Almanack to the Church was made us by an Angel * Dan. 9.21 Revel 10.8 9. Revel 22.8 9. And when by the course of time those turnings are to happen in the World the Angels must have their share of service in them The Trumpets are sounded by Angels and the Vials which are filled with the causes of such alterations are poured out by the hands of Angels Some indeed by the Angels there mentioned understand the visible instruments of reformation not excluding the Angels who are the invisible Ministers in the affairs of the World * Lightfoot Temple Chap. 38. p. 253 256. 5. They engage in this work for the Church with delight They act as Gods Ministers in his providence with a unanimous consent †Ezek. 1.9 Their wings were joyned one to another So that they perform their office with the same swiftness and with the same affection without emulation to go one before another which makes many actions succeed ill among men but they go hand in hand They do it with affection both in respect of the kind disposition of their natures and as they are fellow-members of the same body for they are parts of the Church and of the Heavenly Jerusalem Heb. 12.22 Ye are come to the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born and therefore act out of affection to that which is a part of their body as well as out of obedience to their head They do it in respect of their own improvement too and increase of their knowledg which is the desire of all intellectual Creatures For they compleat their understandings by the sight of the methods of infinite wisdom in the perfecting his gracious designs And it is Gods intent that they should grow in the knowledge of his great mystery by their employment Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God i. e. By the gracious works of God towards the Church and in the behalf of it for the security and growth of the Church and in the executions of those decrees which as instruments they are imployed in For I do not understand how it can be meant of the knowledge of Christ for of that they know more than the Church below can acquaint them with for without question they have a clear insight into the offices of Christ who is their Head and whom they are ordered to worship They understand the aim of his death and resurrection and can better explain the dark predictions of Scripture than purblind man can But by observing the Methods which God uses in the accomplishment of them they become more intelligent and commence Masters of knowledg in a higher degree which it is probable is one reason of their joy when they see Gods infinite Wisdom and Grace in the conversion of a sinner without affection to them their employment about them they could not rejoice so much And their rejoicing in their first bringing in to God argues their joy in all their employments which concerns their welfare 2. As all good things Secondly so all bad things are ordered by providence for the good of the church That which in its own nature is an injury by Gods ordering puts on the nature of a mercy and what is poyson in it self by the Almighty art becomes a Soveraign medicine Are Gods dispensations in their own nature destructive that wise Physician knows how to make poysons work the effect of purges Are they sharp It is to humble and purge the Church As shadows serve to set out the pictures so the darkest passages of providence are made by God to commend the beauty of those glorious things he works for his Church We may see this in 1. Bad persons As 1. The Devil God manageth him for his own glory and the strengthning of Believers †Math. 8.31 32. The Devils desired to enter into the herd of swine with an intent probably not only to destroy the swine but to incense the Gadarenes against him out of whom they had been cast to do him some considerable mischief But what is the issue As they discover their malice so they inhance the value of Christs kindness to the distressed man whom he had freed from this tyranny Hereby also was the Law of God justified in commanding the Jews to abstain from Swines flesh which the Gadarenes being Apostate Jews had broken he magnified his own power in the routing such a number of unclean Spirits which had not been so conspicuous in the turning them out of one man had not this regiment discoveed themselves among the Swine and brought such a loss upon the Gadarenes whereby as they shewed their own strength and malice so they discovered occasionally the greatness of Christs charity and his power over them so that in granting the malicious petition of this exasperated Legion the Law of God is justified our Saviours love glorified his power manifested and a foundation laid for the gaining Proselytes in that Country to which purpose he left the man he had cured * Luk. 8.39 and to strengthen the faith of those poor Believers which then followed him God makes use of the Devils by the Soveraignty of providence to bring about ends unknown to themselves for all their wisdom The malice of the Devil against Job hath rendred him a standing miracle of patience for ever They are the rulers of the darkness of this world * Eph. 6.12 not of the light of the World they are the rulers of the wicked and the scullions of the Saints to scour and cleanse them They are the rulers of the World but subordinate to serve the providence of God wherein God declares his wisdom by serving himself of the worst of his Enemies The Devil thought he had brought a total destruction upon mankind when he perswaded our first Parents to eat of the forbidden fruit but the only wise God ordered it to bring about a greater glory to himself and a more firm stability to his people in introducing an everlasting covenant which could not be broken and establishing their happiness upon surer terms than it was settled in Paradise And afterwards in filling the heart of Judas to betray Christ and the hearts of the Jews to crucifie him Even by that way whereby the thought to hinder the good of mankind he occasionally promotes their perpetual redemption And I do not much question but those very principles which the Devil had distilled into the gentile World of shedding human blood in sacrisices for expiation of guilt and the Gods conversing with men in humane shapes and the imagination of the intercession of Daemons for them the first out of rage against mankind and both that and the other to induce them to Idolatry might facilitate the entertainment of Christ as the great expiatory sacrifice and the receiving of him as
the Sun of God though in an humane shape and the belief of his intercession God over-reaches the Devil and makes him instrumental for good where he designs hurt and mischief 2. Wicked men All the wicked in the midst of the Church are for the good of it either for the exercise of their grace or security of their persons or interest Pro. 16.7 When a mans ways please the Lord he will make his enemies to be at peace with him Sometimes he will incline their hearts intentionally to favour or order even their actions against them to procure their peace contrary to their intentions Sometimes God makes them his Sword to cut his people sometimes Physick to purge them sometimes Fire to melt and refine them sometime hedges to preserve them sometimes a ransom to redeem them * Pro. â—5 18 A Traveller makes use of the mettle of a head-strong Horse to carry him to his journeys end That wind which would overturn a little Boat the skilful Pilot makes use of to drive his Ship into the Harbour and the Husbandman to cleanse his Corn from the Chaff Though the ends of the workers viz. God and wicked men are different yet the end of the work is but one which is ordered by Gods Soveraign pleasure It was promised in the promise of the Gospel to the Gentiles Gen. 9.27 God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant God shall allure Japhet the Gentiles of Europe to dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan the head of the cursed posterity shall be Servants to the Church beside their will and sometimes against it by an over-ruling hand And Christ hath bought them to be his Servants 2 Pet. 2.1 denying the Lord that bought them and therefore hath the disposing of them whether they voluntarily give up themselves to him or no. He is a Lord by purchase over them who own him not as a Saviour The hatred of the Churches enemies sometimes conduceth more to her good than the affections of all her worldly Friends Now this appears 1. In furthering the Gospel Helvicus contra Judaeos The Jews who speak not of Christ among themselves but with opprobrious terms have been the exact preservers of the Old Testament even to the very number of the letters wherein Christians have sufficient to confirm them in the belief of Christs being the Messiah and unanswerable arguments against their adversaries Whereupon St Austin terms them capsarious Ecclesiae such that carry the Books of the Children of great men after them to School When the Authority of the Revelation was anciently questioned the Church of Rome was instrumental to keep it in the number of the Canonical books not thinking they should find their own Church so plainly Deciphered in it to be the mother of abominations To this we may refer the action of Ptolemy Philadelphus King of Egypt in causing the Scripture to be translated about three hundred years before the coming of Christ through which the Nations * Jackson vol. 1. Fol. p. 62. might better discern as it were through a prospective glass the new star of Jacob which was shortly to arise No doubt but many of the Gentiles by comparing the old Scripture Prophecies which they now could read in the Greek language might be more easily induced to an embracing the Gospel and acknowledging Christ to be the Messiah when it came to be divulged among them Herod is the cause of the consultation about the place of Christs birth not for any good will he had to him wham he intended to murther but God makes use of this to clear up the truth of the prophecy concerning Bethlehem the plane of his birth Mat 2.5 6. Out of thee shall come a governour that shall rule my people Israel And they certainly were not very good who preached Christ out of envy and propagated the Gospel wherein Paul rejoyced not in their sin but in the providential fruit of it Phil. 1.15 18. some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife what then Notwithstanding every way whether in pretence or truth Christ is preached and I therein do rejoyce yea and will rejoyce 2. In furthering the temporal good of the Church 1. In its preservation Wicked men are often serviceable to the Church as the filthy Raven was to holy Elijah or as the Lyon which would have devoured Sampson is a store-house to provide him food for in his hunger he finds a table spread in the belly of his Enemy Pharoah's design was to destroy Israel and the Daughter of that irreconcilable Enemy is directed by God to preserve Moses who was to be the ruine of her family the destruction of the Fgyptian glory and the Deliverer of the Church She saves him out of charity and God out of a wise design She by his Education in the Egyptian learning fits him for the Court and God for the deliverance of his Church Egypt had corn to relieve first Abraham * Gen. 12.10 afterward Jacob in a time of famine the only family wherein the Church of God was then bound up Herod lies in wait for Christs destruction and Egypt the most Idolatrous Country in the world and an ancient Enemy to Gods Church affords him shelter God makes Moab to hide his out-casts and be their covert from the face of the spoiler * Isa 16.3 4. Some think Gods design in sending Jonah to Nineveh to work so remarkable a change by repentance was to soften some of their hearts and the hearts of their posterity to deal more tenderly with those gracious Israelites who in the captivity of the ten Tribes some years after should be their guests God making thereby provision for his own people in that common judgment which should come upon the Nation This God doth sometimes by reviving the law of Nature and the common sentiments of Religion in the hearts of natural men whereby their own consciences bearing witness to the innocency and excellency of the church of God put them upon thoughts for its security Sometimes it is above their own Sphere and besides their own intentions The Whale which swallowed Jonah intended him as a morsel to quell his hunger but proves his security and disgorgeth him upon the shore The understand their own aim but not the design of God The Leech that sucks the Patients blood knows not the Chyrurgions design who useth it for the cure of a disease Sometimes their rage proves their own ruine and the Churches safety as the Leech bursts it self sometimes and saves the patient The very Earth whereby is meant the carnal world is said to help the Woman the Church by swallowing up the flood which the Dragon casts out of this mouth against her * Rov 12.10 Just as the old rags were the instruments whereby Jeremiah was drawn out of the Dungeon 2. In the advancement of the Church or persons eminent Abner had a Plot for bringing Israel
tells them this was for their good when there was no present appearance of any good in it It should be good in respect of Gods Favour towards them which retired to return with the greater force ver 6. I will set mine eyes upon them for good I will build them and not pull them down God would give them a more durable settlement In respect also of that frame of heart they should have toward God their knowledg of him and cleaving to him ver 7. I will give them a heart to know me and they shall return to me with their whole heart God had but a moiety of their hearts before but then he should have the whole And indeed it was remarkably for their good for they who before were addicted to Idolatry were never guilty of the same sin after And God kept them from being drawn away to it by the example and solicitation of those among whom they were The Church grows by tears and withers by smiles Gods Vine thrives the better for pruning God makes our Persecutions fit us for that for which we are persecuted As Saul by his persecution of David for the Title God had given him to the Kingdom made him fitter to succed him in the Throne and manage the Government God uses persecutors as lances which whiles they wound us let out the purulent and oppressive matter and makes them instruments of his Providence to work out his Peoples Happiness and thus makes the very wrath of man to be an occasion of his Peoples Praise Psal 76.10 The wrath of man shall praise thee God doth in this as a Father deals with his Son sends him to a sharp school that he may be Trained up in Learning 2. In the increase of the church The Jews Crucified our Saviour to diminish the multitude of his followers and by this means the number is increased The whole World runs after him by that means they used to stop their Course which Christ fore told that when he was lifted up he should draw all men after him And that a grain of Corn brings not forth more seed unless it be cast into the ground and dye 1. In the increase of it within its own bounds When the Israelites were most opprest in Egypt the more they multiplied †Exod. 1.20 When the Dragons fury did most swell against the Woman she brought forth a Man child ‡ Rev. 12.1 3 4 When the Roman Empire was at the highest and was most enflam'd with Anger against the Christians When the Learning of the Philosophers the Witchcrafts of Hereticks the Power of the Emperors and the Strength of the whole World was set against them the Christians grew more flourishing and unmerous by those very means which were used to destroy them Not only a new succession of Saints sprung up from the Martyrs Ashes but their Flames were the occasion of warming some so much with a heavenly fire that some persecutors have become Preachers Their very bonds for the Truth have sometimes a seminal Vertue in them to beget men to Faith in Christ Phil. 1.12 The things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel 2. In the increase of it in other parts Pauls Prison made his Preaching Famous in Rome and was an occasion of bringing Christianity into Nero's Court that Monster of Mankind * Phil. 1.13 one might have looked for Saints in Hell as soon Phil. 4.22 his bonds were as great a confirmation of the Truth of his Doctrine as his Eloquence When Saul made havock of the Church and by that storm dispersed the Christians they like so many grains of Corn seattered in serveral parts of a greater Field produced the greater Harvest Acts 8.3 4. therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word As Clouds scattered by the Winds they Rain'd down the Gospel in several Quarters The Jews when scattered in their several slights did scatter among the Heathen the Notions of the true Religion When they shall go down to Egypt to secure themselves from Senacheribs Invasion they shall be a means to make many Converts among that Idolatrous Nation Isa 19.18 In that day the day of the Jews Trouble shall five Cities in the land of Egypt speak the Language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of hosts so one expounds it but I rather think it meant of the times of the Gospel The flight of the Israelites shall be the occasion of some Egyptians Conversion A poor Slave in Naamans Family was an occasion both of the cure of his Body and of that of his Soul 2 Kings 5.2 3 17. So much for the first Reason drawn from an enumeration of things 2. Reason To prove that all Providence is for the good of the Church is Secondly Because God hath sometimes preferred Mercy to the Church and Care of it above his own concernments of Justice He values his mercy to them above his Justice upon his Enemies He consults their safety before he brings ruin upon the Wicked whose sins are full He first prepared the ark for Noah and sees him lodged in it before he begins to showr down destruction upon the World He hath sometimes punished a Nation more for their Offences against his People than their Sins against himself Amalek was guilty of many Idolatries and other sins against God but God chargeth none of them upon them but their malicious hindring the Israelites in their March to Canaan 1 Sam. 15.2 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts I remember that which Amalek did to Israel how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt He shews his love to them and how much he values them that when he is acting Justice and pouring out his Wrath when he is as it were cutting and slashing on all sides and is in fury with wicked Men he hath nothing but sweetness and tenderness towards his own Amos 9.9 10. in the sifting of Israel and the Nations Not the least grain shall fall upon the earth All the sinners of my people shall dye by the sword While he thunders out his Fury upon wicked Men he hath his Eyes upon the least grain of the true Israel What would it be for God when he is raising the Glory of his Justice upon the People that have provoked him not to regard the concernments of this or that or many sincere Souls but put no stop to his Fury Yet he doth not a grain shall perish He is more desirous to hear of the preservation and welfare of a few Righteous than of the just Punishment of the Wicked wherein his Justice is gloriously interessed The Man cloathed with Linnen that was to mark the Mourners return'd to God and gave an account that he had done according to his Command * Ezek 9.11 the other five which were to kill returned not to give any account of their severe and sharp proceeding The Angels that held the
