A Discourse of the Two Covenants

SECT. IV. The Saints Interest in God's Providential Kingdom, both mediate and immediate, necessary and contingent.

§. 1. WE have gone thorough the first distinction of the providential Kingdom, we come now to the second, which is, that Providence is either immediate or mediate. The one is when the Lord works without means, putting forth his own power immediately to the producing of any effect, without the concurrence of any means or help of second causes, and this is called making bare his arm, or making it naked, Esa. 52.10. So long as the Lord doth work by means, though there be his hand, yet his hand is hid, and covered under the appearance of creatures, so that our eyes are either wholly or mainly upon them; but when the Lord lays creatures aside, and his own arm doth appear to bring salvation, so that nothing else is seen but the hand of God in it, without the concurrence of creatures, the Lord is then said to make bare his own arm, that is, to show forth his own power, purely and nakedly; so Hab. 3.9. His bow was quite made naked, &c. he speaks it of the discoveries of God's power in an immediate way, and his bow is vis tua, robur tuum, Drus. he speaks it of the dividing of the red Sea, and the turning back of Jordan in its own channel, the power of God did immediately appear without any concurrence of means, and any instrument or second causes, and therefore his bow was naked, &c. the Scripture doth speak of the Lord's smiting with the rod and with his fist, &c.

And here there are three Propositions that I must lay down.

1. That whatever the Lord does by means, he can work immediately by his own hand, without all means: he that did give being unto the second causes, can without those causes produce their effects; he is independent in his working, as well as in his being, and doth not depend upon means and second causes in anything that he doth; and therefore if he do deprive his people of the means, and will supply it in himself, it shall be infinitely better, they shall have a hundredfold more in this life eminenter; the Sun shall be no more thy light by day, but the glory of the Lord shall be the light thereof: if he deprive them of the light of the Sun, yet he gives them his own glory to be instead thereof, and it shall abundantly answer it. He hath indeed bound us in duty to use the means, but he hath not bound himself, he is still at liberty either to work by his own immediate hand, or in the way that he hath set in the order and subordination of causes, yea as much as if no such order had been made by him; and therefore the time will come when God shall be all in all; and this order of causes shall surely cease, and then all effects shall be produced by God immediately, and that in a far more glorious manner, than now they are by the influences of their causes amongst the creatures.

2. In the means which he doth use, there is an immediate concurrence of his own power to the producing of the effect: concurrit immediate, &c. and without this the second cause could do nothing, men live not by bread only; and therefore if God do withdraw his acting or withhold it, the second cause is of no value; it is but as an axe in the hand of a man, or as a pen, it is but as it were a dead instrument, as the Apostle says of himself, 2 Cor. 3.2, 3. and therefore the people of God put no confidence in them: I will not trust in my bow, and it is not my sword that shall save me; it is thou, O Lord, that savest us from our enemies: this is the language of a true Saint; and therefore it is only the Lord's withdrawing, and then all second causes work not: whence it is said, That they shall eat, and they shall not be nourished, and they shall put on clothes, but not be warmed: there is a natural aptitude in these means to produce such effects; but yet if the Lord do but suspend his influx, they can do nothing. And therefore in the Babylonish Furnace, Divines do commonly say, that the Lord did not take away the nature of the fire, it remained to be fire still, only in reference unto such an object he did suspend his own concurrence; so that, though it remained in actu primo, yet it was not able to produce actum secundum, because the immediate concurrence of the first cause was denied: so it is in all means, and this is the reason of their want of efficacy; the same Ordinances would be as effectual at one time as at another, and unto one man as unto another, there is no difference in the means, only in the concurrence of the first cause with the means; and so it is with creatures also, the same land would be as fruitful at one time as at another, and there is no difference, only when thou tillest thy land it shall not yield its strength, says the Lord, there is not the same concurrence of God with it, which is his blessing upon it, and that is the true reason of all the difference in the use and the success of means whatsoever.

3. Though the Lord doth in the administration of all things in the providential Kingdom use means, and therefore hath made all things in a due order and subordination, yet he doth delight sometimes to work without means, by his own immediate hand, not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit, Zac. 4.7. if there be none to help, yet his own arm shall bring salvation. And the Lord doth this, (1) that he may sometimes show forth some special discoveries of his own power. The heart of man would be wholly terminated in the creature, as we are very apt to be, and we would look no further, therefore the Lord is pleased sometimes to show forth something more than the power of the creature; and sometimes he will go in an ordinary way of nature, sometimes in a miraculous way to show, that there is a higher hand that rules all things, that he may not be forgotten by us. (2) To show that he doth not use the creature necessarily, but voluntarily; and therefore he can use it or lay it aside at his pleasure, work by it, or work without it, that the souls of his people may depend upon him alone, both in the want and in the enjoyments of the creature; and the good effect is never the further off when they want it, nor ever the nearer when they do enjoy it, whether they have it or not, it is all one, they can rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the God of their salvation, Hab. 3.17, 18. (3) That he may still keep up in the remembrance of his people a creating power; when there was nothing but himself immediately, there was no means used. It hath been disputed by the School-men, Whether the ministry of Angels were not used in the creation of the world? and it is commonly answered, No it was not, it could not be, because in the exercise of almighty power there can be no concurrence of the creature, no creature can be raised by the power of God unto such an elevation, as to be made capable to put forth any act of omnipotence; and therefore that this power of the Creation of God may be kept up, he doth do the like often in the world; that as he hath appointed a day to remember the Creation, and would have us to remember our Creator, so he doth works, that he may keep it continually in our remembrance; providence is said to be nothing but a continued Creation, therefore the Lord will do something that shall be as a Creation still, that this great work may never be forgotten; he that doth create grace in the souls of men daily, doth put forth other acts answerable thereunto. (4) The Lord doth it, that he may train up his people by it unto a remembrance of Heaven, where all means shall cease; for God shall be all in all, that is, he shall be all unto his people immediately. It is true, that the Saints do enjoy God here, and they enjoy all in God, he is their portion and their hope, but all this is in the use of means; as they see him in a glass, so they shall enjoy him also: but there is a time that will shortly come, when all means shall be done away, and he that now governs the world, and so dispenses himself by second causes, will do all by his own immediate hand; there shall be immediate, therefore pure mercy, and pure wrath, and pure power, and pure acts of Omnipotence. In this life we are by the creatures refreshed, and when he comforts us by the creature, those comforts lose much by reason of the vessel; and so when he doth teach us by the creature, that treasure is in earthen vessels, it is much otherwise when he teaches himself immediately; and so when he doth punish by the creature, it is but as a mighty man correcting a man with a straw: it's true, that he is mighty, but it is but a small thing that is in his hand, which is nothing in comparison of that which shall be hereafter; it shall be all immediate, and that keeps up in his people an expectation of this, that they may have herein a kind of foretaste of Heaven, by beholding the immediate working of God without the help of creatures, or their concurrence.

Now this immediate acting of Providence is wholly for the good of his people, and is so managed; sometimes he will use means for their good, and sometimes he will for their good work without means, but still so as his Sovereignty is made over unto them in these his actings: and herein we are to observe,

1. The Scripture speaking of a creating power, which the Lord doth often put forth for the good of his people, Esa. 4.5. there 'tis said, I create upon every dwelling place a cloud, &c. Upon every dwelling place there is a protection, that which is immediate and beyond the power of second causes, when there is no defense in them, yet their succor shall be from the immediate hand of God, and that by a creating work, that when the people shall look to the creatures and say, we see no means to defend us, yet they can look to an immediate acting of Omnipotency, and that by a creating work for his people: I create a heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness: it is spoken of the glorious reformation that shall be in the later days; it is there spoken not of renewing the substance, but of the qualities of Heaven and Earth, a glorious restitution of their primitive and original glory, a mighty work, that God shall not only pass upon Saints, but on the creatures, which shall be restored and delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; and he that looks upon the corruptions of men, and the desolations of nations, and the confusions amongst the creatures that shall be immediately before those days, he will say, How can these things be? It is impossible that such a glorious reformation should be wrought. But to strengthen their faith, and to raise them up to expect it, he puts them off from second causes, and tells them it shall be an act of almighty power, it is by a creating work; and surely the same hand, and the same power that did make them at first, can also renew them, and restore them unto their primitive and original glory; that as the said immediate power is put forth for the renewing of their souls, Eph. 2.10. We are created in Christ to good works, all is made new within him by an immediate power, so also all shall be made new without him by an immediate providence; that though there be no concurrence of means and second causes, yet if God can make a new world, then he can renew this, he can create a new Heaven and a new Earth, and he can create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and the people a joy, as the promise is unto them; so that the Lord will not always work for his people in a ruling, but sometimes in a creating way, in which there is an immediate putting forth of power, and there is not, there cannot be any concurrence of means or second causes with it.

2. God puts forth an immediate providence for the Churches preservation; he doth many times work immediately, when there is no help in second causes, but all men are engaged on the contrary part; and the Lord looks, and there is none to help, and the Lord wonders that there was no intercessor; no helping of them, none to intercede for them, there was none so much as by way of prayer that comes in for them; and yet now the Church must be preserved, Zac. 4.2, 3. the Candlestick is the Church, but by what means shall this be maintained? there can be no supply of oil expected from men, but the Lord will make Olive-trees to grow by it, that shall make oil of themselves, and shall drop into the bails thereof, that though no men in the world stand by it, or prepare for it, yet the Lord will supply it in an immediate way, from himself, and by himself, and by this means the lamp in this Candlestick shall never go out, for by an immediate provision of God they shall be maintained, Mic. 5.7. The remnant of Jacob shall be as dew from the Lord, and as showers upon the grass; when they were Jezreel strengthened by the Lord, though amongst many people that should hate them and persecute them, yet should they be preserved; and therefore as Calvin observes, rorem pro prato rorido, like unto the herbs which are nourished by the dew from Heaven, and by the showers from above, which stay not for man, it tarries not for the sons of men: that as the grass is nourished immediately by the dew, and doth not depend upon the labors and the watering of man; so shall these from God immediately, there shall come from him an immediate dew, an influence shall come, by which they shall be supported, that they shall not need to stay for any creatures assistance, or any concurrence of second causes whatsoever.

3. There is an immediate Providence that is seen in restraints upon the souls and spirits of men, when there are no hindrances in second causes, and yet this shall work for the people of God: see it Gen. 20. Sarah was in the hand of Abimelech, and his lust was stirred up towards her, when he heard of her, and there was nothing to hinder him but he might have had his will of her, and yet for Abraham's sake she was returned unto him chaste and undefiled; but it was by an immediate working of God upon his spirit, when there were no second causes in the way, the Lord saith, I did hold thee, that thou shouldst not touch her. And the same thing is true of the people of Israel, when they went up to worship at Jerusalem, and all the males left their habitation, the fittest advantage that could be for the neighbouring Nations, who hated them, and sought to invade them, and did it at other times, yet that now they should not have made inroads upon their Land in the several borders thereof, when there was no restraint in second causes, no man can give a reason for it but the immediate working of providence, that the Lord doth put forth his power upon the spirits of men, that it shall be enough if he withhold them. There is a bridle without and there is a bridle within, by which the spirits of men are turned about, there is a hedge for men's ways, God doth many times hedge up men's ways with thorns; but there is a hedge for the spirits of men also, that when there is no hindrance in second causes, and none to lift up a hand against them, yet their spirits are restrained by an immediate hand. And indeed when the secrets of the counsels of God's providence shall be made manifest at the last day, many and glorious will • he records of such immediate puttings forth of providence be. We have an instance in Esau, his malice was stirred, and he had power in his hand, he had three hundred men by which he might have cut off his brother Jacob, but only there was an immediate appearance of God upon his spirit, and that put a restraint upon him, that he could not so much as speak an ill word unto his brother.

4. The Lord appears immediately for the destruction of the Churches enemies, when their means fail. When there was no help from second causes to destroy Egypt or deliver themselves, for the Israelites had no power, but they cried unto the Lord, and in the night the Lord looked upon the Egyptians host and troubled them, and took off their chariot-wheels, and they drove heavily, and there was a terror upon their hearts, that they said, Let us fly, for God fights for Israel. And so he will do in the destruction of Antichrist, the little horn, who doth arise with the ten horns, and he is strong not by his own power, for the ten Kings give their kingdoms to him, and he doth exercise the power of the former beast before him, and it is said Dan. 8.25. He shall be broken without hands, that is, by the breath of the Lord, and the brightness of his coming, by an immediate manifestation of God against him, not by any power of second causes; for the people of God may expect the same immediate workings of providence for them that they have had in times past, Esa. 10.26. He will stir up a scourge for them according to the slaughter of Midian, and he shall lift it up after the manner of Egypt. Now as for that of Egypt it was by an immediate appearance of God, when there was no means used; and so for that of Midian, Judge. 7.19, 20. they blew the Trumpets, and they broke their pitchers, and that was all that was done, which was a means that of itself had no influence into the effect, but the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow; and such immediate discoveries and actings of providence the Lord doth promise unto his people, and they may expect them from him in all their straits, when the enemy comes in like a flood, &c.

5. They may expect immediate deliverances: Laban came out against Jacob with an evil intention, but he saith, Gen. 31.29. It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt, but the God of your fathers spoke to me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. And so Balaam had a will to curse the people of God, and he wanted no encouragement and solicitation from the King of Moab to do it, and yet remember what Balak consulted, and what Balaam answered. And the instance of Abraham, when his hand was up to flay his son, and the Lord called to him out of Heaven, Stay thy hand, and thereby it was a Proverb reserved in the Church of God ever since, Jehovah jireh, In the Mount will the Lord be seen, that is, when all means and hopes of preservation is past, that they look upon themselves as to be sacrificed, now they may expect an immediate appearance of God for them.

