You shall observe it often repeated in Scripture Such a one did evil and walked in the steps of his Father in all the sins of his Fathers c. you shall constantly observe that it is set as a mark of dishonour upon those that did so and they perished in their transgressions God according to what he threatned the Jews Isa 65.7 punished upon them their iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together We are very prone to walk in the steps of our Fathers especially if they have trodden awry and turned aside from the Commandments of God and usually in matters of Religion though we have nothing to say for the superstition and vanity of former generations yet we think it a sufficient plea that our fathers did thus or thus and indeed this was the old plea of the woman of Samaria Joh. 4. Our father 's worshipped in this mountain Thus the Heretick said in one of the Councils but was well answered Immo errantes ab errantibus yes erring children from erring parents The wickedness of a preceding generation especially in the matters of Divine Worship is so far from being a plea for us or excusing us that it doth but increase and aggravate guilt upon us The most righteous persons may without due and seasonable humiliation smart for the sins of their Fathers but if they go on in the same sins they have nothing to expect but that God should punish their sins and the sins of their Fathers together Vse 5. In the last place This observation layeth upon us all a new engagement to holiness and serviceableness to God in the stations in which the Lord hath set us As sin entaileth a curse so holiness and eminent service for God entaileth a blessing to our posterity Godliness hath not only the promise of this life and of that which is to come to our own persons but it hath promises of blessing to those that shall come after us God sheweth mercy to thousands of those who love him and keep his Commandments Jehu was no godly man yet his service he did for God procured him a reward to the fourth generation Abraham was a godly man David a perfect man a man according to Gods own heart Blessings for their sakes came upon their posterity to many generations But I shall add no more to this Observation SERMON XXXIII Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Proceed yet to offer you some further Observations concerning the motions of Actual Providence I have already made many Last of all some with reference to its distributions of rewards and punishments Let me now go on to a Observ 20. When God calleth any to any new work or relation he ordinarily giveth them a spirit suited to it Every work and relation requires some particular dispositions fitting the persons for it Now I say you shall observe in the motions of Actual Providence that it fitteth those persons for work whom God calleth to it you shall see it in several instances God called Moses to go in to Pharaoh to require him to let the children of Israel go and so to conduct the children of Israel out of Egypt Moses saith to God Exod. 3.11 Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt God saith vers 12. I will be with thee Again chap. 4.10 Moses excuseth himself that he was not eloquent but slow of speech and of a slow tongue see what God saith to him ver 11. Who hath made mans mouth or who maketh the dumb or deaf or seeing or blind Now therefore ver 12. go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say When God called Saul to be King over Israel the text 1 Sam. 10.9 saith That God gave him another heart When God called David to the Kingdom what a spirit of government did God give him What courage and valour that coming from keeping of sheep he durst adventure to encounter Goliah Concerning Solomon the case is plain 1 King 3.8 9. he begged of God a wise and understanding heart to judg his people The text telleth you that God gave it him Lo saith God ver 12. I have given thee a wise and understanding heart As to the Ministry the case is plain as to Jeremiah God ordained him to be a prophet to the nations Jer. 1.5 Jeremiah excused himself he was a child and could not speak vers 6. But the Lord said to him Say not I am a child for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee saith the Lord then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me Behold I have put my words into thy mouth vers 7 8. The like you have concerning Ezekiel Ezek. 2. The like you find upon Christs sending out the seventy and the twelve It is true God doth this several ways and by several rites and ceremonies but God never yet call'd any to any new relation or new work but he gave them a spirit fit for it But let us a little understand what the meaning of that is Quest Wherein lyeth the sutableness of a persons spirit to his work or relation I answer It lyes in two things 1. An inclination or willingness to it 2. A fittedness or preparedness for it 1. An inclination or willingness to it Indeed Gods first call of a person to a work doth not always meet with a willing mind it did not in Moses in Jeremy in Saul but God always makes those willing whom he calls to any service Whom shall I send here am I send me saith the Prophet Isaiah God made Moses and Jeremy willing before he sent them The gravity and burthen of the work to which God calleth may discourage flesh and blood at first but God makes them willing before they take their Commission Hence that in Timothy He that desireth the office of a Bishop c. 2. But this is not all God never sendeth any to any work but he fitteth and prepareth them for it giving them a frame of spirit and abilities of mind capacitating them for the parts of their work or duties of that relation several callings require several gifts and endowments For the magistracy courage and wisdom is necessary for the ministry is necessary not only courage and wisdom but knowledg utterance c. a sound understanding in the holy Scriptures which he is to open to the people and apply to their consciences and so in inferiour relations even Bezaliel the son of Vri whom the Lord called by name to the building of the Tabernacle Exod. 35.31 Was filled with the spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledg and in all manner of workmanship and to devise curious works to work
instances of Divine Providence of this nature we had in our own Nation especially in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the beginning of King James his reign 1. Sometimes God setteth their own Consciences on work and they shall betray and discover themselves before they fall to their work God smiteth one of their Consciences and they come and discover their Complices and confess their own errours how often have we had this in our own story 2. Sometimes their Countenances shall betray them while they are just ready to strike the fatal stroke 3. Sometimes a terror shall seize them and their Daggers shall drop out of their hands 4. Sometimes their own Letters shall destroy them of which we had an eminent instance in the Powder-Treason hatched by Papists in this Nation sometimes the powder shall not take fire another time it shall miss the mark The Monsters are sometimes brought to the birth and the parents of them want a strength to bring forth How often was Queen Elizabeth in this Nation so preserved to fulfil the word of the Lord Job 5.12 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise 5. A fifth thing I shall instance in is Gods defeatings of the counsels of Ahitophels All men are not alike in wisdom and counsel God fitteth some more eminently who are to have stations in the publick Government and Councils of a Nation Amongst these some are men of integrity and sincerity men of publick spirits and designs who use all their wits parts and abilities for the general good and prosperity of people Others are men of more private spirits driving selfish designs and these oft-times are men of great craft and subtilty whose counsels yet should they take effect would ruin the body politick which they pretend to serve whiles they serve but their own bellies or families or the lusts of some others in order to that end Here now the Providence of God is often seen in defeating their counsels and that various ways Sometimes by making them unacceptable as was in the case of Ahitophel his counsels ordinarily were taken and followed as Oracles but God makes the counsel of Hushai though as appeareth by the story a friend at first suspected by Absolom to be more accepted Sometime God doth it by some more extraordinary ways as in the case of Haman who had both given counsel and obtained a decree against the Jews The King shall not sleep but spend his waking times reading the book of the Chronicles there he shall fall upon the place where a record is of the good service Mordecai had done The King shall mistake Haman's Courtship to the Queen while he is making suit to the Queen for his life for an attempt to force her Thus Haman shall be defeated in his designs and it shall be his own lot to be hanged upon the Gallows which he had prepared for Mordecay nor are these the only instances There is no Kingdom no Age in which observing persons will not observe some instance or other of this nature for the preservation of the Political societies of men Sixthly The power of divine Providence in preserving Political societies is eminently seen in ballancing and diverting opposite powers It is wonderful to observe how God ballanceth one Nation against another sometimes by natural scituation sometimes by voluntary associations We in England are an instance of the former All the Kingdoms about us are larger and more mighty than we are France Spain c. far more populous God hath ballanced us with them by our scituation We are an Island we are powerful in Shipping they cannot march an army by land against us that keeps us at some proportion with them and from being a prey to them often gaping for us Others God hath scituated in Countries full of Rocks and Mountains and Waters by which natural Fortifications they are ballanced with the far greater fleshly power of their Enemies Thus God preserved his people in Epirus from the overflowing flood of the Turkish Power In Holland from the attempts of the Spaniard 40 years together a Nation far more great and mighty than they Thus he hath preserved his Church his little flock in the Valleys of Piedmont and Lucerne As Solomon saith because the Conies are a feeble people they have their habitation in the Rocks So where God hath had a little people a feeble people his Providence hath for their habitation allowed them the natural defences of mountains and the inaccessible paths of Rocks Others he ballanceth with the far greater power of their adversaries by voluntary confederacies and consociations were they singly to be encountred they would quickly be swallowed up but they join in league with others and so make a proportion to their Potent Adversaries Some he ballanceth by giving them a more extraordinary strength spirit courage that one will chase ten and ten an hundred and an hundred a thousand and a thousand shall put ten thousand of their Enemies in flight Some are stronger in Land-forces but weak as to Naval-forces others strong in Naval-forces but weaker in Land-forces till the period of a Nation comes for Nations have their periods he ballanceth all Political Societies one way or other according to the variety of his infinite wisdom 2. Another way is by Diversion you have many instances of this in Scripture How often hath God thus preserved us in Europe from the overflowing flood of the Turks by stirring up the Persians to invade him by suffering rebellions amongst thoâ—e that are his own Subjects But I shall contract this discourse much will fall into my following discourse of Governing Providence 7. The last thing which I shall instance in wherein the Providence of God is seen in the preserving of men in their Political Societies is in giving unto men wisdom and disposing of them to several Arts Trades Mysteries and Occupations by which they become mutually serviceable one to another and contribute to the upholding the societies in which they live Here are two things in both which the Providence of God is eminent to every eye which wistly observeth it There is nothing more evident than that there is a variety of Arts Mysteries Trades and Occupations useful for man by some of which he is supplied with things necessary for food and rayment by others of them with things for delight and ornament both the one and the other if not necessary for individuals yet are necessary for preserving a Polity consisting of multitudes Now 1. The wisdom by which men work in these several Arts Mysteries and Occupations and by which men follow these several Trades is from the Lord. The Prophet Isaiah tells us the discretion of the Plow-man and of the Thresher is from him God called by name Bezaliel the Son of Uri and he was filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledg and in all manner of workmanship and to devise curious works to work
