Part 7
2 CHRON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 71
them. The trumpets are sounded by angels, and the^ vials which are filled with the causes of such alterations, are poured out by the hands of angels. Some indeed, by the angels there mentioned, understand the visible instru ments of reformation, not excluding the angels, who are the invisible minis
ters in the affairs of the world.*
Fifthly, They engage in this work for the church with delight ; they act as God's ministers in his providence with a unanimous consent : Ezek, i. 9,
* Their wings were joined one to another;' so that they perform their office with the same swiftness, and with the same affection, without emulation
to go one before another, which makes many actions succeed ill among men ; but they go hand in hand. They do it with affection, both in respect of the kind disposition of their natures, and as they are fellow-members of the same body, for they are parts of the church and of the heavenly Jerusalem : Heb. Ixii. 22, ' Ye are come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumer able company of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the first
born ;' and therefore act out of affection to that which is a part of their body, as well as out of obedience to their head. They do it in respect of their own improvement too, and increase of their knowledge (which is the desire of all intellectual creatures) ; for they complete their understandings by the sight of the methods of infinite wisdom in the perfecting his gracious
designs. And it is God's intent that they should grow in the knowledge of his great mystery by their employment : Eph. iii. 10, « To the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God,' i. e., By the gracious works of God towards the church, and in the behalf of it, for the security and growth of the church, and in the executions of those decrees which as instruments they are employed in ; for I do not understand how it can be meant of the knowledge of Christ, for that they know more than the church below can acquaint them with : for without question they have a clear insight into the offices of Christ, who is the head, and whom they are ordered to worship. They understand the aim of his death and resurrection, and can better explain the dark predictions of Scripture, than purblind man can. But
by observing the methods which God uses in the accomplishment of them, they become more intelligent, and commence masters of knowledge in a higher degree, which it is probable is one reason of their joy, when they see
God's infinite wisdom and grace in the conversion of a sinner ; without affec tion to them, and their employment about them, they could not rejoice so much. And their rejoicing in their first bringing in to God, argues their joy in all their employments which concerns their welfare.
(2.) As all good things, so all bad things are ordered by providence for
the good of the church. That which in its own nature is an injury, by God's ordering puts on the nature of a mercy ; and what is poison in itself, by the almighty art becomes a sovereign medicine. Are God's dispensations in their own nature destructive ? That wise physician knows how to make poisons work the effect of purges. Are they sharp ? It is to humble and purge the church. As shadows serve to set out the pictures, so the darkest passages of providence are made by God to commend the beauty of those glorious things he works for his church. We may see this in,
[l.J Bad persons. As, first, The devil. Godmanageth him for his own glory, and the strength ening of believers. Mat. viii. 31, 32, the devils desired to enter into the herd of swine, with an intent, probably, not only to destroy the swine, but to incense the Gadarenes against him, out of whom they had been cast, to do
* Lightfoot, Temple, chap. 38, p. 253, 256.
72 A DISCOUKSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CflEON. XYI. 9.
him some considerable mischief. But what is the issue ? As they discover
their malice, so they enhance the value of Christ's kindness to the distressed man, whom he had freed from this tyranny. Hereby also was the law of God
justified in commanding the Jews to abstainfrom swine's flesh, which the Gadarenes, being apostate Jews, had broken ; he magnified his own power in the routing such a number of unclean spirits, which had not been so conspicuous in the turning them out of one man, had not this regiment discovered themselves among the swine, and brought such a loss upon the Gadarenes, whereby as they shewed their own strength and malice, so they
discovered occasionally the greatness of Christ's charity, and his power over them ; so that in granting the malicious petition of this exasperated legion,
the law of God is justified, our Saviour's love glorified, his power manifested,
and a foundation laid for the gaining proselytes in that country, to which purpose he left the man he had cured, Luke viii. 39, and to strengthen the faith of those poor believers which then followed him. God makes use of the devils by the sovereignty of providence, to bring about ends unknown to themselves, for all their wisdom. The malice of the devil against Job hath rendered him a standing miracle of patience for ever. They are the
' rulers of the darkness of this world,' Eph. vi. 12, not of the light'of the world ; they are the rulers of the wicked, and the scullions of the saints, to scour and cleanse them. They are the rulers of the world, but subordinate to serve the providence of God, wherein God declares his wisdom by serving himself of the worst of his enemies. The devil thought he had brought a total destruction upon mankind when he persuaded our first parents to eat of the forbidden fruit, but the only wise God ordered it to bring about a greater glory to himself, and a more firm stability to his people, in intro ducing an everlasting covenant which could not be broken, and establishing their happiness upon surer terms than it was settled in paradise ; and afterwards in filling the heart of Judas to betray Christ, and the hearts of the Jews to crucify him. Even by that way whereby he thought to hinder the good of mankind, he occasionally promotes their perpetual redemption ; and I do not much question but those very principles which the devil had distilled into the Gentile world, of shedding human blood in sacrifices for expiation of guilt, and the gods conversing with men in human ways, and the imagination of the intercessions of demons for them, — the first out of rage against mankind, and both that and the other to induce them to idolatry, — might facilitate the entertainment of Christ as the great expiatory sacrifice, and the receiving of him as the Son of God, though in an human shape, and the belief of his intercession. God overreaches the devil, and makes him instrumental for good where he designs hurt and mischief.
