A Holy Commonwealth, Section 1
SECT. I.
GOD is not the God of Confusion, but of Order: Wonderfull! Whence then are all the wofull disorders of the world! Why are they permitted, while infinite Wisdom, Goodness and Power is at the Stern! He loveth and tenderly loveth his People: Why then are they tost up and down the world, as a Sea-rackt vessel, as the football of contempt! His Spirit is the Spirit of Love and Peace! and his servants have learn'd to be meek and lowly, and his Disciples are all humble, and teachable, and tractable as little children: How comes it to pass then that their habitation is in the flames? and that they are hurried about the world with tempests? and dwell so much in the stormy Region? and that his Lambs must be sent sorth among Wolves? Nay that Homo homini Lupus, is turned to Christianus Christiano Lupus! Surely a word, a beck, a will, of him that ruleth over all, is able to compose this raging World, and still these waves, and bring all into perfect order: How easily could he dispell our darkness, and reconcile our minds, and heal our breaches, and calm our passions, and subdue corruptions, and bring us into the way of pleasant Peace? And can Infinite goodness be unwilling to do us good? Astonishing Providence! that the Vessel should be so t…st that hath such a Pilot! and the Kingdom so disordered that hath such a King! and the Patient so almost deplorate that hath such a Physicion, that is able to cure us when he will! O what a wound is it to our souls, that the Churches enemies of all sorts stand by, and laugh …t our folly and calamity, and hit us in the teeth with our God, and our Reformation, and our Godliness, and our Hopes! with our Fasting and Prayer, and all our pretended brotherly love! And thus it hath been from age to age! and while we glory in the hopes of better days, and thought that Charity was reviving in the world though it cooled when iniquity did abound, new storms arise; our hopes delude us; we find our selves in the tempestuous Ocean, when even now we thought we had been almost at the shore! What Age, what Nation hath so followed Holiness and Peace, as to overtake them? Doth the most perfect Governour of the world delight in impious confusion?
Oh no! his works are glorious, and bear their share of the impress of his excellency. Shall we presume to call the heavenly Majesty to account? Must he render a satisfactory reason of his ways, to every worm? Is it not enough to assure us that they are the best, in that he is their Author who is infinitely good? We that are in the Valley of Mortality, and the shadow of death, are yet uncapable of seeing that, which on the Mount of Immortality we shall see to our satisfaction. We see but pieces of the works of God, both as to their extent and their duration. As all the Letters make one word, and all the words do make one sentence, and all the sentences and sections and chapters make one Book, & the use of the letters, syllables, words and sentences, cannot be rightly understood or valued, if taken separated from the whole: no more can we rightly understand & value the works of God, when we see not their relation to the whole. We parcel Arts and Sciences into fragments, according to the straitness of our capacities, and are not so pansophical as uno intuitu to see the whole; and therefore we have not the perfect knowledge of any part. As the whole Creation is one entire frame, and no part perfectly known to any, but the comprehensive wisdom that knoweth all; and as the holy Scripture is an entire frame of holy Doctrine; and the work of Sanctification is one new man; so also the works of disposing Providence, are perfectly harmonious, and make up one admirable Systeme, which our non-age hind…reth us from understanding. We must learn the Books of God by degrees; word by word, and line by line, and leaf by leaf; but we shall never be ripe Scholars till we have learnt all: And then we shall see that Nature and Grace, Scripture and Creatures, Physicks and Morals, and all the works of God for man, do constitute one most perfect frame, which we shall admire for ever. The knowledge of method, is necessary to our knowledge of the several parts: They borrow much of their sense from their aspect on that which goeth before and cometh after; and the first hath some connexion to the last. The Wheels of a Watch considered separatedly, are useless toys: but in the Frame the smallest Pin is usefull. God seeth all his works at once: were it possible for us to have such a sight, it would answer all our doubts at once. The works of Providence are yet unfinished, and therefore not to be seen in their full beauty: six days sufficed to the Work of Creation; but almost six thousand years have not ended the disposals of this present World. Had we seen the Creation after the first or second or third days Work, we should not have seen it in its full beauty: But on the seventh day God rested in it all as very good. A scrap or broken parcel of the most curious picture containeth not the beauty of the whole, nor is seen in its own beauty but as joyned to the rest. One string of this Instrument maketh no great melody. But when we are perfected, we shall have a more perfect knowledg of the Providences that now we do but spell. What Christ is doing in planting and pulling up in all these disorders of the world, we know not now, but hereafter we shall know. The day makes haste, when all those actions shall be opened at once to a common view: when the men that make this bussle in the world are dead and gone, and Prince and people, Parliaments and Armies are off this Stage, and appear undrest before the Lord, and have received their everlasting recompence, from him that is no respecter of Persons, then Judge of these present ways of Providence: The end will expound the actions of this day.
