prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing that is if the event does not answer his Prediction I have deceived him or confuted his vain Lying Prophesy And how would God deceive him that immediately follows I will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel and they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity both Prophets and People This did effectually deceive them as being a terrible confutation of their Prophesies and what God expresly threatened Because they have seduced my people saying peace and there was no peace 13. Ezek. 8 9 10. This is what God attributes to himself as his peculiar Prerogative and Glory That it is He that frustrateth the tokens of the seers and maketh diviners mad by deceiving them in the events of things and confuting their Prophesies by his Judgments 44. Isaiah 25. as he expresly threatned against these lying Prophets and Diviners 3. Micah 5 6 7. which is a plain Comment upon this Text. As for what is objected about David's numbering the People it is hardly worth naming â— Sam. 24. â— it is said The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say Go number the people But in 1 Chron. 21. 1. it is expresly said That Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel From whence we learn in what sense this is attributed to God when Satan was the immediate Tempter only because God in anger against Israel suffered Satan to tempt David to number them But that is more considerable that is objected from St. Paul concerning the Heathens whom God delivered up to all manner of Wickedness in punishment of their Idolatry They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves And for this cause God gave them up to vile affections And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness c. Now is not this a Reflection on the Holiness of God that because Men are guilty of one Sin he delivers them up to all other Sins For can a Holy God punish Sin with Sin Can he who hates all Wickedness contribute any thing to make Men more wicked than otherwise they would be But in answer to this we need only consider what is meant by God's giving them up to all uncleanness and to a reprobate mind which signifies no positive Act of God but only his leaving them in the Power and Management of those Evil Spirits whom they idolatrously worshipped For most of these Vices to which God is said to give them up were the necessary Effects of their Idolatry were the sacred Rites and Mysteries of their Religious Worship and if they would worship such Gods they must worship them as they would be worshipped And this corrupted the Lives and Manners of Men and destroy'd all the Notions of Good and Evil and then they were prepared for any Wickedness which their own vicious Inclinations and the Circumstances of their Condition and Fortune or those wicked Spirits could tempt them to This very Account we find in the Book of Wisdom where we have such another Catalogue of Vices as the Apostle here gives us charged upon their Idolatry as the natural Effects of it Now if Men will worship such Gods as delight in Uncleanness and Impurity and all manner of Wickedness and who will be worshipped with the most infamous Vices to the utmost Reproach and Contempt of Human Nature there is no avoiding it but that their Religion must corrupt their Lives they give themselves up to the Worship of Evil Spirits and God leaves them in their Hands for who should have the Government of them but the gods they worship They reproach the Divine Nature by vile and sensible Representations and God gives them up to vile Affections to dishonour their own Natures They corrupt the natural Notions they have of God and God gives them up to a Reprobate mind not to distinguish between Good and Evil. The Devil had erected a Kingdom of Darkness in the World and God thought fit for some time to permit it till he sent his own Son to destroy the Works of the Devil and those who gave themselves up to Idolatry became his Slaves and Vassals for he is the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that ruleth in the Children of Disobedience And this is God's giving them up to vile Affections his casting them out of his Protection when they had first renounced him and giving them up to the Power of wicked Spirits to whom they had given themselves So that here is no other Objection against the Holiness of God but that there is a Devil who is a very impure Spirit and affects Divine Honour to be the god of this World and that God suffers him to govern those who worship him and to seduce them into all the Wickedness of a Diabolical Nature And yet that barbarous Tyranny which the Devil exercised over his Votaries that impure flagitious Worship which he instituted and that Excess of Wickedness wherewith he corrupted the Lives of Men was the most effectual way to convince Mankind what sort of gods they worshipped and did make the wiser Heathens asham'd of their gods and of their Worship and as Learning and Civility increased they reformed their Worship and allegoriz'd away their gods which disposed them for the more ready Reception of that Holy Religion which the Son of God preach'd to the World Wickedness is its own Punishment and many times proves its own Cure and God could not have inflicted a more Just Punishment upon the Idolatrous World than to deliver them up to the Tyranny of those wicked Spirits whom they worshipped and there was not a more likely way to convince men of their fatal Error than those inhuman and impious Rites of Worship and that Excess of Wickedness which their Idolatry betray'd them to which was enough to make Human Nature start and fly back The like objection is made from the Antichristian State the appearance of the Man of sin whose coming is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they shold believe a lie That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 1 Thess. 2. 9. 10 11 12. Now what can be more just than this for God to suffer the Devil to blind those men who
