is a God in being and the Apostle doth not say that they know God but they profess to know him True knowledge and profession of knowledge are distinct It intimates also to us the unreasonableness of Atheism in the Consequence when men shut their eyes against the beams of so clear a sun God revengeth himself upon them for their impiety by leaving them to their own wills lets them fall into the deepest sink and dregs of iniquity and since they doubt of him in their hearts suffers them above others to deny him in their works this the Apostle discourseth at large * Rom. 1.24 The Text then is a description of mans Corruption 1. Of his mind The fool hath said in his heart No better title than that of a fool is afforded to the Atheist 2. Of the other faculties 1. In sins of Commission exprest by the loathsomeness corrupt abominable 2. In sins of Ommission there is none that doth good he lays down the Corruption of the mind as the cause the corruption of the other faculties as the effect I. Doct. 1 'T is a great Folly to deny or doubt of the Existence or Being of God Or An Atheist is a great Fool. II. Practical Atheism is natural to man in his corrupt State 'T is against Nature as constituted by God but Natural as Nature is depraved by Man The absolute disowning of the Being of a God is not natural to men but the contrary is natural but an inconsideration of God or mis-representation of his Nature is natural to Man as corrupt III. A secret Atheism or a partial Atheism is the Spring of all the wicked Practices in the world The disorders of the Life spring from the ill dispositions of the Heart For the first every Atheist is a Grand Fool. If he were not a Fool he would not imagine a thing so contrary to the stream of the Universal Reason of the world contrary to the rational Dictates of his own Soul and contrary to the Testimony of every Creature and Link in the Chain of Creation If he were not a Fool he would not strip himself of Humanity and degrade himself lower than the most despicable Brute 'T is a Folly for tho God be so Inaccessible that we cannot know him perfectly yet he is so much in the light that we cannot be totally ignorant of him As he cannot be comprehended in his Essence he cannot be unknown in his Existence 't is as easie by Reason to understand that he is as it is difficult to know what he is The Demonstrations Reason furnisheth us with for the Existence of God will be Evidences of the Atheist's Folly One would think there were little need of spending time in evidencing this Truth since in the Principle of it it seems to be so universally own'd and at the first proposal and demand gains the assent of most men But 1. Doth not the growth of Atheism among us render this Necessary may it not justly be suspected that the swarms of Atheists are more numerous in our times than History Records to have been in any age when men will not only say it in their hearts but publish it with their lips and boast that they have shaken of those Shackles which bind other mens Consciences Doth not the bare-fac'd Debauchery of men evidence such a setled Sentiment or at least a careless Beleif of the truth which lies at the root and sprouts up in such venemous branches in the World Can mens hearts be free from that Principle wherewith their Practices are so openly depraved 'T is true the light of Nature shines too vigorously for the Power of Man totally to put it out yet loathsom Actions impair and weaken the actual thoughts and considerations of a Deity and are like Mists that darken the light of the Sun though they cannot extinguish it their Consciences as a Candlestick must hold it though their unrighteousness obscure it Rom. 1.18 Who hold the Truth in Vnrighteousness The engraved Characters of the Law of Nature remain though they dawb them with their muddy Lusts to make them illegible So that since the inconsideration of a Deity is the cause of all the wickedness and extravigancies of men and as Austin saith the Proposition is always true the Fool hath said in his heart c. and more evidently true in this age than any it will not be unnecsseary to discourse of the Demonstrations of this first Principle The Apostles spent little time in urgng this Truth it was taken for granted all over the world and they were generally devout in the Worship of those Idols they thought to be Gods That age run from one God to many and our age is running from one God to none at all 2. The Existence of God is the Foundation of all Religion The whole Building totters if the Foundation be out of Course If we have not deliberate and right Notions of it we shall perform no Worship no Service yeild no affection to him If there be not a God 't is impossible there can be one for Eternity is Essential to the notion of a God so all Religion would be vain and unreasonable to pay Homage to that which is not in being nor can ever be We must first beleive that he is and that he is what he declares himself to be before we can seek him adore him and devote our Affections to him * Heb. 11.6 We cannot pay God a due and regular Homage unless we understand him in his Perfections what he is and we can pay him no Homage at all unless we beleive that he is 3. 'T is sit we should know why we beleive that our Beleif of a God may appear to be upon undeniable Evidence and that we may give a better reason for his Existence than that we have heard our Parents and Teachers tell us so and our acquaintance think so 'T is as much as to say there is no God when we know not why we believe there is and would not consider the Arguments for his Existence 4. It is necessary to depress that secret Atheism which is in the heart of every man by nature Though every visible object which offers it self to our sense presents a Deity to our minds and exhorts us to subscribe to the truth of it yet there is a Root of Atheism springing up sometimes in wavering thoughts and foolish imaginations inordinate actions and secret wishes Certain it is that every man that doth not love God denyes God now can he that disaffects him and hath a slavish fear of him wish his Existence and say to his own heart with any chearfulness there is a God and make it his cheif care to perswade himself of it he would perswade himself there is no God and stifle the seeds of it in his Reason and Conscience that he might have the greatest liberty to intertain the allurements of the Flesh 'T is necessary to Excite men to daily and actual considerations of
sense and those that have life and sense are made for those that are endued with reason When the Psalmist admiringly considers the Heavens Moon and Starrs he intimates man to be the end for which they were Created Psal 8.3 4. What is man that thou art mindful of him He expresseth more particularly the Dominion that Man hath over the beasts of the field the fowl of the Air and whatsoever passes through the paths of the Sea vers 6.7.8 and concludes from thence the excellency of Gods Name in all the Earth All things in the World one way or other Center in an usefulness for man some to feed him some to clothe him some to delight him others to instruct him some to exercise his wit and others his strength Since man did not make them he did not also order them for his own use If they conspire to serve him who never made them they direct man to acknowledge an other who is the joynt Creator both of the Lord and the Servants under his Dominion And therefore as the inferior natures are ordered by an invisible hand for the good of man so the nature of man is by the same hand ordered to acknowledge the Existence and the glory of the Creator of him This visible order man knows he did not constitute he did not settle those Creatures in subserviency to himself they were placed in that order before he had any acquaintance with them or Existence of himself which is a question God puts to Job to consider of Job 38.4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding All is ordered for Mans use the Heavens answer to the Earth as a roof to a floor both composing a delightful habitation for man vapors ascend from the Earth and the Heaven concocts them and returns them back in welcome showers for the supplying of the Earth * Jer. 10.13 The light of the Sun descends to beautifie the Earth and imploys its heat to midwife its fruits and this for the good of the community whereof Man is the head and though all Creatures have distinct natures and must act for particular ends according to the Law of their Creation yet there is a joynt combination for the good of the whole as the common end just as all the Rivers in the world from what part soever they come whether North or South fall into the Sea for the supply of that mass of waters which loudly proclaims some infinitely wise nature who made those things in so exact an harmony * Morn de verit cap. 1. pag. 7. As in a Clock the hammer which strikes the bell leads us to the next Wheel that to another the little wheel to a greater whence it derives its motion this at last to the spring which acquaints us that there was some Artist that framed them in this subordination to one another for this orderly motion 4. This order or Subserviency is regular and uniforme Every thing is determined to its peculiar nature * Amiraut The Sun and Moon make day and night months and years determine the seasons never are defective in coming back to their station and place they wander not from their Roads shock not against one another nor hinder one another in the functions assigned them From a small grain or seed a Tree springs with body root bark leaves fruit of the same shape figure smell tast that there should be as many parts in one as in all of the same kind and no more and that in the Womb of a sensitive Creature should be formed one of the same kind with all the due members and no more and the Creature that produceth it knows not how it is formed or how t is perfected If we say this is nature this nature is an intelligent being if not how can it direct all causes to such uniforme ends If it be intelligent this nature must be the same we call God Who ordered every herb to yeild seed and every fruit-Tree to yeild fruit after its kind and also every Beast and every creeping thing after its kind Gen. 11 12 24. And every thing is determined to its particular season The sap riseth from the Root at its appointed time enlivening and cloathing the branches with a new Garment at such a time of the Suns returning not wholly hindered by any accidental coldness of the weather it being often colder at its return than it was at the Suns departure All things have their Seasons of flourishing budding blossoming bringing forth fruit they ripen in their seasons cast their leaves at the same time throw off their old cloaths and in the spring appear with new Garments but still in the same fashion * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 77. The Winds and the Rain have their seasons and seem to be administred by laws for the profit of man No satisfactory cause of those things can be ascribed to the Earth the Sea to the Air or Stars Can any understand the spreading of his clouds or the noise of his Tabernacle Job 38.29 The natural reason of those things cannot be demonstrated without recourse to an infinite and intelligent being Nothing can be rendred capable of the direction of those things but a God This regularity in Plants and Animals is in all Nations The Heavens have the same motion in all parts of the world all men have the same Law of nature in their mind all Creatures are stampt with the same law of Creation In all parts the same Creatures serve for the same use and though there be different Creatures in India and Europe yet they have the same subordination the same subserviency to one another and ultimately to man which shows that there is a God and but one God who tunes all those different strings to the same notes in all places Is it nature meerly conducts these natural causes in due measures to their proper effects without interfering with one another Can meer nature be the cause of those musical proportions of time You may as well conceive a Lute to sound its own strings without the hand of an Artist a City well Governed without a Governor an Army keep its Stations without a General as imagine so exact an order without an Orderer Would any Man when he hears a Clock strike by sit intervals the hour of the day imagine this regularity in it without the direction of one that had understanding to manage it He would not only regard the motion of the Clock but commend the diligence of the Clock-Keeper 5. This order and Subserviency is constant Children change the customes and manners of their Fathers Magistrats change the Laws they have received from their Ancestors and enact new ones in their room But in the world all things consist as they were created at the beginning The Law of nature in the Creatures hath met with no change * Petav. ex Athanas Tâ—eol Dog tom 1. lib. 1.
of the Lord smote him The Judgment here was suted to the sin he that would be a God is eaten up of Worms the vilest Creatures Tully Hostilius a Roman King who counted it the most unroyal thing to be Religious or own any other God but his Sword was consumed himself and his whole House by Lightning from Heaven Many things are unaccountable unless we have recourse to God The strange Revelations of Murderers that have most secretly committed their crimes The making good some dreadful imprecations which some wretches have used to confirme a lie and immediatly have been struck with that Judgement they wished The raising often unexpected persons to be instruments of Vengeance on a sinful and perfidious Nation The overturning the deepest and surest Counsels of men when they have had a succesful progress and came to the very point of execution the whole designe of mens preservation hath been beaten in peices by some unforeseen circumstance so that Judgments have broken in upon them without controul and all their subtilties been out-witted The strange crossing of some in their Estates though the most wise industrious and frugal persons and that by strange and unexpected wayes And it is observable how often every thing contributes to carry on a Judgment intended as if they rationally designed it All those loudly proclaim a God in the world If there were no God there would be no sin if no sin there would be no punishment 2. In Miracles The course of nature is uniforme and when it is put out of its course it must be by some superior power invisible to the world and by whatsoever invisible instruments they are wrought the efficacy of them must depend upon some first cause above nature Psal 72.18 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things by himself and his sole power That which cannot be the result of a natural cause must be the result of something supernatural What is beyond the reach of nature is the effect of a power superior to nature For it is quite against the order of nature and is the elevation of something to such a pitch which all nature could not advance it to Nature cannot go beyond its own limits If it be determined by another as hath been formerly proved it cannot lift it self above it self without that power that so determined it Natural agents act necessarily The Sun doth necessarily shine fire doth necessarilly burn That cannot be the result of nature which is above the Ability of nature That cannot be the work of nature which is against the order of nature Nature cannot do any thing against it self or invert its own course We must own that such things have been or we must accuse all the Records of former ages to be a pack of lies which whosoever doth destroys the greatest and best part of human knowledge The Miracles mentioned in the Scripture wrought by our Saviour are acknowledged by the Heathen by the Jews at this day though his greatest enemies There is no dispute whether such things were wrought the dead raised the blind restored to sight The Heathens have acknowledged the Miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at the Passion of Christ quite against the rule of nature the Moon being then in opposition to the Sun The propagation of Christianity contrary to the methods whereby other Religions have been propagated that in a few years the Nations of the world should be sprinkled with this Doctrine and give in a greater Catalogue of Martyrs courting the devouring flames than all the Religions of the world To this might be added the strange hand that was over the Jews the only people in the world professing the true God that should so often be befriended by their Conquerors so as to rebuild their Temple though they were looked upon as a people apt to rebel Dion and Seneca observe that whereever they were transplanted they prospered and gave laws to the Victors So that this proves also the Authority of the Scripture the truth of Christian Religion as well as the being of a God and a superior power over the world To this might be added the bridling the tumultuous passions of men for the preservation of human societies which else would run the world into unconceivable confusions Psal 65.7 Which stilleth the noise of the Sea and the tumults of the people As also the Miraculous deliverance of a person or Nation when upon the very brink of ruin The suddain answer of Prayer when God hath been sought to and the turning away a Judgment which in reason could not be expected to be averted and the raising a sunk people from a ruine which seemed inevitable by unexpected ways 3. Accomplishments of Prophecies Those things which are purely contingent and cannot be known by Natural signs and in their causes as Ecclipses and changes in Nations which may be discerned by an observation of the signs of the times such things that fall not within this compass if they be foretold and come to pass are solely from some higher hand and above the cause of Nature This in Scripture is asserted to be a notice of the true God Isa 41.23 Shâ—w the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that you are God and Isa 46.10 I am God declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my Counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure And Prophecy was consented to by all the Philosophers to be from Divine illumination That power which discovers things future which all the foresight of men cannot kenn and conjecture is above nature And to foretel them so certainly as if they did already exist or had existed long ago must be the result of a mind infinitely intelligent Because it is the highest way of knowing and a higher cannot be imagined And he that knows things future in such a manner must needs know things present and past Cyrus was Prophesied of by Esay ch 44.28 45.1 long before he was born His Victories Spoils all that should happen in Babylon his bounty to the Jews came to pass according to that Prophecy and the sight of that Prophecy which the Jews shewed him as other Historians report was that which moved him to be favourable to the Jews Alexanders sight of Daniels Prophecy concerning his Victories moved him to spare Jerusalem And are not the four Monarchies plainly deciphered in that Book before the fourth rose up in the world That power which foretells things beyond the reach of the wit of man and orders all causes to bring about those predictions must be an infinite power the same that made the world sustains it and governs all things in it according to his pleasure and to bring about his own ends And this Being is God Vse 1 1. If Atheism be a folly T is then pernicious to the World and to the Atheist himself Wisdom is the band of human societies the glory
acknowledgment of the Immensity of Divine Power Miracles are such effects as have been wrought without the assistance and cooperation of Natural Causes yea contrary and besides the ordinary course of Nature above the reach of any Created Power Miracles have been and saith Bradwardine * Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 38. To deny that ever such things were is uncivil 'T is inhuman to deny all the Histories of Jews and Christians whosoever denies Miracles must deny all possibility of Miracles and so must imagine himself fully skill'd in the extent of Divine Power How was the Sun suspended from its Motion for some hours Josh 10.13 The Dead raised from the Grave Those reduc'd from the brink of it that had been brought near to it by prevailing Diseases and this by a word speaking How were the famisht Lions bridled from exercising their rage upon Daniel Dan. 6.22 expos'd to them for a Prey The activity of the Fire curb'd for the preservation of the Three Children Dan. 3.15 Which proves a Deity more powerful than all Creatures No power upon Earth can hinder the operation of the Fire upon combustible Matter when they are united unless by quenching the Fire or removing the Matter But no created Power can restrain the Fire so long as it remains so from acting according to its Nature Exod. 3.2 This was done by God in the case of the Three Children and that of the Burning Bush It was as much miraculous that the Bush should not consume as it was natural that it should burn by the efficacy of the Fire upon it No Element is so obstinate and deaf but it hears and obeys his Voice and performs his Orders though contrary to its own Nature All the violence of the Creature is suspended as soon as it receives his Command †Damianus in Petar He that gave the original to Nature can take away the necessity of Nature He presides over Creatures but is not confin'd to those Laws he hath prescrib'd to Creatures He framed Nature and can turn the Channels of Nature according to his own pleasure Men dig into the bowels of Nature search into all the Treasures of it to find Medicines to cure a Disease and after all their Attempts it may prove Labour in vain But God by one Act of his Will one Word of his Mouth overturns the Victory of Death and rescues from the most desperate Diseases * Fauch in Acts Vol. 2. §. 56. All the Miracles which were wrought by the Apostles either speaking some Words or Touching with the Hand were not effected by any virtue inherent in their Words or in their Touches For such Virtue inherent in any created finite Subject would be created and finite it self and consequently were incapable to produce effects which required an infinite Virtue as Miracles do which are above the power of Nature So when our Saviour wrought Miracles it was not by any quality resident in his humane Nature but by the sole Power of his Divinity The Flesh could only do what was proper to the Flesh but the Deity did what was proper to the Deity God alone doth wonders Psal 136.4 Excluding every other cause from producing such things He only doth those things which are above the power of Nature and cannot be wrought by any Natural causes whatsoever He doth not hereby put his Omnipotence to any stress 'T is as easie with him to turn Nature out of its setled course as it was to place it in that station it holds and appoint it that course it runs All the Works of Nature are indeed Miracles and Testimonies of the Power of God producing them and sustaining them But Works above the Power of Nature being Novelties and unusual strike Men with a greater admiration upon their appearance because they are not the products of Nature but the convulsions of it I might also add as an Argument The Power of the Mind of Man to conceive more than hath been wrought by God in the World And God can work whatsoever Perfection the Mind of man can conceive Otherwise the reaches of a created Imagination and Fancy would be more extensive than the Power of God His Power therefore is far greater than the conception of any Intellectual Creature else the Creature would be of a greater capacity to conceive than God is to effect The Creature would have a power of Conception above Gods Power of Activity and consequently a Creature in some respect greater than himself Now whatsoever a Creature can conceive possible to be done is but finite in its own nature and if God could not produce what Being a created Understanding can conceive possible to be done he would be less than Infinite in Power nay he could not go to the extent of what is Finite But I have touched this before That God can create more than he hath created and in a more perfect way of Being as considered simply in themselves III. The Third general thing is to declare How the Power of God appears in Creation in Government in Redemption 1. In Creation With what Majestick Lines doth God set forth his Power in the giving Being and Endowments to all the Creatures in the World Job 38. All that is in Heaven and Earth is his and shews the greatness of his Power Glory Victory 1 Chro. 29.11 and Majesty The Heaven being so Magnificent a piece of work is called emphatically The Firmament of his Power * Psal 150.1 his Power being more conspicuous and unvail'd in that glorious Arch of the World Indeed God exalts by his Power †Job 36.22 that is exalts himself by his Power in all the Works of his hands in the smallest Shrub as well as the most glorious Sun All his Works of Nature are truly Miracles though we consider them not being blinded with too frequent and customary a sight of them yet in the neglect of all the rest the view of the Heavens doth more affect us with astonishment at the Might of Gods Arm These declare his Glory and the Firmament shews his handy work Psal 19.1 Psal 8.3 And the Psalmist peculiarly calls them His Heavens and the work of his Fingers These were immediately created by God whereas many other things in the World were brought into Being by the Power of God yet by the means of the influence of the Heavens 1. His Power is the first thing evident in the story of the Creation In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth Gen. 1.1 There 's no appearance of any thing in this declaratory Preface but of Power The Characters of Wisdom march after in the distinct formation of things and animating them with suitable qualities for an Universal good By Heaven and Earth is meant the whole mass of the Creatures By Heaven all the Aery Region with all the Host of it by the Earth is meant all that which makes the intire inferior Globe The Jews observe that in the
God said and he there owns him ver 5. Ye shall become as Gods He owns God in the question he asks the Woman and perswades our first Parents to be Gods themselves And in all stories both Ancient and Modern the Devil was never able to Tincture mends minds with a professed denial of the Deity which would have opened a door to a world of more wickedness than hath been acted and took away the bar to the breaking out of that evil which is naturally in the hearts of men to the greater prejudice of human societies He wanted not malice to rase out all the Notions of God but power He knew it was impossible to effect it and therefore in vain to attempt it He set up himself in several places of the ignorant world as a God but never was able to overthrow the opinion of the being of a God The impressions of a Deity were so strong as not to be struck out by the malice and power of Hell What a folly is it then in any to contradict or doubt of this Truth which all the periods of time have not been able to wear out which all the Wars and Quarrels of men with their own Consciences have not been able to destroy which Ignorance and Debauchery it s two greatest Enemies cannot weaken which all the falsehoods and errors which have reigned in one or other part of the world have not been able to banish which lives in the consents of men in spight of all their wishes to the contrary and hath grown stronger and Shone clearer by the improvements of natural reason 3. Natural and innate which pleads strongly for the perpetuity of it T is natural tho some think it not a Principle writ in the heart of man * Pink. Eph. 6. pag. 10. 11. t is so natural that every man is born with a restless instinct to be of some kind of Religion or other which implies some object of Religion The impression of a Deity is as common as reason and of the same age with reason * King en Jonah pag. 16. T is a Relique of knowledg after the fall of Adam like fire under ashes which sparkles as soon as ever the heap of ashes is opened A notion sealed up in the Soul of every man * Amyrant des Religious pag. 6. 5. 8. 9. else how could those people who were unknown to one another separate by Seas and Mounts differing in various customes and manner of living had no mutual intelligence one with another light upon this as a common Sentiment if they had not been guided by one uniforme reason in all their minds by one nature common to them all though their Clymates be different their tempers and constitutions various their imaginations in somethings as distant from one another as Heaven is from Earth the Ceremonies of their Religion not all of the same kind Yet wherever you find human nature you find this setled perswasion So that the Notion of a God seems to be twisted with the nature of man and is the first natural branch of Common reason or upon either the first inspection of a man into himself and his own state and constitution or upon the first sight of any external visible object Nature within man and nature without man agree upon the first meeting together to form this Sentiment that there is a God T is as natural as any thing we call a Common Principle One thing which is called a Common Principle and natural is that the whole is greater than the parts If this be not born with us yet the exercise of reason essential to man settles it as a certain Maxim upon the dividing any thing into several parts he finds every part less than when they were altogether By the same exercise of reason we cannot cast our eyes upon any thing in the world or exercise our understandings upon our selves but we must presently imagine there was some cause of those things some cause of my self and my own being so that this Truth is as natural to man as any thing he can call most natural or a Common Principle It must be confest by all that there is a Law of nature writ upon the hearts of men which will direct them to commendable actions if they will attend to the writing in their own Consciences This Law cannot be considered without the notice of a Law-giver For t is but a natural and obvious conclusion that some superior hand engrafted those principles in man since he finds something in him twitching him upon the pursuit of uncomely actions though his heart be mightily enclined to them man knows he never planted this principle of Reluctancy in his own Soul he can never be the cause of that which he cannot be friends with If he were the cause of it why doth he not rid himself of it No man would endure a thing that doth frequently molest and disquiet him if he could casheir it T is therefore sown in man by some hand more powerful than man which riseth so high and is rooted so strong that all the force that man can use cannot pull it up If therefore this principle be natural in man and the Law of Nature be natural the Notion of a Law-giver must be as natural as the Notion of a Printer or that there is a Printer is obvious upon the sight of a stamp imprest After this the multitude of effects in the World step in to strengthen this beam of natural light and the direct Conclusion from thence is that that power which made those outward objects implanted this inward principle This is sown in us born with us and sprouts up with our growth or as one saith * Chaâ—leâ—â—â— t is like Letters carved upon the bark of a young plant which grows up together with us and the longer it grows the Letters are more legible This is the ground of this universal consent and why it may well be termed natural This will more evidently appear to be natural because 1. This consent could not be by meer Tradition 2. Nor by any mutual intelligence of Governors to keep people in aw which are two things the Atheist pleads the first hath no strong foundation and that other is as absurd and foolish as it is wicked and abominable 3. Nor was it fear first introduced it 1. It could not be my meer Tradition Many things indeed are entertained by posterity which their Ancestors delivered to them and that out of a common reverence to their Fore-Fathers and an opinion that they had a better prospect of things than the increase of the corruption of suceeding ages would permit them to have But if this be a Tradition handed from our Ancestors they also must receive it from theirs we must then ascend to the first man we cannot else escape a confounding ourselves with running into infinite was it then the only Tradition he left to them is it not probable he acquainted them with
of the Heaven c. How could this great heap be brought into being unless a God had framed it Every plant every Atome as well as every Star at the first meeting whispers this in our Ears I have a Creator I am witness to a Deity who ever saw Statues or Pictures but presently thinks of a Statuary and Limner Who beholds Garments Ships or Houses but understands there was a Weaver a Carpenter an Architect * Philo. ex Petav. Theolo Dog Tom 1. li. 1. cap. 1 pa. 4. somewhat changed Who can cast his eyes about the world but must think of that power that formed it and that the goodness which appears in the formation of it hath a perfect Residence in some Being those things that are good must flow from somthing perfectly good that which is chief in any kind is the cause of all of that kind Fire which is most hot is the cause of all things which are hot There is some being therefore which is the cause of all that Perfection which is in the Creature and this is God Aquin. 1 qu. 2. Artic. 3. All things that are demonstrate something from whence they are All things have a contracted perfection and what they have is Communicated to them Perfections are parcelled out among several Creatures Any thing that is imperfect cannot exist of it self We are led therefore by them to consider a fountain which bubbles up in all perfection a hand which distributes those several degrees of Being and Perfection to what we see we see that which is imperfect our minds conclude somthing perfect to exist before it our eye sees the streams but our understanding riseth to the head as the eye sees the shadow but the understanding informs us whither it he the shadow of a man or of a beast God hath given us Sense to behold the objects in the World and Understanding to reason his Existence from them the understanding cannot conceive a thing to have made it self that is against all reason * Rom. 1.20 As they are made they speak out a Maker and cannot be a trick of chance since they are made with such an immense Wisdom that is too big for the grasp of all humane understanding Those that doubt whither the Existence of God be an implanted Principle yet agree that the effects in the world lead to a supream and universal cause And that if we have not the knowledge of it rooted in our Natures yet we have it by discourse since by all Masters of reason a Processus in Infinitum must be accounted impossible in subordinate causes This will appear in several things First I. The World and every Creature had a beginning The Scripture Ascertains this to us * Gen. 1. By Faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God c. David who was not the first man gives the praise to God of his being curiously wrought c. Psal 139.14.15 God gave being to Men and Plants and Beasts before they gave being to one another He gives being to them now as the Fountain of all being though the several Modes of being are from the several natures of second causes * Heb. 11.3 T is true indeed we are ascertained that they were made by the true God that they were made by his word that they were made of nothing and not only this lower world wherein we live but according to the Jewish division the world of Men the the world of Stars and the world of Spirits and Souls We do not waver in it or doubt of it as the Heathen did in their disputes we know they are the workmanship of the true God of that God we adore not of false Gods By his Word without any instrument or engin as in earthly Sâ—ructures of things which do not appear without any preexistent matter as all Artificial works of men are framed Yet the proof of the beginning of the world is affirmed with good reason and if it had a beginning it had also some higher cause than it self Every effect hath a cause * Daille 20. Serm. Psa 102.26 pa. 13. 14. The World was not Eternal or from Eternity The matter of the world cannot be Eternal Matter cannot subsist without form nor put on any form without the action of some cause this cause must be in being before it acted that which is not cannot act The cause of the world must necessarily exist before any matter was endued with any form that therefore cannot be Eternal before which another did subsist if it were from Eternity it would not be subject to mutation If the whole was from Eternity why not also the parts what makes the changes so visible then if Eternity would exempt it from mutability 1. Time cannot be infinite and therefore the World not Eternal * Daille ut Supra All motion hath its beginning if it were otherwise we must say the number of Heavenly revolutions of days and nights which are past to this instant is actually infinite which cannot be in nature If it were so it must needs be granted that a part is equal to the whole because infinite being equal to infinite the number of days past in all Ages to the beginning of one year being Infinite as they would be supposing the World had no beginning would by consequence be equal to the number of days which shall pass to the end of the next whereas that number of days past is indeed but a part and so a part would be equal to the whole 2. Generations of Men Animals and Plants could not be from Eternity * Petar Theo. Dogmat. tom 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pag. 15. If any Man say the world was from Eternity then there must be propagations of living Creatures in the same manner as are at this day For without this the World could not consist what we see now done must have been perpetually done if it be done by a necessity of nature But we see nothing now that doth arise but by a mutual propagation from another If the world were Eternal therefore it must be so in all Eternity take any particular species suppose a man if men were from Eternity then there were perpetual generations some were born into the World and some died Now the natural condition of generation is that a man doth not generate a man nor a Sheep a Lamb as soon as ever it self is brought into the World but get strength and vigour by degrees and must arrive to a certain stated age before they can produce the like for whilst any thing is little and below the due age it cannot increase its kind Men therefore and other Creatures did propagate their kind by the same Law not as soon as ever they were born but in the interval of some time and Children grew up by degrees in the Mothers Womb till they were fit to be brought forth If this be so then there could not be an Eternal
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
he needed not have sought without himself for his own preservation and comfort What depends upon another is not of it self and what depends upon things inferiour to it self is less of it self Since nothing can subsist of it self since we see those things upon which Man depends for his nourishment and subsistence growing and decaying starting into the world and retiring from it as well as man himself some preserving cause must be concluded upon which all depends 5. If the first Man did produce himself why did he not produce himself before It hath been already proved that he had a beginning and could not be from Eternity Why then did he not make himself before Not because he would not For having no being he could have no will he could neither be willing nor not willing If he could not then how could he afterwards if it were in his own power he could have done it he would have done it if it were not in his own power then it was in the power of some other cause and that is God How came he by that power to produce himself If the power of producing himself were communicated by another then Man could not be the cause of himself That is the cause of it which communicated that power to it But if the power of being was in and from himself and in no other nor communicated to him man would always have been in act and always have Existed no hinderance can be conceived For that which had the power of being in it self was invincible by any thing that should stand in the way of its own being We may conclude from hence the excellency of the Scripture that it is a Word not to be refused credit It gives us the most rational account of things in the 1. and 2. of Genesis which nothing in the world else is able to do Thirdly III. Proposition no Creature could make the world No Creature can create another If it creates of nothing t is then Omnipotent and so not a Creature If it makes something of matter unfit for that which is produced out of it then the inquiry will be who was the cause of the matter and so we must arrive to some uncreated being the cause of all Whatsoever gives being to any other must be the highest being and must possess all the perfections of that which it gives being to what visible Creature is there which possesses the perfections of the whole world If therefore an invisible Creature made the world the same enquiries will return whence that Creature had its being for he could not make himself If any Creature did Create the World he must do it by the strength and vertue of another which first gave him being and this is God For whatsoever hath its Existence and vertue of acting from another is not God If it hath its vertue from another t is then a second cause and so supposeth a first cause It must have some cause of it self or be Eternally Existent If Eternally Existent t is not a second cause but God if not Eternally Existent we must come to somthing at length which was the cause of it or else be bewildred without being able to give an account of any thing We must come at last to an Infinite Eternal Independent Being that was the first cause of this Structure and Fabrick wherein we and all Creatures dwell The Scripture proclaims this aloud * Isa 45.6.7 Deut. 4.35 I am the Lord and there is none else I Form the light and I Create darkness Man the Noblest Creature cannot of himself make a man the chiefest part of the World If our Parents only without a Superior power made our Bodies or Souls they would know the frame of them as he that makes a Lock knows the Wards of it he that makes any curious peice of Arras knows how he setts the various colours together and how many threads went to each division in the Web he that makes a Watch having the Idea of the whole work in his mind knows the motions of it and the reason of those motions But both Parents and Children are equally ignorant of the nature of their Souls and Bodies and of the reason of their motions God only that had the Supream hand in forming us in whose Book all our members are written Psal 139.16 which in continuance were fashioned knows what we all are ignorant of If man hath in an ordinary course of generation his being chiefly from an higher cause than his Parents the World then certainly had its being from some infinitely wise intelligent Being which is God If it were as some fancy made by an Assembly of Atomes there must be some infinite intelligent cause that made them some cause that separated them some cause that mingled them together for the piling up so comely a structure as the world T is the most absurd thing to think they should meet togeither by hazard and rank themselves in that order we see without a higher and a wise agent So that no Creature could make the world For supposing any Creature was formed before this visible world and might have a hand in disposing things yet he must have a cause of himself and must act by the virtue and strength of another and this is God Fourthly IV. Proposition From hence it follows that there is a first cause of things which we call God There must be somthing supreme in the order of nature somthing which is greater than all which hath nothing beyond it or above it otherwise we must run in infinitum We see not a River but we conclude a Fountain a Watch but we conclude an Artificer As all number begins from unity so all the multitude of things in the world begins from some unity Oneness as the principle of it T is natural to arise from a view of those things to the conception of a nature more perfect than any As from heat mixed with cold and light mixed with darkness men conceive and arise in their understandings to an intense heat and a pure light And from a Corporeal or bodily substance joyned with an incorporeal as man is an earthly body and a Spiritual Soul we ascend to a conception of a substance purely incorporeal and Spiritual So from a multitude of things in the world Reason leads us to one choice being above all And since in all natures in the World we still find a superior nature the nature of one beast above the nature of another the nature of man above the nature of beasts and some invisible nature the worker of strange effects in the Air and Earth which cannot be ascribed to any visible cause we must suppose some nature above all those of unconceivable perfection * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 33. c. Every Sceptick one that doubts whither there be any thing real or no in the World that counts every thing an appearance must necessarily own a first cause They cannot
