fury the Rocks are rent in pieces the most stony hearts are melted the Mountains are moved the highest and firmliest seated Sinners are shaken out of their places and senses the foundations of the World tremble and quake the strongest Pillars are troubled the whole frame and body of Nature is affected with a Palsie Psal 18.13 The Lord thundred in the Heavens the highest gave forth his Voice what followeth Hail-stones and coals of fire 3. It is efficacious in healing the wounded Spirit When God takes the Sword of the Spirit into his own Hand and wields it with his own Arm it makes work it makes wounds to purpose in the consciences of men the sleepy Soul is now awakened the secure Soul is now affrighted the sensless Soul is now affected with his sins and misery Acts 2.37 the man tasteth the bitterness of his original and actual corruptions feeleth the weight of Divine fury and indignation findeth the Poyson to work in his Bowels and wracking him with extremity of pain Psal 38.4 Job 6.10 There is no rest in his Flesh because of God's anger nor quiet in his Bones because of his sins The arrows of the Almighty are within him and his terrors set themselves in array against him The unquenchable fire flasheth in his face and destruction in his thoughts is ready to lay hold of him in this condition he knoweth not what to do Prov. 18.14 for a wounded Spirit who can bear He tryeth Creatures but they can afford him no ease Miserable Comforters are they all to him and Pyhsicians of no value It 's the same hand that wounded that alone can cure him it 's the same word that bruised him that must bind him up let God but speak to this Soul that is thus sunk down into Hell and it will be lifted up to Heaven Fools because of their Iniquities and Transgressions are afflicted their Soul abhoreth all manner of meat they are so sick that they can relish take down nothing and they draw near to the gates of Death they are almost in they are on the brink of Hell what course must be used for their cure truly this He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their Destruction Psal 107.17 18 19 20. No Herb in the Garden of the whole World can do these distress'd Creatures the least good Friends may speak Ministers may speak yea Angels may speak and yet all in vain the wounds are incurable for all their words But if God please to speak the dying Soul reviveth His word is the onely Balm that can cure the wounded conscience he sendeth his Word and healeth them Conscience is God's Prisoner he claps it in hold he layeth it in fetters that the iron enters the very Soul this he doth by his word and truly he onely who shuts up can let out all the World cannot open the iron Gate knock off the shackles and set the poor Prisoner at liberty till God speak the word David professed he had quite fainted had it not been for this Aqua vitae this Cordial water I had perished in my affliction but thy word comforted me Psal 119.92 The boistrous Billows went over my Soul and I had sunk in those deep Waters had not thy Word bore me up CHAP. XVII If God be incomparable 1. How great is the malignity of Sin which contemneth dishonoureth and opposeth this God I Come now to make some application of this great and weighty Truth It may be useful by way of Information Counsel and Comfort First By way of Information If God be so incomparable that there is none on Earth none in Heaven comparable to him It may inform us 1. Of the great venome and malignity of Sin because it is an injury to so great so glorious so incomparable a Being The higher and better any Object is the baser and the worse is that action which is injurious to it To throw dirt on Sack-cloth is not so bad as to throw dirt on Scarlet or fine Linnen To make a flaw in a pebble or common stone is nothing to the making a flaw in a Diamond or precious stone Those opprobrious Speeches or injurious Actions against an ordinary person which are but a breach of the good behaviour and bear but a common Action at Law if against a Prince may be high Treason because of the execellency of his Place and Majesty of his Person The worth and dignity of the Object doth exceedingly heighten and aggravate the Offence How horrid then is Sin and of how hainous a nature when it offendeth and opposeth not Kings the highest of men not Angels the highest of Creatures But God the highest of Beings the incomparable God to whom Kings and Angels yea the whole Creation is less then nothing We take the size of Sin too low and short and wrong when we measure it by the wrong it doth to our selves or our Families or our Neighbours or the Nation wherein we live indeed herein somewhat of its evil and mischief doth appear but to take its full length and proportion we must consider the wrong it doth to this great this glorious this incomparable God Sin is incomparably malignant because the God principally injur'd by it is incomparably excellent It 's one thing to displease and offend man a poor slimy worm a mean shallow Creature of the same make and mold with our selves and another thing to displease and offend God that unconceivable immense Being If one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him an humane Judge may undertake to determine and comprise Offences