is most unreasonable of all O Sirs when you read and hear of the wonderful weighty matters of the Scripture of an Endless Life and the way thereto bethink you if these things be True what manner of persons you should be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. If the Word be True that telleth us of Death and Judgement and Heaven and Hell is it time for us to sin to trifle and live unready 2. The Truth of God is the Terror of his Enemies O happymen if their Unbelief could make void the Threatnings of God and doubting of them would make them false and if their misery were as easily remedied as denied and ended as easily as now forgotten or forgotten hereafter as easily as now But true and righteous is the Lord and from the beginning his Word is true Psal. 119. 16. Not a word shall fall to the ground nor a jot or tittle pass unfufilled 3. The Truth of God is the Ground of Faith and the stay of our souls and the Rock of all our confidence and comfort A Christian did not differ from another man unless in being somewhat more deluded if God were not True But this is the foundation of all our hopes and the life of our Religion and all that we are as Christians proceeds from this Faith is animated by Gods Veracity and from thence all other Graces flow or are excited in us O Christians what a treasure is before your eyes when you open the Blessed Book of God! what life should it put into your confidence and comforts to think that all these words are true All those descriptions of the Everlasting Kingdome and all those exceeding precious Promises of this life and that which is to come and all the expressions of that exceeding Love of God unto his servants all these are the True sayings of God A faithful witness will not Lye Prov. 14. 5. much less will the faithful God Eternal Life is promised by God that cannot Lye Tit. 1. 2. Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsels confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to Lye we might have a strong Consolation who have fled for Refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Heb. 6. 17 18. Let Faith therefore live upon the Truth of God and let us be strengthned and rejoyce therein 4. Abhor all doctrines which deny the Truth and Faithfulness of God For they destroy the ground of Christian Faith of all Divine Faith and all Religion The Veracity of God is the formal Object of all Divine Faith We believe God because he cannot Lye If he can Lye and do Lye he is not credible But you will say Is there any that hold such odious doctrines Answ. I like not the charging of Persons with the consequences of their opinions which they discern not but disclaim God will not charge them with such consequences who do their best to know the truth and why should we All men have some errours whose consequences contradict some Articles of Faith It is not the persons that I perswade you to dislike but the Doctrine And the Doctrine is never the less to be abhorred because a wise or good man may hold that which doth infer it I shall now instance only in the Dominicans predetermination They that hold that it is necessary to the being of every circumstantiated act natural and free that God be the principal immediate Physical efficient predetermining cause of it do hold that he so causeth all the false speeches and writings as well as other sins that ever were spoken or written in the world not only as they are acts in genere but as these words in particular as that he so predetermined the tongues of Ananias and Saphira to say those very words which they said rather than others Now seeing it is apparent 1. That God hath not a voice but speaketh to us by a Created Voice even by Prophets and Apostles and that the Scripture was written by men 2. And that Gods Veracity which is the formal object of our Faith consisteth in his not using lying instruments nor sending a lying messenger to us it is Veracitas revelantis per alium 3. And that no way of Inspiration can make God to be any more the cause of the words or writings of an Apostle than his Immediate Physical efficient specifying predetermination doth for it can do no more than irresistibly as the first cause Physically to premove the agent to this Thought Will Word or Deed considered with all its circumstances It followeth that we have no certainty when God premoveth an Apostle or Prophet to speak true and when to speak falsly and that no words or writings are o certain truth upon any account of Gods inspiration or premotion because God not only can but doth cause all the untruths that are spoken or written in the world Therefore no Faith in Gods Revelations hath any sure foundation nor any formal object at all And so all Religion is dasht out at a stroke To say that God causeth not the falsity of the word nor the word as false but the word which is false might well be the justification of them that affirm God to be but the Universal Cause of the Word oâ— Act in genere as a Word or Act and that the specification is only from the sinner But in them that say he is the particular Cause of this word comparatively rather than another it is but a contradiction 1. For there is no other cause of the falsity which is a meer Relation but that which causeth the Rule and the Word or Writing which is false and so layeth the foundation 2. It overthroweth all certainty of Faith if God speak to us by his Instruments those words that are false The Quod falsum as well as the Qua falsum leaveth us no ground of certainty The