Divine Conduct, Head 2 · Performance 2
The Second Performance of Providence.
II.
THe second great performance of Providence, Provide…tial performanc… with re…spect to the tim… and plac… of our Nativityfor the people of God, respects the place, and time in which it ordered their Nativity to fall. And truly, this is no small concernment to every one of us, but of vast consequence, either to our good or evil, though it be little minded by most men. I am perswaded, the thoughts of …ew Christians penetrate deep enough into this Providence, but slide too slightly and supersicially over an Abysse of much mercy, rich and mani…old mercy wrapt up in this gracious performance of Providence for them.
Ah friends! can you think it an indifferent thing, into what part of the World the womb of Nature had cast you out? Is there no odds, upon what Spot of the Creation, or in what Age of the World your lot had fallen? It may be you have not seriously bethought your selves about this matter. And because this Point is so seldom toucht, I will therefore dive a little more particularly and distinctly into it, and endeavour to warm your affections with a representation of the many and rich benefits you owe to this one performance of Providence for you.
And we will consider it under a double respect or relation, as it respects your present comfort in this world, and as it relates to your eternal happiness in the world to come.
This performance of Providence for you, doth very much concern your present comfort in this world. All the rooms in this great house are not alike pleasant and commodious for the Inhabitants of it. You read Psal. 74. 20. of the dark places of the Earth, which are full of the habitatJonr of cruelty: and many such dismal places are found in the habitable Earth. What a vast tract of the world lies as a waste Wilderness?
Suppose your Mothers had brought you forth in America, among the Salvage IndJans, who herd together as brute beasts; are scorched with heat, and starved with cold; being naked, destitute and defenceless. How poor, miserable and unprovided of Earthly comforts and accommodations, are many Millions of the Inhabitants of this world? What mercies do you enjoy in respect of the amaenity, fertility, temperature and civility of the place of your habitation? What is it but a Garden inclosed out of a Wilderness? I may without partiality or vanity say, God hath (even upon temporal accounts) provided you with one of the healthfullest, pleasantest, and in all respects, the best furnished room in all the great house of this world. Hear what our own Chronicler saith of it,Speed's Chron. It is the fortunate Island, the Paradise of pleasure, the Garden of God; whose Valleys are like Eden, whose Hills are as Lebanon, whose Springs are as Pisgah, whose Rivers are as Jordan, whose Wall is the Ocean, and whose Defence is the Lord Jehovah.
You are here provided of necessary and comfortable accommodations for your bodies, that a great part of the world are unacquainted with. It is not with the poorest among us, as it is said to be with the poor RussJans, whose poverty pinches and bites with such sharp teeth, that their poo… cry at the doors, Give me and cut me, give me and kill me.
Say not, The barbarous Nations in this excel you; that they possess the Mines of Silver and Gold, which it may be you think enough to salve all other inconveniences of life. Alas poor Creatures! better had it been for them, if their Countrey had brought forth Bryers and Thorns instead of Gold, Silver, and precJous stones; for this hath been the occasion of ruining all their other comforts in this world: this hath invited their cruel avaritious enemies among them, under whose servitude they groan, and dye without mercy: and thousands of them have chosen death rather than life, on the terms they enjoyed it. And why might not your lot have fallen there as well as where it is? Are not they made of the same clay, and endowed with as good a nature as your selves? O what a distinction hath Divine Mercy made, where Nature made none! Consider ungrateful man, thou mightest have fallen into some of those Regions, where a tainted air frequently cloyes the jaws of death, where the Inhabitants differ very little from the Beasts in the manner of their living: but God hath provided for thee, and given the poorest among us far better accommodations of life, than the greatest among them are ordinarily provided with. O what hath Providence done for you?
But all that I have said is very inconsiderable, in compa…ison with the spiritual mercJes, and advantages you here enjoy for your souls. Oh, this is such an advantageous cast of Providence for you, as obliges you to a thankful acknowledgement of it, to all Eternity. For let us here make but a few suppositions in the case before us, and the glory of Providence will shine like a Sun-beam full in your faces.
