then we see them in their true and native colours We look upon a star at a distance and it appears to us as a spark or a very small body of light when indeed it is a great Globe we see a little man standing by a Dwarf or Pigmy he appeares of a great stature to us remove the little body from him and then you see his true dimensions 1. Gods ways of Providence as apprehended by our imperfect and weak reason are seen like a staff in the water The ways of God are right ways but we have a very imperfect faculty of arguing judging and concluding and can see them no otherwise than our lapsed reason represents this makes us call them crooked 2. Our hearts are also vitiated and blood-shotten with lust prejudice and passion and this makes the ways of God appear to us in strange colours when once a Christian hath cleared his Eye-sight with Gods Eye-salve then he seeth them as they are and having quitted himself of lust and prejudice he findeth no difficulty to conclude them holy just and good 3. The wisdom of God in the ways of his Providence is like the Sun or Moon in the firmament which are vastly great bodies but appear to us but small Globes and full of spots by reason of our distance from them Who can by searching find out God who can find out the Almighty to perfection it is as high as Heaven what canst thou do deeper then Hell what canst thou know the measure thereof is broader then the Earth and longer then the Sea Job 11.7 8. 4. We look upon the great God in his ways and motions of his Providence as standing by our reason and fancy and compare his wisdom with ours measuring the Divine reason and actions by our yard-wand and the wisdom of God seems to us a deformed crooked thing but let our natural reason be rectified and sublimated and once Sanctified by Divine grace let our minds be enlightened by the Spirit of God and we shall then see things clearly as they are These are the general causes of mens misjudgings and misapprehensions concerning the Equity of Gods ways But let God be true and every man a lyar let him be holy and let what will become of mans reason and judgment It is bad Logick but it may be good Divinity sometimes to hold the conclusion when we cannot deny the premises which seem to argue against it There goeth a story of Melancthon that being once pressed by Eccius the Papist with an argument to which he had not an answer ready he took time and said Cras Respondebo that he would the next day give answer to it It may be a Christian may sometimes be put hard to it in his thoughts to solve all the Phaenomena's Which a subtle Sophister will make appear upon the ways and motions of Divine Providence but in this case let him hold to the conclusion and say I am sure the Judg of the whole Earth cannot do unjustly however it be God is holy and just and good I will study an answer to this Objection Socinus some where saith that if he should meet with any thing in Scripture which were contrary to his reason he would not believe it to be the sense of Scripture Proud man Must he think to measure infinite wisdom with his bucket and to scoop out the Ocean of wisdom that is in God with his spoon How much better had it been said I believe what God hath said and I will study to reconcile it to my reason if I cannot do it I will rather deny my own reason than the Revelation of the Divine will and wisdom Luther I think was in the right when he would have the Christian say Tu Ratio stultaâ—es audi verbum Dei tace Thou reason art a fool hear the word of God and hold thy peace But to proceed yet further in my discourse You have heard it is not inconsistent with the purity and holiness of the Divine being to be the Author of evil of punishment Because evils of punishment are indeed no evils only so miscalled by us They are great goods to the people of God But once more vain man that would be wise the man of reason that thinks he can shew us a mote in the Sun or a crooked angle in the straight lines of Divine wisdom comes forth and saith Quest Supposing it consistent with the purity holiness and goodness of God to bring evils of punishment upon men who he knows will be made better by them and be helped by those little Hells to escape greater and by much tribulation be fitted for the Kingdom of God yet what is this to those whom God knows will never be made better never be made conformable to the image of his Son If these evils of punishment are true and perfect evils how can an holy God be the Author of them 1. I answer We must grant that there are some stones in the Earth that no hewing will fit to make pillars for the house of God God by his Providence may knock them in pieces and by afflictions break them but afflictions and troubles shall never mend them and indeed this is an ordinary observation as Fire softneth wax but hardneth clay so affliction which often makes the people of God better ordinarily make wicked men worse they come out of the fire worfe than they went in Pharaoh was such a one ten plagues one after another wrought no change in his heart but for the worse he was more hardned than he was before Ahaz was such another who when he was afflicted yet did more wickedly the Scripture sets a brand upon him for it This is that King Ahaz and we have too too many instances of such in the age and generation in which we live 2. Again what if some be afflicted who grow worse and get no good by their Afflictions yet may not God use means that have a rational tendency to their good Trouble and Affliction is the voice of God unto the worst of men crying to them for repentance and reformation they will not hear the rod must not therefore God use it Or doth it not speak when he useth it What if God knoweth that affliction will do them no good but give them occasion further to harden their hearts is God bound by his Providence to act according to his own Omnisciency or counsel God deals with men who are reasonable creatures in a reasonable way one while perswading and exhorting another while chastising and corecting shall not God by his Ministers perswade all men to repent and to believe because he knoweth from Eternity who will or will not obey those precepts Shall not God by his rod teach men to repent and believe because he hath determined not to give special grace to all certainly it is but reasonable that God should allow them reasonable means in order to what he requireth of them though he knoweth they will make no
And to shew to you the exceeding great latitude of its objects SERMON V VI. Heb. I. 3. Psal XXXVI 6. Vpholding all things by the word of his power O Lord thou preservest man and beast I Have hitherto shâ—wed you no more Than that there is a Divine Providence extensive to all things influencing all Beings all motions and actions of Beings c. I am now come to discourse concerning the acts of God by which he exerciseth this Providential care Divines do usually reduce all to two Heads 1. Preservation 2. Government Preservation respecteth the creatures Beings and that in esse tali in such a kind of Being as he at first created them Government properly respecteth the motions or actions of these Beings or the omissions suspensions or cessations of such actions or motions and the events of the things The Proposition I shall a little enlarge my self upon is this Prop. That as the worlds were at first made by the power and word of God so they are by the same power and word preserved and upheld The Heathens had some notion of this as appeareth by their fiction of Atlas bearing up the world upon his Shoulders God is the true and only Atlas the Apostle saith He upholdeth all things by the word of his Power The Psalmist saith That he preserveth both man and beast You have a recognition of this in that solemn prayer of the Levites Neh. 10.6 Thou even thou art Lord alone thou hast made the Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their host the earth and all things that are therein the sea and all that is therein and thou preservest them all Job gives God the glory of this Job 7.20 I have sinned and what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of man But although the upholding and preservation of the world the influence of God upon the world in order to its standing and conservation be matter of clear and undoubted Revelation and demonstrable by reason and confessed even by the wiser amongst the Heathens themselves yet every one possibly doth not sufficiently understand the method and order of Gods sustentation and preservation of the world Nor dare I promise you fully to open it to you and make you to understand it for how little a portion of his ways do we know But something I will speak in particular I hope it may be of further use to you not only to expound Gods works but to make you understand how wonderfully we are preserved and what a necessity there is of the Divine hand to uphold our souls in life and us in any state of well-being Only let me first premise two or three things 1. That there is a more common and general preservation of all beings and a more special preservation of some 2. That there is a preservation common both to man and beast and a preservation more peculiar to man and yet more special to the people of God those amongst the sons of men whom God hath set apart for himself 3. That there is a preserving Providence respecting the body and outward man and a preserving Providence respecting the inward man 4. That as to man he is considerable in a threefold capacity 1. In his personal capacity as a reasonable creature endued with all the powers and faculties of vegetive and sensitive creatures and further with several powers and faculties suited to his reasonable nature 2. In his Political capacity as he makes up a member of a Kingdom or civil society 3. In his Ecclesiastical capacity as in society with others he makes up that body of people which is called the church of God God preserveth him in all these capacities of which when I come to it I shall speak more particularly and distinctly I shall lay down several conclusions The first of which shall be more general and extensive to such creatures as have meerly being and no life The other will concern living creatures and amongst them men as the nobler and more excellent of them 1. Concl. God by the word of his power upholdeth the Beings order and courses of all his creatures so as not only their natural inclinations and qualities and affections by which they are mutually serviceable to each other and to the upholding of the universe do not fail abate or decay but so that