say I will condemn thee to everlasting punishment if thou wilt not keep my Laws And if men say We will condemn thee to imprisonment or death if thou keep them the believer more feareth God than man The Law of the King doth condemn Daniel to the Lyons den if he forbear not to pray for a certain time But he more feareth God that will deny those that deny him and forsake those that forsake him Therefore the forementioned witnesses ventured on the fiery furnace because God threatned a more dreadful fire Therefore a true believer dare not live when an unbeliever dare not die He dare not save his life from God lest he lose it but loseth it that he may save it But unbelievers that walk not with God but after the flesh do most fear them that they observe most powerful in the world and will more be moved with the penalty of some worldly loss or suffering then with Gods most dreadful threats of Hell For that which they see not is to them as nothing while they want that faith by which it is foreknown and must be escaped 6. Moreover he that walks with God doth from God expect his full reward He ceaseth not his holy course though no man observe him or none commend him or approve him though all about him hate him and condemn him though he be so far from gaining by it with men that it cost him all that he hath or hoped for in the world For he knoweth that Godliness is of it self great gain and that it hath the promise of this life and that to come and none can make Gods promise void He knoweth that his Father which seeth in secret will reward him openly Matth. 6. and that he shall have a treasure in heaven that parteth with all on earth for Christ Luk. 18. 22. And he hath such respect to this promised recompence of reward that for it he can suffer with the people of God and account the very reproach of Christ a greater treasure then Court or Country can afford him in a way of sin Heb. 11. 26. He accounteth them blessed that are persecuted for righteousness sake because the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs He judgeth it a cause of exceeding joy to be reviled and persecuted and to have all manner of evil falsly spoken of us for the sake of Christ because our reward in Heaven is great Matth. 5. 10 11 12. For he verily believeth that as sure as these transitory pleasures will have an end and everlastingly forsake those miserable souls that were deluded by them so certainly is there a life of endless joyes to be possessed in Heaven with God and all the Holy ones and this he will trust to as that which will fully repair his losses and repay his cost and not deceive him Let others trust to what they will it is this that he is resolved to trust to and venture all to make it sure when he is sure that All is Nothing which he ventureth and that by the adventure he can never be a loser nor never save by choosing that which it self must perish Thus he that truly walks with God expecteth his Reward from God and with God and thence is encouraged in all his duty and thence is emboldned in all his conflicts and thence is upheld and comforted in his sufferings When Man is the Rewarder as well as the chief Ruler of the Hypocrite and earthly things are the poise and motives to his earthly mind 7. Our walking with God importeth that as we expect our Reward from him so also that we take his Promise for our security for that Reward Believing his Word and trusting his fidelity to the quieting and emboldening of the soul is part of our holy walking with him A promise of God is greater satisfaction and encouragement to a true believer than all the visible things on earth A promise of God can do more and prevail further with an upright soul than all the sensible objects in the world He will do more and go further upon such a promise then he will for all that man can give him Peruse the life of Christs Apostles and see what a promise of Christ can do How it made them forsake all earthly pleasures possessions and hopes and part with friends and houses and Country and travail up and down the world in dangers and sufferings and unwearied labours despised and abused by great and small and all this to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom which they had never seen and to attain that Everlasting Happiness and help others to attain it for which they had nothing but the promise of their Lord. See what a promise well believed will make a Christian do and suffer Believers did those noble acts and the Martyrs under went those torments which are mentioned Heb. 11. because they judged him faithful that had promised Heb. 11. 11. They considered not difficulties and defect of means and improbabilities as to second causes nor staggered at the promise of God through unbelief but being strong in faith gave glory to God being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform As it is said of Abraham Rom. 4. 19 20 21. 8. To walk with God is to live as in his presence and that with desire and delight When we believe and apprehend that whereever we are we are before the Lord who seeth our hearts and all our waies who knoweth every thought we think and every word we speak and every secret thing which we do As verily to believe that God is here present and observeth all as we do that we our selves are here To compose our minds our thoughts our affections to that Holy reverence and seriousness as beseemeth man before his Maker To order our words with that care and gravity as beseems those that speak in the hearing of the Lord. That no mans presence do seem more considerable to us then his presence As we are not moved at the presence of a fly or worm or dog when persons of honour and reverence are present so should we not comparatively be moved at the presence of man how great or rich or terrible soever when we know that God himself is present to whom the greatest of the sons of men is more inconsiderable then a fly or worm is unto them As the presence of the King makes ordinary standers by to be unobserved and the discourses of the learned make us disregard the bablings of children so the presence of God should make the greatest to be scarce observed or regarded in comparison of him God who is still with us should so much take up our regard that all others in his presence should be but as a candle in the presence of the sun Therefore it is that a believer composeth himself to that behaviour which he knoweth God doth most expect and beseemeth those that stand before him when others accommodate themselves to the persons that are present observing
