The Souls Conflict With Itself, Chapter 16
CAP. XVI.
Of trust in God: grounds of it: specially his providence.
BUt to come neerer to the unfolding of this trusting in God, which David useth here as a remedy against all distempers. Howsoever confidence and trust bee an affection of nature, yet by the spirits sanctifying and carrying it to the right object, it becomes a grace of wonderfull use. In the things of this life usually hee that hopes most is the most unwise man; he being most deceived that hopes most, because he trusts in that which is uncertaine, and therefore deceitfull hope is counted but the dreame of a waking man. But in Religion it is farre otherwise, here, hope is the maine supporting grace of the soule, springing from faith in the promises of God.
Trust and hope are often taken in the same sense, though a distinction betwixt them hath somtimes its use: faith lookes to the word promising, hope to the thing promised in the word, faith lookes to the authority of the promiser, hope (especially) to the goodnesse of the promise; faith looks upon things as present, hope as to come hereafter. God as the first truth is that which faith relyes on, but God as the chiefe good, is that which hope rests on, trust or confidence is nothing else, but the strength of hope; if the thing hoped for be deferred, then of necessity it ensorces waiting, and waiting is nothing else but hope and trust lengthened.
Howsoever, there may be use of these and such like distinctions, yet usually they are taken promiscuously, especially in the old Testament. The nature and use of faith is set out by tearmes of staying, resting, leaning, rolling our selves upon God, &c. which come all to one, and therefore wee forbeare any further curious distinction.
Now seeing trusting in God, is a remedy God and the Soule must be brought together by trust.against all distempers, it is necessary that wee should bring the object and the act (God and the Soule) together; for effecting of which, it is good to know something concerning God, and something concerning trust. God is onelyonly the fit object of trust, hee hath all the properties of that which should be trusted on; A man can bee in no condition wherein God is at a losse and cannot helpe him; if comforts be wanting he can create comforts, not onelyonly out of nothing, but out of discomforts; He made the Whale that swallowed up Ionah 1. 17Ionas, a meanes to bring him to the Shore: The Sea was a wall to the Israelites on both sides: The devouring flames were a great refreshing to the Dan. 3.three children, in the fierie furnace; That trouble which we think will swallow us up, may be a meanes to bring us to our haven; So mighty is God in power, and so excellent in working. God Esa. 28. 29.then, and God onelyonly is a fit foundation for the soule to build it selfe upon, for the firmer the foundation is, the stronger will the building be, therefore those that will build high must digge deepe: the higher the tree riseth, the deeper the root spreadeth and fastneth it selfe below. So it is in faith, if the foundation thereof be not firme, the soule cannot build it selfe strongly upon it; Faith hath a double principle to build on, either a principle of being, or a principle of knowing, the principle of being is God himselfe, the principle of knowing is Gods word, whereby God commeth forth (out of that hidden light which none can attaine unto) and discovereth his meaning towards us for our good.
This then must 1. be supposed for a ground, that there is a God, and that God 1.is, (that is) hath a full and eternall being, and giveth a Being, and an order of Being, to all things else; some things have onelyonly a Being, some things life and being, some things sense, &c. and some things have a more excellent being including all the former, as the being of creatures indued with reason; If God had a not being, nothing else could be; In things subordinate one to another, take away the first, and you take away … the rest: Therefore this proposition (God is) is the first truth of all, and if this were not, nothing else should be: as we see if the heavenly bodies doe not move, there is no motion here below.
2. In the divine nature or being, 2.there is a subsisting of three persons, every one so set out unto us, as fitted for us to trust in: the Father as a Creator, the Sonne as a Redeemer, the Holy Ghost as a Comforter, and all this in reference to us: God in the first person hath decreed the great work of our salvation, and all things tending to the accomplishment of it: God in the second person hath exactly and fully answered that decree and plot, in the worke of our redemption; God in the third person, discovers and applyes all unto us, and fits us for communion with the Father and the Sonne from whom he proceeds;
3. GOD cannot be comfortably 3.thought upon out of Christ our mediator in whom hee was reconciling the 1 Cor. 5. 19.world to himselfe, as being a friend both to God and us, and therefore fit to bring God and the soule together, being a middle person in the trinity; In Christ Gods nature becomes lovely to us, and ours to God: otherwise there is an utter enmity betwixt his pure and our impure nature: Christ hath made up the vaste gulfe betweene God and us; there is nothing more terrible to thinke on, then an absolute God out of Christ.
