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
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
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
in the actual exercise of it whether we consider the one way or the other we shall find that both flow from the free-will and goodness of God and have no other cause but because God will shew mercy to whom he will shew it 1. Let us consider it first in the purpose Gods purpose of grace was nothing else but his Eternal willing of some persons to obtain everlasting life and salvation in and through Christ and in the use of that means which he appointed thereunto for the counsels of God ordered the means as well as the end we do therefore suppose that God from all eternity knew who should be saved and that he therefore must needs know it because he will'd it for whereas all mankind from eternity are to be considered alike nothing but the Will of God could bring any part of them more than another into a salvable estate especially into a certain state of Salvation God therefore decreed or willed some persons to so glorious an end Now the question is what made God to will these not others what can be imagined but his will of which we are able to give no account Eph. 1.5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will hence it is called the election of grace Rom. 11.5 and 2 Tim. 1.8 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began Arminians and Papists tell us of Gods electing men out of a foresight that they would believe and obey If indeed men were to have risen out of the Earth like Mushromes and to have given a being to themselves and to have created their own Souls they might have quarrelled the Scripture a little upon this point but when the bodies of all men were to be of the same clay and all souls were Gods which were to inform those bodies how they should any of them have a disposition to believe or obey more than others unless God had created it in them or willed that in time they should have it I cannot understand and if they say that they had it from the will of God the matter as to our point cometh much to the same issue God purposed them grace from his own meer good-will and pleasure he willed them in time to have a disposition to believe and obey and upon their Faith and Obedience to have everlasting life 2. If we consider Gods acts of grace in time they are distinguished either into the more external means Or secondly those gracious habits which accompany salvation and make a soul meet for the inheritance of the Saints in Light The means of Salvation are either the means of Purchase and Redemption such was the giving of Christ of which Saint John Joh. 3.16 could give us no other account but God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son For the means of application they are either more external or internal The more external is the promulgation or publication of the Gospel See what our Saviour saith as to this Mat. 11.25 26. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth who hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes Even so O Father because it pleased thee 2. For these acts of grace by which the Soul is prepared and made fit for the inheritance of the Saints in Light they are Effectual Calling Justification and Sanctification or Regeneration 1. For Effectual Calling we are said to be called with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace Not according to our works so that any thing in our selves is denied but according to his purpose Now what is the purpose of God but the will of God determining this or that and it is further added And grace which speaketh the free love and good-will of God in the case for grace is nothing else but free love So 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of all grace who hath called you so that God in the calling of Souls acteth as a God of grace yea of all Grace Who can give a reason why God by the Preaching of the Gospel effectually calleth one and not another out of darkness into marvellous light but meerly because he willeth The Evangelist 1 John 13. telleth us that we are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 2. Justification is another act of grace whereby God pardoneth our sin looketh upon us and accepteth us as righteous only for the righteousness of Christ reckoned unto us for righteousness Herein also God acteth freely being justified freely by his grace he giveth of the fountain of life freely To this purpose is that I will heal your backsliding and love you freely 3. For Regeneration or Sanctification which is that act of grace by which we are renewed in the inward-man and made conformable to the image of God This is our being born of the Spirit and our Saviour compareth the motion of the Spirit to the wind which bloweth where it listeth 2. But further yet the dispensations of grace by the hand of Providence must necessarily bear proportion to the purpose of grace We are blessed in Christ with all spiritual blessings according as he hath chosen us in him saith the Apostle Eph. 1.4 5. Nothing cometh to pass in the world either as an act of grace or a paenal dispensation but it is in pursuance of some purpose of God Now it was impossible that the purpose of God should have any other foundation than his Will for the eternal purpose must be antecedent to any good or evil done by us we are but of yesterday That man or woman knoweth nothing of God and hath very false conceptions and apprehensions of the Divine Being that doth not conceive of him as a God from all eternity knowing whatsoever should come to pass in the world nor is it possible for us to apprehend how God should know any future thing but because he willed it for what but the will of God should bring it out of a not being into a being out of the order of a contingency into a certainty which it must have or God could have no certain knowledg of it Now it was not possible that any thing in the creature should move God from eternity to will any one grace because there was no creature pre-existent to this eternal act of God nor yet co-existent with it It is true say some but yet God did foresee that such or such would believe repent obey c. using the liberty of their wills better than others and to such God willed eternal life But I cannot understand any thing in this more than trifling For I demand from whence is that better inclination and disposition of one mans will than
VERA EFFIGIES IOHANNIS COLLINGS S.T.P. ANNO DOM 1678. AETATIS 55. Man 's but a shadow and a Picture is That shadow's shadow yet don't judge amiss Though here you onely on the shadow look What followes read The Substance is i'th'book R. White ad Vâ—â—um delin et sculp 167â— SEVERAL DISCOURSES Concerning the Actual Providence OF GOD. DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS The First Treating concerning the Notion of it establishing the Doctrine of it opening the principal ACTS of it Preservation and Government of created Beings With the particular Acts by which it so preserveth and governeth them The Second Concerning the Specialties of it the Vnsearchable things of it and several Observable things in its motions The Third concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hard Chapters of it in which an attempt is made to solve several appearances of difficulty in the motions of Providence and to vindicate the Justice Wisdom and Holiness of God with the reasonableness of his dealing in such Motions By JOHN COLLINGES D.D. LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and are to be sold by Edward Giles Bookseller in St. Andrews Parish in Norwich 1678. To the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Thompson MADAM I Beseech your Honour to believe me telling you that I have been these thirteen years ever since I had the happiness to know your Ladiship watching an opportunity as to let your Ladiship know the sense I have of the obligations you have been pleased to lay upon me so to let the world know the honour I have for your Ladiship growing up from my first observations of you which was in your Ladiships near approaches to and in your state of Widowhood I then observed Madam that your Ladiship like the child of so Honourable and pious Parents had very early entertained just noble and most honourable thoughts of the living God which had produced in you as early a choice of him as your God and of his ways as your ways with a zeal beyond the proportion which could be expected from your years Having therefore perfected the following Discourses I congratulated my self when I had thought of your Ladiship as a fit person to entitle to them and the rather because your Ladiship having not yet seen many years shall I hope have many days to observe the motions of Divine Providence both as to Polities and Persons and from thence both to conclude how true those few Observations are which I have made and to give some more eminent Divine many a subject more of this nature from your own observation Madam in the few years you have yet lived you have seen as many and as quick and inexpected rotations of Providence as the like number of years have at any time as yet produced or are like to produce and yet the wheel seems to run nimbly and a further multitude of years may add to your Ladiships wisdom in this thing I crave leave most humbly to recommend to your Honour as the observation of Issues so the confirmation of Divine Promises and Threatnings in the fulfilling of them I doubt not but your Ladiship will every day see that it is that God who cannot lye who hath commanded his Ministers at all times to say unto the righteous it shall be well with them for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings and to say Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with them for the reward of their hands shall be given them If Madam the actual Providence of God at any time seemeth to look another way it is but keeping your patient foot a while at the Promise and Providence like the Bee will come home to the word of Promise or Threatning bringing along with it a body laden with honey to reward the godly and righteous man and a sting to smite and pierce those through who have wrought wickedness and provoked a jealous God Our blessed Lord Madam tells us Joh. 17.3 That it is life eternal for men to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent The promise or predication in the proposition of that Text makes it evident that by the knowledg of the Father and Jesus Christ is meant more than the bare comprehension of the nature and things of God in our understanding as indeed knowledg and most other terms of sense do ordinarily signifie in Scripture the Greek complying with its elder sister the Hebrew which hath a great penury of words so that to know God and Christ in the true sense of that text is not only in our understandings to comprehend what may be and is necessary to be known of God but to adore love fear him believe in him to chuse him for our God In short it comprehends all those acts of our minds which are either just consequents or may rationally be inferred as duties from a just understanding and due comprehension of him but in regard according to the workings of our reasonable natures those acts will not indeed cannot be exerted without a praevious apprehension of him proportionable to what he indeed is and so as to make him an adequate object for our affections a just comprehension of God in our understandings is necessary in order to those other acts of internal homage wherein the Creature standeth indebted to his great Creator So that Solomon Prov. 19.2 did but conclude rationally That the soul should be without knowledg is not good And the great Apostle of the Gentiles askt but a reasonable question Rom. 10. How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard All Knowledg comes into the Soul either by the Exterior senses or by reasoning and discourse or thirdly by Divine impression and revelation The two former are the more ordinary the latter a rarer and more extraordinary means of knowledg in these latter days since God hath spoken to us by his Son I speak of Knowledg strictly taken for the comprehension of things in our understanding for if we take it in the large sense even now mentioned neither sense nor reason is a sufficient mean to it By sense we can directly comprehend nothing of God for who hath seen him at any time he is an Incorporeal immaterial substance and cometh not under the cognisance of any sense nor indeed can we so know any spiritual being but in regard the effects both of him who is the Father of Spirits and of spiritual beings that are creatures are sensible Our Senses afford us oft-times an auxiliary help from which our reason draweth just conclusions concerning God from Principles which it at first it establisheth by the help of sense For example That the World is and Man is are matters of sense Now Reason concludes Nothing unless a first being can be the cause of its own existence Hence it gathers there must be a God a first being and a first cause Again when Sense hath shewed us Man a reasonable creature Reason works and tells us He that made this noble Creature must needs be more noble
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
quam invenire perfrui This is a labour which vexeth men they take more pains to understand than to love God We had rather tire our selves by searching than by loving find God We had rather enquire than find and enjoy Curiosity is a great piece of the vanity of the mind of man it was Eves temptation to eat of the true knowledg of good and evil that she might be like God knowing it It is a lust inclining a man to employ his outward senses and his understanding to an inordinate gaining of some knowledg which God hath hidden from him Knowledg is good it is the light of the soul Solomon tells us That it is not good that the soul should be without it But there is a knowledg that is too wonderful for us Secret things belong unto God Our Saviour told us that there is a day and hour of which none can have any knowledg no not the Angels It is not for you saith our Saviour to know the times and seasons which the father hath put in his own power Acts 1.7 The knowledg of truth is good but it may be accidentally evil 1. If the End be naught If a man desires to know only that he may be able to cavil and dispute or that he may be thought wiser than others Solomon saith It is not good for a man to eat much honey so for a man to seek his own glory is not glory 2. If we will use unlawful means to gain it such are now going to witches and wizards Astrologers Star-gazers cunning men as Ahaziah sent to Baalzebub the god of Ekron to know whether he should recover of that disease and Saul went to the witch of Endor to raise up Samuel the Devil in the likeness of Samuel to tell him the fate of the approaching Battel A practice too frequent amongst simple people in these days and places where we live 3. When men have an itch to know what God hath concealed from them It was an excellent advice of St. Augustine That men should neither be too curious to pry into secret things nor be blind as to what God had revealed To do the first is to be unwarrantably curious the latter is damnable unthankfulness Vain man would be wise and so becometh indeed more foolish in his imaginations Plutarch well compareth men infected with this itch to those that should not be content to behold the Sun in the firmament but must make a Ladder to climb up to see it in its Throne we shall find the best of men had something of this disease Moses saith Lord shew me thy Glory Philip saith Shew us the Father The Disciples say Wilt thou not this time restore the Kingdom to Israel And again Lord When shall these things be Now as this Curiosity in us sheweth it self in other things so it wonderfully busieth it self as to the ways of Providence to find out all the ways of God and track him in his most secret paths to understand the reasons of Gods dealings the tendencies and indications of them But oh the depth of the wisdom and knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past sinding out Let me offer you two or three Meditations to give check to this lust 1. It is an unprofitable labour It is a labour much study is a weariness to the flesh and it is an unprofitable labour by searching thou canst not find out what thou searchest for Should a wise man utter vain knowledg saith Eliphaz Job 15.2 Should a wise man seek after knowledg in vain and fill his belly with the east-wind The boy in Plutarch carrying a covered dish answered him well that would know what was in it by telling him It was therefore covered that he might not know what was in it God hath also his covered dishes man will be enquiring what is in them but he ought to know that God hath therefore covered them that he might not know and therefore it is but a vain thing for him to enquire and ask Should a Christian an understanding Christian busie himself in searching out that which he cannot find out when he hath wearied himself in a long and vain enquiry as soon may you track an Eagle in the air or a Ship on the Sea as God in the ways and methods of his Providence such knowledg when you have done what you can will prove too wonderful for you No wise man will labour in vain and spend his time and his wit and parts to find out that which he is assured he shall never find out by enquiry 2. You shall observe our blessed Lord continually checking such enquirers one while putting them off and directing them to more profitable employment for their thoughts as when they asked him If there were few that should be saved he bids them strive to enter in at the strait gate Luk 13.21 22. When they asked him Matth. 