Till then, as we know they are the ways of the most wise, so we must consider how many minds he hath to govern! every man hath an understanding and will of his own! and, O how different! When so many thousand millions of men are of so many minds, or are principled and tempted to so many. We may wonder that such order is preserved in the world. Especially considering that their Interests are almost as various as their minds. Where they should agree they differ; where they are uncapable of a joynt possession, they agree in the desire of that which is impossible. How many have a mind of the same Crowns, the same Honour or Office, or Land, or other bait of worldly vanity: And how easily might Satan set all the world together by the ears, by casting such a bone among them, if God were not the universal King. Mens interests engage them against each other: And their vices are suited to their carnal interests: When humane nature is so corrupt, that vices swarm in the hearts of the ungodly, as worms in a Carrion; when ignorance, self-conceitedness, unbelief, sensuality, pride, worldliness, hypocrisie, and passions of all sorts abound! When so many hearts are blinded and byassed: and all men by corrupted nature are enemies to a Holy Peace, & honest Unity must be attained by crossing the very natures and interests of so many; when the best have so much of these corruptions, and grace that must overpower them is so weak; when the tempter is so subtile, diligent and uncessant, our temptations to evil, and hinderances to good, so many and so great, how wonderfull is that overruling Providence, that keepeth up so much order in the world! and preserveth us from utter confusion and Inormity? It is infinite power that so far uniteth such incoherent matter, and that so far restraineth such corrupted souls: that every Nation are not Cannibals, that every Prince is not a Nero, or Dionysius, and every person is not a Cain, is all from the wisdom and mercy of our Almighty King. Let God therefore have the honour of his transcendent Government; He attaineth his ends by that which seems to us Confusion. He is a perfect Governour that perfectly attaineth the ends of Government! His ends are known to him, but much unknown to us. The night is usefull as well as the day, and darkness is no dishonour to the Creator. Nor is it dishonourable to him that there are Toads and Serpents on the earth, & that he made not every worm a man, or every man a King, or an Angel: Much less that wicked men do wickedly, when he hath resolved to govern the world in a way consistent with the Liberty of their wills. If sin were perfectly restrained, and the world reduced to perfect order, we should not have the benefit of persecution, which must be expected by those that will live godly in Christ Jesus. How should we ever express and try our patience & self-denial and contempt of all for the sake of Christ, if we had all things here as we would have them? It argueth too carnal a frame of mind, we are hearkning after felicity, or too great things on earth, and with the Jews would have a Kingdom of this world, and a Saviour that should make us great on earth: Should we not expect that God in equity and wisdom should keep a proportion of our comfort to our duty, and cause our prosperity to be answerable to our fidelity? If we have lesse here then we expect, and suffer after our faith and diligence, eternity is long enough to make amends for all: But that a sinfull, careless, hypocritical world, should yet be a prosperous world, is utterly incongruous, unless we would have our portion here. While the world is wilfully so vile, no wonder if it be so miserable. When sinne makes the greatest breach of order, and divideth our hearts from our Creatour, what wonder if lesser disorder do attend it; and we be all divided from each others? And whose conscience will scruple rebellion, resistance, or disobedience against the higher powers, that is hardned in rebellion, resistance, and disobedience against God?
