in me is thy help I Am now come to the second general Proposition which I promised you to discourse upon a little In my last exercise I discoursed to you of the Fountain of Life and Grace which we found to be the free-will of God There is no other account to be given of Gods shewing mercy but because he will shew mercy which is most certainly true as of Gods eternal acts of Grace so of his Acts of Providence as to the dispensation of his first Grace The next Proposition I mentioned was this 2. Prop. That God in his providential Dispensations of punishment never acteth by meer Prerogative but according to the demerit of his Creatures In his Dispensations of Grace and the means of it he acteth meerly from his own Will he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and there is no other account to be given of those Dispensations he sendeth the Gospel to this place rather than another because he will send it he changeth this Man or Womans heart and turneth it to himself because he will shew mercy But the case is otherwise in his penal Dispensations there God acteth not upon Prerogative God there hath a Prerogative for may not the Potter do what he will with his Clay But it is one thing to have Jus absolutum an absolute right and power which we must claim for God so long as we know him to have an absolute right and Soveraignty over the works of his hands 't is another thing for God agere secundum jus absolutum to act according to his Soveraignty and absolute power this we say God doth not I pray observe I restrain my Discourse to Gods Dispensations of actual Providence I shall not meddle with the eternal Councils of God in this case that is quite beyond my Subject propounded It is unquestionable that the punishments of Sinners both in this Life and that which is to come as well as the other great issues of his Providence concerning the rewards of righteous men were set in order by an Eternal deliberation but whether by a meer negative or positive Decree whether upon consideration of sin or no are points I am not at all concerned to interest my self in having all along restrained my discourse to the motions of Actual Providence and certain it is that God in those Dispensations doth punish none either here or hereafter meerly because he will but upon consideration of Sinners demerits Shewing mercy is an Act of Grace punishments are Acts of Justice The gift of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Eternal Life that is a guift and what is freer than gift But the Wages of Sin is Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man must earn Death before he hath it from the hand of a merciful God but Eternal Life must be given him if ever it be his Portion so saith my Text. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self I will open this in two or three conclusions 1. I understand it of all kind of destructions possibly the Text may chiefly relate to temporal destructions 't is Ephraim to whom the Prophet is speaking and it is about a bodily destruction but the Conclusion is general and the Text is well enough applyed by Divines to Eternal destruction all destructions whether of Body or Soul are of our selves yea I take the Aphonimy of the Text to be more eminently true of the destruction of the Soul than of the destruction of the Body A Child may dye for the sins of the Parents Subjects may dye for the sin of their Prince as in the case of Saul's Children that were hanged in David's time and in the case of those many thousands which in David's time were cut off for his sin in numbring of the People The Children of God may be involved in a common destruction and suffer as they are a part of a sinful Nation God may take them off to deliver them from an evil to come as in the case of Abijam the Son of Jeroboam God may punish his people with afflictions of this Life for the trial and exercise of their graces but in Eternal destructions God can have no other end than the punishment of the person and all such destruction is for a mans sin his personal sin 3. When we say that Mens destruction is of themselves you must understand of themselves as the meritorious cause not of themselves as the principal efficient cause God is rightly enough entituled to all the Evil of punishment in the City It is no dishonour to his Majesty to be the Author of his own Judgments which is all that Mr. Calvin or any of the same mind with him have said which hath made some so clamour against them as having asserted God to be the Author of Sin For God to be the Author of punishments is no stain to his Glory but a Declaration of his Justice and of his Righteousness Christ himself shall come as the Apostle telleth us in flaming fire to take Vengeance upon them who know not God and obey not his glorious Gospel God shall say to those on his left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But our destruction is from our selves as the proximate and meritorious cause though from God as the efficient cause It is not from the Soveraign will of God meerly but from the stubborn and rebellious will of Man that any Soul perisheth Divines do say that though God cannot will the doing of any Sin yet he may will that it should be done The Holy Ghost telleth us that Herod and Pilate and the Jews employed in accusing condemning crucifying of Christ did no more than what the Council of God had determined should be done But I say notwithstanding this the proximate cause of mans Damnation is not because God hath willed their Damnation it is the guilt of their own Sins the demerit of their own Transgressions which bringeth them to the Pit of Destruction The Gracious God sheweth mercy and saveth all who are saved by Prerogative by Grace you are saved saith the Apostle he hath the same Prerogative in matters of Death that he hath in matters of Life but he useth it not but there acteth according to his statute-Statute-Law The Soul that sinneth shall dye He who saveth men without themselves damneth none without themselves Men are saved by Grace but they are damned by Sin The wages of Sin is Death Omne peccatum est voluntarium all Sin is of ourselves it must have something of our own will and consent to and in it 3. Thirdly Although this be certain that all destruction all punishment is for Sin yet the particular proximate cause of some punishments is unknown to us I will instance in one particular a punishment undoubtedly a most severe punishment The withholding the Gospel and so the ordinary means of Grace and Salvation from the far greatest part of the world They hear nothing of the Lord Jesus
sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he him Afterwards it was one of his Ten Commandments given to his people on Mount Sinai Thou shalt do no murther And although in the case of casual homicide he appointed Cities of refuge to which the manslayer might fly and be free from the avenger of blood yet for the wilful murtherer Numb 35.31 he saith you shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murtherer which is guilty of death but he shall surely be put to death and verse 33. So shall you not pollute the land wherein you are for blood it defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it And accordingly the Providence of God hath generally ordered the government of the several parts of the world that unless it hath been in a very debauch't nation scarce any place hath been found where the Rulers have not been zealous even from the light of nature against wilful murtherers and the Providence of God is in nothing more eminently seen than in the discovery of such transgression and bringing them to justice It is a common observation therefore I shall need the less to insist upon the Justification of it Sometimes God makes use of the fear and passion and shy-looks of the guilty conscience of the murtherer to discover himself sometimes the birds of the air shall pursue him as I remember I have somewhere read of a famous story of murtherers pursued by Crows and Ravens sometimes a Dog shall do it sometimes a Spirit shall do it in short the stories are very many and strange of the Providence of God in discovering of murther Murthers make great gaps and disorders in humane societies 4. Adultery is another sin which maketh great confusion in humane society though not like those beforementioned but in a more secret way yet great disorder it begets By Gods old Law the adulterer was to be put to death it was an extraordinary act and one of those we call heroick acts not to be defended but by an immediate impetus by a command from God that of Phinehas I mean taking a javelin and at once running through Zimri and Cosbi God justified it and promised Phinehas a reward for it The vengeance of God upon those that have given up themselves to this sin is eminent he hath prepared a dart to strike through their livers which he useth in no other case a peculiar defiling tormenting disease The persons that are guilty are often sent to hell in the act by the jealousie of Husbands and by the Laws of most Nations such manslayers are justified It is a sin indeed that doth not make that havock in humane society which some of those beforementioned do and therefore the Providence of God is not so remarkably seen in preventing it and discovering preparations to it but it is eminently seen in the punishment of it both as to punishments in this life and in his threatnings as to depriving them of a life to come 5. I will instance in one more and that is Rebellion and disobedience to the lawful commands of parents It is the fifth of of the Ten Commandments Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Upon which account the Apostle calleth it the first commandment with promise Indeed this sin is the root of most disorder that is in political society The rebellious child seldom proveth a dutiful wife or good husband nor good servant nor good subject unless grace first maketh a change in their hearts and bringeth them from under the government of their passions the Providence of God is therefore eminently to be seen in the punishment of such children By the Law of God the Son that obeyed not his father was to be stoned to death Read Deut. 21.18 19 20. He that curseth his father or mother shall dye the death Exod. 21.17 Levit. 20.9 Mal. 15.4 Mar. 7.20 And if you observe the Providence of God it strangely pursueth rebellious children with vengeance they seldom prosper 6. I will instance but in one sin more That is persecution or eminent disturbance of others for their conscience towards God This is a sin which doth not only disturb humane society but the best of humane societies the society of the Church it disturbeth humane society ingageth husband against wife and children against parents and brother against brother it spoileth that commerce and traffique by which political societies are maintained and upheld As to that it cannot be without a great connexion and twisting of mens interests of divers perswasions one with another so as the interrupting the free course of one is the interruption of another and while persons are rifled in their houses haled to prisons there must needs be an interruption in their commerce But this sin hath this further aggravation That it makes disturbance in the best societies the Assemblies of Gods People for his worship are the best of humane societies God is in the midst of them more present with them than with any societies in the world besides them Those that rudely break in upon such Assemblies break in upon the great God of Heaven and Earth who hath said Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name I will be in the midst amongst them and may justly expect some such extraordinary judgment as the Sodomites met with when they would have broken open Lots house to have pull'd the Angels out but God doth not always work miraculously but seldom fails even in this life to set his mark upon this sort of sinners It is an observation that I have formerly made to you You shall in story read of persecutions which sometimes have lasted long very long but seldom of a persecutor that hath lasted long he is an odious abominable wretch whom vengeance will neither suffer to live nor often to dye after the ordinary death of men He that will but read over the story of the ten Primitive persecutions will see this abundantly confirmed or if any thinks those stories too old let him read what became of Gardiner and Bonner those two bloody wretches in Queen Maries days and of divers others that were their instruments and willingly followed their Commandments and possibly he may confirm himself in this Observation by later examples than those also But I have instanced in those sins which do most eminently disturb humane societies and spoken enough to the doctrinal part of this Observation I shall reduce all I shall say by way of Application to two heads 1. Shewing you what advantage this observation giveth me to call upon all men but especially those in higher orbs to praise the Lord. 2. To perswade all men to take heed as of all sin so especially of such sins as these are against which the wrath of God is so eminently revealed
