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
by him every member we have moves and we are all kept in being may I not therefore with the Apostle conclude Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service It is reasonable that he who hath given you the Sacrifice should smell the sweet savour of it He hath provided the sacrifice for you He hath provided it for that end to be a sacrifice for him it is therefore but a reasonable Service It is reasonable that he who planteth a Vineyard who dresseth keepeth and preserveth it every day should have some of the fruit thereof Which of you planteth a Vineyard and Orchard c. and eateth not of the fruit thereof But I shall add no more to this first part of my Discourse concerning Gods preserving Providence SERMON VII Psal XXXVI 6. O Lord thou preservest man and beast I AM discoursing concerning the first mentioned great Act of Providence in the Preservation both of man and beast Vpholding all things by the word of his power I shewed you in my last Discourse by what particular acts God preserveth individuals of all kinds But Man is to be considered yet in two notions further Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable a political creature and so as one of a multitude formed into political bodies called by the names of Kingdoms Common-wealths c. He is further to be considered as a spiritual creature capable of Divine Grace and divers spiritual Habits things which accompany salvation and make him fit for the Kingdom of God and preparing him for that blessed Eternity which is the end of our hopes These also must be upheld and maintained by the power of Providence We are saith the Apostle kept by the power of God through faith to salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 My last Discourse shewed you no more than the particular workings of Divine Providence in preserving and upholding the natural world Let me now shew you the workings of it in preserving and upholding the Political and Spiritual World I begin with the former and so the preserving Providence of God worketh several ways 1. In disposing the minds of all people unto Government There are indeed some Anomalies here some sons of Belial in all places that will endure no yoke but generally it is not so And the minds of men are disposed to order and Government without Government Polities could not stand the World would quickly be in confusion there can be no order without Governours and governed Governours must be spirited for the exercise of Government and the Governed must be spirited for obedience Both these are from the Lord who is wonderful in working Every one is not fit to govern he hath not parts for it he hath not a spirit for it Some are like Issachar fit for nothing but to couch under the burthen Others like Judah who have hands fit to be upon the necks of their Enemies and their fathers children shall bow down before them 1. God by his Providence influenceth some for the exercise of Government either from the womb or from the time they are called to that exercise as it is said of Saul 1 Sam. 10.9 when Samuel had anointed him to be King over Israel God gave him another heart Every man hath not a spirit of Government there is much goeth to the making up of that spirit It was prophecied of Christ Isa 9.6 That the Government should be uppon his shoulders And Isa 11.2 The Spirit shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledg and fear of the Lord. A spirit of knowledg and of the fear of the Lord is necessary to a religious Government A spirit of understanding and wisdom a spirit of counsel and might is necessary for a good civil Government Joshua the Son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom Deut. 34 9. Every man in a Kingdom or a City or Common-wealth hath not knowledg and understanding nor wisdom and counsel nor might and courage fit for Government God giveth it only to some persons whom he designeth to rule over men And herein is the Providence of God mightily seen and that both in Hereditary Kingdoms and States and in those also which are Elective 1. In such as are hereditary ordinarily the sons of Princes are not like other men though under equal circumstances of Education When Gideon asked Zeba and Zalmunna Judg. 8.18 What manner of men they were that they killed They answered him thus As thou art so were they each one resembled the children of a King There is something that ordinarily appears in the faces of Princes more of Majesty than in other men which shews another spirit I know that this is not universal there have been Princes in the World of mean parts courage c. which ordinarily happens when God hath a quarrel with a people Eccl. 10.16 17 Wo to thee O Land when thy King is a child and thy Princes eat in the morning Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness 2. It is much seen in Elective governments God by his Providence directeth and disposeth the Electors to the choice of such persons as he hath prepared with such a spirit or except in cases where God hath a design by unworthy Governours to chastise a sinful people when they are chosen he giveth unto them such a spirit and by his extraordinary Providence correcteth the errours of those that choose them to that employment This is a wonderful working of Divine Providence We often see persons in Government shewing quite another spirit and temper than they before appear'd to us to have Nor is the Providence of God less seen in disposing the spirits of the Governed That thousands yea millions of people should consent to a subjection to one chief Ruler as in a Monarchy or to the Government of a few as in Commonwealths and be willing to be ruled and governed by him or them yet this we ordinarily see It is the Lords doing and it should be marvellous in our eyes and it would be so if we would but be so considerate as to think of the variety of mens humours fancies and passions Sometimes indeed God in judgment against a people suffers a perverse spirit to mingle it self with the governed there are rebellions and mutinies yet those for the most part are originated in oppression and violence But supposing no errours in Governours that yet multitudes of people should be so willingly subject and yet few of them for conscience sake must needs come from the Lords influence who is wonderful in the working for the preserving of the Politick Societies of men which without a Political order or Government could not stand 2. Secondly God preserveth men in their Political Societies by directing
of parts and as he sheweth his breeding and education upon any subject he honoureth his Father But the other Son is dutiful loves his Parent makes it his business to commend him to all you will say That this Limner though he receiveth some honour from his mute and dead Picture and some honour from his rude and rebellious Son yet the dutiful Son is he who bringeth most honour and repute to the Father This is the case betwixt God and his Creatures God hath made the Sun the Moon the Stars the Earth the Seas the Whales the Lions and Elephants the Eagles the little Silk-worms all these are pieces of the Divine Workmanship all give honour and glory to God but it is done mutely and passively The vile and wicked men of the world that are rebels against God yet give a glory to God The structure of their bodies the endowments of their minds honour God who made them and gave them those excellent features qualities and endowments God useth them some of their vile and malitious actions to bring about his wise and glorious ends but God doth but as it were extort his glory from them But now the people of God out of choice and design and by a voluntary act and constant study give honour and glory to him Obedience is better than sacrifice doing of his will is more acceptable to him than burnt-offerings The glory God hath in Heaven from Angels and the Souls of just men made perfect is from their voluntary praising of him and doing of his will therefore we pray Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Now I pray observe Fourthly Angels and men are the only creatures capable of an active voluntary designed glorifying of God The Heavens and in them the Sun the Moon the Stars glorifie God but they know it not they are inanimate creatures not capable of knowledg The brute creatures act not from any principle of reason they have no rational nature and though God hath glory from them yet it is not from any principle within them so that Angels and Men being rational Beings have a further capacity to serve the Lords great end in bringing glory to God than all the Inanimate Creatures yea than all the vegetative or sensitive Creatures in the World Fifthly Amongst men The whole Church of God in the general is that body of people where there is any voluntary glorifying of God Psal 29.9 In his temple doth every one speak of his glory The whole visible Church bringeth an active glory to God it is the Pillar upon which his Proclamations of truth and grace are hung forth to the view of the World Psal 76.1 His name is great in Israel In the Church whether in truth or in sincerity all men glorifie God by a professed subjection to his Ordinances and an outward owning of him Sixthly But Lastly God is most eminently glorified by his Saints 1. They do it most heartily steadily and fully What hypocrites do they do in a meer shew and outward appearance As they glory in appearance so they glorifie God but in appearance from the teeth outward as we say there is nothing of heart design and choice in it they indeed glorifie God but we may say of their honouring and glorifying of God as the Prophet said Isa 10.7 of Assyria's serving God Howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so but it is the godly mans choice design study and he doth it more steadily the hypocrite is in and out he glorifieth God one hour by confessing his sins putting up prayers to him reading his word singing his praise and spits in the face of God the next hour by swearing and cursing and blaspheming by drunkenness and disobedience and the godly man glorifieth God most fully the hypocrites action is but the action of his outward man he doth not glorifie God as the godly man doth in body and mind and spirit 2. Godly men glorifie God sincerely so do no hypocrites no formal professors All hypocrites aim at themselves they do what they do as our Saviour said of the Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be seen of men the godly man driveth no such designs nor hath a squint-eye in his actions which appear to be directed to the glory of God the glory of God is the first the main of his design 3. Lastly The godly man is he alone whom the Lord hath set apart for himself whom he intendeth to take up into Heaven to pursue the great end of his glory to all eternity Now the glory of God being the great end to which he directeth all the general and particular acts both of his preserving and of his Governing-Providence it from hence appeareth exceeding reasonable that Providence should work both in preserving and in governing the world by these different degrees and with these Specialties which I have shewed you God is more glorified by men than either by inanimate creatures or by any vegetative or sensitive creatures More by that body of men called his Church than by Heathens amongst whom his name is not known More yet by godly men whom he hath set apart for himself and who steadily designedly heartily sincerely set themselves to pursue the great design of his glory than by any hypocrites and formal professors therefore it is but reasonable they should in their degrees be cared for preserved and governed by God in a more special and eminent manner But I shall add no more to the Doctrinal part of this discourse The Application still remains for the subject of further discourse SERMON XI 1 Cor IX 9. Doth God take care for Oxen I Am come now to the Application of my former Discourse You have heard that God doth not only exercise some general acts of Providence in the preservation and government of all his creatures but some special acts of Providence in the preservation and government of some creatures in a more particular and eminent manner Though God doth take a care for Oxen yet he doth not take such a care for Oxen as he doth for Angels for men and amongst the children of men particularly for the members of his Church and amongst them for such as are not so only in an external visible profession but in truth and sincerity they are under the highest Specialties and care of Divine Providence The Doctrine of Gods Special Providence concerning Angels and mankind in the general and the Polities and Societies of men I much passed over The former being much a secret to us and not much concerning us and my Discourse being not amongst Heathens but to a Congregation which universally is within the pale of the visible Church I therefore most enlarged upon the Specialties of Divine Providence as you know with reference to the Church of God and those in it who truly fear God accordingly I shall sute my Application In the first place Vse 1 Let this instruct all that hear me this day in the
The Egyptians the Philistines the vilest Enemies cry out God fighteth against them or This is the Lords work Secondly As the Power so the Wisdom of God is seen in these methods and operations of Providence Indeed sometimes God so worketh that the Power of God appeareth uppermost and is most conspicuous in the destruction of the Enemies and in the salvation of the Lords people as in the case of Sennacherib's Army destroyed by an Angel of Pharaoh destroyed by the return of the waters c. But oft-times there 's a wonderful wisdom of God in ordering contingencies and seeming casual things to his own ends in these cases as in the case of Joseph and Haman the reflexion of the Sun upon the waters which caused the Moabites mistake and confusion But the wisdom of God is further seen in this That a mercy seldom comes but though we could see nothing of Wisdom relating to it before it came yet when it is come to pass there 's no understanding Christian but is forced to say It could never have come in a more seasonable time the wisdom of which we could see nothing of in the prospect is evident upon the event It would have been a great question whether the Israelites would have been so willing to have come out of Egypt under the conduct of Joseph when they were pinch'd with no oppressions as they were under Moses and Aaron when they had been serving in the Brick-kilns and their lives so many years together had been made bitter to them through the hard bondage which they had so long endured Thirdly The Lord doth thus more eminently magnifie his justice and righteousness Justice lieth in the distribution of rewards and punishments the first we call Remunerative the second Vindicative Justice Both are much magnified by this method of Providence Persons in the greatest heighths of prosperity or depths of 〈◊〉 are ordinarily the most remarkable objects of the worlds eyes and more regarded than those that are in a more middle-state When God lifts up a Joseph out of the dungeon and a Daniel out of the Lions den and advanceth a Mordecai for whom a gallows was set up and the three Children are taken out of a fiery Furnace He proclaimeth to all the World and they are forced to confess it that verily there is a reward for the righteous and so on the other side when a Pharaoh a Sennecharib an Haman a Nebuchadnezzar are pull'd down in the midst of all their pride and jollity from their very pinacles of honour the Justice and Righteousness of God in punishing proud and imperious Sinners is proclaimed and made more evident to all the World Lastly 4. The Lords goodness is thus more magnified and taken notice of Common and ordinary Dispensations of gracious Providence are little remarked by us what mercy do we receive every night every day from God yet how little notice do we take of it how little is our heart affected with it but now when we are brought to the pits-brink to a very low estate and then are pluck'd from it when we are in a very low estate and then delivered Gods goodness is both more proclaimed to the World and more conspicuous unto us But this will in part fall in under the second head for I told you that God is glorified by this method of his Providence not only as his glorious Attributes divers of them are by it more exalted but also as the pious and religious Acts of his people are more by this method of Providence elicited I have often hinted to you that God hath a twofold glory from his Creatures and the works of his hands The first is a meer passive glory Thus the heavens declare the glory of God the Heavens shew forth the greatness glory and power of God The second is Active wherein the creature doth some actions from which a glory doth result unto God Now by this Method of Providence God is not only glorified in the first sense as this kind of working speaketh more of his Power Wisdom Justice Goodness c. but in the second also ◠Thus God sometimes forceth an acknowledgment of his Power even from the worst of men Julian himself shall confess that Christ is too hard for him throwing up his Dagger to Heaven and crying Vicisti Galilaee The Egyptians shall cry out Exod. 14.25 Let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fighteth for the Israelites against the Egyptians Nebuchadnezzar shall make a Decree Dan. 3.29 That every Nation People and Language which speak any thing against the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghil because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort Dan. 6.25 Darius shall write to all people Nations and Languages that dwell upon the Earth and make a Decree That in every Dominion of his Kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living God and stedfast for ever and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his Dominion shall be even to the end he delivereth and he rescueth and he worketh signs and wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the Lions The King of Babylon that set up the Golden-image and so rigorously commanded all should bow down to it or be thrown into the fiery Furnace heated seven times hotter than ordinary Dan. 3.26 shall bless the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who hath sent his Angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the Kings word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve or worship any god but their own God What a wonderful glory here had God given him from a wicked Pagan Prince he confesseth his Command wicked he blesseth God that put into these three hearts 〈◊〉 to disobey it and make him change his word he acknowledgeth God the true God and that he delivereth them that trust in him All this accreweth from Gods delivering these three men when they were at the lowest when all gave them over for dead men But secondly How much more glory hath God from his own people upon any such deliverance Surprizals affect us most An unthought-of evil most startleth and dejecteth us An unthought-of good most elevates and affects us Good things lessen in our opinion and estimate by a long expectation They are greatest and most affect us when we are past hopes of them Sudden and unlook'd for good raiseth our hearts to great admiration great praise and thanksgiving Now he that offereth praise saith God glorifieth me The more God is admired the more his goodness is predicated and proclaimed the more men upon any occasion speak of his honour and power and greatness the more glory God hath from them Thirdly God is more honoured by this method of Providence not only as the suddenness of it doth more affect and elevate his peoples
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
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
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
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
I have made several observations upon the motions of Providence Some of which lie plain enough to every eye all I think are justified enough from Scriptural and other instances only perhaps the reasonableness and justice and wisdom of God in them is not or hath not been so obvious Others possibly have not been so remarked and are little more than recommended as probationers for a good mans observation There is Madam a great variety in the methods of an infinitely wise God by which he ordereth the Universe and particularly that people in the world which he hath set apart for himself In the same work Gods Providence moveth not at all times in the same method or by the same means yet in many things the motions of Providence have much uniformity if we wistly observe them And as from the reading and observation of the Syntax and construction used by Authors in several languages Grammarians have made their observations from whence they have formed Rules few of which are yet without their exceptions so from the observation of the motions of Divine Providence in the world the reading of the Sacred History and considering what the great God hath been doing and is doing in the world considerate Christians may gain a great knowledg of God in his ways and give a very probable conjecture if not form a certain judgment both what God is about to do and what Israel ought to do For saith the Wiseman Eccles 1.9 10. the thing which hath been it is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the Sun Is there any thing of which it may be said see this is new it hath been already of old time which was before us The Sinners of the world are but acting over those lusts of hatred to God malice revenge cruelty luxury which their forefathers perished in acting many years ago And the Saints in the world are but making the same defence fighting the same good fight finishing the same course which Abel began in the Old Testament and was carried on by Elijah Zachariah and all the Prophets by John Baptist and the Captain of our Salvation and Gods motions of Providence will appear much the same as to circumstances of time and place c. they may alter but substantially they must be so because of the certainty of the word both of promise and threatning The study of Actual Providence for which the Historical part of the Scripture which we count most useless is of great use is a noble study and the observation of the daily motions of it is highly conducive to make us spiritually wise and to help us to understand the loving-kindness of the Lord both towards his Church and individual souls which love and fear him I have Madam been something large in these observations but yet how little a portion of Gods ways have I here displayed I shall yet think I have done a great work if I have but set an example to some other Divines of greater parts knowledg judgment and observation to carry it on for doubtless many more observations might be made which would both much increase our knowledg and direct our practice In the third and last part of my Discourses Madam I have endeavoured to expound some difficult Chapters in the book of Providence and to deliver the name of that glorious God whom we serve from those prejudices which nothing but the lusts of men have raised in the world against him and his righteous ways To reconcile the ways of Divine Providence both to those Propositions of truth which lye plain in the word and to those Promises and Threatnings which are the Indications of his will in that word both with reference to Saints and Sinners I think Madam I discern two great Errors in the world 1. The Judgment of Truth 2. Of the love and hatred of God from motions and issues of Providence Hence because God in his Providence hath ordered the Production of Men and Women giving them life and being and his Gospel to be preached in their hearing so as they are externally called to repent and to believe men conclude There is no election of persons That Christ hath died for all and every man That every man hath a power to repent believe love God hate sin c. And I wish a modest denial of Divine Truths were the worst but we are fallen into a rude and ill mannered age when every puny hath boldness enough to say If this be so then God is an impostor and mocks and deludes he is unjust cruel I tremble to recite it when-as the truth is it is neither so nor so Let what will be concluded concerning these Propositions no such thing will follow I have Madam endeavoured to reconcile these Providences of God to the truth of these Propositions which some invidiously charge with such consequences and to let these bold men understand that God is equal his ways equal and admirably corresponding with those notions of truth so much distast them only they are ignorant and do not rightly judg concerning a righteous God The second Error is more common The judging of the love and hatred of God from his Providential dispensations to us Hence are our temptations to call the proud happy to bless them whom the Lord hath cursed and because they are rich and prosper and as to our selves to charge God foolishly as if either he did not deal justly or kindly with us because we are tempted or afflicted more than others or because we are devoured by wicked men I have Madam attempted to remove these stumbling blocks out of the ways of Gods people and to reconcile both these motions of Providence and all its motions in the dispensations both of first and further grace to his Wisdom Goodness and Holiness and to our reason as also to reconcile Gods Providential permissions of sin and sinners his punishment of one sin with another to the purity and holiness of God and to deliver Gods Providential dispensations of this nature from the usual and ignorant imputation that this is to make God the author of sin what I have done of this nature I leave to your Ladiship and every sober Reader to judg The whole Madam was composed for popular discourses Those that dwell in Kings houses may be allowed perhaps to cloth their Discourses in the soft raiment of fine and delicate words It was not so fit for me who was to speak of great things to a plain people and whose design was that of S. Paul not to have the faith of those to whom I spake stand tottering upon the wisdom of men which varieth much in individuals but in the power of God I am far from thinking these Discourses perfect in any part of them I have laid the foundation God raise up wise and master-builders to superstruct If I mistake not the foundation I have laid is not upon the sand and uncertain bottom of humane reason but upon the
things motions or actions that have any goodness in them himself hath willed to do 'em and to concur as a principal efficient cause The A postle telleth us that every good and perfect gift cometh down from above which is not only true of spiritual gifts habits and influences but of natural actions and motions such as are purely so and abstractly considered from any malice and filthiness or irregularity cleaving to them for the Apostle telleth us In him we live and move Now whereas all motions and actions are either good or evil as to the first it is readily granted the first mover must be the efficient of motions God is the fountain and original of all good And in this sense that of our Saviour is true There is none good but God There is a goodness in natural habits and actions a goodness of being considering the motions and actions purely as natural without the tincture of a vitiated will or affections and passions debauched There is a further goodness in spiritual habits and actions All is from God and concerning every good action or motion in either sense there hath passed an eternal purpose or counsel The only doubt can be is concerning evil actions vitiated from the corrupt and debauched will and affections and passions of men As to which it is on all hands most readily granted That God is not the author of them as such nor willed to effect them he hath neither commanded them nor approved them but he hath willed that these should be done he hath willed the permission of them And this is so evident both from Scripture and from Reason raising conclusions from scriptural principles that it can with no modesty be denied I will prove it but from one instance of Scripture but that so high as nothing can be higher and so plainly asserted as nothing can be plainer You shall find it Acts 4.27 Acts 4.27 28. 28. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the children of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done There certainly never was nor is it possible there ever should be an higher act of wickedness committed in the world than the adjudging to death and crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ who was the eternal Son of God and the most just and righteous person that ever was in the world There was a great Combination as to this murther Herod Pontius Pilate Judas the Jews the Gentiles Judas betrayed him Herod mock't him Pontius Pilate condemned him the Jews accused him the Jews and Gentiles crucified him They all did their highly sinful parts Now one would think and may reasonably conclude that if there ever had been or could have been an action done in the world which had slipped the eternal will and counsel of God and come to pass whiles the watchman of Israel had been asleep or which God never thought on it should have been this action But saith the Apostle they all in this act this horrid act did no more than what Gods hand and counsel had before determined to be done The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Counsel determined not to do it but that it should be done The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in holy writ and usually it is translated predestinated as ver 5. of this Chapter and in my Text and so also Rom. 8.29 Whom he predestinated in 1 Cor. 2.7 it is translated ordained It apparently signifieth a Predetermination of persons or things and is used with reference to both and that both as to good and evil things I shall only further give you the note of a very great Divine upon it that it signifieth such a Predetermination of things as not only comprehendeth the end but the means leading to that end But in a further evidence of this let us use our reason a little though still exercising it upon scriptural Principles My first argument shall be First From Gods certain fore-knowledg of all things I will open it in three things 1. God from all eternity did certainly and infallibly foreknow whatsoever should come to pass in the world The holy Scripture is very plentiful in asserting the perfection of the Divine knowledg Prov. 5.21 The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all their goings Prov. 15.3 His eyes are everywhere beholding the evil and the good Psal 139.3 Thou art acquainted with all my ways Jer. 16.17 Mine eyes are upon all thy ways Heb. 4.13 Neither is there any creature but is manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open to that God with whom we have to do 1 John 3.20 God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Now all things considered from eternity were either such things which it was possible might be but never were nor are nor shall be God knew these things He calleth the things that are not as if they were Rom. 4.17 he saw them in suo potenti as he was able to have produced them This Divines call scientiam simplicis intelligentiae Or secondly They are such things as have been now are or shall be These things also God knew from eternity Divines say God knoweth these In suo volenti per scientiam visionis He from eternity saw them in a certain futurity as things which should certainly be for God doth not know things as we do by succession one thing to day another thing to morrow for then there must have been a time when God was ignorant of some things which were blasphemy to assert but such is the perfect nature of God that he must by the same Act and at the same time have a perfect knowledg of all things that ever were to come to pass in the created world 2. Supposing now that God from all eternity had such a perfect knowledg of things it followeth of necessity That they were certainly to be and have a certain existence for God could not know and see those things in a future existence of whose future existence there was no certainty which by the way is a concludent argument against the new device of Molina Fonseca Suarez Lessius and some other Jesuites since embraced by Vorstius Arminius Grevinchovius and their followers who have devised a middle kind of conditional knowledg in God Thus they say that God knew that if Peter or James were in such circumstances they would believe But this is to say nothing for if there were no certainty of Peter's believing from eternity God could not certainly know what was not certainly to be 3. Now I would gladly be instructed by any who stumbleth at this Counsel and purpose of God what but the will of God determining the event could give a certainty of being or existence to any event If the things that are might not have been then as I said before God from
produced to demonstrate to the world and that we cannot see this before is our weakness and imperfection The malice of men in the persecutions of Gods People looketh upon us with an horrid aspect these indeed God doth not effect but he hath willed they should be and hath told us they must come yea and he worketh too permitting others to bring them about and suffering them in the execution of their malice whom he could easily hinder but when these things are over we often see both infinite wisdom and goodness too in them How should the salvation of Sinners have been purchased if God had not permitted Judas to have betrayed his Master Pilate to have condemned him and the Jews to have nailed him to the Cross had it not been for the persecution of the Jews how should the Gospel have gone to the Gentiles But yet for a close of this discourse and that we may not mistake our Duty we ought not to be so far satisfied upon the Contemplation of this great truth but that 1. We must be piously affected with the sad Providences which God measureth out to his Church and People What saith the Psalmist If I forget thee O Hierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning The sad rebukes of Gods Providence ought by us to be laid to heart Though persecutions and other punishments be contrivances of infinite wisdom and products of certain and infinite love yet to the present sufferers they may be punishments of sin and marks of Divine displeasure and therefore ought not to pass over our heads without our taking some notice of them and the causing of some sad thoughts within us the crucifying of Christ was the product of infinite wisdom and goodness to the People of God but yet a just cause of sadness to the Disciples of Christ We must take things as they appear to us being not able to see to the end and bottom of Gods designs That they shall at last issue in the Glory of God and the good of his People is indeed matter of faith and will be matter of joy to us when we see it but in the mean time it is matter of sadness to us to see Gods Vineyard rooted up his People eaten up like bread and wicked men suffered to devour those that are more righteous than themselves 2. Again We have reason to be afflicted both for our own sins and the sins of others Although it be as to the event true that both our own and others sins shall issue in Gods Glory yet it is as true that God hath no need either of ours or any others lyes for his Glory and that God is both by our sins and the sins of others actually dishonoured That they are made to issue in Gods Glory is the product of Gods Wisdom not our oblique and irregular action or intention and therefore they ought to be causes of sad reflexion to us But thus far we may satisfie our selves 1. That as I said before the event was necessary and nothing that hath come to pass could with our utmost care and diligence have been otherwise than it is We may talk after the manner of men and reason after the measures of humane probabilities If such a thing had not been another had not followed but there is nothing issued in time but was ordered from all eternity 2. We ought again in this to be satisfied That of whatsoever the Lord hath promised nothing shall fail We are full of unbelief and when we see Gods Providence working as we judg directly contrary to what he hath promised we are presently giving up all for gone and lost but if every thing be wrought according to the Counsel of the Divine Will and the Holy Scriptures be such part of this will as he hath pleased to reveal to us God knoweth both what he hath said and how he hath laid things in his eternal thoughts and sooner shall Heaven and Earth pass away than any word he hath spoke Prov. 19.21 Isa 40.8 The counsel of the Lord shall stand and the word of our God shall stand for ever 3. And lastly As I have before told you we may be thus far satisfied That whatsoever doth or ever shall come to pass in the world shall serve Gods great ends because it is ordered by the Counsel of the infinitely wise God and therefore must necessarily serve his designs In the end of the world we shall say God could not have had so much Glory but for such a persecution such a disorder Surely the wrath of man shall praise him SERMON II. Heb. XI 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear THE last time I shewed you That God hath from eternity setled all events by an eternal purpose according to the Counsel of his Will nothing cometh to pass in time but what was determined before time I told you my design was to discourse concerning Gods Acts of Providence which are acts in time and particularly to discourse some things relating to actual Providence which do not fall into ordinary discourse and often give occasion of trouble to the spirits of Christians but in order to that I thought it reasonable First to discourse a little of Gods Settlement of all futurities things which were to be fulfilled in their season by an act of his eternal Counsel Nor can I yet come fairly at my intended subject without speaking to Gods first Act in time that was Creation concerning which we must suppose a Decree of God according to that known Rule in Divinity Decretum Dei ejus executio exquisitissime conveniunt nihil est in Dei opere quod non fuit in decreto nihil fuit in decreto quod non sequitur in opere That is the Decree of God and the execution of that Decree most exquisitely agree God worketh nothing but what he first decreed and he decreed nothing but hath had or shall have its issue in his working and when we say God doth any thing we by it do understand no more than a new effect of his eternal Will According therefore to the Counsel of his Will God first made of nothing the world and all that is therein And indeed according to some notion of Providence amongst Divines this is a part of it Now for a foundation of a short Discourse upon this subject I have chosen this Text. The Apostle subjoyneth the words of my Text to a description of Faith which he had given vers 1. Where he had told us That faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen In the second verse he had told us That by this the Elders had obtained a good report Here he saith By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God c. In the Text you have 1. A Divine assertion The worlds were framed by
man who hath by the Law of Creation a Dominion and Rule over all must cry out Who is like unto thee O Lord who is like unto thee glorious in holiness fearful in praises working wonders We may from hence observe the vanity of those Philosophers of this world who would either make the world Vse 3 as fitted and joynted together to be eternal and without a beginning or at least some Chaos or heap of confused matter to have been so as also of those who as to the Creation of the world will have God at first to have made such a confused Chaos or Mass and then out of that to have made all things The Potter indeed must have such an heap of Clay before he can make his Pots of several sizes and fashions but if he were to create this Clay certainly he would go the furthest way about for by the same power that he must first have to give being to his Clay he might make his several sorts and sizes of Vessels and save himself that double labour I conclude by Faith we understand that the worlds were made by the Power or by the Word of God His Power was the efficient cause of it his Goodness the final cause of its Creation his Wisdom the exemplary cause 4. Vse 4 We may from hence learn the usefulness necessity and excellency of faith Faith taken for the object of it Faith taken for the habit and act of it The Word of God the habit of Faith the exercise of it they are all useful We have great magnifyings of Reason and indeed Reason is a noble faculty it is that to the soul which the eye is to the body which light is to the eye but Faith is not useless because Reason is useful yea Reason must ride but in the second Chariot Reason would have taught us little of Spirits indeed we by Faith know little of them but we know so much as God will please to reveal we had known much less if left only to what conclusions we could have raised from natural principles Reason would have taught us nothing in particular how and in what order or in what time the world was made Nay 2ly There is not an use of Faith only but a necessity of it The Creation of the world is an object of our Faith and to be received upon the credit of the Word of God we must so assent to it as by our assent to give an homage to Gods Authority in revealing it this we cannot do but by Faith Finally from this discourse appeareth the Excellency of Faith it maketh us to understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God it puts our mind beyond doubts and endless disputes and incertain fluctuations it leaveth us not to the endless inquiries of Philosophy how these things could be c. Lastly Vse 5 Learn hence how every inanimate and brute creature praiseth God and how infinitely all rational creatures are obliged to the service and obedience of God 1. How every inanimate and brute creature praiseth God The heavens saith the Psalmist declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night declareth knowledg there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard their line is gone out to the end of the earth and their words to the end of the world In them hath he set a tabernacle for the Sun c. Psal 19.1 2 3 4. There is no Creature but giveth a mute praise to God they shew the Lords Glory and praise him as the picture finely drawn doth praise the Limner or the building praiseth the Mason or Carpenter as any great effect praiseth its efficient cause And this is a thing we ought to attend and observe in our Contemplation and use of the Creatures we should view God in them see how God is glorified in their brave and useful structure and composition Oh how sweet a Contemplation would this be if we could view the Glory Power Wisdom infinite Goodness of the Creator in them all But secondly How particularly is man concerned to praise love and serve God the Creator of Heaven and Earth to man he hath alone given Reason to make conclusions to man hath he given the word of Faith for man he hath made all these things and given him a Dominion over the work of his hands Now who planteth a vineyard saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 9.7 and eateth not of the fruit thereof The world is a great Vineyard God hath planted it he hath let it out to the Sons of men as his husband-men Should he not eat of the fruit thereof The inanimate Creatures they declare the glory of God the Heavens declare his Glory the Earth sheweth his handy-work the Sun the Moon the Stars carry the high Praises and Glory of God to the utmost ends of the Earth Do not you that are Fathers think your Sons obliged to serve and to honour you Yet you were but partial causes of their being God did much more than you to their production Doth not the Master think his servant is obliged to serve and to honour him because he hath made him he hath raised him up to some capacity of living in the world to some dignity The Potter thinketh that he may command the Pots which he hath made and shall not man be the servant of the most high God who made him and who made the world for him 1. In Reason he ought to be so he oweth his being his well-being all that he hath all the accommodations of his life unto God 2. God expecteth it from him Nulla necessitate coactus saith Holy Augustine nulla sua cujusdam utilitatis indigentia permotus sed sola bonitate ac liberrima voluntate fecit Deus quicquid fecit God was not compelled to make the world he needed it not he made it meerly of his own goodness and for the use of man Can any one think that God doth not expect homage and service from man And from hence three things must follow 1. That the presumptuous sinner must necessarily be the most unnatural creature he serveth not the end of his Creation The grass was made for the food of the beast that serveth its end it grows is cut down c. The beasts serve their end they were made for the use of man for his food his covering they dye daily are clipped shorn flea'd and all for man only the sinner serveth not his end He was made for the Honour and Glory of God he doth nothing less yea his whole life is a dishonouring God an abusing of his holy name and things 2. That this sinner is the most ingrateful creature in the world he acts from his will and choice with the use of Reason Now doing so considering that not only he is born in the Lords house and is his Creation but all the Creatures upon which he lives by the use of which his life
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
kept in order knitted and jointed together and the qualities and affections of one creature may not work to the ruin and prejudice of another and so to the ruin and destruction of the whole And thus I have opened to you my first Conclusion shewing you the Method and order of Gods working in the preservation of his creatures in their beings stations and orders and in upholding the useful qualities of them that they do not waste or decay and the restraining and governing of their opposite qualities that they shall not work according to their natural tendencies and inclinations to destroy the World or spoil the beauty comeliness and order of it Nor do they transgress but upon Gods withdrawing this Providence this ordinary Providence Whence come inundations of Waters infections in the Air strange motions of Celestial bodies in some places as the just and wise God at any time will please to make use of any part of the hosts of his Creatures to execute his Vengeance either upon particular Persons Countries or places But thus much shall serve to have been spoken for the illustration of the first Conclusion The others will respect such creatures as have life and sense I proceed to a second Concl. 2. God preserveth his creatures which have life or life and sense or life sense and reason by a daily providing for them food and nourishment and directing them to their proper food and an ordinary avoiding of what is noxious and destructive to their bodies Of living Creatures there are three orders 1. Such as have nothing but being and life such are Plants and Herbs 2. Such as have not only being and life but also Sense Such are Birds in the Air Beasts and creeping things in the Earth Fishes in the Sea Insects and other creatures that live on the Earth and in the Air which the Birds and Fowls also do 3. Such as have not only being and life and sense but also Reason These are upon the Earth only Men and these only have Bodies All these creatures having life and that in a bodily substance and so being in continual motion are of mutable perishing and decaying beings and the lapses and decays of their Natures must be daily repaired by nourishment to the taking of which they are naturally inclined by the passions of Hunger and Thirst and by this Nourishment all know that all sorts of creatures are preserved and without this they cannot live Now as to this the Providence of God is eminently seen in three things instanced in in this second Conclusion 1. God provideth it for them All Vegetables Trees herbs plants are nourished by heat and moisture The moisture is either the natural fatness of the Earth or the adventitious dew of Heaven or falling of water from thence either in a more fluid form which we call Rain or congealed as Snow and Hail The heat is from the Sun There is a natural moisture in the Earth it is also in part watered from the Springs and fountains of water into it from the contiguity of the waters to it but we see in a time of drought how all these fail The Earth is parched and dry God reneweth its moisture by showers from Heaven by Rain and Snow and Dew c. Moisture alone will feed sew plants if any They must have heat as well as moisture Some and the most must have the beams of the Sun all must have the heat of it diffused through the Air. Now who is he who in the Heavens hath set a Tabernacle for the Sun which as a Bridegroom cometh out of his Chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to run his Race Is it not Gods Psalm 19.4 5. Our Saviour tells us Matth. 5 He maketh his Sun to shine and his rain to fall upon the just and upon the unjust The Heathens lay under so much conviction of this that their Poets feigned a Chariot of the Sun which none but their God Phoebus could drive without burning the World For the Rain how plentifully doth the Scripture give unto God the Prerogative of it Hath the rain a father or Who begot the drops of dew Job 38.28 He causeth it to rain upon the earth 26. He giveth rain Jer. 5.24 He maketh lightnings with rain Jer. 10.3 Yea and none but he can do it Jer. 14.22 Are there any amongst the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain or can the Heavens give showers Art not thou he O Lord our God therefore will we wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things Thus the Lord provideth food for vegetables The sensitive Creatures are the Birds and Fowls of the air the beasts and creeping things of the Earth the Fishes of the Sea These live partly upon herbs and plants and the seed grain and fruit of them partly upon each other the greater devouring the lesser God in providing a nourishment for herbs and plants provides a nourishment for the most of them as also by upholding the procreating virtue of some creatures he provideth food for others Man liveth upon the creatures of inferiour order to him partly upon vegetables herbs roots the fruits of plants partly upon sensitive creatures God hath given him a commission to Kill and Eat God provideth food for Man by upholding the budding germinative seed-bearing qualities of plants and the growing vertues of them and by upholding the procreative vertue of birds beasts fishes c. without which those species would fail from the Earth and Man who lives upon them would perish also 2. Secondly The workings of Divine Providence are seen in directing them to their proper food Whence is it that each creature knoweth its proper food and is inclined by its appetite to that only Let me as to these two things shew you how plentifully the Scripture speaketh God takes the glory of this Job 38 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the Lion or fill the appetite for the young Lion V. 39 Who provideth for the Raven his food when his young ones cry unto God when they wander for want of meat Our Saviour telleth us Matt. 6.26 That it is God who feedeth the young Ravens The Psalmist giveth God the glory of this Psalm 104.27 These wait all upon thee that thou maist give them their meat in due season That which thou givest them they gather thou openest their hand they are filled with good These all wait upon thee Who are these the wild asses V. 11 He sendeth the springs into the valleys which run amongst the hills they give drink to every beast of the field the wild asses quench their thirst V. 14 He causeth the grass to grow for the Cattel and herbs for the service of man that he may bring forth food out of the Earth and wine that maketh glad the heart of man and oyl to make his face to shine and bread which strengtheneth mans heart V. 21 The young Lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God V. 30 Thou renewest
