at this day For this teacheth us what manner of Worship we owe to God Rational and Spiritual the Product of the most excellent faculties of our Soul instructs us in the Purity and Spirituality of his Nature That he dwells not in Temples made with Hands but in the Hearts and Souls of Men that the Worship we offer to him ought to consist not in External shew and observation but in the affections and intention of the Mind Lastly reminds us of the affinity of our Souls to his Nature by partaking in the spirituality of it and thereby convinceth us that the Soul as far exceeds the Body in its excellency and real interest as God doth all Finite Creatures The last Attribute of God mentioned in my Text is his Wisdom the only wise God which may respect either the extent or the supreme excellency of his Knowledge either that he knoweth all things the most secret Transactions and Thoughts of Men or that he best of all knoweth the Causes of things and the tendency of means to their proper ends what is most fit in it self what is most convenient for us In either sense we must acknowledge God to be most worthy of our Adoration If God indeed seeth all our actions and the most inward recesses of our Soul if the most private motion of our Heart cannot escape his knowledge this not only describes him to be of Infinite Capacity and thereby worthy of the highest Veneration but also encourageth to Adore and Worship him Since we are sure that our Piety altho never so secretly performed cannot pass unregarded by him that it will not be thrown away and become ineffectual Whereas if we neglect to pay this Tribute of Honour and Glory we cannot flatter our selves with the hopes of secrecy and concealing it from the knowledge of God This of all other Attributes ought to create in us the most lively concern and diligence to consider that God is always present as a Witness with us to observe our demeanour and note every Action of our Life And if so we may be assured that no Action of Praise or Thanksgiving will miscarry or fall short of its intended end to procure the Favour of God In the next place God not only vieweth all the parts of the Creation and is conscious of every motion whether of the Soul or Body but directeth all things to their best and most proper ends fore-seeth all effects knoweth the force and efficacy of all Causes and ordereth all his designs in the most wise and perfect method And that we may not esteem our selves unconcerned in all this he hath chosen to employ his Wisdom most Illustriously in favour of Mankind Thus the whole Fabrick of the World doth in some measure tend to the Service and Happiness of Man whom he Constituted Lord of all the Visible World and most wisely contrived it for his Convenience as well as Pleasure This our Senses teach us this we cannot doubt if we view the several parts of the Universe and consider in what a Beautiful and Harmonious Frame they are united and conspire to the use of Man The Methods of Divine Providence in relation to the Government of the World are more unsearchable yet such as manifest a most compleat Wisdom and tender regard of our Happiness But above all his Wisdom as well as Love to Mankind appears most eminently in contriving the Redemption of lost and sinful Man in a method wherein Pardon is offered to Sinners without doing injury to the Divine Justice wherein Relief is afforded and Mercy granted to the infirmity of our Natures yet Diligence and Vigilance required as necessary wherein none are excluded none can justly either presume or despair The Consideration of these illustrious Instances of the Divine Wisdom cannot but create in us a Submission to his Laws and Acquiescence in his Decrees convince us of the Justice of his Proceedings and induce us to resign up our Wills and Passions wholly to his Conduct and Direction which is the most noble Testimony of giving Honour and Glory to God that the Soul of Man is capable of most pleasing to God and agreeable to his Nature For if we reflect upon the Quality of the Divine Attributes and Perfections we shall easily discover how justly the Apostle inferrs from them all that to God the Possessor of them ought to be ascribed Honour and Glory for ever and ever We find that from all these Perfections God hath a right to our Praise and Adoration this is the natural result of true Conceptions of them and cannot in Justice be denied ought not in Duty to be neglected To return Honour and Glory to God is the highest Effort of Gratitude which we can aim at and indeed the utmost which God requires of us It had been but a mean and unworthy Acknowledgment of those infinite Perfections to represent them upon Earth by costly Images and magnificent Pageants to erect stately Temples in remembrance of them or acknowledge the deference due to them by elaborate and pompous Ceremonies Actions indeed wherein the greatest part of the World have always expressed their religious Sentiments yet Expressions far beneath the Dignity of that infinite