XIII. for wife reasons in his government of the SERM. World, difappoint the most probable expectations. Ridiculous therefore is the Arguing of the Infidel and Irreligious; who prefently thinks himself fecure of excluding the Providence of God, if he can but show a thing to be brought about by Natural Causes. Most ridiculous, I fay, and ignorant, is this manner of reafoning: For, what are Natural Caufes? Nothing but thofe Laws and Powers which God merely of his own good pleafure has implanted in the feveral parts of Matter, in order to make them Inftruments of fulfilling his fupreme Will. Which Laws and Powers, as he at firft appointed them, fo nothing but the fame good pleasure of God continually preferves them. And they neither exift nor operate in any moment of Time, but by Influence and Action derived to them (mediately or immediately) from his all-governing Will. So that he forefees perpetually, what Effect every Power and Operation of Nature tends to produce, and could (if he thought fit,) exactly with the fame Eafe, cause it to produce a different Effect, as X 3 that SER M. that which it Now does. From whence XIII. it follows inevitably, to the entire Con fufion of Atheists, that all those things which they call natural Effects, are in very Truth as much the operation of God, (though perhaps not fo immediately,) as even Miracles themselves. And to argue against Providence from the observation of the regular course of natural Caufes; is as if a man fhould conclude from the uniformity of a large and beautiful Building, that it was not the work of mens hands, nor contrived by any Free Agent, because the Stones and the Timber were laid uniformly and regularly, in the most constant, natural, and proper Order. 4thly, THE Laft doctrinal Obfervation I fhall draw from the Text, is; that fince the whole Courfe of nature in the ordinary method of Caufes and Effects, and all thofe unexpected Turns of things which men vulgarly call Chance and Accident, are entirely in the Hand of God, and under the continual direction of His Providence; it follows evidently, (and 'tis a Doctrine worthy the most serious confideration of all wicked Men,) that God can, can, whenever he pleases, even without a SER M. Miracle, punish the disobedient: And no XIII. Swiftness, no Strength, no Wisdom, no Artifice, shall in any manner avail, or inable them to escape the Vengeance, which even Natural Caufes only, by the direction of Him from whom they receive their Nature, bring upon Offenders. He can punifh by Fires and Famine, by Plagues and Peftilences, by Storms and Earthquakes, by domeftick Commotions or by foreign Enemies. He can, as Mofes elegantly expreffes it, make the Heavens over mens Heads Brafs, and the Earth under their Feet Iron, or the very Beasts of the Field to rife up against them: Or, as 'tis in the Book of Wisdom; ch. v. 22, 23, 20. he can cause that a mighty Wind shall stand up against them, or the Waters of the Sea fhall rage against them, and the World Shall fight for him against the unwife. He can, by means of the leaft Accident, as we ignorantly stile it, discomfit the greatest Armies before a Few of their Enemies : As 2 Chr. xxiv. 24. The Syrians came with a fmall company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great Hoft (of the Ifrael X 4 ites) SERM.ites) into their hand; because they bad forXIII. faken the Lord God of their Fathers. Nei ther shall Any Swiftnefs deliver them from the Purfuer: If xxx. 16. Ye said, We will flee upon Horfes; therefore shall ye flee: And we will ride upon the Swift; therefore fhall they that pursue you, be fwift: One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of One; at the rebuke of five fhall ye flee; 'till ye be left as a Beacon upon the top of a Mountain, and as an Enfign on a Hill. Nay, without any visible external caufe at all, to which fuch an Effect can be ascribed; Providence can fecretly blast, and infenfibly cause to moulder away, the Greatest Power, Riches, or other worldly Advantages whatsoever: Pf. xxxix. 11; When thou with Rebukes doft chaften Man for Sin, thou makeft his Beauty to confume away, like as a Moth fretting a garment; every man therefore is but Vanity. And 'tis the exceeding Stupidity of profane Men, not to be moved hereby to repent, and give glory to the God of Heaven, who hath Power over thefe Plagues, Rev. xvi. 9. The Meaning of this whole Obfervation is, not that thefe Judgments are are always certain Signs of God's difplea-SER M. fure against all the particular perfons up- XIII. on whom they at any time fall; (for This our Saviour has expreffly warned us against, as a most uncharitable Conclufion :) But whether they be Punishments for Sin, (as they generally, though not always, are ;) or whether they be only Trials of Mens Virtue, (as they fometimes are defigned to be;) or whether they be Means of weaning them from this tranfitory and uncertain World: or whatever other Ends Providence brings about thereby; ftill they are always Effects of the fame All-wife divine Providence; which ought to be acknowledged and fubmitted to as fuch, and whose Designs no Power or Wisdom of frail and vain men can oppofe or prevent. THE Practical Inferences, arifing naturally from what has been faid, are as follows. ift, Ir these things be fo; then let the greatest and most powerful of wicked men confider, that they have nothing in This World either to boast of, or to rely upon. Jer. ix. 23. Let not the wife man glory in his Wifdom, let not the rich man glory in bis Riches, neither let the mighty man |