their power and opposite qualities work not to the ruin and destruction of the whole This now to him who will give his thoughts leave to stand upon it will appear a great and wonderful work of God and no less than a wonderful miracle of Divine Providence When God gave a being to the world and to all the things therein he indued them all with several qualities according to his infinite wisdom he set them in an excellent order so as they might be mutually subservient one to another and all of them to the whole he did not only make the world but he fitted and jointed it together so that one part of it corresponded with the other 2. He indued them with several qualities by which they are mutually serviceable each to other 3. He set the several creatures in their orders and stations so as they might be best serviceable Now I say the Providence of God worketh in the preserving of them 1. By upholding these qualities and keeping them in this order that they do not dislocate and fall out of joint but abide both in their station and in their full vigor and vertue 2. By keeping them that the qualities in them which are opposite one to another and would naturally encline them to a dislocation and falling out of order yet have no such operation nor produce any such effect but even inanimate Beings move and work orderly according to the Creators intention though they do nothing out of any counsel choice or deliberation Let me but illustrate this a little in the four great Inanimate Bodies of the World the Heavens the Air the Earth and the mighty Waters All exceeding great and vast bodies yet without life sense or reason so as their motions cannot be from reason and counsel of their own The order in which God set these things in the day of Creation was this The Heavens he placed uppermost the Air in the midst betwixt them and the Earth Then he placed the Earth and the Seas in the midst contiguous one to another In the Heavens he placed Waters the Sun the Moon the Stars all great bodies Now all these bodies have several qualities Gravity or weight levity heat cold moisture c. Who knoweth not that active qualities in creatures are subject to spend waste and decay To instance but in that one body of the Sun whose great qualities are light and heat We see candles and torches and fires give light and heat but they spend themselves their light goes out their heat wastes and spends it self in a short time How is it that it is not so with the Sun and the Stars but from the power
of God that upholds these qualities that they neither waste nor abate from their continual motion The candle is fed from the tallow and wax the torch and taper from pitch wax rozin and other combustible matter when that fails it expireth Whence is the Sun Moon and Stars fed but from the immediate upholding power and hand of God Again these great bodies are not indeed so gross and heavy as mere sublunary and terrene bodies are but yet they must not be denied something of weight especially the Waters in the Heavens We know weight and heaviness is of the nature of Water yea of that Water which falleth from Heaven how come the Clouds which are a thin body to contain and restrain it and keep it as in bottles how come those vast bodies of Water to be contained in the thin body of the Clouds and to diffuse themselves so gradually upon the Earth 2. Let us look upon the Air from the agitation of which proceed the great and boisterous stormy winds The Air is cold and moist only heated and warmed from the Sun how comes it to pass that it is not in that continual agitation which we see it in sometimes sometimes we hardly discern it moved at all sometimes more violently and that sometimes from one quarter sometimes from another is this a natural a meer natural motion then it is necessary and would be uniform so we see it is not Who can give a reason sufficient to satisfie an inquisitive Philosopher of the heat and cold in the Air in several Countrys nay in our own Country or a sufficient reason of drought and moisture in the Air whence is it think you that it is not always dry nor always moist not always stormy nor always calm none of which would suit the conservation of the world but from Gods upholding those qualities in those bodies which influence it and by which these things are caused so that unless when the ordinary Providence of God is not withheld from the creatures in some particular places for the chastisement of the wickedness of them that dwell therein The Air keeps its motion and courses the winds their courses for the preservation of our bodies and the advantage of humane affairs God I say by a daily providence upholds these Beings to those motions and measures of motion which he at first set for them in order to keeping the World in joint The Air putrifieth not nor groweth infectious the Winds sometimes blow sometimes are still c. The Psalmist giveth God the great glory of his Providence in this particular very plentifully He raiseth the stormy winds Psalm 107. v. 25. He walketh upon the wings of the wind Psalm 104.3 He bringeth the winds out of his treasures Psalm 133.7 He causeth his winds to blow Psalm 147.18 The stormy winds fulfil his word Psalm 148.8 The Heathens had such a sense of the Necessity of a Divine Providence to rule this Creature that they devised a God on purpose whom they called Aeolus whom they feigned to have a care and dominion over them and the Poet saith That if he did not they would confound Heaven and Earth 3. From the Air let us come to the Earth a great and vast body Job saith It hangeth upon nothing Job 26.7 upon nothing but the Almighty power of divine Providence It hangeth in the midst of the Air and that upon nothing God did hang it there in the day of Creation the Seas are contiguous to it both of them make but one Globe or round body of a great weight We see it is of the nature of weighty Bodies to incline and press downward Suppose God did at first hang it there What is it keeps it there We should conclude it a great Miracle not to be effected by other than a divine Power to see but a great stone or Canon-bullet hang in the air how would a whole City come out and be astonished at so great a sight especially if it should hang there a month or a year or any considerable proportion of time But who sufficiently contemplateth this great sight Who thinks on the immense weight of the Earth and the Seas hanging in the midst of the thin body of the air Let the Atheists of this generation come near and see this great sight If there be no God or if this God exerciseth no Providence in the upholding and governing created Beings How cometh the Earth to hang upon nothing or how doth it abide one day in that station Let any of them in an open field climb up and hang up a Cannon-bullet so if they can I know the Philosophers tell us it is in its Center and every thing naturally rests there The Poet tells us That Ponderibus librata suis But this is all but an idle and an impertinent muffling us with unintelligible terms for what do they mean by the center of things the center of the Heavens or the center of the Earth or of the Waters unless they understand the place which God ordained for them or wherein God fixed them in Creation in that they abide and we say there Providence keepeth them Let them try if the art of all the men in the World can so poise a great weight in the air that it shall not fall but abide hanging there any considerable time 4. Lastly let us view the great body of the Waters in continual flux and reflux whether they be placed higher than the Earth is a little question But suppose they be not certain it is that the winds oft raise them much higher than the Earth they are of a fluid Nature of a great weight in continual motion whence is it that they do not drown the World or at least a great part of it It is a matter of demonstration that in many places they rise higher every side than the Earth next adjacent to them How comes it that the Sands check them that in many places they bring their bridle in their mouth an huge quantity of small stones or sands which make a bank on every side to protect the adjacent Earth against their rage certainly no reason can be given but what the holy servants of God have long since given Job 26.10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds until the day and night come to an end And Jer. 5.22 He hath placed the sand for a bound to the sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass Now suppose such a Decree these inanimate Creatures obey it not out of election and choice but being natural Agents they work and move necessarily according to the affections and inclinations which God hath created them with So as the water being fluid and heavy would from a necessity of natural working overflow and drown the Earth did not God by his Providence continually work establishing his Decree and seeing to the execution of it and to that end governing these inanimate Creatures contrary to their natural inclinations that the World may be