6. For their immediate Support; if the Lord call Moses to him into the Mount, he shall there be mantain'd forty days and nights, and neither eat bread, nor drink water, but his support shall come from an immediate hand; and so it was with Christ also in his temptation by Satan, when he had fasted so long: when the Lord does deny his People the means, he doth give them a support in himself, that they shall have no want of the means; as it is in a spiritual way, so it is also very often in a providential way, that when the Lord denies the means, he doth give unto his People a support in himself, that so they may learn to trust unto him, and to know that they have an interest not only in his mediate, but in his immediate Providence, and that the special Providence of God towards his people has both these parts in it, to show that though they see not Providence in the use of all the ordinary means, yet that they tempt not God, nor look for all things in a common way in the use of means, that it may appear, that they trust in God alone, and can shut their eyes and say, I know not how it will come in, I see no means, but there is a Providence that is above means, with him the fatherl • ss find mercy. So it is in all inward afflictions also, and distresses of Conscience, the Soul has many times nothing to look upon but an immediate and almighty hand, all means fail, they have gone from Ordinance to Ordinance, and they have waited when a Messenger one of a thousand should be sent to them, but there is none that can speak peace to them, there is no fruit of the lips to refresh them; and when the man's soul draws near to the Grave, and his life to the destroyer, then he doth immediately lift up the light of his countenance, and thereby his soul is revived again, and delivered from going down into the pit; that as the Lord Jesus Christ when there was nothing of creature comforts to uphold him, (for they all forsook him and fled,) then the Promise of the Lord was made good, Isa. 42.6. I will hold thee by the hand, and I will keep thee; when all the creatures withdrew their succor, not one of them did hold forth their hand to him, now there was from the Father an immediate and a secret support; so it is with the Saints also, Psal. 37.24. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast away, for the Lord upholds him with his hand▪ but there is sometimes an immediate income that is known unto the Soul, the Lord lifts up the light of his countenance in the darkest night, when he sees nothing but Hell and Destruction before his Eyes, which is called the hidden Manna, and the new Name and the white Stone, Rev. 2.17. They had no Manna till they were in the Wilderness, and all hope of support from creatures did fail, now the Manna comes; and such are the incomes of the Spirit into the Soul; and a new Name, and a white Stone; when he comes to judgment upon himself, and he is ready to pass an eternal sentence upon himself, counts himself free amongst the dead, like them that lie in the Grave, whom thou rememberest no more, never to have a good look from God; now the Lord comes in with a sentence of absolution, and gives a man a name that none knows but he that has it, but then the Lord will make him to know it, it is speaking peace from the Lord's immediate voice; as the Martyr, when he came to the Stake, and had no means of comfort in a Desertion before, now he cries out, He is come, he is come. It is with many a Soul as with the woman that had the issue of blood twelve years, and had waited upon the Physicians, attended on the means which God had appointed, and spent all her time and pains upon them, and yet was not the better, but rather the worse, and she is reserved for an immediate cure by Christ, and an immediate rouch from him shall do the work; that, as Bernard observes concerning the time when Christ came in the flesh, which is in Scripture called the fullness of time, Non apparebat Angelus, non loquebatur Propheta, cessabant velut desperatione victi; tunc dixi, ecce venio, &c. so it is with the coming of the Spirit also, when all means have been used, and all fail, and the soul is ready to sink under the burden, now the Spirit saith, Lo I come; the soul did before find that there were everlasting arms under it, and that it did hang as the Earth upon nothing, did not know how it was upheld, but now the Spirit comes in, and makes bare his arm, dispells the darkness, and saith, Behold me, it is I, now I come; and so a man's comforts and supports come in from an immediate discovery of the Light of God's countenance, as if it were a voice from Heaven, as it was to Christ, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

7. He doth sometimes give unto his People courage and assistance immediately beyond what is natural unto them, and above and beyond all the means, Zac. 4.7. Not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord; it is spoken of the Spirit of God immediately strengthening and stirring up the spirits of instruments beyond their own natural strength, as Samson was, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and then he had the strength of many men in him; and Isa. 35.6. The lame shall leap as an Hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; it is spoken of immediate strength and healing by the grace of Christ, that as the Lord Jesus did heal men, and with a word only, and without means, their feet and ankle-bones received strength, and they did leap as a Hart, and praise God; so here they have immediate assistance, as David had in the business of Goliath, the spirit of fortitude came upon him for that service, and the promise is Zac. 12.8. The weak shall be as David, as full of courage in any difficult services that they should be called unto, as David was, when the Lord shall say to him that is of a fearful heart, Be strong, and it shall be so, Esa. 35.4. and so Mat. 10.19. It shall be given you in that hour, I will give you a mouth and wisdom that all your enemies shall not be able to resist; for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you; that as Samson was not acted by his own strength, so neither did they speak by their own spirits, but by an immediate assistance from the Spirit, both directing their minds, suggesting to them the matter, and also guiding their tongues, and directing them unto words what to say, and how they ought to speak; that as 'tis said of the Prophets, the Lord speaks in them, Heb. 1.1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for they are said to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as they were transported or carried by the Holy Ghost, 2 Pet. 1.20. they were not acted according to their own spirits, neither did they speak according to their own parts or light, but as they were directed by the immediate assistance of the Spirit of God at the same time; so there is an immediate assistance that the Lord hath promised unto his people, when he doth call them forth unto any service wherein the immediate presence of God and power of the Spirit is necessary and required, it is beyond the power or strength of a man; and it is that which the Lord many times doth, he will bring his people into such a condition, that there shall be no means for them to look unto, that they shall be wholly fatherless, and have neither Sun-light nor Star-light in the creature, receiving the sentence of death in themselves, that they may look for God's immediate appearing, 2 Cor. 1.9. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, that we could see no means to escape, but now must have an eye to an almighty and immediate power of God, that we might trust, not in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead, that our deliverance must be a kind of resurrection from the dead. And the people of God, if they have the means, yet they look upon them as nothing: We have no might against this great multitude, but our eyes are towards thee; and if they have no means, they can look upon him that hath a creating power, that can make waters to break out in the Wilderness, and streams in the Desert, and the parched ground shall become a Pool, and the thirsty ground Springs of water; in the habitation of Dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes; that which only was fit and delightsome unto the Devil, the Satyrs, that shall be good for the glory of God and the use of man, as it is Esa. 35.7, 8.

2. There is in the next place a mediate Providence, and that is in the manner of God's ordering of all things in the use of means; and so all the means that the Lord does use are for the good of his people, Rom. 8.28. All things work together for their good, that though the Lord doth work by means, and doth make use of second causes to produce their effects, yet they do all concur in this, that they do conspire for the good of the Elect of God, Hos. 2.21, 22. I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel: the Lord doth work for the good of his people by second causes, he doth not rain corn from Heaven, as he did Manna in the Wilderness, but the Earth shall hear the corn, and he will give it them out of the earth, and in all the actings of second causes it is the Lord that hath the great hand, he doth make them to be a means of blessing, or else they could never prove so to be, it is the Lord that doth hear the Heavens; it's a mighty strain of speech, that the Heavens and the Earth that were before deaf and dumb to them, that took no compassion upon them in their necessity, and answered them not, now when they are reconciled, are brought as it were to be humble suitors and petitioners for them; the Heavens shall say, Lord, I would give my influence, rain to refresh thy people; and the Earth shall say, Lord, I would give my strength for the good of thy people also, &c. For as it is by virtue of the Covenant of the Saints that all the creatures stand, so it is by their Covenant also that they do act, it is by being betrothed unto God, that all the creatures are in Covenant with them, and it is for them that all means do act freely, and all creatures willingly do serve; for it's their redemption that they wait for and long for; but unto other men, they are made subject not willingly, but the Lord hath subjected them in hope, Rom. 8.20, 21. but their subjection is an act of Sovereignty, and not of choice, for they would not serve the lusts of ungodly men, though they are willing to serve the necessities of the Saints; therefore all the means that the Lord doth use are for the good of the Saints, and it is for them that they work in all that they do.

1. He it is that doth provide and appoint means, there is in Providence 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as well as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he doth order and appoint the cause to the effect, the means to the end, for the good of his people, which all the creatures could not do; he brings food out of the earth, and he doth cause rain, and reserve the appointed weeks of the harvest, Jer. 5.24. it is he that orders everything unto its end for the good of his people.

2. He doth Bless the means; man lives not by Bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, &c. Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: He gives all things richly to enjoy, 1 Tim. 6.17. It's the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, and it's he that blesseth the labors of our hand, that we labor not in the fire, Hab. 2.13. and therefore the creatures are said to be sanctified by the Word and Prayer, 1 Tim. 4.5. by a blessing attained thereupon, that they shall prosper for their ends.

3. He doth raise up means when we can see none, unexpectedly, Mic. 6.4. he sent before them Moses and Aaron; Zac. 9.13. When I have bent Judab for me, and filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons O Zion, against thy sons O Greece, &c. So for the deliverance of Mordecai; and he raised up the Spirit of Cyrus, and stirred it up, so that he made a Proclamation for the good of Jerusalem, Ezra 1.1. and Zac. 1.8. he stood among the Myrtle-trees that were in the bottom, &c. In the evening it shall be light, Zac. 14.7. an Angel stops the Lions mouths, and opens the prison-doors; when all hope is gone, and they cannot see from what quarter supply shall come, then do means appear unexpectedly; and therefore the people of God do believe in hope, against hope, upon this ground, because the hand of the Lord is not shortened.

4. The most unlikely Means, Isa. 41.15. The Worm Jacob shall thresh the Mountains, &c. He doth open Rivers in high places, Isa. 41.18. waters shall break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the enemies shall turn their Swords against one another, that they shall destroy themselves, Judge. 9.7.22. And their own breath shall be as fire to devour themselves, Isa. 33.11. And so the ten Kings shall destroy the Whore, who set her up; and God will act means contrary to their own nature, or above their nature, for his People; Ravens to feed Elijah, and the Heavens to give bread and flesh, and the Rocks water, out of the Eater shall come meat, and the waters shall be a wall unto them, and the Sun shall stand still; for the wheels of Providence are sometimes lifted up, he doth not always go in an ordinary way, but useth means that they know not of, as in the work of Redemption, so in a work of Providence also, and beyond their intention, as the instances are many which might be given, Isa. 44.25. that frustrates the tokens of the liars, and maketh Diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish: the fiery furnace shall not consume Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego, but their enemies, &c.

§. 2. We come now unto the Third Distinction of Providence, it is either circa necessaria vel contingentia, about necessaries or contingents: That is said to be necessary which could not otherwise be, but the effect hath a necessary dependence upon its cause, that it doth from an inward principle, ex necessitate naturae, produce such an effect; and so the Sun doth naturally and therefore necessarily enlighten, and the Fire doth naturally and therefore necessarily warm; such causes as have a natural and therefore a necessary influence and causality. And things contingent are such as have no necessity in their causes, but in respect of us they might have been otherwise, such of which we are able to give no reason, but their causes are to us unknown, and so the event unexpected. That is said to be contingent, and to fall out beyond our expectation, cujus ratio & causa secreta est, the seed whereof we are not able to foresee in second Causes: Fatum nil aliud est quàm series implexa causarum. So that if we look upon all things in reference to the first cause, so all things are necessary, and there is nothing that is contingent or falls out by chance or accident, but all contingency is in reference unto second causes; for they are known of God and appointed by him by a necessary and infallible Providence; as if a man hewing wood, the Axes head falls off, and smites his Neighbor that he die; or if a man cast a stone unawares, and it light upon his Neighbor, Num. 35.23. that which is beyond the intention of the man, yet God is said to deliver him into his hand, Exod. 21.13. that is, God has jus vitae & necis, & ad altissimam ejus providentiam refertur. And so it was in the death of Ahab, there was a man that drew a bow at a venture, or in simplicity, not aiming at him, not intending his death more than any other man's, but it smote the King of Israel between the Harness; there was a Providence that infallibly guided it, though in reference to the second cause, it was merely contingent and accidental; and therefore the Lord foretells things that are merely casual before they come to pass, as that to Saul, upon the plain of Tabor, There shall meet thee three men, one carrying three kids, and another three loaves of bread, and he shall salute thee, and give thee two loaves, and thou shalt receive them at his hand: Luk. 22.10. There shall meet you a man bearing a Pitcher of water, follow him, &c. for all things are unto him certain, and infallible, not only ex praevisione, but ex praeordinatione, he did order them that they should so come to pass.

1. God's Providence regards all Necessaries; and such are all natural causes, they work necessarily, because ex necessitate naturae, from a necessity of nature, and so ad ultimum potentiae, to the utmost of their power: Now there is even in the ordering of these a gracious hand of God for the good of his People, and that will appear in these six instances.

1. In the Sun, it riseth naturally, and therefore necessarily, and so it shines, yet it is God makes it shine; so Math. 5.45. He maketh the Sun to rise, &c. But it will be said, that this is an act of common grace, for it riseth upon the evil and the good, the just and the unjust, but it's • ar, that the Lord makes it to rise and to shine; for Job 9.7. he commands the Sun and it riseth not; he can cause it to put on sackcloth; (for he has a negative voice upon the motions of all the creatures) and although it riseth upon the evil as well as upon the good, yet it is upon the evil for the sake of the good: for all the creatures in their service are subjected under hope, to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; therefore there is an earnest expectation and a groaning of them, and it is in reference hereunto, that they may serve the Saints: for as the Angels being the servants of Christ, do serve the Elect as his members, so do all creatures, as being subjected unto Christ, and given into his hands, serve the saint • as his members. And though the Sun be in respect of the light, a glorious Body, yet it may be much of that glory by Sin and the Curse is obscured; for surely the curse hath reached unto all the creatures that were for man's use; and therefore it's possible that place may have in some respect a literal sense, Isa. 30.26. The light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun sevenfold; for there is a time of the restitution of all things, which I cannot expound of the last day of Judgment, for then there shall not be a Restitution of all things, but an Annihilation of many things, a New Heaven there shall be, Isa. 65.17. which I cannot understand to be spoken after the day of Judgment; for verse. 21. he speaks of building houses and inhabiting them, and planting of Vineyards, and eating the fruit of them; therefore some renovation in quality, and restitution of the ancient glory of Heaven and Earth is meant here: and if that place, Isa. 11.6. the lyon and the lamb, the leopard and the kid shall lie down together, be not only to be understood figuratively of men of such dispositions, but also literally of the creatures themselves, that the antipathy which came in by sin shall be destroyed, as Lactant. saith, Non bestiae sanguine alentur, nec aves praedâ, sed quieta & placida erunt omnia, we may expect also even for the Saints sake, the glory of the Sun may be restored also in reference to the Light thereof, as of the Earth in reference to the fruitfulness thereof. And the influences of the Sun are as natural and necessary as the light thereof; and yet there is a Providence that orders them for the good of the saints, Psal. 126.6. The Sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the Moon by night; there are noxious influences of these celestial bodies, which are to be looked upon as a grievous stroke, but the hurtful influences of them the Lord will suspend and turn away; and thou shalt find (as Israel in the Wilderness) that though thou encamp in the Field, and hast only the Heavens for thy Canopy and covering, yet the influences of them shall be sweet to thee and benign, vivificat & prolificat, such as shall be cheering and comforting: for as it is in the Commands of God and Prohibitions, when any sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded; so when any evil is removed, the contrary good is promised; it shall not hurt thee, but it shall help thee, it shall not smite thee, but it shall comfort and quicken and revive thee.

