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
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
THE EYE and WHEEL OF Providence OR A TREATISE Proving that there is a divine Providence Shewing also what it is and what be the parts thereof together with the extent of it to the Heavens to the Seas to the Earth and all things therein especially to Man and all things that concern him Some Queries touching Providence resolved the Objections against Providence answered the Consectaries of this Doctrine together with the Uses thereof gathered By W. Gearing Minister of the Gospel Providentia Dei omnia gubernantur quae putatur poena medicina est Hieron sup Ezek. LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1662. To the Right Honourable George Lord Booth Baron of Delamere and to the Noble and Vertuous Lady his Wife Right Honourable I Suppose it was the design of God to shew unto Jacob in his Vision of the Ladder that speciall care his wise providence took of him Gen. 28. that Ladder being a most lively draught of Gods faithfull conduct concerning Jacob and of the universall government of the world which is in the hands of God infinite are the bounds and limits of this Empire his Scepter extending it self both over the Heavens and over all the earth The two sides of the Ladder as one saith represent power and sweetness Caus Hist sacr which are as the two hands of the divine providence which by divers steps goes mounting from earth to Heaven and thence descendeth to the earth again acting and walking a thousand wayes at once through which the world is insensibly led to the periods appointed to it God resteth himself on the top of this Ladder and from thence sendeth forth his holy Angels Greg. Moral which are as Gregory saith the Ministers of divine providence and sent forth to minister for them that are the heirs of salvation God continueth this great world by a continuall vicissitude the day changing into night the spring into summer summer into harvest harvest into winter winter into the spring one day is not in every point like another some hot some cold some wet some dry some clear and Sun-shiny some dark and gloomy that giveth a great beauty to the Universe Even so it is with Man who being an Epitome of the great world is alwayes ebbing and flowing into a perpetuall diversity of motions sometime lifted up in hopes by and by cast down in fears sometime on the Mount of prosperity and straightway in the Valley of Bochim Tùnc est tentatio finienda quando finitur pugna tùnc finienda est pugna quando post hanc vitam succedit pugnae secura victoria Prâ—sper l. 5. de cont vitae The life of man saith Prosper is a War without truce neither is peace to be expected long but in the Tomb. Never a one of mans dayes are like another of them to teach us to have our hearts unchangeable in the great inequalities and accidents that befall us and though all things are full of turning and variation about us yet should we remain immoveable earnestly breathing and longing after God Let the Ship run out East or West North or South and let the Wind blow where and when it listeth yet the Needle will still look toward the Pole so let things go how they will let the soul be glad or sad in joy or heaviness in light or darknss in temptation or repose let the Sun scorch or the dew cool the drought or the frost consume yet the point of our heart our spirit and our will which is our needle must continually turn and look to God our only soveraign good Rom. 8.38 and if once we firmly resolve never to forsake God and his wayes and that neither tribulation nor distress such straits wherein Christians may be shut up that they can see no issue out of it nor persecution nor famine nor nakedness nor perils and dangers occasioned by these nor sword nor fire nor any other instrument of cruelty nor death that is so dreadfull to nature nor life which many times is more dangerous to the people of God than death life that is attended with so many cares and casualties and maketh men for the preservation thereof to forget their latter end no nor Angels nor principalities and powers not evil Angels nor spirituall wickednesses in high places no nor good Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are put to signifie Magistrates Luk. 12.11 Luk. 20.20 Tit. 3.1 But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do promiscuously signifie either good Angels Col. 1.16 2.20 Eph. 1.21 or evil Angels 1 Cor. 15.24 Eph 6.12 if they should go about to hinder our salvation shall separate us from the love that is founded in Christ this will serve as a counterpoize to hold our hearts in a holy tranquillity among all the unequall motions of this life in all these things we shall do more than conquer not only overcome but take the spoils of them and reap advantage by them Gods providence is a Sun that penetrateth every where and is alwayes in his high noon the motions whereof though they seem oblique go alwayes strait and will sooner or later bring the people of God to their desired Haven taking them by the hand and leading them in all their pilgrimages and both frequently and insensibly diverting them from the abysses into which the pride and malice of their enemies would have often hurried them who shall at last be driven to confess that innocence and truth are so dear to God that whosoever shall offend them shall find Heaven arming it self in their defence and that the Almighty God hath invisible