variety of diseases in all parts of his body from the predominance of humours the ill affections of the air of his food c. The Heathens had some notion of this Their Elegant Poet cries out Audax Japete Genus Ignem fraude malâ Gentibus intulit Post ignem aetheriâ domo Subductum macies nova febrium Terris in cubuit cohors c. That was their Fiction That one Prometheus stole fire from Heaven which Jupiter had hid up and distributed it amongst men whence he saith came sickness and a whole troop of agues and fevers and death Faith makes a better discovery it tells us man fell from the state wherein he was created lost the Image of God brake Covenant with him and so became subject to sicknesses unto death c. Yea so subject are we that if every one that falls sick should die men especially would fail from the Earth but to prevent this as God in the day when he made Heaven and Earth created divers qualities in his creatures by which they have a sanative or healing vertue for various Diseases so his Providence is daily working and daily seen in this thing in two particulars 1. In discovering to some of his creatures these hidden vertues The Physitian indeed studies and makes experiments and upon the exercise of his reason and the demonstrations he makes directs the Apothecary to compound Medicines but his God instructeth him to this discretion and we may reasonably so conclude when we find the Prophet Isaiah ch 27. v. 29 affirming it concerning the discretion of the Thresher not threshing the fitches nor turning the Cart-wheel upon the Cummin and this is a work of daily Providence as every day produceth new Methods of the Physisitians practice new Medicines and Compositions c. 2. Secondly In upholding the Vertues of those herbs roots c. that are made use of in order to our healing so as they have their effects in removing our distempers and healing us The strength of the body must be upheld and the faculties by which it is enabled to take in and apply and retain the Medicine and the vertues faculties and powers also of the drugs herbs plants seeds c. must be upheld also both of them are by the mighty powerful concourse and power of God hence the Scripture attributeth our healing unto God I am the Lord that healeth you Exod. 15.26 And the Psalmist saith He healeth all our diseases I wound and I heal Deut. 32.39 Hence Asa is rightly blamed for trusting in Physitians more than in God Physicians are Gods Ordinance they are to be used but not to be trusted in God must discover the healing-Medicine to them God must uphold the healing-vertue in the Medicine when used by them and the faculties also in their Patients by which they must be inabled to take use and apply the Medicines they administer And thus now have I shewed you how God by the ordinary workings of his Providenee every day worketh in the preserving man and beast consider'd as Individuals 5. But as in the production of things into being notwithstanding the ordinary rule and law of Nature generally observed there are some Anomalies or deviations so in the preservings of the creature in the workings of Divine Providence God who will not be tracked in any of his ways maketh some Anomalies turns out of his ordinary road in some special cases Ordinarily he worketh by means natural and to the Eye of Reason probable means sometimes he will do his work without means or without such apparent probable means or by what our Reason shall judg quite contrary to the end He will walk sometimes in a natural course sometimes contrary to it These we call Miraculous Acts of Divine Providence The Bodies of some of his people shall be sometimes upheld a long time without nourishment without natural Rest without sensible breathing healed without proper applications of Physick Many instances of which we have in the story of the Evangelists and of the Acts of the Apostles but these are ertraordinary and special and my business is not to discourse those workings of Providence which are unaccountable to us 6. Lastly There is a special providence of God in preserving man that is yet further considerable by us We have hitherto only considered the preservation of men as Individuals man considered as a single person by himself I must further consider him as a political creature involved in Society and shew you the workings of Divine Providence in preserving Bodies-Politick and the Societies of men and then 3dly as a spiritual creature capable of the Grace of God and being made partaker of it Nisi vegitaret Deus cum ego dormio nisi me defenderet custodiret cum ego sim securus fieret ut omni momento more c. Luther I shall conclude this Discourse so far as I have already carried it on with that saying of Luther If God watched not when I sleep if God did not defend and keep me when I am void of care I should die every moment and every moment be losing either an hand or an Eye or an Ear or a Foot I shall further at this time only apply what part of this Discourse concerning preserving-Providence you have already heard Vse 1 This in the first place may serve to give you a view of the immense and glorious Nature of God Oh! that men would fear this great and dreadful Name of the Lord our God The Lord who preserveth both man and beast How great how glorious must the God whom we serve be if what you have heard be true But to open this a little in a few Particulars 1. It may satisfie you in that great truth of Gods Immensity The Schoolmen say God filleth the Heavens and the Earth infinitum ultra Spatium an infinite space beyond The Scripture Jer. 23.24 saith Do not I the Lord fill Heaven and Earth It must needs be so The Heavens and the Earth are creatures and they are all full of living creatures So are the great and wide Seas all these creatures must breathe be nourished rest grow and increase multiply their species be renewed daily they have all their several and various motions and operations for these they have powers and faculties all these as you have heard are upheld by God by the daily concourse and influence of his Divine Providence he must heal their diseases restore their lapses and decays How could all this be if he were not every where filling it with his Essence Presence and Power 2. Secondly From hence you may conclude The Activity of the Divine Essence You must not think that the great God is in any place as a stone which indeed filleth the place but moveth not acteth nothing He is in the World say the Heathen Philosophers as a Master of a ship is in a ship as a Moderator as the Soul is in the Body which is in every part of the Body
them to make and to agree in Laws proper for their Government as to this he upholdeth the reason of Legislators Laws are the rules of Government 1. God hath given unto men a Divine Law for a Copy the Book of this the King of Israel was always to have before him and he was to read in it all the days of his life Deut. 17.19 Jos 1.8 The Divine Law concerns some generals but there must be many particular Laws respecting the complexions of several Kingdoms and bodies of people In the making of which the Providence of God and his influence is wonderfully seen upholding the reason of the Law-makers to the making of such Laws as are necessary and expedient and proper for the government of such a people It is true as the Hebrew Doctors were wont to say That the Spirit of God did not always touch the hearts of the Prophets so neither doth the Spirit of God always touch and direct the hearts of Legislators God suffereth sometimes the wisdom of the wise to fail them impious and wicked Laws foolish and insignificant Laws may sometimes be made to which it were blasphemy to intitle God in any efficient causation God will by these instances let us see men are but men but yet there is such an ordinary influence of Divine Providence that although some Kingdoms and Common-wealths in a Superfoetation of Laws may have some wicked and impious others foolish and insignificant yet they are not deficient in such as are necessary to maintain Justice and preserve civil order and peace Now although we must by no means intitle God to the wicked effects of men which he only permits nor to the follies and impertinencies of men yet he is justly to be entitled to the wise and prudent effects of his creatures for good useful and necessary Laws they are from the Lord who is wise in counsel from whom cometh every good and perfect gift If the Plowman be instructed by God with discretion and taught and the Thresher be instructed as to the discretion he useth by the Lord of Hosts who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working which the Prophet asserteth Isa 28.23 24 25 26 27 28. Then certainly the hearts of those who are instructed to the making of Rules for the Government of the great bodies of his people are instructed also from the Lord who is great in Wisdom and wonderful in Counsel And herein is the mighty Power and Wisdom of God seen in the preservation of Political Societies 3. A third thing wherein the Providence of God is seen in the preserving of these Societies is In the ordinary silencing of those passions in men which disorder and disturb all Government We justly look upon it as a merciful piece of Divine Providence to conceal from some beasts of great use in our lives their own strength which if known to them would make them our masters The multitude in any Polity is as an unruly beast and all Governments are preserved by their ignorance of their own strength and the bridle of Divine Providence by which God keeps them in and silenceth their passions which if let loose would quickly turn all into a tumult and confusion The Individuals of all Societies are full of boisterous and brutish passions so as a considerate man when he looketh upon such a City as this or any other great Political Body and considereth how many persons are in it of unruly tempers and passions who either know not the rules of natural Justice and Equity or if they know any thing of them their lusts and passions will not suffer them to live in any just observance of them will see reason to wonder how people of such heterogeneous tempers and different passions should ever live together a year or a month in peace and any degrees of order nor is there any thing which holds them together but the wonderful influence of Divine Providence silencing their passions and restraining those lusts in men which otherwise would set any Kingdom City or Nation on a fire and bring it quickly to an heap of rubbish and confusion It was said of old that in the degenerate state of man Homo homini lupus one man is a Wolf to another and nothing but the Divine Hand keeps them from biting and devouring each other the Lord by his Providence holds them in as the Horse and the Mule with bit and bridle When God thinks fit for the punishment of persons or Nations but a little to let loose the Reins we see what brutish passions do discover themselves in men what envy malice revenge oppression and other lusts and vices directly tending to destroy Societies So as we are only preserved because these disorders are but fits of distemper not abiding diseases in the bodies of people and the reason why they are no more is from Gods restraining influence upon unruly turbulent spirits He that ruleth the raging of the Sea and stilleth the waves thereof when they arise ruleth also the passions of men keeps them generally still and stilleth them if at any time they rise to any exorbitant heighth 't is the same power that doth them both Psalm 65.7 Thou stillest the noise of the Sea the noise of its waves and the tumults of the people It is God that saith Be still O ye inhabitants of the Islands Whence is it but from this that there are so few murthers rapes c. no more thefts and acts of Violence We see the fear of punishment will not restrain them as soon as God but takes off his restraint from them and the consideration how unreasonable multitudes appear in their fits of disorder is enough to convince men that the general tie of people have not reason enough to be a law unto themselves but are meerly governed and over-ruled by the influence of Gods restraint upon them for the preservation of his people in their political Societies 4. A fourth thing wherein the power of Divine Providence is eminently seen in the preservation of Men in their Political Societies is in discovering the secret devices and conspiracies of men tending to the disturbance and dissolution of Government in the places where they live I still understand this in ordinary causes When God hath a design to punish a Senacherib he suffers the plottings of his own sons to take effect against him God sometimes punisheth Rulers sometimes he punisheth People by such sufferances but ordinarily he doth not You have an hundred Treasons discovered for one that takes effect Here I might enlarge strangely how God brings to light those hidden works of darkness wherein the welfare of States and Kingdoms are concerned Solomon therefore gives good counsel Eccles 10.20 Curse not the King in thy thoughts nor the rich that is the Ruler I conceive in thy Bed-chamber for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter that is it shall be discovered strangely and swiftly What eminent
and law of Nature the fire burneth the hungry Lions devour men God suspendeth both these Laws in the case of the three Children and of Daniel by an Ordinance of Nature the Sun keepeth its course and is in a continual progressive motion God suspendeth its motion in Joshuah's case altereth it and maketh it to come back in the case of Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.10 by the Ordinance of Nature the Earth brings forth her fruit so doth the womb ordinarily God suspends this Law in Judgment the Earth is made as Iron the Heaven as Brass men commit whoredom yet do not encrease they eat and have not enough Hos 4.10 This both demonstrates the governance of Divine Providence and also sheweth how God exerciseth it This is a third Particular 4. A fourth Particular wherein God sheweth his Dominion over all and exerciseth his Government over the whole Creation is his influencing all creatures to their natural actions either in a more ordinary or extraordinary manner Every living creature hath its natural motions and actions and powers and faculties in order to them which are the principles of those operations and in the upholding of those powers to those natural motions and actions God exerteth and putteth forth his preserving power of Providence but his extraordinary influencing of them to some motions and actions which are not in a natural course and order doth more eminently shew the Governing power of Divine Providence That Locusts and Caterpillers should feed upon grass and green herbs this is but their natural motion and action according to their nature and the kind of their being but that they should come in troops and rather feed upon one place than upon another till they had devoured all the grass and green herbs in Egypt this was extraordinary Psalm 105.24 He spake and the Caterpillers came and did eat up all the herbs in their land and devoured all the fruit of their ground And again Psalm 74.46 He gave their increase to the Caterpiller The same may be said for the Flies Lice Frogs and other creatures used as a plague upon Pharaoh but indeed this is rather a specialty of Providence than belonging to the ordinary Government of it though very demonstrative of the governing power of Providence 5. A fifth act by which the Providence of God exerciseth its governing power and influence is His daily raising up and influencing Governours for the Housholds and Societies of men and giving checks to them upon their miscarriages and mal-administrations The governing Providence of God exerteth it self either more immediately or mediately Other creatures God ordinarily governeth by men many of them I mean influencing man with Reason and Discretion by which he ruleth ordereth and governeth them though many of them be much more mighty and powerful than he the mouth of the horse and mule which have no understanding by the Providence of God so influencing man are held with the bit and bridle lest they come near unto us Psalm 32.9 The Whale is smitten with a spear wild bulls and boars are hunted down c. The Ox is tamed and brought to serve our uses who are much less in strength than he is Men also are governed by men the weaker by those that are more wise and powerful but whence have the Governours their wit and power their wisdom and understanding prompting them to make Laws acceptable to the greater part of Subjects so as conspiracies are of the lesser number and subdueâ—â—o the greater and keeps them in order Is it not from the Lord great in wisdom and wonderful in counsel Psalm 75.7 God is the Judg he pulleth down one and setteth up another and by him Kings reign God ruleth the World by Magistrates which if well considered would aw men to that duty of honour and obedience which they owe to those that are their Superiours and may make us to understand how we ought to be subject for conscience-sake and for Gods sake in things commanded which we cannot say are contrary to the Divine Law nor so appear to us and have any manifest appearance of good for the government and peace of the whole As on the other side it calls to Kings to be wise and the Judges of the Earth to be instructed to serve the Lord with fear and to rejoyce before him in their great capacities with trembling Psal 2.10 11 they are but the Lords Vice-Roys and as Jehosaphat told his Judges they judg not for themselves but for the Lord for him whose Throne is prepared in the Heavens and whose Kingdom is over all They ought therefore according to the command to the Kings of Israel to have the book of the law before them and to be reading therein all the days of their life and where that doth not give them particular direction to have the honour and glory of God yet in their Eye to measure all their laws and actions according to that Rule to remember God is the Judg and hath only exalted and dignified them to rule the World or this or that part of the World by them still the Government is the Lords 6. A sixth particular act by which God providentially governeth the World is By influencing the souls of some in it to such actions as more immediately tend to his honour and glory God hath an honour and glory from the natural complexion and constitution and motions of inanimate Beings Psal 148.6 8. Thus the Heavens and in them the Sun Moon Stars from them the snow rain hail meteors the lightning and thunder the cold and heat the vapours and stormy winds bring glory to God stormy winds fulfilling his word saith the Psalmist The heavens declare the glory of God the Earth sheweth his handy-work Psalm 19.1 God hath made in the Heavens a tabernacle for the Sun a course for the Moon and Stars the very complexions of them their natural and necessary motions bring God abundance of glory Now this ariseth from a necessary causation they cannot but do it The same may be said of brute creatures though animate not acting upon Election The Whale in the Sea the Lion and Tiger amongst the beasts the Eagle and others amongst the birds the Bee the Silk-worm and others amongst Insects several sorts of creeping things glorify God but it is necessarily Man only amongst earthly creatures glorifieth God voluntarily from a principle within himself and upon choice Take mankind in the general it is a noble piece of Gods Creation and necessarily glorifieth God Man is fearfully and wonderfully made his body is an admirable structure but the great glory which God hath is from his spiritual actions Man is not a mute Preacher of Gods glory as the Heavens and the Earth the Sun Moon and Stars are or brute creatures are He hath a Soul and understanding will affections from these God expects a great homage and glory But now take man in his depraved estate and he doth nothing less No creatures but the evil Angels so much
Reign and the necessity of it Isa 52.7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace that bringeth good tidings of good that publisheth salvation that saith unto Zion thy God reigneth It is good news to all the World that God reigneth but particularly to Sion to the Church and the people of God to the whole visible Church it is good tidings but particularly to the invisible part that is militant here on Earth and the individual members thereof 1. This Doctrine first is of great use to comfort them against and under all their disturbances for things which happen to the Church in general or themselves in particular A ship at Sea were but in an ill case if it were not for him that sate at the Helm a skilful Pilot there ordereth her well enough so as the winds serve his design so it is with the Church tossed with winds and waves she is only safe in the Lords government of all the affairs of the World Luther I remember saith thus of himself I saith he have often attempted to prescribe God ways and methods in the government of his Church and other affairs I have said Ah Domine hoc velim ita fieri hoc ordine hoc eventu I would have this thing thus done in this order with this event But saith he God did quite contrary to what I asked of him Then saith he I thought with my self what I would have had was not contrary to the glory of God but would have been of great use for the sanctifying of his Name In short it was a brave design well advised but undoubtedly God laught at at this wisdom of men and said Go to now I know you are a learned man and a wise man But it was never my manner to allow Saint Peter or Saint Martin or any other to instruct teach govern or lead me Non sum Deus passivus sed activus I am not a passive but an active God That great man and Melancthon were two famous Instruments in the Reformation of Germany but of different tempers Melancthon was a man of a more mild and gentle Spirit and melancholick timerous temper Luther was of a more fierce and bold temper Melancthon would often write very troubled Letters to Luther about the state of the Church affairs Luther would constantly make use of this argument from the Governing-Providence of God to support Melancthon Melancthon saith he Let God alone to govern the World The Lord reigneth It pleaseth God so to order it in his Providence that the face of affairs relating to the Church often looks very sadly and there is nothing which giveth the spirits of the people of God a greater disturbance Now all these disturbances are caused from our Not-attending to this Principle which yet every good Christian professeth to receive and to believe Were we but rooted and grounded in the faith of this one Principle That the Kingdom of God ruleth over all and that he exerciseth a special care and Government relating to his Church and ruleth the World with a special regard to the good of his little flock we could neither be immoderately disturbed for the concern of the glory of God nor yet for the Church of God 1 Chron. 16.31 Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoyce and let men say amongst the Nations the Lord reigneth let the Sea roar and the fulness thereof let the fields rejoyce and all that is therein Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord because he cometh to judg the Earth Say therefore unto Zion Thy God reigneth Let Papists rage and Atheists scoff and threaten and do what they can Let all their Favourites take counsel together and join hand in hand when they have done all they can they will find that the Lord reigneth And this is enough to say unto Sion or to any of her sons and daughters Two things are sufficient in the most troublesom and tumultuous times to still support and comfort the spirits of Gods people 1. That the Lord reigneth and hath an unquestionable superintendence upon all the Beings of his creatures all their motions and all their actions He is higher in power than the highest of them 2. That this God is our God The Psalmist hinteth both in that excellent 46 Psalm v. 10 Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted amongst the Heathen I will be exalted in the Earth The Lord of Hosts is with us The God of Jacob is our refuge Let not therefore those that fear the Lord trouble themselves about the motions of the World and commotions in it about the ragings of lewd men against the interest of Christ Let them not trouble themselves further than is their duty viz. to be sensible of the rebukes of Divine Providence The Lord reigneth He that sitteth in the heavens laugheth The Lord shall have them in derision and shall one day speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure and let the World know that yet he hath set his King upon his holy hill of Sion I remember a passage of Luther Si nos ruamus ruet Christus unus Christus scilicet magnus ille regnator mundi c. If we perish saith he Christ must fall too Christ that great Governour of the World 2. If we did consider this as we might or ought we should also see as little reason to be disturb'd as to the concerns of our own Souls with the fear of two things as to their own Souls ordinarily the people of God are troubled 1. The prevailings of their own lusts and corruptions 2. The prevailings of Satans temptations This Doctrine of Divine Providence excellently serveth to still our unquiet spirits as to either of these troubles If the Lords Kingdom be over all both these fears must be vain and causeless for supposing the faithfulness of the Promises Sin shall not have dominion over your mortal bodies God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly He will with the temptation give an happy issue If the Lords Kingdom be over all neither shall corruption prevail nor Satan by temptations prevail to destroy the work of God in our Soul or to prevent us or hinder us as to the Kingdom which God hath prepared for us for as he that hath promised is faithful or cannot repent or lye so he is powerful and hath a dominion over all beings persons things c. My father saith Christ is greater than all none can pluck you out of my fathers hand 3. Lastly It affords us a relief against the sad prospect we have almost continually before our eyes of the malicious actions of wicked and ungodly men There is and always was a generation in the World which sleep not unless they do mischief they are continually devising mischievous devices against the little flock of Christ Their counsels designs works have a plain and
apparent tendency to the ruin of the whole interest of God in the World if possibly not to leave Christ a Name in the Earth nor Religion pure and undefiled Religion a footing in any place he that runs may read this day that the malice of some is against no form in Religion but the life and power and practice of Holiness The Devil their Master hath given them a command like that of Benhadads Fight neither against small nor great Neither against Conformists nor Non-conformists but against the life and practice of Religion only Who seeth not that although a man hath a further latitude than others of his brethren as to matters of Conformity yet if he liveth an holy life if he presseth Holiness in his Pulpit and practiseth it in his Conversation he maketh himself a prey to the common Enemies both of Gospel Faith and conversation But trouble not your selves Christians The Lord reigneth the Frogs out of the bottomless pit may through Gods permission get out and croak a while but to the pit they must return again A sad time it was when the Enemy said to the Soul of the man according to Gods own heart Flee as a bird to the mountains when the wicked bent their bows and made their arrows ready upon the string that they might privily shoot at the upright in heart Psalm 11.2 When the foundations were destroyed and the godly knew not what to do what comfort at such a time Observe the same Psalmist v. 4 The Lord is in his holy temple the Lords throne is in heaven his eyes behold his ey-lids try the children of men I shall conclude this branch of Application with that Psalm 99. v. 1 The Lord reigneth let the people tremble he sitteth between the Cherubims let the Earth be moved the Lord is great in Zion and he is high above all people Let them praise the Lords great and terrible Name for it is holy Lastly Vse 3 This Doctrine is a foundation for a great deal of Exhortation Every good Christian upon hearing this Doctrine concerning Gods providential Kingdom should be saying What now is my Duty what ought I to do if the Lord reigneth I will tell you in five or six particulars and so shut up this Discourse concerning the main and principal acts of Divine Providence 1. An exercise of Faith seems a very reasonable piece of duty to be concluded from these premises By Faith here I understand not an assent to the Proposition of the word nor yet a resting upon the person of the Mediator which is the justifying-act of faith but committing of our selves unto God and casting our care upon him in all estates and conditions a thing often called for in Scripture Cast thy burthen on the Lord Psal 55.22 Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you 1 Pet. 5.7 Commit thy way unto the Lord Psal 37.5 So Job 5.8 Prov. 16.3 Sometimes it is called a Trusting in God Psalm 4.5 and 7.1 Pro. 28.25 and 29.5 Isa 57.13 c. Power and Love are the things that support and justifie one in trusting and putting confidence in another This Doctrine concerning the general Providence of God in governing all justifies him as to his Power to be the true and sole Object of our confidence We can trust in none else but may be controuled The greatest Princes of the Earth are but men under the authority of one who is higher than they and a mans trust in them oft-times is but like the Jews trusting in Egypt which the Prophet compareth to a leaning to a bruised reed and upon a broken staff which are not able to bear the weight of a mans body but if he leaneth upon them they will run into his hand If God be against us man cannot protect from him nor deliver out of his hand therefore saith the Psalmist Psalm 118.8 9. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes but he whose Kingdom is over all must needs be a proper Object of our confidence and as our confidence in God is warranted from general Providence as to the power of God so as to his love it is secured from special Providence but of that I hope to speak distinctly only a word here lest any should say But although the Kingdom of God be over all so that upon the account of his Power I may trust in him yet how doth it appear his Power shall be put forth for me I shall but offer four Meditations to you 1. That the glory of God is the great end that he aimeth at in all his actions He made all things for himself he preserveth he governeth the World for himself 2. That whereas God hath a twofold glory from his Creation Passive and Active One wherein the creature doth nothing from an inward principle thus the Heavens declare the glory of God and every creature speaks of his glory The other wherein the creature is Active acting out of intention and design and from the principle of its own will This latter is that which is most pleasing to God and acceptable 3. That God is capable of receiving no further glory from his creatures than what floweth from the predication of his praise and the doing of his Will 4. Lastly That from hence it must needs follow That God is more glorified by his Church and by his Saints than by all the Creation besides God is mutely and passively glorified by other creatures but in his Temple men speak of his glory The children of men and amongst them only those who are born of God do voluntarily and out of choice bring glory to God God if I may so speak wrests his glory from others as from Pharaoh c. God indeed in some sense may be said to be actively and voluntarily glorified by all Professors but only by that little flock whom he hath chosen to himself with a full intention voluntarily and sincerely They are the favourites of him whose Kingdom is over all Supposing then God to have a Dominion and Government over all and to be continually in the exercise of it surely if Haman could say Whom should the King delight to honour but me They may with much better right and advantage say For whom should the great King of kings and Lord of lords exercise a Rule and a Dominion For whose advantage should the Lord govern the World if not for those who most freely chearfully voluntarily serve the greatest end and design which he hath in the World viz. his own glory and can sincerely sum up all the desires of their Souls in that one Petition Let the Lord be glorified surely therefore the children of God have all obligations imaginable upon them under all vicissitudes of Providence to trust in God and to commit their ways unto the Lord. But this is but the first Duty 2. A Second Duty which this Doctrine of
Providence calleth to us for and sheweth us the reasonableness of is Prayer We have reason in our distresses to seek unto God by Prayer because the Lord reigneth and it is an encouragement to us to seek him because he reigneth Whither should we go but unto him who hath power to help save and deliver Prayer therefore hath in all times of distress been the Refuge of Gods people It was a sad time with David Psalm 109.4 The mouth of the wicked and of the deceitful saith he v. 2 3. are opened against me they have spoken against me with a lying tongue They compass me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause for my love they are my adversaries but I give my self unto Prayer v. 4. Luther when he was in any strait was wont to say I will go and tell my God of it Prayer hath been the constant mean which the people of God have used for rescue out of any troubles You see it is upon a good foundation viz. The Dominion which God hath over all and his daily exercise of it 3. It calleth to you for praise and thanksgiving Prayer solliciteth for a mercy when we want it Praise acknowledgeth the gift when received and giveth unto God the glory of it Nor can it without robbery be paid at any other than Gods Altar Is there any good done by thee Let God have the glory of that thou hast done it by vertue of a power or gift which is given to thee from above yea and it is from his Governing-Power of Providence ruling directing and influencing thy heart to it His Kingdom is over our hearts our hands our tongues inclining them to every good thought word action without him we can do nothing Doth any good come unto thee Let God also have the glory of that The earthly Prince looketh that you should acknowledg your peace your trade to his Government but he is but the instrument of God in bringing these things It is the Kingdom of the Lord that ruleth over all he gives thee power to get riches saith Moses I am sure the people of God have more special reason to acknowledg God in all their peace and prosperity They are men of peace their hands are against none but the world hates them they are as sheep amongst wolves if they have any months or years of peace they are beholden to the power and ruling of God for it Is any evil kept from you It is God that doth it he that ruleth the raging of the Sea he stilleth the tumults of the people he hath the hearts of Kings in his hand and turneth them as the Waters of the South It is because the Mountain of the Lord is full of Chariots and Horses that they are not swallowed up by their Enemies every moment O see and praise the Lord for the Governance of his Providence 4. This Doctrine calleth to you for patience in adversity The people of God are subjected to trials of adversity yea â—o fiery trials as well as other men yea in greater degrees than others hence the Apostle calleth to them to let patience have its perfect work Patience is nothing else but a quiet submission to the will of God under any adverse dispensation of his Providence in obedience to his command and because it is his will and he layeth it upon us we have need of patience and the exercise of it is our duty and this Doctrine will shew you that it is but a reasonable duty Let me shew it you in two or three particulars 1. As it showeth you that all your afflictions be they of what sort and kind they will are from the Lord Job 5.6 Afflictions cometh not out of the dust nor doth trouble spring out of the ground Is there saith God by the Prophet any evil in the City and I have not done it Affliction comes not by chance or fate it comes from God and is the wise issue of his Providence in the Government of the World we have therefore no reason to fret and vex our selves against instruments They are but instruments Perhaps said David of Shimei God hath bidden him curse They possibly do ill and at last will know it but God is righteous in their unrighteousness I held my peace saith David I knew it was thy doing It is the Lord saith that good man let him do what seemeth him good 2. As it assureth us that all things shall work together for good to them that love God If God ruleth and governeth the world he certainly doth it for himself and for his own glory which glory of his being the highest design of his people all things must necessarily tend to their good to that which they above all things desire and seek after This God who ruleth the World is his peoples father and doth what-ever he doth as a father for the good and advantage of his children 3. Lastly It is a good Argument of patience As it letteth them know that their afflictions are ordered and governed by God The Afflictions Oppressions Persecutions of the people of God are not things excepted out of the Dominion of God It was you know the Centurions faith That diseases were to Christ as his servants were to him He said to one go and he went to another come and he came and to another do this and he did it So God speaketh to diseases and not to diseases only but to all sorts of afflictions Isa 27.8 In measure when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it God first causeth then ruleth and governeth all our troubles afflictions and trials Fifthly This Doctrine calleth to all the people of God for love to him This is the Psalmists Exhortation and upon this very Argument Psal 31.23 O Love you the Lord all you his Saints for he preserveth his Saints and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer All the earth is bound to love the Lord for the exercise of his Governing-power If the Lord did not reign the worst of men would quickly find the ill effects of it they need no worse enemies than their own brethren and companions in wickedness did the Lord lay the reins upon the necks of their lusts and suffer them as they would to devour one another For as we see the ravenous Birds Fishes and Beasts do not only prey upon other but their own species so were it not for the Restraining-Providence of God in governing the world the wicked of it would see their brethren in iniquity not only preying upon the Saints and people of God but also upon those like unto themselves if lesser than themselves But I say above all the people of God as being the least flock are more especially bound to love the Lord for the Government of his Providence but this will more eminently appear when I come to discourse concerning the Specialties of his Providence with reference to them 6. Lastly This Doctrine calleth unto all for a willing
Reason That God hath this day a Church in the world and also confirm them that notwithstanding all the appearances of hostility against it yet God will have a Church to the end of the world Whoso considereth the Church of God this day especially the Reformed Church and looks back upon it even from the commencement of its Reformation cannot but fancy it as Noahs Ark in the midst of raging waters every moment threatning to swallow it up like Moses his ark of Bulrushes ready to be washed away at the return of every tide like the Burning bush which Moses saw all on fire yet not consumed You shall find the Reason why it is not so in the 46 Psalm a Psalm which Luther was wont often to call for in his troublesom time God is our refuge and strength a present help in trouble Ver. 5 God is in the midst of her The Lord of Hosts is with her the God of Jacob is our refuge he breaketh the bow he cutteth the spear in sunder he burneth the chariots in the fire Papists call for Miracles as a Note of the true Church see here a Miracle Was it not a Miracle that Luther a poor Friar renouncing his former Superstition and bidding an open defiance to the Pope and the whole power of Rome in such a time when all the World was admiring or fearing the Beast and so boldly and freely opposing himself to them as he did and falling upon them in a point of profit should not only go through all his bold attempts and die in peace but also draw unto him so many learned men and prevail so far amongst the people as that in very many if not in most parts of Germany the Doctrine of the Gospel should prevail the Mass and Popish worship should be abolished and the Truth contrary to the Doctrine of Rome should be received Was there not a special Providence think you watched over them Next to the preservation of the Apostles and the succeeding of them to the first plantation of the Gospel in the World there hath not been a more eminent and conspicuous work of special and miraculous Providence than in Gods preserving and succeeding the works of Reformation by which the Doctrine of Christ and Worship instituted by him was restored in a great measure to that Primitive integrity and purity which the great Lord of the Gospel first instituted And a due meditation of this Doctrine of special Providence may also secure the hearts of the people of God against their fears for the prevailing of the Churches enemies against it Their fears can arise but from the prospect of the multitude and rage of the Churches enemies and their judgment is but a judgment of probability made from the more common and ordinary workings of Providence but this judgment proceeds upon a false Hypothesis viz. That Gods way of Providence as to his Church is but an ordinary road and such as he keepeth towards other men Now this is false God in his workings for his Church keepeth not the beaten road of his Providence Zion hath a special Providence watching over it The eyes of the Lord are upon it from one end of the year to the other Canaan is the Land that God careth for God is known in the places of his Church for a refuge For lo the Kings were assembled they passed by together they saw it and so they marvelled they were troubled and hasted away Fear took hold upon them there and pain as on a woman in travel Psalm 48.3 4 5 6 God will establish it for ever Ver. 8 Watch about Sion saith the Psalmist and go round about her tell the towers thereof mark you well her bulwarks consider her palaces that you may tell it to the generations following for this God is our God for ever and ever he will be our guide until death We have lived to see as bold and impudent attaques made upon the Church as to that part of it that hath been studious of the stricter and severer practice of Holiness as possibly later ages have known If Christians could have been swagger'd and hector'd out of the practice of Holiness or jeer'd and drolled out of it or threatned and frighted or cudgel'd out of it there have been arguments enough of this nature used but how little have they done how few are less in love with the good and holy ways of God than before Having therefore so many great and precious Promises for the preservation of the Church and God exercising a special care for it and keeping it under a special tutelage Let us not fear but believe that God as the Psalmist saith will establish it for ever Let us therefore look off creature-appearances and humane-probabilities The Church is a burning-bush and hath been so from the very first plantation of it but we see it is not consumed because God is in the midst of it Remember this That the Church liveth not upon an ordinary common general Providence but upon a special peculiar Providence watching over it and caring for it In the next place this may serve to shew you your duty Vse 2 every one to observe the special Providences that attend your lives There is an observation of the more general Providence of God in upholding and governing the World which is our duty and a very sweet and advantageous piece of duty but this I shall hereafter further press upon you That which I would speak a few words to here is the observation of the special Providence of God relating to you What the Psalmist saith of the observations of Providence more generally Psalm 107 the last verse Whoso observeth these things is wise and he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord is eminently true Here it speaks 1. A Spiritual wisdom 2. It will be of great use to make us understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Observe the special Providences of God towards his Church his Church in former ages his Church in our present age you will by those observations be able to make up a judgment what man is like to do against it and what God is like yet to do for that body of people that come under that Notion nay you will be able to go a great way in making up a Judgment who they are that make up the true Church of God even those upon whom the Eye of God is most and for whom his Arm is most stretched out not in this or that particular act but in a continued series and course of strange preservations There is and indeed always hath been a great dispute in the World which is the true Church of God The Jews arrogated the honour to themselves and indeed there was a time when none could claim with them but the Apostle amply declareth their rejection and the Gentiles ingraffing But though it be certain now that the Church of God is made up of those that were Gentiles yet as several Sects and parties have risen
they see nothing of God in these effects They say not this is the Lords doing and therefore it is not marvellous in their eyes They see Pestilences sweeping away Cities and Families fires laying populous Cities waste Enemies breaking in upon Countries and strangely over-running them the hand of God sweeping away whole Families but they see nothing of God in them they consider these as terrible things as misfortunes to which the state of Humane affairs is subjected their Eyes are upon the visible wheels that turn these things but they see not the wheel within the wheel the Psalmist calleth to us to come and behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath wrought in the earth Men see desolations wrought in the Earth but they see them not as the work of the Lord as desolations wrought by him This is what the Psalmist complained of and for which he prayeth against them Psalm 28.4 5 Give them according to the works of their hands c. Because they regard not the work of the Lord nor regard the operations of his hands he shall destroy them and not build them up This is a sign of an Atheistical heart to see great changes and not to see God in them the Heathens had more of Religion than this came to I remember the Poet in his description of the ruine of Troy bringeth in Venus taking Aeneas of his mettal in the last defence of his Country and from taking Revenge on Helena the cause of it by shewing him the gods at every corner and post of the City helping the Grecians to fire it and to over-turn the walls of it It is very sad that amongst Christians there should be any that in the great changes which God worketh in Nations Cities Families cannot see the great and living God at work and using creatures but as instruments in his hand but this is but a seeing and beholding the works of Providence highly useful for the production of pious affections and such acts of duty as God requireth We have a further Duty than this incumbent upon us 2. It is not only our Duty to see and behold but wistly to consider and observe these things Psalm 107.43 Whoso is wise will observe these things and he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord a Text which in this discourse I shall make a further use of Observation implieth the application of our minds unto the passages of Divine Providence which are before our eyes as we must not be careless and forgetful hearers of the word of God so we must not be careless and forgetful observers of the works of God It is said Gen. 37.11 that Jacob observed the saying Josephs saying in the repetition of his Dream relating to eminent providential workings So it is said Luke 2.19 That when upon the birth of our Saviour the Angels had spoke to the Shepherds and the Shepherds had published the glad tidings which they had brought to the City That all who heard it wondred at those things which were spoken by the Shepherds Mary kept all these sayings and pondered them in her heart To see a thing is one thing to make our minds to stand upon it to consider it and to ponder upon it is another thing This is also our Duty as to meditate on the Lords words so to meditate on the Lords works twice the Psalmist hath it I will meditate on all thy works Psalm 143.5 I muse on the works of thy hands So Psalm 77. v. 12 I will meditate also on all thy works and talk of thy doings It is our great fault that we suffer the impression of Gods works to go off our hearts too soon We hear of great changes we see great desolations God works in Kingdoms Cities and Families at first they make a little impression upon us we startle at them but by the next day they are as a tale that is told the sound is out of our ears the impression is off our minds this is now not to observe the works of the Lord not as we ought to consider the operation of his hands 3. It is thirdly our Duty modestly and humbly to search out the causes of Providences towards our selves especially We are commanded to hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Thus did Josephs brethren Gen. 42.21 when they were in prison they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother when we saw the anguish of his soul when he sought to us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Job prays Job 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me this is but a searching and trying our ways an excellent help and necessary medium in order to a true repentance Indeed it is our great errour that we are very prone to search out the causes of severe Providences upon others The Barbarians seeing a Viper cleave to Pauls hand conclude him a Murtherer but we are very slow and backward to enquire into the meritorious causes of Gods severe Dispensations to our selves Yet as to others as it is our Duty to observe the Providences of God to them so we may modestly and humbly search out the causes of them Thus did Jeremiah venia praefata having first recognized God in the Justice and righteousness of his proceedings Jer. 12.1 Righteous art thou O Lord in thy Judgments when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments why doth the way of the wicked prosper c So the Prophet Habbakuk ch 1.13 Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he But as to this searching into the causes of Divine Providences I put in those two words modestly and humbly Indeed God is so plain and open in his Judgments sometimes that the provocation is wrote and that in capital Letters in the front of the punishment Thus it was in the case of the Sodomites the Egyptians the Benjamites Sauls bloody house Haman the final destruction of the Jews c and thus it is still very often The Drunkard dies in his drunkenness but it is not always so The Judgments of the Lord are a great deep This enquiry therefore into causes must be modest and humble we must no more caecutire in revelatis as to the works of God than as to the word of God if we see a blood-thirsty and deceitful man not living out half his days a Dart striking through the liver of the Adulterer these are open things And when we see prophane vile wretches devouring those that are more righteous than they when we see God plaguing men according to his own heart chastening them every moment not giving them time to swallow their spittle These are secrets of Divine Providence of which we must be careful that we pass no ungrounded censure yea and we must search humbly too Our judgment in these cafes will amount to no more than a
