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changed our Relations, and made it our Duty to fubmit.

4thly, There is another Enquiry also of great Moment, How our Submiffion to Providence under all our Sufferings and Changes of Fortune, requires us to behave our felves towards Men, who are the Caufes and Inftruments of fuch Misfortunes. For if it be the Will of God that we fhould fuffer fuch Things, why should we be angry with the Men who do them? Why fhould we punish them? Why fhould we revenge our felves of them? when they only execute the Divine Councils, and do what God faw fit that we should fuffer. Does not Jofeph thus excufe his Brethren for felling him into Egypt,that it was God who fent him thither? And does not David, for this Reason, forbear his Revenge on Shimei, Let him curfe, for God bath faid unto bim, Curfe David?

But the Answer to this is fhort and plain, That God's over-ruling Men's Wickedness to ferve wife and good Ends, does not excufe their Wickedness, nor excufe them from the juft Punishment of their Wickednefs; the Sin is their own, though it be wifely ordered by God for their Trial or Correction; but the wife Government of God makes no Change in the Nature of Men's Actions, nor in their Deferts; God himself will punish their Wickedness, though he ferves wife Ends by it,and has commanded Men to do fo; for no Man fins by the Will of God, tho' no Man fuffers any Thing but by God's Will.

But yet Submiffion to Providence will greatly mitigate our Refentments, and calm our Paffions,and keep them within the Bounds of Reafon and Religion. When we confider, that whatever we fuffer is appointed for us by God;

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that how wicked foever Men are, we can fuffer nothing by their Wickedness, but what God for wife Reasons fees fit we fhould fuffer; this will fatisfy us that we are more concern'd with God than with Men; that tho' Men be the Rod wherewith we are fcourged, it is God that ftrikes; and a Reverence for the divine Judg ments will make us take lefs Notice of the Inftruments of our Sufferings.

In fhort, Submiffion to Providence leaves us nothing to be angry with Men for, but their own Wickedness; that we fuffer, tho' we fuffer by their Wickedness, yet it is not fo much their Doings as God's, who orders thefe Sufferings for us, and without whofe Order and Appointment no Man can hurt us; and therefore we must not be angry with Men for our Sufferings, but reverence God: Whatever their perfonal Hatred, or Malice, or Revenge be, how much foever they intend or defire to do us hurt, we may fecurely defpife them, as out of their Reach, for we are in the Hands of God: And if our Sufferings are not owing to Men, any otherwise than as Inftruments in God's Hands, why fhould we be angry with Men for what we fuffer? Why fhould we revenge our Sufferings on them, when we fuffer by the Will of God? We may be angry at their Wickedness, and at their Ill-Will to us, but humbly submit to our Sufferings, as the Will of God.

Now I need not fay, how this will calm and temper our Paffions, because it leaves fo little of Self in our Anger and Refentments; let Men be as angry with Wickedness as they please, and punish it as it deferves, this is a virtuous Anger, and never tranfports Men to excefs; it is Selflove which inflames our Anger, and fharpens our Revenge ; not that fuch Wickedness is comEez

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mitted, but that we are the Sufferers by it; for Men are never fo angry in another Man's Caufe, as they are in their own, tho' the Wickedness, the Affront, the Injury is the fame; but perfonal Injuries and Affronts are moft provoking; that is, we love our felves more than we hate Wickedness, when our Anger is exceffive.

But now if Men have nothing to do with us, nor we with them, as to the Cafe of Suffering; if all this be ordered and appointed by God,here is little Room for Perfonal Refentments; for that we fuffer by their Wickedness,is God's Doings, and therefore we have nothing to be angry with them for, but that they are wicked; and then though our own Sufferings will give us a greater Senfe and Abhorrence of their Wickedness, and make us more perfonally concerned to punish it; yet our Paffions will be more gentle and eafy, the more we attribute our Sufferings to God, and the less to Men.

Secondly, Another Duty we owe to Providence, is, An entire Truft and Dependance on God. The State of a Creature is all Dependance; and Faith, and Hope, and Truft, are the Virtues of a dependant State, and can in Reafon have no other Object but that Being on whom we depend, the great Creator and Governor of the World, in whom we live, move, and have our Being. All other Dependancies are vain, because none else can help us; but God has all Events in his Hands, he can help us if he pleases; and he will help us if we truft in him.

The Scripture abounds with Exhortations to truft in God, with Promises to those who do truft in him, with Examples of God's Care and Protection of thofe good Men who make him their only Hope and Truft; but yet the Duty it felf needs fome Explication, and therefore I fhall

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fhall confider the Nature of this Hope and Truft, and what are the various Acts of it, or wherein the Exercife of it confifts.

1. The Nature of this Faith, and Hope, and Truft in the Divine Providence. What it is to hope, and truft, and depend on God or Men, we all know and feel; but the Question is, What it is we must truft God for, and how far we must depend on him? For muft we believe, that God will do every Thing for us, which we trust in him to do? If, fuppofe, we have a Child or a Friend dangerously fick, muft we firmly believe that God will fpare their Lives, and restore their Health, if we truft in him to do it? Muft a Merchant confidently expect a fafe and advantageous Voyage, if he trust in God for it? Has God any where promised to give us whatever we trust in him for? Or does the Nature and Reafon of Providence infer any fuch Thing? And yet what does Truft in God fignify, if we muft not depend on him for those good Things which we want, and defire, and truft him for? What do all the Promifes made to Hope and Trust in God fignify, if they give us no Security that we fhall obtain our Defires of God? Nay, indeed, how can any Man hope and truft in God, when he has no Affurance that he shall obtain what he hopes for? I doubt not but fuch Thoughts as thefe make moft Men fo diftruftful of Providence, that though they talk of trufting in God, they truft in him without Hope, or any comfortable Expectations, unlefs they have fome more vifible Affurances to rely on. This makes moft Men's Hopes ebb and flow, as their External Circumstances change; if they are profperous, and have great Numbers of Friends, and have their Enemies at their Feet, then they are full of Hope, and Ee 3

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can truft fecurely in God, when they have the Means of helping themselves in their own Hands and fee no Body that can hurt them; buti, their Condition be perplex'd and calamitous, and they fee no Profpect of human Relief, their Spirits fink, and as much as they talk of Providence, and of trufting in God, they find no Support in it.

To understand this aright, wherein the Glory of God, and our own Peace and Security is fo nearly concern'd, we must confider, that our Faith, and Hope, and Truft in God, muft either rely on the Word and Promife of God; or on the general Belief and Affurance of his Care of us, and of the Goodness and Justice of his Providence; as to truft in Men, is either to truft their Promife or their Friendship.

1. As for the Firft; we may and ought fecurely to rely on the Promises of God, as far as they reach, for he who hath promised, is able alfo to perform. But then we must have a care of expounding temporal Promises to a larger Senfe than God intended, or than Providence ordinarily makes good, which calls the Truth of God, or his Providence into Question, and discourages our Faith and Truft in God; when we fee Events not to answer God's Promises, nor our Expectations.

To ftate this Matter plainly, we must proceed by Degrees, and diftinguish between the Promifes made to States and Kingdoms, and to private and fingle Men, or rather to Men in their private and fingle Capacities.

Most of the temporal Promises under the Law of Mofes, concerned the publick State of the Jewish Church and Nation; That if they walked in the Laws and Statutes of God, he would bless them with great Plenty and Peace,

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