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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79420	A discourse of divine providence I. In general: that there is a providence exercised by God in the world. II. In particular: how all Gods providences in the world, are in order to the good of his people. By the late learned divine Stephen Charnock, B.D. sometime fellow of New-Colledg in Oxon.; Treatise of divine providence	Charnock, Stephen, 1628-1680.; Adams, Richard, 1626?-1698.; Veel, Edward, 1632?-1708.	1684 (1684)	Wing C3708; ESTC R232630	167,002	420

A Discourse OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE I. In General That there is a Providence Exercised by God in the World II. In Particular How all Gods Providences in the World are in order to the good of his People By the late Learned Divine STEPHEN CHARNOCK B. D. sometime Fellow of New-Colledg in OXON Psalm 103.19 His Kingdom ruleth over all LONDON Printed by R. Roberts for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey near the Stocks-Market 1684. TO THE READER Reader THOU art here presented with a little piece of a Great Man Great indeed if great Piety great Parts great Learning and great Wisdom may be admitted to claim that Title And we verily believe that none well acquainted with him will deny him his right however malevolent Persons may grudge him the honour It hath been expected and desired by many that some account of his Life might be given to the world But we are not willing to offer violence to his ashes by making him so publick now he is Dead who so much affected privacy while he lived Thou art therefore desired to rest satisfied with this brief account of him That being very young he went to Cambridge where in Immanuel Colledge he was brought up under the Tuition of the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury What Gracious workings and Evidences of the New-Birth appeared in him while there hath already been spoken of by * Mr. Johnson in his Sermon on occasion of Mr. Charnocks death one who was at that time his Fellow Collegiate and Intimate Some time he afterward spent in a private Family and a little more in the exercise of his Ministry in Southwark then removed to New-Colledge in Oxon where he was Fellow and spent several years being then taken notice of for his singular Gifts and had in Reputation by the most Learned and Godly in that University and upon that account the more frequently put upon Publick work Being thence the year after he had been Proctor called over into Ireland to a constant publick Employment he exercised his Ministry for about four or five years not with the approbation only but to the admiration of the most Wise and Judicious Christians and with the concurrent applause of such as were of very different sentiments from him in the things of Religion Nay even those that never loved his Piety yet would commend his Learning and Gifts as being beyond exception if not abve compare About the year 1660. being discharged from the publick exercise of his Ministry he returned back into England and in and about London spent the greatest part of fifteen years without any call to his old work in a setled way but for about these five years last past hath been more known by his constant Preaching of which we need not speak but let them that heard him speak for him or if they should be silent his Works will do it He was a Person of excellent Parts strong Reason great Judgment and which do not often go together curious Phansie of high Improvements and general Learning as having been all his days a most diligent and methodical Student and a great Redeemer of time rescuing not only his restless hours in the Night but his very walking time in the Streets from those impertinencies and fruitless vanities which do so customarily fill up mens minds and steal away their hearts from those better and more Noble objects which do so justly challenge their greatest regards This he did by not only carefully watching as every good Christian should do but constantly writing down his Thoughts whereby he both govern'd them better and furnished himself with many materials for his most elaborate Discourses His chief Talent was his Preaching Gift in which to speak modestly he had few equals To this therefore as that for which his Lord and Master had best fitted him neglecting the practice of Physick in which he had arrived at a considerable measure of knowledge he did especially addict himself and direct his Studies and even when Providence denyed him opportunities yet he was still laying in more stock and preparing for work against he might be called to it When he was in Employment none that heard him could justly blame his retiredness he being even when most private continually at work for the Publick and had he been less in his Study he would have been less liked in the Pulpit His Library furnished tho not with a numerous yet a curious Collection of Books was his Workhouse in which he laboured hard all the Week and on the Lords Day made it appear he had not been idle and that tho he consulted his privacy yet he did not indulge his Sloth He was somewhat reserved where he was not well acquainted otherwise very free affable and communicative where he understood and liked his company He affected not much Acquaintance because