for ever and it is an incommunicable Attribute of his Divine Essence to be so But because all the perfections and properties of God are God himself therefore this everlastingness here in the Doxology ascribed to his Kingdom his Power and his Glory are said to be for ever Yet not only these but whatsoever is in God is absolutely Eternal His Righteousness is an everlasting Righteousness Psal 119.142 His Truth endureth for ever Psal 117.2 His Mercy is for ever Psal 136.1 His Mercy endureth for ever which is there made the burden of that most excellent Song and the sweet close of every verse in it His Love is for ever Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love Now in treating of the Attributes of God I shall endeavour to shew these three things First What the true and proper notion of Eternity is Secondly That God is Eternal Thirdly What encouragement our Faith may have from this Attribute of God's Eternity that those things which we pray unto him for shall be granted unto us First Let us see what Eternity is And here though it be altogether impossible exactly to describe what is boundless and infinite yet to help our weak and shallow conceptions we may take this notion of it Eternity is a duration which hath neither beginning nor end nor succession of parts Or according to the common description of Boethius Est interminabilis vitae tota simul perfecta possessio It is the compleat possession of an endless life all at once So that it is distinguished from all other durations whatsoever First In that other durations have had their beginnings for all things were Created either in time or with time but Eternity was before all time and shall be after it Secondly In that all Temporal durations are successive measured by the motions of Heavenly Bodies by years days and hours but Eternity is permanent it is but one abiding instant and hath no parts following one after another and though it comprehends all time within its infinite Circle yet it doth not move along with time For as Rivers are contained within their banks and flow along by them part after part without any motion of the banks themselves so Time is contained within Eternity and flows along in it without any motion or succession of Eternity it self This I confess is hard if not altogether impossible to be formed into an Idea yet conceiving Reason will infallibly demonstrate that Being which neither hath beginning nor end can have no succession in its duration for where-ever there is Succession there must needs be a Priority and where-ever there is a Priority there must needs be a beginning And if Eternity did consist and were made up of such parts as are equal and commensurate to our years and days it must needs follow that these parts themselves must be infinite for if they be but finite we shall come to a beginning which is not to be granted in Eternity And if they be infinite then in Eternity there must be as many Millions of Years as of Minutes and consequently a Minute would be equal to a Million of Years yea the least part of a Minute would be equal to it which is grosly absurd But I shall not detain you with these Philosophical Speculations Only when we say that God is from everlasting to everlasting we ought not to conceive that there is any Succession in his duration that he grows older or that he hath continued longer this day than he was yesterday For though when we speak of God we are forced to use such expressions and denote Succession in his Being as that he was from everlasting and that he shall be to everlasting yet to say that God was or that he shall be is only allowable by reason of the penury of our conceptions But in strict propriety these are derogatory to him for God neither was nor shall be but only is and enjoys his Eternal Essence immutably and unsuccessively And therefore when Moses demanded his Name that he might inform the Israelites who that God was that would take pity of their Sufferings he tells him thou shalt say unto them I AM hath sent me to you Exod. 3.14 And this indeed is the best and fittest expression of his Eternity and unchangableness Yea and the Scripture hath given us one more high and lofty expression of it Psal 90.4 A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past what is yesterday to this day but a mere nothing So a thousand years yea all the thousand years and all the time that ever the Orbs of Heaven shall spin out to the World is all to God but as yesterday when it is past he lives not by it nor is his Being measured out by days or years but it is a perpetual Now a standing Moment an indivisible and permanent instant without flux or vicissitude Indeed it is wholly inconsistent with Eternity and an infinite duration that there should be any thing past or any thing to come in it For what is already past cannot be infinite because it is already ended And what is to come cannot be Eternal because there was something going before it And from hence it appears that a duration which is Eternal must be without beginning without end and without any Succession of parts Now Secondly That God is thus Eternal appears both from clear Evidence of Scripture and invincible demonstrations of Reason it self First The Scripture bears abundant witness to the Truth of this Attribute Psal 102.25 26 27. The