3. God wdl do it for the hardening of many false, empty professors and others in the world, that the judgments appointed may come ujion them to the uttermost.^ Tlio hardening of men to their de-
' Judges vii. 4.
» Rom. ix. 18; Deut. ii. .30; Ps. lxx.\i. 12, l.\i.\. 22; Josh. xi. 20; Isa. vi. 9-12; John xii. 40-43; Deut. xxxii. 15.
THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 331
struction, being a close and inward work, is one of the most eminent acts of the providence of God in governing the world : — by this he accomplisheth most of the judgments that he hath threatened. Now, there is not any dispensation of God towards man but he can, and doth sometimes, cause it to be so managed and ordered, that it shall be a way and means of hardening such as he hath appomted there- unto : — some are hardened by the word, some by mercies, some by judgments. Amongst other ways that he useth for this purpose, this is one, — the disposal of the works of his providence contrary to the reasonings of men, — doing things unlikely and unfitly in the eyes of flesh and blood, that so they may despise those ways of his, and be broken in opposition unto them. Take an instance in Pharaoh's last hardening for destruction: When he brought the people out of Egypt, he did not lead them the direct way to Canaan, but carries them into the wilderness, and shuts them up between the mountains and the sea. Pharaoh justly concludes that they are entangled be- yond escape, and that he shall surely overtake them and destroy them. This draws him out to his ruin. Had God led them in the straight path, probably he had not piu'sued after them ; but the Lord lays this as a plot for his destruction. God will harden Jeroboam, and therefore a lion shall slay the prophet that preached against his idolatry. So was it with the Jews. They expect all glory to attend the commg of the Messiah ; and after the coming of him indeed, God follows them with judgments to a total desolation; — which being so unsuited unto the dispensation they expected, hardness thereby is come upon them to the uttermost. Tertullian says, he dares say that " the Scriptures were on purpose framed in many things to give oc- casion to proud and curious unhumbled wits to stumble and fall." And I dare say that the Lord doth order many of his works in the world in " ways past finding out," on purpose to give occasion to many to stumble and fall. God fulfilleth many mighty works, that could not otherwise be brought about, by hardening the hearts of men. The hardening of the late king's heart was an engine whereby he wrought mighty things and alterations. Had not God laid obdu- rateness and stubbornness upon his spuit, we had long since, in all probability, been ruined. To accomplish this end, then, God will so order the works of his providence, that men shall reason themselves into unreasonable and brutish hardness and stupidity. Thus God hath done in the days wherein we five. His mighty acts that he hath ANTOught, both for the matter of the things done and the manner of their doing, have been so contrary to men's principles, interest, expectations, and reasons, that they have slighted them to such a degree of hardening that they seem to have no reason left at all; — and when it comes to that, God will fall judicially upon the very
o32 THE ADVANTAGE OF
faculties of their souls ; he will blind their eyes, depiive them of their judgment and insight into things, that they shall be as incapable of [understanding] God's mind as fools; and give them up to vile affec- tions, to do the things that are not seemly ; — as it hath fallen out with too many amongst us.
Let us now make some use of this point.
Use. It serves, then, to discover the vanity of those men who, be- cause the works of God have not been carried on in ways suitable to their reasonings and expectations, do utterly reject them, disown them, and oppose him in them. Can these men give any one instance of any one eminent woi'k of God that he hath brought about by such ways and means as men would rationally allot thereunto, especially in things that are in immediate subsei'viency to the kingdom of the Lord Christ? Can they instance that they have been so managed? nay, hath not this been a means to harden multitudes to their de- struction that have limited the Holy One, and chalked out paths for him to walk in? I cannot but fear that it was a great provocation of the eyes of God's glory, that at the beginning, and in the cariying on of the great alterations that have been wrought by his providence among us, we did speak of confirming and continuing, under an}- con- dition whatsoever, any tilings or persons which it was in his design to evert: — we must be promising to keep up the high tree, and to keep down the low tree ; which was not at all in his thoughts, neither ever came it into his heart. I hope he hath taught us (though -with thorns) to follow him sometimes, like Abraham, not knowing whither we go. Now, the Lord convince them who are yet under this darkness ;- — that think the ways of God not equal, because not mea- sured l)y their line ; — that bring their crooked rules imto that which is really straiglit, and cast it away as abominable. Tlie children of Israel had got a proverb against the ways of God;'^ it was so taken for granted that the ways of his providence were not right and straight, that it was grown into a common by-word. A little discovery of the pride and hypocrisy of their OAvn hearts undeceived them at last.