judgment of probability we cannot pretend to an infallibility we are not of Gods counsel and his ways are great deeps 4. Lastly We ought so far to search into and to enquire into the workings of Divine Providence as may any way conduce to make us better by more adoring and revereing God more avoiding of sin more quickning up the habits and exercises of grace but to take heed of such an enquiry as will be of no use to us unless to make us Atheists or too curious searchers into the unsearchable things of God or uncharitable consurers of our brethren The reafon of this is because Duty is the End of all our beholding considering and observing the Lords works or any way enquiring and searching into them This is the main thing which God hath said to us Obey my voice Now so far as an enquiring into the Lords ways and works of Providence will help us to obey the Lords voice so far doubtless it is our Duty The voice of the Lord is in Scripture everywhere to us to fear before him to love him to trust in him to take heed of sinning against him Now so far as the searching into the causes of Divine Providence may conduce to quicken us up to these Exercises so far is it undoubtedly our duty and a very commendable practice but where it only tendeth to make us Atheists by seeing nothing of the hand of God in them but confirming a fancy in us that we have found out the reason of all in a necessary connexion or working of natural causes or only serveth us for an advantage or ground for us unwarrantably and uncharitably to judg and censure our brethren so far it is undoubtedly sinful Where the searching of the causes of Divine Providence to us or others may contribute and so far forth as it may conduce to quicken us up to repentance for them to a faith in and a dependence upon God to make us either more thankful or any way more holy so far forth it is our advantagious duty Thus Jona's reflection upon the storm he met with at Sea when he was fleeing from God Jonah 1.10 11 and Josephs brethrens reflection upon the imprisonment they met with in Egypt were both good and pious tending to bring them to a sense of their several sins against God Davids observation of Providence helped him in the exercise of his Faith 1 Sam. 17.34 35. Manoahs observation that God had accepted a sacrifice confirm'd his faith that he would not destroy them Oft-times the observing of and searching into the ways of Divine Providence hugely exciteth praise and thankfulness Psalm 107.8.15 21 31 c. Thus far now it is our duty to behold observe search into the ways of Divine Providence they are not called unsearchable to deter us from beholding seeing and considering them so far as it may help in the performance of any piece of that duty which we owe unto God God hangs out his great works of Providence to the world that men may behold them look upon them and that not superficially but wistly and considerately Well but how are they then unsearchable why doth the Apostle pronounce them past finding out That brings me to the last thing promised you in the Explication of the Proposition I shall open it to you in several particulars 1. They are unsearchable and past finding out as to the latitude and full compass of them Job ch 26 had been largely discoursing of the great works of Divine Providence his stretching out the North upon the empty places and hanging the Earth upon nothing Ver. 7 His binding up the waters in the thick clouds and the clouds not being rent under them ver 8 c. But then concludeth ver 14 Lo these are part of his ways but how little a portion is heard of him but the thunder of his power who can understand some read it These are but the borders some corners of Gods ways David telleth us Psalm 111.2 The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein It is our duty to seek out the works of the Lord and every good man hath a pleasure therein and will be modestly seeking out Gods works ay but though they will be seeking yet we shall be no more in this World than seekers Job 16.7 Who can find out the Almighty to perfection saith God Much of God is seen much of God may be found out but the perfection of Gods works as well as of his Divine Being is an unsearchable thing There are thousands of things in the workings of Divine Providence which we cannot find out infinite motions in the upholdings of it in the government of it of which we know nothing something we can by the helps of Scripture and Reason discourse how Providence upholds the great varieties of Beings in the World the Methods of God in governing the World but who can find out the Almighty to perfection Who can discourse the thunder of his power There is a terra incognita or rather a coelum incognitum in the Divine workings What Job said we may apply here A thing was brought unto me and my ear received a little thereof Many things concerning Gods workings are brought to our senses and our senses receive yea our reason receiveth a little and but a little thereof as to them we may say as the Apostle saith in another case Where is the Scribe where is the Wise man where is the disputer of this World We by study can dive a little into Gods ways but we must come out of our deepest studies crying out with our Apostle O the depth of the wisdom and knowledg of God! This knowledg is as Job saith ch 11.7 8 As high as heaven what canst thou do deeper than hell what canst thou know the measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea 2. A second thing unsearchable and past finding out in these ways of God is the tendency of them while we see them come to an issue Had one of us been a companion with Joseph and seen him thrown into a pit then sold into Egypt after this thrown into a prison upon the accusation of his Mistriss we could never have judged this a Method in order to his riding in the second Chariot and being the second man in Egypt but we see at last it was so Had we been in the Court of Persia or Babylon and have seen Haman's Exaltation and his power with the King obtaining a Decree from him for the destruction of all the Jews we should never have seen the tendency of this to the ruin of Haman the exaltation of Mordecai c. Had we seen Daniel thrown into the Lion's Den we could never have read the tendency of this to his greater exaltation and fuller preferment and conquest over his Enemies and yet so it was The tendencies of Divine Providence are sometimes by us boldly determined sometimes guessed at but how
in the second place This discourse concerning the unsearchable things of Divine Providence may serve to direct us as to much spiritual duty I will shew you this in four or five particulars 1. The first is that of the Apostle Rom. 12.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be wise to sobriety We translate it Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly It may as well be translated Not to be wise above what we ought to be wise but to be wise soberly The Apostle Col. 2.18 makes an intruding into things which we have not seen but a sign of ones being puft up with a fleshly mind Augustine saith when a thing is obscure Et aperte divina Scriptura non subvenit temere aliquid definire humana conjectura praesumit Aug. And the Scripture doth not plainly help humane Wisdom doth but presume rashly to define any thing about it 'T is an excellent thing for a Christian to know his measures not to reach at further degrees of knowledg about the secret things of God than it hath pleased God in his Word to communicate unto us that is the true boundary of spiritual knowledg But I shall not inlarge upon this This is now opposite to that curiosity which I largely reflected upon under the first head of Application 2. This in the second place calleth to us for a deep adoration and veneration of God This is one reason why the Lord hath made his judgments so unsearchable his ways past finding out An holy and humble admiration of God is one piece of that homage which our souls owe to God He is to be admired of all them that believe 2 Thes 1.10 All admiration is the daughter of some ignorance we seldom or very little admire what we fully and perfectly understand The unsearchableness of God in his ways makes him the true and proper object of our admiration and admiration giveth God the honour of his unsearchableness Take heed of denying or disputing what the Scriptures reveal of God because you cannot comprehend and fathom it Where you cannot comprehend him there it is your duty to adore and to admire him 3. This Proposition calleth aloud to all To take heed of making the motions and issues of Providence the rule and guide of their actions We are to follow the rule of the word not the windings of Providence I told you before that Providence is like a man of business that carrieth a great many designs in his head at once and seldom keepeth his road he that will bear such a man company to London or any other place which is the ultimate end of his journy may go a great deal out of his way and where he hath nothing to do and be a great while longer than he need before he cometh there neither must the opportunities which Providence offereth be always taken nor conclusions be made from the successes or frowns of it 4. Learn hence to take heed of raising either too sweet or too bitter conclusions for or against your selves from the Providences of God The indications reasons tendencies of Providence are all unsearchable things Love or hatred cannot be concluded from what is before you in this life Providence carrieth many to hell by a gale of prosperity and others into heaven by a whirlwind of adversity the way to heaven is by much tribulation some are scourged into heaven others go leaping and dancing into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone 5. Lastly Though it be our duty to be wise unto sobriety and not to search curiously into what God hideth from us though we cannot make either the motions or issues of Providence the rule of our duty or action because in our appearance it sometimes pointeth one way when the rule of the word directeth us another yet it is our duty to observe the motions and passages of Divine Providence to behold observe ponder them and to lay them up in our hearts Now what observation of Providence is our duty or what observable things there are in the workings and motions of Divine Providence must be the subject of a far larger discourse SERMON XIV Psal CVII 43. Who so is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. WHoso wistly casteth his eyes upon this Psalm will find it from first to last a Song of Providence intermixed with frequent exhortations or wishes That men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men My Text is the conclusion of this excellent Song Whoso is wise observeth these things The Prophet Hosea hath much such a conclusion of his Prophecy Hos 14.6 Who is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them The Proposition of the Text is plainly this Prop. It is an argument of spiritual wisdom in men to observe the motions of Divine Providence and those that do it shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. The Proposition you see hath two Branches 1. That it is an argument of spiritual wisdom to observe the motions of Divine Providence 2. That he who doth observe them shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. The work commended to us is the observation of Providence The honour and reward of the work is expressed in two things 1. It speaketh a man wise truly spiritually wise 2. He shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. The word which we translate observeth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word that signifies to keep and to observe it is often used in Scripture to signifie a keeping safely and translated by the LXX by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall keep me in the way wherein I shall walk and he that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth Psal 121.4 And he shall give his angels charge over thee and they shall keep thee Psal 91.11 In all those Texts the same word is used sometimes it is used to signifie such a keeping of Gods Commandments as sheweth it self in practice as in Deut. 6.17 and chap. 8.2 sometimes a keeping of them in our mind as in that Text Gen. 37.10 Jacob kept the saying the LXX interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pagnine saith of it Curam sollicitudinem diligentiam denotat ne quid emittatur elabatur aut excutiatur It denotes care sollicitude and diligence that nothing slip out or be let go or shaken out In short I conceive this duty of observing the works of the Lord his great and various works of Providence may be dispatched in three things 1. In a considerate beholding and looking upon them Works of Providence pass before our eyes every day but the truth is for the most part we see and do not see them that is we do not considerately and deliberately fix our eyes upon them and see them as the Lords works we see them as events in the world but consider not the operation of Gods hands in
them This is no observing of them Observing them argues a fixing of the eye of the mind as well as the body upon them without which a transient view of them is of very little significancy and import unto men 2. In a diligent reposing them in our minds this is that which we call a remembring of them The Lord doth his great work to be had in remembrance This is a consequent of the other we remember little of those things we only cursorily view as they come before us but when we six our eyes upon them and apply our minds to the knowledg of them then we remember them 3. In a continued and repeated view of them and reflexion upon them That man that suffereth not the great and daily workings of Divine Providence to pass by his eyes as a tale passeth through his ears which he heedeth not nor applieth his mind unto but fixeth his eye and mind upon them lodgeth them in his memory frequently reflecteth upon them repeateth and re-considereth them in his thoughts that is a wise man and he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord And that brings me to the second Question in the Explication of the Proposition Quest 2. How is he wise how is it an argument of wisdom and doth he appear to be a wise man who observeth these workings of Providence Wisdom is sometimes taken in a larger sense so a knowing understanding man is a wise man sometimes in a stricter sense as it signifieth a practical habit directing the life and conversation sometimes as comprehending both and so I shall take it in the Proposition He is a wise man he will have more knowledg and understanding than another man and will know better how to order and direct himself in the several parts of his Conversation 1. He will be a more knowing and understanding man We use to say Experience is the mistris of fools Experience maketh a fool wise and indeed without it notions give little wisdom we speak in the commendation of the ablest persons in any art or profession such a one is an experienced man and the more experienced any one is in his art or course the better you account him in it Nothing is so well learned by rule and precept as by example and president Hence it is a common maxim of these times That the study of books accomplisheth none so much as the study of men doth Knowledg is much increased by experimental observation By this Much of the knowledg of God will be let into the soul We cannot see God as he is in his own light we must behold him in his word and in his works From the Word of God we get a great knowledg of God what he is as to his Divine Being and in his glorious Attributes but the knowledg which we have of God from his Word is both confirmed in us and increased by his works of Providence and our observation of them as well as of his great work of Creation And that 1. As they establish the Proposition of the word and confirm our faith in it Psal 48.8 As we have heard so haeve we seen in the city of our God God will establish it for ever Demonstration confirms us in our notions The Church had before learned it that God would establish his Church but now they were confirmed in it when they had seen it in the Works of Providence what they had before heard from the mouth of Gods Prophets and Messengers indeed a notion is but a probationer in our souls until we come to have it established by Faith and Demonstration 2. An observation of Providence doth also increase knowledg as it expounds to us the word of God and giveth us a more certain clear and distinct knowledg of the revelations of it We do not know how to expound some words of God but as we are taught the meaning of them by his Providential Dispensations in the fulfilling of it Gods dispensations in the world both toward his Church and the enemies and persecutors help us to understand both his promises and his threatnings 2. He who observeth the motions of Divine Providence will also know better how to order and direct his life I told you that Wisdom strictly taken is a practical habit directing this He that thus observeth will best know how to order his Conversation But will some say Is not this to make Providence our rule I answer It is one thing to make the Providence of God an argument to justifie our actions which the word condemneth Another thing to take occasions from Providence for the performance of our duty Providence alone is no rule of our actions but the word which is the rule of our actions is more sealed and confirmed to us by Providence Though Providences give no rule yet they wonderfully confirm and establish a rule when what we have read and heard in the word we see in the dealings of God it giveth a new life and makes a new impression of the rule upon our hearts God hath said Blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days and honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God give thee Now when we see God cutting off cruel and bloody men in the strength of their years or cutting off a stubborn and rebellious Child in his youth it wonderfully confirmeth the word to us and helpeth us to guide our Conversation so as we may not tread in their steps and be partakers of their Judgments 2. Again Though Providence be no rule as to particular actions yet it is a great help to us as to the three great principles of all our spiritual actions which are Faith Fear Love It is true the Proposition of the word is the object of our Faith when a soul giveth assent to the Proposition of the word because of the Authority of God who hath revealed it and this is the reason why wicked men though they have the Scriptures as well as others yet walk not in the light of them because they believe them not they assent not to the Propositions of Truth that are revealed in them but either say in their heart That it is but the fancy and invention of men or else flatter themselves with the hopes of impunity saying with those in Deuteronomy That they shall have peace although they walk according to the imaginations of their own hearts But now when a man observeth the Providence of God exemplifying and verifying the Word of God it much helps his faith in the word especially as to those in whose heart God hath wrought a previous habit of Faith It is true in this case the Providences of God will do little alone we have the words of Christ They have Moses and the Prophets if they will not believe they will not believe if one should rise from the dead But where a soul is first taught of God to give
up the Church are more peculiar and special objects of Providence than all others in the World 3. Amongst them such as fear and love God in sincerity are yet the more peculiar objects of Divine Providence and which God hath a most peculiar regard unto which maketh a cogent argument to prove That supposing the glory of God to be the great end of all his providential Dispensations that the Providence of God must most eminently work for the good of these as being such who most eminently serve the great end of his Glory So as he who observeth the motions of it must needs by them understand the loving-kindness of the Lord towards them Secondly The mercy and truth of Gods ways towards them that fear him are not to be read in the surface of present Providences The dark side of the cloud is sometimes towards the Israel of God and at such a time it must be by Faith that we understand that the ways all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth toward his own people Who could read the loving-kindness of the Lord towards Israel while they were in Egypt serving at the Brick-kilns and under their great oppression there but he who observed the Providence of God thus working to make them willing to go out and take possession of the promised Land he might understand this It is not every motion of Providence but the issues of it that demonstrate all the ways of the Lord to be mercy and truth and this evinceth to us that an observation of the motions of Divine Providence yea and a wist and diligent and continuing observation of them also is necessary to make us understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I come now to the Application of what you have heard upon this Argument This in the first place sheweth us one great reason of that ignorance which is in men both concerning God and concernng their own duty Men know little of God and little how to govern their actions according to any degree of Christian prudence As ignorance of and unbelief in the Word of God is one great cause so their not observing the motions of Divine Providence which have been in the World is another no small cause of it Men are much ignorant of God indeed there is but little of the knowledg of God in the World especially that knowledg which floateth not only in the brain but influenceth the heart and affections and men know little how to govern their actions by any spiritual wisdom but live directly contrary to what they own and pretend to as their highest end And we understand as little of the loving-kindness of the Lord I say one great cause of this is mens not observing the workings and motions of Providence They pass before their eyes every day but they observe them not Non tantum oculis intueri sed animum ad hanc considerationem ita exuscitare ut meliores inde evadamus To observe signifieth not only with our eyes to behold it but so to stir up our minds to the consideration of a thing that we may grow the better by it saith a grave Author Now in this Notion of it how few are they that observe these things they see stupendious Providences sometimes in the destruction of the Churches Enemies for the salvation of his people it may be at first they as all new things do affect men with a little passion according to the nature of them but they are like a flash of lightning which though at present it startles us yet the impression is presently off our spirits and I say this is one great reason why we are so ignorant of God so unskilful in the government of our lives to his ends and that we understand so little of his loving-kindness Hence it is that we cannot understand how much good God doth his Church and people by afflictions and trials They are the sensible frowns of Providence which blind our eyes that we cannot see the loving-kindness of God in all his ways We think sometimes we see God driving his Chariot in a direct road to his great ends the glory of his holy Name and the good and protection of such as fear him here we think we can easily discern Gods Wisdom and as easily understand his loving-kindness But now when the Lord drives his Chariot out of our sight and exerciseth his Church or the particular souls of his people with long and tedious Afflictions here we are at a loss and can neither read the wisdom nor loving-kindness of God But what is the reason of this but only our superficial view of Gods Providences without a wist and diligent observation of them If we would but bend our minds to observe what a wholsom influence Afflictions and adverse Providences have ordinarily both upon vvhole Churches and upon particular Christians we should even in them easily understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. The Husbandman can easily understand that he could as ill want the frosts and snows of Winter as the warmth heat and sun-shine of the Summer Gideon taught the men of Succoth with briars and thorns and God ordinarily doth so teach his people Blessed is he saith the Psalmist whom thou chastenest and teachest out of thy Law David tells us Psalm 119.61 that before he was afflicted he went astray but since that he had learned to keep the statutes of the Lord. It was an old saying The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church The Church is bettered and the Soul is bettered by adverse Providences That Text Isa 27.9 is very remarkable By this that is by this severe affliction by this captivity shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and all the fruit shall be to take away sin when the Lord shall make the stones of the altar as chalk stones that crumble in pieces the groves and the images shall not stand up As an hard Winter keepeth under and killeth the weeds so the winter of Affliction much helps to the purging out of corruptions both out of the Church and also out of the particular Soul Augustine as I remember somewhere lamenteth That a Fever had done more with him to subdue and mortifie a lust than before the love of God could do with him Now I say our not observing this which is matter of no difficult observation to him that wistly eyeth Divine Providence is one great reason that men do not understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Another reason of mens not understanding it is their making of a judgment of Gods works before they are perfect If any of us should go into a Limners shop and see his first draught of a lovely picture we should discern little loveliness in it which yet we should easily discern if we would but stay until he had finished his work and laid on his life-colours It is the same case with us as to works of Divine Providence we look on them while the Lords work is yet upon the
wheel we see nothing in it that resembleth God the great workman we see in it nothing of the Divine Wisdom possibly nothing of the divine goodness and loving-kindness but could we have patience till the Lords work came off the wheel we should easily see it in quite another representation we often see in Gods works of Providence nothing but confusion and blood and trouble and multiplied troubles and disturbances to those who most fear him and desire to walk most closely with him But in the evening of that day saith the Prophet Zech. 14.6 it shall be light The day neither light nor dark but in the Evening it shall be light Gods peoples days sometimes are plainly darkness thick darkness but would we have patience to the evening of them we should see light The Evening is the close and making up of the day When God cometh to close up his days work did we but observe Divine Providence we should easily understand that it would be light Sorrow may be for a night but joy shall be in the morning So as I say again This is one great reason why at all times we cannot understand the loving-kindness of the Lord to his Church and his people because we do not observe the motions of Divine Providence but take only a slight and superficial view of them I shall conclude this Discourse with an Exhortation to the duty of the Text The observation of the motions of Divine Providence Vse 2 In my last discourse I discovered to you some unsearchable things in Divine Providence and cautioned you against too curious an Enquiry into them My business now is to call upon you non caecutire in revelatis not to be blind as to those things which God hath revealed This also is your duty as well as the other by the former you acquit your selves from an unwarrantable curiosity by this from a wretched unthankfulness The Providence of God is daily working in order to the fulfilling of Gods great end the glorifying of his great and holy Name the establishing of his people c. 1. Do not rest in a meer view of what is done in the World but fix your eyes upon it Lay up the things in your heart let your thoughts dwell upon them the remarkable passages of them especially You see and hear of Wars and rumours of Wars inundations fires changes and over-turning in Nations of powers and Dominions you at present understand not the tendencies and indications of them you cannot make up a judgment of them and prophecy what will and shall be from them but yet observe them lay up these things in your minds yea and let them not pass out of your minds as we are to hear for the time to come so we are to behold and observe the motions of Providence with a respect unto a time to come too Do not think you can expound every Providence presently the vision oft-times is for an appointed time and is to be expounded by time in the mean time only to be diligently marked and observed taken notice of as a great work of God the meaning of which we shall understand hereafter Divines say That the meaning of many Providences and our clear understanding of them is one of those things wherein our knowledg shall be bettered and perfected in the day of Judgment and till that time when the hidden things of God as well as of men shall be made manifest we must be content to know but in part 2. Do not secondly observe meer single acts of Divine Providence but let your Eye follow it in its motions God sometimes hath his works a long time upon the wheel especially those relating to his Church I will give you two famous instances 1. The establishing of his ancient Church of the Jews in Canaan The promise was out for it Gen. 12 to Abraham it was more than five hundred years before this work was off the wheel of Providence four hundred years before they went out of Egypt where they were in bondage forty years they travelled in the wilderness then during all the time of the Judges yea and in Sauls time too they were but in a very unquiet condition In David and Solomon's time they came to a setled estate in the promised Land There was a Promise given out unto Christ for having the ends of the earth for his possession David mentioneth it Isaiah prophesieth much of it After this Christ comes was crucified c. And it was three hundred years after this before these Promises had any considerable accomplishment Indeed as to particular persons their beings are of shorter duration and the Providence of God brings about the promises to them in much shorter periods or they could see nothing of Gods loving-kindnesses in the issues or contextures of them but take heed there of resting your Eye upon the observations of some single acts of providence relating to them those who should thus have observed the motions of Providence with reference to Abraham Jacob Joseph David Daniel Job would have seen little of that loving-kindness of the Lord to them which yet is evident enough to all that keep their Eye upon their story to the winding up of their bottoms Now to this observation of Providence you have two great Arguments in the Text 1. It is an Indication of spiritual Wisdom A wise man looketh not only at present things but at things past and yet to come Now Wisdom is a lovely thing It is justified of her children saith our Saviour Every man desireth the reputation of a wise man and studiously avoideth the reproach of a fool Two things speak a fool 1. To observe and mind nothing Or 2dly Meerly to take notice of things present and gather conclusions from them 2. Thus you shall understand the loving-kindness of God Then you will see that all the paths of God towards his Church are mercy and truth Truth not a word failing of the promise and mercy working for the good of them that love God yea thus you that fear the Lord shall understand the loving-kindness and truth of God to your particular souls A thing the evidence of which is and ought to be of more value to you than the whole World I will conclude my Discourse by giving you three Cautions to direct your observation 1. Observe the Providence of God when it seemeth to move contrary to his Word but never determine the Indication of it without the Word Indeed the Providence of God never moveth contrary to the Word it is always a servant to some Declaration of the will of God in some promise or threatning but it often seemeth to us to move contrary which made the Psalmist cry out Doth the promise fail for evermore The reason of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that deceiveth us is our imperfect knowledg or understanding of the Word of God and non-acquaintance with the Counsels of God and contrivances of his Wisdom and the variety of those
designs which he carrieth on at the same time God designs to bring the Jews into Canaan but a-long with this to carry on the destruction of the Egyptians the Amorites whose sins in Abrahams time were not come to the full the destruction of the rebellious and disobedient amongst the Israelites Now in order to this the Egyptians must ripen themselves for their ruin by their oppression of Israel The Amalekites and Amorites and the other Nations by their falling upon them at their coming out of Egypt and in their journey Now upon these accounts the Providence of God often seemed to move quite contrary to the word of Promise The people of Israel at the Red-sea and in the Wilderness looked very unlike a people that should have a quiet possession of Canaan Therefore I say Providence is to be observed in its Motions which seem contrary to the Word but the Indications of it are only to be determined from the Word God hath appointed wicked men to slaughter notwithstanding this we see most vile and wicked men thriving prospering growing great in the World and trampling the righteous servants of God under their foot Observe this but take heed of determining the Indication of this but from the Word which saith There is no peace to them keep therefore thine Eye upon their Tabernacles and thou shalt see the Lords Sun go off it and the Threatning verified 2. Compare present Providences with those that are past As those who will understand the letter of Scripture must compare Text with Text so those who will be wise by understanding the motions of Providence must compare Providences of a present age with Providences of former ages Thou art offended possibly at the Providences of God towards wicked men they thrive and prosper they grow mighty and encrease and do what they list Or at the Providences of God towards those who if thou canst judg are such as walk closest with God and are most severe worshippers and servants of him they are hated maligned exposed to all manner of injuries which may make their lives bitter to them Thou cryest out here O the depth I cannot understand the ways of God I cannot see his loving-kindness towards his people Compare now Christian Gods dealing in thy age with his dealings both with wicked men and with his sincere servants in former ages and see if they be not much alike with what they were In Jobs time and Davids time and Jeremiah's time Yet it is not hard for thee to understand how the servants of God in those times found the loving-kindness of God and experienced that all the ways of the Lord were mercy and truth believe that the Hand of the Lord is not weakned nor his Arm shortened nor his Truth failed 3. Lastly If you would by observing the Providence of God understand his loving-kindness and gain a spiritual wisdom Let your eye affect your heart I hinted to you before that Mollerus telleth us such an observation of Providence is here intended unde ad pietatem exuscitemur ut inde meliores evadamus as will quicken us unto piety and help to make us better There are many careless observers of Providence that indeed see Events rather than Providences they see much that comes to pass in the World but consider nothing of God in them they see great fires laying populous Cities wast and possibly see a villain putting the first coal to them or a careless person accidentally occasioning them but they do not see God throwing such a wretch off his hand of restraint nor blowing the coals that turn the Cities into ashes by his winds which men could not cause Others are curious observers of Providences these are wonderfully busily employed in searching out the natural causes of such thunders lightnings inundations devouring pestilences c. They do by the book of Providence as Augustine complain'd of himself that in his unregenerate state he did by the book of Scripture he rather brought to it discutiendi acumen than discendi pietatem So men bring to the great Works of God rather an acute Eye and wit to find out the immediate causes and reasons natural or political than a trembling humble heart that they might learn by them more to acknowledg love fear adore and revere the great and mighty God whose works these are let not yours be such an observation but let your Eye beholding God in his providential Dispensations affect your hearts with that adoration and veneration that love and fear of the great and mighty God which such works of God do call to you for But for the further hopes and consolation of the people of God in their states of affliction I intend to commend to you some principal Observations upon the motions of Divine Providence which shall be the work if God pleaseth of some succeeding Exercises SERMON XV. Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am discoursing concerning Divine Actual Providence as the Object of good mens observation I shewed you in my last Discourse That the observation of the motions of it is both an Indication of spiritual Wisdom and an excellent step towards it and that by it duly made men and women shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Now to advantage you a little in this Observation I shall give you an account of some observable things in the motions of Providence which possibly you may parallel in the present or future dealings of God both with his Church and with particular Souls I shall lay down my first Observation thus 1. Observ The Actual Providence of God in bringing about that word to which it is a certain servant doth rarely move in a direct line but sometimes obliquely sometimes to our appearance quite contrary but at last it fulfilleth the word and is all the while faithfully executing the Eternal Counsel There are three things in this Observation each of which I will open in a few words and then endeavour to justifie the observation by particular instances after which I shall give you some reasonable account of it and then make some short Application First I say The Providence of God is a certain servant to the word the word either of Promise or of Threatning for Providence serveth to the execution of them both As we have heard so have we seen in the City of our God saith the Psalmist Psal 48.8 the Promise is but providentia occultata and Providence is but promissio explicata the Promise fully explained and opened and this is no more than you shall find recognized by the holy Servants of God both in all their thanksgivings for mercies they had received and in all their humiliations upon any judgments which the Lord had brought on them as also in all the Narrative parts of Scripture declaring any great motions of Providence how often do you meet with it in the Gospel such or such a thing was
take away his life pursueth him with an Army from place to place David had a pitiful company with him is forced to flee to Gath there to dissemble himself mad would any one have thought that had seen David among the Philstines scrambling on the walls that he should ever have been King over Israel and Judah At length Saul and Jonathan the next heir are slain in Battel then Ishbosheth is set up but yet after all these oblique and seemingly contradictory motions of Providence it cometh home to the promise David is setled in the Throne of Israel and Judah 4. Let a fourth instance be that of the Gospel Church God had promised that he would set his King upon the holy hill of Zion Psalm 2.6 v. 8 That he would give him the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession and promises of this nature are everywhere multiplyed by the Prophets Isaiah especially Our Lord when he ascended up into Heaven gave out a Commission to his Disciples in order to this effect Go preach and baptize all Nations c. Now at the first the Providence of God seemed to move as if the thing should presently have been done You read Acts 2 That the Spirit of God descended and there were then at Jerusalem saith the Text devout men of every Nation under Heaven Parthians Medes Elamites Mesopotamians Jews Cappadocians men of Pontus Asia Phrygia Pamphilia Egypt Lybians Cyrenians Romanes Cretes Arabians and heard the Apostles in their own language speaking of the great works of God Here were now Preachers made for all the World would not one have thought that surely at this time all the ends of the Earth should have been given unto Christ Peter at one Sermon converts two thousand soon after there were five thousand added to the Church But all on the sudden the Providence of God turneth the Gospel groweth out of repute and the Apostles that preached it too both with Jews and Gentiles James is put to death Peter hardly escapes The Church the only Gospel church God had at that time at Jerusalem was scattered and broken the Apostle complains That they were made as the filth of the world and as the off scouring of all things The Jews persecute them the Gentiles in all places rise up against the Preachers of the Gospel bonds stripes and imprisonments waited for the Apostles in all places where they came Paul saith he thought that God had set them forth as men appointed unto death spectacles to the World Angels and men Few of the great Ministers of the Gospel died their natural death the Christians were a sect everywhere spoken against all courses almost imaginable taken to root them out of all places for three hundred years together But at length the Providence of God cometh in a great measure to work up to the direct fulfilling of the many promises of this nature Constantine an Emperour of a great part of the World ariseth and commandeth and encourageth the preaching of the Gospel And thus it came to be spread and accepted in most known parts of the World Indeed there is hardly any instance can be given of any great work of Providence respecting Churches Nations or particular persons as to which this Observation will not justifie it self 5. For another instance may we not bring in if not all yet very many of your particular Souls who fear the Lord. You also upon believing receive the promises The promises are made of old but we receive them we come to have a title to them in the day when God opens our eyes and opens our hearts to a receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ turning our hearts from dead lusts and sins to serve the living God In that day I say we have a first right to all the Promises whether respecting joy and peace or spiritual strength and assistances Now very-often at the first of our conversion the Providence of God moves directly towards them the Soul finds a great life to Duty a great zeal against sin great joy and peace in believing glimpses of the glory of God But after this very ordinarily follow very dark hours and the Soul like Jonah cryes out of the belly of Hell The Soul that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his Servant yet walketh in the dark and seeth no light cryeth out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and hath a thousand fair and foul days in its journey to Heaven I know particular cases must here be excepted but I speak of the ordinary Methods of Divine Providence with Souls whom God bringeth to glory 6. I will conclude this Discourse with the instance of the great work of Providence in the Reformation of his Church in this latter age whether you look upon it in Germany France or England In Germany it began with Luther an eminent Servant of of God though like Elias of like passions and infirmities with other men how strangely did the Providence of God in the beginning work towards the accomplishment of it That Luther who was a poor Monk should be preserved to plant the Doctrine of the Gospel and should diffuse it so far as he did and be preserved to do it against all the rage both of the Pope and Emperour 28 or 29 years was a great favour of Providence to the infantile Reformation but afterwards how the Providence of God gave check to it is sufficiently known yet it kept its ground and gained For England we know from our story That King Hen. 8 laid the first stone we also know how Providence at first favoured the work during all the reign of Edward the sixth but in Queen Maries time for five years together it seemed to move directly cross the Popish Superstitions were restored in all parts of the Nation Multitudes burnt for the profession of the Gospel others fled into foreign parts to secure their lives But the Providence of God returned again to its work in the time of Queen Elizabeth But I have spoken enough to justifie the Observation Let me in the next place endeavour to give you a reasonable account of these transverse motions of Providence not that I dare presume to give you the reasons why God moveth thus or thus for who hath been his Counsellor at any time but so far forth as to shew you that these motions of Providence are approvable to our Reason so as we may judg the Lords ways but proportioned to his wise and great designs 1. In the first place certainly one reasonable account to be given of these motions must be the variety of designs which the Providence of God ordinarily carries on together I have hinted this to you before suffer me here to enlarge a little upon it again I then compared Providence to a man of great business and dealings in the World who though London or some other great place be in his Eye as the end of his Journey where his business lies
pieces upon Rocks to avoid the temptation caused himself to be tied to the Mast of his Ship I would have every Christians heart tied to the Promise as to his Mast that he might be out of the danger of all temptations from Providence Thirdly which indeed is a consequent of this Resolve to wait upon God under all the hidings of his face I call'd this a consequent of the other for he that believeth maketh not haste saith the Prophet This was the Churches resolution Isa 8.17 I will wait upon him that hideth his face from the house of Jacob. Temptations in an evil day can have no advantage but upon our Souls precipitancy The Soul that is resolved to wait upon God hath much defeated all Tempters and is out of all their Gunshot I remember the speech of the three Children to the King of Babylon We are not say they careful to answer thee in this matter The God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of thy hand however we will not fall down before the image which thou hast set up If he will not presently deliver us we are resolved to wait on him Fourthly To waiting must be added Prayer I will look unto him for he will hear me Prayer is the Catholick remedy both for the aversion of any Judgments and for the obtaining of any mercy Fifthly To all this add but that of the Psalmist Psalm 37.34 Wait upon the Lord and keep his way and thou shalt inherit the promise made to it He shall exalt thee to inherit the land and when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it But I shall proceed no further in this Discourse SERMON XVI Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. HAVING shewed you it to be the duty of Gods people to observe the motions of Divine Providence which are the things spoken of in this Text and shewed you what a great indication of spiritual Wisdom such an observation is and how great a mean to make us to understand the loving-kindness of the Lord I came in my last Exercise to commend unto you some remarkable Observations concerning them I finished my Discourse at that time upon my first Observation without any further preface I shall now proceed to a second which you may take thus Observ 2. The Providence of God in the fulfilling of the words both of promise and of threatning doth ordinarily fulfil the first when the people of God are at the lowest and the latter when his Enemies are at the highest I shall handle this in the same method as I did the other speaking to it shortly 1. By way of Explication 2. Confirming the Observation and giving you the reasons of it and lastly making some Application of it For Explication 1. I must desire you still to observe what I before told you and now repeat That the Providence of God in all its motions is but a Servant of the Word it fulfilleth the will of God That it is the spring from which all its motions do proceed both the secret and revealed will The will of God is but one but part of it is revealed part concealed So much of it as is necessary in order to our Salvation is revealed whether respecting our rule of life or respecting what shall happen to us or others to Nations and Kingdoms and Churches in this life or to particular Souls in or after this life Now what God hath thus revealed Providence brings to issue and here is the ground both of our prayers and praises 2. For the Promises I say you shall observe It is the ordinary method of Divine Providence to bring them to an accomplishment upon the Church and people of God when they are at the lowest in all humane appearance in the lowest state of dejection in the lowest degree of affliction when they are lowest as to their outward state lowest as to their hopes 3. I added thirdly That it ordinarily gives a being and fulfilling to the threatning when Gods Enemies are at the highest The people of God are those to whom the promises are made they are the heirs of them they are those to whom are given the great and precious promises wicked men are they to whom the threatnings belong they are the children of wrath the heirs of the Curses the work of Providence in reference to them those of them that will not be reformed is to bring all the Curses that are written in the book of God upon them But I say you shall observe That the time in which the Providence of God fulfilleth these words of Threatning upon them is when they are at the highest in the highest hopes of the contrary on the highest mountains of prosperity Let me endeavour to justifie this Observation by some instances and those concerning bodies of people or individuals You know the people of the Jews were the only people under Heaven until Christs ascension that God owned as his people Individuals there were that were not Jews as Job and others but I say for a body of people there were no other Gal. 3.16 To Abraham and his seed were the Promises made Rom. 9.4 Who are Israelites to whom appertained the adoption and the glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the Promises The Promises made to Abraham Isaac Jacob. David c. The Promises of inheriting Canaan coming out of Babylon destroying their Enemies c. Now these promises being given out it was the work of Divine Providence to give them a verification and to fulfil them Observe what times the Providence of God doth it in It bringeth the children of Israel out of Egypt and into Canaan not while Jacob or Joseph were alive Joseph was a great man and could have given a probable conduct to that great work The Israelites while he lived were in a very flourishing condition multiplying exceedingly and being in a very prosperous state every way But this is not a time when the Providence of God will accomplish the Promise Joseph must die and another King rise up that knew not Joseph The children of Israel are diminished their little ones slain their whole body oppressed with hard labour and brought to as low a pass as you can well imagine a people to be not wholly blotted out This is the time that Providence will accomplish the promise for their coming out of Egypt They pass the Red-sea in a very formidable body like enough to make their way through the Wilderness and a variety of Enemies into the promised Land But before the Providence of God brings them in they must be broken in a great measure destroyed all dead unless Caleb and Joshuah who came out of Egypt and their body wholly a new generation then they shall pass over Jordan Read over all the story of Judges and observe God seldom delivered them from their oppressors until they were brought
