but we must represent God to our minds under a more lovely and charming Character as the Universal Parent who has a tender and compassionate regard for all his Creatures Who does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men who corrects us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness and proportions the severity of his Discipline either to the ends of Publick Government or to our Spiritual wants Such an Idea of Providence as this will reconcile us even to Sufferings when we know they are good for us and intended for our good When we know that it is a kind hand which strikes we shall kiss the Rod and submit to Correction with as equal a mind as we do to the prescription of a Physician how severe the methods of cure are Were our minds thoroughly possessed with this belief how easy would it make us under some of the most severest trials Nothing indeed can make pain easy for that is matter of sense but a good perswasion of the Providence of God will fortify our minds to bear it and that is much the same thing whether our pains be less or our minds stronger But as for other Afflictions which depend very much upon Opinion and afflict us more or less as we apprehend them a firm belief of the Wisdom and Goodness of God who inflicts them on us will in a great measure cure the pain and trouble of them We have it may be lost some part of our Estates a dear Friend or near Relation a Child it may be an only Child but all these are uncertain Comforts and when the case is doubtful whether it be good for us or not we ought in all reason to acquiesce in the Divine Will and conclude that is best for us which God does because he is infinitely wiser than we are and more concerned for our happiness if we will make a wise use of his Providence than we our selves are Nay this will teach us an implicit faith in God beyond our own prospect of things though we can no more guess the reasons of our Sufferings than Iob could yet while we believe God to be wise and good we are secure a wise God can never mistake and a good God will consult our happiness and that is reason enough in the most difficult and perplext cases to submit patiently to Providence Secondly There is a submission also due to the Will of God with respect to the several states conditions and relations of life which the Divine Providence hath placed us in We can no more chuse our own state and condition of life than we can chuse when and where to be born what our Parents shall be how they shall educate us and dispose of us in the world what success we shall have what Friends or what Enemies we shall meet with what Changes and Revolutions we shall see either in our private Fortunes or in publick Affairs Nothing of all this is at our own choice and therefore whatever our Circumstances are any farther than it is our own fault they are not imputable to us Now since we cannot chuse our own Fortune nor order Events as we please the only submission we can owe to God in such cases is humbly to acquiesce in what God does and faithfully to discharge the duties which belong to that state and condition and circumstances of life which the Providence of God has placed us in This is to submit to the Providential Will of God to submit to the disposals of Providence and to submit to God's disposal is to act in that sphere and station which Providence assigns us and to comply with the Laws of it And thus the Providence of God though it be not the rule of our Actions yet may change our duty and must do so as it changes our condition for every condition and relation having peculiar duties belonging to it our duty must change as our condition does The duties of Princes and Subjects of Magistrates and private Men of a low and mean and of an exalted and plentiful Fortune of Parents and Children of Masters and Servants are of a very different nature and as these relations change our duty must change with them and when we conform our selves to our condition we submit to Providence which gives us no new rules of life but may impose new duties on us by putting us into a new state This ought to be carefully considered because there are dangerous extreams on both sides Some think the visible appearances of Providence are sufficient to alter our duty without changing our state and relations that the Successes of Providence will justify such Actions as neither the Laws of God nor men will justify and that to serve Providence when a fair opportunity is put into their hands they may dispence with the most known and unquestionable duties Others have such a just abhorrence of this which overturns all Divine and Human Laws that they run into the contrary extream and for fear of allowing that Providence can change our duty and alter the nature of good and evil they will not allow that Providence can so much as change our relations and state of life and with such a change of our condition change our duty For no man can deny but that if our condition and relations are changed our duty must change too To give a plain Example of this When Saul pursued David and God delivered Saul into David's hands while he was asleep in the Cave The men of David said unto him behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou mayst do to him as it shall seem good to thee Here is an Argument from Providence to justify David's killing Saul whom God had so wonderfully delivered into his hands but David did not think that Providence would justify him against a Divine Law Providence gave him an opportunity to kill Saul but the Divine Law forbad him to take it for Saul was his King still and he was his Subject And therefore He said unto his men the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Lord 's anointed 1 Sam. 24. 