Secondly, Wicked men. All the wicked in the midst of the church are for the good of it, either for the exercise of their grace, or security of their
persons, or interest : Prov. xvi. 7, ' When a man's ways please the Lord, he will make his enemies to be at peace with him.' Sometimes he will incline their hearts intentionally to favour, or order even their actions against them to procure their peace, contrary to their intentions. Sometimes God makes them his sword to cut his people, sometimes physic to purge them, sometimes fire to melt and refine them, sometimes hedges to preserve them, sometimes a ransom to redeem them, Prov. xxi. 18. A traveller makes use
of the mettle of a headstrong horse to carry him to his journey's end. That wind which would overturn a little boat, the skilful pilot makes use of to drive his ship into the harbour, and the husbandman to cleanse his corn from the chaff. Though the ends of the workers, viz., God and wicked men, are different, yet the end of the work is but one, which is ordered by
2 CHKON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OP DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 73
God's sovereign pleasure. It was promised in the promise of the gospel to the Gentiles : Gen. ix. 27, ' God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.' God shall allure Japhet, the Gentiles of Europe, to dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan the head of the cursed posterity, shall be servants to the church beside their will, and sometimes against it, by an overruling hand. And Christ hath bought them to be his servants : 2 Peter ii. 1, ' Denying the Lord that bought them,' and therefore hath the disposing of them, whether they voluntarily give up themselves to him or no. He is a Lord by purchase
over them, who own him not as a Saviour. The hatred of the church's enemies sometimes conduceth more to her good than the affections of all her worldly friends. Now this appears,
First, In furthering the gospel. The Jews, who speak not -of Christ among themselves, but with opprobrious terms,* have been the exact pre servers of the Old Testament, even to the very number of the letters, wherein Christians have sufficient to confirm them in the belief of Christ's being the Messiah, and unanswerable arguments against their adversaries ; whereupon St Austin terms them capsarios ecdesice, such that carry the books of the children of great men after them to school. When the authority of the Eevelation . was anciently questioned, the Church of Eome was instru mental to keep it in the number of the canonical books, not thinking they should find their own church so plainly deciphered in it to be the mother of abominations. To this we may refer the action of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, in causing the Scripture to be translated about three hundred years before the coming of Christ, through which the nationsf might better discern (as it were through a prospective glass) the new star of Jacob which was shortly to arise. No doubt but many of the Gentiles, by com paring the old Scripture prophecies, which they could read in the Greek language, might be more easily induced to an embracing the gospel, and acknowledging Christ to be the Messiah, when it came to be divulged among
them. Herod is the cause of the consultation about the place of Christ's birth, not for any goodwill he had to him whom he intended to murder, but God makes use of this to clear up the truth of the prophecy concerning Bethlehem, the place of his birth : Mat. ii. 6, < Out of thee shall come a
Governor that shall rule my people Israel.' And they certainly were not very good who preached Christ out of envy, and propagated the gospel, wherein Paul rejoiced ; not in their sin, but in the providential fruit of it : Philip, i. 15, 18, « Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife. What then ? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or truth, Christ is preached ; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.'
Secondly, In furthering the temporal good of the church. (1.) In its preservation. Wicked men are often serviceable to the church, as the filthy raven was to holy Elijah, or as the lion which would have devoured Samson is a storehouse to provide him food ; for in his hunger he finds a table spread in the belly of his enemy. Pharaoh's design was to destroy Israel, and the daughter of that irreconcilable enemy is directed to preserve Moses, who was to be the ruin of her family, the destruction of the Egyptian glory, and the deliverer of the church. She saves him out of charity, and God out of a wise design ; she, by his education in the Egyptian learning, fits him for the court, and God for the deliverance of his church. ^ Egypt had corn to relieve, first Abraham, Gen. xii. 10, after ward Jacob in a time of famine, the family wherein the church of God was only then bound up. Herod lies in wait for Christ's destruction, and Egypt,
* Helvicus contra Judseos. t Jackson, vol. i. fol. f, p. 62.
74 A DISCOUKSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CHBON. XVI. 9.
the most idolatrous country in the world, and an ancient enemy to God's church, affords him shelter, God makes ' Moab to hide his outcasts and
be their covert from the face of the spoiler,' Isa. xvi. 3, 4. Some think God's design in sending Jonah to Nineveh to work so remarkable a change by repentance, was to soften some of their hearts, and the hearts of their posterity, to deal more tenderly with those gracious Israelites, who, in the captivity of the ten tribes some years after, should be their guests, God making thereby provision for his own people in that common judgment which should come upon the nation. This God doth sometimes by reviving the law of nature and the common sentiments of religion in the hearts of natural men, whereby. their own consciences, bearing witness to the innocency and excellency of the church of God, put them upon thoughts for its security. Sometimes it is above their own sphere and besides their own intentions. The whale which swallowed Jonah intended him as a morsel to
quell his hunger, but proves his security, and disgorgeth him upon the shore ; they understand their own aim, but not the design of God. The leech that
sucks the patient's blood knows not the chirurgeon's design, who useth it for the cure of a disease. Sometimes their rage proves their own ruin, and the
church's safety; as the leech bursts itself sometimes, and saves the patient. The very earth, whereby is meant the carnal world, is said to help the woman, the church, by swallowing up the flood which the dragon casts out
of his mouth against her, Rev. xii. 16, just as the old rags were the instruments whereby Jeremiah was drawn out of the dungeon.
(2.) In the advancement of the church or persons eminent. Abner had a
plot for bringing Israel to David's sceptre, which concurred both with God's purpose and promises, but sprung from an ill cause, a disdain to be checked by Ishbosheth, though his king, for an unjustifiable act, for having too much
familiarity with one of Saul's concubines, 2 Sam. iii. 6-10. And from this animosity he contrives the deposing of Ishbosheth, and the exaltation of David ; yet dissembles the ground, and pretends the promise of God to David, ver. 18, ' For the Lord :hath spoken of David, By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philis
tines.' He is the first engine that moves in this business, and by him and his correspondents after his death, ver. 17, the business is brought about
by God's overruling hand, wherein God's promise is accomplished, and David a type of Christ, and the great champion for the church against its enemies round about is advanced. Very remarkable is the advancement of Mordecai, in order to the advancing of the Jews as well as preserving them, when the necks of all the visible church God had in the world were upon the block. Haman ignorantly is the cause of this preferment of Mordecai, and at that time too when he came to petition for his death : Esther vi. 4,
' He was come to speak to the king to hang Mordecai upon the gallows which he had prepared for him.' The king asks him what shouldtbe done to the man whom the king delights to honour, ver. 16. He imagineth that
the king's question did respect himself, lays out a scheme of what honour he was ambitious of, ver. 8, 9, which was by the king designed for Mordecai, and Haman made the herald to proclaim him. Here Haman, not only a wicked man in himself, but the greatest enemy Mordecai and the whole church of God had, is made unwittingly an instrument to exalt Mordecai, and in him the whole church of God.
