of a spiritual life Did not all lie wallowing in their own filthy blood and what could the steam and noysomness of that deserve at the hands of a pure Majesty but to be cast into a sink furthest from his sight Were they not all considered in this deplorable posture with an equal proportion of poyson in their nature when God first took his pen and singled out some Names to write in the Book of life It could not be merit in any one peice of this abominable Mass that should stir up that resolution in God to set apart this person for a Vessel of Glory while he permitted another to putrifie in his own gore He loved Jacob and hated Esau though they were both parts of the common Mass the Seed of the same Loyns and lodg'd in the same Womb. 2. Nor could it â—e any foresight of works to be done in time by them or of Faith that might determine God to choose them What good could he foresee resulting from extream corruption and a nature alienated from him What could he foresee of good to be done by them but what he resolved in his own will to bestow an ability upon them to bring forth His choice of them was to a Holiness not for a Holiness preceding his determination Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us that we might be Holy before him he ordained us to good works not for them Eph. 2.10 What is a Fruit cannot be a moving cause of that whereof it is a fruit Grace is a stream from the spring of electing love the branch is not the cause of the Root but the Root of the Branch nor the stream the cause of the spring but the spring the cause of the stream Good works suppose Grace and a good and right habit in the person as rational acts suppose reason Can any man say that the rational acts man performs after his Creation were a cause why God Created him This would make Creation and every thing else not so much an act of his will as an act of his Understanding God foresaw no rational act in man before the act of his will to give him reason nor foresees faith in any before the act of his will determining to give him Faith Eph. 2.8 Faith is the gift of God In the Salvation which grows up from this first purpose of God he regards not the works we have done as a principal motive to settle the top-stone of our happiness but his own purpose and the Grace given in Christ 2 Timothy 1.9 Who hath saved us and call'd us with a holy Calling not according to our own works but according to his own purpose and Grace which was given to us in Christ before the World began The honour of our Salvation cannot be challeng'd by our works much less the honour of the Foundation of it It was a pure gift of Grace without any respect to any spiritual much less natural perfection Why should the Apostle mention that circumstance when he speaks of God's loving Jacob and hating Esau when neither of them had done good or evil Rom. 9.11 if there were any foresight of mens works as the moving cause of his love or hatred God regarded not the works of either as the first cause of his choice but acted by his own Liberty without respect to any of their actions which were to be done by them in time If Faith be the fruit of Election the prescience of Faith doth not influence the Electing act of God Tit. 1.1 'T is called the Faith of Gods Elect. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the Faith of Gods Elect. i. e. Setled in this Office to bring the Elect of God to Faith If men be chosen by God upon the foresight of Faith or not chosen till they have Faith they are not so much God's Elect as God their Elect they choose God by Faith before God chooseth them by love It had not been the Faith of Gods Elect i. e. Of those already chosen but the Faith of those that were to be chosen by God afterwards * Dalle in loc Election is the cause of Faith and not Faith the cause of Election Fire is the cause of heat and not the heat of Fire the Sun is the cause of the day and not the day the cause of the rising of the Sun Men are not chosen because they beleive but they beleive because they are chosen The Apostle did ill else to appropriate that to the Elect which they had no more interest in by vertue of their Election than the veriest Reprobate in the World If the foresight of what works might be done by his Creatures was the motive of his choosing them why did he not choose the Devils to Redemption who could have done him better service by the strength of their Nature than the whole Mass of Adam's posterity Well then there is no possible way to lay the original Foundation of this act of Election and preterition in any thing but the absolute Soveraignty of God Justice or Injustice comes not into consideration in this case There is no debt which Justice or Injustice always respects in its acting If he had pleased he might have chosen all if he had pleased he might have chosen none It was in his supream power to have resolved to have left all Adam's posterity under the rack of his Justice if he determined to snatch out any it was a part of his dominion but without any injury to the Creatures he leaves under their own guilt Did he not pass by the Angels and take man And by the same right of Dominion may he pick out some men from the common Mass and lay aside others to bear the punishment of their Crimes Are they not all his Subjects All are his Criminals and may be dealt with at the pleasure of their undoubted Lord and Soveraign This is a work of arbitrary power Since he might have chosen none or chosen all as he saw good himself 'T is at the liberty of the Artificer to determine his Wood or Stone to such a figure that of a Prince or that of a Toad and his materials have no right to complain of him since it lies wholly upon his own liberty They must have little sence of their own vileness and God's infinite excellency above them by right of Creation that will contend that God hath a lesser right over his Creatures than an Artificer over his Wood or Stone If it were at his liberty whither to redeem Man or send Christ upon such an undertaking 't is as much at his liberty and the prerogative is to be allow'd him what persons he will resolve to make capable of enjoying the fruits of that Redemption One Man was as fit a subject for Mercy as another as they all lay in their orginal guilt Why would not Divine Mercy cast its eye upon this Man as well as upon his Neighbour There was no cause in the Creature but all in God it
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
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
with hatred The beneficence and patience of God and his readiness to pardon men is the reason of the honour they return to him And this is so evident a motive that generally the Idolatrous world rankt those Creatures in the number of their Gods which they perceived useful and neficial to man-kind as the Sun and Mooâ— the Aegyptians the Ox c. And the more beneficial any thing appeared to mankind the higher station men gave it in the rank of their deities and bestowed a more peculiar and solemn worship upon it Men worshipped God to procure or continue his favour which would not have been acted by them had they not conceived it a pleasing thing to him to be merciful and gracious Sometimes his Justice is proposed to us as a motive of worship Heb. 12.28 29. Serve God with Reverence and Godly fear for our God is a consuming fire which includes his holiness whereby he doth hate sin as well as his wrath whereby he doth punish it Who but a mad and totally brutish person or one that was resolved to make war against heaven could behold the effects of Gods anger in the world consider him in his Justice as a consuming fire and despise him and rather be drawn out by that consideration to blasphemy and despair than to seek all ways to appease him Now tho the infinite power of God his unspeakable wisdom his incomprehensible goodness the holiness of his nature the vigilance of his Providence the bounty of his hand signifie to man that he should love and honour him and are the motives of worship yet the Spirituality of his nature is the rule of worship and directs us to render our duty to him with all the powers of our Soul As his goodness beams out upon us worship is due in Justice to him and as he is the most excellent nature veneration is due to him in the highest manner with the choicest affections So that indeed the Spirituality of God comes chiefly into consideration in matter of worship All his perfections are grounded upon this He could not be infinite immutable omniscient if he were a Corporeal being * Amirald dissert 6. disp 1. pa. 11. We cannot give him a worship unless we Judge him worthy excellent and deserving a worship at our hands And we cannot Judge him worthy of a worship unless we have some apprehensions and admirations of his infinite vertues And we cannot apprehend and admire those perfections but as we see them as causes shining in their effects When we see therefore the frame of the world to be the work of his power the order of the world to be the fruit of his wisdom and the usefulness of the world to be the product of his goodness We find the motives and reasons of worship and weighing that this power wisdom goodness infinitely transcend any corporeal nature we find a rule of worship that it ought to be offered by us in a manner sutable to such a nature as is infinitely above any bodily Being His being a Spirit declares what he is his other perfections declare what kind of Spirit he is All Gods perfections suppose him a Spirit all center in this His wisdom doth not suppose him merciful or his mercy suppose him omniscient There may be distinct notions of those but all suppose him to be of a spiritual nature How cold and frozen will our devotions be if we consider not his omniscience whereby he discerns our hearts How carnal will our services be if we consider him not as a pure Spirit * Amyraut de Relig. In our offers to and transactions with men we deal not with them as meer Animals but as rational Creatures and we debase their natures if we treat them otherwise And if we have not raised apprehensions of Gods spiritual nature in our treating with him but allow him only such frames as we think fit enough for men we debase his spirituality to the littleness of our own Being We must therefore possess our Souls with this we shall else render him no better than a fleshly service We do not much concern our selves in those things of which we are either utterly ignorant or have but slight apprehensions of That is the first Proposition The right exercise of worship is grounded upon the spirituality of God Propos 