Several Discourses Considering the Providence of God
2. But it lets us see the more especial reasonableness of more solemn and earnest Prayer, upon more especial Emergencies. I told you that every day is big of events, and who can tell what any day may, or will bring forth? But there are some more especial times, when we have more high and eminent concerns upon some special undertakings, or when some eminent danger threateneth us. In reason here, our sense of a Divine Providence influencing all events, all Beings, all motions and actions, of Beings, and all omissions, cessations, or suspensions of such actions, doth more particularly oblige us, upon the emergency of such affairs, to be more earnest and importunate with God. It is the precept of Solomon, Acknowledg him in all thy ways, and he shall direct thy steps. And accordingly hath been the practice of the people of God; as you see it in the whole story of holy Writ, and is the practice of the people of God still. Now this Doctrine of Divine Providence justifieth this practice of the children of God, as a very reasonable practice; and evinceth as daily Prayer, so this more set and solemn prayer to be the reasonable practice of all those that have any knowledge of God, or any desire to maintain fellowship and communion with him.
6. Lastly, As it evinceth the duty and reasonableness, both of daily, and of solemn and extraordinary prayer: so it evinceth also the duty, both of daily, and more solemn and extraordinary praises. We have not a good thing happeneth unto us, but there is an hand of God in it: it may be some created Being hath been the instrument to bring it to our hand; but the action or motion of that created Being hath been influenced by God. The event or issue hath been ordered, governed and directed by God; the hand of God is in every days health and protection, in every nights sleep and preservation. But this is obvious enough to every Christian, of how mean a capacity soever. I shall therefore add no more to this part of my discourse. I have, you see, hitherto proceeded no farther than to prove, That there is a Providence. 2. And to show to you the exceeding great latitude of its objects.
SERMON V, VI.
Heb. I. 3. Psal. XXXVI. 6.
I Have hitherto sh • wed you no more, Than that there is a Divine Providence extensive to all things, influencing all Beings, all motions, and actions of Beings, &c. I am now come to discourse concerning the acts of God, by which he exerciseth this Providential care. Divines do usually reduce all to two Heads. 1. Preservation. 2. Government. Preservation respecteth the creatures Beings; and that in esse tali, in such a kind of Being as he at first created them. Government properly respecteth the motions or actions of these Beings, or the omissions, suspensions, or cessations of such actions or motions, and the events of the things. The Proposition I shall a little enlarge myself upon, is this,
Prop. That as the worlds were at first made by the power and word of God, so they are by the same power and word preserved and upheld.
The Heathens had some notion of this, as appeareth by their fiction of Atlas, bearing up the world upon his Shoulders. God is the true and only Atlas: the Apostle saith, He upholdeth all things by the word of his Power. The Psalmist saith, That he preserveth both man and beast. You have a recognition of this, in that solemn prayer of the Levites, Neh. 10.6, Thou, even thou, art Lord alone, thou hast made the Heaven, the Heaven of Heavens, with all their host; the earth, and all things that are therein; the sea, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all. Job gives God the glory of this, Job 7.20, I have sinned, 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 and what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of man! But although the upholding, and preservation of the world, the influence of God upon the world, in order to its standing and conservation, be matter of clear and undoubted Revelation, and demonstrable by reason, and confessed even by the wiser amongst the Heathens themselves; yet everyone possibly doth not sufficiently understand the method and order of God's sustentation, and preservation of the world: Nor dare I promise you fully to open it to you, and make you to understand it, for how little a portion of his ways do we know? But something I will speak in particular. I hope it may be of further use to you, not only to expound God's works, but to make you understand how wonderfully we are preserved, and what a necessity there is of the Divine hand to uphold our souls in life, and us in any state of well-being. Only let me first premise two or three things.
1. That there is a more common and general preservation of all beings, and a more special preservation of some.
2. That there is a preservation common both to man and beast, and a preservation more peculiar to man; and yet more special to the people of God, those amongst the sons of men, whom God hath set apart for himself.
3. That there is a preserving Providence, respecting the body and outward man: and a preserving Providence, respecting the inward man.
4. That as to man he is considerable in a threefold capacity. 1. In his personal capacity, as a reasonable creature, endued with all the powers and faculties of vegetive and sensitive creatures: and further, with several powers, and faculties suited to his reasonable nature. 2. In his Political capacity, as he makes up a member of a Kingdom, or civil society. 3. In his Ecclesiastical capacity, as in society with others he makes up that body of people which is called the church of God. God preserveth him in all these capacities; of which (when I come to it) I shall speak more particularly, and distinctly.
I shall lay down several conclusions. The first of which shall be more general and extensive to such creatures as have merely being, and no life. The other will concern living creatures, and amongst them men, as the nobler and more excellent of them.
1. Concl. God by the word of his power upholdeth the Beings, order, and courses of all his creatures; so as not only their natural inclinations, and qualities, and affections, by which they are mutually serviceable to each other, and to the upholding of the universe, do not fail, abate, or decay, but so, that their power and opposite qualities work not to the ruin and destruction of the whole. This now to him who will give his thoughts leave to stand upon it, will appear a great and wonderful work of God, and no less than a wonderful miracle of Divine Providence. When God gave a being to the world, and to all the things therein, he endued them all with several qualities, according to his infinite wisdom; he set them in an excellent order, so as they might be mutually subservient one to another, and all of them to the whole: he did not only make the world, but he fitted and jointed it together, so that one part of it corresponded with the other. 2. He endued them with several qualities, by which they are mutually serviceable each to other. 3. He set the several creatures in their orders and stations, so as they might be best serviceable. Now, I say, the Providence of God worketh in the preserving of them. 1. By upholding these qualities, and keeping them in this order, that they do not dislocate and fall out of joint, but abide both in their station, and in their full vigor and virtue.
2. By keeping them that the qualities in them, which are opposite one to another, and would naturally incline them to a dislocation and falling out of order, yet have no such operation, nor produce any such effect; but even inanimate Beings, move and work orderly according to the Creators intention, though they do nothing out of any counsel, choice, or deliberation. Let me but illustrate this a little, in the four great Inanimate Bodies of the World; the Heavens, the Air, the Earth, and the mighty Waters. All exceeding great, and vast bodies, yet without life, sense, or reason; so as their motions cannot be from reason and counsel of their own. The order in which God set these things in the day of Creation was this, The Heavens he placed uppermost, the Air in the midst betwixt them and the Earth. Then he placed the Earth; and the Seas in the midst, contiguous one to another. In the Heavens he placed Waters, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, all great bodies. Now all these bodies have several qualities; Gravity, or weight, levity, heat, cold, moisture, &c. Who knoweth not that active qualities in creatures are subject to spend, waste, and decay? To instance but in that one body of the Sun, whose great qualities are light and heat: We see candles, and torches, and fires give light and heat; but they spend themselves, their light goes out, their heat wastes, and spends itself in a short time. How is it that it is not so with the Sun, and the Stars, but from the power of God that upholds these qualities, that they neither waste nor abate from their continual motion? The candle is fed from the tallow, and wax; the torch, and taper from pitch, wax, rozin, and other combustible matter; when that fails, it expireth. Whence is the Sun, Moon, and Stars fed? but from the immediate upholding power and hand of God? Again, these great bodies are not indeed so gross, and heavy, as mere sublunary and terrene bodies are; but yet, they must not be denied something of weight, especially the Waters in the Heavens. We know weight and heaviness is of the nature of Water; yea, of that Water which falleth from Heaven: how come the Clouds which are a thin body, to contain and restrain it, and keep it as in bottles? how come those vast bodies of Water to be contained in the thin body of the Clouds, and to diffuse themselves so gradually upon the Earth?
2. Let us look upon the Air, from the agitation of which proceed the great and boisterous stormy winds. The Air is cold, and moist, only heated and warmed from the Sun: how comes it to pass, that it is not in that continual agitation, which we see it in sometimes? sometimes we hardly discern it moved at all, sometimes more violently, and that sometimes from one quarter, sometimes from another; is this a natural, a mere natural motion? then it is necessary, and would be uniform: so we see it is not. Who can give a reason sufficient to satisfy an inquisitive Philosopher, of the heat and cold in the Air in several Countrys, nay, in our own Country? or a sufficient reason of drought and moisture in the Air? whence is it think you, that it is not always dry, nor always moist; not always stormy, nor always calm, none of which would suit the conservation of the world, but from God's upholding those qualities in those bodies which influence it, and by which these things are caused? so that unless when the ordinary Providence of God is not withheld from the creatures, in some particular places, for the chastisement of the wickedness of them that dwell therein. The Air keeps its motion, and courses: the winds their courses, for the preservation of our bodies, and the advantage of human affairs. God, I say, by a daily providence upholds these Beings to those motions, and measures of motion, which he at first set for them, in order to keeping the World in joint. The Air putrifieth not, nor groweth infectious; the Winds sometimes blow, sometimes are still, &c. The Psalmist giveth God the great glory of his Providence, in this particular, very plentifully. He raiseth the stormy winds, Psalm 107. v. 25. He walketh upon the wings of the wind, Psalm 104.3. He bringeth the winds out of his treasures, Psalm 133.7. He causeth his winds to blow, Psalm 147.18. The stormy winds fulfil his word, Psalm 148.8. The Heathens had such a sense of the Necessity of a Divine Providence to rule this Creature, that they devised a God on purpose (whom they called Aeolus ) whom they feigned to have a care and dominion over them: and the Poet saith, That if he did not, they would confound Heaven, and Earth.
3. From the Air let us come to the Earth, a great and vast body. Job saith, It hangeth upon nothing, Job 26.7, upon nothing but the Almighty power of divine Providence. It hangeth in the midst of the Air, and that upon nothing God did hang it there, in the day of Creation: the Seas are contiguous to it, both of them make but one Globe, or round body of a great weight. We see it is of the nature of weighty Bodies to incline and press downward. Suppose God did at first hang it there, What is it keeps it there? We should conclude it a great Miracle, not to be effected by other than a divine Power, to see but a great stone, or Canon-bullet hang in the air; how would a whole City come out, and be astonished at so great a sight? especially, if it should hang there a month, or a year, or any considerable proportion of time. But who sufficiently contemplateth this great sight? Who thinks on the immense weight of the Earth, and the Seas, hanging in the midst of the thin body of the air? Let the Atheists of this generation come near, and see this great sight! If there be no God, or if this God exerciseth no Providence in the upholding and governing created Beings: How cometh the Earth to hang upon nothing? or how doth it abide one day in that station? Let any of them in an open field climb up, and hang up a Cannon-bullet so if they can. I know the Philosophers tell us, it is in its Center, and everything naturally rests there. The Poet tells us, That Ponderibus librata suis. But this is all but an idle and an impertinent muffling us with unintelligible terms: for what do they mean by the center of things, the center of the Heavens, or the center of the Earth, or of the Waters, unless they understand the place which God ordained for them, or wherein God fixed them in Creation? in that they abide, and we say, there Providence keepeth them. Let them try if the art of all the men in the World can so poise a great weight in the air, that it shall not fall, but abide hanging there any considerable time.
4. Lastly, let us view the great body of the Waters, in continual flux and reflux; whether they be placed higher than the Earth, is a little question: But suppose they be not, certain it is, that the winds oft raise them much higher than the Earth: they are of a fluid Nature, of a great weight, in continual motion; whence is it that they do not drown the World, or at least a great part of it? It is a matter of demonstration, that in many places, they rise higher every side than the Earth next adjacent to them: How comes it, that the Sands check them, that in many places, they bring their bridle in their mouth, an huge quantity of small stones or sands, which make a bank on every side to protect the adjacent Earth against their rage? certainly no reason can be given, but what the holy servants of God have long since given. Job 26.10, He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. And Jer. 5.22, He hath placed the sand for a bound to the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass. Now suppose such a Decree, these inanimate Creatures obey it not out of election and choice, but being natural Agents, they work and move necessarily according to the affections and inclinations, which God hath created them with. So as the water being fluid, and heavy, would from a necessity of natural working, overflow and drown the Earth, did not God by his Providence continually work, establishing his Decree, and seeing to the execution of it; and to that end governing these inanimate Creatures, contrary to their natural inclinations, that the World may be kept in order, knitted and jointed together; and the qualities and affections of one creature may not work to the ruin and prejudice of another, and so to the ruin and destruction of the whole. And thus I have opened to you my first Conclusion, showing you the Method and order of God's working in the preservation of his creatures: in their beings, stations, and orders; and in upholding the useful qualities of them, that they do not waste or decay; and the restraining and governing of their opposite qualities, that they shall not work according to their natural tendencies and inclinations to destroy the World, or spoil the beauty, comeliness, and order of it. Nor do they transgress, but upon God's withdrawing this Providence, this ordinary Providence. Whence come inundations of Waters, infections in the Air, strange motions of Celestial bodies in some places, as the just, and wise God at any time, will please to make use of any part of the hosts of his Creatures, to execute his Vengeance; either upon particular Persons, Countries, or places. But thus much shall serve to have been spoken for the illustration of the first Conclusion. The others will respect such creatures, as have life and sense. I proceed to a second.
Concl. 2. God preserveth his creatures which have life; or life, and sense; or life, sense, and reason; by a daily providing for them food, and nourishment, and directing them to their proper food, and an ordinary avoiding of what is noxious, and destructive to their bodies. Of living Creatures there are three orders: 1. Such as have nothing but being and life; such are Plants, and Herbs. 2. Such as have not only being, and life, but also Sense. Such are Birds in the Air; Beasts, and creeping things in the Earth; Fishes in the Sea; Insects, and other creatures, that live on the Earth, and in the Air, which the Birds, and Fowls also do. 3. Such as have not only being, and life, and sense, but also Reason. These are (upon the Earth) only Men, and these only have Bodies. All these creatures having life, and that in a bodily substance: and so being in continual motion, are of mutable perishing, and decaying beings; and the lapses and decays of their Natures must be daily repaired by nourishment; to the taking of which, they are naturally inclined, by the passions of Hunger and Thirst: and by this Nourishment all know that all sorts of creatures are preserved, and without this they cannot live. Now as to this, the Providence of God is eminently seen in three things instanced in, in this second Conclusion.
1. God provideth it for them. All Vegetables; Trees, herbs, plants, are nourished by heat and moisture. The moisture is either the natural fatness of the Earth, or the adventitious dew of Heaven, or falling of water from thence, either in a more fluid form, which we call Rain; or congealed, as Snow, and Hail. The heat is from the Sun. There is a natural moisture in the Earth; it is also in part watered from the Springs and fountains of water into it, from the contiguity of the waters to it; but we see in a time of drought how all these fail. The Earth is parched, and dry; God reneweth its moisture by showers from Heaven; by Rain, and Snow, and Dew, &c. Moisture alone will feed sew plants, if any. They must have heat, as well as moisture; Some, and the most must have the beams of the Sun, all must have the heat of it diffused through the Air. Now who is he, who in the Heavens hath set a Tabernacle for the Sun, which as a Bridegroom cometh out of his Chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run his Race? Is it not God's? Psalm 19.4, 5. Our Savior tells us, Matth. 5, He maketh his Sun to shine, and his rain to fall upon the just, and upon the unjust. The Heathens lay under so much conviction of this, that their Poets feigned a Chariot of the Sun, which none but their God Phoebus could drive, without burning the World. For the Rain, how plentifully doth the Scripture give unto God the Prerogative of it. Hath the rain a father; or Who begot the drops of dew? Job 38.28, He causeth it to rain upon the earth, 26. He giveth rain, Jer. 5.24. He maketh lightnings with rain, Jer. 10.3; Yea, and none but he can do it, Jer. 14.22. Are there any amongst the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the Heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O Lord our God? therefore will we wait upon thee, for thou hast made all these things. Thus the Lord provideth food for vegetables. The sensitive Creatures are the Birds, and Fowls of the air, the beasts, and creeping things of the Earth; the Fishes of the Sea: These live partly upon herbs, and plants, and the seed, grain, and fruit of them; partly upon each other, the greater devouring the lesser. God in providing a nourishment for herbs, and plants, provides a nourishment for the most of them; as also by upholding the procreating virtue of some creatures, he provideth food for others. Man liveth upon the creatures of inferior order to him; partly upon vegetables, herbs, roots, the fruits of plants; partly upon sensitive creatures. God hath given him a commission to Kill, and Eat. God provideth food for Man, by upholding the budding, germinative, seed-bearing qualities of plants, and the growing virtues of them, and by upholding the procreative virtue of birds, beasts, fishes, &c. without which those species would fail from the Earth, and Man who lives upon them, would perish also,
2. Secondly, The workings of Divine Providence are seen in directing them to their proper food. Whence is it that each creature knoweth its proper food, and is inclined by its appetite to that only? Let me, as to these two things, show you how plentifully the Scripture speaketh. God takes the glory of this, Job 38, Wilt thou hunt the prey for the Lion? or fill the appetite for the young Lion? V. 39, Who provideth for the Raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, when they wander for want of meat? Our Savior telleth us, Matt. 6.26. That it is God, who feedeth the young Ravens. The Psalmist giveth God the glory of this, Psalm 104.27, These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season: That which thou givest them they gather, thou openest their hand, they are filled with good. These all wait upon thee: Who are these? the wild asses. V. 11, He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run amongst the hills: they give drink to every beast of the field, the wild asses quench their thirst. V. 14, He causeth the grass to grow for the Cattle, and herbs for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the Earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart. V. 21, The young Lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. V. 30, Thou renewest the face of the Earth. God at first said, Let the earth bring forth grass, Gen. 1.11. He sendeth the grass of the field, Deut. 11.15; He causeth it to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man. He multiplieth the beasts of the field, the birds, and fowls of the air. He leaveth us not without witness, but giveth fruitful times, and seasons, filling the hearts of men with food, and gladness.
3. From whence is it, but from the influence of God, upon his Creatures, that Creatures universally, and ordinarily avoid the eating of such things as would be noxious to them, and many creatures, if they be distempered, are directed to such things as will cure them? But this is enough to have spoken to the second Conclusion.
