than to will iniquity and of purer hands than to work iniquity But the difficulty lyeth here It is plain from this discourse that God useth peoples sins as a medium to his glory he having willed the end must needs have willed the means for though a thing may be fortuitous to man yet nothing is fortuitous or casual to God A man now in order to the accomplishment of some design of his may make use of some things which fall in and he never foresaw nor fore-thought nor design'd as a means in order to his accomplishment but it were blasphemy to suppose any such thing of God A great question there is amongst Divines what influence God hath upon the sinful actions of men It falleth not so fully in my way at present as to engage me in any full discourse upon it Certain it is that the holy God putteth malice into the heart of no man nor doth at all incite him to any sinful actions This were indeed to make God the Author of sin he commands it not that is impossible he approveth it not he inclineth not the will of man unto it But as certain it is 1. That he assisteth the faculties and members of a man to those natural actions which his own lust and malice maketh sinful He assisted the tongues of Ananias and Saphira to speak but it was their own lust and malice which inclined them rather to speak that which was false than the truth In him we live move and have our being 2. As certain it is That he permitteth and suffereth men to execute their lusts otherwise they could not execute them he could most certainly hinder them Forty years he suffered the Jews manners in the wilderness Acts 13.18 He suffered all nations to walk in their own ways Act. 14.16 Now for this sufferance I think it is well expressed by an eminent Divine of our own Gods permission of sin saith he lyes in the suspension of his own efficiency and the removal of the impediments Pelagians dream that God gave unto man a perfect freedom of will and so did as it were Dormitare in operibus suis sleep while his Enemies sowed the tares of sin but no such thing must be imagined of God Nor doth God only remove those impediments by which the sinner might be hindred in his acts of sin he is properly said to be hindred in an action who cannot do what he hath a mind to do now God doth something more in his permission of mens sins than not hinder their commission of it he suspendeth that efficiency by which they were restrain'd or which should incline them to do otherwise 3. He willeth that the sin should be though he doth not will to effect it Indeed for God to will the effecting or committing of sin is not consistent with the purity and holiness of God God's permission of sin and willing it in the effect doth ponere effectum non causam it doth assert the effect not the cause his willing it in this sense doth by no means imply his procuring it inciting to it or approbation of it It is not procurans volitio and here Divines say rightly Deus absque jactura sanctitatis offendiculo velle potest peccata vult rem effici non effectum dare He willeth the thing should be done but he doth not will the doing of it Who shall dare to say that God did not will that Judas should betray Christ and Pilate condemn him and that the Jews should crucifie him When the Apostle saith That they did but according to whatsoever Gods hand and counsel had determined before to be done Act. 4.28 And that he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God Act. 2.23 If God did not will that most vile action should be done how did his hand and counsel determine it How was he delivered by the counsel of God which the Scripture expresly affirms And this is all that I know that Mr. Calvin or any that tread in his steps have said which many now a-days have so clamoured against as if he made God the Author of sin and willed acts of sin Mr. Calvin and all sober Divines will grant them that it is inconsistent with the holy nature of God to infuse malice into the hearts of any or to incite any to any malicious and sinful action or to assist them in the sinfulness and obliquity of their action but those who have read Pareus's disputes with the Jesuites at Swalbach will easily understand what Divines these men read and with whose heifers they plow and out of whose quivers they draw their arrows of bitter words To whom the best answer is that of the Archangel to the Devil The Lord rebuke them 4. Then lastly God governeth the wicked actions of men when they are done to his own praise and glory and maketh an eminent use of them but yet a spotless use Take Pharaoh in his hardening of his heart against the Will of God revealed to him for the dismission of the Israelites God had purposed that Pharaoh's heart should harden he tells Moses so long before it came to issue God removed what might have hindred the hardening of his heart he would believe from time to time that God had done his worst and he should keep them let the mighty God do what he could he suspended his own efficiency he could have softned Pharaohs heart if he had pleased he assisted him to his natural actions he could never else have spoken the words he did nor made ready a Chariot When the action was done he governed it to his own praise and glory he said I will get me glory upon Pharaoh and he did get himself glory upon him and made Pharaoh's wrath to praise him But I will add no more to the Explication or proof of this Observation Vse 1. This now in the first place may convince us of the infinite power wisdom and goodness of God Omnipotency is usually thought to be most discovered in Creation the production of things out of a meer not-being into a being where there is no pre-existent matter for God to work upon but here seemeth yet to be a greater demonstration of Divine Power for God to make the wrath of man to praise him to bring forth the great designs of his glory out of mens sins It sheweth us also the infinite wisdom of God The natural sagacity of the bee is seen in sucking honey out of poysonous herbs and flowers a thing of the sweetest taste out of flowers and herbs of bitterest taste and in doing it it by its chymistry commendeth the wisdom of its Maker who hath given it this natural skill The acquired art and skill of the Apothecary and Chymist who make the desperatest poysons which have the greatest contrariety to humane nature to serve for medicines to heal mens diseases commendeth the wisdom of God for their God hath taught them this discretion But oh the wisdom of God! to make
can it do If the Jewish Child had dyed before the 8th day its want of circumcision doubtless did not endanger its salvation but the deferring it beyond that time might for ought I know endanger the wrath of God upon the Parent and that wrath might be executed in cutting off the Child I take the case to be much the same under the Gospel I am sure the Covenant is the same take heed of neglecting to instruct your Children betimes or to reprove and admonish them God may cut them off betimes and then your neglects will be a grief of heart to you Finally This calleth to all young ones not to neglect the remembrance of their creator in the days of their youth O let your tender years be no temptation to you to put off your duty towards God and your own souls in the morning of your life be plowing up the fallow ground of your hearts and sowing the seed of righteousness indeed in the evening our hands should not be slack but who knoweth whether he shall see an evening yea or no SERMON XLI Rom. I. 26. For this Cause God gave them up to vile Affections MY business is to clear up the equity of the Lord in the ways of his Actual Providence and to vindicate the justice and holiness of God from those who by the Sophistry of their humane wisdom seek to darken Divine knowledg I am resolving the difficulties relating to the motions of Divine Providence in punitive dispensations I have shewed you how just and reasonable it is that God should be the Author of the evil of punishment And that 1. to his own people notwithstanding the satisfaction of Christ accepted for them and the remission of their sins as to eternal punishment 2. As to those whom yet he knows to be such as will be worse for their afflictions and not better 3. As to children who have not been guilty of actual sins I proceed now a step further God doth not only punish sin with smart with pain diseases crosses c. but he sometimes punisheth sin with sin for sin giving men up to be led captive by their lusts The Text speaketh of such a Providence It relateth to the Heathens of whom the Apostle had been before speaking vers 19 20 he had been declaring what means they had to know God they had not indeed the light of the Gospel but they had the light of nature That which might be known of God was manifest in them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Then he sheweth how they abused and misimproved these means for v. 21 when they knew God in some measure as the light of nature and works of creation would discover him to them they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man to birds to four-footed-beasts and creeping things The business was this The Heathens had indeed but an imperfect knowledge of God no more than the light of nature and the works of God in nature shewed them but yet this was enough to have let them know that God could not be like a man or a beast or a creeping thing yet such images and representations of God they made and worshipped wherefore saith the Apostle vers 24. God also gave them up to lusts of uncleanness c. and so again in my Text vers 26. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections and so again vers 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are inconvenient Being filled with all unrighteousness c. Now the Question is Quest How it can consist with the holiness and purity of God thus to punish sin with sin for their committing of some sins to give them up to commit others The difficulty is because it is hard to conceive how God should do this without a willing of sin Although therefore it is plain enough in the Text and twice more repeated in the Chapter it be said God gave them up to uncleanness and God gave them up to a reprobate mind yet it will not be amiss for us from other Scriptures to take some auxiliary help for the proving of this That there hath been and doubtless are still such dispensations of God Then I shall attempt to reconcile these Providences to the justice holiness and goodness of God after that I shall make some application of my Discourse upon this Argument It is a known Text which you have Isaiah 6.9 10. Go and tell this people hear you indeed but understand not and see you indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed It is a Text which you find quoted six times in the New-Testament Mat. 13.14 Mar. 4.12 Luk. 8.10 Joh. 12.40 Act. 28.26 Rom. 11.8 In the first place Mat. 13. it is said that in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaias By hearing you shall hear and not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive For this peoples heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing c. That Text plainly makes it out that Gods judicial giving them over to their blindness was consequent to their sinful stopping of their ears and shutting of their eyes But Christ there saith that for this he spake to them in parables Mat. 13.13 but Rom. 11.8 it is said God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear and certain it is Isaiah had Gods commission chap. 6. and Acts 28.26 Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaias the Prophet to our Fathers saying Go unto this people and say Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive For the heart of this people is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed By all which it clearly appears that God punished the former sins of the Jews in their wilful shutting their eyes and stopping their ears against the revelation of the Divine will by a judicial giving them up to a blindness of mind and hardness of heart To this purpose is that 2 Thess 2.11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye for what cause vers 10. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Many other texts there are speaking of Gods hardning the heart of Pharaoh and the hearts of others but