Lord than to put confidence in Princes 2. When there is a pretended confidence in God but not conjoyned with an holy walking nor with a due use of means Natural Moral or Religious take heed of such a security as this is That which I call a pious security is the fruit of a confidence in God When the minds of men upon the view of a Divine Providence are quiet and free from distractions and over-much sollicitude as to the events of things whether relating to the Church or to their own particulars This I say is every good Christians duty and if there be such a Divine Providence as I have been discoursing of to you it is the most reasonable thing in the world God is the highest rational Agent and must work for some ends and those the best the great end of his Glory the subordinate end is the good of his People Now if he hath in his working an influence on all beings all motions and actions all omissions suspensions and cessations of such motions all events c. Certainly that man or woman that loveth and feareth God and keepeth his way and hath used all proper means natural moral or religious in order to the obtaining of what he apprehendeth for Gods Honour the good of his Church or his own particular good he hath all imaginable reason to sit down quiet and be secure Affairs in the world are upon the wheels but those wheels are full of eyes God seeth all things and his hand is in and upon all things and hath his own ends in his eyes and a power to turn all things and to make them to serve his ends We may in the darkest day cry out Psal 76.10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise him and the remainder of wrath he shall restrain A good Christian may sit down having done his duty and leave the world to wag as it will Let that great Ship wallow as it will there is one that sitteth at the Stern that will guide it and all its motions it shall at last come into the true Port. Hence a Child of God hath reason enough in all things to give thanks and at all times to rejoyce in the Lord and again to rejoyce What then mean the disquietments anxieties and sollicitudes of our thoughts Are they not tacit denials or suspensions of the workings of Divine Providence Are they not Indications of the weakness of our Faith Certainly if we had Faith in the Doctrine of Divine Providence if it were but as a grain of mustard-seed we should only attend our duty and when we had done that should speak to our soul if yet in a tumult Why art thou cast down O my soul why art thou disquieted within me Trust still in God for I shall praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God This is a second piece of duty 3. A third duty which this Doctrine of Divine Providence will evidence but reasonable for us is A patient waiting for God under all the displeasing varieties of this life A duty which in Scripture you will find often called for by God and his Holy Servants who have spoke in his Name Psal 27.14 Psal 37.7 34. Psal 6â— 5 Prov. 20.22 Hos 12.6 and as often resolved upon by the Holy Servants of God Job 14.14 Psal 25.21 Psal 52.9 and in many other places And there are many excellent promises that are made to it Psal 37.9 Prov. 20.22 Isa 49.23 It is exclusive of all murmuring repining and discontentedness at any of Gods dealings of all use of irregular means to help our selves it is an habit of grace which in the midst of the most adverse and afflictive Providences teacheth us to stand still and to see the salvation of God It is a great piece of a Christians duty keeping a Christian in his station and in the paths of holiness under the most cross and thwarting Providences in the most dark and gloomy days and the greatest confusions we see in the world The failure of this is like the starting of the Ballast in a Ship in a storm every Ship of burthen that goeth to Sea hath a Ballast of stones or sand or some weighty thing which keeps it even upon the waters if in a storm this Ballast starts so as it is thrown on one side and gives not a just poise to the Ship there is a great danger of a wrack the Ship presently lyes all on one side Faith now is this Ballast active patience or waiting for God in a storm of Providence is that which keepeth the soul poised if this Ballast starts there 's great danger of the souls being overwhelmed Now this Doctrine of Providence and the extent of it to all motions actions to all suspensions omissions and cessations of actions to all events and future contingencies sheweth us the duty and reasonableness of this patient waiting Is there a storm a whirlwind an hurricane of political motions in the world It lets us know that God is in that storm God is in that whirlwind that hurricane is not without the Lord and God is not out of it If the Enemies of the People of God could raise a storm without the Lord or when they have raised it shut God out of the Governance of it it were something but they can do none of this we can have no confidence in them in the goodness of their natures or their designs but we may be confident of God and wait for him I compared Providence before to a man of business that seldom keeps a road but ever and anon turns out this way and that way as his variety of business leads him those that will bear such a man company home must ever and anon wait for him while he turneth out of his road Let this Doctrine of Providence have this kind influence upon your souls to make you to wait upon God whiles he hideth himself from the house of Jacob and to look for him It is good to wait upon God for none yet that ever waited upon him returned ashamed it is your duty to wait upon God he is a great Soveraign he hath required this homage from your souls It is reasonable you should wait on him for you may be sure he is in every storm in every hurricane seeing it working by it governing of it 4. This Doctrine of a Divine Providence sheweth the reasonableness of a passive patience or submission to and contentation with our lot and portion in the world under the most afflictive and adverse issues Nothing comes to pass without the Will of God not a sparrow as cheap and inconsiderable a bird as it is falleth to the ground without our heavenly Father It is true while we are in the world we are in the midst of briars and thorns subjected to a thousand accidents which are afflictive to us afflictions in our bodies troubles in our spirits crosses in our relations and in our affairs in the world and no affliction
instances of Divine Providence of this nature we had in our own Nation especially in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the beginning of King James his reign 1. Sometimes God setteth their own Consciences on work and they shall betray and discover themselves before they fall to their work God smiteth one of their Consciences and they come and discover their Complices and confess their own errours how often have we had this in our own story 2. Sometimes their Countenances shall betray them while they are just ready to strike the fatal stroke 3. Sometimes a terror shall seize them and their Daggers shall drop out of their hands 4. Sometimes their own Letters shall destroy them of which we had an eminent instance in the Powder-Treason hatched by Papists in this Nation sometimes the powder shall not take fire another time it shall miss the mark The Monsters are sometimes brought to the birth and the parents of them want a strength to bring forth How often was Queen Elizabeth in this Nation so preserved to fulfil the word of the Lord Job 5.12 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise 5. A fifth thing I shall instance in is Gods defeatings of the counsels of Ahitophels All men are not alike in wisdom and counsel God fitteth some more eminently who are to have stations in the publick Government and Councils of a Nation Amongst these some are men of integrity and sincerity men of publick spirits and designs who use all their wits parts and abilities for the general good and prosperity of people Others are men of more private spirits driving selfish designs and these oft-times are men of great craft and subtilty whose counsels yet should they take effect would ruin the body politick which they pretend to serve whiles they serve but their own bellies or families or the lusts of some others in order to that end Here now the Providence of God is often seen in defeating their counsels and that various ways Sometimes by making them unacceptable as was in the case of Ahitophel his counsels ordinarily were taken and followed as Oracles but God makes the counsel of Hushai though as appeareth by the story a friend at first suspected by Absolom to be more accepted Sometime God doth it by some more extraordinary ways as in the case of Haman who had both given counsel and obtained a decree against the Jews The King shall not sleep but spend his waking times reading the book of the Chronicles there he shall fall upon the place where a record is of the good service Mordecai had done The King shall mistake Haman's Courtship to the Queen while he is making suit to the Queen for his life for an attempt to force her Thus Haman shall be defeated in his designs and it shall be his own lot to be hanged upon the Gallows which he had prepared for Mordecay nor are these the only instances There is no Kingdom no Age in which observing persons will not observe some instance or other of this nature for the preservation of the Political societies of men Sixthly The power of divine Providence in preserving Political societies is eminently seen in ballancing and diverting opposite powers It is wonderful to observe how God ballanceth one Nation against another sometimes by natural scituation sometimes by voluntary associations We in England are an instance of the former All the Kingdoms about us are larger and more mighty than we are France Spain c. far more populous God hath ballanced us with them by our scituation We are an Island we are powerful in Shipping they cannot march an army by land against us that keeps us at some proportion with them and from being a prey to them often gaping for us Others God hath scituated in Countries full of Rocks and Mountains and Waters by which natural Fortifications they are ballanced with the far greater fleshly power of their Enemies Thus God preserved his people in Epirus from the overflowing flood of the Turkish Power In Holland from the attempts of the Spaniard 40 years together a Nation far more great and mighty than they Thus he hath preserved his Church his little flock in the Valleys of Piedmont and Lucerne As Solomon saith because the Conies are a feeble people they have their habitation in the Rocks So where God hath had a little people a feeble people his Providence hath for their habitation allowed them the natural defences of mountains and the inaccessible paths of Rocks Others he ballanceth with the far greater power of their adversaries by voluntary confederacies and consociations were they singly to be encountred they would quickly be swallowed up but they join in league with others and so make a proportion to their Potent Adversaries Some he ballanceth by giving them a more extraordinary strength spirit courage that one will chase ten and ten an hundred and an hundred a thousand and a thousand shall put ten thousand of their Enemies in flight Some are stronger in Land-forces but weak as to Naval-forces others strong in Naval-forces but weaker in Land-forces till the period of a Nation comes for Nations have their periods he ballanceth all Political Societies one way or other according to the variety of his infinite wisdom 2. Another way is by Diversion you have many instances of this in Scripture How often hath God thus preserved us in Europe from the overflowing flood of the Turks by stirring up the Persians to invade him by suffering rebellions amongst thoâ—e that are his own Subjects But I shall contract this discourse much will fall into my following discourse of Governing Providence 7. The last thing which I shall instance in wherein the Providence of God is seen in the preserving of men in their Political Societies is in giving unto men wisdom and disposing of them to several Arts Trades Mysteries and Occupations by which they become mutually serviceable one to another and contribute to the upholding the societies in which they live Here are two things in both which the Providence of God is eminent to every eye which wistly observeth it There is nothing more evident than that there is a variety of Arts Mysteries Trades and Occupations useful for man by some of which he is supplied with things necessary for food and rayment by others of them with things for delight and ornament both the one and the other if not necessary for individuals yet are necessary for preserving a Polity consisting of multitudes Now 1. The wisdom by which men work in these several Arts Mysteries and Occupations and by which men follow these several Trades is from the Lord. The Prophet Isaiah tells us the discretion of the Plow-man and of the Thresher is from him God called by name Bezaliel the Son of Uri and he was filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledg and in all manner of workmanship and to devise curious works to work