Dominicans therefore have but one task in which their hope is placed to excuse their opinion from plain obliterating all Divine Belief and Religion and that is to prove that there is so great a difference between Inspiration and their Physical Predetermination that God cannot by Inspiration premove to an untruth though by Physical Predetermination he may This is their task which I see not the least possibility that ever they should perform If God premove and predeterminate every Will and Tongue and Pen to every lye that is spoken or written more potently and irresistibly than I move my Pen in writing it is past my power to understand what more he can do by inspiration to interest him in the Creatures Act or at least how the difference can be so great as that one of the waies he can predetermine all men to their falsities and none the other way But of this I have written a large Disputation yet think it not needless even in a practical Treatise to
we must say that in this Blessed Deity in the Unity of Essence there is a Trinity of Essential properties and Attributes that is Power Wisdom and Goodness Life Light and Love The measure of which is to have no measure but to be Infinite And therefore this Being is Eternal and not measured by Time being without Beginning or end He is Immense as being not measured by Place but containeth all places and is contained in none He is Perfect as not Measured by Parts or by Degrees but quite above Degrees and Parts This Infiniteness of his Being doth communicate it self or also consist in the Infiniteness of his Essential properties His Power is Omipotency that is Infinite Power His Knowledge or wisdom is Omniscience that is Infinite Wisdom His Goodness is Felicity it self or Infinite Goodness The first seal to our Cognisance on which he engraved this his Image was the Creation that is 1. The whole world in General 2. The Intellectual Nature or Man in special In the Being of the Creation and every particular Creature his Infinite Being is revealed so wretched a Fool is the Atheist that by denying God he denyeth all things Could he prove that there is no God I would quickly prove that there is no world no man no creature If he know that he is himself or that the world or any Creature is he may know that God is For God is the Original Being And all Being that is not Eternal must have some Original And that which hath no Original is God being Eternal Infinite and without cause The Power of God is revealed in the Being and Powers of the Creation His Wisdom is revealed in their Nature Order Offices Effects c. His Goodness is revealed in the Creatures Goodness its beauty usefulness and accomplishments But though all his Image thus appear upon the Creation yet is it his Omnipotency that principally there appears The beholding and consideration of the wonderful greatness activity and excellency of the Sun the Moon the Stars the fire and other creatures doth first and chiefly possess us with apprehensions of the Infinite Greatness or Power of the Creator In the Holy Word or Laws of God which is the second glass or seal more clear and legible to us than the former there appeareth also all his Image His power in the narratives predictions c. His Wisdom in the prophesies precepts and in all His Goodness in the promises and institutions in a special manner But yet it is his second property his Wisdom that most eminently appeareth on this second seal and is seen in the glass of the holy Law The discovery of such mysteries the revelation of so many Truths the suitableness of all the instituted means and the admirable fitness of all the holy contrivances of God and all his precepts promises and threatnings for the Government of Mankind and carrying him on for the attainment of his end in a way agreeable to his nature these shew that wisdom that is most Eminently here revealed though Power and Goodness be revealed with it so in the face of Jesus Christ who is the third and most perfect seal and glass there is the Image of the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the Godhead But yet it is the Love or Goodness of the Father that is most Eminently revealed in the son His Power appeared in the incarnation the conquests over Satan and the world the Miracles the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ. His wisdom appeareth in the admirable mysterie of Redemption and in all the parts of the office works and laws of Christ and in the means appointed in subordination to him But Love and Goodness shineth most clearly and amiably through the whole it being the very end of Christ in this blessed work to reveal God to man in the Richoâ— of his Love as giving us the greatest mercies by the most precious means in the meetest season and manner for our good Reconciling us to himself and treating us as Children with Fatherly compassions and bringing us nearer him and opening to us the everlasting treasure having brought life and immortality to light in the Gospel God being thus revealed to man from without in the three Glasses or Seals of the Creation Law and Son himself he is also revealed to us in our selves man being as it were a little world In the Nature of man is revealed as in a Seal or Glass the nature of the blessed God in some measure In Unity of Essence we have a Trinity of Faculties of soul even the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational as our bodies have both parts and spirits Natural Vital and Animal the Rational Power in Unity hath also its