as low as could be After that time when the men of Jabish Gilead were ready to take the basest terms then God sends Saul to their rescue when there was not a sword nor a spear found in all Israel but in the hand of Saul and Jonathan then will God deliver them from the Philistines They shall be delivered out of the captivity of Babylon but not till they had been worn out there seventy years when one would have thought scarce any should have been left to have returned and those that were so linked with alliances to the Babilonians so fixed in another Country as few of them should ever have been perswaded to have come out and have gone to build a new a desolate City The promise of Christ their great King shall be made good to them but when when the Scepter is departed from Judah and the Law-giver from his feet When the Jews are made tributaries to the Romans for particular persons the cases are very many Abraham shall have the Child of the promise when he is an hundred years old Joseph shall be exalted out of a dungeon Isaac shall be rescued when the knife is at his throat David shall have the Kingdom when he is brought to the lowest Ebb and that is the time when Job shall be restored to a prosperous state and his latter end shall be greater than his beginning The three Children and Daniel shall be delivered and exalted but not till the former be actually thrown into the fiery Furnace and Daniel into the Lions Den. Peter shall be delivered out of prison but not till the very night before his execution was designed Paul shall be delivered when he despaired of life and had the sentence of death in himself 2 Cor. 1.9 In short you shall observe this the constant course and method of Divine Providence Secondly The observation is as true on the other hand when Pharaoh with his Host was in their highest ruff and he says I will pursue I will overtake them I will satisfie my lust on them then shall he be drowned in the Red-sea when the sins of the Amorites are at the full then and not before will Providence destroy and root them out When Sisera is in his greatest heighth then will God by Woman bring him down When Sennacherib is at his heighth then shall he perish The like instances might be given of Belshazzar Haman in short of all the Enemies of God and his people of whom we have any Scriptural record I remember when Gideon had his great Army God said they were too many for him to conquer by and reduceth them to three hundred then maketh them victorious The people of God though under some misery and oppressions may be too many or in too good a condition for him to deliver them and the Enemies may be too low or in too pitiful a condition for the Lord of Hosts to encounter them He will then deal with Pharaoh Sennacherib Haman Belshazzar Herod when they are at the highest and think themselves out of the reach of divine Power and Justice When all the World almost is turned Arian he will begin to root out Arianism When all are made slaves to the Pope and he can with his Bulls fright the greatest Prince that is the time Providence will chuse to begin Reformation Let us a little enquire into the Wisdom of God in this method of working God in all his great workings both of Judgment and Mercy in all his great motions of Providence is pursuing one and the same great end viz. the glory of his great and holy Name he can work for no higher he will work for no lower or lesser end The deliverance and good of his people is subordinate to this so is the ruin and destruction of their Enemies so that this must be the reason of this method of Providence Because thus God is most glorified by delivering his people when they are at the lowest by destroying his Enemies when they are at the highest God is most glorified My further Work must be to demonstrate this God is thus most glorified 1. By a Declaration of himself in his glorious Attributes 2. By Eliciting pious actions from his Creatures 1. By a Declaration of himself that men may know that he is God and he alone and the work is his and his alone There is as I have told you a mute Glory which ariseth unto God from his own works as the Psalmist saith The heavens declare the glory of God As all Gods works of Creation so all his works of Providence declare the glory of God and he doth them to be had in remembrance that he might by them be glorified and get himself a great Name in the Earth God is divers ways eminently magnified and made known to the World by this method of Providence in its workings divers Attributes of his are remarkably by it published to the World I will instance in some His power his wisdom his justice and righteousness and his goodness and mercy 1. The power of God is thus more magnified Power is a great Attribute of God Once have I spoken saith the Psalmist yea twice have I heard it that power belongeth unto God Hence he is so often call'd The great God Now the power of God is never so eminent in the view of the World as when he raiseth up his people out of the dunghil and pulleth down the Sinners in the heighth and pride of their glory When God falleth upon a Nebuchadnezzar crying out Who is that God who shall deliver you out of my hands Dan. 3.15 Upon a Sennacharib saying Who are they amongst the gods of the Nations that have delivered their people out of my hand that the Lord should deliver you out of my hand Isa 36.20 Upon a Pharaoh saying Who is the Lord that I should obey him Exod. 5.2 Then doth the Lord make the greatness of his might and power known God lets them then see that wherein they thought spake and acted proudly he can be above them Power is never so magnified as when an opposite power is greatest when men most think they are out of Gunshot I remember the story of Gideon which I hinted before you have it Judg. 7.2 The people saith God are too many for me lest Israel vaunt himself against me and say my own hand hath saved me Ver. 3 They were reduced to twenty two thousand Ver. 4 God saith They are yet too many for me In short they must be brought to three hundred and by them God will work here now Gods Arm was made bare when there is a plenty of means and probabilities and God worketh by and in the use of them it is still God's arm that brings Salvation but it is as it were a cloathed-arm and the arm the power and strength of God is hidden and concealed but when God works contrary to humane probabilities and without such means there the arm of the Lord is made bare
delighteth to shew it self in the day of mans smallest things This Observation hath some cognation with the former but there is more in it as you will see by the Sequel of my Discourse Mans smallest things may be understood to signifie 1. Smallest means 2. Smallest hopes 3. Smallest works or actions 1. Smallest means Though God be not tied to humane means but sometimes he worketh without them Though they have no efficacy but what they derive from him and he commandeth them to exert and put forth yet he often maketh use of means But this you shall observe and it shall be justified to you by and by that God seldom doth great things by great means but when God doth great work though he make use of means yet it is but little small means and the day of smallest means is usually the day of Gods work 2. In the day of smallest hopes and indeed this almost naturally followeth upon the other for humane hopes do usually ebb or flow according to the proportion of humane means that are in our Eye so that if God doth his greatest works in the day of smallest means he doth them likewise in the day of our smallest hopes which rise higher or fall lower usually according to the prospect which we have of probable means 3. Lastly In the day of smallest works or actions when man is most busie God seems to be most idle most asleep when we seem to be most awake When God turns again the captivity of Sion they are as those that dream they never see so much the Salvation of God as when they stand still I do not say when men will do least but when they do when they can do least then usually God doth his greatest works of Providence I shall justifie this Observation by a great variety of instances Let the first be that great work of Providence in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt It is true they were no inconsiderable body or number of people they were at their coming out six hundred thousand souls but scattered over all the Land of Egypt a small number in comparison of the Egyptians diminished by all arts by many years hard labour in no Military order nothing of the power of the Lord was in their hand they were so very slaves that they murmured against Moses and Aaron for but going in to Pharaoh to ask for a deliverance for them means of deliverance for them there appeared none to an humane Eye Indeed being so great a body of people God might have made use of their Swords to have fought their way out of Egypt he could easily have commanded them into a Military rank and file but he useth none of them only sendeth Moses and Aaron upon his Errand to command Pharaoh to let his people go that they might serve him The same might be said of their deliverance out of the captivity of Babylon there was no means they had no hopes from any appearance of humane probabilities those that believed amongst them doubtless had an hope from the Promise there was none of them stirred that we read of Cyrus proclaims their liberty The walls of the strong City of Jericho fall down before the Israelites upon the blowing of Rams-horns and the peoples compassing it at a distance about seven days Josh 6. Canaan is given into the hands of the Israelites they were indeed a considerable Army but the seven Nations through which they made their way into that possession were more strong and mighty than they as Moses tells them Deut. 7. Gideon delivereth them oppressed by the Midianites with a party rather than an Army of three hundred men Sampson with the jaw-bone of an ass stayeth a thousand Philistines David with a sling and a stone shall kill Goliah when none durst encounter him and the hearts of the people were killed with his daily defiance of them Indeed God hath seldom done any great things in the World by great means when the Philistines came out in an Army of thirty thousand of which we read in 1 Sam. 13 and but of three thousand Israelites that could be got together and they also frighted so as ver 6 They hid themselves in caves thickets rocks and in high-places and in pits those that kept together except Saul and Jonathan had neither sword nor spear amongst them ver 19 20. Jonathan and his Armour-bearer go up alone and smite them set all the Host on trembling and the multitude melteth away chap. 14. v. 16. The colour of the Water deceives the Moabites to their ruin when Jehoram Jehosaphat and the King of Edom were almost all famined for want of water 2 Kings 3.20 21. When Jehosaphat knows not what to do 2 Chron. 26.22 God tells them ver 17 They need not fight only stand still and see the salvation of God they did but stand still and sing and praise their Enemies destroy one another Look upon Gods great work of Providence in the conversion of the World to the obedience of the Gospel How doth God do this Not by might nor by power but by his Spirit Christ sends out a few poor Fishermen these shall go and perswade the world to throw out their Idols and to receive the new Doctrine of the Gospel which to their wisdom appeared foolishness The World was full of very learned Philosophers God could have converted instructed and sent out them but he chuseth to do this great work by small things Chusing as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 1.27 28. the foolish things of the world to confound the wise the weak things of the world to confound those that were mighty the base things of the world and things which are despised to bring to nought the things that are Next to this was the great Work of God in the Reformation begun in Germany by Luther it was a day of very small things the whole world was Popish and had given their power to the Roman beast the remainders of the Church were in the valleys of Piedmont and Lucerne and in Bohemia a small despised remnant Now God begins to work and by what means Luther a poor despised Fryer he begins and preacheth against indulgences the whole world almost were against him he hath to do with the Emperour the Pope all the Popish Doctors yet by these small things the Providence of God brings to pass this his great work It was a day of small things with us when we were delivered from the Spanish-Armado in the year 1588 from the intended Powder-Treason In short I say we shall find that the Providence of God hath done the greatest works that it hath brought to pass in the world in the day of mans smallest things when there have been the smallest appearances of humane means when the People of God have had the smallest hopes and when they have been least in action God hath in his Providence seldom done any great things by great humane means Now the reason of this is the
same as of my former observation Because thus he gets himself most glory The Glory of God is the great end of all his actions he worketh for himself for the Honour and Glory of his own great Name Now God hath more Honour and Glory by these accomplishments than if he should bring them to pass by greater and more probable means The Apostle gives this very reason 1 Cor. 1.29 Why God chose weak things to confound those that are mighty c. That no flesh should glory in his presence 1. His power is thus more magnified He thus appears to be a great God a mighty God though it be true that the Power of God is equally exerted when he worketh by great means as by small had we spiritual eyes or did we look upon means as we ought to do as deriving all their efficacy from God yet de facto it is not so to us and therefore you shall in Scripture observe God often declaring that he would work this or that in this or that manner that his People might not say that they had done this by their own might or power The lesser appearance there is of second Causes the more the efficiency of the first Cause is evident so God getteth himself a great deal of Glory by working in the day of mans smallest things 2. As I also told you under the former head God getteth himself more Glory by the praises of his people he is more admired in his workings more praised and adored for his workings The Enemies are also hereby enforced to confess the works of the Lord and to acknowledg the greatness of his Power But having enlarged upon these things under the former observation I shall add no more here but come to the Application Vse 1. The first Use I shall make of this point shall be what the Prophet Zechariah hath made before me Zech. 4.10 Who hath despised the day of small things The Prophet propoundeth it by way of Interrogation but it contains a Precept in the bowels of it Learn not to despise the day of small things it is usually Gods day It may be a day of small things as to the Church the state of it may be very sad the case of it very low little humane means or probabilities may appear of the amendment of its state all things may seem to make against the interest of God and Religion Now I say let no man despise this day of small things It may be a day of small things with the particular soul the case of it may be very sad it may be full of dejections full of despondencies hurried with temptations it may have hope and but a little hope light shining in upon it at a poor crevice let none now despise this day of small things Two things I would press upon you 1. Not to despise this day 2. To perform what is your positive duty with reference to such a day 1. I say first Despise not such a day Persons or things may be despised two ways 1. Directly 2. Interpretatively Take heed of despising it directly Take heed of despising it interpretatively We despise a person or thing directly when in our hearts we contemn him or it and have a low and poor estimate of him or it and express it by any outward sign as words gestures c. Thus the Enemies of the Jews scorned the Jews employed in re-building the City and Temple when they said What will these feeble Jews do if a fox go up he will break down what they have builded It was it seems a day of small things with the Jews their Enemies despised them and mocked at them Thus Sennacherib despised Hezekiah when he offered his Commissioners two hundred horses if his master could set riders on them Take heed of this despising Thus the Popish party in Germany despised the day of small things in the beginning of the Reformation by Luther when they bid him go into his Cell and pray Lord have mercy upon me The issue in all three cases shewed that they had no reason as to any of them to have despised the day of small things Providence usually brings forth its greatest works in such a day But besides this despising 2. There is an interpretative despising of such a day Take heed of this also thus we may despise things 1. When we do not give that due regard to them which we ought Thus our Saviour telleth you A man cannot serve two masters but he will cleave to the one and despise the other that is not give that due regard which he ought to give to the other He that neglecteth what ought not to be neglected doth interpretatively despise when we have not that due value for a thing we ought to have we despise it Thus Esau despised his birth-right saith the Apostle we no where read that he spake contemptuously of it but he did not duly value it he sold it for a contemptible price a mess of pottage 2. When because of the smallness of means our hearts fail in the use of the means we have or as to the promise this is a despising of the day of small things Now I say take heed of despising such a day any of these ways it is usually Gods day Let your rule be this If a work or issue of a work be for Gods Glory if it be the matter of a Divine Promise though there may be but a small appearance of means for the accomplishment of it take heed of despising it either directly or interpretatively Who hath despised such a day saith the Prophet intimating that none ought to despise it none hath any just reason to despise it 2. But secondly Do what is your duty in such a day you will say What is that I will open it in three things 1. Vse the means you have 2. Exercise a faith in God beyond the probable effect of those means 3. Make up in prayer what you will want in action through a want of means Of each of these a word or two 1. Vse those means and grounds of hope which you have If David hath but a sling and a stone to go out against Goliah with yet he will use them Means that have a natural vertue in them or a divine institution have Gods stamp upon them and must be used leaving the event and success unto God we must neither idolize means by attributing the divine Efficiency to them nor yet tempt God by a neglect of them when God affords us them You shall observe God sometimes commanding the use of means which had no rational tendency to the production of the effect as what influence could the Israelites blowing with Rams-horns and the Army encompassing the City seven days have upon the walls of Jericho yet the Israelites were bound to use them because they had the stamp of a divine Institution upon them It is much the same case when they have a natural vertue or a rational tendency there
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
to keep them there He thus endeared the Jews to him and thus transplanted a Colony yea and secured Hierusalem to his obedience which was before under the Command of the Babylonians who were his Enemies 3. The sending of the Messias was a great product of Divine Providence he was to introduce a new way of worship to preach what to them in their corrupted state was a new Doctrine had the Jews been in their heighth this would by no means have been endured by them See how God fitteth the worlds circumstances to this great product of Providence The scepter is departed from Judah and the lawgiver from his feet the Jews are become Tributaries to the Romans and under their power so they were not so brisk as they would have been There is a general peace over all the world so as the Romans were not so jealous of making parties and factions people were more at leisure to listen to the Gospel and Prince of peace Now comes the Lord Jesus Christ If we should carry the business a little further What great work hath God ever done since in which we may not see a remarkable fitting of the worlds circumstances to the production of it I will instance but in one or two things referring to the Protestant-Reformation Our reformation you know was began in the time of Henry the Eight How did God fit our circumstances to it King Henry shall fall out with the Pope because he will not allow his divorce and so shall break with him and set up a purer course of Religion it was hardly to have been imagined how England should have been freed from Popery at another time by the advantage of the chief Magistrates assistance There was a strange concurrence of Divine Providences in the reformation which was begun in Germany Luther was raised up a man of a most invincible spirit and courage Printing was found out a-few years before in that very Countrey in 1440 by which means Luther's and others books were presently diffused throughout all Europe V. Sculteti annales l. 1. c. 1. The knowledg of Arts and Learning were just restored to the world after the long darkness and ignorance in which Popery had muffled the world Many secret favourers of Religion were admitted to great places in the Popish-Church who either out of favour to the reformed Religion or out of love to their learning shewed great kindness to the first Reformers several great Princes of Germany were also prepared some possibly out of conscience others out of principles of honour favouring and protecting Luther In short the Providence of God hath hardly at any time produced any great work in the change of the State of the Church or of any Kingdom but his fitting of the circumstances of the world to it have been strangely obvious and remarkable to every observing eye 2. Let us secondly take a view of the Providence of God working as to particular persons with reference to things of a more outward concern take it in the instances of Joseph of David of Haman of the three Children and Daniel David was to be brought to be King over Israel and Judah from a Shepherds boy to be a great Prince he shall first kill Goliah he shall be sent for to Court to drive away Sauls evil spirit with his Harp he shall marry the Kings Daughter and grow great with Jonathan Joseph is to become a great man in Egypt he shall first be recommended to Pharaoh grow great with him a famine shall come he shall save much people alive and thus be in great honour and in a capacity to serve his Fathers family The Providence of God designs to preserve the Jews to advance Mordecai to ruin Haman An Hebrew Lady by a strange Providence shall come to be Queen and one that shall be Mordecai's Neece Haman shall be found upon the bed with Esther and mistaken in his Complement to her as if he had a design to force her c. Infinite are the instances which might be brought 3. Let us consider the motions of Providence with reference to the souls of people as to their best and most spiritual concerns If God hath much people in Macedonia St. Paul shall be called thither he ordereth Ministers to places or particular persons to a Ministry proper for the work in a strange way many a time when he hath a design to do good to particular souls But here let me recommend one observation to you When he designeth the tryal of a Child of his with inward troubles and temptations he usually fits it with an unhealthy body suted to such impressions and when he designeth the restoring of quiet and peace to the spirit he ordinarily fits it with an healthy body Not that all the trouble and disquietudes of the spirit floweth from the indisposition of the body the contrary is evident enough to any who diligently observe Christians at such times and may know many others under the same kinds and possibly greater degrees of bodily distempers whose minds are not so disturbed who have no such temptations c. But seldom it is but such inward troubles are circumstanced with bodily disturbances and so on the contrary it is rare to find a peaceful quiet rejoycing spirit but it is suited also with a freedom from bodily distempers especially such as have an influence upon the head and affect that But I shall enlarge no further upon what is so evident to any who observeth any thing of the motions of Divine Providence Reas Now the Reason of this is evident Because though the Providence of God sometimes produceth things miraculously yet it ordinarily produceth them by the way of means some means although possibly not adequate and fully proportioned to the production The Providence of God is a servant to his Glory that is the end for which it works for which it always worketh and can work for no other end but it doth not always work for the glorifying of God in the same Attribute sometimes it glorifieth his Power sometimes his Wisdom sometimes his Goodness and Mercy c. It glorified Gods Power in the destruction of Pharaoh he was ruined by the immediate supernatural hand of God but ordinarily the Providence of God worketh by means and the Wisdom of God is most eminently seen in contriving and ordering and disposing means unthought-of and yet ordinarily the Power of God is also glorified the means being such as are very unlikely or improbable to produce such an effect Now this being granted that the most ordinary way of Gods working is by means little or much there must be an ordering and preparation of them and this is the reason of Gods fitting adjacent circumstances to his work which he produceth those circumstances being the ordinary means which God thinks fit to make use of to work in with and by And here the great Power and Wisdom of God is seen in ordering the affairs of the world so as they shall sute his great
a knock or a bruise and lose such Instruments as might have been useful But at last we see God bring forth his work the world is as to its circumstances fitted to it then we see our folly David was anointed to the Kingdom of Israel and Judah after this he is called to Court he is made the Kings son-in-law If any one upon this should have made a party for David to have rent the Kingdom from Saul a defensive party he indeed had to protect him from Sauls rage but no more he had undoubtedly but made himself a prey But David waiteth year after year till God had fitted the circumstances of that Kingdom to his design till Saul and Jonathan were gone and the peoples hearts were inamoured and set upon David and the Captain of the Army was turned also to him and when these circumstances concurred then he brings forth his great work and setteth his Servant David peaceably upon the Throne promised unto him Thus far I have enlarged upon the Explicatory part of this Observation I now come to the Application of it Vse 1. In the first place Let us learn from hence to adore the wisdom of God in his great productions of Providence There is much very much of God to be seen in his great products of Providence but he is to be seen in them in nothing more than this his adopting and fitting the world to his designs With how much blood must David have come to the Kingdom the children of Israel been brought out of Egypt and Babylon had it not been for this Oh the infinite unsearchable wisdom of God! his footsteps are not known his ways are past a creature 's finding out Wisdom in action is then much seen when the action is not attempted but at such a time as it takes effect The wisdom of the Smith teacheth him to strike when the Mettal is hot and malleable The wise General opens not his trenches till all is ready to make the Sally or assault nor springs the Mine till it be carried right under the wall Herein is the infinite wisdom of God seen that he attemptâ— not a great work until he hath accommodated circumstances to it Vse 2. Secondly Observe from hence That the miscarrying of a good design must be the product of mans improvidence not of Gods directive Providence There are many instances might be given of mens miscarrying in a good design that is in the attempt of things which God will certainly bring to pass How many have perished in their undertakings of works of Reformation their works miscarried The Providence of God is not indeed excluded out of these events it permitted those persons so to act it governed their action But it was their own ungrounded zeal and sinful passions and undue precipitancy that caused their miscarriage God's effective Providence never miscarrieth in its designs for it always either produceth a thing by an almighty-Power miraculously or else so fitteth the worlds circumstances afore-hand that if it be to be done mediately it is certainly produced It is only mans haste and mis-guided zeal that makes any good work abortive By a good work here I understand whatsoever is made the Object of a Divine Promise and by the way this may teach us not to let go our hold on the Promise upon any such disaster If the work be of God if it be any thing which God hath promised it shall be effected though it may miscarry in a first or second undertaking either because the Providence of God is driving another design viz. in the accomplishment of it first to punish some undertakers in it for their sins which was the case of the Israelites against Benjamin and against Ai or for their precipitancy and rash setting upon it out of Gods time or their ill-managery of it yet let not your faith fail in the Promise for the work shall revive in Gods time when he hath fitted the Worlds circumstances a little better to it it shall go on But thirdly Vse 3. Let me call upon you to Observe this in Gods providential Dispensations both towards the Church and towards your own Souls in particular Whoso is wise observeth these things saith the Text and he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. This is a very observable thing it will make us spiritually wise it will make us to understand much of the Lords loving-kindness in the products of his Providence 1. I say first it will give us spiritual wisdom and in a great measure make us to understand Gods time for the production of his great works and very much guide us as to our duty in the use of means what and of what nature is seasonable and proper for us to make use of For Example There is a great expectation of the Conversion of the Jews whether the whole Body of them shall be converted or no and whether they shall return to Jerusalem and again build and inhabit that once holy City I cannot say But the Scripture seemeth to incline very much That there shall be a far greater conversion of them and calling of them in than yet hath been But to look for this suddenly or to fix it upon any certain year must needs be a very great an idle and groundless vanity we must first see the Worlds circumstances much better fitted to it than we yet do whilst either the lives or blasphemies of the Jews are such as it is not reasonable that Christian Princes should endure them in their Territories or the spirits of Christians are such as they will not so endure them or such Idolatries and Superstitions are amongst Christians as are abomination to that people the circumstances of the World do not seem fitted to the production of such a great and noble work If we should live to see the bitterness of the Jews against Christ abated and the bitterness of Christians Spirits against them more generally allayed The lives and worship of Christians more reformed from such superstitions as they abominate and the lives of the Jews more reduced to rules of Christians we might then hope for something of this nature and judg Gods time at hand To give another instance Protestants do believe or at least did till of late some have began to doubt it That the Pope of Rome was the great Antichrist That wicked one of whom the Apostle prophecied 2 Thess 2.8 that should be revealed whom God would consume with the spirit of his mouth and with the brightness of his coming He it is ver 4 who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself that he is God The mysterie of his iniquity began to work even in the Apostle's time though there was none of many years after owned the name of Pope or arrogant title of Vniversal Bishop or Vicar of Christ c. But the Apostle ver 6 tells us there was something
which then hindered his being revealed and would let until he should be taken away The Roman Empire hindered nor is that hinderance yet taken away 'T is true there is but a stump of that Empire remaining in Germany Spain France England many other great boughs are lop'd off it but most of them kept their Antichristian favour though they changed their temporal Lords and set up for and by themselves as to temporal subjection and dominion You see and hear how fierce the French the Spaniards the Portugals c. the house of Austria are for the Romish Religion 'T is true England hath broke that yoke off its neck so hath Holland the Gospel hath got a great foot in Germany France Denmark Poland Sweden Hungary but yet the Devil hath a large Chappel in most of those places It is the National Religion of France Spain Portugal Italy the Imperial Proper-territories God is fitting the circumstances of the World much to his promised Work of destroying this Antichrist with the spirit of his mouth with the brightness of his coming England is fallen off Holland is fallen off a great part of Switzerland many Cities and Territories in Germany Sweden and Denmark great numbers in France God is by degrees doing his work and a great deal is done within the space of a hundred and fifty years last past for it is no longer since Luther began to shake his Throne but yet the circumstances of the World do not look as if it were like to be a work we should see in our age nor it may be our childrens children Methinks the Scripture looks as if that man of sin should die a natural death not a violent one I mean that that Religion should be loathed out of the World not fought out of it God will consume it with the Spirit of his mouth and with the brightness of his coming Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord I tell you but my judgment that before the fall of Antichrist you must yet see a greater falling off from Popery by the Princes of other Nations and their people The Worlds circumstances do not yet seem fitted to that great Work God may work Miracles in the case but I know no ground we have to expect them I am very confident that Antichrist is in his wane much past his full declining every day and therefore the fears of some that that ridiculous Religion should again over-spread England or Holland or any other reformed Church do not much afflict me I take that for granted that Babylon is falling but when we shall hear that joyful sound Babylon is fallen Babylon is fallen that I cannot tell you but in the general I think we must first see the World otherwise circumstanced than it is 2. By this observation of the motions of Providence you shall also understand much of Gods set time as to shewing mercy to your own particular soul viz. when your bodily or spiritual circumstances are fitted for the desired mercy 1. I say first when your bodily circumstances are fitted to it There is nothing more evident than the dependance of our minds upon our bodies and the influence that some bodily distempers especially have upon our souls and minds now although it be true that God can work miraculously and by light can break through a darkness be it never so thick and ravish a Soul with unspeakable joy and peace though at that time it be yoked to a dark cloudy melancholick disturbed body yet God useth not to work Miracles ordinarily but to move in a more ordinary course of Providence by the use and application of means that are proper so that as it is seldom but God useth the disorders and disturbances of the body to influence and afflict the mind and to be at least an adjuvant cause when he will trouble a Soul so he usually restoreth health and a better constitution of body when he intends to restore peace and quiet and a composure of spirit I say ordinarily he doth so And hence again in the next place 3. We by giving attendance to this Observation may learn our duty in reference to the use of Means so as to use what is proper to its season for there is great wisdom to be used in apportioning means For Example as to the bringing down of Antichrist if Gods time be not come the means are not girding our swords upon our thighs c. I question whether that will ever be a Mean proper to be used in that case but endeavouring by all means possible to loath the World of Popish superstitions and ceremonies and all the idolatry of that Synagogue and of all the cheats they put upon the World and alienate the hearts of people from them So for calling the Jews the means to be used is not inciting them to get into a body and heading them c. but to convince them of their errours to endeavour the sweetning of their spirits the enlightning their minds with the knowledg of the truth of the Gospel and reconciling them to the Christian Religion and shewing them the Examples of an holy life and conversation So in case of particular Souls where the discomposure of the mind is originated in or further advantaged by bodily distempers which is a thing very frequently happening I do not take it to be the duty of a Christian meerly to pray and hear but also to use natural means proper for the abating of these distempers yet not this without Prayer and use of Ordinances both for the blessing of God upon such means and for the further influences of his supernatural grace for God fitteth the circumstances of the person that is to receive the mercy to the desired mercy when he intendeth the bestowing of it as well as the circumstances of the World to the mercy which in his set-time he intendeth for his Church so as I say this observing of this method of Providence duly attended to addeth spiritual Wisdom to a Christian as in discerning of Gods time for mercy so also in directing him to his duty as to proper means to be used by him in the way of his duty in order to the obtaining of the mercy teaching him to know what Israel ought to do what a good Christian ought to do under the circumstances under which God hath brought him 2. By an attendance to this working of Providence you shall understand much of the loving-kindness of the Lord very much of the goodness and love of God to Nations and Churches is seen in this his fitting of the worlds circumstances to his designs before he produceth them as his designs are effected without tumult and bloodshed which otherwise through mens opposition to it would not be avoided With how much bloodshed in all humane probability must the Children of Israel have first came out of Egypt then out of Babylon had not God fitted the circumstances of the world to those designs of his Providence
the ignorance and sottishness of the Popish-Clergy together with their covetousness ambition and debauchery to grow to that heighth that they grew an abomination to all men And as it is in the Political and Ecclesiastical body so it is as to the particular persons of Christians the Providence of God ordinarily disposeth the body according to the work which he hath to do upon the soul But that is more forreign to my observation therefore I shall not inlarge upon it Besides that I spake something to it under the former observation which hath some cognation with this this only differing from it in this shewing you that the Providence of God doth not make the Church lacquey to the world but he makes the world lacquey to the Church and subordinateth the business of the world to his own great designs relating to the Church Now if you ask me the reason of this it doubtless lyeth Reas In the peculiar favour of God to that people in the world which bear the name of his Church You have an expression Psal 87.2 The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Sion was the place at the foot of which the Temple was built where all the worship which God had in the world performed according to his will was performed The tabernacle in Shiloh was forsaken Psal 78.60 God hath a particular kindness for any place for any persons amongst whom his true worship is and where he hath placed to himself a Tabernacle though God had a kindness for the whole seed of Jacob yet he loved the gates of Sion above all the dwellings of Jacob because that was the place where his worship was regularly performed It holds still under the New Testament and will hold to the end of the world wheresoever God hath a Church or people he hath a particular kindness for that people they are in Scripture called the house of God God is said to dwell and walk amongst them and God hath yet a more particular favour to those that are the invisible part of the visible Church I mean such as truly belong unto God that worship him in spirit and in truth that fear the Lord and hope in his mercies as the Psalmist expresseth it Psal 33.18 All the world is nothing to God in comparison of this little flock to whom it is his will to give a Kingdom He hath given them his Christ and shall he not with him give them all things This were easily to be proved to you from a variety of Scripture and arguments drawn from thence Now supposing this it is no wonder if he subordinateth his works in the world to his designs here This is that Canaan which the Lord careth for and upon which his eyes are from one end of the year to another Deut. 11. His heritage the dearly beloved of his soul Jer. 12.7 His peculiar treasure his sister his spouse the redeemed and ransomed of the Lord his portion in short there is a multitude of expressions by which God hath shewen that his Church the whole body of people owning and professing him and especially those of them that worship him in spirit and truth and walk up to the rule of his word are dearer to him than all the world besides He calls them his bride Rev. 21.9 His beloved Psal 108.6 His building 1 Cor. 3.9 His City Heb. 12.22 His chosen generation 1 Pet. 2.9 His family Eph. 3.15 His husbandry 1 Cor. 3.9 His Kingdom the lot of his inheritance Now considering this it is no wonder at all that the Providence of God should manage all the affairs of the world in subordination to his designs for the good of this body All the relation of God to others is but that of a Creator and they are no better than the synagogues of Satan as to the Divine Worship that is in them and the throne of Satan with respect to the homage of their Conversation They are called children of wrath of disobedience of the curse strangers and forreiners If God sometimes gives up his people into the hands of wicked men it is either 1. For his peoples good to purge away their dross and take away their tinn as the Prophet expresseth it or for to ripen sinners for their destruction that they may by it fill up the measure of their iniquities Methinks you have a full proof of this Observation in the 105 Psalm the Psalmist in that Psalm is calling the Church of the Jews to give thanks unto the Lord to sing unto him to talk of all his wondrous works Then followeth a recapitulation of those great things which God had done for them amongst which this is reckoned that he subordinated his motions of Providence amongst the men and the nations of the world to his gracious designs for them Vers 14. He suffered no man to do them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sake saying Touch not mine anointed do my prophets no harm and so he goes on almost quite through that Psalm Now I say the reason of all this was his love set upon this people As most of us have some particular persons that our heart is most set upon some particular interest and design that we drive on now whoever those persons be or whatever that design be we make all the rest of our actions to be subordinate to that So the great God having set up his glory as his great interest and design and set apart him and them that are godly for himself it is no wonder at all if he ruleth all the world and governeth all the affairs of it in subordination to this great interest and the good of this people I now come to the Application of this Observation Vse 1. In the first place as I said before upon the other Observation so I say here From hence a wise and observing Christian may in a great measure know what weather it is like to be in the Climate of the Church How it is like to fare with them that are the People of God They are and always were the far lesser part of the world and their quiet and tranquillity to look with a rational eye doth much depend upon the complexion of the men of the world and their inclinations if God intends a calm and tranquillity to the Church he usually so ordereth the world that the earth helps the woman the men of the world either out of good nature or which indeed mostly is the business out of interest shew them kindness Hence you shall observe that when God intendeth the tranquillity and prosperity of the Church his Providence ordinarily bringeth one of these things to pass 1. He sometimes raiseth up some eminent servant of his to do great services for the men of the world this you see in the case of Joseph God had designed the Jews a prospering multiplying time in the land of Egypt he raiseth up Joseph makes him a Privy-Counsellor to Pharaoh yea the second man
little good to be hoped for unless God by his Providence makes some particular persons amongst them highly serviceable or instrumental in the state where they live either discovering some plots or treasons which was the case in Mordecai's time or brings some of them to some great favour which was the cause of the Israelites first in Egypt then in Babylon and Esther afterwards upon their return from Babylon or else God by his Providence secureth his little flock by suffering some intestine factions to rise amongst the men of the world or stirring up other enemies against that part of the world that they have something else to do and cannot attend the execution of their malice upon the servants of God or blesseth a particular state with a good-natured Prince that is not enclined to rigour and severity but naturally abhorreth the blood and ruin of people though usually if the latter be the case it is but an incertain time with the Church for good natures are ordinarily with ease enclined this way or that according to the mutability of prevailing Counsels But now if the People of God in any nation be a considerable number and you see the Providence of God hath raised them up to be men of interest many of them either with respect to their Wisdom or Estates or Imployments though their Enemies be many and boisterous yet there is no great fear unless of particular persons suffering God seems to have subordinated the world to their peace For though some few imprudent men that are rash and malicious and some hot-spur'd Church-men who understand little of politicks may in such a juncture be for nothing but fire and faggot yet God who in his Providence hath ordered civil affairs so that it should be the interest of the men of the world to give them liberty and peace will seldom suffer those whom he hath betrusted with the government of the affairs of the world unless he designeth to bring a period to the state so far to overlook their interests as to gratifie the lusts of malicious and rash men Again If you see in any place God suffering men calling themselves Ministers to degenerate into such sots in their Conversation or to run into such heighths of superstitious vanities and fooleries as all men condemn and see the vanity of or to be so insufficient for any part of their work that they can do nothing of it but are contemptible unto all and make the offering of God to be abhorred This is another juncture of affairs when you may either fear the ruin of the place or hope for a reformation or more quiet abode for Gods People in it And by the way my enlargement upon this Observation may mind the People of God of the Policy as well as Piety of a threefold duty 1. The first is All just homage and serviceableness unto such rulers as God hath set over the places wherein their lot is cast I say just homage for it is better to obey God than Man and we cannot obey Man where Obedience to him is disobedience to God But the more any of our consciences towards God straitens us as to some points of Obedience the more we should be serviceable in what we may If it at any time falls in our way to secure their lives by discovering dangerous plots and conspiracies Mordecay by such a service made himself the Protector of all the people of the Jews If we be called to it and can assist them with our arms with our wisdom counsel with our service and industry remember what great instruments for the good of Gods People Joseph Daniel the three Children Nehemiah c. were made 2. Observe here also the Policy as well as Piety of the practice of all moral virtue Justice to all charity and liberality to the poor temperance sobriety all manner of loveliness in Conversation there must be something more than these things to commend you to God but these are the things that must commend you to the world Moral vertue hath a great cognation with humane Nature though mens lusts and passions sometimes run them out to acts of injustice and oppression and debauchery yet no body would willingly himself be oppressed or dealt unjustly with or have his own wife and daughters debauched It is very rare but the highest and maddest Enemies of the People of God are malicious and debauched persons few of them persons of moral vertue and honesty make but your selves great Examples of these things and you will certainly at one time or other be too hard for your adversaries the world so loatheth their injustice cruelty oppression hard-heartedness their drunkenness and uncleanness their lying cheating and defrauding that it will vomit them out 3. It lets you also see the Policy as well as Piety of keeping close to God in the matters of his worship The sottishness and superstition of Priests signifieth good not hurt to you unless you approve of their savings and doings But when the prophets prophecy falsly and the priests bear rule by their means and the people love to have it so what will you do in the end thereof Jer. 5.32 If the ministry in any nation be sottish in their lives corrupt in their Doctrines superstitious in their Worship dumb dogs that can neither pray nor preach let not the people love to have it so and comply with them and own them God will not long suffer his flock to be rent in pieces with such wolves nor be at the will of such idol-shepherds But I have enlarged far enough upon this first branch of Application I shall be shorter in the other 2. Observe from hence both the felicity and duty of the people of God 1. Their felicity and dignity Their dignity I remember the Psalmist admiring the mercy of God towards man and expressing his Dignity Psal 8.6 7. Thou madest him to have dominion over the work of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen yea and the beasts of the field the fouls of the air and the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the seas This is a great dignity of man that God hath subordinated all the works of Creation all the orders of Creatures beneath him unto him But what a dignity is this to which God hath advanced his Church that all the affairs of the world should be as it were put under their feet that they should not only have a dominion over the works of the Lords hands in Creation as sheep and neat cattel and fouls and fishes but also all the Lords works of Providence that the Kingdoms of the Earth and the great affairs of states should be ruled with reference to the good of this little flock What a felicity it is to be within this hedg to be a member of this body of people I mean a true member of the Church of God I know the whole visible Church as I have before shewed you is under
