concern without appointment and pattern than Moses a servant ver 5.6 It seems to be a vote of nature to referr the Original of the modes of all worship to God and therefore in all those varieties of Ceremonies among the Heathens there was scarce any but were imagin'd by them to be the Dictates and Orders of some of their pretended Deities and not the resolves of meer Humane Authority What intrusion upon God's right hath the Papacy made in regard of Officers Cardinals Patriarchs c. not known in any Divine Order In regard of Ceremonies in worship prest as necessary to obtain the favour of God Holy-water Crucifixes Altars Images Cringings reviving many of the Jewish and Pagan Ceremonies and adopting them into the Family of Christian Ordinances as if God had been too absolute and arbitrary in repealing the one and dashing in peices the other When God had by his Soveraign order fram'd a Religion for the heart men are ready to usurp an Authority to frame one for the sence to dress the Ordinances of God in new and gaudy habits to take the eye by a vain pomp thus affecting a Divine Royalty and acting a silly childishness and after this to impose the observation of those upon the Consciences of men is a bold ascent into the Throne of God To impose Laws upon the Conscience which Christ hath not imposed hath deservedly been thought the very Spirit of Antichrist It may be call'd also the Spirit of Anti-God God hath reserv'd to himself the sole Soveraignty over the Conscience and never indulg'd men any part of it he hath not given man a power over his own Conscience much less one man a power over another's Conscience Men have a power over outward things to do this or that where it is determined by the Law of God but not the least Authority to controul any dictate or determination of Conscience The sole Empire of that is appropriate to God as one of the great marks of his Royalty What an usurpation is it of God's right to make Conscience a slave to man which God hath solely as the father of Spirits subjected to himself An usurpation which though the Apostles those extraordinary Officers might better have claim'd yet they utterly disown'd any imperious dominion over the faith of others 2 Cor. 1.24 Though in this they do not seem to climb up above God yet they set themselves in the Throne of God envy him an absolute Monarchy would be sharers with him in his Legislative power and grasp one end of his Scepter in their own hands They do not pretend to take the Crown from Gods head but discover a bold ambition to shuffle their hairy Scalps under it and wear part of it upon their own that they may rule with him not under him And would be joint Lords of his Mannour with him who hath by the Apostle forbidden any to be Lords of his Heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 And therefore they cannot assume such an Authority to themselves till they can shew where God hath resign'd this part of his Authority to them If their Exposition of that place Matth. 16.18 Vpon this rock I will build my Church be granted to be true and that the person and Successors of Peter are meant by that Rock it could be no Apology for their Usurpations 't is not Peter and his Successors shall build but I will build others are instruments in building but they are to observe the directions of the grand Architect 3. The Soveraignty of God is contemned when men prefer Obedience to mens Laws before Obedience to God As God hath an undoubted right as the Law-giver and Ruler of the World to enact Laws without consulting the pleasure of men or requiring their consent to the verifying and establishing his Edicts so are men oblig'd by their Allegiance as subjects to observe the Laws of their Creator without consulting whither they be agreeable to the Laws of his revolted Creatures To consult with Flesh and Blood whither we should obey is to Authorize Flesh and Blood above the purest and most soveraign spirit When men will obey their superiors without taking in the condition the Apostle prescribes to Servants Col. 3.22 In singleness of heart fearing God and post-pone the fear of God to the fear of man 't is to render God of less power with them than the drop of a Bucket or dust of the Ballance When we out of fear of punishment will observe the Laws of Men against the Laws of God 't is like the Egyptians to Worship a ravenous Crocodile instead of a Deity when we submit to humane Laws and stagger at Divine 't is to set man upon the Throne of God and God at the footstool of man to set man above and God beneath to make him the tail and not the head as God speaks in another case of Israel Deut. 28.13 When we pay an outward observation to Divine Laws because they are backt by the Laws of Man and humane Authority is the motive of our observance we subject Gods soveraignty to Mans Authority what he hath from us is more owing to the pleasure of men than any value we have for the Empire of God When men shall commit Murders and imbrue their hands in blood by the order of a Grandee when the worst sins shall be committed by the order of Papal dispensations When the use of his Creatures which God hath granted and sanctifi'd shall be abstain'd from for so many days in the week and so many weeks in the year because of a Roman Edict the Authority of man is acknowledg'd not only equal but superior to that of God The dominion of dust and clay is preferr'd before the undoubted right of the soveraign of the World The Commands of God are made less than humane and the orders of men more authoritative than Divine and a grand Rebels usurpation of Gods right is countenanced When men are more devout in observance of uncertain Traditions or meer humane inventions than at the hearing