a man is using his tongue to lye to his neighbour to curse him to swear profanely and to blaspheme God methinks he should thus think with himself How easily can God stop my breath withdraw that hand from my tongue which upholds my faculty to speak Methinks he should remember the instance of Ananias and Saphira and Zechariah the father of John the Baptist but for a few words of unbelief When a man is stretching out his hand to work any iniquity methinks he should remember how easily God could do by him as by Jeroboam When he stretched out his hand to lay hold of the Prophet and his hand presently withered If any of you lent your hand to one that were blind or lame and he should spit in your face revile you c. would not you think it a strange daring of you Oh! what a daring of an holy just and powerful God it is for a man wilfully and presumptuously to use a member of his body or a power or faculty of his Soul knowingly and presumptuously to sin against God Thus this Doctrine may serve to defame sin to every ingenuous soul as it necessarily must be an impudent daring of a just and holy God 2. But it defameth it further As it speaketh it an act of the highest ingratitude imaginable Ingratitude soundeth ill very ill in the ears of humane nature so ill that an Heathen could say of it Call a man an ingrateful man and you call him all that is naught it is a very great vice Every sinner must say If God had not been so good to me I had not been so evil against him The Drunkard must say If God had not assisted me to my natural action in drinking I could not have dishonoured him by that excess The like must every sinner say the lyar the swearer the adulterer God hath nothing to do with the obliquity of their action but to the action so far forth as natural his Providence assisteth upholding the natural faculties to their natural Operations And do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people Is this your thankfulness to God for Gods assistance of you in the use of your faculties for the necessary uses of your life I gave thee cloth saith God to cover thy nakedness thou makest it to serve thy pride my creatures to silence thy natural passions of hunger and thirst and thou usest it to serve thy Luxury I gave thee a tongue to interpret thy mind to thy neighbour and to praise me and I assist thee in the natural use of it thou usest it to swear curse to blaspheme my great and sacred name I gave thee an hand and assist thee in the use of it that thou mayest get bread and do the works of thy calling in order thereunto thou usest it to smite with the fist of wickedness to persecute and oppress my people Thus the sinner turneth the gifts of God into weapons with which he fighteth against him I remember a quite contrary resolution in holy David Psal 116 I will saith he take the cup of salvation and praise the Lord. I know that Poculum salutis is capable of other interpretations which are also given according to the various fancies of Interpreters But why may not we interpret it thus I will take that very mercy which thou hast shewed me and use it and improve it for thy honour and glory Certainly thus we ought to do as Hannah 1 Sam. 1. did by her child Samuel which she had begged and received of God She takes her child and at the return of the year carrieth him up to Hierusalem and saith For this child I prayed and the Lord heard me hath given me my Petition which I asked of him Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth he shall be lent unto the Lord. But of this more under the next head to which I now come to shew you how far what you have heard may be useful 2. To promove piety and that both in the internal and external acts of it in the more immediate acts of homage which we are to pay to God and in all the duties of an holy and pious conversation before men in obedience to the will of God It is not hard to understand upon this hypothesis that God doth thus concur in the assistance of all our natural faculties in order to the preserving of us how reasonable it is that we should be in the fear of the Lord all the day long That we should live in an exercise of faith trust and dependency upon him That we should love the Lord at all times And for acts of more external immediate homage prayer and praise c. How reasonable a thing is prayer morning and evening doest thou not remember it is God that must concur to give thee sleep in the night a power to breath to move to work to eat to drink c. and give me leave to tell you if you do not think the sleep of the night or a strength to labour in the day an appetite to thy meat a power to digest it a liberty and power to breath mercies worth the asking it is because thou hast not wanted them much will you not every day have need of the use of your senses your hands your tongue your feet your ears c do not you think them mercies worth the asking Go to the lame and the blind and the deaf and those that lye on sick-beds and enquire of them they will better instruct you in the value of these things Do not you know what to pray for so often this Doctrine will shew you in part pray that God would preserve your life and being uphold your powers and faculties c. And Praise is as reasonable as Prayer you are every day fearfully and wonderfully preserved By whose power is it as Peter and James said to the people when they had cured the lame man Not by our power but by the power of Jesus of Nazareth doth this man walk So give me leave to tell you it is not by your own power nor by the meer vertue of your own faculties with which you are born that you sleep walk discourse work but by the mighty power of God concurring and assisting those faculties Particularly you may hence conclude the reasonableness of that Religious custom which some have bruitishly cast off begging a blessing upon your meat at meals and giving thanks after receit of it Lastly Certainly this Meditation well digested cannot but highly promove all manner of practical holiness For what is holiness but the obedience of the members of our bodies and powers and faculties of our Souls to the Will of God the exercise of them all according to the Divine Rule and the end for which he gave them to us and what can be more perswasive to this than for us to hear that as God hath given these powers so God upholdeth them in exercise in him we live
apparent tendency to the ruin of the whole interest of God in the World if possibly not to leave Christ a Name in the Earth nor Religion pure and undefiled Religion a footing in any place he that runs may read this day that the malice of some is against no form in Religion but the life and power and practice of Holiness The Devil their Master hath given them a command like that of Benhadads Fight neither against small nor great Neither against Conformists nor Non-conformists but against the life and practice of Religion only Who seeth not that although a man hath a further latitude than others of his brethren as to matters of Conformity yet if he liveth an holy life if he presseth Holiness in his Pulpit and practiseth it in his Conversation he maketh himself a prey to the common Enemies both of Gospel Faith and conversation But trouble not your selves Christians The Lord reigneth the Frogs out of the bottomless pit may through Gods permission get out and croak a while but to the pit they must return again A sad time it was when the Enemy said to the Soul of the man according to Gods own heart Flee as a bird to the mountains when the wicked bent their bows and made their arrows ready upon the string that they might privily shoot at the upright in heart Psalm 11.2 When the foundations were destroyed and the godly knew not what to do what comfort at such a time Observe the same Psalmist v. 4 The Lord is in his holy temple the Lords throne is in heaven his eyes behold his ey-lids try the children of men I shall conclude this branch of Application with that Psalm 99. v. 1 The Lord reigneth let the people tremble he sitteth between the Cherubims let the Earth be moved the Lord is great in Zion and he is high above all people Let them praise the Lords great and terrible Name for it is holy Lastly Vse 3 This Doctrine is a foundation for a great deal of Exhortation Every good Christian upon hearing this Doctrine concerning Gods providential Kingdom should be saying What now is my Duty what ought I to do if the Lord reigneth I will tell you in five or six particulars and so shut up this Discourse concerning the main and principal acts of Divine Providence 1. An exercise of Faith seems a very reasonable piece of duty to be concluded from these premises By Faith here I understand not an assent to the Proposition of the word nor yet a resting upon the person of the Mediator which is the justifying-act of faith but committing of our selves unto God and casting our care upon him in all estates and conditions a thing often called for in Scripture Cast thy burthen on the Lord Psal 55.22 Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you 1 Pet. 5.7 Commit thy way unto the Lord Psal 37.5 So Job 5.8 Prov. 16.3 Sometimes it is called a Trusting in God Psalm 4.5 and 7.1 Pro. 28.25 and 29.5 Isa 57.13 c. Power and Love are the things that support and justifie one in trusting and putting confidence in another This Doctrine concerning the general Providence of God in governing all justifies him as to his Power to be the true and sole Object of our confidence We can trust in none else but may be controuled The greatest Princes of the Earth are but men under the authority of one who is higher than they and a mans trust in them oft-times is but like the Jews trusting in Egypt which the Prophet compareth to a leaning to a bruised reed and upon a broken staff which are not able to bear the weight of a mans body but if he leaneth upon them they will run into his hand If God be against us man cannot protect from him nor deliver out of his hand therefore saith the Psalmist Psalm 118.8 9. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes but he whose Kingdom is over all must needs be a proper Object of our confidence and as our confidence in God is warranted from general Providence as to the power of God so as to his love it is secured from special Providence but of that I hope to speak distinctly only a word here lest any should say But although the Kingdom of God be over all so that upon the account of his Power I may trust in him yet how doth it appear his Power shall be put forth for me I shall but offer four Meditations to you 1. That the glory of God is the great end that he aimeth at in all his actions He made all things for himself he preserveth he governeth the World for himself 2. That whereas God hath a twofold glory from his Creation Passive and Active One wherein the creature doth nothing from an inward principle thus the Heavens declare the glory of God and every creature speaks of his glory The other wherein the creature is Active acting out of intention and design and from the principle of its own will This latter is that which is most pleasing to God and acceptable 3. That God is capable of receiving no further glory from his creatures than what floweth from the predication of his praise and the doing of his Will 4. Lastly That from hence it must needs follow That God is more glorified by his Church and by his Saints than by all the Creation besides God is mutely and passively glorified by other creatures but in his Temple men speak of his glory The children of men and amongst them only those who are born of God do voluntarily and out of choice bring glory to God God if I may so speak wrests his glory from others as from Pharaoh c. God indeed in some sense may be said to be actively and voluntarily glorified by all Professors but only by that little flock whom he hath chosen to himself with a full intention voluntarily and sincerely They are the favourites of him whose Kingdom is over all Supposing then God to have a Dominion and Government over all and to be continually in the exercise of it surely if Haman could say Whom should the King delight to honour but me They may with much better right and advantage say For whom should the great King of kings and Lord of lords exercise a Rule and a Dominion For whose advantage should the Lord govern the World if not for those who most freely chearfully voluntarily serve the greatest end and design which he hath in the World viz. his own glory and can sincerely sum up all the desires of their Souls in that one Petition Let the Lord be glorified surely therefore the children of God have all obligations imaginable upon them under all vicissitudes of Providence to trust in God and to commit their ways unto the Lord. But this is but the first Duty 2. A Second Duty which this Doctrine of
fruit of the womb as a blessing and blesseth him that hath his quiver full of these shafts but now the poor man knoweth not how to understand this and it is hard for him not to repine at the multiplying of it a great error doubtless but such as for ought I know good people may fall into we cannot trust God to provide for those which he giveth us if this hath been thy error God but pays thee in thy own kind by shortning thy number and maketh thy own secret sinful wish now to be thy Plague and Torment but this ordinarily is the sin of the poorer and meaner sort of Christians 2. Didst thou not let thy heart run out too much upon thy Children God is jealous and it is the nature of jealousy not to suffer a rival in the object beloved be it a person or a thing God is the object and he will be the prime object of his peoples love desire and delight It is his Law Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy strength it may be thy Child had more of thy heart more of thy love and and delight than God had no wonder if he hath taken it from thee this is now usually the sin of those whose circumstances in the world are better they have a fair estate in the world and Children few enough to leave it to and in such cases it is a very hard thing to keep our hearts within due bounds but our affections are ready to overflow especially if there be nothing in the temper or behaviour of the Child that takes off the edge of our affections to it 3. Doth not thy heart smite thee for the neglect of thy duty to thy Child especially if it were of any years Thy duty in instructing it or thy duty in reproving and admonishing it Elie's Sons were indeed men grown but God cut off his Children though their personal guilt justified God in his severity against them yet Eli smarted in their punishments for honouring his Sons more than God for dealing too gently with them for their most enormous wickednesses Thou mayest also neglect thy duty towards them in instructing them in making them acquainted with the holy Scriptures in admonishing them to keep the Lords Sabbaths and seeing to their external Sanctification of them This is undoubtedly a second piece of thy duty upon such a dispensation and to be humbled before God for those sins which thy conscience smiteth thee for and suggesteth to thee as probable causes of this rod of God upon thee 3. It is doubtless thy duty whatsoever thou findest to be satisfied with Gods good pleasure Rachel mourned sinfully while she so mourned as that she refused to be comforted If thou findest that probably God hath punished thy sin in the sickness pain and death of thy Child it is indeed matter of humiliation to thee it offers thee a just opportunity to resolve for the time to come to amend thy errors as to any survivors which God shall lend thee but yesterday cannot be called back again God hath done what pleased him It may be in mercy to thy Child though it be in judgment unto thee thou hast no reason to quarrel or murmure at God for any of his dispensations If it be for thy Child 's Original sin still thou hast no reason to blame God he is just and righteous in what he hath done But if God hath done it to give thy Child a quicker passage to Heaven to bring it sooner to a state of perfection to deliver it from an evil to come here thou hast reason to admire and adore the Divine goodness rather than to quarrel at Divine Justice There are a great many things that may conduce to the relief of a godly man or woman disturbed at this dispensation of Divine Providence It is a very ordinary dispensation of God though therefore it may look like a digression from the principal argument of my discourse yet it may possibly be not so judged by some of you whose case it either at present is or may be to instance in some heads of arguments which occasionally you may make use of for the quieting of your Spirits 1. Consider what-ever was the moving cause on Gods part yet the will of God is revealed The will of God is such a thing to satisfy a Christian with as nothing can be more nothing greater We have our Heaven by the will of God fear not little flock it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdom We have all our grace all our glory from the will of God and shall we not thankfully accept a cross when it is the will of our Father to lay it upon our necks We pray thy will be done and shall we murmure against it when we see it done This silenced Aaron David Heli Hezekiah it leaves no room for a good Christians reply to it it is our Fathers will that is enough It is our Fathers will revealed by an Act of his Providence The Lord hath given saith Job and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. 2. Consider how many sadder cases than thine there have been Thou hast lost a Child an infant Job lost all his Children when they were grown up feasting at their elder Brothers house Aarons was a sad cause he lost his two Sons grown up in an act of sinning yet he held his peace Helies case was sad to lose two such wicked Sons in a Battel Davids case was sad God had expresly told him the Child should dye because of his sin and that by it he had made the enemies of God to blaspheme What doth David do He fasteth he prayeth he humbleth himself before God so long as the Child lived and while he had any hope but when the will of God was revealed when the Child was dead he ariseth and eateth bread as he was wont to do he saith that he should go to it it should not return to him 3. Consider Let the case be as sad as it will yet if thou lookest round about it there is mercy in it either mercy to thy Child or mercy to thee or mercy to both if thy Child be gone to Heaven there is mercy in that if it be delivered from evil to come upon the World or that part of the world where it should have had its portion there is mercy in that David's case was as sad as one can well think of any of this nature yet there was this mercy in it the living monument and remembrance of David's sin and shame was taken away 4. Suppose that God hath for thy sin taken it away and thou canst not satisfie thy self but it is so yet consider God eternally punisheth none for the sins of their correlates God may punish persons with bodily and temporal punishments for the sins of their Parents but not eternally as to those punishments every soul shall bear no
