provoke them unto love and good works Yet it is observable that such Christians do grow by a kind of spiritual Antiperistasis as they say the fire is hottest in the coldest weather so we often see that there is a great warmth and zeal against sin and for God nourished in those souls which have been most smothered and choaked with ill relations and company which discovereth it self as soon as those persons are freed from those intanglements and incumbrances but while they are troubled with them this growth is not so evident nor do we constantly find Grace thriving under such ill shadows so prone are our corrupt natures to receive contrary impressions and nothing so much as converse exposing us to the reception of them So that this is like an ill air to the Body which often hindreth the growth of it 4. Fourthly As the growth of the Body is hindred by some diseases the growth of a plant by some canker or some ill winds or by the check which it may have by the bitings of some beasts So may the growth of Grace in the Soul be much hindered 1. By the prevailings of some particular corruptions 2. Or by the wounds which the Soul receiveth from some temptations It is true There are some sicknesses in which persons shoot out and by which they are rather advantaged than hindered in their growth but there are other habituated distempers which hinder the growth of young persons There is no prevailing corruption but giveth a check to a growth in Grace though sometimes the prevailing of it doth by accident promote Grace in its exercise as it was with the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.11 But prevailing Lusts do wonderfully hinder proficiency in Grace To instance but in that one lust of Earthly mindedness Let but an earthly covetous mind prevail upon any it is a wonderful thing to observe how it checks all spirtual progress it betrayeth a Christian to so many practical errors both of omission and commission that his neighbour standing by and observing him cannot but cry out in the words of the Apostle How dwelleth the love of God in this man Though they see much in him which disposeth them to charitable thoughts and makes them that they cannot but conclude he is one that feareth God yet they know not how to reconcile the actions of his life to what the Scripture speaketh of the nature of grace Yea and long and violent temptations do also much hinder the souls growth They are like cold winds or the bitings of beasts to the plants which discourage the growth of them though they be not internal causes yet they are external causes of the plants unthriftiness So it is with long and violent temptations they indeed do not work as internal causes I mean such temptations as are ab hoste from our grand adversary to hinder a Christians growth but they are great external causes discouraging the soul in almost all its exercises of Communion with God and applications of it self unto him 5. Lastly Any Desertions or with-drawings of divine influences are great causes There are few plants which grow much in the shade ordinarily the influences of heaven both of the Sun and the Rain are necessary to the growth of the plants I am sure the influences of the Sun of righteousness are necessary to the spiritual growth of a good Christian and if they be with-drawn though the soul may live yet during the with-holdings of them it will not much grow or thrive The soul will live during the with-drawing of them for I have once and again told you that the Lord never withdraweth what of his spiritual influence upon the soul is necessary to uphold and maintain the spiritual union and life but no soul flourisheth and increaseth much under such a dispensation it standeth in the shadow and wanteth those beams which are necessary to its bearing and bringing forth much fruit These now are the great causes of that variety which we discern in Christians Growth other causes might be assigned but this is sufficient supposing God to have appointed the use of means in order to a spiritual growth and ordinarily to concurre with the use of those means to justifie Divine Providence in not equally making every Soul to grow There is yet one Question more which indeed doth not properly concern this place in which I am to discourse concerning the Reasonableness of Divine Providence in the inequal distributions of special distinguishing Grace yet I shall speak something too viz. 6th Quest Whence it is that good People have such different Apprehensions of the Truth of God 1. That which makes the difficulty in the Apprehension of this is 1. Partly Because there is but one Truth one Faith as well as one God one Baptism c. Two contradictory Propositions cannot be true nor can both proceed from the God of Truth for the same Fountain doth not send forth bitter Water and sweet One and the same God cannot speak different things God is Truth and every Truth is from God no lie no falshood cannot possibly be from God 2. Partly Because all the People of God have the same Spirit of God which is called the Spirit of Truth dwelling in them and are under the same Promise of this Holy Spirit leading them into all truth and the Annointings teaching them all things 3. Again They have all the same word of truth to guide them and to examine and measure Propositions by they have the Law and the Testimony and that is the Standard in the Market of Truth the Touch-stone by which every Proposition is to be tryed the Scale in which every Proposition is to be weighed Yet notwithstanding this There is nothing more obvious than that even such who if we may judge any thing do truly fear God have strangely different apprehensions concerning Divine Truth concerning the Sacraments the use of the Law the extent of the Death of Christ the power of mans Will the true notion of Faith c. Now the question is Whence this variety is why God permitteth it and how the motions of Divine Providence in these things may appear just and reasonable I shut out of this Discourse the different Apprehensions of Carnal wicked and ungodly men whose Creed is commonly dictated by their lust and their whole art and study is because they cannot allow the conforming of their hearts to Divine Truth to endeavour to interpret the Word of God into a fense consistent with their lusts as also all such as the Apostle speaketh of whom because they received not the truth in the love of it God gives up to strong delusions to believe a lie that they may be damned because they have had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.9 10 11 12. or because as the Astle speaketh Rom. 1. They have detained the truth of God in unrighteousness I say for all these I shall shut them out of my Discourse and onely inquire whence such as truly love and
can it do If the Jewish Child had dyed before the 8th day its want of circumcision doubtless did not endanger its salvation but the deferring it beyond that time might for ought I know endanger the wrath of God upon the Parent and that wrath might be executed in cutting off the Child I take the case to be much the same under the Gospel I am sure the Covenant is the same take heed of neglecting to instruct your Children betimes or to reprove and admonish them God may cut them off betimes and then your neglects will be a grief of heart to you Finally This calleth to all young ones not to neglect the remembrance of their creator in the days of their youth O let your tender years be no temptation to you to put off your duty towards God and your own souls in the morning of your life be plowing up the fallow ground of your hearts and sowing the seed of righteousness indeed in the evening our hands should not be slack but who knoweth whether he shall see an evening yea or no SERMON XLI Rom. I. 26. For this Cause God gave them up to vile Affections MY business is to clear up the equity of the Lord in the ways of his Actual Providence and to vindicate the justice and holiness of God from those who by the Sophistry of their humane wisdom seek to darken Divine knowledg I am resolving the difficulties relating to the motions of Divine Providence in punitive dispensations I have shewed you how just and reasonable it is that God should be the Author of the evil of punishment And that 1. to his own people notwithstanding the satisfaction of Christ accepted for them and the remission of their sins as to eternal punishment 2. As to those whom yet he knows to be such as will be worse for their afflictions and not better 3. As to children who have not been guilty of actual sins I proceed now a step further God doth not only punish sin with smart with pain diseases crosses c. but he sometimes punisheth sin with sin for sin giving men up to be led captive by their lusts The Text speaketh of such a Providence It relateth to the Heathens of whom the Apostle had been before speaking vers 19 20 he had been declaring what means they had to know God they had not indeed the light of the Gospel but they had the light of nature That which might be known of God was manifest in them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead Then he sheweth how they abused and misimproved these means for v. 21 when they knew God in some measure as the light of nature and works of creation would discover him to them they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man to birds to four-footed-beasts and creeping things The business was this The Heathens had indeed but an imperfect knowledge of God no more than the light of nature and the works of God in nature shewed them but yet this was enough to have let them know that God could not be like a man or a beast or a creeping thing yet such images and representations of God they made and worshipped wherefore saith the Apostle vers 24. God also gave them up to lusts of uncleanness c. and so again in my Text vers 26. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections and so again vers 28. 