are humbly and meekly managed there is nothing imaginable of greater advantage to settle and ground the Soul in truth For after them the Soul gives assent to Propositions not as Dictates of others and Traditions of men but because it seeth certain and unmoveable grounds upon which they are bottomed and hears those things made to appear of no value which are objected and can be said to the contrary and so becomes rooted and grounded in the faith as the Apostle speaketh Truth yet never lost in the end by any shaking but hath come out of every field a Conqueror Magna est veritas praevalebit It is great and it will prevail at last Different Apprehensions of Propositions especially when they have been amongst such as truly feared God have ordinarily caused great searchings of the Scripture ventilation of Arguments and tended much to the furtherance of the Faith although at present they have made but ill founds and noises in the Church of God 2. The Wisdom of God is much seen in permitting these Diversities To convince us that The Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approveable to Men Rom. 14.17 18. It is a great vanity in men to entail Religion yea and the Kingdom of Heaven too to a particular opinion yet we are so vain as we should most certainly do it if God by his Providence did not so order it that we should see many of whom we cannot say but that they fear God and walk closely with him yea that they are more righteous than our selves of different opinions and judgments from us in some particular things you cannot but observe in the world how fond and zealous some persons are for a particular opinion more than for the great things of Righteousness and Holiness which are certainly the far more weighty things of the Divine Law and how warm and zealous and bitter men are more against their Brethren for their differences from them in some matters of opinion wherein if they sin yet their sins proceed from meer infirmity and the weakness of their understandings must be sins of the least magnitude for it is not in the power of man to believe what he will than against those that are open and notorious transgressors of the Law of God in things as to which every man is condemned by his own Conscience 3. Thirdly The Wisdom of God is much seen in the permission of these different apprehensions in the Souls of his own People In his thus directing us to the exercise of charity We use to say That Precepts lead us to Duty but Examples draw us There is no duty more pressed upon us in Scripture than the duty of Charity and Brotherly Love nor any to which our hearts prejudiced by Pride Envy and Lust are more awke the heart of man naturally seeks some higher ground on which he may stand and triumph over his Neighbour and be able to say in this or that thing I am better and God! I thank thee I am not as others are amongst other things it sometimes finds an Opinion which it Christens with the name of Orthodox Catholick Truth and this shall distinguish him all that dissents from him shall be Hereticks or Schismaticks or Ignorant Persons he and his party onely shall make up the Catholick Church others know not the Law if you will believe him and are accursed Now though this may prevail very far with men of Carnal Principles and Designs yet when Gods People see that those who differ in some particular opinions from them yet walk so as they dare not but say God hath loved and accepted them this overcometh their hearts into their duty Should not say they we love those whom our Heavenly Father loveth Who are Sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus Christ as well as we Justified by the Grace of God and Sanctified through the Holy Spirit even as we It were an easie thing to assign many other things wherein the Wisdom of God is apparent in this permission of different Apprehensions of Truth in the Souls of his own People as to shew us our weakness and the imperfection of our state and what need we have to be daily flying to him to teach us and to guide us c. But this is sufficient both to have given you a reasonable account of the thing it self and also of the motion of Divine Providence in the permission and allowance of it I shall now shut up this whole Discourse with a few words more for the practical Application of my whole Discourse upon these five last Questions which to shorten my Discourse I have handled together The sum of my whole Discourse is this That God according to his infinite Wisdom never did nor yet doth unto the Souls of his own People dispense out equal measures of Grace 1. Strengthening them to Spiritual Duty Nor 2. Quickening them in the performance of it 3. Nor Comforting and refreshing their Souls with the sensible consolations of his spirit 4. Nor causing them all alike to grow nor giving them equal degrees of light to discern the truth of Propositions of Truth and then that these motions of Divine Providence are exceeding reasonable and God in them is infinitely wise and just the evidencing of this hath been all my Work Which I have done from several Topicks My whole Application shall be reduced to two Heads shewing you how useful this Discourse may be for the promoting of 1. Charity towards men 2. Of Piety towards God The later is indeed first in excellency I have put it in the last place because I intend my largest Discourse upon it and with it to shut up this whole Discourse concerning Actual Providence ' This whole Discourse must certainly teach us Charity towards men and that particularly toward such as we discern Vse 1 1. Weak unto their spiritual duty 2. More dull and heavy in the performance of it 3. Sad and dejected 4. Not growing so fast in the wayes of God as others 5. That dissent from our selves in some matters opinions that are not fundamental Towards all these we had need of an Exhortation to Charity Censoriousness and Judging are things that are too natural to us and to which we are too prone We judge others and in the mean time forget to judge our selves All this is indeed rooted in a Natural Pride We would fain find something in which we excel others for that onely will be matter of boasting and glory to us but this Discourse may learn us Charity The general argument arising from this Discourse is the same which the Apostle maketh use of in Rom. 14. v. 3. v. 1. He commandeth us to receive those that are weak in the faith though with prudence and caution not to doubtful disputations His argument is in the latter part of the third verse For God hath received
Lastly Reason creates in the soul at best but a faint assent to this Proposition That the worlds are made by God and still leaveth the mind under incertain fluctuations and doubts about it By faith we understand saith the Text we are not properly said to understand those things of which we have only a general confused indistinct knowledg and to which we only give an incertain languid assent The great Philosopher in the world as you have heard hath doubted whether the world were made at all or had an eternal existence Others whether it had not its Original from a casual concourse of Atoms infinitely vain have been unsanctified mens imaginations as in other things so concerning the Original of the world and optimus Philosophus we say non nascitur We are disputing still the most confessed conclusions which are no more than the structures of Reason So that indeed we are beholden to Faith to the Revelation of the word which is the object of Faith and to the habits of Grace habits of faith for the settlement of our minds in Propositions of truth It is but an auxiliary advantage as to Divine Propositions which Reason gives us our mind is not set at rest and settled by them A luxuriant wit and fancy maketh all the perswasion and confirmation of them from Reason very incertain Faith only brings the Soul to a rest about them and gives the soul a clear distinct certain notion and understanding of them By Reason we rather think and opine than understand and certainly know that the worlds were made by God But this is enough for the Explication I come to the Application of the Doctrine This in the first place may help to confirm our Faith concerning