of the unquestionable Oracles of God When men shall squeeze their countenances into a more serious figure and demean themselves in a more religious posture at the appearance of some mock Ceremony clothed in a Jewish or Pagan garb which hath unhappily made a rent in the Coat of Christ and pay a more exact reverence to that which hath no Divine but only a humane stamp upon it than to the clear and plain Word of God which is perhaps neglected with sleepy nodds or which is worse entertain'd with prophane scoffs this is to prefer the Authority of man employ'd in trifles before the Authority of the wise Law-giver of the World Besides the ridiculousness of it is as great as to adore a Glo-worm and laugh at the Sun or for a Courtier to be more exact in his cringes and starcht postures before a puppet than before his soveraign Prince In all this we make not the Will and Authority of God our rule but the
from it The meeting of a Divine Truth and the Heart of Man is like the meeting of two Tides the weaker swells and foams We have a natural Antipathy against a Divine Rule and therefore when it is clapt close to our Consciences there is a snuffing at it high reasonings against it corruption breaks out more strongly As Water poured on Lime sets it on Fire by an Antiperistasis and the more Water is cast upon it the more furiously it burns Or as the Sun Beams shining upon a Dung-hill makes the steams the thicker and the stench the noysomer neither being the positive cause of the smoke in the Lime or the stench in the Dung-hill but by accident the causes of the eruption Rom. 7.8 But Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law Sin was dead Sin was in a languishing posture as if it were dead like a lazy Garrison in a City till upon an Alarm from the Adversary it takes Arms and revives its courage all the sin in the heart gathers together its force to maintain its standing like the vapours of the Night which unite themselves more closely to resist the Beams of the rising Sun Deep Conviction often provokes fierce Opposition sometimes Disputes against a Divine Rule end in Blasphemies Acts 13.45 Contradicting and Blaspheming are coupled together Men naturally desire things that are forbidden and reject things commanded from the corruption of Nature which affects an unbounded Liberty and is impatient of returning under that Yoke it hath shaken off and therefore rageth against the bars of the Law as the Waves roar against the restraint of a bank When the Understanding is dark and the Mind Ignorant Sin lies as dead * Thes Salmur De Spiritu Servitutis Thes 19. a man scarce knows he hath such Motions of Concupiscence in him he finds not the least breath of Wind but a full calm in his Soul but when he is awakened by the Law then the vitiousness of nature being sensible of an Invasion of its Empire arms it self against the Divine Law and the more the Command is urged the more vigorously it bends its strength and more insolently lifts up it self against it he perceives more and more Atheistical Lusts than before all manner of Concupiscence more leprous and contagious than before When there are any motions to turn to God a reluctancy is presently perceived Atheistical thoughts bluster in the mind like the wind they know not whence they come nor whether they go So unapt is the heart to any acknowledgement of God as his Ruler and any re-union with him Hence men are said to resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 to fall against it as the word signifies as a stone or any ponderous body falls against that which lies in its way They would dash to pieces or grind to powder that very motion which is made for their instruction and the Spirit too which makes it and that not from a fit of passion but an habitual repugnance Ye always resist c. 2. External 't is a fruit of Atheism in the fourth verse of this Psalm Who eat up my people as they eat bread How do the revelations of the Mind of God meet with opposition And the Carnal World like dogs bark against the shining of the Moon So much men hate the Light that they spurn at the Lanthorns that bear it And because they cannot endure the Treasure often fling the earthen vessels against the ground wherein it is held If the entrance of Truth render the Market worse for Diana's Shrines the whole City will be in an uproar * Act. 19.24.28.29 When Socrates upon natural Principles confuted the Heathen Idolatry and asserted the unity of God the whole cry of Athens a learned University is against him and because he opposed the publick received Religion though with an undoubted Truth he must end his Life by Violence How hath every Corner of the World steam'd with the blood of those that would maintain the Authority of God in the World The Devils Children will follow the steps of their Father and endeavour to bruise the Heel of Divine Truth that would endeavour to break the Head of corrupt Lust 5. Men often seem desirous to be acquainted with the Will of God not out of any respect to his Will and to make it their Rule but upon some other Consideration Truth is scarce received as truth There is more of Hypocrisie than Sincerity in the pale of the Church and attendance on the Mind of God The outward dowry of a religious Profession makes it often more desirable than the Beauty Judas was a follower of Christ for the Bag not out of any affection to the Divine Revelation Men sometime pretend a desire to be acquainted with the Will of God to satisfie their own passions rather than to conform to Gods Will The Religion of such is not the judgment of the Man but the passion of the Brute Many entertain a Doctrine's for the persons sake rather than a person for the Doctrine sake and believe a