two distinct and different Acts of Power to Make and to Preserve For how can any man know this who neither knows how God creates nor how he preserves Thus much is certain That to Create is to give being to that which was not before to Preserve is to continue that in being which was made before and when any thing is once created it can never be new created till it fall into nothing again for to create is to make out of nothing not to make a thing which already is but by what Acts of Power either of these is done we cannot tell nor are we concerned to know for what way soever this is done we equally depend on God we live and subsist in him But there is one thing fit to be observed That this Act of Preservation which consists in upholding all things in being is fixt by a perpetual and unchangeable Decree That though God will dissolve this present frame of things and it may be cast the World into a new Mould yet nothing that is made neither Matter nor Spirit shall be annihilated or reduced into nothing again This I think we may safely conclude from the Promises and Threatnings of Eternal Rewards and Punishments which supposes that both Good and Bad men shall live for ever the one to be happy the other to be miserable to Eternity and then we may reasonably conclude That the World whatever Changes it may suffer will continue as long the Inhabitants of it do This is the first Act of what we call Preserving Providence to uphold all things in being in distinction as I observed before from those several Acts of Preservation which concern a Governing Providence A Second Act of Preserving Providence is what the Schools call God's Co-operation and Concourse with Creatures in all their Actions that we not only live and have our being but that we move in God that whatever we do we do by a natural Power received from God and this is as certain as that we have our being in him for if we live we must move in him But then whether God's Co operation and Concourse be a different Act from his preserving the natural Vertues and Powers of Action is a nicer and more intricate Speculation and neither the thing nor the reason of it is easy to be conceived Natural Powers are Internal Principles of Action when a Creature acts from an inward Principle of Nature but if these Natural Powers while they are preserved in their full force and vigour by God can do nothing themselves without a new extrinsick determining motion from God then they seem to be no Natural Powers for they cannot act by Nature if this be true the Fire don't burn by nature for though God preserves its nature it cannot burn without some new co-operating Power which is not in its nature A man don't reason and judge chuse and refuse by Nature for though God preserve his Natural Powers and Faculties of Understanding and Will yet he can neither understand nor will unless he be moved acted determined by God This seems to make the whole World a meer Apparition and empty Scene which has nothing real Whatever we see done in the World is not done by Creatures who seem to do it for they are only acted like Machines not from the Internal Principles and Powers of Nature but from External Motion But God does every thing himself by an immediate Power even all the Contradictions and Contrarieties we see in the World This is a very great difficulty which I will not undertake to determine one way or other but thus much I think we may safely say That if we will attribute any thing to Creatures if we will allow that they ever act from a Principle of Nature we must confess that God co-operates only to the natural Power of Action that is That he only enables them to act according to their Natures without changing influencing determining their Natures otherwise than these Natural Powers would naturally act For this is all that is necessary to Action when God has created the Natural Powers and this is all the co-operation that can belong to God as the Maker and Preserver of all things Whatever is more than this as I acknowledge there is a great deal more that God does it belongs to a Governing not to a Preserving Providence God does a great deal more than merely co-operate with our Natural Powers to perform Natural Actions but this he does as a Governour not merely as a Preserver The not distinguishing of which has occasioned great mistakes in the Doctrine of Providence as to show this briefly God has endowed all Creatures with such Natural Powers and Vertues as may answer the End for which they were made He has made the Sun to shine to enlighten and refresh the World the Fire to burn the Earth to bring forth all sorts of Herbs and Grass and Corn and Fruit the Vapours to ascend out of the Earth to purge and fan the Air with Winds and to fall down again in fruitful Showers every Herb and Flower and Tree has its peculiar Seeds to propagate its Kind as all living Creatures have Now as it had been to little purpose for God to have made a World without upholding it in being for Creatures can no more preserve than they can make themselves so it had been to as little purpose to have endowed all Creatures with such Vertues and Powers as belong to their several Natures without such a natural Co-operation whatever that be as shall enable their Natural Powers to act and to attain the ends of their Natures and therefore God established this Natural Concourse