hinder them from doing This also a ground of trust in God. And to keep us in any distress from flying to unlawful aids How God will use this Power 2. His Sovereignty and Power to command and order all things This includes 1. Empire as a Sovereign Ruler What things God may command The unalterableness of some commands 2. Dominion as a Sovereign Proprietor In what cases God allots good and ill out of his Power of Prerogative not according to Mens pre-dispositions Where he dispenses Arbitrarily he doth it always most Wisely and Reasonably Saving Grace he allots not in way of Arbitrary Prerogative but according to Covenant Rules And Heaven and Hell in way of Legal Trials A brief account of the Rectitude of God's Nature which limits his Sovereign Will from the Scriptures This Sovereign Lord and Proprietor an All-sufficient so no selfish Being Several good uses of God's Sovereign Dominion God's Majesty and Almightiness must beget fear and reverence Question THE Almighty Power of God is one thing particularly professed in the Creed and when God would give a Character of himself he told Abraham he was the Almighty God Gen. 17. 1. Is this Attribute of so great account that in so short a Summary it should be singled out and particularly mentioned Ans. Yes for since God has an Almighty Power over all all must fear and submit to him Since he is able to do all things his Friends and Servants have cause to trust in him and depend on him and in all their wants to seek and address to him for convenient supplies So that his Almighty Power is a main ground of all Religious Service of Fear and Faith or Trust in God and all Devotion Quest. What is meant by God's Almightiness Ans. Two things 1. That he has Might and Strength to effect and do And 2. That he has Sovereignty and Power to command and order all things Quest. Has God all Might and Strength to effect and do all things Ans. Yes all that are the object of any Power and all that are not repugnant to his own Nature He made all this World and can at his Will make more and nothing shall be impossible with God Luke 1. 37. Quest. Why do you say all that are the object of any Power Ans. Because contradictions are the object of no Power and though an Almighty Arm must be sufficient for one part of them as who by his bare Word can at his Will speak all things either out of or into nothing yet it is no way concerned to fulfil both at the same time Thus is it diminution to the Power of God that it cannot make twice two cease to be four or that which is past not to have been or one and the same Body to be at once in many and far distant places and yet under all this multiplicity to be but one because they all imply a contradiction that is that a thing should be somewhat and withal that it should not be it at the same time Quest. And why do you add All that are not Repugnant to his own Nature Ans. Because as God's power is infinite foe is every other Attribute and one must not destroy or weaken another but all must consist together Thus though as Christ said to God all things are possible Matth. 19. 26. yet as St. Paul saith it is impossible for God to lye Heb. 6. 18. He cannot be sick or weary or sleepy He cannot be unjust or cruel or unfaithful or delight in ill or be ignorant of any thing or change any of his excellencies or cease to be himself or make other Gods besides himself or be any other ways imperfect more than he can be weak and impotent The properties and perfections of the Divine Nature are unalterable by the Divine Power and it is no more a matter of God's Power to hinder himself from being Pure or Just or Good than it is in the power of the Sun to restrain it self from giving Light or of the Fire from giving heat or of any other thing from doing what is natural and necessary to it Whatsoever the Divine Pleasure can will that the Divine Power can execute but God's Will that controuls all things else doth never contradict his own Nature but is always suited to and ruled by it Quest. And when God exerts this Power in doing things doth it create him any labour and pains Ans. No he makes or unmakes every thing with a bare word of his mouth as he did at the Creation We indeed are imperfect Natures and activity spends our Powers and the things we go to alter and act upon are stubborn in sticking to their own Natures and make resistance on which accounts our actings cause trouble and weariness But all things obey every inclination and tendency of God with an intire submission and his Power is Absolute and Infinite so that if he doth but will any thing immediately it is done And therefore it is a vain fancy and ignorant complement of the Epicureans of old and of all the Enemies of Providence in later times who would exclude God from the Inspection Ordering and Government of the World in pretence thereby to secure his ease and self-enjoyment and to keep back trouble and toil from him Quest. Can God do whatsoever any things in the World can do Ans. Yes for he gave them all their Power of doing it And retaining still the same Power in himself which he communicated to them as he ordinarily doth things by them so when he pleases can he do the same without them Thus can he preserve Life without Meat as he did to Moses Elias and our Saviour Christ in their forty days fast and restore Health without the help of Physick and give Children to those who are past Child-bearing as he did to Sarah and make a Maid a Mother without the help of a Father as in the Generation of our Saviour and give us Bodies without all help of Parents as he did out of the dust of the earth at first to Adam and as he will do at last to all in the general Resurrection Quest. What must this teach us Ans. Not only to believe him in those Articles of Religion which seem hardest in Nature to be brought to pass as Christ ' being born of a virgin and the general resurrection but also to take heart and courage in all honest and prudent enterprizes and not suddenly to desist or despair of success through the number and greatness of discouragements All virtuous publick and generous undertakings are both acceptable and honourable to God and so more like to have a sure Friend of Providence And when God espouses any cause though there be little probability and preparation for it in Natural appearance yet will it surely come to pass since he has the Power and Probability of all his Creatures in himself Quest. Indeed Men so backed must needs speed designs where there are fewer visible preparations and find success