reasonably doubt but that there is some first cause which makes the things appear so to them They cannot be the cause of their own appearance For as nothing can have a being from it self so nothing can appear by it self and its own force Nothing can be and not be at the same time But that which is not and yet seems to be if it be the cause why it seems to be what it is not it may be said to be and not to be But certainly such persons must think themselves to exist If they do not they cannot think and if they do exist they must have some cause of that Existence So that which way soever we turn our selves we must in reason own a first cause of the World Well then might the Psalmist term an Atheist a fool that disowns a God against his own reason Without owning a God as the first cause of the world no man can give any tolerable or satisfactory account of the world to his own reason And this first cause 1. Must necessarily exist * Petav. Theol. Dog Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pa. 10. 11. T is necessary that he by whom all things are should be before all things and nothing before him And if nothing be before him he comes not from any other and then he always was and without beginning He is from himself not that he once was not but because he hath not his Existence from another and therefore of necessity he did exist from all Eternity Nothing can make it self or bring it self into being therefore there must be some being which hath no cause that depends upon no other never was produced by any other but was what he is from Eternity and cannot be otherwise and is not what he is by will but nature necessarily existing and always existing without any capacity or possibility ever not to be 2. Must be infinitely perfect Since man knows he is an imperfect being he must suppose the perfections he wants are seated in some other being which hath limited him and upon which he depends Whatsoever we conceive of excellency or perfection must be in God For we can conceive no perfection but what God hath given us a power to conceive And he that gave us a power to conceive a transcendent perfection above whatever we saw or heard of hath much more in himself else he could not give us such a conception Secondly II. As the production of the world so the harmony of all the parts of it declare the being and wisdom of a God Without the acknowledging God the Atheist can give no account of those things The multitude elegancy variety and beauty of all things are steps whereby to ascend to one fountain and orignal of them Is it not a folly to deny the being of a wise Agent who sparkles in the beauty and motions of the Heavens rides upon the wings of the wind and is writ upon the flowers and fruits of Plants As the cause is known by the effects so the wisdom of the cause is known by the elegancy of the work the proportion of the parts to one another Who can imagine the world could be rashly made and without consultation which in every part of it is so Artificially framed * Philo. Judae Petav. Theolog. Dogmat. Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 9. No work of Art springs up of its own accord The world is framed by an excellent Art and therefore made by some skilful Artist As we hear not a melodious instrument but we conclude there is a Musitian that touches it as well as some skilful hand that framed and disposed it for those Lessons And no man that hears the pleasant sound of a Lute but will fix his thoughts not upon the Instrument it self but upon the skill of the Artist that made it and the art of the Musitian that strikes it though he should not see the first when he saw the Lute nor see the other when he hears the harmony So a rational Creature confines not his thoughts to his sense when he sees the Sun in its Glory and the Moon walking in its brightness but riseth up in a contemplation and admiration of that infinite Spirit that composed and filled them with such sweetness This appears 1. In the linking contrary qualities together All things are compounded of the Elements Those are endued with contrary qualities driness and moisture heat and cold These would always be contending with and infesting one anothers rights till the contest ended in the destruction of one or both Where fire is predominant it would suck up the water where water is prevalent it would quench the fire The heat would wholly expel the cold or the cold over-power the heat Yet we see them chained and linkt one within another in every body upon the Earth and rendring mutual offices for the benefit of that body wherein they are seated and all conspiring together in their particular quarrels for the publick interest of the body How could those contraries that of themselves observe no order that are always preying upon one another joyntly accord together of themselves for one common end if they were not linkt in a common band and reduced to that order by some incomprehensible wisdom and power which keeps a hand upon them orders their motions and directs their events and makes them friendly pass into one anothers Natures Confusion had been the result of the discord and diversity of their Natures No composition could have been of those conflicting qualities for the frame of any body nor any harmony arose from so many jarring strings if they had not been reduced into concord by one that is supream Lord over them and knows how to dispose their varieties and enmities for the publick good * Athanasius Petav. Theol. Dog Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 4. 5. If a man should see a large City or Country consisting of great multitudes of men of different tempers full of Frauds and Factions and Animosities in their natures against one another yet living together in good order and peace without oppressing and invading one another and joyning together for the publick good he would presently conclude there were some excellent Governor who tempered them by his Wisdom and preserved the publick Peace though he had never yet beheld him with his eye T is as necessary to conclude a God who moderates the contrarieties in the world as to conclude a wise Prince who overrules the contrary dispositions in a state making every one to keep his own bounds and confines Things that are contrary to one another subsist in an admirable order 2. In the subserviency of one thing to another * Gassend Physic sect 1. lib. 4. cap. 2. pag. 315. All the Members of living Creatures are curiously fitted for the service of one another destin'd to a particular end and endued with a vertue to attain that end and so distinctly placed that one is no hinderance to the
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
builds an House or makes a Watch but he hath the Idea or Copy of it in his own head This beautiful world bespeaks an Idea of it or a model Since there is such a magnificent wisdom in the make of each Creature and the proportion of one Creature to another this model must be before the World as the patern is always before the thing that is wrought by it This therefore must be in some intelligent and wise agent and this is God Since the reason of those things exceed the reason and all the art of Man who can ascribe them to any inferior cause Chance it could not be the motions of Chance are not constant and at set seasons as the motions of Creatures are That which is by Chance is contingent this is necessary Uniformity can never be the birth of Chance Who can imagine that all the parts of a Watch can meet together and put themselves in order and motion by Chance * Lactant. Nor can it be nature only which indeed is a disposition of second causes If nature hath not an understanding it cannot work such effects If nature therefore uses Counsel to begin a thing reason to dispose it art to effect it vertue to compleat it and power to Govern it why should it be called nature rather than God Nothing so sure as that that which hath an end to which it tends hath a cause by which it is ordered to that end Since therefore all things are ordered in subserviency to the good of man they are so ordered by him that made both man and them And man must acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of his Creator and act in subserviency to His glory as other Creatures act in subserviency to His good Sensible objects were not made only to gratifie the sense of man but to hand somthing to his mind as he is a rational Creature to discover God to him as an object of love and desire to be enjoyed * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 63.64 If this be not the effect of it the order of the Creature as to such an one is in vain and falls short of its true end To conclude this As when a Man comes into a Palace built according to the exactest rule of art and with an unexceptionable conveniency for the Inhabitants he would acknowledge both the being and skill of the Builder So whosoever shall observe the disposition of all the parts of the World their connexion comelines the variety of seasons the swarms of different Creatures and the mutual offices they render to one another cannot conclude less than that it was contrived by an Infinite Skill effected by Infinite Power and governed by Infinite Wisdom None can imagine a Ship to be orderly conducted without a Pilot Nor the parts of the World to perform their several functions without a wise guide considering the Members of the Body cannot perform theirs without the active presence of the Soul The Atheist then is a fool to deny that which every Creature in his constitution asserts and thereby renders himself unable to give a satisfactory account of that constant uniformity in the motions of the Creatures Thirdly III. As the production and harmony so particular Creatures pursuing and attaining their ends manifest that there is a God All particular Creatures have natural instincts which move them for some end The intending of an end is a property of a rational Creature since the lower Creatures cannot challenge that title they must act by the understanding and direction of another And since man cannot challenge the honor of inspiring the Creatures with such instincts it must be ascribed to some nature infinitely above any Creature in understanding No Creature doth determine it self Why do the fruits and grain of the Earth nourish us when the Earth which instrumentally gives them that fitness cannot nourish us but because their several ends are determined by one higher than the world 1. Several Creatures have several Natures How soon will all Creatures as soon as they see the light move to that whereby they must live and make use of the natural arms God hath given their kind for their defence before they are grown to any maturity to afford them that defence The Scripture makes the appetite of Infants to their milk a foundation of the divine Glory Psal 8.3 Out of the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings hast thou ordained strength that is matter of praise and acknowledgment of God in the natural appetite they have to their milk and their rellish of it All Creatures have a natural affection to their young ones all young ones by a natural instinct move to and receive the nourishment that is proper for them Some are their own Physitians as well as their own Caterers and naturally discern what preserves them in life and what restores them when sick The Swallow flies to its Celendine and the Toad hastens to its Plantain Can we behold the Spiders Nets or Silkworms Web the Bees Closets or the Ants Granaries without acknowledging a higher Being than a Creature who hath planted that Genius in them The consideration of the nature of several Creatures God commended to Job Chap. 39. where he discourseth to Job of the natural instincts of the Goat the Ostrich Horse and Eagle c. to perswade him to the acknowledgment and admiration of God and humiliation of himself The Spider as if it understood the art of weaving fits its web both for its own Habitation and a Net to catch its prey The Bee builds a Cell which serves for Chambers to reside in and a repository for its provision Birds are observed to build their Nests with a clammy matter without for the firmer duration of it and with a soft moss and down within for the conveniency and warmth of their young The Stork knows his appointed time Jer. 8.7 And the Swallows observe the time of their coming they go and return according to the seasons of the year This they gain not by consideration it descends to them with their nature They neither gain nor increase it by rational deductions T is not in vain to speak of these How little do we improve by Meditation those objects which daily offer themselves to our view full of instructions for us And our Saviour sends his disciples to spell God in the Lillies * Mat. 6.28 T is observed also that the Creatures offensive to man go single If they went by troops they would bring destruction upon man and beast This is the nature of them for the preservation of others 2. They know not their end They have a Law in their natures but have no rational understanding either of the end to which they are appointed or the means fit to attain it They naturally do what they do and move by no Counsel of their own but by a Law imprest by some higher hand upon their natures What Plant knows why it strikes its root into the earth Doth it
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
it self why did it not produce it self before Why was it one moment out of being * Petav. Theol. Dogmat. Tom. 1. l. 1. c. 10.11 If there be any existence of things 't is necessary that that which was the first Cause should exist from Eternity Whatsoever was the immediate Cause of the world yet the first and chief Cause wherein we must rest must have nothing before it if it had any thing before it it were not the first He therefore that is the first Cause must be without beginning nothing must be before him If he had a beginning from some other he could not be the first Principle and Author of all things If he be the first Cause of all things he must give himself a beginning or be from Eternity He could not give himself a beginning whatsoever begins in time was nothing before and when it was nothing it could do nothing it could not give it self any thing for then it gave what it had not and did what it could not If he made himself in time why did he not make himself before What hindred him It was either because he could not or because he would not if he could not he always wanted power and always would unless it were bestowed upon him and then he could not be said to be from himself If he would not make himself before then he might have made himself when he would How had he the power of willing and nilling without a Being Nothing cannot will or nill Nothing hath no faculties So that it is necessary to grant some eternal Being or run into inextricable Labyrinths and Mazes If we deny some eternal being we must deny all being our own being the being of every thing about us unconceivable absurdities will arise So then if God were the Cause of all things He did exist before all things and that from Eternity The third thing is Eternity is only proper to God and not communicable * Bapt. 'T is as great a madness to ascribe Eternity to the Creature as to deprive the Lord of the Creature of Eternity 'T is so proper to God that when the Apostle would prove the Deity of Christ he proves it by his immutability and eternity as well as his creating power * Heb. 1.10 11 12. Thou art the same and thy years shall not fail The Argument had not strength if Eternity belonged essentially to any but God and therefore he is said only to have Immortality * 1 Tim. 6.16 All other things receive their being from him and can be deprived of their being by him All things depend on him he of none All other things are like Clothes which would consume if God preserved them not Immortality is appropriated to God i. e. an independent Immortality Angels and Souls have an Immortality but by donation from God not by their own Essence dependent upon their Creator not necessary in their own nature God might have annihilated them after he had created them so that their duration cannot properly be called an Eternity it being extrinsical to them and depending upon the will of their Creator by whom they may be extinguisht It is not an absolute and necessary but a precarious Immortality Whatsoever is not God is temporary Whatsoever is eternal is God 'T is a contradiction to say a Creature can be eternal as nothing eternal is created so nothing created is eternal What is distinct from the nature of God cannot be eternal Eternity being the Essence of God Every Creature in the notion of a Creature speaks a dependence on some Cause and therefore cannot be eternal * Lessius de Perfect l. 4. c. 2. As it is repugnant to the nature of God not to be eternal so it is repugnant to the nature of a Creature to be eternal for then a Creature would be equal to the Creator and the Creator or the Cause would not be before the Creature or Effect It would be all one to admit many Gods as many Eternals and all one to say God can be created as to say a Creature can be uncreated which is to be eternal 1. Creation is a producing something from nothing What was once nothing cannot therefore be eternal not being was eternal therefore it s being could not be eternal for it should be then before it was and would be something when it was nothing 'T is the nature of a Creature to be nothing before it was created what was nothing before it was cannot be equal with God in an Eternity of Duration 2. There is no Creature but is mutable therefore not eternal As it had a change from nothing to something so it may be changed from being to not being If the Creature were not mutable it would be most perfect and so would not be a Creature but God for God only is most perfect 'T is as much the Essence of a Creature to be mutable as it is the Essence of God to be immutable Mutability and Eternity are utterly inconsistent 3. No Creature is infinite therefore not eternal To be infinite in Duration is all one as to be infinite in Essence * Lessius de Perfect l. 4. c. 2. 'T is as reasonable to conceive a Creature immense filling all places at once as eternal extended to all ages because neither can be without infiniteness which is the Property of the Deity A Creature may as well be without bounds of place as limitations of time 4. No effect of an intellectual free Agent can be equal in duration to its Cause The Productions of natural Agents are as antient often as themselves the Sun produceth a Beam as old in time as its self But who ever heard of a piece of wise Workmanship as old as the wise Artificer God produced a Creature not necessarily and naturally as the Sun doth a Beam but freely as an intelligent Agent The Sun was not necessary it might be or not be according to the pleasure of God * Crellius de Deo cap. 18. p. 43. A free act of the Will is necessary to precede in order of time as the Cause of such effects as are purely voluntary Those Causes that act as soon as they exist act naturally necessarily not freely and cannot cease from acting But suppose a Creature might have existed by the Will of God from Eternity yet as some think it could not be said absolutely and in its own nature to be eternal because Eternity was not of the Essence of it The Creature could not be its own Duration for though it were from Eternity it might not have been from Eternity because its Existence depended upon the free Will of God who might have chose whether he would have created it or no. God only is eternal the first and the last the beginning and the end who as he subsisted before any Creature had a being so he will eternally subsist if all Creatures were reduced to nothing IV. Vse 1. Information 1. If God
is unsearchable Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no end no limitation what hath no end is infinite his Power is infinite †Job 5.9 which doth great things and unsearchable no end of those things he is able to do His Wisdom infinite * Psal 147.5 He understands all things past present and to come what is already made what is possible to be made his duration infinite * The number of his Years cannot be searched out †Job 36.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To make a finite thing of nothing is an Argument of an infinite Vertue Infinite power can only extract something out of the Barren Womb of nothing but all things were drawn forth by the Word of God the Heavens and all the Host of them the Sun Moon Stars the rich embellishments of the World appear'd in Being at the Breath of his Mouth * Psal 33.6 the Author therefore must be infinite And since nothing is the cause of God or of any Perfection in him since he derives not his Being or the least spark of his glorious nature from any thing without him he cannot be limited in any part of his nature by any thing without him and indeed the infiniteness of his Power and his other Perfections is asserted by the Prophet when he tells us that the Nations are as a Drop of a Bucket or the Dust of the Ballance and less than nothing and Vanity †Isa 40.15.17 they are all so in regard of his Power Wisdom c. Conceive what a little thing a grain of Dust or Sand is to all the Dust that may be made by the rubbish of a House what a little thing the heap of the rubbish of a House is to the vast heap of the rubbish of a whole City such a one as London how little that also would be to the Dust of a whole Empire how inconsiderable that also to the Dust of one quarter of the World Europe or Asia how much less that still to the Dust of the whole World the whole World is compos'd of an unconceivable number of Atoms and the Sea of an unconceivable number of Drops Now what a little grain of Dust is in comparison of the Dust of the whole World a Drop of Water from the Sea to all the Drops remaining in the Sea That is the whole World to God Conceive it still less a meer nothing yet is it all less than this in comparison of God there can be nothing more magnificently expressive of the infiniteness of God to a humane conception than this expression of God himself in the Prophet In the Perfection of a Creature something still may be thought greater to be added to it But God containing all Perfections in himself formally if they be meer Perfections and eminently if they be but Perfections in the Creature mixed with imperfection nothing can be thought greater and therefore every one of them is infinite 2. If his Perfections be Infinite his Essence must be so How God can have infinite Perfections and a finite Essence is unconceivable by a Humane or Angelical understanding an infinite Power an infinite Wisdom an infinite Duration must needs speak an infinite Essence since the infiniteness of his Attributes is grounded upon the infiniteness of his Essence To own infinite Perfections in a finite Subject is contradictory The manner of Acting by his Power and Knowing by his Wisdom cannot exceed the manner of Being by his Essence His Perfections flow from his Essence and the Principle must be of the same rank with what flows from it and if we conceive his Essence to be the cause of his Perfections 't is utterly impossible that an infinite effect should arise from a finite Cause but indeed his Perfections are his Essence for tho' we conceive the Essence of God as the subject and the Attributes of God as faculties and qualities in that Subject according to our weak model who cannot conceive of an infinite God without some manner of likeness to our selves who find Understanding and Will and Power in us distinct from our Substance yet truly and really there is no distinction between his Essence and Attributes one is inseparable from the other his Power and Wisdom are his Essence and therefore to maintain God Infinite in the one and Finite in the other is to make a Monstrous God and have an unreasonable notion of the Deity for there would be the greatest disproportion in his nature since there is no greater disproportion can possibly be between one thing and another than there is between finite and infinite God must not only then be compounded but have parts of the greatest distance from one another in nature but God being the most Simple Being without the least composition both must be equally infinite If then his Essence be not infinite his Power and Wisdom cannot be infinite which is both against Scripture and Reason Again how should his Essence be finite and his Perfections be infinite since nothing out of himself gave them either the one or the other †Amyrald de Trinitat p. 89. Again either the Essence can be infinite or it cannot if it cannot there must be some cause of that impossibility that can be nothing without him because nothing without him can be as powerful as himself much less too powerful for him nothing within him can be an Enemy to his highest Perfection since he is necessarily what he is he must be necessarily the most perfect Being and therefore necessarily infinite since to be something infinitely is a greater Perfection than to be something finitely †Deus est actus parvus nullam habet potentiam passivam if he can be infinite he is infinite otherwise he could be greater than he is and so more Blessed and more Perfect than he is which is impossible for being the most perfect Being to whom nothing can be added he must needs be infinite 3. If therefore God have an Infinite Essence he hath an infinite Presence An infinite Essence cannot be contained in a finite place as those things which are finite have a bounded space wherein they are so that which is infinite hath an unbounded space for as finiteness speaks limitedness so infiniteness speaks unboundedness and if we grant to God an infinite duration there is no difficulty in acknowledging an infinite Presence Indeed the infiniteness of God is a property belonging to him in regard of time and place he is bounded by no place and limited to no time Again Infinite Essence may as well be every where as infinite power reach every thing it may as well be present with every Being as infinite power in its working may be present with nothing to bring it into Being Where God works by his Power he is present in his Essence because his Power and his Essence cannot be separated and therefore his Power Wisdom Goodness cannot be any where where his Essence is not His Essence
could not be blessed Nothing can have any complacency in it self without the Knowledg of it self Nothing can in a rational manner enjoy it self without understanding it self The Blessedness of God consists not in the knowledg of any thing without him but in the knowledg of himself and his own excellency as the principle of all things If therefore he did not perfectly know himself and his own happiness he could not enjoy a happiness for to be and not to know to be is as if a thing were not He is God blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 and therefore for ever had a Knowledg of himself 3. Without the Knowledg of himself he could Create nothing For he would be ignorant of his own Power and his own Ability and he that doth not know how far his Power extends could not act If he did not know himself he could know nothing and he that knows nothing can do nothing he could not know an Effect to be possible to him unless he knew his own Power as a Cause 4. Without the Knowledg of himself he could govern nothing He could not without the knowledg of his own Holiness and Righteousness prescribe Laws to men nor without a knowledg of his own nature order himself a manner of Worship sutable to it All Worship must be congruous to the dignity and nature of the object worshipped he must therefore know his own Authority whereby Worship was to be enacted his own Excellency to which Worship was to be suited his own Glory to which Worship was to be directed If he did not know himself he did not know what to punish because he would not know what was contrary to himself not knowing himself he would not know what was a contempt of him and what an adoration of him what was worthy of God and what was unworthy of him In fine he could not know other things unless he knew himself unless he knew his own Power he could not know how he created things unless he knew his own Wisdom he could not know the beauty of his Works unless he knew his own Glory he could not know the end of his Works unless he knew his own Holiness he could not know what was evil and unless he knew his own Justice he could not know how to punish the Crimes of his offending creatures And therefore 1. God knows himself because his Knowledg with his Will is the cause of all other things that can fall under his cognizance he knows himself first before he can knovv any other thing that is first according to our conceptions for indeed God knovvs himself and all other things at once He is the first Truth and therefore is the first object of his ovvn understanding There is nothing more excellent than himself and therefore nothing more known to him than himself As he is all Knovvledg so he hath in himself the most excellent object of Knovvledg To understand is properly to knovv ones self No object is so intelligible to God as God is to himself nor so intimately and immediately joined vvith his Understanding as himself for his Understanding is his Essence himself 2. He knows himself by his own Essence He knovvs not himself and his ovvn Povver by the effect because he knovvs himself from Eternity before there vvas a World or any effect of his Povver extant 'T is not a knovvledg by the Cause for God hath no cause nor a knovvledg of himself by any species or any thing from vvithout If it vvere any thing from vvithout himself that must be created or uncreated if uncreated it vvould be God and so vve must either ovvn many Gods or ovvn it to be his Essence and so not distinct from himself If created then his knovvledg of himself vvould depend upon a creature he could not then knovv himself from eternity but in time because nothing can be created from eternity but in time God knovvs not himself by any faculty for there is no composition in God he is not made up of parts but is a simple being some therefore have called God not intellectus understanding because that savours of a faculty but intellectio intellection God is all act in the knovvledg of himself and his knovvledg of other things 3. God therefore knows himself perfectly comprehensively Nothing in his ovvn nature is concealed from him he reflects upon every thing that he is Magalaneus There is a positive comprehension so God doth not comprehend himself for vvhat is comprehended hath bounds and vvhat is comprehended by it self is finite to it self and there is a negative comprehension God so comprehends himself nothing in his ovvn nature is obscure to him unknovvn by him For there is as great a perfection in the understanding of God to knovv as there is in the Divine nature to be knovvn The Understanding of God and the Nature of God are both infinite and so equal to one another his Understanding is equal to himself he knovvs himself so vvell that nothing can be knovvn by him more perfectly than himself is knovvn to himself He knovvs himself in the highest manner because nothing is so proportion'd to the Understanding of God as himself He knovvs his ovvn Essence Goodness Povver all his Perfections Decrees Intentions Acts the infinite capacity of his ovvn Understanding so that nothing of himself is in the dark to himself And in this respect some use this expression That the Infiniteness of God is in a manner finite to himself because it is comprehended by himself Thus God transcends all Creatures thus his Understanding is truly Infinite because nothing but himself is an infinite Object for it What Angels may understand of themselves perfectly I know not but no Creature in the World understands himself Man understands not fully the excellency and parts of his own nature upon Gods knowledg of himself depends the Comfort of his People and the Terror of the Wicked this is also a clear Argument for his Knowledg of all other things without himself he that knows himself must needs know all other things less than himself and which were made by himself When the knowledg of his own Immensity and Infiniteness is not an object too difficult for him the knowledg of a finite and limited Creature in all his actions thoughts circumstances cannot be too hard for him Since he knows himself who is Infinite he cannot but know whatsoever is Finite this is the Foundation of all his other Knowledg the knowledg of every thing present past and to come is far less than the knowledg of himself He is more incomprehensible in his own nature than all things Created or that can be Created put together can be If he then have a perfect comprehensive knowledg of his own nature any knowledg of all other things is less than the knowledg of himself this ought to be well considered by us as the Fountain whence all his other knowledg flows 2. Therefore God knows all other things whether
by their observation of the motion of Heavenly Bodies many years before they happen Cusanus can they be hid from God with whom are the reasons of all things Fuller's Pifgab l. 2. p. 2â—1 an expert Gardener by knowing the Root in the depth of Winter can tell what Flowers and what Fruit it will bear and the Month when they will peep out their heads and shall not God much more that knows the Principles of all his Creatures and is exactly privy to all their natures and qualities know what they will be and what operations shall be from those Principles Now if God did know things only in their causes his Knowledg would not be more excellent than the knowledg of Angels and men tho' he might know more than they of the things that will come to pass from every cause singly and from the concurrence of many Now as God is more excellent in Being than his Creature so he is more excellent in the objects of his Knowledg and the manner of his Knowledg well then shall a certain knowledg of something future and a conjectural knowledg of many things be found among men and shall a determinate and infallible knowledg of things to come be found no where in no Being If the conjecture of future things savours of ignorance and God knows them only by conjecture there is then no such thing in Being as a perfect intelligent Being and so no God 4. God knows his own Decree and Will and therefore must needs know all future things If any thing be future or to come to pass it must be from it self or from God not from it self then it would be independent and absolute if it hath its futurity from God then God must know what he hath decreed to come to pass those things that are future in necessary causes God must know because he willed them to be causes of such effects he therefore knows them because he knows what he willed The knowledg of God cannot arise from the things themselves for then the knowledg of God would have a cause without him and Knowledg which is an eminent Perfection would be conferred upon him by his Creatures But as God sees things possible in the glass of his own power so he sees things future in the Glass of his own Will in his effecting Will if he hath Decreed to produce them in his permitting Will as he hath Decreed to suffer them and dispose of them Nothing can pass out of the rank of things meerly possible into the order of things future before some Act of Gods Will hath passed for its futurition Chequell 'T is not from the infiniteness of his own Nature simply considered that God knows things to be future Coccei sum Theol. p. 50. for as things are not future because God is infinite for then all possible things should be future so neither is any thing known to be future only because God is infinite but because God hath Decreed it his declaration of things to come is founded upon his appointment of things to come Coccei sum Theol. p. 50. In Isa 44.7 it is said and who as I shall call and declare it since I appointed the ancient people and the things that are coming Gamaul in Aquin Part 1. q. 14. cap. 3. p. 124. Nothing is Created or ordered in the World but what God Decreed to be Created and ordered God knows his own Decree and therefore all things which he hath Decreed to exist in time not the minutest part of the World could have existed without his Will not an action can be done without his Will as Life the Principle so Motion the fruit of that Life is by and from God as he decreed Life to this or that thing so he decreed motion as the effect of Life and Decreed to exert his Power in concurring with them for producing effects natural from such causes for without such a concourse they could not have acted any thing or produced any thing and therefore as for natural things which we call necessary causes God foreseeing them all particularly in his own Decree foresaw also all effects which must necessarily flow from them because such causes cannot but act when they are furnisht with all things necessary for action He knows his own Decrees and therefore necessarily knows what he hath Decreed or else we must say things come to pass whether God will or no or that he Wills he knows not what but this cannot be for known unto God are all his Works from the beginning of the World Acts 15.18 Now this necessarily flows from that Principle first laid down That God knows himself since nothing is future without Gods Will if God did not know future things he would not know his own Will for as things possible could not be known by him unless he knew the fulness of his own Power so things future could not be known by his Understanding unless he knew the resolves of his own Will Maimonid More Nevoch Part 3. Cap. 21. P. 393. 394. Thus the Knowledg of God differs from the Knowledg of men Gods knowledg of his Works precedes his Works mans knowledg of Gods works follows his works just as an Artificers knowledg of a Watch Instrument or Engine which he would make is before his making of it he knows the motions of it and the reason of those motions before it is made because he knows what he hath determin'd to Work he knows not those motions from the consideration of them after they were made as the Spectator doth who by viewing the Instrument after it is made gains a knowledg from the sight and consideration of it till he understands the reason of the whole so we know things from the consideration of them after we see them in being and therefore we know not future things But Gods Knowledg doth not arise from things because they are but because he Wills them to be and therefore he knows every thing that shall be because it cannot be without his Will as the Creator and maintainer of all things knowing his own substance he knows all his Works 5. If God did not know all future things he would be mutable in his Knowledg If he did not know all things that ever were or are to be there would be upon the appearance of every new object an addition of Light to his Understanding and therefore such a Change in him as every new knowledg causes in the mind of a man or as the Sun works in the World upon its rising every morning scattering the darkness that was upon the face of the Earth if he did not know them before they came he would gain a knowledg by them when they came to pass which he had not before they were effected his Knowledg would be new according to the newness of the objects and multiplyed according to the multitude of the objects If God did not know things to come as perfectly as he knew things
venture 1 Kings 22.39 this some call a mixt contingent made up partly of necessity and partly of accident 't is necessary the Bullet when sent out of the Gun or Arrow out of the Bow should fly and light somewhere but it is an accident that it hits this or that man that was never intended by the Archer Other things as voluntary actions are purely contingents and have nothing of necessity in them all free actions that depend upon the Will of man whether to do or not to do are of this nature because they depend not upon a necessary cause as burning doth upon the Fire moistning upon Water or as descent or falling down is necessary to a heavy Body for those cannot in their own nature do otherwise but the other actions depend upon a free Agent able to turn to this or that point and determine himself as he pleases Now we must know that what is accidental in regard of the Creature is not so in regard of God the manner of Ahab's Death was accidental in regard of the hand by which he was slain but not in regard of God who foretold his Death and foreknew the Shot and directed the Arrow God was not uncertain before of the manner of his fall nor hovered over the Battel to watch for an opportunity to accomplish his own Prediction what may be or not be in regard of us is certain in regard of God to imagine that what is accidental to us is so to God is to measure God by our short line How many events following upon the results of Princes in their Counsels seem to persons ignorant of those Counsels to be a hap-hazard yet were not contingencies to the Prince and his assistants but foreseen by him as certainly to issue so as they do which they knew before would be the fruit of such causes and instruments they would knit together That may be necessary in regard of Gods foreknowledg which is meerly accidental in regard of the natural disposition of the immediate causes which do actually produce it Contingent in its own nature and in regard of us but fixed in the Knowledg of God * Zanch. One illustrates it by this similitude A Master sends two Servants to one and the same place two several ways unknown to one another they meet at the place which their Master had appointed them their meeting is accidental to them one knows not of the other but it was foreseen by the Master that they should so meet and that in regard of them it would seem a meer accident till they came to explain the business to one another Both the necessity of their meeting in regard of their Masters Order and the accidentalness of it in regard of themselves vvere in both their circumstances foreknovvn by the Master that employ'd them For the clearing of this take it in this method 1. 'T is an unworthy conceit of God in any to exclude him from the knowledg of these things 1. It will be a strange contracting of him to allow him no greater a Knowledg than we have our selves Contingencies are knovvn to us vvhen they come into act and pass from futurity to reality and vvhen they are present to us vve can order our affairs accordingly shall vve allovv God no greater a measure of Knovvledg than vve have and make him as blind as ourselves not to see things of that nature before they come to pass shall God know them no more Shall we imagine God knows no otherwise than we know and that he doth like us stand gazing with admiration at events man can conjecture many things is it fit to ascribe the same uncertainty to God as tho' he as well as we could have no assurance till the issue appear in the view of all If God doth not certainly foreknow them he doth but conjecture them but a conjectural knowledg is by no means to be fastned on God for that is not knowledg but guess and destroys a Deity by making him subject to mistake for he that only guesseth may guess wrong so that this is to make God like our selves and strip him of an universally acknowledged Perfection of Omniscience A conjectural Knowledg saith one Scriveneâ— is as unworthy of God as the Creature is unworthy of Omniscience 'T is certain man hath a liberty to act many things this or that way as he pleases to walk to this or that quarter to speak or not to speak to do this or that thing or not to do it which way a man will certainly determine himself is unknown before to any Creature yea often at the present to himself for he may be in suspense but shall we imagine this future determination of himself is conceal'd from God Those that deny Gods foreknowledg in such cases must either say that God hath an opinion that a man will resolve rather this way than that but then if a man by his liberty determine himself contrary to the opinion of God is not God then deceived and what rational Creature can own him for a God that can be deceived in any thing or else they must say that God is at uncertainty and suspends his Opinion without determining it any way then he cannot know free acts till they are done he would then depend upon the Creature for his information his knowledg would be every instant increased as things he knew not before came into act and since there are every minute an innumerable multitude of various imaginations in the minds of men there would be every minute an accession of new Knowledg to God which he had not before besides this knowledg vvould be mutable according to the Wavering and Weathercock resolutions of men one vvhile standing to this point another vvhile to that if he depended upon the Creatures determination for his knovvledg 2. If the free acts of men were unknown before to God no man can see how there can be any Government of the World by him Such contingencies may happen and such resolves of mens Free-Wills unknovvn to God as may perplex his affairs and put him upon nevv Councels and methods for attaining those ends vvhich he setled at the first Creation of things if things happen vvhich God knovvs not of before this must be the consequence vvhere there is no Fore-sight there is no Providence things may happen so sudden if God be ignorant of them that they may give a check to his intentions and Scheme of Government and put him upon changing the whole model of it How often doth a small intervening circumstance unforeseen by man dash in pieces a long meditated and well-formed Design To govern necessary causes as Sun and Stars whose effects are natural and constant in themselves is easy to be imagin'd but how to govern the World that consists of so many men of Free-Will able to determine themselves to this or that and which have no constancy in themselves as the Sun and Stars have cannot be imagin'd unless we