and blesseth God 2 Cor. 11.4 Who saith he comforteth us in all tribulation that we may be able to comfort those which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God It is said of Luther that he was wont to say that Three things make a Divine Temptations Meditation and Prayers Luther was himself a man of great temptations and by them became able to succour those that were tempted No knowledg is like experimental knowledg none knoweth either how to sympathize with or how to succor those that are under temptations desertions or any Soul-troubles so well as those who themselves have been under them experience is a great Mistress when therefore God hath a design upon some Souls to make use of them for succor and relief of others under Soul-troubles and afflictions he often first brings themselves under them and supports and comforts them then they know how to speak a word in season how to comfort and relieve 2. Again God may be conceived reasonably to do it upon a gracious design in order to carrying on of his work in their own Souls we know not what manner of Spirit we are of God knoweth all our tempers seeth all our inclinations and dispositions 1. I have told you that some persons are more complexioned to some sins than others Every man hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper lust and corruption by which he more ordinarily offendeth than other ways God to prevent the breaking out of this corruption afterwards layeth the Soul under the load and burthen of it and maketh his former miscarriages of that Nature more exceedingly bitter unto him that so he may see how little fruit he may afterwards expect of those things of which he hath been to that degree ashamed and which he hath tasted to that degree bitter unto his Soul 2. He may possibly see some of more brisk and airy tempers more inclined to pride and being lifted up above measure and therefore thinks fit to keep them longer under the Spirit of bondage as he did with Paul after he had been rapt up into the third Heaven and heard unutterterable words lest as he saith he should be exalted above measure God gave him a thorn in the flesh Thus now I have given you some little account of the variety of Gods Providential dispensations toward Souls in the collation of the first grace but now I have done I can only say with Job Chap. 26.14 Lo these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him The end of all this discourse is not to pretend to give you all the reason of God in these his dispensations for who can by searching find out God who can find out the Almighty unto perfection we must say such knowledg is too wonderful for us but only to shew you that this various way of Gods dealing with Souls whom he intendeth to bring to Heaven is not such but it will approve it self to the reason of every reasonable Creature and such as is very equitable and proper for the wise God in order to the compassing of his most wise and glorious ends Let me now shew you what use is proper for us to make of these meditations and observations Vse 1. In the first place this may mind us to take heed of a rash judgment either in our own case or in the cases of others we are very prone to give our selves needless trouble and to pass unrighteous Judgments concerning the work of God upon our own and others Souls One concludeth he hath as yet no work of God upon his heart he was never humbled never so broken upon the Wheel never under such legal terrors nor so long under the Spirit of bondage as some others he cannot give an account to himself of any certain time nor of any certain Sermon when or whereby God wrought upon and changed his heart and we are too too ready to sit in Judgment upon the work of God also on the Souls of others You have heard that the ways of God are past finding out God doth not always tread the same path and the variety which God useth towards Souls under different circumstances and for different ends is very reasonable we have all of us reason enough to be troubled if we do not find this great work wrought in our Souls but if we do find that our hearts are changed that the work is done for the way or means or time which God hath taken or used to do it in or by we have no such reason to be sollicitous those who are come to work in the Vineyard at the Ninth or Eleventh hour shall have their Penny as well as those who were called and came in at the Sixth hour God doth not always work in the same order and method he is not to be tracked in his ways The conversion of the Soul lyeth in the change of the heart I would not with any trust to Baptismal conversion or regeneration If the heart be changed if the Soul be renewed according to the Image of God if old things be passed away in it and all things become new whether it was done this or that way by this or that means in this or that manner is no just cause at all of trouble to us God hath several ways to do his work by we must pass a judgment upon our selves from what we find within our selves the frames and tempers of our Spirits for what man knoweth the things of a man but the Spirit of a man which is within him But we must judge of others from the change we see in their lives and conversations Man looketh upon the outward appearance but God looketh upon the heart 1 Sam. 16.7 If we look upon our Neighbour and there appear no spots upon him but what may be the spot of Gods people no markes of profaneness or impiety towards God nor of unrighteousness toward man but he appeareth to us one who herein exercised himself to keep a good conscience both toward God and towards men we ought to judge this person one whose heart God hath changed If we look into our own hearts and can find that we truly love God and hate evil that we are afraid to sin against God and are desirous in all things to please him though we cannot find that the ways of God with our Souls in our conversion have been like the ways of God with the Souls of other men yet we ought not in this case to judge or to condemn our selves Gods ways are not alike with every Soul Its work in the effect as to the main is alike for it is true as to every man that except he be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God but his way of working is not the same Vse 2. In the Second place what you have heard affordeth great encouragement to every Soul under any circumstance to turn unto God
the beginning with God but he is no-where call'd the word of God I chuse therefore rather to interpret it of that word of Power and Command which Moses Gen. 1. telleth us God used in the making of the world and the fitting and joynting of it together He said Let there be light and there was light c. Thus the Worlds were made by the Word of God so as the term is both exclusive of any other instrumental cause in the Creation of the world and expressive of the true instrumentally efficient cause which was the mighty powerful commanding virtue of the Word of God And this is enough for the explication of this term But Quest 3. What is the meaning of this that the things which are seen are not made of those things which do appear The Vulgar Latin Version reads Vt ex invisibilibus visibilia fierent that visible things should be made of those which are invisible by a transposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but our Copies are otherwise If by the invisible things be meant those invisible things of God the Apostle speaks of Rom. 1.20 His eternal power and godhead So it is true and the sense much the same with what went before but else it is as Beza saith Perperam immo false Some would make the sense of the words this That the world was not made of those things which now do appear to us and are the objects of our senses but of invisible principles and elements which are not now the objects of our senses Others thus That it was made according to an invisible Platform and Idea which was Plato's notion Others say That by invisible things or things which do not appear is to be meant nothing that must be an invisible thing and the world was not made of any pre-existent matter but it was created that is produced out of a meer and total not being into a being Which sense if we allow the Apostle by it as to the Creation of the world asserteth the Truth of God against the Heathen Philosophers who could not by reason comprehend how something especially such a something as the world is should come out of nothing and therefore grew very vain in their imaginations about the pre-existing matter of which the world should be made Estius and Calvin also take notice of a much differing sense as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it were to be read thus We by faith understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God that they might be the looking-glasses of those things which do not appear The thing indeed is true for the Apostle telleth us Rom. 1.20 That the invisible things of God are known by the things that are made But I cannot agree it the sense of this Text not only for that which Beza noteth that it is a very harsh interpretation to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because as Pareus observeth it seemeth not to be any thing of the Apostle's design to express the end here why the World 's were made by God I do therefore take the Text to be a Divine assertion of the Creation of the World against the vain imaginations of the Heathens who either dream't that it was eternal or made of a casual concourse of Atoms or from some Idea's It was saith the Apostle made of nothing by the Word of God of nothing that doth appear And so I have done with the first Member of the Proposition That the worlds were framed by the Word of God the things which are seen were not made of those things which do appear I proceed to the second Mem. 2. That we understand this by faith Here I shall speak to two things 1. What is here meant by faith 2. How do we by faith understand this Faith in Scripture sometimes signifieth the object of faith the Word of God Thus Gal. 1.23 He which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which he once destroyed Thus you read of the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 Received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith that is of the Word of God particularly the Gospel sometimes it signifieth the act of faith which as it respecteth the Proposition of the word for its object is a firm and steady assent the agreement of the mind to the truth of the Proposition as it respecteth the person of the Mediator is a resting relying and recumbency upon him which is what we call the justifying act of faith you may understand the term Faith in either sense By the word of faith revealing it and by our souls acting faith in agreeing and assenting to the truth of that word we understand that the world heaven and earth was at first brought into being fitted and joynted together by the powerful Word of God commanding the production of all those Beings which are in the world and that beauty and order in which we see them placed But secondly How doth the Apostle say we understand it by faith May not this be understood by Reason if it may what need Faith in the case or why or how doth the Apostle say by faith we understand this Wherein doth Faith give us a further knowledg of this than Reason hath given the Philosopher To which I answer Undoubtedly reason hath gone a great way and may go a great way to make men understand that the world was made by God That the world was eternal was indeed the opinion of a great Pagan Philosopher but his master Plato was of another mind and he is said to have learned it from Hesiod and the most and wisest amongst the Heathens acknowledged that the world was at first by a Divine power produced out of a not-being into a being Nor indeed would their Reason allow them to judg otherwise the infinite motions the measures of things in the world their order and succession their alterations and corruptions duly considered forbiddeth reasonable souls with any consistency to themselves to affirm the world to have had an eternal existence All motions must be in time and have had a being all successions and corruptions of things plainly speak that they had a beginning if we had no assistance in the proof of it from the word of faith 2. The same Reason will agree that it gave not a first being to it self nothing is the efficient cause of it self experience tells us that it is not in the power of a man to make the least hair of his head white or black much less to make an hair Man is the noblest sublunary Creature but cannot make the meanest vegetable all that his art can do is but to counterfeit and dissemble nature if it be but as to a spire of grass or to the meanest flower of the field Now if it were not eternal if it did
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.
