we have conquered should rally their Forces assault us afresh and sometimes prove too many for us and often so terrifie us as to make the Victory hazardous so that we are fain to cry out with the great Apostle O wretched creatures that we are who shall deliver us from this body of Death Who shall deliver us from the Tyranny of our impetuous Lusts which are always labouring to get the Rule over us and would lead us captive into the Gates of Death We have not strength enough in our selves nothing but the Grace of God and the cherishing Influences of his Holy Spirit will enable us to get the Mastery over our own Rebellious Appetites So difficult it is for the Spirit to conquer the Flesh and to drive Satan out of his strong-holds who will dispute every Pass and contend every point with us and never yield while we allow him the least encouragement O what fears must be injected into the hearts of faint and timorous Christians by their being constantly plyed with such implacable Adversaries To serve God indeed is their real desire and they love him with all their hearts but despair holding out under these furious and hourly attacks of the Powers of Hell They dread they shall fall away in this day of heavy tribulation and would give all they were worth to be secured from the danger and trouble of their Temptations Now in the next world these Sorrows and Fears and Dangers which are here so frightful and so constant will all be at an end And what an undisturbed Peace and equality of Temper will the Mind possess when it is got past the hazard of all kinds of Temptation when the Flesh shall be entirely subject to the Spirit and make no further opposition to its reasonable dictates and there shall be nothing which can raise the least commotion or disorder within it but it shall abide in an uninterrupted course of Innocence and behold all its Enemies lying slain before it as the Israelites did with Joy and Triumph look back upon the drowned Egyptians floting on the Red Sea And as we shall be freed from the Power of Sin so we shall get rid of all the Vexations Grievances and Miseries of this world many of which are the natural fruit and proper effects of our sins We shall be strangers to the drudgery and labours which are so necessary to get a Livelihood in this earthly state and to all the fears and cares which are needful to preserve our Gains and to convey thâ—m down safe and entire to our Children and Posterity Neither Poverty nor Contempt nor Disgrace will threaten us neither the Covetousness of men will lessen our Plenty nor their Perverseness disturb our Peace nor their Cruelty bring any Hardship upon us We shall meet with no Difficulties to perplex our Thoughts nor Dangers to exercise our Fears but abide in a state of perpetual Love and Friendship with all our fellow-creatures And as in the Regions of Heaven we shall get above the Power of Temptation the Malice of ill men and all the Calamities of the lower World so shall these infirm crazy and fading Bodies which stand in need of daily supplies to repair their decays and which minister fuel constantly to our Passions be changed into Incorruptible Heavenly and Immortal ones which will not solicite and make the Soul uneasie with their hunger nor clog and burden it with their weight nor discourage and grieve it with their gross and melancholly fumes nor spot and defile it with their Lust We shall know nothing more of Diseases nor Pains and Aches nor Hunger nor Thirst They hunger no more neither thirst any more for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living Fountains of Waters Then we shall be clothed with Robes of Beautiful Light and the Righteous shall shine as the Stars of the Firmament for ever In that Holy Place our Desires will be gratified our Appetites will have full satisfaction our highest expectations will be answer'd and all our hopes turn'd into Fruition But notwithstanding every capacity of our nature will be filled with its proper pleasure yet they shall never be glutted but as the Favours of Heaven increase so will our Faculties be more and more enlarged to receive them And although there shall be no end of our Joys yet their perpetual abode will never cloy us who shall to all Eternity be improving into a greater Likeness of God and still attain thereby to a higher and more quick and sensible Relish of our Heavenly Delights Then we shall be admitted into the most desirable and pleasing Company We shall converse with Angels and be of the Society of all the Holy Men who have been so renown'd in their Generations and have set those admirable Examples of Godliness and Virtue There we shall sit down by our nearest and most dear Relations whose departure hence was so terrible and grievous to us by our best Friends Neighbours and Acquaintance and love and rejoice together and praise the Lord for the great good which by our mutual Piety we did one to another O then we shall behold the Glorious Face of our Ever-Blessed Redeemer who sacrificed his own Blood to rescue us from the Power and Guilt of our Sins and to bring us into this most illustrious Habitation And that which swallows all the Powers of our Imagination we shall come into the Presence of the great and mighty God and see him as he is and for ever be taken up in rapturous contemplations