thing because it comes from a Man they esteem as if his lips were more Canonical than Scripture The Apostle implies in the Commendation he gives the Thessalonians * 1 Thes 2.13 that some receive the Word for human interest not as it is in truth the Word and Will of God to command and govern their Consciences by its Soveraign Authority Or else they have the Truth of God as St. James speaks of the Faith of Christ with respect of persons * Jam. 2.2 and receive it not for the sake of the Fountain but of the Channel So that many times the same Truth delivered by another is disregarded which when dropping from the fancy and mouth of a Man 's own Idol is cryed up as an Oracle This is to make not God but Man the Rule For though we entertain that which materially is the Truth of God yet not formally as his Truth but as conveyed by one we affect And that we receive a Truth and not an Error we ow the obligation to the honesty of the Instrument and not to the strength and clearness of our own Judgment Wrong considerations may give admittance to an unclean as well as a clean beast into the Ark of the Soul That which is contrary to the Mind of God may be entertained as well as that which is agreeable 'T is all one to such that have no respect to God what they have As it is all one to a Spunge to suck up the foulest water or the sweetest wine when either is applyed to it 6. Many that entertain the Notions of the Will and Mind of God admit them with unsettled and wavering Affections There is a great Levity in the heart of Man The Jews that one day applaud our Saviour with Hosannahs as their King vote his Crucifixion the next and use him as a Murderer We begin in the Spirit and
subject to God not in regard of the Divine Nature wherein there is an equality and consequently no Dominion of jurisdiction nor only in his humane nature but in the Oeconomy of a Redeemer considered as one design'd and consenting to be incarnate and take our flesh so that after this agreement God had a soveraign right to dispose of him according to the Articles consented to In regard of his undertaking and the advantage he was to bring to the Elect of God upon the Earth he calls God by the solemn Title of his Lord in that prophetick Psalm of him Psal 16.2 Oh my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my Goodness extends not unto thee but unto the Saints that are in the Earth It seems to be the speech of Christ in Heaven mentioning the Saints on Earth as at a distance from him I can add nothing to the glory of thy Majesty but the whole fruit of my Mediation and Sufferings will redound to the Saints on Earth and it may be observed that God is call'd the Lord of Hosts in the Evangelical Prophets Isaiah Haggai Zachary and Malachy more in reference to this affair of Redemption and the deliverance of the Church than for any other works of his Providence in the World 1. This Soveraignty of God appears in requiring satisfaction for the sin of man Had he indulg'd man after his fall and remitted his offence without a just compensation for the injury he had received by his Rebellion his Authority had been vilified man would always have been attempting against his jurisdiction there would have been a continual succession of Rebellions on mans part and if a continual succession of indulgences on Gods part he had quite disown'd his Authority over man and stript himself of the flower of his Crown satisfaction must have been requir'd sometime or other from the person thus rebelling or some other in his stead and to require it after the first act of sin was more preservative to the right of the Divine soveraignty than to do it after a multitude of repeated revolts God must have laid aside his Authority if he had laid aside wholly the exacting punishment for the offence of man 2. This Soveraignty of God appears in appointing Christ to this work of Redemption His soveraignty was before manifest over Angels and Men by the right of Creation there was nothing wanting to declare the highest charge of it but his ordering his own Son to become a mortal Creature the Lord of all things to become lower than those Angels that had as well as all other things receiv'd their being and beauty from him and to be reckon'd in his death among the dust and refuse of the World He by whom God created all things not only became a man but a crucified man by the Will of his Father Gal. 1.4 Who gave himself for our sins according to the Will of God to which may referre that expression Prov. 8.22 of his being possessed by God in the beginning of his way Possession is the Dominion of a thing invested in the possessor he was possessed indeed as a Son by eternal Generation He was possessed also in the beginning of his way or works of Creation as a Mediator by special constitution to this the expression seems to referre if you read on to the end of verse 31. wherein Christ speaks of his rejoycing in the habitable part of his Earth the Earth of the great God who had design'd him to this special work of Redemption He was a Son by Nature but a Mediator by Divine Will in regard of which Christ is often call'd Gods servant which is a relation to God as a Lord. God being the Lord of all things the Dominion of all things inferior to him is inseparable from him and in this regard the whole of what Christ was to do and did actually do was acted by him as the Will of God and is exprest so by himself in the Prophesie Psal 40.7 Lo I come verse 8. I delight to do thy will which are put together Heb. 10.7 Lo I come to do thy Will O God The designing Christ to this work was an act of mercy but founded on his soveraignty His compassionate bowels might have pitied us without his being soveraign but without