A35535:2449
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty second, the thirty third, and…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the thirty second, the thirty third, and…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty second, the thirty third, and the thirty fourth chapters of the book of Job being the substance of forty-nine lectures / delivered at Magnus near the Bridge, London, by Joseph Caryl ...An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the thirty second, the thirty third, and the thirty fourth chapters of the booke of Job being the substance of forty-nine lectures / delivered at Magnus neare the Bridge, London, by Joseph Caryl ...
London: printed by M. Simmons, 1661
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Some say, God made the world at first, and set all the wheels of it a-going, but now things go on by chance, by fortune, or by accident, at least particular events are not under his government, but come to pass as the wisdom or folly of men is most active in the production of them.
Some say, God made the world at first, and set all the wheeles of it a-going, but now things goe on by chance, by fortune, or by accident, at least particular events are not under his government, but come to passe as the wisdome or folly of men is most active in the production of them.
I answer, to set up blind fortune, and chance, yea or the wit and policy of man, as governing the world, is to set up other Gods in the world; if chance and fortune, or the wit of man, govern any part of the world, then they had a part in making the world. If you divide one power, you divide the other. For those invisible things of God, his eternal power and God-head, are as much or as evidently seen, in the things which are done, as in the things which are made. 'Tis true indeed God useth many hands in governing, ordering, and disposing the things of this world. The Princes of this world, are eminently his hand, but God doth ⟨p. 584⟩not use any power in governing this world,1 to diminish his own, nor doth he withdraw his own power, what power soever he useth; 'tis his power that acts effectually, and gives success in the acting of all power. It was said to that King who prided himself in what he had done in the world; Shall the Axe boast it self against him that heweth therewith, or shall the saw magnify it self against him that shaketh it? (Isa: 10.15.) As if the Lord had said to that proud Assyrian Prince, Dost thou look upon thy self, as if thou didst all, and governedst all? thou art no more in the governing the world (though the chief earthly Governor of all the world) then an Axe is in the hand of him that useth it; And though the artificer cannot do his work without an Axe, though he cannot divide his Timber without a saw, yet I the Lord am able to do my work without thee. At best and most, men are but instruments in the hand of God; and he serves his own turn by men, not to signify that he cannot work without them, nor that his work is done either with more ease to himself, or more success as to it self by their help (he is not so weak as to need help, nor is at all strengthened by the help he useth) but only to show that as he hath the command of, so he hath a use for every creature (Isa: 7.18.) The Lord shall hiss for the fly; if God do but hiss to the fly, or any creature on earth, yea to the devils in hell, they are at his call, and do his will, though they intend it not. Further; though God can do all himself, yet he useth various instruments, that he may endear man to man, or that no man may say, he hath no need of another. Thus the Apostle argues (1 Cor: 12.21.)