Heavens are the Works of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old as a Garment but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end Psal 90.2 Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Isa 43.10 Before me was there no God formed neither shall there be after me 1. Tim. 1.17 Now to the King Eternal and Immortal the only Wise God be Honour and Glory But I cannot stand to cite all the Testimonies that might be alleadged Secondly The Eternity of God may be demonstrated by clear and irrefragable reason And that I shall give you in these several gradations First It is absolutely necessary that there be some first cause of all things that are made which is not it self made or produced by any For the series of Causes is not infinite otherwise no effect could be produced since what is infinite cannot be pass'd through And if all Beings that are are caused by some pre-existent Being then there is not nor ever was a Being before which there was not another and so this gross absurdity will follow That before there was a Being there was a Being which is a contradiction Therefore we must necessarily rest in some first Cause from which all things have their Origin and is it self caused by no other Secondly
comes from the Grace of God therefore much less can we do any thing to merit it Far be it from us to affirm as the Papists do that Good Works proceeding from Grace are Meritorious of Pardon and Salvation Alas what are our Prayers our Sighs our Tears yea our very Blood should we spend it for Christ They are but poor imperfect things and are so far from having in them any infinite worth and value to counterbalance our sins that the defects of them add to the number of our other Transgressions They cannot all of them make one blot in the Book of God's Remembrance but may well make more Items there against us Had it been possible for Men to have quitted scores with Divine Justice by what they could do or suffer Heaven would not have been so needlessly lavish as to send Christ into the World to lead an afflicted Life and to die an accursed Death only for our Redemption and Salvation Secondly The Pardoning Grace of God is not free in respect of Christ but it cost him the price of Blood It is the Blood of the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World that crosseth the Debt-Book Without shedding of Blood there is no remission says the Apostle Heb. 9.22 And this is my Blood which was shed for the Remission of sins Matth. 26.28 And although possibly God might according to his absolute Sovereignty have freely remitted all the sins of all the World without any kind of Satisfaction only by a Free and Gracious Act of Mercy Yet considering that he had otherwise declared in his unalterable Word of Truth that there must be a recompence made him for all our offences it had been a wrong to his Veracity if not to his Justice to have granted the Pardon of any one sin without the intervention of a full price and satisfaction No satisfaction could be made correspondent to the wrong done to an infinite God but by an infinite Person who was God himself for had the Person been finite the Sufferings must have been Eternal otherwise they could not have been proportionable to the offence which requires an infinite Satisfaction But if the Sufferings had been Eternal Satisfaction could never have been made but would for ever have bene making unto the Justice of God and consequently our sins could never have been Pardoned And therefore God appointed to this Work of reconciling himself to fallen Man his only begotten Son God Co-equal and Co-eternal with himself and every way infinite as himself that he might be able to bear the whole Wrath of God at once and at one bitter draught drink off the whole Cup of Fury which we should have been draining by little drops to all Eternity So that Justice being satisfied in the Sufferings of Christ for the sins of those whose Persons and whose guilt he sustained upon the Cross Mercy hath now a way opened to Glorifie its Riches in their Pardon and Salvation Thus in these two Positions it appears that though the remitting of our sins be an Act of God's Free Grace and Mercy in respect of us yet it is the effect of Purchace in respect of Christ God Pardons sins to them who committed them upon their Faith and Repentance but he Pardon 's not those very sins to Christ to whom they were imputed but exacted Satisfaction from him to the very utmost rigour of Justice Hence it follows Thirdly That the Pardon of sin is not only an Act of meer free Grace and Mercy but according to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace it is also an Act of Justice in God Indeed both Mercy and Justice are concurrent in it for since by the Union of Faith we are made one Mystical Body with Christ it could not consist with the Equity of God to punish the sins of Believers in their own Persons for this would be no other than to punish them twice for the same Offence once in their surety and again in themselves Now what abundant cause of Comfort may this be to all true Believers that God's Justice as well as his Mercy shall acquit them That that Attribute of God at the Apprehension of which they were wont to tremble should interpose on their behalf and plead for them Yet through the all-All-sufficient