they insist upon this Argument which certainly is not to be answered In all acts of punishment God doth something positively But the Scirpture mentions the giving up of soms sinners to vile affections to a reprobate mind c. as acts of punishment Therefore God as to them doth something positively The minor is evident from the stile of the Scripture Now for the major Certainly in all all punishments God acteth as a Judge and therefore must do something positively The infliction of a punishment argueth a positive judgement of God Besides which is noted by Pareus God is said seven or eight times over to harden Pharaohs heart and many others who never had any grace to be withdrawn Besides it is very observable that the words which the Scripture maketh use of to signifie Gods penal action in hardning sinners Exod. 4.21 7.3 10.1 are such as cannot be expounded by a bare permission or desertion and signifie a vehement intension of the action being verbs of the second and third Conjugation in the Hebrew This is a great point in Divinity let me therefore tell you what our Divines say in their own words and then examine if it be not reconcileable by our reason to the justice and holiness of God Parens saith That it is sufficient that God in these tremendous dispensations acting as a Judge by way of punishment which as the Scripture plentifully affirms so Bellarmine himself granteth God must act in it not meerly privatively but positively we need not be curious to examine the manner how he acteth Fit illa traditio explicabili sive inexplicabili occulto quidem sed semper justo modo whether we be able to open or not open the manner God doth it always by a just although a secret judgment but saith he in three things it seems to be explicable 1. By leaving men to the impetus and force of their own lusts This saith he is a general way for all that perish are thus left to themselves yet it cannot be said properly of all such that God hath delivered them up to hardness of heart c. 2. By giving them means of softning such are precepts miracles his works c. which they through the wickedness of their hearts only use to their further hardening Thus it was in the case of Pharaoh Sihon c. This on their part was a sin on Gods part a just judgment but it may be this is not the case of all and seemeth hardly applicable to the Gentiles whom God so gave up Rom. 1 26. 3. A third way saith he which is more universal is by delivering them up to their lusts and to Satan to be further blinded seduced and hardned as in the case of Ahab and the Gentiles mentioned in this first Chapter of the Romans and 2 Cor. 4.4 The God of this world hath blinded the eyes of those that believe not Now that Satan seduceth souls by command from God appeareth by the story of Ahab 1 King 22.22 23. The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets Another great Divine opens it in these particulars God saith he hardneth sinners 1. Alesbury de eterno Dei decreto p. 226. By immediately depriving them of reason and counsel or punishing them so as their rage is increasod against God for this he giveth us the instance of Pharaoh whose heart was the more hardened by the plagues which he felt and for this he quoteth Gregory the Great one of the Popes 2. God immediately hardneth the hearts of sinners saith he by giving them up to Satan that they may be by him hardned as in the case of Saul and Ahab and those mentioned in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians 3. Saith he he hardneth them per se ipsos by themselves giving them up as my Text faith to vile affections Thus Pharaoh is said thrice to have hardned his own heart Pharaoh by his own free-will hardned his heart and God hardned it by his just judgment God permitted the Heathens to sin yet more and more and by an actual motion moved them to an act of sin so far forth as it was an act 4. Lastly saith he God positively hardneth sinners By giving occasions which through the lust that is in them incline them to evil God proposeth to them what things in their own nature should induce and perswade them to that which is good but they through their lust and malice make them an occasion to evil Thus saith he God provoked the Jews to emulation by a foolish nation by shewing grace and mercy to the Gentiles the rage of the Jews against Christ grew greater Thus Christs Preaching and Miracles were occasion to the Pharisees of further blaspheming But saith that excellent Author if we rightly understand it it is not of so much moment whether we say that God hardneth men positively or negatively for though as to the execution in the event the act be negative yet this event floweth from the positive purpose of God It is therefore all one whether we speak in the words of Moses Deut. 29.4 and say God hath not given them an heart to perceive or eyes to see and ears to hear or in the phrase of the Apostle Rom. 11.8 God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes they should not see and ears they should not hear until this day for the will of God is as effectual in his negative as positive actions And now I think I have told you the utmost our Divines have said in this cause unless some of them have said that God is the Author of his own judgments and punishments which I think none can with modesty deny Twiss Vind. gratiae 3.163 it being no more than the Scripture saith of all those things which are of a positive nature but not of those things which are of a privative nature which yet he may will should be done by his permission though not by his efficiency and this is no more than Arminius himself confesseth that God is effector actus though no more than permissor peccati The sum is if we understand by the punishment of sin with sin Gods judicial act by which he withdraweth his grace or his leaving of sinners to the satisfaction of their own lusts there is no question but God for mens former sins may do this yea more than this he may judicially deliver men up to their lusts and to Satan to be seduced at his pleasure and offer them occasions in their own nature leading to good which they through their corruption may turn to further sinning But God cannot punish the former sins of any by putting any lust or malice into their hearts by which they become more evil or otherwise than accidentally stirring up that lust and malice which is in their heart This is the sum so far as I know of what Divines say as to Gods acts in the punishment of sin by delivering them up to farther sinnings
though I think Paraeus saith true that besides these ways in which God acteth positively and more than barely negatively and permissively God hath many other ways which we cannot explicate by which he punisheth sin with sin for who knoweth or is able to unfold all the ways of God Thus far we have seen so far as we are able to comprehend what God doth in this his judicial act of punishing sin with sin Let us now consider under what circumstances those are whom God bringeth under so severe a dispensation I answer They are not only sinners for God doth not deal thus with every sinner but such as have provoked him to a very great heighth and degree shutting their eyes against that light which hath shone upon them and contemning the precepts of God and the means he hath used to reclaim them Such was Pharaoh first he hardned his own heart which I think is said three times over then God saith he would harden his heart such were the Heathen mentioned in this Chapter they had prodigiously sinned against the light and law of Nature Such were the Jews to whom this judgment is denounced Isa 6. compared with Matth. 13. Now this being rightly understood I appeal to the reason of any one that heareth me although this be a most tremendous dispensation of God yet whether it be not such as is very consistent both with the Justice and Purity and Holiness of God Is it not just with God to punish sinners especially prodigious sinners and such of them as have shut their eyes lest the light should shine upon them If it be just with God to throw such into Hell why should it not be just with him to seal them up to that damnation might he cut them off by death and immediately turn them into Hell why may he not leave them destitute of his grace and give them up to a reprobate mind and to vile affections and an hard heart which are but the praeludia to this damnation Doth any doubt whether this be consistent with the purity and holiness of God I ask why may not God deny his means of grace to whom he pleaseth and yet be an holy God and may he not then deny it to or withdraw it from those that have abused his patience and turned his grace into wantonness and lasciviousness doth he deliver them up to Satan to be tempted seduced hardned Is not Satan Gods instrument in punishing sinners may not the just and holy God use what instruments he pleaseth for the execution of his wrath Object 1. But doth not God by this become the Author of sin I answer If sin be considered in its true nature as it is a defect a filthy action contrary to the Law of God surely none can be the Author of it but either he who doth it or who perswades or commandeth or inciteth to the doing of it God neither infuseth that lust which is exercised nor commandeth nor perswadeth the exerting of it If we consider sin as the punishment of sin so the permission of it is but a just dispensation of God and a judicial act and why God should not be the Author of punishments I cannot understand Object 2. But doth not God in this dispensation will the sins of these poor wretches I answer He doth not will the doing of them but he willeth that they should be done and in this sense he willeth all the sin that is committed in the world for as nothing could be done contrary to his will so he doth not govern the world as an idle spectator only looking on to see what his creatures will do But he is far from willing the actions either soliciting or commanding or perswading or assisting them Object 3. But God giveth occasions to them I answer It is true but it is through the lusts of mens hearts that they become such occasions They are in themselves either of such a nature as they might improve for their good and ought to have done so such were the Miracles which God shewed Pharaoh or which Christ did before the Pharisees and the Sermons which he and his Apostles preached to them or at least such as had in themselves no tendency to produce such an effect The Governess of the house doth not think that she is either principal or accessary to a servants theft because she suffereth pieces of Plate to go freely up and down for the use of her family which possibly becometh a temptation to the lust of her servant to make him or her to steal Object 4. But God knew that these sinners would take these occasions to grow worse I answer That must be granted but what then suppose one of us did know that our good counsels or reproofs or corrections of our Children would but make them worse must not we therefore use these which in themselves are means to make them better Suppose a Mistress in a Family did know that her servant would steal some of those things which she suffers to go up and down and be commonly used in her house is she therefore bound to look them up and let her whole Family want necessary utensils Will she not rather say I will have those things in my house which are fit if any of my Servants will steal them let it be at their peril they shall be hang'd for it Yet surely the Law of Charity which God hath laid us all under toward our Brethren obliging us to beware laying of stumbling-blocks and giving unnecessary occasions of sin unto them doth not tie up God But there is no end of disputing with such as are resolved to hold their conclusion and seek nothing but occasions of reviling I have enlarged my self far enough upon this argument to shew I think every unprejudiced hearer that it is neither contrary to the justice nor purity and holiness of God to punish sin with sin giving up stubborn sinners to vile Affections and a reprobate mind Vse Let me now shut up this Discourse with a few words of Application Exho And what application can be proper to this discourse but an Exhortation to all to take heed of presumptuous sinnings against Light That sort of people amongst us whom we call Quakers call to all men to take heed to the Light within them I will not profess perfectly to understand their principles But they seem in some of their discourses to me to think that men have Light enough within them to shew them the way to Heaven and if so that will prove a great mistake but thus much is certain That every man hath a light within him That which may be known of God is manifest in them Rom. 1.19 Every man that is born into the world hath a natural light discovering something of God and of his duty to him and is under a natural Law which obligeth him to some duty in proportion to his light The Apostle in this Rom. 1. saith of the Heathens that they knew God