4 6. The same Answer David gave to Abishai when he found Saul the second time sleeping in the Trench And Abishai said to David God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day now therefore let me smite him I pray thee with the spear even to the earth at once and I will not smite him the second time And David said to Abishai destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless 1 Sam. 26. 8 9. Providence had not unkinged Saul nor made David King that is it had not altered the relation and therefore could not absolve him from the duties of his relation from those duties which a Subject owes to his
thus it is whenever God sees fit to interpose which he does as often as he has any wise end to serve by it Thus we are told That when a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him 16. Prov. 7. And it is a very remarkable Promise God makes to the Children of Israel that when all their Males should come Three times every Year to Worship God at Ierusalem by which means their Country was left without defence exposed to the Rapine of their Enemies who dwelt round about them That no man should desire their land when they go up to appear before the Lord. 34. Exod. 24. We have many Examples of this in Scripture and some of those many ways whereby God does it When Abraham sojourned in Gerar he said of Sarah his Wife that she was his Sister and Abimelech the King of Gerar sent and took her but God reproved Abimelech in a dream and tells him that he had withheld him from Sinning and not suffered him to touch her 20. Genes 1. c. Thus when Iacob fled from Laban with his Wives and Children and Laban pursued him God appeared to Laban in a dream and Commanded him that he should not speak to Iacob either good or hurt 31. Genes 24. Such appearances were very common in that Age though they seem very extraordinary to us but God does the same thing still by strong and lively impressions upon our minds by suggesting and fixing such thoughts in us as excite or calm our Passions as encourage us to bold and great Attempts or check us in our career by frightful Imaginations and unaccountable Fears and Terrors or by such other Arguments as are apt to change our Purposes and Counsels Sometimes God does this by a Concurrence of External Causes which at other times would not have been effectual but shall certainly have their Effect when God inforces the impression Thus God in a moment turned the Heart of Esau when he came out in great Rage against his Brother Iacob It was an old Hatred he had conceived against him for the loss of his Birthright and of his Blessing and he had for many years confirmed himself in a resolution to cut him off the first opportunity he had to do it And could it be expected that the Present which Iacob sent him which he could have taken if he had pleased without receiving it as a Gift and that the Submission of Iacob when he was in his Power should all on a sudden make him forget all that was past and the very Business he came for and turn his bloody Designs into the kindest Embraces No! this was God's work the effect of that Blessing which the Angel gave to Iacob after a whole Nights wrestling with him in Peniel 32. and 33. Genes and when God pleases the weakest means shall change the most sullen and obstinate Resolutions Of the same nature with this is the Story of David and Abigail Nabal had highly provoked David by the churlish Answer which he sent him and David was resolved to take a very severe revenge on Nabal and his House but God sent Abigail to pacifie him who by her presence and dutiful and submissive Behaviour and wise Counsels diverted him from those bloody resolutions he had taken as David himself acknowledges Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou who hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging my self with my own hand 1 Sam. 25. 32 33. Saul pursued David in the Wilderness to take away his Life and God delivered him Twice into David's hands and the kindness David shewed him in not killing him when he was in his Power did at last turn the Heart of Saul that he pursued him no more 1 Sam. 26. 27. ch Thus God confounded the good Counsel of Ahitophel by the advice of Hushai which Absolom chose to follow and the Text tells us this was from God who had purposed to defeat the good counsel of Ahitophel to the intent that he might bring evil upon Absolom 2 Sam. 17. 