cannot be well governed but by one endowed with infinite Discretion Providential government can be no more without infinite wisdom than infinite wisdom can be without Providence Reas 3. The Creatures working for an end without their own knowledge demonstrates the wisdom of God that guides them All things in the World work for some end the ends are unknown to them though many of their ends are visible to us As there was some prime Cause which by his power inspir'd them with their several instincts so there must be some supream wisdom which moves and guides them to their end As their Being manifests his power that endowed them so the acting according to the rules of their Nature which they themselves understand not manifests his wisdom in directing them Every thing that acts for an end must know that end or be directed by another to attain that end The Arrow doth not know who shoots it or to what end it is shot or what Mark is aimed at but the Archer that puts it in and darts it out of the Bow knows A Watch hath a regular motion but neither the Spring nor the Wheels that move know the end of their motion no man will judge a wisdom to be in the Watch but in the Artificer that dispos'd the Wheels and Spring by a joint combination to produce such a motion for such an end Doth either the Sun that enlivens the Earth or the Earth that travels with the Plant know what Plant it produceth in such a Soil what temper it should be of what fruit it should bear and of what colour What Plant knows its own medicinal qualities it s own beautiful flowers and for what use they are ordain'd When it strikes up its head from the Earth doth it know what proportion of them there will be Yet it produceth all these things in a state of ignorance The Sun warms the Earth concocts the humours excites the vertue of it and cherishes the Seeds which are cast into her lap yet all unknown to the Sun or the Earth Since therefore that Nature that is the immediate cause of those things doth not understand its own quality nor operation nor the end of its action that which thus directs them must be conceived to have an infinite wisdom When things act by a Rule they know not and move for an end they understand not and yet work harmoniously together for one end that all of them we are sure are ignorant of it mounts up our minds to acknowledge the wisdom of that supream Cause that hath rang'd all these inferiour Causes in their order and imprinted upon them the Laws of their motions according to the Ideas in his own Mind who orders the Rule by which they act and the end for which they act and directs every motion according to their several Natures and therefore is possessed with infinite wisdom in his own Nature Reas 4. God is the fountain of all wisdom in the creatures and therefore is infinitely wise himself As he hath a fulness of being in himself because the streams of being are derived to other things from him So he hath a fulness of wisdom because he is the spring of wisdom to Angels and men That Being must be infinitely wise from whence all other wisdom derives its original For nothing can be in the effect which is not eminently in the cause the cause is alway more perfect than the effect If therefore the creatures are wise the Creator must be much more wise If the Creator were destitute of wisdom the creature would be much more perfect than the Creator If you consider the wisdom of the Spider in her web which is both her house and net the artifice of the Bee in her Comb which is both her chamber and granary the provision of the Pismire in her repositories for corn the wisdom of the Creator is illustrated by them whatsoever excellency you see in any creature is an Image of some excellency in God The skill of the artificer is visible in the fruits of his Art a workman transcribes his spirit in the work of his hands But the wisdom of rational creatures as men doth more illustrate it All Arts among men are the rayes of divine Wisdom shining upon them and by a common gift of the Spirit enlightning their minds to curious inventions as Prov. 8.12 I wisdom find out the knowledge of witty inventions that is I give a faculty to men to find them out without my wisdom all things would be buried in darkness and ignorance Whatsoever wisdom there is in the World it is but a shadow of the wisdom of God a small Rivulet derived from him a spark leaping out from Uncreated Wisdom Isa 54.16 He created the Smith that bloweth the coals in the fire and makes the Instruments The skill to use those weapons in War-like Enterprises is from him I have created the waster to destroy 'T is not meant of creating their Persons but communicating to them their Art He speaks it there to expell fear from the Church of all war-like preparations against them He had given Men the skill to form and use Weapons and could as well strip them of it and defeat their purposes The Art of husbandry is a fruit of divine teaching Isa 28.24 25. If those lower kinds of Knowledge that are common to all Nations and easily learn'd by all are discoveries of Divine Wisdom much more the nobler Sciences intellectual and Political Wisdom Dan. 2.21 He gives Wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding speaking of the more abstruse parts of knowledge The inspiration of the Almighty gives Vnderstanding Job 32.8 Hence the Wisdom which Solomon exprest in the Harlots case 1 Kings 3.28 was in the Judgment of all Israel the Wisdom of God that is a fruit of Divine Wisdom a beam communicated to him from God Every mans Soul is endowed more or less with those noble qualities The Soul of every man exceeds that of a Brute If the streams be so excellent the Fountain must be fuller and clearer The first Spirit must infinitely more possess what other Spirits derive from him by Creation Were the Wisdom of all the Angels in Heaven and men on Earth collected in one Spirit it must be infinitely less than what is in the Spring for no Creature can be equal to the Creator As the highest Creature already made or that we can conceive may be made by Infinite Power would be infinitely below God in the Notion of a Creature so it would be infinitely below God in the Notion of Wise IV. The fourth Thing is Wherein the Wisdom of God appears It appears 1. In Creation 2. In Government 3. In Redemption 1. In Creation As in a Musical Instrument there is first the skill of the Workman in the frame then the skill of the Musician in stringing it proper for such Musical Notes as he will express upon it and after that the tempering of the Strings by
Means belongs to the Will and the accomplishment of the whole is an act of Power 'T is a hard matter to determine which is most necessary Wisdom stands in as much need of Power to perfect as Power doth of Wisdom to model and draw out a scheme though Wisdom directs Power must effect Wisdom and Power are distinct things among Men A Poor man in a Cottage may have more Prudence to Advise than a Privy Counsellor and a Prince more power to act than wisdom to conduct A Pilot may direct though he be lame and cannot climb the Masts and spread the Sails But God is wanting in nothing neither in Wisdom to design nor in Will to determine nor in Power to accomplish His Wisdom is not feeble nor his Power foolish A Powerful wisdom could not act what it would and a Foolish power would act more than it should The Power exprest in his Government is shadow'd forth in the Living Creatures which are Gods Instruments in it 'T is said Every one of them had four faces that of a Man to signifie Wisdom of a Lion Ezek. 1.10 Eagle the strongest among Birds to signifie their Courage and Strength to perform their offices This Power is evident in the Natural Moral Gracious Government There is a Natural Providence which consists in the preservation of all things propagation of them by Corruptions and Generations and in a Co-operation with them in their motions to attain their ends Moral Government is of the Hearts and Actions of Men. Gracious Government as respecting the Church I. His Power is evident in Natural Government 1. In Preservation God is the great Father of the World to nourish it as well as create it * Daâ—â—◠〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10. p. 102. Man and Beast would perish if there were not Herbs for their food and Herbs would wither and perish if the Earth were not watered with fruitful showers This some of the Heathens acknowledg'd in their worshipping God under the image of an Ox a useful Creature by reason of its strength to which we owe so much of our food in Corn. Hence God is styled the Preserver of Man and Beast Psal â—6 6. Hence the Jews called God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Place because he is the subsistence of all things By the same Word whereby he gave Being to things he gives to them continuance and duration in Being to such a term of time As they were created by his word they are supported by his word Heb. 1.3 The same powerful Fiat Gen. 1.11 Let the Earth bring forth Grass when the Plants peep'd upon Man out of nothing is exprest every Spring when they begin to lift up their heads from their naked Roots and Winter graves The resurrection of Light every morning the reviving the pleasure of all things to the eye the watering the Vallies from the Mountain Springs the curbing the natural appetite of the Waters from covering the Earth every draught that the Beast drink every lodging the Fowls have every bit of Food for the sustenance of Man and Beast is ascribed to the Opening of his hand the diffusing of his Power Psal 104.27 c. as much as the first Creation of things and endowing them with their particular nature Whence the Plants Verse 16. which are so serviceable are called the Trees of the Lord of Jehovah that hath only Being and Power in himself The whole Psalm is but the description of his preserving as the first of Genesis is of his creating Power 'T is by this Power Angels have so many Thousand years remained in the power of understanding and willing By this Power things distant in their natures have been joyned together a Spiritual Soul and a Dusty Body knit in a Marriage knot By this Power the Heavenly Bodies have for so many Ages roul'd in their Spheres and the Tumultuous Elements have persisted in their order By this hath the Matter of the World been to this day continued and as capable of entertaining forms as it was at the first Creation What an amazing sight would it be to see a man hold a Pillar of the Exchange upon one of his Fingers What is this to the Power of God who holds the waters in the hollow of his hand metes out the Heaven with a span and weighs the Mountains in scales and the Hills in a ballance Isai 40.12 †Daillé Melange Part 2. p. 457 c. ‖ The preserving the Earth from the violence of the Sea is a plain instance of this Power How is that raging Element kept pent within those lists where he first lodged it continues its course in its Channel without overflowing the Earth and dashing in pieces the lower part of the Creation The natural scituation of the Water is to be above the Earth because it is lighter and to be immediately under the Air because it is heavier than that thinner Element Who restrains this natural quality of it but that God that first formed it The word of Command at first Hitherto shalt thou go and no further keeps those Waters linkt together in their Den that they may not ravage the Earth but be useful to the Inhabitants of it And when once it finds a gap to enter what power of Earth can hinder its passage How fruitless sometimes is all the Art of Man to send it to its proper Channel when once it hath spread its mighty waves over some Countries and trampled part of the inhabited Earth under its feet It hath triumphed in its victory and withstood all the power of Man to conquer its force 'T is only the Power of God that doth bridle it from spreading it self over the whole Earth And that his Power might be more manifest he hath set but a weak and small bank against it Though he hath bounded it in some places by mighty Rocks which lift up their heads above it yet in most places by feeble Sand. How often is it seen in every stormy motion when the waves boil high and roul furiously as if they would swallow up all the neighbouring Houses upon the Shoar when they come to touch those Sandy limits they bow their heads fall flat and sink into the Lap whence they were raised and seem to foam with Anger that they can march no further but must split themselves at so weak an obstacle Can the Sand be thought to be the cause of this The weakness of it gives no footing to such a thought Who can apprehend that an enraged Army should retire upon the opposition of a Straw in an Infants hand Is it the nature of the Water It s retirement is against the natural quality of it pour but a little upon the ground and you always see it spread it self No cause can be rendred in nature 't is a standing Monument of the Power of God in the preservation of the World and ought to be more taken notice of by us in this Island surrounded with it than
when that Fire is removed they return to their natural quality of hardness and brittleness the positive act of the Fire is to melt and soften and the softness of the Rosin is to be ascribed to that but the hardness is from the Rosin it self wherein the Fire hath no influence but only a negative act by a removal of it So when God hardens a man he only leaves him to that stony heart which he derived from Adam and brought with him into the world All mens understandings being blinded and their wills perverted in Adam God's withdrawing his Grace is but a leaving them to their natural pravity which is the cause of their further sinning and not God's removal of that special light he before afforded them or restraint he held over them As when God withdraws his preserving Power from the Creature he is not the efficient but deficient cause of the Creatures destruction so in this case God only ceaseth to bind and damm up that sin which else would break out 2. The whole positive cause of this hardness is from mans corruption God infuseth not any sin into his Creatures but forbears to infuse his Grace restrain their Lusts which upon the removal of his Grace work impetuously God only gives them up to that which he knows will work strongly in their hearts And therefore the Apostle wipes off from God any positive act in that uncleaness the Heathens were given up to Rom. 1.24 Wherefore God gave them up to uncleaness through the lusts of their own hearts And verse 26. God gave them up to vile affections but they were their own affections none of Gods inspiring by adding through the lusts of their own Hearts Gods giving them up was the Logical cause or a cause by way of Argument their own Lusts were the true and natural cause their own they were before they were given up to them and belonging to none as the Author but themselves after they were given up to them The Lust in the Heart and the temptation without easily close and mix interests with one another As the Fire in a Coal pit will with the fuell if the streams derived into it for the quenching it be dam'd up The naturall Passions will run to a temptation as the Waters of a River tumble towards the Sea When a man that hath bridled in a high mettled-Horse from running out gives him the Rains or a Huntsman takes off the string that held the Dog and lets him run after the Hare are they the immediate cause of the motion of the one or the other no but the mettle and strength of the Horse and the natural inclination of the Hound both which are left to their own motions to pursue their own natural instincts Man doth as naturally tend to sin as a stone to the Center or as a weighty thing inclines to a motion to the Earth Tâ—s from the propension of mans nature that he drinks up iniquity like water and God doth no more when he leaves a man to sin by taking away the Hedge which stopt him but leave him to his natural Inclination As a man that breaks up a damm he hath placed leaves the Streams to run in their natural Chanel or one that takes away a prop from a Stone to let it fall leaves it only to that nature which inclines it to a descent both have their motion from their own Nature and man his Sin from his own Corruption * Amyrald de predest p. 107. The withdrawing the Sun-beams is not the cause of Darkness but the Shadiness of the Earth nor is the departure of the Sun the cause of Winter but the coldness of the Air and Earth which was temper'd and beaten back into the bowels of the Earth by the vigor of the Sun upon whose departure they return to their natural state The Sun only leaves the Earth and Air as it found them at the beginning of the Spring or the beginning of the Day If God do not give a man Grace to melt him yet he cannot be said to communicate to him that nature which hardens him which man hath from himself As God was not the cause of the first sin of Adam which was the root of all other so he is not the cause of the following sins which as branches spring from that root mans free-will was the cause of the first sin and the corruption of his nature by it the cause of all succeeding sins God doth not immediately harden any man but doth propose those things from whence the natural Vice of man takes an occasion to strengthen and nourish itself Hence God is said to harden Pharao'hs Heart ‖ Exod. 7.13 by concurring with the Magicians in turning their rods into Serpents which stiffened his Heart against Moses conceiving him by reason of that to have no more power than other men and was an occasion of his further hardning And Pharaoh is said to harden himself * Exod. 8.32 that is in regard of his own natural passion 3. God is holy and righteous because he doth not withdraw from man till man deserts him To say that God withdrew that Grace from Adam which he had afforded him in Creation or any thing that was due to him till he had abused the Gifts of God and turned them to an end contrary to that of Creation would be a reflection upon the Divine Holiness God was first deserted by man before man was deserted by God and man doth first contemn and abuse the common Grace of God and those reliques of natural light that enlighten every man that comes into the World †John 1 9. before God leaves him to the hurry of his own Passions Ephraim was first joyned to Idols before God pronounced the fatal sentence Let him alone ‖ Hos 4.17 And the Heathens first changed the glory of the incorruptible God before God withdrew his common Grace from the corrupted creature * Rom. 1.23 24. and they first served the Creature more then the Creator before the Creator gave them up to the slavish Chains of their vile affections †Ver. 25 26. Israel first cast off God before God cast off them but then he gave them up to their own Hearts Lusts and they walked in their own Counsels Psa 81.11 12. Since sin entred into the World by the fall of Adam and the blood of all his posterity was tainted Man cannot do any thing that is formally good not for want of faculties but for the want of a righteous habit in those faculties especially in the Will yet God discovers himself to man in the works of his hands he hath left in him footsteps of natural reason he doth attend him with common motions of his Spirit corrects him for his faults with gentle Chastisements He is neer unto all in some kind of Instructions He puts many times providential bars in their way of sinning but when they will rush into it as the Horse into
Understanding greatness of Power all the Sons of Men they were more capable to praise him more capable to serve him and because of the Acuteness of their Comprehension more able to have a due Estimate of such a Redemption had it been afforded them yet that Goodness which had Created them so Comely would not lay it self out in restoring the Beauty they had defaced The Promise was of bruising the Serpents head for us not of listing up the Serpents head with us Their Nature was not assum'd nor any command given them to believe or repent Not one Devil spar'd not one Apostate Spirit recover'd not one of those eminent Creatures restor'd Every one of them hath only a prospect of Misery without any glimps of Recovery They were ruin'd under one Sin and we repair'd under many All his Redeeming Goodness was laid out upon Man Psal 144.3 What is Man that thou takest knowledge of him and the Son of Man that thou makest account of him Making account of him above Angels As they fell without any tempting them so God would leave them to rise without any assisting them I know the Schools trouble themselves to find out the reasons of this peculiarity of Grace to Man and not to them because the whole Humane Nature fell but only a part of the Angelical The one Sinned by a Seduction and the other by a sullenness without any Tempter Every Angel Sinned by his own proper will whereas Adams Posterity Sinned by the will of the first Man the common Root of all God would deprive the Devil of any glory in the satisfaction of his envious desire to hinder Man from attainment and possession of that Happiness which himself had lost The weakness of Man below the Angelical Nature might excite the Divine Mercy And since all the things of the lower World were Created for Man God would not lose the honour of his Works by losing the immediate End for which he framed them And finally because in the Restoration of Angels there would have been only a Restoration of one Nature that was not comprehensive of the Nature of Inferior things But after all such Conjectures Man must sit down and acknowledge Divine Goodness to be the only Spring without any other Motive Since Infinite Wisdom could have contrived a way for Redemption for Fallen Angels as well as for Fallen Man and restor'd both the one and the other Why might not Christ have assumed their Nature as well as ours into the unity of the Divine Person and suffer'd the Wrath of God in their Nature for them as well as in his Humane Soul for us 'T is as conceivable that two Natures might have been assum'd by the Son of God as well as three Souls be in Man distinct as some think there are 3. To Enhance this Goodness yet higher It was a greater Goodness to us than was for a time manifested to Christ himself To demonstrate his Goodness to Man in preventing his Eternal Ruine he would for a while with-hold his Goodness from his Son by exposing his Life as the price of our Ransom not only subjecting him to the Derisions of Enemies Desertions of Friends and Malice of Devils but to the unexpressible bitterness of his own Wrath in his Soul as made an offering for Sin The Particle so John 3.16 seems to intimate this Supremacy of Goodness He so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son He so loved the World that he seem'd for a time not to love his Son in comparison of it or equal with it The Person to whom a Gift is given is in that regard accounted more valuable than the Gift or Present made to him Thus God valued our Redemption above the worldly Happiness of the Redeemer and sentenceth him to an Humiliation on Earth in order to our Exaltation in Heaven He was desirous to hear him groaning and see him bleeding that we might not groan under his Frowns and bleed under his Wrath He spared not him that he might spare us refused not to strike him that he might be well pleased with us drencht his Sword in the Blood of his Son that it might not for ever be wet with ours but that his Goodness might for ever triumph in our Salvation He was willing to have his Son made Man and die rather than Man should perish who had delighted to ruine himself He seem'd to degrade him for a time from what he was * Lingend de Eucharist p. 84 85. But since he could not be united to any but to an intellectual Creature he could not be united to any viler and more sordid Creature than the Earthly Nature of Man And when this Son in our Nature prayed that the Cup might pass from him Goodness would not suffer it to shew how it valued the manifestation of it self in the Salvation of Man above the preservation of the Life of so dear a Person In particular wherein this Goodness appears 1. The first Resolution to Redeem and the means appointed for Redemption could have no other inducement but Divine Goodness We cannot too highly value the Merit of Christ but we must not so much extend the Merit of Christ as to draw a value to Eclipse the Goodness of God Though we owe our Redemption and the Fruits of it to the Death of Christ yet we owe not the first Resolutions of Redemption and assumption of our Nature the means of Redemption to the Merit of Christ Divine Goodness only without the association of any Merit not only of Man but of the Redeemer himself begat the first purpose of our Recovery He was singled out and predestinated to be our Redeemer before he took our Nature to Merit our Redemption God sent his Son is a frequent Expression in the Gospel of St. John †John 3.34 Joh. 9.24 Joh. 17.3 To what end did God send Christ but to Redeem * Lessius The purpose of Redemption therefore preceded the pitching upon Christ as the means and procuring Cause of it i. e. of our actual Redemption but not of the Redeeming purpose the end is always in intention before the means God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son The love of God to the World was first in Intention and the Order of Nature before the will of giving his Son to the World His Intention of saving was before the Mission of a Saviour So that this Affection rose not from the Merit of Christ but the Merit of Christ was directed by this Affection It was the Effect of it not the Cause Nor was the union of our Nature with his Merited by him All his Meritorious acts were performed in our Nature The Nature therefore wherein he performed it was not Merited that Grace which was not could not Merit what it was He could not Merit that Humanity which must be assumed before he could Merit any thing for us because all Merit for us must be offer'd in the Nature which had offended
was stain'd when they were debas'd to serve the Lusts of a Traytor instead of supporting the Duty of a Subject and employed in the defence of the Vices of Men against the Precepts and Authority of their common Soveraign This was a vilifying the Creature as it would be a vilifying the Sword of a Prince which is for the maintenance of Justice to be used for the Murder of an Innocent and a dishonouring a Royal Mansion to make it a Store-house for a Dunghil Had those things the benefit of sense they would groan under this disgrace and rise up in indignation against them that offered them this affront and turned them from their proper end When sin entred the Heavens that were made to shine upon Man and the Earth that was made to bear and nourish an innocent Creature were now subjected to serve a rebellious Creature And as Man turn'd against God so he made those instruments against God to serve his Enmity Luxury Sensuality Hence the Creatures are said to groan * Rom. 8.21 The whole Creation groans and travels in pain together until now They would really groan had they understanding to be sensible of the Outrage done them The whole Creation 'T is the pang of universal Nature the agony of the whole Creation to be alienated from the original use for which they were intended and be disjointed from their end to serve the disloyalty of a Rebel The Drunkards Cup and the Gluttons Table the Adulterers Bed and the proud Mans Purple would groan against the abuser of them But when all the fruits of Redemption shall be compleated the Goodness of God shall pour it self upon the Creatures deliver them from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God * Rom. 8.21 they shall be reduced to their true end and retun'd in their original harmony As the Creation doth passionately groan under its vanity so it doth earnestly expect and wait for its deliverance at the time of the manifestation of the Sons of God * V. 19. The manifestation of the Sons of God is the attainment of the liberty of the Creature They shall be freed from the vanity under which they are enslav'd As it entred by sin it shall vanish upon the total removal of sin What use they were design'd for in Paradise they will have afterwards except that of the nourishment of Men who shall be as Angels neither eating nor drinking The Glory of God shall be seen and contemplated in them It can hardly be thought that God made the World to be little a moment after he had reard it sullied by the Sin of Man and turn'd from its original end without thoughts of a restoration of it to its true end as well as Man to his lost happiness The World was made for Man Man hath not yet enjoyed the Creature in the first intention of them Sin made an interruption in that Fruition As Redemption restores Man to his true end so it restores the Creatures to their true use The restoration of the World to its beauty and order was the design of the Divine Goodness in the coming of Christ as it is intimated in Isaiah 11.6 7 8 9. As he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it so he came not to destroy the Creatures but to repair them To restore to God the honour and pleasure of the Creation and restore to the Creatures their felicity in restoring their Order The Fall corrupted it and the full Redemption of Men restores it The last time is called not a time of destruction but a time of restitution and that of all things * Acts 3.21 of universal nature the main part of the Creation at least All those things which were the effects of sin will be abolisht the removal of the Cause beats down the effect The disorder and unruliness of the Creature arising from the venom of Mans transgression all the fierceness of one Creature against another shall vanish The World shall be nothing but an universal smile Nature shall put on triumphant Vestments There shall be no affrighting Thunders choaking Mists venomous Vapours or poysonous Plants It would not else be a restitution of all things They are now subject to be wasted by Judgments for the sin of their Possessor but the perfection of Mans Redemptions shall free them from every misery They have an advancement at the present for they are under a more glorious head as being the possession of Christ the heavenly Adam much superiour to the first As it 's the glory of a person to be a Servant to a Prince rather than a Peasant And afterwards they shall be elevated to a better state sharing in Man's happiness as well as they did in his misery As Servants are interested in the good Fortune of their Master and better'd by his advance in his Princes favour As Man in his first Creation was mutable and liable to sin so the Creatures were liable to vanity But as Man by Grace shall be freed from the Mutability so shall the Creatures be freed from the fears of an Invasion by the vanity that sully'd them before The condition of the Servants shall be suited to that of their Lord for whom they were design'd Hence all Creatures are call'd upon to rejoice upon the Perfection of Salvation and the appearance of Christs Royal Authority in the World * Psal 96.11.12 Psal 98.7 8. If they were to be destroyed there would be no ground to invite them to triumph Thus doth Divine Goodness spread its kind Arms over the whole Creation 3. The third thing is the Goodness of God in his Government That Goodness that despised not their Creation doth not despise their conduct The same Goodness that was the head that fram'd them is the helm that guides them his Goodness hovers over the whole frame either to prevent any wild disorders unsuitable to his Creating end or to conduct them to those ends which might illustrate his Wisdom and Goodness to his Creatures His Goodness doth no less incline him to provide for them than to frame them 'T is the natural inclination of man to love what is purely the birth of his own strength or skill He is fond of preserving his own Inventions as well as laborious in inventing them 'T is the glory of a Man to preserve them as well as to produce them God loves every thing which he hath made which love could not be without a continued diffusiveness to them suitable to the end for which he made them It would be a vain Goodness if it did not interest it self in managing the World as well as erecting it Without his Government every thing in the World would justle against one another The beauty of it would be more defaced it would be an unruly Mass a confus'd Chaos rather then a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a comely World If Divine Goodness respected it when it was nothing it would much more respect it
* Isa 44.17 They applyed a general Notion to a perticular Image The difference is in the manner and immediate object of worship not in the formal ground of worship The worship sprung from a true Principal though it was not applyed to a right object While they were rational Creatures they could not deface the Notion yet while they were corrupt Creatures it was not difficult to apply themselves to a wrong object from a true principle A blind man knows he hath a way to go as well as one of the clearest sight but because of his blindness he may miss the way and stumble into a Ditch No man would be impos'd upon to take a Bristol Stone instead of a Diamond if he did not know that there were such things as Diamonds in the World nor any man spread forth his hands to an Idol if he were altogether without the sense of a Deity Whether it be a false or a true God men apply to yet in both the natural sentiment of a God is evidenc'd all their mistakes were grafts inserted in this Stock since they would multiply gods rather than deny a Deity * Charron de la Sagesse Livr 1. Cha. 7. p. 43. 44. How should such a general submission be entered into the by all the world so as to adore things of a base alloy if the force of Religion were not such that in any fashion a man would seek the satisfaction of his natural instinct to some object of worship This great diversity confirms this consent to be a good argument for it evidenceth it not to be a Cheat combination or conspiracy to deceive or a mutual intelligence but every one finds it in his climate yea in himself * Gassend Phys § 1. lib. 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. People would never have given the Title of a God to men or Brutes had there not been a pre-existing and unquestioned perswasion that there was such a Being how else should the Notion of a God come into their minds the Notion that there is a God must be more ancient 3. Whatsoever disputes there have been in the World this of the existence of God was never the subject of contention All other things have been questioned What Jarrings were there among Philosophers about natural things into how many parties were they split with what animosities did they maintain their several judgments but we hear of no solemn Controversies about the Existence of a Supream Being this never met with any considerable contradiction no Nation that hath put other things to question would ever suffer this to be disparaged so much as by a publick doubt * Amyrant des Religion p. 50. We find among the Heathen contentions about the Nature of God and the number of gods some asserted an innumerable multitude of gods some affirmed him to be subject to birth and death some affirmed the intire World was God others fancied him to be a circle of a bright Fire others that he was a Spirit diffused through the whole World Yet they unanimously concurr'd in this as the judgment of Universal Reason that there was such a sovereign Being And those that were sceptical in every thing else and asserted that the greatest certainty was that there was nothing certain profest a certainty in this The question was not whether there was a First Cause but why it was * Gassend Phys § 1. lâ—b 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. 'T is much the same thing as the disputes about the Nature and matter of the Heavens the Sun and Planets tho there be great diversity of Judgments yet all agree that there are Heavens Sun Planets so all the Contentions among men about the Nature of God weaken not but rather confirm that there is a God since there was never a publick formal debate about his Existence Those that have been ready to pull out one anothers eyes for their dissent from their judgments sharply censured one anothers sentiments envied the births of one anothers wits alwayes shook hands with an unanimous consent in this never censured one another for being of this perswasion never called it into question as what was never controverted among men professing Christianity but acknowledged by all though contending about other things has reason to be judged a certain Truth belonging to the Christian Religion so what was never subjected to any Controversy but acknowledged by the whole World hath reason to be imbraced as a Truth without any doubt 4. This Vniversal Consent is not prejudiced by some few Dissenters History doth not reckon twenty profest Atheists in all Ages in the compass of the whole World Gassend Phys § 1. lib. 4. cap. 7. p. 282. and we have not the name of any one absolute Atheist upon Record in Scripture yet it is questioned whether any of them noted in History with that infamous name were down-right denyers of the Existence of God but rather because they disparaged the Deities commonly worshipped by the Nations where they lived as being of a clearer reason to discern that those qualities vulgarly attributed to their gods as lust and luxury wantonness and quarrels were unworthy of the nature of a God But suppose they were really what they are termed to be what are they to the multitude of men that have sprung out of the loyns of Adam not so much as one grain of ashes is to all that were ever turned into that form by any fires in your Chimnies And many more were not sufficient to weigh down the contrary consent of the whole World and bear down an universal impression Should the Laws of a Country agreed universally to by the whole Body of the People be accounted vain because a hundred men of those millions disapprove of them when not their reason but their folly and base interest perswades them to dislike them and dispute against them * Gassend ibid. p. 290. What if some men be blind shall any conclude from thence that eyes are not natural to men shall we say that the notion of the Existence of God is not natural to men because a very small number have been of a contrary opinion shall a man in a dungeon that never saw the Sun deny that there is a Sun because one or two blind men tell him there is none when thousands assure him there is Why should then the exceptions of a few not one to millions discredit that which is voted certainly true by the joynt consent of the World Add this too that if those that are reported to be Atheists had had any considerable reason to step aside from the common perswasion of the whole world 't is a wonder it met not with entertainment by great numbers of those who by reason of their notorious wickedness and inward disquiets might reasonably be thought to wish in their hearts that there were no God 'T is strange if there were any reason on their side that in so long a space of time as hath run
first principle was setled by the first man in himself where was the stop that he did not implant all in his own mind and consequently in the minds of all his descendents Our Souls know little of themselves little of the World are every day upon new enquiries have little satisfaction in themselves meet with many an invincible rub in their way and when they seem to come to some resolution in some cases stagger again and like a stone rould up to the top of the Hill quickly find themselves again at the foot How come they to be so purblind in Truth So short of that which they Judge true goodness How comes it to pass they cannot order their own Rebellious affections and suffer the rains they have to hold over their affections to be taken out of their hands by the unruly fancy and flesh This no man that denies the being of a God and the Revelation in Scripture can give an account of Blessed be God that we have the Scripture which gives us an account of those things that all the wit of men could never inform us of and that when they are discovered and known by Revelation they appear not contrary to reason 3. If the first Man made himself how came he to limit himself If he gave himself being why did he not give himself all the perfections and Ornaments of being Nothing that made it self could sit down contented with a little but would have had as much power to give it self that which is less as to give it self being when it was nothing The exellencies it wanted had not been more difficult to gain than the other which it possessed as belonging to its nature If the first man had been independent upon another and had his perfection from himself he might have acquired that perfection he wanted as well as have bestowed upon himself that perfection he had and then there would have been no bounds set to him He would have been Omniscient and Immutable He might have given himself what he would if he had had the setting his own bounds he would have set none at all For what should restrain him No man now wants Ambition to be what he is not and if the first man had not been determined by another but had given himself being he would not have remained in that determinate being no more than a Toad would remain a Toad if it had power to make it self a man and that power it would have had if it had given it self a being Whatsoever gives it self being would give it self all degrees of being and so would have no imperfection because every imperfection is a want of some degree of being * Therefore the Heathens called God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only Being Other things were not beings because they had not all degrees of being He that could give himself matter and life might give himself every thing The giving of life is an act of Omnipotence and what is Omnipotent in one thing may be in all Besides if the first man had made himself he would have conveyed himself to all his posterity in the same manner every man would have had all the perfections of the first man as every Creature hath the perfections of the same kind from whence it naturally Issues all are desirous to communicate what they can to their posterity Communicative goodness belongs to every nature Every plant propagates its kind in the same perfection it hath itself and the nearer any thing comes to a rational nature the greater affection it hath to that which descends from it therefore this affection belongs to a rational nature much more The first man therefore if he had had power to give himself being and consequently all perfection he would have had as much power to convey it down to his posterity no impediment could have stopt his way then all Souls proceeding from that first man would have been equally intellectual What should hinder them from inheriting the same perfections whence should they have divers qualifications and differences in their understandings No man then would have been subject to those weaknesses doubtings and unsatisfied desires of knowledg and perfection But being all Souls are not alike 't is certain they depend upon some other cause for the communication of that excellency they have If the perfections of Man be so contracted and kept within certain bounds 't is certain that they were not in his own power and so were not from himself Whatsoever hath a determinate being must be limited by some superior cause There is therefore some superior power that hath thus determined the Creature by set bounds and distinct measures and hath assigned to every one its proper nature that it should not be greater or less than it is who hath said of every one as of the waves of the Sea * Job 38.11 Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and this is God Man could not have reserved any perfection from his Posterity For since he doth propagate not by choice but nature he could no more have kept back any perfection from them than he could as he pleased have given any perfection belonging to his nature to them 4. That which hath power to give it self being cannot want power to preserve that being Preservation is not more difficult than Creation If the first Man made himself why did he not preserve himself He is not now among the living in the world How came he to be so feeble as to sink into the Grave Why did he not inspire himself with new heat and moisture and fill his languishing limbs and declining body with new strength Why did he not chase away Diseases and Death at the first approach What Creature can find the dust of the first Man All his posterity traverse the Stage and retire again in a short space their Age departs and is removed from them as a Shepherds Tent and is cut off with pining Sickness * Isa 38.12 The life of Man is as a wind and like a cloud that is consumed and vanishes away * Job 7.6 7 8 9. The Eye that sees him shall see him no more he returns not to his house neither doth his place know him any more The Scripture gives us the reason of this and layes it upon the score of sin against his Creator which no Man without revelation can give any satisfactory account of Had the first Man made himself he had been sufficient for himself able to support himself without the assistance of any creature He would not have needed animals and plants and other helps to nourish and refresh him nor Medicines to cure him He could not be beholding to other things for his support which he is certain he never made for himself His own nature would have continued that vigour which once he had conferred upon himself He would not have needed the heat and light of the Sun he would have wanted nothing sufficient for himself in himself