made so big as falling down upon their Enemies-heads they killed more than his peoples swords At the sound of Rams-horns the walls of Jericho fall down It is for this people that the clouds rain down bread and the Rock gusheth out water There was no people that God so assayed to take from the midst of another Nation by temptations by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm and by great terrors Deut. 4.34 and although God hath not been so seen in miraculous operations for his Gospel-Church yet how often hath one chased ten ten an hundred an hundred a thousand and a thousand put ten thousand to flight There have been no such instances in the World of the Providence of God working for the salvation and deliverance of Heathens as of that body of his people which are his Church or of Gods workings in a miraculous manner for the preservation of others as of that his little flock 4. But 4thly It is a great specialty of Providence that unto this people are committed the Oracles of God they are the only people which have the ordinary means of salvation This is that Much advantage every way as the Apostle speaketh which the Jews had Rom. 4.2 beeause unto them were committed the Oracles of God It hath been a question Whether God giveth unto all sufficient means for salvation Some affirm it others with better reason deny it at length some of the Patrons for it are forced to yield That none but the Church hath sufficient means In Judah is God known in the Church Christ is preached the glad tidings of salvation are published the Heathens have only the light of Nature a light sufficient if not walked up to to make them inexcusable but by no means sufficient to direct men to Heaven it sheweth men nothing of Christ and there is no other Name under Heaven but the Name of Jesus by which we can be saved neither is there salvation in any other Christ is only ordinarily preached in the Church of God This is a great Priviledg a great Specialty of Providence towards the Church of God But yet There is a more special Providence attends the members of the invisible Church particular Saints and that is plain from the Promises of God in Scripture There are indeed many Promises which concern the whole visible Church but the most of the Promises are made unto Godliness the Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 4.8 that hath great promises both of this life and a life to come and as the great variety of Promises evinceth a special providence in the preservation and government of them so also Gods Dispensations upon those Promises do abundantly evince it but let me open it in a few particulars 1. It is for them that God ordinarily goeth out of the common road of his Providence for their preservation Thus Daniel is preserved in the Lions Den The three Children in the fiery Furnace Moses in a little ark of Bul-rushes Noah when the whole World was swallowed up in a Deluge of waters they are those that dwell in the secret place of the most High that shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty these he delivereth from the snare of the Fowler and from the noisom Pestilence and to whom all the Promises are made Psalm 91. I do not say but others may sometimes meet with strange and miraculous preservations but the instances of them are rarer The Promises are not made to them they can expect no such thing and usually it is for the sake of such as fear God indeed these Providences are not the portion of all the children of God God will have us know that these are not the good things which he hath prepared for them that love him though the power and goodness of God shall be thus declared for some of them yet it shall not be so for all that we may not think them the Believers portion but things which God addeth unto them who are the heirs of salvation and seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof 2. These are those whom God gives special warnings to of evils to come and whom he prompts to hide themselves What saith God shall I hide from Abraham the thing I intend to do to Sodom Noah being warned of God prepared an Ark saith the Apostle you know what a warning Lot had of the destruction of Sodom They tell us of a Voice which the godly Jews heard a little before the fatal destruction of Jerusalem Ite Pellam Go away to Pella It is true those extraordinary warnings are much now ceased but the Providence vf God yet continues God told David that the men of Keilah would deliver him up God gives warning still by secret impressions upon the spirits of his people by causing them more steadily than others to believe the threatnings of his Word and to give credit to his Ministers speaking from him These secrets of the Lord are mostly with them that fear him while simple wicked men will believe nothing take no warning at any thing but pass on and are punished 3. For these it is that he commandeth inanimate creatures to move for their service The stones of the field shall be at peace with them the Sun the Moon shall serve them the stars shall fight against Sisera in their order The dust shall fly in the face of their Enemies The winds shall serve them tibi militat aether Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti saith the Poet of that eminent Christian Emperour But I have touched a little upon this under the first Head 4. For these fourthly it is that God commandeth the sensitive creatures that they shall not hurt them that they shall serve them the Lions shall not hurt Daniel it is to them the Promise is made Psalm 91.13 Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Adder and the Dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet It is a famous story of that Protestant in the Parisian massacre that was saved by a Spider that had woven a web before the entrance of a hole in which he hid himself from the murtherers that sought his life which made them conclude that he was not there 5. For these it is that he bridleth the rage of wicked and ungodly men The Providence of God if I may say so hath its hardest task with wicked men These alone have an enmity to Gods people there is and ever will be an implacable Enmity between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent God holds them in as we hold in an unruly Horse with bit and bridle and oftentimes of Enemies they are made friends Gallio stands up and pleadeth for them Cyrus becomes Gods servant for the deliverance of the Jews Nebuchadnezzar shall be a friend to Daniel Darius to Nehemiah Paul shall meet with Friends in the Court of Nero. 6. For these it is that he over-ruleth the most malitious actions
upon you to honour God more than others God hath done infinitely more for you than for Heathens Now what a shame it is that an Heathen should out-doe you in any thing yet give me leave to tell you that while you only do some actions that are materially good not formally and truly many Heathens have done as much as you An Heathen may do and many of them have done and that with some good intention actions materially good that is such things as God commanded Many of them have been eminent instances of moral vertue Justice charity temperance liberality c. many of them have professed to love vertue for the sake of vertue Wherein can you excel them but by doing actions which are formally good designing Gods glory acting in obedience to Gods will regulating your selves as to the manner by Gods word you have the word the Gospel of God oh how reasonable it is that our conversation should be as becomes the Gospel of Christ The Heathen else that lives up to his light of nature out-does us and it will as our Saviour tells us be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of Judgment than for us 3. But Lastly Let the Saints of God see what an obligation to all manner of duty and holiness lies upon their souls they are the most special objects of special Providence God takes more care for all men than for Oxen or for the grass of the field he exerciseth a more special Providence for that body of people which make up his visible Church than for all the earth besides but yet what is that special Providence which God exerciseth for meer formal professors or for any other men in the world in comparison of what they have experienced Any thing of more special distinguishing Grace is a great Specialty of Providence and that in the best and highest sort of good things viz. those which concern the salvation of the Soul Oh what doth God expect what doth God require from you what should you do more than others More particularly This Doctrine of special Providence calls to you 1. For more extraordinary degrees of Love 2. For more special acts of Faith 1. For more eminent degrees of Love Psal 31.23 O Love you the Lord all you his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer Reason argueth thus with us that the reciprocations of our love ought to bear proportion to love received If saith our Saviour you love them that love you what reward have you the law of nature commandeth us to love and by actions of kindness and duty to express our love to them who have expressed their kindness to us and the same reason requires the reciprocations of love to be proportionable God therefore declaring especial love to you you are bounden in a special duty to him Let our Saviours question be often in your thoughts What do you do more than others If you