Vse 1. In the first place let then all men that live upon the Earth praise the Lord but especially such as are superiors and rulers over others and more especially such as are his Church The Psalmist Psal 135.1 calls to all saying Praise the Lord praise ye the name of the Lord and ver 19 20 21. He calleth in particular Bless the Lord O house of Israel Bless the Lord O house of Aaron Bless the Lord O house of Levi you that fear the Lord bless the Lord Blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Hierusalem 1. This observation calleth to all the sons and daughters of men to bless the Lord. We are all sociable creatures and much of the comfort of our lives lyeth in our societies and fellowships one with another either in our family-societies or in our civil-societies or in our Church-societies We should think it a life worse than death to be condemned to live like a wild Ass alone in the wilderness Now there are some lusts of men that would spoil us of all this comfort God peculiarly sets himself against them and makes these the marks for his arrows of vengeance The Jews said of the Centurion He hath loved our nation and hath built us a synagogue We may say of our good God he hath loved mankind for he hath taken care to preserve order in humane societies and severely to chasten the invaders upon the rights of others What an ingagement doth this lay upon all men to praise the Lord Certainly sirs there is a great deal of praise and glory and homage due to God from all men as they are concerned in their several societies There is a great deal of glory due to God from families for his testimony against those lusts of men such as are murtherers and adulterers which in a short time would spoil all the comfort of those societies Certainly every family is bound to worship God and to walk with God But particularly 1. Let Rulers praise the Lord. Let all the Princes of the Earth give homage to him that ought to be served they are more especial marks for furious and ambitious mens lusts Gods Providence as you have heard is eminently seen in preventing their dangers in revenging their harms 2 Sam. 23.3 4 5. Surely then as David saith those that rule over men should be just ruling them in the fear of the Lord their light should be like the light of the morning without clouds God hath not only set them up as lights upon an hill but he hath made his special Providence to be a lanthorn about them that 't is rarely that the wind of sedition and treason prevails to blow them out and then 't is ordinarily for some eminent Provocation of God But I am not speaking to persons in that capacity You that are parents praise the Lord Gods special Providence you see reacheth you and in a great measure secureth you from that great heart-ach of rebellious and disobedient children I know you will say How then cometh this to be the great affliction of many good parents To which I answer 1. There is many a good parent may have been but like good old Ely too indulgent and cockering to their children ordinarily God keepeth up the authority of parents over their children until themselves have prostituted it and in the rebellion and disobedience of their children they may read their own sin and see as much cause to be humbled for that as any thing else as David in the case of Adonijah 1 King 1.5 6. And herein the goodness of God towards parents will be seen that if he doth not upon their endeavours secure to them the duty of their children yet he will not fail to revenge their quarrels against them 2. Let the poor and weak of the earth praise the Lord he hath declared himself the father of the fatherless and the judg of the widows a refuge for the oppressed Psal 68.5 Exod. 22.5 Psal 10.11 How are all the widows and fatherless children all the poor and oppressed people of the world bound to praise and to serve this God who hath taken upon himself the special patronage and protection of them This indeed would be the best use we could possibly make of this Observation relating to the special Providence of God if it might lay a special obligation upon all those who are thus especially concerned to magnifie God as their great patron and defender And how can they praise God more effectually than in doing those particular duties which concern them all in their respective relations or with reference to those peculiar circumstances of Providence under which they are acted I shall add but one branch of Application more and indeed it is not a new Use for it is a part of our praise and homage which we owe unto God upon this Reflexion viz. Vse 2. To all to take heed of those sins which God in his word declares himself more eminently to abhor and in the execution of Providence doth most severely punish All sin is in it self a filthy and abominable thing and the just object of every good mans hatred for should not we hate what God hateth and what hath of all things the greatest opposition to God yes we ought to hate it with a perfect hatred But such is the naughtiness of our heart that we are not so led to an hatred and abhorrence of sin from the intrinsecal evil and obliquity of it as from the dangerous and pernicious consequence of it Death eternal death is the wages of every sin but this being only matter of faith to bold sinners none having ever come from the dead to give them an account of those flames the punishments of sin in this life are those things which most deter carnal sensual men But if men will look no further nor believe any more yet let this lay some law upon us and make us afraid of those sins which I have instanced in being such whose judgment the Providence of God seldom letteth sleep so long as to another life Let this mind us not to meddle with them that are given to change that curse Kings and Rulers in their bed-chambers and are of turbulent and unquiet spirits always plotting and contriving seditions and treasons and disturbances to civil governours it is very rarely that God suffereth their designs to come to issue or their persons to come to the grave in peace 2. What a law should it lay upon the rich and great men of the earth to take heed of violent perverting justice and judgment of turning away the causes of the widows and the fatherless in judgment To consider that he who is the highest doth consider the matter and there is one higher than the highest of them who abuse their power to trample the poor under foot If men be not turned Atheists and have banished all the fear of God from their eyes and hearts it must a little give them law and lay
not so slow with all but either immediately by his own hand as in the case of Ananias and Saphira Acts 5. or else by the sword of the Magistrate he cuts them off presently and giveth them a sudden recompence of their evil deeds Now it may possibly be asked by some what are those sins or in what case is God so quick with sinners nor may the inquiry be unprofitable for us for because judgement is not executed speedily the heart of man is set in him to do evil Gods deferring judgment and giving day for the execution of his wrath doth much embolden sinners Let us therefore see in what cases God seldom grants reprieves but is very quick with sinners and sendeth them down to Hell reeking with their lusts this I shall indeavour to shew you in several particulars 1. It is hard to name any species of sins as to which God hath not made or doth not make some present examples of his vengeance So as no sinner can promise himself the reprieve of an hour or day 1. In the case of Idolatry which is a grievous sin against the first and second commandment you will find that God proceeded very slowly to judgment for this sin both in the Canaanites and in the Israelites with the Canaanites though they were abominable idolaters God bare many hundreds of years With the ten tribes who were idolaters from the time of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin unto the time when they were finally destroyed and carried away captives God bare with them a long time but you shall find God quicker at another time Exod. 32. The people make themselves a golden Calf Moses comes down from the Mount and findeth them at their idolatrous worship Moses commandeth the sons of Levi to put every man his sword by his side and to go in and out from gate to gate throughout the Camp and to slay every man his Brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbour and v. 28. it is said that the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men There God was very quick with idolaters Blaspheming Cursing and swearing is a sin against the third commandment God as to the punishment of these sins sometimes proceedeth very slowly but not alwaies Look into Levit. 24.10 There was the son of an Israelitish woman that blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed he was put in prison God presently giveth order concerning him v. 14. That he should be brought forth without the Camp and stoned to death presently Sabbath-breaking it is a sin against the fourth precept of the Decalogue God is ordinarily very slow in the punishing of this sin many a Sabbath-breaker goeth on year after year and yet is not punished but God doth not do thus with all The man that did but gather sticks upon the Sabbath-day was stoned to death by Gods express order and command Numb 30.35 Rebellion against Parents cursing them and dishonouring them is a very great sin yet God beareth with many wretches a long time that are guilty of it as we see in the experience of our own lives A wretched Child is a plague to his Parents many years but God doth not always bear with sinners in this case See what a Law God gave the Israelites in this case Deut. 21.18 19 20 21. God ordered That he should be presently stoned to death that would not obey the voice of his Father and Mother For Murther which is a sin against the sixth Commandment I shall not inlarge I shall shew you anon that it is a sin which God rarely suffereth to go long unpunished The Law of God determined present death for wilful murder and the laws of most nations are accordingly and we daily see the providence of God strangely working to make murtherers examples of his vengeance Adultery is a sin against the seventh Commandment God sometimes is very patient and proceedeth very slowly but yet not always sometimes he strikes a dart through his liver sooner God established a law in the Jewish polity That the Adulterer should be put to death Lev. 20.10 Deut. 22.22 and you know Phinehas presently took a Javelin and ran it through an Adulterer and an Adulteress and had an ample reward given him from God for it In the case of theft God may sometimes be very patient and doubtless there are many old Thieves in the world who yet will not escape the vengeance of God at last But God is not always patient with all these sinners Achan was an eminent Thief he laid his hands upon Gods goods God had first seized upon the goods of the Canaanites and set them a part for a sacrifice by fire to himself Achan steals a wedge of Gold and a Babilonish garment God presently revengeth it first upon all the Army of Israel of which he was a member then upon himself and his family who were stoned to death with stones For lying and bearing a false testimony witnessing against the life of another as a criminal who was not a criminal they are sins against the ninth Commandment God is often very patient with these sinners he doth not presently enter into judgement with every liar every Informer and accuser of the servants of God Some he reserveth in the chains of an hard and impenitent heart unto the judgement of the great day but yet with some of these sinners God is much quicker Ananias and Saphira as you know fell down dead with a lye in their mouths and the Accusers of the three children and Daniel were presently destroyed the first by the heat of that Furnace which they had made so hot for others the second by those Lions which they had procured Daniel to be thrown unto But this is enough to have said in justification of my first conclusion That it is hard to name any species of sinners but God hath been very quick with some individuals of their company 2. I find some Divines observing That God is ordinarily most severe upon the first violators of his laws and this is the reason that is given by some why the Sabbath-breaker was ordered to be stoned to death God had newly revealed his will upon Mount Sinai Exod. 31.14 and repeated it Exod. 35. Now God picks out one of the first open presumptuous violators of it to make him an example you know this is after the manner of men who are usually very severe upon the first execution of their laws Ananias and Saphira were not the first that had told a lye but they were the first that we read of who had told a lye in that business It was the Will of God that to supply the necessities of his Church at that time the Christians should have all things for a time common amongst them and it was not without a divine instinct at least that so many of them sold their goods and came
the justice and goodness of God and the revelation of his will in Ezech. 18.4 and other Texts This dispensation at first view seemeth not to comport with the justice of God which must give every man his due and recompence to every one according to his work Now the work of the Father is not the work of the Child how then cometh it to be recompensed to the Child much less doth it seem to comport with the goodness of God to visit the iniquity of the Father upon the child and then it seemeth to cross what God hath said Ezech. 18.4 The soul that sinneth shall dye and again Jer. 31.29 30. Every one shall dye for his own iniquity every man that eateth the sowre grape his teeth shall be set on edge But I beseech you observe 1. How ready we are to quarrel with God for what is done every day with men and no man accuseth it of injustice to take away the estates of Children for the treasons of Parents for the debts of Parents c. How ordinarily in war do innocent Children suffer for their Parents yet as to man the law of God is plain Deut. 24.16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children neither shall the children be put to death for the parents every man shall be put to death for his own sin and reason holds much stronger for Gods punishing even with death the sin of the parent upon the child For 1. God can compensate the loss of a temporal life to the child with an eternal life this man cannot do This was Augustines reason 2. God seeth guilt enough in children to justifie his vengeance To man they are innocent yet according to that barbarous custom in war nothing is more ordinary than to take away the lives of children for the fathers faults yet the world doth not much clamour at this 2. The justice of God is sufficiently cleared in this That God never punisheth any for the sin of their correlate in whom there is not personal guilt enough to justifie God in that proceeding Every one in his punishment beareth his own burden though possibly his sin and the sin of his father be punished together 3. Correlates are the goods of their Relations Children are the great portion of Parents so are people the riches and goods of Princes thus Aquinas solveth this difficulty Filii sunt res parentum Thus the learned Rivet saith children have in them aliquid parentis indeed that is something more children are not only the portion and goods of their parents but they are pieces of their parents and their parents are punished in them As David was punished in the death of his first child by Bathsheba Some may say this is something if children were only punished during the life of their parents but how are their parents punished in them when they are dead before vengeance cometh upon the child Answ The fear of it all their life-time is a punishment 2. Is it no punishment to them though dead to have their names blotted out 4. The goodness of God is seen in this That it is a rational means to do good to the parents and parents are often advantaged by the punishment of the children David was so you know If God will say to the child I will punish you and use