2. The Stars they work as natural causes, and therefore necessarily, Amos 5.8. He maketh the seven Stars and Orion, &c. the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth not signify barely facere or create, but disponere, dirigere, not so much their creation as the providential disposition of them, he doth order and draw forth their influences, and trims up these Lamps of Heaven, and he doth draw them forth, or seal them up at his pleasure, as Job 9.9. it is not in the power of any creature to draw forth or to bind them up; if the Lord loose them, none can bind them: they work naturally, but so as they have their commission from the Lord for the good of his people; all the Stars that thou seest, if the Lord should take a man abroad, and show him how all of them have a commission of influence for him, &c. what a comfort would it be? So Judges 5.20. they fight for the People of God; it was by their influences in raising winds, and thunders and lightning, thereby both discouraging, and also scattering and destroying all the power of the enemy; now these were natural causes, and wrought necessarily, but yet there is a Providence that doth rule and order them for the good of the Saints.

3. The Rain, it doth proceed from a natural cause, and therefore comes necessarily upon the Earth, and yet Job 38.28. The rain hath a father, and he has begotten the drops of the dew, and Hos. 2.21, 22. The Heaven shall hear the Earth, &c. they are all brought in crying and praying for a Covenant people, and the Lord will hear their prayers; the Heavens they cry unto God, that their influences are withheld; and the Earth cries to the Heavens, that it cannot for want thereof give forth its strength and fruitfulness; but the Lord doth give this unto his people, opens the windows of Heaven, he rains down a blessing, for the clouds do drop fatness, so that there is a providence that orders these necessary things for the good of his people, and he stays the rain in answer to prayer; for they have power over rain; and also that it shall be a Teacher of Righteousness, Joel 2.23. by the withdrawing they shall learn righteousness, and by the giving of it also in the season thereof.

4. The Earth brings forth naturally and necessarily also, and this ••• r Lord doth suspend; not that there is not the same strength in the earth, only in judgment he turns it into barrenness, that is, it gives not forth its strength; but in the new Heaven it shall not be so, the earth shall hear Jezreel, They shall plant vineyards, and shall eat the fruit of them, they shall no more labor in vain, the earth shall open her bosom, and gloriously yield her increase, when God, even our own God shall bless us, the treasures of Heaven shall not be withheld, nor the treasures that are in the bowels of the Earth, but there shall be gold for silver and brass, and for iron silver, and for wood brass, and iron for stones, there shall be that plenty and abundance of those chosen treasures, which are yet hid in the earth but shall then be discovered.

5. The Seas, they have naturally an unquiet motion, but the Lord doth order their motions for the good of his people; they now are out of their proper place, and therefore they are in their motions restless, but the Lord rides upon the high places of the earth, and he treads upon the high places of the Sea, Job 9.8. though for the Sea to be a wall be far above the nature of it, yet it was agreeable to the nature of it to return again into its channel upon the enemies of Israel; he doth therefore rule the raging of the S •• , when the waves arise, he saith unto them, Peace, be still; and by this wicked men are confuted that say, All things continue alike from the creation of the world; but that they do not, for first the earth was covered with water, now it is separated, and the dry land appears; it was afterwards in judgment covered with waters in the Flood, and then the waters entered into their own channel again.

6. The winds also, they have a natural and necessary cause: The Lord brings the winds out of his treasuries; there are treasures of winds, Job 38.22. and the stormy winds fulfil his word, Psal. 148.8. but there is not a wind that ariseth upon the Earth or Sea, but he doth in this dispose of it for the good of his people; the winds and the Sea obey him; and if there be a wind in the earth, an Earth-quake, as there was at the Resurrection of Christ, for the confirmation of their faith, all these obey him: Acts 16.26. Rev. 11.13. when Rome shall fall, seven hundred men shall be slain by an Earth-quake, and there shall be great discoveries of God in those things which he over-rules for the good of his people: which when they consider, should bear up their hearts in the greatest storms and tempests that any of the creatures can raise against them.

2. There are also some things which are contingent or fortuitous, that is, though all things be governed by a determinate counsel in God, and there be nothing casual unto him, but foreknown unto him were all his works from the foundation of the world, yet in respect of us there are some things which are contingent and merely 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , without human election, and wonderful, and those casual providences are for the good of the Saints in dreams, in lots, in ordering the wills and affections of men, in the slip of a horse, the fall of an house, the meeting of a friend, a man is casually cast upon such places, persons, occasions, as Saul when he went forth to seek Asses and found a Kingdom; we may instance in a more special manner in the business of war, wherein though there be a Council, yet in the execution or the executive part everything seems merely contingent; and yet we see all to be for Alimoth, Psal. 46.1. for the hidden ones, he doth choose the Officers, appoint the Soldiers, appoint the weapons, direct the execution, order the strategems, give the advantages, act or take away men's courage and their skill, the Captains shall be as Grashoppers, and he it is that either teaches their hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by their arms, or the heart of a Lyon doth melt, and the men of might cannot find their hands; and he casts it for the victory, it is he that doth put the Crown upon the head of the Conqueror, for the victory is of God.

SECT. V. The Saints Interest in God's Providential Kingdom, as it regards goods and evils.

§. 1. NOw follows the fourth distinction, and that is, circa bona vel mala, about good and evil things: and in both these also Providence doth order all things for the spiritual good of his people. 1. There is a Providence circa bona, for all the good things which do befall the Saints; for every good doth come down from him who is the Father of lights, Jam. 1.17. they are all from him who is the Fountain of living waters; they are streams from the upper Springs; as in Election there is a special love, so there doth flow from it a peculiar Providence: If God clothe the grass of the field, much more you, O ye of little faith! He is the Savior of all men, but specially of them that believe; so that if we look upon all the good things which in this life befall them, they have it by a special providence over them for their good: for the present I shall instance in these particulars.

1. In appointing of their calling; for there is as truly an election unto calling, and a separation by God, as there is unto life and salvation, Rom. 1.1. Separated unto the Gospel, that is, set apart by God to preach the Gospel; and so Gal. 1.15. says the Apostle, But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb, and called me by his grace, &c. There is not a man that comes into the world, but the Lord doth appoint him in what condition of life he shall serve, and he doth set him apart unto an employment; for he is the Lord of Host, and he doth set every man his station. As it is said of Peter, The Lord did appoint him by what death he should glorify God; so it's true of all the people of God, he doth appoint them by what condition of • ife they should glorify him; and though Paul went on in another way a long time, and little intended any such thing, yet God ordered it so, that he would reveal his Son in him, both per modum objecti, ob • ectively, that others should see Christ in him, and subjecti, subjectively, that he himself should see the discoveries of Christ by a Spirit of Revelation, and he should be a glorious instrument in the hand of the Lord to reveal Christ unto others: and in this there is a wonderful and a gracious hand of Providence unto his people, that unto other men their callings are for their hurt, and their callings as well as their tables become their shares, that they are entangled by them; yet they are for the good of his people. Thus Luther doth observe of himself, in Gen. 17. Deus voluit me esse concionatorem, & sustinere pr • pter verbum odium & invidiam mundi: Aliis imponit laborem manuum, & videntur mihi beati, &c. exerceor periculis & tentationibus, & tamen mechanicus ill aeque at{que} ego salvatur. But he saith this was the calling in which God had set him, and in this he must walk with him, and the works of this calling were unto him the works of God, &c. Of this we have a famous instance in Junius, his father was exceedingly against his being a Preacher of the Gospel, was desirous that he might have godliness in himself, but that he should never be a Teacher of it, vivus non fuisset passus, &c. but in sententia plane eram diversa à sententia patris, in Vita Junii. To engage the spirits of men, and to order occasions and opportunities that men might glorify God in such a way of service as he hath appointed for them, and that it should be suitable to their spirits, their parts, their graces, and they shall be par negotio, fitted for the work unto which the Lord hath called them, that they may honor God in it with pleasure, sweetness, and delight; there is a special hand of a merciful and a gra •• ous Providence therein.

2. In setting them their habitation; the earth is the Lord's, and he hath given it unto the children of men, but he hath set every man in his place in the earth, the bounds of their habitation are set; so he doth tell Paul, I will send thee afar off to the Gentiles, that he should preach amongst the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. The Ministers of the Gospel are the Stars in the right hand of Christ, • ev. 1. ult. and he doth set them in their orbs where they shall shine, as well as give them light by which they shall shine; there are some Stars primae magnitudinis, of the first magnitude, but they are not all so, one Star differs from another in glory: Jonah must go to Nineveh, Amos must prophesy at Bethel, though it be the Kings Chapel, and the Kings Court; John the Baptist must preach in the Wilderness of Judea, and he must not spare the sins of any of his Auditors, neither the Publicans nor the Soldiers, and if the Pharisees come, they shall meet also with their reproof: O generation of vipers, who hath forewarned you to flee from the wrath to come? We have an instance in Nazianzen, who was chosen by the people to be Minister at Nazianzum, which was the place of his birth, and from whence he hath his name; but at his hearing of it he did declare the work was that which he thought himself no way fit for, and yet after some stay, and much ado, the Lord brought him thither: and so for Musculus, when he was turned out of the Covent, and deprived of all means of livelihood, he betook himself unto a Weavers house that was an Anabaptist, and there he wrought some two years, where confuting a Teacher which used to come unto his master, he was thereupon displaced; and now he knew not what to do, and then resolved for a livelihood to go work in the Town-ditch, for they were making of Fortifications, and walking there the night before he made these Verses, Est Deus in coelis, &c. and so next morning one sent unto him to be Minister of a Church, &c.

3. In giving them occasion and opportunity to exercise their graces; for opportunity is the spring time of grace and of sin, Phil. 4.10. Ye but wanted opportunity; and Judas sought an opportunity to betray Christ; there is much within, that if there were not opportunity would never be vented, it's this that gives the vent unto the inward man. Now opportunity and occasion of sinning is a judgment, and it is one way that the Lord hath a hand in the ordering of sinful actions, he doth give the occasion to them; he ordered it that Judas should have the bag, and Achan should see the wedge, and the young man have a harlot come out to meet him, &c. So the Lord doth give occasion and opportunity for the exercising of graces, and it is a special providence so to do; 1 Cor. 1.6, 9. A great door is open to me, that is, a great and a blessed opportunity of service; Rev. 3.8. I will set before thee an open door, that is, give a man a great opportunity; and to continue to a man such an occasion as this is, a door that shall not be shut; though not only service, but even opportunity of service, shall be sure to meet with many adversaries. This is a special mercy unto the people of God, and a great gift, if the Lord doth in providence so order things, that it shall be so unto them. So the obedience of Abraham in leaving of his country, and his offering of his son; the strength of Jacob in prayer, therefore Esau shall meet him; the chastity of Joseph, and the patience of Job, the zeal of Jehoshaphat, and his readiness to work for God, he •• d abundance, and his heart was lifted up in the ways of God's commandments; and the courage and height of spirit in Luther, he shall meet with opposition that shall draw it forth, gratia vexata seipsam prodit, he had never appeared unto that h • ight, had it not been that the Lord by their opposition gave him occasion and opportunity for such eminent service: and Prov. 17.16. Why is there a price in the hand of a fool? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 hoc pretium, this great and this excellent price, some expound it of riches, which the Lord doth give men, that they might by them endeavor to get wisdom, and to exercise it; but it is, I conceive, of a larger extent, and to be understood of any talent which the Lord doth put into a man's hand, it is all given by God, that it may be used and improved unto a spiritual end, and the wisdom and the folly of a man is much discovered in the use of the price that is put into his hand, wise men have a heart to it, that is, they do understand it, what they are betrusted with, and they have a will and a desire, and they do their endeavor to employ it, but fools understand not what it is, neither do they consider it, and therefore they have no desire to use it unto the end for which God gave it, they know not the season in which talents are continued, nor the end for which they were committed unto men, and therefore they use them for their hurt, and are but as a sword put into a mad man's hand to hurt all that comes near him, and they cast fire-brands, and say, I am in sport, &c. Now it 〈◊〉 true, opportunity is a great talent, it is a man's day of visitation for service, as there is a day of visitation for grace, and if a man know it not, and take it not, but let it slip, it is his folly and his sin, and will prove a curse to him. There is many a •• n that has as much sin as another, but yet it is not so improved, because he never had in providence the opportunity which makes others grow more exceedingly and out of measure sinful, and so it is also in this, there is many a man that has much more grace, because he had more opportunity of exercising it and drawing it forth, and so the habit is exceedingly improved, and there are glorious fruits of it, all which do abound unto the account of the Saints: thus providence orders opportunities of service.

4. There is a special Providence unto his people in • ppointing of their societies; that as ungodly men are permitted to be cast upon some that will improve their sin, for a man is much built up by his society, either unto Heaven or Hell, Prov. 1.10. If sinners entice thee consent thou not; sinners will entice, and a man shall be cast into such companies and such occasions of converse he knows not how; so there is a providence also in casting of the people of God upon their societies, Act. 18.24, 25. Apollos came to Ephesus, and at the same time Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome: now Aquila and Priscilla coming from Italy meeting with him, and they instructing him in the way of the Lord more perfectly, this was happy for him to meet with such company, hoc providentiae merito tribuendum est: insomuch that the people of God bless God unto Eternity one for another; as the Martyr acknowledged it as a wonderful glorious providence unto him, that he was cast into prison, for there he became acquainted with that Angel of God John Bradford; so Austin doth acknowledge much of the goodness of God to him in the society of Nebridius. But there is an excellent story of Junius in this kind: he being in Leyden for his studies sake, there arose a great stir and tumult in the City, insomuch that many of the inhabitants fled away for safety, and he amongst the rest fled to save his life, and being in the country thereabouts, he came to a country-man's house to beg some victuals, the country-man received him, and very courteously entertained him, and he began to talk with him about matters of Religion, which the country-man performed with so much zeal and affection, ego malus Christianus siquidem Christianus, &c. una & eadem hora gratiam suam in utroque explicavit Deus: à me scientiam rusticus, ego ab eo zelum, &c. And he saith it did abide upon him mente fixâ, that he was not able to put the impression out of his mind, and the Lord made it useful to him all his life after, &c.

