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
fruit of the womb as a blessing and blesseth him that hath his quiver full of these shafts but now the poor man knoweth not how to understand this and it is hard for him not to repine at the multiplying of it a great error doubtless but such as for ought I know good people may fall into we cannot trust God to provide for those which he giveth us if this hath been thy error God but pays thee in thy own kind by shortning thy number and maketh thy own secret sinful wish now to be thy Plague and Torment but this ordinarily is the sin of the poorer and meaner sort of Christians 2. Didst thou not let thy heart run out too much upon thy Children God is jealous and it is the nature of jealousy not to suffer a rival in the object beloved be it a person or a thing God is the object and he will be the prime object of his peoples love desire and delight It is his Law Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy strength it may be thy Child had more of thy heart more of thy love and and delight than God had no wonder if he hath taken it from thee this is now usually the sin of those whose circumstances in the world are better they have a fair estate in the world and Children few enough to leave it to and in such cases it is a very hard thing to keep our hearts within due bounds but our affections are ready to overflow especially if there be nothing in the temper or behaviour of the Child that takes off the edge of our affections to it 3. Doth not thy heart smite thee for the neglect of thy duty to thy Child especially if it were of any years Thy duty in instructing it or thy duty in reproving and admonishing it Elie's Sons were indeed men grown but God cut off his Children though their personal guilt justified God in his severity against them yet Eli smarted in their punishments for honouring his Sons more than God for dealing too gently with them for their most enormous wickednesses Thou mayest also neglect thy duty towards them in instructing them in making them acquainted with the holy Scriptures in admonishing them to keep the Lords Sabbaths and seeing to their external Sanctification of them This is undoubtedly a second piece of thy duty upon such a dispensation and to be humbled before God for those sins which thy conscience smiteth thee for and suggesteth to thee as probable causes of this rod of God upon thee 3. It is doubtless thy duty whatsoever thou findest to be satisfied with Gods good pleasure Rachel mourned sinfully while she so mourned as that she refused to be comforted If thou findest that probably God hath punished thy sin in the sickness pain and death of thy Child it is indeed matter of humiliation to thee it offers thee a just opportunity to resolve for the time to come to amend thy errors as to any survivors which God shall lend thee but yesterday cannot be called back again God hath done what pleased him It may be in mercy to thy Child though it be in judgment unto thee thou hast no reason to quarrel or murmure at God for any of his dispensations If it be for thy Child 's Original sin still thou hast no reason to blame God he is just and righteous in what he hath done But if God hath done it to give thy Child a quicker passage to Heaven to bring it sooner to a state of perfection to deliver it from an evil to come here thou hast reason to admire and adore the Divine goodness rather than to quarrel at Divine Justice There are a great many things that may conduce to the relief of a godly man or woman disturbed at this dispensation of Divine Providence It is a very ordinary dispensation of God though therefore it may look like a digression from the principal argument of my discourse yet it may possibly be not so judged by some of you whose case it either at present is or may be to instance in some heads of arguments which occasionally you may make use of for the quieting of your Spirits 1. Consider what-ever was the moving cause on Gods part yet the will of God is revealed The will of God is such a thing to satisfy a Christian with as nothing can be more nothing greater We have our Heaven by the will of God fear not little flock it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdom We have all our grace all our glory from the will of God and shall we not thankfully accept a cross when it is the will of our Father to lay it upon our necks We pray thy will be done and shall we murmure against it when we see it done This silenced Aaron David Heli Hezekiah it leaves no room for a good Christians reply to it it is our Fathers will that is enough It is our Fathers will revealed by an Act of his Providence The Lord hath given saith Job and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. 2. Consider how many sadder cases than thine there have been Thou hast lost a Child an infant Job lost all his Children when they were grown up feasting at their elder Brothers house Aarons was a sad cause he lost his two Sons grown up in an act of sinning yet he held his peace Helies case was sad to lose two such wicked Sons in a Battel Davids case was sad God had expresly told him the Child should dye because of his sin and that by it he had made the enemies of God to blaspheme What doth David do He fasteth he prayeth he humbleth himself before God so long as the Child lived and while he had any hope but when the will of God was revealed when the Child was dead he ariseth and eateth bread as he was wont to do he saith that he should go to it it should not return to him 3. Consider Let the case be as sad as it will yet if thou lookest round about it there is mercy in it either mercy to thy Child or mercy to thee or mercy to both if thy Child be gone to Heaven there is mercy in that if it be delivered from evil to come upon the World or that part of the world where it should have had its portion there is mercy in that David's case was as sad as one can well think of any of this nature yet there was this mercy in it the living monument and remembrance of David's sin and shame was taken away 4. Suppose that God hath for thy sin taken it away and thou canst not satisfie thy self but it is so yet consider God eternally punisheth none for the sins of their correlates God may punish persons with bodily and temporal punishments for the sins of their Parents but not eternally as to those punishments every soul shall bear no
his Book of the Trueness of Christian Religion Chap. 13. where he sheweth Providence a bundantly owned by Plato Plotinus Hierocles Aristotle Cicero Seneca and others I shall therefore only add one passage of Seneca not I think particularly by him mentioned it is in his Book of Natural Questions Chap. 45. where he calleth God The keeper and governour of the whole world Custodem rectoremque universi animum spiritum mundani hujus operis Dominum artificem cui nomen omne convenit Vis illum fatum vocare non errabis Hic est ex quo suspensa sunt omnia causa causarum Vis illum Providentiam dicere rectè dices Est enim cujus consilio huic mundo providetur ut inconcussus eat actus suos explicet Seneca Nat. Qu. l. 2. cap. 45. a Mind a Spirit the Lord and Artificer or Creator of all the world he to whom every name agreeth Will you call him Fate you will not be out For he it is on whom all things depend Will you call him Providence you will say right for by his Counsel the world is provided and taken care for that it remains steady and performeth its operations Salvian upon this Argument tells us that the Heathens acknowledged God to be in the world as the Master of a great Ship is in that abiding always in it and stirring up and down Whence he cryeth out Quid potuerunt de affectu diligentiâ Dei religiosius sentire Salvian l. 1. What could they more religiously judg and speak of God than to compare him to the Governour of a Ship who is never in the Ship idle but continually at work either in one kind or another The Pythagoreans compared God to the Soul in the body filling each part and actuating each part of the body The Platonists call him the moderator of all things The Heathen Poets speak as well and fully Virgil telleth us God is continually moving throughout all the Earth Tractusque maris coelumque profundum and the Waters and the Heavens In short none but some of the most sensual and brutish Epicureans ever so much as called this in question 5. But hitherto I have been arguing this point with you as men to convince you of it if you were Heathens and had no knowledg of the Holy Scripture When I consider you in that notion I must say to you as the Apostle speaks in another case We have a more sure word of prophecy As we by faith understand that the worlds were at first made by God so by faith also we plentifully understand that the created worlds are upheld preserved protected and governed by God I shall hereafter more distinctly prove this in my following discourse when I shall come to speak of the distinct and particular acts and objects of this Divine Providence I shall only here make use of a few instead of very many Scriptures which might be produced Heb. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpholding all things by the word of his power He at first made all things by the word of his Power and he upholdeth all things by the word of his Power My Text saith He preserveth both man and beast Our Lord telleth us that he cloatheth the grass of the field and feedeth the Ravens Matth. 6. The Psalmist tells us that his kingdom ruleth over all And again Matth. 10.29 30. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing yet not one of them falls to the ground without the will of your heavenly father Acts 17.28 In him we live move and have our being Prov. 15.13 The eyes of the Lord are in all places beholding the evil and the good John 5.17 My father worketh hitherto and I work In short the places of Scripture confirming this Doctrine of Divine Providence are very many and will most of them fall under some part or other of my ensuing discourse referring to the particular objects and acts of Divine Providence And I therefore shall not in this place further enlarge upon them but come next to consider the extent or particular objects of Divine Providence I proceed therefore to a second Question Quest 2. What are the objects of Divine Providence or how far doth the Divine care extend Though the Epicureans of old would acknowledg no Providence and many of the Stoicks asserting a Fate destroyed it yet the wiser Peripateticks would grant it though but a limited one extended to some particular Beings and things and too many amongst those who are called Christians seem to inherit something of their spirit I remember that when Pharaoh saw Egypt almost destroyed he calls for Moses and Aaron and bids them go and serve the Lord but adds Exod. 10.8 But who are they that shall go When Moses replyed We will go with our young and with our old with our sons and with our daughters with our flocks and with our herds will we go He replyeth vers 10. Let the Lord so deal with me as I let you go and your little ones Thus many deal with God When they consider the vast bodies of the Creatures the great varieties of their beings and qualities their motions c. they are forced to acknowledg a Divine Providence That the world could not stand nor the parts of it hold together unless a Superior hand ruled upheld and governed them They therefore will acknowledg a Providence as to the great bodies of the Heavens c. But say they How far will you extend it When they hear us assert it as to all things the sound of the little ones in nature troubles them yea and as to the wills of men they are wonderfully disturbed We must therefore enquire what the Scripture saith which certainly cannot err as to the bounds and extent of Gods Providential care The Scripture tells us Heb. 4.13 That all things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do That the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good Prov. 15.3 My Text saith He preserveth both man and beast The Apostle to the Hebrews saith He upholdeth all things by the word of his power But to speak more distinctly we extend the Divine Providence 1. To all Beings 2. To all motions and actions of Beings 3. To all omissions suspensions or cessations of action 4. To all events of things 1. First I say to all Beings Beings are usually distinguished into such as have no life or such as have life Or if you please we may make use of that plain division of Beings into 1. Such as have no more than a meer Being neither life nor sense nor reason Such are the Heavens the Earth the Waters Or 2. Such as have Being and life but no sense Such are herbs and plants Or 3. Such as have Being and life and sense Such are Beasts Birds Fishes Insects c. Or Lastly Such as have not only Being life sense but Reason also Such are Angels and Men. I shall shew you that
