Justice abus'd his Goodness done injury to all those Attributes which are necessary to his relief It was not so in Creation nothing was uncapable of disobliging God from bringing it into Being The Dust which was the Matter of Adams Body needâ—d only the extrinsick Power of God to form it into a Man and inspire it with a living Soul It had not render'd it self obnoxious to Divine Justice nor was capable to excite any disputes between his Perfections But after the entrance of Sin and the merit of Death thereby there was a resistance in Justice to the free Remission of Man God was to exercise a Power over himself to answer his Justice and pardon the Sinner as well as a power over the Creature to reduce the Run-away and Rebel Unless we have recourse to the Infiniteness of Gods Power the infiniteness of our Guilt will weigh us down We must consider not only that we have a mighty Guilt to press us but a mighty God to relieve us In the same act of his being our Righteousness he is our Strength In the Lord have I righteousness and strength Isai 45.24 2. In the sense of Pardon When the Soul hath been wounded with the sense of sin and its Iniquities have star'd it in the face the raising the Soul from a despairing condition and lifting it above those Waters which terrified it to cast the light of Comfort as well as the light of Grace into a heart covered with more than an Egyptian Darkness is an act of his Infinite and Creating Power Isai 57.19 I create the fruit of the lips peace Men may wear out their Lips with numbring up the Promises of Grace and Arguments of Peace but all will signifie no more without a Creative Power than if all Men and Angels should call to that White upon the Wall to shine as splendidly as the Sun God only can create Jerusalem and every Child of Jerusalem a rejoycing * Isai 65.18 A Man is no more able to apply to himself any word of Comfort under the sense of Sin than he is able to Convert himself and turn the proposals of the Word into gracious Affections in his heart To restore the joy of Salvation is in Davids Judgment an act of Soveraign Power equal to that of creating a clean heart Psal 51.10 12. Alas 't is a state like to that of Death as Infinite Power can only raise from Natural death so from a Spiritual death also from a Comfortless death In his favour there is life in the want of his Favour there is death The Power of God hath so placed Light in the Sun that all Creatures in the World all the Torches upon Earth kindled together cannot make it Day if that doth not rise so all the Angels in Heaven and Men upon Earth are not competent Chirurgions for a wounded Spirit The cure of our Spiritual Ulcers and the pouring in Balm is an Act of Soveraign Creative Power 'T is more visible in silencing a Tempestuous Conscience than the Power of our Saviour was in the stilling the stormy Winds and the roaring Waves As none but Infinite Power can remove the Guilt of Sin so none but Infinite Power can remove the Despairing sense of it III. This Power is evident in the preserving Grace As the Providence of God is a manifestation of his Power in a continued Creation so the preservation of Grace is a manifestation of his Power in a continued Regeneration To keep a Nation under the Yoke is an act of the same Power that subdu'd it 'T is this that strengthens Men in suffering against the Fury of Hell †Colos 1.13 't is this that keeps them from falling against the force of Hell the Fathers hand John 10.29 His strength abates and moderates the violence of Temptations his Staff sustains his People under them his Might defeats the Power of Satan and bruiseth him under a Believers feet The Counterworkings of Indwelling Corruption the reluctances of the Flesh against the breathings of the Spirit the fallacy of the Senses and the rovings of the Mind have ability quickly to stifle and extinguish Grace if it were not maintain'd by that Powerful blast that first inbreathed it No less Power is seen in perfecting it than was in planting it ‖ 2 Pet. 1.3 no less in fulfilling the work of Faith than in ingrafting the Word of Faith 2 Thess 1.11 The Apostle well understood the Necessity and Efficacy of it in the preservation of Faith as well as in the firâ—t infusion when he expresses himself in those terms of a Greatness or Hyperbole of Power his Mighty Power or the Power of his Might Ephes 1.19 The Salvation he bestows and the Strength whereby he effects it are joyned together in the Prophets Song Isai 12.2 The Lord is my strength and my salvation And indeed God doth more magnifie his Power in continuing a Believer in the World a weak and half-rigg'd Vessel in the midst of so many Sands whereon it might split so many Rocks whereon it might dash so many Corruptions within and so many Temptations without than if he did immediately transport him into Heaven and cloth him with a perfectly Sanctified Nature To Conclude What is there then in the World which is destitute of Notices of Divine Power Every Creature affords us the Lesson all acts of Divine Government are the marks of it Look into the Word and the manner of its propagation instructs us in it your Changed Natures your Pardoned Guilt your Shining Comfort your quell'd Corruptions the standing of your staggering Graces are sufficient to preserve a sense and prevent a forgetfulness of this great Attribute so necessary for your support and conducing so much to your comfort Vses I. Of Information and Instruction 1. If Incomprehensible and Infinite Power belongs to the Nature of God then Jesus Christ hath a Divine Nature because the Acts of Power proper to God are ascribed to him This Perfection of Omnipotence doth unquestionably pertain to the Deity and is an incommunicable Property and the same with the Essence of God He therefore to whom this Attribute is ascribed is essentially God This is challenged by Christ in conjunction with Eternity Revel 1.8 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty This the Lord Christ speaks of himself He who was equal with God proclaims himself by the Essential title of the Godhead part of which he repeats again verse 11. and this is the Person which walks in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks the Person that was dead and now lives vers 17 18. which cannot possibly be meant of the Father the first Person who can never come under that denomination of having been dead Being therefore adorn'd with the same Title he hath the same Deity and though his Omnipotence be only positively asserted v. 8. yet his Eternity being asserted v. 11 17. it inferreth
not by any impulsion God's Knowledge was not suspended between certainty and uncertainty He certainly foreknew that his Law would be broken by Adam he foreknew it in his own Decree of not hindering him by giving Adam the efficacious Grace which would inâ—allibly have prevented it yet Adam did freely break this Law and never imagin'd that the foreknowledge of God did necessitate him to it He could find no cause of his own sin but the liberty of his own will He charges the occasion of his sin upon the woman and consequently upon God in giving the woman to him * Gen. 3.12 He could not be so ignorant of the Nature of God as to imagine him without a foresight of future things since his knowledge of what was to be known of God by Creation was greater than any mans since in all probability But however if he were not acquainted with the Notion of God's foreknowledge he could not be ignorant of his own act there could not have been any necessity upon him any kind of constraint of him in his action that could have been unknown to him and he would not have omitted a Plea of so strong a nature when he was upon his Trial for Life or Death especially when he urgeth so weak an Argument to impute his Crime to God as the gift of the Woman as if that which was design'd him for a help were intended for his ruine If God's prescience takes away the liberty of the Creature there is no such thing as a free action in the World for there is nothing done but is foreknown by God else we render God of a limited understanding nor ever was no not by God himself ad extra For whatsoever he hath done in Creation whatsoever he hath done since the Creation was foreknown by him he resolved to do it and therefore foreknew that he would do it Did God do it therefore necessarily as necessity is oppos'd to liberty As he freely decrees what he will do so he effects what he freely decreed Foreknowledge is so far from intrenching upon the liberty of the will that predetermination which in the notion of it speaks something more doth not dissolve it God did not only foreknow but determine the suffering of Christ †Acts 4.27 28. It was necessary therefore that Christ should suffer that God might not be mistaken in his foreknowledge or come short of his determinate decree But did this take away the liberty of Christ in suffering Eph. 5.2 Who offered himself up to God that is by a voluntary act as well as design'd to do it by a determinate Counsel It did infallibly secure the event but did not annihilate the liberty of the Action either in Christ's willingness to suffer or the Crime of the Jews that made him suffer God's prescience is God's prevision of things arising from their proper Causes As a Gardiner foresees in his Plants the Leaves and the Flowers that will arise from them in the Spring because he knows the strength and nature of their several Roots which lye under ground but his foresight of these things is not the cause of the rise and appearance of those Flowers If any of us see a Ship moving towards such a Rock or Quick-sand and know it to be govern'd by a negligent Pilot we shall certainly foresee that the Ship will be torn in pieces by the Rock or swallowed up by the Sands but is this foresight of ours from the Causes any cause of the effect or can we from hence be said to be the Authours of the miscarriage of the Ship and the loss of the Passengers and Goods The fall of Adam was foreseen by God to come to pass by the consent of his Freewill in the choice of the proposed Temptation God foreknew Adam would sin and if Adam would not have sinned God would have foreknown that he would not sin Adam might easily have detected the Serpents fraud and made a better Election God foresaw that he would not do it God's foreknowledge did not make Adam guilty or innocent whether God had foreknown it or no he was guilty by a free choice and a willing neglect of his own Duty Adam knew that God foreknew that he might eat of the Fruit and fall and dye because God had forbidden him the foreknowledge that he would do it was no more a cause of his Action than the foreknowledge that he might do it Judas certainly knew that his Master foreknew that he should betray him for Christ had acquainted him with it John 13.21 26. yet he never charg'd this foreknowledge of Christ with any guilt of his Treachery 3. The third Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by decreeing the eternal Rejection of some men Reprobation in its first Notion is an act of preterition or passing by A man is not made wicked by the act of God but it supposeth him wicked and so 't is nothing else but God's leaving a man in that guilt and filth wherein he beholds him In its second Notion 't is an Ordination not to a Crime but to a Punishment Jude 4. An ordaining to Condemnation And though it be an eternal act of God yet in order of Nature it follows upon the foresight of the Transgression of Man and supposeth the Crime God considers Adam's Revolt and views the whole Mass of his corrupted Posterity and chuses some to reduce to himself by his Grace and leaves others to lye sinking in their Ruins Since all Mankind fell by the fall of Adam and have Corruption conveyed to them successively by that Root whereof they are Branches All men might justly be left wallowing in that miserable Condition to which they were reduced by the Apostacy of their Common Head and God might have pass'd by the whole Race of Man as well as he did the fallen Angels without any hope of Redemption He was no more bound to restore Man than to restore Devils nor bound to repair the Nature of any one Son of Adam and had he dealt with Men as he dealt with the Devils they had had all of them as little just ground to complain of God for all Men deserved to be left to themselves for all were concluded under sin But God calls out some to make Monuments of his Grace which is an act of the Soveraign Mercy of that Dominion whereby he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy Rom. 9.18 Others he passes by and leaves them remaining in that Corruption of Nature wherein they were born If men have a power to dispose of their own Goods without any unrighteousness why should not God dispose of his own Grace and bestow it upon whom he pleases since it is a Debt to none but a free guift to any that enjoy it * Amyral defence de Calv. p. 145. God is not the cause of sin in this because his operation about this is negative 't is not an action but a denial of action and therefore cannot be the