Scripture was written since which time Prophecy and unwritten Revelations are much ceased not further to be expected God may yet reveal himself to some particular servants of his but we are not to expect such Revelations nor are they the object of faith Now herein hath the stupendous Providence of God been eminently seen that when so many thousand books wrote since the Scriptures were written are lost and there is no memorial almost of them and the Scriptures have had more enemies than any of them more that have endeavoured to corrupt them and to destroy them yet God hath preserved this store-house of spiritual food and kept it from corruption by the extraordinary care of the Jewish Church the multiplying of translations guiding and governing of those who have been employed in them Nor hath the Providence of God been less seen in maintaining Ministers and Teachers of his word In the Jewish Church when the ordinary officers failed and were corrupted God from time to time raised them up Prophets who were his extraordinary Embassadors to teach his people In Christs time he calls Fishermen to the Apostleship and in all succeeding Ages though there have been sometimes more sometimes fewer able and faithful Ministers yet God hath so ordered that there never have wanted some and a competent number to break the bread of life and to feed his people with wisdom and with spiritual understanding No sort of men have been more maligned hated persecuted yet God hath upheld the order and taken care for the souls of his people that they have continually had faithful stewards of the mysteries of God 4. The Providence of God is admirable in preserving man in his spiritual capacity in the daily influence of his spirit attending his word and sanctifying his institutions The word is in it self but a dead letter the Preaching of the word is far from a mean adequate to so great an effect as is the conversion and edification of souls God is therefore pleased to join his quickening spirit to the word where he pleaseth blessing and sanctifying it I am not of their judgment who think that there is such a constant concurrence and influence of the Spirit with the preaching of the Gospel that if men will do what in them lies they may repent believe c. I know no Scripture which will justifie that notion but certain it is that the holy Spirit doth ordinarily join it self with the preaching of the word like the wind blowing where it pleaseth and none knoweth the motion of it convincing men of sin of righteousness and of judgment 5. Lastly The Providence of God preserveth men in their spiritual capacities by supplying them with strength and succour against their spiritual enemies their own flesh the world the Devil all which with a variety of temptations strike at our spiritual welfare But this is much of kin to what I said before I shall add no more to this discourse concerning Gods Act of Providence as in the preservation of beasts so of men and that in their single natural capacities In their Social and Political capacities and finally in their Spiritual capacities I shall only add some few words of application This in the first place may inform us Vse 1 How great that God must necessarily be whom we serve he is the Creator of the ends of the Earth of the Heavens of the Seas of all things and it is he who preserveth both man and beast he preserveth all men in their single and natural capacities this I opened before He preserveth all men in their Political capacities all his people in their Spiritual capacities It is an ordinary observation in the Kingdoms and Empires of the world that when they have grown to a great bigness they have perished with their own bulk and weight No Monarch hath been found sufficient to preserve them by his wisdom and Counsels And I remember the Historian speaks of it to the great honour and as a wonderful thing in one of the first Roman Kings that he put the Roman Kingdom it was no more then into such an order that it was governed as if it had been but one Family But how much doth it speak the Glory and Majesty the Immensity and Omnipresence the Efficiency and Activity of God who at the same time is working over all the Earth in all the Empires and Kingdoms in all the Cities and Towns in it defeating Ahitophels discovering Plots and Conspiracies ruling the spirits of unruly men so as the whole Universe is kept in order and the thousands and ten thousands of men in it that know not the yoke of Reason and Religion are yet bridled by his Providence and kept in some just order and decorum and made in stead of running one upon another and destroying one another mutually to be subservient one to another I say how great how wise how infinite how glorious in power must this God be Secondly Observe how much mercy passeth over our heads Vse 2 which we do take little or no notice of We are fearfully and wonderfully preserved and that in every capacity I shewed you it before as to our natural capacity few think of that what a strange working of Providence there must be to keep our souls in life but one day It is as much remarkable in our Political capacity I remember when Christ sent out his Disciples to Preach he told them That he sent them out as lambs amongst wolves It is true indeed not only of Gospel-Preachers but of all sober and vertuous men that would live in the world but according to the Laws of Reason and Moral vertue They are in the world as lambs amongst wolves Let but any one consider how many lewd unrighteous debauched men are in all places such whose only rule is their lusts how full the world is of men that make no conscience of murthers rapes thefts oppression and other enormities and then stand and wonder at the Providence of God that in any part of the world there is any thing of order and decorum observed that men have any thing which they can call their own that the lives of Princes or sober people are secured What can it be attributed to but the mighty power of Divine Providence that we have no more murthers rapes thefts c. we see laws punishments will not restrain all nor the same men at all times how or whence is it that they restrain any or at any time I will conclude this with what the Psalmist so often maketh the foot in that his admirable song of Providence Psal 107 Oh! that men would praise the Lord for his goodness for his wonderful works to the children of men Oh that Princes would praise the Lord for his goodness It is by him that they reign that they have a days liberty to decree justice by him that the Counsels of Ahitophel are defeated the conspiracies of ungodly men are discovered that the spirits of unruly and unreasonable
to a daily communion with God all the grace all the glory of God is theirs Think this reward enough for the cleansing of thy heart and the washing of thy hands and seeing the swearers and blasphemers and even the worst men of the world are Gods Creatures and some of them though they mean not so yet do God service sometimes do not judg it unreasonable that God should give them a portion in this life But I forbear knowing that it will fall in my way hereafter when I shall come to open the hard Chapters of Divine Providence to speak more fully to the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence 2. This calleth unto the People of God if at any time they be in a prosperous state to look for an hour of adversity The Circulations of Divine Providence admonish Gods People of this no man reasonably saith in the morning that the Sun shall set no more in his Horizon nor in the Summer that he shall never feel the cold or see the storms of another Winter he considers the Ordinances of nature and the Circulation of these natural motions It is as unreasonable to promise our selves stated and uninterrupted felicity in this life to say as David In our prosperity I shall never be moved Be rather thinking what you shall do if God should bring you into such a condition 3. Nor do you despond in adversity Say to the Enemies of Church and Gospel as the Church in Micah Mic. 7.8 Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall rise when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me It is as unreasonable for any to conclude at midnight that there shall never be a morning as in the morning to fancy there shall never be a midnight more you have not it may be in this life those full measures of the good things thereof which others have But saith David Psal 17. when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness Some interpret it of an awaking at the resurrection that is sure enough Some of an awaking out of his afflicted state God in this life is not always smiting not always grieving the children of men The rod of the wicked shall not always lye upon the back of the righteous Do not build too much upon these hopes remember that God hath better things for his people than riches and honours and earthly power Heaven is their portion but yet even as to this life do not cast away your hope 4. But lastly Be patient under all the frowns of Divine Providence This is the method of Providence the sinner must have his hour and that hour to the People of God will be the very power of darkness The beasts that are nearest the slaughter usually have the fattest pastures God hath far better things reserved for them that love him and even in this life He will not leave you comfortless he will come unto you if not to the rescue of your bodies yet to the relief support and satisfaction of your souls Wherefore comfort your selves with these words SERMON XXVII Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. WE take notice in the world that Wisdom is not so much the daughter of study as of experience It is a practical habit directing the ordering of mens conversations to their best advantage which is not so well acquired from our poring on books and making conclusions from connate principles or maxims of others as from the observation of what we see in the world Hence we observe what Job said Job 12.12 with the Auncients is wisdom Elihu said Job 32.7 Days shall speak and multitude of years shall teach wisdom There must indeed be supposed a foundation in nature and that is a good faculty of judgment and a foundation in art for wisdom dwelleth with knowledg but neither nature nor art and study will make a morally wise man Observation contributes more than either and this is the reason that wisdom is with the Auncients and that multitude of years teacheth it The reason of this is the inequal distribution of reason to reasonable creatures and the prevalence of passion above it in the most of men from this it is that we can better conclude what is like to be done in the world from what hath been done than from any rational principles which will tell us what one would think reasonable men should do Spiritual Wisdom likewise is much gained by observation this is that which we call experience by which we understand not always what our selves have felt but what we have seen with our eyes what we have remarked in Gods dealings And the reason of this is our imperfect understanding of what God hath revealed in his word which lets us see that we stand in need both of the Spirit and of the Providence of God to be our interpreters and the oneness and immutability of God gives us a far better advantage to gain wisdom from the issues of his Providence then the variable passions of men will allow us to gain from what we see in their actings whose methods oft-times vastly differ one from another so as the policies of one age have no cognation with those of another The reason also of which is because there is a wheel within these wheels though the fools and blind men of the world see it not governing these sensible wheels to the designs of his eternal counsels Hence it is that he who is wise will observe and he who would be wise must observe the motions of Divine Providence which though it hath many secret and unsearchable motions yet also hath many certain and uniform motions which will fall under the science and understanding of the soul that giveth up it self to the study and observation of them I have already offered to you twelve Observations upon the motions of Providence I yet proceed and shall at present offer you some further things chiefly relating to the motions of Divine Providence in the executing of Divine Justice and Judgment and that as well in the rewarding of the righteous as in the punishment of the sinner Two great works of Divine Providence about which indeed it is mostly taken up it goeth to and fro the world doing this work every day let us see how far we can track it or make any judgment from the prints of its feet where or what we are like to meet with from it meet it we must at every turn of our lives our business is to make up a judgment what we are like to meet with from it whether it be like to say unto us Hast thou met me O my friend or as Ahab to Elijah Hast thou met me O mine enemy The next Observation I shall commend to you is this Observ 13. The reward of the righteous man and also of the sinner is always certain and constant though not always sensible and
