was necessary to establish a more general Communication among mankind which is the most effectual means to spread a Wholesome as well as a Pestilential Contagion And since Commerce and Traffick was not so general in those days as it is now there was no such ready way to do this as by Force of Arms which united a great many Kingdoms and Nations into one which besides all other advantages conveyed the knowledge of all memorable Actions into all parts of the Empire Now in the beginning of these great Empires for tho the Assyrian Monarchy began long before yet Nebuchadnezzar was the Golden Head of that Image which represented the Four Monarchies God carried Iudah Captive into Babylon and thereby made himself known to be the Supreme and Sovereign Lord of the world over all the Babylonish Empire The first occasion God took to make himself known in Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar's Dream which he had forgot and none of the Magicians or Astrologers or Sorcerers of Chaldaeans could shew the King his Dream much less tell him the Interpretation of it but Daniel did both which made Nebuchadnezzar acknowledge to Daniel Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets since thou couldst reveal this secret 2. Dan. 47. And this advanced Daniel to great Authority for the King made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief of the governors over all the Wise men of Babylon And we need not doubt but he used his Authority especially among the Wise-men of Babylon who had the greatest influence upon others to propagate the knowledge of the One Supreme God among them In the Reign of the same King God magnified his Power in the Preservation of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego from the Fiery Furnace which occasioned a Decree that gave great advantage to the Iews and disposed all men to think very honourably of their God That every people nation and language which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abed-nego 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 3. Dan. 28 29. And that experience Nebuchadnezzar had of the Power and Justice of God in his own person extorted from him as devout Praises of God and as Orthodox a Confession of his Faith in him as any Iew could have made 4 Dan. Thus in the Reign of Belshazzar who with his Princes his Wives and Concubines drank Wine out of the Golden Vessels of the Temple God gave a Glorious Testimony to himself by a Hand-writing on the Wall which as Daniel expounded it and the Event that very Night confirmed foretold the immediate Overthrow of his Empire by the Medes and Persians This was a very sudden Vengeance for their Idolatrous Revels and the Profanation of the Holy Vessels of the Temple as Daniel very freely acquainted the King 5 Dan. And tho his Advancement by Belshazzar who made him the Third Ruler in the Kingdom was but of a very short continuance the King being slain that Night yet it so recommended him to Darius who began the Second Monarchy of the Medes and Persians that he advanced Daniel to the same or greater Honour and Power he being made the first of the Three Presidents who had the Government of the Hundred and Twenty Princes whom Darius set over the whole Kingdom In the beginning of this New Monarchy God gave a fresh Demonstration of his Power in delivering Daniel from the Lyons Den for which reason Darius made a Decree That in every dominion of his kingdom men fear and tremble before the God of Daniel 6. Dan. 25 26 27. So that by the Captivity of Iudah God made himself known over all the Babylonian and Persian Monarchy and this disposed Cyrus the Seventy Years of their Captivity being accomplished to give them liberty to return into their own Country and to publish a Decree for the Rebuilding the City and Temple of Ierusalem But still to preserve the knowledge of God among them the Divine Providence so ordered it that when all had liberty to return great numbers stayed behind in Babylon where they freely professed and exercised their Religion which together with the Civil Dependance of the Iewish State on the Persian Monarchy preserved a constant Correspondence and Intercourse between them and that preserved the knowledge of the Iews and of their God The Grecian Empire which put an end to the Persian made the God of the Iews still more known to the world Alexander the Great came to Ierusalem treated the Iews with great kindness consulted the Records of their Prophets offered Sacrifices to God and not only confirmed their old but granted new Privileges to them And thus God became known not only to the Babylonian and Persian but to the Grecian Monarchy And when after Alexander's Death the Empire was divided this caused a new dispersion of the Iews especially into Syria and Egypt Ptolomy the King of Egypt having surprized Ierusalem carried great Numbers of them into Egypt and having entertained a kind opinion of them there employed them in his Armies and Garisons and made them Citizens of Alexandria his Son Ptolomy Philadelphus procured the Translation of their Law into Greek which was a new Publication of their Religion and after this Onias Built a Temple in Egypt in all things like to that of Ierusalem where they Worshipped God according to the Rites of the Jewish Law that God was now as much known in Egypt as he was in Iudaea And to let pass a great many other things which contributed very much to propagate the knowledge of the God of Israel in the World To compleat all the Power and Oppressions of the Assyrian Monarchs forced the Iews to pray the Alliance and Assistance of the Romans which ended as such powerfull Alliances very often do in their Subjection to the Roman Powers who first Governed them by Kings and Tetrarchs and at last reduced them into a Roman Province And thus the Iews and their God and their Religion became known over all the Roman Empire These Four successive Monarchies did gradually encrease and spread the knowledge of One Supream God over all the World and thereby prepared the way for the Kingdom of the Messias that Kingdom which the Prophet Daniel tells us the God of heaven would set up which should never be destroyed 2. Dan. 44. For the better to understand this we must observe that though the knowledge of God made no publick Reformation of the Pagan Idolatries yet it greatly disposed men to receive the Gospel when it should be Preached to them it visibly reformed their Philosophy and gave them the Notion of One Supreme Being as is evident from the Poets and Philosophers of those Ages though they still Worshipped their Countrey gods it gave them some obscure knowledge of the Iewish Prophecies concerning the Kingdom of the Messias
and in annexing such rewards and punishments to the observation or to the breach of these Laws as may reasonably invite him to obedience and deter him from sin and as this degenerate state requires in laying such external restraints on him and affording him such internal assistances of Grace as the Divine Wisdom sees proportioned to the weakness and corruption of Human Nature and when this is done it becomes God to leave him to his own choice and to reward or punish him as he deserves for a forced Vertue deserves no Reward and a necessity of sinning will reasonably excuse from Punishment The nature of a reasonable Creature of Vertue and Vice of Rewards and Punishments represent it as very becoming the Wisdom and Justice of God to leave every man to the freedom of his own choice to do good or evil to deserve Rewards or Punishments as far as he himself is only concerned in it But when we consider man in Society the case is altered for when the good or evil of their actions extend beyond themselves to do good or hurt to other men the Providence of God becomes concerned either to hinder or to permit and order it as may best serve the Wise Ends of Government as those other men who are like to be the better or the worse for it have deserved well or ill of God Tho God has made man a free Agent yet we must not think that he has made such a Creature as he himself can't govern No man doubts but that God can when he pleases by an Irresistible Power turn mens hearts and chain up their Passions and alter their Counsels the only Question is When it is fit for God to do this And no man can question the fitness of it when the good Government of the world requires it God makes no man good or bad vertuous or vicious by a perpetual and irresistible force for this contradicts the nature of Vertue and Vice which requires a Freedom and Liberty of Choice but God may by a secret and irresistible influence upon mens minds even force them to do that good which they have no inclination to do and restrain them from doing that evil which otherwise they would have done which does not make them Good men but makes them the Instruments of Providence in doing good to men and God who is the Soveraign Lord of all Creatures may when he sees fit press those men if I may so speak to his Service who would not do good upon choice This shows the difference between the Government of Grace and Providence the first has relation to Vertue and Vice to make men good to change their Natures and sinful Inclinations into habits of Vertue and therefore admits of no greater force than what is consistent with the freedom of Choice and the nature of Virtue and Vice but the Government of Providence respects the external Happiness or Misery Rewards or Punishments of Men or Nations and to this purpose God may use what Instruments he pleases and exercise such Authority over Nature or Men as is necessary to accomplish his own Wise Counsels of Mercy or Judgment And it was necessary to premise this distinction because the confounding these two has occasioned great difficulties and mistakes both in the Doctrine of Grace and Providence Let us then now more particularly consider How God governs Mankind so as to make them the Instruments and Ministers of his Providence in the world The Methods of the Divine Wisdom are Infinite and Unsearchable and we must not expectfully to comprehend all the Secrets and Mysteries of God's Government but something we may know of this enough to teach us to reverence God and to trust in him and to vindicate his Providence from the Cavils of Ignorance and Infidelity which is as much as is useful for us to know And I shall reduce what I have to say to Two General Heads 1. The Government of mens Minds of their Wills their Passions and Counsels 2. The Government of their Actions 1. God's Government of the Minds of Men their Wills and Passions and Counsels for these are the great Springs of Action and as free a Principle as the Mind of man is it is not ungovernable it may be governed and that without an Omnipotent Power against its own Byas and without changing its inclinations and what may be done certainly God can do and when it is necessary to the Ends of Providence we may conclude he will do it Let a man be never so much bent upon any Project yet hope or fear some present great advantage or great inconvenience the powerful intercession of Friends a sudden change of circumstances the improbability of success the irreparable mischief of a defeat and a thousand other considerations will divert him from it and how easie is it for God to imprint such thoughts upon mens minds with an irresistible Vigor and Brightness that it shall be no more in their power to do what they had a mind to than to resist all the Charms of Riches and Honours than to leap into the Fire and to chuse Misery and Ruin That thus it is the Scripture assures us 21. Prov. 1. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of waters he turneth it whither soever he will And if the King's heart be in the hand of the Lord we cannot doubt but he hath all other mens hearts in his hand also and can turn and change them as he pleases Thus the Wise man tells us A man's heart deviseth his ways but the Lord directeth his steps 16. Prov. 9. Men consult and advise what to do but after all God steers and directs them which way he pleases for tho there are many devices in a man's heart nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand 19. Prov. 21. Which made the Wise man conclude Mans goings are of the Lord how then shall a man understand his own ways 20. Prov. 24. That is God has such an Absolute Government of the hearts and actions of men when his Providence is concerned in the Event that no man can certainly know what he himself shall chuse and do for God can in an instant alter his mind and make him steer a very different course from what he intended as the Prophet Ieremiah assures us I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps 10. Jer 23. And Solomon tells us something more strange than this The preparation of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. 16. Prov. 1. or as the Hebrew seems to signifie the preparation of the heart is from man a man premeditates and resolves what he will say but notwithstanding that the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. When he comes to speak he shall say nothing but what God pleases Which sayings must not be expounded to an universal sense that it is always thus but that
Protection what little reason we have to be afraid of men whatever their Power how furious soever their Passions are how vain it is to trust in men and to depend on their favour for they can neither do good nor hurt but as they are directed by God and therefore he alone must be the Supreme Object of our Fear and Trust If God be for us who can be against us If we make him our Enemy who can save us out of his hands So that we have but one thing to take care of and we are safe Let us make God our Friend and he will raise us up Friends and Patrons and Protectors will deliver us out of the hands of our Enemies or make our Enemies to be at peace with us Secondly Having thus explained God's government of Causes let us now consider his government of Events And I think it will be easily granted me That if all those Causes by which all Events are brought to pass are governed by God God must also have the Absolute Government of all Events in his own hands But yet the government of Causes and of Events are of a very different consideration and to represent this as plainly and familiarly as I can I shall 1. shew you What I mean by Events when I attribute the government of all Events to God 2. Wherein God's government of Events consists 3. The Difference between God's Absolute government of all Events and Necessity and Fate 4. That the Exercise of a particular Providence consists in the government of all Events 1. What I mean by Events Now every thing that is done may in a large sense be called an Event and is in some degree or other under the government of Providence as all the actions of men are but when I speak of God's government of Events I mean only such Events as are in Scripture called God's doings as being ordered and appointed by him that is to say all the good or evil which happens to private men or to Kingdoms and Nations in this world Every thing that is done is not God's doing for there is a great deal of evil every day committed which God does not order and appoint to be done but has expresly forbid the doing of it but there is no good or evil which happens to any man or to any Society of men but what God orders and appoints for them and this is God's government of all Events This is the proper exercise of Providence to allot all men their Fortunes and Conditions in the world to dispense Rewards and Punishments to take care that no man shall receive either good or evil but from the Hand and by the Appointment of God this is the Subject of all the Disputes about the Justice and Goodness and Wisdom of Providence and all the Objections against Providence necessarily suppose that thus it is or thus it ought to be if God governs the world For unless Providence be concerned to take care that no men be happy or miserable but as they deserve which cannot be without the Absolute Government of all Events the prosperity of bad men and the sufferings of the good the many miseries that are in the world and the uncertain changes and turnings of Fortune can be no Objection against Providence And indeed were not this the case Providence would be so insignificant a Name that it would not be worth the while to dispute for or against it for a Providence which neither can do us good nor hurt or which cannot always and in all cases do it is worth nothing or worth no more than it can do good or hurt And therefore all the good or evil which does or can befal Men or Kingdoms is in Scripture attributed to Providence and promised or threatned by God as men shall deserve either such as Length of Days or a sudden and untimely Death Health or Sickness Honour or Disgrace Riches or Poverty Plenty or Famine War or Peace the changing Times and Seasons the removing Kings and setting up Kings and with respect to all such Events as these whatever the immediate Causes of them be God is said to do whatsoever pleaseth him 2dly But we shall better understand this by enquiring into the Nature of God's Government Now God's Government of Events consists in ordering and appointing whatever good or evil shall befal men for according to the Scripture we must attribute such a Government to God as makes all these Events his Will and Doing and nothing can be his Will and Doing but what he Wills and Orders Some men think it enough to say That God permits every thing that is done but will by no means allow that God Wills and Orders and Appoints it which they are afraid will charge the Divine Providence with all the evil that is done in the world and truly so it would did God order and appoint the evil to be done but tho God orders and appoints what evils every man shall suffer he orders and appoints no man to do the evil he only permits some men to do mischief and appoints who shall suffer by it which is the short Resolution of this Case To attribute the evils which some men suffer from other mens sins merely to Gods Permission is to destroy the Government of Providence for bare Permission is not Government and those evils which God permits but does not order cannot be called his will and doing and if this be the case of all the evils we suffer from other mens sins most of the evils which men suffer befal them without God's Will and Appointment and yet to attribute all the evil which men do to God's Order and Appointment is to destroy the Holiness of Providence and therefore we must necessarily distinguish between the evils men do and the evils they suffer the first God Permits and Directs the second he Orders and Appoints How God governs men hearts and actions I have already explained and this is the place to consider God's Permission of Evil for Permission relates to actions Mens own wicked hearts conceive and form wicked designs and they execute them by God's Permission but no man suffers by them but by God's Appointment God's Care of his creatures requires that no man should suffer any thing but what God orders for him and if such sufferings be just and righteous how wicked soever the Causes be it is no reproach to Providence to order and appoint them Suppose a man have forfeited his Life or Estate or Reputation to Providence or tho he have made no Criminal Forfeiture of it yet God sees fit for other Wise Reasons to remove him out of the world or to reduce him to Poverty and Contempt is it any fault in Providence to deliver such a man into the hands of Murderers Oppressors Slanderers who are very forward to execute such Decrees when Providence takes off the restraint and sets them at liberty to follow their own lusts And when there are so many that deserve