bands which the stoutest opposers of his providence cannot break and that divine vengeance which is inexorable will first or last inflict on them the punishments they have deserved that it may appear that God in his government of the world hath respect to the poorest Christian and meanest Artizan who no lesse enjoyeth this munificence of his bountifull Creator than the highest Prince or greatest Potentate in the world Thrice happy are they that live under the favour of divine providence every footstep thereof is a speaking to them in particular that God will never leave them nor forsake them Great peace may the soul have when God is the primum mobile and first mover of all his actions what comfort may he take when he considereth that he walketh in the way his uncreated wisdome hath marked out for him with his own hand this consideration well digested is sufficient when things at any time seem to go cross to our desires and Gods providences seem also to contradict his promises to banish from us those disquiets and discontents which extort from us that acquiescence and confidence which we ought at all times to have in God and to make us to resign our hopes our joyes our desires our designs and interests into the bosome of his providence How indulgent is God to his children He spreadeth abroad his wings
that God is able out of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham Mat. 3.9 If he would he could turn stones into men and these men into believers but omnipotency and soveraignty thus differ Rutherf inflâ—ences of Grace c. 7. omnipotency looks simply to effects physically what the Lord can do he can create many worlds but his soveraignty is that he may do what he will and de jure do all things and not give account of his matters to any one Job 33.13 as Elihu speaketh by his soveraignty he doth what he pleaseth and none can say What dost thou Job 9.12 Thus sometimes he taketh away health from some life from others sickness cometh and goeth at the command of God it is not the fogs and vapours of the Air can cause such great and epidemicall diseases as sometimes are spread over City and Countrey nor yet the influences of the Stars as Astrologers tell us and if there be any influences of constellations it is the Lord that by his Providence ordereth these constellations making them to meet in such and such conjunctions so that if health be taken away from any person or people it is the Lord that taketh it away and if God snatch any man out of the world Si rapuerit hominem è mundo August if he stop thy breath and deliver thee up to death who can hinder him saith Austin Thus sometimes he taketh away the spirits and courage of men that though they have opportunities of doing this or that yet their hearts shall fail them they shall not be able to effect it therefore he is said to cut off the spirit of Princes Psal 76. ult that their heart shall melt their spirits faint and their hands be feeble God hath as well a Bow to strike afar off and set in young Gallants that seem to themelves lusty and strong B p King and in the course of nature far from their ends as a Sword to strike at hand and cut down old user that are even ready to drop into deaths mouth and seem to have one foot in their graves as one hath wittily noted Nay admit we live as long as in course of nature we can yet as the longest day hath night attending it so death ever succeedeth the longest life even Methuselahs last Epitaph was Mortuus est he died Gen. 5.27 Sometime God shoots over and beyond us at Princes and Nobles and great Personages sometime below us at poor people of the lowest rank sometime on the right hand he hits our friends and sometimes on the left hand our enemies but at last the dart will light upon our selves Yea he hath divers wayes to bring men to their ends some are drowned with Pharaoh and his Princes in the Sea some go to the Gallows as Haman some have their bones burnt into Lime as the King of Edom some are swallowed up of the earth as Corah Dathan and Abiram some are eaten of Dogs as Jesabell some of Worms as Herod some perish by famine as divers in Samaria some by pestilence as seventy thousand in Davids dayes some by the sword as in the time of the Warrs one cryes out of his head with the Shunamites Son 2 King 4.19 another of his feet with Asa 2 Chron. 16.12 one hath the Gout another the Stone another the Palsey another the Dropsie some die suddenly others leisurely by long lingring languishing sickness but all meet in the grave for as it was said 1 King 19.17 that he that escaped the sword of Hazael Jehu should slay and he that escaped the sword of Jehu should be slain by Elisha so he that escapeth death by one disease shall first or last die by another as it is said Jer. 48.44 God may take away from us what he pleaseth without crossing his justice for he is righteous in all his wayes and without crossing his mercy and goodnesse which is not due to any he hath mercy on whom he will and therefore may take away what he will from any and without crossing his truth for the pâ—omises by which he engageth to us in these externals are conditional and who can say he hath so exactly performed his conditions that God can take nothing from him without breach of promise He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into a pit and he that escapeth the pit shall be taken in a snare or as a man that fleeth from a Lion and meeteth with a Bear or getting into an house and