24.3 When shall these things be He replyeth Take heed that no man deceive you sometimes he chideth them Acts 1.4 5. It is not for you to know the times and seasons When Peter asked John 21.21 And what shall this man do Christ answereth If I will that he tarry until I come What is that to thee Follow thou me 3. Lastly It commonly produceth error in our imaginations vain thoughts bold determinations of the Councels of God groundless prophecies erroneous apprehensions both of God and of his ways What strange effects have mens curious enquiries about the time for the calling of the Jews the ruin of Antichrist the day of Judgment produced in the world What have men at last found out about them that a wise man can set his foot upon Verily they have laboured for the wind and filled their belly with the east-wind and run themselves into a temptation to believe nothing of Scripture because their mis-apprehensions about those dark portions of them have failed them There are some things of which we may say Bona coecitas est non videre quae scire non licet piè ignorance It is a good blindness not to see them but to be piously ignorant of what we cannot lawfully know Let us labour to know God and the Will of God so far as he hath revealed it But for a knowledg of God in all his ways for a perfect knowledg of him it is too high it is too wonderful for us let us more study to love him than to know him By our understanding and comprehension of God we draw God to us By Love we pour our selves into the bosom of God Knowledg and Wisdom let us have never such degrees of it if love to God be not as the soul to give it life signifie nothing and indeed Love is the end of all knowledg and knowledg without Love is very unprofitable and insignificant If saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. I knew all mysteries yet if I have not love I am but as a founding-brass and as a tinkling-cymbal 2. But
done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet c. Dan. 2.12 He hath confirmed his word which he hath spoken against our Judges c. which way soever Providence worketh whether in a way of sensible good or sensible evil against any persons people or places it is pursuant to and in fulfilling of some word of God But secondly I say it moveth not always yea it moveth seldom in a direct line in order to the fulfilling of that word to which it is a Servant and here I shall take notice of three things observable 1. Ordinarily at first it seemeth to move directly towards the end which we have in our eye this you will better understand by and by when I come to give you instances in the proof of it 2. Sometimes it moveth obliquely seeming to be driving another design 3. Sometimes to our appearance directly contrary But thirdly I say at last it comes home to the Promise and so lets us see that all the while it hath been but a faithful servant to the Counsel of God But I shall make you understand this better by the instances by which I shall in the next place endeavour to justify and establish the Observation to which I now come and shall particularize in four or five instances The first instance I shall give of it shall be that great work of Divine Providence in bringing the posterity of Abraham into a quiet possession of the Land of Canaan The Promise went out from God Gen. 12.2 I will make of thee a great Nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and unto thy seed will I give this Land This Promise was given out to Abraham when the World was little more than two thousand years old It was above two hundred years after this that Jacob with his Family not exceeding seventy persons went down into Egypt How slowly did the Providence of God move as to that part of the promise which concerned the multiplication of Abrahams seed After the giving out of the Promise Abraham first fleeth into Egypt for the Famine Gen. 13.12 You have him again returned into Canaan Gen. 13.18 He is told that notwithstanding this Promise his seed should be servants in a Land that was not theirs Ver. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again Abraham dieth seized of this good Land Isaac succeeds him and dies there too Jacob first is forced to flee to Padan-aram returning from thence he is compel'd by the Famine to go down into Egypt where after his and Josephs death the posterity of Abraham for the multiplication of which the promise was out so many years before was attempted to be diminished and destroyed by all acts imaginable The Midwives are practised with to stifle their Infants in the birth when that will not do others must be employed to throw the Males into the River the Parents are afflicted with the highest degree of oppression At length the Providence of God begins to turn toward the Promise The Israelites are allowed to come away but they had gone but a little way but they see the Red-sea before them the Philistines behind them one would have thought that now they had been far enough from any prospect of Canaan Providence by a miraculous operation brings them over this Mountain of difficulty but whither do they come into a long and howling Wilderness one while they are assaulted with Famine vvant of Bread then of Meat another time with drought then again assaulted with Enemies set upon with fiery flying Serpents at last they come within prospect of the desired Land But on the sudden for their murmuring are turned back to forty years wandering When they get over Jordan they meet with seven Nations more strong and mighty than they who must all be subdued before they could have possession of Canaan at last the Providence of God comes home to the Promise Joshuah their Captain having first conquered the Land divides it amongst them yet after this they were far from a quiet possession of it all the time of the Judges or indeed till Saul or Davids time What staange circulations and windings of Divine Providence were here in the accomplishment of the Promises how little to an humane Eye the Providence of God seem'd to mind the promise of multiplying Abrahams seed for above two hundred years Abraham had but one Son of the promise and that when he was very old and past hopes of children Isaac had but one neither that was an heir of the Promise that was Jacob Jacob had indeed twelve and these in the remaining space of that time were multiplied but to seventy besides Joseph in Egypt how quite contrary to the Promise did Providence seem to move all the while that the Israelites were in Egypt yea and after too how often would one have judged that the people guessed right when in their impatience they complained that God had brought them out of Egypt to destroy them in the Wilderness yet at last Gods work was done Providence faithfully served the Promise and gave a Being to the Word of the Lord given out Gen. 12. 2. Let the second instance be that of Joseph Joseph had a promise Gen. 37 I know it was a dream but it was the revelation of Gods will to him in that dream That there should come a time when all his Fathers house should bow to him all their sheaves should bow down to his Now observe how Providence moveth in bringing this Word of the Lord to pass Joseph is hated of his brethren hardly escapeth with his life at length is sold into Egypt and into Potiphars house here now he was brought to Court but no sooner doth he grow into Reputation that there was any appearance of his rising to any degree of Dignity that might look towards a fulfilling of the promise but he is accused by his Mistris thrown into prison like enough to lose his life but after this Providence turneth again raiseth him to a great degree of Dignity makes him the second man in Egypt and what God had told him in his dream was all fulfilled his Father and his Brethren all come and bow down to him 3. A third instance shall be that of David the promise of the Kingdom was given out to David in the day when Samuel by order from God anointed him 1 Sam. 16. In the 17th Chap. The Providence of God so ordereth it that Saul having made a Proclamation That if any man would encounter Goliah the Champion of the Philistines who defied the Armies of Israel he should have his Daughter to Wife David coming to the Army accepts his Challenge fighteth and slayeth him and obtaineth Sauls daughter Jonathan Sauls Son taketh a great kindness to him the people admire him Here now the Providence of God at first setting out moves as if David should presently have come to the Kingdom but after this Saul falls out with David useth all arts to
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
is a divine stamp too though of a different nature what means are proper must be used how mean soever they appear in our eyes What proportion was there betwixt Jonathan and his Armour-bearer and the whole Garrison of the Philistines between Jeroboams Army and Abijahs This but four hundred the other eight hundred thousand between the Army of Asia and that of the Ethiopians and Lubims 2 Chron. 14. God often works yea he ordinarily worketh by small means and Providence brings forth its great work in the day of mans small things If we be sure that we are in Gods way and about his work let the means be what they will if lawful and rational it is our duty to use them God must be honoured in his own Institutions and sought in his own way though the means be small and our humane hopes small yet if we expect Gods blessing this mercy must be sought in the use of those means which the Providence of God layeth before us 2. But secondly The duty of a Christian will lye much in the exercise of his Faith in God beyond the probability of the means This is the great duty of a Christian and the very end which God aimeth at in cutting us short of means many times I think we may say Vbi media deficiunt ibi fides incipit where means begin to fail there faith begins to work Where we are out of sight as to means there 's a room for faith For it is saith the Apostle the evidence of things not seen By faith here I mean a trusting and relying upon God as a God able and faithful But to open this a little more clearly to you I will shew you 1. In what cases we may warrantably exercise a faith in God beyond the vertue and probability of means 2. What means we may use for the help of our faith in this case 3. What encouragements we may take to our selves in such a case to set our faith on work 1 Quest In what cases may a Christian exercise faith in God for the accomplishment beyond the vertue efficacy and probability of humane means to be used in order to it 1. To this I answer The object of faith must be a Promise It is ridiculous to talk of an exercise of faith in God for an accomplishment for which we have no word to warrant us in the expectation of it But now a Promise may be either particular or General of old many had particular persons and the Nation of the Jews had particular promises made to them by God immediately or mediately by his Prophets we have no such God hath left us unto his written Word There are many general promises which shall be made good still to particular Churches and persons Hence is our difficulty to conclude what it is we may exercise a faith in God for bringing to pass To direct you a little 1. Where you have a particular promise the case is plain Some such there are as for the destruction of Antichrist c. 2. In the want of a special particular Promise a general promise is a sufficient object for our faith General promises made to the Church and people of God are applicable to particular Churches and particular Saints 3. Every Precept doth imply a Promise God hath certainly promised a blessing upon the doing of that which he hath commanded us to do no man serveth God for nothing 4 Whatsoever issue certainly conduceth to the glory of God is under a Promise God hath resolved to glorifie himself and he ordereth all his actions in order to that end The substance of all this amounts to thus much We may exercise a faith in God and trust in him for accomplishing by his Providence whatsoever in his Word he hath either more particularly or generally promised or whatsoever he hath commanded us to act in tendency unto or whatsoever doth certainly tend to the glorifying of his great and holy Name Now if any thing of this nature be upon the wheel although we see the present visible means in order to the accomplishment of it be small and in all appearance disproportioned to the greatness of the event yet a Christian using what lawful means the Providence of God lays before him may warrantably trust in God for the exerting a further power for the accomplishment of it than is in the means which at present are apportioned to it But this is now an hard thing to us Let me therefore secondly direct you what you should do in a day of small things for the advantaging of your faith in this noble Exercise I shall offer but two things in the Case 1. Keep your Eye as much off the means and as much upon God as you can We have so much of sense and reason in us that we are very prone from one or other of them to take all our measures about future events If we would keep our hearts steady in a time of such exigencies as these we must shut the Eyes both of our sense and reason Faith credits a Proposition neither upon the demonstrations of the one of these nor the conclusions of the other but the meer authority of God Men count it wisdom when they are upon precipices never to look downward but upward if they look downward their weak heads are apt to be giddy Christians in such stresses of Providence as these are have nothing else to do if they look downward their sense their reason saith how can these things be If God would make windows in heaven saith that Nobleman these things could not be Our poring upon means in the day of our small things hindereth the exercise of our faith in God If the foundations be destroyed saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 what can the righteous do Means are the foundations of our natural hopes now if these be destroyed if there be little or nothing of these what can we do Wicked men are indeed at their wits-ends they despond and despair but saith the Psalmist v. 4 The Lord is in his holy temple the Lords throne is in heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men God is still where he was and hath the same power the same knowledg of things the same rule and dominion Twice in Scripture Abraham is propounded to us as a noble Example and a father of the faithful in this thing Rom. 4. God had promised him a Son a Son of his Wife Sarah he grew to be an hundred years old his Wife many years past child bearing here was no means yet Abraham believeth for a Child and he was not weak in the faith saith the Apostle Rom. 4.18 19 20. How doth he behave himself The Apostle telleth you That he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old nor yet the deadness of Sarahs womb he staggered not at the Promise but was strong in faith giving glory to God being fully perswaded that what he had promised
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
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