5. In their preservation in service, and their dismissions from service. (1) There is a preservation in service, that they shall be continued to do the work for which the Lord has appointed them, and they shall not be cut off till they have finished their work; so it was with the Lord Jesus Christ, Luke 13.32. Go tell that Fox. It's true, that he was a subtle enemy, and one that did want no skill to bring those bloody designs he had to pass, but yet there was a time set for Christ's work, today and tomorrow and the third day; and during that time all his enemies were not able by power or policy to reach him; and then afterwards, I shall be perfected, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that is, I shall have perfected the work of my ministry, and the perfection of a man's work, is the perfection of the man, he is never perfected till then: and so it is with the two Witnesses, they shall not be killed till they have fulfilled their Prophecy; there is no putting any man out of employment till the Lord discharge him, a man that has any work to do for God, no man can stop him in it before it is finished. (2) When their work is done, they shall have a very gracious dismission, and they shall lie down with honor; the best of the Saints have but their time of service, and they shall receive their discharge, but they shall come to their grave in a full age, as a shock of corn in the season thereof, Job 5.26. Some men have a longer, and some have a shorter time of service, but all have but their time. As sinning is a warfare, and wicked men in that do receive their discharge, and it is in providence ordered so, that they die when it is in judgment to them, when they least expect it, and are least prepared for it; so godly men die when their graces are perfected, and their work is finished, and never till then: and therefore when they sought Luther's life so much, yet he could write this upon the wall of his Study, I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord, &c. And there are some men upon this account can laugh at dangers in a way of service, and deride threatenings as the crackling of thorns under a pot, because they say, My time is not in your hands, neither the time of my life, nor of my service, and he that employs me will uphold me, and will maintain me till the time of my dismission shall come, and then I shall go off the stage of this world in mercy, and lie down in peace, and rest upon my bed after the time of my labor is ended.

6. There is a special Providence in blessing and providing for their posterity; God has a special providence over those that come out of the loins of his own; for indeed he has so ordered all his Decrees, as that the greatest part of the Elect comes out of the loins of the Saints, Prov. 20.7. His children are blessed after him; there is grace in a special manner that is promised unto them, but 'tis a blessedness that doth descend upon them by virtue of their parents Covenant, Esa. 59.21. My words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever: and Esa. 44.3. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring, &c. as Austin was filius lacrymarum, the son of his mothers prayers and tears, and the Lord did give an answer by giving the soul of her son unto her, that he was graciously converted unto the Lord, and proved an eminent instrument for service in the Church of the Lord. The Saints can with Jacob pronounce upon them a blessing when they die, and that out of faith in the promise, and the Lord willsurely make it good unto them; but we are begotten not of blood, Joh. 1.13. And therefore though many times ungodly men may and do come out of the loins of the Saints, and the spiritual part of the Covenant is not made good unto many of the posterity of his own people, yet the outward part of the Covenant surely is; though the Covenant for matter of grace be unto Isaac, yet there is another part of it that is made good to Ishmael: Twelve Princes shall he beget, he hath the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth. God doth in outward things strangely supply them, and provide for them: when the children of the wicked are vagabonds and beg their bread, Psal. 37.25. Yet I never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Not that a godly man may not be brought to beggary, or to live upon the charity of another, Jesus Christ himself was so, he was poor, and so poor, that the women, Luke 8.3. his followers did minister unto him of their substance to supply his necessity in this life; but there is a fourfold interpretation of that place of Scripture. (1) Begging of bread is taken for extremity of poverty, the seed of the righteous are never so poor, but the Lord doth find out a way of support and supply for them; he has said, That the just shall inherit the earth. (2) It is not meant that it was never so, that they were never poor, but in David's experience, he had never found it so. (3) There is another interpretation of Muis, and that is, semen ejus quaerens panem non derelictum, not forsaken, though begging of their bread; the Jews in this misery that they are, yet grow rich where-ever they come, the temporal promise is fulfilled to them. (4) The term righteous may be restrained to such as are eminently righteous as to works of mercy. So it follows verse. 26. He is ever merciful, &c. So among the Hebrews, mercy towards the poor is termed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Righteousness.

§. 2. There is also a Providence circa mala, about evils; for his Kingdom rules over all, and this malum, evil is either culpae, of sin, or poenae, of punishment, concerning both which the Sovereignty of God doth gloriously work, though it be in a far different way. First, the Sovereignty of God in his providential Kingdom is conversant about the evils of sin, they do all come under the government of God; and that it is so, will appear from Gen. 45.5, 6, 7. it was the observation that Joseph had about that unnatural act of his brethren, he looked upon a double hand in it, one was theirs, which he from a principle of meekness and forgiveness was ready to pass by and overlook, and another was a special hand of providence in this sin of theirs, and that he speaks of three times, as being much affected with the Sovereignty of God ordering of that sin of theirs both in respect of him and themselves, Ye sold me, but God sent me, in that sin of theirs there was an over-ruling hand of Sovereignty, and that he tells them three times together, That it was God sent him, and that it was not they that sent him: Ye sent me out of malice, and God sent me out of mercy, you to destroy me, God to preserve both you and me; you sent me, that I should be a slave to man; God, that I might be a father to Pharaoh, and a Ruler of all the land of Egypt. We see what a glory here is over this sinful action in respect of Joseph, Pharaoh, Egypt, and the whole family of Jacob; and this was not a casual thing, something that came to pass by accident or by chance, but it was by counsel, a Sovereignty that did with wisdom lay this as a design and plot beforehand; so Gen. 50.20. You thought evil, but God meant it unto good: the word in both places is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which doth signify a plotted thought done by counsel, Psal. 10.2. Let them be taken in their devices that they have imagined, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : it is spoken there of plotted designed evil: and so it was here; the good was done by counsel, and it was a thing that comes not to pass without foresight, but God meant and plotted it for good; and therefore we read, Exod. 28.15. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 opus ingeniose inventum, a work that is artificially done, upon which many thoughts went before, it was brought unto a ripeness and perfection; and such was this work here also, they plotted upon evil, and the Lord plotted and designed this their evil unto good: so Esa. 10.6, 7. the King of Babylon comes against Jerusalem, and the Lord sends him not by any command, for the work was displeasing unto him, as done by them, and for which he will visit them, verse. 12. but arcano imperio, by a secret act of the Sovereignty of God, so ordering things in providence, that this should come to pass; and therefore Ezech. 9.1. they are called the visiters of the city, men appointed by the dominion of God unto that office, but yet the man had a thought of nothing less than to do God's work in it, or to submit unto his dominion, or execute his counsel, which unto them was secret, he meaneth not so, he thinks not so; there are two words used, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 tacit secum cogitare, he hath not such a thought that did ever enter into his heart, he never had so much as the least secret imagination of any such thing; and the other word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which doth signify a devised, designed, and plotted thing, it was a thing that he never consulted, never designed in all that he doth to execute my displeasure against an hypocritical Nation; but yet he shall do my work, while he doth wholly intend his own, and design that only, and yet the work that shall be done upon Zion is the Lord's work, verse. 12. and by these two Scriptures it will clearly appear that the Sovereignty of God is conversant about the sins of men, things in themselves evil and forbidden of God, and yet his Sovereignty reacheth unto them. And this I shall branch into two heads. (1) The Sovereignty of God over a man's own sins for the good of his people. (2) Over other men's sins; he doth so employ his Sovereignty about the sins of men, that they shall be ordered for the good of the Saints.

1. The Sovereignty and Supremacy of God in reference unto the sins of his own people; the Lord doth so rule and order all things thereby, that their own sins shall in some kind work for their good, that which in its own nature is only evil, can by an almighty over-ruling hand, turn into good; which no man in the world is able to do; they may make good use of things in themselves good, but they are never able to bring good out of that which is per se malum, of itself sinful, as sin is; and this I shall demonstrate to you in four things, (1) In respect of the being of sin. (2) In respect of the rising of sin. (3) In respect of the actings of sin. (4) In respect of the raging of sin, in an open violent scandalous way.

1. It will appear in reference unto the being of sin in the Saints. The Lord, who has forbid all sin even in the Principles and being of it, and has sent his Son to take away sin, yet he has in his Sovereignty so ordered the condition of the Saints here, that sin shall have a being in them, and they shall never be perfectly freed from it; so that it will be true of the best while they are here, he that saith he has no sin deceiveth himself, there will be reliquiae vetustatis, as Austin calls it, a Law in the members, a body of death. To be without sin here is given to us as praeceptum, a precept in this life, or else Original sin were no sin, and the being of sin were against no Law of God; the Law requires a holy Nature, as well as holy Actions; but in the life to come it shall be given to us as premium, a reward; here as a Law, and hereafter as a Reward. And why has the Sovereignty of God so ordered it that those that shall be freed from sin perfectly in the Life to come, and whom Christ shall present without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, why will he suffer them to have the Remainders of sin in them in this life, and they shall never be freed from it till their dissolution? We shall easily see that he, as the Lord of all, has ordered this by his Sovereignty and Supremacy for the good of his people, and that it was for their sakes.

(1) That hereby he may exalt the Grace of Justification unto the Saints; for God to pardon sins past, it were rich mercy, infinite mercy; but for the Lord to leave sin remaining in a man, and while he is conflicting with it, and fears he shall be overcome with it every moment, sees himself still to remain a sinner, and yet the grace of Justification still to hold out, that as there is in me a Fountain of sin, so God is the Father of mercies, and he doth not only pardon at first, but when I sin and endeavor to make a breach upon my Justification again, he shows mercy still, and doth multiply to pardon, Isa. 55.7. this exalts the Righteousness of Christ imputed in justification; for tolle morbos, tolle vulnera, & nulla erit medicinae causa. Dam. Therefore a man doth daily wash his feet, and sees the Sun of Righteousness to rise upon him daily, that he may be justified not only from the Acts of sin, but also from the remainders and Relics of sin that are in him, Joh. 13.10. And this also doth exalt the grace of God the Father justifying. When the Apostle had had more than ordinary experience of the remainders of corruption in him, and was much afflicted, looking upon himself as a miserable man by reason thereof, and judging himself worthy to be destroyed for it, and might by reason thereof have expected the sentence of death every moment; now he looks upon the grace of the Gospel as justifying, and he finds a new sweetness in it; there is now no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus, Rom. 8.1. Not only the sins committed before Conversion, but the sins remaining after, do justly make the soul liable to condemnation: but such is the grace that justifies us, that there is no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus.

(2) That there may be a continual Conflict kept up in us; our life is a Warfare; and therefore Job 14.14. it is said, all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come, it is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all the days, militiae meae, of my warfare, this is not against enemies without, against spiritual wickednesses in high places only, but against enemies within, in a special manner, the Flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the Flesh, and by this means the war is maintained. The Lord will have the time of this life to be tempus militiae, a time of warfare, and the other life laetitiae, of triumph, as Bernard speaks; this laboris, of labor, that mercedis, of reward; and there is no conflict in the world like unto this, to have two contraries in the same place, each of them striving to destroy one another; and yet neither of them completely and totally prevailing; for they are contrary, Gal. 5.17. and there is a greater opposition against sin than there is against the Devils themselves, or any enemies without: there are the sorest battles fought between flesh and spirit in the same soul, and with greater displeasure and indignation against them, than Saints against the Devil himself; for this is the greatest evil to them, because it is in them; and because the Lord will have a conflict, that so the graces of his People may be both exercised, and also tried, and improved; the power of Grace and the truth of it, would never have been so gloriously seen, if there had not been such a principle of corruption drawing it forth daily.

(3) That he may keep his people humble: there is no one thing that the Lord takes more care of, than that the Saints should not be lifted up; it is the end of Affliction to hide pride from their hearts; and of temptations and desertions in the flesh, that they might not be lifted up in themselves, and exalted above measure. Now it's true, it's matter enough to humble one, if duly considered, to call to mind what he has been, as it did Paul, I was a persecutor, and a blasphemer, and injurious, 1 Tim. 1.13. As some of the Heathens, having risen to be Kings from small beginnings, would keep something still to put them in mind of their Original: as one being a Potters son would be served only in Earthen Vessels all his life-time. The remembrance of what is past might humble a man, to say, Such were some of you, such were ye; but it is much more effectual to humble a man, to consider, that very iniquity is not fully purged unto this day, but there are still some remainders of it upon me, there is still a law in my members that rebels against the law of my mind, that when I would do good evil is present with me; and this makes me to look upon myself as a wretched and a miserable man, and makes me to loath and abhor myself, the same sore is running upon me still, I am sensible I have the leprosy, and therefore I can take no pleasure in myself, the Devil comes, and hath something in me; there is a Principle that is prone to close with any temptation, there is a sea of corruption that doth but wait for a wind, nay if the Devil should never disquiet it, yet it is a Fountain that will cast mire out of itself, &c.

(4) That the Saints may be exercised in Prayer and Repentance daily. Now it is that which the Lord requires of them every day; Pray without ceasing, and a man is Nulli rei nisi poenitentiae natus, &c. Now that there may be something that we may ask of him daily to give us, that is, a further degree of Grace, a greater measure of purging, and that we may apply the Righteousness of Christ for to mortify sin in us, as well as to satisfy God for sin, and that there may be always something that we may confess, and bewail before God, and repent of, and mourn for, this sin is still left in us: And look what benefits the people of God do receive from these constant and daily exercises, all these do flow from the Sovereignty of God towards them, in leaving of the remainders of sin in them; and by this means we come to have a part in that great honor which belongs to Christ, and that is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , taking away of sin. It's true Christ only doth it by way of satisfaction, and he is the only original of our sanctification; but yet we do it as having our spirits also acted by the Spirit of Christ, and so our wills and desires joining and concurring with him in that work; therefore we are said, to mortify the deeds of the body, and to crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts, to purge ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, 2 Cor. 7.1. which we do by his Grace, yet there is a concurrence of ours therein.