2. This spiritual worship of God is manifest by the light of Nature to be due to him In reference to this consider 1. The outward means or matter of that worship which would be acceptable to God was not known by the light of Nature The Law for a Worship and for a spiritual worship by the faculties of our Souls was natural and part of the Law of Creation though the determination of the particular acts whereby God would have this homage testified was of positive institution and depended not upon the Law of Creation Though Adam in Innocence knew God was to be worshipped yet by Nature he did not know by what outward acts he was to pay this respect or at what time he was more solemnly to be exercised in it than at another This depended upon the directions God as the soveraign Governour and Law-giver should prescribe You therefore find the positive institutions of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and the determination of the time of worship Gen. 2.3.17 Had there been any such notion in Adam naturally as strong as that other that a worship was due to God there would have been found some reliques of these modes universally consented to by Mankind as well as of the other But though all Nations have by an universal consent concurred in the acknowledgment of the Being of God and his right to adoration and the obligation of the Creature to it and that there ought to be some publick rule and polity in matters of Religion for no Nation hath been in the world without a worship and without external acts and certain ceremonies to signifie that worship yet their modes and rites have been as various as their climates unless in that common notion of sacrifices not descending to them by nature but tradition from Adam and the various ways of worship have been more provoking than pleasing Every Nation suted the kind of worship to their particular ends and polities they designed to rule by How God was to be worshipped is more difficult to be discerned by Nature with its eyes out than with its eyes clear * King on Jonah P. 63. The pillars upon which the worship of God stands cannot be discerned without revelation no more than blind Sampson could tell where the pillars of the Philistians Theatre stood without one to conduct him What Adam could not see with his sound eyes we cannot with our dim eyes He must be told from Heaven what worship was fit for the God of Heaven 'T is not by Nature that we can have such a full prospect of God as may content and quiet us This is the noble
wise that hath no Mate for Wisdom * 1 Tim. 1.17 none wise besides himself If he knew that thing this day which * 1 Tim. 1.17 he knew not before he would not be an only wise Being for a Being that did know every thing at once might be conceived and so a wiser Being be apprehended by the mind of man If God understood a thing at one time which he did not at another he would be changed from Ignorance to Knowledge As if he could not do that this day which he could do to morrow he would be changed from Impotence to Power He could not be always Omniscient because there might be yet something still to come which he yet knows not though he may know all things that are past What way soever you suppose a change you must suppose a present or a past Ignorance If he be changed in his knowledge for the perfection of his understanding he was ignorant before If his understanding be impaired by the change he is ignorant after it 2. If God were changeable in his Knowledge it would make him unfit to be an Object of Trust to any rational Creature His Revelations would want the due ground for entertainment if his Understanding were changeable for that might be revealed as truth now which might prove false heareafter and that as false now which hereafter might prove true and so God would be an unfit Object of Obedience in regard of his Precepts and an unfit Object of confidence in regard of his Promises For if he be changeable in Knowledge he is defective in Knowledge and might promise that now which he would know afterwards was unfit to be promised and therefore unfit to be performed It would make him an incompetent Object of dread in regard of his threatnings for he might threaten that now which he might know hereafter were not fit or just to be inflicted A changeable mind and understanding cannot make a due and right judgment of things to be done and things to be avoided No wise man would judge it reasonable to trust a weak and flitting person God must needs be unchangeable in his Knowledge But as the Schoolmen say that as the Sun always shines so God always knows as the Sun never ceaseth to shine so God never ceaseth to know Nothing can be hid from the vast compass of his Understanding no more than any thing can shelter it self without the Verge of his Power This farther appears in that 1. God knows by his own Essence He doth not know as we do by habits qualities species whereby we may be mistaken at one time and rectified at another He hath not an Understanding distinct from his Essence as we have but being the most simple Being his Understanding is his Essence and as from the infiniteness of his Essence we conclude the infiniteness of his Understanding so from the unchangeableness of his Essence we may justly conclude the unchangeableness of his Knowledge Since therefore God is without all composition and his Understanding is not distinct from his Essence what he knows he knows by his Essence and there can then be no more mutability in his Knowledge than there can be in his Essence and if there were any in that he could not be God because he would have the property of a Creature If his Understanding then be his Essence his Knowledge is as necessary as unchangeable as his Essence As his Essence eminently contains all perfections in it self so his Understanding comprehends all things past present and future in it self If his Understanding and his Essence were not one and the same he were not simple but compounded if compounded he would consist of parts if he consisted of parts he would not be an independent Being and so would not be God 2. God knows all things by one intuitive act As there is no succession in his Being so that he is one thing now and another thing hereafter so there is no succession in his Knowledge He knows things that are successive before their existence and succession by one single act of intuition by one cast of his eye all things future are present to him in regard of his Eternity and Omnipresence So that though there is a change and variation in the things known yet his Knowledge of them and their several changes in nature is invariable and unalterable As imagin a Creature that could see with his eye at one glance the whole compass of the Heavens by sending out beams from his eye without receiving any species from them he would see the whole Heavens uniformly this part now in the East then in the West without any change in his eye for he sees every part and every motion together and though that great Body varies and whirls about and is in continual agitation his eye remains stedfast suffers no change beholds all their motions at once and by one glance * Suarez vol. 1. pa. 137. God knows all things from Eternity and therefore perpetually knows them the reason is because the Divine Knowledge is infinite * Psal 145.5 His understanding is infinite and therefore comprehends all knowable Truths at once An eternal Knowledge comprehends in it self all Time and beholds past and present in the same manner and therefore his Knowledge is immutable By one simple Knowledge he considers the infinite spaces of past and future 3. Gods knowledge and Will is the cause of all things and their successions * Austin Bradwardine There can be no pretence of any changeableness of knowledge in God but in this case before things come to pass he knows that they will come to pass after they are come to pass he knows that they are past and slide away This would be something if the succession of things were the cause of the divine Knowledg as it is of our knowledge but on the contrary the divine Knowledge and Will is the cause of the succession of them God doth not know Creatures because they are but they are because he knows them All his works were known to him from the beginnig of the world * Acts 15.18 All his works were not known to him if the events of all those works were not also known to him If they were not known to him how should he make them he could not do any thing ignorantly He made them then after he knew them and did not know them after he made them His Knowledge of them made a change in them their existence made no change in his Knowledg He knew them when they were to be Created in the same manner that he knew them after they were Created before they were brought into act as well as after they were brought into act before they were made they were and were not they were in the Knowledge of God when they were not in their own nature God did not receive his knowledge from their existence but his Knowledge and Will acted upon them to bring them