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 inconvenient Being filled with all unrighteousness c. Now the Question is Quest How it can consist with the holiness and purity of God thus to punish sin with sin for their committing of some sins to give them up to commit others The difficulty is because it is hard to conceive how God should do this without a willing of sin Although therefore it is plain enough in the Text and twice more repeated in the Chapter it be said God gave them up to uncleanness and God gave them up to a reprobate mind yet it will not be amiss for us from other Scriptures to take some auxiliary help for the proving of this That there hath been and doubtless are still such dispensations of God Then I shall attempt to reconcile these Providences to the justice holiness and goodness of God after that I shall make some application of my Discourse upon this Argument It is a known Text which you have Isaiah 6.9 10. Go and tell this people hear you indeed but understand not and see you indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed It is a Text which you find quoted six times in the New-Testament Mat. 13.14 Mar. 4.12 Luk. 8.10 Joh. 12.40 Act. 28.26 Rom. 11.8 In the first place Mat. 13. it is said that in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Isaias By hearing you shall hear and not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive For this peoples heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing c. That Text plainly makes it out that Gods judicial giving them over to their blindness was consequent to their sinful stopping of their ears and shutting of their eyes But Christ there saith that for this he spake to them in parables Mat. 13.13 but Rom. 11.8 it is said God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear and certain it is Isaiah had Gods commission chap. 6. and Acts 28.26 Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaias the Prophet to our Fathers saying Go unto this people and say Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive For the heart of this people is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed By all which it clearly appears that God punished the former sins of the Jews in their wilful shutting their eyes and stopping their ears against the revelation of the Divine will by a judicial giving them up to a blindness of mind and hardness of heart To this purpose is that 2 Thess 2.11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye for what cause vers 10. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Many other texts there are speaking of Gods hardning the heart of Pharaoh and the hearts of others but
I have made several observations upon the motions of Providence Some of which lie plain enough to every eye all I think are justified enough from Scriptural and other instances only perhaps the reasonableness and justice and wisdom of God in them is not or hath not been so obvious Others possibly have not been so remarked and are little more than recommended as probationers for a good mans observation There is Madam a great variety in the methods of an infinitely wise God by which he ordereth the Universe and particularly that people in the world which he hath set apart for himself In the same work Gods Providence moveth not at all times in the same method or by the same means yet in many things the motions of Providence have much uniformity if we wistly observe them And as from the reading and observation of the Syntax and construction used by Authors in several languages Grammarians have made their observations from whence they have formed Rules few of which are yet without their exceptions so from the observation of the motions of Divine Providence in the world the reading of the Sacred History and considering what the great God hath been doing and is doing in the world considerate Christians may gain a great knowledg of God in his ways and give a very probable conjecture if not form a certain judgment both what God is about to do and what Israel ought to do For saith the Wiseman Eccles 1.9 10. the thing which hath been it is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the Sun Is there any thing of which it may be said see this is new it hath been already of old time which was before us The Sinners of the world are but acting over those lusts of hatred to God malice revenge cruelty luxury which their forefathers perished in acting many years ago And the Saints in the world are but making the same defence fighting the same good fight finishing the same course which Abel began in the Old Testament and was carried on by Elijah Zachariah and all the Prophets by John Baptist and the Captain of our Salvation and Gods motions of Providence will appear much the same as to circumstances of time and place c. they may alter but substantially they must be so because of the certainty of the word both of promise and threatning The study of Actual Providence for which the Historical part of the Scripture which we count most useless is of great use is a noble study and the observation of the daily motions of it is highly conducive to make us spiritually wise and to help us to understand the loving-kindness of the Lord both towards his Church and individual souls which love and fear him I have Madam been something large in these observations but yet how little a portion of Gods ways have I here displayed I shall yet think I have done a great work if I have but set an example to some other Divines of greater parts knowledg judgment and observation to carry it on for doubtless many more observations might be made which would both much increase our knowledg and direct our practice In the third and last part of my Discourses Madam I have endeavoured to expound some difficult Chapters in the book of Providence and to deliver the name of that glorious God whom we serve from those prejudices which nothing but the lusts of men have raised in the world against him and his righteous ways To reconcile the ways of Divine Providence both to those Propositions of truth which lye plain in the word and to those Promises and Threatnings which are the Indications of his will in that word both with reference to Saints and Sinners I think Madam I discern two great Errors in the world 1. The Judgment of Truth 2. Of the love and hatred of God from motions and issues of Providence Hence because God in his Providence hath ordered the Production of Men and Women giving them life and being and his Gospel to be preached in their hearing so as they are externally called to repent and to believe men conclude There is no election of persons That Christ hath died for all and every man That every man hath a power to repent believe love God hate sin c. And I wish a modest denial of Divine Truths were the worst but we are fallen into a rude and ill mannered age when every puny hath boldness enough to say If this be so then God is an impostor and mocks and deludes he is unjust cruel I tremble to recite it when-as the truth is it is neither so nor so Let what will be concluded concerning these Propositions no such thing will follow I have Madam endeavoured to reconcile these Providences of God to the truth of these Propositions which some invidiously charge with such consequences and to let these bold men understand that God is equal his ways equal and admirably corresponding with those notions of truth so much distast them only they are ignorant and do not rightly judg concerning a righteous God The second Error is more common The judging of the love and hatred of God from his Providential dispensations to us Hence are our temptations to call the proud happy to bless them whom the Lord hath cursed and because they are rich and prosper and as to our selves to charge God foolishly as if either he did not deal justly or kindly with us because we are tempted or afflicted more than others or because we are devoured by wicked men I have Madam attempted to remove these stumbling blocks out of the ways of Gods people and to reconcile both these motions of Providence and all its motions in the dispensations both of first and further grace to his Wisdom Goodness and Holiness and to our reason as also to reconcile Gods Providential permissions of sin and sinners his punishment of one sin with another to the purity and holiness of God and to deliver Gods Providential dispensations of this nature from the usual and ignorant imputation that this is to make God the author of sin what I have done of this nature I leave to your Ladiship and every sober Reader to judg The whole Madam was composed for popular discourses Those that dwell in Kings houses may be allowed perhaps to cloth their Discourses in the soft raiment of fine and delicate words It was not so fit for me who was to speak of great things to a plain people and whose design was that of S. Paul not to have the faith of those to whom I spake stand tottering upon the wisdom of men which varieth much in individuals but in the power of God I am far from thinking these Discourses perfect in any part of them I have laid the foundation God raise up wise and master-builders to superstruct If I mistake not the foundation I have laid is not upon the sand and uncertain bottom of humane reason but upon the