the Divine Being the Vnity of it Vse 1 and the Trinity of persons in it the worlds were made by God Then there must be a God whose being was pre-existent to the world and this God must be infinite in Power and in Wisdom The producing of things out of a not-being into a being required an infinite power the producing of such a variety of Beings many of which were furnished and adorned with such excellent perfections and qualities the kniting and joynting of all together and putting them in such an excellent subjection and subordination each to other required an infinite wisdom a wisdom paramount to any created wisdom yea above all the wisdom of the Creatures had all their wisdoms been united This being infinite in Power and Wisdom must be God In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Gen. 1.1 God alone spread out the heavens Job 9.8 He made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that therein is Yea thus the Lord proveth himself to be God I am the Lord and there is none other forming the light and making the darkness vers 7. And thus the true and living God standeth distinguished from Idols Jer. 10.11 The Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens He hath made the earth by his power he hath established the world by his wisdom and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion Thus the Apostle argues Heb. 3.4 Every house is builded by some but he that made all things is God yea and this God is one The uniformity of this great structure the beauty and order and subordination of all things in it do abundantly prove this by Reason But Faith yet more confirmeth it Mal. 2.10 Have we not all one father hath not one God created us Indeed as I before said the structure and fabrick of it sheweth that one will willed it one wisdom contrived and directed it and that one hand framed it And this one God is three persons the Father of whom are all things 1 Cor. 8.6 The Son by whom are all things for without him was nothing made that is made Joh. 1.3 By him he made the worlds Heb. 1.3 The Holy Spirit that moved at the first upon the face of the waters Gen. 1.1 Thou sendest forth thy spirit and they were created Psal 104.30 Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Hebrew Gods created I think it is well said of a grave Author Constans aliqua certa ratio pluralis numeri de Deo usurpati reddi alia nequit quam personarum pluralitas There can be no other steady certain reason given why the Hebrew word so ordinarily translated God should be in the plural number but to notifie to us the plurality of persons in the Divine Being all three are but that one God who made heaven and the earth The School-men determine right that there is an infinite space from nothing to something and therefore nothing but the infinite power of an infinite God could bring any thing out of a not-being into a being From hence we may easily conclude what a God we serve Vse 2 we serve him that made heaven and earth and consequently one who is 1. Infinite in power 2. Excellent in wisdom 3. Admirable in goodness and mercy 1. Infinite in Power and Greatness To produce the least thing and bring it out of a not-being into being as I argued before speaketh an unmeasurable infinite power What power doth it then require to produce all the various kinds and species of Creatures the great bodies of the Heavens and the Earth and all those great bodies in them both out of a meer nothing and not-being into an existence and being Ex magnitudine creaturarum Deus magnus intelligitur c. From the greatness of the Creatures saith Augustine we may understand the greatness of God What an infinite and immense God do we serve What nothings of being and of power must we be compared with him All the nations of the earth are to him as the drop of a bucket as the small dust of the ballance 2. Excellent in wisdom The contrivance of the fabrick and structure of the world speaketh this But what an abundance of wisdom hath the great Creator scattered up and down the Creation What a natural sagacity is not in man only but in many brute Creatures What abundance of moral prudence and discretion is observed and to be found in many earthly Princes Their Ministers of State and Counsellers and in others of an inferior order What infinite wisdom appears in joynting the world and making the several parts of it to fit and to serve one another and to compound the different qualities of creatures to the service each of other and of the Universe Oh the infinite wisdom of the only wise God! yet how little do we see of it 3. Yea and his infinite goodness also is apparent in the Creation of all things Whoso looketh upon the usefulness of the Creatures to each other their joynt subserviency to their end and particularly their usefulness and subserviency to
sin in the world hath infinitely magnified his own goodness It is the saying of a very ingenious Author Satis usui sunt scelera si artem peritiam divinae beneficentiae provocant Sin is of use enough to God in the business of his glory if by it the act and skill of the Divine Goodness and Bounty be made appear to the world the goodness and mercy of God is that Attribute of his which above all others he hath made choice of to glorify himself in and by it is that in which he delighteth which is above all his works Now without the permission of sin yea of the aboundings of sin it had been impossible that Divine Goodness and Bounty should have been so commended to the world Let me open this a little 1. Christs coming and dying for sinners was the greatest act of love that was ever shewed to the children of men What greater love could the eternal Father shew than to give his Son out of his own bosom to be a sacrifice for sins God so loved the world saith John 3 Chap. 16. that he gave his only begotten son Moralists make a question about taking the true measures of the magis and minus of love whether the greatness of love be to be measured from the affliction intention and self-denial of the party loving or the benefit redounding to the person beloved but measure which way you will it was the greatest love on the Fathers side and the greatest that Christ could shew for greater love than this hath no man shewed John 15. and herein God commends his love towards us Rom. 5.8 Besides the inhabitation of the spirit was a benefit of Christs death an effect of his purchase And what greater love could be shewed on the part of the Holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ than for it to come down and to dwell in the heart of a poor creature for the person of a believer to be made the temple of the Holy Ghost the receptacle of the Spirit of Grace Now if there had been no sin no sinners in the world what room had there been for a Saviour what needed one to have turned away iniquity from Jacob to have been wounded for our iniquities bruised for our transgressions He dyed for our sins saith the Apostle How could the love of the eternal Father in sending his Son or the love of the Son in taking upon him our nature and dying for us or the love of the Holy Spirit in sanctifying us and renewing us and dwelling in us been manifested to the world If a strong man had not kept the house what need had there been of a stronger than he to have come and dispossessed him All the love of the Father Son and Holy Ghost magnified in the business of mans Redemption and the whole Oeconomy of a Gospel-salvation had been conceal'd and not known to the world 2. Again How could the love of God in the conversion of sinners in the pardon of their sins in their justification the sense they oft have of his love have been manifested to the world What need were there of any pardon if no sins were permitted where were the aboundings of grace in pardoning if there were no aboundings of sin What love of God could be seen in the conversion of sinners if no sinners were permitted in the world How should God magnify his grace by saying to any soul Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee if he did not suffer sins to be committed Thus you see the greatness of Divine Goodness and Mercy could never have been declared to the world but for the motions