4. Therefore for the better drawing of us to trust in God, we must conceive 4.of him under the sweet relation of a Father; Gods nature is Fatherly now unto us, and therefore lovely.
5. And for further strengthning our faith, it is needfull to consider 5.what excellencies the Scripture giveth unto God, answerable to all our necessities; what sweet Names God is pleased to be knowne unto us by sor our comfort, as a mercifull, gracious, long suffering Exo. 34. 6.God, &c.
When Moses desired to see the glory of God, God thus manifested himself, in the way of goodnesse, I will m… all my goodnesse passe before thee.Exod. 33. 16.
Whatsoever is good in the creature, is first in God as in a fountaine and it is in God in a more emi… manner and fuller measure. All grace and holinesse, all sweetnesse of affection, all power and wisdome, &c. as it is in him, so it is from him, and we come to conceive these properties to bee in God, 1. by feeling the comfort and power of 1.them in our selves; 2. by observing 2.these things in their measure to be in the best of the creatures, whence wee arise to take notice of what grace and what love, what strength and wisdome &c. is in God, by the beames of these which we see in his creature, with adding in our thoughts fulnesse peculiar to God, and abstracting imperfections, incident to the creature; for that is in God in the highest degree, the sparkles whereof is but in us.
6. Therefore it is fit that unto all 6.other eminencies in God, wee should strengthen our faith by considering those glorious singularities, which are altogether incommunicable to the creature, and which gives strength to his other properties, as that God is not onelyonly gracious and loving, powerfull, wise, &c. but that he is infinitely, …, and unchangeably so. All which are comprised in and drawne from that one name Iehovah as being of himselfe, and giving a being to all things else, of nothing, and able when it pleaseth him to turne all things to nothing againe.
As God is thus, so he makes it good by answerable actions and dealing towards 7. What God is, hee maketh good by providence.us, by his continuall providence; the consideration whereof is a great stay to our faith, for by this providence God makes use of all his former excellencies for his peoples good; for the more comfortable apprehension of which, it is good to know that Gods providence is extended as farre as his creation. Every creature (in every element and place whatsoever) receiveth a powerfull influence from God, who doth what pleaseth him, both in heaven, and earth, in the sea, and all places; But we must know, God doth not put things into a frame, and then leave them to their owne motion, as wee doe clocks, after wee have once set them right, and ships after wee have once built them, commit them to winde and waves; but as hee made all things, and knowes all things, so (by a continued kind of creation) he preserves all things in their being and working, and governes them to their ends: Hee is the first mover that sets all the wheeles of the creature a working: One wheele may move another, but all are moved by the first. If God moves not, the clock of the creature stands. If God should not uphold things, they would presently fall (to nothing) from whence they came. If God should not guide things, Sathans malice, and mans weaknesse, would soone bring all to a confusion. If God did not rule the great family of the world, all would breake and fall to pieces, whereas the wise providence of God, keepeth every thing on its right hinges. All things stand in obedience to this providence of God, and nothing can withdraw it selfe from under it; If the creature withdraw it selfe from one order of providence, it falls into another; If man (the most unruly and disordered creature of all) withdraw himselfe from Gods gracious government of him to happinesse, hee will soone fall under Gods just government of him to deserved misery; If hee shakes off Gods sweet yoake, he puts himselfe under Sathans heavy yoake, who (as Gods executioner) hardens him to destruction; and so whiles hee rushes against Gods will, he fulfils it. And whilst he will not willingly doe Gods will, Gods will is done upon him against his will.
The most casuall things fall under providence, yea (the most disordered thing in the world, (sinne) and (of sins the most horrible that ever the Sunne beheld) the crucifying of the Lord of life, was guided by a hand of providence to the greatest good. For that which is ca suall in regard of a second cause, is not so in regard of the first, whose providence is most cleerely seene in casuall events that fall out by accident, for in these the effect cannot be ascribed to the next cause, God is said to kill him, Deut. 19. 5who was unwarily slaine by the falling of an axe or some instrument of death.
And though man hath a freedome in working, and (of all men) the Hearts of Kings are most free, yet even these are guided by an over ruling power, as the rivers of water are carryed in their channels, whither skilfull men list to Prov. 21. 1.derive them.
For setling of our faith the more, God taketh liberty in using weake meanes to great purposes, and setteth aside more likely and able meanes, yea sometimes he altogether disableth the greatest meanes, and worketh often by no meanes at all. It is not from want of power in God, but from abundance & multiplying of his goodnesse, that hee useth any means at all: there is nothing that he doth by meanes, but hee is able to doe without meanes.