may make him willing and desirous but they are only the gifts and graces of Gods spirit that can make a man fit for the Ministry and God never sends any to any work but his Providence fitteth them for it and the same may be said of any other Relations or of persons employed in any great work And as persons imployed in any work or relation may thus judge of themselves So also their Correlates to whom they are in relation may by this means know how to judge of those who are in relation to them whether they be called of God or no and be such or no with whom they can expect the presence of God and from whom they may expect Gods blessing and this if duly thought upon should strike a terror into men in places and employments especially relating to the worship of God and in trust with souls who are no more qualified for their work than an Ass is for a Fiddle as we say what will these men say when their Consciences come to arrest them with a what doest thou here without thy wedding-garment That is without those gifts and graces without that heart and spirit which should have qualified thee for such a work and which God never faileth to furnish him with whom he calls to any employment for him Or when they shall come to dye and have no sweeter reflections of Conscience than this I have these 20 30 40 years been Gods scourge and plague to this people soothing up this people in their sins blinding their eyes hardning their hearts meerly eating up that bread which should have fed other faithful Pastors who were able to have prayed for them able to have instructed them which I have not been O the searedness of these mens Consciences O the dreadful vengeance of God that hangs over their heads O the strange quantity of the blood of souls which God will require at these pitiful wretches hands Let not my soul enter into these mens secrets let not their portion be mine O my God! Vse 3. But in the third place Let me caution you that you do not think that the Providence of God doth alike qualifie every person for the duties of his relation As in the Heavens there are different Stars and they differ one from another in glory Every Star is a light but some give a far greater and more glorious light than others so it is in the Church of God Ministers you know are compared to Stars they must all be lights they must all be able to shew light both in their Doctrine and also in their Lives but yet some are more glorious lights than others are more burning more shining God calleth no man to the Ministry but they are able to pray able to preach he sets no dumb dogs to keep his sheep he sets none over his people to be their Bishops but they are blameless sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach not given to wine no strikers c. as in 1 Tim. 3.2 3 4. sober just holy temperate c. as 1 Titus 7.8 It is little less than Blasphemy to say God calls a man to pray or preach that can do none of both that God calleth Drunkards to teach men sobriety or unclean persons to teach them chastity or covetous wretches to teach men hospitality or liberality But yet some may be of more eminent gifts for prayer and preaching some may be more eminent in grace more exemplary in holiness than others God hath several stations for Ministers some he sets upon Hills some he placeth in obscure Valleys And indeed herein the Church I mean the Rulers and Governours of a Church seem to have a great judgment They shall not judge a person fit for the Ministry that is apparently unfit not being able to discharge any part of the ministerial work but they shall judge of the degrees of persons gifts and abilities so as to place persons in stations fit for them and as will be best for the edification of the whole But the caution which I offer you in this branch of Application if you well consider it is of great use 1. To restrain the unwarrantable judgement and censures of less knowing and prudent Christians who are ready to censure good men of weaker parts and abilities for the work of praying and preaching as no true Ministers not called of God to their work Is the person a man of a holy life and conversation Is he a person able to pray and preach substantially though it may be not so fluently not so floridly as some others not with that life and affection not with that learning and clearness of demonstration Take heed of judging in this case God distributeth his gifts variously though always to edification of the whole Church In his Church there are some Babes some grown Persons some that must be fed with milk others that must have strong meat God qualifieth some to give milk to the Babes others to give meat to stronger ones indeed the wonderful wisdom of God is to be seen in this disproportioning of his gifts to his several Ministers We are poor vain creatures and though blessed be God! some learned men of great reason and learning are to be found that can deny themselves in their ministerial work and preach to the capacity and understanding of poor creatures yet Quotusquisque est he is one of a thousand that we see doing so we are like Pedlars that think we must shew all that is in our Pack though they be little better than gay baubles and confound poor souls either with our Metaphysical Speculations or logical ratiocinations or with our Rhetorical flourishes God foresaw this vanity in our hearts and hath therefore graciously provided restraining the exhibition of his gifts and not giving unto many abilities to do so that if they would they cannot wrap up the plain truths of God in such mysteries of phrase and reasonings which are but vain Philosophy but are forced to speak more plainly and intelligibly to peoples souls that their preaching neither is nor can be in the enticing words of mans wisdom nor in the language of men that are puffed up but is far more in the evidence and demonstration of the spirit and in the power of God though less in the insignificant wisdom of men 2. This Caution is useful also to relieve the Consciences of good men who are often-times troubled under the sense of the disparity and disproportion of their own gifts and parts to the gifts and parts of others I have known it the case of some Look as it hath been with some Christians for want of some gifts which at best have been but common gifts such as that of Prayer they have been ready to question whether they have any truth of grace yea or no. So I have known some precious godly Ministers in their melancholick dark-hours questioning whether they have not all their life-time invaded the Ministerial function whether ever they
now is a place and relation the fitting of a person for which requireth Knowledg Wisdom Courage You have heard that when God calleth any person to a place he usually fitteth them with a spirit for it as he gave unto Saul another spirit the Scripture saith a spirit quite different from what he had when he was a private person But you are not now to expect this in a way of Enthusiasm but in the use of means reading books gaining of knowledg indeavouring to bridle such passions as become no man but are least of all beseeming Magistrates Courage indeed is a thing that is hardly got by art though natural courage be governed and regulated by it and often is given by God more immediately when any whom he hath called to any new relation hath more especial need of it But above all remember the course that Solomon took when God appeared unto him in Gibeon upon his taking upon him the government of Israel and Judah He prayeth unto God that he would give him a wise and an understanding heart to judg his people O forget not this hath God called thee to be a Magistrate and doest thou distrust thy self lest thou shouldst fail in Wisdom or in Courage as to the work of God which in that relation will lye upon thy soul Remember what God said in some anger to Moses excusing himself from what God had call'd him to to go into Pharaoh to speak for the dismission of his people and Moses excused himself saying Exod. 4.20 O Lord I am not eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue and the Lord said unto him vers 11. Who hath made mans mouth or who maketh the dumb or deaf or the seeing or the blind Have not I saith the Lord Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say Remember that and go and beg of God to supply unto thee what thou findest wanting in thy self beg Wisdom of that God who is only wise and courage of that God who giveth courage unto man Hath God called thee to the work of the Ministry and though thou darest not say but God hath in some measure fitted thee for it yet thou feest thou art far short of others far short of what thou conceivest thou oughtest to be I have told thee that God useth with his call to a new work to a new relation to give a new spirit but it is thy work and duty here to work together with God Thus the Apostle exhorteth Timothy 1 Tim. 4.12 13 14. Be thou an example of believers in word in conversation in charity in faith in purity till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine neglect not the gift which was given thee by prophecy c. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them Art thou called to be a Minister Stir up neglect not the gift of God which is in thee study meditate of these things There are means to be used for thy improvement in thy ministerial abilities Natural means that is exercise by preaching thou shalt learn to preach and by praying thou shalt improve in the gift of prayer Moral means these are searching the Scriptures study comparing spiritual things with spiritual Meditation Religious that is Prayer The Apostle saith of the work of the Ministry Who is sufficient for these things Whatsoever thy gifts and abilities be thou hadst need profit and improve in them If thou wilt improve them and obtain the blessing from God of a further fitting thee for the work to which thou art called it lyeth upon thee to use such means as God hath appointed in order to that end Luther was wont to say that there are three things which make a Divine Temptations Meditation and Prayer the two latter I am sure must be much our own work we must not expect that God should immediately qualifie us from Heaven as he did in the first Plantation of the Gospel by the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost God having so supplied the first necessities of his Church when the generality of the first Preachers of the Gospel were illiterate men and wanted advantages of education which then lay on the other side hath since that time left his Ministers to the use and application of more ordinary means in the use of which he ordinarily concurreth with his blessing and not otherwise The same might be said of more inferiour relations such as those of conjugal and parental relations God ordinarily when he calleth men to them doth sute men with spirits fit for them but the concurrence of their own indeavours must be understood with which God will concur with his own blessing Art thou therefore called to the relation of an husband or wife and doest thou fear thy own spirit the like also may be said of a parental relation Having entred into it asking counsel of Gods Word and observing the rules of it thou hast reason to trust God for the fitting of thy spirit for it and the duties of it but still using all due means which on thy part are to be used such as the mortification of those passions which appear to thee most indisposing thee for the duties of such relations applying thine heart what in thee lyeth to them and constant and fervent prayer to God to make up in thee what thou findest wanting in thy self for the due managery of them according to the Will of God SERMON XXXIV Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Have entred into a large field How great a Volume might be wrote de observandis Providentiae concerning the observable things of Divine Providence I have seen a picture one of those you call kitchin-pieces concerning which it hath been proposed to me that for so many hours I should view it as curiously as I could yet the proposer would for any wager undertake to shew me something in it which I did not observe Truly Providence is such a thing I can never look upon it I can never take the motions of it into my thoughts but some new observation tendreth it self to my thoughts I must turn my eyes from this wonderful work for I see they will not be satisfied with seeing my mind will never be filled with observing Many observations I have already made and behold yet a troop cometh But they have all a tendency to the augmentation of spiritual Wisdom in my own and your souls Whoso is wise will observe these things saith my Text they have a tendency to make you to understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Where can we be better employed what can we better do Methinks I could say with the disciple upon the Mount of transfiguration It is good for us to be here let us build our selves tabernacles One for me the speaker others for you