your punishment to do good to your parents what have we to say to it If we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren as St. John determines certainly if God calls children to it they ought to be willing to lay down their lives for their parents if God impose it upon them Debent parentibus hoc officium saith Augustine Plutarch disputing the justice of the gods he was a Heathen and that his dialect in this particular saith that Physitians use to bleed the arm for a pain in the head and by a parity of reason so excuseth the Divine Justice The Parents have been instruments of giving life to the Children and God giveth Children many advantages for the Parents sake 5. In the mean time if the children be good and holy their afflictions are but fatherly chastisements Their deaths do but remove them to a better life so that they have no wrong not suffering in their souls nor by eternal punishments for the sins of their parents 6. Lastly saith Augustine God by this means doth maintain discipline and keep up his authority and government in states in the world in his Church in particular families Now who shall deny God the liberty of exercising an act of meer Power and Soveraignty if it were no more when by it a discipline and government is kept up in the Universe and by it many greater disorders and wickednesses are prevented Sinners are terrified and the thoughts of the miseries their children may feel for their sins may affright those who would adventure their own skins and necks and souls too I have now done with the Doctrinal part of this Observation I come to the Practical Application of this discourse Vse 1. In the first place this may serve to satisfie us as to the Justice of God in the distribution of some rewards of this life to the worst of men by the rewards of this life I understand riches honours outward prosperity and blessing It is a saying usually imputed to Hierom Omnis Dives est vel injustus vel injusti haeres every rich man is either an unrighteous man or the son of an unrighteous man I do not know but we may say the contrary That every prosperous man is either justus aut haeres justi either himself a good and righteous man or the child of such a one I mean not the immediate child but descended from such a one I will not assert it too universally but shall refer it to your Observation If you see a leud and wicked man growing great rich prospering much in the world observe whether he be not one who like Jehu hath not personally done some eminent service for God so Jehu did so Assyria did so Nebuchadnezzar did he made his Army to do a great service against Tyre 2. If you cannot find that enquire if he were not a descendent from some that had done some such service Jeroboam the Son of Joash Jehu's Grandchild was a naughty man yet the Kingdom of Israel had no such time of prosperity as in his Reign God did not reward any personal vertue in him but he rewarded the service which his Grandfather Jehu had done against the house of Ahab The prosperity therefore of wicked men should not trouble us nor be a temptation to us we should only conclude thus How much more will the Lord reward his faithful servants who worship and serve him in truth and with a perfect heart Vse 2. In the second place This may serve to rectifie the mistakes of those who may be under a temptation to say with David That they have washed their hands in vain and cleansed their hearts
the holy Prophet Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously 2. There is nothing in the world so contrary unto God as sin is nothing so repugnant to his nature nothing so prejudicial to his glory nothing that he hateth with so perfect an hatred 3. That it always was and is in the power of God to hinder sin God could have hindred Adams fall and all the sin which hath since that been committed in the world Now these things considered that yet God should not hinder sin but suffer men to walk in their own ways and to fulfil their unbridled lusts seems at first view of difficult apprehension It hath been so hard a Chapter to some that they have fancied two Gods the one to be the Principle of all the good the other of all the evil that is in the world they were not able to conceive how a pure and holy God could permit sin The Operations of Providence about sin I have heretofore more largely discoursed Amongst others I have instanced in these two 1. He doth permit and suffer it when he might hinder it 2. Providence doth co-operate as to the natural action though not as to the malice and sinfulness of the action It is most certain that in him every man lives and moves The blasphemer the lyer the profane curser and swearer could not speak if the Providence of God did not in the mean time uphold the natural faculties whose operations are necessary to such actions Now this is that which sometimes startles our deliberate thoughts if God indeed be so holy and pure a God as we have heard he is if he so hateth and abhorreth sinful actions and if he be so mighty and powerful a God why doth not God withdraw that Providence of his which upholdeth the sinner to the natural action while he seeth and knoweth which way the lust in the sinners heart will incline his action I conceive now my text gives some relief to our disquieted thoughts about this particular Why did God first suffer the law to enter That sin might abound that the offence might abound saith the Apostle v. 20. But why should sin abound why did the Providence of God suffer sin to abound That grace might much more abound For saith the text where sin abounded grace did much more abound That as sin hath reigned unto death even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ The Apostle is here doubtless speaking with a great respect to the first mans sin of which he had been speaking in the former verses Death passed over all men for that all have sinned and v. 15. Through the offence of one many be dead and so in the following verses you read of one mans sin one mans offence one mans disobedience c. But yet he is not speaking only of Adams sin for he tells you Many were made sinners and all have sinned and he is also speaking of sin as consequent to the law given which I do not think is to be understood of the law given to Adam and the Covenant made with him but of the law given by Moses and in that latitude I shall discourse this subject shewing you that God in a great deal of wisdom did first suffer sin to enter into the world and still suffereth sin to abound in the world You may take that for the Proposition Prop. The holy and omnipotent God in an infinite wisdom of Providence suffereth sin and sinners to abound in the world though himself be of purer eyes than to behold iniquity he hates and abhorreth every sin nothing so grieveth and dishonoureth him yet I say in infinite wisdom his Providence doth permit it suffering men to fulfil the lusts of their own hearts and to walk in their own ways My business must be to give you some account of the Divine Wisdom in it and to make Gods ways of Providence in this thing to appear unto you equal It is a true saying of one of the School-men Plus est bonum vel numero vel quantitate quod Deus elicit per mala quam quod destruitur per mala Al. Al. There is one way or other either in number or in quantity more good which God fetcheth out of sin than is destroyed by sin We may be confident of this or God would never suffer it And indeed the Doctrinal part of my discourse will be nothing else than a justification of that maxim I shall therefore this day entertain you with a resolution of this riddle much like that of Sampson when he had killed the Lyon and eaten of the honey the Bees had made in the carcase Jud. 14.4 shewing you how out of the eater cometh meat and out of the strong cometh sweetness How out of sin which is the vilest thing in the world the most opposite and repugnant thing to the glory of God the glory of God is yet fetched and that in a proportion to compensate the loss and prejudice to his glory from the sin of the sinner It is certain which Augustine long since said and gave as a reason of Gods permission of sin Deus judicavit melius de malis benefacere quam mala esse non permittere God judged it better to bring good out of sin than not permit sin to be committed 1. In the first place let me shew you how many Attributes of God are glorified by his permission of sin and sinners in the world 1. In the first place it is I think well observed by an acute Author That God in this motion of Providence magnifieth his equity to our humane nature Equity indeed is but a piece of justice But when I come to speak to that Attribute I shall restrain my discourse to Gods Punitive and Vindicative Justice Our great master who hath commanded us to give unto our servants that which is just and equal will much more do it himself and it is said of God He shall judg the people with equity Psal 98.9 and he took it very ill when his people said That his ways were not equal The equity of God required that he should leave humane nature to its liberty man was created with a reasonable soul and the very nature of it had been destroyed if it had been left under a coaction and in this the condition of humane nature had been worse than that of sensitive creatures which freely use their natural faculties and exercise their natural motions It is a saying of Aquinas That it is not the work of Providence in its government of man to destroy its nature but to heal and save it God in suffering men to walk in their own ways doth but leave men to their natural liberty and thus magnify the Equity of God to humane nature But this is one of the least 2. God by the permission of sin and sinners and the aboundings of
by the way of efficiency Therefore God must be the Author or these Divines make him the Author Or because God is the Author of his own judgments and paenal dispensations and God sometimes punisheth sin with sin therefore God must be the Author of sin taken properly as it is an oblique action contrary to his Law This is forsooth their proof of that crimination when-as there are no Divines in the world but think it not only blasphemy but non-sense to talk of God as the Author of sin which must be an action contrary to the will liking and approbation of God as the very nature of sin doth import 2. Their second Crimination is That God hath damn'd his creatures out of his meer Prerogative and Soveraignty We do indeed think and must so think till our Adversaries can possess us with other Idea's and notions of God than either Scripture or reason will help us with That there is nothing which either hath or shall come to pass in the world but God did know from all eternity neither can we conceive how God should know any thing but because he willed it either in a way of efficiency or to permit it We do say that God had a jus absolutum from eternity an absolute right over his creatures to determine how he pleased concerning them But we also say That in his paenal dispensations he acteth not according to his Soveraignty and absolute right and that every mans destruction is of himself and the proximate and meritorious cause of the punishment and eternal ruin of any Soul is his own sin God doth not condemn any Soul but for sin recompensing their own iniquities upon their heads and whatsoever is absolute and Soveraign right his Law from which he never varieth in the motions of his Providence is The soul that sinneth shall die Where is the difference then What maketh this great clamour and odious representation of eminent Divines as to the method of Gods proceedings in his actual Providence Papists Arminians Calvinists all are agreed That the wages of sin is death The soul that sinneth shall die God will condemn none but for sin Only it seems they are not agreed as to the Nature and Attributes and Prerogatives of God Those Divines whom they call Calvinists must assert God to have the same Power over his creatures which a Potter hath over the clay This the other will not understand though God expressly told it the Prophet Jeremy and the Apostle from him hath expressly told it us and this is all the difference that I can understand 3. Vse Thirdly you may from hence learn How the Righteousness of God shall be cleared in the last day in the condemnation of sinners although it hath not pleased him to give to all a power to that which is truly and Spiritually good This is a point which very many in this Generation also will not understand but the fault is in themselves If God say they hath not given to all men a power to repent and to believe how shall he be righteous in the condemning of Sinners There is no consequence at all in this but upon this Hypothesis That except men have a power to do that which is Spiritually good they are in no capacity to do that which is morally evil Whether they have a power to repent or to believe without the effectual Grace of God yea or no Certainly they have a power in a thousand things to break the Law of God yea and to do also many things which are contained in the Law of God and although the doing of these things would not save them yet certainly the omiting of them or doing contrary to them may give God a righteous cause to condemn them Suppose one of you who are Fathers to have two Sons both of them wild and fond of their play and eager at it you call them both to come to you and tell them that if they will come you will give them both mony to go and buy such things but if by such a time they have not those things and appear to you in and with them you will certainly whip them One of these Children hearkens to you leaves his play comes running to you and begs the money you promised him then procures the things and appeareth to you in the habit you desired and you are well pleased with him The other Child is mad of his play which if he would he might leave he could not have the things without mony out of his Fathers Purse but he will not leave his play nor stir a foot towards his Father nor so much as ask his Father for mony his Father indeed sends him no mony but shuts him out of his sight and ordereth him to be severely whipt because that he would not leave his idle game and come to him and ask the mony of him which he promised and because he had not bought the things and appeared before him in that habit and dress which he had commanded will not one say this foolish Child is right served shall his Father be judged unrighteous or severe because he gave the Child no mony as he did the other and the Child could come by the things without mony and if it had them not could not appear in or with them before his Father The case is much the same betwixt God and us God seeth two Men or Women both his Creatures alike in Adam both born in Trespasses and Sins wildly playing over the hole of the Asp and the den of the Cockatrice sporting themselves in Sin and in an hourly danger of Hell-fire God calleth them by his Ministers to leave their Sins and to turn unto him he saith let him that hath been drunk be drunk no more let him that hath been unclean be unclean no more let him that hath told a lye that hath broke my Sabbaths lye and break my Sabbaths no more let him read my Word and hear my Word and let him come and pray unto me and beg of me an heart to believe and to repent and I will give it him and he that believeth shall be saved but in the great day it shall be found That he who hath not repented and hath not believed shall be damned One of these sinners leaveth off his leud courses falls to an external Discipline readeth the Word heareth the Word of God applyeth himself to God by Prayer beggeth of God an heart to repent and to believe his Gospel God hears him gives him a power gives him repentance unto Life and a saving Faith in Christ and he obtaineth everlasting Salvation The other is mad of his Lusts and after them he will go let what will be the issue of it he will not read the Word not hear that his Soul may live nor so much as ask special Grace of God not to plead with God for Faith or Repentance God giveth them not to him he dieth in his impenitency and unbelief God throweth him into Hell
