Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	bear_v	evil_a	tree_n	4,505	5	11.4899	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08803	Several discourses concerning the actual Providence of God. Divided into three parts. The first, treating concerning the notion of it, establshing the doctrine of it, opening the principal acts of it, preservation and government of created beings. With the particular acts, by which it so preserveth and governeth them. The second, concerning the specialities of it, the unseachable things of it, and several observable things in its motions. The third, concerning the dysnoēta, or hard chapters of it, in which an attempt is made to solve several appearances of difficulty in the motions of Providence, and to vindicate the justice, wisdom, and holiness of God, with the reasonableness of his dealing in such motions. / By John Collinges ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing C5335; ESTC R233164	689,844	860

and afflictions to cry out O God help me c. I remember the saying of our Divine English Poet. My heart did heave and there came forth My God By which I knew that thou wert in the rod. The word of God directeth it Is any man afflicted let him pray saith the Apostle Call upon me saith God in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me This was the practice of the Saints in all times It was Asa's fault in his Affliction that he sought unto Physitians more than unto God it is the condition upon which help and deliverance is promised be the species of the trial and affliction what it will Vse 3. In the last place let us learn from hence instead of quarrelling at Divine Providence and Justice in afflicting so to behave our selves under our troubles as we may see cause to bless God for them and to admire Divine goodness in them Nazianzene telleth us a story of one Philagrius who in his affliction brake out into this expression Gratias ago tibi Pater tuorumque hominum conditor qui nos invitos reluctantes beneficiis afficis per externum hominem purgas internum that is I thank thee O Father and maker of man thy servant for that thou dost us good against our wills and while we reluct to it and by the outward purgest the inward man And I have read a remarkable passage of Plinius Secundus an Heathen too in an Epistle of his to Maximus The sickness of a friend saith he hath lately informed me that we are best when we are weak for who is there who while he is sick is covetous or proud or wanton who then serveth his amours who is ambitious Then saith he a man remembreth that there is a God and that he is but a man then he admireth none envieth none despiseth none then he neither heareth nor carrieth false tales O saith he that we could be as well when we are well as when we are sick This is that I could wish too But the worst is we are very religious and innocent when we are in affliction but when we are got out of the net we are as foolish and wanton as before God by trouble and affliction for the time doth us good Subtilissima ejus beneficia saith an ingenious Author Sponte dantur sed non sponte recipiuntur But for the most part that goodness proveth like a morning-dew But in order to the improving trouble and affliction let me only commend to you four things with which I shall shut up my discourse on this argument 1. The first is Meditation Affliction is a seasonable time for much Meditation It is a fit time for thee to meditate wherefore it is that God contendeth with thee Job 10.2 I will say unto God do not condemn me shew me wherefore thou contendest with me The time of affliction is a fit time when man sits alone and keepeth silence and the noises and hurries of the World do not disturb him to be thinking what he hath done communing with his own heart upon his bed and certainly this will have a good influence upon thee if thy sickness will make thee avoid eating a dish of meat for the time to come which appeareth to thee the proximate cause of thy disease surely it will lay some Law upon thee as to the favouring of such lusts which appear to have been the more remote cause provoking God in that dispensation against thee It is also a fit time for thee to meditate of the vanity of all the contentments of the world Non domus fundus non aeris acervus auri Aegroto domini deduxit corpore febrim Experience then teacheth a man That Riches profit not in the day of wrath all a mans house and Land and Gold and Silver will not relieve him in a Fever what a pitiful thing is beauty or strength which one fit of sickness depriveth us of what a lamentable excrement is well set hair which a cough turns into baldness what vain things are fine clothes which in sickness are exchanged for rags It is a seasonable time also for thee to meditate of Divine goodness what a mercy it is that the Rattle snake hath a rattle The Tyger another beast to give warning of 't is being near that thou hast diseases to put thee in remembrance of thy latter end It is a fit time also for thee to meditate of the power of Divine wrath 2. Vow unto God in the day of thy trouble Jacob did so Gen. 28.20 So did David Psal 132.2 Lord saith the Psamist remember David and all his afflictions how he sware unto the Lord and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. Jonah did so Jonah 2.9 3. But then remember to pay thy vows Vow and pay unto the Lord your God Psal 76.11 Better you should not vow than that you should forget to pay what you have vowed This were to snare thy self in the words of thy own lips 4. To this end lastly Pray that you may keep your sick bed impressions upon your hearts In your troubles you had thoughts of your eternal state upon