sine Deo as no man would bear evils without a cause so no man could bear so much without the supporting hand of God and we need not the Holy Ghost to so great purposes if our lot were not sorrow and persecution and therefore without this condition of suffering the Spirit of God should lose that glorious attribute of The Holy Ghost the Comforter 21. Is there any thing more yet Yes They that have suffered or forsaken any lands for Christ shall sit upon thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel so said Christ to his Disciples Nay the saints shall judge Angels saith saint Paul well therefore might Saint Paul say I rejoyce exceedingly in tribulation It must be some great thing that must make an afflicted man to rejoyce exceedingly and so it was For since patience is necessary that we receive the promise and tribulation does work this For a short time it worketh the consummation of our hope even an exceeding weight of glory We have no reason to think it strange concerning the fiery triall as if it were a strange thing It can be no hurt the Church is like Moses bush when it is all on sire it is not at all consumed but made full of miracle full of splendour full of God and unlesse we can finde something that God cannot turn into joy we have reason not onely to be patient but rejoyce when we are persecuted in a righteous cause For love is the soul of Christianity and suffering is the soul of love To be innocent and to be persecuted are the body and soul of Christianity I John your brother and partaker of tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus said Saint John those were the titles and ornaments of his profession that is I John your fellow Christian that 's the plain song of the former descant He therefore that is troubled when he is afflicted in his outward man that his inward man may grow strong like the birds upon the ruines of the shell and wonders that a good man should be a begger and a sinner be rich with oppression that Lazarus should die at the gate of Dives hungry and sick unpitied and unrelieved may as well wonder that carrion crowes should feed themselves fat upon a fair horse farre better then himself or that his own excellent body should be devoured by wormes and the most contemptible creatures though it lies there to be converted into glory That man knows nothing of nature or providence or Christianity or the rewards of vertue or the nature of its constitution or the infirmities of man or the mercies of God or the arts and prudence of his loving kindnesse or the rewards of heaven or the glorifications of Christs exalted humanity or the precepts of the Gospel who is offended at the sufferings of Gods deerest servants or declines the honour and the mercy of sufferings in the cause of righteousnesse For the securing of a vertue for the imitation of Christ and for the love of God or the glories of immortality It cannot it ought not it never will be otherwise the world may as well cease to be measured by time as good men to suffer affliction I end this point with the words of Saint Paul Let as many as are perfect be thus minded and if any man be otherwise minded God also will reveal this unto you this of the covenant of sufferings concerning which the old Prophets and holy men of the Temple had many thoughts of heart but in the full sufferings of the Gospel there hath been a full revelation of the excellency of the sufferings I have now given you an account of some of those reasons why God hath so disposed it that at this time that is under the period of the Gospel judgement must begin at the house of God and they are either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or imitation of Christs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chastisements or trials martyrdom or a conformity to the sufferings of the Holy Jesus But now besides all the premises we have another account to make concerning the prosperity of the wicked For if judgment first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God that is the question of the Apostle and is the great instrument of comfort to persons ill treated in the actions of the world The first ages of the Church lived upon promises and prophecies and because some of them are already fulfilled for ever and the others are of a continuall and a successive nature and are verified by the actions of every day Therefore we and all the following Ages live upon promises and experience and although the servants of God have suffered many calamities from the tyranny and prevalency of evil men their enemies yet still it is preserved as one of the fundamentall truths of Christianity That all the fair fortunes of the wicked are not enough to make them happy nor the persecutions of the godly able to make a good man miserable nor yet their sadnesses arguments of Gods displeasure against them For when a godly man is afflicted and dies it is his work and his businesse and if the wicked prevail that is if they persecute the godly it is but that which was to be expected from them For who are fit to be hangmen and executioners of publike wrath but evil and ungodly persons And can it be a wonder that they whose cause wants reason should betake themselves to the sword that what he cannot perswade he may wrest onely we must not judge of the things of God by the measures of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things of men have this world for their stage and their reward but the things of God relate to the world to come and for our own particulars we are to be guided by rule and by the end of all not by events intermedial which are varied by a thousand irregular causes For if all the evil men in the world were unprosperous as most certainly they are and if all good persons were temporally blessed as most certainly they are not yet this would not move us to become vertuous If an angel should come from heaven or one arise from the dead and preach repentance or justice and temperance all this would be ineffectuall to those to whom the plain doctrines of God delivered in the Law and the Prophets will not suffice For why should God work a signe to make us to beleeve that we ought to do justice if we already beleeve he hath commanded it no man can need a miracle for the confirmation of that which he already beleeves to be the command of God And when God hath expressely bidden us to obey every ordinance of man for the Lords sake the King as supreme and his deputies as sent by him It is a strange infidelity to think that a rebellion against the ordinance of God can be sanctified by successe and prevalency of them that destroy the