est Organon according to the subject it worketh in and by our own Spiritual actions we are prepared for the receptions of these Spiritual habits which are not the influxes of the first grace but of further grace and distributed to Souls which have their senses exercised to discern good and evil should God grant out equal measures of this grace unto all there could be no such thing as groweth in grace no such persons as Babes in grace the Kingdom of grace would be like that of glory in which there is no Infant of days nor old men of years and indeed this were enough to have spoken to this case if God did equally dispense out Spiritual strength to those who are of equal standing in the ways of God for though God will give Heaven at last which answereth the Penny in the Parable to him who comes into the Lords Vineyard at the Eleventh hour yet he doth not give equal degrees of peace and strength to those that come in to his Vineyard and work there but one hour with those who have wrought all the heat of the day Grace strengthens by exercise as habits are strengthened and confirmed by frequent acts But yet this is not enough to say in this case for all those that be of equal years and standing in the ways of God are not of an equal faith nor have an equal zeal fervency and intension of affections Nay often Christians of a much younger standing find more Spiritual strength to mortifie their corruptions and perform Spiritual duties than those who have been of many years standing in the ways of God 3. Thirdly Therefore God doubtless doth it many times to punish sin and guilt in his own People either in the neglect of ordinances and duty or some other moral miscarriages Sin doubly infeebleth a Christians Soul 1. As it Naturally deadneth the heart towards God and discourageth its exercises upon him 2. As it provoketh God to withdraw himself Sin is the aversion of the Soul from God and its Conversion and turning to the imbraces of the Creature hence it is impossible that the Soul that delighteth in sin should equally breath after and delight in God as that Soul that hateth sin and is more perfectly turned from it Sin quencheth the Holy fire in the Soul it also discourageth the Soul from its confidence in God and in its addresses to God it makes the conscience fly in a mans face and repeat to him the words of the Psalmist Psal 50. What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my law behind thee Or in the Words of the Apostle What fellowship hath light with darkness God with Belial Righteousness with unrighteousness Sin enfeebleth the Soul in all its addresses to God and discourageth it in all it exercises And 2. It provoketh God your iniquities have separated betwixt God and you saith the Prophet and your sins have made him to hide his face from you It was said by a great Commander of Souldiers That he was never afraid to dye but when his conscience smote him for some guilt of sin when the conscience of a Christian reflecteth guilt upon him he is discouraged from exercising any faith and confidence in God and ashamed in the duty of prayer to go unto God There is no Christian but findeth this in his own experience that the conscience of sin doth wonderfully prejudice his Holy boldness in his approaches to the Throne of Grace How weak is thine heart saith the Lord God seeing thou doest all these things the work of an imperious whorish Woman Ezek. 16.30 It is indeed a weakness to sin and weakness to any Spiritual acting is the first fruit of sin in the Soul for what are the Souls exercises upon God but Holy Meditation Faith Hope Spiritual desires delight a fervency zeal or heat of the whole Soul in Gods service Now sin rendring the Soul guilty and defiled how is it possible it should delight in or desire communion with an Holy God exercise any strong Faith and Hope in that God who hath declared his wrath against sinners or care to draw near to God when it apprehendeth God looking upon it afar off with an angry countenance This is another thing which maketh this motion of Divine Providence reasonable that God by it may punish the failings errors and miscarriages of People 4. Fourthly It appeareth reasonable upon the Consideration of the great differences of Christians in their practise of Godliness The promises of strength are made to those that wait upon the Lord for it Psal 27.14 wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. Isa 40.31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings like the Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Now it is true every Child of God waiteth upon the Lord but every one waiteth not alike nor walketh with God to the same degree Experience will tell every Christian that the more strictly and closely and constantly he walketh with God the stronger he groweth in all Duty Infused habits are advantaged by exercise as the fire that kindled the wood for sacrifices upon the Altar first came down from Heaven but then was to be kept alive by the care and labour of the Priests so habits of Spiritual Grace are indeed infused from God yea and must also be mantained by daily influences from God yet with a concurrence also of our own labour in waiting upon God and exercising our selves unto Godliness and the more a Christian doth so exercise himself the more strong he shall grow Job 17.9 The righteous shall hold on in his way and he that hath clean hands shall add strength or as our translation reads it grow stronger and stronger The more a man excelleth in acts of Righteousness the more he groweth in Spiritual strength ordinarily therefore men and women which have most communion with God and walk more closely with him have most strength to Spiritual Duties 5. Christians differences in Knowledge and Experiences of God is one great reason of their differences as to Spiritual strength 1. Their difference in Knowledge our external acts of Piety such as Prayer as to the true and excellent performance of them do depend upon our internal motions towards God as is our Faith our Love our Hope so will our fervency in Spirit in Prayer and the exercises of our Faith or hope or any other grace be for those inward habits are the principles from which our actions flow the powers which in action we exert and put forth Now these inward workings of our Souls do very much depend upon our knowledge It is true they are not the Natural and necessary fruits or consequents of knowledge Knowledge must be sanctified before it will produce any such effects many a
his Book of the Trueness of Christian Religion Chap. 13. where he sheweth Providence a bundantly owned by Plato Plotinus Hierocles Aristotle Cicero Seneca and others I shall therefore only add one passage of Seneca not I think particularly by him mentioned it is in his Book of Natural Questions Chap. 45. where he calleth God The keeper and governour of the whole world Custodem rectoremque universi animum spiritum mundani hujus operis Dominum artificem cui nomen omne convenit Vis illum fatum vocare non errabis Hic est ex quo suspensa sunt omnia causa causarum Vis illum Providentiam dicere rectè dices Est enim cujus consilio huic mundo providetur ut inconcussus eat actus suos explicet Seneca Nat. Qu. l. 2. cap. 45. a Mind a Spirit the Lord and Artificer or Creator of all the world he to whom every name agreeth Will you call him Fate you will not be out For he it is on whom all things depend Will you call him Providence you will say right for by his Counsel the world is provided and taken care for that it remains steady and performeth its operations Salvian upon this Argument tells us that the Heathens acknowledged God to be in the world as the Master of a great Ship is in that abiding always in it and stirring up and down Whence he cryeth out Quid potuerunt de affectu diligentiâ Dei religiosius sentire Salvian l. 1. What could they more religiously judg and speak of God than to compare him to the Governour of a Ship who is never in the Ship idle but continually at work either in one kind or another The Pythagoreans compared God to the Soul in the body filling each part and actuating each part of the body The Platonists call him the moderator of all things The Heathen Poets speak as well and fully Virgil telleth us God is continually moving throughout all the Earth Tractusque maris coelumque profundum and the Waters and the Heavens In short none but some of the most sensual and brutish Epicureans ever so much as called this in question 5. But hitherto I have been arguing this point with you as men to convince you of it if you were Heathens and had no knowledg of the Holy Scripture When I consider you in that notion I must say to you as the Apostle speaks in another case We have a more sure word of prophecy As we by faith understand that the worlds were at first made by God so by faith also we plentifully understand that the created worlds are upheld preserved protected and governed by God I shall hereafter more distinctly prove this in my following discourse when I shall come to speak of the distinct and particular acts and objects of this Divine Providence I shall only here make use of a few instead of very many Scriptures which might be produced Heb. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpholding all things by the word of his power He at first made all things by the word of his Power and he upholdeth all things by the word of his Power My Text saith He preserveth both man and beast Our Lord telleth us that he cloatheth the grass of the field and feedeth the Ravens Matth. 6. The Psalmist tells us that his kingdom ruleth over all And again Matth. 10.29 30. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing yet not one of them falls to the ground without the will of your heavenly father Acts 17.28 In him we live move and have our being Prov. 15.13 The eyes of the Lord are in all places beholding the evil and the good John 5.17 My father worketh hitherto and I work In short the places of Scripture confirming this Doctrine of Divine Providence are very many and will most of them fall under some part or other of my ensuing discourse referring to the particular objects and acts of Divine Providence And I therefore shall not in this place further enlarge upon them but come next to consider the extent or particular objects of Divine Providence I proceed therefore to a second Question Quest 2. What are the objects of Divine Providence or how far doth the Divine care extend Though the Epicureans of old would acknowledg no Providence and many of the Stoicks asserting a Fate destroyed it yet the wiser Peripateticks would grant it though but a limited one extended to some particular Beings and things and too many amongst those who are called Christians seem to inherit something of their spirit I remember that when Pharaoh saw Egypt almost destroyed he calls for Moses and Aaron and bids them go and serve the Lord but adds Exod. 10.8 But who are they that shall go When Moses replyed We will go with our young and with our old with our sons and with our daughters with our flocks and with our herds will we go He replyeth vers 10. Let the Lord so deal with me as I let you go and your little ones Thus many deal with God When they consider the vast bodies of the Creatures the great varieties of their beings and qualities their motions c. they are forced to acknowledg a Divine Providence That the world could not stand nor the parts of it hold together unless a Superior hand ruled upheld and governed them They therefore will acknowledg a Providence as to the great bodies of the Heavens c. But say they How far will you extend it When they hear us assert it as to all things the sound of the little ones in nature troubles them yea and as to the wills of men they are wonderfully disturbed We must therefore enquire what the Scripture saith which certainly cannot err as to the bounds and extent of Gods Providential care The Scripture tells us Heb. 4.13 That all things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do That the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good Prov. 15.3 My Text saith He preserveth both man and beast The Apostle to the Hebrews saith He upholdeth all things by the word of his power But to speak more distinctly we extend the Divine Providence 1. To all Beings 2. To all motions and actions of Beings 3. To all omissions suspensions or cessations of action 4. To all events of things 1. First I say to all Beings Beings are usually distinguished into such as have no life or such as have life Or if you please we may make use of that plain division of Beings into 1. Such as have no more than a meer Being neither life nor sense nor reason Such are the Heavens the Earth the Waters Or 2. Such as have Being and life but no sense Such are herbs and plants Or 3. Such as have Being and life and sense Such are Beasts Birds Fishes Insects c. Or Lastly Such as have not only Being life sense but Reason also Such are Angels and Men. I shall shew you that
the people of God be good and for good and the products both of infinite wisdom and of infinite goodness It is our unhappiness that we judg of events to us in this world by sense and not according to faith This maketh us call many things evil indeed there is nothing can happen to a good man truly evil for the hand of his Father must be in it Providence must have the ordering of it and never did the hand of a good Father knowingly mix a potion of poison to his child and with his own hand give it him to drink We do not ask evil of God and he that heareth our prayers will not when we ask him bread give us a stone nor when we ask him a fish give us a Scorpion If we that are evil know how to give good things to those that ask them of us much more doth our heavenly Father know how to give good things to his children asking them of him In this we may be secure If the Providence of God influenceth all the events of the world he so regulates them that although they may prove sensible joyless and afflictive evils yet they shall never prove real evils to those that fear God but in the issue appear the products as of infinite wisdom so also of infinite goodness Thus far this Doctrine of Divine Providence is a great fountain of consolation to the people of God But lastly Let us enquire what duty we may conclude from hence and that is very much I shall instance in some few particulars 1. Is there a Divine Providence and doth this influence all beings motions actions events c Let us learn then the duty of faith to commit all our ways unto God to trust in him and depend upon him It is a duty we are often in Scripture called to and that with respect to our persons and with respect to our affairs and ways 1 Pet. 4.19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls unto him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator Our Saviour presseth it in opposition to two things 1. In opposition to the fear of man Matt. 10.28 29 30 And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father But the very hairs of your head are numbred Fear you not therefore for you are of more value than many sparrows 2. Again He presseth it in opposition to too great sollicitude Matth. 6.25 Therefore I say unto you Take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink nor yet for your body what you shall put on This he presseth from Gods Providence for the Lillies the Birds c. vers 26 27 28 29 30 31. 2. With respect to our affairs and the events of things in the world so far as they concern us 1. Pet. 5.7 Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you Psal 55.22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord for he shall sustain you Psal 37.3 Trust in the Lord and do good Vers 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass Prov. 16.3 Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established Man troubleth himself in vain both with care and fear the Child of God especially We cannot let God alone to rule and govern the world But surely if there be a God in the world an immense and infinite Being that filleth all places and infinitely active seeing and hearing all things and this God is not idle but influenceth all beings all motions and actions of beings all suspensions omissions and cessations of action in the creature all events and if he hath any Children people or servants in the world whom he loveth delighteth in careth for these people may trust him and commit themselves and their ways to him and it is their duty so to do Who may trust God who may commit their ways unto him if these should not Let me therefore say with the Psalmist Psal 115.9 10 11. O Israel trust thou in the Lord O house of Aaron trust in the Lord you that fear the Lord trust in the Lord. Be not over-solicitous be not sinfully afraid as to any events There is a God that ruleth in the earth that overseeth the world But this trusting in God must be 1. In doing good Trust in the Lord and do good Psal 37.3 Our souls must be committed to the Lord in well-doing 1 Pet. 4.19 There is no trusting in the Lord without walking in his way The unholy walking man hath no ground to trust God for any good he hath no promise to bottom his trust upon We must trust God in an holy walking 2. We must notwithstanding the Providence of God trust God in the use of proper means The reason for this is because the Precept commandeth the use of lawful means Trusting of God is indeed exclusive of the use of unlawful means but it always includeth the use of means that are proper and lawful To refuse proper and lawful means and talk of trusting God is to tempt him not to trust him 3. It includeth also the use of Religious means such as the waiting upon God in the use of his Ordinances The word Sacraments and Prayer For these things saith God I will be enquired of by the house of Israel Prayer is a general means instituted by God for the obtaining of any mercy But I say supposing these three things That a Child of God keepeth in the Lords way and hath used all proper means for an event which he hath desired and sought the Lord for by Prayer This Doctrine of Divine Providence sheweth him the highest reason imaginable for his committing both his person and his ways unto the Lord without any anxious sollicitude or distracting fears Because he is the Lord who careth for us therefore we should cast our care on him 2. A second thing which I shall press upon you as your duty and consequent to this Doctrine of Providence is a pious security in all conditions and with respect to all events There is a sinful security which all good men ought to avoid and to take heed of Security is the freedom of the mind from care as to this or that thing Now this is sinful two ways 1. When the ground of it is some carnal confidence a relying on some arm of flesh Cursed be he saith the Prophet that trusteth in man and makes flesh his arm Thus the Jews were often secure upon the view of their great allies and confederates Assyria and Egypt In like manner people may be secure upon the account of their relations and interests or the power and favour of men We are commanded to cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils and the Psalmist tells us It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in Princes 2. When there is a pretended confidence in God but not conjoyned with an holy walking nor with a due use of means Natural Moral or Religious take heed of such a security as this is That which I call a pious security is the fruit of a confidence in God When the minds of men upon the view of a Divine Providence are quiet and free from distractions and over-much sollicitude as to the events of things whether relating to the Church or to their own particulars This I say is every good Christians duty and if there be such a Divine Providence as I have been discoursing of to you it is the most reasonable thing in the world God is the highest rational Agent and must work for some ends and those the best the great end of his Glory the subordinate end is the good of his People Now if he hath in his working an influence on all beings all motions and actions all omissions suspensions and cessations of such motions all events c. Certainly that man or woman that loveth and feareth God and keepeth his way and hath used all proper means natural moral or religious in order to the obtaining of what he apprehendeth for Gods Honour the good of his Church or his own particular good he hath all imaginable reason to sit down quiet and be secure Affairs in the world are upon the wheels but those wheels are full of eyes God seeth all things and his hand is in and upon all things and hath his own ends in his eyes and a power to turn all things and to make them to serve his ends We may in the darkest day cry out Psal 76.10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise him and the remainder of wrath he shall restrain A good Christian may sit down having done his duty and leave the world to wag as it will Let that great Ship wallow as it will there is one that sitteth at the Stern that will guide it and all its motions it shall at last come into the true Port. Hence a Child of God hath reason enough in all things to give thanks and at all times to rejoyce in the Lord and again to rejoyce What then mean