be would escape Visitants well knowing how much the ordinary sort of Friends were apt to take up of his time which he could ill spare from his beloved Studies meeting with fevv that could give him better entertainment vvith their company than he could give himself alone They had need be very good and very learned by whose converse he could gain more than by his own Thoughts and Books He was a true Son of the Church of England in that sound Doctrine laid down in the Articles of Religion and Taught by our most famous ancient Divines and Reformers and a real follower of their Piety as well as a strenuous maintainer of the Truth they professed His Preaching was mostly practical yet rational and argumentative to his hearers understandings as well as affections and where controversies came in his way he shewed great Acuteness and Judgment in discussing and determining them and no less skill in applying them to practice So that he was indeed a workman that needed not to be ashamed being able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and convince gain-sayers Some have thought his Preaching too high for vulgar Hearers and it cannot be denyed but his gifts were suited to the more intelligent sort of Christians yet it must withal be said that if he were sometimes deep he was never abstruse he handled the great Mysteries of the Gospel with much clearness and perspicuity so that if in his Preaching he were above most it was only because most were below him Several considerable Treatises on some of the most important points of Religion he finished in his ordinary course which he hath left behind him in the same form he usually writ them for the Pulpit This comes out first as a Prodromus to several others designed to be made publick as soon as they can be with conveniency transcribed which if the Lord will and spare life shall be attested with our hands and whatever any else shall publish can be but imperfect Notes his own Copies being under our revisal at the request of his Friends taken from him in the Pulpit in which what mistakes do often happen every one

will never want instruments for the preserving that Church which he owns as his 'T is observed by some that God so ordered it that the same day that Pelagius the great poysoner of the Christian Doctrine was born in Brittain Austin the most famous defender of the truth was born in Africk That the horn which pushed the truth should no sooner appear but the Carpenter to cut it off should be provided too As it is observed where poysons grow Antidotes grow near them by the indulgent provisiof the God of Nature As there is the Wisdom of the Serpent against the Church so there is the Wisdom of God for it Gods goodness upon his Church in former Ages is not all laid out He hath his stores still neither is his Wisdom non-plust nor his Power weakned neither is he nor can he be weary of his care 3. The Church shall in the end prove Victorious against all its Adversaries or Providence must miss of its Aim The Church is compared to an Olive Tree Hos 14.6 In respect of beauty his Beauty shall be as the Olive Tree It is so also in respect of Victory Olive Branches were used in Triumph God is on the Churches side and he is stronger than the strongest and wiser than the wisest and higher than the highest Jesus Christ is the Churches Head and General Christ the Head watcheth for the good of the Church the Body He must be destroyed before the Church can There is a mighty Arm which though it may for a time seem withered will in the end be stretched out and get it self the victory Whilst Christ is in the Ship it may be tosted but it shall not be sunk It may be beaten down but like a Ball to rebound the higher The young Tree that is shaken by the wind may lose some leaves and some fruit too but the root gets greater strength and strikes it self deeper into the Earth and makes the Branches more capable of a rich return of Fruit the following year The Churches Stature is compared to a Palm-Tree * Cant. 7.7 which cannot be deprest by by the weights which hang upon it but riseth the higher God uses the same method in the Churches as in Christs advancement Our Saviours Death was necessary to his Glory * Luk 24.26 And the Churches affliction sometimes to its exaltation A Nation may lose some Battlels and yet be victorious The Church may have many a cross but in the end will surmount all difficulties Though Judgments and Apostacies may be great in a Nation yet God will have a care of his own Plants * Isa 4.12 13. There shall be a tenth It shall return the Holy seed shall be the substance thereof As a Tree in Winter which seems dead but its juyce shall revive into rich and generout Blossoms The Ark shall float above the waters Babylon shall fall the Lamb shall stand upon Mount Sion Men may as well stop the rising of the Sun in its mounting to the Meridian Bridle in the Tyde of the Ocean as hinder the current of an Almighty Providence 4. The interest of Nations is to bear a respect to the Church and countenance the Worship of God in it This is to concur with Gods main end and imitate him in his Providential Administrations Gods people whatever their Enemies suggest to the contrary are a Blessing in the midst of a Land * Isa 19.24 their interest is greater than the interest of all the World besides though