than to command every thing that is Holy and to forbid all kinds and degrees of Wickedness and to encourage the practice of Vertue and to discourage all Wicked practices as much as the Wisdom of Government and the freedom of human Actions will allow That God does all this wherein the Holiness of Government consists I know no man that denies As wicked as Mankind is it is not for want of holy and just and good Laws The law of the Lord is an undefiled law converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom unto the simple the statutes of the Lord are right and rejoyce the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure and giveth light unto the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether 19. Psal. 7 8 9. The great complaint is That the Laws of God are too Holy for the Corrupt state of this World and most men think to excuse their Wickedness by the degeneracy of human Nature and the too great Purity and Perfection of the Divine Laws which they have no Ability to perform Now the Holiness of God's Laws are an undeniable Argument of the Holiness of his Providence and Government whether we consider these Laws as a copy of his Nature or a declaration of his Will much more if we consider them both as his Nature and his Will as all Moral Laws which have an eternal and necessary Goodness in them are for the Divine Nature and Will must be the rule and measure of his Providence and Government unless he Govern the World contrary to his own Nature and Will Nay Laws themselves are not only the Rule of Obdience to Subjects but of Government to the Prince and it is universally acknowledged to be as great a miscarriage in a Prince not to Govern by his own Laws as it is in Subjects not to obey them Princes may be guilty of such miscarriages but God can't and therefore the Laws he gives to us are the Rules of his own Providence and then the Holiness of his Laws prove that his Government and Providence must be very Holy And indeed we have very visible and sensible proofs of this in that care he takes to encourage the Practice of Vertue and to discourage Wickedness This he has done by those great Promises which he has made to the Observation of his Laws and by those terrible Threatnings which he has denounc'd against the breach of them both in this World and in the World to come But this is not what I mean for men can despise both Promises and Threatnings if they do not see the Execution of them and the Promises and Threatnings of the other World which are much the most considerable are out of sight and do not so much affect Bad men and that which is most proper for us to consider here is how the external Administrations of Providence encourage Vertue and discourage Wickedness and Vice Now those who believe that all the Miseries that are in the World are the effects or rewards of Sin as all men must do who believe the Scripture nay as all men must do who believe that a Just and Good God governs the World must confess that the Divine Providence has done abundantly enough to discourage Wickedness For it is visible enough how many Miserie 's there are in the World So many and so great as are commonly thought a reproach to Providence but if they be the just recompence of Sin they are only an Argument of the Justice and Holiness of Providence If we believe the Scripture Mortality and Death and consequently all those Infirmities and Decays of Nature all those Pains and Sicknesses and Diseases which are not the effect of our own Sins or which we do not inherit from our more immediate Parents as an entail of their Sins are owing to the Sin of Adam which brought Death upon himself and all his Posterity and such a curse upon the earth as has entail'd Labour and Sorrow on us As for many other Miseries and Calamities of life they are visibly owing to our own or to other mens Sins Such as Want and Poverty Infamy and Reproach Seditions and Tumults violent Changes and Revolutions of Government and all the Miseries and Desolations of War Take a survey in your thoughts of all the several sorts of Miseries which are in the World and tell me what place they could find here by what possible means they could enter into the World were Sin banished out of it What Miseries could disturb Human life were all men Just and Honest and Charitable did they love one another as themselves Perfect Vertue is not only an innocent and harmless but a very beneficial thing it does no hurt but all the good it can both to it self and others and when there is nothing to hurt us neither within nor without we can suffer no hurt And is not this a sufficient proof of the Holiness of Providence that God has so ordered the nature of things and the circumstances of our life in this World that if men will be Wicked they shall be Miserable Can any thing in this World more discourage men from Sin or make them more zealous to reform themselves and the rest of Mankind than so many daily and sensible proofs that there is no expectation of a secure state of rest and happiness while either they themselves or other men with whom they must of necessity converse or have something to do are Wicked For you must remember that I am not now a vindicating the Justice but the Holiness of Providence and therefore it is no Objection against what I have now said That many times vertuous and innocent men suffer very greatly by the Violence and Injustice of the wicked Tho this may be an Objection against the Justice of Providence which I have already accounted for yet it is no Objection against the Holiness of Providence but a great justification of it for the more effectual care God has taken to give all mankind an abhorrence of all Wickedness both in themselves and others the more undeniable proof it is of the Holiness of God's Government and this is more effectually done by the evils which we suffer from other mens wickedness than from our own Men who are very favourable to their own Vices when they feel the Pleasures and Advantages of them learn to hate to condemn to punish them by feeling what they suffer from other mens sins When they lose their own Estates by Injustice and Violence or their Good Names by Reproaches and Defamations or are injur'd in the Chastity of their Wives and Daughters by other mens Lusts this gives them a truer sense of the evil of Injustice Defamation and Lust and makes them condemn these Vices in themselves how well soever they love them This is the foundation of Human Government which keeps Mankind in order and lays great Restraints upon
mens Lusts for did not all Mankind suffer by one another's sins I doubt neither good nor bad men would be so zealously concerned to punish and suppress Vice and therefore the Divine Providence could not have taken a more effectual course to discourage Wickedness than to make all Mankind sensible of the evil of sin by making them all at one time or other feel the evil of sin in what they suffer by their own or other mens sins For were all men convinced and it is strange that their own sense and feeling will not convince them that all the evils and miseries of life are owing to sin and that it is impossible to be happy without reforming themselves and others as far as they can what more powerful Argument could Providence offer to us to reform the world There are another sort of Calamities and very terrible ones too which those who believe a Providence can attribute to nothing else but the just Judgment and Vengeance of God upon a wicked world Such as Plague and Pestilence and Famine Deluges and Earthquakes which destroy Cities and Countries and more ordinary Accidents when they act in such an extraordinary manner as if they were directed and guided by an unseen hand A great many such Instances are recorded in Scripture and expresly ascribed to the Judgment of God God has threatned such Judgments in Scripture and therefore when we see them executed we must conclude That they are inflicted by God as the just Punishment of Sin Nay those very evils and miseries which we suffer by other mens sins are in Scripture attributed to God who has the Supreme Disposal of all Events For as I observed before it is not sufficient proof that these Judgments are not ordered by God that we can find some immediate Causes for them that some of them are owing to Natural Causes others to Men others to some surprizing and unusual or it may be usual Accidents for whoever believes a Divine Providence does not therefore believe that God does every thing immediately by his own Power without the Ministry of any Second Causes either Natural or Free Agents or what we call Accidents but he is only obliged to believe That God governs all Second Causes to produce such Effects as he sees fit That all Nature moves at God's Command That fire and hail snow and vapours wind and storm fulfil his word 148. Psal. 8. v. That both good and bad men are under his Government and the Ministers of his Providence and that what seems perfect Chance to us is directed by his Wisdom and Counsel and then whatever evils we suffer and whatever the immediate Causes of them be we must ascribe them all to God especially when the same kind of Judgments which had the same kind of immediate Causes are attributed to God in Scripture it is reason enough for us whenever such Judgments befal us to ascribe them to the Providence of God But I need not dispute here Whether all those Evils and Calamities which befal sinners are ordered and appointed by God for till they can prove à priori by direct and positive Arguments That there is no God nor a Providence which none of our Modern Atheists pretend to do while they dispute only by way of Objection they must prove that things are not so ordered as they ought to have been ordered did God govern the world and if we can prove that they are their Objection is answered Now with respect to my present Argument to vindicate the Holiness of Providence it is plain beyond all contradiction that things are so ordered for the discouragement of Wickedness and the encouragement of Vertue as if they had been so ordered on purpose by the greatest Wisdom and the most perfect Holiness and therefore we have reason to believe that they were so ordered by a Wise and a Holy Providence As far then as to command and encourage all Holiness and Vertue and to forbid and discourage all Wickedness and Vice is a Proof of the Holiness of Providence I hope I have sufficiently cleared this Point and I must desire you to observe That these are direct and positive Proofs such as every man may understand and cannot avoid the evidence of and therefore are not to be shaken by every Difficulty objected against them For our knowledg is so imperfect that there is nothing almost which we so certainly know but is liable to such Objections as we cannot easily and satisfactorily answer but one plain positive Proof is a better Reason to believe any thing than a hundred Objections against it are not to believe it because since it is confessed on all hands that our knowledg is very imperfect it is no reason to disbelieve what we do know and what we are as certain of as we can be of any thing because there are some things relating to the same subject which we do not know and therefore unless the Objection be as positive and evident as the proof is and I am sure there are no such Objections against the Holiness of Providence we may very reasonably acknowledge that there are some difficulties which we do not understand and yet may very reasonably believe on as we did 2dly Let us now consider What the Holiness of God's Providence and Government does not require of him And I shall name but one thing which some men make a great Objection against Providence viz. That there is so much Sin and Wickedness daily committed in the World Now if the being of Sin in the World or if the Wickedness of men were irreconcilable with the Holiness of Providence this were an unanswerable Objection against it for it cannot be denied but that Mankind are very wicked But what consequence is there in this that God can't be Holy nor his Providence Holy because Men are wicked We may as well prove that there is no God because there is a Devil Such conceits as these tempted some ancient Hereticks to assert Two Principles a Good and a Bad God because they thought that if there were but one God and he very good there could be no such thing as evil in the World But would any man think this a good Argument against the Holiness of a Prince and his Government that he has many Wicked Subjects and how then do the Sins of men come to be an Argument against the Holiness of Providence To state this in a few words When we speak of God's permitting Sin we either mean the internal or the external Acts of Sin 1. The internal Act of sin which is nothing else but the choice of the Will When men chuse that which is wicked and fully resolve and purpose as they have opportunity to do it This is the sin this makes us guilty before God who knows our hearts though Human Laws can take no cognizance of it as our Saviour tells us He that looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his