3. But concerning the third there is yet more difficulty Those sons that inherit their Fathers sins by possessing the price of their Fathers souls that is by enjoying the goods gotten by their Fathers rapine may certainly quit the inheritance of the curse if they quit the purchase of the sin that is if they pay their Fathers debts his debts of contract and his debts of justice his debts of entercourse and his debts of oppression I do not say that every man is bound to restore all the land which his Ancestors have unjustly snatched for when by law the possession is established though the Grandfather entred like a thief yet the Grand-child is bonae fidei possessor and may enjoy it justly and the reasons of this are great and necessary for the avoiding eternal suites and perpetual diseases of rest and conscience because there is no estate in the world that could be enjoyed by any man honestly if posterity were bound to make restitution of all the wrongs done by their progenitors But although the children of the far removed lines are not obliged to restitution yet others are and some for the same some for other reasons 1 Sons are tied to restore what their Fathers did usurpe or to make agreement and an acceptable recompence for it if the case be visible evident and notorious and the oppressed party demands it because in this case the law hath not setled the possession in the new tenant or if a judge hath it is by injury and there is yet no collateral accidental title transferred by long possession as it is in other cases and therefore if the son continues to oppresse the same person whom his Father first injured he may well expect to be the heire of his Fathers curse as well as of his cursed purchase 2. Whether by law and justice or not the person be obliged nay although by all the solemnities of law the unjust purchase be established and that in conscience the Grand-children be not obliged to restitution in their own particulars but may continue to enjoy it without a new sin yet if we see a curse descending upon the family for the old oppression done in the dayes of our Grandfathers or if we probably suspect that to be the cause then if we make restitution we also most certainly remove the curse because we take away the matter upon which the curse is grounded I do not say we sin if we do not restore but that if we do not we may still be punished The reason of this is clear and visible For as without our faults in many cases we may enjoy those lands which our forefathers got unjustly so without our faults we may be punished for them For as they have transmitted the benefit to us it is but reasonable we should suffer the appendant calamity If we receive good we must also venture the evil that comes along with it res transit cum suo onere All lands and possessions passe with their proper burdens And if any of my Ancestors was a Tenant and a servant and held his lands as a Villane to his Lord his posterity also must do so though accidentally they become noble The case is the same If my Ancestors entred unjustly there is a curse and a plague that is due to that oppression and injustice and that is the burden of the land and it descends all along with it And although I by the consent of laws am a just possessor yet I am obliged to the burden that comes with the land I am indeed another kinde of person then my Grand-father he was an usurper but I am a just possessor but because in respect of the land this was but an accidentall change therefore I still am liable to the burden and the curse that descends with it but the way to take off the curse is to quit the title and yet a man may choose It may be to loose the land would be the bigger curse but if it be not the way is certain how you may be rid of it * There was a custome among the Greeks that the children of them that dyed of consumptions or dropsies all the while their Fathers bodies were burning in their funeral piles did sit with their feet in cold water hoping that such a lustration and ceremony would take off the lineal and descending contagion from the children I know not what cure they found by their superstition but we may be sure that if we wash not our feet but our hands of all the unjust purchases which our Fathers have transmitted to us their hydropick thirst of wealth shall not transmit to us a consumption of estate or any other curse But this remedy is onely in the matter of injury or oppression not in the case of other sins because other sins were transient and as the guilt did not passe upon the children so neither did the exteriour and permanent effect and therefore in other sins in case they do derive a curse it cannot be removed as in the matter of unjust possession it may be whose effect we may so order it shall no more stick to us then the guilt of our fathers personal actions The summe is this As Kingdoms use to expiate the faults of others by