understand what storms it is to contest with or why it shoots up its branches towards Heaven Doth it know it needs the droppings of the clouds to preserve it self and make it fruitful These are acts of understanding The root is downward to preserve its own standing the branches upward to preserve other Creatures This understanding is not in the Creature it self but originally in another Thunders and Tempests know not why they are sent yet by the direction of a mighty hand they are instruments of Justice upon a wicked world * Coccei sum Theolog. cap. 8. § 67. c. Rational Creatures that act for some end and know the end they aim at yet know not the manner of the natural motion of the members to it When we intend to look upon a thing we take no counsel about the natural motion of our eyes we know not all the principles of their operations or how that dull matter whereof our bodies are composed is subject to the order of our minds * Peirson on the Creed p. 35. We are not of Counsel with our stomacks about the concoction of our meat or the distribution of the nourishing juyce to the several parts of the body Neither the Mother nor the Foetus sit in Council how the formation should be made in the Womb. We know no more than a plant knows what Stature it is of and what medicinal vertue its fruit hath for the good of man yet all those natural operations are perfectly directed to their proper end by an higher wisdom than any human understanding is able to conceive since they exceed the ability of an inanimate or fleshly nature yea and the wisdom of a man Do we not often see reasonable Creatures acting for one end and perfecting a higher than what they aimed at or could suspect When Josephs Brethren sold him for a Slave their end was to be rid of an Informer * Gen. 37.2 But the action issued in preparing him to be the preserver of them and their families Cyrus his end was to be a Conqueror but the action ended in being the Jews deliverer Prov. 16.9 A mans heart deviseth his way but the Lord directs his steps 3. Therefore there is some superior understanding and nature which so acts them That which acts for an end unknown to it self depends upon some over-ruling wisdom that knows that end Who should direct them in all those ends but he that bestowed a being upon them for those ends * Lessius de providen lib. 1. pag. 652. who knows what is convenient for their life security and propagation of their natures An exact knowledge is necessary both of what is agreeable to them and the means whereby they must attain it which since it is not inherent in them is in that wise God who puts those instincts into them and governs them in the exercise of them to such ends Any man that sees a dart flung knows it cannot hit the mark without the skil and strength of an Archer Or he that sees the hand of a Dial pointing to the hours successively knows that the Dial is ignorant of its own end and is disposed and directed in that motion by an other All Creatures ignorant of their own natures could not universally in the whole kind and in every Climate and Country without any difference in the whole world tend to a certain end if some over-ruling wisdom did not preside over the world and guide them and if the Creatures have a Conductor they have a Creator All things are turned round about by his Council that they may do whatsoever he Commands them upon the face of the world in the earth * Job 37.12 So that in this respect the folly of Atheism appears Without the owning a God no account can be given of those actions of Creatures that are an imitation of Reason To say the Bees c. are rational is to equal them to man nay make them his superiors since they do more by nature than the wisest man can do by art T is their own Counsel whereby they act or anothers If it be their own they are reasonable Creatures If by anothers t is not meer nature that is necessary Then other Creatures would not be without the same skill There would be no difference among them If nature be restrained by another it hath a superior if not t is a free agent T is an understanding being that directs them And then it is something superior to all Creatures in the world and by this therefore we may ascend to the acknowledgment of the necessity of a God Fourthly IV. Add to the production and order of the world and the Creatures acting for their end the preservation of them Nothing can depend upon it self in its preservation no more than it could in its being If the order of the world was not fixed by it self the preservation of that order cannot be continued by it self Tho the matter of the world after Creation cannot return to that nothing whence it was fetched without the power of God that made it because the same power is as requisite to reduce a thing to nothing as to raise a thing from nothing yet without the actual exerting of a power that made the Creatures they would fall into confusion Those contesting qualities which are in every part of it could not have preserved but would have consumed and extinguisht one another and reduced the world to that confused Chaos wherin it was before the Spirit moved upon the waters As contrary parts could not have met together in one form unless there had been one that had conjoyned them So they could not have kept together after their conjunction unless the same hand had preserved them Natural contrarieties cannot be reconciled T is as great power to keep discords knit as at first to link them Who would doubt but that an Army made up of several Nations and humors would fall into a Civil War and sheath their Swords in one anothers bowels if they were not under the management of some wise General or a Ship dash against the Rocks without the skill of a Pilot * Gassend Phy. sect 6. lib. 4. cap. 2. pa. 101. As the body hath neither life nor motion without the active presence of the Soul which distributes to every part the vertue of acting sets every one in the exercise of its proper function and resides in every part So there is some powerful cause which doth the like in the world that rules and tempers it There is need of the same power and action to preserve a thing as there was at first to make it When we consider that we are preserved and know that we could not preserve our selves we must necessarily run to some first cause which doth preserve us All works of art depend upon nature and are preserved while they are kept by the force of nature As a Statue depends upon the matter whereof it is
of its capacity The understanding can conceive the whole world and paint in it self the invisible Pictures of all things T is capable of apprehending and discoursing of things superior to its own nature * Culverwel T is suted to all objects as the Eye to all Colours or the Ear to all sounds How great is the Memory to retain such varieties such diversities The Will also can accomodate other things to it self It invents Arts for the use of Man prescribes rules for the Government of States ransacks the bowels of nature makes endless conclusions and steps in reasoning from one thing to another for the knowledge of Truth It can contemplate and form notions of things higher than the world 2. The quickness of its motion * Theodoret. Nothing is more quick in the whole course o◠nature the Sun runs through the World in a day this can do it in a moment It can with one flight of fancy ascend to the battlements of Heaven The mists of the Air that hinder the sight of the Eye cannot hinder the flights of the Soul it can pass in a moment from one end of the World to the other and think of things a thousand miles distant It can think of some mean thing in the world and presently by one cast in the twinkling of an Eye mount up as high as Heaven As its desires are not bounded by sensual objects so neither are the motions of it restrained by them It will break forth with the greatest vigour and conceive things infinitely above it Though it be in the body it acts as if it were ashamed to be Cloystered in it This could not be the result of any material cause Whoever knew meer matter understand think will And what it hath not it cannot give That which is destitute of Reason and Will could never confer Reason and Will * Coccei sum The dog cap. 8. § 51.52 T is not the effect of the Body for the Body is fitted with members to be subject to it T is in part ruled by the activity of the Soul and in part by the Counsel of the Soul T is used by the Soul and knows not how it is used Nor could it be from the Parents since the Souls of the Children often transcend those of the Parents in vivacity acuteness and comprehensiveness One man is stupid and begets a Son with a capacious understanding one is debauched and beastly in morals and begets a Son who from his Infancy testifies some vertuous inclinations which sprout forth in delightful fruit with the ripeness of his age I do not dispute whether the Soul were generated or no Suppose the substance of it was generated by the Parents yet those more excellent qualities were not the result of them Whence should this difference arise a fool begat the wise man and a debauched the vertuous man The wisdom of the one could not descend from the foolish Soul of the other nor the vertues of the Son from the deformed and polluted Soul of the Parent it lies not in the Organs of the Body For if the folly of the Parent proceeded not from their Souls but the ill disposition of the Organs of their bodies how comes it to pass that the bodies of the Children are better Organiz'd beyond the goodness of their immediate cause We must recur to some invisible hand that makes the difference who bestows upon one at his pleasure richer qualities than upon another You can see nothing in the World endowed with some excellent quality but you must imagine some bountiful hand did inrich it with that dowry None can be so foolish as to think that a vessel ever inricht it self with that spritely Liquor wherewith it is filled or that any thing worse than the Soul should indow it with that knowledge and activity which sparkles in it Nature could not produce it That nature is intelligent or not if it be not then it produceth an effect more excellent than it self in as much as an understanding being surmounts a being that hath no understanding If the supream cause of the Soul be intelligent why do we not call it God as well as nature We must arise from hence to the notion of a God a Spiritual nature cannot proceed but from a Spirit higher than it self and of a transcendent perfection above it self If we beleive we have Souls and understand the state of our own faculties we must be assured that there was some invisible hand which bestowed those faculties and the riches of them upon us A man must be ignorant of himself before he can be ignorant of the Existence of God By considering the nature of our Souls we may as well be assured that there is a God as that there is a Sun by the shining of the beams in at our Windows And indeed the Soul is a Statue and representation of God as the Land-Skip of a Country or Map represents all the parts of it but in a far less proportion than the Country it self is The Soul fills the body and God the world the Soul sustains the body and God the World the Soul sees but is not seen God sees all things but is himself invisible How base are they then that prostitute their Souls an image of God to base things unexpressibly below their own nature 3. I might add the union of Soul and Body Man is a kind of compound of Angel and Beast of Soul and body if he were only a Soul he were a kind of Angel if only a body he were another kind of brute Now that a body as vile and dull as earth and a Soul that can mount up to Heaven and rove about the world with so quick a motion should be linkt in so strait an acquaintance that so noble a being as the Soul should be an inhabitant in such a Tabernacle of Clay must be owned to some infinite power that hath so chained it 3. Man witnesseth to a God in the operations and reflections of Conscience Rom. 2.15 Their thoughts are accusing or excusing An inward comfort attends good actions and an inward torment follows bad ones for there is in every mans Conscience fear of punishment and hope of reward There is therefore a sense of some superior Judge which hath the power both of rewarding and punishing If man were his supream rule what need he fear punishment since no man would inflict any evil or torment on himself nor can any man be said to reward himself for all rewards refer to another to whom the action is pleasing and is a conferring some good a man had not before If an action be done by a Subject or Servant with hopes of reward it can not be imagined that he expects a reward from himself but from the Prince or person whom he eyes in that action and for whose sake he doth it 1. There is a Law in the minds of men which is a rule of good and evil There is a Notion
of the Act As the good Judge that Condemned the Prisoner out of Conscience concurred with the evil Judge who condemned the Prisoner out of private Revenge not in the Principle and Motive of Condemnation but in the Material part of Condemnation So God assists in that Action of a Man wherein Sin is placed but not in that which is the Formal reason of Sin which is a privation of some Perfection the Action ought Morally to have 3. It will appear further in this that hence it follows that the Action and the viciousness of the Action may have two distinct Causes That may be a cause of the one that is not the cause of the other and hath no hand in the producing of it God concurs to the Act of the Mind as it Counsels and to the external Action upon that Counsel as he preserves the Faculty and gives strength to the Mind to consult and the other parts to execute yet he is not in the least tainted with the Viciousness of the Action Though the Action be from God as a concurrent Cause yet the ill quality of the Action is solely from the Creature with whom God concurs The Sun and the Earth concur to the production of all the Plants that are formed in the womb of the one and Midwiv'd by the other The Sun distributes Heat and the Earth communicates Sap 't is the same Heat dispersed by the one and the same Juyce bestowed by the other It hath not a sweet Juyce for one and a sowr Juyce for another This general Influx of the Sun and Earth is not the immediate cause that one Plant is poysonous and another wholsom but the Sap of the Earth is turned by the Nature and quality of each Plant If there were not such an Influx of the Sun and Earth no Plant could exert that poyson which is in its Nature but yet the Sun and Earth are not the cause of that poyson which is in the Nature of the Plant. If God did not concur to the motions of Men there could be no sinful Action because there could be no Action at all yet this Concurrence is not the cause of that Venom that is in the Action which ariseth from the Corrupt Nature of the Creature no more than the Sun and Earth are the cause of the Poyson of the Plant which is purely the effect of its own Nature upon that general Influx of the Sun and Earth The Influence of God pierceth through all Subjects but the Action of Man done by that Influence is vitiated according to the Nature of its own Corruption As the Sun equally shines through all the Quarrels in the Window if the Glass be bright and clear there is a pure splendor if it be Red or Green the splendor is from the Sun but the discolouring of that Light upon the Wall is from the quality of the Glass †Zanch. Tom. 2. lib. 3. cap. 4. qu. 4. p. 226. But to be yet plainer The Soul is the Image of God and by the Acts of the Soul we may come to the knowledge of the Acts of God the Soul gives motion to the Body and every Member of it and no Member could move without a concurrent virtue of the Soul if a Member be Paralitick or Gouty whatsoever motion that Gouty Member hath is derived to it from the Soul but the Goutyness of the Member was not the Act of the Soul but the fruit of Ill humors in the Body the lameness of the Member and the motion of the Member have two distinct causes the motion is from one cause and the Ill motion from another As the Member could not move irregularly without some Ill humor or cause of that distemper so it could not move at all without the activity of the Soul So though God concur to the act of Understanding Willing and Execution why can he not be as free from the Irregularity in all those as the Soul is free from the Irregularity of the mâ—â—ion of the Body while it is the cause of the motion it self There are two Illustrations generally used in this case that are not unfit the motion of the Pen in writing is from the hand that holds it but the Blurs by the Pen are from some fault in the Pen it self And the Musick of the Instrument is from the hand that touches it but the Jarring from the faultiness of the Strings both are the causes of the motion of the Pen and Strings but not the blurs or jarrings 4. 