exalted with the King's Favour and that Queen Esther had admitted none to the Banquet with the King but himself but still Mordecai who refused to bow before him was a great Grievance and by the advice of his Friends he built a Gallows Fifty Cubits high and resolved that night to beg of the King That Mordecai might be hanged on it and had he come in time his Petition had been certainly granted but it so happened that that very night the King could not sleep and he called for the Book of the Records of the Chronicles and there they found written That Mordecai had discovered the Treason of two of the King's Chamberlains against him and finding upon enquiry that he had never been rewarded for it he resolved to do him Honour and made Haman who was at the door to beg that Mordecai might be hanged his Minister in doing him Honour This prepared the King to grant Queen Esther's Request and hanged Haman upon the Gallows he had built for Mordecai and preserved the Iews from that Destruction he had designed against them And thus it is almost in all the Remarkable Passages of Providence there is so much appearance of Chance and Accident which has the greatest stroke in some wonderful Events as may satisfie considering men That the world is governed by a Divine Wisdom and Counsel and an Invisible Power and that the immediate and visible Causes have always the least hand in it For can we think otherwise when we see as many visible marks of Wisdom and Goodness and Justice in what we call Chance as in any other acts of Providence Nay when the Wisdom of Providence is principally seen in the government of Fortuitous Events When we see a World wisely made tho we did not see it made yet we conclude That it was not made by Chance but by a Wise Being and by the same reason when we see Accidental Events nay a long incoherent Series of Accidents concur to the producing the most admirable effects we ought to conclude That there is a Wise Invisible Hand which governs Chance which of it self can do nothing wisely When the Lives and Fortunes of Men the Fate of Kingdoms and Empires the Successes of War the Changes of Government are so often determined and brought about by the most visible Accidents when Chance defeats the Wisest Counsels and the Greatest Power when Good men are rewarded and the Church of God preserved by appearing Chances when Bad men are punished by Chance and the very Chance whereby they are punished carries the marks of their sins upon it for which they are punished I say can any man in such cases think that all this is mere Chance when how accidental soever the Means are or appear to be whereby such things are done there is no appearance at all of Chance in the Event but the Changes and Revolutions the Rewards and Punishments of Chance are all as wisely done as if there had been nothing of Chance and Accident in it This is the great security of our lives amidst all the uncertainties of Fortune That Chance it self can't hurt us without a Divine Commission This is a sure foundation of Faith and Hope and Trust in God how calamitous and desperate soever our external condition seems to be that God never wants means to help that he has a thousand unseen ways a whole Army of Accidents and unexpected Events at command to disappoint such designs which no visible Art or Power can disappoint and to save those whom no visible Power can save This is an undeniable Reason for a perpetual Awe and Reverence of God and an entire submission to him and a devout acknowledgment of him in all our ways That we have no Security but in his Providence and Protection for whatever provision we can make against foreseen and foreknown evils we can never provide against Chance that is wholly in God's hands and no human Wit or Strength can withstand it which may abate the Pride and self-confidence of men and teach the Rich and Great and Mighty a Religious Veneration of God who can with so much ease pull down the mighty from their seat and advance those of low degree 3dly The next thing to be explained is God's government of Moral Causes or Free Agents that is the government of men considered as the Instruments of Providence which God makes use of for the accomplishment of his own Wise Counsels Most of the good or evil which happens to us in this world is done by Men if God rewards or if he punishes us usually Men are his Ministers in both to execute his Vengeance or to dispence his Blessings and therefore God must have as Absolute a Government over Mankind of all their Thoughts and Passions and Counsels and Actions as he has of the Powers and Influences of Natural Causes or else he cannot reward and punish when and as he pleases If men could hurt those whom God would bless and reward or could do good to those whom God would punish both good and bad men might be happy or miserable in this world whether God would or not our Fortunes would depend upon the Numbers and Power of our Friends or Enemies upon the good or bad humours and inclinations of those among whom we live and Providence could not help us Now this is the great Difficulty How God can exercise such an Absolute Government over Mankind who are Free Agents without destroying the Liberty and Freedom of their Choice which would destroy the nature of Vertue and Vice of Rewards and Punishments The necessity of allowing this if we will acknowledge a Providence and the plain Testimonies and Examples of this Absolute and Uncontroulable Government which we find in Scripture have made some men deny the Liberty of Human Actions and represent Mankind to be as mere Machines as a Watch or Clock which move as they are moved And then they know not how to bring Religion and the Moral Differences of Good and Evil and the Natural Justice of Rewards and Punishments into their Scheme for nothing of all this can be reconciled with Absolute Necessity and Fate Others to avoid these Difficulties are afraid of attributing too much to Providence or have such confused and perplex'd Notions about it that there are few cases wherein they can securely depend on God But I think this Difficulty will be easily removed if we distinguish between God's government of Men as Reasonable Creatures and Free Agents and his government of them as the Instruments of Providence the first considers them in their own private and natural Capacity the second in relation to the rest of Mankind which makes a great difference in the Reason and in the Acts of Government Man considered in his own nature is a reasonable Creature and free Agent and therefore the proper government of Man consists in giving him Laws that he may know the difference between good and evil what he ought to chuse and what to refuse
and in annexing such rewards and punishments to the observation or to the breach of these Laws as may reasonably invite him to obedience and deter him from sin and as this degenerate state requires in laying such external restraints on him and affording him such internal assistances of Grace as the Divine Wisdom sees proportioned to the weakness and corruption of Human Nature and when this is done it becomes God to leave him to his own choice and to reward or punish him as he deserves for a forced Vertue deserves no Reward and a necessity of sinning will reasonably excuse from Punishment The nature of a reasonable Creature of Vertue and Vice of Rewards and Punishments represent it as very becoming the Wisdom and Justice of God to leave every man to the freedom of his own choice to do good or evil to deserve Rewards or Punishments as far as he himself is only concerned in it But when we consider man in Society the case is altered for when the good or evil of their actions extend beyond themselves to do good or hurt to other men the Providence of God becomes concerned either to hinder or to permit and order it as may best serve the Wise Ends of Government as those other men who are like to be the better or the worse for it have deserved well or ill of God Tho God has made man a free Agent yet we must not think that he has made such a Creature as he himself can't govern No man doubts but that God can when he pleases by an Irresistible Power turn mens hearts and chain up their Passions and alter their Counsels the only Question is When it is fit for God to do this And no man can question the fitness of it when the good Government of the world requires it God makes no man good or bad vertuous or vicious by a perpetual and irresistible force for this contradicts the nature of Vertue and Vice which requires a Freedom and Liberty of Choice but God may by a secret and irresistible influence upon mens minds even force them to do that good which they have no inclination to do and restrain them from doing that evil which otherwise they would have done which does not make them Good men but makes them the Instruments of Providence in doing good to men and God who is the Soveraign Lord of all Creatures may when he sees fit press those men if I may so speak to his Service who would not do good upon choice This shows the difference between the Government of Grace and Providence the first has relation to Vertue and Vice to make men good to change their Natures and sinful Inclinations into habits of Vertue and therefore admits of no greater force than what is consistent with the freedom of Choice and the nature of Virtue and Vice but the Government of Providence respects the external Happiness or Misery Rewards or Punishments of Men or Nations and to this purpose God may use what Instruments he pleases and exercise such Authority over Nature or Men as is necessary to accomplish his own Wise Counsels of Mercy or Judgment And it was necessary to premise this distinction because the confounding these two has occasioned great difficulties and mistakes both in the Doctrine of Grace and Providence Let us then now more particularly consider How God governs Mankind so as to make them the Instruments and Ministers of his Providence in the world The Methods of the Divine Wisdom are Infinite and Unsearchable and we must not expectfully to comprehend all the Secrets and Mysteries of God's Government but something we may know of this enough to teach us to reverence God and to trust in him and to vindicate his Providence from the Cavils of Ignorance and Infidelity which is as much as is useful for us to know And I shall reduce what I have to say to Two General Heads 1. The Government of mens Minds of their Wills their Passions and Counsels 2. The Government of their Actions 1. God's Government of the Minds of Men their Wills and Passions and Counsels for these are the great Springs of Action and as free a Principle as the Mind of man is it is not ungovernable it may be governed and that without an Omnipotent Power against its own Byas and without changing its inclinations and what may be done certainly God can do and when it is necessary to the Ends of Providence we may conclude he will do it Let a man be never so much bent upon any Project yet hope or fear some present great advantage or great inconvenience the powerful intercession of Friends a sudden change of circumstances the improbability of success the irreparable mischief of a defeat and a thousand other considerations will divert him from it and how easie is it for God to imprint such thoughts upon mens minds with an irresistible Vigor and Brightness that it shall be no more in their power to do what they had a mind to than to resist all the Charms of Riches and Honours than to leap into the Fire and to chuse Misery and Ruin That thus it is the Scripture assures us 21. Prov. 1. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of waters he turneth it whither soever he will And if the King's heart be in the hand of the Lord we cannot doubt but he hath all other mens hearts in his hand also and can turn and change them as he pleases Thus the Wise man tells us A man's heart deviseth his ways but the Lord directeth his steps 16. Prov. 9. Men consult and advise what to do but after all God steers and directs them which way he pleases for tho there are many devices in a man's heart nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand 19. Prov. 21. Which made the Wise man conclude Mans goings are of the Lord how then shall a man understand his own ways 20. Prov. 24. That is God has such an Absolute Government of the hearts and actions of men when his Providence is concerned in the Event that no man can certainly know what he himself shall chuse and do for God can in an instant alter his mind and make him steer a very different course from what he intended as the Prophet Ieremiah assures us I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps 10. Jer 23. And Solomon tells us something more strange than this The preparation of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. 16. Prov. 1. or as the Hebrew seems to signifie the preparation of the heart is from man a man premeditates and resolves what he will say but notwithstanding that the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. When he comes to speak he shall say nothing but what God pleases Which sayings must not be expounded to an universal sense that it is always thus but that