Trinity of faculties even Power for Execution Understanding for Direction and Will for Command The measure of Power is Naturally sufficient to its use and end the understanding is a faculty to reason discern and discourse The will hath that Freedom which beseemeth an undetermined self-determining creature here in the way Besides this Physical Image of God that is inseparable from our Nature we have also his Law written in our hearts and are our selves objectively part of the Law of nature that is the signifiers of the will of God Had we not by sin obliterated somewhat of this Image it would have shewed it self more clearly and we should have been more capable of understanding it And then when we are Regenerate and Renewed by the Grace and Spirit of Christ and planted into him as living members of his body we have then the third impression upon our souls and are made like our Head in Wisdom Holiness and in effectual strength Considered as Creatures endued with Power understanding and will we have the Impress of all the foresaid Attributes of God But Eminently of his Power Considered as we were at first possessed with the light and law of works or Nature of which we yet retain some part so we have the Impress of all these Attributes of God But most Eminently of his Wisdom Considered as Regenerate by the Spirit and planted into Christ so we have the impress of all his said Attributes But most eminently of his Love and Goodness shining in the Moral accomplishments or graces of the soul. Man being thus made at first the Natural and Sapiential image of God with much of the Image of his Love the Lord did presently by necessary Resultancy and voluntary consent stand Related to us in such variety of Relations as answer the foresaid Properties and Attributes And these Relations of God to us are next to be known as flowing from his Attributes and Works As we have our derived Being from God who is the Primitive Eternal Being so from our Being given by Creation God is Related to us as our Maker From this Relation of a Creator in Unity there ariseth a Trinity of Relations This Trintty is in that Unity and that Unity in this Trinty First God having made us of nothing is necessarily
course of nature in themselves and others nor govern the world so sure is there an Infinite eternal Being that doth this Every Atheist that is not mad must confess that there is an Eternal Being that had no beginning or cause The question is only which this is which ever it is it is this that is the true God What now would the Atheist have it to be Certainly it is that Being that hath being it self from none that is the first cause of all other Beings And if it caused them it must necessarily be every way more excellent then they and contain all the good that it hath caused For none can give that which it hath not to give nor make that which is better then it self that Being that hath made so glorious a creature as the Sun must needs it self be much more glorious It could not have put strength and power into the Creatures if it had not it self more strength and power It could not have put Wisdom and Goodness into the Creature if it had not more Wisdom and Goodness then all they Whatever it is therefore that hath more Power Wisdom and Goodness then all the world besides that is it which we call God That cause that hath communicated to all things else the Being Power and all perfections which they have is the God whom we acknowledge and adore If Democritists will ascribe all this to Atomes and think that the Motes did make the Sun or if others will think that the Sun is God because it participateth of so much of his excellency let them be mad a while till judgement shall convince them So clear beyond all question to my soul is the Being of the Godhead that the Devil hath much lost the rest of his more subtil temptations when he hath foolishly and maliciously adjoyned this to draw me to question the Being of my God which is more then to question Whether there be a Sun in the Firmament But what is the Impress that the Being of God must make upon the Soul I answer From hence the holy soul discerneth that the Beginning and the End of his Religion the substance of his Hope is the Being of Beings and not a shaddow and that his faith is not a fansie The Object is as it were the matter of the act If our faith and hope and Love and Fear be exercised about the most Real Being it shews that there is a Reality in our faith and that we be not exercised in a delusory work God is to the Atheist but an empty name He feels no life or Being in him And accordingly he offereth him a shaddow of devotion and a nominal service But to the holy soul there is nothing that hath life and Being but God and that which doth receive a Being from him and leadeth to him This Real object putteth a Reality into all the devotions of a holy soul. They look upon the vanities of the world as Nothing and therefore they look on worldly men as on idle dreamers that are doing nothing This puts a seriousness and Life into the faith and holy affections of the believer He knows whom he trusteth 2 Tim. 1. 