and Co-operation to actuate all the Powers of Nature by a perpetual Law which is that Blessing God bestowed upon all Creatures at the time of the Creation For though this Blessing to Encrease and Multiply and to replenish the Sea and Air and Earth which preserves and invigorates the Powers of Nature be expressed only of living Creatures the Fish and Fowls and Beasts and Men yet it equally belongs to the whole Creation as will be easily granted and makes Nature regular and constant in all its Motions and Productions But there are other Acts belong to God's Government even of the Material World as I shall shew you more hereafter As to direct the Vertues and Influences of Nature or to suspend and restrain them To make the Earth fruitful or barren the Air wholsome or Pestilential to withhold the Dews and Showers of Heaven or to give the former and latter Rain in its Season to cause it to Rain upon one City and not upon another and so to temper the Influences of Nature as to punish the Wickedness or to reward the Obedience of Mankind these are Acts of Government and of a quite different kind from actuating the Powers of Nature to attain their Ends and to do what they were made for Thus to consider the Rational World God has endowed Man
upon mount Zion and on Ierusalem I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his proud looks 10. Isai. 5 6 7 12. A great many Examples might be given of this nature but these are sufficient to show what different Intentions God and Men have in the same actions and how easily God can defeat what men intend and accomplish by them his own Wise Counsels which they never thought of When God has no particular Ends of Providence to serve by the Lusts and Passions and evil Designs of men he commonly disappoints them that when they intend evil and imagine a mischievous device they are not able to perform it 21. Psal. 11. Or he turns the evil upon their own heads The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made in the net which they hid is their own foot taken the Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands 9 Psal. 15 16. Or he doubly disappoints their malice not only by defeating the evil they intended but by turning it to the great advantage of those it was intended against which was visible in the case of Haman whose malice against Mordecai and all the Iews for his sake did not only prove his own ruin but the great advancement of Mordecai and the Glory and Triumph of the Iewish Nation Having thus briefly shewn what Government God has both of the Hearts and the Actions of men how easily he can alter their Counsels and manage their Passions make them do what good they never intended and disappoint the evil which they did intend or turn it into good this is a sufficient Demonstration how Absolute the Divine Providence is for he who has such an Absolute Government of Nature of what we call Chance and Fortune and of the Wills and Actions of men can do whatsoever pleaseth him But that we may have the clearer and more distinct apprehension of God's government of mankind to make them the Instruments of his Providence I shall more particularly but very briefly state this matter both with respect to good and to bad men 1. As for Good men there is no difficulty in their case for they are the Ministers of a good and beneficent Providence they do good out of Temper and Inclination and a Habit and Principle of Vertue and out of Reverence to the Divine Laws and are ready to obey every extraordinary impression to excite and determine them to such particular good offices as God thinks fit to employ them in And this is nothing but what is very honourable for God and what becomes good men for to do good is the Glory of Human Nature as well as of the Divine Providence and good men will observe the Laws of Vertue in doing good and while good is done by honest and vertuous means there can be no Objection against Providence 2dly But as Bad men are most difficulty governed so the greatest difficulty is in vindicating Providence in making use of the Ministries of Bad men for it is commonly thought a great blemish to Providence when Glorious and Admirable Designs are brought to pass by the Sins of men Now the Foundation of this Objection is a great mistake as if God could not serve his own Providence by the Sins of men without being the Cause of mens sins for there is no colour nor reasonable pretence of an Objection against God's making the Sins of men serve wise and good ends if he can do this without having any hand in mens sins It is the great Glory of Providence to bring good out of evil and while all the Events of Providence are Just and Righteous and Holy and Wise and such as become a God it is much more admirable to consider that all this should be while there is so much wickedness and disorder in the world The true state of this matter in short is this God never suggests any evil designs to men that is owing to their own wicked hearts or to the Temptations of other wicked men or of wicked Spirits but when men have formed any wicked Designs he sometimes as you have heard changes their purposes or deters them from putting them in execution and when he suffers them to proceed to action he either shamefully disappoints them or serves some wise and good end by what they wickedly do And if Providence consists in the Care and Government of mankind how can God govern mankind better than to permit bad men to do no more hurt than what he can turn to good God does not govern the world by an immediate and miraculous Power but governs men by men and makes them help and defend reward and punish one another and therefore there is no other ordinary way of