was a wicked man one that made Israel to sin yet in Abijam his son there was some good thing found towards the Lord. Abijam the King of Judah was a man that walked in all the sins of his Fathers 1 King 15.2 Yet ver 11. Asa his son did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Jehoshaphat the son of Asa was a very good man but Jehoram his son walked in all the ways of the Kings of Israel 2 Chron. 21.5 so did Ahaziah his son Jonathan was a good man 2 Chron. 27 but Ahaz his son walked in the ways of the Kings of Israel and made images for Baalim yet the son of Ahaz Hezekiah was an excellent man Manasses his son was a very wicked man the greatest part of his life indeed 2 Chron. 33.13 14 15 being carried into Babylon and bound in fetters he besought the Lord and the Lord was intreated of him and then the Scripture telleth us That he knew the Lord was God and he began something of reformation ver 15. Ammon his son was a very wicked Prince but Josiah his son an excellent man but we read no good of any one of his sons Thus as to the dispensations of saving-grace we see the Providence of God is not to be tracked sometimes given to the son of a good father at another time denied to the seed of those in Covenant with God and given out to the children of most vile and wicked parents and this is no more than we yet see every day in the dealings of God But it is time that I should shew you the reasonableness of these motions of Divine Providence 1. Why the Providence of God moveth in such a circular motion in the distribution of the good things of this life It will appear reasonable to you 1. If you consider both Gods general relation to all his creatures and also his special kindness and the demonstration of it to his people together with his faithfulness to his promises 1. I say his general relation to all his creatures they are his creatures he their Creator they by Creation his children and he their father It is true they are undutiful children and do not answer the law of their Creation God may say to them If I be your father where is my honour But yet children they are God intends them not the inheritance and therefore God doth by them as Abraham by the children he had by Keturah Gen. 25.5 To whom he gave portions and sent them away A father hath many children some elder some younger some more dutiful whom he loveth with a more peculiar love but he hath something of a fatherly affection for them all he giveth them all portions more or less Some have their portion in this life as David speaketh Psal 17. Son remember saith Abraham to Dives thou hadst thy good things in this life thy good things So Lazarus had a right to a childs portion Joseph sent all his brethren a mess though to Benjamin he sent seventimes as much as to the rest 2. But besides this some wicked men have another relation to God as servants in some special service none of them are universally Gods servants but in some special service many wicked men are Gods servants And no man shall serve God for nothing This was Jehu's case which procured him the Crown for four generations for the service he did God against the house of Ahab Then if we consider 1. Gods special kindness to his people declared so often in Scripture and the reasonableness that God should make some demonstration of it that all the world may know that God will honour those that honour him and how impossible it is that the men of the world should take notice of this and be convinced of it meerly from spiritual rewards of which they have no certain cognisance or from eternal rewards you will see it but reasonable that God in his Providence should dispose even of the goods of this life unto his own people though not to all yet to many of them and that they should have their turns in these distributions of Providence and not be always or all of them poor and needy or vile and contemptible in the eyes of the world Especially seeing that as the Apostle saith Godliness hath the promise as well of this life as of that which is to come And our Lord hath commanded us to seek the kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof upon the encouragement of a gracious promise that the things of this life shall be added to them Further if there should be no circulation of Providence in these distributions how should those Scriptures be fulfilled wherein God hath told us Psal 30.5 That the rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the lot of the righteous that he will take care that the spirits should not fail before him nor the souls that he hath made that his anger endureth but for a moment that sorrow comes for a night but joy shall come in the morning c. And those many other promises for the good things of this life which are made to the People of God in Scripture though they are not to be interpreted into an extent of that latitude as if they should be the constant portion of the Church and People of God or of every child of God Yet how should they be made good if there were not some circulation of Providence in the distribution of the good things of this life if it should not go sometimes well as well as sometimes ill with the Church and People of God 2. The reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence will appear to you from Gods love and zeal to Justice Justice lyes in giving to every one their due God must be just and his Justice must be declared to the world that all may know that the God of Heaven is a righteous God Now this Justice of God requireth such a circulation of Providence as I have commended to your observation If you will but consider that as the whole life of wicked men is a life of rebellion and disobedience So God never had a Church in the world nor any particular Saint but had their corruptions and were guilty of many miscarriages which subjected them to the vindicative Justice of God Now for the People of God if I may so speak with holy Reverence God hath tyed up his own hands he cannot punish them with eternal punishments he hath accepted a price a satisfaction for them so as now There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus But he hath a controversie even with Judah and he must punish Jacob according to his ways and according to his doings he must recompence him Hos 12.3 This can be no otherwise than by denying of them some good things in this life either such spiritual enjoyments as the denial of is yet consistent with their enjoyment of the eternal inheritance or those
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
against him he adviseth him to do this by breaking off his tyrannical oppression and shewing mercy instead of that cruelty with which the former part of his reign had been stained Now mark the argument If saith he it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity I know your margents tell you it may be read It shall be an healing to your error about which some less judicious Papists make a stir but their own great Arias Montanus reads it it shall be a prolongation of thy peace Their vulgar Lat. reads it perhaps he will pardon thy sins the septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perhaps God will bear long with thy sins c. However though indeed in that sense it doth not so sute my present purpose there is no doubt but restitution is an healing of the error of injustice and oppression amongst men though it be impossible that it should remove the guilt of sin before God But I have digressed too far Let my counsel be acceptable now to every sinner that hath any interest in the world any talent of riches or honour power or interest which he might improve in the doing of any thing which God hath commanded If he be one that hath no regard to his soul but meerly to his interest in the world it is the best improvement that he can possibly make of it If a man had set his heart against the God of Heaven and designed never intentionally to serve and honour him but to make the world and his belly his God without any belief of or regard to an eternal well-being yet it were his greatest policy to do things materially good in order to the obtaining of that portion in this life for him and his posterity upon which he is wholly intent 2. But secondly This observation speaketh aloud to all to take heed of blessing themselves upon their worldly circumstances It is a thing that we are very prone to to conclude to the acceptation of our persons and our works from our outward prosperity They neither signifie any thing to us as to the perfect goodness of the work nor yet as to any eternal reward no nor a lasting reward in this life We use to say Bonum ex causis integris malum ex quolibet defectu a work is made evil by any defect in it the least fly maketh the Apothecaries box of oyntment to stink the action must be formally as well as materially good not only what God hath required but it must be done with a true heart designing the glory and service of God and in a true manner according to that rule which he hath given us for the performance of it or it cannot be acceptable to a pure and holy God nor do these rewards signifie any thing as to our eternal reward and recompence A man may for a work be rewarded in this life and yet damned in the world to come he hath had his reward I remember Christ saith so of the Pharisees prayers and fastings Mat. 6. They have their reward the disciples of Christ that act sincerely they shall be recompenced in the resurrection of the just Hypocrites have their reward in the honour and applause they have in the riches and honour which God giveth them God is out of their debt No nor secondly which possibly to them is more terrible these kind of recompences are but temporary things for a little time Jehu had taken out all his payment from God for his service against the house of Ahab in four generations Assyria and Babylon had taken out their rewards for their services much sooner Vse 4. In the next place This Observation may be of very great use both for the comfort and incouragement of such whose hearts are right with God For their comfort as to what they have done for their incouragement to go on yet in their motions and designs for God 1. For their comfort It must be laid down for a substratum to the following part of my discourse upon this Theme That no man can be called a child of God but he who doth not serve God by the by tanquam aliud agens in the mean time eying some other design and setting up to himself some other end but he who in his actions sets himself with a full purpose of heart to seek and honour and glorifie God he may miss his mark either through the mistake of his eye or his hand but his face is thitherward that 's the white at which he aims he hath set the honour and glory of God before him as his mark and towards it it is that he presseth forward he may mistake as David did thinking something will be for the honour of God which will not or come short as to the issue not being able to bring his design to a desired issue but he taketh his aim right and setteth up his mark right Now failers in these cases when once discerned by the souls of Christians prove oft-times causes of great trouble and exceeding sad reflexions to them and nothing can be thought of as more proper to give them relief than what I have been at this time discoursing of That when God doth not cannot allow of the action as integrally good and perfect yet he will reward the good intention the design and purpose in the childs of Gods heart Methinks in this case it is a sweet text they are the words of Solomon upon the dedication of the Temple which he had builded 1 King 8.18 And the Lord said unto David my father Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name thou didst well that it was in thine heart Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house but thy son that is come out of thy loins he shall build the house unto my name There are in that text these things remarkable 1. David had an intention to build God an house 2. He did not build this house 3. God did not allow of the action God sent him word by Nathan he should not do it as you have heard before Yet 3. God accepted his good design his general good intention Thou didst well saith God that it was in thine heart 4. God did not only accept this good design and intention but he also rewards it Nevertheless saith he thy son that is come out of thy loins he shall build me an house thou shalt not have the honour of it but thy son shall have the honour of it David was undertaking a matter in the worship of God without any special direction God upon this createth an institution and legitimateth the action for his son I say it is an admirable text if it be well digested to relieve the spirits of the People of God under their troubles for their imperfect performances A Christian prays he sanctifieth a Sabbath he setteth himself to seek the Lord in any piece of instituted worship when he reflecteth upon it and compareth it with the perfect rule he sits down wonderfully
troubled considering he hath done nothing as he ought to do he hath prayed but with a wofully wandring distracted and distempered heart his heart hath not bled while he hath been confessing of sins nor believed enough while he hath been putting up his supplications to the God of Heaven nor been raised enough in the Meditations of the Divine Goodness whiles his tongue hath been uttering the good things which God hath done for him To what purpose should he do any thing more who doth nothing as he ought to do it I would but ask a poor Christian thus troubled upon any performance Was it in thine heart to honour God in what thou didst thou camest to hear the word of God or thou camest to humble thy self before God by fasting or thou camest to prayer or to receive a sacrament thou reflectest upon the action done thou seest it full of imperfections thou hast not honoured God as thou desiredst thy heart hath not been perfect with God But what was in thine heart in these undertakings was it in thine heart to mock God or to serve God was not this thy design to humble thy soul before the Lord to pay an homage which thy soul owed unto God was it not in thine heart to serve God If it were believe that thou hearest God saying to thee Whereas it was in thine heart to pray to praise to humble thy self before me to do what I commanded thee to do thou didst well that it was in thine heart it may be thou didst not well in the action it was not well done in thine hand but this was well that it was in thine heart As we sometimes refuse something from our friend and say I thank you as much as if you did it but it is needless I desire you to spare your pains I care not for it or I desire not it should be done yet but yet I take it as kindly as if you did it Or as we sometimes accept of what a poor child or servant hath done for us though we do not like it as done to our minds and excuse it by saying Poor child it intended well so God doth with us methinks what he said to David was as much as if he had said I do not yet need any other house then I have I do not care for it but this thou didst not know David Thou didst well that it was in thine heart thou hadst a good general design and intention and so to us this prayer this service this homage is not every way perfect but yet it was in my childs heart to honour me and to obey my commands In this he hath done well I will accept it because it was in his heart 2 Cor. 8. If there be a willing mind saith the Apostle it is accepted not according to what a man hath not but according to what he hath The Apostle speaketh there with reference to alms but it is as true as to all other duties if there be a willing mind a true heart it is accepted of God I shall only caution you that you mistake not this willing mind for a pitiful wish and velleity without a setled steady purpose and resolution of heart and such an indeavour as is within the reach and compass of our power so that there wanteth not a desire and indeavour but only a strength and ability to perform But if there be that it is of wonderful comfort to us under all our accusations and judgings of our selves There is no child of God but it is in his heart to do better than he doth it is in his heart to glorifie God in every duty in every action in the whole of his conversation why if it be in his heart God saith to him Thou hast done well that it was in thine heart Nay this Meditation hath this advantage That God will reward the good that is in his peoples hearts not only with temporary but with eternal rewards and for this the Lord Jesus Christ is to be praised who hath satisfied Divine Justice for us and perfectly fulfilled the law for us and procured this of his Father That the will should be accepted for the deed Do not therefore think ever to live in any view of your own perfection you will never do that Study only to live in the view of your own sincerity to find that your hearts are right in the sight of God take heed of heart-falshood ah that is dreadful to find our hearts false with God Ah! but will some jealous soul say How shall I know this how shall I know if my heart be right with God in any action when I see the action is not right but cometh short of the glory of God I answer thou shalt easily know if thou doest but consider what the heart does in humane actions and that you shall understand in three particulars 1. It is the eye that takes the aim at the mark 2. It is that which giveth strength to the bow 3. It is that which gives a man pleasure in the action 1. The heart is that which as the eye in shooting gives or takes the aim at the mark The tongue speaks in prayer and the outward man moves in actions of religious worship but the heart now takes the aim and directeth the intention of the action The end of all our actions is either 1. The glory of God or 2. Our selves our own honour c. If the heart be right with God in actions the scope design and intention of the soul is to glorifie God Psal 38.9 All my desire is toward thee Psal 25.15 Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord. 2. The heart is that which in humane actions gives strength to the bow The strength of a spiritual action lyes in the zeal or heat of affection which attendeth the action now the heat of this is in the heart Where a mans heart is not in an action he acts coldly he moveth slowly the wheels of a soul are in the heart Where the heart is in an action it runs it makes haste and delayeth not it acteth with vigour and fervency 3. Lastly The heart is that which gives a soul delight and pleasure in an action Where the heart is not in prayer in hearing there is no pleasure no sweetness no delight affecting the soul Examine now thy self by these things thou doest that which is materially good but thou doubtest whether in thy actions thy heart be right with God Search and see what thy aim and scope was What didst thou propose to thy self in the action with what life vigour and strength didst thou set upon thy action what pleasure and delight didst thou take in the action though indeed much of the last may be kindled in an hour of temptation or desertion where the soul feeleth not those incomes of divine assistance nor that freedom of spirit which it hath at other times experienced yet always the heart aims right and puts on with what strength it