12. he knows whom he Loveth and in whom he Hopeth Atheists and all ungodly men do practically judge of God as the true Believer judgeth of the world The Atheist takes the pleasures of the world to be the only substance and God to be but as a shaddow a notion or a dream The godly take the world to be as nothing and know it is but a fancy and dream and shadow of pleasures and honour and profit and felicity that men talk of and seek so eargerly below but that God is the substantial object and portion of the soul. If you put into the mouth of a hungry man a little froth or breath or aire and bid him eat it and feed upon it he will tell you he finds no substance in it so judgeth the graceless soul of God and so judgeth the gracious soul of the creature as separate from God Let this be the Impression on thy soul from the consideration of Gods transcendent Being O look upon thy self and all things as nothing without him and as Nothing in comparison of him And therefore let thy Love to them be as nothing and thy desires after them and care for them as nothing But let the Being of thy Love desire and endeavours be let out upon the transcendent Being The creature hath its kind of being but if it would be to us instead of God it will be as nothing The Aire hath its Being but we cannot dwell in it nor rest upon it to support us as the earth doth The water hath its Being but it will not bear us if we would walk upon it The name of the great Jehovah is I am Exod. 3. 14. Try any Creature in thy need and it will say as Jacob to Rachel Gen. 30. 2. Am I in Gods stead that hath withheld thy desire from thee send to it and it will say as John Baptist that confessed I am not the Christ Joh. 1. 20. Let none of all the affections of thy soul have so much Life and Being in them as those that are exercised upon God Worms and motes are not regarded in comparison of mountains a drop is not regarded in comparison of the Ocean Let the Being of God take up thy soul and draw off thy observation from deluding vanities as if there were no such things before thee When thou remembrest that there is a God Kings and Nobles Riches and Honours and all the world should be forgotten in comparison of him And thou shouldst live as if there were no such things if God appear not to thee in them See them as if thou didst not see them as thou seest a candle before the sun or a pile of grass or single dust in comparison with the Earth Hear them as if thou didst not hear them as thou hearest the leaves of the shaken tree at the same time with a clap of thunder As greatest things obscure the least so let the Being of the Infinite God so take take up all the powers of thy soul as if there were nothing else but he when any thing would draw thee from him O if the Being of this God were seen by thee thy seducing friend would scarce be seen thy tempting baits would scarce be seen thy riches and honours would be forgotten all things would be as nothing to thee in comparison of him CHAP. III. 2. AS the Being of God should make this Impression on thee so the Attributes that speak the perfection of that Being must each one have their work as his unity or indivisibility his Immensity and Eternity And first the thought of Gods unity should contract and unite thy stragling affections and call them home from multifarious vanity It should possess thy mind with deep apprehensions of the excellency of holy Unity in the soul and in the Church and of
Ignorant of God nor to know so little as I know nor to be short of the measure that I am capable of but it satisfieth me to be uncapable of comprehending him or else I must be unsatisfied because I am not God O the presumptuous arrogancy of those men if I may call them men that dare prate about the Infinite God such things as never were revealed to them in his works or word and dare pretend to measure him by their shallow understandings and question if not deny and censure that of God which they cannot reach and sooner suspect the word that doth reveal him then their muddy brains that should better conceive of him Saith Elihu Job 36. 26. Behold God is Great and we know him not neither can the number of his years be searched out Though the Knowledge of him be our Life Eternal yet we know him not by any full and adequate conception We know an Infinite God and therefore with an Excellent Knowledge objectively considered but with a poor degree and kind of Knowledge next to none as to the act and it is a thousand thousand fold more that we know not of him then that we know For ineeed there is no comparison to be here made 3. The immensity of God as it proveth him incomprehensible so it containeth his Omnipresence And therefore should continually affect us as men that believe that God stands by them As we would compose our thoughts and minds and passions if we saw were it possible the Lord stand over us so should we now labour to compose them As we would restrain and use our tongues and order our behaviour if we saw his Majesty so should we do now when we know that he is with us An eye servant will work hard in his masters presence what ever he doth behind his back Bestir thee then Christian for God stands by In him we live and move and have our Being Act. 17. 