they be possible past present or future Whether they be things that he can do but will never do or Whether they be things that he hath done but are not now things that are now in Being or things that are not now existing that lie in the Womb of their proper and immediate Causes Perav Theol. Dogm lib. p. 257. If his understanding be Infinite he then knows all things whatsoever that can be known else his Understanding would have bounds and what hath limits is not infinite but finite if he be ignorant of any one thing that is knowable that is a bound to him it comes with an exceptions a but God knows all things but this a bar is then set to his Knowledg If there were any thing any particular circumstance in the whole Creation or Non-Creation and possible to be knovvn by him and yet vvere unknovvn to him he could not be said to be Omniscient As he vvould not be Almighty if any one thing that implyed not a repugnancy to his Nature did transcend his Povver 1. First all things possible No Question but God knovvs vvhat he could create as vvell as vvhat he hath created vvhat he vvould not Create as vvell as vvhat he resolved to Create he knevv vvhat he vvould not do before he vvilled to do it this is the next thing vvhich declares the Infiniteness of his Understanding For as his Povver is infinite and can Create innumerable Worlds and Creatures so is his Knovvledg infinite in knovving innumerable things possible to his Povver Possibles are infinite that is there is no end of vvhat God can do and therefore no end of vvhat God doth knovv othervvise his Povver vvould be more Infinite than his Knovvledg If he knevv only vvhat is Created there vvould be an end of his Understanding because all Creatures may be numbred but possible things cannot be reckoned up by any Creature There is the same reason of this in Eternity vvhen never so many numbers of Years are run out there is still more to come there still vvants an end and vvhen Millions of Worlds are Created there is no more an end of Gods Povver than of Eternity Thus there is no end of his Understanding that is his Knovvledg is not terminated by any thing This the Scripture gives us some accompt of God knows things that are not for he calls things that are not as if they were Rom. 4.17 he calls things that are not as if they were in Being what he calls is not unknown to him If he knows things that are not he knows things that may never be as he knows things that shall be because he Wills them so he knows things that might be because he is able to effect them He knew that the Inhabitants of Kelah would betray David to Saul if he remained in that place 1 Sam. 23.11 he knew what they would do upon that occasion tho' it was never done as he knew what was in their Power and in their Wills so he must needs know vvhat is vvithin the compass of his ovvn Povver As he can permit more than he doth permit so he knovvs vvhat he can permit and vvhat upon that permission vvould be done by his Creatures so God knevv the possibility of the Tyrians Repentance if they had had the same means heard the same Truths and beheld the same Miracles vvhich vvere offer'd to the Ears and presented to the Eyes of the Jews Matth. 11.21 This must needs be so because 1. Man knows things that are possible to him tho' he will never effect them A Carpenter knows a House in the model he hath of it in his head tho' he never build a House according to that model A Watch-maker hath the frame of a Watch in his mind which he will never work with his Instruments Man knows what he could do tho' he never intends to do it Ficiâ— de immort lib. 2. cap. 10. As the Understanding of man hath a vertue that where it sees one man it may imagine Thousands of men of the same shape stature form parts yea taller more vigorous spritely intelligent than the man he sees because it is possible such a number may be Shall not the understanding of God much more know what he is able to effect since the understanding of man can know what he is never able to produce yet may be produced by God viz. that he who produced this man which I see can produce a Thousand exactly like him If the Divine Understanding did not know infinite things but were confin'd to a certain number it may be demanded whether God can understand any thing farther than that number or whether he cannot If he can then he doth actually understand all those things which he hath a power to understand otherwise there would be an increase of Gods knowledg if it were actually now and not before and so he would be more perfect than he was before if he cannot understand them then he cannot understand what a human mind can understand for our understandings can multiply Numbers in infinitum and there is no number so great but a man can still add to it We must suppose the Divine Understanding more excellent in Knowledg God knows all that a man can imagine tho' it never were nor never shall be he must needs know whatsoever is in the Power of man to imagine or think because God concurs to the support of the faculty in that Imagination and tho' it may be replied an Atheist may imagine that there is no God a man may imagine that God can Lie or that he can be destroy'd doth God know therefore that he is not or that he can Lie or cease to be No he knows he cannot his Knowledg extends to things possible not to things impossible to himself he knows it as imaginable by man not as possible in it self because 't is utterly impossible and repugnant to the nature of God since he eminently contains in himself all things possible past present and to come he cannot know himself without knowing them 2. God knowing his own power knows whatsoever is in his power to effect If he knows not all things possible he could not know the extent of his own power and so would not know himself as a cause sufficient for more things than he hath Created How can he comprehend himself who comprehends not all effluxes of things possible that may come from him and be wrought by him How can he know himself as a cause if he know not the Objects and Works which he is able to produce Gamach Since the power of God extends to numberless things his Knowledg also extends to numberless objects as if a Unite could see the numbers it could produce it would see Infinite numbers for a Unite is as it were all Number God knowing the fruitfulness of his own Vertue knows a numberless multitude of things which he can do more than have been done or shall be done by
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
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
Shall we take only here with a limitation as some that are no Friends to the Deity of Christ would and say God only knows the hearts of men from himself and by his own infinite vertue Why may we not take only in other places with a limitation and make nonsence of it as Psal 86.10 Thou art God alone Is it to be understood that God is God alone from himself but other Gods may be made by him and so there may be numberless infinites As God is God alone so that none can be God but himself so he alone knows all the hearts Of all the Children of men and none but he can know them this knowledg is from his nature Placaeus de deitate Christi The reason why God knows the hearts of men is rendered in the Scripture double because he created them and because he is present every where Psal 33.13 15. these two are by the Confession of Christians and Pagans universally received as the proper Characters of Divinity whereby the Deity is distinguish'd from all Creatures Now when Christ ascribes this to himself and that with such an Emphasis that nothing greater than that could be urg'd as he doth Rev. 2.23 we must conclude that he is of the same Essence with God one with him in his Nature as well as one with him in his Attributes God only knows the hearts of the Children of men there is the unity of God Christ searches the Hearts and Reins there is a distinction of Persons in an oneness of essence he knows the hearts of all men not only of those that were with him in the time of the Flesh that have been and shall be since his Ascension but of those that lived and died before his coming because he is to be the Judg of all that lived before his humiliation on earth as well as after his exaltation in Heaven It pertains to him as a Judg to know distinctly the merits of the Cause of which he is to Judg and this excellency of searching the hearts is mention'd by himself with relation to his judicial Proceeding I will give to every one of you according to your Works And tho' a Creature may know what is in a mans heart if it be revealed to him yet such a knowledg is a knowledg only by report not by inspection yet this latter is ascrib'd to Christ John 2.24.25 he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what was in man he looked into their hearts The Evangelist to allay the amazement of men at his relation of our Saviours knowledg of the inward falsity of those that made a splendid Profession of him doth not say the Father revealed it to him but intimates it to be an unseparable Property of his nature No covering was so thick as to bound his eye no pretence so glittering as to impose upon his understanding Those that made a Profession of him and could not be discerned by the eye of man from his faithfullest Attendants were in their inside known to him plainer than their outside was to others and therefore he committed not himself to them tho' they seemed to be perswaded to a real belief in his name because of the Power of his Miracles and were touched with an admiration of him as some great Prophet and perhaps declared him to be the Messiah ver 23. 4. He had a foreknowledg of the particular inclinations of men before those distinct inclinations were in actual Being in them This is plainly asserted John 6.64 but there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him When Christ assured them from the knowledg of the hearts of his followers that some of them were void of that Faith they profest The Evangelist to stop their amazement that Christ should have such a power and vertue adds that he knew from the beginning that he had not only a present knowledg but a foreknowledg of every ones inclination he knew not only now and then what was in the Hearts of his Disciples but from the beginning of any ones giving up their Names to him he knew whether it were a pretence or sincere he knew who should betray him and there was no mans inward affection but was foreseen by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the beginning whether we understand it from the beginning of the World as when Christ saith concerning Divorces from the beginning it was not so that is from the beginning of the World from the beginning of the Law of Nature or from the beginning of their attending him as it is taken Luke 1.2 he had a certain prescience of the inward dispositions of mens hearts and their succeeding sentiments he foreknew the treacherous heart of Judas in the midst of his splendid Profession and discern'd his resolution in the root and his thought in the confus'd Chaos of his natural corruption he knew how it would spring up before it did spring up before Judas had any distinct and formal conception of it himself or before there was any actual preparation to a resolve Peters denyal was not unknown to him when Peter had a present resolution and no question spake it in the present sincerity of his Soul never to forsake him he foreknew what would be the result of that Poyson which lurkt in Peters nature before Peter himself imagin'd any thing of it he discern'd Peters Apostatizing heart when Peter resolved the contrary our Saviours Prediction was accomplisht and Peters valiant resolution languisht into Cowardice Shall we then conclude our Blessed Saviour a Creature who perfectly and only knew the Father who knew all Creatures who had all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg who knew the inward motions of mens hearts by his own Vertue and had not only a present Knowledg but a Prescience of them Inform. 2. The second Instruction from this position That God hath an infinite Knowledg and Understanding Then there is a Providence exercis'd by God in the World and that about every thing As Providence infers Omniscience as the guide of it so Omniscience infers Providence as the end of it What Exercise would there be of this Attribute but in the Government of the World To this this infinite Perfection refers Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the heart I try the Reins to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings He searches the heart to reward he rewards every man according to the rewardableness of his actions his Government therefore extends to every man in the World there is no heart but he searches therefore no heart but he governs to what purpose else would be this Knowledg of all his Creatures for a meer Contemplation of them no What pleasure can that be to God who knows himself who is infinitely more excellent than all his Creatures Doth he know them to neglect all care
