of those names were proper to insinuate Fear neither was Fear the first Principle that made the Heathens worship a God they offered Sacrifices out of Gratitude to some as well as to others out of Fear the fear of Evils in the world and the hopes of Releif and Assistance from their Gods and not a terrifying Fear of God was the principal Spring of their Worship When Calamities from the hands of Men or Judgments by the influences of Heaven were upon them they implored that which they thought a Deity It was not their Fear of him but a Hope in his Goodness and Perswasion of Remedy from him for the averting those Evils that rendred them Adorers of a God If they had not had preexistent Notions of his Being and Goodness they would never have made Addresses to him or so frequently sought to that they only apprehended as a terrifying Object * Gassend Phys sect 1. l. 4. c. 2. p. 291. 292. When you hear men calling upon God in a time of affrighting Thunder you cannot imagin that the fear of Thunder did first introduce the Notion of a God but implies that it was before apprehended by them or stampt upon them though their Fear doth at present actuate that Beleif and engage them in a present Exercise of Piety and whereas the Scripture saith the fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom or of all Religion * Pro. 9.16 Psal 111.10 't is not understood of a distracted and terrifying Fear but a reverential Fear of him because of his holiness or a worship of him a submission to him and sincere seeking of him Well then is it not a folly for an Atheist to deny that which is the reason and common Sentiment of the whole world to strip himself of humanity run counter to his own Conscience prefer a private before a universal Judgment give the lie to his own nature and reason assert things impossible to be proved nay impossible to be acted Forge irrationalities for the support of his fancy against the common perswasion of the world and against himself and so much of God as is manefest in him and every man * Rom. 1.19 Jupiter est quodcunque vides c. II. It is a folly to deny that which all Creatures or all things in the World manifest Let us view this in Scripture since we acknowledge it and after consider the arguments from natural reason The Apostle resolves it Rom. 1.19 20. The invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse They know or might know by the things that were made the Eternity and power of God their sence might take a Circuit about every object and their minds collect the being and somthing of the perfections of the Deity The first discourse of the mind upon the sight of a delicate peice of workman-ship is the Conclusion of the being of an Artificer and the admiration of his skill and industry The Apostle doth not say the invisible things of God are beleived or they have an opinion of them but they are seen and clearly seen They are like Cristal glasses which give a clear representation of the Existence of a Deity like that Mirrour reported to be in a Temple in Arcadia which represented to the Spectator not his own face but the Image of that Deity which he Worshipped The whole world is like a looking-glass which whole and entire represents the Image of God and every broken peice of it every little shred of a Creature doth the like not only the great ones Elephants and the Leviathan but Ants Flies Worms whose bodies rather then names we know The greater Cattle and the Creeping things Gen. 1.24 Not naming there any intermediate Creature to direct us to view him in the smaller Letters as well as the greater Characters of the World His name is Glorious and his Attributes are excellent in all the Earth * Psal 8.1 in every Creature as the glory of the Sun is in every beam and smaller flash he is seen in every Insect in every Spire of grass The voice of the Creator is in the most contemptible Creature * Banes in Aquin. Par. 2. Qu. 2. Artic. 2. pa. 78. Col. 2. The Apostle adds that they are so clearly seen that men are inexcusable if they have not some knowledge of God by them if they might not certainly know them they might have some excuse So that his Existence is not only probably but demonstratively proved from the things of the world Especially the Heavens declare him which God stretches out like a Curtain * Psal 104.2 or as some render the word a Skin whereby is signified that Heaven is as an open book which was Anciently made of the skins of beasts that by the knowledge of them we may be taught the knowledge of God Where Scripture was not revealed the world served for a witness of a God what ever arguments the Scripture uses to prove it are drawn from nature though indeed it doth not so much prove as suppose the Existence of a God but what Arguments it uses are from the Creatures and particularly the Heavens which are the publick Preachers of this Doctrin The breath of God sounds to all the World through those Organ-pipes His Being is visible in their Existence his Wisdom in their frame his Power in their motion his Goodness in their usefulness * For their voice goeth to the end of the Earth Psal 19.1 2. They have a voice and their voice is as intelligible as any common Language And those are so plain Heralds of a Deity that the Heathen mistook them for Deities and gave them a particular adoration which was due to that God they declared The first Idolatry seems to be of those Heavenly bodies which began probably in the time of Nimrod In Jobs time it is certain they admired the Glory of the Sun and the brightness of the Moon not without kissing their hands a sign of Adoration * Job 31.26.27 T is evident a man may as well doubt whither there be a Sun when he sees his beams guilding the Earth as doubt whither there be a God when he sees his works spread in the World The things in the World declare the Existence of a God 1. In their Production 2. Harmony 3. Preservation 4. Answering their several ends First 1. In their production The declaration of the Existence of God was the chief end for which they were Created that the Notion of a Supream and Independent Eternal Being might easier incur into the active understanding of man from the objects of sensedispersed in every corner of the World that he might pay a homage and devotion to the Lord of all Isa 40.12 13 18 19. c. Have you not understood from the foundation of the Earth t is he that sits upon the Circle
understandings and divide our Spirits from God Were our hearts ballanced with a love to God the world could never steal our hearts so much from his worship but his worship would draw our hearts to it It shews a base neutrality in the greatest concernments a halting between God and Baal a contrariety between Affection and Conscience when natural Conscience presses a man to duties of worship and his other affections pull him back draw him to carnal objects and make him slight that whereby he may honour God God argues the prophaness of the Jews hearts from the wickedness they brought into his house and acted there Jer. 23.11 Yea in my house that is my worship I found their wickedness saith the Lord. Carnality in worship is a kind of an Idolatrous frame when the heart is renewed Idols are cast to the Moles and the Batts Isa 2.20 3. It shews much hypocrisie to have our Spirits off from God The mouth speaks and the carriage pretends what the heart doth not think there is a dissent of the heart from the pretence of the body Instability is a sure sign of Hypocrisie Double thoughts argue a double heart The Wicked are compared to Chaff * Psal 1.4 for the uncertain and various motions of their minds by the least wind of fancy The least motion of a carnal Object diverts the Spirit from God as the scent of Carrion doth the Raven from the flight it was set upon The People of God are called Gods Spouse and God calls himself their Husband whereby is noted the most intimate union of the Soul with God and that there ought to be the highest love and affection to him and faithfulness in his worship but when the heart doth start from him in worship it is a sign of the unstedfastness of it with God and a disrelish of any communion with him It is as God complains of the Israelites a going a whoreing after our own imaginations As grace respects God as the object of worship so it looks most upon God in approaching to him Where there is a likeness and love there is a desire of converse and intimacy if there be no spiritual entwining about God in our worship it is a sign there is no likeness to him no true sense of him no renewed image of God in us Every living Image will move strongly to joyn it self with its original Copy and be glad with Jacob to sit steadily in those Chariots that shall convey him to his beloved Joseph Motion 3. Consider the danger of a carnal worship 1. We lose the comfort of worship The Soul is a great Gainer when it offers a spiritual worship and as great a loser when it is unfaithful with God Treachery and perfidiousness hinder commerce among men so doth Hypocrisie in its own nature communion with God God never promised any thing to the Carcass but to the Spirit of worship God hath no obligation upon him by any word of his to reward us with himself when we perform it not to himself When we give an outside worship we have only the outside of an ordinance We can expect no kernel when we give God only the shell He that only licks the outside of the Glass can never be refreshed with the rich Cordial enclosed within A cold and lazy formality will make God to withdraw the light of his countenance and not shine with any delightful communications upon our Souls but if we come before him with a liveliness of affections and steadiness of heart he will draw the vail and cause his glory to display it self before us An humble praying Christian and a warm affectionate Christian in worship will soon find a God who is delighted with such frames and cannot long withold himself from the Soul When our hearts are enflamed with love to him in worship 't is a preparation to some act of love on his part whereby he intends further to gratifie us When John was in the Spirit on the Lords day that is in spiritual employment and meditation and other duties he had that great Revelation of what should happen to the Church in all ages * Rev 1.10 His being in the Spirit intimates his ordinary course on that day and not any extraordinary act in him though it was followed with an extraordinary discovery of God to him When he was thus engaged he heard a voice behind him God doth not require of us spirituality in worship to advantage himself but that we might be prepared to be advantaged by him If we have a clear and well disposed eye 't is not a benefit to the Sun but fits us to receive benefits from his Beams Worship is an act that perfects our own Souls they are then most widened by spiritual frames to receive the influence of divine blessings as an eye most opened receives the fruit of the Suns light better than the eye that is shut The communications of God are more or less according as our spiritual frames are more or less in our worship God will not give his blessings to unsutable hearts What a nasty Vessel is a carnal heart for a spiritual communication The chief end of every duty enjoyned by God is to have communion with him and therefore it is called a drawing near to God 'T is impossible therefore that the outward part of any duty can answer the end of God in his institution 'T is not a bodily appearance or gesture whereby men can have communion with God but by the impressions of the heart and reflections of the heart upon God Without this all the rich streams of grace will run besides us and the growth of the Soul be hindered and impaired A diligent hand makes rich saith the wise man a diligent heart in spiritual worship brings in rich incomes to the humble and spiritual Soul 2. It renders the worship not only unacceptable but abominable to God It makes our Gold to become Dross it soyls our duties and bespotts our Souls A carnal and unsteady frame shews an indifferency of Spirit at best and luke warmness is as ungrateful to God as heavy and nauseous meat is to the stomach he spues them out of his mouth * Rev. 3.16 As our gracious God doth overlook infirmities where intentions are good and endeavours serious and strong so he loaths the services where the frames are stark naught Psal 66.118 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer Luke warm and indifferrent services stink in the Nostrils of God The heart seems to loath God when it starts from him upon every occasion when it is unwilling to employ it self about and stick close to him And can God be pleased with such a frame The more of the Heart and Spirit is in any service the more real goodness there is in it and the more savoury it is to God the less of the Heart and Spirit the less of goodness and the more nauseous to God who loves Righteousness
his moral Power whereby it is lawful for him to do what he will Among men Strength and Authority are two distinct things A Subject may be a Giant and be stronger than his Prince but he hath not the same Authority as his Prince Worldly Dominion may be seated not in a brawny Arm but a sickly and infirm Body As knowledge and wisdom are distinguisht knowledge respects the matter being and nature of a thing Wisdom respects the harmony order and actual usefulness of a thing Knowledge searcheth the nature of a thing and Wisdom employs that thing to its proper use A man may have much Knowledge and little Wisdom so a man may have much Strength and little or no Authority A greater strength may be setled in the Servant but a greater Authority resides in the Master strength is the natural vigor of a Man God hath an infinite strength he hath a strength to bring to pass whatsoever he decrees he acts without fainting and weakness Isaiah 40.28 and impairs not his strength by the exercise of it As God is Lord he hath a right to Enact as he is Almighty he hath a power to Execute His strength is the executive power belonging to his Dominion In regard of his Soveraignty he hath a right to Command all Creatures In regard of his Almightiness he hath power to make his Commands be obey'd or to punish men for the violation of them His power is that whereby he subdues all Creatures under him his Dominion is that whereby he hath a right to subdue all Creatures under him This Dominion is a right of making what he pleases of possessing what he made of disposing of what he doth possess whereas his power is an ability to make what he hath a right to Create to hold what he doth possess and to execute the manner wherein he resolves to dispose of his Creatures 2. All the other Attributes of God referre to this perfection of Dominion They all bespeak him fit for it and are discovered in the exercise of it which hath been manifested in the discourses of those Attributes we have passed through hitherto His Goodness fits him for it because he can never use his Authority but for the good of the Creatures and conducting them to their true end His Wisdom can never be mistaken in the exercise of it his power can accomplish the Decrees that flow from his absolute Authority What can be more rightful than the placing Authority in such an infinite Goodness that hath Bowels to pity as well as a Scepter to sway his Subjects That hath a mind to contrive and a will to regulate his contrivances for his own Glory and his Creatures good and an arm of power to bring to pass what he Orders Without this Dominion some perfections as Justice and Mercy would lie in obscurity and much of his Wisdom would be shrouded from our sight and knowledge 3. This of Dominion as well as that of Power hath been acknowledged by all The High Priest was to wave the Offering or shake it to and fro Exod. 29.24 which the Jews say was customarily from East to West and from North to South the four quarters of the World to signifie Gods Soveraignty over all the parts of the World And some of the Heathens in their Adorations turned their Bodies to all quarters to signifie the extensive Dominion of God throughout the whole Earth That Dominion did of right pertain to the Deity was confest by the Heathen in the name Baal given to their Idols which signifies Lord and was not a name of one Idol adored for a God but common to all the Eastern Idols God hath interwoven the notion of his Soveraignty in the Nature and Constitution of Man in the noblest and most inward acts of his Soul in that faculty or act which is most necessary for him in his converse in this World either with God or Man 'T is stampt upon the Conscience of Man and flashes in his face in every act of self Judgment Conscience passes upon a Man Every reflection of Conscience implies an obligation of man to some Law written in his Heart Rom. 2.15 This Law cannot be without a Legislator nor this Legislator without a Soveraign Dominion these are but natural and easie consequences in the mind of Man from every act of Conscience The indelible Authority of Conscience in Man in the whole exercise of it bears a respect to the Soveraignty of God clearly proclaims not only a supream being but a supream Governor and points man directly to it that a man may as soon deny his having such a reflecting principle within him as deny Gods Dominion over him and consequently over the whole World of rational Creatures 4. This notion of Soveraingty is inseparable from the notion of a God To acknowledge the Existence of a God and to acknowledge him a Rewarder are linkt together Heb. 11.6 To acknowledge him a Rewarder is to acknowledge him a Governor Rewards being the marks of Dominion The very name of a God includes in it a supremacy and an actual rule He cannot be conceived as God but he must be conceived as the highest Authority in the World 'T is as possible for him not to be God as not to be supream Wherein can the exercise of his excellencies be apparent but in his Soveraign rule To fancy an infinite power without a supream Dominion is to fancy a mighty senseless Statue fit to be beheld but not fit to be obey'd as not being able or having no right to give out Orders or not caring for the exercise of it God cannot be supposed to be the cheif being but he must be supposed to give Laws to all and receive Laws from none And if we suppose him with a perfection of Justice and Righteousness which we must do unless we would make a lame and imperfect God we must suppose him to have an intire Dominion without which he could never be able to manifest his Justice And without a supream Dominion he could not manifest the supremacy and infiniteness of his Righteousness 1. We cannot suppose God a Creator without supposing a Soveraign Dominion in him No Creature can be made without some Law in its Nature if it had not Law it would be Created to no purpose to no regular end it would be utterly unbecoming an infinite Wisdom to create a lawless Creature a Creature wholly vain much less can a rational Creature be made without a Law if it had no Law it were not rational For the very notion of a rational Creature implies reason to be a Law to it and implies an acting by rule * Maccov Colleg. Theolog 10. Disput 18. p. 6 7. or thereabout If you could suppose rational Creatures without a Law you might suppose that they might blaspheme their Creator and Murder their fellow Creatures and commit the most abominable villanies destructive to humane Society without sin for where there is no Law there is no
God and his nature which would be a bar to much of that wickedness which overflows in the lives of men 5. Nor is it unuseful to those who effectually beleive and love him * Coccei Sum. Theol. c. 8. § 1. for those who have had a converse with God and felt his powerful influences in the secrets of their hearts to take a prospect of those satisfactory accounts which reason gives of that God they adore and love to see every Creature justifie them in their owning of him and affections to him Indeed the Evidences of a God striking upon the Conscience of those who resolve to cleave to sin as their cheifest darling will dash their pleasures with unwelcome mixtures I shall further premise this That the folly of Atheism is evidenced by the light of Reason Men that will not listen to Scripture as having no counterpart of it in their Souls cannot easily deny natural Reason which riseth up on all sides for the justification of this Truth There is a natural as well as a revealed Knowledg and the Book of the Creatures is legible in declaring the Being of a God as well as the Scriptures are in declaring the Nature of a God there are outward objects in the World and common Principles in the Conscience whence it may be inferr'd For 1. God in regard of his Existence is not only the discovery of Faith but of Reason God hath revealed not only his Being but some sparks of his eternal Power and Godhead in his Works as well as in his Word Rom. 1.19 20. God hath shewed it unto them how * Aquin. in his works by the things that are made t is a discovery to our Reason as shining in the Creatures and an object of our Faith as breaking out upon us in the Scriptures 't is an Article of our Faith and an Article of our Reason Faith supposeth natural knowledge as Grace supposeth nature Faith indeed is properly of things above Reason purely depending upon Revelation What can be demonstrated by natural light is not so properly the object of Faith though in regard of the addition of a certainty by Revelation it is so The beleif that God is which the Apostle speaks of * Heb. 11.6 is not so much of the bare Existence of God as what God is in Relation to them that seek to him viz. a Rewarder The Apostle speaks of the Faith of Abel the Faith of Enoch such a Faith that pleases God But the Faith of Abel testified in his sacrifice and the Faith of Enoch testified in his walking with God was not simply a Faith of the Existence of God Cain in the time of Abel other men in the World in the time of Enoch beleived this as well as they But it was a Faith joyned with the Worship of God and desires to please him in the way of his own appointment so that they beleived that God was such as he had declared himself to be in his promise to Adam such an one as would be as good as his word and bruise the Serpents head He that seeks to God according to the mind of God must beleive that he is such a God that will pardon sin and justifie a seeker of him that he is a God of that ability and will to Justifie a sinner in that way he hath appointed for the clearing the Holiness of his Nature and vindicating the Honour of his Law violated by man No man can seek God or love God unless he beleive him to be thus and he cannot seek God without a discovery of his own mind how he would be sought For it is not a seeking God in any way of mans Invention that renders him capable of this desired fruit of a Reward He that beleives God as a Rewarder must beleive the promise of God concerning the Messiah Men under the Conscience of sin cannot tell without a divine discovery whither God will reward or how he will reward the seekers of him and therefore cannot act towards him as an object of Faith Would any man seek God meerly because he is or love him because he is if he did not know that he should be acceptable to him The bare Existence of a thing is not the ground of affection to it but those qualities of it and our interest in it which render it amiable and delightful How can men whose Consciences sly in their faces seek God or love him without this knowledge that he is a Rewarder Nature doth not shew any way to a sinner how to reconcile Gods provoked Justice with his Tenderness The Faith the Apostle speaks of here is a Faith that eyes the reward as an encouragement and the Will of God as the Rule of its acting he doth not speak simply of the Existence of God I have spoken the more of this place because the Socinians * Voet. Theol natural cap. 3. § 1. p. 22. use this to decry any natural knowledge of God and that the Existence of God is only to be known by Revelation so that by that reason any one that lived without the Scripture hath no ground to beleive the being of a God The Scripture ascribes a knowledge of God to all Nations in the world Rom. 1.19 not only a faculty of knowing if they had arguments and demonstrations as an ignorant man in any art hath a faculty to know but it ascribes an actual knowledge ver 19. manifest in them ver 21. They knew God not they might know him they knew him when they did not care for knowing him the notices of God are as intelligible to us by reason as any object in the world is visible he is written in every Letter 2. We are often in the Scripture sent to take a prospect of the Creatures for a discovery of God The Apostles drew arguments from the Topicks of nature when they discoursed with those that owned the Scripture Rom. 1.19 As well as when they treated with those that were ignorant of it as Acts 14.16 17. And among the Philosophers of Athens Acts 17.27 29. such arguments the Holy Ghost in the Apostles thought sufficient to convince men of the Existence Unity Spirituality and Patience of God * Voet Theol. natural cap. 3. § 1. p. 22. Such arguments had not been used by them and the Prophets from the visible things in the world to silence the Gentiles with whom they dealt had not this Truth and much more about God been demonstrable by natural Reason they knew well enough that probable arguments would not satisfie peircing and inquisitive minds In Pauls account the Testimony of the Creatures was without contradiction God himself justifies this way of proceeding by his own example and remits Job to the consideration of the Creatures to spell out something of his Divine Perfections * Job 28.39.40 c. T is but one truth in Philosophy and Divinity That which is false in one cannot be true in another Truth in what appearance
out from the Creation of the World there could not be engaged a considerable number to frame a Society for the profession of it It hath died with the Person that started it and vanish'd as soon as it appeared To conclude this is it not folly for any man to deny or doubt of the being of a God to dissent from all mankind and stand in contradiction to humane Nature What is the general dictate of Nature is a certain Truth 'T is impossible that Nature can naturally and universally lie And therefore those that ascribe all to Nature and set it in the Place of God contradict themselves if they give not credit to it in that which it universally affirms ‖ Cicero A general consent of all Nations is to be esteemed as a Law of Nature Nature cannot plant in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity for then the Laws of Nature would be destructive to the reason and minds of men How is it possible that a falsity should be a perswasion spread through all Nations engraven upon the minds of all men men of the most towring and men of the most creeping understanding that they should consent to it in all places and in those places where the Nations have not had any known commerce with the rest of the known World A Consent not settled by any Law of Man to constrain People to a belief of it And indeed 't is impossible that any Law of man can constrain the Belief of the mind Would not he deservedly be accounted a fool that should deny that to be gold which hath been tryed and examined by a great number of knowing Goldsmiths and hath past the test of all their touch-stones what excess of folly would it be for him to deny it to be true gold if it had been tryed by all that had skill in that metal in all Nations in the World Secondly 2. It hath been a constant and uninterrupted consent It hath been as Ancient as the first age of the World no man is able to mention any time from the beginning of the World wherein this Notion hath not been universally owned t is a old as man-kind and hath run along with the course of the Sun nor can the date be fixed lower than that 1. First In all the changes of the World this hath been maintained In the overturnings of the Government of States the alteration of Modes of Worship this hath stood unshaken The reasons upon which it was founded were in all Revolutions of time accounted satisfactory and convincing nor could absolute Atheism in the changes of any Laws ever gain the favour of any one Body of people to be established by a Law When the Honour of the Heathen Idols was laid in the dust this suffered no impair The being of one God was more vigorously owned when the unreasonableness of multiplicity of Gods was manifest and grew taller by the detection of counterfeits When other parts of the Law of nature have been violated by some Nations this hath maintained its standing The long series of Ages hath been so far from blotting it out that it hath more strongly confirmed it and maketh further progress in the confirmation of it Time which hath eaten out the strength of other things and blasted meer inventions hath not been able to consume this The discovery of all other Impostures never made this by any society of men to be suspected as one It will not be easy to name any Imposture that hath walked perpetually in the world without being discovered and whipped out by some Nation or other Falsities have never been so universally and constantly owned without publick controul and question And since the world hath detected many errors of the former age and learning been increased this hath been so far from being dimm'd that it hath shone out clearer with the increase of natural knowledge and received fresh and more vigorous confirmations 2. The fears and anxieties in the Consciences of men have given men sufficient occasion to root it out had it been possible for them to do it If the Notion of the Existence of God had been possible to have been dasht out of the minds of men they would have done it rather than have suffered so many troubles in their Souls upon the Commission of sin since there did not want wickedness and wit in so many corrupt ages to have attempted it and prospered in it had it been possible How comes it therefore to pass that such a multitude of profligate persons that have been in the world since the fall of man should not have rooted out this principle and dispostest the minds of men of that which gave birth to their tormenting fears How is it possible that all should agree together in a thing which created fear and an obliligation against the Interest of the Flesh if it had been free for men to discharge themselves of it No man as far as corrupt nature bears sway in him is willing to live contrould The first Man would rather be a God himself than under one * Gen. 3.5 Why should men continue this Notion in them which shackled them in their vile inclinations if it had been in their power utterly to deface it If it were an Imposture how comes it to pass that all the wicked ages of the world could never discover that to be a cheat which kept them in continual alarums Men wanted not will to shake off such apprehensions As Adam so all his Posterity are desirous to hide themselves from God upon the Commission of sin * Gen. 3.9 and by the same reason they would hide God from their Souls What is the reason they could never attain their will and their wish by all their endeavours Could they possibly have satisfied themselves that there were no God they had discarded their fears the disturbers of the repose of their lives and been unbridled in their pleasures The wickedness of the world would never have preserved that which was a perpetual molestation to it had it been possible to be rased out But since men under the turmoils and lashes of their own Consciences could never bring their hearts to a setled dissent from this Truth it evidenceth that as it took its birth at the beginning of the world it cannot expire no not in the ashes of it nor in any thing but the reduction of the Soul to that nothing from whence it sprung This conception is so perpetual that the nature of the Soul must be dissolved before it be rooted out nor can it be extinct whiles the Soul endures 3. Let it be considered also by us that own the Scripture that the Devil deems it impossible to root out this sentiment It seems to be so perpetually fixed that the Devil did not think fit to tempt man to the denial of the Existence of a Deity but perswaded him to beleive he might ascend to that Dignity and become a God himself Gen. 3.1 Hath
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.