acts of justice and as Churches use to remove the accursed thing from sticking to the communities of the faithful and the sins of Christians from being required of the whole Congregation by excommunicating and censuring the delinquent persons so the Heires and sons of families are to remove from their house the curse descending from their Fathers loins by 1. Acts of disavowing the sins of their Ancestors 2. By praying for pardon 3. by being humbled for them 4. By renouncing the example and 5. Quitting the affection to the crimes 6. By not imitaing the actions in Kinde or in semblance and similitude and lastly 7. By refusing to rejoyce in the ungodly purchases in which their Fathers did amisse and dealt wickedly Secondly But after all this many cases do occur in which we finde that innocent sons are punished The remedies I have already discoursed of are for such children who have in some manner or other contracted and derived the sin upon themselves But if we inquire how those sons who have no entercourse or affinity with their fathers sins or whose fathers sins were so transient that no benefit or effect did passe upon their posterity how they may prevent or take off the curse that lyes upon the family for their Fathers faults this will have some distinct considerations 1. The pious children of evil Parents are to stand firme upon the confidence of the Divine grace and mercy and upon that persuasion to begin to work upon a new stock For it is as certain that he may derive a blessing upon his Posterity as that his Parents could transmit a curse and if any man by piety shall procure Gods favour to his Relatives and children it is certain that he hath
and excellent men do so much value above their lives and fortunes 12. That a mans nature is passible is its best advantage for by it we are all redeemed by the passivenesse and sufferings of our Lord and brother we were all rescued from the portion of Devils and by our suffering we have a capacity of serving God beyond that of Angels who indeed can sing Gods praise with a sweeter note and obey him with a more unabated will and execute his commands with a swifter wing and a greater power but they cannot die for God they can lose no lands for him and he that did so for all us and commanded us to do so for him is ascended farre above all Angels and is Heir of a greater glory 13. Do this and live was the covenant of the Law but in the Gospel it is suffer this and live He that forsaketh house and land friends and life for my sake is my disciple 14. By the sufferings of Saints God chastises their follies and levities and suffers not their errours to climbe up into heresies nor their infirmities into crimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alteration makes a fool leave his folly If David numbers the people of Judea God punishes him sharply and loudly But if Augustus Caesar numbers all the world he is let alone and prospers Ille crucem pretium sceleris tulit hic diadema And in giving physick we alwayes call that just and sitting that is usefull and profitable no man complains of his Physitians Iniquity if he burns one part to cure all the body if the belly be punished to chastise the floods of humour and the evils of a â—urfet Punishments can no other way turn into a mercy but when they are designed for medicine and God is then very carefull of thy soul when he will suppresse every of its evils when it first discomposes the order of things and spirits And what hurt is it to thee if a persecution draws thee from the vanities of a former prosperity and forces thee into the sobrieties of a holy life What losse is it what misery Is not the least sin a greater evil then the great est of sufferings God smites some at the beginning of their sin Others not till a long while after it is done The first cannot say that God is slack in punishing and have no need to complain that the wicked are prosperous for they finde that God is apt enough to strike and therefore that he strikes them and strikes not the other is not deâ—â—ct of justice but because there is not mercy in store for them that sin and suffer not 15. For if God strikes the godly that they may repent it is no wonder that God is so good to his servants but then we must not call that a misery which God intends to make an instrument of saving them And if God forbears to strike the wicked out of anger and because he hath decreed death and hell against them we have no reason to envy that they ride in a gilded chariot to the gallows But if God forbears the wicked that by his long sufferance they may be invited to repentance then we may cease to wonder at the dispensation and argue comforts to the afflicted Saints thus 1. For if God be so gracious to the wicked how much more is he to the godly And if sparing the wicked be a mercy then smiting the godly being the expression of his greater kindnesse affliction is of it self the more eligible condition If God hath some degrees of kindnesse for the persecutor so much as to invite them by kindnesse how much greater is his love to them that are persecuted and therefore his entercourse with them is also a greater favour and indeed it is the surer way of securing the duty fair means may do it but severity will fix and secure it fair means are more apt to be abused then harsh physick that may be turned into wantonnesse but none but the impudent and grown sinners despise all Gods judgements and therefore God chooses this way to deal with his erring servants that they may obtain an infallible and a great salvation and yet if God spares not his children how much lesse the reprobates and therefore as the sparing the latter commonly is a sad curse so the smiting the former is a very great mercy 16 For by this Oeconomy