had so grievously oppressed Israel that God was resolved to punish them for it And therefore he sent Moses to inflict a great many Miraculous Judgments on them not intending thereby to convince Pharaoh who had hardened himself against the power of Miracles to convince him and whom he had resolved to destroy but only to lay Egypt waste and to take a signal Vengeance upon that Cruel Persecutor by overthrowing him and his Host in the Red Sea And therefore he so ordered the execution of these Judgments that the hardened heart of Pharaoh should grow more hardened by them Thus when God had determined to cut off Ahab as his grievous Sins had long before deserved he intended to harden him to go up to Ramoth Gilead and fall there and for that purpose suffered a lying Spirit to enter into his Prophets to encourage the King in that Fatal Expedition and as God had foretold they did prevail against Micaiah the Prophet of the Lord who plainly told him that he should fall in it 1 Kings 22. Thus when God was so provoked with the Sins of Iudah that he had resolved to deliver them into the hands of the Chaldaeans who should destroy their City and Temple and carry them captive to Babylon he pronounced this hardening Sentence on them Go and tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed What this means ye shall hear more hereafter all that I observe at present is That this Sentence was not pronounced against them till God had resolved to carry them into captivity and to lay their City and Countrey desolate as the Prophet tells us in the next Verse Then said I Lord how long And he answered until the cities be wasted without Inhabitants and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate 6. Isaiah 9 10 11. And this was the state of the Iews in our Saviour's days when God had determined the final destruction of the Iewish Nation their City Temple and Polity for their great Sin in crucifying their Messias as Christ tells us 23. Matth. 37 38 39. O Ierusalem Ierusalem Thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate For I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord 19. Luke 41 42 43 44. And when he came near he beheld the city and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another Because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation Now with respect to this final Sentence which God had pronounced against them though he delayed the execution of it for forty years St. Paul applies to them the Case of a hardened Pharaoh whom God spared also a great while as he did them though he had determined to destroy him by a signal overthrow to shew his power and that his name might be declared throughout all the earth And there was no reason to quarrel with God though he delayed to destroy them for some years after he had determined to destroy them to make them also a more remarkable Example of a just Vengeance and more glorious Power What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endureth with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction That is delays for many years the Execution of those whom he has decreed to destroy for their great sins by an irreversible Sentence For such only are the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction 9. Rom. 17 22. And for the same reason he applies to them the Prophesy of Isaiah concerning the judicial blindness and deafness of the Iewish Nation when God had determined to deliver them into the hands of the King of Babylon which was a Prophesy of them also and received its full accomplishment in the final destruction of Ierusalem by the Romans 28. Acts 26 27. So that it is plain from all these Examples and I know no Example in all the Scripture to the contrary that God never hardens men till he has first determined to punish or to destroy them And I shall only add That this hardening which is the effect of God's Decree to punish or to destroy relates only to some Temporal Evils and Calamities which God intends to bring on them not to the Eternal Miseries of the next world God is never said to harden any men that he may eternally damn them that is wholly owing to their own hard and impenitent hearts but God does sometimes harden men in order to take a more exemplary Vengeance on them in this world which serves the wise Ends of Providence and makes his Power and Glory known 2dly This will more evidently appear if we consider That God is never said to harden any men in sin but he only hardens and confirms them in such Ruinous Counsels as will bring that destruction on them which God has ordained and determined for them They harden themselves in sin and make it wise and just for God to punish or destroy them and when God resolves to do so then sometimes he hardens them in such Courses as will bring a Terrible Vengeance on them I need instance only in the Case of Pharaoh which is the most express Text we have for God's hardening men Now what did God harden Pharaoh in Did he harden him against believing Moses and those Miracles which he wrought in the Name and by the Power of the God of Israel No such matter there is no such thing said but he hardened him not to let the People go Pharaoh hardened himself against believing Moses and the Miracles he wrought against owning and submitting to the Power and Sovereign Authority of the God of Israel though when he felt the Judgments inflicted on him they were so uneasy as to make him relent and to promise to send Israel away But his great concernment was how to keep Israel and to get rid of these Plagues and his firm Resolution was never to part with Israel as long as he had any hopes that he might keep them safely Now though it was indeed a very great evil to disbelieve Moses and to disobey God's Command attested and confirmed by
and desolation of his Countrey much less that he should have pursued them into the Red Sea whose fluid Walls threatned him with immediate destruction And this I take to be that blindness which God threatens against Iudah 6. Isaiah 9 10. Go and tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed For here is a double blindness taken notice of in the Text one which they brought upon themselves another which God threatens to inflict on them They did hear but not understand they did see but not perceive that is They stopt their own ears and shut their own eyes against all the Adomonitions and Reproofs of God's Prophets For thus our Saviour expounds it as their own act and wilful voluntary blindness 13. Matth. 14 15. And in them is fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah for a Prophesy it was as it concerned the Iews in our Saviour's days though it was a description of the actual deafness and blindness of the Iews in the Prophet's days which saith By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive For this peoples heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them And thus St. Paul represents it 28. Acts 26 27. This is their sinful blindness and deafness which is wholly owing to themselves and for the punishment of which God threatens them with a penal and judicial blindness For when God commands the Prophet to make their heart fat and their ears heavy and to shut their eyes it can signify nothing else but his passping a final Decree and Sentence of Blindness and Deafness on them Not such a Blindness as should betray them to and harden them in sin God may leave men in such a state of Blindness when they have wilfully blinded and hardened themselves but he never inflicts it But such a Blindness as would betray them into that ruin and destruction whcih God had so justly decreed for them For this Blindness and Deafness which was inflicted on them in the Prophet's days was in order to their Captivity in Babylon and the destruciton of their City and Temple by the Chaldaeans that in our Saviour's days was in order to their final destruction by the Romans and our Saviour tells us what kind of Blindness was inflicted on them that the things belonging to their peace which would preserve their Nation from being destroyed were now hid from their eyes 19. Luke 42 And the Story verifies this For certainly never was there a greater infatuation upon any People than upon the Iews at both times who forced both the Chaldaeans and Romans to destroy them whether they would or no and when they intended no such thing And many Examples there are of such a judicial Blindness and Infatuation in every Age of the world There are seldom any great and remarkable Calamities which befall any persons especially Nations but By-standers see how they undo themselves by their own stupid wilfulness and folly As has been long since observed Quos perdere vult Iupiter Prius dementat That God first blinds and infatuates those whom he intends to destroy And this is what the Scripture means by hardening mens hearts and blinding their eyes as I hope appears from what I have now discoursed and no man has any reason to quarrel either with the Justice or Holiness of God upon this account But we have all great reason to take warning by these Examples lest we provoke God so long by our sins by our own wilful blindness and hardness that he inflict this judicial Blindness on us that he shut our eyes not to see the things that belong to our peace whcih we have so many sad symptoms of already among us that it is time to take warning Nothing can be more just than for God to harden those men to their own ruin who harden themselves against his fear So to blind those who will not see nor regard their Duty as to mistake their Interest too And the only way to prevent such a judicial Hardness and Infatuation is to reverence God to have respect to all his Commandments in the first place to take care of our Duty and then to commit our ways unto the Lord in a secure dependance on his Providence There are several other Texts of Scripture alledged to this purpose to charge God with the sins of men but they will receive a shorter Answer As 2dly Those Texts which ascribe what is done by the sins of men to God's doing But the Answer to this is plain for God can and does bring to pass a great many wise and holy Designs by the sins of men without being the Author of their sins and it is only the Event which is attributed to God not the Sin whereby such Events are brought to pass This will appear at the first view by considering some of these Texts Ioseph's Brethren sold him to the Ishmaelites who carried him into Egypt where God advanced him to Pharaoh's Throne Ioseph tells his Brethren That though they sold him it was God that sent him before them into Egypt to preserve their lives So now it was not you that sent me hither but God 45. Gen. 5 7 8. Ioseph does not say That it was from God that his Brethren sold him this was their own Act and all the wickedness of it was their own but it was God who sent him into Egypt which his Brethren never thought of nor intended their only concern being to get rid of him and when God did that which they never intended to do that may well be said to be God's doings who permitted their wickedness and made use of it to accomplish his own wise Counsels as he tells his Brethren As for you ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive 50. Gen. 20. When Iob was plundered by the Sabaeans and Chaldaeans he attributes it to God The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away 1. Job 21. And so must all men say who believe a Providence that all the good or evil that happens to us in this world whoever be the immediate Instruments of it is ordered and disposed by God but Iob does not therefore attribute the wickedness of the Sabaeans and the Chaldaeans to God as if God could not govern and over-rule the wickedness of Men and Devils without being the Author of their wickdness When David had committed that great sin in defiling Vriah 's Wife and contriving his murther God threatens