3 Concl. Thirdly, God preserveth living Creatures, by upholding those faculties in all living creatures, upon the operations of which their lives are preserved, their species are propagated, and they are to propagate their species, and to perform those actions which are proper to their several Beings, and natures.
To uphold the Creation, as to those things in it which have life, there are divers faculties necessary which must be upheld: here are four sorts mentioned in the Conclusion. Let me speak a little to each of them. It will be of excellent use to convince you of the necessity of a Divine influence, or Providence upon you every moment. 1. The first sort are those: By which the Beings, the lives, and beings of Creatures are preserved, and increased to their due proportion. These are those which belong to those principal faculties, which the Philosophers calls Facultatem altricem, & auctricem: (I will put them together) and instance in divers particulars. We are craving, changeable creatures, subject to wastes and decays in our beings; and we must have a Nutritive faculty, or we could not live: The action of this faculty is called Nutrition, or Nourishing. Now our nourishing depends upon our food, the change of our food in our stomachs by the natural heat of our stomachs; and this dependeth upon several powers, which God hath created in all sensitive creatures; in the upholding of which, the daily Providence of God is wonderfully experienced, although possibly, not so wistly observed, and considered by us as it ought to be. Let me a little awaken you to a due consideration of it, by instancing in several Particulars.
1. In the first place, We have a power, a natural power to crave and desire food. Without an appetite the creature desires no food, can take none, though it be set before him; but instead of it, the very sight of it maketh him sick: he loatheth and abhorreth it, and calleth to have it taken away out of his sight, as we see in daily experience. Now I would know by what this faculty is upheld, but by the concourse and daily operation of Providence? I do not intend to divert here into a Philosophical discourse, concerning the causes of a decay of our appetite. It is sufficient to tell you, that the causes may be various, and the variety of the causes, which may produce such an effect, is sufficient evidence, that nothing but the upholding power of Divine Providence can hinder it. It is God that must give us our daily food, and it is God that must give us a stomach, or appetite to it; and the causes are so many which may abate and destroy our appetite, that did not God daily watch over us, and influence us, as to this very thing, it were an hard thing to conceive, how it should keep preserved a few days, much less as it is with many, to very many years.
2. But suppose us to have an appetite (to say nothing of our power to take, and chew, and swallow our food); We see by a daily experience, if we have not a power to digest it; if the natural heat of our stomachs be from any cause abated, so as it will not change our food, and this continueth upon us for any time, and no remedy can be apportioned to it, the creature dieth, whether it be man or beast. If the nap of the stomach be but worn off, our bodies soon appear thredbare; we pine away, and presently sink into our graves: by which we learn, that a natural faculty, power, or ability to digest our food, is necessary to the preservation of our beings. As I said before of the Appetite, so I shall say again of this. I intend no discourse of the variety of causes, from which such a thing may proceed, but the possibility of such a thing, and that as an effect of various causes, evinceth a necessity of a daily influence of God upon us, to uphold this faculty in its vigor and efficacy, which ministereth to our nutrition.
3. But thirdly, suppose our food taken into our bodies, concocted, and digested in our stomachs that it may nourish the whole body; it must be by several vessels and channels distributed to the several parts of the body. So as there must be supposed a freedom from obstructions in those passages, and an attractive virtue and faculty in the several parts. If these passages be any way stopped, or the attractive virtue abated, the parts are not nourished, but decay and wither, the creatures being destroyed. Of such obstructions we have daily examples: and indeed, whoso considereth the various passages in our bodies, through which that part of our food, which proves for nourishment passeth, and the variety of obstructions to which we are subject, must needs again acknowledge, that our Souls must be kept in life, our bodies in health, merely by a Divine Power.
4. Again, What we take into our bodies for our proper food, being in part, found either not proper for us, or in too great a proportion; when the stomach hath done its office, there is a separation made, that not proper for us, or in a superfluous proportion for that end, must be voided and cast out; and a natural faculty to do it, must be supposed, which if it ceaseth but for a while, or the freedom of the passages, by which it passeth be obstructed, the life of the creature quickly determineth. Now, whoso considereth the variety of powers, and faculties in a living body, which must be all upheld, and the variety of causes, from which they may be encumbered, yea and quite destroyed; will be forced to acknowledge the incessant influence of Divine Providence, in upholding, and preserving both the being and well-being of every creature that hath a sensitive life.
2. But yet here is not all: For in order to our nourishing, not only those faculties in the body nourished, which I have mentioned, must be upheld; But also the faculties, and virtues in the bodies nourishing, by which they are made nourishing to us. In all nourishing, there must be a body giving the nourishment, as well as a body receiving it: each of these must have its faculties upheld, or there will be no nutrition, and consequently no preservation of life. Philosophy telleth us, that the nourishment of living bodies must be, 1. Something that hath a capacity to be turned into the substance of our bodies, else how can it nourish? Hence it is, that a man cannot feed, or be nourished, by stones, or dirt: there is not in these things a capacity to be turned into human flesh. 2. It must have something of contrariety in it to the body nourished, otherwise the stomach would make no alteration of it. And 3. It must have in it something of similitude, else it would never incorporate with us, and join itself to our flesh, or mix itself with our blood. All our food must have some qualities in it, that must be accommodate to our nourishment; and these qualities, or faculties must be upheld in it, and upheld too in some due proportion. Hence we see, that food when corrupted and putrefied, and so hath lost these faculties and virtues, and they be extinguished, it instead of nourishing us, breeds diseases, and destroyeth us. Now God preserveth the life and being of his creatures, by a daily concurrence of his Providence, as well by upholding the nourishing virtues and qualities of their food, as those natural faculties, by which they crave, concoct, and digest, or attract their nourishment; or expel, and throw out that part of it which is not proper for the nourishment of their bodies. But this is enough to have spoken as to that first principal Faculty, by which the life, and being of all sensitive living creatures are preserved.
2. A second principal Faculty by which the life of creatures is preserved, is that of Respiration or breathing, which is the motion of the breasts and lungs by which they draw in air, and again puff it out, thus continually cooling the heat of the heart, which would else soon determine the life of the creature. A Faculty so necessary, that we daily see with what difficulty the creature liveth, when it is any way encumbered; daily experience we have of this in persons sick of Consumptions, or Asthma's, &c. When any living creature is once wholly deprived of this, it presently dieth. This God giveth and maintaineth: He giveth to all Life, and Breath, and all things, Acts 17.25. He also taketh it away; Thou takest away their breath, and they die (saith the Psalmist), Psalm 104.29. God is said to be the God, who spreadeth forth the Earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people, and spirit to them that walk thereon, Isa. 42.5. Now God preserveth both man and beast, by upholding this power or faculty in them, by which they draw in, and puff out the air: yea, and his daily Providence appeareth also in the preserving of the air which they suck in, ordinarily, from such affections and qualities as would destroy life in his creatures: I say, ordinarily, to except those special remissions of Divine Providence in this case, by which God sometimes punisheth persons and places by a noxious and infected air, as the procreative causes of more Epidemical sicknesses and distempers. And this showeth us, how reasonable a thing it is, That all that hath breath should praise the Lord, according to the Psalmists exhortation, Psalm 150.
3. A third principal Faculty, necessary to the upholding of the life and being of creatures, is that by which they sleep, and take their alternate rest: Quod caret alterna requie durabile non est. Experience tells us, that we can live very little while without sleep; we must therefore have a power to sleep. There is no living creature that is always asleep, or always awake; we must have a power to sleep, and a power to awake again, or we cannot live. Some sleep more, some less, all must sleep sometime. Sleep is a cessation of the common sense and the exterior senses from action. The Eye seeth not, the Ear heareth not, &c. Now this is caused (say the Philosophers) from the ascending up of vapors out of the stomach, which stop the passage of the animal spirits from the brain; which vapors when they are spent, and the passages are clear again, man waketh, and the senses return to their exercise. Be the cause what it will, certain it is, it is necessary in order to the holding of our souls in life: we must have a power both to sleep and to wake, and this power must be preserved; and by the upholding and preserving of this power and faculty, both men and beasts are upheld, preserved, and kept alive. Now I say, this is God's work; he that made the deep sleep at first to fall upon Adam in the day in which he was created, Gen. 2.21; makes ordinary sleep to fall upon all living creatures. He giveth sleep to his Beloved, Psalm 127. v 2. It is a piece of his promise, Prov. 3.24, Thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. David complained, that God held his eyes waking, Psalm 77.4. And thus I have shown you, how God preserveth both man and beast, by upholding and preserving those powers and faculties in their Bodies, by which they are kept in life, and their Being is preserved.
2. But both men and beasts are very small when they first come into the World. Their Beings afterward increase; and this must be by a natural power, which God the great Creator hath created in them at first, and made every creature to be brought forth with, without which it could not grow beyond its proportion in the first day of its production into the World. This is that which the Philosopher calls Facultatem Auctricem; the power by which the living creature grows and increaseth to a just perfection and measure. I say, a just measure, for no creature groweth always. The God of Nature hath set a just measure to every Being: This Power also must be upheld, or the World would be full of none but Children, and very small beasts. The Psalmist saith, Psalm 104.14, He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle; and by a parity of Reason, he must also cause the cattle to grow for the grass. Christ hath taught us, that we cannot add one cubit to our stature: It is true, man and beast grows to both their just dimensions by a natural faculty; man's growth stops at thirty years, or under, by a natural Law. But God at first created in them this Natural faculty; and God by a daily concourse of his Providence upholdeth, enliveneth, and assisteth this natural faculty, and by this particular act of his Providence he doth preserve and uphold both man and beast, as in their Beings, so in their just dimensions and proportions in which we see them supplying and adorning the World.
3. But thirdly, Supposing all living creatures preserved and upheld in their several lives and beings by God's upholding and preserving those several powers and faculties in the object of their nourishment, by which they are made fit nourishment for their bodies: and those several faculties in their bodies, which are the subjects to be nourished, by virtue of which they desire their due food, concoct, digest it, &c. and to uphold the just proportions of creatures in the World, by preserving and upholding in them that faculty by which they dilate themselves, grow, and increase to the law of Magnitude which the great Creator hath set for them: yet if they had not all a several power to propagate their species or kind, the World, or at least the living creatures in the World, would quickly cease; the days of man's life are three or fourscore years, the days of most other creatures much less. God hath therefore created all living things with a power to propagate their species, someone way, some another: of all he hath, he saith in the day they were created, Let them increase and multiply: and hath created several powers and virtues in them, by which, as all species, so most individuals doth so. To some individuals of most kind he denieth this, or at least concurreth not by his Providence to the effects of it. Some Men and Women are barren; so are some beasts: generally not so: and this is another act of Divine Providence, by which he preserveth both man and beast, and eminently attributed to God. The Rabbies tell us of three Keys which God keepeth: the Key of the Clouds, of the Womb, of the Grave. None can give Rain but God; none can open the Graves but God; none can open the Womb but God. Psalm 113.9, He maketh the barren womb to keep house. Psalm 127.3, Children are the heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. It is as true of other creatures as of man; He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, Psalm 107.34. It was God's Promise, Exod. 23.26, There shall nothing cast her young, nor be barren in thy land. Deut. 7.14, There shall neither male nor female be barren amongst you, nor amongst your cattle. The flocks of the field and of the air, the herds of Cattle, the multitudes of Fish in the waters, the numberless Families of the Earth, they are all preserved by the daily concurrence of Divine Providence, in the upholding of that natural power and virtue with which he hath created them, by which they propagate their species: by the propagation of which, and the multiplication, and the succession of individuals in it, Man, and beast, the whole living World is preserved.
4. There is yet a fourth sort of Powers and Faculties, which I called those faculties, abilities, or powers, which are necessary to every living being, for the performance of its several operations according to the specific nature of it. God also preserveth man and beast, by upholding, and preserving these to their several operations. The Herb hath only a vegetative soul, by virtue of which it grows, buds, blossoms, produceth its seed, &c. The beasts have a sensitive soul, which works a little further: Man hath a reasonable soul, comprehensive of all the powers and virtues of the former, and extending further; he seeth, heareth, perceiveth things by his outward and inward senses. By his Understanding he gains the notion of things, judgeth of them: he willeth, and chooseth by his will, &c. Now his power to all these, and other operations proper to his nature, must be preserved and upheld, or he can do none of these things. These powers are not indeed all necessary to our being, and the keeping of our souls in life; but the upholding of them is necessary to our perfection, and the actions that are proper to the stations wherein we are, and the capacities in which we stand: God hath not only created in the Soul a power to see, hear, taste, &c. and created the Eye to be the Organ to the visive Faculty, and the Ear to be the Organ to the hearing faculty, and the palate to be the Organ for the faculty of discerning tastes: but he concurreth with his Providence both to uphold the faculty in the soul, and to keep the several Organs in tune and order, that by and through them as means, those faculties might be exercised; and as the upholding both the faculties and Organs, or instruments, the bodily members, by which they are exercised in their due state, is the cause why we hear, see, taste, &c. so God's withholding that concurrence, as to some individual persons, is the reason why some are deaf, blind, &c. For though there be second causes of these infirmities, decays and weaknesses in human bodies, yet all these are under the governance of the first cause, either set on work by God, or permitted in their motions by God; and this is as true also of the Locomotive faculty, the power in man or beasts to move from one place to another for their food and dispatch of business: for though it be the Soul that moveth, yet it is by virtue of a power which God created in it to command the motion of the feet, for the moving of the whole body: and man moveth no longer, than this inward power or faculty is upheld by God; and his feet which are the Organs or instruments of motion, are kept in order free from dislocation, or ruptures of joints or bones, or the incumbrances of troublesome humors; the keeping of which freedom dependeth upon the influence of the Divine Power; and thus, requiritur continuus tam verbi conservatricis, quam creatricis influxus, to preserve man and beast, there is required as well a continual influence of the upholding-word, as the influence of the creating-word to give both man and beast a first being. So as Raymundus de Sabunde saith truly, All creatures depend upon the Divine Power for their preservation, as the beams of the Sun for their being depend upon the Sun, and the shadow upon the body. I shall add no more to my Discourse concerning this third Act of Providence, by which God preserveth both man and beast.
4. A fourth Act by which God preserveth both man and beast, is God's discovering to his creatures the virtue of other creatures, with which he hath created them, for the amending, repairing, and recovering of the decays and disorders to which their frail natures are subjected, and concurrence in the use and application of them: upholding the virtues in them in order to that end, and blessing the application of them. For the delivery of his creatures from diseases and accidents to which they are subjected, Mesua the great Arabian Doctor, is said to have cried out, That God alone doth heal sicknesses and diseases. God made man healthy, in the day wherein he was created, and most think he should have continued so, if by his fall he had not disordered the crasis or temperament of his bodily humors, corrupted the air, brought a curse upon the Earth, which hath ever since brought forth as well briars and thorns to prick and offend his flesh, as herbs and fruits to increase and nourish it. Man is subject to a variety of diseases in all parts of his body, from the predominance of humors, the ill affections of the air, of his food, &c. The Heathens had some notion of this: Their Elegant Poet cries out,
1. In discovering to some of his creatures these hidden virtues. The Physician indeed studies, and makes experiments; and upon the exercise of his reason, and the demonstrations he makes, directs the Apothecary to compound Medicines; but his God instructeth him to this discretion; and we may reasonably so conclude, when we find the Prophet, Isaiah, ch. 27. v. 29, affirming it concerning the discretion of the Thresher, not threshing the fitches, nor turning the Cart-wheel upon the Cumin; and this is a work of daily Providence; as every day produceth new Methods of the Physisitians practice, new Medicines and Compositions, &c.
2. Secondly, In upholding the Virtues of those herbs, roots, &c. that are made use of, in order to our healing, so as they have their effects in removing our distempers, and healing us. The strength of the body must be upheld, and the faculties by which it is enabled to take in, and apply, and retain the Medicine: and the virtues, faculties and powers also of the drugs, herbs, plants, seeds, &c. must be upheld also: both of them are by the mighty powerful concourse and power of God: hence the Scripture attributeth our healing unto God; I am the Lord that healeth you, Exod. 15.26. And the Psalmist saith, He healeth all our diseases: I wound, and I heal, Deut. 32.39. Hence Asa is rightly blamed for trusting in Physicians more than in God. Physicians are God's Ordinance, they are to be used, but not to be trusted in. God must discover the healing-Medicine to them: God must uphold the healing-virtue in the Medicine when used by them, and the faculties also in their Patients, by which they must be enabled to take, use, and apply the Medicines they administer And thus now have I shown you, how God by the ordinary workings of his Providenee, every day worketh in the preserving man and beast, considered as Individuals.
5. But as in the production of things into being, notwithstanding the ordinary rule and law of Nature generally observed, there are some Anomalies or deviations; so in the preservings of the creature, in the workings of Divine Providence, God who will not be tracked in any of his ways, maketh some Anomalies, turns out of his ordinary road in some special cases. Ordinarily he worketh by means natural, and to the Eye of Reason probable means: sometimes he will do his work without means, or without such apparent probable means, or, by what our Reason shall judge, quite contrary to the end: He will walk sometimes in a natural course, sometimes contrary to it; These we call Miraculous Acts of Divine Providence. The Bodies of some of his people shall be sometimes upheld a long time without nourishment, without natural Rest, without sensible breathing; healed without proper applications of Physic. Many instances of which we have in the story of the Evangelists, and of the Acts of the Apostles: but these are ertraordinary and special; and my business is not to discourse those workings of Providence which are unaccountable to us.
6. Lastly, There is a special providence of God in preserving man, that is yet further considerable by us. We have hitherto only considered the preservation of men as Individuals, man considered as a single person by himself. I must further consider him as a political creature, involved in Society, and show you the workings of Divine Providence in preserving Bodies-Politick, and the Societies of men: and then (3dly, as a spiritual creature, capable of the Grace of God, and being made partaker of it. I shall conclude this Discourse so far as I have already carried it on, with that saying of Luther: If God watched not when I sleep, if God did not defend and keep me when I am void of care, I should die every moment, and every moment be losing either an hand, or an Eye, or an Ear, or a Foot. I shall further at this time only apply what part of this Discourse concerning preserving-Providence you have already heard.