for his not repenting not believing according to his Word Is there any unrighteousness with God in this case more than in the Fathers dealing with the Child upon the former Supposition What pretence is there for it The Sinner you will say could not repent could not believe without the special Grace of God which was never given him No more could the Child buy those things the Father willed it to have and come before him with unless the Father first gave it mony the Child had no mony of its own But the Child might have left its play it might have read and heard the Word he might have come to God by Prayer and begg'd of him a soft and contrite heart and a believing heart he had power to do all this and had he done this God had not been wanting to him in his further Grace To him that hath shall be given saith our Saviour that is to him that hath and useth and proveth what Gifts and Graces he hath as he ought to do shall be given more Grace But this the poor wretch hath not done but dieth an hard-hearted an impenitent and unbelieving wretch what unrighteousness is there with God in his condemnation he perisheth in his own iniquity his blood is upon his own head his damnation lieth at his own door his destruction is of himself his help might have been from God if he had not been wanting to himself O sinful men are not the Lords ways equal Yes yes they are our own ways that are unequal the straight ways of the Lord are only made crooked by our idle fancies our proud hearts and corrupt reasons and foolish misprisions Vse 4. In the last place let me apply this discourse by way of Exhortation it will afford matter of Exhortation 1. To the people of God 2. To the men of the World those I mean that are not yet converted unto God 1. To Gods People 1. To you it speaketh to make you more afraid of sin for the time to come Sin in Scripture is ordinarily resembled by sickness and a disease Now what is true of sickness is true of Sin every sickness is not unto death but every sickness hath something of death in it it leadeth to the Grave it is not the last stroke at the giving of which the Tree falleth but it is a blow in order to the fall of it Every sin doth not bring forth death yea as to you No sin shall bring forth death because Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ but every sin hath something of the nature of a self-ruining and destruction in it The wages of every sin is death the natural tendency of every sin is unto death It is the Gift and Free-Grace of God that as to you prevents it and although your sins do not bring forth an Eternal ruine and destruction to you because the Blood of Christ and the Intercession of Christ hath prevented and will prevent that yet your sins may bring forth many lesser deaths to you for them you may be in deaths often for them there may be a death of your peace and comforts as there are no temporal Evils which sin may not bring upon the people of God so there are few spiritual Evils on this side of Hell to which it doth not subject them So that although you be not under the danger of an Eternal ruine yet you are under the danger of so many deaths so many destructions as may justly lay a Law upon you and make you afraid of sinning against God 2. But Secondly This calleth to all of you to admire the Divine Grace by which you are saved I hope it is the portion of many of you to whom I am speaking you are not yet got up to the new Hierusalem but you are in the right way that leadeth thereunto O cry Grace Grace unto the hand which set you upon that Shore It is true of you you also by sin had destroyed your selves by Grace you are saved you were once Fire-brands as well as any others are you now brands pluckt out of the Fire It was the hand of Grace that pluck'd you out You hath he quickned saith the Apostle Ephes 2.1 who were dead in Trespasses and sins Amongst whom also we had our conversation of old according to the Lusts of the Flesh you also were once acted by the Prince of the Air who yet worketh in the Children of Disobedience and were by Nature the Children of Wrath as much as others It is a sweet though in some sence a bitter meditation to cast a thought back and think Lord How had I also destroyed my self How near was I going to the Pit of Eternal ruine and destruction Nay how often yet is our Salvation from God We are every day destroying our selves we lye down with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Morning and rise up every day with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Evening By Grace we are saved 2. But Secondly let me speak to those which can have no such good hope through Grace They yet are in their natural State and condition in the Gall of bitterness and in the very bands of iniquity Sirs it is that which I have often told you and I wish the sound of it may never be out of your Ears you are Creatures ordained to Eternity when you dye you dye not like brute-Beasts Death will not determine your beings you shall be either Eternally happy or Eternally miserable All that I have to say to you is to plead with you that you would not ruine your selves and let me tell you that if ever you perish it must be because you have destroyed your selves Do not fright your selves with thoughts of Gods eternal decrees secret things belong to God revealed things to us Whatever Gods secret counsels and purposes be this is his revealed will The Soul that sinneth and that alone shall dye Trouble not your selves with any such thoughts as these If I be not elected do what I will I shall be damned If God hath cast me off I shall labour in vain It is the Sluggard saith Solomon which saith There is a Lion in the way We cannot ascend up into Heaven to search Gods Books there is no need of it The Word is near us even in our mouths that telleth us that God never destroyeth any Soul but the meritorious cause of it is in himself and this we know that all sin is voluntary O then take heed of destroying your selves by wilful and presumptuous sinning against God Nature teacheth every Man to look to himself as to his Life Health Estate and shall not our reasonable Nature instructed by the Word of God prompt us to take care of our selves as to our Eternal Interest You will say unto me what shall we do that we may not de destroyed for who liveth and sinneth not against God I have before told you that
Providence of God did ordinarily execute this Justice by the hands of Magistrates But you must not mistake to think this rule of God was without exceptions for oftentimes exceptions were made with respect to the quality of the persons and this by the Law of God Exod. 21.16 He that cursed his father or mother was to dye the death that now was more than like for like and ver 26. If a master had struck a servant and put out his eye the masters punishment was only to manumit his servant not to pay eye for eye the reason was the disparity of persons I might observe to you that the Providence of God directed other Magistrates then those he set up amongst his own people to enact laws to render like for like in many cases especially where offences were eminently against mercy and charity though with the like respect to persons and other circumstances which is enough by the way to evidence the justice of such laws in many cases But further the Providence of God in this retaliating sins of this nature is eminent in those whom he took to punish with his own hand In the case of Pharaoh he cruelly caused the male-infants of the Jewish children to be drowned God causeth him and his host to be swallowed up in the red Sea In the case of Adonibezek Judg. 1.6 The Israelites took him and cut off his thumbs and great toes You never read that the Israelites served any Enemy so either before or after that time and doubtless what they did was by an extraordinary instinct from God Ver. 7. Adonibezek acknowledgeth the hand of God in it Threescore and ten Kings saith he having their thumbs and great toes cut off gathered their meat under my table as I have done so God hath requited me 1 Sam. 15.33 When Samuel cometh to slay Agag by Gods Commandment observe what he saith As thy sword hath made many women childless so this day thy mother shall be made childless as to thee and he cut him in pieces before the Lord. And this is that which God hath said Rev. 13.10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity he that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword and in Rev. 18.6 speaking of mystical Babylon by which our Forefathers have understood Rome though late Authors have otherwise endeavoured to interpret it and the fall of it saith God Reward her even as she hath rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works in the cup which she hath filled fill her double You see still those whom God hath thus punished from time to time have ordinarily been great offenders against mercy and charity great actors of cruelty the wickedness of these men God hath ordinarily retaliated and payed them in their own kind I have hitherto justified the first part of my observation that God very ordinarily doth repay eminent sinners against charity in their own kind what hath been wanting there 's hardly any observing Christian but will be able to make up in his daily observation 't is very seldom but God gives cruel and bloody and mischievous men blood to drink and cruelty to digest if he gives it not to them he ordinarily doth it to their children as he did to Saul and to Ahab and to Jehu Sauls children were hang'd by David at Gods command for his bloody house Ahab's seventy Sons were slain for his bloodshed and cruelty And God repaid the blood which Jehu shed in Jesreel though in it he executed Gods counsel unto his children as the Prophet saith expresly God gave Manasses his children Josiah only excepted blood to drink to requite him for his filling of Hierusalem with innocent blood 2. Let me now justifie the Observation as to the second part of it Gods retaliation of charity Charity is a word of a very vast extent and comprehendeth under it all acts of kindness done unto our brethren standing in need of our help It is a saying I have met with somewhere A man seldom himself experienceth in himself that misery which he hath truly felt in others Many great and exceeding pretious promises are made to it as if it were all Godliness what the Apostle saith of Godliness is applicable unto it It hath promises both of this life and that which is to come Blessed are the merciful saith our Saviour Mat 5.7 for they shall receive mercy He that giveth to the poor shall not want Prov. 28.22 I have been young saith David and now am old yet I never saw the righteous forsaken nor their seed begging their bread he is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed It were a great work to reckon up all the promises of this nature made to mercy and charity so many that the hard-hearted the niggardly-handed person must necessarily be either an Atheist or a notorious Unbeliever either not believing there is any such God as the Scriptures speak or such Scriptures as are the word of God or not daring to trust God upon his word either of them hath a soul in state bad enough But my work is to shew you how the Providence of God justifieth this word I told you before how David observed it in the whole course of his life he never saw such a man forsaken nor his posterity beggers What an experience was that he was a good man a wise and observing man much acquainted with the world he had seen more than most of us he lived to be an old man he doth not say he had rarely seen no that was too little I have been young saith he and now am old I never saw the righteous forsaken If you would know what righteous man he means he telleth you One that is ever merciful and lendeth I think in this case we may as to the motions of Providence distinguish as St. Paul doth in another case between a righteous man and a good man Rom. 5. The Providence of God doth sometimes so order it that we see religious men though it is a hard task I would not willingly be employed in it to reconcile an hardness of heart in this kind to Religion yet so it is that we find sometimes persons that in other things we cannot say but they are devout religious men and just men and were it not for that of St. John how dwelleth the love of God in him after a very imperfect manner certainly his brother can scarce tell how for that of St. James He that keeps the whole law and in the constant track and course of his life offends but in one point is guilty of all One would think they had love for God and were righteous men yet when you come to them for an act of charity oh it grateth them a six-pence comes at two or three pulls and with many a grudg and excuse You may possibly see such a man decay God distributes his estate because he would not and such a mans seed you may see begging bread