between them that stand upon the same level but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2.25 Here the case is alter'd here is a pitiful finite Creature offending an infinite Creator what man dares arbitrate this difference nay who can intercede and interpose between these too Hence hence it is that there is no less then an infinite demerit in sin because its an injury to an infinite Majesty Nothing discovers sin to be so great an evil as its opposition to so vast so matchless so great a good so incomparable a God The evil of sin appeareth somewhat in the injury it doth to our Estates Prov. 23.21 The Drunkard and Glutton shall come to poverty and idleness shall cloath a man with rags To our Names The name of the Wicked shall rot Prov. 11.7 To our Families A wicked man troubleth his own House Prov. 15.27 Prov. 3.33 To our Neighbours One sinner destroyeth much good Eccl. 3.18 To our Nation Jer. 18.7 8. Psal 107.34 He turneth a fruitful Land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein To our Bodies Who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath wound without cause They that tarry long at the Wine Prov. 23.29 30. Prov. 5.11 To our Souls He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul Prov. 8. ult But all this discovers nothing of sins evil to that which
is discover'd by the injury it doth to the incomparable God because our Estates our Names our Families our Neighbours our Nations our Bodies our Souls are all nothing infinitely less then Nothing to the great God the incomparable This this is the only Glass that discovers the horrid ugly features the monstrous frightful deformities of sins face that it is a wrong to the blessed God to him who is the high lofty one Isa 57.15 1. In that sin is a breach of this incomparable God's Law a violation of his Command a contradiction of his Will Whosoever sinneth transgresseth the Law for sin is a transgression of the Law 1 John 3.4 Neither the greatness nor smallness of our obedience or disobedience is to be valued according to the greatness or smallness of the thing commanded or forbidden nor according to the greatness or smallness of the good or hurt done to man by it but according to the greatness of the Person who commandeth or forbiddeth 2. In that it is a contempt of this incomparable God's Authority a slighting his Dominion a denying his Sovereignty Who is the Lord that I should obey his Voice Exod. 5.2 is the Voice of every Sinner We are our own say they Who is Lord over us Psal 12.4 They know no Maker and therefore own no Master For this cause the Sinner is said to cast the incomparable God behind his back as not worth minding or regarding 1 Kings 14.9 And to despise him as some mean inconsiderable Being 1 Sam. 2.30 2 Sam. 12.9 10. 3. In that it is a dishonouring this incomparable God whose name alone is excellent It layeth him low who is the most high Psal 92.1 Through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God Rom. 2.23 24. It is ill to reproach a common man worse to reproach a Noble man or a Prince but O how bad is it to reproach the great God! to blaspheme that worthy Name Sin layeth the honour of this incomparable God which is more worth then millions of Worlds in the dust and trampleth on it The Romans when they would mark one with ignominy and brand him with reproach would put him out of their Senate or any place of Credit in which he was and pull down his Statue or Monument if any were erected to his Honour Sin degrades and dethrones God it will not allow him to be the Lord and Supreme of the World and it defaceth his Image where-ever it finds it as one contrary expels another It disgraceth his Justice thence is called Vnrighteousness 1 John 1.6 His Wisdom thence is called Folly Prov. 5.23 His Patience thence is called Murmuring Jude 16. His Power thence is called Weakness Rom. 5.8 His Mercy thence is called Vnthankfulness Luke 6.35 His Knowledge thence is called Ignorance and a work of Darkness 1 Pet. 1.14 Eph. 5.8 His Truth thence is called a Lye and lying Vanity Psal 58.2 Jonah 2.8 In all these and every way it disgraceth his Holiness which is his Glory and the glory of all his Attributes Exod. 15.11 thence is called Filthiness 2 Cor. 7.1 Vncleanness Rom. 1.24 4. In that it is a fighting with and to its power a destroying this incomparable God The murther of any man is hainous it is horrid 't is against nature and 't is the extremest mischief that one Creature can do to another Gen. 4.10 Math. 10.28 The murther of a Father or a Sovereign is far more hainous as being more against Nature and against more ingagements to the contrary He is cursed that mocketh his Father and his Heart smote him who did but cut off the skirt of his Kings Garment thought his Enemy what a Monster then is he that kills either but O what a Monster what a Devil is that which destroyeth as far as it is able the good the gracious the great the glorious the incomparable God Truly sin is such a Monster such a Devil that were its power equal to its spite and its strength answerable to its malice the living God should not live a moment Omne peccatum est Dei-cidium All sin is God-murder The Sinner hates God Rom. 1.30 and hatred ever wisheth and as 't is able worketh