for whom God hath sent his Son to dye and into whose hearts he hath sent his Spirit the Spirit of Adoption Supplication Consolation and whom the Lord hath from the womb watched over and preserved by a more special peculiar Providence bearing you as upon Eagles Wings and gathering you as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings I say If you do no more for God than others do not under such influences nor such Providences you must certainly act beneath and short of your duty This dependeth upon what I told you before of the reasonableness of the reciprocations of love in some commensurate proportions 2. It calleth to them who fear God for special exercises of faith you have reason more to trust and depend upon God than others because God hath declared a more special care and Providence for you The ground of all faith is the word and promise of God Now special promises call for a more special and peculiar faith What though another man cannot trust God contrary to a sensible or reasonable appearance yet you have reason to do it because God hath declared more his care for you and the workings of his Providence for your preservation and deliverance than for others God hath promised to save defend and deliver you not after the workings of his ordinary Providence You may therefore say with David The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear He is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid Psalm 27.1.3 Though an Host should encamp against me my heart should not fear though war should rise against me in this I will be confident But thus much shall serve to have discoursed concerning the Specialties of Divine Providence SERMONS XII XIII Rom XI 33. O the depth both of the wisdom and knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out I Have finished my Discourse concerning the principal Acts of Divine Providence both generally and specially I have discoursed concerning Gods general Acts in preserving and governing all his creatures and concerning God's more special preserving and governing of some creatures I am now come to discourse concerning the Methods of it concerning which we must cry out with this great Apostle O the depth both of the wisdom and knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out My Text is the conclusion of an exceeding deep discourse which the Apostle had made concerning the Rejection of the Jews which he proves to be neither Total nor final In the ten first verses he proveth that it is not Total V. 2 God did not cast off his people whom he did foreknow V. 5 There is a remnant according to Election As it was in Elias's time he thought and complain'd that he was left alone and they sought his life also but he was mistaken God at that time had seven thousand in Israel that had not bowed the knee to Baal V. 7 He saith The Election had obtained though some though the most of them were rejected yet the Elect amongst them were not rejected and this he proveth to have been but according to what was prophesied V. 11 He proveth that this Rejection should not be final There should be a fulness of them V. 12. Receiving of them V. 15. They should be again grafted in V. 23 24. It is but V. 25. till the fulness of the Gentiles should come and then all â—srael should be saved This Discourse is mixed with several arguments to prove the assertion and with several reflections upon the Gentiles whose present state was better than theirs shewing them their duty negatively and positively not to be high-minded but humble To fear c. Now look as a man wading in deep waters when he finds the water go over his head and trip up his heels he cries out O I shall be drowned and endeavours to get back again So doth the blessed Apostle he had been wading into the great deeps of Gods counsels and ways
taken them off from that pursuit of the world by which others procure themselves a livelihood he hath told them they should live upon his Altar he hath told us 1 Cor. 9.7 That no man goeth to a warfare at his own charge none planteth a vineyard and eateth not the fruit thereof nor feedeth a flock and eateth not the milk thereof he seeth them out of obedience and conscience to him refusing the bread they might have men will not provide for them he will Ravens shall bring them meat every day but they shall be fed This is but a reasonable motion of Divine Providence I shall make a short Application of this discourse Vse 1. This in the first place lets you see the fountain of that bounty which the many painful and faithful servants of Christ have experienced in all times and even in the days wherein we live It hath pleased God in all times to raise up friends to his faithful Ministers I remember when Abigail came to meet David coming against her husband and had stopt his journey David saith unto her 1 Sam. 25.32 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee to meet me this day and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou c. First he blesseth God then he blesseth her the faithful servants of God yea the Churches of God who by this means enjoy any thing of the labours of their shepherds have reason to bless those whom God hath made his instruments to support those upon whom others had no pity Yea verily and what our Saviour said of the woman that spent her box of Oyntment upon him I think I may apply here Wherever the Gospel is preached what they have done shall be told for a memorial of them If a cup of cold-cold-water for a thirsty Prophet shall obtain a Prophets reward the greater kindnesses of many shall certainly be rewarded they have but put a little money into the bank which God keeps in Heaven But we have more reason to look upward to him who hath the hearts of all men in his hand and openeth them as he pleaseth God hath in it shewed his special Providence for his faithful Ministers let us therefore say Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath stirred them up It was the grace of God bestowed upon the Churches in Macedonia 2 Cor. 8.1 2 3. which taught them in a great tryal of affliction and deep poverty to abound in riches of liberality and willingly of themselves to give to their power yea and above their power Let it be written to posterity for a memorial of the people in England that for so many years together in the midst of a devouring pestilence many consuming fires expensive wars and a deadness of trade they have refreshed the bowels of so many hundreds if not thousands of Gods messengers but let God have all the glory who hath given the heart though their hands distributed the money Vse 2. In the second place Let me cry out O house of Aaron trust in the Lord O house of Levi trust in the Lord Trust in the Lord and do good saith David so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed Psal 37.3 Let us be faithful to our masters service and do the work which he hath given us to do and verily we shall be fed I cannot say God will provide Coaches and delicate things for us but necessaries we shall not want Herein let us exercise our selves to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men and as to other things we may trust a Providebit Deus God will provide for us and ours The experience of these times if wistly attended to certainly is enough to keep any from being tempted through fear of want to debauch their consciences by doing any thing which is apparently sinful or but so judged and suspected by them We see some fed with great provisions faring deliciously every day whiles others like Daniel and his partners have been fed with little more than pulse and water and at the end of some years it appeareth they look fairer as to worldly circumstances than those who have had far better commons Vse 3. Lastly This observation commendeth confidence and courage to all in the Lords work in opposition to fear and cowardise I would not be mistaken be sure in the first place you be in Gods work that which by his word appeareth to be the duty of one in thy circumstances nothing but the conscience of having been surprised in the way of our duty will bear us up under sufferings be therefore in that point well satisfied having done that observe those rules of Prudence which reason directs thee in such cases this done fear nothing Remember the Providence of God most eminently watcheth over the boldest adventurers in the way of their duty They are the words of our blessed Lord Mar. 8.35 Whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel shall save it They observe in war that the soldier that turns his back and flyes is in much more danger than he who stands to it and that nothing makes a conqueror so much as resolution and bold adventuring it is so in our spiritual fight with the world be then of good courage in it and quit your selves like men remember God is with you and if so there 's more with you than can be against you God indeed in our combats with the world doth not always keep us shot-free and bring us off without a scratch but those whom he doth bring off are ordinarily those who are most valiant and adventurous however it is better to fall valiantly than cowardly and our Lord hath told us That if a man will save his life he shall lose it if he hath such a mind to sleep in a whole skin that he will neglect his duty and do that which his heart condemneth him for doing he shall lose what he hoped to save by it be it life reputation estate c. It speaketh great unbelief and distrust in God to be cowards in plain and certain duties Be prudent but take heed of forbearing necessary duty out of prudence or being faint in the performance of it That can be no prudence If a man fainteth in the day of adversity Solomon saith that his strength is but small his faith is but small and his observation of Gods Providence in such cases hath been very small too But I shall add no more upon this Argument SERMON XXV Psal CVII 43. Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. I Have done with the Tenth thing in the motions of Divine Providence which I commended to your observation I proceed now to another Observ 11. The Providence of God maketh a very frequent and remarkable use of the sins of people though it be always spotless in making such use of