men are subdued under them by him that they have wisdom to make Laws and liberty to execute them that men in their dominions are disposed into their several orders ranks and stations so as mutually to serve one another and to uphold the whole Oh that Subjects would praise the Lord for his goodness that they have wise Magistrates good Laws that their lives are not Sacrificed to murtherers that their houses are not fired that their Wives and Virgins are not ravished that they are disposed to Trades and Occupations that they have wisdom for them a spirit to them Let every Citizen every Subject see and acknowledg the hand of the Lord in these things and bless his holy name But lastly Let the Redeemed of the Lord particularly Vse 3 see and acknowledg the Providence of God in the preserving of them in their spiritual capacities Were it not for the preserving Providence of God our spiritual life would be extinguished every moment God preserveth it by repeating his Gracious Acts in the remission of our sins in the imputation of Christs righteousness Our habits of grace would weaken we aâ—â— preserved and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation It is a great mercy and deserves a great acknowledgment that we have our lives preserved our estates preserved our wives and daughters preserved But oh how much greater is it that we have our state of Justification maintained Our principles of Spiritual Operations our habits of Grace our power to repent believe love God preserved that the influences of Grace are continued that we have the Word and Ordinances preserved Let the redeemed of the Lord say his mercy endureth for ever let them adore preserving-Providence let them consider what a subtil adversary they have Who goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour What abundance of lusts and corruptions they have in their own hearts what a law in their members warring against the law of their minds and they will say that the seed of God which is in them is wonderfully preserved But thus much may serve to have spoken of the first great act of Providence which I called Preservation My next work is to speak concerning Government SERMON VIII Psal CIII 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all I AM as you know discoursing concerning the Principal Acts of Actual Providence which I told you were two 1. Preservation 2. Government All things were at first created by a Divine word of Power all things are preserved by a Divine Power He upholdeth all things by the word of his Power saith the Apostle This I have done with but Gods actual Providence doth not extend only to the upholding and the preserving of all his creatures but he governeth them also Preservation respecteth their several beings and capacities Government respecteth their motions and actions For a Discourse upon this I have made choice of this Text and chusing it with that design only I do not take my self so much concerned to enquire into its relation to what went before or followeth I shall only consider it in it self and so it giveth you an account 1. Of the Royal Seat of the Divine residence or place where God more gloriously manifests that Presence which yet filleth Heaven and Earth He hath saith the Psalmist his throne prepared in the heavens 2. The vastness of his Imperial royal influence and dominion His Kingdom saith the Text ruleth over all I shall not meddle with the first part it is the second only which I have to do with The Proposition shortly is this Prop. That he whose Throne is in Heaven governeth the whole Creation The Scripture speaketh plentifully to this point of Gods Universal dominion 1 Chron. 16.31 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoyce and let men say amongst the Heathen The Lord reigneth Psalm 96.10 Say amongst the heathen the Lord reigneth Psalm 93.1 The Lord reigneth he is clothed with Majesty c. Psalm 97.1 The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce Psalm 99.1 The Lord reigneth let the people tremble An Heathen Prince acknowledgeth it Dan. 4.3 34. But not to multiply Texts Reason will evince it every Superiour being hath a kind of natural right to rule over those that are inferiour to it and God being the Supreme Being and the Creator of all other beings too hath a natural right to extend a Kingdom and Dominion over all and that not only as he is Superior to them and greater than they are but also as he is the efficient cause of all the Creator of all things But to speak more particularly we will enquire 1. What Government is 2. What are the Objects of this vniversal Government and Dominion which the Proposition ascribeth unto God 3. What are those special acts by which God exerciseth this Dominion and Government Government implieth three things 1. The fixing of some ends 2. A power invested in some one or more persons upon others ordering and directing them in order to that end 3. The exercise of this Power The end of Government amongst men is usually the peace quiet and settlement of a place Gods End is his own glory He hath made all things for himself and he doth all things for himself for the fulfilling of his own Counsels and Will in order to the glorifying of his holy Name The Apostle saith Of him and for him are all things 2. Secondly Government implieth a power invested in one or more persons in order to an end Now that God hath such a power none can deny and acknowledg him to be God Once have I spoken yea twice have I heard it saith the Psalmist that power belongeth unto God He who confesseth God to be almighty and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth must own him to have a power sufficient for an Universal Government If we take Power for Authority i. e. a Right to exercise a power over such and such objects that also God hath by the very law of Nature Hath not the potter a power over the clay and is not the creature the clay and God the potter 3. But thirdly Government implieth yet something more viz. an actual exercise of this power and indeed this is the main Actual Government is the exercise of a power wherewith a person or persons are invested over some persons or things in order to some wise ends But let me come to the second Question viz. Quest What are the particular Objects of this Divine providential Government The Text saith His Kingdom ruleth over all I think that term all is to be expounded by three general heads 1. The beings and existences of his creatures 2. The motions and actions of his creatures 3. The omissions and obliquities of his creatures all these as I shall shew you fall under the government of Providence 1. The Beings and existences of his creatures the production and cessation of them the giving of them Being belongs to Creation
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
upon you to honour God more than others God hath done infinitely more for you than for Heathens Now what a shame it is that an Heathen should out-doe you in any thing yet give me leave to tell you that while you only do some actions that are materially good not formally and truly many Heathens have done as much as you An Heathen may do and many of them have done and that with some good intention actions materially good that is such things as God commanded Many of them have been eminent instances of moral vertue Justice charity temperance liberality c. many of them have professed to love vertue for the sake of vertue Wherein can you excel them but by doing actions which are formally good designing Gods glory acting in obedience to Gods will regulating your selves as to the manner by Gods word you have the word the Gospel of God oh how reasonable it is that our conversation should be as becomes the Gospel of Christ The Heathen else that lives up to his light of nature out-does us and it will as our Saviour tells us be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of Judgment than for us 3. But Lastly Let the Saints of God see what an obligation to all manner of duty and holiness lies upon their souls they are the most special objects of special Providence God takes more care for all men than for Oxen or for the grass of the field he exerciseth a more special Providence for that body of people which make up his visible Church than for all the earth besides but yet what is that special Providence which God exerciseth for meer formal professors or for any other men in the world in comparison of what they have experienced Any thing of more special distinguishing Grace is a great Specialty of Providence and that in the best and highest sort of good things viz. those which concern the salvation of the Soul Oh what doth God expect what doth God require from you what should you do more than others More particularly This Doctrine of special Providence calls to you 1. For more extraordinary degrees of Love 2. For more special acts of Faith 1. For more eminent degrees of Love Psal 31.23 O Love you the Lord all you his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer Reason argueth thus with us that the reciprocations of our love ought to bear proportion to love received If saith our Saviour you love them that love you what reward have you the law of nature commandeth us to love and by actions of kindness and duty to express our love to them who have expressed their kindness to us and the same reason requires the reciprocations of love to be proportionable God therefore declaring especial love to you you are bounden in a special duty to him Let our Saviours question be often in your thoughts What do you do more than others If you for whom God hath sent his Son to dye and into whose hearts he hath sent his Spirit the Spirit of Adoption Supplication Consolation and whom the Lord hath from the womb watched over and preserved by a more special peculiar Providence bearing you as upon Eagles Wings and gathering you as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings I say If you do no more for God than others do not under such influences nor such Providences you must certainly act beneath and short of your duty This dependeth upon what I told you before of the reasonableness of the reciprocations of love in some commensurate proportions 2. It calleth to them who fear God for special exercises of faith you have reason more to trust and depend upon God than others because God hath declared a more special care and Providence for you The ground of all faith is the word and promise of God Now special promises call for a more special and peculiar faith What though another man cannot trust God contrary to a sensible or reasonable appearance yet you have reason to do it because God hath declared more his care for you and the workings of his Providence for your preservation and deliverance than for others God hath promised to save defend and deliver you not after the workings of his ordinary Providence You may therefore say with David The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear He is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid Psalm 27.1.3 Though an Host should encamp against me my heart should not fear though war should rise against me in this I will be confident But thus much shall serve to have discoursed concerning the Specialties of Divine Providence SERMONS XII XIII Rom XI 33. O the depth both of the wisdom and knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out I Have finished my Discourse concerning the principal Acts of Divine Providence both generally and specially I have discoursed concerning Gods general Acts in preserving and governing all his creatures and concerning God's more special preserving and governing of some creatures I am now come to discourse concerning the Methods of it concerning which we must cry out with this great Apostle O the depth both of the wisdom and knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out My Text is the conclusion of an exceeding deep discourse which the Apostle had made concerning the Rejection of the Jews which he proves to be neither Total nor final In the ten first verses he proveth that it is not Total V. 2 God did not cast off his people whom he did foreknow V. 5 There is a remnant according to Election As it was in Elias's time he thought and complain'd that he was left alone and they sought his life also but he was mistaken God at that time had seven thousand in Israel that had not bowed the knee to Baal V. 7 He saith The Election had obtained though some though the most of them were rejected yet the Elect amongst them were not rejected and this he proveth to have been but according to what was prophesied V. 11 He proveth that this Rejection should not be final There should be a fulness of them V. 12. Receiving of them V. 15. They should be again grafted in V. 23 24. It is but V. 25. till the fulness of the Gentiles should come and then all â—srael should be saved This Discourse is mixed with several arguments to prove the assertion and with several reflections upon the Gentiles whose present state was better than theirs shewing them their duty negatively and positively not to be high-minded but humble To fear c. Now look as a man wading in deep waters when he finds the water go over his head and trip up his heels he cries out O I shall be drowned and endeavours to get back again So doth the blessed Apostle he had been wading into the great deeps of Gods counsels and ways
quam invenire perfrui This is a labour which vexeth men they take more pains to understand than to love God We had rather tire our selves by searching than by loving find God We had rather enquire than find and enjoy Curiosity is a great piece of the vanity of the mind of man it was Eves temptation to eat of the true knowledg of good and evil that she might be like God knowing it It is a lust inclining a man to employ his outward senses and his understanding to an inordinate gaining of some knowledg which God hath hidden from him Knowledg is good it is the light of the soul Solomon tells us That it is not good that the soul should be without it But there is a knowledg that is too wonderful for us Secret things belong unto God Our Saviour told us that there is a day and hour of which none can have any knowledg no not the Angels It is not for you saith our Saviour to know the times and seasons which the father hath put in his own power Acts 1.7 The knowledg of truth is good but it may be accidentally evil 1. If the End be naught If a man desires to know only that he may be able to cavil and dispute or that he may be thought wiser than others Solomon saith It is not good for a man to eat much honey so for a man to seek his own glory is not glory 2. If we will use unlawful means to gain it such are now going to witches and wizards Astrologers Star-gazers cunning men as Ahaziah sent to Baalzebub the god of Ekron to know whether he should recover of that disease and Saul went to the witch of Endor to raise up Samuel the Devil in the likeness of Samuel to tell him the fate of the approaching Battel A practice too frequent amongst simple people in these days and places where we live 3. When men have an itch to know what God hath concealed from them It was an excellent advice of St. Augustine That men should neither be too curious to pry into secret things nor be blind as to what God had revealed To do the first is to be unwarrantably curious the latter is damnable unthankfulness Vain man would be wise and so becometh indeed more foolish in his imaginations Plutarch well compareth men infected with this itch to those that should not be content to behold the Sun in the firmament but must make a Ladder to climb up to see it in its Throne we shall find the best of men had something of this disease Moses saith Lord shew me thy Glory Philip saith Shew us the Father The Disciples say Wilt thou not this time restore the Kingdom to Israel And again Lord When shall these things be Now as this Curiosity in us sheweth it self in other things so it wonderfully busieth it self as to the ways of Providence to find out all the ways of God and track him in his most secret paths to understand the reasons of Gods dealings the tendencies and indications of them But oh the depth of the wisdom and knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past sinding out Let me offer you two or three Meditations to give check to this lust 1. It is an unprofitable labour It is a labour much study is a weariness to the flesh and it is an unprofitable labour by searching thou canst not find out what thou searchest for Should a wise man utter vain knowledg saith Eliphaz Job 15.2 Should a wise man seek after knowledg in vain and fill his belly with the east-wind The boy in Plutarch carrying a covered dish answered him well that would know what was in it by telling him It was therefore covered that he might not know what was in it God hath also his covered dishes man will be enquiring what is in them but he ought to know that God hath therefore covered them that he might not know and therefore it is but a vain thing for him to enquire and ask Should a Christian an understanding Christian busie himself in searching out that which he cannot find out when he hath wearied himself in a long and vain enquiry as soon may you track an Eagle in the air or a Ship on the Sea as God in the ways and methods of his Providence such knowledg when you have done what you can will prove too wonderful for you No wise man will labour in vain and spend his time and his wit and parts to find out that which he is assured he shall never find out by enquiry 2. You shall observe our blessed Lord continually checking such enquirers one while putting them off and directing them to more profitable employment for their thoughts as when they asked him If there were few that should be saved he bids them strive to enter in at the strait gate Luk 13.21 22. When they asked him Matth. 