of it I think is that to David which we have Psal 89. from the 20 to the 35. v. Vers 28. he tells him That he will keep his mercy with him for evermore and his covenant should stand fast with him but yet he reserveth himself a liberty to punish him and his seed for sins vers 30. If his children for sake my law and walk not in my judgments if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving-kindness I will not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail my Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips So that notwithstanding the Covenant of Grace for eternal life and pardon of sin and all grace in order to the obtaining of this life and notwithstanding the blood of Christ which was the blood of this Covenant God hath yet a liberty to visit the transgressions of his people even their past as well as renewing transgressions with rods and their iniquity with stripes yet he doth not break his Covenant nor alter any thing that is gone out of his lips 3. Nor is it reasonable that any should fancy that God by the establishment of the Covenant of Grace or by acceptance of the satisfaction of his Son as the blood of this Covenant to make an atonement and reconciliation for iniquity should have barred himself of his liberty to punish the sins of his people or that any who hath accepted this Covenant upon the exhibition of it in the Gospel should be excused from such chastisements if we consider 1. That some of these chastenings are made the matters of a promise Mark 10.30 Persecutions are reckoned amongst Christs rewards in this life Heb. 12.6 7 8. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth c. Thence the ancients were wont to call Martyrdom a Crown and Luther was wont to complain That God would not honour him to wear that Crown Saint Paul prayeth to be made conformable to the death of Christ if the Saints did not fight how could they triumph how should they conquer yea be more than conquerers 2. That afflictions are the path-way to death and death the door into eternal life Every affliction is a blow at the root of our tree preparing it for its fall and if we did not dye how should we live in Heaven We must all dye or be changed or our corruptible could never put on incorruption nor our mortal put on immortality It is reported of Zaleucus a lawgiver amongst the Indians that he should say If God had not appointed that all should dye it had been reasonable for men to have made a law in the case and we read of some Indians who being asked why they worshipped the Sun gave this reason Because it was the Author of death Give me leave to say That death is so necessary and afflictions are so wholesom for Christians that they deserve rather to be reckoned amongst those things which Christ hath purchased for them than such things as he hath purchased them a liberty from 1. All sorts of afflictions of this life are means of grace not so much means of begetting as reviving and increasing grace for as the fire softneth the wax and hardneth the clay so I have usually observed That afflictions make the wicked man worse but godly men better they revive repentance they are times when usually men call sin to remembrance they draw out the exercises of faith and both work and exercise patience Tribulation saith the Apostle worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope David before that he was afflicted went astray after he learned to keep Gods Statutes God while he punisheth his people for their sins doth not barely chasten them but he also teacheth them out of his Law 2. They secondly prepare the Saints for glory and this not only as they restrain sin and tend to perfect grace but as it pleaseth God of his grace to reward the sufferings of his people and the faith and patience of his people shewed in and under their sufferings with the greater glory Thus the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4.17 That our light and momentany afflictions work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And thus much may serve to have cleared this Objection that I may hasten to the practical Application of this Observation This motion of Divine Providence in punishing with temporal punishments past and pardoned sins even in the best of Gods People appears exceeding reasonable 1. In regard of the Justice of God The Justice of God having taken a satisfaction in the blood of his Son and been paid a price for the sins of his people will not allow him to punish them with an eternal punishment yet it is reasonable they should not go altogether unpunished that the world may see that he is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity in any I remember what God said by the Prophet Jeremiah to the Jews Jer. 30.11 I will not make a full end of thee but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished You have the same again Jer. 46.28 2. It is reasonable secondly in order to the eternal salvation of their souls 1 Cor. 11.32 When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world It is P. Martyrs note upon that Text that the Apostle in that passage particularly respecteth such as fear God for the case is otherwise with wicked men whose punishment but begun in this life shall be perfected in the world that is to come But I have spoken enough to the Doctrinal part of this Observation Let me now come to some practical Observation shewing you what use we may and ought to make of it Vse 1. This in the first place serves to justifie God in those sore afflictions which we often see him bringing upon his own people When we look upon the holiness of a Job and see him a man fearing God and eschewing evil and see such a person under sharp tryals of affliction we are ready to startle at it and cannot understand Divine Justice in it But God is many ways to be justified 1. Who liveth and sinneth not enough against God to justifie the severest dispensations under which God exerciseth him 2. If he did not yet it is an ordinary thing and very righteous for God to write bitter things against his people for the sins of their youth though past and pardoned Now who hath so passed his youth that he hath not been guilty of sin enough to justifie God in his punishments yea and to make him acknowledg that he hath been punished seven times less than he hath deserved And if neither of these could be seen as a meritorious cause yet God hath a liberty by afflictions to try the faith
designed Discourse In my first I asserted the Doctrine of Divine Providence against ancient and modern Atheists I opened it in the nature and principal Acts of it In the Second I 1. shewed you the specialties of it 2. Wherein you must stand still and admire it in the depths and unsearchable things of it 3. I directed you how to make some observations upon the more ordinary and intelligible motions of it I am now come to open some hard Chapters in this great and excellent book and to reconcile this great work of God to his most holy nuture and that infinite justice goodness wisdom and truth which are inseparable from it I take it to be a work worthy of a Divine to make a rationale divinorum operum to give a reasonable account of the Divine works humbly adoring God in them yet inquiring into them and that non tam ad mentis otium quam ad cordis usum as Nierembergius saith not so much for the exercise of our wits as for the use of our souls It advantageth the works of God to our souls when they appear no other than reasonable to us and I think the same Author speaketh well when he saith Nullum puto consilium Divinum cujus non aliqua ratio reddi potest nullum cujus omnis reddatur ita inscrutabilia sunt divina opera digna ut scrutemur facilia that is I do not think any Divine Counsel can be named of which we may not give some reasonable account though there be likewise none of which we can give a perfect account so as the Divine works are at the same time both unsearchable and also worthy and easie to be searched out I shall not so much as propound to my self or you to resolve all the seeming riddles and difficulties of Actual Providence I shall only discourse some of them which seem most obvious and readiest to stumble our thoughts and those which I shall speak to shall chiefly refer to these heads 1. The exhibition of the Covenant of works after the establishment of the Eternal Covenant of Redemption and Grace and the exhibition or tender of grace indefinitely to all after the decree of election and the fall of man 2. The permission of sin and so much sin in the world 3. The punitive Providence of God 4. The dispensation of the external or internal more effectual means of grace I shall speak to divers seeming difficulties that will fall under these four heads and at this time begin with the first of these It was one of the first acts of Divine Providence that we read of immediately succeeding the creation Gen. 2.15 And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou maist freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Under that threatning is a promise of life upon condition of obedience as to the Law of God written in Adams heart So to that positive Law given him for the trial of his obedience I shall not engage my self deeply in the question what death it is which God there threatneth to Adam I am aware of the varieties of opinions I take it for granted that whatsoever falleth under the notion of death in Scripture is all comprehended under that threatning In dying thou shalt dye saith the Hebrew phrase which we translate Thou shalt surely dye The threatning mentioneth neither one death nor another but is indefinite and of the same force as if universal and it is accordingly used in Scripture to signifie all kind of death as Ezek. 18. and in many other places and out of doubt there falleth under that threatning whatsoever was contrary to the felicity of Adam in that estate I do therefore agree with the ancient and modern Divines who understand death Corporal Spiritual and Eternal there threatned in case of disobedience and life Corporal Spiritual and Eternal there promised in case of obedience Now hence ariseth a great difficulty there were two great Acts of God with relation to man passed before this Act of Providence 1. The decree of Election by which God had not only stated the number of those that should be saved but chosen us in him before the foundation of the world Ephes 1.6 2. The eternal Covenant of Redemption and Grace By which the salvation of man was setled to be obtained not by working but by believing in him that justifieth the ungodly that is not to be obtained by the merits of our own works but by the merits of Christ imputed to us for righteousness and to be by faith apprehended and applied Now here ariseth the difficulty Quest How it could consist with the wisdom and truth of God having thus in his eternal counsels resolved that there should be no other name under heaven no other way or means of salvation but by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ to propound a way of salvation to be obtained by mens working and obedience to the Law of God especially when he did aforeknow that man would break this first Covenant and no man should be saved upon the terms of it That I might speak something to shew you the reasonableness of this motion I have made choice of this Text in which you have 1. An assertion The Scripture hath concluded all under wrath 2. The end or reason of the thing asserted That the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe A text much parallel to that Rom. 11.32 He hath concluded all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all This Text saith the Scripture hath done it that text saith God hath done it there 's no contradiction in it the Scriptures are the word of God if the Scripture hath concluded all under wrath God hath done it Now how hath the Scripture done this or how hath God done it but by first making man in his own image writing his law in his heart then adding that positive law forbidding him to eat of the tree of forbidden fruit after this suffering him to eat by which not Adam only but all mankind then in him lost the Image of God and all were concluded under sin and to what purpose was all this The text telleth us That the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to all that believe If you please I shall make my whole discourse but a demonstration of this Proposition Prop. That God in infinite wisdom by his Providence gave out the Law or Covenant of works suffering the first man to fall and all in him by the fall to be concluded under wrath My business must be to shew you the exceeding reasonableness and wisdom of God in this dispensation I shall open this to you in five or six particulars 1. It neither was nor could be Gods
