Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

at that excellent one who was to come from thence: Chap. 8. nay, that Providence which keeps the whole world in its being and order, refpects him and his Satisfa&tion. Juftice would, if unfatisfied, have dashed down the World about the finners ears; but it is preferved upon the account of Chrift: it stands not now meerly by Power, but by Blood. Redemption is a buttress to Creation, to keep it from finking into a Chaos. By Chrift all things confift, Col. 1. 17, not only fubfift in their beings, but confift in their orders. The bleffings and profperities which Providence difpenfes and doles out unto finners, are all founded upon him. It is observable in the Old Testament, that they used this order in praying for bleffings, The Lord be with you: Thus Boaz to the Reapers, Ruth 2.4, The Lord be with you; or, which is all one, The Lord be with us. Thus Solomon in his famous prayer, The Lord our God be with us, 1 King. 8.57. The form of words falls in with the precious Name of our Saviour, Immanuel, or God with us. Were it not for Chrift the true Immanuel, God would not be with us at all to bestow any bleffing upon us; but because he is with us in the incarnate Word, therefore he is with us to blefs us. It may also be noted, That the Mercies and Deliverances which the Jews, Gods own people, had under the Old Testament, either had a type of the great Salvation graven upon them, or elfe had a promise of the Meffiah interwoven with them. They were delivered out of Egypt, but that was a type of deliverance by Chrift. Joshua brought them into Canaan, but that was a type of entring into Heaven by Chrift. God promised them deliverance from Rezin and Pekah; but the promise of the Meffiah was interwoven with

Chap. 8. it. Ifa. 7. 14, he comforted them against a dark and troubleous time, but he ushers in the promise of the Meffiah, Ifa.9.6.All their temporal deliverances pointed to the great Salvation. The Apostle tells us, That God doth gather together in one, or fum up, all things in Chrift, Eph. 1. 10. In him the types had their truth, the Promises were Yea and Amen. The Law had its end, all was fummed up in him. In a word; all the Temporals in the World, all the Spirituals in the Church are founded upon him: He is the him: He is the great Center, where all things concur and meet together.

Again, other Providences are to be reduced to that over the Church, as being next to that over Chrift the most excellent Providence of all. The Saints, which make up the Church, are Gods Jewels. His peculiar ones, his Jedidiahs, or beloved ones, the Apple of his eye; a special Providence muft needs watch over them: He is called the God of Abraham Ifaac and Jacob, Cujus omnes gentes funt, quafi trium hominum Deus effet, faith St. Auftin. He, whofe all Nations are, was the God of three men, a fpecial care was over them; no wonder if other Providences carry a refpect to them, they are graven upon the palms of his hands, Ifa. 49. 16. In all the works which he fets his hand unto, he remembers and bears a refpect to them; the whole world fares the better for them. The Jews fay, That the righteous are the foundation of the world, they bear up the pillars of it, Pfal. 75.3. Šanctum femen ftatumen terra, holy men do in a fort bear up the world. Jacob tells Laban, That the Lord had bleffed him fince his coming; in the Original it is at my foot, Gen. 30.30. Good men procure a bleffing, and their Masters are blessed at their feet:

re

remarkable is that in Mofes's Song, When the most bigh divided to the nations their inheritance, when he Chap. 8. Jeparated the Sons of Adam, he fet the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Ifrael, Deut. 32. 8. When the world was divided, Gen. 10. Ifrael was not in being; yet a special respect was had of him, that the Canaanites fhould have as much land, as fhould be fufficient for Ifrael, who afterwards was to inherit it. The Jews fay, that the 70 fouls which went into Egypt were worth as much as the 70 Nations of the world: to be fure in proportioning out the world, God had a fingular refpect to his own people; nay, he refpected them not only in fetting the outward bounds of the Nations, but in limiting their inward defires alfo. Thus God affures them, that when they came up to appear before him, no man should defire their land, Exod. 34. 24. For their fakes Providence would not only keep off the hands of the Nations round about them, but ftint their wills, and curb their very concupifcences. The Apostle, to fhew how great a fhare Believers have in Providence, tells us in one place, That all things work to gether for their good, Rom. 8. 28. The great plot of Providence is to make all ferve them: and in another, that all things are theirs, whether Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things prefent, or things to come all are yours, and you are Chrifts, and Christ is Gods, 1 Cor. 3. 22, 23, being joynt-heirs with Christ the heir of all things, they become in a fubordinate fenfe heirs of all. Fidelibus totus mundus divitiarum eft; the Saints have all the world for their poffeffion, at least such a proportion of it as moft conduces to their happiness. If it were poffible, faith

Dr.

Van.of the Creature, fol. 28.

Chap. 8. Dr. Reynolds, for any Member of Christ to stand abfolutely in need of the use and service of the whole Creation. All the Creatures in the world should undoubtedly wait upon him, and be appropriated unto him. The Moon should stand still, the Sun go back, the Lyons should stop their mouths, the fire fhould give over burning, the Ravens fhould bring him meat, the Heavens fhould rain down bread, the Rocks fhould gush out with water, all the Creatures should mufter up themselves to defend the body of Christ. Thus that excellent perfon. One thing more, as a feal to all the rest, may be noted, Chrift the head of the Church hath all the power in heaven and in earth, Mat. 28. 18. He is head over all things to the Church, Eph. 1.22. The Church is the primary mark and scope of his Government; therefore he rules with an eye upon it, and orders other things in a way fubfervient

to it.

Having feen the Divine Providence manifested in Christ, I fhall now confider what Objections or Exceptions have been made against Providence, and how and in what manner they are folved in Christ.

First, Epicurus denied a Providence: God, faith he, hath no business, at least not in the lower world. This he faid, as Gregory Nyffen obferves, because he would not have God to be Creator of the World; and if he were not Creator, how fhould he be a Provifor? The fundamental reafon, why Epicurus denied a Providence, was, that opinion of his; that an infinite number of Atoms dancing in inanity, did at last by a fortunate chance meet together in a world. To this opinion a no-Providence belt accords, a world made by chance should be ruled fo: Why fhould God rule in a

world

world not of his own making? But that opinion in it Chap. 8. felf is very monftrous and abfurd, Atoms did by good fortune make a world. But, as an ancient hath it, Unde ifta corpufcula? whence came thefe lucky Atoms? Are they Temporal or Eternal things? If Temporal, they must own a Maker whom they oppofe: If Eternal, they must be invariable, that is, dance on in their inanity, and never fit down in a world. How fhould Atoms, if eternal, produce fo imperfect a thing as chance; or chance, fo irregular in it felf, produce fuch an harmonious order as is in the world? May the blind Particles of matter rally themselves into a world? or which way fhould they fink into an Earth, melt into a Sea, spread into a Firmament, inflame themselves into a Sun, Moon, and Stars, and fubtiliate themselves into Life, Sense, and Reafon? It is far easier to believe, that Letters should cafually caft themselves into an accurate Poem; or that Stones and Timber should happily lay their heads together in a delicate ftructure, than that Atoms should chance to meet and fettle in a world incomparably tranfcending all humane Arts and Compofures: And could a world be fo made, how should it be fecured? Who fhall clip the Wings of those Atoms, or chain them to their feats, that they may not fly away from their bodies, and dance again in inanity? It being most rational, that a world made by chance should be fo diffolved. Reafon tells us, that in this opinion we have nothing but an heap' of abfurdities; but Scripture tells us, That the World was not made by Chance, but by Christ the Eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father; in whom, as the Schoolmen fay, was the Eternal Idea of all things, Аа

accor

« AnteriorContinua »