of the inconceivable brightness and splendor of his Infinite Majesty Now when we duly consider that these shall be the unexpressible Rewards of our slight and short Afflictions will it not appear most just and reasonable that we should submit to the Will of God in all things As nothing will tend more to God's Glory so nothing will agree more with our Interest or more produce true Comfort and Peace in our Minds than thankfully to receive all that God gives and patiently and meekly to bear the loss of all he takes away who will so infinitely recompence all our sufferings for his sake in the next life And since God has provided such Joys for our Souls in the other State O that he would quicken our Desires and help our Endeavours to prepare our selves for them Seeing he hath been pleased to chuse our Bodies for Temples for his Holy Spirit to dwell in O that he would free them from all Malice and Impurity and chase away every strange and filthy Lust from his chosen Habitation O that we might have so lively a sense of the Goodness of the Lord and of the Infinite Advantage we shall gain therefrom as not to give sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our eye-lids until from the bottom of our Hearts we had repented of every sin until we had worked up our Souls to an utter hatred of it and obstinately resolv'd to
want and distress but also that he has both the Power and the Will to relieve or deliver all those who make their humble supplications unto him Did afflictions happen by meer Chance we should not know how to behave our selves under them we should have no encouragement to bear them Patiently nor skill to make a due Provision for those which may seize upon us hereafter and turn them into a benefit to our Souls But when we know from whence they come and that our Cup how bitter soever it be was mingled by the merciful hand of our Most Gracious Father for the Health of our Souls with what readiness and courage shall we stoop to our Burden and what an humble and heavenly Temper shall we attain by our Sufferings Did not God know us or take notice of our Lives how could he now Govern the World or Judge it hereafter Insomuch as there is no calling the truth of the Doctrine of Providence into question without striking at the foundation of all the Arguments for Divine Worship for the Fear and Service of God for Trust in his Mercy and hope in his Assistance and without putting an end to every reasonable thought about future Rewards and Punishments But though there be a great deal of Malice in the objections against Providence yet upon little examination they will be found weak and such as cannot shake the belief of any who will impartially consider them 'T is objected That for God to have the care of all things upon him would disturb his Peace and that for him to condescend to observe the actions of trifling Man and to have a regard to the small and vilest parcels of the World would be below the dignity of his Glorious Majesty The weakness of this Objection which is so much flourisht by the Epicureans lyes herein That they suppose God to be like unto men who can hardly transact any affair wisely without much thinking who cannot be concern'd in many things together without great disquiet and trouble Now the trouble uneasiness irresolution and difficulty which men find in much or great business does arise from their faculties being stinted they are fain to turn things up and down in their thoughts and to work their brains with long consideration before they can resolve what is fit to be done and after they have resolved they are as much at a loss for means to accomplish their designs But what is more evident than that the boundless Power Wisdom and Knowledg of God cannot be exposed to any of these Objections and Difficulties Therefore to disown Providence in the plain consequence of things is to deny the existence of an Infinitely perfect Being And though we may bear with such a sorry Objection as this in the Epicures who were so vain as to ascribe the Original of the World in which do appear so many of the marks of deep Skill and Wise contrivance to a Fortuitous concourse or casual jumble of Atomes yet it would be intolerable in Christians who profess heartily to believe God to be Maker of Heaven and Earth to hold that he should not think the things Worthy of his Care and Protection which he once thought Worthy of his Making or that he should meet with Difficulties and Troubles in Governing the World who found none in Creating it As the firm Belief of Providence is of vast concernment to our Souls so the Spirit of God has made many declarations of it and fully set forth all the parts thereof in Holy Scripture not only how God is pleased to engage himself in making provision for the Children of men but how his care does extend to the smallest Creatures and the meanest parts of the Creation We are taught not only that the Rational Beings do live and move and subsist by the Goodness of their Maker but that he condescends to feed the little Sparrow and to cloath the fading Lillies of the Field and even to number the slender Hairs upon our Head Furthermore in the Word of God is set forth all the sorts of Instances in which the Divine Providence does manifest it self to men who seem to be the extraordinary