(5) That the Patience and forbearance of God even towards the Vessels of mercy may be so much the more exalted; Num. 14.17. Moses says, Let the Power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, the Lord longsuffering and of great mercy; even his forbearance is an act of his power: it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is an impotency in a man, that he cannot forbear if he be injured; it is utterly a fault amongst you; but it is not so with God, it is his Power that he can forbear; 'tis the patience of his power, and therefore we are not consumed, when we daily provoke him, the imagination of a man's heart being continually evil, he is God and not man, Hos. 11.9. therefore, Gen. 6.5. and 8.21. they do seem to cross each other: in the first place 'tis said, the Lord will destroy man, because the imaginations of his heart were evil; and in the other, I will not again curse the ground for man's sake, for the imaginations of his heart are evil from his youth, it seems to be given as a reason of two contraries, he will and he will not; every imagination of the heart of man is evil, therefore I will no more curse the Earth for his sake; it seems strange reasoning: it is by the Jesuits and Arminians looked upon as an extenuation of Original sin, There is now that infirmity come upon him, which was in Adam indeed a sin, but now it is become a disease, an infirmity, a condition of Nature, and therefore humanae infirmitatis miserebor, I will pity human infirmity, so A Lapide and others, who make the being of sin in us to be no sin; but there is quite another sense of the words, the particle 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is taken either causative or adversative, and so it is rendered sometimes quia, because, and sometimes quamvis, although, Glass. Rhet. pag. 606. Our translators take the first, for the imaginations of the heart, or because the imaginations of the heart of man are only evil; and so Brenz, Pareus, &c. Si vellem semper genus humanum diluvio punire, &c. If I should always bring upon them a flood for their iniquity, I should not leave a man upon the earth, all man-kind would be destroyed, for the imaginations of his heart are evil from his youth; and therefore now having smelt a savor of rest from a sacrifice, I will not for this cause destroy them anymore by a flood: But many of the learned render it adversative, and so it is although; so Exod. 13.17. The Lord led them not thorough the land of the Philistines, although that was near: it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Exod. 34.19. Let my Lord I pray thee go amongst us, for it is a stiff-necked people; that is, although it be a stiff-necked people; and so it is an expression of the wonderful patience of God, that though men provoke him daily, and all the imaginations of their hearts are evil continually, yet, hoc non obstante, I will show my patience towards them, and will no more curfe the ground for man's sake, &c. and it is spoken of all men, not only wicked men, but godly men, for whose sake the Lord doth spare the creatures; for it is for the Saints sake that the world stands, and that the earth is not destroyed, and yet the imaginations of their hearts are evil from their youth; and by this the patience of God towards the vessels of mercy as well as towards the vessels of wrath is very highly exalted.

(6) That the Lord may hereby show how great a grace that donum perseverantiae, gift of perseverance is, and what an almighty power doth concur thereunto: Adam had no sin, and yet he fell from his first state; how then shall we stand, that have in us nothing else but sin? something of the venom of the old Serpent that is ready to open unto him upon every suggestion, and ready to take fire by every temptation, a sin that doth easily beset us or compass up about? Heb. 12.21. And the great aim of Satan without, and sin within is to extinguish grace, that this seed may die in the man; but it is maintained, and there is an almighty power that does it; therefore 1 Pet. 1.15. We are kept by the mighty power of God through saith unto salvation; or else we should perish every day; and this exalts the grace of the second Covenant unto the souls of the Saints, because there is not only a grace of conversion, but of perseverance also, the Spirit of Christ having once taken possession of the soul, takes possession forever, never to leave it again, if Christ hath cast out the strong man, he will never himself be cast out, till Satan be stronger than he, which is never possible.

(7) That the souls of the Saints may be kept here in a continual longing and a groaning condition for glory; there is nothing so great an evil as sin, and therefore nothing should make the soul weary of this life so much as sin, because it cannot end but with our life, and this is one blessed fruit of it, Rom. 8.13. We groan for the Adoption; but why do we groan? 2 Cor. 5.24. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , there are many burdens that the people of God are under in this life, but there is no burden like unto that of the body of death, that is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a weight indeed, Heb. 12.1. and they groan therefore to put off this tabernacle, because without it there is no putting off this body of sin, but by being freed from this prison; we are so apt to be in love with this present life, that we had need of something that might be bitterness to us, and embitter it to us, so that we take not up our rest here, but that the soul may look for, and hasten to the coming of the day of God, and may rejoice to put off this Tabernacle, be willing that the flesh should be destroyed, that thereby there may be the destruction of the body of sin in us also. And thus we see the Sovereignty of God working for the Saints in this great state of the being of sin in the Saints in this life, bringing much good unto them as well as much glory unto himself thereby.

§ 3. 2. As the being of sin comes under the Sovereignty of God, so doth the rising of it in the heart, which doth never break forth into act: it is true, that the heart of man is an evil treasury, and it is an evil fountain; but though it be always issuing, yet it doth not vent itself the same way, but sometimes in this kind, and sometimes in that, in omnibus omnia vitia sunt, licet non se exerunt, &c. Mar. 7.21, 22, 23. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man, &c. for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, Mat. 12.34. Now how comes it to pass, that now one sin riseth in the heart, and sometimes another sin, when there is an equal propension unto all sin? it riseth out of the heart, but there is a Sovereignty of God that doth order these motions and desires in the heart, permitting such motions and stirrings of heart now which he had not before, Jam. 1.15. Lust conceiveth and brings forth sin; there is original sin the root of corruption, which is called Lust, and that is the mother of all sin, and it is said to conceive, when it is formed into motions, reasonings, consultations, and desires, and consents; but yet there is many a lust conceived that never is brought forth into act, and the permitting the rising as well as of the being of lust depends upon the Dominion and the Sovereignty of God. As there came into the heart of Esau such a resolution, when my father is dead I will slay my brother Jacob: so there came a motion into the heart of Judas to betray Christ, and thereupon he consulted how to do it with the greatest advantage, and how to take the fittest opportunity to bring it to pass; so a thought came into David's heart to number the people, Satan stirred it up, but God in judgment giving him over, that it should be at this time when God was angry with Israel; and Ezech. 38.10. It shall come to pass at the same time, that things shall come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought; a thought that he did not think before, the time of his destruction was near then, such motions shall arise, as it did in Ahab, Is not Ramoth in Gilead ours, &c? which was the occasion of his destruction. There is a providence even in the rising of lusts in the hearts of his own people, that this lust at this special time, and another lust at another time, should rise in them: it is the same Sovereignty of God that doth draw forth gracious desires in the Saints, and doth permit corrupt desires in them also, God is not the Author, but the orderer of them, and yet even in this also the Sovereignty of God is exercised for the good of the Saints, and that many ways.

(1) In this, that all lusts break not forth in the soul continually: for lust that is the mother of all sin, original sin stands equally prepared unto all sin, at all times; and therefore that all lusts be not stirring in the heart together, is from a glorious act of the sovereign restraint of God, Hos. 4.2. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out, &c. erumpunt: it is taken from waters that have been hid, or from fire shut up in an oven or a furnace, Hos. 7.6. sometimes it breaks forth into thoughts in the soul, and sometimes into acts in the life. Now there is a double restraint that the Sovereignty of God has over men's acts and over their lusts, and it's a great mercy to have acts of sin restrained, as it was in Abimelech, Gen. 20.6. his lust was let out, but God restrained the act; and it is a greater mercy to have the lust restrained than the act, as the Lord said, They shall not desire thy land. Now the Lord doth restrain the Devils acts, but for his lusts he doth let them range; and so he doth very far also restrain the acts of wicked men, when he sets no bounds unto their lusts: next to being freed from the being of sin, it's a mercy to be delivered from the rising of sin, and in that there is a special manifestation of the Sovereignty of God: for if the rising of one sin be so troublesome unto a godly man, that he strives and prays and wrestles with it, and it is unto him as the thorn in his flesh, he cannot be quiet in himself by reason of it; how miserable and continually unquiet would the heart of a godly man be, if he should have many such strangers and way-faring men come to him (as it was said of the lust that came into David's heart?) how should a godly man be able even to stand under the burden of them? therefore even this restraint of the rising of some lusts is a special mercy; that Josephs lust should not rise and conceive in him at such a time, and when he had such an opportunity. And it is the greater because I conceive the Spirit of God, by a peculiar work and not a common, doth restrain the lusts of the Saints. It's true, that there is restraining grace both unto the godly and the wicked, but not both from the same principle; but the Spirit having once taken possession of a godly man for his own house and Temple, he doth never work common works in that man more, as a Spirit assisting barely, but as a Spirit inhabiting.

(2) There is a great deal of mercy in the Lord's ordering of the rising of lust, when lust doth not rise when the object is present; there is the object and the opportunity, but the lust is past away, as Ruth lay at Boaz his feet all night, yet no lust ariseth towards her: and David had an opportunity of killing Saul; but yet when Saul was in his hand, and he was stirred up to it by his servants also, yet God restrained his lust, it did not rise in him; which we may see by the contrary in other men, as soon as the object is offered, the lust is up in the young man, Prov. 7. he met a harlot, and he went after her straight-ways; and there is a man that no sooner sees his neighbors wife, but he doth lust after her, his lust riseth as soon as the object is presented; and so it was with Achan, I saw, and I coveted, and I took; and so it is with many a man, let the least show or provocation be given, and his spirit is on fire immediately; but it was not so with Abraham, though he was the better man, and had a better right than Lot, yet in the contention, the lust of pride and passion did not arise in him: Let there be no strife between me and thee, for we are brethren. A man of understanding is of a cool spirit, he doth not take fire immediately; that lust should rise at one time and not at another, it can be attributed unto nothing but the Sovereignty of God ordering and over-ruling and restraining it, &c.

(3) The Lord doth let some lusts at this time arise, that it may show a man that such a sin is in his nature, which formerly he haply never considered, never particularly repented of, and never saw the fruit of it breaking forth in his life. Now to lead a man to a more particular acquaintance with sin and self, therefore the Lord doth let such lusts rise up in a man's heart. A man that haply never thought that he could be tempted to be an Atheist, and deny that there was a God, the Lord will let forth such sinful risings and motions in his heart, that he shall be ready to call all into question, and see that it is possible for the corruption of his nature to make him like that fool, that saith in his heart there is no God; and a man that never questioned whether the Scripture was the Word of God or no, (for it is the faith that he hath been brought up in, which he received from his parents) yet the Lord will let that lust rise in thee, which may bring thee to question the authority of the Scriptures, whether they be of God or no. There is in a man a principle that tends to a denial of the doctrine of godliness, and this principle lies deep, and works mightily in our lives; and therefore that they may see that this root of bitterness is in them, the Lord will suffer them to rise up unto actual thoughts, and then the man will say, I thought I should never have doubted whether there was a God or no, or a Heaven or Hell, or a Scripture, but now I see to what my natural corruption is ready to lead me, and by this means his soul is not only humbled for those bosom-principles of Atheism, but these bosom-principles of Religion are laid anew and more firmly in the soul, which else would not have born the stress of a work of grace upon them.

(4) That a man may be drawn out to hate sin the more, therefore the Lord doth let it rise in a man and infest him. As a man's darling lust that has risen in him most, and most troubled him, that sin when he is converted he hates above all other, Hos. 14.8. and so Rom. 7. there is not only the being of sin, but the rising of it, Rebelling against the law of the mind, and leading me captive to the law of sin and death, when I would do good evil is present with me; that the soul may see its misery the more, and so hate its adversary the more; for to love God and hate sin is our great work, and the more the goodness of • od is discovered unto us, the more we should love him, and the further the evil of sin is discovered unto us, the more our hearts should be engaged to hate this also. It is true, a man should hate sin in the root, hate it at all times, but specially when it rises within us, and presents itself to us with the greatest enticement; as Christ hated Satan always, but then specially when he assaulted him with a temptation to worship him; so should we deal with sin, as Junius faith of himself, he being a modest man a wanton woman came to kiss him, and he gave her a box on the face; he hated impudence at all times, but specially when it was offered him; and so it is in this particular also, when lust doth rise in the soul presenting itself to be chosen, he hates it then most, as wicked men hate godliness always, but specially when it comes nearest unto them, and they are pressed to it, then their hearts rise against it.

(5) The Lord doth in his Sovereignty permit that lusts should arise in his people, but it is to awaken them; and the Lord makes this an excellent remedy against a secure condition; for if his people will sleep, God has three ordinary ways to awaken them. [1] By letting out corruption. [2] By affliction. [3] By desertion: it is the first of them is the worst, because there is not a greater evil than sin, and there is not anything that doth use to affect the hearts of godly men and awaken them more than to find former lusts reviv • in their hearts, which they thought had been dead long ago. A man has formerly set himself to mortify such a lust, and prayed against it, and used all means, and now he hath through mercy in a good measure attained it; but the man grows proud and secure, and carnally confident: then the Lord lets his lust revive again, and the man shall see that his enemy is not dead, but that the said root of bitterness still remains; only the Lord by his Sovereignty permitted it to spring forth for such an end.

(6) It is that which is matter of repentance to the people of God continually; they are not humbled barely for the sins of their lives that break forth in their conversation in the world, but also those sins that do arise in their hearts, and they do apply the Righteousness of Christ for the one, as well as the other; and they are more humbled for lust rising in their heart (if they could be separated) than for lust breaking forth in the act, because this defiles the inward man, the soul; and so it's said of Hezekiah, That he humbled himself for the pride of his heart; so confidence in creatures is what we ought to be humbled for, and weep in secret for our pride, and repent of all the inward risings of sin in our heart, though not any discovery of it be made in our lives and conversation.

§. 4. 3. The Sovereignty of God is seen in the actings of sin also, and therein it doth order all for the good of his people; sin shall not be always kept within bounds as fire in the bosom, but it shall appear in the life many times, and the members shall become weapons of unrighteousness; lust conceived shall bring forth sin; as there are many thousand lusts stirring in the heart, that do never come into act, they are conceived, but do never bring forth; there is much plotting in the world against godliness, but they do bring forth the wind; Esau says, I will slay my brother Jacob, but he never did it; and G • hazi had in his heart a hankering after Vineyards and Olive-yards, &c. and so they in Neh. 4.11. We will come upon them and destroy them, and they shall neither see nor know, &c. But the act doth not succeed accordingly, there are many devices in the hearts of the crafty when their hands cannot perform their enterprise, Job 5.12. and so the Lord doth with sin in the souls of his people, but yet sometimes it shall break forth into act, it was as new wine in the soul, and the act shall give it vent, it was secret, but the Lord by an act will permit it to be visible and legible; when it was in the soul it is but thirst in the desire, but it is drunkenness in the act, when it is come to the full: and all this doth the Lord permit by a supreme providence for the good of his people.