Countrey and had it not been for the King of Egypt's oppressing them would never have been willing to have left the flesh-pots and onions and garlick of Egypt but for this dealing of Pharaoh with them making them to serve with rigour slaying their male-children c. This quite tyred them and made them willing to go out of Egypt towards Canaan But let me a little shew you what a variety of lusts in wicked mens hearts God hath from time to time made use of to accomplish the great designs of his Providence with reference to his people and indeed it is hard to say what lust in sinners hearts God hath not made use of at one time or other and made it to serve the holy and wise designs of his Providence 1. The lusts of the eye and flesh are of all other the most unmanlike brutish passions yet the Providence of God hath sometimes taken advantage of these for the glory of God You all know what a strange influence Esther's being advanced to be Queen of Persia had upon Gods design for the building of the second Temple in Ezra's time she was the great instrument to save the whole Church of the Jews the only Church God had upon the Earth at that time from utter ruin God made use of the lust of Ahasuerus to bring this about he takes a Teach to Vasthi for refusing to come to him to be shown to his Princes and turns her away and then must look for the greatest beauty could be found Esther proveth to be she What a strange instance of this had we of this in King Henry the Eighth of that name in this Nation Those who know any thing of the story of those times know that it was no abhorrence of the Idolatry and Superstition of the Popish-Religion that set him upon the work of Reformation After some beginnings of it the six Articles came out Papists were burnt on one side of Smithfield Protestants on the other but the King was weary of his Wife and had a mind to another His wife indeed was one whom Protestant-Divines judged he could not keep having been his brothers wife without a continual living in incest the Pope who thinks he can dispense with any thing he thinks or decrees she was his wife and would give no dispensation for a divorce the Popish-Universities and Divines who never fail to be on their holy Fathers side all oppose the King in his desire of change This angers the King and was the first motive to his business of Reformation and casting off the Pope's Supremacy Nor is this any reproach at all to the Lords work of Reformation amongst us there 's nothing more ordinary than for God to make the wrath of man to praise him and make use of the lusts of men to bring about his own designs 2. Ambition is another lust which fireth the heart of wicked men especially great men It is an excessive desire of Honour and Dominion Poor wretches born to and brought up in little circumstances and low stations in the world are ordinarily not so much infected with this it is the great mans lust God makes an eminent use of this See it in the case of Jehu a proud ambitious man that had in him a great lust and desire of rule and honour God had a quarrel against the house of Ahab by his Providence he ordereth Jehu to the Kingdom makes use of him to destroy Joram the Son of Ahab and Ahaziah the King of Judah the Son-in law of Ahab and Jezebel Ahab's wife whom God had threatned for the blood of Naboth and his whole Family until none remained 2 Kings 8. vers 23 24 25. chap. 9. vers 9 10 24 27 35 chap. 10. vers 7 11 17. And thus he delivered his seven thousand in Israel that had not bowed knee to Baal from the idolatry cruelty and oppression of a vile and wicked Prince Jehu indeed in all this pretended a great zeal for God and did destroy Baal from Israel 2 King 10.28 but yet ver 9. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin Jehu departed not from after them to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan. Vers 31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the way of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin Hence it was that though the Lord tells him 2 King 10.30 That he had done well in executing that which was right in the eyes of God and had done according to all that was in Gods heart as to the house of Ahab and therefore promised him a reward for it viz. that for it his children of the fourth generation should sit on the throne of Israel yet God by the Prophet Hosea told them Hos 1.4 Yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu The business was no more than this Jehu was an ambitious Prince that loved honour and dominion the Providence of God maketh use of this lust of his to bring about his holy and righteous designs upon that wicked family of Ahab and for the delivery of his people from their oppressions This was the case of Haman a proud ambitious Courtier in the Court of Persia he had a mind to be great this made him malice Mordecay he would not bow his knee to him this made him propose such great things to be done to the man whom the King should please to shew favour and honour to the Text tells you he said To whom will the King delight to do honour more than to my self Est 6.6 God maketh use of his ambition to bring Mordecay into honour and to save the whole people of the Jews and thus it ordinarily falls out in lesser spheres the humble disposition of Gods People inclining them to give honour to whom honour belongeth and not to deny civil respects to the worst of men doth often commend them to those that are ambitious of honour and respect and maketh them their friends God making use of his Enemies ambition for their sake which by the way commendeth to all that fear God that Precept of the Apostle Rom. 13.7 Render therefore to every one their dues tribute to whom tribute custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour 3. Another lust of men which you shall find Gods Providence hath made great use of is curiosity A curiosity to know secrets What shall come to pass in after-times or a curiosity to delight in rare workmanship of any sort c This is a great vanity of the heart of man but the Providence of God hath made great use of it Of the first sort there are in holy Writ the instances of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar both of them dreamed dreams wherein God revealed to them things that were to come to pass in the world Then God inspireth
them under some restraints as to those horrible sins of murther persecution defiling their neighbours wives c. To consider that these are some of the sins which go ordinarily before-hand to judgment and which God usually revengeth by some special remarkable Providences in this life But it is time to finish this discourse Let us beg Gods blessing upon it SERMON XXIII Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am in a discourse about the observable things of Divine Providence When do you think shall I have finished it Day unto day uttereth speech night unto night declareth knowledg When I have said all that I can I must conclude with Job Lo these are parts of his ways but how little a portion of him do we understand However it is wonderfully sweet to know the least of God If a learned man could think it worth his while to write a book of the admiranda Nili the admirable and observable things of the famous River of Nile What a book might be written and how much worth a pen-mans hand would it be to write a book and call it Admiranda or Observanda Providentiae Divinae the admirable and observable things of Divine Providence But leaving Prefaces I proceed to a ninth Observation which is this Observ 9. The Providence of God often repayeth both good and evil and especially charity and cruelty in this life in its own kind 1 Cor. 3.8 2 Cor. 5.10 That God will reward every man according to his works is most certain and is a piece of Divine Justice he cannot condemn the innocent nor clear the guilty there will be a now when God will visit for all sin and though sinners do evil an hundred years yet the day of vengeance will come And to let us know the certainty of it oftentimes the Prophets of God in the denouncing of judgments yet a far off cryed out It is come It is come and gave the alarum as if the enemy had already entred the gates But God doth not recompence all sinners in this life Judgment comes afterward But for those whom God doth chastise in this life he doth not punish them all the same way some are punished with temporal judgments and those some of them of one sort some of another others he punisheth with spiritual judgments blindness of mind hardness of heart And it is the same case for rewards of grace some have little reward for all their service for God until they come in Heaven others are rewarded in this life but in different manners The Observation which I am making concerneth charity and mercy and the vices opposite to it such as are cruelty hardheartedness to those in want and misery In these cases I observe Gods Providence often retaliates I say 1. The Providence of God doth often recompence other sins in this manner but especially sins against charity and brotherly love God many times repayeth other sins in their kind our Saviour by this argument dissuades from rash censuring and censorious judging of others Matth. 7.1 2. For with what judgment you judg you shall be judged and with what measure you mete it shall be meted to you again A text which if well thought upon should deter Christians from the too common practice of censuring and judging one another especially in doubtful things where they are not of a mind as if sincerity and uprightness were the Prerogative of a party in Religion or annexed to some particular forms You know God threatned David for his adultery with Bathsheba That he would take his wives before his eyes and give them to his neighbour and he should lye with his wives in the sight of the Sun 2 Sam. 12.11 and it was fulfilled by the permission though not by the instigation of Divine Providence in 2 Sam. 16.22 Spoiling and plundering of others taking away their goods without a just warrant from God is another sin we find thus threatned Isa 33.1 Wo to thee that spoilest and thou wert not spoiled those that thou so rifledst never did thee any wrong and dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee when thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously they shall deal treacherously with thee But that indeed referreth to the more special observation as to sins opposite to that Charity we should exercise to our brethren to which I now come I say it is very observable that God punisheth sins against charity and rewardeth deeds and acts of charity in their kind secundum legem Talionis ordinarily giving the Authors of both like for like I will first shew it you in the motions of Providence as to the execution of Vindicative Justice in the punishment of sins against Charity Against which men may sin either by omissions hardening their hearts from their brother in distress not relieving him when it is in their power according to their ability or by commissions murders oppressions cruelty are all sins against Charity 1. For omissions It is a dreadful text Prov. 21.13 He that stoppeth his ear against the cry of the poor he also shall cry himself and shall not be heard A text worth deliberating upon by those who find their hearts so shut up in cafes of Charity not that we are bound to hear the cry of all that are poor There are some poor that the greatest act of Charity we can shew them is not to relieve them that they may learn not to be idle and wander up and down begging refusing to work The poor we are concerned in are Gods poor I hope we favour none that are lazy idle or leud and by that means bring themselves to and continue themselves at a morsel of bread far be it from me or any Minister of Jesus Christ to plead for such You from us hear the cries of the Lords poor take heed of stopping your ears at their cry remember Solomons word Gods word by Solomon He that doth so he also shall cry and not be heard you may also come into such a condition or you may have a child may come to it through age through Gods hand upon him You remember the story of Naomi she went out full she returned empty the story of Job and others in Scripture I could tell you the stories of Belisarius of divers persons of far greater estates some of them than any that hear me this day yet brought to live upon the baskets of others who knows what you or yours may come to Do you think the great fire at London 1666 that at Northampton but the last year That at a Town in this County two or three years ago at Cottenham in Cambridg-shire the other day hath not given many instances of this nature for God of late hath very remarkably contended with England as by such a plague as our forefathers never knew so by a multitude of such