(3.) In enriching the church, or some persons in it, whereby it may become more serviceable to God. How wonderful was it, that when the Israelites were abominated by the Egyptians, God should so order their hearts that the Egyptians should lend them gold and jewels, Exod. xii. 35, 36, and dismiss
2 CHEON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 75
them with wealth as well as safety, and not so much as one person molest them till they arrived at the Red Sea ! The very gain and honour of the enemies is sometimes consecrated to the Lord of the whole earth : Micah
iv. 13, ' Arise and thresh, 0 daughter of Zion ; I will make thy horn iron, and thou shall beat in pieces many people : and I will consecrate their gain
unto the Lord, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.' This was when many nations were gathered against Sion, ver. 11 ; 'the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just,' Prov. xiii. 22. And God sometimes makes the wicked, unwittingly to themselves, in their carking, be the factors for good men, into whose lap providence pours the fruit of their labour. God gave Cyrus the spoils of Babylon and the treasures of CrcBSUs, to enable him to furnish the Jews with materials for building the temple : Isa. xlv. 3, 4,
' And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden treasures of secret places (speaking of Cyrus), that thou mayest know that I the Lord which call
thee by thy name, am the God of Israel, for Jacob my servant's sake,' &c. That he might acknowledge him the God of Israel, and lay his wealth out in the service of God, and the service of Jacob his servant.
Thirdly, As bad persons, so bad things are ordered to the good of the church, whether they be sinful evils or afflictive.
1. Sin.
(1.) A man's own sin. Onesimus runs from his master, and finds a spiritual father ; his being a runagate is the occasion of his being a convert. By flying from his master he becomes a brother in the Lord, Philem. 10, 12, 16.
What Joseph's brethren sinfully intended for revenge against their brother, and security from their father's checks (who acquainted Jacob with their miscarriages), God ordered for the preservation of them who were the only visible church in the world. Their sin against their brother, contrary both to their intentions and expectations, became the means of their safety. God makes the remainder of sin in a good man an occasion to exercise his grace, discover his strength, and shew his loyalty to God.
(2.) Other men's sins. That might be in Sarah but a heady passion, for hearing her son mocked by Ishmael, that made her so desirous to have the bond-woman and her first son thrust out, Gen. xxi. 10 ; but God makes use of it to make a separation between Isaac, the heir of the covenant, and Ishmael, that he might not be corrupted by an evil example from him ; God orders Abraham to hearken to her voice, because in Isaac his seed should be called, ver. 12. And the revengeful threatening of Esau was the occasion
of Jacob's flight, whereby he was hindered from marrying with any of the people of the land, by whom he might have been induced to idolatry, Gen. xxvii. 43, 46. Why should we mistrust that God that can make use of the lusts of men to bring about his own gracious purposes ?
2. Commotions in the world. There is the eye of God, that eye which runs to and fro throughout the whole earth in the wheels of worldly motions, even in the most dreadful providences in the world that stare upon men with a grim countenance : Ezek. i. 18, ' Their wings were dreadful, and their wings were full of eyes.' All the overturnings in the world are sub servient to the church's interest, though they are not visibly so, unless diligently attended.* God orders the confusions of the world, and is in the midst of the tumults of the people: Ps. xxix. 10, 11, « The Lord sits upon the flood ; yea, the Lord sits King for ever. The Lord will give strength to his people ; the Lord will bless his people with peace.' He sits upon the flood as a charioteer in his chariot, guiding it with holy and merciful intentions to his people, to give them both strength and peace in the midst of them, and
* Broughton on Rev. xiii. sect. 177.
76 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CflRON. XYI. 9.
as the issue of them. By water and floods is frequently meant tumults and confusions in the world. If it were not so, why should our Saviour encourage his disciples, ancTall their successors in the same profession, to lift up their heads when they hear of wars, if their redemption were not designed by God in them? Luke xxi. 25-28; they are all testimonies of the nearer approaches of Christ in power and glory to judge the earth, and glorify his people.
God's great end in the shaking of nations is the performing those gracious promises to his church which yet remained unaccomplished. These earth quakes in the world will bring heaven to the church. The great revolutions in the eastern part of the world, the ruin of the Babylonian empire, the erecting the Persian, and all the means whereby it was brought about, God
ordered, God foretold, God directed, for Jacob's service. Cyrus, led by ambition, levies an army against Bab}rlon ; yet though he was a ravenous bird he was to execute the counsel of God : Isa. xlvi. 11, ' Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel,' to be an instrument for the delivery of the captived Jews, and the restorer of the ruined temple. He had called him out by name to make a great revolution
of the world. He foretold by his prophet Isaiah many years before, the means he should use in the siege of Babylon to attain the victory, the very dividing Euphrates, which was the great confidence of the Babylonian :
Isa. xliv. 27, * That say to the deep, Be dry ; and I will dry up the rivers ; ' whereby it was as it were dried up for them to pass over the very opening
of the gates: Isa. xlv. 1, ' And the gates shall not be shut; ' the Babylonians in a presumptuous security had left them open, thinking it impossible the
city could be taken, because of the river Euphrates: * I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight ; ' and what was the end of that great revolution and motion in that part of the world ? See Isa. xlv. 4,
* For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name/ This prophecy was when Jerusalem and the temple were standing. God casts about long before his people needs, for their wel fare in the great revolutions and changes of the world. In Isa. xliv. 28,
' That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure ; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built ; and to the temple, Thy
foundation shall be laid.' Cyrus had no knowledge of this end of God, ' though thou hast not known me,' Isa. xlv. 4, 5, twice repeated. Cyrus did not know God, neither did he know God's end ; he acts his own pur poses, and is acted by God to higher purposes than he understood. In all the siftings of nations, and sifting the church among the nations, as corn is sifted in a sieve, God designs not the destruction of his people, but the cleansing them, the separating the flour from the bran.