them This is no observing of them Observing them argues a fixing of the eye of the mind as well as the body upon them without which a transient view of them is of very little significancy and import unto men 2. In a diligent reposing them in our minds this is that which we call a remembring of them The Lord doth his great work to be had in remembrance This is a consequent of the other we remember little of those things we only cursorily view as they come before us but when we six our eyes upon them and apply our minds to the knowledg of them then we remember them 3. In a continued and repeated view of them and reflexion upon them That man that suffereth not the great and daily workings of Divine Providence to pass by his eyes as a tale passeth through his ears which he heedeth not nor applieth his mind unto but fixeth his eye and mind upon them lodgeth them in his memory frequently reflecteth upon them repeateth and re-considereth them in his thoughts that is a wise man and he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord And that brings me to the second Question in the Explication of the Proposition Quest 2. How is he wise how is it an argument of wisdom and doth he appear to be a wise man who observeth these workings of Providence Wisdom is sometimes taken in a larger sense so a knowing understanding man is a wise man sometimes in a stricter sense as it signifieth a practical habit directing the life and conversation sometimes as comprehending both and so I shall take it in the Proposition He is a wise man he will have more knowledg and understanding than another man and will know better how to order and direct himself in the several parts of his Conversation 1. He will be a more knowing and understanding man We use to say Experience is the mistris of fools Experience maketh a fool wise and indeed without it notions give little wisdom we speak in the commendation of the ablest persons in any art or profession such a one is an experienced man and the more experienced any one is in his art or course the better you account him in it Nothing is so well learned by rule and precept as by example and president Hence it is a common maxim of these times That the study of books accomplisheth none so much as the study of men doth Knowledg is much increased by experimental observation By this Much of the knowledg of God will be let into the soul We cannot see God as he is in his own light we must behold him in his word and in his works From the Word of God we get a great knowledg of God what he is as to his Divine Being and in his glorious Attributes but the knowledg which we have of God from his Word is both confirmed in us and increased by his works of Providence and our observation of them as well as of his great work of Creation And that 1. As they establish the Proposition of the word and confirm our faith in it Psal 48.8 As we have heard so haeve we seen in the city of our God God will establish it for ever Demonstration confirms us in our notions The Church had before learned it that God would establish his Church but now they were confirmed in it when they had seen it in the Works of Providence what they had before heard from the mouth of Gods Prophets and Messengers indeed a notion is but a probationer in our souls until we come to have it established by Faith and Demonstration 2. An observation of Providence doth also increase knowledg as it expounds to us the word of God and giveth us a more certain clear and distinct knowledg of the revelations of it We do not know how to expound some words of God but as we are taught the meaning of them by his Providential Dispensations in the fulfilling of it Gods dispensations in the world both toward his Church and the enemies and persecutors help us to understand both his promises and his threatnings 2. He who observeth the motions of Divine Providence will also know better how to order and direct his life I told you that Wisdom strictly taken is a practical habit directing this He that thus observeth will best know how to order his Conversation But will some say Is not this to make Providence our rule I answer It is one thing to make the Providence of God an argument to justifie our actions which the word condemneth Another thing to take occasions from Providence for the performance of our duty Providence alone is no rule of our actions but the word which is the rule of our actions is more sealed and confirmed to us by Providence Though Providences give no rule yet they wonderfully confirm and establish a rule when what we have read and heard in the word we see in the dealings of God it giveth a new life and makes a new impression of the rule upon our hearts God hath said Blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days and honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God give thee Now when we see God cutting off cruel and bloody men in the strength of their years or cutting off a stubborn and rebellious Child in his youth it wonderfully confirmeth the word to us and helpeth us to guide our Conversation so as we may not tread in their steps and be partakers of their Judgments 2. Again Though Providence be no rule as to particular actions yet it is a great help to us as to the three great principles of all our spiritual actions which are Faith Fear Love It is true the Proposition of the word is the object of our Faith when a soul giveth assent to the Proposition of the word because of the Authority of God who hath revealed it and this is the reason why wicked men though they have the Scriptures as well as others yet walk not in the light of them because they believe them not they assent not to the Propositions of Truth that are revealed in them but either say in their heart That it is but the fancy and invention of men or else flatter themselves with the hopes of impunity saying with those in Deuteronomy That they shall have peace although they walk according to the imaginations of their own hearts But now when a man observeth the Providence of God exemplifying and verifying the Word of God it much helps his faith in the word especially as to those in whose heart God hath wrought a previous habit of Faith It is true in this case the Providences of God will do little alone we have the words of Christ They have Moses and the Prophets if they will not believe they will not believe if one should rise from the dead But where a soul is first taught of God to give
designs which he carrieth on at the same time God designs to bring the Jews into Canaan but a-long with this to carry on the destruction of the Egyptians the Amorites whose sins in Abrahams time were not come to the full the destruction of the rebellious and disobedient amongst the Israelites Now in order to this the Egyptians must ripen themselves for their ruin by their oppression of Israel The Amalekites and Amorites and the other Nations by their falling upon them at their coming out of Egypt and in their journey Now upon these accounts the Providence of God often seemed to move quite contrary to the word of Promise The people of Israel at the Red-sea and in the Wilderness looked very unlike a people that should have a quiet possession of Canaan Therefore I say Providence is to be observed in its Motions which seem contrary to the Word but the Indications of it are only to be determined from the Word God hath appointed wicked men to slaughter notwithstanding this we see most vile and wicked men thriving prospering growing great in the World and trampling the righteous servants of God under their foot Observe this but take heed of determining the Indication of this but from the Word which saith There is no peace to them keep therefore thine Eye upon their Tabernacles and thou shalt see the Lords Sun go off it and the Threatning verified 2. Compare present Providences with those that are past As those who will understand the letter of Scripture must compare Text with Text so those who will be wise by understanding the motions of Providence must compare Providences of a present age with Providences of former ages Thou art offended possibly at the Providences of God towards wicked men they thrive and prosper they grow mighty and encrease and do what they list Or at the Providences of God towards those who if thou canst judg are such as walk closest with God and are most severe worshippers and servants of him they are hated maligned exposed to all manner of injuries which may make their lives bitter to them Thou cryest out here O the depth I cannot understand the ways of God I cannot see his loving-kindness towards his people Compare now Christian Gods dealing in thy age with his dealings both with wicked men and with his sincere servants in former ages and see if they be not much alike with what they were In Jobs time and Davids time and Jeremiah's time Yet it is not hard for thee to understand how the servants of God in those times found the loving-kindness of God and experienced that all the ways of the Lord were mercy and truth believe that the Hand of the Lord is not weakned nor his Arm shortened nor his Truth failed 3. Lastly If you would by observing the Providence of God understand his loving-kindness and gain a spiritual wisdom Let your eye affect your heart I hinted to you before that Mollerus telleth us such an observation of Providence is here intended unde ad pietatem exuscitemur ut inde meliores evadamus as will quicken us unto piety and help to make us better There are many careless observers of Providence that indeed see Events rather than Providences they see much that comes to pass in the World but consider nothing of God in them they see great fires laying populous Cities wast and possibly see a villain putting the first coal to them or a careless person accidentally occasioning them but they do not see God throwing such a wretch off his hand of restraint nor blowing the coals that turn the Cities into ashes by his winds which men could not cause Others are curious observers of Providences these are wonderfully busily employed in searching out the natural causes of such thunders lightnings inundations devouring pestilences c. They do by the book of Providence as Augustine complain'd of himself that in his unregenerate state he did by the book of Scripture he rather brought to it discutiendi acumen than discendi pietatem So men bring to the great Works of God rather an acute Eye and wit to find out the immediate causes and reasons natural or political than a trembling humble heart that they might learn by them more to acknowledg love fear adore and revere the great and mighty God whose works these are let not yours be such an observation but let your Eye beholding God in his providential Dispensations affect your hearts with that adoration and veneration that love and fear of the great and mighty God which such works of God do call to you for But for the further hopes and consolation of the people of God in their states of affliction I intend to commend to you some principal Observations upon the motions of Divine Providence which shall be the work if God pleaseth of some succeeding Exercises SERMON XV. Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am discoursing concerning Divine Actual Providence as the Object of good mens observation I shewed you in my last Discourse That the observation of the motions of it is both an Indication of spiritual Wisdom and an excellent step towards it and that by it duly made men and women shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. Now to advantage you a little in this Observation I shall give you an account of some observable things in the motions of Providence which possibly you may parallel in the present or future dealings of God both with his Church and with particular Souls I shall lay down my first Observation thus 1. Observ The Actual Providence of God in bringing about that word to which it is a certain servant doth rarely move in a direct line but sometimes obliquely sometimes to our appearance quite contrary but at last it fulfilleth the word and is all the while faithfully executing the Eternal Counsel There are three things in this Observation each of which I will open in a few words and then endeavour to justifie the observation by particular instances after which I shall give you some reasonable account of it and then make some short Application First I say The Providence of God is a certain servant to the word the word either of Promise or of Threatning for Providence serveth to the execution of them both As we have heard so have we seen in the City of our God saith the Psalmist Psal 48.8 the Promise is but providentia occultata and Providence is but promissio explicata the Promise fully explained and opened and this is no more than you shall find recognized by the holy Servants of God both in all their thanksgivings for mercies they had received and in all their humiliations upon any judgments which the Lord had brought on them as also in all the Narrative parts of Scripture declaring any great motions of Providence how often do you meet with it in the Gospel such or such a thing was