14. Such an absolute Empire has God over the minds of men that he can turn them as he pleases can lead them into new thoughts and counsels with as great ease as the waters of a river may be drawn into a new Channel prepared for them 2dly When God does not think fit to change and alter mens Wills and Passions he can govern their Actions and serve the ends of his Providence by them When God suffers them to pursue their own Counsels and to do what they themselves like best he does that by their hands which they little expected or intended The same Action may serve very different Ends and therefore God and Men may have very different intentions in it and what is ill done by men and for a very ill End may be ordered by God for Wise and Good purposes Nay the ill Ends which men Designed may be Disappointed and the good which God intended by it have its Effect And this is as Absolute a Government over mens Actions as the ends of Providence require when whatever men do if they intend one thing and God another the counsel of God shall stand and what they intended shall have no effect any farther than as it is subservient to the Divine Counsels as to give some plain examples of it Ioseph's Brethren being offended at his Dreams and at the peculiar kindness which their Father Iacob shewed him resolved to get rid of him but God intended to send him into Egypt to advance him to Pharaoh's Throne and to transplant Iacob and his Family thither and therefore God would not suffer them to slay him as they at first intended but he suffered them to sell him to the Ishmaelites who carried him into Egppt which disappointed what they aimed at in it never to see or hear more of him but accomplished the Decrees and Counsels of God Another Example we have in the King of Assyria who came against Ierusalem with a powerful Army with an intention to destroy it but God intended no more than to Correct them for their Sins this God suffered him to do but he could do no more O Assyrian the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation I will send him against a hypocritical nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire in the street Thus far God gave him Commission that is thus far God intended to suffer his Rage and Pride to proceed but this was the least of his intention Howbeit he thinketh not so but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few but in this God disappointed him Wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole work
him by the Prophet Nathan I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house and I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbour and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun For thou didst it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun 2 Sam. 12. 11 12. which we know Absalom accordingly did by the Advice of Ahitophel 16. chap. 20 c. Now that God did inflict this punishment upon David is plain from the Text but that he either instigated Ahitophel to give this Counsel or Absolom to take it is not said And if God could inflict this punishment on David without having any hand in the sin it is no reflection on the Holiness of Providence All that God expresly says he would do in the case was to put David's Wives into Absalom's power I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbour and then foretells what the effect of this would be and what he intended to permit for his punishment He shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun There was no evil in so ordering the matter that when David fled he should leave his Wives behind him which put them into Absalom's power and then God foresaw what Counsel Ahitophel would give and how ready Absalom would be to take it unless he hindered it which he decreed not to do in punishment of David's Adultary And thus to order the permission for such an end though it has nothing of the guilt of the sin yet entitles God to the event considered as a punishment upon which account God may be said to do this before all Israel and before the sun Thus when Shimei cursed David as he fled from Ierusalem David takes notice of God's hand in it and would no suffer Abishai to cut him off Let him Curse because the Lord hath said unto him curse David 2 Sam. 16. 10. But evey one sees that this must be a figurative expression for it is not true in the literal sense God never commanded Shimei to curse David nor did David believe in a literal sense that he did for then he would not have imputed the guilt of it to him Whereas we know though he had sworn to Shimei at his return when he came to meet him that he would not put him to death yet he left it in his dying Charge to Solomon not to hold him guiltless 1 Kings 2. 8 9. But when David said The Lord hath bidden him curse all that he meant by it or could mean by it is no more but this That the sad Calamity which the Providence of God had brought on him by the Rebellion of his Son Absalom had given free scope to Shimei's old and inveterate hatred of him and as effectually let loose his reviling Tongue as if God had in express words commanded him to curse David And therefore he patiently submits to this as part of his punishment and a very inconsiderable part when compared with the Rebellion of his Son Absalom which gave this confidence to Shimei to curse his King Behold my son which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life how much more now may this Benjamite do it 10. v. This is no more than what David elsewhere complains of That God had made him the song of the Drunkards For Bad men will take all the advantages which the Providence of God gives them to reproach and scorn and persecute the Good there needs no other command for this but a fair opportunity to do it Some object