they insist upon this Argument which certainly is not to be answered In all acts of punishment God doth something positively But the Scirpture mentions the giving up of soms sinners to vile affections to a reprobate mind c. as acts of punishment Therefore God as to them doth something positively The minor is evident from the stile of the Scripture Now for the major Certainly in all all punishments God acteth as a Judge and therefore must do something positively The infliction of a punishment argueth a positive judgement of God Besides which is noted by Pareus God is said seven or eight times over to harden Pharaohs heart and many others who never had any grace to be withdrawn Besides it is very observable that the words which the Scripture maketh use of to signifie Gods penal action in hardning sinners Exod. 4.21 7.3 10.1 are such as cannot be expounded by a bare permission or desertion and signifie a vehement intension of the action being verbs of the second and third Conjugation in the Hebrew This is a great point in Divinity let me therefore tell you what our Divines say in their own words and then examine if it be not reconcileable by our reason to the justice and holiness of God Parens saith That it is sufficient that God in these tremendous dispensations acting as a Judge by way of punishment which as the Scripture plentifully affirms so Bellarmine himself granteth God must act in it not meerly privatively but positively we need not be curious to examine the manner how he acteth Fit illa traditio explicabili sive inexplicabili occulto quidem sed semper justo modo whether we be able to open or not open the manner God doth it always by a just although a secret judgment but saith he in three things it seems to be explicable 1. By leaving men to the impetus and force of their own lusts This saith he is a general way for all that perish are thus left to themselves yet it cannot be said properly of all such that God hath delivered them up to hardness of heart c. 2. By giving them means of softning such are precepts miracles his works c. which they through the wickedness of their hearts only use to their further hardening Thus it was in the case of Pharaoh Sihon c. This on their part was a sin on Gods part a just judgment but it may be this is not the case of all and seemeth hardly applicable to the Gentiles whom God so gave up Rom. 1 26. 3. A third way saith he which is more universal is by delivering them up to their lusts and to Satan to be further blinded seduced and hardned as in the case of Ahab and the Gentiles mentioned in this first Chapter of the Romans and 2 Cor. 4.4 The God of this world hath blinded the eyes of those that believe not Now that Satan seduceth souls by command from God appeareth by the story of Ahab 1 King 22.22 23. The Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets Another great Divine opens it in these particulars God saith he hardneth sinners 1. Alesbury de eterno Dei decreto p. 226. By immediately depriving them of reason and counsel or punishing them so as their rage is increasod against God for this he giveth us the instance of Pharaoh whose heart was the more hardened by the plagues which he felt and for this he quoteth Gregory the Great one of the Popes 2. God immediately hardneth the hearts of sinners saith he by giving them up to Satan that they may be by him hardned as in the case of Saul and Ahab and those mentioned in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians 3. Saith he he hardneth them per se ipsos by themselves giving them up as my Text faith to vile affections Thus Pharaoh is said thrice to have hardned his own heart Pharaoh by his own free-will hardned his heart and God hardned it by his just judgment God permitted the Heathens to sin yet more and more and by an actual motion moved them to an act of sin so far forth as it was an act 4. Lastly saith he God positively hardneth sinners By giving occasions which through the lust that is in them incline them to evil God proposeth to them what things in their own nature should induce and perswade them to that which is good but they through their lust and malice make them an occasion to evil Thus saith he God provoked the Jews to emulation by a foolish nation by shewing grace and mercy to the Gentiles the rage of the Jews against Christ grew greater Thus Christs Preaching and Miracles were occasion to the Pharisees of further blaspheming But saith that excellent Author if we rightly understand it it is not of so much moment whether we say that God hardneth men positively or negatively for though as to the execution in the event the act be negative yet this event floweth from the positive purpose of God It is therefore all one whether we speak in the words of Moses Deut. 29.4 and say God hath not given them an heart to perceive or eyes to see and ears to hear or in the phrase of the Apostle Rom. 11.8 God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes they should not see and ears they should not hear until this day for the will of God is as effectual in his negative as positive actions And now I think I have told you the utmost our Divines have said in this cause unless some of them have said that God is the Author of his own judgments and punishments which I think none can with modesty deny Twiss Vind. gratiae 3.163 it being no more than the Scripture saith of all those things which are of a positive nature but not of those things which are of a privative nature which yet he may will should be done by his permission though not by his efficiency and this is no more than Arminius himself confesseth that God is effector actus though no more than permissor peccati The sum is if we understand by the punishment of sin with sin Gods judicial act by which he withdraweth his grace or his leaving of sinners to the satisfaction of their own lusts there is no question but God for mens former sins may do this yea more than this he may judicially deliver men up to their lusts and to Satan to be seduced at his pleasure and offer them occasions in their own nature leading to good which they through their corruption may turn to further sinning But God cannot punish the former sins of any by putting any lust or malice into their hearts by which they become more evil or otherwise than accidentally stirring up that lust and malice which is in their heart This is the sum so far as I know of what Divines say as to Gods acts in the punishment of sin by delivering them up to farther sinnings
and hinteth that they ought to have glorified him as God that is to have paid an homage to God proportionable to the knowledg which they had of his glorious being But we who are within the pale of the Church have as the Apostle saith a more sure word of Prophecy Whereunto we shall do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.19 Besides this many have a common illumination of the Spirit so far ordinarily attending the Ministry of the word of such the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.4 And the Law of conscience ordinarily worketh according to this Light It is indeed true there are and will be differences as to all these Lights The light of nature varies according to mens parts and education The Light of Revelation according to the Ministry of the word men sit under and the other according to Gods pleasure who by his Spirit irradiateth some more than others but according to our light so doth conscience lay a Law upon us Now men and women are highly concerned to behave themselves both toward God and towards men according to the light they have that is according to the discoveries they have either from natural principles or from the word of God or the illuminations of the Spirit of God what God is and what God requireth of them either as acts of homage immediately towards him or as acts of Justice and brotherly love towards their neighbour especially to take heed of bold and impudent actings to the contrary for this cause it is that God judicially gives many up to blindness of mind hardness of heart vile affections a reprobate mind having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Eph. 4.18 19. You see both from this Chapter in which my Text is and from that Text Eph. 4. That it is what may befal poor Heathens which have no more then a natural light yet even they for not living up to that may so far provoke God what do you think Christians may do then that besides the natural light have the light of the Law and Gospel the sure word of Prophecy that have consciences further enlightened and under a further Law than the Heathens could possibly have such as have as the Apostle speaketh Heb. 6.4 Tasted of the heavenly gift and been made partakers of the holy ghost as have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If the Heathens came under such a judgment because when they knew or might have known by the very light of nature that the Lord that made Heaven and Earth could not possibly be like a man nor a beast nor creeping things yet would not attend to the workings of their own reason nor give their consciences leave to speak nor hearken to them but in their practice changed the image of the incorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man c. were for this deserted of God and given up to that dreadful degree of judgment this Chapter mentioneth what shall become of those amongst Christians think you who besides the advantage which they have common with Heathens from that of God which is manifest in them and from the things that are made to know what manner of being God is have also the holy Scriptures telling them That God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and truth That images are teachers of lies and mediums by which God will not be worshippped and revealing his wrath so plentifully against those that in so idle and wretched a manner did worship the true and living God yet will worship him by images Doth not the light of nature and the light of Scripture shine in mens faces and clearly discover to them that God is not to be pleased with rude and confused noises with meer formalities and lip-labours but with a simple pure and Spiritual worship where the understanding the heart and the affections go along with the tongue and outward man and where these are wanting all the cringings and bowings and roarings in the world are abominable to him and no better than the howling of a Dog and grunting of a Swine O Sirs take heed of sinning against this light for fear of being given up of God to superstitious vanities for so it oft-times falleth out that as a lyar though at first he knew he told a lie yet by repeating and telling it often he hath forgot it was a lye and possibly himself thinks he is relating a true story So I am perswaded it falls out with many whose consciences at first grumbled a little at what they did and told them this was no service of God but through a just Judgment of God they shutting their Eyes against the light at last think there is no other true worship of God besides what they have taken up as to which it will at last appear that it was none at all for who required any such things at their hands We can hardly think otherwise of the Jews who at the first setting up of idolatry by Jeroboam and that worser idolatry by Ahab could not but think many of them that that was not the true worship of God but by practice in it afterward grew so warm for it that none else must be true but they must slay the Lords Prophets and persecute all those who either taught or practised any other way of worship more according to the mind and will of God 2. And do not only take heed of shutting your ears as to your duty towards God lest God judicially give you up to vile affections as to superstitious vanities but take heed also that you do not shut your eyes against convictions of your duty towards your selves and others in matters of morality Have you not startled sometimes to see to what brutish degrees of sensuality and immoralities many have fallen from high degrees of profession To me it hath been one of the prodigies of our age If one should have told some that were professors twenty or thirty years ago that within such a time they should be transgressors through wine so famous for impudent uncleanness such Apostates from all Religion such bruits almost in every part of their conversations such persecutors of those that fear God and with whom they sometimes professed to be of the same mind they would certainly have said with Hazael are we dogs that we should ever do any such things Yet we have lived to see it I am loth I tremble to speak what I think certainly God hath forsaken these poor creatures they professed the truth to have imbraced it in the love of it but they were hypocrites they received it not in the love of it but meerly in a faction and for some base sinister ends and for this cause
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