of Providence in the permission of sins and sinners yea and of the aboundings of them 3. Did not the Actual Providence of God thus permit sin and much sin in the world How should the long-suffering and patience of God be magnified in the world This also is a piece of Gods Name and such a one by which he designeth to make himself glorious he stileth himself Exod. 34.6 Gracious merciful long-suffering slow to anger and Numb 14.18 The Lord is long-suffering and full of tender compassion Now sin and sinners are the objects about which the long-sufferance of God is exercised He endured with much long-suffering saith the Apostle Rom. 9.22 vessels of wrath fitted for destruction How often do we find this in our own experience when we hear wretches blaspheming God and daring Divine Justice how often are we ready to say and it is a good reflexion O what a patient God do we serve which of us would endure such affronts and defiances as God endureth every day The aboundings of sin in the world make the considerate part of the inhabitants of it admire and adore the long-suffering and patience of God 3. The wisdom of God is also wonderfully magnified by Gods permission of sin The Apostle calleth God the only wise God None so wise as God is and the wisdom of God is eminently magnified by his permission of sin One great business of wisdom is to make an Election of the best end but this is not that which I am here speaking to God hath fixed his end it is his own glory and as I have often told you he can aim at no other end than himself and his own glory But next to a good Election of an end wisdom is eminently seen in the choice and conduct of means in order to a proposed end but herein is the heighth of wisdom to be able to make use of the most unlikely means and make them to serve our purpose It is a point I have touched something largely upon in my former discourses upon this Argument and therefore I shall not here enlarge upon it To bring a not-being into a being to make a thing out of nothing argueth an infinite power though there be aliquid materiae something of a matter yet if there be nihilum subjecti no aptitude in the matter to produce an effect of that nature as when God took the rib of a man and made of it a woman this argued also an omnipotent infinite power But yet methinks for God to produce his glory out of the aboundings of sin argueth yet something more if not of power yet of wisdom to make the wrath of men to praise him and the lyes of men to glorify him O how doth this commend the infinite wisdom of an only wise God! Sin all sin is quite opposite and repugnant to the glory of God it speaks the great Wisdom of God to bring out his glory from it Thus God hath glory by accident from the permission and sufferance of sin in the world 4. But let me further shew how God is further glorified by reason of the aboundings of sin in the manifestation of his Justice his Punitive and Vindicative Justice Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted
VERA EFFIGIES IOHANNIS COLLINGS S.T.P. ANNO DOM 1678. AETATIS 55. Man 's but a shadow and a Picture is That shadow's shadow yet don't judge amiss Though here you onely on the shadow look What followes read The Substance is i'th'book R. White ad Vâ—â—um delin et sculp 167â— SEVERAL DISCOURSES Concerning the Actual Providence OF GOD. DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS The First Treating concerning the Notion of it establishing the Doctrine of it opening the principal ACTS of it Preservation and Government of created Beings With the particular Acts by which it so preserveth and governeth them The Second Concerning the Specialties of it the Vnsearchable things of it and several Observable things in its motions The Third concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hard Chapters of it in which an attempt is made to solve several appearances of difficulty in the motions of Providence and to vindicate the Justice Wisdom and Holiness of God with the reasonableness of his dealing in such Motions By JOHN COLLINGES D.D. LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and are to be sold by Edward Giles Bookseller in St. Andrews Parish in Norwich 1678. To the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Thompson MADAM I Beseech your Honour to believe me telling you that I have been these thirteen years ever since I had the happiness to know your Ladiship watching an opportunity as to let your Ladiship know the sense I have of the obligations you have been pleased to lay upon me so to let the world know the honour I have for your Ladiship growing up from my first observations of you which was in your Ladiships near approaches to and in your state of Widowhood I then observed Madam that your Ladiship like the child of so Honourable and pious Parents had very early entertained just noble and most honourable thoughts of the living God which had produced in you as early a choice of him as your God and of his ways as your ways with a zeal beyond the proportion which could be expected from your years Having therefore perfected the following Discourses I congratulated my self when I had thought of your Ladiship as a fit person to entitle to them and the rather because your Ladiship having not yet seen many years shall I hope have many days to observe the motions of Divine Providence both as to Polities and Persons and from thence both to conclude how true those few Observations are which I have made and to give some more eminent Divine many a subject more of this nature from your own observation Madam in the few years you have yet lived you have seen as many and as quick and inexpected rotations of Providence as the like number of years have at any time as yet produced or are like to produce and yet the wheel seems to run nimbly and a further multitude of years may add to your Ladiships wisdom in this thing I crave leave most humbly to recommend to your Honour as the observation of Issues so the confirmation of Divine Promises and Threatnings in the fulfilling of them I doubt not but your Ladiship will every day see that it is that God who cannot lye who hath commanded his Ministers at all times to say unto the righteous it shall be well with them for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings and to say Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with them for the reward of their hands shall be given them If Madam the actual Providence of God at any time seemeth to look another way it is but keeping your patient foot a while at the Promise and Providence like the Bee will come home to the word of Promise or Threatning bringing along with it a body laden with honey to reward the godly and righteous man and a sting to smite and pierce those through who have wrought wickedness and provoked a jealous God Our blessed Lord Madam tells us Joh. 17.3 That it is life eternal for men to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent The promise or predication in the proposition of that Text makes it evident that by the knowledg of the Father and Jesus Christ is meant more than the bare comprehension of the nature and things of God in our understanding as indeed knowledg and most other terms of sense do ordinarily signifie in Scripture the Greek complying with its elder sister the Hebrew which hath a great penury of words so that to know God and Christ in the true sense of that text is not only in our understandings to comprehend what may be and is necessary to be known of God but to adore love fear him believe in him to chuse him for our God In short it comprehends all those acts of our minds which are either just consequents or may rationally be inferred as duties from a just understanding and due comprehension of him but in regard according to the workings of our reasonable natures those acts will not indeed cannot be exerted without a praevious apprehension of him proportionable to what he indeed is and so as to make him an adequate object for our affections a just comprehension of God in our understandings is necessary in order to those other acts of internal homage wherein the Creature standeth indebted to his great Creator So that Solomon