'T is very congruous to the Wisdom of God to move his Creatures according to their particular Natures but this Motion makes him not the cause of Sin Had our Innocent Nature continued God had moved us according to that Innocent Nature but when the state was changed for a Corrupt one God must either forbear all concourse and so annihilate the World or move us according to that Nature he finds in us If he had overthrown the World upon the entrance of Sin and created another upon the same terms Sin might have as soon defac'd his second Work as it did the first and then it would follow that God would have been alway building and demolishing It was not fit for God to cease from acting as a Wise Governour of his Creature because Man did cease from his Loyalty as a Subject Is it not more agreeable to Gods Wisdom as a Governour to concur with his Creature according to his Nature than to deny his concurrence upon every Evil determination of the Creature God concurr'd with Adams mutable Nature in his first act of Sin he concurr'd to the act and left him to his Mutability If Adam had put out his hand to eat of any other unforbidden Fruit God would have supported his Natural faculty then and concurr'd with him in his motion When Adam would put out his hand to take the Forbidden Fruit God concurr'd to that Natural action but left him to the choice of the Object and to the use of his mutable Nature And when Man became Apostate God concurs with him according to that condition wherein he found him and cannot move him otherwise unless he should alter that Nature Man had contracted God moving the Creature as he found him is no cause of the Ill motion of the Creature As when a Wheel is broken the space of a foot it cannot but move ill in that part till it be mended He that moves it uses the same motion as it is his Act which he would have done had the Wheel been sound the motion is good in the Mover but bad in the Subject 'T is not the fault of him that moves it but the fault of that Wheel that is moved whose breaches came by some other cause A Man doth not use to lay aside his Watch for some Irregularity as long as it is capable of motion but winds it up Why should God cease from concurring with his Creature in its vital Operations and other actions of his
the Lord and his goodness or the Lord for his goodness Fear is often in the Old Testament taken for Faith or Trust This Divine Goodness the Object of Faith is that goodness discover'd in David their King the Messiah our Jesus God in this Dispensation recommends his goodness and love and reveals it more clearly than other Attributes that the Soul might have more prevailing and sweeter attractives to confide in him 3. A confidence in him gives him the glory of his goodness Most Nations that had nothing but the light of Nature thought it a great part of the Honour that was due to God to implore his Goodness and cast their Cares upon it To do good is the most honourable thing in the World and to acknowledge a goodness in a way of confidence is as high an honour as we can give to it and a great part of gratitude for what it hath already exprest Therefore we find often that an acknowledgment of one Benefit received was attended with a trust in him for what they should in the future need * Psal 56.13 Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not deliver my Feet from falling So 2 Cor. 1.10 And they who have been most eminent for their trust in him have had the greatest Elogies and Commendations from him As a diffidence doth disparage this Perfection thinking it meaner and shallower than it is so Confidence highly honours it We never please him more than when we trust in him * Psal 147.11 The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him in them that hope in his Mercy He takes it for an Honour to have this Attribute exalted by such a Carriage of his Creature He is no less offended when we think his heart straitned as if he were a Parcimonious God than when we think his Arm shortned as if he were an impotent and feeble God Let us therefore make this use of his Goodness to hearten our Faith When we are scar'd by the terrours of his Justice when we are dazled by the arts of his Wisdom and confounded by the splendour of his Majesty we may take refuge in the Sanctuary of his Goodness this will encourage us as well as astonish us Whereas the consideration of his other Attributes would only amaze us but can never refresh us but when they are consider'd marching under the Conduct and Banners of this When all the other Perfections of the Divine Nature are lookt upon in conjunction with this Excellency each of them send forth ravishing and benign influences upon the applying Creature 'T is more advantageous to depend upon Divine Bounty than our own Cares We may have better assurance upon this account in his Cares for us than in ours for our selves Our goodness for our selves is Finite and besides we are too ignorant His goodness is Infinite and attended with an infinite Wisdom we have reason to distrust our selves not God We have reason to be at rest under that kind influence we have so often experimented He hath so much goodness that he can have no deceit His goodness in making the Promise and his goodness in working the heart to a Reliance on it are grounds of trust in him * Psal 119.49 Remember thy word to thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope If his Promise did not please him why did he make it If Reliance on the Promise doth not please him why did his Goodness work it It would be inconsistent with his Goodness to mock his Creature and it would be the highest Mockery to publish his Word and Create a temper in the heart of his supplicant suited to his Promise which he never intended to satisfie He can as little wrong his Creature as wrong himself and therefore can never disappoint that Faith which in his own methods casts it self into the arms of his Kindness and is his own Workmanship and calls him Author That Goodness that imparted it self so freely in Creation will not neglect those nobler Creatures that put their trust in him This renders God a fit Object for trust and confidence 8. The eighth Instruction This renders God worthy to be obeyed and honour'd There is an Excellency in God to allure as well as Soveraignty to enjoyn Obedience The infinite Excellency of his Nature is so great that if his Goodness had promised us nothing to encourage our Obedience we ought to prefer him before our selves devote our selves to serve him and make his glory our greatest content but much more when he hath given such admirable Expressions of his Liberality and stor'd us with hopes of richer and fuller Streams of it When David consider'd the Absolute Goodness of his Nature and the Relative Goodness of his Benefits he presently expresseth an ardent desire to be acquainted with the Divine Statutes that he might make ingenuous returns in a dutiful observance * Psal 119.68 Thou art good and thou dost good teach me thy Statutes As his Goodness is the Original so the acknowledgment of it is the end of all which cannot be without an observance of his Will His Goodness requires of us an ingenuous not a servile Obedience And this is Establisht upon two Foundations 1. Because the Bounty of God hath laid upon us the strongest Obligations The strength of an Obligation depends upon the greatness and numerousness of the Benefits received The more Excellent the favours are which are conferr'd upon any Person the more right hath the Benefactor to claim an observance from the Person better'd by him Much of the Rule and Empire which hath been in several Ages conferred by Communities upon Princes hath had its first spring from a sense of the advantages they have receiv'd by them either in protecting them from their Enemies or rescuing them from an ignoble Captivity in enlarging their Territories or increasing their Wealth Conquest hath been the Original of a constrain'd but Beneficence always the Original of a voluntary and free Subjection * Amyrald Discert p. 65. Obedience to Parents is founded upon their right because they are instrumental in bestowing upon us Being and Life and because this of life is so great a benefit the Law of Nature never dissolves this Obligation of Obeying and Honouring Parents 'T is as long liv'd as the Law of Nature and hath an universal practice by the strength of that Law in all parts of the World And those rightful Chains are not unlockt but by that which unties the knot between Soul and Body Much more hath God a Right to be obey'd and reverenced who is the principal Benefactor and mov'd all those second Causes to impart to us what conduc'd to our advantage The just Authority of God over us results from the superlativeness of his Blessings he hath pour'd down upon us which cannot be equall'd much less exceeded by any other As therefore upon this account he hath a claim to our choicest Affections so he hath also to most exact Obedience and
succession of propagating For there is no Eternal continuation of time Time is always to be conceived as having one part before another But that perpetuity of Nativities is always after some time wherein it could not be for the weakness of age If no man then can conceive a propagation from Eternity there must be then a beginning of Generation in time and consequently the Creatures were made in time * To express 〈◊〉 in the words of one of our own Wolscley of Atheism pa. 4◠If the World were Eternal it must have been in the same posture as it is now in a state of Generation and Corruption And so Corruption must have been as Eternal as Generation and then things that do generate and corrupt must have Eternally been and Eternally not have been There must be some first way to set Generation on work We must lose our selves in our conceptions we cannot conceive a Father before a Child as well as we cannot conceive a Child before a Father And reason is quite bewildred and cannot return into a right way of Conception till it Conceive one first of every kind One first man one first animal one first Plant from whence others do proceed The argument is unanswerable and the wisest Atheist if any Atheist can be called wise cannot unlose the knot We must come to something that is first in every kind and this first must have a cause not of the same kind but Infinite and Independent otherwise men run into unconceivable Labyrinths and contradictions Man the Noblest Creature upon Earth hath a beginning No Man in the World but was some years ago no man If every man we see had a beginning then the first Man had also a beginning then the World had a beginning For the Earth which was made for the use of man had wanted that end for which it was made We must pitch upon some one man that was unborn that first man must either be Eternal * Petav. ut supr p. 10. that cannot be for he that hath no beginning hath no end or must spring out of the Earth as Plants and Trees do That cannot be Why should not the Earth produce men to this day as it doth Plants and Trees He was therefore made and whatsoever is made hath some cause that made it which is God * Damason If the World were uncreated it were then immutable but every Creature upon the Earth is in a continual flux always changing If things be mutable they were Created if Created they were made by some Author whatsoever hath a beginning must have a maker if the World hath a beginning there was then a time when it was not it must have some cause to produce it That which makes is before that which is made and this is God Secondly II. Which will appear further in this proposition No Creature can make it self The world could not make it self If every man had a beginning every man then was once nothing he could not then make himself because nothing cannot be the cause of something Psa 100.3 The Lord he is God he hath made us and not we our selves whatsoever begun in time was not and when it was nothing it had nothing and could do nothing And therefore could never give to it self nor to any other to be or to be able to do For then it gave what it had not and did what it could not * Petav. Theo. Dog tom 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pag. 14. Since reason must acknowledge a first of every kind a first Man c. it must acknowledge him Created and made not by himself why have not other men since rise up by themselves not by Chance why hath not Chance produced the like in that long time the World hath stood If we never knew any thing give being to it self how can we Imagine any thing ever could If the chiefest part of this lower World cannot nor any part of it hath been known to give being to it self then the whole cannot be supposed to give any being to it self Man did not forme himself His body is not from himself it would then have the power of moving it self but that is not able to live or act without the presence of the Soul Whilst the Soul is present the body moves when that is absent the body lies as a senseless log not having the least action or motion His Soul could not form it self can that which cannot form the least mote the least grain of dust form it self a nobler substance than any upon the Earth This will be evident to every Mans reason if we consider 1. Nothing can act before it be The first Man was not and therefore could not make himself to be For any thing to produce it self is to act if it acted before it was it was then something and nothing at the same time it then had a being before it had a being it acted when it brought it self into being How could it act without a being without it was So that if it were the cause of it self it must be before it self as well as after it self it was before it was it was as a cause before it was as an effect Action always supposeth a priciple from whence it flows as nothing hath no Existence so it hath no operation there must be therefore something of real Existence to give a Being to those things that are and every cause must be an effect of some other before it be a cause To be and not be at the same time is a manifest contradiction which would be if any thing made it self That which makes is always before that which is made Who will say the House is before the Carpenter or the Picture before the Limbner The world as a Creature must be before it self as a Creature 2. That which doth not understand it self and order it self could not make it self If the first Man fully understood his own nature the excellency of his own Soul the manner of its operations why was not that understanding conveyed to his posterity Are not many of them found who understand their own nature almost as little as a Beast understands it self or a Rose understands its own sweetness or a Tulip it s own Colours The Scripture indeed gives us an account how this came about viz. by the deplorable Rebellion of Man whereby Death was brought upon them a Spiritual Death which includes ignorance as well as an inability to Spritual action * Gen. 2.17 Psal 49.8 Thus he fell from his Honour and became like the Beasts that perish and not retaining God in his knowledge retained not himself in his own knowledge But what reply can an Atheist make to it who acknowledges no higher cause than nature If the Soul made it self how comes it to be so muddy so wanting in its knowledge of it self and of other things If the Soul made its own understanding whence did the defect arise If some