your hearts then you were thinking what you should do if you should be called to Gods judgment-seat Then you were saying If I live I will be another man I will keep Sabbaths better be more in Prayer more in reading and hearing the word more watchful over my heart more careful of my ways more conscientious in my dealings more strict in my Family If ever I recover I will by the grace of God never be so worldly so carnal as I have been well thou art recovered now pray that thou mayest fulfil thy vows and that these impressions may not be off thy heart for ever SERMON XXXIX Job 5.6 7. Although Affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground IS there any evil in the City and I have not done it saith God by his prophet Amos. The interrogation is an undoubted Negation Vain man would be wise though saith Job ch 11.12 he be born like a wild Asses colt Hence it employeth it self in traducing the equal ways of God as if they were unequal Hence he saith how can that God who is infinite in goodness be the Author of evil Is it good for him to oppress to despise the work of his hands Job 10.2 In my last discourse I shewed you that it was consistent enough with the goodness of God to be the Author of the evil of punishment We look upon a staff in the water and it appeareth to us crooked when the fault is not in our staff but only in the weakness and imperfection of our sight and the unquietness of the water pull the staff out of the water and look upon it by a due medium and that is straight We look upon things with blood shotten Eyes and they appear of strange colours but when our Eyes are rectified

Apostles and Prophets Christ himself being the chief corner stone Madam I most humbly beg pardon of your Ladiship and noble Husband for no further taking notice of him in this Epistle I had not when I wrote it knowledg enough of him to entitle me to such a presumption I now so far know him as to let me know he will not be disgusted at what is offered to your Ladiship and to assure me he is one who owneth and adoreth Divine Providence and if he had no other motives I pretty well am assured also that its dispensation towards himself in disposing such a Lady to his bosom and making him such a Father in our Israel by your Ladiship as he is and I trust shall further be would be sufficient I most humbly beg Madam all the Blessings of Heaven and Earth upon him and upon your Ladiship and all those whom God hath given you and crave the honour to subscribe my self May 1. 1678. Your Honours most humble Servant JOHN COLLINGES Mr. GEORGE HERBERT ON Providence O Sacred Providence who from end to end Strongly and sweetly movest shall I write And not of thee through whom my fingers bend To hold my quill shall they not do thee right Of all the creatures both in sea and land Only to man thou hast made known thy ways And put the pen alone into his hand And made him Secretary of thy praise Beasts fain would sing Birds ditty to their notes Trees would be turning on their native Lute To thy renown but all their hands and throats Are brought to Man while they are lame and mute Man is the Worlds High-Priest he doth present The Sacrifice for all while they below Vnto the Service mutter an assent Such as Springs use that fall and Winds that blow He that to praise and laud thee doth refrain Doth not refrain unto himself alone But robs a thousand who would praise thee fain And doth commit a world of sin in one The Beasts say Eat me but if beasts must teach The Tongue is yours to eat but mine to praise The Trees say Pull me but the hand you stretch Is mine to write as it is yours to raise Wherefore most Sacred Spirit I here present For me and all my fellows praise to thee And just it is that I should pay the rent Because the benefit accrues to me We all acknowledg both thy power and love To be exact transcendent and divine Who dost so strongly and so sweetly move While all things have their will yet none but thine For either thy Command or thy Permission Lay hands on all they are thy right and left The first puts on with speed and expedition The other curbs sins stealing pace and theft Nothing escapes them both all must appear And be dispos'd and dress'd and tun'd by thee Who sweetly temper'st all If we could hear Thy skill and art what musick would it be Thou art in small things great not small in any Thy even praise can neither rise nor fall Thou art in all things one in each thing many For thou art infinite in one and all Tempests are calm to thee they know thy hand And hold it fast as children do their fathers Which cry and follow Thou hast made poor sand Check the proud sea ev'n when it swells and gathers Thy Cupboard serves the World the meat is set Where all may reach no beast but knows his feed Birds teach us hawking fishes have their net The great prey on the less they on some weed Nothing ingendred doth prevent his meat Flies have their table ●●read e're they appear Some creatures have in winter what to eat Others do sleep and envy not their chear How finely dost thou times and seasons spin And make a twist checker'd with night and day Which as it lengthens winds and winds us in As bowls go on but turning all the way Each creature hath a wisdom for his good The pigeons feed their tender off-spring crying When they are callow but withdraw their food When they are fledg that need may teach them flying Bees work for man and yet they never bruise Their Masters flow'r but leave it having done As fair as ever and as fit to use So both the flow'r doth stay and honey run Sheep eat the grass and dung the ground for more Trees after bearing drop their leaves for soil Springs vent their streams and by