Prov. 19.2 did but conclude rationally That the soul should be without knowledg is not good And the great Apostle of the Gentiles askt but a reasonable question Rom. 10. How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard All Knowledg comes into the Soul either by the Exterior senses or by reasoning and discourse or thirdly by Divine impression and revelation The two former are the more ordinary the latter a rarer and more extraordinary means of knowledg in these latter days since God hath spoken to us by his Son I speak of Knowledg strictly taken for the comprehension of things in our understanding for if we take it in the large sense even now mentioned neither sense nor reason is a sufficient mean to it By sense we can directly comprehend nothing of God for who hath seen him at any time he is an Incorporeal immaterial substance and cometh not under the cognisance of any sense nor indeed can we so know any spiritual being but in regard the effects both of him who is the Father of Spirits and of spiritual beings that are creatures are sensible Our Senses afford us oft-times an auxiliary help from which our reason draweth just conclusions concerning God from Principles which it at first it establisheth by the help of sense For example That the World is and Man is are matters of sense Now Reason concludes Nothing unless a first being can be the cause of its own existence Hence it gathers there must be a God a first being and a first cause Again when Sense hath shewed us Man a reasonable creature Reason works and tells us He that made this noble Creature must needs be more noble
not make it self if one part of it did not make another it must be made by God The worlds comprehending Angels and Men sensitive and vegetative creatures these all having had a beginning and none of them being able to give being to another we must in reason find out a more powerful and excellent first being that must give being to all the beings in the world This first being is that glorious infinite being whom we call God In short he that further considereth the world in its structure and composition as one part is knit and united to another he that considereth the multitude of the creatures their magnitude the great and excellent powers vertues and qualities of some of them the Symmetry of the several parts of the world their subordinations each to other must needs in reason and by the force of that conclude That the worlds were made by God So that the Apostle's words must not be understood exclusively not as if we could no way but by faith understand this It may be understood by Reason and many that knew nothing of Faith yet confessed it and agreed it from the evidence of their Reason Yet is not Faith and Reason to be confounded Reason concludeth from connate natural principles Faith from acquired revealed principles neither evidence contradicteth each other We understand it by reason more darkly confusedly imperfectly faintly by faith we understand it more clearly distinctly more perfectly and fixedly By Reason we understand a little thereof by the Revelation of faith we understand it fully Let me a little further open this to you in three or four particulars 1. Reason rather sheweth us that the world then that the worlds are made by Gods It rather evidenceth to us the Creation of sublunary things which are subject to our senses whose natures and accidents we understand than of those things which are above the air Reason will evidence to us that the men of the world the beasts and plants are made by God but we see the wits of the world disputing whether there be any spirits or no Reason layeth hold upon the alterations and corruptions of sensible beings that have quantity and concludeth their Original from their corruptibility but when we come to speak of those Beings that have no quantity but are meerly spiritual and not subject to those changes and corruptions Reason is at a loss in a great measure here Faith Revelation which is the object of Faith must help us That teacheth us the worlds were made by God the world of invisibles and things not subjected to sense as well as the world of sensibles Reason will help us to conclude God the Father of all flesh but not that he is the Father of all spirits while it prompteth us to dispute whether there be any such Beings as Spirits yea or no. Reason would hardly have agreed such Beings as Angels if Revelation had not come in to make it a foundation to stand upon but by faith we understand it Supposing the holy Scriptures to be the Word of God it is clear enough there and we cannot agree to the Scriptures but we must agree to it both that there are such Beings as Spirits substances without sensible matter and that they were also made by God being some of those things in the Heavens of which God was the Creator 2. Supposing that Reason will tell us That the worlds were made by God yet it will not tell us That they were made by the Word of God Reason as I have before hinted will go a great way to perswade even an Aristotelian that the World was not from eternity but that it was made by a Divine omnipotent Being pre-existent to it insomuch that some of Aristotle's Disciples in other things here deserted him and took themselves so much concerned for their masters Reputation as to dispute whether he ever meant it yea or no. And the great Philosopher himself though he seemeth to have been fixed in his notion about the worlds Eternity in many places yet in some particular passages of his writings particularly in his Book De Generatione seems to have wavered disputing which way God went to work in making of the world And the fancies of the great Philosophers ran very wild in this point some will have it that he first made a Chaos or heap of confused matter and out of that heap all particular things as the Glass-man or Potter maketh his Vessels or the Brick-maker maketh his Brick and Tile as if it had not been as easie by one work for God to have made out of nothing all particular things as to have made a Chaos out of nothing that should in it potentially contain all the species of particular Beings Others would have that Heap or Mass call'd the Chaos to have been eternal out of which God produced all things so it should have been an improper Creation not ex nihilo materiae from a nothing of pre-existent matter but ex nihilo subjecti capacis from a nothing of a subject capable to receive such forms But that God produced all things out of a meer nothing or not-being of matter and by the word of his power gave a being not only to all particular forms of beings but to all matter and particular beings saying Let there be light and there was light let there be a firmament and it was so This is a thing Reason could never dream of never from any connate principles conclude it This faith tells us the Word of God revealeth to us Reason could never discern never conclude though it might conclude the thing that the worlds were made by God yet it could not conclude the modus or manner of the thing how God should do it or that he did it by the word of his power This we could not by reason comprehend or understand 3. Reason giveth us a confused general notion that the worlds were made by God but faith giveth us a distinct account of particulars the order manner and method of them Reason will tell us the world could not be eternal that it could not give an Original to it self that it must be produced by a more noble and excellent being But now for the circumstances of the Creation the order the time the manner that the world was created in six days that light was first created then the celestial bodies and then the terrestrial c. What was done the first day what the second what the third c. Reason tells us not Reason will tell us that the first man was Gods Creation for he could not be eternal he could not give being to himself he must be produced by a more excellent being but that the woman should be made of the rib of man That man should be made according to the Image of God That he was made the sixth day after the rest of Gods Works and had a Dominion given him over them This Faith learns us Reason telleth us nothing of it 4.