Ham which would quickly have endangered as general a corruption of Mankind as there was before the Flood Let us then consider what Course God took to prevent this and the excellent wisdom of it which we have an account of 11. Genes 7 8. That God confounded their language so that they could not understand one another's speech and by this means scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city Now not to take notice that this was the most ready way to people the whole Earth even the remotest Corners of it which was for the great good of Mankind found them work to do forced them upon the invention of Ingenious Arts and by the benefit of Trade and Commerce made every Country which was not wanting to it self a little World and every part to enjoy all the pleasures and advantages of the whole I say besides this it was the most likely way that could be used at that time to prevent the Universal Corruption of Mankind For 1. This separated the Families of Sem and Iaphet from the Family of Ham where the Infection was already begun and would have spread apace by the advantage of Power and Empire When Cain had slain his Brother Abel God sent him away out of Adam's Family that his presence and Example might do no hurt and if by the daughters of men in 6. Genes we understand as some good Expositors do those who descended of Cain and by the sons of God the Posterity of Seth in whose Family the Worship of the True God was preserved we may observe that Moses dates the general Corruption of Mankind from the union of these two Families When the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and took them wives of all which they chose And had the Universal Empire been established in the Family of Ham and the Posterity of Sem and Iaphet been brought into subjection to them as they must in a short time have been what less could have been expected from such a Union and Government but another Antediluvian corruption of all Flesh This dispersion then was necessary to prevent a general Corruption but we see in the Example of Cain that a meer local separation is no security for they may come together again as the Sons of God and the Daughters of men in process of time did And therefore 2dly The most lasting dispersion and separation is by a confusion of Languages which hinders all intercourse and communication at least till there be a remedy found against it by learning each other's Language which was a work of time and was never likely to be so general as to be the means of a common intercourse This effectually divided them at first and would always keep Nations divided till Foreign Arms should give new Laws and a new Language to a Conquered People 3dly I observe farther That the more divisions of Languages were made and the greater the dispersion was the greater security was it against a general Corruption which is a reason not only for separating the Family of Ham from the Families of Sem and Iaphet but for separating them from each other and dividing them into smaller Bodies For the more Divisions there are whatever part were infected the less could the Corruption spread when there was no communication between them 4thly This also divided Mankind into several little Independent Monarchies under the government of the Heads of their several Families which kept all Mankind under a stricter government than if the whole world had been one great Empire which would have proved a Tyrannical Domination but could have taken little care of the Manners of Subjects especially if the Government it self was corrupt the whole world must be corrupt with it But when so many distinct Societies were formed this gave them distinct Interests and made their Laws and Customs the very humour and genius of the People so different from each other as would keep them distinct And this would necessarily occasion mutual Emulations and Jealousies to rival their Neighbours in Riches and Power and this cannot be done without wise Laws and a strict Discipline and the encouragement of Labour and Industry of liberal Arts and all social Vertues and the suppression of such Vices as weaken Government and emasculate mens Spirits This effect we know in a great measure it had as we learn from the most early Accounts of the Graecian Commonwealths where we meet with so many excellent Laws and such great Examples of Frugality Temperance Fortitude and a generous love of their Country which may in a great measure be attributed to their mutual Emulations which taught them prudence and justice at home and abroad and forced on them the exercise of many Civil and Military Vertues It had indeed been more for the peace and quiet of the world that all Mankind had been but one People and one Kingdom without divided Interests and Governments but such a profound state of ease is apt to loosen the Rains of Government and to corrupt mens minds with sloth and luxury and therefore is no more fit for a corrupt and degenerate State than it would have been that the Earth should have brought forth Fruit of it self without Humane Labour and Industry But Jealousies and Emulations the necessity of defending themselves against Potent Neighbours or the ambition to equal or to outdo them restrains publick Vices and is a spur to Verture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is true this is the occasion of many Miseries to Mankind of all the Calamities and Desolations of War and therefore we must consider 5thly That this is so far from being an Objection against Providence while God keeps the Sword in his own hand that it is an admirable Instrument of Government and a signal demonstration of the Divine Wisdom God had promised that he would not again any more smite every living thing as he had done 8. Genes 21. And yet Mankind could not be governed without some restraints and punishments and it did not become God to punish Men and Nations as often as they deserved it by an immediate hand and what then could be more wisely designed than so to order it that if Men and Nations were wicked they should scourge and punish one another By this means God can chastise two wicked Nations by each other's Swords without destroying either He can so lessen their Numbers and exhaust their Treasures and impoverish their Countries as to force them to peace and to reduce them to a laborious and frugal life which will cure the wantonness and luxury of Plenty and Ease If a Nation be grown incurably wicked he can by this means destroy them without embroiling the rest of the world he can carry them captive into Foreign Countries or make them Slaves at home and subject them to the Yoke of a Conqueror who shall correct them and teach them better In a word The dispersion of
Supream God and of a Sovereign Providence than to see a whole Nation worshipping this one Supream God which at least would not suffer them to be wholly ignorant of such a Being but was a just reason to examine their natural Notions of a Deity and the Pretences of their several Gods Especially when they see this Nation planted in a particular Countrey allotted them by their God and the old wicked Inhabitants destroyed and driven out from before them by such a series of Miracles as were an undeniable Evidence of such a Divine Power as all the Gods of these Countries were not able to oppose And that this Nation received their Laws both for Worship and Polity and Conversation immediately from God were govern'd by men appointed by God and directed in all great Affairs by Divine Oracles and Prophets with such a certainty of event as never failed That while they adhered to the Worship of this One Supream God they were always prosperous as he promised they should be but when they declined to Idolatry and worshipped the Gods of the Countries round about them then they were either oppressed by their Enemies at home or carried captive into Foreign Countries This was a visible proof that there was a God in Israel and such a God as would admit of no other Gods nor allow them to worship any other but punished them severely whenever they did and all their other Gods could not help them nor deliver them out of his hands This gave sufficient notice to the World of the Glory and Power of the God Israel but some will still be apt to ask Why God did not as sensibly manifest himself to all the rest of the World as he did to Israel why he had not his Oracles and Prophets in other Nations and they may if they please as reasonably ask why he does not immediately inspire every particular man with a Supernatural Knowledge and force the Belief of his Being and Providence upon their Minds Or why he did not by a Miraculous Power convert the old wicked World but destroyed them all and preserved only that one Righteous Family which had escaped the general Corruption For much like this was the state of mankind with respect to Idolatry when God called Abraham out of Vr of the Chaldees there was not one Nation left that worshipped the One Supreme God and him only nay not one Family for Terah Abraham's Father was an Idolater and probably all the rest of the Family excepting Abraham for tho he be not expresly excepted in the Text yet neither is he necessarily included and God's commanding him to leave his Countrey and his Kindred and his Father's House and his ready Compliance with this Command is reason to believe that he was the only person in the Family who had preserved himself from all Idolatrous Worship However it appears that he was a man of that extraordinary Piety and Virtue and so easily curable if he had been an Idolater that God thought him the fittest Person to reveal himself to and to begin a new Reformation of the World And therefore as in the days of Noah God destroyed