the destruction of its object The Fool hath said in his heart There is no God Psal 14.1 i. e. It is a pleasing thought to him to suppose there were no God as to guilty Prisoners to imagine there were no Judge to arraign and condemn them whom we fear as hurtful to us we hate and wish he were taken out of the way In order hereunto the Sinner strives with God and contendeth with him Job 34.7 fighteth against him Acts 5.39 He stretcheth out his hand against God and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty He puts forth all his force and venteth all his strength He runneth upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his Bucklers Runs upon him as one Enemy upon another furiously without fear and as he is able gets him down sets his Feet on his Neck trampleth on him and crusheth him Job 15.25 26. O how odious how loathsome how abominable is sin that breaks the Law slights the Authority dishonors the Name and to its utmost dethrones and destroys the Being of this incomparable God this self-sufficient independent absolutely perfect eternal incomprehensible infinite Being which alone deserves the name of Being and to which all other Beings are no Beings Reader should this God of Glory appear to thee as once to Abraham and shew thee a glimpse of his excellent glory that is above the Heavens should he discover to thee but a little of that greatness which the Heavens and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain of that duration which had no beginning hath no succession knoweth no ending of those perfections that admit of no bounds no limits that are uncapable of the least addition or accession to them and then should say unto thee as when he appeared to Saul Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Man man why despisest thou my Commands why despisest thou my Authority Sinner how darest thou dishonour my Name and seek my destruction What wouldst thou then think of Sin O what wouldst thou then think of thy self for thy sins Shouldst thou not have other thoughts of sin and of thy self for sin then ever yet thou hast had Wouldst thou not even loath thy self for being so base so vile so unworthy yea so mad as to offend affront and fight against such a God wouldst thou not cry out as Job I have sinned against thee and what shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men Job 7.20 I have sinned against thee an incomparable infinite unconceivable Being I have wronged thee the most high most holy most blessed God and what shall I do unto thee what amends shall I make thee what reparation shall I give thee It is impossible for me should I weep wail and lament and grieve millions of Ages to make the least satisfaction for the injury I have
conversations we must walk with God therefore we are commanded to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 But because in Ordinances we have more immediately and specially to do with him then we are said to appear before him Psal 42.2 therefore we are bound therein to be most aweful and reverential Subjects shew most reverence in the presence Chamber of their Soveraign O with what awe and dread should mortals appear in the presence of him who inhabiteth eternity should dust and ashes draw nigh to the mighty Possessor of heaven and earth Eccl. 5.1 2. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give the Sacrifice of Fools be not rash with thy mouth let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God but why all this care and caution for God is in Heaven and thou art on Earth His incomparable Majesty calleth for incomparable reverence Majesty is dreadful He is cloathed with Majesty Ps 39.1 All over Majesty therefore let all the earth stand in awe of him He is adorned surrounded with Majesty therefore we must be filled with the awe of him Isa 2.10 19 20. Fear and Majesty are three times conjoyned His incomparable power calls for incomparable reverence Power is aweful and the greater the power is the greater awe is required Math. 10.28 Fear not them that can kill the Body and can do no more but fear him who is able to cast Soul and Body into Hell As if Christ had said I know you are of timerous spirits and men of fearful tempers ye are apt to tremble and to be frighted at every thing well I will direct you how you may make this passion advantagious to you viz. by turning the stream into its proper channel by placing your fear on its proper object I will tell you of one worthy of your fear who deserveth to be feared So Luke 12.4 5. I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear I will offer you an object meet for your fear Fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him You are apt like Children to be frighted with Bug-bears and to dread them that can onely raze the Skin and pinch the Flesh and at the most can but take from you a life that will fall of it self within a few dayes well I 'le advise you whom to stand in awe of fear him that can kill you and damn you that can send your bodies to the grave and your souls to unquenchable flames yea I say unto you fear him 2. This incomparable God calls for incomparable humility and lowliness of Spirit from us The height of God must lay man low and the matchless excellency of God make