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 Good and Evil in the Consciences of men which is evident by those Laws which are common in all Countries for the preserving human societies the encouragment of Vertue and discouragement of Vice What Standard should they have for those Laws but a common reason The designe of those Laws was to keep men within the bounds of Goodness for mutual commerce whence the Apostle calls the Heathen Magistrate a Minister of God for Good Rom. 13.4 and the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law Rom. 2.14 Man in the first instant of the use of reason finds natural principles within himself directing and choosing them he finds a distinction between good and evil how could this be if there were not some rule in him to try and distinguish good and evil If there were not such a law and rule in man he could not sin for where there is no Law there is no transgression If man were a Law to himself and his own will his Law there could be no such thing as evil whatsoever he willed would be good and agreeable to the Law and no action could be accounted sinful The worst act would be as commendable as the best Every thing at mans appointment would be good or evil If there were no such Law how should men that are naturally inclined to evil disapprove of that which is unlovely and approve of that good which they practise not No man but inwardly thinks well of that which is good while he neglects it and thinks ill of that which is evil while he commits it Those that are vitious do praise those that practise the contrary vertues Those that are evil would seem to be good and those that are blameworthy yet will rebuke evil in others This is really to distinguish between good and evil whence doth this arise by what rule do we measure this but by some innate principle And this is universal the same in one man as in another the same in one Nation as in another they are born with every man and inseparable from his nature Prov. 27.19 As in water face answers to face so the heart of man to man Common reason supposeth that there is some hand which hath fixed this distinction in man How could it else be universally imprest No Law can be without a Law-giver no sparks but must be kindled by some other Whence should this Law then derive its original Not from man he would fain blot it out and cannot alter it when he pleases Natural generation never intended it t is setled therefore by some higher hand which as it imprinted it so it maintains it against the violences of men who were it not for this Law would make the world more than it is an Aceldema and field of blood For had there not been some supream good the measure of all other goodness in the world we could not have had such a thing as good The Scripture gives us an account that this good was distinguisht from evil before man fell they were objecta scibilia good was commanded and evil prohibited and did not depend upon man From this a man may rationally be instructed that there is a God For he may thus argue I find my self naturally obliged to do this thing and avoid that I have therfore a superior that doth oblige me I find something within me that directs me to such actions contrary to my sensitive appetite there must be something above me therefore that put this principle into mans nature If there were no superior I should be the supream Judge of good and evil Were I the Lord of that Law which doth oblige me I should find no contradiction within my self between reason and appetite 2. From the Transgression of this law of nature fears do arise in the Consciences of men Have we not known or heard of men struck by so deep a dart that could not be drawn out by the strength of men or appeased by the pleasure of the world and men crying out with horrour upon a death-bed of their past life when their fear hath come as a desolation and destruction as a whirlewind Prov. 1.27 And often in some sharp affliction the dust hath been blown off from mens Consciences which for a while hath obscured the writing of the law If men stand in awe of punishment there is then some superior to whom they are accountable If there were no God there were no punishment to fear What reason of any fear upon the dissolution of the knot between the Soul and body if there were not a God to punish and the Soul remained not in being to be punished How suddenly will Conscience work upon the appearance of an affliction rouze it self from sleep like an armed man and fly in a mans face before he is aware of it It will surprize the Hipocrites Isa. 38.14 It will bring to mind actions committed long ago and set them in order before the face as Gods deputy acting by his authority and Omniscience As God hath not left himself without a witness among the Creatures Acts 14.17 So he hath not left himself without a witness in a mans own breast 1. This operation of Conscience hath been universal No Nation hath been any more exempt from it than from reason Not a man but hath one time or other more or less smarted under the sting of it All over the world Conscience hath shot its darts It hath torn the hearts of Princes in the midst of their pleasures It hath not flattered them whom most men flatter nor feared to disturb their rest whom no man dares to provoke Judges have trembled on a Tribunal when Innocents have rejoyced in their condemnation The Iron bars upon Pharaohs Conscience were at last broke up and he acknowledged the Justice of God in all that he did Exod. 9.27 I have sinned the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked Had they been like Childish frights at the apprehension of bug-bears why hath not reason shaken them off But on the contrary the stronger reason grows the smarter those lashes are Groundless fears had been short liv'd Age and Judgement would have worn them off but they grow sharper with the growth of persons The Scripture informs us they have been of as ancient a date as the revolt of the first man Gen. 3.10 I was afraid saith Adam beecause I was naked which was an expectation of the Judgment of God All his posterity inherit his fears when God expresseth himself in any tokens of his Majesty and Providence in the world Every mans Conscience testifies that he is unlike what he ought to be according to that law engraven upon his heart In some indeed Conscience may be feared or dimmer or suppose some men may be devoid of Conscience shall it be denyed to be a thing belonging to the nature of Man Some Men have not their eyes yet the power of seeing the light is natural to Man and belongs to the
integrity of the body Who would argue that because some men are mad and hâ—ve lost their reason by a distemper of the brain that therefore reason hath no reality but is an imaginary thing But I think it is a standing truth that every man hath been under the scourge of it one time or other in a less or greater degree For since every man is an offender it cannot be imagined Conscience which is natural to man and an active faculty should always lie idle without doing this part of its office The Apostle tells us of the thoughts accusing or excusing one another or by turns according as the actions were Nor is this truth weakned by the corruptions in the world whereby many have thought themselves bound in Conscience to adhere to a false and superstitious worship and Idolatry as much as any have thought themselves bound to adhere to a Worship commanded by God This very thing infers that all men have a reflecting principle in them it is no argument against the being of Conscience but only inferrs that it may Err in the application of what it naturally owns We can no more say that because some men walk by a false rule there is no such thing as Conscience than we can say that because men have Errors in their minds therefore they have no such faculty as an Understanding or because men will that which is evil they have no such faculty as a Will in them 2. These operations of Conscience are when the wickedness is most secret These tormenting fears of Vengeance have been frequent in men who have had no reason to fear man since their wickedness being unknown to any but themselves they could have no accuser but themselves They have been in many acts which their companions have justified them in Persons above the stroak of human laws yea such as the people have honoured as Gods have been haunted by them Conscience hath not been frighted by the power of Princes or brib'd by the pleasures of Courts David was pursued by his horrors when he was by reason of his dignity above the punishment by the Law or at least was not reacht by the Law since though the Murder of Vriah was intended by him it was not acted by him Such examples are frequent in human Records When the crime hath been above any punishment by man they have had an Accuser Judge and Executioner in their own breasts Can this be originally from a mans self He who loves and cherishes himself would fly from any thing that disturbs him T is a greater Power and Majesty from whom man cannot hide himself that holds him in those fetters What should affect their minds for that which can never bring them shame or punishment in this World if there were not some supream Judge to whom they were to give an account whose instrument Conscience is Doth it do this of it self hath it received an Authority from the man himself to sting him It is some supream power that doth direct and commission it against our Wills 3. These operations of Conscience cannot be totally shaken off by Man If there 〈◊〉 no God why do not men silence the clamors of their Consciences and scatter thâ—â—e fears that disturb their rest and pleasures How inquisitive are men after some remedy against those convulsions Sometimes they would render the charge insignificant and sing a rest to themselves though they walk in the wickedness of their own hearts * Deâ—â— How often do men attempt to drown it by sensual pleasures and perhaps over-power it for a time but it revives reinforceth it self and Acts a revenge for its former stop It holds sin to a mans view and fixes his eyes upon it whether he will or no The wicked are like a troubled Sea and cannot rest Isa 57.20 They would wallow in sin without controul but this inward principle will not suffer it nothing can shelter men from those blows What is the reason it could never be cried down Man is an Enemy to his own disquiet what man would continue upon the rack if it were in his power to deliver himself why have all human remedies been without success and not able to extinguish those operations though all the wickedness of the heart hath been ready to assist and second the attempt It hath pursued men notwithstanding all the violence used against it and renewed its scourges with more severity as men deal with their resisting Slaves Man can as little silence those Thunders in his Soul as he can the Thunders in the Heavens He must strip himself of his humanity before he can be stript of an accusing and affrighting Conscience It sticks as close to him as his nature Since man cannot throw out the Process it makes against him t is an evidence that some higher power secures its Throne and standing Who should put this scourge into the hand of Conscience which no man in the World is able to wrest out 4. We may add the comfortable reflections of Conscience There are excusing as well as accusing reflections of Conscience when things are done as works of the law of nature Rom. 2.15 As it doth not forbear to accuse and torture when a wickedness though unknown to others is committed So when a man hath done well though he be attackt with all the calumnies the wit of man can forge yet his Conscience justifies the action and fills him with a singular contentment As there is torture in sinning so there is peace and joy in well doing Neither of those it could do if it did not understand a Soveraign Judge who punishes the Rebels and rewards the well-doer Conscience is the foundation of all Religion and the two Pillars upon which it is built are the being of God and the bounty of God to those that diligently seek him * Heb. 11.6 This proves the Existence of God If there were no God Conscience were useless the operations of it would have no foundation if there were not an eye to take notice and a hand to punish or reward the action The accusations of Conscience evidence the Omniscience and the Holiness of God The terrors of Conscience the justice of God The approbations of Conscience the Goodness of God All the order in the world owes it self next to the Providence of God to Conscience Without it the world would be a Golgotha As the Creatures witness there was a first cause that produced them so this Principle in man evidenceth it self to be set by the same hand for the good of that which it had so framed There could be no Conscience if there were no God and man could not be a rational Creature if there were no Conscience As there is a Rule in us there must be a Judge whether our actions be according to the rule And since Conscience in our corrupted state is in some particular misled there must be a power superior to Conscience to judge how it hath behaved it self in its deputed
office We must come to some supream Judge who can Judge Conscience it self As a man can have no surer evidence that he is a being than because he thinks he is a thinking being So there is no surer evidence in nature that there is a God than that every man hath a natural principle in him which continually cites him before God and puts him in mind of him and makes him one way or other fear him and reflects upon him whether he will or no A man hath less power over his Conscience than over any other faculty He may choose whether he will exercise his understanding about or move his will to such an object but he hath no such Authority over his Conscience he cannot limit it or cause it to cease from acting and reflecting and therefore both that and the law about which it acts are settled by some supream Authority in the mind of man and this is God Fourthly IV. The evidence of a God results from the vastness of desires in man and the real dissatisfaction he hath in every thing below himself Man hath a boundless appetite after some Soveraign Good As his understanding is more capacious than any thing below so is his Appetite larger This affection of desire exceeds all other affections Love is determined to something known Fear to something apprehended but Desires approach nearer to Infiniteness and pursue not only what we know or what we have a glimps of but what we find wanting in what we already enjoy That which the desire of man is most naturally carryed after is Bonum some fully satisfying good We desire knowledge by the sole impulse of reason but we desire Good before the excitement of reason and the desire is always after Good but not always after Knowledge Now the Soul of man finds an imperfection in every thing here and cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity In the highest fruitions of worldly things t is still pursuing something else which speaks a defect in what it already hath The world may afford a felicity for our dust the body but not for the inhabitant in it t is two mean for that Is there any one Soul among the Sons of men that can upon a due enquiry say it was at rest and wanted no more that hath not sometimes had desires after an immaterial Good The Soul follows hard after such a thing and hath frequent looks after it Psal 63.8 Man desires a stable Good but no sublunary thing is so And he that doth not desire such a Good wants the rational nature of a man This is as natural as Understanding Will and Conscience Whence should the Soul of man have those desires How came it to understand that something is still wanting to make its nature more perfect if there were not in it some notion of a more perfect being which can give it rest Can such a capacity be supposed to be in it without something in being able to satisfie it If so the noblest Creature in the world is miserablest and in a worse condition than any other Other Creatures obtain their ultimate desires they are filled with good Psal 104.28 And shall man only have a vast desire without any possibility of enjoyment Nothing in man is in vain He hath objects for his affections as well as affections for objects Every Member of his body hath its end and doth attain it Every affection of his Soul hath an object and that in this World and shall there be none for his desire which comes nearest to infinite of any affection planted in him This boundless desire had not its original from man himself Nothing would render it self restless something above the bounds of this world implanted those desires after a higher Good and made him restless in every thing else And since the Soul can only rest in that which is infinite there is something infinite for it to rest in Since nothing in the world though a man had the whole can give it a satisfaction there is something above the world only capable to do it otherwise the Soul would be always without it and be more in vain than any other Creature There is therefore some infinite being that can only give a contentment to the Soul and this is God And that goodness which implanted such desires in the Soul would not do it to no purpose and mock it in giving it an infinite desire of satisfaction without intending it the pleasure of enjoyment if it doth not by its own folly deprive it self of it The felicity of human nature must needs exceed that which is allotted to other Creatures 4. And last Reason Fourth Reason As t is a folly to deny that which all Nations in the World have consented to which the frame of the world evidenceth which man in his Body Soul Operations of Conscience witnesseth to So t is a folly to deny the Being of God which is witnessed unto by extraordinary occurrences in the world 1. In extraordinary Judgments When a just revenge follows abominable crimes especially when the Judgment is suted to the sin by a strange Concatenation and succession of Providences methodized to bring such a particular punishment When the sin of a Nation or person is made legible in the inflicted Judgment which testifies that it cannot be a casual thing The Scripture gives us an account of the necessity of such Judgments to keep up the reverential thoughts of God in the World Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes the wicked is snared in the work of his own hand And Jealousy is the name of God Exod. 34.14 Whose name is Jealous He is distinguisht from false Gods by the Judgments which he sends as men are by their names Extraordinary Prodigies in many Nations have been the Heralds of extraordinary Judgments and presages of the particular Judgments which afterwards they have felt of which the Roman Histories and others are full That there are such things is undeniable and that the events have been answerable to the threatning unless we will throw away all human Testimonies and count all the Histories of the World Forgeries Such things are evidences of some invisible Power which orders those affairs And if there be invisible Powers there is also an efficacious cause which moves them A Government certainly there is among them as well as in the world and then we must come to some supream Governour which presides over them Judgments upon notorious offenders have been evident in all ages The Scripture gives many instances I shall only mention that of Herod Agrippa which Josephus mentions * Lib. 19. Antiq. Act. 12.21.22.23 He receives the flattering applause of the people and thought himself a God But by the suddain stroak upon him was forced by his torture to confess another I am God saith he in your account but a higher calls me away The will of the Heavenly Deity is to be endured The Angel
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
every side destruction shall be ready at his side the first born of Death shall devour his strength his confidence shall be rooted out and it shall bring him to the King of Terrors Brimstone shall be scattered upon his Habitation he shall be driven from light into darkness and chased out of the World they that come after him shall be astonished at his day as they that went before were affrighted and this is the place of him that knows not God * Ver. 21 If there be a future reckoning as his own Conscience cannot but sometimes inform him of his condition is desperate and his misery dreadful and unavoidable T is not righteous a Hell should entertain any else if it refuse him Vse 2 2. How lamentable is it that in our times this folly of Atheism should be so rise That there should be found such Monsters in human nature in the midst of the improvements of Reason and shinings of the Gospel who not only make the Scripture the matter of their Jeers but Scoff at the Judgments and Providences of God in the World and envy their Creator a being without whose goodness they had had none themselves who contradict in their carriage what they assert to be their sentiment when they dreadfully imprecate damnation to themselves Whence should that damnation they so rashly wish be poured forth upon them if there were not a revenging God Formerly Atheism was as rare as prodigious scarce two or three known in an age * And those that are reported to be so in former ages are rather thought to be counted so for mocking at the senceless Deities the common people ador'd and laying open their impurities A meer natural strength would easily discover that those they adored for Gods could not deserve that title since their original was known their uncleanness manifest and acknowledged by their worshippers And probably it was so * As Justin infâ—rm us since the Christians were termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they acknowledged not their vain Idols I question whether there ever was or can be in the world an uninterrupted and internal denyal of the being of God or that men unless we can suppose Conscience utterly dead can arrive to such a degree of impiety For before they can stifle such sentiments in them whatsoever they may assert they must be utter strangers to the common conceptions of reason and despoile themselves of their own humanity He that dares to deny a God with his lips yet sets up something or other as a God in his heart Is it not lamentable that this sacred truth consented to by all Nations which is the band of civil societies the source of all order in the world should be denyed with a bare face and disputed against in Companies And the Glory of a wise Creator ascribed to an unintelligent nature to blind chance are not such worse then Heathens They worshipped many Gods these none They preserved a notion of God in the world under a disguise of Images These would banish him both from Earth and Heaven and demolish the Statues of him in their own Consciences They degraded him these would destroy him They coupled Creatures with him Rom 1.25 Who worshipped the Creature with the Creator as it may most properly be rendred And these would make him worse than the Creature a meer nothing Earth is hereby become worse than Hell Atheism is a perswasion which finds no footing any where else Hell that receives such persons in this point reforms them They can never deny or doubt of his being while they feel his stroaks The Devil that rejoyces at their wickedness knows them to be in an error for he believes and trembles at the belief * Jam. 2.19 This is a forerunner of Judgment Boldness in sin is a presage of vengeance especially when the honour of God is more particularly concern'd therein It tends to the overturning human society taking off the Bridle from the wicked inclinations of men And God appears not in such visible Judgments against sin immediately committed against himself as in the case of those sins that are destructive to human society Besides God as Governor of the world will uphold that without which all his ordinances in the world would be useless Atheism is point blank against all the Glory of God in Creation and against all the glory of God in Redemption and pronounceth at one breath both the Creator and all Acts of Religion and Divine Institutions useless and insignificant Since most have had one time or other some risings of doubt whether there be a God tho few do in expressions deny his being it may not be unnecessary to propose somethings for the further impressing this truth and guarding themselves against such temptations 1. T is utterly impossible to demonstrate there is no God He can choose no Medium but will fall in as a proof for his Existence and a manifestation of his excellency rather than against it The pretences of the Atheist are so ridiculous that they are not worth the mentioning They never saw God and therefore know not how to believe such a Being they cannot comprehend him He would not be God if he could fall within the narrow Model of an humane Understanding He would not be infinite if he were comprehensible or to be terminated by our sight How small a thing must that be which is seen by a bodily Eye or graspt by a weak Mind If God were visible or comprehensible he would be limited Shall it be a sufficient Demonstration from a blind man that there is no fire in the Room because he sees it not though he feel the warmth of it The knowledge of the effect is sufficient to conclude the existence of the cause Who ever saw his own Life Is it sufficient to deny a man lives because he beholds not his Life and only knows it by his motion He never saw his own Soul but knows he hath one by his thinking power The Air renders it self sensible to Men in its Operations yet was never seen by the eye If God should render Himself visible they might question as well as now whether that which was so visible were God or some delusion If he should appear glorious we can as little behold him in his Majestick Glory as an Owl can behold the Sun in its brightness we should still but see him in his Effects as we do the Sun by his Beams If he should shew a new Miracle we should still see him but by his Works so we see him in his Creatures every one of which would be as great a Miracle as any can be wrought to one that had the first prospect of them To require to see God is to require that which is impossible 1 Tim. 6.16 He dwels in the Light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see 'T is visibe that he is for he covers himself with Light as with a Garment Psal 104.2