use of them in their not doing so they at least render themselves inexcusable 3. This Question proceedeth upon a grand mistake viz. That all punishment is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the amendment of the person punished and that if such an end cannot be propounded or shall not be obtained Punishments are things not reconcilable to the holiness and goodness of God This now is a very great mistake and not only contrary to Divinity but to the reason of human Policy It will the more Illustrate this matter and make the way of God in this appear more easy and plain if I shew you 1. That all men agree that the amendment of the offender is not the only end of punishment but there are other ends for which the wisdom of man judgeth punishments necessary 2. That as to God Reason holds much more and the Scripture hath revealed other ends which he aimeth at in punishment than the amendment of the person offending which are highly consistent with his holiness and justice Seneca a great Pagan Philosopher mentions three ends in punishments 1. The amendment of the person offending 2. The security of others who may be in danger by his lawless sinful courses 3. The amendment of others It is true there is a punishment the end of which is only the amendment of the person offending Thus Parents punish their Children Masters their Scholars and Servants to this purpose Magistrates use whippings brandings houses of corrections goals c. But these kinds of punishments cannot reach unto death because there can be no amendment of a person after the determination of his Being It is true sinners by being cut off sometimes are stopt from further sinning but properly none can be said to be made better by being put to death and if there were no other end of punishments dictated by humane reason than the amendment of the person offending humane Laws could ordain no capital punishments But the wisdom of the Politicians of the world we see hath ordained capital punishments for some offences and some offenders yea and degrees of torment in death according to the degree of the offence Amongst us in case of Treason Malefactors are hang'd drawn and quartered in case of murther and other Felonies they are beheaded hanged burnt c. and we shall find this wisdom of men justified by the supreme Wisdom of God who ordained capital punishments for divers offences as you read in the Law of Moses Although therefore the amendment of the offender be one great end of punishments for as much as deliberate and ordinary acts of naughtiness beget in us a further proneness and inclination to them and beget ill habits in us punishments are ordained the smart of which may wean us from the pleasure which ariseth to us from sinful acts but though this be one and that a great end of punishment yet it is not the only end for which the wisdom of man teacheth him to make use of them There are others such as are The vindication of the authority of the superior from contempt the amendment of others the security of others c. It is indeed true That man not being his own end can do nothing rightly but what he doth for some good out of himself there must be something out of himself for which he acteth and that something must be good or his action will be evil and bad But it is not necessary that this good which he makes his end in punishment should be the amendment and reformation of the party punished If it were he could never punish with capital punishment Besides there is a twofold greater good than this which he may aim at 1. The glory of God and the vindication of the Divine Majesty 2. The good either of the whole body of the political society with which he is betrusted or some considerable a part of them Hence it is that Magistrates rightly cut off Blasphemers for the vindication of the glory of God as well as for the example of others and cut off Murtherers for the security of other mens lives as well as in execution of the Divine Law concerning such offenders But 2. Let me shew you that as to punishments inflicted by God Reason holdeth much more and as the Scripture revealeth so Reason justifieth other ends which he both proposeth and obtaineth in the punishment of sinners to whom affliction doth no good in order to their amendment and reformation Let me a little open this 1. Grotius de jure belli l. 2. It is truly said by a learned Author That Gods actions may be right though they have no other end beyond themselves Mans cannot be so he must act for some end some good end and that must be out of himself but the case is otherwise as to God he is his own end and may punnish a sinner for no other end than that he may be revenged upon him He hath made the wicked for the day of wrath Prov. 16.4 and saith that Author The Scripture declaring that God takes a pleasure in his vengeance upon sinners that he will mock at their calamity and laugh when their fear cometh as also the last judgment are all evident demonstrations of this Now supposing this to be true it is apparent enough that Gods bringing evil and trouble upon such sinners concerning whom he knoweth that they will never be amended by their troubles but made worse is reconcilable enough to the purity holiness and justice of God I will saith God get me glory upon Pharaoh I told you in my last Exercise that if there were no other good that came from evils of punishment than the predication and magnification of the justice and holiness of God yet that were enough to warrant the entituling of God to be the efficient cause and Author of them The making of Gods Power and Justice known the vindication of his Soveraignty and Holiness is a noble effect of Divine Providence Now where God doth not obtain the reformation and amendment of the sinner yet he obtaineth this he gets himself glory upon the poor wretch which actively refused to give him glory Divines and Philosophers too truly say That in punishments Respicitur aut utilitas ejus qui peccavit cujus intererat peccatum non esse aut indistincte quorum libet that is there is always a regard had either to the good of the offenders or to the good of some others whose interest it had been not to have had the offence committed Supposing God not always in punishments to have a respect to the good and amendment of the sinner that is punished which is most certainly true as to the punishment yet he hath respect unto another and that a far greater good the glory of his own great name Now certainly it is consistent enough with the holiness justice and goodness of God to act for the glory of his name though it be to the prejudice and ruine of his creature considering
concomitants of it from him for ever he imprisoneth him during life banisheth him from his Country never to return confiscates his estate for ever Yet who quarrels with him as if he did unjustly Object But will some say God doth not only adjudge a sinner to an eternal loss of his life estate liberty this indeed man doth but God adjudgeth him also to eternal torments to a never-dying worm a fire that never shall be quenched Sol. I answer Had man the same power he would also do the same thing and yet hope to be acounted guiltless where eminent injuries are done to persons of great place and power How many are angry and will not be reconciled though they be under a Divine Law obliging them to the contrary How doth man sometimes divide a Malefactors last punishment and suffers him not to dye at once but by piece-meal to make his punishment as long-lived as he can What will you say of those condemned to be starved to death Yet in some great crimes who calleth this cruelty or injustice The greatness of the offence is in this case judged to justifie the extraordinariness of the punishment 2. What injustice can it be in God to be ever exacting satisfaction to a debt which is never paid especially when the debtor hath also refused his pardon for it Suppose one of us hath a debtor who oweth us a great sum of Money we offer him that if he will come to us and upon his knees but ask pardon we will forgive him the debt he refuseth we lay him up in Prison still he payeth us nothing Which of us counteth it unjust to keep this wretch in Prison as long as we can The reason why we do not for ever keep him in Prison is because that neither we nor he are of eternal duration If indeed the suffering of the sinner a Thousand Ten thousand years did give any satisfaction to God this were unjust But who counteth a debtors lying in a Gaol any payment of or satisfaction for his debt There are two things may be said of every sin which should make the thoughts of sin very dreadful to every understanding Christian 1. That all the holy actions of all the men in the world cannot make God amends for one sin It is a true saying of Drexellius Omnium bonorum sanctae actiones unius lethalis noxae pondere superantur 2. That the severest punishment which any poor wretch can suffer for sin cannot give God satisfaction for the least sin 3. What pretence can there be of charging God with unjustice for continuing a punishment upon that sinner that continueth his impenitency If a sinner in everlasting torments indeed either ever could or did repent there might possibly be some pretence for this imputation of injustice to God or at least something might be colourably said to derogate from the goodness and mercy of God in not delivering him from those torments Though that Text Rev. 16.9 11 possibly be not to be understood of Hell yet you have in it a true picture of such as are under the condemnation of it When the fourth and fifth Angels poured out their vials and had power to scorch men with fire it is said vers 9 That they were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God which had power over those plagues and repented not to give him glory And again vers 11 They blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds I say these two verses give you as to this thing a true picture of Hell Sinners are there plagued and scorched with heat but they repent not to give glory to God Had they in this life repented they had never come into those flames In that state indeed there is no place no means for repentance nor hath any sufferer there any heart for it Non decebat justitiam dei poenitere non poenitentium injustitiae humanae It did not become the justice of God to repent as to their punishment who never repent of their own injustice and unrighteousness What man pitieth a person laid in Gaol for contriving Treason against his Prince or Country Because he continueth there whiles even in Prison he goes on to revile and threaten and act what mischief is in his power under his circumstances And will not so much as say that he hath done amiss nor beg his Princes pardon This is the case of the damned soul in this life he sinned but refused to repent though he was often called to and admonished to repent God throws him for his sin continued in impenitently into Hell there he repenteth not he saith not so much as I have sinned Lord have mercy upon me Is God think you unjust in keeping this hardened stubborn and impenitent sinner in an eternal Prison In this the sinner is like to the Devil and to his evil Angels as the Saints in the resurection are made like to the good Angels so sinners are like to the evil Angels The Devils never repent they never say what have we done they never ask God pardon no more do sinners that are once condemned to a fellowship and society with them for ever 4. What injustice can there be in God never to cease from punishing that sinner who never ceaseth from his acts of sin I shall not here concern my self in that question whether the blasphemies of the damned be sins yea or no For my own part I see no reason why they should not be called sins they are the acts of rational creatures contrary to the Law of God If the sinner had in this life ceased to do evil he had never come in those torments if he ceased not to sin in this life I ask when he ceased or by what other name we can call the blasphemies of damned souls because of their torments than that of sins against God If they be sins I say damned souls never cease to sin Are not the blasphemies of the Devils sins And are not the blasphemies of damned souls of the same nature But I will not enlarge upon this for it hath a great cognation to the former 5. If it were not unjust with God to annex the penalty of eternal destruction to his threatning against sin it cannot be unjust with him having enacted a Law under such a penalty to execute it The truth of this dependeth upon this principle That it can be no injustice to put a just Law in execution which is so plain as that it demonstrateth it self to every mans reason For what is Justice in the execution or practice of it but the putting of just laws in execution Besides what is necessary cannot be unjust Hath the Lord spoken it and shall he not do it saith the Prophet God having enacted such a Law and affixed such a threatning to it is concerned in truth to give being to the execution of it So that all I have to do is to evince
the wisdom and justice of God in making such a Law which will appear to you if you please to consider 1. The influence which it hath upon those who shall be saved as a means to bring them to Heaven this appeareth from that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.11 We knowing the terrors of the Lord perswade men as also from the frequent use which both our Saviour and his Apostles make of this argument to deter men from sin and to engage them to that duty which they owe unto God in the performance of which they shall obtain everlasting life and salvation John Baptist useth it Matt. 3.7 Our Saviour useth it Matt. 25. The Apostle useth it 1 Thes 1.10 and in many other places of Scripture 2. Such a Law hath undoubtedly a great influence upon the worst of men and keepeth them in awe so as they dare not be so vile as they otherwise would be I have told you of that Heathen who is reported to have said That if God had not established death by his Law it was yet so necessary for mankind that it had been reason that Governours should have established some Law to have determined mens lives at such or such times The Heathens knew nothing of the Revelation of Gods Will as to the eternal destruction of any but saw such a sanction so necessary for the rule and government of the World that they figured such a thing a place where thirsty Tantalus should have rivers just washing up to his lips and yet he should not be able to drink of them where weary Sisyphus should be always labouring to roll a stone up the hill for which he should never be able to find a resting-place The Heathens saw the necessity of frighting the world with a Sanction for eternal punishments for the punishment of wickedness It is a saying of Cicero Itaque ut aliqua in vita formido improbis esset posita apud infero ejusmodi quaedam supplicia impiis antique constituta esse voluerunt quod videbant his remotis non esse mortem ipsam pertimescendam Orat. 4. in Catilinam That is That wicked men might in this life have upon them some fear of punishment the Ancients would have some punishments appointed in Hell for they saw that without this even death it self would not be feared Hence it was that Origen one of the Ancients though as he had many other errors he thought the punishment of the damned should one day have an end yet as they say he would never openly publish his opinion being aware what a deluge of wickedness it would let in upon the world I would offer it to any reasonable mans thoughts to consider what less than a threatening of eternal destruction could be in prudence judged to bear any proportion to the impetuous lust of rage and passion that disturbeth humane nature Governors affix to their Laws the penalties of perpetual imprisonment banishment whippings brandings burning hanging hanging drawing and quartering we see this is not sufficient hundreds of persons throughout England in a year are cut off notwithstanding these Laws and these punishments It is true some hope of escaping and not being detected may a little encourage but this is not the main they know if the worst comes that can come it is but exercising patience for an hour or two and they are out of their misery I appeal to every considerate persons judgment whether he doth not think that if the aw of an eternal destruction were of the world the world would not be a Thousand times more full of Traytors Murtherers Blasphemers Adulterers Thieves Defiers of all Divine and humane Laws than it is at this day though it be now full enough if they do not think so their thoughts are very shallow and they will be at a loss to tell us how the Christianized parts of the world are more civil and have fewer of these exorbitancies than are to be found amongst