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Chap. 8.

in the City, the Leader in the Army, that is God in the World. Thus Tully argues; God is the most excellent being, and therefore must needs be Governour of the World. Plato's Idea's exifting in the mind of God, were, as is thought, no other than his Decrees. The Fate of the Stoicks, is by fome taken for nothing else but the Providence of God. Hence the Epicureans, who denied Providence, in contempt called it, Anum fatidicam Stoicorum, the Stoicks foretelling old woman. There was excellent Divinity in the ancient Fable, That Пvota, or Providence, was Midwife to Latona, that is, Nature. The Creature, though ne ver fo pregnant with power, brings forth just nothing Auft. de Civ. without it. Plotinus difputes, That the Providence of God reaches to the lowest things. The Flowers have their beauty from an incommutable form; the fenfible World comes from that intelligible one which is with God.

1. 10. C. 14.

Si eft Deus,

Deus, nec ali

præterita te

Reason evinces this Truth. A World without utique Provi- a Providence is a very great abfurdity: in fuch dens eft ut a cafe how should God be God? May he be an infiter ei poteft nite Mind, and without forecast? or a pure Act, and divinitas at- do nothing at all among his creatures? May he be tribui nifi & every-where prefent, and no-where profitable? Or neat, & præ- fill all things, and fignifie nothing? May he be an infentia fciat, & telligent Agent, and without an End? Or the Great futura profpiciat. Lat. de Alpha, and forget that he is Omega? May he be Creator of all, and yet no Provifor? Or Almighty, and yet not reign over his own World? May he be infinitely Wife and Good, and yet neglect himself and his Creatures, his own glory and their good? Is it imaginable that fuch an One as he should frame a World out of nothing, and set it in delicate Order,

Irâ.

meerly

meerly for Fortune to fport it felf in, or to fhuffle Chap.8. down into confufion? And how then could the World be a World? Or how could it stand in order, or its parts hang together by links of amity? Without the hand and touch of Providence, Nature would jangle and be out of tune: without its glue and virtue, the whole fyftem would unframe and fall afunder in a moment. If God, faith Bradwardine, fhould De Canfa Dei, cease to be, there could be nothing paft or future, I. c. 14. true or falfe, poffible or impoffible, neceffary or contingent: fo neceffary is He. I may fay, If God fhould cease to work, there could be nothing in all the world but perfect nullity. So neceffary is his Providence.

There are two great acts of Providence ; the one is Confervative, which upholds all: The other Or-: dinative, which directs and difpofes of all. Both are eminently fet forth in Jefus Christ.

The first act of Providence is Conservative, and upholds all; the Creature cannot preferve and immortalize it self, for then it would be a Self-subsistence, and a God to it felf: it ftands juxta non effe, at the brink of nullity; and unless that Divine Power which brought it from thence into being, hold it up there, it naturally returns and falls back into Nothing as its Center. Prefervation is an influx of Being; and none but the Supreme Being, which is its own original, can afford fuch a thing. It is a continued Creation, and none but he who gives effe primo, the firft being to a creature, can give effe porro, the fe cond or protracted being to it. Should he withdraw his influence, or ceafe continuo facere, still to go on preferving and new-making, as it were, his Creature,

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Chap. 8. it would vanish into nothing; no creature could begin where he left, or carry on the work. Should all the Angels in Heaven try and put out all their ftrength, to guard and keep up in being the least particle of matter, and that but for one moment only, they could do nothing, they could not be Creators at fecond hand, I mean in point of Prefervation. The Earth, being the Center of the World, feems to stand fast, and yet without Providence it would waver into nothing. The Sea is a vast spreading Element; and yet were it not in the hand of Providence, it would contract it felf into nothing. The Heavens are strong bodies, and yet all thofe glorious Arches, unless kept in repair by Providence, would fall and totter down. The Angels are immortal Spirits, and yet their immortality is a donative and a continual fpiration from the Father of fpirits; the knot of their perpetuity is Providence, and without it they would break and diffolve into nothing. Providence, we fee, contains and preferves all things: a great truth this is, but it was never fo manifefted as in Jefus Chrift. If ever any creature might preferve it felf, one would think that the highest, nobleft of all should do fo; his human nature was lifted above the top of the Creation, above the highest Angel: It was, which never any Creature was before, affumed into the Perfon of God; yet it had no fubfiftence of its own, it did not preferve it self; it was held by that Deity which it did cohabit with in the Person of the Word: still it was a Creature; it could not, like the Deity, fpread it felf over the World: it was not a felf-fubfiftent or independent upon its Creator. Here we plainly fee, that no creature, no not the highest, can fupport

it felf in being without Providence. Ellhardus Lu- Chap. 8. binus, in his Book De Caufa Mali, hath drawn a very ingenious Scheme to fhew the dependence of the Creature upon God; he fets the fummum Ens uppermoft, under it the scale of Creatures in their order, first Angels, then Men, then Beasts, then Vegetables, then meer being, under all imum nihil. As far as the fummum Ens draws any thing ex imo nihilo, out of meer nothing, fo far it afcends the scale into be ing, or life, or fenfe, or reafon, or Angelical perfection: As foon as he leaves it, it finks down into the imum nihil, into nothing. This doth in a very lively manner fet forth the dependence of the creature upon its Maker; but it was never fo fully fet forth as in Jefus Chrift: His human nature, though above the whole fcale of creatures, is fupported by the Deity: No creature now may presume that it can be a felffubfiftent, or stand upon its own bottom; all must confefs a Providence fupporting and bearing of them up in being.

The fecond act of Providence is Ordinative, it directs and governs all: God steers the ship of the World, and all the paffengers in it: He orders the great House, and all the Families of creatures in it. Providence turns every wheel in nature; and when there is a wheel within a wheel, intricacy and seeming crofsnefs of motion; yet there is an eye in the wheel, a wife Providence which preferves order in confufions. All things are directed by congruous means to their proper end. There are millions of creatures which know not what an end is; but Providence conducts them thither. Millions of Events are cafual as to us; but there is a certainty in Provi, Y dence.

Chap. 8. dence. Millions of acts are free as to us, yet Providence hath a foveraignty over them. In all things God is Alpha and Omega, the first Mover, and the last End; the wife Difpofer and fure Moderator of every thing for his own glory. This great Truth is excellently fet forth in Chrift. Three things will make this evident.

1. There was a fignal Providence over Christ. 2. There was a great Providence over the fruit of his Satisfaction, in raifing up a Church.

3. All other Providences may be reduced to the other two.

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1. There was a fignal Providence over Christ. Gods eye and heart were upon the Temple, which was but a type; how much more intent must they be Chrift who is the substance? Providence all-along had an eye upon him: It watched over his Genealogy; a deluge fwept away the corrupt World, but Noah muft have an Ark; the true Noah, the Meffiah, who is our reft and comfort, was to come from him. Abraham's body, and Sarah's womb, were both dead; yet there must be an Isaac, that the true Ifaac, the joy of the Father, may come in the flesh from him. Ifaac was in a fort offered up, that he might be a type of Chrift; but not facrificed and actually flain, that Chrift might come from him. Fudah and Tamar commit inceft, yet Providence is not at a ftand; no Medium is too hard for it; even this way came the Holy One into the flesh. Ruth must leave her Countrey, and be married to Boaz, that David, and afterwards Chrift, the true David, whofe Kingdom was to be perpetual, might come from thence. The whole Scripture aims at Chrift; but

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