but the very hairs of your head are all numbered: fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." As if He should have said, You see a multitude of sparrows, and such like inconsiderable birds flying about in the air, and yet not so much as one of them can be killed, and so fall to the ground without your Father's leave; but every one of you is of much more value with God, than many of them; for He is your Father, and looks upon you not only as His creatures, but His children too, and takes care of you accordingly; and therefore ye may be confident that you can never fall to the ground, nor any thing befall you against your Heavenly Father's will, who numbers the very hairs of your heads, so that not so much as one of them can be touched without His leave; what need you then fear what man can do unto you, who can do nothing to you but what your Father gives them leave to do; and He be sure will give them leave to do nothing, but what is really for your good? This is in short, what our Blessed Saviour intends in this Divine discourse, from whence we may positively affirm, that there is not the least thing that happens in the world, but what is managed by the steady hand of Divine Providence, and whosoever may be the instruments or secondary, God Himself is the first cause of it; which whosoever firmly believes, as all Christians must do, can never be troubled at any thing that befalls, as always seeing his Heavenly Father's hand in it, as we see in old Eli; when Samuel had told him from God, that his house and family should be destroyed; he considering whence the message came, was so far from being troubled, that he submitted himself wholly to Him, saying, "It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him 1 Sam.3.18. good." Thus when Shimei cursed David, David considering that whatsoever malice Shimei bare him in his heart, he could not have vented it so without God's leave, he bare it patiently, saying, "The Lord hath said unto him, Curse 2 Sam. 16. David, who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so?" 10. And whosoever thus looks upon every thing which comes to pass, as coming from God, and believes it to be His will, how grievous soever at first sight it may seem unto him, XLII. Ps. 39. 9. SERM. when he recollects himself, he will be so far from being troubled at it, or repining against it, that he will say with David in another case, "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou, O Lord, didst it." For he that believes that God doth a thing, cannot but at the same time believe it to be well done, yea, the best that could be; and therefore cannot in reason or conscience be troubled at it, but rather must acquiesce in it, as believing it to come from Him who knows what is fit and proper to be done, infinitely better than he doth. And this is the next thing which we must believe concerning God, in order to the keeping our hearts from being troubled. We must believe Him to be omniscient, that He knows all and every thing that is thought, or spoke, or done; every thing that lives or moves, or hath any being; Heb. 4. 13. every thing that is in the whole world. "Neither is there any creature," as the Apostle saith, " that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him, with whom we have to do." He knows what all the Angels are doing in Heaven, what all the devils are contriving in Hell, and what all their agents are acting upon earth. He knows the several inclinations and qualities, the virtues and the vices of every creature, together with the tendencies and consequences of all events. What will do us good, and what hurt, and how and when it will do so. He knows what enemies all and every one of us have in the world, what hatred they bear, and what mischief they design against us, and which is the best or the only way to prevent it. He knows the temper and complexion of our bodies, the several dispositions of our minds, and the respective circumstances of our lives, and how to suit His providences to us, and to make them fit and proper for us. In short, He knows every thing that is in us, every thing that is about us, every thing that concerns us, or hath any relation to us. Insomuch, that although many things may happen to us, otherwise than we expected, yet the best Friend that we have in the world, foresees and orders them all for us; and therefore what reason have we to trouble our heads or our hearts about any thing that may or may not befall us, seeing we have such an infinitely wise and knowing Father to take care of us, and of all our concerns? And, if we believe in Him, will most certainly do it. Neither is He less able than He is willing to prevent any evil we fear, to remove what we feel, or to change the nature of it, and make it really good for us; for He, as the first and supreme Cause, holds the chain of all inferior and secondary causes always in His own hand, ranging and managing all and every one of them as seemeth best to Him: so that all the powers in Heaven and Hell, and on earth are equally subject unto Him, and He makes them do His will, howsoever contrary it may be to their own; as the wise man saith, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Prov. 21. 1. Lord, as the rivers of water; He turneth it whithersoever He will." And so are the hearts of all the men in the world as much under the power as they are always under the eye of God, who winds and turns them so, that whatsoever they design, they can bring nothing to pass without Him, nor any thing but what He will, as the wise man again observes, "There are many devices in a man's heart, never- ch. 19. 