they be but a handful their fruit shall shake like Lebonon * Psal 72.16 Broughtn on Dan. 10 20. The neglect of Religion is the Ruin of Nations 'T is observed that Cyrus was slain in the War in Sci thia a little after he neglected the building of the Temple of Hierusalem which he had begun Those Persian Kings Reigned the longest that favoured the Jews in that and their other just requests God Honoured or disgraced them as they were kind or cruel to his People And when any act for the good of his people they shall not be without their Reward When Cyrus should let the Jemish Captives go free without Ransom he should be no loser by it God would give him the labour of Egypt the Merchandize of Ethiopia and the strength of the Sabeans into his hand for the price of his Peoples Delivery * Isa 45.13 14. those Nations which should favour them in the times of their persecutions and Flights and give them shelter in their Countreys should thrive and prosper by the blessing of God upon them If Moab give entertainment to the flying Israelites in the time of the Invasion of Salmanassar God will preserve their Land that the Spoyler shall not enter into the Consines of it and they shall have Kings and Judges under the protection of the House of David i. e. under the Kings of Israel as some understand it * Isa 16.4 5. Saints are the Guardians of the Places where they live their Prayers have a greater insluence than the wisest Counsels or the mightiest Force* 2 Kings 2.12 And Elisha cried My Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof The Chaldee paraphraseth thus Thou art better of Israel by thy Prayers than Chariots and Horsemen This is the Elogy of one single Prophet what influence then hath the whole Church of God in a place The whole world is the better for the Church of God The Chaldee Paraphrase hath a notion upon that Psalm 22.3 But thou art holy oh thou that inhabitest the Praises of Israel Thou that establishest the World for the Praises of Israel God hath nothing to do in the World but the saving his People When that is once done he will put an end to this Frame of things When he hath gathered his Wheat into his Garner he will burn up the Chaff His People are the Spirit and Quintessence of the World When this is extracted the rest are flung upon the Dung hill as a Caput Mortuum 5. We may see hence the ground of most of the Judgments in the World Men by their rage against the Church will not acknowledge God's Government of the World for the Churches good Therefore saith the Psalmist Psal 59.13 Consume them in wrath consume them that they may net be and let them know that God rules in Jacob unto the ends of the Earth The Church is the Seat of his Government and from thence he extends it to the utermost parts of the Earth In Jacob he rules and for the sake of Jacob he orders his Government to the ends of the Earth The not acknowledging this brings wrathful Consumptions upon men And it is also the end of his Judgments to make men know it 'T is likely enough the four Kings * Gen 14.9 might have gone clear away with all their Booty had not they laid their singers upon Lot But when they would pack him up among the rest they did but sollicite their own

As upon our sin God can arm them against us so upon our obedience he can make them serviceable even against their natures as if he had made a Covenant with them and they had both the reason and virtue to observe it I do not remember any instance in Scripture that God went out of the usual tract of his providence and acted in an extraordinary manner but where his people were one way or other concerned It was for Joshua's and the Israelites sake that the Sun was arrested to stand still in the Valley of Ajalon that they might have light enough to defeat their Enemies and pursue their victory * Josh 10.12 13. The Sea shall against its natural course stand in heaps like walls of brass to assist the Israelites escape * Exod. 14.22 The fire is restrained in the operation of its nature even whilst it retains its burning quality when the lives of the three valiant believing Children are in danger * Dan. 6.22 The mouths of Lyons are muzled when the safety of his beloved Daniel is concerned * Dan. 6.22 And the shadow goes back upon the Dial for Hezekiah's sake * 2 King 20.11 When God would at any time deliver his people He can muster up Lightnings and Thunders for their assistance * 1 Sam. 7.10 He can draw all the Regiments of Heaven into battel-array and arm the stars to fight against Sisera when Israels condition needs it and make even the lowest Creatures to list themselves as Auxiliaries in the service God hath nor a displeasure with sensless Creatures neither is transported with strains of sury against such objects when he alters their natural course Hab. 3.8 Was the Lord displeased against the Rivers was thy wrath against the Sea that thou didst ride upon thy Horses and Chariots of Salvation No but he made those Creatures the Horses and Chariots to speed assistance and salvation to his people which the Psalmist elegantly describes Psal 114. All Creatures are his Host and that God that created them hath still the Soveraign command over them and can imbody them in an Army to serve his purpose for the deliverance of his people as he did against Pharaoh 3. The interest of Nations is ordered