it could not have releived us It was the Counsell of his own will as well as of his Bowels None was his Counsellor or perswader to that mercy he shew'd Rom. 11.34 Who hath been his Counsellor for it refers to that Mercy in sending the deliverer out of Sion verse 26. as well as to other things the Apostle had been discoursing of As God was at liberty to create or not to create so he was at liberty to Redeem or not to Redeem and at his liberty whither to appoint Christ to this work or not to call him out to it In giving this order to his Son his soveraignty was exercised in a higher manner than in all the orders and instructions he hath given out to Men or Angels and all the employments he ever sent them upon Christ hath names which signifie an Authority over him He is called an Angel and a Messenger Mal. 3.1 An Apostle Heb. 3.1 Declaring thereby that God hath as much Authority over him as over the Angels sent upon his Messages or over the Apostles commission'd by His Authority as he was consider'd in the quality of Mediator 3. This Soveraignty of God appears in transferring our sins upon Christ The Supream Power in a Nation can only appoint or allow of a commutation of punishment 'T is a part of Soveraignty to transferr the penalty due to the crime of one upon an other and substitute a sufferer with the sufferers own consent in the place of a criminal whom he had a mind to deliver from a deserv'd punishment God transferr'd the sins of men upon Christ and inflicted on him a punishment for them He summ'd up the debts of man charg'd them upon the score of Christ imputing to him the guilt and inflicting upon him the penalty Isa 53.6 The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all He made them all to meet upon his back He hath made him to be sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made so by the Soveraign pleasure of God A punishment for sin as most understand it which could not be Righteously inflicted had not sin been first Righteously imputed by the consent of Christ and the order of the Judge of the World This imputation could be the immediate act of none but God because he was the sole Creditor A Creditor is not bound to accept of another's suretiship but it is at his liberty whither he will or no and when he doth accept of him he may challenge the Debt of him as if he were the Principal Debtor himself Christ made himself sin for us by a voluntary submission and God made him sin for us by a full imputation and treated him penally
according to God's order Ezek. 37.24 25. David my servant shall be King over them and my servant David shall be their Prince for ever He shall be a Prince over them but my servant in that principality in the exercise and duration of it The Soveraignty of God is paramount in all that Christ hath done as a Priest or shall do as a King The VSE 1. For Instruction 1. How great is the contempt of this soveraignty of God Man naturally would be free from Gods Empire to be a slave under the Dominion of his own lust The soveraignty of God as a Law-giver is most abhorr'd by man Levit. 26.43 The Israelites the best people in the World were apt by nature not only to despise but abhorre his Statutes There is not a Law of God but the corrupt heart of man hath an abhorrency of How often do men wish that God had not enacted this or that Law that goes against the grain and in wishing so wish that he were no soveraign or not such a soveraign as he is in his own â—â—ture but one according to their corrupt model This is the great quarrel between God and Man whither he or they shall be the soveraign Ruler He should not by the Will of Man rule in any one Village in the World Gods vote should not be predominant in any one thing There is not a Law of his but is expos'd to contempt by the perverseness of Man Prov. 1.21 Ye have set at nought all my Counsel and would have none of my reproof Septuag Ye have made all my Counsels without Authority The nature of man cannot endure one precept of God nor one rebuke from him And for this cause God is at the expence of Judgements in the World to assert his own Empire to the Teeth and Consciences of men Psal 59.13 Lord consume them in wrath and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the Earth The Dominion of God is not slighted by any Creature of this World but Man all others observe it by observing his Order whither in their natural motions or preternaral irruptions they punctually act according to their Commission Man only speaks a Dialect against the strain of the whole Creation and hath none to imitate him among all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth but only among those in Hell Man is more impatient of the yoke of God than of the yoke of Man There are not so many rebellions committed by inferiors against their superiors and fellow Creatures as are committed against God A willing and easie sinning is an equalling the Authority of God to that of Man Hos 6.7 They like men have transgrest my Covenant * Munster They have made no more account of breaking my Covenant than if they had broken some league or compact made with a meer man so slightly do they esteem the Authority of God Such a disesteem of the divine Authority is a vertual undeifying of him To slight his soveraignty is to stab his Deity Since the one cannot be preserved without the support of the other his life would expire with his Authority How base and brutish is it for vile dust and mouldring clay to lift up it self against the Majesty of God whose Throne is in the Heavens who sways his Scepter over all parts of the World A Majesty before whom the Devils shake and the highest Cherubims tremble 'T is as if the Thistle that can presently be trod down