[Use 1] This in the first place may serve to give you a view of the immense and glorious Nature of God. Oh! that men would fear this great and dreadful Name of the Lord our God. The Lord who preserveth both man and beast! How great, how glorious must the God whom we serve, be, if what you have heard be true? But to open this a little in a few Particulars:
1. It may satisfy you in that great truth of God's Immensity. The Schoolmen say, God filleth the Heavens and the Earth, & infinitum ultra Spatium, an infinite space beyond. The Scripture, Jer. 23.24, saith. Do not I the Lord fill Heaven and Earth? It must needs be so. The Heavens and the Earth are creatures, and they are all full of living creatures. So are the great and wide Seas: all these creatures must breathe, be nourished, rest, grow, and increase, multiply their species, be renewed daily; they have all their several and various motions and operations: for these, they have powers, and faculties; all these (as you have heard) are upheld by God by the daily concourse and influence of his Divine Providence; he must heal their diseases, restore their lapses and decays. How could all this be, if he were not everywhere filling it with his Essence, Presence, and Power?
2. Secondly, From hence you may conclude, The Activity of the Divine Essence. You must not think that the great God is in any place, as a stone which indeed filleth the place, but moveth not, acteth nothing; He is in the World, (say the Heathen Philosophers) as a Master of a ship, is in a ship, as a Moderator; as the Soul is in the Body, which is in every part of the Body, enlivening and actuating every part. God is totus actus, all Act. He worketh (saith our Savior); hitherto my Father worketh: Take heed of making an Idol of God in your secret thoughts and apprehensions of Him. Our fear of God, our love, our homage to him, will all be proportioned to our apprehensions of him; it is therefore of great importance for Christians to have right notions and apprehensions of God, otherwise they will never glorify him as God; and needs must his Being be an active working Being, if (as my Text saith) he preserveth man and beast. They in all places have need of the Activity of God every hour, every moment.
3. Thirdly, This may teach you to apprehend the great God, as the Psalmist doth describe him, Psalm 113.5, 6, Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high: who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in the Heavens, and in the Earth? This beholding is not an idle view, and beholding of them neither, as followeth there, ver. 7. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust; and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill. God is not in the world as a King is in his Kingdom only. A King is a body, that must occupy, and take up but one space; there he is, and influenceth his dominions by his Laws, Edicts, and the ministry of inferior Magistrates. But this great Lord is in all places, hath his hand in and upon every natural action. It is Augustine's meditation: Who (saith he) hath disposed, and set in order, the members of the flea, and of the gnat, who hath given them life? Consider but any little beast, what you will, who hath made them? upon Psal. 147. The usual prejudice against this Doctrine in our thoughts is, that it seems to be an employment too low for the great God, to uphold the faculties of the meaner and more dishonorable part of his creatures: but Ambrose answers it well. If it were not beneath the honor of God to make them, it is not beneath his honor to uphold and preserve them; in the mean time how doth God humble himself in these his acts of Providence? Who is like unto our God, who humbleth himself thus to behold, and look upon; to care for, and look to the meanest of his creatures?
4. But this Doctrine shows us God admirable in nothing more than in his patience and longsuffering. Hath any of us an appetite to our meat and drink, a power to digest and concoct it, it is the Lord that gives it: have we a power to move our tongue to speak, our feet to walk, our body to any natural actions? all this is from the Lord, who is wonderful in working. Oh how patient is God with the drunkard, with the liar, the profane swearer, with all sorts of sinners, who use their bodies, or the several members and parts of them, to the profaning, abusing, blaspheming of his holy name; or in doing, or in order to the doing of any actions in the violation and contempt of his holy and righteous Laws. Why do they go on despising the riches of his goodness, and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth them to repentance? but after the hardness and impenitency of their hearts treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Who will render unto every man according to his deeds, Rom. 2.3, 4, 5. Yea, and the Lord is not slack, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, 2 Pet. 3.10. Thus far this Doctrine may instruct you concerning God.
Secondly, [Use 2] It may instruct us a little concerning ourselves. I remember the Psalmist, Psal. 139, 14. cries out, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Certainly everyone of us may see reason to cry out, O Lord! I am fearfully and wonderfully preserved; the truth is, none of us think upon it as we ought to do. If a man would sit down, and think how many bones are in the body of a man, a dislocation of any of which would make his life, without speedy help, very uncomfortable to him; how many nerves, arteries, muscles; how many parts, humors, &c. What offices they have, how many passages are in his body, how many ways they may be stopped, what faculties and powers are in these, how these are upheld to their due operations; and in them, how many things are noxious to, and at enmity with man; he would think the life, the health of every day almost a miracle, and cry out, O Lord, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully preserved: we live by a miracle almost every hour. Study this, it will much contribute to your being in the fear of the Lord all the day-long. And that is the last use that I shall make of this discourse, so far as I have carried it on.
Learn here what an Argument this point affords. [Use 3]
1. For the defaming of all sin, and disobedience to the divine will.
2. For the promoving of piety, indeed in all the parts of it.
First. How should this defame sin to every ingenuous soul, and that two ways. 1. As it showeth it to be a most audacious daring of a just and holy God. I remember a passage God useth to his ancient people the Jews, Hos. 2.9, She did not know that I gave her her corn, wine and oil, which she prepared for Baal; therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness; and I will discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers. Doth the man who useth his tongue to lying, cursing, swearing, blaspheming, reviling, know that it is God that upholdeth that faculty by which he speaketh? Doth the glutton and the drunkard know that it is God that gives him an appetite, a power of concoction, and digestion, attraction, &c. Doth the sinner know, that it is God who giveth him air to suck in, and a power to suck it in? doth he know that it is God who hath given him that hand, and a power to move that hand, which from the malice of his heart he stretcheth out to work iniquity? Oh! what a daring of an holy and righteous God must all sinning with our bodily members be! Methinks the bold and daring sinner should think with himself these two things. 1. That he who gave him these natural powers, can also at pleasure take them away. 2. That he can do it with the greatest ease imaginable. It is but the withdrawing of this hand of Providence from us, our natural powers fail; our faculties are all lost. When a man is using his tongue to lie to his neighbor, to curse him, to swear profanely, and to blaspheme God; methinks he should thus think with himself, How easily can God stop my breath, withdraw that hand from my tongue which upholds my faculty to speak. Methinks he should remember the instance of Ananias, and Sapphira, and Zechariah the father of John the Baptist, but for a few words of unbelief. When a man is stretching out his hand to work any iniquity, methinks he should remember how easily God could do by him, as by Jeroboam, When he stretched out his hand to lay hold of the Prophet, and his hand presently withered. If any of you lent your hand to one that were blind, or lame, and he should spit in your face, revile you, &c. would not you think it a strange daring of you? Oh! what a daring of an holy, just, and powerful God it is for a man willfully and presumptuously to use a member of his body, or a power, or faculty of his Soul, knowingly, and presumptuously to sin against God? Thus this Doctrine may serve to defame sin to every ingenuous soul, as it necessarily must be an impudent daring of a just and holy God.
2. But it defameth it further, As it speaketh it an act of the highest ingratitude imaginable. Ingratitude soundeth ill, very ill in the ears of human nature; so ill, that an Heathen could say of it, Call a man an ingrateful man, and you call him all that is naught: it is a very great vice. Every sinner must say, If God had not been so good to me, I had not been so evil against him. The Drunkard must say, If God had not assisted me to my natural action in drinking, I could not have dishonored him by that excess. The like must every sinner say, the liar, the swearer, the adulterer. God hath nothing to do with the obliquity of their action; but to the action so far forth as natural, his Providence assisteth, upholding the natural faculties to their natural Operations. And do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people? Is this your thankfulness to God for God's assistance of you in the use of your faculties, for the necessary uses of your life? I gave thee cloth, saith God, to cover thy nakedness, thou makest it to serve thy pride; my creatures to silence thy natural passions of hunger, and thirst, and thou usest it to serve thy Luxury. I gave thee a tongue to interpret thy mind to thy neighbor, and to praise me, and I assist thee in the natural use of it: thou usest it to swear, curse, to blaspheme my great and sacred name. I gave thee an hand, and assist thee in the use of it, that thou mayest get bread, and do the works of thy calling in order thereunto: thou usest it to smite with the fist of wickedness, to persecute and oppress my people. Thus the sinner turneth the gifts of God into weapons with which he fighteth against him. I remember a quite contrary resolution in holy David, Psal. 116, I will (saith he) take the cup, of salvation, and praise the Lord. I know, that Poculum salutis is capable of other interpretations, which are also given according to the various fancies of Interpreters. But why may not we interpret it thus? I will take that very mercy which, thou hast shown me, and use it, and improve it for thy honor and glory. Certainly thus we ought to do as Hannah, 1 Sam. 1. did by her child Samuel, which she had begged and received of God. She takes her child, and at the return of the year carrieth him up to Jerusalem, and saith, For this child I prayed, and the Lord heard me; hath given me my Petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent unto the Lord. But of this more under the next head; to which I now come, to show you how far what you have heard may be useful. 2. To promove piety, and that both in the internal and external acts of it, in the more immediate acts of homage, which we are to pay to God, and in all the duties of an holy and pious conversation before men, in obedience to the will of God. It is not hard to understand upon this hypothesis, that God doth thus concur in the assistance of all our natural faculties, in order to the preserving of us, how reasonable it is, that we should be in the fear of the Lord all the day long; That we should live in an exercise of faith, trust and dependency upon him; That we should love the Lord at all times. And for acts of more external immediate homage, prayer and praise, &c. How reasonable a thing is prayer morning and evening; doest thou not remember it is God that must concur to give thee sleep in the night, a power to breath, to move, to work, to eat, to drink, &c. and give me leave to tell you, if you do not think the sleep of the night, or a strength to labor in the day, an appetite to thy meat, a power to digest it, a liberty and power to breath, mercies worth the asking; it is because thou hast not wanted them much: will you not every day have need of the use of your senses, your hands, your tongue, your feet, your ears, &c? do not you think them mercies worth the asking? Go to the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, and those that lie on sick-beds, and inquire of them; they will better instruct you in the value of these things. Do not you know what to pray for so often? this Doctrine will show you in part; pray that God would preserve your life and being, uphold your powers and faculties, &c. And Praise is as reasonable as Prayer; you are every day fearfully and wonderfully preserved. By whose power is it, as Peter and James said to the people when they had cured the lame man? Not by our power, but by the power of Jesus of Nazareth doth this man walk. So give me leave to tell you, it is not by your own power, nor by the mere virtue of your own faculties, with which you are born, that you sleep, walk, discourse, work, but by the mighty power of God concurring and assisting those faculties. Particularly, you may hence conclude the reasonableness of that Religious custom, (which some have brutishly cast off) begging a blessing upon your meat at meals, and giving thanks after receipt of it.
Lastly, Certainly this Meditation well digested, cannot but highly promove all manner of practical holiness. For what is holiness, but the obedience of the members of our bodies and powers, and faculties of our Souls to the Will of God, the exercise of them all according to the Divine Rule, and the end for which he gave them to us; and what can be more persuasive to this, than for us to hear, that as God hath given these powers, so God upholdeth them in exercise; in him we live, by him every member we have moves, and we are all kept in being: may I not therefore with the Apostle conclude, Rom. 12.1, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. It is reasonable that he who hath given you the Sacrifice, should smell the sweet savor of it. He hath provided the sacrifice for you; He hath provided it for that end, to be a sacrifice for him; it is therefore but a reasonable Service. It is reasonable that he who planteth a Vineyard, who dresseth, keepeth, and preserveth it every day, should have some of the fruit thereof. Which of you planteth a Vineyard, and Orchard, &c. and eateth not of the fruit thereof? But I shall add no more to this first part of my Discourse, concerning God's preserving Providence.
SERMON VII.
Psal. XXXVI. 6.
I AM discoursing concerning the first mentioned great Act of Providence, in the Preservation both of man and beast, Upholding all things by the word of his power. I shown you in my last Discourse, by what particular acts, God preserveth individuals of all kinds. But Man, is to be considered yet in two notions further: Man is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a sociable, a political creature; and so as one of a multitude, formed into political bodies, called by the names of Kingdoms, Commonwealths, &c. He is further to be considered, as a spiritual creature; capable of Divine Grace, and divers spiritual Habits, things which accompany salvation, and make him fit for the Kingdom of God, and preparing him for that blessed Eternity, which is the end of our hopes. These also must be upheld, and maintained by the power of Providence; We are (saith the Apostle) kept by the power of God through faith to salvation, 1 Pet. 1.5. My last Discourse shown you no more than the particular workings of Divine Providence, in preserving and upholding the natural world. Let me now show you the workings of it, in preserving and upholding the Political, and Spiritual World. I begin with the former, and so the preserving Providence of God worketh several ways. 1. In disposing the minds of all people unto Government. There are indeed some Anomalies here, some sons of Belial in all places, that will endure no yoke, but generally it is not so. And the minds of men are disposed to order and Government; without Government Polities could not stand, the World would quickly be in confusion; there can be no order without Governors, and governed. Governors must be spirited for the exercise of Government, and the Governed must be spirited for obedience. Both these are from the Lord, who is wonderful in working. Everyone is not fit to govern; he hath not parts for it, he hath not a spirit for it. Some are like Issachar, fit for nothing but to couch under the burden. Others like Judah, who have hands fit to be upon the necks of their Enemies, and their fathers children shall bow down before them.
1. God by his Providence influenceth some for the exercise of Government, either from the womb, or from the time they are called to that exercise, as it is said of Saul, 1 Sam. 10.9, when Samuel had anointed him to be King over Israel, God gave him another heart. Every man hath not a spirit of Government; there is much goeth to the making up of that spirit. It was prophesied of Christ, Isa. 9.6, That the Government should be upon his shoulders. And Isa. 11.2, The Spirit shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom, and understanding, the spirit of counsel, and might, the spirit of knowledge, and fear of the Lord. A spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord is necessary to a religious Government. A spirit of understanding and wisdom; a spirit of counsel, and might, is necessary for a good civil Government. Joshua the Son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, Deut. 34 9. Every man in a Kingdom, or a City, or Commonwealth, hath not knowledge, and understanding, nor wisdom, and counsel, nor might, and courage fit for Government: God giveth it only to some persons, whom he designeth to rule over men. And herein is the Providence of God mightily seen, and that both in Hereditary Kingdoms and States, and in those also which are Elective: 1. In such as are hereditary: ordinarily the sons of Princes are not like other men, though under equal circumstances of Education. When Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, Judge. 8.18, What manner of men they were that they killed? They answered him thus, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a King: There is something that ordinarily appears in the faces of Princes, more of Majesty than in other men, which shows another spirit. I know that this is not universal; there have been Princes in the World of mean parts, courage, &c. which ordinarily happens when God hath a quarrel with a people, Eccl. 10.16, 17, Woe to thee, O Land, when thy King is a child, and thy Princes eat in the morning: Blessed art thou, O Land, when thy King is the son of Nobles, and thy Princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness. 2. It is much seen in Elective governments. God by his Providence directeth, and disposeth the Electors to the choice of such persons as he hath prepared with such a spirit; or (except in cases where God hath a design by unworthy Governors to chastise a sinful people) when they are chosen, he giveth unto them such a spirit, and by his extraordinary Providence correcteth the errors of those that choose them to that employment. This is a wonderful working of Divine Providence. We often see persons in Government, showing quite another spirit and temper than they before appeared to us to have. Nor is the Providence of God less seen in disposing the spirits of the Governed; That thousands, yea millions of people should consent to a subjection to one chief Ruler (as in a Monarchy) or to the Government of a few (as in Commonwealths), and be willing to be ruled and governed by him, or them: yet this we ordinarily see. It is the Lord's doing, and it should be marvelous in our eyes: and it would be so, if we would but be so considerate as to think of the variety of men's humors, fancies and passions. Sometimes indeed God in judgment against a people, suffers a perverse spirit to mingle itself with the governed; there are rebellions, and mutinies, yet those for the most part are originated in oppression and violence. But supposing no errors in Governors, that yet multitudes of people should be so willingly subject (and yet few of them for conscience sake) must needs come from the Lord's influence, who is wonderful in the working for the preserving of the Politick Societies of men, which without a Political order or Government could not stand.
2. Secondly, God preserveth men in their Political Societies, by directing them to make, and to agree in Laws proper for their Government; as to this he upholdeth the reason of Legislators. Laws are the rules of Government. 1. God hath given unto men a Divine Law for a Copy; the Book of this, the King of Israel was always to have before him, and he was to read in it all the days of his life, Deut. 17.19. Jos. 1.8. The Divine Law concerns some generals; but there must be many particular Laws, respecting the complexions of several Kingdoms and bodies of people: In the making of which the Providence of God, and his influence is wonderfully seen, upholding the reason of the Lawmakers to the making of such Laws as are necessary and expedient, and proper for the government of such a people. It is true, as the Hebrew Doctors were wont to say, That the Spirit of God did not always touch the hearts of the Prophets; so neither doth the Spirit of God always touch and direct the hearts of Legislators. God suffereth sometimes the wisdom of the wise to fail them: impious and wicked Laws, foolish and insignificant Laws may sometimes be made, to which it were blasphemy to entitle God in any efficient causation. God will by these instances let us see men are but men; but yet there is such an ordinary influence of Divine Providence, that although some Kingdoms and Commonwealths in a Superfoetation of Laws may have some wicked and impious, others foolish and insignificant; yet they are not deficient in such as are necessary to maintain Justice, and preserve civil order and peace. Now although we must by no means entitle God to the wicked effects of men (which he only permits), nor to the follies and impertinencies of men: yet he is justly to be entitled to the wise and prudent effects of his creatures; for good useful and necessary Laws they are from the Lord, who is wise in counsel, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift. If the Plowman be instructed by God with discretion, and taught, and the Thresher be instructed, as to the discretion he useth, by the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working (which the Prophet asserteth, Isa. 28.23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.) Then certainly the hearts of those who are instructed to the making of Rules for the Government of the great bodies of his people, are instructed also from the Lord, who is great in Wisdom, and wonderful in Counsel. And herein is the mighty Power and Wisdom of God seen, in the preservation of Political Societies.