Observation to caution them against 1. That they would not promise themselves a perpetuity in this state As the child of God may say of his adversity and afflictions these things are not Eternity so the sinner may say of his prosperity There is a circulation in the motions of Providence in its distribution of these things The same spokes of the wheel are not always uppermost you are now spokes in the upper part the wheel will turn and you will be lower most sinners have their day but it is but a day Day and night summer and winter light and darkness follow one another in humane conditions as well as in time some have a summers-day others a shorter winter-day but none hath more than their hour or day It was Babilon's error to say That she sate like a Lady and should never see widowhood or loss of children God tells her both these should come upon her in one day It is the weakness of humane nature to look upon any thing here as permanent Are you therefore in a state of prosperity Is it your hour think not you shall never be moved David Psal 30. said in the day when his mountain stood strong That he should never be moved God did but hide his face and he was troubled You may possibly meet with particular persons that are exceptions to this general rule but hardly any body of people 2. Let what you have heard admonish you not to glory and triumph in your prosperous state if you will rejoyce let it be with trembling The observation affords two reasons why the prosperous sinner should not excessively rejoyce 1. Because there is a circulation in these motions of Providence This was that which quieted Davids spirit disturbed at the prosperous state of ungodly men Psal 73.18 Surely thou hast set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction 2 I have told you that the Providence of God in these dispensations seemeth to incline most to favour the worst of men David Psal 17.13 14. prayeth to be delivered from wicked men who have their portion in this life and whose belly God filled with his hidden treasure It hath been an ordinary thing for good men to suspect the love of God to them when they have met with no changes Luther was afraid God intended to put him off with the good things of this life But saith he I protested that I would not be so satisfied 3. Lastly This speaketh aloud to sinners on the pinacles of the world not to harden their hearts Sin gives a man a base spirit you shall ordinarily observe that the worst of men are most proud and haughty in their prosperity and the most cowardly and low in their spirits when an hour of adversity comes How ordinarily do we see it If vile and abject men get a little power on their side there is no living by them their insolencies oppressions and cruelties are so intolerable but let them be a little under hatches there 's none will crouch so basely But O you fools when will you be wise O that in their days of health they would but think they may be sick when they are rich that they may be poor that when they are the head they would consider they may be the tail Prosperity then would not harden them but it is true which the Holy Ghost tells us That prosperity slayeth the fool It seldom doth a child of God good Before I was afflicted saith holy David I went astray but it ordinarily slayeth the fool I shall advantage this with this further observation As it is usually observed that men who have had a long and non-interrupted health seldom escape the first acute sickness they meet with So it is very rare that God entereth into judgment with a sinner that hath enjoyed a long prosperity but he utterly consumeth him you cannot but observe in reading the Prophets that as they denounced the Judgments of God against his own People so they also denounced them against the Enemies of God and with this remarkable difference They seldom threaten judgment to them but it was utter ruin God would make a full end of them But saith God as to his own people Thou shalt not go utterly unpunished I will make a full end of the Nations that have carried thee away captive but I will not make a full end of thee Jer. 30.11 c. But secondly Let me turn my self to them that fear the Lord and improve my observation as to them in three or four words 1. Fret not then at the prosperous state of wicked men It is the great argument of the 37 Psalm where it is pressed from a great variety of arguments Remember that the motions of Providence are circular There are two sorts of things that use mightily to affect us 1. Strange and unusual things 2 Things which appear to us against reason It is no strange thing Job 12.6 Job complained that the tabernacles of robbers prospered and they that provoked God were secure the men into whose hands God bringeth abundantly Disturb not your selves then if you see men of prodigious wickedness great in power and honour and riches and flourishing 't is but what hath always been and trampling under foot the people of the Lord. It is no new thing that happeneth to you A second sort of things we usually startle at are those things which seem to us unreasonable we cannot reconcile them to our thoughts and such a thing is this prosperity of sinners but this fancy speaketh only 1. The weakness of our faith 2. And the shallowness of our reason If we had faith but as a grain of mustard-seed that we could believe a life to come and the joys of an eternal state in which these men shall have no portion we should not think these things of that value but that God might reasonably give them to wicked men We are like ordinary people that never were out of the Town where they live or the Nation wherein they were born that take that Town or that Nation to be all the world and think there is no place better than that which they see and live in Did we believe that there is a more enduring substance an house in the Heavens not made with hands an inheritance that is immortal incorruptible that fadeth not away to none of which the ungodly man hath any right at all we should never trouble our selves that the Sun shineth a little upon the Tabernacles of ungodly men we should think it but reasonable that God should allow something of the good things of this life to vile and profligate livers Remember how the Father of the prodigal quieted the Son that had been always with him troubled that his brother who had devoured his living with Harlots had the fatted calf killed for him Luke 15.31 Son remember thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine The People of God have God always with them and are admitted
uniform This must be true Shall not the judg of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 It is in the nature of God to do justly far sooner shall a good tree bring forth corrupt fruit than a righteous God do an unrighteous act It is written in the Will and Promises of God and in the threatnings which declare the Will of God against sinners Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with them for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him Isa 3.9 10. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely it shall be well with them that fear God that fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days Eccles 8.12 But it may be better for your edification that I should open the Observation in the branches of it The subject of my discourse you see is the vindicative and remunerative Justice of God considered as in the hand of Actual Providence I say of both 1. That it is certain both the one and the other is certain for the sinner that swears and drinks and wallows in his beastly lusts that lies and cheats and oppresseth and breaks Sabbaths that murthereth and committeth adultery and lives in the violation of the Commandments of God his Judgment is certain his damnation sleepeth not the Providence of God shall most certainly meet him as a Bear robbed of her whelps to tear him in pieces and there shall be none to deliver On the contrary for him that worketh righteousness that herein exerciseth himself to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men that liveth an holy life and conversation his reward is certain The certainty of both these depends 1. Vpon the immutable nature of God The righteous God loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity he cannot clear the guilty he cannot but reward the righteous as soon shall God cease to be God as the persisting sinner go unpunished or the persevering Saint be unrewarded 2. It dependeth upon the irrevocable will of God God hath said it the Lord hath spoken it and it shall come to pass Heaven and Earth shall pass away before a word shall fail of all which the mouth of the Lord has spoken 3. It dependeth upon the faithfulness of Divine Providence in acting conformably to the Divine Nature in the execution of the Divine Counsels and in pursute of the Divine Will Providence is Gods action in time God cannot act contrary to himself nor contrary to his revealed Will. But this is what none without great impiety can so much as doubt But I added 2. That both the punishment of the sinner and the reward of the righteous man is constant This is not now a matter of so sensible demonstration but equally true with the other Psal 7.11 The holy Psalmist tells us He judgeth the righteous and is angry with the wicked every day Anger in God signifieth nothing of passion as it doth in us It only signifieth Gods just will to punish sinners and the execution of this his just will and pleasure Now I take that phrase God is angry with the wicked every day to be true in both senses not only that God hath an immutable will purpose and resolution to punish resolved and impenitent sinners but also that he is every day doing of it and so he is every day rewarding the righteous man But this will better appear in my Explication of the third thing where I told you 3. That neither the reward of the one nor the punishment of the other are uniform or always sensible And indeed the not-attending to this is all that gives the least advantage to the complaints of Job David Jeremiah and Habakkuk concerning the prosperity of the wicked God sometimes punisheth sinners by temporary afflictions and judgments these now are obvious to every eye and incur into all mens senses All men take notice of mens being afflicted in their persons crossed in their relations in their estates c. But thus God doth not always punish the worst of men 2. He hath another way of punishing and that more dreadful that is by spiritual judgments ubi poenalis nutritur impunitas a punishing them by suffering them to go unpunished God never more smartly threatned the ten Tribes than when he told them by the Prophet Hos 4.14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouse when they commit adultery He never spake more severely than when he said Why should they be smitten any more they will revolt more and more Isa 1.5 Hence impenitency hardness of heart hence they bless themselves in their sinful courses this makes them shut their eyes and stop their ears This is indeed an insensible judgment but as it is with the wounds of the body the more secret they are and inward the worse they are so it is with judgments upon a man the more inward and insensible the more desperate and dangerous is the case The giving of sinners up to a blindness of mind as in the case of the Israelites Isa 6.9 to an hardness of heart as in the case of Pharaoh Exod. 4.21 to vile affections as in the case of the Heathen Rom. 1.26 to a reprobate mind c. These are of all other the greatest punishment one or other way God is angry with the wicked every day Although he is not every day plaguing them with sensible judgments yet when he is not doing this he is letting them alone as God spake concerning Ephraim Ephraim is joyned to idols let him alone suffering them to go on in their own ways by which means their hearts grow more hard and impenitent more blind and insensible and this is the reason that wicked men grow worse and worse more vile in their affections more sottish and reprobate in their minds and judgments more vile and abominable in their lives And as the punishment of the sinner so the reward of the righteous man though it be always certain and constant yet it is not uniform nor always sensible especially to others The certainty of their reward standeth upon the very same foundations that the certainty of the sinners punishment doth and so doth the constancy of it for as God is angry with the wicked every day so God is well-pleased with the righteous every day he can every day go to God and say unto him Thou art my father God is every day well-pleased with him and delighted in him But I say these rewards are not always uniform our heavenly Father hath more than one blessing sometimes he blesseth him that worketh righteousness after one manner sometimes after another but he always blesseth them Let me a little open to you the plenty of blessings which our heavenly Father hath and shew you how variously he rewardeth him that worketh righteousness