consist before we can beleive any means which conduct us to him Moses begins with the Author of Creation before he treats of the Promise of Redemption Paul preached God as a Creator to a University before he preached Christ as Mediator * Acts 17.24 What influence can the Testimony of God have in his Revelation upon one that doth not firmly assent to the truth of his Being All would be in vain that is so often repeated thus saith the Lord if we do not beleive there is a Lord that speaks it There could be no aw from his Soveraignity in his Commands nor any comfortable taste of his Goodness in his Promises The more we are strengthened in this Principle the more credit we shall be able to give to divine Revelation to rest in his Promise and to reverence his Precept the Authority of all depends upon the Being of the Revealer To this purpose since we have handled this discourse by natural Arguments 1. Study God in the Creatures as well as in the Scriptures The primary use of the Creatures is to acknowledge God in them they were made to be witnesses of himself and his Goodness and Heralds of his Glory which Glory of God as Creator shall endure for ever Psal 104.31 that whole Psalm is a Lecture of Creation and Providence The World is a sacred Temple Man is introduced to contemplate it and behold with Praise the Glory of God in the pieces of his Art As Grace doth not destroy Nature so the Book of Redemption blots not out that of Creation Had he not shewn himself in his Creatures he could never have shewn himself in his Christ The order of things required it God must be read where ever he is legible The Creatures are one book wherein he hath writ a part of the excellency of his name * Psal 8.9 as many Artists do in their Works and Watches Gods Glory like the Filings of Gold is too precious to be lost where ever it drops Nothing so vile and base in the World but carries in it an instruction for Man and drives in further the Notion of a God As he said of his Cottage Enter here Sunt hic etiam Dij God disdains not this place So the least Creature speaks to Man every Shrub in the Field every Fly in the Air every Limbin a Body consider me God disdains not to appear in me he hath discovered in me his Being and a part of his Skill as well as in the highest The Creatures manifest the Being of God and part of his Perfections We have indeed a more excellent way a Revelation setting him forth in a more excellent manner a firmer Object of Dependence a brighter Object of Love raising our hearts from self confidence to a confidence in him Though the appearance of God in the one be clearer than in the other yet neither is to be neglected The Scripture directs us to Nature to view God it had been in vain else for the Apostle to make use of natural Arguments Nature is not contrary to Scripture nor Scripture to Nature unless we should think God contrary to himself who is the Author of both 2. View God in your own experiences of him There is a taste and sight of his Goodness though no sight of his Essence * Psal 34.98 By the taste of his Goodness you may know the reality of the fountain whence it springs and from whence it flows This surpasseth the greatest Capacity of a meer natural Understanding Experience of the sweetness of the ways of Christianity is a mighty preservative against Atheism Many a Man knows not how to prove Hony to be sweet by his reason but by his sense and if all the reason in the world be brought against it he will not be reasoned out of what he tasts Have not many found the delightful illappses of God into their Souls often sprinkled with his inward blessings upon their seeking of him had secret warnings in their approaches to him and gentle rebukes in their Consciences upon their swervings from him Have not many found sometimes an invisible hand raising them up when they were dejected some unexpected providence stepping in for their relief and easily perceived that it could not be a work of chance nor many times the intention of the instruments he hath used in it You have often found that he is by finding that he is a rewarder and can set to your seals that he is what he hath declared himself to be in his word Isa 43.12 I have declared and have saved therefore you are my witnesses saith the Lord that I am God The secret touches of God upon the heart and inward converses with him are a greater evidence of the Existence of a supream and infinitely good being than all nature Vse 4 4. Is it a folly to deny or doubt of the being of God T is a folly also not to worship God when we acknowledge his Existence T is our Wisdom then to Worship him As it is not indifferent whether we beleive there is a God or no So it is not indifferent whether we will give Honour to that God or no. A worship is his right as he is the Author of our being and fountain of our happiness By this only we acknowledge his Deity Tho we may profess his being yet we deny that profession in neglects of worship To deny him a Worship is as a great folly as to deny his being He that renounceth all homage to his Creator envies him the being which he cannot deprive him of The natural inclination to worship is as universal as the Notion of a God Idolatry else had never gained footing in the world The Existence of God was never owned in any Nation but a Worship of him was appointed And many people who have turned their backs upon some other parts of the Law of nature have paid a continual homage to some superior and invisible being The Jews give a Reason why Man was Created in the Evening of the Sabbath because he should begin his being with the worship of his Maker As soon as ever he found himself to be a Creature his first solemn act should be a particular respect to his Creator * Eccl. 12. To fear God and keep his Commandment is the whole of man or is * Heb. whole man he is not a man but a beast without observance of God Religion is as requisite as reason to compleat a man He were not reasonable if he were not Religious because by neglecting Religion he neglects the chiefest dictate of reason Either God framed the world with so much Order Elegancy and variety to no purpose or this was his end at least that reasonable Creatures should admire him in it and Honour him for it The Notion of God was not stampt upon men the shadows of God did not appear in the Creatures to be the Subject of an idle contemplation but the motive of a due homage to God
Reprobate Sense and unfit for any good work and judges against all their vain glorious braggs that they had not a Reverence of God in their Hearts there was more of the Denial of God in their Works than there was Acknowledgement of God in their Words Those that have neither God in their Thoughts nor in their Tongues nor in their Works cannot properly be said to acknwledge him Where the Honour of God is not practically owned in the lives of men the Being of God is not sensibly acknowledged in the hearts of men The Principle must be of the same kind with the Actions if the Actions be Atheistical the Principal of them can be no better Prop. 2. All Sin is founded in a secret Atheism Atheism is the Spirit of every Sin all the Flouds of Impieties in the World break in at the Gate of a secret Atheism And though several sins may disagree with one another yet like Herod and Pilate against Christ they joyn hand in hand against the interest of God Though lusts and pleasures be divers yet they are all united in Disobedience to him * Tit. 3.3 All the wicked inclinations in the heart and strugling motions secret repinings self applauding confidences in our own wisdom strength c. envy ambition revenge are sparks from this latent fire the language of every one of these is I would be a Lord to my self and would not have a God Superior to me The variety of sins against the first and second Table the neglects of God and violences against Man are derived from this in the Text first the Fool hath said in his heart and then follows a legion of Devils As all vertuous actions spring from an acknowledgment of God so all vitious actions rise from a lurking Denial of him All licentiousness goes glib down where there is no sense of God Abraham judged himself not secure from Murder nor his Wife from Defilement in Gerar if there were no Fear of God there * Gen. 20.11 He that makes no Conscience of Sin has no regard to the Honour and consequently none to the Being of God By the Fear of God men depart from Evil Pro. 16.6 By the non-regarding of God men rush into Evil. Pharaoh opprest Israel because he knew not the Lord. If he did not deny the Being of a Deity yet he had such an unworthy Notion of God as was inconsistent with the Nature of a Deity he a poor Creature thought himself a Mate for the Creator In sins of Ommission we own not God in neglecting to perform what he enjoyns In sins of Commission we set up some lust in the place of God and pay to that the Homage which is due to our Maker In both we disown him in the one by not doing what he commands in the other by doing what he forbids We deny his Soveraignty when we violate his Laws we disgrace his Holiness when we cast our filth before his Face we disparage his Wisdom when we set up another Rule as the Guide of our Actions than that Law he hath fixed we slight his Sufficiency when we prefer a satisfaction in sin before a happiness in Him alone and his Goodness when we judge it not strong enough to attract us to him Every sin invades the Rights of God and strips him of one or other of his Perfections 'T is such a vilifying of God as if he were not God as if he were not the supream Creator and Benefactor of the World as if we had not our Being from Him as if the Air we breathed in the Food we lived by were our own by right of Supreamacy not of Donation For a Subject to slight his Soveraign is to slight his Royalty or a Servant his Master is to deny his Superiority Prop. 3. Sin implies that God is unworthy of a Being Every Sin is a kind of cursing God in the Heart * Job 1.5 an aim at the destruction of the Being of God not actually but vertually not in the intention of every Sinner but in the nature of every Sin That Affection which excites a man to break his Law would excite him to annihilate his Being if it were in his power A Man in every sin aims to set up his own will as his rule and his own glory as the end of his actions against the will and glory of God and could a Sinner attain his end God would be destroyed God cannot out live his will and his glory God cannot have another rule but his own will nor another end but his own honour Sin is called a turning the back upon God * Jer. 32.33 Deut. 32.15 a kicking against him * Jer. 32.33 Deut. 32.15 as if he were a slighter person than the meanest beggar What greater contempt can be shew'd to the meanest vilest person than to turn the back lift up the heel and thrust away with indignation All which actions though they signifie that such a one hath a Being yet they testifie also that he is unworthy of a Being that he is an unuseful Being in the world and that it were well the world were rid of him All Sin against Knowledge is called a Reproach of God * Numb 15.30 Ezek. 20.27 Reproach is a vilifying a man as unworthy to be admitted into Company We naturally Judge God unfit to be conversed with God is the term turned from by a sinner Sin is the term turned to which implies a greater excellency in the nature of sin than in the nature of God And as we naturally Judge it more worthy to have a being in our affections so consequently more worthy to have a being in the world than that infinite nature from whom we derive our beings and our all and upon whom with a kind of disdain we turn our backs Whosoever thinks the Notion of a Deity unfit to be cherished in his mind by warm Meditation implies that he cares not whether he hath a being in the world or no. Now tho the light of a Deity shines so clearly in Man and the stings of Conscience are so smart that he cannot absolutely deny the being of a God yet most Men endeavour to smother this knowledge and make the Notion of a God a sapless and useless thing Rom. 1.28 They like not to retain God in their knowledge It is said Cain went out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 That is from the Worship of God Our refusing or abhorring the presence of a man implies a carelessness whether he continue in the World or no T is a using him as if he had no being or as if we were not concerned in it Hence all men in Adam under the Emblem of the prodigal are said to go into a far Country Not in respect of place because of Gods Omnipresence but in respect of acknowledgment and affection they mind and love any thing but God And the descriptions of the Nations of the world lying in the Ruines of Adams fall
Traditions against the Will of God are said to make his Law of none effect to strip it of all its Authority as the word signifies Mat. 15.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. We have the greatest slight of that Will of God which is most for his Honour and his greatest Pleasure 'T is the Nature of Man ever since Adam to do so Hos 6.6.7 God desired Mercy and not Sacrifice the Knowledge of Himself more than burnt Offering but they like men as Adam have transgressed the Covenant invade Gods Rights and not let him be Lord of one Tree We are more curious Observers of the Fringes of the Law than of the greater concerns of it The Jews were diligent in Sacrifices and Offerings which God did not urge upon them as Principals but as Types of other things but negligent of the Faith which was to be established by him Holiness Mercy Pity which concerned the Honour of God as Governour of the World and were imitations of the Holiness and Goodness of God they were Strangers to This is Gods Complaint Isa 1.11 12. and 16 17. We shall find our hearts most averse to the observation of those Laws which are Eternal and Essential to Righteousness such that he could not but command as he is a Righteous Governour in the observation of which we come nearest to him and express his Image more clearly As those Laws for an inward and spiritual Worship a supreme Affection to him God in regard of his Righteousness and Holiness of his Nature and the Excellency of his Being could not command the contrary to these But this part of his Will our hearts most swell against our corruption doth most snarle at whereas those Laws which are only positive and have no intrinsick Righteousness in them but depend purely upon the Will of the Law-giver and may be changed at his pleasure which the other that have an intrinsick Righteousness in them cannot we better comply with than that part of his Will that doth express more the Righteousness of his Nature * Psal 5◠6.17 19. such as the Ceremonial part of Worship and the Ceremonial Law among the Jews We are more willing to observe Order in some outward attendances and glavering devotions than discard secret affections to evil crucify inward lusts and delightful thoughts A hanging down the head like a bulrish is not difficult but the breaking the heart like a Potters vessel to shreds and dust a sacrifice God delights in whereby the excellency of God and the vileness of the Creature is owned goes against the grain To cut off an outward branch is not so hard as to hack at the root What God mosts loaths as most contrary to his Will we most love No sin did God so severely hate and no sin were the Jews more enclined unto than that of Idolatry The Heathen had not changed their God as the Jews had changed their glory Jer. 2.11 And all men are naturally tainted with this sin which is so contrary to the holy and excellent nature of God By how much the more defect there is of purity in our respects to God by so much the more respect there is to some Idol within or without us to humor custom and interest c. Never did any Law of God meet with so much opposition as Christianity which was the design of God from the first promise to the exhibiting the Redeemer and from thence to the end of the World All people drew Swords at first against it The Romans prepared Yokes for their Neighbors but provided Temples for the Idols those people Worshipped But Christianity the choicest design and most delightful part of the Will of God never met with a kind entertainment at first in any place Rome that entertained all others persecuted this with Fire and Sword tho sealed by greater Testimonies from Heaven than their own Records could report in favour of their Idols 4. In running the greatest hazards and exposing our selves to more trouble to cross the Will of God than is necessary to the observance of it T is a vain charge men bring against the Divine precepts that they are rigorous severe difficult When besides the contradiction to our Saviour who tells us his Yoke is easy and his Burthen light they thwart their own calm reason and Judgment Is there not more difficulty to be Vicious Covetous Violent Cruel than to be Vertuous Charitable Kind Doth the Will of God enjoyn that that is not conformable to right reason and secretly delightful in the exercise and issue And on the contrary what doth Satan and the world engage us in that is not full of molestation and hazard Is it a sweet and comely thing to combat continually against our own Consciences and resist our own light and commence a perpetual quarrel against our selves as we ordinarily do when we sin They in the Prophet Mich. 6.6 7 8. would be at the expence of thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyl if they could compass them yea would strip themselves of their Natural affection to their first-born to expiate the sin of their Soul rather then to do Justice love mercy and walk humbly with God things more conducible to the Honour of God the welfare of the world the security of their Souls and of a more easie practice than the offerings they wished for Do not men then disown God when they will walk in ways hedged with thorns wherein they meet with the Arrows of Conscience at every turn in their sides and slidedown to an everlasting punishment sink under an intolerable slavery to contradict the Will of God When they will prefer a sensual satisfaction with a combustion in their Consciences violation of their reasons gnawing cares and weary travels before the Honour of God the dignity of their Natures the happiness of peace and health which might be preserved at a cheaper rate than they are at to destroy them 5. In the unwillingness and awkardness of the heart when it is to pay God a service Men do evil with both hands earnestly * Mich. 7.3 but do good with one hand faintly no life in the heart nor any diligence in the hand What slight and loose thoughts of God doth this unwillingness imply T is a wrong to his providence as tho we were not under his Government and had no need of his assistance A wrong to his excellency as tho there were no aimableness in him to make his service desirable An injury to his goodness and power as if he were not able or willing to reward the Creatures obedience or careless not to take notice of it T is a sign we receive little satisfaction in him and that there is a great unsutableness between him and us 1. There is a kind of constraint in the first engagement We are rather prest to it than enter our selves Volunteers What we call service to God is done naturally much against our Wills t is not a delightful food but