Apostle tells us Rom. 11.11 12. They did not stumble that they might fall but through their fall salvation came unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie The Apostles upon their going out to preach to the Gentiles gives this account of it Forasmuch as you have judged your selves unworthy of eternal life that was by not receiving the Gospel we turn unto the Gentiles What shall I need say more there is no soul brought to Heaven but is an eminent instance of this If they had not sinned they would have no need of any pardon or justification from the guilt of sin no need of a Saviour or Mediator God suffereth the souls of his People to be concluded under the guilt of sin that he might have mercy upon them It is also an ordinary observation of Divines That God often suffereth people to fall into some gross and scandalous sins that he might take that advantage to awaken them to repentance and make use of their falls to a rising again to a new life and this is often seen in those that have lived civilly and might be prone to trust to their own Moral Righteousness But I shall inlarge no further in the Justification of so obvious an Observation It follows that I should shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence 1. The truth is in the first place it is hard to conceive how otherwise some of Gods greatest works of Providence could have been produced What would the Revelation of a Covenant of Grace have signified to the world if the Covenant of Works had not first been violated by the first mans transgression How could else any man imagine that the salvation of the world should have been accomplished by the death of Christ if God had not made use of the wicked action of those who took him and by wicked hands crucified him The Apostle assureth us that in all they did against our Lord they did but execute what the counsel of the Lord had predetermined should be done If sin did not abound how should grace much more abound Rom. 5. In the pardon of sins the justification of a guilty soul the Scripture tells us That all are concluded under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe What should we say to the great work of Providence in trying his Saints by afflictions and persecutions from the hands of violent men God maketh use of the sins of Persecutors to perfect his Saints by the exercises of their faith and patience it could not be without the sins of those who persecute others for righteousness sake 2. Again God by this getteth himself a great deal of glory I have spoke something to this under the seventh Observation but let me here add a little 1. He gets himself the glory of his power There is a fancy hath possessed the Philosophers of the world That metals of a baser nature may by art be turned into nobler metals brass c. into gold and they will tell you that some such thing hath been done and aboundance of time and money hath been spent by the vain and covetous Philosophers of the world to little purpose to find out this Philosophers stone as they call it but supposing such a thing possible yet there must be some similar quality to help or they will not pretend to any such thing no Philosopher ever yet pretended by all his Chymistry to fetch gold out of a dunghil But now in sin there is nothing of a similar quality to the glory of God there is nothing so opposite to the glory of God as the sins of men and women For God to fetch water out of a rock argued great power to raise up Abraham children from the stones of the field it must speak great power but yet not so much as for God to fetch his own glory out of peoples sins There is in sin an infinite opposition to the glory of God nothing so diametrically opposite to God's honour and glory as sin is Sampson put forth a riddle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness But what is this riddle to that which I am speaking of for the glory of God to come forth out of the dunghil the woful dunghil of the worst of mens actions for God to work out his own righteousness out of the vilest actions of men O it speaketh an infinite Power in God! it is a greater work to fetch light out of darkness I will saith God get me glory upon Pharaoh For God to get himself glory out of Pharaoh's hard heart was more than to get his people water out of an hard rock 2. God by it gets himself the glory of his infinite wisdom I told you in my former discourse that he is accounted the best Politician that can make the best use of all humours and serve his own designs even of his utter Enemies this is the top of a Politicians wisdom How great then must the Wisdom of God appear in this nothing hath such an enmity to God and his glory as sin hath Job speaketh it to the great glory and honour of God Job 5.13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsels of the crafty are carried head long It speaketh the wisdom of a man that he can make use of the capacious quality of a bird or a beast to catch a prey for him thus the faulconer maketh use of the hawk the huntsman of the dog the fisher-man of a fowl to catch birds or beasts or fish for him This I say speaketh the wisdom of a man above other creatures O how it speaketh the admirable Wisdom of God that he can make use of the worst belchings of lusts in mens hearts the most vile and rebellious actions of men and out of them fetch his own glory 3. But in the last place God above all doth by this magnifie the riches and freeness of his grace This is that wherein the Lord delights to have glory he predestinated adopted us c. to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.6 If God had taken man out of a state of innocency into Heaven we should never have admired free-grace so much as now it marvellously affects the heart of a child of God to see God make use of his falls of his sin and corruption and manifold rebellions to make his free-grace exceeding glorious We should never so much admire free-grace and mercy if we were not so great transgressors This is it which maketh grace precious in our eyes when we cry out of the belly of hell and he heareth us Thus far I have shewed you that God maketh a very ordinary use and a very remarkable use of peoples sins But I also added that it was a spotless use and thus it must be if God maketh it For he that is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity must be of a purer will
I hear some of you saying to me But how should we come to live this life what should we do that in dark and troublesom times we might live this life of Faith Let me give you something of advice in the case and then conclude with two or three Arguments 1. Study the Scriptures and observe the promises reposited in that storehouse for the people of God at all times and for all sorts of mercies The promises are those words by which men live The Scripture is a rich Store-house of mercy it is full of promises promises for this life and that which is to come there is in them a salve for every sore and this is well worth a Christians observation to see how God in his word hath fitted him with a plaister for every wound when thou findest the promises respecting thy state in particular indeavour to whet them upon thy heart It is a metaphor which God useth as to his precepts Deut. 6. and as it is the duty of a Child of God to whet the Precepts upon his heart to engage and quicken him to obedience so it is his duty to whet the promises upon his soul for his consolation The Scripture is full of comfortable words O be not ignorant of them it is a large and full store-house O be acquainted with it 2. Learn to live upon God in prosperity and fulness The Soul that maketh the Lord its portion in a time of prosperity and fulness will scarce be to seek in a day of emptiness and adversity Our too much living upon the creature while we have it will hinder our wholly living upon God when we want it Take heed of living too much upon your creature-enjoyments when you have them learn in the greatest affluence of the creatures in the greatest overflowings of your cup to live upon God and to say of them This is not my portion Saint Paul had his heart crucified to the world and dyed daily O how hard doth the Soul find it to live upon God in an evil time that hath not learned to live upon God in a good day and while it goeth well with him as to outward enjoyments You that are at ease in the world and do not know the evil that others meet with learn this lesson before the evil day cometh upon you and surpriseth you Learn to live upon God before you have nothing else but a God to encourage your self in 3. Observe the practice and experience of the Saints of God David lived by faith when he had nothing in the world left him he encouraged himself in his God Job lived by faith when he said Though he kills me yet I will put my trust in him Say to your Soul my Soul why should not I go and do likewise Why should I not do as David and Job did I have the same promise the same power truth and goodness of God to trust to and to live upon which any of the Servants of God have formerly had 4. Call thy heart off its disquietments indeavour to convince thy self of the sinfulness of them there is much in this as to one that is a true Christian if one that is a Child of God can effectually perswade himself that it is his sin to have his heart dead in an evil day to have his heart dejected because the Providence of God bloweth a cross upon him it will go a great way with him to command his heart off its disturbance Thus doth David Psal 42.11 why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me trust still in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God 5. Lastly strengthen your hearts with a resolution to trust in God though he killeth me saith Job I will put my trust in him See what David doth Psal 55. He had been bitterly complaining of the prosperity of the wicked and his own afflicted state in the close of the Psalm he cometh to give both himself and others good counsel v 22.23 Cast thy burthen upon the Lord he shall sustain thee he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved But thou O God shalt bring them down into the Pit of destruction bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days but I will trust in thee I have done with this discourse when I have commended this life of faith to you by two or three arguments 1. It is a life in death light in darkness strength in weakness comfort in misery the Soul that can live this life is a great conquerour over tribulation anguish persecution famine nakedness peril Sword yea it is more than a Conquerour Rom. 8.35 You shall see how it is with a Christian which hath learned to live the life of faith 2 Cor. 8.9 he may be troubled on every side but he will not be distressed he may be perplexed but he will not be in despair he may be persecuted but he will not be forsaken cast down but he will not be