2. Neither is it bad here with good men, if all be well considered.
stubbornness against God so desirable a thing, which is strengthened by those things in the hands of the wicked?
(4.) Is it well with them who in the midst of their prosperity are reserved for justice? Can that traitor be accounted happy, that is fed in prison by the prince with better dishes than many a loyal subject hath at his table, but only to keep him alive for his trial, and a public example of justice? God raises some for greater falls. Miserable was the felicity of Pharaoh, to be raised up by God for a subject to shew in him the power of his wrath, Exod. 9:16. It is but a little time before they shall be 'cut down as grass, and wither as the green herb,' Ps.
37:2. None would value the condition of that soldier, who, leaping into a river to save a king's crown, and putting it upon his own head, that he might be enabled to swim out with it, was rewarded for saving it, and executed for wearing it. God rewards wicked men for their service, and punishes them for their insolence.
2. Neither is it bad here with good men, if all be well considered.
Other men's judgment of a good man is frivolous, they cannot rightly judge of his state and concerns, but he can make a judgment of theirs: 1 Cor. 2:15, 'A spiritual man judgeth all things, but he himself is judged of no man.' No man can make a sound judgment and estimate of a righteous man's state in any condition, unless he hath had experience of the like in all the circumstances, the inward comforts as well as the outward crosses. For,
(1.) Adversity cannot be called absolutely an evil, as prosperity cannot be called absolutely a good. They are rather indifferent things, because they may be used either for the honour or dishonour of God. As they are used for his honour, they are good, and as used for his dishonour, they are evil. The only absolutely bad thing in the world is sin, which cannot be, in its own nature, but a dishonour to God. The only absolutely good thing in the world is holiness, and a likeness to God, which cannot be, in its own nature, but for his glory.
As for all other things, I know no true satisfaction can be in them, but as they are subservient to God's honour, and give us an advantage for
imitating some one or other of his perfections. Crosses in the Scripture are not excluded from those things we have a right to by Christ, when they may conduce to our good: 1 Cor. 3:22, 'Life and death, things present, and things to come, are yours, and you are
Christ's.' Since the revelation of the gospel, I do not remember that any such complaint against the providence of God fell from any holy man in the New Testament; for our Saviour had given them another prospect of those things. The holy men in the Old Testament comforted themselves against this objection by the end of the wicked which should happen, and the rod cease, Ps. 73. In the New
Testament we are more comforted by the certain operation of crosses to our good and spiritual advantage, Rom. 8. Our Saviour did not promise wealth and honour to his followers, nor did he think it worth his pains of coming and dying, to bestow such gifts upon his children. He made heaven their happiness, and the earth their hell; the cross was their badge here, and the crown their reward hereafter; they seemed not to be a purchase congruous to so great a price of blood. Was God's providence to Christ the more to be questioned because he was poor? Had he the less love to him because he was 'a man of sorrows,' even while he was a God of glory? Such groundless conceits should never enter into Christians, who can never seriously take up Christ's yoke without a proviso of afflictions, who can never be God's sons without expecting his corrections.
(2.) God never leaves good men so bare, but he provides for their necessity: Ps. 84:11, 'The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.' If any thing be good, an upright man may expect it from God's providence; if it be not good, he should not desire it: Howsoever grace, which is necessary for preparing thee for happiness and glory, which is necessary for fixing thee in it, he will be sure to give; we have David's experience for it in the whole course of his life, Ps. 37:5.
(3.) The little good men have is better than the highest enjoyments of wicked men: Ps. 37:16, 'A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked;' not better than many riches of the
wicked, but better than the riches of many wicked, better than all the treasures of the whole mass of the wicked world. Others have them in a providential way, good men in a gracious way: Prov. 16:8, 'Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right,' without a covenant right. Wicked prosperity is like a shadow that glides away in a moment, whereas a righteous man's little is a part of Christ's purchase, and part of that inheritance which shall endure for ever: Ps. 37:18, 'Their inheritance shall be for ever,' i.e., God regards the state of the righteous, whether good or evil, all that befalls them.
God doth all with a respect to his everlasting inheritance. No man hath worldly things without their wings. And though the righteous have worldly things with their wings, yet that love whereby they have them hath no wings ever to fly away from them. How can those things be good to a man that can never taste them, nor God in them?