kind of Wickedness is called Folly and Sinners Fools and to learn Wisdom is prescribed as the only remedy against Vice The fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding And the reason and nature of things proves it must be so for all men who do wickedly must either mistake their Rule or mistake their Interest must either call Vice Vertue and Vertue Vice or think to make themselves happy by being wicked which is a stupid ignorance of the nature and the natural effects and consequences of things Now if all Wickedness be Ignorance and Folly Infinite and Perfect Wisdom must be perfect Rectitude Justice and Goodness it can never do any wrong because it can never be ignorant of what is right And what greater security can creatures possibly have That in the last issue of things they shall suffer no wrong than to know that they are under the Care and Government of Infinite Wisdom that can do no wrong Infinite Wisdom indeed is incomprehensible to a finite mind the methods of it may seem intricate and perplext to us full of Mystery and surprizing Events and thus it must be while Infinite Wisdom governs the world which is so much above the reach of our most improved and elevated thoughts But would not any wise man rather chuse to be governed by such a perfect and excellent Wisdom as can never mistake tho it vastly exceeds his understanding than to be governed by a Being no wiser or not much wiser than himself all whose Counsels he can fathom and see to the end of The more perfect and excellent the Wisdom is the less we can understand it but the more safe we are under its conduct So absurd is it to complain that we cannot understand all the depths and secrets of Providence that we may as reasonably complain That an Excellent and Incomprehensible Wisdom takes care of the world and of all the creatures that are in it While we know our selves safe in the hands of Infinite Wisdom let us be contented that God should do such things as we cannot understand the reasons of Are we ever the less perfect and happy creatures because we know not how God made us how he formed and fashioned us in the womb and breathed into us the breath of life And what hurt is it to us if God preserve and govern the world and take care of all the creatures in it by as unknown and incomprehensible a Wisdom as that which at first gave being to us We find our selves wisely made tho we know not how God made us and in the conclusion of all we shall find and feel our selves very happy if we follow God and adhere to him tho we may not understand the reasons of all intermediate Events nor the several steps and advances of Providence to make us happy It is great Pride and as contemptible Folly to think that if there be a God who is infinitely wise he should not be able to do things above our understanding and to do them very wisely too tho we do not understand them Let men value their understandings never so highly and think scorn that any thing should be above their knowledg yet it is certain that there are Ten thousand things both in the Works of Nature and Providence which no man fully understands and yet which bear the marks and signatures of a most Divine and Admirable Art and Wisdom and since whether we will or no we must confess our own ignorance why should we not be as well contented to allow that God can do such things as are above our understanding as that there should be such things done we know not how nor by whom Is it not a greater Reproach to our understandings that blind Chance should do such things as all our Wit and Philosophy cannot comprehend than to attribute such Events to the Art and Government of Infinite Wisdom Which is most reasonable to attribute such works as are above our understandings to the Infinite Wisdom of God or to deny that they had any wise Cause because we cannot find out the Causes of them tho we can discern such Wisdom in them as no Human Art or Wisdom can imitate Indeed the Passion of Admiration which is implanted in all men if it be not utterly vain is a plain natural indication that there is something above our natural understandings which we must admire but cannot comprehend for the proper object of Admiration is Art and Wisdom a Wisdom vastly greater than our own and therefore if this natural passion have a natural object it is certain there is a Wisdom greater than our own which no human understanding can comprehend such a Wisdom as doth great and wondrous things and things past finding out The Sum is this Infinite Wisdom is and must be unacconntable her ways are unsearchable and past finding out and therefore we must be contented in many cases to be ignorant of the Reasons of Providence and we have great reason to be so since we are so secure that Infinite Wisdom will always act wisely and consult the general good of the world and the happiness of particular creatures tho by methods secret and incomprehensible to us which teaches us not to deny or censure Providence when we do not understand the Reasons of it but in an entire belief of the Wisdom of God quietly to submit to all Events and to adore and reverence his Judgments with an implicite Faith 2. The better to satisfy us in a profound Veneration of the Wisdom of Providence even with respect to the most unaccountable Passages of it we must consider That it is impossible we should be able to comprehend it That we cannot know more of God's Governing the World than we do of his Making it That the unsearchable Wisdom of God's Works makes the Wisdom of Providence unsearchable also This is supposed in God's Answer to Iob when to make him sensible how little he understood of the Wise Ends and Designs of Providence he convinced him how ignorant he was of the Works of Nature 38 39 40 41. Chapters Who is this that darkneth counsel by words without knowledge Gird up now thy loins like a man for I will demand of thee and answer thou me Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth declare if thou hast understanding who hath laid the measure thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who hath laid the corner stone thereof who shut up the sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days and caused the day-spring to know his place Where is the way where light dwelleth and as for darkness where is the plaee thereof Hast thou entred into the treasures of the snow or hast thou known the treasures of the hail hath the rain a father and who hath
begotten the drops of the dew out of whose womb came the ice and the hoary frost of heaven who hath gendred it By these and such like Questions expressed in unimitable words God convinces Iob how ignorant he was of the most common and familiar Works of Nature which made it great Presumption in so ignorant a Creature to censure the Wisdom of Providence And the Force of the Argument does not only consist in this That the very Works of Nature convince us that God is infinitely wiser than we are and can do great and excellent things which are above our understanding and therefore that we never ought to censure any thing that God does because he is so much wiser than we are that we are not competent Judges of what he does which is an unanswerable Argument to teach us the most profound Reverence and the most absolute Resignation of our selves to God But the Force of this Argument reaches farther That our ignorance of the Works of Nature is both the Cause and the Proof of our great Ignorance of the Works of Providence For no Being can know how to govern a world who does not know how to make it and he who does not know how to govern the world himself is a very unfit Judge of the Wisdom of Providence for he can never know when the world is well and wisely governed because he does not know what belongs to the government of the world The wise government of all creatures must be proportioned to their natures and therefore without understanding the Philosophy of Nature the Springs of Motion the mutual dependance of Causes and Effects what end things are made for and what uses they serve we can never know what is fit to be done nor what can be done or by what means it is to be done and then can never tell when any thing is done as it should be We know not what the Rules nor what the Ends of God's Government are which makes it impossible to judge of the Wisdom of Government Without understanding the Natures of things we must of necessity make as wild Conjectures about Providence as a blind man does of Light and Colours As for instance how is it possible to talk a wise word about God's Government of Mankind in what manner and by what means he turns their hearts directs and influences their counsels suggests thoughts to them and foresees their thoughts and how they will determine themselves when we know so little of the Make and Frame of our own minds where the spring of thoughts is and how we connect Propositions and draw consequences what the power of the Will is how we determine our selves in indifferent matters where the balance is equal for tho we feel all these Powers in our selves yet we know not whence they are nor how they act And yet how many intricate questions are there relating to the Disputes of Providence which are wholly owing to such Nice Philosophical Speculations which we know nothing of and yet which some men perplex themselves with and undertake very gravely to determine Such are the Disputes about Necessity and Fate Prescience and Predetermination and the liberty of Human Actions which as they are differently determined make very different and contrary Hypotheses of Providence and either charge God with the Sins of men or acquit him from any Partnership in Wickedness For all these questions at last resolve themselves into this How the Mind of man acts and determines it self Whether it be determined from abroad from a necessary Train and Series of Fatal Events or from the Decrees and Predetermination or Foreknowledg of God Or whether it be a self-moving Being and determines it self from the Principles of its own Nature and its own free Choice Now unless we understood the Philosophy or the Natural Frame and Composition of our own Minds it is impossible to say any thing to the purpose in this cause any farther than our own sense and feeling goes and that is on the side of liberty for unless we are strangely imposed on we feel our selves free But this may satisfy us that as to all the Difficulties of Providence which can be no other