God's giving power to Satan first over the Goods and then over the Body of Iob excepting his life And God's permitting a lying Spirit to enter into Ahab's Prophets to persuade him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead But wherein the Objection lies I cannot tell for I suppose they will not say That God by permitting the Devil to hurt and to deceive made him a malicious and lying Spirit Those are very unreasonable Objectors who will not allow God to make use of the Ministry of wicked Spirits to wise and good ends without charging him with their sins too But God himself tell us That when a Prophet is deceived he hath deceived him now how is it reconcilable with the Holiness of his Nature or Providence to deceive 14. Ezek. 9. And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing I the Lord have deceived that prophet and I will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel Now to this it is commonly answered That God permits a Lying Spirit to possess such Prophets as he did in the Case of Ahab for he only speaks here of the Prophets of Baal such Prophets as he would cut off for their Lying Prophesies and how does it unbecome God to give up the Worshippers of Evil Spirits their Priests and Prophets to be inspired and deceived by them No true Worshipper of God was under any temptation to be deceived by them because they were not the Prophets of God and God had always his own Prophets among them to warn them against such lying Prophesies Nay it was the fault of these Prophets that they were deceived themselves for they did know that they did not receive their Prophesies from the Lord but from the Heathen Idols or that they were their own Inventions and when they chose to worship strange gods and to consult their Oracles or to divine out of their own hearts they chose to be deceived and therefore God threatens They shall bear the punishment of their iniquity the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him 10. v. We have a large account of these Prophets and severe Judgments denounced against them 13. Ezek. who are said to prophesy out of their own hearts and to follow their own spirits when they had seen nothing to see a vain vision and speak a lying divination and sometimes to attribute it to God too they say The Lord saith it albeit I have not spoken Now this Character the Prophet Ezekiel gives of these Lying Prophets inclines me to a very different sense of these words which seems plain and easy Not that God deceived them to prophesy Lies but that God deceived them in the event They deceived themselves into vain visions either by giving themselves over to Idolatry which betrayed them to the delusions of wicked Spirits or by heating their Imaginations into Enthusiastick Frensies and prophesying their own Hopes and Politick Guesses which is called prophesying out of their own hearts and following their own spirits and then God deceived all their Hopes and Expectations by bringing those evils on them which they with great assurance and confidence said should never come And the words plainly favour this sense God does not say If a prophet be deceived to speak a thing I the Lord have deceived him But if a
Providence will and can have no effect upon us The Psalmist complains of those wicked men who regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands 28. Psal. 5. And a great many such there are who have a general notion and belief of a Providence but take no notice of what God does or take no notice of God in what is done Most men are too apt to attribute all Events to the immediate and visible Causes and though at other times they will own a God and a Providence yet as to particular Events take as little notice of God as if he had nothing to do in it Such a belief of Providence as this is of no use at all in Religion it neither gives glory to God nor has any influence upon the government of our lives But if we will own Providence to the true ends and purposes of Religion we must not content our selves with a general belief of God's governing the world but whatever our state and condition be or whatever extraordinary good or evil happens to us we must receive all as from the Hand of God If we are poor we must own this to be God's will and appointment that we should be poor if we be rich we must consider that it is God's Blessing which maketh rich if we lose our Estates by Injustice and Oppression we must acknowledge as Iob did The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away And whatever Evils and Miseries befall us we must say with good old Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Or with David I was dumb and opened not my mouth because it is thy doings Without believing God's government of all Events we deny a particular Providence and unless at the very time when any good or evil befals us we see and acknowledge God's hand in it we can have no present affecting sense of his Providence All such Acts of Providence are lost as far as our taking no notice of them can lose them God loses the glory of his Goodness Mercy Patience or Justice and we lose those Divine Comforts and Supports or those Spiritual Instructions and Admonitions which a due sense and acknowledgment of Providence would have furnished us with And therefore let us accustom