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
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
entertain a Soul of a heavenly extraction form'd by the breath of God * Gen. 2.7 He brought Light out of thick Darkness and living Creatures Fish and Foul out of inanimate waters †Gen. 1.20 and gave a power of spontaneous motion to things arising from that Matter which had no living motion To convert one thing into another is an evidence of infinite Power as well as creating things of nothing for the distance between life and not life is next to that which is between being and not being God first forms Matter out of Nothing and then draws upon and from this indisposed Chaos many excellent Pourtraitures Neither Earth nor Sea were capable of producing living Creatures without an infinite Power working upon it and bringing into it such variety and multitude of Forms and this is called by some mediate Creation as the producing the Chaos which was without form and void is called immediate Creation Is not the power of the Potter admirable in forming out of temper'd Clay such varieties of neat and curious Vessels that after they are fashion'd and past the Furnace look as if they were not of any kin to the Matter they are formed of And is it not the same with the Glass-maker that from a little melted gelly of Sand and Ashes or the Dust of Flint can blow up so pure a Body as Glass and in such varieties of shapes and is not the Power of God more admirable because infinite in speaking out so beautiful a World out of nothing and such varieties of living Creatures from Matter utterly indispos'd in its own nature for such forms 3. And this conducts to a third thing were in the power of God appears in that He did all this with the greatest ease and facility 1. Without Instruments As God made the World without the advice so without the assistance of any other He stretched forth the Heavens alone and spread abroad the Earth by himself Isai 44.24 He had no engine but his Word no pattern or model but himself What need can he have of Instruments that is able to create what Instruments he pleases Where there is no resistance in the Object where no need of preparation or instrumental advantage in the Agent there the actual determination of the Will is sufficient to a production What Instrument need we to the thinking of a Thought or an act of our Will Men indeed cannot act any thing without Tools the best Artificer must be beholden to something else for his noblest works of Art The Carpenter cannot work without his Rule and Ax and Saw and other Instruments The Watch-maker cannot act without his File and Pliars But in Creation there is nothing necessary to Gods bringing forth a World but a simple act of his Will which is both the principal cause and instrumental He had no Scaffolds to rear it no Engines to polish it no Hammers or Mattocks to clod and work it together 'T is a miserable Error to measure the actions of an Infinite Cause by the imperfect model of a Finite since by his own Power and Out-stretched Arm he made the Heaven and the Earth * Jer. 32.17 ‖ Gassend What excellency would God have in his work above others if he needed Instruments as Feeble men do Every Artificer is counted more admirable that can frame curious Works with the less matter fewer Tools and assistances God uses Instruments in his Works of Providence not for necessity but for the display of his Wisdom in the management of them yet those Instruments were originally framed by him without Instruments Indeed some of the Jews thought the Angels were the Instruments of God in creating Man and that those words Gen. 1.26 Let us make Man in our own image were spoken to Angels But certainly the Scripture which denies God any Counsellor in the model of Creation †Isai 40.12 13 14. doth not joyn any Instrument with him in the operation which is every where ascribed to himself without created assistance Isai 45.18 It was not to Angels God spake in that affair if so Man was made after the image of Angels if they were Companions with God in that work But it is every where said Gen. 1.27 that Man was made after the image of God Again the image wherein Man was created was that of dominion over the lower Creatures as appears verse 26. which we find not conferr'd upon Angels and it is not likely that Moses should introduce the Angels as Gods Privy Counsel of whose Creation he had not mention'd one syllable Let us make Man rather signifies the Trinity and not spoken in a Royal style as some think Which of the Jewish Kings writ in the style We That was the custom of later Times and we must not measure the language of Scripture by the style of Europe of a far later date than the penning the History of the Creation If Angels were his Counsellors in the Creation of the material World what Instrument had he in the Creation of Angels If his own Wisdom were the Director and his own Will the producer of the one why should we not think that he acted by his sole Power in the other 'T is concluded by most that the Power of Creation cannot be deriv'd to any Creature it being a work of Omnipotency The drawing Something out from Nothing cannot be communicated without a communication of the Deity it self The educing things from Nothing exceeds the capacity of any Creature and the Creature is of too feeble a Nature to be elevated to so high a degree 'T is very unreasonable to think that God needed any such aid If an Instrument were necessary for God to create the World then he could not do it without that Instrument If he could not he were not then All-sufficient in himself if he depended upon any thing without himself for the production or consummation of his Works And it might be enquired how that Instrument came into Being If it begun to be and there was a time when it was not it must have its Being from the Power of God and then why could not God as well create all things without an Instrument as create that Instrument without an Instrument For there was no more Power necessary to a producing the whole without Instruments than to produce one Creature without an Instrument No Creature can in its own nature be an Instrument of Creation If any such Instrument were used by God it must be elevated in a miraculous and supernatural way and what is so an Instrument is in effect no Instrument for it works nothing by its own nature but from an elevation by a Superior nature and beyond its own nature All that power in the Instrument is truly the Power of God and not the power of the Instrument And therefore what God doth by an Instrument he could do as well without If you should see one apply a Straw to Iron for the cutting of it
his Immense Power for he that is Eternal without limits of Time must needs be conceived Powerful without any dash of Infirmity Again when He is said to be a Child born and a Son given in the same breath he is called the Mighty God * Isai 9.6 'T is introduc'd as a ground of Comfort to the Church to preserve their Hopes in the accomplishment of the Promises made to them before They should not imagine him to have only the Infirmity of a Man though he was vail'd in the Appearance of a Man No they should look through the disguise of his Flesh to the Might of his Godhead The Attribute of Mighty is added to the Title GOD because the consideration of Power is most capable to sustain the drooping Church in such a condition and to prop up her hopes 'T is upon this account he saith of himself that whatsoever things the Father doth those also doth the Son likewise John 5.19 In creation of Heaven Earth Sea and the Preservation of all Creatures the Son works with the same Will Wisdom Vertue Power as the Father works Not as two may concur in an Action in a different manner as an Agent and an Instrument a Carpenter and his Tools but in the same manner of operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we Translate Likeness which doth not express so well the Emphasis of the word There is no diversity of Action between Us what the Father doth that I do by the same Power with the same Easiness in every respect there is the same Creative Productive Conservative Power in both of us and that not in one work that is done ad extra but in All in whatsoever the Father doth In the same manner not by a delegated but Natural and Essential Power by one undivided operation and manner of working 1. The Creation which is a work of Omnipotence is more than once ascrib'd to him This he doth own himself the Creation of the Earth and of Man upon it the stretching out the Heavens by his Hands and the forming of all the Host of them by his Command Isai 45.12 He is not only the Creator of Israel the Church verse 12. but of the whole World and every Creature on the face of the Earth and in the Glories of the Heavens which is repeated also verse 18. where in this act of Creation he is called God himself and speaks of himself in the Term Jehovah and swears by himself verse 23. What doth he swear That unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear Is this Christ Yes if the Apostle may be believed who applies it to him Rom. 14.11 to prove the Appearance of all Men before the Judgment Seat of Christ whom the Prophet calls verse 15. a God that hides himself and so he was a hidden God when obscur'd in our fleshly Infirmities He was in conjunction with the Father when the Sea receiv'd his Decree and the foundations of the Earth were appointed not as a Spectator but as an Artificer â—or so the word in Prov. 8.30 signifies As one brought up with him it signifies also A cunning workman * Cant. 