Will because there was a flaw contracted in that Nature that came right and true out of his hand And as he that winds up his disordered Watch is in the same manner the cause of its motion then as he was when it was regular yet by that act of his he is not the cause of the false motion of it but that is from the deficiency of some part of the Watch it self So though God concurs to that Action of the Creature whereby the Wickedness of the Heart is drawn out yet is not God therefore as Unholy as the Heart 5. God hath one End in his Concurrence and Man another in his Action So that there is a Righteous and often a gracious End in God when there is a base and unworthy End in Man God concurs to the substance of the Act Man produceth the circumstance of the Act whereby it is Evil. God orders both the Action wherein he concurs and the Sinfulness over which he presides as a Governour to his own Ends. In Josephs case Man was sinful and God merciful his Brethren acted Envy and God design'd Mercy Gen. 45.4 5. They would be rid of him as an Eyesore and God concurr'd with their Action to make him their Preserver Gen. 50.20 Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good God concur'd to Judas his action of betraying our Saviour he supported his Nature while he contracted with the Priests and supported his Members while he was their Guide to apprehend him God's end was the manifestation of his choicest love to Man and Judas his end was the gratification of his own Covetousness The Assyrian did a Divine Work against Hierusalem but not with a Divine end * Isa 10.5.6 â— He had a mind to enlarge his Empire enrich his Coffers with the Spoil and gain the Title of a Conqueror he is desirous to Invade his Neighbours and God employs him to punish his Rebels but he means not so nor doth his heart think so He intended not as God intended The Axe doth not think what the Carpenter intends to do with it But God used the rapine of an Ambitious Nature as an Instrument of his Justice As the exposing Malefactors to wild Beasts was an ancient Punishment whereby the Magistrate intended the execution of Justice and to that purpose used the natural fierceness of the Beasts to an end different from what those ravaging Creatures aim'd at God concur'd with Satan in spoiling Job of his Goods and scarifying his Body God gave Satan license to do it Job 1.12 21. and Job acknowledges it to be God's act But their ends were different God concurred with Satan for the clearing the Integrity of his Servant when Satan aim'd at nothing but the provoking him to Curse his Creator The Physician applies Leeches to suck the superfluous blood but the Leeches suck to glut themselves without any regard to the intention of the Physician and the welfare of the Patient In the same act where men intend to hurt God intends to correct so that his concurrence is in a holy manner while men commit unrighteous actions A Judge commands the Executioner to execute the Sentence of Death which he hath justly pronounced against a Malefactor and admonisheth him to do it out of love to Justice the Executioner hath the Authority of the Judge for his Commission and the protection of the Judge for his Security The Judge stands by to countenance and secure him in the doing of it but if the Executioner hath not the same intention as the Judge viz. a love to Justice in the performance of his Office but a private hatred to the Offender the Judge though he commanded the fact of the Executioner yet did not command this Error of his in it and though he protects him in the Fact yet he owns not this corrupt disposition in him in the doing of what was enjoyn'd him as any act of his own To Conclude this Since the Creature cannot act without God cannot lift up a Hand or move his Tongue without God's preserving and upholding the Faculty and preserving the power of Action and preserving every Member of the Body in its actual Motion and in every circumstance of its Motion we must necessarily suppose God to have such a way of concurrence as doth not intrench upon his Holiness We must not equal the Creature to God by denying its dependence on him Nor must we imagine such a concurrence to the sinfulness of an act as stains the Divine Purity which is I think sufficiently salv'd by distinguishing the matter of the act from the evil adhering to it For since all evil is founded in some good the evil is distinguishable from the good and the deformity of the action from the action it self which as it is a created act hath a dependance on the will and influence of God And as it is a sinful act is the product of the will of the Creature 6. Proposition The holiness of God is not blemisht by proposing Objects to a man which he makes use of to sin There is no Object propos'd to man but is directed by the Providence of God which influenceth all motions in the World and there is no Object propos'd to man but his active Nature may according to the goodness or badness of his disposition make a good or an ill use of That two men one of a charitable the other of a hard-hearted disposition meet with an indigent and necessitous Object is from the Providence of God yet this indigent person is relieved by the one and neglected by the other There could be no action in the World but about some Object there could be no Object offer'd to us but by Divine Providence the active Nature of man would be in vain if there were not Objects about which it might be exercis'd Nothing could present it self to man as an Object either to excite his Grace or awaken his Corruption but by the conduct of the Governour of the World That David should walk upon the Battlements of his Palace and Bathsheba be in the Bath at the same time was from the Divine Providence which orders all the affairs of the World * 2 Sam. 117. and so some understand Jer. 6.21 Thus saith the Lord I will lay stumbling blocks before this People and the Fathers and Sons together shall fall upon them Since they have offered Sacrifices without those due qualifications in their hearts which were necessary to render them acceptable to me I will lay in their way such Objects which their Corruption will use ill to their further sin and ruin so Psal 105.25 He turned their heart to hate his people that is by the multiplying his People he gave occasion to the Egyptians of hating them instead of caressing them as they had formerly done But God's Holiness is not blemisht by this for 1. This proposing or presenting of Objects invades not the liberty of any man The Tree of the Knowledge of Good
meltings flights In the highest raptures the body is most insensible Strong Spiritual affections are abstracted from outward sense 6. Spiritual worship is performed with acting Spiritual habits When all the living springs of Grace are opened as the Fountains of the deep were in the deluge the Soul and all that is within it all the Spiritual impresses of God upon it erect themselves to bless his holy name * Psa 103.1 This is necessary to make a worship Spiritual As natural agents are determined to act sutable to their proper nature So rational agents are to act conformable to a rational being When there is a conformity between the act and the nature whence it flows t is a good act in its kind if it be rational t is a good rational act because sutable to its principle As a Man endowed with reason must act sutable to that endowment and exercise his reason in his acting So a Christian endued with Grace must act sutable to that nature and exercise his Grace in his acting Acts done by a natural inclination are no more human acts than the natural acts of a beast may be said to be human Tho they are the acts of a Man as he is the efficient cause of them yet they are not human acts because they arise not from that principle of Reason which denominates him a man So acts of worship performed by a bare exercise of reason are not Christian and Spiritual acts because they come not from the principle which constitutes him a Christian Reason is not the principle for then all rational Creatures would be Christians They ought therefore to be acts of a higher principle Exercises of that Grace whereby Christians are what they are Not but that rational acts in worship are due to God for worship is due from us as men and we are setled in that rank of being by our reason Grace doth not exclude reason but ennobles it and calls it up to another form But we must not rest in a bare rational worship but exert that principle whereby we are Christians To worship God with our reason is to worship him as Men To worship God with our grace is to worship him as Christians and so Spiritually But to worship him only with our bodies is no better than Brutes Our desires of the word are to issue from the regenerate principle 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word It seems to be not a comparison but a restriction All worship must have the same spring and be the exercise of that principle otherwise we can have no Communion with God Friends that have the same habitual dispositions have a fundamental fitness for an agreeable converse with one another but if the temper wherein their likeness consists be languishing and the string out of tune there is not an actual fitness and the present indisposition breaks the converse and renders the Company troublesome Tho we may have the habitual graces which compose in us a resemblance to God yet for want of acting those sutable dispositions we render our selves unfit for his converse and make the worship which is fundamentally Spiritual to become actually carnal As the Will cannot naturally act to any object but by the exercise of its affections So the heart cannot Spiritually act towards God but by the exercise of graces This is Gods Musick Eph. 5.19 Singing and making melody to God in your hearts Singing and all other acts of worship are outward but the Spiritual melody is by grace in the heart Col. 3.16 This renders it a Spiritual worship for it is an effect of the fulness of the Spirit in the Soul as v. 19. But be filled with the Spirit The overflowing of the Spirit in the heart setting the Soul of a beliver thus on work to make a Spiritual melody to God shews that something higher than bare reason is put in tune in the heart Then is the fruit of the Garden pleasant to Christ when the holy Spirit the North and South wind blow upon the spices and strike out the fragrancy of them * Cant. 4.16 Since God is the Author of graces and bestows them to have a glory from them they are best employed about him and his service T is fit he should have the Cream of his own gifts Without the exercise of grace we perform but a work of nature and offer him a few dry bones without marrow The whole set of graces must be one way or other exercised If any treble be wanting in a Lute there will be a great defect in the Musick If any one Spiritual string be dull the Spiritual harmony of worship will be spoiled And therefore 1. First Faith must be acted in worship A confidence in God A natural worship cannot be performed without a natural confidence in the goodness of God Whosoever comes to him must regard him as a Rewarder and a faithful Creator * Heb. 11.6 A Spiritual worship cannot be performed without an Evangelical confidence in him as a gracious Redeemer To think him a Tyrant meditating revenge damps the Soul to regard him as a gracious King full of tender bowels Spirits the affections to him The mercy of God is the proper object of trust Psal 33.18 The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy The worship of God in the old Testament is most described by fear In the new Testamen by faith Fear or the worship of God and hope in his mercy are linkt together when they go hand in hand the accepting eye of God is upon us When we do not trust we do not worship * Zeph. 3.2 Those of Judah had the Temple worship among them especially in Josiah's time Zeph. 3.2 the time of that Prophecy yet it was accounted no worship because no trust in the Worshippers Interest in God cannot be improved without an exercise of Faith The Gospel worship is prophecied of to be a confidence in God as in a Husband more than in a Lord Hos 2.16 Thou shalt call me Ishi and shalt call me no more Baali Thou shalt call me that is thou shalt worship me Worship being often comprehended under Invocation More confidence is to be exercised in a Husband or Father than in a Lord or Master If a Man have not Faith he is without Christ and though a Man be in Christ by the habit of Faith â—e performs a duty out of Christ without an act of Faith Without the habit of Faith our persons are out of Christ and without the exercise of Faith the duties are out of Christ As the want of Faith in a person is the death of the Soul so the want of Faith in a Service is the death of the Offering Though a man were at the cost of an Ox yet to kill it without bringing it to the door of the Tabernacle was not a Sacrifice but a Murder * Levit. 17.3 4. The Tabernacle
