4. Therefore, for the better drawing of us to trust in God, we must conceive of him under the sweet relation of a Father. God's nature is fatherly now unto us, and therefore lovely.
5. And for further strengthening our faith it is needful to consider what excellencies the Scripture giveth unto God, answerable to all om- necessities. What sweet names God is pleased to be known unto us by for our comfort, * as a merciful, gracious, long-suflering God,' &c. Exod. xxxiv. 6.
: When Moses desired to see the gloiy of God, God thus manifested him- self, in the way of goodness : ' I will make all my goodness pass before thee,' Exod. xxxiii. 16.
Whatsoever is good in the creature is first in God as a fountain ; and it is in God in a more eminent manner and fuller measure. All grace and holmess, all sweetness of affection, all power and wisdom, &c. as it is in him, so it is from him : and we come to conceive these properties to be in God, 1, by feeling the comfort and power of them in ourselves ; 2, by observing these things in their measure to be in the best of the creatures, whence we arise to take notice of what gi'ace and what love, what strength and wisdom, &c., is in God, by the beams of these which we see in his creature, with adding in our thoughts fulness pecuhar to God, and abstract- ing imperfections incident to the creature. For that is in God in the highest degree, the sparkles whereof is but in us.
6. Therefore it is fit that unto all other eminencies in God, we should strengthen our faith by considering those glorious singularities, which are altogether incommunicable to the creature, and which gives strength to his other properties, as that God is not only gracious and loving, powerful, wise, &c., but that he is infinitely, eternally, and unchangeably so. All which are comprised in and drawn from that one name Jehovah, as being of himself, and giving a being to all things else, of nothing ; and able, when it pleaseth him, to turn all things to nothing again.
7. As God is thus, so he makes it good by answerable actions and dealing towards us, by his continual providence, the consideration whereof is a great stay to our faith ; for by this providence God makes use of all his former excellencies for his people's good, for the more comfortable ap- prehension of which, it is good to know that God's providence is extended as far as his creation. Every creature, in every element and place whatso- ever, rccciveth a powerful influence from God, who doth what pleaseth him, both in heaven and earth, in the sea, and all places. But we must know God doth not put things into a frame, and then leave them to their ovm motion, as we do clocks, after we have once set them right, and ships, after
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we have once built them, commit them to wind and waves ; but as he made all things, and knows all things, so, by a continued kind of creation, he preserves all things in their being and working, and governs them in their ends. He is the fii'st mover that sets all the wheels of the creature aworking. One wheel may move another, but all are moved by the fii-st. If God moves not, the clock of the creature stands. If God should not uphold things, they would presently fall to nothing, from whence they came. If God should not guide things, Satan's malice, and man's weakness, Vv'ould soon bring all to a con- fusion. If God did not rule the great family of the world, all would break and fall to pieces, whereas the wise providence of God keepeth everything on its right hinges. AU things stand in obedience to this providence of God, and nothing can withdraw itself from under it. If the creature with- draw itself from one order of providence, it falls into another. If man, the most unruly and disordered creature of all, withdi'aw himself from God's gracious government of him to happiness, he will soon fall under God's just government of him to deserved misery. If he shakes off God's sweet yoke, he puts himself under Satan's heavy yoke, who, as God's executioner, hardens him to destruction. And so, whilst he rushes against God's will, he fulfils it ; and whilst he will not wilHngly do God's wiU, God's will is done upon him against his will.
The most casual things fall under providence, yea, the most disordered thing in the world, sin, and, of sins the most horrible that ever the sun beheld, the ' crucifying of the Lord of life,' Acts iii. 15, was guided by a hand of providence to the greatest good. For that which is casual in re- gard of a second cause, is not so in regard of the first, whose providence is most clearly seen in casual events that fall out by accident, for in these the effect cannot be ascribed to the next cause. God is said to kill him who was unwarily slain by the falling of an axe or some instrument of death, Deut. xix. 5.
And though man hath a freedom in working, and of all men the hearts of kings are most fi'ee, yet even these are ' guided by an oveiTuling power,' Prov. xxi. 1, as the rivers of water are carried in their channels whither skilful men list to derive them.