It is a great mistake to expect perfection of so excellent a thing as holy order here on earth. If we are sure that there will be no perfection of knowledge, charity, self-denyal, patience, and all other graces necessary to our perfect order, how then can that order be perfect that must result from these? Can ignorant, froward, imperfect men, make up a perfect Church or Commonwealth? Or can we be greatlyer mistaken, then to ascribe to earth the Prerogatives of Heaven? Have we daily experience of imperfections and corruptions in our selves and others? Is not every soul imperfect and disquieted, and disordered? and every Family so too? and every Parish, Corporation, and society so? And can it then be better in a Commonwealth? Can it be perfect and ordered aright, that is composed of imperfect disordered materials? The whole cannot be gold, where all the parts are stone or iron. Unbelieving souls! repine not in your ignorance against the Lord! When you come to Heaven, and see the perfect order of his Kingdom, and look back with better understanding on the affairs of the world that now offend you, then blame the Lord of imperfection in his Government if you can? All mercies on earth are but hatching in the shell: None are here ripe! We must know what earth is, that we may the more thankfully know what Heaven is. We must sow in tears, if we will reap in joy. We must know what sinne is, before we find what grace is; and what grace is, before we find what glory is. If sinne were not suffered to shew it self in the world, and play its part, it would not be sufficiently hated: nor Grace, or Christ, or Heaven sufficiently valued. We love the godly much the better, because the neighbourhood and tryal of the ungodly, sheweth us the difference. We are the more thankfull for our own grace, because of the experience of our corruptions. Holy order will be the sweeter to the Saints, because of the odious confusions that stand by. And as it is necessary that Heresie arise, that those which are approved may be made manifest; so is it necessary that Warres, confusion, and rebellions arise, that the meek, and peaceable, and obedient may be manifest.
They are good works as from God, and as to the finall issue, which he accomplisheth by bad Instruments. And when the work is rough, and below his upright ones, he useth to leave it to polluted hands. Even evil Angels are oft his Instruments in afflicting: and God can do good by the Devils: But when there is such a difference between the principal cause and the instrument in the work, and each worketh as he is, and bringeth somewhat of his nature to the effect, no wonder if there be a mixture of order and confusion in the world: and that be sinfull and confusion as from men, that is good and orderly as from God. If there were nothing in the world but what is of God, there would be nothing but what is good. But when Satan hath got so great an Interest, and is become a Prince that ruleth in the Children of disobedience, shall we wonder to find the works of Satan? Or shall we dare to impute them to the Lord? or blame his Government because the enemy makes disturbance.
It is the reckoning day that sets all straight. Many are now triumphing whom God laughs to scorn, because he sees that their day is coming. Till then we must live a life of Faith. If fleshly props be taken from us, and we be left to live on God alone, our comforts will be the more pure, as having little of the creature to defile them. A sensual life is a beastial life. If God were not resolved to hold his servants to a life of Faith, with little mixture of sensible evidence, we should not have such seldom Messengers from the other world; and from age to age have scarce any more then Faith to tell us of the invisible things. When all men that we trusted to are gone, we shall comfort our selves only in the Lord our God. And is he not enough for us alone? How apt are we to draw out from God to men? But when some prove insufficient, and others treacherous, and their friendship is as the waves and weathercocks, we shall cleave the closer to the Rock of Ages, and retire our selves with mortified and Heaven-devoted souls to God. And the more we converse with him, and see him in all the Creatures and their Products, the more we shall perceive his order in their confusions, and their confusions making up his order. But O when we see his blessed face, and behold the glory of the universal King, how sweet an harmony shall we then perceive in the concord of all the motions and affairs that now seem only tumultuary and discordant. We shall see how all these distant lines do meet in God, and in him we shall find all Providences reconciled, and making up one beauteous frame.