Lord than to put confidence in Princes 2. When there is a pretended confidence in God but not conjoyned with an holy walking nor with a due use of means Natural Moral or Religious take heed of such a security as this is That which I call a pious security is the fruit of a confidence in God When the minds of men upon the view of a Divine Providence are quiet and free from distractions and over-much sollicitude as to the events of things whether relating to the Church or to their own particulars This I say is every good Christians duty and if there be such a Divine Providence as I have been discoursing of to you it is the most reasonable thing in the world God is the highest rational Agent and must work for some ends and those the best the great end of his Glory the subordinate end is the good of his People Now if he hath in his working an influence on all beings all motions and actions all omissions suspensions and cessations of such motions all events c. Certainly that man or woman that loveth and feareth God and keepeth his way and hath used all proper means natural moral or religious in order to the obtaining of what he apprehendeth for Gods Honour the good of his Church or his own particular good he hath all imaginable reason to sit down quiet and be secure Affairs in the world are upon the wheels but those wheels are full of eyes God seeth all things and his hand is in and upon all things and hath his own ends in his eyes and a power to turn all things and to make them to serve his ends We may in the darkest day cry out Psal 76.10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise him and the remainder of wrath he shall restrain A good Christian may sit down having done his duty and leave the world to wag as it will Let that great Ship wallow as it will there is one that sitteth at the Stern that will guide it and all its motions it shall at last come into the true Port. Hence a Child of God hath reason enough in all things to give thanks and at all times to rejoyce in the Lord and again to rejoyce What then mean the disquietments anxieties and sollicitudes of our thoughts Are they not tacit denials or suspensions of the workings of Divine Providence Are they not Indications of the weakness of our Faith Certainly if we had Faith in the Doctrine of Divine Providence if it were but as a grain of mustard-seed we should only attend our duty and when we had done that should speak to our soul if yet in a tumult Why art thou cast down O my soul why art thou disquieted within me Trust still in God for I shall praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God This is a second piece of duty 3. A third duty which this Doctrine of Divine Providence will evidence but reasonable for us is A patient waiting for God under all the displeasing varieties of this life A duty which in Scripture you will find often called for by God and his Holy Servants who have spoke in his Name Psal 27.14 Psal 37.7 34. Psal 6â— 5 Prov. 20.22 Hos 12.6 and as often resolved upon by the Holy Servants of God Job 14.14 Psal 25.21 Psal 52.9 and in many other places And there are many excellent promises that are made to it Psal 37.9 Prov. 20.22 Isa 49.23 It is exclusive of all murmuring repining and discontentedness at any of Gods dealings of all use of irregular means to help our selves it is an habit of grace which in the midst of the most adverse and afflictive Providences teacheth us to stand still and to see the salvation of God It is a great piece of a Christians duty keeping a Christian in his station and in the paths of holiness under the most cross and thwarting Providences in the most dark and gloomy days and the greatest confusions we see in the world The failure of this is like the starting of the Ballast in a Ship in a storm every Ship of burthen that goeth to Sea hath a Ballast of stones or sand or some weighty thing which keeps it even upon the waters if in a storm this Ballast starts so as it is thrown on one side and gives not a just poise to the Ship there is a great danger of a wrack the Ship presently lyes all on one side Faith now is this Ballast active patience or waiting for God in a storm of Providence is that which keepeth the soul poised if this Ballast starts there 's great danger of the souls being overwhelmed Now this Doctrine of Providence and the extent of it to all motions actions to all suspensions omissions and cessations of actions to all events and future contingencies sheweth us the duty and reasonableness of this patient waiting Is there a storm a whirlwind an hurricane of political motions in the world It lets us know that God is in that storm God is in that whirlwind that hurricane is not without the Lord and God is not out of it If the Enemies of the People of God could raise a storm without the Lord or when they have raised it shut God out of the Governance of it it were something but they can do none of this we can have no confidence in them in the goodness of their natures or their designs but we may be confident of God and wait for him I compared Providence before to a man of business that seldom keeps a road but ever and anon turns out this way and that way as his variety of business leads him those that will bear such a man company home must ever and anon wait for him while he turneth out of his road Let this Doctrine of Providence have this kind influence upon your souls to make you to wait upon God whiles he hideth himself from the house of Jacob and to look for him It is good to wait upon God for none yet that ever waited upon him returned ashamed it is your duty to wait upon God he is a great Soveraign he hath required this homage from your souls It is reasonable you should wait on him for you may be sure he is in every storm in every hurricane seeing it working by it governing of it 4. This Doctrine of a Divine Providence sheweth the reasonableness of a passive patience or submission to and contentation with our lot and portion in the world under the most afflictive and adverse issues Nothing comes to pass without the Will of God not a sparrow as cheap and inconsiderable a bird as it is falleth to the ground without our heavenly Father It is true while we are in the world we are in the midst of briars and thorns subjected to a thousand accidents which are afflictive to us afflictions in our bodies troubles in our spirits crosses in our relations and in our affairs in the world and no affliction
is joyous but grievous It is the great effect of Faith to make us glory in tribulations But certainly although this Doctrine of Providence doth not shew us a sufficient ground to glory in tribulations which is an exercise of grace most proper in such Tribulations as we suffer for the name of Christ as the Apostles went away rejoycing that they were thought worthy to suffer any thing for the name of Christ But surely the consideration of this Doctrine of Gods Influence upon all events all motions all actions c. of his Creatures sheweth us a great reason why we should be submissive and patient possessing our souls with patience under the most afflictive contingencies of this life I remember Rabshakeh would not have the men of Hierusalem think that he was come out without God against that place Is affliction come upon thee Are crosses in thy estate in thy relations come upon thee Think not that any of them are come upon thee without God the hand of God is in this sickness in this pain in this depriving of thee of thy near relations in this poverty that hath overtaken thee like an armed man None of these things are come upon thee without God 1. Willing them 2. Nor without God influencing them ordering the causes of them now if we do but consider the wisdom and infinite goodness of this God if we do but look upon him as our Father how cogently doth the Apostle speak Heb. 12.10 11. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of our spirits and live For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be made partakers of his holiness How many arguments are there in two verses to perswade us to this submissive patience The main argument is from our reverent subjection to the Fathers of our flesh Hence the Apostle concludes that we ought much rather to be subject to the Father of our Spirits 1. They were but the Fathers of our flesh he the Father of our spirits 2. They chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit But I say here is argument enough God is in the affliction It is the Lord said that good man let him do what seemeth to him good Nothing can seem good to God to bring upon his people but what truly and really is for their good he cannot but give good things dispense and deal out good things unto his people submit your selves therefore unto God under his severest Dispensations Remember he is in the storm and whirlwind 5. This Doctrine of Providence may convince you of the reasonableness of your duty of Prayer 1. Daily Prayer 2. More extraordinary and solemn Prayer I say first daily Prayer Every day is pregnant with new designs The world is a place full of a variety of Beings and those are in daily motion and action hence we are subject to infinite accidents and as our Saviour saith Who can tell what a day may bring forth This speaketh our subjection to ingrateful changes and mutations Now certainly the same reason that teacheth us if at any time we have any business of concernment to us that may if it goeth for us be much for our advantage if against us much to our prejudice to be dispatched in Parliament or any Court of Judicature to apply our selves to those persons to whom in those cases we may have access to intreat them to be our friends and to lend us their assistance should also direct us to be as constant and diligent in our Applications unto God by Prayer We have great concerns in the world every day the concerns of our lives our health our success and prosperity in our affairs the concerns of all our friends and relations above all the concerns of our immortal souls The good prosperity and welfare or the evil and mischief of them all doth very much depend upon the motions and actions of other beings as well as our own upon the omissions cessations and suspensions of their actions upon the events c. Now you have heard that the great God of Heaven and Earth filleth the world influenceth all beings motions actions cessations suspensions or omissions of action all events he is ever present seeing and considering the matters of the world Will not now Reason evince it to be our duty to be much in Prayer alone with our Families morning and evening to be crying to God Prosper thou the works of our hands upon us Restraint of Prayer from God argues Atheism in our hearts either that with the fool in the Psalm we say in our hearts There is no God or else that we say Tush God seeth us not the Almighty doth not regard us 2. But it lets us see the more especial reasonableness of more solemn and earnest Prayer upon more especial Emergencies I told you that every day is big of events and who can tell what any day may or will bring forth But there are some more especial times when we have more high and eminent concerns upon some special undertakings or when some eminent danger threateneth us In reason here our sense of a Divine Providence influencing all events all Beings all motions and actions of Beings and all omissions cessations or suspensions of such actions doth more particularly oblige us upon the emergency of such affairs to be more earnest and importunate with God It is the precept of Solomon Acknowledg him in all thy ways and he shall direct thy steps And accordingly hath been the practice of the people of God as you see it in the whole story of holy Writ and is the practice of the people of God still Now this Doctrine of Divine Providence justifieth this practice of the children of God as a very reasonable practice and evinceth as daily Prayer so this more set and solemn prayer to be the reasonable practice of all those that have any knowledg of God or any desire to maintain fellowship and communion with him 6. Lastly As it evinceth the duty and reasonableness both of daily and of solemn and extraordinary prayer so it evinceth also the duty both of daily and more solemn and extraordinary praises We have not a good thing happeneth unto us but there is an hand of God in it it may be some created Being hath been the instrument to bring it to our hand but the action or motion of that created Being hath been influenced by God The event or issue hath been ordered governed and directed by God the hand of God is in every days health and protection in every nights sleep and preservation But this is obvious enough to every Christian of how mean a capacity soever I shall therefore add no more to this part of my discourse I have you see hitherto proceeded no farther than to prove That there is a Providence 2.
and in the same Nation where the Gospel is preached some have a sound and little more Preachers in some places in stead of preaching the Gospel Preach human Philosophy or the lusts of their own hearts In other places the Word of God is preached faithfully and powerfully so that the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Men are compelled to come in This difference in the external ministration which let me tell you hath no small influence upon the eternal concern and interest of men for God doth not ordinarily work by way of miracle and heal the eyes of the blind with Clay and Spittle is fountain'd only in the free-will and Grace of God Vse 2. But I trust I speak to some who have tasted further of the mercy and Grace of God than receiving the general Dispensation of the Gospel with their outward ears God hath by his holy Spirit upon the preaching of the Gospel effectually moved their hearts and conquered their Souls into a subjection to Christ They have embraced the Lord Jesus Christ by a Gospel-faith they are brought by a mighty hand out of darkness into marvelous Light and translated out of this Kingdom of Sin and Satan into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus I have this day been discovering to you the Fountain of this Grace of which God hath made you partakers you have heard that it is the will of God only which hath distinguished betwixt you and others It is not because you were more nobly born than others nor because you were more rich more honourable or by nature better complexioned than others God saw no more goodness in your natures than in the natures of others you were all the same flesh he infused into all Souls of the same nature and species only he hath willed rather to shew mercy unto your Souls than to the Souls of others because he hath set his love upon you There are three duties that hence lie very obvious 1. The First is Praise Thankfulness and Admiration Certainly every such Soul stands highly obliged with the Psalmist to cry out Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits If free Grace will not affect our hearts and fill our mouths with a new Song nothing will It must certainly be an amazing consideration for a Soul to sit down and think I was in the same mass and lump of lost man-kind that others are I was by Nature a Child of wrath as much as any my Childhood and Youth were Vanity as much as any others I was grinding at the same Mill it may be in actual sins I outstripped many others Now that the Lord should look upon me and pluck me as a brand out of the Fire that God should open my eyes and change my heart What did God see in me Possibly my more external circumstances were far less and more unvaluable than those of thousands of others my House was of small account and little esteem there are many more great and noble more wise and prudent than I am many who in all appearance so far as man can judg might have been more serviceable to God than I am or am ever like to be now that the Lord should pass them over and shew mercy to me certainly no Soul can seriously think of these things but must be ravished with the apprehensions of the inaccountable love of God in these things and say What shall