him to do so also is he Omniscient infinite in knowledge and wisdom and nothing past present or to come can be hid from him All things lie naked and opened or unbowelled before him the whole World and all the Ages of the World from its Creation to the Consummation of all things are in his view at once not the most secret thought of man nor the minutest circumstance in things can escape his Eye Knowing therefore eternally as well all that shall be hereafter as all that now is or at any time hath been nothing can happen contrary to his expectation therefore nothing can possibly move him to any the least change of Counsels but he must needs be as in his nature and being so in his purposes also immutable the same yesterday and to day and for ever And this granted we shall very easily see into the truth of our next Proposition as necessarily following from this Immutability of God IV. Whatsoever the devices and projects of man may be they can never be able to frustrate or alter the Will and Counsel of the Lord but it shall firmly stand and most punctually be fulfilled And it must needs be so if but for this one reason that there can be no device or project of man but God did eternally foresee it and hath provided for it Yea he is both wise enough and powerful enough either to frustrate it and make it of no effect or to overrule it and bring to effect his own Will and Counsel by it Men cannot surely be such Fools as to think that the infinitely wise God can be outwitted or deceived by any humane Policy or that the Almighty God can be over-powered by humane strength or force or that the most vigilant Governor of the World who never slumbereth nor sleepeth Psal. 124. 4. Whose eyes are in every place beholding the evil and the good Prov. 15. 3. Can be surprized by Humane Treachery No Conspiracy in what dark Hell or Vault soever it be laid and hatch'd can be hid from him no Confederacy or Combination can be too hard for him who is irresistible as well as immutable and therefore can never be disappointed of his Will Our God is in the Heavens he hath done whatsoever he pleased Psal. 115. 3. Yea The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever the thoughts of his heart to all generations Psal. 33. 11. And v. 10. The Lord bringeth the Counsel of the Heathen to nought he maketh the devices of the People of none effect Hence that bold Challenge of the Prophet to all the Churches Enemies Take Counsel and it shall come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us Isai. 8. 10. And again The Lord of Hosts hath sworn saying Surely as I have thought so shall it come to pass and as I have purposed so shall it stand Isai. 14. 24. The Lord of Hosts hath purposed and who shall disanul it v. 27. The Counsel of the Lord lieth very deep Clouds and darkness are round about him And whilest vain men would be so wise as to design for themselves without him and presume to teach or help him to govern the World they unawares subserve his secret Counsel and by an unseen hand are carried contrary to their own intentions to promote those very designs of his which they strive with all their might and policy to defeat Let them consult God shall infatuate their Counsels let them attempt God shall frustrate all their attempts He must be wise indeed that can impose upon God Ioseph's Brethren taking notice of his Dream and his Fathers special affection to him grow jealous of him and to prevent his coming to have dominion over them sell him for a Slave unto Strangers and what do they in all this but unwittingly help him up to that dignity and honour which God had design'd for him that they may hereafter bow before him with the greater shame Pharoab lest the Hebrews should encrease too fast and grow too many for him and his people decreeth the destruction of all their Male Children but see how the providence of God turneth this about to his ruine for hereby Moses is exposed and being found by Pharaoh's Daughter is brought up in his Court receiving thereby an education suitable to his future dignity who was to be the leader and deliverer of that people which was to spoyl the Egyptians Saul will by all means suppress David and exclude him from succeeding him in his Throne and what doth he herein but by pursuing and exposing him to dangers give him the fairest opportunities of shewing his fidelity to him and his wisdom and valour to the people so winning their affections over whom he was to Reign The Princes of mere Envy bring Daniel to the Den of Lions but only to this end that by a Miracle of God's goodness to him he might be advanced above themselves and to their own ruine Haman prepareth the Gallows for Mordecai and designs the honour for himself but is herein an instrument of God hereby to bring the honour unto Mordecai and himself to the Gallows of his own setting up The Iews would void the Counsel of God by crucifying Iesus and in crucifying him they brought to pass what Gods hand and his Counsel had determined before to be done Act. 4. 28. They kill him lest the Romans should come and take away their Place and Nation Joh. 11. 48. And for this both were afterwards destroy'd by the Romans They will seal up the Sepulchre and set a watch of Souldiers to prevent his Disciples never intended design of taking their dead Master away by night and thereby they provide a strong Evidence of his Resurrection from the dead Let men do what they will or can God will make men know themselves to be but men and that it is not they but he that ruleth all things according to the pleasure of his Will His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and his Dominion throughout all generations Psal. 145. 13. When Devils and Men have done their worst it shall stand and therefore must his Counsel stand too whereby he ruleth and governeth all things without consulting men He putteth down one and setteth up another Psal. 75. 5. By him Kings reign and he giveth them sometimes for a Blessing and sometimes for a Scourge to the People If we would have them a Blessing there is no way but obedience and an absolute submission to Gods Will to procure that and if we have by our sins deserved the scourge no Devices or Counsels of men can prevent that God will be God and we should be thankful that we are Men and shew it by giving him a reasonable service and contenting our selves in keeping within our own compass We may easily break our hearts with our own devices but we can never frustrate Gods Counsel that shall stand Having thus very briefly run over the Doctrines of this Text for the confirmation of our faith we