punishing bad men excepting the Civil Sword which reaches but a few Criminals but to punish them by the Wickedness of other bad men and what can more become the Wisdom and Justice of Providence than to make bad men the Ministers and Executioners of a Divine Vengeance upon each other which is one great End God serves by the Sins of men I 'm sure it is for the great good of the world that God has the government of bad men that they cannot do so much hurt as they would and that the mischief God permits them to do is directed to fall on such persons as either want Correction or deserve Punishment For this is another thing very observable in God's government both of the good and bad actions of men that as in the government of Natural Causes God directs where and when and in what proportion Nature shall exert its Influences that it shall rain upon one City and not upon another so God does not only excite men to do good but directs and determines them where to do it chuses out such persons as they shall do good to and appoints what good they shall do and in what measures and proportions they shall do it And he not only sets bounds to the Lusts and Passions of bad men but when he sees fit to permit their wickedness he directs where the hurt and mischief of it shall light We need no other proof of this but the very Notion of Providence which is God's Care of his Creatures for that requires a particular Application of the good or evil which men do to such particular persons as God thinks fit to do good to or to afflict and punish which is the most material and most necessary exercise both of the Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of Providence For if God suffered men to do good or evil at random without directing them to fit and proper Objects the Fortunes of particular men would depend upon as great a Chance as the mutable Lusts and Passions and Fancies of men The only Use I shall make of this at present is to convince you how perfectly we are in God's hands and how secure we are in his
nor happier State after this yet it were very desirable to come into this World and live as long as we can here to enjoy the Pleasures and Satisfactions which may be enjoyed in this Life And though we know there is a happier Life after this yet there is so much to be enjoyed in this World as generally makes even Good men very well contented to stay here as long as God pleases 2dly But still we must confess That though men may live very happily in this World yet there may be such a state of things as if we only compare the sensible Advantages and Disadvantages of Life may make Death much more desirable than life I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive For the understanding of which we must consider That this is one of those Sayings which must not be strictly and Philosophically examined nor stretched to the utmost sense the words will bear it has some truth and something of Figure and Rhetorick in it as many of our Common and Proverbial Speeches have which must be expounded to a qualified sense We must observe then That the design of this whole Book of Ecclesiastes is not to put us out of conceit with Life but to cure our vain Expectations of a compleat and perfect Happiness in this World to convince us that there is no such thing to be found in mere external Enjoyments which are nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit And the end of all this is not to make us weary of Life but to teach us to moderate our love to present things and to seek for Happiness in the practise of Vertue in the knowledge and love of God and in the hopes of a better Life For this is the application of all Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole of man Not only his Duty but his Happiness too For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil 12. Eccl. 13 14. Among other Arguments to prove how vain it is to expect a compleat Happiness in this World the Wise-man instances in the many Oppressions and Sufferings which men are liable to and which sometimes befall them which may be so sore and grievous and make Life so uneasy and troublesome as may tempt men who only consult their own sensible satisfaction to prefer Death before Life And this seems to be all that the Wise-man means That we may live in such a troublesome and tempestuous state of things that the mere external Enjoyments of this Life cannot recompence the Troubles of it for this is all that his Design required him to prove The vanity of all external Enjoyments And if ever the Case be such That a Wise-man would chuse rather to leave this World and to leave all these Enjoyments behind him than to endure the Troubles and Calamities wherewith they are attended they are vain indeed But this does not prove That a Wise-man ought to despise Life for the Troubles of it that he should chuse to run out of the World to be eased of its Troubles or that a Wise-man notwithstanding all these Troubles cannot make himself easy and happy in it and consequently it does not prove That a Wise-man in such Cases should prefer Death before Life though it may reasonably enough cure his fondness for Life and make him welcome Death whenever God pleases to send it Let us then briefly consider these things And 1. Let us take a view of those Troubles and Disorders which may make a Wise-man willing to part with all the external Enjoyments and Pleasures of Life to be rid of the Troubles of it and make him think those men happy who are escaped out of this World or are not yet come into it King Solomon the Preacher gives us two Accounts of this the first before the second immediatly after this Text. In the 1st Verse he tells us