may make him willing and desirous but they are only the gifts and graces of Gods spirit that can make a man fit for the Ministry and God never sends any to any work but his Providence fitteth them for it and the same may be said of any other Relations or of persons employed in any great work And as persons imployed in any work or relation may thus judge of themselves So also their Correlates to whom they are in relation may by this means know how to judge of those who are in relation to them whether they be called of God or no and be such or no with whom they can expect the presence of God and from whom they may expect Gods blessing and this if duly thought upon should strike a terror into men in places and employments especially relating to the worship of God and in trust with souls who are no more qualified for their work than an Ass is for a Fiddle as we say what will these men say when their Consciences come to arrest them with a what doest thou here without thy wedding-garment That is without those gifts and graces without that heart and spirit which should have qualified thee for such a work and which God never faileth to furnish him with whom he calls to any employment for him Or when they shall come to dye and have no sweeter reflections of Conscience than this I have these 20 30 40 years been Gods scourge and plague to this people soothing up this people in their sins blinding their eyes hardning their hearts meerly eating up that bread which should have fed other faithful Pastors who were able to have prayed for them able to have instructed them which I have not been O the searedness of these mens Consciences O the dreadful vengeance of God that hangs over their heads O the strange quantity of the blood of souls which God will require at these pitiful wretches hands Let not my soul enter into these mens secrets let not their portion be mine O my God! Vse 3. But in the third place Let me caution you that you do not think that the Providence of God doth alike qualifie every person for the duties of his relation As in the Heavens there are different Stars and they differ one from another in glory Every Star is a light but some give a far greater and more glorious light than others so it is in the Church of God Ministers you know are compared to Stars they must all be lights they must all be able to shew light both in their Doctrine and also in their Lives but yet some are more glorious lights than others are more burning more shining God calleth no man to the Ministry but they are able to pray able to preach he sets no dumb dogs to keep his sheep he sets none over his people to be their Bishops but they are blameless sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach not given to wine no strikers c. as in 1 Tim. 3.2 3 4. sober just holy temperate c. as 1 Titus 7.8 It is little less than Blasphemy to say God calls a man to pray or preach that can do none of both that God calleth Drunkards to teach men sobriety or unclean persons to teach them chastity or covetous wretches to teach men hospitality or liberality But yet some may be of more eminent gifts for prayer and preaching some may be more eminent in grace more exemplary in holiness than others God hath several stations for Ministers some he sets upon Hills some he placeth in obscure Valleys And indeed herein the Church I mean the Rulers and Governours of a Church seem to have a great judgment They shall not judge a person fit for the Ministry that is apparently unfit not being able to discharge any part of the ministerial work but they shall judge of the degrees of persons gifts and abilities so as to place persons in stations fit for them and as will be best for the edification of the whole But the caution which I offer you in this branch of Application if you well consider it is of great use 1. To restrain the unwarrantable judgement and censures of less knowing and prudent Christians who are ready to censure good men of weaker parts and abilities for the work of praying and preaching as no true Ministers not called of God to their work Is the person a man of a holy life and conversation Is he a person able to pray and preach substantially though it may be not so fluently not so floridly as some others not with that life and affection not with that learning and clearness of demonstration Take heed of judging in this case God distributeth his gifts variously though always to edification of the whole Church In his Church there are some Babes some grown Persons some that must be fed with milk others that must have strong meat God qualifieth some to give milk to the Babes others to give meat to stronger ones indeed the wonderful wisdom of God is to be seen in this disproportioning of his gifts to his several Ministers We are poor vain creatures and though blessed be God! some learned men of great reason and learning are to be found that can deny themselves in their ministerial work and preach to the capacity and understanding of poor creatures yet Quotusquisque est he is one of a thousand that we see doing so we are like Pedlars that think we must shew all that is in our Pack though they be little better than gay baubles and confound poor souls either with our Metaphysical Speculations or logical ratiocinations or with our Rhetorical flourishes God foresaw this vanity in our hearts and hath therefore graciously provided restraining the exhibition of his gifts and not giving unto many abilities to do so that if they would they cannot wrap up the plain truths of God in such mysteries of phrase and reasonings which are but vain Philosophy but are forced to speak more plainly and intelligibly to peoples souls that their preaching neither is nor can be in the enticing words of mans wisdom nor in the language of men that are puffed up but is far more in the evidence and demonstration of the spirit and in the power of God though less in the insignificant wisdom of men 2. This Caution is useful also to relieve the Consciences of good men who are often-times troubled under the sense of the disparity and disproportion of their own gifts and parts to the gifts and parts of others I have known it the case of some Look as it hath been with some Christians for want of some gifts which at best have been but common gifts such as that of Prayer they have been ready to question whether they have any truth of grace yea or no. So I have known some precious godly Ministers in their melancholick dark-hours questioning whether they have not all their life-time invaded the Ministerial function whether ever they
moneth in which God may take them The Children by adoption are picked out of the Children of wrath Reservat Deus injustos misericordiae per inducias justitiae God by the truce of his justice as Nierembergius phraseth it that is by forbearing the execution of his punitive and vindicative Justice reserveth unrighteous persons for mercy This is one end doubtless of Gods enduring so many sinners in the World that he might bring some of them even so many as he hath chosen unto life to obtain eternal Salvation But yet some will say why doth God permit such as he knows his long suffering and patience will never lead to repentance let me a little answer thy curiosity in this and shew thee that even in this the Lords ways are equal and his wisdom infinite 2. Whether they well repent and turn or no it is but reasonable that that God who hath sworn by his life that be desires not the death of a sinner but had rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live should give them a time to repent and how should this be if God should not bear with them and give them a space of life If they never were suffered to think a thought how should their own thoughts another day accuse them It is an aggravation of judgment against sinners That God gives them a space of repentance and they do not repent How should God condemn them for their filthy speeches their hard speeches their Oathes and Blasphemies if God should not suffer them to vent these things How should they repent if they had no time to repent If they will abuse the patience of God and after the hardness and impenitency of their hearts treasure up wrath against the day of wrath their blood is upon their own heads God is vindicated in his Justice 3. The permission of sinners in the world seemeth reasonable that if they will not be made better others may be made good by Gods patience toward them and forbearance of them If there were none of these Briars and Thorns in the world how could God teach his people by them Indeed this is one of Gods great ends in the permission of sinners But let me open this a little in two or three particulars 1. God by the exemplary punishment of them for their sins oft-times turns others from their sins It is true God doth not make all prodigious sinners examples of his judgment in this life but some he doth and by it makes others to fear and tremble and to avoid those Rocks upon which their Souls split If I remember right it is reported of Waldus the Father of the Waldenses that he was converted by the sudden death of one of his companions I know that examples of judgments are not Gods ordinary means of conversion nay they are rare instances of converts that are made that way especially where the word is ordinarily preached When Dives in the gospel fancied that if one were sent to his brethren from the dead they would believe and avoid those flames he was told by Abraham they had Moses and the Prophets and if upon the reading and hearing of them they would not believe if one should go from the dead they would not believe Those that harden their hearts under the word are ordinarily judicially hardned against judgments or other means that to the eye of reason seem probable means to change their hearts but are not under a Divine institution for that end as the word of God is But yet to some they are so far sanctified God sometimes goeth out of his ordinary road Besides though such examples of judgment seldom prove sole and principal causes or means yet they often prove partial causes and social means and together with the word conduce much to such a blessed end I have known one my self that hath owned the ringing of Bells giving notice of persons that he knew who probably died in their sins as a great means to awaken him to a consideration of his ways and a change of heart and life whiles his Soul reflected upon the sound and he said to himself what should become of me if this Bell now rang for me if my Soul as this poor wretched creatures Soul were now before the Judgment seat of Jesus Christ Princes the time they go to School use to have their Vmbraes some other person I forget it may be the name they use to give them that they may be corrected for them and their Prince by their correction might learn to take heed of errors The elect of God those whom he hath foreordained to eternal life they cannot die in their sins but God suffers some vile and wicked neighbours they have to perish in their reaking lusts and maketh this a means to awaken them to consider what sin will at last bring them to 2. God defameth sin by a plenty of sinners It is one of the idle pretences men in this age have for their filthy stage-plays that sin is there discredited by the representation of it and shewing the Spectators how ill it becomes men to be debaucht the truth is vertue and sobriety is discredited there for in the debauchery of them our age hath exceeded all Heathens But for those that will see the vileness and ugliness of sin they need not see it in a play in effigy they may see it more livelily in the converse of their neighbours and I doubt not but much sin is restrained in the world by the much sin that is committed in the world the reeling of the drunkard from one side of the street to another defameth drunkenness and the indecent immoralities of others both in their words and actions make sin more abominable to many considerate Souls as they say the fire is hotter in winter by the Antiperistasis of the cold so the heat of love to God and zeal for him is advantaged by the excess of hatred to God and his ways which they see in others 3. There is yet a third way by which the sinners of the world do good to the Saints and that is augendo fidem ampliando patientiam increasing their faith and patience every sinner is a grieving thorne and a pricking briar to the house of Israel and by these briars and thorns God teacheth them as it is said that Gideon taught the men of succoth It was the saying of an ancient writer Nullus bonorum habet inimicum nisi malum qui ideo esse permittitur ut vel ipse corrigatur vel per ipsum malus exerceatur that is no good man hath any enemy but a wicked man whom God doth therefore permit that either himself may be amended or the good man may by him be exercised Thou that wondrest why God permits so many sinners in the world wonder why there are so many rods and ferulars for Children why there are so many whipping-posts and racks so many bride wells c. Assyria is the rod of Gods anger Isa 10.