Ignorant of God nor to know so little as I know nor to be short of the measure that I am capable of but it satisfieth me to be uncapable of comprehending him or else I must be unsatisfied because I am not God O the presumptuous arrogancy of those men if I may call them men that dare prate about the Infinite God such things as never were revealed to them in his works or word and dare pretend to measure him by their shallow understandings and question if not deny and censure that of God which they cannot reach and sooner suspect the word that doth reveal him then their muddy brains that should better conceive of him Saith Elihu Job 36. 26. Behold God is Great and we know him not neither can the number of his years be searched out Though the Knowledge of him be our Life Eternal yet we know him not by any full and adequate conception We know an Infinite God and therefore with an Excellent Knowledge objectively considered but with a poor degree and kind of Knowledge next to none as to the act and it is a thousand thousand fold more that we know not of him then that we know For ineeed there is no comparison to be here made 3. The immensity of God as it proveth him incomprehensible so it containeth his Omnipresence And therefore should continually affect us as men that believe that God stands by them As we would compose our thoughts and minds and passions if we saw were it possible the Lord stand over us so should we now labour to compose them As we would restrain and use our tongues and order our behaviour if we saw his Majesty so should we do now when we know that he is with us An eye servant will work hard in his masters presence what ever he doth behind his back Bestir thee then Christian for God stands by In him we live and move and have our Being Act. 17. 28. Loyter not till thou canst truly say that God is gone or absent from thee sin not by wilfulness or negligence till thou canst say thou art behind his back Alass that we should have no more awakened serious souls and no more fervent lively prayers and no more serious holy speech and no more careful heavenly lives when we stand before the living God and do all in his sight and speak all in his hearing O why should sense so much affect us and faith and Knowledge work no more we can be awed with the presence of a man and would not do before a Prince what most men do before the Lord. Yea other things affect us when we see them not and shall not God But of this more anon 4. The Immensity of God assureth us much of his Alsufficiency He that is everywhere is easily able to hear all prayers to help us in all straits to supply all wants to punish all sins A Blasphemous conceit of God as Finite and as absent from us is one of the causes of our distrust He that doth distrust an absent friend as thinking he may forget him or neglect him will trust him when he is with him cannot he hear thee and pitty thee and help thee that is still with thee O what an awe is this to the careless what a support to faith what a quickener to duty what a comfort to the afflicted troubled soul God is in thy poor cottage Christian and well acquainted with thy wants God is at thy bedside when thou are sick and nearer thee then the nearest of thy friends What wouldst thou do in want or pain if God stood by wouldst thou not Pray and Trust him if thou sawest him so do though thou see him not for he is surely there 5. The Immensity and Infinite Greatness of God assureth us of his Particular Providence Some blasphemous Infidels imagine that he hath only a General Providence and hath left all to some inferiour powers and medleth not with particular things himself They think that as he hath left it to the Sun to illuminate the world so hath he left all other inferiour things and events to nature or inferior causes and that he doth not himself regard observe reward or punish the thoughts and words and wayes of men And all this is because they consider not the Immensity or Infinite Greatness of the Lord. It s true that God hath framed the Nature of all things and delighteth to maintain and use the frame of second causes which he hath made and will not easily and ordinarily work against or without this order of causes But it is as true and certain both that sometimes he maketh use of Miracles and that in the very course of natural causes he is able to exercise a particular Providence as well as without them by himself alone The Creature doth nothing but by him All things move as he first moveth them in their natural agency His wisdom guideth his will intendeth and commandeth his Power moveth and disposeth all The Sun would not shine if he were not the light of it and he is no less himself the Light of the world then if he did illuminate it without a Sun God is never the further off because the Creatures are near us nor never the less in the effect because he useth a second cause then if there were no second cause at all What influence second causes have upon the souls of men he hath for the most part kept unknown to us But that himself disposeth of us and all things after the counsel of his own will is beyond all question Can he that is most neerly present with thy thoughts be regardless of them can he be regardless of thy words and wayes that is with thee and seeth and heareth all If thou believe not that he is as verily with thee as thou art there thy self thou art then an Atheist If thou believe him not to be Infinite thou believest him not to be God It is not God that can be absent limited or finite And if thou be not such a senseless Atheist but knowest that God is everywhere how is it possible thou shouldst doubt of his care or observance or particular providence about every thing No child is scarce so foolish that will think his Father cares not what he saith or doth when he stands before him Wouldst thou doubt of Gods particular providence whether he regard thy heart and talke and practice if thou didst see him with thee sure it is scarce possible Why then dost thou question it when thou knowest that he is with thee If thou be an Atheist and knowest not look about thee on the world and bethink thee whether stones and trees and earth whether beasts or birds or men do make themselves If they do thou were best uphold thy self and be not sick and do not die If thou madest thy self thou canst sure preserve thy self But if any thing else made thee and all these lower things either it was somewhat greater or
