less vain must it be when the Bodies of Men are presented to supply the place of their Spirits As an omission of duty is a contempt of Gods Soveraign Authority so the omission of the manner of it is a contempt of it and of his amiable excellency and that which is a contempt and mockery can lay no just claim to the title of Worship Reason 4. There is in worship an approach of God to Man It was instituted to this purpose that God might give out his blessings to Man And ought not our Spirits to be prepared and ready to receive his communications We are in such acts more peculiarly in his presence In the Israelites hearing the Law it is said God was to come among them * Exod. 19.10 11. Then men are said to stand before the Lord * Deut. 10.8 God before whom I stand that is whom I worship And therefore when Cain forsook the worship of God setled in his Fathers Family * Kings 1.17 he is said to go out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 God is essentially present in the world graciously present in his Church The name of the Evangelical City is Jehovah Shammah * Ezek. 48.35 the Lord is there God is more graciously present in the Evangelical institutions than in the Legal He loves the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob * Psal 87.2 His Evangelical Law and Worship which was to go forth from Zion as the other did from Sinai Mic. 4.2 God delights to approach to Men and converse with them in the worship instituted in the Gospel more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graciously present ought not we to be spiritually present A liveless Carcass service becomes not so high and delectable a presence as this 'T is to thrust him from us not invite him to us 'T is to practise in the Ordinances what the Prophet predicts concerning mens usage of our Saviour Isa 53.2 There is no form no comeliness nor beauty that we should desire him A slightness in worship reflects upon the excellency of the object of worship God and his worship are so linkt together that whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care esteems the other not worth his inward affection How unworthy a slight is it of God who profers the opening his Treasure the reimpressing his Image conferring his blessings admits us into his presence when he hath no need for us who hath millions of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise He that worships not God with his Spirit regards not Gods presence in his Ordinances and slights the great end of God in them and that perfection he may attain by them We can only expect what God hath promised to give when we tender to him what he hath commanded us to present If we put off God with a Shell he will put us off with a Husk How can we expect his heart when we do not give him ours or hope for the blessing needful for us when we render not the glory due to him It cannot be an advantagious worship without spiritual graces for those are uniting and Union is the ground of all Communion Reason 5. To have a spiritual worship is Gods end in the restoration of the Creature both in Redemption by his Son and Sanctification by his Spirit A fitness for spiritual Offerings was the end of the coming of Christ * Mal. 3.3 He should purge them as Gold and Silver by Fire a Spirit burning up their dross melting them into a holy compliance with and submission to God To what purpose That they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousnes a pure Offering from a purified Spirit He came to bring us to God * 1 Pet. 3.18 in such a Garb as that we might be fit to converse with him Can we be thus without a fixedness of our Spirits on him The offering of spiritual Sacrifices is the end of making any a spiritual Habitation and a holy Priest-hood * Pet. 2.5 We can no more be Worshippers of God without a Worshippers nature than a man can be a man without humane nature As man was at first created for the honour and worship of God so the design of restoring that Image which was defaced by Sin tends to the same end We are not brought to God by Christ nor are our services presented to him if they be without our Spirits Would any man that undertakes to bring another to a Prince introduce him in a slovenly and sordid habit such a garb that he knows hateful to him Or bring the Clothes or Skin of a Man stuft with straw instead of the Person To come with our Skins before God without our Spirits is contrary to the design of God in Redemption and Regeneration If a carnal worship would have pleased God a carnal heart would have served his turn without the expence of his Spirit in Sanctification He bestows upon man a spiritual nature that he may return to him a spiritual service He enlightens the Understanding that he may have a rational service and new moulds the Will that he may have a voluntary service As it is the Milk of the Word wherewith he feeds us so it is the service of the Word wherewith we must glorifie him So much as there is of confusedness in our understanding so much of starting and levity in our Wills so much of slipperiness and skipping in our affections so much is abated of the due qualities of the worship of God and so much we fall short of the end of Redemption and Sanctification Reason 6. A spiritual worship is to be offered to God because no worship but that can be acceptable We can never be secured of acceptance without it He being a Spirit nothing but the worship in Spirit can be sutable to him What is unsutable cannot be acceptable There must be something in us to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for an actual acceptation No service is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ but as it is a spiritual Sacrifice and offered by a spiritual heart 1 Pet. 2.5 The Sacrifice is first spiritual before it be acceptable to God by Christ When it is an offering in righteousness it is then and only then pleasant to the Lord Mal. 3.3 4. No Prince would accept a gift that is unsutable to his Majesty and below the condition of the person that presents it Would he be pleased with a bottle of water for drink from one that hath his Cellar full of wine How unacceptable must that be that is unsutable to the Divine Majesty And what can be more unsutable than a withdrawing the operations of our Souls from him in the oblation of our Bodies We as little glorifie God as God when we give him only a corporeal worship as the Heathen did when they represented him in a corporeal shape * Rom. 1.21
is exercised by his concurring Power as well as every moment of our Life supported by his preserving Power What an infinite variety of motions is there in the whole World in universal Nature to all which God concurs all which he conducts even the motions of the meanest as well as the greatest Creatures which demonstrate the indefatigable Power of the Governour 'T is an Infinite Power which doth act in so many varieties whereby the Soul forms every Thought the Tongue speaks every Word the Body exerts every Action What an Infinite Power is that which presides over the birth of all things concurs with the motion of the Sap in the â—ree Rivers on the Earth Clouds in the Air every drop of Rain fleece of Snow crack of Thunder Not the least motion in the World but is under an actual influence of this Almighty Mover And lest any should scruple the Concurrence of God to so many Varieties of the Creatures motion as a thing utterly unconceivable let them consider the Sun a natural image and shadow of the Perfections of God doth not the power of that finite Creature extend it self to various Objects at the same moment of time How many Insects doth it animate as Flies c. at the same moment throughout the World How many several Plants doth it erect at its appearance in the Spring whose Roots lay mourning in the Earth all the foregoing Winter What multitudes of Spires of Grass and nobler Flowers doth it Midwife in the same hour It warms the Air melts the Blood cherishes Living Creatures of various kinds in distinct places without tiring And shall the God of this Sun be less than his Creature 3. And since I speak of the Sun consider the Power of God in the Motion of it * A Lapide in 1. cap. Gen. 16. Lessius de Perfect divin p. 90 91. The vastness of the Sun is computed to be at the least 166 Times bigger than the Earth and its distance from the Earth some tell us to be about Four Millions of Miles whence it follows that it is whirl'd about the World with that swiftness that in the space of an Hour it runs a Million of Miles which is as much as if it should move round about the surface of the Earth Fifty times in one hour * Lessius de Providen p. 633. Voss de Idol lib. 2. cap. 2. which vastness exceeds the swiftness of a Bullet shot out of a Canon which is computed to fly not above Three mile in a Minute So that the Sun runs further in one Hours space than a Bullet can in Five thousand if it were kept in motion so that if it were near the Earth the swiftness of its motion would shatter the whole frame of the World and dash it in pieces so that the Psalmist may well say It runs a race like a strong Man Psal 19.5 What an Incomprehensible Power is that which hath communicated such a strength and swiftness to the Sun and doth daily influence its Motion especially since after all those years of its motion wherein one would think it should have spent it self we behold it every day as vigorous as Adam did in Paradice without limping without shattering it self or losing any thing of its natural Spirits in its unwearied motion How great must that Power be which hath kept this great body so intire and thus swiftly moves it every day Is it not now an Argument of Omnipotency to keep all the strings of Nature in tune to wind them up to a due pitch for the harmony he intended by them to keep things that are contrary from that Confusion they would naturally fall into to prevent those Jarrings which would naturally result from their various and snarling qualities to preserve every Being in its true nature to propagate every kind of Creature order all the Operations even the meanest of them when there are such innumerable Varieties But let us consider that this Power of preserving things in their station and motion and the renewing of them is more stupendous than that which we commonly call Miraculous We call those Miracles which are wrought out of the track of Nature and contrary to the usual stream and current of it which Men wonder at because they seldom see them and hear of them as things rarely brought forth in the World when the truth is there is more of Power exprest in the ordinary station and motion of Natural causes than in those extraordinary exertings of Power Is not more Power signaliz'd in that whirling motion of the Sun every hour for so many Ages than in the suspending of its motion one Day as it was in the days of Joshua That Fire should continually ravage and consume and greedily swallow up every thing that is offer'd to it seems to be the effect of as admirable a Power as the stopping of its appetite a few moments as in the case of the Three Children Is not the rising of some small Seeds from the ground Faucher sur Act. Vol. 2. p. 47. with a multiplication of their numerous posterity an effect of as great a Power as our Saviours seeding many Thousands with a few Loaves by a secret augmentation of them Is not the Chimical producing so pleasant and delicious a Fruit as the Grape from a dry Earth insipid Rain and a sour Vine as admirable a token of Divine Power as our Saviours turning Water into Wine Is not the cure of Diseases by the application of a simple inconsiderable Weed or a slight Infusion as wonderful in it self as the Cure of it by a powerful word What if it be naturally design'd to heal what is that Nature who gave that Nature who maintains that Nature who conducts it cooperates with it Doth it work of it self and by its own strength why not then equally in all in one as well as another Miracles indeed affect more because they testifie the immediate operation of God without the concurrence of second Causes not that there is mere of the Power of God shining in them than in the other II. This Power is evident in Moral Government 1. In the restraint of the Malicious nature of the Devil Since Satan hath the Power of an Angel and the Malice of a Devil what safety would there be for our Persons from destruction what security for our Goods from rifling by this invisible potent and envious Spirit if his Power were not restrain'd and his Malice curb'd by one more Mighty than himself How much doth he envy God the glory of his Creation and Man the use and benefit of it How desirous would he be in regard of his passion how able in regard of his strength and subtilty to overthrow or infect all Worship but what was directed to himself to manage all things according to his lusts turn all thing topsie-turvy plague the World burn Cities Houses plunder us of the supports of Nature waste Kingdoms c. if he were not held in
10.9 Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. An Invader and Oppressor of his Neighbors and reputed the Introducer of a new Worship and being the first that built Cities after the flood as Cain was the first Builder of them before the flood built also Idolatry with them And erected a new Worship and was so far from strengthing that Notion the people had of God that he endeavoured to corrupt it The first Idolatry in common Histories being noted to proceed from that part of the World the Ancientest Idol being at Babylon and supposed to be first invented by this Person Whence by the way perhaps Rome is in the Revelations called Babylon with respect to that similitude of their Saint-Worship to the Idolatry first set up in that place * Or if we understand it as some think that he defended his invasions under a pretext of the preserving Religion it assures us that there was a notion of an object of Religion before since no Religion can be without an object of Worship T is evident Politicians have often changed the Worship of a Nation but it is not upon record that the first thoughts of an object of Worship ever entred into the minds of people by any trick of theirs But to return to the present Argument the Being of a God is owned by some Nations that have scarce any form of policy among them T is as wonderful how any wit should hit upon such an Invention as it is absur'd to ascribe it to any humane device if there were not prevailing Arguments to constrain the consent Besides how is it possible they should deceive themselves What is the reason the greatest Politicians have their fears of a Deity upon their unjust practices as well as other men they intended to befool How many of them have had forlorn Consciences upon a Death bed upon the consideration of a God to answer an account to in another world Is it credible they should be frighted by that wherewith they knew they beguiled others No man satisfying his pleasures would impose such a deceipt upon himself o render and make himself more miserable than the Creatures he hath dominion over 2. It is unaccountable how it should indure so long a time That this Policy should be so fortunate as to gain ground in the Consciences of men and exercise an Empire over them and meet with such an universal success If the Notion of a God were a a State-Engine and introduced by some Politick Grandees for the ease of Government and preserving people with more facility in order how comes it to pass the first broachers of it were never upon record there is scarce a false opinion vented in the World but may as a stream be traced to the first head and fountain The Inventors of particular forms of worship are known and the reasons why they prescribed them known but what Grandee was the Author of this who can pitch a time and person that sprung up this Notion If any be so insolent as to impose a cheat he can hardly be supposed to be so successful as to deceive the whole world for many ages Impostures pass not free through the whole world without Examination and discovery Falsities have not been universally and constantly owned without controul and question If a cheat imposeth upon some Towns and Countries he will be found out by the more peircing enquiries of other places and it is not easy to name any Imposture that hath walked so long in its disguise in the World without being unmasked and whipped out by some Nation or other If this had been a meer trick there would have been as much craft in some to discern it as there was in others to contrive it No Man can be imagined so wise in a Kingdom but others may be found as wise as himself And it is not conceivable that so many clear sighted men in all ages should be ignorant of it and not endeavour to free the world from so great a falsity * Fotherby a Theomastix p. 64. It cannot be found that a trick of State should always beguile men of the most piercing insights as well as the most credulous That a few crafty men should befool all the wisemen in the world and the world lie in a beleif of it and never like to be freed from it What is the reason the succeeding Politicians never knew this Stratagem since their Maxims are usually handed to their Successors And there is not a Richlieu but leaves his Axioms to a Mazarine This perswasion of the Existence of God ows not it self to any Imposture or subtelty of Men If it had not been agreable to common Nature and Reason it could not so long have born sway The imposed yoke would have been cast off by Multitudes Men would not have charged themselves with that which was attended with consequences displeasing to the Flesh and hindred them from a full swing of their rebellious Passions such a shackle would have mouldred of it self or been broke by the extravigances humane nature is enclin'd unto The wickedness of men without question hath prompted them to endeavour to unmask it if it were a Cosenage but could never yet be so successful as to free the world from a perswasion or their own Consciences from the tincture of the Existence of a Deity It must be therefore of an ancienter Date than the Craft of States-men and descend into the world with the first appearance of humane nature Time which hath rectified many Errors improves this Notion makes it shock down its roots deeper and spread its branches larger It must be a natural Truth that shines clear by the detection of those Errors that have befooled the World and the wit of Man is never able to name any humane Author that first insinuated it into the beleifs of men 3. Nor was it Fear first introduced it Fear is the Consequent of Wickedness As Man was not created with any inherent sin so he was not created with any terrifying fears the one had been against the Holiness of the Creator the other against his Goodness Fear did not make this Opinion but the Opinion of the Being of a Dâ—ity was the cause of this Fear after his sense of angring the Deity by his Wickedness The Object of Fear is before the Act of Fear there could not be an Act of Fear exercised about the Deity till it was beleived to be existent and not only so but Offended For God as existent only is not the Object of Fear or Love 't is not the Existence of a thing that excites any of those Affections but the Relation a thing bears to us in particular God is good and so the object of Love as well as just and thereby the object of Fear He was as much called Love * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mens or Mind in regard of his Goodness and Understanding by the Heathens as much as by any other Name Neither