destroyed is not this a rare life A persecutor may take away the life of nature from a Christian but he cannot deprive him of his life of faith faith will keep the head of a Christian above water in the greatest deeps of trouble and affliction Read Heb. 11. and observe in how many difficulties in how many deaths that noble army of Martyrs lived by virtue of faith Yea and they lived well and cheerfully as you will find there Our Saviour adviseth his disciples to lay up for themselves treasure in Heaven where no moth came to corrupt no thieves to break through or steal Is it not an excellent thing for a Christian to have a life beyond the gun shot of a persecution beyond the mercies or cruelties of bloody wretches The life of faith is such as makes a man post funera vivere nay in funere vivere to live when he is dying Paul was in deaths often yet lived by fatih he saith of himself and others of the servants of God that they were killed all the day long yet they lived still they lived by faith The life of faith cannot be taken away by any evil hand No nor can the comfort and sweetness of it be touched or empaired by the Sons of Belial 2. It is a distinguishing life The unbeliever may live the life of a beast which is the life of a beast he may live the life of a man which is the life of reason but notwithstanding this he may perish for ever but he that liveth the life of faith shall not perish he who liveth this life shall live for ever 3. Lastly It is a free and independent life We account in the world that that man liveth the best life that liveth the freest life in least dependency upon others Hence we do not account the life of a Beggar or a Servant or a Child so good a life as the life of him that lives upon none but upon what he
and blesseth God 2 Cor. 11.4 Who saith he comforteth us in all tribulation that we may be able to comfort those which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God It is said of Luther that he was wont to say that Three things make a Divine Temptations Meditation and Prayers Luther was himself a man of great temptations and by them became able to succour those that were tempted No knowledg is like experimental knowledg none knoweth either how to sympathize with or how to succor those that are under temptations desertions or any Soul-troubles so well as those who themselves have been under them experience is a great Mistress when therefore God hath a design upon some Souls to make use of them for succor and relief of others under Soul-troubles and afflictions he often first brings themselves under them and supports and comforts them then they know how to speak a word in season how to comfort and relieve 2. Again God may be conceived reasonably to do it upon a gracious design in order to carrying on of his work in their own Souls we know not what manner of Spirit we are of God knoweth all our tempers seeth all our inclinations and dispositions 1. I have told you that some persons are more complexioned to some sins than others Every man hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper lust and corruption by which he more ordinarily offendeth than other ways God to prevent the breaking out of this corruption afterwards layeth the Soul under the load and burthen of it and maketh his former miscarriages of that Nature more exceedingly bitter unto him that so he may see how little fruit he may afterwards expect of those things of which he hath been to that degree ashamed and which he hath tasted to that degree bitter unto his Soul 2. He may possibly see some of more brisk and airy tempers more inclined to pride and being lifted up above measure and therefore thinks fit to keep them longer under the Spirit of bondage as he did with Paul after he had been rapt up into the third Heaven and heard unutterterable words lest as he saith he should be exalted above measure God gave him a thorn in the flesh Thus now I have given you some little account of the variety of Gods Providential dispensations toward Souls in the collation of the first grace but now I have done I can only say with Job Chap. 26.14 Lo these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him The end of all this discourse is not to pretend to give you all the reason of God in these his dispensations for who can by searching find out God who can find out the Almighty unto perfection we must say such knowledg is too wonderful for us but only to shew you that this various way of Gods dealing with Souls whom he intendeth to bring to Heaven is not such but it will approve it self to the reason of every reasonable Creature and such as is very equitable and proper for the wise God in order to the compassing of his most wise and glorious ends Let me now shew you what use is proper for us to make of these meditations and observations Vse 1. In the first place this may mind us to take heed of a rash judgment either in our own case or in the cases of others we are very prone to give our selves needless trouble and to pass unrighteous Judgments concerning the work of God upon our own and others Souls One concludeth he hath as yet no work of God upon his heart he was never humbled never so broken upon the Wheel never under such legal terrors nor so long under the Spirit of bondage as some others he cannot give an account to himself of any certain time nor of any certain Sermon when or whereby God wrought upon and changed his heart and we are too too ready to sit in Judgment upon the work of God also on the Souls of others You have heard that the ways of God are past finding out God doth not always tread the same path and the variety which God useth towards Souls under different circumstances and for different ends is very reasonable we have all of us reason enough to be troubled if we do not find this great work wrought in our Souls but if we do find that our hearts are changed that the work is done for the way or means or time which God hath taken or used to do it in or by we have no such reason to be sollicitous those who are come to work in the Vineyard at the Ninth or Eleventh hour shall have their Penny as well as those who were called and came in at the Sixth hour God doth not always work in the same order and method he is not to be tracked in his ways The conversion of the Soul lyeth in the change of the heart I would not with any trust to Baptismal conversion or regeneration If the heart be changed if the Soul be renewed according to the Image of God if old things be passed away in it and all things become new whether it was done this or that way by this or that means in this or that manner is no just cause at all of trouble to us God hath several ways to do his work by we must pass a judgment upon our selves from what we find within our selves the frames and tempers of our Spirits for what man knoweth the things of a man but the Spirit of a man which is within him But we must judge of others from the change we see in their lives and conversations Man looketh upon the outward appearance but God looketh upon the heart 1 Sam. 16.7 If we look upon our Neighbour and there appear no spots upon him but what may be the spot of Gods people no markes of profaneness or impiety towards God nor of unrighteousness toward man but he appeareth to us one who herein exercised himself to keep a good conscience both toward God and towards men we ought to judge this person one whose heart God hath changed If we look into our own hearts and can find that we truly love God and hate evil that we are afraid to sin against God and are desirous in all things to please him though we cannot find that the ways of God with our Souls in our conversion have been like the ways of God with the Souls of other men yet we ought not in this case to judge or to condemn our selves Gods ways are not alike with every Soul Its work in the effect as to the main is alike for it is true as to every man that except he be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God but his way of working is not the same Vse 2. In the Second place what you have heard affordeth great encouragement to every Soul under any circumstance to turn unto God
given him to do so the reprobate must fill up his measures too It may be a poor wretch hath been a swearer a Sabbath-breaker a drunkard an unclean person many years God hath born with him let him alone there want yet some drops to fill up the measures of his sin he falls upon the people of God turns a persecutor smiteth his fellow-servants with the fist of violence and wickedness then cometh the master of that servant in an hour when he looketh not for him and presently giveth him his portion with Hypocrites where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth offences must come they will come but wo be to those by whom they come Methinks there is a great Emphasis in those words That upon you may come all the righteous blood that hath been shed upon the earth from the blood of Abel c. There was a great deal of righteous blood shed from the time of Abel to the time of Zechariah what had God let it all sleep had God in those hundreds of years reckoned with sinners for none of it Yes certainly God had revenged himself of many a blood-thirsty man But yet Abels blood was not expiated in Christs time there was yet an arrear of reckoning for Abels blood Well who shall pay for it even every one that was Cains successor in that kind of sin You read no such expression in Holy-writ with reference to any other sin This sin this devouring of persons more righteous than our selves hath many grains of guilt in it more than any other sins have men by it fill up the measure of the sins of a Nation and they fill up the measure of their own personal sins It is a saying as I remember of Augustines Nemo habet injustum lucrum sine justo damno lucrum habet in arca damnum in conscientia No man getteth any unjust gain without a just loss his gain is laid up in his chest but his loss is in his Conscience he gets a penny or two into his purse but a seal of damnation in his soul I am sure all the gains any get by devouring the persons who are more righteous than themselves is an unjust gain Yea though God gives it them it is unjust gain God is but permissive in the case and Gods permission doth not salve them but that they are possessores malae fidei God gave the Assyrians the Caldeans and other enemies of the Israelites the prey they took from the Jews yet he often calls it by his Prophets that which is not theirs the loss is in their Consciences they are hardned to destruction