Nature Knowledge or Will in both an inability an inability in him to continue the same or an inability in him to resist the Power of another 6. The World could not be ordered and governed but by some Principle or Being which were immutable Principles are alway more fixed and stable than things which proceed from those Principles and this is true both in Morals and Naturals Principles in Conscience whereby men are governed remain firmly engraven in their Minds The Root lies firmly in the Earth while Branches are shaken with the Wind. The Heavens the cause of Generation are more firm and stable than those things which are wrought by their influence All things in the world are moved by some Power and Vertue which is stable and unless it were so no Order would be observed in motion no Motion could be regularly continued He could not be a full satisfaction to the infinite desire of the Souls of his People Nothing can truly satisfie the Soul of Man but Rest and nothing can give it rest but that which is perfect and immutably perfect for else it would be subject to those agitations and variations which the Being it depends upon is subject to The Principle of all things must be immutable * â—â—herby Athâ—â—masux p. 3.8 Gerâ—â—d loc com which is described by some by a Unity the Principle of Number wherein there is a resemblance of Gods Unchangeableness A Unite is not variable it continues in its own Nature immutably an Unite It never varies from it self it cannot be changed from it self but is as it were so omnipotent towards others that it changes all Numbers If you add any Number it is the beginning of that Number but the Unite is not encreased by it a new Number ariseth from that Addition but the Unite stil remains the same and adds value to other Figures but receives none from them 3. The third thing to speak to is That Immutability is proper to God and incommunicable to any Creature Mutability is natural to every Creature as a Creature and Immutability is the sole perfection of God He only is infinite Wisdom able to fore-know future Events He only is infinitely powerful able to call forth all means to effect So that wanting neither Wisdom to contrive nor Strength to execute he cannot alter his Counsel None being above him nothing in him contrary to him and being defective in no Blessedness and Perfection he cannot vary in his Essence and Nature Had not Immutability as well as Eternity been a Property folely pertaining to the Divine Nature as well as creative Power and eternal Duration the Apostles Argument to prove Christ to be God from this perpetual sameness had come short of any convincing strength These words of the Text he applies to Christ Heb 1.10 11 12. They shall be changed but thou art the same There had been no strength in the reason if Immutability by Nature did belong to any Creature The changeablness of all Creatures is evident 1. Of corporeal Creatures it is evident to sense All Plants and Animals as they have their duration bounded in certain limits so while they do exist they proceed from their rise to their fall they pass through many sensible alterations from one degree of growth to another from buds to blossoms from blossoms to flowers and fruits they come to their pitch that Nature hath set them and return back to the state from whence they sprung there is not a day but they make some acquisition or suffer some loss they dye and spring up every day nothing in them more certain than their inconstancy The Creature is subject to vanity * Rom 8. â—â— The heavenly Bodies are changing their place the Sun every day is running his Race and stays not in the same Point and though they are not changed in their Essence yet they are in their Place Some indeed say there is a continual generation of Light in the Sun as there is a loss of Light by the casting out its Beams as in a Fountain there is a flowing out of the Streams and a continual generation of supply And though these heavenly Bodies have kept their standing and motion from the time of their Creation yet both the Suns standing still in Joshuah's time and its going back in Hezekiah's time shew that they are changeable at the pleasure of God But in Man the change is perpetually visible every day there is a change from Ignorance to Knowledge from one Will to another from Passion to Passion sometimes sad and sometimes cheerful sometimes craving this and presently nauseating it his Body changes from health to sickness or from weakness to strength some alteration there is either in Body or Mind Man who is the noblest Creature the subordinate end of the Creation of other things cannot assure himself of a consistency and fixedness in any thing the short space of a day no not of a minute all his Months are Months of vanity * Job 7.3 whence the Psalmist calls Man at the best estate altogether vanity a meer heap of vanity * Psal 35. As he contains in his Nature the Nature of all Creatures so he inherits in his Nature the Vanity of all Creatures A little World the Center of the World and of the Vanity of the World yea lighter than Vanity * Psal 62.9 more moveable than a Feather tost between Passion and Passion daily changing his end and changing the means An Image of nothing 2. Spiritual Natures as Angels They change not in their Being but that is from the indulgence of God They change not in their Goodness but that is not from their Nature but Divine Grace in their Confirmation but they change in their Knowledge they know more by Christ than they did by Creation * 1 Tim. 3.16 They have an addition of Knowledge every day by the providential dispensations of God to his Church * Eph. 3 1â— and the increase of their Astonishment and Love is according to the increase of their Knowledge and Insight They cannot have a new discovery without new admirations of what is discovered to them There is a change in their joy when there is a change in a Sinner * Luke 15 1â— They were changed in their Essence when they were made such glorious Spirits of nothing Some of them were changed in their Will when of holy they became impure The good Angels were changed in their Understandings when the Glories of God in Christ were presented to their view and all can be changed in their Essence again and as they were made of nothing so by the Power of God may be reduced to nothing again So glorified Souls shall have an unchanged operation about God for they shall behold his Face without any grief or fear of loss without vagrant thoughts but they can never be unchangeable in their Nature because they can never pass from finite to infinite No Creature can be unchangeable in its
and his Power is his Arm. Of his Infinite Vnderstanding I am to Discourse Doctrine God hath an Infinite Knowledg and Vnderstanding All Knowledg Omnipresence which before we spake of respects his Essence Omniscience respects his Understanding according to our manner of Conception This is clear in Scripture hence God is called a God of Knowledg 1 Sam. 2.3 The Lord is a God of Knowledg Heb. Knowledges in the Plural Number of all kind of Knowledg 't is spoken there to quell mans Pride in his own reason and parts what is the Knowledg of man but a spark to the whole Element of Fire a grain of Dust and worse than nothing in comparison of the Knowledg of God as his Essence is in comparison of the Essence of God All kind of Knowledg He knows what Angels know what Man knows and infinitely more he knows himself his own operations all his Creatures the notions and thoughts of them he is understanding above understanding mind above mind the mind of minds the light of lights this the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the Etimology of it of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see to contemplate and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scio The Names of God signify a nature viewing and piercing all things and the attribution of our senses to God in Scripture as Hearing and Seeing which are the Senses whereby Knowledg enters into us signifies Gods Knowledg 1. The Notion of Gods Knowledg of all things lies above the ruines of Nature it was not obliterated by the Fall of Man It was necessary offending man was to know that he had a Creator whom he had injured that he had a Judg to Try and Punish him since God thought fit to keep up the World it had been kept up to no purpose had not this notion been continued alive in the minds of men there would not have been any practice of his Laws no bar to the worst of Crimes If men had thought they had to deal with an Ignorant Deity there could be no practice of Religion Who would lift up his eyes or spread his hands towards Heaven if he imagin'd his Devotion were directed to a God as blind as the Heathens imagin'd Fortune To what boot would it be for them to make Heaven and Earth resound with their Cries if they had not thought God had an Eye to see them and an Ear to hear them And indeed the very notion of a God at the first blush speaks him a Being endued with Understanding no man can imagine a Creator void of one of the noblest Perfections belonging to those Creatures that are the Flower and Cream of his Works 2. Therefore all Nations acknowledg this as well as the Existence and Being of God * No Nation but had their Temples particular Ceremonies of Worship and presented their Sacrifices which they could not have been so vain as to do without an acknowledgment of this Attribute This notion of Gods Knowledg owed not its rise to Tradition but to natural implantation it was born and grew up with every rational Creature Though the several Nations and men of the World agreed not in one kind of Deity or in their Sentiments of his Nature or other Perfections some judging him Clothed with a fine and pure Body others judging him an uncompounded Spirit some fixing him to a seat in the Heavens others owning his Universal Presence in all parts of the World yet they all agreed in the Universality of his Knowledge and their own Consciences reflecting their Crimes unknown to any but themselves would keep this notion in some vigor whether they would or no. Now this being implanted in the minds of all men by nature cannot be false for nature imprints not in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity Nature would not pervert the reason and minds of men Universal notions of God are from Original not lapsed Nature Agamemnon Homer Il. 3. v 8. making a Covenant with Priam invocates the Su◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and preserved in mankind in order to a restoration from a lapsed state The Heathens did acknowledg this in all the solemn Covenants solemniz'd with Oaths and the invocation of the Name of God this Attribute was suppos'd They confest Knowledg to be peculiar to the Deity Scientia Deorum vita saith Cicero Some called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mens mind pure understanding without any note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inspector of all As they called him Life because he was the Author of Life so they called him intellectus because he was the Author of all Knowledg and Understanding in his Creatures And one being askt Whether any man could be hid from God no saith he not so much as thinking Some call him the Eye of the World * Gamach in 1 Pa. Aqui. Q. 14. cap. 1. p. 119. Clem. Alexand. strom lib. 6. and the Egyptians represented God by an Eye on the top of a Scepter because God is all Eye and can be ignorant of nothing And the same Nation made Eyes and Ears of the most excellent Metals Consecrating them to God and hanging them up in the midst of their Temples in signification of Gods seeing and hearing all things hence they called God Light as well as the Scripture because all things are visible to him For the better understanding of this we will enquire 1. What kind of Knowledg or Vnderstanding there is in God 2. What God knows 3. How God knows things 4. The proof that God knows all things 5. The Vse of all to our selves I. What kind of Vnderstanding or Knowledg there is in God The Knowledg of God in Scripture hath various Names according to the various relations or objects of it In respect of present things 't is called Knowledg or Sight in respect of things past Remembrance in respect of things future or to come 't is called Fore-Knowledg or Prescience 1 Pet. 1.2 in regard of the Vniversality of the Objects it is called Omniscience in regard of the simple Vnderstanding of things 't is called Knowledg in regard of acting and modelling the ways of acting 't is called Wisdom and Prudence Eph. 1.8 He must have Knowledg otherwise he could not be Wise Wisdom is the Flower of Knowledg and Knowledg is the Root of Wisdom As to what this Knowledg is if we know what Knowledg is in man we may apprehend what it is in God removing all Imperfection from it and ascribing to him the most eminent way of understanding because we cannot comprehend God but as he is pleased to condescend to us in his own ways of Discovery that is under some way of similitude to his perfectest Creatures therefore we have a notion of God by his Understanding and Will Understanding whereby he conceives and apprehends things Will whereby he extends himself in acting according to his Wisdom and whereby he doth approve or disapprove Yet we must not measure his Understanding
English Word to express the act of the Vnderstanding as his power is co-eternal with him so is his knowledg all times past present and to come are embrac'd in the Bosom of his Understanding he fixed all things in their Seasons that nothing new comes to him nothing old passes from him Damianus What is done in a Thousand years is as actually present with his Knowledg as what is done in one day or in one Watch in the night is with ours Since a Thousand years are no more to God than a day or a Watch in the Night is to us Psal 90.4 God is in the highest degree of Being and therefore in the highest degree of Understanding Knowledg is one of the most perfect acts in any Creature God therefore hath all Actual as well as Essential and Habitual knowledg his Vnderstanding is infinite IV. The fourth general is Reasons to prove this Reas 1. God must know what any Creature knows and more than any Creature knows There is nothing done in the World but is known by some Creature or other every action is at least known by the person that acts and therefore known by the Creator vvho cannot be exceeded by any of the Creatures or all of them together and every Creature is knovvn by him since every Creature is made by him Gerhard And as God vvorks all things by an Infinite Povver so he knovvs all things by an Infinite Understanding 1. The Perfection of God requires this Gamach in 1. part Aquin. q. 14. cap. 1. p. 118. 119. All Perfections that include no Essential Defect are formally in God but knowledg includes no Essential Defect in it self therefore it is in God Knovvledg in it self is desirable and an excellency Ignorance is a defect 't is impossible that the least grain of defect can be found in the most perfect Being Since God is Wise he must be Knovving for Wisdom must have Knovvledg for the Basis of it A Creature can no more be vvise vvithout Knovvledg than he can be active vvithout Strength Novv God is only Wise Rom. 16.27 and therefore only knovving in the highest degree of Knovvledg incomprehensibly beyond all degrees of Knovvledg because infinite Again the more Spiritual any thing is the more Understanding it is The dull Body understands nothing Sense perceives but the Understanding faculty is seated in the Soul vvhich is of a spiritual nature vvhich knovvs things that are present remembers things that are past foresees many things to come What is the property of a Spiritual nature must be in a most eminent manner in the supream Spirit of the World that is in the highest degree of Spirituality and most remote from any matter Again nothing can enjoy other things but by some kind of Understanding them God hath the highest enjoyment of himself of all things he hath Created of all the Glory that accrues to him by them nothing of Perfection and Blessedness can be vvanting to him Felicity doth not consist vvith ignorance and all imperfect knovvledg is a degree of ignorance God therefore doth perfectly know himself and all things from vvhence he designs any glory to himself The most noble manner of acting must be ascribed to God as being the most noble and excellent Being to act by Knowledg is the most excellent manner of acting God hath therefore not only Knowledg but the most excellent manner of Knowledg for as it is better to know than to be ignorant so it is better to know in the most excellent manner than to have a mean and low kind of knowledg His knowledg therefore must be every way as perfect as his Essence infinite as well as that An infinite nature must have an infinite knowledg A God ignorant of any thing cannot be counted infinite for he is not infinite to whom any degree of Perfection is wanting 2. All the knowledg in any Creature is from God And you must allow God a greater and more perfect Knowledg than any Creature hath yea than all Creatures have All the drops of Knowledg any Creature hath come from God and all the knowledg in every Creature that ever was is or shall be in the whole Mass was derived from him If all those several Drops in particular Creatures were collected into one Spirit into one Creature it would be an unconceivable knowledg yet still lower than what the Author of all that knowledg hath for God cannot give more knowledg than he hath himself nor is the Creature capable of receiving so much Knowledg as God hath As the Creature is uncapable of receiving so much power as God hath for then it would be Almighty so it is uncapable of receiving so much Knowledg as God hath for then it would be God Nothing can be made by God equal to him in any thing if any thing could be made as Knowing as God it would be Eternal as God it would be the cause of all things as God The Knowledg that we poor Worms have is an Argument God uses for the asserting the greatness of his own Knowledg Psal 94.10 He that teaches man knowledg shall not he know Man hath here Knowledg ascribed to him the Author of this Knowledg is God he furnisht him with it and therefore doth in a higher manner possess it and much more than can fall under the comprehension of any Creature as the Sun enlightens all things but hath more Light in it self than it darts upon the Earth or the Heavens and shall not God eminently contain all that knowledg he imparts to the Creatures and infinitely more exact and comprehensive 3. The accusations of Conscience evidence Gods knowledg of all actions of all his Creatures Doth not Conscience check for the most secret Sins to which none are privy but a mans self the whole World beside being ignorant of his Crime do not the fears of another Judg gall the heart If a Judgment above him be fear'd an Understanding above him discerning their Secrets is confest by those fears whence can those horrors arise if there be not a Superior that understands and records the Crime What Perfection of the Divine Being can this relate unto but Omniscience What other Attribute is to be feared if God were defective in this The Condemnation of us by our own Hearts when none in the World can condemn us renders it legible that there is one greater than our hearts in respect of Knowledg who knows all things 1 John 3.20 Conscience would be a vain Principle and stingless without this it would be an easy matter to silence all its accusations and mockingly laugh in the face of its severest frowns What need any trouble themselves if none knows their Crimes but themselves Conceal'd Sins gnawing the Conscience are Arguments of Gods Omniscience of all present and past actions 4. God is the first cause of every thing every Creature is his Production Since all Creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest Worm exist by the power of God
if God understands his own Power and Excellency nothing can be hid from him that was brought forth by that Power as well as nothing can be unknown to him that that Power is able to produce * Bradwardin p. 6. If God knows nothing besides himself he may then believe there is nothing beside himself we shall then fancy a God miserably mistaken If he knows nothing besides himself then things were not Created by him or not understandingly and voluntarily Created but drop'd from him before he was aware To think that the first cause of all should be ignorant of those things he is the cause of is to make him not a voluntary but natural Agent and therefore necessary and then that the Creature came from him as Light from the Sun and moisture from the Water this would bean absurd opinion of the Worlds Creation if God be a voluntary Agent as he is he must be an intelligent Agent The faculty of Will is not in any Creature without that of Understanding also If God be an intelligent Agent his knowledg must extend as far as his operation and every object of his operation unless we imagine God hath lost his Memory in that long Tract of time since the first Creation of them An Artificer cannot be ignorant of his own Work If God knows himself he knows himself to be a Cause how can he know himself to be a Cause unless he know the Effects he is the Cause of One relation implies another a man cannot know himself to be a Father unless he hath a Child because it is a name of relation and in the notion of it refers to another The name of cause is a name of relation and implies an effect If God therefore know himself in all his Perfections as the Cause of things he must know all his acts what his Wisdom contrived what his Counsel determin'd and what his Power effected The knowledg of God is to be suppos'd in a free determination of himself and that knowledg must be perfect both of the object act and all the circumstances of it How can his Will freely produce any thing that was not first known in his Understanding From this the Prophet argues the understanding of God and the unsearchableness of it because he is the Creator of the ends of the earth Isa 40.28 and the same reason David gives of Gods Knowledg of him and of every thing he did and that afar off because he was formed by him Psal 139.2 15 16. As the perfect making of things only belongs to God so doth the perfect knowledg of things 't is absurd to think that God should be ignorant of what he hath given Being to that he should not know all the Creatures and their qualities the Plants and their vertues as that a man should not know the Letters that are formed by him in Writing Every thing bears in it self the mark of Gods Perfections and shall not God know the representation of his own vertue 5. Without this Knowledg God could no more be the Governour than he could be the Creator of the World Knowledg is the Basis of Providence to Know things is before the Government of things a practical knowledg cannot be without a theoretical knowledg Nothing could be directed to its proper end without the knowledg of the nature of it and its suitableness to answer that end for which it is intended As every thing even the minutest falls under the conduct of God so every thing falls under the knowledg of God A Blind Coach-man is not able to hold the Reins of his Horses and direct them in right Paths Since the Providence of God is about particulars his Knowledg must be about particulars he could not else govern them in particular nor could all things be said to depend upon him in their Being and Operations Providence depends upon the knowledg of God and the exercise of it upon the Goodness of God it cannot be without Understanding and Will Understanding to know what is convenient and Will to perform it When our Saviour therefore speaks of Providence he intimates these two in a special manner Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things Mat. 6.32 and goodness in Luke 11.13 The reason of Providence is so joyned with Omniscience that they cannot be separated What a kind of God would he be that were ignorant of those things that were governed by him The ascribing this Perfection to him asserts his Providence for it is as easy for one that knows all things to look over the whole World if writ with Monosyllables in every little particular of it as it is with a man to take a view of one Letter in an Alphabet Sabund Tit. 84. much changed Again if God were not Omniscient how could he reward the Good and punish the Evil the works of men are either rewardable or punishable not only according to their outward circumstances but inward Principles and Ends and the degrees of Venom lurking in the heart The exact discerning of these without a possibility to be deceived is necessary to pass a right and infallible Judgment upon them and proportion the censure and punishment to the Crime Without such a Knowledg and discerning men would not have their due nay a Judgment just for the matter would be unjust in the manner because unjustly past without an understanding of the merit of the Cause 'T is necessary therefore that the Supream Judg of the World should not be thought to be blindfold when he distributes his Rewards and Punishments and muffle his face when he passes his Sentence 'T is necessary to ascribe to him the knowledg of mens thoughts and intentions the secret wills and aims the hidden works of darkness in every mans Conscience because every mans work is to be measured by the Will and inward frame 'T is necessary that he should perpetually retain all those things in the indelible and plain records of his Memory that there may not be any work without a just proportion of what is due to it This is the glory of God to discover the secrets of all hearts at last as 1 Cor. 4.5 the Lord shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the Counsels of all hearts and then shall every man have praise of God This knowledg fits him to be a Judg the reason why the ungodly shall not stand in Judgment is because God knows their ways which is implyed in his knowing the way of the righteous * Psal 1.5 6. I now proceed to the Vse VSE the first is of information or instruction If God hath all knowledg then 1. Jesus Christ is not a meer Creature The two Titles of wonderful Counsellor and mighty God are given him in conjunction Isa 9.6 not only the Angel of the Covenant as he is called Malach. 3.1 or the Executor of his Counsels but a Counsellor in conjunction with him in Counsel as well as