the disquietments anxieties and sollicitudes of our thoughts Are they not tacit denials or suspensions of the workings of Divine Providence Are they not Indications of the weakness of our Faith Certainly if we had Faith in the Doctrine of Divine Providence if it were but as a grain of mustard-seed we should only attend our duty and when we had done that should speak to our soul if yet in a tumult Why art thou cast down O my soul why art thou disquieted within me Trust still in God for I shall praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God This is a second piece of duty 3. A third duty which this Doctrine of Divine Providence will evidence but reasonable for us is A patient waiting for God under all the displeasing varieties of this life A duty which in Scripture you will find often called for by God and his Holy Servants who have spoke in his Name Psal 27.14 Psal 37.7 34. Psal 6â— 5 Prov. 20.22 Hos 12.6 and as often resolved upon by the Holy Servants of God Job 14.14 Psal 25.21 Psal 52.9 and in many other places And there are many excellent promises that are made to it Psal 37.9 Prov. 20.22 Isa 49.23 It is exclusive of all murmuring repining and discontentedness at any of Gods dealings of all use of irregular means to help our selves it is an habit of grace which in the midst of the most adverse and afflictive Providences teacheth us to stand still and to see the salvation of God It is a great piece of a Christians duty keeping a Christian in his station and in the paths of holiness under the most cross and thwarting Providences in the most dark and gloomy days and the greatest confusions we see in the world The failure of this is like the starting of the Ballast in a Ship in a storm every Ship of burthen that goeth to Sea hath a Ballast of stones or sand or some weighty thing which keeps it even upon the waters if in a storm this Ballast starts so as it is thrown on one side and gives not a just poise to the Ship there is a great danger of a wrack the Ship presently lyes all on one side Faith now is this Ballast active patience or waiting for God in a storm of Providence is that which keepeth the soul poised if this Ballast starts there 's great danger of the souls being overwhelmed Now this Doctrine of Providence and the extent of it to all motions actions to all suspensions omissions and cessations of actions to all events and future contingencies sheweth us the duty and reasonableness of this patient waiting Is there a storm a whirlwind an hurricane of political motions in the world It lets us know that God is in that storm God is in that whirlwind that hurricane is not without the Lord and God is not out of it If the Enemies of the People of God could raise a storm without the Lord or when they have raised it shut God out of the Governance of it it were something but they can do none of this we can have no confidence in them in the goodness of their natures or their designs but we may be confident of God and wait for him I compared Providence before to a man of business that seldom keeps a road but ever and anon turns out this way and that way as his variety of business leads him those that will bear such a man company home must ever and anon wait for him while he turneth out of his road Let this Doctrine of Providence have this kind influence upon your souls to make you to wait upon God whiles he hideth himself from the house of Jacob and to look for him It is good to wait upon God for none yet that ever waited upon him returned ashamed it is your duty to wait upon God he is a great Soveraign he hath required this homage from your souls It is reasonable you should wait on him for you may be sure he is in every storm in every hurricane seeing it working by it governing of it 4. This Doctrine of a Divine Providence sheweth the reasonableness of a passive patience or submission to and contentation with our lot and portion in the world under the most afflictive and adverse issues Nothing comes to pass without the Will of God not a sparrow as cheap and inconsiderable a bird as it is falleth to the ground without our heavenly Father It is true while we are in the world we are in the midst of briars and thorns subjected to a thousand accidents which are afflictive to us afflictions in our bodies troubles in our spirits crosses in our relations and in our affairs in the world and no affliction
subjection and obedience unto God This is that which we call holiness There are two Arguments arising out of the former discourse which ought to have a force here 1. Let us do what we will God will be our Governour Let Assyria mean or not mean so he shall be the Lords Servant and execute his pleasure and no more Pharaoh may huff a little and ask Who is the Lord that he should serve or obey him but God will at last be glorified on Pharaoh and make him know his Kingdom is over all God will disappoint the devices of the crafty so as their hands shall not find their enterprises God will at last be glorified and make all the wrath of man at last to praise him 2. None shall be rewarded by God or be his favourites but only such as yield him free willing and chearful obedience Let us do what we can we cannot resist his will but unless our obedience be free voluntary and chearful it shall never be rewarded by a just and righteous God There is nothing more ordinary in the Prophets than to read the denunciation of Gods judgments against Assyria and Babylon which were yet Gods servants in executing vengeance upon the hypocritical and rebellious Jews Let this therefore mind us to be obedient to to the will of God freely and willingly and sincerely that so we may hear that joyful voice Well done thou good and faithful Servant Enter thou into thy masters joy A DISCOURSE Concerning ACTUAL PROVIDENCE PART II. Concerning the Specialties of Providence 1 Cor. IX 9. Doth God take care for Oxen I Have been for some time discoursing concerning Providence that is Actual Providence which is nothing else but Gods taking care for his creatures made as you heard by the word of his power I have discoursed this care of God more generally opening to you those two more general Acts of God by which this care is expressed 1. In preserving of them 2. In the rule and governance of them I have shewed you the workings of Divine Providence in the preserving of his creatures in general in their Beings and use of their several faculties with which he created them of man in particular considered singly as an individual or in his Political capacity or 3. In his Spiritual capacity as the subject of Divine Grace I have also discoursed generally concerning the Government of Divine Providence and by what particular acts God exerciseth this Government and declareth his Dominion over all the Creatures which he hath made but besides the general care of God concerning all his Creatures there is also a special Providence For the beginning of a discourse concerning that I have made choice of this Text Doth God take care for Oxen saith the Apostle Non est vox dubitantis saith Pareus It is not the language of one that doubteth The Apostle knew well enough that our Saviour had said That God cloatheth the Lillies the grass of the field and that a sparrow though two of them are sold for a farthing falleth not to the ground without the will of our heavenly father The words therefore only signifie an inequal care viz. That God taketh a greater and more special care for some of his Creatures than he doth for others and so it layeth a foundation for this Proposition Prop. That God exerciseth a special Providence for and concerning some of his creatures He taketh a general care concerning them all but a more special care concerning some of them That is the Proposition which I shall handle in this method 1. I shall shew you that there is such a special Providence i.e. though the Lord taketh a general care of all his Creatures according to their natures yet he taketh a more particular and special care concerning some more than others 2. I will enquire Which of his Creatures they are as to which he exerciseth a special Providence and concerning which he taketh such a more especial care 3. We will enquire by what acts God exerteth putteth forth and declareth this his especial care 4. Lastly I will make some Application of the whole 1. That God doth exercise a more particular care in the Preservation and Government of some of his Creatures than he doth of others will appear 1. By express Scriptures which assert it 2. By promises made to some in which others are not concerned 3. By experience and matter of fact 1. By express Scriptures thus Deut. 11.12 Canaan is called a Land which the Lord careth for so Matth. 6.30 If God so cloath the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the Oven Shall he not much more cloath you O you of little faith Matt. 10.31 Fear you not therefore you are of more value than many sparrows ver 29. Christ had let them know that the Providence of God extended to the sparrows two of them were sold for a farthing but not one of them fell to the ground without God but saith he you are better than many sparrows God will more regard you and take more care of you 1 Tim. 4.10 He is the Saviour of all men but especially of them who believe Psal 33. v. 13 He beholdeth all the sons of men but Verse 18 The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive from famine so this Text Doth God saith the Apostle take care for Oxen or doth he say it altogether for our sakes for our sakes no doubt It is true there are degrees and differences as to this special Providence as I shall shew you hereafter I am only as yet evincing the thing in general 2. All the promises of God made to some men not to others are a proof of this for what is a promise but the Revelation of Gods Will to bestow some good things in the way of his Providence so as if there be any special promises there must be a special Providence Now there is none so meanly versed in the holy Scripture that he is not aware of a multitude of promises in them made to the people of God promises that concern this life and that also which is to come the 91 Psalm is made up of such promises 3. Lastly The experience of all times proves it that some have been preserved upheld directed and governed by a Providence in a more special manner than others have been So that none can modestly deny or doubt a special Providence The next Question is Quest 2. Who are the objects of it It is generally answered by Divines that reasonable creatures are the objects only of special Providence These are only Angels and Men for the Specialty of Divine Providence so far as they relate to Angels as we know little of it so neither doth the knowledg of it much concern us of that therefore I shall say nothing being not desirous to intrude into those things which man hath
up the Church are more peculiar and special objects of Providence than all others in the World 3. Amongst them such as fear and love God in sincerity are yet the more peculiar objects of Divine Providence and which God hath a most peculiar regard unto which maketh a cogent argument to prove That supposing the glory of God to be the great end of all his providential Dispensations that the Providence of God must most eminently work for the good of these as being such who most eminently serve the great end of his Glory So as he who observeth the motions of it must needs by them understand the loving-kindness of the Lord towards them Secondly The mercy and truth of Gods ways towards them that fear him are not to be read in the surface of present Providences The dark side of the cloud is sometimes towards the Israel of God and at such a time it must be by Faith that we understand that the ways all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth toward his own people Who could read the loving-kindness of the Lord towards Israel while they were in Egypt serving at the Brick-kilns and under their great oppression there but he who observed the Providence of God thus working to make them willing to go out and take possession of the promised Land he might understand this It is not every motion of Providence but the issues of it that demonstrate all the ways of the Lord to be mercy and truth and this evinceth to us that an observation of the motions of Divine Providence yea and a wist and diligent and continuing observation of them also is necessary to make us understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I come now to the Application of what you have heard upon this Argument This in the first place sheweth us one great reason of that ignorance which is in men both concerning God and concernng their own duty Men know little of God and little how to govern their actions according to any degree of Christian prudence As ignorance of and unbelief in the Word of God is one great cause so their not observing the motions of Divine Providence which have been in the World is another no small cause of it Men are much ignorant of God indeed there is but little of the knowledg of God in the World especially that knowledg which floateth not only in the brain but influenceth the heart and affections and men know little how to govern their actions by any spiritual wisdom but live directly contrary to what they own and pretend to as their highest end And we understand as little of the loving-kindness of the Lord I say one great cause of this is mens not observing the workings and motions of Providence They pass before their eyes every day but they observe them not Non tantum oculis intueri sed animum ad hanc considerationem ita exuscitare ut meliores inde evadamus To observe signifieth not only with our eyes to behold it but so to stir up our minds to the consideration of a thing that we may grow the better by it saith a grave Author Now in this Notion of it how few are they that observe these things they see stupendious Providences sometimes in the destruction of the Churches Enemies for the salvation of his people it may be at first they as all new things do affect men with a little passion according to the nature of them but they are like a flash of lightning which though at present it startles us yet the impression is presently off our spirits and I say this is one great reason why we are so ignorant of God so unskilful in the government of our lives to his ends and that we understand so little of his loving-kindness Hence it is that we cannot understand how much good God doth his Church and people by afflictions and trials They are the sensible frowns of Providence which blind our eyes that we cannot see the loving-kindness of God in all his ways We think sometimes we see God driving his Chariot in a direct road to his great ends the glory of his holy Name and the good and protection of such as fear him here we think we can easily discern Gods Wisdom and as easily understand his loving-kindness But now when the Lord drives his Chariot out of our sight and exerciseth his Church or the particular souls of his people with long and tedious Afflictions here we are at a loss and can neither read the wisdom nor loving-kindness of God But what is the reason of this but only our superficial view of Gods Providences without a wist and diligent observation of them If we would but bend our minds to observe what a wholsom influence Afflictions and adverse Providences have ordinarily both upon vvhole Churches and upon particular Christians we should even in them easily understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. The Husbandman can easily understand that he could as ill want the frosts and snows of Winter as the warmth heat and sun-shine of the Summer Gideon taught the men of Succoth with briars and thorns and God ordinarily doth so teach his people Blessed is he saith the Psalmist whom thou chastenest and teachest out of thy Law David tells us Psalm 119.61 that before he was afflicted he went astray but since that he had learned to keep the statutes of the Lord. It was an old saying The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church The Church is bettered and the Soul is bettered by adverse Providences That Text Isa 27.9 is very remarkable By this that is by this severe affliction by this captivity shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and all the fruit shall be to take away sin when the Lord shall make the stones of the altar as chalk stones that crumble in pieces the groves and the images shall not stand up As an hard Winter keepeth under and killeth the weeds so the winter of Affliction much helps to the purging out of corruptions both out of the Church and also out of the particular Soul Augustine as I remember somewhere lamenteth That a Fever had done more with him to subdue and mortifie a lust than before the love of God could do with him Now I say our not observing this which is matter of no difficult observation to him that wistly eyeth Divine Providence is one great reason that men do not understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Another reason of mens not understanding it is their making of a judgment of Gods works before they are perfect If any of us should go into a Limners shop and see his first draught of a lovely picture we should discern little loveliness in it which yet we should easily discern if we would but stay until he had finished his work and laid on his life-colours It is the same case with us as to works of Divine Providence we look on them while the Lords work is yet upon the