21. theless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." And therefore, what need we fear any or all the creatures in the world, although they should set themselves in array against us, seeing there is one above them, who can abate their pride, assuage their malice, infatuate their counsels, confound their devices, and make them fall into the same net which they lay for others, and cause that which they design for our ruin, to be the most effectual means of our peace and welfare; and so produce our good out of the very mischief that was intended for us? As we see in the history of Joseph, for his brethren having out of their envy and malice against him, sold him to the Ishmaelites to live in perpetual slavery as they thought and intended, hoping never to hear any more of him; God was pleased so to order it in His Providence, that this very thing proved the occasion of his being advanced not only above all the subjects of Egypt, but above his very brethren too that sold him; so that they were forced to bow and cringe to him, and lay at his mercy, not only for their livelihood, but for their very lives too, which he could have taken away when he pleased. Thus XLII. SERM. God was pleased to manifest His love unto him, in the hatred which his brethren bare him, and to make use of the mischief which they designed him, as a means of promoting him to the greatest glory and grandeur he could ever have in this world. The like may be observed in many other both sacred and ecclesiastical histories: especially where the Church itself hath been concerned, which hath always grown and flourished most under the straits and troubles that have fallen upon it; which its enemies have designed for its destruction, but God hath still blessed and sanctified them to its greater increase and glory. Yea there is no particular person that truly loves and honours God, but may take notice of the same in his own private affairs: even that all the losses, crosses, and disappointments that he ever suffered, all the distresses and afflictions of any sort that the Devil or man have brought upon him, have by the secret working of God, contributed something either to his temporal or spiritual good and welfare. This St. Paul observes and asserts not only upon his own, but upon the knowledge Rom. 8. 28. and experience of all the Saints, saying, "We know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." He that believes this, how can his heart be troubled at any thing? What! troubled for that which a man believes to be the Will of God! Troubled for that which he believes is for his good! Troubled for that now, which he shall have cause to thank God for unto all eternity! It cannot be; no man can believe in God, and yet be troubled at the same time for what He doth; for our very believing that He doth it, and that He doth it for our good, must needs fill our hearts with so much joy and comfort, that there will be no room for grief or trouble there. Wherefore, as ever we desire to keep our hearts from being tossed to and fro with the storms and tempests we meet with here below, we must be sure to keep our faith continually fixed upon God, according as our Saviour here directs us. But for that purpose as we believe in God, so we must believe in Christ too, for whose sake alone it is that God is thus good to us, as to make all things good for us; and therefore He adds, " Believe also in Me," that so we may know from whence all our mercies flow, and how to obtain them, even by believing and trusting on Him who hath purchased them for us with His own blood, and who therefore never denies them to any that hope and trust on Him for them. 34.22; 125. 12. 18. Let us therefore now put our whole trust and confidence in Almighty God, and in our blessed Saviour, to protect us from all evil, and to give us whatsoever He knows to be good for us; and then we shall be sure that He will do it; for He never yet did, nor ever will fail them that trust and depend upon Him. This David asserts and promises in the Ps. 37.40; Name of God. And Jehosaphat experienced, and Jeremiah the Prophet. Yea, this hath been the constant experience of all the Saints that ever lived; and therefore let us but Jer. 39. 17, live as becometh Saints, and trust in God as they do, and we also shall find it true by our own experience as they did. Whatsoever happens in the world, let our hearts be always fixed, trusting in the Lord, and then no trouble will come near them, but we shall always experience the certainty of that method which our Lord prescribes to keep our hearts from being troubled. But there is another sort of trouble which Christ's own disciples, real and true Christians, are apt to fall into, even inward or spiritual troubles, arising from the remembrance of their former sins, from a sense of their present infirmities, from the strength of the Devil's temptations, or else from the consideration of the unworthiness and imperfection of their best duties. All which I confess are real causes of trouble, yea of such troubles, as would certainly break our hearts in pieces, if they were not defended by faith in Christ: but by faith in Christ our hearts may be defended even from such troubles as those, so that we shall be affected no further with them, than it is necessary we should be, towards our exercise and growth in grace. For first, as to the remembrance of our former sins, it cannot, I confess, but be grievous to us, although we have now repented of them, and utterly forsaken them, for do what we can, they will sometimes come into our minds, and present themselves in all their dismal colours before our eyes, as we see in David, saying, “I acknowledge my trans- Ps. 51. 3. gression, and my sin is ever before me." And in Job, say |