Object to which they were directed The perfections of God are spiritual and as such require a spiritual Acknowledgment an inward Worship that we ever preserve Noble thoughts of God in our Souls that we maintain an awful remembrance of our Obligation that we own him to be the Lord of Life and Death our King and Governour from whom we receive our Being and in whose sight we are Dust and Ashes that we cautiously fear to offend him studiously endeavour to satisfie those ends for which we were sent into the World and in all our Actions manifest that we are sensible of our Subjection to him Thus may we render Honour and Glory to him for ever and ever in the words of the Apostle that is continually and without Intermission For a steady Course of Life fixed upon Principles and Resolutions of Obedience and agreeable to them is a continued Act of honouring God although we cannot always employ our Thoughts in admiring his Perfections or our Tongue in confessing them The Angels indeed are by the Spirituality of their Nature fitted to celebrate the Praises of God without Intermission as being not distracted with the Cares and Necessities of a Body and having a more perfect Comprehension of the Divine Attributes but of Man whose Knowledge in this Life is imperfect whose Temptations are numerous and Distractions continual no more is required than a sincere Endeavour of directing his Life in general by Principles and Rules which arise from Obedience to the Commands and Will of God and ultimately tend to the Honour of his Name And surely we cannot imagine this Condition of Happiness to be any difficult much less any Grievous Matter which is the constant Exercise of Angels now in the Supreme Fruition of their Happiness This Constitutes their
Greatness of the Divine Favours conferred on him he cries out in Admiration Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou so regardest him The Apostle useth the same Argument Rom. V. 8. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us That is scarce would any other conferr so great a Benefit as to lay down his Life for his sake upon any one however punctually performing all the Duties of Juftice and deficient in none of those Offices which are necessarily required of him Yet perhaps for one who out of the abundance of his Zeal and Charity for the good of his Neighbour doth more than was in common Justice required some men induced by a powerful Sense of gratitude would not fear to lay down their Lives And in this appeareth the incomparable Greatness of the Divine Goodness that while we far from performing those Duties which in the strictest manner we are obliged to pay to God much less from doing more than is necessarily required of us had by our sins provoked the Divine Displeasure and proclaimed our selves Enemies to God yet notwithstanding all this Christ vouchsafed to die for us If we apply this Argument to our own Obligation arising from the Divine Benefits we shall find it very cogent For if for a good although not for a just Man some would out of Gratitude even dare to die What ought not we to do for God who by his superabundant Goodness hath so far exceeded what he oweth to us in Justice that the latter holdeth no Proportion to the former In strict propriety of Speech he oweth nothing to us Since our Creation is an Act of his own Free-will and although when once created he cannot without Injustice necessitate us to be miserable or lay greater evil upon us without respect to our Demerits than what may be countervailed by the Happiness necessarily flowing from our Existence yet is this owing rather to the Justice of his own Nature than to any right acquired by us But then the undeserved Benefits bestowed on us are greater than we are able to conceive and hold no Proportion with any thing save the infinity of his Goodness as being no less than Redemption from eternal Death and the hopes of everlasting Happiness For what can we plead in behalf of our selves to render us worthy of the Divine Favour Not the Dignity of our Nature which in his sight is dust and ashes not the perfections of our Mind which are the Products of his own Power and miserably debased by sinsul Habits not our Righteousness or Piety which is infinitely inferiour to our Demerits and although most perfect yet were no more than our Duty not the Ability of magnifying the persections of his Nature and celebrating his Majesty for that is infinite already and can receive no Addition from our imperfect Praises The Angels were much more fitted by the Exâ—…lency of their Nature to persorm that Office as haâ—…ing more noble Conceptions of the Divine Majesty and â—…eing able by reason of their Spirituality to sing Praises unto him without intermission Yet obtained not they the same Favours with Mankind nor enjoy the Benefit of the forbearance and long-suffering of God For them after Apostacy he receiveth not to Mercy But the Angels which kept not their sirst estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judement