of Man Folly is the disturber of Families Cites Nations The disgrace of human nature First I. T is pernicious to the World 1. It would root out the foundations of Government It demolisheth all order in Nations The being of a God is the guard of the world The sense of a God is the foundation of Civil order without this there is no tye upon the Consciences of men What force would there be in Oaths for the decisions of controversies what right could there be in Appeals made to one that had no being A City of Atheists would be a heap of confusion there could be no ground of any commerce when all the sacred bands of it in the Consciences of men were snapt asunder which are torne to peices and utterly destroyed by denying the Existence of God What Magistrate could be secure in his standing what private person could be secure in his right * Lessius de Provid p. 665. Can that then be a truth that is destructive of all publick good If the Atheists sentiment that there were no God were a truth and the contrary that there were a God were a falsity It would then follow that falsity made men good and serviceable to one another That error were the foundation of all the beauty and order and outward felicity of the world the fountain of all good to man If there were no God to believe there is one would be an error and to beleive there is none would be the greatest wisdom because it would be the greatest truth And then as it is the greatest wisdom to fear God upon the apprehension of his Existence * Psal 111 1â— So it would be the greatest error to fear him if there were none It would unquestionably follow that Error is the support of the world the spring of all human advantages and that every part of the world were obliged to a falsity for being a quiet habitation which is the most absur'd thing to imagine T is a thing impossible to be tolerated by any Prince without laying an Axe to the root of the Government 2. It would introduce all evil into the World If you take away God you take away Conscience and thereby all measures and rules of good and evil And how could any Laws be made when the measure and standard of them were removed All good Laws are founded upon the dictates of Conscience and reason upon common sentiments in human nature which spring from a sense of God So that if the foundation be demolisht the whole superstructure must tumble down A man might be a Thief a Murderer an Adulterer and could not in a strict sense be an offender The worst of actions could not be evil if a man were a God to himself a Law to himself Nothing but evil deserves a Censure and nothing would be evil if there were no God the Rector of the world against whom evil is properly committed No man can make that morally evil that is not so in it self As where there is a faint sense of God the heart is more strongly inclin'd to wickedness so where there is no sense of God the bars are removed the flood-gates set open for all wickedness to rush in upon mankind Religion pinions men from abominable practices and restrains them from being Slaves to their own passions An Atheists arms would be loose to do any thing * Lessius de Provid p. 664. Nothing so villanous and unjust but would be Acted if the natural fear of a Deity were extinguisht The first consequence issuing from the apprehension of the Existence of God is his Government of the world If there be no God then the natural consequence is that there is no supream Government of the world Such a Notion would cashiere all sentiments of good and be like a Trojan Horse whence all impurity tyranny and all sorts of mischeifs would break out upon mankind Corruption and abominable works in the text are the fruit of the fools perswasion that there is no God The perverting the ways of men oppression and extortion owe their rise to a forgetfulness of God Jer. 3.21 They have perverted their way and they have forgotten the Lord their God Ezek. 22.12 Thou hast greedily gained by extortion and hast forgotten me saith the Lord. The whole Earth would be filled with violence all flesh would corrupt their way as it was before the deluge when probably Atheism did abound more than Idolatry and if not a disowning the being yet denying the Providence of God by the posterity of Cain Those of the Family of Seth only calling upon the name of the Lord Gen. 6.11.12 compared which Gen. 4.26 The greatest sense of a Deity in any hath been attended with the greatest innocence of life and usefulness to others And a weaker sense hath been attended with a baser impurity * Iessius de Provid p. 665. If there were no God Blasphemy would be praise-worthy As the reproach of Idols is praise-worthy because we testifie that there is no Divinity in them What can be more contemptible than that which hath no being Sin would be only a false opinion of a violated Law and an offended Deity If such appresensions prevail what a wide door is opened to the worst of villanies If there be no God no respect is due to him all the Religion in the world is a trifle and Error and thus the Pillars of all human society and that which hath made Common-wealths to flourish are blown away Secondly 2 T is pernicious to the Atheist himself If he fear no future punishment he can never expect any future reward All his hopes must be confined to a Swinish and despicable manner of life without any imaginations of so much as a dram of reserved hapiness He is in a worse condition than the filliest animal which hath something to please it in its life Whereas an Atheist can have nothing here to give him a full content no more than any other man in the World and can have less satisfaction hereafter He deposeth the noble end of his own being which was to serve a God and have a satisfaction in him to seek a God and be rewarded by him And he that departs from his end recedes from his own nature All the content any Creature finds is in performing its end moveing according to its natural instinct As it is a joy to the Sun to run its race * Psal 19.5 In the same manner it is a satisfaction to every other Creature and its delight to observe the Law of its Creation What content can any man have that runs from his end opposeth his own nature denies a God by whom and for whom he was Created whose Image he bears which is the Glory of his nature and sinks into the very dregs of bruitishness How elegantly is it described by Bildad * Job 18.7.8 c. to the end his own Counsel shall cast him down terrors shall make him afraid on
him he knows what Angels and Men do and infinitely more what is known by them obscurely is known by him clearly What is known by man after it is done was known by God before it was wrought By his wisdom as much as by any thing he infinitely differs from all his Creatures as by wisdom Man differs from a Brute We cannot frame a notion of God without conceiving him infinitely wise We should render him very inconsiderable to imagine him furnisht with an infinite knowledge and not have an infinite wisdom to make use of that knowledge or to fancy him with a mighty power destitute of prudence Knowledge without prudence is an eye without motion and power without discretion is an arm without a head a hand to act without understanding to contrive and model a strength to act without reason to know how to act It would be a miserable notion of a God to fancy him with a brutish and unguided power The Heathens therefore had and could not but have this natural notion of God Plato therefore calls him Mens †Eugub per. Philosoph lib. 1. cap. 5. and Cleanthes used to call God Reason and Socrates thought the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too magnificent to be attributed to any thing else but God alone Arguments to prove that God is wise Reas 1. God could not be infinitely perfect without wisdom A rational Nature is better than an irrational Nature A man is not a perfect man without reason how can God without it be an infinitely perfect God Wisdom is the most eminent of all Vertues all the other perfections of God without this would be as a body without an eye a soul without understanding A Christian's Graces want their lustre when they are destitute of the guidance of wisdom Mercy is a feebleness and Justice a cruelty Patience a timerousness and Courage a madness without the conduct of wisdom so the Patience of God would be cowardise his Power an oppression his Justice a tyranny without wisdom as the Spring and Holiness as the Rule No attribute of God could shine with a due lustre and brightness without it Power is a great perfection but wisdom a greater * Licet magnum sit posse majus tamen est sapere Wisdom may be without much power as in Bees and Ants but power is a tyrannical thing without wisdom and righteousness The Pilot is more valuable because of his skil than the Gally Slave because of his strength and the conduct of a General more estimable than the might of a private Souldier Generals are chosen more by their skill to guide than their strength to act What a Clod is a man without Prudence what a Nothing would God be without it This is the Salt that gives relish to all other perfections in a Creature This is the Jewel in the Ring of all the Excellencies of the Divine Nature and Holiness is the splendor of that Jewel Now God being the first Being possesses whatsoever is most noble in any Being If therefore Wisdom which is the most noble perfection in any Creature were wanting to God he would be deficient in that which is the highest Excellency God being the living God as he is frequently termed in Scripture he hath therefore the most perfect manner of living and that must be a pure and intellectual life Being essentially living he is essentially in the highest degree of living As he hath an infinite life above all Creatures so he hath an infinite intellectual life and therefore an infinite Wisdom whence some have called God not sapientem but super-sapientem †Suarez Vol. 1 lib. 1. cap. 3 p. 10. not only wise but above all wisdom Reas 2. Without infinite Wisdom he could not govern the World Without wisdom in forming the Matter which was made by Divine power the World could have been no other than a Chaos and without wisdom in Government it could have been no other than a heap of Confusion without wisdom the World could not have been created in the posture it is Creation supposeth a determination of the will putting power upon acting the determination of the will supposeth the counsel of the understanding determining the will No work but supposeth understanding as well as will in a rational Agent As without skill things could not be created so without it things cannot be governed Reason is a necessary perfection to him that presides over all things Without knowledge there could not be in God a foundation for Government and without wisdom there could not be an exercise of Government and without the most excellent wisdom he could not be the most excellent Governour He could not be an universal Governour without a universal wisdom nor the sole Governour without an unimitable wisdom nor an independent Governour without an original and independent wisdom nor a perpetual Governour without an incorruptible wisdom He would not be the Lord of the World in all points without skill to order the affairs of it Power and wisdom are foundations of all Authority and Government Wisdom to know how to rule and command Power to make those Commands obeyed No regular Order could issue out without the first nor could any order be enforced without the second A feeble wisdom and a brutish power seldom or never produce any good effect Magistracy without wisdom would be a frantick power a rash conduct like a strong arm when the eye is out it strikes it knows not what and leads it knows not whither Wisdom without power would be like a great body without feet * Amirant moral like the knowledge of a Pilot that hath lost his arm who though he knows the Rule of Navigation and what Course to follow in his Voyage yet cannot mannage the Helm But when those two wisdom and power are link't together there ariseth from both a fitness for Government There is wisdom to propose an end and both wisdom and power to employ means that conduct to that end And therefore when God demonstrates to Job his right of Government and the unreasonableness of Job's quarrelling with his proceedings he chiefly urgeth upon him the consideration of those two excellencies of his Nature power and wisdom which are exprest in his Works †Chap. 38 39 40 41. A Prince without wisdom is but a Title without a Capacity to perform the Office no man without it is fit for government Nor could God without wisdom exercise a just Dominion in the World He hath therefore the higest wisdom since he is the universal Governour That wisdom which is able to govern a Family may not be able to govern a City and that wisdom which governs a City may not be able to govern a Nation or Kingdom much less a World The bounds of God's government being greater than any his wisdom for government must needs surmount the wisdom of all ‖ Amyrald desert Theâ—l p. 111. And though the Creatures be not in number actually infinite yet they
