how careless soever we are of our thoughts, and the inward frame of our hearts, yet the scripture affures us, that he who knows our hearts, will one day judge us according to them, Jer. xvii. 10. I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways. And the Apostle speaks of a day coming wherein God will judge the Secrets of men by Jesus Christ, Heb. iv. 13. Rev. ii. 23. 3. This is matter of encouragement to us in many cases: In our fecret troubles, Pfal. cxlii. 3. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In cases of difficulty which depend upon the hearts of other men, which though we do not know, yet God knows them: so the Apostles, Acts i. 24. when they did not know whom to choofe for an Apostle, they refer it to God; and they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen. But especially this is matter of comfort to us, when we fuffer by the calumnies and reproaches of men, when the world chargeth us with crimes of hypocrify and falseness, and infincerity, then to be able to appeal to the searcher of hearts, as to our innocency and fincerity, and to fay with the Prophet Jeremiah, O Lord of hosts, that trieft the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, unto thee have I opened my cause, chap. xx. 12. and with St. Peter, God which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, Acts xv. 8. 4. This renders all the deep and profound policies of wicked men a vain thing: The Lord knows the thoughts of men that they are vanity; because he knows them, and can defeat them; he can bring their counsels to nought, and make their devices of none effect. He is confcious to the first motions of their hearts; he sees those cobwebs which they are spinning, and can blow them away with a breath, he can snare them in their own policies, and turn their counsels into foolishness. Thou that puttest a mask upon a wicked design, and hideft the malice and revenge of thine heart under a dissembling counteVOL. VI. Gg nance, : nance, God sees thy design, and hath a thousand ways to prevent it. When the politicians of the world think they have laid their design with all imaginable caution, and that their counsels cannot miscarry, being out of all possibility of human difcovery or prevention; for all this, their counsels may come to nought, and though they have resolved it, yet it may not stand; he that fits in the heavens laughs at them, the Lord hath them in derision. As wife as they are, they are guilty of this overfight, that they did not take God into confideration, by whom they are surprised and discovered. He that fees their design, can blast it in a moment; he can speak the word, and thy breath shall go forth, and thou shalt return to thy dust, and in that very day thy thoughts perish, Pfal cxlvi. 4. 5. If God only knows the hearts of men, then what art thou, O man, that judgest another's heart? This condemns the uncharitableness of men, who take upon them to judge and censure mens hearts; which is, to speak evil of the things which they know not; to meddle with things which do not fall under their cognizance. What St. James faith, chap. iv. 12. There is one law-giver, that is able to save, and to destroy; who art thou that judgest another? is proportionably true in this cafe; there is but one that knows the heart; who art thou then that judgest another man's heart? Who art thou, O man! that takest upon thee to fit in judgment upon thy brother, and to pass sentence upon his heart, to pronounce him an hypocrite, a wicked man, and a damned wretch ? Art thou a man, and the son of man, and wilt thou assume to thyself the prerogative of God? Man can only look to the outward appearance; but God feeth the heart. There is nothing doth more palpably discover the unchristian spirit of that new sect which is of late risen up amongst us, than their taking upon them to judge men's hearts, and as confidently to cenfure every man they meet, as if they a had a window into his breast: But they are not alone guilty of this; those who are so ready to call men hypocrites, they invade this prerogative of God. We may pronounce an action wicked, if it be contrary to the rule; or a man wicked, as to his present state, if the general course of his life and actions be wicked; for our Saviour tells us, by their fruits ye Shali know them. This we may do, provided we be called to it, and be fure it is so: but to call any man an hypocrite, who makes an outward profeffion of religion, and whose external conversation is unblameable; this is to judge a man in a matter of which thou can'st have no evidence; this is to afcend into heaven, and step into the throne of God, and to be like the most High; for he, even he only, knows the hearts of the children of men. IV. From God's knowledge of future events we may learn, 1. The vanity of Astrology, and all other arts that pretend to foretel future events, things that depend on the will of free agents. The vanity of these arts hath been sufficiently shewn by learned men, from the weakness and uncertainty of the principles they rely upon: I shall only for the present take notice, that it contradicts this principle of religion, That God only knows future events. From prudent collections and observations, probable conjectures may be made of what will happen in some cases; but there are no certain perspective-glasses, with which we can fee future events, but divine revelation, therefore, whoever takes upon him to foretel future events without divine revelation, he arrogates to himself that which is the prerogative of the Deity; and God delights to chastise the curiosity, and cross the predictions of these vain pretenders: Ifa. xliv. 24, 25. Thus faith the Lord that formed thee; I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wife men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; as he also in scripture threatens those who confult them, and rely upon them. Those who go to astrologers, or wife men, as they call them, to know their Gg2 their fortunes, and enquire of the events of their life, they forsake God, and betake themselves to lying vanities. 2. Refer future things to God who only knows them; trust him with all events; caft your care upon him. When you have used your best prudence, and wisdom, and diligence for your supply and security for the future, leave the rest to God, for your heavenly Father knoweth both your wants and your dangers. When we are over follicitous about future things, we take God's proper work out of his hands, and ufurp the government of the world. Why do we take too much upon us? We are but of yesterday, and know not what will be to-morrow. Mind your present duty and work, and leave events to God: Secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things that are revealed to us, and our children for ever, to do all the words of this law, Deut. xxix. 29. Do your Duty, commit the rest to God in well-doing. In this world we are in a mixed condition, which is made up of good and evil, of happiness and misery: What is good for us to know, is revealed, that is our duty; but in great wisdom and pity to mankind, God hath concealed and hid the reft from us. He hath hid from us the good that may happen to us; because the best things of this world are but shallow and empty, and if we could see them before-hand, we should prevent ourselves in the enjoyment of them, and eat out the sweetness which is in them, by delightful forethoughts of them: And he hath concealed future evils from us, lest we should torment ourselves with the fearful expectation of them. Prudens, futuri temporis exitum, Ridetque, fi mortalis ultra What a folly is it to make yourselves miferable with fear of being fo; ante miserias mifer! Use all wife means to prevent what you fear, and then be fatisfied, and be as happy as you can, till mifery come; go not forth to meet it, fufficient for the day is the evil thereof; do not anticipate the evils of Co-F row, and take present poffession of an evil to come ; cast your care upon him, who hath promised to care for you. : SERMON CXXXVI. The wisdom, glory, and sovereignty of God. JUDE ver. 25. To the only wife God our Saviour, be glory and ma jesty, dominion and power, now and ever. Am treating of the attributes of God, particu larly of those which relate to the divine under standing, his knowledge and wisdom The knowledge of God, only implies his bare understanding of things; but his wisdom implies the skill of ordering and disposing things to the best ends and purposes, the skill of making and governing, and ad-ministring all things in number, weight and meafure. The knowledge of God rather considers things absolutely, and in themselves: The wisdom of God, confiders rather the respects and relations of things, looks upon things under the notion of means, and ends; accordingly I describe them thus: The knowledge of God, is a perfect comprehenfion of the nature of all things, with all their qualities; powers, and circumftances. The wisdom of God, is a perfect comprehenfion of the respects and relations of things one to another; of their harmony and oppo-sition, their fitness and unfitness to such and fuch ends: I have largely spoken to the first of these: I come now to the Second, The wisdom of God in general; together with his majesty and sovereignty, as they are here joined together. I begin with the Gg3 First |