Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A51226
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Of the vvisdom and goodness of Providence two sermons preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, on August 17, 24, MDCXC / by John Moore ...
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Moore, John, 1646-1714.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing M2551; ESTC R20154
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24,694
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71
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want and distress but also that he has both the Power and the Will to relieve or deliver all those who make their humble supplications unto him Did afflictions happen by meer Chance we should not know how to behave our selves under them we should have no encouragement to bear them Patiently nor skill to make a due Provision for those which may seize upon us hereafter and turn them into a benefit to our Souls But when we know from whence they come and that our Cup how bitter soever it be was mingled by the merciful hand of our Most Gracious Father for the Health of our Souls with what readiness and courage shall we stoop to our Burden and what an humble and heavenly Temper shall we attain by our Sufferings Did not God know us or take notice of our Lives how could he now Govern the World or Judge it hereafter Insomuch as there is no calling the truth of the Doctrine of Providence into question without striking at the foundation of all the Arguments for Divine Worship for the Fear and Service of God for Trust in his Mercy and hope in his Assistance and without putting an end to every reasonable thought about future Rewards and Punishments But though there be a great deal of Malice in the objections against Providence yet upon little examination they will be found weak and such as cannot shake the belief of any who will impartially consider them 'T is objected That for God to have the care of all things upon him would disturb his Peace and that for him to condescend to observe the actions of trifling Man and to have a regard to the small and vilest parcels of the World would be below the dignity of his Glorious Majesty The weakness of this Objection which is so much flourisht by the Epicureans lyes herein That they suppose God to be like unto men who can hardly transact any affair wisely without much thinking who cannot be concern'd in many things together without great disquiet and trouble Now the trouble uneasiness irresolution and difficulty which men find in much or great business does arise from their faculties being stinted they are fain to turn things up and down in their thoughts and to work their brains with long consideration before they can resolve what is fit to be done and after they have resolved they are as much at a loss for means to accomplish their designs But what is more evident than that the boundless Power Wisdom and Knowledg of God cannot be exposed to any of these Objections and Difficulties Therefore to disown Providence in the plain consequence of things is to deny the existence of an Infinitely perfect Being And though we may bear with such a sorry Objection as this in the Epicures who were so vain as to ascribe the Original of the World in which do appear so many of the marks of deep Skill and Wise contrivance to a Fortuitous concourse or casual jumble of Atomes yet it would be intolerable in Christians who profess heartily to believe God to be Maker of Heaven and Earth to hold that he should not think the things Worthy of his Care and Protection which he once thought Worthy of his Making or that he should meet with Difficulties and Troubles in Governing the World who found none in Creating it As the firm Belief of Providence is of vast concernment to our Souls so the Spirit of God has made many declarations of it and fully set forth all the parts thereof in Holy Scripture not only how God is pleased to engage himself in making provision for the Children of men but how his care does extend to the smallest Creatures and the meanest parts of the Creation We are taught not only that the Rational Beings do live and move and subsist by the Goodness of their Maker but that he condescends to feed the little Sparrow and to cloath the fading Lillies of the Field and even to number the slender Hairs upon our Head Furthermore in the Word of God is set forth all the sorts of Instances in which the Divine Providence does manifest it self to men who seem to be the extraordinary Objects of God's Care and Love There an account is given how God concerns himself in our Birth and first Production that he makes the barren Woman to be a joyful Mother of Children that it is he that takes us out of the Womb that he is our Hope and our whole Dependance is upon Him from the time we hung on our Mothers Breasts and that the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings set forth the Praise of his Providence That the Divine Providence doth not only exercise it self about particular Persons but reaches unto Societies and Communions and takes Cities and Nations within it's special Cognisance that both their Prosperity and Sufferings come from him that except he keep the City the watchman waketh but in vain and that no Evil happens there but he hath done it and that he ever makes them to Flourish or Decline in proportion to their Virtues or their Sins the universal good of the Creation being the great design and measure of his Providence The Holy Scriptures sometimes acquaint us with those parts of Providence which relate to God's Infinite Knowledg and the Righteousness of his Dealings that nothing which we do or think can be hid from Him but that all lies open and naked to the Presence of Him before whom we stand that exact observation is made of every turn and design in our Lives that he seeth all under the whole Heaven and looketh unto the ends of the Earth that our whole behaviour is as it were registed in a Book that at the great Day of Judgment this Book shall be open'd and we be Sentenc'd to Everlasting Happiness or Misery according as our Lives shall from thence appear to have been Good or Evil. In our Bibles we learn that God suffers Afflictions to fall upon his own People and are there shewn the just reasons of those Proceedings of his which at first view seem'd hardly consistent with his immense Goodness and that all things in the end shall work together for the good of them who love him There we also learn that the Preservation and Continuance of Life is not in our power and that length of days does not depend upon our care and skill but that God keeps the issues of Life and Death in his own hand and we never by any means can be assured how long we have to live who see the days of the weak and sickly sometimes extended to very old Age and they of strong Constitutions and of firm and vigorous healâ—h lopt off in their green Years and full Strength and all this that we may never presume to set Death at a great distance from us but manage the present time prudently and circurnspectly and not rely upon infinitely contingent Futurity in the great Affair of our Souls for the due care of which we were sent