expence get store Clouds cool by heat and Baths by cooling boil Who hath the vertue to express the rare And curious vertues both of Herbs and Stones Is there an Herb for that O that thy care Would shew a root that gives expressions And if an Herb hath power what have the Stars A Rose besides his beauty is a cure Doubtless our Plagues and Plenty Peace and Wars Are there much surer than our Art is sure Thou hast hid Metals man may take them thence But at his peril when he digs the place He makes a grave as if the thing had sense And threatned man that he should fill the space Ev'n poysons praise thee Should a thing be lost Should creatures want for want of heed their due Since where are poysons antidotes are most The help stands close and keeps the fear in view The Sea which seems to stop the Traveller Is by a Ship the speedier passage made The Winds who think they rule the Mariner Are rul'd by him and taught to serve his Trade And as thy House is full so I adore Thy curious art in marshalling thy goods The Hills with health abound the Vales with store The South with Marble North with Furs and Woods Hard things are glorious easie things good cheap The common all men have that which is rare Men therefore seek to have and care to keep The healthy Frosts with Summer fruits compare Light without wind is glass warm without weight Is wool and furs cool without closeness shade Speed without pains a horse tall without height A servile hawk low without loss a spade All countreys have enough to serve their need If they seek fine things thou dost make them run For their offence and then dost turn their speed To be commerce and trade from sun to sun Nothing wears clothes but Man nothing doth need But he to wear them Nothing useth fire But Man alone to shew his heav'nly breed And only he hath fewel in desire When th' earth was dry thou mad'st a sea of wet When that lay gather'd thou didst broch the mountains When yet some places could no moisture get The winds grew gard'ners and the clouds good fountains Rain do not hurt my flowers but gently spend Your honey-drops press not to smell them here When they are ripe their odour will ascend And at your lodging with their thanks appear How harsh are thorns to pears and yet they make A better hedge and need less reparation How smooth are silks compared with a stake Or with a stone yet make no good foundation Sometimes thou dost divide

a man is using his tongue to lye to his neighbour to curse him to swear profanely and to blaspheme God methinks he should thus think with himself How easily can God stop my breath withdraw that hand from my tongue which upholds my faculty to speak Methinks he should remember the instance of Ananias and Saphira and Zechariah the father of John the Baptist but for a few words of unbelief When a man is stretching out his hand to work any iniquity methinks he should remember how easily God could do by him as by Jeroboam When he stretched out his hand to lay hold of the Prophet and his hand presently withered If any of you lent your hand to one that were blind or lame and he should spit in your face revile you c. would not you think it a strange daring of you Oh! what a daring of an holy just and powerful God it is for a man wilfully and presumptuously to use a member of his body or a power or faculty of his Soul knowingly and presumptuously to sin against God Thus this Doctrine may serve to defame sin to every ingenuous soul as it necessarily must be an impudent daring of a just and holy God 2. But it defameth it further As it speaketh it an act of the highest ingratitude imaginable Ingratitude soundeth ill very ill in the ears of humane nature so ill that an Heathen could say of it Call a man an ingrateful man and you call him all that is naught it is a very great vice Every sinner must say If God had not been so good to me I had not been so evil against him The Drunkard must say If God had not assisted me to my natural action in drinking I could not have dishonoured him by that excess The like must every sinner say the lyar the swearer the adulterer God hath nothing to do with the obliquity of their action but to the action so far forth as natural his Providence assisteth upholding the natural faculties to their natural Operations And do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people Is this your thankfulness to God for Gods assistance of you in the use of your faculties for the necessary uses of your life I gave thee cloth saith God to cover thy nakedness thou makest it to serve thy pride my creatures to silence thy natural passions of hunger and thirst and thou usest it to serve thy Luxury I gave thee a tongue to interpret thy mind to thy neighbour and to praise me and I assist thee in the natural use of it thou usest it to swear curse to blaspheme my great and sacred name I gave thee an hand and assist thee in the use of it that thou mayest get bread and do the works of thy calling in order thereunto thou usest it to smite with the fist of wickedness to persecute and oppress my people Thus the sinner turneth the gifts of God into weapons with which he fighteth against him I remember a quite contrary resolution in holy David Psal 116 I will saith he take the cup of salvation and praise the Lord. I know that Poculum salutis is capable of other interpretations which are also given according to the various fancies of Interpreters But why may not we interpret it thus I will take that very mercy which thou hast shewed me and use it and improve it for thy honour and glory Certainly thus we ought to do as Hannah 1 Sam. 1. did by her child Samuel which she had begged and received of God She takes her child