7.1 He was the East or the Sun from whence sprang all the light of life and Being to the Creature so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 22. which is translated Before his works of old is rendred by some and signifies the East as well as Before But if it notes only his existence before 't is enough to prove his Deity The Scripture doth not only allow him an existence before the World but exalts him as the cause of the World A thing may precede another that is not the cause of that which follows a precedency in Age doth not entitle one Brother or thing the cause of another But our Saviour is not only Ancienter than the World but is the Creator of the World Heb. 1.10 11. Who laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of his hands So great an Elogy cannot be given to one destitute of Omnipotence Since the distance between Being and not Being is so vast a Gulf that cannot be surmounted and stept over but by an Infinite Power He is the First and the Last that called the Generations from the beginning †Isai 41.4 and had an Almighty voice to call them out of Nothing In which regard he is called the Everlasting Father Isai 9.6 as being the Efficient of Creation as God is called the Father of the Rain or as Father is taken for the Inventor of an Art as Jubal the first framer and Inventor of Musick is called the Father of such as handle the Harp Gen 4.21 And that Person is said to make the Sea and form the dry Land by his hands Psal 95.5 6. against whom we are exhorted not to harden our hearts verse 8. which is applied to Christ by the Apostle Heb. 3.8 in the 15 verse he is called a great King and a great God our Maker The Places wherein the Creation is attributed to Christ those that are the Antagonists of his Deity would evade by understanding them of the New or Evangelical not of the first Old and Material Creation But what appearance is there for such a sense Consider 1. That of Heb. 1.10 11. 't is spoken of that Earth and Heavens which were in the beginning of Time 't is that Earth that shall perish that Heaven that shall be folded up that Creation that shall grow old towards a decay that is only the visible and material Creation The Spiritual shall endure for ever it grows not old to decay but grows up to a perfection it sprouts up to its happiness not to its detriment The same Person creates that shall destroy and the same World is created by him that shall be destroyed by him as well as it subsisted by virtue of his Omnipotency 2. Can that also Heb. 1.2 By whom also he made the worlds speaking of Christ bear the same plea It was the same Person by whom God spake to us in these last times the same Person which he hath constituted Heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds And the Particle Also intimates it to be a distinct act from his Speaking or Prophetical Office whereby he restored and new created the World as well as the rightful foundation God had to make him Heir of all things It refers likewise not to the time of Christ's speaking upon Earth but to something past and something different from the publication of the Gospel 'T is not doth make which had been more likely if the Apostle had meant only the New Creation but hath made ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referring to time long since past something done before his appearance upon Earth as a Prophet By whom also he made the Worlds or Ages all things subjected to or measured by Time which must be meant according to the Jewish Phrase of this Material visible World So
1 Cor. 1.9 Is he the Instrumental or Principal cause of our effectual Vocation And can the Will of God be the Instrument of putting Paul into the Apostleship or the Soveraign cause of investing him with that Dignity when he calls himself an Apostle by the will of God Ephes 1.3 And when all things are said to be through God as well as of him must he be counted the Instrumental cause of his own Creation Counsels and Judgments * Rom. 11.36 When we mortifie the deeds of the Body through the Spirit Rom. 8.13 or keep the Treasure of the Word by the Holy Ghost 2 Tim. 1.14 Is the Holy Ghost of no more dignity in such acts than Instrument Nor doth the gaining a thing by a Person make him a meer Instrument or Inferior as when a Man gains his Right in a way of Justice against his Adversary by the Magistrate is the Judge inferiour to the Suppliant If the Word were an Instrument in Creation it must be a created or uncreated Instrument If Created it could not be true what the Evangelist saith that All things were made by him since himself the Principal thing could not be made by himself if Uncreated he was God and so acted by a Divine Omnipotency which surmounts an Instrumental cause But indeed an Instrument is impossible in Creation since it is wrought only by an act of the Divine Will Do we need any Organ to an act of Volition the efficacious Will of the Creator is the cause of the Original of the Body of the World with its particular Members and exact Harmony It was form'd by a Word and establish'd by a Command †Psal 33.9 the beauty of the Creation stood up at the Precept of his Will Nor was the Son a Partial cause as when many are said to build a House one works one part and another frames another part God created all things by the immediate operation of the Son in the unity of Essence Goodness Power Wisdom not an extrinsick but a connatural Instrument As the Sun doth illustrate all things by his Light and quickens all things by his Heat so God created the Worlds by Christ as he was the brightness or splendor of his Glory the exact image of his Person which follows the declaration of his making the Worlds by him ‖ Heb. 1.3 4. to shew that he acted not as an Instrument but one in Essential conjunction with him as Light and Brightness with the Sun But suppose he did make the World as a kind of Instrument He was then before the World not bounded by Time and Eternity cannot well be conceiv'd belonging to a Being without Omnipotency He is the End as well as the Author of the Creatures * Colos 1.16 not only the Principle which gave them Being but the Sea into whose glory they run and dissolve themselves which consists not with the meaness of an Instrument 2. As Creation so Preservation is ascribed to him Colos 1.17 By him all things consist As he preceded all things in his Eternity so he establishes all things by his Omnipotency and fixes them in their several Centers that they sink not into that nothing from whence he fetched them By him they flourish in their several Beings and observe the Laws and Orders he first appointed That Power of his which extracted them from insensible Nothing upholds them in their several Beings with the same facility as he spake Being into them even by the word of his Power ‖ Heb. 1 3. and by one Creative continued Voice called all Generations from the beginning to the Period of the World * Isai 41.4 and causes them to flourish in their several seasons 'T is by him Kings reign and Princes decree justice and all things are confin'd within the limits of Government All which are Acts of an Infinite Power 3. Resurrection is also ascrib'd to him The Body crumbled to Dust and that Dust blown to several quarters of the World cannot be gathered in its distinct parts and new formed for the entertainment of the Soul without the strength of an Infinite Arm. This he will do and more change the vileness of an Earthly Body into the glory of an Heavenly one a Dusty flesh into a Spiritual Body which is an argument of a Power Invincible to which all things cannot but stoop for it is by such an operation which testifies an ability to subdue all things to himself †Phil. 3.21 especially when he works it with the same ease as he did the Creation by the power of his Voice John 5.28 All that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth Speaking them into a restored life from insensible Dust as he did into Being from an empty Nothing The greatest acts of Power are own'd to belong to Creation Preservation Resurrection Omnipotence therefore is his Right and therefore a Deity cannot be denied to him that inherits a Perfection essential to none but God and impossible to be intrusted in or managed by the hands of any Creatures And this is no mean comfort to those that believe in him He is in regard of his Power the Horn of salvation so Zachariah sings of him Luke 1.69 Nor could there be any more Mighty found out upon whom God could have laid our help ‖ Psal 89.19 No reason therefore to doubt his ability to save to the utmost who hath the Power of Creation Preservation and Resurrection in his hands His Promises must be accomplished since nothing can resist him He hath Power to fulfil his Word and bring all things to a final issue because he is Almighty by his Outstretched Arm in the Deliverance of his Israel from Egypt for it was his Arm 1 Cor. 10. he shewed that he was able to deliver us from Spiritual Egypt The charge of Mediator to expiate Sin vanquish Hell form a Church conduct and perfect it are not to be effected by a Person of less ability than Infinite Let this Almightiness of his be the Bottom wherein to cast and fix the Anchor of our Hopes 2. Information Hence may be inferred the Deity of the Holy Ghost Works of Omnipotency are ascrib'd to the Spirit of God By the motion of the Wings of this Spirit as a Bird over her Eggs was that rude and unshapen Mass hatcht into a comly World * Gen. 1.2 So the word Moved properly signifies The Stars or perhaps the Angels are meant by the garnishing of the Heavens in the Verse before the Text were brought forth in their comliness and dignity as the ornaments of the upper World by this Spirit By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens To this Spirit Job ascribes the formation both of the Body and Soul under the Title of Almighty Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Resurrection another work of Omnipotency is attributed to him Rom. 8.11 The Conception of our Saviour