hath it like Sampson riseth up and says it will do as at other times though in doing it discerneth that God is departed from it and is not with it as at other times Vse 5. Again How should this encourage us all in the ways of God notwithstanding the discouragements we may meet with from the temptations of our grand adversary or the suggestions of our consciences founded upon the demonstrable truth of the imperfections of our best services We say Use maketh perfectness and the Scripture saith That the man of clean hands will grow stronger and stronger but in the mean time acceptation doth not depend upon gradual perfection but upon the perfection of sincerity when the design the purpose the intention is sincere when the heart is set right for God and aims truly at the glory of God and the fulfilling of his Will then it is accepted and indeed it is the most reasonable thing in the world that we should agree with this For that man or woman hath either a strange imperfect notion of the nature of God or of the law of God that can expect that his duties should be accepted for their gradual perfections or any intrinsecal value in them I say he that thus thinks neither knows God as he ought to know him nor yet his own measures But if God will accept of and reward a good intention a good purpose and design while we find our hearts right bent and inclined for God we have no reason to be discouraged from action Vse 6. I shall conclude with an Exhortation unto all In this thing to be like God You have heard that God sometimes allows not an action where yet he rewardeth the good intention designing the action what an example is this for us who may dissent from some of our Forefathers Our Forefathers might be mistaken in the Utensils and Ornaments and Rites of Gods house and worship as well as David was in his design for the building of God an house and while we think they were so we cannot tread in their steps it would be wickedness to us SERMON XXIX Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am proceeding still in directing your Observation of the motions of Divine Providence especially in the distribution of rewards and punishments Two things I have already of this nature observed I now proceed to a third which will make a Fifteenth Observation Observ 15. It is a very ordinary thing for the Providence of God to distribute the afflictions and punishments of this life to the very best of his people and as to them sometimes to spare the very worst of men I must still mind you that there is no rule so general but it will admit exceptions as to particular cases though this hath as few as any The Apostle hath told us Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth if you endure chastening God dealeth with us as with sons for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not but if you be without chastening whereof all are partakers then are you bastards and not sons Hence that so usually quoted passage of one of the ancients Vnicum Deus habuiâ—t filium sine peccato nullum sine flagello God had one and but one Son without sin but he never had any Son without a cross Hence some particular servants of God have been under some temptations at some times to question their state as to the favour of God because their life hath had so little of the cross in it but they have been rare examples to whom Satan hath had an advantage to suggest such a thought And as Divines determine it difficult to determine what sin a child of God may not fall into and justly too when-as David fell into murther and adultery Lot into drunkenness and incest and even Peter cursed and sware and denied his master so it is a matter more difficult to say what punishment of this life may not fall upon the best of men Indeed some Antinomians have made it a question Whether the afflictions of Gods People may or ought to be called punishments or judgments but it is a strife which they would raise about words if they by punishments or judgments intend such legal demands as God should make for satisfaction to his Justice none who understandeth what he saith will call the afflictions of good men punishments in this sense if they mean any thing else they much betray their ignorance for the Scripture expresly calls them by both God telleth his People that they should not be altogether unpunished and the Apostle telleth us That when we are chastened we are judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.32 Most certain it is that it is a very ordinary thing for God in the motions of his Providence to distribute all kinds of temporary afflictions to such as most fear his glorious Name and sometimes as to such to spare even the worst of men Job expostulates it with God Job 21.7 Wherefore do the wicked live become old yea are mighty in power their seed is established in their sight with them and their off-spring before their eyes their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them David confessed that his feet were almost gone his steps had well-nigh slipt when he saw the prosperity of the wicked though v. 9. they set their mouths against heaven yet v. 4. their strength was firm and there were no bands in their death they are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued like other men v. 7. Their eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish In the mean time v. 14. David was plagued all the day-long and chastned every morning This motion of Providence hath been evident in the experience of all ages and there is none who liveth but may observe it every day but this is accounted one of the Chapters of Divine Providence which are hard to be understood I shall therefore reserve my further discourse upon it till I come to the last part of my intended discourse where I shall make it my business to give you an account of it and at present pass on to some further Observations Observ 16. The next thing I shall commend to your remark is this That where to humane appearance Providence moveth most flowly either in the punishment of the sinner or the rewarding the righteous there at last it distributeth most plentifully I observed to you before that both the punishment of the wicked and the reward of the righteous is certain and constant though not always sensible nor uniform Now I desire you to observe that by how much the slower it is in the punishment of sinners or in bringing rewards to the righteous by so much the greater the rewards of the godly men and the punishment of sinners are when they come I mean
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
the justice or goodness of God To his justice who hath accepted a price and satisfaction for them at the hand of his Son concerning whom he hath said that in him as our Mediator he was well pleased How then can God punish mâ—n and women for those sins for which he hath accepted a price and satisfaction Or how is this reconcileable to the fulness of Gods pardoning grace How are those sins pardoned which God afterward punisheth But this Cavil proceedeth upon a double mistake or error 1. The first concerning the punishments of sin upon the Children of God 2. The second concerning the satisfaction of Christs death As to the first it supposeth that the afflictions and punishments of Gods people are all for satisfaction which if it were so they were of all men moâ—â— miseraâ—â—â— a their afflictions do ordinarily more abound than the afflictions of others It is true that the impenitent and irreconciled sinner hath no reason to look upon any affliction otherwise than as an arrest of divine vengeance upon every ague every feaver as Gods taking him by the throat and saying to him Pay me now what thou owest because they cannot apprehend any such thing as that Christ hath for them satisfied Divine Justice but the case is otherwise with a believer Supposing our afflictions and punishments of this nature these two things would follow from them 1. A Christian should never be able to see to the bottom of his bitter cup were satisfaction to be given by us when could we so much as hope to say All is finished We might burn but when could we hope to come out of the flames we might be paying and paying but when could we think to have paid the uttermost farthing Satisfaction in our persons must be an endless work the offended Justice being no less than infinite 2. We could never hope by our afflictions to be made gainers in grace If it were possible for us to apprehend that by our suffering we could make full payment to the Justice of God yet we could have no hope by affliction to grow more holy no man groweth richer by parting with money to pay his debts none could hope by afflictions to grow more holy that his affliction should purge away his dross or take away his tin or he by them be made more conformable to the Image of his blessed Saviour if our afflictions were for satisfaction But the holy Scripture giveth us quite another notion of afflictions so far as they concern the People of God it bottometh them in Divine Love it calleth them chastenings and calleth them fatherly corrections Heb. 12.6 7 8. We are bid not to despise the chastening of the Almighty we are told That they are blessed whom he chasteneth and teacheth out of his law we are told that he chasteneth whom he loveth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth Now it is true satisfaction is not consistent with the satisfaction of Christ but corrections and fatherly chastisements are consistent enough with the price which Christ hath paid and the satisfaction which he hath given for us hanging the malefactor or otherwise putting him to death is not consistent with pardon but I hope whipping him branding sending him a while to Bridewel banishment of him when he deserved death is consistent enough with it The Papists indeed fancy that Christ hath only satisfied for the eternal punishment but still we are bound to satisfie by temporal punishments Hence are their penances and purgatory founded but that is a very uncomfortable notion and the more we look into it the more dreadful it will appear On the other side the Antinomians are as much almost on the other hand denying the afflictions of Gods People to be punishment of sins or judgments when the Scripture so calls them The truth lyes in the middle betwixt these two extreams they are judgments they are punishments of sin but they are no legal demands of satisfaction nor giving satisfaction Christ hath satisfied for the whole guilt of their sins for whom he died All of that nature as to them was finished upon the cross so that the afflictions of the People of God their punishments for sin have now both another name and notion than satisfactions 2. A second mistake upon which this objection is founded is That Christ by his death paid a price into the hands of his fathers justice for all temporal punishments due to man for sin so as to excuse those for whom he died from them Now as to this whatsoever we may fancy 1. It is manifest that our Lord Jesus never did purchase for his people any such thing as a freedom from temporal death and the smart of bodily afflictions He hath taken away the sting of death but not death he hath delivered us from the curse but not from the cross This is all which the Scripture saith Gal. 3.13 He hath redeemed us from the curse by being made a curse for us himself hath told us That if any one will be his disciple he must deny himself and take up the cross and follow him And we are told by the Apostle That all who will live godlily in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution And accordingly the servants of God have experienced it even Paul himself was in deaths often and had his thorn in the flesh 2. Nor was it any branch of that Covenant of Redemption and Grace in which Christ was a party with or a surety to the eternal father I put in those two terms Redemption and Grace I know some make two Covenants the one they call the Covenant of Redemption the other the Covenant of Grace and that there are very different notions of the Covenant of Grace For my own part I see no need of asserting more than one Covenant and that eternal Isa 42.6 This I take to be a paction from eternity made betwixt the Father the eternal Father on the one part and the Lord Jesus Christ on the other wherein Christ Covenanted with his Father that he would do his whole will for the redemption of his chosen ones Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 and that we by grace derived from him should do what the father requires of us in order to our salvation in respect of which he is said to be made the surety of a better Covenant Heb. 7.22 The Father mutually Covenanted with his Son that he would be well-pleased in him that he would give him the souls for whom he should dye that he might give them eternal life and all that grace and good which should be advantageous for them but neither did Christ ask of his Father neither did his Father promise him on their behalf an immunity from temporal punishments afflictions or chastisements for sin We cannot understand the terms of the Covenant of Grace but from the Exhibition of it in Scripture which was very various sometimes more clearly sometimes more darkly to Adam Noah Abraham David c. One of the fairest copies
