even in sinfull actions as he is Gods creature upheld and maintained by him In him we live move and have our being but he sinneth by reason of the corruption of his nature having no free-will to any thing that is good since the fall of Adam but free-will and full power to that which is evil 2. When God withholdeth or suspendeth that power from sinners by which they might avoid that which is evil Thus when God departeth from Saul withdrawing the common aid of his Spirit then an evil spirit vexeth him and he groweth worse and worse The degenerate nature of man which one termeth sins Coach doth then runne which way the Devil driveth Claphâ—m in Cantic as Wheels and Axel-tree till Jesus Christ free our Chariot-nature from the power of hell and withall joyn himself by his own spirit to our nature that so with Ezekiels Chariot it may go forth and return according to the conduct of his holy Spirit 3. When God permits and suffers men to go on long in a course of sin and doth not restrain them for if it pleased him he could hinder men from doing evil Now the will of God is two-fold An approving Will A permitting Will. 1. An approving Will whereby he decreeth the actions of all good men 2. A permitting Will whereby he decreeth not to worke any evil but onely permit it to be wrought The actions of men are either good or evil God willeth good actions by his approving will Evil actions may come under a double consideration 1. In regard of the entity and being of them so God decreeth them by his permitting will for no sinne could be without his permission Act. 17.18 2. In regard of the evil adjunct and vitiosity of them Et potentius melius est bonum ex malo elicere quam esse mala nòn sinere August Bonum est mala esse vel fieri alioquìn summè bonus nòn permitteret ea fieri Lombard Sent. lib. 1. distinct 46. and so they proceed not from God but from the corrupt will of man as a deficient cause We may consider the sins of men as they are evil and so God is not the authour of them but as they may be reduced to some good as the manifestation of his own glory c. and so he suffereth evil to be committed being able to bring good out of evil as water out of a flinty Rock for though evil be not good yet out of evil God can bring good It is better and more powerfull saith Austin to draw and bring good out of evil than not at all to suffer evil to be out of the greatest evil God can produce the greatest good So then God is the Author of every action but not of the deformity enormity and obliquity of the action as the Planets are moved by a direct motion by the primum mobile the obliquity of their motion is à suâ naturâ The Sunne maketh the Earth hard the Wax soft flowers to smell sweetly dead Carrion to stink noisomly so then the diversity of effects proceedeth not from the nature of the cause but of the things wrought upon and God moveth and ruleth things according to their natures Multa sine voluntate Dei geruntur nihil sine providentia providentia est quae dispensat providet voluntas quae vult nòn vult aliquid Origen To explain this point by an instance or two In the selling Joseph into Aegypt Josephs brethren were agents and God was an agent and had an hand in the businesse but their ends were divers they sold him to be rid of him because they thought their father loved him better than themselves and because they thought so to falsifie his dreams that he might not rule over them but God's end was to provide succour and shelter for their father and themselves and all their families Gen. 50.20 Item in the temptations and afflictions of Job the Devil was an agent the Chaldeans and the Sabeans agents God an agent and all these had their several ends The Devils end was to have made Job forsake God that so he might have fallen to his share the Sabeans and Chaldeans end were to impoverish him and enrich themselves and God's end was to prove the Devil a liar and to manifest and declare the faith and patience of Job and make him famous for the same to the whole world In the divers and sundry captivities of the children of Israel by the Caldeans Babylonians Assyrians and lastly in their finall ruine by the Romans their enemies had their ends and God had his The ends that the Caldeans Assyrians Babylonians and Romans aimed at was their own pride and ambition and the enlargement of their Territories and Dominions but Gods end was the punishment of them to admonish others and to fulfill the prophesies and predictions thereof To be brief in the death of Christ the Devil had his end Judas his end the Scribes and Pharisees their end the Jews theirs God his end the Devils end was to make so many murderers and guilty of shedding innocent bloud Judas his end was covetousness to get thirty pieces of silver the Scribes and Pharisees end was envy and malice because they thought he eclipsed their glory