a special Providence But it is not to be thought that God should do much for Hypocrites and Formalists What advantages they have from the Providence of God they have for the sake of those better servants of God with whom they are joyned in an external communion And certainly in the last place this obligeth all within the Church of God to a more special duty Doth God subordinate all his great actions and motions in the world to his gracious designs and counsels relating to that body of people of which we are a part Surely then it were but reasonable for us to subordinate all our little actions in the world to the honour and glory of God Gods glorifying of himself is his great design he aims at no other end and it ought also to be our highest design He hath chosen a certain people out of the world and marked them out for himself as the people in whom and by whom he will be more especially glorified This people is called his Church God subordinateth all his great actions in the world to his gracious designs upon and for these certainly in reason Whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do we should according to the Apostles Precept do all to the glory of God His people are those whom he hath created whom he hath formed for himself all the world is nothing to God in comparison of them they are the dearly beloved of his Soul What love reverence obedience is but reasonable on our parts towards this great God What ingratitude must it argue on our part to prefer any thing in design or action to the Honour and Glory of this God We can never live enough unto nor do enough for that God who hath done and doth do so much for us This Observation might be many other ways improved but I shall add no more SERMON XXI Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Proceed yet in making some Observations upon the motions of Divine Providence A seventh Observation I shall make is this Observ 7. It ordinarily enforceth wicked men who mean nothing less yet to do the Lords work It is the great art of a Politician to serve himself of every humor A good Pen-man will write almost with any Pen and a good work-man will work with any tool and the great and wise God herein sheweth the greatness of his Wisdom that he also works with any tools and doth his business by any instruments The Stars shall fight in their courses against Sizera the Sun and the Moon against the Canaanites the Frogs the Lice and the Flyes against Pharaoh the Earth against Corah Dathan and Abiram Now in this there shines forth a great deal of Divine Power thus God sheweth himself to the world to be the Lord of hosts to have all the hosts of Heaven and Earth at his command So that as a great General who hath several Regiments under his Command at his pleasure he sometimes commandeth out one sometimes another as it pleaseth him upon a particular service so doth our great and mighty God and as that great Commander shewing his vast Army to his friend is reported to have said there is not one of these but if I bid him throw himself down a Precipice or into a River he will do it so there is not any company of inanimate or brute Creatures not one Company in the whole Army of the Lord of Hosts but like the Centurion's servants if he saith unto them Go they go if Do this they do it But though much of the Wisdom and Power of God be seen in this yet it is more eminently seen in the use he makes of wicked men to accomplish his designs which is a thing very usual in the motions of Divine Providence As that Politician doth most shew his Wisdom that maketh his Enemies serve him so God in this doth commend to us his infinite Wisdom to make use of the Sons of men that have a perfect hatred and enmity to God and all his holy designs that they shall serve him and accomplish his designs Now this Observation justifieth it self by a great variety of instances You have one in holy Writ very plain Isa 10.5 6 7. O Assyrian the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation I will send him against an hypocritical nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them like mire of the streets Howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so Assyria you see was the Rod of Gods anger Gods indignation was his staff Thou couldest do nothing against me saith Christ to Pilate if it were not given thee from above He went upon Gods errand when he went against Gods People the Jews they had proved an hypocritical people and God had determined to make the people that had been the dearly beloved of his soul the people of his wrath God gave him his charge to spoil to take the prey to tread down the people O but how should God perswade the Assyrian to serve him The Assyrians were Enemies to the true God the Text telleth you Howbeit he meaneth not so neither is it in his heart to think so He thought of nothing less than serving of Gods design that which he thought of was plunder and spoyl and prey for his Soldiers as the Apostle saith of himself 2 Cor. 12.16 Being crafty I took you by guile so we may say of God being wise infinitely wise he took the Assyrian by guile or rather by his infinite wisdom This is that which the Psalmist saith Psal 76.10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee The wrath of man shall praise God How can that be James tells us That the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God Well but for all that it shall praise God God will make use of their wrath and malice to bring forth his great designs Who would ever have thought that Pharaoh the King of Egypt should have been a great instrument to have brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt Yet he was rather a greater instrument in it than Moses was Moses did no more than lead out of Egypt a willing people and sollicit Pharaoh to give his consent Pharaoh was Gods instrument to make them willing he meant nothing less he saw the people grew great and mighty Come on saith he let us deal wisely that is subtilly with them lest they multiply and it come to pass when there falleth out any war they joyn also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get themselves out of our land here was all he aimed at in his oppressing them to bring them low and keep them still under his subjection Observe how God made use of this The Children of Israel were now seated and settled and multiplied in a fertile
Countrey and had it not been for the King of Egypt's oppressing them would never have been willing to have left the flesh-pots and onions and garlick of Egypt but for this dealing of Pharaoh with them making them to serve with rigour slaying their male-children c. This quite tyred them and made them willing to go out of Egypt towards Canaan But let me a little shew you what a variety of lusts in wicked mens hearts God hath from time to time made use of to accomplish the great designs of his Providence with reference to his people and indeed it is hard to say what lust in sinners hearts God hath not made use of at one time or other and made it to serve the holy and wise designs of his Providence 1. The lusts of the eye and flesh are of all other the most unmanlike brutish passions yet the Providence of God hath sometimes taken advantage of these for the glory of God You all know what a strange influence Esther's being advanced to be Queen of Persia had upon Gods design for the building of the second Temple in Ezra's time she was the great instrument to save the whole Church of the Jews the only Church God had upon the Earth at that time from utter ruin God made use of the lust of Ahasuerus to bring this about he takes a Teach to Vasthi for refusing to come to him to be shown to his Princes and turns her away and then must look for the greatest beauty could be found Esther proveth to be she What a strange instance of this had we of this in King Henry the Eighth of that name in this Nation Those who know any thing of the story of those times know that it was no abhorrence of the Idolatry and Superstition of the Popish-Religion that set him upon the work of Reformation After some beginnings of it the six Articles came out Papists were burnt on one side of Smithfield Protestants on the other but the King was weary of his Wife and had a mind to another His wife indeed was one whom Protestant-Divines judged he could not keep having been his brothers wife without a continual living in incest the Pope who thinks he can dispense with any thing he thinks or decrees she was his wife and would give no dispensation for a divorce the Popish-Universities and Divines who never fail to be on their holy Fathers side all oppose the King in his desire of change This angers the King and was the first motive to his business of Reformation and casting off the Pope's Supremacy Nor is this any reproach at all to the Lords work of Reformation amongst us there 's nothing more ordinary than for God to make the wrath of man to praise him and make use of the lusts of men to bring about his own designs 2. Ambition is another lust which fireth the heart of wicked men especially great men It is an excessive desire of Honour and Dominion Poor wretches born to and brought up in little circumstances and low stations in the world are ordinarily not so much infected with this it is the great mans lust God makes an eminent use of this See it in the case of Jehu a proud ambitious man that had in him a great lust and desire of rule and honour God had a quarrel against the house of Ahab by his Providence he ordereth Jehu to the Kingdom makes use of him to destroy Joram the Son of Ahab and Ahaziah the King of Judah the Son-in law of Ahab and Jezebel Ahab's wife whom God had threatned for the blood of Naboth and his whole Family until none remained 2 Kings 8. vers 23 24 25. chap. 9. vers 9 10 24 27 35 chap. 10. vers 7 11 17. And thus he delivered his seven thousand in Israel that had not bowed knee to Baal from the idolatry cruelty and oppression of a vile and wicked Prince Jehu indeed in all this pretended a great zeal for God and did destroy Baal from Israel 2 King 10.28 but yet ver 9. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin Jehu departed not from after them to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan. Vers 31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the way of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin Hence it was that though the Lord tells him 2 King 10.30 That he had done well in executing that which was right in the eyes of God and had done according to all that was in Gods heart as to the house of Ahab and therefore promised him a reward for it viz. that for it his children of the fourth generation should sit on the throne of Israel yet God by the Prophet Hosea told them Hos 1.4 Yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu The business was no more than this Jehu was an ambitious Prince that loved honour and dominion the Providence of God maketh use of this lust of his to bring about his holy and righteous designs upon that wicked family of Ahab and for the delivery of his people from their oppressions This was the case of Haman a proud ambitious Courtier in the Court of Persia he had a mind to be great this made him malice Mordecay he would not bow his knee to him this made him propose such great things to be done to the man whom the King should please to shew favour and honour to the Text tells you he said To whom will the King delight to do honour more than to my self Est 6.6 God maketh use of his ambition to bring Mordecay into honour and to save the whole people of the Jews and thus it ordinarily falls out in lesser spheres the humble disposition of Gods People inclining them to give honour to whom honour belongeth and not to deny civil respects to the worst of men doth often commend them to those that are ambitious of honour and respect and maketh them their friends God making use of his Enemies ambition for their sake which by the way commendeth to all that fear God that Precept of the Apostle Rom. 13.7 Render therefore to every one their dues tribute to whom tribute custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour 3. Another lust of men which you shall find Gods Providence hath made great use of is curiosity A curiosity to know secrets What shall come to pass in after-times or a curiosity to delight in rare workmanship of any sort c This is a great vanity of the heart of man but the Providence of God hath made great use of it Of the first sort there are in holy Writ the instances of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar both of them dreamed dreams wherein God revealed to them things that were to come to pass in the world Then God inspireth
Joseph a great friend to his people and Daniel with wisdom to interpret these dreams to them this brought them both into high and great favour with those mighty Princes in subjection to whom the Jews at those times were This indeed is not an ordinary work of Providence but what God hath done The second is more ordinary men have a curiosity to see and have fine pieces of work done to hear rare musick to see fine mathematical operations Indeed some of these things are very useful but a curiosity in many of them is but vanity Solomon after a long experience so concludes it but the wise God often makes a most remarkable use of this lust in mens hearts David's skill at his harp brought him to Court. And many sober persons skill dexterity and activity in arts and sciences hath made them very acceptable to those that have had the power of the world in their hands and put them into great capacities to serve the interest of God in the world where God hath both shewed his Wisdom in making use of mens lust of curiosity for his own glory and also in making his own common and ordinary gifts so serviceable also 4. A fourth lust which you shall observe God to make an ordinary use of is that of covetousness The People of God many times buy their peace and tranquillity sometimes they obtain it by their usefulness in trade and traffick and the detriment the publick revenue would have by rooting them out sometimes they make themselves friends with their industrious hands sometimes with their liberal hand This was but our Saviours counsel Luk. 16.9 Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness It is particularly said of Joseph when he was a servant to Potiphar Gen. 39.2 3. That the Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand and Joseph found grace in his sight and he served him and he made him overseer over all his house and all that he had he put into his hand This was Gods first step to bring Joseph into a great capacity that he might be able to protect his people 5. I will instance but in one lust more that is the malice hatred and cruelty of wicked men Psal 76.10 Surely the wrah of man shall praise thee Now this seems a strange thing but there is nothing more ordinary than this The malice and cruelty of Pharaoh contributed much to the Children of Israels coming out of Egypt had they not been so cruelly dealt with they would never have been so willing to have removed it is no better than madness not to be justified by Religion nor yet by Reason for private persons to rise up in arms against their rulers but Solomon tells us Oppressian makes wise men mad and God sometimes makes use of the madness both of his Enemies and of his own People to bring about his own designs Far be it from me either to incourage or to justifie such actions my business is only to shew you how far God makes use of mens lusts But the most ordinary and regular way which God maketh use of in this case is by making the soberer part of the Princes and Rulers of a Nation sensible of the greatness of their peoples sufferings and the unreasonableness of the rage and madness of their adversaries and giving them bowels of compassion to their brethren though it may be they be not of their minds I remember I have somewhere read it in one of the French Historians that a great Peer of that Nation though a Papist in the midst of that woful havock the fury of the Romish Priests were making stood up in Counsel and said He had no patience to see French-men so used And this is very ordinary the men of the world are not all of a complexion some of them are men of Honour and Vertue men of Justice Charity and Mercy persons almost perswaded to be Christians not far from the Kingdom of God in short men of moral vertue abhorring sottishness and cruelty others of them are men of blood and violence and cruelty These latter are they that make the great havock in the Church of God breathing out like Saul Act. 9. threatnings and slaughters against the Disciples of the Lord and commonly like Saul they have letters from the high-priests to Damascus to the synagogues It is much but it is observable from the very beginning of story that the greatest cruelty and rage which the People of God that have desired to walk more strictly and holily with him have met with hath been from the corrupt Priests and Ministry It was thus upon the first general corruption of the Priesthood in Israel that was you know upon the revolt of the ten Tribes in Jeroboam's time for though before that there were personal corruptions as that of Hophni and Phinehas yet generally they kept to the Law of God but in Jeroboam's time the body of the Priests was corrupt for the Scripture said That Jeroboam made of the meanest people priests of the high places whosoever would he consecrated him and he became one of the priests of the high places 1 King 13.33 It was not to be thought that so great a body of that people should all be corrupted many there were that kept close to the instituted worship of God at Hierusalem and would go thither though abundance of the people as Hosea saith Willingly walked after the Commandment Hos 5.11 The Commandment of Jeroboam the son of Nebat the Commandment of which you read 1 King 12.28 29 c. yet many would not Now as to these the Prophet Hosea tells us Hos 5.1 The Priests were a snare on Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor and the revolters were profound to make slaughter So it was in our Saviours time the Priests and Scribes and Pharisees were the cruel Enemies of Christ and his Disciples as you read in the Gospels and the story of the Acts of the Apostles And so it always hath been and still is in the Church of Rome their Priests and Jesuites are the bloody men the cruel men against those that cannot comply with them But now there are a great many others that are persons of better nature and temper that hate sensuality and cruelty and injustice and oppression Now God often makes use of the immoralities of the Enemies of the People of God to bring about his designs for their liberty and deliverance men of honour and vertue abhor the sensuality and beastliness of the great Enemies of the Church and although themselves possibly be not of the minds of the People of God yet they abhor injustice and oppression and cruelty and sensuality and this makes them favour the poor servants of God as men that have done nothing worthy of such deaths or bonds or to be so unreasonably dealt with and thus God
to us as a God that may at any time under any face of things be trusted We cannot see a worser face of things than when wickedness is at the heighth men in the heighth of rage and malice against the People of God when all kind of filthiness and sensuality abounds in a place when the vilest men are exalted and the wicked walk on every side they are put together Psal 12.8 But under such dispensations Christians trouble not your selves as to Gods care of his Church indeed it is and ought to be an afflicting dispensation 1. For the glory of God Under such a face of things the holy Name of God is blasphemed the honour of God is at present laid in the dust 2. Such a time must needs be a time of great suffering to the holy and innocent servants of God Many particular servants of God must be made great sufferers under such a Providence But yet incourage your self in God he that can bring light out of darkness can and will bring good out of such an evil as this is The Providence of God doth ordinarily compel even the worst of men to do his work howbeit that they mean not so one way or other they shall do the Lords work if no other way yet by making their own folly manifest to all men God often brings wicked men upon the stage to make them more abominable There are many in the world men of sobriety and vertue would not have believed there had been such horrible injustice and oppression such horrible and insatiable avarice such merciless cruelty in the hearts of many sinners if they did not see them play their parts upon a stage in the world In the mean time know that you trust in a God that knoweth how to make use of mens malice and to make the maddest and desperatest sinner serve his purposes Vse 2. In the second place what a foundation doth this notion lay for an Exhortation to all to break off their sins by true repentance and to give unto God a voluntary chosen service 1. To break off their sins by a true repentance I remember our Lords words to Saul out of Heaven Saul Saul saith he why persecutest thou me it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks Suppose a person whose heart the Devil hath filled with all malice that if he could he would pluck God out of Heaven and root out the Name of God from the Earth yet methinks this should discourage him in his fullest career and madness to think that he that sitteth in the Heavens laugheth him to scorn and when he hath done all he can he shall but have effected the Lords counsels and done the Lords work although he meant not so Let therefore the sinners of the Earth be instructed and learn wisdom they cannot do what they list and many times wherein they think and talk proudly God sheweth himself above them and they do Gods work quite besides and contrary to their own intentions There is no encountring with a God who can make the wrath of man to praise him and restrain the remainder of it when he pleaseth 2. If this be so certainly it is wisdom in men designedly and intentionally to serve God otherwise they lose their reward at least their spiritual and eternal reward We find God with temporal rewards sometimes rewarding men that do some things at his command though their hearts in the action be not right with God so Jehu was rewarded his Sons inherited the Throne to the 4th generation but God at last visited the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu But no man hath a spiritual reward inward joy and peace of conscience nor shall have an eternal reward but that man who with purpose of heart serveth the Lord. SERMON XXII Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Proceed yet in making some Observations concerning the motions of Providence in the preservation and government of the world An eighth Observation which I shall make and a little enlarge upon is this Observ 8. That the Providence of God is wonderfully seen in bringing to light hidden counsels of darkness and punishing of sins which tend to the disturbance of civil societies Indeed there are not many sins but have an ill influence upon humane society and the reason is because there is no law in the world so fitted to the prosperous beings of Societies as the law of the Lord is but yet there are some which tend to a more eminent disturbance and confusion in them Such are now plottings and treasons against Princes whom God hath made the heads of these Societies Seditions and raising up mutinies murthers c. These make great gaps and disorders in political bodies and you shall observe the Providence of God bearing an eminent testimony against them Eccles 10.20 Curse not the King nō not in thy thought and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter it shall be discovered it shall be suddenly discovered and by ways that one would never think of Two things you shall observe in the workings of Divine Providence as to this thing 1. That it is very rarely that the Providence of God suffereth any such designs to come to any effect and issue 2. That if at any time he doth for the punishment of flagitious rulers suffer them to come to issue he very rarely suffereth the actors in them to go down to their graves in peace This abundantly justifieth it self in the story of Scripture and in all other story 'T is very rarely that the Providence of God suffereth conspiracies to take effect Of an hundred plots that you read of in story to take away the lives of Princes and make disturbances in political affairs it is very rare to read of any that take effect Job 5.12 either the Lord makes their own hearts to fail them or weakneth their hands that they cannot find their enterprize or put 's it into the hearts of some of the conspirators to reveal the matter or causeth some strange impression and jealousies in those whose lives are aimed at some way or other the Providence of God worketh to crush the cockatrices egg before it hatcheth into a serpent Our Queen Elizabeth was a famous instance of the special Providence of God in this kind over such as God maketh rulers over others What a strange discovery had we of the Powder-treason in this Nation But this is but the first thing which I commended to you under this Observation 2. Sometimes the Providence of God for his wise ends doth suffer such conspiracies to come to issue either for the personal sins of such rulers or for the sins of the people over whom God hath set them but when he doth he rarely suffereth the actors in them to go down to their graves in
peace You read 2 Sam. 4. that Baanah and Recab two servants of Ishboseth conspired against him and slew him ver 9. David causeth them both to be slain Baasha 1 King 16.27 conspireth against Nadab and slayeth him indeed the Scripture doth not express the particular kind of his death but he threatned him by Jehu the Prophet 1 King 16.3 4. and tells us ver 7. That the wrath of the Lord came against him for all the evil that he did in being like to the house of Jeroboam and because he killed him that is he killed Nadab the Son of Jeroboam And against Elah his Son Zimri killed him ver 20. Had Zimri peace that slew his master no he killed himself when he had reigned but seven days ver 28 after him Ahab a most wicked man dyed in war his Son Jehoram was slain by Jehu and Jehu executed both the Lord's counsel and command in what he did so the Lord spared him and three or four after him of his generation to fulfil his promise to Jehu After this 2 King 15 Shallum conspireth against Zechariah and slayeth him but reigns only one month and Menahem requiteth his bloodshed and slayeth him Joash was slain for the blood of the Sons of Jehojada 2 King 24.23 Amaziah his Son succeedeth him 2 Chron. 25.1 ver 3. He slayeth his servants that had slain the King his father And as this notion is justified everywhere in sacred story so civil story also maketh it good Solomon saith He that breaketh an hedg a serpent shall bite him Government is the hedg of a Nation and rulers are the stakes in that hedg that keep it together and it is very rare but the Providence of God ordereth it so that a serpent biteth him who breaketh this hedg which the Providence of God hath set up about a Nation or People Princes and Rulers are in a great measure priviledged persons and have great prerogatives from Divine Providence And this motion of Divine Providence seemeth very reasonable 1. If we consider the relation that they have unto God 2. Or their usefulness unto men I say first if we consider their relation unto God which I shall open to you in three things ◠They are the Ordinance of God 2 They are Gods Creatures 3. They are Gods Vicegerents 1. Rulers are Gods Ordinance This is the reason which the Apostle giveth Christians for subjection to governours Rom. 13.1 2. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God God is a God of order and not of confusion as well in States as in Churches and for the conservation of this order he hath been pleased to ordain Government a subordination and subjection of some unto others and a man cannot rise up against this but he must rise up in opposition to a Divine Ordinance In 1 Pet. 2.13 Rulers are called the Ordinance of man or as it is in the Greek an humane creature but that must not be understood of Government in it self that is the Ordinance of God I am aware that that is a Text that is much made use of to prove Christians duty of Obedience to humane Laws and Sanctions But this seemeth not to be the sense For 1. We cannot submit thus to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake Men may command us things which are contrary to the Will and Command of God and in such cases our Allegiance is first due unto the great God 2. Again The distribution that followeth seemeth not to favour this sense whether to the King as supreme or unto rulers sent by him Let the form of Government under which you live be what it will let the persons entrusted with the execution of this Government be what they will their qualities are not so much to be regarded as the office which they bear 3. Thus both the Syriack version and some of the antients interpret it the Syriack version interprets it Be you subject to all the Sons of men 4. But lastly The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is there used is always applied to persons not to such constitutions as laws are Besides there are that think that the Apostle useth a dialect then in use there is nothing more ordinary in Latin Authors than those phrases of creare consulem creare dictatorem c. it is a phrase a little in use amongst us to express the conferring of some particular honours But I digress too far certain it is that as Government in the abstract so particular governours in the concrete are the Ordinance of God and so have a more eminent relation unto God All men are the creatures of God they are the works of his hands rulers are the Ordinance of God 2. Rulers are Gods creatures and that not in a large sense so every thing else is but in a more eminent way as Rulers in that capacity to which God hath called them they are Gods creatures Prov. 8.15 By me Kings reign and Princes decree justice by me Princes rule and nobles even all the Judges of the earth It must not be understood only by my sufferance and permission nor by me in an ordinary course of Providence as all things are by God but by me in a way of special Providence and designation for as the Psalmist saith Psal 75.6 7. Promotion cometh not from the east nor from the west nor from the south but God is the judg he pulleth down one and he setteth up another And this must be said of the worst of Rulers they came not up into that place of government without the Lord. Saul was a Prince bad enough God foretold by Samuel what he would be yet you know what a special hand God had in the setting of him up And God setteth up good or bad Rulers over a people according to his designs to bless and prosper or to chastise and punish them Rulers as rulers be they good or bad gentile or froward are God's creatures in an eminent way Now as a Prince thinks himself obliged in honour to maintain his creatures whom he hath set up in any place for any end so God will maintain Princes as they are his creatures raised up for his special designs 3. Nay further yet Rulers are Gods vicegerents Psal 82.6 I have said you are Gods and in this sense it is true which the Apostle saith There are Gods many and Lords many Every Prince is but a Vice-roy to the King of Kings a Deputy-Lieutenant to the great Lord of Heaven and Earth This createth a very near relation betwixt God and them and highly engageth the Providente of God for them Every Prince taketh a special care of persons which he sendeth abroad for Embassadors and which represent his person and authority Plots and conspiracies against Princes are much against God himself God giveth this reason for his severe Law
against murther Gen. 9.6 Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man The Image of God in man lay much in his Knowledg Wisdom Righteousness dominion over other creatures If God sendeth a people a Prince in whom nothing of the Image of God can be seen in the three former things Knowledg or Wisdom or Righteousness yet he hath given unto all Rulers a dominion over his creatures and that not only over brute and inanimate creatures every man hath such a dominion and is a great Prince but over rational creatures and herein much of the Image of God who is the King of kings and Lord of lords and ruler of Princes is to be seen Now I say considering this great relation of Rulers to God it is but reasonable that God should watch over them with a special eye of Providence maintaining his own Ordinance his own Creatures his own Vicegerents in the Earth 2 But secondly The reasonableness of it will appear if you consider the usefulness of Rulers unto men Upon the former account I have shewed you how God consulteth his own glory I shall now shew you how God in these motions of Providence consulteth our good It is usually said and I think very truly Better Tyranny than Anarchy better a very ill oppressive government then no government He that would pluck up the government of any place would but pluck up the bridg which in a short time himself will have occasion to go over so that God in his special Providence towards and for Rulers sheweth a special kindness to humane society What do laws signifie without Executors of them Now this is the office of Rulers to execute the Laws and if some of them be partial in the execution of them and spare some transgressors yet there 's none of them but in many things do execute justice and keep up something of the face of order of humane society But I have hitherto only instanced in one sort of sins eminently disturbing humane societies treasons seditions conspiracies c. I come now to a second 2. Oppression is another sin of this nature and this must be the sin of Superiors and men that are in power over others I may joyn with it tyranny and cruelty they are of a great cognation one to another Oppression is one of the crying sins of a Nation and the Providence of God is eminently seen in giving testimony against it this was that sin for which God so plagued Pharaoh Exod. 3.7 For the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord and the vengeance of God is so certain against oppressors that the wise man calleth to us Prov. 3.31 Envy thou not the oppressor and chuse none of his ways Doth he flourish doth he grow rich and great Envy him not chuse none of his ways It is very seldom that God letteth eminent oppressors escape If they be amongst inferiour Rulers God stirreth up their superiours against them at one time or other If chief rulers be oppressors God hath other ways to punish them either immediately by his own hand as he did Pharaoh or suffering people to throw off the reins of Government which was the case of Abijam though he did but threaten oppression 1 King 12.11 All men are not wise the most of people are over-ruled by their own lusts and passions and not governed by reason but even for wise men Solomon tells us Eccles 7.7 That oppression will make them mad put them out of the government of their reason It is indeed madness and nothing but madness for private persons to rise up against a government but we see it sometimes done and usually oppression eminent and general oppression gives the occasion and is the proximate cause of it but one way or other God ordinarily revengeth oppression by signal Providences and therefore the wise man saith Eccles 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and the violent perverting of judgment and justice in a people marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there is higher than they Now the reason of the special and remarkable Providence of God in this case may be conceived to be 1. Gods great love to Justice and Judgment 2. His great kindness to Political Societies God is a just and righteous God and loveth justice Justice is an essential Attribute of God he could not be God if he could be unjust he giveth to every one their due and he cannot but give every one their due and the righteous God loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity Now oppression is nothing else but a violent perverting of Justice and Judgment by him that hath power on his side Solomon saith Prov. 14.31 He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his maker he reproacheth his Maker because it is God that hath made his brother poor and put him under his feet Again he reproacheth his Maker because God hateth and abhorreth all oppression and injustice he pretendeth to rule in the place of God but he reproacheth his Maker God dealeth so by none his law directeth the quite contrary Again he reproacheth his Maker because God hath taken the poor the stranger the fatherless and the widow into his special protection and hath given many particular laws about them and given the world a particular charge concerning them 2. As God is a God of Justice and loveth that so he hath also a great kindness for humane societies and for brotherly love God hath in Creation disposed man to society he is not like the wild Ass that loveth to be alone in the wilderness he hath also disposed them to trades and employments serving one another so as though a beast or a bird could live without one another yet men can live in no degree of felicity outward felicity without company nor can society be well maintained without justice and brotherly love injustice violence and oppression break all humane society There is nothing that breaks humane society more than oppression doth when the greater devour the lesser and the richer swallow up those that are more poor that they might be left alone in the Earth There 's nothing more opposite to brotherly love the ligament of humane society than oppression is and therefore the special Providence of God in the punishment of it and delivering the oppressed from the bondage of it is not to be judged a strange thing but exceeding consonant to the nature of God 3. A third sin which makes gaps in humane societies is murder a private willful taking away the life of another I say private for if it be done by the hand of Justice it is no murther I add wilful to distinguish it from casual homicide when one is the cause of the death of another not in the least intending him death or any harm tendent to it It was one of Gods Precepts to Noah Gen. 9.6 Whoso
But for a good man one that disperseth abroad and gives to the poor Prov. 3.9 10. David never saw such a mans seed begging their bread and 't is no wonder thousands of men grow poor by lending but he that gives to the poor lends to the Lord saith Solomon never any man lost by that lending The great God never yet failed never yet was unfaithful I could fill your ears with stories I will only give you one or two It is reported in the life of that famous Junius Minister in France and Holland he died but in the year 1602 he met with the Lot of many godly Divines in all ages as well as ours and came to be pinched with want and resolved for the supply of his necessities every each day to dig in the Town-ditch But see the Providence of God there lived near a Taylor a young man whose Mother had in France lived near to this Junius's mothers house and being very poor Junius's mother had often relieved her Her son remembreth this kindness and though but a poor man inviteth Junius to his house and provideth meat and lodging for him for seven months I could tell you many and strange stories of Gods repaying Charity in its kind of little pieces of silver given in this kind repaid with an hundred fold even in this life But this is an observation which justifieth it self in the experience of every one of you I shall rather shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence which will be evident to you I will open it to you in five particulars 1. God doth this to evidence his general love to mankind and special care of Providence for the needy the poor and the fatherless the stranger and the widow Justice and Charity are the two pillars of the world all humane society is dependent upon them Justice because as I told you before from Solomon oppression makes the wise-man mad mens spirits will never be calm under a course of oppression hence Tyrants must have constant standing-armies to secure their lusts The Turkish Empire is little but injustice and oppression it could not stand but for his Janizaries Charity is another pillar of the Earth the reason is because as our Saviour told us The poor we shall have always with us Now God sheweth his great love to societies of men in eminent upholding of both these And besides the Scripture speaketh God to have taken the special patronage of the poor and needy the stranger and widow and fatherless God doth this by raising them up friends and it is a great means to raise them friends to incourage them by sensible rewards and that of the same kind 2. It is necessary that as our Saviour oft saith all righteousness should be fulfilled The promises might have a being given them I told you before that the promises made to mercy and charitableness are very many now some of these promises are made for a term within this life He shall not lack saith Solomon that must be a promise respecting reward in this life and so for the threatnings against cruelty and hard-heartedness towards them in misery or that exercise any barbarous dealings towards their brother so that it is necessary God should in this life retaliate such wickedness 3. It is necessary for the terror of such sorts of sinners God himself gives this as one of his ends in establishing the law of Retaliation in the case of false witnesses Deut. 19.16 17 18 19 20. And those which remain shall hear and fear and from henceforth commit no such evil more amongst you The most of men hearing that Adonibezek who cut off so many Princes thumbs and great toes came to be served in the same kind himself are afraid of such kind of Inhumanity 4. Again It is necessary for the conviction of unbelievers There are many sins against which there are dreadful Revelations of Divine Wrath in holy Writ and the Providence of God gives them a being every day but yet sinners will not believe when they see the vengeance that comes upon them that God designs to punish them for their unmercifulness and cruelty to their brethren no all things fall alike to all men and those that judg otherwise are with them in no better repute than as bold priers into the secrets of God and judges of his Counsels God therefore will please sometimes to write their sin in their plague It shall be wrote over the Gallows fifty cubits high upon which Haman was hanged this was the Gallows which he prepared for Mordecay The accusers of the three Children shall be thrown into the same fiery furnace which they had caused to be heated for the three children and Daniel's accusers into the same den of Lyons in which they would have had him perished He that leadeth into captivity shall be led into captivity and he that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword When men see this if they will believe any thing they will believe this 5. Lastly It is also reasonable for the more perfect demonstration of Gods favour to these exercises of grace and vertue Our Saviour faith All men have not faith The most of men live either meerly by sense or by reason The promises of a reward of Heaven are matters of faith A true believer only from these understands Gods favour to merciful men his faith being the evidence of things not seen indeed evidenceth to him Gods love sufficiently Inward rewards of grace are like the new-name given unto the People of God only known to them that have them The most of men are acted by sense and convinced by that mostly for in this cafe Reason will do little God is therefore pleased to reward such persons to great degrees in this life and that in the same kind too that all the Earth may know what he will do for such persons But I come to the Application which I shall dispatch in two branches making it a foundation Vse 1. First for Admonition to all that hear me to take heed of these sins I would have you brethren take heed of all sin for the wages of every sin is without repentance eternal death but especially take heed of sins eminently against charity Take heed of stopping your ears against the cry of the poor God will be even with you you or yours shall cry and not be heard It is a woful folly for a man so to govern himself in his Conversation as if he were not subject to changes it speaketh the man that doth it to be void of understanding and it is a most unreasonable madness for a man to expect that from another which himself would not do to another Abraham checks Dives in the parable for thinking that Lazarus should go to fetch him a cup of cold water when as he in his life-time would not afford him a cup of drink take heed of cruelty of false-witnessing of any eminent act of uncharitableness Remember
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
to heaven ordinarily with broken bones and a bleeding heart So that you see that Gods getting himself glory from his peoples sin gives no man a ground of presumption to go on in a course of sin against God Vse 4. In the last place Let this observation mind us in this case to be workers together with God Have we sinned and come short of the glory of God Let us do our indeavour to make our sins to turn to the furtherance of the glory of God Let us indeavour to make the best of our own bad markets What is done we cannot re-call let us indeavour if possible to make an advantage of our former miscarriages You will say How should that be Answ 1. Let the sense of your sins hasten your pace to the Lord Jesus Christ God hath a great deal of glory from our believing in him whom he hath sent The soul that accepteth of the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour giveth unto God the glory of his Power Wisdom Justice Goodness Truth it gives him the glory of the exceeding riches of his free-grace 2. Make use of your sins to increase your Confession your Repentance and Humiliation Confession giveth glory to God my Son saith Joshua Confess and give glory to God Let your former sins give you the further advantage for sorrowing after a godly sort that will bring forth carefulness indignation fear vehement desires zeal revenge as it did in the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. 7.11 3. Let the remembrance of them cause you to walk softly all the days of your life This is that which God requireth of all to walk humbly with their God The remembrance of your sins may be of notable use to you for this to keep down that pride which is naturally in all our hearts that swelling in an opinion of our selves of our own duties and performances that uncharitable judging and censuring and triumphing over others when we see them fallen in the day of temptations 4. Lastly Let the consideration of how many sins God hath forgiven you make you love much Thus the woman Luk. 7.37 47 made an improvement even of her former sins her much that was forgiven ingaged her to love that God much who had forgiven her so much This improvement St. Paul made 1 Cor. 15.9 10. I am saith he the least of all the Apostles and not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God But by the grace of God I am that I am and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all O this will be an excellent improvement even of your sins if your former unholiness shall now help to make you more holy your former unrighteousness shall help to make you more righteous for the time to come your reflexions upon how much you have done against God and his Saints shall now engage you to do more for God and the cause and people of God A good husband and house-wife will lose nothing but make some advantage of every rag every bit of wood c. I would have you be like them you have been formerly great sinners and done much to the dishonour of God your consciences can shew you a great dunghil of sin which you made in your state of vanity God hath changed your state changed your hearts let not that dunghil be lost look upon it often to help to raise up your hearts in the praises and admiration of Gods free-grace and the engaging your hearts more for God in your contrary duties for the time to come But so â—uch shall serve for this Observation also SERMON XXVI Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am still going on instructing you to that spiritual Wisdom which the Text telleth you may be gained by and is declared in the Observation of the motions of Actual Providence I am now proceeding to a Twelfth Observation of this nature which I shall give you thus Observ 12. The Providence of God in the distribution of the good things of this life doth in a great measure move circularly though mostly to the seeming advantage of ungodly men In my enlargments upon this notion I shall keep much to the same method which I observed in the former 1. Opening it unto you 2. Justifying the observation by instances 3. Shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence And lastly Making some suitable Application 1. My observation as you see concerneth the motions of Actual Providence as to its distribution of the portions of this life The Pagan Philosophers distributed all the good things they had any knowledg of into three sorts The good things of the body amongst which they reckoned long-life health strength beauty c. The good things of the mind the rich endowments of it such as knowledg invention judgment wit memory and moral vertue c. and the good things of fortune such as birth ingenuous education honours riches All these have a goodness in them which lyeth in their suitableness to the use of humane life or society The blind Heathen not seeing the fountain-head of these beautiful streams ascribed them to fortune But they are all in the hand of Providence that giveth to one a longer to another a shorter life to one greater to another lesser measures of health and strength c. to one more judgment wit c. than to another But I chiefly understand my Observation of the good things which the Heathen called Bona fortunae the good things of fortune such as honours riches c. These also are the Lords he it is saith Moses That gives us power to get wealth And the Holy Ghost by another pen-man telleth us That promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west but God pulleth down one and setteth up another Promotion doth mostly depend upon the favour of the great men of the Earth and you shall observe the Scripture everywhere maketh God the Author of the favour and grace which persons have found in the eyes of the Princes of the world 2. Now I observe in the first place That the wheel of Providence in making this distribution doth for the most part move circularly My meaning is that good and evil of this nature hath as all humane things its turns and vicissitudes sometimes to good men sometimes to bad men The Heathen had some prospect of this though what we call Providence they ascribed to fortune to whom they gave a wheel to signifie the rotation of all these sublunary contentments in which you know the same spokes are not always up nor down but sometimes these spokes are uppermost by and by they are at the ground and those that but now were below are up in their place And this is most perspicuous in bodies of people which are made up of those two sorts of men that divide the world godly
Observation to caution them against 1. That they would not promise themselves a perpetuity in this state As the child of God may say of his adversity and afflictions these things are not Eternity so the sinner may say of his prosperity There is a circulation in the motions of Providence in its distribution of these things The same spokes of the wheel are not always uppermost you are now spokes in the upper part the wheel will turn and you will be lower most sinners have their day but it is but a day Day and night summer and winter light and darkness follow one another in humane conditions as well as in time some have a summers-day others a shorter winter-day but none hath more than their hour or day It was Babilon's error to say That she sate like a Lady and should never see widowhood or loss of children God tells her both these should come upon her in one day It is the weakness of humane nature to look upon any thing here as permanent Are you therefore in a state of prosperity Is it your hour think not you shall never be moved David Psal 30. said in the day when his mountain stood strong That he should never be moved God did but hide his face and he was troubled You may possibly meet with particular persons that are exceptions to this general rule but hardly any body of people 2. Let what you have heard admonish you not to glory and triumph in your prosperous state if you will rejoyce let it be with trembling The observation affords two reasons why the prosperous sinner should not excessively rejoyce 1. Because there is a circulation in these motions of Providence This was that which quieted Davids spirit disturbed at the prosperous state of ungodly men Psal 73.18 Surely thou hast set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction 2 I have told you that the Providence of God in these dispensations seemeth to incline most to favour the worst of men David Psal 17.13 14. prayeth to be delivered from wicked men who have their portion in this life and whose belly God filled with his hidden treasure It hath been an ordinary thing for good men to suspect the love of God to them when they have met with no changes Luther was afraid God intended to put him off with the good things of this life But saith he I protested that I would not be so satisfied 3. Lastly This speaketh aloud to sinners on the pinacles of the world not to harden their hearts Sin gives a man a base spirit you shall ordinarily observe that the worst of men are most proud and haughty in their prosperity and the most cowardly and low in their spirits when an hour of adversity comes How ordinarily do we see it If vile and abject men get a little power on their side there is no living by them their insolencies oppressions and cruelties are so intolerable but let them be a little under hatches there 's none will crouch so basely But O you fools when will you be wise O that in their days of health they would but think they may be sick when they are rich that they may be poor that when they are the head they would consider they may be the tail Prosperity then would not harden them but it is true which the Holy Ghost tells us That prosperity slayeth the fool It seldom doth a child of God good Before I was afflicted saith holy David I went astray but it ordinarily slayeth the fool I shall advantage this with this further observation As it is usually observed that men who have had a long and non-interrupted health seldom escape the first acute sickness they meet with So it is very rare that God entereth into judgment with a sinner that hath enjoyed a long prosperity but he utterly consumeth him you cannot but observe in reading the Prophets that as they denounced the Judgments of God against his own People so they also denounced them against the Enemies of God and with this remarkable difference They seldom threaten judgment to them but it was utter ruin God would make a full end of them But saith God as to his own people Thou shalt not go utterly unpunished I will make a full end of the Nations that have carried thee away captive but I will not make a full end of thee Jer. 30.11 c. But secondly Let me turn my self to them that fear the Lord and improve my observation as to them in three or four words 1. Fret not then at the prosperous state of wicked men It is the great argument of the 37 Psalm where it is pressed from a great variety of arguments Remember that the motions of Providence are circular There are two sorts of things that use mightily to affect us 1. Strange and unusual things 2 Things which appear to us against reason It is no strange thing Job 12.6 Job complained that the tabernacles of robbers prospered and they that provoked God were secure the men into whose hands God bringeth abundantly Disturb not your selves then if you see men of prodigious wickedness great in power and honour and riches and flourishing 't is but what hath always been and trampling under foot the people of the Lord. It is no new thing that happeneth to you A second sort of things we usually startle at are those things which seem to us unreasonable we cannot reconcile them to our thoughts and such a thing is this prosperity of sinners but this fancy speaketh only 1. The weakness of our faith 2. And the shallowness of our reason If we had faith but as a grain of mustard-seed that we could believe a life to come and the joys of an eternal state in which these men shall have no portion we should not think these things of that value but that God might reasonably give them to wicked men We are like ordinary people that never were out of the Town where they live or the Nation wherein they were born that take that Town or that Nation to be all the world and think there is no place better than that which they see and live in Did we believe that there is a more enduring substance an house in the Heavens not made with hands an inheritance that is immortal incorruptible that fadeth not away to none of which the ungodly man hath any right at all we should never trouble our selves that the Sun shineth a little upon the Tabernacles of ungodly men we should think it but reasonable that God should allow something of the good things of this life to vile and profligate livers Remember how the Father of the prodigal quieted the Son that had been always with him troubled that his brother who had devoured his living with Harlots had the fatted calf killed for him Luke 15.31 Son remember thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine The People of God have God always with them and are admitted