God gives us a great argument to prove the resurrection since to his saints and servants he assignes sorrow for their present portion Sorrow cannot be the reward of vertue it may be its instrument and hand-maid but not its reward and therefore it may be intermedial to some great purposes but they must look for their portion in the other life For if in this life onely we had hope then we were of all men the most miserable It is Sain Pauls argument to prove a beatificall resurrection And we therefore may learn to estimate the state of the afflicted godly to be a mercy great in proportion to the greatnesse of that reward which these afflictions come to secure and to prove Nunc damna juvant sunt ipsa pericula tanti Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos. It is a great matter an infinite blessing to escape the pains of hell and therefore that condition is also very blessed which God sends us to create and to confirm our hopes of that excellent mercy 17. The sufferings of the saints are the sum of Christian Philosophy they are sent to wean us from the vanâ—les and affections of this world and to create in us strong desires of heaven whiles God causes us to be here treated rudely that we may long to be in our Countrey where God shall be our portion and Angels our companions and Christ our perpetuall feast and a never ceasing joy shall be our condition and entertainment O death how bitter art thou to a man that is at ease and rest in his possessions but he that is uneasie in his body and unquiet in his possessions vexed in his person discomposed in his designes who findes no pleasure no rest here will be glad to fix his heart where onely he shall have what he can desire and what can make him happy As long as the waters of persecutions are upon the earth so long we dwell in the Ark but where the land is dry the Dove it self will be tempted to a wandring course of life and never to return to the house of her safety What shall I say more 18 Christ nourisheth his Church by sufferings 19 He hath given a single blessing to all other graces but to them that are persecuted he hath promised a double one It being a double favour first to be innocent like Christ and then to be afflicted like him 20. Without this the miracles of patience which God hath given to fortifie the spirits of the saints would signifie nothing Nemo enim tolerare tanta velit sine causâ nec potuit
in a cock-boat or use a childe for his interpreter and that Generall is a Cyclops without an eye who chooses the sickest men to man his Towns and the weakest to fight his battels It cannot be a vigorous prosecution unlesse the means have an efficacy or worth commensurate to all the difficulty and something of the excellency of that end which is designed And indeed men use not to be so weak in acquiring the possessions of their temporals But in matters of religion they think any thing effective enough to secure the greatest interest as if all the fields of heaven and the regions of the Kingdom were waste ground and wanted a Colony of planters and that God invited men to heaven upon any terms that he might rejoyce in the multitude of subjects For certain it is men do more to get a little money then for all the glories of heaven Men rise up early and sit up late and eat the bread of carefulnesse to become richer then their neighbours and are amazed at every losse and impatient of an evil accident and feel a direct strom of passion if they suffer in their interest But in order to heaven they are cold in their religion indevout in their prayers incurious in their walking unwatchfull in their circumstances indifferent in the use of their opportunities infrequent in their discoursings of it not inquisitive of the way and yet think they shall surely go to heaven But a prudent man knows that by the greatnesse of the purchase he is to make an estimate of the value and the price When we ask of God any great thing As wisdom delivery from sicknesse his holy Spirit the forgivenesse of sins the grace of chastity restitution to his favour or the like do we hope to obtain them without a high opinion of the things we ask and if we value them highly must we not desire them earnestly and if we desire them earnestly must we not pray for them fervently and whatsoever we ask for fervently must not we beg for frequently and then because prayer is but one hand toward the reaching a blessing and God requires our cooperation and endeavour and we must work with both hands are we not convinced that our prayers are either faint or a designe of lazinesse when we either ask coldly or else pray loudly hoping to receive the graces we need without labour A prudent person that knows to value the best object of his desires will also know that he must observe the degrees of labour according to the excellency of the reward Prayer must be effectuall fervent frequent continuall holy passionate that must get a grace or secure a blessing The love that we must have to God must be such as to keep his commandements and to make us willing to part with all our estate and all our honour and our life for the testimony of a holy conscience Our charity to our neighbours must be expressive in a language of a reall friendship aptnesse to forgive readinesse to forbear in pitying infirmities in relieving necessities in giving our goods and our lives and quitting our privileges to save his soul to secure and support his vertue Our repentance must be full of sorrows and care of diligence and hatred against sin it must drive out all and leave no affections towards it it must be constant and persevering fearfull of relapse and watchfull of all accidents Our temperance must sometimes turn into abstinence and most commonly be severe and ever without