a power to do with his own what he pleaseth and if Grace were not for Gods own it would be no Grace yet we are too too much like Children who considering not their Fathers power and Prerogative nor it may be their own demerits and their own unworthiness to receive such a favour nor possibly their incapacity to receive injoy or use it Yet because they are Children as well as their Brethren and Sisters know not how to brook it that their Father should appear more kind to any of them than he is to them Let me therefore attempt the vindication of God in the inequality of these dispensations and that you may know in what order to follow me I shall lay down this method 1. First I will shew you wherein this inequality lieth 2. Secondly I will endeavour to shew you the reasonableness of the motions of Divine Providence in making this unequal distribution 3. Lastly I shall make some Application of it practically 1. Let us first enquire wherein this inequality lieth In the general It lieth not in any influxes and dispensations of grace necessary in order to the Salvation of their souls There is an union betwixt Christ and every believer in this union lieth the spiritual life of a Christian as the natural life lieth in the union which is betwixt the soul and the body so the spiritual life lieth in the union betwixt the soul and Christ and as the union betwixt the soul and body is preserved and maintained by bodily nourishment blessed be God in order to that end so the spiritual union betwixt the soul and Christ must also be maintained by a spiritual aliment this aliment or nourishment is the influx of the spirit of grace for though Ordinances be external means yet Ordinances signifie nothing without the influx of the spirit upon them and in them Now for such an influence of grace as is necessary to uphold the spiritual life of the believers to keep the soul and its beloved together God giveth it to every believer Whom he loveth he loveth to the end for if this were not so there were a possibility of a total Apostacy and of the intercision of a state of Justification This would infer a mutability in the counsels and purposes of God and subject the gifts and calling of God to repentance For let Jesuites and Arminians say what they will their fictitious purpose and councel of God to love those that are believers will not salve this sore for according to this Doctrine a man may be a believer and in favour with God this month and an unbeliever and out of favour with God the next month and so God may love and hate the same person a thousand times in his life-time and whether this be consistent with the unchangeableness of God let any one judg who understandeth any thing of common sense We therefore stand fixed in this that God neither is nor ever will be wanting to any soul as to those influxes of Divine grace which are necessary to maintain the union and spiritual life of the soul and by the way this well considered might much tend to satisfie a soul dissatisfied at Gods unequal distributions of special grace which although they are exceedingly sweet and of high advantage to gracious souls yet are such as are not of the necessaries of Salvation but only gradual manifestations and such as are spiritual accomodations and advantages to it in its way to Heaven but this is enough to have spoken to this question Negatively I come now to speak nore Positively In the general they are such only as respect the porro esse or the advantages of spiritual life Now what they are comes next into our enquiry They are I think reducible to Three heads the influences of 1. Strengthening 2. Quickning 3. Consolatory grace That there are such influences and that all have not a like measures of them no nor the same soul at all times is so obvious to the experience of all Christians that little need be said of it 1. For strengthening grace I can do all things saith the Apostle through Christ that strengtheneth me It is that which the Apostle prayeth for in the behalf of the Ephesians Eph. 3.16 That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward-man And thus Christ telleth us John 15. Without me you can do nothing Now the Object of this influx of grace is duty or sin and temptation to it 1. Duty I can do all things saith Paul through Christ that strengtheneth me Christians duty is various and lieth in such motions of the inward and of the outward man both in doing and suffering as God hath any-where in his Word required of us Strengthening grace with respect unto duty is nothing else but the graeious influence of Christ Phil. 1.3.14 2 Tim. 4.7 and the Spirit of Christ upon the soul by which the Soul is made more able both to do and suffer the will of God Now that there is a great variety and unequal dispensation of this influence of Divine grace both to different souls and to the same soul at different times is so obvious as would be perfectly needless to spend any time in the proof of it neither do all souls find the same degrees of spiritual strength nor do the same souls find it at all times 2. Another Object about which strengthening grace is exercised is sin and motions and temptations to sin That which we call strengthening grace with reference to sin is a secret influx of the spirit of holiness by which the soul of a Christian findeth it self inabled to resist its inward motions to sin and to repel temptations from the World and the Devil St. James telleth us That every one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed This is that which Divines call tentationem à carne a temptation from the flesh besides we know that the evil spirit hath a power to make impressions and to offer suggessions to us and that either immediately or by wicked men and sinful instruments this is that which they call tentationem ab hoste a temptation from our grand Adversary and there is a temptation wherein both these concur this is that which they call a mixt temptation Now as to all It is our duty to resist and this is the fighting the good fight the maintaining that spiritual combate which the Scripture speaks of Now there is nothing more evident in matter of Fact amongst Christians than that some Christians are more strong and able to resist motions to sin of any nature than others they are more able to mortifie their members and the deeds of the body as the Apostle calls them Rom. 8. through the spirit Yea one and the same Christian doth not find the like degrees of this spiritual strength and ability at all times There was a time when David complained that
power so as if he will he may do it No man will deny but a man hath a power to deal justly to give Alms to the Poor and many other things so as he is but an Hypocrite that pretends want of strength to many external actions which God hath commanded him which are but acts of moral discipline hence it is no great wonder to hear the Patrons of freewil urge this as the whole duty of man But alas though this be his duty yet it is but the least part of his duty Our great duty to God lies as in external acts of Piety so in the internal government of the motions of our hearts affections according to the rule of the Divine law it lyeth in external actions such as praying hearing the word c. But chiefly in the government of our inward man that we may perform all our actions whether respecting God or man in such a manner as he hath required Now that which we call strengthning grace is That influence of the holy Spirit upon the Soul by which the Soul is inabled to perform whatsoever God requireth of it both in doing and suffering in such an acceptable manner as God requireth at our hands Duty may be divided 1. Into such acts which are in our own power as to the external acts to perform without any Spiritual gifts or more special influences of grace thus a man may read the word he may hear Sermons he may do acts of justice and charity and many other things by virtue of the common Providence of God keeping up in man his natural faculties for this now there needeth none of that special strengthning grace about which I am discoursing Secondly 2. Such as a man may perform by vertue of common gifts and influences such as knowledg utterance c. Which although God doth not give unto all yet he doth give unto many who never tast any thing of his distinguishing grace Thus men may pray preach c. It is true some have more ability unto these acts than others and some Christians at some times may find more strength and ability than at other times but this dependeth not upon any influence of special strengthening grace but upon the different tempers and complexions of persons upon their different measures of knowledg and gifts and parts and their strength as to these acts riseth and falleth as their gifts and parts increase hold or decay 3. But thirdly there are duties that are more internal such as meditating of God delighting believing in him breathing after him fervency of Spirit in his service the right manner of performing all external acts Now to the performance of this there needeth a special influence in the Spirit of God besides all the advantage which any man can have from natural parts or gifts And the experience of every Christian justifieth that God useth a great variety in his dispensings of it some Christians find much more than others do others find much more at one time than at an other both for the performing the acts of Mortification and of Vivification the practice of dying to sin and living to righteousness and also for the bearing any burthens which God in his Providence layeth upon him and going through any sufferings which God hath laid out for him and these gradual withdrawings of these Divine assistances are what we call Divine desertions as to these manifestations of grace Now my next business must be to shew you the wisdom and reasonableness of the motions of Divine Providence in the inequality of these dispensations which sometimes proves matter of great trouble to Gods People 1. For the differences of strength and ability to the more external acts of our homage to God it is not so properly within my subject to be discoursed I shall therefore speak but shortly to it something I am willing to speak because I fear too many Christians mistake this for strengthning grace This difference ariseth 1. from a difference or decay in knowledg and other parts and common gifts Knowledg of the things of God is the foundation of this practice and it cannot be expected that Christians weak in knowledg should be able to express themselves so freely in prayer or in Spiritual conference or any other exercise which dependeth upon knowledg as the more knowing Christian can 2. Secondly As difference as to degrees of knowledg is one cause so different frequency in Practice is an other a man in practical things is perfected by practice As he that never almost writeth will forget his hand and he that useth not himself to read or speak Latine or any other Language will in a short time lose the very ability he once had to do it so it is but a reasonable thing for us to imagine that he who seldom or never prayeth should lose his gift and ability to pray and he who seldom or never Preacheth should lose his gift and ability to Preach We find by experience and may find it whenever we try it that a man that hath an excellent ability to pray neglecting that gift in a short time will lose his gift and not be able to continue Ten lines of sence without a Book To this may be added that these performances do also depend upon other natural and common gifts which if they fail through age or other infirmities it cannot without a Miracle be expected but that this strength and ability should abate also I know also that God may blast these gifts and oft doth for mens sins their neglect of the use of them their not glorifying of God with them but Gods usual way of doing this is either by permitting the decay of these gifts upon which these exercises depend or leaving the Hypocrite to fall into such a senslesness and sottishness in life as quite takes him off from any regard of these pieces of homage unto God but thus much shall serve to have spoken to these varieties and decays of strength in the inward man 2. For the other which are the influxes of Divine and special grace it is certainly reasonable that God should not dispense equal measures to all if we consider 1. That all are not of a alike groweth and standing in the Church There is nothing more ordinary in Scripture than to compare the Church to a Fold of Sheep to a Family c. Now there is no Fold where all are are grown Sheep alike scarce any Family where are not some Infants or young Children Christ must carry the Lambs in his Arm while he feedeth his Flock like a Shepheard The Scripture speaking of Christians distinguisheth betwixt Babes and grown Persons betwixt those that are perfect and such as are not perfect such as are Spiritual and such as are Carnal such as are fit for strong Meat and such as have need of Milk now although it be true that this influx of Grace is from the Spirit of God yet the Spirit of God ordinarly worketh Secundum quod nactus