leaning to a wall and a Serpent biteth him Amos 5.19 Thus God to shew his soveraignty in the course of his Providence takes away wealth and riches from some and giveth it unto others God hath taken away the Cattell of your Father and given them to me saith Jacob to Labans sons Gen. 31.9 Sometimes he gives wealth to and takes it away from the same person as Job confesseth Job 1.21 Sometimes he giveth rains and showers and fruitfull seasons Act. 14.17 and at other times he with-holdeth the rain causing it to rain upon one City and not upon another Amos 4. The Lord likewise setteth up and pulleth down he advanceth and abaseth promotion cometh not from the East nor from the West nor from the North nor from the South but God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another Psal 75 6 7. all which are notable declarations of Gods Providence 2. Gods goodness doth further manifest his Providence the Lord is truly good and the chiefest good and no evil as evil cometh from him his goodness is like an Ocean you read of the riches of his goodness Rom. 2.4 the whole earth is full of the goodness of the Lord saith the Psalmist and that which is most good is most communicative the Lord is good and doth good unto all Eccl. 9.2 causing his Sun to shine on the evil and the good and his rain to fall upon the just and the unjust These common outward blessings are often bestowed indifferently upon all alike good and bad just and unjust and the reason is because God is a common Father to them all and therefore as every Father will bestow some things upon all his children though he reserve the inheritance for one as Abraham for Isaac Gen. 25.6 giving other meaner gifts to the rest so God reserveth spirituall and heavenly blessings and Heaven it self for the Elect onely but outward earthly blessings he usually bestoweth upon all as a learned man upon that place De Dieu in Act. 17. The times obey the Elements serve the Corn abundantly groweth the fruits of the Vine do ripen in season the Trees abound with apples the Woods spring the Meadows flourish as well to the use of the sinfull as to the good Cypr. de bono patient Dionys de divin nominib Act. 17.30 the times of this ignorance God winked at saith that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is usually from the Hebrew translated by the Septuagint to hide
ones self from and so that being the meaning of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here it standeth in opposition to the following words God then hid himself from the Nations hid the means of grace from them but now in the times of the Gospel doth more open and declare himself to the Nations commanding every man every where to repent and yet even then when he suffered all Nations to walk in their own wayes he nevertheless left not himself without witness in that he did good giving them rain from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness as Paul and Barnabas told the men of Lystra Act. 14.16 17. One saith That the chief title that God giveth to himself is Bonitas goodness because it is the property of all good things to communicate themselves to others therefore most agreeable to God who raineth down all his blessings upon us and that therefore all other names of God are but commentaries and expositions of this name 3. Jus comes Jovis Ambros in Rom. 3. The righteousness of God is also a demonstration of Gods Providence Ambrose calleth the mercy of God the justice of God because he saith God declareth himself righteous by performing his promises Isa 53.11 22. and God in his works of justice useth mercy Prov. 3.12 Heb. 12.6 but the justice of God is more manifested in his judgements The Lord is known by the judgements which he executeth Rom. 9 16. i. e. known to be just and righteous We read Rev. 16.4 5. that the third of the seven Angels poureth out his vial upon the fountains and rivers of waters that is upon a part of Antichrists followers and those that are figured by the fountains of water are thought to be the teachers of that corrupt Church and the Text saith they became bloud that is their bloud was shed an there is a notable declaration of the righteousness of God by the Angel of the waters Thou art righteous O Lord which art A wise Heathen said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that God doth is full of providence and he can do nothing that is unjust Antonin l. 2. §. 2. and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus and ver 6. for they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy and ver 8. another succeedeth him Even so O Lord true and righteous are thy judgements true because thou hast laid on them no more than thou threatnedst before and righteous because done according to their desert and Rev. 19.11 12. Christ is mounted on his white Horse and described very gloriously here 's a description full of terrour and Majesty and his execution is so dreadfull that there is a solemn invitation to a strange Feast ver 17 18. to eat the flesh of Kings and Captains and of mighty men and the flesh of Horses and them that sit on them and the flesh of all men both free and bond both small and great By the flesh of these I conceive is meant the spoil of the Antichristian party when this great Battell shall be fought in Armageddon but how this is â—â—â—â—â—ged appeareth in the latter part of ver 11. it is said He that sate upon the white Horse is called faithfull and true and in righteousness