him base in his own eyes When we behold our selves in the Glass of those that have little or nothing that is good or praise-worthy or that have less than our selves then we spread out our plumes and are puft up with pride and judge our selves comely creatures but if we would behold our selves in the glass of the Incomparable God in whose sight the Heavens are unclean in whose presence Angels vail their faces to whom ten thousand Suns are perfect darkness and all the world less than nothing how should we pluck in our plumes and abhor our selves for our pride Man never comes to a right knowledge of himself what a pitiful abominable wretch he is till he comes to a right knowledge of God what an excellent incomparable Majesty he is As when men stand high and look downward on those below them that are meaner and viler than themselves their heads are giddy and swim with conceitedness they then are some body in their own opinions but when they look upwards to the Great God the Sun the Soul the substance of all worth and excellency that Meagrum or high-mindedness is prevented The best men upon a sight of God the incomparable God though the more excellent he is the more cause they have of joy in having so rich a portion yet instead of loving have loathed themselves and instead of admiring have abhor'd themselves When Isaiah saw the God of glory sitting on his Throne in his brightness and beauty encircled with Millions of coelestial Courtiers covering their faces as ashamed of their drops in the presence of the Ocean and crying Holy Holy Holy as apprehending his purity beyond all their expressions and his perfections exceeding all their apprehensions what thoughts had he of himself O what a poor pitiful contemptible creature did he think himself yea what an uncomely loathsome abominable creature was he in his own eye Woe to me saith he I am undone I am a man of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the Lord of Hosts Isa 6.4 5. 3. This incomparable God calls for incomparable love the top the cream of our affections Good is the object of Love Amor est complacentia boni according to the Moralists the greater therefore the good is the greater love it requireth and God being the greatest good must have the greatest love This is the great and first command Math. 22.37 this is as I may say the only command Deut. 10.12 this is all the commands in one Rom. 13.10 Love is the Decalogue contracted and the Decalogue is love opened and explained Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength with all thy mind Math. 22.37 God being the greatest perfection must have the greatest affection The greatest love for God is Love 1 Joh. 4.8 calls for the greatest love He deserves the greatest extensively the heart soul mind strength the greatest intensively all the heart all the soul all the mind all the strength Reader thy love to him must be so great that thy love to thy father mother wife child house land and life must be hatred in comparison of it and in competition with it Luk. 14.26 The truth is there is nothing worthy of our love like God nay there is nothing worthy of our love beside God All our Friends and Relations and Estates and worldly Blessings are nothing lovely but as they are his creatures his comforts instruments for his glory and as they have relation to him Nay Sabbaths Sacraments seasons of grace are no more lovely than as they are his institutes and means of communion with his Majesty I love the habitation of thy house why because it is the place where thine honour dwelleth Psal 28.8 Once more grace it self is not lovely but as it 's the image and conformity unto the pleasure and delight of that which fitteth and maketh meet for the love embraces and fruition of this incomparable God Desire and Delight are the two acts of love distinguished only by the absence or presence of the object When the object beloved is absent the soul acts towards it in desire When the object is present the soul acteth towards
Soul cannot be perfectly happy and till it find that which can make it perfectly happy it will be restless If it meet with an object that is suitable to its nature yet if it be not answerable to all its wants it will still be complaining wherein it is unsupplyed and so unquiet If it meet with an object that is suitable to its nature and answerable to all its wants yet if it be not eternal it must needs be full of fears and troubles in the fore-thoughts of its amission of so great a good which would imbitter the present possession of it For the soul being incorruptible and immortal it self cannot but desire that good which will run parallel with its own life and if it desire it nothing will fully satisfie it till it obtain such a good Now nothing in this world is suitable to the Souls nature the Soul is spiritual the things of this world are carnal nor answerable to the various indigencies of the Soul the Souls wants are many and in a manner infinite besides they are spiritual as pardon of Sin peace with God peace of Conscience c. when the good things of this life are particular finite and bodily nor equal to the Souls duration the Soul will abide and continue after millions of ages and generations for ever and ever but this world passeth