of Egypt God revengeth this sin upon their children and posterity More than 350 years after God saith to Saul 1 Sam. 15.2 3. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts I remember that which Amalek did how he laid wait for them in the way when he came out of Egypt Now go smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not but slay both man and woman and infant and suckling both Ox and Sheep and Camel and Ass God in the second Commandment saith that he is a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth generation and conformable unto this is the whole revelation of the will of God in Scripture and the dispensation of Actual Providence 1 King 11.11 God threatneth to rend the Kingdom away from Solomon Forasmuch as this is done of thee and thou hast not kept my statutes which I have commanded thee v. 12. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy Fathers sake but I will rend it out of the hand of thy Son he accordingly did 1 King 12.16 Jeroboam you know had the part God rent from the house of David He setteth up idolatry God threatneth 1 King 14.9 that because of this he would destroy Jeroboams house and cut off from him him that pissed against the wall and would take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man taketh away dung till it be gone Now observe how the Actual Providence of God fulfils this 1 King 15.25 Nadab Jeroboams son succeedeth he reigneth but two years v. 27. Baash conspireth against him smiteth him and slayeth him v. 29. He smote all the house of Jeroboam he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed until he had destroyed him v. 30. Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned and which he made Israel to sin by his Provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger The phrase is not exclusive of Nadabs sins but it plainly proveth that in Nadab and the rest of his families punishment there was a special consideration of Jeroboams sins Baasha doth as wickedly as Jeroboam God sends Jehu the Prophet who threatneth him that the Lord would take away his posterity and the posterity of his house and make his house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat 1 Kings 16.1 2 3. He reigned 24 years Elah his son succeeds him and reigneth two years as bad a man as his Father 1 Kings 16.8 9 10. Zimri one of his Captains slayeth him being drunk v. 11. the same Zimri slayeth all the house of Baasha he left him not one who pissed against the wall neither of his kinsfolks nor friends And this v. 13. was for all the sins of Baasha Omri sets up against Zimri and prevaileth he reigneth 12 years Ahab was his son who reigned 22 years He was a most vile man 1 Kings 21.25 There was none like unto Ahab which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord. God in the same Chapter v. 21. threatned him because he had sold himself to work evil in the sight of the Lord that he would bring evil upon him and take away his posterity and would cut off from Ahab him that pissed against the wall and him that was shut up and left in Israel and would make his house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha In the next Chapter you shall read that Ahab was killed in the battle at Ramoth Gilead Ahaziah succeedeth him 1 Kings 22.40 Ahaziah dieth an untimely death occasioned by a fall from a window 2 Kings 1. and Jehoram his son succeedeth v. 17. he was slain by Jehu 2 Kings 9. ch 10. Seventy sons more of his were slain by the men of Samaria at the command of Jehu and v. 17. When he came to Samaria he slew all that remained to Ahab in Samaria till he had destroyed him according to the saying of the Lord which he spake to Elijah Jehu succeedeth in the Kingdom he slew the Priests and worshippers of Baal and turned the house of Baal into a draught-house 2 Kings 10.25 26 27 28. For this God rewardeth both him and his posterity with a Crown and a Throne 2 Kings 10.30 But he yet kept up the idolatry of Jeroboam 2 Kings 10.29 for this God not only punished him in his life time 2 Kings 10.32 33. But threatens to avenge the blood of Jesreel upon the house of Jehu Hosea 1.4 which came to pass an hundred years after in the fourth Generation Jehoahaz Jehu's son reigned 17 years Joash his son reigned 16 years Jeroboam his son reigned 41 years which added to 28 years Jehu reigned makes a 102 years Now you know the service Jehu did was in the beginning of his reign Thus you see this was Gods constant course of Providence with the several families of the Kings of Israel For the sin of Eli 1 Sam. 2.27 God threatneth him that because he had honoured his sons above God v. 29. He would cut off his arm and the arm of his fathers house that there should not be an old man in his house v. 33. And all the increase of his house should die in the flower of their age Christ bids those that mourned for him to weep for themselves and their children In short the proof of this is very full from Scripture And we shall find this done not only in natural Relates and Correlates Such are Fathers and Children of which I have given you plentiful instances but in such as are moral Relations Sometimes we shall find the people punished for the Rulers sin Thus it was in the case of David he numbred the people the people were plagued for it So in the case of Jeroboam and Baasha and Ahab they set up their idolatry the people were destroyed Hosea 5.11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement because he willingly walked after the Commandment a Text worth the studying by many Divines in our age The famine in Davids time 2 Sam. 21.1 came for Saul and his bloody house and ten of his sons must be haned to attone God Again you shall find it done when the original guilt was in the people this was the case of the Israelites when they made the Golden-calf Exod. 32.22 And when they murmured at the report brought up by the Spies Num. 14.33 The judgement extended to near 40 years This is a tremendous motion of Providence it may not therefore be out of my way to enquire 1. What sins those are which God doth ordinarily thus revenge on Correlates 2. How far this Vengeance doth extend 3. How this is reconcileable to the justice and goodness of God and the revelation of his will 1. As to the first it is hard to say what sins God may not thus revenge Eli was thus as you have heard punished in his posterity for not duly punishing his Sons David for numbring the people but
for nothing or to allude to the Apostles phrase We have been fishing all day and caught nothing The error lyeth in your misapprehensions thinking you have no reward unless it be made to you personally yea and sensibly too 1. Is it nothing that he who feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him And that you have as to this the continual feast of a good conscience no recoilings of your own breast no sowre reflections from thence surely this is something you have Christs peace when-as to the wicked there is no peace This is a reward unspeakable passing all understanding 2. If your sufferings be any testimony for Christ are they not rewards in themselves doth not the Lord honour that person whom he calleth out to be a witness for his name few are called to suffer for Christ Luther was troubled that God did not think him worthy of such a Crown The Apostles rejoyced that the Lord thought them worthy to suffer for the Name of Jesus Christ 3. But satisfie thy self It may be God hath laid up the reward for thy posterity and thy children and childrens children shall possibly reap what thou hast sown be assured good actions shall not be without their reward but rewards are not all of a kind no man shall ever say he hath waited upon the Lord in vain or sought his face for nothing Vse 3. This calleth upon us all to take heed of sinning against the living God especially such sins as I have before instanced in there are many arguments to be used to defame sin and to disswade from it To them all let this be added the curse which sin entails upon our posterity our sins are sometimes hid with God and sealed up in a bag and the vengeance of God for them falls not upon our selves but upon those that come after us Now the force of this argument lyes in that natural affection which every man hath for his posterity he must be a very debauched person that hath no regard to his posterity every one almost is careful to lay up something for his children take heed of laying up a treasure of Divine wrath for them If you will not regard your own bodies the peace of your own breasts nor your eternal welfare yet fear sinning against God because of the vengeance which may for your sin come upon your posterity It is a terrible Meditation to consider how many the threatnings of God against children are for the parents sins Job 5.3 4. Eliphaz saith I have seen the foolish taking root but suddenly I cursed his habitation His children are far from safety and they are crushed in the gate neither is there any to deliver them And again Job 17.5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends even the eyes of his children shall fail the triumphing of the wicked is but short and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment Job 5.20 vers 10. His children shall seek to please the poor and his hands shall restore their goods And Job 21.19 speaking of the wicked he saith God layeth up iniquity for his children And Job 27.13 14. This is the portion of a wicked man with God and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive from the Almighty If his children be multiplied it is for the sword and his off-spring shall not be satisfied with bread David who was a Prophet and by the spirit of Prophecy did but see and foretel what should come to pass having to do with wicked and deceitful men who Psal 109.2 3 4 5. opened their mouths against him and spake against him with a lying tongue compassed him about with words of hatred and fought against him without a cause for his love were his adversaries rewarding him evil for good and hatred for his love prayeth vers 9 10. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow let his children be continually vagabonds and beg let them seek their bread also out of desolate places Isa 14.21 In the threatning against Babel you find these words Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquities of their fathers that they do not rise nor possess the land nor fill the face of the world with cities and Psal 137.8 9. O daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones The Scripture is full of such prophecies and threatnings especially in the case of some eminent oppressions or cruelties used by any parents or some eminent corruptions in worship c. Now should not this lay a law upon parents who are so sollicitous for the good and prosperity of their children when they shall not be God layeth up the iniquities of parents many times for their children In short as there is no man that can provide better for his children than he that worketh righteousness and eminently serveth God in his generation I never saw the righteous forsaken saith David nor their seed begging their bread so none can provide worse for their children than by laying up a stock of sin to be revenged upon them Children are bound by law to pay their Fathers debts to man that often proves heavy but this is more dreadful they often as to temporal punishments pay their Fathers debts also to the Justice of God and this by the way sheweth us the high advantage of godly parents as the disadvantage of those who have had wicked and profane parents the former inherit blessing the latter cursing and judgment very ordinarily upon the account of their parents Vse 4. This observation calleth aloud to those that are children descended from wicked and ungodly parents it may be the case of some that are before me to be humbled for the sins of their parents and predecessors And 2. To take heed of continuing in the sins of their predecessors Josia was thus humbled and the Lord turned away his wrath that it came not upon him though it came upon his posterity when he was gone to his grave in peace Daniel in his humiliation chap 9. vers 16. forgets not this Because for our sins and the iniquity of our fathers Hierusalem hath been made a reproach The Church complaineth Lam. 5.7 Our fathers have sinned and are not and we have born their iniquity Is there any here whose heart it may be is otherwise but they have had a Father or Predecessor who hath been a cruel bloody man a persecutor of the People of God an hater and enemy of Religion and Godliness I would have such a one think that although his heart be otherwise yet it is possible his fathers iniquity may be laid up for him The only way to prevent it and to turn it off is to get a tender broken heart for thy forefathers sins to confess them and to be humbled before the Lord for them 2. But let all men take heed that they continue not in them
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
which it is called the Covenant of Grace God in and by it relaxing the rigour of the Law which required personal satisfaction to Divine Justice from the persons offending and a perfect performance of the whole Law and accepted the satisfaction given to Divine Justice by the nature offending hypostatically united to the person that was the Son of God and accepting from us sincerity instead of perfect obedience the sincerely willing mind instead of the perfect deed Such a Covenant we suppose and believe to have been made 2. We believe it not made for all but conformably to the purpose of Election if it had been made for all we could not understand but that all men must be saved 3. Nor can we think it was made for an uncertain number but as there are individual names written in the Book of Life so we believe the same concerning the rolls of this Covenant The Lord as the Apostle tells us knoweth who are his Christ was not Sponsor incerti foederis a surety of an incertain but of a certain Covenant Some would make Christs Covenant with his Father not to have been for these or those persons but indefinitely for those that should believe and so to have been conditional But certainly no considerate Christian can allow this who observeth that amongst men nothing but ignorance of future contingencies is the cause of incertain and conditional bargains the Parent that dieth and gives his Child a Portion conditionally that he or she marrieth so and so or be subject to such or such Governors would have left out that condition if he or she had certainly known what the Child would have done and it seems to us strangely to derogate from the eternal perfection of the Divine Being in point of Knowledge so much as to fancy that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who both from eternity knew who would or would not repent and believe and needs must know it because they could do neither but by vertue of special grace infused by and derived from God should make a Covenant each with other that such or such persons who they knew would not repent nor believe if they believed and repented should have a share in the satisfaction and death of Christ 4. We do suppose and believe the blood of the Covenant that is the blood of Jesus Christ was intentionally poured forth according to the Covenant and for the persons concerned in it The blood of Christ is called the blood of the Covenant Zech. 9.11 Heb. 10.29 Heb. 13.20 and the Antitype to those ancient types of the blood of Beasts which was so called Exod. 24.8 So that we think it a very unreasonable assertion to extend the blood of the Covenant beyond the persons concerned in the Covenant But yet notwithstanding all this there is nothing more evident in the issues of Divine Providence than that this Covenant is held out to all indefinitely Mar. 16.15 Christs commission to his Apostles runs thus Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Here both the benefit of the New Covenant eternal life and salvation is offered to all and the terms believing and being baptized are also propounded unto all and according to that direction and commission is all our Preaching Now hence ariseth the difficulty If there be not a possibility of salvation for all men if they all be not within the verge of the Covenant If Christ hath not died for all why is the Gospel preached to every creature how can it consist with the truth and honour of that God who cannot lie by his Ministers to tell men that if they will but repent and believe they shall be saved To what end is the Gospel preached unto them To which I answer 1. That the Gospel only asserteth the infallible connexion of faith and salvation What saith the Gospel He that believeth shall be saved and will any say that a believer shall be damned or did ever any penitent and believing soul perish if there had then indeed we might have quarrelled at the truth of God but God will be true though all men be found liars What though ten thousand be told and have it rung in their Ears That he who believeth shall be saved and but ten of those ten thousand should believe provided that they be saved God I hope is true and what he hath said is to a tittle made good But you will say why then are all told if they believe they shall be saved The Minister of the Gospel may go to every particular soul and say to him or her if thou repentest and believest thou shalt be saved I answer 2. God is pleased to hide from his Ministers his secret counsels concerning the salvation of individual souls They therefore may and must say whosoever believeth shall be saved and God will confirm in Heaven whatsoever they deliver on Earth and by vertue of this Commission they may say to every individual soul Believe and thou shalt be saved they know not who are ordained to life and shall have effectual grace bestowed upon them inabling them to believe but they know the general proposition of the Gospel is true But still you will say why hath God by his Providence so ordered it to what end should the Providence of God order the publication and tender of the Covenant of Grace to a greater number than are concerned in it 3. What if we should say It is O Father so because it pleaseth thee and be forced here to cry out with the great Apostle Rom. 9.33 O the depth of the ri hes both of the wisdom and know ledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out vers 34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor Who is able to give a just account of Gods designs and intentions to what purpose he doth things It is enough for us to know that God doth them and that God may do them and there is no unrighteousness with him if he doth do it We ought to believe that God hath wise ends in what he doth though we are not able to find out what they be Yet it may not be amiss to tell you what Divines do say in the case though they cannot by searching find out God nor find out the Almighty unto perfection 1. There are those that say that Reprobates are only called to faith and repentance as they are mixed with the elect and the exhortations reach them only by way of concomitancy and possibly it may be doubted if there were any society or company of people in the world amongst whom there were not any ordained to everlasting life whether God would at all send his Gospel to them or direct any of the Messengers of his word to go and call them to repentance God incouraging Paul Act.