to heaven ordinarily with broken bones and a bleeding heart So that you see that Gods getting himself glory from his peoples sin gives no man a ground of presumption to go on in a course of sin against God Vse 4. In the last place Let this observation mind us in this case to be workers together with God Have we sinned and come short of the glory of God Let us do our indeavour to make our sins to turn to the furtherance of the glory of God Let us indeavour to make the best of our own bad markets What is done we cannot re-call let us indeavour if possible to make an advantage of our former miscarriages You will say How should that be Answ 1. Let the sense of your sins hasten your pace to the Lord Jesus Christ God hath a great deal of glory from our believing in him whom he hath sent The soul that accepteth of the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour giveth unto God the glory of his Power Wisdom Justice Goodness Truth it gives him the glory of the exceeding riches of his free-grace 2. Make use of your sins to increase your Confession your Repentance and Humiliation Confession giveth glory to God my Son saith Joshua Confess and give glory to God Let your former sins give you the further advantage for sorrowing after a godly sort that will bring forth carefulness indignation fear vehement desires zeal revenge as it did in the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. 7.11 3. Let the remembrance of them cause you to walk softly all the days of your life This is that which God requireth of all to walk humbly with their God The remembrance of your sins may be of notable use to you for this to keep down that pride which is naturally in all our hearts that swelling in an opinion of our selves of our own duties and performances that uncharitable judging and censuring and triumphing over others when we see them fallen in the day of temptations 4. Lastly Let the consideration of how many sins God hath forgiven you make you love much Thus the woman Luk. 7.37 47 made an improvement even of her former sins her much that was forgiven ingaged her to love that God much who had forgiven her so much This improvement St. Paul made 1 Cor. 15.9 10. I am saith he the least of all the Apostles and not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God But by the grace of God I am that I am and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all O this will be an excellent improvement even of your sins if your former unholiness shall now help to make you more holy your former unrighteousness shall help to make you more righteous for the time to come your reflexions upon how much you have done against God and his Saints shall now engage you to do more for God and the cause and people of God A good husband and house-wife will lose nothing but make some advantage of every rag every bit of wood c. I would have you be like them you have been formerly great sinners and done much to the dishonour of God your consciences can shew you a great dunghil of sin which you made in your state of vanity God hath changed your state changed your hearts let not that dunghil be lost look upon it often to help to raise up your hearts in the praises and admiration of Gods free-grace and the engaging your hearts more for God in your contrary duties for the time to come But so â—uch shall serve for this Observation also SERMON XXVI Psalm CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Am still going on instructing you to that spiritual Wisdom which the Text telleth you may be gained by and is declared in the Observation of the motions of Actual Providence I am now proceeding to a Twelfth Observation of this nature which I shall give you thus Observ 12. The Providence of God in the distribution of the good things of this life doth in a great measure move circularly though mostly to the seeming advantage of ungodly men In my enlargments upon this notion I shall keep much to the same method which I observed in the former 1. Opening it unto you 2. Justifying the observation by instances 3. Shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence And lastly Making some suitable Application 1. My observation as you see concerneth the motions of Actual Providence as to its distribution of the portions of this life The Pagan Philosophers distributed all the good things they had any knowledg of into three sorts The good things of the body amongst which they reckoned long-life health strength beauty c. The good things of the mind the rich endowments of it such as knowledg invention judgment wit memory and moral vertue c. and the good things of fortune such as birth ingenuous education honours riches All these have a goodness in them which lyeth in their suitableness to the use of humane life or society The blind Heathen not seeing the fountain-head of these beautiful streams ascribed them to fortune But they are all in the hand of Providence that giveth to one a longer to another a shorter life to one greater to another lesser measures of health and strength c. to one more judgment wit c. than to another But I chiefly understand my Observation of the good things which the Heathen called Bona fortunae the good things of fortune such as honours riches c. These also are the Lords he it is saith Moses That gives us power to get wealth And the Holy Ghost by another pen-man telleth us That promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west but God pulleth down one and setteth up another Promotion doth mostly depend upon the favour of the great men of the Earth and you shall observe the Scripture everywhere maketh God the Author of the favour and grace which persons have found in the eyes of the Princes of the world 2. Now I observe in the first place That the wheel of Providence in making this distribution doth for the most part move circularly My meaning is that good and evil of this nature hath as all humane things its turns and vicissitudes sometimes to good men sometimes to bad men The Heathen had some prospect of this though what we call Providence they ascribed to fortune to whom they gave a wheel to signifie the rotation of all these sublunary contentments in which you know the same spokes are not always up nor down but sometimes these spokes are uppermost by and by they are at the ground and those that but now were below are up in their place And this is most perspicuous in bodies of people which are made up of those two sorts of men that divide the world godly
did do this for to say that these were second thoughts about mans salvation when he was lapsed and fallen were to blaspheme by attributing change of mind and purpose to God and a successive knowledg of things such as we have upon the events so ascribing humane imperfections to a most holy God If God from all eternity did settle the business of mans salvation as the Apostle saith he did Ephes 1.4 5 6 7. Cousing us in him before the foundation of the world that is in Christ as ver 3. that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace and this as vers 8. was the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself sure we are he created man in a state that was not capable of these spiritual blessings until he was fallen from it and that God according to that holy and guiltless state wherein he made man did first stipulate with him in a Covenant of Works and offered him life upon his doing the Law of God I would gladly know of those who so flutter with their little ratiocinations about the seriousness of Gods actings in his offers of grace and would make us believe that God doth not serio agere act seriously in calling men to believe and repent unless there were a possibility of salvation for them all or unless Christ intentionally dyed for all or men had a power in their lapsed estate to do things spiritually good I say I would fain know of them whether God was in earnest or no with Adam when he promised him life upon the Covenant of Works It is most certain that he either never intended that Adam or any of his posterity should go to Heaven that way or that he was frustrated of his intention which God cannot be If he never intended that any should be that way saved I would know of them whether God was serious or no with Adam in such a proposal of life unto him if they can find out an answer in this case it will also serve in the other God was serious with Adam in the making of the Covenant of Works with him serious with respect unto his own end which was not that any should be saved by the fulfilling of that Covenant which he knew none would but that it should be as a School-master to lead us to Christ as the Apostle speaketh of the Law contained in Ordinances and introductive to the exhibition of that better Covenant which God had established with the