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
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
Essence as in his Veracity and Faithfulness They are perfections belonging to his Nature But if he were not a pure Spirit he could not be immutable by Nature 7. If God were not a pure Spirit He could not be omnipresent He is in Heaven above and the Earth below * Deut. 4.39 He fills Heaven and Earth * Jer. 23.24 The Divine Essence is at once in Heaven and Earth but it is impossible a Body can be in two places at one and the same time Since God is every where he must be spiritual Had he a Body he could not penetrate all things he would be circumscribed in place He could not be every where but in parts not in the whole one member in one place and another in another for to be confined to a particlar place is the property of a Body But since he is diffused through the whole World higher than Heaven deeper than Hell longer than the Earth broader than the Sea * Job 11.8 he hath not any corporeal matter If he had a Body wherewith to fill Heaven and Earth there could be no Body besides his own 'T is the Nature of Bodies to bound one another and hinder the extending of one another Two Bodies cannot be in the same place in the same point of Earth one excludes the other And it will follow hence that we are nothing no substances meer illusions there could be no place for any Body else * Gamacheus Theol. Tom. 1. Quos 3. C. 1. If his Body were as bigg as the World as it must be if with that he filled Heaven and Earth there would not be room for him to move a hand or a foot or extend a finger for there would be no place remaining for the motion 8. If God were not a Spirit he could not be the most perfect Being The more perfect any thing is in the rank of Creatures the more spiritual and simple it is as Gold is the more pure and perfect that hath least mixture of other Metals If God were not a Spirit there would be Creatures of a more excellent Nature than God as Angels and Souls which the Scripture calls Spirits in opposition to Bodies There is more of perfection in the first notion of a Spirit than in the notion of a Body God cannot be less perfect than his Creatures and contribute an excellency of being to them which he wants himself If Angels and Souls possess such an excellency and God want that excellency he would be less than his Creatures and the excellency of the Effect would exceed the excellency of the Cause But every Creature even the highest Creature is infinitely short of the perfection of God for whatsoever excellency they have is finite and limited 't is but a spark from the Sun a drop from the Ocean but God is unboundedly perfect in the highest manner without any limitation and therefore above Spirits Angels the highest Creatures that were made by him An infinite sublimity a pure act to which nothing can be added from which nothing can be taken In him there is light and no darkness * 1 John 1.5 spirituality without any matter perfection without any shadow or taint of imperfection Light pierceth into all things preserves its own purity and admits of no mixture of any thing else with it Question It may be said If God be a Spirit and it is impossible he can be otherwise than a Spirit how comes God so often to have such Members as we have in our Bodies ascribed to him not only a Soul but particular bodily parts as heart arms hands eyes ears face and back-parts And how is it that he is never called a Spirit in plain words but in this Text by our Saviour Answ 'T is true many parts of the Body and natural affections of the human nature are reported of God in Scripture Head * Dan. 7.9 Eyes and Eye-lids * Psal 11.4 Apple of the Eye Mouth c. our Affections also Grief Joy Anger c. But it is to be considered 1. That this is in condescension to our weakness God being desirous to make himself known to Man * Loquitur lex secund ling. filiorum hominum was the H. saying whom he created for his Glory humbles as it were his own Nature to such representations as may sute and assists the capacity of the Creature Since by the condition of our nature nothing erects a notion of it self in our understanding but as it is conducted in by our sence God hath served himself of those things which are most exposed to our sence most obvious to our understandings to give us some acquaintance with his own Nature and those things which otherwise we were not capable of having any notion of As our Souls are linkt with our Bodies so our knowledge is linkt with our sence that we can scarce imagin any thing at first but under a corporeal form and figure till we come by great attention to the Object to make by the help of reason a separation of the spiritual substance from the corporeal fancy and consider it in its own nature We are not able to conceive a Spirit without some kind of resemblance to something below it nor understand the actions of a Spirit without considering the operations of a human Body in its several Members As the Glories of another Life are signified to us by the pleasures of this so the Nature of God by a gracious condescension to our capacities is signified to us by a likeness to our own The more familiar the things are to us which God uses to this purpose the more proper they are to teach us what he intends by them Answ 2. All such representations are to signifie the acts of God as they hear some likeness to those which we perform by those members he ascribes to himself So that those members ascribed to him rather note his visible operations to us than his invisible Nature and signifie that God doth some works like to those which men do by the assistance of those Organs of their Bodies * Amyral de Trin. p. 218. 219. So the wisdom of God is called his Eye because he knows that with his mind which we see with our eyes The efficiency of God is called his Hand and Arm because as we act with our hands so doth God with his Power The divine Efficacies are signified By his eyes and ears we understand his Omniscience by his face the manifestation of his Favour by his mouth the revelation of his Will by his nostrils the acceptation of our Prayers by his bowels the tenderness of his Compassion by his heart the sincerity of his Affections by his hand the strength of his Power by his feet the ubiquity of his Presence And in this he intends instruction and comfort By his eyes he signifies his watchfulness over us By his ears his readiness to hear the crys of the oppressed * Psal 34.15 By his Arm his
representations were made as were accomodated to the inward sense of Daniel Daniel saw him in a rapture or extasy wherein outward senses are of no use God is described not as he is in himself of a human form but in regard of his fitness to Judge White notes the purity and simplicity of the Divine nature Ancient of days in regard of his eternity white hair in regard of his prudence and wisdom which is more eminent in age than youth and more fit to discern causes and to distinguish between right and wrong Visions are riddles and must not be understood in a litteral sense We are to watch against such determinate conceptions of God Vain imaginations do easily infest us Tinder will not sooner take fire than our natures kindle into wrong Notions of the Divine Majesty We are very apt to fashion a God like our selves We must therefore look upon such representations of God as accommodated to our weakness And no more think them to be literal descriptions of God as he is in himself than we will think the image of the Sun in the water to be the true Sun in the Heavens We may indeed conceive of Christ as man who hath in Heaven the vestment of our nature and is Deus figuratus tho we cannot conceive the God-head under a human shape 1. To have such a fancy is to disparage and wrong God A Corporeal fancy of God is as ridiculous in it self and as injurious to God as a wooden Statue The capricios of our imagination are often more monstrous than the images which are the works of art T is as irreligious to measure Gods essence by our line his perfections by our imperfections as to measure his thoughts and actings by the weakness and unworthiness of our own This is to limit an infinite essence and pull him down to our scanty measures and render that which is unconceivably above us equal with us T is impossible we can conceive God after the manner of we a body but must bring him down to the proportion of a body which is to diminish his glory and stoop him below the dignity of his nature God is a pure Spirit he hath nothing of the nature and tincture of a body whosoever therefore conceives of him as having a bodily form tho he fancy the most beautiful and comely body instead of owning his dignity detracts from the supereminent excellency of his nature and blessedness When men fancy God like themselves in their Corporeal nature they will soon make a progress and ascribe to him their corrupt nature and while they clothe him with their bodies invest him also in the infirmities of them God is a jealous God very sensible of any disgrace and will be as much incensed against an inward Idolatry as an outward That * Exod. 20.4 Command which forbad Corporeal images would not indulge carnal imaginations since the nature of God is as much wronged by unworthy images erected in the fancy as by statues carved out of stone or metals One as well as the other is a deserting of our true spouse and committing Adultery one with a material image and the other with a carnal Notion of God Since God humbles himself to our apprehensions we should not debase him in thinking him to be that in his nature which he makes only a resemblance of himself to us 2. To have such fancies of God will obstruct and pollute our worship of him How is it possible to give him a right worship of whom we have so debasing a Notion We shall never think a corporeal Deity worthy of a dedication of our Spirits The hating Instruction and casting Gods word behind the back is charged upon the imagination they had that God was such a one as themselves Psal 50.17.21 Many of the wiser Heathens did not judge their Statues to be their Gods or their Gods to be like their Statues but suted them to their politick designs and judged them a good invention to keep people within the bounds of Obedience and Devotion by such visible figures of them which might imprint a reverence and fear of those Gods upon them But these were false measures A despised and undervalued God is not an Object of Petition or Affection Who would address seriously to a God he has low apprehensions of The more raised thoughts we have of him the viler sense we shall have of our selves They would make us humble and self abhorrent in our supplications to him Job 42.6 wherefore I abhorr my self c. 3. Though we must not conceive of God as of a human or Corporeal shape yet we cannot think of God without some reflection upon our own being We cannot conceive him to be an intelligent being but we must make some comparison between him and our own understanding nature to come to a knowledge of him Since we are inclosed in bodies we apprehend nothing but what comes in by sense and what we in some sort measure by sensible Objects And in the consideration of those things which we desire to abstract from sense we are fain to make use of the assistances of sense and visible things And therefore when we frame the highest notion there will be some similitude of some corporeal thing in our fancy and though we would spiritualize our thoughts and aim at a more abstracted and raised understanding yet there will be some dreggs of matter sticking to our conceptions yet we still judge by argument and reasoning what the thing is we think of under those material Images * Nazianzen A corporeal Image will follow us as the shadow doth the body While we are in the body and surrounded with fleshly matter we cannot think of things without some help from corporeal representations Something of sense will interpose it self in our purest conceptions of spiritual things * Amiraut Morale Tom. 1. P. 180 c. for the faculties which serve for contemplation are either corporeal as the sense and fancy or so allyed to them that nothing passes into them but by the Organs of the body so that there is a natural inclination to figure nothing but under a corporeal notion till by an attentive application of the mind and reason to the object thought upon we separate that which is bodily from that which is spiritual and by degrees ascend to that true notion of that we think upon and would have a due conception of in our mind Therefore God tempers the declaration of himself to our weakness and the condition of our Natures He condescends to our littleness and narrowness when he declares himself by the similitude of bodily members As the light of the Sun is tempered and diffuseth it self to our sense through the air and vapours that our weak eyes may not be too much dazled with it Without it we could not know or judge of the Sun because we could have no use of our sense which we must have before we can judge of it in our
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
of thankfulness in arrear He renders himself doubly unworthy of the mercies he wants that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he hath received God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites and they in their distress scarce prayed for any deliverance but that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides by God to encourage them and by them to acknowledge their confidence in him The greater our dangers the more we should call to mind Gods former kindness We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our persons or in our age but those of former times Thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations Moses was not living in the former Generations yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age Mercies as well Generations proceed out of the loyns of those that have gon before All Man-kind are but one Adam the whole Church but one Body In the second verse he backs his former consideration 1. By the greatness of his Power in forming the world 2. By the boundlesness of his duration From everlasting to everlasting As thou hast been our dwelling place and expended upon us the strength of thy power and riches of thy love so we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part if we be not wanting on our parts For the vast Mountains and fruitful Earth are the works of thy hands and there is less power requisite for our relief than there was for their Creation and though so much strength hath been upon various occasions manifested yet thy Arm is not weakned for from everlasting to everlasting thou art God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong * Amyrald in loc Thou hast always been God and no time can be assigned as the beginning of thy Being The mountains are not of so long a standing as thy self they are the effects of thy power and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration since they are effects they suppose a precedency of their cause If we would look back we can reach no further than the beginning of the Creation and account the years from the first foundation of the world but after that we must lose our selves in the Abyss of Eternity we have no Cue to guide our thoughts we can see no bounds in thy Eternity But as for Man he traverseth the world a few days and by thy order pronounced concerning all men returns to the Dust and moulders into the Grave By Mountains some understand Angels as being Creatures of a more elevated Nature By Earth they understand humane Nature the Earth being the habitation of Men. There is no need to divert in this place from the Letter to such a sense The description seems to be Poetical and amounts to this He neither began with the beginning of Time nor will expire with the End of it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret in loc He did not begin when he made himself known to our Fathers but his Being did precede the Creation of the World before any created Being was formed and any time setled Before the Mountains were brought forth Or before they were begotten or born The word being used in those senses in Scripture before they stood up higher than the rest of the earthly Mass God had created It seems that Mountains were not casually cast up by the force of the Deluge softning the Ground and driving several parcels of it together to grow up into a massy body as the Sea doth the Sand in several places but they were at first formed by God The Eternity of God is here described 1. In his Priority Before the world 2. In the extension of his duration From everlasting to everlasting thou art God He was before the world yet he neither began nor ends He is not a Temporary but an Eternal God It takes in both parts of Eternity what was before the Creation of the world and what is after Though the Eternity of God be one permanent state without succession yet the Spirit of God suiting himself to the weakness of our conception divides it into two parts one past before the foundation of the world another to come after the destruction of the world as he did exist before all ages and as he will exist after all ages Many Truths lye coucht in the verse 1. The World hath a beginning of being It was not from Eternity it was once nothing had it been of a very long duration some Records would have remained of some memorable actions done of a longer date than any extant 2. The world owes its Being to the creating Power of God Thou hadst formed it out of nothing into being Thou that is God it could not spring into being of it self it was nothing it must have a Former 3. God was in being before the world The Cause must be before the Effect that Word which gives Being must be before that which receives Being 4. This Being was from Eternity From Everlasting 5. This Being shall endure to Eternity To Everlasting 6. There is but one God one Eternal From everlasting to everlasting thou art God None else but one hath the Property of Eternity the Gods of the Heathen cannot lay claim to it Doct. God is of an eternal duration The Eternity of God is the foundation of the stability of the Covenant the great comfort of a Christian The design of God in Scripture is to set forth his dealing with men in the way of a Covenant * Gen. 1.1 The Priority of God before all things begins the Bible In the beginning God created His Covenant can have no foundation but in his duration before and after the world * Calv. in loc And Moses here mentions his Eternity not only with respect to the Essence of God but to his faederal Providence As he is the dwelling place of his People in all Generations The duration of God for ever is more spoken of in Scripture than his Eternity à parte ante though that is the foundation of all the comfort we can take from his Immortality If he had a beginning he might have an end and so all our happiness hope and being would expire with him but the Scripture sometimes takes notice of his being without beginning as well as without end * Psal 93.2 Thou art from everlasting * Psal 41.13 Blessed be God from everlasting to everlasting * Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting If his Wisdom were from everlasting himself was from everlasting Whether we understand it of Christ the Son of God or of the essential wisdom of God 't is all one to the present purpose The Wisdom of God supposeth the Essence of God as habits in Creatures suppose the being of some power or faculty as their Subject The Wisdom of God supposeth Mind and Understanding Essence and Substance The notion of Eternity is difficult as Austin said * Confes lib. 11. Confes 14. of Time If no man will ask me the
so new but the Eternal God was before the world was made In that sense it is to be understood * Rom. 16.26 The Mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Command of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith The Gospel is not preached by the Command of a new and temporary God but of that God that was before all Ages though the manifestation of it be in time yet the purpose and resolve of it was from Eternity If there were Decrees before the foundation of the World there was a Decreer before the foundation of the World Before the foundation of the world he lov'd Christ as a Mediator * John 1◠24 A fore-ordination of him was before the foundation of the world a Choice of men and therefore a Chooser before the foundation of the world a Grace given in Christ before the world began * Eph. 1.4 and therefore a Donor of that Grace * 2 Tim. 1.9 From those places saith Crellius it appears that God was before the foundation of the world but they do not assert an absolute Eternity * Coccei Sum. p. 48. Theol. Gerhard Exeges cap. 86.4 p. 266. But to be before all Creatures is equivalent to his Being from Eternity Time began with the foundation of the world but God being before time could have no beginning in time Before the beginning of the Creation and the beginning of Time there could be nothing but Eternity nothing but what was uncreated that is nothing but what was without beginning To be in time is to have a beginning to be before all time is never to have a beginning but always to be For as between the Creator and Creatures there is no Medium so between Time and Eternity there is no Medium 'T is as easily deduced that he that was before all Creatures is Eternal as he that made all Creatures is God If he had a beginning he must have it from another or from himself if from another that from whom he received his Being would be better than he so more a God than he He cannot be God that is not Supream he cannot be Supream that owes his Being to the Power of another He would not be said only to have Immortality as he is * 1 Tim. 6.16 if he had it dependent upon another nor could he have a beginning from himself if he had given beginning to himself then he was once nothing there was a time when he was not if he was not how could he be the Cause of himself 'T is impossible for any to give a Beginning and Being to it self If it acts it must exist and so exist before it existed A thing would exist as a Cause before it existed as an Effect He that is not cannot be the Cause that he is If therefore God doth exist and hath not his Being from another he must exist from Eternity Therefore when we say God is of and from himself we mean not that God gave Being to himself but it is negatively to to be understood that he hath no cause of Existence without himself Whatsoever Number of Millions of Millions of Years we can imagin before the Creation of the World yet God was infinitely before those he is therefore called the Ancient of Days * Dan. 7.9 as being before all days and time and eminently containing in himself all times and ages Though indeed God cannot properly be called ancient that will testify that he is decaying and shortly will not be no more than he can be called young which would signify that he was not long before All created things are new and fresh but no Creature can find out any beginning of God 'T is impossible there should be any beginning of him 2. God is without end He always was always is and always will be what he is He remains always the same in Being so far from any change that no shadow of it can touch him * James 1.17 He will continue in being as long as he hath already enjoy'd it and if we could add never so many Millions of years together we are still as far from an end as from a beginning for the Lord shall endure for ever * Psal 9.7 As it is impossible he should not be being from all Eternity so it is impossible that he should not be to all Eternity The Scripture is most plentiful in testimonies of this Eternity of God à parte post or after the Creation of the world He is said to live for ever * Rev. 4.9 10. The Earth shall perish but God shall endure for ever and his years shall have no end Plants and Animals grow up from small beginnings * Psal 102.27 arrive to their full growth and decline again and have always remarkable alterations in their nature But there is no declination in God by all the revolutions of time Hence some think the incorruptibility of the Deity was signified by the Shittim or Cedar wood whereof the Ark was made it being of an incorruptible nature * Exod. 25.10 That which had no beginning of duration can never have an end or any interruptions in it Since God never depended upon any what should make him cease to be what eternally he hath been or put a stop to the continuance of his perfections He cannot will his own destruction that is against universal nature in all things to cease from being if they can preserve themselves He cannot desert his own Being because he cannot but love himself as the best and chiefest good The reason that any thing decays is either its own native weakness or a superior Power of something contrary to it * Crellius de Deo cap. 18. p. 41. There is no weakness in the nature of God that can introduce any Corruption because he is infinitely simple without any mixture Nor can he be overpowred by any thing else a weaker cannot hurt him and a stronger than he there cannot be Nor can he be outwitted or circumvented because of his infinite Wisdom As he received his Being from none so he cannot be deprived of it by any As he doth necessarily exist so he doth necessarily always exist This indeed is the Property of God nothing so proper to him as always to be Whatsoever perfections any Being hath if it be not eternal it is not divine God only is immortal * 1 Tim. 6.16 Daille in loc he only is so by a necessity of nature Angels Souls and Bodies too after the Resurrection shall be immortal not by nature but grant they are subject to return to nothing if that word that raised them from nothing should speak them into nothing again 'T is as easie with God to strip them of it as to invest them with it nay it is impossible but that they should perish if God
the Holy Ghost mentions so often the post-eternity of God and so little his ante-eternity because that is the strongest foundation of our faith and hope which respects chiefly that which is future and not that which is past yet indeed no assurance of his after-Eternity can be had if his ante-Eternity be not certain If he had a beginning he may have an end And if he had a change in his nature he might have in his Counsels But since all the resolves of God are as himself is eternal and all the promises of God are the fruits of his Counsel therefore they cannot be chang'd If he should change them for the better he would not have been eternally Wise to know what was best If for the worse he had not been eternally good or just Men may break their promises because they are made without foresight but God that inhabits Eternity foreknows all things that shall be done under the Sun as if they had been then acting before him and nothing can intervene or work a change in his resolves because the least circumstances were eternally foreseen by him Though there may be variations and changes to our sight the wind may rack about and every hour new and cross accidents happen yet the eternal God who is eternally true to his word Sits at the Helm and the Winds and the Waves obey him And though he should defer his promise a thousand years yet he is not slack For he defers it but a day to his eternity * 2 Pet. 3.8 9. And who would not with comfort stay a day in expectation of a considerable advantage 3. Use is for Exhortation 1. To something which concerns us in our selves 2. To something which concerns us with respect to God 1. To something which concerns us in our selves 1. Let us be deeply affected with our sins long since committed Though they are past with us they are in regard of Gods eternity present with him there is no succession in Eternity as there is in time All things are before God at once our sins are before him as if committed this moment though committed long ago As he is what he is in regard of duration so he knows what he knows in regard of knowledge As he is not more than he was nor shall not be any more than he is so he always knew what he knows and shall not cease to know what he now know's As himself so his knowledge is one indivisible point of eternity He knows nothing but what he did know from eternity he shall know no more for the future than he now knows Our sins being present with him in his eternity should be present with us in our regard of remembrance of them and sorrow for them What though many years are laps'd much time run out and our iniquities almost blotted out of our memory yet since a thousand years are in Gods sight and in regard of his eternity but as a day * Psal 90.4 A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night They are before him For suppose a man were as old as the World above five thousand six hundred years the sins committed five thousand years ago are according to that rule but as if they were committed five daies ago so that sixty two years are but as an hour and a half and the sins committed forty years since are as if they were committed but this present hour But if we will go further and consider them but as a watch of the Night about three hours for the Night consisting of twelve hours was divided into set Watches then a thousand years are but as three hours in the sight of God and then sins committed sixtie years ago are but as if they were committed within this five minutes Let none of us set light by the iniquities committed many years ago and imagine that length of time can wipe out their guilt No let us consider them in relation to Gods eternity and excite an inward remorse as if they had been but the birth of this moment 2. Let the consideration of Gods Eternity abate our pride This is the design of the Verses following the Text The Eternity of God being so sufficient to make us understand our own nothingness which ought to be one great end of man especially as fall'n The eternity of God should make us as much disesteem our selves as the excellency of God made Job abhor himself * Job 42.5 6. His excellency should humble us under a sense of our vanity and his eternity under a sense of the shortness of our duration If man compares himself with other Creatures he may be too sensible of his greatness but if he compares himself with God he cannot but be sensible of his baseness 1. In regard of our impotence to comprehend this Eternity of God How little do we know How little can we know of Gods Eternity We cannot fully conceive it much less express it we have but a brutish understanding in all those things as Agur said of himself * Prov. 30.7 * Charrontrois vent Livr 1. chp. 5. p. 17. c. What is Infinite and Eternal cannot be comprehended by finite and temporary Creatures If it could it would not be infinite and eternal For to know a thing is to know the Extent and cause of it T is repugnant to Eternity to be known because it hath no limits no causes the most soaring understanding cannot have a proportionable understanding of it What disproportion is there between a drop of water and the Sea in their greatness and motion Yet by a drop we may arrive to a knowledge of the nature of the Sea which is a Mass of drops joyn'd together But the longest duration of times cannot make us know what Eternity is Becuse there is no proportion between time and Eternity The years of God are as numberless as his thoughts * Psal 40.5 and our minds as far from reckoning the one as the other If our understandings are too gross to comprehend the Majesty of his infinite works they are much more too short to comprehend the infiniteness of his Eternity 2. In regard of the vast disproportion of our duration to this duration of God 1. We have more of not being than being We were nothing from an unbegun Eternity and we might have been nothing to an endless Eternity had not God call'd us into being and if he please we may be nothing by as short an annihilating word as we were something by a Creating word As it is the prerogative of God to be I am that I am so it is the property of a Creature to be I am not what I am I am not by my self what I am but by the Indulgence of another I was nothing formerly I may be nothing again unless he that is I am make me to subsist what I now am Nothing is as much the title of
from no other cause but the unchangeableness of his Nature The reason why Men stand not to their Covenant is because they are not always the same I am that is I am the same before the Creation of the World and since the creation of the World before the entrance of Sin and since the entrance of Sin before their going into Egypt and whiles they remain in Egypt * Spanhe Synta part 1. p. 39. The very Name Jehovah bears according to the Grammatical Order a mark of Gods Unchangeableness It never hath any thing added to it nor any thing taken from it It hath no Plural Number no Affixes a Custom peculiar to the Eastern Languages It never changes its letters as other words do * Petav. Theol Dogmat. Tom. 1. cap 6. § 6.7 8. That only is a true being which hath not only an eternal Existence but stability in it That is not truly a Being that never remains in the same state All things that are changed cease to be what they were and begin to be what they were not and therefore cannot have the title truly applied to them they are they are indeed but like a River in a continual Flux that no man ever sees the same let his eye be fixed upon one place of it the water he sees slides away and that which he saw not succeeds in its place let him take his eye off but for the least moment and fix it there again and he sees not the same that he saw before All sensible things are in a perpetual stream that which is sometimes this and sometimes that is not because it is not always the same whatsoever is changed is something now which it was not alway But of God it is said I am which could not be if he were changeable for it may be said of him he is not as well he is because he is not what he was If we say not of him he was nor he will be but only he is whence should any change arrive He must invincibly remain the same of whose Nature Perfections Knowledge and Will it cannot be said it was as if it were not now in him or it shall be as if it were not yet in him But he is because he doth not only exist but doth alway exist the same I am that is I receive from no other what I am in my self He depends upon no other in his Essence Knowledge Purposes and therefore hath no changing Power over him 2. If God were changeable He could not be the most perfect Being God is the most perfect Being and possesses in himself infinite and essential Goodness Mat. 5.48 Your heavenly Father is perfect If he could change from that Perfection he were not the highest Exemplar and Copy for us to write after If God doth change it must be either to a greater Perfection than he had before or to a less mutatio perfectiva vel amissiva If he changes to acquire a Perfection he had not then he was not before the most excellent Being necessarily He was not what he might be there was a defect in him and a privation of that which is better than what he had and was and then he was not alway the best and so was not alway God and being not alway God could never be God for to begin to be God is against the Notion of God Not to a less perfection than he had that were to change to imperfection and to lose a perfection which he possessed before and cease to be the best Being for he would lose some good which he had and acquire some evil which he was free from before So that the soveraign Perfection of God is an invincible Bar to any change in him For which way soever you cast it for a change his supream Excellency is impaired and nulled by it For in all change there is something from which a thing is changed and something to which it is changed so that on the one part there is a loss of what it had and on the other part there is an acquisition of what it had not If to the better he was not perfect and so was not God if to the worse he will not be perfect and so be no longer God after that change If God be changed his change must be voluntary or necessary if voluntary he then intends the change for the better and chose it to acquire a Perfection by it The Will must be carried out to any thing under the notion of some Goodness in that which it desires Since Good is the Object of the desire and will of the Creature Evil cannot be the Object of the desire and will of the Creator And if he should be changed for the worse when he did really intend the better it would speak a defect of Wisdom and a mistake of that for good which was evil and imperfect in it self and if it be for the better it must be a motion or change for something without himself that which he desireth is not possessed by himself but by some other There is then some good without him and above him which is the end in this change for nothing acts but for some end and that end is within it self or without it self If the end for which God changes be without himself then there is something better than himself Besides if he were voluntarily changed for the better why did he not change before If it were for want of Power he had the imperfection of weakness If for want of knowledge of what was the best Good he had the imperfection of Wisdom he was ignorant of his own Happiness If he had both Wisdom to know it and Power to effect it it must be for want of Will He then wanted that love to himself and his own Glory which is necessary in the supream Being Voluntarily he could not be changed for the worse he could not be such an Enemy to his own Glory there is nothing but would hinder its own Imperfection and becoming worse Necessarily he could not be changed for that necessity must arise from himself and then the difficulties spoken of before will recurr or it must arise from another He cannot be bettered by another because nothing hath any good but what it hath received from the hands of his bounty and that without loss to himself nor made worse if any thing made him worse it would be Sin but that cannot touch his Essence or obscure his Glory but in the design and nature of the Sin it self Job 35.6 7. If thou sinnest what dost thou against him Or if thy Transgressions be multiplyed what dost thou unto him If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receives he at thy hand He hath no addition by the Service of Man no more than the Sun hath of Light by a multitude of Torches kindled on the Earth nor any more impair by the Sins of Men than the Light of the Sun hath by mens
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
before it was Immense before it had no bounds and would God make a World that he would be ashamed to be present with and continue it to the diminution and lessening of himself rather than annihilate it to avoid the disparagement This were to impeach the Wisdom of God and cast a blemish upon his infinite Understanding that he knows not the consequences of his Work or is well contented to be impaired in the immensity of his own Essence by it No man thinks it a dishonour to Light a most excellent Creature to be present with a Toad or Serpent and tho' there be an infinite disproportion between Light a Creature and the Father of Lights the Creator Yet * Gassend God being a Spirit knows how to be with Bodies as if they were not Bodies And being jealous of his own Honor would not could not do any thing that might impair it 4. Nor will it follow That because God is Essentially every where that every thing is God God is not every where by any conjunction composition or mixture with any thing on Earth when Light is in every part of a Chrystal Globe and encircles it close on every side do they become one No the Chrystal remains what it is and the Light retains its own nature God is not in us as a part of us but as an efficient and preserving Cause 't is not by his Essential Presence but his efficacious Presence that he brings any person into a likeness to his own Nature God is so in his Essence with things as to be distinct from them as a Cause from the Effect as a Creator different from the Creature preserving their Nature not communicating his own his Essence touches all is in conjunction with none Finite and Infinite cannot be joyn'd he is not far from us therefore near to us so near that we live and move in him * Acts 17.27 Nothing is God because it moves in him any more than a Fish in the Sea is the Sea or a part of the Sea because it moves in it Doth a man that holds a thing in the hollow of his hand Amyrald de Trinit p. 99. 100. transform it by that action and make it like his hand The Soul and Body are more straitly united than the Essence of God is by his Presence with any Creature The Soul is in the Body as a form in matter and from their Union doth arise a man yet in this near conjunction both Body and Soul remain distinct the Soul is not the Body nor the Body the Soul they both have distinct natures and essences the Body can never be changed into a Soul nor the Soul into a Body no more can God into the Creature or the Creature into God Fire is in heated Iron in every part of it so that it seems to be nothing but Fire yet is not Fire and Iron the same thing But such a kind of arguing against Gods Omnipresence that if God were Essentially present every thing would be God would exclude him from Heaven as well as from Earth By the same reason since they acknowledge God essentially in Heaven the Heaven where he is should be chang'd into the nature of God and by arguing against his Presence in Earth upon this ground they run such an inconvenience that they must own him to be no where and that which is no where is nothing Doth the Earth become God because God is Essentially there any more than the Heavens where God is acknowledged by all to be Essentially present Again if where God is Essentially that must be God then if they place God in a Point of the Heavens not only that Point must be God but all the World because if that point be God because God is there then the Point touched by that Point must be God and so consequently as far as there are any Points touched by one another We live and move in God so we live and move in the Air we are no more God by that than we are meer Air because we breathe in it and it enters into all the Pores of our Body Nay where there was a straiter Union of the Divine Nature to the Humane in our Saviour yet the Nature of both was distinct and the Humanity was not chang'd into the Divinity nor the Divinity into the Humanity 5. Nor doth it follow that because God is every where therefore a Creature may be worshipt without Idolatry Some of the Heathens who acknowledged Gods Omnipresence abus'd it to the countenancing Idolatry because God was resident in every thing they thought every thing might be Worshipped and some have usd it as an Argument against this Doctrine the best Doctrines may by mens corruption be drawn out into unreasonable and pernicious conclusions Have you not met with any That from the Doctrine of Gods Free Mercy and our Saviours satisfactory Death have drawn Poyson to feed their Lusts and consume their Souls a Poyson compos'd by their own corruption and not offer'd by those Truths The Apostle intimates to us that some did or at least were ready to be more lavish in sinning because God was abundant in Grace Rom. 6.1 2.15 Shall we Sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound when he prevents an Objection that he thought might be made by some But as to this Case since tho' God be present in every thing yet every thing retains its nature distinct from the Nature of God therefore it is not to have a Worship due to the Excellency of God As long as any thing remains a Creature 't is only to have the respect from us which is due to it in the rank of Creatures When a Prince is present with his Guard or if he should go Arm in Arm with a Peasant is therefore the Veneration and Honor due to the Prince to be paid to the Peasant or any of his Guard would the Presence of the Prince excuse it or would it not rather aggravate it he acknowledged such a person equal to me by giving him my Rights even in my Sight Tho' God dwelt in the Temple would not the Israelites have been accounted guilty of Idolatry had they Worshipped the Images of the Cherubims or the Ark or the Altar as objects of Worship which were erected only as means for his Service Is there not as much reason to think God was as Essentially present in the Temple as in Heaven since the same Expressions are used of the one and the other the Sanctuary is called the Glorious High Throne * Jer. 17.13 and he is said to dwell between the Cherubims †Psal 80.1 i. e. the two Cherubims that were at the two ends of the Mercy Seat appointed by God as the two sides of his Throne in the Sanctuary Exod. 25.18 where he was to dwell ver 8. and meet and commune with his people ver 22. Could this excuse Manasseh's Idolatry