and at the return of the year carrieth him up to Hierusalem and saith For this child I prayed and the Lord heard me hath given me my Petition which I asked of him Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth he shall be lent unto the Lord. But of this more under the next head to which I now come to shew you how far what you have heard may be useful 2. To promove piety and that both in the internal and external acts of it in the more immediate acts of homage which we are to pay to God and in all the duties of an holy and pious conversation before men in obedience to the will of God It is not hard to understand upon this hypothesis that God doth thus concur in the assistance of all our natural faculties in order to the preserving of us how reasonable it is that we should be in the fear of the Lord all the day long That we should live in an exercise of faith trust and dependency upon him That we should love the Lord at all times And for acts of more external immediate homage prayer and praise c. How reasonable a thing is prayer morning and evening doest thou not remember it is God that must concur to give thee sleep in the night a power to breath to move to work to eat to drink c. and give me leave to tell you if you do not think the sleep of the night or a strength to labour in the day an appetite to thy meat a power to digest it a liberty and power to breath mercies worth the asking it is because thou hast not wanted them much will you not every day have need of the use of your senses your hands your tongue your feet your ears c do not you think them mercies worth the asking Go to the lame and the blind and the deaf and those that lye on sick-beds and enquire of them they will better instruct you in the value of these things Do not you know what to pray for so often this Doctrine will shew you in part pray that God would preserve your life and being uphold your powers and faculties c. And Praise is as reasonable as Prayer you are every day fearfully and wonderfully preserved By whose power is it as Peter and James said to the people when they had cured the lame man Not by our power but by the power of Jesus of Nazareth doth this man walk So give me leave to tell you it is not by your own power nor by the meer vertue of your own faculties with which you are born that you sleep walk discourse work but by the mighty power of God concurring and assisting those faculties Particularly you may hence conclude the reasonableness of that Religious custom which some have bruitishly cast off begging a blessing upon your meat at meals and giving thanks after receit of it Lastly Certainly this Meditation well digested cannot but highly promove all manner of practical holiness For what is holiness but the obedience of the members of our bodies and powers and faculties of our Souls to the Will of God the exercise of them all according to the Divine Rule and the end for which he gave them to us and what can be more perswasive to this than for us to hear that as God hath given these powers so God upholdeth them in exercise in him we live

followeth in the fourth place the necessity of a law to be given unto man in his state of innocency For saith the Apostle where there is no law there is no transgression sin being the transgression of the law Now this Law with the promise annexed to it was the Covenant of Works on Gods part and the restipulation on mans part must be presumed or man had been a transgressor before the fall by a rebellion to the Divine Will and this formally maketh up the Covenant of Works God promising him life upon condition of his Obedience and man accepting the promise and agreeing to the terms or condition of life imposed on him Now God having given this Law and made this Covenant man by the violation of it became guilty a debtor to the Justice of God and so capable of a Redemption a Remission and Justification 5. I desire you to consider That the Covenant of Grace and promise by faith on Gods part could not possibly have been made good without the destruction of the first Covenant of Works and the promise of life made upon that this is that which the Apostle saith in my text That the promise by faith of Jesus might be given to them that believe I pray observe here are three things to be considered 1. The matter of the promise 2. The means by which the promise is to be obtained 3. The objects of it The promise intended is doubtless the promise of eternal life so often called in Scripture as being indeed the great and most valuable promise what is the means of obtaining it On Gods part it must be given out on mans part it must be received by faith for it is given to them that believe and it is therefore called the promise by faith in Jesus Christ Now the promise of life by works under the first Covenant was wholly inconsistent with this promise of being saved by faith in Christ Though the first Covenant comprehended a faith in God as being a piece of that internal homage which every soul oweth to God yet it could not comprehend a faith in Christ as our Mediator there being no need of a Saviour till we were in danger nor of a Mediator till we were become transgressors How therefore was it possible that the promise of faith in Christ to those who believe in him should be given out till first the Covenant of Works was both given out and also violated Though the law by the promise of saith in Christ was not destroyed so far forth as it was a directive and obligatory rule of life and conversation unto all yet so far as it was a Covenant of life it must be both given out and also destroyed that the promise of faith might be given out 6. In the last place I desire