8. Destroying judgments, yea, and the very curses sometimes are turned into blessings.
Destroying judgments. The desolation of the Jews was not only in order
to the fulfilling God's truth in his threatenings, but useful for the great gospel design ; the fall of the Jews was the calling of the Gentiles : Rom.
xi. 11, 12, ' Through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles.' And also their fall and dispersion among the Gentiles was prophesied of as the occasion of their return to God : Ezek. xx. 36, 37, ' Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness, so will I plead with you ; and cause you to
pass under the rod, and bring you into the bond of the covenant ;' when they are in the wilderness of captivity, then God shall plead with them, and make them to pass under the rod of propriety, and bring them into covenant. The like also is prophesied of that captivity of the ten tribes to this day, not
known where they are : Hosea ii. 14, the time of God's speaking kindly to
2 CHRON. XVI. 9.J A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 77
her should be in the wilderness, and then ' I will give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope.' No question but God hath performed his pro mise, and brought many of the posterity of the ten tribes into the church among the mass of the Gentiles, among whom they were dispersed.
Curses sometimes, as God orders them, prove blessings. The curse of
inspired Jacob upon Levi, — Gen. xlix. 7, ' Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce ; and their wrath, for it was cruel : I will divide them in Jacob, and
scatter them in Israel,' — was the advantage both of Levi and the Israelites ; that they were dispersed among the several tribes without any universal cohabitation as the rest, was a curse ; but that they should be the instruc tors of the people in the matters of the law, was an honour God put upon the head of that tribe, and a public blessing to^the people.
4. Divisions in the church. One would think this of all other things should shake the foundation of it ; yet God orders even these to the good of the church. Paul and Barnabas, two great apostles, fell out, Acts xv. 36-39, &c. ; the contention comes to be very sharp, a thing naturally of very ill consequence in two of the prime guides of Christianity, and at the laying the first foundation of it ; but the gospel gains ground, one sails to
Cyprus, and the other travels into Syria. Perhaps had not this quarrel been between them, and they thus disjointed from one another, some of those poor souls had never, or at least not so soon, have heard of the gospel mercy.
5. Persecutions. These naturally tend to the dissolution and utter extirpation of it, but God orders them otherwise. God doth often lay the scene of his amazing providences in very dismal afflictions ; as the limner first puts on the dusky colours on which he intends to draw the portraiture of some illustrious beauty. The oppression of Israel immediately before their deliverance was the dusky colour whereupon God drew those gracious lines of their salvation from Egypt, the pattern of all the after deliverances of the church in all ages, and a type of our spiritual redemption by Christ. The humiliation, persecution, and death of the Son of God, was the dusky colour upon which God drew that amazing piece of divine love and wisdom
in man's salvation, which the eyes of saints and angels will be fixed on with ravishing admirations to all eternity. All afflictions in the world, which
God doth exercise the church with, are parts of his providence, and like mournful notes in music, which make the melody of the tune more pleasant, and set off those sweeter airs which follow upon them. Afflictions here cause the joys of heaven to appear more glorious in the eyes of glorified saints. The persecutions of the martyrs did but heighten their graces, send them to the place of rest, and enlarge their robes of glory. God many times saves his people by sufferings, and brings them to the shore upon the planks of a broken ship, and makes that which was the occasion of their loss to be a means of their safety ; they sometimes evidence that which they
would destroy. Herod's murdering the children, to destroy him that was born king of the Jews, made his birth more conspicuous in the world ; snuffing the candle makes it burn the clearer.
They sometimes make, 1. To the improvement of the church. One of the sorest judgments God brought upon the Jewish church is expressly asserted by God to be for their
good : Jer. xxiv. 5, speaking of the captived Jews, * Whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.' The Chaldeans had overrun their land, carried them captives, made them slaves, destroyed the temple ; yet God tells them this was for their good, when there was no
present appearance of any good in it. It should be good in respect of God's favour towards them, which retired to return with the greater force : ver. 6,
78 A DISCOUKSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CHRON. XVI. 9.
' I will set mine eyes upon them for good ; I will build them, and not pull them down.' God will give them a more durable settlement. In respect also of that frame of heart they should have toward God, their knowledge of him and cleaving to him, ver. 7, « I will give them a heart to know me ; and they shall return to me with their whole heart.' God had but a moiety of their hearts before, but then he should have the whole. And indeed it was remarkably for their good ; for they who before were addicted to idolatry were never guilty of the same sin after ; and God kept them from being drawn away to it by the example and solicitation of those among whom they were. The church grows by tears and withers by smiles. God's vine thrives the better for pruning. God makes our persecutions fit us for that for which we are persecuted ; as Saul by his persecution of David for the title God had given him to the kingdom, made him fitter to succeed him in the throne, and manage the government. God uses persecutors as lances, which, whiles they wound us, let out the purulent and oppressive matter ;
and makes them instruments of his providence to work out his people's happiness, and thus makes the very wrath of man to be an occasion of his
people's praise : Ps. Ixxvi. 10, ' The wrath of man shall praise thee.' God doth in this as a father deals with his son, sends him to a sharp school, that he may be trained up in learning.
2. In the increase of the church. The Jews crucified our Saviour to diminish the multitude of his followers, and by this means the number is increased. The whole world runs after him by that means they used to stop their course, which Christ foretold, that when he was lifted up he should draw all men after him ; and that a grain of corn brings not forth more seed unless it be cast into the ground and die.
1. In the increase of it within its own bounds. When the Israelites were most oppressed in Egypt, the more they multiplied, Exod. i. 20. When
the dragon's fury did most swell against the woman, she brought forth a man child, Rev. xii. 1, 3, 4. When the Roman empire was at the highest, and was most inflamed with anger against the Christians ; when the learning of the philosophers, the witchcrafts of heretics, the power of the emperors, and the strength of the whole world was set against them, the Christians grew more flourishing and numerous by those very means which were used to destroy them. Not only a new succession of saints sprung up from the
martyrs' ashes, but their flames were the occasion of warming some so much with a heavenly fire, that some persecutors have become preachers. Their very bonds for the truth have sometimes a seminal virtue in them to beget men to faith in Christ : Philip, i. 12, ' The things which have happened unto me, have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel.'