Understanding could not have been imputed to him as his Crime because it would have been not a voluntary but a necessary effect of his Nature had there been an error in the first Wheel the error of the next could not have been imputed to the Nature of that but to the irregular motion of the first Wheel in the Engine The sin of Men and Angels proceeded not from any natural defect in their Understandings but from Inconsideration He that was the Author of Harmony in his other Creatures could not be the Author of Disorder in the chief of his Works Other Creatures were his Footsteps but man was his Image †Gen. 1.26 27. Let us make man in our image after our likeness Which though it seems to imply no more in that place than an Image of his Dominion over the Creatures yet the Apostle raises it a peg higher and gives us a larger Interpretation of it Col. 3.10 And have put on the New-man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him making it to consist in a resemblance to his Righteousness Image say some notes the form as Man was a Spirit in regard of his Soul Likeness notes the quality implanted in his Spiritual Nature The Image of God was drawn in him both as he was a Rational and as he was a holy Creature The Creatures manifested the being of a Superiour Power as their Cause but the Righteousness of the first Man evidenced not only a Soveraign Power as the Donor of his being but a holy Power as the Patern of his Work God appeared to be a holy God in the Righteousness of his Creature as well as an Understanding God in the Reason of his Creature while he formed him with all necessary knowledge in his Mind and all necessary uprightness in his Will The Law of Love to God with his whole soul his whole mind his whole heart and strength was originally writ upon his Nature All the parts of his Nature were framed in a Moral Conformity with God to answer this Law and imitate God in his Purity which consists in a love of himself and his own Goodness and Excellency Thus doth the clearness of the Stream point us to the purer Fountain and the brightness of the Beam evidence a greater splendor in the Sun which shot it out 2. His Holiness appears in his Laws as he is a Law-giver and a Judge Since Man was bound to be subject to God as a Creature and had a capacity to be ruled by the Law as an understanding and willing Creature God gave him a Law taken from the depths of his holy Nature and suted to the Original Faculties of Man The Rules which God hath fixed in the World are not the Resolves of bare Will but result particularly from the Goodness of his Nature They are nothing else but the Transcripts of his Infinite detestation of sin as he is the unblemisht Governour of the World This being the most adorable Property of his Nature he hath imprest it upon that Law which he would have inviolably observed as a perpetual Rule for our Actions that we may every moment think of this beautiful Perfection God can command nothing but what hath some similitude with the rectitude of his own Nature All his Laws every Paragraph of them therefore scent of this and glitter with it Deut. 4.8 What Nation hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law I set before you this day and therefore they are compar'd to fine Gold that hath no speck or dross * Psal 19.10 This Purity is evident 1. In the Moral Law or Law of Nature 2. In the Ceremonial Law 3. In the Allurements annext to it for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it 4. In the Judgments inflicted for the Violation of it 1. In the Moral Law Which is therefore dignified with the title of holy twice in one Verse Rom. 7.12 Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment is holy just and good It being the express Image of God's Will as our Saviour was of his Person and bearing a resemblance to the Purity of his Nature The Tables of this Law were put into the Ark that as the Mercy Seat was to represent the Grace of God so the Law was to represent the Holiness of God †Psal 19.1 The Psalmist after he had spoken of the Glory of God in the Heavens wherein the Power of God is exposed to our view introduceth the Law wherein the Purity of God is evidenc'd to our Minds ‖ Vers 7 8. c. perfect pure clean righteous are the titles given to it 'T is clearer in Holiness than the Sun is in brightness and more mighty in it self to command the Conscience than the Sun is to run its Race As the Holiness of the Scripture demonstrates the Divinity of its Author so the Holiness of the Law doth the Purity of the Law-giver 1. The purity of this Law is seen in the Matter of it It prescribes all that becomes a Creature towards God and all that becomes one Creature towards another of his own rank and kind The Image of God is compleat in the Holiness of the first Table and the Righteousness of the second which is intimated by the Apostle Eph. 4.24 the one being the Rule of what we owe to God the other being the Rule of what we owe to man There is no good but it enjoyns and no evil but it disowns 'T is not sickly and lame in any part of it not a good action but it gives it its due praise and not an evil action but it sets a condemning mark upon The Commands of it are frequently in Scripture call'd Judgments because they rightly judge of good and evil and are a clear light to inform the Judgment of Man in the knowledge of both By this was the Understanding of David enlightned to know every false way and to hate it * Psal 119.104 There is no Case can happen but may meet with a determination from it It teaches men the noblest manner of living a life like God himself honourably for the Law-giver and joyfully for the subject It directs us to the highest End sets us at a distance from all base and sordid Practises it proposeth Light to the Understanding and Goodness to the Will It would Tune all the Strings set right all the Orders of Mankind It censures the least Mote countenanceth not any stain in the Life Not a wanton Glance can meet with any justification from it * Mat. 5.28 not a rash Anger but it frowns upon †Mat. 5.22 As the Law-giver wants nothing as an Addition to his Blessedness so his Law wants nothing as a Supplement to its perfection Deut. 4 2. What our Saviour seems to add is not an Addition to mend any defects but a restoration of it from the corrupt Glosses wherewith the Scribes and Pharisees had eclipst the brightness of
into his heart which forced that Terrible cry from him My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he adores this Perfection of Holiness v. 3. But thou art holy Thy Holiness is the Spring of all this sharp Agony and for this thou Inhabitest and shalt for ever inhabit the Praises of all thy Israel Holiness drew the Vail between Gods Countenance and our Saviours Soul Justice indeed gave the stroke but Holiness order'd it In this his Purity did sparkle and his Irreversible Justice manifested that all those that commit Sin are worthy of death this was the perfect Index of his Righteousness †Rom 3 2◠that is of his Holiness and Truth then it was that God that is Holy was sanctified in Righteousness Isai 5.16 It appears the more if you consider 1. The Dignity of the Redeemers Person One that had been from Eternity had laid the Foundations of the World had been the Object of the Divine Delight He that was God blessed for ever becomes a Curse He who was blessed by Angels and by whom God blessed the World must be seiz'd with Horrour The Son of Eternity must bleed to death Where did ever Sin appear so irreconcileable to God Where did God ever break out so furiously in his detestation of Iniquity The Father would have the most Excellent Person one next in order to himself and Equal to him in all the glorious Perfections of his Nature * Phil 2.6 Die on a Disgraceful Cross and be exposed to the flames of Divine Wrath rather than Sin should live and his Holiness remain for ever disparaged by the Violations of his Law 2. The near Relation he stood in to the Father He was his own Son that he delivered up Rom. 8.32 His Essential Image as dearly beloved by him as himself yet he would abate nothing of his Hatred of those Sins imputed to one so dear to him and who never had done any thing contrary to his Will The strong Cries utter'd by him could not cause him to cut off the least Fringe of this Royal Garment nor part with a Thred the Robe of his Holiness was woven with The Torrent of Wrath is open'd upon him and the Fathers Heart beats not in the least notice of Tenderness to Sin in the midst of his Sons Agonies †Lingend Tom. 3. p. 699 700. God seems to lay aside the Bowels of a Father and put on the garb of an Irreconcileable Enemy Upon which account probably our Saviour in the midst of his Passion gives him the Title of God not of Father the Title he usually before Addrest to him with Math. 27.46 My God my God not My Father my Father why hast thou forsaken me He seems to hang upon the Cross like a disinherited Son while he appear'd in the garb and rank of a Sinner Then was his Head loaded with Curses when he stood under that Sentence of Cursed is every one that hangs upon a Tree Gal. 3.13 and look'd as one forlorn and rejected by the Divine Purity and Tenderness God dealt not with him as if he had been one in so near a Relation to him He left him not to the Will only of the Instruments of his Death he would have the chiefest blow himself of bruising of him Isai 53.10 It pleased the Lord to bruise him the Lord because the power of Creatures could not strike a blow strong enough to satisfie and secure the Rights of Infinite Holiness It was therefore a Cup temper'd and put into his hands by his Father a Cup given him to drink In other Judgments he lets out his Wrath against his Creatures in this he lets out his Wrath as it were against Himself against his Son One as dear to him as himself As in his making Creatures his Power over Nothing to bring it into Being appear'd but in pardoning Sin he hath power over himself so in punishing Creatures his Holiness appears in his Wrath against Creatures against Sinners by inherency But by punishing Sin in his Son his Holiness sharpens his Wrath against him who was his Equal and only a reputed Sinner As if his Affection to his own Holiness surmounted his Affection to his Son For he chose to suspend the breakings out of his Affections to his Son and see him plunged in a sharp and Ignominious Misery without giving him any visible Token of his Love rather than see his Holiness lie groaning under the Injuries of a Transgressing World 3. The Value he puts upon his Holiness appears further in the Advancement of this Redeeming Person after his Death Our Saviour was Advanc'd not barely for his Dying but for the respect he had in his Death to this Attribute of God Heb. 1.9 Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath Anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness c. By Righteousness is meant this Perfection because of the opposition of it to Iniquity Some think Therefore to be the final Cause as if this were the sense Thou art anointed with the Oil of Gladness that thou mightest love Righteousness and hate Iniquity But the Holy Ghost seeming