3. A third thing wherein the Providence of God is seen in the preserving of these Societies, is, In the ordinary silencing of those passions in men, which disorder and disturb all Government. We justly look upon it as a merciful piece of Divine Providence, to conceal from some beasts of great use in our lives their own strength, which if known to them, would make them our masters. The multitude in any Polity is as an unruly beast, and all Governments are preserved by their ignorance of their own strength, and the bridle of Divine Providence, by which God keeps them in and silenceth their passions, which if let loose, would quickly turn all into a tumult and confusion. The Individuals of all Societies are full of boisterous and brutish passions; so as a considerate man when he looketh upon such a City as this, or any other great Political Body, and considereth how many persons are in it of unruly tempers and passions, who either know not the rules of natural Justice and Equity; or if they know anything of them, their lusts and passions will not suffer them to live in any just observance of them; will see reason to wonder how people of such heterogeneous tempers and different passions, should ever live together a year, or a month, in peace and any degrees of order: nor is there anything which holds them together but the wonderful influence of Divine Providence, silencing their passions, and restraining those lusts in men, which otherwise would set any Kingdom, City or Nation on a fire, and bring it quickly to an heap of rubbish and confusion. It was said of old, that in the degenerate state of man, Homo homini lupus, one man is a Wolf to another, and nothing but the Divine Hand keeps them from biting and devouring each other; the Lord by his Providence holds them in as the Horse and the Mule with bit and bridle. When God thinks fit for the punishment of persons or Nations but a little to let loose the Reins, we see what brutish passions do discover themselves in men; what envy, malice, revenge, oppression, and other lusts and vices directly tending to destroy Societies. So as we are only preserved because these disorders are but fits of distemper, not abiding diseases in the bodies of people; and the reason why they are no more is from God's restraining influence upon unruly turbulent spirits: He that ruleth the raging of the Sea, and stilleth the waves thereof when they arise, ruleth also the passions of men, keeps them generally still, and stilleth them if at any time they rise to any exorbitant heighth: 'tis the same power that doth them both: Psalm 65.7, Thou stillest the noise of the Sea, the noise of its waves, and the tumults of the people. It is God that saith, Be still, O ye inhabitants of the Islands: Whence is it but from this, that there are so few murders, rapes, &c. no more thefts and acts of Violence? We see the fear of punishment will not restrain them, as soon as God but takes off his restraint from them; and the consideration how unreasonable multitudes appear in their fits of disorder, is enough to convince men, that the general tie of people have not reason enough to be a law unto themselves, but are merely governed and over-ruled by the influence of God's restraint upon them, for the preservation of his people in their political Societies.
4. A fourth thing wherein the power of Divine Providence is eminently seen in the preservation of Men, in their Political Societies, is in discovering the secret devices, and conspiracies of men, tending to the disturbance and dissolution of Government in the places where they live: I still understand this in ordinary causes. When God hath a design to punish a Sennacherib, he suffers the plottings of his own sons to take effect against him. God sometimes punisheth Rulers: sometimes he punisheth People by such sufferances, but ordinarily he doth not. You have an hundred Treasons discovered, for one that takes effect. Here I might enlarge strangely, how God brings to light those hidden works of darkness, wherein the welfare of States and Kingdoms are concerned. Solomon therefore gives good counsel, Eccles. 10.20, Curse not the King in thy thoughts, nor the rich (that is, the Ruler I conceive) in thy Bed-chamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter; that is, it shall be discovered strangely and swiftly. What eminent instances of Divine Providence of this nature we had in our own Nation, especially in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the beginning of King James his reign.
1. Sometimes God setteth their own Consciences on work, and they shall betray and discover themselves; before they fall to their work, God smiteth one of their Consciences, and they come and discover their Complices and confess their own errors: how often have we had this in our own story? 2. Sometimes their Countenances shall betray them, while they are just ready to strike the fatal stroke. 3. Sometimes a terror shall seize them, and their Daggers shall drop out of their hands. 4. Sometimes their own Letters shall destroy them (of which we had an eminent instance in the Powder-Treason, hatched by Papists in this Nation); sometimes the powder shall not take fire: another time it shall miss the mark. The Monsters are sometimes brought to the birth, and the parents of them want a strength to bring forth. How often was Queen Elizabeth in this Nation so preserved to fulfil the word of the Lord? Job 5.12, He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
5. A fifth thing I shall instance in, is God's defeatings of the counsels of Ahitophels. All men are not alike in wisdom and counsel: God fitteth some more eminently, who are to have stations in the public Government and Councils of a Nation. Amongst these, some are men of integrity and sincerity, men of public spirits and designs, who use all their wits, parts and abilities, for the general good and prosperity of people. Others are men of more private spirits, driving selfish designs; and these ofttimes are men of great craft and subtlety, whose counsels yet, should they take effect, would ruin the body politick, which they pretend to serve, whiles they serve but their own bellies, or families, or the lusts of some others in order to that end. Here now the Providence of God is often seen, in defeating their counsels, and that various ways: Sometimes by making them unacceptable, as was in the case of Ahithophel: his counsels ordinarily, were taken and followed as Oracles; but God makes the counsel of Hushai, though (as appeareth by the story, a friend at first suspected by Absalom ) to be more accepted. Sometime God doth it by some more extraordinary ways, as in the case of Haman, who had both given counsel, and obtained a decree against the Jews. The King shall not sleep, but spend his waking times, reading the book of the Chronicles; there he shall fall upon the place where a record is of the good service Mordecai had done. The King shall mistake Haman 's Courtship to the Queen, while he is making suit to the Queen for his life, for an attempt to force her: Thus Haman shall be defeated in his designs, and it shall be his own lot to be hanged upon the Gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai: nor are these the only instances. There is no Kingdom, no Age, in which observing persons will not observe some instance or other of this nature, for the preservation of the Political societies of men.
Sixthly, The power of divine Providence in preserving Political societies, is eminently seen in balancing and diverting opposite powers. It is wonderful to observe how God ballanceth one Nation against another; sometimes by natural situation, sometimes by voluntary associations. We in England are an instance of the former. All the Kingdoms about us are larger and more mighty than we are; France, Spain, &c. far more populous. God hath balanced us with them by our situation. We are an Island, we are powerful in Shipping, they cannot march an army by land against us: that keeps us at some proportion with them, and from being a prey to them, often gaping for us. Others God hath situated in Countries full of Rocks, and Mountains, and Waters; by which natural Fortifications they are balanced with the far greater fleshly power of their Enemies. Thus God preserved his people in Epirus from the overflowing flood of the Turkish Power: In Holland, from the attempts of the Spaniard 40 years together, a Nation far more great and mighty than they. Thus he hath preserved his Church, his little flock in the Valleys of Piedmont and Lucerne. As Solomon saith, because the Conies are a feeble people, they have their habitation in the Rocks: So where God hath had a little people, a feeble people, his Providence hath for their habitation allowed them the natural defences of mountains, and the inaccessible paths of Rocks. Others he ballanceth with the far greater power of their adversaries, by voluntary confederacies and consociations: were they singly to be encountered, they would quickly be swallowed up; but they join in league with others, and so make a proportion to their Potent Adversaries. Some he ballanceth by giving them a more extraordinary strength, spirit, courage; that one will chase ten, and ten an hundred, and an hundred a thousand, and a thousand shall put ten thousand of their Enemies in flight. Some are stronger in Land-forces, but weak as to Naval-forces; others strong in Naval-forces, but weaker in Land-forces: till the period of a Nation comes (for Nations have their periods) he ballanceth all Political Societies one way or other, according to the variety of his infinite wisdom. 2. Another way is by Diversion; you have many instances of this in Scripture. How often hath God thus preserved us in Europe, from the overflowing flood of the Turks, by stirring up the Persians to invade him, by suffering rebellions amongst though • e that are his own Subjects. But I shall contract this discourse, much will fall into my following discourse of Governing Providence.
7. The last thing which I shall instance in, wherein the Providence of God is seen in the preserving of men in their Political Societies, is, in giving unto men wisdom, and disposing of them to several Arts, Trades, Mysteries, and Occupations, by which they become mutually serviceable one to another, and contribute to the upholding the societies in which they live. Here are two things, in both which, the Providence of God is eminent to every eye which wistly observeth it. There is nothing more evident than that there is a variety of Arts, Mysteries, Trades, and Occupations useful for man, by some of which he is supplied with things necessary for food and raiment; by others of them, with things for delight and ornament: both the one and the other, if not necessary for individuals, yet are necessary for preserving a Polity consisting of multitudes.
Now, 1. The wisdom, by which men work in these several Arts, Mysteries, and Occupations, and by which men follow these several Trades, is from the Lord. The Prophet Isaiah tells us, the discretion of the Plow-man, and of the Thresher is from him. God called by name Bezaliel, the Son of Uri, and he was filled with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship: and to devise curious works, to work in gold, in silver, and in brass: And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work, Exod. 35.31, 32, 33, 34. and it is said, that God filled him and Aholiab with wisdom of heart to work all manner of work of the engraver, and of the cunning workman; and of the embroiderer, in blue, purple, and in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and devise any cunning work, v. 35.
2. The Providence of God in this thing is eminently discerned, in disposing men to these several employments. So that as in the natural body, there are several members, and every member is inclined, and naturally disposed to its particular office; by which the several uses and necessities of the body-natural are supplied. So in bodies politick, as there is a great variety of members, so the several members of it are, by the wise Providence of God, disposed and inclined to the learning and practice of several Arts and Sciences, Trades and Occupations; by which, the uses of the whole are supplied, as well as the several individuals in the Society enabled to get themselves a subsistence, yet in the service of the public: This is a great piece of Divine Providence. One man is disposed to husbandry; unless some were so disposed, however slavish and dirty the employment be, the Nation could not be fed: others to the making of Cloaths, and Stuffs, and Linnens; if none were so disposed, though the whole might be fed, they could not be clothed. One works in iron and brass for more necessary uses; another in gold and silver for Ornaments, and more fine and delicate uses. One man is disposed to study Physic, Law, Divinity, and cannot endure hard labor: another is of a more slavish and servile disposition, no ways disposed to learning and studies: All this is from the Lord, and by this working of his Providence, the uses of all are supplied, and so Political Societies are by this means preserved. We have now considered man, 1. In his single and individual capacity: And. 2. In his Social and Political capacity; and shewn you several acts of Divine Providence, by which God, in either, preserveth him. But we have yet a third capacity to consider him in, that is, his spiritual capacity, as a creature possessed of the grace of God, the Grace of Justification, and the Grace of Sanctification. As to this he is in a peculiar sense God's creature, often, by Saint John, said to be born of God: and as to this likewise he is preserved by God, 1 Pet. 1.5, You are kept by the power of God, through faith to salvation. Indeed, a discourse upon this properly belongs to the specialties of Providence, of which, I may possibly hereafter speak distinctly; but not knowing whether I shall reach to that, something (though more shortly and generally) I shall speak to it here. Grace in the Soul of a man, or woman, is a noble creature, and one of those things that are upheld by the mighty power of God. Now that which I have to do is to consider, How the Providence of God worketh in upholding this noble creature in those individual souls, into which he hath breathed this breath of spiritual life. Let me show you this in a few particulars.
1. God preserveth man in his spiritual life and capacity, by a daily repeating to him his gracious acts, in the pardon of sin, and reckoning of Christ's righteousness to him. It hath been a Question betwixt Arminians, Papists, and Calvinists, Whether there can be an intercision of the state of Justification? Whether a soul once justified can again be not justified? We say No. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance; whom he loveth he loveth to the end: Well, but how can this be? for who liveth and sinneth not? The righteous falleth seven times in a day. If Justification be not repeated, how can a soul be justified? We say, Though the state abide, yet God's gracious acts are repeated. Sin is not pardoned before it is committed; but when committed, it is pardoned by a repetition of an act of Grace. Justification speaks a state; this is not repeated: but remission of sin, is an act of Grace frequently repeated; and the imputing of Christ's righteousness is an act often repeated. We are not daily created or born, as to our natural life, but we are daily preserved: so God puts the believer once into a state of Justification, that abides and faileth not; but we should fall from it every day, did not God continue us in it, by the repetition of these gracious acts. We need a continual pardoning, a continual imputation of the righteousness of Christ, to preserve our spiritual life, as we need continual acts of Providence to preserve and to uphold our souls in their natural life. Thus every day it is God that justifieth.
2. God preserveth his Church and particular souls, as to their spiritual life, by a daily infusion of those habits of grace, which are necessary in those souls that are ordained unto life, as the principles of those operations by which they must attain this life, and by increasing these habits in them. In a word, by perfecting, 1. The number of his Saints. 2. By perfecting their graces. The first respecteth the collective body of his Church, and is called in Scripture, an adding to the Church such as shall be saved; a working of faith in all them that are ordained unto eternal salvation: without this the Church of God must perish, and fail from the earth in a short time. God's people are mortal, even as others. Now God so ordereth it in his Providence, that there is a succession. One generation of believers passeth, another cometh; and thus God hath a seed kept alive in the Earth. 2. God also doth it as to individuals, by a daily infusion of gracious habits, further strengthening and quickening them to their spiritual operations, Phil. 4.13, I can do all things (saith the Apostle) through Christ that strengtheneth me: believers, Eph. 3.16, are strengthened with might by his Spirit. God upholdeth his own seed in the soul, and bloweth up the sparks which himself hath kindled.
3. God's Providence in the preservation of men in their spiritual capacity, is seen, in the upholding and maintaining his word and ordinances, upon which the souls of his people live. As the body liveth by bread, as to its natural capacity; so the soul liveth by the word of God, as to its spiritual capacity. By these things men live (saith Hezekiah). I know some interpret that passage concerning afflictions: but others concerning the promises. Now the Providence of God hath been, and is eminently seen, in maintaining of his word; the written word, the word preached; in taking care that his people have had a succession of Ministers. Before the Books of Moses were written, God provided for the souls of his people by a word not written: since, by a written word, and that most eminently, since the whole Scripture was written, since which time Prophecy; and unwritten Revelations are much ceased, not further to be expected. God may yet reveal himself to some particular servants of his: but we are not to expect such Revelations, nor are they the object of faith. Now herein hath the stupendous Providence of God been eminently seen; that when so many thousand books wrote since the Scriptures were written, are lost, and there is no memorial almost of them; and the Scriptures have had more enemies than any of them, more that have endeavored to corrupt them, and to destroy them; yet God hath preserved this storehouse of spiritual food, and kept it from corruption by the extraordinary care of the Jewish Church; the multiplying of translations, guiding and governing of those who have been employed in them: Nor hath the Providence of God been less seen in maintaining Ministers and Teachers of his word. In the Jewish Church, when the ordinary officers failed, and were corrupted, God from time to time raised them up Prophets, who were his extraordinary Ambassadors to teach his people. In Christ's time, he calls Fishermen to the Apostleship: and in all succeeding Ages, though there have been sometimes more, sometimes fewer able, and faithful Ministers; yet God hath so ordered, that there never have wanted some, and a competent number to break the bread of life, and to feed his people with wisdom, and with spiritual understanding. No sort of men have been more maligned, hated, persecuted, yet God hath upheld the order, and taken care for the souls of his people, that they have continually had faithful stewards of the mysteries of God.
4. The Providence of God is admirable in preserving man in his spiritual capacity, in the daily influence of his spirit attending his word, and sanctifying his institutions. The word is in itself but a dead letter; the Preaching of the word is far from a mean adequate to so great an effect as is the conversion and edification of souls: God is therefore pleased to join his quickening spirit to the word, where he pleaseth, blessing and sanctifying it. I am not of their judgment, who think that there is such a constant concurrence and influence of the Spirit with the preaching of the Gospel, that if men will do what in them lies, they may repent, believe, &c. I know no Scripture which will justify that notion; but certain it is, that the holy Spirit doth ordinarily join itself with the preaching of the word, like the wind blowing where it pleaseth, and none knoweth the motion of it, convincing men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
5. Lastly, The Providence of God preserveth men in their spiritual capacities, by supplying them with strength and succor against their spiritual enemies; their own flesh, the world, the Devil; all which with a variety of temptations strike at our spiritual welfare. But this is much of kin to what I said before. I shall add no more to this discourse concerning God's Act of Providence, as in the preservation of beasts, so of men, and that in their single natural capacities; In their Social and Political capacities, and finally in their Spiritual capacities. I shall only add some few words of application.
This in the first place may inform us, [Use 1] How great that God must necessarily be whom we serve; he is the Creator of the ends of the Earth, of the Heavens, of the Seas, of all things, and it is he who preserveth both man and beast: he preserveth all men in their single and natural capacities; this I opened before. He preserveth all men in their Political capacities, all his people in their Spiritual capacities. It is an ordinary observation in the Kingdoms and Empires of the world, that when they have grown to a great bigness, they have perished with their own bulk and weight. No Monarch hath been found sufficient to preserve them by his wisdom and Counsels. And I remember the Historian speaks of it to the great honor, and as a wonderful thing, in one of the first Roman Kings, that he put the Roman Kingdom (it was no more then) into such an order, that it was governed as if it had been but one Family. But how much doth it speak the Glory and Majesty, the Immensity and Omnipresence, the Efficiency and Activity of God, who at the same time is working over all the Earth, in all the Empires and Kingdoms, in all the Cities and Towns in it, defeating Ahitophels, discovering Plots and Conspiracies, ruling the spirits of unruly men; so as the whole Universe is kept in order: and the thousands and ten thousands of men in it, that know not the yoke of Reason and Religion, are yet bridled by his Providence, and kept in some just order and decorum, and made, instead of running one upon another, and destroying one another, mutually to be subservient one to another? I say, how great? how wise? how infinite? how glorious in power must this God be?