cap. 1. § 4. Who can behold the Sun rising in the morning the Moon shining in the night increasing and decreasing in its due spaces the Stars in their regular motions night after night for all ages and yet deny a President over them And this motion of the Heavenly bodies being contrary to the nature of other Creatures who move in order to rest must be from some higher cause But those ever since the setling in their places have been perpetually rounding the world * Whether it be the Sun or the Earth that moves it is all one Whence have either of them this constant and uniform motion What nature but one powerful and intelligent could give that perpetual motion to the Sun which being bigger than the Earth a hundred sixty six times runs many thousand miles with a mighty swiftness in the space of an hour with an unwearied diligence performing its dayly task and as a strong man rejoycing to run its race for above five thousand years together without intermission but in the time of Joshuah * Josh 10.13 T is not natures Sun but Gods Sun which he makes to rise upon the just and unjust * Mat. 5.45 So a Plant receives its nourishment from the Earth sends forth its juyce to every branch forms a bud which spreads it into a blossom and flower the leaves of this drop off and leave a fruit of the same colour and tast every year which being ripened by the Sun leaves seeds behind it for the propagation of its like which contains in the nature of it the same kind of buds blossoms fruit which were before and being nourished in the Womb of the Earth and quickened by the power of the Sun discovers it self at length in all the progresses and motions which its predecessor did Thus in all ages in all places every year it performs the same task spinns out fruit of the same colour tast vertue to refresh the several Creatures for which they are provided This setled state of things comes from that God who laid the foundations of the Earth that it should not be removed for ever * Psal 104.5 and set ordinances for them to act by a stated law * Job 38.33 according to which they move as if they understood themselves to have made a Covenant with their Creator * Jer. 33.20 3. Add to this union of contrary qualities and the subserviency of one thing to another the admirable variety and diversity of things in the World What variety of Metals living Creatures Plants what variety and distinction in the shape of their leaves flowers smell resulting from them Who can number up the several sorts of Beasts on the Earth Birds in the Air Fish in the Sea How various are their motions Some Creep some Go some Fly some Swim And in all this variety each Creature hath Organs or members fitted for their peculiar motion If you consider the multitude of Stars which shine like Jewels in the Heavens their different magnitudes Or the variety of colours in the Flowers and Tapestry of the Earth you could no more conclude they made themselves or were made by chance than you can imagine a peice of Arras with a diversity of figures and colours either wove it self or were knit together by hazzard How delicious is the sap of the Vine when turned into Wine above that of a Crab Both have the same Womb of Earth to conceive them both agree in the nature of Wood and Twigs as Channels to convay it into fruit What is that which makes the one so sweet the other so sower or makes that sweet which was a few weeks before unpleasantly sharp Is it the Earth No They both have the same soil the Branches may touch each other the strings of their Roots may under ground entwine about one another Is it the Sun both have the same beams Why is not the tast and colour of the one as gratifying as the other Is it the root The tast of that is far different from that of the fruit it bears Why do they not when they have the same Soil the same Sun and stand near one another borrow something from one anothers natures No reason can be rendred but that there is a God of infinite Wisdom hath determin'd this variety and bound up the nature of each Creature within it self * Amirald de Trinitate pa. 21. Everything follows the Law of its Creation and it is worthy observation that the Creator of them hath not given that power to Animals which arise from different species to propagate the like to themselves As Mules that arise from different species No reason can be rendred of this but the fixt determination of the Creator that those species which were Created by him should not be lost in those mixtures which are contrary to the Law of the Creation This cannot possibly be ascribed to that which is commonly called nature but unto the God of nature who will not have his Creatures exceed their bounds or come short of them Now since among those varieties there are somethings better than other yet all are good in their kind and partake of Goodness * Gen. 1.31 there must be something better and more execellent than all those from whom they derive that goodness which inheres in their nature and is communicated by them to others And this excellent Being must inherit in an eminent way in his own nature the goodness of all those varieties since they made not themselves but were made by another All that goodness which is scattered in those varieties must be infinitely concentred in that nature which distributed those various perfections to them Psal 94.9 He that Planted the Ear shall not he hear he that formed the Eye shall not he see he that teacheth Man knowledge shall not he know The Creator is greater than the Creature and whatsoever is in his effects is but an Impression of some excellency in himself There is therefore some cheif fountain of goodness whence all those various goodnesses in the world do flow From all this it follows if there be an Order and Harmony there must be an Orderer one that made the Earth by his Power established the world by his Wisdom and stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion Jer. 10.12 Order being the effect cannot be the cause of it self Order is the disposition of things to an end and is not intelligent but implies an intelligent Orderer And therefore it is as certain that there is a God as it is certain there is order in the world Order is an effect of Reason and Counsel this reason and Counsel must have its residence in some being before this order was fixed The things ordered are always distinct from that Reason and Counsel whereby they are ordered and also after it as the effect is after the cause No Man begins a peice of work but he hath the Model of it in his own mind No Man
every side destruction shall be ready at his side the first born of Death shall devour his strength his confidence shall be rooted out and it shall bring him to the King of Terrors Brimstone shall be scattered upon his Habitation he shall be driven from light into darkness and chased out of the World they that come after him shall be astonished at his day as they that went before were affrighted and this is the place of him that knows not God * Ver. 21 If there be a future reckoning as his own Conscience cannot but sometimes inform him of his condition is desperate and his misery dreadful and unavoidable T is not righteous a Hell should entertain any else if it refuse him Vse 2 2. How lamentable is it that in our times this folly of Atheism should be so rise That there should be found such Monsters in human nature in the midst of the improvements of Reason and shinings of the Gospel who not only make the Scripture the matter of their Jeers but Scoff at the Judgments and Providences of God in the World and envy their Creator a being without whose goodness they had had none themselves who contradict in their carriage what they assert to be their sentiment when they dreadfully imprecate damnation to themselves Whence should that damnation they so rashly wish be poured forth upon them if there were not a revenging God Formerly Atheism was as rare as prodigious scarce two or three known in an age * And those that are reported to be so in former ages are rather thought to be counted so for mocking at the senceless Deities the common people ador'd and laying open their impurities A meer natural strength would easily discover that those they adored for Gods could not deserve that title since their original was known their uncleanness manifest and acknowledged by their worshippers And probably it was so * As Justin infâ—rm us since the Christians were termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they acknowledged not their vain Idols I question whether there ever was or can be in the world an uninterrupted and internal denyal of the being of God or that men unless we can suppose Conscience utterly dead can arrive to such a degree of impiety For before they can stifle such sentiments in them whatsoever they may assert they must be utter strangers to the common conceptions of reason and despoile themselves of their own humanity He that dares to deny a God with his lips yet sets up something or other as a God in his heart Is it not lamentable that this sacred truth consented to by all Nations which is the band of civil societies the source of all order in the world should be denyed with a bare face and disputed against in Companies And the Glory of a wise Creator ascribed to an unintelligent nature to blind chance are not such worse then Heathens They worshipped many Gods these none They preserved a notion of God in the world under a disguise of Images These would banish him both from Earth and Heaven and demolish the Statues of him in their own Consciences They degraded him these would destroy him They coupled Creatures with him Rom 1.25 Who worshipped the Creature with the Creator as it may most properly be rendred And these would make him worse than the Creature a meer nothing Earth is hereby become worse than Hell Atheism is a perswasion which finds no footing any where else Hell that receives such persons in this point reforms them They can never deny or doubt of his being while they feel his stroaks The Devil that rejoyces at their wickedness knows them to be in an error for he believes and trembles at the belief * Jam. 2.19 This is a forerunner of Judgment Boldness in sin is a presage of vengeance especially when the honour of God is more particularly concern'd therein It tends to the overturning human society taking off the Bridle from the wicked inclinations of men And God appears not in such visible Judgments against sin immediately committed against himself as in the case of those sins that are destructive to human society Besides God as Governor of the world will uphold that without which all his ordinances in the world would be useless Atheism is point blank against all the Glory of God in Creation and against all the glory of God in Redemption and pronounceth at one breath both the Creator and all Acts of Religion and Divine Institutions useless and insignificant Since most have had one time or other some risings of doubt whether there be a God tho few do in expressions deny his being it may not be unnecessary to propose somethings for the further impressing this truth and guarding themselves against such temptations 1. T is utterly impossible to demonstrate there is no God He can choose no Medium but will fall in as a proof for his Existence and a manifestation of his excellency rather than against it The pretences of the Atheist are so ridiculous that they are not worth the mentioning They never saw God and therefore know not how to believe such a Being they cannot comprehend him He would not be God if he could fall within the narrow Model of an humane Understanding He would not be infinite if he were comprehensible or to be terminated by our sight How small a thing must that be which is seen by a bodily Eye or graspt by a weak Mind If God were visible or comprehensible he would be limited Shall it be a sufficient Demonstration from a blind man that there is no fire in the Room because he sees it not though he feel the warmth of it The knowledge of the effect is sufficient to conclude the existence of the cause Who ever saw his own Life Is it sufficient to deny a man lives because he beholds not his Life and only knows it by his motion He never saw his own Soul but knows he hath one by his thinking power The Air renders it self sensible to Men in its Operations yet was never seen by the eye If God should render Himself visible they might question as well as now whether that which was so visible were God or some delusion If he should appear glorious we can as little behold him in his Majestick Glory as an Owl can behold the Sun in its brightness we should still but see him in his Effects as we do the Sun by his Beams If he should shew a new Miracle we should still see him but by his Works so we see him in his Creatures every one of which would be as great a Miracle as any can be wrought to one that had the first prospect of them To require to see God is to require that which is impossible 1 Tim. 6.16 He dwels in the Light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see 'T is visibe that he is for he covers himself with Light as with a Garment Psal 104.2
and in another business but would have thrust them away with indignation Had they stept in to interrupt our worldly Affairs they would have been troublesome Intruders but while we are with God they are acceptable Guests How unwilling have our hearts been to fortifie themselves with strong and influencing considerations of God before we addrest to him Is it not too often that our lifelesness in Prayer proceeds from this Atheism a neglect of seeing what Arguments and Pleas may be drawn from the didine perfections to second our suit in hand and quicken our hearts in the service Whence are those indispositions to any spiritual duty but because we have not due thoughts of the Majesty Holiness Goodness and Excellency of God Is there any duty which leads to a more particular inquiry after him or a more clear vision of him but our hearts have been ready to rise up and call it cursed rather than blessed Are not our minds bemisted with an ignorance of him our wills drawn by aversion from him our affections rising in distast of him More willing to know any thing than his Nature and more industrious to do any thing than his Will Do we not all fall under some one or other of these considerations Is it not fit then that we should have a sense of them 'T is to be bewail'd by us that so little of God is in our hearts when so many evidences of the love of God are in the Creatures that God should be so little our end who hath been so much our Benefactor that he should be so litte in our thoughts who sparkles in every thing which presents it self to our eyes 2. Let us be sensible of it in others We ought to have a just execration of the too open iniquity in the midst of us and imitate holy David whose tears plentifully gusht out because men kept not Gods Law * Psa 119.136 And is it not a time to exercise this pious lamentation Hath the wicked Atheism of any age been greater or can you find worse in Hell than we may hear of and behold on Earth How is the excellent Majesty of God adored by the Angels in Heaven despised and reproached by men on Earth as if his name were publisht to be matter of their sport What a gasping thing is a natural sense of God among men in the World Is not the Law of God accompanied with such dreadful threatnings and curses made light of as if men would place their honour in being above or beyond any sense of that glorious Majesty How many wallow in Pleasures as if they had been made men only to turn brutes and their Souls given them only for Salt to keep their bodies from putrifying T is as well a part of Atheism not to be sensible of the abuses of Gods name and Laws by others as to violate them our selves What is the language of a stupid senselesness of them but that there is no God in the world whose glory is worth a vindication and deserves our regards That we may be sensible of the unworthiness of neglecting God as our Rule and end consider 1. The Vnreasonableness of it as it concerns God 1. First T is a high contempt of God T is an inverting the order of things a making God the highest to become the lowest and self the lowest to become the highest To be guided by every base Companion some idle vanity some carnal interest is to acknowledge an excellency abounding in them which is wanting in God An