6. In making the fancies of men subservient to their own ruin. God
their consultation was to put him to death, and no man then would believe in a dead person, not capable of working any miracles, John
11:47–50, for the amusing of the people; and by this means there were a greater number of believers on him than in the time of his life, according to his own prediction, John 12:32, 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.'
6. In making the fancies of men subservient to their own ruin. God brings about strange events by the mere imaginations and conceits of men, which are contrary to common and natural observation, and the ordinary course of rational consequences, 2 Kings 3:22, 23. The army of the Moabites which had invaded Israel thought the two kings of Judah and Israel had turned their swords against one another, because the rising sun had coloured those unexpected waters and made them look red, which they took for the blood of their enemies, and so disorderly run without examination of the truth of their conceit; but instead of dividing the spoil, they left their lives upon the points of the Israelites' swords. So the Syrian army are scared with a panic fear, and scatter themselves upon an empty sound, 2 Kings 7:6.
Thus a dream struck a terror into the Midianites, and the noise of the broken potsherds made them fear some treason in their camp, and caused them to turn their swords into one another's bowels: Judges
7:19–22, 'The Lord set every man's sword against his fellow.'
Quest. First, If God's providence orders all things in world, and concurs to every thing, how will you free God from being the author of sin?
Answer, in several propositions.
1. It is certain God hath a hand about all the sinful actions in the world. The selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites was the act of his brethren; the sending him into Egypt was the act of God: Ps. 105:17,
'He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant;' Gen. 45:8, 'It was not you that sent me hither, but God,' where Joseph ascribes it more to God than to them. Their wicked