Counsels as concentre not in the Will of God are vain and tend to no good issue but shall end in disappointment and vexation is so clear that though men are very hardly brought to make the right use of it yet is it impossible for them so long as they have any degree of reason above mere fools and children to deny it We shall at present consider but a few things to put this past all dispute 1. What we are and how little grounds of hope we can find in our selves 2. What other men are and what slender probability there is that either by their help or against their will we should effect our designs 3. What God is and how impossible it is to prevail against his Providence 1. Let us remember what we are Consider but in our selves the greatness of our ignorance and the weakness of our power and we shall easily be convinced of the vanity of our own devices 1. Our ignorance is such how great soever is the opinion we have of our own wit and policy that indeed we do not know our selves perfectly and much less our neighbours And yet we must know both before we can certainly say that this or that will fit either us or them Our hearts are very Labyrinths full of intricacies and windings and he is a wise man indeed that understands all the little secret corners of his own heart so well as to know exactly what will fit and fill them Again the nature of things is too much in the dark as to us we know but very little of it and what we seek being yet untryed by us we are very unfit to judge how suitable it will be unto us or whether any of those things which we think we now most need will fit us any better then what we have already yea suppose the best that the things which we so earnestly desire have something in them suitable to our wants and wishes yet may they also have much more against us and hurtful to us which we cannot yet discern at a distance but may feel afterwards to our sorrow Yet more so very changeable are both persons and things that what seemeth to us the best to day may seem as bad to morrow and what now if we had it would really be some ease to us to morrow may prove as great a grievance what might be now either Food or Physick may to morrow by some corruption in it or change of constitution in us be very little better than Poyson yea bodies politick change tempers as well as bodies natural and those very Laws which were with great wisdom at first enacted as the properest Medicines for curing the present diseases have in a very few years after upon this account been found a worse disease then the other Men are too short sighted to see what will be most suitable to another Age or perhaps to any considerable part of the present This our ignorance is therefore enough to teach us not to build any confident hopes on our own devices 2. But suppose our knowledge and skill were really as great as usually is the Politicians self-conceit yet must we needs confess that our strength is very little and how wisely soever we can devise and contrive we are too weak to bring about our own devices This will appear more fully anon tho indeed it is clear enough of it self Who can be so mad as to think he can do what he lists that he can over-rule providence controll the World and bring to pass all that he would have to be All which he must suppose himself able to do that can find cause in himself to hope he may accomplish the devices of his own heart Considering then our selves only all we can say is this Vain man would be wise Job 11. 12. But he is not so Mans goings are of the Lord how can a man then understand his own way Prov. 20. 24. Our eyes are too bad to see our arms are too weak to work what is best for our selves or the World no hope can we have in our selves alone 2. And therefore next let us think what other men are This consideration will make it appear a very improbable thing for any one single man or indeed for any one Party or Faction of men to be able to bring about their own devices Do we suppose these men to be our friends Are they at present our Complices or Partners Or suppose we them our Enemies and such as appear Adversaries to our designs Or lastly are they likly to sit Neuters Which of these soever they be they give us little encouragement This only we are sure of they are men and but men they are therefore subject to the same infirmities as we our selves are they are unknown they are mutable they have peculiar interests of their own they are all subject to the same overruling Power Are they in Appearance our friends Who can know whether they be so indeed Who knows whether they will prove firm and faithful to our Counsels Are we sure that their hearts are as our hearts that we may safely give them our hands and take them up into the secrets of our Bosomes Whatever they be now can we tell whether they will be the same to morrow Can we tell what the temptations of one day what the very fears and jealousies covetous or ambitious desires of their own hearts yea what the terrors of a nights dream may bring forth He that dares too confidently trust his own heart is but a fool how much more is he so that dares trust anothers If they joyn really with us now in our murmurings discontents and dislikes of that which is are we sure that they joyn also as cordially in our desires and wishes and that the future variance and disagreement of minds about that which we would have shall not breed more confusion and far greater inconveniences unto us all then the very worst of those things we now concur to oppose and remove Are these men our Enemies and such as are like to oppose our designs And are we then sure that we are equal or superiour to them in strength Or if we be are we also as sure that they are not our overmatch in policy or interest Have not they devices of their own as well as we And are they not as much in love with their own devices as we can be with ours And will they not venture as far to accomplish their designs Have they not interests of their own And shall they not be as zealous to promote them As impatient of all opposition to or attempts against them Is the party we oppose but small and inconsiderable And can we know how soon it will encrease either by the accession of others who will not shew themselves till necessity call them forth or by the revolt of some other of our own Or know we how many distinct parties there may be whose designs are as inconsistent with ours