a good Concoction when there is a greater strength in the vitals of Religion a more eager desire to know God When Moses had been praying to God and prevailed with him he puts up a higher request to behold his Glory * Exod. 33.13 18. When the appetite stands strong to fuller discoveries of God it is a sign there hath been a spiritual converse with him 2. How is it especially as to humility The Pharisees worship was without dispute carnal and we find them not more humble after all their devotions but over-grown with more weeds of spiritual pride they performed them as their righteousness What men dare plead before God in his day they plead before him in their hearts in their day but this men will do at the day of Judgement we have prophesied in thy Name c. Mat. 7.21 They shew what tincture their services left upon their Spirits That which excludes them from any acceptation at the last day excludes them from any estimation of being spiritual in this day The carnal Worshippers charge God with Injustice in not rewarding them and claim an acceptation as a compensation due to them Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge A spiritual Worshipper looks upon his duties with shame as well as he doth upon his sins with confusion and implores the mercy of God for the one as well as the other In the 143 Psalm v. 2. the Prophet David after his supplications begs of God not to enter into Judgment with him and acknowledges any answer that God should give him as a fruit of his faithfulness to his promise and not the merit of his worship * Psal 143.2 In thy Faithfulness answer me c. Whatsoever springs from a gracious Principle and is the breath of the Spirit leaves a man more humble whereas that which proceeds from a stock of nature hath the true blood of nature running in the veins of it viz. that pride which is naturally derived from Acam The breathing of the Divine Spirit is in every thing to conform us to our Redeemer that being the main work of his Office is his work in every particular Christian-act influenced by him Now Jesus Christ in all his actions was an exact Pattern of Humility After the institution and celebration of the Supper a special act of worship in the Church though he had a sense of all the Authority his Father had given him yet he humbles himself to wash his Disciples feet * John 13.2 3 4 And after his sublime Prayer John 17. He humbles himself to the death and offers himself to his Murderers because of his Fathers pleasure John 18.1 When he had spoken those words he wâ—nt over the Brook Kedron into the Garden What is the end of God in appointing worship is the end of a spiritual heart in offering it not his own exaltation but Gods glory Glorifying the name of God is the fruit of that Evangelical-worship the Gentiles were in time to give to God Psal 86.9 All Nations which thou hast made shall come and worship before thee oh Lord and shall glorifie thy Name Let us examin then what debasing our selves there is in a sense of our own vileness and distance from so glorious a Spirit Self-denial is the heart of all Gospel-grace Evangelical Spiritual-worship cannot be without the ingredient of the main Evangelical Principle 3. What delight is there after it What pleasure is there and what is the Object of that pleasure Is it Communion the we have had with God or a Fluency in our selves Is it something which hath touched our hearts or tickled our fancies As the strength of sin is known by the delightful thoughts of it after the commission so is the spirituality of duty by the object of our delightful remembrance after the performance It was a sign David was spiritual in the worship of God in the Tabernacle when he enjoyed it because he longed for the spiritual part of it when he was exil'd from it His desires were not only for Liberty to revisit the Tabernacle but to see the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary as he had seen it before * Psal 63.2 His desires for it could not have been so ardent if his reflection upon what had past had not been delightful nor could his Soul be poured out in him for the want of such opportunities if the remembrance of the converse he had had with God had not been accompanied with a delightful relish * Psal 42.4 Let us examin what delight we find in our spirits after worship Vse 3. Is of comfort And 't is very comfortable to consider that the smallest worship with the Heart and Spirit flowing from a principle of grace is more acceptable than the most pompous veneration yea if the oblation were as precious as the whole Circuit of Heaven and Earth without it That God that values a Cup of Cold water given to any as his Disciple will value a sincere service above a costly Sacrifice God hath his eye upon them that honour his nature He would not seek such to worship him if he did not intend to accept such a worship from them When we therefore invoke him and praise him which are the prime parts of Religion he will receive it as a sweet favour from us and overlook infirmities mixed with the graces The great matter of discomfort and that which makes us question the spirituality of worship is the many starts of our Spirits and rovings to other things For answer to which 1. 'T is to be confest that these starts are natural to us Who is free from them We bear in our own bosoms a nest of turbulent thoughts which like busie Gnatts will be buzzing about us while we are in our most inward and spiritual converses Many wild beasts lurk in a mans heart as in a close and covert wood and scarce discover themselves but at our solemn worship No duty so holy No worship so spiritual that can wholly priviledge us from them They will jogg us in our most weighty employments that as God said to Cain sin lyes at the door and enters in and makes a riot in our Souls As it is said of wicked men they cannot sleep for multitude of thoughts * Eccles 5.12 so it may be of many a good man he cannot worship for multitude of thoughts There will be starts and more in our Religious than natural imployments 't is natural to man Some therefore think the Bells tied to Aarons Garments between the Pomegranates were to warn the People and recall their fugitive minds to the present service when they heard the sound of them upon the least motion of the High priest The Sacrifice of Abraham the Father of the Faithful was not exempt from the Fouls pecking at it * Gen. 15.11 Zechariah himself was drowsie in the midst of his Visions which being more amazing might cause a heavenly intentness*
Zech. 4.1 The Angel that talked with me came again and awaked me as a man is awaked out of sleep He had been rouzed up before but he was ready to drop down again his heart was gone till the Angel jogged him We may complain of such imaginations as Jerem. doth of the Enemies of the Jews * Lam. 4.19 Our Persecutors are swifter than Eagles they light upon us with as much speed as Eagles upon a Carcass they pursue us upon the Mountain of Divine institutions and they lay wait for us in the Wilderness in our retired addresses to God And this will be so while 1. There is natural corruption in us There are in a Godly man two contrary principles Flesh and Spirit which endeavour to hinder one anothers acts and are alway stirring upon the offensive or defensive part * Gal. 5.17 There is a body of death continually exhaling its noysom vapours 'T is a body of death in our worship as well as in our natures it snaps our resolutions asunder * Rom. 7.19 it hinders us in the doing good and contradicts our wills in the stirring up evil This corruption being seated in all the faculties and a constant Domestick in them has the greater opportunity to trouble us since it is by those faculties that we spiritually transact with God and it stirs more in the time of religious exercises though it be in part mortified As a wounded Beast though tired will rage and strive to its utmost when the Enemy is about to fetch a blow at it All duties of worship tend to the wounding of corruption and it is no wonder to feel the striving of sin to defend it self and offend us when we have our Arms in our hands to mortifie it that the blow may be diverted which is directed against it The Apostles had aspiring thoughts and being perswaded of an earthly Kingdom expected a Grandeur in it And though we find some appearance of it at other times as when they were casting out Devils and gave an account of it to their Master he gives them a kind of a check * Luke 10.20 intimating that there was some kind of evil in their rejoycing upon that account Yet this never swelled so high as to break out into a quarrel who should be greatest * Luke 22.24 until they had the most solemn Ordinance the Lords Supper to quell it* Our corruption is like Lime which discovers not its fire by any smoke or heat till you cast water the Enemy of fire upon it Neither doth our natural corruption rage so much as when we are using means to quench and destroy it 2. While there is a Devil and we in his Precinct As he accuseth us to God so he disturbs us in our selves He is a bold Spirit and loves to intrude himself when we are conversing with God We read that when the Angels presented themselves before God Satan comes among them * Job 1.6 Motions from Satan will thrust themselves in with our most raised and Angelical frames He loves to take off the edge of our Spirits from God He acts but after the old rate He from the first envied God an obedience from man and envied man the felicity of communion with God He is unwilling God should have the honour of worship and that we should have the fruit of it He hath himself lost it and therefore is unwilling we should enjoy it and being subtil he knows how to make impressions upon us sutable to our inbred corruptions and assault us in the weakest part He knows all the avenues to get within us as he did in the temptation of Eve and being a Spirit he wants not a power to dart them immediatly upon our fancy And being a Spirit and therefore active and nimble he can shoot those darts faster than our weakness can beat them off He is diligent also and watcheth for his Prey and seeks to devour our services as well as our Souls and snatch our best morsels from us We know he mixed himself with our Saviours retirements in the Wilderness and endeavoured to Fly-blow his holy converse with his Father in the preparation to his mediatory work Satan is Gods Ape and imitates the Spirit in the Office of a Remembrancer As the Spirit brings good thoughts and divine promises to mind to quicken our worship so the Devil brings evil things to mind and endeavours to fasten them in our Souls to disturb us And though all the foolish starts we have in worship are not purely his issue yet being of kin to him he claps his hands and sets them on like so many Mastives to tear the service in pieces And both those distractions which arise from our own corruption and from Satan are most rise in worship when we are under some pressing affliction This seems to be David's Case Psal 86. when in v. 11. He prays God to unite his heart to fear and worship his Name he seems to be under some affliction or fear of his Enemies Oh free me from those distractions of Spirit and those passions which arise in my Soul upon considering the designs of my enemies against me and press upon me in my addresses to thee and attendances on thee Job also in his affliction complains Job 17.11 That his purposes were broken off He could not make an even thread of thoughts and resolutions they were frequently snapt saunder like rotten Yarn when one is winding it up Good Men and spiritual Worshippers have lain under this trouble Though they are a sign of weakness of grace or some obstructions in the acting of strong grace yet they are not alway evidences of a want of grace What ariseth from our own corruption is to be matter of humiliation and resistance what ariseth from Satan should edge our minds to a noble conquest of them If the Apostle did comfort himself with his disapproving of what rose from the natural spring of sin within him with his consent to the Law and dissent from his Lust and charges it not upon himself but upon the sin that dwelt in him with which he had broken off the former League and was resolved never to enter into Amity with it By the same reason we may comfort our selves if such thoughts are undelighted in and alienate not our hearts from the worship of God by all their busie intrusions to interrupt us 2. These distractions not allowed may be occasions by an holy improvement to make our hearts more spiritual after worship though they disturb us in it By answering those ends for which we may suppose God permits them to invade us And that is 1. When they are occasions to humble us 1. For our carriage in the particular worship There is nothing so dangerous as spiritual pride It deprived Devils and Men of the presence of God and will hinder us of the influence of God If we had had raised and uninterrupted motions in worship we should be apt to be lifted