So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun and beheld the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and on the side of their oppressors there was power but they had no comforter And hence he concludes Wherefore I praised the dead that are already dead more than the living who are yet alive Which signifies the Publick Oppressions either of the Supream Power or of Subordinate Magistrates The Second relates to Private Factions Envyings Emulations which many times make Life as uneasy as the Publick Miscarriages of Government Again I considered all travel and every right work that for this a man is envied of his neighbour This is also vanity and vexation of spirit v. 4. These two contain most of those Evils in them which disturb and distract Human Life but I shall not discourse this matter according to Rules of Art and Method but shall beg leave to give you a short view of such a state of things as might make a man who consults only his own ease very contented to slip out of the World and to leave foolish Mortals to end the scuffle as well as they can When a Kingdom is in a strong Convulsion assaulted by powerful Enemies abroad and divided by busy and restless Factions at home when men live in perpetual fear and suspence know not what to call their own nor how long they shall enjoy it when some men think themselves bound in conscience to ruin themselves their Countrey and their Religion others will sacrifice their Countrey and consequently themselves too to private Ambitions Resentments or Revenge and try their Fortune over again in some new Changes and Revolutions of Government When such publick Disputes as these influence all Inferior Societies and as sometimes they have done corrupt Publick Justice dissolve the most Intimate Friendships make Conversation uneasy or dangerous set every man's Sword or which is almost as fatal every man's Tongue against his Brother when no man's Fame no man's Life is secure but a Slandering Tongue may blast one and a Perjured Tongue destroy the other When Zeal and Faction make Characters of men disposes of Life of Honour of Estates and Religion it self serves for little else but to inspire men with Zeal and Faction When we cannot live in the World without seeing or hearing or feeling ten thousand Villanies that are committed in it what should make any man fond of Life why should we not come to good Old Simeon's Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Such a troublesome state of things in this World must needs make all considering men think of a better and as glad to get out of this as a Mariner is to recover the Haven after a violent Storm at Sea Thus I say it must be if we consider only the present Advantages or Disadvantages of Life for perpetual Fears and Cares Strife and Contention Oppression Injustice Defamation
though the Troubles and Calamities which we often meet with in this World do not prove Life to be a contemptible State or worse than not being yet they do prove Life to be a very Imperfect State that the mere Sensible Pleasures and Advantages of Life together with these great allays are but vanity and vexation of spirit Wise men see that there can be no compleat Happiness in this World and that it is vain to expect it for how can this World make us happy which though it has its Pleasures has its Troubles and Cares and Disappointments too is an insecure and mutable State exposed to Chance and Accident to the Lusts and Passions of men is always chequered with Prosperous and Adverse Events has always a mixture of Good and Evil and many times the Evil is the prevailing Ingredient And therefore though the natural love of Life and the many Sweets and Comforts of it reconcile very miserable people to living yet a wise man sees no reason to be fond of this State much less to dream of perfect and lasting Happiness in it 2dly The many Troubles we are exposed to plainly prove That there is no Happiness to be had in this World but in the practice of Vertue It was a vain brag of the Stoicks That Vertue alone could make a man happy that their Wise-man could be perfectly happy in Phalaris's Bull for Vertue is not Meat and Drink and Clothes can't cure Bodily Pain and Sickness nor satisfy the Appetites and Desires of the Body and while a Wise man lives in a mortal Body he must feel the wants and pains of it and to be in want and pain is not happiness But yet thus much is certainly true That nothing can make a man happy in this World without the practise of Vertue and that when we must encounter with the Troubles and Difficulties of Life nothing can give us any degree of Ease and Satisfaction but the practice of Vertue We may meet with such Troubles as will sowre all our other Enjoyments and make them unable to bear up our spirits which sink under their own weight under the disorders of their own Passions Are tormented with Fears with Disappointments with Envy with Rage and when they cannot bear themselves can bear nothing else nor relish their wonted Pleasures But you have already heard that Vertue has its proper Pleasures in the greatest Difficulties inspires us with prudent Counsels to disintangle our selves animates us with courage and bravery to resist the Evil or to bear it sweetens our Labours with the satisfaction of great and generous Actions for the Publick Good keeps our own Passions under government and triumphs over an adverse Fortune by raising the mind above it By such helps as these a Good man may enjoy some competent measure of Ease and Satisfaction in the worst Condition but when such Troubles surprise a mind unarmed and unfortified with Vertue unable to resist and unable to bear we may then with great truth and reason apply