you to consider That as on Gods part the promise of life by faith in Christ was inconsistent with the promise of life upon the doing of the works of the law so on our part we should never have come to Christ that we might have life if we had not first been concluded under wrath And this will appear to every intelligent soul that will but consider That the going out of the soul unto Christ for life is a disclaimer of its own righteousness and a very great piece of self-denial to which the soul will never move naturally but must see it self constrained to it by necessity Isa 57.10 Thou hast found the life of thy hand therefore thou wert not grieved so long as a man seeth help in himself and thinks that he hath found life in his own hands so long he is not grieved not at all concerned as to his eternal state And this is the true reason why you see the greatest brokenness of heart and sense of sin yea and the greatest holiness of life too in those men that yet look to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ for our free-will men that maintain a power in man to believe and repent or to keep the Law of God perfectly they have said they have found life in their own hands and then I hope they have none but themselves to blame if they miss and come short of it if they do not repent and turn unto God to day they can do it to morrow It was necessary as on Gods part in order to his giving out of the promise of faith in Christ and exhibition of the Covenant of Grace to the world so also on our part in order to our acceptation and taking hold of any such Covenant and the application of our souls unto God upon the terms of that Covenant for the sure mercies of it that there should first be a Covenant of Works made with man and a law of works given unto him for had there been no such Covenant made no such Law given man could not have broken and violated it and if he had not violated and broken it he could not have been a transgressor he could not have been a lost sinner and consequentially had needed no Saviour nor would man have ever been perswaded to have gone out of himself and to have accepted of the righteousness of Christ for his righteousness had he not first been rendred in a forlorn desperate and hopeless condition without Application unto Christ Vse 1. For the practical Application of what you have heard now in this discourse This in the first place should mind us not to be hasty to deny nor too forward to stumble at some things in the dispensations of God which at first seem to us hard to be understood Who can find out God or search out the Almighty unto perfection I do not know any thing that looketh more inconsistently in appearance to us at our first view of it than this That God should from eternity six the salvation of man upon a Covenant of Grace and write it in his book That there should be salvation in no other than in Jesus Christ nor any other name given under heaven amongst men whereby they might be saved that he who believeth should be saved and he who believed not should be damned for all these things were decrees in the rolls of eternity or they could never have been Revelations of Gods Will in Scripture Heb. 10.5 6 7. and Psal 40.7 In the volume of Gods book it was written of Christ that he should come into the world and do the Will of God relating to the salvation of man I say that God should thus setle mans salvation in the order of its causes and upon the terms of free-grace the merit and satisfaction of Christ and Faith in him and yet when mankind was created God should treat him upon a Law of Works and make a Covenant with him for life and salvation upon condition of his perfect obedience both to the Law written at that time upon his heart and this positive precept of not eating of the tree of forbidden fruit yet there is nothing clearer in Scripture than that God

did do this for to say that these were second thoughts about mans salvation when he was lapsed and fallen were to blaspheme by attributing change of mind and purpose to God and a successive knowledg of things such as we have upon the events so ascribing humane imperfections to a most holy God If God from all eternity did settle the business of mans salvation as the Apostle saith he did Ephes 1.4 5 6 7. Cousing us in him before the foundation of the world that is in Christ as ver 3. that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace and this as vers 8. was the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself sure we are he created man in a state that was not capable of these spiritual blessings until he was fallen from it and that God according to that holy and guiltless state wherein he made man did first stipulate with him in a Covenant of Works and offered him life upon his doing the Law of God I would gladly know of those who so flutter with their little ratiocinations about the seriousness of Gods actings in his offers of grace and would make us believe that God doth not serio agere act seriously in calling men to believe and repent unless there were a possibility of salvation for them all or unless Christ intentionally dyed for all or men had a power in their lapsed estate to do things spiritually good I say I would fain know of them whether God was in earnest or no with Adam when he promised him life upon the Covenant of Works It is most certain that he either never intended that Adam or any of his posterity should go to Heaven that way or that he was frustrated of his intention which God cannot be If he never intended that any should be that way saved I would know of them whether God was serious or no with Adam in such a proposal of life unto him if they can