the glory of the Almighty and All-wise God. And this is it, which our Saviour speaks of when he tells the Jews, John v. 17. My Father worketh hitherto, viz. in preserving and governing his creatures; and I work.

II. The Second General propounded, was to demonstrate to you, that ALL THINGS IN THE WORLD ARE GOVERNED BY THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

The Old Philosophers, among the Heathens, had very different notions concerning the government of the world. Some held, that all things were governed by an imperious and inevitable fate, to which God himself was subject: so, Chrysippus, and the Stoics. Others thought, that all was left to blind chance; and whatsoever came to pass here below was only casual and fortuitous: so, the Epicureans. Others, that the Great God regarded only the more glorious affairs of heaven; but had committed the care of earthly concernments unto inferior spirits, as his under officers and deputies: so, most of the Platonists, though their master was orthodox. Others, that God's Providence reached only to the great and important matters of this world; but that it was too much a disparagement to his Infinite Majesty, to look after the motion of every straw and feather, and to take care of every trivial and inconsiderable occurrence in this world: so speaks Cicero, in his Book de Naturâ Deorum: Magna Dii curant, parva negligunt. Vide Arriani Epictet. lib. i. cap. 12. How much better is that most excellent saying of St. Austin! Tu sic curas unumquemque nostrúm, tanquam solum cures; et sic omnes, tanquam singulos: "God takes as much care of every particular, as if each were all; and as much care of all, as if all were but one particular."

To demonstrate this all-disposing Providence of God, I shall take Two ways.

From the consideration of the Nature and Perfection of the Deity.

From the contemplation of that Beauty and Order, which

we may observe in the world.

It is most necessary, that we should have our hearts well established in the firm and unwavering belief of this truth, that, whatsoever comes to pass, be it good or evil, we may look up to the disposer of all, to God: and, if it be good, may acknowledge it with praise; if evil, bear it with patience: since he

dispenseth both the one and the other; the good to reward us, and the evil to try us.

Now,

i. To demonstrate it FROM THE BEING AND NATURE OF GOD. This I shall do, in these following propositions, which I shall lay down as so many steps and gradations.

1. That there is a God, is undoubtedly clear by the light of

nature.

Never was there any people so barbarous and stupid, but did firmly assent to this truth, without any other proof than the deep impress upon their hearts, and the observation of visible objects, that there was a Deity. It is neither a problem of reason, nor yet strictly an article of faith; but the unforced dictate of every man's natural conscience; where conscience is not violently perverted, and under the force of those vices, whose interest it is that there should be no God. Never was there any nation, which worshipped none; but their great sottishness was, that they worshipped many.

2. As all confess that there is a God; so, likewise, that this God must necessarily have in himself all perfections, as being the first principle and source of all things.

All these perfections of wisdom, power, knowledge, or the like, which we see scattered up and down among the creatures, must all be concentered in God: and that, in a far more eminent degree; because whatever is found in creatures is but derived and borrowed from him, and therefore it must needs follow, that, because it is of more perfection to be infinite in each perfection, therefore God is infinite in them all.

3. Among all the perfections, which are dispersed among the creatures, the most excellent is knowledge and understanding.

For this is a property, that agrees only to angels and men, who are the top and flower of the creation: and therefore, certainly, this perfection of the creatures is to be found in God; yea, and that infinitely. His knowledge and wisdom, therefore, are infinite.

4. His knowledge being thus infinite, he both knows himself, and all other things in himself.

(1) God perfectly knows himself: he knows the boundless extent of his own being; and, though he be infinite and in

comprehensible to all others, yet is he finite and comprehended to himself: and, hence, it follows,

(2) That he knows particularly all other things. For, if he know himself perfectly, he must needs know all things besides himself; because none can perfectly know himself, that doth not fully know all that his power and strength can reach unto. But there is nothing, which the power of God cannot reach; for, by his power, he created all things. And, therefore, knowing his own essence, which is the cause of all, he knows every thing in the fecundity of his essence.

Thus we have demonstrated it, from the principles of reason, that God necessarily knows all things. But Providence denotes more than knowledge: and, therefore,

5. This knowledge, which is in God, is not like that, which we acquire it is not a knowledge, that depends upon the objects known, and forms ideas from the contemplation of things already existing but it is like the knowledge of an artificer, which causeth and produceth the things it comprehends.

God knows them, before they are; and, by knowing them, brings them to pass. "God knows all things," saith St. Austin, de Trinitat. 15. "not because they are; but, therefore they are, because God knew them." So that his eternal knowledge and understanding give being to every thing in the world.