The Egyptians the Philistines the vilest Enemies cry out God fighteth against them or This is the Lords work Secondly As the Power so the Wisdom of God is seen in these methods and operations of Providence Indeed sometimes God so worketh that the Power of God appeareth uppermost and is most conspicuous in the destruction of the Enemies and in the salvation of the Lords people as in the case of Sennacherib's Army destroyed by an Angel of Pharaoh destroyed by the return of the waters c. But oft-times there 's a wonderful wisdom of God in ordering contingencies and seeming casual things to his own ends in these cases as in the case of Joseph and Haman the reflexion of the Sun upon the waters which caused the Moabites mistake and confusion But the wisdom of God is further seen in this That a mercy seldom comes but though we could see nothing of Wisdom relating to it before it came yet when it is come to pass there 's no understanding Christian but is forced to say It could never have come in a more seasonable time the wisdom of which we could see nothing of in the prospect is evident upon the event It would have been a great question whether the Israelites would have been so willing to have come out of Egypt under the conduct of Joseph when they were pinch'd with no oppressions as they were under Moses and Aaron when they had been serving in the Brick-kilns and their lives so many years together had been made bitter to them through the hard bondage which they had so long endured Thirdly The Lord doth thus more eminently magnifie his justice and righteousness Justice lieth in the distribution of rewards and punishments the first we call Remunerative the second Vindicative Justice Both are much magnified by this method of Providence Persons in the greatest heighths of prosperity or depths of 〈◊〉 are ordinarily the most remarkable objects of the worlds eyes and more regarded than those that are in a more middle-state When God lifts up a Joseph out of the dungeon and a Daniel out of the Lions den and advanceth a Mordecai for whom a gallows was set up and the three Children are taken out of a fiery Furnace He proclaimeth to all the World and they are forced to confess it that verily there is a reward for the righteous and so on the other side when a Pharaoh a Sennecharib an Haman a Nebuchadnezzar are pull'd down in the midst of all their pride and jollity from their very pinacles of honour the Justice and Righteousness of God in punishing proud and imperious Sinners is proclaimed and made more evident to all the World Lastly 4. The Lords goodness is thus more magnified and taken notice of Common and ordinary Dispensations of gracious Providence are little remarked by us what mercy do we receive every night every day from God yet how little notice do we take of it how little is our heart affected with it but now when we are brought to the pits-brink to a very low estate and then are pluck'd from it when we are in a very low estate and then delivered Gods goodness is both more proclaimed to the World and more conspicuous unto us But this will in part fall in under the second head for I told you that God is glorified by this method of his Providence not only as his glorious Attributes divers of them are by it more exalted but also as the pious and religious Acts of his people are more by this method of Providence elicited I have often hinted to you that God hath a twofold glory from his Creatures and the works of his hands The first is a meer passive glory Thus the heavens declare the glory of God the Heavens shew forth the greatness glory and power of God The second is Active wherein the creature doth some actions from which a glory doth result unto God Now by this Method of Providence God is not only glorified in the first sense as this kind of working speaketh more of his Power Wisdom Justice Goodness c. but in the second also ◠Thus God sometimes forceth an acknowledgment of his Power even from the worst of men Julian himself shall confess that Christ is too hard for him throwing up his Dagger to Heaven and crying Vicisti Galilaee The Egyptians shall cry out Exod. 14.25 Let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fighteth for the Israelites against the Egyptians Nebuchadnezzar shall make a Decree Dan. 3.29 That every Nation People and Language which speak any thing against the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghil because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort Dan. 6.25 Darius shall write to all people Nations and Languages that dwell upon the Earth and make a Decree That in every Dominion of his Kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living God and stedfast for ever and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his Dominion shall be even to the end he delivereth and he rescueth and he worketh signs and wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the Lions The King of Babylon that set up the Golden-image and so rigorously commanded all should bow down to it or be thrown into the fiery Furnace heated seven times hotter than ordinary Dan. 3.26 shall bless the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who hath sent his Angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the Kings word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve or worship any god but their own God What a wonderful glory here had God given him from a wicked Pagan Prince he confesseth his Command wicked he blesseth God that put into these three hearts 〈◊〉 to disobey it and make him change his word he acknowledgeth God the true God and that he delivereth them that trust in him All this accreweth from Gods delivering these three men when they were at the lowest when all gave them over for dead men But secondly How much more glory hath God from his own people upon any such deliverance Surprizals affect us most An unthought-of evil most startleth and dejecteth us An unthought-of good most elevates and affects us Good things lessen in our opinion and estimate by a long expectation They are greatest and most affect us when we are past hopes of them Sudden and unlook'd for good raiseth our hearts to great admiration great praise and thanksgiving Now he that offereth praise saith God glorifieth me The more God is admired the more his goodness is predicated and proclaimed the more men upon any occasion speak of his honour and power and greatness the more glory God hath from them Thirdly God is more honoured by this method of Providence not only as the suddenness of it doth more affect and elevate his peoples
he was able to perform Abraham that he might keep up his heart fixed on the promise he considered not the nothingness or improbability of the means he considered nothing but the power and faithfulness of God God had said it there was a promise for it a promise from him who could not lye then he considereth that he who had promised was able also to perform an honest faithful man may sail in his promise because he may not be able to perform but as God was faithful so he was also able he keeps his Eye off means fixed upon God So again Heb. 11.17 18 19 By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received the promise offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead Abraham had a promise that in Isaac his seed should be called God calls Abraham with his own hand to slay Isaac he could not but have such thoughts as these Lord if Isaac be gone where is thy promise what becomes of thy word how shall my seed be called in him how shall I be the father of the Jewish Nation if Isaac be he in whom my seed must be called and he be dead before he hath a child He had nothing to relieve him under these thoughts but this That God was able to raise him from the dead hither he flies and keeps up his faith in the Promise by turning his eye off from the means and meerly considering the power and faithfulness of God You shall find Asa doing thus 2 Chron. 14.9 10 11 Asa had but an Army of five hundred thousand Zerah the Ethiopian cometh out against him with an Army of a million and three hundred Chariots there was double the number he had If he had look'd upon the means he must have desponded how should five hundred thousand deal with ten hundred thousand but he looks off the means and fixeth his Eye upon God Ver. 11 He cryeth unto the Lord and saith Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee and in thy Name we go against this multitude O Lord thou art our God let not man prevail against thee Secondly In such a day consider the experiences of Gods people consider what they did and how they sped What they did that you heard in the instance both of Abraham and Asa They shut the Eyes of their sense and natural reason they took off their Eyes from all consideration of means and eyed only the certainty of the Promise the faithfulness of God and the power of God So did Abraham so did Asa Then 2. Consider how they sped Abraham had a Son at the set-time Abraham had his Son reprieved when the knife was at his throat and his seed was called in Isaac The Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Juda c. saith the Text 2 Chron. 14.12 13 14. Now it is a great encouragement to us in the exercises of our faith to consider the experiences of other of the Servants of God in their exercises of Faith Our father 's trusted in thee saith David Psalm 22 they trusted and were delivered The strength of this lieth in the stedfastness and unchangeableness of God he is the same his name is I am David as to Goliah raised up his faith upon his former experiences in slaying the Lion and the Bear 1 Sam. 17 and upon the experience of others Psalm 22 nothing is more conducive to help and relieve a Christian weak as to his faith in the day either of small things as to the Church of God in which he is considered as a member or in the day of small things as to his own personal concerns God chuseth the day of small things to be seen in it is the day which Providence chuseth to shew it self great in And you may thus advantage your faith in God in such a day Now for your further encouragement in this exercise of faith in God beyond the visibility or apparent probability of means I shall offer these things to your consideration 1. That it is Gods ordinary time and method of working This is that which I discoursed to you in justification of the Observation and proved it to you from a plenty of instances and therefore shall not enlarge here 2. That God never worketh with so much advantage to his own glory as in such a time when he fulfilleth his Word in the day of mans small things We never need doubt Gods pursuing of the great ends of his glory He doth all things for himself his glory is the end of all his great works Now I say God never worketh more for the advantage of his glory than in such exigents then is his power and the greatness thereof most eminently made known Then shall his people more see and confess the Arm of the Lord. 3. Consider thirdly this is the proper work of faith It is true we ought to exercise Faith in the use of means let them be never so great never so probable for the accomplishment of the the End but the proper place for faith is where means are weak or wanting to put the Soul in hope against hope It is the evidence of things not seen as patience is an habit of grace given the Soul for a day of adversity so faith is made for an hour of sensible darkness 4. Lastly Nothing so pleaseth and engageth God as such an exercise of faith Asa 2 Chron. 14.11 useth it as an argument with God Help us O Lord for we rest on thee and in thy Name we go against this great multitude The next Verse saith God smote the Ethiopians 2 Chron. 13.18 You will find that Jeroboam's Army was full double to the number of Abijah's and could not have been conquered without some extraordinary influence of God upon Abijah's side Now would you know what engaged the Lord of Hosts ver 18 Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time and the men of Judah prevailed because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers See the contrary 2 Chron. 16.7 Hanani the Seer cometh to Asa and telleth him Because thou hast relied on the King of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God therefore the Host of the King of Syria is escaped out of thy hands Thus I have shewed you a second thing in which I conceive the duty of a Christian lies in the day of small things viz. The exercise of a faith in God beyond the vertue and probability of the means 3. A third piece of his duty is To beware of the use of sinful means in order to the accomplishment of what he desireth It is a great vanity to which through our misapprehension of means we are very subject if we want lawful means to make use of
a knowledg too high too deep for thee Providence usually bringeth home both the promises to the Saints and the threatnings to the Sinners in a way quite different from what they looked for or it may be expected it in I have spoken enough already to take Christians off this but yet because it is a great point a thing wherein we are prone to slip and wherein our slipping is more than ordinarily dangerous let me spend a little time further to argue you out of this vanity and to direct your Souls in the expectation of the fulfilling of Divine Promises 1. Consider how much the strength of your souls is spent and how vainly in the expectations of your own fancies As the expectation of that for substance which God never promised is but the expectation of our own fancy so neither is the expectation of what God hath promised under such circumstances as are no part of the promse Now the strength of our Souls runneth much out in such expectations Let a man but fancy that in such a year Babylon shall fall The Jews shall be called The thousand years shall begin That by such a time the Church in distress or his Soul in distress shall be delivered It is strange to observe how the Soul will spend it self upon such a Notion the thoughts of men run upon it their wits are bent to interpret dark Scriptures into their own fancies it presently becomes the main article of their faith and the great argument of their hope and the whole subject of their discourses and at last possibly they are enforced to acknowledg that they had a lye in their right hand The Prophet useth the expressions upon an higher argument but yet they are applicable here Why spend you your strength for that which is not bread and your labour for that which will not profit There is nothing that is bread for a Soul but the Word of God it hath pitied my Soul many times to observe many otherwise I hope serious persons how they have spent themselves in such Enquiries and expectations as these Consider secondly how the faith of your souls is often endangered and shaken by your disappointments in these things I do but name this again for I before enlarged upon it How ready are we to dis-believe the Promise wholly because it comes not in the circumstances that we fancied it would come The Apostle was aware of this great Evil and therefore when some had been prophecying in the Church of the Thessalonians of a sudden coming of Christ to Judgment he writeth to that Church 2 Thess 2.1 2 Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as if the day of Christ were at hand Let no man deceive you by any means The Apostle saw that this hasty and ungrounded expectation of Christs coming under such circumstances as he had now here revealed did not only tend to the troubling of Christians when they saw themselves disappointed but also to the shaking of their faith as to the thing it self and therefore beseecheth them by the coming of our Lord Jesus and by their gathering together unto him what can be the meaning of that but this If ever you expect the joyful coming of Christ and would keep your faith steady as to it if ever you would be with us gathered unto him concern not your selves in those who would limit the Promises to the circumstances of their own fancying Let them pretend Revelations of the Spirit or wrest the word of God yet faith the Apostle let them not deceive you You have an eminent instance of this shaking of Christians faith so consequential to this limiting of God to circumstances Luke 22.31 There was a Promise of redeeming Israel Christ had been crucified and three days were passed and they had heard nothing tending to their expectation say they We trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel and besides all this to day is the third day since these things were done Their faith began to shake as to the main Promise because Providence in the accomplishment of them did not fit it with the circumstances which they had fancied Thirdly Consider it much hindereth that duty of waiting upon God which the Scripture so often presseth upon us I need not mention particular Scriptures there is hardly any one duty more pressed upon Christians in Scripture than this patient waiting upon and for God Now how doth that Soul wait upon God that limits God to his circumstances of time place means persons he indeed waiteth upon those circumstances a while but when he is disappointed as to them he knoweth not how to wait upon God any longer The Soul which truly waiteth on God leaveth circumstances unto him You will say unto me in the next place What then is the duty of a Christian with respect to the Promises whether concerning the Church or his own soul in particular I answer to receive and embrace them and be perswaded of the truth of them and leave unto God the way time manner and circumstances for fulfilling of them which he hath not revealed going on in the way of our plain duty till God shall please to give a being to his Word You shall see your duty Heb. 11.13 These all died in the faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth What promises were these The promises of Canaan of the Messias Abraham saw Christs day and rejoyced saith our Saviour They received these promises in their ears God revealed his will for these things they saw them afar off as things like to come to pass many years after they were perswaded of them of the truth of them that God would give them a being they embraced them with thankful believing hearts and lived so as that they confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims of the Earth in a constant course of self-denial and fulfilling the will of God and in a crucifixion to the World they never stood troubling themselves to search out the particular time and circumstances when and which way God would do these things but kept in the faith of the Promise leaving circumstances unto God Let us go and do likewise I shall conclude this discourse with a Text of our Saviours Luke 17.20 21 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God should come He answered and said the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation Neither shall they say Lo here or Lo there for behold the Kingdom of God is within you Let me a little open these words to you The Kingdom of God that is the great things which concern the Kingdom of God these are not brought to pass and come
Vse 1. In the first place let then all men that live upon the Earth praise the Lord but especially such as are superiors and rulers over others and more especially such as are his Church The Psalmist Psal 135.1 calls to all saying Praise the Lord praise ye the name of the Lord and ver 19 20 21. He calleth in particular Bless the Lord O house of Israel Bless the Lord O house of Aaron Bless the Lord O house of Levi you that fear the Lord bless the Lord Blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Hierusalem 1. This observation calleth to all the sons and daughters of men to bless the Lord. We are all sociable creatures and much of the comfort of our lives lyeth in our societies and fellowships one with another either in our family-societies or in our civil-societies or in our Church-societies We should think it a life worse than death to be condemned to live like a wild Ass alone in the wilderness Now there are some lusts of men that would spoil us of all this comfort God peculiarly sets himself against them and makes these the marks for his arrows of vengeance The Jews said of the Centurion He hath loved our nation and hath built us a synagogue We may say of our good God he hath loved mankind for he hath taken care to preserve order in humane societies and severely to chasten the invaders upon the rights of others What an ingagement doth this lay upon all men to praise the Lord Certainly sirs there is a great deal of praise and glory and homage due to God from all men as they are concerned in their several societies There is a great deal of glory due to God from families for his testimony against those lusts of men such as are murtherers and adulterers which in a short time would spoil all the comfort of those societies Certainly every family is bound to worship God and to walk with God But particularly 1. Let Rulers praise the Lord. Let all the Princes of the Earth give homage to him that ought to be served they are more especial marks for furious and ambitious mens lusts Gods Providence as you have heard is eminently seen in preventing their dangers in revenging their harms 2 Sam. 23.3 4 5. Surely then as David saith those that rule over men should be just ruling them in the fear of the Lord their light should be like the light of the morning without clouds God hath not only set them up as lights upon an hill but he hath made his special Providence to be a lanthorn about them that 't is rarely that the wind of sedition and treason prevails to blow them out and then 't is ordinarily for some eminent Provocation of God But I am not speaking to persons in that capacity You that are parents praise the Lord Gods special Providence you see reacheth you and in a great measure secureth you from that great heart-ach of rebellious and disobedient children I know you will say How then cometh this to be the great affliction of many good parents To which I answer 1. There is many a good parent may have been but like good old Ely too indulgent and cockering to their children ordinarily God keepeth up the authority of parents over their children until themselves have prostituted it and in the rebellion and disobedience of their children they may read their own sin and see as much cause to be humbled for that as any thing else as David in the case of Adonijah 1 King 1.5 6. And herein the goodness of God towards parents will be seen that if he doth not upon their endeavours secure to them the duty of their children yet he will not fail to revenge their quarrels against them 2. Let the poor and weak of the earth praise the Lord he hath declared himself the father of the fatherless and the judg of the widows a refuge for the oppressed Psal 68.5 Exod. 22.5 Psal 10.11 How are all the widows and fatherless children all the poor and oppressed people of the world bound to praise and to serve this God who hath taken upon himself the special patronage and protection of them This indeed would be the best use we could possibly make of this Observation relating to the special Providence of God if it might lay a special obligation upon all those who are thus especially concerned to magnifie God as their great patron and defender And how can they praise God more effectually than in doing those particular duties which concern them all in their respective relations or with reference to those peculiar circumstances of Providence under which they are acted I shall add but one branch of Application more and indeed it is not a new Use for it is a part of our praise and homage which we owe unto God upon this Reflexion viz. Vse 2. To all to take heed of those sins which God in his word declares himself more eminently to abhor and in the execution of Providence doth most severely punish All sin is in it self a filthy and abominable thing and the just object of every good mans hatred for should not we hate what God hateth and what hath of all things the greatest opposition to God yes we ought to hate it with a perfect hatred But such is the naughtiness of our heart that we are not so led to an hatred and abhorrence of sin from the intrinsecal evil and obliquity of it as from the dangerous and pernicious consequence of it Death eternal death is the wages of every sin but this being only matter of faith to bold sinners none having ever come from the dead to give them an account of those flames the punishments of sin in this life are those things which most deter carnal sensual men But if men will look no further nor believe any more yet let this lay some law upon us and make us afraid of those sins which I have instanced in being such whose judgment the Providence of God seldom letteth sleep so long as to another life Let this mind us not to meddle with them that are given to change that curse Kings and Rulers in their bed-chambers and are of turbulent and unquiet spirits always plotting and contriving seditions and treasons and disturbances to civil governours it is very rarely that God suffereth their designs to come to issue or their persons to come to the grave in peace 2. What a law should it lay upon the rich and great men of the earth to take heed of violent perverting justice and judgment of turning away the causes of the widows and the fatherless in judgment To consider that he who is the highest doth consider the matter and there is one higher than the highest of them who abuse their power to trample the poor under foot If men be not turned Atheists and have banished all the fear of God from their eyes and hearts it must a little give them law and lay