of them this must be either out of Sloth but how incompatible is laziness to a pure and infinite activity or out of Majesty but 't is no less for the glory of his Majesty to conduct them than it was for the glory of his Power to erect them into Being he that counts nothing unworthy of his Arms to make nothing unworthy of his Understanding to know why should he count any thing unworthy of his Wisdom to govern If he knows them to neglect them it must be because he hath no Will to it or no Goodness for it either of these would be a stain upon God to want Goodness is to be Evil and to want Will is to be negligent and scornful which are inconsistent with an Infinite Active Goodness Doth a Father neglect providing for the wants of the Family which he knows or a Physician the cure of that Disease he understands God is Omniscient he therefore sees all things he is good he doth not therefore neglect any thing but conducts it to the end he appointed it There is nothing so little that can escape his Knowledg and therefore nothing so little but falls under his Providence nothing so sublime as to be above his Understanding and therefore nothing can be without the compass of his Conduct nothing can escape his Eye and therefore nothing can escape his Care nothing is known by him in vain as nothing was made by him in vain there must be acknowledg'd therefore some end of this knowledg of all his Creatures Instruct 3. Hence then will follow the certainty of a day of Judgment To what purpose can we imagine this Attribute of Omniscience so often declared and urg'd in Scripture to our consideration but in order to a government of our practise and a future Tryal Every Perfection of the Divine Nature hath sent out brighter Rays in the World than this of his Infinite Knowledg his Power hath been seen in the Being of the World and his Wisdom in the Order and Harmony of the Creatures his Grace and Mercy hath been plentifully poured out in the mission of a Redeemer and his Justice hath been elevated by the Dying-Groans of the Son of God upon the Cross But hath his Omniscience yet met with a Glory proportionable to that of his other Perfections all the Attributes of God that have appeared in some beautiful glimmerings in the World wait for a more full manifestation in Glory as the Creatures do for the manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 But especially this since it hath been less evidenced than others and as much or more abused than any it expects therefore a publick righting in the eye of the World There have been indeed some few sparks of this Perfection sensibly struck out now and then in the World in some horrors of Conscience which have made men become their own Accusers of unknown Crimes in bringing out hidden Wickedness to a publick view by various Providences This hath also been the design of sprinklings of Judgments upon several Generations as Psal 90.8 We are consumed by thy Anger and by thy Wrath we are troubled thou hast set our Iniquities before thee and our secret Sins in the light of thy Countenance The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Youth as well as secret i.e. Sins committed long ago and that with secrecy By this he hath manifested that secret Sins are not hid from his eye Tho' inward Terrors and outward Judgments have been let loose to worry men into a belief of this yet the corruptions of men would still keep a contrary notion in their minds that God hath forgotten that he hides his face from Transgression and will not regard their Impiety Psal 10.11 There must therefore be a time of Tryal for the publick demonstration of this Excellency that it may receive its due Honour by a full Testimony that no secrecy can be a shelter from it As his Justice which consists in giving every one his due could not be Glorified unless men were called to an account for their actions so neither would his Omniscience appear in its illustrious colours without such a manifestation of the secret motions of mens hearts and of Villanies done under Lock and Key when none were conscious to them but the committers of them Novv the last Judgment is the time appointed for the opening of the Books Dan. 7.10 The Book of Gods Records and Conscience the counter-part were never fully opened and read before only novv and then some some pages turn'd to in particular Judgments and out of those Books shall men be judged according to their Works Rev. 20.12 Then shall the defaced Sins be brought vvith all their circumstances to every mans memory the Counsels of mens hearts fled far from their present remembrance all the habitual knovvledg they had of their ovvn actions shall by Gods knovvledg of them be excited to an actual revievv and their vvorks not only made manifest to themselves but notorious to the World All the Words Thoughts Deeds of men shall be brought forth into the light of their ovvn minds by the infinite Light of Gods understanding reflecting on them His Knovvledg renders him an unerring Witness as vvell as his Justice a swift Witness Mal. 3.5 a svvift Witness because he shall vvithout any circuit or length of Speech convince their Consciences by an invvard illumination of them to take notice of the blackness and deformity of their hearts and vvorks In all Judgments God is somevvhat knovvn to be the searcher of hearts the time of Judgment is the time of his remembrance Hos 8.13 Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins but the great instant or now of the full glorifying it is the grand day of account This Attribute must have a time for its full Discovery and no time can be fit for it but a time of a general reckoning Justice cannot be exercis'd without Omniscience for as Justice is a giving to every one his due so there must be knowledg to discern what is due to every man the searching the heart is in order to the rewarding the works 4. This Perfection in God gives us ground to believe a Resurrection Who can think this too hard for his Power since not the least Atome of the Dust of our Bodies can escape his Knowledg An infinite Understanding comprehends every mite of a departed Carcass this will not appear impossible nor irrational to any upon a serious consideration of this excellency in God The body is perished the matter of it hath been since clothed with different forms and figures part of it hath been made the body of a Worm part of it returned to the Dust that hath been blown away by the Wind part of it hath been concocted in the Bodies of Cannibals Fish ravenous Beasts the Spirits have evaporated into Air part of the Blood melted into Water what then is the matter of the body annihilated is that wholly perished no the
Thou hast seen it Thou hast intently beheld it as the word properly signifies He beholds and knows the actions of every particular Man as if there were none but he in the World And doth not only know but ponder * Prov. 5.21 and consider their works * Psal 33.15 He is not a bare Spectator but a diligent Observer * 1 Sam. 2.3 By him actions are weighed To see what degree of good or evil there is in them what there is to blemish them what to advantage them what the quality and quantity of every action is Consideration takes in every Circumstance of the Considered Object Notice is taken of the place where the minute when the Mercy against which it is committed the number of them is exact in Gods Book They have tempted me now these ten times * Numb 14.22 against the demonstrations of my Glory in Egypt and the Wilderness The whole Guilt in every Circumstance is spread before him His knowledge of Mens Sins is not confused such an Imperfection an infinite Understanding cannot be subject to 'T is exact for iniquity is markt before him * Jer. 2.22 5. God knows Mens miscarriage so as to judge This use his Omniscience is put to to maintain his Soveraign Authority in the exercise of his Justice His notice of the Sins of Men is in order to a just Retribution Psal 10.14 Thou hast seen mischief to requite it with thy hand The Eye of his Knowledge directs the Hand of his Justice and no sinful action that falls under his Cognizance but will fall under his Revenge they can as little escape his Censure as they can his Knowledge He is a Witness in his Omniscience that he may be a Judge in his Righteousness He knows the hearts of the Wicked so as to hate their Works and testifie his abhorrency of that which is of high value with M n * Luke 16.15 Sin is not preserved in his Understanding or written down in his Book to be moth-eaten as an old Manuscript but to be open'd one day and Copied out in the Consciences of Men He writes them to publish them and sets them in the light of his Countenance to bring them to the light of their Consciences What a terrible consideration is it to think that the Sins of a day are upon Record in an Infallible Uunderstanding much more the Sins of a week What a number then do the Sins of a Month a Year ten or forty Years arise to How many actions against Charity against Sincerity what an infinite number is there of them all bound up in the Court Rolls of Gods Omniscience in order to a Tryal to be brought out before the Eyes of Men Who can seriously consider all those Bonds reserv'd in the Cabinet of Gods Knowledge to be sued out against the Sinner in due time without an unexpressible horror 4. The fourth Use is of Exhortation Let us have a sense of Gods Knowledge upon our hearts All Wickedness hath a spring from a want of due Consideration and sense of it David concludes it so * Psal 86.14 The proud rose against him and violent Men sought after his Soul because they did not set God before them They think God doth not know and therefore care not what nor how they act When the fear of this Attribute is remov'd a Door is open'd to all Impiety What is there so villanous but the minds of Men will attempt to act What Reverence of a Deity can be left when the sence of his infinite Understanding is extinguisht What Faith could there be in Judgments in Witnesses How would the Foundations of Humane Society be overturn'd The Pillars upon which Commerce stands be utterly broken and dissolved What Society can be preserved if this be not truly believed and faithfully stuck to But how easily would Oaths be swallowed and quickly violated if the sense of this Perfection were rooted out of the minds of Men What fear could they have of calling to Witness a Being they imagine blind and ignorant Men secretly imagine that God knows not or soon forgets and then make bold to Sin against him * Ezek. 8.12 How much does it therefore concern us to cherish and keep alive the sense of this If God writes us upon the Palms of his Hands as the Expression is to remember us let us engrave him upon the Tables of our Hearts to remember him It would be a good Motto to write upon our Minds God knows all he is of infinite Understanding 1. This would give check to much iniquity Can a Mans Conscience easily and delightfully swallow that which he is sensible falls under the Cognizance of God when it is hateful to the Eye of his Holiness and renders the Actor odious to him Doth he not see my ways and count all my steps saith Job * Job 31.4 To what end doth he fix this Consideration To keep him from wanton glances Temptations have no encouragement to come near him that is constantly arm'd with the thoughts that his Sin is Book't in Gods Omniscience If any impudent Devil hath the face to tempt us we should not have the impudence to joyn issue with him under the sense of an infinite Understanding How fruitless would his Wiles be against this Consideration How easily would his Snares be crackt by one sensible thought of this This doth Solomon prescribe to allay the heat of Carnal imaginations * Prov. 5.20 21. It were a useful Question to ask at the appearance of every Temptation at the entrance upon every Action as the Church did in Temptations to Idolatry * Psal 44.21 Shall not God search this out for he knows the secrets of the heart His Understanding comprehends us more than our Consciences can our acts or our understanding our thoughts Who durst speak Treason against a Prince if he were sure he heard him or that it would come to his knowledge A sense of Gods knowledge of Wickedness in the first motion and inward contrivance would bar the accomplishment and execution The Consideration of Gods infinite Understanding would cry stand to the first glances of the heart to Sin 2. It would make us watchful over our hearts and thoughts Should we harbour any unworthy thoughts in our Cabinet if our heads and hearts were possess'd with this useful truth That God knows everything which comes into our minds * Ezek. 11.5 We should as much blush at the rising of impure thoughts before the Understanding of God as at the discovery of unworthy actions to the knowledge of Men If we lived under a sense that not a thought of all those millions which flutter about our Minds can be conceal'd from him how watchful and careful should we be of our hearts and thoughts 3. It would be a good preparation to every Duty This Consideration should be the Preface to every service The Divine Understanding knows how I now act This would engage us to serious
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
yet he cannot but approve of that Law as it prohibits every man from doing him the like injury and disgrace The sutableness of the Law to the Consciences of men is further evidenced by those furious reflections and strong alarms of Conscience upon a transgression of it and that in all parts of the World more or less in all men So exactly hath Divine wisdom fitted the Law to the Reason and Consciences of men as one Tally to another Indeed without such an agreement no mans Conscience could have any ground for a Hue and Cry nor need any man be startled with the Records of it This manifests the wisdom of God in framing his Law so that the Reasons and consciences of all men do one time or other subscribe to it What Governour in the World is able to make any Law distinct from this revealed by God that shall reach all places all persons all Hearts We may add to this the extent of his Commands in ordering goodness at the root not only in action but affection not only in the motion of the Members but the disposition of the Soul which suting a Law to the inward frame of man is quite out of the compass of the wisdom of any Creature 4. His Wisdom is seen in the incouragements he gives for the studying and observing his will Psal 19.11 In keeping thy Commandments there is great reward The variety of them there is not any particular Genius in man but may find something sutable to win upon him in the revealed will of God There is a strain of Reason to satisfy the Rational of Eloquence to gratify the the Fanciful of Interest to allure the Selfish of Terror to startle the Obstinate As a skilful Angler stores himself with Baits according to the Appetites of the sorts of fish he intends to catch so in the Word of God there are varieties of Baits according to the varieties of the Inclinations of men Threatnings to work upon Fear Promises to work upon Love Examples of holy men set out for Imitation and those plainly neither his Threatnings nor his Promises are dark as the Heathen Oracles but peremptory as becomes a Soveraign Law giver and plain as was necessary for the understanding of a Creature As he deals graciously with men in exhorting and incouraging them so he deals wisely herein by taking away all Excuse from them if they ruine the interest of their Souls by denying Obedience to their Soveraign Again the Rewards God proposeth are accommodated not to the Brutish parts of man his Carnal Sense and Fleshly Appetite but to the Capacity of a Spiritual Soul which admits only of Spiritual Gratifications and cannot in its own Nature without a sordid subjection to the Humors of the Body be moved by Sensual Proposals God backs his Precepts with that which the Nature of Man longed for and with Spiritual Delights which can only satisfy a rational Appetite And thereby did as well gratifie the noblest Desires in man as Oblige him to the noblest Service and Work * Amytaut Indeed Vertue and Holiness being perfectly amiable ought chiefly to affect our Understandings and by them draw our Wills to the esteem and pursuit of them But since the desire of Happiness is inseparable from the Nature of Man as impossible to be dis-join'd as an Inclination to descend to be severed from heavy Bodies or an instinct to ascend from Light and A ry of Substances God serves himself of the Inclination of our Natures to happiness to engender in us an esteem and affection to the Holiness he doth require He proposeth the enjoyment of a supernatural Good and everlasting Glory as a Bait to that insatiable longing our Natures have for Happiness to receive the impression of Holiness into our Souls And besides he doth proportion Rewards according to the degrees of mens Industry Labour and Zeal for him and weighs out a Recompence not only suted to but above the service He that improves five Talents is to be ruler over five Cities that is a greater proportion of Honour and Glory than another Luke 19.17.18 As a wise Father excites the affection of his Children to things worthy of Praise by varieties of Recompenses according to their several Actions And it was the Wisdom of the Steward in the Judgment of our Saviour to give every one the portion that belonged to him Luke 12.42 There is no part of the Word wherein we meet not with the will and Wisdom of God varieties of Duties and varieties of Encouragement mingled together 5. The Wisdom of God is seen In fitting the Revelations of his will to after-times and for the preventing of the foreseen Corruptions of men The whole Revelation of the mind of God is stored with Wisdom in the words connexion sence It looks backwards to past and forwards to Ages to come A hidden wisdom lies in the bowels of it like Gold in a Mine The Old testament was so composed as to fortify the New when God should bring it to light The Foundations of the Gopel were laid in the Law The Predictions of the Prophets and figures of the Law were so wisely framed and laid down in such clear expressions as to be Proofs of the Authority of the New Testament and Convictions of Jesus his being the Messiah Luke 24.14 Things concerning Christ were written in Moses the Prophets and Psalms and do to this day stare the Jews so in the face that they are fain to invent absurd and Nonsensical Interpretations to excuse their Unbelief and continue themselves in their obstinate Blindness And in pursuance of the efficacy of those Predictions it was a part of the Wisdom of God to bring forth the Translation of the Old Testament by the means Ptolomy King of Egypt some hundreds of years before the coming of Christ into the Greek Language the Tongue then most known in the World And why to prepare the Gentiles by the reading of it for that gracious call he intended them and for the entertainment of the Gospel which some few years after was to be publisht among them that by reading the Predictions so long before made they might more readily receive the accomplishment of them in their due time The Scripture is written in such a manner as to obviate Errors foreseen by God to enter into the Church It may be wondred why the Vniversal Particle should be inserted by Christ in the giving the Cup in the Supper which was not in the distributing the Bread Mat. 26 27. Drink ye all of it Not at the distributing the Bread Eat you all of it And Mark in his Relation tels us They all drank of it Mark 11.23 The Church of Rome hath been the occasion of discovering to us the Wisdom of our Saviour in in s erting that Particle all since they were so bold to exclude the Communicants from the Cup by a trick of Concomitancy Christ foresaw the Error and therefore put in a little word to obviate a
his loathing of sin and the sprinklings of his Judgments in the World and the horrible expectations of terrified Consciences confirm it But what are all these Testimonies to the highest evidence that can possibly be given in the sheathing the Sword of his wrath in the heart of his Son If a Father should order his Son to take a mean Garb below his Dignity order him to be dragg'd to Prison seem to throw off all Affection of a Father for the severity of a Judge condemn his Son to a horrible Death be a Spectator of his bleeding Condition withhold his hand from asswaging his Misery regard it rather with Joy than Sorrow give him a bitter Cup to drink and stand by to see him drink it off to the bottom dregs and all and sâ—ash frowns in his face all the while and this not for any fault of his own but the Rebellion of some Subjects he undertook for and that the Offenders might have a pardon seal'd by the Blood of the Son the sufferer all this would evidence his detestation of the Rebellion and his affection to the Rebels his hatred to their Crime and his love to their Welfare This did God do He delivered Christ up for our Offences Rom. 8.32 the Father gave him the Cup John 18 18. the Lord bruised him with pleasure Isa 53.10 and that for sin â—e transfer'd upon the shoulders of his Son the pain we had merited that the Criminal might be restored to the place he had forfeited He hates the sin so as to condemn it for ever and wrap it up in the Curse he had threatned and loves the sinner believing and repenting so as to mount him to an expectation of a happiness exceeding the first state both in glory and perpetuity Instead of an Earthly Paradise lays the Foundation of an Heavenly Mansion brings forth a weight of Glory from a weight of Misery separates the comfortable light of the Sun from the scorching heat we had deserved at his hands Thus hath Gods hatred of sin been manifested He is at an eternal Defiance with sin yet nearer in alliance with the sinner than he was before the Revolt As if man's miserable Fall had endeared him to the Judge This is the wisdom and prudence of Grace wherein God hath abounded Eph. 1.9 A wisdom in twisting the happy restoration of the broken Amity with an everlasting Curse upon that which made the breach both upon sin the Cause and upon Satan the Seducer to it Thus is hatred and love in their highest glory manifested together Hatred to sin in the death of Christ more than if the torments of Hell had been undergone by the sinner and love to the sinner more than if he had by an absolute and simple Bounty bestowed upon him the possession of Heaven because the gift of his Son for such an end is a greater token of his boundless Affections than a reinstating Man in Paradise Thus is the wisdom of God seen in Redemption consuming the sin and recovering the sinner 6. The wisdom of God is evident in overturning the Devil's Empire by the Nature he had vanquish'd and by ways quite contrary to what that malicious Spirit could imagine The Devil indeed read his own doom in the first Promise and found his ruin resolved upon by the means of the Seed of the Woman but by what Seed was not so easily known to him * And indeed the 〈◊〉 â—â—racles managed by the Devils declared that they were not long to hold their Scepter in the World but the Hebrew Child should vanquish them And the methods whereby it was to be brought about was a Mystery kept secret from the malicious Devils since it was not discovered to the obedient Angels He might know from Isa 53. that the Redeemer was assured to divide the Spoil with the strong and rescue a part of the lost Creation out of his hands and that this was to be effected by making his Soul an offering for sin But could he imagine which way his Soul was to be made such an Offering He shrewdly suspected Christ just after his Inauguration into his Office by Bapism to be the Son of God But did he ever dream that the Messiah by dying as a reputed Malefactor should be a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin the Devil had introduced by his subtilty Did he ever imagine a Cross should dispossess him of his Crown and that dying groans should wrest the Victory out of his hands He was conquer'd by that Nature he had cast headlong into ruin A Woman by his subtilty was the occasion of our death and a Woman by the conduct of the only wise God brings forth the Author of our Life and the Conquerour of our Enemies The Flesh of the old Adam had infected us and the Flesh of the new Adam cures us 1 Cor. 15.21 By man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead We are killed by the old Adam and raised by the new As among the Israelites a fiery Serpent gave the wound and a brazen Serpent administers the Cure The Nature that was deceived bruiseth the Deceiver and razeth up the Foundations of his Kingdom Satan is defeated by the Counsels he took to secure his Possession and loses the Victory by the same means whereby he thought to preserve it His tempting the Jews to the sin of Crucifying the Son of God had a contrary success to his tempting Adam to eat of the Tree The first death he brought upon Adam ruined us and the death he brought by his Instrumâ—nts upon the second Adam restored us By a Tree if one may so say he had Triumphed over the World and by the fruit of a Tree one hanging upon a Tree he is dischâ—â—ged of his power over us Heb. 2.14 Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death And thus the Devil ruins his own Kingdom while he thinks to confirm inlarge it And is defeated by his own policy whereby he thought to continue the World under his chains and deprive the Creator of the World of his purposed honour What deeper Counsell could he resolve upon for his own security than to be instrumental in the death of him who was God the terror of the Devil himself and to bring the Redeemer of the World to expire with disgrace in the sight of a multitude of men Thus did the Wisdom of God shine forthin restoring us by methods seemingly repugnant to the end he aimed at above the suspition of a subtle Devil whom he intended to baffle Could he Imagine that we should be healed by stripes quickned by death purified by blood crowned by a cross advanced to the highest honour by the lowest humility comforted by sorrows glorified by disgrace absolved by condemnation and made rich by poverty That the sweetest hony should at once spring out of the belly of a dead Lion the Lion of the tribe of Judah and out of the bosom of the living God