Expiation and Atonement that Christ hath made for our sins this Mystery is effected and Justice it self brought over from being a formidable Adversary to be of our Party and to Plead for us Therefore the Apostle tells us 1 John 1.9 That God is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins And St. Paul 2 Thessal 1.6 7. It is a Righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels Fourthly When God pardons he doth no longer account of us as sinners Indeed after Pardon we still retain sinful and corrupt Natures and there is that Original Pollution in us that can never be totally dislodged in this Life But yet when God pardons he looks not upon us as Sinners but as Just The Malefactor that is legally discharged either by satisfying the Law or by his Princes Grace and Favour towards him is no more reputed a Malefactor but as Just and Righteous as if he had never offended So is it with us we are both ways discharged of our guilt both by satisfying the penalty of the Law in Christ our Surety and by the Free Grace and Mercy of God who hath Sealed to us a Gracious Act of Pardon and therefore we are Just in the sight of God as if we had never sinned Fifthly Pardon of sin is one great part of our Justification Justification consists of these two parts Remission and Acceptance We have them both joyned together Ephes 1.6 7. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved in whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins Remission of sins takes away our liableness to Death Acceptation of our persons gives us a Title unto Life Now to be free from our obnoxiousness to Death and instated in a Right to Eternal Life these two Constitute a perfect Justification For to be accepted of God in Christ is no other than for God through the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ imputed to us to own and acknowledge us to have a Right to Heaven And therefore we have mention of Pardon and an Inheritance together in St. Paul's Commission to his Ministery Acts 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified It is not therefore O Soul a bare negative Righteousness that God intends thee in the Pardon of thy sins it is not meerly to remove the Curse and Wrath thy sins have deserved though that alone can never sufficiently be admired but the same hand that plucks thee out of Hell by Pardon lifts thee up to Heaven by what he gives thee together with
to another part less dangerous So God by his Providence many times turns Men from the Commission of greater sins to a lesser sin And I believe there are but few Men who if they will but seriously examine their lives may produce may instances both of the Devil's policy in fitting them with occasions and opportunities of sinning and of God's Providence in causing some urgent Affairs or some sudden and unexpected Accidents to intervene whereby they are turned off from what they purposed Fourthly Sometimes by his Providence he takes off the Objects against which they intended to sin Thus God preserved St. Peter from Herod's Ambitious Rage He intended the next morning to put him to Death but that very night God sends his Angel to work his escape and thereby hinders the execution of that wicked purpose And thus in all Ages God many times hides his Children from the fury of wicked Men that their Wrath against them like Saul's Javelin misseth David and striketh only the Wall from whence it often rebounds back into their own Faces These now are some of the most remarkable Methods of Divine Providence in preventing the sins of Men. And I am very prone to think that there are very few who if they will be at the pains to reflect back upon and strictly examine that part of their lives that is past and gone they may easily produce many remarkable instances both of the Devil's Policy in fitting them with opportunities and occasions of sinning and of God's Providences in causing some immergent affairs or some other strange and unexpected accidents to interpose so that he hath either Graciously taken away our power or taken away the Objects of our Lusts or diverted us when we were in the pursuits of them To this we owe much of the innocency and in some respects blamelessness of our lives that we have not been a scandal to the Gospel a shame to the Good and a scorn to the Bad and this is the first way how God preserves from sin by his Providence Secondly God preserves from sin by his restraining Grace Now this restraining Grace is that which is common and vouchsafed to wicked Men as well as good Indeed God by it deals in a secret way with the very heart of a sinner and though he doth not change the habitual yet he changeth the present actual disposition of it so as not only by external checks laid upon Mens Lusts but by internal persuasions motives and arguments they are taken off the prosecution of those very sins which yet remain in them unmortified and raigning Thus Esau comes out against his Brother Jacob with a Troop of two hundred Ruffians intending doubtless to take revenge upon him for his Birth-right and Blessing but at their first meeting God by a secret work so mollifies his heart that instead of falling upon him to kill him he falls upon his neek and kisses him Here God restrain'd Esau from that bloody sin of Murder not in a way of External