I render unto thee O Lard what shall I render unto thee 2. This notion of Gods Soveraignty freedom and inaccountbleness in the dispensations of his Grace should teach every Soul that hath been or shall be made a partaker of it the great lesson of humility The Apostle Rom. 3.27 giveth this as the reason why God hath setled the justification of a Sinner upon a bottom of free Grace and hath excluded works that he might also exclude boasting and teach those who glory to glory in the Lord upon this Argument the Apostle exhorteth the Gentiles not to boast against the Jews Rom. 11.22 Behold the goodness and the severity of God saith he to those who abide in their unbelief severity to thee goodness Pride is a sinful habit disposing the Soul to swell in the opinion of some excellency in it self and a little thing will swell our corrupt hearts The Apostle propoundeth this very consideration as a cure for that tumour in the Souls of Christians 1 Cor. 4.7 For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou which thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it It is nothing but the will of God that hath made a difference betwixt thee and the vilest Sinner breathing betwixt thee and the most filthy Drunkard the most furious Persecutor c. It was not for any worth any goodness or holiness which the Lord saw in thee but of his meer free will and Grace God hath shewed mercy to thy Soul what hast thou now of thy own to boast or glory in Thou hast indeed reason to glory and to make thy boast in the Lord and to bless God for what he hath done for thy Soul more than for a thousand others but there is no thanks to thee his will his own will was the fountain of his Grace extended to thee God hath had mercy upon thy Soul only because he would have mercy O therefore be not high-minded but fear and walk humbly before God 3. Lastly this calleth upon all of you who have tasted of this free and unaccountable Grace to live a distinguishing life and conversation There is a Generation that fancyeth that the Doctrine of Free-Grace opens a door to Liberty It is but the old Cavil in Saint Pauls time there were those that thus accused the Doctrine of Free-Grace as if it gave men a liberty to go on in sin as appeareth by the Apostles anticipation of that Cavil Rom. 6.1 What saith he shall we then continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid and so he goeth on shewing that any such conclusion from his principles was unreasonable How shall we saith the Apostle who are dead unto sin live any longer therein Special distinguishing Free-Grace both deadneth the Soul to Sin and inflameth the Soul with a love to God who hath made the Soul to differ so as that Soul cannot live as other men the love of God constraineth him he must apprehend himself obliged to do more for God than others because God hath shewen more mercy to him than unto others and that meerly because he would shew mercy What can possibly be imagined to have a greater and lay an higher obligation upon the Soul to all manner of holiness in conversation to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord as the Apostle speaketh SERMON L. Hosea XIII 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but
others for sins yet they did as bad themselves From Vers 11. He taketh away all pretence of Justification by works both from the Jews and from the Gentiles For the Gentiles he saith they had not the Law For the Jews they indeed had the Law but they broke it Now saith he There is no respect of persons with God those that sin shall perish let them sin with the Law or without the Law For saith he in my Text as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law By the Law is here plainly understood the Word of God which God hath given us to be a light unto our feet and a lanthern to our paths a light to shew us the way to Heaven Here is plainly imply'd That as some sinners perish having the Word of God and the external means of Salvation so others perish having not the Law and Word of God nor the outward and ordinary means which God hath appointed in order to the obtaining of eternal life and salvation 2. In both these dispensations God is just for there is no respect of persons with God Now hence arise Two Questions 1. Quest Whether God granteth to all men sufficient aids and assistances or means of Grace in order to their Salvation 2. Quest If God doth not grant unto all men sufficient means aids and assistances of Grace in order to their Salvation how he can be just in the condemnation of any to whom he hath not given such a sufficiency of means 1. Quest Whether God granteth unto all men sufficient means of Grace in order to their Salvation We affirm that he hath not But here we have many Adversaries to encounter There are some that affirm that there is a sufficiency of the means aids and assistances of Grace afforded to all men in order to their Salvation Some of the Arminians will not go thus far but they affirm That to all those to whom the Gospel is preached and who are by the preaching of it called to Faith and Repentance there is a sufficient grace given Thus far we do agree as to this point of sufficient grace 1. That in our first Parent Adam all mankind had sufficient grace whether we respect external or internal means he had a sufficient Revelation of the Will of God and a sufficient power in himself in his own will in the rectitude of his own nature to have made use of and apply'd the Revelation he had of the Divine Will in order to his Salvation and so all mankind had in him For as in Adam all died so in Adam all men were at first a live or they could not in the fall have died in him The Question is not therefore of man as he at first came out of the hand of God but of mankind in their lapsed estate whether they have all such a sufficiency 2. Secondly Neither is the Question about the sufficiency of external means as to all those to whom the Gospel is preached and who have the Scriptures we grant a perfection in them and that they are able to make men wise unto Salvation the word of Faith is a sufficient external means this is again on all hands agreed betwixt us 3. Thirdly It is out of doubt that there is such a Revelation of the means of grace as is sufficient for the manifestation of the Glory and Justice of God which is the great end which God aimeth at in all his dispensations of Providence 4. Yea and Fourthly There is such a sufficiency of outward means as is enough to keep up external order and discipline in the world in humane Societies and as will render men inexcusable before God Rom. 2.1 5. Lastly We do grant that there is a sufficiency of grace given to many that live in the world even to as many as God hath fore-ordained to eternal life But still there are Two Questions behind 1. Whether those who never heard of Christ to whom the Gospel was never preached have a sufficient external means in order to their Salvation 2. Whether either those or any of those to whom the Gospel is preached have a sufficiency of means in order to their Salvation unless God be pleased to influence their souls by the powerful operation of his Spirit upon their hearts overpowering their wills and in the day of his power making them willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ freely tendred in the Gospel We do judg that as the Heathens who have not heard of Christ nor had the Gospel preached unto them have not a sufficiency in respect of outward ordinary means so neither those who have the Scriptures and Ordinances of God have a sufficiency of grace while they want the internal effectual operation of the Spirit of God So that indeed no Reprobates only the Elect of God have a sufficient aid and assistance of grace given them for their Salvation though in the way of outward means those indeed who have the Gospel published to them may be said to have a sufficiency in respect of external means This we affirm upon these grounds 1. This pretended sufficiency must be either of External means or of Internal means or of both indeed it must