24.3 When shall these things be He replyeth Take heed that no man deceive you sometimes he chideth them Acts 1.4 5. It is not for you to know the times and seasons When Peter asked John 21.21 And what shall this man do Christ answereth If I will that he tarry until I come What is that to thee Follow thou me 3. Lastly It commonly produceth error in our imaginations vain thoughts bold determinations of the Councels of God groundless prophecies erroneous apprehensions both of God and of his ways What strange effects have mens curious enquiries about the time for the calling of the Jews the ruin of Antichrist the day of Judgment produced in the world What have men at last found out about them that a wise man can set his foot upon Verily they have laboured for the wind and filled their belly with the east-wind and run themselves into a temptation to believe nothing of Scripture because their mis-apprehensions about those dark portions of them have failed them There are some things of which we may say Bona coecitas est non videre quae scire non licet piè ignorance It is a good blindness not to see them but to be piously ignorant of what we cannot lawfully know Let us labour to know God and the Will of God so far as he hath revealed it But for a knowledg of God in all his ways for a perfect knowledg of him it is too high it is too wonderful for us let us more study to love him than to know him By our understanding and comprehension of God we draw God to us By Love we pour our selves into the bosom of God Knowledg and Wisdom let us have never such degrees of it if love to God be not as the soul to give it life signifie nothing and indeed Love is the end of all knowledg and knowledg without Love is very unprofitable and insignificant If saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. I knew all mysteries yet if I have not love I am but as a founding-brass and as a tinkling-cymbal 2. But
up the Church are more peculiar and special objects of Providence than all others in the World 3. Amongst them such as fear and love God in sincerity are yet the more peculiar objects of Divine Providence and which God hath a most peculiar regard unto which maketh a cogent argument to prove That supposing the glory of God to be the great end of all his providential Dispensations that the Providence of God must most eminently work for the good of these as being such who most eminently serve the great end of his Glory So as he who observeth the motions of it must needs by them understand the loving-kindness of the Lord towards them Secondly The mercy and truth of Gods ways towards them that fear him are not to be read in the surface of present Providences The dark side of the cloud is sometimes towards the Israel of God and at such a time it must be by Faith that we understand that the ways all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth toward his own people Who could read the loving-kindness of the Lord towards Israel while they were in Egypt serving at the Brick-kilns and under their great oppression there but he who observed the Providence of God thus working to make them willing to go out and take possession of the promised Land he might understand this It is not every motion of Providence but the issues of it that demonstrate all the ways of the Lord to be mercy and truth and this evinceth to us that an observation of the motions of Divine Providence yea and a wist and diligent and continuing observation of them also is necessary to make us understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I come now to the Application of what you have heard upon this Argument This in the first place sheweth us one great reason of that ignorance which is in men both concerning God and concernng their own duty Men know little of God and little how to govern their actions according to any degree of Christian prudence As ignorance of and unbelief in the Word of God is one great cause so their not observing the motions of Divine Providence which have been in the World is another no small cause of it Men are much ignorant of God indeed there is but little of the knowledg of God in the World especially that knowledg which floateth not only in the brain but influenceth the heart and affections and men know little how to govern their actions by any spiritual wisdom but live directly contrary to what they own and pretend to as their highest end And we understand as little of the loving-kindness of the Lord I say one great cause of this is mens not observing the workings and motions of Providence They pass before their eyes every day but they observe them not Non tantum oculis intueri sed animum ad hanc considerationem ita exuscitare ut meliores inde evadamus To observe signifieth not only with our eyes to behold it but so to stir up our minds to the consideration of a thing that we may grow the better by it saith a grave Author Now in this Notion of it how few are they that observe these things they see stupendious Providences sometimes in the destruction of the Churches Enemies for the salvation of his people it may be at first they as all new things do affect men with a little passion according to the nature of them but they are like a flash of lightning which though at present it startles us yet the impression is presently off our spirits and I say this is one great reason why we are so ignorant of God so unskilful in the government of our lives to his ends and that we understand so little of his loving-kindness Hence it is that we cannot understand how much good God doth his Church and people by afflictions and trials They are the sensible frowns of Providence which blind our eyes that we cannot see the loving-kindness of God in all his ways We think sometimes we see God driving his Chariot in a direct road to his great ends the glory of his holy Name and the good and protection of such as fear him here we think we can easily discern Gods Wisdom and as easily understand his loving-kindness But now when the Lord drives his Chariot out of our sight and exerciseth his Church or the particular souls of his people with long and tedious Afflictions here we are at a loss and can neither read the wisdom nor loving-kindness of God But what is the reason of this but only our superficial view of Gods Providences without a wist and diligent observation of them If we would but bend our minds to observe what a wholsom influence Afflictions and adverse Providences have ordinarily both upon vvhole Churches and upon particular Christians we should even in them easily understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. The Husbandman can easily understand that he could as ill want the frosts and snows of Winter as the warmth heat and sun-shine of the Summer Gideon taught the men of Succoth with briars and thorns and God ordinarily doth so teach his people Blessed is he saith the Psalmist whom thou chastenest and teachest out of thy Law David tells us Psalm 119.61 that before he was afflicted he went astray but since that he had learned to keep the statutes of the Lord. It was an old saying The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church The Church is bettered and the Soul is bettered by adverse Providences That Text Isa 27.9 is very remarkable By this that is by this severe affliction by this captivity shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and all the fruit shall be to take away sin when the Lord shall make the stones of the altar as chalk stones that crumble in pieces the groves and the images shall not stand up As an hard Winter keepeth under and killeth the weeds so the winter of Affliction much helps to the purging out of corruptions both out of the Church and also out of the particular Soul Augustine as I remember somewhere lamenteth That a Fever had done more with him to subdue and mortifie a lust than before the love of God could do with him Now I say our not observing this which is matter of no difficult observation to him that wistly eyeth Divine Providence is one great reason that men do not understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Another reason of mens not understanding it is their making of a judgment of Gods works before they are perfect If any of us should go into a Limners shop and see his first draught of a lovely picture we should discern little loveliness in it which yet we should easily discern if we would but stay until he had finished his work and laid on his life-colours It is the same case with us as to works of Divine Providence we look on them while the Lords work is yet upon the
The Egyptians the Philistines the vilest Enemies cry out God fighteth against them or This is the Lords work Secondly As the Power so the Wisdom of God is seen in these methods and operations of Providence Indeed sometimes God so worketh that the Power of God appeareth uppermost and is most conspicuous in the destruction of the Enemies and in the salvation of the Lords people as in the case of Sennacherib's Army destroyed by an Angel of Pharaoh destroyed by the return of the waters c. But oft-times there 's a wonderful wisdom of God in ordering contingencies and seeming casual things to his own ends in these cases as in the case of Joseph and Haman the reflexion of the Sun upon the waters which caused the Moabites mistake and confusion But the wisdom of God is further seen in this That a mercy seldom comes but though we could see nothing of Wisdom relating to it before it came yet when it is come to pass there 's no understanding Christian but is forced to say It could never have come in a more seasonable time the wisdom of which we could see nothing of in the prospect is evident upon the event It would have been a great question whether the Israelites would have been so willing to have come out of Egypt under the conduct of Joseph when they were pinch'd with no oppressions as they were under Moses and Aaron when they had been serving in the Brick-kilns and their lives so many years together had been made bitter to them through the hard bondage which they had so long endured Thirdly The Lord doth thus more eminently magnifie his justice and righteousness Justice lieth in the distribution of rewards and punishments the first we call Remunerative the second Vindicative Justice Both are much magnified by this method of Providence Persons in the greatest heighths of prosperity or depths of 〈◊〉 are ordinarily the most remarkable objects of the worlds eyes and more regarded than those that are in a more middle-state When God lifts up a Joseph out of the dungeon and a Daniel out of the Lions den and advanceth a Mordecai for whom a gallows was set up and the three Children are taken out of a fiery Furnace He proclaimeth to all the World and they are forced to confess it that verily there is a reward for the righteous and so on the other side when a Pharaoh a Sennecharib an Haman a Nebuchadnezzar are pull'd down in the midst of all their pride and jollity from their very pinacles of honour the Justice and Righteousness of God in punishing proud and imperious Sinners is proclaimed and made more evident to all the World Lastly 4. The Lords goodness is thus more magnified and taken notice of Common and ordinary Dispensations of gracious Providence are little remarked by us what mercy do we receive every night every day from God yet how little notice do we take of it how little is our heart affected with it but now when we are brought to the pits-brink to a very low estate and then are pluck'd from it when we are in a very low estate and then delivered Gods goodness is both more proclaimed to the World and more conspicuous unto us But this will in part fall in under the second head for I told you that God is glorified by this method of his Providence not only as his glorious Attributes divers of them are by it more exalted but also as the pious and religious Acts of his people are more by this method of Providence elicited I have often hinted to you that God hath a twofold glory from his Creatures and the works of his hands The first is a meer passive glory Thus the heavens declare the glory of God the Heavens shew forth the greatness glory and power of God The second is Active wherein the creature doth some actions from which a glory doth result unto God Now by this Method of Providence God is not only glorified in the first sense as this kind of working speaketh more of his Power Wisdom Justice Goodness c. but in the second also ◠Thus God sometimes forceth an acknowledgment of his Power even from the worst of men Julian himself shall confess that Christ is too hard for him throwing up his Dagger to Heaven and crying Vicisti Galilaee The Egyptians shall cry out Exod. 14.25 Let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fighteth for the Israelites against the Egyptians Nebuchadnezzar shall make a Decree Dan. 3.29 That every Nation People and Language which speak any thing against the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghil because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort Dan. 6.25 Darius shall write to all people Nations and Languages that dwell upon the Earth and make a Decree That in every Dominion of his Kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living God and stedfast for ever and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his Dominion shall be even to the end he delivereth and he rescueth and he worketh signs and wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the Lions The King of Babylon that set up the Golden-image and so rigorously commanded all should bow down to it or be thrown into the fiery Furnace heated seven times hotter than ordinary Dan. 3.26 shall bless the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who hath sent his Angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the Kings word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve or worship any god but their own God What a wonderful glory here had God given him from a wicked Pagan Prince he confesseth his Command wicked he blesseth God that put into these three hearts 〈◊〉 to disobey it and make him change his word he acknowledgeth God the true God and that he delivereth them that trust in him All this accreweth from Gods delivering these three men when they were at the lowest when all gave them over for dead men But secondly How much more glory hath God from his own people upon any such deliverance Surprizals affect us most An unthought-of evil most startleth and dejecteth us An unthought-of good most elevates and affects us Good things lessen in our opinion and estimate by a long expectation They are greatest and most affect us when we are past hopes of them Sudden and unlook'd for good raiseth our hearts to great admiration great praise and thanksgiving Now he that offereth praise saith God glorifieth me The more God is admired the more his goodness is predicated and proclaimed the more men upon any occasion speak of his honour and power and greatness the more glory God hath from them Thirdly God is more honoured by this method of Providence not only as the suddenness of it doth more affect and elevate his peoples