find out an answer in this case it will also serve in the other God was serious with Adam in the making of the Covenant of Works with him serious with respect unto his own end which was not that any should be saved by the fulfilling of that Covenant which he knew none would but that it should be as a School-master to lead us to Christ as the Apostle speaketh of the Law contained in Ordinances and introductive to the exhibition of that better Covenant which God had established with the Son of his Love and upon which he had fixed the salvation of the Elect. Vse 2. We may learn from hence That it is consistent enough with the holiness of God to require things of persons which it is not his Will of purpose that they should do and to make conditional promises to them who he knoweth will never fulfil the condition These are two things which some make a great pudder with that they might establish their universalities and obtain against the Election of Grace They think that if God had determined the certain number of those who should be saved or for whom Christ dyed others should not be called to or required to believe or repent nor a promise of life and salvation and life made to them in case of their repenting and believing for they apprehend it inconsistent with the truth and holiness of God to require that of men which it is not his will or purpose they should do or to offer them life and salvation upon a condition from the performance of which they are precluded by the purpose of God We must adhere to this that there is nothing contingent to God no event which he did not from eternity foreknow and therefore foreknow because he willed either to effect or to permit it We can neither allow of any ignorance to be imputed unto God nor any succession in his knowledg nor apprehend it possible that God should from all eternity know who would believe and repent which none could without his special grace without willing that grace to them by vertue of which they should put forth these saving acts and therefore such to whom he did not by his eternal purpose will those habits of grace must be passed over But then say they who have other apprehensions How is it consistent with the truth and holiness of God to call all men to believe and to repent and to promise them eternal life and salvation upon the terms of faith and repentance We ask them how it was consistent with the truth and holiness of God to require of Adam under the Covenant of Works not to eat of the tree of forbidden fruit and to promise him life upon his not eating thereof when-as it is plain that God had purposed to permit him to eat thereof and foreknew that he would eat thereof and never intended that Adam or any of his posterity should come to Heaven by the fulfilling of that Covenant But then say they to what purpose are these Precepts or Promises Divers answers are given by Divines as to that question concerning those who are called to repent and to believe which possibly will hereafter fall in my way to touch upon At present as to this purpose it is enough to say Gods end in making the Covenant of Works with Adam was to make way for the publication of the Covenant of Grace For the exhibition and publication of which to the world there was no room until the Law and Covenant of Works was violated and man that was created in the Image of God and state of Holiness had fallen from that state and become concluded under wrath In the mean time observe here is a precept given which God had never intended should be obeyed a conditional promise made from which God never intended that any man should have any advantage and in that appeareth the advantage of this instance for in the calls of the Gospel to faith and repentance though the Lord hath told us Many are called and few are chosen Although all to whom the Gospel is Preached be not the chosen of God and within his purpose of eternal life and salvation yet some are and some say Non proprie per se reprobos hortatos esse ad fidem poenitentiam sed per concomitantiam quatenus electis externa societato permiscentur That is that reprobates are only called to faith and repentance as they are mixed together with the elect But here Adam and in him all mankind were called to a fulfilling of the Covenant of Works and life was upon that condition promised to them all when-as yet it was

never Gods purpose and intendment that any of them should fulfil it or that way obtain everlasting life Vse 3. In the last place my discourse upon this argument may let you see how uniformly the Providence of God in the conversion and bringing home to God of a particular sinner moveth to its motions and workings in order to the general publication of the Covenant of Grace and the way of salvation through him unto the world The way of God in making known of Jesus Christ to a particular soul is ordinarily first by the law to humble the soul and to conclude it under wrath and then to open to it a door of hope and indeed this is but a reasonable working of Providence and exceedingly suitable to the principles of reason and humane nature What signifies the news of a Redeemer unto him who either is no captive or is not sensible that he is the news of a Saviour to him that apprehendeth not himself lost or to stand in need of any salvation God therefore ordinarily in the conversion of a sinner layeth the Law to him sheweth him what God hath required of him how much he is a debtor to God how much he lyes open to wrath and is subject to the curse this letteth him see what need he hath of salvation by a Redeemer and induceth him to be willing to go unto Christ for life Now this motion and working of Providence as