use If there were not such evils what ground could you have to exercise patience what Heroick acts of faith could you put forth without difficulties how could you believe against hope if you had not sometimes something to contradict your hopes And if a good man should have a confluence of that which the ignorant and pedantical world calls happiness he might undervalue the pleasures of a better life deface the beauty of his own soul and withdraw his love from the most gratifying as well as the most glorious object unto that which is not worth the least grain of his affection 3. Future glory The great enquiry at the day of Christ's appearing will be How good men bear their sufferings what improvements they had and the greater their purity by them the greater will be their praise and honour 1 Pet. 1.7 That the tryal of your faith viz. by manifold Temptations may be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ For a good improvement by them they will have a Publick praise from God's mouth and a Crown of Honour set upon their heads Providence sends even light afflictions as so many Artificers to make the Crown more Massy and more bright 2 Cor. 4.17 Works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory They are at work about a good man's Crown while they make him smart They prepare him for heaven and make it more grateful to him when he comes to possess it A Christians carriage in them prepares for greater degrees of Glory Every stroke doth but more beautifie the Crown 6. Sufferings of good men for the Truth highly glorifies the Providence of God This is a matter of glory and honour 1 Pet. 4.16 If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf They thereby bear a Testimony to the highest Act of providence that God ever exercised even the redemption of the world by the blood of his Son And the Church which is the highest object of his Providence in the world takes the deeper root and springs up the higher the foundation of it was laid in the blood of Christ and the growth of it is furthered by the blood of Martyrs The carriage of the righteous in them makes the Truth they profess more valued It enhanceth the excellency of Religion and manifests it to be more amiable for its beauty than for its dowry since they see it desirable by the sufferers not only without worldly enjoyments but with the sharpest miseries This consideration hath wrought upon many to embrace the Religion of the Sufferers If it reaches as far as death they are but dispatched to their Fathers house and the day of their death is the day of their Coronation and what evil is there in all this To conclude This Argument is stronger upon the infallible righteousness of God's nature for a day of Reckoning after this life than against Providence 'T is a more rational conclusion That God will have a time to justifie the righteousness and wisdom of his Providential Government and repair the honour of the righteous oppressed by the injustice of the wicked And indeed unless there be a retribution in another world the question is unanswerrble and all the reason in the world knows not how to salve the Holiness and Righteousness of God in his Providential Dispensations in this life since we see here Goodness unrewarded and debased to the dunghill Vice glorying in impunity and ranting to the firmament We cannot see how it can consist with the nature of God's Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness if there were not another life wherein God will manifest his Righteousness in the punishing sin and rewarding goodness For it is impossible that a God of infinite Justice should leave sin unpunished and Grace unrewarded here or hereafter The Scripture gives us so full an acount of a future state that may satisfie all Christians in this business The wicked rich man is in his Purple and Lazarus in his rags yet Abraham's Bosom is prepared for the one and an endless Hell for the other Jeremy resolves the case in his dispute with God about it Jer. 12.3 Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the day of slaughter They are but fattening for the knife of justice and the day will come when they shall be consum'd like the fat of Lambs in the Sacrifice which shall wholly evaporate into smoke so the Psalmist resolves it in Psal 37.20 a Psalm written for the present case God laughs at their security in a way of mockery Psal 37.13 The Lord shall laugh at him for he sees that his day is coming God's day for the justification of his proceedings in the world and the wicked man's day for his own destruction wherein they shall all be destroyed together Psal 37.38 The whole mass of them in one bundle Who then will charge God with unequal distributions at that day which is appointed for the clearing up of his righteousness which is here maskt in the world who can be fond of the State of the wicked Who would be fond of a dead mans condition because he lies in State whose Soul may be condemned whilst his body with a pompous solemnity is carried to the Grave and both body and Soul joyned together at the resurrection adjudged to eternal misery Q. 3. What hath been said in this will also answer another Question Why God doth not immediately punish notorious offenders since the best governments in the world are such as call the violaters of the Law to a speedy account to keep up the honour of Justice Thus the Epicures charge God with neglects of providence because if he doth punish wicked men it is later than is fit and just because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Eccles 8.11 Delay of Justice is an encouragement to Sin Answ 1. This is an argument for Gods patience none against his providence Should he make such quick work what would become of the world Could it have held out to this day If God had instantly taken revenge upon those that thus disparage his providence the framer of such an objection had not been alive No man is so perfectly good but he might fall under the revenging stroke of his sword if he pleased to draw it Suffer God to evidence his patience here since after the winding up of the World he will have no time to manifest it God doth indeed sometimes send the sharp arrow of some judgment upon a notorious offender to let him understand that he hath not forgotten how to govern but he doth not alwayes do so that his patience may be glorified in bearing with his rebellious creature 2. God is just in that wherein the question supposeth him unjust He suffers wicked men to continue to be the plagues of the places
God's kindness to renew him shall never want God's kindness to supply him his hand shall not be wanting to give where his heart hath been so large in working Others live that have an interest only in common providence but good men have providence cabinetted in a promise and assured to them by a deed of covenant-conveyance he was a provider before he hath made himself now your Debtor You might pray for his providential care before with a common faith now with a more special expostulation For in his promise he hath given a good man the key of the Chest of his providence because it is the promise of this life and that which is to come * 1 Tim. 4.8 of this life not to our desires but necessities of the life to come to both wherein they shall have whatsoever they can want and whatsoever they can desire Again consider God doth exercise a more special providence over men as cloathed with miserable circumstances and therefore among his other Titles this is one to be a helper of the Fatherless * Psal 10.14 'T is the argument the Church used to express her return to God Hos 14.3 for in thee the fatherless find mercy Now what greater comfort is there than this that there is one presides in the world who is so wise he cannot be mistaken so faithful he cannot deceive so pitiful he cannot neglect his people and so powerful that he can make stones even to be turned into bread if he please Further take this for a comfortable consideration God doth not govern the World only by his will as an absolute Monarch but by his wisdom and goodness at a tender Father 'T is not his greatest pleasure to shew his Soveraign power or his unconceivable wisdom but his immense goodness to which he makes the other attributes subservient What was God's end in creating is his end in governing which was the communication and diffusion of his goodness we may be sure from hence that God will do nothing but for the best his wisdom appointing it with the highest reason and his goodness ordering it to the most gracious end and because he is the highest good he doth not only will good but the best good in every thing he acts What greater comfort can there be than that we are under the care of an infallible unwearied and righteous Governor infallible because of his infinite Wisdom unwearied because of his incomprehensible Omnipotency and righteous because of his unbounded Goodness and Holiness 3. Vse of Exhortation The duties arising from hence will run as a thread through the web of our whole lives and all the motions of them This Doctrine hath an influence upon our whole course there is nothing we meet with but is an act of providence and there is no act of providence but calls for some particular duty Is there any good we want we must seek it at his hands we must depend upon him for it we must prescribe no methods to him but leave the conduct of it to his own wisdom Is it a cross providence and contrary to our desires and expectations Murmur not at it Is it afflictive and troublesom Submit to it Is it either good or bad and present we must study to understand it is it a good present give God the glory of it 1. Seek every thing you need at the hands of God 'T is not only the skilfulness of the Pilot but a favourable gale from Heaven which must conduct the Ship to the intended port As his providence is the foundation so it is the encouragement of all prayer The end of the Lords prayer is for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory the providential Kingdom belongs to God Power he hath to manage it and his glory is the end of all seek to him therefore for the exercise of his power in thy concerns and for his directing them to his glory in his providential administrations Every one of our daies and both the mercy and the misery of them depend upon him Pro. 27.1 thou knowest not what a day may bring forth But God foresees all events have recourse the refore to his care for every very day success What are our contrivances without the leave and blessing of providence Like the bubbles blown up from a nut-shell easily broken by the next puff Our labour will be as fruitless as Peter's with all his toyl and catch nothing till God speaks the word and sends the fish into our net * Luk. 5 5. The way of man is not in himself * Jer. 10.13 O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walks to direct his steps Dangers are not within the reach of our eye to foresee nor within the compass of our power to prevent Humane prudence may lay the platform and God's power blast the execution when it seems to be grown up nearest to maturity Hezekiah was happy in his affairs because he was assisted by God Ahaz unhappy because he is deserted by God If we would have a Clock go well we must look chiefly to the motions of the chief Wheel a failure in that makes an error in all the rest nothing can terminate it's motion to our benefit without providence Coloured glass can reflect no beams without the Sun's light nor fruits be ripened without its influence Our dependance on God is greater than theirs on the Sun God lets men play with their own wit and strength and come to the brink of execution of their designs and then blows upon them that they may know there is a God in the Earth Pythagoras could say it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ridiculous thing to seek that which is brave and virtuous any where else than of God * Jamblich◠vita Pithag lib 1. cap 18. p. 89 Cyrus is a brave pattern who is mentioned in Scripture and represented by Xenophon calling upon God when he was first chosen General and in his Speech to his Captains to encourage them to hope for a good success of the expedition Xenophon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib 〈◊〉 p. 23. tells them they might expect it because I have begun with God which you know saith he is my custom not only when I attempt great matters but also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things of lesser concernment The seeking of God should be the prologue to all our affairs we are enjoyned first to pray and then determine Job 22.27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him thou shall also decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee The interessing Providence in our concerns is the high way to success The reason we miscarry is because we consult not God but determine without him and then we have no reason to complain of him for not prospering our way when we never commended our affairs to his conduct It hath been the practice of holy men Nehemiah first petitioned God
their Countrey So let us enquire into the Providence of God to understand the mind of God the interest of the Church the wisdom and kindness of God and our own duty in comormity thereunto 6. Ascribe the glory of every providence to God Abraham Steward petitioned God at the beginning of his business Gen. 24.12 and he blesses God at the success of it ver 26 27. We must not thank the tools which are used in the making an engine and ascribe unto them what we owe to the Workmans skill Men is but the instrument God's Wisdom is the Artist Let us therefore return the Glory of all where it is most rightly placed We may see the difference between Rachel and Leah in this respect when Rachel had a Son by her maid Bilhah she ascribes it to God's care and calls his name Dan which signifies judging Gen. 30.6 God hath judged me and heard my voice That the very Name might put her in remembrance of the kindness of God in answering her prayer And the next Napthali she esteems as the fruit of prayer vers 8. Whereas Leah takes no notice of God but vaunts of the multitude of her Children vers 11 be hold a troop comes She imposeth the name of Gad upon them which also signifies fortune or good luck And the next Asher vers 13. which is fortunate or blessed And we find Leah of the same mind afterward ver 17. It is said God hearkned unto her so that her Son Issachar was an answer of Prayer but she ascribes it to a lower cause which had moved God because she had given her maid to her Husband vers 18. Not unto us not unto us O Lord but to thy name be the glory Doct. 2. All the motions of providence in the World are ultimately for the good of the Church of those whose heart is perfect towards him Providence follows the rule of Scripture Whatsoever was written was written for the Churches comfort * Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever is acted in order to any thing written is acted for the Churches good All the providences of God in the World are conformable to his declarations in his word All former providences were ultimately in order to the bringing a Mediator into the World and for the glory of him then surely all the providences of God shall be in order to the perfecting the glory of Christ in that mystical body whereof Christ is head and wherein his affection and his Glory are so much concerned See the Proof of this by a Scripture or two Psal 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his Covenant and his Testimonies Not one path but all the works and motions not one particular act or passage of providence but the whole tract of his proceedings not only those which are more smooth and pleasant but those which are more rugged and bitter All mercy and truth sutable to that affection he bears in his heart to them and sutable to the declaration of that affection he hath made in his promise There is a contexture and a friendly connexion of kindness and faithfulness in every one of them They both kiss and embrace each other in every motion of God towards them As mercy made the Covenant so truth shall perform it And there shall be as much mercy as truth in all Gods actings towards those that that keep it Rom. 8 28. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose we know we do not conjecture or guess so but we have an infallible assurance of it All things even the most frightful and so those that have in respect of sense nothing but Gall and Wormwood in them work together they all conspire with an admirable harmony and unanimous consent for a Christian's good One particular act may seem to work to the harm of the Church as one particular act may work to the good of wicked men but the whole series and frame of things combine together for the good of those that are affectionate to him Both the Lance that makes us bleed and the plaister which refresheth the Wounds Both the griping purges and the warming Cordials combine together for the Patients cure to them who are called according to his purpose Here the Apostle renders a reason of this position because they are called not only in the general amongst the rest of the world to whom the Gospel comes but they are such that were in Gods purpose and counsel from Eternity to save and therefore resolved to encline their will to Faith in Christ Therefore all his other Counsels about the affairs of the world shall be for their good Another reason of this the Apostle intimates vers 27. The spirit makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God The intercessions of the Spirit which are also according to Gods will and purpose will not be fruitless in the main end which both the intercessions of the Spirit and purpose of God and the will and desires of the Saints do aim at which is their good Indeed where any is the object of this grand purpose of God he is the object of God's infinite and innumerable thoughts Psal 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred The Psalmist seems to intimate that in all the wonderful works which God hath done his thoughts are toward his people He thinks of them in all his actions and those thoughts are infinite and cannot be numbred and reckoned up by any Creature He seems to restrain the thoughts of God to his people in all those works of wonder which he doth in the World and which others are the Subjects of But his thoughts or purposes and intentions in all for the word signifies purposes too are chiefly next to his own glory directed toward his people those that trust in him which vers 4. he had pronounced blessed They run in his mind as if his heart was set upon them and none but them Here I shall premise two things as the ground-work of what follows 1. God certainly in all his actions has some end that is without question because he is a wise agent to act vainly and lightly is an evidence of imperfection which cannot be ascribed to the only wise God The Wheels of Providence are full of Eyes * Ezek. 1.18 There is motion and a knowledge of the end of that motion And Jesus Christ who is Gods Deputy in the providential government hath Seven Eyes as well as Seven Horns * Revel 5.6 a perfect strength and a perfect knowledg how to use that strength and to what end to use it Seven being the number of perfection in Scripture 2. That certainly is Gods end which his
heart is most set upon and that which is last in execution What doth God do at the folding up of the World but perfect his people and welcome them into Glory Therefore God principally next to himself loves his Church The whole Earth is his but the Church is his treasure Ex. 19.5 If you will keep my Covenant then shall you be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the Earth is mine Segullah such a treasure that a Man a King will intrust in no hands but his own all the Earth is mine is not a reason why the Church was his treasure but an incentive of thankfulness that when the whole Earth was his and lay before him and there were many people that he might have chosen and loved before them yet he pitched upon them to make them his choicest treasure And when the blessed God hath pitched upon a people and made them his treasure what he doth for them is with his whole heart and with his whole Soul Jer. 32 41 42. speaking of making an everlasting Covenant he adds yea I will rejoyce over them to do them good c. assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole Soul As though God minded nothing else but those people he had made an everlasting Covenant with which is the highest security and most pregnant expression of his affection that can be given to any not to give them a parcel or moiety of his heart but the whole infinite intire piece and to engage it all with the greatest delight in doing good to them That infinite heart of God and all the contrivances and workings of it center in the Churches welfare The World is a Wilderness but the Church is a Garden If he water the Wilderness will he not much more dress his Garden If the flights of Birds be observed by him shall not also the particular concernments of the Church He hath a repository for them and all that belong to them He hath a book of Life for their Names * Luk. 10.20 a book of Record for their members * Psal 139.16 a Note-book for their Speeches Mal. 3.16 A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and a book of providence for their preservation Exod. 32.32 In the prosecution of this I shall shew 1. That it is so de facto First and hath been so 2. Secondly That according to the state of things and Gods Oeconomy it must be so 3. The improvement of it Thirdly By way of Vse 1. First That all providence is for the good of the Church de facto and has been so 1. Reason first It will appear by an enumeration of things First All good things Secondly All bad things are for their good First All good things I. The World II. Gifts and common graces of men in the World III. Angels I. The World First The whole World was made and ordained for the good of the Church next to the glory of God This will appear in three things I. The continuance of the World is for their sakes God would have destroyed the World because of the ignorance and wickedness of it before this time but he overlooked it all and had respect to the times of Christ and the publishing faith in him and repentance Act. 17.30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at God overlooked * 〈…〉 he looked not so upon them as to be provoked to destroy the world but his eyes were fixed on the times of Christianity therefore would not take notice in the extremity of his justice of the wickedness of those foregoing ages Believers are the Salt of the Earth * Mat. 5.13 which makes the World savoury to God and keeps it from corrupting 'T is meant not only of the Apostles but of Christs Disciples of all Christians for to them was that Sermon made v. 1. If the Salt have lost his savour if the Salt be corrupted and Christianity overthrown in the World wherewith shall the World be salted how can it be kept from corruption If they that persecuted the Prophets before you in Judea which is sometimes called the Earth in Scripture cannot relish you and find nothing grateful to their Palates in your Doctrine and Conversation wherewith shall they be salted How shall they be preserved from corruption The Land will be good for nothing but to be given as a prey to the Romans to be trod under their feet as being cast out of Gods protection They are the foundation of the world Pro. 10.25 the righteous are an everlasting foundation Maimonides understands it thus that the World stands for the righteous sakes When God had Noah and his Family lodged in the Ark he cares not what deluge and destruction he brings upon the rest of the World When he had conducted Lot out of Sodom he brings down that dreadful storm of fire He cares for no place Grotius on the place no nor for the whole World any longer than whilst his people are there or he hath some to bring in in time For the meanest believer is of more worth than a world therefore when God hath gathered all together he will set fire upon this frame of the Creation For what was the end of Christs coming and dying but to gather all things together in one Eph. 1.10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ When Christ hath summed up all together he hath attained his end And to what purpose then can we imagine God should continue the World any longer for his delight is not simply in the World but in the Saints there Psal 16.3 But to the Saints that are in the Earth in whom is all my delight not in the Earth but in the Saints there which are the only excellent things in it which Christ speaks of whom that Psalm is meant who knew well what was the object of his Fathers pleasure The sweet savour God smelt in Noah's sacrifice was the occasion of God's declaration for the Worlds standing Gen. 8.21 and the Lord said in his heart I will not curse the ground any more for mans sake That he would no more smite it with a totally destroying judgment It was his respect to Christ represented in that sacrifice and to the faith and grace of Noah the sacrificer What Savour could an infinitely pure spirit smell in the blood and flames of beasts 2. The course of natural things is for the good of the Church or particular members of it God makes articles of agreement with the Beasts and Fowls whose nature is raging and ravenous and binds them in sure bonds for the performance of those articles Hosea 2.18 And in that day will I make a Covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground and will make them to lye down safely
