves in their obstinate Blindness And in pursuance of the efficacy of those Predictions it was a part of the Wisdom of God to bring forth the Translation of the Old Testament by the means Ptolomy King of Egypt some hundreds of years before the coming of Christ into the Greek Language the Tongue then most known in the World And why to prepare the Gentiles by the reading of it for that gracious call he intended them and for the entertainment of the Gospel which some few years after was to be publisht among them that by reading the Predictions so long before made they might more readily receive the accomplishment of them in their due time The Scripture is written in such a manner as to obviate Errors foreseen by God to enter into the Church It may be wondred why the Vniversal Particle should be inserted by Christ in the giving the Cup in the Supper which was not in the distributing the Bread Mat. 26 27. Drink ye all of it Not at the distributing the Bread Eat you all of it And Mark in his Relation tels us They all drank of it Mark 11.23 The Church of Rome hath been the occasion of discovering to us the Wisdom of our Saviour in in s erting that Particle all since they were so bold to exclude the Communicants from the Cup by a trick of Concomitancy Christ foresaw the Error and therefore put in a little word to obviate a
derive all good to us Had he not been Man we had had no share or part in him A Satisfaction by him had not been imputed to us If he were not God he could not communicate to us Divine Graces and Eternal Happiness he could not have had power to convey so great a good to us had he been only Man and he could not have done it according to the Rule of inflexible righteousness had he been only God As Man he is the way of Conveyance as God he is the spring of Conveyance From this Grace of Union and the Grace of Unction we find Rivers of Waters flowing to make glad the City of God Believers are his Branches and draw Sap from him as he is their Root in his Human Nature and have an endless duration of it from his Divine Had he not been Man he had not been in a state to obey the Law Had he not been God as well as Man his Obedience could not have been valuable to be imputed to us How should this Mystery be studied by us which would afford us both Admiration and Content Admiration in the incomprehensibleness of it Contentment in the fitness of the Mediator By this Wisdom of God we receive the props of our Faith and the fruits of Joy and Peace Wisdom consists in chusing fit means and conducting them in such a method as may reach with good success the variety of Marks which are aimed at Thus hath the Wisdom of God set forth a Mediator suted to our wants fitted for our supplies and ordered so the whole Affair by the union of these two Natures in the Person of the Redeemer that there could be no disappointment by all the bustle Hell and hellish Instruments could raise against it 4. The Wisdom of God is seen in this way of Redemption in vindicating the Honour and Righteousness of the Law both as to Precept and Penalty The first and irreversible design of the Law was Obedience The Penalty of the Law had only entrance upon Transgression Obedience was the design and the Penalty was added to enforce the observance of the Precept Gen. 2.17 Thou shalt not eat there is the Precept In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye There is the Penalty Obedience was our Debt to the Law as Creatures Punishment was due from the Law to us as Sinners We were bound to endure the Penalty for our first Transgression but the Penalty did not Cancel the Bond of future Obedience The Penalty had not been incurr'd without transgressing the Precept yet the Precept was not abrogated by enduring the Penalty Since Man so soon revolted and by his Revolt fell under the threatning the Justice of the Law had been honoured by Man's sufferings but the holinesse and equity of the Law had been honoured by mans Obedience The Wisdom of God finds out a Medium to satisfie both The Justice of the Law is preserved in the Execution of the Penalty and the Holiness of the Law is honoured in the observance of the Precept The Life of our Saviour is a Conformity to the Precept and his Death is a Conformity to the Penalty the Precepts are exactly performed and the Curse punctually executed by a voluntary observing the one and a voluntary undergoing the other It is obeyed as if it had not been transgrest and executed as if it had not been obeyed It became the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God as the Rector of the World to exact it Heb. 2.10 and it became the holiness of the Mediator to fulfill all the righteousness of the Law †Rom. 8.3 Matth. 