all that wicked Generation of men by the Flood and only preserved Noah and his Sons to new people the earth and to instil the Seeds and Principles of Piety and Virtue into their Posterity so the New world being now universally corrupted by Idolatry and God having promised Noah never again to destroy every living thing as he had done he takes another course and in a manner creates a new People to be the Worshippers of the One Supreme God and in them to make his own Glory and Power known to the World and chose Abraham a man of admirable Faith and Piety to be the Father of this new people which should descend from his loins in his Old Age not by the mere Powers of Nature but by Faith in God's Promise 11. Heb. 11 12. The plain state then of the Case is this When that new Generation of men had universally corrupted themselves with Idolatry notwithstanding all the means God had used to possess them with a lasting sense of his Being and Providence God gives them up to their wilful Blindness and leaves them to the Cheats and Impostures of those wicked Spirits whom they had made their Gods till he could recover them from this Apostacy by such Methods as were agreeable to Human Nature and became the Divine Wisdom The most effectual way to do this was to establish his Worship in some one Nation which should be a visible Proof both of the Unity of the Godhead and of a Divine Providence and because there was no such Nation then in the World he made a Nation on purpose and allotted them a Countrey to dwell in and signalized them by extraordinary Providences as the Worshippers of the One Supreme God This was a kind of a new beginning of the world which did not put an end to the Idolatrous World as Noah's Flood put an end to that wicked Generation but yet did propagate a new Generation of men in it who should in time put an end to that Universal Idolatry and make a new World of it And this is a new Advance the Divine Wisdom made towards the Recovery of Mankind When Adam had sinned he and his whole Posterity became mortal and were condemned to a laborious life that in the sweat of their brows they should eat their bread which was the best Preservative against the Temptations of Ease and Sloth and Luxury When notwithstanding this all flesh had corrupted his ways God destroyed that wicked Generation with an Universal Deluge and thereby gave a signal demonstration of his Power and Justice to the New World When this new Generation of men grew corrupt God confounded their Language and dispersed them over the face of the whole earth and formed them into distinct Bodies and Societies which prevented a general corruption of Manners taught them Civil Justice and many Moral Virtues which were necessary to the Support and Defence of Human Societies but when they all declined to Idolatry which would endanger a new and universal Corruption of Manners by those impure Ceremonies with which wicked Spirits would chuse to be worshipped some new and more effectual means were to be used to cure this evil The Universal Deluge and the Confusion of Languages had so abundantly convinced them of a Divine Power and Providence that there was no such Creature as an Atheist known among them till their ridiculous Idolatries in worshipping the meanest Creatures and Viler men with ludicrous or abominable Rites tempted some men of Wit and Thought rather to own no God than such Gods as the Heathens worshipped but tho these extraordinary Events were a manifest Proof of a Divine Power and Providence yet it seems they were not thought so express and direct a Proof of the Unity of the Godhead at least not a sufficient Argument against the Worship of Inferior Deities
whom they supposed intrusted with the immediate Care of particular Countries And how could God give a more sensible demonstration to the world That he would not allow the paying Divine Honours to any but himself than by raising up a new People distinguished and separated from all the rest of the world by the sole Worship of the One Supreme God and owned by him for his peculiar People by as distinguishing Providences for this not only proves a Divine Power and Providence but that there is but One God whom we ought to worship And this may satisfy us That God is not so partial in his Favours as to prefer one Nation before all the rest of Mankind for they were no Nation nor People when God chose them for God entred into Covenant with Abraham and his Seed when there was none but himself but when all the rest of the world were Idolaters God promised to multiply Abraham's Seed into a great Nation and to make them his own peculiar People that is he made a New People and Nation in great kindness to mankind to preserve the Knowledge and Worship of the One Supreme God and by degrees to extirpate Idolatry out of the World But besides this it was one of the peculiar Privileges of the Iews That to them were committed the Oracles of God and it is certain it was for the great good of the world that these Divine Oracles a System of Laws both for Religious Worship and Civil Conversation should be deposited somewhere for their Idolatry did every day corrupt the Manners of men and was likely in time to destroy all the Natural Notions of Good and Evil which made a Written Law necessary from whence men might learn their Duty whenever they pleased and it is evident these Laws could be given to no other People but the Iews who alone acknowledged and worshipped the One Supreme God For it is not to be conceived That God should give Laws to Idolaters who did not own and worship him for their God or that they should receive Laws from him And tho these Laws were immediately given only to the Iews because there was no other Nation at that time which owned and worshipped the One Supreme God yet as the Knowledge and Worship of God prevailed in the world so these Laws would be of more universal use as we see it is even to this day Nay even while Idolatry prevailed the Writings of Moses and the Prophets very much reformed the Pagan Philosophy gave them better Notions of God and of Religious Worship and more Divine Rules of Life as is visible in the Philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato who are generally thought to have learnt some of their best Notions from their Conversation with Iewish Priests But yet the Question is not What use the World did make of this But What use they might have made of it And whether as the state of the world then was any thing could be more wisely designed than to preserve the Knowledge and Worship of the One True God and a System of Divine Laws in a Nation raised up on purpose to season the world and to preserve it from an universal Apostacy But God had a more glorious Design than all this in entring into Covenant with Abraham and chusing his Seed for his peculiar People He had promised That the seed of the woman should break the serpents head which contains the Promise of the Messias who in the fulness of time was to appear in the world to destroy the works of the Devil And this is the Covenant which God made with Abraham That in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed It was not fitting that the Messias and Saviour of the World should descend from Idolaters and that when he came into the world he should find no Worshippers of the One Supreme God in it and therefore God entred into Covenant with Abraham who seems to have been the only Man of that Age who was free from Idolatry and promises to multiply his Seed and to preserve his Name and Worship among them and that the Messias should descend from his Loins And if we consider what necessary Preparations were required for the coming of the Messias and for his reception in the world when he should appear it will satisfy us how wisely this was designed by God The Appearance of the Son of God in the world was very surprizing and it could not be thought that any one who made such Pretences should find credit unless the world had before-hand been prepared to expect him and had some Infallible Marks and Characters whereby to know him when he came And this was the principal end of all the Types and Figures and Prophesies of the Law to contain the Promises and Predictions of the Messias and the Characters whereby to know him The Temple it self and the whole Temple-Worship was little more than Types and Figures of Christ of his Incarnation or living among men in an Earthly Tabernacle of his Priesthood and Sacrifice his Death and Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven there to intercede for us at God's Right Hand as the High-Priest entred once a Year into the Holy of Holies Now this could not have been done had not the One Supreme God had a Temple and Priesthood and Sacrifices on earth that is a People peculiarly devoted to his Worship and Service for the Temples and Priests and Sacrifices of Idols could not be Types of the Son of God who came to confound all the Pagan Gods and their Idolatrous Worship Thus there could have been no Prophesies of Christ had there been no Prophets of the True God and these Prophecies would have met with little Credit had they been found in Idols Temples So that God's chusing the Posterity of Abraham for his peculiar People was not only necessary to preserve the Knowledge and Worship of the One True God in the world but also to receive and to convey down to Future Ages with an unquestionable Authority all the Types and Prophecies of the Messias This gives us a general View of the Divine Wisdom in that Covenant God made with Abraham and his Posterity and this will enable us to discover the wonderful Wisdom of all the various Dispensations of the Divine Providence towards the Iewish Nation which will be both so useful and entertaining a Meditation that I cannot pass it over without some short Remarks Now God having chosen the Posterity of Abraham to be his peculiar People on purpose to make them a visible Confutation of Idolatry and to establish and propagate the Knowledge and Worship of the One Supreme God in the world in order to effect this Four things were manifestly necessary 1. That it should be visible to all that knew them that God had chosen Israel for his peculiar People 2. That it should be as visible That the God of Israel is the One Supreme God the Maker and Sovereign Lord of the whole World 3.