Nay, God often bringeth his will to passe by crossing the course and stream of meanes, to shew his own soveraignty, and to exercise our dependance; and maketh his very enemies, the accomplishers of his owne will, and so, to bring about that which they oppose most. Hence it is that we beleeve under hope against hope.Ps. 135. 6.
But wee must know, Gods manner of guiding things is without prejudice of the proper working of the things themselves; hee guideth them sweetly according to the instincts hee hath put into them; for,
1. He furnishes creatures with a vertue and power to worke, and likewise 1.with a manner of working sutable to their owne nature, as it is proper for a man (when he workes) to worke with freedome, and other creatures by naturall instinct, &c. 2. God maintaineth both the power and manner of working, 2.and perfecteth and accomplisheth the same by acting of it, being neerer to us in all wee doe, then we are to Intimior intimo nostro.our selves. 3. He applies and stirres up our abilities and actions, to this or that 3.particular as he seeth best. 4. Hee suspends or removes the hinderances of 4.all actions, and so powerfully, wisely, and sweetly orders them to his owne ends. When any evill is intended, God either puts bars and letts to the execution of it, or else limiteth and boundeth the same both in regard of time and measure, so that our enemies either shall not doe the evill at all, or else not so long a time, or not in such a height of mischiefe, as their malice would cary them to: The rod of the wicked may light upon the backe of the righteous, but Psal. 125. 3it shall not rest there. God knowes how to take our enemies off, sometimes by changing, or stopping their wills, by offering considerations of some good or ill, danger or profit to them; sometimes by taking away, and weakning all their strength, or else by opposing an equall or greater strength against it. All the strength our enemies have rests in God; who if hee denies concourse and influence, the arme of their power, (as Ieroboams when he stretcht it out against the Prophet) shrinkes up presently.
God is not onelyonly the cause of things and actions, but the cause likewise of the cessation of them, why they fall not out at all. God is the cause why Deus est prima causa cujuscun que non esse.things are not as well as why they are; The cause why men favour us not, or (when they doe favour us) want present wisdome and ability to help us, is from Gods withdrawing the concurrence of his light and strength from them. If a skilfull Physitian doth us no good, it is because it pleaseth God to hide the right way of curing at that time from him. Which should move us to see God in all that befalls us, who hath sufficient reason, as to doe what he doth, so not to doe what hee doth not, to hinder, as well as to give way.
The God of spirits hath an influence into the spirits of men, into the principles and springs of all actions; Otherwise he could not so certainely foretell things to come. God had a worke in Absaloms heart in that he refused the best counsell; there is nothing independant of him, who is the mover of all things, and himselfe unmoveable.
Nothing so high, that is above his providence; Nothing so low, that is beneath it; Nothing so large, but is bounded by it; Nothing so confused, but God can order it; Nothing so bad, but he can draw good out of it. Nothing so wisely plotted, but God can disappoint it, as Achitophells counsell; Nothing so simply and unpolitiquely caried, but hee can give a prevailing issue unto it: Nothing so freely caried, in regard of the next cause, but God can make it necessary in regard of the event: Nothing so naturall, but he can suspend in regard of operation, as heavy bodies from sinking, fire from burning, &c.
It cannot but bring strong security to the soule, to know that in all variety of changes, and intercourse of good and bad events, God and Our God, hath such a disposing hand. Whatsoever befalls us, all serves to bring Gods electing love, and our glorification together. Gods providence serveth his purpose to save us. All sufferings, all blessings, all ordinanoes, all graces, all common gifts, nay our very falls, yea Sathan himselfe, with all his instruments, as over-mastered, and ruled by God, have this injunction upon them, to further Gods good intendment to us, and a prohibition to doe us no harme. Augustus taxed the world for civill ends, but Gods providence used this as a meanes for Christ to bee borne at Bethieem. Ahashueresh could not sleepe, and thereupon calls for Esther 6. 1.the Chronicles, the reading of which occasioned the Iewes delivery. God oft Divinum consilium dum devitatur impletur, humana sapientia dum reluctatur comprehenditur. Greg.disposeth little occasions, to great purposes. And by those very wayes whereby proud men have gone about to withstand Gods counsells, they have fulfilled them, as we see in the story of Ioseph and Moses, in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, He was above them.Ex. 10. 11.