as is most for the Churches good He orders both the course of natural things and of civil affairs for their interest He alters the state of things and changeth Governours and Governments for the sake of his people For these causes God sent Elisha to Crown Jehu King 2 King 9.6 7. I have anointed thee King over the people of the Lord c. that I may avenge the blood of my Servants the Prophets and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezabel For the sakes of the Godly in that Nation and the revenging the blood of the Prophets which had been shed was he raised up by the Lord. He sent such judgments upon Egypt that it was as much the interest of that Nation to let Israel go as it was before to keep them their vassals God orders the interest and affairs of Nations for those ends and according to this disposition of affairs Christ times his intercessions for his Church The Angels had been sent out to view the state of the World and found it in peace Zech. 1.11 behold all the Earth sits still and is at rest there had been Wars in Artaxarexes and Xerxes his time but in the time of Darius that part of the World had an universal peace which was the fittest time for the restoration of the Jews and building the Temple because it could not be built but by the Kings cost whose treasure in the time of War was expended another way nor would it consist with their policy to restore the Jews to their government at such a time when they had Wars with the Neighbour parts of Egypt See how God orders the state of the World in subserviency to his gracious intentions towards his Church The time of the Jewish captivity was now out according to the promise of God and God gives that part of the World a general peace that the restauration of the Jews and the rebuilding of the Temple might be facilitated and the truth of his promise in their deliverance accomplished Upon the news of this general peace in that part of the World Christ expostulates with God for the restauration of Jerusalem vers 12. How long O Lord wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judeah against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years The time of the Captivity determined by God was now expired The first reformation in Germany was back'd by reason of state as it was then ordered it being the interest of many Princes of that Countrey to countenance Luther's Doctrine for the putting a stop to the growing greatness of Charles the fifth who had evident designs to enslave them I might mention many more only by the way let me advise those that have an inclination to read histories of former transactions to which men naturally are addicted to make this your end to observe the strange providences of God in the World and how admirably he hath made them subservient to the interest of the Church which will be the most profitable way of reading them whereby they will not only satisfie your curiosity but establish your Christianity Calvin understands that place Deut. 32.8 He sets the bounds of the people according to the number of the Children of Israel that in the whole ordering of the state of the World God proposeth this as his end to consult for the good of his people and his care extends to the rest only in order to them and though they are but a small number yet he orders his whole government of the Worlds affairs as may best tend to their Salvation Therefore God sets the people bounds or enlargeth them according as they may be serviceable one way or other to this end And the reason is rendred v. 9. For the Lords portion is his people and Iacob is the lot of his inheritance Therefore God orders all the rest of the World in subserviency to the maintaining and improving his portion and inheritance 2. As the World Secondly so the gifts and common graces of men in the world are for the good of the Church which is a great argument for providence in general since there is nothing so considerable in government as the disposing of places to men according to their particular endowments and abilities for them And the bestowing such gists upon men is none of the meanest argument for Gods providential government of the World As 1. The gifts of good men The gifts conferred upon Paul were deposited in him not only to be possessed by him but used and laid out for the good of the Church Col. 1.25 Whereof I am made a Minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me

communicate the rayes of his love unto since he created it but his Church The men of the World hate him He can see nothing amiable in them for what was first lovely they have defaced and blotted out but the Church hath Gods comliness put upon her Ezek. 16.14 it was perfect through my comliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God and he did not lay those glorious colours upon her to manage his government or any part of it against her to deface her Besides their loveliness which is conferred upon them by God they have a love to God and no man will act against those whom he thinks to be his friends God being purus actus there being nothing but purity and activity in God his love must be the purest and highest love the most vigorous and glowing As fire which sets all other Bodies so this all other powers in the World in motion for them God cannot love them but he must wish all good