2. In the increase of it in other parts. Paul's prison made his preaching famous in Rome, and was an occasion of bringing Christianity into Nero's court, that monster of mankind, Philip, i. 13, iv. 22 ; one might have looked for saints in hell as soon ; his bonds were as great a confirmation of the truth of his doctrine as his eloquence. When Saul made havoc of the church, and by that storm dispersed the Christians, they, like so many grains of corn scattered in several parts of a greater field, produced the greater harvest : Acts viii. 3, 4, ' Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.' As clouds scattered by the winds, they rained down the gospel in several quarters. The Jews when scattered in their several flights did scatter among the heathen the notions of the true religion. When they shall go down to Egypt to secure themselves from
Sennacherib's invasion, they shall be a means to make many converts among that idolatrous nation : Isa. xix. 18, 'In that day' (the day of the Jews'
2 CHRON. XYI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 79
trouble) « shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts ;' so one expounds it, but I rather think it meant of the times of the gospel. The flight of the Israelites shall be the
occasion of some Egyptians' conversion. A poor slave in Naaman's family was an occasion both of the cure of his body and of that of his soul, 2 Kings
v. 2 3 17. So much for the first reason, drawn from an enumeration of
things.
Reason 2. To prove that all providence is for the good of the church,
is because God hath sometimes preferred' mercy to the church, and care of it above his own concernments of justice. He values his mercy to them above his justice upon his enemies. He consults their safety before he brings ruin upon the wicked whose sins are full. He first prepared the ark for Noah, and sees him lodged in it before he begins to shower down destruction upon the world. He hath sometimes punished a nation more for their offences against his people, than their sins against himself. Amalek was guilty of many idolatries and other sins against God, but God chargeth none of them upon them but their malicious hindering the Israelites in their march to Canaan : 1 Sam. xv. 2, ' Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when
he came up from Egypt.' He shews his love to them, and how much he values them, that when he is acting justice and pouring out his wrath, when he is (as it were) cutting and slashing on all sides, and is in fury with wicked men, he hath nothing but sweetness and tenderness towards his own. Amos ix. 9, 10, in the sifting of Israel and the nations « Not the least grain shall fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword.' While he thunders out his fury upon wicked men, he hath his eyes upon the least grain of the true Israel. What would it be for God, when he is raising the glory of his justice upon the people that have provoked him, not to regard the concernments of this or that, or many sincere souls, but put no stop to his fury ? Yet he doth, not a grain shall perish. He is more desirous to hear of the preservation and welfare of a few righteous, than of the just punishment of the wicked wherein his justice is gloriously interested.
T'he man clothed with linen, that was to mark the mourners, returned to God and gave an account that he had done according to his command, Ezek. ix. 11 ; the other five, which were to kill, returned not to give any account of their severe and sharp proceedings. The angels that held the four winds of the earth, Rev. vii. 1, which some understand of wars and commotions in the world for the overthrow of the Romish power, were ordered not to let the winds go till the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads.
Reason 3. God takes particular notice of the meanest of his people, and mightily condescends to them, much more of the church. It is strange to consider that the Scripture mentions none of those great potentates among
the heathen, but either as they were instruments of his people's good, or executioners of his justice upon them, or subjects of his people's triumph. Cyrus and Darius are mentioned as their friends ; Nebuchadnezzar, and
Sennacherib, and others, as God's instruments in scourging them ; Chedorlaomer and the other kings with him, as they were the subjects of Abraham's valour and triumph, Gen. xiv. 9, 10. He takes no notice of the names of
any in his word but upon such accounts ; Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar had done no doubt many actions before, but none taken notice of but those ; but he takes notice of the meanest wherein was grace, and the meanest of their
concerns and actions.* He mentions in his word Jacob's flocks, &c., things of no great moment, the actions, speeches, gestures of his people, to shew
* Revet in Gen. exercit, 129.
80 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE . [2 CHRON. XVI. 9.
how his providence wrought for them, and how much he is concerned in the least of their affairs ; but the great empires of the world, their original and progress, and the magnified founders of them, he speaks not of but as they have some relation or other to his people. As we love to use the names of our friends, so doth God love the relish of the names of his servants. The name of Noah is repeated several times, as the Jews observe, Gen. vii., viii. The Spirit of God loves the very mention ef their names, he delights to dwell upon the catalogue of their names. The Scripture uses to reckon
the genealogies of wicked men in short characters. Cain's generation is numbered |in haste, as if God had no care at all of them, Gen. iv. 17, 18; he puts them off with a kind of &c. But he insists much upon the gene
ration of the godly. Seth's posterity are written in a large scroll and more legible hand, Gen. v., with the number of the years which they lived,
which in Cain's posterity there is no notice taken of. His whole respect, his heart, his eye, his all is fixed upon them. And Christ himself stands more astonished and wondering at the faith of the centurion, the impor tunity of the Canaanitish woman, condescends to them to grant them what they would have. You never find him taking notice of the learning of the rabbis, the magnificence of Herod, or the glorious building of the temple.
See how condescending God is, to work a miracle for the support and strengthening of a weak faith, and the peevish distrust of his people.
Gideon's faith was weak, yet how compassionate is God towards him (Judges vi. 36, &c., he would have one time the fleece dry, another time wet; God condescends to them in all), in ordering his providence as Gideon would have it, without upbraiding him, just as a tender mother cherishes a weak child ! And this miracle was in order to the church's deliverance from a present oppressive enemy. Certainly when we find God taking care and ordering even the very pins, snuffers, and basins of the temple, the place of his worship, as well as the more stately ornaments of it, we may say, Doth his care extend to the meanest utensils in his temple, and not much more to the worshippers in it ? Doth he give order for the candle sticks, and will he not have much more care of the lights in them ? His care to the least implies his care of the greatest too. In a building, the little stones must be well laid as well as the greatest. Every believer is a stone in the spiritual building.