then we see them in their true and native colours We look upon a star at a distance and it appears to us as a spark or a very small body of light when indeed it is a great Globe we see a little man standing by a Dwarf or Pigmy he appeares of a great stature to us remove the little body from him and then you see his true dimensions 1. Gods ways of Providence as apprehended by our imperfect and weak reason are seen like a staff in the water The ways of God are right ways but we have a very imperfect faculty of arguing judging and concluding and can see them no otherwise than our lapsed reason represents this makes us call them crooked 2. Our hearts are also vitiated and blood-shotten with lust prejudice and passion and this makes the ways of God appear to us in strange colours when once a Christian hath cleared his Eye-sight with Gods Eye-salve then he seeth them as they are and having quitted himself of lust and prejudice he findeth no difficulty to conclude them holy just and good 3. The wisdom of God in the ways of his Providence is like the Sun or Moon in the firmament which are vastly great bodies but appear to us but small Globes and full of spots by reason of our distance from them Who can by searching find out God who can find out the Almighty to perfection it is as high as Heaven what canst thou do deeper then Hell what canst thou know the measure thereof is broader then the Earth and longer then the Sea Job 11.7 8. 4. We look upon the great God in his ways and motions of his Providence as standing by our reason and fancy and compare his wisdom with ours measuring the Divine reason and actions by our yard-wand and the wisdom of God seems to us a deformed crooked thing but let our natural reason be rectified and sublimated and once Sanctified by Divine grace let our minds be enlightened by the Spirit of God and we shall then see things clearly as they are These are the general causes of mens misjudgings and misapprehensions concerning the Equity of Gods ways But let God be true and every man a lyar let him be holy and let what will become of mans reason and judgment It is bad Logick but it may be good Divinity sometimes to hold the conclusion when we cannot deny the premises which seem to argue against it There goeth a story of Melancthon that being once pressed by Eccius the Papist with an argument to which he had not an answer ready he took time and said Cras Respondebo that he would the next day give answer to it It may be a Christian may sometimes be put hard to it in his thoughts to solve all the Phaenomena's Which a subtle Sophister will make appear upon the ways and motions of Divine Providence but in this case let him hold to the conclusion and say I am sure the Judg of the whole Earth cannot do unjustly however it be God is holy and just and good I will study an answer to this Objection Socinus some where saith that if he should meet with any thing in Scripture which were contrary to his reason he would not believe it to be the sense of Scripture Proud man Must he think to measure infinite wisdom with his bucket and to scoop out the Ocean of wisdom that is in God with his spoon How much better had it been said I believe what God hath said and I will study to reconcile it to my reason if I cannot do it I will rather deny my own reason than the Revelation of the Divine will and wisdom Luther I think was in the right when he would have the Christian say Tu Ratio stultaâ—es audi verbum Dei tace Thou reason art a fool hear the word of God and hold thy peace But to proceed yet further in my discourse You have heard it is not inconsistent with the purity and holiness of the Divine being to be the Author of evil of punishment Because evils of punishment are indeed no evils only so miscalled by us They are great goods to the people of God But once more vain man that would be wise the man of reason that thinks he can shew us a mote in the Sun or a crooked angle in the straight lines of Divine wisdom comes forth and saith Quest Supposing it consistent with the purity holiness and goodness of God to bring evils of punishment upon men who he knows will be made better by them and be helped by those little Hells to escape greater and by much tribulation be fitted for the Kingdom of God yet what is this to those whom God knows will never be made better never be made conformable to the image of his Son If these evils of punishment are true and perfect evils how can an holy God be the Author of them 1. I answer We must grant that there are some stones in the Earth that no hewing will fit to make pillars for the house of God God by his Providence may knock them in pieces and by afflictions break them but afflictions and troubles shall never mend them and indeed this is an ordinary observation as Fire softneth wax but hardneth clay so affliction which often makes the people of God better ordinarily make wicked men worse they come out of the fire worfe than they went in Pharaoh was such a one ten plagues one after another wrought no change in his heart but for the worse he was more hardned than he was before Ahaz was such another who when he was afflicted yet did more wickedly the Scripture sets a brand upon him for it This is that King Ahaz and we have too too many instances of such in the age and generation in which we live 2. Again what if some be afflicted who grow worse and get no good by their Afflictions yet may not God use means that have a rational tendency to their good Trouble and Affliction is the voice of God unto the worst of men crying to them for repentance and reformation they will not hear the rod must not therefore God use it Or doth it not speak when he useth it What if God knoweth that affliction will do them no good but give them occasion further to harden their hearts is God bound by his Providence to act according to his own Omnisciency or counsel God deals with men who are reasonable creatures in a reasonable way one while perswading and exhorting another while chastising and corecting shall not God by his Ministers perswade all men to repent and to believe because he knoweth from Eternity who will or will not obey those precepts Shall not God by his rod teach men to repent and believe because he hath determined not to give special grace to all certainly it is but reasonable that God should allow them reasonable means in order to what he requireth of them though he knoweth they will make no
that they may hear and fear and do no more wickedly Let us therefore make it our business so to improve such Providences that God may have his end upon us by our hearing seeing fearing and avoiding those sins against which we see the wrath of God so remarkably revealed Thou seest in the world debauched drunkards filthy adulterers profane Sabbath-breakers prodigious blasphemers mischievous Nimrods great hunters and persecutors of such as fear God some of them it may be young men some with numerous families others of fair estates c. healthy bodies like enough to have lived in the world many days On a sudden with David Psal 73.18 Thou seest them cast into destruction brought into a destruction as in a moment utterly consumed with the Lords terrors thou seest them written childless or with Ananias and Saphira struck dead thou seest them as David Psal 37. saw the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree by and by he passed away and lo he was not thou soughtest him and he was not found thou seest them their families their estates consuming like the fat of lambs into smoke consumed away This age if you observed it hath afforded you many such sights how many young wretches have you seen cut off in the beginning and strength of their years Knots of Hectors as this age calls them in whose constitution nothing could be seen but that they might have out-lived hundreds of us and in a few years they are tumbled into their graves you seek for them and not one of the old brood found O let all of us hear and fear and take heed of those leud courses which God hath in our sight so revenged upon them It is one end of these severe punishments of God that others should learn righteousness Let us by these warnings be startled and take heed of those sins in which they lived and which we may reasonably judg brought this quick vengeance upon them Vse 4. Lastly Doth God sometimes punish sinners who he knoweth will but be worse not at all amended by his rod And is this consistent with his Holiness and Justice O let every one of us then that hath been afflicted or that shall fall under the afflicting hand of God in any kind make it our business to search what Gods end was in his afflicting us whether he aimed at our good or meerly his own glory and the good of others Let me tell you it will be a very sad reflexion for us to reflect upon Gods visiting us with some grievous sickness or punishing us in our estates and relations c. and not to be able to satisfy our selves that God aimed at more in his bitter Providences than the getting himself glory upon us or the bettering of others for there is none comes out of an affliction but he comes out better or worse more hardned or with a more softned and tender heart more holy or more profane and stupid But you will say to me How shall we be able to make up this Judgment who knows the aims and intendments of a man in action but the spirit of a man that is within him and who knows the aims and intendments of God save only God himself I answer God is never frustrated of his end man may as not being able to accomplish it God cannot 'T is easie therefore to know the Counsels of God concerning thee in this case by the effects Examine therefore what effects hath thy affliction had upon thee Wherein art thou more amended The amendment of a person upon the sad Providences of God lyes much in these two things Repentance and Mortification 2. Having a better heart for duty and being more diligent in the practice of it Search and examine thy soul then upon these two points Say to thy self 1. My soul thou hast drank of the waters of Marah God hath dealt bitterly with thee I have been at the very brink of the grave I have lost a fair estate God hath crost me in my dearest relations What sins have I the more reflected upon for these things wherein have I been more humbled for the mighty hand of God upon me or mine what sin more have I left am I grown less worldly and carnal what lust have I got a further victory over have I a better command of my passions am I grown meeker am I more humble is my spirit more broken do I see more of my own vileness than I did have I learned with Job to abhor my self and to repent in dust and ashes to lay mine hand upon my mouth Or 2. Enquire of thy soul wherein by this affliction either thy habits of the grace or practice of piety and godliness hath been advantaged whether thy faith or patience be improved thy meekness and humility improved or any of those habits of grace which use to grow under the rod. Enquire of thy self wherein thou art improved as to the practice of Piety whether thou hast since thy affliction learned to keep the Lords statutes to walk in thy house in a more perfect way Give me leave to mind you what you see every day It is the sign of a decaying plant not to shoot forth and look more green after a shower much more to wither and dwindle after it Afflictions are Gods showres almost all sorts of people in this Nation have had great plenty of them within the age we have lived in the face of Religion amongst us at this day gives little evidence that Gods aim in it was the amendment and reformation of the persons under those troubles and afflictions which they have met with it concerneth us to look to our selves If Gods end was only to try what we would be to vindicate his own glory his power justice and holiness upon us to deter others from the like practices whatever good may by our afflictions be occasioned to God in the vindication of his glory or to others in their learning righteousness it is but a sad symptom of ruin to our selves SERMON XL. 1 Kings XIV 1. At that time Abijah the Son of Jerobam fell sick Vers 17. The child dyed I Am opening to you the hard Chapters of Divine Providence Actual Providence justifying the Lords ways to be equal even where they appear less equal to our sense and reason I am at present discoursing the Equity of Punitive Providences I have here shewed you how consistent it is with the Justice Holiness and Goodness of God to be the Author of evil to though not in the Sons of men the Author of the Evil of punishment though not of the evil of sin I have shewed you how consistent it is with the Attributes and Perfections of the Divine Nature to punish and trouble his own people even such as he hath accepted of a satisfaction for their sins at the hand of his Son whose iniquities he hath pardoned c. How consistent it is with the Wisdom Justice Holiness and Goodness of