with In the whole it was accommodated to man as rational Precepts to the Law in his mind Promises to the natural Appetite Threatnings to the most prevailing Affection and to the implanted Desires of preserving both his Being and Happiness in that Being These were rational Motives fitted to the nature of Adam which was above the life God had given Plants and the sense he had given Animals The Command given man in Innocence was suted to his strength and power God gave him not any Command but what he had ability to observe and Since we want not power to forbear an Apple in our corrupted and impotent State he wanted not strength in his state of Integrity The Wisdom of God Commanded nothing but what was very easy to be observed by him and inferior to his natural Ability It had been both unjust and unwise to have commanded him to fly up to the Sun when he had not Wings or stop the Course of the Sea when he had not strength 2. 'T is suted to the happiness and benefit of man God's Laws are not an act of meer Authority respecting his own Glory but of wisdom and goodness respecting mans Benefit They are perfective of mans Nature conferring a Wisdom upon him rejoycing his Heart enlightning his eyes Psal 19.7 8. affording him both a knowledge of God and of himself To be without a Law is for man to be as Beasts without Justice and without Religion Other things are for the good of the Body but the Laws of God for the good of the Soul the more perfect the Law the greater the benefit The Laws given to the Iews were the honour and excellency of that Nation Deut. 1.8 What Nation is there so great that hath statutes and Judgments so righteous They were made States-men in the Judicial Law Ecclesiasticks in the Ceremonial honest men in the Second Table and Divine in the First All his Laws are suted to the true satisfaction of man and the good of Human Society Had God framed a Law only for one Nation there would have been the Characters of a particular Wisdom but now an universal wisdom appears in accommodating his Law not only to this or that particular Society or Corporation of men but to the benefit of all mankind in the variety of Climates and Countries wherein they live Every thing that is disturbing to Human Society is provided agaâ—nst nothing is enjoin'd but what is sweet rational and useful It orders us not to attempt any thing against the life of our Neighbour the honour of his Bed propriety in his Goods and the clearness of his Reputation and if well observed would alter the face of the World and make it look with another hue The World would be alter'd from a brutish to a human World It would châ—nge Lions and Wolves men of Lion-like and Wolvish disposition into reason and sweetness And because the whole Law is sum'd up in love it obligeth us to endeavour the preservation of one anothers Beings the favouring of one anothers Interests and increasing the Goods as much as Iustice will permit and keeping up one anothers Credits because love which is the Soul of the Law is not shewn by a cessation from action but signifies an ardor upon all occasions in doing good I say were this Law well observed the World would be another thing than it is It would become a Religious Fraternity the Voice of Enmity and the Noise of Groans and Cursings would not be heard in our Streets Peace would be in all Borders plenty of Charity in the midst of Cities and Countries Joy and singing would sound in all habitations Mans advantage was design'd in Gods Laws and doth naturally result from the observance of them God so ordered them by his Wisdom that the obedience of man should draw forth his Goodness and prevent those smarting Judgments which were necessary to reduce the Creature to order that would not voluntarily continue in the order God had appointed The Laws of men are often unjust oppressive cruel sometimes against the Law of nature But an universal wisdom and righteousness glitters in the Divine Law There is nothing in it but what is worthy of God and useful for the Creature so that we may well say with Job Who teaches like God Job 36.22 or as some render it who is a law-giver like God Who can say to him thou hast wrought iniquity or folly among men His Precepts were framed for the preservation of man in that rectitude wherein he was Created in that likeness to God wherein he was first made that there might be a correspondence between the Integrity of the Creature and the Goodness of his Creator by the Obedience of man that man might exercise his Faculties in Operations worthy of him and beneficial to the World 3. The Wisdom of God is seen in suting to Laws to the Consciences as well as the Interest of all Mankind Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law so great an affinity there is between the wise Law and the Reason of man There is a natural Beauty emerging from them and darting upon the Reasons and Consciences of men which dictates to them that this Law is worthy to be observed in it self The two main Principles of the Law the Love and worship of God and doing as we would be done by have an indelible impression in the Consciences of all men in regard of the Principle though they are not sutably exprest in the Practise Were there no Law outwardly publisht yet every mans Conscience would dictate to him that God was to be acknowledged worshipped loved as naturally as his Reason would acquaint him that there was such a Being as God This sutableness of them to the Consciences of men is manifest in that the Laws of the best governed Nations among the Heathen have had an agreement with them Nothing can be more exactly composed according to the Rules of right and exact Reason than this no man but approves of something in it yea of the whole when he exerciseth that dimm Reason which he hath Suppose any man not an absolute Atheist he cannot but acknowledge the reasonableness of worshipping God Grant him to be a Spirit and it will presently appear absurd to represent him by any Corporeal Image and derogate from his Excellency by so mean a resemblance with the same easiness he will grant a reverence due to the Name of God that we must not serve our turn of him by calling him to witness to a lye in a solemn Oath That as Worship is due to him so that some stated time is a circumstance necessary to the performance of that Worship And as to the Second Table will any man in his right reason quarrel with that Command that engageth his Inferiors to honour him that secures his Being from a violent murder and his goods from unjust rapine and though by the fury of his Lusts he break the Laws of Wedlock himself
by Violent Persecutions till she was establish'd in the Faith He would not expose her to so great Combats while she was weak and feeble but gave her time to fortifie her self to be render'd more capable of bearing up under them He stifled all the motions of Passion the Idolaters might have for their Superstition till Religion was in such a condition as rather to be increased and purified than extinguish'd by Opposition Paul was sâ—cured from Neroes Chains and the Nets of his Enemies till he had broke off the Chain of the Devil from many Cities of the Gentiles and catched them by the Net of the Gospel out of the Sea of the World Thus the Wisdom of God is seen in the Seasons of Judgments and Afflictions 3. It is apparent in the gracious issue of Afflictions and Penal Evils It is a part of Wisdom to bring Good out of Evil of Punishment as well as to bring Good out of Sin The Church never was so like to Heaven as when it was most Persecuted by Hell The Storms often cleans'd it and the Lance often made it more healthful Jobs Integrity had not been so clear nor his Patience so illustrious had not the Devil been permitted to afflict him God by his Wisdom out-wits Satan when he by his Temptations intends to pollute us and buffet us God orders it to purifie us he often brings the clearest light out of the thickest darkness makes Poysons to become Medicines †Turretin Serm. p. 53. Death it self the greatest Punishment in this Life and the entrance into Hell in its own Nature he hath by his Wise contrivance made to his People the Gate of Heaven and the passage into Immortality Penal Evils in a Nation often end in in a publick Advantage Troubles and Wars among a People are many times not destroying but Medicinal and cure them of that Degeneracy Luxury and Effeminateness they contracted by a long Peace 4. This Wisdom is evident in the various Ends which God brings about by Afflictions The attainment of various Ends by one and the same Means is the fruit of the Agents Prudence By the same Affliction the Wise God corrects sometimes for some base Affection excites some sleepy Grace drives out some lurking Corruption refines the Soul and ruines the Lust discovers the greatness of a Crime the Vanity of the Creature and the Sufficiency in himself The Jews bind Paul and by the Judge he is sent to Rome whiâ— his Mouth is stopt in Judea 't is open'd in one of the greatest Cities of the World and his Enemies unwittingly contribute to the increase of the knowledge of Christ by those Chains in that City ‖ Acts 28.31 that triumphed over the Earth And his afflictive Bonds added Courage and Resolution to others Phil. 1.14 Many waxing confident by my Bonds which could not in their own Nature produce such an effect but by the order and contrivance of Divine Wisdom In their own nature they would rather make them disgust the Doctrine he suffered for and cool their Zeal in the propagating of it for fear of the same disgrace and hardship they saw him suffer * Daille sur Philip. Part 1. pag. 116 117. But the Wisdom of God changed the nature of these Fetters and conducted them to the glory of his Name the encouragement of others the increase of the Gospel and the comfort of the Apostle himself Phil. 1.12 13 18. The Sufferings of Paul at Rome confirm'd the Philippians a People at a distance from thence in the Doctrine they had already received at his hands Thus God makes Sufferings sometimes which appear like Judgments to be like the Viper on Pauls hand Acts 28.6 a means to clear up Innocence and procure favour to the Doctrine among those Barbarians How often hath he multiplied the Church by Death and Massacres and increased it by those means used to annihilate it 5. The Divine Wisdom is apparent in the Deliverances he affords to other parts of the World as well as to his Church There are delicate composures curious threds in his Webs and he works them like an Artificer A goodness wrought for them curiously wrought Psal 31.19 1. In making the Creatures subservient in their Natural order to his gracious Ends and Purposes He orders things in such a manner as not to be necessitated to put forth an extraordinary Power in things which some part of the Creation might accomplish Miraculous productions would speak his Power but the ordering the Natural course of things to occasion such effects they were never intended for is one part of the glory of his Wisdom And that his Wisdom may be seen in the course of Nature he conducts the Motions of Creatures and acts them in their own strength and doth that by various windings and turnings of them which he might do in an instant by his Power in a Supernatural way Indeed sometimes he hath made Invasions on Nature and suspended the Order of their Natural Laws for a season to shew himself the Absolute Lord and Governour of Nature Yet if frequent Alterations of this nature were made they would impede the knowledge of the Nature of things and be some bar to the discovery and glory of his Wisdom which is best seen by moving the wheels of Inferiour Creatures in an exact regularity to his own Ends. He might when his little Church in Jacobs Family was like to starve in Canaan have for their preservation turn'd the Stones of the Country into Bread but he sends them down to Egypt to procure Corn that a way might be opened for their removal into that Country the Truth of his Prediction in their Captivity accomplish'd and a way made after the declaration of his great Name Jehovah both in the fidelity of his Word and the greatness of his Power in their Deliverance from that Furnace of Affliction He might have struck Goliah the Captain of the Philistines Army with a Thunderbolt from Heaven when he Blasphemed his Name and scar'd his People but he useth the Natural strength of a Stone and the Artificial motion of a Sling by the Arm of David to confront the Giant and thereby to free Judea from the ravage of a potent Enemey He might have delivered the Jews from Babylon by as strange Miracles as he used in their Deliverance from Egypt He might have plagu'd their Enemies gather'd his People into a Body and protected them by the bulwark of a Cloud and a Pillar of Fire against the Assaults of their Enemies But he uses the differences between the Persians and those of Babylon to accomplish his Ends. How sometimes hath the veering about of the Wind on a sudden been the loss of a Navy when it hath been upon the point of Victory and driven back the Destruction upon those which intended it for others And the accidental stumbling or the Natural fierceness of a Horse flung down a General in the midst of a Battle where he hath lost his life
place of the Original of their Ancestors and their affection to the Country wherein they were born might have occasioned their embracing the Idolatrous Worship of the place Afterwads the Persecutions of Antiochus scatter'd many of the Jews for their security into other Nations yet a great part and perhaps the greatest preserved their Religion and by that were obliged to come every year to Jerusalem to Offer and so were present at the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and were witnesses of the miraculous effects of it Had they not been dispers'd by Persecution had they not resided in several Countries and been acquainted with their Languages the Gospel had not so easily been diffused into several Countreys of the World The first Persecutions also raised against the Church propagated the Gospel the scattering of the Disciples enflamed their courage and dispers'd the Doctrine ‖ Acts 8.3 ccording to the Prophecy of Daniel Dan. 12.4 Many should run to and fro and knowledge should be encreased The flights and hurryings of men should enlarge the Territories of the Gospel There was not a Tribunal but the primitive Christians were cited to not a horrible Punishment but was inflicted upon them Treated they were as the dregs and offals of Mankind as the common Enemies of the World yet the Flames of the Martyrs brightned the Doctrine and the Captivity of its Professors made way for the Throne of its Empire The imprisonment of the Ark was the downfal of Dagon Religion grew stronger by Sufferings and Christianity taller by Injuries What can this be ascribed to but the conduct of a Wisdom superiour to that of Men and Devils defeating the methods of human and hellish Policy thereby making the wisdom of the World foolishness with God 1 Cor. 3.19 Fifthly The Vse I. Of Information If wisdom be an excellency of the Divine Nature then 1. Christ's Deity may hence be asserted Wisdom is the emphatical Title of Christ in Scripture Prov. 8.12 13 31. where Wisdom is brought in speaking as a distinct Person ascribing Counsel and Understanding and the Knowledge of witty Inventions to it self He is called also the power of God and the wisdom of God * 1 Cor. 1.21 And the Ancients generally understood that place Col. 2.3 In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge as an assertion of the God-head of Christ in regard of the infiniteness of his knowledge referring wisdom to his knowledge of Divine things and knowledge to his understanding of all Human things But the natural sense of the place seems to be this that all wisdom and knowledge is displayed by Christ in the Gospel and the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refer either to Christ or the mystery of God spoken of vers 2. But the Deity of Christ in regard of infinite Wisdom may be deduc'd from his Creation of things and his Government of things both which are ascribed to him in Scripture The first ascribed to him John 1.3 All things were made by him and verse 27. Without him was not any thing made that was made The second John 5.22 The Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son and both put together Col. 2.16 17. Now since he hath the Government of the World he hath the Perfections necessary to so great a Work As the Creation of the World which is ascribed to him requires an infinite power so the Government of the World requires an infinite wisdom That he hath the knowledge of the hearts of men was proved in handling the Omniscience of God That knowledge would be to little purpose without wisdom to order the motions of mens hearts and conduct all the qualities and actions of Creatures to such an end as is answerable to a wise Government we cannot think so great an Imployment can be without an Ability necessary for it The Government of Men and Angels is a great part of the glory of God and if God should intrust the greatest part of his Glory in hands unfit for so great a trust it would be an argument of weakness in God as it is in men to pitch upon unfit Instruments for particular Charges Since God hath therefore committed to him his greatest Glory the Conduct of all things for the highest end he hath a wisdom requisite for so great an end which can be no less than infinite If then Christ were a finite Person he would not be capable of an infinite Communication he could not be a Subject wherein infinite wisdom could be lodged for the terms finite and infinite are so distant that they cannot commence one another finite can never be changed into infinite no more than infinite can into finite 2. Hence we may assert The right and fitness of God for the Government of the World as he is the wisest Being Among men those who are excellent in Judgment are accounted fittest to preside over and give orders to others the wisest in a City are most capable to govern a City or at least though ignorant men may bear the Title yet the advice of the soundest and skilfullest Heads should prevail in all publick Affairs We see in Nature that the eye guides the body and the mind directs the eye * Amyâ—â—uâ— Mâ—â— â—or 1. p. 253 259. Power and Wisdome are the two Arms of Authority Wisdom knows the end and directs the means Power executes the means design'd for such an end The more splendid and strong those are in any the more Authority results from thence for the conduct of others that are of an inferiour Orb Now God being infinitely excellent in both his ability and right to the management of the World cannot be suspected the whole World is but one Commonwealth whereof God is the Monarch Did the Government of the World depend upon the Election of Men and Angels where could they pitch or where would they find Perfections capable of so great a work but in the Supream Wisdom His Wisdom hath already been apparent in those Laws whereby he formed the World into a Civil Society and the Israelites into a Commonwealth The one suted to the Consciences and Reasons of all his Subjects and the other suted to the Genius of that particular Nation drawn out of the Righteousness of the Moral Law and applicable to all Cases that might arise among them in their Government so that Moses asserts that the wisdom apparent in their Laws enacted by God as their chief Magistrate would render them famous among other Nations in regard of their Wisdom as well as their Righteousness Deut. 4.6 7 9. Also this perfection doth evidence that God doth actually govern the World It would not be a commendable thing for a man to make a curious Piece of Clock-work and take no care for the orderly motion of it Would God display so much of his Skill in framing the Heaven and Earth and none in actual guidance of them to their particular and universal ends Did he lay the Foundation in