Objects of God's Care and Love There an account is given how God concerns himself in our Birth and first Production that he makes the barren Woman to be a joyful Mother of Children that it is he that takes us out of the Womb that he is our Hope and our whole Dependance is upon Him from the time we hung on our Mothers Breasts and that the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings set forth the Praise of his Providence That the Divine Providence doth not only exercise it self about particular Persons but reaches unto Societies and Communions and takes Cities and Nations within it's special Cognisance that both their Prosperity and Sufferings come from him that except he keep the City the watchman waketh but in vain and that no Evil happens there but he hath done it and that he ever makes them to Flourish or Decline in proportion to their Virtues or their Sins the universal good of the Creation being the great design and measure of his Providence The Holy Scriptures sometimes acquaint us with those parts of Providence which relate to God's Infinite Knowledg and the Righteousness of his Dealings that nothing which we do or think can be hid from Him but that all lies open and naked to the Presence of Him before whom we stand that exact observation is made of every turn and design in our Lives that he seeth all under the whole Heaven and looketh unto the ends of the Earth that our whole behaviour is as it were registed in a Book that at the great Day of Judgment this Book shall be open'd and we be Sentenc'd to Everlasting Happiness or Misery according as our Lives shall from thence appear to have been Good or Evil. In our Bibles we learn that God suffers Afflictions to fall upon his own People and are there shewn the just reasons of those Proceedings of his which at first view seem'd hardly consistent with his immense Goodness and that all things in the end shall work together for the good of them who love him There we also learn that the Preservation and Continuance of Life is not in our power and that length of days does not depend upon our care and skill but that God keeps the issues of Life and Death in his own hand and we never by any means can be assured how long we have to live who see the days of the weak and sickly sometimes extended to very old Age and they of strong Constitutions and of firm and vigorous healâ—h lopt off in their green Years and full Strength and all this that we may never presume to set Death at a great distance from us but manage the present time prudently and circurnspectly and not rely upon infinitely contingent Futurity in the great Affair of our Souls for the due care of which we were sent
OF THE VVisdom and Goodness OF PROVIDENCE TWO SERMONS Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On AUGUST 17 and 24 MDCXC By JOHN MOORE D.D. Rector of St. Andrews Holborn and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties Published by Her Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for W. Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet MDCXC OF THE VVisdom and Goodness OF PROVIDENCE TWO SERMONS BEFORE THE QUEEN Proverbs iii. 6. In all thy ways acknowledg him IT would not be easie for men with little Temptation to be drawn into great Sins if they were fully perswaded that God was present did behold the Affronts they were putting upon him and would call them to a strict account for them Neither would good Christians be so affrighted with the remote appearances of danger and sink so quickly under Affliction had they a firm belief that God was ever nigh them and ready to deliver and support them Those Holy Persons who accustom themselves to conceive God always present as they dread doing the least evil or neglecting any part of their Duty so the most terrible and cruel Attempts of the Wicked cannot make them withdraw their Dependance upon the Divine Providence or renounce the hopes they have in God's Mercy So that the Boldness and Security which does appear in bad men and the unreasonable and groundless Fears to be found in some Christians do both chiefly proceed from their want of a hearty Persuasion of the Omnipresence of God who observes their whole Behaviour and will certainly punish Sinners but protect and preserve his Servants Nothing then will more suppress Wickedness and dismay and terrifie Sinners than frequent Meditations upon the Divine Presence and nothing would so uphold our Spirits in all Conditions as to let it be our daily Practice to think of the unerring Providence of God which disposes all Affairs and Events by wise Rules and sends Good or Evil to men according as the circumstances of their present state do require and ever with a design to make them the better thereby If therefore men did believe that God governed the World and ordered all the Affairs thereof they could not ascribe the issue of things to their own Power and look upon the Prosperity of their Condition to be the effect alone of their own Wisdom and good Management Neither would they think that those Pains Losses and Calamities came by Accident and Chance which God sent on purpose either to try their love or to reform their Manners or to punish their Sins for an example to others It must much abate the Bitterness of Afflictions and Losses to be convinced that they