sayest thou O Christian that the Lords ways are not equal or that the Lord dealeth hardly with thee God dealeth with thee but as every wise and prudent father dealeth with the Child of his dearest love and thus I have spoken to two of the Questions which fall under this head But there is yet a third would be spoken to and the rather because it may be a temptation that seized the hearts of many of Gods people in former times that is How it consisteth with the justice wisdom and goodness of God in the motions of his Providence to make the vilest and worst of men his Instruments to chasten the best and dearest of his own people it was Habbakuks complaint Hab. 1.13 why holdest thou thy peace when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he and maketh men as fishes of the Sea as the creeping things which have no ruler over them But that will be my next Text where I shall speak something relating to that dispensation of God and afterwards shall more largely apply both what I have spoken and what I shall further speak on this Argument SERMON XLIV Habbakuk I. 13. Thou art of purer Eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou on them that deal treacherously and holdest thy Tongue when the wicked man devoureth the man that is more righteous than he And makest men as the Fish of the Sea as the creeping things that have no ruler over them I Begin as you see where I left in my last exercise I left with a quotation out of the prophecy of Habbakuk which is now my Text nor could any thing be more proper for you see it containeth in terms the Question I am this day speaking to In the beginning of this Chapter and Prophecy the Prophet had been complaining unto God of the exceeding wickedness and incorrigibleness of the Jews God replying to him had told him what possibly he did not expect desiring not the ruin but reformation of his people that he was about to put an end to their wickedness v. 6. Raising up the Caldeans a bitter and hasty nation which should march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwellings which were not theirs terrible and dreadful c. An enemy every way qualified to execute Gods utmost vengeance upon this people This quite surpriseth and astonisheth the good prophet and sends him in hast unto God again v. 13. saith he Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God mine holy one we shall not dye O Lord thou hast ordained them for Judgment and O mighty God thou hast established them for correction then follow the words of my Text Thou art of purer Eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou on them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then he Habbakuk lookt upon this as a very sad dispensation and what stumbled him as to the righteousness of God therefore he puts it in that phrase the man that is more righteous than he and addeth and makest men as the fishes of the Sea as creeping things of the Earth which have no ruler over them Those brute sensitive creatures are not ruled by any rules of justice or righteousness those of them that have most natural strength and power devour those who have less but now men are reasonable creatures and should be acted by principles of reason and justice amongst them might should not overcome right But O Lord in this dispensation of thy Providence thou seemest to govern the reasonable part of the world like the brutish and sensitive part of it The Jews though they be a sinful people yet they are more righteous than the Caldeans they are a brutish people and have no right against the Jews shall thy Providence so order the affaires of the world that those who have most power in their hand though they have no right shall trample down thy people and eat them up like bread Lord this were to make men like the fish of the Sea like the creeping things of the Earth which have none over them to govern them by any rules of justice or righteousness Lord why doth thy Providence thus govern humane affaires This I conceive the sense of the words The question which remains to be spoken to is this Quest How it can consist with the Justice of God in the motions of his Actual Providence to suffer wicked men to devour those who are more righteous than themselves I am the more willing to speak to this because it is a dispensation under which many of those that fear the Lord in this nation have suffered we have seen good men rifled their goods taken from them we cannot say but they have deserved this and far more than this from the hand of Divine Justice but though they have deserved this yet we are ready to think it is hard that they should suffer this from such miscreants as take the Spoil and God will certainly one day fetch the blood of his people and their abominations out of their mouths We are prone to think that God should not suffer his people to be devoured by those who are more unrighteous then they are The Text gives you an account 1. Of a great disorder in the world at least a dispensation of Providence which Habakkuk thought so Men dealt treacherously the wicked devoured the men who were more righteous than themselves 2. It gives you an account of Gods carriage under this disorder God looked upon men that is he seemed to look upon the men that dealt treacherously and to hold his peace while Sinners devoured the more righteous persons God by the motions of his Providence seemed rather to favour than frown upon these disorders Hence might be observed these two propositions 1. Prop. That it is no unusual dispensation of Providence for God to suffer the wicked to devour those that are more righteous than themselves 2. Prop. That this dispensation hath been matter of stumbling and a very sore temptation even to the servants of God For the first as to matter of fact there is nothing more demonstrable look over the whole History of Scripture the History of all times you will find it true the world began with Cains killing Abel it went on with the Egyptians the Amalekites the Philistines the Babilonians devouring of the only people which God had in the world Now I say this hath been heretofore and doubtless is at this time a great temptation to Gods people Habakkuk complains of it in the Text. Job complained Job 30.1 That those who were younger than he had him in derision even those whose Fathers he would have disdained to have set with the dogs of his table Shemei a dead dog as he called him cursed David and Doeg the Informer prevails against all the Lords Priests Judas another Informer devoureth him who is the
apprehending these things and likewise it s own propriety and interest in God and being put into some possession of this Propriety in a day of evil makes its application to such promises and portions of his word as he hath revealed his will in proper to such a State as the Soul is in hence it comes to be well-pleased with God in his dispensations it is brought to a sweet and pleasing rest and triumpheth in its portion in the day of greatest Evils and singeth with David Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven hut thee and there is none upon the Earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my Portion for ever v. 26. Now this is both the duty and priviledge of every Child of God and indeed these are both great arguments to perswade it It is their priviledge for though there be a Power a Sufficiency an infinite goodness in God which is inseparable from his Divine beeing yet this not being enough to bring the Soul to a pleasure delight and complacency in an object without a Propriety Possession and Application of it it is manifest that only those Souls who have such a propriety interest and possession and are in capacity to make such an Application can delight themselves in the Lord and as this is their Priviledge so it is also their duty which will appear to you if you please to consider 1. That there is enough in God for the Soul of a Child of God to please it self with under all dispensations Shall I shew you what that is 1. Whatsoever is done in the World is done by him It is the Lord who lifteth up one and throweth down another there is no Evil in the City which he hath not done 2. In all God doth pursue the noble good and wise ends of his own glory Whatsoever the intentions of men are whether Assyria mean so or so God pursueth still the same design of his own glory being his own end in all his Efficiencies and in all his permissions and to this end he ordereth all things 3. That he is a God infinitely wise and it must be said of all his works of Providence as well as creation In wisdom he hath made them all His Judgments are indeed a great deep but they are a deep of Divine wisdome and all that God doth or suffereth to be done in the World he doth he suffereth all to be done according to his infinite wisdome and counsel 4. That he is the same in power that ever he was Once have I spoken yea twice have I heard it saith the Psalmist that power belongeth unto God so as if he pleased he could when he pleased alter the state and complexion of things and turn the wheel that now runs upon the lot of his people upon the neck of his Enemies and put wicked men in the stead of his afflicted people 5. That his love is the same that ever it was toward his people and is working towards and for them under the darkest and most gloomy dispensations of Divine Providence God loveth his children in Prisons as well as in Palaces in a poor and low as well as in a more high and prosperous condition upon dunghils as well as upon Thrones now lay all this together and Judg if a child of God hath not ground enough to delight himself in the Lord under all dispensations of Divine Providence It is not enough to please his Soul and to bring it to a rest for him to think what is now done in the World or in that part of the World where my Lot is cast my heavenly Father doth it all and he ordereth all things for his own Glory he is infinitely wise and knoweth how to fetch out his honour from all he hath all power in his hand and can turn his hand upon the little ones upon the poor and afflicted of his flock whensoever he pleaseth and he loveth me as well in this low afflicted poor despised estate as he did when the world went better with me and I had more credit and repute in it more of the riches honours power and enjoyments of it than I now have Is not here ground enough for a Soul under such dispensations to delight himself in the Lord especially considering the promise in the Text Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart But besides this how often doth God call to us for this duty Psal 33. v. 1. Rejoyce in the Lord O you righteous Joel 2.23 Fear not O land be glad and rejoyce for the Lord will do great things v. 21. Be glad then you children of Sion and rejoyce in the Lord your God Phil. 3.1 ch 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord. Rejoyce in the Lord and again I say rejoyce We shall find this hath been the constant refuge and practice of the people of God David his third Psalm was composed when he fled from Absolom his 7th Psalm when he was afflicted with the words of Cush the Benjamite his 34. Psalm when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech the Philistim King his 52. Psalm upon occasion of the villany of Doeg the Edomite his 54. when the Ziphites made a discovery of them to Saul his 56. Psalm when the Philistines took him in Gath. The former part of his life until the Lord setled him upon the Throne of Israel and Judah was indeed nothing else but a time of trouble and great afflictions when his enemies were very high and he was very low he had little or nothing in the creature to delight in now at this time the Psalmes tell you his relief and practice which was to delight himself in God Thus Habbackkuk ch 3. v. 17. Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall be fruit in the Vine the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yield no meat the flocks shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stall that is though all sensible relief and comfort shall fail yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation To press you to this duty I shall only mind you of what I have already told you 1. That there can be no such providences befal any Child of God but he may find enough under them still to delight in God when he can see nothing for a Sensual eye to delight in he may yet find enough for his Spiritual eye to delight in Is it not matter of pleasure to thee to think Well let times goe how they will I have a God to go to though saith Job Wormes shall eat this body yet in my flesh I shall see God To think that now God is but doing his own work and though men oppress yet he that is higher then the highest considereth the matter To think that God is able to turn the ball when he pleaseth that in the
mean time he is in the love and favour of God he may have communion with God and God will provide for him These and an hundred such things as these afford matter enough for the child of God to delight himself in the Lord at all times 2. Consider again how equitable it is that Children should at all times delight themselves in him because he at all times delighteth himself in them whom the Lord loveth he chastneth as a Father his Son in whom he delighteth his chastening is not a dispensation of wrath but of wisdome Observe how he speaketh to his afflicted Church Isa 54.11 O thou afflicted tossed with tempests and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with saphires Christ was anointed to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning and the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness Isa 64.1 3. Though his people have lien amongst the Pots as the Psalmist expresseth it yet he hath a pleasure in them 3. Let me Thirdly offer to your consideration the advantage of this delighting your selves in the Lord in a day of Evil. It would arme the Soul against all the temptations of an evil time 1. It would abstract the mind from the world we see if the Husband delights in his Wife or a Father on his Child how it draweth off their hearts from all other objects that all are nothing to them in comparison of that object in which the great delight of their heart is 2. It would fill the mind of a man so as it should say to all the world as Esay I have enough I have enough keep what thou hast unto thy self or as Jacob whose delight was in Joseph It is enough is Joseph yet alive It is enough 3. It would give the Soul a rest The mind of a man resteth in the object of its delight 4. Finally it would wonderfully quiet the mind as to the Will of God we are usually satisfied with what is done by those persons whom we principally love and delight in Let this therefore be our study our great labour and business to bring up our hearts to a delight in the Lord. Study his attributes that you may know what he is in his Power Goodness Truth Wisdom c. Study his promises which concern this life or that which is to come particularly those which more specially sute thy circumstances Consider the examples of the Saints and Servants of God in thy circumstances meditate upon these things whet them upon thy heart say often to thy self This God is in himself Thus and thus he hath revealed himself and he who hath said it is Power Goodness Truth c. But this is enough to have spoken to this other piece of a Christians duty under such dispensations of Divine Providence I proceed to another piece of Duty 4. Depart from evil and do good You have it vers 8. Fret not thy self in any wise to do Evil. And vers 3. Trust in the Lord and do good you have them both together Psal 34.12 and 1 Pet. 3.12 Now this doing of good is a very large term according to the intent of all that duty which is required of us by the precepts of the first and second table There is a duty which we owe unto God all which is comprehended under the first and great commandement Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy Soul and all thy Strength Thus that man doth good that loveth and feareth God that prayeth unto him and performeth all those acts of homage and worship which God hath in his word required as much and as zealously and warmly in the worst as in the best of times this is properly a doing of good it is honest and just and what God requireth of us it bringeth profit and advantage to our selves it will bring comfort sweetness and peace to the Soul So that take good in what notion you will this is a true doing good Again there is a good which may be done to our selves or to others the Apostle commandeth us to do good to all Gal. 6.10 thus our Saviour commandeth us to do good to them that hate us and the Apostle Heb. 13.16 commands us not to forget to do good and to distribute and it is one piece of our doing good Isa 1.17 to judge the fatherless and relieve the oppressed Further yet there is a good of our general calling This is comprehensive of the whole duty of a man considered in no further capacity than that of a creature towards God or that of a Christian relating to the Lord Jesus Christ and owning him There is a good of our particular calling respecting us with reference to our Relations as Magistrates or Subjects Husbands or Wives Ministers or flock Parents or children Masters or Servants Finally there is a good of a particular season the works and business of our day relating to the particular circumstances and dispensations of Providence under which it pleaseth God to bring us Having thus far discoursed of good and distinguished of that it is easie to understand what Evil is It is either the omission of some of these duties or the commission or doing some things which are opposite to them I take the precepts of the text in the large sence A Christian ought to do all manner of good and to abstain from all omissions of any duty or commissions of any thing which is contrary to that duty which God expecteth from him either in his general calling or in his particular Relation he is at all times to eschew evil and to do good The precepts of God Psal 37.26 Isa 1.16 17. 1 Pet. 3.12 concern him and oblige him at all times but it is their more especial duty with reference to evil times and indeed this is the readiest way to make times better Evil times are so called upon a double account either with respect to sin or to punishment These times are evil times wherein sin aboundeth and the love of many groweth cold now our sins contribute to the aboundings of sin in the time wherein we live we use to say that if every man would sweep his own door the streets would be clean Times are also called evil with respect to punishment to some judgments of God that are abroad in the world now for us to do good to depart from evil and do good is the way to have the judgments of God averted from us Wash you saith God Isa 1.16 17. make you clean put away the evil of your doings from you come let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet you shall be as snow though they were as crimson you shall be as white as wooll You have it vers 6. Do good and thou shall dwell in the land and as we Translate it verily thou shalt be fed Zeph. 2.3 Seek you the Lord all you