way resolved but by a knowledge of Nature we must of necessity be as ignorant of them as we are of the nature of things and therefore our confessed ignorance of Nature is a good Argument in all such cases to make us very modest in Censuring Providence We know enough both of the works of Nature and of the works of Providence to serve all the wise ends and purposes of living which is all that is useful for us to know and all that God intended we should know but the Reasons and Causes of things belong only to that Wisdom which can make and govern a world We know as much of Providence as we do of Nature and would men set bounds to their Enquiries here which is as far as Human Understandings can reach we should hear very few Objections against Providence Our ignorance of Nature and Natural Causes and the Natural Springs of Motion how things were made and how they act and for what ends they were made which in many cases we do but very imperfectly guess at is a plain demonstration That we never ought to admit any Difficulties in Nature as a sufficient Objection against the Being or the Providence of God in bar to all the Moral Evidence and Assurance we have of both We have all the Moral Evidence we can have for any thing That God governs the world by a Wise and Holy and Free Providence That he is not the Author of Sin That our Wills at least as far as Vertue and Vice is concerned are under no Foreign Force and Constraint but chuse and refuse and determine themselves with a Natural Liberty I say we have undeniable evidence of this from the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of the Divine Nature from the difference between Vertue and Vice and the nature of Rewards and Punishments these things are plain and such as we can understand and such as we cannot deny with any fair appearance of Reason but now all the Arguments against Providence and for Necessity and Fate are mere Philosophical Speculations which men vainly pretend to when it is demonstrable they can know nothing of them As for instance Some tell us That it is not a Wise and Free Providence that governs the world but that all things come to pass by a Necessary Chain of Causes which fatally determine the Will to Chuse and Act as these Causes move it Now whether there be such a necessary Chain of Causes or not it is certain no man can know it who does not as perfectly understand this great Machine of the World and all its Motions as an Artist does all the Wheels in a Watch or Clock nor can any man know how such a Chain of Causes should move and determine the Mind of Man without understanding the Philosophy of Human Souls how
mankind now is would destroy the good Government of the world and most of the Pleasures and Conveniences of Life and yet without this the Providence of God is not so uniform towards men as it is towards beasts and those who fare worse than others of the same nature with them will still complain If then Providence must not deal alike by all men do they mean by the Uniformity and Stability of Providence That mens Fortunes whatever they are shall always be the same That the Rich and Prosperous shall always be Rich and Prosperous and the Poor always Poor and Beggars and Slaves Unless these Objectors be all Rich and Happy I doubt they will never agree to this for the Poor and Miserable must needs think it hard usage to be always poor without room for better hopes But such a Stability of Providence as this would destroy the Wise and Just Government of the World for how should God restrain and punish Wickedness and reward and encourage Vertue if the Rich must always be Rich and the Poor always Poor Nay how can the Providence of God do this without making men Vertuous and Vicious too by Necessity and Fate When Wantonness and Prodigality Idleness and Folly will spend or lose an Estate and Frugality Prudence and Diligence will get one And when all men in this world must not be equal does it not more become the Wisdom and Justice of Providence that mens own Vertues and Vices shall in a great measure make the distinction and carve out their own Fortunes for them So that when men complain of the Uncertainty and Instability of Fortune as they call it they complain of they know not what and were it put to their own choice what to have in the room of it they would not know how to mend the matter The wise government of free Agents who so often change themselves requires very frequent sudden surprizing Turns of Providence the reasons of which must of necessity be as invisible to us as the thoughts of mens hearts and their most secret intrigues and counsels till we can make men all move alike as regularly and uniformly as the Heavenly Bodies do it is an absurd and unreasonable complaint That Providence does not act regularly and that the Events of Providence are not always the same Another great Complaint against Providence is That good men are not always rewarded nor bad men punished according to their deserts That many bad men are prosperous in this world and some good men great sufferers That all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath 9. Eccl. 2. This makes the Events of Providence very sudden mysterious and unaccountable that no man knows what course to take to make his life easy and prosperous for whether he be good or wicked he may be happy or miserable as it happens As for the Objection it self I shall consider it more hereafter but at present I will only ask these Objectors Whether to remove these Difficulties and Uncertainties of Providence and that they may the better understand the Reasons of all Events they do in good earnest desire That God would reduce this matter to a Certainty by punishing all bad men and rewarding all good men in this world according to their deserts If they do I must tell them as Christ told the two Brethren who desired that they might sit one on his Right hand and the other on his Left in his Kingdom Ye ask ye know not what They ask the most dangerous thing that could possibly befal mankind and what they ask would be Ten thousand times a greater Objection against Providence than what they complain of Should every Sinner be punished in this world according to his deserts what man is there so just and innocent as to escape the Divine Vengeance If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand 130. Psal. 3. Were every Sinner punished as he deserves I doubt there would be no good man left to be rewarded for where is the man that doth good and sinneth not What room does this leave for Patience and Forbearance for the Repentance of Sinners for God's Pardoning-Grace and Mercy and what a Terrible Providence is this How contrary to all the Notions we have of God and his kind and gracious Government of his Creatures I grant God may exercise great Patience and Long-suffering towards sinners he may forgive the sins of true Penitents and yet punish sinners and reward good men even in this world these things are very reconcilable in God's Government of the world for thus he does govern the world but they are very irreconcilable with such a Providence and Government as these men desire which requires a present and visible Punishment of every sin as soon as committed and as present and visible a Reward of every good action for unless these Punishments and Rewards are present all the time they are delayed bad men may be prosperous and good men afflicted which is their very Objection against Providence which can never be removed but by speedy and visible Executions which leave no place for the Patience and Forgiveness of God or for the Repentance of Sinners And is it not much more desirable for ever to be ignorant of the Reasons of Providence than to have such Proofs and Demonstrations of Providence as this Let me desire these unthinking Cavillers at Providence to review their Objection over again and consider what is the meaning of every word in it and how upon second thoughts they like it themselves That they may have a plain and certain Reason of God's Judgments they desire that no man may suffer any external Calamity but only for sin and that every sinner may be punish'd in this world according to his deserts and then they will believe That there is a Providence that governs the world tho it is better for the world that they should continue Infidels than be thus convinced Well then who in the first place are these sinners whom they would have punished Do they mean every one who does a wicked action or every impenitent and incorrigible sinner If every one who at any time does any wicked action must be punished for it then it is plain that no man can escape then there is no place for Repentance or Forgiveness but a speedy Vengeance must pursue the sinner and God knows we are all sinners and must all be punished and if this removes one Objection against Providence I 'm sure it will very much encrease another from the many evils and miseries that are in the world which will be many more and much greater if every sin must receive its just punishment If they mean only That impenitent and incorrigible sinners
confess that they cannot tell by their own sense and feeling that they are thus moved and inclined by God but only charge their Sins on God to excuse themselves Every man feels what it is that tempts him his love of Riches of Pleasures or Honours and that the temptation and impulse is weaker or stronger in proportion to his fondness and passion for these tempting Objects but yet he feels himself at liberty to chuse and determine himself and finds a Principle within him which resists and opposes his compliance with the temptation as contrary to the Will and Law of God and the dictates of right Reason and that for which God will Punish him And is there any reason for men to charge their Sins upon God when the only thing that gives check to them and makes Sin uneasy is the conviction of their own Consciences that it is what God has forbid and what he will punish This I think is no evidence of God's tempting and inclining men to Sin that he has imprinted on our minds such a natural sense of his abhorrence of all Evil and such a natural awe and dread of his Justice that while we preserve this sense strong and vigorous no temptation can fasten on us If we appeal to Reason the Reason of all Mankind proves That God does not and cannot tempt incline and over-rule men to chuse or to act any Wickedness for this is a direct contradiction to the Holiness and Purity of his Nature and the Justice of his Providence All mankind believe God to be perfect Holiness which is essential to the very notion of a God and Reason tells us that such a Pure and Holy Being cannot be the Author of Sin nor were it possible to vindicate the Justice of Providence in the punishment of sin did men sin by Divine Impulses or by Necessity and Fate And the Scripture teaches this in express words Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man 1. James 13. And all the Laws and Promises and Threatnings Exhortations Reproofs and passionate Expostulations which we meet with in Scripture if they mean any thing sincere do necessarily suppose that men sin freely and that God is so far from inclining and tempting men to sin that he does all that becomes a Wise and Holy Being to restrain and deter them from it Now when we have such direct and positive Proofs that God is not and cannot be the Author of Sin it is certain that we can have no direct and positive Proof that he is nor is any such Proof pretended and then some remote and uncertain Consequences which are owing to our Ignorance or confused and imperfect notions of things or to some obscure Expressions of Scripture are not and ought not to be thought sufficient to disprove a direct and positive Evidence no more than the difficulties about the nature of motion are a just reason to deny that there is any motion when we daily see and feel our selves and the whole world move And yet such kind of Difficulties as these is all that is pretended to charge the Providence of God with the Sins of men the most material of which I intend at this time to examine 1. One and that the most plausible pretence to destroy the Liberty of Human Actions and to charge the Sins of men upon God is his Praescience and