will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am still communicating to you some Observations which I have made concerning the motions of Divine Providence not only for your instruction but to quicken you also to make Observations your selves upon the motion of it that you may increase in spiritual Wisdom I proceed to a Tenth Observation Observ 10. That the Providence of God is eminently seen in the preservation and protection of his faithful Ministers and such both amongst them and other orders of men who keeping themselves within the latitude of their duty have been great adventurers for God in their generations 1. The Providence of God preserveth both man and beast it is God that upholdeth our souls in life and there is no man but in him lives moves and hath his being 2. Nor is there any man that liveth any considerable time in the world and keepeth any ordinary record of his life but will see reason as to say with David O Lord I am fearfully and wonderfully made so also Lord I have been fearfully and wonderfully preserved But yet as I have shewed you there are specialties of Divine Providence some persons that the Lord seemeth to carry upon eagles wings and to preserve in a more eminent and special manner sometimes in a way of miraculous Providence sometimes in a way of extraordinary Providence in a way beyond other men Now I have long since hinted you three sorts of men whom God thus preserveth 1. Such as are Gods Vicegerents Magistrates and Rulers of others This I have abundantly shewed you when I shewed you how eminently the Providence of God is seen both in discovering and bringing to light and also in punishing such sins as tend to the eminent disturbance of humane Societies 2. Such as God useth for the Ministers of his Word 3. Such as make the boldest adventures for God and in his service keeping themselves within the latitude of their duty I am to justifie now this Observation to you I will open it and prove it then shew you the reasonableness of Divine Providence in these extraordinary motions And lastly I shall make some Applications First let me open it to you 1. It is to be understood of godly faithful and painful Ministers and mostly of such of whom God hath made or doth make or intend to make an eminent use in his Church As there are no persons more justly a hatred in the house of God abominable to all men of any sobriety then leud or lazy Ministers so there is nothing of any special Providence promised to them and it is more than I have observed if God as to their issues in the concerns of this world hath not left them to a common share with others and if there hath been any difference made by his Providence it hath been to their disadvantage they are more vile than others and dishonour God more than others and God often makes them and their families to smart more than others It is that which God hath said in the case Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 We have had a great deal of enquiry in the times wherein we live into the causes of the contempt of the Clergy Lev. 10.2 3 4 one hath guest this thing another that for my own part I have been young and am growing old I never yet knew a painful able preacher living an holy and exemplary life be his perswasion what it would under a greater contempt than other men there are some Sons of Belial will contemn all that are not as much Atheists as themselves If Ministers will regard nothing but striking their flesh-hook with three teeth into the Lords pot to feed themselves if they will heap up parsonage upon parsonage till there be no room left in the Earth and grasp more souls than they can manage putting out some to pitiful nurses where they are starved and affording the other but dry beasts if they will make themselves vile like Hophni and Phineas it is no wonder if they be contemned by men of any sobriety The Psalmist Psal 15.4 makes it the mark of one that shall dwell in Gods holy hill in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord for others God secureth their honour eminently 2. Nor is it to be extended to every godly Minister and at all times The best of Ministers have their personal sin for which God may punish them by the common fate of others God eminently shewed himself for Moses and Aaron in the case of Corah Dathan and Abiram he made the Earth to open its mouth and to swallow up their opposers but when they had provoked the Lord at the waters of Meribah they took their common fate with the rest of the Israelites and dyed in the wilderness when they had had no more than a prospect of the promised land Several instances might be given of eminent Prophets of old and Ministers of the Gospel that have perished in common judgments more especially when it hath pleased God to pick out some of them for Martyrs and to make them witnesses with their blood to seal the Truths they have preached And indeed this special Providence of God hath been most remarkable in times when God hath been beginning some great work which was the case of the Apostles in the first Plantation of the Gospel and of those eminent servants of God which since that time he hath made use of in the reformation of the Church or upholding the interest of pure and true Religion in a time of great Apostacy and defection 3. The special Providence of God hath not been seen uniformly in those cases but several ways 1. Sometimes in providing food for them and theirs whereas otherwise they must have starved or at least been so employed as they could not have attended the work of God upon their hands 2. Sometimes in keeping them from such dangers which have been very near to them plucking them as brands out of the fire 3. Sometimes in the delivering of them out of their Enemies hands rescuing them from the Lyon when they have been in his paws sometimes one way sometimes another accordingly as it hath pleased the infinite wisdom of God to work for them 1. The Providence of God hath been eminently seen in the providing of necessaries for his Ministers I need not tell you what special Laws God made in the case of his Ministry among the Jews his Priests and Levites were particularly taken care of but this being the setled maintenance for those that were employed about the Tabernacle and the Temple when the Priests were generally corrupted and God to uphold a faithful Ministry amongst his people raised up some extraordinary Prophets that should faithfully reveal his will unto people they had little or no advantage but the Lord never failed to provide for them He provideth a
taken them off from that pursuit of the world by which others procure themselves a livelihood he hath told them they should live upon his Altar he hath told us 1 Cor. 9.7 That no man goeth to a warfare at his own charge none planteth a vineyard and eateth not the fruit thereof nor feedeth a flock and eateth not the milk thereof he seeth them out of obedience and conscience to him refusing the bread they might have men will not provide for them he will Ravens shall bring them meat every day but they shall be fed This is but a reasonable motion of Divine Providence I shall make a short Application of this discourse Vse 1. This in the first place lets you see the fountain of that bounty which the many painful and faithful servants of Christ have experienced in all times and even in the days wherein we live It hath pleased God in all times to raise up friends to his faithful Ministers I remember when Abigail came to meet David coming against her husband and had stopt his journey David saith unto her 1 Sam. 25.32 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee to meet me this day and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou c. First he blesseth God then he blesseth her the faithful servants of God yea the Churches of God who by this means enjoy any thing of the labours of their shepherds have reason to bless those whom God hath made his instruments to support those upon whom others had no pity Yea verily and what our Saviour said of the woman that spent her box of Oyntment upon him I think I may apply here Wherever the Gospel is preached what they have done shall be told for a memorial of them If a cup of cold-water for a thirsty Prophet shall obtain a Prophets reward the greater kindnesses of many shall certainly be rewarded they have but put a little money into the bank which God keeps in Heaven But we have more reason to look upward to him who hath the hearts of all men in his hand and openeth them as he pleaseth God hath in it shewed his special Providence for his faithful Ministers let us therefore say Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath stirred them up It was the grace of God bestowed upon the Churches in Macedonia 2 Cor. 8.1 2 3. which taught them in a great tryal of affliction and deep poverty to abound in riches of liberality and willingly of themselves to give to their power yea and above their power Let it be written to posterity for a memorial of the people in England that for so many years together in the midst of a devouring pestilence many consuming fires expensive wars and a deadness of trade they have refreshed the bowels of so many hundreds if not thousands of Gods messengers but let God have all the glory who hath given the heart though their hands distributed the money Vse 2. In the second place Let me cry out O house of Aaron trust in the Lord O house of Levi trust in the Lord Trust in the Lord and do good saith David so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed Psal 37.3 Let us be faithful to our masters service and do the work which he hath given us to do and verily we shall be fed I cannot say God will provide Coaches and delicate things for us but necessaries we shall not want Herein let us exercise our selves to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men and as to other things we may trust a Providebit Deus God will provide for us and ours The experience of these times if wistly attended to certainly is enough to keep any from being tempted through fear of want to debauch their consciences by doing any thing which is apparently sinful or but so judged and suspected by them We see some fed with great provisions faring deliciously every day whiles others like Daniel and his partners have been fed with little more than pulse and water and at the end of some years it appeareth they look fairer as to worldly circumstances than those who have had far better commons Vse 3. Lastly This observation commendeth confidence and courage to all in the Lords work in opposition to fear and cowardise I would not be mistaken be sure in the first place you be in Gods work that which by his word appeareth to be the duty of one in thy circumstances nothing but the conscience of having been surprised in the way of our duty will bear us up under sufferings be therefore in that point well satisfied having done that observe those rules of Prudence which reason directs thee in such cases this done fear nothing Remember the Providence of God most eminently watcheth over the boldest adventurers in the way of their duty They are the words of our blessed Lord Mar. 8.35 Whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel shall save it They observe in war that the soldier that turns his back and flyes is in much more danger than he who stands to it and that nothing makes a conqueror so much as resolution and bold adventuring it is so in our spiritual fight with the world be then of good courage in it and quit your selves like men remember God is with you and if so there 's more with you than can be against you God indeed in our combats with the world doth not always keep us shot-free and bring us off without a scratch but those whom he doth bring off are ordinarily those who are most valiant and adventurous however it is better to fall valiantly than cowardly and our Lord hath told us That if a man will save his life he shall lose it if he hath such a mind to sleep in a whole skin that he will neglect his duty and do that which his heart condemneth him for doing he shall lose what he hoped to save by it be it life reputation estate c. It speaketh great unbelief and distrust in God to be cowards in plain and certain duties Be prudent but take heed of forbearing necessary duty out of prudence or being faint in the performance of it That can be no prudence If a man fainteth in the day of adversity Solomon saith that his strength is but small his faith is but small and his observation of Gods Providence in such cases hath been very small too But I shall add no more upon this Argument SERMON XXV Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Have done with the Tenth thing in the motions of Divine Providence which I commended to your observation I proceed now to another Observ 11. The Providence of God maketh a very frequent and remarkable use of the sins of people though it be always spotless in making such use of
Apostle tells us Rom. 11.11 12. They did not stumble that they might fall but through their fall salvation came unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie The Apostles upon their going out to preach to the Gentiles gives this account of it Forasmuch as you have judged your selves unworthy of eternal life that was by not receiving the Gospel we turn unto the Gentiles What shall I need say more there is no soul brought to Heaven but is an eminent instance of this If they had not sinned they would have no need of any pardon or justification from the guilt of sin no need of a Saviour or Mediator God suffereth the souls of his People to be concluded under the guilt of sin that he might have mercy upon them It is also an ordinary observation of Divines That God often suffereth people to fall into some gross and scandalous sins that he might take that advantage to awaken them to repentance and make use of their falls to a rising again to a new life and this is often seen in those that have lived civilly and might be prone to trust to their own Moral Righteousness But I shall inlarge no further in the Justification of so obvious an Observation It follows that I should shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence 1. The truth is in the first place it is hard to conceive how otherwise some of Gods greatest works of Providence could have been produced What would the Revelation of a Covenant of Grace have signified to the world if the Covenant of Works had not first been violated by the first mans transgression How could else any man imagine that the salvation of the world should have been accomplished by the death of Christ if God had not made use of the wicked action of those who took him and by wicked hands crucified him The Apostle assureth us that in all they did against our Lord they did but execute what the counsel of the Lord had predetermined should be done If sin did not abound how should grace much more abound Rom. 5. In the pardon of sins the justification of a guilty soul the Scripture tells us That all are concluded under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe What should we say to the great work of Providence in trying his Saints by afflictions and persecutions from the hands of violent men God maketh use of the sins of Persecutors to perfect his Saints by the exercises of their faith and patience it could not be without the sins of those who persecute others for righteousness sake 2. Again God by this getteth himself a great deal of glory I have spoke something to this under the seventh Observation but let me here add a little 1. He gets himself the glory of his power There is a fancy hath possessed the Philosophers of the world That metals of a baser nature may by art be turned into nobler metals brass c. into gold and they will tell you that some such thing hath been done and aboundance of time and money hath been spent by the vain and covetous Philosophers of the world to little purpose to find out this Philosophers stone as they call it but supposing such a thing possible yet there must be some similar quality to help or they will not pretend to any such thing no Philosopher ever yet pretended by all his Chymistry to fetch gold out of a dunghil But now in sin there is nothing of a similar quality to the glory of God there is nothing so opposite to the glory of God as the sins of men and women For God to fetch water out of a rock argued great power to raise up Abraham children from the stones of the field it must speak great power but yet not so much as for God to fetch his own glory out of peoples sins There is in sin an infinite opposition to the glory of God nothing so diametrically opposite to God's honour and glory as sin is Sampson put forth a riddle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness But what is this riddle to that which I am speaking of for the glory of God to come forth out of the dunghil the woful dunghil of the worst of mens actions for God to work out his own righteousness out of the vilest actions of men O it speaketh an infinite Power in God! it is a greater work to fetch light out of darkness I will saith God get me glory upon Pharaoh For God to get himself glory out of Pharaoh's hard heart was more than to get his people water out of an hard rock 2. God by it gets himself the glory of his infinite wisdom I told you in my former discourse that he is accounted the best Politician that can make the best use of all humours and serve his own designs even of his utter Enemies this is the top of a Politicians wisdom How great then must the Wisdom of God appear in this nothing hath such an enmity to God and his glory as sin hath Job speaketh it to the great glory and honour of God Job 5.13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the crafty are carried head long It speaketh the wisdom of a man that he can make use of the capacious quality of a bird or a beast to catch a prey for him thus the faulconer maketh use of the hawk the huntsman of the dog the fisher-man of a fowl to catch birds or beasts or fish for him This I say speaketh the wisdom of a man above other creatures O how it speaketh the admirable Wisdom of God that he can make use of the worst belchings of lusts in mens hearts the most vile and rebellious actions of men and out of them fetch his own glory 3. But in the last place God above all doth by this magnifie the riches and freeness of his grace This is that wherein the Lord delights to have glory he predestinated adopted us c. to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.6 If God had taken man out of a state of innocency into Heaven we should never have admired free-grace so much as now it marvellously affects the heart of a child of God to see God make use of his falls of his sin and corruption and manifold rebellions to make his free-grace exceeding glorious We should never so much admire free-grace and mercy if we were not so great transgressors This is it which maketh grace precious in our eyes when we cry out of the belly of hell and he heareth us Thus far I have shewed you that God maketh a very ordinary use and a very remarkable use of peoples sins But I also added that it was a spotless use and thus it must be if God maketh it For he that is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity must be of a purer will