As upon our sin God can arm them against us so upon our obedience he can make them serviceable even against their natures as if he had made a Covenant with them and they had both the reason and virtue to observe it I do not remember any instance in Scripture that God went out of the usual tract of his providence and acted in an extraordinary manner but where his people were one way or other concerned It was for Joshua's and the Israelites sake that the Sun was arrested to stand still in the Valley of Ajalon that they might have light enough to defeat their Enemies and pursue their victory * Josh 10.12 13. The Sea shall against its natural course stand in heaps like walls of brass to assist the Israelites escape * Exod. 14.22 The fire is restrained in the operation of its nature even whilst it retains its burning quality when the lives of the three valiant believing Children are in danger * Dan. 6.22 The mouths of Lyons are muzled when the safety of his beloved Daniel is concerned * Dan. 6.22 And the shadow goes back upon the Dial for Hezekiah's sake * 2 King 20.11 When God would at any time deliver his people He can muster up Lightnings and Thunders for their assistance * 1 Sam. 7.10 He can draw all the Regiments of Heaven into battel-array and arm the stars to fight against Sisera when Israels condition needs it and make even the lowest Creatures to list themselves as Auxiliaries in the service God hath nor a displeasure with sensless Creatures neither is transported with strains of sury against such objects when he alters their natural course Hab. 3.8 Was the Lord displeased against the Rivers was thy wrath against the Sea that thou didst ride upon thy Horses and Chariots of Salvation No but he made those Creatures the Horses and Chariots to speed assistance and salvation to his people which the Psalmist elegantly describes Psal 114. All Creatures are his Host and that God that created them hath still the Soveraign command over them and can imbody them in an Army to serve his purpose for the deliverance of his people as he did against Pharaoh 3. The interest of Nations is ordered as is most for the Churches good He orders both the course of natural things and of civil affairs for their interest He alters the state of things and changeth Governours and Governments for the sake of his people For these causes God sent Elisha to Crown Jehu King 2 King 9.6 7. I have anointed thee King over the people of the Lord c. that I may avenge the blood of my Servants the Prophets and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezabel For the sakes of the Godly in that Nation and the revenging the blood of the Prophets which had been shed was he raised up by the Lord. He sent such judgments upon Egypt that it was as much the interest of that Nation to let Israel go as it was before to keep them their vassals God orders the interest and affairs of Nations for those ends and according to this disposition of affairs Christ times his intercessions for his Church The Angels had been sent out to view the state of the World and found it in peace Zech. 1.11 behold all the Earth sits still and is at rest there had been Wars in Artaxarexes and Xerxes his time but in the time of Darius that part of the World had an universal peace which was the fittest time for the restoration of the Jews and building the Temple because it could not be built but by the Kings cost whose treasure in the time of War was expended another way nor would it consist with their policy to restore the Jews to their government at such a time when they had Wars with the Neighbour parts of Egypt See how God orders the state of the World in subserviency to his gracious intentions towards his Church The time of the Jewish captivity was now out according to the promise of God and God gives that part of the World a general peace that the restauration of the Jews and the rebuilding of the Temple might be facilitated and the truth of his promise in their deliverance accomplished Upon the news of this general peace in that part of the World Christ expostulates with God for the restauration of Jerusalem vers 12. How long O Lord wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judeah against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years The time of the Captivity determined by God was now expired The first reformation in Germany was back'd by reason of state as it was then ordered it being the interest of many Princes of that Countrey to countenance Luther's Doctrine for the putting a stop to the growing greatness of Charles the fifth who had evident designs to enslave them I might mention many more only by the way let me advise those that have an inclination to read histories of former transactions to which men naturally are addicted to make this your end to observe the strange providences of God in the World and how admirably he hath made them subservient to the interest of the Church which will be the most profitable way of reading them whereby they will not only satisfie your curiosity but establish your Christianity Calvin understands that place Deut. 32.8 He sets the bounds of the people according to the number of the Children of Israel that in the whole ordering of the state of the World God proposeth this as his end to consult for the good of his people and his care extends to the rest only in order to them and though they are but a small number yet he orders his whole government of the Worlds affairs as may best tend to their Salvation Therefore God sets the people bounds or enlargeth them according as they may be serviceable one way or other to this end And the reason is rendred v. 9. For the Lords portion is his people and Iacob is the lot of his inheritance Therefore God orders all the rest of the World in subserviency to the maintaining and improving his portion and inheritance 2. As the World Secondly so the gifts and common graces of men in the world are for the good of the Church which is a great argument for providence in general since there is nothing so considerable in government as the disposing of places to men according to their particular endowments and abilities for them And the bestowing such gists upon men is none of the meanest argument for Gods providential government of the World As 1. The gifts of good men The gifts conferred upon Paul were deposited in him not only to be possessed by him but used and laid out for the good of the Church Col. 1.25 Whereof I am made a Minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me
for you The manifestation of the Spirit to any man is given to profit withal 1 Cor. 12.7 And this is the great end for which men should seek to excel viz. for the edifying of the Church 1 Cor 14.12 For as much as you are zealous of Spirtual gifts seek that you may excel to the edifying of the Church 2. The gists and common graces of bad men There is something that is amiable in men though they have not grace As in Stones Plants and Flowers though they have not sense there is something grateful in them as colour and smell c. And all those things that are lovely in men are for the Churches good the best life and the worst death things present let who will be the possessor all things between Life and Death are for the good of Believers because they are Christs 1 Cor. 3.22 Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world i.e. Whether the gifts of the prime lights in the Church or the common gifts of the world are all yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods God is the dispencer of them Christ is the Governour of them and all for your sakes As the medicinable qualities of waters are not for the good of themselves but the accommodation of the indigencies of men By the common works of the Spirit God doth keep his children from suffering much evil in the World For it cannot be supposed that the Spirit whose mission is principally for the Church should give such gifts out of love to men which hate him and are not the objects of his eternal purpose but he hath some other ends indoing it which is the advantage of his Church and people and this God causes by the preaching of the Gospel which when it works gracious works in some produceth common works in others for the good of those gracious ones As a seed of corn hath straw husks and chaff come up with it which are shelters to that little seed which lies in the midst so in the preaching of the Gospel there are some husks come up among natural men which God makes to be shelters to the Church as those common works and restraining men through the knowledge of Christ God gives gifts to them not out of love to them but love to his Church As Nurses of great mens Children are fed with better meat than the other Servants not out of any particular personal respect to them but to their office that the milk whereby the child is nourished may be the sweeter and wholesomer were it not for that Relation she must be content with the Diet allowed to the rest of the Servants Some stinking plants may have medicinal virtues which the Physician extracts for the cure of a disease and flings the rest upon the Dunghil God bestows such qualities upon men otherwise unsavoury to him which he draws forth upon several occasions for the good of those that are more peculiarly under his care and then casts them away These gifts are indeed the ruin of bad men because of their pride but the Churches advantage in regard of their excellency and are often as profitable to others as dangerous to themselves As all that good which is in plants and animals is for the good of man so all the gifts of natural men are for the Churches good for they are for that end as the principal next the glory of God because every inferior thing is ordained to something superior as its end Plants are ordained for the nourishment of Beasts and both Plants and Beasts for Men. The inferior men for the service of higher and all for the community yet still there is a higher end beyond those viz. the glory of God to which they are ultimately ordained which is so connected with the Churches good that what serves one serves the other 3. Angels the top Creatures in the Creation are ordered for the good of the Church If the Stars are not Cyphers in the World only to be gaz'd upon but have their influences both upon Plants and Animals As the Sun in impregnating the Earth and enlivening the Plants and assisting the growth of fruits for the good of mankind If the stars have those natural influences upon the sensible world the Angels which are the morning-stars have no less interest as instruments in the government of it The Heathens had such a notion of Daemons working those things which were done in the world but according to the will and order of the supream God The Angels are called Watchers Dan. 4.13 a Watcher and an holy one vers 17. this is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones they watch for Gods orders and watch for Gods honour and the Churches good There are orders of state among them for we read of their decree 't is called their decree ministerially as they execute it By way of approbation By way of Authority approbative as they subcribe to the equity and goodness of it As the Saints are said to judge the world not authoritative as in commission with Christ but as they approve of Christs sentence They seem to request those things of God which may make for his glory and they decree among themselves what is fit to be presented to God in order to his glory They cannot endure that men should trample upon Gods authority despoil him of his right and tread down his inheritance and therefore they send such requests to God to act so as men may acknowledg him and his govenment to the intent that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdoms of men Their care therefore must be for the Chuch since God rules all things in order to that and since that is Gods portion and inheritance so that as they have a care of Gods glory they must also have a care of Gods portion and his peculiar treasure Exod. 25 1. The inward part of the Temple was to be adorned with Cherubims to note the speceial attendance of the holy Angels in the assemblies of the Saints As evil Angels plot against the Church Trap. on Numb p. 58. so good Angels project for it Though in the Scripture we find Angels sometimes employed in affairs of common providence and doing good to them that are not of the Church as one is sent to comfort Hagar and relieve Ishmael upon his cry though he had scoffed at Isaac the heir of the covenant when he was in Abraham's Family * Gen. 21.17 yet for the most part they were employed in the concerns of some of his special Servants Angels thrust Lot out of Sodom * Gen. 19.15 16. An Angel stopt the Lyons mouths when Daniel was in the Den Dan 6.18 My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lyons mouths God emploies Angels in the preserving and ruining of Empires which is clear in the prophecy of Daniel and some understand Isa 10.34 And lebanon shall fall by
a mighty one of an Angel As the Soul sends forth a multitude of Spirits swiftly into the nerves for the supply of the lowest member which run thither upon the least motion So do the Angels which are Gods Ministers run at the appointment of God and are employed in all the wheels of providence The Spirit of the living Creatures was in the wheels of providence * Ezek. 1.20 1. The highest orders among them are not exempted from being officers for the Church Though they are called Gods Angels in respect of their immediate attendance on God yet they are called mans Angels in respect of the service they do for them Matth. 18.10 Their angels do alwaies behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven They are not the ordinary sort of Angels only which attend upon those little ones upon young converts humble Souls those little ones in the Kingdom of Heaven but they are the highest Courtiers there such as see the face of God and stand before him A King hath many Servants but not every Servant only the chief of the Nobility stand before him so they are not Angels of the meanest order and rank in Heaven that are ordered to attend the lowest Christian The Apostle makes no doubt of this Heb. 1.14 are they not all ministring Spirits there is no question but they are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation He asserts confidently that not one of them is blotted out of the List for this employment Are they not all none are exempted from the service of God so none are exempted from the end of that service which is the good of Believers They are Gods servants but for the Churches good for them which shall be heirs are they not all it is irrational to deny it And they are sent forth every one of them hath his commission sign'd by God for this purpose and not only for the Church in general but for every member in particular for the heirs of salvation And not only for them which are already called and enrolled but for them who shall be called whose names are written in the book of Gods election who shall be heirs And they are not only faintly sent as if they might go if they will but they have a strict charge to look after them well not in one or two of their works or ways but in all Psal 91.11 He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes to bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone they are to use all their strength to this purpose to bear them up in their hands As the elder Children are appointed by Parents to have a care of the younger in their works and motions and to use both their wisdom and strength for them The Angels are a guard to secure them here and at last to convey them to their fathers house Luk. 16.22 When a man is in favour with a Prince all the Courtiers will be observant of him 2. Armies of them are employed upon this occasion There are great multidudes of them as Bildad speaks Job 25.3 Is there any number of his armies that is of his Angels when Joel speaks of the heathens gathering together thither saith he Lord cause thy mighty ones to come down * Joel 3.11 A whole squadron of them shall attend upon a gracious man according to the circumstances he is involved in Gen. 32. 1 2. And Jacob went on his way and the Angels of God met him and when Jacob saw them he said this is Gods host Regiments of Angels enough to make up an Army for so Jacob terms them me thim upon the way to secure him from his Brother Esau and to encourage him in his journey So some interpret 2 Sam. 5.24 the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees The sign of the marching of a Brigade of Angels with the Lord in the head of them for the discomfiture of David's enemies then shall the Lord go out before thee to smite the host of the philistins And this they do not of their own heads but by the pleasure of God not only by a bare will but a delight Psal 103.21 Bless the Lord allye his hosts ye ministers of his that do his pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his choicest pleasure he delights to see this his Militia upon action 3. Christ hath the government of them to this end for his Church Angels are all put in subjection to him Heb. 2.7 8. In that he put all in subjection under him he left nothing that is not put under him He is exalted above all principality and power God hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.21 22. all things even principalities and powers are put under his feet to be commissioned and influenced by him for the good of his Church * Ezek. 1.12 Whither the Spirit was to go they went they are ordered by the Spirit of Christ to this purpose Zech. 1.10 Those are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth They are his faithful messengers dispatcht into the World by him as scouts and spies to take notice of the state of the World and to give him intelligence and an exact account of affairs and v. 11. they give an account to Christ Christ is the Head and General of them Col. 2.10 They are his Host alwaies in a warlike posture with Christ in the Head of them Zech. 1.8 upon their Horses which notes readiness to move and speed in motion And as an Host they are said to pitch their tents round about them that fear him and are in a continual conflict with the evil Angels to prevent their designs in the behalf of Christ whom they acknowledge as their head by their worship of him * Heb. 1.6 Christ orders them to take care to seal his Servants in the foreheads that they may be preserved in the storms which shall happen in the World at the time of the ruine of the Romish Papacy Revel 7.2 3. An Angel comes that had the seal of the living God commission of God saying hurt not the earth nor the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the Servants of our God in the foreheads 4. The great actions which have been done in the World or shall be done for the Church are performed by them Angels were sent as expresses by God with his great decrees concerning the revolutions of times * Dan. 7.16 Dan. 8.16 And I heard a mans voice which called and said Gabriel make this man to understand the vision An Angel was sent to Daniel with the message of a Redeemer and the clearest prophecy of Christ which the Jews are not able to answer to this day which they most startle at Part of the discovery of the Revelation to John which is as a standing