28. Loyter not till thou canst truly say that God is gone or absent from thee sin not by wilfulness or negligence till thou canst say thou art behind his back Alass that we should have no more awakened serious souls and no more fervent lively prayers and no more serious holy speech and no more careful heavenly lives when we stand before the living God and do all in his sight and speak all in his hearing O why should sense so much affect us and faith and Knowledge work no more we can be awed with the presence of a man and would not do before a Prince what most men do before the Lord. Yea other things affect us when we see them not and shall not God But of this more anon 4. The Immensity of God assureth us much of his Alsufficiency He that is everywhere is easily able to hear all prayers to help us in all straits to supply all wants to punish all sins A Blasphemous conceit of God as Finite and as absent from us is one of the causes of our distrust He that doth distrust an absent friend as thinking he may forget him or neglect him will trust him when he is with him cannot he hear thee and pitty thee and help thee that is still with thee O what an awe is this to the careless what a support to faith what a quickener to duty what a comfort to the afflicted troubled soul God is in thy poor cottage Christian and well acquainted with thy wants God is at thy bedside when thou are sick and nearer thee then the nearest of thy friends What wouldst thou do in want or pain if God stood by wouldst thou not Pray and Trust him if thou sawest him so do though thou see him not for he is surely there 5. The Immensity and Infinite Greatness of God assureth us of his Particular Providence Some blasphemous Infidels imagine that he hath only a General Providence and hath left all to some inferiour powers and medleth not with particular things himself They think that as he hath left it to the Sun to illuminate the world so hath he left all other inferiour things and events to nature or inferior causes and that he doth not himself regard observe reward or punish the thoughts and words and wayes of men And all this is because they consider not the Immensity or Infinite Greatness of the Lord. It s true that God hath framed the Nature of all things and delighteth to maintain and use the frame of second causes which he hath made and will not easily and ordinarily work against or without this order of causes But it is as true and certain both that sometimes he maketh use of Miracles and that in the very course of natural causes he is able to exercise a particular Providence as well as without them by himself alone The Creature doth nothing but by him All things move as he first moveth them in their natural agency His wisdom guideth his will intendeth and commandeth his Power moveth and disposeth all The Sun would not shine if he were not the light of it and he is no less himself the Light of the world then if he did illuminate it without a Sun God is never the further off because the Creatures are near us nor never the less in the effect because he useth a second cause then if there were no second cause at all What influence second causes have upon the souls of men he hath for the most part kept unknown to us But that himself disposeth of us and all things after the counsel of his own will is beyond all question Can he that is most neerly present with thy thoughts be regardless of them can he be regardless of thy words and wayes that is with thee and seeth and heareth all If thou believe not that he is as verily with thee as thou art there thy self thou art then an Atheist If thou believe him not to be Infinite thou believest him not to be God It is not God that can be absent limited or finite And if thou be not such a senseless Atheist but knowest that God is everywhere how is it possible thou shouldst doubt of his care or observance or particular providence about every thing No child is scarce so foolish that will think his Father cares not what he saith or doth when he stands before him Wouldst thou doubt of Gods particular providence whether he regard thy heart and talke and practice if thou didst see him with thee sure it is scarce possible Why then dost thou question it when thou knowest that he is with thee If thou be an Atheist and knowest not look about thee on the world and bethink thee whether stones and trees and earth whether beasts or birds or men do make themselves If they do thou were best uphold thy self and be not sick and do not die If thou madest thy self thou canst sure preserve thy self But if any thing else made thee and all these lower things either it was somewhat greater or
wilt thou distrust him O how great is the goodness that he hath laid up for them that fear him which he hath wrought for them that Trust in him before the sons of men Psal. 31. 19. The Lord redeemeth the souls of his servants and none of them that Trust in him shall be desolate Psla. 34. 22 Are thy straits too great thy work too hard Commit thy way unto the Lord Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass Psal. 37. 5. In thy lowest state look up to the Almighty and say What time I am afaid I will Trust in thee In God have I put my Trust I will not fear what man can do unto me Psal. 56. 3 4. The Lord is my Rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will put my Trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower Psal. 18. 2. He is a buckler to all that Trust in him Some Trust in Chariots and some in Horses but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God Psal. 20. 7. Trust not in the Creature that is in vanity and infirmity There is not Almightiness in man or any Creature It is better therefore to Trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man It is better to Trust in the Lord then to put confidence in Princes Psal. 118. 7 8. what a working passage is that Jer. 17. 