this Text to him I praised the dead who are already dead more than the living who are yet alive Were the state of this World always easy and prosperous there would be little need of Passive Vertues though Vertue in general is always necessary to make men happy but all men must be sensible how necessary Passive and Suffering Vertues are for an inconstant troublesome and suffering state which is always in some degree the state of this World and that will convince those who will consider it how necessary the practice of Vertue is to make men happy 3dly Though the Troubles of this Life are no reason why a Good man should hasten his escape out of this World before his time yet they are a very good reason to make him contented to leave this World whenever God calls him out of it For though Vertue will sweeten Labours and Difficulties yet no man would chuse always to live in a state of War Ease and rest is very pleasant and refreshing after labour Though a Prince be glorious in the Field covered with dust and sweat and sprinkled with the Bloud of his Enemies yet the Triumphs of a secure and quiet Throne are greater and more desirable And this makes the Grave too in some degree acceptable after the toils and labours of Vertue that there the weary are at rest especially since this Rest is not a state of insensibility for all the Labours and Difficulties of a Vertuous Life are infinitely to be preferred before the ease and rest of knowing and feeling and being sensible of nothing which is the rest of a Stone and of things without life not the rest of a Man But they rest from their labours and their works follow them they rest in a peaceful and secure enjoyment of Endless Happiness they rest from all the Labours of Vertue and enjoy its Rewards This is a sufficient justification of Providence with respect to the present Evils and Calamities of Life for it is what exactly becomes the Goodness of Providence in this World such a mixt State of Good and Evil as may wean us from the tempting Vanities of this Life and convince us that there is no perfect Happiness to be found here which is necessary to raise our hearts above this World and to set our Affections upon things above which is an Eternal State of perfect Ease and Rest And since Religion and Vertue is necessary to our Future Happiness nothing can be better for us than such a state of things as shall make Vertue necessary to our present Happiness and since we must leave this World and Death is the King of Terrors whatever reconciles us to Death and makes it easy may be reckoned one of the greatest pleasures and securities of Human Life Secondly In answer to this Objection against the Goodness of Providence from those many Evils and Calamities that are in the World we must consider That most of the Evils of Human Life are owing to mens own wickedness and folly and it is very unreasonable to make those Evils an Objection against Providence which men wilfully bring upon themselves Thus the Wise-man long since stated this Question The foolishness of man perverteth his ways and his heart fretteth against the Lord 19. Prov. 3. Men make themselves miserable and then reproach the Divine Providence with their Miseries And therefore I shall briefly shew you that Mankind undo themselves and that the Evils which men bring upon themselves are no reasonable Objection against the Goodness of Providence 1. The first is a very proper Subject for a Satyr against the Folly and Wickedness of Mankind but needs no proof If we take a survey of the many Miseries of Human Life and resolve them into their immediate and natural Causes we shall find that most men take great care to leave very little for God to do in the punishment of Wickedness in this World There are but two visible Causes of all the Miseries that
because Moses has recorded it in his Writings who we know was Divinely inspired And we know also that there has been no satisfactory account given yet from the Principles of Nature and Philosophy how the whole World could be drowned at least none that will agree with the Mosaical History either of the Creation or of the Deluge and it is better to have no Account than such an Account as confutes Moses could any such be given for this confutes or at least discredits the Story it self for which we have no Authentick Authority when the Authority of Moses is lost But indeed it is no service to Religion to seek after Natural Causes for the destruction of the World any more than it is to resolve the making of the World into Natural Causes for it is great good nature in men to own a God if they can make and destroy a World without him there can be no such thing as natural Causes till the World is made and every thing endowed with its Natural Vertues and Powers and united into a regular frame with a mutual dependance and connexion and therefore it is a vain thing to talk of making the World by Natural Causes when it is demonstrable that there can be no Natural Causes till the World is made And it is as certain that Nature must move unnaturally and be put into an universal disorder before the World can be destroyed for while Natural Causes keep their Natural Course they will preserve not destroy the World and therefore the destruction of the World is not owing to Natural Causes but to praeternatural Disorders and what Philosophy can give an account of that What can put Nature into such an universal disorder but the same Divine Power which put it into order and gave Laws to it And this is what God intended in the destruction of the Old World to give a visible and lasting proof of his Being and Providence to the New by such a Miraculous Deluge as could be attributed to