Body of Man should be polisht in the lower parts of the Earth as he calls the Womb verse 15. in so short a time with Members 〈◊〉 a various form and usefulness each labouring in their several functions Can any man give an exact account of the manner how the Bones do grow in the womb Eccles 11.5 'T is unknown to the Father and no less hid from the Mother and the wisest Men cannot search out the depths of it 'T is one of the Secret works of an Omnipotent Power secret in the manner though open in the effect So that we must ascribe it to God as Job doth Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about Job 10.8 Thy hands which formed Heaven have formed every Part every Member and wrought me like a Mighty workman The Heavens are said to be the work of Gods hands and Man is here said to be no less The forming and propagation of Man from that Earthy matter is no less a wonder of Power than the structure of the World from a rude and indispos'd Matter †Trismegist in Serm. Greek in the Temple p. 57. A Heathen Philosopher descants elegantly upon it Dost thou understand my Son the forming of Man in the womb who erected that noble Fabrick who carv'd the Eyes the Christal-windows of light and the conductors of the Body who bor'd the Nostrils and Ears those Loop-holes of scents and sounds who stretched out and knit the Sinews and Ligaments for the fastning of every Member who cast the hollow Veins the Channels of Blood set and strengthned the Bones the Pillars and Rafters of the Body who digg'd the Pores the sinks to expel the filth who made the Heart the repository of the Soul and formed the Lungs like a Pipe What Mother what Father wrought these things No none but the Almighty God who made all things according to his pleasure 't is He who propagates this Noble piece from a pile of Dust Who is born by his own advice who gives stature features sence wit strength speech but God 'T is no less a wonder that a little Infant can live so long in a dark Sink in the midst of filth without breathing And the eduction of it out of the Womb is no less a wonder than the forming increase nourishment of it in that Cell A wonder that the life of the Infant is not the death of the Mother or the life of the Mother the death of the Infant This little Creature when it springs up from such small beginnings by the Power of God grows up to bâ— one of the Lords of the World to have a Dominion over the Creatures and propagates its kind in the same manner All this is unaccountable without having recourse to the Power of God in the government of the Creatures And to add to this wonder Consider also what multitudes of Formations and Births there are at one time all over the World in every of which the Finger of God is at work and it will speak an unwearied Power 'T is admirable in one Man more in a Town of Men still more in a greater and larger Kingdom a vaster World there is a Birth for every Hour in this City were but 168 born in a Week though the Weekly Bills mention more What is this City to Three Kingdoms what Three Kingdoms to a populous World Eleven Thousand and eighty will make one for every Minute in the Week what is this to the Weekly propagation in all the Nations of the Universe besides the generation of all the Living Creatures in that Space which are the works of Gods fingers as well as Man What will be the result of this but the notion of an unconceivable unwearied Almightiness alway active alway operating 3. It appears in the Motions of all Creatures All things live and move in him Acts 17.28 by the same Power that Creatures have their Beings they have their Motions They have not only a Being by his powerful Command but they have their minutely Motion by his Powerful concurrence Nothing can act without the Almighty influx of God no more than it can exist without the Creative Word of God 'T is true indeed the ordering of all Motions to his Holy ends is an act of Wisdom but the motion it self whereby those Ends are attained is a work of his Power 1. God as the first Cause hath an influence into the motions of all second Causes As all the Wheels in a Clock are moved in their different motions by the force and strength of the principal and primary Wheel if there be any defect in that or if that stand still all the rest languish and stand idle the same moment All Creatures are his Instruments his Engines and have no Spirit but what he gives and what he assists Whatsoever Nature works God works in Nature Nature is the Instrument God is the Supporter Director Mover of Nature that what the Prophet saith in another case may be the language of universal Nature Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us Isai 26.12 They are our works subjectively efficiently as second causes Gods works originally concurrently The Sun moved not in the Valley of Ajalon for the space of many hours in the time of Joshua †Josh 10.13 nor did the Fire exercise its consuming quality upon the Three Children in Nebuchadnezzars Furnace ‖ Dan. 3.25 He withdrew not his supporting Power from th ir Being for then they had vanâ—shed but his influencing Power from their qualities whereby their motion ceas'd till he return'd his influential concurrence to them which evidenceth that without a perpetual derivation of Divine Power the Sun could not run one stride or inch of its race nor the Fire devour one grain of light Chaff or an inch of Straw Nothing without his sustaining Power can continue in Being nothing without his co-working Power can exercise one mite of those qualities it is possessed of All Creatures are wound up by him and his hand is constantly upon them to keep them in perpetual motion 2. Consider the variety of motions in a single Creature How many motions are there in the Vital parts of a Man or in any other Animal which a Man knows not and is unable to number The renewed motion of the Lungs the Systoles and Diastoles of the Heart the Contractions and Dilatations of the Heart whereby it spouts out and takes in Blood the power of Concoction in the Stomach the motion of the Blood in the Veins c. all which were not only setled by the Powerful hand of God but are upheld by the same preserv'd and influenc'd in every distinct motion by that Power that stampt them with that Nature To every one of those there is not only the sustaining Power of God holding up their Natures but the motive Power of God concurring to every motion for if we move in him as well as we live in him then every particle of our motion
beaten down and like Lazarus hath seemed to lie in the Grave for some days that the Power of God might be more visible in her sudden resurrection and lifting up her head above the Throne of her Persecutors 2. In his Judicial proceedings The Deluge was no small testimony of his Power in opening the Cisterns of Heaven and pulling up the Sluces of the Sea He doth but call for the waters of the Sea and they pour themselves upon the face of the Earth Amos 9.6 In Forty days time the Waters overtopt the highest Mountains fifteen Cubits Gen. 7.17 19 20. and by the same Power he afterwards reduc'd the Sea to its proper Channel as a roaring Lion into his Den. A shower of Fire from Heaven upon Sodom and the Cities of the Plain was a signal display of his Power either in creating it on the sudden for the execution of his Righteous sentence or sending down the Element of Fire contrary to its nature which affects ascent for the punishment of Rebels against the light of Nature How often hath he ruin'd the most flourishing Monarchies led Princes away spoil'd and overthrown the Mighty Which Job makes an Argument of his Strength Job 12.13 14. Troops of unknown People the Goths and Vandals broke the Romans a Warlike People and hurl'd down all before them They could not have had the thought to succeed in such an Attempt unless God had given them strength and motion for the executing his Judicial Vengeance upon the People of his Wrath. How did he evidence his Power by dawbing the Throne of Pharaoh and his Chamber of Presence Exod. 8.3 as well as the Houses of his Subjects with the slime of Frogs turning their Waters into Blood Exod. 7.20 and their Dust into biting Lice raising his Militia of Locusts against them causing a Three days Darkness without stopping the motion of the Sun Taking off their First-born the excellency of their strength in a Night by the stroke of the Angels Sword He takes off the Chariot Wheels of Pharoah and presents him with a Destruction where he expected a Victory brings those Waves over the heads of him and his Host which stood firm as Marble Walls for the safety of his People The Sea is made to swallow them up that durst not by the order of their Governour touch the Israelites It only sprinkled the one as a type of Baptism and drowned the other as an image of Hell Thus he made it both a Deliverer and a Revenger the Instrument of an offensive and defensive War Isai 40.23 24. He brings Princes to nothing and makes the Judges of the Earth as vanity Great Monarchs have by his Power been hurl'd from their Thrones and their Scepters like Venice-Glasses broken before their faces and They been advanced that have had the least hopes of Grandure He hath pluckt up Cedars by the Roots lopt off the Branches and set a Shrub to grow up in the place dissolv'd Rocks and establisht Bubbles Luke 1.52 He hath shewed strength with his arm he hath scattered the proud in the imaginâ—tion of their hearts he hath put down the mighty from their seat and exalted them of low degree And these things he doth magnifie his Power in 1. By ordering the nature of Creatures as he pleases By restraining their force or guiding their motions The restraint of the destructive qualities of the Creatures argues as great a Power as the change of their Natures yea and a greater The qualities of Creatures may be chang'd by Art and Composition as in the preparing of Medicines but what but a Divine Power could restrain the operation of the Fire from the Three Children while it retain'd its heat and burning quality in Nebuchadnezzars Furnace The operation was curb'd while its nature was preserved All Creatures are called his Host because he Marshals and ranks them as an Army to serve his purposes The whole Scheme of Nature is ready to favour Men when God orders it and ready to punish Men when God commâ—ssions it He gave the Red Sea but a check and it obeyed his Voice Psal 106.9 He rebuked the Red Sea also and it was dried up the motion of it ceased and the Waters of it were rang'd as defensive Walls to secure the march of his People And at the motion of the Hand of Moses the Servant of the Lord the Sea recovered its violence and the Walls that were framed came tumbling down upon the Egyptians heads * Exod. 14.27 The Creator of Nature is not led by the necessity of Nature He that setled the order of Nature can change or restrain the order of Nature according to his Soveraign pleasure The most necessary and useful Creatures he can use as Instruments of his Vengeance Water is necessary to cleanse and by that he can deface a World Fire is necessary to warm and by that he can burn a Sodom From the Water he form'd the Fowl †Gen. 1.21 and by that he dissolves them in the Deluge Fire or Heat is necessary to the Generation of Creatures and by that he ruines the Cities of the Plain He orders all as he pleases to perform every tittle and punctilio of his purpose The Sea observ'd him so exactly that it drowned not one Israelite nor saved one Egyptian Psal 106.11 There was not One of them left And to perfect the Israelites Deliverance he followed them with Testimonies of his Power above the strength of Nature When they wanted Drink he orders Moses to strike a Rock and the Rock spouts a River and a Channel is formed for it to attend them in their Journey When they wanted Bread he drest Manna for them in the Heavens and sent it to their Tables in the Desart When he would declare his Strength he calls to the Heavens to pour down Righteousness and to the Earth to bring forth Salvation Isai 45.8 Though God had created Righteousness or Deliverance for the Jews in Babylon yet he calls to the Heavens and the Earth to be assistant to the design of Cyrus whom he had raised for that purpose as he speaks in the beginning of the Chapter vers 1 2 3 4. As God created Man for a supernatural end and all Creatures for Man as their immediate end so he makes them according to opportunities subservient to that supernatural end of Man for which he created him He that spans the Heavens with his fist can shoot all Creatures like an Arrow to hit what mark he pleases He that spread the Heavens and the Earth by a Word and can by a Word fold them up more easily than a Man can a garment ‖ Heb. 1.12 can order the streams of Nature Cannot he work without Nature as well as with it beyond Nature contrary to Nature that can as it were fillip Nature with his finger into that Nothing whence he drew it Who can cast down the Sun from his Throne clap the distinguisht parts of the World together and
embrace it whence the Prophet Isaiah after the Prophecy of the Death of Christ Isai 53. calls upon the Church to enlarge her Tents and lengthen out her Cords to receive those Multitudes of Children that should call her Mother Isai 54.2 3. for she should break forth on the right hand and on the left and her seed should inherit the Gentiles The Idolaters and Persecutors should list their Names in the Muster-Roll of the Church Presently after the Descent of the Holy Ghost from Heaven upon the Apostles you find the hearts of Three thousand melted by a plain declaration of this Doctrine who were a little before so far from having a Favourable thought of it that some of them at least if not all had exprest their Rage against it in Voting for the Condemning and Crucifying the Author of it †Acts 2.41 42. But in a moment they were so altered that they breath out Affections instead of Fury neither the respect they had to their Rulers nor the honour they bore to their Priests not the derisions of the People nor the threatning of Punishment could stop them from owning it in the face of multitudes of Discouragements How wonderful is it that they should so soon and by such small Means pay a reverence to the Servants who had none for the Master that they should hear them with patience without the same Clamor against them as against Christ Crucifie them Crucifie them But that their hearts should so suddenly be enflam'd with Devotion to him dead whom they so much abhorred when living It had gained footing not in a Corner of the World but in the most famous Cities in Jerusalem where Christ had been Crucified in Antioch where the Name of Christians first began in Corinth a place of Ingenious Arts and Ephesus the Seat of a noted Idol In less than Twenty years there was never a Province of the Roman Empire and scarce any part of the known World but was stor'd with the Professors of it Rome that was the Metropolis of the Idolatrous World had multitudes of them sprinkled in every Corner whose Faith was spoken of throughout the World * Rom. 1.8 The Court of Nero that Monster of Mankind and the cruellest and sordid'st Tyrant that ever breathed was not empty of sincere Votaries to it there were Saints in Caesars house while Paul was under Nero's Chain ‖ Phil. 4. And it maintain'd its standing and flourish'd in spite of all the force of Hell 250 years before any Soveraign Prince espoused it The Potentates of the Earth had conquer'd the Lands of Men and subdued their Bodies these vanquisht Hearts and Wills and brought the most beloved Thoughts under the Yoke of Christ So much did this Doctrine overmaster the Consciences of its Followers that they rejoyced more at their Yoke than others at their Liberty and counted it more a glory to die for the honour of it than to live in the profession of it Thus did our Saviour Reign and gather Subjects in the midst of his Enemies in which respect in the first discovery of the Gospel he is describ'd as a Mighty Conqueror Revel 6.2 and still conquering in the greatness of his strength How great a Testimony of his Power is it that from so small a Cloud should rise so glorious a Sun that should chase before it the Darkness and Power of Hell Triumph over the Idolatry Superstition and Prophaness of the World This plain Doctrine vanquisht the Obstinacy