incourage our Obedience as to illustrate his Glory We cannot conceive â—hat could be done greater for the salvation of our Souls and consequently what could have been done more to enforce our observance We have a Redeemer as man to copy it to us and as God to perfect us in it It would make the heart of any to tremble to wound him that hath provided such a salve for our Sores and to make Grace a warrant for Rebellion Motives capable to form Rocks into a flexibleness Thus is the Wisdom of God seen in giving us a ground of the surest confidence and furnishing us with incentives to the greatest Obedience by the horrors of wrath death and sufferings of our Saviour 8. The Wisdom of God is apparent in the Condition he hath settled for the enjoying the fruits of Redemption and this is faith a wise and reasonable Condition And the concomitants of it 1. In that it is suted to mans lapsed state and Gods Glory Innocence is not required here that had been a Condition impossible in its own nature after the Fall The rejecting of Mercy is now only condemning where mercy is proposed Had the Condition of Perfection in Works been required it had rather been a condemnation than redemption Works are not demanded whereby the Creature might ascribe any thing to himself but a Condition which continues in man a sense of his Apostacy abates all aspiring Pride and makes the reward of Grace not of Debt A Condition whereby Mercy is owned and the Creature emptied Flesh silenc'd in the Dust and God set upon his Throne of Grace and Authority The Creature brought to the lowest debasement and Divine Glory raised to the highest pitch The Creature is brought to acknowledge Mercy and seal to Justice to own the Holiness of God in the hatred of sin the Justice of God in the Punishment of sin and the Mercy of God in the pardoning of sin A condition that despoils Nature of all its pretended excellency Beats down the glory of man at the foot of God 1 Cor. 1.29.31 It subjects the Reason and Will of man to the Wisdom and Authority of God it brings the Creature to an unreserved submission and intire resignation God is made the Soveraign Cause of all the Creature continued in his emptiness and reduced to a greater dependance upon God than by a Creation depending upon him for a constant influx for an intire happiness A Condition that renders God glorious in the Creature and the fallen creature happy in God God glorious in his Condescension to Man and Man happy in his emptiness before God Faith is made the Condition of mans recovery that the lofty looks of man might be humbled and the haughtiness of man be pulled down Isa 2.11 that every towring imagination might be levelled 2. Cor. 10.5 Man must have all from without doors he must not live upon himself but upon anothers allowance He must stand to the provision of God and be a perpetual Sutor at his Gates 2. A Condition opposite to that which was the cause of the Fall We fell from God an unbelief of the Threatning he recovers us by a belief of the Promise by Unbelief we laid the Foundation of Gods dishonour by Faith therefore God exalts the Glory of his free Grace We lost our selves by a desire of self dependence and our return is ordered by a way of self-emptiness 'T is reasonable we should be restored in a way contrary to that whereby we fell We sinned by a refusal of cleaving to God t is a part of divine Wisdom to restore us in a denial of our own righteousness and strength * Laud against Fisher p. 5. Man having sinned by Pride the Wisdom of God humbles him saith one at the very root of the Tree of Knowledge and makes him deny his own Vnderstanding and submit to Faith or else for ever to lose his desired Felicity 3. It is a Condition suted to the Common Sentiment and custome of the World There is more of belief than reason in the World All Instructers and Masters in Sciences and Arts require first a belief in their Disciples and a resignation of their Understandings and Wills to them And it is the Wisdom of God to require that of man which his own reason makes him submit to another which is his fellow Creature He therefore that quarrels with the Condition of Faith must quarrel with all the World since Belief is the beginning of all Knowledge †Bradward p. 28. yea and most of the Knowledge in the World may rather come under the title of Belief than of Knowledge For what we think we know this day we may find from others such Arguments as may stagger our Knowledge and make us doubt of that we thought our selves certain of before Nay sometimes we change our Opinions our Selves without anâ— Instructor and see a reason to entertain an Opinion quite contrary to what we had before And if we found a general Judgment of others â—o vote against what we think we know it would make us give the less Credit to our selves and our own Sentiments All Knowledge in the World is only a belief depending upon the testimony or arguings of others for indeed it may be said of all men as in Job 8. Job 9. We are but of yesterday and know nothing Since therefore Belief is so universal a thing in the World the Wisdom of God requires that of us which every man must count reasonable or render himself utterly ignorant of any thing It is a Condition that is common to all Religions All Religions are Founded upon a Belief Unless men did believe future things they would not hope nor fear A Belief and Resignation was required in all the Idolatries in the World so that God requires nothing but what a universal custome of the World gives its suffrage to the reasonableness of Indeed justifying Faith is not suted to the Sentiments of men but that Faith which must precede iustifying a beliefe of the Doctrine though not comprehended by Reason is common to the custome of the World * Jâ—neway p. 88. 'T is no less madness not to submit our Reason to Faith than not to regulate our Fancies by Reason 4. This Condition of Faith and Repentances is suted to the Conscience of Men. The Law of Nature teaches us thâ—t we are bound to believe every revelation from God when it is made known to us And not only to assent to it as true but embrace it as good This Nature dictates that we are as much obligeâ— to believe God because of his Truth as to love him because of his Goodness Every mans Reason tells him he cannot obey a Precept nor depend upon a Promise unless he believes both the one and the other No man's Conscience but will inform him upon hearing the revelation of God concerning his excellent contrivance of Redemption and the way to Enjoy it that it is very reasonable he should strip off
distance from Jerusalem to assemble together at Jerusalem at the Feast of Pentecost And God pitched upon this Season that there might be Witnesses of thâ—s Miracle in many parts of the World There were some of every Nation under Heaven verse 5. that is of that known part of the World so saith the Text. Fourteen several Nations are mentioned and Proselytes as well as Jews by Birth They are called devout men men of Conscience whose testimony would carry weight with it among their Neighbours at their return because of their Reputation by their Religious Carriage Again this was not heard and seen by some of them at one time and some at another by some one hour by others the next successively * Faucheur in loc p. 294 295. but altogether in a Solemn Assembly that the testimony of so many Witnesses at a time might be more valid and the truth of the Doctrine appear more illustrious and undeniable And it must needs be astonishing to them to hear that Person magnified in so miraculous a manner who had so lately been condemned by their Country-men as a Malefactor Wisdom consists in the timing of things And in this Circumstance doth the wisdom of God appear in furnishing the Apostles with the Spirit at such a time and bringing forth such a Miracle as the gift of Tongues on a suddain that every Nation might hear in their own Language the wonder of Redemption and as Witnesses at their returns into their own Countreys report it to others that the credit they had in their several Places might facilitate the belief and entertainment of the Gospel when the Apostles or others should arrive to those several Charges and Dioceses appointed for them to preach the Gospel in Had this Miracle been wrought in the presence only of the Inhabitants of Judea that understood only their own Language or one or two of the Neighbouring Tongues it had been counted by them rather a Madness than a Miracle Or had they understood all the Tongues which they spoke the news of it had spread no further than the limits of their own Habitations and had been confin'd within the narrow bounds of the Land of Judea But now it is carried to several remote Nations where any of those Auditors then assembled had their Residence As God chose the time of the Passeover for the Death of Christ that there might be the greatest Number of the Inhabitants of the Country as Witnesses of the Matter of Fact the Innocence and Sufferings of Christ so he chose the time of Pentecost for the first publishing the value and end of this Blood to the World Thus the Evangelical Law was given in a Confluence of People from all Parts and Nations because it was a Covenant with all Nations And the variety of Languages spoken by a Company of poor Galileans bred up at the Lake of Tiberias and in poor corners of Canaan without the Instructions of men for so great a Skil might well evidence to the hearers that God that brought the Confusion of Languages first at Babel did only work that Cure of them and combine all together at Jerusalem 3. The wisdom of God is seen in the Instruments he employed in the publishing the Gospel He did not employ Philosophers but Fishermen used not acquired Arts but infus'd wisdom and courage This Treasure was put into and preserved in Earthen Vessels that the Wisdom as well as the Power of God might be magnified The weaker the means are which attain the end the greater is the skill of the Conductor of them Wise Princes choose men of most credit Interest Wisdom and Ability to be Ministers of their Affairs and Embassadors to others But what were these that God chose for so great a Work as the publishing a new Doctrine to the World What was their quality but mean what was their Authority without Interest What was their Ability without eminent Parts for so great a Work but what Divine Grace in a special manner endowed them with Nay what was their disposition to it as dull and unweildy Witness the frequent rebukes for their slow-heartedness from their Master when he conversed in the Flesh with them And One of the greatest of them so fond of the Jewish Ceremonies and Pharisaical Principles wherein he had been more than ordinarily principled that he hated the Christian Religion to extirpation and the Professors of it to death by those ways which were out of the rode of Human wisdom and would be accompted the greatest absurdity to be practis'd by men that have a repute for Discretion did God advance his Wisdom 1 Cor. 1.25 The foolishness of God is wiser than man By this means it was indisputably evidenc'd to unbyassed Minds that the Doctrine was Divine It could not rationally be imagined that Instruments destitute of all Human Advantages should be able to vanquish the World confound Judaism overturn Heathenism chase away the Devils strip them of their Temples alienate the Minds of men from their several Religions which had been rooted in them by Education and established by a long succession It could not I say reasonably be imagined to be without a Supernatural Assistance an heavenly and efficacious working Whereas had God taken a Course agreeable to the prudence of Man and used those that had been furnished with Learning tip'd with Eloquence and armed with Human Authority the Doctrines would have been thought to have been of a Human Invention and to be some subtle Contrivance for some unworthy and ambitious end The nothingness and weakness of the Instruments manifest them to be conducted by a Divine Power and declare the Doctrine it self to be from Heaven When we see such feeble Instruments proclaiming a Doctrine repugnant to Flesh and Blood sounding forth a crucified Christ to be believed in and trusted on and declaiming against the Religion and Worship under which the Roman Empire had long flourished exhorting them to the Contempt of the World preparation for Afflictions denying themselves and their own Honours by the hopes of an unseen reward things so repugnant to Flesh and Blood And these Instruments concurring in the same Story with an admirable Harmony in all parts and sealing this Doctrine with their Blood can we upon all this ascribe this Doctrine to a Human Contrivance or fix any lower Author of it than the wisdom of Heaven 'T is the wisdom of God that carries on his own Designs in methods most sutable to his own Greatness and different from the Customes and Modes of Men that less of Humanity and more of Divinity might appear 4. The wisdom of God appears in the ways and manner as well as in the Instruments of its propagation By ways seemingly contrary You know how God had sent the Jews into Captivity in Babylon and though he struck off their Chains and restored them to their Country yet many of them had no mind to leave a Country wherein they had been born and bred The distance from the
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
Minds and Consciences of Men as the Author of Nature for the preservation of the World manifests the Holiness of the Law-maker and Governour 2. His Holiness appears in the Ceremonial Law In the variety of Sacrifices for Sin wherein he writ his detestation of Vnrighteousness in bloody Characters His Holiness was more constantly exprest in the continual Sacrifices than in those rarer sprinklings of Judgments now and then upon the World which often reached not the worst but the most moderate Sinners and were the occasions of the questioning of the Righteousness of his Providence both by Jews and Gentiles In Judgments his Purity was only now and then manifest By his long Patience he might be imagin'd by some reconcil'd to their Crimes or not much concern'd in them but by the Morning and Evening Sacrifice he witness'd a perpetual and uninterrupted Abhorrence of whatsoever was Evil. Besides those the occasional Washings and Sprinklings upon Ceremonial Defilements which polluted only the Body gave an evidence that every thing that had a resemblance to Evil was loathsom to him Add also the Prohibitions of eating such and such Creatures that were filthy as the Swine that wallowed in the Mire a fit Emblem for the prophane and brutish Sinner which had a Moral signification both of the loathsomness of Sin to God and the aversion themselves ought to have to every thing that was filthy 3. This Holiness appears in the Allurements annex'd to the Law for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it Both Promises and Threatnings have their Fundamental Root in the Holiness of God and are both Branches of this peculiar Perfection As they respect the Nature of God they are Declarations of his hatred of Sin and his love of Righteousness the one belong to his Threatnings the other to his Promises both joyn together to represent this Divine Perfection to the Creature and to excite to an imitation in the Creature In the one God would render Sin odious because dangerous and curb the practice of Evil which would otherwise be Licentious In the other he would commend Righteousness and excite a love of it which would otherwise be cold By these God sutes the two great Affections of Men Fear and Hope both the branches of Self-love in Man The Promises and Threatnings are both the Branches of Holiness in God The end of the Promises is the same with the Exhortation the Apostle concludes from them 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God As the end of Precepts is to direct the end of Threatnings is to deter from Iniquity so that of the Promises is to allure to Obedience Thus God breaths out his Love to Righteousness in every Promise his Hatred of Sin in every Threatning The Rewards offerd in the one are the Smiles of pleased Holiness and the Curses thundred in the other are the Sparklings of enraged Righteousness 4. His Holiness appears in the Judgments inflicted for the violation of this Law Divine Holiness is the Root of Divine Justice and Divine Justice is the Triumph of Divine Holiness Hence both are expressed in Scripture by one word of Righteousness which sometimes signifies the rectitude of the Divine Nature and sometimes the vindicative stroak of his Arm Psal 103.6 The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed So Dan. 9.7 Righteousness that is Justice belongs to thee The Vials of his Wrath are filled from his implacable aversion to Iniquity All Penal Evils showred down upon the heads of Wicked men spread their root in and branch out from this Perfection All the dreadful Storms and Tempests in the World are blown up by it Why doth he rain Snares Fire and Brimstone and a horrible Tempest because the righteous Lord loveth Righteousness Psal 11.6 7. And as was observed before when he was going about the dreadfullest Work that ever was in the World the overturning the Jewish State hardening the Hearts of that Unbelieving People and casheiring a Nation once dear to him from the honour of his Protection His Holiness as the Spring of all this is applauded by the Seraphims Isai 6.3 compared with Vers 9 10 11 c. Impunity argues the approbation of a Crime and Punishment the abhorrency of it The greatness of the Crime and the Righteousness of the Judge are the first Natural Sentiments that arise in the Minds of Men upon the appearance of Divine Judgments in the World by those that are near them †Amirant Moral Tom. 5. p. 388. As when Men see Gibbets erected Scaffolds prepared Instruments of Death and Torture provided and grievous Punishments inflicted the first reflection in the Spectators is the malignity of the Crime and the detestation the Governours are possessed with 1. How severely hath he punish'd his most Noble Creatures for it The once glorious Angels upon whom he had been at greater cost than upon other Creatures and drawn more lively Lineaments of his own Excellency upon the Transgression of his Law are thrown into the Furnace of Justice without any Mercy to pity them Jude 6. And though there were but one sort of Creatures upon the Earth that bore his Image and were only fit to publish and keep up his Honour below the Heavens yet upon their Apostacy though upon a Temptation from a subtile and insinuating Spirit the Man with all his Posterity is sentenc'd to Misery in Life and Death at last and the Woman with all her Sex have standing Punishments inflicted on them which as they begun in their Persons were to reach as far as the last Member of their successive Generations So Holy is God that he will not endure a Spot in his choicest Work Men indeed when there is a crack in an excellent piece of Work or a stain upon a rich Garment do not cast it away they value it for the remaining Excellency more than hate it for the contracted Spot But God saw no Excellency in his Creature worthy regarding after the Image of that which he most esteemed in himself was defaced 2. How detestable to him are the very Instruments of Sin For the Ill use the Serpent an Irrational Creature was put to by the Devil as an Instrument in the Fall of Man the whole brood of those Animals are Curst Gen. 3.14 Cursed above all Cattle and above every Beast of the field Not only the Devils Head is threatned to be for ever bruised and as some think render'd irrecoverable upon this further Testimony of his Malice in the Seduction of Man who perhaps without this new Act might have been admitted into the Arms of Mercy notwithstanding his first Sin though the Scripture gives us no account of this only this is the only Sentence we read of pronounc'd against the Devil which puts him into an irrecoverable state by a Mortal bruising of his Head But I say He is not only punish'd but the