should withdraw his Power from preserving them which he exerted in creating them But God is immoveably fixed in his own Being that as none gave him his Life so none can deprive him of his Life or the least particle of it not a jot of the happiness and life which God infinitely possesses can be lost It will be as durable to everlasting as it hath been possessed from everlasting 3. There is no succession in God God is without succession or change 'T is a part of Eternity From everlasting to everlasting he is God i. e. the same God doth not only always remain in Being but he always remains the same in that Being * Psal 102.27 Thou art the same The Being of Creatures is successive the Being of God is permanent and remains intire with all its perfections unchanged in an infinite duration Indeed the first notion of Eternity is to be without beginning and end which notes to us the duration of a Being in regard of its Existence but to have no succession nothing first or last notes rather the perfection of a Being in regard of its Essence The Creatures are in a perpetual Flux something is acquired or something lost every day A Man is the same in regard of Existence when he is a Man as he was when he was a Child but there is a new succession of quantities and qualities in him every day he acquires something till he comes to his maturity every day he loseth something till he comes to his Period A Man is not the same at night that he was in the morning something is expir'd and something is added every day there is a change in his age a change in his substance a change in his accidents But God hath his whole Being in one and the same point or moment of Eternity He receives nothing as an Addition to what he was before He looseth nothing of what he was before He is always the same excellency and perfection in the same infiniteness as ever His years do not fail * Heb. 1.12 his years do not come and go as others do there is not this day to morrow or yesterday with him As nothing is past or future with him in regard of Knowledge but all things are present so nothing is past or future in regard of his Essence He is not in his Essence this day what he was not before or will be the next day and year what he is not now * Lessius de perfect divin lib. 4. cap. 1. All his perfections are most perfect in him every moment before all ages after all ages As he hath his whole Essence undivided in every place as well as in an immense space so he hath all his Being in one moment of time as well as in infinite intervalls of time * Gamacheus in Aquin. part 1. Qu. 10. cap. 1. Some illustrate the difference between Eternity and Time by the similitude of a Tree or a Rock standing upon the side of a River or Shoar of the Sea the Tree stands always the same and unmoved while the waters of the River glide along at the foot The Flux is in the River but the Tree acquires nothing but a diverse respect and relation of presence to the various parts of the River as they flow The waters of the River press on and push forward one another and what the River had this minute it hath not the same the next So are all sublunary things in a continual Flux And though the Angels have no substantial change yet they have an accidental for the actions of the Angels this day are not the same individual actions which they performed yesterday But in God there is no change He always remains the same * Gassend Tom. 1. Physic § 1. l. 2. c. 7. p. 223. Of a Creature it may be said he was or he is or he shall be Of God it cannot be said but only he is He is what he always was and he is what he always will be whereas a Creature is what he was not and will be what he is not now As it may be said of the flame of a Candle 't is flame but it is not the same individual flame as was before nor is it the same that will be presently after there is a continual dissolution of it into Air and a continual supply for the generation of more While it continues it may be said there is a flame yet not intirely one but in a succession of parts So of a Man it may be said he is in a succession of parts but he is not the same that he was and will not be the same that he is But God is the same without any succession of parts and of time of him it may be said He is He is no more now than he was and he shall be no more hereafter than he is * Daille Melange de Sermon p. 252. God possesses a firm and absolute Being always constant to himself He sees all things sliding under him in a continual variation He beholds the revolutions in the world without any change of his most glorious and immoveable nature All other things pass from one state to another from their Original to their Eclipse and destruction But God possesses his Being in one indivisible point having neither beginning end nor middle 1. There is no succession in the Knowledge of God The variety of successions and changes in the world make not succession or new Objects in the Divine Mind for all things are present to him from Eternity in regard of his Knowledge though they are not actually present in the world in regard of their Existence He doth not know one thing now and another anon He sees all things at once known unto God are all things from the beginning of the world * Acts 15.18 But in their true order of succession as they lye in the eternal Council of God to be brought forth in time Though there be a succession and order of things as they are wrought yet there is no succession in God in regard of his knowledge of them God knows the things that shall be wrought and the order of them in their being brought upon the Stage of the World yet both the things and the order he knows by one act Though all things be present with God yet they are present in him in the order of their appearance in the world and not so present with him as if they should be wrought at once The Death of Christ was to precede his Resurrection in order of time there is a succession in this both at once are known by God yet the act of his knowledge is not exercised about Christ as dying and rising at the same time so that there is succession in things when there is no succession in Gods knowledge of them Since God knows time he knows all things as they are in time He doth not know all things to be at once though
of mens Wills whereby many of his Predictions were fulfilled and some remain yet to be accomplisht 2. God foreknows the voluntary sinful motions of mens Wills 1. God hath foretold several of them Were not all the minute sinful circumstances about the Death of our Blessed Redeemer as the piercing him giving him Gall to Drink foretold as well as the not breaking his Bones and parting his Garments What were those but the free actions of men which they did willingly without any constraint And those foretold by David Isaiah and other Prophets some above a thousand some eight hundred and some more some fewer years before they came to pass and the events punctually answered the Prophecies Many sinful acts of men which depended upon their Free-Will have been foretold The Epygtians voluntary oppressing Israel Gen. 15.13 Pharaoh's hardening his heart against the Voice of Moses Exod. 3.19 That Isaiah's Message would be in vain to the People Isa 6.9 that the Israelites would be rebellious after Moses his Death and turn Idolaters Deut. 31.16 Judas his betraying of our Saviour a voluntary action John 6. ult he was not forced to do what he did for he had some kind of Repentance for it and not violence but voluntariness falls under repentance 2. His Truth hath depended upon this fore-sight Let us consider that in Gen. 5.16 but the fourth Generation they shall come hither again that is the Posterity of Abraham shall come into Canaan for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full Vid Rivet in loc exerci 86. p. 329. God makes a Promise to Abraham of giving his Posterity the Land of Canaan not presently but in the fourth Generation if the Truth of God be infallible in the performance of his Promise his Understanding is as infallible in the foresight of the Amorites sin the fulness of their iniquity was to precede the Israelites Possession Did the Truth of God depend upon an uncertainty did he make the Promise hand over head as we say How could he with any Wisdom and Truth assure Israel of the Possession of the Land in the fourth Generation if he had not been sure that the Amorites would fill up the measure of their Iniquities by that time If Abraham had been a Socinian to deny Gods Knowledg of the free acts of men had he not had a fine excuse for unbelief What would his reply have been to God Alas Lord this is not a Promise to be relied upon the Amorites iniquity depends upon the acts of their Free-Will and such thou canst have no Knowledg of thou canst see no more than a likelihood of their iniquity being full and therefore there is but a likelihood of thy performing thy Promise and not a certainty Would not this be judged not only a sawcy but a Blasphemous Answer And upon these Principles the Truth of the most faithful God had been dasht to uncertainty and a peradventure 3. God provided a remedy for mans Sin and therefore foresaw the entrance of it into the World by the fall of Adam He had a Decree before the Foundation of the World to manifest his Wisdom in the Gospel by Jesus Christ an Eternal purpose in Jesus Christ Eph. 3.11 and a Decree of Election past before the foundation of the World a separation of some to redemption and forgiveness of Sin in the Blood of Christ in whom they were from Eternity chosen as well as in time accepted in Christ Eph. 1.4 6 7. which is called a purpose in himself v. 9. had not Sin entred there had been no occasion for the Death of the Son of God it being every where in Scripture laid upon that score a Decree for the shedding of Blood supposed a Decree for the Permission of Sin and a certain foreknowledg of God that it would be committed by man An uncertainty of foreknowledg and a sixedness of purpose are not consistent in a wise man much less in the only Wise God Gods purpose to manifest his Wisdom to men and Angels in this way might have been defeated had God had only a conjectural foreknowledg of the fall of man and all those solemn purposes of displaying his Perfections in those methods had been to no purpose Mares cont Volkel lib. 1. cap 24. p. 343. the Provision of a remedy suppos'd a certainty of the Disease If a Sparrow fall not to the ground without the Will of God how much less could such a Deplorable ruine fall upon mankind without Gods Will permitting it and his Knowledg foreseeing it 'T is not hard to conceive how God might foreknow it Amyrald de Praedestin cap. 6. he indeed decreed to Create man in an excellent State the goodness of God could not but furnish him with a Power to stand yet in his Wisdom he might foresee that the Devil would be envious to mans happiness and would out of Envy attempt his subversion As God knew of what temper the faculties were he had endued man with and how far they were able to endure the assaults of a Temptation so he also foreknew the grand subtilty of Satan how he would lay his Mine and to what Point he would drive his Temptation how he would propose and manage it and direct his Battery against the sensitive appetite and assault the weakest part of the Fort might he not foresee that the efficacy of the Temptation would exceed the measure of the resistance cannot God know how far the malice of Satan would extend what Shots he would according to his nature use how high he would charge his Temptation without his powerful restraint as well as an Engineer judg how many shots of a Cannon will make a breach in a Town and how many Casks of Powder will blow up a Fortress who never yet built the one nor founded the other We may easily conclude God could not be deceived in the Judgment of the issue and event since he knew how far he would let Satan loose how far he would permit man to act and since he dives to the bottom of the nature of all things he foresaw that Adam was endued with an ability to stand as he foresaw that Benhadad might naturally recover of his Disease but he foresaw also that Adam would sink under the allurements of the Temptation as he foresaw that Hazael would not let Benhadad live 2 Kings 8.10 Now since the whole race of mankind lies in Corruption and is subject to the power of the Devil 1 John 3.18 may not God that knows that corruption in every mans nature and the force of every mans spirit and what every particular nature will encline him to upon such objects proposed to him and what the reasons of the Temptation will be know also the issues is there any difficulty in Gods foreknowing this since man knowing the nature of one he is well acquainted with can conclude what sentiments he will have and how he will behave himself upon presenting this or that object to him If a
as considered in the Gospel Covenant his Power as well as his other Perfections are ingredients in that Cordial of Gods being our God We should never think of the Excellency of the Divine Nature without considering the Duties they demand and gathering the Hony they present 2. Obs The stability of a gracious Soul depends vpon the Wisdom as well as the Power of God It would be a disrepute to the Almightiness of God if that should be totally vanquish'd which was introduc'd by his Mighty Arm and rooted in the Soul by an irresistible Grace It would speak a want of Streng h to maintain it or a change of Resolution and so would be no honour to the Wisdom of his first design 'T is no part of the wisdom of an Artificer to let a work wherein he determin'd to shew the greatness of his Skâ—ll to be dash'd in pieces when he hath power to preserve it God design'd every gracious Soul for a piece of his workmanship * Eph. 2.10 What to have the Skill of his Grace defeated If any Soul which he hath graciously conquer'd should be wrested from him what could be thought but that his Power is enfeebled If deserted by him what could be imagin'd but that he repented of his labour and alter'd his Counsel as if rashly undertaken These Romans were rugged Pieces and lay in a filthy quarry when God came first to smooth them for so the Apostle represents them with the rest of the Heathen Rom. 1.19 and would he throw them away or leave them to the power of his Enemy after all his pains he had taken with them to fit them for his Building Did he not foresee the designs of Satan against them what stratagems he would use to defeat his Purposes strip him of the honour of his work and would God so gratifie his Enemy and disgrace his own Wisdom The deserting of what hath been acted is a real Repentance and argues an Imprudence in the first resolve and attempt The Gospel is called the Manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 the fruiâ— of it in the heart of any Person which is a main design of it hath a Title to the same Character and shall this Grace which is the product of this Gospel and therefore the birth of Manifold Wisdom be supprest 'T is at Gods hand we must seek our fixedness and establishment and act Faith upon these two Attributes of God Power is no ground to expect stability without Wisdom interesting the Agent in it and finding out and applying the Means for it Wisdom is naked without Power to act and Power is useless without Wisdom to direct They are these two Excellencies of the Deity the Apostle here pitches the Hope and Faith of the Converted Romans upon for their stability 3. Obs Perseverance of Believers in Grace is a Gospel Doctrine According to my Gospel My Gospel Ministerially according to that Gospel Doctrine I have taught you in this Epistle for as the Prophets were Comments upon the Law so are the Epistles upon the Gospel This