away and all the good things thereof But this God whom I am perswading thee Reader to know and acquaint thy self with is in all these respects perfect and so will satisfie thy soul God is a spiritual good a Spirit Joh. 4.23 the Father of Spirits and so suitable to the nature of thy soul He is an universal good all good and so answerable to the many wants of thy Soul He is an eternal good a good that never dieth never fadeth a good that only hath immortality and so is equal to thy souls duration therefore the Disciple cryeth out to Christ shew us the Father and it sufficeth Joh. 10.8 and David tells us that he is fully pleased in having God for his portion Psal 14.5 6. Give any man both that which he would have and that which he should have and he is contented If indeed you give a man what he would have supposing it be that which he should not have his desires being depraved and vitiated he cannot be contented when he hath what he desired because lusts are unsatiable and sinful desires never satisfied thence the Heathen Emperours had their Inventors of new pleasures and possibly that may be the meaning of that place Rom. 1.28 The Heathen wearied with common invented unnatural delights But give a man what he would have suppose it be what he should have his desires being rectified and he is then at ease and rest He who knoweth God aright is fully satisfied in him when he once drinketh of the Fountain of living waters he thirsteth no more after other objects Joh. 4.14 Though the Soul stil desireth to know more of God till it come to that place where it shall know as it is known as David though satisfied with his portion Psal 16.4 5. yet thirsted after more of it Psal 63.1 2. yet it is quiet and contented in God And indeed the sweetness which it tasteth in acquaintance with the incomparable God makes it long after nearer and fuller acquaintance with him When Moses was once acquainted with God he begs that he might see and know more of his glory and the reason is because while God is the object there can be no satiety he being the God of all joy and consolation neither can there be such a full acquaintance as to cease desires after farther acquaintance he being an object still too great for the faculties to comprehend The desires of the glorified are without anxiety because they are satisfied in the object of their desires and their satisfaction or enjoyment is without satiety or loathing because they see still infinite cause to desire him When the Soul once comes to know God as the needle touch'd with the Loadstone when it turns to the North it is then quiet though before like the Dove it hover'd up and down over the waters of this world and could find no rest This knowledge if right diffuseth into the Soul a sweet tranquillity silent peace secret setled calmness besides a ravishing praevision and blessed fore-fruition of its fuller acquaintance in the other life 3. The knowledge of God is a saving knowledge Many perish for all their great knowledge of Creatures their knowledge may light them to the more dismal Chambers of death of blackness of darkness for ever Joh. 15.24 And indeed their knowledge like many Pigs of Silver in a Vessel sinking presseth them the deeper into Hell but the knowledge of God is saving God will know him in the other world who knows him in this He will be so far from knowing them hereafter who are ignorant of him here that he will come in flaming fire to render vengeance on them that know not God 2 Thess 1.7 8. But he will own them and take acquaintance with them then that own him and are acquainted with him now Psal 91.14 I will set him on high because he hath known my name God will set him as high as Heaven who knoweth his name on earth Reader it 's as much worth as Heaven to thee to know this incomparable God This is life eternal to know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17.3 It is the morning though not the Meridian of Heaven it is the Bud though not the ripe fruit of glory it is the seed though not the harvest of the Inheritance above to know the true God and Jesus Christ This knowledge is of the same nature though not of the same measure with that in the other world Eph. 4.13 Now the Christian knoweth as a Child then he shall know as a man now he seeth God as it were at a distance through the prospective glass of faith but then he shall see God face to face Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now we know in part but then we shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 CHAP. XXIV The Means of acquaintance with God A sense of our Ignorance Attendance on the word Fervent Prayer THe means which I shall offer as helpful to the attainment of his knowledge of God are these 1. Be sensible of thine ignorance of him A conceited Scholar is no good learner He that thinks he knoweth enough already will never be beholden to a Master to teach him more Seest thou a man wife in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him Prov. 26.12 This was that which lock'd up the Pharisees in the dark dungeon of Ignorance they were blind Truth it self called them blind Mat. 23.16 17. But they conceited their eyes were good and so neglected the means of curing them Ye say ye see I do not say