The Egyptians the Philistines the vilest Enemies cry out God fighteth against them or This is the Lords work Secondly As the Power so the Wisdom of God is seen in these methods and operations of Providence Indeed sometimes God so worketh that the Power of God appeareth uppermost and is most conspicuous in the destruction of the Enemies and in the salvation of the Lords people as in the case of Sennacherib's Army destroyed by an Angel of Pharaoh destroyed by the return of the waters c. But oft-times there 's a wonderful wisdom of God in ordering contingencies and seeming casual things to his own ends in these cases as in the case of Joseph and Haman the reflexion of the Sun upon the waters which caused the Moabites mistake and confusion But the wisdom of God is further seen in this That a mercy seldom comes but though we could see nothing of Wisdom relating to it before it came yet when it is come to pass there 's no understanding Christian but is forced to say It could never have come in a more seasonable time the wisdom of which we could see nothing of in the prospect is evident upon the event It would have been a great question whether the Israelites would have been so willing to have come out of Egypt under the conduct of Joseph when they were pinch'd with no oppressions as they were under Moses and Aaron when they had been serving in the Brick-kilns and their lives so many years together had been made bitter to them through the hard bondage which they had so long endured Thirdly The Lord doth thus more eminently magnifie his justice and righteousness Justice lieth in the distribution of rewards and punishments the first we call Remunerative the second Vindicative Justice Both are much magnified by this method of Providence Persons in the greatest heighths of prosperity or depths of 〈◊〉 are ordinarily the most remarkable objects of the worlds eyes and more regarded than those that are in a more middle-state When God lifts up a Joseph out of the dungeon and a Daniel out of the Lions den and advanceth a Mordecai for whom a gallows was set up and the three Children are taken out of a fiery Furnace He proclaimeth to all the World and they are forced to confess it that verily there is a reward for the righteous and so on the other side when a Pharaoh a Sennecharib an Haman a Nebuchadnezzar are pull'd down in the midst of all their pride and jollity from their very pinacles of honour the Justice and Righteousness of God in punishing proud and imperious Sinners is proclaimed and made more evident to all the World Lastly 4. The Lords goodness is thus more magnified and taken notice of Common and ordinary Dispensations of gracious Providence are little remarked by us what mercy do we receive every night every day from God yet how little notice do we take of it how little is our heart affected with it but now when we are brought to the pits-brink to a very low estate and then are pluck'd from it when we are in a very low estate and then delivered Gods goodness is both more proclaimed to the World and more conspicuous unto us But this will in part fall in under the second head for I told you that God is glorified by this method of his Providence not only as his glorious Attributes divers of them are by it more exalted but also as the pious and religious Acts of his people are more by this method of Providence elicited I have often hinted to you that God hath a twofold glory from his Creatures and the works of his hands The first is a meer passive glory Thus the heavens declare the glory of God the Heavens shew forth the greatness glory and power of God The second is Active wherein the creature doth some actions from which a glory doth result unto God Now by this Method of Providence God is not only glorified in the first sense as this kind of working speaketh more of his Power Wisdom Justice Goodness c. but in the second also ◠Thus God sometimes forceth an acknowledgment of his Power even from the worst of men Julian himself shall confess that Christ is too hard for him throwing up his Dagger to Heaven and crying Vicisti Galilaee The Egyptians shall cry out Exod. 14.25 Let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fighteth for the Israelites against the Egyptians Nebuchadnezzar shall make a Decree Dan. 3.29 That every Nation People and Language which speak any thing against the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghil because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort Dan. 6.25 Darius shall write to all people Nations and Languages that dwell upon the Earth and make a Decree That in every Dominion of his Kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living God and stedfast for ever and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his Dominion shall be even to the end he delivereth and he rescueth and he worketh signs and wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the Lions The King of Babylon that set up the Golden-image and so rigorously commanded all should bow down to it or be thrown into the fiery Furnace heated seven times hotter than ordinary Dan. 3.26 shall bless the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who hath sent his Angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the Kings word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve or worship any god but their own God What a wonderful glory here had God given him from a wicked Pagan Prince he confesseth his Command wicked he blesseth God that put into these three hearts 〈◊〉 to disobey it and make him change his word he acknowledgeth God the true God and that he delivereth them that trust in him All this accreweth from Gods delivering these three men when they were at the lowest when all gave them over for dead men But secondly How much more glory hath God from his own people upon any such deliverance Surprizals affect us most An unthought-of evil most startleth and dejecteth us An unthought-of good most elevates and affects us Good things lessen in our opinion and estimate by a long expectation They are greatest and most affect us when we are past hopes of them Sudden and unlook'd for good raiseth our hearts to great admiration great praise and thanksgiving Now he that offereth praise saith God glorifieth me The more God is admired the more his goodness is predicated and proclaimed the more men upon any occasion speak of his honour and power and greatness the more glory God hath from them Thirdly God is more honoured by this method of Providence not only as the suddenness of it doth more affect and elevate his peoples
more reasonable more excellent What we know then of God must needs be from Reason or Revelation Reason brings us in knowledg by raising Conclusions from Principles These Principles are of two sorts Philosophical or Scriptural I call those Philosophical Principles which reason as it now resideth in us justifieth and which without the help of the Word of God are allowed by all or the most of men especially if cultivated by any ingenuous education being either common natural principles or such as are established by studies upon deliberate thoughts with the help of sense and improvement of discourse and ratiocination Thus Reason will tell us that there is a God but one God That he must be the first being the first cause more excellent in the perfections of his being than any creature and an hundred things of a like evidence Or else it concludeth from revealed Principles having first a sufficient evidence That the holy Scriptures are the word of God who cannot speak falsly These Principles now are such propositions as without the surer word of Prophesie we could never have had any just evidence of Such now are the Doctrines of the Trinity The Incarnation of Christ The Personal union of the Divine and Humane Nature in him and many others In the discovery and justification of such Conclusions as Reason gathereth from the first sort of Principles lyeth the work of a Philosopher as a Philosopher In the discovery and proof of such Propositions as are partly evidenced from Reason but more fully from Scripture