to them and do all good for them for his love is not a lazy love but hath its raptures and tenderness and his affection is twisted with his Almighty Power to work that good for them which in their present condition in the world they are capable of Now it is certain God loves his Church For 1. He carries them in his hand * Deut. 33.3 and that not in a loose manner to be cast out but they are engraven upon the palms of his hands * Isa 49.16 that he cannot open his hand to bestow a blessing upon any person but the picture of his Church doth dart in his eye God alludes to the Rings wherein men engrave the image of those that are dear to them And the Jews did in their captivity engrave the Effigies of their City Jerusalem upon their Rings that they might not forget it * Sanctius in Isa 49.16 If his eye be alway upon the Church his thoughts can never be off it in all his works 2. He loves the very gates and outworks Psal 87.2 the Lord loveth the gates af Sion He loves a Cottage where a Church is more than the stately Palaces of Princes The gates were the places where they consulted together and gave judgment upon affairs God loved the assemblies of his Saints because of the truths revealed the ordinances adminstred the worship presented to him 3. Nay one Saint is more valued by him than the whole World of the wicked God is the God of all Creatures but peculiarly the God of Abraham and of his seed One Abraham is more deeply rooted in his heart than all the World and he doth more entitle himself the God of Abraham than the God of the whole World for in that style he speaks to Isaac Gen. 26.24 I am the God of Abraham thy Father much more the God of Israel The God of the whole Church of which Abraham was but a member though the Father of the faithful and a Feoffee of the Covenant God hath a greater value for one sincere Soul than for a whole City He saves a Lot and burns a Sodom Yea than for a whole World he drowns a World and preserves a Noah He secures his Jewels whilst he flings away the pebbles 4. He loves them so that he overlooks their crabbed and perverse misconstructions of his providence When the Israelites had jealous thoughts of him and of Moses his instrument when they saw that mighty Egyptian Army just at their heels and themselves cooped up between Mountains Forts and Waters God doth not upon this provoking murmuring draw up his cloudy Pillar to Heaven but puts it in the rear of them when before it had marched in the van * Exod. 14.19 and wedgeth himself in between them and Pharaoh's enraged host to shew that they should as soon sheath their swords in his heart as in their bowels and if they could strike them it should be through his own Deity which was the highest expression of his affection And though they often murmured against his providence after they were landed on the shore yet he left them not to shift for themselves but bore them all the way in his arms as a Father doth his Child * Deut. 1.31 and bare them like an Eagle upon his Wings * Deut. 32.11 and God loves them magnificently and royally Hos 14 4 I will love them freely * Hosea 14.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any doubting without any reluctancy I will love thee without any repugnancy in my heart to draw me back from thee for mine anger is turned away as the streams of a River quite another way Now all this considered can the Governour of the World the King of Saints act any thing against his own affections Yea will he not make all things subservient to them whom he loves 2. His Delight See what an inundation of sweetning joy there was in him for which he had not Terms of Expression to suit the narrow apprehensions of Men Zeph. 3.17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing He seems in his expression to know no measure of his delight in the Church and no end of it I will rejoyce over thee with joy Joy sparkles up fresh after joy 'T is his rest where his Soul and all that is within him centers it self with infinite contentment Joy over thee with finging A Joy that blossoms into Triumph Never had any such charming transports in the company of any he most affected as God hath in his Church he doth so delight in the graces of his People that he delights to mention them He twice mentions Enochs walking with him * Gen. 5.22 24. And certainly God cannot but delight in it more than in the World because it is a fruit of greater pains than the Creation of the World The World was created in the space of six daies by a Word the Erecting a Church hath cost God more Pains and Time Before the Church of the Jews could be settled he had both a contest with the Peevishness of his People and the Malice of their Enemies And his own Son must bleed and dye before the Church of the Gentiles could be fixed Men delight in that which hath cost them much Pains and a great Price God hath been at too much Pains and Christ at too great a Price to have small delight in the Church will he then let wild Beasts break the Hedges and tread down the fruit of it shall not all things be ordred to the good of that which is the Object of his greatest delight in the World 7. Seventhly The presence of God in his Church will make all providence tend to the good of it It would be an idle useless Presence if it were not operative for their good The Lord is there is the