to David's Scepter which concurred both with Gods purpose and promises but sprung from an ill cause a disdain to be checked by Ishbosheth though his King for an unjustifiable act for having too much familiarity with one of Sauls Concubines †2 Sam. 3.6 7 8 9 10. And from this animosity he contrives the de posing of Ishbosheth and the exaltation of David yet dissembles the ground and pretends the promise of God to David v. 18. for the Lord hath spoken of David By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines He is the first Engine that moves in this business and by him and his correspondents after his death v. 17. the business is brought about by Gods over-ruling hand wherein Gods promise is accomplished and David a type of Christ and the great Champion for the Church against its enemies round about is advanced Very remarkable is the advancement of Mordecai in order to the advancing the Jews as well as preserving them when the necks of all the visible Church God had in the World were upon the block Haman ignorantly is the cause of this preferment of Mordecai and at that time too when he came to petition for his death Esther 6.4 He was come to speak to the king to hang Mordecai upon the gallows which he had prepared for him The King asks him what should be done to the man whom the King delights to honour v. 16. He imagineth that the Kings question did respect himself lays out a Scheme of what honour he was ambitious of v. 8 9. which was by the King designed for Mordecai and Haman made the Herald to proclaim him Here Haman not only a wicked man in himself but the greatest Enemy Mordecai and the whole Church of God had is made unwittingly an instrument to exalt Mordecai and in him the whole Church of God 3. In enriching the Church or some persons in it whereby it may become more serviceable to God How wonderful was it that when the Israelites were abominated by the Egyptians God should so order their hearts that the Egyptians should lend them Gold and Jewels * Exod. 12.35 36. and dismiss them with wealth as well as safety and not so much as one person molest them till they arrived at the Red Sea The very gain and honour of the Enemies is sometimes consecrated to the Lord of the whole Earth Micah 4.13 Arise and thresh oh daughter of Sion I will make thy horn Iron and thou shalt beat in pieces many people and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth This was when many Nations were gathered against Sion v. 11. The wealth of the Sinner is laid up for the just Pro. 13.22 And God sometimes makes the wicked unwittingly to themselves in their carking be the factors for good men into whose lap providence pours the fruit of their labour God gave Cyrus the spoils of Babilon and the treasures of Croesus to enable him to furnish the Jews with materials for building the Temple Isa 45.3 4. 45.3 4 and I will give thee the treasure of darkness and hidden riches of secret places speaking of Cyrus that thou mayest know that I the Lord which call thee by thy name am the God of Israel for Jacob my servants sake c. That he might acknowledge him the God of Israel and lay his wealth out in the service of God and the service of Jacob his servant 2. As bad persons so bad things are ordered to the good of the church whether they be sinful evils or afflictive 1. Sin 1. A mans own sin Onesimus runs from his Master and finds a spiritual Father his being a runnagate is the occasion of his being a convert By flying from his Master he becomes a Brother in the Lord * Phil. 10 12 16. What Joseph's brethren sinfully intended for revenge against their brother and security from their Fathers checks who acquainted Jacob with their miscarriages God ordered for the preservation of them who were the only visible Church in the World Their sin against their Brother contrary both to their intentions and expectations became the means of their safety God makes the remainders of sin in a good man an occasion to exercise his grace discover his strength and shew his loyalty to God 2. Other mens sins That might be in Sarah but a beady passion for hearing her Son mocked By Ishmael that made her so desirous to have the bondwoman and her son thrust out * Gen. 21.10 but God makes use of it to make a separation between Isaac the heir of the Covenant and Ishmael that he might not be corrupted by any evil example from him God orders Abraham to hearken to her voice because in Isaac his seed should be called * ver 12. And the revengeful threatning of Esau was the occasion of Jacob's flight whereby he was hindred from marrying with any of the people of the Land by whom he might have been induced to Idolatry * Gen. 2.7.3.46 Why should we mistrust that God that can make use of the Lusts of men to bring about his own gracious purposes 2. Commotions in the World There is the eye of God that eye which runs to and fro throughout the whole Earth in the Wheels of worldly motions even in the most dreadful providences in the World that stare upon men with a grim countenance * Ezek. 1.18 their wings were dreadful and their wings were full of eyes All the overturnings in the World are subservient to the Churches interest though they are not visibly so unless diligently attended * Broughton on Revel 13. Sect. 177. God orders the confusions of the world and is in the midst of the tumults of the people Psal 29.10 11. The Lord sits upon the flood yea the Lord sits King for ever the Lord will give sirength to his people the Lord will bless his people with peace He sits upon the flood as a Charioteer in his Chariot guiding it with holy and merciful intentions to his people to give them both strength and peace in the midst of them and as the issue of them By Water and Floods is frequently meant tumults and confusions in the World If it were not so why would our Saviour encourage his Disciples and all their Successors in the same profession to lift up their heads when they hear of wars if their redemption * Luk 21.25 26 27 28. were not designed by God in them they are all testimonies of the nearer approaches of Christ in power and glory to judge the Earth and glorifie his people Gods great end in the shaking of Nations is the performing those gracious promises to his Church which yet remain unaccomplisht These earthquakes in the world will bring Heaven to the Church The great revolutions in the Eastern part of the world the ruine of the Babylonian Empire
four Winds of the Earth Rev. 7.1 which some understand of Wars and Commotions in the World for the overthrow of the Romish power were ordered not to let the Winds go till the servants of God were sealed in their Foreheads 3. Reason God takes particular notice of the meanest of his people Thirdly and mightily condescends to them much more of the Church 'T is strange to consider that the Scripture mentions none of those great Potentates among the Heathen but either as they were instruments of his Peoples good or executions of his Justice upon them or subjects of his Peoples Triumph Cyrus and Darius are mentioned as their friends Nebuchadnezzar and Senacherib and others as Gods instruments in scourging them * Gen. 14.9 10. Chedorlaomer and the other Kings with him as they were the subjects of Abrahams Valour and Triumph He takes no notice of the Names of any in his Word but upon such Accounts Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar had done no doubt many actions before but none taken notice of but those But he takes notice of the meanest wherein was Grace and the meanest of their concerns and actions †Rivet in Gen. exercite 129. He mentions in his Word Jacob's Flocks c. things of no great moment the actions speeches gestures of his People to shew how his Providence wrought for them and how much he is concern'd in the least of their Affairs But the great Empires of the World their Original and Progress and the magnified Founders of them he speaks not of but as they have some relation or other to his People As we love to use the names of our Friends so doth God love the rellish of the names of his servants The name of Noah is repeated several times as the Jews observe * Gen. 7. Gen. 8. The Spirit of God loves the very mention of their names he delights to dwell upon the Catalogue of their names The Scripture uses to reckon the Genealogies of wicked Men in short characters Cains Generation is numbred in haste as if God had no care at all of them * Gen. 7.17 18. he puts them off with a kind of c. But he insists much upon the Generation of the Godly Seths Posterity are written in a larger scroul and more legible hand * Gen. 5 6 7 8 9. c. with the number of the years which they lived which in Cains Posterity there is no notice taken of His whole Respect his Heart his Eye his All is fixed upon them And Christ himself stands more astonished and wondring at the Faith of the Centurian the importunity of the Canaanitish Woman condescends to them to grant them what they would have You never find him taking notice of the Learning of the Rabbies the Magnificence of Herod or the glorious Building of the Temple See how condescending God is to work a Miracle for the support and strengthning of a weak Faith and the peevish distrust of his people Gideons Faith was weak yet how compassionate is God towards him * Judg. 6.36 c. He would have one time the Fleece dry another time wet God condescends to him in all in ordering his Providence as Gideon would have it without upbraiding him just as a tender Mother cherishes a weak Child And this Miracle was in order to the Churches Deliverance from a present oppressive Enemy Certainly when we find God taking care and ordering even the very Pins Snuffers and Basins of the Temple the place of his Worship as well as the more stately Ornaments of it we may say doth his Care extend to the meanest Utensils in his Temple and not much more to the Worshippers in it Doth he give order for the Candlesticks and will he not have much more care of the lights in them His care to the least implies his care of the greatest too In a building the little stones must be well laid as well as the greatest Every Believer is a stone in the Spiritual building 4 Reason Fourthly God reveals often to his people what he will do in the world as if he seemed to ask their advice and therefore surely all his providences shall work for their good God would not surely acquaint them and advise with them what he should do did he intend to do any thing to their hurt There is not any thing in the heart of Christ wherein the Church is concerned but he doth reveal it to them John 15.5 I have called you friends for all things I have heard of my Father I have made known to you he discovered all to them the ends of his coming his Fathers love his death and resurrection what he would do after his ascension the progress of his affairs and the glory of Heaven and the end of all John must be the Pen-man of the Revelation which concerned the future state of the Church in all ages Joseph must know the interpretation of dreams in order to the Churches preservation Moses must be acquainted with Gods methods in the Israelites deliverance with the Egyptians ruine Dan 10 11 16.20 Daniel must know the future state of the Eastern parts of the world he must know the turnings of the times and the end of the World 'T is to Noah and none else that he immediately discovers his intended destruction of the World And all those revelations ended in his peoples advantage nay he doth not only reveal but as it were consult with him in his affairs God doth as it were unbosom himself to Abraham as one friend to another as it were adviseth with him concerning his intention on Sodom Gen. 18.17 And the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do i. e. I will by no means do it it will not consist with my Love and Friendship to him to hide any thing from him And see the reason of it v. 18. seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him It was first his great affection to him because he had advanced him and promised that a Mighty Nation should spring out of his Loins And he had not withheld from him the secret of giving the Messias which was a universal blessing and so many ages were to run out before it was to be accomplisht he had discovered to him his acts of mercy and therefore would not hide from him his acts of justice he would know his mind in it and what he thought of it And you know the story how God regulated himself by Abraham's prayer and denyed him nothing till Abraham left off suing any more It would make one conjecture that if Abraham had proceeded farther he had quite diverted the judgment from Sodom And when the Israelites had provoked God by a Golden Calf he would not do any thing against them till he had consulted Moses and therefore layes the whole case before him and seeks to take him off from pleading
with the Lord and promising to make of him a great Nation * Exod. 32.9 10. and the Lord said to Moses I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people now therfore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and in such terms that one would wonder at Now therefore let me alone As if God did fear Moses's interposition would prevent him and disswade him from it Do not you stand in the way my wrath will cool if you interpose your self as much as to say God could not do it unless Moses gave his consent Moses would not be quiet but pleads the providences of God which had been all for them the promise of God made to Abraham concerning them And he would not leave till God repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people v. 14. If Angels as Calvin saith are Gods counsellours in Heaven Believers are as it were his Counsellors on Earth 5. God has given the choicest things he hath to his people He hath given his Law The Church is the Sphere wherein the light of the Gospel is fixed and wherein it shines from whence its beams do dart out to others Isa 2.3 out of Sion shall go forth the law The oracles of God the great things of the Law as it is phrased Hosea 8.12 his Covenant and the counsel of his will are intrusted with the Church Now this being a mercy which exceeds all other things in the World is therefore comprehensive of all other as the greater comprehends the lesser And the Psalmist considers it as the top-stone of all blessings for after summing up the Providences of God he shews how God had distinguished Jacob by more eminent marks of his favour Psal 147.29 30. He shews his word to Jacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation he hath not left so rich a Legacy to any or given any so much of his heart Others are ordered by the word of his power for that is meant by word in the foregoing verse but Jacob hath the word of his grace too And this being the choicest piece of affection which God hath shewn to the Church implies the making all lesser providences subservient to it The Church wherein God hath laid up his Gospel and those Souls which are as the Ark wherein God hath deposited his Law shall be shadowed with the wings of his merciful providence in a perpetual succession of all true blessings All the providences of God are to preserve his Law in the World his severest judgments are to quicken up the law of nature in men that know no other 〈◊〉 the Law of his Gospel in men that 〈◊〉 under it And he hath given Châ—â—◠〈◊〉 Church and thereby hath given in earnest that still their good shall be promoted 'T is not to be thought that God will spare any thing else when he hath given them his Son The Second thing It must needs be that all providences are for the good of the Church Secondly 1. All the providence of God is for the glorifying his grace in Christ First The whole Oeconomy or dispensation of the fulness of time to the latter ages of the World is for the gathering all things together in him Eph. 1.10 that in the dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are on earth even in him In him as their head This was the design in all his dispensations both before his coming and since ever since the promise made to Adam though it be more manifest in the latter Age. This the Apostle represents as the main purpose of God v. 9. This was the mystery of his will which according to his good pleasure he had purposed in himself that is purposed in himself as a thing he was mightily pleased with and ver 11. saith he 〈◊〉 works all things after or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the counsel of his own will or of that purpose which he had purposed in himself to gather all things in one in Christ All the things that God acts are referred to this as their end and ordered by this Counsel as their rule As it was the design of Gods providence to make way for Christs entrance into the World and all the prophecies in the old Testament tended to the discovery of it so since the coming of Christ the end of all is to advance him in respect of his headship Eph. 1.22 23. and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church which is his body the fulness of him that fills all in all God would advance Christ to the highest pitch v. 21. far above all principality and power both in this world and in the world to come and there is still a fulness wanting to Christ to compleat him not only a personal fulness but a fulness belonging to him as a Head which is the advancement God designs him He is already advanced above all principality and power He is already given as a Head to the Church but the compleatness of it is not till all his members be perfected to which all his providences in the world doth ultimately tend Therefore if the design of God be to honour Christ and if the spiritual happiness of the Church be part of that Glory and fulness of Christ it must needs be carried on by God else he will want part of his compleatness as a Head But this shall not be wanting since as all things are squared according to that Counsel of glorifying Christ as Head so all things are acted for believers by that power whereby he raised Christ from the grave to be their Head which power is the Copy according to which all acts which respect the Church are framed v 19. and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him up from the dead God intended the good of the Church in this very act of glorifying Christ for he is made the head over all things to the Church As if God then had prescribed him that order that the glory he gave him should be also managed for the Churches interest Christ is Lord of the rest of the World but Head of the Church All things are under his feet but are not his members He is Head over all things to the Church and therefore to every member of the Church the least as well as the greatest and to the whole Church even that part of it which is on Earth as well as that part which is in Heaven who are compleated This Church is the fulness of Christ he would be bodyless without it therefore since Christ will be a head without a body if the Church be not preserved in order to the
aims at our Reconciliation as wrought by Covenant between them If by both be meant the two Offices of King and Priest and that the counsel of Peace be between them it will extend to all the Blessings of the Church to the good and Glory of the Church which is the fruit of his Kingly as well as the first Reconciliation was the fruit of his Priestly Office By Peace in Scripture is meant the confluence of all Blessings so that the intent of God in bestowing those Offices upon Christ and so great a Rule was for the good and advantage of that Church or Temple which he appointed him only to build And in Isaiah 11.9 where the Prophecy of the Government of Christ is the End is exprest to be that none should hurt or destroy in all his holy mountain And certainly since God set him at his right hand and confirm'd this power unto him after he had purged our sins it was certainly out of the high value God had for him and therefore must be the intent of God that he should govern all things in reference to the design of that death and for the good of those whose sins he had by himself purged For the possessing this Government was the very end why Christ died and rose again Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of dead and living If this were Christs End in dying and rising it was his Fathers End too who appointed him to Death and raised him by his mighty power And since he was delivered for our offences and rose again for our justification Rom. 4.25 The Government he is invested with being Lord of the dead and of the living must be for the sakes of those for whom he was delivered and for whom he rose His Regal power which was one end of his Death cannot cross the other main end the constituting a church and carrying on the good of them that believe The Government being in the hands not of God as Creator but in and through the hands of a Mediator and that Mediator which both died and rose again peculiarly for them therefore it cannot in the least be for their hurt but advantage The whole management of Christs Kingly Office in relation to the Church is prescrib'd unto Christ by God God reveals to him what shall be done in the World what acts he shall perform for the Church and gives him a History of all that was to be done upon the stage together with an order to communicate it unto his Servants Revel 1.1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his Servants to be communicated to the whole Church things that must shortly come to pass Whether this Revelation was made to the human nature of Christ at his incarnation as Tirinus thinks or rather upon his ascension is not material The whole Scheme of what was to be done in the World is revealed here by God to Christ And you find all the motions in the World relating to the Church and the end of all is the good of the Heavenly Jerusalem 3. All power thus given and intended for this end is actually administred by Christ for this end Christ as the head of the Church doth like a natural head It never sees nor hears nor exerciseth any act of sence only for it self but for the good of the whole Body The eye watches for the body the Tongue speaks for it the understanding contrives for it every part of the head is active for the whole body Now Christ as head is more bound to act for the Church militant than for the Church triumphant because the greatest part of his work for the Church triumphant viz. the bringing them to Heaven is already performed And they are above the reach of all things in the World and all the actions and motions in the world cannot touch or disorder them But the command of God concerning the other part behind is not yet performed and even they are the members of Christ as well as those in Heaven The Apostle * Col. 1.16 17 18. seems to refer both Christs creation and the preservation of things to this title of headship All things were created by him and for him and by him all things consist and he is the head of the body the Church and therefore the conservation and government of all things shall be subservient to the Church which is the body of this governing Head The chief seat Christs Soveraignty is the Church Psal 2.6 yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion And he stands upon Mount Sion Rev. 14.1 The Church is the proper Seat and Metropolis of his Empire the Royal Chamber of this Great King All the conquests of Princes redound to the advantage of that place where they fix their Residence He is King of the World but for the sake of Sion Christ did manage this charge anciently for his People when Joshuah had passed over Jordan and first entered upon the conquest of Canaan he sees a man over-against him with a sword drawn in his hand Joshua 5.13 14. And Joshua said unto him Art thou for us or for our adversaries and he said Nay but as Captain of the hosts of the Lord am I now come This was Christ that came armed for his People according to his charge as their Captain and General It was not an Angel because Joshua worshipped him ver 14. An Angel did not use to receive any Worship from Men and he accepts the Worship and commands him to loose his shooe from his foot for the place whereon he stood was holy ver 15. And the same Person Josh 6.2 is called Jehovah and there he gives him orders how he should manage his War Christ came here to direct his People in their concerns He employs his Wisdom for his Church as well as his other excellencies He is called a Counsellor * Isa 9.6 't is one of the great Letters in his Name and this as the rest there mentioned hath a relation to the Church For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given And the first use he makes of his Power after the confirmation of it to us upon his Resurrection is for the Church Matth. 28.18 All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth all Authoritative Power over Angels and the affairs of the World Go you therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them c. and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the World He commands the Apostles to gather a Church among all Nations and doth by Vertue of this Authority committed to him promise his Presence with them in all such services they should do to this End even to the end of the World He promises his Spirit and his Providential Presence as his Power should endure to the end of the World so the exercise of it for this End should