God to punish wicked men though he knoweth afflictions will do them no good but make them worse hardening their hearts and giving them occasion to blaspheme because of their plagues But we do not only see adult and grown persons smitten of God and afflicted and those as well such as fear God as those who have no fear of God before their eyes but we also see children smitten of God such of whom we say They have neither done good nor evil The Question is Quest How this dispensation of Actual Providence is reconcileable to the justice and goodness of God That which blindeth our eyes and maketh this motion of Providence appear more hard and difficult to be understood by us is the supposed innocency of children they perish oft-times before they come to exercise any acts of reason Concerning the eternal state of children dying in their infancy I shall determine nothing because indeed the Scripture that I know of no-where determines all so dying within the election of grace nor that Christ as to all such hath expiated the guilt of Adams sin or original corruption nor that effectual saving grace doth always attend the Ordinance of Baptism though they be brought under it which yet many are not This is a great secret what God doth with the souls of children dying in infancy But this is not what I have to do with what God doth with the souls of such we see not we have no sufficient means to understand and therefore freely leave them to the good pleasure of God But we see they are afflicted as well as others they dye as much as others if not in greater numbers Shall we say the hand of God is not in this thing Or that their sicknesses and deaths are no effects of punitive Providence or vindicative justice but the meer product of a disordered nature and temper this were certainly to contradict the holy Scriptures where we find the afflictions of children made the matter of threatnings the executions of punishments upon them ascribed to God God by his Prophet threatned the death of Davids child by Bathsheba and of Jeroboams child in this Text see vers 12. The afflictions and troubles of children rise no more out of the dust nor more spring out of the ground than others their afflictions come at his command work at his command bring forth the issues which he willeth them and are punishments as well as the afflictions of more adult and grown persons My business must be to reconcile this motion of Divine Providence to Divine justice and goodness In order to which I shall offer you several considerations 1. Could I assure you that all children dying in their infancy are undoubtedly saved either as being within the decree of election and all of them chosen in Christ to eternal life before the foundation of the world or as having their share in the guilt of Adams sin expiated by Christ and their original pollution washed away in his blood this question were determined and the objection of no value It is a priviledged soul that first gets out of the prison of the flesh into the liberty the glorious liberty of the sons of God Supposing this it would be no act of justice and severity but mercy and goodness of God to cut off our children from the womb and from the breasts to deliver them from the bodily pains and aches from all other vexations crosses and disturbances which they shall be sure to meet with in the world happy thrice happy is that soul certainly that makes but one leap from the womb into Abrahams bosom that takes but one step into the world and the next into Paradise and certainly this is the case of very many Christ hath told us that of such is the kingdom of God if all such be not there as to which the Scripture is silent yet many such are there all chosen in Christ are there There is good hopes of the seed of those that fear God the Covenant of God is with his people and with their seed and how happy are they that can get to Heaven with a groan or two with such a degree of pain and aches as those little bodies can only bear and that before their reason is improved by its reflections to make their pains and miseries more bitter So that as to all such as are ordained unto life the case is plain Divine goodness is eminently seen in giving them so short a passage through the vale of misery and shewing them a far shorter and nearer way to Heaven than what more grown persons must go through much tribulation Now though I cannot assure you this concerning all yet I can concerning many which makes the day of their afflictions and death to be much better than the day wherein it was said of them There is a child born into the world and surely if the Thracians who were heathens upon the prospect of no more than the miseries to which humane life is subjected could alter the common custom of rejoycing at Nativities and mourning at Burials into a mourning at the birth of their children and a rejoycing and triumphing at the death of their friends we to whom a life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospel and to whom the immediate transition of elect souls out of a state of mortality and misery into a state of happiness and eternal blessedness is matter of faith have much more reason to adore the goodness of God in the present determination of our childrens lives than to quarrel at Divine Providence for bringing such things to pass while it doth us nor ours any further harm than depriving us of the little pleasure we take in beholding those pictures of our selves dandling them in our laps hugging them in our bosoms while also this pleasure is embittered to us by a thousand fears and cares and sollicitudes and troubles for with and concerning them But because I cannot assure you this concerning all something further must yet be said to vindicate the justice of God in this dispensation 2. Therefore I say the original sin of children is enough to justifie God in all his afflictions of Children nor is this that I know denied by any valuable or considerable party It was indeed the opinion of Arminius That no person was damned meerly for original sin but upon what grounds none of his disciples have been able ever to tell the world to any satisfaction and it were strange if they should when the Scripture saith expresly Ephes 2.3 That we are by nature the children of wrath that is certainly heirs of wrath and exposed to the wrath of God and the Apostle tells us Rom. 5.18 That by the offence of one man judgement came upon all to condemnation Now when-as all men were by Adams sin subjected to wrath and condemnation and by their original sin children of wrath what ground hath any to assert that none shall be eternally condemned meerly for original sin
these are sufficient to evince that there is such a dreadful dispensation of God St. John reciting the afore-mentioned text of Isaiah Joh. 12.39 saith Therefore they could not believe because that Isaias said again that he hath blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and be converted and I should heal them So as I say it is clear there is such a penal act of Divine Providence and now that we are upon this argument it will not be amiss for us to enquire what sins those are which provoke God to such a degree In the general they were sins against light sins against the light of nature The Apostle speaketh of such sinning Rom. 1. When they knew God they glorified him not as God they knew God by the light of nature and sinned against that light All the other texts speak of sinning against the light of Revelation God for mens bold and impudent sinning against natural light or against the light of his word doth many times deliver up men in this manner But the great question is Quest How is this reconcilable to the goodness purity and holiness of God God in Scripture doth frequently declare that he delights not in the blood of sinners his willingness that all should be saved c. He doth as plentifully declare that he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity that he tempteth no man and cannot be the author of sin Now how can God give up men to blindness of mind to hardness of heart without willing it and if he willeth it how shall he be excused from being the author of it To which I answer 1. If we mean by the goodness of God his kindness unto sinners in order to their conversion and healing and being saved there is nothing of that nature to be expected from God under this dispensation It is the seal of reprobation and damnation those poor souls are left to the judgement and condemnation of the last day without any great hopes of mercy they have had their time their means their mercies the patience of God hath a long time waited upon them their glass is now run out Gods day of grace is come to an end as to them Lest saith God by the Prophet they should convert and be healed Gods frequent declarations that he desireth not the death of sinners do not oblige God for ever to strive with sinners shutting their eyes and stopping their ears and hardning their hearts It is enough that God hath a long time waited upon these sinners and hath had no fruit of his patience with them But now if by the goodness of God we understand his justice purity and holiness so I doubt not but to evidence to you that under such tremendous dispensations yet God is a just pure and holy God To this purpose 2. In the second place let us consider 1. What God doth under these dispensations 2. Vnder what circumstances those sinners are whom God brings under them Let us understand What God doth in these dispensations 1. Negatively We say God doth not infuse any malice into a sinners heart this indeed were to make God the author of sin God putteth no malice into the heart of sinners he excites no malice in their hearts and this both the Jesuits and Arminians who conspire together to reproach Calvin and other eminent servants of God with the odious reproach of making God the author of sin have been told by as many as have treated upon this argument but they have a mind to revile The Lord rebuke them This is the meaning of the Schoolmen when they say that God doth not harden any quantum ad rationem defectus but only quantum ad rationem ordinis Now how they should make God the author of sin who freely grant this they should do well to make us understand and I would fain have them shew me where either Calvin or Beza or Zuinglius or Pareus or P. Martyr or any other whom Bellarmine and Tilenus or any other so boldly traduce as making God the author of sin have said any thing of this nature they all agree with Augustine in saying that God hardneth none impertiendo malitiam but this only telleth you what God doth not 2. In the second place God doth undoubtedly withdraw those means which should effectually keep them from such sins and certainly this is not unrighteous with God for he may do with his own what pleaseth him Had not the Lord with-held this grace from the Angels and from our first Parents neither had the first fallen from their glorious state nor the second from the state of innocency by which it appeareth that this is no more than the Lord might have done if the sinner had not sinned to say the contrary were to make God a debtor to his creature but this is no more than Bellarmine himself and all the Arminians will grant 3. God doth undoubtedly leave this poor wretch whom he thus punisheth to act according to the impetus of his original lust and corruption according to that lust which is in his heart No man can deny but this is consistent with the justice purity and holiness of God If for God to leave or suffer men to walk in their own ways not to quench the original lust which is in their heart but to suffer them to put it forth in actual sin and wickedness would make God the author of sin God must be concluded the author of all that sin which is committed in the world But it is written He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and his grace could not be grace if it were not free But thus far all are agreed that God doth harden negatively and permissively I hope there is none will doubt but that if a traytor deserved to dye and to starve to death though a Prince had it in his power to pardon him or supply him with bread to keep him from dying in that manner yet the Prince were just if he did neither of these but suffered him to perish according to his deserts but as I said before this is denied by none All the dispute is whether God doth any positive act in the hardning and blinding of sinners this is denied by Bellarmine and the Jesuits and by the Arminians also In opposition to which I say 4. Though God doth not positively harden nor blind any sinners yet he doth do some positive acts that relate to the hardning and blinding of them I say he positively hardneth none he doth not make their soft hearts hard nor positively blind any he doth not shut their eyes and of seeing make them blind Here now the difference lies betwixt Bellarmine with Arminius and those eminent Divines whom they would asperse with this imputation of making God the author of sin because these Divines cannot allow God to be a meer spectator an idle looker upon his works of Providence
