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forth his hand, and of their setting his counsel at nought, and rejecting his reproofs, Prov. i. 24, 25. and in a word, where it makes mention of some men's baffling and defeating that very grace which would have conquered and persuaded others, Matt. xi. 21. Which plainly imply that all that assistance to do our duty, that God ordinarily vouchsafes us in the course of his government, is such as no way determines or necessitates us.

The belief of which is highly necessary to engage us in the service of religion. For while men imagine that their duty is such as they cannot heartily comply with, without being compelled to it by an irresistible grace, and that no assurance of God can be sufficient to this end, but that which suspends their liberty to evil, and fatally determines them to good, what should move them to exert their own endeavour? Why should they watch and pray, and strive and contend against a corrupt nature? For if God will make them good irresistibly, their endeavour is needless; but if he will not, it is labour in vain. To what end should they ply the oar to stem the tide of a degenerate nature, since without an irresistible gale from heaven they must never succeed, and with it they shall, whether they ply or no? So that while men live in expectance of an irresistible grace to make them good, they quit themselves of all their obligations to a pious and virtuous endeavour; but so long as they believe that God's grace is such as supposes and leaves them free, such as they may defeat or prosper by the good or ill use of their liberty, they cannot but discern themselves infinitely obliged to cooperate with it, to listen and consent to its blessed motions and persuasions, and constantly to

endeavour to comply with them in their actions, or at least not to resist them, and harden and fortify themselves against them, by acting counter to, and flying in the face of their own convictions. For since the grace of God doth not determine us to good, but leaves us to our own freedom, we can never expect to be determined to good without our free concurrence; which if we refuse, we shall certainly perish in our sin, and have not only the blood of our own souls to answer for, but all that grace too we have baffled and defeated.

VI. To oblige us to be truly religious it is necessary that we should believe that God takes particular cognizance of the good and ill use we make of our natural freedom; that he doth not merely gaze upon our actions as an indifferent and unconcerned spectator, but beholds them with the highest concern and regard, with infinite complacency or detestation, and treasures them up in his all-comprehending mind, to be produced for or against us in the day of fearful reckonings and accounts; that he doth not inspect our actions with a passant and cursory view, as things of little or no moment, but lays them up in everlasting remembrance, so that every good or ill thing we do stands upon record in the mind of God, in order to our final acquittal or condemnation. For so the scripture tells us, not only that God's eyes are upon the ways of man, and that he seeth all his goings, Job xxxiv. 21. and that his eyes run to and fro throughout the earth, and are in every place beholding the good and evil, 2 Chron. xvi. 9. and Prov. xv. 3. but that he sees good actions though done in secret, and will reward them openly, Matt. vi. 6. and that he will bring every work into

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judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. Eccles. xii. 14.

The belief of which is absolutely necessary to found the obligations of religion. For if we suppose either that God sees not our actions, or looks upon them with an indifferent eye, without taking any notice or cognizance of them, there is no religious consideration to oblige us. For upon this supposal, our actions must all be indifferent to him; and if they are indifferent to him, what reason have we to make any difference between them? It is true, good actions are in themselves beneficial, and evil ones prejudicial to us, and therefore, for our own interest-sake, we ought to choose the one and refuse the other; but this, abstracted from all respects to God, is only a prudential, and not a religious obligation. But why should we do any good or avoid any evil upon God's account, if good and evil are alike to him? But if we firmly believe that God not only sees whatsoever we do, but takes particular notice of all our good and evil actions, and, out of an high complacency in the one and abhorrence of the other, treasures up both in everlasting remembrance, we cannot but discern ourselves obliged by all the reason in the world to choose what is good, and eschew what is evil. For what an infinite encouragement is it to do good, to consider that, while we are doing it, God's eye is upon us, regarding us with high applause and approbation, and entering it with all its acceptable circumstances into the eternal record of his own mind, from whence it shall be produced in the last day, and proclaimed before men and angels, to our everlasting honour and glory! So that when our memory is lost upon earth, and all that we did is swallowed

up in the deep abyss of oblivion, our pieties and virtues shall be famed in the records of heaven, and have everlasting memorials in the mind of God. As on the contrary, what an infinite discouragement is it from sinning, to consider that the eye of that God to, whom vengeance belongs is intent upon us, following us through all our retreats and concealments, and recording every ill deed and all its foul aggravations in the eternal volumes of his own remembrance, which he will one day most certainly open, and read out before all the world, to our everlasting shame and confusion! So that when the pleasure of our sin is gone, and all that rendered it tempting and desirable for ever vanished and forgotten, the shame and infamy of it shall stand upon record, and be transmitted down to eternal ages.

VII. And lastly, to oblige us to be truly religious it is also necessary we should believe that God will reward and punish us according to our doings; that he is neither an idle nor an impotent spectator of our actions, that merely pleases and vexes himself with the contemplation of them; but that all the notice he takes of them is in order to his rewarding and punishing them, which he will one day most certainly do to our everlasting joy or confusion. But because this argument will be the subject of the ensuing chapter, I shall insist no farther on it.

SECT. II.

Of the proofs and evidences which there are to create in us a belief of the divine providence.

HAVING in the foregoing section given an account of those parts and branches of the divine providence

which are necessary to be believed in order to the founding the obligation of religion, I shall proceed in the next place to shew what evidences there are to create this belief in us; and because this is the great fundamental of all religion, upon the belief of which it all immediately depends, I shall endeavour to demonstrate the truth of it.

I. A priori, by arguments drawn from God him

self.

II. A posteriori, by arguments drawn from sensible effects of God in the world.

I. I shall endeavour to assert the truth of a divine providence by arguments drawn from God himself. For supposing that there is a God, that is to say, an infinitely wise, and good, and powerful cause of things, (which I doubt not to make appear, when I come to discourse of the sensible effects of God in the world,) it will from thence necessarily follow, that he upholds and disposes and governs all things by an overruling providence: for,

I. If there be such a God, he must necessarily be and exist of himself, without any dependence upon any superior cause.

II. He must necessarily be the cause of all other things that are and do exist.

III. He must necessarily be present with all things.

IV. Wherever he is, so active are his perfections, that he cannot but operate wheresoever he finds objects to work upon. From all which I shall make appear it will necessarily follow, that he continually exercises an overruling providence over the world.

I. If there be a God, he must necessarily exist or be of himself without dependence on any superior

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