of the Jews baffled the Understanding of the Greeks humbled the Pride of the Grandees threw the Devil not only out of Bodies but Hearts tore up the foundation of his Empire and planted the Cross where the Devil had for many Ages before established his Standard How much more than a humane Force is illustrious in this whole Conduct Nothing in any Age of the World can parallel it it being so much against the Methods of Nature the Disposition of the World and considering the Resistance against it seems to surmount even the Work of Creation Never were there in any Profession such multitudes not of Bedlams but Men of Sobriety Acuteness and Wisdom that expos'd themselves to the fury of the Flames and challenged Death in the most terrifying shapes for the Honour of this Doctrine To conclude This should be often meditated upon to form our Understandings to a full assent to the Gospel and the Truth of it the want of which Consideration of Power and the Customariness of an Education in the outward Profession of it is the ground of all the Prophaneness under it and Apostacy from it the disesteem of the Truth it declares and the neglect of the Duties it enjoyns The more we have a prospect and sense of the Impressions of Divine Power in it the more we shall have a Reverence of the Divine Precepts III. The Third thing is The Power of God appears in the application of Redemption as well as in the Person Redeeming and the publication and propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption 1. In the planting Grace 2. In the Pardon of Sin 3. In the preserving Grace 1. In the planting Grace There is no Expression which the Spirit of God hath thought fit in Scripture to resemble this Work to but argues the exerting of a Divine Power for the effecting of it When it is exprest by Light it is as much as the Power of God in creating the Sun when by Regeneration 't is as much as the Power of God in forming an Infant and fashioning all the Parts of a Man when it is called Resurrection 't is as much as the rearing of the Body again out of putrified Matter when it is called Creation 't is as much as erecting a comly World out of meer Nothing or an inform and uncomly Mass As we could not contrive the Death of Christ for our Redemption so we cannot form our Souls to the Acceptation of it the Infinite efficacy of Grace is as necessary for the one as the Infinite Wisdom of God was for laying the Platform of the other 'T is by his Power we have whatsoever pertains to Godliness as well as Life * 2 Pet. 1.3 He puts his Fingers upon the handle of the Lock and turns the Heart to what Point he pleases the Action whereby he performs this is exprest by a word of Force †Colos 1.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath snatcht us from the power of Darkness the Action whereby it is perform'd manifests it In reference to this Power it is called Creation which is a production from Nothing and Conversion is a production from something more uncapable of that state than meer Nothing is of Being There is a greater distance between the Terms of Sin and Righteousness Corruption and Grace than between the Terms of Nothing and Being The greater the distance is the more Power is requir'd to the producing any thing As in Miracles the Miracle is the greater where the Change is the greater
the battle when they will rebell against the light God doth often leave them to their own course sentence him that is filthy to be filthy still ‖ Reve. 22.11 which is a righteous act of God as he is Rector and Governor of the World Man's not receiving or not improving what God gives is the cause of Gods not giving further or taking away his own which before he had bestowed This is so far from being repugnant to the Holiness and Righteousness of God that it is rather a commendable act of his Holiness and Righteousness as the Rector of the World not to let those gifts continue in the hand of a man who abuses them contrary to his glory Who will blame a Father that after all the good Counsels he hath given his Son to reclaim him all the Corrections he hath inflicted on him for his irregular practice leaves him to his own courses and withdraws those assistances which he scoft at and turned the deaf Ear unto Or who will blame the Physician for deserting the Patient who rejects his Counsel will not follow his Prescriptions but dasheth his Physick against the Wall No man will blame him no man will say that he is the cause of the Patients death but the true cause is the fury of the Distemper and the obstinacy of the diseased Person to which the Physician left him And who can justly blame God in this case who yet never denied supplies of Grace to any that sincerely sought it at his hands and what man is there that lies under a hardness but first was guilty of very provoking sins What unholiness is it to deprive men of those assistances because of their sin and afterwards to direct those counsels and practices of theirs which he hath justly given them up unto to serve the ends of his own glory in his own methods 4. Which will appear further by considering that God is not oblig'd to continue his Grace to them It was at his liberty whither he could give any renewing Grace to Adam after his fall or to any of his Posterity He was at his own liberty to withold it or communicate it But if he were under any Obligation then surely he must be under less now since the multiplication of Sin by his Creatures But if the Obligation were none just after the fall there is no pretence now to fasten any such Obligation on God That God had no Obligation at first hath been spoken to before He is less obliged to continue his Grace after a repeated refusal and a peremptory abuse than he was bound to proffer it after the first Apostacy God cannot be charg'd with unholiness in withdrawing his Grace after we have received it unless we can make it appear that his Grace was a thing due to us as we are his Creatures and as he is Governor of the World What Prince looks upon himself as oblig'd to reside in any particular place of his Kingdom But suppose he be bound to inhabit in one particular City yet after the City rebells against him is he bound to continue his Court there spend his Revenue among Rebels endanger his own Honour and Security inlarge their Charter or maintain their Ancient Priviledges Is it not most just and righteous for him to withdraw himself and leave them to their own Tumultuousness and Sedition whereby they should eat the fruit of their own doings If there be an Obligation on God as a Governor it would rather lie on the side of Justice to leave Man to the Power of the Devil whom he courted and the prevalency of those Lusts he hath so often caressed and wrap up in a Cloud all his common Illuminations and leave him destitute of all common workings of his Spirit 8. Proposition Gods Holiness is not blemisht by his commanding those things sometimes which seem to be against Nature or thwart some other of his Precepts As when God commanded Abraham with his own hand to Sacrifice his Son * Gen. 22.2 there was nothing of Unrighteousness in it God hath a Soveraign Dominion over the lives and beings of his creatures whereby as he creates one day he might annihilate the next and by the same right that he might demand the life of Isaac as being his Creature he might demand the Obedience of Abraham in a ready return of that to him which he had so long enjoy'd by his grant 'T is true killing is unjust when it is done without cause and by a private Authority But the Authority of God surmounts all private and Publick Authority whatsoever Our lives are due to him when he calls for them and they are more than once forfeit to him by reason of Transgression But howsoever the case is God commanded him to do it for the trial of his Grace but suffered him not to do it in favour to his ready Obedience But had Isaac been actually slain and offer'd how had it been unrighteous in God who enacts Laws for the Regulation of his Creature but never intended them to the prejudice of the Rights of his Soveraignty Another Case is that of the Israelites borrowing Jewels of the Egyptians by the order of God †Exod. 11.2.3 Exod. 12.36 Is not God Lord of mans goods as well as their lives What have any they have not received that not as Proprietors independent on God but his Stewards and may not he demand a portion of his Steward to bestow upon his Favourite He that had power to dispose of the Egyptians Goods had power to order the Israelites to ask them Besides God acted the part of a just Judge in ordering them their wages for their Service in this method and making their Task-masters give them some recompence for their unjust oppression so many years It was a Command from God therefore rather for the preservation of Justice the Basis of all those Laws which link human Society than any infringement of it It was a material recompence in part though not a formal one in the intention of the Egyptians It was but in part a recompence It must needs come short of the dammage the poor Captives had sustained by the tyranny of their Masters who had inslav'd them contrary to the rules of hospitality and could not make amends for the lives of the poor Infants of Israel whom they had drowned in the River He that might for the unjust oppression of his People have taken away all their Lives destroy'd the whole Nation and put the Israelites into the possession of their Lands could without any unrighteousness dispose of part of their Goods And it was rather an act of Clemency to leave them some part who had doubly forfeited all Again the Egyptians were as ready to lend by Gods influence as the Israelites were to ask by Gods order And though it was a loan God as Soveraign of the World and Lord of the Earth and the fulness thereof alienated the property by assuming them to the use of the
there would be no Government no security to any Man under his own Vine and Fig-tree The World would be a Den of wild Beasts preying upon one another every one would do what seems good in his Eyes The loss of Government is a Judgment God brings upon a Nation * Hab. 1.14 when Men become as the Fishes of the Sea to devour one another because they have no Ruler over them Private Dissensions will break out into Publick Disorders and Combustions 3. The Goodness of God in the preservation of Humane Society is seen in the restraints of the Passions of Men. He sets bounds to the Passions of Men as well as to the Roulings of the Sea * Psal 65.7 He stilleth the noise of the Waves and the tumults of the People Though God hath erected a Magistracy to stop the breaking out of those Flouds of Licentiousness which swell in the hearts of Men yet if God should not hold stiff Reins on the necks of those tumultuous and foaming Passions the World would be a place of unruly confusion and Hell Triumph upon Earth A Crazy State would be quickly broke in pieces by boisterous Nature The tumults of a People could no more be quell'd by the force of Man than the rage of the Sea by a puff of breath Without Divine Goodness neither the Wisdom nor watchfulness of the Magistrates nor the industry of Officers could preserve a State The Laws of Men would be too slight to curb the Lusts of Men if the Goodness of God did not restrain them by a secret hand and interweave their Temporal security with observance of those Laws The Sons of Belial did murmur when Saul was chosen King and that they did no more was the Goodness of God for the preservation of Humane Society If God did not restrain the impetuousness of Mens Lusts they would be the entire ruine of Humane Society their Lusts would render them as bad as Beasts and change the World into a Savage Wilderness 4. The Goodness of God is seen in the preservation of Humane Society in giving various inclinations to Men for publick advantage If all Men had an inclination to one Science or Art they would all stand idle Spectators of one another but God hath bestow'd various dispositions and gifts upon Men for the promoting the common good that they may not only be useful to themselves but to Society He will have none idle none unuseful but every one acting in a due place according to their measures for the good of others 5. The Goodness of God is seen in the witness he bears against those Sins that dâ—sturb Humane Sociâ—ty In those cases he is pleased to interest himself in a more signal manner to cool those that make it their business to overturn the order he hath established for the good of the Earth He doth not so often in this World punish those faults committed immediately against his own Honour as those that put the World into a hurry and confusion As a good Governor is more Merciful to Crimes against himself than those against his Community 'T is observed that the most turbulent seditious Persons in a State come to most violent ends As Corah Adonijah Zimri Achitophel draws Absalom's Sword against David and Israel and the next is he twists a Halter for himself Absalom heads a Party against his Father and God by a goodness to Israel hangs him up and prevents not its safety by David's indulgence and a future Rebellion had life been spared by the fondness of his Father His Providence is more evident in discovering Disturbers and the Causes that move them in defeating their Enterprizes and digging the Contrivers out of their Caverns and lurking holes In such cases God doth so act and use such Methods that he silenceth any Creature from challenging any partnership with him in the discovery He doth more severely in this World correct those actions that unlink the mutual assistance between Man and Man and the charitable and kind Correspondence he would have kept up The Sins for which the Wrath of God comes upon the Children of d sobedience in this World are of this sort * Col. 3.5 6. And when Princes will be oppressing the People God will be pouring contempt on the Princes and set the pâ—or on high from affliction * Psal 107.40 41. An evidence of Gods care and kindness in the preserving Humane Society is those strange discoveries of Murders though never so clandestine and subtilly committed more than of any other Crime among Men. Divine Care never appears more than in bringing those hidden and injurious works of darkness to light and a due Punishment 6. His Goodness is seen in ordering mutual Offices to one another against the Current of Mens Passions Upon this account he ordered in his Laws for the government of the Israelites that a Man should reduce the wandring Beast of his Enemy to the hand of his rightful Proprietor though he were a provoking Enemy and also help the poor Beast that belonged to one that hated him when he saw him sink under his burden * Exod. 23.4 5. When mutual assistance was necessary he would not have Men consider'd as Enemies or consider'd as Wicked but as of the same Blood with our selves that we might be serviceable to one another for the preservation of Life and Goods 7. His Goodness is seen in remitting something of his own Right for the prâ—serving a due dependance and subjection He declines the Right he had to the Vows of a Minor or one under the power of another waving what he might challenge by the voluntary obligation of his Creature to keep up the due order between Parents and Children Husbands and Wives Superiors and Inferiors those that were under the power of another as a Child under his Parents or a Wife under her Husband if they had vowed a Vow unto the Lord which concern'd his Honour and Worship it was void without the approbation of that person under whose charge they were * Numb 30.3 4 c. Though God was the Lord of every Mans Goods and Men but his Stewards and though he might have taken to himself what another had offer'd by a Vow since whatsoever could be offer'd was Gods own though it was not the Parties own who offer'd it yet God would not have himself ador'd by his Creature to the prejudice of the necessary ties of Humane Society He lays aside what he might challenge by his Soveraign Dominion that there might not be any breach of that Regular Order which was necessary for the preservation of the World If Divine Goodness did not thus order things he would not do the part of a Rector of the World The beauty of the World would be much defac'd it would be a confus'd Mass of Men and Women or rather Beasts and Bedlams Order renders every City every Nation yea the whole Earth beautiful This is an effect of Divine Goodness 3. His Goodness is