which is past And tho' God be said to forget in Scripture and not to know his People and his People pray to him to remember them as if he had forgotten them Psal 119 49. This is improperly ascrib'd to God * Bradward As God is said to repent when he changes things according to his Counsel beyond the expectation of men so he is said to forget when he defers the making good his Promise to the Godly or his Threatnings to the Wicked this is not a defect of Memory belonging to his mind but an act of his Will When he is said to remember his Covenant 't is to Will Grace according to his Covenant when he is said to forget his Covenant 't is to intercept the influences of it whereby to punish the Sin of his People and when he is said not to know his People 't is not an absolute forgetfulness of them but withdrawing from them the Testimonies of his Kindness and clouding the Signs of his favour so God in Pardon is said to forget Sin not that he ceaseth to know it but ceaseth to punish it 'T is not to be meant of a simple forgetfulness or a lapse of his Memory but of a Judicial Forgetfulness so when his People in Scripture Pray Lord Remember thy Word unto thy Servant no more is to be understood but Lord fulfil thy Word and Promise to thy Servant 3. He knows things Present Heb. 4.13 All things are naked and opened unto the Eyes of him with whom we have to do This is grounded upon the Knowledg of himself 't is not so difficult to know all Creatures exactly as to know himself because they are finite but himself is infinite he knows his own Power and therefore every thing through which his Omnipotence is diffus'd all the acts and objects of it not the least thing that is the Birth of his Power can be conceal'd from him he knows his own Goodness and therefore every object upon which the warm beams of his Goodness strike he therefore knows distinctly the properties of every Creature because every Property in them is a Ray of his Goodness he is not only the efficient but the exemplary cause therefore as he knows all that his Power hath wrought as he is the efficient so he knows them in himself as the pattern As a Carpenter can give an account of every part and passage in a House he hath built by consulting the Model in his own mind whereby he built it He looked upon all things after he had made them and pronounc'd them good Gen. 1.3 full of a natural goodness he had endowed them with he did not ignorantly pronounce them so and call them good whether he knew them or not and therefore he knows them in particular as he knew them all in their first Presence Is there any reason he should be ignorant of every thing now present in the World or that any thing that derives an existence from him as a free cause should be concealed from him If he did not know things present in their particularities many things would be known by man yea by Beasts which the infinite God were ignorant of and if he did not know all things present but only some 't is possible for the most Blessed God to be deceived and be miserable Ignorance is a Calamity to the Understanding He could not prescribe Laws to his Creatures unless he knew their Natures to which those Laws were to be suited no not natural Ordinances to the Sun Moon and Heavenly Bodies and inanimate Creatures unless he knew the vigour and vertue in them to execute those Ordinances for to prescribe Laws above the nature of things is inconsistent with the Wisdom of Government he must know how far they were able to obey whether the Laws were suted to their ability And for his rational Creatures Whether the Punishments annext to the Law were proper and suited to the Transgression of the Creature 1. First He knows all Creatures from the highest to the lowest the least as well as the greatest He knows the Ravens and their young ones Job â—â— 41. the Drops of Rain and Dew which he hath begotten Job 38. â—â— every Bird in the Air as well as any man doth what he hath in a Cage at home Psal 50.11 I know all the Fowls in the Mountains and the wild Beasts in the Field which some read creeping things The Clouds are numbred in his Wisdom Job 38.37 every Worm in the Earth every drop of Rain that falls upon the ground the flakes of Snow and the knots of Hail the Sands upon the Sea-shore the Hairs upon the Head 't is no more absurd to imagine that God knows them than that God made them they are all the effects of his Power as well as the Stars which he calls by their Names as well as the most glorious Angel and blessed Spirit he knows them as well as if there were none but them in particular for him to know the least things were framed by his Art as well as the greatest the least things partake of his goodness as well as the greatest he knows his own Arts and his own Goodness and therefore all the Stamps and Impressions of them upon all his Creatures he knows the immediate causes of the least and therefore the effects of those causes Since his knowledg is infinite it must extend to those things which are at the greatest distance from him to those which approach nearest to not Being since he did not want Power to Create he cannot want Understanding to know every thing he hath Created the dispositions qualities and vertues of the minutest Creature Nor is the Vnderstanding of God embas'd and suffers a diminution by the Knowledg of the vilest and most inconsiderable things Is it not an imperfection to be ignorant of the nature of any thing and can God have such a defect in his most perfect Understanding Is the Understanding of man of an impurer Alloy by knowing the nature of the rankest Poysons by understanding a Fly or a small Insect or by considering the deformity of a Toad Is it not generally counted a note of a Dignified mind to be able to Discourse of the Nature of them Was Solomon who knew all from the Cedar to the Hysop debas'd by so Rich a Present of Wisdom from his Creator Is any Glass defil'd by presenting a Deformed Image Is there any thing more vile than the imaginations which are only evil and continually doth not the mind of man descend to the mud of the Earth play the Adulterer or Idolater with mean objects suck in the most unclean things yet God knows these in all their circumstances in every appearance inside and outside Is there any thing viler than some thoughts of men than some actions of men their unclean Beds and Gluttonous Vomiting and Luciferian Pride yet do not these fall under the Eye of God in all their Nakedness The Second Person 's taking
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
present and past but knew those certainly and the others doubtfully and conjecturally he would suffer some Change and acquire some Perfection in his Knowledg when those future things should cease to be future and become present for he would know it more perfectly when it were present than he did when it was future and so there would be a Change from Imperfection to a Perfection But God is every way immutable Besides that Perfection would not arise from the Nature of God but from the Existence and Presence of the thing but who will affirm that God acquires any Perfection of Knowledg from his Creatures any more than he doth of Being he would not then have had that Knowledg and consequently that Perfection from Eternity as he had when he Created the World and will not have a full Perfection of the Knowledg of his Creature till the end of the World nor of Immortal Souls which will certainly act as well as live to Eternity and so God never was nor ever will be perfect in Knowledg for vvhen you have conceived millions of years vvherein Angels and Souls live and act there is still more coming than you can conceive vvherein they vvill act And if God be alvvays changing to Eternity from Ignorance to Knovvledg as those acts come to be exerted by his Creatures he vvill not be perfect in Knovvledg no not to Eternity but vvill alvvays be changing from one degree of Knovvledg to another a very unvvorthy Conceit to entertain of the most Blessed Perfect and Infinite God! Hence then it follovvs that 1. God foreknows all his Creatures All kinds vvhich he determin'd to make all particulars that should spring out of every species the time vvhen they should come forth of the Womb the manner hovv In thy Book all my Members were written Psal 139.16 Members is not in the Heb. vvhence some refer all to all living Creatures vvhatsoever and all the parts of them vvhich God did foresee he knevv the numbers of Creatures vvith all their parts they vvere vvritten in the Book of his fore-knovvledg the duration of them hovv long they shall remain in Being and act upon the Stage he knows their strength the links of one cause with another and what will follow in all their Circumstances and the series and combination of effects with their causes The duration of every thing is foreknown because determin'd Job 14.5 seeing his days are determin'd the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass bounds are fixed beyond which none shall reach he speaks of days and months not of years to give us notice of Gods particular foreknovvledg of every thing of every day month year hour of a mans life 2. All the acts of his Creatures are foreknown by him All natural acts because he knows their causes voluntary acts I shall speak of afterwards 3. This foreknowledg was certain For it is an unworthy notion of God to ascribe to him a conjectural Knowledg if there were only a conjectural knowledg he could but conjecturally foretel any thing and then it is possible the events of things might be contrary to his Predictions It would appear then that God were deceived and mistaken and then there could be no rule of trying things whether they were from God or no for the Rule God sets down to discern his Words from the Words of false Prophets is the event and certain accomplishment of what is Predicted Deut. 18.21 to that question How shall we know whether God hath spoken or no he answers That if the thing doth not come to pass the Lord hath not spoken If his Knowledg of future things were not certain there were no stability in this Rule it would fall to the ground We never yet find God deceiv'd in any Prediction but the event did answer his fore-Revelation his foreknowledg therefore is certain and infallible We cannot make God uncertain in his Knowledg but we must conceive him fluctuating and wavering in his Will but if his Will be not Yea and Nay but Yea his Knowledg is certain because he doth certainly Will and Resolve 4. This foreknowledg was from Eternity Seeing he knows things possible in his Power and things future in his Will if his Power and Resolves were from Eternity his Knowledg must be so too or else we must make him ignorant of his own Power and ignorant of his own Will from Eternity and consequently not from Eternity Blessed and Perfect His knowledg of possible things must run Parallel with his Power and his Knowledg of future things run Parallel with his Will If he Willed from Eternity he knew from Eternity what he Willed but that he did Will from Eternity we must grant unless we would render him changeable and conceive him to be made in time of not Willing Willing The Knowledg God hath in time was alway one and the same because his Understanding is his proper Essence as perfect as his Essence and of an immutable nature Gamach in Aquin Part 1. q. 14. c. 3. p. 124. And indeed the actual existence of a thing is not simply necessary to its being perfectly known we may see a thing that is past out of Being when it doth not actually exist and a Carpenter may know the House he is to Build before it be built by the model of it in his own mind much more we may conceive the same of God whose Decrees were before the Foundâ—tion of the World Eph. 1.5 and in other places and to be before time was and to be from Eternity hath no difference As God in his Being exceeds all beginning of time so doth his Knowledg all motions of time 5. God foreknows all things as present with him from Eternity Gerhard Exeges ch 8. de Deo sect 13. p. 303. As he knows mutable things with an immutable and firm Knowledg so he knows future things with a present Knowledg not that the things which are produced in time were actually and really present with him in their own Beings from Eternity for then they could not be produced in time had they a real existence then they would not be Creatures but God and had they actual Being then they could not be future for future speaks a thing to come that is not yet If things had been actually present with him and yet future they had been made before they were made and had a Being before they had a Being but they were all present to his Knowledg as if they were in actual Being because the reason of all things that were to be made was present with him Bradward l. 3. c. 14. The reason of the Will of God that they shall be was equally Eternal with him wherein he saw what and when and how he would Create things how he would govern them to what ends he would direct them Thus all things are present to Gods Knowledg tho' in their own nature they may be past or
Plea from it in the mouth of Adam he knew as much as any man ever since knew of the nature of God as discoverable in Creation he could not in Innocence fancy an ignorant God a God that knew nothing of future things he could not be so ignorant of his own action but he must have perceived a force upon his Will had there been any had he thought that Gods Prescience impos'd any necessity upon him he would not have omitted the Plea especially when he was so daring as to charge the Providence of God in the Gift of the Woman to him to be the cause of his Crime Gen. 3.12 How come his Posterity to invent new charges against God which their Father Adam never thought of who had more knowledg than all of them He could find no cause of his Sin but the liberty of his own Will he charges it not upon any necessity from the Devil or any necessity from God nor doth he alledg the gift of the Woman as a necessary cause of his Sin but an occasion of it by giving the Fruit to him Judas knew that our Saviour did foreknow his Treachery for he had told him of it in the hearing of his Disciples John 13.21 26. yet he never charg'd the necessity of his Crime upon the foreknowledg of his Master if Judas had not done it freely he had had no reason to repent of it his Repentance justifies Christ from imposing any necessity upon him by that foreknowledg No man acts any thing but he can give an account of the motives of his action he cannot father it upon a blind necessity the Will cannot be compelled for then it would cease to be Will God doth not root up the foundations of Nature or change the order of it and make men unable to act like men that is as free Agents God foreknows the actions of irrational Creatures this concludes no violence upon their nature for we find their actions to be according to their nature and spontaneous 3. Gods foreknowledg is not simply considered the cause of any thing It puts nothing into things but only beholds them as present and arising from their proper causes The knowledg of God is not the Principle of things or the cause of their existence but directive of the action nothing is because God knows it but because God Wills it either positively or permissively God knows all things possible yet because God knows them they are not brought into actual existence but remain still only as things possible Knowledg only apprehends a thing but acts nothing 't is the rule of acting but not the cause of acting the Will is the immediate Principle and the Power the immediate cause to know a thing is not to do a thing for then we may be said to do every thing that we know But every man knows those things which he never did nor never will do Knowledg in it self is an apprehension of a thing and is not the cause of it A Spectator of a thing is not the cause of that thing which he sees that is he is not the cause of it as he beholds it We see a man Write we know before that he will Write at such a time but this foreknowledg is not the cause of his Writing We see a man Walk but our vision of him brings no necessity of Walking upon him he was free to Walk or not to Walk Rawley of the World lib. 1. cap. 1. sect 12. We foreknow that Death will seize upon all men we foreknow that the Seasons of the Year will succeed one another yet is not our foreknowledg the cause of this succcession of Spring after Winter or of the Death of all men or any man We see one man fighting with another our sight is not the cause of that contest but some Quarrel among themselves exciting their own Passions As the knowledg of present things imposeth no necessity upon them while they are acting and present so the Knowledg of future things imposeth no necessity upon them while they are coming We are certain there will be men in the World to morrow and that the Sea will Ebb and Flow but is this knowledg of ours the cause that those things will be so I know that the Sun will rise to morrow 't is true that it shall rise but 't is not true that my foreknowledg makes it to rise If a Physician Prognosticates upon seeing the Intemperances and Debaucheries of men that they will fall into such a distemper is his Prognostication any cause of their Disease or of the sharpness of any Symptoms attending it The Prophet foretold the cruelty of Hazael before he committed it but who will say that the Prophet was the cause of his Commission of that evil And thus the foreknowledg of God takes not away the liberty of mans Will no more than a foreknowledg that we have of any mans actions takes away his liberty We may upon our knowledg of the temper of a man certainly foreknow that if he falls into such Company and get among his Cups he will be Drunk but is this foreknowledg the cause that he is Drunk no the cause is the liberty of his own Will and not resisting the Temptation God purposes to leave such a man to himself and his own ways and man being so left God foreknows what will be done by him according to that corrupt nature which is in him tho' the Decree of God of leaving a man to the liberty of his own Will be certain yet the liberty of mans Will as thus left is the cause of all the extravagancies he doth commit Suppose Adam had stood would not God certainly have foreseen that he would have stood yet it would have been concluded that Adam had stood not by any necessity of Gods foreknowledg but by the liberty of his own Will Why should then the foreknowledg of God add more necessity to his falling than to his standing * Rivet in Isa 53.1 p. 16. And though it be said sometimes in Scripture that such a thing was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled as John 12.38 that the saying of Esaias might be fulfilled Lord who hath believed our report the word That doth not infer that the Prediction of the Prophet was the cause of the Jews unbelief but infers this that the Prediction was manifested to be true by their unbelief and the event answered the Prediction this Prediction was not the cause of their Sin but their foreseen Sin was the cause of this Prediction and so the Particle That is taken Psal 51.6 against thee thee only have I sinned that thou mightest be justified c. the justifying God was not the end and intent of the Sin but the event of it upon his acknowledgment 4. God foreknows things because they will come to pass but things are not future because God knows them Foreknowledg presupposeth the object which is foreknown a thing that is to come to pass
future things turn his mind from present but he sees them not one after another but all at once and all together the whole Circle of his own Counsels and all the various Lines drawn forth from the Center of his Will to the circumference of his Creatures Just as if a man were able in one moment to read a whole Library or as if you should imagine a transparent Chrystal Globe hung up in the midst of a Room and so framed as to take in the images of all things in the Room the Fret-Work in the Cieling the in-laid parts of the Floor and the particular parts of the Tapestry about it the eye of a man would behold all the Beauty of the Room at once in it As the Sun by one light and heat frames sensible things so God by one simple act knows all things As he knows mutable things by an immutable knowledg bodily things by a spiritual knowledg so he knows many things by one knowledg Heb. 4.13 All things are open and naked to him more than any one thing can be to us and therefore he views all things at once as well as we can behold and contemplate one thing alone As he is the Father of Lights a God of infinite Understanding there is no variableness in his mind nor any shadow of turning of his eye as there is of ours to behold various things James 1.17 his Knowledg being Eternal includes all times there is nothing past or future with him and therefore he beholds all things by one and the same manner of knowledg and comprehends all knowable things by one act and in one moment This must needs be so 1. Because of the eminency of God God is above all and therefore cannot but see the motions of all He that sits in a Theater or at the top of a place sees all things all persons by one aspect he comprehends the whole Circle of the place whereas he that sits below when he looks before he cannot see things behind God being above all about all in all sees at once the motions of all The whole World in the eye of God is less than a Point that divides one Sentence from another in a Book as a Cypher a grain of Dust Isa 40.15 so little a thing can be seen by man at once and all things being as little in the eye of God are seen at once by him As all Time is but a moment to his Eternity so all things are but as a point to the immensity of his Knowledg which he can behold with more ease than we can move or turn our eye 2. Because all the Perfections of Knowing are united in God Cusan p. 646. As particular senses are divided in man by one he Sees by another he Hears by another he Smells yet all those are united in one common sense and this common sense apprehends all so the various and distinct ways of knowledg in the Creatures are all eminently united in God A man when he sees a grain of Wheat understands at once all things that can in Time proceed from that Seed so God by beholding his own vertue and power beholds all things which shall in time be unfolded by him We have a shadow of this way of knowledg in our own Understanding the sence only perceives a thing present and one object only proper and suitable to it as the eye sees colour the ear hears sounds we see this and that man one time this another minute that but the understanding abstracts a notion of the common nature of man and frames a conception of that nature wherein all men agree and so in a manner beholds and understands all men at once by understanding the common nature of man which is a degree of knowledg above the sense and fancy we may then conceive an infinite vaster Perfection in the Understanding of God As to know is simply better than not to know at all so to know by one act comprehensive is a greater Perfection than to know by divided acts by succession to receive information and to have an increase or decrease of knowledg to be like a Bucket alway descending into the Well and fetching Water from thence 'T is a mans weakness that he is fixed on one object only at a time 't is Gods Perfection that he can behold all at once and is fixed upon one no more than upon another Proposition 3. God knows all things independently This is Essential to an infinite Understanding He receives not his knowledg from any thing without him he hath no Tutor to instruct him or Book to inform him who hath been his Counsellor saith the Prophet Isa 40.13 he hath no need of the Counsels of others nor of the instructions of others This follows upon the first and second Propositions if he knows things by his Essence then as his Essence is independent from the Creatures so is his Knowledg he borrows not any images from the Creature hath no species or pictures of things in his Understanding as we have no Beams from the Creature strike upon him to enlighten him but Beams from him upon the World the Earth sends not Light to the Sun but the Sun to the Earth Our knowledg indeed depends upon the object but all Created objects depend upon Gods Knowledg and Will We could not know Creatures unless they were but Creatures could not be unless God knew them As nothing that he Wills is the cause of his Will so nothing that he knows is the cause of his Knowledg he did not make things to know them but he knows them to make them Who will imagine that the mark of the foot in the Dust is the cause that the foot stands in this or that particular place If his knowledg did depend upon the things then the existence of things did precede Gods knowledg of them to say that they are the cause of Gods Knowledg is to say that God was not the cause of their Being and if he did Create them it was effected by a blind and ignorant power he Created he knew not what till he had produced it If he be beholden for his Knowledg to the Creatures he hath made he had then no knowledg of them before he made them If his knowledg were dependant upon them it could not be Eternal but must have a beginning when the Creatures had a beginning and be of no longer a date than since the nature of things was in actual existence for whatsoever is a cause of knowledg doth precede the knowledg it causes either in order of time or order of nature Temporal things therefore cannot be the cause of that knowledg which is Eternal His Works could not be foreknown to him if his Knowledg commenc'd with the existence of his Works If he knew them before he made them Act 15.18 he could not derive a knowledg from them after they were made He made all things in Wisdom Psal 104.24 how can this be imagin'd if
the things known were the cause of his Knowledg and so before his knowledg and therefore before his action Bradward lib. 1. cap. 15. God would not then be the first in the order of knowing Agents because he would not act by Knowledg but act before he knew and know after he had acted and so the Creature which he made would be before the act of his Understanding whereby he knew what he made Again since Knowledg is a Perfection if Gods knowledg of the Creatures depended upon the Creatures he would derive an excellency from them they would derive no excellency from any Idea in the Divine mind he would not be infinitely perfect in himself if his Perfection in Knowledg were gained from any thing without himself and below himself he would not be sufficient of himself but be under an indigence which wanted a supply from the things he had made and could not be eternally perfect till he had created and seen the effects of his own Power Goodness and Wisdom to render him more wise and knowing in Time than he was from Eternity Who can fancy such a God as this without destroying the Deity he pretends to adore for if his Understanding be perfected by something without him why may not his Essence be perfected by something without him that as he was made knowing by something without him he might be made God by something without him How could his Understanding be infinite if it depended upon a finite object as upon a cause Is the Majesty of God to be debas'd to a Mendicant condition to seek for a supply from things inferior to himself Is it to be imagin'd that a Fool a Toad a Fly should be assistant to the knowledg of God that the most noble Being should be perfected by things so vile that the supream cause of all things should receive any addition of knowledg and be determin'd in his Understanding by the notion of things so mean To conclude this particular all things depend upon his knowledg his knowledg depends upon nothing but is as independent as himself and his own Essence Proposition 4. God knows all things distinctly His understanding is infinite in regard of clearness God is light and in him is no darkness at all John 1.5 he sees not through a Mist or Cloud there 's no blemish in his Understanding no mote or beam in his eye to render any thing obscure to him Man discerns the surface and outside of things little or nothing of the Essence of things we see the noblest things but as in a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 the too great nearness as well as the too great distance of a thing hinders our sight the smallness of a mote escapes our eye and so our knowledg also the weakness of our understanding is troubled with the multitude of things and cannot know many things but confusedly But God knows the forms and essence of things every circumstance nothing is so deep but he sees to the bottom he sees the mass and sees the motes of Beings his Understanding being infinite is not offended with a multitude of things or distracted with the variety of them he discerns every thing infinitely more clearly and perfectly than Adam or Solomon could any one thing in the Circle of their knowledg What knowledg they had was from him he hath therefore infinitely a more perfect knowledg than they were capable in their natures to receive a communication of All things are open to him Heb. 4.13 the least fibre in its nakedness and distinct frame is transparent to him as by the help of Glasses the mouth feet hands of a small Insect are visible to a man which seem to the eye without that assistance one intire piece not diversified into parts All the causes qualities natures properties of things are open to him he brings out the Host of Heaven by number and calleth them by Names Isa 40.26 he numbers the Hairs of our heads what more distinct than number thus God beholds things in every unity which makes up the heap He knows and none else can every thing in its true and intimate causes in its original and intermediate causes in himself as the cause of every particular of their Being every Property in their Being Knowledg by the causes is the most noble and perfect Knowledg and most suited to the infinite excellency of the Divine Being he created all things and ordered them to a universal and particular end he therefore knows the essential Properties of every thing every activity of their nature all their fitness for those distinct ends to which he orders them and for which he governs and disposeth them and understands their darkest and most hidden qualities infinitely clearer than any eye can behold the clear Beams of the Sun He knows all things as he made them he made them distinctly and therefore knows them distinctly and that every individual therefore God is said Gen. 1.31 to see every thing that he had made he took a review of every particular Creature he had made and upon his view pronounced it good To pronounce that good which was not exactly known in every Creek in every Mite of its nature had not consisted with his veracity for every one that speaks truth ignorantly that knows not that he speaks Truth is a Liar in speaking that which is true God knows every act of his own Will whether it be positive or permissive and therefore every effect of his Will We must needs ascribe to God a perfect Knowledg but a confus'd Knowledg cannot challenge that Title To know things only in a heap is unworthy of the Divine Perfection for if God knows his own ends in the Creation of things he knows distinctly the means whereby he will bring them to those ends for which he hath appointed them No Wise man intends an end without a knowledg of the means conducing to that end an ignorance then of any thing in the World which falls under the nature of a means to a Divine end and there is nothing in the World but doth would be inconsistent with the Perfection of God it would ascribe to him a blind Providence in the World As there can be nothing imperfect in his Being and Essence so there can be nothing imperfect in his Understanding and Knowledg and therefore not a confus'd Knowledg which is an Imperfection Darkness and Light are both alike to him Psal 139.12 he sees distinctly into the one as well as the other what is Darkness to us is not so to him Proposition 5. God knows all things infallibly His Understanding is infinite in regard of certainty every Tittle of what he knows is as far from failing as what he speaks our Saviour affirms the one Math. 5.18 and there is the same reason of the certainty of one as well as the other his Essence is the measure of his Knowledg whence it is as impossible that God should be mistaken in the knowledg of the least
if God understands his own Power and Excellency nothing can be hid from him that was brought forth by that Power as well as nothing can be unknown to him that that Power is able to produce * Bradwardin p. 6. If God knows nothing besides himself he may then believe there is nothing beside himself we shall then fancy a God miserably mistaken If he knows nothing besides himself then things were not Created by him or not understandingly and voluntarily Created but drop'd from him before he was aware To think that the first cause of all should be ignorant of those things he is the cause of is to make him not a voluntary but natural Agent and therefore necessary and then that the Creature came from him as Light from the Sun and moisture from the Water this would bean absurd opinion of the Worlds Creation if God be a voluntary Agent as he is he must be an intelligent Agent The faculty of Will is not in any Creature without that of Understanding also If God be an intelligent Agent his knowledg must extend as far as his operation and every object of his operation unless we imagine God hath lost his Memory in that long Tract of time since the first Creation of them An Artificer cannot be ignorant of his own Work If God knows himself he knows himself to be a Cause how can he know himself to be a Cause unless he know the Effects he is the Cause of One relation implies another a man cannot know himself to be a Father unless he hath a Child because it is a name of relation and in the notion of it refers to another The name of cause is a name of relation and implies an effect If God therefore know himself in all his Perfections as the Cause of things he must know all his acts what his Wisdom contrived what his Counsel determin'd and what his Power effected The knowledg of God is to be suppos'd in a free determination of himself and that knowledg must be perfect both of the object act and all the circumstances of it How can his Will freely produce any thing that was not first known in his Understanding From this the Prophet argues the understanding of God and the unsearchableness of it because he is the Creator of the ends of the earth Isa 40.28 and the same reason David gives of Gods Knowledg of him and of every thing he did and that afar off because he was formed by him Psal 139.2 15 16. As the perfect making of things only belongs to God so doth the perfect knowledg of things 't is absurd to think that God should be ignorant of what he hath given Being to that he should not know all the Creatures and their qualities the Plants and their vertues as that a man should not know the Letters that are formed by him in Writing Every thing bears in it self the mark of Gods Perfections and shall not God know the representation of his own vertue 5. Without this Knowledg God could no more be the Governour than he could be the Creator of the World Knowledg is the Basis of Providence to Know things is before the Government of things a practical knowledg cannot be without a theoretical knowledg Nothing could be directed to its proper end without the knowledg of the nature of it and its suitableness to answer that end for which it is intended As every thing even the minutest falls under the conduct of God so every thing falls under the knowledg of God A Blind Coach-man is not able to hold the Reins of his Horses and direct them in right Paths Since the Providence of God is about particulars his Knowledg must be about particulars he could not else govern them in particular nor could all things be said to depend upon him in their Being and Operations Providence depends upon the knowledg of God and the exercise of it upon the Goodness of God it cannot be without Understanding and Will Understanding to know what is convenient and Will to perform it When our Saviour therefore speaks of Providence he intimates these two in a special manner Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things Mat. 6.32 and goodness in Luke 11.13 The reason of Providence is so joyned with Omniscience that they cannot be separated What a kind of God would he be that were ignorant of those things that were governed by him The ascribing this Perfection to him asserts his Providence for it is as easy for one that knows all things to look over the whole World if writ with Monosyllables in every little particular of it as it is with a man to take a view of one Letter in an Alphabet Sabund Tit. 84. much changed Again if God were not Omniscient how could he reward the Good and punish the Evil the works of men are either rewardable or punishable not only according to their outward circumstances but inward Principles and Ends and the degrees of Venom lurking in the heart The exact discerning of these without a possibility to be deceived is necessary to pass a right and infallible Judgment upon them and proportion the censure and punishment to the Crime Without such a Knowledg and discerning men would not have their due nay a Judgment just for the matter would be unjust in the manner because unjustly past without an understanding of the merit of the Cause 'T is necessary therefore that the Supream Judg of the World should not be thought to be blindfold when he distributes his Rewards and Punishments and muffle his face when he passes his Sentence 'T is necessary to ascribe to him the knowledg of mens thoughts and intentions the secret wills and aims the hidden works of darkness in every mans Conscience because every mans work is to be measured by the Will and inward frame 'T is necessary that he should perpetually retain all those things in the indelible and plain records of his Memory that there may not be any work without a just proportion of what is due to it This is the glory of God to discover the secrets of all hearts at last as 1 Cor. 4.5 the Lord shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the Counsels of all hearts and then shall every man have praise of God This knowledg fits him to be a Judg the reason why the ungodly shall not stand in Judgment is because God knows their ways which is implyed in his knowing the way of the righteous * Psal 1.5 6. I now proceed to the Vse VSE the first is of information or instruction If God hath all knowledg then 1. Jesus Christ is not a meer Creature The two Titles of wonderful Counsellor and mighty God are given him in conjunction Isa 9.6 not only the Angel of the Covenant as he is called Malach. 3.1 or the Executor of his Counsels but a Counsellor in conjunction with him in Counsel as well as
the cause of all Sin in the World Hos 7.2 they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their Wickedness they speak not to their hearts nor make any reflection upon the infiniteness of my Knowledg 't is a high contempt of God as if he were an Idol a senseless Stock or Stone in all evil practices this is denyed We know God sees all things yet we live and vvalk as if he knevv nothing We call him Omniscient and live as if he vvere ignorant we say he is all eye yet act as if he were wholly blind In particular this Attribute is injured By invading the peculiar rights of it by presuming on it and by a practical denyal of it 1. By invading the peculiar rights of it 1. By invocation of Creatures Praying to Saints by the Romanists is a disparagement to this Divine Excellency he that knows all things is only fit to have the Petitions of men presented to him Prayer supposeth an Omniscient Being as the object of it no other Being but God ought to have that honour acknowledged to it no Understanding but his is infinite no other Presence but his is every where to implore any deceased Creature for a supply of our wants is to ovvn in them a Property of the Deity and make them Deities that vvere but men and increase their Glory by a diminution of Gods Honour in ascribing that Perfection to Creatures which belongs only to God Alas they are so far from understanding the desires of our Souls that they know not the words of our Lips 'T is against reason to address our Supplications to them that neither understand us nor discern us Isa 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledges us not The Jews never called upon Abraham tho' the Covenant vvas made vvith him for the vvhole Seed not one departed Saint for the vvhole Four Thousand Years betvveen the Creation of the World and the coming of Christ vvas ever Prayed to by the Israelites or ever imagin'd to have a share in Gods Omniscience so that to pray to St. Peter St. Paul much less to St. Roch St. Swithin St. Martin St. Francis c. is such a Superstition that hath no footing in the Scripture Daillè Melang part 2. p. 560. 561. To desire the Prayers of the Living with whom we have a Communion who can understand and grant our desires is founded upon a mutual Charity but to implore persons that are absent at a great distance from us with whom we have not nor know how to have any Commerce supposeth them in their departure to have put off Humanity and commenc'd Gods and endued with some part of the Divinity to understand our Petitions we are indeed to cherish their Memories consider their Examples imitate their Graces and observe their Doctrines we are to follow them as Saints but not elevate them as Gods in ascribing to them such a knowledg which is only the necessary right of their and our common Creator As the invocation of Saints mingles them with Christ in the exercise of his Office so it sets them equal with God in the Throne of his Omniscience As if they had as much credit with God as Christ in a way of Mediation and as much knowledg of mens affairs as God himself Omniscience is peculiar to God and incommunicable to any Creature 't is the foundation of all Religion and therefore one of the choicest acts of it viz. Prayer and Invocation To direct our Vows and Petitions to any else is to invade the peculiarity of this Perfection in God and to rank some Creatures in a Partnership with him in it 2. This Attribute is injured by curiosity of Knowledg Especially of future things which God hath not discovered in natural causes or supernatural Revelation 'T is a common error of mens Spirits to aspire to know what God would have hidden and to pry into Divine Secrets and many men are more willing to remain without the knowledg of those things which may with a little industry be attained than be divested of the curiosity of enquiring into those things which are above their reach 't is hence that some have laid aside the Study of the common remedies of Nature to find out the Philosophers Stone which scarce any ever yet attempted but sunk in the Enterprise Amyraut Moral Tom. 3. p. 75. c. From this inclination to know the most abstruse and difficult things it is that the horrors of Magick and the vanities of Astrology have sprung whereby men have thought to find in a commerce with Devils and the Jurisdiction of the Stars the events of their Lives and the disposal of States and Kingdoms Hence also arose those Multitudes of ways of Divination invented among the Heathen and practised too commonly in these Ages of the World This is an invasion of Gods Prerogative to whom secret things belong Deut. 29.29 Secret things belong unto the Lord our God but revealed things belong to us and our Children 'T is an intolerable boldness to attempt to fathom those the knowledg whereof God hath reserved to himself and to search that which God will have to surpass our Understandings whereby we more truly envy God a knowledg superior to our own than we in Adam imagin'd that he envyed us Ambition is the greatest cause of this Ambition to be accounted some great thing among men by reason of a Knowledg estrang'd from the common mass of mankind but more especially that soaring Pride to be equal with God which lurks in our nature ever since the Fall of our first Parents This is not yet laid aside by man though it was the first thing that embroyl'd the World with the Wrath of God Some think a curiosity of Knowledg was the cause of the fall of Devils I am sure it was the foyl of Adam and is yet the Crime of his Posterity had he been contented to know what God had furnisht him with neither he nor his Posterity had smarted under the Venom of the Serpents Breath All curious and bold enquiries into things not revealed are an attempt upon the Throne of God and are both sinful and pernicious like to glaring upon the Sun where instead of a greater acuteness we meet with blindness and too dearly buy our ignorance in attempting a superfluous knowledg As Gods Knowledg is destin'd to the government of the World so should ours be to the advantage of the World and not degenerate into vain speculations 3. This Attribute is injur'd by swearing by Creatures To swear by the Name of God in a Righteous Cause Cajetan Sum. p. 190. when we are lawfully call'd to it by a Superior Power or for the necessary decision of some Controversy for the ends of Charity and Justice is an act of Religion and a part of Worship founded upon and directed to the honour of this Attribute by it we acknowledg the glory of his infallible Knowledg of all things but to Swear by false Gods