equity in their orders and none in Gods precepts A goodness in their promises and a falsity in Gods As if infinite excellency were a meer vanity and to act for God were the debasement of our reason to act for self or some pitiful Creature or sordid lust were the glory and advancement of it To prefer any one sin before the honour of God is as if that sin had been our Creator and Benefactor as if it were the original cause of our being and support Do not men pay as great a homage to that as they do to God Do not their minds eagerly pursue it Are not the revolvings of it in their fancies as delightful to them as the remembrance of God to a holy Soul Do any obey the Commands of God with more readiness than they do the orders of their base affections Did Peter leap more readily into the Sea to meet his Master than many into the jaws of Hell to meet their Dalilah's How cheerfully did the Israelites part with their Ornaments for the sake of an Idol who would not have spared a moiety for the honour of their Deliverer * Exod. 32.3 All the people brake off the golden ear-rings If to make God our end is the principal duty in nature then to make ourselves or any thing else our end is the greatest vice in the rank of evils Secondly T is a contempt of God as the most amiable object God is infinitely excellent and desirable Zach. 9.17 How great is his goodness and how great is his beauty There is nothing in him but what may ravish our affections none that knows him but finds attractives to keep them with him He hath nothing in him which can be a proper object of contempt no defects or shadow of evil there is infinite excellency to charm us and infinite goodness to allure us the Author of our beings the Benefactor of our lives Why then should Man which is his Image be so base as to slight the beautiful original which stampt it on him He is the most lovely object therefore to be studied therefore to be honoured therefore to be followed In regard of his perfection he hath the highest right to our thoughts All other beings were eminently contained in his essence and were produced by his infinite power The Creature hath nothing but what it hath from God And is it not unworthy to prefer the Copy before the original to fall in love with a Picture instead of the beauty it represents The Creature which we advance to be our rule and end can no more report to us the true amiableness of God than a few Colours mixed and suted together upon a peice of cloth can the moral and intellectual loveliness of the Soul of Man To contemn God one moment is more base than if all Creatures were contemned by us for ever because the excellency of Creatures is to God like that of a drop to the Sea or a spark to the glory of unconceivable millions of Suns As much as the excellency of God is above our conceptions so much doth the debasing of him admit of unexpressible aggravations 2. Consider the ingratitude in it That we should resist that God with our hearts who made us the work of his hands and count him as nothing from whom we derive all the good that we are or have There is no contempt of Man but steps in here to aggravate our slighting of God Because there
understanding So we are not able to conceive of spiritual Beings in the purity of their own nature without such a temperament and such shadows to usher them into our minds And therefore we find the Spirit of God accommodates himself to our contracted and teddered capacities and uses such expressions of God as are suted to us in this state of flesh wherein we are And therefore because we cannot apprehend God in the simplicity of his own Being and his undivided Essence he draws the representations of himself from several Creatures and several actions of those Creatures As sometimes he is said to be angry to walk to sit to fly not that we should rest in such conceptions of him but take our rise from this foundation and such perfections in the Creatures to mount up to a knowledge of Gods nature by those several steps and conceive of him by those divided Excellencies because we cannot conceive of him in the purity of his own Essence * Lessius We cannot possibly think or speak of God unless we transfer the names of created perfections to him yet we are to conceive of them in a higher manner when we apply them to the Divine Nature than when we consider them in the several Creatures formally exceeding those perfections and excellencies which are in the Creature and in a more excellent manner * Towerson on the Commandments P. 112. as one saith though we cannot comprehend God without the help of such resemblances yet we may without making an Image of him so that inability of ours excuseth those apprehensions of him from any way offending against his Divine Nature These are not notions so much suted to the nature of God as the weakness of man They are helps to our meditations but ought not to be formal conceptions of him We may assist our selves in our apprehensions of him by considering the subtilty and spirituality of Air and considering the members of a body without thinking him to be air or to have any corporeal member Our reason tells us that whatsoever is a body is limited and bounded and the notion of infiniteness and bodiliness cannot agree and consist together And therefore what is offered by our fancy should be purified by our reason 4. Therefore we are to elevate and refine all our notions of God and spiritualize our conceptions of him Every man is to have a conception of God therefore he ought to have one of the highest elevation Since we cannot have a full notion of him we should endeavour to make it as high and as pure as we can Though we cannot conceive of God but some corporeal representations or images in our minds will be conversant with us as motes in the Air when we look upon the Heavens yet our conceptions may and must rise higher As when we see the draught of the Heavens and Earth in a Globe or a Kingdom in a Map it helps our conceptions but doth not terminate them We conceive them to be of a vast extent far beyond that short description of them So we should endeavour to refine every representation of God to rise higher and higher and have our apprehensions still more purified separating the perfect from the imperfect casting away the one and greatning the other conceive him to be a Spirit diffused through all containing all perceiving all All the perfections of God are infinitely elevated above the excellencies of the Creatures above whatsoever can be conceived by the clearest and most piercing understanding The Nature of God as a Spirit is infinitely superior to whatsoever we can conceive perfect in the notion of a created Spirit Whatsoever God is he is infinitely so He is infinite Wisdom infinite Goodness infinite Knowledge infinite Power infinite Spirit infinitely distant from the weakness of Creatures infinitely mounted above the excellencies of Creatures As easie to be known that he is as impossible to be comprehended what he is Conceive of him as excellent without any imperfection A Spirit without parts great without quantity perfect without quality every where without place Powerful without members understanding without ignorance wise without reasoning light without darkness infinitely more excelling the beauty of all Creatures than the light in the Sun pure and unviolated exceeds the splendor of the Sun dispersed and divided through a cloudy and misty Air And when you have risen to the highest conceive him yet infinitely above all you can conceive of Spirit and acknowledge the infirmity of your own minds And whatsoever conception comes into your minds say this is not God God is more than this If I could conceive him he were not God for God is incomprehensibly above whatsoever I can say whatsoever I can think and conceive of him 4. Inference If God be a Spirit no corporeal thing can defile him Some bring an Argument against the Omnipresence of God that it is a disparagement to the Divine Essence to be every where in nasty Cottages as well as beautiful Palaces and garnisht Temples What place can defile a Spirit Is Light which approaches to the nature of Spirit polluted by shining upon a Dung-hill or a Sun-beam tainted by darting upon a Quag-mire Doth an Angel contract any soyl by stepping into a nasty Prison to deliver Peter What can steam from the most noysom body to pollute the spiritual nature of God As he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity * Heb. 1.13 so he is of a more spiritual substance than to contract any physical pollution from the places where he doth diffuse himself Did our Saviour who had a true body derive any taint from the Lepers he touched the diseases he cured or the Devils he expell'd God is a pure Spirit plungeth himself into no filth is dasht with no spot by being present with all bodies Bodies only receive defilement from bodies 5. Inference If God be a Spirit he is active and communicative He is not clogg'd with heavy and sluggish matter which is cause of dulness and inactivity The more subtil thin and approaching neerer the Nature of a Spirit any thing is the more diffusive it is Air is a gliding substance spreads it self through all Regions peirceth into all bodies it fills the space between Heaven and Earth there is nothing but partakes of the vertue of it Light which is an emblem of Spirit insinuates it self into all places refresheth all things As Spirits are fuller so they are more overflowing more piercing more operative than bodies The Egyptian Horses were weak things because they were Flesh and not Spirit * Isay 31.3 The Soul being a Spirit conveys more to the Body than the Body can to it What cannot so great a Spirit do for us What cannot so great a Spirit work in us God being a Spirit above all Spirits can pierce into the Center of all Spirits make his way into the most secret recesses stamp what he pleases 'T is no more to him to turn our Spirits than to make
that we might now serve God in a more spiritual manner and with more spiritual frames 6. Proposition The Service and worship the Gospel settles is spiritual and the performance of it more spiritual Spirituality is the Genius of the Gospel as Carnality was of the Law the Gospel is therefore called Spirit We are abstracted from the imployments of Sense and brought neerer to a Heavenly State The Jews had Angels Bread poured upon them we have Angels Service prescribed to us the Praises of God Communion with God in Spirit through his Son Jesus Christ and stronger foundations for spiritual affections 'T is called a reasonable service * Rom. 12.1 t is suted to a rational nature tho it finds no friendship from the Corruption of reason It prescribes a service fit for the reasonable faculties of the Soul and advanceth them while it employs them The word reasonable may be translated word service * V. Hammond in loc as well as reasonable service an Evangelical service in opposition to a Law service All Evangelical service is reasonable and all truly reasonable service is Evangelical The matter of the worship is Spiritual it consists in love of God faith in God recourse to his goodness Meditation on him and Communion with him It lays aside the Ceremonial Spiritualizeth the moral The Commands that concerned our duty to God as well as those that concerned our duty to our Neighbour were reduced by Christ to their Spiritual intention The Motives are Spiritual t is a state of more grace as well as of more truth * John 1.17 supported by Spiritual promises beaming out in Spiritual priviledges heaven comes down in it to Earth to Spiritualize Earth for Heaven The manner of worship is more Spiritual higher flights of the Soul stronger ardours of affections sincerer aims at his glory mists are removed from our minds Cloggs from the Soul more of love than fear faith in Christ kindles the affections and works by them The assistances to Spiritual worship are greater The Spirit doth not drop but is plentifully poured out It doth not light sometimes upon but dwells in the heart Christ suted the Gospel to a Spiritual heart and the Spirit changeth a carnal heart to make it fit for a Spiritual Gospel He blows upon the Garden and causes the spices to flow forth And often makes the Soul in worship like the Chariots of Aminadab in a quick and nimble motion Our blessed Lord and Saviour by his death discovered to us the nature of God and after his ascension sent his Spirit to fit us for the worship of God and converse with him One Spiritual Evangelical believing breath is more delightful to God than millions of Altars made up of the richest pearls and smoaking with the costliest oblations because it is Spiritual And a mite of Spirit is of more worth than the greatest weight of flesh One holy Angel is more excellent than a whole world of meer bodies 7. Proposition Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to be rejected upon the account that God requires a Spiritual worship Tho we must perform the weightier duties of the Law yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter precepts Since both the Magnalia and minutula legis the greater and the lesser duties of the Law have the stamp of Divine authority upon them As God under the Ceremonial Law did not Command the worship of the body and the observation of outward rites without the engagement of the Spirit so neither doth he Command that of the Spirit without the peculiar attendance of the body The Schwelk sendians denied bodily worship And the indecent postures of many in publick attendance intimate no great care either of Composing their bodies or Spirits A morally discomposed body intimates a tainted heart Our Bodies as well as our Spirits are to be presented to God * Rom. 12.1 Our bodies in lieu of the Sacrifices of Beasts as in the Judaical institutions body for the whole man a living Sacrifice not to be slain as the Beasts were but living a new life in a holy posture with Crucified affections This is the inference the Apostle makes of the priviledges of Justification Adoption Coheirship with Christ which he had before discoursed of Priviledges conferred upon the person and not upon a part of man 1. Bodily worship is due to God He hath a right to an Adoration by our bodies as they are his by Creation his right is not diminisht but increased by the blessing of Redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 For you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your Spirits which are Gods The Body as well as the Spirit is redeemed since our Saviour suffered Crucifixion in his body as well as Agonies in his Soul Body is not taken here for the whole man as it may be in Rom. 12. But for the material part of our nature it being distinguisht from the Spirit If we are to render to God an obedience with our bodies we are to render him such Acts of worship with our bodies as they are capable of As God is the Father of Spirits so he is the God of all flesh Therefore the flesh he hath framed of the Earth as well as the noble portion he hath breathed into us cannot be denyed him without apalpable in justice The service of the body we must not deny to God unless we will deny him to be the author of it and the exercise of his providential care about it The mercies of God are renewed every day upon our bodies as well as our Souls and therefore they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty everyday * Sherman's Greek in the Temple pa. 61.62 both are from God both should be for God Man consists of Body and Soul the service of Man is the service of both The body is to be Sanctified as well as the Soul and therefore to be offered to God as well as the Soul Both are to be glorified both are to glorifie As our Saviours Divinity was manifested in his body so should our Spirituality in ours To give God the service of the body and not of the Soul is hypocrisie to give God the service of the Spirit and not of the body is sacriledge to give him neither Atheism If the only part of man that is visible were exempted from the service of God there could be no visible Testimonies of piety given upon any occasion Since not a moiety of man but the whole is Gods Creature he ought to pay a homage with the whole and not only with a moiety of himself 2. Worship in societies is due to God but this cannot be without some bodily expressions The law of nature doth as much direct men to combine together in publick societies for the acknowledgment of God as in Civil Communities for self preservation and order And the notice of a society for Religion is more Ancient than the mention of