Secondly, Observe how much mercy passeth over our heads, [Use 2] which we do take little or no notice of: We are fearfully and wonderfully preserved, and that in every capacity. I shown you it before as to our natural capacity, few think of that; what a strange working of Providence there must be to keep our souls in life but one day: It is as much remarkable in our Political capacity. I remember, when Christ sent out his Disciples to Preach, he told them, That he sent them out as lambs amongst wolves. It is true indeed, not only of Gospel-Preachers, but of all sober and virtuous men, that would live in the world but according to the Laws of Reason and Moral virtue. They are in the world as lambs amongst wolves: Let but any one consider how many lewd, unrighteous, debauched men are in all places, such whose only rule is their lusts: how full the world is of men that make no conscience of murders, rapes, thefts, oppression, and other enormities, and then stand and wonder at the Providence of God, that in any part of the world there is anything of order and decorum observed, that men have anything which they can call their own, that the lives of Princes or sober people are secured. What can it be attributed to, but the mighty power of Divine Providence, that we have no more murders, rapes, thefts, &c. we see laws, punishments will not restrain all, nor the same men at all times; how, or whence is it, that they restrain any, or at any time? I will conclude this with what the Psalmist so often maketh the foot in that his admirable song of Providence, Psal. 107, Oh! that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men! Oh that Princes would praise the Lord for his goodness! It is by him that they reign, that they have a days liberty to decree justice; by him that the Counsels of Ahithophel are defeated, the conspiracies of ungodly men are discovered; that the spirits of unruly and unreasonable men are subdued under them: by him that they have wisdom to make Laws, and liberty to execute them: that men in their dominions are disposed into their several orders, ranks and stations, so as mutually to serve one another, and to uphold the whole. Oh that Subjects would praise the Lord for his goodness! that they have wise Magistrates, good Laws, that their lives are not Sacrificed to murderers, that their houses are not fired, that their Wives and Virgins are not ravished, that they are disposed to Trades and Occupations: that they have wisdom for them, a spirit to them. Let every Citizen, every Subject, see and acknowledge the hand of the Lord in these things, and bless his holy name.
But lastly, Let the Redeemed of the Lord, particularly, [Use 3] see and acknowledge the Providence of God, in the preserving of them in their spiritual capacities. Were it not for the preserving Providence of God, our spiritual life would be extinguished every moment: God preserveth it by repeating his Gracious Acts in the remission of our sins, in the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Our habits of grace would weaken: we a •• preserved and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. It is a great mercy, and deserves a great acknowledgment, that we have our lives preserved, our estates preserved, our wives and daughters preserved. But oh! how much greater is it, that we have our state of Justification maintained? Our principles of Spiritual Operations, our habits of Grace, our power to repent, believe, love God, preserved; that the influences of Grace are continued, that we have the Word and Ordinances preserved. Let the redeemed of the Lord say, his mercy endureth forever; let them adore preserving-Providence: let them consider what a subtle adversary they have, Who goeth about like a roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour. What abundance of lusts and corruptions they have in their own hearts; what a law in their members, warring against the law of their minds; and they will say, that the seed of God, which is in them, is wonderfully preserved. But thus much may serve to have spoken of the first great act of Providence, which I called Preservation. My next work is to speak concerning Government.
SERMON VIII.
Psal. CIII. 19.
I AM (as you know) discoursing concerning the Principal Acts of Actual Providence, which I told you were two: 1. Preservation, 2. Government. All things were at first created by a Divine word of Power: all things are preserved by a Divine Power; He upholdeth all things by the word of his Power (saith the Apostle). This I have done with: but God's actual Providence doth not extend only to the upholding and the preserving of all his creatures, but he governeth them also. Preservation respecteth their several beings and capacities: Government respecteth their motions and actions. For a Discourse upon this I have made choice of this Text, and choosing it with that design only, I do not take myself so much concerned to inquire into its relation to what went before, or followeth. I shall only consider it in itself: and so it giveth you an account,
1. Of the Royal Seat of the Divine residence, or place where God more gloriously manifests that Presence, which yet filleth Heaven and Earth. He hath (saith the Psalmist) his throne prepared in the heavens. 2. The vastness of his Imperial royal influence and dominion; His Kingdom (saith the Text) ruleth over all. I shall not meddle with the first part: it is the second only which I have to do with. The Proposition shortly is this:
Prop. That he whose Throne is in Heaven, governeth the whole Creation.
The Scripture speaketh plentifully to this point of God's Universal dominion, 1 Chron. 16.31, Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice; and let men say amongst the Heathen, The Lord reigneth. Psalm 96.10, Say amongst the heathen the Lord reigneth. Psalm 93.1, The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with Majesty, &c. Psalm 97.1, The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. Psalm 99.1, The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble. An Heathen Prince acknowledgeth it, Dan. 4.3, 34. But not to multiply Texts, Reason will evince it; every Superior being hath a kind of natural right to rule over those that are inferior to it: and God being the Supreme Being, and the Creator of all other beings too, hath a natural right to extend a Kingdom and Dominion over all; and that not only as he is Superior to them, and greater than they are, but also as he is the efficient cause of all, the Creator of all things. But to speak more particularly: we will inquire, 1. What Government is; 2. What are the Objects of this universal Government and Dominion, which the Proposition ascribeth unto God; 3. What are those special acts, by which God exerciseth this Dominion and Government.
Government implieth three things: 1. The fixing of some ends. 2. A power invested in someone or more persons, upon others, ordering and directing them in order to that end. 3. The exercise of this Power. The end of Government amongst men, is usually the peace, quiet and settlement of a place: God's End is his own glory; He hath made all things for himself, and he doth all things for himself, for the fulfilling of his own Counsels and Will, in order to the glorifying of his holy Name. The Apostle saith, Of him, and for him are all things.
2. Secondly, Government implieth a power invested in one or more persons in order to an end. Now that God hath such a power none can deny and acknowledge him to be God; Once have I spoken, yea twice have I heard it (saith the Psalmist) that power belongeth unto God. He who confesseth God to be almighty, and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth, must own him to have a power sufficient for an Universal Government. If we take Power for Authority, i. e. a Right to exercise a power over such and such objects, that also God hath by the very law of Nature; Hath not the potter a power over the clay? and is not the creature the clay, and God the potter?
3. But thirdly, Government implieth yet something more, viz. an actual exercise of this power; and indeed this is the main: Actual Government is the exercise of a power, wherewith a person or persons, are invested over some persons, or things in order to some wise ends. But let me come to the second Question, viz.
Quest. What are the particular Objects of this Divine providential Government? The Text saith, His Kingdom ruleth over all. I think that term all is to be expounded by three general heads: 1. The beings and existences of his creatures. 2. The motions and actions of his creatures. 3. The omissions and obliquities of his creatures: all these (as I shall show you) fall under the government of Providence.
1. The Beings and existences of his creatures, the production and cessation of them; the giving of them Being belongs to Creation, the ordering and directing their beings under their circumstances belongeth to Providence: so doth the issue and determination of their beings with their circumstances; Psalm 68.20, Unto God belong the issues from death. Providence holdeth the key of the Womb, and the key of the Grave; he it is that killeth, and maketh alive. From that it is that one generation passeth, another cometh; and this holdeth to all creatures: There is not a sparrow which falleth to the ground without the will of our heavenly Father, as our Savior telleth us.
2. A second object of this Providential Government, is all the motions and actions of his creatures: all their operations according to their several forms and natures of being. There are some motions and actions of reasonable creatures: I mean, some of their moral actions influenced from their wills, upon which God hath no efficient influence; such are men's sins and obliquities, but there are none but he ordereth and governeth, when done and brought into effect; even with the vilest actions of men God hath thus much to do. 1. To uphold their natural powers and faculties while they do them. 2. To order and govern them, when done, to his own wise ends, so as they shall issue in the glory of his holy and blessed Name: and that brings me to the Third.
3. A third Object of the government of Providence, is the Omissions, Errors and oblique actions of his creature. Every creature moveth not according to a Divine Rule, man only varieth; the stormy winds fulfil his word; the Sun, Moon, Stars, all obey his Law; man only rebels, and is guilty of thousands of obliquities and Omissions. Now these also are under the government of Providence, some corrupt inclinations and lustings he restraineth; Others he suffers to break out into action, then maketh the wrath of man to praise him. But this is enough to have spoken to the second Question, the third followeth:
3d Quest. By what particular acts doth Providence show itself in the Government of the World?
1. To this I shall answer in several particulars: 1. By causing the production and existences of his creatures, or making them to cease as it pleaseth him; He causeth the barren wombs, and again maketh the barren to bring forth Seven. Hence you shall find the multiplication of Abraham's seed to the number of the grains of the dust of the Earth, or sands upon the-Sea-shore, is made the matter of a Divine Promise. The Beings of his creatures are both the objects of his Government, and his Utensils or Instruments in Governing; for he governeth a great part of the inferior creatures by the Superior influenced with Reason and Wisdom for that end. God blessed man, Gen. 1. saying, Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and every moving creature that moveth upon the Earth. Now the Lord in order to this Government, multiplieth or diminisheth them: whence is it, but from this Providence of God, that the wild Beasts are not multiplied to the destruction of man? that we are not so full of Lions, Bears, Tigers, Wolves, Foxes and other hurtful creatures, as we are of sheep and Neat-cattle, though many of them often bring forth young in greater plenty than those useful unto man? Thus also God ordereth the reasonable World: should men live as in the first age of the World, to five, six, seven hundred years; should all children born live to an old age, there would be no room on the Earth, there would not be food enough for them: God therefore in order to the Government of the Universe, as well as for the punishment of the multitude of sins committted in the Earth, limiteth the number of Individuals, and diminisheth them; and this not only in an ordinary course of nature, shortening the periods of their life, but by some extraordinary dispensations: such as those of War, Pestilence, and other fatal and Epidemical diseases, by which he not only serveth the great end of his glory in punishing the sins of men, but also reduceth the World to a governable body, and to such a pass, that one sort of his creatures is sufficient for the service of another, so as the whole is preserved. But this is but the first thing.
2. God governeth the World (Secondly) by maintaining the laws and ordinances of Nature. As there are positive Laws, written Laws in the Word of God, which God hath ordained for the government of reasonable creatures: so there are Laws and Ordinances of Nature, by which creatures not endued with reason move, and work in order to the preservation of the whole, by the mutual service each of other. Thus Jer. 31.35, you read of the Ordinances of the Moon and Stars, and of God's covenant of the day, and of the night, that they should be in their season, Jer. 33.20. Such an Ordinance you have, Gen. 8.22. While the Earth remaineth, seed-time, and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. By virtue of these Ordinances it is that the Sun every day riseth, and setteth upon one part of the world, causing day and night; rejoicing as a Bridegroom to run its course (as the Psalmist speaketh), that at sometimes of the year it is nearer, another it is further off this, or that part of the Earth. These Laws and Ordinances of Nature are nothing else than the affections, and inclinations of several creatures to their several motions and actions. Now these affections and inclinations were put into them in the day of their Creation, but the Providence of God maintaineth these Laws: and hence it is, that seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, do not cease. By this it is, that the proud waters ordinarily exceed not the bounds of the sands which God hath set to limit them: The winds do not always blow from the same quarter, nor at the same rate. The Earth brings forth its variety of fruits: there are thousands of things, of which we can give no other account than that they cause such effects, they make such motions by an Ordinance of Nature, by a Law which God imprinted upon them in the day of their Creation; and God preserveth them by his Providence, which daily worketh in upholding these Laws, and regulating the creature that it moveth not, nor acteth contrary to this Law.
3. A third thing wherein the Government of Providence is seen, is in the miraculous suspension of these natural Laws and Ordinances, according to the good pleasure of God. Indeed this is a specialty of Providence, and more proper to be handled under that head: I shall therefore only touch it here. It is a thing which God seldom or never doth, but for some more than ordinary declaration of Judgment, or Mercy. Thus he suspended the law of day and night, to plague the Egyptians with three days continued darkness. He suspended again the law of Nature for the ebbing and flowing of the Sea, that the Israelites might pass over it in safety. By an Ordinance and law of Nature the fire burneth, the hungry Lions devour men; God suspendeth both these Laws in the case of the three Children, and of Daniel: by an Ordinance of Nature, the Sun keepeth its course, and is in a continual progressive motion; God suspendeth its motion in Joshua's case, altereth it, and maketh it to come back in the case of Hezekiah, 2 Kings 20.10: by the Ordinance of Nature, the Earth brings forth her fruit, so doth the womb ordinarily; God suspends this Law in Judgment; the Earth is made as Iron, the Heaven as Brass: men commit whoredom, yet do not increase; they eat, and have not enough, Hos. 4.10. This both demonstrates the governance of Divine Providence, and also showeth how God exerciseth it. This is a third Particular.
4. A fourth Particular, wherein God showeth his Dominion over all, and exerciseth his Government over the whole Creation, is his influencing all creatures to their natural actions, either in a more ordinary, or extraordinary manner. Every living creature hath its natural motions, and actions, and powers and faculties in order to them, which are the principles of those operations; and in the upholding of those powers to those natural motions and actions, God exerteth and putteth forth his preserving power of Providence: but his extraordinary influencing of them to some motions and actions, which are not in a natural course and order, doth more eminently show the Governing power of Divine Providence. That Locusts and Caterpillars should feed upon grass and green herbs, this is but their natural motion and action according to their nature and the kind of their being; but that they should come in troops, and rather feed upon one place than upon another, till they had devoured all the grass and green herbs in Egypt, this was extraordinary: Psalm 105.24, He spake; and the Caterpillars came; and did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured all the fruit of their ground. And again, Psalm 74.46, He gave their increase to the Caterpillar. The same may be said for the Flies, Lice, Frogs, and other creatures used as a plague upon Pharaoh: but indeed this is rather a specialty of Providence, than belonging to the ordinary Government of it; though very demonstrative of the governing power of Providence.
5. A fifth act, by which the Providence of God exerciseth its governing power and influence, is, His daily raising up and influencing Governors for the Housholds and Societies of men, and giving checks to them upon their miscarriages, and mal-administrations. The governing Providence of God, exerteth itself either more immediately, or mediately. Other creatures God ordinarily governeth by men: many of them, I mean, influencing man with Reason and Discretion, by which he ruleth, ordereth, and governeth them, though many of them be much more mighty and powerful than he: the mouth of the horse and mule which have no understanding, by the Providence of God so influencing man, are held with the bit and bridle, lest they come near unto us, Psalm 32.9. The Whale is smitten with a spear, wild bulls and boars are hunted down, &c. The Ox is tamed and brought to serve our uses, who are much less in strength than he is. Men also are governed by men; the weaker by those that are more wise and powerful: but whence have the Governors their wit and power, their wisdom and understanding, prompting them to make Laws acceptable to the greater part of Subjects, so as conspiracies are of the lesser number, and subdue • • o the greater and keeps them in order? Is it not from the Lord, great in wisdom, and wonderful in counsel? Psalm 75.7, God is the Judge, he pulleth down one, and setteth up another, and by him Kings reign. God ruleth the World by Magistrates: which if well considered, would awe men to that duty of honor and obedience which they owe to those that are their Superiors; and may make us to understand how we ought to be subject for conscience-sake, and for God's sake in things commanded, which we cannot say are contrary to the Divine Law, nor so appear to us, and have any manifest appearance of good for the government and peace of the whole. As on the other side, it calls to Kings to be wise, and the Judges of the Earth to be instructed to serve the Lord with fear, and to rejoice before him in their great capacities with trembling: Psal. 2.10, 11, they are but the Lord's Vice-Roys; and as Jehoshaphat told his Judges, they judge not for themselves, but for the Lord; for him whose Throne is prepared in the Heavens, and whose Kingdom is over all. They ought therefore (according to the command to the Kings of Israel ) to have the book of the law before them, and to be reading therein all the days of their life; and where that doth not give them particular direction to have the honor and glory of God yet in their Eye, to measure all their laws and actions according to that Rule; to remember God is the Judge, and hath only exalted and dignified them to rule the World, or this or that part of the World by them: still the Government is the Lord's.
6. A sixth particular act by which God providentially governeth the World, is, By influencing the souls of some in it to such actions as more immediately tend to his honor and glory. God hath an honor and glory from the natural complexion, and constitution, and motions of inanimate Beings. Psal. 148.6, 8. Thus the Heavens, and in them the Sun, Moon, Stars; from them the snow, rain, hail, meteors, the lightning and thunder, the cold and heat, the vapors and stormy winds bring glory to God: stormy winds fulfilling his word, saith the Psalmist. The heavens declare the glory of God, the Earth showeth his handy-work, Psalm 19.1. God hath made in the Heavens a tabernacle for the Sun, a course for the Moon and Stars: the very complexions of them, their natural and necessary motions bring God abundance of glory. Now this ariseth from a necessary causation, they cannot but do it. The same may be said of brute creatures, though animate, not acting upon Election: The Whale in the Sea; the Lion and Tiger amongst the beasts; the Eagle and others amongst the birds; the Be, the Silk-worm, and others amongst Insects: several sorts of creeping things glorify God, but it is necessarily. Man only amongst earthly creatures glorifieth God voluntarily from a principle within himself, and upon choice. Take mankind in the general, it is a noble piece of God's Creation, and necessarily glorifieth God. Man is fearfully and wonderfully made, his body is an admirable structure, but the great glory which God hath is from his spiritual actions. Man is not a mute Preacher of God's glory, as the Heavens and the Earth, the Sun, Moon and Stars are, or brute creatures are. He hath a Soul, and understanding, will, affections; from these God expects a great homage and glory. But now take man in his depraved estate, and he doth nothing less; No creatures, but the evil Angels so much dishonor God, and so cross him in the great end of his governing the World, which is his glory. Now it pleaseth God to influence some of the children of men, to such actions as do truly and immediately tend to his glory, ex intention agentis, from the intention, will and design of the agents; and also ex fine operis, from the end and issue of the action: such are acts of repentance, faith, and all manner of holiness. The glory of God in these actions, is first in the intention of the agent, and also in the issue of the work. Joshua exhorteth Achan to confess his sin, and give glory to God: The Apostle saith, Rom. 4, That Abraham was strong in the faith, giving glory to God. And our Savior tells his Disciples, Joh. 15.8, Herein is my father glorified, if you bring forth much fruit, the fruit of Holiness. Now so depraved is the heart of man, that he neither could nor would do any of them, if not influenced and over-powered by God; Without me (saith Christ) you can do nothing. God therefore, as to actions of this nature, doth influence the heart of man, making him willing and able; so that as to the event the actions are necessary, but as to the manner of working they do them freely, willingly and cheerfully: and this is another piece of Governing Providence, by which he ruleth and governeth the motions and actions of men to his praise.