1. Sometimes some of his people shall be blessed with outward blessings Abraham shall be a rich man and have many flocks and herds Joseph shall be the second man in Egypt David and Solomon shall be great Princes Mordecay shall be the man whom the King of Persia shall delight to honour Daniel shall be the first president This is necessary that God may justifie his Promises of this nature you have such Psal 128.1 2 3. and in many other Texts of holy Writ They may be necessary to uphold the interest of God in the world The world must sometimes say Verily there is a reward for the righteous Gods own people shall sometimes have healthy bodies numerous families plentiful comfort in their relations many left hand-mercies added to those spiritual blessings with which God hath blessed them all in Jesus Christ 2. Others now God doth not reward this way but he rewardeth them in their souls and inward man and indeed this is the constant reward of them that fear the Lord and there is a variety in these too God doth not measure out the same kinds nor the same proportions unto all Some are blessed with a quiet conscience possibly they have not extasies of joy as others but their hearts do not condemn them and this is indeed the usual reward of the man that worketh righteousness The work of righteousness shall be peace saith the Prophet Isa 32.17 If God brings them to a sick-bed or into any other strait they can say with Hezekiah 2 King 20.3 I beseech thee O Lord remember me now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart that is an upright sincere heart or with Nehemiah 13 14. Remember me O Lord concerning this and wipe not out my good deeds which I have done for the house of my God And give me leave to tell you this is a great reward but to be delivered from the sowre reflexions of a condemning conscience for as there is nothing more nauseous and troublesom to us than the sower recoilings of our stomack so there is no greater torment to a mans life than the recoilings of a guilty conscience Nothing is oft-times so great a torture to a sinner as this when he saith unto his conscience Is it peace and his conscience tells him What peace so long as thy drunkenness thy whoredoms thy lyes and oaths and blasphemies thy cheating and cozening thy oppression and violence remain There is no peace to the wicked saith my God On the other side there is nothing so refreshing unto a spirit tired with the crosness of the world than to find a peace within himself Now this is the general reward of the righteous man if he misseth raptures and extasies of joy yet he cometh not short ordinarily of a quiet and serenity of a waky and awakened conscience I know there are hours of melancholy and darkness and desertion to which the best of Gods People are exposed but these are but rare examples in comparison of those multitudes of godly ones that walk in some blessed view of their own sincerity and uprightness Some he rewardeth in their inward man with raptures and extasies of God They know and are perswaded that nothing shall separate them from the love of God in Jesus Christ they defie death and hell and challenge the fatal strokes which others tremble at the thoughts of They complain of time and were it not for the Law of God in the case would dismiss their souls of their prison and lye like men waiting for a wind longing for that happy gale that should carry their souls into the wide Sea of Eternity But this is but the portion of a few and scarce the abiding temper of them neither but such hours the People of God have had Some again he rewardeth inwardly with strength confirmed habits of grace and contentment with their portion c. Their outward man decreaseth but their inward man increaseth day by day they are poor in purse but rich in grace they have but little but they are content with what they have and tell all the world they have enough And let me tell you that as punishments in the inward man are the greatest punishments so these spiritual rewards are of all other the greatest rewards which is matter of easie demonstration if we will but allow our souls to be our nobler parts and the Jewel to be better than the Cabinet Whatsoever tends to the debasing and ruining the soul must be the greatest evil and whatsoever conduceth to its ennobling or felicity must be the greatest reward and good Besides this spiritual judgments are the continual forerunners of such as are temporal and spiritual mercies draw after them at least a proportion and sufficiency of the good things of this life All these things shall be added unto you saith our Saviour 2 Chron. 25.16 God sent a Prophet unto Amaziah the King would not hear him see what the Prophet saith I know saith the Prophet that God hath determined to destroy thee why because thou hast done this and hast not hearkned unto my counsel Spiritual judgments forerun temporal you have it Isa 6.10 When the Prophet asked how long how long in seeing they should see and not perceive and hearing they should hear and not understand God answereth Vntil the cities be wasted without an inhabitant and the houses should be left without men and the land should be utterly desolate In like manner spiritual rewards and mercies never go without something of this life if not a plenty yet a sufficiency food convenient for Gods People Finally as spiritual judgments are the forerunners of eternal ruin so spiritual rewards are the more certain forerunners of eternal salvation they are the things which as the Apostle speaks accompany salvation and make men meet for the Kingdom of God 3. But God sometimes rewards his people with sufferings This you may think a strange reward But yet a reward it is Christ promiseth to the losers for him that they should receive children houses lands with persecutions and the Apostles Act. 5.41 rejoyced they were thought worthy to suffer shame for his name-sake God honoureth that man whom he calleth out to be a witness for him and to carry his cross after him Job speaketh of other afflictions and cryeth out Job 7.17 Lord what is man that thou shouldst magnifie him that thou shouldst set thine heart upon him that thou shouldst visit him every morning and try him every moment What need we more than what the Apostle assureth us Heb. 12. That whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth Our light and momentany afflictions saith the Apostle shall work for us a far more eternal and exceeding weight of glory and if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together with him Rom. 1.17 This variety of rewards our heavenly Father hath The rewards of the righteous from God are not uniform but always certain
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
turning from the wickedness of thy way breaking off from thy sinful courses Betake thy self unto the Lord Jesus Christ It is he who hath the golden censer to whom is given much incense Rev. 8.3 It is he Rom. 5.11 By whom we must receive the atonement Whatever you may think wrath is gone forth against you the plague in your souls is begun you are in health not sick not in pain as other men not so crossed in your estates and relations as some other men but for all this wrath may be gone forth against you the plague may be begun within you Let me examine you a little do not you find that your mind is more blind your understanding more dark your affections more vile and sensual your consciences are more benummed and stupid Is not the plague then began Can there be more dreadful indications of Divine Wrath against you The ax is laid to the very root of your tree if you do not now bring forth better fruit you will suddenly be cut down and cast into hell-fire Again What an incouragement to repentance is it to hear That he who worketh righteousness shall most certainly be rewarded yea that he is rewarded every day Thou that livest and goest on in a course of bold and presumptuous sinning what peace hast thou when thou lyest down or when thou risest up Art not thou like a bankrupt in the world or one who is much behind-hand that cannot abide to look into his books no more canst thou endure to behold thy conscience or to call thy self to an account it may be thou hast quietem ex somno such a quiet as a man in a dead sleep hath The man that worketh righteousness can call himself often to account and when he hath done lye down and sleep in peace either in a full assurance or a good hope at least through grace that God hath pardoned and accepted him Let therefore my counsel this day be acceptable unto you break up the fallow-grounds of your hearts sow unto your selves in righteousness believe that the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect thereof quietness and assurance for ever Vse 3. Finally What an encouragement here is to the people of God under all Gods severe dispensations to them to go on doing good Do not desame the God of Heaven with saying or thinking that you cleanse your hands in vain nor that he taketh a long day to reward them that work in his work Behold saith our Lord I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every one according as his work shall be It will not be long before Christ will come with this great reward but as he punisheth the wicked so he rewardeth also the righteous man every day it may be he doth not reward thee with a long life an healthful body a plentiful estate other accomodations of this life his wisdom seeth not these things fit for thee he knoweth thy heart thy temper but hast thou not a quiet conscience a serenity of mind or art thou not strengthened with might in the inward man doth not Christ dwell in thy heart by faith art thou not rooted and grounded in love and able in some measure to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg that thou mayest be filled with all the fulness of God Thou art it may be troubled on every side but art thou distressed thou art perplexed but art thou in despair thou art persecuted but art thou forsaken thou art cast down but art thou destroyed Thou bearest about in thy body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in thy body 2 Cor. 4.9 10. Is this no reward It may be it is not the reward thou lookedst for but it is that reward which God seeth fittest for thee It is not all that thou shalt have when he shall come whose reward is with him and he telleth thee that will be quickly thou mayest expect fuller and greater things in the mean time thou hast a viaticum an enough for thy passage through the wilderness The work of God is a wages to it self but God gives thee wages besides yea and eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive What great things God hath further prepared for them that love him say not then that thou servest God for nothing and faint not nor be weary of well-doing for you shall reap if you faint not SERMON XXVIII Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. THe these things mentioned in the Text as I have formerly told you and you may easily assure your selves from the Context of the Psalm are the great and various motions of Actual Providence concerning which I am recommending to you divers things that I conceive as true so very observable Thirteen I have discoursed I proceed to another which will also concern the motions of this Actual Providence in the distribution of rewards and punishments The Observation is this Observ 14. The Providence of God doth sometimes reward the intentions of his people where he doth not allow of and approve the actions which should be the product of those intentions and very often reward some actions from which he hath service where he by no means allows the agents design and intention In the handling of which I shall first justifie the Observation by instances Secondly I shall shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Providence And lastly I shall make some Application of it I say first The Actual Providence of God doth sometimes allow of approve and reward the general good intentions of his people when yet he doth not and will not allow of those actions which should be the product of such designs and intentions This evidently appeareth in that famous instance of David recorded in holy Writ both in the 2 Sam. 7. and in 1 Chron. 17. The story is this David's life until that time had been a life of a great deal of trouble and distraction he had many Enemies both before and after he came to the Throne but at length God saith the Text had given him rest round about from all his enemies The good man presently begins now to think what eminent service he should do for God At length he considers that there was no publick place for the Worship of God nothing but a Tabernacle he had built himself a fine house of Cedar but the ark the symbol of Gods Presence with his People that dwelt in Curtains as he expresseth it ver 2. But this being a thing which concerned the Worship of God as to which above all things the Lord our God is a jealous God David though a great Prince a great Prophet a man according to Gods own heart would do
sensible rewards and punishments for otherwise it is true which I before told you God is punishing sinners and rewarding righteous men every day But as to sensible rewards and punishments God is very often slow in the distributions of them The Heathens were wont to say tardè molunt Deorum molae the Gods Mills grind slowly and that their Gods had laneos pedes feet shod with wooll It is most certaintly true of the true and living God His Mill with which he grindeth sinners to powder is alwayes going He is angry with the wicked every day but it grindeth slowly he is moving always in order to this end but he hath woollen feet we cannot hear nor discern his motions But to speak distinctly here are two things in this observation 1. That the Providence of God doth ordinarily move slowly in the distribution of sensible punishments to wicked men or sensible rewards to righteous men 2. That the more slow it is in the distribution of the one or of the other the greater the punishment or reward is ordinarily when it cometh I will begin with shewing you the reasonableness of the first 1. How else should God justifie his attribute of long-suffering and patience The attribute of clemency patience long-suffering slowness to conceive a wrath is an attribute which God maketh himself known by and doth much glory in Psal 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy Nehemiah in his prayer Neh. 9.17 impleadeth God thus Thou art a God ready to pardon gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness Joel maketh use of it as an argument to perswade people to repentance Joel 2.13 And Jonah telleth God that he knew him to be such a God Jonah 4.2 Now how should God justifie this name of his but in his bearing with sinners a long time though they be as the Apostle saith Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction 2. How else should God lead men by patience to repentance and render sinners that continue impenitent inexcusable This is that account which the Apostle Peter giveth us of this dispensation of providence 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men do count slackness but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and St. Paul Rom. 2.1 saith Therefore thou art inexcusable O man v. 4. despising the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance When God giveth men and women space to repent and they repent not they become inexcusable and God is justified in the vials of his wrath which he poureth out upon them at last 3. How else should God exercise the faith and patience of his people The exercise of faith is upon an unseen reward believing what we have no sensible evidence of the exercise of hope lies in a looking out for it for what we see why do we yet hope for saith the Apostle the exercise of patience is in waiting for it and a quiet submission to the will of God in bearing what the Lord will please to lay upon us while we are in our way to our promised reward If Gods providence were not slow in executing his justice he could not magnifie his own patience and long-suffering and if he were not slow in the distributions of sensible rewards he could not exercise our faith or patience this is the Reason why the Providence of God doth often move slowly in the distribution both of rewards and punishments 2. But secondly observe by how much the slowlier God proceedeth to judgement against sinners by so much the more smart the vengeance is when it comes and by how much God appeareth more slow in the rewards of the righteous by so much the greater the reward is It is observed that those men who pass their lives with the least sickness are usually cut off by or escape very narrowly from the first sickness they meet with either because the constitution of their bodies is so strong that a light sickness will not shake them but some very acute and malignant distemper or because in their long time of health they have by degrees contracted a very ill habit of body so that when they fall down it is a very hard matter to restore them again The same may be observed as to Gods providential dispensations to wicked men there are some against whom God proceedeth a long time very slowly though he be angry with them every day yet he spareth them and doth not fall upon them by any severe dispensations but when he doth strike he strikes not twice he maketh a full end God bore with the Amorites a a great while they were a wicked people in Abrahams time but their iniquitie was not full Gen. 15.16 God bare with them four hundred years after that but when he brought judgement upon them it was a dreadful judgement as you may both learn by the several commissions given out by God to the Israelites against them and the dreadful destruction of them of which you read in the book of Joshua Before them God bare with the world a long time after he had taken up a purpose to destroy them and revealed it to Noah Gen. 6.1 2 3. he gives them yet the space of an hundred and twenty years but they abusing his patience in that time also he brought the flood upon them and consumed them all but Noahs family With that generation of the Israelites which came out of the land of Egypt the Lord shewed himself slow to wrath forty years long the Lord was grieved with that generation forty years is a great while for one generation the life of man being but seventy years but at length he destroyed them all so as only Caleb and Joshua entred into Canaan God bare two hundred and forty years with the Kingdom of Israel for so many years there were from their Apostacy in the time of Jeroboam until they were carried away captive by the King of Assyria but then they were so destroyed as to this day none knoweth where they are or any of their posterity With the two tribes and an half God yet bare much longer but at last they were carried into the captivity of Babylon for seventy years After their restoration God bare long with them though they were exercised under a variety of afflictive providences till at last they were utterly destroyed by the Romans from being a Nation The like observation might be made of particular persons It is observed concerning the Kingdom of Israel after the defection from the house of David that they never had one good King Most of them had very short reigns except Jeroboam the son of Joash who reigned forty two years and Jehu who had done such service against the house of Ahab who reigned twenty eight years There were two that reigned twenty two years both wicked
men and heads of several idolatrie Jeroboam he brought in the worshipping of the true God by Calves set up at Dan and Bethel and Ahab who brought in the worshipping of Baal both of them very wicked men and God proceeded to execute vengeance slowly upon them but when it came it was a dreadful vengeance Of Jeroboams house none but a little Son came to the grave in peace For Ahab himself you know he was slain in a battel his queen was thrown headlong out of a window and her brains dashed out and the dogs licked her blood his second Son was slain by Jehu seventy more of his Sons were slain by the command of Jehu It were easie to give you infinite instances out of story but I leave it to your experimental observation Mark any person whom you see exemplarily wicked yet God is patient with him a long time and observe what havock God makes with him and his posterity when he beginneth to reckon with him And indeed it seems very reasonable if you consider 1. That by reason of Gods slowness to punish the sinner his sins are multiplied and aggravated to an exceeding great number and degree It was Solomons observation which we shall see verified in our daily experience Eccl. 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil The iniquity of the Amorites had not been full if God had not been so patient with them This makes them as the Apostle speaks treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God Now the righteous God rendring to every man according to his work must proportion his judgements to peoples sinnings The more their sins are the greater shall his wrath be 2. The more patience is abused the more means of grace are lost the greater alwayes is divine vengeance Now where God proceedeth slowly to vengeance there he exerciseth most patience There patience is most abused there more space and time for repentance is lost there is most despising of the riches of divine goodness forbearance and long-suffering Et laesa patientia fit furor abused patience turns into fury It maketh a patient and long-suffering God cry out by his Prophet Ah! I will ease me of mine enemies and avenge me of my adversaries him that knoweth not how to give up Ephraim to set him as Admah and Zeboim two of the Cities whom he so dreadfully destroyed by fire and brimstone It maketh God who is a Lamb in his own nature to transform himself into a Lion a Leopard a Bare rob'd of her whelps O it is a dreadful thing to abuse much divine patience Now where the providence of God hath appeared slow in punishing sinners there must much patience have been shewn And it must have been abused too if a sinner continues hard-hearted and impenitent I have given space saith God to repent of her fornication and she repented not Rev. 2.21 22. Behold I will cast her into a Bed c. into great tribulation and I will kill her children with death Besides that God seldom exerciseth patience long with sinners but he gives them also other means of grace and they are abused and slighted Noah preached to the old world saith God My Spirit shall not alwaies strive with man and I need not tell you how dreadfully God threatneth Corazin Bethsaida and Capernaum for their abusing the means of grace they had had above other places The like might be proved concerning the providence of God in the distributions of rewards the slower the motion of Providence is in the giving them the greater ordinarily the rewards are It was a great while before Abraham had a Son but when he had him it proved to be one that was a great blessing both to his Fathers family and to the world Rebeccah went twenty years without Children Gen. 25.20 26. but then twins struggle in her womb and she brings forth two great Princes and one of them who was to be the head of the only people God had upon the earth Rachel was for some years barren Gen. 29.31 c. 30. v. 1. when God gave her a Child it was Joseph who proved such an eminent blessing to his Fathers house The Wife of Manoah was barren Jud. 13.2 she bringeth forth Samson Hannah 1 Sam. 1. was barren she bringeth forth Samuel Elizabeth was barren she brings forth John the Baptist Thus you see it as to the blessing of Children It was a long time before God brought the seed of Jacob his servant out of their difficulties but when he did he brought them into Canaan the Land which the Lord cared for upon which his eyes were from the beginning of the year unto the end thereof a land which flowed with Milk and Hony There was a great time betwixt Josephs dream and his exaltation in Egypt There were eight years betwixt Davids Vnction and Coronation in Hebron More instances might be given but it is no more than we shall ordinarily observe in the motions of divine providence the slower the mercy cometh the fuller it is and greater blessing when it cometh Gods people have ordinarily their greatest peace and comforts after their longest and greatest trials and afflictions The reasonableness of this motion of divine Providence appeareth in this that look as in punishing of sinners where Providence moveth slowly it usually hath a great heap of sins to reckon with men for so here it hath great faith and patience to reward in this case Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience saith the Apostle Rom. 5. where there is long tribulation there must be the exercise of much faith much patience much hope and this brings forth much experience Gods greatest rewards of joy and peace in the inward man of eternal life glory and happiness come after much waiting The Apostle telleth us Heb. 10.36 You have need of Patience that after you have done the will of God you might receive the promise The receiving of the promise then is after much patience in doing the will of God and Rom. 2.6 7. The Apostle tells us that God will render unto every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But I have been large enough in the confirmation of this observation I proceed to some application of it Vse 1. In the first place What can strike a greater trembling into the loins of sinners than this I shewed you before that the punishment of a resolved impenitent sinner is certain and constant As well may he promise himself that he shall not dye as that he shall not be turned into Hell and at last hear that dreadful sentence depart from me ye cursed into everlasting burnings it is constant though he is not sensible of it yet God is angry with him every day he every day groweth worse and worse more
man whose sins are covered by God! O let no man despise the riches of Gods goodness forbearance and long-suffering but let him know that the goodness of God leadeth him to repentance Rom. 2.4 5. If he continueth in the hardness and impenitency of his heart he doth but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God Wrath against thee for thy sins lyeth hid at present possibly thy Conscience keepeth silence and doth not arrest and disturb thee the providence of God as to thee keepeth silence judgement is not executed speedily but there will be a revelation of divine wrath either in this life or that which is to come oh therefore break off your sins by a true repentance He that hideth his sins shall not prosper Prov. 28.13 Our sins cannot be hidden from God they are all in the light of his Countenance a man then covereth and hideth his sins from God when he doth not confess and bewail them So long as a man covereth his sins God will not cover them See that experience of David which you have recorded Psal 32.2 3 4. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day-long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture was turned into the drought of summer Selah vers 3. I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah Vse 3. In the last place this observation calleth upon all such as fear the Lord and walk before him for a progress in the wayes of God and a patient waiting for the promise The Apostle tells us Heb. 10.36 That we have need of patience that after we have done the will of God we might receive the promise It is our duty as to do well so not to be weary of well doing it is pressed upon us Gal. 6.9 And let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not And again 2 Thess 3.13 but you brethren be not weary in well-doing There is nothing so far conduceth to make us faint and weary in our duty as when we see nothing comes of it we have hopes and promises but no issue no performance you know Solomon tells you hope deferred makes the heart sick Now this is a great cordial in such a case for us to hear that when providence moveth slowly in bringing rewards to the righteous it recompenceth our patience at last with the riches and liberality of the reward Indeed here are three or four arguments which together with this observation the Apostle hinteth me in the afore-mentioned Text out of the Epistle to the Galathians we shall reap we shall reap in due season Our fainting will spoil our reaping The longer it is before we reap the greater the crop of mercy and blessing shall be which we shall reap 1. We shall reap He that ploweth up the fallow-ground of his heart and soweth to the glory of God and to the good of his own soul in righteousness he shall reap The Husbandman that sowes his Wheat and Barly cannot promise himself that he shall reap the souldier the plunderer may reap what he hath sown a tempest an east-wind lightning many other things may hinder his reaping but he who sowes righteousness he shall reap nothing shall hinder his reaping 2. He shall reap in due season It may be he shall not reap in his season the season which he expected but he shall reap in due season in such a time as the wise God judgeth most seasonable and when he cometh to reap he shall also acknowledge the seasonableness of it that it is in due season we do not know the fittest time for our own mercies God knowes the fittest season we shall reap in due season 3. Consider that our reaping dependeth upon our not fainting we shall reap saith the Apostle if we faint not If any soul draweth back Gods soul will have no pleasure in him he who draweth back draweth back to his own perdition 4. and Lastly our reward will be so much the greater by how much it is slower the rewards of Gods people are ordinarily proportioned to their patient waiting The Apostle Rom. 2.6 having spoken of Christs coming to render to every man according to his work addeth v. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Yea and certainly degrees of glory will be proportioned to our patience those that have had least sensible rewards in this life if there be such a thing as degrees of glory may expect some of the highest seats and mansions of glory in that life which is to come But I shall add no more to this Observation SERMON XXX Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Go on yet in my observations concerning the Actual Providence of God and that more especially in dealing out distributive justice recompensing the righteous and the unrighteous I observed the last time that it is a thing very ordinary with Divine Providence to proceed slowly in these distributions But by how much slower the punishment of a sinner or the reward of a good man cometh from the Lord by so much the greater both the one and the other is I now proceed to another Observation Observat 17. That the Providence of God is very quick in the distribution both of punishments and rewards unto some I shall discourse it first with relation to punishments and then with reference to the rewards of Providence First As to punishments The Apostle Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. 5.24 hath this expression Some mens sins are open before-hand unto judgement and some mens they follow after likewise also the good works of some are manifest before-hand and they that are otherwise cannot be hid I know it is a Text of which Interpreters give various senses as they understand it of the judgment of God some of them others of the judgement of men and amongst those who understand it of the later some understand it of the judgment of the Magistrate others of the judgment of the Church some of both these some of the judgment of God and the Ecclesiastical judgment also I shall not pretend to give the just sense of it I shall only allude to it in my discourse As there are some sins that are open and manifest with respect to the filth and guilt of them they do not hide their sin but proclaim it as Sodom they go to the Devil with a trumpet before them all the world takes notice of them others sin more secretly and slily and in corners So God as to some sinners sits in judgement presently Some indeed he is more slow with they are kept to the great Assize or for many years but he is
Providence of God And thus I have opened the Observation to you I come now to the Application Vse 1. In the first place This observation affordeth us another sign of the times I observed to you before that we have generally a curiosity to know what shall come to pass in future times how it shall go to know both what God is doing with his Church in the age wherein we live and what he will do with it in the ages following He that maketh this observation will in this point be spiritually wise and will also understand the loving-kindness of the Lord yea and by this we may understand what the Counsels of God are in a great measure as to families and persons Observe but what those are whom God sets over them or suffers to stand in relation to them and you will understand much of this If God intendeth mercy and goodness to any Nation or any Church he giveth them Judges and Counsellors as at the beginning Eccl. 10.16 17. Wo to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and Princes eat in the morning Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the son of Nobles and thy Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness Observe but in the state who are in the places of Magistrates whether they be men of wisdom and knowledge of justice and righteousness or men of little wisdom rash and inconsiderate men men of little knowledge men that will take bribes and oppress the poor and needy in judgment not suffering the causes of the poor to stand in judgment and you may easily judge what God is about with that Nation Look into the Church of God and observe what persons they are that are in the Ministry Whether they be men that are able and faithful to teach skilled in the words of righteousness able to open and apply the holy Scriptures to the hearts and Consciences of people to pray and to pour out their souls unto God in supplications Or men that were Aptiores ad stivam as Beza sometimes said I may add ad cauponam vel tabernam fitter for a Plow-tail for an Ale-house a Tavern or a Victualling-house and it needeth no interpreter to you what God is about to do with such a Church In like manner look into families look upon particular persons observe what manner of persons are in the relations of Husbands Wives Parents Children and you may easily know Gods present design or what he is after like to do in such families or as to such persons Where God intendeth mercy he fitteth persons for their respective relations in all humane societies Vse 2. Hence again in the second place each one may make a judgement of himself whether God hath called him to this or that work this or that Relation A man can have little comfort in any relation to which he cannot see himself called of God be it Magistracy or Ministry or any other Relation when we see God calling us to it we may look for Gods blessing upon us in it ay and we may in that case also expect Gods protection his standing by us and standing up for us against Opposition now neither of these can in other causes be expected I say 1. A person called of God to any work any relation may reasonably expect the blessing of God upon him in it If he be a Magistrate that God should make his government peaceable and prosperous subduing the people under him and subjecting their spirits to his Government If he be a Minister that God should direct his meditations assist his heart in enditing new matter and his tongue that it should be the tongue of a ready writer blessing his labours and giving in to his ministry the souls of the people committed to his charge He may expect Gods protection and defence of him against the opposition that he meets with It is a promise you ordinarily meet with annexed to precepts by which God hath commissioned men to be Ministers I will be with you it is what God said to Jeremiah to Ezechiel What Christ said to his Apostles I will saith he be with you to the end of the world now that promise reacheth to both these both assistance and protection and therefore it is of mighty concern to such as ingage in great work or are put into any great relation to see Gods call of them to that work or relation without a view of that I again tell you they can expect the presence of God no way neither blessing nor protecting them Now from this observation upon the motions of Actual Providence you may make up a judgement of that Actual Providence fits them for that work and Relation whom God calleth to it it doth not fit every one for it whom it suffereth to creep into it but it fits all for their work whom God directs into it and who are like to be a blessing to their Correlates and those who cannot find themselves fitted of God for the work and acts of that Relation wherein they are may conclude that though they be not in that station without God yet God hath nothing further to do with them in their station but to permit them to get into it for a plague and scourge to the people to whom they are in relation and for their own damnation and confusion at the last Is any one a Minister to instance only in that Relation he stands most highly concerned of all men living to see his call the charge of souls men will at last find a great and burthensom charge If he be faithful he is like to meet with the greatest opposition imaginable in that work he stands in need of the greatest assistance of God for the due performance of it he can look for neither unless he can find that God hath called him to his work The great acts of the ministerial office are praying and preaching praying for the people Preaching that is opening the Scriptures the will and counsel of God unto people and applying it to their Consciences Wouldst thou know now whether thou beest called of God as Aaron was Examine then whether God hath fitted thee for the work of the ministry Hath God given thee the Spirit of prayer and supplication hath God given thee a knowledge and understanding in the Scriptures that thou art as it was said of Apollos mighty in the Scriptures such a one a Minister should be If Gods providence hath given thee a willingness and a desire to it and an opportunity for the exercise of it and hath also thus qualified thee for the several parts of it then thou mayest conclude that God hath called thee to it It is not a Patrons presentation that will make up the call of God no nor yet the boldness and confidence of the person that will venture upon the greatest employment the world affords I say none of these things will do it a mans own needs and not knowing how to live
now is a place and relation the fitting of a person for which requireth Knowledg Wisdom Courage You have heard that when God calleth any person to a place he usually fitteth them with a spirit for it as he gave unto Saul another spirit the Scripture saith a spirit quite different from what he had when he was a private person But you are not now to expect this in a way of Enthusiasm but in the use of means reading books gaining of knowledg indeavouring to bridle such passions as become no man but are least of all beseeming Magistrates Courage indeed is a thing that is hardly got by art though natural courage be governed and regulated by it and often is given by God more immediately when any whom he hath called to any new relation hath more especial need of it But above all remember the course that Solomon took when God appeared unto him in Gibeon upon his taking upon him the government of Israel and Judah He prayeth unto God that he would give him a wise and an understanding heart to judg his people O forget not this hath God called thee to be a Magistrate and doest thou distrust thy self lest thou shouldst fail in Wisdom or in Courage as to the work of God which in that relation will lye upon thy soul Remember what God said in some anger to Moses excusing himself from what God had call'd him to to go into Pharaoh to speak for the dismission of his people and Moses excused himself saying Exod. 4.20 O Lord I am not eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue and the Lord said unto him vers 11. Who hath made mans mouth or who maketh the dumb or deaf or the seeing or the blind Have not I saith the Lord Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say Remember that and go and beg of God to supply unto thee what thou findest wanting in thy self beg Wisdom of that God who is only wise and courage of that God who giveth courage unto man Hath God called thee to the work of the Ministry and though thou darest not say but God hath in some measure fitted thee for it yet thou feest thou art far short of others far short of what thou conceivest thou oughtest to be I have told thee that God useth with his call to a new work to a new relation to give a new spirit but it is thy work and duty here to work together with God Thus the Apostle exhorteth Timothy 1 Tim. 4.12 13 14. Be thou an example of believers in word in conversation in charity in faith in purity till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine neglect not the gift which was given thee by prophecy c. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them Art thou called to be a Minister Stir up neglect not the gift of God which is in thee study meditate of these things There are means to be used for thy improvement in thy ministerial abilities Natural means that is exercise by preaching thou shalt learn to preach and by praying thou shalt improve in the gift of prayer Moral means these are searching the Scriptures study comparing spiritual things with spiritual Meditation Religious that is Prayer The Apostle saith of the work of the Ministry Who is sufficient for these things Whatsoever thy gifts and abilities be thou hadst need profit and improve in them If thou wilt improve them and obtain the blessing from God of a further fitting thee for the work to which thou art called it lyeth upon thee to use such means as God hath appointed in order to that end Luther was wont to say that there are three things which make a Divine Temptations Meditation and Prayer the two latter I am sure must be much our own work we must not expect that God should immediately qualifie us from Heaven as he did in the first Plantation of the Gospel by the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost God having so supplied the first necessities of his Church when the generality of the first Preachers of the Gospel were illiterate men and wanted advantages of education which then lay on the other side hath since that time left his Ministers to the use and application of more ordinary means in the use of which he ordinarily concurreth with his blessing and not otherwise The same might be said of more inferiour relations such as those of conjugal and parental relations God ordinarily when he calleth men to them doth sute men with spirits fit for them but the concurrence of their own indeavours must be understood with which God will concur with his own blessing Art thou therefore called to the relation of an husband or wife and doest thou fear thy own spirit the like also may be said of a parental relation Having entred into it asking counsel of Gods Word and observing the rules of it thou hast reason to trust God for the fitting of thy spirit for it and the duties of it but still using all due means which on thy part are to be used such as the mortification of those passions which appear to thee most indisposing thee for the duties of such relations applying thine heart what in thee lyeth to them and constant and fervent prayer to God to make up in thee what thou findest wanting in thy self for the due managery of them according to the Will of God SERMON XXXIV Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Have entred into a large field How great a Volume might be wrote de observandis Providentiae concerning the observable things of Divine Providence I have seen a picture one of those you call kitchin-pieces concerning which it hath been proposed to me that for so many hours I should view it as curiously as I could yet the proposer would for any wager undertake to shew me something in it which I did not observe Truly Providence is such a thing I can never look upon it I can never take the motions of it into my thoughts but some new observation tendreth it self to my thoughts I must turn my eyes from this wonderful work for I see they will not be satisfied with seeing my mind will never be filled with observing Many observations I have already made and behold yet a troop cometh But they have all a tendency to the augmentation of spiritual Wisdom in my own and your souls Whoso is wise will observe these things saith my Text they have a tendency to make you to understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Where can we be better employed what can we better do Methinks I could say with the disciple upon the Mount of transfiguration It is good for us to be here let us build our selves tabernacles One for me the speaker others for you
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
for destruction there is a great deal in that verse 1. The Apostle hinteth us in that text that we are Clay and God is our Potter it was what God had said of old by his Prophet Jeremiah chap. 18. vers 6. and Isaiah chap. 45. vers 9. and what the Apostle himself had said in the two verses immediately preceding upon this account it is that he here calls such as perish vessels of wrath Earthen-vessels with relation to the Potter before-mentioned 2. Being such Potters vessels God had undoubtedly a jus absolutum an absolute right and dominion over the Sons of men vers 21. Hath not the Potter power over the Clay of the same lump to make one a vessel of honour another a vessel of dishonour 3. He sheweth that God doth destinate some to dishonour not using his absolute right and prerogative meerly but for just and righteous causes and he instanceth in three things 1. Gods will to shew his wrath The wrath of God is nothing else but his just will to punish Violaters of his Law God is willing to shew his hatred of sin in the just punishment of it 2. Gods will to make his power known that is in breaking the stubbornness of sinners thus ver 17. it is said of Pharaoh For this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth and this God calleth a getting himself glory upon Pharaoh Exod. 14.17 18. 3. The third reason he gives is That they are fitted for destruction Divines start a question from these words How or from whom they are fitted for destruction Some say of God as their Potter others will have it to be from Satan others from themselves the different notions may be reconciled Paraeus telleth us there are three things to be considered in these vessels of wrath their nature their sin the end as to their nature they are not from themselves nor from Satan but from God he is the Maker of all As to their pravity and natural corruption that is not from God but from themselves and from the Devil the end is either preximate that is their own dishonour and destruction or remote and ultimate that is the shewing forth the Justice and Power of God Neither of these saith that learned Author is from themselves for they do not ordain themselves to destruction nor design the manifestation of the Lords Power and Justice Thus therefore saith he are the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction according to nature they are created and made by no other than by God as to their sin and corruption by which they are made children of wrath guilty of sin and subject unto wrath they are made so by Satan by their own spontaneous fall and that sin which followed it as to the ends they are from God and according to his eternal Counsel of predestination And this is the reason as is not only observed by Paraeus but by P. Martyr probably why the Apostle only saith fitted and not by whom fitted for destruction that fittedness referring partly to God partly to themselves as they are by sin fitted it is their own act Now when he speaks of the vessels of mercy he speaks in the active voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 23. Which he had before prepared unto glory So that it being the work of the sinner to fit himself for destruction by the multiplyings and aboundings of sin and God glorifying his Justice and Power in breaking and destroying sinners it is easie to understand how Gods suffering the aboundings of sin tendeth to the glorifying of his Power and Vindicative Justice And thus I have shewed how the various Attributes of God are glorified by his permission of sin But this is but one way by which God hath glory from the permission of sin 2. He hath glory from it from those exercises of grace which are occasioned by it from his own people and these are more internal or more external for such as are more internal repentance faith humility several other graces have either their Original motions from this Providence or are greatly advantaged in their exercise by it 1. For repentance that is considerable either in the inward affection or more external act As to the former if no sin were permitted how could there be any humiliation for sin any godly shame or sorrow any bleeding or brokenness of heart in the sense of sin Were no sin permitted there could be no repentance no godly sorrow for sin c. 2. God hath a great deal of glory by mens believing on the Lord Jesus Christ It is a great piece of the Will of God that men should believe on him whom God hath sent and God is glorified by our doing his Will It were a large Theme to discourse to you how variously God is glorified by mens receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ and believing in him But God had had none of this glory if there had been no permission of sin in the world what is it to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but to accept of him as our Saviour to expect Salvation from free grace through the merits of Christ and to depend upon him for it Now should God permit no sin there would be no need of a Saviour no occasion for a redeemer no need of going out of our selves relinquishing all confidences in the flesh and in our selves Believing in Christ as our redeemer and Saviour supposeth sin making us lost undone Creatures to stand in need of such a Salvation 3. Again Humility is another habit of grace in the exercise of which God is glorified it is one of those things which God by his Prophet telleth us that he requires of man to walk humbly with his God nothing more contributes to this than a Child of Gods continual walking in a view of his own past and renewing Sins Thus far even the best of Gods people are beholden to their sins they make them walk more softly and to have more humble and mean opinions of themselves and to be more low in their own eyes neither exalting themselves against God nor censoriously and rashly judging their brethren and the more or less that any Christian looks at home and considereth himself and his own ways the more or less he walks humbly towards God and charitably towards his brethren 4. Finally in the 2 Cor. 7.11 You shall find a whole quire of graces all singing forth the praises of God and all occasioned by sin The Corinthians had offended in the business of the incestuous person the Apostle in his former Epistle had brought them to a sense of their sin and to a godly sorrow for it Now saith he this self-same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you Yea what clearing of your selves Yea what indignation what fear what vehement desire yea what zeal what revenge these now are all exercises of