of the great day Jude VI. It is Man alone whom God seems to have chosen out for the darling of the Creation and to have tried how far it was possible to oblige his Creatures by undeserved Benefits to the Worship of him This Consideration cannot but strike our Souls with a lively Sense of our Obligation to God that in dispensing the riches of his Goodness he weighed not our Merits but chose to make known his Power in our weakness A Consideration which might justly find matter of Astonishmeâ—…t for our whole Lives and working up our Souls into an Extasie of gratitude constrain us to Obedience Wisely therefore did Moses so much inculcate it in the IX of Deuteronomy where aggraâ—…ating the Greatness of the Obligation which God had laid upon the People of Israel by his wonderful and numerous Benefits he chargeth them to remember withall that they were undeserved Speak not thou in thine heart after that the Lord thy God hath cast out the Canaanites from before thee saying For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me to possess this land Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thy heart dost thou go to possess their land but for the wickedness of these Nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And this is the Second Head upon the account of which the Divine Benefits ought to appear infinite unto us and create a proportionable degree of thankfulness bâ—…Bâ—…cause they are undeserved by us Lastly if we consider the Nature of Mankind we shall easily discover that no Argument so effectual could be proposed to us as this of Gratitude The greatest part of Mankind are no otherwise moved than by the report of their Senses and have not so far improvâ—…d their Reason as to conceive the perfection of the Divine Attributes without the Assistance of sensible Objects These can be no other than the visible and most remarkable effects of the Divine Power and Goodness By these as Men are chiefly led to the knowledge of a God so they are perswaded to pay him Worship and Adoration To this Purpose no Actions of God are so adapted as those which declare his Beneficence and Liberality in which Mankind is peculiarly concerned and receive the benefit of them Other Actions indeed might equally manifest his Nature if seriously reflected on but these few make the subject of their Meditations Men seldom consider God any otherwise than in Relation to themselves and therefore want some extraordinary Benefits to excite their Attâ—…ntion and entertain their Consideration These beyond all other Arguments make the deepest Impressions on our Imaginations and therefore continue longest in our Mâ—…mories So that if the remembrance of these be once effaced we may reasonably conclude all other Arguments of our Duty and Subjection to God to have been long before forgotten And accordingly the Scripture frequently expresseth the final Apostacy of Men from Religion by their forgetting the Benefits of God Thus Judges II. after it had been said Verse 7. That the people served God all the days of Joshua and of the Elders who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel It is subjoyned Verse 10. That when all that generation was dead there arose another generation after them
common or unclean and convinced him that his Favours were not to be restrained according to the mean and unworthy conceptions of the Jews that the extent of his Mercy and Goodness was no more capable of limitation than the Nature of them and that the conditions of his Favour should not as his Countrey men had hitherto vainly imagined be descent from Abraham and observation of legal Ceremonies but the more noble and universal conditions of Fear and Righteousness Convinced of this Truth Peter opened his Mouth and said Of a Truth I perceive that God is no respecter of Persons But in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted by him In which words we may observe I. The Universality and Impartiality of the Divine Justice and Favour II. The conditions of it which are Fear of God and working of Righteousness The First is founded in the excellency of the Divine Nature which enjoying all perfections in the most Transcendent manner cannot be supposed to want that which above all is necessary to a Supreme Judge and Governour of the World Impartial Justice in the dispensing of Rewards and Punishments All Men were equally created by God and if we respect that alone all have an equal Right to his Favour He accepteth not the Persons of Princes saith Job XXXIV 19. nor regardeth the rich more than the poor for they are all the work of his Hands or as it is in the Book of Wisdom VI. 7. He made the small and the great and doth equally take care of all So that in the right of Creation only antecedently to all Merits or Demerits of Men no respect is had to the Persons of Men. Otherwise we could not but conceive Injustice to be in God nor were it possible to reconcile such a partial Conduct with his infinite Excellency And therefore