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
Vse 1. In the first place let then all men that live upon the Earth praise the Lord but especially such as are superiors and rulers over others and more especially such as are his Church The Psalmist Psal 135.1 calls to all saying Praise the Lord praise ye the name of the Lord and ver 19 20 21. He calleth in particular Bless the Lord O house of Israel Bless the Lord O house of Aaron Bless the Lord O house of Levi you that fear the Lord bless the Lord Blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Hierusalem 1. This observation calleth to all the sons and daughters of men to bless the Lord. We are all sociable creatures and much of the comfort of our lives lyeth in our societies and fellowships one with another either in our family-societies or in our civil-societies or in our Church-societies We should think it a life worse than death to be condemned to live like a wild Ass alone in the wilderness Now there are some lusts of men that would spoil us of all this comfort God peculiarly sets himself against them and makes these the marks for his arrows of vengeance The Jews said of the Centurion He hath loved our nation and hath built us a synagogue We may say of our good God he hath loved mankind for he hath taken care to preserve order in humane societies and severely to chasten the invaders upon the rights of others What an ingagement doth this lay upon all men to praise the Lord Certainly sirs there is a great deal of praise and glory and homage due to God from all men as they are concerned in their several societies There is a great deal of glory due to God from families for his testimony against those lusts of men such as are murtherers and adulterers which in a short time would spoil all the comfort of those societies Certainly every family is bound to worship God and to walk with God But particularly 1. Let Rulers praise the Lord. Let all the Princes of the Earth give homage to him that ought to be served they are more especial marks for furious and ambitious mens lusts Gods Providence as you have heard is eminently seen in preventing their dangers in revenging their harms 2 Sam. 23.3 4 5. Surely then as David saith those that rule over men should be just ruling them in the fear of the Lord their light should be like the light of the morning without clouds God hath not only set them up as lights upon an hill but he hath made his special Providence to be a lanthorn about them that 't is rarely that the wind of sedition and treason prevails to blow them out and then 't is ordinarily for some eminent Provocation of God But I am not speaking to persons in that capacity You that are parents praise the Lord Gods special Providence you see reacheth you and in a great measure secureth you from that great heart-ach of rebellious and disobedient children I know you will say How then cometh this to be the great affliction of many good parents To which I answer 1. There is many a good parent may have been but like good old Ely too indulgent and cockering to their children ordinarily God keepeth up the authority of parents over their children until themselves have prostituted it and in the rebellion and disobedience of their children they may read their own sin and see as much cause to be humbled for that as any thing else as David in the case of Adonijah 1 King 1.5 6. And herein the goodness of God towards parents will be seen that if he doth not upon their endeavours secure to them the duty of their children yet he will not fail to revenge their quarrels against them 2. Let the poor and weak of the earth praise the Lord he hath declared himself the father of the fatherless and the judg of the widows a refuge for the oppressed Psal 68.5 Exod. 22.5 Psal 10.11 How are all the widows and fatherless children all the poor and oppressed people of the world bound to praise and to serve this God who hath taken upon himself the special patronage and protection of them This indeed would be the best use we could possibly make of this Observation relating to the special Providence of God if it might lay a special obligation upon all those who are thus especially concerned to magnifie God as their great patron and defender And how can they praise God more effectually than in doing those particular duties which concern them all in their respective relations or with reference to those peculiar circumstances of Providence under which they are acted I shall add but one branch of Application more and indeed it is not a new Use for it is a part of our praise and homage which we owe unto God upon this Reflexion viz. Vse 2. To all to take heed of those sins which God in his word declares himself more eminently to abhor and in the execution of Providence doth most severely punish All sin is in it self a filthy and abominable thing and the just object of every good mans hatred for should not we hate what God hateth and what hath of all things the greatest opposition to God yes we ought to hate it with a perfect hatred But such is the naughtiness of our heart that we are not so led to an hatred and abhorrence of sin from the intrinsecal evil and obliquity of it as from the dangerous and pernicious consequence of it Death eternal death is the wages of every sin but this being only matter of faith to bold sinners none having ever come from the dead to give them an account of those flames the punishments of sin in this life are those things which most deter carnal sensual men But if men will look no further nor believe any more yet let this lay some law upon us and make us afraid of those sins which I have instanced in being such whose judgment the Providence of God seldom letteth sleep so long as to another life Let this mind us not to meddle with them that are given to change that curse Kings and Rulers in their bed-chambers and are of turbulent and unquiet spirits always plotting and contriving seditions and treasons and disturbances to civil governours it is very rarely that God suffereth their designs to come to issue or their persons to come to the grave in peace 2. What a law should it lay upon the rich and great men of the earth to take heed of violent perverting justice and judgment of turning away the causes of the widows and the fatherless in judgment To consider that he who is the highest doth consider the matter and there is one higher than the highest of them who abuse their power to trample the poor under foot If men be not turned Atheists and have banished all the fear of God from their eyes and hearts it must a little give them law and lay
will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am still communicating to you some Observations which I have made concerning the motions of Divine Providence not only for your instruction but to quicken you also to make Observations your selves upon the motion of it that you may increase in spiritual Wisdom I proceed to a Tenth Observation Observ 10. That the Providence of God is eminently seen in the preservation and protection of his faithful Ministers and such both amongst them and other orders of men who keeping themselves within the latitude of their duty have been great adventurers for God in their generations 1. The Providence of God preserveth both man and beast it is God that upholdeth our souls in life and there is no man but in him lives moves and hath his being 2. Nor is there any man that liveth any considerable time in the world and keepeth any ordinary record of his life but will see reason as to say with David O Lord I am fearfully and wonderfully made so also Lord I have been fearfully and wonderfully preserved But yet as I have shewed you there are specialties of Divine Providence some persons that the Lord seemeth to carry upon eagles wings and to preserve in a more eminent and special manner sometimes in a way of miraculous Providence sometimes in a way of extraordinary Providence in a way beyond other men Now I have long since hinted you three sorts of men whom God thus preserveth 1. Such as are Gods Vicegerents Magistrates and Rulers of others This I have abundantly shewed you when I shewed you how eminently the Providence of God is seen both in discovering and bringing to light and also in punishing such sins as tend to the eminent disturbance of humane Societies 2. Such as God useth for the Ministers of his Word 3. Such as make the boldest adventures for God and in his service keeping themselves within the latitude of their duty I am to justifie now this Observation to you I will open it and prove it then shew you the reasonableness of Divine Providence in these extraordinary motions And lastly I shall make some Applications First let me open it to you 1. It is to be understood of godly faithful and painful Ministers and mostly of such of whom God hath made or doth make or intend to make an eminent use in his Church As there are no persons more justly a hatred in the house of God abominable to all men of any sobriety then leud or lazy Ministers so there is nothing of any special Providence promised to them and it is more than I have observed if God as to their issues in the concerns of this world hath not left them to a common share with others and if there hath been any difference made by his Providence it hath been to their disadvantage they are more vile than others and dishonour God more than others and God often makes them and their families to smart more than others It is that which God hath said in the case Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 We have had a great deal of enquiry in the times wherein we live into the causes of the contempt of the Clergy Lev. 10.2 3 4 one hath guest this thing another that for my own part I have been young and am growing old I never yet knew a painful able preacher living an holy and exemplary life be his perswasion what it would under a greater contempt than other men there are some Sons of Belial will contemn all that are not as much Atheists as themselves If Ministers will regard nothing but striking their flesh-hook with three teeth into the Lords pot to feed themselves if they will heap up parsonage upon parsonage till there be no room left in the Earth and grasp more souls than they can manage putting out some to pitiful nurses where they are starved and affording the other but dry beasts if they will make themselves vile like Hophni and Phineas it is no wonder if they be contemned by men of any sobriety The Psalmist Psal 15.4 makes it the mark of one that shall dwell in Gods holy hill in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord for others God secureth their honour eminently 2. Nor is it to be extended to every godly Minister and at all times The best of Ministers have their personal sin for which God may punish them by the common fate of others God eminently shewed himself for Moses and Aaron in the case of Corah Dathan and Abiram he made the Earth to open its mouth and to swallow up their opposers but when they had provoked the Lord at the waters of Meribah they took their common fate with the rest of the Israelites and dyed in the wilderness when they had had no more than a prospect of the promised land Several instances might be given of eminent Prophets of old and Ministers of the Gospel that have perished in common judgments more especially when it hath pleased God to pick out some of them for Martyrs and to make them witnesses with their blood to seal the Truths they have preached And indeed this special Providence of God hath been most remarkable in times when God hath been beginning some great work which was the case of the Apostles in the first Plantation of the Gospel and of those eminent servants of God which since that time he hath made use of in the reformation of the Church or upholding the interest of pure and true Religion in a time of great Apostacy and defection 3. The special Providence of God hath not been seen uniformly in those cases but several ways 1. Sometimes in providing food for them and theirs whereas otherwise they must have starved or at least been so employed as they could not have attended the work of God upon their hands 2. Sometimes in keeping them from such dangers which have been very near to them plucking them as brands out of the fire 3. Sometimes in the delivering of them out of their Enemies hands rescuing them from the Lyon when they have been in his paws sometimes one way sometimes another accordingly as it hath pleased the infinite wisdom of God to work for them 1. The Providence of God hath been eminently seen in the providing of necessaries for his Ministers I need not tell you what special Laws God made in the case of his Ministry among the Jews his Priests and Levites were particularly taken care of but this being the setled maintenance for those that were employed about the Tabernacle and the Temple when the Priests were generally corrupted and God to uphold a faithful Ministry amongst his people raised up some extraordinary Prophets that should faithfully reveal his will unto people they had little or no advantage but the Lord never failed to provide for them He provideth a