lies the work of a Christian Philosopher In the discovery proving and applying of such Propositions as have their Evidence partly from Reason and more fully from holy Writ or as cannot be at all concluded unless building upon Scriptural foundations but are founded in Scripture and may be illustrated imperfectly from reason and shewed not to be improbable nor unreasonable lyes the work of the Minister of the Gospel who is to convey the knowledg of God to his people And the true reason why some even of these silver Trumpets which belong to the Sanctuary give an incertain sound is because neither the Principles of natural Reason nor Revelation appear to all men in the same light We say The best Philosopher is not as yet born Our age tells us how generally Principles of Philosophy are exploded and it may be some of them justly too which we when we were boys thought to lye very near Demonstration and doubtless in the next age something now admitted will be judged as faulty It hath pleased God to subject our understandings to this vanity Now we having no way unless God would from Heaven speak to us to know any proposition of Truth but from the exercise of our Reason concluding either from Principles purely natural or from Propositions of Revelation in Scripture every one naturally judging himself obliged to believe according to the evidence he hath from his understanding there must and will be different apprehensions until which will never be men have all either the same degrees of Natural Reason or Scriptural knowledg which will be advantaged if there be any who think that all Propositions are to be weighed by the ballance of Natural Reason and that the holy Scripture as to the sense of it must come into that scale and make but in-weight giving only an auxiliary help to the Evidence of the most sublime Propositions of truth Nor is there any help for this The Church of Rome which your Ladiship knows pretends to wondrous Miracles hath indeed devised a palliating cure for this setting up an Infallible cheat to judg of all Controversies and by fire and faggots and all barbarous cruelties and inhumanities forcing men to acquiesce in the Decisions of that ridiculous Judg. But in the mean time mens Consciences apprehend themselves before one who is no Judg in the ease and the sore festreth and rotteth to the bone for the Pope can make none to alter his mind And a little reason might tell the Quacks of that Colledg that if it be not in the power of a man to believe what he hath a mind to believe it is much less in the power of a foreign power to compell him to it The Protestant cure is certainly more humane and reasonable yea and more Apostolical too They set forth sums of sound Doctrine to which they only annex that of the Apostle Phil. 3.15 Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if any in any thing be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Only Protestants require as the same Apostle directs Rom. 14. That if any hath a particular faith different from that of the Church wherein he liveth he should have it to himself before God Thus the Knowledg of God is acquired from his word reading it being Catechised out of it hearing it opened and preached by the comparing of spiritual things with spiritual by the use of reason and discourse in the Velitation of Questions arising from the seeming contradictions in Holy Writ c. But there is also another mean of Divine Knowledg that is by his exterior works by which much of the Knowledg of God is gained improved and encreased These works are either of Creation or of Providence Creation was the work of the first six days from which God hath ceased long since but the things created remain and much of the Knowledg of God is to be gained from thence by the help of sense which sheweth us the things and reason which helpeth us to conclude that there being so many noble effects there must be a first and more noble cause there being so many excellent Beings there must be a first and most perfect and excellent Being Nothing created could give an Existence to it self Hence the Apostle telleth us That the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen from the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 So that they are without excuse because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God For the Book of Scriptures we blessed be God! have it in our Vernacular Tongue we have means to teach us to read we have Catechisms and Confessions of Faith containing the Epitome and substance of them we have the various labours of holy and learned men to make us to understand them scarce any thing seemeth to be wanting to this age for the gaining of this excellent knowledg by this mean but persons giving themselves up to Reading Hearing Meditation Christian Conferences and Prayer For the Book of Creation methinks it is like a great Bible in some Religious Gentlemans Hall that lyes always open we cannot move a step in the world nor lift up an eye to Heaven but our eye is upon one page or another of it If men will not read the Wisdom of God in the sagacity and wisdom of some Creatures nor the power and greatness of God in the
greatness and power of others and so for other perfections it is not because they want means but because they want an heart to seek after God as to this there is no want of any thing but a wise contemplation of them and a rational concluding from the perfections of the effects to the greater excellency and perfection of the first cause and being The Book of Creation will learn us much of the nature and admirable perfections of the Divine Being The Book of Scripture will learn us more of it and instruct us in sublimer Mysteries than Reason could discover The Doctrine of the Trinity the two Natures united in the Person of the Mediator They will tell us of Gods Covenants of Christs performances of the Covenant of Redemption of the Will of God to be done by us and the Will of God to be done unto and upon us in his Promises and threatnings The Apostle sums up all when he tells us they are able to make the man of God wise to salvation throughly furnished to every good work But there is yet another Book which is less obvious to the eye of sense than the Book of Creation is and to the eye of Reason too and upon which fewer Commentaries have been wrote than upon the Books of holy Scripture that is the Book of Actual Providence A Book in which much of God is written and from which much of God may be learned but it is commonly taken for the Vision of a book that is sealed which is given to one who is learned with a command to read it but he saith I cannot for it is sealed Some more brutish than the Heathens deny any such Book dreaming of the old Pagan Fate or blind Fortune Others will allow it in part but will have much of it spurious dreaming that the World is like a Clock which once set in order and wound up goes alone without further use of the Workmans hand Others will allow Divine Providence a more universal influence but yet love not to hear of any Specialties of it Some again highly conceited of their own reason will subject the Providence of God to their rational Conclusions Few or none make any observations upon the motions of Divine Providence though certainly nothing more conduceth to true Spiritual wisdom Others stumbling at some difficulties relating to the motions of Providence either wholly deny it or form to themselves strange Ideas of God which no way agree to his most holy and perfect essence This Madam hath encouraged me to attempt something both to recover the Actual Providence of God from the Atheism of this age and the groundless prejudices which vain men have taken up against it and by it to recover for God that just Fear Faith Love Patience and other homage which both the excellency of his being and of his holy working calleth for And certainly Madam if learned men have thought it worth their while as some have done to give the World a rational account of Divine Offices of the Modes and circumstances of Ecclestastical constitutions in Rites and Garments Liturgies