very Doctrine he had discours'd of Rom. 8.38 39. where he tells them that neither death nor life the Terrors of a cruel death or the Allurements of an honourable and pleasant life nor Principalities and Powers with all their subtilty and strength not the things we have before us nor the Promises of a future felicity by either Angels in Heaven or Devils in Hell not the highest Angel nor the deepest Devil is able to separate us us Romans from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus So that According to my Gospel may be according to that Declaration of the Gospel which I have made in this Epistle which doth not only promise the first creating Grace but the perfecting and crowning Grace for not only the being of Grace but the health liveliness and perpetuity of Grace is the fruit of the New Covenant Jer. 32.40 4. Observe That the Gospel is the sole Means of a Christians Establishment According To my Gospel that is By my Gospel The Gospel is the Instrumental cause of our Spiritual life 't is the cause also of the Continuance of it 't is the Seed whereby we were born and the Milk whereby we are nourish'd †1 Pet. 1.23 't is the Power of God to salvation ‖ 1 Pet. 2.2 and therâ—fore to all the degrees of it John 17.17 Sanctifie them by thy Truth or through thy Truth by or through his Truth he sanctifies us and by the same Truth he establisheth us The first Sanctification and the progress of it the first lineaments and the last colours are wrought by the Gospel The Gospel therefore ought to be known studied and considered by us 'T is the Charter of our Inheritance and the security for our standing The Law acquaints us with our Duty but contributes nothing to our strength and settlement 5. Observe The Gospel is nothing else but the Revelation of Christ Verse 25. According to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ The discovery of the Mystery of Redemption and Salvation in and by him 'T is Genitivus objecti that Preaching wherein Christ is declared and set out with the Benefits accruing by him This is the priviledge the Wisdom oâ— God reserved for the latter Times which the Old Testament-Church had only under a Vail 6. 'T is a part of the Excellency of the Gospel that it had the Son of God for its Publisher The Preaching of Jesus Christ It was first preached to Adam in Paradise by God and afterwards publish'd by Christ in Person to the Inhabitants of Judea It was not the Invention of Man but Copied from the bosom of the Father by him that lay in his Bosom The Gospel we have is the same which our Saviour himself preached when he was in the World He preached it not to the Romans but the same Gospel he preached is transmitted to the Romans It therefore Commands our respect who ever slights it 't is as much as if he slighted Jesus Christ himself were he in Person to sound it from his own Lips The validity of a Proclamation is derived from the Authority of the Prince that dictates it and orders it yet the greater the Person that publisheth it the more dishonour is cast upon the Authority of the Prince that enjoyns it if it be contemn'd The Everlasting God ordain'd it and the Eternal Son publish'd it 7. The Gospel was of an Eternal Resolution though of a temporary Revelation Verse 25. According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began 'T is an Everlasting Gospel It was a Promise before the world began Tit. 1.2 It was not a new Invention but only kept secret among the Arcana in the Breast of the Almighty It was hidden from Angels for the depths of it are not yet fully made known to them their desire to look into it speaks yet a deficiency in their Knowledge of it * 1
the wisdom of God Christ is the wisdom of God principally and the Gospel instrumentally as it is the power of God instrumentally to subdue the heart to himself This is wrapped up in the appointing Christ as Redeemer and open'd to us in the revelation of it by the Gospel 1. It is a hidden wisdom In this regard God is said in the Text to be only wise and it is said to be a hidden wisdom 1 Tim. 1.17 and wisdom in a mystery 1 Cor. 2.7 incomprehensible to the ordinary Capacity of an Angel more than the abstruse qualities of the Creatures are to the understanding of man No wisdom of Men or Angels is able to search all the Veins of this Mine to tell all the threds of this Web or to understand the lustre of it they are as far from an ability fully to comprehend it as they were at first to contrive it That wisdom that invented it can only comprehend it In the uncreated Understanding only there is a clearness of light without any shadow of darkness We come as short of full apprehensions of it as a Child doth of the Counsel of the wisest Prince It is so hidden from us that without Revelation we could not have the least imagination of it and though it be revealed to us yet without the help of an Infiniteness of Understanding we cannot fully fathom it 'T is such a tractate of Divine wisdom that the Angels never before had seen the Edition of it till it was publish'd to the World Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto Principalities and Powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Now made known to them not before and now made known to them in the heavenly places They had not the knowledge of all heavenly Mysteries though they had the possession of heavenly Glory They knew the Prophecies of it in the Word but attained not a clear Interpretation of those Prophecies till the things that were prophecied of came upon the Stage 2. Manifold wisdom So 't is called As manifold as mysterious Variety in the Mystery and Mystery in every part of the Variety It was not one single act but a variety of Counsels met in it a conjunction of excellent ends and excellent means The glory of God the salvation of Man the defeat of the Apostate Angels the discovery of the blessed Trinity in their Nature Operations their combin'd and distinct Acts and Expressions of Goodness The means are the conjunction of two Natures infinitely distant from one another the union of Eternity and Time of Mortality and Immortality Death is made the way to Life and Shame the path to Glory The weakness of the Cross is the reparation of man and the Creature is made wise by the foolishness of preaching fallen man grows rich by the poverty of the Redeemer and man is filled by the emptiness of God The Heir of Hell made a Son of God by God's taking upon him the form of a Servant the Son of Man advanc'd to the highest degree of Honour by the Son of God becoming of no reputation 'T is called Eph. 1.8 abundance of wisdom and prudence Wisdom in the Eternal Counsel contriving a way Prudence in the Temporary Revelation ordering all Affairs and Occurrences in the World for the attaining the end of his Counsel Wisdom refers to the Mystery Prudence to the manifestation of it in fit ways and convenient seasons Wisdom to the contrivance and order Prudence to the execution and accomplishment In all things God acted as became him as a wise and just Governour of the World Heb. 2.10 Whether the wisdom of God might not have found out some other way or whether he were in regard of the necessity and naturalness of his Justice limited to this is not the question But that it is the best and wisest way for the manifestation of his glory is out of question This wisdom will appear in the different Interests reconciled by it In the Subject the second Person in the Trinity wherein they were reconciled In the two Natures wherein he accomplish'd it whereby God is made known to man in his Glory Sin eternally condemned and the repenting and believing sinner eternally rescued The honour and righteousness of the Law vindicated both in the Precept and Penalty The Devil's Empire overthrown by the same Nature he had overturned and the Subtilty of Hell defeated by that Nature he had spoiled The Creature engaged in the very act to the highest Obedience and Humility that as God appears as a God upon his Throne the Creature might appear in the lowest posture of a Creature in the depths of resignation and dependance the publication of this made in the Gospel by ways congruous to the wisdom which appeared in the execution of his Counsel and the Conditions of enjoying the fruit of it most wise and resonable 1. The greatest different Interests are reconcil'd Justice in punishing and Mercy in pardoning For man had broken the Law and plung'd himself into a Gulf of Misery The Sword of Vengeance was unsheathed by Justice for the punishment of the Criminal The Bowels of Compassion were stirred by Mercy for the rescue of the Miserable Justice severely beholds the Sin and Mercy compassionately reflects upon the Misery Two different claims are entred by those concerned Attributes Justice votes for Destruction and Mercy votes for Salvation Justice would draw the Sword and drench it in the blood of the Offender Mercy would stop the Sword and turn it from the breast of the Sinner Justice would edge it and Mercy would blunt it The Arguments are strong on both sides 1. Justice pleads I Arraign before thy Tribunal a Rebel who was the glorious Work of thy Hands the Center of thy rich Goodness and a Counterpart of thy own Image he is indeed miserable whereby to excite thy Compassion but he is not miserable without being Criminal Thou didst create him in a state and with ability to be otherwise The riches of thy Bounty aggravate the blackness of his Crime He is a Rebel not by necessity but will What constraint was there upon him to listen to the Counsels of the Enemy of God What force could there be upon him since it is without the compass of any Creature to work upon or constrain the Will Nothing of Ignorance can excuse him the Law was not ambiguously express'd but in plain words both as to Precept and Penalty it was writ in his Nature in legible Characters Had he received any disgust from thee after his Creation it would not excuse his Apostacy since as a Soveraign thou wert not obliged to thy Creature Thou hadst provided all things richly for him he was crowned with glory and honour Thy infinite power had bestowed upon him an Habitation richly furnished and varieties of Servants to attend him Whatever he viewed without and whatever he viewed within himself were several Marks of thy Divine Bounty to engage him to Obedience Had
crucis Lib. 3 cap. 7. p. 211. It is not like the Union of Stones in a Building or of two pieces of Timber fastned together which touch one anotâ—er only in their Superficies and outside without any intimacy with one another By such a kind of Union God would not be man The Word could â—ot so be made Flesh Nor is it a Union of Parts to the whole as the Members and the Body the Members are Parts the Body is the whole for the whole results from the Parts and depends upon the Parts But Christ being God is independent upon any thing The parts are in order of Nature before the whole but nothing can be in order of Nature before God Nor is it as the Union of two Liquors as when Wine and Water are mixed together for they are so Incorporated as not to be distinguish'd from one another no man can tell which Particle is Wine and which is Water But the Properties of the Divine Nature are distinguishable from the Properties of the Humane Nor is it as the Union of the Soul and Body so as that the Deity is the form of the Humanity as the Soul is the form of the Body For as the Soul is but a part of the Man so the Divinity would be then but a part of the Humanity as a Form or the Soul is in a state of Imperfection without that which it is to inform so the Divinity of Christ would have been Imperfect till it had assumed the Humanity And so the perfection of an Eternal Deity would have depended on a Creature of Time This Union of two Natures in Christ is incomprehensible And it is a mystery we cannot arrive to the top of How the Divine Nature which is the same with that of the Father and the Holy Ghost should be united to the Human Nature without its being said that the Father and the Holy Ghost were united to the Flesh but the Scripture doth not encourage any such Notion It speaks only of the Word the Person of the Word being made Flesh And in his being made Flesh distinguisheth him from the Father as the only begotten of the Father Joh. 1.14 The Person of the Son was the term of this Union 1. This Vnion doth not confound the Properties of the Deity and those of the Humanity They remain distinct and entire in each other The Deity is not changed into Flesh nor the Flesh transform'd into God They are distinct and yet united They are conjoined and yet unmixt The Dues of either Nature are preserved 'T is impossible that the Majesty of the Divinity can receive an alteration 'T is as impossible that the meaness of the Humanity can receive the Impressions of the Deity so as to be changed into it and a creature be metamorphos'd into the Creator and Temporary Flesh become Eternal and Finite mount up into Infinity As the Soul and Body are united and make one Person yet the Soul is not changed into the perfections of the Body nor the Body into the perfections of the Soul There is a change made in the Humanity by being advanced to a more Excellent Union but not in the Diety as a change is made in the Air when it is enlightned by the Sun not in the Sun which communicates that brightness to the Air. Athanasius makes the burning Bush to be a type of Christs Incarnation Exod. 3.2 The Fire signifying the Divine Nature and the Bush the human The Bush is a branch springing up from the Earth and the Fire descends from Heaven as the Bush was united to the Fire yet was not hurt by the slame nor converted into Fire there remained a difference between the