(4.) No righteous man would in his sober wits be willing to make an exchange of his smartest afflictions for a wicked man's prosperity, with all the circumstances attending it. It cannot therefore be bad with the righteous in the worst condition. Would any man be ambitious of snares that knows the deceit of them? Can any but a madman exchange medicines for poison? Is it not more desirable to be upon a dunghill with an intimate converse with God, than upon a throne without it? They gain a world in prosperity, a righteous man gains his soul by afflictions, and possesses it in patience. Is the exchange of a valuable consideration? God strips good men of the enjoyment of the world, that he may wean them from the love of it; keeps them from idolatry, by removing the fuel of it; sends afflictions that he may not lose them, nor they their souls. Would any man exchange a great goodness 'laid up for him that fears God,' Ps. 31:19, for a lesser goodness laid out upon them that are enemies to him?
Who would exchange a few outward comforts with God's promise, inward comforts with assurance of heaven, godliness with contentment, a sweet and spiritual life, sovereignty over himself and lusts, though attended with sufferings, for the government of the whole world?
(5.) It is not ill with the righteous in afflictions, because they have high advantages by them. That cannot be absolutely evil which conduceth to a greater good; as, First, Sensible experiments of the tender providence of God over them. If the righteous had not afflictions in this life, God would lose the glory of his providence, and they the sweetness in a gracious deliverance from them, in ways which makes the affliction the sweeter as well as the mercy; they would lose the comfort of them, in not having such sensible evidences of God's gracious care.
The sweetness of the promises made for times of trouble would never be tasted: Ps. 37:19, 'They shall not be ashamed in the evil time;' that is, they shall be mightily encouraged and supported. God's people do best understand God's strength when they feel the smart of men's malice: 2 Tim. 4:17, 'The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.'
He had never felt so much of God's strength if he had not tasted much of man's wickedness in forsaking him. Ps. 37:39, 'He is their strength,' when in times of trouble they experiment more of his care in preserving them, and his strength in supporting them, than at other times. Abundance of consolations are manifested in abundance of sufferings, 2 Cor. 1:5, 1 Peter 4:13, 14. A greater sense of joy and glory lights upon them in a storm of persecutions. Men see the sufferings of the godly, but they do not behold that inward peace which composeth and delights their souls, worth the whole mass of the world's goodness, and pleasures of the unrighteous.
Secondly, Inward improvements, opportunities to manifest more love to God, more dependence on him, the perfection of the soul: 1
Tim. 5:5, 'Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.'
There is a ground of more exercise of trust in God and supplication to him. The poor and desolate have an advantage for the actual exercise of those graces, which a prosperous condition wants. God changeth the metal by it; what was lead and iron he makes come forth as gold: Job 23:10, 'When he hath tried me, I shall come forth
as gold.' Crosses and sufferings, which fit good men for special service here, and eternal happiness hereafter, can no more be said to be evil, than the fire which refines the gold, and prepares it for a prince's use. If there were not such evils, what ground could you have to exercise patience? what heroic acts of faith could you put forth without difficulties? how could you believe against hope, if you had not sometimes something to contradict your hopes? And if a good man should have a confluence of that which the ignorant and pedantical world calls happiness, he might undervalue the pleasures of a better life, deface the beauty of his own soul, and withdraw his love from the most gratifying as well as the most glorious object, unto that which is not worth the least grain of his affection.
Thirdly, Future glory. The great inquiry at the day of Christ's appearing will be, how good men bare their sufferings, what improvements they had; and the greater their purity by them, the greater will be their praise and honour: 1 Peter 1:7, 'That the trial of your faith,' viz., by manifold temptations, 'may be found to praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' For a good improvement by them, they will have a public praise from God's mouth, and a crown of honour set upon their heads. Providence sends even light afflictions as so many artificers, to make the crown more massy and more bright: 2 Cor. 4:17, 'Works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' They are at work about a good man's crown while they make him smart. They prepare him for heaven, and make it more grateful to him when he comes to possess it. A Christian carriage in them prepares for greater degrees of glory.
Every stroke doth but more beautify the crown.
Fourthly, Sufferings of good men for the truth highly glorifies the providence of God. This is a matter of glory and honour: 1 Peter 4:16,
'If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.' They thereby bear a testimony to the highest act of providence that God ever exercised, even the redemption of the world by the blood of his Son. And the church, which is the highest object of his providence in the world, takes the
deeper root, and springs up the higher; the foundation of it was laid in the blood of Christ, and the growth of it is furthered by the blood of martyrs. The carriage of the righteous in them makes the truth they profess more valued. It enhanceth the excellency of religion, and manifests it to be more amiable for its beauty than for its dowry, since they see it desirable by the sufferers, not only without worldly enjoyments, but with the sharpest miseries. This consideration hath wrought upon many to embrace the religion of the sufferers. If it reaches as far as death, they are but despatched to their Father's house, and the day of their death is the day of their coronation; and what evil is there in all this?