Foreknowledge of all Future Events That God does foreknow things to come is generally acknowledged by Heathens Jews and Christians and Prophesy is a plain demonstration of it for he that can foretell things to come must fore-know them Now from hence they thus argue What is certainly fore-known must certainly be and what is thus certain is necessary and therefore if all future Events are certain as being certainly foreknown then all things even all the Sins of men are owing to Necessity and Fate And then God who is the Author of this Necessity and Fate must be the Cause and Author of mens Sins too Now in answer to this I readily grant That nothing can be certainly fore-known but what will certainly be but then I deny that nothing will certainly be but what has a necessary Cause For we see ten thousand effects of free or contingent Causes which certainly are though they might never have been for whatever is certainly is and whatever certainly is now was certainly though not necessarily future a thousand years ago That man understands very little who knows not the difference between the necessity and the certainty of an Event No Event is necessary but that which has a necessary Cause as the rising and sitting of the Sun but every Event is certain which will certainly be though it be produced by a Cause which acts freely and might do otherwise if it pleased as all the free Actions of men are some of which though done with the greatest freedom may be as certain and as certainly known as the rising of the Sun Now if that which is done freely may be certain and that which is certain may be certainly known then the certainty of God's Fore-knowledge only proves the certainty but not the necessity of the Event And then God may fore-know all Events and yet lay no necessity on mankind to do any thing that is wicked In the nature of the thing fore-knowledge lays no greater necessity upon that which is fore-known than knowledge does upon that which is known for fore-knowledge is nothing but knowledge and knowledge is not the cause of the thing which is known much less the necessary cause of it We certainly know at what time the Sun will rise and sit every day in the year but our knowledge is not the cause of the Sun 's rising or sitting Nay in many cases in proportion to our knowledg of men we may with great certainty foretel what they will do and how they will behave themselves in such or such circumstances and did we perfectly know them we should rarely if ever mistake for though men act freely they do not act arbitrarily but there is always some byass upon their minds which inclines and draws them and the more confirmed habits men have of Vertue or Vice the more certainly and steadily they act and the more certainly we may know them without making them either vertuous or vicious Now could we certainly know what all men would do before they do it yet it is evident that this would neither make nor prove them to be necessary Agents And therefore though the perfection of the Divine Knowledge is such as to know our thoughts afar off before we think them yet this does not make us think such Thoughts nor do such Actions How God can foreknow things to come even such Events as depend upon the most free and contingent Causes we cannot tell but it is not incredible that Infinite Knowledge should do this when Wise men whose Knowledge is so very
will not see To deceive those with signs and lying wonders and all deceivableness of unrighteousness who do not love the trath but have pleasure in unrighteousness who endeavour to deceive themselves and desire to be deceived For this is all that is meant by sending them strong delusions to believe a lie that God suffers the Man of sin to erect his Kingdom after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders When men are in love with their Sins and therefore do not love the Truth because it discovers and reproves their Sins they are out of the protection of Gods Grace and are delivered up to the Cheats and Impostures of Crafty Men or of Wicked Spirits This is the rule and method of God's Grace he forces truth on no man but those who love the truth shall find it Those who cry after knowledge aud lift up their voice for understanding who seek her as silver and search for her as for hid treasures they shall understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God 2. Prov. 2 3 4 5. But if men wilfully shut their own eyes against the light God suffers the God of this world to blind them as St. Paul teaches 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. But if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which belive not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them Which should make us all afraid of prejudice and the love of this world which bar up the mind against truth and by degrees betray us to a judicial blindness There are some other Texts which do indeed attribute the supreme Disposal of all Human Actions to God but without charging his Providence with mens sins 16. Prov. 9. A mans heart deviseth his ways but the Lord directeth his steps 19. 21. There are many devices in a mans heart nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand 20. 24. Mans goings are of the Lord how then can a man understand his own ways The meaning of which is that men advise and deliberate and choose freely what they intend to do but when they come to action they can do nothing they can bring nothing to pass but what God will God can change their Counsels or can disappoint them when they are ripe for action or can make what they do serve quite another end than what they intended Now this only proves what I have already observed That the Issues and Events of all things are in God's hands as they must be if he governs the World Men may choose what they please but they shall do only what God sees fit and what he orders for wise ends God does not act immediately but makes use of Natural causes or of the Ministries of men both good and bad men Men choose and act freely and pursue their own Designs and Imaginations and therefore the moral Good or Evil of the action is their own and God does as freely with unsearchable Wisdom over-rule all Events which are therefore God's doing as well as mens being directed by him to serve the wise ends of Providence in rewarding or punishing Men or Nations as they deserve Thus I have as briefly as I could examined most of those Texts which have been thought to attribute to God some kind of Causality and Efficiency in the Sins of Men and I hope have made it appear that there is no such thing intended in them And for the conclusion of this Argument concerning the Holiness of Providence I shall only add some few Practical Inferences by way of Application 1. Not to attribute our own or other Mens sins to God Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed 1. James 13 14. This is absolutely necessary to be observed for without it there is an end of all Religion If God can influence mens Minds to wicked Purposes and Counsels it is impossible he should hate Wickedness or be so Holy as many Holy men are who would no more incline or tempt other men to sin than they would sin themselves And who will hate sin or think that God will love him ever the less for being a Sinner who believes this If God want the Sins of Men to accomplish his own Counsels they must either be very unholy Counsels which cannot be accomplished without the Sins of Men or he must be a weak or unskilful Being which is down-right Blasphemy for a wise and powerful Being can do whatever is Wise and Holy without the Sins of Men. It is excellent Wisdom indeed when men do and will Sin for God to accomplish his own wise and gracious Counsels by their Sins but to incline or tempt or over-rule or determine men to sin on purpose to serve himself by their Sins this would be a just Impeachment both of his Holiness his Wisdom and his Power and a God who is neither Holy Wise nor Powerful would be no very fit Object of Religious worship To say that God decrees the Sins of men for his own Glory to magnifie his Mercy and Justice in saving some few and in condemning the greatest part of Mankind to eternal Miseries is so sensless a Representation both of the Glory of the Mercy and of the Justice of God as destroys the very Notion of all For if Man be a meer Machine who moves as he is moved how can he deserve either Well or Ill Necessity destroys the very Notion of Vertue or Vice both which suppose a free Choise and Election and if ther be no Vertue nor Vice there can be no Rewards nor Punishments and then there is no place neither for Justice nor Mercy and then God can neither glorify his Mercy nor his Justice in forgiving Sins or in punishing the Sinner How can any man who believes that he is over-ruled by God to do all the Evil he does ever be a true Penitent or heartily beg God's Pardon or reverence his Judgments or endeavour to do better All Religion is founded in this Persuasion That God hates every thing that is wicked for if there be no Essential difference between Good and Evil there is no pretence for Religion and if God makes none there is none and if he can be the Author of what is Evil as well as of what is Good he makes no difference between them 2dly The Holiness of Providence teacheth us never to do any Evil to serve Providence under pretext of doing some great Good by it which we think may be acceptable to God God never needs the Sins of men and can never approve them whatever good ends they are intended to serve God indeed does many times bring Good out of Evil but he allows no Man to do evil that
reform Sinners by the various methods of Grace and Providence and this changes both the very Notion and Exercise of God's Goodness and Justice in this world for we must expect no more of either than what a state of Trial and Discipline will allow The not considering this distinction between Absolute Goodness and Justice and the goodness and justice of Discipline has been the occasion of all those Objections which have been made both against the Goodness and Justice of Providence We must confess that the World is not so happy as Perfect and Absolute and Unconfined Goodness could make it nor are all Sinners so miserable as Strict and Absolute Justice could make them but this signifies no more than that Heaven and Hell are not in this world as no man ever pretended they were and yet Strict and Rigorous Justice and Perfect and Absolute Goodness where-ever they are exercised must make Hell and Heaven But this Life is a Middle-state between both and as men behave themselves here so they shall have their Portions either in Heaven or Hell and therefore the Goodness and Justice of God in this world is of a different nature from that Goodness or Justice which is exercised in Heaven or Hell proportioned to the state of Discipline and Trial in this Life Goodness indeed has the predominant government and Justice is only the Minister of Goodness in this World as it must be in a state of Discipline when Corrections as well as Favours are intended for good To put Man into a state of Probation and Trial to recover that Immortality he had lost was an Act of great Goodness and whatever severe Methods are used to reform Sinners is as great an expression of Goodness as it is to force and to compel them to be happy as it is to cut off a Hand or a Leg to preserve Life And if we will but allow this World to be a state of Trial and Discipline for another World and wisely consider not what pure simple and absolute Goodness but what the goodness of Discipline requires it will give us an easy answer to all the Objections against the Goodness of Providence 1. As first The Goodness of God in a state of Discipline will not admit of a compleat and perfect Happiness in this World for that is no state of Discipline Good men themselves were they as happy in this World as they could wish would not be very fond of another World nor learn those mortifying and self-denying Vertues which are necessary to prepare them for a Spiritual Life And Bad men would grow more in love with this World and sin on without check and controul The Miseries and Afflictions of this Life wean Good men from this World and lay great restraints upon Bad