day of believing Souls if we can make any Judgment of Believers do sufficiently evince this to our Souls my business is to inquire the Justice and the reasonableness of the motions of Divine Providence in the inequality of this distribution This will easily appear to you upon three hypotheses which I take to be all very true 1. That God doth ordinarily dispense out these influences of grace to souls which by his Providence he hath prepared for them This which I call Gods Providential preparation of souls for the reception of these influences I conceive lies chiefly in Two things 1. The freedom of it from those bodily incumbrances which in a natural working make the soul sad heavy and dejected such distempers we know there are as in a natural working sadden the spirit and fill it full of fear sorrow dejection and despondency which are all contrary to the comforts and serenity of a soul and as I have once and again told you it must be a miraculous operation contrary to the bias tendency and natural operations of a man for a soul to be filled with consolations while it is influenced with a body lying under these disadvantages God therefore when he intendeth any of these consolatory influences doth ordinarily prepare the soul for it by delivering it from those influences of an ill affected body which dispose it quite another way 2. A second way by which God prepareth the soul for it is by filling it with knowledg proportionable to it for the comforts of a gracious soul are not irrational and unaccountable things but the results of Scriptural conclusions which the soul is by the Comforter inabled to make God hath in his Word sown the seed of light and joy for them the Ministers of the Gospel who are the Interpreters of Scripture have an Office and Ministery in the Interpretation of this Word and working the souls of Gods people to understand the sense of them The soul it self hath an action in it using its reason and natural powers to conclude from the Scripture The Holy Spirit giveth unto the soul to see the things which are freely given it of God 1 Cor. 2. and further possibly setteth to its Seal and giveth it a further and more undoubted confirmation so as in an ordinary working the comforted soul must be a knowing and understanding soul It is true we sometimes find some honest souls full of joy and peace whose knowledg doth not appear proportionable God so relieving some particular souls after their lying under the discouragements of the spirit of bondage But commonly such comforts are not of long continuance rather present reliefs to the soul from an extraordinary working of the blessed Comforter than any settled consolation and the abidings of the Comforter with them Seldom any but knowing and judicious Christians have a settled and continued joy and peace upon their believing 2. Secondly That God doth ordinarily give out these dispensations more or less or nothing of them though not according to the merits of those souls that have them yet according to their behaviour and misbehaviour towards him That famous promise John 14.21 We will manifest our selves unto him is made to those that love Christ and who keep his Commandments And when Judas asks him Lord How is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us and not unto the world Christ answereth him saying ver 23. If any man love me and keepeth my sayings my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings as much as to say The reason why I manifest my self more to you is because you love me and demonstrate that love to me by keeping my Commandments For the world they love me not and proclaim that they love me not by their disobedience to my Commandments and therefore it is that I do not manifest my self to the world as I do unto you In the receiving of the first grace man is meerly passive and the subject of preventing and operating grace but as to the receptions of further grace the child of God is active and the subject of cooperative adjuvant and assisting grace and God gives out his assistances according to their motions 3. Lastly The reasonableness of this different dispensation may appear in this That in the dispensations of this grace God acteth often by Prerogative shewing mercy where he will shew mercy Indeed he doth so as to the first grace as I have before at large shewed you But now he doth not so as to these influences of grace which are necessary to the upholding of the mystical union between Christ and the Soul and the upholding of a Christians spiritual life if he did it were possible that a child of God might fall away from his state of grace and there might be an intercision of the state of Justification But Christ hath told us That if any man drink of the water which he shall give him he shall never thirst but it shall be in him a well-spring of living water springing up in his soul to eternal life c. so that in the dispensation of that God acteth upon a Covenant and as a debtor to his promise If any one saith God hath also promised to manifest himself unto his people I answer those promises are made to those that love him and keep his Commandments but for the upholding of the spiritual life he hath made a Covenant with his people as that he will never depart from them to do them good so that he will put his fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him which promise although it be not to be extended to a being kept from all sin yet it is to be extended to the preservation of souls from such degrees of sinning as shall extend to the alteration of the state of the soul and the extinguishing the spiritual life and killing the seed of God in the soul But for those manifestations of grace which are not necessary to a souls Salvation and the upholding of spiritual life in it God acteth more freely according to the counsel of his own Will derected by his own infinite Wisdom Now upon these Hypotheses supposing that all Christians are not of equal degrees of knowledg nor are equal as to their bodily circumstances that every soul that belongeth to God doth not walk up to an equal degree of duty but some may be and are guilty of more and more eminent failings than others Or that God may be by his infinite Wisdom directed to try one soul more than another to prove their patience or their faith which is most tryed when his people have least sensible consolations the motions of Divine Providence in distributing to several Christians nay to the same Christians several degrees of consolatory influences of grace cannot seem either unjust or unreasonable to any sober and intelligent Christians This is all I shall speak to this
in spiritual nourishment Though it be true in Bodies that all who are fed with the same bread and drink the same drink do not thrive alike yet suppose a body to be fed with improper food or not to have half enough it is no great wonder if it doth not grow so fast as another body that hath a plenty of food and that food too which is good and proper for it It is the same case with the soul that also must have its food The souls food is the Scriptures Ordinances Influences For the first indeed we have them we have them in our own language so that we can understand them but yet every one cannot read an inexcusable fault in Parents and such as have the government of youth especially in the age wherein we live nor have all the like means of having them read to them and being made to understand them But the great difference lies in Ordinances St. Peter adviseth Christians to desire like New-born Babes the sincere milk of the Word that they might grow thereby He doubtless speaketh of the Word preached the Promise Psal 92.13 is Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God The House of the Lord is the Church of the Lord and there is a promise of growth to all those that are planted in it yet as in our Gardens and Fields there are different sorts oft-times so in the Church of God which is a large Field there are different soils for Christians There is a great deal of difference in that preaching under which Christians sit One man preacheth in the inticing words of mans wisdom another in the perswasive words of mans wisdom another in the evidence and demonstration of the spirit and with power Some Christians possibly live where they scarce ever hear a good Sermon but some Harangues of Oratory or some rational Philosophical Discourses of which they understand little or nothing Others live under plain lively powerful preaching where the Preacher makes it his business to study the souls of his people and proportioneth his preaching accordingly so as the Babes have their milk and others their stronger meat Teaching them as they are able to receive instruction It is no wonder if such Christians who are under the best means be found most thriving God working in the use of means where means can be had It is true Christ once and never but once that we read of made use of clay and spittle to cure the blind mans eyes And when our Lord was himself upon the Earth attending his own Garden and the Plants in it though he had a fulness of wisdom and power too and had many things to say unto them yet saith he John 16.12 you are not able to bear them now And it is said Mark 4.33 With many such parables spake he the Word unto them as they were able to hear it Now if Christians live under preachers who either make no conscience what they preach unto people but fill up their time either with idle Fables or Invectives against Parties or some florid or Philosophical Discourses as if their study were directly contrary to that of the Apostles whose great care as he tells us was so to order his preaching as the faith of his hearers might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God Now their preaching seems to be so directed and ordered as that the faith of their hearers might not rest in the power of God but in the wisdom of men It is no wonder if such Christians do not grow in grace in proportion with others who live under more adequate and proper means God useth not ordinarily to work miracles and their ordinary spiritual food is not proportioned to any such thing as the spiritual proficiency of those that hear them 2. Secondly A great reason of this difference lieth also in the differing natural tempers of Christians Amongst other Metaphors by which the Holy Ghost expresseth the Conversion and Regeneration of souls by that of Engraffing is one Rom. 11.17.19.23 24. The soul is ingrafted into Christ Now those who are skilled in planting know that according to the different nature of the plant the growth is faster or slower more or less Some plants grow much more freely than others a Cion of one sort of fruit will shoot up as much in one year as a Cion of another species will shoot in two or three years Truly it is so in the Spiritual Plantation Christ is the Stock into which we are all ingrafted there is no fault there but now the Cions that are ingrafted into Christ are not all of the same nature and temper And although Grace makes a great change and alteration and doth much correct a natural temper yet it doth not root out Nature nor work the change in a moment nor in all the same proportion of time There are several tempers which much hinder the appearance of growth in grace Some are naturally of vain airy light spirits some of proud and high spirits some of froward teachy passionate stubborn spirits Others are naturally of more solid serious tempers of more low and humble of more meek and pliable spirits Now where it happens that there is a change wrought in some persons of airy and light spirits or such as are proud and high or froward and passionate and stubborn a progress and growth in habits and exercises of grace will not be so soon evident and apparent as in those souls that are of sweeter and more gentle and ductile spirits Much grace will make but a little show where there is an ill natural temper and humor 3. Thirdly An ill neighbourhood doth make a great deal of difference in the growth of grace We see in Plants an ill neighbourhood of Plants doth much hinder growth There is scarce any Plant will thrive much near an Ash the like might be observed of other Trees which experience tells us are ill neighbours to Plants Rake up Fire in Ashes if it keepeth alive it is all It is so with Christians that are ill-yoaked that live in ill Families or Neighbourhoods There is some Wood they call Quench-coal Rotten Wood is mostly so The truth is the company of all carnal worldly men is of that nature they are all Quench-coals to the life of Grace and discourage that holy fire which the Spirit of God hath kindled in the souls of his people If a Christian be engaged in such society whether necessarily as in Conjugal relations and indeed in most Domestick relations or voluntarily if such a Christian keeps his sincerity it will be well it can hardly be expected that the profiting of such Christians should appear unto all or indeed that they should grow in proportion unto other Christians who are engaged in a better converse and are under the daily Instructions Exhortations Reproofs and Admonitions of others who as Brethren take themselves concerned to consider them and to