and Ceremonies c. It must needs be a noble work to undertake to give the world a Rational of Divine Operations Such especially which seem to be the hardest Chapters in the book of Providence and least easie to be understood and indeed this was my original design But while my thoughts were exercised in this my work grew upon my hand considering especially the Atheism of the age in which we live together with the circumstances of the Church and people of God in most European parts of the world and the particular temptations I have observed attending many and those very excellent persons I was further drawn on by the pleasantness and usefulness of the subject in all but especially in evil times and the apparent tendency of it to make men fear and love hope and trust in and with patience to wait upon God These things Madam made me resolve to open the Doctrine of Providence more fully though not in its full compass and latitude resolving always to carry along with me the capacity of those to whom I spake or wrote I was Madam the more encouraged in this from my observation that amongst the many excellent Books with which this age doth abound there are fewer of this Argument than any other Mr. Obadiah Sedgwick a great Divine treats in two or three Sermons about the Specialties of Providence and the late eminent Bishop Wilkins hath in a short Tract learnedly and piously discoursed the symmetry and beauty of it Another in a larger Discourse called an Introduction into the Doctrine of Providence hath made and a little enlarged upon several Observations upon the motions of it I projected and have at last finished a fuller Discourse than any of these though possibly much more imperfect so far as they did discourse this excellent argument and resolved to divide my discourse into three parts which accordingly I have done In the first Part Madam after two Preliminary Discourses the first concerning Gods Predeterminations where I had no mind to meddle with any present Controversies that was not a popular work the second concerning Creation Your Ldiship will find me plainly discoursing of the Nature of Providence in the notion in which alone I intended to speak to it There I have from Scripture and Reason proved That there is a constant care of God extended to the whole Creation That the Creature stands not in its own strength nor moveth meerly from a principle within it self nor is governed meerly by its fellow-creatures in a superior order much less acteth casually or under the necessity of any fate but is under the daily inspection government care and influence of the first cause its great Creator who both preserveth and governeth it There I have shortly shewed the particular acts by which God preserveth and governeth created Beings in their several capacities A point Madam of inexpressible use to possess us of a true notion of God of our daily dependencies upon him and consequently our duty toward him David saith he was fearfully and wonderfully made we are fearfully and wonderfully preserved In the second Part I have discoursed 1. Of the Specialties of Providence more especially to the Church and to every individual soul that loves and fears him shortly opening wherein they lye and shewing the reasonableness of it 2. Then I more shortly discourse the unsearchable things of it for Madam who dare pretend more than to shew a part of his ways Who can by searching find out God Who can find out the Almighty to Perfection This I have done to check curiosity and keep off good people from vain guesses and Prophetical conclusions without bottom 3. From that the discourse will lead your Ladiship to consider the duty of a good Christian in the observation of the motions of Providence and the advantage from it resulting to an observing soul To help my Reader in this
peace You read 2 Sam. 4. that Baanah and Recab two servants of Ishboseth conspired against him and slew him ver 9. David causeth them both to be slain Baasha 1 King 16.27 conspireth against Nadab and slayeth him indeed the Scripture doth not express the particular kind of his death but he threatned him by Jehu the Prophet 1 King 16.3 4. and tells us ver 7. That the wrath of the Lord came against him for all the evil that he did in being like to the house of Jeroboam and because he killed him that is he killed Nadab the Son of Jeroboam And against Elah his Son Zimri killed him ver 20. Had Zimri peace that slew his master no he killed himself when he had reigned but seven days ver 28 after him Ahab a most wicked man dyed in war his Son Jehoram was slain by Jehu and Jehu executed both the Lord's counsel and command in what he did so the Lord spared him and three or four after him of his generation to fulfil his promise to Jehu After this 2 King 15 Shallum conspireth against Zechariah and slayeth him but reigns only one month and Menahem requiteth his bloodshed and slayeth him Joash was slain for the blood of the Sons of Jehojada 2 King 24.23 Amaziah his Son succeedeth him 2 Chron. 25.1 ver 3. He slayeth his servants that had slain the King his father And as this notion is justified everywhere in sacred story so civil story also maketh it good Solomon saith He that breaketh an hedg a serpent shall bite him Government is the hedg of a Nation and rulers are the stakes in that hedg that keep it together and it is very rare but the Providence of God ordereth it so that a serpent biteth him who breaketh this hedg which the Providence of God hath set up about a Nation or People Princes and Rulers are in a great measure priviledged persons and have great prerogatives from Divine Providence And this motion of Divine Providence seemeth very reasonable 1. If we consider the relation that they have unto God 2. Or their usefulness unto men I say first if we consider their relation unto God which I shall open to you in three things ◠They are the Ordinance of God 2 They are Gods Creatures 3. They are Gods Vicegerents 1. Rulers are Gods Ordinance This is the reason which the Apostle giveth Christians for subjection to governours Rom. 13.1 2. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God God is a God of order and not of confusion as well in States as in Churches and for the conservation of this order he hath been pleased to ordain Government a subordination and subjection of some unto others and a man cannot rise up against this but he must rise up in opposition to a Divine Ordinance In 1 Pet. 2.13 Rulers are called the Ordinance of man or as it is in the Greek an humane creature but that must not be understood of Government in it self that is the Ordinance of God I am aware that that is a Text that is much made use of to prove Christians duty of Obedience to humane Laws and Sanctions But this seemeth not to be the sense For 1. We cannot submit thus to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake Men may command us things which are contrary to the Will and Command of God and in such cases our Allegiance is first due unto the great God 2. Again The distribution that followeth seemeth not to favour this sense whether to the King as supreme or unto rulers sent by him Let the form of Government under which you live be what it will let the persons entrusted with the execution of this Government be what they will their qualities are not so much to be regarded as the office which they bear 3. Thus both the Syriack version and some of the antients interpret it the Syriack version interprets it Be you subject to all the Sons of men 4. But lastly The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is there used is always applied to persons not to such constitutions as laws are Besides there are that think that the Apostle useth a dialect then in use there is nothing more ordinary in Latin Authors than those phrases of creare consulem creare dictatorem c. it is a phrase a little in use amongst us to express the conferring of some particular honours But I digress too far certain it is that as Government in the abstract so particular governours in the concrete are the Ordinance of God and so have a more eminent relation