our selves in all Events in the first place to take notice of God and his Providence which will teach us how to behave our selves in all Circumstances and how to make the best and wisest use of whatever happens and it was necessary to premise this for it is in vain to teach men their duty to Providence till they have learnt to attribute all particular Events to the Providence of God and to live under a constant sense and regard of it 2dly When we have thus affected our minds with a just sense of the Divine Providence in every thing that befalls us we must in the next place take care to compose our Souls to a quiet and humble submission to the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of God in all things All men confess that it is our duty to submit to the Will of God and if all the Events of Providence are God's doings and what God does is his Will as the Scripture assures us it is and Reason tells us it must be unless God does any thing against his own Will then we must submit to the Providential Will of God in all Events as well as to the Commanding Will of God in obeying his Laws The Soveraign Authority and Dominion of God requires this of us for we are his and he may dispose of our Condition and Fortune in the world as he pleases The Absolute Power of God makes it both prudent and necessary For who hath hardened himself against him and prospered that is against his Providential Will for that whole Dispute is about Providence And the Wisdom and Goodness of God makes it both reasonable and our interest to submit to him for all his Providences how severe soever they may appear are ordered for the good of those who do submit to him So that it is our duty to submit because he is our Soveraign Lord whether we will submit or no we must suffer his Will because we cannot resist his Power and there is no danger in submitting to God for he will consult our present and future Happiness and do better for us than we could chuse for our selves This is plain enough but that which I principally intend is to consider the nature and various acts of that Submission which we owe to Providence or to the Providential Will of God and I shall distinctly inquire what submission we owe to Providence under all the Evils Afflictions and Calamities of life and in those several states conditions and relations of life which the Providence of God placeth us in 1. What submission we owe to Providence under all the Sufferings and Afflictions which we meet with in this world I do not mention a happy and prosperous Fortune for it requires no great submission to be prosperous this is what all men desire and chuse but to submit is to make our own Wills and Desires and Fears and Aversions and natural Passions and Affections stoop and yield to the Will of God which there is no occasion for but in a suffering and afflicted state Now when we suffer such things as are very grievous to flesh and blood submission to the Will of God does not require that we should not feel our Sufferings that we should not be afflicted with them that we should not complain of them for to submit to God is not to put off the sense and passions of human Nature it does not alter the nature of things nor our opinions about them Afflictions are afflictions still and will be felt and though we must bear them in submission to God yet we must bear them as Afflictions can be born and as human Nature can bear them with pain and grief and reluctancy with sighs and groans and complaints with vehement and importunate desires and Prayers to God and man to help and deliver us We have frequent examples of this in Scripture The Psalms of David as they abound with all dutifull Expressions of Reverence and Submission to the Will of God so they are very full of complaints and of the most passionate sense of Sufferings represented so as to be felt in such a strain of moving Eloquence as not Art but Afflicted Nature teaches But we have one Example above all others and that is the Example of our Saviour Christ who suffered with Fear and Reluctancy and with earnest Prayers to his Father If it be possible let this cup pass from me The truth is the greater our fears and sorrows and aversions are the greater is our submission to God it may be thought a great weakness of Nature to be so much afraid of our Sufferings but it argues the greater strength of Faith and is a more glorious Victory over self to make our very
fears and aversions submit to the Divine Will for the more what we suffer is against our own will the greater is our submission to the Will of God Submission to God does not consist in courage and fortitude of mind to bear Sufferings which men may have without any sense of God and which the profoundest Reverence for God will not always teach us but he submits who receives the Bitter Cup and drinks it though with a Trembling heart and hand This ought to be observed for the comfort of those who have a very Devout sense of God and Reverence for his Judgments but betray great weakness of Mind and disorders of Passions under their Sufferings who are very impatient of Pain and have such soft and tender Passions that every Affliction galls them and when they reflect upon these Disorders this creates new and greater Troubles to them for they conclude that all this is want