reproof He that striveth for masteries is temperate saith Saint Paul in all things he that does all this may with some pretence and reason say he intends to go to heaven But they that will not deny a lust nor refrain an appetite they that will be drunk when their friends do merrily constrain them or love a cheap religion and a gentle and lame prayer short and soft quickly said and soon passed over seldome returning and but little observed How is it possible that they should think themselves persons disposed to receive such glorious crowns and scepters such excellent conditions which they have not faith enough to believe nor attention enough to consider and no man can have wit enough to understand But so might an Arâ—adian shepherd look from the rocks or thorow the clefts of the valley where his sheep graze and wonder that the messenger stayes so long from comming to him to be crowned King of all the Greek Ilands or to be adopted heir to the Macedonian Monarchy It is an infinite love of God that we have heaven upon conditions which we can perform with greatest diligence But truely the lives of men are generally such that they do things in order to heaven things I say so few so trifling so unworthy that they are not proportionable to the reward of a crown of oak or a yellow riband the slender reward with which the Romans payed their souldiers for their extraordinary valour True it is that heaven is not in a just sense of a commutation a reward but a gift and an infinite favour but yet it is not reached forth but to persons disposed by the conditions of God which conditions when we pursue in kinde let us be very carefull we do not fail of the mighty price of our high calling for want of degrees and just measures the measures of zeal and a mighty love 3. It is an office of prudence so to serve God that we may at the same time preserve our lives and our estates our interest and reputation for our selves and our relatives so farre as they can consist together Saint Paul in the beginning of Christianity was careful to instruct the forwardnesse and zeal of the new Christians into good husbandry and to catechize the men into good trades and the women into useful imployments that they might not be unprofitable For Christian religion carrying us to heaven does it by the way of a man and by the body it serves the soul as by the soul it serves God and therefore it endeavours to secure the body and its interest that it may continue the opportunities of a crown and prolong the stage in which we are to run for the mighty price of our salvation and this is that part of prudence which is the defensative and guards of a Christian in the time of persecution and it hath in it much of duty He that through an indiscreet zeal casts himself into a needlesse danger hath betrayed his life to tyranny and tempts the sin of an enemy he loses to God the service of many yeers and cuts off himself from a fair opportunity of working his salvation in the main parts of which we shall finde a long life and very many yeers of reason to be little enough he betrayes the interest of his relatives which he is bound to preserve he disables himself of making provision for them of his own house and he that fails in this duty by his own fault is worse then
them most and endear obedience If you will obey ye shall eat the good things of the land Ye shall possesse a rich countrey ye shall triumph over your enemies ye shall have numerous families blessed children rich granaries over-running wine-presses for God knew the cognation of most of them was so dear between their affections and the good things of this world that if they did not obey in hope of that they did need and fancy and love and see and feel it was not to be expected they should quit their affections for a secret in another world whither before they come they must die and lose all desire and all capacities of enjoyment But this designe of God which was bare-faced in the dayes of the law is now in the Gospel interwoven secretly but yet plain enough to be discovered by an eye of faith and reason into every vertue and temporal advantage is a great ingredient in the constitution of every Christian grace for so the richest tissue dazles the beholders eye when the Sun reflects upon the mettal the silver and the gold weaved into phantastiâ— imagery or a wealthy plainnesse but the rich wire and shining filaments are wrought upon cheaper silk the spoil of worms and flies so is the imbroidery of our vertue the glories of the spirit dwell upon the face and vestment upon the fringes and the borders and there we see the Beril and the Onyx the Jasper and the sardyx order and perfection love and peace and joy mortification of the passions and ravishment of the will adherencies to God and imitation of Christ reception and entertainment of the Holy Ghost and longings after heaven humility and chastity temperance and sobriety these make the frame of the garment the cloaths of the soul that it may not be found naked in the day of the Lords visitation but through these rich materials a thrid of silk is drawn some compliance with worms and weaker creatures something that shall please our bowels and make the lower man tâ— rejoyce they are wrought upon secular content and material satisfactions and now we cannot be happy unlesse we be â—ious and the religion of a Christian is the greatest security and the most certain instrument of making a man rich and pleased and healthful and wise and beloved in the whole world I shall now remark onely two or three instances for the main body of this truth I have other where represented 1. The whole religion of a Christian as it relates to others is nothing but justice and mercy certain parents of peace and benefit and upon this