Bush and the Fire yet the properties of the Fire shined in the Bush so that the whole Bush seemed to be on Fire So in the Incarnation of Christ the Human Nature is not swallowed up by the Divine nor changed into it nor confounded with it But so united that the properties of both remain firme Two are so become one that they remain two still One person in Two Natures containing the glorious perfections of the Divine and the weaknesses of the Humane The fulness of the Deity dwels bodily in Christ Col. 2.9 2. The Divine Nature is vnited to every part of the Humanity The whole Divinity to the whole Humanity so that no part but may be said to be the Member of God as well as the Blood is said to be the Blood of God Acts 20.28 By the same reason it may be said the Hand of God the Eye of God the Arm of God As God is infinitely present every where so as to be excluded from no place so is the Deity hypostatically every where in the Humanity not excluded from any part of it As the light of the Sun in every part of the Air as a sparkling splendor in every part of the Diamond Therefore it is concluded by all that acknowledge the Deity of Christ that when his Soul was separated from the Body the Deity remained united both to Soul and Body as light doth in every part of a broken Christal 3. Therefore perpetually united Coloss 2.9 The fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily It Dwels in him not lodges in him as a Traveller in an Inn It resides in him as a fixed habitation As God describes the perpetuity of his presence in the Ark by his habitation or dwelling in it Exod. 29.44 so doth the Apostle the inseparable duration of the Deity in the Humanity and the indissoluble Union of the Humanity with the Deity It was united on Earth it remains united in Heaven It was not an Image or an Apparition as the Tongues wherein the Spirit came upon the Apostles were a Temporary Representation not a thing united perpetually to the person of the Holy Ghost 4. It was a personal Vnion It was not an union of persons though it was a personal union So Davenant expounds Col. 2.9 Christ did not take the Person of Man but the Nature of Man into subsistence with himself The Body and Soul of Christ were not united in themselves had no subsistence in themselves till they were united to the Person of the Son of God If the Person of a Man were united to him the Human Nature would have been the Nature of the Person so united to him and not the Nature of the Son of God Heb. 2.14 16. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham He took flesh and blood to be his own Nature perpetually to subsist in the Person of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must be by a Personal Union or no way The Deity united to the Humanity and both Natures to be one Person This
time to the World And the Wisdom of God in them would be amazing if we could understand the analogy between every Ceremony in the Law and the thing signified by it As it cannot buâ— affect a diligent Reader to observe that little account of them we have by the Apostle Paul sprinkled in his Eipstles and more largely in that to the Hebrews As the Political Laws of the Jews flowed from the depth of the Moral Law so their Ceremonial did from the depth of Evangelical Counsels and all of them had a special relation to the honour of God and the debasing the Creature Though God formed the Mass and Matter of the World at the first creation at once yet his Wisdom took six days time for the disposing and adorning it The more illustrious truths of God are not to be comprehended on a suddain by the weakness of men Christ did not declare all Truths to his Disciples in the time of his life because they were not able at that present to bear them John 16.12 Ye cannot bear them now Some were reserved for his Resurrection others for the coming of the Spirit and the full discovery of all kept back for another World This Doctrine God figured out in the Law Oracled by the Prophets and unvail'd by Christ and his Apostles 2. The Wisdom of God appeared in using all proper means to render the belief of it easie 1. The most minute things that were to be transacted were predicted in the ancient foregoing Age long before the comeing of the Redeemer The vinegar and gall offered to him upon the Cross the parting his Garments the not breaking of his Bones the piercing of his Hands and Feet the betraying of him the slighting of him by the multitude all were exactly painted and represented in variety of Figures There was Light enough to good men not to mistake him and yet not so plain as to hinder bad men from being Serviceable to the counsels of God in the crucifying of him when he came 2. The translation of the Old Testament from the private Language of the Jews into the most publick Language of the World That Translation which we call Septuagint from Hebrew into Greeks some years before the coming of Christ that Tongue being most diffused at that time by reason of the Macedonian Empire raised by Alexander and the University of Athens to which other Nations resorted for Learning and Education This was a preparation for the Sons of Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem. By this was the entertainment of the Gospel facilitated When they compar'd the Prophecies of the Old Testament with the Declarations of the New and found things so long predicted before they were transacted in the publick view 3. By ordering concurrent Testimonies as to matter of Fact that the matter of Fact was not deniable That there was such a Person as Christ that his Miracles were stupendous that hâ—s Doctrine did not incline to Sedition that he affected not Worldly Applause that he did suffer at Jerusalem was acknowledged by all Not a man among the greatest Enemies of Christians was found that denied the matter of Fact And this great truth that Christ is the Messiah and Redeemer hath been with universal consent owned by all the Professors of Christianity throughout the World Whatever Bickerings there have been among them about some particular Doctrines they all centred in that Truth of Christ's being the Redeemer The first publication of this Doctrine was sealed by a thousand Miracles and so illustrious that he was an utter Stranger to the World that was ignorant of them 4. In keeping up some Principles and Opinions in the World to facilitate the belief of this or render men inexcusable for rejecting of it The Incarnation of the Son of God could not be so strange to the World if we consider the general belief of the Appearances †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their Gods among them that the Epicureans and others that denied any such Appearances were counted Atheists * Dionis Halicar Antiq. l. 2. p. 128. And Pythagoras was esteemed to be one not of the inferiour Genij and Lunar Daemons but one of the higher Gods who appeared in a Human Body for the curing and rectifying mortal Life †Iamblych Vit. Pythag. l. 1. cap. 6. p. 44. lib. 2. c. 19. p. 94. And himself tells Abaris the Scythian that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he took the flesh of man that men might not be astonished at him and in a fright fly from his Instructions It was not therefore accounted an irrational thing among them that God should be Incarnate But indeed the great stumbling block was a crucified God But had they known the holy and righteous Nature of God the Malice of sin the universal Corruption of Human Nature the first threatning and the necessity of vindicating the honour of the Law and clearing the Justice of God the Notion of his crucifixion would not have appeared so incredible since they believed the possibility of an Incarnation Another Principle was that universal One of Sacrifices for Expiation and rendring God propitious to man and was practised among all Nations I remember not any wherein this Custom did not prevail for it did even among those People where the Jews as being no trading Nation had not any Commerce and also in America found out in these latter Ages It was not a Law of Nature no man can find any such thing written in his own heart but a Tradition from Adam Now that among the loss of so many other Doctrines that were handed down from Adam to his immediate Posterity as in particular that of the Seed of the Woman which one would think a necessary Appendix to that of Sacrificing This latter should be preserved as a Fragment of an ancient Tradition seems to be an Act of Divine Wisdom to prepare men for the entertainment of the Doctrine of the great Sacrifice for the Expiation of the sin of the World And as the Apostle forms his Argument from the Jewish Sacrifices in the Epistle to the Hebrews for the convincing them of the end of the death of Christ so did the Ancient Fathers make use of this practise of the Heathen to convince them of the same Doctrine 5. The wisdom of God appeared in the time and circumstances of the first solemn publication of the Gospel by the Apostles at Jerusalem The Relation you may read in Acts 2. from verse 1. to the 12th The Spirit was given to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost a time wherein there were multitudes of Jews from all Nations not only near but remote that heard the great things of God spoken in the several Languages of those Nations where their Habitations were fixed and that by twelve illiterate men that two or three hours before knew no Language but that of their Native Country It was the custom of the Jews that dwelt among other Nations at a
truly in it self all Power who wrought them without Engines without Instruments and therefore this Power must be infinite and possessed of an unalterable vertue of acting If it be eternal it must be infinite and hath neither beginning nor end what is eternal hath no bounds 〈◊〉 it be eternal and not limited by time it must be infinite and not to be restrain'd by any finite Object His Power never begun to be nor ever ceaseth to be it cannot languish men are fain to unbend themselves and must have some time to recruit their tyred spirits But the Power of God is perpetually vigorous without any interrupting qualm Isa 40.28 Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary That Might which suffered no diminution from Eternity but hatcht so great a World by brooding upon nothing will not suffer any dimness or decrease to Eternity This Power being the same with his Essence is as durable as his Essence and resides for ever in his Nature 8. The Eighth Consideration for the right understanding of this Attribute The impossibility of Gods doing some things is no infringing of his Almightiness but rather a strengthning of it 'T is granted that some things God cannot do or rather as Aquinas and others 't is better to say such things cannot be done than to say that God cannot do them to remove all kind of imputation or reflection of weakness on God ‖ Robins observat p. 14. and because the reason of the impossibility of those things is in the nature of the things themselves 1. First Some things are impossible in their own nature Such are all those things which imply a Contradiction as for a thing to be and not to be at the same time for the Sun to shine and not to shine at the same moment of time for a Creature to act and not to act at the same instant One of those parts must be false for if it be true that the Sun shines this moment it must be false to say it doth not shine So it is impossible that a rational Creature can be without reason 'T is a contradiction to be a rational Creature and yet want that which is essential to a rational Creature So it is impossible that the Will of man can be compelled because Liberty is the Essence of the Will while it is Will it cannot be constrain'd and if it be constrain'd it ceaseth to be Will. * Magalano de scientiâ Dei part 2. c. 6. § 3. God cannot at one time act as the Author of the Will and the Destroyer of the Will 'T is impossible that Vice and Virtue Light and Darkness Life and Death should be the same thing Those things admit not of a Conception in any Understanding Some things are impossible to be done because of the incapability of the subject as for a Creature to be made infinite independent to preserve it self without the Divine concourse and assistance So a Brute cannot be taken into communion with God and to everlasting spiritual Blessedness because the Nature of a Brute is uncapable of such an Elevation A rational Creature only can understand and relish spiritual delights and is capable to enjoy God and have communion with him Indeed God may change the nature of a Brute and bestow such Faculties of Understanding and Will upon it as to render it capable of such a Blessedness but then 't is no more a Brute but a rational Creature but while it remains a Brute the excellency of the Nature of God doth not admit of communion with such a Subject So that this is not for want of Power in God but because of a deficiency in the Creature To suppose that God could make a Contradiction true is to make himself false and to do just nothing 2. Some things are impossible to the Nature and Being of God As to dye implies a flat repugnance to the Nature of God To be able to die is to be able to be cashierd out of being If God were able to deprive himself of life he might then cease to be He were not then a necessary but an uncertain contingent being and could not be said only to have Immortality as he is †1 Tim. 6.16 He cannot dye who is life it self and necessarily Existent He cannot grow old or decay because he cannot be measur'd by time And this is no part of Weakness but the perfection of Power His Power is that whereby he remains for ever fixed in his own everlasting