(1) That they may see the power of sin and the tendency thereof; it is such a filthiness as would overspread the whole man, it is a leprosy in the whole man, therefore it is called the old man, and when we sin we are carnal and walk as men: now the whole man is not defiled with it in the rising of sin, it is kept within bounds till it overflow into the members; also the inward man is defiled, but sin will come upon the outward man also, and there is in the members in reference unto the act of sin, [1] A fitness to be employed in it, Rom. 6.13. Weapons of unrighteousness; the members have distinct forms according to the employment for which they were created, there is a fitness in the foot to walk, and in the hand to work; so there is a different fitness answerable unto the several acts of sin that the soul can put them upon or employ them in, and they are weapons, there is a fitness in them to be used and employed in the service of sin: it's said of David, Psal. 45.1. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer; it is fit to be employed in the works of grace; so because Doeg's tongue did cut like a sharp razor, he is fit to accuse others, and to wound them in their good name. [2] There is also a readiness as well as a fitness; fitness may be passive, but a readiness is active: You have given your members weapons of unrighteousness, Rom. 6.13, 14. and therefore Acts 13.10. Full of all mischief, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ad peccandum facilitas, & ad quodvis scelus propensio, so Beza, their feet are swift to shed blood, whereas there is a deadness and a backwardness unto everything else that is good, there is a weariness, their feet are not ready to walk, nor their hands to work, &c. [3] There is also a greediness and an unweariedness; the one in the soul, and the other in the members, Deut. 29.19. it is a drunkenness, and they are for taking of their fill of drink, as if they could never have enough; tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant; and so in a lust of the flesh how insatiable is it? and in the lust of the eye, the eye is never satisfied with seeing, though presently weary unto anything that is good; and there is no such greediness towards it, but towards sin it is so; and in this doth sin in the body lie. Now that it may appear what an overspreading evil is in sin, and that the Saints may know in themselves the power of it in the breaking forth, therefore the Lord doth give them up to acts of sin.

(2) That a Saint may see that if he be deserted of God, he shall be drawn into sin in all the kinds and degrees of it; I cannot, saith he, resist the rising of it, and if the Lord leave me, I shall not be able in the least to resist the actings of it: according unto the measure of a man's desertion, such is the degree of his sin, that we may see how great an evil, and how dangerous a thing it is to be deserted by the Lord in any degree, in any measure of it. Damascene in his Orthodox. Fidei cap. 29. mentions three sorts of desertions. [1] Temporary, for trial, such was that of Job, which was a desertion only for a present dispensation, that thereby the Lord might show forth and draw out the grace of Job, which else had not been so clearly seen. [2] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , castigatory, which is for correction of some former neglect, and to teach the people of God to keep closer unto him, and to fear his departure more than formerly. [3] Vindictive, and that's a final desertion, and so he doth never forsake his own people; the Lord left Hezekiah, that he might see what was in his heart, and so he doth the Saints, that they may see if they are left to themselves what they are, and what a terrible thing it is to be deserted of God, and what a fearful creature the best men would quickly appear to be then. Elias Cretens. made four sorts. [1] Explorationis, to try their graces, as we see in Job. [2] Correctionis, as in David, and Solomon, and Samson. [3] Rejectionis, and so the Lord deserted the Jews, and so he doth wicked men. [4] Satisfactionis, and so he did desert the Lord Jesus Christ; but there was a satisfaction of Justice in that desertion, for it was the payment of a debt.

(3) That they may see how weak all means are, if sin in the power of it be so set against them, that they cannot keep it in, but it will break out, and that unto the highest degree; men would think that reason, and fear, and shame would suppress it, and indeed by these the Lord doth many times restrain sin, as they did the Jews, they would have taken hold of John, but they feared the people; but now let but the Lord withdraw his hand, and all means and arguments and reasonings will not prevail at all with them, they are like unto the wild Ass in the wilderness, and as the swift Dromedary, there is no restraint, nothing will be withheld from them of anything that they have a mind to do, they run into it as the horse into the battle, Jer. 8.6. so Christ says of Judas, it had been good for that man that he had not been born; but there is a prevailing injunction, he goes on to act, nothing can stay him.

(4) That the pople of God may fear to be delivered up unto the power of Satan. There is a kind of spiritual Excommunication which the Lord doth exercise towards men many times: What thou dost, do quickly, and Satan entered into Judas; there is a restraint upon the Devil, that he cannot always carry men to acts of sin, the Devil is bound; wicked men shall have the same persecuting hearts, but they shall not be able to draw forth those lusts into act, Rev. 20.8. but Satan shall be let loose, and will hurry men to acts of sin with violence, he tempted David to number the people, 1 Chron. 21.1. and God was angry with him, and Satan stirred him up, and it was in vain for Joab to speak to him, and show him his folly, he was set upon it, and it must be done, the Kings word prevailed: and so it is still with many of the children of God, Satan will carry men on unto horrid actions, and they shall act with violence.

(5) That godly men may exercise repentance of all kinds: the object of repentance is all sin, not only this or that sin, but all sin, original sin, actual sin, sins in the heart, and sins in the life, sins of commission, and sins of omission; as God will have our faith take in all the objects of faith, and be exercised about them all, so should our repent ••• e take in all the object of repentance; and the Lord makes us sensible of our proneness to all sorts and all ways of sin, that as patience, so repentance may have its perfect work; for as to humble the soul sin is left in it, so also the breaking forth of sin into act discovers our natural weakness, and is in wisdom permitted, because the Lord will have his people to perfect their repentance as well as their faith while they do live here.

(6) That the soul may be willing to put off the body, as it is an instrument and a servant to the soul in sinning; I am shortly, saith the soul, to put off this tabernacle, and I am the more willing to do it, because my members are weapons of unrighteousness, I shall then never sin more, no more be subject unto the bondage of corruption to serve the lusts of men; it shall be the glory of the body to serve the graces, but never the lusts of the soul anymore, but perfect sanctification shall be in it.

4. The Sovereignty of God is seen in the breaking forth of scandalous sins: there are but two sorts of sins that godly men are freed from, the sin against the Holy Ghost, and final impenitency, because they are delivered from the wrath to come, and being in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation unto them, Rom. 8.1. but else there is no sin either in judgment or practice, from the danger of which they can assure their hearts, be it never so foul, never so hateful before God or man; and therefore when we look upon the naufragia, shipwrecks of the Saints, who can, if God should withdraw his suitable assistance, secure themselves, or promise unto themselves freedom? If we consider the idolatry of Solomon, and that as gross as any that we shall read of, 1 King. 11.4, 8. and the persecution of Asa, 2 Chron. 16.10. and the Apostasy in Peter, and that the grossest with a denial, nay an abjuration, Mar. 14.71. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which some do expound to abjure Christ, and to wish unto him a curse, but most do say it was wishing a curse and an Anathema upon himself. Grotius makes it the same with that, Act. 23.14. They bound themselves with a curse, diris se obligavit, &c. of whom Bernard saith, Peccavit grande peccatum, & fortassis quo grandius nullum est, &c. Now seeing that there is in them a sea of corruption, a body of death, it is only an act of the Sovereignty of God that restrains the winds that they blow not upon this sea, Rev. 7.1. There are Angels that hold the winds of commotions that they break not forth, and Jer. 49.36. Dan. 7.2, 3. that they shall break forth in their season; so he doth also hold the winds of temptation, that they do not blow upon the sea of corruption; and by this means the mire and dirt is not discovered; but let but the wind blow upon it, and it is full of unquietness and rage immediately: 2 Sam. 12.4. there came a way-faring man unto the rich man, concupiscentiam viatorem vocat aut peregrinum, Pet. Martyr. [1] It is not a friend, or a servant, it is not one that is ordinarily accustomed to the house; there are some sins that are daily in a man, constant inmates, but there are great sins that da rise in a man but now and then. [2] Lusts are travellers 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the heart of man doth coast and wander all the world over to see what will become of it, and where it may be able to make advantage unto itself. [3] It comes upon a man suddenly and unexpectedly as a stranger, or as a traveler useth to do. [4] Yet when it comes it looks for entertainment, and it doth so ordinarily find it, the man will make provision for it. Now this traveler goes not where or when he pleases, but according to the Sovereignty of God, in the ordering the going forth of the lusts of men, it is a messenger of Satan, there is a time appointed for the opening of Hell, for the sending forth the messenger of Satan upon the soul, the letting forth of the smoke, Rev. 9.1.

The Lord doth in his Providence turn this unto good, (1) Unto a new conversion, Luk. 22.32. Christ said to Peter after his first conversion, when he foretells him of his scandalous fall, When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren: there is a double conversion, 1. From a state of sin, Acts 3.19. 2. From some particular gross acts of sin, because that doth make a breach upon a man's justification: [1] A damp upon grace, which there is upon the committing of such sins: Create in me, says David, a clean heart, and renew a right spirit in me. [2] There is a suspension of all the comforts of grace; he is as the leper, and he doth, as Zanchi saith, quodammodo excidere à gratia, he hath no comforts in the promises and the privileges of the Saints. [3] There is a change of all the dealings of God with him, Esa. 63.10. he became their enemy, and fought against them by spiritual judgments upon them, verse. 17. he shall have broken bones, and his moisture shall be dried up, God's wrath shall fall upon him; for there is a temporal wrath, there is filius sub ira, &c. Now here seems to be a particular Conversion by laying of all anew in the Soul, as if nothing were true before, he must repent anew, and believe anew; that as Zach. 1.17. the Lord's returning unto a people after eminent displeasure, is called a new Election, so also this is a new Conversion.

(2) Hereby the Soul hath experience in himself of the strength of Sin, the power of Temptation, and of Christ's Intercession: [1] He has experience of the Strength of sin; for sin is but too powerful in the best: Gen. 49.6, 7. it is said of the Sons of Israel, Simeon and Levi, Cursed be their anger for it was fierce, and their wrath for it was cruel; and David put the Ammonites under Saws and Harrowes; and Jonah, 4.9. he justifies himself against the debates of God with him, and saith, that he doth well to be angry unto the death. [2] The Soul experiences the power of Temptation, what there is in the winnowings of Satan; if the Lord should leave a man to the power which he hath already received, he would soon work all good out of his soul; for Satan is the ruler of the Darkness of this world, Ephes. 6.12. and he hath not only a great power over wicked men as Darkness itself, for they are led captive at his will, and he doth work effectually in them, but even upon the darkness that is in the Saints also; he can stir up that darkness in them, that it shall endanger to over-spread all, that there shall seem little difference between them and ungodly men, for the time that it doth prevail upon them. [3] The Soul experiences the power of the Prayer of Christ, Luk. 22.32. I have prayed for thee, that thy Faith fail not; how comes it to pass, that it doth not excutere? It is not so much from a Principle of Grace within, for that is in its own nature defective, but by virtue of the Covenant and the Prayer of Christ without; and it is this Prayer that doth uphold all the Grace that is in us, or else it would 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , deficere, &c. This Intercession doth not only present their Duties, but it preserves their Graces also, the one would be rejected and the other extinguished, were it not for this. The Saints have a double Advocate, as the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies, the Spirit of Prayer as an Advocate within us, which as a witness doth many times fail us, and we by our own sins lose the benefit and the comfort of it; but then we are to have recourse unto the Advocate without us, as the Soul is sometimes to make use of the witness of Blood, when he cannot see the witness of Water.

(3) It brings a man unto the great duty of Confession, to become public examples of Repentance, which hath been a great honor unto the Saints, who have risen out of their falls; and we cannot say that the records of their falls have been so dishonorable unto them, as their public Repentance and abasement before God has been honorable; with this the Lord honor'd David, and his Repentance stands upon Record, Psal. 51. and with this also he honor'd Solomon, which is Recorded in the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is therefore entitled Coheleth, which Cocceius observes to note receptionem suam ad ecclesiam per poenitentiam, his reception into the Church by Repentance, and is as much as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a man gathered unto the Congregation of the Lord; and so did Paul, Act. 22.4. I persecuted this way, and I was mad against them; and so doth Luther, he left it upon record, tantus eram sanctus, ut paratissimus fueram unumquemque occidere, &c. and this Tertull. de poeniten. chap. 9. observes to be in use in his time, .......... Presbyteris advolvi, charis Dei adgeniculari, as the example of Eccetalicus, &c. Thus as they were eminent examples in sinning, so they were desirous to be of Repentance.

(4) Hereby they are no more confident of their own strength, and so exalt not themselves above their Brethren; so Christ asked Peter, Now lovest thou me more than these? Joh. 21.15. he was before for making comparisons with all other men, though all men should forsake thee, yet not I; but now here is no Comparison: and if there be any strength in that, Christ asked by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and he answers 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which is a less degree of Love; it was good advice to him: But he said well, Hîc quaerendae non sunt subtilitates, the words are commonly in the Gospel promiscuously used; and it is a signal instance of God's power to bring good out of evil, when a man by reflecting upon some great sin that he hath committed, can say, that his carnal confidence in himself and his own strength, is healed thereby.

(5) This makes a Saint to walk in fear ever after; and blessed is the man that fears always; a fearless spirit doth bring sin: [1] A godly man fears sin as the only Evil, fears an Oath, and he doth say with Chrysostom, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this only is matter of fear; but specially when he has had experience of the breaking forth of it eminently, a man fears a disease that he hath felt; and so David will not trust his tongue without a bridle, and his Eyes without a Prayer; turn away my Eyes from beholding vanity; and thereby the bank is made up against that sin all their days; and it may be a sin that a man feared least, shall get the greatest hand upon him, if temptation get the wind and the hill of him. [2] He fears lest the Lord may therefore leave a note of dishonor upon him; Revel. 7.6, 7. when the Tribes were sealed, Dan was left out, and so is Ephraim, tanquam 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 antesignani, Mic. 1.13. this Tribe was the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion; they of Dan did it; for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee; it was a scandalous sin: the Lord may leave a note of sin upon a man, and his posterity afterwards for it, and he may not be honored as the rest of his Brethren, but may have a brand stick upon him for committing folly in Israel, &c.