Indians and Barbarians if they do think the world would be much worse I would fain know of them whether the establishing a law for the eternal destruction of sinners were not both just and a piece of infinite Wisdom in God Now if it were just for God to establish such a Law I am sure it must be a piece of distributive Justice in God to put it in execution yea and his truth must be also concerned in it he hath spoken it and he must do it for he cannot alter the thing that hath gone out of his lips It is I think reasonably said by an ingenious Author That it more concerneth the glory of God to keep many from sin than to keep a few from Hell The Glory of God is far more highly his concern than the salvation of particular persons Gods Glory is more advanced by the restraint of sin in the universality of mankind than it is hindred by the damnation of any part of them And methinks we might without any great difficulty agree this when-as it appeareth both by our Laws and the daily proceedings of our Courts of Judicatory we agree it to be more for the publick good of a Nation that the Government and Laws of a Nation should be maintained than that the lives of hundreds of Traytors Murtherers Thieves and other miscreants that are disturbers of humane polities and societies should be preserved 3. But this is further advantaged from the consideration That this righteous Sanction of eternal destruction is executed under the Gospel upon none to whom it hath not been a mean before to keep them from it I have told you that as to those ordained to life it is a means to preserve them from wrath to come to hear of it the Ministers of the Lord knowing the terrors of the Lord perswade men and by the consideration and the hearing of these terrors as by a partial mean they are brought into a state opposite to it a state of eternal joy and felicity To the whole of mankind it is a mean to restrain them from sin I now add that these poor wretches who at last drop into the Pit as the demerit of their sins continued in without repentance have or might have formerly heard of it denounced against them as a means to keep them from it and to bring them to an eternal felicity Now doth man judge it a righteous thing having made and promulged Laws to his Subjects telling them what shall be judged Treason and what shall be the punishment of a Traytor and therefore promulged his Laws that they might take heed of Treasons Murthers or other enormous crimes If afterwards they will commit them that his Law should be rigorously executed upon them to the confiscation of their goods the depriving them of their liberties yea and lives too I say doth man thus judge and shall we think it an unrighteous thing with God when he doth not surprize sinners in their heaps of sin but publisheth his Law in his word promulgeth it by Ministers
and therefore publisheth it that men and women might be by the terrors of the Lord persuaded and warned to flee from the wrath that is to come and take heed of having their portion in that place where the worm never dieth and the fire never goeth out yet notwithstanding in defiance of the authority of God and in the contempt of his Law they will go on and take no warning to execute this Law upon them To conclude this Meditation to execute a just Law can be no injustice no cruelty and in God it is necessary to vindicate both his authory and truth This Law of eternal destruction as the punishment of sin considered in its first establishment was a just Law Just because a means to bring many to Heaven because an universal mean and most prudential and almost alone effectual to restrain sin in the world and because it was first a mean to preserve them from the pit who at last through their own choice stubbornness and wilfulness do fall into it It is therefore impossible that it should be any injustice in God to put this Law in execution to punish impenitent and incorrigible sinners with eternal destruction 6. The proportion which Justice is to observe and adjust betwixt a punishment and an enormous sinful act is by no means to be measured by comparing the time or degree of pleasure which the sinner hath had for his sinning or in his sinful act but by comparing the punishment either with the dignity of the person injured and contemned or with the damage done by the offence or with the malice treachery and perfidiousness of the person offending It must be acknowledged that distributive justice is to observe a proportion betwixt the punishment and the nature of the offence And upon this true principle it is that this objection these reasonings of ours against the justice of God in the eternal destruction of sinners do proceed But I say 1. This Proportion is not to be measured either by the time the sinner hath had to commit his sins in or by the degree of pleasure which the sinner hath had in his inordinate sinful actions That 's all which the caviller in this point against Divine Justice hath here to say What proportion is there between the sins of a few years and eternal destruction being tormented in Hell Ten thousand times ten thousand years But who amongst men measureth thus the proportion of any punishment to any kind of offences amongst men The Murtherer hath killed his neighbour the Traytor his Prince his work was done in a small part of an hour it may be very few days were taken up either in the contrivance or execution of his design Doth justice require that the time of these Malefactors Imprisonment or torture in Death should not exceed the time of the contrivance or execution of their sin who ever so judged There is nothing more ordinary in Philosophy than to say that distributive Justice ought to proceed according to Geometrical proportion between persons and things not according to an Arithmetical proportion observed in dealings between man and man The measure then of a sinful action is not to be taken from the duration or continuance of a sinful Act. But 1. From the dignity of the person offended injured and contemned He that murthereth his Prince is punished otherwise and more severely than he who murthereth his equal By Gods Law if the Daughter of the High Priest committed uncleanness she was to be burned Levit. 21.9 So was not every one who was an adulteress but she had defiled her father and therefore was not to dye an ordinary death It is only said he that curseth his father or mother shall dye Levit. 20.9 In our Law If a person murthereth his equal or inferiour he or she shall be hanged they shall dye the ordinary death of malefactors but if the Woman murthereth her Husband the Child his Parent the Servant his Master they shall be burned if the Traytor murthereth his Soveraign he shall be hanged drawn and quartered The injury is done to their superiors Now there is not so great a disproportion betwixt the greatest Emperor and the meanest Villain in the world as there is betwixt the great God of Heaven and Earth and his creature Nor is there so great a disproportion betwixt hanging burning and torturing to death and eternal punishment as there is betwixt an infinite and a finite being Sin taketh an infiniteness from the infiniteness of that God against whom it is committed And so is objective infinitum objectively infinite so as there is no disproportion though the punishment be as they say durative infinita infinite in duration The durative infiniteness of the punishment is adequated to the objective infiniteness of sin 2. Sin is to be measured by the damage it doth to the person injured or to the publick Upon this principle of Reason proceedeth another reason of different punishments He that meerly curseth or speaketh evil of his Prince shall not be punished as he that murthereth him Now sin wrongeth God infinite ways In his Soveraignty The sinner saith God hath no Authority over me no power no right to command me my thoughts are free I will think what I list my tongue is my own I will speak God hath nothing to do with me it wrongeth God in his holiness it says the Laws of God are not holy it wrongeth him in his Omniscience Omnipotence All sufficiency in his Justice in his Wisdom in all his Attributes It were a great work to shew you how many ways sin wrongeth God it is intensive infinitum intensively infinite and therefore a punishment of an infinite extension is but proportioned unto it I pass over the injury done by it to man as not to be compared with this 3. Sin is to be measured by the falshood treachery malice and perfidiousness of the person offending Hence the traytor the rebellious child the bloody wife and servant are more severely punished than others that do the same things to other persons because they violate a trust and shew the greatest treachery and perfidiousness Iniquity takes the greater heinousness from the greatest obligations to the contrary duty Now in all sinning against God there are the greatest failers of faith and duty the greatest abuses of love and goodness imaginable So as if we thus take our measures justice keeps but a due geometrical proportion in the eternal punishment of the momentary sins of sinners for as is the punishment to the offence so is the party offended to the party offending As the punishment is without end infinite whereas the sins were momentary and temporary so the party offended was infinite and the sinner who dared to defie infinite Majesty and disobey an infinitely great and glorious God was but a finite worm As is the injury in sinning to a man so is the vengeance in punishment to the sin Man is a poor pitiful worm but by sin he doth an
infinite wrong to God it cannot be expressed how he dishonoureth God there is no measuring the depth of the guilt in sin Sin is indeed a finite thing but it is punished with an infinite punishment proportioned well enough to the infinite wrong done to the Divine being by it Let this be a sixth Demonstration of the justice of God 7. The justice of God in the eternal punishment of finite temporary sins is cleared in this That the sinner hath sinned in suo aeterno in his eternity There is in every sinner infinita voluntas peccandi a will to sin infinitely and without end This I remember a learned Author calleth pessimam adhaesionem peccati one of the worst circumstances of sin That the sinner doth not sin eternally is from Gods quicker cutting asunder the thred of his life had the thred of a sinners life run out to eternity he would have sinned to eternity Suppose one amongst the damned who had not spent above twenty or thirty years in the world in sinning I would appeal to the judgement of any deliberate man whether this man would not willingly have lived fifty sixty or an hundred years and if he therefore did not desire to live so long that he might take his fill of sin satiate himself with his lusts he who saith otherwise must charge God with damning a soul who he knew would have repented if God would have suffered him to have lived long enough and can any entertain such a thought of God If the sinner had lived for ever he would have gone on in his sins for ever then there was in him a kind of infiniteness in willing sin This account of the justice of God in the eternal destruction of sinners is given us by Greg. Mag. I will give you his words in English They who cavil saith he at the justice of God in this speak right if the just Judge of the whole earth did not proceed against men as well for their thoughts as their actions wicked mens sins are therefore finite because their lives are so They would have lived eternally that they might have sinned eternally for they more desire to sin than to live and therefore they desire to live always that they might never cease to sin Gr. Mag. mor. l. 4. c. 18. It is therefore righteous with God that their punishment should never end whose sinful hearts knew no end in their willingness and lustings to sin The sinner hath no end as to Divine Vengeance because as long as he could he would know no term in sinning It is not just with man to punish the intentions and motions of the heart because he can but guess at them he cannot certainly know them till they appear by some overt actions Our Law makes it treason to imagine the death of the King indeed the Traytor is not punished till his imagination be discovered by some overt words or actions by which alone man can judge of intentions and imaginations but to shew us how just even man sometimes judgeth it especially in some great crimes to punish intentions very small overt actions will sometimes serve to judge of the counsels designes and intentions of a malefactors heart 8. The justice of God in punishing sinners with everlasting destruction is apparent by his proposal of an eternal reward to the greatest sinners if they will repent and turn unto him God setteth before every sinner an eternal life as well as an eternal death the sinner maketh his choice he chooseth death rather than life so as the proportion of Justice in the punishment is justified by the proportion of the reward offered in case the sinner would leave his sins and turn unto God This account Aquinas gives of the justice of God in this particular The sinner saith he refuseth and putteth from him an infinite good and despiseth an unchangeable good for things that are mutable Gods punishments are no greater nor of longer duration than his rewards are which are proposed to the same persons if they would have turned from their sins that they might have lived 9. Who can so much as in a secret thought charge God with injustice in the eternal punishment of a sinner who remembreth that God for the sin of man laid a punishment upon an infinite person who was the Son of his eternal love and this the Apostle saith Rom. 3.26 Was to declare his righteousness To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus Now in this we are so far from quarrelling at the justice of God that there is no Christian that doth not adore and admire it what is the difference There God punished an infinite person for a time here he punisheth finite persons in an infinity of time that what they cannot suffer in the intension of their suffering they might be ever doing in the extension of time yea and this difference more is observable God in punishing his Son laid our iniquities upon another here the sinner beareth none but his own burthen and doth but suffer the punishment due to his own iniquity Now if we will quarrel at Gods righteousness in this loading of his own Son with the burthen of his wrath we quarrel at the highest contrivement of Divine and Infinite Wisdom for the salvation of men yet it is much more reasonable to dispute that than the justice of God in the eternal personal punishment of a sinner It is the saying of Nierembergius Illud mihi videtur ridiculum mirari Divinam severitatem in aeterna scelestorum punitione nec intendere infinitam illam justitiam in innocentia unigeniti dilecti sui Quid mirum torqueri in aeternum scelestos pro peccatis suis si passus est pro alienis justissimus Dei filius Qui potuit sustinere sine contumelia suae bonitatis charissimum natum una hora pati injuste multo melius tolerabit aeternis injustos suppliciis affligi justissime Nieremb It to me saith he seemeth ridiculous to admire at Divine severity in the eternal punishment of wicked men and not to attend to that infinite justice in the innocency of his only beloved Son What wonder is it that wicked men should be for ever tormented for their own sins if the most righteous son of God suffered for the sins of others He that without a reproach to his goodness could endure his most dear Son to suffer so long as one hour will much better endure unjust sinners to be tormented with eternal punishment 10. Lastly It is the greatest error and madness imaginable for any soul to dream of mercy in God after the contempt and despising of his goodness and mercy to a final impenitency What is Divine goodness and mercy but the will of God inclining him to do good to miserable creatures This we say is to be found in God and that to an infinite degree and is abundantly seen in his long-suffering and forbearance of them