Confusions yet fresh in our Memories into which he had formerly brought us to keep alive our Jealousies on all hands of one another so that at this day mutual suspicions and ill opinions keep us at as great a distance in the days of Peace as Pikes and Musquets did in the time of War Still we are in Sides and Parties devising how to supplant and ruine each other The remembrance of former days unhappily fomenting and hightening our suspicions and jealousies to that degree that we seem rather the Laughing-stock then the terrour of our Enemies and Rome it self cannot chuse but laugh within it self to see us so industrious in doing her work for her and by our contentions and separations making an open way for that very evil which men pretend above all others to be afraid of And now seeing we have been at so much pains in assisting our professed Enemies to destroy us what can we imagine could have all this while preserved us against all those devilish devices that have been hatch'd both abroad and amongst our selves at home to undo us but that great and good God alone who overruleth all the devices of men who sitteth in the Heavens above all Powers who saith to the Sea Hitherto shall thou come but no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed Job 38. 11. The Lord reigneth let the earth be glad thereof let the Multitude of the Isles be glad thereof Psal. 97. 1. This Isle may be glad thereof He is great in Zion he is high above all People Psal. 99. 2. His right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the Victory Psal. 98. 1. It is his right hand and not our Sword his wise Counsel not our Policy his wonderful goodness and least of any thing our righteousness that preserveth us in safety Except the Lord build the house all our Builders shall labour but in vain we shall quickly with our own hands pull it down upon our heads Except the Lord keep the City all our Watchmen shall wake in vain our own devices our own sins will be sure to fire all and we shall soon be like to Sodom and Gomorrha Therefore not unto us not unto us but unto the Lord alone let us ascribe the honour and the glory of our preservation and all the wonderful deliverances which he and he alone hath given unto our gracious King and this whole Kingdom in him It is only because his Counsel always stands unmoveable and cannot change that our own devices have not long e're this utterly ruined us or that the manifold devices of our Enemies have not prevailed against us 2. As we are instructed hence to attribute all our past Mercies and Deliverancies to the goodness of God who alone could disappoint the devices of men against us so are we hence also taught how both at present and for the time to come to behave our selves towards God let the times prove never so troublesome to us by reason of the restless devices of men We must always be sure to bear in mind and fix immoveably upon this one point that the Counsel of the Lord is altogether unchangeable one and the same for ever and shall undoubtedly stand for a Law to us and for a Barr against every thing that can be devised by men against us not agreeable unto it Conclude we certainly that the Lord he is God and will be so maugre all the devices of Fools that say in their heart there is no God That he will alway govern the World by his own Will and confound the wicked in their own devices That all things being ordered by him must needs be wisely ordered and therefore as no device of man is permitted by him but in wisdom so of his goodness he will either confound these devices in his own time or by them accomplish his own Wise Counsel to the destruction of his Enemies and the good of his Church and faithful Servants All things shall work together for good to them that love him Rom. 8. 28. Let therefore our Behaviour be alway such as becometh the faithful Subjects of the Great God and King of all the World and our business as we are such is pure obedience to the Laws of his Kingdom and not to help him to rule and order things by our Wisdom as tho he could stand in need of our devices or had thought good to make us of his Great Counsel Let us mind our Duty in attending to and executing cheerfully his Commands and not intermeddle with that which is properly his work any otherwise then he himself shall give to any of us Authority to Act under him Unto some he hath given his Commission to Act and Rule his People under him and for him By his Wisdom Kings Reign and Princes decree Iustice Prov. 8. 15. The Powers that be are of God He hath put a Sword into their hand and they bear not that Sword in vain Rom. 13. And they that will not stand in awe of it deserve to feel it He hath also set some in the Church 1 Cor. 12. 28. And hath made them Overseers over his Flock to feed it Act. 20. 28. And we are commanded to obey them that have the Rule over us and watch for our Souls Heb. 13. 17. These are God's Commission'd Officers put in Authority under him and over us and as they are to do their own duties in their several places towards God whose Servants they are and to whom they must give an account as well as we so can they not do their duty unto him but by governing us and using all such means as he hath ordered or allowed to keep us in due subjection both unto God and them and to see as much as is in them that we do our duties too Let no devices therefore of other men out of whatsoever School they come perswade or provoke us either to follow theirs or set up new devices of our own against this certain Will of God or to cast off the Yoke of Christ by our restless endeavours to free our selves from the Yoke of Men. We cannot be Christs Subjects if we will be our own Masters It is just that he assign to each Servant in his Family his proper work and call them to account as he shall please if we shall arrogate to our selves a right of Judging them whom he hath set to Judge us we place our selves in his Throne and usurp his Prerogative which is the highest Treason against the King of Kings and can we think that such shall go unpunished by him Let our condition be never so uneasie let our Grievances be never so many let our sufferings be never so great let us be sure to keep in mind what we are and whose we are and what is our Business to do We are not Gods nor Lawgivers to our selves but Men under his command that made us and redeemed us We are not our own but his that bought us with a price 1