(6) That a man may be fitted for service by it; Luk. 22.32. Christ says, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren; a man's own comfort doth fit a man to comfort others, 2 Pet. 2.2. and so do a man's own falls also, 2 Cor. 1.4. who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble: [1] By the Experience of the power of sin, he may be the better able to admonish others, 2 Pet. 2.2. they denied the Lord that bought them; and he can best speak of the danger of such a way himself, that hath found it, and had experience of it in himself. Austin having been himself a Manichee, when he disputed with Felix the great Manichee, he could show him the vanity of it by experience, and so frustrata vanitate & error illius sectae ad nostram fidem conversus est, &c. Possidon. in vita August. [2] He will be able to comfort others against the guilt of that sin; having himself sound favor, he can show others the way unto it; and so could Peter, having found mercy himself; and David, for this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee; and so Luther did publish unto all the way of Mercy that God had vouchsafed him, that all men might see that mercy is to be had for them; Peter velocissime veniam consecutus, &c.

(7) That it may be unto a man matter of Humiliation all his days; sins before Conversion be grievous, as they were to Paul, I was a Persecutor, and a Blasphemer, 1 Tim. 1.13. and such were some of you, but now you are washed: A man should not so look upon what he is, but he should also look back what he was, Behold thou art made whole; remember that thou wast a sick man; and the keeping it in view, will be useful unto a man all his days, to make him exalt mercy, and to cause him to abhor himself: So Austin, after he had made his Confession, he saith, Spes mihi valida est in illo qui sedet ad dextram tuam, & interpellat pro nobis, alioquin desperarem; magni enim & multi sunt languores animae meae, magni & multi, sed major est medicina tua & amplior. And so a man doth exalt Grace, and by this means abase himself all his days; Oh, I was a Blasphemer, I was an Adulterer, a Persecutor, and yet I have obtained mercy, God hath shown in me a pattern of Patience! Oh that ever such a one should find mercy and favor with him, that he should take me into his bosom!

(8) It puts a man upon the greater Mortification of sin, he doth with the greater hatred abhor all evil; ye that fear the Lord, hate evil; now hatred will be contented with nothing but destruction, the more the Enemy doth arise, the more doth a man's hatred arise, Gratia vexata, seipsam prodit; a man shall say, What have I to do anymore with Idols? to the Moles and to the Batts; David hates that sin that had so defiled him, and this sets him against the whole body of sin; I was shapen in iniquity, and now he looks for the Root, and he doth hate sin in the Fountain of it. And as it is in a sin in Practice, so it is in an error in Judgment, he will not only be watchful against it, but he will also hate it the more. There was not such an enemy against the Manichees in the world as Austin was, because he had been himself deluded with it; as when he was to dispute with Fortunatus, Secum in eodem error constitutum congredi putabat: And so Luther that of Popery, Brevi efficiam, &c. and so he doth answer himself, Vincet mea audacia in Christo; and Paul with more Zeal did preach that Faith which before he destroyed; and thereby the Saints glorified God for him, Gal. 1. ult. it makes a man zealous to honor God in that thing, wherein he had so highly dishonor'd him.

(9) It makes a man tender towards others, Gal. 6.1. he will put on a spirit of Meekness to others, because he hath found the mercy of God to his own Soul, and therefore he despairs of nothing, that they may also through your mercy attain mercy, Rom. 11.31. there being the same mercy shown unto them that was shown unto us, and they are as capable of the same mercy as we were; Christ shown tenderness unto Peter, and he appeared unto him one of the first after his Resurrection, and he did comfort him even against his fall, shown him great favor; and surely so will the soul be ready to comfort others also; he that hath received mercy, will put on bowels of mercy; who is offended, and I burn not? no man is put off, no man encouraged in his sin; the pride of a man's heart is as well broken with Mercies as it is with Crosses, and Afflictions; and the Lord doth hide pride from the heart in them both; that a man that doth put his mouth in the dust when God is pacify'd, will be as low as the dust towards another in the same Offence with himself; this I have had experience of, and yet received unto mercy; and it becomes me to put on the same bowels to others.

(10) Providence orders it for the consolation of the people of God, and it is a mighty argument of faith: as if when God gives his Son, he will give all things; so if God do bring good out of sin, all shall work together for good. Sin is the greatest evil, greater than Hell, the one God is the Author of, but not of the other, the one is against an uncreated good, the glory of God, the other is but against the good of the creature; and yet even this shall be for good, and so a man may say with Gregory of Adams sin, foelix culpa, but not talem meruit Redemptorem.

§. 5. 2. Not only a man's own sins, but other men's sins are turned unto the good of the Saints also; the providence of God doth so order all things, that they have a benefit by them, and that both by wicked and godly men's sins; and in the sins of wicked men it is true what Austin saith, That God had never suffered sin to come into the world, if it had been such an evil as he could have brought no good out of it: Bonitas tua novit malis nostris been uti, Anselm. Non solùm mala passiva quae nobis irrogantur in bonum cedunt, sed etiam activa quae nos ipsi facimus, Luther. Collaudandus est benignissimus & omnipotence Deus, qui malis nostris non solùm non vincitur, sed ex iis operatur nostrum bonum, Gerson. Omnipotens Deus cùm sum bonus sit, nullo modo sineret aliquid mali esse in operibus suis, nisi adeo esset omnipotence & bonus, ut benefaceret etiam de malo; illorum nequitia est male uti bonis operibus ejus, sic illius sapientia est been uti malis eorum operibus, August. And as all the sins of ungodly men shall turn to the glory of God, so they shall all of them be for the good of his people, they shall be gainers by all the wickedness that is done in the world, as the Lord will work his glory out of all. Though the Lord forbid sin, and hate it, and thereby appears not to be the Author of it; so the Saints do hate sin and mourn for it, that thereby it may appear, that they are not partakers in it; and yet for all this, God doth work his glory, and the good of the Saints out of all the wickedness and all the confusions that are in the world; and next to the pardon of sin, this is the great privilege of the second Covenant, that their own and other men's sins do work together for their good, those things that they do mourn for and pray against, &c. And this I will manifest (1) in general, and then (2) in some of the particulars thereof, because it is maximum divinae providentiae argumentum, Clem. Alex.

1. In general, how doth God make the sins of wicked men to conduce unto the good of the Saints? This will appear in these particulars.

(1) Hereby they may always read what they were, as in the example of the Saints, they may always read what they ought to be; the one is set before them as a pattern as well as the other, Tit. 3.3. We ourselves were sometime disobedient, foolish, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy; and it is good for the Saints to be mindful thereof what they have been, sic fuimus olim; I was once, saith Luther, Monachus miserrimus: look to the rock whence thou wert hewn: Paul kept the condition of his unregeneracy always in his mind. It is true, God forgets our sins, but we should not; see the wickedness that is in the lives of other men, and read thine own in it, as Austin did in a child, vidi puerulum, &c. and thence he doth conclude it was so with him, quando minimus fui.

(2) By this they see what they are delivered from; might not I have been such a one? 1 Cor. 6.11. Such were some of you, but now you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified; and by this the grace of God is exalted in their hearts so much the more, which might have suffered them forever to have walked in the error of the wicked, and to have gone in the same way with them: Psal. 69.27. Add iniquity unto their iniquity; that is, as the Saints go from one degree of grace to another, they go from glory to glory, from strength to strength; so let these go from one sin to another, God lets them do it till they have filled up their measure, and then lets go judgment after it upon them, by giving them over unto it, that so they may fill up their measure; for there is a measure of sin as well as of grace, Joel 3.13. Put in thy sickle and reap, for the harvest is ripe, the press is full; there is a measure of iniquity, and then they do come up in remembrance before God; the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. A dismal judgment it is, that a man should live for no other end, but to fill up iniquity.

(3) Hereby the Saints are daily admonished what they are in their own nature, if the Lord leave the best men to themselves, and kept it not under the restraint of grace, 2 Tim. 2.19. they seeing others Apostasy fear themselves; and Christ speaking of him that was to betray him, all the Disciples began to fear lest it should be themselves; this sin is in my nature, say they, and therefore it is mere mercy that I am not so wicked as Cain and Judas, I am as like to commit it as they, if the Lord should leave me to myself; that gratia subsequens, the Rock that followed them preserves his people from the sin that is in their natures, and they reflect upon that when they see others fall into sin, considering themselves, lest they also be tempted, Gal. 6.1.

(4) Hereby they are minded of the ends that sin brings men to, that they may fear them. As the ends of godly men are to be observed, whose faith follow; knowing the end of their conversation; so we are called upon in Scripture to consider the ends of the wicked, Prov. 23.21. Drunkenness will clothe a man with rags, who hath redness of eyes and wounds without cause? Prov. 6.26. By the means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread, and a dart striking through his liver, and he gets a wound and dishonor that shall never be wiped off; Prov. 21.16. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in coetu gigantum, in the congregation of the Giants: they being the first sort of sinners that ever went into Hell, and so did give the first denomination unto the place of the damned.

(5) By this the Saints are put upon many duties towards them which will abound unto their account; and [1] to pity their souls, and to wait for them with patience, Tit. 3.2, 3. Showing all meekness towards all men, for we ourselves were such; Rom. 11.31. says the Apostle, That through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. [2] Despair not of them; because the Lord shown mercy to you, therefore wait if at any time God will give them repentance, 1 Tim. 1.16. He shown in me a pattern to them that should hereafter believe in him, &c. we have in ourselves an instance. [3] We are to undervalue the persons of thes • men how great soever, Prov. 29.27. The wicked is an abomination to the just, Psal. 15.4. Dan. 4.17. they are the basest of men, be they never so great. [4] As the people of God fear the ends of the wicked, so they hate their ways: He walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, he stands not in the way of sinners; when sinners entice him he consents not; Gen. 49.6. My soul come not thou into their secrets, unto their assembly, my honor, be not thou united: let me not eat of their dainties; and also Psal. 26.9. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men: there is a bundle of the living, there is a being gathered unto ones fathers and people: wicked men are so, and godly men are so, they both have their people; let me not be gathered with them that are ungodly, O Lord.

2. Now more particularly, the Saints are by Providence gainers by the plots of wicked men, and their counsels, by their attempts against them, and by their executions, and in all these the secret providence of God over them is manifested. First by their plots and counsels; a great part of the evil of wicked men lies in their plots, devices, and machinations, Psal. 35.20. They devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land; they never know what they are doing or meditating on, their thoughts are a continual forge of evil, the Devils anvil, always at work against the people of God, Jer. 18.18. Let us devise devices against Jeremiah; it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which signifies a cunning plot, and a curious work, &c. and the Saints fear their plots commonly more than their power, as they fear the Devil more as a Serpent than as a Lyon, and yet by their plots they travail with mischief, devise evil continually, Prov. 6.14. and it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which signifies fodit, he hath a Mine within, and is always digging out mischief; as a godly man hath a fountain that is always issuing good: there is a good treasure and an evil treasure, and the Holy Ghost speaks much of the plottings of wicked men against the Saints, which never come unto anything, they weave a spiders web, which never becomes a garment; and by these plots the Saints are gainers. (1) They see the Lord restraining their very plots, that they do not always rise; none of them shall desire thy land; they shall not see their own advantages; and they shall grope at noon day, Job 5.14. it is spoken of their counsels, he disappoints the counsels of the crafty, and that is by snarling their thoughts, confounding their plots, that they do not see their own way; they want no will to effect their mischievous devices, but yet they cannot tell what way to take against the people of God; therein the Lord is seen. (2) He clogs them, their hands cannot perform their enterprise, they cannot bring their wicked devices to pass always, when they should come to execution; when the children are come unto the birth, there is no strength to bring them forth, for the Lord doth blow upon them, and they wither as the grass upon the house top, and they bear no fruit. (3) They end in their own destruction, Esa. 59.5. They hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave the spiders web, &c. a serpent, a viper eats out the bowels of the mother, they themselves are stung with them unto death, they are taken in their own craft; the wicked is ensnared in the work of his own hand, &c. (4) The Lord doth time the plot, that it shall be at such a time, when it is to accomplish his purpose, and that it shall be for the good of the Saints: My hour is not yet come, says Christ, Rev. 9.14. Loose the four Angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates, which were prepared for an hour, for a day, and a month, and a year, to slay the third part of men; they had designed it, but it rested a great while, and now it is revived again; and so they plotted against Daniel when God did intend to exalt him; and so that of Gog, Thou shalt think an evil thing, &c. (5) The Saints are the more driven unto God by prayer, Lord, turn the wisdom of Achitophel into folly; and they have the more need of the counsel of Jesus, to be wise as serpents, and they have the more experience of their interest in the wisdom of God, which is made over unto them, who in the things wherein the wicked deal subtly will out-wit them.

There are two ways by which the enemy hath always set himself against the people of God: (1) In a way of policy; For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. (2) In a way of power; they will be first as a Fox, and then as a Lyon, as the Pope said, If Peters Keys will not do it, give me Paul's Sword: the same spirit there is in all wicked men, their aim is to destroy the Saints, but they are not willing to appear in it, if it may be hid. Neh. 4.11. the adversaries said, They shall not know nor see, till we come upon them in the middle of them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. They would fain accomplish their ends, and effect their cruelty by a plot, that they should never know who hurt them, that's their design. As the Devil, he will never appear as he is, if putting upon himself the form of an Angel of light will do it; so it is with the enemies unto the Church, Jeroboam robs the people of their Religion, but it was under a great show of ease to them; and for their worship at Jerusalem it was but a form, they should have as good worship elsewhere, and as holy as there, and it was much more for their ease than to be in this manner scattered from their dwellings; and Julian raised against the Church the bitterest Persecution, but it was under the show of a toleration, let every man enjoy the liberty of his own conscience, he would have no man forced in his Religion, and he doth encourage the Jews to build their Temple again, and he doth himself favor the Gentiles in their worship, and yet he can bear with the Christians also; so the Donatists in Austin's time, (1) They did deny any to be a true Church but themselves: (2) There should be no compelling of men to live holy, coacta & invita pietas: (3) That the Magistrate is not to punish or restrain Heretics and false Teachers in matters of Religion, every man should be lest to his liberty. (4) They did rebaptize men into their Church: But this plot being laid, facti insolentes, vim orthodoxis inferebant: insomuch that the Emperor Honorius was forced to send Dulcitius the Tribune with an Army into Africa to restrain their rage against the Orthodox Christians, whom they would suffer to live in peace no longer than till they had got power in their hands, and then they would not yield unto them that liberty which before they pleaded for themselves.