Organ whereby he blew in his Temptation is put into a worse condition than it was before Thus God hated the Spunge whereby the Devil deform'd his beautiful Image Thus God to manifest his detestation of Sin ordered the Beast whereby any Man was slain to be slain as well as the Malefactor Levit. 20.15 The Gold and Silver that had been abused to Idolatry and were the Ornaments of Images though good in themselves and uncapable of a Criminal Nature were not to be brought into their Houses but detested and abhorred by them because they were cursed and an abomination to the Lord. See with what loathing Expressions this Law is enjoyn'd to them Deut. 7.25 26. So contrary is the holy Nature of God to every Sin that it curseth every thing that is Instrumental in it 3. How detestable is every thing to him that is in the Sinners possession The very Earth which God had made Adam the Proprietor of was Cursed for his sake Gen. 3.17 18. It lost its Beauty and lies languishing to this day and notwithstanding the Redemption by Christ hath not recovered its health nor is it like to do till the compleating the Fruits of it upon the Children of God Rom. 8.20 21 22. The whole Lower Creation was made subject to Vanity and put into Pangs upon the Sin of Man by the Righteousness of God detesting his Offence How often hath his implacable Aversion from Sin been shewn not only in his Judgments upon the Offenders Person but by wrapping up in the same Judgment those which stood in a near relation to them Achan with his Children and Cattle are overwhelmed with Stones and burned together Josh 7.24 25. In the destruction of Sodom not only the grown Malefactors but the young Spawn the Infants at present uncapable of the same Wickedness and their Cattle were burned up by the same Fire from Heaven and the Place where their Habitations stood is at this day partly a heap of Ashes and partly an Infectious Lake that choaks any Fish that swim into it from Jordan and stifles as is related by its Vapor any Bird that attempts to fly over it Oh how detestable is Sin to God that causes him to turn a pleasant Land as the Garden of the Lord as it is styled Gen. 13.10 into a Lake of Sulphur to make it both in his Word and Works as a lasting Monument of his abhorrence of Evil 4. What design hath God in all these Acts of Severity and Vindictive Justice but to set off the lustre of his Holiness He testifies himself concerned for those Laws which he hath set as Hedges and Limits to the Lusts of Men and therefore when he breaths forth his fiery Indignation against a People he is said to get himself Honour As when he intended the Red Sea should swallow up the Egyptian Army Exod. 14.17 18. which Moses in his Triumphant Song Ecchoes back again Exod. 15.1 Thou hast triumphed gloriously gloriously in his Holiness which is the glory of his Nature as Moses himself interprets it in the Text. When Men will not own the Holiness of God in a way of Duty God will vindicate it in a way of Justice and Punishment In the destruction of Aarons Sons that were Will-worshippers and would take Strange Fire Sanctified and Glorified are coupled Lev. 10.3 He glorified himself in that Act in vindicating his Holiness before all the People declaring that he will not endure Sin and Disobedience He doth therefore in this Life more severely punish the Sins of his People when they presume upon any act of Disobedience for a Testimony that the nearness and dearness of any Person to him shall not make him unconcern'd in his Holiness or be a plea for Impurity The End of all his Judgments is to witness to the World his Abominating of Sin To Punish and Witness against Men are one and the same thing Micah 1.2 The Lord shall witness against you and it is the Witness of Gods Holiness Hos 5.5 And the Pride of Israel doth testifie to his face One renders it the Excellency of Israel and understands it of God the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here in our Translation Pride is rendred Excellency Amos 8.7 The Lord God hath sworn by his Excellency which is Interpreted Holiness Amos 4.2 The Lord God hath sworn by his Holiness What is the issue or end of this Swearing by Holiness and of his Excellency testifying against them In all those Places you will find them to be sweeping Judgments In one Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their Iniquity in another He will take them away with Hooks and their Posterity with Fish-hooks and in another He would never forget any of their works He that punisheth Wickedness in those he before used with the greatest Tenderness furnisheth the World with an undeniable Evidence of the Detestableness of it to him Were not Judgments sometimes poured out upon the World it would be believed that God were rather an Approver than an Enemy to Sin To Conclude Since God hath made a stricter Law to guide Men annex'd Promises above the merit of Obedience to allure them and Threatnings dreadful enough to affright Men from Disobedience He cannot be the Cause of Sin nor a lover of it How can he be the Author of that which he so severely forbids or love that which he delights to punish or be fondly Indulgent to any Evil when he hates the Ignorant Instruments in the Offences of his Reasonable Creatures III. The Holiness of God appears in Our Restoration 'T is in the Glass of the Gospel we behold the Glory of the Lord * 2 Cor. 3.18 that is the Glory of the Lord into whose Image we are changed but we are changed into nothing as the Image of God but into Holiness We bore not upon us by Creation nor by Regeneration the Image of any other Perfection We cannot be changed into his Omnipotence Omniscience c. but into the Image of his Righteousness This is the pleasing and glorious sight the Gospel Mirror darts in our eyes The whole Scene of Redemption is nothing else but a discovery of Judgment and Righteousness Isai 1.27 Zion shall be redeemed with Judgment and her Converts with Righteousness 1. This Holiness of God appears in the manner of our Restoration viz. by the Death of Christ. Not all the Vials of Judgments that have or shall be poured out upon the wicked World nor the flaming Furnace of a Sinners Conscience nor the Irreversible Sentence pronounc'd against the Rebellious Devils nor the Groans of the Damned Creatures give such a demonstration of Gods Hatred of Sin as the Wrath of God let loose upon his Son Never did Divine Holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our Saviours Countenance was most marr'd in the midst of his Dying Groans This himself acknowledges in that Prophetical Psalm Psal 22.1 2. when God had turned his Smiling Face from him and thrust his sharp Knife
after his Image man would dress God after his own Modes as may best sute the content of his Lusts and incourage him in a course of sinning For when they can frame such a notion of God as if he were a Countenancer of sin they will derive from thence a reputation to their Crimes commit Wickedness with an unbounded licentiousness and crown their Vices with the name of Vertues because they are so like to the Sentiments of that God they fancy From hence as the Psalmist in the Psalm before mention'd ariseth that mass of Vice in the World such Conceptions are the Mother and Nurse of all Impiety I question not but the first Spring is some wrong notion of God in regard of his holiness We are as apt to imagine God as we would have him as the black Ethiopians were to draw the Image of their Gods after their own dark hue and paint him with their own Colour As a Philosopher in Theodoret speaks if Oxen and Lions had hands and could paint as men do they would frame the Images of their Gods according to their own likeness and complexion Such notions of God render him a Swinish Being and worse than the vilest Idols ador'd by the Egyptians when Men fancy a God indulgent to their Appetites and most sordid Lusts 2. In defacing the Image of God in our own Souls God in the first draught of man conform'd him to his own Image or made him an Image of himself Because we find that in Regeneration this Image is renewed Eph. 4.24 The new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness He did not take Angels for his Pattern in the first polishing the Soul but himself In defaceing this Image we cast durt upon the Holiness of God which was his pattern in the framing of us and rather chuse to be conformed to Satan who is Gods grand Enemy to have Gods Image wip'd out of us and the Devils pictur'd in us Therefore natural men in an unregenerate state may justly be called Devils since our Saviour called the worst man Judas so * John 6.1 and Peter one of the best †Mat. 16.23 And if this title be given by an infallible Judge to one of the worst and one of the best it may without wrong to any be ascrib'd to all men that wallow in their sin which is directly contrary to that illustrious Image God did imprint upon them How often is it seen that men controul the light of their own Nature and stain the clearest beams of that Candle of the Lord in their own spirits that fly in the face of their own Consciences and say to them as Ahab to Micaiah thou dist never prophecy good to me thou dist never incourage me in those things that are pleasing to the Flesh use it at the same rate as the wicked King did the Prophet imprison it in unrighteousness ‖ Rom. 1.18 because it starts up in them sometimes Sentiments of the Holiness of God which it represents in the Soul of man How jolly are many men when the exhalations of their Sensitive part rise up to Cloud the exactest Principle of moral Nature in their minds and render the monstrous Principles of the Law of Corruption more lively Whence ariseth the wickedness which hath been committed with an open face in the World and the applause that hath been often given to the worst of villanies Have we not known among our selves men to glory in their shame esteem that a most gentile accomplishment of man which is the greatest blot upon his Nature and which if it were upon God would render him no God but an impure Devil so that to be a Gentleman among us hath been the same as to be an incarnate Devil and to be a man was to be no better but worse than a Bruit Vile Wretches Is not this a contempt of Divine holiness to kill that Divine seed which lies languishing in the midst of corrupted Nature to cut up any Sprouts of it as weeds unworthy to grow in their gardens cultivate what is the Seed of Hell prefer the rotten fruits of Sodom markt with a Divine curse before those Relicks of the fruits of Eden of Gods own planting 3. The Holiness of God is injur'd in charging our sin upon God Nothing is more natural to men than to seek excuses for their sin transfer it from themselves to the next at hand and rather than fail shift it upon God himself and if they can bring God into a society with them in sin they will hug themselves in a security that God cannot punish that guilt wherein he is a Partner Adam's Children are not of a different disposition from Adam himself who after he was Arraign'd and brought to his Trial boggles not at flinging his dirt in the face of God his Creator and accuseth him as if he had given him the Woman not to be his help but his ruine Gen. 3.12 And the man said the woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the Tree and I did eat He never supplicates for Pardon nor seeks a remedy but reflects his Crime upon God Had I been alone as I was first created I had not eaten but the woman whom I received as a special gift from thee hath proved my tempter and my bane When man could not be like God in Knowledge he endeavour'd to make God like him in his Crime and when his Ambition failed of equallizing himself with God he did with an insolence too common to corrupted Nature attempt by the imputation of his sin to equal the Divinity with himself Some think Cain had the same sentiment in his answer to Gods demand Where his brother was Gen. 2.9 Am I my brother's keeper Art not thou the Keeper and Governor of the World why didst not thou take care of him and hinder my killing him and drawing this guilt upon my self and terror upon my Conscience David was not behind when after the murder of Vriah he sweeps the dirt from his own door to Gods Sam. 2.11.25 The sword devoureth one as well as another Fathering that solely upon Divine Providence which was his own wicked Contrivance Though afterwards he is more ingenuous in clearing God and charging himself Psal 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned and he clears God in his Judgment too 'T is too common for the foolishness of man to pervert his way and then his heart frets against the Lord Pro. 19.3 He studies mischief runs in a way of sin and when he hath conjur'd up troubles to himself by his own folly he excuseth himself and with indignation charges God as the Author both of his sin and misery and sets his mouth against the Heavens 'T is a more horrible thing to accuse God as a Principal or Accessory in our guilt than to conceive him to be a favourer of our iniquity yet both are bad enough 4. The Holiness of God is injured
especially this dominion in the peculiarity of its extent is seen in the exercise of it over the Spirits and Hearts of Men. Earthly Governours have by his indulgence a share with him in a dominion over mens bodies upon which account he graceth Princes and Judges with the Title of Gods Psal 82.6 But the highest Prince is but a Prince according to the Flesh as the Apostle calls Masters in relation to their Servants Colos 3.22 God is the Soveraign Man rules over the Beast in Man the Body and God rules over the Man in Man the Soul It sticks not in the outward surface but peirceth to the inward Marrow 'T is impossible God should be without this if our wills were independent on him we were in some sort equal with himself in part Gods as well as Creatures 'T is impossible a Creature either in whole or in part can be exempted from it Since he is the fashioner of hearts as well as of Bodies He is the Father of Spirits And therefore hath the right of a paternal dominion over them When he established man Lord of the other Creatures he did not strip himself of the propriety And when he made man a free Agent and Lord of the acts of his Will he did not devest himself of the Soveraignty His Soveraignty is seen 1. In Gifting of the Spirits of Men. Earthly Magistrates have hands too short to inspire the Hearts of their Subjects with worthy sentiments When they conferre an employment they are not able to convey an ability with it fit for the station They may as soon frame a Statue of liquid water and guild or paint it over with the costliest colours as impart to any a State-Head for a State-Ministry But when God chooseth a Saul from so mean an employment as seeking of Asses he can treasure up in him a Spirit fit for Government And fire David in Age a stripling and by Education a Shepherd with Courage to Encounter and skill to defeat a massy Goliah And when he designs a person for Glory to stand before his Throne he can put a new and a Royal Spirit into him Ezek. 36.26 God only can infuse habits into the Soul to capacitate it to act nobly and generously 2. His Soveraignty is seen in regard of the inclinations of mens Wills No Creature can immediately work upon the will to guide it to what point he pleaseth though mediately it may by proposing reasons which may Master the understandiâ—g and thereby determine the Will But God bows the Hearts of men by the 〈◊〉 of his dominion to what Centre he pleaseth When the more overweeniâ—g sort of men that thought their own heads as fit for a Crown as Sauls scornfully dâ—spis'd him yet God touched the hearts of a band of men to follow and adhere to him 1 Sam. 10.26 27. When the Anti-Christian Whore shall be ripe for destruction God shall put it into the Heart of the ten Horns or Kings to hate the Whore burn her with Fire and fulfil his Will Rev. 17.16 17. He Fashions the Hearts alike and tunes one string to answer another and both to answer his own design Psal 33.15 And while men seem to gratifie their own ambition and malice they execute the Will of God by his secret touch upon their Spirits guiding their inclinations to serve the glorious manifestation of his Truth While the Jews would in a reproachful disgrace to Christ Crucifie two Theives with him to render him more uncapable to have any followers they accomplisht a Prophesie and brought to light a mark of the Messiah whereby he had been charactered in one of their Prophets Isaiah 53.12 That he should be numbred among Transgressors He can make a man of not willing willing the wills of all men are in his hand i. e. under the power of his Scepter to retain or let go upon this or that Errand to bend this or that way as Water is carried by Pipes to what house or place the owner of it is pleas'd to order Prov. 21.1 The Kings Heart is in the hand of the Lord as the Rivers of waters he turns it whithersoever he will without any limitation He speaks of the Heart of Princes Because in regard of their height they seem to be more absolute and impetuous as waters yet God holds them in his hand under his dominion turns them to acts of clemency or severity like waters either to overflow and dammage or to refresh and fructifie He can convey a Spirit to them or cut it off from them Psal 76.12 'T is with reference to his efficacious power in graciously turning the Heart of Paul that the Apostle breaks of his discourse off the story of his conversion and breaks out into a magnifying and glorifying of God's dominion 1 Tim. 1.17 Now unto the King eternal c. be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Our Hearts are more subject to the divine Soveraignty than our members in their motions are subject to our own wills As we can move our hand East or West to any quarter of the World so can God bend our Wills to what mark he pleases The second Cause in every motion depends upon the first and that will being a second Cause may be furthered or hindered in its inclinations or executions by God he can bend or unbend it and change it from one actual inclination to another 'T is as much under his Authority and Power to move or hinder as the vast engine of the Heavens is in its motion or standing still which he can effect by a word The work depends upon the workman the Clock upon the Artificer for the motions of it 3. His dominion is seen in regard of Terror or Comfort The Heart or Conscience is Gods special Throne on Earth which he hath reserv'd to himself and never indulg'd humane Authority to sit upon it He solely orders this in ways of conviction or Comfort He can flash terror into mens Spirits in the midst of their Earthly jollities and put death into the pot of Conscience when they are boyling up themselves in a high pitch of worldly delights and can raise mens Spirits above the sense of torment under Racks and Flames He can draw a hand Writing not only in the outward Chamber but the inward Closet bring the Rack into the inwards of a Man None can infuse Comfort when he writes bitter things nor can any fill the heart with Gall when he drops in Hony Men may order outward duties but they cannot unlock the Conscience and constrain men to think them duties which they are forced by humane Laws outwardly to act And as the Laws of earthly Princes are bounded by the outward man so do their executions and punishments reach no further than the case of the Body But God can run upon the inward man as a Gyant and inflict wounds and gashes there 5. Proposition 'T is an Eternal Dominion In regard of the exercise of it it was not from Eternity Because
according to God's order Ezek. 37.24 25. David my servant shall be King over them and my servant David shall be their Prince for ever He shall be a Prince over them but my servant in that principality in the exercise and duration of it The Soveraignty of God is paramount in all that Christ hath done as a Priest or shall do as a King The VSE 1. For Instruction 1. How great is the contempt of this soveraignty of God Man naturally would be free from Gods Empire to be a slave under the Dominion of his own lust The soveraignty of God as a Law-giver is most abhorr'd by man Levit. 26.43 The Israelites the best people in the World were apt by nature not only to despise but abhorre his Statutes There is not a Law of God but the corrupt heart of man hath an abhorrency of How often do men wish that God had not enacted this or that Law that goes against the grain and in wishing so wish that he were no soveraign or not such a soveraign as he is in his own â—â—ture but one according to their corrupt model This is the great quarrel between God and Man whither he or they shall be the soveraign Ruler He should not by the Will of Man rule in any one Village in the World Gods vote should not be predominant in any one thing There is not a Law of his but is expos'd to contempt by the perverseness of Man Prov. 1.21 Ye have set at nought all my Counsel and would have none of my reproof Septuag Ye have made all my Counsels without Authority The nature of man cannot endure one precept of God nor one rebuke from him And for this cause God is at the expence of Judgements in the World to assert his own Empire to the Teeth and Consciences of men Psal 59.13 Lord consume them in wrath and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the Earth The Dominion of God is not slighted by any Creature of this World but Man all others observe it by observing his Order whither in their natural motions or preternaral irruptions they punctually act according to their Commission Man only speaks a Dialect against the strain of the whole Creation and hath none to imitate him among all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth but only among those in Hell Man is more impatient of the yoke of God than of the yoke of Man There are not so many rebellions committed by inferiors against their superiors and fellow Creatures as are committed against God A willing and easie sinning is an equalling the Authority of God to that of Man Hos 6.7 They like men have transgrest my Covenant * Munster They have made no more account of breaking my Covenant than if they had broken some league or compact made with a meer man so slightly do they esteem the Authority of God Such a disesteem of the divine Authority is a vertual undeifying of him To slight his soveraignty is to stab his Deity Since the one cannot be preserved without the support of the other his life would expire with his Authority How base and brutish is it for vile dust and mouldring clay to lift up it self against the Majesty of God whose Throne is in the Heavens who sways his Scepter over all parts of the World A Majesty before whom the Devils shake and the highest Cherubims tremble 'T is as if the Thistle that can presently be trod down by the foot of a wild Beast should think it self a match for the Cedar of Lebanon as the phrase is 2 Kings 14.9 Let us consider this in general and also in the ordinary practise of men First In General 1. All sin in its nature is a contempt of the Divine Dominion As every act of Obedience is a confirmation of the Law and consequently a subscription to the Authority of the Lawgiver Deut 27.26 so every breach to it is a conspiracy against the soveraignty of the Law-giver setting up our Will against the Will of God is an Articling against his Authority as setting up our reason against the methods of God is an Articling against his Wisdom the intendment of every act of sin is to wrest the Scepter out of God's hand The Authority of God is the first attribute in the Deity which it directs its edge against 't is called therefore a transgression of his Law 1 John 3.4 And therefore a slight or neglect of the Majesty of God and the not keeping his Commands is call'd a forgetting God Deut. 8.11 i. e. a forgetting him to be our absolute Lord. As the first notion we have of God as a Creator is that of his Soveraignty so the first perfection that sin struck at in the violation of the Law was his soveraignty as a Lawgiver Breaking the Law is a dishonouring God Rom. 2.23 a Snatching off his Crown to obey our own Wills before the Will of God is to preferre our selves as our own Soveraigns before him Sin is a wrong and injury to God not in his Essence that is above the reach of a Creature nor in any thing profitable to him or pertaining to his own intrinsick advantage not an injury to God in himself but in his Authority in those things which pertain to his Glory a disowning his due right and not using his goods according to his will Thus the whole world may be call'd as God calls Chaldea a Land of Rebels Jer. 50.21 Go up against the Land of Merathaim or Rebels Rebels not against the Jews but against God The mighty opposition in the heart of man to the Supremacy of God is discovered Emphatically by the Apostle Rom. 8.7 in that expression The carnal mind is enmity against God i. e. against the Authority of God because it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be It refuseth not subjection to this or that part but to the whole to every mark of Divine Authority in it it will not lay down its arms against it nay it cannot but stand upon its terms against it the Law can no more be fulfill'd by a carnal mind than it can be disowned by a soveraign God God is so Holy that he cannot alter a Righteous Law and man is so averse that he cares not for nay cannot fulfil one Tittle so much doth the Nature of man swell against the Majesty of God Now an enmity to the Law which is in every sin implies a perversity against the Authority of God that enacted it 2. All sin in its nature is the despoyling God of his sole soveraignty which was probably the first thing the Devil aim'd at That pride was the sin of the Devil the Scripture gives us some account of when the Apostle adviseth not a novice or one that hath but lately embraced the Faith to be chosen a Bishop 1 Tim. 3.6 Least being lifted up with Pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Least he fall into the same sin for
