Miscellanea spiritualia: or, Devout essaies: composed by the Honourable Walter Montagu Esq.

§. IV.

An information of what kinde of conformity we owe Gods declared Will in adverse Events.

AFter these bounds set to curiosity, me thinks many are desirous to know, Whether their Wills are bound up to their Adversities. I shall endeavor to satisfie such enquiries by a clear Solution of this Question; re∣solving them, That although we are restrained in the curiosi∣ty of Causes, we are not confined to a conformity of our Wills, to the material object of Gods Will, in publike calamities and afflictions. Our Wills must be fastned to Gods, in the formal object of our willing; which is, to de∣sire every thing in order to the accomplishment of his Will, in his universal Ordination of all things: But we are not obliged to be pleased in every material declaration of Gods

pleasure, as in the defeature of a good Cause, the death of our friends, and the successfulness of our enemies. In these, and such cases of conforming our wills to the matter of our sufferings, we may, as it were, dispute the cause with God, and wish his Providence might work by other means: Because in this shadowed light of our Reason wherein we live, we do not see how the ways lead to Gods universal ends, to which our wils are only bound to be conformed formality, as making that Divine Order the rule of our final desires.

We know Abraham opposed Gods declared Will, in the material part of it, in the destruction of Sodom; and when God ordained him the Sacrificing of his Son; he might justly have wished God had been pleased to appoint him some other testimony of his Obedience: This kinde of dis∣senting is properly rather a velleity, or wishing an altera∣tion of Gods purpose, then an opposition to it; and this imperfect adhering to Gods Will, is proper to this half-light we have of it, in our distance from the object of his univer∣sal Order. Those who in the light of his countenance look upon his Will, have theirs both materially and formally uni∣ted to it; because, as the Psalmist says, In thy light we shall see all light: Thus they discern how all they desire is in order to the universal end, and understand how all the discords which are now jars in our ears, are set to compose the har∣mony of the Divine Providence, wherein they have their parts, singing continually the praises thereof. But while we are looking through our glass, and the darkness of our riddle, we are not obliged to a clearer conformity of our Wills, then the nature of our light can afford us, which dis∣covers not to us how all present advers accidents are perti∣nent to the efficacity of Gods universal Order; therefore we are not imposed that precise adherence of our Wills to the material part of adversity.

Upon this ground the Prophets presumed as it were to im∣plead Gods sentences, by an expostulation with him about their execution. Moses makes a Remonstrance to God of the

inconveniences of his declared Will to destroy Israel, repre∣senting the scandal of impotency whereunto his name would be lyable among the Heathens: and the Prophet Samuel, after the pronouncing of Gods sentence against Saul, seems to plead for him with his tears so long, as God asketh him, How long he would lament Saul? not as displeased with this unconfor∣mity, but rather in commiseration of his piety, and tenderness of charity. The Prophet Jeremy pleaded so long against the rigor of his own commission, as God imployed his modesty to silence him, knowing he would not expect a grant in what Moses and Samuel should have bin rejected; yet when he could * 1.1 intercede no longer, when his mouth was stopt, his eyes were let loose into streams, that seemed to run still against the tide of Gods judgements. And God allowed the Prophet Jonah a * 1.2 much stronger liberty, to seem angry at Gods mercy, and to dispute the justness of his perplexity. In all these instances the wills of the Prophets were formally concurrent with the Will of God; for they made still the reason of their willing the ac∣complishment of the common universal disposition of Gods order, but we see they dissented in the matter of their willing; they did not vote these special and precise means concurrent∣ly with Gods voice, because they saw not clearly how they stood in Gods design of the common good, and so might dif∣fer from God in wishing the order, though not the end.

It is otherwise with the Angels who are in a fuller light, they discern how all Humane events are in their special order to the common benefit of the Universe, and so execute their Commissions of Benevolence or Indignation upon us, with∣out any alteration of joy in our temporal blessings, or commi∣seration in their offices of destruction. This state of equanimi∣ty we shall attain, when we come to see face to face, that Face which shall make us like it, by looking on it, when we shall see him as he is, in whō we shall together see all other things as they are; until then, while we see him but in the shadow of his works, he requires of us only our conformity to his wil, as far as he hath endued our Nature with a power of apprehending

how his declared pleasure hath a consonancy with the uni∣versal good of the world: So that we have an injunction and a capacity of wishing always in preference of the universal good, before our private interest. And in those cases in which we are not convinced, how the ills we suffer conduce to that order, we may piously deprecate such Events, la∣ment the exigencies they occasion, and sue to God for the reversing of such orders; in which exigencies we may ear∣nestly press the hastening of Gods time, and concurrently attend his will with patience; for that is Gods time to which our Prayers have brought God, as that price was Gods price to which Abraham brought God for Sodom. This, I hope, will sufficiently explicate the sence of formal and material conformity to Gods Will, and so enlighten us in many ob∣scurities and scuples, which the tenderness of our Con∣science may cast over us, as apprehensions of con〈…〉〈…〉 against Gods order in our sorrow, and resentment of pub∣like or private calamities.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Jer. 14.
• * 1.2

  Jonah 4.