Son of his Love and upon which he had fixed the salvation of the Elect. Vse 2. We may learn from hence That it is consistent enough with the holiness of God to require things of persons which it is not his Will of purpose that they should do and to make conditional promises to them who he knoweth will never fulfil the condition These are two things which some make a great pudder with that they might establish their universalities and obtain against the Election of Grace They think that if God had determined the certain number of those who should be saved or for whom Christ dyed others should not be called to or required to believe or repent nor a promise of life and salvation and life made to them in case of their repenting and believing for they apprehend it inconsistent with the truth and holiness of God to require that of men which it is not his will or purpose they should do or to offer them life and salvation upon a condition from the performance of which they are precluded by the purpose of God We must adhere to this that there is nothing contingent to God no event which he did not from eternity foreknow and therefore foreknow because he willed either to effect or to permit it We can neither allow of any ignorance to be imputed unto God nor any succession in his knowledg nor apprehend it possible that God should from all eternity know who would believe and repent which none could without his special grace without willing that grace to them by vertue of which they should put forth these saving acts and therefore such to whom he did not by his eternal purpose will those habits of grace must be passed over But then say they who have other apprehensions How is it consistent with the truth and holiness of God to call all men to believe and to repent and to promise them eternal life and salvation upon the terms of faith and repentance We ask them how it was consistent with the truth and holiness of God to require of Adam under the Covenant of Works not to eat of the tree of forbidden fruit and to promise him life upon his not eating thereof when-as it is plain that God had purposed to permit him to eat thereof and foreknew that he would eat thereof and never intended that Adam or any of his posterity should come to Heaven by the fulfilling of that Covenant But then say they to what purpose are these Precepts or Promises Divers answers are given by Divines as to that question concerning those who are called to repent and to believe which possibly will hereafter fall in my way to touch upon At present as to this purpose it is enough to say Gods end in making the Covenant of Works with Adam was to make way for the publication of the Covenant of Grace For the exhibition and publication of which to the world there was no room until the Law and Covenant of Works was violated and man that was created in the Image of God and state of Holiness had fallen from that state and become concluded under wrath In the mean time observe here is a precept given which God had never intended should be obeyed a conditional promise made from which God never intended that any man should have any advantage and in that appeareth the advantage of this instance for in the calls of the Gospel to faith and repentance though the Lord hath told us Many are called and few are chosen Although all to whom the Gospel is Preached be not the chosen of God and within his purpose of eternal life and salvation yet some are and some say Non proprie per se reprobos hortatos esse ad fidem poenitentiam sed per concomitantiam quatenus electis externa societato permiscentur That is that reprobates are only called to faith and repentance as they are mixed together with the elect But here Adam and in him all mankind were called to a fulfilling of the Covenant of Works and life was upon that condition promised to them all when-as yet it was
which it is called the Covenant of Grace God in and by it relaxing the rigour of the Law which required personal satisfaction to Divine Justice from the persons offending and a perfect performance of the whole Law and accepted the satisfaction given to Divine Justice by the nature offending hypostatically united to the person that was the Son of God and accepting from us sincerity instead of perfect obedience the sincerely willing mind instead of the perfect deed Such a Covenant we suppose and believe to have been made 2. We believe it not made for all but conformably to the purpose of Election if it had been made for all we could not understand but that all men must be saved 3. Nor can we think it was made for an uncertain number but as there are individual names written in the Book of Life so we believe the same concerning the rolls of this Covenant The Lord as the Apostle tells us knoweth who are his Christ was not Sponsor incerti foederis a surety of an incertain but of a certain Covenant Some would make Christs Covenant with his Father not to have been for these or those persons but indefinitely for those that should believe and so to have been conditional But certainly no considerate Christian can allow this who observeth that amongst men nothing but ignorance of future contingencies is the cause of incertain and conditional bargains the Parent that dieth and gives his Child a Portion conditionally that he or she marrieth so and so or be subject to such or such Governors would have left out that condition if he or she had certainly known what the Child would have done and it seems to us strangely to derogate from the eternal perfection of the Divine Being in point of Knowledge so much as to fancy that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who both from eternity knew who would or would not repent and believe and needs must know it because they could do neither but by vertue of special grace infused by and derived from God should make a Covenant each with other that such or such persons who they knew would not repent nor believe if they believed and repented should have a share in the satisfaction and death of Christ 4. We do suppose and believe the blood of the Covenant that is the blood of Jesus Christ was intentionally poured forth according to the Covenant and for the persons concerned in it The blood of Christ is called the blood of the Covenant Zech. 9.11 Heb. 10.29 Heb. 13.20 and the Antitype to those ancient types of the blood of Beasts which was so called Exod. 24.8 So that we think it a very unreasonable assertion to extend the blood of the Covenant beyond the persons concerned in the Covenant But yet notwithstanding all this there is nothing more evident in the issues of Divine Providence than that this Covenant is held out to all indefinitely Mar. 16.15 Christs commission to his Apostles runs thus Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Here both the benefit of the New Covenant eternal life and salvation is offered to all and the terms believing and being baptized are also propounded unto all and according to that direction and commission is all our Preaching Now hence ariseth the difficulty If there be not a possibility of salvation for all men if they all be not within the verge of the Covenant If Christ hath not died for all why is the Gospel preached to every creature how can it consist with the truth and honour of that God who cannot lie by his Ministers to tell men that if they will but repent and believe they shall be saved To what end is the Gospel preached unto them To which I answer 1. That the Gospel only asserteth the infallible connexion of faith and salvation What saith the Gospel He that believeth shall be saved and will any say that a believer shall be damned or did ever any penitent and believing soul perish if there had then indeed we might have quarrelled at the truth of God but God will be true though all men be found liars What though ten thousand be told and have it rung in their Ears That he who believeth shall be saved and but ten of those ten thousand should believe provided that they be saved God I hope is true and what he hath said is to a tittle made good But you will say why then are all told if they believe they shall be saved The Minister of the Gospel may go to every particular soul and say to him or her if thou repentest and believest thou shalt be saved I answer 2. God is pleased to hide from his Ministers his secret counsels concerning the salvation of individual souls They therefore may and must say whosoever believeth shall be saved and God will confirm in Heaven whatsoever they deliver on Earth and by vertue of this Commission they may say to every individual soul Believe and thou shalt be saved they know not who are ordained to life and shall have effectual grace bestowed upon them inabling them to believe but they know the general proposition of the Gospel is true But still you will say why hath God by his Providence so ordered it to what end should the Providence of God order the publication and tender of the Covenant of Grace to a greater number than are concerned in it 3. What if we should say It is O Father so because it pleaseth thee and be forced here to cry out with the great Apostle Rom. 9.33 O the depth of the ri hes both of the wisdom and know ledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out vers 34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor Who is able to give a just account of Gods designs and intentions to what purpose he doth things It is enough for us to know that God doth them and that God may do them and there is no unrighteousness with him if he doth do it We ought to believe that God hath wise ends in what he doth though we are not able to find out what they be Yet it may not be amiss to tell you what Divines do say in the case though they cannot by searching find out God nor find out the Almighty unto perfection 1. There are those that say that Reprobates are only called to faith and repentance as they are mixed with the elect and the exhortations reach them only by way of concomitancy and possibly it may be doubted if there were any society or company of people in the world amongst whom there were not any ordained to everlasting life whether God would at all send his Gospel to them or direct any of the Messengers of his word to go and call them to repentance God incouraging Paul Act.