unto God All men are the creatures of God they are the works of his hands rulers are the Ordinance of God 2. Rulers are Gods creatures and that not in a large sense so every thing else is but in a more eminent way as Rulers in that capacity to which God hath called them they are Gods creatures Prov. 8.15 By me Kings reign and Princes decree justice by me Princes rule and nobles even all the Judges of the earth It must not be understood only by my sufferance and permission nor by me in an ordinary course of Providence as all things are by God but by me in a way of special Providence and designation for as the Psalmist saith Psal 75.6 7. Promotion cometh not from the east nor from the west nor from the south but God is the judg he pulleth down one and he setteth up another And this must be said of the worst of Rulers they came not up into that place of government without the Lord. Saul was a Prince bad enough God foretold by Samuel what he would be yet you know what a special hand God had in the setting of him up And God setteth up good or bad Rulers over a people according to his designs to bless and prosper or to chastise and punish them Rulers as rulers be they good or bad gentile or froward are God's creatures in an eminent way Now as a Prince thinks himself obliged in honour to maintain his creatures whom he hath set up in any place for any end so God will maintain Princes as they are his creatures raised up for his special designs 3. Nay further yet Rulers are Gods vicegerents Psal 82.6 I have said you are Gods and in this sense it is true which the Apostle saith There are Gods many and Lords many Every Prince is but a Vice-roy to the King of Kings a Deputy-Lieutenant to the great Lord of Heaven and Earth This createth a very near relation betwixt God and them and highly engageth the Providente of God for them Every Prince taketh a special care of persons which he sendeth abroad for Embassadors and which represent his person and authority Plots and conspiracies against Princes are much against God himself God giveth this reason for his severe Law
uniform This must be true Shall not the judg of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 It is in the nature of God to do justly far sooner shall a good tree bring forth corrupt fruit than a righteous God do an unrighteous act It is written in the Will and Promises of God and in the threatnings which declare the Will of God against sinners Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with them for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him Isa 3.9 10. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely it shall be well with them that fear God that fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days Eccles 8.12 But it may be better for your edification that I should open the Observation in the branches of it The subject of my discourse you see is the vindicative and remunerative Justice of God considered as in the hand of Actual Providence I say of both 1. That it is certain both the one and the other is certain for the sinner that swears and drinks and wallows in his beastly lusts that lies and cheats and oppresseth and breaks Sabbaths that murthereth and committeth adultery and lives in the violation of the Commandments of God his Judgment is certain his damnation sleepeth not the Providence of God shall most certainly meet him as a Bear robbed of her whelps to tear him in pieces and there shall be none to deliver On the contrary for him that worketh righteousness that herein exerciseth himself to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men that liveth an holy life and conversation his reward is certain The certainty of both these depends 1. Vpon the immutable nature of God The righteous God loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity he cannot clear the guilty he cannot but reward the righteous as soon shall God cease to be God as the persisting sinner go unpunished or the persevering Saint be unrewarded 2. It dependeth upon the irrevocable will of God God hath said it the Lord hath spoken it and it shall come to pass Heaven and Earth shall pass away before a word shall fail of all which the mouth of the Lord has spoken 3. It dependeth upon the faithfulness of Divine Providence in acting conformably to the Divine Nature in the execution of the Divine Counsels and in pursute of the Divine Will Providence is Gods action in time God cannot act contrary to himself nor contrary to his revealed Will. But this is what none without great impiety can so much as doubt But I added 2. That both the punishment of the sinner and the reward of the righteous man is constant This is not now a matter of so sensible demonstration but equally true with the other Psal 7.11 The holy Psalmist tells us He judgeth the righteous and is angry with the wicked every day Anger in God signifieth nothing of passion as it doth in us It only signifieth Gods just will to punish sinners and the execution of this his just will and pleasure Now I take that phrase God is angry with the wicked every day to be true in both senses not only that God hath an immutable will purpose and resolution to punish resolved and impenitent sinners but also that he is every day doing of it and so he is every day rewarding the righteous man But this will better appear in my Explication of the third thing where I told you 3. That neither the reward of the one nor the punishment of the other are uniform or always sensible And indeed the not-attending to this is all that gives the least advantage to the complaints of Job David Jeremiah and Habakkuk concerning the prosperity of the wicked God sometimes punisheth sinners by temporary afflictions and judgments these now are obvious to every eye and incur into all mens senses All men take notice of mens being afflicted in their persons crossed in their relations in their estates c. But thus God doth not always punish the worst of men 2. He hath another way of punishing and that more dreadful that is by spiritual judgments ubi poenalis nutritur impunitas a punishing them by suffering them to go unpunished God never more smartly threatned the ten Tribes than when he told them by the Prophet Hos 4.14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouse when they commit adultery He never spake more severely than when he said Why should they be smitten any more they will revolt more and more Isa 1.5 Hence impenitency hardness of heart hence they bless themselves in their sinful courses this makes them shut their eyes and stop their ears This is indeed an insensible judgment but as it is with the wounds of the body the more secret they are and inward the worse they are so it is with judgments upon a man the more inward and insensible the more desperate and dangerous is the case The giving of sinners up to a blindness of mind as in the case of the Israelites Isa 6.9 to an hardness of heart as in the case of Pharaoh Exod. 4.21 to vile affections as in the case of the Heathen Rom. 1.26 to a reprobate mind c. These are of all other the greatest punishment one or other way God is angry with the wicked every day Although he is not every day plaguing them with sensible judgments yet when he is not doing this he is letting them alone as God spake concerning Ephraim Ephraim is joyned to idols let him alone suffering them to go on in their own ways by which means their hearts grow more hard and impenitent more blind and insensible and this is the reason that wicked men grow worse and worse more vile in their affections more sottish and reprobate in their minds and judgments more vile and abominable in their lives And as the punishment of the sinner so the reward of the righteous man though it be always certain and constant yet it is not uniform nor always sensible especially to others The certainty of their reward standeth upon the very same foundations that the certainty of the sinners punishment doth and so doth the constancy of it for as God is angry with the wicked every day so God is well-pleased with the righteous every day he can every day go to God and say unto him Thou art my father God is every day well-pleased with him and delighted in him But I say these rewards are not always uniform our heavenly Father hath more than one blessing sometimes he blesseth him that worketh righteousness after one manner sometimes after another but he always blesseth them Let me a little open to you the plenty of blessings which our heavenly Father hath and shew you how variously he rewardeth him that worketh righteousness