5 6 7. Thus saith the Lord Cursed be man that Trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord For he shall be like the heath in the deserts and shall not see when good cometh Blessed is the man that Trusteth in the Lord whose Hope the Lord is For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh 2. Trust also in God as one that is assured that no Enemy is too strong for the Almighty Alas what is an Army of Dust to Omnipotency If the Lord do but arise his Enemies will be scattered and they that hate him will flee before him as smoak is driven away and as wax melteth before the fire the wicked shall perish at the presence of the Lord Psal. 68. 1 2. while the Lord of Hosts is for us we need not fear if hosts come against us As worst they can but Kill our bodies And Greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 Joh. 4. 4. Oh what a match have the miserable Enemies of the Church what a work do they undertake what a desperate attempt do they enterprise to strive against Heaven and overcome Omnipotency 3. Trust in the Lord as one that believeth that no Means or Instruments are too small or weak for Almightness successfully to use No matter who the Instrument be how mean and weak and despicable if it be but an Almighty hand that uses it A few poor fishermen and despised people shall pull down Satans Kingdom in the world and conquer the greatest and bring in the Nations to the faith if Omnipotency be with them 4. The Almightiness of God must fill our hearts with Courage and Resolueion in his Cause and make us go on with greatest alacrity in his work Though we must be Doves and Lambs for innocency and meekness yet must we be souldiers for valour and stability Shall we flag or shrink that have Omnipotency on our side who ever scorneth thee hateth thee threatneth thee imprisoneth thee is not the Almighty enough to set against them all for thy encouragement 5. The Almightiness of God must be the Comfort of all that have Interest in him O did the blind world but see him that is Omnipotent or know the strength that is engaged for the weakest Saint they would soon see which is the stronger side and which to cleave to for their security O Blessed people that have the Almighty on their side and engaged with them against their enemies and to do their works and answer their desires How can any of them perish when the Almighty is engaged for their salvation The Father is Greater then all and none shall take them out of his hands Joh. 10. 29. How glad would men be in the beginning of a war to know which side will prove the stronger that they may joyn with that Can the side that God is on be conquered If you are wise observe what cause is his and let that be yours It s hard to Kick against the Pricks Woe to those souls that the Almighty is against and that dash themselves on the Rock that they should build on CHAP. VIII 7. THe next Attribute that must work upon us is the Infinite Wisdom or Omniscience of God Psal. 147. 5. His understandig is Infinite And the Impressions that this should make upon our souls are these 1. Delight in Wisdom that you may in your places be like to God The New man is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that Created him Col. 3. 10. If God be infinitely Wise those then are the most excellent that are the Wisest Ignorance is the souls blindness and the privation of the Image of God on the understanding Wisdom excelleth folly as far as light excelleth darkness Eccles. 2. 13. To desire as Adam did any of that Knowledge that God hath reserved to himself or is unnecessary for us is not indeed to be Wise in our desires Unnecessary Knowledge is but a trouble But to Know the Lord and his revealed Will and the way of life is the light and glory of our minds He that hath lost his eye sight hath lost his principal natural delight and is as out of the world while he is in it And the ignorant souls that are void of the heavenly Illumination must needs be void of the delights of Grace and though they live in the visible Church where the beauty of Holiness is the excellency of the Saints yet they do not see this beauty but are like the Infidels that are out of the Church while they are in it The Blind are in continual danger They know not where they set their feet And they know not when to be confident nor when to fear sometimes they are afraid where there is no cause because there may be cause for ought they know And sometime they are fearless at the very brink of death and little think of the evil that they are neer Why do our poor deluded people so boldly live in an unconverted state but because they Know not where they are Why do they so carelesly lie down and rise in an unsanctified condition unpardoned unready for death and judgement and under the condemnation of the Law but because they know not the misery or danger in which they stand Why do they go on so carelesly and wilfully in sin and despise the counsel of their Teachers and of the Lord and take a holy life as needless but because