Fifthly, To conclude; this argument is stronger (upon the infallible righteousness of God's nature) for a day of reckoning after this life, than against providence. It is a more rational conclusion that God will have a time to justify the righteousness and wisdom of his providential government, and repair the honour of the righteous, oppressed by the injustice of the wicked. And indeed, unless there be a retribution in another world, the question is unanswerable, and all the reason in the world knows not how to salve the holiness and righteousness of God in his providential dispensations in this life, since we see here goodness unrewarded and debased to the dunghill, vice glorying in impunity, and ranting to the firmament. We cannot see how it can consist with the nature of God's wisdom, righteousness, and holiness, if there were not another life, wherein
God will manifest his righteousness in the punishing sin and rewarding goodness; for it is impossible that a God of infinite justice should leave sin unpunished, and grace unrewarded, here or hereafter. The Scripture gives us so full an account of a future state, that may satisfy all Christians in this business.
The wicked rich man is in his purple, and Lazarus in his rags; yet Abraham's bosom is prepared for the one, and an endless hell for the other. Jeremiah resolves the case in his dispute with God about it:
Jer. 12:3, 'Pull them out like sheep to the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.' They are but fattening for the knife of
justice; and the day will come when they shall be consumed like the fat of lambs in the sacrifice, which shall wholly evaporate into smoke; so the psalmist resolves it in Ps. 37:20, a psalm written for the present case. God laughs at their security in a way of mockery: Ps.
37:13, 'The Lord shall laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming,'—God's day for the justification of his proceedings in the world, and the wicked man's day for his own destruction, wherein they shall all be destroyed together, Ps. 37:38; the whole mass of them in one bundle. Who then will charge God with unequal distributions at that day, which is appointed for the clearing up of his righteousness, which is here masked in the world? Who can be fond of the state of the wicked? Who would be fond of a dead man's condition, because he lies in state, whose soul may be condemned, whilst his body, with a pompous solemnity, is carried to the grave, and both body and soul, joined together at the resurrection, adjudged to eternal misery?
Quest. 2. What hath been said in this will also answer another question, Why God doth not immediately punish notorious offenders, since the best governments in the world are such as call the violators of the law to a speedy account, to keep up the honour of justice? Thus the Epicures charge God with neglects of providence, because if he doth punish wicked men, it is later than is fit and just:
'Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil,'
Eccles. 8:11. Delay of justice is an encouragement to sin.
Ans. 1. This is an argument for God's patience, none against his providence. Should he make such quick work, what would become of the world? Could it have held out to this day? If God had instantly taken revenge upon those that thus disparage his providence, the frame of such an objection had not been alive. No man is so perfectly good but he might fall under the revenging stroke of his sword, if he pleased to draw it. Suffer God to evidence his patience here, since after the winding up of the world he will have no time to manifest it.
God doth indeed sometimes send the sharp arrow of some judgment
upon a notorious offender, to let him understand that he hath not forgotten how to govern; but he doth not always do so, that his patience may be glorified in bearing with his rebellious creature.
Ans. 2. God is just in that wherein the question supposeth him unjust; he suffers wicked men to continue to be the plagues of the places where they live, and the executioners of his justice upon offenders against him, Ps. 17:13. The wicked are God's sword, Jer.
47:6. Those that God would stir up against the Philistines are called the sword of the Lord, Isa. 10:5. Asshur is said to be the rod of his anger; would it consist with his wisdom to drop the instruments out of his hand as soon as he begins to use them? to cast his rods out of his hand as soon as he takes them up? The rules of justice are as much unknown to us as the communications of his goodness to his people are unknown to the world.
Ans. 3. Let me ask such a one whether he never injured another man, and whether he would not think it very severe, if not unjust, that the offended person should presently take revenge of him? If every man should do the like, how soon would mankind be despatched, and the world become a shambles, men running furiously to one another's destructions for the injuries they have mutually received! Do we praise the lenity of parents to their children, and dispraise the mercy of God, because he doth not presently use his right? Is, then, forbearance of revenge accounted a virtue in a man, and shall it be an imperfection in God? With what reason can we thus blame the eminent patience of God, which we have reason to adore, and which every one of us are monuments of? The use is,—
Use 1. Of information.
How unworthy and absurd a thing is it to deny providence! Some of the heathens fancied that God walked his circuit in heaven, or sat with folded arms there, taking no cognizance of what was done in the world. Some indeed, upon some great emergencies, have acknowledged the mercies and justice of God, which are the two