to repent how standeth it with the sincerity and truth of God to command them to repent or believe or how will it stand with Divine Justice to condemn them for not repenting or believing For this general command of men to repent and to believe is not only made use of to destroy the Doctrine of Election and the certainty of the Covenant of Grace but also to destroy special and effectual Grace My business is not at present to establish those great truths which are abundantly spoken to by others and I have elsewhere and at other times spoken abundantly to them but only to vindicate the Providence of God upon the supposal of the truth of them and to shew you that the Universality of the Ministerial Gospel-call maketh no argument against them I say then supposing man in his lapsed state to have no power to repent yet it is consistent enough with the truth and seriousness of God with his purity and holiness or any other attribute of his perfection to call all men to repent neither doth such his call of them imply any such natural innate power in them 1. What if man in his lapsed estate by nature hath no power to any action that is spiritually good not to believe nor repent yet is it not his duty to do both and had not our proparent a power given him of God to do whatsoever was necessary in order to his eternal salvation His duty is because God commandeth it my Text saith he commandeth now all men to repent and certainly in Adam both he and all of us had a power to do whatsoever was the will of God as to his own and our salvation in that estate wherein God created him and us in him Hath God lost his right to demand his due because man hath lost his power to pay it I know the Remonstrants and Socinians generally deny this and say and they say true that Adam had not a power to repent and believe in Jesus Christ that is a specifick power but neither were these necessary in that state nor indeed practicable Adam was created a just man that needed no repentance needed no faith in a Mediator but Adam had a power and we in him to all in that estate necessary if Adam and we in him have by voluntary transgression made any thing more necessary and God upon a Covenant of Grace hath restored us upon the performance of such other things I hope Gods justice shall not be impeached for his not giving us a power to do those things also whereas we originally had a sufficiency of power to do all God required of us in that state Aquinas sufficiently determines this point Aq. sum §. 1. quest 95. art 3. Adams reason saith he in the state of innocency being subjected to God and his inferiour faculties being subjected to his reason he had in some sense all graces omnes virtutes and that both in habit and act which do not imply an imperfection repugnant to that state others only in the habit c. He instanceth in repentance only and saith Adam had faith both in the habit and act but he speaks of faith only as respecting God and the proposition of the word not as respecting a Mediator for the object for we all know that in that state there was no need of a Mediator and consequently faith in the Mediator implieth the imperfection of a lapsed state repugnant to the perfection of the primaevous state of innocency It is enough we had in Adam a sufficiency of power to do all necessary to our salvation in that estate It was our transgression made any thing else necessary 2. You heard under the former head That God may have many wise ends why he now calleth all men to repent though he did not intend that upon that call they should repent or believe 3. Although lapsed man hath no power of himself to repent or believe without the special effectual grace of God yet he hath a power by vertue of that Common-Grace which God denieth to no man to do much in order to his repentance and believing 4. What if we should leave it for a question to be decided at the great day whether Reprobates shall be condemned strictly for not believing in sensu diviso that is not receiving of Jesus Christ and resting upon him as their Saviour or for not believing in sensu composito not doing what in them lay that they might believe God calleth all men to repent and to believe it is true it is not in their power to exert an act of faith or a salvifick act of repentance but it is in their power to read the word to hear it to meditate upon it to consider their sins to leave many of them as to the external act I always thought it a very idle question An homine faciente quod in se est Deus teneatur gratiam dare Whether if a man did what lay in his power to do God be bound to give his effectual saving grace For I dare say an instance cannot be given of any that hath done what lies in his power to whom God hath denied his effectual grace but Deus tenetur is a very hard saying Who can make God a debtor to his creature who hath given unto him and it shall be repaid him If we could not say any thing to justifie God in condemning sinners who have no power to any spiritual act for not believing not repenting yet I think the matter would not be much for in the great day we shall find God will have enough to say for condemning sinners for omitting what was in their power to do or acting contrary to it though he should say nothing to them for not doing that which without his special grace is confessedly not in the power of lapsed man But enough is spoken to vindicate this motion of Divine Providence My Text is true God now by his Ministers calleth all men to repent and he may do it with consistency to his truth and sincerity to his holiness and goodness notwithstanding the certainty of his election and his certain knowledge of who are his having wrote their names in the book of life and notwithstanding the certainty of the Covenant of Grace as to persons and the certainty of the persons for whom Christ hath died and the impotency in fallen man to exert any truly spiritual act such as those of faith and repentance must be Let us now consider how this Discourse may be useful to us by way of practical Application Vse 1. And in the first place this may be of use to you to restrain you from approving of the bold sayings of those who reflect upon the truths of God and would turn them into falshoods because forsooth their narrow apprehensions cannot reconcile them to the truth sincerity holiness and goodness of God Let God be true and men liars let him be good infinitely good though all men be bad This quarrelling
shall not fall Mat. 16.18 The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Psal 94.14 For the Lord will not cast off his people neither will he forsake his inheritance Mica 4.4 11 12. So quite through this Psalm there are many promises of the same import Now the work of faith is to perswade the soul of the certainty and undoubted verity of these words of God to settle the soul in this perswasion That sooner shall Heaven and earth pass away than any of these things shall fail which God hath spoken Then the work of faith is further to carry out the soul without any carping trouble or disputing to rest wholly upon these words A Christian seeth the word of God what he hath said for its relief now faith teacheth the soul to agree this as the word of him who cannot lye or repent and calleth upon the soul to trust in God for the fulfilling of it to roll it self upon the promise and to commit it self its cause its way unto the Lord the soul of a Christian is very solicitous and careful for the concern and interest of God in the world faith teacheth the soul to cast its care the burthen of its spirit upon the Lord assuring it that God careth for it Faith speaketh to the soul in the language of Solomon Eccles 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Justice and Judgment in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they I say this is a great piece of the Child of Gods duty in such a time when the vilest men are exalted and the wicked walk on every side and the people of God are troden under foot as the mire in the streets It is the Will of God concerning them The just shall live by faith This is the proper time for the exercise of Faith when the eye of sense faileth Faith is the evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for The proper operation of Faith is where sense faileth where God is trusted and not seen Blessed are they saith our Saviour who have not seen and yet believe This is Opus diei in die suo Though the people of God ought to be careful of all duty at all times yet they ought to have a special regard to the duty of their day the seasonableness of a duty addeth much to the weight and importance of it The foundations are shaken saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 4 What shall what can the righteous do Mark what follows The Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men This is that life which the Saints have lived yea and they have lived well upon it When David had lost all the Amalekites had taken Ziglag and in it all that he had 1 Sam. 30.6 the Text saith David encouraged himself in God the Truth Power and Goodness of God nor did he hope in God in vain as you shall read in that story What had Hezekiah to live upon but Faith when Sennacherib had besieged him with his mighty Army and ranted against him and the God of Heaven too after that rate you read What had all the Patriarchs all the Saints and Servants of God to live upon but Faith of whom you read Heb. 11. Nor is there any life which so glorifieth God as this it eminently glorifieth three Attributes of his his Power Goodness and Truth No man will trust in a bruised Reed or lean upon a broken Staff therefore the Apostle speaking of Abrahams faith Heb. 11. saith He believed that God was able to raise him from the dead and again Rom. 3 He believed that he who promised was able to perform It giveth God the glory of his goodness for the expectation of his soul is the Mercy and Goodness of God and it also giveth God the glory of his truth for the proximate object of Faith is the Word and Promise of God O therefore let this be your care when you cannot live by sense live by Faith It is the happiness of a Child of God he hath something to live on in the worst of times Psal 34.10 The young Lions shall be hunger-bit but there is no want to them that fear the Lord. One would think that of all creatures the Lion should be most out of danger of being hunger bit The Lion the King of the Forest all other Beasts are subject to this Beast yet if an old Lion that cannot run for its prey that hath lost much of its strength may be hunger-bitten one would think a young-Lion that is in its full strength should not Yes saith the Psalmist a young Lion may be hunger-bitten those that have