taken them off from that pursuit of the world by which others procure themselves a livelihood he hath told them they should live upon his Altar he hath told us 1 Cor. 9.7 That no man goeth to a warfare at his own charge none planteth a vineyard and eateth not the fruit thereof nor feedeth a flock and eateth not the milk thereof he seeth them out of obedience and conscience to him refusing the bread they might have men will not provide for them he will Ravens shall bring them meat every day but they shall be fed This is but a reasonable motion of Divine Providence I shall make a short Application of this discourse Vse 1. This in the first place lets you see the fountain of that bounty which the many painful and faithful servants of Christ have experienced in all times and even in the days wherein we live It hath pleased God in all times to raise up friends to his faithful Ministers I remember when Abigail came to meet David coming against her husband and had stopt his journey David saith unto her 1 Sam. 25.32 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee to meet me this day and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou c. First he blesseth God then he blesseth her the faithful servants of God yea the Churches of God who by this means enjoy any thing of the labours of their shepherds have reason to bless those whom God hath made his instruments to support those upon whom others had no pity Yea verily and what our Saviour said of the woman that spent her box of Oyntment upon him I think I may apply here Wherever the Gospel is preached what they have done shall be told for a memorial of them If a cup of cold-water for a thirsty Prophet shall obtain a Prophets reward the greater kindnesses of many shall certainly be rewarded they have but put a little money into the bank which God keeps in Heaven But we have more reason to look upward to him who hath the hearts of all men in his hand and openeth them as he pleaseth God hath in it shewed his special Providence for his faithful Ministers let us therefore say Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath stirred them up It was the grace of God bestowed upon the Churches in Macedonia 2 Cor. 8.1 2 3. which taught them in a great tryal of affliction and deep poverty to abound in riches of liberality and willingly of themselves to give to their power yea and above their power Let it be written to posterity for a memorial of the people in England that for so many years together in the midst of a devouring pestilence many consuming fires expensive wars and a deadness of trade they have refreshed the bowels of so many hundreds if not thousands of Gods messengers but let God have all the glory who hath given the heart though their hands distributed the money Vse 2. In the second place Let me cry out O house of Aaron trust in the Lord O house of Levi trust in the Lord Trust in the Lord and do good saith David so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed Psal 37.3 Let us be faithful to our masters service and do the work which he hath given us to do and verily we shall be fed I cannot say God will provide Coaches and delicate things for us but necessaries we shall not want Herein let us exercise our selves to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men and as to other things we may trust a Providebit Deus God will provide for us and ours The experience of these times if wistly attended to certainly is enough to keep any from being tempted through fear of want to debauch their consciences by doing any thing which is apparently sinful or but so judged and suspected by them We see some fed with great provisions faring deliciously every day whiles others like Daniel and his partners have been fed with little more than pulse and water and at the end of some years it appeareth they look fairer as to worldly circumstances than those who have had far better commons Vse 3. Lastly This observation commendeth confidence and courage to all in the Lords work in opposition to fear and cowardise I would not be mistaken be sure in the first place you be in Gods work that which by his word appeareth to be the duty of one in thy circumstances nothing but the conscience of having been surprised in the way of our duty will bear us up under sufferings be therefore in that point well satisfied having done that observe those rules of Prudence which reason directs thee in such cases this done fear nothing Remember the Providence of God most eminently watcheth over the boldest adventurers in the way of their duty They are the words of our blessed Lord Mar. 8.35 Whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel shall save it They observe in war that the soldier that turns his back and flyes is in much more danger than he who stands to it and that nothing makes a conqueror so much as resolution and bold adventuring it is so in our spiritual fight with the world be then of good courage in it and quit your selves like men remember God is with you and if so there 's more with you than can be against you God indeed in our combats with the world doth not always keep us shot-free and bring us off without a scratch but those whom he doth bring off are ordinarily those who are most valiant and adventurous however it is better to fall valiantly than cowardly and our Lord hath told us That if a man will save his life he shall lose it if he hath such a mind to sleep in a whole skin that he will neglect his duty and do that which his heart condemneth him for doing he shall lose what he hoped to save by it be it life reputation estate c. It speaketh great unbelief and distrust in God to be cowards in plain and certain duties Be prudent but take heed of forbearing necessary duty out of prudence or being faint in the performance of it That can be no prudence If a man fainteth in the day of adversity Solomon saith that his strength is but small his faith is but small and his observation of Gods Providence in such cases hath been very small too But I shall add no more upon this Argument SERMON XXV Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Have done with the Tenth thing in the motions of Divine Providence which I commended to your observation I proceed now to another Observ 11. The Providence of God maketh a very frequent and remarkable use of the sins of people though it be always spotless in making such use of
and constant one way or other Gods Providence is always doing them good and rewarding their righteous deeds and this must necessarily be true upon the Apostles Hypothesis That all things shall work together for the good of them that love God But I hasten to the Application Vse 1. In the first place let me recommend this to your observation Though there be such a vast difference between good and evil in their own intrinsick natures as might justly allure us into the embraces of the former and scare every man from the pursuit of the latter yet such is our nature that we stand in need of encouragements to the former by rewards and by the terrors of the Lord to be scared from the latter and there cannot be any thing more effectual with us to discourage sin and incourage goodness than if we can effectually perswade our selves that the punishment of sin is both certain and constant and the reward of righteousness is so also This is the point I have endeavoured to demonstrate and you have heard that the reason of any ones presumption of the contrary is their looking at nothing as a punishment or a reward but what is sensible than which we cannot be guilty of a greater mistake nor any of worser consequence as to the malign influence it will have upon our lives and consequently upon our eternal state But consider what hath been said and judg whether a man can do any thing to the greater ruin of himself than to go on in an impenitent and resolved course of sinning against God Possibly you do observe that as to outward things it is much one with a profane swearer and blasphemer as with the man that reverenceth the glorious God and feareth an oath Eccles 9.2 with the drunkard as with him that is sober with the chast as with the unclean with the Sabbath-breaker as with him that remembers to keep holy Gods day nay the profane lawless sinner is in greater honour and power than the other richer than the other and this incourageth thee to joyn with them But poor creature hath he that hath many blessings but one curse think'st thou Observe well that same prosperous sinner and tell me if every day he doth not grow worse if according to his pastures he be not filled with all the fruits of unrighteousness if he be not given up to a blind mind an hard heart vile affections if thou doest not observe that his conscience is seared and branded with an hot iron as it were that he grows past feeling If thou seest this say not he is not punished he is punished with a witness Is a sealing up to damnation no punishment According to our law you know malefactors are first seared with an hot-iron upon their next miscarriage they are hanged It is Gods method when once a soul is seared with an hot-iron given up to be past feeling to damn him next without mercy Look well upon the sinner and thou wilt discern God is angry every day with him he is every day fitting for Hell flames Is this no punishment On the other side thou seest the man according to Gods heart walking sadly he is plagued every night chastned every morning he is poor and needy hungry and thirsty in prisons in deaths often pursued by the falcons of the world as a partridg upon the mountains persecuted on all hands Thou concludest contrary to the Scripture That he hath washed his hands in vain and cleansed his soul to no purpose verily there is no reward for the righteous But harken poor creature Had Esau's Father many blessings and hath Jacob's God but one sort Thou seest his poverty and want but doest thou see how he hath learned in all estates to be content and hath changed his name into a quod vult Deus And certainly godliness with contentment is great gain A poor contented Lazarus is an happier and richer man than a discontented covetous Dives Thou seest how he is afflicted every day how full of troubles his life is but thou doest not see the serenity of his spirit the peace of his conscience his joy in the Holy Ghost his glorying and rejoycing in tribulations as his tribulations work patience his patience experience and his experience hope Mark sirs the upright men consider the just men you will see their ends to be peace yea in this life you will see them more indisturbed by troubles and inconcerned in the ruffles of the world than other men The more you observe the more you will be confirmed in this truth that the Providence of God will certainly reward yea is constantly rewarding him that worketh righteousness Vse 2. But secondly what a trembling and terror should this Observation strike into the loins of every sinner what an engagement should it lay upon them to repent and turn from the wickedness of their way Each part of this Observation ought to be improved for this purpose Impunity in sinning is a great encouragement to the sinner the heart of man stands bent to his lusts and if he fancieth that he may escape the hands of Divine Justice or that he doth escape and thrive and prosper in his wicked courses it wonderfully imboldneth him to go on but if the vengeance against him be certain if his iniquity will certainly find him out that he may as well hope not to dye as not to be thrown into Hell when he dyes and if the wrath of God be already kindled against him and God be already punishing him What hope what incouragement can he then have Now this you have heard is the sinners case I remember when that great plague was began amongst the Israelites upon their murmuring against Moses and Aaron after the death of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16.46 Moses biddeth Aaron take a censer and put fire therein from the Altar and put incense thereon and go quickly to the congregation saith he and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun Is here an impenitent sinner before the Lord one that hath been a drunkard a swearer a profane person or that hath lived without God in the world that blesseth himself with vain hopes or presumptions that he shall escape the Judgment of God or may escape it that his soul is at present free from fears he thriveth he prospereth in the world and his prosperity blindeth his eyes that he cannot see the hell into which he is dropping and so maketh no haste to deliver himself from the wrath that is to come To such a one let me speak oh that my counsel might be acceptable take thy censer put fire thereon from the Altar and put on incense and go quickly and make an atonement for thy soul These are indeed things not in thy power but my meaning is Betake thy self quickly to the great work of repentance which lyes not so much in tears and humiliation as in the change of thy heart in thy