have devout figures of the face and uncomely postures of the soul is to exclude his dominion from our spirits while we own it only over our outward man we render him an insignificant Lord not worthy of any higher adorations from us than a sensless statue We demean not our selves according to his Majestical Authority over us when we present him not with the Cream and Quintessence of our souls The greatness of God requir'd a great house and a costly Palace 1 Chron. 29.11.16 David speaks it in order to the building God a house and Temple God being a great King expects a Male the best of our flock Mal. 1.14 a Masculine and vigorous service When we present him with a sleepy sickly rheumatick service we betray our conceptions of him to be as mean as if he were some petty Lord whose dominion were of no larger extent than a Mole hill or some inconsiderable Village 6. Omission of the service he hath appointed is another contempt of his Soveraignty This is a contempt of his dominion whereby he hath a right to appoint what means and conditions he pleaseth for the enjoyment of his proffered and promised benefits 'T is an enmity to his Scepter not to accept of his terms after a long series of precepts and invitations made for the restoring us to that happiness we had lost and providing all means necessary thereunto nothing being wanting but our own concurrence with it and acceptance of it by rendring that easy homage he requires By with-holding from him the service he enjoyns we deny that we hold any thing of him As he that payes not the quit rent though it be never so small disowns the Soveraignty of the Lord of the Manour It implyes that he is a miserable poor Lord having no right or destitute of any power to dispose of any thing in the World to our advantage Job 22.17 They say unto God depart from us what can the Almighty do for them They will have no commerce with him in a way of duty because they imagine him to have no Soveraign power to do any thing for them in way of benefit as if his dominion were an empty title and as much destitute of any Authority to command a favour for them as any Idol They think themselves to have as absolute a disposal of things as God himself What can he do for us What can he confer upon us that we cannot invest our selves in As though they were Soveraigns in an equality with God Thus men live without God in the World Eph. 2.12 as if there were no supream being to pay a respect to or none fit to receive any homage at their hands With-holding from God the right of his time and the right of his service which is the just claim of his Soveraignty 7. Censuring others is a contempt of his Soveraignty When we censure mens persons or actions by a rash judgment when we will be judges of the good and evil of mens actions where the law of God is utterly silent we usurp God's place and invade his right we claim a superiority over the Law and judge God defective as the rector of the World in his prescriptions of good and evil Jam. 4.11.12 He that speaks evil of his Brother and judgeth his Brother speaks evil of the Law and judgeth the Law There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy Who art thou that judgest another Do you know what you do in judging another You take upon you the garb of a Soveraign as if he were more your servant than God's and more under your Authority than the Authority of God 't is a setting thy self in God's Tribunal and assuming his rightful power of judging thy Brother is not to be govern'd by thy fancy but by God's Law and his own Conscience 2. Information Hence it follows that God doth actually govern the World He hath not only a right to rule but he rules over all so saith the Text. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords what to let them do what they please and all that their lusts prompt them to hath God an absolute Dominion Is it good and is it wise Is it then a useless prerogative of the Divine Nature Shall so excellent a power lye idle as if God were a lifeless Image Shall we fancy God like some lazy Monarch that solaceth himself in the Gardens of his Palace or steeps himself in some charming pleasures and leaves his Lieutenants to govern the several Provinces which are all Members of his Empire according to their own humour Not to exercise this Dominion is all one as not to have it To what purpose is he invested with this Soveraignty if he were careless of what were done in the world and regarded not the oppressions of men God keeps no useless excellency by him He actually reigns over the Heathen Psal 47.8 and those as bad or worse than Heathens It had been a vanity in David to call upon the Heavens to be glad and the earth to rejoyce under the rule of a sleepy Deity 1 Chron. 16.31 No his Scepter is full of eyes as it was painted by the Egyptians He is always waking and always more than Ahashuerus reading over the records of Humane actions Not to exercise his Authority is all one as not to regard whither he keep the Crown upon his head or continue the Scepter in his hand If his Soveraignty were exempt from care it would be destitute of Justice God is more Righteous than to resign the ensigns of his Authority to blind and oppressive man to think that God hath a power and doth not use it for just and righteous ends is to imagine him an unrighteous as well as a careless Soveraign such a thing in a man renders him a base man and a worse Governor 'T is a vice that disturbs the World and overthrows the ends of Authority as to have a power and use it well is the greatest virtue of an Earthly Soveraign What an unworthy conception is it of God to acknowledge him to be possessed of a greater Authority than the greatest Monarch and yet to think that he useth it less than a petty Lord that his Crown is of no more value with him than a Feather This represents God impotent that he cannot or unrighteous and base that he will not administer the Authority he hath for the noblest and justest end But can we say that he neglects the government of the World How come things then to remain in their due order How comes the Law of nature yet to be preserved in every man's Soul How comes Conscience to check and cite and judge If God did not exercise his Authority what Authority could Conscience have to disturb man in unlawful practises and to make his sports and sweetness so unpleasant and sour to him Hath he not given frequent notices and memorials that he holds a curb over corrupt inclinations puts rubs in the way of malicious
rushings into his presence in Worship Had they been only sins of Omission and sins of Ignorance it had been enough to have put a stand to any further operations of this perfection towards us But add to those sins of Commission sins against knowledge sins against spiritual motions sins against repeated resolutions and pressing admonitions the neglects of all the opportunities of Repentance put them all together and we can as little recount them as the sands on the sea shore But what do I only speak of particular men view the whole World and if our own iniquities render it an amazing Patience what a mighty supply will be made to it in all the numerous and weighty provocations under which he hath continued the World for so many revolutions of Years and Ages Have not all those pressed into his presence with a loud cry and demanded a sentence from Justice yet hath not the Judge been overcome by the importunity of our sins * Pont. part 1. 42. Were the Devils punished for one sin a proud thought and that not committed against the blood of Christ as we have done numberless times yet hath not God made us partakers in their punishment though we have exceeded them in the quality of their sin Oh admirable patience that would bear with me under so many while he would not bear with the sinning Angels for one 2. Consider how mean things we are who have provoked him What is man but a vile thing that a God abounding with all riches should take care of so abject a thing much more to bear so many affronts from such a drop of matter such a nothing creature That he that hath anger at his command as well as pity should endure such a detestable deformed creature by sin to fly in his face What is man that thou art mindful of him Psal 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miserable incurable man derived from a word that signifies to be incurably sick Man is Adam Earth from his Earthly Original and Enosh incurable from his corruption Is it not worthy to be admired that a God of infinite Glory should wait on such Adams worms of earth and be as it were a servant and attendant to such Enoshes sickly and peevish creatures 3. Consider who it is that is thus patient He it is that with one breath could turn Heaven and Earth and all the inhabitants of both into nothing That could by one Thunderbolt have razed up the Foundations of a cursed World He that wants not instruments without to ruine us that can arm our own Consciences against us and can drown us in our own Phlegm And by taking out one pin from our bodies cause the whole frame to fall asunder Besides 't is a God that while he suffers the sinner hates the sin more than all the Holy men upon Earth or Angels in Heaven can do So that his patience for a minute transcends the patience of all creatures from the Creation to the Dissolution of the World because it is the patience of a God infinitely more sensible of the cursed quality of sin and infinitely more detesting it 4. Consider how long he hath forborn his anger A reprieve for a Week or a Month is accounted a great favour in Civil States The Civil Law enacts * Cod. Lib. 9. Titul 47 6. 20. that if the Emperour commanded a man to be condemned the Execution was to be deferred 30 dayes because in that time the Princes anger might be appeased But how great a favour is it to be reprieved 30 years for many offences every one of which deserves death more at the hands of God than any offence can at the hands of man Paul was according to the common account but about 30 years Old at his Conversion and how much doth he elevate Divine long suffering Certainly there are many who have more reason as having larger quantities of patience cut out to them who have lived to see their own gray hairs in a rebellious posture against God before Grace brought them to a surrender We were all condemn'd in the Womb our Lives were forfeited the first moment of our breath but patience hath stopt the Arrest The merciful Creditor deserves to have acknowledgment from us who hath laid by his Bond so many years without putting it in suit against us Many of your companions in sin have perhaps been surprized long ago and haled to an Eternal Prison Nothing is remaining of them but their dust and the time is not yet come for your Funeral Let it be considered that that God that would not wait upon the fallen Angels one instant after their sin nor give them a moments space of Repentance hath prolonged the Life of many a sinner in the World to innumerable moments to 420000 minutes in the space of a Year to 8 Millions and 400000 Minutes in the space of 20 Years The damned in Hell would think it a great kindness to have but a Year's Month's nay Daye 's respite as a space to Repent in 5. Consider also how many have been taken away under shorter measures of patience Some have been struck into a Hell of misery while thou remainest upon an Earth of forbearance In a Plague the destroying Angel hath hew'd down others and past by us The Arrows have flew about our heads past over us and stuck in the heart of a neighbour How many Rich men How many of our Friends and Familiars have been seiz'd by death since the beginning of the year when they least thought of it and imagin'd it far from them Have you not known some of your acquaintance snatcht away in the height of a crime Was not the same wrath due to you as well as to them And had it not been as dreadful for you to be so surprized by him as it was for them Why should he take a less sturdy sinner out of thy company and let thee remain still upon the Earth If God had dealt so with you how had you been cut off not only from the enjoyment of this Life but the hopes of a better And if God hath made such a Providence beneficial for reclaiming you how much reason have you to acknowledge him He that hath had least patience hath cause to admire but those that have more ought to exceed others in blessing him for it If God had put an end to your natural Life before you had made provision for Eternal how deplorable would your condition have been Consider also who ever have been sinners formerly of a deeper note Might not God have struck a man in the embraces of his Harlots and choaked him in the moment of his excessive and intemperate healths or on the sudden have spurted Fire and Brimstone into a blasphemers mouth What if God had snatcht you away when you had been sleeping in some great iniquity or sent you while burning in lust to the fire it merited Might he not have crackt the string that linkt your souls to your
we can Pag. 123 124 They must not be of him in a corporeal shape Pag. 124 125 There will be in them a similitude of some corporeal thing in our Fancy Pag. 125 126 We ought to refine and spiritualize them Pag. 126 Right Conceptions of him a great help to Spiritual Worship Pag. 176 177 God Concurs to all the Action of his Creatures Pag. 529 His concurring to sinful actions no blemish to his Holiness Pag. 530 ad 533 Various Conditions of men a fruit of Divine Wisdom Pag. 356 Conditions of the Covenant v. Covenant Faith and Repentance Confession of sin men may have bad ends in it 93. Partial ones a practical denial of God's Omniscience Pag. 326 Conscience proves a Deity Pag. 33 ad 36 Fears and stings of it in all men upon the commission of sin Pag. 34 35 Though never so secret ibid. Cannot be totally shaken off Pag. 35 36 Comforts a man in well-doing Pag. 36 Necessary for the good of the world ibid. Terrified ones wish there were no God Pag. 52 53 Men naturally displeas'd with it when it contradicts the desires of self Pag. 71 72 Obey carnal self against the light of it Pag. 84 Accusations of it evidence God's Knowledge of all things Pag. 313 God and he only can speak peace to it when troubled Pag. 471 720 721 His Laws only reach it Pag. 724 725 756 757 Constancy in that which is good we should labour after and why Pag. 238 Nothing but an Infinite good can content the Soul Pag. 36 37 Vide Satisfaction and Soul Contingents all foreknown by God Vide Knowledge of God Contradictions cannot be made true by God Pag. 432 433 434 435 Yet this doth not overthrow God's Omnipotence ibid. 'T is an abuse of God's Power to endeavour to justifie them by it Pag. 483 Contrary qualities linkt together in the Creatures Pag. 22 351 Conversion carnal Self-love a great hindrance to it Pag. 82 There may be a conversion from sin which is not good Pag. 90 91 Men are Enemies to it Pag. 98 99 The necessity of it Pag. 100 The difficulty of it Pag. 101 God only can be the Author of it Pag. 102 655 The Wisdom of God appears in it in the Subjects Seasons and Manner of it Pag. 367 368 369 And his Power Pag. 467 ad 470 And his Holiness Pag. 516 And his Goodness Pag. 654 655 And his Soveraignty Pag. 730 ad 734 He could convert all Pag. 730 731 Not bound to convert any Pag. 732 733 The various means and occasions of it Pag. 747 748 Genuine Convictions would be promoted by right and strong Apprehensions of God's Holiness Pag. 552 553 Corruptions the Knowledge of God a a comfort under fears of them lurking in the heart Pag. 333 †The Power of God a comfort when they are strong and stirring Pag. 486 In God's People shall be subdued Pag. 770 The Remainders of them God orders for their good Pag. 362 ad 366 The Covenant of God with his People eternal 194. and unchangeable Pag. 234 235 God in Covenant an eternal good to his people Pag. 194 195 The Conditions of the Covenant of Grace evidence the Wisdom of God Pag. 388 Suited to mans lapsed state and Gods glory ibid. Opposite to that which was the cause of the Fall ibid. Suited to the common Sentiments and Customs of the World and Consciences of men Pag. 388 389 Only likely to attain the end ibid. Evidence Gods Holiness Pag. 515 516 The Wisdom of God made over to Believers in it Pag. 4â—5 And Power Pag. 485 And Holiness Pag. 552 †A Promise of Life implyed in the Covenant of Works Pag. 612 Why not exprest Pag. 614 615 The Goodness of God manifest in making a Covenant of Grace after Man had broken the first Pag. 629. In the naâ—â—◠〈…〉 â—oâ— of it Pag. 629 630 631 In the â—â—â—â—ice gift of himself made over â—n it Pag. 631 632 In its confirmation Pag. 632 Its Conditions easy reasonable necessary Pag. 533 534 535 536 It promises a more excellent Reward than the life in Paradise Pag. 642 643 Covetousness vide Riches and World Creation the Wisdom of God appears in it 347 ad 351. should be meditated upon 351. motives to it Pag. 417 ad 4â—0 His Power Pag. 439 ad 445 His Holiness Pag. 507 508 His Goodness Pag. 604 ad 615 Goodness the end and motive of it Pag. 592 593 Ascribed to Christ Pag. 472 ad 475 The Foundation of God's Dominion Pag. 707 708 Creatures evidence the Being of God 5 Pag. 14 ad 29 In their production Pag. 15 ad 21 In their harmony Pag. 21 ad 27 In pursuing their several ends Pag. 27 28 29 In their preservation Pag. 29 Were not and cannot be from Eternity Pag. 16 17 190 191 None of them can make themselves Pag. 17 18 19 Or the World Pag. 20 Subservient to one another Pag. 22 251 252 Regular uniform and constant in it Pag. 24 25 Are various Pag. 25 26 347 348 Have several Natures Pag. 27 All fight against the Atheist Pag. 42 God ought to be studied in them Pag. 45 All manifest something of God's perfections ibid. Setting them up as our end v. End Must not be worship'd v. Idolatry Used by man to a contrary end than God appointed Pag. 89 All are changeable Pag. 220 221 Therefore an immutable God to be preferred before them Pag. 237 Are nothing to God Pag. 264 Are all known by God Pag. 284 285 Shall be restored to their primitive end Pag. 205 206 207 644 645 Their beautiful order and situation Pag. 348 349 Are fitted for their several ends Pag. 349 350 None of them can be Omnipresent Pag. 251 252 Or Omnipotent Pag. 426 427 Or infinitely perfect Pag. 431 God could have made more than he hath Pag. 427 ad 430 Made them all more perfect than they are Pag. 430 Yet all are made in the best manner Pag. 431 The Power that is in them demonstrates a greater to be in God Pag. 436 Ordered by God as he pleases Pag. 455 The meanest of them can destroy us by God's order Pag. 491 768 Making different ranks of them doth not impeach God's Goodness Pag. 595 596 597 Cursed for the sin of man Pag. 609 643 What benefit they have by the Redemption of man Pag. 643 644 Cannot comfort us if God be angry Pag. 768 All subject to God Pag. 717 ad 721 All obey God Pag. 781 Curiosity in enquiries about God's Counsels Actions a great folly Pag. 192 193 'T is an injuring God's knowledge Pag. 323 'T is a contempt of Divine wisdom Pag. 404 Should not be employ'd about what God hath not reveal'd Pag. 414 The consideration of God's Soveraignty would check it Pag. 775 D. DAy how necessary Pag. 350 Death of Christ its value is from his Divine Nature Pag. 382 Vindicated the honour of the Law both as to precept penalty Pag. 383 Overturn'd the Devils Empire Pag. 385 He suffered to rescue us
Eternity a property of God and Christ Pag. 181 191 192 What it is Pag. 182 In what respects God is eternal Pag. 183 ad 186 That he is so proved 186 ad 190 God's incommunicable property Pag. 16 17 190 191 Dreadful to sinners Pag. 193 194 Comfortable to the Righteous Pag. 194 ad 197 The thoughts of it should abate our Pride Pag. 197 198 199 Take off our love and confidence from the World Pag. 199 200 We should provide for an happy Interest in it Pag. 200 201 Often meditate on it Pag. 201 Renders him worthy of our choicest Affections Pag. 201 202 And our best Service Pag. 202 Exaltation of Christ the Holiness of God appears in it Pag. 514 515 His Goodness to us as well as to Christ Pag. 624 And his Soveraignty Pag. 751 Examination of our selves before and after worship and wherein our duty Pag. 162 163 164 178 Experience of God's Goodness a Preservative against Atheism Pag. 45 46 Extremity then God usually delivers his Church Pag. 487 488 F. FAith the same thing may be the object of it and of Reason too Pag. 4 Must be exercised in Spiritual worship Pag. 146 147 The Wisdom Holiness Goodness of God in prescribing it as a Condition of the Covenant of Grace v. Covenant Must look back as far as the foundation promise Pag. 341 †Only the obedience flowing from it acceptable to God Pag. 336 Distinct but inseparable from Obedience Pag. 336 337 Foresight of it not the ground of Election Pag. 729 730 Fall of man God no way the Author of it Pag. 505 506 519 How great it is Pag. 546 547 Doth not impeach God's Goodness Pag. 594 595 'T is evident Pag. 670 671 Brought a Curse on the Creatures v. Creatures Falls of God's Children turned to their good Pag. 361 ad 369 Fear not the cause of the Belief of a God Pag. 14 Men that are under a slavish fear of him wish there were no God Pag. 53 54 Of Man a contempt of God's Power Pag. 481 482 Should be of God and not of the pride or force of man Pag. 491 492 God's Soveraignty should cause it Pag. 779 Features different in every man and how necessary it should be so Pag. 31 32 348 Fervency v. Activity Flesh the Legal Services so called Pag. 135 Fools wicked men are so Pag. 1 400 Folly sin is so v. Sin Forgetfulness of God men naturally are prone to it Pag. 97 Of his Mercies a great sin v. Mercies How attributed to God Pag. 283 Foreknowledge in God of sin no blemish to his Holiness Pag. 520 521 Vide Knowledge of God Future things men desirous to know them Pag. 323 Known by God v. Knowledge of God G. GAbriel on what Messages he was sent Pag. 468 Generation could not be from Eternity Pag. 16 17. Gifts God can bestow them on men Pag. 719 His Soveraignty seen in giving greater measures to one than another Pag. 738 Glory of all they do or have men are apt to ascribe to themselves Pag. 82 83 Of God little minded in many seemingly good actions Pag. 72 73 Men are more concern'd for their own reputation than God's glory Pag. 83 Should be aim'd at in Spiritual worship Pag. 153 God's permission of sin is in order to it Pag. 528 529 Sould be advanced by us Pag. 778 God his Existence known by the light of Nature Pag. 4 5 By the Creatures Pag. 5 14 ad 29 Miracles not wrought to prove it Pag. 5 Owned by the universal consent of all Nations Pag. 6 Never disputed of old Pag. 7 Denied by very few if any Pag. 8 Constantly owned in all changes of the world Pag. 9 Under anxieties of Conscience ib. The Devil not able to root out the belief of it Pag. 9 10 Natural and innate Pag. 10 Not introduced meerly by Tradition Pag. 11 Nor Policy Pag. 12 13 Nor Fear Pag. 14 Witnessed to by the very Nature of Man Pag. 29 ad 37 And by extraordinary Occurrencies Pag. 37 38 Impossible to demonstrate there is none Pag. 41. 42 Motives to endeavour to be setled in the belief of it Pag. 44 45 Directions Pag. 45 Men wish there were none and who they are Pag. 52 53 54 Two ways of describing him Negation and Affirmation Pag. 113 Is active and communicative Pag. 126 127 Propriety in him a great Blessedness Vide Covenant Infinitely happy Pag. 476 477 Good That which is materially so may be done and not formally Pag. 69 72 73 Good Actions cannot be perform'd before Conversion Pag. 100 The thoughts of Gods Presence a Spur to them Pag. 270 God only is so Pag. 578 579 Goodness pure and perfect the Royal Prerogative of God only Pag. 581 Own'd by all Nations Pag. 582 Inseparable from the Notion of God Pag. 582 583 What is meant by it Pag. 583 How distinguish'd from Mercy Pag. 584 Comprehends all his Attributes Pag. 585 Is so by his Essence Pag. 586 The Chief Pag. 587 'T is communicative Pag. 588 Necessary to him Pag. 589 Voluntary Pag. 590 Communicative with the greatest pleasure Pag. 591 The displaying of it the Motive and End of all his Works Pag. 592 Arguments to prove it a Property of God Pag. 593 594 Vindicated from the Objections made against it Pag. 594 ad 604 Appears in Creation Pag. 604 ad 615 In Redemption Pag. 615 ad 645 In his Government Pag. 645 ad 660 Frequently contemn'd and abus'd Pag. 660 661 The Abuse and Contempt of it base and disingenuous Pag. 661 662 Highly resented by God Pag. 662 How 't is contemn'd and abus'd Pag. 660 ad 670 Men justly punish'd for it Pag. 671 Fits him for the Government of the World and engages him actually to govern it Pag. 671 6 2 The ground of all Religion Pag. 673 674 Renders God amiable to himself Pag. 674 675 Should do so to us and why Pag. 675 ad 678 Renders him a fit object of Trust with Motives to it drawn hence Pag. 678 679 680 And worthy to be obey'd and honour'd Pag. 680 681 682 Comfortable to the Righteous and wherein Pag. 682 ad 685 Should engage us to endeavour after the enjoyment of him with Motives Pag. 685 686 Should be often meditated on and the Advantages of so doing Pag. 681 682 683 We should be thankful for it Pag. 690 And imitate it and wherein Pag. 691 692 Gospel Men greater Enemies to than to the Law Pag. 101 Its Excellency Pag. 103 334 Called Spirit Pag. 135 The only Means of establishment Pag. 333 Of an Eternal Resolution tho of a Temporary Revelation Pag. 334 Mysterious ibi◠The first Preachers of it Vide Apostles It s Antiquity Pag. 335 The Goodness of God in spreading it among the Gentiles ibid. Gives no encouragement to Licentiousness Pag. 336 The Wisdom of God in its Propagation Pag. 390 ad 395 And Power Pag. 461 ad 467 Vide Christian Religion Government of the World God could not manage it without Immutability Pag. 220 And Knowledge Pag. 314