Reason 4. God reveals often to his people what he will do in the world, as if he seemed to ask their advice ; and therefore surely all his providences shall work for their good. God would not surely acquaint them, and advise with them what he should do, did he intend to do anything to their hurt. There is not anything in the heart of Christ wherein the church is con
cerned but he doth reveal it to them: John xv. 15, 'I have called you friends ; for all things I have heard of my Father I have made known to
you.' He discovered all to them, the ends of his coming, his Father's love, his death, and resurrection, what he would do after his ascension, the pro gress of his affairs, and the glory of heaven, and the end of all. John must be the penman of the Revelation which concerned the future state of the church in all ages. Joseph must know the interpretation of dreams in
order to the church's preservation. Moses must be acquainted with God's methods in the Israelites' deliverance, with the Egyptians' ruin. Daniel must know the future state of the eastern parts of the world ; he must know the turnings of the times, and the end of the world, Dan. x. 11, 19, 20. It is to Noah, and none else, that he immediately discovers his intended
destruction of the world. And all those revelations ended in his people's advantage ; nay, he doth not only reveal, but as it were consult with him
2 CHEON. XVI. 9.1 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 81
in his affairs. God doth as it were unbosom himself to Abraham, as one friend to another ; as it were adviseth with him concerning his intention on Sodom: Gen. xviii. 17, 'And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do ? ' i. e. I will by no means do it, it will not consist with my love and friendship to him to hide anything from him. And see the reason of it: ver. 18, 'Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.' It was, first, his great affection to him, because he had advanced him, and promised that a mighty nation should spring out of his loins. And he had not withheld from him the secret of giving the Messias, which was a universal blessing, and so many ages were to run out before it was to be accomplished ; he had discovered to him his acts of mercy, and therefore would not hide from him his acts of justice, he would know his mind in it and what he thought of it. And you know the story, how God regulated
himself by Abraham's prayer, and denied him nothing, till Abraham left off suing any more. It would make one conjecture, that if Abraham had pro ceeded farther, he had quite diverted the judgment from Sodom. And when the Israelites had provoked God by a golden calf, he would not do anything against them till he had consulted Moses, and therefore lays the whole case before him, and seeks to take him off from pleading with the Lord, and promising to make of him a great nation (Exod. xxxii. 9, 10,
' And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people : now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax • hot against them'), and in such terms that one would wonder at: 'Now therefore let me alone;' as if God did fear Moses's interposition would pre vent him and dissuade him from it. Do not you stand in the way; my wrath will cool if you interpose yourself; as much as to say, God could not do it unless Moses gave his consent ; Moses would not be quiet, but pleads the providences of God, which had been all for him, the promise of God made to Abraham concerning them. And he would not leave till God repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people, ver. 14. If
angels, as Calvin saith, are God's counsellor in heaven, believers are (as it were) his counsellors on earth.
5. God has given the choicest things he hath to his people ; he hath given his law. The church is the sphere wherein the light of the gospel is fixed, and wherein it shines, from whence its beams do dart out to others : Isa.
ii. 3, ' Out of Sion shall go forth the law.' The oracles of God, the great things of the law, as it is phrased, Hosea viii. 12, his covenant, and the counsel of his will, are entrusted with the church. Now, this being a mercy which exceeds all other things in the world, is therefore comprehen sive of all other, as the greater comprehends the lesser. And the psalmist considers it as the top-stone of all blessings ; for after summing up the providences of God, he shews how God had distinguished Jacob by more eminent marks of his favour: Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20, 'He shews his word to Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation;' he hath not left so rich a legacy to any, or given any so much of his heart. Others are ordered by the word of his power (for that is meant by word in the foregoing verse), but Jacob hath the word of his grace too. And this being the choicest piece of affection which God hath shewed to the church, implies the making all lesser providences subservient to it. The church, wherein God hath laid up his gospel, and those souls which are as the ark wherein God hath deposited his law, shall be shadowed with the wings of his merciful providence, in a perpetual succession of all true blessings. All the providences of God are to preserve his law in the
VOL. I. F
82 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CflRON. XVI. 9.
world ; his severest judgments are to quicken up the law of nature in men that know no other, and the law of his gospel in men that sit under it. And he hath given Christ to his church, and thereby hath given an earnest that still their good shall be promoted. It is not to be thought that God will spare anything else, when he hath given them his Son.
The second thing. It must needs be that all providences is for the good of the church.
1. All the providence of God is for the glorifying his grace in Christ. The whole economy or dispensation of the fulness of time, to the latter ages of the world, is for the gathering of all things together in him : Eph. i. 10,
* That in the dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are in earth,
even in him ;' in him as their head. This was the design in all his dispen sations, both before his coming and since, ever since the promise made to Adam, though it be more manifest in the latter age. This the apostle represents as the main purpose of God, ver. 9. This was the mystery of his will, which accordingly to his good pleasure he had purposed in himself, that is, purposed in himself as a thing he was mightily pleased with; and,
ver. 11, saith he, he workg all things after, or Kara, * according to the counsel of his own will,' or of that purpose which he had purposed in him self, to gather all things in one in Christ. All the things that God acts are referred to this as their end, and ordered by this counsel as their rule. As
it was the design of God's providence to make way for Christ's entrance into the world, and all the prophecies in the Old Testament tended to the discovery of it, so since the coming of Christ the end of all is to advance him in respect of his headship : Eph. i. 22, 23, ' And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fulness of him that fills all in all.' God would advance Christ to the highest pitch, ver. 21, far above all principality and power, both in this world and in the world to come ; and there is still a fulness wanting to Christ to complete him, — not any personal fulness, but a fulness belonging to him as head, which is the advancement God designs him. He is already advanced above all principality and power; he is already given as a head to the church, but the completeness of it is not till all his members be perfected, to which all his providences in the world doth ultimately tend. Therefore if the design of God be to honour Christ, and if the spiritual happiness of the church be part of that glory and fulness of Christ, it must needs be carried on by God, else he will want part of his completeness as a head. But this shall not be wanting, since, as all things are squared according to that counsel of glorifying Christ as head, so all things are acted for believers by that power whereby he raised Christ from the grave to be their head, which power is the copy according to which all acts which respect the church are framed: ver. 19, 'And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised
him up from the dead.' God intended the good of the church in this very act of glorifying Christ, for he is made the * head over all things to the church ;' as if God then had prescribed him that order, that the glory he gave him
should be also managed for the church's interest. Christ is Lord of the rest of the world, but head of the church* All things are under his feet, but are not his members; he is head over all things to the church, and therefore to every member of the church, the least as well as the greatest; and to the whole church, even that part of it which is on earth, as well as
that part which is in heaven, who are completed. This church is the ful-
2 CHRON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 83
ness of Christ, he would be bodiless without it ; therefore since Christ will be a head without a body if the church be not preserved, in order to the preservation of it, all things must necessarily concur by the wise disposal of affairs. Therefore since they are travelling to be where their head is, he having the government of the world, will make all things contribute assist ance to them in their journey. That Christ may have that completeness of glory which God intends him, he expressly tells his Father that he is
glorified in his people: John xvii. 10, 'And I am glorified in them.' And at the sound of the seventh trumpet, ' the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for
ever and ever,' Rev. xi. 15. Now, since all the motions in the world are that the kingdoms of the world may become the kingdoms of his Christ, peculiarly his, as being anointed King by him, it must needs be that all things must be subservient one time or other to this end, wherein the good of his people doth consist ; otherwise they would not bless God so highly for it as they do: ver. 17, 'We give thee thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.' And where there is a resistance of this glory of Christ, it is a natural effect of that decree whereby Christ is constituted King, that the resisters should be
broken in pieces, and dashed like a potter's vessel, Ps. ii. 6, 9 ; and the issue of all is the blessedness of those that put their trust in him, ver. 12. The care that God hath of Christ and the church in the types of them, seems to be equal. The ark, which was a type of Christ, and the table of shew-bread, a figure of the church, had three coverings, whereas all the rest of the vessels, &c., belonging to the ceremonial part, had but two,
Num. iv. 5-8. On the ark there was the veil, and covering of badgers' skins, and a covering of blue ; on the table of shew-bread there was a cloth
of blue, a cloth of sclarlet, and a covering of badgers' skins. God orders as much for' the security of the church as for the security of Christ, there fore the same things that tend to the glorifying of Christ shall tend to the advantage of the church.