Pilates end was partly to please the people but principally not to displease the Emperour the Jews end was hatred and malice because he reproved their sins but Gods end was to fulfill the Prophesies and to bring to pass the salvation of mankind by that means which he had appointed Shimei by cursing would shew his hatred of David but God would make known the patience of David Deus homo idem faciunt Deus pro aequitate laudatur homo pro iniquitate damnatur Aug. Epist 48. ad Vincent Non fit absque Dei voluntate quod fit contra ejus voluntatem efficit bona permittit mala dirigit universa Res mala nòn habet causam efficientem sed deficientem Aug. de civit Dei l. 12. c. 7. which was good Austin sheweth how God and man may will the same thing and God in willing it doth well and yet man sinneth in willing the same thing The Father of an ungracious child is sick God will have him to die in his just judgement the Son desireth the death of his father that he may the sooner come to his inheritance God willeth it justly the son wickedly And saith he further God and man do the same thing God is praised for equity and man is condemned for his iniquity When God the Father delivered his Son and Christ delivered his own body and Judas his Master why in this delivery is God just and man sinfull but only in all one thing which they did there is not all one cause for which they did it Great are the works of the Lord being sought out according to all his wills insomuch that by a marvellous and unspeakable manner that is not beside his will which yet is done against
godly and also shew how it reacheth the wicked First Toward the Godly 1. In afflicting them he is said in Scripture to send affliction to his people all afflictions either inward as passions of the mind grief of heart and sorrow of spirit or outward as diseases sicknesses pains of the body come from God and are inflicted by him David confesseth Psal 32.4 saying That Gods hand lay heavy upon him day and night Yea God himself tells us as much Isa 45.7 I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil that is the evil of punishment Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 Affliction springeth not out of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground saith Eliphaz Job 5.6 This form of speaking is proverbial Proverbialis quaedam sententia est qua tollat easum asseratque divinam erga res humanas impiorum supplicium providentiam Pineda ad loc as the Learned note and frequently used in those times when they would remove Chance or Fortune as men commonly say or deny any event to be without a certain directive power they spake in this language This sprang not out of the dust nor came from the ground We must not therefore stay upon the second causes as the common corrupt custom of the world is blaming themselves for over-sight and want of good heed taking and in other cases blaming the falsnesse of friends and want of seasonable supplies and sometimes crying out of the unseasonablenesse of the weather and times causing infection in the air and putrifying the bloud c. But as Cratippus was wont to say Fata per causas agunt populi peccata evertunt imperia Cratippus That the destinies do act by causes and Empires are overthrown by the sins of the people So it 's not the influences of the Heavens nor the positions of the Stars nor the unseasonablenesse of the weather or the like that be the causes of sore diseases at any time among us but the just hand of God that punisheth our strange sinnes with strange sicknesses These have their places it cannot be denied but there 's an hand that over-rules them whereat we must look and which we must confesse and acknowledge Else shall we be like those of whom God complaineth by his Prophets Isa 1.5 Isa 9.13 Jer. 5.3 This is as if one that were wounded should fret and chafe at the spear dart sword bullet or arrow that hit and hurt him but never to regard the striker nor yet apply any medicine to the hurt-place this must needs be extream folly Thus did not David accuse Shimei for railing upon him but acknowledgeth the hand of God stirring him up and setting him a work 2 Sam. 16.11 and holy Job knew as much therefore he doth not cry out upon the Sabeans for taking away his Oxen and Asses nor blame the Chaldeans for carrying away his Camels no nor the Devil himself for raising the winds and hurling down the house upon his children but he confesseth the just hand of God in it all The Lord hath given the Lord hath taken Job 1.21 And so in all afflictions we should do as Nazianzen tells us he did A te Domine percussus ad te respicio Nazianz. viz. go to God and say to him Lord I am smitten of thee and to thee doe I look And so the Prophet calls upon us Come let us return to the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Hos 6.1 Object But some body perhaps may say