no other Cause but a Divine Vengeance That universal Corruption of Mankind would persuade us that the very belief and notion of a God was lost among them or if it be hard to conceive how that should be when the World by computation was not Seventeen hundred years old and Lamech Noah's Father lived fifty years with Adam himself that it seems impossible that the Tradition of God's creating the World should have been lost in so short a time yet at least they could have no sense of God's Justice and Providence they could not believe that God took any notice of their Actions or would execute such a terrible Vengeance on them for their sins We do not read of any one Act of Judgment which God exercised before the Flood and it is not improbable that his sparing Cain when he had killed his Brother Abel might encourage them with hopes of impunity whatever wickedness they committed and therefore the Divine Wisdom saw it necessary to put an end to the Old and to begin the New World with a visible demonstration of his Power and Justice to teach men the fear and reverence and worship of that God who not only made the World but has once destroyed it and therefore can destroy it again with all its wicked Inhabitants whenever he pleases Now to make this a lasting proof of God's Power and Justice it must be evident beyond all contradiction that it was God's doing and therefore it was necessary that God should destroy the world in so miraculous a manner as could be attributed to no other Cause for it is the true Spirit of Atheism and Infidelity to attribute nothing to God which they can ascribe to any visible Cause Had all Mankind excepting Noah and his Sons been destroyed by Plague or Famine or Wild Beasts though such a general destruction would have convinced Wise and Reasonable men that the Hand and the Vengeance of God was in it yet if we may judge of the rest of Mankind by the wonderful improvements in Wit and Philosophy which our Modern Atheists have made they would think scorn to attribute Plague or Famine or such like evil Accidents to God though all Mankind were destroyed by them But when they hear of a World drowned and know not where to find water to drown it without a miraculous dissolution of Nature they must either laugh at the Story which men in their wits can't well do or they must believe a God and a Providence But whatever shift the Infidels of our Age may make to disbelieve the Universal Deluge it must be confessed that it was a very wise and most effectual means to convince that new Generation of men while the uncorrupted Tradition of the Deluge was preserved 2dly The Wisdom of the Divine Providence was seen in destroying that wicked Generation of men without destroying the Earth God did not intend to put a final end to the Race of Mankind but the Earth was to be again inhabited by a new Generation and a Deluge of Waters was best fitted to this purpose which did no hurt to the Earth when it was dried up again but rather moistened and impregnated it with new Seeds and Principles of life There are but two ways we know of to destroy this Earth either by Water or Fire it has already been destroyed by Water and will be destroyed by Fire and it is enough to satisfy any man that this is not Accident but a Wise Design to consider that a Deluge of Water was made use of to purge and reform the World but Fire is reserved for the final destruction of it Whereas had this Order been inverted as it might have been had it been mere Chance it is evident that the Earth could neither have been preserved from Fire nor utterly destroyed by Water without a perpetual Deluge A Deluge of Water does not destroy the Earth nor make it uninhabitable after the Deluge ceases but Fire destroys the Frame and Constitution of it and melts all into one confused mass there is some defence against a Deluge Noah and his Sons were preserved in the Ark to people the New World but there is no defence against Flames the whole Earth and all the wicked Inhabitants of it must burn together And this is one wise Reason why God chose to drown the World not to burn it because the end of all things was not yet come 3dly There is great variety of Wisdom to be observed in God's preserving Noah and his Sons in the Ark from perishing by Water For first as I observed before this was very necessary to preserve the Race of Mankind to new-people the World which much more became the Divine Wisdom than to have created man a-new When all flesh had corrupted his ways it became God to try new Methods of reforming the World for this opens new and surprizing Scenes of Providence and displays such a multifarious Wisdom in the government of Mankind as is much more wonderful
Supream God and of a Sovereign Providence than to see a whole Nation worshipping this one Supream God which at least would not suffer them to be wholly ignorant of such a Being but was a just reason to examine their natural Notions of a Deity and the Pretences of their several Gods Especially when they see this Nation planted in a particular Countrey allotted them by their God and the old wicked Inhabitants destroyed and driven out from before them by such a series of Miracles as were an undeniable Evidence of such a Divine Power as all the Gods of these Countries were not able to oppose And that this Nation received their Laws both for Worship and Polity and Conversation immediately from God were govern'd by men appointed by God and directed in all great Affairs by Divine Oracles and Prophets with such a certainty of event as never failed That while they adhered to the Worship of this One Supream God they were always prosperous as he promised they should be but when they declined