have delivered Israel without them for it would argue a great defect in the ordinary methods of Government if God could not at any time save good men and punish and destroy the wicked without a Miracle God can do whatever he pleases by the wise direction and government of natural and moral Causes and therefore does not work Miracles because he needs them to supply the defects of natural Powers but to bear testimony to his own Being and Providence and to give authority to his Ministers and Prophets and we must learn the wisdom of this from the state and condition of the world at that time Mankind at that time were so far from being Atheists that they would worship any thing the meanest and most contemptible Creatures rather than have no God and they were so sensible how much they stood in need of a Divine Providence that one God would not serve them but they wanted as many Gods not only as there were Nations but as they had wants to supply This was a great corruption of the Light of Nature and those Notions of One Supream God imprinted on our minds and proclaimed by the whole visible Creation but yet was so universal and so prevailing that their wisest Philosophers who had better notions of the Deity were not able to resist the Torrent and durst not openly oppose the Worship of those Countrey Gods for fear of a popular Rage and Fury Now when neither the Light of Nature nor the Works of Creation and of a common Providence could secure the belief and worship of the One Supream God what remained but for God to make some more sensible manifestation of himself to the world and let any man consider what more effectual way could have been taken to convince men of the Divine Power and Providence than by Miracles especially such Miracles as are for the deliverance and protection of good men and the punishment and overthrow of the wicked When the Corruption of Mankind is such that they will not learn from Nature there is no way of teaching them but by something which is supernatural and when the beautiful and regular and uniform Order of Nature will not convince men that there is a God at least not that there is One Supream God who made and who governs this World Miracles will Those who will not believe that the World was made or had any Wise and Intelligent Cause must confess that Miracles have a Cause because they see them produced and that that Cause is not Nature because they see them produced without any Natural Cause or against the Laws of Nature nor Chance and Accident because they are done at the command of a Free Agent at the word of a man as all the Signs and Wonders in Egypt were wrought at the word of Moses whose word had no natural vertue and efficacy in it to work Wonders And therefore Miracles certainly prove that there is an Invisible Intelligent Cause who if he did not make the World could have made it if he had pleased for whoever can in any one instance act without or against Nature can create Nature too For to do any thing which Nature cannot do is in that particular to make Nature and he who can make Nature in one instance can do so in all and this is a good reason to believe that the World was made when we know that there is a Cause that can make the World And that Superior Power he exercises over Nature proves that he both can and does govern the World for he has the supream and absolute Government of Nature who can when he pleases give new powers to it or suspend and reverse its Laws So that Miracles are a Supernatural Proof of a Divine Power and Providence and no man who believes that there ever was a true Miracle wrought can be an Atheist and therefore it is no wonder that Atheists are such professed Enemies to the belief of Miracles but it is a great wonder that they can persuade themselves to reject all those Authentick Relations we have of Miracles both from the Law of Moses and from the Gospel of Christ which are the most credible Histories in the world if we look upon them as no more than Histories and have obtained the most universal belief Especially this is very unaccountable in those men who pretend to Deism to acknowledge a God who made the World for cannot that God who made the World and made Nature act without or above or against Nature when he pleases And may it not become the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to do this when it is necessary for the more abundant conviction of Mankind who are sunk into Atheism or Idolatry when Signs and Wonders are necessary to awaken men into the sense and belief of God and his Providence which was the case in the days of Moses or to give Authority to Prophets to declare and reveal the Will of God to men which was a reason for Miracles as long as God thought fit to make any new and publick Revelations of his Will when it is as reasonable and credible that God who can when he pleases should some times work Miracles as it is that he should take care to preserve the knowledge of himself and his Will and to restore it when it is lost or to make such new discoveries of his Grace as the fallen state of Mankind requires when I say the thing it self is so credible and so worthy of God what reasonable pretence can there be for rejecting Miracles for which we have the Authority of the best attested History in the World But Atheism was not the Disease of that Age which had run into the other Extreme of Polytheism and Idolatry and therefore though Miracles do prove the Being and Providence of God the Miracles of Moses were principally intended to prove the Glory and Power of the God of Israel that the God of Israel is the One Supream God and that he had chosen Israel for his peculiar People and this he did by doing such things as no other God could do such as made the Egyptian Magicians confess that it was the Finger of God and what more effectual way could be taken to convince the world of One Supream God than such visible demonstrations of an Absolute and Soveraign Power superior to all Those who worshipped a plurality of Gods either had no notion of One Supream God whose Power ruleth over all or if they had yet they believed that this Supream God had committed the care and government of Mankind to inferior Deities whom they therefore worshipped with Divine Honours as the Disposers of their Lives and Fortunes and either paid no worship to the Supream God which was the more general practice or worshipped their Country-gods together with him and that with the most frequent most solemn and pompous Worship Now such great and wonderful Works as these which none of their Country-gods could do was an evident proof that
cover the Mountain had heard the Thunder and the Trumpet and at last a Voice delivering the Law with an unimitable Terror and Majesty what would they then have thought of this Or what farther evidence would they have desired that it was God who spoke to them This could be no Dream nor melancholy Apparition or disturbed Fancy for they had timely notice of it three days before and were commanded to sanctify themselves to meet their God and if a whole Nation had been imposed on after such fair Warning it had been as great a Prodigy and Miracle as the Appearance on Mount Sinai and would have argued some Divine and Supernatural Infatuation and that would have proved a God This then was as visible a Demonstration as could be given of the Presence and Power and Majesty of God who rejected all other gods from any share in his Worship and declares himself to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth for I 'm sure the Wit of man cannot invent a more effectual Conviction than this Let us then consider the Wisdom of Providence in this both with respect to the Israelites and to the rest of Mankind He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And therefore when God intended to restore his own Worship again in the world and to make Israel a Pattern and Example of it to the rest of Mankind it was necessary to give them as visible and ocular a demonstration of the Power and Glory of God as it was possible for Creatures to have When the whole World was over-run with Idolatry and the Israelites themselves so strongly inclined to it nothing less than such an Appearance from Mount Sinai was likely to establish the Faith and Worship of the One Supreme God and we see that this it self could very hardly do it for immediately after they had heard God speak to them while Moses was in the Mount they made them a Golden Calf and worshipped it and as soon as they mingled with any other people they joined in their Idolatrous Worship a sad Example of which we have in their worship of Baal Peor 25. Numb But this was the highest evidence God could then give them of his Power and Glory and it did in time prevail and in them all Mankind who know their Story have a visible demonstration of One Supreme God But not to insist on every Particular which would be endless it may seem strange that when God brought Israel out of Egypt to give them Possession of the Promised Land he should make them wander in the Wilderness forty years till all that generation of men which came out of Egypt were dead excepting Ioshua and Caleb The Apostle to the Hebrews gives us the general Account of this matter 3. Heb. 7. to the end which resolves it into their Idolatry and Infidelity Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They do alway err in their heart and they have not known my ways so I sware in my wrath They shall not enter into my rest Which he makes an admonition to Christians Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God that is in forsaking the True God and declining to Idolatry as the Israelites in the Wilderness did And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief The plain state of the Case is this That Generation of men which came out of Egypt and remembred the Customs and Practices of that People were so strangely addicted to Idolatry that all the Signs and Wonders they saw in Egypt in the Red-Sea and in the Wilderness could not perfectly cure them but whenever they had opportunity they joined themselves to the Heathen gods ate of their Sacrifices and bowed themselves before them that had these men gone into Canaan which was then a Land of Idolaters they would certainly have worshipped their gods instead of destroying them and have mingled themselves with the People of the Land and have learnt their Manners for they who so often tempted God and disobeyed Moses while they were in the Wilderness in expectation of the Promised Land what would they have done had they been once possessed of it So that to have given that Generation of men Possession of Canaan would not have answered God's orginal Design in chusing Israel for his peculiar People for in all likelihood they would have proved a Nation of Idolaters like the other Nations round