2. God hath given the power of the providential administration of things to Christ, to this very end, for the good of the church. If God had consti tuted him head over all things to the church, can there be any doubt but that he will manage the government for that which is the principal end of his government, which he hath shed his blood for, and which is chiefly intended by God who appointed him ?
(1.) All power of government is given to Christ : Mat. xi. 27, ' All things are delivered to me of my Father.' And, John v. 22, « The Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son,' that is, the whole government and administration of affairs. It is not to be understood of the last judgment, for then it would be a limitation of that word all; not that the Father lays aside all care of things, but as the Father discovers himself only in him, so he governs things only by him. All this power was committed to him upon his interposition after the fall of man. He was made Lord and Christ, that is, anointed by God to the government of the world ; for, upon the fall, God as a rector, had overturned all. Man could not with any comfort have treated with the Father, had not Christ stepped in and pleaded for the creation, whereupon God commits all judgment to the Son, that he might temper it. It was by Christ as a covenanting mediator, that the earth was established, Isa. xlix. 8. He had this government
anciently, and it was confirmed to him upon his death : Heb. i. 3, ' Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power.' Calvin understands the
84 A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CHRON. XVI. 9.
first word not only of the deity of Christ, but of the discovery the Father made of himself in and through him as a mediator. The latter words some understand both of his providential and mediatory|kingdom : ' by the word of his power :' this, say some, is referred to the Father, whose image Christ is, as acting by a delegated authority and commission from his Father ;
others, to Christ, as, that Christ upholds or bears up all things by his own powerful word. Calvin thinks both may be taken, but embraceth the second as being more generally received.
I may offer, whether it may not be meant also of the powerful interposi tion of Christ as mediator, whose interest in God was so great, that he kept up the world by his powerful intercession, when all was forfeited ; and
God put it, upon that interposition, into his hands, as ' heir of all things' (who having a hand with him in creation, understood both the rights of God
and the duty of the creature), upon the condition of ' purging sin' by his death, which he did, and thereupon went to heaven to take possession of
the government, at the right hand of God ; ' sat down,' took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as due to him by covenant and articles
agreed on between them. I know nothing at present against such an inter pretation of the words ; but I will not contend about it. All this honour was confirmed unto him upon his death. For having performed the condi tion requisite on his part, God deputes him, and entrusts him with the government of things, that he might order all things so as to see the full travail of his soul.
(2.) All this power was intended by God for this end, the good of the church. As God appointed Christ a priest for his church to sacrifice for them, a prophet to teach them, so the other office of king is conferred upon him for the same end, the advantage of the church. God acquaints us of this end, aimed at him, in the promise of the government to him :
Jer. xxxiii. 15, 16, 'In those days, and at that time, will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up to David ; and he shall execute judgment and
righteousness in the land.' What is the end ? ' In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely.' He should execute judgment, that is, administer the government for the salvation of Judah, and security
of Jerusalem. It was his office both to build the temple, and to bear the glory, and to rule upon his throne ; to be a priest upon his throne, to rule as king and priest : Zech. vi. 12, 13, ' He shall build the temple of the Lord, even he shall build the temple of the Lord.' The erecting a churcl is the sole work of Christ by God's appointment ; and he was to bear up the glory of it. He should rule to this end, * for the counsel of peace shall be between them both.' If by both be meant, the Lord, and the man whos name is the Branch, it then chiefly aims at our reconciliation, as wrough by covenant between them. If by both be meant the two offices of kin
and priest, and that the counsel of peace be between them, it will extend to a] the blessings of the church, to the good and glory of the church, which i the fruit of his kingly, as well as the first reconciliation was the fruit of hi
priestly, office. By peace, in Scripture, 'is meant the confluence of all bless ings ; so that the intent of God in bestowing those offices upon Christ and so great a rule, was for the good and advantage of that church o temple, which he appointed him only to build. And in Isa. xi. 9, where the prophecy of the government of Christ is, the end is expressed to be, tha 'none should hurt or destroy in all his holy mountain.' And certainly since God set him at his right hand, and confirmed this power unto him after he had purged our sins, it was certainly out of the high value God ha< for him, and therefore must be the intent of God, that he should govern al
2 CHEON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 85
things in reference to the design of that death, and for the good of those whose sins he had by himself purged. For the possessing this government was
the very end why Christ died and rose again : Eom. xiv. 9, * For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of dead
and living.' If this were Christ's end in dying and rising, it was his Father's end too, who appointed him to death, and raised him by his mighty power. And since he was ' delivered for our offences, and rose again for our justifi cation,' Eom. iv. 25, the government he is invested with, being Lord of the dead and of the living, must be for the sakes of those for whom he was delivered, and for whom he rose. His regal power, which was one end of his death, cannot cross the other main end, the constituting a church, and carrying on the good of them that believe. The government, being in the hands not of God as creator, but in and through the hands of a mediator, and that mediator which both died and rose again peculiarly for them, therefore it cannot in the least be for their hurt, but advantage. The whole
management of Christ's kingly office in relation to the church, is prescribed unto Christ by God. God reveals to him what shall be done in the world, what acts he shall perform for the church, and gives him a history of all that was to be done upon the stage, together with an order to communicate it unto his servants : Rev. i. 1, * The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God
gave unto him, to shew unto his servants' (to be communicated to the whole church), ' things that must shortly come to pass.' Whether this revelation was made to the human nature of Christ at his incarnation, as Tirinus thinks, or rather upon his ascension, is not material. The whole scheme of what was to be done in the world is revealed here by God to Christ ; and you find all the motions in the world relating to the church, and the end of all is the good of the heavenly Jerusalem.