run Parallel with the continuance of it There should be no alteration or change in this great end of his as long as the World lasts How can Christ be with them and that to the end of the world if all the parts of his providential government were not ordered to serve this end the good of the Church For the Church is the fulness of him that fills all in all Eph. 1.23 that fills all in all places all in all actions and motions for the good of his Church which is his body 3. God in the church discovers the glory of all his attributes Thirdly 'T is in a mans house where his riches and state is seen 'T is in the Church God makes himself known in his excellency more than in all the world besides Psal 76.1 In Judah is God known his name is great in Israel in Salem also is his tabernacle and his dwelling place in Sion 'T is in his Church he doth manifest his power 'T is called therefore a glorious high throne Jer. 17.12 a glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary Kings use to display all their Glory and Majesty upon their Thrones in this sense Heaven is called Gods Throne Isa 60.1 because the prospect of the Heavens affords us discoveries of the wisdom and power of God more than in any other visible thing both in their essence magnitude and motion So is there a greater discovery of Gods attributes in the Church which is also stiled Heaven in Scripture than in the whole World besides There it is that the Angels look to learn more of the Wisdom of God than they understood before * Eph. 3.10 'T is there the day of his power dawns Psal 110.3 'T is there his Saints see his power and his glory Psal 63.2 the Sanctuary is called the firmament of his power Psal 150.1 The glory of Gods attributes is centered in Christ in a higher manner than in the creation and in that work did excel themselves in what they had done in the framing of the world and the Church being the glory of Christ all those attributes which are glorified in Christ do in and through him shine forth more clearly upon the Church than upon any other part of the world He stiles himself their Creator as much as the Creator of the whole frame of Heaven and Earth Isa 43.15 I am the Lord your holy one the Creator of Israel your King As though all the attributes of God his Power in Creation his Holiness in redemption were designed for none else but them And indeed by virtue of the Covenant they are to be so for if God be their God then all of God is theirs What wisdom power sufficiency grace and kindness he hath is principally for them If God he their God it is in their concerns he will glorify himself as a God in the manifestation of all his perfections This cannot be without the ordering all providences for their advantage 4. There is a peculiar relation of God and Christ to the Church Fourthly upon which account this Doctrien must needs be true God is set out in all relations to manifest his great care of his people He is a Father to provide for them * Isa 68.5 A Mother to suckle them * Isa 49.15 Chrit is a Husband to love and protect them * Eph. 5.29 A Brother to counsel them * John 20.17 And when all these Relations meet in one and the same person the result of it must be very strong Any one relation where there is affetion is a great security but here all the relations are twisted together with the highest affections of them in God to the Church A Father will order all for the good of his child a Mother for her Infant a Husband for his Wife and one kind Brother for another So doth God for his People and what soever those Relations bind Men to on Earth in respect of Care Love and Faithfulness that is God to his Church The Church hath that Relation to God which none in the World have besides They are his Jewels therefore he will keep them they are his Children therefore he will spare them * Mal. 3.17 They shall have protection from him as they are his Jewels and compassion from him as they are his Sons The Church is Christs Flesh as dear to him as our flesh is to us as much his as our flesh is ours Eph. 5.29 No man hates his own flesh but nourisheth it as Christ doth his Church No man can have a higher value for hsi own flesh than Christ hath for his Church The Church as Tertullian speaks is nothing else but Christus explicatus Christ unfolded and as considered in union with Christ is called Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 'T is the Apple of his eye Zech. 2.8 A tender and beloved part The Church is Christs Spouse the contract is made the Espousals shall be at the last Day the Members are pick'd out one by one to be presented to the Lamb at last as a Glorious Bride for him Rev. 21.2 And all Gods dealings with them in the World are but preparations of them for that State Upon the making of the Match God promises a communion of Goods Hos 2.20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness which is a fruit of Marriage the Wife being invested in her Husbands Estate When God hath given the blood of his Son for the Church he will not deny her the service of the Creatures but Jointure her in that as one part of her Dowry In that day will I hear the heavens c. ver 21. In what day in the day of betrothing in the day of the Evangelical Administration when the contract shall be made between me and my Church Heavens Earth Corn Wine and Oil the voice and motions of all Creatures are for Jezreel which signifies the seed of God This great Prince he hath a care of all his subjects somore peculiarly of his Spouse and Princess which is his seed too and all Creatures shall be her Servants This Fatherly Relation and Affection is strong and pure not as the love which acts an ambitious man to Ambition or a covetous man to Wealth which respects nothing but the grasping and possessing the Objects they dote upon and have nothing of love for the Objects themselves therefore deserves not the name of Love But it is the love of a Father whose love is pure towards his children He seeks their good as his own Consider these two things 1. God hath a peculiar love to his very Relation and often mentions it with delight as if he loved to hear the sound of it in his own Lips Cant. 8.12 My vineyard which is mine is before me Me My Mine The Church is always under his Eye seated in his Affection and God is pleased with his propriety in them God never calls the World My World though he created it sometimes
he saith the Earth is mine but it is either to check the presumptions of Men who ascribe that to themselves which is due to the first Cause Or to encourage his People in the expectation of Deliverance because all things in the Earth are at his beck Or to shew his own sufficiency without the services of his people as when he saith th eEarth is mine and the fulness thereof but it is never mentioned in such a way as to discover any pleasure he hath in the Relation between him and it simply considered but My Vineyard My People My Children My Jewels My Sanctuary very often So much doth God esteem his Propriety in them 2. This Relation is prevalent with God in the highest Emergencies and Distresses of his People The very consideration that they are his People kindles his Affection and enlivens his Strength for them Isa 63.8 And he said Surely they are my People Children that will not lye so he was their Saviour God is brought in as one that had heard the cries of his Church and had not been moved but when he recollects himself and considers that they were his People and that he was in a special manner related to them he became their Saviour He could no longer bear it but stirs up himself to relieve them Nay it hath so strong an influence upon him htat if this Note be often sounded in his Ears it doth as it were change his Voice and when he seems to have a mind to cast them off he cannot When Israel had offended by erecting and worshipping a golden Calf he calls them no more his People but Moses People Exod. 32.7 And the Lord said unto Moses Go get thee down for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves As though God had not been concerned in this Miraculous conduct out of Egypt And ver 9. this people as if he had had no interest in them but particularizes them with disdain God had here discarded them and turn'd them over upon Moses's hands as if he would have no longer any thing to do with them but Moses in Prayer turns them upon God again and would not own them as his but pleads that they were God's proper Goods ver 11. Lord why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which htou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt And ver 12. again thy People and God at last resumes his former Notes ver 14. And the Lord repented him of the evil he thought to do unto his people Now they are Gods People again the repetition of this Relation is a powerful Rhetorique to perswade him to own them again which he had cashiered and turned off 5. The whole interest of God in the World lies in his Church and People Fisthly He sees little of himself in any part of the corrupted World but only in them 'T is in the Church he hath put his Name 'T is there he sees his Image and therefore places his love there and shall all this signifie nothing Shall the Governour of the World let things go contrary to his own interest They are like to him in that which is one of his greatest perfections viz his Holiness which gives him a greater interest in them 'T is his Interest that is opposed by an opposition to the Church All the hatred any bear it grows from the inward root of enmity against God himself Psal 44.22 Yeae for thy sake are we killed all the day long God surely will concern himself in the Churches interest since it is his own His Interest lies 1. In the persons of his People 'T is his Inheritance 8 Isa 19. last It is his Portion * Deut. 32.9 Deut. 32.9 The Lords portion is his people Jacob is the lot of his inheritance Every part of an inheritance and a portion doth as particularly belong to the owner as the whole Every part of the ground which belongs to the Inheritance is the Heirs as well as the whole Field He will not suffer the World which is but the work of his hands to lay waste his Church which is his proper inheritance 'T is his Treasure and where a mans treasure is there is his heart and where Gods Treasure is there is Gods heart 2. In the services and actions of the Church If the Church should be destroyed whom hath God to love and imitate him and to shew forth his Glory If the Candlestick is broken what is sit to hold out the light to the World He hath none in the World besides that do intentionally mind his Honour that take pleasure in glorifying his Name and writing after his Copy and observing his Works And will it stand with his interest to govern things contrary to theirs which is really his own When God had made the World and pronounced it good what would it have signified if he had not brought in man as his Rent-gatherer and the Collector of his Tribute to return it to him And what would Man signifie since the corrupted World embezles that which is Gods Right and turns it to its own use if God had not some honest stewards who faithfully act for him and give him the Glory of his Works And God will spare them as a man spares his own Son that serves him God hath no voluntary service in the World but from them therefore he is more interessed in their good than in the good of the whole World besides The services of the Church are all the delight God hath in the World Hos 9.10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the figtree at her first time They are as the refreshing Wine and Grapes as the delicious fruit of the first ripe Figs wherewith a weary Traveller recruits his Spirits after a long and tyring journey And God hath a greater delight in the fruit he receives from the Church than in it simply as it is his inheritance for no inheritance is valued but for the fruit and revenue it yields and therefore God orders all his blackest providences in the World like dark clouds to be the watering pots of this his Garden that the Fruit and Flowers of it may be brought to maturity which yield him so much pleasure and honour God only is acknowledged by them and in them as the Jews were bound to acknowledge God the Author of their mercies by presenting the first fruits of their increase to God And Believers are called so Rev. 14.4 These were redeemed from among men being the first fruits to God and the Lamb. 'T is by and in them that God hath the acknowledgment of all his mercies and blessings to the World 6. Sixthly It cannot be but all the providences of God shall work to the good of his Church if we consider the affections of God 1. His love What hath God in the World as an object to bestow his affections upon and
communicate the rayes of his love unto since he created it but his Church The men of the World hate him He can see nothing amiable in them for what was first lovely they have defaced and blotted out but the Church hath Gods comliness put upon her Ezek. 16.14 it was perfect through my comliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God and he did not lay those glorious colours upon her to manage his government or any part of it against her to deface her Besides their loveliness which is conferred upon them by God they have a love to God and no man will act against those whom he thinks to be his friends God being purus actus there being nothing but purity and activity in God his love must be the purest and highest love the most vigorous and glowing As fire which sets all other Bodies so this all other powers in the World in motion for them God cannot love them but he must wish all good to them and do all good for them for his love is not a lazy love but hath its raptures and tenderness and his affection is twisted with his Almighty Power to work that good for them which in their present condition in the world they are capable of Now it is certain God loves his Church For 1. He carries them in his hand * Deut. 33.3 and that not in a loose manner to be cast out but they are engraven upon the palms of his hands * Isa 49.16 that he cannot open his hand to bestow a blessing upon any person but the picture of his Church doth dart in his eye God alludes to the Rings wherein men engrave the image of those that are dear to them And the Jews did in their captivity engrave the Effigies of their City Jerusalem upon their Rings that they might not forget it * Sanctius in Isa 49.16 If his eye be alway upon the Church his thoughts can never be off it in all his works 2. He loves the very gates and outworks Psal 87.2 the Lord loveth the gates af Sion He loves a Cottage where a Church is more than the stately Palaces of Princes The gates were the places where they consulted together and gave judgment upon affairs God loved the assemblies of his Saints because of the truths revealed the ordinances adminstred the worship presented to him 3. Nay one Saint is more valued by him than the whole World of the wicked God is the God of all Creatures but peculiarly the God of Abraham and of his seed One Abraham is more deeply rooted in his heart than all the World and he doth more entitle himself the God of Abraham than the God of the whole World for in that style he speaks to Isaac Gen. 26.24 I am the God of Abraham thy Father much more the God of Israel The God of the whole Church of which Abraham was but a member though the Father of the faithful and a Feoffee of the Covenant God hath a greater value for one sincere Soul than for a whole City He saves a Lot and burns a Sodom Yea than for a whole World he drowns a World and preserves a Noah He secures his Jewels whilst he flings away the pebbles 4. He loves them so that he overlooks their crabbed and perverse misconstructions of his providence When the Israelites had jealous thoughts of him and of Moses his instrument when they saw that mighty Egyptian Army just at their heels and themselves cooped up between Mountains Forts and Waters God doth not upon this provoking murmuring draw up his cloudy Pillar to Heaven but puts it in the rear of them when before it had marched in the van * Exod. 14.19 and wedgeth himself in between them and Pharaoh's enraged host to shew that they should as soon sheath their swords in his heart as in their bowels and if they could strike them it should be through his own Deity which was the highest expression of his affection And though they often murmured against his providence after they were landed on the shore yet he left them not to shift for themselves but bore them all the way in his arms as a Father doth his Child * Deut. 1.31 and bare them like an Eagle upon his Wings * Deut. 32.11 and God loves them magnificently and royally Hos 14 4 I will love them freely * Hosea 14.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any doubting without any reluctancy I will love thee without any repugnancy in my heart to draw me back from thee for mine anger is turned away as the streams of a River quite another way Now all this considered can the Governour of the World the King of Saints act any thing against his own affections Yea will he not make all things subservient to them whom he loves 2. His Delight See what an inundation of sweetning joy there was in him for which he had not Terms of Expression to suit the narrow apprehensions of Men Zeph. 3.17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing He seems in his expression to know no measure of his delight in the Church and no end of it I will rejoyce over thee with joy Joy sparkles up fresh after joy 'T is his rest where his Soul and all that is within him centers it self with infinite contentment Joy over thee with finging A Joy that blossoms into Triumph Never had any such charming transports in the company of any he most affected as God hath in his Church he doth so delight in the graces of his People that he delights to mention them He twice mentions Enochs walking with him * Gen. 5.22 24. And certainly God cannot but delight in it more than in the World because it is a fruit of greater pains than the Creation of the World The World was created in the space of six daies by a Word the Erecting a Church hath cost God more Pains and Time Before the Church of the Jews could be settled he had both a contest with the Peevishness of his People and the Malice of their Enemies And his own Son must bleed and dye before the Church of the Gentiles could be fixed Men delight in that which hath cost them much Pains and a great Price God hath been at too much Pains and Christ at too great a Price to have small delight in the Church will he then let wild Beasts break the Hedges and tread down the fruit of it shall not all things be ordred to the good of that which is the Object of his greatest delight in the World 7. Seventhly The presence of God in his Church will make all providence tend to the good of it It would be an idle useless Presence if it were not operative for their good The Lord is there is the
very name of the Gospel Church * Esa 48.35 what would it signifie if it were an useless Presence Christ stands upon Mount Sion his Throne is in the Church when the great things in the World shall be acted for the Ruin of Antichrist * Revel 14.1 Gods Presence in his Church is the Glory and Defence of it As the presence of the King is the Glory of the Court Zech. 2.5 For I saith the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midst of her Her presence is a Covenant-presence Isa 41.10 Fear not I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God whence follows Strength Help and Support I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my Righteousness that is with my Righteous Power with my power engaged to thee in a Righteous Covenant His Presence and Providence in the World is in a way of Absolute Dominion but in his Church in a way of Federal Relation He is the God of Israel and God to Israel or for Israel * 1 Chro. 17.24 yea and a God in the midst of Israel Every one of them sufficient engagements to protect Israel and provide for Israel and govern every thing for Israels good God is under an Oath to do good to srael will he violate his Oath tear his Seal break his Covenant who never broke his League with any of his people yet 8. A Eightly The Prayers of the Church have a might force with God to this end God is entitled a God hearing Prayer and what prayers should God hear if not the prayers of his Church which aim at Gods Glory in their own good Though the prayers of the Church may in some particular fail yet in general they do not because they submit their desires to the Will of God which always works what is best for them When God would do any mighty work in the World he stirs up his people to pray for it and their prayers by his own appointment have a mighty influence upon the Government of the World For when they come before him in behalf of the Church in general he doth indulge them a greater liberty and boldness and as it were a kind of Authority over him than upon other occasions of their own Isa 45.11 Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his maker ask of me things to come concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands command you me God would be more positively considently and familiarly dealt with about the concerns of his sons though they were things to come to pass in after Ages And indeed the prayers of the Church have a powerful and invisible efficacy on the great actions and overturnings which are in the World The Being of the World is maintained by them from sinking according to the Jews saying sine stationibus non subsisteret mundus standing in prayer was their usual prayer-gesture And that they have actually such a force is evident Rev. 8.3 4. An Angel hath a golden Censer with Incense to offer it with the prayers of the Saints upon the Altar which was before the Throne And ver 5. the Censer wherein their prayers were offered was filled with the fire of the Altar and cast into the Earth and there were Voices Thundrings Lightnings and Earthquakes When the prayers of the Saints were offered to God and ascended upon before him that is were very pleasing to him The issue is the Angel fills the Censer with fire of the Altar and thereby causes great commotions and alterations in the World signifying that the great changes of the World are an answer unto those prayers which are offered unto God for fire is taken from that altar upon which they were offered and flung into the World And it must needs be that the prayers of the Church should have an influence on the government of the World 1. Because God hath a mighty delight in the prayers of his people The prayer of the upright is his delight and he loves to hear the Churches voice Cant. 2.14 O my dove let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice Chaldee thy voice is sweet in prayer In the times of the Gospel God promises that the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem should be pleasant to him Mal. 3.4 When Christ shall sit as a refiner v. 3. what is the issue of those prayers v. 5. I will come near to you to Judgment and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers c. Prayer awakes providence to judge the Enemies of the Church A Parent delights not in the bare crying or the voice of his Child simply considered in it self but in the significations and effects of it He delights in the matter of their prayers it being so agreeable to his own heart and will and in the sence they have of the sufferings of the whole body 2. Because Prayer is nothing else but a pleading of Gods promises Unto this they are directed by that Spirit which knows the mind of God and Marshals their petitions according to his will Now as God turns his own decrees and purposes concerning his Church into promises to them so the Church turns those promises into prayers for them So that promises being for the good of the Church and there being an exact harmony between those promises and the Churches prayers all those providences which are the issue of those promises and the answer of the Churches prayers must needs be for the Churches good 3. Because there are united supplications and pleadings both in Heaven and Earth all the hands of the whole Family in Heaven and Earth are concerning in their petitions 1. Christ intercedes for the Church who alwaies desires mercy and deliverance for them in the appointed time Zech. 1.12 How long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and the issue is alwayes gracious For v. 13. God answers him with good and comfortable words and thereupon Carpenters are raised to cut off the horns which had scattered Judah v. 20. 2. Angels in all probability plead for the Church as we have already heard 'T is likely they offer and present that to God which makes for his glory and that is the good of the Church Angels surely desire that which their head doth who is * Zech. 1.12 described as one of their own order and called an Angel Do they rejoyce at the repentance of a sinner and do they not likewise triumph at the happiness of the Church which is part of that Family they are of And we know that the greatness of our joy is suted to the measure of our desires where our joy is most triumphant it implies that our desires before were most vehement 3. Glorified Saints are not surely behind The rich man in the Parable desired his Friend on Earth might not come into that place of torment * Luk. 16.28 If