thoughts of Men or his Mercy which he manifested to the height in the time of his suffering That is truly a change when a thing ceaseth to be what it was before This was not in Christ He assumed our Nature without laying aside his own * Zanch. de Immutab Dei When the Soul is united to the Body doth it lose any of those perfections that are proper to its Nature Is there any change either in the substance or qualities of it * Goulart de Immutab de Dieu No but it makes a change in the Body and of a dull Lump it makes it a living Mass conveys vigor and strength to it and by its power quickens it to sense and motion So did the Divine Nature and Human remain intire there was no change of the one into the other as Christ by a Miracle changed Water into Wine or Men by Art change Sand or Ashes into Glass And when he prays for the Glory he had with God before the World was * John 17.5 he prays that a Glory he had in his Deity might shine forth in his Person as Mediator and be evidenced in that height and splendor sutable to his Dignity which had been so lately darkned by his abasement that as he had appeared to be the Son of Man in the infirmity of the Flesh he might appear to be the Son of God in the glory of his Person that he might appear to be the Son of God and the Son of Man in one Person * Gamach in part 1. Aquin. qu. 9. cap. 1. Again there could be no change in this Union for in a real change something is acquired which was not possessed before neither formally nor eminently But the Divinity had from Eternity before the Incarnation all the perfections of the Human Nature eminently in a nobler manner than they are in themselves and therefore could not be changed by a real Union 3. The third Proposition Repentance and other Affections ascribed to God in Scripture argue no change in God We often read of Gods repenting repenting of the Good he promised * Jer. 18.10 and of the Evil he threatned * Exod. 32.14 John 3.10 or of the Work he hath wrought * Gen. 6.6 We must observe therefore that 1. Repentance is not properly in God He is a pure Spirit and is not capable of those Passions which are signs of weakness and impotence or subject to those regrets we are subject to Where there is a proper repentance there is a want of foresight an ignorance of what would succeed or a defect in the examination of the occurences which might fall within consideration All repentance of a fact is grounded upon a mistake in the event which was not foreseen or upon an after knowledge of the evil of the thing which was acted by the person repenting But God is so wise that he cannot err so holy he cannot do evil and his certain prescience or foreknowledge secures him against any unexpected events God doth not act but upon clear and infallible reason And a change upon passion is accounted by all so great a weakness in man that none can entertain so unworthy a conceit of God Where he is said to repent * Gen. 6.6 he is also said to grieve now no proper grief can be imagined to be in God As repentance is inconsistent with infallible foresight so is grief no less inconsistent with undefiled blessedness God is blessed for ever * Rom. 9.8 and therefore nothing can befall him that can stain that blessedness his blessednes would be impaired and interrupted while he is repenting tho he did soon rectifie that which is the cause of his repentance God is of one mind and who can turn him what his Soul desires that he doth * Job 23.13 2. But God accommodates himself in the Scripture to our weak capacity God hath no more of a proper repentance than he hath of a real body tho he in accommodation to our weakness ascribes to himself the members of our bodies to set out to our understanding the greatness of his perfections we must not conclude him a body like us so because he is said to have anger and repentance we must not conclude him to have passions like us When we cannot fully comprehend him as he is he cloths himself with our nature in his expressions that we may apprehend him as we are able and by an inspection into our selves learn something of the nature of God yet those human wayes of speaking ought to be understood in a manner agreeable to the infinite excellency and Majesty of God and are only designed to mark out something in God which hath a resemblance with something in us As we cannot speak to God as Gods but as men so we cannot understand him speaking to us as a God unless he condescend to speak to us like a man God therefore frames his language to our dulness not to his own state and informs us by our own phrases what he would have us learn of his nature as Nurses talk broken language to young Children In all such expressions therefore we must ascribe the perfection we conceive in them to God and lay the imperfection at the door of the Creature 3. Therefore repentance in God is only a change of his outward conduct according to his infallible foresight and immutable Will He changes the way of his Providential proceeding according to the carriage of the Creature without changing his Will which is the Rule of his Providence when God speaks of his repenting that he had made man * Gen. 6.6 t is only his changing his conduct from a way of kindness to a way of severity and is a word suted to our capacities to signifie his detestation of sin and his resolution to punish it after man had made himself quite another thing than God had made him It repents me that is I am purposed to destroy the world as he that repents of his work throws it away * Mercer ir loc As if a Potter cast away the vessel he had framed it were a testimony that he repented that ever he took pains about it So the destruction of them seems to be a repentance in God that ever he made them t is a change of events not of Counsels Repentance in us is a grief for a former fact and a changing of our course in it Grief is not in God * Petavius Theol. Dogmaâ— but his repentance is a willing a thing should not be as it was which Will was fixed from Eternity for God foreseeing Man would fall and decreeing to permit it he could not be said to repent in time of what he did not repent from Eternity and therefore if there were no repentance in God from Eternity there could be none in time But God is said to repent when he changes the disposition of affairs without himself as men when they repent alter
cannot be sever'd from his Power nor his Power from his Essence for the Power of God is nothing but God acting and the wisdom of God nothing but God knowing As the power of God is always so is his Essence as the power of God is every where so is his Essence whatsoever God is he is alway and every where To confine him to a place is to measure his Essence as to confine his actions is to limit his power his Essence being no less infinite than his Power and his Wisdom can be no more bounded than his Power and Wisdom but they are not separable from his Essence yea they are his Essence if God did not fill the whole World he would be determin'd to some place and excluded from others and so his substance would have bounds and limits and then something might be conceived greater than God for we may conceive that a Creature may be made by God of so vast a greatness as to fill the whole World for the power of God is able to make a body that should take up the whole space between Heaven and Earth and reach to every corner of it but nothing can be conceived by any Creature greater than God he exceeds all things and is exceeded by none God therefore cannot be included in Heaven nor included in the Earth cannot be contained in either of them for if we should imagine them vaster than they are yet still they would be finite and if his Essence were contain'd in them it could be no more infinite than the World which contains it As water is not of a larger compass than the Vessel which contains it If the Essence of God were limited either in the Heavens or Earth it must needs be finite as the Heaven and Earth are But there is no proportion between finite and infinite God therefore cannot be contain'd in them If there were an infinite body that must be every where certainly then an infinite Spirit must be every where Unless we will account him finite we can render no reason why he should not be in one Creature as well as in another if he be in Heaven which is his Creature why can he not be in the Earth which is as well his Creature as the Heavens 2. Reason Because of the continual operation of God in the World This was one reason made the Heathen believe that there was an infinite Spirit in the vast body of the World acting in every thing and producing those admirable motions which we see every where in Nature That cause which acts in the most perfect manner is also in the most perfect manner present with its effects God preserves all and therefore is in all the Apostle thought it a good induction Acts 17.27 He is not far from us for in him we live For being as much as because shews that from his operation he concluded his real presence with all 'T is not his vertue is not far from every one of us but He his Substance himself for none that acknowledge a God will deny the absence of the vertue of God from any part of the World He works in every thing every thing lives and works in him therefore he is present with all * Pont. or rather if things live they are in God who gives them life If things live God is in them and gives them life If things move God is in them and gives them motion If things have any Being God is in them and gives them Being if God withdraws himself they presently lose their Being and therefore some have compar'd the Creature to the impression of a Seal upon the water that cannot be preserved but by the Presence of the Seal As his Presence was actual with what he Created so his Presence is actual with what he preserves since Creation and Preservation do so little differ if God creates things by his Essential Presence by the same he supports them If his substance cannot be disjoyn'd from his preserving Power his power and wisdom cannot be separated from his Essence where there are the marks of the one there is the presence of the other for it is by his Essence that he is powerful and wise no man can distinguish the one from the other in a simple Being God doth not preserve and act things by a vertue diffus'd from him N.B. It may be demanded whether that vertue be distinct from God if it be not 't is then the Essence of God if it be distinct 't is a Creature and then it may be ask't how that vertue which preserves other things is preserved it self it must be ultimately resolv'd into the Essence of God or else there must be a running in infinitum or else * Amyrald de Trinitat p. 106. 107. is that vertue of God a substance or not Is it endued with understanding or not If it hath understanding how doth it differ from God If it wants understanding can any imagine that the support of the World the guidance of all Creatures the wonders of Nature can be wrought preserv'd manag'd by a vertue that hath nothing of understanding in it If it be not a substance it can much less be able to produce such excellent Operations as the preserving all the kinds of things in the World and ordering them to perform such excellent ends this Vertue is therefore God himself the infinite Power and Wisdom of God and therefore wheresoever the effects of these are seen in the World God is essentially present some Creatures indeed act at a distance by a vertue diffus'd but such a manner of acting comes from a limitedness of nature that such a nature cannot be every where present and extend its substance to all parts To act by a vertue speaks the Subject finite and it is a part of indigence Kings act in their Kingdoms by Ministers and Messengers because they cannot act otherwise but God being infinitely perfect works all things in all immediately 1 Cor. 12.6 Illumination Sanctification Grace c. are the immediate Works of God in the heart and immediate Agents are present with what they do 't is an Argument of the greater Perfection of a Being to know things immediately which are done in several places than to know them at the second hand by Instruments 't is no less a Perfection to be every where rather than to be tyed to one place of action and to act in other places by Instruments for want of a Power to act immediately it self God indeed acts by means and second causes in his Providential Dispensations in the World but this is not out of any Defect of Power to Work all immediately himself but he thereby accommodates his way of acting to the nature of the Creature and the Order of Things which he hath setled in the World And when he Works by means he acts with those means in those means sustains their faculties and vertues in them concurs with them by his Power so
Heb. 4.12 As a Critick discerns every Letter Point and Stop he is more intimate with us than our Souls with our Bodies and hath more the Possession of us than we have of our selves he knows them by an inspection into the heart not by the Mediation of second causes by the looks or gestures of men as men may discern the Thoughts of one another 1. God discerns all good motions of the Mind and Will These he puts into men and needs must God know his own act he knew the Son of Jeroboam to have some good thing in him towards the Lord God of Israel 1 Kings 14.13 and the integrity of David and Hezekiah the freest motions of the Will and Affections to him Lord thou knowest that I love thee saith Peter John 21.17 Love can be no more restrain'd than the Will it self can A man may make another to grieve and desire but none can force another to Love 2. God discerns all the evil motions of the Mind and Will Every imagination of the Heart Gen. 6.5 the vanity of mens thoughts Psal 94.11 their inward darkness and deceitful disguises No wonder that God who fashion'd the heart should understand the motions of it Psal 33.13 15. He looks from Heaven and beholds all the Children of men he fashioneth their hearts alike and considers all their Works Doth any man make a Watch and yet be ignorant of its motion Did God fling away the Key to this secret Cabinet when he framed it and put off the power of unlocking it when he pleased He did not surely frame it in such a posture as that any thing in it should be hid from his Eye he did not fashion it to be Priviledged from his Government which would follow if he were ignorant of what was Minted and Coined in it He could not be a Judg to punish men if the inward frames and Principles of mens actions were concealed from him an outward action may glitter to an outward eye yet the secret spring be a desire of applause and not the Fear and Love of God If the inward frames of the heart did lye covered from him in the secret recesses of the heart those plausible acts which in regard of their Principles would merit a Punishment would meet with a Reward and God should bestow Happiness where he had denounced Misery As without the knowledg of what is just he could not be a Wise Law-giver so without the knowledg of what is inwardly committed he could not be a Righteous Judg acts that are rotten in the spring might be judged good by the fair colour and appearance This is the glory of God at the last day to manifest the secrets of all hearts 1 Cor. 4.5 and the Prophet Jeremiah links the power of Judging and the Prerogative of trying the Hearts together Jer. 11.20 but thou O Lord of Hosts that Judgest Righteously that tryest the Reins and the Heart and Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the Heart I try the Reins to what end even to give every man according to his way and according to the fruit of his doings And indeed his binding up the whole Law with that command of not coveting evidenceth that he will Judg men by the inward affections and frames of their hearts Again God sustains the mind of man in every act of thinking In him we have not only the Principle of Life but every motion the motion of our minds