being that cannot be reckoned as necessary to the Omnipotence of God which all Mankind count a part of weakness in themselves God is Omnipotent because he is not Impotent and if he could dye he would be Impotent not Omnipotent Death is the feebleness of Nature 'T is undoubtedly the greatest impotence to cease to be Who would count it a part of Omnipotency to disenable himself and sink into nothing and not being The impossibility for God to dye is not a fit Article to impeach his Omnipotence this would be a strange way of arguing a thing is not powerful because it is not feeble and cannot cease to be powerful for Death is a cessation of all Power ‖ August God is Almighty in doing what he will not in suffering what he will not To dye is not an active but a passive Power a defect of a Power God is of too noble a Nature to perish Some things are impossible to that eminency of Nature which he hath above all Creatures as to walk sleep feed these are Imperfections belonging to Bodies and compounded Natures If he could walk he were not every where present Motion speaks Succession If he could encrease he would not have been perfect before 3. Some things are impossible to the glorious perfections of God God cannot do any thing unbecoming his holiness and goodness any thing unworthy of himself and against the perfections of his Nature God can do whatsoever he can will As he doth actually do whatsoever he doth actually will so it is possible for him to do whatsoever it is possible for him to will He doth whatsoever he will and can do whatsoever he can will but he cannot do what he cannot will He cannot will any unrighteous thing and therefore cannot do any unrighteous thing God cannot love sin this is contrary to his Holiness he cannot violate his Word this is a denial of his Truth he cannot punish an Innocent this is contrary to his Goodness he cannot cherish an impenitent Sinner this is an injury to hâ—s Justice He cannot forget what is done in the World this is a disgrace to his Omniscience he cannot deceive his Creature This is contrary to his faithfulness none of these things can be done by him because of the perfection of his Nature Would it not be an imperfection in God to absolve the Guilty and condemn the Innocent Is
acknowledgment of the Immensity of Divine Power Miracles are such effects as have been wrought without the assistance and cooperation of Natural Causes yea contrary and besides the ordinary course of Nature above the reach of any Created Power Miracles have been and saith Bradwardine * Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 38. To deny that ever such things were is uncivil 'T is inhuman to deny all the Histories of Jews and Christians whosoever denies Miracles must deny all possibility of Miracles and so must imagine himself fully skill'd in the extent of Divine Power How was the Sun suspended from its Motion for some hours Josh 10.13 The Dead raised from the Grave Those reduc'd from the brink of it that had been brought near to it by prevailing Diseases and this by a word speaking How were the famisht Lions bridled from exercising their rage upon Daniel Dan. 6.22 expos'd to them for a Prey The activity of the Fire curb'd for the preservation of the Three Children Dan. 3.15 Which proves a Deity more powerful than all Creatures No power upon Earth can hinder the operation of the Fire upon combustible Matter when they are united unless by quenching the Fire or removing the Matter But no created Power can restrain the Fire so long as it remains so from acting according to its Nature Exod. 3.2 This was done by God in the case of the Three Children and that of the Burning Bush It was as much miraculous that the Bush should not consume as it was natural that it should burn by the efficacy of the Fire upon it No Element is so obstinate and deaf but it hears and obeys his Voice and performs his Orders though contrary to its own Nature All the violence of the Creature is suspended as soon as it receives his Command †Damianus in Petar He that gave the original to Nature can take away the necessity of Nature He presides over Creatures but is not confin'd to those Laws he hath prescrib'd to Creatures He framed Nature and can turn the Channels of Nature according to his own pleasure Men dig into the bowels of Nature search into all the Treasures of it to find Medicines to cure a Disease and after all their Attempts it may prove Labour in vain But God by one Act of his Will one Word of his Mouth overturns the Victory of Death and rescues from the most desperate Diseases * Fauch in Acts Vol. 2. §. 56. All the Miracles which were wrought by the Apostles either speaking some Words or Touching with the Hand were not effected by any virtue inherent in their Words or in their Touches For such Virtue inherent in any created finite Subject would be created and finite it self and consequently were incapable to produce effects which required an infinite Virtue as Miracles do which are above the power of Nature So when our Saviour wrought Miracles it was not by any quality resident in his humane Nature but by the sole Power of his Divinity The Flesh could only do what was proper to the Flesh but the Deity did what was proper to the Deity God alone doth wonders Psal 136.4 Excluding every other cause from producing such things He only doth those things which are above the power of Nature and cannot be wrought by any Natural causes whatsoever He doth not hereby put his Omnipotence to any stress 'T is as easie with him to turn Nature out of its setled course as it was to place it in that station it holds and appoint it that course it runs All the Works of Nature are indeed Miracles and Testimonies of the Power of God producing them and sustaining them But Works above the Power of Nature being Novelties and unusual strike Men with a greater admiration upon their appearance because they are not the products of Nature but the convulsions of it I might also add as an Argument The Power of the Mind of Man to conceive more than hath been wrought by God in the World And God can work whatsoever Perfection the Mind of man can conceive Otherwise the reaches of a created Imagination and Fancy would be more extensive than the Power of God His Power therefore is far greater than the conception of any Intellectual Creature else the Creature would be of a greater capacity to conceive than God is to effect The Creature would have a power of Conception above Gods Power of Activity and consequently a Creature in some respect greater than himself Now whatsoever a Creature can conceive possible to be done is but finite in its own nature and if God could not produce what Being a created Understanding can conceive possible to be done he would be less than Infinite in Power nay he could not go to the extent of what is Finite But I have touched this before That God can create more than he hath created and in a more perfect way of Being as considered simply in themselves III. The Third general thing is to declare How the Power of God appears in Creation in Government in Redemption 1. In Creation With what Majestick Lines doth God set forth his Power in the giving Being and Endowments to all the Creatures in the World Job 38. All that is in Heaven and Earth is his and shews the greatness of his Power Glory Victory 1 Chro. 29.11 and Majesty The Heaven being so Magnificent a piece of work is called emphatically The Firmament of his Power * Psal 150.1 his Power being more conspicuous and unvail'd in that glorious Arch of the World Indeed God exalts by his Power †Job 36.22 that is exalts himself by his Power in all the Works of his hands in the smallest Shrub as well as the most glorious Sun All his Works of Nature are truly Miracles though we consider them not being blinded with too frequent and customary a sight of them yet in the neglect of all the rest the view of the Heavens doth more affect us with astonishment at the Might of Gods Arm These declare his Glory and the Firmament shews his handy work Psal 19.1 Psal 8.3 And the Psalmist peculiarly calls them His Heavens and the work of his Fingers These were immediately created by God whereas many other things in the World were brought into Being by the Power of God yet by the means of the influence of the Heavens 1. His Power is the first thing evident in the story of the Creation In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth Gen. 1.1 There 's no appearance of any thing in this declaratory Preface but of Power The Characters of Wisdom march after in the distinct formation of things and animating them with suitable qualities for an Universal good By Heaven and Earth is meant the whole mass of the Creatures By Heaven all the Aery Region with all the Host of it by the Earth is meant all that which makes the intire inferior Globe The Jews observe that in the
make them march in the same order to their Confusion as they did in their Creation Who can jumble the whole Frame together and by a Word dissolve the Pillars of the World and make the Fabrick lie in a ruinous heap 2. In effecting his Purposes by small Means In making use of the Meanest Creatures As the Power of God is seen in the creation of the smallest Creatures and assembling so many perfections in the little body of an Insect as an Ant or Spider So his Power is not less magnified in the use he makes of them As he magnifies his Wisdom by using ignorant Instruments so he exalts his Power by employing weak Instruments in his service The Meaness and Imperfection of the matter sets off the Excellency of the Workman so the weakness of the Instrument is a foyl to the Power of the principal Agent When God hath effected things by Means in the Scripture he hath usually brought about his Purposes by weak Instruments Moses a Fugitive from Egypt and Aaron a Captive in it are the Instruments of the Israelites Deliverance By the motion of Moses his Rod he works Wonders in the Court of Pharaoh and summons up his Judgments against him He brought down Pharaohs stomack for a while by a squadron of Lice and Locusts wherein Divine Power was more seen than if Moses had brought him to his own Articles by a multitude of Warlike Troops The fall of the Walls of Jericho by the sound of Rams horns was a more glorious Character of Gods Power than if Joshuah had batter'd it down with an hundred of Warlike Engines Josh 6.20 Thus the great Army of the Midianites which lay as Grasshoppers upon the ground were routed by Gideon in the head of Three hundred Men and Goliah a Giant laid level with the ground by David a Stripling by the force of a Sling A Thousand Philistines dispatcht out of the World by the Jaw Bone of an Ass in the hand of Sampson He can master a stout Nation by an Army of Locusts and render the Teeth of those little Insects as destructive as the Teeth yea the strongest Teeth the Cheek Teeth of a great Lion * Joel 1.6 7. The Thunderbolt which produceth sometimes dreadful effects is compacted of little Atoms which fly in the Air small Vapors drawn up by the Sun and mixt with other Sulphurous matter and petrifying Juice Nothing is so weak but his Strength can make victorious nothing so small but by his Power he can accomplish his great ends by it nothing so vile but his Mâ—ght can conduct to his glory and no Nation so mighty but he can waste and enfeeble by the Meanest Creatures God is great in Power in the greatest things and not little in the smallest his Power in the minutest Creatures which he uses for his service surmounts the force of our Understanding III. The Power of God appears in Redemption As our Saviour is called the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 so he is called the Power of God The Arm of Power was lifted up as high as the designs of Wisdom were laid deep As this way of Redemption could not be contriv'd but by an Infinite Wisdom so it could not be accomplish'd but by an Infinite Power None but God could shape such a design and none but God could effect it The Divine Power in Temporal deliverances and freedom from the slavery of humane Oppressors vails to that which glitters in Redemption whereby the Devil is defeated in his designs stript of his spoils and yok'd in his strength The Power of God in Creation requires not those degrees of Admiration as in Redemption In Creation the World was erected from Nothing as there was Nothing to act so there was Nothing to oppose no victorious Devil was in that to be subdued no thundring Law to be silenced no Death to be conquer'd no Transgression to be pardoned and rooted out no Hell to be shut no Ignominious death upon the Cross to be suffered It had been in the nature of the thing an easier thing to Divine Power to have created a new World than repair'd a broken and purified a polluted one This is the most admirable Work that ever God brought forth in the World greater than all the Marks of his Power in the first Creation And this will appear 1. In the Person Redeeming 2. In the publication and propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption 3. In the application of Redemption I. In the Person Redeeming First In his Conception 1. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee Which act is exprest to be the effect of the Infinite Power of God and it expresses the supernatural manner of the forming the Humanity of our Saviour and signifies not the Divine Nature of Christ infusing it self into the Womb of the Virgin for the Angel refers it to the manner of the operation of the Holy Ghost in the producing the Humane Nature of Christ and not to the Nature assuming that Humanity into union with it self The Holy Ghost or the Third Person in the Trinity overshadowed the Virgin and by a Creative act fram'd the Humanity of Christ and united it to the Divinity It is therefore exprest by a word of the same import with that used Gen. 1.2 The Spirit moved upon the face of the face of the Waters which signifies as it were a Brooding upon the Chaos shadowing it with his Wings as Hens sit upon their Eggs to form them and hatch them into Animals or else it is an allusion to the Cloud which covered the Tent of the Congregation when the Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle * Exod. 40 34 It was not such a Creative Act as we call Immediate which is a production out of Nothing but a Mediate Creatâ—on such as Gods bringing things into form out of the first Matter which had nothing but an Obediential or Passive disposition to whatsoever stamp the Powerful Wisdom of God should imprint upon it So the substance of the Virgin had no active but only a passive disposition to this work The Matter of the Body was Earthy the substance of the Virgin the forming of it was Heavenly the Holy Ghost working upon that Matter And therefore when it is said Mat. 1.18 that she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost 't is to be understood of the Efficacy of the Holy Ghost not of the Substance of the Holy Ghost The matter was Natural but the manner of Conceiving was in a Supernatural way above the methods of Nature In reference to the Active Principle the Redeemer is called in the Prophecy †Isai 4.2 The Branch of the Lord in regard of the Divine hand that planted him In respect to the Passive Principle The Fruit of the Earth in regard of the Womb that bare him and therefore said to be made
