A Discourse of the Judgments of God, Chapter 1
CHAP. I. A Prefatory Diſcourſe, ſhewing the Excellency of Scripture in diſcovering to us that Judgments are from God, and leading us from Atheiſm to the true uſe of them.
IT hath pleaſed God to caſt us into thoſe times wherein Atheiſtick Opinions, as well as Practices, have dared a conteſt with his Judgments: That the boldneſs of either Monſter, ſpeculative or practick Atheiſm, ſhould be permitted to outlive, or over-grow ſuch convictions of his hand lifted up, as we have had, is by every good man as earneſtly to be deprecated, and with as great a compaſſion to the Age in which he lives to be born off, as a common Ruine. For all Judgments being the ſtrange Acts of God, and thoſe we have felt, the moſt unuſual of thoſe ſtrange Acts, they come near Miracles, and are like his finger on Pharaoh, and the Jews; and therefore to impute them to Chance, or Nature, or any thing below God, comes alſo too near their debaſement of Divine Power, and aſcribing it to Beelzebub, that they might not be conſtrained to ſubmit to it: A ſin that our Saviour tells us, is not forgiven in this world; which ſounds more to ſuch kind of men, then to add, Nor in the world to come. This were indeed to be delivered up to a reprobate ſenſe, which is the greateſt of Judgments, and precedes deſtruction: It being very rare, that God ſuffers himſelf, and the Majeſty he carries in the world, to be trodden under foot, when he hath begun the aſſertions of them; but that leſſer ſtrokes (which are Diſcipline) ceaſing, the fatal blow follows: when the wind, to fan and cleanſe, lies without ſucceſs, the dry wind from the wilderneſs, that blaſts and withers all, ſoon after riſes; when God thinks it vain, men ſhould be ſtricken any more, becauſe they revolt more and more, and will not ſo much as owne him that ſtrikes; he then ſtrikes once for all, and affliction riſes not up the ſecond time.
It is neceſſary then, all that have together a ſenſe of God and Publick good, ſhould interpoſe againſt thoſe idle words that corrupt good manners, that diſ-entitle God to our calamities, and ſo enfeeble all thoſe inferences of Reformation, that are deducible from the acknowledgment of him as the Author; and alſo againſt thoſe evil manners that ariſe and corrupt Communications, having nothing elſe for their ſecurity, but to plead, that God doth neither good nor evil.
Now theſe things diſtil firſt from the upper ſort of men, who having the advantage to build their luſts above others, ſcrew up by themſelves, or the miniſtery of ſervile wits, a falſified reaſon to the height of thoſe luſts; whence they fall upon the lower world, which as greedily, though not with ſuch a diſcretion of ſenſuality, drinks them in.
This following Diſcourſe is therefore levelled to this end; that every man of all ſorts owning his hand, may make no doubt, but his Kingdom hath come upon us in his late dreadful Providences, and ſo may give glory to him.
The grounds of it are, that reaſon of Scripture, which being the Book of God, gives the Hiſtory of the Government and Acts of God in the world. For as the Records of any Nation or Prince, are to be found with their proper Hiſtorians, and we ſeek them with moſt reaſon and ſucceſs, where the accounts of them are profeſſedly offered: Even ſo the digeſts of Holy writing render us the beſt aſſurances of God in the world, and aſcribe to him that which is his own, with greateſt ſincerity.
Though therefore there are many confeſſions to God from the light of Nature, and its Prophets; yet thoſe whom God himſelf deputed to the teſtimonies of himſelf, are much more to be truſted, carrying along with them a clear, conſtant, and even Tenor of Truth.
And the Examples he ſingles out to demonſtrate his own Dominion, Juſtice, or Goodneſs in the world, are much fairer then thoſe that are forreign to the Scripture. Even as a wiſe Reaſoner makes choice of the beſt Arguments; when an ordinary Diſputer, though he may fall upon ſuch as have truth, yet not upon thoſe that are moſt cogent.
To us, to whom the Word of God is the meaſure and fountain of Truth, all its affirmations are demonſtrations: Its repeated inculcating and exemplifying of things in matters of Fact, are like ſtrongeſt concatenations of reaſon.
Yet as God often took the Pagan world within the Verge of his Word, and extended the line of Prophecy upon the utmoſt diſtant earth, therein at once laying fuller aſſurances of himſelf for his own people, and advantages of acknowledging him, for the uſe of thoſe that were not yet proſelyted to him: Which Word (beſides the authority of, Thus ſaith the Lord) carries alſo a high hand of reaſon and evidence along with it; that if any would but ſhew themſelves men, they muſt needs be convinced by it. Even ſo may we make uſe of all reaſons to confirm the faith of them who firſt reſt it in Scripture; and to compel thoſe to bow to what it declares, who think not themſelves obliged to believe Oracles, though Divine, where they are not ſupported and pointed by thoſe Ratiocinations, wherein they put more truſt.
While then we center upon the Revelations of God, & upon them endeavor to compaſs all that is indeed ſound, we ſhall find whatever is fit to argue us into that wiſdom & ſeriouſneſs to which ſo awful a hand hath ſummoned us.