3.15 And thus the Honour of the Law was vindicated in all the parts of it The Transgression of the Law was Condemned in the Flesh of the Redeemer and the Righteousness of the Law was fulfilled in his Person And both these acts of Obedience being counted as one Righteousness and imputed to the believing sinner render him a subject to the Law both in its preceptive and minatory part By Adams sinful acting we were made sinners and by Christ's righteous acting we are made righteous Rom. 5.10 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous The Law was obeyed by him that the righteousness of it might be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.4 'T is not fulfilled in us or in our actions by inherency but fulfilled in us by imputation of that righteousness which was exactly fulfilled by another As he died for us and rose again for us so he lived for us The Commands of the Law were as well observed for us as the Threatnings of the Law were endured for us This justification of a sinner with the preservation of the holiness of the Law in truth in the inward parts in sincerity of intention as well as conformity in action is the wisdom of God the Gospel-wisdom which David desires to know Psal 51.6 Thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom or as some render it the hidden things of wisdom Not an inherent wisdom in the acknowledgments of his sin which he had confest before but the wisdom of God in providing a Medicine so as to keep up the holiness of the Law in the observance of it in Truth and the averting the Judgment due to the sinner In and by this way methodiz'd by the wisdom of God all doubs and troubles are discharg'd Naturally if we take a view of the Law to behold its Holiness and Justice and then of our hearts to see the contrariety in them to the command and the pollution repugnant to its holiness and after this cast our eyes upward and behold a flaming Sword edg'd with Curses and Wrath Is there any matter but that of terrour afforded by any of these But when we behold in the life of Christ a conformity to the Mandatory part of the Law and in the Cross of Christ a sustaining the minatory part of the Law this wisdom of God gives a well-grounded and rational dismiss to all the horrours that can seize upon us 5. The wisdom of God in Redemption is visible in manifesting two contrary Affections at the same time and in one act The greatest hatred of Sin and the greatest love to the Sinner In this way he punishes the sin without ruining the sinner and repairs the ruins of the sinner without indulging the sin Here is eternal love and eternal hatred a condemning the sin to what it merited and an advancing the sinner to what he could not expect Herein is the choicest love and the deepest hatred manifested An implacableness against the sin and a placableness to the sinner His hatred of sin hath been discovered in other ways in punishing the Devil without remedy sentencing Man to an expulsion from Paradise though seduced by another in accursing the Serpent an irrational Creature though but a misguided Instrument The whole tenor of his Threatnings declare
a Chain as a ravenous Lion or a furious wild Horse by the Creator and Governour of the World What remedy could be used by Man against the activity of this unseen and swift Spirit The World could not subsist under his Malice he would practise the same things upon All as he did upon Job when he had got leave from his Governour turn the Swords of Men into one anothers bowels send Fire from Heaven upon the Fruits of the Earth and the Cattle intended for the use of Man Raise Winds to shake and tear our Houses upon our Heads daub our Bodies with Scabs and Boils and let all the humors in our Blood loose upon us He that envied Adam a Paradise doth envy us the pleasure of enjoying its out-works If we were not destroyed by him we should live in a continued vexation by Spectrums and Apparitions affrighting sounds and noise as some think the Egyptians did in that three days Darkness He would be alway winnowing us as he desired to winnow Peter Luke 22.31 But God over-masters his strength that he cannot move a hairs breadth beyond his Tedder not only he is unable to touch an Upright Job but to lay his fingers upon one of the Unbelieving Gadarens forbidden and filthy Swine without special licence Mat. 8.31 When he is cast out of one place he walks through dry places seeking rest Luke 11.24 new objects for his Malicious designs but finding none till God le ts loose the reins upon him for a new employment Though Satans Power be great yet God suffers him not to tempt as much as his Diabolical appetite would but as much as Divine Wisdom thinks fit And the Divine Power tempers the others active Malice and gives the Creature victory where the Enemy intended spoil and captivity How much stronger is God than all the