XI. tion: God, faith he, shall shoot at them with an arrow; SERM Juddenly fhall they be wounded. That they should themselves become the detectors of their crime, and the inftruments of the exemplary punishment due thereto : They, Verse 8. addeth he, shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves all that fee them shall flee away. Such was the cafe; the which unto what paffage in the history it doth relate, or whether it belongeth to any we have recorded, it may not be eafy to determine. Expofitors commonly do refer it to the defigns of Saul upon David's life. But this feeming purely conjecture, not founded upon any exprefs words, or pregnant intimations in the text, I fhall leave that inquiry in its own uncertainty. It fufficeth to make good its pertinency, that there was fuch a mifchievous confpiracy, deeply proje&ted, against David; (a very great perfonage, in whose safety the public ftate of God's people was principally concerned; he being then king of Ifrael, at least in defignation, and therefore in the precedent Pfalm, endited in Pfal. Ixiii. Saul's time, is so styled ;) from the peril whereof he by' the special providence of God was rescued, with the notable disappointment and grievous confufion of those who managed it. The which cafe (at least in kind, if not in degree) beareth a plain resemblance to that which lieth before us. And the duties, which upon that occafion are fignified to concern people then, do no lefs now fort to us; the which, as they lie couched in our text, are these: 1. Wifely to confider God's doing; 2. To fear; 3. To declare God's work; 4. To be glad in the Lord; 5. To truft in God; 6. To glory. Of which the firft three are represented as more generally concerning men; the others as appertaining more peculiarly to righteous and upright perfons. These duties it shall be my endeavour fomewhat to explain and press, in a manner applicable to the present case. I call them duties; and to warrant the doing so, it is requifite to confider, that all these particulars may be understood in a double manner; either as declarative of event, or as directive of practice upon fuch emergencies. 11. SERM. XI. 13. xiii. 11. xix. 20. When God doth fo interpofe his hand, as fignally to check and confound mischievous enterprises, it will be apt to stir up in the minds of men an apprehenfion of God's special providence, to ftrike into their hearts a dread of his power and justice, to wring from their mouths fuitable declarations and acknowledgments; and particularly then good men will be affected with pious joy; they will be encouraged to confide in God, they will be moved to glory, or to express a triumphant fatisfaction in God's proceedings. These events naturally do refult from fuch providential occurrences; for production of thefe events fuch occurrences are purposely defigned; and accordingly (where men are not by profane opinions or affections much indisposed) they do commonly follow. But yet they are not proposed fimply as events, but also as matters of duty: for men are obliged readily to admit fuch impreffions upon their minds, hearts, and lives, from the special works of Providence; they are bound not to cross those natural tendencies, not to fruftrate those wise intents of God, aiming at the production of such good difpofitions and good practices: whence if thofe effects do not arife, as often notoriously they do not in fome perfons, men thereby do incur much guilt and blame. It is indeed ordinary to reprefent matter of duty in this way, expreffing those practices confequent in effect, which in obligation should follow, according to God's purpose, and the nature of caufes ordered by him. As when, for instance, God in the law had prescribed duty, and threatened fore punishment on the difobedient, it is Deut. xvii. fubjoined, And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously: the meaning is, that such exemplary punishment is in its nature apt, and its defign tendeth to produce fuch effects, although not ever, questionless, with due fuccefs, fo as to prevent all tranfgreffion of those Ifa. xxvi. 9. laws. So alfo, When, faith the Prophet, thy judgments are in the land, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness: the sense is, that divine judgments in themfelves are inftructive of duty, it is their drift to inform men therein, and men ought to learn that leffon from them; although in effect divers there be, whom no SERM. judgments can make wifer or better; fuch as those of XI. whom in the fame Prophet it is faid, The people turneth Ifa. ix. 13. not unto him that fmiteth them; and in another, In vain Jer. ii. 30. have I fmitten your children, they received no correction. As therefore frequently otherwhere, fo alfo here this kind of expreffion may be taken chiefly to import duty. To begin then with the first of these duties. v. 3.. Neh. ix. 29. ומעשהו συνῆκον τὰ ποιήματα. I. We are upon fuch occafions obliged wifely to confider (or, as the Greek rendereth it, ovviéval, to understand, w or to perceive, as our old translation hath it) God's doing. This I put in the first place, as previous in nature, and influential upon the reft: whence (although in the Hebrew it be knit to the reft, as they all are to one another, by the conjunctive particle ve, and, yet) we do translate it cafually, For they shall wifely confider, for they shall perceive; because indeed without duly confidering and rightly understanding fuch occurrences to proceed from God, none of the other acts can or will be performed: attentive confideration is needful to beget knowledge