of sin the hearts of sinners are set in them to do evil because judgement is not executed speedily I indeavoured to discourage and check this presumption in my former observation where I confirmed to you that by how much the more slowly vindicative justice proceedeth to the punishment of sin by so much severer the punishment is when it cometh This Observation addeth further to that check for as that which men call slackness is but the long suffering and patience of God not willing that any should perish but that all should be saved by a seasonable repentance So as you have now heard at large discoursed to you neither is God thus long-suffering and patient with all and although God generally be more quick with those sorts of sinners which I have specified to you yet I desire you to observe what I first enlarged upon that there is hardly any kind or sort of sinners but God at some time or other hath picked out some or other of them to make them examples of his severity Thou maist be struck dead while the lye is in thy mouth It was the case you know of Ananias and Saphira Thou maist be cut off in the very Act of Adultery It was the case you know of Zimri and Cosbi Tremble therefore and do not sin God may grant thee many years of patience he may give thee leave to treasure up wrath to thy self against the day of wrath but thou canst not promise thy self an hours patience But above all fear those sins which God usually is so quick in punishing Fear blaspheming God or the King we live in a blaspheming age wherein have been more bold darings of God than in former times God hath revenged his glory upon some of them they have been cut off in their youth before they have lived out half their dayes If another generation riseth up and approveth their sayings wait but a while and you will see vengeance overtaking them also Fear doing any thing against the life of others who by the law of God ought not to dye Blood-thirsty men shall not live out half their days you fee Gods vengeance against this sin is very quick 2. This Observation affords a great encouragement to the service of God especially to eminent actings and sufferings for God There is a reward for righteous men if they go without it to their dying day yet they shall be recompensed in the generation of the just Heaven will pay for all but God doth not always take so long a day to recompence them Many have a reward in this life and that which is to come The Scripture is full of promises even of the good things of this life to godliness in the general and to the several parts and acts of godliness These promises indeed are not made good to every child of God in specie but only in equivalent yea transcendent mercies But even these promises are made good to many and they may be thy portion however thou shalt not miss of the greater things Particularly this layeth an engagement upon all that fear God as God calleth them to it and giveth them advantage for it to signalize themselves by eminent actings or by some eminent sufferings such you have heard God ordinarily payeth presently and besides that eternal recompence which they have in glory they are in more outward and sensible things or in more inward influences of grace recompensed in this life Those that eminently honour God he will honour and many of them have a double mess sent them from the Lord. SERMON XXXI Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am proceeding yet in my Observations upon the motions of Divine Providence that which we call Actual Providence in its administration of distributive Justice both in the punishment of sinners and the rewarding of the righteous Divers Observations I have already made I am come to the Observat 18. Which you may please to take thus That the Providence of God doth very ordinarily with the punishments of this life chastise the past and pardoned sins of people In the handling of which I shall 1. Justifie the Observation 2. I shall shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Providence and reconcile it both to the justice and goodness of God 3. Lastly I shall make some practical application of it That it is so I shall prove by two famous instances the first of David the second Job David you know had fallen into two grievous sins Adultery with Bathsheba and the murther of her Husband Vriah God sendeth the Prophet Nathan 2 Sam. 12. to David to convince him of his sin who doth it by a Parable Davids heart melteth v. 13. and he saith unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan tells him the Lord hath also put away thy sin The sin you see was both past and pardoned but mark what follows v. 14. Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye He had told him before v. 10. That the sword should not depart from his house and v. 11. That he would take his wives before his face and give them to his neighbour and he should ly with them in the sight of the Sun All this was afterward justified by the Actual Providence of God The Child died 2 Sam. 12.18 Amnon defloureth his Sister Thamar and is slain by her Brother Absolon 2 Sam. 13.14 29. Absalom Davids own Son lieth with his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel 2 Sam. 16.22 Absolom is slain in a rebellion against his Father c. Nay not only thus but God punisheth David with horrors and terrors in his mind with diseases in his body as you may gather from Psal 6. Psal 51. and the rest of those Psalms in which he expresseth his repentance David prayeth Psal 25.7 Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions Job complaineth unto God Job 7.2 3. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work so am I made to possess months of vanity I know the words are capable of another sense as vanity may be understood for affliction and misery or the frustration of his expectations but I should rather interpret it by the words of the same Job 13.26 27 28. For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the sins of my youth c. Moses and Aaron sinned against the Lord at the waters of Meribah I do not think that any of you doubt but that God pardoned their sin yet it is certain that God punished them and that for that sin God himself tells them so Deut. 32.50 51. That the Providence of God doth this is evident The second thing may seem to have more difficulty in it viz. How this is reconcileable either to
that are to be my hearers Let me therefore go on Doth therefore any of you say unto me Seer What seest thou I answer yet once more I observe in the motions of Actual Providence Observ 21. That God commandeth his sensible blessings most upon those individual persons and those societies of the children of men that live in the most exact conformity to the Divine Rule Here are two terms in this Observation upon the Explication of which I will a little insist Quest 1. What is meant by sensible blessings Quest 2. What I mean by the most exact conformity to the Divine Rule Good things are distributed several ways in order to our comprehension of them by our understandings amongst others this is one distribution of them they are either sensible or insensible By sensible good things I understand such as are obvious to our senses and perceptible by them By insensible such as have a reality of good in them but yet not such as our senses discern Thus David saith It is good for me that I have been afflicted but yet afflictions are not sensible good things all such are the objects of our joy and delight Now saith the Apostle no affliction at the present is joyous but grievous but it bringeth forth the quiet fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised therewith But I say God commandeth sensible blessings mostly upon persons and societies living in the best square and most exact conformity unto the Divine Rule 2. Further yet Sensible blessings are capable of a double notion they are either such as are obvious only to the inward senses of those that are made partakers of them such are peace of conscience joy in the holy God that serenity and tranquillity of mind which is the effect of righteousness the new-name which none knoweth but he that hath it but there are other good things which are the objects of our more exteriour senses such are health prosperity success in trade c. blessings in relations c. Now my Obsersation is That the Actual Providence of God doth usually distribute good things of this nature to such persons and such societies of persons as live to the truest square and exactest conformity to the Divine Rule That is a general and must be opened also The Divine Rule as to families and persons is of a great compass but the whole of it is reducible to three heads viz. Piety Justice and Charity under each of these are several particulars but none which fall not under one of these generals 1. Piety consists in the internal and external acts of homage which we owe unto God Our internal acts are Fear Faith Love Our external acts are principally Prayer and Praise reading the word c. 2. Justice is an habit disposing us to give every one their due 3. By Charity I mean here mutual brotherly love Now look where these things best prosper there God commandeth most sensible blessings in the ordinary motions of his Provilence Particular instances may be exceptions from a general rule but ordinarily it is so What the Psalmist saith of one of these is true of all There God commandeth the blessing Psal 133.3 There where it may be interpreted with reference to the words which immediately precedes the mountain of Zion but I take it to be far more proper to refer it to the first verse which contains the argument of the whole Psalm O saith the Psalmist how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity This he illustrateth by two similitudes the one is the oyl which was poured upon the head of Aaron and ran down to the skirts of his garment Vers 2. The other is the dew of Hermon that descended on the mountain of Zion for saith the Psalmist there the Lord commandeth the blessing even life for evermore There where where brethren together dwell in unity it is as true there where Religion is exercised where all relations give their due one to another there God commandeth the blessing Now for the proof of this I shall but appeal to your experience and what you see every day 1. Look into the world there you shall see nations of various complexions some in which the true God is worshipped in a true manner others wherein Devils are worshipped or stocks or stones or if the true God be indeed worshipped yet it is not as he hath directed but by images and superstitious rites and observances some nations that are nothing else but rapine and violence and oppression full of strife and hatred and malice and wars and dissensions You on the other side will see other Nations amongst whom the true God is worshipped and that in a true manner where are good laws against oppression and injustice and for distributive and commutative Justice where men are not hunted and persecuted for their consciences towards God Mark if God doth not command the blessing of riches trade c. more upon the latter than the former It is true some of those Countreys where these iniquities are found are naturally richer than others in minerals and the Native Commodities of the Countrey but for adventitious riches which come from Trade and Commerce and for other sensible blessings observe if they be not poured out in a greater plenty upon Nations that in matters of Religion civil Justice and Unity have been regulated by laws conformable to the Word of God than upon other Nations where none of these things have been regarded 2. If you will straiten your prospect look upon any Cities or Towns or any kind of political societies you will see some of these places such as Egypt was of which Abraham said The fear of God was not in that place where all their Religion is to persecute those that have any thing of Religion in them No rules of justice and brotherly love are observed but they are full of violence and oppression and fraud there is nothing in them but the inhabitants biting and devouring one another the cry of the oppressed is in their street Other places you will find where Religion is cherished and countenanced where the word of God is livelily and powerfully preached and men live in some seeming awe of it where rules of civil Justice are observed and men can have Justice in Courts of Judicature and the people live in peace and amity one with another observe again which of these God most commandeth his blessing upon I might appeal to your like observation concerning families and particular persons But it is no more than every one may observe Consider what an Hell upon Earth some Cities some Families are in comparison of others and see what makes the difference both in the beauty and in the prosperity of them And it needs must be so if you please to consider 1. The natural tendency of these things to so happy products 2. That God in pursuance of his many promises doth there command the blessing First In
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
and hinteth that they ought to have glorified him as God that is to have paid an homage to God proportionable to the knowledg which they had of his glorious being But we who are within the pale of the Church have as the Apostle saith a more sure word of Prophecy Whereunto we shall do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.19 Besides this many have a common illumination of the Spirit so far ordinarily attending the Ministry of the word of such the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.4 And the Law of conscience ordinarily worketh according to this Light It is indeed true there are and will be differences as to all these Lights The light of nature varies according to mens parts and education The Light of Revelation according to the Ministry of the word men sit under and the other according to Gods pleasure who by his Spirit irradiateth some more than others but according to our light so doth conscience lay a Law upon us Now men and women are highly concerned to behave themselves both toward God and towards men according to the light they have that is according to the discoveries they have either from natural principles or from the word of God or the illuminations of the Spirit of God what God is and what God requireth of them either as acts of homage immediately towards him or as acts of Justice and brotherly love towards their neighbour especially to take heed of bold and impudent actings to the contrary for this cause it is that God judicially gives many up to blindness of mind hardness of heart vile affections a reprobate mind having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4.18 19. You see both from this Chapter in which my Text is and from that Text Eph. 4. That it is what may befal poor Heathens which have no more then a natural light yet even they for not living up to that may so far provoke God what do you think Christians may do then that besides the natural light have the light of the Law and Gospel the sure word of Prophecy that have consciences further enlightened and under a further Law than the Heathens could possibly have such as have as the Apostle speaketh Heb. 6.4 Tasted of the heavenly gift and been made partakers of the holy ghost as have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If the Heathens came under such a judgment because when they knew or might have known by the very light of nature that the Lord that made Heaven and Earth could not possibly be like a man nor a beast nor creeping things yet would not attend to the workings of their own reason nor give their consciences leave to speak nor hearken to them but in their practice changed the image of the incorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man c. were for this deserted of God and given up to that dreadful degree of judgment this Chapter mentioneth what shall become of those amongst Christians think you who besides the advantage which they have common