man whose sins are covered by God! O let no man despise the riches of Gods goodness forbearance and long-suffering but let him know that the goodness of God leadeth him to repentance Rom. 2.4 5. If he continueth in the hardness and impenitency of his heart he doth but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God Wrath against thee for thy sins lyeth hid at present possibly thy Conscience keepeth silence and doth not arrest and disturb thee the providence of God as to thee keepeth silence judgement is not executed speedily but there will be a revelation of divine wrath either in this life or that which is to come oh therefore break off your sins by a true repentance He that hideth his sins shall not prosper Prov. 28.13 Our sins cannot be hidden from God they are all in the light of his Countenance a man then covereth and hideth his sins from God when he doth not confess and bewail them So long as a man covereth his sins God will not cover them See that experience of David which you have recorded Psal 32.2 3 4. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day-long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture was turned into the drought of summer Selah vers 3. I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah Vse 3. In the last place this observation calleth upon all such as fear the Lord and walk before him for a progress in the wayes of God and a patient waiting for the promise The Apostle tells us Heb. 10.36 That we have need of patience that after we have done the will of God we might receive the promise It is our duty as to do well so not to be weary of well doing it is pressed upon us Gal. 6.9 And let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not And again 2 Thess 3.13 but you brethren be not weary in well-doing There is nothing so far conduceth to make us faint and weary in our duty as when we see nothing comes of it we have hopes and promises but no issue no performance you know Solomon tells you hope deferred makes the heart sick Now this is a great cordial in such a case for us to hear that when providence moveth slowly in bringing rewards to the righteous it recompenceth our patience at last with the riches and liberality of the reward Indeed here are three or four arguments which together with this observation the Apostle hinteth me in the afore-mentioned Text out of the Epistle to the Galathians we shall reap we shall reap in due season Our fainting will spoil our reaping The longer it is before we reap the greater the crop of mercy and blessing shall be which we shall reap 1. We shall reap He that ploweth up the fallow-ground of his heart and soweth to the glory of God and to the good of his own soul in righteousness he shall reap The Husbandman that sowes his Wheat and Barly cannot promise himself that he shall reap the souldier the plunderer may reap what he hath sown a tempest an east-wind lightning many other things may hinder his reaping but he who sowes righteousness he shall reap nothing shall hinder his reaping 2. He shall reap in due season It may be he shall not reap in his season the season which he expected but he shall reap in due season in such a time as the wise God judgeth most seasonable and when he cometh to reap he shall also acknowledge the seasonableness of it that it is in due season we do not know the fittest time for our own mercies God knowes the fittest season we shall reap in due season 3. Consider that our reaping dependeth upon our not fainting we shall reap saith the Apostle if we faint not If any soul draweth back Gods soul will have no pleasure in him he who draweth back draweth back to his own perdition 4. and Lastly our reward will be so much the greater by how much it is slower the rewards of Gods people are ordinarily proportioned to their patient waiting The Apostle Rom. 2.6 having spoken of Christs coming to render to every man according to his work addeth v. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Yea and certainly degrees of glory will be proportioned to our patience those that have had least sensible rewards in this life if there be such a thing as degrees of glory may expect some of the highest seats and mansions of glory in that life which is to come But I shall add no more to this Observation SERMON XXX Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Go on yet in my observations concerning the Actual Providence of God and that more especially in dealing out distributive justice recompensing the righteous and the unrighteous I observed the last time that it is a thing very ordinary with Divine Providence to proceed slowly in these distributions But by how much slower the punishment of a sinner or the reward of a good man cometh from the Lord by so much the greater both the one and the other is I now proceed to another Observation Observat 17. That the Providence of God is very quick in the distribution both of punishments and rewards unto some I shall discourse it first with relation to punishments and then with reference to the rewards of Providence First As to punishments The Apostle Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. 5.24 hath this expression Some mens sins are open before-hand unto judgement and some mens they follow after likewise also the good works of some are manifest before-hand and they that are otherwise cannot be hid I know it is a Text of which Interpreters give various senses as they understand it of the judgment of God some of them others of the judgement of men and amongst those who understand it of the later some understand it of the judgment of the Magistrate others of the judgment of the Church some of both these some of the judgment of God and the Ecclesiastical judgment also I shall not pretend to give the just sense of it I shall only allude to it in my discourse As there are some sins that are open and manifest with respect to the filth and guilt of them they do not hide their sin but proclaim it as Sodom they go to the Devil with a trumpet before them all the world takes notice of them others sin more secretly and slily and in corners So God as to some sinners sits in judgement presently Some indeed he is more slow with they are kept to the great Assize or for many years but he is
of sin the hearts of sinners are set in them to do evil because judgement is not executed speedily I indeavoured to discourage and check this presumption in my former observation where I confirmed to you that by how much the more slowly vindicative justice proceedeth to the punishment of sin by so much severer the punishment is when it cometh This Observation addeth further to that check for as that which men call slackness is but the long suffering and patience of God not willing that any should perish but that all should be saved by a seasonable repentance So as you have now heard at large discoursed to you neither is God thus long-suffering and patient with all and although God generally be more quick with those sorts of sinners which I have specified to you yet I desire you to observe what I first enlarged upon that there is hardly any kind or sort of sinners but God at some time or other hath picked out some or other of them to make them examples of his severity Thou maist be struck dead while the lye is in thy mouth It was the case you know of Ananias and Saphira Thou maist be cut off in the very Act of Adultery It was the case you know of Zimri and Cosbi Tremble therefore and do not sin God may grant thee many years of patience he may give thee leave to treasure up wrath to thy self against the day of wrath but thou canst not promise thy self an hours