(1.) Suppose it had been your Lot to have fallen in any of those vast Continents possessed by Pagans and Heathens at this day, who bow down to the Stock of a Tree, and worship the Host of Heaven. This is the case of Millions, and Millions of Millions:…Jerwoods EnquirJes, …hap. 13. p. 118, 119 for Pagan Idola…rs (as that searching Scholar Mr. Bri…wood informs us) do not only fill the circumference of nine hundred miles in Europe, but almost the one half of Africa, more than the half of AsJa, and almost the whole of America.
Oh how deplorable had thy case been, if a Pagan Idolatress had brought thee forth, and Idolatry had been suckt in with thy Mothers milk! then in all probability, thou hadst been at this day worshipping Devils, and posting with full speed in the direct road to Damnation: for these are the people of Gods wrath, Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy fury upon the Heathen that know the… not, and upon the familJes that call not upon thy name. How dreadful is that imprecation against them? …sal. 97. 7. which takes hold of them and all that's theirs, Confounded be all they that serve graven Images, that boast themselves of Idols.
(2.) Or suppose your Lot had fallen among Mahometans, who next to Pagans spread over the greatest tract of the Earth: for though ArabJa bred that unclean Bird, yet it was not that Cage, that could long contain him; for, not only the ArabJans, but the PersJans, Turks and Tartars, do all bow down their backs under that grand Impostor. This poison hath dispersed it self through the veins of AsJa, over a great part of Africk, even the Circumference of seven thousand miles, and stops not there, but hath tainted a considerable part of Europe also.
Had your Lot fallen here, O what unhappy men and women had you been, notwithstanding the natural amenity and pleasantness of your native soil? You had then adored a grand Impostor, and dyed in a fools Paradise. Instead of Gods lively Oracles, you had been (as they now are) deceived to your eternal ruine with such fond, mad and wild dreams, as whoso considers would think, the Authors had more need of manacles and fetters, than arguments or sober answers.
(3.) Or if neither of these had been your Lot, but you had been emptied by the womb of Nature into this little spot of the Earth which is ChristJanized by profession, but nevertheless for the most part over-run by Popish Idolatry, and AntichristJan delusions; what unhappy men and women had you been, had you suckt a Popish breast? For this people are to be the subjects of the VJals of Gods wrath to be poured out successively upon them, as you may read Rev. 16. and the Scriptures in round and plain language tell us, what their fate must be, 2 Thess. 2. 11, 12. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusJon, that they should belJeve a lye, that they all migh… be damned who belJeved not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Nay, you might have fallen into the same Land in which your habitation now is, and yet have had no advantage by it as to salvation, if he that chose the bounds of your habitations, had not also graciously determined the times for you, Acts 17. 26. For▪
(4.) Suppose your Lot had fallen where it is during the Pagan State of England, who for many hundred years were gross and vile idolaters. Thick darkness over-spread the people of this Island, and as in other Countreys, the Devil was worshipped, and his lying Oracles zealously attended upon.
The shaking of the top of Jupiter's Oak in Dodona, the Caldron smitten with the rod in the hand of Jupiter's Image, the Lawrell and Fountain in Daphne: these were the Ordinances on which the poor deluded Wretches waited. So in this Nation they worshipped Idols also: the Sun and Moon were adored for Gods,…ide Ver…igan's British Antiqui…i…s. with many other abominable Idols which our Ancestors worshipped, and whose memorials are not to this day quite obliterated among us.
(5.) Or suppose our Lot had fallen in those later miserable dayes, in which Queen Mary sent so many hundreds to Heaven in a fiery Chariot▪ and the poor Protestants sk…lked up and down in holes and woods, to preserve them from Popish Inquisitors, who like Blood-hounds, hunted up and down through all the Cities, Towns and Villages of the Nat…on, to seek out the poor sheep of Christ for a prey.
But such hath the special care of Providence towards us been, that our turn to be brought upon the stage of this World was graciously reserved for better dayes: so that if we had had our own option, we could not have chosen for our selves, as Providence hath. We are not only furnished with the best room in this great ho…se; but before we were put into it, it was swept with the beesom of National Reformation, from Idolatry, yea, and washed by the blood of Martyrs from Popish filthiness; and adorned with Gospel lights, shining in as great lustre in our dayes, as ever they did since the Apostles dayes. You might have been born in England for many Ages, and not have found a ChristJan in it: yea, and since ChristJanity was here owned, and not have met a Protestant in it. Oh what an Obligation hath Providence laid you under, by such a merciful performance as this for you?
