or against it: For a Providence which neither can do us good nor hurt, or which cannot al.ways and in all Cafes do it, is worth nothing, or worth no more than it can do good or hurt. And therefore all the Good or Evil, which does or can befal Men or Kingdoms, is in Scripture attributed to Providence, and promised or threatned by God, as Men fhall deferve either; fuch as Length of Days, or a fudden untimely Death; Health, or Sickness; Honour, or Difgrace; Riches, or Poverty; Plenty, or Famine; War, or Peace; the changing Times and Seafons; the removing Kings, and fetting up Kings; and with refpect to all fuch Events as thefe, whatever the immediate Caufes of them be, God is faid to do whatsoever pleafeth him.

2dly, But we fhall better understand this, by enquiring into the Nature of God's Government. Now God's Government of Events, confifts in ordering and appointing whatever Good or Evil fhall befal Men; for according to the Scripture, we must attribute fuch a Government to God, as makes all thefe Events bis Will and Doing; and nothing can be his Will and Doing, but what he Wills and Orders.

Some Men think it enough to fay, That God permits every Thing that is done, but will by no Means allow that God Wills, and Orders, and Appoints it, which they are afraid will charge the Divine Providence with all the E-, vil that is done in the World; and truly fo it. would, did God order and appoint the Evil to be done: But tho' God orders and appoints what Evils every Man fhall fuffer, he orders and appoints no Man to do the Evil; he only permits fome Men to do Mifchief, and appoints F 4

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who fhall fuffer by it, which is the fhort Refolution of this Cafe. To attribute the Evils which fome Men fuffer from other Mens Sins, merely to God's Permiffion, is to deftroy the Government of Providence; for bare Permiffion is not Government; and thofe Evils which God permits, but does not order, cannot be called his Will and Doing And if this be the Cafe of all the Evils we fuffer from other Mens Sins, most of the Evils which Men fuffer, befal them without God's Will and Appointment; and yet to attribute all the Evil which Men do, to God's Order and Appointment, is to deftroy the Holiness of Providence: And therefore we muft neceffarily diftinguish between the Evils Men do, and the Evils they fuffer; the firft God Permits and Directs, the fecond he Orders and Appoints. How God governs Mens Hearts and Actions, I have already explained; and this is the Place to confider God's Permiffi-" on of Evil ; for Permiffion relates to Actions.

Mens own wicked Hearts conceive and form wicked Designs, and they execute them by God's Permiffion, but no Man fuffers by them, but by God's Appointment. God's Care of his Creatures requires that no Man fhould fuffer a-. ny Thing, but what God orders for him; and if fuch Sufferings be juft and righteous, how wicked foever the Caufes be, it is no Reproach to Providence to order and appoint them. Suppofe a Man have forfeited his Life, or Eftate, or Reputation, to Providence, or tho' he have made no Criminal Forfeiture of it, yet God fecs fit, for other wife Reafons, to remove him out of the World, or to reduce him to Poverty and Contempt; is it any Fault in Providence, to deliver fuch a Man into the Hands of Muri therers,

therers, Oppreffors, Slanderers, who are very forward to execute fuch Decrees, when Providence takes off the Restraint, and fets them at Liberty to follow their own Lufts? And when there are fo many that deferve, or need these or fuch kind of Punishments or Corrections, and fuch vaft Numbers of Bad Men, who are ready every day to commit fuch Outrages, did not God reftrain them; is it not very visible, how eafily God can order and appoint fuch Sufferings for Men, without ordering or appointing any Man's Sins? It requires no more, than to bring thofe whom God appoints for fuffering, into the Reach of fuch Men, and to put them into their Power, and their own Malice and Wickednefs will do the reft. It is like expofing Condemn'd Malefactors to Wild Beafts, whofe Nature and Inclination is to devour: And if God chains up Bad Men, as we do Wild Beasts, that they cannot touch any one but whom God delivers up to them, and lets them loofe only to execute his own Juft and Righteous Judgment, can any Thing be more Honourable to Providence, or a greater Security to Mankind?

To form an Idea of this in our Minds; Let us fuppofe this to be the Cafe of an Earthly Prince, That he perfectly understood all the Deferts, and all the Inclinations of his Subjects, and had fuch an invifible and infenfible Authority over them, that without giving them any Directions, or letting them know any Thing of his Intentions, or offering any Violence to their own Inclinations, he could determine them to do that hurt which they had a mind to do, to thofe, and to thofe only, whom he intended to punish; and to do the Good

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they are defirous to do, to thofe, and to thofe only, whom he intends to reward: In cafe fuch a Prince took care that no Man fhould fuffer more from the Wickedness of others, than what he deserved, and the Reasons of Government required; would any Man charge fuch a Prince with all the Wickedness that is committed in his Kingdom, only because he fo wifely orders it, that fome Bad Men fhall execute his Vengeance upon other Bad Men, and ferve instead of Judge, and Jury, and Executioners? Nay, would not every Man fay, That this is the moft Perfect and Abfolute Form of Government in the World? Earthly Princes indeed cannot do this; but this is the Government of God, who accomplishes his own wife Counfels by the Miniftries of Men."

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And this may fatisfy us, in what Senfe all the Good, and all the Evil, that happens either to Private Men, or to Kingdoms and Nations, is faid to be God's Will, and God's Doing, and what pleafeth him; becaufe no Man or Nation, is rewarded or punifhed, but by God's Order and Appointment: That as many Good Men as there are in the World, who are ready to do good to all they can; and as many Bad Men as there are, who are ready to do all the Mifchief they can; none of them can do either Good or Hurt to any, but to those whom God has appointed for either; which makes God the Abfolute Lord and Sovereign of the World; fince whatever Men intend, all Mens Fortunes and Conditions depend upon his Will.

And fince God abfolutely orders and appoints nothing but the Event, if the Event be holy, juft, and good, that is, if Men be rewarded and punished according to their Works, as far

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as the Justice and Goodness of Providence is concerned in this World, there can be no reafonable Objection against Providence; for by what wicked Means foever Men be rewarded or punished, if the Reward or Punishment be holy, juft and good, this vindicates the Holinefs, and Justice, and Goodness of Providence ; of which more hereafter. Let Mens Wickednefs be to themfelves; for that is their own; but that the Wickedness of Men is over-ruled by an invisible Hand, to accomplish Wife and Juft Decrees, that is the Glory of Providence.

And this fuggefts another evident Reason, why all the Good or Evil that befals Men, is called God's Will, and God's Doings; because in a ftrict and proper Senfe, it is not Man's Will, nor Man's Doings. What is done, is either what those who did it, never intended to do ; or else serves fuch Ends, and is ordered by God for fuch Ends, as thofe who did it, never thought of; which proves Men to be only Inftruments, but God the Supreme Difpofer of all Events. If we must attribute all Things that are done, either to God or Men, then what is not done by Men, must be done by God; and Men' can't be properly said to do what they never intended; and therefore whatever is either beyond, or contrary to what Men intended, muft either be attributed to Chance, or to a Divine Providence. I obferved before, what different Intentions God and Men have in the fame Actions; what is intended by Men, is their doing; what is intended by God, is his doing, and wholly his doing, when what God intended was not intended by Men. For this Reafon Jofeph tells his Brethren, that it was not they, but God that fent him into Egypt, 45. Gen. 4; 5, 6,