patience But above all fear those sins which God usually is so quick in punishing Fear blaspheming God or the King we live in a blaspheming age wherein have been more bold darings of God than in former times God hath revenged his glory upon some of them they have been cut off in their youth before they have lived out half their dayes If another generation riseth up and approveth their sayings wait but a while and you will see vengeance overtaking them also Fear doing any thing against the life of others who by the law of God ought not to dye Blood-thirsty men shall not live out half their days you fee Gods vengeance against this sin is very quick 2. This Observation affords a great encouragement to the service of God especially to eminent actings and sufferings for God There is a reward for righteous men if they go without it to their dying day yet they shall be recompensed in the generation of the just Heaven will pay for all but God doth not always take so long a day to recompence them Many have a reward in this life and that which is to come The Scripture is full of promises even of the good things of this life to godliness in the general and to the several parts and acts of godliness These promises indeed are not made good to every child of God in specie but only in equivalent yea transcendent mercies But even these promises are made good to many and they may be thy portion however thou shalt not miss of the greater things Particularly this layeth an engagement upon all that fear God as God calleth them to it and giveth them advantage for it to signalize themselves by eminent actings or by some eminent sufferings such you have heard God ordinarily payeth presently and besides that eternal recompence which they have in glory they are in more outward and sensible things or in more inward influences of grace recompensed in this life Those that eminently honour God he will honour and many of them have a double mess sent them from the Lord. SERMON XXXI Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am proceeding yet in my Observations upon the motions of Divine Providence that which we call Actual Providence in its administration of distributive Justice both in the punishment of sinners and the rewarding of the righteous Divers Observations I have already made I am come to the Observat 18. Which you may please to take thus That the Providence of God doth very ordinarily with the punishments of this life chastise the past and pardoned sins of people In the handling of which I shall 1. Justifie the Observation 2. I shall shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Providence and reconcile it both to the justice and goodness of God 3. Lastly I shall make some practical application of it That it is so I shall prove by two famous instances the first of David the second Job David you know had fallen into two grievous sins Adultery with Bathsheba and the murther of her Husband Vriah God sendeth the Prophet Nathan 2 Sam. 12. to David to convince him of his sin who doth it by a Parable Davids heart melteth v. 13. and he saith unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan tells him the Lord hath also put away thy sin The sin you see was both past and pardoned but mark what follows v. 14. Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the Child also that is born unto thee shall surely dye He had told him before v. 10. That the sword should not depart from his house and v. 11. That he would take his wives before his face and give them to his neighbour and he should ly with them in the sight of the Sun All this was afterward justified by the Actual Providence of God The Child died 2 Sam. 12.18 Amnon defloureth his Sister Thamar and is slain by her Brother Absolon 2 Sam. 13.14 29. Absalom Davids own Son lieth with his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel 2 Sam. 16.22 Absolom is slain in a rebellion against his Father c. Nay not only thus but God punisheth David with horrors and terrors in his mind with diseases in his body as you may gather from Psal 6. Psal 51. and the rest of those Psalms in which he expresseth his repentance David prayeth Psal 25.7 Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions Job complaineth unto God Job 7.2 3. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work so am I made to possess months of vanity I know the words are capable of another sense as vanity may be understood for affliction and misery or the frustration of his expectations but I should rather interpret it by the words of the same Job 13.26 27 28. For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the sins of my youth c. Moses and Aaron sinned against the Lord at the waters of Meribah I do not think that any of you doubt but that God pardoned their sin yet it is certain that God punished them and that for that sin God himself tells them so Deut. 32.50 51. That the Providence of God doth this is evident The second thing may seem to have more difficulty in it viz. How this is reconcileable either to
Application recapitulate a little 1. For the sins of others which we see permitted in the World 1. Let us be quickened upon the view of them to adore the patience and long-suffering of God Dost thou hear a wretch curse and blaspheme and profane the great and dreadful name of God and defie the God of Heaven challenging his own damnation and doest thou see God suffering him to live from year to year and to go on in this course Doest thou see another in the heighth of rage against the people of God endeavouring if it were possible to root out all Religion and dayly devouring those that are more righteous than himself Let it help thee to recognize the patience of God do thou upon occasion of others profaneness and blasphemy give God the glory of his patience Let it make thee many a time reflect and say O what a patient God is the God in whom I trust he seeth these vile wretches he could as easily crush them as I with my foot can crush a worm yet he spareth them and with much long suffering endures the vessels of wrath fitted for Hell 2. Let the view of the sins of others which thou seest God permitting for his own wise ends make thee adore the wisdom of God Thou art posed to think what glory God can procure to himself from the profaneness and blasphemy of wicked men but God will certainly do it and would never suffer their profaneness if he did not know how to do it O! the infinite wisdom of God that can make the wrath of man to praise him Let thy heart be affected with that meditation 3. Again Doest thou see the world of sin that abounds doest thou hear of prodigious lusts blasphemies cruelties c. which make thy soul tremble Let God upon this occasion have the glory of his free-mercy and grace towards thy soul Bless God that he hath given thee another spirit Say Lord why was not I as one of these I had the same seed of sin in me my heart was as full of original lust and corruption as theirs Oh! what reason have I to adore the free grace of God that I am not as this beastly drunkard as this unclean wretch as this monstrous blasphemer If it had not been for free and rich grace I had been as bad as they It is that which made me to differ 2. But let God have glory from us upon the occasion of his so long suffering us to walk in our own ways Now that may be many ways let me a little particularly direct here also 1. Let it make thee live in a dayly admiration of free-grace both in pardoning thy former guilt and in renewing and changing thy heart This this is a work not for a rapture not for an hour or a day but for eternity It will doubtless be a great piece of our work when we come to Heaven to cry salvation to our God and to the Lamb. Blessing and glory and honour and wisdom and thanksgiving be to the Lord for ever and ever It should be much of our work upon the earth if we have either obtained the sense of the pardon of our sins or a good hope through grace you shall find St. Paul beginning most of his Epistles with such a blessing of God O you redeemed of the Lord you that are come out of a state of deep guilt you can never