as vvell as of our members In him we live and move c. Acts 17.28 Since he supports the vigor of the faculty in every act can he be ignorant of those acts vvhich spring from the faculty to vvhich he doth at that instant communicate povver and ability Novv this knovvledg of the Thoughts of men is 1. An incommunicable Property belonging only to the Divine Vnderstanding Creatures indeed may knovv the thoughts of others by Divine Revelation but not by themselves no Creature hath a Key immediately to open the minds of men and see all that lodgeth there no Creature can Fathom the heart by the Line of Created Knowledge Daille serm Part 1. p. 230. Devils may have a conjectural Knowledg and may guess at them by the acquaintance they have with the Disposition and Constitution of men and the Images they behold in their Fancies and by some marks which an inward imagination may stamp upon the Brain Blood Animal Spirits Face c. But the knowing the Thougnts meerly as Thought without any Impression by it is a Royalty God appropriates to himself as the main secret of his Government and a Perfection declarative of his Deity as much as any else Jer. 17.9 10. the heart of man is desperately wicked who can know it yes there is one and but one I the Lord search the Heart I try the Reins Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks upon the Heart 1 Sam. 16.7 where God is distinguisht by this Perfection from all men whatsoever others may know by Revelation as Elisha did what was in Gehazi's heart 2 Kings 5.26 But God knows a man more than any man knows himself What person upon earth understands the windings and turnings of his own heart what reserves it will have what contrivances what inclinations all which God knows exactly 2. God acquires no new Knowledg of the thoughts and heart by the Discovery of them in the actions He would then be but equal in this part of Knowledg to his Creature no man or Angel but may thus arrive to the Knowledg of them God were then excluded from an absolute Dominion over the prime work of his lower Creation he would have made a Creature superior in this respect to himself upon whose Will to discover his knowledg of their inward intentions should depend and therefore when God is said to search the heart we must not understand it as if God were ignorant before and was fain to make an exact scrutiny and enquiry before he attained what he desired to know but God condescends to our capacity in the expression of his own Knowledg signifying that his Knowledg is as compleat as any mans Knowledg can be of the designs of others after he hath sifted them by a strict and through examination and wrung out a discovery of their intentions that he knows them as perfectly as if he had put them upon the rack and forced them to make a discovery of their secret Plottings Nor must we understand that in Gen. 22.12 where God saith after Abraham had stretched out his hand to Sacrifice his Son Now I know that thou fearest God as though God was ignorant of Abrahams gracious disposition to him did Abrahams drawing his Knife furnish God with a new Knowledg no God knew Abrahams pious inclinations before Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his Children after him c. Knowledg is sometimes taken for approbation then the sense will be now I approve this Fact as a Testimony of thy fear of me since thy
him * Petavius changed Did he create he knew not what and knew not before what he should Create Was he ignorant before he acted and in his acting what his operation would tend to or did he not know the nature of things and the ends of them till he had produced them and saw them in Being Creatures then did not arise from his Knowledg but his Knowledg from them he did not then Will that his Creatures should be for he had then willed what he knew not and knew not what he willed they therefore must be known before they were made and not known because they were made he knew them to make them and he did not make them to know them By the same reason that he knew what Creatures should be before they were he knows still what Creatures shall be before they are Bradward lib. 3. cap. 14. for all things that are were in God not really in their own nature but in him as a cause so the Earth and Heavens were in him as a Model is in the mind of a Work man which is in his Mind and Soul before it be brought forth into outward act 2. The Predictions of future things evidence this There is not a Prophecy of any thing to come but is a spark of his fore-knowledg and bears Witness to the Truth of this assertion in the punctual accomplishment of it this is a thing challenged by God as his own peculiar wherein he surmounts all the Idols that mans inventions have Godded in the World Isa 41.21 22. Let them bring forth speaking of the Idols and shew us what shall happen or declare us things to come shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that you are Gods Such a fore-knowledg of things to come is here ascribed to God by God himself as a distinction of him from all false Gods such a Knowledg that if any could prove that they were possessors of he would acknowledg them Gods as well as himself that we may know that you are Gods He puts his Deity to stand or fall upon this account and this should be the point which should decide the controversy whether he or the Heathen Idols were the true God the dispute is managed by this medium He that knows things to come is God I know things to come ergo I am God the Idols know not things to come therefore they are not Gods God submits the Being of his Deity to this Tryal If God know things to come no more than the Heathen Idols which were either Devils or men he would be in his own account no more a God than Devils or men no more a God than the Pagan Idols he doth scoff at for this defect If the Heathen Idols were to be stript of their Deity for want of this foreknowledg of things to come would not the true God also fall from the same excellency if he were defective in Knowledg he would in his own judgment no more deserve the Title and Character of a God than they How could he reproach them for that if it were wanting in himself It cannot be understood of future things in their causes when the effects necessarily arise from such causes as Light from the Sun and Heat from the Fire many of these men know more of them Angels and Devils know if God therefore had not a higher and farther Knowledg than this he would not by this be proved to be God any more than Angels and Devils who know necessary effects in their causes The Devils indeed did predict some things in the Heathen Oracles but God is differenced from them here by the infiniteness of his Knowledg in being able to predict things to come that they knew not or things in their particularities things that depended on the liberty of mans Will which the Devils could lay no claim to a certain knowledg of Were it only a conjectural knowledg that is here meant the Devils might answer they can conjecture and so their Deity were as good as Gods for tho' God might know more things and conjecture nearer to what would be yet still it would be but conjectural and therefore not a higher kind of Knowledg than what the Devils might challenge How much then is God beholden to the Socinians for denying the knowledg of all future things to him upon which here he puts the trial of his Deity God asserts his knowledg of things to come as a manifest evidence of his Godhead those that deny therefore the Argument that proves it deny the conclusion too for this will necessarily follow that if he be God because he knows future things then he that doth not know future things is not God and if God knows not future things but only by conjecture then there is no God because a certain knowledg so as infallibly to predict things to come is an inseparable Perfection of the Deity It was therefore well said of Austin that it was as high a madness to deny God to be as to deny him the foreknowledg of things to come The whole Prophetick part of Scripture declares this Perfection of God every Prophets Candle was lighted at this Torch they could not have this foreknowledg of themselves Why might not many other men have the same insight if it were by nature it must be from some superior Agent Pacuvius said Siqui quae eventura sunt provident aeqâ—â— parent Gell. lib. 14. c. 1. and all Nations owned Prophecy as a Beam from God a fruit of Divine Illumination Prophecy must be totally expunged if this be denyed for the subjects of Prophecy are things future and no man is properly a Prophet but in Prediction now Prediction is nothing but foretelling and things foretold are not yet come and the foretelling of them supposeth them not to be yet but that they shall be in time several such Predictions we have in Scripture the event whereof hath been certain The years of Famine in Egypt foretold that he would order second causes for bringing that Judgment upon them the Captivity of his People in Babylon the calling of the Gentiles the rejection of the Jews Daniels Revelation of Nebuchadnezzars Dream that Prince refers to God as the revealer of Secrets Dan. 2.47 By the same reason that he knows one thing future by himself and by the infiniteness of his Knowledg before any causes of them appear he doth know all things future 3. Some future things are known by men and we must allow God a greater Knowledg than any Creature Future things in their Causes may be known by Angels and men as I said before whosoever knows necessary causes and the efficacy of them may foretell the effects and when he sees the meeting and concurrence of several causes together he may presage what the consequent effect will be of such a concurrence So Physicians foretel the Progress of a Disease the increase or diminution of it by natural Signs and Astronomers foretel Eclipses
1 Cor. 1.9 Is he the Instrumental or Principal cause of our effectual Vocation And can the Will of God be the Instrument of putting Paul into the Apostleship or the Soveraign cause of investing him with that Dignity when he calls himself an Apostle by the will of God Ephes 1.3 And when all things are said to be through God as well as of him must he be counted the Instrumental cause of his own Creation Counsels and Judgments * Rom. 11.36 When we mortifie the deeds of the Body through the Spirit Rom. 8.13 or keep the Treasure of the Word by the Holy Ghost 2 Tim. 1.14 Is the Holy Ghost of no more dignity in such acts than Instrument Nor doth the gaining a thing by a Person make him a meer Instrument or Inferior as when a Man gains his Right in a way of Justice against his Adversary by the Magistrate is the Judge inferiour to the Suppliant If the Word were an Instrument in Creation it must be a created or uncreated Instrument If Created it could not be true what the Evangelist saith that All things were made by him since himself the Principal thing could not be made by himself if Uncreated he was God and so acted by a Divine Omnipotency which surmounts an Instrumental cause But indeed an Instrument is impossible in Creation since it is wrought only by an act of the Divine Will Do we need any Organ to an act of Volition the efficacious Will of the Creator is the cause of the Original of the Body of the World with its particular Members and exact Harmony It was form'd by a Word and establish'd by a Command †Psal 33.9 the beauty of the Creation stood up at the Precept of his Will Nor was the Son a Partial cause as when many are said to build a House one works one part and another frames another part God created all things by the immediate operation of the Son in the unity of Essence Goodness Power Wisdom not an extrinsick but a connatural Instrument As the Sun doth illustrate all things by his Light and quickens all things by his Heat so God created the Worlds by Christ as he was the brightness or splendor of his Glory the exact image of his Person which follows the declaration of his making the Worlds by him ‖ Heb. 1.3 4. to shew that he acted not as an Instrument but one in Essential conjunction with him as Light and Brightness with the Sun But suppose he did make the World as a kind of Instrument He was then before the World not bounded by Time and Eternity cannot well be conceiv'd belonging to a Being without Omnipotency He is the End as well as the Author of the Creatures * Colos 1.16 not only the Principle which gave them Being but the Sea into whose glory they run and dissolve themselves which consists not with the meaness of an Instrument 2. As Creation so Preservation is ascribed to him Colos 1.17 By him all things consist As he preceded all things in his Eternity so he establishes all things by his Omnipotency and fixes them in their several Centers that they sink not into that nothing from whence he fetched them By him they flourish in their several Beings and observe the Laws and Orders he first appointed That Power of his which extracted them from insensible Nothing upholds them in their several Beings with the same facility as he spake Being into them even by the word of his Power ‖ Heb. 1 3. and by one Creative continued Voice called all Generations from the beginning to the Period of the World * Isai 41.4 and causes them to flourish in their several seasons 'T is by him Kings reign and Princes decree justice and all things are confin'd within the limits of Government All which are Acts of an Infinite Power 3. Resurrection is also ascrib'd to him The Body crumbled to Dust and that Dust blown to several quarters of the World cannot be gathered in its distinct parts and new formed for the entertainment of the Soul without the strength of an Infinite Arm. This he will do and more change the vileness of an Earthly Body into the glory of an Heavenly one a Dusty flesh into a Spiritual Body which is an argument of a Power Invincible to which all things cannot but stoop for it is by such an operation which testifies an ability to subdue all things to himself †Phil. 3.21 especially when he works it with the same ease as he did the Creation by the power of his Voice John 5.28 All that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth Speaking them into a restored life from insensible Dust as he did into Being from an empty Nothing The greatest acts of Power are own'd to belong to Creation Preservation Resurrection Omnipotence therefore is his Right and therefore a Deity cannot be denied to him that inherits a Perfection essential to none but God and impossible to be intrusted in or managed by the hands of any Creatures And this is no mean comfort to those that believe in him He is in regard of his Power the Horn of salvation so Zachariah sings of him Luke 1.69 Nor could there be any more Mighty found out upon whom God could have laid our help ‖ Psal 89.19 No reason therefore to doubt his ability to save to the utmost who hath the Power of Creation Preservation and Resurrection in his hands His Promises must be accomplished since nothing can resist him He hath Power to fulfil his Word and bring all things to a final issue because he is Almighty by his Outstretched Arm in the Deliverance of his Israel from Egypt for it was his Arm 1 Cor. 10. he shewed that he was able to deliver us from Spiritual Egypt The charge of Mediator to expiate Sin vanquish Hell form a Church conduct and perfect it are not to be effected by a Person of less ability than Infinite Let this Almightiness of his be the Bottom wherein to cast and fix the Anchor of our Hopes 2. Information Hence may be inferred the Deity of the Holy Ghost Works of Omnipotency are ascrib'd to the Spirit of God By the motion of the Wings of this Spirit as a Bird over her Eggs was that rude and unshapen Mass hatcht into a comly World * Gen. 1.2 So the word Moved properly signifies The Stars or perhaps the Angels are meant by the garnishing of the Heavens in the Verse before the Text were brought forth in their comliness and dignity as the ornaments of the upper World by this Spirit By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens To this Spirit Job ascribes the formation both of the Body and Soul under the Title of Almighty Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Resurrection another work of Omnipotency is attributed to him Rom. 8.11 The Conception of our Saviour