about them And therefore God deferred the final Accomplishment of his Promise till that Generation was all dead and a new Generation sprung up which knew not Egypt nor had conversed with Idolatrous Nations but had seen the Wonders of God in the Wilderness and had learnt his Statutes and Judgments and were sufficiently warned by the Example of their Fathers whose Carcasses fell in the Wilderness to fear and reverence the Lord Iehovah and to make him their Trust. This is the very Account the Scripture gives of it and thus accordingly it proved for that new Generation of men were never charged with Idolatry but we are expresly told That Israel served the Lord all the days of Ioshua and all the days of the Elders that overlived Ioshua and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel 24. Josh. 31. All this we see was designed by God with admirable Wisdom to make his own Glory and Power known and to publish his Choice of Israel for his peculiar People and to prepare them for himself and to establish his Name and Worship among them And now God had made them fit Inhabitants of the Land of Promise without any longer delay he gives them the actual Possession of it and therefore let us now follow them into the Land of Canaan The History of the Wars of Canaan is sufficiently known which presents us with new Wonders and Miracles not inferior to those which God wrought in Egypt and in the Red Sea for God so visibly fought the Battels of Israel that they and all the world might know that it was he that gave them possession of that good Land and drove out those wicked Inhabitants before them which declared his Glory and made his Power known And what I have already discoursed concerning the Wonders and Miracles in Egypt is equally applicable to this and I need add no more Let us then consider Israel in possession of the Land of Promise And there are but two things more I shall observe in the Iewish History till the coming of our Saviour 1. Their frequent
Relapses into Idolatry for which they were as frequently and severely punished 2. Their Captivities and Dispersions among the Nations whereby God made himself and his Laws more universally known in the world 1. As for the first nothing could be more directly contrary to God's original Intention in chusing the Posterity of Abraham for his peculiar People than their falling into Idolatry and yet God foresaw that this they would do and threatens to punish them severely when they did which is the subject of Moses his Prophetick Song 32. Deut. and the whole History of the Iewish Nation may satisfy us that though God many times spared them when they were guilty of other great Sins yet they never fell into Idolatry but Vengeance soon pursued them and they were either oppressed by their Enemies at home or carried Captive into Foreign Countries When Ioshua was dead and all that Generation which Ioshua led into Canaan There arose another generation after them that knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel And they soon declined to Idolatry and served Baalim they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth 2. Judges 10 11 12 c. And what follows gives us a summary account of God's dealings with them all the time of the Judges And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about them Whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was against them for evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn unto them and they were greatly distressed Nevertheless the Lord raised up Iudges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them And yet they would not hearken unto their Iudges but they went a whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them They turned quickly out of the way that their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord but they did not so And when the Lord raised them up Iudges then the Lord was with the Iudge and delivered them out of the hands of their enemies all the days of the Iudge For it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them And it came to pass when the Iudge was dead that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them they ceased not from their own doings and from their stubborn way For this reason as it follows in the Text God resolved not to drive out any from before them of the nations which Ioshua left when he died God had promised to put out those nations by little and little not consume them at once lest the beast of the field should increase upon them 7. Deut 22. But withal Ioshua assured them That if they did in any-wise go back that is relapse into Idolatry and cleave unto the remnant of those nations even those which remain among you which Ioshua had not driven out know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you but they shall be snares and traps unto you and scourges in your sides and thorns in your eyes until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you 23. Joshua 12 13. And thus accordingly God dealt with them for he left the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon from mount Baal-Hermon unto the entring in of Hamath and they were to prove Israel by them to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses 3. Judges 1 4. This was a wise provision God made to correct and punish Israel whenever they should decline to Idolatry for these Idolatrous Nations who still lived among them or round about them were not more ready to tempt them to Idolatry than they were to oppress and afflict them when God thought fit to chastise Israel The whole Book of Iudges is a manifest proof of this and the Story is so well known that I need not insist on Particulars Let us then briefly contemplate the Wisdom of Providence in those severe Judgments God executed on Israel for their frequent Idolatries God had chosen Israel for his peculiar People to be the Worshippers of the One Supream God and a visible confutation of the Heathen Idolatries but their great propensity to Idolatry after all the Signs and Wonders which God wrought in Egypt and in the Red-Sea and in the Wilderness and in giving them possession of the promised Land did threaten the final Apostacy of Israel which would have defeated God's wise and gracious Design in chusing them for his peculiar People For had they turned Idolaters like the rest of the Nations the Worship of the One Supream God had been totally lost in the world To prevent this God never suffered their Idolatries for any long time to escape unpunished and if we would understand the true reason of this we must not consider these Judgments merely as the punishment of their Idolatries but as the wise Methods of Providence to preserve his own Worship among them notwithstanding their Idolatrous Inclinations and to make his Name and Power and Glory known to the world The whole world were Idolaters but God did not punish other Nations for their Idolatry as he did Israel which shews that the punishment of Israel was not merely for the punishment of Idolatry but for the cure of it For God having chosen Israel for his peculiar People the world was to learn from them from their Examples and from their Rewards and Punishments the knowledge and worship of the One Supream God And could there be a more sensible confutation of Idolatry than to see a Nation which had been visibly consecrated to the Worship of the One Supream God as visibly punished whenever they declined to Idolatry That new generation which sprung up after the days of Ioshua who had not seen God's Wonders in Egypt and in the Wilderness nor known the Wars of Canaan soon forgot the God of their Fathers and wanted some new experiments of God's Power and Presence among them and whenever they declined to Idolatry God took care they should not want them though they paid very dear for them for he delivered them into the hands of their Enemies and brought many evils on them till they should remember the God of their Fathers This account God himself gives of it 31. Deut. 16 17. And the Lord said unto Moses Behold thou shalt sleep with thy fathers and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers whither they go to be amongst them and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them Then
and raised an expectation even among the Romans of some great Prince who was to rise in the East as Tacitus observes And though the knowledge of the God of Israel did not reform Nations yet we have reason to believe that it made a great many private Converts who secretly forsook the Idolatries of their Countries and Worshipped the only True God It is reasonable to think it should do so and we must confess it was wisely designed by God for that purpose and some few examples of this kind which we know may satisfie us that there were many more On the Famous Day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles in a Visible appearance of cloven tongues like as of fire there were at Ierusalem great Numbers not only of Iews but of Proselytes out of every Nation Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Iudaea and Cappadocia in Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphilia in Egypt and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene and strangers of Rome Iews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians 2. Acts 9 10 11. Whether these were Circumcised or Uncircumcised Proselites is not said but Proselites they were out of all these Nations who came up at the Feast to Worship at Ierusalem from whence we learn that the dispersion of the Iews into all Nations made great Numbers of Proselites who either undertook the observation of the Mosaical Law by Circumcision and became Iews or at least renounced all the Heathen Idolatries and worshipped no other God but the God of Israel The number of these last seems to have been much greater than that of Circumcised Proselites and if we believe some Learned men there is frequent mention made of them in Scripture under the names of worshipping Greeks and devout men and those which feared God When Saint Paul preached at Thessalonica there consorted with Paul and Silas of the devout Greeks a great multitude 17. Acts 24. The very name of Greeks proves them to be Gentiles not Iews who are always distinguished from each other and that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devout or worshipping Greeks proves that they were the Worshippers of the God of Israel for that Title is never given in Scripture to Idolaters and their frequenting the Iewish Synagogue sufficiently proves it for no Gentiles resorted thither but those who worshipped the God of Israel Of this number was Lydia 16. Acts 14. and Cornelius the Roman Centurion who was not only a devout man and one who feared God himself but all his Family were so too 10. Acts 2. and the Eunuch 8. Acts 27. and almost in every