12o Chap. 38. An Expoftion upon the Book,ofJ o B. Veff 2g. 7bereferewill we wait upsn thee; for thou haft made all thefe thins. As if hehad faid,0 Lord,tbouhaft made them ; and therefore thou haft both the right and the power todifpofe of them. What can be ' faid more clear and full for the confirmationof this poynt ? Many other Scriptures fay the fame thing. Read Dcut. 28. la. prat. 147. 8. er. j. 24. Amos 4. 7. So then, though there are natural caufes ofRain, yet God is the fi fl caufe, and it is at his pleafure that thefe natural caufes ei- ther p-oduce their effeels, or are flayed from producing them. It Rains not by accident, nor by any concatenation of fecond caufes, but according to the appoyntments and pleafure of the greatGod. ' fis no fmall part of our duty to eye God in caufng thefe common things ; and 'tis a great piece of Atheifm, or a difowning of God, to tye them up tonatural caufes. Now, IfGod be the Father of theRain, we may hence infer, Firfl, That God is the Father of all Creatures, and thefupreans caufe of all effefts in the creatures. As a Father is the fecond or inflrumentai caufe of his Sons Being, fo God is the fupream effi- cient caufe of all Beings and Entities. Not only Animalsand Ri- tionals,but the very inanimates and fenflefs creaturesare of a Di- vine extra&cion : God is the Fountain oftheir Being. And if God be, and mull be acknowledged as the Father ofall Creatures, e- ven of the Rain, then, Secondly, God is muchmore the Fatherof Mankind. ToeA- poule voucheth that to the fuperflitious Athenians asa Divine truth, cut of their own Authors (Ats 17.28.) As certain alto of your own Poets . havefaid, forwe areago bis of fprim ; we are fprung from dim as Branches from the Root., or as Streams from the Fountain : Not that we are,as the Streams with theFountain, or the Branches with the Root, of the fame Nature with him, (which to imagine werehigheft Blafphemy) but we take or re- ceiveour Nature from him, that is, he bathmade us to bewhat we are, and in him, that is, in dependance upon him, welive and move, andhave our Being. Thirdly, If Godown himfelfas a Father to all things, and to all men, in a general way of Nature, then much more Bothheowz bimfelf a Father toalibis people in a wayofgrace. What theApo- file faith of his TitleSaviour (aTim. 4. t®. ) He is theSavi- our of all men, efptcially of thole that believe ; foI may fay of this Relaticn
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