Legions of Hell Luke 11.22 as he that holds a strong man from effecting his purpose testifies more ability than his Adversary How doth he lock him up for a Thousand years in a Pownd which he cannot leap over Rev. 20.3 and this restraint is wrought partly by blinding the Devil in his designs partly by denying him concourse to his motion As he hindered the active quality of the Fire upon the Three Children by withdrawing his power which was necessary to the motion of it and his power is as necessary for the motion of the Devil as for that of any other Creature Sometimes he makes him to confess him against his own interest as Apollo's Oracle confest †Caeteâ—â—â— deos aeâ—eos esse c. Grot. â—eâ—it reâ— lib. 4. And though when the Devil was cast out of the possessed person he publickly owned Christ to be the Holy one of God Mark 1.24 to render him suspected by the People of having commerce with the Unclean Spirits yet this he could not do without the leave and permission of God that the power of Christ in stopping his mouth and imposing silence upon him might be evidenced and that it reaches to the Gates of Hell as well as to the quieting of Winds and Waves This is a part of the Strength as well as the Wisdom of God Job 12.16 that the deceived and the deceiver are his Wisdom to defeat and Power to over-rule his most Malicious designs to his own glory 2. In the restraint of the Natural Corruption of Men. Since the impetus of Original Corruption runs in the Blood conveyed down from Adam to the Veins of all his Posterity and universally diffus'd in all Mankind what wrack and havock would it make in the World if it were not supprest by this Divine Power which presides over the hearts of Men Man is so wretched by Nature that nothing but what is vile and pernicious can drop from him Man drinks Iniquity like water Job 15.16 being by Nature abominable and filthy He greedily swallows all matter for Iniquity every thing suitable to the mire and poyson in his Nature and would sprout it out with all fierceness and insolence God himself gives us the description of Mans Nature Gen. 6.5 that he hath not one good imagination at any time Rom. 3.10 c. And the Apostle from the Psalmist dilates and comments upon it There is none righteous no not one their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood c. This Corruption is equal in all natural to all 't is not more poysonous or more fierce in one Man than in another The Root of all Men is the same all the Branches therefore do equally possess the Villanous nature of the Root No Child of Adam can by Natural descent be better than Adam or have less of baseness and vileness and venom than Adam How fruitful would this loathsom Lake be in all kind of steams What unbridled Licentiousness and head-strong Fury would triumph in the World if the Power of God did not interpose it self to lock down the Floud-gates of it What rooting up of Humane society would there be how would the World be drencht in Blood the number of Malefactors be greater than that of Apprehenders and Punishers How would the prints of Natural Laws be raz'd out of the heart if God should leave Humane nature to it self Who can read the first Chapter to the Romans 24 25 26 27 28 29 Verses without acknowledging this Truth where there is a Catalogue of those Villanies which followed upon Gods pulling up the Sluces and letting the malignity of their Inward Corruption have its natural course If God did not hold back the fury of Man his Garden would be over-run his Vine rooted up the Inclinations of Men would hurry them to the worst of Wickedness How great is that Power that curbs bridles or changes as many head-strong Horses at once and every minute as there are Sons of Adam upon the Earth The floods lift up their waves Psal 93.3 4. the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many Waters yea than the mighty waves of the Sea that doth hush and pen in the turbulent Passions of Men. 3. In the ordering and framing the hearts of Men to his own ends That must be an Omnipotent hand that grasps and contains the Hearts of all Men the Heart of the Meanest person as well as of the most towring Angel and turns them as he pleases and makes them sometime ignorantly sometime knowingly concur to the accomplishment of his own purposes When the Hearts of Men are so numerous their Thoughts so various and different from one another yet he hath a Key to those Millions of Hearts and with Infinite Power guided by as Infinite Wisdom he draws them into what Chanels he pleases for the gaining his own ends Though the Jews had embrued their hands in the Blood of our Saviour and their Rage was yet reeking-hot against his Followers God bridled their Fury in the Churches Infancy till it had got some strength and cast a Terror