was that which was the principal support of Abraham not barely his promise but his ability to make it good Rom. 4.21 And when he was commanded to sacrifice Isaac the ability of God to raise him up again Heb. 11.19 All Faith would droop and be in the mire without leaning upon this All those Attributes which we consider as Moral in God would have no influence upon us without this which we consider Physically in God Though we value the kindness men may express to us in our Distresses yet we make them not the Objects of our Confidence unless they have an ability to act what they express There can be no trust in God without an eye to his Power 2. Sometimes the Power of God is the sole Object of trust As when we have no promise to assure us of his Will we have nothing else to pitch upon but his Ability and that not his absolute Power but his ordinate in the way of his Providence we must not trust in it so as to expect he should please our humour with fresh Miracles but rest upon his Power and leave the manner to his Will Asa when ready to Conflict with the vast Ethiopian Army pleaded nothing else but this Power of God a Chron. 14.11 And the three Children who had no particular promise of deliverance that we read of stuck to God's Ability to preserve them against the Kings threatning and own'd it in the face of the King yet with some kind of inward intimations in their own Spirits that he would also deliver them Dan. 3.17 Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery Furnace And accordingly the fire burnt the Cords that tied them without singing any thing else about them But when this Power hath been exercis'd upon like occasions 't is a President he hath given us to rest upon Presidents in Law are good pleas and strong encouragements to the Clyent to expect success in his Sute Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them saith David Psal 22.4 And Jehosaphat in a case of distress 2 Chron. 20.7 Art not thou our God that didst drive out the Inhabitants of this Land before thy People Israel When we have not any Statute Law and Promise to plead we may plead his Power together with the former Presidents and Acts of it The Centurion had nothing else to act his Faith upon but the Power of Christ and some Evidences of it in the Miracles reported of him but he is silent in the latter and casts himself only upon the former acknowledging that Christ had the same command over Diseases as himself had over his Souldiers ‖ Matâ—h 8.10 And our Saviour when he receives the Petition of the blind men requires no more of them in order to a Cure but a belief of his Ability to perform it Matth. 9.28 Believe you that I am able to do this His Will is not known but by Revelation but his Power is apprehended by Reason as essentially and eternally linkt with the Notion of a God God also is jealous of the Honour of this Attribute and since it is so much virtually discredited he is pleas'd when any do cordially own it and intirely resign themselves to the assistance of it Well then in all Duties where Faith is particularly to be acted forget not this as the main prop of it Do you pray for a flourishing and triumphing Grace Consider him as able to make all Grace to abound in you 2 Cor. 9.8 Do you want comfort and reviving under your Contritions and godly Sorrow Consider him as he declares himself The high and lofty One Isa 57.15 Are you under pressing distresses Take Eliphaz his advice to Job when he tells him what he himself would do if he were in his case Job 5.8 I would seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause But observe under what consideration Vers 9. as to one that doth great things and unsearchable marvellous things without number When you beg of him the melting your rocky hearts the dashing in pieces your strong Corruptions the drawing his beautiful Image in your Soul the quickning your dead hearts and reviving your drooping Spirits and supplying your Spiritual wants consider him as one able to do abundantly not only above what you can ask but above what you can think Eph. 3.20 Faith will be spiritless and Prayer will be liveless if Power be not eyed by us in those things which cannot be done without an Arm of Omnipotence 3. This Doctrine teacheth us Humility and Submission The vast disproportion between the mightiness of God and the meaness of a Creature inculcates the Lesson of Humility in his Presence How becoming is Humility under a mighty hand 1 Pet. 5.6 What is an Infant in a Giants hand or a Lamb in a Lions paw Submission to irresistible Power is the best policy and the best security This gratifies and draws out Goodness whereas murmuring and resistance exasperates and sharpens Power We sanctifie his Name and glorifie his strength by falling down before it 't is an acknowledgment of his invisible strength and our inability to match it How low should we therefore lye before him against whose Power our Pride and Murmuring can do no good who can out-wrestle us in our Contests and alway overcome when he judges Rom. 3.4 4. This Doctrine teacheth us not to fear the pride and force of man How unreasonable is it to fear a limited above an unbounded Power How unbecoming is the fear of man in him who hath an interest in a Strength able to curb the strongest Devils Who would tremble at the threats of a Dwarf that hath a mighty and watchful Giant for his Guard If God doth but arise his enemies are scattered Psal 68.1 the least motion makes them fly before him 'T is no difficult thing for him that made them by a word to unmake their designs and shiver them in pieces by the breath of his mouth He brings Princes to nothing and makes the Judges of the Earth vanity they wither when he blows upon them and their stock shall not take root in the Earth He can command a Whirlwind to take them away as stubble Isa 40.23 24. yea with the shaking of his hand he makes Servants to become Rulers of those that were their Masters Zach. 2.9 Whole Nations are no more in his hands than a morning Cloud or the dew upon the ground or the chaff before the wind or the smoak against the motion of the Air which though it appear out of a Chimney like a black invincible Cloud is quickly disperst and becomes invisible * Hos 13.3 How inconsiderable are the most Mighty to this Strength which can puff away a whole World of proud Grashoppers and a whole Sky of daring Clouds He that by his word masters the rage of the Sea can over-rule the Pride and Power of Men. Where is the Fury of the Oppressor It cannnot overleap
should enflame us with a zeal and fortitude to appear in the behalf of his despised Honour We honour this Holiness many other ways by preparation for our addresses to him out of a sense of his purity When we imitate it As he honours us by teaching us his Statutes * Psal 119.135 so we honour him by learning and observing them When we beg of him to shew himself a Refiner of us to make us more conformable to him in holiness and bless him for any communication of it to us it render us beautiful and lovely in his sight To conclude To honour it is the way to engage it for us To give it the glory of what it hath done by the arm of power for our rescue from Sin and beating down our Corruptions at his feet is the way to see more of its marvellous works behold a clearer brightness As unthankfulness makes him withdraw his Grace * Rom. 1.21 24. so glorifying him causes him to impart it God honours men in the same way they honour him When we honour him by acknowledging his Purity he will honour us by communicating of it to us This is the way to derive a greater excellency to our Souls 3. Exhortation Since holiness is an eminent Perfection of the Divine Nature let us labour after a Conformity to God in this Perfection The Nature of God is presented to us in the Scripture both as a pattern to imitate and a Motive to perswade the Creature to holiness ‖ i Joh. 3.3 Matth. 5.48 Lev. 11.44 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Sâ—nce it is therefore the Nature of God the more our Natures are beautified with it the more like we are to the Divine Nature 'T is not the pattern of Angels or Arch-angels that our Saviour or his Apostle proposeth for our imitation but the original of all Purity God himself The same that created us to be imitated by us Nor is an equal degree of Purity enjoyned us though we are to be pure and perfect and merciful as God is yet not essentially so for that would be to command us an impossibility in itself as much as to order us to cease to be Creatures and commence Gods No Creature can be essentially holy but by participation from the chief Fountain of holiness but we must have the same kind of holiness the same truth of holiness As a short line may be as straight as another though it parallel it not in the immense length of it A copy may have the likeness of the Original though not the same Perfection We can not be good without eying some exemplar of goodness as the Pattern No pattern is so sutable as that which is the highest Goodness and Purity That Limner that would draw the most excellent piece fixes his eyes upon the most perfect Pattern He that would be a good Orator or Poet or Artificer considers some person most excellent in each kind as the Object of his imitation Who so sit as God to be viewed as the pattern of holiness in our intendment of and endeavor after holiness The Stoicks one of the best sects of Philosophers advised their Disciples to pitch upon some eminent example of Vertue according to which to form their lives as Socrates c. But true holiness doth not only endeavour to live the life of a good man but chuses to live a divine life As before the man was alienated from the life of God †Eph. 4 1â— so upon his return he aspires after the life of God To endeavour to be like a good man is to make one Image like another to set our Clocks by other Clocks without regarding the Sun But true holiness consists in a likeness to the most exact Sampler God being the first Purity is the Rule as well as the Spring of all Purity in the Creature the chief and first Object of Imitation We disown our selves to be his Creatures if we breath not after a resemblance to him in what he is imitable There was in man as created according to God's Image a natural appetite to resemble God It was at first planted in him by the Authour of his Nature The Devils temptation of him by that Motive to transgress the Law had been as an Arrow shot against a b azen Wall had there not been a desire of some likeness to his Creator engraven upon him * Gen. 3.5 It would have had no more influence upon him than it could have had upon a meer Animal But man mistook the term he would have been like God in knowledge whereas he should have affected a greater resemblance of him in Purity O that we could exemplify God in our Nature Precepts may instruct us more but Examples affect us more one directs us but the other attracts us What can be more attractive of our imitation than that which is the Original of all Purity both in Men and Angels This conformity to him consists in an imitation of him 1. In his Law The Purity of his Nature was first visible in this Glass hence 't is called a holy Law Rom. 7.12 a pure Law Psal 19.8 Holy and pure as it is a Ray of the pure Nature of the Law-giver When our Lives are a Comment upon his Law they are expressive of his Holiness We conform to his Holiness when we regulate our selves by his Law as it is a Transcript of his Holiness We do not imitate it when we do a thing in the matter of it agreeable to that holy Rule but when we do it with respect to the Purity of the Law-giver beaming in it If it be agreeable to God's will and convenient for some design of our own and we do any thing only with a respect to that design we make not God's Holâ—ness discovered in the Law our Rule but our own conveniency 'T is not a conformity to God but a conformity of our Actions to Self As in abstinence from intemperate Courses not because the holiness of God in his Law hath prescrib'd it but because the health of our Bodies or some noble Contentments of life require it then it is not God's holiness that is our Rule but our own security conveniency or some thing else which we make a God to our selves It must be a real conformity to the Law Our holiness should shine as really in the practise as God's Purity doth in the Precept God hath not a pretence of Purity in his Nature but a reality 'T is not only a suddain boiling up of an admiration of him or a starting wish to be like him from some suddain impression upon the Fancy which is a meer temporary blaze but a setled temper of Soul loving every thing that is like him doing things out of a firm desire to resemble his Purity in the Copy he hath set not a resting in Negatives but aspiring to Positives Holy and harmless are distinct things They were distinct qualifications in our High Priest in his Obedience to the Law
when he describes him in his Wrath and Fury and is Furious Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord of hot Anger God will vindicate his own Glory and have his right on his Enemies in a way of punishment if they will not give it him in a way of Obedience * Ribera in loc 'T is three times repeated to shew the certainty of the judgment And the name of Lord added to every one to intimate the Power wherewith the Judgment should be executed 'T is not a Fatherly correction of Children in a way of Mercy but an offended soveraigns destruction of his Enemies in a way of vengeance There is an anger of God with his own people which hath more of Mercy than Wrath in this his Rod is guided by his bowels There is a fury of God against his Enemies where there is sole Wrath without any tincture of Mercy when his Sword is all edge without any Balsom-drops upon it Such a fury as David deprecates Psal 6.1 Oh Lord rebuke me not in thy Anger nor chasten me in thy sore displeasure with a fury untempered with Grace and insupportable Wrath. He reserves Wrath for his Enemies He lays it up in his Treasury to be brought out and expended in a due season Wrath is supplied by our Translators and is not in the Hebrew He reserves what that which is too sharp to be exprest too great to be conceiv'd A vengeance it is And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He reserves it He that hath an infinite Wrath he reserves it that hath a strength and power to execute it VERSE 3. The Lord is slow to Anger Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of broad Nostrils The Anger of God is exprest by this word which signifies Nostrils As Job 9.13 If God will not withdraw his Anger Heb. his nostril And the Anger whereby the wicked are consum'd is called the breath of Nostrils Job 4.9 and when he is angry smoak and fire are said to go out of his Nostrils 2 Sam. 2.9 and in the 74th Psalm 1. Why doth thy anger smoak Heb. Why do thy Nostrils smoak So the rage of a Horse when he is provokt in battle is call'd the Glory of his Nostrils Job 39.20 He breaths quick fumes and neighs with fury And slowness to anger is here exprest by the phrase of long or wide Nostrils Because in a vehement anger the blood boyling about the heart exhales mens Spirits which fume up and break out in dilated Nostrils But where the passages are straiter the spirits have not so quick a vent and therefore raise more motions within Or because the wider the Nostrils are the more cool Air is drawn in to temper the heat of the heart where the angry spirits are gather'd And so the passion is allay'd and sooner calm'd God speaks of himself in Scripture often after the rate of Men Jeremy prays Jer. 15.15 That God would not take him away in his long-suffering Heb. in the length of his Nostrils i. e. Be not slow and backward in thy anger against my Persecutors as to give them time and opportunity to destroy me The Nostrils as well as other members of a humane Body are ascribed to God He is slow to anger he hath anger in his nature but is not always in the execution of it And great in Power This may referre to his Patience as the cause of it or as a barr to the abuse of it 1. He is slow to anger and great in power i. e. his power moderates his Anger he is not so impotent as to be at the command of his passions as men are He