him through the universal Corruption of Nature Now he hath manifested himself a God of Truth mindful of his Promise in Blessing all Nations in the Seed of Abraham The Fury of Devils and the Violence of Men could not hinder the propagation of this Gospel Its Light hath been dispersed as far as that of the Sun and that Grace that sounded in the Gentiles Ears hath bent many of their Hearts to the Obedience of it 5. Observe That Libertinism and Licentiousness find no encouragement in the Gospel It was made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith The Goodness of God is publish'd that our Enmity to him may be parted with Christs Righteousness is not offered to us to be put on that we may roul more warmly in our Lusts The Doctrine of Grace commands us to give up our selves to Christ to be accepted through him and to be ruled by him Obedience is due to God as a Soveraign Lord in his Law and 't is due out of gratitude as he is a God of Grace in the Gospel The discovery of a further perfection in God weakens not the right of another nor the obligation of the Duty the former Attribute claims at our hands The Gospel frees us from the Curse but not from the Duty and Service We are delivered from the hands of our Enemies that we might serve God in Holiness and Righteousness Luke 1.74 This is the will of God in the Gospel even our Sanctification When a Prince strikes off a Malefactors Chains though he deliver him from the punishment of his Crime he frees him not from the Duty of a Subject His Pardon adds a greater obligation than his Protection did before while he was Loyal Christs Righteousness gives us a Title to Heaven but there must be a Holiness to give us a fitness for Heaven 6. Observe That Evangelical Obedience or the Obedience of Faith is only acceptable to God Obedience of Faith Genitivus speciei noting the kind of Obedience God requires an Obedience springing from Faith animated and influenced by Faith Not Obedience of Faith as though Faith were the Rule and the Law were abrogated but to the Law as a Rule and from Faith as a Principle There is no true Obedience before Faith Heb. 11.6 Without Faith it is impossible to please God and therefore without Faith impossible to obey him A good Work cannot proceed from a defil'd Mind and Conscience and without Faith every mans Mind is darkned and his Conscience polluted * Tit. 1.15 Faith is the Band of Union to Christ and Obedience is the Fruit of Union we cannot bring forth fruit without being Branches †John 15.4 5. and we cannot be Branches without Believing Legitimate Fruit follows upon Marriage to Christ not before it Rom. 7.4 That you should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead that you should bring forth fruit unto God All Fruit before Marriage is Bastard and Bastards were excluded from the Sanctuary Our Persons must be first accepted in Christ before our Services can be acceptable those Works are not acceptable where the Person is not pardoned Good Works flow from a pure Heart but the Heart cannot be pure before Faith All the Good Works reckoned up in the 11th Chapter of the Hebrews were from this Spring those Heroes first believed and then obeyed By Faith Abel was righteous before God without it his Sacrifice had been no better than Cains By Faith Enoch pleased God and had a Divine Testimony to his Obedience before his Translation By Faith Abraham offered up Isaac without which he had been no better than a Murderer All Obedience hath its Root in Faith and is not done in our own strength but in the strength and virtue of another of Christ whom God hath set forth as our Head and Root 7. Observe Faith and Obedience are distinct though inseparable The Obedience of Faith Faith indeed is Obedience to a Gospel Command which enjoyns us to believe but it is not all our Obedience Justification and Sanctification are distinct Acts of God Justification respects the Person Sanctification the Nature Justification is first in order of Nature and Sanctification follows They are distinct but inseparable every Justified Person hath a Sanctified Nature and every Sanctified Nature supposeth a Justified Person So Faith and Obedience are distinct Faith as the Principle Obedience as the Product Faith as the Cause Obedience as the Effect the Cause and the Effect are not the same By Faith we own Christ as our Lord by Obedience we regulate our selves according to his Command The acceptance of the Relation to him as a Subject precedes the performance of our Duty By Faith we receive his Law and by Obedience we fulfil it Faith makes us Gods Children Gal. 3.26 Obedience manifests us to be Christs Disciples John 15.8 Faith is the Touchstone of Obedience the Touchstone and that which is tried by it are not the same But though they are distinct yet they are inseparable Faith and Obedience are joyned together Obedience follows Faith at the heels Faith purifies the heart and a pure Heart cannot be without pure Actions Faith unites us to Christ whereby we partake of his Liâ—e and a living Branch cannot be without fruit in its season and much fruit John 15.5 and that naturally from a newness of Spirit Rom. 7.9 not constrained by the rigors of the Law but drawn forth from a sweetness of Love for Faith works by Love The Love of God is the strong Motive and Love to God is the quickning Principle as there can be no Obedience without Faith so no Faith without Obedience After all this the Apostle ends with the celebration of the Wisdom of God To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever The rich Discovery of the Gospel cannot be thought of by a gracious Soul without a return of Praise to God and Admiration of his singular Wisdom Wise God His Power before and his Wisdom here are mentioned in conjunction in which his Goodness is included as interested in his establishing Power as the ground of all the Glory and Praise God hath from his Creatures Only Wise As Christ saith Mat. 19.17 None is good but God so the Apostle saith None Wise but God As all Creatures are unclean in regard of his Purity so they are all Fools in regard of his Wisdom yea the glorious Angels themselves * Job 4.18 Wisdom is the Royalty of God the proper Dialect of all his Ways and Works No Creature can lay claim to it He is so Wise that he is Wisdom it self Be glory through Jesus Christ As God is only known in and by Christ so he must be only worshipped and celebrated in and through Christ In him we must Pray to him and in him we must Praise him As all Mercies flow from God through Christ to us so all our Duties are to be presented to God through Christ In the Greek verbatim
acts of the Divine will yet we must not think that they were acts of meer will without wisdom but they are represented so to us because we are not capable of understanding the infinite Reason of its acts His Soveraignty is more intelligible to us than his Wisdom We can better know the Commands of a Superiour and the Laws of a Prince than understand the reason that gave birth to those Laws We may know the Orders of the Divine will as they are publish'd but not the sublime Reason ot his will Though Election be an act of God's Soveraignty and he hath no cause from without to determine him yet his infinite wisdom stood not silent while meer Dominion acted Whatsoever God doth he doth wisely as well as soveraignly though that wisdom which lies in the secret places of the Divine Being be as incomprehensible to us as the effects of his Soveraignty and Power in the World are visible God can give a reason of his proceeding and that drawn from himself though we understand it not The causes of things visible lye hid from us Doth any man know how to distinguish the seminal vertue of a small Seed from the Body of it and in what nook and corner that lies and what that is that spreads it self in so fair a Plant and so many Flowers Can we comprehend the Justice of God's proceedings in the prosperity of the wicked and the afflictions of the Godly Yet as we must conclude them the fruits of an unerring righteousness so we must conclude all his actions the fruits of an unspotted wisdom though the concatenation of all his counsels is not intelligible to us for he is as essentially and necessarily wise as he is essentially and necessarily good and righteous God is not only so wise that nothing more wise can be conceiv'd but he is more wise than can be imagin'd something greater in all his Perfections than can be comprehended by any Creature 'T is a foolish thing therefore to question that which we cannot comprehend we should adore it instead of disputing against it and take it for granted that God would not order any thing were it not agreeable to the Soveraignty of his wisdom as well as that of his will Though the reason of man proceed from the wisdom of God yet there is more difference between the reason of man and the wisdom of God than between the light of the Sun and the feeble shining of the Glowworm yet we presume to censure the ways of God as if our purblind reason had a reach above him 7. God is only wise infallibly The wisest men meet with rubs in the way that make them fall short of what they aim at they often design and fail then begin again and yet all their counsels end in smoak and none of them arrive at perfection If the wisest Angels lay a plot they may be disappointed for though they are higher and wiser than man yet there is one higher and wiser than they that can check their Projects God always compasseth his end never fails of any thing he designs and aims at all his undertakings are counsel and will as nothing can resist the efficacy of his will so nothing can countermine the skil of his counsel There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord Prov. 21.30 He compasseth his ends by those actions of Men and Devils wherein they think to cross him they shoot at their own Mark and hit his Lucifer's plot by Divine wisdom fulfilled God's purpose against Lucifer's mind The counsel of Redemption by Christ the end of the Creation of the World rode into the World upon the back of the Serpents Temptation God never mistakes the means nor can there be any disappointments to make him vary his Counsels and pitch upon other means than what before he had ordain'd His word that goeth forth of his mouth shall not return to him void but it shall accomplish that which he pleases and it shall prosper in the thing whereto he sent it Isa 55.11 What is said of his word is true of his counsel it shall prosper in the thing for which it is appointed it cannot be defeated by all the Legions of Men and Devils for as he thinks so shall it come to pass and as he hath purposed so shall it stand The Lord hath purposed and who shall disanul it Isa 14.24 27. The wisdom of the Creature is a drop from the wisdom of God and is like a drop to the Ocean and a shadow to the Sun and therefore is not able to mate the wisdom of God which is infinite and boundless No wisdom is exempted from mistakes but the Divine He is wise in all his Resolves and never calls bâ—ck his words and purposes Isa 31.2 III. The third General is to prove that God is wise This is ascrib'd to God in Scripture Dan. 2.20 Wisdom and might are his Wisdom to contrive and Power to effect * Culverwell light of Nature p. 30. Where should Wisdom dwell but in the head of a Deity and where should Power triumph but in the arm of Omnipotency All that God doth he doth artificially skilfully whence he is called the Builder of the Heavens Heb. 11.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an artificial and curious Builder a Builder by Art And that word Prov. 8.30 meant of Christ Then I was by him as one brought up with him some render it Then was I the curious Artificer and the same word is translated a cunning workman Cant. 7.5 For this cause Counsel is ascrib'd to God †Isa 46.10 Jer. 22.19 Great in counsel Job 12.13 He hath counsel and understanding not properly for Counsel implies something of Ignorance or Irresolution antecedent to the consultation and a posture of will afterwards which was not before Counsel is properly a laborious deliberation and a reasoning of things An invention of means for the attainment of the end after a discussing and reasoning of all the doubts which arise pro re natâ about the matter in counsel But God hath no need to deliberate in himself what are the best means to accomplish his ends He is never ignorant or undetermin'd what course he should take as men are before they consult But it is an expression in condescension to our Capacity to signifie that God doth nothing but with reason and understanding with the highest prudence and for the most glorious ends as men do after consultation and the weighing of every foreseen circumstance Though he acts all things Soveraignly by his will yet he acts all things wisely by his understanding and there is not a decree of his will but he can render a satisfactory reason for in the face of Men and Angels As he is the Cause of all things so he hath the highest wisdom for the ordering of all things If wisdom among men be the knowledge of Divine and Human things God must be infinitely wise since knowledge is most radiant in
Instruments He needs no Matter to work upon because he can make something from nothing all Matter owes it self to his Creative Power He needs no time to work in for he can make Time when he pleases to begin to work He needs no Copy to work by Himself is his own Pattern and Copy in his Works All created Agents want Matter to work upon Instruments to work with Copies to work by Time to bring either the births of their Minds or the works of their hands to perfection But the Power of God needs none of these things but is of a vast and Incomprehensible nature beyond all these As nothing can be done without the compass of it so it self is without the compass of every Created Understanding 4. This Power is of a distinct conception from the Wisdom and Will of God They are not really distinct but according to our Conceptions We cannot discourse of Divine things without observing some proportion of them with humane ascribing unto God the Perfections sifted from the Imperfections of our Nature In Us there are three Orders of Understanding Will Power and accordingly three Acts Counsel Resolution Execution which though they are distinct in Us are not really distinct in God In our Conceptions the Apprehension of a thing belongs to the Understanding of God Determination to the Will of God Direction to the Wisdom of Gâ—d Execution to the Power of God The Knowledge of God regards a thing as possible and as it may be done the Wisdom of God regards a thing as fit and convenient to be done the Will of God resolves that it shall be done the Power of God is the application of his Will to effect what it hath resolved Wisdom is a fixing the Being of things the measures and perfections of their several Beings Power is a conferring those Perfections and Beings upon them His Power is his ability to act and his Wisdom is the Director of his action His Will orders his Wisdom guides and his Power effects His Will as the spring and his Power as the worker are exprest Psal 115.3 He hath done whatsoever he pleased He commanded and they were created Psal 140.5 and all three exprest Eph. 1.11 Who works all things according to the counsel of his own will So that the Power of God is a Perfection as it were subordinate to his Understanding and Will to execute the results of his Wisdom and the orders of his Will to his VVisdom as directing because he works skilfully to his Will as moving and applying because he works voluntarily and freely The exercise of his Power depends upon his Will His Will is the supream cause of every thing that stands up in Time and all things receive a Being as he wills them His Power is but Will perpetually working and diffusing it self in the season his Will hath fixed from Eternity 't is his Eternal Will in perpetual and successive springs and streams in the Creatures 't is nothing else but the constant efficacy of his Omnipotent Will This must be understood of his Ordinate Power But his Absolute Power is larger than his Resolving Will for though the Scripture tells us He hath done whatsoever he will yet it tells us not that he hath done whatsoever he could He can do things that he will never do Again His Power is distinguisht from his Will in regard of the Exercise of it which is after the act of his Will His Will was conversant about Objects when his Power was not exercis'd about them Creatures were the objects of his VVill from Eternity but they were not from Eternity the effects of his Power His Purpose to Create was from Eternity but the execution of his Purpose was in Time Now this execution of his VVill we call his Ordinate Power His VVisdom and his VVill are supposed antecedent to his Power as the Counsel and Resolve as the Cause precedes the performance of the Purpose as the effect * Gamacheus Some distinguish his Power from his Understanding and VVill in regard that his Understanding and VVill are larger than his Absolute Power for God understands Sins and wills to permit them but he cannot himself do any Evil or Unjust action nor have a power of doing it But this is not to distinguish that Divine Power but Impotence for to be unable to do Evil is the perfection of Power and to be able to do things Unjust and Evil is a weakness imperfection and inability Man indeed wills many things that he is not able to perform and understands many things that he is not able to effect he understands much of the Creatures something of Sun Moon and Stars he can conceive many Suns many Moons yet is not able to create the least Atom But there is nothing that belongs to Power but God understands and is able to effect To sum this up The VVill of God is the Root of all the VVisdom of God is the Copy of all and the Power of God is the Framer of all 5. The Power of God gives activity to all the other perfections of his Nature and is of a larger extent and efficacy in regard of its Objects than some perfections of his Nature I put them both together 1. It contributes Life and Activity to all the other perfections of his Nature How vain would be his Eternal Counsels if Power did not step in to execute them His Mercy would be a feeble pity if he were destitute of Power to relieve and his Justice a slighted Scarecrow without Power to punish his Promises an empty sound without Power to accomplish them As Holiness is the Beauty so Power is the Life of all his Attributes in their exercise and as Holiness so Power is an Adjunct belonging to All a Term that may be given to All. God hath a powerful Wisdom to attain his Ends without interruption He hath a powerful Mercy to remove our Misery a powerful Justice to lay all Misery upon Offenders He hath a powerful Truth to perform his Promises an Infinite Power to bestow Rewards and inflict Penalties 'T is to this purpose Power is first put in the two things which the Psalmist had heard Psal 62.11 12. Twice have I heard or two things have I heard first Power then Mercy and Justice included in that expression Thou rendrest to every man according to his work In every perfection of God he heard of Power This is the Arm the Hand of the Deity which all his other Attributes lay hold on when they would appear in their Glory this hands them to the World by this they act in this they triumph Power framed every stage for their appearance in Creation Providence Redemption 2. 'T is of a larger extent in regard of its Objects than some other Attributes Power doth not alway suppose an Object but constitutes an Object It supposeth an Obiect in the act of Preservation but it makes an Object in the act of Creation but Mercy supposeth an object Miserable
follow That this Omnipotence is incommunicable to any Creature no Creature can inherit it because it is a contradiction for any Creature to have the Essence of God This Omnipotence is a peculiar Right of God wherein no Creature can share with him To be Omnipotent is to be Essentially God And for a Creature to be Omnipotent is for a Creature to be its own Creator It being therefore the same with the Essence of the Godhead it cannot be communicated to the Humanity of Christ as the Lutherans say it is wâ—thout the communication of the Essence of the Godhead * for then the Humanity of Christ would not be Humanity but Deity If Omnipotence were communicated to the Humanity of Christ the Essence of God were also communicated to his Humanity and then Eternity would be communicated His Humanity then was not given him in Time his Humanity would be uncompounded that is his Body would be no Body his Soul no Soul Omnipotence is Essentially in God 't is not distinct from the Essence of God 't is his Essence Omnipotent able to do all things 7. Hence it follows That this Power is infinite Eph. 1.19 What is the exceeding greatness of his power c. According to the working of his mighty power God were not Omnipotent unless his Power were Infinite for a Finite Power is a limited Power and a limited Power cannot effect every thing that is possible Nothing can be too difficult for the Divine Power to effect He hath a Fulness of Power an Exceeding Strength above all Humane Capacities 't is a Mighty power †Eph. 1.19 able to do above all that we can ask or think ‖ Eph. 3.20 That which he acts is above the power of any Creature to act Infinite Power consists in the bringing things forth from nothing No Creature can imitate God in this Prerogative of Power Man indeed can carve various Forms and erect various pieces of Art but from preexistent Matter Every Artificer hath the Matter brought to his hand he only brings it forth in a new Figure Chimists separate one thing from another but create nothing but sever those things which were before compacted and crudled together But when God speaks a powerful Word Nothing begins to be Something Things stand forth from the Womb of Nothing and obey his mighty Command and take what Forms he is pleased to give them The Creating one thing though never so small and minute as the least Fly cannot be but by an Infinite Power much less can the producing of such Variety we see in the World His Power is Infinite in regard it cannot be resisted by any thing that he hath made nor can it be confin'd by any thing he can will to make His Greatness is unsearchable * 'T is a Greatness not of quantity but quality Psal 145.3 The Greatness of his Power hath no end 'T is a vanity to imagine any limits can be affixed to it or that any Creature can say Hitherto it can go and no further 'T is above all Conception all Inquisition of any Created Understanding No Creature ever had nor ever can have that strength of Wit and Understanding to conceive the extent of his Power and how Magnificently he can work 1. His Essence is Infinite As in a Finite Subject there is a Finite Vertue so in an Infinite Subject there must be an Infinite Vertue Where the Essence is limited the Power is so †Operationes sequuntur essentiam Where the Essence is unlimited the Power knows no bounds ‖ Aqâ—in par 1. Qu. 25. Artic. 2. Among Creatures the more excellency of Being and Form any thing hath the more activity vigour and power it hath to work according to its Nature The Sun hath a mighty power to warm enlighten and fructifie above what the Stars have because it hath a vaster Body more intense degrees of light heat and vigour Now if you conceive the Sun made much greater than it is it would proportionably have greater degrees of power to heat and enlighten than it hath now And were it possible to have an Infinite Heat and Light it would infinitely heat and enlighten other things for every thing is able to act according to the Measures of its Being Therefore since the Essence of God is unquestionably Infinite his power of Acting must be so also His Power as was said before is one and the same with his Essence And though the Knowledge of God extends to more Objects than his Power because he knows all Evils of Sin which because of his Holiness he cannot commit yet it is as Infinite as his Knowledge because it is as much one with his Essence as his Knowledge and Wisdom is For as the Wisdom or Knowledge of God is nothing but the Essence of God Knowing so the Power of God is nothing but the Essence of God Able 2. The Objects of Divine Power are innumerable The Objects of Divine Power are not Essentially Infinite and therefore we must not measure the Infiniteness of Divine Power by an Ability to make an Infinite Being because there is an Incapacity in any created thing to be Infinite for to be a Creature and to be Infinite to be Infinite and yet Made is a contradiction To be Infinite and to be God is one and the same thing Nothing can be Infinite but God nothing but God is Infinite But the Power of God is Infinite because it can produce Infinite effects or Innumerable things such as surpass the Arithmetick of a Creature nor yet doth the Infiniteness consist simply in producing innumerable Effects for that a Finite Cause can produce Fire can by its finite and limit d Heat burn numberless combustible things and parcels and the Understanding of Man hath an infinite number of thoughts and acts of Intellection and Thoughts different from one another Who can number the Imaginations of his Fancy and Thoughts of his Mind the space of one Month or Year much less of Forty or an Hundred years yet all these Thoughts are about things that are in Being or have a foundation in things that are in Being But the Infiniteness of Gods Power consists in an ability to produce Infinite Effects formally distinct and diverse from one another such as never had Being such as the Mind of Man cannot conceive Eph. 3.20 Able to do above what we can think Eph. 3.20 And whatsoever God hath made or is able to make he is able to make in an Infinite manner by calling them to stand forth from nothing To produce innumerable Effects of distinct Natures and from so distant a term as Nothing is an argument of Infinite Power Now that the Objects of Divine Power are Innumerable appears because God can do Infinitely more thâ—n he hath done or will do Nothing that God hath done can enfeeble or dull his Power there still resides in him an Ability beyond all the setled Contrivances of his Understanding and Resolves of his
Will which no Effects which he hath wrought can drain and put to a stand As he can raise Stones to be Children to Abraham * Mat. 3.9 so with the same mighty Word whereby he made one World he can make Infinite numbers of Worlds to be the Monuments of his Glory After the Prophet Jeremy 32.17 had spoke of Gods Power in Creation he adds And nothing is too hard for thee For one World that he hath made he can create Millions For one Star which he hath beautified the Heavens with he could have garnisht it with a Thousand and multiplied if he had pleased Rom. 4.17 every one of those into Millions for he can call things that are not not some things but all things possible The barren Womb of Nothing can no more resist his Power now to educe a World from it than it could at first No doubt but for one Angel which he hath made he could make many Worlds of Angels He that made one with so much ease as by a Word cannot want Power to make many more till he wants a Word The Word that was not too weak to make One cannot be too weak to make Multitudes If from One Man he hath in a way of Nature multiplied so many in all Ages of the World and covered with them the whole Face of the Earth he could in a Supernatural way by One Word multiply as many more 'T is the breath of the Almighty that gives life Job 33.4 He can create infinite Species and kinds of Creatures more than he hath created more variety of Forms For since there is no searching of his Greatness there is no conceiving the numberless possible effects of his Power The Understanding of Man can conceive Numberless things possible to be more than have been or shall be And shall we imagine that a Finite Understanding of a Creature hath a greater Omnipotency to conceive things possible than God hath to produce things possible When the Understanding of Man is tyr'd in its Conceptions it must still be concluded That the Power of God extends not only to what can be conceiv'd but infinitely beyond the measures of a Finite faculty Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out he is excellent in power and in judgment Job 36.23 For the Understanding of Man in its Conceptions of more kind of Creatures is limited to those Creatures which are It cannot in its own Imagination conceive any thing but what hath some foundation in and from something already in Being It may frame a new kind of Creature made up of a Lion a Horse an Ox but all those parts whereof its Conception is made have distinct Beings in the World though not in that composition as his Mind mixes and joyns them But no question but God can create Creatures that have no resemblance with any kind of Creatures yet in Being 'T is certain that if God only knows those things which he hath done and will do and not all things possible to be done by him his knowledge were finite so if he could do no more than what he hath done his Power would be finite 1. Creatures have a power to act about more objects than they do The Understanding of man can frame from one Principle of Truth many Conclusions and Inferences more than it doth Why cannot then the Power of God frame from one first Matter an infinite number of Creatures more than have been created The Almightiness of God in producing real Effects is not inferiour to the Understanding of man in drawing out real Truths An Artificer that makes a Watch supposing his liâ—e and health can make many more of a different form and motion And a Limner can draw many Draughts and frame many Pictures with a new variety of Colours according to the richness of his Fancy If these can do so that require a preexistent Matter fram'd to their hands God can much more who can raise beautiful Structures from nothing As long as men have matter they can diversifie the matter and make new Figures from it So long as there is nothing God can produce out of that nothing whatsoever he pleases We see the same in Inanimate Creatures A spark of Fire hath a vast Power in it it will kindle other things increase and enlarge it self Nothing can be exempt from the active force of it It will alter by consuming or refining whatsoever you offer to it It will reach all and refuse none and by the efficacious power of it all those new Figures which we see in Metals are brought forth When you have exposed to it a multitude of things still add more it will exert the same strength yea the vigour is increased rather than diminisht The more it catcheth the more fiercely and irresistibly it will act you cannot suppose an end oâ— its operation or a decrease of its strength as long as you can conceive its duration and continuance This must be but a weak shadow of that infinite Power which is in God Take another Instance in the Sun It hath power every year to produce Flowers and Plants from the Earth and as is able to produce them now as it was at the first lighting it and rearing it in the Sphear wherein it moves And if there were no kind of Flowers and Plants now created the Sun hath a power residing in it ever since its first Creation to afford the same warmth to them for the nourishâ—ng and bringing them forth Whatsoever you can conceive the Sun to be able to do in regard of Plants that can God do in regard of Worlds produce more Worlds than the Sun doth Plants every year without weariness without languishment The Sun is able to influence more things than it doth and produce numberless effects but it doth not do so much as it is able to do because it wants matter to work upon God therefore who wants no matter can do much more than he doth He can either act by second Causes if there were more or make more second Causes if he pleas'd 2. God is the most free Agent Every free Agent can do more than he will do Man being a free Creature can do more than ordinarily he doth will to do God is most free as being the Spring of Liberty in other Creatures He acts not by a necessity of Nature as the waves of the Sea or the motions of the Wind and therefore is not determin'd to those things which he hath already called forth into the World If God be infinâ—tely wise in contrivance he could contrive more than he hath and therefore can effect more than he hath effected He doth not act to the extent of his Power upon all occasions 'T is according to his will that he works Eph. 1. 'T is not according to his work that he wills his work is an evidence of his will but not the rule of his will His Power is not the rule of his Will but hâ—s Will is the disposer of
is exercised by his concurring Power as well as every moment of our Life supported by his preserving Power What an infinite variety of motions is there in the whole World in universal Nature to all which God concurs all which he conducts even the motions of the meanest as well as the greatest Creatures which demonstrate the indefatigable Power of the Governour 'T is an Infinite Power which doth act in so many varieties whereby the Soul forms every Thought the Tongue speaks every Word the Body exerts every Action What an Infinite Power is that which presides over the birth of all things concurs with the motion of the Sap in the â—ree Rivers on the Earth Clouds in the Air every drop of Rain fleece of Snow crack of Thunder Not the least motion in the World but is under an actual influence of this Almighty Mover And lest any should scruple the Concurrence of God to so many Varieties of the Creatures motion as a thing utterly unconceivable let them consider the Sun a natural image and shadow of the Perfections of God doth not the power of that finite Creature extend it self to various Objects at the same moment of time How many Insects doth it animate as Flies c. at the same moment throughout the World How many several Plants doth it erect at its appearance in the Spring whose Roots lay mourning in the Earth all the foregoing Winter What multitudes of Spires of Grass and nobler Flowers doth it Midwife in the same hour It warms the Air melts the Blood cherishes Living Creatures of various kinds in distinct places without tiring And shall the God of this Sun be less than his Creature 3. And since I speak of the Sun consider the Power of God in the Motion of it * A Lapide in 1. cap. Gen. 16. Lessius de Perfect divin p. 90 91. The vastness of the Sun is computed to be at the least 166 Times bigger than the Earth and its distance from the Earth some tell us to be about Four Millions of Miles whence it follows that it is whirl'd about the World with that swiftness that in the space of an Hour it runs a Million of Miles which is as much as if it should move round about the surface of the Earth Fifty times in one hour * Lessius de Providen p. 633. Voss de Idol lib. 2. cap. 2. which vastness exceeds the swiftness of a Bullet shot out of a Canon which is computed to fly not above Three mile in a Minute So that the Sun runs further in one Hours space than a Bullet can in Five thousand if it were kept in motion so that if it were near the Earth the swiftness of its motion would shatter the whole frame of the World and dash it in pieces so that the Psalmist may well say It runs a race like a strong Man Psal 19.5 What an Incomprehensible Power is that which hath communicated such a strength and swiftness to the Sun and doth daily influence its Motion especially since after all those years of its motion wherein one would think it should have spent it self we behold it every day as vigorous as Adam did in Paradice without limping without shattering it self or losing any thing of its natural Spirits in its unwearied motion How great must that Power be which hath kept this great body so intire and thus swiftly moves it every day Is it not now an Argument of Omnipotency to keep all the strings of Nature in tune to wind them up to a due pitch for the harmony he intended by them to keep things that are contrary from that Confusion they would naturally fall into to prevent those Jarrings which would naturally result from their various and snarling qualities to preserve every Being in its true nature to propagate every kind of Creature order all the Operations even the meanest of them when there are such innumerable Varieties But let us consider that this Power of preserving things in their station and motion and the renewing of them is more stupendous than that which we commonly call Miraculous We call those Miracles which are wrought out of the track of Nature and contrary to the usual stream and current of it which Men wonder at because they seldom see them and hear of them as things rarely brought forth in the World when the truth is there is more of Power exprest in the ordinary station and motion of Natural causes than in those extraordinary exertings of Power Is not more Power signaliz'd in that whirling motion of the Sun every hour for so many Ages than in the suspending of its motion one Day as it was in the days of Joshua That Fire should continually ravage and consume and greedily swallow up every thing that is offer'd to it seems to be the effect of as admirable a Power as the stopping of its appetite a few moments as in the case of the Three Children Is not the rising of some small Seeds from the ground Faucher sur Act. Vol. 2. p. 47. with a multiplication of their numerous posterity an effect of as great a Power as our Saviours seeding many Thousands with a few Loaves by a secret augmentation of them Is not the Chimical producing so pleasant and delicious a Fruit as the Grape from a dry Earth insipid Rain and a sour Vine as admirable a token of Divine Power as our Saviours turning Water into Wine Is not the cure of Diseases by the application of a simple inconsiderable Weed or a slight Infusion as wonderful in it self as the Cure of it by a powerful word What if it be naturally design'd to heal what is that Nature who gave that Nature who maintains that Nature who conducts it cooperates with it Doth it work of it self and by its own strength why not then equally in all in one as well as another Miracles indeed affect more because they testifie the immediate operation of God without the concurrence of second Causes not that there is mere of the Power of God shining in them than in the other II. This Power is evident in Moral Government 1. In the restraint of the Malicious nature of the Devil Since Satan hath the Power of an Angel and the Malice of a Devil what safety would there be for our Persons from destruction what security for our Goods from rifling by this invisible potent and envious Spirit if his Power were not restrain'd and his Malice curb'd by one more Mighty than himself How much doth he envy God the glory of his Creation and Man the use and benefit of it How desirous would he be in regard of his passion how able in regard of his strength and subtilty to overthrow or infect all Worship but what was directed to himself to manage all things according to his lusts turn all thing topsie-turvy plague the World burn Cities Houses plunder us of the supports of Nature waste Kingdoms c. if he were not held in
can have no Superior to impose a Precept on him A Rational Creature with a liberty of Will and power of Choice cannot be made by Nature of such a mould and temper but he must be as well capable of chusing wrong as of chusing right and therefore the standing Angels and glorified Saints though they are Immutable 't is not by Nature that they are so but by Grace and the good pleasure of God for though they are in Heaven they have still in their Nature a remote power of sinning but it shall never be brought into act because God will always incline their Wills to love him and never concur with their Wills to any evil act Since therefore Mutability is essential to a Creature as a Creature this changeableness cannot properly be charged upon God as the Author of it for it was not the term of God's creating act but did necessarily result from the Nature of the Creature as unchangeableness doth result from the Essence of God The brittleness of a Glass is no blame to the Art of him that blew up the Glass into such a fashion that imperfection of brittleness is not from the Workman but the Matter So though changeableness be an Imperfection yet it is so necessary a one that no Creature can be naturally without it Besides though Angels and Men were mutable by Creation and capable to exercise their Wills yet they were not necessitated to evil and this mutability did not infer a necessity that they should fall because some Angels which had the same root of changeableness in their Natures with those that fell did not fall which they would have done if capableness of changing and necessity of changing were one and the same thing 2. Though God made the Creature mutable yet he made him not evil There could be nothing of evil in him that God created after his own Image and pronounced good Gen. 1.27 31. Man had an ability to stand as well as a capacity to fall He was created with a principle of acting freely whereby he was capable of loving God as his chief Good and moving to him as his last end there was a beam of Light in man's Understanding to know the Rule he was to conform to a harmony between his Reason and his Affections an original Righteousness So that it seem'd more easie for him to determine his Will to continue in Obedience to the Precept than to swerve from it to adhere to God as his chief Good than to listen to the Charms of Satan God created him with those advantages that he might with more facility have kept his eyes fixt upon the Divine Beauty than turn his back upon it and with greater ease have kept the Precept God gave him than have broken it The very first thought darted or impression made by God upon the Angelical or Human Nature was the knowledge of himself as their Auhtor and could be no other than such whereby both Angels and Men might be excited to a love of that adorable Being that had framed them so gloriously out of nothing And if they turned their Wills and Affections to another Object it was not by the direction of God but contrary to the impression God had made upon them or the first thought he flasht into them They turned themselves to the admiring their own Excellency or affecting an advantage distinct from that which they were to look for only from God 1 Tim. 3.6 Pride was the cause of the Condemnation of the Devil Though the Wills of Angels and Men were created mutable and so were imperfect yet they were not created evil Though they might sin yet they might not sin and therefore were not evil in their own Nature What reflection then could this Mutability of their Nature be upon God So far is it from any that he is fully cleared by storing up in the Nature of Man sufficient Provision against his departure from him God was so far from creating him evil that he fortified him with a knowledge in his Understanding and a strength in his Nature to withstand any Invasion The Knowledge was exercised by Eve in the very Moment of the Serpents assaulting her Gen. 3.3 Eve said to the Serpent God hath said ye shall not eat of it And had her thoughts been intent upon this God hath said and not diverted to the motions of the Sensitive Appetite and Liquorish Palate it had been sufficient to put by all the Passes the Devil did or could have made at her So that you see though God made the Creature Mutable yet he made him not evil This clears the Holiness of God 3. Therefore it follows That though God created man changeable yet he was not the cause of his change by his fall Though Man was created defectible yet he was not determin'd by God influencing his Will by any positive act to that change and apostacy God placed him in a free posture set life and happiness before him on the one hand misery and death on the other As he did not draw him into the Arms of perpetual Blessedness so he did not drive him into the Gulph of his Misery * Amyral Mâ—â—aâ— Tom. 1. p. 615 616. He did not incline him to Evil. It was repugnant to the Goodness of God to corrupt the Righteousness of those Faculties he had so lately beautified him with It was not likely he should deface the beauty of that Work he had compos'd with so much Wisdom and Skill Would he by any Act of his own make that had which but a little before he had acquiesced in as good Angels and Men were left to their liberty and conduct of their Natural Faculties and if God inspir'd them with any Motions they could not but be Motions to good and suted to that righteous Nature he had endued them with But it is most probable that God did not in a Supernatural way act inwardly upon the Mind of Man but left him wholly to that Power which he had in Creation furnisht him with The Scripture frees God fully from any blame in this and lays it wholly upon Satan as the Tempter and upon Man as the Determiner of his own Will Gen. 3.6 Eve took of the Fruit and did eat and Adam took from her of the Fruit and did eat And Solomon Eccl 7.29 distinguisheth God's Work in the Creation of Man upright from Man's Work in seeking out those ruining inventions God created Man in a righteous state and Man cast himself into a forlorn state As he was a Mutable Creature he was from God as he was a changed and corrupted Creature it was from the Devil seducing and his own pliableness in admitting As Silver and Gold and other Metals were created by God in such a form and figure yet capable of receiving other forms by the industrious Art of Man When the Image of a Man is put upon a piece of Metal God is not said to create that Image though he created the Substance with