(3.) All power thus given, and intended for this end, is actually adminis tered by Christ for this end. Christ, as the head of the church, doth like a natural head. It never sees, nor hears, nor exerciseth any act of sense only for itself, but for the good of the whole body. The eye watches for the body, the tongue speaks for it, the understanding contrives for it ; every part of the head is active for the whole body. Now Christ as head is more bound to act for the church militant than for the church triumphant, because the greatest part of his work for the church triumphant, viz., the bringing them to heaven, is already performed. And they are above the reach of all things in the world, and all the actions and motions in the world cannot touch or disorder them. But the command of God concerning the other part behind is not yet performed, and even they are the members of Christ as weU as those in heaven. The apostle, Col. i. 16-18, seems to refer both
Christ's creation, and the preservation of things, to this title of headship : ' All things were created by him, and for him, and by him all things con sist, and he is the head of the body the church ;' and therefore the conser vation and government of all things shall be subservient to the church, which
is the body of this governing head. The chief seat of Christ's sovereignty is the church : Ps. ii. 6, « Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of
Sion;' and he stands upon mount Sion, Rev. xiv. 1. The church is the proper seat and metropolis of his empire, the royal chamber of this great king. All the conquests of princes redound to the advantage of that place where they fix their residence. He is king of the world, but for the sake of Sion. Christ did manage this charge anciently for his people ; when Joshua had passed over Jordan, and first entered upon the conquest of
Canaan, he sees a man over against him with a sword drawn in his hand : Josh. v. 13, 14, « And Joshua said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our
86 A DISCOURSE OP DIVINE PROVIDENCE. [2 CnRON. XVI. 9.
adversaries ? And he said, Nay ; but as captain of the hosts of the Lord am I now come./ This was Christ, that came armed for his people, according to his charge, as their captain and general. It was not an angel, because Joshua worshipped him, ver. 14. An angel did not use to receive any wor
ship from men ; and he accepts the worship, and commands him to loose his shoe from his foot, for the place whereon he stood was holy, ver. 15. And the same person, Josh. vi. 2, is called Jehovah ; and there he gives him orders how he should manage his war. Christ came here to direct his people in their concerns ; he employs his wisdom for his church, as well as his other excellencies. He is called a Counsellor, Isa. ix. 5 : it is one of the great letters in his name ; and this, as the rest there mentioned, hath a relation to the church. « For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.' And the first use he makes of his power, after the confirmation of it to us, upon his resurrection, is for the church : Mat. xxviii. 18, ' All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth ; all authoritative power
over angels, and the affairs of the world ; ' Go you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them,' &c. ; ' and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.' He commands the apostles to gather a church among all nations ; and doth, by virtue of this authority committed to him, pro mise his presence with them, in all such services they should do to this end, even to the end of the world. He promises his Spirit, and his providential presence ; as his power should endure to the end of the world, so the exer cise of it for this end should run parallel with the continuance of it. There should be no alteration or change in this great end of his, as long as the world lasts. How can Christ be with them, and that to the end of the world, if all the parts of his providential government were not ordered to
serve this end, the good of the church ? For the church is * the fulness of him that fills all in all,' Eph. i. 23, that fills all in all places, all in all actions and motions, for the good of his church, which is his body.
3. Thirdly, God in the church discovers the glory of all his attributes. It
is in a man's house where his riches and state is seen : it is in the church God makes himself known in his excellency, more than in all the world
besides : Ps. Ixxvi. 1, ' In Judah is God known ; his name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Sion.' It is in his church he doth manifest his power. It is called, therefore, ' a glo rious high throne : Jer. xvii. 12, 'A glorious high throne from the begin ning is the place of our sanctuary.' Kings use to display all their glory and majesty upon their thrones ; in this sense heaven is called God's throne, Isa. Ix. 1, because the prospect of the heavens affords us discoveries of the wisdom and power of God, more than in any other visible thing, both in their essence, magnitude, and motion : so is there a greater discovery of
God's attributes in the church (which is also styled heaven in Scripture) than in the whole world besides ; there it is that the angels look to learn more of the wisdom of God than they understood before, Eph. iii. 10. It is there the day of his power dawns, Ps. ex. 3. It is there his saints see his power and his glory, Ps. Ixiii. 2 ; the sanctuary is called the firmament
of his power, Ps. cl. 1. The glory of God's attributes is centred in Christ in a higher manner than in the creation ; and in that work did excel them selves in what they had done in the framing of the world ; and the church being the glory of Christ, all those attributes which are glorified in Christ, do in and through him shine forth more clearly upon the church, than upon any other part of the world. He styles himself their Creator, as much as the Creator of the whole frame of heaven and earth : Isa. xliii. 15, ' I am
the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.' As though all
2 CHBON. XVI. 9.] A DISCOUESE OF DIVINE PEOVIDENCE. 87
the attributes of God, his power in creation, his holiness in redemption, were designed for none else but them : and indeed by virtue of the cove nant they were to be so ; for if God be their God, then all of God is theirs.
What wisdom, power', sufficiency, grace, and kindness he hath, is princi pally for them. If God be their God, it is in their concerns he will glorify himself as a God in the manifestation of his perfections. This cannot be without the ordering all providences for their advantage.