the meritorious cause If indeed God did either condemn any righteous person or were any way obliged to give out effectual grace to all and did not this indeed would argue unrighteousness with God but he doth neither of these his wrath will indeed one day be revealed against them to whom Christ and his Gospel were never revealed to whom grace sufficient to bring them to Heaven and Eternal life was never given but it shall never be revealed but as the Apostle saith against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men now certainly God cannot be unrighteous in punishing unrighteousness or ungodliness If God indeed were a debtor for his grace to his creature he might be charged with unrighteousness if he did not give it out but he doth not deal out death and destruction but as a wages nor Salvation and Eternal life but as free gift Who asketh a reason why August Caesar did not bestow gifts upon all his Courtiers in proportion with those bestowed on Maecenas We may say of God as to all his dispensations of grace Placuit hoc satis est ubi non aliud jus aut ratio ipsa voluntas jus ratio est that is It so pleased God that is enough where there is no other right or reason the very will of God is Law and reason enough Besides if the distributions of Divine grace were equal how should God to any shew forth the riches of his Grace Let me but acquaint you with a passage of Augustine upon this Argument Doest thou ask saith he why grace is not given to all according to desert I answer because God is merciful you will say Why is not God merciful to all I answer saith he because he is just In this saith he that grace is given freely he sheweth what grace doth and worketh in those to whom it is given Let us not therefore be unthankful to God that according to the good pleasure of his will and for the praise of the glory of his grace he hath delivered us from so great a death whereas if he should deliver none yet he would not be unjust Let him therefore who is delivered love grace let him who is not delivered acknowledg justice if Divine goodness be understood in remitting the debt Justice also may be understood in exacting of it no way is there any iniquity found with God But you will say then Why is there in the case of Infants yea of Twins such a difference Is it not saith he the like Question why in a diverse cause there is the same judgment and the Workmen in the Vineyard who wrought the whole day had but a Penny as they had who had wrought but one hour The Case was different the judgment the same they murmured what saith the Master of the Vineyard to them Volo I will make the last like unto the first Thus because bounty was shewed to some there was no iniquity toward others so far as respecteth Justice and Grace As to the guilty person that is saved God saith I will As to others he saith Take what is thy own and go thy way I will give unto this man that which I do ow unto him Is thine eye evil because mine is good If he shall say and why not unto me Here he shall hear Who art thou who disputest with God Whom thou findest as to one man a bountiful giver as to another a just exactor as to none at all unjust for whereas he should be just if he should punish both he that is saved hath indeed reason to give thanks he that is damned hath no cause to find fault I wish all those who so talk of Fathers would shew us that they were the Children of this ancient Father to whom that name is usefully given But I come to the Application of this discourse 1. Vse In the first place let this Caution you against an hasty listing your selves in the Number of those who so cry up Vniversal grace and a sufficiency of the means of grace for all both the means of purchase and of Application I must confess it is a plausible point and appears to us very pleasing as well as reasonable that God should not punish any nor condemn any to whom he hath not given a sufficiency of grace and assistances in order to their Salvation but as smooth and plausible as it appeareth take heed of too hasty imbracing it it leadeth to strange notions in Divinity as you may partly learn from this discourse the maintaining ordinatam sufficientiam an ordained sufficiency for we are not now speaking of the value of the merits of the blood of Christ in it self in the Death of Christ for all those who shall perish as well as for those who shall be saved it will lead you either to deny that Christ's death was any purchase at all or to affirm that Christ purchased a possibility for some to be saved but under an impossible condition let it be Natural or Moral the absurdity is the same for so it must be if there were an Eternal Election or except man hath a power of himself to repent and believe c. And the maintaining of a sufficiency of grace given to all for the Application of Salvation will lead you to maintain That there is a Salvation may be had without a Christ That the Heathens may be saved by the light of Nature And that any Christians may be saved without any special operation of the Spirit of grace indeed without any grace at all taken in a strict and proper sence Doctrines of that consequence that although it may be possible that those who hold such things may be saved as having some further work of God upon their hearts than they understand and will own yet I fear it will be found impossible that any who have tasted the grace of God no further should ever come in the Kingdom of God Let not therefore the smoothness and plausibility of such notions in the sound of them deceive any of you for it is but a sound and no more And if the consequences of those notions be throughly considered and examined they will be found at last to bottome in such strange notions and apprehensions of the Nature of God as do no way sute the perfect nature of the Divine and Supreme being and what the Scripture revealeth concerning God yea and the very light of Nature and natural reason will evince it to us upon the Hypothesis of Gods being the first and Supreme being and the Fountain of all good and the Lord Jesus Christ's being Eternal God and equal with the Father 2. Vse This discourse calleth once more aloud unto all To walk up to the light which they have Though we deny that God giveth unto all yea that he giveth to any unless such as are ordained unto life a sufficiency of grace and gracious assistances in order to their eternal Salvation yet we say God granteth to all though in very different degrees
God made us any promise that he will convert and Eternally save all our Children on whose behalf we labour and wrestle with God but as Hannah obtained her Child by Prayer upon which account it was that she named him Samuel Beg'd of God so I doubt not but that there are many good Parents that by Prayer have from God obtained the Conversion and Regeneration of their Children and that early that the Lord might as it were shew them that he gave in the Souls of their Children to their prayers and their godly instructions exhortations reproofs catechizing c. If we should never see grace appearing in tender years we should conclude it in vain during those years to use any means with them tending to such an end The Apostle telleth Timothy 2 Tim. 3.15 That from a Child he had known the Scriptures and 2 Tim. 1.5 He mentioneth an unfained faith that was both in his Grandmother Lois and in his Mother Eunice and he was perswaded in him also in him doubtless in great measure by their means God honouring their labours with the conversion of Timothy 2. Secondly Possibly God doth intend some elect vessels of his no long time in the World God intended Abijam the Son Jeroboam but a short time in the World and therefore there was early found in him some good thing I observed that amongst all the Patriarchs which are reckoned up Gen. 5. He of them who before Enos lived the shortest time lived 895 years the rest lived longer only Enoch lived but 365 about a third part of the time of the other It is said He walked with God and was not for God took-him and we see this of times in our experience God taketh away those in their youth whom he calleth in their Childhood and youth You have an observation that beautiful Children or Children of composed serious countenances when very young or such as being very young are very toward and fond of their Books seldome live long how true that is I cannot say but you shall I believe more certainly observe it of such who earlily have their hearts changed and are converted unto God God setteth those to work young to whom he hath not appointed long time to work of all whom God hath given unto Christ he must lose none and though Infants elect are saved upon the Covenant of grace before it appeareth to the World that they have laid hold upon it or are in a capacity in order to it to exercise their reason yet that is not Gods usual way where he alloweth to any a longer life till they come to exercise their reason he expecteth they should keep the ordinary road to Heaven by repentance and faith and in order to this he worketh upon their hearts betimes giving them repentance unto life and faith to lay hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ 3. Thirdly Possibly God doth intend some a longer time in the World but hath designed them for some great and eminent service in it such the Lord useth to call betimes I will shew it you in two or three eminent instances The first is that of Samuel Samuel was to be a great Prophet yea and a Judge in Israel God accordingly betimes took him unto his more special tutorage he was designed by his Mother and from the very time of his weaning by her dedicated unto the Lord and the Lord while he was yet a Child eminently communicated his mind to him as you read in the story 1 Sam. 2.3 chap. Josiah was a Second God had designed him for a great and eminent service he was Prophesied of many years before he was born and that by name as who should work a great and eminent Reformation and he did do that God earlily prepares him for it he was but 8 years old when he began to reign and he began to seek the Lord God of his Fathers and when was but 16 years of age he began a work of Reformation of a long and most grosly corrupted state Timothy is a third God had designed him for an Evangelist to have a great hand in settling the Gospel-Church God called him very young from a Child he knew the Holy Scriptures which are able to make the man of God wise unto Salvation To these I may add an instance of an eminent Prince in our own Nation King Edward the Sixth who laid the first Principles of our reformation King Henry the 8th did little and what he did seemed rather to be out of interest so biassing him than otherwise God was pleased in his very young and tender years to seize upon his heart He had intended him as the event proved but a short life and he had laid out for him a very great work to purge such an Augean Stable as the Popish rabble had left Two observations I have made upon reading the Scripture 1. That when God had long kept some women his servants barren they ordinarily proved the Mothers of very eminent Children Rachel Manoahs wife Hanna and Elizabeth are instances of that 2. That God very often when he designed Persons for some eminent work prepared them for it by an early seizing upon their hearts and sanctifying them from the Womb unto himself And this will appear to you very reasonable upon a double account 1. Those which do a great deal of work for God must have a great deal of time to do it in All humane actions you know require time and a proportion of time according to the work 2. Those who are to excel in work must not be much blotted in their previous conversation Jacob in his blessing of Reuben Gen. 49. v. 4. hath this expression Reuben shall not excel because he went up unto his Fathers bed he went up unto my Couch God seldome alloweth any one eminently to excel whose youth hath been stained with many eminent and notorious blots they may come to Heaven upon their conversion but they shall not excel in the world I can think but of one instance in Scripture to the contrary which is that of Saul he was a persecutor himself telleth us and a blasphemer yet received to mercy but he saith it was because he did it ignorantly St. Paul's persecution was not rooted in a malice against godliness and holiness but in an error of judgment he saith of himself that he verily thought that he ought to do many things against Jesus of Nazareth There is a great deal of difference betwixt scandalous sinners one man is prophane and a persecutor only by a mistake another man is so by principle St. Paul was of the former sort 't is true he was a prophane and mischievous persecutor a prophane blasphemer but it was by a mistake not that he had any prejudice or ill Opinion of the ways of holiness which Christs Doctrine led to for he was never that we read of scandalous in those things which the light of Nature Reason or the Law of Moses required or forbad but only as