to speak in this Chapter not only of the Godhead of Christ but of his Exaltation the Doctrine whereof he had begun in Verse 3. and prosecutes in the following Verses I would rather understand Therefore For this cause or reason hath God anointed thee not to this end Christ indeed had an Unction of Grace whereby he was fitted for his Mediatory Work He had also an Unction of Glory whereby he was rewarded for it In the first regard it was a qualifying him for his Office in the second regard it was a solemn Inaugurating him in his Royal Authority And the Reason of his being setled upon a Throne for ever and ever is because he loved Righteousness He suffered himself to be pierced to Death that Sin the Enemy of Gods Purity might be destroy'd and the Honour of the Law the Image of Gods Holiness might be repair'd and fulfilled in the Fallen Creature He restored the Credit of Divine Holiness in the World in manifesting by his Death God an irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin in abolishing the Empire of Sin so hateful to God and restoring the rectitude of Nature and new framing the Image of God in his chosen Ones And God so valued this Vindication of his Holiness that he confers upon him in his Humane Nature an Eternal Royalty and Empire over Angels and Men. Holiness was the great Attribute respected by Christ in his dying and manifested in his Death and for his Love to this God would bestow an Honour upon his Person in that Nature wherein he did vindicate the Honour of so dear a Perfection In the Death of Christ he shewed his Resolution to preserve its Rights In the Exaltation of Christ he evidenced his mighty pleasure for the Vindication of it In both the Infinite value he had for it as dear to him as his Life and Glory 4. It
Tabernacle to which service most if not all of them were afterwards dedicated God who is Lawgiver hath power to dispence with his own Law and make use of his own Goods and dispose of them as he pleases 'T is no unholiness in God to dispose of that which he hath a right unto Indeed God cannot command that which is in its own nature intrinsically evill as to command a rational Creature not to love him not to worship him to call God to witness to a Lye these are intrinsically evil but for the disposing of the Lives and Goods of his Creatures which they have from him in right and not in absolute propriety is not evil in him because there is no repugnancy in his own Nature to such acts nor is it any thing inconsistent with the natural duty of a Creature and in such casâ—s he may use what instruments he please The Point was That Holiness is a glorious perfection of the nature of God We have shew'd the Nature of this Holiness in God what it is and we have demonstrated it and proved that God is holy and must needs be so and also the purity of his Nature in all his acts about sin Let us now improve it by way of Vse Vse Is holiness a transcendent perfection belonging to the Nature of God The first Vse shall be of Instruction and Information 1. How great and how frequeâ—â— is the contempt of this eminent perfection in the Deity Since the fall this attribute which renders God most amiable in himself renders him most hateful to his Apostate Creature 'T is impossible that he that loves iniquity can affect that which is irreconcileably contrary to the iniquity he loves Nothing so contrary to the sinfulness of man as the Holiness of God and nothing is thought of by the sinner with so much detestation How do Men account that which is the most glorious perfection of the divinity unworthy to to be regarded as an accomplishment of their own Souls And when they are pressed to an imitation of it and a detestation of what is contrary to it have the same sentiments in their Heart which the Devil had in his Language to Christ Why art thou come to torment us before our time What an enmity the World naturally hath to this perfection I think is visible in the practise of the Heathen who among all their Heroes which they deified elevated none to that dignity among them for this or that moral Vertue that came nearest to it but for their valour or some usefulness in the concerns of this Life Aesculapius was deified for his skill in the cure of Diseases Bacchus for the use of the grape Vulcan for his operations by Fire Hercules for his destroying of Tyrants and Monsters but none for their meer Vertue As if any thing of purity were unworthy their consideration in the frame of a Deity when it is the glory of all other Perfections So essential it is that when Men reject the imitation of this God regards it as a total rejection of himself though they own all the other attributes of his Nature Psal 81.11 Israel would none of me why because they walked not in his ways Vers 13. those ways wherein the purity of the Divine nature was most conspicuous They would own him in his Power when they stood in need of a Deliverance they would own him in his Mercy when they were plung'd in Distress but they would not imitate him in his Holiness This being the lustre of the Divine Nature the contempt of it is an obscuring all his other Perfections and a dashing a blot upon his whole Scutcheon To own all the rest and deny him this is to frame him as an unbeautiful Monster a Deformed power Indeed all sin is against this attribute all sin aims in general at the being of God but in particular at the Holiness of his Being All sin is a violence to this perfection There is not an Iniquity in the World but directs its venemous sting against the divine purity Some sins are directed against his Omniscience as secret Wickedness some against his Providence as distrust some against his Mercy as unbelief some against his Wisdom as neglecting the means instituted by him censuring his ways and actings some against his Power as trusting in means more than in God and the immoderate fear of Men more than of God some against his Truth as distrusting his Promise or not fearing his Threatning but all agree together in their enmity against this which is the peculiar glory of the Deity Every one of them is a receding from the Divine Image and the blackness of every one is the deeper by how much the distance of it from the holiness of God is the greater This contrariety to the Holiness of God is the cause of all the absolute Atheism if there be any such in the World What was the reason the Fool hath said in his heart there is no God but because the Fool is corrupt and hath done abominable works * Psal 14.1 If they believe the being of a God their own Reason will inforce them to imagine him holy Therefore rather then fancy a holy God they would fain fancy none at all In particular 1. The Holiness of God is injur'd in unworthy representations of God and imaginations of him in our own minds The Heathen fell under this guilt and ascribed to their Idols those Vices which their own Sensuality inclin'd them to unworthy of a man much more unworthy of a God that they might find a protection of their Crimes in the practice of their Idols But is this only the notion of the Heathens may there not be many among us whose love to their Lusts and desires of sinning without controul move them to slander God in their thoughts rather than reform their lives and are ready to frame by the power of their imaginative faculty a God not only winking but smiling at their Impurities I am sure God charges the Impieties of Men upon this score in that Psalm Psa 50.21 which seems to be a representation of the day of Judgment as some gather from Verse 6. When God â—ums up all together These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self not a detester but approver of thy crimes And the Psalmist seems to express Gods loathing of sin in such a manner as intimates it to be contrary to the Ideas and Resemblances Men make of him in their minds Psal 5.4 For thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness As we say in vindication of a man he is not such a man as you imagine him to be Thou art not such a God as the World commonly imagines Thee to be a God taking pleasure in iniquity 'T is too common for men to fancy God not as he is but as they would have him strip him of his excellency for their own security As God made man
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
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
change the security he may have upon the height of a Rock to expect it from the dwarfishness of a Mole-hill To put confidence in any inferiour Lord more than in the Prince is a folly in civil converse but a rebellion in Divine God only being above all can only rule all can command things to help us and check other things which we depend on and make them fall short of our expectations The due consideration of this Doctrine would make us pierce through second causes to the first and look further than to the smaller sort of Sailers that clime the ropes and dress the Sails to the Pilot that sits at the Helm the Master that by an indisputable Authority orders all their motions We should not depend upon second causes for our support but look beyond them to the Authority of the Deity and the dominion he hath over all the works of his hands Zach. 10.1 Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain When the seasons of the year conspire for the producing such an effect when the usual time of rain is wheel'd about in the year stop not your thoughts at the point of the Heavens whence you expect it but pierce the Heavens and sollicite God who must give order for it before it comes The due meditation of all things depending on the Divine Dominion would strike off our hands from all other holds so that no creature would engross the dependance and trust which is due to the first cause As we do not thank the Heavens when they pour out rain so we are not to depend upon them when we want it God is to be sought to when the Womb of 2d causes is open'd to relieve us as well as when the Womb of 2d causes is barren and brings not forth its wonted progeny 2. It would make us diligent in worship The consideration of God as the supream Lord is the Foundation of all Religion Our Father which art in Heaven prefaceth the Lord's Prayer Father is a name of Authority in Heaven the place where he hath fixed his Throne notes his Government not my Father but our Father notes the extent of this Authority In all worship we acknowledge the object of our worship our Lord and our selves his vassals If we bear a sense that he is our Soveraign King it would draw us to him in every exigence and keep us with him in a reverential posture in every