there be so much charity in Hell can there be less in Heaven If he desired it that by the presence of his cmpanions in sin his own torments might not be increased Do not the Saints in Heaven desire the presence of the whole Church that their happiness in that of the whole body may be compleated If the Head Christ be not compleat without the body the members of the body cannot be compleat without one another The souls of them that were slain for the word of God cry under the Altar for vengeance on them that dwell on the Earth as Revel 6.9 and 10. How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Will not their kindness to their fellow-members be as strong as their justice And their love for the good of their Friends draw out their prayers as well as their desire of vengeance on their Enemies Why may they not as well pray for us as we praise God for them Had they not some likeness to their great Master whilst they were on Earth and shall they not be more like to him now they ae in Heaven and behold his face and feel all the stirrings of his heart And if they have no sence at all of the Churches sufferings how shall they be like to him who hath As their bodies shall be like the glorious body of Christ at the resurrection are not their Souls now like his glorious Soul merciful and compassionate and sympathizing in all the afflictions of the Church and can this be without some breathings for a full compleating of the Churches freedom Are such desires and pleas any hindrance to their present happiness 'T is so far from that that it doth rather further their glory which cannot be compleat as the glory of Christ as head is not mounted to the highest pitch of glory till his mystical body be all gathered in and lodged with him If it be thus will God do any thing prejudicial to the Church and contrary to the combin'd desires of all those that are so ner him If God doth sometimes stir up himself upon the supplication of one man grant an order upon his petition according to his mind and if the prayers of one faithful Moses or Elias or Samuel have such a kind of Almighty power in them much more is the jovnt force of so many prayers twisted together Vse 1. VSE For information Is it so that all providence is for the good of the Church Then 1. God will alwaies have a Church in the World he will have some to serve him The whole course of his providence being designed for it As long as the world which is the object of his providence doth endure he will have a Church God would otherwise lose the end of the motion of his eyes * The Text. the operation of his providence since it is to shew himself strong for the Church and every member of it As long as the candle and light of the Gospel burns and shines God will have a candlestick to set the candle in * Cham. les trais verit liv 3. cap. 1. p. 16. His great design in making a World was not to have a Sun Moon and Stars but a Church a company of men that might ear his mark and honour him to whom he might speak and extend his grace abroad which he was so full of within As a Limner who would draw an excellent draught draws his design in the midst of the cloth and fills the void places with clouds and land skips and other fancies at his pleasure which communicate some beauty and lustre to the work But that was not the principal design of the workman That Redeemer which bears the Church upon his heart will create a stability for it 't is a part of his Priestly Office to have a care of the Lamps 'T is one of his Titles to be he that walks in the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks * Revel 2 1. Priests under the Law were to look to the grant Candlestick in the Temple supply the Lamps with Oyl and make them clean * Levit. 24.3 4. Chap. 27.20 Chap. 30.8 The Church indeed may be eclips'd but not extinguished if it be not conspicuous on the mountain yet it shall be hid in the Wilderness There shall be sprinklings of professors among all people God will leaven the places where they are into Christianity and cause them to fructify and grow up in purity and glory * Micah 5.7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord as the showers upon the grass that tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the Sons of men Is tarries not for man It attends not the power of man the precepts of man or inventions of man but whose descent is from Heaven and is carried on not by human power but by the divine Spirit and providence It shall be firmer than all worldy power and the strongest Kings Isa 2.2 And the Mountain of the Lords house shall be established upon the top of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the hills Above mountains and Hills to which sometimes the powers of the World are compared Zeth 4.7 Zech. 4.7 That providence which gave the Church at first a footing in the world upon a weak foundation to outward appearance in spight of Men and Devils will preserve it and not suffer it to be blown up he will shadow the Church with his wings in a perpetual succession of the choicest mercies 2. God will in the greatest exigencies find out means for the protection of his Church This will be till his providence be at an end When God hath removed one instrument of his Churches protection he hath his choice of his Churches protection he hath his choice of others whom he can raise and spirit for his work When those upon whom the Churches hopes hang are taken off he can raise things that are unlikely to supply the place As the Lutenist accidentally had a Grasshopper leap upon his instrument to supply by its noise the place of a string which had newly crackt whereby his Musick was continued without interruption God can Spirit men against their own natural fears It was very improbable that Nicodeus one of a fearful disposition who came to our Saviour by night for fear of the Jews should have the courage to assert his cause in the face of a whole Councel of Pharisees contriving his death and at present blunt the edge of their malice though we read of none at that time in the Councel to second him * Joh. 7.50 51. The holy Ghost takes particular notice that it was he that came to Jesus by night Joseph of Arimathea whose name we meet not with in any of the Catalogues of his Desciples till the time of his death then appears boldly to beg the body of Jesus of Pilate God
will never want instruments for the preserving that Church which he owns as his 'T is observed by some that God so ordered it that the same day that Pelagius the great poysoner of the Christian Doctrine was born in Brittain Austin the most famous defender of the truth was born in Africk That the horn which pushed the truth should no sooner appear but the Carpenter to cut it off should be provided too As it is observed where poysons grow Antidotes grow near them by the indulgent provisiof the God of Nature As there is the Wisdom of the Serpent against the Church so there is the Wisdom of God for it Gods goodness upon his Church in former Ages is not all laid out He hath his stores still neither is his Wisdom non-plust nor his Power weakned neither is he nor can he be weary of his care 3. The Church shall in the end prove Victorious against all its Adversaries or Providence must miss of its Aim The Church is compared to an Olive Tree Hos 14.6 In respect of beauty his Beauty shall be as the Olive Tree It is so also in respect of Victory Olive Branches were used in Triumph God is on the Churches side and he is stronger than the strongest and wiser than the wisest and higher than the highest Jesus Christ is the Churches Head and General Christ the Head watcheth for the good of the Church the Body He must be destroyed before the Church can There is a mighty Arm which though it may for a time seem withered will in the end be stretched out and get it self the victory Whilst Christ is in the Ship it may be tosted but it shall not be sunk It may be beaten down but like a Ball to rebound the higher The young Tree that is shaken by the wind may lose some leaves and some fruit too but the root gets greater strength and strikes it self deeper into the Earth and makes the Branches more capable of a rich return of Fruit the following year The Churches Stature is compared to a Palm-Tree * Cant. 7.7 which cannot be deprest by by the weights which hang upon it but riseth the higher God uses the same method in the Churches as in Christs advancement Our Saviours Death was necessary to his Glory * Luk 24.26 And the Churches affliction sometimes to its exaltation A Nation may lose some Battlels and yet be victorious The Church may have many a cross but in the end will surmount all difficulties Though Judgments and Apostacies may be great in a Nation yet God will have a care of his own Plants * Isa 4.12 13. There shall be a tenth It shall return the Holy seed shall be the substance thereof As a Tree in Winter which seems dead but its juyce shall revive into rich and generout Blossoms The Ark shall float above the waters Babylon shall fall the Lamb shall stand upon Mount Sion Men may as well stop the rising of the Sun in its mounting to the Meridian Bridle in the Tyde of the Ocean as hinder the current of an Almighty Providence 4. The interest of Nations is to bear a respect to the Church and countenance the Worship of God in it This is to concur with Gods main end and imitate him in his Providential Administrations Gods people whatever their Enemies suggest to the contrary are a Blessing in the midst of a Land * Isa 19.24 their interest is greater than the interest of all the World besides though they be but a handful their fruit shall shake like Lebonon * Psal 72.16 Broughtn on Dan. 10 20. The neglect of Religion is the Ruin of Nations 'T is observed that Cyrus was slain in the War in Sci thia a little after he neglected the building of the Temple of Hierusalem which he had begun Those Persian Kings Reigned the longest that favoured the Jews in that and their other just requests God Honoured or disgraced them as they were kind or cruel to his People And when any act for the good of his people they shall not be without their Reward When Cyrus should let the Jemish Captives go free without Ransom he should be no loser by it God would give him the labour of Egypt the Merchandize of Ethiopia and the strength of the Sabeans into his hand for the price of his Peoples Delivery * Isa 45.13 14. those Nations which should favour them in the times of their persecutions and Flights and give them shelter in their Countreys should thrive and prosper by the blessing of God upon them If Moab give entertainment to the flying Israelites in the time of the Invasion of Salmanassar God will preserve their Land that the Spoyler shall not enter into the Consines of it and they shall have Kings and Judges under the protection of the House of David i. e. under the Kings of Israel as some understand it * Isa 16.4 5. Saints are the Guardians of the Places where they live their Prayers have a greater insluence than the wisest Counsels or the mightiest Force* 2 Kings 2.12 And Elisha cried My Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof The Chaldee paraphraseth thus Thou art better of Israel by thy Prayers than Chariots and Horsemen This is the Elogy of one single Prophet what influence then hath the whole Church of God in a place The whole world is the better for the Church of God The Chaldee Paraphrase hath a notion upon that Psalm 22.3 But thou art holy oh thou that inhabitest the Praises of Israel Thou that establishest the World for the Praises of Israel God hath nothing to do in the World but the saving his People When that is once done he will put an end to this Frame of things When he hath gathered his Wheat into his Garner he will burn up the Chaff His People are the Spirit and Quintessence of the World When this is extracted the rest are flung upon the Dung hill as a Caput Mortuum 5. We may see hence the ground of most of the Judgments in the World Men by their rage against the Church will not acknowledge God's Government of the World for the Churches good Therefore saith the Psalmist Psal 59.13 Consume them in wrath consume them that they may net be and let them know that God rules in Jacob unto the ends of the Earth The Church is the Seat of his Government and from thence he extends it to the utermost parts of the Earth In Jacob he rules and for the sake of Jacob he orders his Government to the ends of the Earth The not acknowledging this brings wrathful Consumptions upon men And it is also the end of his Judgments to make men know it 'T is likely enough the four Kings * Gen 14.9 might have gone clear away with all their Booty had not they laid their singers upon Lot But when they would pack him up among the rest they did but sollicite their own
will not alway be still and refrain himself he seems to do so for a while but when he doth arise he will destroy and devour at once * Isa 42.14 he will make but one morsel of them When God is angry with his people and gives them into the hands of men to execute his Justice upon them and punish them he will even punish those enemies for their Cruelty and going beyond their commission in satisfying there own immoderate Passions upon them Upon this account God threatens Babylon Isa 47.6 I was wroth with my People I have polluted mine Inheritance and given them into thy hand thou didst shew them no mercy Wherupon God threatens them afterwards c. so Zech. 1.15 God was sore displeased with the Heathen for when he was but a little displeased with his people they helped forward the affliction Vse 2. Is for Comfort If all the Providence of God be for the good of the Church If his eyes run to and fro to shew himself strong for them it affords matter of great comfort His Providence is continual for them * Zech. 4. he hath seven pipes to convey kindness to them as well as seven Lamps whereby to discern their streights His Providence is as vast as his Omniscience The number of Pipes belonging to the Candlestick of the Church is exact according to the number of Lamps The Churches Misery cannot be hid from Gods eye let it be in what part of the Earth soever for his eyes run to and fro throughout the whole Earth and his sight excites his strength Upon the sight of their distressed condition he watches only for the fittest opportunity to shew himself strong for them And when that opportunity comes he is speedy in the Deliverance of them Psal 18.10 He rode upon a cherub and did fly yea he did flye upon the wings of the wind He doth not only ride upon a Cherub but flye His wings are nothing but wind which hath the quickest and the strongest motion which moves the greatest bodies and turns down all before it What is for the good of the whole hath an influence upon every member of the Body 1. 'T is comfort in Duties and special Services Nothing shall be wanting for encouragement to Duty and success in it when God calls any to it since all his Providence is for the good of the Church Let there be but sincerity on our parts in our attempts of service upon Gods call and we need not fear a want of Providence on Gods part God never calls any to serve his Church in anystation but he doth both Spirit and encourage them God hath in his common Providence suited the nature of every Creature to that place in which he hath set it in the World and will he not much more in his special Providence suit every one to that place he calls them to for the service of his Church He did not forsake Christ in redeeming his Church neither will he forsake any in assisting his Church When Joseph of Arimathea would boldly demand the body of our Saviour Providence made the way plain before him he meets with no check neither from Pilate nor the Priests * Mat. 27.58 Mark 15.43 2. In meanness and lowness 'T is one and the same God that rules the affairs of the whole World of the Church and of every particular Member of it As it is the same Soul that informs the whole Body the meanest Member as well as that which is most excellent Not the meanest sincere Christian but is under Gods eye for good The Spirit acts and animates every Member in the Church the weakest as well as the most towring Christian Baruch was but the Prophet Jeremy's Amanuensis or Scribe and Servant to Jeremy who was no great man in the World himself yet God takes notice so of his Service that he would particularly provide for him and commands Jeremy in a way of Prophecy to tell him as much Jer. 45.5 I will bring evil upon all flesh but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey whithersoever thou goest 3. In the greatect Judgments upon others In an Epidemical Judgment upon the whole Nation of the Jews God would have a special care of Baruch If he should cast his people far off among the Heathen and scatter them among the Countries yet even there he would be a little Sanctuary unto them His own presence should supply the want of a Temple so he is pleased to express himself * Ezek. 11.16 but how is it possible the great God can be but a little Sanctuary His eye is upon them to see their dangers and his hand upon them to secure them for it His Promise shall shield them and his Wings shall cover them * Psal 91.4 While he hath indignation he hath a secret Chamber for their security * Isa 26.20 An Almighty shadow under which they may abide * Psal 91.1 In times of the most devouring danger he hath a Seal to set upon their foreheads as a mark of his special Protection We never have so much experience of Gods care and strength as in times of Trouble Psal 37.39 He is their strength in time of trouble He is a friend who is as able as willing and as willing as able to help them whose watchfulness over them is as much above their apprehension as it is above their merits 4. In the greatest extremities wherein his people may be there are promises of comfort * Isa 43 2. Both in overflowing waters and scorching fires he will be with them His Providence shall attend his Promise and his Truth shall be their Shield and Buckler Psal 91.4 That surely is a sufficient support Christ thought it so when he only said to his Disciples 't is I be not afraid * John 6.17 18. What though there be a Storm a darkness and trouble 't is I am he The darkness of the night troubles not the Pilot whilst he hath his Compass to steer by If all his providences be for the good of them that fear him he can never want means to bring them out of trouble because he is always actually exercised in governing that which is for their good and till he sees it fit to deliver them he will be with them Great Mercies succeed the sharpest Afflictions * Jer. 30.5 6 7. c. When there should be a voice of trembling and men with their hands upon their Loins as women in Travel and paleness in their faces from the excess of their fears In that day God would break the Yoak from them and they should serve the Lord their God and David their King Though the night be never so dark yet it is certain the Sun will rise and disperse its light next morning and one time or other shew it self in its brightness We have no reason to despond in great extremities since he can think us into safety Psal 40.17 Lord think on