men which justifies both the Wisdom and Goodness of God in those many Miseries which Mankind suffer 2. But yet the goodness of God in a state of Discipline requires That this World should be so tolerable a place as to make Life desirable his own glory is concerned in this for no man would believe that the World was made or is governed by a good God were there no visible and sensible Testimonies of a kind and good Providence But though God cursed the Earth for the Sin of man yet he has not defaced the Characters of his own Wisdom and Goodness but still 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 Godhead 1. Rom. 20. and in the most Degenerate state of Mankind God left not himself without a witness giving them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness What dreadful Apprehensions would this give Mankind of God were this World nothing else but a Scene of Trouble and Misery What encouragement would this be to Sinners to repent and reform What hopes could they reasonably conceive of Pardon and Forgiveness had they no experience of God's goodness and patience towards Sinners What place would there be for the exercise of Moral or Christian Vertues of Faith and Hope and Trust in God of Self-denial and a Contempt of this World were not this World a very tolerably happy place though a changeable Scene A state of Discipline must neither be a state of perfect Happiness nor Misery but an interchangeable Scene of very agreeable Pleasures and tolerable Evils sufficient to exercise the Vertues and to correct the Vices of Mankind And this I take the State of this Life to be so happy that few men are so miserable as to be weary of it and yet so intermixt with Troubles as to exercise the Vertues of Good men and to correct the wicked And this is what becomes the Goodness of God to do for us in a state of Discipline 3. The Goodness of God seems to require That in such a mixt and changeable Scene there should be some remarkable difference made between the Good and the Bad for the design of Providence in a state of trial is to encourage Vertue and to deter men from Sin and therefore there ought to be such a visible difference made as may be sufficient if men will wisely consider things to encourage good men and to restrain the wicked I do not mean that all Good men should be Happy and Prosperous and all Bad men Miserable as to their external Fortune for a state of Discipline will not allow this All good men cannot bear a prosperous Fortune and some bad men may grow better by it or may be fit instruments of Providence and such a visible distinction between all good and bad men belongs to the Day of Judgment not to a state of trial and therefore we see this is not done and bad men who have the least reason to complain of it make it an objection against Providence But though Providence many times seems to make little difference between good and bad men as to external Events yet God very often takes care to expound his Providences which makes a very visible difference between them Natural Conscience is one of God's Interpreters of Providence which terrifies bad men with a sense of Guilt when they suffer and threatens them with a more terrible Vengeance but supports good men under their Sufferings with better hopes that bad men suffer like Malefactors with Rage and Fear and Despair good men with Patience and Submission and joyful Expectations of a reward All the promises of Scripture are made to Good men and all the threatnings of it denounced against Bad men and this expounds Providence for this assures good men that all the good they receive is the Effect of God's care and goodness to them and that the Evils they suffer are either his fatherly Correction or the trial and exercise of their Vertues but that the Prosperity of Bad men is only the effect of God's Patience or to make them Instruments of his Providence and that
this World that they never care to think of another and that Afflictions and Adversity has many times a quite contrary effect to make men serious and considerate to possess them with an awe and reverence of God to correct and reform Bad men and to exercise the Graces and Vertues of the Good both the Reason of things and the Experience of Mankind may satisfy us That this is what God designs in those Afflictions and Sufferings he brings on Mankind the Scripture every where assures us and the natural conclusion from hence is That Afflictions are not evil nor any Objection against the Goodness of Providence If they prove evil to us it is our own fault for God designs them for good As the Apostle expresly tells us That all things work together for good to them that love God And whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth if ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not but if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons 21. Hebr. 6 7 8. This then must be our great care to rectify our Notions of Good and Evil to withdraw our minds from Sense and not to call every thing good that is pleasant nor every thing evil that is afflicting this distinction the Heathen Poet long since observed and gives it as a Reason and a very wise and good Reason it is why we should entirely give up our selves to God and leave him to chuse our Condition for us Nam pro jucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt Dii That though God will not always give us those things which are most pleasant he will give us what is most profitable for us And if we judge of Good and Evil not by Sense nor by external Appearances but by that spiritual good they do or are intended to do us in making us Good men here and happy hereafter men may if they so please as reasonably quarrel with the great Ease and Prosperity which so many enjoy as with the Afflictions which others suffer for Prosperity does oftner corrupt mens Manners and betray them to Sin and Folly than Afflictions do Good men themselves can hardly bear a prosperous State nor resist the Temptations and Flatteries of Ease and Pleasure whereas Afflictions many times reform Bad men and make Good men better as the Psalmist himself owns It is good for me that I have been afflicted for before I was afflicted I went astray but since I have learned to keep thy laws And if both Prosperity and Adversity may be either for our good or hurt and when they are so we cannot always tell we must leave this to God and commit our selves to his Care and Discipline who knows us better than we know our selves and knows what is best for us But this may seem to start a new and more difficult Objection That if we must not judge of Good and Evil by external and sensible Events we can have no sensible Proofs of the Goodness or Justice of Providence As we cannot object the external Evils and Calamities that are in the World against the Goodness of Providence so neither can we prove the Goodness of Providence from those external and sensible Blessings which God bestows upon Mankind So that Religion gains nothing by this it silences indeed the Objections against Providence but it also destroys the Proofs of a Good and Just Providence The Answer to this Objection will give us a truer notion and understanding of the Goodness of Providence For though we cannot know love or hatred merely by external Events yet this does not destroy the natural good or evil of things nor the Justice or Goodness of Providence in doing good or in sending his Plagues and Judgments on the World Natural Good and Evil are the Instruments and Methods of Discipline Good men are encouraged and rewarded in this World by some external and natural Blessings and Bad men are restrained and governed by some natural Evils and the Goodness and Justice of God in doing good and in punishing make these external Blessings and Punishments the Methods of Discipline which could have no efficacy in them either to encourage Good men or to reform the Wicked but as they are the visible significations of God's Favour or displeasure and therefore such external Blessings and Punishments are evident Proofs of the Goodness and Justice of Providence or else they could not be the Methods of Discipline nor have any moral efficacy upon Mankind But yet when these Acts of Goodness or Justice are made the Methods of Discipline and not intended as the proper Rewards or Punishments of Vertue or Vice they are not always confined to Good or Bad men and therefore are not certain and visible Marks of God's Love or Hatred It is an Act of Goodness in God to do good to the Evil and to the Good To the Good it is a mark of his Favour and an incitement to a more perfect Vertue to the Evil an expression of his Patience and an invitation to Repentance but when he is good both to the Evil and to the Good the mere external Event can make no difference The external Good may be the same and God is good to both and intends good to both but yet has not equal favour to both It is an Act of Justice in God to punish and to correct Sin and both Good and Bad men many times feel the same Severities to correct and chastise the Follies and to quicken and inflame the Devotions of Good men and to over-awe and terrify Bad men with the sense of God's Anger and the fears of Vengeance This is to be just and to be good to both as great Goodness and Justice as it is to reform Bad men and to make Good men better tho the external Events of Providence in such Cases make little distinction between them We see in all these Instances manifest Proofs both of the Justice and Goodness of God though Prosperity is not always a Blessing nor Afflictions always evil They are always indeed in themselves Natural Goods and Evils and therefore are the proper Exercise of a Natural Goodness and Justice but with respect to Moral Ends to that influence they have upon the direction and government of our Lives what is naturally good may prove a great evil to us and what is naturally evil may do us the greatest good and then we must confess That the Goodness of Providence must not be measured merely by the natural good or evil of external Events but by such a mixture and temperament of good and evil as is best fitted to govern men in this World and to make them happy in the next 3dly There is another Mistake about the Nature of Government and what Goodness is required in the Government of the World Now the Universal Lord and Sovereign of the World must not only take care
Ham which would quickly have endangered as general a corruption of Mankind as there was before the Flood Let us then consider what Course God took to prevent this and the excellent wisdom of it which we have an account of 11. Genes 7 8. That God confounded their language so that they could not understand one another's speech and by this means scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city Now not to take notice that this was the most ready way to people the whole Earth even the remotest Corners of it which was for the great good of Mankind found them work to do forced them upon the invention of Ingenious Arts and by the benefit of Trade and Commerce made every Country which was not wanting to it self a little World and every part to enjoy all the pleasures and advantages of the whole I say besides this it was the most likely way that could be used at that time to prevent the Universal Corruption of Mankind For 1. This separated the Families of Sem and Iaphet from the Family of Ham where the Infection was already begun and would have spread apace by the advantage of Power and Empire When Cain had slain his Brother Abel God sent him away out of Adam's Family that his presence and Example might do no hurt and if by the daughters of men in 6. Genes we understand as some good Expositors do those who descended of Cain and by the sons of God the Posterity of Seth in whose Family the Worship of the True God was preserved we may observe that Moses dates the general Corruption of Mankind from the union of these two Families When the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and took them wives of all which they chose And had the Universal Empire been established in the Family of Ham and the Posterity of Sem and Iaphet been brought into subjection to them as they must in a short time have been what less could have been