by the foot of a wild Beast should think it self a match for the Cedar of Lebanon as the phrase is 2 Kings 14.9 Let us consider this in general and also in the ordinary practise of men First In General 1. All sin in its nature is a contempt of the Divine Dominion As every act of Obedience is a confirmation of the Law and consequently a subscription to the Authority of the Lawgiver Deut 27.26 so every breach to it is a conspiracy against the soveraignty of the Law-giver setting up our Will against the Will of God is an Articling against his Authority as setting up our reason against the methods of God is an Articling against his Wisdom the intendment of every act of sin is to wrest the Scepter out of God's hand The Authority of God is the first attribute in the Deity which it directs its edge against 't is called therefore a transgression of his Law 1 John 3.4 And therefore a slight or neglect of the Majesty of God and the not keeping his Commands is call'd a forgetting God Deut. 8.11 i. e. a forgetting him to be our absolute Lord. As the first notion we have of God as a Creator is that of his Soveraignty so the first perfection that sin struck at in the violation of the Law was his soveraignty as a Lawgiver Breaking the Law is a dishonouring God Rom. 2.23 a Snatching off his Crown to obey our own Wills before the Will of God is to preferre our selves as our own Soveraigns before him Sin is a wrong and injury to God not in his Essence that is above the reach of a Creature nor in any thing profitable to him or pertaining to his own intrinsick advantage not an injury to God in himself but in his Authority in those things which pertain to his Glory a disowning his due right and not using his goods according to his will Thus the whole world may be call'd as God calls Chaldea a Land of Rebels Jer. 50.21 Go up against the Land of Merathaim or Rebels Rebels not against the Jews but against God The mighty opposition in the heart of man to the Supremacy of God is discovered Emphatically by the Apostle Rom. 8.7 in that expression The carnal mind is enmity against God i. e. against the Authority of God because it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be It refuseth not subjection to this or that part but to the whole to every mark of Divine Authority in it it will not lay down its arms against it nay it cannot but stand upon its terms against it the Law can no more be fulfill'd by a carnal mind than it can be disowned by a soveraign God God is so Holy that he cannot alter a Righteous Law and man is so averse that he cares not for nay cannot fulfil one Tittle so much doth the Nature of man swell against the Majesty of God Now an enmity to the Law which is in every sin implies a perversity against the Authority of God that enacted it 2. All sin in its nature is the despoyling God of his sole soveraignty which was probably the first thing the Devil aim'd at That pride was the sin of the Devil the Scripture gives us some account of when the Apostle adviseth not a novice or one that hath but lately embraced the Faith to be chosen a Bishop 1 Tim. 3.6 Least being lifted up with Pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Least he fall into the same sin for
by theft from the Christian Granting many years indulgences upon slight performances the repeating so many Ave-Maries and Pater-Nosters in a day Canonizing Saints claiming the Keyes of Heaven and disposing of the honours and glory of it And proposing Creatures as objects of Religions Worship wherein he answers the Character of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.4 Shewing himself that he is God in challenging that power which is only the right of Divine Soveraignty exalting himself above God in indulging those things which the Law of God never allow'd but hath severely prohibited This controuling the Soveraignty of God not allowing him the rights of his Crown is the Soul and Spirit of many errors Why are the decrees of election and praeterition denyed because men will not acknowledge God the Soveraign disposer of his Creature Why is effectual calling and efficacious grace denyed because they will not allow God the proprietor and distributer of his own goods Why is the satisfaction of Christ deny'd because they will not allow God a power to vindicate his own Law in what way he pleaseth Most of the errors of men may be resolv'd into a denyal of God's Soveraignty All have a tincture of the first evil sentiment of Adam 2. The Soveraignty of God is contemned in the practices of men 1. As he is a Law-giver 1. When Laws are made and urg'd in any State contrary to the Law of God 'T is part of God's Soveraignty to be a Law-giver not to obey his Law is a breach made upon his right of Government But it is Treason in any against the Crown of God to Mint Laws with a stamp contrary to that of Heaven whereby they renounce their due subjection and vy with God for Dominion snatch the supremacy from him and account themselves more Lords than the Soveraign Monarch of the World When men will not let God be the Judge of good and evil but put in their own vote controuling his to establish their own Such are not content to be as Gods subordinate to the supream God to sit at his feet Nor co-ordinate with him to sit equal upon his Throne but paramount to him to over-top and shadow his Crown A boldness that leaves the serpent in the first temptation under the Character of a more commendable modesty who advised our first Parents to attempt to be as Gods but not above him and would enervate a Law of God but not enact a contrary one to be observ'd by them Such was the usurpation of Nebuchadnezzar to set up a Golden Image to be ador'd Dan. 3. as if he had power to mint Gods as well as to conquer men to set the stamp of a Deity upon a peice of Gold as well as his own Effigies upon his currant Coyn. Much of the same nature was that of Darius by the motion of his flatterers to prohibit any Petition to be made to God for the space of 30 dayes as though God was not to have a Worship without a License from a doting peice of clay Dan. 6.7 * Trap. in loc So Henry the Third of France by his Edict silenced Masters of Families from praying with their Houshoulds And it is a farther contempt of God's Authority when good men are opprest by the sole weight of power for not observing such Laws * Faucheur vol. 2. p. 663. 