1. It is certain God hath a hand about all the sinful actions in the
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
intention was to be rid of him, that he might tell no more tales of them to his father. God's gracious intention was to advance him for his honour and their good; and to bring about this gracious purpose, he makes use of their sinful practice. God's end was righteous, when theirs was wicked. It is said God moved David to number the people:
2 Sam. 24:1, 'The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go number Israel and Judah.'
Yet Satan is said to provoke David to number the people: 1 Chron.
21:1, 'And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.' Here are two agents; but the text mentions God's hand in it out of justice to punish Israel; Satan's end, no question, was out of malice to destroy. Satan wills it as a sin, God as a punishment: God, say some, permissivè, Satan efficaciter. In the most villanous and unrighteous action that ever was done, God is said to have an influence on it. God is said to deliver up Christ: Acts
2:23, 'Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:' Acts 4:28, 'For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.' Not barely as an act of his presence, but his counsel, and that determinate, i.e. stable and irreversible. He makes a distinction between these two acts. In God it was an act of counsel, in them an act of wickedness, 'by wicked hands;' there was God's counsel about it, an actual tradition: Rom.
8:32, 'He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.' All the agents had several ends. God in that act aimed at the redemption of the world, Satan at the preventing it, Judas to satisfy his covetousness, the Jews to preserve themselves from the Roman invasion, and out of malice to him for so sharply reproving them.
God had a gracious principle of love to mankind, and acted for the salvation of the world in it; the instruments had base principles and ends, and moved freely in obedience to them. So in the affliction of Job, both God and Satan had an hand in it: Job. 1:12, 'The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power;' ver. 11, 'Touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face;' their ends were different: the one righteous, for trial; the other malicious, against God, that he might be cursed; against Job that he might be damned.