the meritorious cause If indeed God did either condemn any righteous person or were any way obliged to give out effectual grace to all and did not this indeed would argue unrighteousness with God but he doth neither of these his wrath will indeed one day be revealed against them to whom Christ and his Gospel were never revealed to whom grace sufficient to bring them to Heaven and Eternal life was never given but it shall never be revealed but as the Apostle saith against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men now certainly God cannot be unrighteous in punishing unrighteousness or ungodliness If God indeed were a debtor for his grace to his creature he might be charged with unrighteousness if he did not give it out but he doth not deal out death and destruction but as a wages nor Salvation and Eternal life but as free gift Who asketh a reason why August Caesar did not bestow gifts upon all his Courtiers in proportion with those bestowed on Maecenas We may say of God as to all his dispensations of grace Placuit hoc satis est ubi non aliud jus aut ratio ipsa voluntas jus ratio est that is It so pleased God that is enough where there is no other right or reason the very will of God is Law and reason enough Besides if the distributions of Divine grace were equal how should God to any shew forth the riches of his Grace Let me but acquaint you with a passage of Augustine upon this Argument Doest thou ask saith he why grace is not given to all according to desert I answer because God is merciful you will say Why is not God merciful to all I answer saith he because he is just In this saith he that grace is given freely he sheweth what grace doth and worketh in those to whom it is given Let us not therefore be unthankful to God that according to the good pleasure of his will and for the praise of the glory of his grace he hath delivered us from so great a death whereas if he should deliver none yet he would not be unjust Let him therefore who is delivered love grace let him who is not delivered acknowledg justice if Divine goodness be understood in remitting the debt Justice also may be understood in exacting of it no way is there any iniquity found with God But you will say then Why is there in the case of Infants yea of Twins such a difference Is it not saith he the like Question why in a diverse cause there is the same judgment and the Workmen in the Vineyard who wrought the whole day had but a Penny as they had who had wrought but one hour The Case was different the judgment the same they murmured what saith the Master of the Vineyard to them Volo I will make the last like unto the first Thus because bounty was shewed to some there was no iniquity toward others so far as respecteth Justice and Grace As to the guilty person that is saved God saith I will As to others he saith Take what is thy own and go thy way I will give unto this man that which I do ow unto him Is thine eye evil because mine is good If he shall say and why not unto me Here he shall hear Who art thou who disputest with God Whom thou findest as to one man a bountiful giver as to another a just exactor as to none at all unjust for whereas he should be just if he should punish both he that is saved hath indeed reason to give thanks he that is damned hath no cause to find fault I wish all those who so talk of Fathers would shew us that they were the Children of this ancient Father to whom that name is usefully given But I come to the Application of this discourse 1. Vse In the first place let this Caution you against an hasty listing your selves in the Number of those who so cry up Vniversal grace and a sufficiency of the means of grace for all both the means of purchase and of Application I must confess it is a plausible point and appears to us very pleasing as well as reasonable that God should not punish any nor condemn any to whom he hath not given a sufficiency of grace and assistances in order to their Salvation but as smooth and plausible as it appeareth take heed of too hasty imbracing it it leadeth to strange notions in Divinity as you may partly learn from this discourse the maintaining ordinatam sufficientiam an ordained sufficiency for we are not now speaking of the value of the merits of the blood of Christ in it self in the Death of Christ for all those who shall perish as well as for those who shall be saved it will lead you either to deny that Christ's death was any purchase at all or to affirm that Christ purchased a possibility for some to be saved but under an impossible condition let it be Natural or Moral the absurdity is the same for so it must be if there were an Eternal Election or except man hath a power of himself to repent and believe c. And the maintaining of a sufficiency of grace given to all for the Application of Salvation will lead you to maintain That there is a Salvation may be had without a Christ That the Heathens may be saved by the light of Nature And that any Christians may be saved without any special operation of the Spirit of grace indeed without any grace at all taken in a strict and proper sence Doctrines of that consequence that although it may be possible that those who hold such things may be saved as having some further work of God upon their hearts than they understand and will own yet I fear it will be found impossible that any who have tasted the grace of God no further should ever come in the Kingdom of God Let not therefore the smoothness and plausibility of such notions in the sound of them deceive any of you for it is but a sound and no more And if the consequences of those notions be throughly considered and examined they will be found at last to bottome in such strange notions and apprehensions of the Nature of God as do no way sute the perfect nature of the Divine and Supreme being and what the Scripture revealeth concerning God yea and the very light of Nature and natural reason will evince it to us upon the Hypothesis of Gods being the first and Supreme being and the Fountain of all good and the Lord Jesus Christ's being Eternal God and equal with the Father 2. Vse This discourse calleth once more aloud unto all To walk up to the light which they have Though we deny that God giveth unto all yea that he giveth to any unless such as are ordained unto life a sufficiency of grace and gracious assistances in order to their eternal Salvation yet we say God granteth to all though in very different degrees
provoke them unto love and good works Yet it is observable that such Christians do grow by a kind of spiritual Antiperistasis as they say the fire is hottest in the coldest weather so we often see that there is a great warmth and zeal against sin and for God nourished in those souls which have been most smothered and choaked with ill relations and company which discovereth it self as soon as those persons are freed from those intanglements and incumbrances but while they are troubled with them this growth is not so evident nor do we constantly find Grace thriving under such ill shadows so prone are our corrupt natures to receive contrary impressions and nothing so much as converse exposing us to the reception of them So that this is like an ill air to the Body which often hindreth the growth of it 4. Fourthly As the growth of the Body is hindred by some diseases the growth of a plant by some canker or some ill winds or by the check which it may have by the bitings of some beasts So may the growth of Grace in the Soul be much hindered 1. By the prevailings of some particular corruptions 2. Or by the wounds which the Soul receiveth from some temptations It is true There are some sicknesses in which persons shoot out and by which they are rather advantaged than hindered in their growth but there are other habituated distempers which hinder the growth of young persons There is no prevailing corruption but giveth a check to a growth in Grace though sometimes the prevailing of it doth by accident promote Grace in its exercise as it was with the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.11 But prevailing Lusts do wonderfully hinder proficiency in Grace To instance but in that one lust of Earthly mindedness Let but an earthly covetous mind prevail upon any it is a wonderful thing to observe how it checks all spirtual progress it betrayeth a Christian to so many practical errors both of omission and commission that his neighbour standing by and observing him cannot but cry out in the words of the Apostle How dwelleth the love of God in this man Though they see much in him which disposeth them to charitable thoughts and makes them that they cannot but conclude he is one that feareth God yet they know not how to reconcile the actions of his life to what the Scripture speaketh of the nature of grace Yea and long and violent temptations do also much hinder the souls growth They are like cold winds or the bitings of beasts to the plants which discourage the growth of them though they be not internal causes yet they are external causes of the plants unthriftiness So it is with long and violent temptations they indeed do not work as internal causes I mean such temptations as are ab hoste from our grand adversary to hinder a Christians growth but they are great external causes discouraging the soul in almost all its exercises of Communion with God and applications of it self unto him 5. Lastly Any Desertions or with-drawings of divine influences are great causes There are few plants which grow much in the shade ordinarily the influences of heaven both of the Sun and the Rain are necessary to the growth of the plants I am sure the influences of the Sun of righteousness are necessary to the spiritual growth of a good Christian and if they be with-drawn though the soul may live yet during the with-holdings of them it will not much grow or thrive The soul will live during the with-drawing of them for I have once and again told you that the Lord never withdraweth what of his spiritual influence upon the soul is necessary to uphold and maintain the spiritual union and life but no soul flourisheth and increaseth much under such a dispensation it standeth in the shadow and wanteth those beams which are necessary to its bearing and bringing forth much fruit These now are the great causes of that variety which we discern in Christians Growth other causes might be assigned but this is sufficient supposing God to have appointed the use of means in order to a spiritual growth and ordinarily to concurre with the use of those means to justifie Divine Providence in not equally making every Soul to grow There is yet one Question more which indeed doth not properly concern this place in which I am to discourse concerning the Reasonableness of Divine Providence in the inequal distributions of special distinguishing Grace yet I shall speak something too viz. 6th Quest Whence it is that good People have such different Apprehensions of the Truth of God 1. That which makes the difficulty in the Apprehension of this is 1. Partly Because there is but one Truth one Faith as well as one God one Baptism c. Two contradictory Propositions cannot be true nor can both proceed from the God of Truth for the same Fountain doth not send forth bitter Water and sweet One and the same God cannot speak different things God is Truth and every Truth is from God no lie no falshood cannot possibly be from God 2. Partly Because all the People of God have the same Spirit of God which is called the Spirit of Truth dwelling in them and are under the same Promise of this Holy Spirit leading them into all truth and the Annointings teaching them all things 3. Again They have all the same word of truth to guide them and to examine and measure Propositions by they have the Law and the Testimony and that is the Standard in the Market of Truth the Touch-stone by which every Proposition is to be tryed the Scale in which every Proposition is to be weighed Yet notwithstanding this There is nothing more obvious than that even such who if we may judge any thing do truly fear God have strangely different apprehensions concerning Divine Truth concerning the Sacraments the use of the Law the extent of the Death of Christ the power of mans Will the true notion of Faith c. Now the question is Whence this variety is why God permitteth it and how the motions of Divine Providence in these things may appear just and reasonable I shut out of this Discourse the different Apprehensions of Carnal wicked and ungodly men whose Creed is commonly dictated by their lust and their whole art and study is because they cannot allow the conforming of their hearts to Divine Truth to endeavour to interpret the Word of God into a fense consistent with their lusts as also all such as the Apostle speaketh of whom because they received not the truth in the love of it God gives up to strong delusions to believe a lie that they may be damned because they have had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.9 10 11 12. or because as the Astle speaketh Rom. 1. They have detained the truth of God in unrighteousness I say for all these I shall shut them out of my Discourse and onely inquire whence such as truly love and