He never sent his Son to shed a drop of Blood for their Recovery they can expect nothing but the torment of their Persons and the destruction of their Works But we abuse that Goodness that would Rescue us since we are Miserable as well as that Righteousness which Created us Innocent How base is it to use him so ill that is not once or twice but a daily hourly Benefactor to us whose Rain drops upon the Earth for our Food and whose Sun shines upon the Earth for our pleasure as well as profit such a Benefactor as is the true Proprietor of what we have and thinks nothing too good for them that think every thing too much for his Service How unworthy is it to be guilty of such base Carriage towards him whose benefits we cannot want nor live without How disingenuous both to God and our selves to despise the riches of his Goodness that are design'd to lead us to Repentance * Rom. 2.4 and by that to Happiness And more hainous are the Sins of Renew'd Men upon this account because they are against his Goodness not only offer'd to them but tasted by them not only against the Notion of Goodness but the Experience of Goodness and the relisht sweetness of choicest Bounty 3. God takes this Contempt of his Goodness hainously He never upbraids Men with any thing in the Scripture but with the abuse of the good things he hath vouchsaft them and the unmindfulness of the Obligations arising from them This he bears with the greatest regret and indignation Thus he upbraids Eli with the preference of him to the Priesthood above other Families * 1 Sam. 2.28 And David with his Exaltation to the Crown of Israel †2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. when they abused those Honours to carelesness and licentiousness All Sins offend God but Sins against his Goodness do more disparage him and therefore his fury is the greater by how much the more liberally his benefits have been dispens'd It was for abuse of Divine Goodness as soon as it was tasted that some Angels were hurl'd from their Blessed Habitation and more happy Nature It was for this Adam lost his present Enjoyments and future Happiness for the abuse of Gods Goodness in Creation For the abuse of Gods Goodness the old World fell under the fury of the Flood and for the Contempt of the Divine Goodness in Redemption Jerusalem once the darling City of the infinite Monarch of the World was made an Aceldema a Field of Blood For this Cause it is that Candlesticks have been removed great Lights put out Nations overturn'd and Ignorance hath triumph'd in places bright before with the Beams of Heaven God would have little care of his own Goodness if he always prostituted the Fruits of it to our Contempt Why should we expect he should always continue that to us which he sees we will never use to his Service When the Israelites would Dedicate the Gifts of God to the service of Baal then he would return and take away his Corn and his Wine and make them know by the less that those things were his in Dominion which they abus'd as if they had been Soveraign Lords of them * Hos 2.8 9. Benefits are Entail'd up us no longer than we obey †Josh 24.20 If you forsake the Lord he will do you hurt after he hath done you good While we obey his Bounty shall shower upon us and when we revolt his Justice shall consume us Present Mercies abus'd are no Bulwarks against impendent Judgments God hath Curses as well as Blessings and they shall light more heavy when his Blessings have been more weighty Justice is never so severe as when it comes to right Goodness and revenge its quarrel for the injuries received A convenient Enquiry may be here How Gods Goodness is contemn'd or abus'd 1. By a forgetfulness of his Benefits We enjoy the Mercies and forget the Donor we take what he gives and pay not the Tribute he deserves The Israelites forgot God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt * Psal 100 2â— We send Gods Mercies where we would have God send our Sins into the Land of forgetfulness and write his Benefits where himself will write the Names of the Wicked in the Dust which every Wind defaceth The remembrance soon wears out of our Minds and we are so far from remembring what we had before that we scarce think of that Hand that gives the very instant wherein his Benefits drop upon us Adam basely forgot his Benefactor presently after he had been made capable to remember him and reflect upon him the first remark we hear of him is of his forgetfulness not a syllable of his thankfulness We fâ—rget those Souls he hath lodg'd in us to acknowledge his favours to our Bodies we forget that Image wherewith he beautified us and that Christ he expos'd as a Criminal to Death for our Rescue which is such an act of Goodness as cannot be exprest by the Eloquence of the Tongue or conceiv'd by the acuteness of the Mind Those things which are so common that they cannot be invisible to our Eyes are unregarded by our Minds our Sense prompts our Understanding and our Understanding is deaf to the plain dictates of our Sense We forget his Goodness in the Sun while it warms us and his Showers while they enrich us in the Corn while it nourisheth us and the Wine while it refresheth us * Hos 2.8 She did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl She that might have read my Hand in every bit of Bread and every drop of Drink did not consider this 'T is an injustice to forget the benefits we receive from Man 't is a Crime of a higher Nature to forget those dispens'd to us by the hand of God who gives us those things that all the World cannot furnish us with without him The Inhabitants of Troas will condemn us who worshipped Mice in a grateful remembrace of the Victory they had made easie for them by gnawing their Enemies Bow-strings They were mindful of the Courtesie of Animals though unintended by those Creatures and we are regardless of the fore-meditated Bounty of God 'T is in Gods Judgment a brutishness beyond that of a stupid Ox or a duller Ass * Isai 1.3 The Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People do not consider The Ox knows his Owner that Pastures him and the Ass his Master that feeds him but Man is not so good as to be like to them but so bad as to be inferior to them He forgets him that sustains him and spurns at him instead of valuing him for the benefits conferr'd by him How horrible is it that God should loose more by his Bounty than he would do by his Patrimony If we had Blessings more sparingly we should remember him more gratefully If he had sent us a bit of
attempters and often oversets the disturbers of the peace of the World 3. Information God can do no wrong since he is absolute soveraign Man may do wrong Princes may oppress and rifle but it is a crime in them so to do Because their power is a power of Government and not of propriety in the goods or lives of their subjects but God cannot do any wrong whatsoever the clamours of Creatures are Because he can do nothing but what he hath a soveraign right to do If he takes away your goods he takes not away any thing that is yours more than his own since though he intrusted you with them he devested not himself of the propriety When he takes away our lives he takes what he gave us by a temporary donation to be surrendred at his call We can claim no right in any thing but by his will He is no debtor to us and since he owes us nothing he can wrong us in nothing that he takes away His own soveraignty excuseth him in all those acts which are most distastful to the Creature If we crop a medicinal plant for our use or a flower for our pleasure or kill a Lamb for our food we do neither of them any wrong Because the original of them was for our use and they had their life and nourishment and pleasing qualities for our delight and support and are not we much more made for the pleasure and use of God than any of those can be for us Of him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 Hath not God as much right over any one of us as over the meanest Worm Though there be a vast difference in nature between the Angels in Heaven and the Worms on Earth yet they are all one in regard of subjection to God he is as much the Lord of the one as the other as much the proprietor of the one as the other as much the Governour of the one as the other Not a cranny in the World is exempt from his jurisdiction Not a mite or grain of a Creature exempt from his propriety He is not our Lord by election he was a Lord before we were in being he had no terms put upon him who capitulated with him and set him in his Throne by Covenant What Oath did he take to any subject at his first investiture in his Authority His right is as natural as eternal as himself As natural as his existence and as necessary as his Deity Hath he any Law but his own will What wrong can he do that breaks no Law that fulfils his Law in every thing he doth by fulfilling his own will which as it is absolutely soveraign so it is infinitely righteous In what soever he takes from us then he cannot injure us 't is no crime in any man to seize upon his own goods to vindicate his own honour and shall it be thought a wrong in God to do such things Besides the occasion he hath from every man and that every day provoking him to do it He seems rather to wrong himself by forbearing such a seizure than wrong us by executing it 4. If God have a soveraignty over the whole World then merit is totally excluded His right is so absolute over all Creatures that he neither is nor can be a debtor to any not to the undefiled holiness of the blessed Angels much less to poor earthly worms those blessed Spirits enjoy their glory by the title of his soveraign pleasure not by vertue of any obligation devolving from them upon God Are not the faculties whereby they and we perform any act of obedience his grant to us Is not the strength whereby they and we are enabled to do any thing pleasing to him a gift from him Can a vassal merit of his Lord or a slave of his Master by using his tools and employing his strength in his service though it was a strength he had naturally not by donation from the man in whose service it is employ'd God is Lord of all all is due to him how can we oblige him by giving him what is his own more his to whom it is presented than ours by whom it is offered * Austin He becomes not a debtor by receiving any thing from us but by promising something to us 5. If God hath a soveraign dominion over the whole World then hence it follows that all Magistrates are but soveraigns under God He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords all the Potentates of the World are no other than his Lieutenants moveable at his pleasure and more at his disposal than their subjects are at theirs Though they are dignified with the title of Gods yet still they are at an infinite distance from the supream Lord. Gods under God not to be above him not to be against him The want of the due sence of their subordination to God hath made many in the World act as soveraigns above him more than soveraigns under him Had they all bore a deep conviction of this upon their spirits such audacious language had never dropt from the mouth of Pharoah who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go Exod. 5.2 Presuming that there was no superior to controul him nor any in Heaven able to be a match for him Darius had never publisht such a doting Edict as to prohibit any petition to God Nero had never fir'd Rome and sung at the sight of the devouring flames nor ever had he ript up his mothers belly to see the Womb where he first lodg'd and received a life so hateful to his Country Nor would Abner and Joab the two Generals have accounted the death of men but a sport and interlude 2 Sam. 2.14 Let the young men arise and play before us what play it was the next verse acquaints you with thrusting their Swords into one anothers sides They were no more troubled at the death of thousands than a man is to kill a fly or a flea Had a sence of this but hover'd over their Souls People in many Countries had not been made their foot-balls and used worse than their dogs Nor had the lives of millions worth more than a World been expos'd to Fire and Sword to support some sordid lust or breach of Faith upon an idle quarrel and for the depredation of their Neighbours estates the flames of Cities had not been so bright nor the streams of blood so dâ—ep nor the cries of innocents so loud In Particular 1. If God be soveraign All under-Soveraigns are not to rule against him but to be obedient to his Orders If they rule by his Authority Prov. 8.15 they are not to rule against his interest they are not to imagine themselves as absolute as God and that their Laws must be of as soveraign Authority against his honour as the Divine are for it If they are his Leiutenants on Earth they ought to act according to his Orders No man but will account a Governour or a
Corruptions will certainly be subdued in his voluntary subjects The Covenant I will be your God implyes protection government and relief which are all grounded upon Soveraignty That therefore which is our greatest burden will be remov'd by his Soveraign power Micah 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities If the outward enemies of the Church shall not bear up against his Dominion and perpetuate their rebellions unpunisht those within his people shall as little bear up against his Throne without being destroy'd by him The billows of our own hearts and the raging waves within us are as much at his beck as those without us And his Soveraignty is more eminent in quelling the corruptions of the heart than the commotions of the World in reigning over mens Spirits by changing them or curbing them more than over mens bodies by pinching and punishing them The remainders of Satans Empire will moulder away before him since he that is in us is a greater Soveraign than he that is in the World 1 Joh. 4.4 His enemies will be laid at his feet and so neveâ— shall prevail against him when his Kingdom shall come He could not be Lord of any man as a happy creature if he did not by his power make them happy and he could not make them happy unless by his Grace he made them holy He could not be praised as a Lord of Glory if he did not make some creatures glorious to praise him And an Earthly Creature could not praise him perfectly unless he had every grain of enmity to his Glory taken out of his heart Since God is the only Soveraign he only can still the commotions in our spirits and pull down all the Ensigns of the Devil's royalty he can wast him by the powerful word of his lips 4. Hence is a strong encouragement for Prayer My King was the strong compellation David us'd in Prayer as an argument of comfort and confidence as well as that of My God Psal 5 2. Hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God To be a King is to have an Office of Government and Protection He gives us liberty to approach to him as the Judge of all Heb. 12.23 i. e. As the Governour of the World we pray to one that hath the whole Globe of Heaven and Earth in his hand and can do whatsoever he will Though he be higher than the Cherubims and transcendently above all in Majesty yet we may soar up to him with the wings of our Soul Faith and Love and lay open our cause and find him as gracious as if he were the meanest subject on Earth rather than the most soveraign God in Heaven He hath as much of tenderness as he hath of Authority and is pleased with Prayer which is an acknowledgment of his Dominion an honouring of that which he delights to honour For Prayer in the notion of it imports thus much that God is the Rector of the World that he takes notice of humane affairs that he is a careful just wise Governour a store-house of blessing a fountain of goodness to the indigent and a releif to the oppressed What have we reason to fear when the soveraign of the World gives us liberty to approach to him and lay open our case That God who is King of the whole Earth not only of a few Villages or Cities in the Earth but the whole Earth and not only King of this dreggy place of our dross but of Heaven having prepar'd or established his Throne in the most glorious place of the Creation 5. Here is comfort in afflictions As a soveraign he is the Author of Afflictions as a soveraign he can be the remover of them he can command the waters of affliction to go so far and no farther If he speaks the Word a disease shall depart as soon as a servant shall from your presence with a Nod. If we are banisht from one place he can command a shelter for us in another If he orders Moab a Nation that had no great kindness for his people to let his outcasts dwell with them they shall entertain them and afford them sanctuary Isaiah 16.4 Again God chastneth as a soveraign but teacheth as a Father Psal 99.12 The exercise of his Authority is not without an exercise of his goodness He doth not correct for his own pleasure or the Creature 's torment but for the Creature 's instruction though the rod be in the hand of a soveraign yet it is tinctur'd with the kindness of divine bowels He can order them as a soveraign to mortifie our flesh and try our Faith In the severest tempest the Lord that rais'd the Wind against us which shatter'd the ship and tore its rigging can change that contrary wind for a more happy one to drive us into the Port. 6. 'T is a comfort against the projects of the Churches adversaries in times of publick commotions The consideration of the Divine soveraignty may arm us against the threatnings of mighty ones and the menaces of persecutors God hath Authority above the Crowns of men and a Wisdom superior to the cabals of men None can move a step without him he hath a negative voice upon their Counsels a negative hand upon their motions their politick resolves must stop at the point he hath prescrib'd them Their formidable strength cannot exceed the limits he hath set them their overreaching wisdom expires at the breath of God There is no Wisdom nor Vnderstanding nor Counsel against the Lord. Prov. 21.30 Not a bullet can be discharg'd nor a Sword drawn a wall battered nor a person dispatcht out of the world without the leave of God by the mightiest in the World The instruments of Satan are no more free from his soveraign restraint than their inspirer they cannot pull the hook out of their nostrils nor cast the bridle out of their mouths This soveraign can shake the Earth rend the Heavens overthrow Mountains the most Mountainous opposers of his interest Though the Nations rush in against his people like the rushing of many waters God shall rebuke them they shall be chased as the chaff of the Mountains before the Wind and like a rolling thing before the Whirlwind Isaiah 17.13 So doth he often burst in pieces the most mischievous designs and conducts the oppressed to a happy port He often turns the severest tempests into a calm as well as the most peaceful calm into a horrible storm How often hath a well-rigg'd ship that seemed to spâ—rn the Sea under her feet and beat the waves before her to a foam been swallowed up into the bowels of that Element over whose back she rode a little before God never comes to deliver his Church as a Governour but in a wrathful posture Ezek. 20.23 Surely saith the Lord with a mighty hand and with an out stretched arm and with fury pour'd out will I rule over you not with fury poured out upon the Church but fury pour'd out upon her Enemies as the words