with Heathens from that of God which is manifest in them and from the things that are made to know what manner of being God is have also the holy Scriptures telling them That God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and truth That images are teachers of lies and mediums by which God will not be worshippped and revealing his wrath so plentifully against those that in so idle and wretched a manner did worship the true and living God yet will worship him by images Doth not the light of nature and the light of Scripture shine in mens faces and clearly discover to them that God is not to be pleased with rude and confused noises with meer formalities and lip-labours but with a simple pure and Spiritual worship where the understanding the heart and the affections go along with the tongue and outward man and where these are wanting all the cringings and bowings and roarings in the world are abominable to him and no better than the howling of a Dog and grunting of a Swine O Sirs take heed of sinning against this light for fear of being given up of God to superstitious vanities for so it oft-times falleth out that as a lyar though at first he knew he told a lie yet by repeating and telling it often he hath forgot it was a lye and possibly himself thinks he is relating a true story So I am perswaded it falls out with many whose consciences at first grumbled a little at what they did and told them this was no service of God but through a just Judgment of God they shutting their Eyes against the light at last think there is no other true worship of God besides what they have taken up as to which it will at last appear that it was none at all for who required any such things at their hands We can hardly think otherwise of the Jews who at the first setting up of idolatry by Jeroboam and that worser idolatry by Ahab could not but think many of them that that was not the true worship of God but by practice in it afterward grew so warm for it that none else must be true but they must slay the Lords Prophets and persecute all those who either taught or practised any other way of worship more according to the mind and will of God 2. And do not only take heed of shutting your ears as to your duty towards God lest God judicially give you up to vile affections as to superstitious vanities but take heed also that you do not shut your eyes against convictions of your duty towards your selves and others in matters of morality Have you not startled sometimes to see to what brutish degrees of sensuality and immoralities many have fallen from high degrees of profession To me it hath been one of the prodigies of our age If one should have told some that were professors twenty or thirty years ago that within such a time they should be transgressors through wine so famous for impudent uncleanness such Apostates from all Religion such bruits almost in every part of their conversations such persecutors of those that fear God and with whom they sometimes professed to be of the same mind they would certainly have said with Hazael are we dogs that we should ever do any such things Yet we have lived to see it I am loth I tremble to speak what I think certainly God hath forsaken these poor creatures they professed the truth to have imbraced it in the love of it but they were hypocrites they received it not in the love of it but meerly in a faction and for some base sinister ends and for this cause
from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking Vengeance on them who know not God and obey not the Gospel of Christ who saith he in my Text shall be punished with everlasting destruction The Text will afford us two Propositions 1. Prop. That those persons who in this life have not known God or have not obeyed the Gospel of Christ when Christ shall come to judgment shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2. Prop. That amongst sinners the persecutors of others unjustly for their conscience toward God and for the Gospel of Christ shall least escape this righteous Judgment These above others shall be punished with everlasting destruction The Emphasis of the proposition so far as I desire to handle it lies in the word everlasting they shall saith the Text be punished with everlasting destruction which is no more than our Saviour had said Math. 25.46 And those shall go into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal and Math. 9.44 46 48. Where you read of a worm that never dieth and a fire that is not quenched The Revelation of Scripture in the case is plain enough only here is the Question Quest How it can stand with the Justice or goodness of God to punish momentary Sins with everlasting destruction The grounds of this Question or doubt are 1. The proportion which Justice seemeth to require betwixt the offence and the punishment Justice amongst men requireth a proportion as well as punishment it self and it is with us accounted injustice not to keep a measure in punishment Every one condemneth the Roman taking away the life of his Servant in compensation of a cup-board of glasses he had broken and we count it hardly just to do the like for little things stollen from us now there seemeth to be no proportion betwixt momentany singings and eternal punishments Tertullian rightly calls sins vaporata libidinum momenta And the holy ghost calls them the pleasures of sin for a season It is the same case as to the profits of sin man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live and no longer time to sin in then he hath to live 2. Eternal torments seem to bear no proportion to that infinite goodness and mercy of God which we have read of to be in God They say indeed of Nero that having condemned a malefactor to long torments and pleasing himself to see him so tormented when the poor wretch called to him for mercy he gave him no other answer then Nondum tecum in gratiam redii stay Sir you and I are not friends yet but is it possible without blasphemy to imagin any such thing of God of whose nature it is to forgive and to shew mercy Can he please himself with the eternal torments of a creature which he hath made No no saith the Atheist Hell is but a bugbear there can be no such thing consistent with the Justice and goodness of God as Eternal Destruction But the Scripture affirms it suffer me therefore in general to cry out O you Sons of men are not the Lords ways equal Are not your ways inequal who art thou O man who reasonest with God Shall the clay say to the Potter why hast thou made me thus Is not our Reason debauched think we when it can agree no better with the Reason and wisdom of God whence it deriveth and that in a lefs proportion than a drop of water beareth to the Ocean or the Fountain from which it deriveth Know therefore that all these vain and Atheistical reasonings of our hearts proceed upon one or more of these mistaken principles 1. That Gods compassion goodness or mercy must be Eternally extended to and exercised upon the most notorious desperate despisers and contemners of it Now this is indeed to fancy an idol to our selves instead of God we have no reason so to conceive of God partly because we find no humane nature so tame though we be under a Law of shewing pity and compassion partly because the Scripture no-where teacheth us such a notion of God Besides that such a notion of God as this is would disarm the most excellent and perfect being of all power to protect it self from the greatest injuries which the most debauched persons should offer to it I would gladly know what reason or what part of Scripture can induce any to dream of a goodness and mercy of God towards finners beyond this life 2. That the goodness and mercy of God must be estimated and measured by his dispensations to individuals Amongst men mercy to some particular persons that are eminent disturbers of humane Society is cruelty to thousands possibly Gods mercy may be exercised and he may be a God in whom all that the Scripture saith of that goodness that is in the Divine being may be verified and yet hundreds yea thousands of impenitent sinners may eternally perish 3. That the proportion which the Divine Justice observeth in punishing sinners must be measured by the proportion of time which the sinner hath to sin in Than which there nothing more false nor as I shall anon shew you is there any such rule kept to in the justice of men 4. That the Justice of God is to be measured by the same measures as the Justice of men and nothing which amongst men is injust can be just with God where-as among men we see the same rewards and punishments are not judged just as to all men all Nations though the fact be the same otherwise punish injuries done to superiours than to inferiours and it is thought but just to proportion the punishment to the quality and greatness of the person to whom the injury is done 5. That the condemned sinner satisfies by his suffering than which there is nothing more false No creditor takes his debtors lying in prison whatever misery he feeleth there to be any part of payment of his debt These are some of the mistaken Principles from which vain man quarrelleth at the Divine Justice in the eternal destruction of sinners Now these things premised I shall easily shew you that eternal punishment is not inconsistent with the Justice of God nor doth any way derogate from that infinite goodness and mercy which is inseparable from the Divine Being 1. Why should we not in the first place allow that to be just with God which we allow to be just and righteous in man What doth man less than this according to the extent of his power Doth not the Magistrate for his offence deprive the Traytor the Murtherer or other Malefactor of his life and all the comforts of it for ever Divines say that in Hell there is a pain of loss and a pain of sense and the Schoolmen argue the former to be greater than the latter you see man inflicteth an eternal pain of loss and counts it just he taketh away the malefactors life and all the sweet
confess to be the supream and most free agent the liberty which we will yet claim and challenge for our selves Nor is this more unreasonable pride and arrogance than it is folly and Vanity It is searching for a bottom in an Abyss searching for a cause Antecedent to the first cause God they say from all Eternity foresaw that such and such would believe would obey would incline their hearts to his Testimonies it must be then certain that that they would do so God could have no certain knowledg of that of which there was no certainty Now I would fain understand whence this certainty should be otherwise than from the will of God determining their wills to these certain good inclinations more than the wills of others all others have Souls reasonable Souls as well as they whence is it that their Souls incline to that which is good and the wills of others to that which is evil Surely to will and to do are both from God Thus vain Man would be wise when as he indeed is but like a wild Asses Colt Proud men torture themselves in vain to find out a principle of good and of life in themselves And how unreasonable a thing is it to charge God with unrighteousness upon this hypothesis Shall a man be master of his own favours who is yet a debtor to the Law of God and under an obligation to do good to all because God hath so commanded him and shall not God who cannot in any wise become a debtor to his Creature farther than he is so made by his own Covenant and promise Shall it be a reasonable thing for a Man to say I will be kind to such a one because I will and doth he think he is not further to be accountable to his fellow Creature And shall not the Soveraign Lord of Heaven and Earth say I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and because I will have mercy but Man shall for it call him before the Tribunal of his own Reason Vse 2. In the second place what reason have we who are made partakers of this mercy of God which bringeth salvation to adore admire and be thankful to him for it Now this concerneth either all of us in general or else some particular Souls 1. Let us first consider this so far as it respecteth all of us whosoever liveth within the pale of the Church under the preaching of the Gospel may see reason 1. To adore and admire the goodness of God towards them 2. To tremble and fear lest we be found unprofitable under the means of grace The Apostle propoundeth the question concerning the Jews Rom. 3.1 2. What advantage then hath the Jew above the Gentiles Or what profit is there of Circumcision He answereth Much every way because unto them are commited the Oracles of God Whether the Gospel in the preaching of it be a sufficient means of Salvation having such a constant operation of the Spirit attending it that if men will they may believe and be saved and the ministration of the Spirit be little differing from the ministration of the Gospel and inseparable or at least never separated from it though affirmed by some may be justly doubted But that it is a great and high means of Salvation and there is no man living under the faithful and powerful preaching of it but if he misseth of Life and eternal happiness it will be his own fault and the proximate cause of damnation will be in himself I do not doubt Now God hath not dealt thus with every Nation O consider how many Nations and People there are in the World who never heard of Christ amongst whom the joyful sound of the Gospel did never come People that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death whom the day-star from on high did never yet rise upon Doth any say But what good doth the Gospel or how is the preaching of the Gospel such a mercy if God doth not give unto them that are under the sound of it effectual Grace so as their hearts are changed upon the preaching of it and they converted and eternally saved I answer The Apostle thought it a mercy and no small mercy that the Jews had the Oraeles of God committed to them to them and not to other People yet for all this it is most certain That there were many amongst the Jews who kept not the Laws Statutes and Ordinances of God the Jews might have said the same thing yet Moses crieth out Deut. 4.8 What Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord your God is to you in all things That hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous Again as I have oft told you though I dare not say with some That all men sitting under the sound of the Gospel have a sufficiency of grace given them that if they will they may turn unto God and live yet I do think that there is such a sufficiency of Light and means that if men will do what in them lies God will not be wanting to them in his effectual Grace Men shall never have this to say Lord I did what was in my power to do I would have repented believed but thou deniedst me that Grace which was necessary to it Now herein appeareth the greatness of the Grace of the Gospel The Heathen walk in darkness and in the shadow of Death they have not a sufficient Light to guide their feet into the way of Peace But where the Gospel is Preached there a great Light shineth a Light sufficient to direct men into the way of Life But 2. This looketh dreadfully upon all those who wilfully shut their eyes against Gospel-light and stop their Ears against this joyful sound This saith our Saviour is the condemnation that when Light is come into the World men love Darkness more than Light because their deeds are evil Matth. 11. Our Saviour upbraideth the Cities where his mighty works had been done and his Gospel preached Capernaum and Bethsaida he saith they had been lifted up to Heaven but they should be thrown down into Hell that it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah yea for Tyre and Sydon in the day of judgment than for them when the Gospel hath been long in a place faithfully preached it is much to be feared that God hath had mercy in that place upon as many Souls of that Age as he will have mercy But this is but a Digression we have reason to adore God for his free mercy to us in giving us the Gospel the faithful and powerful preaching under the Gospel many may and do perish but where the Gospel comes not there is no hope Now whence is it that the rain of the Gospel falleth upon one City not upon another Upon one Country not upon another That some Nations have not so much as the sound of it the feet of them which bring the glad tidings of Peace come not amongst them