day of believing Souls if we can make any Judgment of Believers do sufficiently evince this to our Souls my business is to inquire the Justice and the reasonableness of the motions of Divine Providence in the inequality of this distribution This will easily appear to you upon three hypotheses which I take to be all very true 1. That God doth ordinarily dispense out these influences of grace to souls which by his Providence he hath prepared for them This which I call Gods Providential preparation of souls for the reception of these influences I conceive lies chiefly in Two things 1. The freedom of it from those bodily incumbrances which in a natural working make the soul sad heavy and dejected such distempers we know there are as in a natural working sadden the spirit and fill it full of fear sorrow dejection and despondency which are all contrary to the comforts and serenity of a soul and as I have once and again told you it must be a miraculous operation contrary to the bias tendency and natural operations of a man for a soul to be filled with consolations while it is influenced with a body lying under these disadvantages God therefore when he intendeth any of these consolatory influences doth ordinarily prepare the soul for it by delivering it from those influences of an ill affected body which dispose it quite another way 2. A second way by which God prepareth the soul for it is by filling it with knowledg proportionable to it for the comforts of a gracious soul are not irrational and unaccountable things but the results of Scriptural conclusions which the soul is by the Comforter inabled to make God hath in his Word sown the seed of light and joy for them the Ministers of the Gospel who are the Interpreters of Scripture have an Office and Ministery in the Interpretation of this Word and working the souls of Gods people to understand the sense of them The soul it self hath an action in it using its reason and natural powers to conclude from the Scripture The Holy Spirit giveth unto the soul to see the things which are freely given it of God 1 Cor. 2. and further possibly setteth to its Seal and giveth it a further and more undoubted confirmation so as in an ordinary working the comforted soul must be a knowing and understanding soul It is true we sometimes find some honest souls full of joy and peace whose knowledg doth not appear proportionable God so relieving some particular souls after their lying under the discouragements of the spirit of bondage But commonly such comforts are not of long continuance rather present reliefs to the soul from an extraordinary working of the blessed Comforter than any settled consolation and the abidings of the Comforter with them Seldom any but knowing and judicious Christians have a settled and continued joy and peace upon their believing 2. Secondly That God doth ordinarily give out these dispensations more or less or nothing of them though not according to the merits of those souls that have them yet according to their behaviour and misbehaviour towards him That famous promise John 14.21 We will manifest our selves unto him is made to those that love Christ and who keep his Commandments And when Judas asks him Lord How is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not unto the world Christ answereth him saying ver 23. If any man love me and keepeth my sayings my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings as much as to say The reason why I manifest my self more to you is because you love me and demonstrate that love to me by keeping my Commandments For the world they love me not and proclaim that they love me not by their disobedience to my Commandments and therefore it is that I do not manifest my self to the world as I do unto you In the receiving of the first grace man is meerly passive and the subject of preventing and operating grace but as to the receptions of further grace the child of God is active and the subject of cooperative adjuvant and assisting grace and God gives out his assistances according to their motions 3. Lastly The reasonableness of this different dispensation may appear in this That in the dispensations of this grace God acteth often by Prerogative shewing mercy where he will shew mercy Indeed he doth so as to the first grace as I have before at large shewed you But now he doth not so as to these influences of grace which are necessary to the upholding of the mystical union between Christ and the Soul and the upholding of a Christians spiritual life if he did it were possible that a child of God might fall away from his state of grace and there might be an intercision of the state of Justification But Christ hath told us That if any man drink of the water which he shall give him he shall never thirst but it shall be in him a well-spring of living water springing up in his soul to eternal life c. so that in the dispensation of that God acteth upon a Covenant and as a debtor to his promise If any one saith God hath also promised to manifest himself unto his people I answer those promises are made to those that love him and keep his Commandments but for the upholding of the spiritual life he hath made a Covenant with his people as that he will never depart from them to do them good so that he will put his fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him which promise although it be not to be extended to a being kept from all sin yet it is to be extended to the preservation of souls from such degrees of sinning as shall extend to the alteration of the state of the soul and the extinguishing the spiritual life and killing the seed of God in the soul But for those manifestations of grace which are not necessary to a souls Salvation and the upholding of spiritual life in it God acteth more freely according to the counsel of his own Will derected by his own infinite Wisdom Now upon these Hypotheses supposing that all Christians are not of equal degrees of knowledg nor are equal as to their bodily circumstances that every soul that belongeth to God doth not walk up to an equal degree of duty but some may be and are guilty of more and more eminent failings than others Or that God may be by his infinite Wisdom directed to try one soul more than another to prove their patience or their faith which is most tryed when his people have least sensible consolations the motions of Divine Providence in distributing to several Christians nay to the same Christians several degrees of consolatory influences of grace cannot seem either unjust or unreasonable to any sober and intelligent Christians This is all I shall speak to this
Grace but yet these are Holy Institutions upon which he hath recorded his name and we are bound in order to our receptions of his Grace to lie at these Pools 4. Be much fourthly in Prayer especially in secret Prayer there it is that the Soul can be freest with God both in the confession of its sins and in the spreading of its particular case before the Lord and wrestlings with him All that is to be obtained of God either with reference to the first Grace or the further manifestations of God unto the Soul is in one place or other of Holy Scripture promised unto Prayer 5. Lastly Let not Meditation and Holy Conference be neglected Meditation is the souls Soliloquy with God a piece of piety often commanded and practised with great success Holy converse and conference is our conversation with Saints who are to meet often together to consider and to provoke one another to love and to good works Converted souls Luke 22.32 have an obligation upon them to strengthen their brethren Men of knowledge do not only themselves increase in strength for their own use but they increase strength in others as Gods instruments for the principal efficiency of spiritual strength is from the Lord. Converse also with the people of God is of great use to increase spiritual life and vigor as one coal kindleth another and oft-times God maketh use of his more private servants to speak a word in season to the weary in short for all the purposes of special grace I shall add no more for the promise of divine manifestations and the abode of the spirit of God with the soul being limited to those who love Christ and evidence that love by a keeping of his commandements it must necessarily follow that the keeping the commandements of Christ in all things must be an adequate means and indeed all that lieth upon our hand to do in order to the obtaining of these manifestations Now what greater argument to press holiness can there be than this He that hath my commandements and keepeth them saith our blessed Lord John 14.21 he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him And again v. 23. If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Who is there that understandeth not the difference betwixt a strong and a weak Christian weak in the resistance of sin and temptation weak in the performance of all holy and spiritual duties betwixt a Christian who feels himself in a free lively temper for the service of God ready to run the way of Gods Commandments and a dull heavy uncheerly temper for duty while in the mean time the conscience is pressed with a necessity of doing of it betwixt a sad dejected disquieted troubled spirit and a soul full of that joy and peace that is consequent to believing betwixt a soul flourishing and daily shooting forth in more perfect acts of grace and a soul that seems to stand still and not to thrive in the wayes of holiness If therefore there be any advantage from further degrees of spiritual strength if any goodness in a spiritual liveliness freedome and alacrity if any consolation in Christ or sweetness arising from those consolations if any comfort in the love the spiritual love of God O study Holiness some gradual neglects of it are the greatest causes of all that weakness dulness sadness unthriftiness under which your souls labour God sometimes acteth by Prerogative shewing these mercies where he will and because he will and with-holding them for the probation and tryal of his People but generally it is in justice to punish his Peoples omissions of their duty or commissions of something which is contrary to their duty And here now I shall put an end to my Discourses in which I have been exercised so long relating to the Providence of God I shall conclude with that of Job Chap. 26.14 Lo these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him To which you may add that Job 11.7 Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty unto Perfection v. 8. It is as high as Heaven What canst thou do Deeper than Hell What canst thou know v. 9. The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea SOLI DEO GLORIA FINIS An Alphabetical TABLE Containing the principal Matters contained in this Book Note In some places through the mistake of the Printer in figuring the pages thou art directed to the Contents by the Sermon Ser. 44. Ser. 55. c. A. ACtual Providence vide Providence Acts of Grace elicited by the motion of Divine Providence in its timings the destruction of Gods enemies and the salvation of his people 210 211 212. Actions good rewarded when the intention by God is disallowed 362 363. The reasonableness of it 364 365. It is only with limited and temporal rewards 366 367. Actions of piety how elicited by Providence 208 209 210 211. Adam why he first had salvation offered him upon a Covenant of works 453 454 455 456 457. Adoration of God in the unsearchable things of Providence our duty 171. Affairs in the world ordinarily subordinated to the designs God hath upon his Church 258 258 260 261. The reasonableness of it 263 What use to be made of it 265 266 267. Afflictions of this life may be punishments of past and pardoned sins 398 399. How this is just and reasonable 404. What use to be made of it 405. God the Author of them this consists with his holiness and goodness 404 405 406. The Portion of Gods people not of all 588 589. They are not truly Evils proved 589 590 591 592 593 594. Aids and Assistances of Grace whether given to all if not how God is just in condemning such as have them not 650 651 652 653 654 655 Anger what Serm. 45. How not to be used in the prosperity of sinners Serm. 45. Arguments to perswade the restraint of it Ibid. Application of God in what it lieth 103. necessary to render God the object of our delight 603 604. Application of the whole discourse about varieties of further Grace 692. The variety of Christians growth c. 727 728 729 730 731. Apprehensions of truth how different 721 722. Whence the difference is 723. The reason of it 724 725. What improvement is to be made of it 727 728 729 730 731 c. Attributes of God what how glorified by the timings of Providence 208 209 210. and by the permission of sin 480 481 482. B. Blessings sensible most upon those who live most exactly up to the Divine rule 438 439 440 441 442. C. Casual nothing to God p. 113 114. Calling to faith and repentance how universal 466. Why if all have not a power to believe and obey 467 468. How the
You shall observe it often repeated in Scripture Such a one did evil and walked in the steps of his Father in all the sins of his Fathers c. you shall constantly observe that it is set as a mark of dishonour upon those that did so and they perished in their transgressions God according to what he threatned the Jews Isa 65.7 punished upon them their iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together We are very prone to walk in the steps of our Fathers especially if they have trodden awry and turned aside from the Commandments of God and usually in matters of Religion though we have nothing to say for the superstition and vanity of former generations yet we think it a sufficient plea that our fathers did thus or thus and indeed this was the old plea of the woman of Samaria Joh. 4. Our father 's worshipped in this mountain Thus the Heretick said in one of the Councils but was well answered Immo errantes ab errantibus yes erring children from erring parents The wickedness of a preceding generation especially in the matters of Divine Worship is so far from being a plea for us or excusing us that it doth but increase and aggravate guilt upon us The most righteous persons may without due and seasonable humiliation smart for the sins of their Fathers but if they go on in the same sins they have nothing to expect but that God should punish their sins and the sins of their Fathers together Vse 5. In the last place This observation layeth upon us all a new engagement to holiness and serviceableness to God in the stations in which the Lord hath set us As sin entaileth a curse so holiness and eminent service for God entaileth a blessing to our posterity Godliness hath not only the promise of this life and of that which is to come to our own persons but it hath promises of blessing to those that shall come after us God sheweth mercy to thousands of those who love him and keep his Commandments Jehu was no godly man yet his service he did for God procured him a reward to the fourth generation Abraham was a godly man David a perfect man a man according to Gods own heart Blessings for their sakes came upon their posterity to many generations But I shall add no more to this Observation SERMON XXXIII Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Proceed yet to offer you some further Observations concerning the motions of Actual Providence I have already made many Last of all some with reference to its distributions of rewards and punishments Let me now go on to a Observ 20. When God calleth any to any new work or relation he ordinarily giveth them a spirit suited to it Every work and relation requires some particular dispositions fitting the persons for it Now I say you shall observe in the motions of Actual Providence that it fitteth those persons for work whom God calleth to it you shall see it in several instances God called Moses to go in to Pharaoh to require him to let the children of Israel go and so to conduct the children of Israel out of Egypt Moses saith to God Exod. 3.11 Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt God saith vers 12. I will be with thee Again chap. 4.10 Moses excuseth himself that he was not eloquent but slow of speech and of a slow tongue see what God saith to him ver 11. Who hath made mans mouth or who maketh the dumb or deaf or seeing or blind Now therefore ver 12. go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say When God called Saul to be King over Israel the text 1 Sam. 10.9 saith That God gave him another heart When God called David to the Kingdom what a spirit of government did God give him What courage and valour that coming from keeping of sheep he durst adventure to encounter Goliah Concerning Solomon the case is plain 1 King 3.8 9. he begged of God a wise and understanding heart to judg his people The text telleth you that God gave it him Lo saith God ver 12. I have given thee a wise and understanding heart As to the Ministry the case is plain as to Jeremiah God ordained him to be a prophet to the nations Jer. 1.5 Jeremiah excused himself he was a child and could not speak vers 6. But the Lord said to him Say not I am a child for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee saith the Lord then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me Behold I have put my words into thy mouth vers 7 8. The like you have concerning Ezekiel Ezek. 2. The like you find upon Christs sending out the seventy and the twelve It is true God doth this several ways and by several rites and ceremonies but God never yet call'd any to any new relation or new work but he gave them a spirit fit for it But let us a little understand what the meaning of that is Quest Wherein lyeth the sutableness of a persons spirit to his work or relation I answer It lyes in two things 1. An inclination or willingness to it 2. A fittedness or preparedness for it 1. An inclination or willingness to it Indeed Gods first call of a person to a work doth not always meet with a willing mind it did not in Moses in Jeremy in Saul but God always makes those willing whom he calls to any service Whom shall I send here am I send me saith the Prophet Isaiah God made Moses and Jeremy willing before he sent them The gravity and burthen of the work to which God calleth may discourage flesh and blood at first but God makes them willing before they take their Commission Hence that in Timothy He that desireth the office of a Bishop c. 2. But this is not all God never sendeth any to any work but he fitteth and prepareth them for it giving them a frame of spirit and abilities of mind capacitating them for the parts of their work or duties of that relation several callings require several gifts and endowments For the magistracy courage and wisdom is necessary for the ministry is necessary not only courage and wisdom but knowledg utterance c. a sound understanding in the holy Scriptures which he is to open to the people and apply to their consciences and so in inferiour relations even Bezaliel the son of Vri whom the Lord called by name to the building of the Tabernacle Exod. 35.31 Was filled with the spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledg and in all manner of workmanship and to devise curious works to work