own affections according to the holiness of his own Will As it is the effect of his power so it is an argument of his power the greatness of the effect demonstrates the fulness and sufficiency of the Cause The more feeble any man is in reason the less command he hath over his passions and he is the more heady to revenge Revenge is a sign of a Childish mind the stronger any man is in reason the more command he hath over himself Prov. 16.32 He that is slow to Anger is better than the mighty and he that rules his own Spirit than he that takes a City He that can restrain his Anger is stronger than the Coesars and Alexanders of the World that have fill'd the Earth with slain Carcasses and ruin'd Cities By the same reason God's slowness to Anger is a greater argument of his Power than the creating a World or the power of dissolving it by a Word In this he hath a Dominion over Creatures in the other over himself This is the reason he will not return to destroy because I am God and not Man Hosea 11.9 I am not so weak and impotent as man that cannot restrain his Anger This is a strength possessed only by a God wherein a Creature is no more able to parallel him than in any other So that he may be said to be the Lord of himself as it is in the verse before the Text that he is the Lord of Anger in the Hebrew instead of furious as we translate it so he is the Lord of Patience The end why God is Patient is to shew his Power Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much Long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction To shew his Wrath upon Sinners and his Power over himself in bearing such indignities and forbearing punishment so long when men were vessels of wrath fitted for destruction of whom there was no hopes of amendment Had he immediately broken in peices those Vessels his power had not so eminently appear'd as it hath done in tolerating them so long that had provoked him to take them off so often There is indeed the power of his Anger and there is the power of his Patience and his power is more seen in his Patience than in his Wrath. 'T is no wonder that he that is above all is able to crush all But it is a wonder that he that is provok't by all doth not upon the first provocation rid his hands of all This is the reason why he did bear such a weight of provocations from vessels of wrath prepar'd for ruine that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew what he was able to do the Lordship and Royalty he had over himself The power of God is more manifest in his Patience to a multitude of Sinners than it could be in Creating Millions of Worlds out of nothing this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power over himself 5. This Patience being a branch of Mercy the exercise of it is founded in the Death of Christ Without the consideration of this we can give no account why Divine Patience should extend it self to us and not to the fallen Angels The threatning extends it self to us as well as to the fallen Angels The threatning must necessarily have sunk man as well as those glorious Creatures had not Christ stept into our relief * Testaâ—d de natur Grat. Thes 119. Had not Christ interposed to satisfie the Justice of God man upon his sin had been actually bound over to punishment as well as the fall'n Angels were upon theirs and been fettered in chains as strong as those Spirits feel The reason why man was not hurl'd into the same deplorable condition upon his sin as they were is Christs promise of taking our nature and not theirs Had God design'd Christ's taking their nature the same Patience had been exercised towards them and the same offers would have been made to them as are made to us In regard of these fruits of this Patience Christ is said to buy the wickedest Apostates from him 1 Pet. 2.1 Denying the Lord that bought them such were bought by him as bring upon themselves just destruction and whose damnation slumbers not ver 3. he purchased the continuance of their lives and the stay of their execution that offers of Grace might be made to them This Patience must be either upon the account of the Law or the Gospel for there are no other rules whereby God governs the World a fruit of the Law it was not that spake nothing but Curses after Disobedience not a letter of Mercy was writ upon that And therefore nothing of Patience Death and Wrath was denounced no slowness to Anger intimated It must be therefore upon the account of the Gospel and a fruit of the Covenant of Grace whereof Christ was Mediator Besides this perfection being God's waiting that he might be Gracious Isaiâ—h 30.18 that which made way for Gods Grace made way for his waiting to manifest it God discovered not his Grace but in Christ And therefore discovered not his Patience but in Christ 't is in him he met with the satisfaction of his Justice that he might have a ground for the manifestation of his Patience And the Sacrifices of the Law wherein the Life of a beast was accepted for the sin of a man discovered the ground of his forbearance of them to be the expectation of the great sacrifice whereby sin was to be compleatly expiated Gen. 8.21 The publication of his Patience to the end of the World is presently after the sweet savor he found in Noah's sacrifice The promised and design'd coming of Christ was the cause of that Patience God exercised before in the World And his gathering the Elect together is the reason of his Patience since his death 6. The naturalness of his Veracity and Holiness and the strictness of his Justice are no barrs to the exercise of his patience 1. His Veracity In those threatnings where the punishment is exprest but not the time of inflicting it prefixt and determined in the threatning his veracity suffers no dammage by the delaying Execution so it be once done though a long time after the credit of his Truth stands unshaken As when God promises a thing without fixing the time he is at liberty to pitch upon what time he pleases for the performance of it without staining his faithfulness to his Word by not giving the thing promised presently Why should the deferring of Justice upon an offender be any more against his Veracity than his delaying an answer to the petitions of a suppliant But the difference will lie in the threatning Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death The time was there setled In that day thou shalt dye some referre day to eating not to dying and render the sentence thus I do not prohibit thee the eating this fruit for
interest of the rest of the World that they should have been extinguisht for the instruction of their contemporaries and posterity The best of them had turned all Religion into a fable coyn'd a World of rites some unnatural in themselves and most of them unbecoming a rational creature to offer and a Deity to accept Yet he did not presently arm himself against them with Fire and Sword nor stopt the course of their Generations nor tare out all those reliques of natural light which were left in their minds He did not do what he might have done but he winkt at the times of that ignorance Act. 17.30 their ignorant Idolatry for that it referrs to ver 29. They thought the God-head was like to Gold or Silver or stone graven by Art and mens device 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overlooking them He demean'd himself so as if he did not take notice of them He winkt as if he did not see them and would not deal so severely with them the eye of his Justice seem'd to wink in not calling them to an account for their sin 3. His slowness to anger is manifest to the Israelites You know how often they are call'd a stiff-necked people they are said to do evil from their youth i. e. from the time wherein they were erected a Nation and Common-wealth and that the City had been a provocation of his anger and of his fury from the day that they built it even to this day i. e. the day of Jeremiah's Prophesie that he should remove it from before his face Jer. 32.31 From the dayes of Solomon say some which is too much a curtailing of the Text as though their provocations had taken date no higher than from the time of Solomon's rearing the Temple and beautifying the City whereby it seem'd to be a new Building They began more early they scarce discontinued their revolting from God they were a grief to him 40 years together in the Wilderness Psal 95.10 Yet he suffer'd their manners Act. 13.18 He bore with their ill behaviour and sawcyness towards him And no sooner was Joshua's head laid and the Elders that were their conductors gathered to their fathers but the next Generation forsook God and smutted themselves with the Idolatry of the Nations Judg. 2.7.10 11. And when he punished them by prospering the Arms of their enemies against them they were no sooner delivered upon their cry and humiliation but they began a new Scene of Idolatry And though he brought upon them the power of the Babylonian Empire and laid chains upon them to bring them to their right mind And at 70 years end he struck off their chains by altering the whole posture of affairs in that part of the World for their sakes Overturning one Empire and settling another for their Restoration to their antient City And though they did not after disown him for their God and set up Baal in his Throne yet they multiplyed foolish traditions whereby they impaired the Authority of the Law yet he sustained them with a wonderful Patience and preferred them before all other people in the first offers of the Gospel And after they had outrag'd not only his servants the Prophets but his Son the Redeemer yet he did not forsake them but employed his Apostles to sollicit them and publish among them the Doctrine of Salvation So that his treating this people might well be call'd much long suffering it being above 1500 years wherein he bore with them or mildly punished them far less than their deserts Their coming out of Egypt being about the year of the World 2450 and their final destruction as a Common-wealth not till about 40 years after the death of Christ And all this while his Patience did sometimes wholly restrain his Justice and sometimes let it fall upon them in some few drops but made no total devastation of their Country nor wrote his revenge in extraordinary bloody Characters till the Roman conquest wherein he put a period to them both as a Church and State In particular this Patience is manifest 1. In his giving warnings of Judgments before he orders them to go forth He doth not punish in a passion and hastily He speakes before he strikes and speakes that he may not strike Wrath is publisht before it is executed and that a long time An 120 years Advertisement was given to a debauch'd World before the Heavens were open'd to spout down a deluge upon them He will not be accused of coming unawares upon a people He inflicts nothing but what he foretold either immediately to the people that provoke him or anciently to them that have been their fore-runners in the same provocation Hos 7.12 I will chastise them as their Congregation hath heard Many of the leaves of the Old Testament are full of those Presages and Warnings of approaching judgment These make up a great part of the Volume of it in various Editions according to the State of the several provoking times Warnings are given to those people that are most abominable in his sight Zeph. 2.1 2. Gather your selves together yea gather together Oh Nation not desired 't is a Meiosis Oh Nation abhorr'd before the decree bring forth He sends his Heralds before he sends his Armies He summons them by the voice of his Prophets before he confounds them by the voice of his Thunders When a parley is beaten a white flagg of Peace is hung out before a black flagg of fury is set up He seldom cuts down men by his Judgments before he hath hewed them by his Prophets Hos 6.5 Not a remarkable judgment but was foretold the Floud to the Old World by Noah The Famine to Egypt by Joseph The Earthquake by Amos. Amos 1.1 The storm from Chaldea by Jeremy The Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Hosea The total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Christ himself He hath chosen the best persons in the World to give those intimations Noah the most Righteous person on the earth for the Old World And his Son the most beloved person in Heaven for the Jews in the later time And in other parts of the World and in the later times where he hath not warned by Prophets he hath supplyed it by Prodigies in the Air and Earth Histories are full of such Items from Heaven Lesser judgments are fore-warners of greater as Lightnings before Thunder are Messengers to tell us of a succeeding clap 1. He doth often give warning of Judgments He comes not to extremity till he hath often shaken the rod over Men He thunders often before he crusheth them with his Thunder-bolt He doth not till after the first and second admonition punish a rebel as he would have us reject a Heretick He speaks once yea twice Job 33.14 and man percieves it not He sends one Message after another and waits the success of many messages before he strikes Eight Prophets were order'd to acquaint the Old World with approaching judgment 2 Pet. 2.5 He saved
strong that it had been a wrong to his Justice to have restrain'd it any longer The cry was so loud that he could not be at quiet as it were on his Throne of Glory for the disturbing noise Gen. 18.20 21. Sin transgresseth the Law the Law being violated solicites Justice Justice being urg'd pleads for punishment the cry of their sins did as it were force him from Heaven to come down and examine what cause there was for that clamour Sin cries loud and long before he takes his Sword in hand Four hundred years he kept off deserved destruction from the Amorites and deferr'd making good his promise to Abraham of giving Canaan to his Posterity out of his Long-suffering to the Amorites Gen. 15.16 In the fourth Generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full Their measure was filling then but not so full as to put a stop to any further patience till four hundred years after The usual time in succeeding Generations from the denouncing of Judgments to the execution is forty years this some ground upon Ezek. 4.6 thou shalt bear the iniquity of the House of Judah forty days taking each day for a year Though Hosea lived seventy years yet from the beginning of his prophesying Judgments against Israel to the pouring them out upon that Idolatrous People it was forty years Hosea as was mentioned before prophesied against them in the days of Jeroboam the second in whose time God did wonderfully deliver Israel 2 Kings 14.26.27 From that time till the total destruction of the ten Tribes it was forty years as may easily be computed from the Story 2 Kings 15 16 17. chapters by the Reign of the succeeding Kings So forty years after the most horrid villany that ever was committed in the face of the Sun viz. The Crucifying the Son of God was Jerusalem destroyed and the inhabitants captiv'd so long did God delay a visible punishment for such an outrage Sometimes he prolongs sending a threatned judgment upon a meer shadow of humiliation so he did that denounced against Ahab He turn'd it over to his posterity and adjourn'd it to another season 1 Kings 21.29 He doth not issue out an Arrest upon one Transgression you often find him not commencing a suit against men till three and four Transgressions The first of Amos all along that chapter and the second chapter for three and four i. e. seven A certain number for an uncertain He gives not orders to his judgments to march till men be obstinate and refuse any commerce with him He stops them till there be no remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 It must be a great wickedness that gives vent to them Hos 10.15 Heb. your