doth he judge and make Warre It is one of the hardest things in the world to manage the Sword-military according to the rule of justice souldiers use to put all to the Sword that stand in their way plundering both friend and foe but Christ acteth the part of a valiant Warriour and of a just Judge in righteousness doth he judge and make Warre It is said Psal 97.2 that clouds and darkness are round about him righteousness and judgement are the habitation of his Throne Ver. 33. A fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about When fire is kindled in Gods anger as fire inkindled in a thicket of thorns spreading it self every way flying from bush to bush yet doth it not burn at random but breaks our from the Throne of God which is founded on righteousness or composed of righteousness Men in their anger are usually transported with violent passions and are very irregular but when 〈◊〉 is incensed by the worst of 〈◊〉 enemies he acteth regularly his Throne is upon judgement and righteousness and Heaven and earth Angels and men are witnesses thereof Ver. 6. The Heavens declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory Now these terrible actings of God in righteousness are great proofs of his providence CHAP. III. Argum. 2. Argum. 2 THe second Argument to prove there is a divine Providence may be drawn from the fulfilling of whatsoever hath been foretold and performing of what hath been promised and prophesied of To instance in some few particulars He promised Adam that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the Serpent Gen. 3. the which promise was fulfilled and made good in Christ four thousand years after it was made He promised Abraham that though his seed should sojourn in a strange Land four hundred and thirty years yet he would at length bring them into the Land of promise and the lot of their inheritance which promise he performed at the time appointed viz. in the dayes of Joshua and in the performance of this promise Gods providence manifestly appeared and many wayes manifested it self 1. In the preservation of Isaac whom his Father was commanded to offer up for a burnt-offering upon Mount Moriah Gen. 22. As Abraham had already stretched out his hand and was ready to dart the thunderbolt God had put into his hand he who commanded Abraham to strike stayes his blow and the Altar of Moriah which was to be the Scaffold of death became the Theatre of life Causin hist sac l. 2. and his Pile as one hath well noted served but to make a Bonfire of joy and a triumph of the fidelity which Abraham and Isaac testified unto God 2. By sending Joseph into Aegypt to provide for his Father Iacob and his Family during the famine I doubt not but Jacob thought God would provide for the preservation of himself and his Family but how far was it from his thoughts that Joseph should be the instrument of their preservation whom he thought long before to have been a prey to so me cruell Beast Therefore when Joseph makes himself known to his Brethren he tells them God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance so now it was not you that sent me hither but God Gen. 45.7 8. Gregory glosseth upon the Story of Joseph thus Divino judicio quod declinare conati sunt renitendo servierunt ideò venditus est à fratribus Joseph ne adoraretur sed ideò est adoratus quia venditus sic divinum consilium dum devitatur impletur sic humana
man fly he is in worse case than he was before as for instance Thou retainest to some great man in the world thereby to make him thy friend and thou supposest thy self secure and yet for all that there are such uncertainties in the world and the falls of great men are so common that when thou hast gotten thee such a refuge thou hast a great deal more cause to fear than thou hadst before but they are not only secure but blessed that put their trust in God Psal 2. ult Sect. 3. Of Gods delivering his people out of afflictions of the divers wayes God useth in their deliverance and how they are more than conquerours in afflictions shewed in five things When Godfrey of Bovillon besieged Jerusalem the Sultan having taught Pigeons to carry messages dispatched one of them with a letter which she bare under her wings to give advice to the besieged but by providence a Hawk seizing on her over the Christian army took her and made her to let fall what she carried to inform ours of the enemies designs Paul Aemil. l. 4. NOw as God doth by his providence preserve his people in afflictions so he doth deliver them out of afflictions Thou hast enlarged me or set me at liberty when I was in distresse saith David Psal 4.1 He shall pluck my feet out of the net saith he Psal 25.14 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped Psal 124.7 Many are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all Psal 34.19 As God is the authour of afflictions so he is the moderatour and remover of them He casteth down and he comforteth 1 Sam. 2.6 7. After two dayes saith the Prophet he will revive us and the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight Hos 6.1 2. Though God afflict and correct his children for a time yet he will find a time likewise to comfort and deliver them Those words of the Prophet are by divers diversly expounded 1. The opinion of the Jewish Rabbines Some of the Jewes by the first day understand the time that the old Israelites their fathers were in bondage in Aegypt whereof we may read at large in the eleven