think nor speak enough what God hath done for your souls It is a great work of God and he doth his great works that they may be had in remembrance Let God have some glory from thee for pardoning those sins by which he hath been much dishonoured by thee and as for his pardoning so for his sanctifying grace Admire God bless God upon the view of thy former hard heart profane and unclean spirit say Ah Lord that ever such an Ethiopian as I was should through grace change my skin that ever such a rebellious spirit should be made obedient such a profane wretch should ever have an heart toward Heaven that ever one that loved his lusts so well as I have done should be taught of God to love him and fear him and delight in him that a Saul should be amongst the Prophets a Paul a persecutor a blasphemer should be amongst the Apostles a Mary Magdalen should wash her Lords feet and be so humbled as to wipe them with the hairs of her head the offering up of these praises glorifieth God 2. Let thy former sins make thee more abundant in penitential tears and in confessions of thy sin unto God God delighteth to hear a soul acknowledg its iniquities and take shame to it self Let thy reflection upon thy former ways make thee with Peter to weep bitterly make thee go alone and confess thy sins unto him that hath forgiven them the more vile thou makest and ownest thy self the more thou glorifiest God as a God of free grace and infinite mercy 3. Let thy former sins ingage thee to love God more Hath much been forgiven thee O love much Say with thy self O I can never love God enough I can never do enough for him I that have done so much against him I that have been so profane so vile that have spent my youth and strength in the service of my base lusts and pleasures and am yet received to mercy at last What shall I render unto the Lord Let my burning love to God and whatsoever beareth his image and superscription make some amends for my burning lusts which had consumed my poor soul if God had not mercifully quenched them 4. Let thy former sins and thy reflections upon them make thee to walk softly and humbly with God all the days of thy life Doest thou find thy heart at any time begin to swell in an high opinion of thy self Say my soul What hath a sinner to be proud on what hast thou that hast been so filthy so polluted to glory in High thoughts become not one that hath been so dirty so polluted and unclean as thou hast been 5. Let your reflections upon your sins bring forth that brood of graces which the Apostle mentioneth 2 Cor. 7.11 Indignation carefulness fear vehement desires revenge Indignation at your selves for your former errors Anger never hath a truer object than when it is exercised upon our selves for our miscarriages Revenge a revenge upon our selves this doubtless lieth much in acts of mortification and self denial mens denying themselves in the lawful use of the liberty of those things which they had before smfully abused Fear a fear of again salling into such remptations as they had before been overcome with A Care in looking to your ways and vehement desires in all things to please God and to walk more perfectly before him 6. Finally You shall make an improvement of your sins if your reflexions upon your former sins both of omission and commission shall engage you to more frequent acts of homage to him to be
shall not fall Mat. 16.18 The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Psal 94.14 For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Mica 4.4 11 12. So quite through this Psalm there are many promises of the same import Now the work of faith is to perswade the soul of the certainty and undoubted verity of these words of God to settle the soul in this perswasion That sooner shall Heaven and earth pass away than any of these things shall fail which God hath spoken Then the work of faith is further to carry out the soul without any carping trouble or disputing to rest wholly upon these words A Christian seeth the word of God what he hath said for its relief now faith teacheth the soul to agree this as the word of him who cannot lye or repent and calleth upon the soul to trust in God for the fulfilling of it to roll it self upon the promise and to commit it self its cause its way unto the Lord the soul of a Christian is very solicitous and careful for the concern and interest of God in the world faith teacheth the soul to cast its care the burthen of its spirit upon the Lord assuring it that God careth for it Faith speaketh to the soul in the language of Solomon Eccles 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Justice and Judgment in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they I say this is a great piece of the Child of Gods duty in such a time when the vilest men are exalted and the wicked walk on every side and the people of God are troden under foot as the mire in the streets It is the Will of God concerning them The just shall live by faith This is the proper time for the exercise of Faith when the eye of sense faileth Faith is the evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for The proper operation of Faith is where sense faileth where God is trusted and not seen Blessed are they saith our Saviour who have not seen and yet believe This is Opus diei in die suo Though the people of God ought to be careful of all duty at all times yet they ought to have a special regard to the duty of their day the seasonableness of a duty addeth much to the weight and importance of it The foundations are shaken saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 4 What shall what can the righteous do Mark what follows The Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men This is that life which the Saints have lived yea and they have lived well upon it When David had lost all the Amalekites had taken Ziglag and in it all that he had 1 Sam. 30.6 the Text saith David encouraged himself in God the Truth Power and Goodness of God nor did he hope in God in vain as you shall read in that story What had Hezekiah to live upon but Faith when Sennacherib had besieged him with his mighty Army and ranted against him and the God of Heaven too after that rate you read What had all the Patriarchs all the Saints and Servants of God to live upon but Faith of whom you read Heb. 11. Nor is there any life which so glorifieth God as this it eminently glorifieth three Attributes of his his Power Goodness and Truth No man will trust in a bruised Reed or lean upon a broken Staff therefore the Apostle speaking of Abrahams faith Heb. 11. saith He believed that God was able to raise him from the dead and again Rom. 3 He believed that he who promised was able to perform It giveth God the glory of his goodness for the expectation of his soul is the Mercy and Goodness of God and it also giveth God the glory of his truth for the proximate object of Faith is the Word and Promise of God O therefore let this be your care when you cannot live by sense live by Faith It is the happiness of a Child of God he hath something to live on in the worst of times Psal 34.10 The young Lions shall be hunger-bit but there is no want to them that fear the Lord. One would think that of all creatures the Lion should be most out of danger of being hunger bit The Lion the King of the Forest all other Beasts are subject to this Beast yet if an old Lion that cannot run for its prey that hath lost much of its strength may be hunger-bitten one would think a young-Lion that is in its full strength should not Yes saith the Psalmist a young Lion may be hunger-bitten those that have most of the world wicked men that have greatest honours greatest power great advantages to provide for themselves they may be hunger bitten they may come to want but there shall be no want to them who fear the Lord there shall be no time so ill but they shall live if they cannot live upon bread they shall feed upon truth How much better is the estate of a godly man than that of his neighbour It is a great point this a great piece of duty Let me therefore a little further enlarge upon it three