can restrain his anger under just provocations to exercise it His power over himself is the cause of his slowness to wrath As Numb 14.17 Let the power of my Lord be great saith Moses when he pleads for the Israelites pardon Men that are great in the World are quick in passions and are not so ready to forgive an injury or bear with an offender as one of a meaner rank 'T is a want of a power over a mans self that makes him do unbecoming things upon a provocation A Prince that can bridle his passion is a King over himself as well as over his Subjects God is slow to Anger because great in Power He hath no less power over himself than over his Creatures He can sustain great injuries without an immediate and quick revenge He hath a power of Patience as well as a power of Justice 2. Or thus he is slow to Anger and great in Power He is slow to Anger but not for want of Power to revenge himself his Power is as great to punish as his Patience to spare It seems thus that slowness to Anger is brought in as an objection against the revenge proclaimed What do you tell us of vengeance vengeance nothing but such repetitions of vengeance As though we were ignorant that God is slow to Anger 'T is true saith the Prophet I acknowledge it as much as you that God is slow to Anger but withall great in Power His Anger certainly succeeds his abus'd Patience he will not always bridle in his Wrath but one time or other let it march out in fury against his Adversaries The Assyrians who had captiv'd the Ten Tribes and been victorious a little against the Jews might think that the God of Israel had been conquered by their Gods as well as the People professing him had been subdued by their arms That God had lost all his power and the Jews might argue from Gods Patience to his Enemies against the credit of the Prophets denouncing revenge The Prophet answers to the terror of the one and the comfort of the other That this indulgence to his Enemies and not accounting with them for their Crimes proceeded from the greatness of his Patience and not from any debility in his power As it refers to the Assyrian it may be rendered thus You Ninivites upon your Repentance after Jonahs thundring of Judgments are Witnesses of the slowness of God to Anger and had your punishments deferr'd But falling to your old sins you shall find a real punishment and that he hath as much Power to execute his ancient threatnings as he had then compassion to recall them His Patience to you then was not for want of power to ruine you but was the effect of his goodness towards you As it refers to the Jews it may be thus paraphrased do not despise this threatning against your Enemies because of the greatness of their might the seeming stability of their Empire and the terror they posseâ—s all the Nations with round about them It may be long before it comes but assure your selves the threatning I denounce shall certainly be executed though he hath Patience to endure them a hundred thirty five years for so long it was before Nineveh was destroy'd after this threatning as * p. 359. col 1â— Ribera in loc computes from the years of the reign of the Kings of Judah
that their corruption should be so deep and strong that so much patience could not overcome it It would certainly make a man asham'd of his nature as well as his actions 3. The consideration of his patience would make us resent more the injuries done by others to God A Patient sufferer though a deserving sufferer attracts the pity of men that have a value for any vertue though clouded with a heap of vice How much more should we have a concern for God who suffers so many abuses from others And be grieved that so admirable a patience should be slighted by men who solely live by and under the daily influence of it The impression of this would make us take Gods part as it is usual with men to take the part of good dispositions that lie under oppression 4. It would make us patient under Gods hand His slowness to Anger and his forbearance is visible in the very strokes we feel in this Life We have no reason to murmur against him who gives us so little cause and in the greatest afflictions gives us more occasion of thankfulness than of repining Did not slowness to the extreamest Anger moderate every affliction it had been a Scorpion instead of a rod. We have reason to bless him who from his long-suffering sends temporal sufferings where eternal are justly due Ezra 9.13 Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities do deserve His indulgences towards us have been more than our corrections and the length of his patience hath exceeded the sharpness of his rod Upon the account of his long-suffering our mutinies against God have as little to excuse them as our sins against him have to deserve his forbearance The consideration of this would shew us more reason to repine at our own repinings than at any of his smarter dealings And the consideration of this would make us submissive under the Judgments we expect His undeserved patience hath been more than our merited judgments can possibly be thought to be If we fear the removal of the Gospel for a season as we have reason to do we should rather bless him that by his waiting patience he hath continued it so long then murmur that he threatens to take it away so late He hath born with us many a year since the light of it was re-kindled when our Ancestors had but six years of patience between the rise of Edward the VI and the ascent of Queen Mary to the Crown 2. Exhortation is to admire and stand astonisht at his patience and bless him for it If you should have defil'd your Neighbors bed or sullyed his reputation or rifled his Goods would he have withheld his vengeance unless he had been too weak to execute it We have done worse to God then we can do to man and yet he draws not that Sword of Wrath out of the scabbard of his patience to sheath it in our hearts 'T is not so much a wonder that any Judgments are sent as that there are no more and sharper That the World shall be fired at last is not a thing so strange as that fire doth not come down every day upon some part of it Had the disciples that saw such excellent patterns of mildness from their Master and were so often urg'd to learn of him that was lowly and meek the Government of the World it had been long since turn'd into ashes since they were too forward to desire him to open his magazine of judgments and kindle a fire to consume a Samaritan Village for a slight affront in comparison of what he received from others and afterwards from themselves in their forsaking of him Luke 9.52 53 54. We should admire and praise that here which shall be prais'd in Heaven though patience shall cease as to its exercise after the consummation of the World it shall not cease from receiving the acknowledgments of what it did when it traversed the stage of this Earth If the Name of God be glorified and acknowledged in Heaven no question but this will also since long-suffering is one of his Divine Titles a letter in his name as well as Merciful and Gracious Abundant in Goodness and Truth And there is good reason to think that the patience exercised towards some before converting grace was ordered to seize upon them will bear a great part in the Anthems of Heaven The greater his long-suffering hath been to men that lay covered with their own dung a long time before they were freed by grace from their filth the more admiringly and loudly they will cry up his Mercy to them after they have past the gulf and see a deserv'd Hell at a distance from them and many in that place of torments who never had the tasts of so much forbearance If mercy will be prais'd there that which began the Alphabet of it cannot be forgot If Paul speak so highly of it in a damping World and under the pull-backs of a body of death as he doth 1 Tim. 1.16 17. For this cause I obtained mercy that Christ might shew forth all long-suffering Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the Only Wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen No doubt but he will have a higher note for it when he is surrounded with a heavenly flame and freed from all remains of dullness shall it be praised above and have we no notes for it here below Admire Christ too who sued out your repreive upon the account of his merit As mercy acts not upon any but in Christ so neither had patience born with any but in Christ The pronouncing the arrest of Judgment Gen. 8.21 was when God smell'd a sweet savour from Noahs sacrifice not from the Beasts offer'd but the Antitypical sacrifice represented That we may be raised to bless God for it let us consider 1. The multitude of our provocations Though some have blacker guilt than others and deeper stains yet let none wipe his mouth but rather imagine himself to have but little reason to bless it Are not all our offences as many as their have been minutes in our lives All the moments of our continuance in the World have been moments of his Patience and our ingratitude Adam was punished for one sin Moses excluded Canaan for a passionate unbelieving word Ananias and Saphira lost their lives for one sin against the Holy Ghost One sin sullyed the beauty of the World defaced the works of God had crackt Heaven and Earth in pieces had not infinite satisfaction been proposed to the provoked Justice by the Redeemer And not one sin committed but is of the same venemous nature How many of those contradictions against himself hath he born with Had we been only unprofitable to him his forbearance of us had been miraculous But how much doth it exceed a miracle and lift it self above the meanness of a conjunction with such an Epithet since we have been provoking Had there been no more than our impudent or careless
rushings into his presence in Worship Had they been only sins of Omission and sins of Ignorance it had been enough to have put a stand to any further operations of this perfection towards us But add to those sins of Commission sins against knowledge sins against spiritual motions sins against repeated resolutions and pressing admonitions the neglects of all the opportunities of Repentance put them all together and we can as little recount them as the sands on the sea shore But what do I only speak of particular men view the whole World and if our own iniquities render it an amazing Patience what a mighty supply will be made to it in all the numerous and weighty provocations under which he hath continued the World for so many revolutions of Years and Ages Have not all those pressed into his presence with a loud cry and demanded a sentence from Justice yet hath not the Judge been overcome by the importunity of our sins * Pont. part 1. 42. Were the Devils punished for one sin a proud thought and that not committed against the blood of Christ as we have done numberless times yet hath not God made us partakers in their punishment though we have exceeded them in the quality of their sin Oh admirable patience that would bear with me under so many while he would not bear with the sinning Angels for one 2. Consider how mean things we are who have provoked him What is man but a vile thing that a God abounding with all riches should take care of so abject a thing much more to bear so many affronts from such a drop of matter such a nothing creature That he that hath anger at his command as well as pity should endure such a detestable deformed creature by sin to fly in his face What is man that thou art mindful of him Psal 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miserable incurable man derived from a word that signifies to be incurably sick Man is Adam Earth from his Earthly Original and Enosh incurable from his corruption Is it not worthy to be admired that a God of infinite Glory should wait on such Adams worms of earth and be as it were a servant and attendant to such Enoshes sickly and peevish creatures 3. Consider who it is that is thus patient He it is that with one breath could turn Heaven and Earth and all the inhabitants of both into nothing That could by one Thunderbolt have razed up the Foundations of a cursed World He that wants not instruments without to ruine us that can arm our own Consciences against us and can drown us in our own Phlegm And by taking out one pin from our bodies cause the whole frame to fall asunder Besides 't is a God that while he suffers the sinner hates the sin more than all the Holy men upon Earth or Angels in Heaven can do So that his patience for a minute transcends the patience of all creatures from the Creation to the Dissolution of the World because it is the patience of a God infinitely more sensible of the cursed quality of sin and infinitely more detesting it 4. Consider how long he hath forborn his anger A reprieve for a Week or a Month is accounted a great favour in Civil States The Civil Law enacts * Cod. Lib. 9. Titul 47 6. 20. that if the Emperour commanded a man to be condemned the Execution was to be deferred 30 dayes because in that time the Princes anger might be appeased But how great a favour is it to be reprieved 30 years for many offences every one of which deserves death more at the hands of God than any offence can at the hands of man Paul was according to the common account but about 30 years Old at his Conversion and how much doth he elevate Divine long suffering Certainly there are many who have more reason as having larger quantities of patience cut out to them who have lived to see their own gray hairs in a rebellious posture against God before Grace brought them to a surrender We were all condemn'd in the Womb our Lives were forfeited the first moment of our breath but patience hath stopt the Arrest The merciful Creditor deserves to have acknowledgment from us who hath laid by his Bond so many years without putting it in suit against us Many of your companions in sin have perhaps been surprized long ago and haled to an Eternal Prison Nothing is remaining of them but their dust and the time is not yet come for your Funeral Let it be considered that that God that would not wait upon the fallen Angels one instant after their sin nor give them a moments space of Repentance hath prolonged the Life of many a sinner in the World to innumerable moments to 420000 minutes in the space of a Year to 8 Millions and 400000 Minutes in the space of 20 Years The damned in Hell would think it a great kindness to have but a Year's Month's nay Daye 's respite as a space to Repent in 5. Consider also how many have been taken away under shorter measures of patience Some have been struck into a Hell of misery while thou remainest upon an Earth of forbearance In a Plague the destroying Angel hath hew'd down others and past by us The Arrows have flew about our heads past over us and stuck in the heart of a neighbour How many Rich men How many of our Friends and Familiars have been seiz'd by death since the beginning of the year when they least thought of it and imagin'd it far from them Have you not known some of your acquaintance snatcht away in the height of a crime Was not the same wrath due to you as well as to them And had it not been as dreadful for you to be so surprized by him as it was for them Why should he take a less sturdy sinner out of thy company and let thee remain still upon the Earth If God had dealt so with you how had you been cut off not only from the enjoyment of this Life but the hopes of a better And if God hath made such a Providence beneficial for reclaiming you how much reason have you to acknowledge him He that hath had least patience hath cause to admire but those that have more ought to exceed others in blessing him for it If God had put an end to your natural Life before you had made provision for Eternal how deplorable would your condition have been Consider also who ever have been sinners formerly of a deeper note Might not God have struck a man in the embraces of his Harlots and choaked him in the moment of his excessive and intemperate healths or on the sudden have spurted Fire and Brimstone into a blasphemers mouth What if God had snatcht you away when you had been sleeping in some great iniquity or sent you while burning in lust to the fire it merited Might he not have crackt the string that linkt your souls to your