who are humbled under them who bear them meekly and dutifully do submit to the Pleasure of God will thereby greatly improve the Graces and Virtues of their Soul and shall receive some extraordinary Blessing from the hand of God the relish of which will be much heighten'd by their past sufferings So as in due time they shall see good reason for that Calamity which was at present so grievous unto them They then who think God does not concern himself in the Affairs of the World nor regard the Lives of Men can never truly Reverence him nor Worship him sincerely but whereever there is a vigorous belief of Providence it will always be followed with the Love and Fear of God That therefore in the course of our Lives we may set the Lord before us and direct our Designs to his Glory that we may use the Goods he gives us discreetly and temperately and when he afflicts us that we may be patient quiet and humble and without Murmur or Complaint make an entire Resignation of our selves and of all we have unto his Righteous Will that we may be grateful for his Mercies and in all our ways acknowledg him and think of him I shall take leave to propose these following things to your Consideration 1. That nothing can come to us through the whole Course of this Life without the Order or Permission of Providence 2. That we should sometimes receive Evil from the Hand of God as well as good is very agreeable to his Wisdom 3. That if we equally consider things God's Goodness and Mercy will appear in our greatest Sufferings 1. That nothing can come to us through the whole course of this Life without the order or at least the permission of Providence When God had made the World he did not leave it to shift for it self without any farther regard of it But his Power does as truly appear in the Preservation and Government thereof as it did in its Creation What he thought fit for his Power to give Being and Life to he thinks becoming his Goodness and Wisdom to uphold and preserve as judging all the works of his Hands worthy of his Providence and Care So that there is not any thing which does come by inflexible Fate or depend upon the uncertainties of Fortune But God does look down upon every work he beholds the carriage of all his Creatures he perpetually supports the order among things and directs the whole course of Nature in such just manner as shall serve for the greatest good and happiness of the Creation and most illustrate his own Glory This all follows plainly from the Nature of God which consists in infinite Perfection but the denying of Providence or the supposal that matters go in the World either by Fate or Chance is most repugnant to the Blessed Nature of God and does contradict almost every one of his Attributes and Perfections who could not be Almighty if there was any Power independent upon his who would not be infinitely Wise if he Govern'd the vast productions of his Power by no Laws whose Goodness would not be boundless if he had no care of those who Loved Him if he did not rescue those who suffer'd for his sake whose Knowledg would not be immense if he did not see all that was acted in the World if he was not an observer of the words and deeds but also privy to the very thoughts of his Creatures Without all things done under the Sun lay open to the Divine view why should the Good hope in God's Mercy or the Wicked tremble at his Justice If he did not at all mind the ways of men they would have no motives to Love him nor reason to Fear they should fall under his displeasure by acting the most horrid Impieties Prayer is the primary Duty of Christians the great Instrument by which they obtain a supply of all necessaries Bodily and Spiritual and the chief support of their Minds in Trouble whereby they compose themselves to endure the sharpest Sufferings and become conquerors of their strongest Temptations But if God has no Knowledg of the affairs of this World the reason and very foundation of Prayer will be destroyed which supposes that God knows all the Circumstances of our particular case and does not only hear us when we call upon him in our
feet and address their Cause wholly to his Mercy David a Man after God's own heart openly confesses to him If thou Lord will be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it i. e. If God should reckon with the best Man in the World for his Sins and pass Sentence upon him according to his demerits his Punishment would be intolerable Therefore he flies to his Compassion Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Job who being assaulted with many violent Temptations and harass'd with a number of bitter Calamities yet sinned not durst not however stand upon his own Integrity or think he could make a compleat defence of his Life to God For in answer to his Friend who had wisely observed That mortal Man could not be more just than God or more pure than his Maker he says I know it is so of a truth but how should man be just with God or if he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand Jeremiah after he had made a large List of the Troubles and Calamities of God's People charges no Injustice upon him as if he had treated them more severely than their Case deserv'd but quite otherwise he humbly acknowledges That it was due to the Divine Goodness that they