7. A seventh act, by which God governeth the motions and actions of rational creatures. 1. His permission and overruling their oblique intentions and actions. 1. He permitteth the doing of them. 2. He overruleth and ordereth them, when done, to his own ends. Concerning God's permission of sin, I may have hereafter a more proper and particular opportunity to speak. His overruling and ordering of them, when done, to his own wise ends, is what I shall speak to, and but shortly in this place. It is the great art and wisdom of a civil or military Governor, amongst men, to make use of the several humors and passions of those under his Command, to make them serve the great ends which he hath proposed to himself in his Government. The great and infinite power and wisdom of God in the Government of the world, is in this wonderfully perspicuous; making use of the several lusts, passions, and humors of men to his own praise and glory; for God governeth man so, as he putteth no force upon his will: If he doth anything that is good, acceptable, and well-pleasing unto God, he doth it willingly and freely. The power of God indeed is seen in making some souls willing; he giveth to will, (saith the Apostle), not in overruling him, to do the action whether he will or no: Man acting thus freely, many men do that which is evil from the sinful inclination of their own hearts, not corrected by the power of Divine Grace. God permits men's sins, Act. 14.16, Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways; but the actions being done, his power is seen in overruling the oblique action, beyond, or quite contrary unto the intention of the agent, to the glory of his holy and great name: this is that which the Psalmist saith, Psal. 56.10, Surely the wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder of wrath he shall restrain. You have an eminent Text to prove this, Isa. 10.5, 6, 7, O Assyria, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like mire in the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so, but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few. The business was this: Israel (that is, the ten tribes) had grievously provoked God; God was determined to punish them, they were an hypocritical Nation: There must be an instrument to bring divine wrath upon them. Assyria shall be the instrument, therefore called, the rod of God's anger, and the staff of his indignation. Possibly the inward cause moving the Assyrian, was his own lust, the enlargement of his Territories; some revenge of himself, the robbing of their treasures: he meant not so, his heart never did think so merely to serve God, in the execution of his wrath; but herein was the governing and overruling Providence of God seen, that he so ruled the lust, ambition, and revenge of the King of Assyria, that he accomplished his pleasure upon mount Zion. And indeed thus God doth, as to all the sinful actions of men, God will have his glory from them, but it is by the overruling power of his Providence: the sinner meaneth not so, neither is it in his heart to think so. The persecutor saith, I will satisfy my lust, or I will supply myself with moneys for the satisfaction of my lust, that is his end: in the mean time God by his Providence overruleth his malicious actions, so as he chasteneth his people for their sins, and ripeneth the sinner for destruction. God in this doth with sinners, as the wise Faulconer doth with the Hawk: The Hawk is a bird of prey, a ravenous bird, that flieth at the Pheasant or Partridg for itself, to satisfy its rapacious quality; but the Faulconer, by his art, tameth the Hawk, and maketh use of its ravenous quality to serve his own table: and this is a wonderful piece of Divine Providence in governing of the world; Most of the motions and actions of men in it are diametrically opposite to God's glorious end, yet they are all made to serve the manifestation of God's glory, and to bring about his great designs in the world. But this is enough to have spoken Doctrinally, to this point of the Governing-Providence of God. I cannot at this time compass all, which I would speak of for the Application of this point.
Only let me mind you again from hence, [Use 1] how great the God of Heaven must necessarily be, and that, not only in respect of the immensity of his Being, as he filleth Heaven and Earth; but in respect of his activity and power: he is called the King of Kings, the ruler of Princes. The Persians thought themselves great Princes that ruled one hundred and twenty seven Provinces. The Turk glorieth in the greatness of his Empire; so doth the Spaniard, upon whose dominions, they say, the Sun never sitteth. But alas! what are all these to the Lord's Kingdom, who ruleth over all, and that after another manner than any Earthly Prince, who exerciseth a dominion over his Subjects and Vassals? how justly therefore is greatness ascribed unto God? and who is there that can be compared with him, or like unto him? The Unity of the Divine Being also may be concluded from hence, for if he ruleth over all, then all is subject unto him; and there cannot be another God imagined, but must be in subjection unto him. Indeed such a subjection, or subordination, the Heathens fancied amongst their idols. Jupiter was their supreme idol, others were subject unto him; but he is no God that can truckle under another, and be in subjection unto any Being. And this greatness of God calleth to all men to fear before him, and do reverence unto him: who shall not fear before that God, whose throne is prepared in the heaven, and whose Kingdom ruleth over all? and for a free and voluntary subjection to him, for he ruleth over all, not as a Tyrant and Oppressor, whose title lies in his Sword, but as one who is a native Prince, and hath a rightful title, not to obey whom is the highest Rebellion, which Samuel compareth to the sin of witchcraft. But I must leave the distinct and full application of this Doctrine for a further discourse.
SERMON IX.
Psal. CIII. 19.
I Am at this time to make Application of what you have heard, concerning the Governing-Providence of God. I shall do it under three Heads, showing you how it may be useful for Instruction, for Consolation, and for Exhortation.
In the first place, you may conclude from hence, [Use 1] In what sense alone anything can be said to be casual or necessary; what to determine concerning Chance, and Fortune, or Fate. As to the first I shall only lay down this Conclusion.
Concl. That although many things, as to our eyes, and apprehensions of them, may appear casual, yet there is nothing so with reference unto God, the first universal cause. It is truly said by Augustine, that chance and fortune are but terms of human ignorance; as we say of the old Philosophers occult qualities, they are but the refuges of ignorance: so the same may be said of chance and fortune. He described chance well, that called it inopinatum rei eventum, an event of a thing which man thought not of; it is not inordinatus eventus, but inopinatus: there is no event of anything that is a slip of Providence, not ordered and disposed by him, whose Kingdom ruleth over all. Beings and existences, motions and actions, yea, errors and obliquities; nothing cometh to pass in the world, but was foreseen, fore-ordained, fore-ordered, and that in infinite wisdom: but many things come to pass which we did not think of, could not foresee whose causes are hidden from us: these things, we say, come by chance and fortune: A word indeed not very fit for a Christians mouth. I remember Augustine, more than once, repents that he had defiled his tongue with it. The Heathens ignorant of the true God, and of his influence on all things, devised such a blind God as Fortune; and assigned it a place amongst their other Idols: Te facimus fortuna Deum. But Christians must own no such blind cause of things: they believe there is a God, whose throne is prepared in the Heavens, and whose Kingdom ruleth over all; and therefore can leave no place for chance or fortune. You read of a case, Deut. 19.5, which one would think, if anything in the world were casual and fortuitous, that were so. A man goeth into the Wood, with his neighbor, to hew wood; and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the ax to cut down a tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbor that he die. What can be imagined more casual and fortuitous than this, for the head of an Hatchet to fly off from the helve, and to kill a man at work with him who had the Hatchet? such were the cases also mentioned, Numb. 35.22, 23. Casting a thing upon a man without laying of wait; or with any stone, wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, nor seeking his harm: yet in these cases, Exod. 21.13, God is said to deliver the person slain into his hand, who involuntarily and unwarily hath been the cause of his death. There are many things, which indeed to us are casual, nothing is so to God; he hath ordered all, he ruleth and governeth all actions. Ahimaaz and Cushi knew not of each others journey; or at least he that ran first knew nothing of the others journey: they both met at the Court of David to carry tidings of Absalom's death: but Joab had ordered the running of both. Ahimaaz casually met Cushi there; but though it was casual to him, it was not so to Joab who sent him: I say, nothing is in itself casual, or with respect unto God casual; with respect to us many things are so, that is, we do not know the causes of them; but God ordereth and directeth all; his Kingdom, his Rule and Government extendeth to it; his hand is in it, either permitting, or effecting it.
Secondly, You may from hence conclude how things are necessary. Arminians make a great deal of stir about this, and charge those, whom they call Calvinists, as maintaining a fatal necessity of all things. Let us examine the word Fate a little, we shall find a three or fourfold use of it; there is two or three sorts of Fate, which we shall condemn as freely as any of them: but in a fourth sense we shall find the word honest enough, and to destroy it, will ask better arguments than any they have yet favored the world with.
1. There is a Stoical fate. The Stoics were a sort of ancient Philosophers; you read of their name in Scripture, Act. 17.18. They fancied an eternal necessity of things, Cui & Deum licet nolentem subesse fingebant nexum in rebus ipsis; to which, they conceived God himself, though against his will, was subjected: according to this they fancied all things came to pass by an equal necessity, and that the wills of men were forced by it. This is a fate to be abominated by all those that own God, and him as the first cause of all things.
2. There is a Mathematical fate. This was a necessity of things depending upon the motions and influences of the stars: these men indeed make God to be the ruler of the Stars, but the Stars to be the Rulers of men's motions and actions, according to that verse in credit amongst them, Astra regunt homines, sed regit astra Deus; as if God did not exercise a daily Dominion and Power over the Creation, but had made the celestial bodies, which being created, and set in their order, move other things by a fatal necessity. Of both these, Augustine saith, Si cor tuum non esset fatuum, non crederes fatum: if thou hadst not a foolish heart, thou wouldst not credit such a thing as fate.
3. There is thirdly, a Physical or Natural fate, by which we understand that necessity which God hath established in natural causes; according to which, they cannot but produce such and such effects, supposing them not hindered by the supreme cause: thus the fire burneth necessarily, and we say, all natural causes move necessarily, and produce their effects, unless suspended, hindered, or restrained by some superior cause: this is called in Scripture God's Covenant with day and night, heat and cold, summer and winter. Such a necessity all must acknowledge, in the operation of all natural agents; the power and pleasures of God only being reserved to countermand their operations, which when he doth, we call it a miraculous work of God: thus, day and night, cold and heat, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter are under a fate, they necessarily follow one another; but as God was the first cause of this necessity by the Covenant he established, so their event is in the power of God to hinder, or suspend, or alter as he pleaseth.
4. But then, Lastly, There is a Theological or Christian fate, which is nothing but a necessity of event imposed upon things by the most holy, wise, eternal, free purpose, and counsel of God, executed by his Providence. It is true, the name of fate soundeth ill, because of the Stoical and Mathematical vanities about it; but if we take it for, Quod Deus in animo suo fatus est, apud se statuit, ac decrevit: what God hath said within himself, purposed and decreed, it is innocent enough. Now whoso denieth a fate (if they will call it so), in this sense, doth not so well, as he should do, understand the Divine Nature, or the Scriptures. We neither deny (saith Augustine), an order of causes, which the will of God hath set; neither do we call it fate: In the mean time they are very ignorant, that cannot see the difference betwixt this necessity of events, and the Stoical fate.
1. The Stoics subjected God himself to fate: this necessity dependeth upon the will of God as the cause of it. 2. They made their fate pre-existent to God. 3. They asserted a fate that took away all the liberty of man's will. Now this is no consequent (saith Augustine ) that if God hath set a certain order of all causes, then nothing is in the power of our wills. The upshot of all is this. We say there are a thousand things happen in respect of us casually, and fortuitously, that is, we know not the causes of them, and manner of their operations, yet there is nothing so in respect of God. And though all things happen necessarily, as to the event, with respect to the decree of God, which hath set all things in an order; and in respect of the universal power, and influence of his Governing Providence; yet for such things as are done by us, they are not necessarily brought forth, but freely: our will is not forced, but acteth as a free agent. But I shall add no more to the first Branch of Instruction.
2. Branch. What you have heard, may help to confirm your Faith as to the glorious nature of God, and that in four or five Particulars:
1. As to his Omniscience or knowledge of all things; He must needs know all things who governeth all things; He governs all the beings and existences of his creatures, all their motions and actions, all their errors, obliquities and Omissions, as I have shown you, which he could not do if they were not all naked in his sight: all things must needs be open and naked in his sight with whom we have to do. The Doctrine of God's Omniscience is evident from the work of Creation? He that made the Eye, shall he not see? He that made the Ear, shall he not hear? and it is evident from the work of Providence, if his Kingdom ruleth over all.
2. Secondly, It as much confirmeth us in the Doctrine of God's Omnipotence. If his Kingdom ruleth over all: 1. He must have a power to Rule and govern all. 2. He must be in a capacity to exercise this power, and there must be no power able to resist him; So that you may see the Reasonableness of those titles given to God in Scripture, viz. The Lord God Omnipotent. The Almighty God. The King of Kings. The Lord of Lord's. The Lord of all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth. If there were anything too hard for God; if he could be resisted, he could not rule over all.
3. Thirdly, It may confirm you in the Activity of the Divine Essence. The Schoolmen say, That God is Totus Actus, wholly an Act, always moving, working, operating; so it must be if he hath such a Rule, as I have been describing to you. He must fill all places, not as a mere inactive moles, and bulk of a thing filleth a place: but so as at the same time he is in all places at work, seeing, observing, governing, effecting, and directing, or restraining, and over-ruling. We have no Similitude to express it by, but cometh much short. That of the Soul in man comes nearest it which is in all parts of the body, animating, actuating, and governing of it.
4. It confirms us in our belief of the Infinite wisdom of God. He is called, The only wise God, 1 Tim. 1.17, and Jude v. 25. This Doctrine concludes it. We see it requires a great deal of wisdom to govern a Family, and keep it (if it consists of many members) in order; but much more to govern the greater bodies of people, in Towns, Cities, Kingdoms, Empires, &c. Such a variety there is of motions, humors, passions and tempers of people: Who is able to conceive what Wisdom it requires to govern all beings in the World, all motions and actions of all creatures in the World, and to keep them in any order or decorum at all? In fine, Next to the work of Creation, there is nothing like the work of Providence well-studied to give a man the true notion of God, and let us know what manner of Essence, the Divine Essence necessarily must be. Thus much by way of Instruction.
Secondly, [Use 2] This Doctrine serveth for the unspeakable consolation of the people of God. Psalm 97.1, The Lord reigneth, let the Earth rejoice; let the multitude of Isles be glad thereof. It is matter of rejoicing to all the World that the Lord reigneth; and there is none so vile and wicked, but experienceth much (though many consider it not) of the good effects of this universal Dominion which God exerciseth. The Devils cannot do what they please in it; the wills and passions of men cannot have their swing. There is an Almighty One that holds the reins upon the brutish affections and passions of men; the ill effects of which the greatest Atheists and contemners of God which live in the World, would quickly experience: but to the people of God, as being the lesser number, the most hated and maligned part of the World, and the far weaker as to natural strength and power; besides the restraint their Souls are under from putting out what natural power and strength they have beyond the Divine Law, doth most eminently demonstrate to them the good effects of the Lord's Reign, and the necessity of it. Isa. 52.7, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth? It is good news to all the World, that God reigneth; but particularly to Zion, to the Church and the people of God: to the whole visible Church it is good tidings, but particularly to the invisible part that is militant here on Earth, and the individual members thereof.
1. This Doctrine first is of great use to comfort them against, and under all their disturbances for things which happen to the Church in general, or themselves in particular. A ship at Sea were but in an ill case if it were not for him that sat at the Helm: a skillful Pilot there ordereth her well enough, so as the winds serve his design; so it is with the Church tossed with winds and waves, she is only safe in the Lord's government of all the affairs of the World. Luther (I remember) saith thus of himself;
1. That the Lord reigneth; and hath an unquestionable superintendence upon all the Beings of his creatures, all their motions and all their actions: He is higher in power than the highest of them.
2. That this God is our God. The Psalmist hinteth both in that excellent 46 Psalm, v. 10, Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted amongst the Heathen, I will be exalted in the Earth: The Lord of Hosts is with us: The God of Jacob is our refuge. Let not therefore those that fear the Lord trouble themselves about the motions of the World, and commotions in it, about the ragings of lewd men against the interest of Christ. Let them not trouble themselves further than is their duty, viz. to be sensible of the rebukes of Divine Providence; The Lord reigneth, He that sitteth in the heavens laugheth. The Lord shall have them in derision, and shall (one day) speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure; and let the World know, that yet he hath set his King upon his holy hill of Zion. I remember a passage of Luther, Si nos ruamus, ruet Christus, unus Christus scilicet, magnus ill regnator mundi, &c. If we perish (saith he) Christ must fall too; Christ, that great Governor of the World.
2. If we did consider this as we might, or ought, we should also see as little reason to be disturbed, as to the concerns of our own Souls: with the fear of two things as to their own Souls ordinarily the people of God are troubled: 1. The prevailings of their own lusts and corruptions. 2. The prevailings of Satan's temptations. This Doctrine of Divine Providence excellently serveth to still our unquiet spirits, as to either of these troubles. If the Lord's Kingdom be over all, both these fears must be vain and causeless: for supposing the faithfulness of the Promises; Sin shall not have dominion over your mortal bodies: God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly: He will with the temptation give an happy issue. If the Lord's Kingdom be over all, neither shall corruption prevail, nor Satan by temptations prevail to destroy the work of God in our Soul, or to prevent us or hinder us as to the Kingdom, which God hath prepared for us: for as he that hath promised is faithful, or cannot repent, or lie; so he is powerful, and hath a dominion over all beings, persons, things, &c. My father (saith Christ) is greater than all; none can pluck you out of my fathers hand.