first Chapters of Exodus and by the second day their captivity in Babylon and Assyria the one whereof viz. the carrying of Israel into Assyria hapned in the ninth year of Hoshea sonne of Elah King of Israel who is taken with his people and carried away by Salmanesar 2 Kings 17.6 The other in the eleventh year of Zedekiah King of Judah who likewise was taken and carried away with his people by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon 2 King 25. in which captivities the poor people seemed destitute and desolate like dead men buried and quite forgotten but the third day say they the Messiah shall deliver them and restore them to their former or greater glory But we Christians know that though Christ were a King yet his Kingdome was not of this world as he told Pilate Joh. 18.36 and that the deliverances he bestoweth on his people are not temporal for the most part This Jewish conceit therefore is more subtil than sound more witty than weighty 2. Others by the first day understand the time after the building of Solomon's Temple during which they often sustained many troubles being sometime besieged by their enemies by forreign wars and sometime falling soul among themselves by civil differences and dissentions and at last they are carried captive in Babylon By the second day they understand the time of their return from Babylon by commission from King Cyrus under the conduct of Zerubbabel Ezra 1. and after the building of their second Temple during which time they endured many hot assaults and bitter battails and at last have their City taken and Temple utterly ruinated and destroyed by the Romans And by the third day they understand the deliverance that the Messiah should bestow upon them which if they would expound of a spiritual deliverance of all the faithfull among them from the service of sin and Satan we would go with them but because they dream or rather dote of a temporal deliverance which shall never be leaving God's word we must leave them 3. Others by these two dayes understand a short time Brevi redinte grabit nos Tremel ad loc a certain time being put for an uncertain So David tells us His anger endureth but for a moment but in his favour is life weeping or heavinesse may endure for a night but joy will come in the morning Psal 30.5 4. Most of the Ancients make it a plain Prophecy and Prediction of Christ's Passion and Resurrection or of his two-fold Estates viz. of Humiliation on Earth and Glorification in Heaven Doroth. Episco Tyr. in vit Os◠Prophet as Dorotheus an old Bishop of Tyrus who lived in the dayes of Constantine the Great in his Epitome of the Life and Death of this Prophet tells us So likewise Bernard applieth this place of this Prophet to Christ and his members affirming That as he had so they must have their three several dayes Bern. Serm. in Resur Christ 1. The first was Dies crucis in mundo the day of his Crosse in the world 2. The second Dies quietis in Sepulchro his resting day in the grave 3. The third Dies Gloriae in Coelo the day of his Glory in Heaven Or to put the two dayes together as the Prophet doth the two dayes or whole time of his life was a Tragedy of trouble then the third day he rested in peace for a little space and then rose to eternal glory Thus divers of our Modern Writers affirm these things to belong to Christ Luther Zanch. ad loc Praecipuè principalitèr chiefly and principally because they had in him perfectum complementum and yet they may be referred to all Christians because they likewise be verified of them who shall have their two days of trouble here in this life as Matth. 16.24 Luke 9.23 Acts 14.22 2 Tim. 3.12 Heb. 12.6 Then a time of ease and rest at the end of the second day when death cometh Revel 14.13 and a joyfull resurrection to eternal glory the third day viz. at the end of the world when the Saints shall be delivered from all their troubles But the deliverances God vouchsafeth to his Saints in this life are divers 1. Sometime he delivereth them immediately by his own powerfull hand and stretched out arm without either Angel or man as he delivered Israel from Pharaoh and his host Mr Foxe tells us of one George Crow Fox Act. and Monum p. 1805. who being in danger at Sea cast out whatsoever he had reserving his Testament with which he was taken up and miraculously saved thus God preserved Paul from receiving any harm by the Viper that fastened upon his hand in the Isle Melita or
be lawfull for a Christian to flie in time of persecution to escape the rage and fury of persecutors Resp I answer that he may in some cases and at some times and at other he may no as namely when God may be more glorified by his flight then by his abiding by it as when by thus doing he may reserve himself for a greater Good Nor is it in such a case any argument of pusillanimity and cowardize to fear and flie The saying is That souldier that runneth away may turn again and fight but he that keepeth his rank and is killed depriveth himself utterly of that hope Much in such a case Aristippus once being at Sea in a tempest and seeming affrighted as all men and all creatures naturally fear their destruction a certain rude fellow that was with him in the Ship said You Philosophers teach that death ought not to be feared how cometh it then to passe that thou being a learned Philosopher fearest death more than I that am a plain fellow To whom the Philosopher said It 's true indeed I teach that Death is not to be