and in the same Nation where the Gospel is preached some have a sound and little more Preachers in some places in stead of preaching the Gospel Preach human Philosophy or the lusts of their own hearts In other places the Word of God is preached faithfully and powerfully so that the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Men are compelled to come in This difference in the external ministration which let me tell you hath no small influence upon the eternal concern and interest of men for God doth not ordinarily work by way of miracle and heal the eyes of the blind with Clay and Spittle is fountain'd only in the free-will and Grace of God Vse 2. But I trust I speak to some who have tasted further of the mercy and Grace of God than receiving the general Dispensation of the Gospel with their outward ears God hath by his holy Spirit upon the preaching of the Gospel effectually moved their hearts and conquered their Souls into a subjection to Christ They have embraced the Lord Jesus Christ by a Gospel-faith they are brought by a mighty hand out of darkness into marvelous Light and translated out of this Kingdom of Sin and Satan into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus I have this day been discovering to you the Fountain of this Grace of which God hath made you partakers you have heard that it is the will of God only which hath distinguished betwixt you and others It is not because you were more nobly born than others nor because you were more rich more honourable or by nature better complexioned than others God saw no more goodness in your natures than in the natures of others you were all the same flesh he infused into all Souls of the same nature and species only he hath willed rather to shew mercy unto your Souls than to the Souls of others because he hath set his love upon you There are three duties that hence lie very obvious 1. The First is Praise Thankfulness and Admiration Certainly every such Soul stands highly obliged with the Psalmist to cry out Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits If free Grace will not affect our hearts and fill our mouths with a new Song nothing will It must certainly be an amazing consideration for a Soul to sit down and think I was in the same mass and lump of lost man-kind that others are I was by Nature a Child of wrath as much as any my Childhood and Youth were Vanity as much as any others I was grinding at the same Mill it may be in actual sins I outstripped many others Now that the Lord should look upon me and pluck me as a brand out of the Fire that God should open my eyes and change my heart What did God see in me Possibly my more external circumstances were far less and more unvaluable than those of thousands of others my House was of small account and little esteem there are many more great and noble more wise and prudent than I am many who in all appearance so far as man can judg might have been more serviceable to God than I am or am ever like to be now that the Lord should pass them over and shew mercy to me certainly no Soul can seriously think of these things but must be ravished with the apprehensions of the inaccountable love of God in these things and say What shall I render unto thee O Lard what shall I render unto thee 2. This notion of Gods Soveraignty freedom and inaccountbleness in the dispensations of his Grace should teach every Soul that hath been or shall be made a partaker of it the great lesson of humility The Apostle Rom. 3.27 giveth this as the reason why God hath setled the justification of a Sinner upon a bottom of free Grace and hath excluded works that he might also exclude boasting and teach those who glory to glory in the Lord upon this Argument the Apostle exhorteth the Gentiles not to boast against the Jews Rom. 11.22 Behold the goodness and the severity of God saith he to those who abide in their unbelief severity to thee goodness Pride is a sinful habit disposing the Soul to swell in the opinion of some excellency in it self and a little thing will swell our corrupt hearts The Apostle propoundeth this very consideration as a cure for that tumour in the Souls of Christians 1 Cor. 4.7 For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou which thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it It is nothing but the will of God that hath made a difference betwixt thee and the vilest Sinner breathing betwixt thee and the most filthy Drunkard the most furious Persecutor c. It was not for any worth any goodness or holiness which the Lord saw in thee but of his meer free will and Grace God hath shewed mercy to thy Soul what hast thou now of thy own to boast or glory in Thou hast indeed reason to glory and to make thy boast in the Lord and to bless God for what he hath done for thy Soul more than for a thousand others but there is no thanks to thee his will his own will was the fountain of his Grace extended to thee God hath had mercy upon thy Soul only because he would have mercy O therefore be not high-minded but fear and walk humbly before God 3. Lastly this calleth upon all of you who have tasted of this free and unaccountable Grace to live a distinguishing life and conversation There is a Generation that fancyeth that the Doctrine of Free-Grace opens a door to Liberty It is but the old Cavil in Saint Pauls time there were those that thus accused the Doctrine of Free-Grace as if it gave men a liberty to go on in sin as appeareth by the Apostles anticipation of that Cavil Rom. 6.1 What saith he shall we then continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid and so he goeth on shewing that any such conclusion from his principles was unreasonable How shall we saith the Apostle who are dead unto sin live any longer therein Special distinguishing Free-Grace both deadneth the Soul to Sin and inflameth the Soul with a love to God who hath made the Soul to differ so as that Soul cannot live as other men the love of God constraineth him he must apprehend himself obliged to do more for God than others because God hath shewen more mercy to him than unto others and that meerly because he would shew mercy What can possibly be imagined to have a greater and lay an higher obligation upon the Soul to all manner of holiness in conversation to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord as the Apostle speaketh SERMON L. Hosea XIII 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but
for his not repenting not believing according to his Word Is there any unrighteousness with God in this case more than in the Fathers dealing with the Child upon the former Supposition What pretence is there for it The Sinner you will say could not repent could not believe without the special Grace of God which was never given him No more could the Child buy those things the Father willed it to have and come before him with unless the Father first gave it mony the Child had no mony of its own But the Child might have left its play it might have read and heard the Word he might have come to God by Prayer and begg'd of him a soft and contrite heart and a believing heart he had power to do all this and had he done this God had not been wanting to him in his further Grace To him that hath shall be given saith our Saviour that is to him that hath and useth and proveth what Gifts and Graces he hath as he ought to do shall be given more Grace But this the poor wretch hath not done but dieth an hard-hearted an impenitent and unbelieving wretch what unrighteousness is there with God in his condemnation he perisheth in his own iniquity his blood is upon his own head his damnation lieth at his own door his destruction is of himself his help might have been from God if he had not been wanting to himself O sinful men are not the Lords ways equal Yes yes they are our own ways that are unequal the straight ways of the Lord are only made crooked by our idle fancies our proud hearts and corrupt reasons and foolish misprisions Vse 4. In the last place let me apply this discourse by way of Exhortation it will afford matter of Exhortation 1. To the people of God 2. To the men of the World those I mean that are not yet converted unto God 1. To Gods People 1. To you it speaketh to make you more afraid of sin for the time to come Sin in Scripture is ordinarily resembled by sickness and a disease Now what is true of sickness is true of Sin every sickness is not unto death but every sickness hath something of death in it it leadeth to the Grave it is not the last stroke at the giving of which the Tree falleth but it is a blow in order to the fall of it Every sin doth not bring forth death yea as to you No sin shall bring forth death because Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ but every sin hath something of the nature of a self-ruining and destruction in it The wages of every sin is death the natural tendency of every sin is unto death It is the Gift and Free-Grace of God that as to you prevents it and although your sins do not bring forth an Eternal ruine and destruction to you because the Blood of Christ and the Intercession of Christ hath prevented and will prevent that yet your sins may bring forth many lesser deaths to you for them you may be in deaths often for them there may be a death of your peace and comforts as there are no temporal Evils which sin may not bring upon the people of God so there are few spiritual Evils on this side of Hell to which it doth not subject them So that although you be not under the danger of an Eternal ruine yet you are under the danger of so many deaths so many destructions as may justly lay a Law upon you and make you afraid of sinning against God 2. But Secondly This calleth to all of you to admire the Divine Grace by which you are saved I hope it is the portion of many of you to whom I am speaking you are not yet got up to the new Hierusalem but you are in the right way that leadeth thereunto O cry Grace Grace unto the hand which set you upon that Shore It is true of you you also by sin had destroyed your selves by Grace you are saved you were once Fire-brands as well as any others are you now brands pluckt out of the Fire It was the hand of Grace that pluck'd you out You hath he quickned saith the Apostle Ephes 2.1 who were dead in Trespasses and sins Amongst whom also we had our conversation of old according to the Lusts of the Flesh you also were once acted by the Prince of the Air who yet worketh in the Children of Disobedience and were by Nature the Children of Wrath as much as others It is a sweet though in some sence a bitter meditation to cast a thought back and think Lord How had I also destroyed my self How near was I going to the Pit of Eternal ruine and destruction Nay how often yet is our Salvation from God We are every day destroying our selves we lye down with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Morning and rise up every day with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Evening By Grace we are saved 2. But Secondly let me speak to those which can have no such good hope through Grace They yet are in their natural State and condition in the Gall of bitterness and in the very bands of iniquity Sirs it is that which I have often told you and I wish the sound of it may never be out of your Ears you are Creatures ordained to Eternity when you dye you dye not like brute-Beasts Death will not determine your beings you shall be either Eternally happy or Eternally miserable All that I have to say to you is to plead with you that you would not ruine your selves and let me tell you that if ever you perish it must be because you have destroyed your selves Do not fright your selves with thoughts of Gods eternal decrees secret things belong to God revealed things to us Whatever Gods secret counsels and purposes be this is his revealed will The Soul that sinneth and that alone shall dye Trouble not your selves with any such thoughts as these If I be not elected do what I will I shall be damned If God hath cast me off I shall labour in vain It is the Sluggard saith Solomon which saith There is a Lion in the way We cannot ascend up into Heaven to search Gods Books there is no need of it The Word is near us even in our mouths that telleth us that God never destroyeth any Soul but the meritorious cause of it is in himself and this we know that all sin is voluntary O then take heed of destroying your selves by wilful and presumptuous sinning against God Nature teacheth every Man to look to himself as to his Life Health Estate and shall not our reasonable Nature instructed by the Word of God prompt us to take care of our selves as to our Eternal Interest You will say unto me what shall we do that we may not de destroyed for who liveth and sinneth not against God I have before told you that
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
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