me much more look us into it his thoughts and his eyes move together 5. In fear of wants The power of the Governor of the World cannot be doubted His love as little as it seems fince it hath moved him to prepare Heaven to entertain his people at the end of their Journey will not be wanting to provide accommodation for them upon the way since all things both good and bad are at his beck and under the government of his gracious Wisdom His eyes run to and fro through the whole Earth not only to defend them in dangers but supply them in wants for his strength is shewed both ways Doth he providentially regard them that have no respect for him and will he not employ his power for and extend his care to them that adore and love him and keep up his honour in the World He will not surely be regardless of the afflictions of his Creatures His people are not only his Creatures but his new Creatures their bodies are not only created by him but redeemed by his Son The purchase of the Redeemer is joyned to the Providence of the Creator If he took care of you when he might have damned you for your sins will he not much more since you are Believers in Christ And he cannot damn you Believing unless he renounce his Sons Mediation and his own Promise A natural man provides for his own much more a Righteous man Prov. 19.22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children much more the God of Righteousness a God who hath his eye always upon them His eye will affect his heart and his heart spirit the hand of his Power to relieve He hath prepared of his goodness for the poor Psal 68.10 6. 'T is comfort in the low estate of the Church at any t i me Gods eye is upon his Church even whilst he seems to have forsaken them If he seem to be departed it is but in some other part of the Earth to shew himself strong for them where ever his eye is fixed in any part of the World his Church hath his heart and his Churches relief is his end Though the Church may sometimes lye among the Pots in adirty condition yet there is a time of Resurrection when God will restore it to its true glory and make it as white as a Dove with its Silver Wings * Psal 68.13 The Sun is not alway obscured by a thick Cloud but will be freed from the darkness of it God will judge his peole and repent himself concerning his servants * Psal 135.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Comfort himself 'T is a comfort to God to deliver his People and he will do it in such a Season when it shall be most comfortable to his Glory their Hearts The very name Hierusalem some derive from Jireh Salem God will provide in Salem The new Jerusalem is the title given to Gods Church Rev. 1. and is still the object of his Providence and he will provide for it at a pinch Gen. 22.14 Jehovah Jireh God will raise up the honour and beauty of his Church Great men shall be servants to it and employ their strength for it when God shall have mercy on it * Isa 60.10 11 12. Yea the Learning and knowledg of the world shall contribute to the building of it v. 13. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee the fir-tree the pine tree and the box together to beautifie the place of my sanctuary It shall be called the city of the Lord the Sion of the holy one of Israel that she may know that the Lord is her Saviour and her Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob. As Christ rose in his Natural so he will in his Spiritual Body If Christ when dead could not be kept from Rising Christ now living shall not be hindred from raising and helping his Church His own Glory is linked with his Peoples security and though he may not be moved for any thing in them because of thehir sinfulness he will for his own name because of its Excellency * Ezek 36. Ezek. 36.22 I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for my holy names sake As Sorrows encreased upon the Israelites the nearer their Deliverance approached Because this Method of God is the greatest startling even to good men let us consider this a little that God doth and why God doth leave his Church to extremities before he doth deliver it Take the Resolution of this in some propositions 1. 'T is indeed Gods usual method to loave the Chuch to extremity before he doth command help You never heard of any eminent Deliverance of the Church but was ushered in by some amazing distress The Israelites were not saved till they were put in between Sea Hills and Forts that their Destruction was inevitable unless Heaven relieved them Pharaoh resolves to have his will and God resolves to have his but he lets him come with his whole Force and open mouth at the Israelites backs and then makes the Waters his Sepulchre Constantine the man-child in the revelation was preceded by Dioclesian the sharpest Persecutor When his People are at a loss 't is his usual tme to do his greatest works for them God had promised Christ many ages and yet no appearance of him still Promise after Promise and no Performance Psal 40.8 It was then 〈◊〉 come yet many hundred years rowl'd away and no sight of him yet Captivity and affliction and no Redeemer but when the World was over-run with Idolatry the Jews oppressed by the Romans the Scepter departed from Judah Herod an Edomite and stranger King and scarce any Faith left then then he comes The World will be in much the like case at his next coming Luke 18.8 When the son of man comes shall he find faith in the earth there shall be faintings despondency unbelief of his Promise as though he had cast off all care of his Churches concerns 'T is not meant of a Justifying Faith but a Faith in that particular Promise of his coming The Faith of the Israelites must needs begin to flag when they saw their Males murdered by the Egyptians could they believe the Propagation of the Seed of Abraham when murder took off the Infants and Labour and Age would in time the old ones Whilst their Children were preserved the Promise might easily be believed But consider this was but just before their deliverance like a violent Crisis before Recovery He doth then judge his people and repent himself for his servants when he sees their power is gone and there is none shut up or left * Deut. 32.36 He doth so for the wicked many times when the affliction of Idolatrous Israel was bitter when there was not any shut up nor an left nor any helper for Israel then he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the Son of Joash * 2 King 14.26 27. He doth so with private persons Peter might have
more peculiarly under Gods protection no not when he had the whole Guard of Israel about him in the Wilderness than when his Mother had exposed him to the River forlorn in a pitched Ark and forsaken by his Sister who stood a loof off to see how Providence would conduct him When Laban was possessed with Fury against Jacob God countermands it and issues out his own order to him how he should behave himself towards his Son * Gen. 31.24 29. God times his kindness so that it may appear to be nothing else but Grace Grace with a Witness that his people may be able to understand the very particularities of it Isa 30.18 therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you He leaves them therefore for a while to the will of their enemies verse 17. At the rebuke of five shall you flee till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain and as an ensign upon a hill Never is Salvation sweeter and Mercy better relisht than when it snatches us out of the teeth of danger God would have his mercy valued and 't is fit it should And when is a Calm more grateful than after the bitterest Storm attended with the highest despair Gods mercy in sparing Isaac after the knife was at his throat was more welcome and more delicious both to Father and Son than if God had revealed his intent to Abraham in the three days Journey to the Mount Moriah But God suspending his Soul in bitterness all that time prepared his heart for the valuation of that mercy When humane help forsaketh us God most embraceth us Psal 27.10 When my father and mother forsake me then the Lord will take me up 4. God glorifies his Righteousness and Justice There is a measure of wickedness God stays for which will be an object of his Justice without exception When the measure of a peoples Covetousness is come then their end is come and God will fill them with men as with Caterpillers and they shall lift up a shout against them * Jer. 51.13 14. Hereby God clears the Justice of his proceedings that he exercised patience so long that things were come to that pass that either his People or his Enemies must be destroyed As the case was with the Israelites had not God marvellously appeared every man of them had been cut off or reduced to Slavery The Dye was cast either the Egyptians or the Israelites must be defeated either God must appear for his Church or none would be left in the World to profess him In such a case the Justice of God is more unexceptionable No man has any semblance for complaining of him For he struck not till the safety of his Adversaries was inconsistent with his own Honour and Interest in the World When men come to such a height as to slight and resolve to break the laws of God then is the time for the Honour of his Righteousness in his own institutions to vex them in his sore displeasure Psal 2.3 5. Then shall be speak to them in his wrath and vex them c. When When they resolve to cost away his hands and cords from them ver 2. He is forced to rise then when men make void his Law and tread down the Honour of it When they would not have God to have a standing Law in the World or a people to profess him Psal 119.126 'T is time for the Lord to work for they have made void thy Law When the Grapes of Wickedness are thus fully ripe then is Gods time for the honour of his Justice to cast them into the Wine press of his Wrath * Rev. 14 19 20. This is Gods set time when he may glorify without any exception his Justice in punishing his enemies sins his Wisdom in defeating his enemies Plots his power in destroying his enemies stength and his mercy in relieving his Peoples wants Thirdly Such extremities and dellverance in them are most advantagious for his People 1. It being a season to improve and know their interest Men do not usually seek to God or at least earnestly as when they are in distress the time of the tempest was the time of the Disciples praying to Christ The Israelits you scarce find them calling upon God but in times of danger and distress hereby God doth-incourage and give an argument for Prayer The Psalmist useth the extremity of the Church often as an Argument to move God to pity Psal 123.3 Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us for we are exceedingly filled with contempt We are glutted with contempt as low as low can be So Psal 44.23 24. Awake why sleepest thou O Lord arise cast us not off for ever our soul is bowed to the dust That is the most successful time for Prayer which is the time of the stirring of Gods Bowels He hath been a strength to the Poor a strength to the Needy in his Distress a refuge from the Storm a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the Wall * Isa 25.4 They in such a time find how considerable their interest is with God when upon their Prayer they shall find relief suitable to every kind of danger they are in The Spirit of Prayer upon the Church is but the Presage of their Adsaries ruin When God seeks to destroy the Nations that come against Herusalem he will pour upon the Inhabitants of it a spirit of Grace and of Supplication Zech. 12.9 And in that day I will seek to destroy all the Nations that come against Jerusalem and I will pour upon the house of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirii of Grace and of supplication This time of extremity when all their hands fail should edge the Churches prayers Our great Intercessor seems in this case to set us a pattern Zech. 1.12 O Lord of Hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy upon Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 single by it self not in an affix When all the Earth sits still and is at rest unconcerned in the affairs of thy Church if thou wilt not have mercy on them in this strait who shall relieve them none else have any mind to it then issue out comfortable words to the Angel from the mouth of God This is an advantage of extremity it sets Christ a pleading and the Church on praying 2. As a season for acting Faith at present and an encouragement of relyance upon him in future straits As a season for acting Faith at present Our Saviour lets Lazarus dye and stink in the Grave before he raised him that he might both confirm Faith in his Disciples hearts and settle it in the hearts of some of the Jews * John 11 15.45 I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that ye may believe What let Lazaus die one that he loved one so strongly pleaded for by two Sisters that
for this and other reasons it may be that the times before the Churches last deliverance shall be sharper than any before which our Saviour intimates Matt. 24.21 For then there shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world no nor ever shall be In Discoursing his Disciples of the troubles at the destruction of Jerusalem which was a type of the trouble preceding the end of the World he adds a discourse of what shall be at the end of the World in the last attempt of the enemies of the Church for ver 29. he saith immediately after the tribulatin of those days he speaks of his coming in the Clouds of Heaven with great power and glory And also in the Revelation Rev. 16.18 And there was a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth so mighty an earthquake and so great This perhaps at the pouring out of the seventh Vial may concern the Christian Church as well as the Antichristian Party But the reason why it may be sharper just before that last deliverance than it was in former ages may be because it is the last effort the enemy shall make the last demonstration of Gods power and wisdom for and care of his Church and of Justice upon his enemies in such cases The last season for their multiplying their cries and acting their Faith for such a concern 3. Vs of Exhortation If it be so that the Providence of God is chiefly designed for the good of the Church First Fear not the Enemies of the Church 'T is a wrong to God Fear of Man is always attended with a forgetfulness of God Isa 51.12 13. I even I am he that comforteth you who art thou that art affraid of a man that shall dye and of the Son of Man that shall be made as Grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker who hath stretched forth the heavens c. 'T is to value the power of Grass above the power of the Creator as though that had more ability to hurt than God to help As if men were as strong as Mountains and God as weak as a Bulrush 'T is a wrong to his Truth hath he not comforted you in his Promise What Creature should then deject you 'T is a wrong to his Mercy is he not the Lord thy Maker Calvin refers this to Regeneration and not Creation Hath he not renewed you by his Spirit and will he not protect you by his strength and that you may not question his power look up to the Heavens which he hath stretched out and the foundations of the Earth which he hath laid And is that Arm which hath done such mighty works too weak to defend that work which is choicer in his eye than either the extended Heaven or the established Earth We vilifie God and defile his Glory when our fear of mans power stifles our Faith in God Isa 8.12 13. Neither fear you their fear nor be affraid sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear Let the wicked fear the Assyrians and engage in confederacies against them but let your eyes be lifted up to me and my Providence God will either turn away the mouth of the Cannon from the Church or arm it against the shot either preserve it from a danger protect it in it or sanctifie it to the Church and who need fear a Sword in a fathers hand 1. Will you fear man who have a God to secure you The Church belongs to God not to man as a just propriety Isa 43.1 Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by my name thou art mine when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee c. Thou art mine not mans Thou art mine I am thine I will be with thee as thine I will secure thee as mine Is my Creating is my forming is my redeeming thee to no purpose I will not secure you from trouble but surely my redemption of you the propriety I have in you should secure you from fears in those troubles None shall hurt you whilst I have power to defend you God with us if well considered and believed is sufficient to still those fears which have the greatest outward objects for their encouragement Psal 27.1 The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be affraid If God be our strength to support us why should the weakness of dust and ashes scare us Alliance to great men and Protection of Princes prop up mens hearts against the fears of others and shall alliance to God be of a weaker efficacy A * Arram in Epist lib. 1. c. 9. Heathen could so argue that knew nothing of Redemption Let the Counsels of Enemies be crafty * Psal 83.3 yet they consult against Gods hidden ones hidden by God whilst Plotted against by men who would fear the stratagems of men whilst protected in an impregnable Tower God hides when men are ready to seize the Prey How did the Angel protect a sincere trembling Lot against the invasion of a whole City and secured his person whilst he blinded his enemies eyes that they could not find the door Instruments cannot design more maliciously than Christ watches over them affectionately Christ hath his Eye to see your works and danger where Satan hath his Thorne Rev. 2.13 2. Will you fear man who have a God to watch over their motions What counsels can prevail where God intends to over-rule their resolves There is no place so close as to keep private resolutions from his knowledge This was the thought of those States-men against whom the Prophet Isaiah thunders Isa 29.15 16. Wo unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord and their works are in the dark surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the Potters Clay Their Counsels were as well known to him as the Potters clay is to the Potter which he can either frame into a vessel or fling away into the Mass from whence he took it God hath not despoyled himself of his Government nor will devolve his right upon any men to dispose of his concerns When men think to act so secretly as though they framed themselves as though Gods eye were not upon them He will watch and trace all their Motions and make them insignificant to their purposes Satan himself the slyest and subtilest agent is too open to God to hide his Councils from him Never fear man till the whole combined Polices of Hell can controul the resolves of Heaven Till God wants Omniscience to dive into their secrets skill to defeat their Councils and an arm to abate their power 3. Will you fear men or devils who have a God to restrain them The great Dragon and General of the Serpents Seed is under a binding power who can bind him not only a thousand fears out a thousand Ages * Rev. 20.2 Have his Seed more force to resist Almightiness than their