accounts will experimentally find that this is not the way to diminish but to increase an estate This Azariah the chief Priest told King Hezekiah was the cause of that surplusage of plenty which God bestowed upon the Jews 2 Chron. 31. The King had commanded all the people to pay justly all their Tythes and Offerings which had been fraudulently withheld to the Priests and Levites for their incouragement in the Law of the Lord beginning the Practice with his own example paying all his dues to the Church verse 3 4. And as soon as this commandment came abroad the people brought in all their Tythes and Oblations as they fell due in abundance the first-fruits of corn of wine and oyl and hony and all the increase of the field the tythe of oxen and sheep and the tythe of holy things which were consecrated unto the Lord their God the tythe of all things brought they in abundantly and laid them heaps by heaps verse 5 6. And when Hezekiah and the Princes came and saw the heaps and thereby understood the vast increase the People had received which yielded such abundance of Dues to the Priests he blessed God for it and asked Azariah concerning the cause of this mighty surplusage verse 8 9. And Azariah the chief Priest answered him and said Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord we have had enough to eat and have left plenty for the Lord hath blessed his people and that which is left is this great store That is since out of their Fruits which are the Gift of God they have faithfully paid their Dues to God he has so increased their store that our share comes to so much we know not how to dispose of it but have left all these heaps thou seest after we and our Families have eaten and are satisfied verse 10. Quest. I see it teaches us both in Duty and prudence to give willingly and cheerfully the Poors Dole and the Priests Dues but doth it not also teach us how to injoy and spend the rest which remains to our selves Ans. Yes for coming from the free Bounty of God we must injoy it with a thankful and cheerful heart not with murmuring envy or discontent like Men that are proner to spy faults than to own favours and are never pleased Besides since it is God's gift we must take care that God be honoured by it and never dishonour him or abuse our selves by spending it upon vice or vanity but own his Gift in a temperate and sober use of it Yea I add in a charitable use too For these Fruits God gives to us not as Proprietors but Stewards to distribute abroad to the necessities of others after we have served our selves So that not only temperance and thankful hearts but Alms and Charity also are necessary to hallow our enjoyments Give alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you Luke 11. 41. Quest. Is it God also that gives us Children Ans. Yes Children or the Fruit of the Womb are a reward and heritage that cometh of the Lord that is he disposes of them to whom he pleases as a Parent doth of his Estate Psalm 127. 3. And therefore as we must rest satisfied whilst we have none because it is God that withholds them so must we trust in God when we have many of them believing that since as our Saviour saith the life is more than meat he that sent Mouths will send Meat and that as they were at first his Gift they will be still his Care and that he who provides for the Ravens will much more provide for them Luke 12. 24. Quest. Is it the same Providence of God that makes us thrive in our Trades and gives a prosperous success to us in any business Ans. Yes the horse is provided against the day of Battel but safety is of the Lord Prov. 21. 31. Though a man's heart deviseth his way that is Men hammer out a project yet the Lord directeth his steps that is God determines the event and orders such an issue as perhaps he never intended Prov. 16. 9. Men may contrive and pursue methods but God still must give events The way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walks to direct his own steps that is to fix and determine them on any final issues Jer. 10. 23. Quest. Must not this teach us whensoever we begin any business or set upon any attempts to recommend them first to God by Prayers or Pious Ejaculations and to place our chiefest confidence in his Blessing Ans. Yes In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Prov. 3. 6. commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established that is shall take effect Prov. 16. 3. And I think there is little question to be made but that Men miscarry far oftner than otherwise they would in their designs and business because they trust too much to their own care and skill and human aids and seek no more to God to ingage the furtherance of his good Providence Quest. Must Men seek thus to God even in things wherein they are best skilled themselves and when they are confident they take the surest methods Ans. Yes for the surest means without a good Providence will not secure the issues The race as Solomon observed is not always to the swift nor the battel to the strong nor favour to men of skill Eccles. 9. 11. So that when Men are in the wisest courses or most probable preparations they have need still to look up to God who must consummate all by his assistance Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Prov. 3. 5 6. There is very much indeed lies in wise management every purpose as Solomon says being established by counsel Prov. 20. 18. But when wise managers shew a Religious dependance and trust in God too that is the way to assure the event He that handles a matter wisely shall find good but if together with that he trust in the Lord more than his own skill happy is he Prov. 16. 20. Quest. But if the event depends thus on God till we see what way he will take we cannot be sure of it And must not this teach us not to be too positive but modest in these expectations and promise the desired issue to our selves still with this reserve if God sees it fit for us Ans. Yes for man's goings are of the Lord how can a man then understand his own way that is foresee the event of it since God oftentimes over-rules their motions to ends far distant from their thoughts Prov. 20. 24. And this as it will keep us from being too confident of gaining any good things will preserve us also from desponding under the apparent danger of any bad ones since when they are