be of both or it is not a sufficiency The External means is the holy Scriptures and the preaching of them they are those which are able to to make the man of God as Apostle tells us wise unto Salvation And how shall they believe saith the Apostle Rom. 10. on him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher And how shall they Preach except they be sent The Apostle is there discoursing of the ordinary means of Salvation you see that is fixed in the word for that is that which is to be heard and the Preaching of the word So that what secret way soever God may have to reveal himself and the knowledg of Christ unto some particular persons in places where the Scriptures are not found nor the name of Christ heard of nor his Gospel Preached yet certain it is the outward and ordinary means of Salvation is the Preaching hearing and reading of the word and the Ministry of the Gospel Now we know that in the far greatest part of the World the Scriptures are not found read preached they have no Ministry and therefore it is very absurd to say That as to the External ordinary means of Salvation there is a sufficiency afforded all for if the word and the Ministry of it be the outward and ordinary means it is matter of demonstration that a very great part of the World hath nothing of it those therefore that will maintain a sufficiency of means must make the works of God and the view of them and conclusions which men may make by their Natural light and reason from them a sufficient means to give a man the knowledg of God and such a knowledg
as is sufficient And this indeed some do seem to say When they find out for us another object for saving Faith than Christ and his Gospel and tell us that Abel and Enoch excercised their Faith and such a Faith as pleased God whose object was not Christ but only such Propositions as these That God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him This is indeed a new Doctrine in our Nation but it is but a Transcript of what the Socinians and Arminians V. Bertium contra Sibran P. 69. 70. 71. have long since said That the Gentiles were saved by a Faith in God believing That God is and that he is a rewarder of those that seek him By a Faith only apprehending things remote from humane sense as some amongst us Phrase it now Bertii discep Epist 73.76 but translating Bertius and after the same rate speak the Socinians generally denying Faith in Christ necessary to Salvation and making only a Faith in God necessary but the Scripture telleth us That there is no other name under Heaven by which a man can be saved besides that of Jesus Christ neither is there Salvation in any other But upon that Hypothesis That the Preaching of the Gospel is the ordinary External means it cannot be said That God hath given to all means sufficient 2. But Secondly For the more Spiritual Internal means which is the effectual grace of God it is certain that is not given to all for then all would be saved but of that more by and by There are those that think every man hath a sufficiency of inward Spiritual means who liveth under the preaching of the Gospel The Socinians in their known Catechism Confes Rem cap. 17. Episcopius disp 46. Colloq Hag. P. 258. propound this Question Whether there be not a need of an inward gift of the Spirit to inable us to believe the Gospel They Answer No. The same Song is sung by Smalcius Socinus Ostorodius and the Arminians generally say the same thing the business is they make no more necessary than a moral Suasion which all have to whom the Gospel is preached that supposed they say Man hath in his own will a power to believe repent c. But the Scripture tels us It is given to us on the behalf of Christ to believe That Faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God with a multitude of Texts more of the like import now most certain it is that if there be any such operation of the Spirit necessary all men have not a sufficiency of means If we be not sufficient of our selves to think one good thought as the Apostle tels us If without Christ we can do nothing If God must give to will and to do what power hath man to any thing which is truly and Spiritually good For those that sit under the preaching of the Gospel they have all the same moral Suasion they have all the same rational powers and faculties how cometh it I would fain know to pass that one of them repents and believeth when others are hardned and continue lock't up in unbeleif Is it from themselves that one mans will inclineth well and not anothers then surely there is another Principle of Spiritual life another Fountain of good besides God which is plainly to contradict the Scripture which every where maketh God the Fountain of life and of all good But this is the first thing only which I offer to you in this cause 2. Secondly How is it possible that all should have sufficient grace but that all must be saved God telleth St. Paul 2 Cor. 12.9 My grace shall be sufficient for thee was it possible after that promise he should have been overborne or overcome with his temptation I would ask for what this pretended grace given to all should be sufficient Will they say for Salvation How can any be said to have a sufficiency of grace to save them who yet are not saved nor ever shall be saved All that can be pretended is That every man and woman hath a reasonable Soul that is not denied and that is naturally endued with power enough to do whatsoever Spiritual action God hath required of man in order to his obtaining Salvation having either the works of God to represent God unto him which is all that the Heathen have or the word of God the holy Scriptures which they may read and hear preached So that this same sufficient grace which they contend for is nothing else but a reasonable Soul The works of God in Nature and the word of God in the Scriptures or at most preached to them Those who restrain sufficiency of grace to those who have the Gospel preached to them Grevinchovius Con. Ames 212. Remonstra Colloq Hag. P. 258. tell us plainly That the word preached is the instrument the consummatory instrument of God for our Faith conversion c. And deny that in the business of conversion the holy Spirit putteth forth any other power and they say There is more force in the word of Reconciliation than in a Lazare prodi Lazarus come forth Well but what shall become of the Heathen who have not this word of Reconciliation how have they a grace sufficient It cannot be denied but they have the works of God sufficient to convince them That God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him and they have reasonable Souls to make such conclusions upon the prospect of the works of God and a Faith in Christ as Mediator is not they say necessary to Salvation for thus none could believe in Christ before he came if you will believe them A Faith in God as a supreme being and as a rewarder of them that seek him being sufficient especially considering that Faith is nothing else but an obedience to the commands of Christ Socinus in praectel Theol. 1.17 fol. 93. and this is the very form and essence of Faith Socin fragm de Just P. 51. Now this must be understood so far as we know them and they are revealed to us This was the old Doctrine of Socinus and his followers and in this sence they say Sufficient grace is given to all in order to their Salvation because they believe nothing of what we call grace viz. A particular internal influence and operation of the holy Spirit begetting in us a lively Faith in Jesus Christ necessary to any but that every man hath a natural power to do all that God required of him and may be saved if he will but use that power to the use of which there needeth not any special influence of God But man may be a God to himself a principle of the greatest good inclining his own heart to that which is Spiritually good For that God should give unto any grace sufficient for his Salvation and yet it should not be effectual is indeed a contradiction for it must be sufficient and insufficient 3. Again If there