ways 1. Shewing you how a Christian may know if he liveth this life 2. Directing you in order to it 3. Perswading it by Arguments 1. Will some Christian say how shall I know if I live this life Suffer me to give you five or Six Characters of it 1. It is a Spiritual life Our life saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God What Christ sometimes said to his Disciples when they would have had him to have eaten something that a Child of God may say to all the world I have meat to eat you know not of His life is a spiritual life such is the life of Faith both with respect to the subject and to the object of it As to the subject of it it is the soul that lives the body lives by bread the soul lives by truth by the promise There are many that in evil days their bodies have enough to feed upon but their souls have nothing hence their hearts become like Nabals dead as a stone yea and as to the object it is spiritual too he that feedeth upon truth feedeth upon Jehovah It is the truth of God in the word which the soul liveth upon the soul of a Believer can no more live upon Words and Syllables than another soul No but it is the truth of God in these words his power and ability to perform what he hath said his inclination and good-will to the performance and his truth and faithfulness Every life in an evil day is not a life of faith some may live upon fancy and foolish hope some may live upon means with which their eye feedeth them another may live upon a Roman spirit of his own Tu
of it 494 495 496. How God is Just and Holy in punishing Sin with Sin what Sinnings so punished 547. to 561. Sins ordinarily but spotlesly used by Providence 329 330. Sinners not encouraged by it why 333 334. Sins What speedily punished 388 389 390 391 392. Silence how various what our duty what not 613 614. Slow motions of Providence to rewards and punishments most plentiful in the products 377. The reasonableness of such slowness 377 378 379 380 381. Small things of man what 221. Specialties of Providence v. Providence Special duty from whom due in consideration of Special Providence to them in what it lyes 128 129 130. to 156. Strengthening Grace against Temptations and sin 687 688. unto duty what how variously dispensed 689. How reasonably 690. The application of it 691 692 693 c. Sutableness to a work or Relation in what it lyes 424. Whence it is some are in relations not suted to them 425 426 427. Soul happiness in 3 things 591. Sufficient means of Grace in what sense all have it 650 651 652. In what sense they have it not 652 653. Proved that all have it not 653 654 655. Applyed 660. T Temptations of what sorts 684. Some more tempted than others 687. Whence it is 688. Why God suffers those to be tempted who he knows will fall in the hour of temptation 687. Means to be used in order to abating the force of the temptation 693 Arguments for Spiritual resistance 696 697 698. Thanksgiving Constant Solemn how evinced to be our duty from the Consideration of the influences of Providence 60. Threatnings ordinarily Justified when Gods Enemies are highest 205 206 207 208 209 210. Things good or evil what why good things are measured out by Providence to evil men and evil things to good men 582 583 584. to 595. V Varieties of Providence in the dispensation of the first Grace viz. Conversion 664. What varieties 665 666 667. a reasonable account of Variety in that as to time 668 669 670. As to means 673. As to manner 675 676. Vse of it 678 679 680. Varieties in dispensations of further Grace 681. What Grace 681. In what the Varieties lie or do not lie 682 683. Vertues upheld in creatures by which they serve others p. 72 73. Unsearchableness of Providence in its wayes 158 159 c. To Search and behold them our duty 160 161 162. How they are unsearchable 163. In the compass of them in the tendency track indications of them 164 165 166. Vse of that 167. W Waiting for God patiently what it implyeth 613 614 615 616. Several things recommended in order to it 616 617 618. Pressed by Arguments 618 619. How a duty resulting from a Consideration of Divine Providence 56 57. Wayes of God misjudged from what causes 517 518. Widows poor and fatherless obliged to praise the Lord 296 297. Wisdom Spiritual how to be learned from Gods Providential dispensations 175 176 177 178. Wisdom to sobriety cammended 167 168. Will of God the alone cause of Grace 620 621 622 623. Wicked men why suffered to devour such as are more righteous than they 596 597 c. It is just with God and reasonable 597 598 599. What use we are to make of it ibid. Et seque To the Reader WHat the Poet saith of men None lives without some errors He is best that hath fewest it 's true concerning Printed books Whoso considereth how much intension is required to the writing composure for the Press and correcting of so many Words and Letters as a Book of this bulk hath will easily conclude it a matter of no easie atchievement for any but tolerably to acquit themselves and must be very uncharitable if he will not give some allowances for the want of some letter in a word or the transposing of a letter or the mistake of a Point the want of a little particle or needless doubling of it being but common infirmities of a quick Pen or Press But there are some others of which I must give thee some account The Author who intended no more than the general Title to run through the leaves of the whole Book must not be charged if the Title of any leaf be not so properly set as he would have done who best knows the matter that business was done by another hand not knowing the Authors mind and finding the top of the pages without titles 2. Two Presses being imployed for expedition the Printer not casting the sheets punctually that he turned off to another thou wilt find a disorder in the figures of the pages from 594 to 601. The number of Sermons also miscounted next 45 follows 48 Sermon but that is supplied in the matter of the Sermons preceding 45. 2 of them making 4 but not distinguished by the Printer The Errataes troubling the sense are very few the greatest in p. 108. l. 21. These following the Author desires thee to be charitable to him and the Printer for ERRATA PAge 56. l. 9. r. suspicious 58. l. 7. r. but yet 75. l. 17. blot out he hath 66. l. 20. r. every tyde 68. l. 7. r. in it l. 16. r. not God 108. l. 21. r. Subdued so as the greater 120. l. 6. r. unà 121. l. 5. r. and cannot 126. l. 30. r. restraining 192 l. 5. r. Scrabling 200. l. 6. blot out think 211. l. 23. r. mens bearts 221. l. 31. r. of the land 222. l. 20. blot out of 226. l. 21. r. Asa 243. l. 5. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 252. l. 21. r. Adapting 328. l. 25. 26. r. rapacious 340. l. 18. r. Jotham was l. 29. r. tracked Grace is 341. l. 13. r Dives had a right 349. l. 3. r. despond 355. l. 23. r. as to find 373. l. 28. r. he hindred 416. l. 30. r. taking away 451. l. 32. r. evil thou maist not eat 488. l. 23. r. Stith 512. l. 9. r. Paris 530. l. 24. r. habits of Grace 530. l. 29. r. Gods Command 547. l. 22. blot out repeated 563. l. 14. r. Sinnings 568. l. 33. r. feigned such 583. l. 26. r. it is l. 31. blot out to good men l. 37. r. justifie God in 586. l. 48. r. infortunis 587. l. 11. r. Nierem 594. l. 11. r. is a temptation 597. l. 25. r. roil 604. l. 25. r. roiling l. 39. r. have 605. l. 18. r. high nature l. 13. r. heirs l. 21. r. add to this l. 37. r. roil his 606. l. 7 6. r. fourth terme 610. l. 28. r. Sense which is 602. l. 32. r. hence it is 606. l. 23. r. his Children 607. l. 3. r. extent of 620. l. 4. r. this temptation 619. l. 3. r. is that 621. l. 1. r. was Ishmael l. 37. r. particular nation 630. l 6. r. of the Gospel 634. l. 26. blot out aphonimy of 636. l. 36. r. Severely 643. l. 18. r. not come 644. l. 16. r. play So the man might l. 21. r. improveth 647. l. 24. blot out about 656. l. 6. r. no need 661. l. 3. r. Swasion 673. l 9. r. by thee 678. l. 27. r. wish any to 679. l. 38. r. make men 682. l. 18. blot out for 683. l. 1. r. by God 690. l. 9. r. delighteth 693. l. 8. r. as sweet 696. l. 19. r. by himself 714. l. 18. r. presently apt