that is able to choose or to refuse and as an universal Cause to concur with the agent to the Act as such But Philosophers indeed are at a loss and are fain to tell us of Privations Modes Relations Denominations Entia Rationis and I know not what that they say are neither Beings nor Nothing but between both they know not what the nature of things in the utmost extremities of the branches being so capâ—llar and spun with so fine a thred that the understanding is not subtil enough to discern them And shall this disturb us in Divinity or be imputed to it If you say That the Will of God is the Cause of all things and therefore of sin I answer If you call sin Nothing as a shaddow darkness death c. are nothing for all that we abhor them then you answer your selves If you call it something we are all agreed that it s but such a something as man can cause without Gods first causing it It sufficeth that God do the part of a Creatour in giving man the free Power of choosing or refusing and the part of a preserver in maintaining that power and as an universal cause concurring to all acts in genere as the sun doth shine on the dunghill and the flowers and that he also do the part of a just Governour in prohibiting and disswading and threatning sinners Object But how can sin Eventually be if God decree it not seeing all Events are from his Will I answer 1. We are agreed that he Causeth it not 2. And that he doth not so much as Will the Event of sin as sin 3. And that he willingly permitteth what is by him permitted 4. And that sin is such a thing as may Evenire be brought forth by a bare permission if there be no Positive Decree for the Event As a Negative in the effects requireth not a Positive Cause so neither a Positive Will for its production There are millions of millions of worlds and individual creatures and species Possible that shall never be And it is audaciousness to assert that there must be millions of millions of Positive Decrees that such worlds or creatures shall not be 5. Nor is it any dishonour to God if he have not a Positive Decree or Will about every Negation as that all the men in the world shall not be called by a thousand possible names rather then their own c. These things being all certain I add 1. Let them dispute that dare that yet de facto God doth Positively Will the Events of all Privations or Negations of acts 2. But when men are once habitually wicked and bent to evil it is just with him if he permit them to follow their own lusts and if he leave before them such Mercies as he foreknoweth they will wilfulfully make occasions of their sin and if he resolve to make use of the sin which he knoweth they will commit for his Churches Good and for his Glory Object But doth not God Will that sin Eventually shall not be Answ. Even as I before said he willeth that obedience eventually shall be If sin come to pass it is certain that God did not simply Will that it should not come to pass For then he must be conquered and unhappy by every sin But he willeth simply that it shall be the Duty of man to avoid it And he may be said to Nill the Event in tantum so far as that he will forbid it and threaten and disswade the sinner and give him the helps that shall leave him unexcusable if he sin and so leave it to his Will Thus far he may be said to Will that sin Eventually shall not be but not simply Though these things are not obvious to vulgar capacities yet they are such as the subject in hand viz. Gods first causation and Creation together with the weight of them and the contentions of the world about them have made needfull 3. If God be the Creator and the cause of all then we must remember that all his works are Good and therefore nothing must be hated by us that hath he made considered in its native Goodness God hateth sin and so must we for that he made it not Rev. 2. 6. Psal. 45. 7. Isa. 1. 14. And he hateth all the works of iniquity as such Psal. 5. 5. and so must we but we must Love all of God that is in them and Love them for it There is somewhat Good and Amiable in every creature yea all of it that is of God Though Toads and Serpents are odious to us because they are hurtful and seem deformed in themselves yet are they Good in themselves and not deformed as parts of the universe but Good unto the common end The wants in the wheels of your watch are as useful to the motion as the nucks or solid parts The night is part of the useful order of the creation as well as the day The vacant interspace in your writing is needful as well as the words Every letter should not be a vowel nor every character a Capital Every member should not be a heart or head or eye Nor should every one in a Commonwealth be a King or Lord So in the Creation the parts that seem base are useful in their places and good unto their Ends. Let us not therefore vilifie or detest the works of God but study the excellencies of them and see and admire and Love them as they are of God It is one of the hardest practical points before us to know how to esteem of all the Creatures and to use them without running into one extream At the same time to Love the world and not to Love it to honour it and despise it to exalt it and to tread it under our feet to mind it and use it with delight and yet to be weaned from it as those that mind it not And yet a great part of our Christian duty lyeth in the doing of this difficult work As the world is the Devils bait and the fleshes Idol set up against God and would tice us from him or hinder us in his service and either be our Carnal end and happiness or a means thereto so we must make it the care of our hearts to hate it despise it neglect it and tread it under foot and the labour of our lives to conquer it But the same creatures must be admired studyed loved honoured delighted in and daily used as they are the excellent work of the Almighty God and reveal to us his Attributes or will being the Glass in which we must see him while we are in the flesh and as they lead us to God and strengthen furnish or help us in his service But to Love them for God and not for themselves O how hard is it To keep pure affections towards them and a spiritual delight in in them that shall not degenerate into a carnal delight is a task for the holiest Saint on Earth to labour