down with the brittle and deceitful Goods of the present state and only among them seeks for rest Thus it is manifest that real Felicity does consist in the Innocence and Tranquility of the Mind But notwithstanding in the general we may pronounce all those happy who have quiet and unblemish'd Souls yet we cannot speak with confidence as to the happiness or misery of particular men because by their outward Circumstances and appearance to the World we can never be certain of the sincerity of their minds nor whether they have those Virtues in their Possession which cause solid Happiness Wherefore seeing we are not competently qualified to judg either of the Piety or of the Happiness of particular men it evidently follows That there is very little in that Popular Objection against the Divine Providence taken from the seeming Adversity of the Good and flourishing state of the Wicked Further Neither is it any disparagement of Providence nor unkindness in God towards his faithful servants that sometimes he translates them early from hence and permits them to dye in the vigour of their years For can a greater favour be done them for their short and faithful service than for God to remove them not only from the dangers and temptations to sin but also from the manifold troubles and vexations of this life unto his everlasting Mercies He does this in honour to them that the wicked may behold and be concern'd they are no longer worthy of them nor of the Good they might receive from their Holy and Wise Conversation Besides when the Justice of God has decreed some dreadful Judgment against a wicked Nation he often takes away his own People from the Evil to come But tho the righteous be prevented with death yet shall he be in rest for honourable age is not which standeth in length of time nor that is measured by number of years but wisdom is the gray hair unto men and an unspotted life is old age He pleased God and was beloved of him so that living among sinners he was translated He being made perfect in a short time fulfilled a long time for his soul pleased the Lord therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked 3. It is to be consider'd that the condition of the World is such that there is a necessity the Virtuous should often be exposed to the same Troubles and Misfortunes which happen to the Ungodly And as the Wise Man speaks There will be one event to the righteous and to the wicked for the Calamities of War Pestilence Famine and Fire involve men of all Conditions and take in the Holy with the Sinners Neither the Nipping Frosts nor scorching Heats nor raging Floods nor blasting Winds make any difference between the lands of pious and bad Men nor can a storm at Sea distinguish between their Goods which are in the same Vessel For a Man to look that God should exempt him from these publick Evils is to expect he should alter the Course of Nature for his sake which is wisely establish'd and for great ends and therefore all such hopes can have no ground and must be deem'd very unreasonable 4. Notwithstanding such common Calamities cannot be avoided yet God always intends our good in every harsh disappointment which we meet with and it will admirably serve to mend the temper of our Minds By Adversity which God never le ts loose upon us before it is useful for us he makes an experiment of the reality of our affections towards him whom we ought infinitely to esteem above all other things by it God tries our Constancy whether we will equally Love him and preserve as great a Reverence for him in the days of our Sorrow as when he crown'd us with plenty And if upon this Trial we entertain as honourable thoughts of the proceedings of his Providence as when the World went well with us he has attained his end in Visiting us and will quickly deliver us from our Grievance For if under the sorest Crosses the heaviest Losses and sharpest Pains we uphold in our Souls as worthy opinions of God's Administration of Affairs as when he enricht us with his Blessings then we shall make an undoubted discovery of the sincerity of our Love of Him and it will be evident to men that we value the Peace of Conscience and his Favour above all sensual comforts Besides nothing will more lessen our esteem of these mean and despicable pleasures nor take off the edg of our desire for them than frequently to be disturbed in the enjoyment of them and to have them forced away when we were most delighted with them and confidently promised to our selves their long continuance It may indeed be a general Observation that much Prosperity corrupts mens Morals and tempts them to rely upon their own Powers but Adversity reforms their Lives and teaches them to know their own weakness and wants which they perceive would grow insupportable did God once withdraw his Assistance Wherefore seeing it is so much harder to walk uprightly before God in a flourishing condition that make us apt to forget him than in an afflicted state which naturally disposes us to seek the Lord is there any reason why we should thus murmur at his Rod and repine when he Corrects us with the tenderness of a Father and visits us with his Judgments only that he may heal our spiritual diseases How terrible soever any Calamity may appear to us yet it is fitted to our Circumstances and is not greater than the crazy state of our Souls does stand in need of For Troubles do not spring casually out of the Earth or fall upon us without measure or bounds But God in his Wisdom does order the time when we shall be Afflicted he determines the kind of Evil which shall fall to our Lot and metes the very quantity that we must Suffer Which as soon as it has Humbled our Vanity or extinguish'd our Lust or abated our Love of Riches and reduced us to just apprehensions of our selves be certainly will recall from us and let in the light of his countenance into our hearts Now this being the true state of things as will be plain to every honest enquirer it may be matter of wonder why men take Afflictions so ill at the hand of God when they know they proceed from his Love and behave themselves so untowardly under almost every degree of Adversity A great cause of all this I judge to be their making slight or no preparations for Afflictions before they come Now there is that distraction and disorder raised in the Spirit of a man who is surprized with any Calamity that he tosseth like a Bull in a Net and has not temper enough left to consider of the great Causes there were to move God to lay it upon him or of the sweet fruit he might gather from it by a modest and quiet carriage under the heavenly Discipline and a total Submission of himself