3. Lastly, It affords us a relief against the sad prospect we have almost continually before our eyes, of the malicious actions of wicked and ungodly men. There is, and always was, a generation in the World, which sleep not unless they do mischief; they are continually devising mischievous devices against the little flock of Christ: Their counsels, designs, works, have a plain and apparent tendency to the ruin of the whole interest of God in the World, if possibly not to leave Christ a Name in the Earth, nor Religion, pure and undefiled Religion, a footing in any place: he that runs may read this day, that the malice of some is against no form in Religion, but the life, and power, and practice of Holiness. The Devil their Master hath given them a command like that of Benhadad's, Fight neither against small nor great: Neither against Conformists, nor Non-conformists, but against the life and practice of Religion only. Who seeth not, that although a man hath a further latitude than others of his brethren, as to matters of Conformity: yet if he liveth an holy life, if he presseth Holiness in his Pulpit, and practiseth it in his Conversation, he maketh himself a prey to the common Enemies, both of Gospel, Faith and conversation? But trouble not yourselves, Christians, The Lord reigneth; the Frogs out of the bottomless pit, may through God's permission get out, and croak a while, but to the pit they must return again. A sad time it was, when the Enemy said to the Soul of the man according to God's own heart, Flee as a bird to the mountains: when the wicked bent their bows, and made their arrows ready upon the string, that they might privily shoot at the upright in heart, Psalm 11.2. When the foundations were destroyed, and the godly knew not what to do, what comfort at such a time? Observe the same Psalmist, v. 4, The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his ey-lids try the children of men. I shall conclude this branch of Application with that Psalm 99. v. 1, The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble; he sitteth between the Cherubims, let the Earth be moved: the Lord is great in Zion, and he is high above all people; Let them praise the Lord's great and terrible Name, for it is holy.
Lastly, [Use 3] This Doctrine is a foundation for a great deal of Exhortation: Every good Christian upon hearing this Doctrine concerning God's providential Kingdom, should be saying, What now is my Duty? what ought I to do, if the Lord reigneth? I will tell you in five or six particulars, and so shut up this Discourse concerning the main and principal acts of Divine Providence.
1. An exercise of Faith seems a very reasonable piece of duty to be concluded from these premises. By Faith here, I understand not an assent to the Proposition of the word, nor yet a resting upon the person of the Mediator (which is the justifying-act of faith); but committing of ourselves unto God, and casting our care upon him in all estates and conditions: a thing often called for in Scripture: Cast thy burden on the Lord, Psal. 55.22. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you, 1 Pet. 5.7. Commit thy way unto the Lord, Psal. 37.5. So Job 5.8. Prov. 16.3. Sometimes it is called a Trusting in God, Psalm 4.5, and 7.1. Pro. 28.25. and 29.5. Isa. 57.13, &c. Power and Love are the things that support and justify one in trusting and putting confidence in another. This Doctrine concerning the general Providence of God in governing all, justifies him as to his Power, to be the true and sole Object of our confidence. We can trust in none else, but may be controlled. The greatest Princes of the Earth are but men under the authority of one, who is higher than they; and a man's trust in them, ofttimes is but like the Jews trusting in Egypt, which the Prophet compareth to a leaning to a bruised reed, and upon a broken staff, which are not able to bear the weight of a man's body; but if he leaneth upon them, they will run into his hand. If God be against us, man cannot protect from him, nor deliver out of his hand: therefore (saith the Psalmist, Psalm 118.8, 9.), It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man: It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in Princes: but he, whose Kingdom is over all, must needs be a proper Object of our confidence; and as our confidence in God is warranted from general Providence, as to the power of God; so as to his love, it is secured from special Providence: but of that I hope to speak distinctly, only a word here, lest any should say, But although the Kingdom of God be over all; so that upon the account of his Power, I may trust in him; yet how doth it appear his Power shall be put forth for me? I shall but offer four Meditations to you.
1. That the glory of God is the great end that he aimeth at in all his actions: He made all things for himself: he preserveth, he governeth the World for himself.
2. That whereas God hath a twofold glory from his Creation, Passive, and Active: One wherein the creature doth nothing from an inward principle; thus the Heavens declare the glory of God, and every creature speaks of his glory: The other wherein the creature is Active, acting out of intention and design, and from the principle of its own will: This latter is that which is most pleasing to God and acceptable.
3. That God is capable of receiving no further glory from his creatures, than what floweth from the predication of his praise, and the doing of his Will.
4. Lastly, That from hence it must needs follow, That God is more glorified by his Church, and by his Saints, than by all the Creation besides. God is mutely and passively glorified by other creatures: but in his Temple men speak of his glory. The children of men, and amongst them, only those who are born of God, do voluntarily and out of choice bring glory to God. God (if I may so speak) wrests his glory from others, as from Pharaoh, &c. God indeed in some sense may be said to be actively and voluntarily glorified by all Professors; but only by that little flock whom he hath chosen to himself, with a full intention, voluntarily and sincerely. They are the favorites of him, whose Kingdom is over all. Supposing then God to have a Dominion and Government over all, and to be continually in the exercise of it, surely, if Haman could say, Whom should the King delight to honor but me? They may with much better right and advantage say, For whom should the great King of kings, and Lord of lords, exercise a Rule and a Dominion? For whose advantage should the Lord govern the World, if not for those who most freely, cheerfully, voluntarily serve the greatest end and design which he hath in the World, viz. his own glory; and can sincerely sum up all the desires of their Souls, in that one Petition, Let the Lord be glorified? surely, therefore the children of God have all obligations imaginable upon them under all vicissitudes of Providence, to trust in God, and to commit their ways unto the Lord. But this is but the first Duty.
2. A Second Duty which this Doctrine of Providence calleth to us for, and showeth us the reasonableness of, is Prayer. We have reason in our distresses to seek unto God by Prayer, because the Lord reigneth; and it is an encouragement to us to seek him, because he reigneth: Whither should we go but unto him who hath power to help, save and deliver? Prayer therefore hath in all times of distress been the Refuge of God's people. It was a sad time with David, Psalm 109.4, The mouth of the wicked, and of the deceitful (saith he, v. 2, 3.) are opened against me; they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compass me about also with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause; for my love they are my adversaries, but I give myself unto Prayer, v. 4. Luther, when he was in any strait, was wont to say, I will go and tell my God of it. Prayer hath been the constant mean which the people of God have used for rescue out of any troubles. You see it is upon a good foundation, viz. The Dominion which God hath over all, and his daily exercise of it.
3. It calleth to you for praise and thanksgiving; Prayer solliciteth for a mercy when we want it: Praise acknowledgeth the gift when received, and giveth unto God the glory of it. Nor can it, without robbery, be paid at any other than God's Altar. Is there any good done by thee? Let God have the glory of that; thou hast done it by virtue of a power or gift which is given to thee from above; yea, and it is from his Governing-Power of Providence, ruling, directing, and influencing thy heart to it: His Kingdom is over our hearts, our hands, our tongues, inclining them to every good thought, word, action; without him we can do nothing. Doth any good come unto thee? Let God also have the glory of that. The earthly Prince looketh that you should acknowledge your peace, your trade to his Government; but he is but the instrument of God in bringing these things. It is the Kingdom of the Lord that ruleth over all; he gives thee power to get riches, (saith Moses): I am sure the people of God have more special reason to acknowledge God in all their peace and prosperity. They are men of peace, their hands are against none; but the world hates them, they are as sheep amongst wolves; if they have any months or years of peace, they are beholden to the power and ruling of God for it. Is any evil kept from you? It is God that doth it, he that ruleth the raging of the Sea, he stilleth the tumults of the people; he hath the hearts of Kings in his hand, and turneth them as the Waters of the South. It is because the Mountain of the Lord is full of Chariots and Horses, that they are not swallowed up by their Enemies every moment. O see, and praise the Lord for the Governance of his Providence!
4. This Doctrine calleth to you for patience in adversity. The people of God are subjected to trials of adversity; yea, • o fiery trials, as well as other men, yea, in greater degrees than others: hence the Apostle calleth to them, to let patience have its perfect work. Patience is nothing else but a quiet submission to the will of God under any adverse dispensation of his Providence, in obedience to his command; and because it is his will, and he layeth it upon us, we have need of patience, and the exercise of it is our duty; and this Doctrine will show you that it is but a reasonable duty. Let me show it you in two or three particulars.
1. As it showeth you, that all your afflictions (be they of what sort and kind they will) are from the Lord, Job 5.6, Afflictions cometh not out of the dust; nor doth trouble spring out of the ground. Is there (saith God by the Prophet) any evil in the City and I have not done it? Affliction comes not by chance or fate, it comes from God, and is the wise issue of his Providence in the Government of the World: we have therefore no reason to fret and vex ourselves against instruments. They are but instruments. Perhaps (said David of Shimei, ) God hath bidden him curse. They possibly do ill, and at last will know it; but God is righteous in their unrighteousness. I held my peace (saith David), I knew it was thy doing. It is the Lord, (saith that good man) let him do what seemeth him good.
2. As it assureth us, that all things shall work together for good to them that love God. If God ruleth and governeth the world, he certainly doth it for himself, and for his own glory: which glory of his being the highest design of his people, all things must necessarily tend to their good, to that which they above all things desire and seek after. This God, who ruleth the World, is his people's father, and doth whatever he doth as a father for the good and advantage of his children.
3. Lastly, It is a good Argument of patience, As it letteth them know, that their afflictions are ordered and governed by God. The Afflictions, Oppressions, Persecutions of the people of God are not things excepted out of the Dominion of God. It was, you know, the Centurions faith, That diseases were to Christ, as his servants were to him: He said to one go, and he went; to another come, and he came; and to another do this, and he did it. So God speaketh to diseases; and not to diseases only, but to all sorts of afflictions: Isa. 27.8, In measure when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it. God first causeth, then ruleth, and governeth all our troubles, afflictions and trials.
Fifthly, This Doctrine calleth to all the people of God for love to him. This is the Psalmists Exhortation, and upon this very Argument, Psal. 31.23, O Love you the Lord all you his Saints: for he preserveth his Saints, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. All the earth is bound to love the Lord for the exercise of his Governing-power. If the Lord did not reign, the worst of men would quickly find the ill effects of it; they need no worse enemies than their own brethren and companions in wickedness, did the Lord lay the reins upon the necks of their lusts, and suffer them, as they would, to devour one another. For as we see the ravenous Birds, Fishes, and Beasts, do not only prey upon other, but their own species: so, were it not for the Restraining-Providence of God in governing the world, the wicked of it would see their brethren in iniquity, not only preying upon the Saints and people of God, but also upon those like unto themselves, if lesser than themselves. But, I say, above all the people of God, as being the least flock, are more especially bound to love the Lord for the Government of his Providence; but this will more eminently appear, when I come to discourse concerning the Specialties of his Providence with reference to them.
6. Lastly, This Doctrine calleth unto all for a willing subjection and obedience unto God: This is that which we call holiness. There are two Arguments arising out of the former discourse, which ought to have a force here.
1. Let us do what we will, God will be our Governor. Let Assyria mean, or not mean so, he shall be the Lord's Servant, and execute his pleasure, and no more. Pharaoh may huff a little, and ask, Who is the Lord, that he should serve or obey him: but God will at last be glorified on Pharaoh, and make him know his Kingdom is over all. God will disappoint the devices of the crafty, so as their hands shall not find their enterprises. God will at last be glorified, and make all the wrath of man, at last, to praise him.
2. None shall be rewarded by God, or be his favorites, but only such as yield him, free, willing, and cheerful obedience. Let us do what we can, we cannot resist his will; but unless our obedience be free, voluntary, and cheerful, it shall never be rewarded by a just and righteous God. There is nothing more ordinary in the Prophets, than to read the denunciation of God's judgments against Assyria and Babylon; which were yet God's servants in executing vengeance upon the hypocritical and rebellious Jews. Let this therefore mind us to be obedient to to the will of God, freely, and willingly, and sincerely, that so we may hear that joyful voice, Well done, thou good and faithful Servant.—Enter thou into thy masters joy.
A DISCOURSE Concerning ACTUAL PROVIDENCE.
PART. II. Concerning the Specialties of Providence.
1 Cor. IX. 9.
I Have been for some time discoursing concerning Providence, that is, Actual Providence, which is nothing else but God's taking care for his creatures, made (as you heard) by the word of his power. I have discoursed this care of God more generally, opening to you those two more general Acts of God, by which this care is expressed. 1. In preserving of them. 2. In the rule and governance of them. I have shown you the workings of Divine Providence, in the preserving of his creatures in general, in their Beings, and use of their several faculties with which he created them; of man in particular, considered singly, as an individual, or in his Political capacity; or, 3. In his Spiritual capacity, as the subject of Divine Grace. I have also discoursed generally, concerning the Government of Divine Providence; and by what particular acts God exerciseth this Government, and declareth his Dominion over all the Creatures which he hath made; but besides the general care of God concerning all his Creatures, there is also a special Providence. For the beginning of a discourse concerning that, I have made choice of this Text: Doth God take care for Oxen? (saith the Apostle). Non est vox dubitantis (saith Pareus), It is not the language of one that doubteth. The Apostle knew well enough that our Savior had said, That God clotheth the Lilies, the grass of the field; and that a sparrow (though two of them are sold for a farthing) falleth not to the ground without the will of our heavenly father. The words therefore only signify an inequal care, viz. That God taketh a greater and more special care for some of his Creatures than he doth for others, and so it layeth a foundation for this Proposition.
Prop. That God exerciseth a special Providence for, and concerning some of his creatures. He taketh a general care concerning them all: but a more special care concerning some of them. That is the Proposition which I shall handle in this method.
1. I shall show you that there is such a special Providence, i.e. though the Lord taketh a general care of all his Creatures, according to their natures; yet he taketh a more particular and special care concerning some more than others.
2. I will inquire, Which of his Creatures they are, as to which he exerciseth a special Providence; and concerning which he taketh such a more especial care?
3. We will inquire by what acts God exerteth, putteth forth, and declareth this his especial care.
4. Lastly, I will make some Application of the whole.
1. That God doth exercise a more particular care in the Preservation and Government of some of his Creatures than he doth of others, will appear,
1. By express Scriptures which assert it.
2. By promises made to some, in which others are not concerned.
3. By experience and matter of fact.
1. By express Scriptures: thus Deut. 11.12, Canaan is called a Land which the Lord careth for: so Matth. 6.30, If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the Oven; Shall he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Matt. 10.31. Fear you not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows, ver. 29. Christ had let them know, that the Providence of God extended to the sparrows; two of them were sold for a farthing, but not one of them fell to the ground without God: but (saith he) you are better than many sparrows, God will more regard you, and take more care of you, 1 Tim. 4.10, He is the Savior of all men, but especially of them who believe. Psal. 33. v. 13, He beholdeth all the sons of men: but Verse 18, The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him: upon them that hope in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive from famine: so this Text, Doth God (saith the Apostle) take care for Oxen? or doth he say it altogether for our sakes? for our sakes no doubt. It is true, there are degrees and differences as to this special Providence, as I shall show you hereafter: I am only, as yet, evincing the thing in general.
2. All the promises of God made to some men, not to others, are a proof of this; for what is a promise but the Revelation of God's Will, to bestow some good things in the way of his Providence? so as, if there be any special promises, there must be a special Providence. Now there is none so meanly versed in the holy Scripture, that he is not aware of a multitude of promises in them, made to the people of God; promises that concern this life, and that also which is to come: the 91 Psalm is made up of such promises.
3. Lastly, The experience of all times proves it, that some have been preserved, upheld, directed and governed by a Providence, in a more special manner than others have been: So that none can modestly deny or doubt a special Providence. The next Question is,
Quest. 2. Who are the objects of it?
It is generally answered by Divines, that reasonable creatures are the objects only of special Providence. These are only Angels and Men: for the Specialty of Divine Providence, so far as they relate to Angels, as we know little of it, so neither doth the knowledge of it much concern us: of that therefore I shall say nothing, being not desirous to intrude into those things which man hath not seen. It is certain, that by the special Providence of God they are more eminently upheld, confirmed in their state of integrity, governed in their motions and actions by God, and that in a more eminent manner than other inferior creatures: but I intend no discourse of that.
2. The second object of special Providence is Man. 1. Mankind considered in the general. All men and women are under more special acts of Providence, as to Preservation and Government, than the grass, or the beasts, the inanimate creatures, or the brute creatures: but neither shall I make this the subject of my discourse. The Psalmist speaks of man in the general, Psal. 8.5, Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his foot. All sheep and oxen; yea, and the beasts of the field.
2. But Secondly, The Church of God, and more especially, those that are the invisible part of it, that glory not in appearance only, but in reality, and have not only a name to live, but live indeed, are the more eminent objects of special Providence. I say first,
1. The whole visible Church, by which, I mean, the whole body of people, whom God, by the Preaching of the Gospel, hath called out to an external profession, and visible owning of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church of the Jews of old, ( Amos 3.2.); the whole body of that Nation circumcised, and visibly owning and serving the true God, were under more special Providence than all the world besides. The Christian Church is so. Canaan of old was the land which God cared for, and he hath a Canaan now; his whole Church which he doth care for, and for whom he exerciseth a more special Providence, both in the preservation and Government of them.
2. But yet the invisible part of the visible Church, that is, that number of Professors, whose Profession is not only visible to men, ( Psal. 33.18), but their faith, their sincerity, their true holiness is seen by God, who love and fear the great God in truth and holiness; these are the most special objects of special Providence. Only one thing let me more add, in an answer to this Question; that neither all mankind, not members of the Church, nor all Churches, nor all Saints are under the same, or equal influences of Providence; and therefore Divines have distinguished special Providences into those which are more extraordinary or ordinary: the former are more miraculous, or little differing from miracles: the latter are more equal and ordinary, and so will be the more the subject of our discourse. All men are not restrained as Abimelech was. All Churches are not preserved in a red Sea, a wilderness; have not Manna rained from heaven to feed them, nor Waters brought out of a rock to satisfy their thirst, as the Jewish Church had. All Saints are not taken up to Heaven in a fiery Chariot as Elijah, nor preserved in the Lions Den as Daniel, or in the fire as the three children. But there is, 1. A special Providence attends every visible Church of Christ. 2. And everyone who is a true believer, and puts his trust in the Lord. I come more particularly to show you, by what more particular acts the Providence of God discovereth God's special care, for his Church, and for particular Souls.