Is it not very strange that we should therefore come to God because he hath smitten and afflicted us Doth not Reason teach reasonable creatures and even Nature it self all creatures to seek their preservation and avoid all things that may any way tend to their destruction as tearing and smiting may seem to do When Adam perceived that God was angry with him he ran away and hid himself among the bushes Genes 3. and we may observe that even horses dogs and other unreasonable creatures are easily brought to come to such as feed them and make much of them but they will flie and runne away from such as beat them therefore it may seem that afflictions should rather drive us from God than draw us to him Resp. 1. I cannot deny but must grant these things to be thus in Nature and Reason and therefore we must also know that the Prophet here being endued with Gods Spirit speaketh Metaphysicè above the reach of natural reason for these things come not to passe Vi tribulationis by the force of afflictions which have no power in their own nature but virtute tribulantis by the strength of him that afflicteth who maketh afflictions thus powerfull by his grace and who being infinite in power can produce contrary effects by contrary causes as he brought light out of darknesse Genes 1.3 Water out of a flinty rock Exod. 17.6 Wisdom out of foolishnesse 1 Cor. 1. Yea life out of death for out of Christs death came our spiritual yea eternal life for by his bloud he saveth his children from spiritual and eternal death as the old Pelican by his bloud saveth her young from natural death 2. Or we may answer that howbeit the Argument be not good in sensu diviso yet it is in sensu composito taking all together As therefore men go not to the Physician or take not physick to make them sick and yet are content by his direction to take physick though it doth make them sick for the time present to the end they may recover and be the more healthy for the time to come so the Prophet perswadeth not the people to come and return to him barely because he had torn and broken them so likewise he would heal and bind them up again In a word he wills them to consider and look upon God not as an angry Judge punishing them in his justice and displeasure for their destruction but as a loving Father correcting and chastening them in his mercy for their amendment and their profit For 1. Afflictions to the godly are an eyesalve to make them see and acknowledge their sins as to Josephs Brethren Gen. 42.21 Tribulation enlargeth the understanding making men to see into themselves Prosperity so blindeth men that they cannot know their own estate A man under the cross doth better understand the frailty of his body the uncertainty of his life and doth evidently perceive his manifold infirmities he learneth what little progress he hath made in the wayes of godliness he knoweth his interest in God he knoweth the strength of his faith and is not ignorant of Satans devices he seeth Gods infinite power by which he is able in our extream necessities to give relief and comfort he seeth the unalterable truth of God whereby he performeth all his promises and threatnings hereby he seeth the unmeasurable goodness
appeareth in preserving a Church to himself from several parts of the world Psal 110.2 He ruleth in the midst of his enemies like a King that is able to keep up his Court and royal Family in the midst of rebels though they may sometime prevail against yet they shall never be able to root up the Church of Christ Object But it may be objected That when the seventh Angel sounded there were great voices in Heaven saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever And the four and twenty Elders fell upon their faces and worshipped God saying We give thee thanks O Lord God Allmighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned Revel 11.15 16 17. Divers circumstances shew this to be a new event and that God had not alwayes actual possession of all the Kingdoms of the world it happening at the sound of the seventh Trumpet and when be took this great power to himself and entered upon the government of all the Kingdomes of the world it was then entertained by the Church with praise and thankesgiving which seemeth to shew that God did not governe universally at all times and in all Ages of the World Resp. I answer that the Lord hath a two-fold Kingdom Regnum Potentiae Regnum Gratiae A Kingdom of Power A Kingdom of Grace In the exercise of his power he hath alwayes reigned over the world The Lord hath prepared his Throne in Heaven and his Kingdome ruleth over all Psal 103.19 God hath always ruled over all the world when the world hath reigned most in wickednesse but in respect of the exercise of his government in regard of the Kingdom of his Grace by the Spirit of his Son in the hearts and consciences of men he hath reigned over but a very few This therefore is meant of the Kingdom of his Grace that the Lord upon the sound of the seventh Trumpet would bring them in subjection to his Gospel causing men in all places to yield subjection to the golden Scepter of Christ held forth in the preaching of the Gospel CHAP. XXXIII Corol. 