most of the world wicked men that have greatest honours greatest power great advantages to provide for themselves they may be hunger bitten they may come to want but there shall be no want to them who fear the Lord there shall be no time so ill but they shall live if they cannot live upon bread they shall feed upon truth How much better is the estate of a godly man than that of his neighbour It is a great point this a great piece of duty Let me therefore a little further enlarge upon it three ways 1. Shewing you how a Christian may know if he liveth this life 2. Directing you in order to it 3. Perswading it by Arguments 1. Will some Christian say how shall I know if I live this life Suffer me to give you five or Six Characters of it 1. It is a Spiritual life Our life saith the Apostle is hid with Christ in God What Christ sometimes said to his Disciples when they would have had him to have eaten something that a Child of God may say to all the world I have meat to eat you know not of His life is a spiritual life such is the life of Faith both with respect to the subject and to the object of it As to the subject of it it is the soul that lives the body lives by bread the soul lives by truth by the promise There are many that in evil days their bodies have enough to feed upon but their souls have nothing hence their hearts become like Nabals dead as a stone yea and as to the object it is spiritual too he that feedeth upon truth feedeth upon Jehovah It is the truth of God in the word which the soul liveth upon the soul of a Believer can no more live upon Words and Syllables than another soul No but it is the truth of God in these words his power and ability to perform what he hath said his inclination and good-will to the performance and his truth and faithfulness Every life in an evil day is not a life of faith some may live upon fancy and foolish hope some may live upon means with which their eye feedeth them another may live upon a Roman spirit of his own Tu
ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito These men may live at Sea in the midst of troubles and never think of God and Christ nor upon the power goodness and truth of God but upon an O socii neque enim ignâ—ri sumus ante malorum O passi graviora c. or some such thing but this is not to live upon faith if thy soul liveth the life of faith thy heart is alive in an evil time and the life and courage of it is maintained from God thy heart is maintained from the Truth Power and Goodness of God 2. This life of Faith is a quiet life It is a quiet life as to passions Faith hath a wonderful power to keep the mind in a calm serene temper It is the unbelieving soul that fretteth and sumeth and vexeth all turbulent passions upon Gods providence are the products of unbelief The Prophet telleth us He that believeth maketh not haste Faith dryeth up immoderate tears scatters the storms of fears maketh the soul to cease from anger and forsake wrath It quieteth the tongue so as it doth not charge God foolishly it keeps a man from all murmuring and flyings out against God from all indecent and extravagant flying out against men who are Gods instruments I held my peace because I knew it was thy doing David believed that God had done what was done he dust not mutter or repine because the Lord had done it And so as to action I mean irregular actions Take an unbeliever and let him be in any streight or distress he is unquiet and turbulent and makes no conscience what means he useth to set himself at liberty but he that believeth maketh not haste he who by faith eveth the promise gives credit to it and hath committed himself to the Power Goodness and Truth of God for the accomplishment of it as he is not hasty with his spirit to murmur fret and vex because it is not presently made good to him so he is not hasty with his tongue to charge God foolishly nor in his action He dareth not use any sinister or unlawful means to quit himself of any difficulty in which he is entangled he believeth that God will preserve uphold deliver him and in his own time find out some lawful way and means and the belief of this restraineth him from impatience or any thing which should be a fruit and indication of it 3. Again The life of Faith is an expectant life The Apostle telleth us that Faith is the evidence of things not seen Hence Faith hath always two daughters which are its genuine off spring 1. Hope which is the souls looking up or looking out for those things of which Faith giveth an evidence or assurance Faith assureth hope expecteth and this is so inseparable from Faith that it is often in Scripture put for Faith and only differeth in this that Hope is an expectancy upon faith's evidence and the certainty which it giveth the soul of the thing promised in the word Every hope indeed doth not speak faith but every grounded hope doth there is an hope of an hypocrite which groweth up like the rush without mire and the flag without water Patience is another daughter of Faith I shall have occasion to speak to that more fully hereafter Faith assureth the thing to the soul Hope looketh out for it and expects it Patience keeps the soul still and waiting for it If you ask me what the soul expecteth what it waiteth for it must needs be that of which Faith hath given the soul an evidence that is the Promise The Promises are of various natures for outward mercies such as Protection Deliverance c. Spiritual mercies such as inward Support Strength Consolations Eternal happiness 4 Again The life of Faith is an active life The operation of Faith doth not terminate in a meer speculation The activity of Faith lieth 1. In the diligent use of all natural and rational means which God hath appointed in order to the obtaining of the mercy of which faith hath given the soul an evidence and assurance As Faith doth quiet the soul and restrain it from the use of all unlawful means so it doth quicken and engage the soul in the use of all lawful and proper means The reason of which is because Faith can assure the soul of no mercy but in that manner and order and under those circumstances in and under which God hath promised to bestow it Now God hath promised mercies in the use of means so it quickeneth and engageth the soul to the use of means as a piece of the Will of God in order to the obtaining of our desired mercy 2. It lyeth in the use of all spiritual means and here Prayer in a special manner Prayer being the general spiritual means to be used for the obtaining of any mercy Daniel chap. 9 understood by Books that the time was come for the fulfilling of the 70 years captivity and this faith of his as to what he read in the Books quickned him up to pour out that fervent prayer unto God Dan. 9. 5. The life of Faith is a cheerful and joyous life you read in Scripture of a joy and peace which attendeth believing Rom. 15. Believing the glory of God is a great means to make the soul to rejoyce in the hopes of it Now the reason of this joy is the strength of that evidence which faith doth give the soul for joy is nothing else but the complacency of the soul or rather the expression of this complacency upon the souls union to its desired object Now according to the nearness and fulness of this union so is the joy Faith giving the soul a great and unquestionable evidence of the thing doth also give unto the soul a proportionable joy 6. The life of Faith is a crucifying dying life to the world This is the victory saith the Apostle by which we overcome the world even our faith Faith looketh up to the Cross of Christ and by it the heart of a Christian is crucified to the world and the world is crucified to his heart The proper operation of Faith is to work against hope for indeed if once the mercy cometh in sight so as sense cometh in play faith ceaseth as well as hope Hence the operation and exercise of Faith must needs crucifie the heart of a Christian to the world to sense and to all sensible objects Faith made Abraham overlook his own body which was now dead and Sarahs dead womb it made him to overlook the Knife and the Altar and the loss of Isaac's natural life and only to consider that God was able to raise him up from the dead it maketh a Christian overlook all seeming difficulties in regard of sense and all contrarieties whatsoever indeed seemeth to be in his way Now by these things you may try your selves whether you live the life of Faith under sad and dark Providences yea or no. By this time methinks
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
to judge as God judgeth and particularly as to this point of growth in grace we must judge of it according to the means and helps of grace which the person hath had considering the natural temper of the person as also his temptations and afflictions which he hath had to put him back we must so judge of his growth and thrift Possibly his circumstances have been such as have necessitated him in order to getting bread to live in a Town in a Family where he hath scarce ever heard a good Sermon nor hath had any means of Instruction no good examples to go before him and quicken him in the ways of God Possibly he hath walked in the dark and seen no light his life hath been a life of many afflictions great temptations thou hast lived where thou hast had a great plenty of spiritual food all imaginable means to promote the work of God in thy soul In such cases as these thy brother is the object of thy pity and prayers and all the charitable assistance thou canst give him but by no means of thy censure 5. Lastly This Discourse doth highly solicite your charity for those who differ in their apprehensions of some Principles of Religion from you And here if any where I had need plead with you for charity for although it be evident that it is not in the power of a man to believe what he would but the assent of the mind to a Proposition must necessarily be according to the evidence of the truth of the thing which his understanding hath yet it is matter of amazement to consider what Feuds what Alienations in Affection are the products of Differences in Opinion As if Heaven were entailed to Understandings of one Complexion There alwayes were in the Church of God and there alwayes will be different apprehensions in some matters of Truth and generally they have brought forth disorders great disorders in mens practice each one hugging his particular opinion as if he judged himself and none but himself infallible And even Protestants declaiming against an Infallible Head upon the Earth will yet arrogate an Infallibility of Judgment unto themselves When as nothing is more demonstrable than that my brother hath as much reason to quarrel with me for differing from him as I have to