such a Property that it was capable of receiving it This Capacity is from the nature of the Metal by God's Creation of it but the carving the Figure of this or that Man is not the Act of God but the Act of Man As Images in Scripture are called the Work of mens hands in regard of the imagery though the Matter Wood or Stone upon which the Image was carv'd was a Work of God's Creative Power When an Artificer frames an excellent Instrument and a Musician exactly tunes it and it comes out of their hands without a blemish but capable to be untun'd by some rude hand or receive a crack by a suddain fall if it meet with a Disaster is either the Workman or Musician to be blam'd The ruin of a House caused by the wastfulness or carelesness of the Tenant is not to be imputed to the Workman that built it strong and left it in a good Posture 2. Proposition God's Holiness is not blemisht by enjoyning Man a Law which he knew he would not observe 1. The Law as not above his strength Had the Law been impossible to be observed no Crime could have been imputed to the Subject the fault had layn wholly upon the Governour the Non-observance of it had been from a want of strength and not from a want of will Had God commanded Adam to fly up to the Sun when he had not given him Wings Adam might have a will to obey it but his Power would be too short to perform it But the Law set him for a Rule had nothing of impossibility in it it was easie to be observed the Command was rather below than above his strength and the sanction of it was more apt to restrain and fear him from the breach of it than encourage any daring Attempts against it He had as much power or rather more to conform to it than to warp from it and greater arguments and interest to be observant of it than to violate it his All was secured by the one and his Ruin ascertained by the other * 1 Joh. 5.3 The Commands of God are not grievous from the first to the last Command there is nothing impossible nothing hard to the original and created Nature of Man which were all summ'd up in a love to God which was the pleasure and delight of Man as well as his Duty if he had not by inconsiderateness neglected the dictates and resolves of his own Understanding The Law was suted to the strength of Man and fitted for the Improvement and Perfection of his Nature In which respect the Apostle calls it good as it refers to Man as well as holy as it refers to God †Rom. 7.12 Now since God Created man a Creature capable to be governed by a Law and as a Rational Creature endued with Understanding and Will not to be govern'd according to his Nature without a Law was it congruous to the Wisdom of God to respect only the future state of Man which from the Depth of his Infinite Knowledge he did infallibly foresee would be miserable by the wilful defection of Man from the Rule Had it been agreeable to the Wisdom of God to respect only this future state and not the present state of the Creature and therefore leave him lawless because he knew he would violate the Law Should God forbear to act like a wise Governour because he foresaw that Man would cease to act like an obedient Subject Shall a righteous Magistrate forbear to make just and good Laws because he foresees either from the dispositions of his Subjects their ill humour or some Circumstances which will intervene that Multitudes of them will incline to break those Laws and fall under the Penalty of them No blame can be upon that Magistrate who minds the Rule of Righteousness and the necessary Duty of his Government since he is not the Cause of those turbulent Affections in Men which he wisely foresees will rise up against his just Edicts 2. Though the Law now be above the strength of man yet is not the holiness of God blemisht by keeping it up 'T is true God hath been graciously pleased to mitigate the severity and rigour of the Law by the entrance of the Gospel yet where men refuse the terms of the Gospel they continue themselves under the Condemnation of the Law and are justly guilty of the breach of it though they have no strength to observe it The Law as I said before was not above mans strength when he was possessed of Original Righteousness though it be above mans strength since he was stript of Original Righteousness The Command was dated before man had contracted his Impotency when he had a power to keep it as well as to break it Had it been enjoyned to man only after the fall and not before he might have had a better pretence to excuse himself because of the impossibility of it yet he would not have had sufficient excuse since the impossibility did not result from the Nature of the Law but from the corrupted Nature of the Creature It was weak through the Flesh Rom. 8.3 but it was promulg'd when man had a strength proportion'd to the Commands of it And now since man hath unhappily made himself uncapable of obeying it must God's Holiness in his Law be blemisht for enjoyning it Must he abrogate those Commands and prohibit what before he enjoyned for the satisfaction of the corrupted Creature would not this be his ceasing to be holy that his Creature might be unblameably unrighteous Must God strip himself of his Holiness because man will not discharge his Iniquity He cannot be the cause of sin by keeping up the Law who would be the cause of all the unrighteousness of men by removing the Authority of it Some things in the Law that are intrinsecally good in their own Nature are indispensable and it is repugnant to the Nature of God not to Command them If he were not the Guardian of his indispensable Law he would be the Cause and Countenancer of the Creatures Iniquity So little reason have men to charge God with being the Cause of their sin by not repealing his Law to gratifie their Impotence that he would be unholy if he did God must not lose his Purity because man hath lost his and cast away the Right of his Soveraignty because man hath cast away his Power of Obedience 3. God's foreknowledge that his Law would not be observ'd lays no blame upon him Though the foreknowledge of God be infallible yet it doth not necessitate the Creature in acting It was certain from Eternity that Adam would fall that men would do such and such Actions that Judas would betray our Saviour God foreknew all those things from Eternity but it is as certain that this foreknowledge did not necessitate the will of Adam or any other Branch of his Posterity in the doing those Actions that were so foreseen by God they voluntarily run into such Courses
not by any impulsion God's Knowledge was not suspended between certainty and uncertainty He certainly foreknew that his Law would be broken by Adam he foreknew it in his own Decree of not hindering him by giving Adam the efficacious Grace which would inâ—allibly have prevented it yet Adam did freely break this Law and never imagin'd that the foreknowledge of God did necessitate him to it He could find no cause of his own sin but the liberty of his own will He charges the occasion of his sin upon the woman and consequently upon God in giving the woman to him * Gen. 3.12 He could not be so ignorant of the Nature of God as to imagine him without a foresight of future things since his knowledge of what was to be known of God by Creation was greater than any mans since in all probability But however if he were not acquainted with the Notion of God's foreknowledge he could not be ignorant of his own act there could not have been any necessity upon him any kind of constraint of him in his action that could have been unknown to him and he would not have omitted a Plea of so strong a nature when he was upon his Trial for Life or Death especially when he urgeth so weak an Argument to impute his Crime to God as the gift of the Woman as if that which was design'd him for a help were intended for his ruine If God's prescience takes away the liberty of the Creature there is no such thing as a free action in the World for there is nothing done but is foreknown by God else we render God of a limited understanding nor ever was no not by God himself ad extra For whatsoever he hath done in Creation whatsoever he hath done since the Creation was foreknown by him he resolved to do it and therefore foreknew that he would do it Did God do it therefore necessarily as necessity is oppos'd to liberty As he freely decrees what he will do so he effects what he freely decreed Foreknowledge is so far from intrenching upon the liberty of the will that predetermination which in the notion of it speaks something more doth not dissolve it God did not only foreknow but determine the suffering of Christ †Acts 4.27 28. It was necessary therefore that Christ should suffer that God might not be mistaken in his foreknowledge or come short of his determinate decree But did this take away the liberty of Christ in suffering Eph. 5.2 Who offered himself up to God that is by a voluntary act as well as design'd to do it by a determinate Counsel It did infallibly secure the event but did not annihilate the liberty of the Action either in Christ's willingness to suffer or the Crime of the Jews that made him suffer God's prescience is God's prevision of things arising from their proper Causes As a Gardiner foresees in his Plants the Leaves and the Flowers that will arise from them in the Spring because he knows the strength and nature of their several Roots which lye under ground but his foresight of these things is not the cause of the rise and appearance of those Flowers If any of us see a Ship moving towards such a Rock or Quick-sand and know it to be govern'd by a negligent Pilot we shall certainly foresee that the Ship will be torn in pieces by the Rock or swallowed up by the Sands but is this foresight of ours from the Causes any cause of the effect or can we from hence be said to be the Authours of the miscarriage of the Ship and the loss of the Passengers and Goods The fall of Adam was foreseen by God to come to pass by the consent of his Freewill in the choice of the proposed Temptation God foreknew Adam would sin and if Adam would not have sinned God would have foreknown that he would not sin Adam might easily have detected the Serpents fraud and made a better Election God foresaw that he would not do it God's foreknowledge did not make Adam guilty or innocent whether God had foreknown it or no he was guilty by a free choice and a willing neglect of his own Duty Adam knew that God foreknew that he might eat of the Fruit and fall and dye because God had forbidden him the foreknowledge that he would do it was no more a cause of his Action than the foreknowledge that he might do it Judas certainly knew that his Master foreknew that he should betray him for Christ had acquainted him with it John 13.21 26. yet he never charg'd this foreknowledge of Christ with any guilt of his Treachery 3. The third Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by decreeing the eternal Rejection of some men Reprobation in its first Notion is an act of preterition or passing by A man is not made wicked by the act of God but it supposeth him wicked and so 't is nothing else but God's leaving a man in that guilt and filth wherein he beholds him In its second Notion 't is an Ordination not to a Crime but to a Punishment Jude 4. An ordaining to Condemnation And though it be an eternal act of God yet in order of Nature it follows upon the foresight of the Transgression of Man and supposeth the Crime God considers Adam's Revolt and views the whole Mass of his corrupted Posterity and chuses some to reduce to himself by his Grace and leaves others to lye sinking in their Ruins Since all Mankind fell by the fall of Adam and have Corruption conveyed to them successively by that Root whereof they are Branches All men might justly be left wallowing in that miserable Condition to which they were reduced by the Apostacy of their Common Head and God might have pass'd by the whole Race of Man as well as he did the fallen Angels without any hope of Redemption He was no more bound to restore Man than to restore Devils nor bound to repair the Nature of any one Son of Adam and had he dealt with Men as he dealt with the Devils they had had all of them as little just ground to complain of God for all Men deserved to be left to themselves for all were concluded under sin But God calls out some to make Monuments of his Grace which is an act of the Soveraign Mercy of that Dominion whereby he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy Rom. 9.18 Others he passes by and leaves them remaining in that Corruption of Nature wherein they were born If men have a power to dispose of their own Goods without any unrighteousness why should not God dispose of his own Grace and bestow it upon whom he pleases since it is a Debt to none but a free guift to any that enjoy it * Amyral defence de Calv. p. 145. God is not the cause of sin in this because his operation about this is negative 't is not an action but a denial of action and therefore cannot be the
cause of the evil actions of men God acts nothing but withholds his Power he doth not enlighten their minds nor encline their wills so powerfully as to expel their darkness and root out those evil Habits which possess them by Nature God could if he would savingly enlighten the minds of all men in the World and quicken their hearts with a new Life by an invincible Grace but in not doing it there is no positive act of God but a cessation of Action We may with as much reason say that God is the Cause of all the sinful Actions that are committed by the Corporation of Devils since their first Rebellion because he leaves them to themselves and bestows not a new Grace upon them As say God is the Cause of the sins of those that he overlooks and leaves in that state of Guilt wherein he found them God did not pass by any without the consideration of sin so that this act of God is not repugnant to his Holiness but conformable to his Justice 4. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by his secret will to suffer sin to enter into the World God never willed sin by his preceptive Will It was never founded upon or produced by any word of his as the Creation was He never said Let there be sin under the Heaven as he said Let there be Water under the Heaven Nor doth he will it by infusing any Habit of it or stirring up Inclinations to it no God tempts no man James 1.13 Nor doth he will it by his approving Will 't is detestable to him nor ever can be otherwise He cannot approve it either before Commission or after 1. The Will of God is in some sort concurrent with sin He doth not properly will it but he wills not to hinder it to which by his Omnipotence he could put a bar If he did positively will it it might be wrought by himself and so could not be evil If he did in no sort will it it would not be committed by his Creature Sin entred into the World either God willing the permission of it or not willing the permission of it The latter cannot be said for then the Creature is more powerful than God and can do that which God will not permit God can if he be pleased banish all sin in a moment out of the World He could have prevented the Revolt of Angels and the Fall of Man they did not sin whether he would or no He might by his Grace have stept in the first Moment and made a special impression upon them of the Happiness they already possessed and the Misery they would incur by any wicked attempt He could as well have prevented the sin of the fallen Angels and confirmed them in Grace as of those that continued in their happy state He might have appeared to man informed him of the Issue of his Design and made secret impressions upon his heart since he was acquainted with every avenue to his Will God could have kept all sin out of the world as well as all Creatures from breathing in it he was as well able to bar sin for ever out of the World as to let Creatures lye in the Womb of nothing wherein they were first wrapped To say God doth will sin as he doth other things is to deny his Holiness to say it entred without any thing of his Will is to deny his Omnipotence If he did necessitate Adam to fall what shall we think of his Purity If Adam dâ—d fall without any concern of God's Will in it what shall we say of his Soveraignty The one taints his Holiness and the other clips his Power If it came without any thing of his Will in it and he did not foresee it where is his Omniscience If it entred whether he would or no where is his Omnipotence Rom. 9.19 Who hath resisted his Will There cannot be a lustful Act in Abimelech if God will withhold his Power Gen. 20.6 I withheld thee Nor a cursing word in Balaam's Mouth unless God give power to speak it Numb 22.38 Have I now any power at all to say any thing The Word that God puts in my mouth that shall I speak As no Action could be sinful if God had not forbidden it so no sin could be committed if God did not will to give way to it 2. God doth not will sin directly and by an efficacious Will He doth not directly will it because he hath prohibited it by his Law which is a discovery of his Will So that if he should directly will sin and directly prohibite it he would will good and evil in the same manner and there would be Contradictions in God's Will To will sin absolutely is to work it Psal 115.3 God hath done whatsoever he pleased God cannot absolutely will it because he cannt work it * Rispolis God wills good by a positive decree because he hath decreed to effect it He wills evil by a privative decree because he hath decreed not to give that Grace which would certainly prevent it †Bradward lib. 1 cap. 34. God wills it secundum quid God doth not will sin simply for that were to approve it but he wills it in order to that Good his Wisdom will bring forth from it He wills not sin for it self but for the event To will sin as sin or as purely evil is not in the capacity of a Creature neither of Man nor Devil The Will of a Rational Creature cannot will any thing but under the appearance of good of some good in the sin it self or some good in the issue of it Much more is this far from God ‖ Aquin. cont Gent. l. 1. c. 95. who being infinitely good cannot will evil as evil and being infinitely knowing cannot will that for good which is evil Infinite Wisdom can be under no Errour or Mistake To will sin as sin would be an unanswerable blemish on God but to will to suffer it in order to good is the glory of his Wisdom It could never have peep'd up its head unless there had been some decree of God concerning it And there had been no decree of God concerning it had he not intended to bring good and glory out of it If God did directly will the discovery of his Grace and Mercy to the World he did in some sort will sin as that without which there could not have been any appearance of Mercy in the World For an Innocent Creature is not the Object of Mercy but a Miserable Creature and no Rational Creature but must be sinful before it be miserable 3. God wills the permission of sin He doth not positively will sin but he positively wills to permit it And though he doth not approve of sin yet he approves of that act of his Will whereby he permits it For since that sin could not enter into the World without some concern of God's Will about it that act of his Will that gave way
torments the Person that acts it 't is black and abominable and hath not a mite of Goodness in the Nature of it If it ends in any good 't is only from that Infinite Transcendency of skill that can bring Good out of Evil as well as Light out of Darkness Therefore God did not permit it as Sin but as it was an occasion for the manifestation of his own Glory Though the Goodness of God would have appear'd in the Preservation of the World as well as it did in the Creation of it yet his Mercy could not have appear'd without the Entrance of Sin because the Object of Mercy is a Miserable Creature but Man could not be Miserable as long as he remained Innocent The Reign of Sin opened a door for the Reign and Triumph of Grace Rom. 5.21 As sin hath reigned unto death so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life Without it the Bowels of Mercy had never sounded and the ravishing Musick of Divine Grace could never have been heard by the Creature Mercy which renders God so amiable could never else have beam'd out to the World Angels and Men upon this occasion beheld the stirrings of Divine Grace and the Tenderness of Divine Nature and the glory of the Divine Persons in their several Functions about the Redemption of Man which had else been a Spring shut up and a Fountain sealed the Song of Glory to God and Good will to Men in a way of Redemption had never been Sung by them It appears in his dealings with Adam that he permitted his Fall not only to shew his Justice in punishing but principally his Mercy in rescuing since he proclaims to him first the Promise of a Redeemer to bruise the Serpents head before he setled the Punishment he should smart under in the World †Gen. 3.15 16 17. And what fairer prospect could the Creature have of the Holiness of God and his Hatred of Sin than in the edge of that Sword of Justice which punished it in the Sinner but glitter'd more in the Punishment of a Surety so near Allied to him Had not Man been Criminal he could not have been Punishable nor any been punishable for him And the Pulse of Divine Holiness could not have beaten so quick and been so visible without an exercise of his Vindicative Justice He left Mans mutable Nature to fall under Vnrighteousness that thereby he might commend the Righteousness of his own Nature * Rom. 3.7 Adams Sin in its Nature tended to the ruine of the World and God takes an occasion from it for the glory of his Grace in the Redemption of the World He brings forth thereby a new Scene of Wonders from Heaven and a surprizing Knowledge on Earth As the Sun breaks out more strongly after a Night of Darkness and Tempest As God in Creation framed a Chaos by his Power to manifest his Wisdom in bringing Order out of Disorder Light out of Darkness Beauty out of Confusion and Deformity when he was able by a Word to have made all Creatures stand up in their Beauty without the precedency of a Chaos So God permitted a Moral Chaos to manifest a greater Wisdom in the repairing a broken Image and restoring a deplorable Creature and bringing out those Perfections of his Nature which had else been wrapt up in a perpetual silence in his own bosom †But of the Wisdom of God in the permitting Sin in order to Redeâ—ption I have handled in the Attribute of Wisdom It was therefore very congruous to the Holiness of God to permit that which he could make subservient for his own glory and particularly for the manifestation of this Attribute of Holiness which seems to be in opposition to such a permission 5. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by his concurrence with the Creature in the material part of a sinful Act. Some to free God from having any hand in Sin deny his concurrence to the Actions of the Creature because if he concurs to a sinful Action he concurs to the Sin also Not understanding how there can be a distinction between the Act and the Sinfulness or Viciousness of it and how God can concur to a Natural Action without being stain'd by that Moral Evil which cleaves to it For the understanding of this observe 1. There is a concurrence of God to all the acts of the Creature Acts 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being We depend upon God in our Acting as well as in our Being There is as much an efficacy of God in our Motion as in our Production as none have life without his Power in producing it so none have any operation without his Providence concurring with it In him or by him that is by his Virtue preserving and governing our Motions as well as by his Power bringing us into Being Hence Man is compared to an Ax Isai 10.15 an Instrument that hath no action without the cooperation of a Superiour Agent handling it And the Actions of the Second Causes are ascrib'd to God the Grass that is the product of the Sun Rain and Earth he is said to make to grow upon the Mountains Psal 147.8 and the Skin and Flesh which is by Natural generation he is said to cloath us with Job 10.5 in regard of his co-working with Second Causes according to their Natures As nothing can exist so nothing can operate without him let his Concurrence be removed and the Being and Action of the Creature cease Remove the Sun from the Horizon or a Candle from a Room and the Light which flowed from either of them ceaseth Without Gods preserving and concurring Power the course of Nature would sink and the Creation be in vain ‖ Suarez Metaph part 1. p. 552. All Created things depend upon God as Agents as well as Beings and are subordinate to him in a way of Action as well as in a way of Existing If God suspend his Influence from their Action they would cease to act as the Fire did from burning the Three Children as well as if God suspend his Influence from their Being they would cease to be God supports the Nature whereby Actions are wrought the Mind where Actions are consulted and the Will where Actions are determin'd and the Motive power whereby Actions are produced The Mind could not contrive nor the Hand act a Wickedness if God did not support the Power of the one in designing and the Strength of the other in executing a wicked Intention Every faculty in its Being and every faculty in its Motion hath a dependance upon the Influence of God To make the Creature Independent upon God in any thing which speaks Perfection as Action considered as Action is is to make the Creature a Soveraign Being Indeed we cannot imagine the Concurrence of God to the good Actions of Men since the Fall without granting a Concurrence of God to evil Actions because there is no Action so purely
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
and Evil set in the midst of the Garden of Eden had no violent influence on man to force him to eat of it his liberty to eat of it or not was reserved intire to himself no such Charge can be brought against any Object whatsoever If a man meet accidentally at a Table with Meat that is grateful to his Palate but hurtful to the present temper of his Body doth the presenting this sort of Food to him strip him of his liberty to decline it as well as to feed of it Can the Food have any internal influence upon his will and lay the freedom of it asleep whether he will or no Is there any Charm in that more than in other sorts of Diet No but it is the habit of love which he hath to that particular Dish the curiosity of his Fancy and the strength of his own Appetite whereby he is brought into a kind of slavery to that particular Meat and not any thing in the food it self When the word is proposed to two persons 't is embrac'd by the one rejected by the other is it from the word it self which is the Object that these two persons perform different acts The Object is the same to both but the manner of acting about the Object is not the same Is there any invasion of their liberty by it Is the one forced by the word to receive it and the other forced by the word to reject it Two such contrary effects cannot proceed from one and the same Cause Outward things have only an objective influence not an inward †Amyral de libero arbit p. 224. If the meer proposal of things did suspend or strike down the liberty of Man no Angels in Heaven no Man upon Earth no not our Saviour himself could do any thing freely but by force Objects that are ill used are of God's Creation and though they have allurements in them yet they have no compulsive power over the will The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was pleasing to the sight it had a quality to allure there had not else needed a Prohibition to bar the eating of it but it could not have so much power to allure as the Divine threatning to deter 2. The Objects are good in themselves but the ill use of them is from mans corruption Bathsheba was by God's Providence presented to David's sight but it was Davids disposition moved him to so evil an act What if God knew that he would use that Object ill yet he knew he had given him a power to refrain from any ill use of it The Objects are innocent but our Corruption poisons them The same Object hath been used by one to holy purposes and holy improvements that hath been used by another to sinful ends when a charitable Object is presented to a good man and a cruel man one relieves him the other reviles him The Object was rather an occasion to draw out the Charity of one as well as the other but the refusing to reach out a helping hand was not from the person in Calamity but the disposition of the Refuser to whom he was presented 'T is not from the nature of the Object that men do good or evil but from the disposition of the person what is good in it self is made bad by our Corruption As the same Meat which nourishes and strengthens a sound Constitution cherisheth the Disease of another that eats at the same Table not from any unwholsom quality in the Food but the vitious quality of the humours lodging in the Stomach which turn the Diet into fuel for themselves which in its own nature was apt to engender a wholsom juyce Some are perfected by the same things whereby others are ruin'd Riches are used by some not only for their own but the advantage of others in the World by others only for themselves and scarcely so much as their necessities require Is this the fault of the wealth or the dispositions of the Persons who are covetous instead of being Generous 'T is a Calumny therefore upon God to charge him with the sin of man upon this account The rain that drops from the Clouds upon the Plants is sweet in it self but when it moystens the root of any venomous Plant 't is turn'd into the juyce of the Plant and becomes venomous with it The Miracles that our Saviour wrought were applauded by some and envied by the Pharisees the sin arose not from the nature of the Miracles but the Malice of their spirits The Miracles were sitter in their own nature to have induced them to an adoration of our Saviour than to excite so vile a Passion against one that had so many marks from Heaven to dignifie him and proclaim him worthy of their respect The Person of Christ was an Object proposed to the Jews some worship him others condemn and crucifie him and according to their several Vices and base ends they use this object Judas to content his Covetousness the Pharisees to glut their Revenge Pilate for his Ambition to preserve himself in his Government and avoid the Articles the People might charge him with of Countenancing an Enemy to Caesar * Amyrald Ironic p. 337. God at that time put into their minds a rational and true Proposition which they apply to ill purposes Caiphas said that it was expedient for one man to dye for the people which he spake not of himself Joh. 11.50 51. God put it into his mind but he might have applied it better than he did and considered though the Maxim was commendable whether it might justly be applied to Christ or whether there was such a necessity that he must dye or the Nation be destroy'd by the Romans The Maxim was sound and holy decreed by God but what an ill use did the High Priest make of it to put Christ to death as a seditious Person to save the Nation from the Roman Fury 3. Since the natural Corruption of men will use such Objects ill may not God without tainting himself present such Objects to them in subserviency to his gracious Decrees Whatsoever God should present to men in that state they would make an ill use of hath not God then the Soveraign Prerogative to present what he pleases and suppress others To offer that to them which may serve his holy purpose and hide other things from them which are not so conducing to his gracious ends which would be as much the occasions of exciting their sin as the others which he doth bring forth to their view The Jews at the time of Christ were of a turbulent and seditious humour they expected a Messiah a Temporal King and would readily have embraced any occasion to have been up in arms to have delivered themselves from the Roman yoke to this purpose the People attempted once to make him King And probably the expectation they had that he had such a Design to Head them might be one reason of their
this Sentiment when the Jews Educated by God in a wiser School were wedded to that Notion The Pharisees were highly fond of it it was the only Argument they used in Prayer for Divine Blessing You have one of them boasting of his frequency in Fasting and his exactness in paying his Tithes †Luke 19.12 as if God had been beholding to him and could not without manifest wrong deny him his demand And Paul confesseth it to be his own Sentiment before his Conversion he accounted this Righteousness of the Law gain to him * Phil. 3.7 he thought by this to make his Market with God The whole Nation of the Jews affected it †Rom. 10.3 Going about to Establish their own Righteousness compassing Sea and Land to make out a Righteousness of their own as the Pharisees did to make Proselytes The Papists follow their Steps and Dispute for Justification by the Merit of Works and find out another Key of Works of Supererogation to unlock Heavens Gate than what ever the Scripture informed us of 'T is from hence also that Men are so ready to make Faith as a Work the cause of our Justification Man foolishly thinks he hath enough to set up himself after he hath proved Bankrupt and lost all his Estate This Imagination is born with us and the best Christians may find some sparks of it in themselves when there are springings up of joy in their Hearts upon the more close performance of one Duty than of another as if they had wiped off their Scores and given God a satisfaction for their former neglects We have forsaken all and follow'd thee was the boast of his Disciples What shall we have therefore was a Branch of this Root †Mat. 19.27 Eternal Life is a gift not by any Obligation of Right but an abundance of goodness 't is owing not to the dignity of our Works but the magnificent Bounty of the Divine Nature and must be sued for by the Title of God's Promise not by the Title of the Creatures Services We may observe 3. How insufficient are some Assents to Divine Truth and some Expressions of Affection to Christ without the Practice of Christian Precepts This Man Addrest to Christ with a profound Respect acknowledging him more than an ordinary Person with a more Reverential Carriage than we read any of his Disciples paid to him in the day of his Flesh he fell down at his Feet kist his Knees as the Custom was when they would testifie the great Respect they had to any eminent Person especially to their Rabbins All this some think to be included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Vers 17. Lightfoot in loc He seems to acknowledge him the Messiah by giving him the Title of Good a Title they did not give to their Doctors of the Chair He breaths out his opinion that he was able to instruct him beyond the ability of the Law He came with a more than ordinary Affection to him and expectation of advantage from him evident by his departing sad when his expectations were frustrated by his own perversity it was a sign he had a high esteem of him from whom he could not part without marks of his Grief What was the cause of his refusing the instructions he pretended such an affection to receive He had Possessions in the World How soon do a few drops of Wordly advantages quench the first Sparks of an ill grounded love to Christ How vain is a complemental and cringing devotion without a supream preference of God and valuation of Christ above every outward allurement We may observe this 4. We should never admit any thing to be ascrib'd to us which is proper to God Why callest thou me Good There is none Good but One that is God If you do not acknowledge me God ascribe not to me the Title of Good It takes off all those Titles which fawning Flatterers give to Men Mighty Invincible to Princes Holiness to the Pope We call one another Good without considering how Evil and Wise without considering how Foolish Mighty without considering how Weak and Knowing without considering how Ignorant No man but hath more of Wickedness than Goodness of Ignorance than Knowledge of Weakness than Strength God is a jealous God of his own Honour he will not have the Creature share with him in his Royal Titles 'T is a part of Idolatry to give Men the Titles which are due to God a kind of a Worship of the Creature together with the Creator Worms will not stand out but assault Herod in his Purple when he Usurps the Prerogative of God and prove stiff and invincible Vindicators of their Creators Honor when summoned to Arms by the Creators Word †12 Acts 22.23 The Observation which I intend to prosecute is this Doct. Pure and Perfect Goodness is only the Royal Prerogative of God Goodness is a choice Perfection of the Divine Nature This is the true and genuine Character of God He is Good He is Goodness Good in Himself Good in his Essence Good in the Highest Degree possessing whatsoever is Comely Excellent Desirable the Highest Good because the First Good whatsoever is perfect Goodness is GOD whatsoever is truly Goodness in any Creature is a resemblance of God * Ficin in Dionys. de divin nom cap 511. All the Names of God are comprehended in this one of Good All Gifts all variety of Goodness are contained in him as one common Good He is the efficient cause of all Good by an over-flowing Goodness of his Nature He refers all things to Himself as the end for the representation of his own Goodness Truly God is Good †Psal 73.1 Certainly it is an undoubted Truth 't is written in his Works of Nature and his Acts of Grace * Exod. 34.6 He is abundant in Goodness And every thing is a Memorial not of some few Sparks but of his greater Goodness †Psal 145.7 This is often celebrated in the Psalms and Men invited more than once to Sing forth the Praises of it * Psal 107.8.15.21.31 It may better be admired than sufficiently spoken of or thought of as it Merits 'T is discovered in all his Works as the Goodness of a Tree in all its Fruits 't is easie to be seen and more pleasant to be contemplated In General 1. All Nations in the World have acknowledged GOD Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was one of the Names the Platonists exprest him by and Good and God are almost the same words in our Language All as readily consented in the Notion of his Goodness as in that of his Deity Whatsoever divisions or disputes there were among them in the other Perfections of God they all agreed in this without dispute saith Synesius * Empedocles One calls him Venus in regard of his Loveliness †Hesiod Another calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love as being the Band which tyes all things
Provision he had made for him in the World and the Commission given him to Increase and Multiply and to Rule as a Lord over his other Works whereas he could not so easily have imagined himself capable of being expos'd to such an extraordinary Calamity as an Eternal Death without some signification of it from God 'T is easily concludable that Eternal Life was supposed to be promised to be conferr'd upon him if he stood as well as Eternal Death to be inflicted on him if he Rebell'd * Suarez de Gratia Vol 1. p. 126 127. Now this Eternal Life was not due to his Nature but it was a pure Beam and Gift of Divine Goodness For there was no proportion between Mans Service in his Innocent Estate and a Reward so great both for Nature and duration It was a higher Reward than can be imagined either due to the Nature of Man or upon any Natural Right claimable by his Obedience All that could be expected by him was but a Natural Happiness not a Supernatural As there was no necessity upon the account of Natural Righteousness so there was no necessity upon the account of the Goodness of God to elevate the Nature of Man to a Supernatural Happiness meerly because he Created him For though it be necessary for God when he would Create in regard of his Wisdom to Create for some End yet it was not necessary that End should be a Supernatural End and Happiness since a Natural Blessedness had been sufficient for Man And though God in Creating Angels and Men intellectual and Rational Creatures did make them necessary for himself and his own Glory yet it was not necessarily for him to order either Angels or Men to such a Felicity as consists in a clear Vision and so high a Fruition of himself for all other things are made by him for himself and yet not for the Vision of himself God might have Created Man only for a Natural Happiness according to the Perfection of his Natural Faculties and had dealt Bountifully with him if he had never intended him a Supernatural Blessedness and an Eternal Recompence But what a largeness of Goodness is here to design Man in his Creation for so rich a Blessedness as an Eternal Life with the Fruition of himself He hath not only given to Man all things which are necessary but design'd for Man that which the poor Creature could not imagine He garnisht the Earth for him and garnisht him for an Eternal Felicity had he not by slighting the Goodness of God stript himself of the present and forfeited his future Blessedness 2. The second thing is the manifestation of this Goodness in Redemption The whole Gospel is nothing but one entire Mirror of Divine Goodness The whole of Redemption is wrapt up in that one Expression of the Angels Song Luke 2.14 Good will towards Man The Angels Sang but one Song before which is upon Record but the Matter of it seems to be the Wisdom of God chiefly in Creation Job 38.7 compar 9. v. 5 6 8 9. The Angels are there meant by the Morning Stars The visible Stars of Heaven were not distinctly form'd when the Foundations of the Earth were laid And the Title of the Sons of God verifies it since none but Creatures of understanding are dignifi'd in Scripture with that Title There they Celebrate his Wisdom in Creation here his Goodness in Redemption which is the intire Matter of the Song 1. Goodness was the Spring of Redemption All and every part of it owes only to this Perfection the appearance of it in the World This only excited Wisdom to bring forth from so great an Evil as the Apostacy of Man so great a Good as the Recovery of him When Man fell from his Created Goodness God would evidence that he could not fall from his Infinite Goodness That the greatest Evil could not surmount the ability of his Wisdom to contrive nor the Riches of his Bounty to present us a Remedy for it Divine Goodness would not stand by a Spectator without being Reliever of that Misery Man had plung'd himself into but by astonishing Methods it would recover him to Happiness who had wrested himself out of his hands to fling himself into the most deplorable Calamity And it was the greater since it surmounted those Natural Inclinations and those strong Provocations which he had to shower down the Power of his Wrath. What could be the Source of such a Procedure but this Excellency of the Divine Nature Since no Violence could force him nor was there any Merit to perswade to such a Restoration This under the name of his Love is render'd the sole cause of the Redeeming Death of the Son It was to commend his Love with the highest Gloss and in so singular a manner that had not its parallel in Nature nor in all his other Works and reaches in the brightness of it beyond the manifested extent of any other Attribute * Rom. 5.8 It must be only a miraculous Goodness that induced him to expose the Life of his Son to those difficulties in the World and Death upon the Cross for the freedom of sordid Rebels His great End was to give such a demonstration of the liberality of his Nature as might be attractive to his Creature remove its shakings and tremblings and encourage its approaches to him 'T is in this he would not only manifest his Love but assume the name of Love By this Name the Holy Ghost calls him in relation to this good will manifested in his Son †1 John 4.8 9. God is love In this is manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him He would take the Name he never exprest himself in before He was Jehovah in regard of the truth of his Promise so he would be known of old He is Goodness in regard of the grandeur of his Affection in the Mission of his Son And therefore he would be known by the Name of Love now in the days of the Gospel 2. It was a Pure Goodness He was under no obligation to pity our Misery and repair our Ruines He might have stood to the terms of the first Covenant and exacted our Eternal Death since we had committed an infinite Transgression He was under no tie to put off the Robes of a Judge for the Bowels of a Father and erect a Mercy-seat above his Tribunal of Justice * Rada Controvers Part. 3. p. 363. The reparation of Man had no necessary connexion with his Creation It follows not that because Goodness had extracted us from nothing by a mighty Power that it must lift us out of wilful Misery by a mighty Grace Certainly that God who had no need of Creating us had far less need of Redeeming us For since he Created one World he could have as easily destroyed it and rear'd another It had not been unbecoming the Divine Goodness