to Idolatry and worshipped the Gods of the Countries round about them then they were either oppressed by their Enemies at home or carried captive into Foreign Countries This was a visible proof that there was a God in Israel and such a God as would admit of no other Gods nor allow them to worship any other but punished them severely whenever they did and all their other Gods could not help them nor deliver them out of his hands This gave sufficient notice to the World of the Glory and Power of the God Israel but some will still be apt to ask Why God did not as sensibly manifest himself to all the rest of the World as he did to Israel why he had not his Oracles and Prophets in other Nations and they may if they please as reasonably ask why he does not immediately inspire every particular man with a Supernatural Knowledge and force the Belief of his Being and Providence upon their Minds Or why he did not by a Miraculous Power convert the old wicked World but destroyed them all and preserved only that one Righteous Family which had escaped the general Corruption For much like this was the state of mankind with respect to Idolatry when God called Abraham out of Vr of the Chaldees there was not one Nation left that worshipped the One Supreme God and him only nay not one Family for Terah Abraham's Father was an Idolater and probably all the rest of the Family excepting Abraham for tho he be not expresly excepted in the Text yet neither is he necessarily included and God's commanding him to leave his Countrey and his Kindred and his Father's House and his ready Compliance with this Command is reason to believe that he was the only person in the Family who had preserved himself from all Idolatrous Worship However it appears that he was a man of that extraordinary Piety and Virtue and so easily curable if he had been an Idolater that God thought him the fittest Person to reveal himself to and to begin a new Reformation of the World And therefore as in the days of Noah God destroyed all that wicked Generation of men by the Flood and only preserved Noah and his Sons to new people the earth and to instil the Seeds and Principles of Piety and Virtue into their Posterity so the New world being now universally corrupted by Idolatry and God having promised Noah never again to destroy every living thing as he had done he takes another course and in a manner creates a new People to be the Worshippers of the One Supreme God and in them to make his own Glory and Power known to the World and chose Abraham a man of admirable Faith and Piety to be the Father of this new people which should descend from his loins in his Old Age not by the mere Powers of Nature but by Faith in God's Promise 11. Heb. 11 12. The plain state then of the Case is this When that new Generation of men had universally corrupted themselves with Idolatry notwithstanding all the means God had used to possess them with a lasting sense of his Being and Providence God gives them up to their wilful Blindness and leaves them to the Cheats and Impostures of those wicked Spirits whom they had made their Gods till he could recover them from this Apostacy by such Methods as were agreeable to Human Nature and became the Divine Wisdom The most effectual way to do this was to establish his Worship in some one Nation which should be a visible Proof both of the Unity of the Godhead and of a Divine Providence and because there was no such Nation then in the World he made a Nation on purpose and allotted them a Countrey to dwell in and signalized them by extraordinary Providences as the Worshippers of the One Supreme God This was a kind of a new beginning of the world which did not put an end to the Idolatrous World as Noah's Flood put an end to that wicked Generation but yet did propagate a new Generation of men in it who should in time put an end to that Universal Idolatry and make a new World of it And this is a new Advance the Divine Wisdom made towards the Recovery of Mankind When Adam had sinned he and his whole Posterity became mortal and were condemned to a laborious life that in the sweat of their brows they should eat their bread which was the best Preservative against the Temptations of Ease and Sloth and Luxury When notwithstanding this all flesh had corrupted his ways God destroyed that wicked Generation with an Universal Deluge and thereby gave a signal demonstration of his Power and Justice to the New World When this new Generation of men grew corrupt God confounded their Language and dispersed them over the face of the whole earth and formed them into distinct Bodies and Societies which prevented a general corruption of Manners taught them Civil Justice and many Moral Virtues which were necessary to the Support and Defence of Human Societies but when they all declined to Idolatry which would endanger a new and universal Corruption of Manners by those impure Ceremonies with which wicked Spirits would chuse to be worshipped some new and more effectual means were to be used to cure this evil The Universal Deluge and the Confusion of Languages had so abundantly convinced them of a Divine Power and Providence that there was no such Creature as an Atheist known among them till their ridiculous Idolatries in worshipping the meanest Creatures and Viler men with ludicrous or abominable Rites tempted some men of Wit and Thought rather to own no God than such Gods as the Heathens worshipped but tho these extraordinary Events were a manifest Proof of a Divine Power and Providence yet it seems they were not thought so express and direct a Proof of the Unity of the Godhead at least not a sufficient Argument against the Worship of Inferior Deities