to particular souls bears a just proportion to Gods first Revelation of Christ unto the world God first gave unto Adam a Law of Works and made a Covenant with him and then permitted him to violate this Law to break this Covenant and then discovers the Covenant of Grace and Redemption which to this time lay hidden with God although as to the paction of it it was eternal And hence also appears an easie answer to that question whether men and women unregenerated be under the Covenant of Works or under the Covenant of Grace that all men since the fall of Adam are not under the dispensation of the Covenant of Works but under the dispensation of the Covenant of Grace is out of doubt for the Covenant of Works expired with Adams fall But thus far they are under the Covenant of Works viz. That there is no salvation for them but by keeping the whole Law in thought word and deed which is a state sad and miserable enough it being that which no man in his lapsed estate is able to do Adam indeed might have done it none since the fall can do it and from hence followeth the impossibility of salvation for any soul that is out of the Lord Jesus Christ The law they cannot keep so as from the fulfilling of that to expect salvation and whereas as the Apostle telleth us what the law could not do because it was made weak through our flesh that God himself hath done sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemning sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us they have no part nor portion in this matter no state nor interest in Christ but are without Christ and consequently during their present state incapable of any lively hope But this is enough to have spoken to this first difficulty and the inferences by way of Application to be made from it SERMON XXXVI Acts XVII 30. But now God commandeth all men every-where to Repent I Am endeavouring to expound to you some of the hard Chapters of Divine Providence These times justifying that to be true of the book of Providence which the Apostle Peter saith of St. Pauls Epistles 2 Pet. 3.16 There are in it some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest unto their own destruction It is truly said of Tertullian Deus omnium conditor nihil non ratione providet disposuit ordinavit nihil non tractari intelligique voluit that God the maker of all things hath rationally disposed and ordered all things and would have us to understand all his works It is most certain that all the Lords ways are equal and it is a noble employ to study the equality and reasonableness of them it may be sometimes we shall wade beyond our stature and be forced to cry out O the depth but I think that grave Ancient said true that told us That the Counsels of God do so exceed our capacity that in some particulars they yet wonderfully accommodate themselves to our intellectuals and men might understand more of the reasonableness of the motions of Divine Providence if they would bring to their observation not so much discutiendi acumen as discendi pietatem acuteness of wit to quarrel as an humble desire to learn of God and to understand his will We are prone for the directing of our conceptions of God to make to our selves images graven with the tools of philosophy and humane reason and then to bow to them Whereas could we be content to regulate our Philosophy so far as it relateth to God by the rules of his word and not to think to crook the word of God to our Philosophy many rough ways would be made plain and matters of question quickly rendred out of question I am speaking to such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of difficulty as arise to considerate souls from the consideration of the motions of Providence relating both to the Covenant of works and that of Grace I spake to one in my last exercise I now proceed to a second which I shall state thus Quest Supposing the Covenant of Redemption and Grace made betwixt the eternal Father and the Lord Jesus Christ not to have been general for all men nor incertain for persons that should be so and so qualified and that the blood of this Covenant was intentionally shed in proportion to the nature of the Covenant How it could consist with the truth of God to offer salvation to all in the ministry of his word upon the Gospel-terms of faith and repentance or to what end it should be done Here are two or three things here supposed which by a great many will not be granted 1. We suppose here first A Covenant made from eternity betwixt God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ relating to the salvation of the children of men This I know some will not understand but the Scripture speaketh plainly Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made he saith not to seeds as many but as of one and to thy seed which was Christ Gal. 3.16 Isa 42.6 and I will give thee for a Covenant to the people hence Christ was called a surety of a better Covenant he was both the party Covenanting and the surety of the Covenant God the Father taking the word of his Son for the fulfilling of the matter of the Covenant both what was to be done by himself upon which account it was called a Covenant of Redemption and by us with respect to