and constant one way or other Gods Providence is always doing them good and rewarding their righteous deeds and this must necessarily be true upon the Apostles Hypothesis That all things shall work together for the good of them that love God But I hasten to the Application Vse 1. In the first place let me recommend this to your observation Though there be such a vast difference between good and evil in their own intrinsick natures as might justly allure us into the embraces of the former and scare every man from the pursuit of the latter yet such is our nature that we stand in need of encouragements to the former by rewards and by the terrors of the Lord to be scared from the latter and there cannot be any thing more effectual with us to discourage sin and incourage goodness than if we can effectually perswade our selves that the punishment of sin is both certain and constant and the reward of righteousness is so also This is the point I have endeavoured to demonstrate and you have heard that the reason of any ones presumption of the contrary is their looking at nothing as a punishment or a reward but what is sensible than which we cannot be guilty of a greater mistake nor any of worser consequence as to the malign influence it will have upon our lives and consequently upon our eternal state But consider what hath been said and judg whether a man can do any thing to the greater ruin of himself than to go on in an impenitent and resolved course of sinning against God Possibly you do observe that as to outward things it is much one with a profane swearer and blasphemer as with the man that reverenceth the glorious God and feareth an oath Eccles 9.2 with the drunkard as with him that is sober with the chast as with the unclean with the Sabbath-breaker as with him that remembers to keep holy Gods day nay the profane lawless sinner is in greater honour and power than the other richer than the other and this incourageth thee to joyn with them But poor creature hath he that hath many blessings but one curse think'st thou Observe well that same prosperous sinner and tell me if every day he doth not grow worse if according to his pastures he be not filled with all the fruits of unrighteousness if he be not given up to a blind mind an hard heart vile affections if thou doest not observe that his conscience is seared and branded with an hot iron as it were that he grows past feeling If thou seest this say not he is not punished he is punished with a witness Is a sealing up to damnation no punishment According to our law you know malefactors are first seared with an hot-iron upon their next miscarriage they are hanged It is Gods method when once a soul is seared with an hot-iron given up to be past feeling to damn him next without mercy Look well upon the sinner and thou wilt discern God is angry every day with him he is every day fitting for Hell flames Is this no punishment On the other side thou seest the man according to Gods heart walking sadly he is plagued every night chastned every morning he is poor and needy hungry and thirsty in prisons in deaths often pursued by the falcons of the world as a partridg upon the mountains persecuted on all hands Thou concludest contrary to the Scripture That he hath washed his hands in vain and cleansed his soul to no purpose verily there is no reward for the righteous But harken poor creature Had Esau's Father many blessings and hath Jacob's God but one sort Thou seest his poverty and want but doest thou see how he hath learned in all estates to be content and hath changed his name into a quod vult Deus And certainly godliness with contentment is great gain A poor contented Lazarus is an happier and richer man than a discontented covetous Dives Thou seest how he is afflicted every day how full of troubles his life is but thou doest not see the serenity of his spirit the peace of his conscience his joy in the Holy Ghost his glorying and rejoycing in tribulations as his tribulations work patience his patience experience and his experience hope Mark sirs the upright men consider the just men you will see their ends to be peace yea in this life you will see them more indisturbed by troubles and inconcerned in the ruffles of the world than other men The more you observe the more you will be confirmed in this truth that the Providence of God will certainly reward yea is constantly rewarding him that worketh righteousness Vse 2. But secondly what a trembling and terror should this Observation strike into the loins of every sinner what an engagement should it lay upon them to repent and turn from the wickedness of their way Each part of this Observation ought to be improved for this purpose Impunity in sinning is a great encouragement to the sinner the heart of man stands bent to his lusts and if he fancieth that he may escape the hands of Divine Justice or that he doth escape and thrive and prosper in his wicked courses it wonderfully imboldneth him to go on but if the vengeance against him be certain if his iniquity will certainly find him out that he may as well hope not to dye as not to be thrown into Hell when he dyes and if the wrath of God be already kindled against him and God be already punishing him What hope what incouragement can he then have Now this you have heard is the sinners case I remember when that great plague was began amongst the Israelites upon their murmuring against Moses and Aaron after the death of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16.46 Moses biddeth Aaron take a censer and put fire therein from the Altar and put incense thereon and go quickly to the congregation saith he and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun Is here an impenitent sinner before the Lord one that hath been a drunkard a swearer a profane person or that hath lived without God in the world that blesseth himself with vain hopes or presumptions that he shall escape the Judgment of God or may escape it that his soul is at present free from fears he thriveth he prospereth in the world and his prosperity blindeth his eyes that he cannot see the hell into which he is dropping and so maketh no haste to deliver himself from the wrath that is to come To such a one let me speak oh that my counsel might be acceptable take thy censer put fire thereon from the Altar and put on incense and go quickly and make an atonement for thy soul These are indeed things not in thy power but my meaning is Betake thy self quickly to the great work of repentance which lyes not so much in tears and humiliation as in the change of thy heart in thy
of sin the hearts of sinners are set in them to do evil because judgement is not executed speedily I indeavoured to discourage and check this presumption in my former observation where I confirmed to you that by how much the more slowly vindicative justice proceedeth to the punishment of sin by so much severer the punishment is when it cometh This Observation addeth further to that check for as that which men call slackness is but the long suffering and patience of God not willing that any should perish but that all should be saved by a seasonable repentance So as you have now heard at large discoursed to you neither is God thus long-suffering and patient with all and although God generally be more quick with those sorts of sinners which I have specified to you yet I desire you to observe what I first enlarged upon that there is hardly any kind or sort of sinners but God at some time or other hath picked out some or other of them to make them examples of his severity Thou maist be struck dead while the lye is in thy mouth It was the case you know of Ananias and Saphira Thou maist be cut off in the very Act of Adultery It was the case you know of Zimri and Cosbi Tremble therefore and do not sin God may grant thee many years of patience he may give thee leave to treasure up wrath to thy self against the day of wrath but thou canst not promise thy self an hours patience But above all fear those sins which God usually is so quick in punishing Fear blaspheming God or the King we live in a blaspheming age wherein have been more bold darings of God than in former times God hath revenged his glory upon some of them they have been cut off in their youth before they have lived out half their dayes If another generation riseth up and approveth their sayings wait but a while and you will see vengeance overtaking them also Fear doing any thing against the life of others who by the law of God ought not to dye Blood-thirsty men shall not live out half their days you fee Gods vengeance against this sin is very quick 2. This Observation affords a great encouragement to the service of God especially to eminent actings and sufferings for God There is a reward for righteous men if they go without it to their dying day yet they shall be recompensed in the generation of the just Heaven will pay for all but God doth not always take so long a day to recompence them Many have a reward in this life and that which is to come The Scripture is full of promises even of the good things of this life to godliness in the general and to the several parts and acts of godliness These promises indeed are not made good to every child of God in specie but only in equivalent yea transcendent mercies But even these promises are made good to many and they may be thy portion however thou shalt not miss of the greater things Particularly this layeth an engagement upon all that fear God as God calleth them to it and giveth them advantage for it to signalize themselves by eminent actings or by some eminent sufferings such you have heard God ordinarily payeth presently and besides that eternal recompence which they have in glory they are in more outward and sensible things or in more inward influences of grace recompensed in this life Those that eminently honour God he will honour and many of them have a double mess sent them from the Lord. SERMON XXXI Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am proceeding yet in my Observations upon the motions of Divine Providence that which we call Actual Providence in its administration of distributive Justice both in the punishment of sinners and the rewarding of the righteous Divers Observations I have already made I am come to the Observat 18. Which you may please to take thus That the Providence of God doth very ordinarily with the punishments of this life chastise the past and pardoned sins of people In the handling of which I shall 1. Justifie the Observation 2. I shall shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Providence and reconcile it both to the justice and goodness of God 3. Lastly I shall make some practical application of it That it is so I shall prove by two famous instances the first of David the second Job David you know had fallen into two grievous sins Adultery with Bathsheba and the murther of her Husband Vriah God sendeth the Prophet Nathan 2 Sam. 12. to David to convince him of his sin who doth it by a Parable Davids heart melteth v. 13. and he saith unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan tells him the Lord hath also put away thy sin The sin you see was both past and pardoned but mark what follows v. 14. Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye He had told him before v. 10. That the sword should not depart from his house and v. 11. That he would take his wives before his face and give them to his neighbour and he should ly with them in the sight of the Sun All this was afterward justified by the Actual Providence of God The Child died 2 Sam. 12.18 Amnon defloureth his Sister Thamar and is slain by her Brother Absolon 2 Sam. 13.14 29. Absalom Davids own Son lieth with his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel 2 Sam. 16.22 Absolom is slain in a rebellion against his Father c. Nay not only thus but God punisheth David with horrors and terrors in his mind with diseases in his body as you may gather from Psal 6. Psal 51. and the rest of those Psalms in which he expresseth his repentance David prayeth Psal 25.7 Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions Job complaineth unto God Job 7.2 3. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work so am I made to possess months of vanity I know the words are capable of another sense as vanity may be understood for affliction and misery or the frustration of his expectations but I should rather interpret it by the words of the same Job 13.26 27 28. For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the sins of my youth c. Moses and Aaron sinned against the Lord at the waters of Meribah I do not think that any of you doubt but that God pardoned their sin yet it is certain that God punished them and that for that sin God himself tells them so Deut. 32.50 51. That the Providence of God doth this is evident The second thing may seem to have more difficulty in it viz. How this is reconcileable either to
that are to be my hearers Let me therefore go on Doth therefore any of you say unto me Seer What seest thou I answer yet once more I observe in the motions of Actual Providence Observ 21. That God commandeth his sensible blessings most upon those individual persons and those societies of the children of men that live in the most exact conformity to the Divine Rule Here are two terms in this Observation upon the Explication of which I will a little insist Quest 1. What is meant by sensible blessings Quest 2. What I mean by the most exact conformity to the Divine Rule Good things are distributed several ways in order to our comprehension of them by our understandings amongst others this is one distribution of them they are either sensible or insensible By sensible good things I understand such as are obvious to our senses and perceptible by them By insensible such as have a reality of good in them but yet not such as our senses discern Thus David saith It is good for me that I have been afflicted but yet afflictions are not sensible good things all such are the objects of our joy and delight Now saith the Apostle no affliction at the present is joyous but grievous but it bringeth forth the quiet fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised therewith But I say God commandeth sensible blessings mostly upon persons and societies living in the best square and most exact conformity unto the Divine Rule 2. Further yet Sensible blessings are capable of a double notion they are either such as are obvious only to the inward senses of those that are made partakers of them such are peace of conscience joy in the holy God that serenity and tranquillity of mind which is the effect of righteousness the new-name which none knoweth but he that hath it but there are other good things which are the objects of our more exteriour senses such are health prosperity success in trade c. blessings in relations c. Now my Obsersation is That the Actual Providence of God doth usually distribute good things of this nature to such persons and such societies of persons as live to the truest square and exactest conformity to the Divine Rule That is a general and must be opened also The Divine Rule as to families and persons is of a great compass but the whole of it is reducible to three heads viz. Piety Justice and Charity under each of these are several particulars but none which fall not under one of these generals 1. Piety consists in the internal and external acts of homage which we owe unto God Our internal acts are Fear Faith Love Our external acts are principally Prayer and Praise reading the word c. 2. Justice is an habit disposing us to give every one their due 3. By Charity I mean here mutual brotherly love Now look where these things best prosper there God commandeth most sensible blessings in the ordinary motions of his Provilence Particular instances may be exceptions from a general rule but ordinarily it is so What the Psalmist saith of one of these is true of all There God commandeth the blessing Psal 133.3 There where it may be interpreted with reference to the words which immediately precedes the mountain of Zion but I take it to be far more proper to refer it to the first verse which contains the argument of the whole Psalm O saith the Psalmist how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity This he illustrateth by two similitudes the one is the oyl which was poured upon the head of Aaron and ran down to the skirts of his garment Vers 2. The other is the dew of Hermon that descended on the mountain of Zion for saith the Psalmist there the Lord commandeth the blessing even life for evermore There where where brethren together dwell in unity it is as true there where Religion is exercised where all relations give their due one to another there God commandeth the blessing Now for the proof of this I shall but appeal to your experience and what you see every day 1. Look into the world there you shall see nations of various complexions some in which the true God is worshipped in a true manner others wherein Devils are worshipped or stocks or stones or if the true God be indeed worshipped yet it is not as he hath directed but by images and superstitious rites and observances some nations that are nothing else but rapine and violence and oppression full of strife and hatred and malice and wars and dissensions You on the other side will see other Nations amongst whom the true God is worshipped and that in a true manner where are good laws against oppression and injustice and for distributive and commutative Justice where men are not hunted and persecuted for their consciences towards God Mark if God doth not command the blessing of riches trade c. more upon the latter than the former It is true some of those Countreys where these iniquities are found are naturally richer than others in minerals and the Native Commodities of the Countrey but for adventitious riches which come from Trade and Commerce and for other sensible blessings observe if they be not poured out in a greater plenty upon Nations that in matters of Religion civil Justice and Unity have been regulated by laws conformable to the Word of God than upon other Nations where none of these things have been regarded 2. If you will straiten your prospect look upon any Cities or Towns or any kind of political societies you will see some of these places such as Egypt was of which Abraham said The fear of God was not in that place where all their Religion is to persecute those that have any thing of Religion in them No rules of justice and brotherly love are observed but they are full of violence and oppression and fraud there is nothing in them but the inhabitants biting and devouring one another the cry of the oppressed is in their street Other places you will find where Religion is cherished and countenanced where the word of God is livelily and powerfully preached and men live in some seeming awe of it where rules of civil Justice are observed and men can have Justice in Courts of Judicature and the people live in peace and amity one with another observe again which of these God most commandeth his blessing upon I might appeal to your like observation concerning families and particular persons But it is no more than every one may observe Consider what an Hell upon Earth some Cities some Families are in comparison of others and see what makes the difference both in the beauty and in the prosperity of them And it needs must be so if you please to consider 1. The natural tendency of these things to so happy products 2. That God in pursuance of his many promises doth there command the blessing First In