wickedness of wickedness He is so slow to anger and stays the punishment his enemies deserve that he may seem to have forgot his kindness to his Friends Psal 44.24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and oppression He lets his people groan under the yoke of their Enemies as if he were made up of kindness to his Enemies and anger against his Friends This delaying of punishment to evil men is visible in his suspending the terrifying acts of Conscience and supporting it only in its checking admonishing and controuling acts The patience of a Governour is seen in the patient mildness of his Deputy Davids Conscience did not terrifie him till nine months after his sin of Murder Should God set open the Mouth of this power within us not only the Earth but our own bodies and Spirits would be a burden to us 'T is long before God puts Scorpions into the hands of mens Consciences to scourge them He holds back the rod waiting for the hour of our return as if that would be a recompence for our offences and his forbearance III. His Patience is manifest in his unwillingness to execute his Judgments when he can delay no longer He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men. Lament 3.33 Hebr. He doth not afflict from his Heart He takes no pleasure in it as he is Creator The height of mens provocations and the necessity of the preserving his rights and vindicating his Laws obligeth him to it as he is the Governour of the World As a Judge may willingly condemn a Malefactor to death out of affection to the Laws and desire to preserve the order of Government but unwillingly out of Compassion to the offender himself When he resolved upon the destruction of the old World he spake it as a God grieved with an occasion of punishment Gen. 6.6 7. compared together When he came to reckon with Adam be walked he did not run with his Sword in his hand upon him as a mighty man with an eagerness to destroy him Gen. 3.8 And that in the cool of the day a time when men tired in the day are unwilling to engage in a hard employment His exercising judgment is a coming out of his place Isaiah 26.21 Micah 1.3 He comes out of his station to exercise judgment a Throne is more his place than a tribunal Every prophesie loaded with threatnings is call'd the Burden of the Lord a burden to him to execute it as well as to men to suffer it Though three Angels came to Abraham about the punishment of Sodom whereof one Abraham speaks to as to God yet but two appear'd at the destruction of Sodom as if the Governour of the World were unwilling to be present at such dreadful work Gen. 19.1 And when the Man that had the inkhorn by his side that was appointed to mark those that were to be preserved in the common destruction return'd to give an account of the performing his commission Ezek. 9.10 We read not of the return of those that were to kill as if God delighted only to hear again of his works of Mercy and had no mind to hear again of his severe proceedings * Mercer in Gen. 1.5 The Jews to shew Gods unwillingness to punish imagine that Hell was created the second day Because that days work is not pronounced good by God as all the other days works are Gen. 1.8 1. When God doth punish he doth it with some regret * Cressol Decad. 2. p. 163. When he hurles down his thunders he seems to do it with a backward hand Because with an unwilling heart He created saith Chrysostom the World in six days but was seven days in destroying one City Jericho which he had before devoted to be razed to the ground What is the reason saith he that God is so quick to build up but slow to pull down His Goodness excites his power to the One but is not earnest to perswade him to the Other When he comes to strike he doth it with a sigh or groan Isaiah 1.24 Ah I will ease me of my adversaries and avenge me on my Enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ah a note of grief So Hos 6.4 Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee
they would be a lost people A period will quickly be set to their lives no Created strength can restrain its power from crushing such a stiff-neck'd people Flesh and Blood cannot bear them nor any Created Spirit of a greater might 1. Consider the greatness of the provocations No light matter but actions of a great defiance What is the practical Language of most in the World but that of Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey him How many question his being and more his Authority What blasphemies of him what reproaches of his Majesty Men drinking up iniquity like water and with a hast and ardency rushing into sin as the horse into the battle What is there in the reasonable creature that hath the quickest capacity and the deepest obligation to serve him but opposition and enmity a slight of him in every thing yea the services most seriously performed unsuited to the royalty and purity of so great a Being Such provocations as dare him to his face that are a burden to so righteous a Judge and so great a lover of the Authority and Majesty of his Laws That were there but a spark of anger in him 't is a wonder it doth not shew it self When he is invaded in all his attributes 't is astonishing that this single one of Patience and Meekness should with-stand the assault of all the rest of his perfections His being which is attack'd by sin speakes for vengeance his Justice cannot be imagin'd to stand silent without charging the sinner His Holiness cannot but encourage his Justice to urge its pleas and be an Advocate for it His Omniscience proves the truth of all the charge and his abused mercy hath little encouragement to make opposition to the Indictment Nothing but Patience stands in the gap to keep off the arrest of judgment from the sinner 2. His Patience is manifest if you consider the multitudes of these provocations Every man hath sin enough in a day to make him stand amazed at Divine Patience and to call it as well as the Apostle did all long suffering 1 Tim. 1.16 How few duties of a perfectly right stamp are performed What unworthy considerations mix themselves like dross with our purest and sincerest Gold How more numerous are the respects of the Worshippers of him to themselves than unto him How many services are paid him not out of love to him but because he should do us no hurt and some service When we do not so much design to please him as to please our selves by expectations of a reward from him What Master would endure a servant that endeavoured to please him only because he should not kill him Is that former charge of God upon the Old World yet out of date That the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man was only evil and that continually Gen. 6.5 Was not the New World as chargeable with it as the Old Certainly it was Gen. 8.21 And is of as much force this very minute as it was then How many are the sins against knowledge as well as those of ignorance Presumptuous sins as well as those of infirmity How numerous those of Omission and Commission * Lessius pag. 152. 'T is above the reach of any man's understanding to conceive all the Blasphemies Oaths Thefts Adulteries Murders Oppressions contempt of Religion the open Idolatries of Turks and Heathens the more spiritual and refin'd Idolatries of others Add to those the ingratitude of those that profess his name their pride earthlyness carelesness sluggishness to divine duties and in every one of those a multitude of provocations The whole man being engag'd in every sin the understanding contriving it the will embracing it the affections complying with it and all the members of the body instruments in the acting the unrighteousness of it Every one of these faculties bestowed upon men by him are armed against him in every act and in every employment of them there is a distinct provocation though center'd in one sinful end and object What are the offences all the men of the World receive from their fellow creatures to the injuries God receives from men but as a small dust of earth to the whole mass of Earth and Heaven too What multitudes of sins is one prophane wretch guilty of in the space of 20 40 50 years Who can compute the vast number of his transgressions from the first use of reason to the time of the separation of his Soul from his Body from his entrance into the World to his exit What are those to those of a whole Village of the like Inhabitants What are those to those of a great City Who can number up all the foul mouth'd Oaths the beastly excess the goatish uncleanness committed in the space of a day year twenty years in this City much less in the whole Nation least of all in the whole World Were it no more than the common Idolatry of former ages when the whole World turn'd their backs upon their Creator and passed him by to sue to a Creature a stock or stone or a degraded spirit How provoking would it be to a Prince to see a whole City under his Dominion deny him a respect and pay it to his scullion or the common Executioner he employs Add to this the unjust invasions of Kings the oppressions exercised upon men all the private and publick sins that have been in the World ever since it began The Gentiles were describ'd by the Apostle Rom. 1.29 30 31. in a black character They were haters of God yet how did the Riches of his patience preserve multitudes of such disingenuous persons and how many millions of such haters of him breath every day in his Air and are maintained by his bounty have their tables sprâ—â—d and their cups fill'd to the brim and that too in the midst of reiterated belchings of their enmity against him All are under sufficient provocations of him to the highest indignation The presiding Angels over Nations could not forbear in Love and Honour to their Governour to arm themselves to the destruction of their several charges if Divine patience did not set them a pattern and their obedience incline them to expect his Orders before they act what their zeal would prompt them to The Devils would be glad of Commission to destroy the World but that his patience puts a stop to their fury 〈◊〉 well as his own Justice 3. Consider the long time of this patience He spread out his handâ— all the day to a rebellious World Isaiah 65.2 All mens day all Gods day which is a thousand years he hath born with the gross of mankind with all the Nations of the World in a long succession of ages for five thousand years and upwards already and will bear with them till the time comes for the World dissolution He hath suffered the monstrous acts of men and endur'd the contradictions of a sinful World against himself from the first sin of Adam
other things in conjunction with this the nature of God the way to Worship him the manner of the Worlds Existence his own state We may resonably suppose him to have a good stock of knowledge what is become of it It cannot be supposed that the first man should acquaint his posterity with an object of Worship and leave them ignorant of a Mode of Worship and of the end of Worship we find in Scripture his immediate posterity did the first in Sacrifices and without doubt they were not ignorant of the other how come Men to be so uncertain in all other things and so confident of this if it were only a Tradition how did debates and irreconcilable questions start up concerning other things and this remain untouch'd but by a small number whatsoever Tradition the first Man left besides this is lost and no way recoverable but by the Revelation God hath made in his Word How comes it to pass this of a God is longer liv'd than all the rest which we may suppose Man left to his immediate descendents How come men to retain the one and forget the other What was the reason this surviv'd the ruin of the rest and surmounted the uncertainties into which the other sunk Was it likely it should be handed down alone without other attendants on it at first Why did it not expire among the Americans who have lost the account of their own descent and the Stock from whence they sprung and cannot reckon above eight hundred or a thousand years at most Why was not the manner of the worship of a God transmitted as well as that of his Existence How came men to dissent in their Opinions concerning his Nature whether he was corporeal or incorporeal finite or infinite omnipresent or limited Why were not men as negligent to transmit this of his Existence as that of his Nature No reason can be rendred for the security of this above the other but that there is so clear a tincture of a Deity upon the minds of men such traces and shadows of him in the creatures such indelible instincts within and invincible arguments without to keep up this universal consent The Characters are so deep that they cannot possibly be rased out which would have been one time or other in one Nation or other had it depended only upon Tradition since one Age shakes off frequently the Sentiments of the former I cannot think of above one which may be called a Tradition which indeed was kept up among all Nations viz. Sacrifices which could not be natural but instituted What ground could they have in Nature to imagin that the blood of Beasts could expiate and wash off the guilt and stains of a rational Creature Yet they had in all places but among the Jews and some of them only lost the knowledg of the reason and end of the Institution which the Scripture acquaints us was to typifie and signifie the Redemption by the Promised Seed This Tradition hath been superannuated and laid aside in most parts of the World while this Notion of the Existence of a God hath stood firm But suppose it were a Tradition was it likely to be a meer intention and figment of the first Man Had there been no reason for it this Posterity would soon have found out the weakness of its Foundation What advantage had it been to him to transmit so great a falshood to kindle the fears or raise the hopes of his Posterity if there were no God It cannot be supposed he should be so void of that natural affection men in all ages bear to their Descendents as so grosly to deceive them and be so contrary to the simplicity and plainness which appears in all things nearest their Original 2. Neither was it by any mutual Intelligence of Governours among themselves to keep people in subjection to them If it were a political design at first it seems it met with the general nature of Mankind very ready to give it entertainment I. It is unaccountable how this should come to pass It must be either by a joynt Assembly of them or a mutual Correspondence If by an Assembly who were the persons let the name of any one be mentioned When was the time Where was the place of this appearance By what Authority did they meet together Who made the first motion and first started this great Principle of Policy By what means could they assemble from such distant parts of the World humane Histories are utterly silent in it And the Scripture the antientest History gives an account of the attempt of Babel but not a word of any design of this nature What mutual Correspondence could such have whose Interests are for the most part different and their designs contrary to one another How could they who were divided by such vast Seas have this mutual Converse How could those who were different in their Customs and Manners agree so unanimously together in one thing to gull the People If there had been such a Correspondence between the Governours of all Nations what is the reason some Nations should be unknown to the world till of late times How could the business be so secretly managed as not to take Vent and Issue in a discovery to the World Can reason suppose so many in a joynt Conspiracy and no mans Conscience in his life under sharp Afflictions or on his death bed when Conscience is most awakened constrain him to reveal openly the Cheat that beguil'd the World How came they to be so uanimous in this Notion and to differ in their Rites almost in every Country why could they not agree in one Mode of Worship throughout all the World as well as in this universal Notion If there were not a mutual intelligence it can not be conceived how in every Nation such a state-Engineer should rise up with the same trick to keep people in aw What is the reason we cannot find any Law in any one Nation to constrain men to the beleif of the Existence of a God since politick Stratagems have been often fortified by Laws Besides such men make use of Principles received to effect their Contrivances and are not so impolitick as to build designes upon Principles that have no Foundation in nature Some Heathen Law-givers have pretended a converse with their Gods to make their Laws be received by the people with a greater veneration and fix with stronger obligation the observance and perpetuity of them but this was not the introducing of a new Principle but the supposition of an old received Notion that there was a God and an application of that Principle to their present designe The pretence had been vain had not the notion of a God been ingrafted Politicians are so little possessed with a Reverence of God that the first Mighty one in the Scripture which may reasonably gain with the Atheist the credit of the Ancientest History in the World is represented without any fear of God * Gen.