fared no worse It is the Lord's mercy we are not consumed because his compassions fail not And of this the Prophet gives a good reason because Life and all a Man enjoys by that capacity which is preferable to nothing is the free grant of God Wherefore doth a living Man complain a Man for the punishment of his Sins i. e. While a Sinner has Life he hath more than he can claim and therefore hath no cause to find fault with any smaller evil that God corrects him with for his crimes 3. We must acknowledg the Divine Goodness in our Losses and Sufferings when we consider that in the Gospel there is no express Covenant obliging God to bestow temporal prosperity upon Holy Men. In the Christian Religion there is no absolute promise of worldly Power Honour or Wealth even to them who do perform the Conditions thereof And if God has not tied himself to preserve the Saints always in a flourishing state Shall they who are wicked expect it from him Shall the Sinners demand that as justly belonging to them which he has not made a debt to the best of his Servants Wherefore if God be under no obligation in the Gospel to bestow a greater share of the things of the World which are by Men so fiercely sought after than what is necessary to Life he does not in depriving us of any of our superfluities break any one Condition of the Covenant between us since the smallest Secular conveniency in our possession is more than we can claim or than he contracted for Our Saviour was so far from making any engagement That they who are his Disciples should all be Rich or Rulers or Men of interest in the World that he has declared Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Houses and Lands must all be forsaken where they cannot longer be had without doing dishonour to his Holy Name or breaking the Laws of his Religion And because upon account of their Relations or Riches or Power Men would meet with the most prevailing temptations to transgress the Precepts of the Gospel it is that Christ does pronounce That it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of God May we not then be sure that Christ would not encourage his Friends to hope for a constant and steddy current of Plenty and Honours and Pleasure when these things powerfully draw their affections from him and tempt them to blot him out of their thoughts His Kingdom being of another World none of the Glories of this are necessary to the attainment of it And as we do not find that our Lord made any promise to Christians of an abundance of things highly valued by the Men of this World so neither do we observe that he treats Great Men with more respect or gives them cause to expect they shall have kinder usage or receive more favours from him than the Poor and those of low Rank He has made no special Promises to the Rich and Celebrated and Popular Persons But the Beatitudes descend upon the Heads of Men of quite other Qualification Not their outward Circumstances but the holy dispositions in their Souls procure and fetch down his Blessings He blesses the Humble the Poor in Spirit the Holy Mourners the Meek they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness and earnestly desire to fulfil God's Just and Good Will the Merciful the Pure in Heart the Peace-makers and they that suffer Persecution and are evil spoke of by all for Righteousness sake And hence it follows that no body by reason of their Wealth or Honour are greater objects of Christ's love or come more within the Verge of his Care but that men of mean and contemptible state are as much under the Protection of his Providence as those of highest Quality have as plentiful a Portion of his Grace and stand in as near a capacity to the Kingdom of Heaven Had our Lord come into the world incircled with all that Pomp and Power which the Jews expected the Messias should appear with as he could have been no Example of Sufferings to his Followers so would they have been tempted to arrive at some degrees of their Master's Glory and have set their Hearts upon the Greatness and Splendors of the present state when it was so principal a part of his work to teach his Disciples to neglect and despise them Since then the Possession of a large Portion of worldly Goods is no part of the Bargain Jesus Christ made with men in his Religion who only promises a Supply of the Necessaries of Life and since men for the most part have more than what is barely necessary to sustain them they must acknowledg their great Obligation to the Divine Goodness with respect of the fulness and ease of their condition here upon Earth How much men under the Christian Law owe to the Bounty of God more than by the terms of it they could demand is plain notwithstanding you suppose them to perform every condition of the Gospel and to live in a state of innocence but look upon them what really they are as vile sinners and then in God's usage of the greatest Sufferers enough will appear to clear the Justice of his dealings and to convince them who complain most bitterly That he has been Gracious and corrected them with Mercy But further When we reflect upon the utter averseness of the world to the designs of Christ's Religion and the deep Malice which it bears against those who sincerely profess it as we shall see reason to believe and expect that those who