supposition what evil can come to a just and a merciful to a necessary and useful person For the first permission of evil was upon the stock of injustice He that kills may be killed and he that does injury may be mischieved he that invades another mans right must venture the losse of his own and when I put my Brother to his defence he may chance drive the evil so far from himself that it may reach me Laws and â—udges private publick judicatures wars and tribunals axes and wheels were made not for the righteous but for the unjust and all that whole order of things and persons would be uselesse if men did do as they would willingly suffer 2. And because there is no evil that can befal a just man unlesse it comes by injury and violence our religion hath also made as good provisions against that too as the nature of the thing will suffer for by patience we are reconciled to the sufferance and by hope and faith we see a certain consequent reward and by praying for the persecuting man we are oured of all the evil of the minde the envy and the fretfulnesse that uses to gall the troubled and resisting man and when we turn all the passion into charity and God turns all the suffering into reward there remains nothing that is very formidable So that our religion obliges us to such duties which prevent all evils that happen justly to men and in our religion no man can suffer as a malefactor if he follows the religion truely and for the evils that are unavoidable and come by violence the graces of this discipline turne them into vertues and rewards and make them that in their event they are desirable and in the suffering they are very tolerable 3. But then when we consider that the religion of a Christian consists in doing good to all men that it is made up of mercies and friendships of friendly conventions and assemblies of Saints that all are to do good works for necessary uses that is to be able to be beneficial to the publick and not to be burthensome to any where it can be avoided what can be wished to man in relation to others and what can be more beneficial to themselves then that they be such whom other men will value for their interest such whom the publick does need such whom Princes and Nobles ought to esteem and all men can make use of according to their several conditions that they are so well provided for that unlesse a persecution disables them they cannot onely maintain themselves but oblige others to their charity This is a temporal good which all wise men reckon as part of that felicity which recompences all the labours of their day and sweetens the sleep of their night and places them in that circle of neighbour-hood and amity where men are most valued and most secure 4. To this we may adde this material consideration That al those graces which oblige us to do good to others are nothing else but certain instruments of doing advantage to our selves It is a huge noblenesse of charity to give alms not onely to our Brother but for him It is the Christian sacrifice like that of Job who made oblations for his sons when they feasted each other fearing lest they had sinned against God and if I give almes and fast and pray in behalf of my prince or my Patron my friend or my children I do a combination of holy actions which are of all things that I can do the most effectual intercession for him whom I so recommend but then observe the art of this and what a plot is laid by the divine mercy to secure blessing to to our selves That I am a person fit to intercede and pray for him must suppose me a gracious person one whom God rather will accept so that before I be fit to pray and interpose for him I must first become dear to God and my charity can do him no good for whose interest I gave it but by making me first acceptable to God that so he may the rather hear me and when I fast it is first an act of repentance for my self before it can be an instrument of impetration for him And thus I do my Brother a single benefit by doing my self a double one and it is also so ordered that when I pray for a
strangely and carelesly without prayers without Sacraments without consideration without counsel and without comfort and to dresse the souls of our dear people to so saâ— a parting is an imployment we therefore omit not alwayes because we are negligent but because the work is sad and allay the affections of the world with those melancholy circumstances but iâ— God did not in his mercies make secret and equivalent provisions for them and take care of his redeemed ones we might unhappily meet them in a sad eternity and without remedy weep together and groan for ever But God hath provided better things for them that they without us that is without our assistances shall be made perfect Sermon XXVII The Miracles of the Divine Mercy Part III. THere are very many more orders and conjugations of mercies but because the numbers of them naturally tend to their own greatnesse that is to have no measure I must reckon but a few more and them also without order for that they do descend upon us we see and feel but by what order of things or causes is as undiscerned as the head of Nilus or a sudden remembrance of a long neglected and forgotten proposition 1. But upon this account it is that good men have observed that the providence of God is so great a provider for holy living and does so certainly minister to religion that nature and chance the order of the world and the influences of heaven are taught to serve the ends of the Spirit of God and the spirit of a man I do not speak of the miracles that God hath in the severall periods of the world wrought for the establishing his lawes and confirming his promises and securing our obedience though that was all the way the overflowing