quarrel with him for his differing from me unless he will say I cannot be deceived but you may which would give a just foundation for the renewing of that old question of the false prophet Which way went the spirit of God from me to thee Doth any one say I have Scripture for my Opinion So saith the other Doth he say I think I am verily perswaded of it by the spirit of God So saith the other Doth he say But I have divers learned and good men of my mind Truly there are not very many differences of any moment but his brother may say the same Will he say But the Church wherein I live is of my mind Be it so this indeed should much regulate sober Christians as to the publishing and divulging of their opinions to the disturbance of others but it ought neither to rule Faith nor to guide private Practice If it doth the particular Church which all confess fallible is made the Rule of Faith or the Supreme Judge of it neither of which it can be What mean therefore these heats The Question is still about a Judge in the case Whether a mans particular conscience must not be the proximate rule of his actions If it must not what must We have lost the very Basis of the Protestant Religion and shall whether we will or no be sorced to Rome to find an Infallible Judge and when we have done that we have but cheated our own souls for he is not to be found there though one may indeed be found that arrogates that Title and to whom credulous Proselytes give it How much better is it to stay at home and act according to that excellent Canon of Saint Paul Phil. 3.15 Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveal this unto you The confessed Golden Rule Whatsoever you would that others should do unto you the same do you unto them again if it were well studied by Christians would put an end to all their little bickerings upon this score to all their prejudices one against another all their uncharitable Judgings and Cenfurings of one another all their eagerness against and persecutions one of another One thinks the Government of the Church should be by Prelates another by Presbyters a third by Common Suffrage Suppose all these agreed in this that without faith and holiness no man shall see God Let every one walk in this way they will at last meet in the Kingdom of God One thinks Children should be baptized another thinks that none ought to be baptized till he be capable of instruction and making an open profession of faith and holiness Yet may both these truly receive embrace and rest upon Jesus Christ as their alone Saviour their failing is but in a single point of obedience there indeed one of them must fail if they practice according to their principle but who liveth and sinneth not against God Who judgeth every sin in event damnable especially where the error too is in matter of judgment which a man hath no power to over rule his own Faith and Perswasion in and to practice contrary to what he is perswaded to be his Duty were but to play the Hypocrite to sin against the light of his Conscience and interpretatively against the Mind of God and that wilfully Mistake not the Kingdom of Heaven is not intailed to Parties but as in every Nation so amongst all Parties who so believeth in Christ feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of God Take heed of embracing Propositions which are inconsistent with that Faith and Holiness without which none can be saved There is also another uncomfortable sort of Propositions viz. Such as who so holdeth and practiseth up to them will be obliged to break Communion with all or most Churches And here I must lament the unhappiness of them that are fallen into the mistake of the Seventh-day-Sabbath I have known some of them whom I could not but think persons truly fearing God but certainly next to Errors in Fundamentals which will divide a soul from the Head Christ Jesus such as divide from the Body are of most dangerous consequence For the Christian Sabbath I make a doubt whether there be any thing which is not plain in Scripture which comes to us by an universal tradition of the Church but that alone no considerable number of people in any Age of the World ever disputed it whence as also from the Scriptural proof though raised by consequence for it there is not this day a very considerable number of Christians in the World but do observe it as the Lords Sabbath
18.10 to preach the Gospel undauntedly at Corinth addeth this for I have much people in this City Now supposing a City in which God had no people it might be much questioned whether God would Certain it is that the Apostle telleth us that God hath given Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Ephes 4.11 12. I remember that when the Prophet Elisha was sent for to Jehosaphat Jehoram and the King of Edom when they were in their distress for want of water you have the story 2 Kings 3.13 Elisha saith to the King of Israel who was a wicked King what have I to do with thee vers 14. Were it not that I regard the presence of Jehosophat the King of Judah I would not look toward thee nor see thee I am very apt to think God speaketh so to every one whom he hath passed over in his eternal purpose and knoweth that they will not repent and believe Were it not for the sake of his elect with whom these men are mixed God would never regard them nor look to them in his Gospel dispensations but as the Gardiner watereth the weeds amongst the herbs because he cannot at present well pluck them up so God having resolved that the Tares should be suffered amongst the Wheat till the great harvest watereth them with the dew of the Gospel pariter adeunt pariter audiunt as Augustine saith in another case they living amongst the elect of God hear the words that are spoken from God to them the Ministers of the Gospel they know them not and therefore cannot distinguish and it hath pleased the wise God so to order it And this answer indeed almost taketh away the subject of the question for then it is as it were by accident only that they are called to The Elect are those spoken to others only as they are in their company as a Father intending only to give good counsel to his own children may yet give it to others who accidentally are in their company 2. But there are others who think That God doth this that he might declare to all what is their duty Alii vocantur ad officium solum alii etiam ad beneficium Spanhemius A Creditor may I hope mind his Debtor of his debt though he knoweth that he is not able to pay a tenth part of it and be resolved never to lend him mony to do it and so in calling upon him cannot be supposed so much as to intend his own payment and satisfaction for none intendeth what he knoweth is impossible This is an answer which our learned Pemble gives but this answer doth not satisfie some other very learned men for what is it to exhort another but to declare his duty to him and to say that the end why God declareth unto Reprobates their duty is that he might declare their duty to them is something uncouth for idem non est finis suiipsius The question is what end the wise God can have in declaring their duty to them in and by such exhortations 3. It is therefore possibly better answered That God doth this for maintaining discipline and government in the world It is but a common observation that the Preaching of the Gospel generally restraineth and civilizeth those or very many of those whose hearts are not yet changed by it and converted to the obedience of the Gospel Take in your eye but two places one where there is no Preaching of the Gospel or none which truly deserveth that name another place where the Gospel is Preached duly daily and lively and observe if the generality of the people in the later place be not strangely more civilized than those of the other Town or City So that God by the Preaching of the Gospel to all and the work of his Providence in so ordering and disposing it though he doth not intend the salvation of Reprobates yet may have a wise and excellent end for the good of the world in bridling and restraining the outragious and unbridled lusts of such men so that the world is not such a heap of confusion such a place of universal disorder as it would be were it not for the influence of the indefinite and universal Preaching of the Gospel amongst them nor is this an end at all unworthy of a wise and holy God as well with relation to his own glory which is impeached by the exorbitancies of mens lusts as with reference to the good of humane society for which as I have all along shewed you in these Discourses our good God in the motions of his Providence sheweth a great kindness and this may be said to be another end of Gods which also he doth generally obtain It is said by some That God causeth the Gospel to be Preached unto some that they might be without excuse The Apostle telleth us That the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and God-head so that they are without excuse because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God Rom. 1.20 he speaketh of the Heathens and why may not we say of others that the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is Preached unto many and the riches of Divine Grace displayed before them so that they are without excuse while they continue in impenitency and unbelief we may say of them as the Apostle saith of the Jews Have they not heard Rom. 10.18 did they not know God hath stretcht forth his hand to a disobedient and gainsaying people vers 21. I know Arminius doth object against this answer telling us this cannot be Gods end in sending his Gospel for exhortations to faith and repentance do not of themselves render persons without excuse but this is added to the nature of them But this reason also would prove that the faith and obedience of the elect is not intended by God for their obedience also is added to the exhortations But enough is spoken upon this Argument as to such who have an ear open to receive an answer Supposing that God hath chosen but some to eternal life that Christ hath made a Covenant but for some nor intentionally dyed for more than his Father had chosen in him and given to him yet God might cause the Gospel to be preached unto all the world and have very wise ends in the doing of it So as that the universality of the call to faith and repentance is no argument either against the election of grace or for an incertain Covenant no nor yet for an universal redemption And from hence also an easie solution may be made of another appearing difficulty It is certain according to the letter of my Text That now God commandeth every man to repent How can this be Quest 2. Supposing that a man or woman hath of himself no power to believe or