the Tenor of Christ's own Laws For then they only speak the Language of Christ's own Rules and as Tertullian says are a true anticipation or Fore-hand Draught of the great Judgment And when his Officers only pronounce and say after him there is no doubt but he will confirm what they have pronounced in his Name Quest. But from what you have formerly discoursed I perceive that some things in Religon being against the Prime and Fundamental Doctrines are so Damnable in themselves as not to be capable of any Favour or Allowances And that others being only against inferior Truths are Damnable only as accompanied with an Evil Mind but capable withal of being incurred under Pardonable circumstances Now in these last Points many Persons that mean well and serve Christ sincerely in the main and essentials of a Christian may yet be unhappily mislead into wrong Opinions or Practices And if for their fixedness and obstinacy in these they happen to be cast out of any Church do you think they are always cut off from Christ too and that he will Finally Anathematise and condemn them in his Sentence Answ. No. For the Church as all humane Judges being unable to see into Mens Hearts give sentence in these cases according to outward Actions But Christ in his judgment of them looks also at the mind and heart of the Actors Rateing exactly not only the Punishableness of the Offences but also the Degrees of voluntary and involuntary which makes a Pardonableness or Punishableness of the Offenders And making these Allowances on such scores as fall not under their Notice 't is reasonable to believe he will still own and receive several compassionably mislead who are cast out on these accounts by the Churches Censures Quest. This validity and effect of Church-Censures you say is when they proceed according to Christ's own Rules and upon just cause But if they bind where the Gospel says they should loose and Excommunicate against Reason I suppose those Censures are meer Scare-crows that may serve to make a show but bring no hurt with them Answ. Very true Blessed are ye says our Saviour when Men shall separate you from their Company and expunge or cast out your Name as evil for the Son of Mans sake for so persecuted their Fathers the Prophets Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy for your Reward is great in Heaven Luk. 6. 22 23. If good Christians are Excommunicated in any Church for not going against the Scriptures and complying with it in ill things as poor Protestants are by the Romish Church they lose nothing thereby with God who will not ratifie a wrong sentence but will increase their Reward for having bravely suffer'd in his Cause Quest. By what you have said I see how God forgives Sins But when they are committed against us we are bid to forgive them too and that as we our selves hope to be forgiven I pray you what doth that imply Answ. Not our remitting Future punishments which lye at God's mercy not in ours Nor always that we sit still without offering to defend our selves when we are assaulted or to seek redress when we are injured But only that we bear no malice to them in our hearts and if the case require Redress that we seek it not in Spiteful ways and that beside the Reparation of our own Wrong we aim not at our Adversary's Prejudice nor seek his hurt afterwards nor Pray to God or to the Magistrate for vengeance as the Jews might to ease an angry mind when we are able to do no more against him our selves Quest. What use must we make of this Belief of the Forgiveness of Sins Answ. Admire the mercy of God who can forgive such Profligate and Provoking Offenders And the wonderful love of Jesus Christ who could dye to procure this Forgiveness for his utter Enemies And not despair of mercy but stedfastly hope there is place of Pardon after any of our sins And above all to shew true Repentance and forgive others and perform all those things which are the condition and Terms of Forgiveness thereby to secure it to our selves Quest. And when we are once forgiven may we embolden our selves from God's readiness to forgive to Repeat our sins Answ. No by no means Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound in pardoning God forbid Rom. 6. 1 2. Now thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee said our Saviour Joh. 5. 14. Such ingratitude and abuse of Grace is not only most provoking to the Spirit and tempts him to withdraw from us and calls down from God heavier and surer Punishments But also it brings in force against us all the old scores which were all struck off as I said only on presumption of our Perseverance in repenting of them CHAP. XI Of the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting The Contents The Resurrection not meerly of our Spirits from sin but of our Bodies from the Grave This to be brought about by the Almighty Power of God. The Perfections of Glorified Bodies viz. Immortality Spirituality and Glory The Bodies of the Wicked Immortal And exquisitely sensible Some Inferences from the Resurrection of our Bodies Good Souls carried straight-way into a Place of Bliss Of Eternal Life wherin there is Full and unmixed Happiness Of the satisfaction of their Senses Their clear and distinct Knowledge Perfect Holiness And without Reluctance Blissful Companions Perfection of Love and Kindness Honour and Eminence of Place All these to be injoy'd in the Highest Heavens without satiety or weariness For evermore Of the miseries of the Damned in Tormenting Passions The worm of Conscience Fire and Flames Disgrace Under all which no favour of God. No company but of Tormenting Devils and damned Spirits None to condole when they cannot relieve No rest and sleep for Recruit of Spirits No end of their miseries The Use of this Quest. WHat is the Eleventh Article of the Creed Answ. I believe the Resurrection of the Body Quest. May not the Resurrection be interpreted only of a Spiritual Resurrection from sin Answ. So some taught of old as St. Paul testifies saying the Resurrection is passed already i. e. when Men rose from a State of sin to the fear of God and these says he get credit and overthrow the Faith of some 2 Tim. 2. 18. But the Resurrection we expect is a Resurrection of the Body Our Bodies after we have laid them down by Death shall at the Day of Judgment be quickned and raised up again Then all that are in the Graves shall hear Christ's voice and come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5. 28 29. This mortal Body must put on immortality and this corruptible must put on Incorruption that so all that being revived which Death destroyed Death may be swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 53 54. Quest. The