grace which bring glory to God if God should not sometimes suffer his own people to fall all the revenue of his glory from these exercises would be lost 5. Again hath God any glory from any more external Acts of Worship and Homage which we perform unto him from our Prayers Praises from our hearing his word receiving the Sacrament Prayer is made up of Confession of Sin and Supplications for pardon of Sin and strength against Sin Confession of Sin gives glory to God my Son saith Joshuah to Achan confess and give glory to God Supplication for good things gives God glory as it owns him to be the Fountain of all good and our whole dependance to be upon him It is true had Sin never entred into the World our daily dependence upon God would have evinced Prayer to have been our daily and a natural homage which derived inferiour beings do owe unto the first being But there would have been no need of Prayer either for the pardon of Sin or for strength against Sin For Praise that also is a piece of Homage which Adam would have owed unto God if he had stood in his first integrity and state of Innocency and the Angels of God who never fell are continually occupied in singing the praises of God But the praises of God both by his Saints upon the Earth and by his glorified Saints are highly advantaged by the forgiveness of their Sins and their having their garments washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now if no sin were committed in the World none would be remitted and forgiven and all the glory which the God of Heaven hath from his Saints on Earth or in Heaven for the free forgiveness of their Sins would have been lost Certainly the fall of the evil Angels advantages the praises of the elect Angel it being doubtless a piece of their song to bless God who suffered not them to fall as the infernal Spirits did and indeed this needeth no further evidence than what it hath from every gracious Soul that hath tasted any thing of the love of God in pardoning mercies I appeal to any such Soul to what a pitch it raiseth his Soul in the thoughts of God and the admirings of his Divine love and grace Psal 103.1 2 3. Bless the Lord O my Soul saith David and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases Thus I have shewed you a second way by which God gets himself glory from Sin the permission of Sin in the World 3. Holiness and Piety are advantaged by Sin Sin is a foil to holiness Pulchriora apparent bona ex malorum deformitate As the dark shadows are advantages to the Picture and the wanton thinks at least that her black Patches are advantages to her beauty so are the Sins and Debaucheries which God permitteth in the world advantages to holiness The beautiful and well-proportioned works of Nature are the more beautiful for the Monsters that it erreth in Sin is but monstrum morum a monster in mens manners I am perswaded that in the very times wherein we live God hath made use of the prodigious intemperance lust and luxury Atheisme and foolish superstitious vanities of some to make true Religion Godliness and Vertue appear more lovely unto thousands than before they did Lastly From what is said abundantly appears that it is not without infinite wisdom that the Lord though he be pleased to manifest the riches of grace upon some to change their hearts and to turn them from the wickedness of their ways plucking them as brands out of the fire yet suffers multitudes to walk in their own ways till they drop into that Pit from which there is no Redemption for ever We may all of us be assured that the wise God consulteth his own glory in this In the same Text Pro. 16.4 Where he tells us that he hath made the wicked for the day of evil he saith in the former part that he hath made all things for himself Though we be not able to see the particular reason of many dispensations of God yet we ought to presume they are not done without excellent Counsel admirable reason incomprehensible wisdom yea and infinite love toward those that shall be saved I shall close this discourse with an excellent saying of one of the Ancients If saith he an ignorant person goeth into a Smiths shop what matters it if he doth not knowof what particular use the Sleth the Anvil and other utensils are yet it is enough if the workman knoweth and can make use of every utensil in it's season what if we do not know if we cannot comprehend of what use some particular sinful actions of men should be for the glory of God it is enough for us that God knoweth the vilest action that was ever done in the World the crucifying of the Lord Jesus Christ was of the greatest use for the manifestation of the glory of God Now after this discourse of the reasonableness of Divine Providence in permitting Sin for the further manifestation of the glory of God and the acquisition of glory to his sacred name c. It may seem an idle question why the Lord suffereth so many sinners so as his own number is but a little flock in comparison of those Herds for sin being a quality must inhere in some Subject and if there were no sinners tolerated there could be no sin but yet let me a little further enlarge upon this Argument 1. God suffereth so many sinners that some of them might be made Saints by Nature there is none righteous no not one all are Children of wrath one as well as another all that are implanted into Christ were natural branches of the wild Olive they are made otherwise by an engraffing and implantation into the Lord Jesus Christ It is the Metaphor which the Apostle useth Rom. 11. v. 17 19. Those all those whom the Lord quickeneth were at first dead in trespasses and sins It is the saying of a very ingenious Author Non est sterilis Deo patientia sua ut saltem fatigatione taedeat peccatores voluptatum Gods patience saith he with sinners is not barren if it were only for this that God by suffering sinners many sinners doth at last tire and weary some out of their delight and pleasure in their lusts thou that sayest why doth a pure and holy God endure so many vessels of wrath fitted for destruction do but remember that thou thy self wert once a Child of wrath thou wert once a person fitted both by Original sin and by many actual sins for destruction God suffered thee to go on a long time in thy own ways that he might weary thee of thine own ways and bring thee home unto himself why may not God do so by many others They are yet as wild Asses but why may not they also have a
Application recapitulate a little 1. For the sins of others which we see permitted in the World 1. Let us be quickened upon the view of them to adore the patience and long-suffering of God Dost thou hear a wretch curse and blaspheme and profane the great and dreadful name of God and defie the God of Heaven challenging his own damnation and doest thou see God suffering him to live from year to year and to go on in this course Doest thou see another in the heighth of rage against the people of God endeavouring if it were possible to root out all Religion and dayly devouring those that are more righteous than himself Let it help thee to recognize the patience of God do thou upon occasion of others profaneness and blasphemy give God the glory of his patience Let it make thee many a time reflect and say O what a patient God is the God in whom I trust he seeth these vile wretches he could as easily crush them as I with my foot can crush a worm yet he spareth them and with much long suffering endures the vessels of wrath fitted for Hell 2. Let the view of the sins of others which thou seest God permitting for his own wise ends make thee adore the wisdom of God Thou art posed to think what glory God can procure to himself from the profaneness and blasphemy of wicked men but God will certainly do it and would never suffer their profaneness if he did not know how to do it O! the infinite wisdom of God that can make the wrath of man to praise him Let thy heart be affected with that meditation 3. Again Doest thou see the world of sin that abounds doest thou hear of prodigious lusts blasphemies cruelties c. which make thy soul tremble Let God upon this occasion have the glory of his free-mercy and grace towards thy soul Bless God that he hath given thee another spirit Say Lord why was not I as one of these I had the same seed of sin in me my heart was as full of original lust and corruption as theirs Oh! what reason have I to adore the free grace of God that I am not as this beastly drunkard as this unclean wretch as this monstrous blasphemer If it had not been for free and rich grace I had been as bad as they It is that which made me to differ 2. But let God have glory from us upon the occasion of his so long suffering us to walk in our own ways Now that may be many ways let me a little particularly direct here also 1. Let it make thee live in a dayly admiration of free-grace both in pardoning thy former guilt and in renewing and changing thy heart This this is a work not for a rapture not for an hour or a day but for eternity It will doubtless be a great piece of our work when we come to Heaven to cry salvation to our God and to the Lamb. Blessing and glory and honour and wisdom and thanksgiving be to the Lord for ever and ever It should be much of our work upon the earth if we have either obtained the sense of the pardon of our sins or a good hope through grace you shall find St. Paul beginning most of his Epistles with such a blessing of God O you redeemed of the Lord you that are come out of a state of deep guilt you can never think nor speak enough what God hath done for your souls It is a great work of God and he doth his great works that they may be had in remembrance Let God have some glory from thee for pardoning those sins by which he hath been much dishonoured by thee and as for his pardoning so for his sanctifying grace Admire God bless God upon the view of thy former hard heart profane and unclean spirit say Ah Lord that ever such an Ethiopian as I was should through grace change my skin that ever such a rebellious spirit should be made obedient such a profane wretch should ever have an heart toward Heaven that ever one that loved his lusts so well as I have done should be taught of God to love him and fear him and delight in him that a Saul should be amongst the Prophets a Paul a persecutor a blasphemer should be amongst the Apostles a Mary Magdalen should wash her Lords feet and be so humbled as to wipe them with the hairs of her head the offering up of these praises glorifieth God 2. Let thy former sins make thee more abundant in penitential tears and in confessions of thy sin unto God God delighteth to hear a soul acknowledg its iniquities and take shame to it self Let thy reflection upon thy former ways make thee with Peter to weep bitterly make thee go alone and confess thy sins unto him that hath forgiven them the more vile thou makest and ownest thy self the more thou glorifiest God as a God of free grace and infinite mercy 3. Let thy former sins ingage thee to love God more Hath much been forgiven thee O love much Say with thy self O I can never love God enough I can never do enough for him I that have done so much against him I that have been so profane so vile that have spent my youth and strength in the service of my base lusts and pleasures and am yet received to mercy at last What shall I render unto the Lord Let my burning love to God and whatsoever beareth his image and superscription make some amends for my burning lusts which had consumed my poor soul if God had not mercifully quenched them 4. Let thy former sins and thy reflections upon them make thee to walk softly and humbly with God all the days of thy life Doest thou find thy heart at any time begin to swell in an high opinion of thy self Say my soul What hath a sinner to be proud on what hast thou that hast been so filthy so polluted to glory in High thoughts become not one that hath been so dirty so polluted and unclean as thou hast been 5. Let your reflections upon your sins bring forth that brood of graces which the Apostle mentioneth 2 Cor. 7.11 Indignation carefulness fear vehement desires revenge Indignation at your selves for your former errors Anger never hath a truer object than when it is exercised upon our selves for our miscarriages Revenge a revenge upon our selves this doubtless lieth much in acts of mortification and self denial mens denying themselves in the lawful use of the liberty of those things which they had before smfully abused Fear a fear of again salling into such remptations as they had before been overcome with A Care in looking to your ways and vehement desires in all things to please God and to walk more perfectly before him 6. Finally You shall make an improvement of your sins if your reflexions upon your former sins both of omission and commission shall engage you to more frequent acts of homage to him to be
that they may hear and fear and do no more wickedly Let us therefore make it our business so to improve such Providences that God may have his end upon us by our hearing seeing fearing and avoiding those sins against which we see the wrath of God so remarkably revealed Thou seest in the world debauched drunkards filthy adulterers profane Sabbath-breakers prodigious blasphemers mischievous Nimrods great hunters and persecutors of such as fear God some of them it may be young men some with numerous families others of fair estates c. healthy bodies like enough to have lived in the world many days On a sudden with David Psal 73.18 Thou seest them cast into destruction brought into a destruction as in a moment utterly consumed with the Lords terrors thou seest them written childless or with Ananias and Saphira struck dead thou seest them as David Psal 37. saw the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree by and by he passed away and lo he was not thou soughtest him and he was not found thou seest them their families their estates consuming like the fat of lambs into smoke consumed away This age if you observed it hath afforded you many such sights how many young wretches have you seen cut off in the beginning and strength of their years Knots of Hectors as this age calls them in whose constitution nothing could be seen but that they might have out-lived hundreds of us and in a few years they are tumbled into their graves you seek for them and not one of the old brood found O let all of us hear and fear and take heed of those leud courses which God hath in our sight so revenged upon them It is one end of these severe punishments of God that others should learn righteousness Let us by these warnings be startled and take heed of those sins in which they lived and which we may reasonably judg brought this quick vengeance upon them Vse 4. Lastly Doth God sometimes punish sinners who he knoweth will but be worse not at all amended by his rod And is this consistent with his Holiness and Justice O let every one of us then that hath been afflicted or that shall fall under the afflicting hand of God in any kind make it our business to search what Gods end was in his afflicting us whether he aimed at our good or meerly his own glory and the good of others Let me tell you it will be a very sad reflexion for us to reflect upon Gods visiting us with some grievous sickness or punishing us in our estates and relations c. and not to be able to satisfy our selves that God aimed at more in his bitter Providences than the getting himself glory upon us or the bettering of others for there is none comes out of an affliction but he comes out better or worse more hardned or with a more softned and tender heart more holy or more profane and stupid But you will say to me How shall we be able to make up this Judgment who knows the aims and intendments of a man in action but the spirit of a man that is within him and who knows the aims and intendments of God save only God himself I answer God is never frustrated of his end man may as not being able to accomplish it God cannot 'T is easie therefore to know the Counsels of God concerning thee in this case by the effects Examine therefore what effects hath thy affliction had upon thee Wherein art thou more amended The amendment of a person upon the sad Providences of God lyes much in these two things Repentance and Mortification 2. Having a better heart for duty and being more diligent in the practice of it Search and examine thy soul then upon these two points Say to thy self 1. My soul thou hast drank of the waters of Marah God hath dealt bitterly with thee I have been at the very brink of the grave I have lost a fair estate God hath crost me in my dearest relations What sins have I the more reflected upon for these things wherein have I been more humbled for the mighty hand of God upon me or mine what sin more have I left am I grown less worldly and carnal what lust have I got a further victory over have I a better command of my passions am I grown meeker am I more humble is my spirit more broken do I see more of my own vileness than I did have I learned with Job to abhor my self and to repent in dust and ashes to lay mine hand upon my mouth Or 2. Enquire of thy soul wherein by this affliction either thy habits of the grace or practice of piety and godliness hath been advantaged whether thy faith or patience be improved thy meekness and humility improved or any of those habits of grace which use to grow under the rod. Enquire of thy self wherein thou art improved as to the practice of Piety whether thou hast since thy affliction learned to keep the Lords statutes to walk in thy house in a more perfect way Give me leave to mind you what you see every day It is the sign of a decaying plant not to shoot forth and look more green after a shower much more to wither and dwindle after it Afflictions are Gods showres almost all sorts of people in this Nation have had great plenty of them within the age we have lived in the face of Religion amongst us at this day gives little evidence that Gods aim in it was the amendment and reformation of the persons under those troubles and afflictions which they have met with it concerneth us to look to our selves If Gods end was only to try what we would be to vindicate his own glory his power justice and holiness upon us to deter others from the like practices whatever good may by our afflictions be occasioned to God in the vindication of his glory or to others in their learning righteousness it is but a sad symptom of ruin to our selves SERMON XL. 1 Kings XIV 1. At that time Abijah the Son of Jerobam fell sick Vers 17. The child dyed I Am opening to you the hard Chapters of Divine Providence Actual Providence justifying the Lords ways to be equal even where they appear less equal to our sense and reason I am at present discoursing the Equity of Punitive Providences I have here shewed you how consistent it is with the Justice Holiness and Goodness of God to be the Author of evil to though not in the Sons of men the Author of the Evil of punishment though not of the evil of sin I have shewed you how consistent it is with the Attributes and Perfections of the Divine Nature to punish and trouble his own people even such as he hath accepted of a satisfaction for their sins at the hand of his Son whose iniquities he hath pardoned c. How consistent it is with the Wisdom Justice Holiness and Goodness of
they insist upon this Argument which certainly is not to be answered In all acts of punishment God doth something positively But the Scirpture mentions the giving up of soms sinners to vile affections to a reprobate mind c. as acts of punishment Therefore God as to them doth something positively The minor is evident from the stile of the Scripture Now for the major Certainly in all all punishments God acteth as a Judge and therefore must do something positively The infliction of a punishment argueth a positive judgement of God Besides which is noted by Pareus God is said seven or eight times over to harden Pharaohs heart and many others who never had any grace to be withdrawn Besides it is very observable that the words which the Scripture maketh use of to signifie Gods penal action in hardning sinners Exod. 4.21 7.3 10.1 are such as cannot be expounded by a bare permission or desertion and signifie a vehement intension of the action being verbs of the second and third Conjugation in the Hebrew This is a great point in Divinity let me therefore tell you what our Divines say in their own words and then examine if it be not reconcileable by our reason to the justice and holiness of God Parens saith That it is sufficient that God in these tremendous dispensations acting as a Judge by way of punishment which as the Scripture plentifully affirms so Bellarmine himself granteth God must act in it not meerly privatively but positively we need not be curious to examine the manner how he acteth Fit illa traditio explicabili sive inexplicabili occulto quidem sed semper justo modo whether we be able to open or not open the manner God doth it always by a just although a secret judgment but saith he in three things it seems to be explicable 1. By leaving men to the impetus and force of their own lusts This saith he is a general way for all that perish are thus left to themselves yet it cannot be said properly of all such that God hath delivered them up to hardness of heart c. 2. By giving them means of softning such are precepts miracles his works c. which they through the wickedness of their hearts only use to their further hardening Thus it was in the case of Pharaoh Sihon c. This on their part was a sin on Gods part a just judgment but it may be this is not the case of all and seemeth hardly applicable to the Gentiles whom God so gave up Rom. 1 26. 3. A third way saith he which is more universal is by delivering them up to their lusts and to Satan to be further blinded seduced and hardned as in the case of Ahab and the Gentiles mentioned in this first Chapter of the Romans and 2 Cor. 4.4 The God of this world hath blinded the eyes of those that believe not Now that Satan seduceth souls by command from God appeareth by the story of Ahab 1 King 22.22 23. The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets Another great Divine opens it in these particulars God saith he hardneth sinners 1. Alesbury de eterno Dei decreto p. 226. By immediately depriving them of reason and counsel or punishing them so as their rage is increasod against God for this he giveth us the instance of Pharaoh whose heart was the more hardened by the plagues which he felt and for this he quoteth Gregory the Great one of the Popes 2. God immediately hardneth the hearts of sinners saith he by giving them up to Satan that they may be by him hardned as in the case of Saul and Ahab and those mentioned in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians 3. Saith he he hardneth them per se ipsos by themselves giving them up as my Text faith to vile affections Thus Pharaoh is said thrice to have hardned his own heart Pharaoh by his own free-will hardned his heart and God hardned it by his just judgment God permitted the Heathens to sin yet more and more and by an actual motion moved them to an act of sin so far forth as it was an act 4. Lastly saith he God positively hardneth sinners By giving occasions which through the lust that is in them incline them to evil God proposeth to them what things in their own nature should induce and perswade them to that which is good but they through their lust and malice make them an occasion to evil Thus saith he God provoked the Jews to emulation by a foolish nation by shewing grace and mercy to the Gentiles the rage of the Jews against Christ grew greater Thus Christs Preaching and Miracles were occasion to the Pharisees of further blaspheming But saith that excellent Author if we rightly understand it it is not of so much moment whether we say that God hardneth men positively or negatively for though as to the execution in the event the act be negative yet this event floweth from the positive purpose of God It is therefore all one whether we speak in the words of Moses Deut. 29.4 and say God hath not given them an heart to perceive or eyes to see and ears to hear or in the phrase of the Apostle Rom. 11.8 God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes they should not see and ears they should not hear until this day for the will of God is as effectual in his negative as positive actions And now I think I have told you the utmost our Divines have said in this cause unless some of them have said that God is the Author of his own judgments and punishments which I think none can with modesty deny Twiss Vind. gratiae 3.163 it being no more than the Scripture saith of all those things which are of a positive nature but not of those things which are of a privative nature which yet he may will should be done by his permission though not by his efficiency and this is no more than Arminius himself confesseth that God is effector actus though no more than permissor peccati The sum is if we understand by the punishment of sin with sin Gods judicial act by which he withdraweth his grace or his leaving of sinners to the satisfaction of their own lusts there is no question but God for mens former sins may do this yea more than this he may judicially deliver men up to their lusts and to Satan to be seduced at his pleasure and offer them occasions in their own nature leading to good which they through their corruption may turn to further sinning But God cannot punish the former sins of any by putting any lust or malice into their hearts by which they become more evil or otherwise than accidentally stirring up that lust and malice which is in their heart This is the sum so far as I know of what Divines say as to Gods acts in the punishment of sin by delivering them up to farther sinnings
given him to do so the reprobate must fill up his measures too It may be a poor wretch hath been a swearer a Sabbath-breaker a drunkard an unclean person many years God hath born with him let him alone there want yet some drops to fill up the measures of his sin he falls upon the people of God turns a persecutor smiteth his fellow-servants with the fist of violence and wickedness then cometh the master of that servant in an hour when he looketh not for him and presently giveth him his portion with Hypocrites where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth offences must come they will come but wo be to those by whom they come Methinks there is a great Emphasis in those words That upon you may come all the righteous blood that hath been shed upon the earth from the blood of Abel c. There was a great deal of righteous blood shed from the time of Abel to the time of Zechariah what had God let it all sleep had God in those hundreds of years reckoned with sinners for none of it Yes certainly God had revenged himself of many a blood-thirsty man But yet Abels blood was not expiated in Christs time there was yet an arrear of reckoning for Abels blood Well who shall pay for it even every one that was Cains successor in that kind of sin You read no such expression in Holy-writ with reference to any other sin This sin this devouring of persons more righteous than our selves hath many grains of guilt in it more than any other sins have men by it fill up the measure of the sins of a Nation and they fill up the measure of their own personal sins It is a saying as I remember of Augustines Nemo habet injustum lucrum sine justo damno lucrum habet in arca damnum in conscientia No man getteth any unjust gain without a just loss his gain is laid up in his chest but his loss is in his Conscience he gets a penny or two into his purse but a seal of damnation in his soul I am sure all the gains any get by devouring the persons who are more righteous than themselves is an unjust gain Yea though God gives it them it is unjust gain God is but permissive in the case and Gods permission doth not salve them but that they are possessores malae fidei God gave the Assyrians the Caldeans and other enemies of the Israelites the prey they took from the Jews yet he often calls it by his Prophets that which is not theirs the loss is in their Consciences they are hardned to destruction sealed up to the condemnation of Hell they fill up the measures of their iniquities by their violence 4. But lastly Why should not God be righteous in suffering wicked men to do his people good This is a point I have something largely before spoken to and therefore may be shorter in this Discourse prosunt gelu nix quia incommodant saith one they do them good by doing them hurt as snow and frost do good to the Corn. The Apostle tells the people of God that all things are theirs 1 Cor. 3.21 that is for their good profit and advantage and again All things work together for the good of them that love God The dignity of the people of God is such that not only bruit beasts but bruitish men St. Pauls Ephesian beasts shall be harnessed for their service in order to their eternal salvation and if the Angels be ministring spirits for the good of Gods elect it is no wonder if the children of the Devil be beasts ministring for their service too They say Vespasian had a wretched saying that the smell of mony was sweet from whencesoever it came I am sure the odor of grace is sweet whatsoever be instrumental for the sending it forth The truth is what the wiser Philosophers said of a morally good and wise man is much more true of one spiritually wise and good He is out of the jurisdiction of evil Seneca saith that a wise man cannot be contemned of any quia magnitudinem suam novit because he knoweth his own riches A gracious man can be imprisoned by none because he knows his own liberty and will enjoy it when the world hath done what it can he can be plundred by none because he knoweth his own riches It were a vast work to open to you how many wayes the persecutions of the saints advantage and profit the people of God but I have in some measure done it before and shall not again further enlarge upon it The Apostle telleth you much in short when he telleth you that Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope I shall add no more to the Doctrinal part of this Discourse Vse 1. Now hear O Israel hear all you sons and daughters of men are not the Lords ways equal Is not your judgment of them unequal This is the great argument against Divine Providence because in the world there appeareth such a confusion of things The wicked walk on every side while vilest men are exalted prophane leud persons live grow old are rich and great in power The Sun which seemeth to go down upon the Tabernacles of some that fear the Lord shineth bright upon the Tabernacles of the ungodly the people of God are afflicted plundred nay and which seemeth hardest of all the holiest and best of men are devoured by the vilest and most prophane wretches this is that which is a sore temptation to men and makes them think that certainly there is no God who judgeth the world or that God regardeth not the affairs of the world there is no strength in this argument no reason for such a conclusion the love or hatred of God is not to be concluded from any thing which is before us in this life as with reference to actions we call good evil and evil good so through the deceitfulness of our senses we miscall things we call those things evil which separate them from the affection of our sense have no evil in them and things good which have no real goodness Now the judgement of sense is a very fallible judgement do you see the wicked prosper the godly man visited every morning and chastned every moment come but up into the sanctuary and you will be able to unriddle this Providence Job saw the wicked flourishing and taking root but suddenly he cursed his habitation You see the innocent children of God imprisoned plundred c. Dives clad in purple and faring delicously every day while poor Lazarus lies at his door full of sores begging what falleth from his Table and cannot get any relief Come up into the Sanctuary and you shall there see Lazarus this poor begging Lazarus in Abrahams bosom and Dives that fared so deliciously and was so richly clad begging a cup of cold water to cool his tongue Had you been with St. John in his vision Rev. 7. you would
than my time will now allow me to do SERMON XLV Psal 37. v. 1 3 4 5 7. Fret not thy self because of evil-doers neither be thou envious at the workers of iniquity Vers 3. Trust in the Lord and do good Vers 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord. Vers 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him Vers 7. Rest in the Lord wait patiently for him Vers 8. Cease from anger and forsake wrath fret not thy self in any wise to do evil THe point I am upon is to clear up the justice equity and reasonableness of the motions of Gods Actual Providence in the prosperity of wicked men his afflictings and chastiseings of his own people and delivering them up into the hands of those who although the best of Gods People are sinners and deserve the severities of God yet are more wicked more unrighteous than they This I have cleared and made Application of my discourse so far as may concern wicked men That which only yet remains is to inform the People of God of their duty under such a dispensation This has been the case of God's people in former times the estates at least of many who truly fear God and desire to worship him according to his Will have been exposed to the vilest men and this may be a sore temptation to Gods own people I will therefore enlarge this discourse a little shewing you the duty of Gods People at such a time and for this I have chosen this Text. No other portion of Scripture so fully setting it out together as the 7 or 8 first verses of this Psalm which partly shew them 1. What they are to avoid 2. And then what they are to do The prohibitive directions are three 1. They must not fret this is repeated three times v. 1. Fret not thy self because of evil doers v. 7. Fret not thy self because of him that prospereth in his way because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to pass v. 8. Fret not thy self in any wise to do evil 2. They must not be envious v. 1. Neither be thou envious at the workers of iniquity 3. They must not be angry v. 8. Cease from anger forsake wrath The instructive directions are four The first is the exercise of faith v. 3. Trust in the Lord. v. 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust in him v. 7. Rest on the Lord. 2. The second is the practice of holiness 1. They must not do evil v. 8. so v. 27. They must depart from evil 2. They must do good v. 3. v. 27. The same is repeated 3. The third is They must delight themselves in the Lord. v. 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord. 4. They must wait patiently for God v. 7. You have it again repeated v. 34. Wait patiently for him Wait on the Lord and keep his way In these 6 or 7 particulars I shall open to you and press upon you your duty under such dispensations as these I will put the three first together because they have a great affinity and cognation one with another 1. It is your duty under such a dispensation Not to fret to be envious or angry The words in the Hebrew Text are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to inflame to kindle to burn and in a secondary sense to be angry because anger puts a man into an heat the heating of the blood about the heart by the disorder and disturbance of the gall is assigned as the natural cause of it The moral Philosopher calleth Anger the irrational perturbation of the mind others tell us it is a desire of Revenge and use to distinguish betwixt ira and iracundia making the first to be where we have a just cause the other where there is no cause but in short as to our purpose anger is to be considered 1. As a passion a natural passion and so is not in it self sinful it is a power created in us by God which we may use well or ill 2. As a Vertue when it is used in a good and justifiable cause when a man is troubled and desireth the punishment of another secundum ordinem rationis where according to Gods will he ought to be punished 3. As a Vice such the exercise of this passion proveth when a man is angry either for no just cause or in an irrational and undue manner When wicked men prosper we are commanded not to be angry not to fret wickedly and sinfully so as either to be displeased at Gods Providence as Jonah was for the gourd when God asking him if he did well to be angry plainly implieth that he did ill and not well or to desire an unjust and undue revenge upon him either when the person hath not deserved it or in an undue order or measure This Anger first boileth in the heart and there discovereth it self in evil wishes and thoughts of sinful revenge then breaketh out at the lips and sheweth it self in uncomely speeches reproaches and revilings and lastly sheweth it self in rendring evil for evil The anger which is here forbidden us under this dispensation of God is such as tendeth to the dishonor of God to the disturbance of our own Spirits wiling them and putting them into disorder and to the unjust disturbance of others From this anger it is the will of God that his people under such dispensations should cease This is the wrath they should forsake The word translated envy signifieth to envy or emulate Envy is properly an hatred of or a trouble for the felicity of another whether the cause of it be a fear of some hurt to our selves or a discontent that it is well with them or that they are in a better estate than our selves Hence is hatred detraction rejoicing in the evil of our neighbour Affliction at their prosperity c. There is a just anger at the prosperity of wicked men as God is dishonoured by reason of it and the interest of God in the world suffereth by it for the heart of a man to be hot and zealous for God yea and to desire Gods just revenge of his own name and glory upon sinners is but what he may and ought to crave and do Thus we find Moses the meekest men on the Earth often angry and executing the vengeance upon God but for a man to be displeased and discontented at Gods Providence for it or to be angry at their Bretherns good this is sinful the first is against the love which we owe to God the second against the love which we owe unto our Neighbour To desire an undue or unjust punishment of them is a sin against Justice that Justice which we owe unto all men this envying at the prosperity of sinners is forbidden also in other Texts Prov. 3.31 Envy not thou the oppressor chuse none of his ways Prov. 24.1 Be not envious as the evil doers neither desire thou to be with them In sum God in this precept forbiddeth his people under such
shall not fall Mat. 16.18 The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Psal 94.14 For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Mica 4.4 11 12. So quite through this Psalm there are many promises of the same import Now the work of faith is to perswade the soul of the certainty and undoubted verity of these words of God to settle the soul in this perswasion That sooner shall Heaven and earth pass away than any of these things shall fail which God hath spoken Then the work of faith is further to carry out the soul without any carping trouble or disputing to rest wholly upon these words A Christian seeth the word of God what he hath said for its relief now faith teacheth the soul to agree this as the word of him who cannot lye or repent and calleth upon the soul to trust in God for the fulfilling of it to roll it self upon the promise and to commit it self its cause its way unto the Lord the soul of a Christian is very solicitous and careful for the concern and interest of God in the world faith teacheth the soul to cast its care the burthen of its spirit upon the Lord assuring it that God careth for it Faith speaketh to the soul in the language of Solomon Eccles 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Justice and Judgment in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they I say this is a great piece of the Child of Gods duty in such a time when the vilest men are exalted and the wicked walk on every side and the people of God are troden under foot as the mire in the streets It is the Will of God concerning them The just shall live by faith This is the proper time for the exercise of Faith when the eye of sense faileth Faith is the evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for The proper operation of Faith is where sense faileth where God is trusted and not seen Blessed are they saith our Saviour who have not seen and yet believe This is Opus diei in die suo Though the people of God ought to be careful of all duty at all times yet they ought to have a special regard to the duty of their day the seasonableness of a duty addeth much to the weight and importance of it The foundations are shaken saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 4 What shall what can the righteous do Mark what follows The Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men This is that life which the Saints have lived yea and they have lived well upon it When David had lost all the Amalekites had taken Ziglag and in it all that he had 1 Sam. 30.6 the Text saith David encouraged himself in God the Truth Power and Goodness of God nor did he hope in God in vain as you shall read in that story What had Hezekiah to live upon but Faith when Sennacherib had besieged him with his mighty Army and ranted against him and the God of Heaven too after that rate you read What had all the Patriarchs all the Saints and Servants of God to live upon but Faith of whom you read Heb. 11. Nor is there any life which so glorifieth God as this it eminently glorifieth three Attributes of his his Power Goodness and Truth No man will trust in a bruised Reed or lean upon a broken Staff therefore the Apostle speaking of Abrahams faith Heb. 11. saith He believed that God was able to raise him from the dead and again Rom. 3 He believed that he who promised was able to perform It giveth God the glory of his goodness for the expectation of his soul is the Mercy and Goodness of God and it also giveth God the glory of his truth for the proximate object of Faith is the Word and Promise of God O therefore let this be your care when you cannot live by sense live by Faith It is the happiness of a Child of God he hath something to live on in the worst of times Psal 34.10 The young Lions shall be hunger-bit but there is no want to them that fear the Lord. One would think that of all creatures the Lion should be most out of danger of being hunger bit The Lion the King of the Forest all other Beasts are subject to this Beast yet if an old Lion that cannot run for its prey that hath lost much of its strength may be hunger-bitten one would think a young-Lion that is in its full strength should not Yes saith the Psalmist a young Lion may be hunger-bitten those that have most of the world wicked men that have greatest honours greatest power great advantages to provide for themselves they may be hunger bitten they may come to want but there shall be no want to them who fear the Lord there shall be no time so ill but they shall live if they cannot live upon bread they shall feed upon truth How much better is the estate of a godly man than that of his neighbour It is a great point this a great piece of duty Let me therefore a little further enlarge upon it three ways 1. Shewing you how a Christian may know if he liveth this life 2. Directing you in order to it 3. Perswading it by Arguments 1. Will some Christian say how shall I know if I live this life Suffer me to give you five or Six Characters of it 1. It is a Spiritual life Our life saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God What Christ sometimes said to his Disciples when they would have had him to have eaten something that a Child of God may say to all the world I have meat to eat you know not of His life is a spiritual life such is the life of Faith both with respect to the subject and to the object of it As to the subject of it it is the soul that lives the body lives by bread the soul lives by truth by the promise There are many that in evil days their bodies have enough to feed upon but their souls have nothing hence their hearts become like Nabals dead as a stone yea and as to the object it is spiritual too he that feedeth upon truth feedeth upon Jehovah It is the truth of God in the word which the soul liveth upon the soul of a Believer can no more live upon Words and Syllables than another soul No but it is the truth of God in these words his power and ability to perform what he hath said his inclination and good-will to the performance and his truth and faithfulness Every life in an evil day is not a life of faith some may live upon fancy and foolish hope some may live upon means with which their eye feedeth them another may live upon a Roman spirit of his own Tu
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
meek of the earth it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger Ten righteous persons would have saved Sodom Besides evil times being usually times of suffering as to the people of God it is unquestionably their great concern to take heed that they suffer not as evil doers 1 Pet. 3.14 If you be reproached for the name of Christ saith the Apostle happy are you for the Spirit of God and of glory resteth upon you On their parts he is evil spoken of but on your parts he is glorified but let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as an evil doer c. We ordinarily call suffering-times evil times now it is the great wisdom of a Christian to make the best of the worst of times that they may suffer with comfort and not lose their Crown in suffering there is no such way to secure this as to suffer in and for doing of our duty Again there is no such way as this to convince or condemn Adversaries who are the Instruments of evil towards you It is our duty as much as may be so to live as to reconcile the world to the ways of God at least so to live as if we cannot win and gain them yet we may shame and condemn them This you shall find the Apostle did who lived in the first and most furious times 1 Pet. 2.13 Having your conversation honest amongst the Gentiles that whereas they speak evil of you as evil doers they may behold your good works and glorifie God in the day of their visitation As there is an error of Opinion and an error of Practice so there is a double way of conviction The first is by Argument as Paul convinced the Jews Acts 18.28 The second is by a contrary Practice The first reacheth the Judgment the second the Conscience Joh. 8.9 They who heard Christ were convicted by their Consciences If by doing good thou doest not convince sinners and reform them thou wilt most certainly condemn them Heb. 11.7 Noah condemned the old world Further yet by this means thou shalt have peace within In the world saith Christ to his Disciples Joh. 16. you shall have trouble but in me you shall have peace we are sure enough in and from the world to meet with trouble it is our great concern to secure our peace within now there is no other way to secure this but to keep a Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men If a man hath a troublesome Neighbour if yet he hath a quiet Wife he will do well enough he hath peace at home If he lives in wicked and disturbed times yet if he hath a quiet indisturbed Conscience this is something and he will the better graple with his other troubles I say this is the way for a man to keep a quiet Conscience to depart from evil and to do that which is good Finally thus a Christian shall evidence his Faith in God's rewarding him for that man who in an evil day doth evil or neglecteth to do good cannot be said regularly to trust in God because he useth not the means in the use of which he may expect Gods fulfilling his Promise Take heed saith the Apostle that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God All departing from the living God in an evil day is a certain sign of unbelief or distrust in God as to the issues of his Providence Let me therefore beseech you that fear God and are brought under such a dispensation of this to take care as to this Let not the evil of others be a temptation to you to omit doing good I will yet further open it in a few particulars 1. Be sure you keep close with God in the duties of his Worship It is a sad thing for a state of affliction to drive a man from God God chasteneth his people to make them better In their affliction they will seek me early Hos 5.13 'T is very sad when affliction hath a quite contrary effect upon us when as the Scripture speaks of Ahaz when he was afflicted he did more wickedly So God hath reason to say of any person This is that person who when he was in affliction left prayer reading hearing left his closet-walking with God c. It is a mark of an ill Servant not dutiful Son when he is beaten for his faults not to ask his Fathers blessing but to run out of his doors 2. Be not ashamed nor afraid to appear for the interest of God in evil times St. Paul in the worst of times was not ashamed of the Gospel Our Lord speaketh dreadfully in this case when he telleth us that he who is ashamed of him before men of him he will be ashamed when he cometh with his Angels This is a particular Service every good Christian oweth unto God not to be ashamed of the cause and interest of God in an evil time own thy self a Servant of God when his Name is most blasphemed his truths and ways most disparaged his people most exposed 3. Perform all that duty which thou owest to the worst of men It is a woful error for any Christian to think that he can do no wrong to wicked and ungodly men as if they had no civil rights doubtless the Apostle spake chiefly with relation to Heathens when he commanded the Romans that were Christians to give unto all their dues honour to whom honour c. 4. Do good to them that hate and persecute thee bless them that curse thee It is our Saviours lesson Mat. 5.44 I remember God gave his people a charge Jer. 29.7 To seek the peace of that City whither they were carried captive and to pray unto the Lord for it It was an evil time when they were in Captivity and the Babylonians were very evil persons yet God commandeth his people to pray for them and to seek their peace Let them curse but bless you let them persecute but do you pray Thus David did for his Enemies when they were sick he humbled himself with fasting and with mourning as for his Brother he tells you he lost nothing by it his prayer returned into his own bosom 5. Take heed finally of using any unlawful means to be rid of the evil that is upon you This is a temptation will much molest us in an evil time and to which all our hearts are too too prone this is a pecular evil which a child of God in such a time should study and make it his business to depart from but I shall have occasion to speak more to this under the next head of Duty upon which I shall enlarge as it is contrary to the duty of Patience and the fruit of a Soul making too much haste But I know this is an hard saying we have many temptations to the contrary for a man to do good to others when they are doing evil to and against him this