feared nor would I fear it in some cases viz. to do my Countrey service but I fear in this sort to lose my life and so deprive my self of all opportunity of ever doing my Countrey any more good There 's some cause why I should fear more than thou because I shall lose more than thou for my life is more worth than thine I must lose the life of a Philosopher thou but of a base companion That it 's lawfull at sometime to fly in time of persecution our Saviour makes most evident Mat. 10.23 bidding his Disciples if they were persecuted in one City to fly unto another he doth not appoint them to fly in time of danger because he could not save them in the midst of dangers for he gave a tast of this at the time of his apprehension but he instructeth mans frailty not to tempt God when there is a way open for him to escape saith Austin Aug. contra Faust l. 82. c. 36. Hilar. Can. 10. He bids them to fly from one place to another saith Hilary because the preaching of the Gospel being driven from Judea should pass into Grecia and from Grecia to all the rest of the Gentiles and so all Nations should believe at the preaching of the Apostles Christ himself divers times conveyed himself from the Jews when they would have wronged him when Herod sought him to have put him to death Remigius saith this precept of flying belongeth to the weak for whom it is better to flie than in the midst of torments to deny the Christian Religion he would not be found Mat. 2. when the Jews would have stoned him he conveyed himself from them Joh. 8. and when they had him in their hands and carried him up an hill to throw him down head-long yet he passeth thorow the midst of them and they cannot hold or hurt him Luk. 4.29 30. he made an escape not because he would not suffer Voluntariè passus est Christus nòn enim passionem fugit sed patiendi tempus expectat but because he would not suffer yet his hour and time was not yet come nor had he yet accomplished that whereunto he was appointed and this he did either by blinding their eyes that they might not see him or binding their hands that they could not touch him When the Jews laid wait to take Paul he is contented to make an escape by being let down at a window over a wall in a basket Act. 9.25 because the time was not yet come that he should by shedding his bloud glorifie God but when Agabus tells him that the Jews would bind him and imprison him and therefore his friends disswade him from going up to Jerusalem he willeth them to quiet themselves and not trouble him for he was resolved and ready not only to be bound but to die at Ierusalem or any other place for the Name of the Lord Jesus Act. 21.13 The truth is when men in likelyhood may more glorifie God and benefit their brethren by flying than dying they may provide for themselves by that means else not as that worthy Martyr our own Countreyman Dr Rowland Tailor sometime said being asked his judgement of divers that fled for Religion in the persecution in Queen Maries dayes his answer was that he approved their fact and thought they did both wisely and godlily and then being askt why himself would not accompany them gave this answer that their cases were not like for they were young men and likely enough to live and return to do good service to God and his Church when it should please him to send more calm and peaceable times but for his own part he was old spent and unfit for travell being likely to die in the Journey and therefore now or never was his time to glorifie God by dying and frying Fox's Martyrol and this resolution he put in execution and by being burnt for the truth lighted such a candle on earth as doubtless lighted many others the way to Heaven Danaeus saith Danaeus Epist Genevens ante August de haeresib that the burning of his Master Burgius at Paris An. 1559 kindled in him a greater love to Religion causing him to leave the study of the Civil Law and to give himself wholly to Theology Sect. 2. Of Gods restraining the rage of the wicked shewed in divers particulars 2. IN the second place Let the rage of Tyrants be never so great they shall not prevent Gods purpose nor hurt the godly till they have done that wherto they are appointed Gods providence is manifest in restraining the wicked from the execution of their rage and malice against the people of God Wicked men of themselves are very wilfull and obstinate sinners and will not be reclaimed by fair means and gentle perswasions and therefore the Lord can and doth often compell them as with bit and bridle he will restrain them from and constrain them to whatsoever he pleaseth Lev. 26.27 28. and Prov. 26.3 Solomon tells us that a whip is for the horse a bridle for the ass and a rod for the fools back Now God hath many bridles the choice whereof he may take and make use of at his pleasure as 1. His own will which none is able to resist 2. The Law of God which oftentimes restraineth and keepeth in some order the most headstrong sinners 1. By setting before them the unprofitableness and incommodiousness of such or such a sin thus Josephs brethren were hindered from killing him upon this consideration Gen. 37.26 27. Iuda said to his brethren What profit is it if we stay our brother and conceal his bloud therefore they sell him to the Ishmaelites 2. By affrighting the sinner with the danger that attendeth the committing of such or such a sin God sometimes cooleth the purposes of sinners by his Law terrifying them with the thoughts