that is able to choose or to refuse and as an universal Cause to concur with the agent to the Act as such But Philosophers indeed are at a loss and are fain to tell us of Privations Modes Relations Denominations Entia Rationis and I know not what that they say are neither Beings nor Nothing but between both they know not what the nature of things in the utmost extremities of the branches being so capâ—llar and spun with so fine a thred that the understanding is not subtil enough to discern them And shall this disturb us in Divinity or be imputed to it If you say That the Will of God is the Cause of all things and therefore of sin I answer If you call sin Nothing as a shaddow darkness death c. are nothing for all that we abhor them then you answer your selves If you call it something we are all agreed that it s but such a something as man can cause without Gods first causing it It sufficeth that God do the part of a Creatour in giving man the free Power of choosing or refusing and the part of a preserver in maintaining that power and as an universal cause concurring to all acts in genere as the sun doth shine on the dunghill and the flowers and that he also do the part of a just Governour in prohibiting and disswading and threatning sinners Object But how can sin Eventually be if God decree it not seeing all Events are from his Will I answer 1. We are agreed that he Causeth it not 2. And that he doth not so much as Will the Event of sin as sin 3. And that he willingly permitteth what is by him permitted 4. And that sin is such a thing as may Evenire be brought forth by a bare permission if there be no Positive Decree for the Event As a Negative in the effects requireth not a Positive Cause so neither a Positive Will for its production There are millions of millions of worlds and individual creatures and species Possible that shall never be And it is audaciousness to assert that there must be millions of millions of Positive Decrees that such worlds or creatures shall not be 5. Nor is it any dishonour to God if he have not a Positive Decree or Will about every Negation as that all the men in the world shall not be called by a thousand possible names rather then their own c. These things being all certain I add 1. Let them dispute that dare that yet de facto God doth Positively Will the Events of all Privations or Negations of acts 2. But when men are once habitually wicked and bent to evil it is just with him if he permit them to follow their own lusts and if he leave before them such Mercies as he foreknoweth they will wilfulfully make occasions of their sin and if he resolve to make use of the sin which he knoweth they will commit for his Churches Good and for his Glory Object But doth not God Will that sin Eventually shall not be Answ. Even as I before said he willeth that obedience eventually shall be If sin come to pass it is certain that God did not simply Will that it should not come to pass For then he must be conquered and unhappy by every sin But he willeth simply that it shall be the Duty of man to avoid it And he may be said to Nill the Event in tantum so far as that he will forbid it and threaten and disswade the sinner and give him the helps that shall leave him unexcusable if he sin and so leave it to his Will Thus far he may be said to Will that sin Eventually shall not be but not simply Though these things are not obvious to vulgar capacities yet they are such as the subject in hand viz. Gods first causation and Creation together with the weight of them and the contentions of the world about them have made needfull 3. If God be the Creator and the cause of all then we must remember that all his works are Good and therefore nothing must be hated by us that hath he made considered in its native Goodness God hateth sin and so must we for that he made it not Rev. 2. 6. Psal. 45. 7. Isa. 1. 14. And he hateth all the works of iniquity as such Psal. 5. 5. and so must we but we must Love all of God that is in them and Love them for it There is somewhat Good and Amiable in every creature yea all of it that is of God Though Toads and Serpents are odious to us because they are hurtful and seem deformed in themselves yet are they Good in themselves and not deformed as parts of the universe but Good unto the common end The wants in the wheels of your watch are as useful to the motion as the nucks or solid parts The night is part of the useful order of the creation as well as the day The vacant interspace in your writing is needful as well as the words Every letter should not be a vowel nor every character a Capital Every member should not be a heart or head or eye Nor should every one in a Commonwealth be a King or Lord So in the Creation the parts that seem base are useful in their places and good unto their Ends. Let us not therefore vilifie or detest the works of God but study the excellencies of them and see and admire and Love them as they are of God It is one of the hardest practical points before us to know how to esteem of all the Creatures and to use them without running into one extream At the same time to Love the world and not to Love it to honour it and despise it to exalt it and to tread it under our feet to mind it and use it with delight and yet to be weaned from it as those that mind it not And yet a great part of our Christian duty lyeth in the doing of this difficult work As the world is the Devils bait and the fleshes Idol set up against God and would tice us from him or hinder us in his service and either be our Carnal end and happiness or a means thereto so we must make it the care of our hearts to hate it despise it neglect it and tread it under foot and the labour of our lives to conquer it But the same creatures must be admired studyed loved honoured delighted in and daily used as they are the excellent work of the Almighty God and reveal to us his Attributes or will being the Glass in which we must see him while we are in the flesh and as they lead us to God and strengthen furnish or help us in his service But to Love them for God and not for themselves O how hard is it To keep pure affections towards them and a spiritual delight in in them that shall not degenerate into a carnal delight is a task for the holiest Saint on Earth to labour