and patience to them in his waiting upon them all the days of their life giving them his Gospel sending them his Ministers beseeching them to be reconciled unto God knocking by his Spirit at the doors of their hearts Thus the merciful God extendeth his goodness unto all sinners a long time he declareth that he desireth not the death of any sinner but is willing that all should be saved by coming to the acknowledgment of the truth The vile sinner through the pride of his heart will not seek after God but vexeth grieveth resisteth his holy Spirit from time to time refuseth to repent and to turn unto God defieth him mocketh at the tenders of Divine grace thus he liveth thus he dieth yet hath heard of and knoweth the threatnings of eternal destruction he looketh upon them as bug-bear things not to fright such men as he is but children only he drinks he swears he curseth and blasphemeth God lyes breaketh Sabbaths he will venture it Who is that God that shall restrain the lusts of his heart He will try whether there be such an Hell such an eternal destruction yea or no. What do we talk of mercy after this to such a bold defier of the Divine Majesty What kind of being must we fancy the eternal God if we should imagine him to have one drop of mercy for such a contemner and defier of Divine goodness Surely he that made this man will have no mercy on him he that formed him can shew him no favour without a dethroning himself and making himself the contempt of his creature This every sinner doth one more openly and boldly another more secretly and tacitly Every fool if he doth not speak it with his tongue yet saith in his heart there is no God Whiles vain man talks of mercy in God in this case I am afraid he fancieth mercy in God to be a passion as it is in us which necessarily stirs to compassionate every object of misery Alas it is no such thing it is nothing else but the good will of God to do good to sinners if they will be made partakers of his goodness The same will moveth and that justly too otherwise after this life the red flag is then held out The last grains of sand in the glass of mercy are dropt out when this life is determined There is no more sacrifice for sin remaining but a dreadful looking for of Judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law died without mercy of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy who have trodden under foot the blood of the Son of God and have counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified as an unholy thing Heb. 10.26 27. These men have done despight to the Spirit of Grace and we know who hath said vengeance is mine and I will repay it I will recompense saith the Lord and again the Lord shall judge his people I conclude then with the Apostle in that place It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God There is a time for all things and as it is so with men so it is with God There is a time for mercy that is the time of this life and there must be a time for the execution of Justice when God shall declare his righteousness upon sinners who have despised his goodness and patience that is the time after this life The inch of Candle is out when the sinners life is expired no more coming to the waters and buying then what before was offered without money and without price Mercy hath done its utmost as to such sinners no more mercy is to be found in God for them no more compassion in that God who is full of mercy and tender compassion Nor shall we need at all to stumble at this for to oblige Magistrates to be always pitiful to them that are in misery though they have been the causes of it to themselves and have brought themselves into misery by the highest contempts of Authority and Government yea and of the clemency and patience of the Magistrate were quickly to prostitute all Government and to expose those that manage it to the basest contempt and scorn imaginable and if the Princes and Judges of the earth and Generals of Armies upon the prospect of this see a necessity of setting limits to their bowels of compassion and no one judgeth them either unjust or cruel in so doing why may not the same be allowed to the holy and righteous God But I have spoken enough to convince those who observe the principles of justice allowed in the practice of all States and Governments with the general observation of the wiser sort in the world That God is neither cruel nor unrighteous in punishing with an eternal destruction those that know not God and obey not his Gospel although their time and pleasure of sinning hath born no proportion either to the time or degree of their torments I shall apply it but in a word or two 1. The first To sinners who are yet impenitent who have not yet by repentance and faith saved themselves from this wrath to come 2. The second to those who through grace have saved themselves from this wrath Vse 1. To the first I shall only speak after the great Apostle of the Gentiles We knowing the terrors of the Lord perswade you 1. Not to stand disputing with God about the justice and equity of his ways 2. While your time lasteth to save your selves from these eternal burnings from this worm which never dieth this fire which never goeth out 1. Dispute not then Divine Justice as to the eternal Destruction of sinners You see if you do you will fall in judgement though you should be tried by the common laws of men by the customs and practices of all Nations Flatter not your selves that whatever your Ministers tell you the goodness and mercy of God will not allow him to see his creatures eternally tormented or that the justice of God cannot allow him to punish the sinnings of a few hours or years with an eternity of torments What have they to do with mercy who have out-sinned their days and years of mercy and despised the long-suffering patience and forbearance of God that for twenty thirty forty years together was leading them to repentance and waiting for their conversion and turning to him who had a day and time of repentance but repented not an eternal life and happiness offered them but refused it and have judged themselves unworthy of eternal life O let all sinners cease disputing Divine Justice and presuming upon I know not what mercy in God and let them to day while it is called to day not harden their hearts but study to save themselves from this wrath that is to come Let me but offer you one or two Meditations 1. Consider with your selves how often you have deserved this eternal destruction from the presence of
honour successes c. David himself never had a slip like that he had when he came into the highest state Even the best of Gods people have great reason to rejoice with trembling in the midst of full cups but sinners have far more reason when they are not plagued as other men when there are no bands in their death when their eyes stand out with fatness and they have more than heart could wish that is the time when their mouths are set against Heaven then their day of destruction is not far of and indeed those are the two dreadful considerations and therefore they have reason to fear and tremble 1. Lest their prosperity should slay their souls There is a latent poyson in sinners hearts at all times but poverty and adversity keeps it in The poor man useth intreaties saith Solomon but the rich man speaketh proudly honour and power are great temptations to oppression Riches and abundance to all sorts of Luxury So as if a man be a fool and hath no spiritual wisdom to rule and to govern himself in a prosperous state his prosperity slayeth him giving advantages to those lusts that are in his heart to discover themselves It is the prosperous sinner that oppresseth his neighbour that does acts of injustice and thinks by his power to defend himself 2. Again Prosperity bodes ill The sinner is never so near a fall as when he is upon a pinacle of honour and power When the worldling saith Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years then comes the voice Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee and one reason of this is because that is the time when his sin ripeneth when he lifteth up his heart highest and openeth his mouth widest and lifteth up his hands most fiercely against the God of Heaven O then let the prosperous sinner fear and tremble 3. Lastly You have heard that it is but a righteous thing with God to give unto the worst of men the good things of this life because they have something in them of the nature of means to convince sinners both of their sins against God and also of their duty to God Indeed they ordinarily prove the quite contrary but this is not of themselves or from their own nature but from the lust and corruption of sinners hearts O then let the goodness of God lead you to repentance Rom. 2.4 The Apostle lets us know that the patience long-sufferance and goodness of God leads us to repentance The long-suffering and patience of God if there were no more ought to do it And certainly were there any ingenuity in the heart of a sinner it would do it For him to sit down and think I have been a drunkard a lyar a swearer a Sabbath-breaker these Twenty Thirty Forty years God hath seen and known me all this time there hath not been a thought of my heart but hath been naked before him I have not told a lye nor sworn an oath but as soon as the word hath been out of my mouth the news of it hath been in Heaven and it hath been written in Gods Book of remembrance God hath all this while been an Almighty God and hath had it in his power every moment of this time to throw me to Hell He could have struck me dead with my lye in my mouth as he did Ananias and Saphira Acts 5 or with my oath my curse my blasphemy in my mouth but God hath been long-suffering and patient with me willing that I should at last be saved Shall I yet go on in my sinful courses Shall all this patience of God be lost upon my desperate soul Surely I am bound humbly to acknowledg thus many years of patience and to sin no more lest I turn Divine patience into fury But then the riches of Gods goodness though it be but in the things of this life adds great weight to the argument for a poor creature to sit down and think that he hath not been plagued as other men he hath not had such a sickly body nor such a scant estate but God hath made his cup to overflow he hath had success in his trading whiles others have been blasted O shall not this goodness of God lead thee to an acknowledgment of God Shall it not lead thee to a repentance for thy sin wilt thou treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and the Revelation of the most righteous Judgment of God Consider that the good things thou hast enjoyed have a natural tendency to change thee if thou hadst not banished that common ingenuity which teacheth all to love those that love them and most certainly it will make thee worse if not better if it doth not soften thy heart it will harden thy heart if these things tend not to make thee more holy they will certainly make thee more leud and profane And think with thy self what an aggravation of thy eternal misery it will be to fall into it out of as high a state of content and external felicity as thou wert capable of I would have every prosperous sinner say with himself What hath God done to me that I should be thus vile and so presumptuously sin against him There are very many that if they would listen a little to their own consciences might hear God by them speaking to them and saying What could God have done more for you than he hath done Would you have strong and healthy bodies God hath given you them Would you have large possessions great and plentiful estates God hath given you such Would you have desired a loving Wife hopeful Children You have had them God aggravateth the sin of David from the outward blessings he had blessed him with he had raised him to be King over Israel from following the sheep he had given him his Masters Houses and his Masters Wives into his bosom 1 Sam. 11. Will not God think you from hence aggravate your sins another day Will not this make Hell twice more Hell to you will it not add more heat to the fire that never shall go out and pain to the gnawings of that worm that shall never dye Oh harden not your hearts to day while it is called to day hearken to God speaking to you not only by the voice of his Word but by the voice of his Mercies O let not that riches of Divine goodness make you worse which in reason ought to make you better Let not your honours your riches damn you Take heed that there be not cause to say of you that if God had not been so good to you you had not been so leud and profane so wicked and abominable in his sight Thus far I have applied this discourse as to wicked men it remaineth yet that I should apply it as to the people of God shewing them their duty under such dispensations of providence but it is a point fit in our times to be further enlarged upon