Providence only but with his own hand he immediately turns about his heart and by seeing such a company of Cattel bleating and bellowing timorous Women and helpless Children bowing and supplicating to him he turns his Revenge into Compassion and with much urging receives a Present from him whom he thought to have made a Prey The same powerful restraint God laid upon the heart of Abimelech a Heathen King Gen. 20.6 where God tells him I with-held thee from sinning against me and therefore suffered I thee not to touch her Here was nothing visible that might hinder Abimelech but God invisibly wrought upon his heart and unhing'd his sinful desires And from these two instances of Esau and Abimelech we may clearly collect how restraining Grace differs both from restraining Providence and from Sanctifying Grace from Providence it differs because usually when God Providentially restrains from sin he doth it by some visible apparent means which do not reach to work any change or alteration upon the heart but only lays an external check upon Mens sinful Actions But by restraining Grace God deals in a secret way with the very heart of a sinner and although he doth not change the nature of it yet he alters the present inclination of it and takes away the desire of committing those sins which yet he doth not mortifie And from Sanctifying Grace it differs also in that God vouchsafes it to wicked Men and Reprobates to the end that their Lives may be more plausible their Gifts more serviceable and their Condemnation more intolerable And indeed the efficacy of this restraining Grace may be so great that there may appear but very little difference between the Conversation of a true Christian whom Special Grace Sanctifies and the Conversation of one in a State of Nature whom common Grace only restains they may both live outwardly without blame or offence avoiding the gross pollutions of the World and shine in a Sphere above the ordinary sort of Men and yet the one be a Star and the other but a Meteor The high-way may be as dry and as fair in a Frosty Winter as in a warm Summer bur there is a great deal of difference in the cause of it In Summer the Sun dries up the moisture in Winter the Frost binds it in So the ways of those who have only a restraint laid upon them may be as fair and clear as the ways of those who are truly Sanctified but the cause is vastly different Grace hath dried up the filth of the one but ownly bound in the filth of the other Now God doth thus by his restraining Grace preserve Men from sin by propounding to them such Considerations and Arguments as may be sufficient to engage Conscience against it when yet the Will and Affections are still bent towards it Restraining Grace thunders the Curse of the Law and brandisheth the Sword of Justice in the Face of a sinner reports nothing but Hell and Everlasting Torments and such terrible things which may scare Men from their sins though still they love them It is indeed a great Mercy of God to keep us from sin even by legal terrours and usually these are a good preparation and introduction for saving Grace Doubtless the thoughts and fears of Hell have with very good success been made use of to keep Men from those sins that lead unto Hell But yet if in our conflicts against Temptations we can draw Arguments from no other Topicks but Hell and Eternal Death and Destruction If we cannot as well quench the Fiery Darts of the Devil in the Blood of Jesus Christ as in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone it is much to be doubted whether our abstaining from sin be from any higher principle than what is common only for fear of punishment and not for love of God or Goodness Thirdly God hath another method of keeping Men from sin and that is by his Special and Sanctifying Grace And this is proper only to the
illapse and penetration of the Divine Influence he powerfully sways and determines them which way he pleaseth And from this part of his Providence brancheth forth his permission of Evil Actions and his concurrence to good both by the assistance of his common and likewise of his special Grace and lastly his general influence into all the Actions of our Lives all which we are inabled to perform by the Almighty power of the Divine Providence which as at first it bestowed upon us natural faculties so by a constant concurrence doth exite and assist those faculties to their respective operations Secondly God by his governing providence distributes rewards and punishments according to our actions And this part of his providence is oftentimes remarkable even in this present Life when we see retributions of Divine Mercy and Vengeance signally proportioned according to Mens demerits but the more especial manifestation and execution of it is commonly adjourned to the Life to come and then all the seeming inequalities of God's dispensations here will be fully adjusted in the eternal recompence of the Godly and eternal punishment of the wicked and impenitent Now by this Almighty providence God over-rules and sways all things to his own glory There is nothing comes to pass but God hath his ends in it and will certainly make his own ends out of it though the World seem to run at random and affairs to be hudled together in blind confusion and rude disorder yet God