Election and the fall of Man 2. The permission of sin and so much sin sinners and so many sinners in the world 3. To such as related to the Remunerative and punitive Providence of God 4. Lastly To such as concern the dispensation both of the more external and the more internal and effectual means of grace I have spoken to divers Questions that have fallen under the Three first of these heads such as fall under the last remain yet to be spoken to but before I come to speak directly to such Questions I shall lay down Two preliminary Propositions to which I shall speak something 1. Prop. That God in his Providential dispensations of grace and the means of application of it whether more external or more internal acteth freely and unaccountably yet is in it both holy and just and good 2. Prop. That God in the dispensations of his paenal Providence in the withholding or withdrawing of the means of grace whether more external or more internal never acteth upon meer Prerogative but upon the demerit of the sins of people and in this he acteth justly and holily I will begin with the first of these and for that purpose I have made choice of this Text which is a Quotation which our Apostle bringeth out of the Books of Moses you shall find it Exod. 33.19 Moses said unto God vers 18. I beseech thee shew me thy glory And he said I will make all my goodness to pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy This is the Text which the Apostle quoteth here The Argument which the Apostle is upon in this Chapter is the rejection of the Jews as to which he vindicateth God in Two things 1. As to the promise made to Abraham a thing which the Jews bare up themselves much upon that they were the seed of Abraham and so in Covenant with God and if God should cast them off what could be said to justifie the truth and faithfulness of God What should become of the promise the Covenant made with Abraham and his seed for ever The word of God would have no effect This the Apostle answereth vers 6. and so to vers 13. He telleth them in the first place They were not all Israel which were of Israel And vers 7. That all who were the seed of Abraham were not all children and this he proveth vers 7. Because God said In Isaac shall thy seed be called and that the promise was given to Sarah that is saith the Apostle they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed And he tells them that it was the same case as to Rebecca Esau and Jacob were both the children of Rebecca but yet God loved Jacob and hated Esau vers 13. But some may possibly think this did not answer the Objection of the Jews for admitting that the promise was made to the children of Isaac the Jews were such Abraham indeed had a child by Hagar that was Esau and he had Sons by Keturah but all the Nation of the Jews were descended from Isaac who was the Son of Sarah to whom the promise confessedly was made To which I answer The Apostle had yet gained One main point viz. That the Jews could lay claim to nothing upon this account that they were the seed of Abraham for the promise was not made to the whole seed of Abraham but to a peculiar seed Now this peculiar seed was not all the children of Isaac this he proveth by the instance of Jacob and Esau who were both the children of Isaac for saith he vers 11. The children being not yet born neither having done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth It was said unto her The elder shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated This now proveth that God was not by his promise tied to all the children of Abraham by Isaac but was yet at liberty to what part of his seed he would fulfil his promise Well but might some say being they were both the children of Abraham how could God in righteousness shew mercy and compassion to one of them and not to another vers 14. What shall we say then Is there unrighteousness with God This the Apostle denieth and that with his ordinary aversation and detestation God forbid Now he proveth that there is no unrighteousness in this dispensation of God Because God had said to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion So then saith the Apostle It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy If there could be unrighteousness with God it must be because God hath somewhere by promise obliged himself to shew mercy to all the Jewish Nation but saith he the promise made to Abraham and to his seed will not reach so far that was not made to the whole seed of Abraham no not to all that descended from Abraham through the loins of his Son Isaac as appears by Gods hating Esau who was the Son of Isaac and his eldest Son too But more than this saith the Apostle God when he declared his glory to Moses Exod. 33. sufficiently expounded himself That his promise to Abraham's seed did not determine his grace to any parts or Nation but that he had a liberty left to him to shew or not to shew mercy to whom he pleased for he saith to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy So that the Proposition from this Text is of easie deduction Proposi That God in his Providential dispensations of grace and the means of its application acteth freely and unaccountably and in doing so there is no unrighteousness with God In this Proposition there are Two branches 1. That God in the dispensations of his grace acteth freely and unaccountably 2. That in his doing so there is no unrighteousness with him I say first God in these dispensations acteth freely and unaccountably the one of these necessarily followeth upon the other if he acteth freely he must needs act unaccountably for who can give an account of what man doth ex mero motu out of his own free inclination without any motive out of himself for that is meant by freely nothing compelling nothing moving or alluring him meerly from the good pleasure of his own will The reason of his having and shewing mercy is because he will thew mercy The Scripture giveth so plentiful a testimony to this as one would wonder that any owning the Scripture should deny it for whereas all grace or mercy is to be considered either in the first willing and purpose or