alive thou shalt live and that eternally if thou fittest still if thou goest on in thy sinful courses thou shalt certainly dye 4. Hast thou not as much encouragement to repent and to believe as ever any had Have not thousands and ten thousands of the Saints of God upon no other encouragement than thou hast broken off sinful courses and sought the Lord while he might be found and have they not succeeded and found rest for their souls Did God yet ever from the beginning of the world encourage any soul in its first motions by faith and repentance toward him by assuring them that their names were written in the Book of Life Or that Christ did dye for them in particular Is it not encouragement enough to thee to tell the thou hast as good a ground of hope and encouragement as the three thousand that were converted at St. Peters Sermon as any of those servants of God had of whose conversion thou readest in the Acts of the Apostles what art thou that thou shouldst look for more 5. Consider That there is no other way for thee to know that thou art elected and that Christ hath paid a price for thee but by thy turning unto God and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ The election of God is in it self sure and certain but it must be made sure and certain unto us by our repentance and faith Did ever any one hear of any soul reaking in its lusts and going on in its course of sin ascertained that God had chosen it unto life that Christ was the head and surety of a better Covenant for it or dyed for it first our calling then our election must be made sure and we must not think to pervert Gods order 6. What hast thou to do with Gods effectual Grace until thou hast improved his common Grace There is a common Grace which God denieth to no man by vertue of which men may read hear pray live a civil life and conversation leave gross and flagitious courses of sin why complainest thou of God for not giving thee his special distinguishing grace inabling thee to exert true spiritual acts while thou dost not use his common Grace and do what in thee lies to reform and amend thy ways and to turn unto God 7. Lastly Though no exercise of common grace can be meritorious of the special Grace of God yet I dare assure thee that God neither ever yet was nor ever will be wanting in his further grace unto those souls that have made a due improvement of his common grace and done what in them lay towards their own salvation Let us therefore leave our enquiring into the Counsels of God and disputing questions which are insignificant to our greatest concerns Let us leave quarrelling with his truths and our little foolish and vain indeavours to argue an inconsistency of his Counsels with his Actual Providence when we have done and said all we can it will be found that God is consistent to himself and that his ways are equal and the iniquity and crookedness is only in our own hearts and ways We cannot with our spoon comprehend it may be the Ocean the great Ocean of his Wisdom and Counsel Let us apply our selves to our own duty and do what he commandeth us for which as you have heard we have encouragement enough SERMON XXXVII Rom. V. 20. Where Sin abounded there Grace did much more abound I Am indeavouring to open to you the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hard Chapters in the book of Divine Providence solving those Phaenomena's or appearing difficulties which Atheistical Wits have raised to make the holy God appear otherwise than he is his Counsels Truths and Works other than indeed they are I have already spoken to one relating to the making and establishing a Covenant of Works with Adam after the settlement of mans salvation upon the Covenant of Grace The other relating to the dispensation of Providence in the exhibition and publication of the Covenant of Grace I come now to some relating to the Actual Providence of God in the permission of sin and sinners so much sin and so many sinners in the world And for this discourse as an head to it I have chosen this text which in it containeth two great points The abounding of sin and the aboundings of grace The Apostle brings in these words in a magnifying of Christ whom he had compared with the first Adam The first Adam brought mankind under sin and guilt The second brought him under a state of Redemption and Salvation bringing life and immortality to light First the Apostle sheweth whence sin came then whence grace came Paraeus telleth us that the Apostle in this part of the Chapter openeth to us the use of the Law lest any one upon what he had before said should ask Wherefore the law was given he telleth us That the law entred that sin might abound for though the law of it self doth not cause sin yet by accident it doth for where there is no law there is no transgression and the corruption of mans nature enclineth him the more to what is forbidden him Nitimur in vetitum sed hic de actione peccati sermo est quae fit per manifestationem saith a learned Author upon my Text The law maketh sin to abound by way of manifestation as the glass maketh the spots in a man or womans face to abound that is discovereth them that are P. Martyr reckons five ways by which the Law contributeth to the aboundings of sin 1. By forbidding it 2. By increasing the guilt of it 3. By assigning the punishment of it 4. Multiplying it by the variety of the precepts in it 5. By accusing him and condemning him for it Well But why should the law enter that sin might abound hath God then any pleasure or delight in the aboundings of sin The text telleth you that Gods design was to advance grace that where sin abounded grace might much more abound But my design is not largely and strictly to handle my text but only to make use of it in pursuit of my further design to open to you the difficult things of Actual Providence which is by all confessed to have an influence upon mens sins that is to permit them and to govern them the first of these is what I have here to do with What the Providence of God doth or doth not in the permission of sin I have before shewed you and may by and by again speak shortly unto it The Question is Quest How it can consist with the holiness of a pure and mighty God having it in his power to restrain and hinder sin yet to permit it and so much of it in the world The difficulty of our apprehensions in this matter ariseth from these things 1. That God in his own nature is a most pure and holy being Who as he hath nothing in him that defileth so neither can he abide any iniquity This seemeth to have stumbled
shall not fall Mat. 16.18 The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Psal 94.14 For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Mica 4.4 11 12. So quite through this Psalm there are many promises of the same import Now the work of faith is to perswade the soul of the certainty and undoubted verity of these words of God to settle the soul in this perswasion That sooner shall Heaven and earth pass away than any of these things shall fail which God hath spoken Then the work of faith is further to carry out the soul without any carping trouble or disputing to rest wholly upon these words A Christian seeth the word of God what he hath said for its relief now faith teacheth the soul to agree this as the word of him who cannot lye or repent and calleth upon the soul to trust in God for the fulfilling of it to roll it self upon the promise and to commit it self its cause its way unto the Lord the soul of a Christian is very solicitous and careful for the concern and interest of God in the world faith teacheth the soul to cast its care the burthen of its spirit upon the Lord assuring it that God careth for it Faith speaketh to the soul in the language of Solomon Eccles 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Justice and Judgment in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they I say this is a great piece of the Child of Gods duty in such a time when the vilest men are exalted and the wicked walk on every side and the people of God are troden under foot as the mire in the streets It is the Will of God concerning them The just shall live by faith This is the proper time for the exercise of Faith when the eye of sense faileth Faith is the evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for The proper operation of Faith is where sense faileth where God is trusted and not seen Blessed are they saith our Saviour who have not seen and yet believe This is Opus diei in die suo Though the people of God ought to be careful of all duty at all times yet they ought to have a special regard to the duty of their day the seasonableness of a duty addeth much to the weight and importance of it The foundations are shaken saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 4 What shall what can the righteous do Mark what follows The Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men This is that life which the Saints have lived yea and they have lived well upon it When David had lost all the Amalekites had taken Ziglag and in it all that he had 1 Sam. 30.6 the Text saith David encouraged himself in God the Truth Power and Goodness of God nor did he hope in God in vain as you shall read in that story What had Hezekiah to live upon but Faith when Sennacherib had besieged him with his mighty Army and ranted against him and the God of Heaven too after that rate you read What had all the Patriarchs all the Saints and Servants of God to live upon but Faith of whom you read Heb. 11. Nor is there any life which so glorifieth God as this it eminently glorifieth three Attributes of his his Power Goodness and Truth No man will trust in a bruised Reed or lean upon a broken Staff therefore the Apostle speaking of Abrahams faith Heb. 11. saith He believed that God was able to raise him from the dead and again Rom. 3 He believed that he who promised was able to perform It giveth God the glory of his goodness for the expectation of his soul is the Mercy and Goodness of God and it also giveth God the glory of his truth for the proximate object of Faith is the Word and Promise of God O therefore let this be your care when you cannot live by sense live by Faith It is the happiness of a Child of God he hath something to live on in the worst of times Psal 34.10 The young Lions shall be hunger-bit but there is no want to them that fear the Lord. One would think that of all creatures the Lion should be most out of danger of being hunger bit The Lion the King of the Forest all other Beasts are subject to this Beast yet if an old Lion that cannot run for its prey that hath lost much of its strength may be hunger-bitten one would think a young-Lion that is in its full strength should not Yes saith the Psalmist a young Lion may be hunger-bitten those that have most of the world wicked men that have greatest honours greatest power great advantages to provide for themselves they may be hunger bitten they may come to want but there shall be no want to them who fear the Lord there shall be no time so ill but they shall live if they cannot live upon bread they shall feed upon truth How much better is the estate of a godly man than that of his neighbour It is a great point this a great piece of duty Let me therefore a little further enlarge upon it three ways 1. Shewing you how a Christian may know if he liveth this life 2. Directing you in order to it 3. Perswading it by Arguments 1. Will some Christian say how shall I know if I live this life Suffer me to give you five or Six Characters of it 1. It is a Spiritual life Our life saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God What Christ sometimes said to his Disciples when they would have had him to have eaten something that a Child of God may say to all the world I have meat to eat you know not of His life is a spiritual life such is the life of Faith both with respect to the subject and to the object of it As to the subject of it it is the soul that lives the body lives by bread the soul lives by truth by the promise There are many that in evil days their bodies have enough to feed upon but their souls have nothing hence their hearts become like Nabals dead as a stone yea and as to the object it is spiritual too he that feedeth upon truth feedeth upon Jehovah It is the truth of God in the word which the soul liveth upon the soul of a Believer can no more live upon Words and Syllables than another soul No but it is the truth of God in these words his power and ability to perform what he hath said his inclination and good-will to the performance and his truth and faithfulness Every life in an evil day is not a life of faith some may live upon fancy and foolish hope some may live upon means with which their eye feedeth them another may live upon a Roman spirit of his own Tu
and in the same Nation where the Gospel is preached some have a sound and little more Preachers in some places in stead of preaching the Gospel Preach human Philosophy or the lusts of their own hearts In other places the Word of God is preached faithfully and powerfully so that the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Men are compelled to come in This difference in the external ministration which let me tell you hath no small influence upon the eternal concern and interest of men for God doth not ordinarily work by way of miracle and heal the eyes of the blind with Clay and Spittle is fountain'd only in the free-will and Grace of God Vse 2. But I trust I speak to some who have tasted further of the mercy and Grace of God than receiving the general Dispensation of the Gospel with their outward ears God hath by his holy Spirit upon the preaching of the Gospel effectually moved their hearts and conquered their Souls into a subjection to Christ They have embraced the Lord Jesus Christ by a gospel-Gospel-faith they are brought by a mighty hand out of darkness into marvelous Light and translated out of this Kingdom of Sin and Satan into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus I have this day been discovering to you the Fountain of this Grace of which God hath made you partakers you have heard that it is the will of God only which hath distinguished betwixt you and others It is not because you were more nobly born than others nor because you were more rich more honourable or by nature better complexioned than others God saw no more goodness in your natures than in the natures of others you were all the same flesh he infused into all Souls of the same nature and species only he hath willed rather to shew mercy unto your Souls than to the Souls of others because he hath set his love upon you There are three duties that hence lie very obvious 1. The First is Praise Thankfulness and Admiration Certainly every such Soul stands highly obliged with the Psalmist to cry out Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits If free Grace will not affect our hearts and fill our mouths with a new Song nothing will It must certainly be an amazing consideration for a Soul to sit down and think I was in the same mass and lump of lost man-kind that others are I was by Nature a Child of wrath as much as any my Childhood and Youth were Vanity as much as any others I was grinding at the same Mill it may be in actual sins I outstripped many others Now that the Lord should look upon me and pluck me as a brand out of the Fire that God should open my eyes and change my heart What did God see in me Possibly my more external circumstances were far less and more unvaluable than those of thousands of others my House was of small account and little esteem there are many more great and noble more wise and prudent than I am many who in all appearance so far as man can judg might have been more serviceable to God than I am or am ever like to be now that the Lord should pass them over and shew mercy to me certainly no Soul can seriously think of these things but must be ravished with the apprehensions of the inaccountable love of God in these things and say What shall I render unto thee O Lard what shall I render unto thee 2. This notion of Gods Soveraignty freedom and inaccountbleness in the dispensations of his Grace should teach every Soul that hath been or shall be made a partaker of it the great lesson of humility The Apostle Rom. 3.27 giveth this as the reason why God hath setled the justification of a Sinner upon a bottom of free Grace and hath excluded works that he might also exclude boasting and teach those who glory to glory in the Lord upon this Argument the Apostle exhorteth the Gentiles not to boast against the Jews Rom. 11.22 Behold the goodness and the severity of God saith he to those who abide in their unbelief severity to thee goodness Pride is a sinful habit disposing the Soul to swell in the opinion of some excellency in it self and a little thing will swell our corrupt hearts The Apostle propoundeth this very consideration as a cure for that tumour in the Souls of Christians 1 Cor. 4.7 For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou which thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it It is nothing but the will of God that hath made a difference betwixt thee and the vilest Sinner breathing betwixt thee and the most filthy Drunkard the most furious Persecutor c. It was not for any worth any goodness or holiness which the Lord saw in thee but of his meer free will and Grace God hath shewed mercy to thy Soul what hast thou now of thy own to boast or glory in Thou hast indeed reason to glory and to make thy boast in the Lord and to bless God for what he hath done for thy Soul more than for a thousand others but there is no thanks to thee his will his own will was the fountain of his Grace extended to thee God hath had mercy upon thy Soul only because he would have mercy O therefore be not high-minded but fear and walk humbly before God 3. Lastly this calleth upon all of you who have tasted of this free and unaccountable Grace to live a distinguishing life and conversation There is a Generation that fancyeth that the Doctrine of Free-Grace opens a door to Liberty It is but the old Cavil in Saint Pauls time there were those that thus accused the Doctrine of Free-Grace as if it gave men a liberty to go on in sin as appeareth by the Apostles anticipation of that Cavil Rom. 6.1 What saith he shall we then continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid and so he goeth on shewing that any such conclusion from his principles was unreasonable How shall we saith the Apostle who are dead unto sin live any longer therein Special distinguishing Free-Grace both deadneth the Soul to Sin and inflameth the Soul with a love to God who hath made the Soul to differ so as that Soul cannot live as other men the love of God constraineth him he must apprehend himself obliged to do more for God than others because God hath shewen more mercy to him than unto others and that meerly because he would shew mercy What can possibly be imagined to have a greater and lay an higher obligation upon the Soul to all manner of holiness in conversation to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord as the Apostle speaketh SERMON L. Hosea XIII 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but