Quest. 3. By what more particular acts doth the Providence of God discover God's special care for the visible Church, and for particular believing souls.
1. As to the Church of God.
1. He preserveth it so as it shall never perish. You know the promise: The gates of hell shall not prevail against it, Matt. 16.18. God preserveth the individual Being of every particular man, He holdeth our souls in life, but yet his being shall fail: there will come a time when he shall not be. Our Prophets are gone, our fathers where are they? God preserveth the Beings of Polities, the Kingdoms and Empires of the World; but these also have their periods: where are the great Empires of the Medes and Persians, the Grecians, the Romans, &c? He so preserveth his Church, that it shall never fail; this is a Specialty of Providence. Men shall die, Kingdoms shall die, Empires shall come to nothing: the Church shall not die. This woman may flee into the Wilderness from the red dragon, (as in Rev. 12. Where she hath a place prepared of God; but there she shall be fed 1260 days: the earth shall help the woman, Rev. 12.16. Christ will be with them to the end of the world: God so preservetth, no creatures, no Polities, no Societies of men whatsoever.
2. A second specialty of Providence relating to the Church, seems to be a special Ministry of Angels, Heb. 2.14, Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who are heirs of salvation? Who are those that are heirs of salvation, but the Church of God? Acts 2.47, And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved. 1 Cor. 11.10, The woman ought to have power over her head (or a covering over head) because of the Angels. There have been many Divines, who have thought that in the Government of Providence, some particular Angels have the charge of particular Kingdoms, and Provinces, and Churches. You read, Dan. 10.12, The Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty one days: but lo, Michael one of the chief Princes came to help me: and ver. 21, There is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your Prince. There are some also that interpret thus; The Angels of the Asian Churches mentioned in the Revelation (but most interpret them of the Pastors over them): but certain it is, the Angels (whether one more specially or no) have a special Ministry towards the Church of Christ. Psalm 91.11, He shall give his Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. I shall not enlarge upon this: for though this seemeth to be plainly enough in Scripture revealed, yet the particulars of their Ministration are not so clearly revealed, as we can assert much distincty concerning them. Dan. 12.1, At that time (saith the Prophet) shall Michael stand up, the great Prince, which standeth for the children of thy people. The Angels stand up for the Church; that is a Specialty of Providence.
3. Thirdly, All God's extraordinary acts in the Government of his Creatures have been for his Church. It was in revenge of their oppressions, that God sends ten plagues one after another upon Pharaoh: it is for them he suspendeth the Laws of Nature, for them the waters of the Red-sea, then the waters of Jordan divide: for them it was that the Sun stood still in Gibeon, and the Moon in the Valley of Ajalon, in the time of Joshua; That the earth opened, Numb. 16, and swallowed up Corah, Dathan and Abiram: It is for his Church that natural Beings have acted beyond their ordinary capacities: Hail-stones are made so big, as falling down upon their Enemies-heads, they killed more than his people's swords. At the sound of Rams-horns, the walls of Jericho fall down. It is for this people that the clouds rain down bread, and the Rock gusheth out water. There was no people, that God so assayed to take from the midst of another Nation by temptations, by signs and wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, Deut. 4.34: and although God hath not been so seen in miraculous operations for his Gospel-Church: yet how often hath one chased ten, ten an hundred, an hundred a thousand, and a thousand put ten thousand to flight? There have been no such instances in the World of the Providence of God, working for the salvation and deliverance of Heathens, as of that body of his people, which are his Church: or of God's workings in a miraculous manner for the preservation of others, as of that his little flock.
4. But 4thly, It is a great specialty of Providence, that unto this people are committed the Oracles of God; they are the only people which have the ordinary means of salvation. This is that Much advantage every way (as the Apostle speaketh) which the Jews had, Rom. 4.2: because unto them were committed the Oracles of God. It hath been a question, Whether God giveth unto all sufficient means for salvation. Some affirm it, others with better reason deny it; at length some of the Patrons for it, are forced to yield, That none but the Church hath sufficient means. In Judah is God known: in the Church Christ is preached; the glad tidings of salvation are published; the Heathens have only the light of Nature, a light sufficient (if not walked up to) to make them inexcusable, but by no means sufficient to direct men to Heaven: it showeth men nothing of Christ, and there is no other Name under Heaven but the Name of Jesus by which we can be saved, neither is there salvation in any other. Christ is only ordinarily preached in the Church of God. This is a great Priviledg, a great Specialty of Providence towards the Church of God.
But yet, There is a more special Providence attends the members of the invisible Church, particular Saints, and that is plain from the Promises of God in Scripture. There are indeed many Promises which concern the whole visible Church; but the most of the Promises are made unto Godliness: the Apostle tells us, 1 Tim. 4.8, that hath great promises both of this life, and a life to come: and as the great variety of Promises evinceth a special providence in the preservation and government of them; so also God's Dispensations upon those Promises do abundantly evince it: but let me open it in a few particulars.
1. It is for them that God ordinarily goeth out of the common road of his Providence for their preservation: Thus Daniel is preserved in the Lions Den; The three Children in the fiery Furnace; Moses in a little ark of Bul-rushes; Noah, when the whole World was swallowed up in a Deluge of waters: they are those that dwell in the secret place of the most High, that shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty; these he delivereth from the snare of the Fowler, and from the noisome Pestilence; and to whom all the Promises are made, Psalm 91. I do not say, but others may sometimes meet with strange and miraculous preservations, but the instances of them are rarer. The Promises are not made to them, they can expect no such thing, and usually it is for the sake of such as fear God: indeed these Providences are not the portion of all the children of God. God will have us know that these are not the good things which he hath prepared for them that love him: though the power and goodness of God shall be thus declared for some of them, yet it shall not be so for all, that we may not think them the Believers portion; but things which God addeth unto them, who are the heirs of salvation, and seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof.
2. These are those, whom God gives special warnings to of evils to come, and whom he prompts to hide themselves. What saith God? shall I hide from Abraham, the thing I intend to do to Sodom? Noah being warned of God, prepared an Ark (saith the Apostle); you know what a warning Lot had of the destruction of Sodom. They tell us of a Voice which the godly Jews heard a little before the fatal destruction of Jerusalem, Ite Pellam, Go away to Pella. It is true, those extraordinary warnings are much now ceased; but the Providence vf God yet continues. God told David, that the men of Keilah would deliver him up. God gives warning still by secret impressions upon the spirits of his people, by causing them more steadily than others to believe the threatenings of his Word, and to give credit to his Ministers speaking from him. These secrets of the Lord, are mostly with them that fear him, while simple wicked men will believe nothing, take no warning at anything; but pass on, and are punished.
3. For these it is, that he commandeth inanimate creatures to move for their service; The stones of the field shall be at peace with them: the Sun, the Moon shall serve them, the stars shall fight against Sisera in their order. The dust shall fly in the face of their Enemies: The winds shall serve them;
4. For these (fourthly it is) that God commandeth the sensitive creatures that they shall not hurt them, that they shall serve them: the Lions shall not hurt Daniel; it is to them the Promise is made. Psalm 91.13, Thou shalt tread upon the Lion, and the Adder, and the Dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet. It is a famous story of that Protestant in the Parisian massacre, that was saved by a Spider, that had woven a web before the entrance of a hole, in which he hid himself from the murderers that sought his life; which made them conclude, that he was not there.
5. For these it is, that he bridleth the rage of wicked and ungodly men: The Providence of God (if I may say so) hath its hardest task with wicked men. These alone have an enmity to God's people: there is, and ever will be an implacable Enmity between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent. God holds them in as we hold in an unruly Horse with bit and bridle, and oftentimes of Enemies they are made friends. Gallio stands up, and pleadeth for them. Cyrus becomes God's servant for the deliverance of the Jews. Nebuchadnezzar shall be a friend to Daniel; Darius to Nehemiah. Paul shall meet with Friends in the Court of Nero.
6. For these it is, that he overruleth the most malicious actions of men: Surely (saith the Psalmist ) the wrath of man shall praise thee; and the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain: Haman's malice shall issue in the exaltation of Mordecai, and the further establishment of the Jews. Josephs brethren shall sell him into Egypt, intending him nothing but evil; the issue of it shall be the exaltation of Joseph, and the keeping much people alive. But, as I said before concerning these matters which relate to this life, though the people of God can only claim a right in these Promises, and be those to whom they generally are fulfilled, not to others: yet you must not be mistaken to think, that all the people of God shall have them made good to them. God as to these Dispensations, dealing out (as in other things of outward Providence) according to his own good pleasure; regulated by his infinite Wisdom, working for the glory of his holy Name, and for the good of his people.
7thly, There is a special Providence of God extended towards all those that truly fear and love God. In the giving to them the things that accompany salvation, and preserving and upholding in them those habits of grace; by the operations of which, they are made fit for the inheritance of the Saints in light. Grace is the only creature of God, which God preserveth that it shall not die; but yet it is preserved alive by the power of God. Natural habits may perish; Moral habits may be extinguished; Gracious habits are the seed of God, which do not die: he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him to stand, Rom. 14.4. Now this is a piece of Providence common to all the Saints, and special and peculiar to them.
8thly, The special Providence of God to his people, is eminently seen in this, That all things work together for their good: You know the Text, Rom. 8.28, And we know that all things work together for the good of them that love God, who are called according to his purpose. There is another Text much of the same import, possibly of a larger extent, 1 Cor. 3.21, All-things are yours: whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the World, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come: all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. The former Text chiefly respects sufferings: the sufferings and afflictions of God's people are for their good. The latter respecteth Ordinances, but both of them have the universal particle All: All things are yours; All things work together for good: and whether either of those Texts respect sins or no (which indeed are hardly to be counted into the number of things ) I will not say; yet most certain it is, that by the over-rulings of Divine Providence, even the sins of God's people work together for their good. What fear (saith the Apostle), What sorrow? what jealousy, what revenge do they work? How low do they make the child of God in his own Eyes? How do they contribute to a poor, broken and contrite spirit in him? What care and watchfulness do they produce in him for the time to come? It is the misery of a wicked man, all things work together for his hurt: if he hath Riches, Honor, worldly enjoyments, or crosses, trials, afflictions, all things are against him. God gives the Israelites, rebelling and murmuring, Quales in his wrath, and a King in his wrath; and God gives others Riches, honors, wives, children, all in his wrath; all things are against them: but now if a man be a child of God, all things are his; all things are for him, for his good and advantage.
Ninthly, (which indeed should have been mentioned first), God giveth his good Angels charge concerning them: The good Angels have not only a Ministry to the Church, which I touched before, but they have a Ministry as to every individual Believer. It is a Promise made, Psalm 91.11, to everyone: who, ver. 1. dwelleth in the secret of the most High; He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways: they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone, ver. 12. Heb. 1.14, Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? and therefore they are called Their Angels. Matth. 18.10, Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you that in Heaven, their Angels always behold the face of my father which is in Heaven. It hath been the opinion of some, and those very eminent Divines, That every child of God hath his particular Angel, usually called his Tutelar Angel, or Angel-guardian. They have built this Notion upon those probable Texts, Acts 12.23: where the Christians met, told the Maid concerning Peter, It is his Angel. Gen. 48.16, where Jacob prays, That the Angel who had redeemed him from all evil would bless the lads, Josephs children: and Matth. 18.10. I shall not meddle with that nice Question; those who desire to read what is to be read for it, or what may be said, may find it in Mr. Dingles judicious Discourse of the Deputation of Angels: certain it is, that the Angels have a special Ministry with reference to the heirs of salvation: certain it is, that they shall bear them up in their hands (as the Psalmist saith) that they shall not dash their feet against a stone: that they shall keep them in all their ways. What power they have to make impressions upon their minds, I cannot determine; but probable it is, that as evil angels have a power to tempt and solicit to evil: so the good Angels do often move, and solicit (by way of secret impressions) the souls of the Saints to that which is good. Certain it is, this is a Specialty of Divine Providence with reference to the Saints; therefore our Savior calleth them, their Angels. The Angels pulled Lot out of Sodom, Gen. 19.16: they appeared to Jacob in his journey to Padan aram, Gen. 28.12: they met him again at Mahanaim, Gen. 32.1, 2. The Psalmist telleth us, Psalm 34.7, They encamp about him that feareth the Lord. An Angel attends Elias, moveth him to eat, 1 Kings 19.7; appeared for Elisha, 2 Kings 6.17. In short, much is spoken in Scripture concerning the Ministry of Angels, for the good of the people of God; though much also of their Ministration be, doubtless, unknown to us: Scriptura piis tantum Angelorum custodiam, & ministerium tribuit, impiis non item (saith a grave Author). But I shall add no more to the Explicatory part of this Discourse, having touched most of the Specialties of Divine Providence; with reference both to the Church, and to particular believing Souls. If anything be further needful for the proof of this: what need we do anymore, than take a view of the Church of God in the several periods of it, and of the number of sincere and pious Souls in any age of the World? The Church of God from the beginning hath been either Jewish, or Christian. For the Jewish Church he that runneth may read it in the whole story of the Old Testament; Moses makes a large recapitulation, Deut. 1. ch. 2. ch. 3, and ch. 4; and the very bent of his Discourse is to show the eminent special Providences of God for them, above all other people and Nations upon the Earth. In short, the whole story of the Jewish Church after Moses his time, until Christ's coming, is all but an eminent proof of this Doctrine. After Christ's coming and ascension, the Christian Church was formed, encompassed with Enemies on all hands; the Jews on one hand, the Heathens on the other. The Jews power indeed was not much: they were at first under the power of the Romans, and in a few years utterly destroyed by them; but the Heathens over-spread the World. The Roman Empire was then in its glory; They were full of Philosophers and learned men, to whom the Gospel appeared no better than foolishness; They were established and rooted in Idolatry, and very jealous of their Religion. The Christian Church began with twelve men, most of them Fishermen: one indeed (a learned man) Paul was afterwards added to them: What think you, must there not a great deal of special Providence be shown to preserve this little flock? these few men sent out to, plant the Gospel over all the World; that they should go, and in despite both of Jews and Gentiles, spread the Gospel over all the World. It is true, there were great persecutions, great havoc made by the Enemies of the Church amongst them for three hundred years; but this still evidenceth the more special Providence of God, watching over them, working with them; that though they did what they could to blow out this light, and had all the power in the World on their side; yet neither the Philosophers, and Orators of the World, with their Philosophy and Rhetoric, could argue and persuade the World from this New Doctrine; nor all the force and rage they could use, could fright the World from it, nor root it out of the World; neither destroy all the Ministers, nor root out all the professors, but a number should be left in all places: and after three hundred years, an Emperor should arise that should establish the Christian Religion, and make it obtain in all places. It is true, after this the Christian Church degenerated, admitted foul Heresies, Idolatry and Superstition; and it became with the Christian Church, as it was with the Jewish Church in the days of Elijah, Prophets were hid in caves; Elija complained he was left alone; yet God had his seven thousand in Israel that had not bowed the knee to Baal: nor kissed him with their lips. Antichristianism had so prevailed in the Christian Church; that the sincere and true Professors were few. A few in the valleys of Piedmont; A few in Germany, who stuck to the truth: did it not argue a great and special Providence of God to watch over these few, keeping them, that they were not swallowed up by their numerous adversaries? Luther began the Reformation in Germany, and began it almost alone: One poor man against all the power of Rome: God preserved him alive, prospered his works in his hands. Indeed this Doctrine of special Providence needeth no other proof, than what might be afforded it from the story of that great man; who considering what he did, and with what an undaunted spirit and courage he did it, lived almost every day by a Miracle, and yet went down to the grave in peace in a good old age, like a shock of corn in its season (as Job speaketh). For particular instances of the special Providence of God towards particular Saints; the time would fail me to tell you the particular stories of Abraham. Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, David: and there is hardly any child of God living, but will find it in the records of his own life, that hath been preserved more than other men. There is no truth more wrote with a Sun-beam, than this great truth of Special Providence is.
Now if any man ask me the reason of it, it is enough to say, So it pleased God. God is free in these, as in other of his dispensations: but yet let me show you the reasonableness of these more particular and special Providences.
1. It hath been an old Observation, That God's Providence is most eminently exercised about the noblest of his Creatures, Angels, and Men: but I know not how to make this Notion out. The Angels are more noble creatures than men, spiritual substances, of vaster capacities; according to this observation they should be the more the objects of special Providence: but I say, I doubt this. I am sure there was one great act of special Providence, in which the Angels were not concerned: Christ did not take upon him the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham.
2. But Secondly, Of the whole Creation Angels and Men are those creatures, whom in Creation he was pleased most to fit, and capacitate for the great ends of his glory, for an active, designed, glorifying of his holy name. Let me open this a little.
1. The great end of all the actions of God, is his own glory. The wise man tells us, That the Lord made all things for himself, Prov. 16.4. Indeed, if we wisely consider the thing, it must be so; every rational agent worketh for some end, and his reasonable nature constraineth him to work for the best end. God is the highest reasonable agent; and as he can do nothing in vain, but for some end, so he cannot but act for a good end, and for the best end. Now this could be no other than himself, his own honor and glory: so that as the Apostle saith of God's swearing, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself: so we must say of God's working; because he could work for no better, no higher end than his own glory, therefore he wrought for himself: whatsoever he did he did for his own honor and glory. Now (as I have said before),
2. If we diligently consider it, God cannot be otherwise glorified by his Creatures, than by their praedication and publication of his honor and glory. The essential glory of God is neither capable of augmentation, nor of diminution; no creature can add anything unto that. Now look,
Thirdly, As a man may be honored mutely, or more