Jeroboam that he only of the house of Jeroboam went to his grave in peace because there was some good thing found in him Sometimes and most ordinarily God worketh upon peoples hearts in their riper state of which are the most plentiful instances in Scripture You read of the thief upon the Cross converted in the last day of his life and what we find in Scripture we find God still doing in the dispensations of his Providence The age in which we have lived hath afforded many instances of children whose hearts we may charitably judg from the accounts we have had of them God had in their very childhood Regenerated and Sanctified them Blessed be God we are not without some instances of persons and those not a few whom God hath wrought upon in their more adult estate and some also in their old age though Examples of that still are and ever were very rare This is the first variety obvious to every Eye 2. A second variety observable is in the means which God is pleased to make use of For these God never tied himself to the same means The preaching of the Gospel was always made use of by God as the most ordinary means It was at the preaching of Peter that Three Thousand Souls were in one day converted and the Apostle telleth us that it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believed 1 Cor. 1.21 And the Apostle tells us that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God But yet God hath made use though more rarely of other means the means which God first used to the Eunuch seems to be his reading in the Prophet Isaiah Sometimes God made use of Providences you read of many converted and induced to believe in Christ upon the account of his Miracles and still God is pleased to use the same variety of means Generally indeed God maketh use of the preaching of the Gospel sometimes he sanctifieth the reading of the word sometimes he maketh use of Providences I think I have sometimes read concerning Waldus the Father of those ancient Protestants called the Waldenses that the seeing of one of his companions suddenly drop down dead was the first means of his conversion we read of a great dread that fell upon People upon the sudden death of Ananias and Saphirah My self have known one that would acknowledg that his hearing of Bells Ring for persons dead was a great means to beget serious thoughts in him First of turning unto God It pleased God to make use of Manasses his Chains to turn his heart and the imprisonment of Paul Acts 16. to convert the Goaler and his whole Family Sometimes God useth the instructions of Parents sometimes one means sometimes another as it pleaseth him 3. A third observable variety respecteth The manner of Gods working upon Souls It is true in some especially two respects God dealeth a-like withal 1. He forceth no Soul he indeed maketh it willing and giveth to will but the Soul in its conversion to God moveth willingly and freely 2. Secondly He putteth forth an Almighty power as to every Soul that is converted The Soul is made willing but it is in the day of the Lords power Psal 110.3 But yet the effects of this power are not always the same all are not drawn in the like manner some are drawn by a Silken Thred others by Iron-Fetters some God works upon in a more rough way some in a more soft and gentle way Some are a little or not at all under the Spirit of bondage others are Months and Years under it they are filled with the Lords terrors and cry unto him out of the belly of Hell before he heareth them some are drawn with the Cords of love only others with the Chains of fears Some are as it were insensibly drawn and the Spirit of God as it were slippeth into their Souls without any noise they become Temples of the Holy Ghost and there is neither the noise of Ax nor Hammer heard about the Spiritual building others are terrified like the Jaylor Acts 16. cast down to the Earth like Paul both in order to conversion and their reception of converting Grace 2. Secondly You shall observe That God sometimes makes his way to the heart by the head sometimes he begins at the heart and by that maketh his way to the head my meaning is sometimes God begins his work upon knowing persons who have been Catechised out of the Law and from Children have had a knowledg of the Holy Scriptures sanctifying their first Principles to them and reflecting upon their Hearts and Consciences the notions of truth which they have been bred up in the Holy Spirit bringing to their remembrance what of God they have formerly heard from Ministers Parents or Goverours As to others God maketh his way from the heart to the head They have great degrees of ignorance as to the truths of God but God blesseth his word so far as that they can apprehend they are in a lost condition and must look for another righteousness besides their own and take up a new course of life they hear of a Saviour come into the World of a fulness in him and a readiness to save unto the utmost those who by faith come unto him this makes them to inquire return and come to seek for Spiritual knowledg as for Silver and to dig for it as for hidden treasure and by following on to know the Lord they came to know him But this is enough to have hinted you as to the varieties to be observed in Gods methods of working in the conversion of Souls Let me in the next place shew the reasonableness of the Divine workings in this great work 1. And first as to the variety observed in point of time 1. Some are converted young Possibly God may do it that he may Crown the indeavours of Parents Governours and thereby engage others to take care of the Souls of their Correlations committed to their charge Some Parents are very solicitous for the Spiritual good of their children whetting upon them their lost condition by Nature often minding them of Eternity and calling upon them to remember their Creator in the days of their youth now where any will do this God takes notice of it and will often Crown those Domestick labours with a desired success for the encouragement of others God gives in to their prayers the Souls of their Children oft-times while yet they are Children It is said of Monica the Mother of Augustine that she was a woman of many tears and prayers for her Son and Ambrose was wont to comfort her telling her that it was impossible that a Child of so many tears should perish It is not impossible indeed that some should perish who have been Children of many tears and prayers for whom godly Mothers have travailed in pain again till Christ should be formed in them there is no merit in our prayers and tears neither hath
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
that it may live and not dye God calleth into his Vineyard at several hours some he calleth at the Sixth some at the Nineth some at the Eleventh hour Happy thrice happy are they whom God findeth at the Sixth hour in their youth and persuadeth to go into his Vineyard they ordinarily find not so hard a labour of the new-birth they have the priviledg of a longer familiarity and acquaintance with God they have more opportunities of doing God service God often honoreth them to do him some more eminent service but if you have slipped that hour if it be the Ninth hour nay if it be in the wane of your life if it be towards Evening with you that you have nothing to do but to repent and dye singing the Song of old Simeon Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation yet thou hast no cause to discourage thy self God doth not work upon all Souls at one and the same period of time Great sinners have no reason to discourage themselves the gate to Heaven may appear something straiter to you than unto others you may have an harder work of it it is an hard thing for those that are accustomed to do evil to do well but yet if God will give you an heart to repent if the Lord shall change your hearts and incline you to turn unto him there is mercy with God even for you God can men make to bring forth fruit in their old age Vse 3. Lastly and with that I shall shut up this discourse This speaketh aloud unto all such as have the charge of others as Parents Masters Tutors and Governours to be daily labouring with them for the good of their Souls using all possible means to bring them unto God It is Solomons advice Ecc. 11.6 In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening let not thy hand be slack for thou knowest not which shall prosper this or that or whether both shall be alike good you that are Parents of Children Masters of Servants in any relation Governours of youth see what an ingagement lyeth upon you to bring up your Children to Reading the word Catechizing to bring them to hear faithful Preachers sow the seeds of Spiritual learning and instruction in them in the Morning of their lives hearken not to those who would perswade you that Catechizing in your families is useless and that a Notional knowledg signifieth nothing until God come to work in their hearts that is true but ill applyed when used as a discouragement to the use of the means of knowledg God doth his work by the use of means on our parts and Preaching is not the only means God sometimes in the conversion of sinners maketh his way to their hearts by their heads sanctifying notions of truth dropt into Souls of persons in their tender years and reflecting them many years after upon the conscience you know not which shall prosper this or that use them to read the Scriptures to be examined questioned and catechised out of the Scriptures to hear lively and powerful preaching you know not which shall prosper in order to the conversion of their Souls and turning them to God this or that whether reading or preaching or Family-instruction God that can work without means useth as you have heard a variety of means and doth not limit himself to this or that Or whether both may not prove alike good God may use one means to begin another to perfect one to plant another to water one for laying the foundation another for building thereon and laying the corner-stone and yet when the building is finished you shall see reason enough to cry Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy name be given the glory to cry Grace Grace unto it The Knowing person when converted hath usually if not guilty of notorious sins against his light the easiest new-birth and the most quiet and peaceable life Many more doubts and fears trouble those that are more imperfect in their knowledg of the things of God than trouble others O let it not be said of you as it was said of Herod upon occasion of the killing of his own Child amongst the rest of the Infants That it was better to be Herods Hog than his Child Let it not be said of any of you that it is better to be your Horse or Swine or other Beast than your Child or Servant or Scholar For your Beasts you provide all things sutable to their Natures and capacities O remember your Children have Spiritual beings and are born into the World with a capacity of Eternity nay under a certain ordination to a miserable or blessed Eternity SERMON LIII Isaiah 28.29 This also cometh from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working THE Particle This in the front of my Text is relative to what went before where the Prophet had been speaking of some works of Divine Providence and those but of an inferiour Nature if compared with others the discretion by which men having divers sorts of Grain and Seeds are taught to get them out of their husks and ears by instruments not always the same but suted to the respective Grain or Seed they intend to get out Of this it is that the Text speaks This discretion and saith it cometh from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel So that I desire you to observe that my following discourses which I shall bottom on this Text are not founded on the first words and the relative Particle This but upon the latter where Gods wonderfulness in Counsel and excellency in working are join'd together Gods excellency in the workings of Providence floweth from his wonderful Counsel and if such little instincts as the foregoing verses speak of be from the Lord the Lords workings and from a wonderful Counsel an easie argumentation will conclude that Gods dispensations of special grace by the hand of his Providence must needs be the effects of infinite wisdom and proceed from the Lord who is wonderful in Councel which is the point I have in hand and to vindicate Divine wisdom from our exceptions against it because of the variety which God useth in his dispensations of it and the inequal distributions of it to the Children of men I have spoken already to the varieties of Providence in the dispensations of the first grace by which a Soul is converted and turned from sin unto God in which work the Soul is meerly passive I come now to speak to those dispensations of Spiritual grace wherein the Soul is not meerly passive but active as to these also we shall observe a great variety in the motions of Divine Providence and a great inequality in the distributions of it of which I shall give you some account and then shut up the discourse To this inequality of distribution good Christians often find it an hard thing to reconcile their thoughts and although God must be allowed to have
it can hardly be expected that they should ordinarily be freed from that natural incumbrance by special and eminent assistances of Divine grace 2. In the second place Mens different sinnings may make this also appear but a reasonable motion of Providence It is true it is a dreadful punishment of sin for God to punish the sins of people by suffering them to be led into temptation It is a dreadful curse or imprecation of David upon the enemies of the Church Psal 109.6 Set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand God doth thus often punish peoples sins by letting Satan loose upon them the effects of this are sad enough none need a greater evil than to have Satan always at his right hand assiduously and violently moving him unto evil and though it be not so ordinary yet God may thus punish his own people Satan was at David's right hand when he would number the people St. Paul had a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him what that messenger of Satan was is not so easie to determine it was certainly some great affliction in which Satan had a particular ministery 2 Cor. 12.7 Some Divines do think it was some great temptation indeed the Scripture doth not mention it as the punishment of Paul's sin but as preventive of sin lest saith he I should be exalted above measure Undoubtedly temptations may be punishments of sin and in those desperate temptations to self-murther c. which have prevailed against men the sin hath been often made evident and possibly as to St. Paul God might discern Paul's heart begin to swell upon occasion of his Revelations and might send him a messenger of Satan to buffet him as well for the beginnings of the workings of Pride which he had discerned in him as to prevent the further increases of it It is not so easie to determine what Davids sin was but in probability it was pride Davids heart was lifted up upon the view of the great number of people which God had put under his Government God letteth loose Satan upon him he moveth David to number the people by which he knew God would be sufficiently provoked to abate that wherein he glory'd The case was much the same with Hezekiah though we do not read of so eminent and immediate a ministry of Satan The Text saith God left him it was in the pride of Hezekiahs heart that he would shew his Treasure to the King of Babylon God leaves him the temptation prevails upon him This by the way doth not only let us see that God sometimes by temptations punisheth his own people for their sin but that pride and swelling of our hearts upon the account of our enjoyments is one of those sins for which God suffereth Satan to stand at our right hand Guriosity is another sin an itch after knowledg which God hath hidden from us It is a sad story how many have been thus catched in the snare of the Devil indeed our first Mother Eve was thus catched but this were too large a Theme to instance in all those particular sins which God hath thus punished or may thus punish Now in regard that the sins of all Gods people are not equal but they may fall some of them into more great and hainous sins than others It is but a reasonable motion of Divine Providence that such as do so should be more troubled with Satan at their right hand with messengers of Satan sent to buffet them than others 3. A third reasonable account of this may be Gods Prerogative God may do it for the trial of their graces I know not what other account we can give than this of Gods dispensations to Job God himself gives thus this account of him then he was a just and upright man Yet he giveth Satan leave to stand at his right hand he tells him all that he had was in his power but only his life It is said that God left Hezekiah to try what was in his heart to try that he might know all that was in his heart Divines dispute about that Pronoun He whether it referreth unto God or to Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32.31 The matter I do not conceive much whether it referreth to one or to the other That God might know what was in his heart Did not then you will say God know what was in the heart of Hezekiah Doubtless he to whom all contingencies were naked who knew all things past present and to come could not be ignorant what was in Hezekiah's heart and what he would do when he left him But the Scripture often speaketh of God after the manner of men they know not secret hidden things till they be brought to demonstration God left him that he might know that is that he might in matter of fact see what was in his heart This could be no matter of pleasure and delight to the Holy God but only a just medium in order to the punishment which he intended Israel in the posterity of that good man But God leaveth many of the Souls of his People that they may be tempted and in the hour of their temptation put forth exert and exercise their grace in the exercise of which the Lord hath a great deal of pleasure and delight This seemeth to be the case of Job the second time that you read Job 1. of Satans appearance before God God glorieth in Job Job 2.3 Hast thou saith he considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the Earth a perfect and upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil and still he holdeth fast his integrity although thou movedst me against him to destroy him without cause Job 2.3 God delights in the combates of his People where they come off conquerors yea more than Conquerors I remember those two great Commanders Joab and Abner once said Let the young men arise and play before us that was a bloody game for they mutually kill'd each other so were the Romans Gladiators games and the combates with wild Beasts to which they exposed some miserable Creatures yet those men of blood took a pleasure in them God knoweth the good fight shall have no such issue Christ was not tempted for nothing the Apostle telleth us he was therefore tempted that he might be able to succour them that were tempted himself told Peter that although Satan had desired to winnow him like Wheat yet he had prayed that his faith might not fail This being secured God delighted to see Satan and a believing Soul play before him to see his People exercising their knowledg faith love patience courage and fortitude in resisting Satans temptations and making him to flee from them Now who can deny unto God the satisfaction and pleasure which he taketh in the exercise of those habits of grace which he hath given them The use of that Spiritual armour which he hath armed them with 4. Fourthly It is but a reasonable motion of
not freely confessing them and humbly bewailing them before him who alone hath power to forgive them which alone is necessary in order to forgiveness This was Davids case Psal 32.3 When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long For day and night thine hand was heavy upon me my moisture was turned into the drought of Summer I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity I have not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sins There you have both the case and the cure But sometimes the concealing of some sins from men is a great cause of the long abiding of a temptation and this mostly happeneth in souls that are weak in knowledg and not able of themselves to find out and apply to themselves that relief which is in Scripture for them under such guilt and therefore had need of the help of some spiritual Interpreter But I say in every hour of temptation it is very proper to a tempted soul to search and see if he can find no Achan that troubles him or that provoketh God to punish him by setting Satan or by suffering Satan to stand at his right hand oftentimes by the way I have found sins which have been acts of unrighteousness towards men where restitution hath not been made or where restitution hath been unpossible have a long time given advantage to the tempters suggestions but where particular sins cannot be fixed upon as it happeneth in many cases souls fall under great and exceeding troublesome temptations whom God hath yet all their life kept and restrained from such erronious transgressions I say where this happeneth As Herod in great cruelty sent and killed all the children to two years old that he might be sure not to miss him who was born King of the Jews so it will be great policy and piety in a Christian to confess all his sins which he can remember and charge himself with 〈◊〉 to study the mortifying of every member that he may be sure to fall upon that which doth offend him and give the Adversary advantage against him hence it followeth that frequent humiliation and prayer frequent confessions of sin and prayer for the forgiveness of them through the blood of Christ are exceeding proper works for souls under temptation We may indeed concerning violent temptation say as Christ said of possession with the Devil it seldom cometh off without much fasting and prayer yea and holiness of life and watchfulness against sin is the singular duty of poor tempted souls the soul is at such a time in the spiritual fight It was Gods special command to the Israelites that when the host went forth to battel then they should take heed of every wicked thing By a parity of reason when the soul goeth out to the spiritual fight and especially when it is in the fight it standeth concerned to take heed of sinning against God sin weakens the hand and there is nothing more ordinary than for Christians in those circumstances to be de novo troubled for their slips while they have been in that condition 3. Hence Thirdly may easily be concluded the duty of Christians to take unto them the whole armour of God that they may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil in the evil day and having done all to stand Eph. 6.13 not to yeild but to resist Many arguments might be brought to perswade this spiritual resistance you have to do with a foiled Adversary you want not a spiritual assistance Christ was therefore tempted that he might be able to succour you when tempted he cannot conquer you but by your voluntary surrender The will of man is a Fort that is not to be storm'd many are the presidents of those that have resisted and come out of the field conquerors look unto Jesus the Captain of your salvation he resisted Mat. 4.11 The Devil leaveth him and behold Angels came and ministred to him After great temptations usually come great consolations great manifestations of God to the souls of his people But that which follows from this Discourse is because thus you shall fulfil the Lords end this is good acceptable and well-pleasing unto God God himself as I before shewed glorieth in Jobs conquest and checks the Devil upon it God therefore bringeth you into the Field that you might fight valiantly resist manfully and at last come out with a Garland of honour O therefore take heed of casting down your Arms of entertaining any thoughts of running away They observe in Battles that more are slain in a running away than where they manfully maintain the fight but in this fight none falleth but he who yieldeth and throweth down his Arms. They observe also in War that the presence of the Prince in the Field viewing his Souldiers who behave themselves more or less valiantly doth much animate Souldiers You may be assured of this That when you are in this Spiritual combate your great General is in the Field God is observing you particularly observing how you gird up your loins stand to your Arms how you behave your selves in the managery of the fight and that he therefore suffereth you to be tempted that he may see what faith what patience what love to God is in your hearts But thus much shall serve to have spoken to this particular to shew you the wisdom of God and the reasonableness of his motions of Providence in suffering Souls to be more under temptation than others SERMON LIV. Isaiah 28.29 This also cometh from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working I Proceed now to the Second Question Quest 2 of those which I propounded whence it is that God doth not equally strengthen all the Souls of his People unto the performance of their duty toward him yea and that the same Persons do not at all times find the same mesures of Spiritual strength unto their Spiritual duty Answ There is nothing more demonstrable in matter of fact than that it is so nothing more certain than that God could make it otherwise the Question is whence it is and how the wisdom and the reasonableness of Divine Providence appeareth in this dispensation let me before I come to speak directly to the Question premise something 1. Concerning Spiritual duty 2. Concerning Strengthning grace Duty is a word of very large extent comprehensive of all the Acts both of Piety and Probity wherein the Law of Nature or the Law of God in Scripture maketh us debtors to our great Creator It is usually divided into our duty towards God which is that which we call Piety or our duty toward man which we call Probity both of them ly in the motions of our hearts tongues or more external actions Our duty towards man is much comprehended under the two generals of Justice and Charity Now for much of this duty God denieth unto no man a sufficient strength and
one hath a large knowledge of God of the holy Scriptures and whatsoever they reveal of God to render him to the Soul a fit object to be believed and trusted in loved desired delighted in But this is certain that without knowledge there can be no such Exercises No man who is wholly ignorant of God and the Scriptures can breath after him delight in him hope in his mercy trust in his promises c. Some knowledge is necessary to the working of any of these habits and the motions of these habits will be proportionable to the degrees of Christian knowledge Hence you shall observe that Christians who are weak in knowledge are always weak in faith weak in an hour of Temptation indeed weak as to the Exercises of all Spiritual gracious habits Now that there is a vast difference in Christians knowledge and understanding of the holy Scriptures is a thing of evident demonstration 2. Secondly as there is a great Difference in Christians as to their intellectuals upon intelligence from which our wills and Affections move so there is yet a greater difference in their Experiences of God The Apostle telleth us Rom. 5. That tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope Experience is a mighty advantage to divers exercises of grace especially those of faith and hope 1 Sam. 17. David telleth Saul wondering that he being so young a stripling should dare to encounter Goliah That he had kept his Fathers sheep and there came out a Lion and a Bear and took a Lamb out of the flock v. 36. Thy Servant slew both the Lion and the Bear this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them his experience of Gods protecting him from the Lion and the Bear begot in him a confidence in God that he would also deliver him from the Philistine thus Paul with the same breath with which he said God had delivered saith also and shall deliver now that Christians of more experiences should have more strength and confidence is but the natural working of mans Soul 6. Sixthly God doth often by the withdrawings of the assistance of his Grace punish too great adventurousness and presumption of our own strength this falleth properly under the third head but being forgot there I shall add it here This I take to have been the Case of Peter when Christ told his Disciples they should all forsake him Peter tells him that if he died with him he would not deny him He adventureth into the High-Priests Hall after his Master and proves not strong enough to resist the temptation of a Silly Damosel Charging him to have been one of Christs Disciples God often punisheth thus mens leading themselves into Temptation adventuring upon precipices when he hath commanded them to abstain from all appearances of Evil and to give no advantage to the Adversary It is said that God will teach the humble and that he will give grace to the humble whiles he resisteth and sets himself in Opposition to the proud Much more might be said to justifie the wisdom and reasonableness of the motions of Divine Providence in not giving equal degrees of strengthening grace to those who are his own people Before I come to the Application of this discourse I shall speak to the two other Questions relating to Quickening and Consolatory grace because almost the same things will justifie the wisdome of God in them and the same Application will fit them all Quest 3. Whence is it that all have not the like measures of Quickening Grace There is a 3 fold Quickening of which you read in holy Scripture 1. The Quickening of a dead body That which thou sowest saith Christ is not Quickened except it die 2. There is the Quickening of Souls dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 Neither of these is that which I here intend 3. There is a Quickening which is but the adding of further life and vigour to a living Soul Thus David prays the Lord Quicken me in thy way that man or woman that is not dead in trespasses and sins may yet labour under a great dulness and deadness to the Operations of a Spiritual life nor is there any thing more evident than that as to this there is a great variety amongst Christians yea in the Spirit of the same Christian at different times the Souls of good people often find another kind of freedome and livelyness in Spiritual duties than they do at other times now whence this is is a question not unworthy to be answered the sweetness of a Christians life very much depending upon it 1. To which I must answer as to the other that this also is often caused from the temperature or from the distemper of the body and that more generally than either of the other before mentioned for though there be nothing more true than that a Christian of an healthy temper and constitution may yet complain of this spiritual distemper and find his heart dead and dull enough to spiritual things yet it is rare for a Christian under bodily distemperatures especially such as affect the head or any of the vital parts to find himself as at other times as to his duties especially some duties of communion with God There is such a close relation of our souls to our bodies that their distemperatures do mutually affect each other the distemperatures of the mind either through immoderate fear or sorrow do often very much affect the body and again the distemperatures of the body do often very much affect the mind and this dulness ineptitude to and heaviness in its Religious performances is one of the first evils with which the soul is so affected and indeed this makes one of the greatest difficulties which the spiritual Physician meeteth with to make up a true judgment whether the disorder and distemperature which he meeteth with oft-times in disturbed souls be originally in the mind or only there reflexively by a sympathy with a distempered body for accordingly applications must differ and where this dulness and heaviness is an effect of a bodily disease it very often removeth with the cure of that 2. But it is not so always The guilt of sin hath also a great causation here For it is neither reasonable to imagine nor indeed possible to be that a soul burdened in its Conscience with the load and guilt of sin should run the ways of Gods Commandments as chearfully and as fast as that soul who through grace hath been inabled to cast this burthen upon the Lord Jesus Christ and comfortably at least to hope that its iniquities are forgiven and its sins covered much less as that soul who walketh in the more clear Vision of God and under the full assurance of the pardon of its sins and its acceptation with God A soul continually pull'd back by Conscience and told that it is a guilty person whom God accepteth not cannot possibly make such haste without delayings as another soul to keep Gods Commandments The
in spiritual nourishment Though it be true in Bodies that all who are fed with the same bread and drink the same drink do not thrive alike yet suppose a body to be fed with improper food or not to have half enough it is no great wonder if it doth not grow so fast as another body that hath a plenty of food and that food too which is good and proper for it It is the same case with the soul that also must have its food The souls food is the Scriptures Ordinances Influences For the first indeed we have them we have them in our own language so that we can understand them but yet every one cannot read an inexcusable fault in Parents and such as have the government of youth especially in the age wherein we live nor have all the like means of having them read to them and being made to understand them But the great difference lies in Ordinances St. Peter adviseth Christians to desire like New-born Babes the sincere milk of the Word that they might grow thereby He doubtless speaketh of the Word preached the Promise Psal 92.13 is Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God The House of the Lord is the Church of the Lord and there is a promise of growth to all those that are planted in it yet as in our Gardens and Fields there are different sorts oft-times so in the Church of God which is a large Field there are different soils for Christians There is a great deal of difference in that preaching under which Christians sit One man preacheth in the inticing words of mans wisdom another in the perswasive words of mans wisdom another in the evidence and demonstration of the spirit and with power Some Christians possibly live where they scarce ever hear a good Sermon but some Harangues of Oratory or some rational Philosophical Discourses of which they understand little or nothing Others live under plain lively powerful preaching where the Preacher makes it his business to study the souls of his people and proportioneth his preaching accordingly so as the Babes have their milk and others their stronger meat Teaching them as they are able to receive instruction It is no wonder if such Christians who are under the best means be found most thriving God working in the use of means where means can be had It is true Christ once and never but once that we read of made use of clay and spittle to cure the blind mans eyes And when our Lord was himself upon the Earth attending his own Garden and the Plants in it though he had a fulness of wisdom and power too and had many things to say unto them yet saith he John 16.12 you are not able to bear them now And it is said Mark 4.33 With many such parables spake he the Word unto them as they were able to hear it Now if Christians live under preachers who either make no conscience what they preach unto people but fill up their time either with idle Fables or Invectives against Parties or some florid or Philosophical Discourses as if their study were directly contrary to that of the Apostles whose great care as he tells us was so to order his preaching as the faith of his hearers might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God Now their preaching seems to be so directed and ordered as that the faith of their hearers might not rest in the power of God but in the wisdom of men It is no wonder if such Christians do not grow in grace in proportion with others who live under more adequate and proper means God useth not ordinarily to work miracles and their ordinary spiritual food is not proportioned to any such thing as the spiritual proficiency of those that hear them 2. Secondly A great reason of this difference lieth also in the differing natural tempers of Christians Amongst other Metaphors by which the Holy Ghost expresseth the Conversion and Regeneration of souls by that of Engraffing is one Rom. 11.17.19.23 24. The soul is ingrafted into Christ Now those who are skilled in planting know that according to the different nature of the plant the growth is faster or slower more or less Some plants grow much more freely than others a Cion of one sort of fruit will shoot up as much in one year as a Cion of another species will shoot in two or three years Truly it is so in the Spiritual Plantation Christ is the Stock into which we are all ingrafted there is no fault there but now the Cions that are ingrafted into Christ are not all of the same nature and temper And although Grace makes a great change and alteration and doth much correct a natural temper yet it doth not root out Nature nor work the change in a moment nor in all the same proportion of time There are several tempers which much hinder the appearance of growth in grace Some are naturally of vain airy light spirits some of proud and high spirits some of froward teachy passionate stubborn spirits Others are naturally of more solid serious tempers of more low and humble of more meek and pliable spirits Now where it happens that there is a change wrought in some persons of airy and light spirits or such as are proud and high or froward and passionate and stubborn a progress and growth in habits and exercises of grace will not be so soon evident and apparent as in those souls that are of sweeter and more gentle and ductile spirits Much grace will make but a little show where there is an ill natural temper and humor 3. Thirdly An ill neighbourhood doth make a great deal of difference in the growth of grace We see in Plants an ill neighbourhood of Plants doth much hinder growth There is scarce any Plant will thrive much near an Ash the like might be observed of other Trees which experience tells us are ill neighbours to Plants Rake up Fire in Ashes if it keepeth alive it is all It is so with Christians that are ill-yoaked that live in ill Families or Neighbourhoods There is some Wood they call Quench-coal Rotten Wood is mostly so The truth is the company of all carnal worldly men is of that nature they are all Quench-coals to the life of Grace and discourage that holy fire which the Spirit of God hath kindled in the souls of his people If a Christian be engaged in such society whether necessarily as in Conjugal relations and indeed in most Domestick relations or voluntarily if such a Christian keeps his sincerity it will be well it can hardly be expected that the profiting of such Christians should appear unto all or indeed that they should grow in proportion unto other Christians who are engaged in a better converse and are under the daily Instructions Exhortations Reproofs and Admonitions of others who as Brethren take themselves concerned to consider them and to
him Certainly a very cogent argument Those whom God hath received into his favour into a fellowship and communion with him no Christians ought to judge despise or reject but God receiveth such as are weak in the faith It is very absurd to think that a person should be fit for the favour of God and for fellowship with God and should not be worthy of nor fit for fellowship with those who are the children and servants of God The same argument holds and constraineth in all these Cases which I have been opening to you 1. Seest thou therefore one Who is weak unto his spiritual duty and is often halting and complaining of his weakness he is not able to resist his temptations nor to get a Victory over his corruptions the sons of Zerviah are too hard for him He cryeth out with David Iniquities prevail against me He complains he cannot so fix his thoughts upon God so keep up his Faith and Hope in God as he desireth to do Do not despise do not judge or condemn such a Christian pity him pray for him help him what thou canst but do not judge him God may have received him yea and hath received him if his heart be but right and sincere with God if the bent scope and design of his heart be for God and his endeavour be a pressing hard after God though he hath not yet attained God must in his Family have Babes as well as grown Persons In his Fold he must have Lambs as well as Sheep the Providence of God hath so ordered it in infinite wisdom He accepteth none according to their degrees in grace but according to their truth in grace and sincerity Remember that thou also wert sometimes weak and it is by grace if yet thou beest more strong nay thou that art strong mayest again be made weak What art thou if God with-draweth his holy spirit from thee If God letteth loose Satan against thee Thus the Apostle Gal. 6.1 endeavoureth to perswade Christians to a charitable endeavour to restore such as are fallen in the spirit of meekness considering saith he thy self lest thou also be tempted See what the Apostle saith upon this head Rom. 15.1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification for even Christ pleased not himself 2. Secondly Seest thou one that is under a divine desertion as to the quickening influences of the spirit of God He walks in the wayes of God but he doth not move to them nor in them with that alacrity of mind with that cheerfulness and liveliness of spirit that another doth he complaineth that his chariot wheels drive heavily He comes to duty rather as a burthen and task than with any spiritual pleasure and delight As I said in the other case so I say in this if thou canst add any oil unto his wheels do but do not clog them more with thy rash censures and uncharitable judgement thou doest not know what his soul suffers how he already groaneth under this burthen and is discouraged under this distemper and therefore far be it from thee to add affliction to his affliction God hath received this mans soul if he be sincere if he be pressing after God under this burthen of affliction God is not onely just in these dispensations of Providence but he is wise also Just he is as he by them punisheth his peoples sins And art thou free from sin for the demerit of which thou mayest also fall under the like providence but he is wise also Thereby humbling and proving his people that he may do them good in the latter end thereby quickening them to stir up themselves to follow hard after God and thereby also offering to thee opportunities for thy charity and brotherly help a spiritual friend and brother being made for a day of trouble 3. Thirdly Seest thou a soul walk heavily all the day long crying out as David Lord wherewith wilt thou comfort me He neither liveth in the bright and clear Vision of God nor yet in the perfect view of his own sincerity he is smitten of God and afflicted and his soul refuseth to be comforted Here again is another object of thy charity and possibly the greatest object which the whole world affordeth for there is no sorrow like the sorrow of that soul that walks heavily all the day long crying out Where is my God become I shall not be large in perswading pity and charity for such poor souls for he must not have the heart of a man but of a beast that doth not pity souls which are thus afflicted You have heard that there are many such souls whom yet God hath received God doth not equally distribute his dispensations of consolitary grace to all that truly love and fear him no not to the same souls Judge not anothers truth of grace by thy own joy and peace if thy joy and peace be truly consequent to thy believing and the effect of faith in thy soul and what Christ left to his Disciples it will not be constant it hath not been alwayes the same thou hast also had thy sad hours if there be a difference in degrees this concludeth nothing against thy brother If therefore thou canst speak a word in season if thou canst comfort another with the same comfort wherewith thy own soul hath been comforted heretofore of God do it but judge charitably of thy afflicted brother upon whom the hand of God under these dispensations lieth very heavily 4. Fourthly Seest thou another whose soul is not grown and thriven in grace to that degree that thine is his habits are not yet so confirmed his joynts not so well knit exercise again thy charity if thou doest but see him hold on his way though thou doest not see he groweth stronger and stronger God hath promised that he shall grow he hath not promised that his growth shall be visible unto thee Remember you must give allowance both for the time he hath stood in the Lords Garden and also for the means which God hath afforded him while he hath stood there I observe that God judgeth of men with allowance for their temptations Behold saith the Apostle the Patience of Job The patience of Job Job indeed did sometimes shew much patience but withal he discovered eminent impatience Witness his third Chapter where you find him cursing the day of his birth and other parts of his Book where he wisheth for death and complaineth severely of Gods dealing with him yet saith God Behold the patience of Job God measured Job 's grace with his temptations If indeed Job had brake out into those great errors and extravagancies of passion not being under high and great temptations he had shewed himself very impatient but the Lord considers what temptations were upon his servant and considering them he pronounceth holy Job a very patient man We must learn
life and peace A carnal mind doth not onely bring a Soul to eternal death in the last issue of it but it puts a great death upon his Life and Peace I mean his Spiritual Life and Peace It is impossible that the Soul that is intangled in the businesses of the World in a more than ordinary manner should find his Soul either so free for or so strong in the performances of spiritual duty as that Soul who hath less of the cares and business or concerns of the world upon it The Soul of a Man is not infinite in its powers and cannot be with equal degrees of intention employed upon two different much less contrary things While we are in the world we must be conversing with the men of the world and handling the things of the world we must else as the Apostle speaks in the case of converse with sinners Go out of the world but the less the Soul is ingaged in them the less the Heart is set upon them and its intention and affections taken up with them therefore it will be more free as to its spiritual business and stronger in the performance of it Let every one therefore learn that excellent lesson of the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Let those that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as they that possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it 3. Thirdly Be diligent in waiting upon God in the institutions of his publick worship and consciencious in such attendance The Preaching of the Word of God is the great Ordinance of God for perfecting the Saints both as to their number by the work of Conversion and as to their graces by giving out further measures and manifestations of himself to his peoples Souls he createth the fruit of the Lips peace Christians therefore who wait for these influences are concerned to wait upon the Lord in his own way It was Gods ancient promise That wheresoever he recorded his name to dwell there be would meet his people and bless them And considering that although the blessing of Grace doth not depend upon the Instrument let Paul plant and Apollos Water God must give the increase and he that planteth is nothing nor he that watereth any thing yet God dealing with reasonable Souls useth to deal with them in reasonable wayes I do not think it enough for Christians to go to Church and hear Discourses out of Pulpits but to wait upon God under such Preaching of his Word as may appear and approve it self to them as having a rational tendency to the improvements of their Soul in Grace There are kinds of Preaching under which a Christian may sit long enough before he find his Soul quickened or strengthened or improved by them You may remember I gave you that as one reason why some receive more gradual manifestations of Divine Love than others because they have better means than others have or make a better use of means than others do I take a consciencious use of the more external means to lie much in three things 1. In a good election of them 2. In a sincere and diligent attendance upon them 3. In an after repetition of them to our selves and a more private application of them to our own hearts 1. I say first in a good election of them Though Preaching of the Word be the general means yet the Preacher and way of Preaching makes a vast difference in this means and the concurrence of God to all the purposes of Grace is upon experience found to be evidently more where the means appear in the eye of reason more proper If the Preacher ordinarily preacheth not to the understanding and capacity of the hearer or not to the conscience and hearts of hearers but fills up his time with other things impertinent to the Souls Spiritual Duty or wraps up his Duty in such Parables and Mysteries of Phraise and Abstruseness of Notions that the hearer can make nothing of it he can have little hope to profit by it and he will shew little conscience in attendance upon them Our Saviour you know gives this account why he spake to the Scribes and Pharisees and ordinary Jews in Parables but to his Disciples opened those Parables and spake more plainly and intelligibly Mat. 13.13 14. Therefore speak I to them in Parables because they in seeing see not and in hearing bear not neither do they understand and in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of the Prophet Isaias c. but v. 16. Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear 2. Secondly In a sincere and diligent attendance upon them That Soul which will meet God in his Ordinances must in hearing hear he must go out with a design to meet God and he must hoc agere while he is waiting upon God Our Saviour asks his Disciples when they had been hearing John the Baptist What they went out for to to see It is a question we should all propound to our selves when we go to wait upon God in his Ordinances Now what doth my Soul go out for to do what is its end in this motion God ordinarily meeteth his People according to the sincerity of their designs which indeed maketh their attendances upon God seekings or not seekings of Gods Face 3. It lies in a practical application and whetting the Word hard upon our hearts and consciences This is the digesting of the Word this now is a piece of Holiness of great import to those that seek after the further manifestations of God and higher measures of Grace any growing whether it be in Faith or Love Nor is the Reading andPreaching of the Word onely to be attended but the Holy Sacraments also Baptism which we have generally received in our Infancy to be improved And the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be conscienciously attended There is a great improvement to be made of Baptism in order to our Spiritual Strength and Vigour I have handled that in a particular Discourse in some of your hearing and must not now enlarge upon it it is our great error that we make no more use of our Baptism than we do The Apostle Rom. 6. draweth great arguments from it to strengthen us unto Holiness The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is called by the Apostle The Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ The meaning of that I do not understand if it doth not signifie That it is an Ordinance wherein if it be duly and conscienciously attended upon Christ doth communicate the vertue of his death Now I am sure all Christs manifestations to the Souls of his People are a part of that purchase It is true it doth not necessarily work these effects nor is God bound necessarily in this manner to concurre with it he is a free agent in all his effluxes of Divine
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
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