664. as if they had a real Soveraignty over the Consciences of men more than God himself When the Apostles were commanded by an Angel from God to preach in the Temple the Doctrine of Christ Act. 5.19 20. they were fetcht from thence with a Guard before the Councel v. 26. And what is the Language of those States-men to them as absolute as God himself could speak to any Transgressors of his Law ver 28. Did not we straitly command you that you should not teach in this Name 'T is sufficient that we gave you a command to be silent and publish no more this Doctrine of Jesus 'T is not for you to examine our decrees but rest in our order as Loyal Subjects and comply with your Rulers They might have added though it be with the damnation of your souls How would those over-rule the Apostles by no other reason but their absolute pleasure And though God had espous'd their cause by delivering them out of the Prison wherein they had lockt them the day before Yet not one of all this Councel had the wit or honesty to entitle it a fighting against God but Gamaliel ver 39. So foolishly fond are men to put themselves in the place of God and usurp a jurisdiction over mens Consciences And to presume that Laws made against the interest and command of God must be of more force than the Laws of God's enacting 2. The Soveraignty of God is contemn'd in making additions to the Laws of God The Authority of a Sovereign Law-giver is invaded and vilified when an inferior presumes to make orders equivalent to his Edicts 'T is a Praemunire against Heaven to set up an Authority distinct from that of God or to enjoyn any thing as necessary in matter of worship for which a Divine Commission cannot be shewn God was alway so tender of this part of his prerogative that he would not have any thing wrought in the Tabernacle not a Vessel not an instrument but what himself had prescribed Exod. 25.9 According to all that I shew thee after the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all the Instruments thereof even so shall ye make it which is strictly urg'd again ver 40. Look that thou make them after their pattern Look to it beware of doing any thing of thine own head and justling with my Authority It was so afterwards in the matter of the Temple which succeeded the Tabernacle God gave the model of it to David and made him understand in writing by his hand upon him even all the works of this pattern 1 Chron. 28.19 Neither the Royal Authority in Moses who was King in Jesurun nor in David who was a man after God's own heart and called to the Crown by a special and extraordinary providence nor Aaron and the High Priests his Successors invested in the Sacerdotal Office had any Authority from God to do any thing in the framing the Tabernacle or Temple of their own heads God barr'd them from any thing of that nature by giving them an exact pattern so dear to him was alwayes this flower of his Crown And afterwards the power of appointing Officers and Ordinances in the Church was delegated to Christ and was among the rest of those Royalties given to him which he fully compleated for the edifying of the body Ephes 4.11 12. And he hath the Elogy by the Spirit of God to be faithfull as Moses was in all his house to him that appointed him Heb. 3.2 Faithfulness in a trust implyes a punctual observing directions God was still so tender of this that even Christ the son should no more do any thing in this
Goodness to himself and his own Honour he had cast that off had he not insisted on this Condition of Faith it being the lowest he could condescend to with a salvo for his Glory And it was a Goodness to us 't is nothing else he requires but a willingness to accept what he hath contrived and acted for us And no Man can be happy against his will without this belief at least Man could never voluntarily have arriv'd to his Happiness The Goodness of God is evidenced in that First 'T is an easie Condition not impossible 1. It was not the Condition of the old Covenant The Condition of that was an entire Obedience to every Precept with a Mans whole strength and without any flaw or crack But the Condition of the Evangelical Covenant is a sincere though weak Faith He hath suited this Covenant to the Misery of Mans fall'n Condition He considers our weakness and that we are but Dust and therefore exacts not of us an entire but a sincere Obedience Had God sent Christ to expiate the Crime of Adam restore him to his Paradise Estate and repair in Man the ruin'd Image of Holiness and after this to have renewed the Covenant of Works for the future and settled the same Condition in exacting a compleat Obedience for the time to come Divine Goodness had been above any accusation and had deserv'd our highest admiration in the pardon of former Transgressions and giving out to us our first Stock But Divine Goodness took larger strides He had tried our first Condition and found his mutable Creature quickly to violate it Had he demanded the same now 't is likely it had met with the same issue as before in Mans disobedience and fall we