And here I would observe from the Scripture, (1) How wisdom and carnal policy is looked upon by God, and what respect he hath unto it: (2) Yet how all this wisdom, in the exercise and the putting forth of it in plots and devices, is by the providence of God turned unto the good of his people.

1. What respect God hath to the wisdom of the flesh, though never so deep, never so profound. 1. He saith, That the wisdom of the flesh is vanity and folly; the Lord knows the wisdom of the flesh to be but vain, for it is foolishness with him, 1 Cor. 3.19, 20. take it in those two things that Solomon mentions, Eccles. 1.15. (1) In the defect of wisdom: That which is wanting cannot be numbered; there are many thousand conclusions in nature that the most exquisite understanding is not able to pierce into, and there are many thousand turnings in providence that do amaze and non-plus the wisdom of the wisest men in the world; and therefore in this respect God doth even charge his Angels with folly, how much more men, that is, there is in them a negative ignorance, which is folly, if compared with the infinite wisdom of the great God. (2) They cannot make a crooked thing straight; that is, they do meet with men of cross and perverse spirits, which they cannot change, and men of crooked dispositions, and they do meet in the way of their wisdom also with many cross providences, that all things do not succeed according to their plots, and as they would have them, and then they are put upon new plots and devices to rectify the other, and yet when they have done all, their wisdom could not prevent it, neither can their wisdom reform it, that which is crooked will be crooked still, and the men that oppose them will oppose them still, and the stumbling-blocks that are in the wise man's way will be there still, and all his wisdom cannot remove them.

2. God looks upon the wise men of the world and their wisdom as enemies unto himself, and the Lord hates as much to be opposed in a way of policy, as in a way of power, Rom. 8.6. their wisdom is enmity against the Law of God, it is not subject, neither can it be. Aquinas observes, That faith is more strange to a wise man and a learned man, than it is u • to another that is more ignorant, because he is able to raise more objections and doubts against it, and the grounds of it, than another man is; and therefore if any man in the world stumble at the Word of God, or the ways of God, it is a wise man according to the flesh, and he has much to say, and strong reasons to object against it. There are two things that must be exalted in the heart of the Saints in the Word of God: (1) The holiness of the Word; (2) The wisdom of the Word, a man must look upon it as that which will be his wisdom also. Now a man that is profane, he is an enemy unto the word, and is not subject to it because of the Holiness of it, he must take more liberty than the Word will give him, it is too strait and narrow a way for him; and a wise man is offended at the Simplicity of the Word, it doth not agree with his Wisdom, he is ready to think he could give better Rules to guide a man's life, and bring him unto Happiness, of governing of Estates, and ordering the affairs of men, than the Word doth lay down, and so he cannot submit to it, because he doth look upon it as a foolish thing, and as that which hath no wisdom in it; but a man must submit in point of wisdom and holiness to it.

3. All fleshly Wisdom the Lord doth hate, and look upon as D • vilish, Jam. 3.15. that as spiritual wisdom is a Divine beam from the Father of Light, so is carnal Wisdom a spark that ariseth out of Hell beneath; it is a part of that wisdom that is in the Devil, and answers unto it in all the ends, intents, and actings thereof; that look what ends the Devil hath in his wicked plots, such have they; and look what means he useth, such do they use also; for it is that which their wisdom doth direct them unto; so that take a man that hath a subtle and malicious heart, and if you would see a picture of the Devil incarnate, that is the man; and as the wisdom which Satan hath as an Angel (that remaining Stock) doth make him the more perfectly a Devil, so it is with this man also, all that wisdom he has gotten by nature, and by study, and by experience and observation, he becomes the more like unto the Devil by it; and therefore this fleshly wisdom being so perfectly conformable unto the Devil, and being inspired from Hell, it is said to be devilish; for there are the Devils lusts: The Devil hath his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Now which way to vent or to propagate them in the world immediately, he knows not; and they are much more propagated when they are acted, than when they are suggested. Now the ordinary sorts of sinners are able to act the Devils lusts, but their plots are deep, they are such depths that they must be wise men indeed that are able to understand them; and for that cause, as by his temptation he doth stir up the one, so he doth by his suggestion inspire the other; and as there are Messengers of Satan, immediate Lusts from Hell, so there are immediate Plots from Hell, and Satan fills the hearts of men with them, as he did the heart of Judas in his betraying of Christ, &c. and upon this account • or its original, and for its resemblance, it is called by God devilish wisdom.

4. God doth seldom or never give Grace unto that man, who is inspired with carnal Wisdom; he doth seldom graft it upon such a Stock as this is, 1 Cor. 1.26. Not many wise men, not many noble are called; and Math. 11.25. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto Babes, &c. But might it not have been much for the honor of the Gospel, and the advancement of Religion, if the wise men of the world did come, as the wise men of the East did, and bow down unto Christ, and worship him? would not Religion have the greater name and glory amongst men? and would it not be freed from that scandal of Piscatoria simplicitas? No, they are only the poor of the world, and the foolish and simple ones that embrace it and believe it, God looks not as man looks, he doth choose the poor of this world, and the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, &c. and this is one of those depths of God's Judgments which are unsearchable, and his ways that are past finding out; for he will exalt free Grace alone. And the Lord hath no need nor the Gospel of any such Subsidiaries, he hath a wisdom that is able to carry on the Gospel of his Grace, and it shall prevail, though there be no wisdom in the Professors thereof, that it may appear to be his work, and that he doth alone promote it; if men stand not by the Gospel, yet God will, and the Simplicity thereof shall overcome; that as he will have the Power to be of God alone, so the Wisdom shall be also of God alone, that makes a man wise to salvation.

5. This is the Man that commonly the Devil doth make use of. There is nothing in an unregenerate man but what is or may be the Devils weapons, Luk. 11.22. his Soul is the Devils house, and the inward abilities of the man, that's the Armor of Satan; now the greater any natural man's abilities are, the stronger armor he has for Satan, and the more use he will make of him, and that because he is able to do him more service; and as God doth use men according to their Graces, (for he will act the Graces that he has given) so will Satan also use men according to their abilities, they shall not lie idle, he doth proportion the service a man can do him, as God doth, that men may be pares negotio. They will also be an honor to their employment, because they are looked upon as wise men by the rest of the world, Cupit & Diabolus abs te ornari, as Austin saith of a young man of great gifts and abilities; and so there is this Curse upon human wisdom, it is a servant unto Satan, and yet it is a snare unto the man, and a Curse upon his Soul. And indeed Satan's cause hath need of such instruments, that shall lay deep plots, and not carry things in simplicity, because it is darkness, and if it be seen and discovered, it is for the most part clouded. But with the Lord it is not so, he doth all in the Light, and loves so to do, therefore he has no need of any such secret plots, and hiding of Counsels, as the wise men of the world are accustomed unto: There is but one very worldly wise man, namely Solomon, that the Scripture doth speak of among all the godly men in it, and the Scripture has recorded more of his falling and of God's departing from him, leaving him to himself, and more of the madness and folly that he ran upon by his exercise of, and his leaning upon his own wisdom, and the use that the Devil made of him, than of any other godly man that we read of in all the Scripture besides; therefore surely they are dangerous instruments in Satan's hand.

6. Carnal wisdom is commonly used against the people of God, the edge of it is commonly turned that way, Psal. 83.3. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones: there are a people which the Lord hath undertaken to hide and to protect; for he is the Savior of all men, but especially of them that believe; and there are a people that he doth lay up for himself as his peculiar treasure, for the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Exod. 19.5. signifies both these, and against these are the plots of the wise men of the earth; see it in Pharaoh, Achitophel, and Herod, they all prospered till they turned their wisdom this way; but when once they began to turn the head of their policy against the Saints, they did very speedily find their ruin; therein the Lord did go beyond them, and they were taken in their own craftiness. For when Satan has engaged their spirits against the Saints, Satan never leaves, but he makes them restless, raiseth up in them both great plots and great hopes, and so they never cease till they meet with the Church as a burdensome stone, at which they will always be lifting, till they be broken therewith; for in their very policy they do perish, and in their own plots, as in the net which they had privily laid is their foot taken, Zac. 12.1, 2. Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and Jerusalem.

2. How doth the Lord turn these plottings of wicked men, be they never so deep, unto the good of his people?

1. God doth set Divine wisdom on work for them; for they have an interest in all the Attributes of God, and they shall be put forth for them as their necessities do require, Psal. 119.120. It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. The Saints may desire God to put out an Attribute then, and they do fly unto their strong hold, unto their chambers, as Esa. 26. as when the power of man is exalted against them, now it is time for them to say, We have no might against this multitude, but our eyes are upon thee, it is all one to thee to save with few or with many; so when carnal wisdom is exalted, now is the time for God to put forth his wisdom for them that are his people; for they say, We have no wisdom against this wise and subtle generation, but our eyes are upon thee, and in thee is our wisdom laid up. Herod had a plot against Christ, and he will come and worship him, that is, he would come and destroy him, and the Wise-men also that came to seek him; now is the wisdom of God put forth for Christ's preservation, one is sent into Egypt, and the other are admonished by God, and they return into their own country another way. And the people of God have more benefit by seeing the wisdom of God acting for them, than they can have disadvantage or discouragement, by seeing all the wise men of the world against them. O great is the sweetness that the people of God have by seeing any Attribute act for them, and for their good, that by this means they may come to understand their inheritance in Attributes, which is far beyond that of creatures or promises: as a father, his bowels are moved for a child, when he sees him in danger, and then his affections do discover themselves; so do the Saints expect that the Lord shall fulfil his relation in that respect, when dangers are pressing upon them, &c.

2. In the middle of all their plots they comfort themselves in this, that they shall take no effect against them, till they have done the service which the Lord hath, appointed them unto, Luke 13.32. they told Christ that Herod had a plot upon him to kill him, he saith, Go tell that Fox, behold I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Franc. in his History Animalium, gives us three properties of a Fox, he is animal dolosum, crudele, gulosum, subtle and deceitful, all for death, cruel, and all for the prey: and there is a double property of him as deceitful. (1) Noctu prorepit, he only goes forth in the night, doth all things secretly; and so do Plotters, they must not be seen, and a great part of their wisdom is to be undiscovered. (2) Nunquam rectis incedit itineribus, sed ambagibus, He doth never go right on, but always he hath his windings and turnings; so Politicians, they love to walk unseen, and they never love to go in plain paths, but in secret ways to ensnare men: But Christ, when they told him of the design of this Fox Herod, he comforts himself with this, there is a set time for my work, and then when that is done my service is perfect, then shall I die, and I know all his policy shall be able to avail nothing against me, till I have finished the work that the Father has given me to do. And so may all the Saints comfort themselves against all the plots of wicked men against them, they shall finish their work notwithstanding.

3. This shall sometimes make way for their service in a wonderful manner: the Jews had a plot against Paul, and they had taken an oath, That they would neither eat nor drink • ill they had killed him; this occasioned his being sent unto Cesarea first, and afterwards to Rome, where the Lord told him he must bear witness of him also; and glorious was the service that he did there; and the souls that he converted were many, and in a special manner even in Caesar's family there were souls brought home unto the Lord, Phil. 4.22. All the Saints salute you, chiefly those that are of Caesar's household: it was Nero that opprobrium humani generis, and yet the Lord had some to pluck out there; and the Lord made the plot which they had against him the occasion of all this great work: what loser was Paul by it? nay how much honor did it bring unto t •• Lord? and how great thanksgiving was given unto God by these p • or converted souls, who came unto the knowledge of the Gospel, and the way to life by this means?

4. What they do plot to hinder, shall by their very plots be advanced, Esa. 44.25. he turns wise men backward, that is, they shall see a quite contrary effect unto that which by their wisdom they intended to bring to pass against the Jews: and the raising persecution against the Christians since, was to hinder the Gospel, and to suppress it; but this did further the Gospel, for it did occasion their going forth unto the Gentiles, and by this means the sound went forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world; and 〈◊〉 the casting off of the Jews became the enriching of the Gentiles by this means, which else had never been so gloriously and fully done: and I do not doubt, but the very opposition that is against the Ordinances of the Gospel shall establish them in the Lord's time, and the opposition against any truth hath ever established that truth; for they are but as winds that root the trees, by shaking of them they fasten, Jer. 20.10. Report, say they, and we will report it; the wicked plot to take away the good names of the Saints by casting out slanders against them, as if they were the vilest wretches upon earth; but there is not such a way to bring an honor upon them, and to cause the Lord to make their light to break forth out of darkness unto after generations, as to reproach them.

5. Hereby they have experience of those glorious promises that God has made to his people, of frustrating the plots of their enemies, Esa. 8.10. Consult, but it shall come to naught, speak the word, but it shall not stand, for God is with us: Prov. 6.14. Frowardness is in his heart, he devis • th mischief continually, he sowed discord, therefore shall his calamity come suddenly, suddenly shall he be broken without remedy: and Psal. 19.21. Many devices are in the heart of a man, but the counsel of God, that shall stand. Psal. 64.6, 7. They search out iniquity, they accomplìsh a diligent search, the inward thoughts of everyone of them, and the heart is deep, but God shall shoot at them with an arrow, and suddenly shall they be wounded. Hereby the Saints fly unto those promises, and they have experience of their interest and the prayers of the ancient Saints against all the enemies that ever plotted mischief against the Church; as the instance of Judas; they are answered in after-generations: and there is a Communion of Saints that the people of God have with Saints departed upon this ground also, they have a benefit by the prayers which they did put up upon earth, which are accomplished upon the enemies of the Church and people of God in after-ages.

Lastly, They have experience of strange, secret, and glorious deliverances by this means; and truly experience of God in any kind is no small advantage to the Saints, they make much of their own experiences, and live upon them afterwards. Possidon tells us in the Life of Austin, that as he was travelling there were certain of the Donatists, whom he calls Circumcelliones, that did lay wait for him armed to kill him, obvenit Dei providentia, sed ductoris error, but he missed the way, & per hunc errorem manus impias evasit, and so escaped. This drew forth in him and in many others of the people of God many praises unto God for so great and unknown deliverance: and I did the rather insist upon this, because the enemies of the people of God are very busy in plotting against the Saints, and we have cause to fear the fraud of the enemy as well as their force; though if hand join with hand, yet the wicked shall not be unpunished; and the God that has delivered, will again deliver. These things may one day be worth thinking of; when we are cast upon such providences, that we know not what to do, then the Lord will arise for the help of those that wait on him.