and miracles of mercy as well as power but that which I consider is that besides the extraordinary emanations of the Divine power upon the first and most solemn occasions of an institution and the first beginnings of a religion such as were the wonders God did in Egypt and in the wildernesse preparatory to the sanction of that law and the first covenant and the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles for the founding and the building up the religion of the Gospel and the new covenant God does also do things wonderfull and miraculous for the promoting the ordinary and lesse solemn actions of our piety and to assist and accompany them in a constant and regular succession It was a strange variety of naturall efficacies that Manna should sâ—nk in 24. hours if gathered upon Wednesday and Thursday and that it should last till 48. hours if gathered upon the Even of the Sabbath and that it should last many hundreds of yeers when placed in the Sanctuary by the ministery of the high Priest but so it was in the Jews religion and Manna pleased every palate and it filled all appetites and the same measure was a different proportion it was much and it was little as if nature that it might serve religion had been taught some measures of infinity which is every where and no where filling all things and circumscribed with nothing measured by one Omer and doing the work of two like the crowns of Kings fitting the browes of Nimrod and the most mighty Warriour and yet not too large for the temples of an infant Prince And not onely is it thus in nature but in contingencies and acts depending upon the choice of men for God having commanded the sons of Israel to go up to Jerusalem to worship thrice every yeer and to leave their borders to be guarded by women and children and sick persons in the neighbourhood of diligent and spitefull enemies yet God so disposed of their hearts and opportunities that they never entered the land when the people were at their solemnity untill they desecrated their rites by doing at their Passeover the greatest sin and treason in the world till at Easter they crucified the Lord of life and glory they were secure in Jerusalem and in their borders but when they had destroyed religion by this act God took away their security and Titus besieged the City at the feast of Easter that the more might perish in the deluge of the Divine indignation To this observation the Jews adde that in Jerusalem no man ever had a fall that came thither to worship that at their solemn festivals there was reception in the Town for all the inhabitants of the land concerning which although I cannot affirm any thing yet this is certain that no godly person among all the tribes of Israel was ever a begger but all the variety of humane chances were over-ruled to the purposes of providence and providence was measured by the ends of the religion and the religion which promised them plenty performed the promise till the Nation and the religion too began to decline that it might give place to a better ministery and a more excellent dispensation of the things of the world But when Christian religion was planted and had taken root and had filled all lands then all the nature of things the whole creation became servant to the kingdom of grace and the Head of the religion is also the Head of the creatures and ministers all the things of the world in order to the Spirit of grace and now Angels are ministring spirits sent forth to minister for the good of them that fear the Lord and all the violences of men and things of nature and choice are forced into subjection and lowest ministeries and to cooperate as with an united designe to verifie all the promises of the Gospel and to secure and advantage all the children of the kingdom and now he that is made poor by chance or persecution is made rich by religion and he that hath nothing yet possesses all things and sorrow it self is the greatest comfort not only because it ministers to vertue but because it self is one as in the case of repentance and death ministers to life and bondage is freedom and losse is gain and our enemies are our friends and every thing turns into religion and religion turns into felicity and all manner of advantages But that I may not need to enumerate any more particulars in this observation certain it is that Angels of light and darknesse all the influences of heaven and the fruits and productions of the earth the stars and the elements the secret things that lie in the bowels of the Sea and the entrails of the earth the single effects of all efficients and the conjunction of all causes all events foreseen and all rare contingencies every thing of chance and every thing of choice is so much a servant to him whos 's greatest desire and great interest is by all means to save our souls that we are thereby made sure that all the whole creation shall be made to bend in all the flexures of its nature and accidents that it may minister to religion to the good