address When we come we should be careful not to violate his right but render him the homage due to his Royalty We should not appear before him with empty souls but fill'd with Holy thoughts We should bring him the best of our flock and present him with the prime of our strength Were we sensible we hold all of him we should not with-hold any thing from him which is more worthy than another Our hearts would be fram'd into an awful regard of him when we consider that glorious and fearful name the Lord our God Deut. 28.58 We should look to our feet when we enter into his house if we considered him in Heaven upon his Throne and our selves on Earth at his Footstool Eccles 5.2 lower before him than a worm before an Angel It would hinder garishness and lightness The Jews saith Capel on the 1 Tim. 1.17 repeat this expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King of Worlds or Eternal King Probable the first Original of it might be to stake them down from wandring When we consider the Majesty of God cloathed with a Robe of light sitting upon his high Throne adorn'd with his Royal Ensigns we should not enter into the presence of so great a Majesty with the Sacrifice of fools with light motions and foolish thoughts as if he were one of our companions to be droll'd with We should not hear his word as if it were the voice of some ordinary Pesant The consideration of Majesty would engender reverence in our service It would also make us speak of God with honour and respect as of a great and glorious King and not use defaming expressions of him as if he were an infamous being And were he consider'd as a terrible Majesty he would not be frequently sollicited by some to pronounce a damnation upon them upon every occasion 3. It would make us charitable to others Since he is our Lord the great proprietor of the World 't is sit he should have a part of our goods as well as our time he being the Lord both of our goods and time The Lord is to be honour'd with our substance Prov. 3.9 Kings were not to be approached to without a present Tribute is due to Kings but because he hath no need of any from us to bear up his state maintain the charge of his wars or pay his Military Officers and Host 't is a debt due to him to acknowledge him in his poor to sustain those that are a part of his substance Though he stands in no need of it himself yet the poor that we have alwayes with us do As a 7th part of our weekly time so some part of our weakly gains are due to him There was to be a weekly laying by in store somewhat of what God had prosper'd them for the relief of others 1 Cor. 16.1 2. the quantity is not determin'd that is left to every man's Conscience according as God hath prosper'd him that week If we did consider God as the donor and proprietor we should dispose of his gifts according to the design of the true owner and act in our places as Stewards intrusted by him and not purse up his part as well as our own in our coffers We should not deny him a small quit rent as an acknowledgment that we have a greater income from him We should be ready to give the inconsiderable pittance he doth require of us as an acknowledgment of his propriety as well as liberality 4. It would make us watchfull and arm us against all temptations Had Eve stuck to her first Argument against the Serpent she had not been instrumental to that destruction which Mankind yet feel the smart of Gen. 3.3 God hath said ye shall not eat of it The great Governour of the World hath laid his Soveraign command upon us in this point The temptation gain'd no ground till her heart let go the sense of this for the pleasure of her eye and palate The repetition of this the great Lord of the World hath said or order'd had both unargumented and disarm'd the Tempter A sence of God's Dominion over us would discourage a temptation and put it out of countenance It would bring us with a vigorous strength to beat it back to a retreat If this were as strongly urg'd as the temptation it would make the heart of the tempted strong and the motion of the tempter feeble 5. It would make us entertain afflictions as they ought to be entertain'd viz. with a respect to God When men make light of
glory Pag. 83 Resignation of our selves would flow from consideration of God's Wisdom Pag. 414 415 Should from that of his Soveraignty Pag. 775 Restraint of Men and Devils by God in mercy to man Pag. 357 451 452 527 528 650 744 745 Resolutions good how soon broken Pag. 232 Resurrection of the Body no incredible Doctrine Pag. 319 320 479 480 The Power of God in that of Christ Pag. 460 Of Men ascribed to Christ Pag. 476 Reverence necessary in the worship of God Pag. 150 151 Revelations of God are not to be censured Pag. 403 404 Riches inordinate desire after them a hindrance to Spiritual worship Pag. 177 God exercises a Soveraignty in bestowing them Pag. 740 Rivers how useful Pag. 349 Rome why called Babylon Pag. 13 S. SAcraments the goodness of God in appointing them Pag. 639 Salvation of men how desirous God is of it Pag. 636 637 638 808 809 810 Sanctification deserves our thanks as much as Justification Pag. 698 Vide Holiness Satisfaction of the Soul only in God Pag. 36 37 127 128 200 Necessary for sin Pag. 549 550 Scepticks must own a first Cause Pag. 21 Scoffing at Holiness a great sin Pag. 543 544 And at Convictions in others Pag. 553 Scriptures are wrested and abused Pag. 58 59 79 Ought to be prized and studied Pag. 107 The not fulfilling some Predictions in them doth not prove God to be changeable Pag. 226 227 Of the Old Testament give credit to the New and of the New illustrate those of the Old Pag. 334 335 All Truth to be drawn thence ibid. Of the Old Testament to be studied ibid. Something in them sutable to all sorts of men Pag. 354 355 Written so as to prevent foreseen Corruptions Pag. 355 356 To study Arguments from them to defend sin a contempt of God's Holiness Pag. 542 543 The goodness of God in giving them as a Rule Pag. 652 653 654 Sea how useful Pag. 23 The Wisdom of God seen in it Pag. 349 And his Power Pag. 419 446 447 Searching the Hearts of Men how to be understood of God Pag. 287 Seasons the variety of them necessary Pag. 350 Secrecy a poor refuge to sinners Pag. 335 Secret sins cause stings of Conscience Pag. 35 313 Known to God Pag. 263 265 334 335 Shall be revealed in the Day of Judgment Pag. 318 319 Prayers and Works known to God Pag. 331 Security Men abuse God's blessings to it Pag. 668 Self man most opposite to those Truths that are most contrary to it Pag. 60 Man sets up as his own Rule Pag. 70 Dissatisfied with Conscience when it contradicts its desires Pag. 71 72 Meerly the agreeableness to it the spring of many materially good Actions Pag. 72 73 90 ad 94 153 154 Would make it the rule of God Pag. 74 ad 80 And his own end and the end of all Creatures and of God vid. End Applauding thoughts of it how common Pag. 82 Men ascribe the glory of what they have or do to it Pag. 82 83 Desire Doctrines pleasing to it Pag. 83 Highly concern'd for any injury done to it ibid. Obey it against the light of Conscience Pag. 84 How great a sin this is Pag. 84 85 The giving mercies pleasing to it the only cause of many mens love to God Pag. 90 91 Men unweildy to their duty where it is not concern'd Pag. 91 How sinful this is Pag. 94 The great Enemy to the Gospel and Conversion Pag. 101 102 Self-love threefold Pag. 80 81 The cause of all sin and hindrance of Conversion Pag. 81 82 Service of God how unwilling men are to it Pag. 63 64 Slight in the performance of it Pag. 64 65 Shew not that natural vigor in it as they do in their worldly business Pag. 65 Quickly weary of it Pag. 65 66 Desert it Pag. 66 The presence of God a comfort in it Pag. 268 Hypocritical pretences for avoiding it a denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 328 A sense of God's Goodness would make us faithful in it Pag. 681 Some called to and fitted for more eminent ones in their Generation Pag. 739 ad 744 Omissions of it a contempt of God's Soveraignty Pag. 762 763 Sin founded in a secret Atheism and Self-love Pag. 50 81 Reflects a dishonour on all the Attributes of God Pag. 50 Implies God is unworthy of a Being Pag. 50 51 Would make him a foolish impure and miserable Being Pag. 51 52 More troublesom than Holiness Pag. 63 To make it our end a great debasing of God Pag. 87 88 No excuse but an aggravation that we serve but one Pag. 87 Abstinence from it proceeds many times from an evil Cause Pag. 90 91 325 326 God's name word and mercies made use of to countenance it Pag. 94 542 543 668 669 815 Spiritual to be avoided Pag. 128 'T is folly Pag. 193 Past ones we should be humbled for Pag. 197 336 †Hath brought a Curse on the Creation Pag. 207 Vide Creatures Past known to God Pag. 282 283 All known to him and how Pag. 287 288 289 336 †337 †A sense of God's Knowledge and Holiness would check it Pag. 337 338 †554 555 Bounded by God Pag. 357 God brings glory to himself and good to the Creature out of it Pag. 358 ad 366 God hath shewn the greatest hatred of it in redemption Pag. 384 385 A contempt of God's Power Pag. 480 481 Abhorred by God Pag. 501 502 503 547 In God's People more severely punisht in this World than in others Pag. 502 503 God cannot be the Author of in others or do it himself Pag. 504 505 506 God punishes it and cannot but do so Pag. 511 547 548 549 The Instruments of it detestable to God Pag. 512 Opposite to the Holiness of God Pag. 540 To charge it on God or defend it by his word a great sin Pag. 542 543 Entrance of it into the World doth not impeach God's goodness Pag. 594 595 Those that disturb Societies most signally punisht in this life Pag. 651 A contempt of God's Dominion Pag. 752 753 754 How much God is daily provoked by it Pag. 806 807 808 823 An abuse of God's Patience Pag. 815 816 Sincerity required in Spiritual worship Pag. 143 Cannot be unknown to God Pag. 330 331 Consideration of God's Knowledge would promote it Pag. 338 339 †Sinful times in them we should be most holy Pag. 558 Sinners God hath shewn the greatest love to them and hatred to their sins Pag. 384 385 Every thing in their possession detestable to God Pag. 512 Society the goodness of God seen in the preservation of it Pag. 649 ad 652 Could not subsist without restraining Grace v. Restraint Soul the vastness of its capacity and quickness of its motion Pag. 32 33 Its union to the Body wonderful ibid. God only can satisfie it v. Satisfaction They only can converse with God Pag. 127 Should be the Objects of our chiefest care Pag. 128 We should worship God with them Pag. 132 133 The Wisdom and