of a due Submission to the Will of God But Religion was never intended to extinguish the Sense and Affections of Nature to reconcile us to Pain or to make all things indifferent to us and while there is any thing that we love it will be grievous to part with it and while there is any thing that we fear it will be grievous to suffer it Religion will rectify our Opinions of things and cure our fondnesses and set bounds to our Passions but when all these flattering or frightful disguises are removed which magnified the Good or Evil that is in things yet Good and Evil they are and will excite in us either troublesome or delightful Passions and this will exercise our Submission to God to part with what we love and to suffer what we fear and were not this the case there were no use of Submission To explain this in a few words let us consider how that man must suffer who suffers with Submission to God and that is the Submission which we owe to Providence Now a man who suffers with Submission must not reproach and censure the Divine Providence but think and speak honourably of God how hardly soever he deals with him he may complain of what he suffers both to God and men but he must not complain of God This was Iob's Behaviour Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away and blessed be the name of the Lord in all this Iob sinned not nor charged God foolishly I Job 21 22. And the Prophet David was an Example of the like Submission I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it 39. Psalm 9. He submitted silently and patiently as to God's hand opened not his mouth against God though he complains of the Wickedness of men and of the severity of his Sufferings Deliver me from all my transgressions make me not the reproach of the foolish remove thy stroke away from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand 8 10. To reproach and revile Providence to fret against God or as Iob's Wife advised him to curse God to be weary of his Government and impatient to think that we cannot resist and cast off so uneasy a yoke this is directly contrary to Submission Such men suffer God's Will because they cannot help it but they would Rebel if they could those who are so outragious against what God does and so impatiently angry with God for doing it only want power to stay his hand and to pull him from his Throne Submission to God is the Submission of our Wills to the Will of God Now though no man can absolutely chuse sufferings for suffering is a natural Evil and therefore not the object of a free choice yet men may chuse suffering against the natural byass and inclination of their own wills in Subjection to the will of God Of this our Saviour is a great Example who express'd a great aversion against suffering Prayed earnestly Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not my will but thy will be done Our own wills will draw back and recoil at suffering For no affliction is for the present joyous but grievous but yet a will that is subject to God will deny it self and chuse that God's will should take place And this is our Submission to the Will of God in suffering yet how uneasie soever it be to us we are so far from complaining against God that we would not have it otherwise when God sees fit it should be so that though we do not and cannot chuse sufferings yet we chuse that the Will of God should be done though it be to suffer Another act of Submission to God is when we wait patiently on God till he think fit to deliver us when notwithstanding all we suffer our hope and trust and dependance is still on God To submit to God is to submit in Faith and Hope to submit as to the Corrections and Discipline of a Father for it is impossible for any man to submit without Hope as impossible as it is to be contented with final Ruin When we cast off our Hope in God there is an end of our Submission then we shall come to that desperate conclusion Behold this evil is of the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer 2 Kings 6. 33. But never was there a greater expression of Submission than that of Iob Though he slay me yet will I trust in him he also shall be my salvation for a hypocrite shall not come before him 13. Job 15 16. This the Psalmist has fully express'd 27. Psalm 13 14. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. To Hope in the Mercy and Goodness of God even when he strikes to wait Patiently till he will be Gracious to make our complaints to him and to expect our Deliverance and Salvation only from him this is to Submit to the Will of God to make his Will our Will to attend all the motions of his Providence as patiently and diligently as a Servant does the commands of his Lord as it is elegantly represented 123. Psalm 1 2. Vnto thee lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens Behold as the eyes of servants look upon the hand of their masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us This is that Submission which we owe to Providence under all the Evils and Calamities of Life and if we would make this Submission easy and chearful we must possess our Souls with a firm perswasion of the Wisdom and Goodness of God We must not look upon him a meer Soveraign and Arbitrary Lord for to submit to meer Arbitrary Will and Power is and will be very grievous