in 2 Chron. XIX 7. the reason why God is no respeâ—…er of Persons is said to be because there is no Iniquity with the Lord. All reasonable preference of one Person to another must necessarily be founded upon some just cause otherwise it would be trifling and fond nay even injust and foolish We find indeed in our selves our affection oft-times excited without sufficient Reasons We are passionately carried to Objects not worthy our Love or Desire We value the Objects of our Love beyond their true Merits and weigh not so much the Reason of the Thing as the dictates of a blind desire Yet after all we never fix our affections without some apparent shew of Reason Reasons indeed oft-times false and frivolous yet specious and pleasing which the imperfection of our Nature permits to become effectual with us and falsly representeth to us as perswasive Arguments But far be it from us to imagine any such imperfections to be in God In him is no variableness or shadow of change He fully knoweth the Merits of all Causes and can never be deceived by false Lights or Prejudices he cannot be swayed by Passions and Affections or be betrayed into erroneous Judgments by false representations He ever proceedeth upon fixed and immoveable principles drawn from the nature of things and reason of Causes principles which equally serve for all Actions and Causes and are never violated for the sake of external Circumstances Such as are to be Descended of this or that Family to be Born in this or that part of the World or to practice this or that Ceremony I mean not as a Religious Action but as a Custom of the Countrey All these outward Circumstances ought not to be respected by an Earthly Judge and therefore cannot have any place with God who hath fixed most juft and impartial Laws of Government which universally affect all the Members of Mankind It may not be amiss to view these principles and from them to Form right Notions of the Divine Justice They may be briefly comprehended in these three 1. God cannot create Man on purpose to make him miserable or after a promulgation of an Eternal Covenant deny the benefits of it to any performing the conditions of it It may perhaps seem offensive to say that God cannot do this but as the Apostle saith He cannot lye so we may truly say He cannot be unjust But what greater Injustice than to necessitate a Man to be miserable What more notorious respecting of Persons than to conferr Salvation upon one and deny it to another using equal diligence to attain it nay not only to deny this to him but to punish him everlastingly without respect to his demerits and only in vertue of an Arbitrary Decree of Reprobation Surely those who would perswade Men that God acteth in this manner contribute no less effectually although not intentionally to the extirpation of Religion and dishonour of God than either Atheists or the most gross Idolaters For to what purpose was Religion Instituted Rewards and Punishments proposed Laws prescribed and Rules fixed if after all Judgment is given at the last Day not according to the observation of them but the unaccountable Decrees of Election and Reprobation It is vain to pretend that God may justly do all this in right of Creation For this cannot still be denied to be respect of Persons and no respect of Persons can be Just in God Besides Eternal Damnation is a State whose miseries far surmount the necessary Benefits flowing from existence and as such cannot be by God necessarily imposed on any for then the existence which he gave them would not compensate the misery which he cast upon them which would be a manifest defect of Justice If any believe it a more preferable State to be infinitely miserable than not to be I would not be so uncharitable as to wish they might be convinced by their own experience but surely all will conclude them grosly mistaken unless the necessary Benefit of existence be also infinite which none will say 2. That which is the true and ultimate Happiness of Man I mean Eternal Salvation God will not and in Justice cannot conferr upon one merely for the sake of another nor deny to one only for default of another None is capable either of Reward or Punishment but for the good or bad use of his own free-will and if after his utmost diligence used Man could mifs his intended Happiness through default of another or gain it without employing that careful diligence there could be no obligation at least no encouragement to pursue the means Reason directeth Men to use any means only upon assurance or belief of their subserviency to the acquisition of the end proposed and if there be no necessary connexion between the means and the end it would be unreasonable for Mankind to employ the one or hope the other Not to fay that it would be an inexcusable partiality to bestow Happinefs upon one Man without any concurrence of his own and deny even the possibility of obtaining it to another although acting in the same Circumstances 3. Temporal Benefits and worldly