me of things to come concerning my sons The matter of their Prayers then were that God would order all things for the coming of the Messiah The matter of the Churches Prayer now is that God would order all things for the perfecting the Messiah in his mystical Body The whole frame of Providence is for one intire design 'T is one intire Book with seven Seals * Rev. 5.1 The beginning of a Book as well as the middle hath relation to the end The design of Gods Book of Providence is but one in all the seven Seals and periods of time 4. Consider not only one single act of Providence but the whole scheme to make a conclusion The motions of his eyes are various but all end in discoveries of his strength Men do not argue from one single proposition but draw the conclusion from several propositions knit together 'T is by such a Spritual Logick we are to make our conclusions from the ways of Providence As in the reading Scripture Burges of justification part 2. Serm. 2. p 12. if we take not the whole Period we may make not only nonsense but Blaspehmy as in that of the Palmist Thau art not a God that hath pleasure in unrighteousness If a man should read only thou art not a God and make a full stop there it would be blasphemy but reading the whole verse it is excellent sence and an honourable declaration of Gods holiness Such Errors will be committed in reading the Books of Providence if we fix our eyes only in one place and make a full stop where God hath not made any We judge not of a Picture by the first daught but the last lines not by one shadow or colour but by the whole composure The Wisdom of God is best judged of by the view of the harmony of Providence The single threads of Providence may seem very weak or knotty and uneven and seem to administer just occasion of Censure but will it not as much raise the admiration to see them all woven into a curious piece of branched work Consider therefore Gods ways of working but fully judge nothing till the conclusion for that is to judge before the time Judge not then of Providence at the first appearance God may so lose the glory of his work and vou the comfort Thirdly The third Duty Inquire into providence and interpreat all publick providences by this Rule We must search into it though we are not able to find out all the reasons of it What can be a braver study than that which is the object of Gods eternal counsel We are conformed to God in our Wills when we have the same ends in our motions and we are conformed to God in our understandings when we have the same object of our thoughts Some Providences have their interpretation written in their foreheads we may run and read such as his sifna Judgments in the World which express the very sin for which they are inflicted others are wrapt up in a harder shell and more covers and therefore more labour is necessary to reach the kernel some are too high for our knowledge none for our enquiry 'T is our duty to seek after God though we can never arrive to a perfect know ledge of him Job 1.7 Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection He prohibits not the searching though he asserts the impossibility of finding him out to perfection What hath God given us faculties for but to search after him and we must not do it to satisfie our curiosity but to encrease our knowledge and consequently our admiration of his wise and powerful care Diligence must be used too Our first thoughts about things of concernment are usually confused so are our first sights of Providence Providence is a great deep deep things are not seen without stooping down We must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angels do when they search into the things of the Gospel * 1 Pet. 1.12 But let this aim of God at the good of his Church be the rule of your interpretation Without this compass to steer our judgments by we may both lose and rack our selves in the Wilderness of Providence and fortify our natural Atheism and Ignorance instead of our Faith I must confess the study of Providence is in some respect more difficult than in the former Ages of the World because God seems to manage things in the Church more by his Wisdom than Power which is not so intelligible by man as the sensible effects of his strength That attribute he manifested most in Miraculous ways and the visible Ministry of Angels as we read in Scripture stories now he employs his Wisdom more in ordering second causes in ordinary ways to his own high merciful and just ends Yet since the discovering of Christ God hath given us a rule whereby we may discern much of his Wisdom in the knowledge of his end As the knowledge of Christ removes the Veil from the Scripture in our reading of it * 2 Cor. 3.14 15 16. The same Veil remains in the reading of the Old Testament which Veil is done away in Christ which Veil is still upon the Jews and makes us understand those parts of the Old Testament which otherwise would be utterly obscure so in the reading the Books of Providence the knowledg of this end of God in them will help us to understand the meaning of that which otherwise would non-plus the Reason of man He that knows the end of one that is making a Watch will not wonder at his framing small wheels and filing little pins but he that understands nothing of the design would count it ridiculous for a man so to trifle away his time Without the knowledge of this end we shall expose our selves to miserable mistakes As Plutarch mistook the cause of the ceasing of Oracles ascribing it to the change of the nature of the Soil not affording those exhalations as formerly or the death of the Demons which gave those Oracles He had judged otherwise had be known or believed the rising of a higher power the Sun of Righteousness in the World who imposed silence upon those Angels of darkness the most famous Oracles in the World ceasing about the time of Christ To imagine to interpret the motions of Providence without a knowledge of Christ and the design of God for hi s Church is as vain as to imagine we can paint a sound or understand a colour by our smell Correct Sense by Reason in this work and Reason by Faith To what end hath God prescribed Faith to succour us in the weakness of Reason if it had been capable to understand his ways without it and if we make no use of it upon such occasions Fourthly A fourth Duty Consider the former Providences God hath wrought for the Church in the past Ages Let him not lose the present glory of his past works Psal 102.18 This shall be written
provoked him in that place of straits where all the powers on Earth could not have relieved them had Heaven neglected them The provocation you may see Exod. 14.11 12. Which sprang from a forgetfulness of his kindness so lately shewed to them How apt are we to forget old Mercies when we are so naturally apt to blot out of our memories mercies newly received If this were well considered by men it would prevent their enterprises against the Church and consequently their shame and Ruin Are there Records of any who have hardned themselves against God and prospered * Job 9 4. How might in that reflection be seen the frustrations of Counsels disgracing of attempts showers of Fury and Vengeance from Heaven upon the heads of such The reason why the wonderful works of God were to be made known to posterity was that they might not be as their Fathers as Stubborn and Rebellious Generation * Psal 7 8 6 8. of men if they did consider those transactions of God in and for his Church they could no more think to stop the breath of perpetual powerful Providence than to bridle in a Storm or stop the motion of the Sun To conclud this Gods Providential Judgements ments are to be remembred though they are for the punishment of the age that feel them they are also for the instruction of the age which succeeds them tell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 number be as exact as in your accounts wherein you take notice of every number minute and cipher The works of Providence as well as the Doctrine of God are parts of a Childs Catechism they are to keep up the consideration of them in themselves and hand them in instruction to their Children Fifthly The fifth Duty Act faith on Gods Providence Times of trouble should be times of confidence fixedness of heart on God would prevent fears of heart Psal 11.2.7 He shall not be affraid of evil tydings his heart is fixed how trusting in the Lord his heart is established they shall not be moved Otherwise without it we shall be as light as a Cork moved with every blast of evil tydings our hopes will swim or sink according to the news we hear Providence would seem to sleep unless Faith and Prayer awakened it The Disciples had but little Faith in their Masters account yet that little Faith awakened him in a Storm and he relieved them Unbelief only doth discourage God from shewing his power in taking our parts Every one will walk in the name of his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever Micah 4.5 Heathens will trust in their Idols and shall not we in that God that lives for ever Have we any reason to have a less esteem of our confidence in God than Heathens had of and in their Idols We should do our duty which is Faith and Hope and leave God to do his work which is mercy and kindness By unbelief we deny his providence disparage his Wisdom and strip him of his power We have none else to trust no creature can order any thing for the Churches good without Gods Commission and direction What should we trust him for For that wherein his glory is concerned which is more worth to him than all the World besides Trust him most when instruments fail God takes them off sometimes to shew that he needs not any and to have our confidence rightly placed on him which staggered before between him and the Creature 1. All the Godly formerly did act Faith on a less foundation The Godly Patriarchs who lived eight or nine hundred years depended upon providence that long time and shall not we for seventy years the usual term of mans life They had Promises to support them we have not only the same Promise but the Performances of them too They had Providences we have the same and more all upon Recordin Scripture all since the Canon of Scripture was closed whatsoever God hath remarkably done for his people in all ages Adam had but one promise and but little experience of Gods Providence yet no doubt trusted in him We have a multitude of Promises not only pronounced but sealed confirmed by many repetitions which are fresh obligations laid by God upon himself The experience of all the Providences of God towards his Church for above five thousand years and shall our Faith stagger when upon us are come the ends of the World doth it become us to have our Obligations to Faith so strong and our Exercise of it so weak The Promise of Christ * Isa 7 14. that a Virgin should bring forth a Son was thought by God a sufficient security to support their confidence in him against the fury of their enemies It being a greater wonder that a Virgin without loss of her Virginity should bring forth a Son than the routing of an Host of Enemies Is not then the performance of this Gods actual sending his Son to us through the Womb of a Virgin a higher ground of considence for the Churches success in every thing else than barely the Promise could be All creatures in danger have a natural confidence in God He is the confidence of all the ends of the Earth but the Churches confidence may be mere firmly placed in him because he is particularly the God of their Salvation Psal 65 5. By terrible things in Righteousness wilt thou answer us O God of our Salvation who art the cenfidence of all the ends of the Earth 2. 'T is your only way to have mercy for the Church and for your selves If he take pleasure in them that hope in his mercy as it is in Psal 147.11 He will take pleasure to relieve them He will strengthen the bars of their gates verse 13. If he take pleasure in them that hope in his mercy then the stronger and more lively their hope is the more intense is Gods pleasure in them If they do not hope in his Mercy he hath no pleasure in them and no delight to them He hath a goodness laid up for them that fear him and he will lay it out too for them that trust in him Psal 31.15 O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men 'T is laid up for all that fear him but it is wrought for them that trust in him It is manifested upon special acts of trust and reliance and wrought before the sons of men Those that own God publickly in a way of reliance God will own them publickly in a way of kindness Faith is the key that unlocks the Cabinet of special Providence Those eyes which move about all the World are fixed upon those that trust in him Psal 33.28 The eye of the Lord is upon them that hope in his Mercy The sixth Duty Wait upon God in the way of his Providence Wait upon him as he
a devouring Serpent but it is to convince the Egyptians and deliver the Israelites 4. Wait in the use of lawful means for preservation Not to use means is to slight his Providence not to trust it It seems not to consist with the wisdom of God to order things always so as to be necessitated to put forth an extraordinary power in things which his creatures by a common Providence can naturally accomplish God saves by natural means when they will not serve the turn he will save by supernatural God chose an Ark to preserve Noah in He did not want supernatural means for his preservation He might have catched him up in a Cloud and continued him there till the drying up of the waters Noah doth not dispute the business with God but prepares an Ark according to his order and he was righteous in his obedience as well as in his trust God would not preserve our Saviour by a Miracle when ordinary means would serve the turn He commands Joseph by his Angel to flee into Egypt with the Child * Matt. 2.13 Joseph desires not God to preserve him by an extraordinary power to save his pains of travelling he submits to Gods order and God quickly clears the way for his return Indeed sometimes the wheels of Providence are lifted up from the Earth and do not go in the ordinary tracts * Ezek 1.19 but Miracles must be left to Gods Pleasure for us to desire them is to tempt our great Governour The Seventh Duty Pray for the Church 'T is an encouragement that our Suit in this case will not be denied The desire of the Churches welfare is conformable to his Counsel which shall stand notwithstanding the Devices of men Prov. 19.21 His counsel in particular concerns of men shall stand much more is the stability of his counsel for the church He is a God hearing Prayer in a way of common Providence and a God hearing Prayer in a way of special attention Psal 61.1 Hear my cry O God attend unto my Prayer David desires that God would hear him as more particularly concerned in his case He is so in the concerns of his Church Will he hear an Ishmael crying for himself and young Lyons roaring for their Prey and stop his Ears to the voice of his own Spirit in his People pleading for the Church dearer to him than the whole mass of Nature We have greater Arguments to use than in any other case The Relation the Church hath to God The affection God hath to the Church Lazarus whom thou lovest is sick was Martha's argument to Christ What greater encouragement to our Petitions than Gods affection than Gods Relation God loves to have our affection comply with his God loves others the better for soliciting its welfare Moses had the greatest manifestation of Gods Love after he he had prayed for the Israelites * Exod. 32.32 though in a case of sin and presently after in Exod. 33.11 God speaks with him face to face as a man speaks to his friend and in the same chapter and the beginning of Exod. 34. God shews him his glory as much as he was capable to bear Daniel was a great Petitioner for the Church * Dan 9.3 21. Dan. 10.2 5. He was Gods great favourite upon that account and had the clearest and highest Revelations made to him of the course of Providence in the World The eighth Duty When you receive any mercy for the church in answer of prayer give God the glory of it The variety of his Providences gives us matter for new songs and compositions Psal 149.1 What Volleys of joyful shouts What Hallelujahs to God do we find upon the Ruin of Antichrist Rev. 19.1 2 3. God calls for Praise out of the Throne v. 5. and the Church returns it v. 6 7. 'T is God rides upon the Cherub 't is God that sits upon the wings of the Wind Psal 18 10 't is God who is in all Instruments to quicken their motions and direct them to their scope The Ninth Duty Imitate God in his affection to the Church Christ did what he did for the good of his Church God doth what he doth for the advantage of the Church Let the same mind be in us that was in Christ let the same end be ours which is the end of God Thus we shall be like our Creator thus we shall be like our Governour thus we shall be like our Redeemer Men take it kindly from others that love those they have a respect for God loves all that love his people and blesses them that bless them Gen. 12.3 I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee The Tenth Duty Look after sincerity before God 'T is for the security of such that God shews himself strong No man that fully believes and understands this Doctrine but should be glad to be of that happy Society that Assembly of the first-born who are under the care of a watchful eye and the mighty power of the God of the whole Earth When God chose Israel the very strangers should for their own Interest joyn with them * Isa 14.1 And to such as take hold of his Covenant he Promises to give a name in his house that shall not be cut off * Isa 56.4 5. Yea even to the Sons of the Strangers that should joyn themselves to the Lord. v. 6. Let this encourage us to Christianity God never encouraged men to be Christians by promises of Worldly greatness but by Promises of a constant care of them for their happiness by Promises of making all things work together for their good If God will shew himself strong for those that are perfect in heart towards him then he hath no strength for those that are unsound and false in heart towards him No man hath an interest in his special Providence without Faith The Power Knowledg Wisdom of God are all set against him Though the whole World be in commotions the earth be removed and the Mountains cast into the depths of the Sea there is no ground of fear to Faith but what Buckler against them hath Unbelief and Hypocrisie What security against Wrath can Riches give you What defence against his power can your Potsherd strength afford you It was not for Jobs wealth that God made his boasts of him but for his sincerity Job 1.8 Hast thou considered my Servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man And for the want of this he loaths a World Labour therefore for sincerity towards God beg it of God Get the evidence of it and preserve it FINIS Books Printed and sold by Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs over against the Stocks-Market THE Works of the late learned divine Stephen Charnock B. D. being several discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God Vol. 1. to which is Added his Discourse of Divine Providence Fol. The Works of the
preservation of it all things must necessarily concur by the wise disposal of affairs Therefore since they are travelling to be where their head is he having the government of the world will make all things contribute assistance to them in their journey that Christ may have that compleatness of glory which God intends him He expresly tells his Father John 17.10 that he is glorifyed in his people * John 17.10 And I am glorifyed in them And at the sound of the seventh Trumpet the Kingdoms of this world are to become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever * Revel 11.15 Now since all the motions in the world are that the Kingdoms of the world may become the Kingdoms of his Christ pecenliarly his as a being anointed King by hm It must needs be that all things must be subservient one time or other to this end was rein the good of his people doth consist otherwise they would not bless God so highly for it as they do* Revel 11.17 We give thee thanks O Lord God almighty because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned And where there is a resistance of this glory of Christ it is a natural effect of that decree whereby Christ is constituted King that the resisters should be broken in pieces and dasht like a Potters vessel Psal 2.6 9. and the issue of all is the blessedness of those that put their trust in him v. 12. The care that God hath of Christ and the Church in the types of them seems to be equal The Ark which was a type of Christ and the Table of shew-bread a figure of the Church had three coverings whereas all the rest of the Vessels c. belonging to the cerimonial part had but two * Numb 4.5 6 7 8. On the Ark there was the vail and covering of badgers skins and a covering of blew On the Table of shew-bread there was a cloth of Blew a cloth of Scarlet and a covering of badgers skins God orders as much for the security of the Church as for the security of Christ therefore the same things that tend to the glorifying of Christ shall tend to the advantage of the Church 2. God has given the power of the providential administration of things to Christ to this very end for the good of the Church If God had constituted him Head over all things to the Church can there be any doubt but that he will manage the Government for that which is the principal end of his Government which he hath shed his Blood for and which is chiefly intended by God who appointed him 1. All power of government is given to Christ Matth. 11.27 All things are delivered to me of my Father And the Father judges no man but hath committed all judgment to the son Joh. 5.22 that is the whole Government and Administration of Affairs 'T is not to be understood of the last Judgment for then it would be a limitation of that word all not that the Father lays aside all care of things but as the Father discovers himself only in him so he governs things only by him All this power was committed to him upon his interposition after the Fall of Man He was made Lord and Christ that is anointed by God to the Government of the World For upon the Fall God as a Rector had overturned all Man could not with any Comfort have treated with the Father had not Christ stept in and pleaded for the Creation whereupon God commits all judgment to the Son that he might temper it It was by Christ as a covenanting Mediator that the Earth was established * Isa 49.8 He had this Government Anciently and it was confirmed to him upon his death Heb. 1.3 Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power Calvin understands the first word not only of the Deity of Christ but of the discovery the Father made of himself in and through him as Mediator The latter words some understand both of his Providential and Mediatory Kingdom by the word of his power this say some is referred to the Father whose image Christ is as ating by a delegated Authority and Commission from his Father others to Christ as that Christ upholds or bears up all things by his own powerful word Calvin thinks both may be taken but embraceth the second as being more generally received I may offer whether it may not be meant also of the powerful interposit ion of Christ as Mediator whose interest in God was so great that he kept up the World by his powerful Intercession when all was forfeited and God put it upon that interposition into his hands as heir of all things who having a hand with him in Creation understood both the Rights of God and the Duty of the Creature upon the condition of purging sin by his Death which he did and thereupon went to Heaven to take Possession of the Government at the right hand of God sat down took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high as due to him by Covenant and Articles agreed on between them I know nothing at present against such an interpretation of the words but I will not contend about it All this honour was confirm'd unto him upon his Death For having perform'd the Condition requisite on his part God deputes him and intrusts him with the Government of things that he might order all things so as to see the full Travel of his Soul 2. All this power was intended by God for this End the good of the Church As God appointed Christ a Priest for his Church to sacrifice for them a Prophet to teach them so the other Office of King is conferred upon him for the same end the advantage of the Church God acquaints us of this End aimed at by him in the Promise of the Government to him Jer. 33.15 16. In those dayes and at that time will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up to David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land what is the end In those dayes shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely He should execute Judgment that is Administer the Government for the salvation of Judah and security of Jerusalem It was his Office both to build the Temple and to bear the Glory and to Rule upon his Throne to be a Priest upon his Throne to Rule as King and Priest Zech. 6.12 13. He shall build the temple of the Lord even he shall build the temple of the Lord. The erecting a Church is the sole work of Christ by Gods appointment And he was to bear up the Glory of it He should rule to this End for the Counsel of peace shall be between them both If by both be meant the Lord and the Man whose name is the Branch it then chiefly