In evincing the reaſonableneſs of our grand Poſition, That God is the Author of all our calamities, we have this ſingular advantage, that every ſtep we take in acquitting it from utter impoſſibility and unreaſonableneſs, is in the place of a great reaſon. For it being carried in the high ſtream of all Mankinds conſent, it is moſt rational it ſhould be accepted wherein it cannot be convicted of popular errour and miſtake: whereas Atheiſm herein hath nothing to ſettle upon, but a wickedneſs generally condemned (even by the very Atheiſt, that aſſumes Morality) and a reaſon unſtamped, unauthorized by ſuffrage. It muſt therefore have ſo great a validity of Demonſtration, as may be accepted for it ſelf; which being indeed impoſſible to be found, the field muſt be left to that victorious Truth, and every man obliged to that Duty and Repentance it calls for. In which laſt particular, the very enemy of it be friends it; for as if it were clear, there were a God, the Atheiſt that would ſeem juſt and impartial to all things, and avoids the ſuſpition of chuſing his Opinion from his life, profeſſes he would turn the force of his reaſon for Religion and Service to the Deity: Even ſo, if all we ſuffer be from God, he will ſay, It is moſt neceſſary we ſhould by all means agreeable to his Nature, make it our buſineſs to appeaſe him; wherein the practical Atheiſt is deſerted by the Contemplator againſt a God and his Providence, and left alone as a perſon moſt unreaſonable, and deſperately forſaken of all ſenſe; who owning ſo great a Principle, governs not himſelf with conformity to it.
But we are in no want of Conceſſions from Atheiſm, nor from ſo much as better taught Morality, though we thus ſpeak. For in points of Reaſon and Diſcourſe, that anointing of the Spirit of God in his Word, leads the humble Chriſtian into all truth, and is it ſelf truth, who hath therefore no need that any ſhould teach him; yet he accepts the tributes of ſubordinate underſtanding alſo. In hiſtorical accounts the ſacred Chronology hath days enough to ſpeak to us, and years to teach us that knowledg that grows from matters of Fact, though all ſtory may ſerve it as a Commentary.
In the Principles of holy and wiſe practice, we need not the Ciſterns that are broken and often foul, having the fountains of living water, and the Chryſtal Sea it ſelf; yet we may allow, that as all waters, ſo far as they are wholſom, come from this Sea, they ſhould with a percolation return thither again.
In all theſe, whatever we receive from the words of God is genuine, and of the true alloy, purified ſeven times; which the moſt ſublimated Moraliſt hath only in the Ore, ignorant of the true Arts of Refinement.
All accounts from thence are ſteddy, even, and uniform with themſelves, their path pondered, and their eye ſtrait before them; compared with theſe, all others are giddy, diſtracted and uncertain; when they have ſpoken like wiſe men in ſome things, that Spirit of Truth and Wiſdom not inhabiting them, they fall into the wildneſſes of mad men, and the impertinencies of Fools; whence all the ſuperſtition that hath been in the world, hath continually ſprung.
In Scripture all things are full, and to the height; but in others ſcanty, and below the true elevation. For though they ſpeak at any time that is great and worthy God, conſidered by it ſelf, yet not like his Servant Job: They know not, nor can pronounce the great Tetragrammaton, the Euſebeia of the Goſpel, nor the true Evangelick Righteouſneſs and ſoberneſs: What they diſcourſe is either ſo thin and airy through Philoſophick attenuation, that it loſes its weight and ſubſtance, its uſefulneſs and intelligibility to common capacity, or elſe it is too thick and groſs. Scripture knows only to ſpeak plainly, yet moſt divinely.
Of moſt things that have only ſome imperfect reſemblances, and half expreſſions, Scripture is only able to interpret to them their Prophetick Dreams of Divine matters, as Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar; which by its explanations become excellent ſenſe.
Laſtly, holy Oracles are the natural Soil, the native Country of all Divine truths; tranſplanted from them into more rigid and barren ground, they loſe their firſt ſweetneſs; or as Colonies ſent from it, they forget their Mother-City, the true Jeruſalem, and by length of time grow firſt ſtrange, then inimick, till by a captivation and recovery of them, as ſpoils taken by the Sword and Bow of Original truth, they are reduced, inſtructed in their own deſcent, and reſtored to their noble alliances.
Thus Religion draws home all thoſe branches and ſtems of it ſelf, from thoſe artificial Roots, upon which they grew weakly, or degenerated through the unnaturalneſs of the moiſture conveyed to them from falſe Principles; although if they might have had their own force and vigour, they would have meliorated the worſe, but being over-power'd, they loſe their own excellency.
But from this general Diſcourſe of Scripture, we return to the particular caſe; the fulneſs and ſufficiency of it to teach every man concerning the Judgments of God, what he is to know and to do touching their revolutions in the world.
Herein the Fundamental Doctrines, plain Precepts, Promiſes, Comminations there to be found, lead us to actions great and ſerious; even as the Judgments themſelves, which are the moſt ſolemn of Providences; all procedures of Juſtice carrying along with them higheſt gravity, and requiring a ſuitable reverence. And becauſe we ſee them beſt in Examples, which are admonitions taken out of words, and printed into things; we upon whom the ends of the world are come, are made to ſit upon the ſhoulders of former times, through the favour of Scripture-hiſtory, beholding the Saints of God in their holy, humble, and heavenly demeanour in bad times, and their happy iſſue out of temptation: On the other ſide, the miſcarriage of obſtinate men, with their ſad Fates; that whoſo is wiſe to obſerve thoſe things, and prudent to know them, may underſtand, The ways of the Lord are right, and that men upright, and ſtraight in themſelves, may walk in them; but tranſgreſſors, whoſe feet are crooked, their motions indirect, and they froward in all their paths, cannot hold themſelves on ſo ſtrait a line, but fall therein.