and perfuafion; these to breed affection and practice. There are many who, in fuch cafes, are nowife apprehenfive of God's fpecial providence, or affected with it; because they do not confider, or do not confider wisely and intelligently. Some are very inobfervant and careless in regard to things of this nature; fo drowsy and heedlefs, as not to attend to whatever paffeth, or to mind what God acteth in the world: fuch as thofe of whom the Prophet faith, The harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are Ifa. v. 12. in their feafts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, Pfal. xxviii. nor the operation of his hands: that is, their minds are fo amused by wanton divertisements, their hearts are so immerfed in fenfual enjoyments, as nowife to obferve the moft notable occurrences of Providence. Others (although they do ken and regard what is done, as matter of news, or story, entertaining curiofity and talk: yet) out of floth or ftupidity do little confider it, or study whence it springeth; contenting themselves with 5. X. 4. XI. SERM. none, or with any fuperficial account which fancy or appearance suggesteth: like beasts they do take in things obvious to their sense, and perhaps stand gazing on them; but do not make any careful reflection, or inquiry into their original caufes and reafons; taking (as a dog, when he biteth the stone flung at him, or as a child that is angry with the log he falleth on) whatever appeareth next to be the principal cause : fuch as the Pfalmist again Pfal. xcii. 6. toucheth, when he faith, A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this: and as he doth acknowPfal. Ixxiii. ledge himself on one occafion to have been; So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beaft before thee. 22. Others pretend to confider much, and feem very inquifitive; yet (being mifguided by vain prejudices or foul affections) do not confider wifely, or well understand these matters; the refult of their care and ftudy about them being to father them on wrong causes, afcribing them to the mere conduct and agency of vifible causes, hurried by a necessary swinge, or rolling on by a casual fluctuation of things; not defcrying God's hand in them, but profanely discarding and disclaiming it: fuch as those in the Pfal. lxxiii. Pfalms, who fo reflected on Providence as to fay, How 11. xciv. 7. doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Moft High? The Lord doth not fee, neither doth the God of Jacob regard it fuch as hath been the brood of Epicurean and profane confiderers in all times, who have earnestly plodded, and ftrained their wits, to exclude God from any inspection or influence upon our affairs. X. 11. 8. : Some indeed there have been fo very dull and ftupid, or fo perverse and profane, as not to difcern God's hand, Ha. lii. 10. when it was made bare, raifed up, and ftretched out in the Exod. xiv. achievement of moft prodigious works; not to read ProDeut. xxvi. vidence, when fet forth in the largest and fairest print: Ifa.xxvi.11. such as those of whom it is faid in the Pfalm, a Our fathers Lord, when understood not thy wonders in Egypt; and those of whom thy hand is. it is obferved in the Gospel, b Though he had done so many they will miracles before them, yet they believed not: fuch as the a Pfal. cvi. mutinous people, who, although they beheld the earth 8. lifted up, not fee, &c. 7. Joh. xii. 37. Num. xvi. 32, 35. 41. XI. fwallowing up Korah with his complices, and a fire from SERM. the Lord confuming the men that offered incenfe; yet prefently did fall a charging Mofes and Aaron, faying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. No wonder then, if many do not perceive the fame hand, when it is wrapped up in a complication with inferior caufes; when it is not lifted up fo high, or fo far extended in miraculous performances. The fpecial providence of God in events here effected or ordered by him, is indeed commonly not difcernible without good judgment and great care; it is not commonly impreffed upon events in characters fo big and clear, as to be legible to every eye, or to any eye not endued with a sharp perfpicacy, not applying an induftrious heedfulness: the tracts thereof are too fine and fubtile to be defcried by a dim fight, with a tranfient glance, or upon a grofs view: it is feldom fo very confpicuous, that perfons incredulous, or any-wife indifpofed to admit it, can easily be convinced thereof, or conftrained to acknowledge it it is often (upon many accounts, from many causes) very obscure, and not easily discernible to the most sagacious, most watchful, moft willing observers. For, the inftruments of Providence being free agents, acting with unaccountable variety, nothing can happen which may not be imputed to them, with fome colourable pretence. Divine and human influences are fo twisted and knit together, that it is hard to fever them. The manner of divine efficacy is so very soft and gentle, that we cannot eafily trace its footsteps. God defigneth not commonly to exert his hand in a notorious way, but often purposely doth conceal it. Whereas alfo it is not fit to charge upon God's fpecial hand of providence any event, wherein special ends of wifdom or goodness do not fhine; it is often hard to difcover fuch ends, which usually are wrapped in perplexities: because God acteth variously, (according to circumftances of things, and the difpofition, capacity, or state of objects,) so as to do the fame thing for different ends, and different things for the fame end because there are different ends, unto which VOL. I. |