sealed up to the condemnation of Hell they fill up the measures of their iniquities by their violence 4. But lastly Why should not God be righteous in suffering wicked men to do his people good This is a point I have something largely before spoken to and therefore may be shorter in this Discourse prosunt gelu nix quia incommodant saith one they do them good by doing them hurt as snow and frost do good to the Corn. The Apostle tells the people of God that all things are theirs 1 Cor. 3.21 that is for their good profit and advantage and again All things work together for the good of them that love God The dignity of the people of God is such that not only bruit beasts but bruitish men St. Pauls Ephesian beasts shall be harnessed for their service in order to their eternal salvation and if the Angels be ministring spirits for the good of Gods elect it is no wonder if the children of the Devil be beasts ministring for their service too They say Vespasian had a wretched saying that the smell of mony was sweet from whencesoever it came I am sure the odor of grace is sweet whatsoever be instrumental for the sending it forth The truth is what the wiser Philosophers said of a morally good and wise man is much more true of one spiritually wise and good He is out of the jurisdiction of evil Seneca saith that a wise man cannot be contemned of any quia magnitudinem suam novit because he knoweth his own riches A gracious man can be imprisoned by none because he knows his own liberty and will enjoy it when the world hath done what it can he can be plundred by none because he knoweth his own riches It were a vast work to open to you how many wayes the persecutions of the saints advantage and profit the people of God but I have in some measure done it before and shall not again further enlarge upon it The Apostle telleth you much in short when he telleth you that Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope I shall add no more to the Doctrinal part of this Discourse Vse 1. Now hear O Israel hear all you sons and daughters of men are not the Lords ways equal Is not your judgment of them unequal This is the great argument against Divine Providence because in the world there appeareth such a confusion of things The wicked walk on every side while vilest men are exalted prophane leud persons live grow old are rich and great in power The Sun which seemeth to go down upon the Tabernacles of some that fear the Lord shineth bright upon the Tabernacles of the ungodly the people of God are afflicted plundred nay and which seemeth hardest of all the holiest and best of men are devoured by the vilest and most prophane wretches this is that which is a sore temptation to men and makes them think that certainly there is no God who judgeth the world or that God regardeth not the affairs of the world there is no strength in this argument no reason for such a conclusion the love or hatred of God is not to be concluded from any thing which is before us in this life as with reference to actions we call good evil and evil good so through the deceitfulness of our senses we miscall things we call those things evil which separate them from the affection of our sense have no evil in them and things good which have no real goodness Now the judgement of sense is a very fallible judgement do you see the wicked prosper the godly man visited every morning and chastned every moment come but up into the sanctuary and you will be able to unriddle this Providence Job saw the wicked flourishing and taking root but suddenly he cursed his habitation You see the innocent children of God imprisoned plundred c. Dives clad in purple and faring delicously every day while poor Lazarus lies at his door full of sores begging what falleth from his Table and cannot get any relief Come up into the Sanctuary and you shall there see Lazarus this poor begging Lazarus in Abrahams bosom and Dives that fared so deliciously and was so richly clad begging a cup of cold water to cool his tongue Had you been with St. John in his vision Rev. 7. you would
have seen a great number of all nations kindred and people stonding before the Lamb and cloathed with white robes and with Palms in their hands and these were such as come out of great tribuâ—â—tion and had washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and were in triumph serving God day and night Vse 2. What you have heard upon this argument looketh very wistly upon every prosperous sinner which this day heareth me and boasteth in his large possessions of the good things of this life The sum of what you have heard is that the things which you glory in are not truly good that they are but temporary rewards or gifts of God that they are means to bring you to the acknowledgement of God that oft-times through mens corruptions they prove the means of their greater ruine 1. In the first place How should this take down a sinners plumes Let not the great man glory in his greatness nor the rich man in his riches Let not any say in his heart if God had not a favour to me he would never give me such an estate such a success in my trade such an healthy body c. The method of Providence is quite contrary I have somewhere met with a story that anciently according to the laws of Persia a malefactor had liberty for an hour before he died to ask what he would and it was not denied to him One they say condemned to dye and being according to their custom askt what he would desire answers Neither this nor that but only That I may see the Kings face which being granted he so plied the King in that hour as that he obtained his pardon whereupon they say that the Persians altered their custom and covered the Malefactors face as soon as he was condemned that he might see the King no more God to thousands of sinners gives what their hearts could wish riches honours pleasures they are poor condemned wretches by the law of God for all this vessels of wrath fitted for destruction when the hour-glass of their life in this world is run out they are to be turned into Hell to depart from God as accursed creatures into those everlasting burnings that are prepared for the Devil and his Angels Only God that all his creatures might tast something of his bounty for that hour giveth them all good things of this life had it not now been a silly and unreasonable thing suppose the Malefactor had asked for and had a House full of Gold or Silver or all the great titles the world could have dignified him with to have gloried and boasted of them as tokens of the Kings love when in the mean time he knew he was a poor condemned wretch and by and by to be cut off from the enjoyment of them all Is not this the very case thou knowest thy self to be a drunkard a swearer a liar an unclean person thou knowest that for these courses the righteous law of a righteous God hath condemned thee it saith such persons shall never see God shall never enter into the Kingdom of God but be thrown into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone God out of his bounty gives thee for the few hours thou hast to live out of Hell health riches honours pleasures all thy heart can wish in the world hast thou any reason to boast thy self in these things or to be proud of them thy condition is infinitely worse than the Philosopher's that could eat no dainties at the Kings Table because he saw a naked sword hang over his head by a twine-thread Certainly poor wretch it were thy wisdom for this little time of thy life to do as it is said that Malefactor in Persia did despise all things and only desire thou mightest apply thy self for the little time of thy life with tears fasting and prayer to God that thou mightest see his face and obtain the pardon of thy sins through the blood of Christ Poor wretches what in the mean time have you to glory in what have you to be proud of What should make you walk with a stretched-out neck or a lofty eye thou art not master of one good thing thou callest them good because they are grateful to thy sense and please thy sensitive appetite and they are so far good as they serve thy outward necessities but of no significancy at all either to thy spiritual or eternal happiness Yet these are the things which make the wicked man proud swelling in an high opinion of himself despising others Oh! that God would make you understand that you have not only perishing fleshly bodies to be covered with soft and gay cloathing but immortal souls that you are creatures under an ordination to an eternal existence and that nothing can be worth naming as good but what will profit you as to your immortal capacity What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what can a man give in exchange or ransome for it You have heard of a Prince that in his extremity of thirst cried out a Kingdom for a draught of water The time will come when every impenitent sinner shall wish that he had not had a foot of land in the world nor a rag to cover his nakedness so be it that he had had the pardon of his sins and the robes of Christs righteousness to cover the nakedness of his soul Let him therefore that glorieth glory in this that God is his Lord and Jesus Christ is his Saviour 2. This speaketh to the prosperous sinner as not to be high-minded because he hath nothing to be proud of so to fear and to keep and enjoy what he hath with fear and trembling James would have the Rich man rejoice when he is brought low Jam. 1.10 Because as the flower of the grass he passeth away and when he hath lost his riches his honour his outward felicity he hath lost all but here are greater reasons yet because by a prosperous condition oftentimes poenalis nutritur impunitas a penal impunity is nourished Prosperity slayeth the fools and sinners are ordinarily by it fatted and prepared for the day of slaughter David saw that God set the prosperous sinner in slippery places upon Pinacles and Towers but slippery places you observe that the bloughtiness as you call it of the body is but an ill sign of unhealthiness the sinners growing fat in outward enjoyments I am sure is no good sign Psal 73.17 18 19. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castest them down to destruction how are they brought to destruction in a moment they are utterly consumed If a child of God hath reason to rejoice when he is brought low surely a sinner hath reason to tremble when he is up on high Godly men have used to be afraid of prosperity it is an hard thing for the most watchful Christian to keep his feet when he is set upon the slippery mountain of riches