hath dressed not onely our needs but hath fitted the severall portions of the yeer and made us to go dressed like our mother leaving off the winter sables when the florid spring appears and assoon as the Tulip fades we put on the robe of Summer and then shear our sheep for Winter and God uses us as Joseph did his brother Benjamin we have many changes of raiment and our messe is five times bigger then the provision made for our brothers of the Creation But the providence and mercies of God are to be estimated also according as these provisions are dispensed to every single person For that I may not remark the bounties of God running over the tables of the rich God hath also made provisions for the poorest person so that if they can but rule their desires they shall have their tables furnished and this is secured and provided for by one promise and two duties by our Own labour and our Brothers charity and our faith in this affair is confirmed by all our own and by all the experience of other men Are not all the men and the women of the world provided for and fed and clothed till they die and was it not alwayes so from the first morning of the creatures and that a man is starved to death is a violence and a rare contingency happening almost as seldom as for a man to have but one eye and if our being provided for be as certain as for a man to have two eyes we have reason to adore the wisdom and admire the mercies of our Almighty Father But these things are evident Is it not a great thing that God hath made such strange provisions for our health such infinite differences of Plants and hath discovered the secrets of their nature by meer chance or by inspiration either of which is the miracle of providence secret to us but ordered by certain and regular decrees of heaven It was a huge diligence and care of the divine mercy that discovered to man the secrets of Spagyrick medicines of stones of spirits and the results of 7. or 8. decoctions and the strange effects of accidental mixtures which the art of man could not suspect being bound up in the secret sanctuary of hidden causes and secret natures and being laid open by the concourse of 20 or 30. little accidents all which were ordered by God as certainly as are the first principles of nature or the descent of sons from fathers in the most noble families But that which I shall observe in this whole affair is that there are both for the provision of our tables and the relief of our sicknesses so many miracles of providence that they give plain demonstration what relation we bear to heaven and the poor man need not be troubled that he is to expect his daily portion after the Sun is up for he hath found to this day he was not deceived and then he may rejoyce because he sees by an effective probation that in heaven a decree was made every day to send him provisions of meat and drink and that is a mighty mercy when the circles of heaven are bowed down to wrap us in a bosome of care and nourishment and the wisdom of God is daily busied to serve his mercy as his mercy serves our necessities Does not God plant remedies there where the diseases are most popular and every Countrey is best provided against its own evils Is not the Rhubarb found where the Sun most corrupts the liver and the Scabious by the shore of the Sea that God might cure as soon as he wounds and the inhabitants may see their remedy against the leprosie and the scurvy before they feel their sicknesse And then to this we may adde Natures commons and open fields the shores of rivers and the strand of the Sea the unconfined air the wildernesse that hath no hedge and that in these every man may hunt and fowl and â—â—sh respectively and that God sends some miracles and extraordinary blessings so for the publike good that he will not endure they should be inclosed and made severall Thus he is pleased â—o dispense the Manna of Calabria the medicinall waters of Germany the Musles at Sluce at this day and the Egyptian beans in the marishes of Albania and the salt at Troas of old which God to defeat the covetousnesse of man and to spread his mercy over thâ— face of the indigent as the Sun scatters his beams over the bosome of the whole earth did so order that as long as every man was permitted to partake the bosome of heaven was open but when man gathered them into single handfulls and made them impropriate God gathered his hand into his bosome and bound the heavens with ribs of brasse and the earth with decrees of iron and the blessing reverted to him that gave it since they might not receive it to whom it was sent And in general this is the excellency of this mercy that all our needs are certainly supplied and secured by a promise which God cannot break but he that cannot breake the lawes of his own promises can break the lawes of nature that he may perform his promise and he will do a miracle rather then forsake thee in thy needs So that our security and the relative mercy is bound upon us by all the power and the truth of God 8. But because such is the bounty of God that he hath provided a better life for the inheritance of man if God is so mercifull in making fair provisions for our lesse noble part in order to the transition toward our Countrey we may expect that the mercies of God hath rare arts to secure to us his designed bounty in order to our inheritance to that which ought to be our portion for ever And here I consider that it is an infinite mercy of the Almighty Father of mercies that he hath appointed to us such a religion that leads us to a huge felicity through pleasant wayes For the felicity that is designed to us is so above our present capacities and conceptions that while we are so ignorant as not to understand it we are also so foolish as not to desire it with passions great enough to perform the little conditions of its purchase God therefore knowing how great an interest it is and how apt we would be to neglect it hath found out such conditions of acquiring it which are eases and satisfaction to our present appetites God hath bound our salvation upon us by the endearment of temporall prosperities and because we love this world so well God hath so ordered it that even this world may secure the other And of this God in old time made open profession for when he had secretly designed to bring his people to a glorious immortality in another world he told them nothing of that it being a thing bigger then the capacity of their thoughts or of their Theology but told them that which would tempt