If you say, Object.All this indeed is true; but what is this to eternal salvation? Do not multitudes that enjoy these priviledges, eternally perish notwithstanding them? yea, and perish with an aggravation of sin and misery beyond other sinners?
True,Sol. they do so; and it is of very sad consideration that it should be so; but yet we cannot deny this to be a very choice and singular mercy, to be born in such a Land, and at such a Time. For let us consider what helps for salvation men here enjoy, beyond what they could enjoy, had their Lot fallen according to the fore-mentioned suppositions.
(1.) Here we enjoy the ordinary means of salvation, which elsewhere men are denyed and cut off from. So that if any among the Heathens be saved and brought to Christ, it must be in some miraculous or extraordinary way: for, How shall th…y belJeve in him of whom they have not heard▪ and how shall they hear without a Preacher? Rom. 10. 14. Alas! were there a desire awakened in any of their hearts after a Gospel discovery of salvation, (which ordinarily is not, nor can be rationally supposed) yet, poor Creatures, they might travel from Sea to Sea, to hear th… Word, and n…t find it: whereas you can hardly miss the opportunities of hearing the Gospel: Sermons meet you frequently, so that you can scarcely shun or avoid the Ordinances and Instruments of your salvation. And is this nothing? Christ even forces himself upon us.
(2.) Here, in this Age of the World, the common prejudices against Christianity are removed, by the advantage it hath of a publick profession among the people▪ and protection by the Laws of the Countrey. Whereas, were your habitation among Jews▪ Mahometans, or Heathen Idolaters▪ you would find Christ and ChristJanity the common odJum of the Countrey▪ every one defying and deriding both name and thing; and such your selves likely had been, if your birth and education had been among them. For you may observe, that whatever is foreign traditionally delivered down from Father to Son, every one is fond of, and zealous in its defence. The Jews, Heathens and Mah…metans are at this day so tenacious of their errors, that with spitting, hissing, and clapping of hands, and all other signs of indignation and abhorrence they chase away all others from among them.
Is it not then a special mercy to you to be cast into such a Countrey and Age, where (as a learned Divine observes) the true Religion hath the same advantages over every false one,Mr. Pink… as in other Countreys they have over it? Here you have the presence of precious Means, and the absence of soul-destroying prejudices, two signal mercies.
(3.) Here, in this Age of the World, Christianity bespeaks you assoon as you are capable of any sense, or impressions o… Religion upon you; and so by an happy anticipatJon, blocks up the passages, by which a false Religion would … certainly enter. Here you …uck in the first notions and principles of Christianity, even with the Mothers milk: and certainly, such a prepossession is a choice advantage. Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa di…. Train up a Child in the way he should go, and when he is old …e will not depart from it▪ Prov. 22. 6.
(4.) Here you have, or may have the help and assistance of Christians to direct your way, resolve your doubts, support your burthens, and help you through those difficulties that attend the new birth. Alas! if a poor soul had any beginnings or saint workings and stirrings after Christ and true Religion in many other Countreys, the hand of every man would presently be against him, and none would be found to relieve, assist or encourage, as you may see in that Example of Gal…acJus; the nearest relations would, in that case, prove the greatest Enemies, the Countrey would quickly hoot at him as a Monster, and cry Away with the Heretick to the Prison or Stake.
Whether these eventually prove blessings to your souls or no, certain I am, that in themselves they are singular mercies, and helps to salvation, that are denyed to Millions besides you. So that if Plato when he was near his death, could bless God for three things, viz. That he was a Man, and not a Beast: that he was born in Greece; and brought up in the time of Socrates: much more cause have you to admire Providence, that you are Men, and not Beasts; that you were born in England, and brought up in Gospel dayes here. This is a Land the Lord hath EspJed for you, as the expression is, Ezek. 20. 6. and concerning it, you have abundant cause to say, as in another case the Psalmist doth, Psal. 16. 6. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places, and I have a goodly heritage.