should have been as Men as Adam * Hos 6.7 transgrâ—ssing the Covenant and then we must have lain groaning under our Disease and wallowing in our Blood unless Christ had come to die for the Expiation of our new Crimes for every Transgression had been a violation of that Covenant and a forfeiture of our Right to the benefits of it If we had broke it but in one tittle we had rendred our selves uncapable to fulfil it for the future that one Transgression had stood as a bar against the pleas of after Obedience But God hath wholly laid that Condition aside as to us and setled that of Faith more easie to be perform'd and to be renew'd by us 'T is infinite Grace in him that he will accept of Faith in us instead of that perfect Obedience he requir'd of us in the Covenant of Works 2. It is easie not like the burdensom Ceremonies appointed under the Law He exacts not now the legal Obedience expensive Sacrifices troublesom Purifications and Abstinencies that Yoak of Bondage †Gal. 5.1 which they were not able to bear * Acts 15.10 He treats us not as Servants or Children in their Nonage under the Elements of the World nor requires those innumerable bodily Exercises that he exacted of them He demands not 1000 of Lambs and Rivers of Oyl but he requires a sincere Confession and Repentance in order to our absolution an unfain'd Faith in order to our Blessedness and elevation to a Glorious Life He requires only that we should believe what he saith and have so good an opinion of his Goodness and Veracity as to perswade our selves of the reality of his Intentions confide in his Word and rely upon his Promise cordially embrace his Crucified Son whom he hath set forth as the means of our Happiness and have a sincere Respect to all the discoveries of his Will What can be more easie than this Though some in the days of the Apostles and others since have endeavoured to introduce a multitude of legal Burthens as if they envied God the Expressions of his Goodness or thought him guilty of too much Remissness in taking off the Yoak and treating Man too favourably 3. Nor is it a clear knowledge of every Revelation that is the Condition of this Covenant God in his kindness to Man hath made Revelations of himself but his Goodness is manifested in obliging us to believe him not fully to understand him He hath made them by sufficient Testimonies as clear to our Faith as they are incomprehensible to our Reason He hath reveal'd a Trinity of Persons in their distinct Offices in the business of Redemption without which Revelation of a Trinity we could not have a right Notion and Scheme of Redeeming Grace But since the clearness of Mens understanding is sullied by the fall and hath lost its Wings to fly up to a knowledge of such sublime things as that of the Trinity and other Mysteries of the Christian Religion God hath manifested his Goodness in not obliging us to understand them but to beleive them and hath given us reason enough to believe it to be his Revelation both from the Nature of the Revelation it self and the way and manner of propagating it which is wholly Divine exceeding all the Methods of Humane Art though he hath not extended our understandings to a capacity to know them and render a reason of every Mystery He did not require of every Israelite or of any of them that were stung by the fiery Serpents that they should understand or be able to discourse of the Nature and Qualities of that Brass of which the Serpent upon the Pole was made or by what Art that Serpent was formed or in what manner the sight of it did operate in them for their Cure it was enough that they did believe the Institution and Precept of God and that their own Cure was assured by it It was enough if they cast their Eyes upon it according to the direction The understandings of Men are of several sizes and elevations one higher than another If the Condition of this Covenant had been a greatness of knowledge the most acute Men had only enjoyed the benefits of it But it is Faith which is as easie to be performed by the ignorant and simple as by the strongest and most towring Mind 'T is that which is within the compass of every Mans understanding God did not require that every one within the Verge of the Covenant should be able to discourse of it to the reasons of Men He requir'd not that every Man should be a Philosopher or an Orator but a Believer What could be more easie than to lift up the Eye to the Brazen Serpent to be Cur'd of a fiery Sting What could be more facile than a glance which is done without any pain and in a moment 'T is a Condition may be perform'd by the weakest as well as the strongest Could those that were bitten in the most Vital part cast up their Eyes though at the last gasp they would arise to health by the expulsion of the Venom 2. As 't is Easie so 't is Reasonable Repent and Believe is that which is requir'd by Christ and the Apostles for the injoyment of