6. Corol. 7. Cor. 6. IF God govern the whole world then it must needs be that he cannot want Instruments to execute vengeance upon his Enemies he need not seek far for Instruments for there is not a creature in Heaven in Earth or in Hell but is at his command If he speak to the fire it burneth the Sodomites if to the water it destroyeth the wicked old world if to the Earth it openeth its mouth and swalloweth up Corah and his companions Two Bears at his command tear in pieces two and fourty children that mockt the Prophet Worms at his command devour Herod that persecuted the Apostles Act. 12. He plagueth a proud King by poor creatures as Frogs Lice Flies Ut per animalcula ostenderetur opitulatoris omnipotentia Theodoret Pompon Laetus Locusts or Grashoppers Exod. 8. that by those little animals the omnipotency of his peoples helper might be manifested as Theodoret speaketh Prophane Histories tell us also that Honoricus King of Vandals and Arnulphus the Emperour were fed upon alive and gnawn till they were dead by Worms and lice Fabius the proud Senator was suddenly taken away with an hair swallowed in milk And Pope Adrian the fourth after that he had accused Frederick the first was choked with a Flie in a draught of cold water Yea the Angels good and bad are pressed at his command to do what he pleaseth And should God make use of none of these Instruments yet his own immediate wrath were enough to confound his Enemies as Saul Judas Joseph Naucler Egesippus Atalus King of Pergamus and Aristobulus son of Hircanus who living in horrour of conscience died in fearfull sort which examples serve to shew that his means are as his power is infinite to chastise and scourge the proudest and greatest of his Adversaries And if God arm not the creatures against us yet he can make one man to devour another Such a judgment the Lord threatneth Jer. 13.13 14. viz. to fill the King of Judah the Priests Prophets and all the Inhabitants of the Land with drunkenness and dash them one against another As drunkenness depriveth men of the use of common sense and reason and worketh so upon some tempers as to fill them with rage and fury that like mad men they spare not those that are near and dear unto them Carion Chron. lib. 2. as is evident in Cambyses the second King of Persia notwithstanding he was well brought up and dealt valiantly during the life of his Father Cyrus who committed the Kingdom to him while he lived yet falling to drunkenness he slew his brother married his own sister and slew her afterwards being great with child for but lamenting the death of her brother So Alexander the Great being drunk slew his dearest friend Clitus Wit overcome with wine is like a Horse that hath cast his rider Even so such a spirit of drunkenness and madness did God threaten to give up the people of Jerusalem unto that like drunken men they should destroy and consume one another Yea God can cause sinners themselves to become their own Executioners and to lay violent hands upon themselves And as God hath all the hosts of Heaven and Earth and Sea ready prest at his command to perform his pleasure against his Enemies so likewise to do any good office for his children and friends the jaw-bone of an Ass is both a sword and a bottle to Sampson Judg. 15 15 19 And the Earth helpeth the woman by opening her mouth and swallowing up the floud which the Dragon cast out of his mouth Revel 12.15 16. Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 5. c. 15. Eusebius tells us That at the same time God sent rain to refresh the Souldiers of M. Aurelius his Army at the prayers of the Christian Legion Comment Relig. Reipubl Galliae and a tempest to affright their Enemies It 's likewise recorded that God provided wonderfully for the poor Protestants of Rochel sending them plenty of Fishes to feed upon during the siege which ceased also when the siege removed Whence was it that Stephen Brune that godly French Martyr could not be consumed with a fire of Faggots twice made about him so that the Executioner was compelled to thrust him thorow with a Sword Was it not from God's over-ruling Providence Cor. 7. If God govern the world by his Providence then it is in his power to deny us the use and benefit of any of his creatures and of any thing that is most dear unto us and can at his pleasure take them from us For the Earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof and as the original right and title to all things is the Lord's so he never parteth from the Fee-simple of any thing no he