best that saith the Psalmist speaks only according to the opinion of the vulgar and his design was not to write a Natural History Growth always accompanies Grace as well as it doth Nature in the Body not that it is without its qualms languishing fits as Children are not but still their distempers make them grow Grace is not an idle but an active principle 'T is not like the Psalmist means it of the strength of the Body or the prosperity and stability of his Government but the vigor of his Grace and Comfort since they are spiritual blessings here that are the matter of his song The healing the Disease conduceth to the sprouting up and flourishing of the Body 'T is the Nature of Grace to go from strength to strength 7. When sin is pardoned 't is perfectly pardon'd Verse 11 12. As far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us The East and West are the greatest distance in the World the terms can never meet together When sin is pardoned it is never charged again the guilt of it can no more return than East can become West or West become East 8. Obedience is necessary to an interest in the mercy of God Verse 17. The mercy of the Lord is to them that fear him to them that remember his Commandments to do them Commands are to be remembered in order to practice a vain speculation is not the intent of the publication of them After the Psalmist had enumerated the benefits of God he reflects upon the greatness of God and considers him on his Throne encompast with the Angels the Ministers of his Providence Verse 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom Rules over all He brings in this of his Dominion just after he had largely treated of his mercy Either 1. To signifie That God is not only to be praised for his mercy but for his Majesty both for the heighth and extent of his Authority 2. To extoll the greatness of his mercy and 〈◊〉 What I have said now Oh my Soul of the mercy of God and his paternal pity is commended by his Majesty his Grandeur hinders not his Clemency Though his Throne be High his Bowels are Tender He looks down upon his meanest Servants from the height of his Glory Since his Majesty is Infinite his Mercy must be as great as his Majesty It must be a greater pity lodging in his Breast than what is in any Creature since it is not dampt by the greatness of his Soveraignty 3. To render his Mercy more Comfortable The Mercy I have spoken of Oh my Soul is not the Mercy of a Subject but of a Soveraign An Executioner may torture a criminal and strip him of his Life and a vulgar pity cannot releive him but the Clemency of the Prince can perfectly pardon him 'T is that God who hath none above him to controul him none below him to resist him that hath performed all the acts of Grace to thee If God by his supream Authority pardons us who can reverse it If all the Subjects of God in the World should pardon us and God withhold his grant what will it profit us Take comfort Oh my Soul since God from his Throne in the highest and that God who rules over every particular of the Creation hath granted and sealed thy pardon to thee What would his Grace signifie if he were not a Monarch extending his Royal Empire over every thing and swaying all by his Scepter 4ly To render the Psalmists confidence more firm in any pressures Verse 15 16. He had considered the misery of man in the shortness of his Life his place should know him no more he should never return to his Authority Employments Opportunities that death would take from him but howsoever the Mercy and Majesty of God were the ground of his confidence He draws himself from poring upon any Calamities which may assault him to heaven the place where God orders all things that are done on the Earth He is able to protect us from our dangers and to deliver us from our distresses whatsoever miseries thou mayst lie under Oh my Soul cast thy Eye up to Heaven and see a pitying God in a Majestick Authority A God who can perform what he hath promised to them that fear him since he hath a Throne above the Heavens and bears sway over all that envy thy happiness and would stain thy felicity A God whose Authority cannot be curtailed and dismembered by any When the Prophet sollicites the sounding of the Divine Bowels he urgeth him by his dwelling in Heaven the habitation of his Holiness Isaiah 63.15 His Kingdom ruleth over all There is none therefore hath any Authority to make him break his Covenant or violate his promise 5. As an incentive to Obedience The Lord is merciful saith he to them that Remember his Commandments to do them verse 17 18. And then brings in the Text as an encouragement to observe his ' Precepts he hath a Majesty that deserves it from us and an Authority to protect us in it if a King in a small spot of Earth is to be Obeyed by his Subjects how much more is God who is more Majestick than all the Angels in Heaven and Monarchs on Earth who hath a majesty to exact our Obedience and a Mercy to allure it We should not set upon the performance of any Duty without an Eye lifted up to God as a great King It would make us willing to serve him the more Noble the Person the more Honourable and Powerful the Prince the more glorious is his Service A view of God upon his Throne will makes us think his Service our Priviledge his Precepts our Ornaments and Obedience to him the greatest Honour and Nobility It will make us weighty and serious in our performances It would stake us down to any duty The reason we are so loose and unmannerly in the carriage of our Souls before God is because we consider him not as a great King Malachy 1.14 Our Father which art in Heaven in regard of his Majesty is the Preface to Prayer Let us now consider the words in themselves The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom rules over all The Lord hath prepared The word signifies Establisht as well as prepared and might so be rendered Due preparation is a natural way to the Establishment of a thing Hasty resolveâ—â—eak and moulder This notes 1. The infiniteness of his Authority He prepares it none else for him 'T is a Dominion that originally resides in his Nature not deriv'd from any by birth or commission he alone prepar'd it He is the sole cause of his own Kingdom his Authority therefore is unbounded as infinite as his Nature None can set Laws to him because none but himself prepared his Throne for him As he will not impair his own Happiness so he will not abridge himself of his own Authority
actions than the Actor it self The Actor hath a Soveraignty over others in action but the end for which any one works hath a Soveraignty over the Agent himself A Limner hath a Soveraignty over the Picture he is framing or hath fram'd but the end for which he fram'd it either his profit he design'd from it or the honor and credit of skill he aimed at in it hath a Dominion over the Limner himself The end moves and excites the Artist to work it spirits him in it conducts him in his whole business possesses his mind and sits triumphant in him in all the progress of his work 'T is the first cause for which the whole work is wrought Now God in his actual Creation of all is the Soveraign end of all for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.11 The Lord hath made all things for himself Prov. 16.4 Man indeed is the subordinate and immediate end of the lower Creation And therefore had the Dominion over other Creatures granted to him But God being the ultimate and principal end hath the Soveraign and principal Dominion all things as much referre to him as the last end as they flow from him as the first Cause So that as I said before if the World had been compacted together by a jumbling chance without a wise hand as some have foolishly imagined none could have been an Antagonist with God for the Government of the World but God in regard of the excellency of his nature would have been the Rector of it unless those Atomes that had composed the World had had an ability to Govern it Since there could be no universal end of all things but God God only can claim an intire right to the Government of it For though man be the end of the lower Creation yet man is not the end of himself and his own being he is not the end of the Creation of the supream Heavens he is not able to govern them they are out of his ken and out of his reach None fit in regard of the excellency of Nature to be the chief end of the whole World but God And therefore none can have a right to the Dominion of it but God In this regard Gods Dominion differs from the Dominion of all Earthly Potentates All the subjects in Creation were made for God as their end so are not People for Rulers but Rulers made for People for their protection and the preservation of Order in Societies 4. The Dominion of God is founded upon his preservation of things Ps 95.3 4. The Lord is a great King above all Gods Why In his hand are all the deep places of the Earth While his hand holds things his hand hath a Dominion over them He that holds a stone in the Air exerciseth a dominion over its natural inclination in hindring it from falling The Creature depends wholly upon God in its preservation as soon as that Divine hand which sustains every thing were withdrawn a languishment and swooning would be the next turn in the Creature He is call'd Lord Adonai in regard of his sustentation of all things by his continual influx The Word coming of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a basis or pillar that supports a building God is the Lord of all as he is the sustainer of all by his power as well as the Creator of all by his Word The Sun hath a Soveraign dominion over its own beams which depend upon it so that if he withdraws himself they all attend him and the World is left in darkness God maintains the vigor of all things conducts them in their operations so that nothing that they are nothing that they have but is owing to his preserving power The Master of this great Family may as well be called the Lord of it since every member of it depends upon him for the support of that being he first gave them and holds of his Empire As the right to govern resulted from Creation so it is perpetuated by the preservation of things 5. The dominion of God is strengthened by the innumerable benefits he bestows upon his Creatures The benefits he conferrs upon us after Creation are not the original ground of his dominion A man hath not Authority over his Servant from the kindness he shews to him but his Authority commenceth before any act of kindness and is founded upon a right of purchase conquest or compact Dominion doth not depend upon meer benefits Then Inferiors might have dominion over Superiors A Peasant may save the Life of a Prince to whom he was not subject he hath not therefore a right to step up into his Throne and give Laws to him And Children that maintain their Parents in their poverty might then acquire an Authority over them which they can never climb to Because the benefits they conferre cannot parallel the benefits they have received from the Authors of their Lives The bounties of God to us add nothing to the intrinsick right of his natural dominion they being the effects of that Soveraignty as he is a Rewarder and Governour As the benefits a Prince bestows upon his favorite increases not that right of Authority which is inherent in the Crown but strengthens that dominion as it stands in relation to the receiver by increasing the obligation of the favorite to an observance of him not only as his natural Prince but his gracious Benefactor The beneficence of God adds though not an original right of power yet a foundation of a stronger upbraiding the Creature if he walks in a violation and forgetfulness of those benefits and pull in peices the links of that ingenuous duty they call for and an occasion of exercising of Justice in punishing the delinquent which is a part of his Empire Isaiah 1.2 Hear O Heavens and give Ear O Earth the Lord hath spoken I have nourished Children and they have rebelled against me Thus the fundamental right as Creator is made more indisputable by his relation as a Benefactor and more as being so after a forfeiture of what was enjoyed by Creation The benefits of God are innumerable and so magnificent that they cannot meet with any compensation from the Creature And therefore do necessarily require a submission from the Creature and an acknowledgement of Divine Authority But that benefit of Redemption doth add a stronger right of dominion to God Since he hath not only as a Creator given them Being and Life as his Creatures but paid a price the price of his Sons blood for their rescue from Captivity so that he hath a Soveraignty of Grace as well as Nature and the ransom'd ones belong to him as Redeemer as well as Creator 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Ye are not your own For ye are bought with a price therefore your Body and your Spirit are Gods By this he acquir'd a right of another kind and bought us from that uncontroulable Lordship we affected over our selves by the sin of Adam that he might use us
breach of it He summons Adam to the Bar indicts him for his Crime finds him guilty by his own Confession and passeth sentence on him according to the rule he had before acquainted him with 4. The means whereby he punisheth shews his dominion Sometimes he musters up Hail and Mildew sometimes he sends regiments of wild Beasts so he threatens Israel Levit. 26.22 Sometimes he sends out a party of Angels to beat up the quarters of men and make a carnage among them 2 King 19.35 Sometimes he mounts his Thundring battery and shoots forth his Ammunition from the Clouds as against the Philistines 1 Sam. 7.10 Sometimes he sends the slightest Creatures to shame the Pride and punish the sin of man as Lice Froggs Locusts as upon the Egyptians the 8 9 10. chap. of Exodus 2. This Dominion is manifested by God as a proprietor and Lord of his Creatures and his own Goods And this is evident 1. In the choice of some persons from Eternity He hath set a part some from Eternity wherein he will display the invincible efficacy of his Grace and thereby infallibly bring them to the fruition of Glory Eph. 1.4 5. According as he hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World that we should be Holy and without blame before him in Love having Predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Why doth he write some names in the Book of Life and leave out others why doth he enroll some whom he intends to make Denizons of Heaven and refuse to put others in his register The Apostle tells us 't is the pleasure of his Will You may render a reason for many of God's actions till you come to this the top and Foundadation of all and under what head of reason can man reduce this act but to that of his Royal Prerogative Why doth God save some and condemn others at last Because of the Faith of the one and unbelief of the other Why do some men beleive Because God hath not only given them the means of Grace but accompanied those means with the efficacy of his Spirit Why did God accompany those means with the efficacy of his Spirit in some and not in others Bccause he had decreed by Grace to prepare them for Glory But why did he decree or choose some and not others Into what will you resolve this but into his soveraign pleasure Salvation and Condemnation at the last upshot are acts of God as the Judge conformable to his own Law of giving life to Believers and inflicting death upon unbeleivers for those a reason may be rendered but the choice of some and preterition of others is an act of God as he is a soveraign Monarch before any Law was actually transgrest because not actually given When a Prince redeems a Rebel he acts as a Judge according to Law but when he calls some out to pardon he acts as a soveraign by a Prerogative above Law into this the Apostle resolves it Rom. 9.13.15 When he speaks of Gods loving Jacob and hating Esau and that before they had done either good or evil It is Because God will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and Compassion on whom he will have Compassion Though the first scope of the Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter was to declare the reason of God's rejecting the Jews and calling in the Gentiles had he only intended to demolish the pride of the Jews and flat their opinion of merit and aim'd no higher than that Providential act of God he might convincingly enough to the reason of men have argued from the Justice of God provoked by the obstinacy of the Jews and not have had recourse to his absolute Will but since he asserts this latter * Amyrald dissert p. 101 102. the strength of his argument seems to lie thus if God by his absolute soveraignty may resolve and fix his love upon Jacob and estrange it from Esau or any other of his Creatures before they have done good or evil and man have no ground to call his infinite Majesty to account may he not deal thus with the Jews when their demerit would be a barr to any complaints of the Creature against him If God were considered here in the quality of a Judge it had been fit to have considered the matter of Fact in the Criminal but he is considered as a Soveraign rendring no other reason of his action but his own Will whom he will he hardens ver 18. And then the Apostle concludes Ver. 20. Who art thou O Man that replyest against God If the reason drawn from Gods Soveraignty doth not satisfie in this enquiry no other reason can be found wherein to acquiesce For the last condemnation there will be sufficient reason to clear the Justice of his proceedings But in this case of Election no other reason but what is alledg'd viz. The Will of God can be thought of but what is liable to such knotty exceptions that cannot well be untyed 1. It could not be any merit in the Creature that might determine God to choose him If the decree of Election falls not under the merit of Christ's passion as the procuring cause it cannot fall under the merit of any part of the corrupted mass The decree of sending Christ did not precede but follow'd in order of nature the determination of choosing some When men were chosen as the subjects for Glory Christ was chosen as the means for the bringing them to Glory Eph. 1.4 Chosen us in him and predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ The choice was not meerly in Christ as the moving cause that the Apostle asserts to be the good pleasure of his will but in Christ as the means of conveying to the chosen Ones the fruits of their Election What could there be in any man that could invite Gpd to this act or be a cause of distinction of one branch of Adam from another Were they not all hew'd out of the same Rock and tainted with the same corruption in blood Had it been possible to invest them with a power of merit at the first had not that venom contracted in their nature degraded all of power for the future What merit was there in any but of wrathfull punishment since they were all considered as Criminals and the cursed brood of an ungrateful Rebel what dignity can there be in the nature of the purest part of clay to be made a Vessel of Honour more than in another part of Clay as pure as that which was form'd into a Vessel for mean and sordid use What had any one to move his mercy more than another since they were all Children of wrath and equally dawb'd with Original guilt and filth Had not all an equal proportion of it to provoke his Justice What merit is there in one dry bone more than another to be inspir'd with the breath
a man of them succeeded in the Throne but the Crown is transferr'd to Jehu by Gods disposal In Warrs whereby flourishing Kingdoms are overthrown God hath the cheif hand in reference to which it is observed that in the two Prophets Isaiah and Jeremy God is called the Lord of Hosts 130 times 'T is not the Sword of the Captain but the Sword of the Lord bears the first rank The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon Judg. 7.18 The Sword of a Conqueror is the Sword of the Lord and receives its Charge and Commission from the great Soveraign Jerem. 47.6 7. VVe are apt to confine our thoughts to second Causes lay the fault upon the miscarriages of persons the Ambition of the one and the Covetousness of another and regard them not as the effects of Gods soveraign Authority linking second Causes together to serve his own purpose The skill of one man may lay open the folly of a Counsellour an earthly force may break in peices the power of a mighty Prince But Job in his consideration of those things referrs the matter higher Job 12.18 He looseth the bond of Kings and girdeth their Loyns with a girdle He looseth the Bonds of Kings i. â— takes off the yokes they lay upon their Subjects and girds their Loyns with a girdle A Cord as the Vulgar he lays upon them those fetters they fram'd for others such a girdle or band as is the mark of Captivity as the words ver 19. confirm it He leads Princes away spoil'd and overthrows the mighty God lifts up some to a great height and casts down others to a disgraceful ruine All those changes in the face of the World the revolutions of Emâ—ires the desolating and ravaging wars which are often immediately the birth of the Vice Ambition and fury of Princes are the Royal Acts of God as Governour of the World All Government belongs to him he is the Fountain of all the Great and the Petty Dominions in the World And therefore may place in them what substitutes and Vicegerents he pleaseth As a Prince may remove his Officers at pleasure and take their Commissions from them The highest are setled by God durante bene placito and not quamdiu bene se gâ—ssâ—rint Those Princes that have been the Glory of their Country have sway'd the Scepter but a short time when the more Wolvish ones have remain'd longâ—r in Commission as God hath seen fit for the ends of his own Soveraign Government Now by the revolutions in the World and Changes in Governours and Government God keeps up the acknowledgment of his Soveraignty when he doth arrest grand and publick offenders that wear a Crown by his Providence and employ it by their pride against him that plac'd it there When he arraigns such by a signal hand from Heaven he makes them the publick examples of the rights of his Soveraignty declaring thereby that the Cedars of Lebanon are as much at his foot as the Shrubs of the Valley that he hath as Soveraign an Authority over the Throne in the Palace as over the Stool in the Cottage 2. The Dominion of God is manifested in raising up and ordering the Spirits of men according to his pleasure He doth as the Father of Spirits communicate an influence to the Spirits of men as well as an existence he puts what inclinations he pleaseth into the will stores it with what habits he please whither natural or supernatural whereby it may be render'd more ready to act according to the divine purpose The will of man is a finite principle and therefore subject to him who hath an infinite Soveraignty over all things and God having a Soveraignty over the will in the manner of its acting as causeth it to will what he wills as to the outward act and the outward manner of performing it There are many examples of this part of his Soveraignty God by his Soveraign conduct ordered Moses a Protectoress as soon as his Parents had form'd an Ark of Bulrushes wherein to set him floting on the River Exod. 2.3 4.5.6 They expose him to the waves and the waves expose him to the view of Pharoahs Daughter whom God by his secret ordering her motion had posted in that place and though she was the Daughter of a Prince that inveterately hated the whole Nation and had by various Arts endeavour'd to extirpate them yet God inspires the Royal Lady with sentiments of compassion to the forlorn Infant though she knew him to be one of the Hebrews Children ver 6. i. e. one of that race whom her Father had devoted to the hands of an Executioner yet God that doth by his Soveraignty rule over the Spirits of all men moves her to take that Infant into her protection and nourish him at her own charge give him a liberal Education Adopt him her Son who in time was to be the ruin of her race and the Saviour of his Nation Thus he appointed Cyrus to be his Shepherd and gave him a Pastoral Spirit for the Restauration of the City and Temple of Jerusalem Isaiah 44.28 And Isaiah 45.5 Tells them in the Prophesie that he had girded him though Cyrus had not known him i. e. God had given him a military Spirit and strength for so great an attempt though he did not know that he was acted by God for those divine purposes And when the time came for the House of the Lord to be re-built the Spirits of the people were rais'd up not by themselves but by God Ezra 1.5 Whose Spirit God had rais'd to go up And not only the Spirit of Zerubbabel the Magistrate and of Joshua the Priest but the Spirit of all the people from the highest to the meanest that attended him were acted by God to strengthen their hands and promote the work Hag. 1.14 The Spirits of men even in those works which are naturally desirable to them as the Restauration of the City and rebuilding of the Temple was to those Jews are acted by God as the soveraign over them much more when the wheels of mens spirits are lifted up above their ordinary temper and motion It was this Empire of God good Nehemiah regarded as that whence he was to hope for success he did not assure himself so much of it from the favour he had with the King nor the reasonableness of his intended Petition but the absolute power God had over the heart of that great Monarch And therefore he supplicates the heavenly before he petitioned the earthly Throne Nehem. 2.4 So I pray'd to the God of Heaven The Heathens had some glance of this 't is an expression that Cicero hath some where That the Roman Common-wealth was rather Govern'd by the Assistance of the supream Divinity over the Hearts of Men than by their own Counsels and Management How often hath the feeble courage of men been heightned to such a pitch as to stare death in the face which before were dampt with the least thought or glance of
own affections according to the holiness of his own Will As it is the effect of his power so it is an argument of his power the greatness of the effect demonstrates the fulness and sufficiency of the Cause The more feeble any man is in reason the less command he hath over his passions and he is the more heady to revenge Revenge is a sign of a Childish mind the stronger any man is in reason the more command he hath over himself Prov. 16.32 He that is slow to Anger is better than the mighty and he that rules his own Spirit than he that takes a City He that can restrain his Anger is stronger than the Coesars and Alexanders of the World that have fill'd the Earth with slain Carcasses and ruin'd Cities By the same reason God's slowness to Anger is a greater argument of his Power than the creating a World or the power of dissolving it by a Word In this he hath a Dominion over Creatures in the other over himself This is the reason he will not return to destroy because I am God and not Man Hosea 11.9 I am not so weak and impotent as man that cannot restrain his Anger This is a strength possessed only by a God wherein a Creature is no more able to parallel him than in any other So that he may be said to be the Lord of himself as it is in the verse before the Text that he is the Lord of Anger in the Hebrew instead of furious as we translate it so he is the Lord of Patience The end why God is Patient is to shew his Power Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much Long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction To shew his Wrath upon Sinners and his Power over himself in bearing such indignities and forbearing punishment so long when men were vessels of wrath fitted for destruction of whom there was no hopes of amendment Had he immediately broken in peices those Vessels his power had not so eminently appear'd as it hath done in tolerating them so long that had provoked him to take them off so often There is indeed the power of his Anger and there is the power of his Patience and his power is more seen in his Patience than in his Wrath. 'T is no wonder that he that is above all is able to crush all But it is a wonder that he that is provok't by all doth not upon the first provocation rid his hands of all This is the reason why he did bear such a weight of provocations from vessels of wrath prepar'd for ruine that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew what he was able to do the Lordship and Royalty he had over himself The power of God is more manifest in his Patience to a multitude of Sinners than it could be in Creating Millions of Worlds out of nothing this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power over himself 5. This Patience being a branch of Mercy the exercise of it is founded in the Death of Christ Without the consideration of this we can give no account why Divine Patience should extend it self to us and not to the fallen Angels The threatning extends it self to us as well as to the fallen Angels The threatning must necessarily have sunk man as well as those glorious Creatures had not Christ stept into our relief * Testaâ—d de natur Grat. Thes 119. Had not Christ interposed to satisfie the Justice of God man upon his sin had been actually bound over to punishment as well as the fall'n Angels were upon theirs and been fettered in chains as strong as those Spirits feel The reason why man was not hurl'd into the same deplorable condition upon his sin as they were is Christs promise of taking our nature and not theirs Had God design'd Christ's taking their nature the same Patience had been exercised towards them and the same offers would have been made to them as are made to us In regard of these fruits of this Patience Christ is said to buy the wickedest Apostates from him 1 Pet. 2.1 Denying the Lord that bought them such were bought by him as bring upon themselves just destruction and whose damnation slumbers not ver 3. he purchased the continuance of their lives and the stay of their execution that offers of Grace might be made to them This Patience must be either upon the account of the Law or the Gospel for there are no other rules whereby God governs the World a fruit of the Law it was not that spake nothing but Curses after Disobedience not a letter of Mercy was writ upon that And therefore nothing of Patience Death and Wrath was denounced no slowness to Anger intimated It must be therefore upon the account of the Gospel and a fruit of the Covenant of Grace whereof Christ was Mediator Besides this perfection being God's waiting that he might be Gracious Isaiâ—h 30.18 that which made way for Gods Grace made way for his waiting to manifest it God discovered not his Grace but in Christ And therefore discovered not his Patience but in Christ 't is in him he met with the satisfaction of his Justice that he might have a ground for the manifestation of his Patience And the Sacrifices of the Law wherein the Life of a beast was accepted for the sin of a man discovered the ground of his forbearance of them to be the expectation of the great sacrifice whereby sin was to be compleatly expiated Gen. 8.21 The publication of his Patience to the end of the World is presently after the sweet savor he found in Noah's sacrifice The promised and design'd coming of Christ was the cause of that Patience God exercised before in the World And his gathering the Elect together is the reason of his Patience since his death 6. The naturalness of his Veracity and Holiness and the strictness of his Justice are no barrs to the exercise of his patience 1. His Veracity In those threatnings where the punishment is exprest but not the time of inflicting it prefixt and determined in the threatning his veracity suffers no dammage by the delaying Execution so it be once done though a long time after the credit of his Truth stands unshaken As when God promises a thing without fixing the time he is at liberty to pitch upon what time he pleases for the performance of it without staining his faithfulness to his Word by not giving the thing promised presently Why should the deferring of Justice upon an offender be any more against his Veracity than his delaying an answer to the petitions of a suppliant But the difference will lie in the threatning Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death The time was there setled In that day thou shalt dye some referre day to eating not to dying and render the sentence thus I do not prohibit thee the eating this fruit for
God is a Good which hath no taint of Evil nothing can be so Supream an Evil as God is Supream Goodness He is only Good without capacity of increase He is all Good and unmixedly Good none Good but God A Goodness like the Sun that hath all Light and no Darkness That is the second thing He is the Supream and chief Goodness 3. This Goodness is Communicative None so Communicatively Good as God As the Notion of God includes Goodness so the Notion of Goodness includes Diffusiveness without Goodness he would cease to be a Deity and without Diffusiveness he would cease to be Good The being Good is necessary to the being God For Goodness is nothing else in the Notion of it but a strong inclination to do Good either to find or make an Object wherein to exercise it self according to the Propension of its own Nature And it is an Inclination of Communicating it self not for its own interest but the good of the Object it pitcheth upon Thus God is good by Nature and his Nature is not without activity he acts conveniently to his own Nature †Ps 119.68 Thou art good and dost good And nothing accrues to him by the Communications of himself to others since his blessedness was as great before the frame of any Creature as ever it was since the Erecting of the World so that the Goodness of Christ himself encreaseth not the lustre of his Happiness †Psal 16.2 My Goodness extends not to thee He is not of a Niggardly and Envious Nature He is too Rich to have any cause to envy and too Good to have any will to envy He is as liberal as he is Rich according to the capacity of the Object about which his Goodness is exercised The Divine Goodness being the Supream Goodness is Goodness in the highest Degree of Activity Not an idle enclos'd pent up Goodness as a Spring shut up or a Fountain sealed bubling up within it self but bubling out of it self A Fountain of Gardens to water every part of his Creation He is an Oyntment powr'd forth †Cant. 1.5 Nothing spreads it self more than Oyl and takes up a larger space wheresoever it drops It may be no less said of the Goodness of God as it is of the fulness of Christ †Eph. 1.23 He fills all in all He fills Rational Creatures with Understanding Sensitive Nature with Vigor and Motion the whole World with Beauty and Sweetness Every Tast every Touch of a Creature is a Tast and Touch of Divine Goodness Divine Goodness offers it self in one spark in this Creature in another spark in the other Creature and altogether make up a Goodness inconceivable by any Creature The whole Mass and extracted Spirit of it is infinitely short of the Goodness of the Divine Nature imperfect shadows of that Goodness which is in himself Indeed the more excellent any thing is the more nobly it acts How remotely doth Light that excellent brightness of the Creation disperse it self How doth that glorious Creature which God hath set in the Heavens spread its Wings over Heaven and Earth roul it self about the World cast its Beams upward and downward insinuate into all Corners pierce the Depths and shoot up its Rays into the Heigths encircle the higher and lower Creatures in its Arms reach out its Communications to influence every thing under the Earth as well as dart its Beams of light and heat on things above or upon the Earth Nothing is hid from it †Psal 19.6 not from its power nor from its sweetness How Communicative also is Water a necessary and excellent Creature How active is it in a River to nourish the living Creatures engendred in its Womb Refresheth every Shore it runs by promotes the propagation of Fruits for the Nourishment and bestows a Verdure upon the Ground for the delight of Man and where it cannot reach the higher Ground in its Substance it doth by its Vapours mounted up and concocted by the Sun and gently distilled upon the Earth for the opening its Womb to bring forth its Fruits †Tom. 2. p. 926. God is more prone to communicate himself than the Sun to spread its Wings or the Earth to mount up its Fruits or the Water to multiply living Creatures Goodness is his Nature Hence were there internal Communications of himself from Eternity Diffusions of himself without himself in time in the Creation of the World like a full Vessel running over He Created the World that he might impart his Goodness to something without him and diffuse larger measures of his Goodness after he had laid the first Foundation of it in its Being And therefore he Created several sorts of Creatures that they might be capable of various and distinct measures of his Liberality according to the distinct capacities of their Nature but imparted most to the Rational Creature because that is only capable of an Understanding to know him and Will to embrace him He is the highest Goodness and therefore a Communicative Goodness and acts excellently according to his Nature 4. God is necessarily good None is necessarily Good but God he is as necessarily Good as he is necessarily God His Goodness is as inseparable from his Nature as his Holiness He is Good by Nature not only by will as he is Holy by Nature not only by will he is Good in his Nature and Good in his Actions and as he cannot be bad in his Nature so he cannot be bad in his Communications He can no more act contrary to this Goodness in any of his actions than he can un-God himself 'T is not necessary that God should Create a World he was at his own choice whether he would Create or no But when he resolves to make a World 't is necessary that he should make it good because he is Goodness it self and cannot act against his own Nature He could not Create any thing without Goodness in the very act The very act of Creation or Communicating being to any thing without himself is in it self an act of Goodness as well as an act of Power Had he not been Good in himself nothing could have been endued with any Goodness by him In the act of giving Being he is Liberal the Being he bestows is a Displaying his own Liberality He could not confer what he needs not and which could not be deserved without being Pountiful Since what was nothing could not Merit to be brought into Being the very act of giving to nothing a Being was an act of choice Goodness He could not Create any thing without Goodness as the Motive and the necessary Motive His Goodness could not necessitate him to make the World but his Goodness could only move him to resolve to make a World He was not bound to erect and fashion it because of his Goodness but he could not frame it without his Goodness as the moving cause He could not Create any thing but he must Create
it Good It had been inconsistent with the Supream Goodness of his Nature to have Created only Murderous Ravenous Injurious Creatures To have Created a Bedlam rather than a World A meer heap of Confusion would have been as inconsistent with his Divine Goodness as with his Divine Wisdom Again when his Goodness had moved him to make a Creature his Goodness would necessarily move him to be beneficial to his Creature not that this necessity results from any Merit in the Creature which he had framed but from the Excellency and Diffusiveness of his own Nature and his own Glory the end for which he form'd it which would have been obscure yea nothing without some degrees of his Bounty What occasion of acknowledgments and praise could the Creature have for its Being if God had given him only a miserable Being while it was innocent in action The Goodness of God would not suffer him to make a Creature without providing conveniencies for it so long as he thought good to maintain its Being and furnishing it with that which was necessary to answer that End for which he Created it And his own Nature would not suffer him to be unkind to his Rational Creature while it was Innocent It had been injustice to inflict Evil upon the Creature that had not offended and had no relation to an offending Creature The Nature of God could not have brought forth such an act †Cocceii sum Theolog. p. 91. And therefore some say that God after he had Created Man could not presently annihilate him and take away his Life and Being As a Soveraign he might do it as Almighty he was able to do it as well as Create him but in regard of his Goodness he could not Morally do it For had he annihilated Man as soon as ever he had made him he had not made Man for himself and for his own Glory to be loved worshipped sought and acknowledged by him He would not then have been the end of Man He had Created him in vain and the VVorld in vain which he assures us he did not * Isa 45.18 19. And certainly if the Gifts of God be without Repentance Man could not have been annihilated after his Creation without Repentance in God without any Cause had not Sin entred into the World If God did not say to Man after Sin had made its entrance into the World seek ye me in vain he could not because of his Goodness have said so to Man in his Innocence As God is necessarily Mind so he is necessarily Will as he is necessarily Knowing so he is necessarily Loving He could not be Blessed if he did not know Himself and his own Perfection Nor Good if he did not delight in Himself and his own Perfections And this Goodness whereby he delights in Himself is the source of his delight in his Creatures wherein he sees the footsteps of Himself If he loves Himself he cannot but love the Resemblance of Himself and the Image of his own Goodness He loves himself because he is the highest Goodness and Excellency and loves every thing as it resembles Himself because it is an efflux of his own Goodness And as he doth necessarily love Himself and his own Excellency so he doth necessarily love any thing that resembles that Excellency which is the Primary Object of his Esteem But 5. Though he be necessarily Good yet he is also freely Good The necessity of the Goodness of his Nature hinders not the liberty of his Actions The matter of his acting is not at all necessary but the manner of his acting in a good and bountiful way is necessary as well as free * Gilbert de Dei Dominio p. 6. He Created the World and Man freely because he might choose whether he would Create it but he Created them good necessarily because he was first necessarily good in his Nature before he was freely a Creator When he Created Man he freely gave him a positive Law but necessarily a Wise and Righteous Law because he was necessarily Wise and Righteous before he was freely a Lawgiver When he makes a Promise he freely lets the Word go out of his Lips but when he hath made it he is necessarily a faithful Performer because he was necessarily True and Righteous in his Nature before he was freely a Promiser God is necessarily good in his Nature but free in his Communications of it To make him necessarily to communicate his Goodness in the first Creation of the Creature would render him but impotent good without liberty and without will If the Communications of it be not free the Eternity of the VVorld must necessarily be concluded which some Anciently asserted from the Naturalness of Gods Goodness making the VVorld flow from God as Light from the Sun God indeed is necessarily good Affectivé in regard of his Nature but freely good Effectivé in regard of the Effluxes of it to this or that particular Subject he pitcheth on He is not so necessarily communicative of his Goodness as the Sun of his light or a Tree of its cooling shade that chooseth not its Objects but enlightens all indifferently without any variation or distinction This were to make God of no more Understanding than the Sun to shine not where it pleaseth but where it must He is an understanding Agent and hath a Soveraign Right to choose his own Subjects It would not be a Supream Goodness if it were not a voluntary Goodness 'T is agreeable to the Nature of the highest Good to be absolutely free to dispence his Goodness in what methods and measures he pleaseth according to the free determinations of his own VVill guided by the VVisdom of his Mind and regulated by the Holiness of his Nature He is not to give an account of any of his matters †Job 33.13 He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion * Rom. 9.15 And he will be good to whom he will be good When he doth act he cannot but act well so it 's necessary yet he may act this good or that good to this or that degree so it is free As it is the Perfection of his Nature 't is necessary as it is the communication of his Bounty 't is voluntary The Eye cannot but see if it be open yet it may glance upon this or that colour fix upon this or that object as it is conducted by the VVill. God necessarily loves Himself because he is good yet not by constraint but freedom because his affection to Himself is from a knowledge of Himself He necessarily loves his own Image because 't is his Image yet freely because not blindly but from motions of understanding and will VVhat necessity could there be upon him to resolve to communicate his Goodness It could not be to make Himself better by it for he had a Goodness uncapable of any addition He confers a goodness on his