fear God have such different Apprehensions and wherein the motions of Divine Providence in permitting of them seem just and reasonable 1. It first must be laid down for a Principle That the providence of God never doth nor can suffer any elect Soul to embrace and die in any belief of any Proposition by the belief of which its Salvation may be endangered The Apostle telleth you of some that bring in damnable Heresies Every Deviation from any Doctrine of Truth is an Error but an Error is one thing a damnable Error is another thing There hath been a great deal of stir about Fundamentals what Truths and Errors are Fundamental I shall not engage my self in that Dispute but shall determine those Fundamental Truths the belief of or assent and agreement unto which is necessary in order to such exercises of Faith and Holiness without the exercise of which no man can be saved And those are Fundamental Errors which a man cannot hold and in the mean time exercise that Faith and Holiness without the exercise of which no man can be saved As now supposing that Faith in Jesus Christ is necessary to Salvation A denial of the God-head of Christ must needs be a fundamental Error for Cursed is he that trusteth in Man and maketh Flesh his Arm The true and living God alone can be the object of our Faith Now I do not say but a Child of God may fall in with and for a time embrace such Errors The Providence of God may permit him thus to fall but it cannot it doth not suffer any of the Elect of God to hold on and perish in the faith of any Propositions of this nature for then the elect of God might be deceived which our Saviour hath determined impossible then a Soul ordained to Life given to Christ might perish eternally which is not consistent with the certainty of Divine Purposes and infallibility of Divine Decrees Although therefore an elect Vessel may receive some such corrupt Liquor yet it shall not it cannot abide in it though it may be for a time taken in such a snare of the Devil yet the snare shall be broken and it shall be delivered before it comes to leave the Body The question onely must be concerning a mis belief of other Propositions a mis-belief of which is sinful but not damnable And for those Promises of the Spirit leading the People of God into all Truth and of the Annointing teaching them all things they must be interpreted of such Propositions as are necessary to be believed in order to the Salvation of the Soul else ignorance of other Propositions as well as Error relating to them would argue men and women to be destitute of the Spirit of God and not to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them 2. Secondly As to Propositions of Truth that are not in this sense fundamental the reason of the difference is very obvious and that both upon a Natural and a Moral and Spiritual account Upon 1. A spiritual account Diverse Propositions of Truth of this nature are not so clearly written in Scripture that he who runneth may read them It was I think Augustines saying of the Holy Scriptures That there were divers parts of them in which a Lamb might wade others wherein an Elephant may swim It is the great mercy of God to us that those Propositions of Truth which are necessary to be agreed to in order to the exercises of our Faith and Holiness are left in Scripture so plain and so often repeated that if a man will not shut his eyes and suffer his lust to give law to his understanding he must agree to them but now divers other Propositions are not so but so delivered as that the truth of them is justly the subject of dispute and they are fit for a ventilation and possibly must be concluded from consequences 2. Upon a natural account Every one hath not the same quickness of Apprehension the same strength for ratiocination and ability for rational and logical deductions 3. Nor Thirdly which is that which I meant by a moral account Hath every one the same helps and means or capacity to use helps and means to discern Truth from Error and find out what indeed is the Truth as to a Proposition laid before him so that although they have all the same Spirit of Truth dwelling in them and the same Word of Truth to weigh and measure Propositions by yet the Holy Spirit being no more engaged to keep them from every error of the understanding than from every error of practice and they not having the same faculty to apprehend Truth nor the same means and advantages to understand the Mind and Will of God it is not at all to be wondered if they have not all the same Apprehension of every Proposition of Truth nor is it to be expected that all Christians should have so more than that they should have all the same Faces For Example Take but the Propositions concerning Infant Baptism I doubt not no more I think do you that hear me but that Infants are to be baptized But how do we gather it We have no express Scripture for that more than for Womens receiving the Lords Supper but we conclude it from the identity of the Covenant of Grace under the Old and New Testament from the Precept for Circumcision from the right of Infants to the Kingdom of God and many other such like Topicks But every one hath not the same ability of Reasoning nor the same Apprehensions of the force of Conclusions and therefore different Apprehensions in that and such like Propositions is not at all to be wondred at nor are any to be condemned as not belonging to God for their different Apprehensions concerning them 3. Thirdly As to the Act of Providence permitting these different apprehensions it cannot be denied to be an Act exceeding reasonable and the product of a Depth of Divine Wisdom 1. Reasonable That man may act freely according to his nature in the choice or refusal of Propositions 2. The Product of great Wisdom 1. For the further confirmation of the Souls of his People in the truth It is an usual saying That there are no Propositions which we more firmly believe than those about which we have sometimes doubted Nihil magis certum quam quod ex dubio certumest Truth receiveth a great confirmation by the shakings of some Velitations and Disputes about it It was the saying of an eminent person of our own Church That the itch of disputing was the scab of the Church and truly it hath proved so but it hath been by accident men coming to dispute bringing as Augustine said of his own coming sometimes to read the Scriptures Discutiendi acumen not Discendi pietatem a sharpness of wit to discuss Points not an humble pious defire to learn arguing indeed for masteries not for truth to get themselves not to get the truth and glory of God the Victory but where Disputes
Grace but yet these are Holy Institutions upon which he hath recorded his name and we are bound in order to our receptions of his Grace to lie at these Pools 4. Be much fourthly in Prayer especially in secret Prayer there it is that the Soul can be freest with God both in the confession of its sins and in the spreading of its particular case before the Lord and wrestlings with him All that is to be obtained of God either with reference to the first Grace or the further manifestations of God unto the Soul is in one place or other of Holy Scripture promised unto Prayer 5. Lastly Let not Meditation and Holy Conference be neglected Meditation is the souls Soliloquy with God a piece of piety often commanded and practised with great success Holy converse and conference is our conversation with Saints who are to meet often together to consider and to provoke one another to love and to good works Converted souls Luke 22.32 have an obligation upon them to strengthen their brethren Men of knowledge do not only themselves increase in strength for their own use but they increase strength in others as Gods instruments for the principal efficiency of spiritual strength is from the Lord. Converse also with the people of God is of great use to increase spiritual life and vigor as one coal kindleth another and oft-times God maketh use of his more private servants to speak a word in season to the weary in short for all the purposes of special grace I shall add no more for the promise of divine manifestations and the abode of the spirit of God with the soul being limited to those who love Christ and evidence that love by a keeping of his commandements it must necessarily follow that the keeping the commandements of Christ in all things must be an adequate means and indeed all that lieth upon our hand to do in order to the obtaining of these manifestations Now what greater argument to press holiness can there be than this He that hath my commandements and keepeth them saith our blessed Lord John 14.21 he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him And again v. 23. If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Who is there that understandeth not the difference betwixt a strong and a weak Christian weak in the resistance of sin and temptation weak in the performance of all holy and spiritual duties betwixt a Christian who feels himself in a free lively temper for the service of God ready to run the way of Gods Commandments and a dull heavy uncheerly temper for duty while in the mean time the conscience is pressed with a necessity of doing of it betwixt a sad dejected disquieted troubled spirit and a soul full of that joy and peace that is consequent to believing betwixt a soul flourishing and daily shooting forth in more perfect acts of grace and a soul that seems to stand still and not to thrive in the wayes of holiness If therefore there be any advantage from further degrees of spiritual strength if any goodness in a spiritual liveliness freedome and alacrity if any consolation in Christ or sweetness arising from those consolations if any comfort in the love the spiritual love of God O study Holiness some gradual neglects of it are the greatest causes of all that weakness dulness sadness unthriftiness under which your souls labour God sometimes acteth by Prerogative shewing these mercies where he will and because he will and with-holding them for the probation and tryal of his People but generally it is in justice to punish his Peoples omissions of their duty or commissions of something which is contrary to their duty And here now I shall put an end to my Discourses in which I have been exercised so long relating to the Providence of God I shall conclude with that of Job Chap. 26.14 Lo these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him To which you may add that Job 11.7 Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty unto Perfection v. 8. It is as high as Heaven What canst thou do Deeper than Hell What canst thou know v. 9. The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea SOLI DEO GLORIA FINIS An Alphabetical TABLE Containing the principal Matters contained in this Book Note In some places through the mistake of the Printer in figuring the pages thou art directed to the Contents by the Sermon Ser. 44. Ser. 55. c. A. ACtual Providence vide Providence Acts of Grace elicited by the motion of Divine Providence in its timings the destruction of Gods enemies and the salvation of his people 210 211 212. Actions good rewarded when the intention by God is disallowed 362 363. The reasonableness of it 364 365. It is only with limited and temporal rewards 366 367. Actions of piety how elicited by Providence 208 209 210 211. Adam why he first had salvation offered him upon a Covenant of works 453 454 455 456 457. Adoration of God in the unsearchable things of Providence our duty 171. Affairs in the world ordinarily subordinated to the designs God hath upon his Church 258 258 260 261. The reasonableness of it 263 What use to be made of it 265 266 267. Afflictions of this life may be punishments of past and pardoned sins 398 399. How this is just and reasonable 404. What use to be made of it 405. God the Author of them this consists with his holiness and goodness 404 405 406. The Portion of Gods people not of all 588 589. They are not truly Evils proved 589 590 591 592 593 594. Aids and Assistances of Grace whether given to all if not how God is just in condemning such as have them not 650 651 652 653 654 655 Anger what Serm. 45. How not to be used in the prosperity of sinners Serm. 45. Arguments to perswade the restraint of it Ibid. Application of God in what it lieth 103. necessary to render God the object of our delight 603 604. Application of the whole discourse about varieties of further Grace 692. The variety of Christians growth c. 727 728 729 730 731. Apprehensions of truth how different 721 722. Whence the difference is 723. The reason of it 724 725. What improvement is to be made of it 727 728 729 730 731 c. Attributes of God what how glorified by the timings of Providence 208 209 210. and by the permission of sin 480 481 482. B. Blessings sensible most upon those who live most exactly up to the Divine rule 438 439 440 441 442. C. Casual nothing to God p. 113 114. Calling to faith and repentance how universal 466. Why if all have not a power to believe and obey 467 468. How the