expected from such a Union and Government but another Antediluvian corruption of all Flesh This dispersion then was necessary to prevent a general Corruption but we see in the Example of Cain that a meer local separation is no security for they may come together again as the Sons of God and the Daughters of men in process of time did And therefore 2dly The most lasting dispersion and separation is by a confusion of Languages which hinders all intercourse and communication at least till there be a remedy found against it by learning each other's Language which was a work of time and was never likely to be so general as to be the means of a common intercourse This effectually divided them at first and would always keep Nations divided till Foreign Arms should give new Laws and a new Language to a Conquered People 3dly I observe farther That the more divisions of Languages were made and the greater the dispersion was the greater security was it against a general Corruption which is a reason not only for separating the Family of Ham from the Families of Sem and Iaphet but for separating them from each other and dividing them into smaller Bodies For the more Divisions there are whatever part were infected the less could the Corruption spread when there was no communication between them 4thly This also divided Mankind into several little Independent Monarchies under the government of the Heads of their several Families which kept all Mankind under a stricter government than if the whole world had been one great Empire which would have proved a Tyrannical Domination but could have taken little care of the Manners of Subjects especially if the Government it self was corrupt the whole world must be corrupt with it But when so many distinct Societies were formed this gave them distinct Interests and made their Laws and Customs the very humour and genius of the People so different from each other as would keep them distinct And this would necessarily occasion mutual Emulations and Jealousies to rival their Neighbours in Riches and Power and this cannot be done without wise Laws and a strict Discipline and the encouragement of Labour and Industry of liberal Arts and all social Vertues and the suppression of such Vices as weaken Government and emasculate mens Spirits This effect we know in a great measure it had as we learn from the most early Accounts of the Graecian Commonwealths where we meet with so many excellent Laws and such great Examples of Frugality Temperance Fortitude and a generous love of their Country which may in a great measure be attributed to their mutual Emulations which taught them prudence and justice at home and abroad and forced on them the exercise of many Civil and Military Vertues It had indeed been more for the peace and quiet of the world that all Mankind had been but one People and one Kingdom without divided Interests and Governments but such a profound state of ease is apt to loosen the Rains of Government and to corrupt mens minds with sloth and luxury and therefore is no more fit for a corrupt and degenerate State than it would have been that the Earth should have brought forth Fruit of it self without Humane Labour and Industry But Jealousies and Emulations the necessity of defending themselves against Potent Neighbours or the ambition to equal or to outdo them restrains publick Vices and is a spur to Verture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is true this is the occasion of many Miseries to Mankind of all the Calamities and Desolations of War and therefore we must consider 5thly That this is so far from being an Objection against Providence while God keeps the Sword in his own hand that it is an admirable Instrument of Government and a signal demonstration of the Divine Wisdom God had promised that he would not again any more smite every living thing as he had done 8. Genes 21. And yet Mankind could not be governed without some restraints and punishments and it did not become God to punish Men and Nations as often as they deserved it by an immediate hand and what then could be more wisely designed than so to order it that if Men and Nations were wicked they should scourge and punish one another By this means God can chastise two wicked Nations by each other's Swords without destroying either He can so lessen their Numbers and exhaust their Treasures and impoverish their Countries as to force them to peace and to reduce them to a laborious and frugal life which will cure the wantonness and luxury of Plenty and Ease If a Nation be grown incurably wicked he can by this means destroy them without embroiling the rest of the world he can carry them captive into Foreign Countries or make them Slaves at home and subject them to the Yoke of a Conqueror who shall correct them and teach them better In a word The dispersion of
36. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites because ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous and say if we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets Wherefore ye be witnesses unto your selves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets fill ye up then the measure of your fathers sins Wherefore behold I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes and some of them shall ye kill and crucifie and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias Son of Barachias whom ye slew between the temple and the altar God may wait with patience upon a wicked Nation or a wicked Family but when they sin on from one Generation to another it all aggravates the account and when God sees it time to punish makes the punishment very severe or final 2dly The Righteous Posterity of good men are rewarded also for their Fathers sake for he sheweth mercy to thousands of them that love him and keep his commandments A Wicked Son may receive a great many Temporal Blessings from God for the sake of a Righteous Father for it is evident from Scripture that God shews great Favour and exercises great Patience to bad men for the sake of the good but the Promise is made only to the Righteous Seed of Good men for tho it does not unbecome the Divine Goodness to shew favour to bad men especially when it is for the sake of the righteous which makes it the reward and encouragement of Vertue yet it does not seem fitting to make any general Promise of favour to them which would be an Encouragement of Vice The Righteous Seed then of Good men shall be blessed but so shall the Righteous Seed of Wicked men be and what peculiar Priviledge is this to the Good I answer When God promises to bless the Righteous Posterity of Good men if it contain any thing peculiar which God has not so expresly promised to other good men it must signify a more certain and a more lasting Prosperity in this world All good men are not prosperous in this world nor has God any where promised that they shall be so no more than all wicked men are visibly punished here but as God visits the Iniquities of the Fathers upon their Children by executing a more speedy Vengeance on the Wicked Children of Wicked Parents so the Righteous Children of Righteous Parents shall be more certainly prosperous than other good men and the more uninterrupted successions there are of such Righteous Parents and Righteous Children the deeper root they shall take and be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that bringeth forth his fruit in his season his leaf also shall not wither and what soever he doth shall prosper 1. Psal. 3. This may suffice for a short Representation of this case and as it is thus stated it is manifest That there is no Injustice in it let us then consider what Wise Ends it serves both with respect to Parents and to Children and to the Justification of Providence 1. As to Parents If they have any Natural Affection to their Children this is a very powerful Argument to restrain them from Vice and to excite them to Virtue Most of the Labour and Toil which men undergo is for the sake of their Children to provide for them while they live and to leave them in easy and happy Circumstances when they dye to raise and perpetuate a Family and to secure them as far as it is possible from all adverse events But how successful soever Bad men may be in raising an Estate they build upon a Sandy Foundation and leave a very perishing Inheritance to their Children especially if they raise an Estate by Injustice and Oppression by defrauding God and the Poor of their Portion which many times makes it moulder away in the hands even of a Righteous Heir The more prosperous a wicked man is the more likely is his Posterity to be miserable if he propagate his Vices to them for God will at one time or other reckon with wicked Families as well as men and that will be a Terrible Account when the wickedness of his father shall be remembred before the Lord and the sin of his mother shall not be blotted out 109. Psal. 14. And what an Encouragement is this to Good men tho they themselves should be unfortunate in the world to know That their Posterity shall reap the Rewards of their Virtue that if their Children should be wicked there is some reason to hope that they may be more gently used and it may be receive many Temporal Blessings for their sakes but if they be Righteous they shall then take root and flourish in the earth that the little which the Righteous man hath righteously got shall prove a better a more lasting and increasing Inheritance than the Riches of many wicked and that a Liberal Charity which some men think is to defraud their Children shall prove like Seed sown in the earth which repays all with a plentiful Harvest It is certain were this firmly believed and well considered it would lay the greatest obligation in the world both on Bad and Good men to take care of the Religious and Vertuous Education of their Children The only way wicked men have to cut off the intail of Misery from their Families and to secure their Children from that Vengeance which their own sins have deserved is to train them up in Piety and Vertue and the only way Good men have to intitle their Children to those Temporal Blessings wherewith God thinks fit to reward their Vertues upon their Posterity which is the best Inheritance they can leave them is to make them Good The wicked Children of wicked Parents have their own and their Fathers sins to hasten and increase their punishments and the Righteous Children of Righteous Parents have their own and their Fathers Vertues to secure and to augment their rewards 2. As for Children What greater obligation than this could be laid on them to avoid the evil Examples and to imitate the Vertues of their Parents The Wickedness of their Fathers makes it more dangerous for them to be wicked for when wickedness is intail'd the punishment of wickedness is intail'd too and the longer Judgment has been delayed the nearer it is and the more severe it is like to be The wicked Son of a wicked Father cannot promise himself to escape so well as his Father did because his Father's sins which he imitates calls for a more speedy Vengeance on him either to put a stop to wickedness or to root out a wicked Family and to pull down the Leprous house But what an encouragement is it to the Children of Righteous