in Scripture I find three Answers to this Question The one is that of St. Peters Acts 2.31 Repent and be Baptized another is that of St. Paul Acts 16.31 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved The other is that of our Saviour to the young Man asking him What good thing he should do that he might inherit Everlasting Life Saith our Saviour Keep the Commandments Those three Texts will give you compleat directions 1. Keep the Commandments You will reply but you tell us that no Man is able to keep the Commandments but because you cannot do all which God doth require can you do nothing Well but you will say Shall we be saved if we do all that we can to keep the Moral Law I Answer No What then 2. St. Peter tells you Acts 2.38 Repent and be Baptized you will reply but it is God who must give repentance unto life True we say God must change the heart the Blackamore cannot change his skin nor the Leopard his spots But cannot you consider your sins Cannot you turn from open sins Do what in you lieth in order to your Repentance Well but you will say If we do this Is this enough I Answer No What then 3. St. Paul telleth you Act. 16. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved Still you will say But is not Faith the gift of God Have we a power to believe We Answer No It must be given to men on the behalf of Christ to believe But cannot you read the Word of God Cannot you come and hear the Word preached When you have heard it Cannot you meditate therein Cannot you apply your souls to the Word though it be Gods work to apply the Word to your souls and make it to dwell in you Cannot you beg of God a power to believe God will not be wanting to that soul that is not first wanting to it self The difference betwixt us and the bold Patrons of free-will lies here They hold that a man hath a natural power and ability to actions formally and spiritually good This we deny but yet say That man hath a power to actions that are morally and materially good and if he would go about as far as his Natural power would help him though indeed he could merit nothing at the hand of God We do not believe that God would be wanting to him as to habits of spiritual and effectual grace Now this is that which I am pleading with you for that you might not destroy you selves 1. That you would not give your self a liberty and let your selves loose to do things contrary to the Law of God wherein you might restrain your selves 2. That you would not neglect to do those things which God requireth of you and which are in your power to do I shall conclude this but with Two very weighty considerations 1. No punishment is more justly and smartly inflicted than that which a man hath chosen and wilfully brought upon himself when a man hath chosen death rather than life and judged himself unworthy of everlasting life and despised his own mercy certainly every man must say he is justly punished and adjudged to that portion which he hath chosen to himself 2. Secondly As no punishment is so justly and smartly inflicted so none is more intolerable to be born There will be in Hell another fire which shall never go out but this will be the worm that shall never die I have done and shall shut up my Discourse with the words of Moses I have this day set before you life and death blessing and cursing I have told you which way you must go down into the pit of destruction if ever you come there you must of your selves go into it O let not your destruction be of your selves especially considering what God hath done and what he is daily doing to evidence that in him is your help if you will apply your selves unto him SERMON LI. Rom. 2.12 For as many as have sinned without the Law shall also perish without the Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law THE business I am upon as you know is the expounding some hard Chapters in the Book of Divine Providence I am upon the last head upon which I propounded to speak to some appearing difficulties viz. Gods unequal dispensations of Grace whether such as are more common or such as are more special and saving as a basis to this Discourse I have premised and handled Two preliminary Propositions 1. Prop. That God in the dispensations of his grace acteth by Prerogative in a way of Soveraignty freely and unaccountably 2. Prop. That in his paenal dispensations of this nature he never proceedeth but justly upon the previous demerits of sinners I now come to speak to some Questions relating to these dispensations of Divine Providence The Two first of this nature which I shall speak to relate to Gods unequal distributions of common grace but such as are spiritual means in order to the obtaining of special and effectual grace and his unequal distributions of special and effectual grace without which none can be saved I shall put both these together and for a short Discourse upon these I have made choice of this Text. The business of the Apostle in this excellent Epistle is to establish the great Doctrine of the Gospel concerning the Justification of the soul before God by the righteousness of Christ on Gods part imputed and reckoned to sinners and on mans part apprehended and applied by Faith in opposition to the Doctrine of the Doctors of the Jews who held the Justification of the Soul by the works of the Law In opposition to whom he had laid down his grand Proposition Rom. 1.17 That the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith That is That righteousness wherein a Soul another day must stand just and righteous before God is not a righteousness of our own arising from our performance of the Law but the righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel which is apprehended and made ours by Faith His first Argument by which he proveth this is obvious to any considerate Reader If any be justified by works they must either be the Gentiles or the Jews but neither are the works of the Gentiles such as will justifie them Nor are the works of the Jews such as will justifie them As to the Gentiles he proveth at large Chap. 1. That their works were such as were so far from Justifying them That the wrath of God was revealed against them for the wrath of God is revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and as he at large sheweth the works of the Heathen were works of most notorious ungodliness and unrighteousness and therefore could not possibly justifie them So in this Chapter he proveth that the works of the Jews were not such as could justifie them before God for though they condemned
Question I proceed to the Fifth Question 5. Quest Whence it is that there are such manifest differences in Christian growth in grace There is a growth in spiritual gifts and a growth in gracious habits and these must be carefully distinguished for from a want of a just distinguishing these many doubts and mistakes arise concerning this point of growing in grace there may be the one and a great increase and growth in them where there is nothing either of the beginnings or increase of the other By spiritual gifts I understand those powers by which persons are inabled to some more external spiritual operations You read much of them in the First Epistle to the Corinthians These are usually distinguished into Extraordinary such were the gifts of Tongues Prophecy Healing Interpretation c. Which God was pleased to deal out in the Infancy of the Church both to supply the want they had of ordinary means and also to give a reputation to and to confirm the Doctrine of the Gospel The Gospel having got a larger footing and acceptance in the World needed not these aids to its reputation nor such miraculous confirmations these therefore soon ceased and have rarely if at all been since given out But there are other gifts that are more ordinary and of constant and daily use in the Church of God such are the gift of Prayer of Preaching of Spiritual Conference c. Now Christians are capable of growth and increase in these But besides these there are gracious habits which are powers and abilities in the soul inabling it to acts of more secret and inward communion with God Such as Faith Love and others And these are capable of increase if not in their number yet in their degrees of intention Hence the Apostles pray Lord increase our faith And this left room for the Apostle to pray for the Corinthians 2 Cor. 9.10 That the Lord would increase their fruit of righteousness and for the Thessalonians that the Lord would make them to increase and that they might increase more and more 1 Thess 3.12 4.10 Thus you read of an increasing with the increase of God Col. 2.19 and of the prospering of the soul 3 Ep. John v. 2. and the Apostle Peter exhorteth those to whom he writeth to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ This growing in grace is not without the special influence of God Thence it is that both the Apostles pray for it Christ is both the Author and the Finisher of our Faith Now it is apparent that this growth in grace is not equal in all the souls of them who are the children of God as we see in that which is born of the flesh some children grow faster than others so is it true as to those that are born of God born of the spirit they all grow but some grow much faster than others grow and the thriving and prospering of their souls is much more evident to the world In this also the actual providence of God hath its hand Let me before I shut up this Discourse attempt to give you an account of this to shew the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence and that in this the wayes of God are equal 1. I shall onely in this Case premise this That there may be great mistakes as to growth of grace I shall instance in two 1. Some may mistake a growth and increasing in spiritual gifts or moral habits for a growth in grace A man may so mistake himself and his neighbours may so mistake him Spiritual gifts are glistering things and often dazle our eyes We hear men mightily improved in their abilities fitly to express their own and others wants unto God in prayer and to implead them with proper arguments We hear a Minister improved in preaching an ordinary Christian improved in his knowledge of spiritual things and his utterance and ability to maintain a profitable discourse we are perfectly apt to conclude these persons are grown in grace and it may be so but withal it may not be so too for these are separable from any thing of truly gracious habits which are the in-dwellers in a regenerate and sanctified heart When the Apostle had been perswading the Corinthians to covet the best gifts he by and by telleth them That he will shew them a more excellent way What was that The way of special distinguishing grace love to God without which he telleth them in the beginning of the next Chapter that all gifts all action all suffering prophecying speaking with tongues knowledge of all mysteries giving all his goods to the poor and his body to be burned would signifie nothing but a little noise in the world and render him no more than as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal 2. Secondly As some may judge they are grown in grace because they are grown in gifts so others may judge they are not grown in grace when indeed they are And the common mistake here is mens calling nothing a growth in grace but further passion and intention of the Affections when as the truth is as we say concerning Women the Apostle you know calls them the weaker Vessels yet they have the strongest passions So it is true concerning Christians those that are the weakest Christians have the strongest Affections and Passions Conformably to this it is ordinarily observed That Christians usually in the beginning of their Conversion have the strongest Affections the most passionate grief for sin the most unsatisfied pantings and breathings after God and his Ordinances but at this time weaker and less confirmed habits of Faith of Self-denial and Mortification and are more easily than afterward turned aside by a temptation But these mistakes being easily obviated I easily grant it That there are real differences as to Christians increase progress and growth in grace of which I shall now come to give you a short account 1. I might tell you That all growth supposeth time It is a motion that is not in an instant Adam was the onely man that God brought into the World at a perfect Age others you know come into the World little Children and are perfected and grow up by degrees and as the first Adam was the onely man who came into the World perfect as to natural parts and growth So Jesus Christ the second Adam was the onely man that at first appeared to the World perfect in grace for in him the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily All others are first Babes then stronger ones and perfected by degrees So long therefore as there is a successive Conversion and bringing of souls to God there must be Christians in the World of different sizes and statures as to growth and increase in grace But yet this is not a perfect account of this variety for all Christians of the same standing in the ways of God are not of the same proficiency and stature in them 2. Secondly therefore One great cause may be a difference
Shunamite 2 King 4.10 that provideth a little chamber a bed a table a stool and a candle-stick for Elisha And another widow for Elijah that had faith enough to believe that in the time of famine her little meal should not fail from her barrel nor her oyl from her cruse He commanded the Ravens to feed the same Prophet by the brook Chereth 1 King 17.14 4.6 When the brook was dried up then the Lord commanded the widow to sustain him vers 9. The whole time of the Kingdom of Israel from the time that Jeroboam revolted until they were carried away captive was a sad time to faithful Ministers for all such stood for the instituted worship of God in opposition to that at Dan and Bethel but of all that time the time of Ahabs reign was the most perillous time but then God had provided an Obadiah who took an hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave and fed them with bread and water 1 King 18.5 Under the Gospel God also declared his will for the maintenance of his Ministers That tythes under the Gospel are due jure divino to the Minister I dare not say but that a certain and honourable maintenance is due to them the Apostle puts beyond all dispute 1 Cor. 9. And if the government of a nation settleth it by way of tythes there is no question to be made of the lawfulness either of giving or taking them but as the best establishments are subject to mens corruptions so is this The story of Merline a French Minister is a known story being forced several days to save his life by hiding himself in a hay-mow God sends an Hen every day that laid an egg by him upon which he lived The story of Junius I told you relieved by a Taylor when he was put to work in the Town-ditch for a livelihood God raised up a rich Matron to provide for Origen and his family But what need we look back so far for instances of which all Ecclesiastical story is full when we have such a plentiful testimony at home There is no order of men that God in all ages of the Church hath so strangely and miraculously almost provided for as to the necessaries of life as for such who have been faithful and painful labourers in the work of his Gospel they have not been forsaken their seed have in no scandalous manner begged their bread but this is but one particular 2. A second head of instances which I shall give you to prove this specialty of Divine Providence shall be the preventing Providences of God warning them some way or other of evil that hath been towards them so as they have been able timely to prevent or escape it Elijah was you know an eminent Prophet of the Lords and his life was often in danger but God hid him one while at the brook Cherith 1 King 17 after he had delivered that unpleasing Prophecy to Ahab another time at Beersheba after he had made such an havock amongst the Priests of Baal Chap. 18 19. God gave him warning of his dangers and prevented Jezebel's designs A boy overhears Pauls Enemies conspiring his death and revealeth it and he is sent away at another time he is let down in a basket Infinite instances might be given you out of other story Athanasius amongst the ancients and Luther amongst more modern Divines were eminent instances of this nature God indeed as I told you before doth not make all his Ministers in times of dangers such instances of special Providence but only such as he hath designed to make great and eminent use of 3. I might also give you as large a proof of this special Providence of God for the Ministers of his Gospel in his deliverance of them out of trouble when they have been within the paws of the Lyon and ready to be devoured And this not always in the same method nor by the same way and means sometimes miraculously as in the case of Elisha and Elijah more than once striking their Enemies with blindness causing fire to come down from Heaven and to destroy their Enemies In the case of Daniel stopping the mouths of the Lyons In the case of Peter the very night before that Herod was fully intended to have murthered him In later story we have infinite instances of Gods strange deliverance of faithful Ministers whom it afterward appeared God designed to make eminent use of out of their Enemies hands I remember in the History of the persecution of the Church of Bohemia we read of an Edict made by Ferdinand to apprehend all the Protestant-Ministers upon which many fled into Moravia and hid themselves three were taken and kept prisoners in a deep dungeon at Prague but God by his Providence wrought the escape of one of them whom he made use of to plant not less than twenty Protestant-Churches afterwards in Poland But there would be no end if I should begin to recite to you all we find in his story of this nature there can be none so meanly acquainted with Scripture or History but may confirm himself in this observation But I added That the Providence of God hath been also eminently seen in the preservation of those who have been great adventurers in the cause of God within the latitude of their duty A man may adventure in the cause of God and miscarry in his adventure and that in two cases 1. When he adventures without a call from God 2. When he governeth not himself in his adventure by the reasonable rules of prudence Peter made an adventure when he drew out the sword and cut off the highest Priest's servants ear But our Saviour bid him put up the sword into its sheath again for he that draweth the sword being a private person shall perish by the sword Peter had no call to use the sword in the case The Magistrate hath a call to use the sword in the execution of just laws The Minister hath a call to use another sword the sword of the spirit which is the word of God Every Christian hath a call to serve and obey Magistrates in what is just and lawful and to perform those duties which in his private capacity he oweth unto God to worship God in his family and to meet often together in the congregation of Gods People to hear the word to partake of the Ordinances of God c. Now there are times when a godly Magistrate cannot do his duty in punishing of sin without the adventure of his reputation in a wicked world the adventure of his estate his life when the Minister of the Gospel cannot do his duty nor the people theirs without the like adventures but you shall observe this very ordinary in the Providence of God he strangely watcheth over and protecteth such as have a spirit to make boldest adventures and as strangely rewardeth such You see it in the whole story of Scripture Moses and Aaron were called to go in