sees and knows the Concatenation of all causes and effects and so governs them that he makes a perfect harmony out of all those seeming Jarrings and Discords As you may observe it in the wheels of a Watch though they all move with contrary motions one to the other yet they are useful and necessary to make it go right so is it in these inferiour things the proceedings of Divine providence are all regular and orderly to his own ends in all the thwartings and contrarieties of second causes We have this express'd in that mysterious Vision Eccles 1.18 where the providences of God are set forth by the Emblem of a Wheel within a Wheel one intersecting and crossing another yet they are described to be full of eyes round about What is this but to denote unto us that though providences are as turning and unstable as Wheels though they are as thwart and cross as one Wheel within another yet these Wheels are all Nailed round with Eyes God sees and chuses his way in the most intricate and intangled providences that are and so governs all things that whilst each pursues its own inclination they are all over-ruled to promote his glory This is providence the two great parts of which are preservation and Government and the great end of both these the glory of the Almighty and All-wise God And this is it which our Saviour speaks of when he tells the Jews John 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto viz. in preserving and governing his Creatures and I work Secondly The second General propounded was to demonstrate to you That all things in the World are governed by the Divine Providence The Old Philosophers among the Heathens had very different notions concerning the Government of the World Some held that all things were governed by an imperious and inevitable fate to which God himself was Subject So Chrysippus and the Stoicks Others thought that all was left to blind chance and whatsoever came to pass here below was only casual and fortuitous so the Epicureans Others that the great God regarded only the more glorious affairs of Heaven but had committed the care of Earthly concernments unto inferiour Spirits as his under Officers and Deputies So most of the Platonists though their master was Orthodox Others that God's providence reached only to the great and important matters of this World but that it was too much a disparagement to his infinite Majesty to look after the motion of every Straw and Feather and to take care of every trivial and inconsiderable Occurrence in this World So speaks Cicero in his Book de natura Deorum Magna Dii curant parva neglignut vide Ariani Epictet lib. 1. cap. 12. How much better is that most excellent saying of St. Austin Tu sic curas unumquemque nostrum tanquam solum cures sic omnes tanquam singulos God takes as much care of every particular as if each were all and as much care of all as if all were but one particular And to demonstrate this all disposing providence of God I shall take two ways First From the consideration of the nature and perfection of the Deity Secondly From the contemplation of that beauty and order which we may observe in the World It is most necessary that we should have our hearts well Establish'd in the firm and unwavering belief of this truth that whatsoever comes to pass be it good or evil we may look up to the hand and disposal of all to God and if it be good may acknowledge it with praise if evil bear it with patience since he dispenseth both the one and the other the good to reward us and the evil to try us Now first To demonstrate it from the being and nature of God This I shall do in these following Propositions which I shall lay down as so many steps and gradations First That there is a God is undoubtedly clear by the light of Nature Never was there any People so barbarous and stupid but did firmly assent to this truth without any other proof than the deep impress upon their hearts and the observation of visible objects that there was a Deity 'T is neither a Problem of reason nor yet strictly an Article of Faith but the unforced dictate of every Man 's Natural Conscience where Conscience is not violently perverted and under the force of those vices whose interest it is that there should be no God Never was there any Nation that worshipp'd none but their great sottishness was that they worshipp'd many Secondly As all confess there is a God so likewise that this God must necessarily have in himself all perfections as being the first Principle and Source of all things All these perfections of Wisdom Power Knowledge or the like that we see scattered up and down among the Creatures must all be concentred in God and that in a far more eminent degree because whatever is found in Creatures is but derived and borrowed from him and therefore it must needs follow that because it is of more perfection to be infinite in each perfection therefore God is infinite in them all Thirdly Among all the perfections that are dispersed among the Creatures the most excellent is knowledge and understanding For this is a property that agrees only to Angels and Men who are the top and flower of the Creation and therefore certainly this perfection of the Creatures is to be found in God yea and that infinitely His knowledge and wisdom therefore is infinite Fourthly His knowledge