6. It appertains to him, who gives being to a thing, to preserve and govern it in its being.

And, therefore, God giving being to all things, he also doth maintain and provide for them. It is the very law of nature, which he hath imprinted upon all his creatures, to provide for their own offspring: we see with what solicitous affection and tenderness, even brute and irrational creatures do it: we are all the offspring of God, and he our common parent; and therefore, certainly, he, who hath inspired such parental care in all things else, doth himself much more take care to give education to all to which he hath given being.

Thus, you see, it is proved that God's providence reacheth unto all things.

It might likewise be demonstrated from God's omnipresence. He is present every where, with and in all his creatures: and, certainly, he is not with them, as an idle and unconcerned spectator; but as the director and governor of their

actions.

ii. But I shall proceed to the Second sort of arguments, to prove the Divine Providence.

And those are taken FROM THE CONSIDERATION OF THE FRAME AND COMPAGES OF THE WORLD; THE BEAUTY AND HARMONY, WHICH WE SEE IN NATURE.

The world is a book, wherein we may clearly read the wonderful wisdom of God. There is no creature, which doth not proclaim aloud, that God is the wise Creator and Governor of it.

Who hath gilded the globe of the sun, and put on his rays? Who hath set its bounds, and measured out its race, that it should, without failing, without error or mistake, know how to make its daily and annual returns, and divide out times and seasons to the world? Who hath given a particular motion to all the voluminous orbs of heaven, and beat out a path for every star to walk in? Who hath swathed in the great and proud ocean, with a girdle of sand; and restrains the waves thereof, that though they be higher than the land, yet they shall not overflow it? Who poiseth the oppositions and contrarieties which are in nature, in so even a balance, that none of them shall ever prevail to a total destruction of the other? Who brings up the great family of brute beasts, without tumult and disorder? Do not all these great and wonderful works speak forth the watchful Providence of God; who, as he makes them by his word, so still governs them by his power?

Therefore, whatsoever we receive beneficial from them, whatsoever seems to provide for our necessities or conveniencies; it is God, who hath so dispensed the government of the world, as to make it serviceable. If the heavens turn and move for us, if the stars as so many burning torches light us in the obscurity of the night, if the angels protect and defend us, let us acknowledge all this from the Providence of God only. It is he, who turns the heavens round their axis: he lights up the stars: he commands the angels to be ministering spirits, guards, and centinels about us. If the fire warm us, the air refresh us, the earth support us, it is God, who hath kindled the fire, who hath spread forth the air, and stablished the earth upon the pillars of his own decree, that it should not be shaken. And let us know, too, that, when we want these creatures for our sustentation, if the heavens, if the angels, if the earth, if the sea, if all things should fail us, yea band and set themselves against

us; yet God, who provides for us by them, can also, if he please, provide for us without them.

Thus we have dispatched the Two General Enquiries; and have described and demonstrated unto you the Divine Providence.

III. The Third, which remains, is to ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS AND DOUBTS which may be made, and have indeed been strongly urged, against the government of the world by Providence.

As,

i. "If the world be governed by Providence, WHENCE COMES IT, THAT WICKED AND UNGODLY MEN FLOURISH AND PROSPER? that God shines upon their tabernacles, and drops fatness upon all their paths: whereas, on the contrary, the godly are often exposed to poverty, contempt, and reproaches; persecuted by men, and afflicted by God? Would it not be as agreeable to the divine goodness, to cast abroad the wealth, the pomp, and glory of this world with an undeciding hand; leaving men to scramble for them as they can: as that he should, with a particular and studied care, advance those who contemn him, and crush those who humbly trust and depend upon him? Can I think the world is governed by the providence of a just God, when usually unjust men govern the world under him? when swaggering sinners, who despise him, have power likewise to control others? Is it wisdom, to put a sword into that hand, which will turn the point of it against the giver? or justice, to impower them to all those acts of rapine, violence, and oppression, which they commit? and shall we call that Providence, which is neither wise nor just? One hath an unexhausted store to supply his dissolute luxury and riot; another, scarce necessaries to maintain a poor life spent in the commands of God: here, a wicked Dives, who worshipped no other god but his own belly, feasts deliciously every day; whilst a godly Lazarus starves at this glutton's gate, and entertains the dogs with licking his sores: and, what! doth God's particular care furnish the glutton's table with daily excess, who will not give the remaining scraps to God's children? if there be Divine Providence in this,