the Kingdom of Heaven 'T is very reasonable that things so great and glorious so beneficial to Men and reveal'd to them by so sound an Authority and an unerring truth should be believed The Excellency of the thing disclos'd could admit of no lower a Condition than to be believ'd and embraced There is a sort of Faith that is a Natural Condition in every thing All Religion in the World though never so false depends upon a sort of it for unless there be a belief of future things there would never be a hope of Good or a fear of Evil the two great Hinges upon which Religion moves In all kinds of Learning many things must be believed before a progress can be made Belief of one another is necessary in all acts of Humane Life without which Humane Society would be unlinkt and dissolv'd What is that Faith that God requires of us in this Covenant but a willingness of Soul to take God for our God Christ for our Mediator and the Procurer of our Happiness * Rev. 22.17 What Prince could require less upon any Promise he makes his Subjects than to be believed as true and depended on as good That they should accept his Pardon and other gracious offers and be sincere in their Allegiance to him avoiding all things that may offend him and pursuing all things that may please him Thus God by so small and reasonable a Condition as Faith le ts in the Fruits of Christs Death into our Soul and wraps us up in the fruition of all the Priviledges purchas'd by it So much he hath condescended in his Goodness that upon so slight a Condition we may plead his Promise and humbly challenge by vertue of the Covenant those good things he hath promised in his Word 'T is so reasonable a Condition that if God did not require it in the Covenant of Grace the Creature were obliged to perform it For the publishing any Truth from God naturally calls for Credit to be given it by the Creature and an entertainment of it in Practice Could you offer a more reasonable Condition your selves had it been left to your choice Should a Prince proclaim a Pardon to a profligate Wretch would not all the World cry shame of him if he did not believe it upon the highest assurances and if Ingenuity did not make him sorry for his Crimes and careful in the Duty of a Subject surely the World would cry shame of such a Person 5. 'T is a necessary Condition 1. Necessary for the honour of God A Prince is disparag'd if his Authority in his Law and if his Graciousness in his Promises be not accepted and believed What Physician would undertake a Cure if his Precepts may not be Credited 'T is the first thing in the order of Nature that the Revelation of God should be believed that the reality of his Intentions in inviting Man to the acceptance of those Methods he hath prescribed for their attaining their chief Happiness should be acknowledged 'T is a debasing Notion of God that he should give a Happiness purchased by Divine Blood to a Person that hath no value for it nor any abhorrency of those Sins that occasion'd so great a Suffering nor any will to avoid them Should he not vilifie himself to bestow a Heaven upon that Man that will not believe the offers of it nor walk in those ways that leads to it That walks so as if he would declare there was no truth in his Word nor Holiness in his Nature Would not God by such an act verifie a truth in the language of their practice viz. that he were both false and impure careless of his Word and negligent of his Holiness As God was so desirous to ensure the Consolation of Believers that if there had been a greater Being than himself to attest and for him to be Responsible to for the confirmation of his Promise he would willingly have submitted to him and have made him the Umpire * Heb. 6.19 He swore by himself because he could not swear by a greater By the same reason Had it stood with the Majesty and Wisdom of God to stoop to lower Conditions in this Covenant for the reducing of Man to his Duty and Happiness he would have done it but his Goodness could not take lower steps with the preservation of the Rights of his Majesty and the Honour of his Wisdom Would you have had him wholly submitted to the obstinate will of a Rebellious Creature and be ruled only by his terms Would you have had him receiv'd Men to Happiness after they had heightned their Crimes by a contempt of his Grace as well as of his Creating Goodness and have made them blessed under the guilt of their Crimes without an acknowledgment Should he glorifie one that will not believe what he hath reveal'd nor repent of what himself hath committed and so save a Man after a repeated unthankfulness to the most immense Grace that ever was or can be discovered and offer'd without a detestation of his ingratitude and a voluntary acceptance of his offers 'T is necessary for the honour of God that Man should accept of his terms and not give Laws to him to whom he is obnoxious as a guilty Person as well as Subject as a Creature Again it was very equitable and necessary for the honour of God that since Man fell by an unbelief of his Precept and Threatning he should not rise again without a belief of his Promise and calling himself upon his Truth in that Since he had vilified the honour of his Truth in the Threatning Since Man in his fall would lean to his own understanding against God 't is fit that in his Recovery the highest powers of his Soul his Understanding and Will should be subjected to him in an intire Resignation Now whereas Knowledge seems to have a power over its Object Faith is a full submission to that which is the Object of it Since Man intended a glorying in himself the Evangelical Covenant directs its whole battery against it that Men may glory in nothing but Divine Goodness †1 Cor. 1.29 30 31. Had Man perform'd exact Obedience by his own Strength he had had something in himself as the Matter of his Glory And though after the fall Grace had made it self illustrious in setting him up upon a new Stock yet had the same Condition of exact Obedience been setled in the same manner Man would have had something to glory in which is strook off wholly by Faith whereby Man in every act must go out of himself for a supply to that Mediator which Divine Goodness and Grace hath appointed 2. 'T is necessary for the happiness of Man That can be no contenting Condition wherein the will of Man doth not concur He that is forced to the most delicious Diet or to wear the bravest Apparel or to be stor'd with abundance of Treasure cannot be happy in those things without an esteem of them