Parents to imitate their Vertues that they may inherit all the Blessings of their Fathers We think it a great advantage for Children to inherit the fruits of their Parents Industry but to inherit the rewards of their Vertues is much greater And this none but vertuous Children can do A Prodigal Son may inherit the Estate of an Industrious Father but can't keep it but a wicked Son of a vertuous Father forfeits his Inheritance And though some Good men meet with very little or with no reward in this world nay suffer very severely for their Vertue this is no discouragement to their Children but gives them reasonoble hopes to expect the more For an exemplary Vertue shall have its reward at one time or other even in this world and if the Father had it not the Son and the Son's Son through all the Line of a vertuous Succession shall when Good men suffer or miss of the rewards of Vertue in this world they have the greater rewards in Heaven and their Children on Earth 3. To reward Good men and to punish the Wicked in their Posterity better answers the Wise ends of Providence in this world than the Personal rewards and punishments of every particular Good and Bad man I have already observed that there are very wise Reasons why some Bad men should be Prosperous and some Good men Afflicted in this world and since this world is not the place of Judgment the Divine Wisdom does not require that every Good or Bad man should be rewarded according to his works but yet the Wisdom and Justice of Providence does require that Vertue should be rewarded and Vice punished and that in such degrees and in such a manner as shall lay all reasonable restraints on the Lusts and Vices of men and encourage their Vertues Now Vertue is rewarded and Vice punished when it is rewarded or punished if not in the Persons yet in the Posterity of Good or Bad men which leaves room for the tryal of the Faith and Patience of Good men and for the exercise of God's Goodness and Patience to sinners and for the Ministries of Bad men in the service of Providence and yet very effectually discourages Wickedness and encourages Vertue 2dly Another instance of the Wisdom of Providence is That God very often punishes sin with sin and many times with sins of the same kind Our daily observation may furnish us with examples enow of it which are visible and publickly known and it may be there are few Sinners but know some which concern themselves which the rest of the world does not know Thus God punished the Murther and Adultery of David with the Incest and Rebellion of his Son Absolom and thus Oppression is often punished with Oppression Adultery with Adultery Murther with Murther and Wicked men are made Plagues and Scourges to each other And God thinks it no dishonour to the Holiness of his Providence to attribute all such retributions to himself for God can serve the Wise ends of his Providence by the sins of men without contributing to their sins and it is certain there is not a fitter Punishment in the world for Sinners than to suffer the Evils they do that is to be punished by the very sins which they commit Nothing more sensibly convinces them of a Just Providence than this nothing can give them a more just abhorrence of their sins than to feel the evils and mischiefs of them nothing can more awaken and rouse their Consciences than to suffer the Evils which they have done And one would reasonably think nothing should make them more afraid to do any Evil which they are unwilling to suffer So that nothing could better serve the Wise ends of Providence to convince men of a Divine Nemisis and Vengeance to give them an abhorrence of their sins and to make them afraid to commit them 3. Another instance of the Wisdom of Providence is in so often disappointing both our hopes and fears When we are in the greatest expectation of some great good either we are disappointed in what we expected or if we have what we wished for it does not answer our expectations we find our selves deceived in our enjoyments and that it had been better for us if we had been without them And when we are terrified with the apprehensions of some great evil which is just ready to fall on us either the evil does not come as we feared or it proves no Evil but a very great Good to us This is so often every man's case that I need only appeal to your own Observations for the proof of it Now what more effectual way could God take to convince us that we live in the dark and know not what is good for our selves that we disturb our minds with vain hopes and with as vain fears that it becomes us to leave all to God and to depend securely on his Providence who over-rules all things with a Sovereign Will That this is the only way to be easy and safe to chuse nothing for our selves not to prescribe to Providence but to do our duty and then quietly expect what God will do Is it possible there should be a happier temper of mind than this more honourable for God or more secure for our selves Does any thing more become Creatures Is there any more perfect act of Religion than to depend entirely on God without hopes or fears in a perfect resignation to his Will with a full assurance of his protection And could Providence more effectually convince us of this than to let us see by every days experience how apt we are to be mistaken and to chuse ill for our selves that our wishes and desires were they answered would very often undo us and that we are saved and made happy by what we feared and why then should we desire why should we fear any longer let us do our duty and mind our own business and leave God to take care of the world and allot our portion in it 4thly We may observe also that God very often defers the deliverance of Good men and the punishment of the Wicked to the utmost extremity When Wicked Tyrants and Oppressors are at the heighth of their Pride and Glory and Good men are reduced to a hopeless state beyond the visible relief of any Human Power This was the case of Israel in Egypt when God sent Moses to deliver them with a Mighty Hand and an outstretched Arm. This was several times their case in the days of the Iudges when they were oppressed by their Enemies and God raised up Saviours and Deliverers for them Thus it was in the days of Hezekiah when God in one night destroyed the mighty Army of the Assyrians Thus it was in Queen Hester's days when that Wicked Haman had conspired the destruction of the Iewish Nation And there want not Examples of it in Christian Story Never was there a fiercer Persecution of Christians than when God advanced Constantine to the Throne
of trusting in God they trust in him without hope or any comfortable expectations unless they have some more visible assurances to rely on This makes most mens hopes ebb and flow as their external circumstances change if they are prosperous and have great numbers of Friends and have their Enemies at their feet then they are full of hope and can trust securely in God when they have the means of helping themselves in their own hands and see no body that can hurt them but if their condition be perplext and calamitous and they see no prospect of human relief their spirits sink and as much as they talk of Providence and Trusting in God they find no support in it To understand this aright wherein the Glory of God and our own Peace and Security is so nearly concerned we must consider That our Faith and Hope and Trust in God must either rely on the Word and Promise of God or on the general Belief and Assurance of his Care of us and of the Goodness and Justice of his Providence as to trust in men is either to trust their Promise or their Friendship 1. As for the first we may and ought securely to rely on the Promises of God as far as they reach for he who hath promised is able also to perform But then we must have a care of expounding Temporal Promises to a larger sense than God intended or than Providence ordinarily makes good which calls the Truth of God or his Providence into question and discourages our Faith and Trust in God when we see Events not to answer God's Promises nor our Expectations To state this matter plainly we must proceed by degrees and distinguish between the Promises made to States and Kingdoms and to Private and Single Men or rather to men in their private and single capacities Most of the Temporal Promises under the Law of Moses concerned the Publick State of the Iewish Church and Nation that if they walked in the Laws and Statutes of God he would bless them with great Plenty and Peace or give them Victory over their Enemies That he would have respect unto them and make them fruitful and multiply them and establish his Covenant with them 26. Lev. which are Publick and National Blessings And tho there is a great difference between the Iewish and Christian Church with respect to Temporal Promises yet there does not seem to be any great difference between a Christian Nation and the Iewish State When a Nation has embraced Christianity and the Church is incorporated into the State and true Religion and Vertue is encouraged and Vice suppressed such a Religious Nation has a title to all the National Blessings which God promised to the Iewish Nation if they observed his Laws for Solomon's Observation is universally true That righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is the reproach of any people And excepting what was typical in the Iewish State there is much the same reason for God to protect and bless a Religious Christian Nation viz. for the publick encouragement of Religion and for the reward of a National Piety and Vertue and therefore as the Christian Church inherits all those Spiritual Blessings which were typified in the Iewish Church so a Christian Nation succeeds to all those Temporal Promises which were made to the Iewish State or else all these Promises of the Law would be of no use to us now So that these National Promises we may securely rely on as to their utmost extent and signification and I am satisfied there cannot be one Example given wherein these Promises have failed God has oftentimes suffered a wicked Nation to be prosperous to scourge their wicked Neighbours but he never suffers a truly righteous and religious Nation to be oppressed Now the largest and most comprehensive Promises in Scripture are of this nature such as concern the publick state of Kingdoms and Nations but even in the most flourishing state of the Iewish Church the case of particular men was very different some bad men were prosperous and good men afflicted and therefore those Promises which concern good men in their private and single capacities must be more cautiously expounded to a more restrained and limited sense accommodated to the different states and conditions of good men in this world and to their different attainments in Vertue As for example When Solomon tells us of Wisdom Length of days is in her right hand and in her left riches and honour 3. Prov. 16. Will any man expound this to signify That all wise men who are truly religious and prudent shall live till old age and attain to riches and honours Did God then intend that there should be no different ranks and degrees of men in the world that there should be no poor men as well as rich or did he intend that no poor men should be wise Wisdom indeed will advance a Prince to great riches and honour as Solomon tells us his Father David instructed him He taught me also and said unto me Let thine heart retain my words keep my commandments and live Get wisdom get understanding Forget her not neither decline from the words of my mouth Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep thee Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding Exalt her and she shall promote thee she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her she shall give to thine head an ornament of grace a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee 4. Prov. 4 9. This was the best Advice that could be given to a young Prince to make him rich and great for religious Wisdom will certainly advance him beyond all the Politicks of Machiavel and if Solomon in imitation of his Father David directs his Instructions to his Children and particularly to that Son who was to inherit his Throne as he himself seems to intimate 1 2 3. Verses we must not conclude that because he tells his Son that Wisdom will make him a glorious Prince that therefore Wisdom will advance all men to riches and honour Wisdom will give a lustre even to poverty it self and sometimes advances the poor to riches and honours and encreases the riches and honours of the Rich and Honourable but we must not always expect this much less pretend a promise for it for there always were and always will be poor wise men Thus when the Wiseman tells us That the hand of the diligent maketh rich 10. Prov. 4. And seest thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings he shall not stand before mean men 22. Prov. 29. No man can think that the meaning is that every diligent man shall be rich for there are such mean Employments as can never raise an Estate by the greatest industry much less can we think that diligence in such mean Employments shall make men known to Princes or that all diligent men whatever their