place where St. Paul preached the Gospel we find great numbers of these worshipping Gentiles at Thessalonica and Philippi as you have seen at Corinth 18. Acts 4. at Antioch of Pisidia 13. Acts 43. and we have reason to conclude that thus it was in other places which shews what a great effect the dispersion of the Iews into all these Countries had in making Proselites some to the Iewish Religion but many more to the Worship of the God of Israel which prepared them to receive the Gospel when is was preached to them For they were the Worshippers of the True God and were instructed in the Law and the Prophets as appears from their frequenting the Iewish Synagogues and therefore were in expectation of the Messias and were capable of understanding the Scripture Proofs of the Christian Faith It is certain the first Gentile Converts were of this sort of men who more readily embraced the Faith than the Iews themselves for they had all the preparations for Christianity which the Iews had but none of their Prejudices neither a fondness for their Ceremonial Worship nor for the Temporal Kingdom of the Messias And therefore a very Learned man expounds that Text 13. Acts 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed of these devout and worshipping Gentiles that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready disposed and prepared to receive the Doctrine of Eternal Life by Christ Jesus And thus we are come to the days of Christ whose appearance in the world was the last and most effectual means God used for the recovery of Mankind to consider the Divine Wisdom in the Redemption of the world by Jesus Christ relates to the wisdom of the Christian Religion not of Providence and therefore does not concern my present Argument but if we take a brief review of what I have said we may the better understand in what sense Christ is said to come in the fulness of time for he came as soon as the world was prepared to receive him For I would desire any man who complains that the coming of Christ was too long delayed to tell me in what sooner period it had been proper for him to appear In every Age as I have already shewn God took the wisest methods that the Condition of Mankind would at that time allow to reform the world and if Christ appeared at such a time as the Divine Wisdom saw most fit and proper for his appearance he appeared as soon as he could if we will allow God to dispense his Grace and Favours wisely That he did so no man can doubt who believes the Wisdom and Goodness of God But my business at present is to give you a fair representation of all those wise Advances God made to this last compleating and stupendious Act of Grace and Love God had promised our first Parents immediately upon the Fall That the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head and by vertue of this Promise all truly good men were saved by Christ from the beginning of the world But the more to recommend the Love of God in the Incarnation and Death of our Saviour it seems very congruous to the Divine Wisdom that all other Methods should be first tried for the reforming of Mankind before the coming of Christ and that he should come in such a time when the world was best prepared to receive Him and as little as we understand of the unsearchable Counsels of God it may satisfy us that upon both these accounts Christ appeared in the fulness of time When all flesh had corrupted his ways and there was but one Righteous Family left the only probable means of restoring Piety and Vertue to the world was to destroy all that Wicked Generation of Men and to preserve that Righteous Family to new-people the world When that New Generation began to corrupt themselves God separated them from each other by confounding their Languages and formed them into distinct Societies and Kingdoms which was the most effectual way to stop the Infection and to force on them the practise of many Moral and Civil Vertues When notwithstanding this they all declined to Idolatry God chose Abraham and his Posterity to be his peculiar People to preserve the Faith and Worship of the One Supream God in the world he gave them his Laws committed to
of trusting in God they trust in him without hope or any comfortable expectations unless they have some more visible assurances to rely on This makes most mens hopes ebb and flow as their external circumstances change if they are prosperous and have great numbers of Friends and have their Enemies at their feet then they are full of hope and can trust securely in God when they have the means of helping themselves in their own hands and see no body that can hurt them but if their condition be perplext and calamitous and they see no prospect of human relief their spirits sink and as much as they talk of Providence and Trusting in God they find no support in it To understand this aright wherein the Glory of God and our own Peace and Security is so nearly concerned we must consider That our Faith and Hope and Trust in God must either rely on the Word and Promise of God or on the general Belief and Assurance of his Care of us and of the Goodness and Justice of his Providence as to trust in men is either to trust their Promise or their Friendship 1. As for the first we may and ought securely to rely on the Promises of God as far as they reach for he who hath promised is able also to perform But then we must have a care of expounding Temporal Promises to a larger sense than God intended or than Providence ordinarily makes good which calls the Truth of God or his Providence into question and discourages our Faith and Trust in God when we see Events not to answer God's Promises nor our Expectations To state this matter plainly we must proceed by degrees and distinguish between the Promises made to States and Kingdoms and to Private and Single Men or rather to men in their private and single capacities Most of the Temporal Promises under the Law of Moses concerned the Publick State of the Iewish Church and Nation that if they walked in the Laws and Statutes of God he would bless them with great Plenty and Peace or give them Victory over their Enemies That he would have respect unto them and make them fruitful and multiply them and establish his Covenant with them 26. Lev. which are Publick and National Blessings And tho there is a great difference between the Iewish and Christian Church with respect to Temporal Promises yet there does not seem to be any great difference between a Christian Nation and the Iewish State When a Nation has embraced Christianity and the Church is incorporated into the State and true Religion and Vertue is encouraged and Vice suppressed such a Religious Nation has a title to all the National Blessings which God promised to the Iewish Nation if they observed his Laws for Solomon's Observation is universally true That righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is the reproach of any people And excepting what was typical in the Iewish State there is much the same reason for God to protect and bless a Religious Christian Nation viz. for the publick encouragement of Religion and for the reward of a National Piety and Vertue and therefore as the Christian Church inherits all those Spiritual Blessings which were typified in the Iewish Church so a Christian Nation succeeds to all those Temporal Promises which were made to the Iewish State or else all these Promises of the Law would be of no use to us now So that these National Promises we may securely rely on as to their utmost extent and signification and I am satisfied there cannot be one Example given wherein these Promises have failed God has oftentimes suffered a wicked Nation to be prosperous to scourge their wicked Neighbours but he never suffers a truly righteous and religious Nation to be oppressed Now the largest and most comprehensive Promises in Scripture are of this nature such as concern the publick state of Kingdoms and Nations but even in the most flourishing state of the Iewish Church the case of particular men was very different some bad men were prosperous and good men afflicted and therefore those Promises which concern good men in their private and single capacities must be more cautiously expounded to a more restrained and limited sense accommodated to the different states and conditions of good men in this world and to their different attainments in Vertue As for example When Solomon tells us of Wisdom Length of days is in her right hand and in her left riches and honour 3. Prov. 16. Will any man expound this to signify That all wise men who are truly religious and prudent shall live till old age and attain to riches and honours Did God then intend that there should be no different ranks and degrees of men in the world that there should be no poor men as well as rich or did he intend that no poor men should be wise Wisdom indeed will advance a Prince to great riches and honour as Solomon tells us his Father David instructed him He taught me also and said unto me Let thine heart retain my words keep my commandments and live Get wisdom get understanding Forget her not neither decline from the words of my mouth Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep thee Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding Exalt her and she shall promote thee she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her she shall give to thine head an ornament of grace a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee 4. Prov. 4 9. This was the best Advice that could be given to a young Prince to make him rich and great for religious Wisdom will certainly advance him beyond all the Politicks of Machiavel and if Solomon in imitation of his Father David directs his Instructions to his Children and particularly to that Son who was to inherit his Throne as he himself seems to intimate 1 2 3. Verses we must not conclude that because he tells his Son that Wisdom will make him a glorious Prince that therefore Wisdom will advance all men to riches and honour Wisdom will give a lustre even to poverty it self and sometimes advances the poor to riches and honours and encreases the riches and honours of the Rich and Honourable but we must not always expect this much less pretend a promise for it for there always were and always will be poor wise men Thus when the Wiseman tells us That the hand of the diligent maketh rich 10. Prov. 4. And seest thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings he shall not stand before mean men 22. Prov. 29. No man can think that the meaning is that every diligent man shall be rich for there are such mean Employments as can never raise an Estate by the greatest industry much less can we think that diligence in such mean Employments shall make men known to Princes or that all diligent men whatever their