and the Change is the greater where the Distance is the greater As it was a more signal mark of Power to change a Dead Man to life than to change a Sick Man to health so that the change here being from a Term of a greater distance is more Powerful than the Creation of Heaven and Earth Therefore whereas Creation is said to be wrought by his Hands and the Heavens by his Fingers or his Word Conversion is said to be wrought by his Arm ‖ Isai 53.1 In Creation we had an Earthly by Conversion a Heavenly state In Creation Nothing is changed into Something in Conversion Hell is transform'd into Heaven which is more than the turning Nothing into a glorious Angel In that Thanksgiving of our Saviour for the revelation of the knowledge of himself to Babes the simple of the World he gives the Title to his Father of Lord of Heaven and Earth †Mat. 11.5 intimating it to be an act of his Creative and Preserving Power that Power whereby he formed Heaven and Earth hath preserved the standing and governed the motions of all Creatures from the beginning of the World 'T is resembled to the most Magnificent Act of Divine Power that God ever put forth viz. that in the Resurrection of our Saviour * Eph. 1.19 wherein there was more than an ordinary impression of Might 'T is not so small a Power as that whereby we speak with Tongues or whereby Christ opened the Mouths of the Dumb and the Ears of the Deaf or unloosed the Cords of Death from a Person 'T is not that Power whereby our Saviour wrought those stupendous Miracles when he was in the World but that Power which wrought a Miracle that amaz'd the most knowing Angels as well as ignorant Man The taking off the weight of the Sin of the World from our Saviour and advancing him in his Humane Nature to rule over the Angelical Host making him Head of Principalities and Powers as much as to say as great as all that Power which is display'd in our Redemption from the first foundation to the last line in the superstructure 'T is therefore often set forth with an Emphasis as Excellency of power †2 Cor. 4.7 and Glorious power ‖ 2 Pet. 1.3 To glory and vertue we Translate it but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Through glory and vertue that is by a glorious vertue or strength 2. The Instrument whereby it is wrought is dignified with the title of Power The Gospel which God useth in this great affair is called The Power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 and the Rod of his strength Psal 110.2 And the day of the Gospel's appearance in the heart is emphatically called The day of Power verse 3. wherein he brings down strong holds and towring Imaginations * Grotlus in Luke 1.19 And therefore the Angel Gabriel which Name signifies the Power of God was always sent upon those Messages which concerned the Gospel as to Daniel Zechary Mary The Gospel is the Power of God in way a of Instrumentality but the Almightiness of God is the Principal in a way of Efficiency The Gospel is the Scepter of Christ but the Power of Christ is the Mover of that Scepter The Gospel is not as a bare Word spoken and proposing the thing but as back'd with a higher efficacy of Grace As the Sword doth instrumentally cut but the Arm that wields it gives the blow and makes it successful in the stroak But this Gospel is the Power of God because he edgeth this by his own Power to surmount all resistance and vanquish the greatest Malice of that Man he designs to work upon The Power of God is conspicuous 1. In turning the Heart of Man against the strength of the Inclinations of Nature In the forming of Man of the Dust of the Ground as the Matter contributed nothing to the Action whereby God formed it so it had no Principle of resistance contrary to the design of God But in Converting the Heart there is not only wanting a principle of Assistance from him in this work but the whole strength of Corrupt Nature is alarm'd to combat against the Power of his Grace When the Gospel is presented the Understanding is not only ignorant of it but the Will perverse against it the one doth not relish and the other doth not esteem the Excellency of the Object The Carnal wisdom in the Mind contrives against it and the Rebellâ—ous Will puts the orders in execution against the Counsel of God which requires the invincible Power of God to enlighten the dark Mind to know what it slights and the fierce Will to embrace what it loaths The stream of Nature cannot be turned but by a Power above Nature 'T is not all the Created Power in Heaven and Earth can change a Swine into a Man or a venemous Toad into a holy and illustrious Angel Yet this work is not so great in some respect as the stilling the fierceness of Nature the silencing the swelling Waves in the heart and the casting out those brutish Affections which are born and grow up with us There would be no or far less resistance in a meer Animal to be chang'd into a Creature of a higher rank than there is in a Natural Man to be turned into a serious Christian There is in every Natural Man a stoutness of heart a stiff-neck unwillingness to good forwardness to evil Infinite Power quells this stoutness demolisheth these strong holds turns this wild Ass in her course and routs those Armies of turbulent Nature against the Grace of God To stop the Flouds of the Sea is not such an act of Power as to turn the Tyde of the Heart This Power hath been employ'd upon every Convert in the World What would you say then if you knew all the Chanels in which it hath run since the days of Adam If the alteration of one Rocky heart into a Pool of Water be a wonder of Power what then is the calming and sweetning by his Word those One hundred forty four Thousand of the Tribes of Israel and that numberless Multitude of all Nations and People that shall stand before the Throne * Revel 7.3 which were all naturally so many raging Seas Not one Converted Soul from Adam to the last that shall be in the End of the World but is a Trophy of the Divine Conquest None were pure Volunteers nor listed themselves in his Service till he put forth his strong Arm to draw them to him No mans Understanding but was chain'd with Darkness and fond of it no Man but had Corruption in his Will which was dearer to him than any thing else which could be propos'd for his True happiness These things are most evident in Scripture and Experience 2. As 't is wrought against the Inclinations of Nature so against a multitude of Corrupt habits rooted in the Souls of Men. A distemper in its first invasion may more
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
besides As he sent Jesus Christ to satisfie his Justice for the expiation of the Guilt of Sin so he sends the Holy Ghost for the cleansing the filth of Sin and overmastering the power of it Himself is the Fountain the Son is the Patern and the Holy Ghost the immediate Imprinter of this stamp of Holiness upon the Creature God hath such a value for this Attribute that he designs the glory of this in the renewing the Creature more than the happiness of the Creature though the one doth necessarily follow upon the other yet the one is the principal Design and the other the consequent of the former Whence our Salvation is more frequently set forth in Scripture by a Redemption from Sin and Sanctification of the Soul than by a Possession of Heaven †Tit. 2.11 12 13 14 and many other places Indeed as God could not create a Rational Creature without interesting this Attribute in a special manner so he cannnt restore the Fallen Creature without it As in creating a Rational Creature there must be Holiness to adorn it as well as Wisdom to form the design and Power to effect it so in the restoration of the Creature as he could not make a Reasonable Creature unholy so he cannot restore a Fallen Creature and put him in a meet posture to take pleasure in him without communicating to him a resemblance of himself As God cannot be Blessed in himself without this Perfection of Purity so neither can a Creature be blessed without it As God would be Unlovely to himself without this Attribute so would the Creature be unlovely to God without a stamp and mark of it upon his Nature So much is this Perfection one with God valued by him and interested in all his Works and Ways The third Thing I am to do is to lay down some Propositions in the defence of God's holiness in all his acts about or concerning sin It was a prudent and pious advice of Camero Not to be too busie and rash in Inquiries and Conclusions about the reason of God's Providence in the matter of sin The Scripture hath put a bar in the way of such Curiosity by telling us that the ways of God's Wisdom and Righteousness in his Judgments are unsearchable * Rom. 11.33 Much more the ways of God's Holiness as he stands in relation to Sin as a Governour of the World we cannot consider those things without danger of flipping Our Eyes are too weak to look upon the Sun without being dazled Too much Curiosity met with a just check in our first Parent To be desirous to know the reason of all God's proceedings in the matter of Sin is to second the Ambition of Adam to be as wise as God and know the reason of his actings equally with himself 'T is more easie as the same Author saith to give an Account of God's Providence since the Revolt of Man and the Poyson that hath universally seiz'd upon Human Nature than to make guesses at the manner of the fall of the first Man The Scripture hath given us but a short Account of the manner of it to discourage too curious Inquiries into it 'T is certain that God made Man upright and when Man sinned in Paradice God was active in sustaining the substantial nature and act of the Sinner while he was sinning though not in supporting the sinfulness of the Act He was permissive in suffering it He was Negative in withholding that Grace which might certainly have prevented his Crime and consequently his Ruin though he withheld nothing that was sufficient for his Resistance of that Temptation wherewith he was assaulted And since the Fall of Man God as a wise Governour is directive of the Events of the Transgression and draws the choicest Good out of the blackest Evil and limits the sins of men that they creep not so far as the evil Nature of men would urge them to and as a righteous Judge he takes away the talent â—rom idle Servants and the Light from wicked ones whereby they stumble and fall into Crimes by the inclinations and proneness of their own corrupt Natures leaves them to the Byas of their own vitious habits denies that grace which they have forfeited and have no right to challenge and turns their sinful actions into punishments both to the Committers of them and others 1. Proposition God's holiness is not chargeable with any blemish for his creating man in a mutable state 'T is true Angels and Men were created with a changeable Nature and though there was a rich and glorious stamp upon them by the Hand of God yet their Natures were not uncapable of a base and vile Stamp from some other Principle As the Silver which bears upon it the Image of a great Prince is capable of being melted down and imprinted with no better an Image than that of some vile and monstrous Beast Though God made Man upright yet he was capable of seeking many inventions Eccl. 7.29 yet the hand of God was not defiled by forming Man with such a Nature It was sutable to the Wisdom of God to give the Rational Creature whom he had furnisht with a power of acting righteously the liberty of choice and nor fix him in an unchangeable state without a trial of him in his Natural that if he did obey his obedience might be the more valuable and if he did freely offend his offence might be more inexcusable 1. No Creature can be capable of immutability by Nature Mutability is so essential to a Creature that a Creature cannot be supposed without it You must suppose it a Creator not a Creature if you allow it to be of an Immutable Nature Immutability is the property of the Supream Being God only hath immortality 1 Tim. 6.16 Immortality as opposed not only to a natural but to a sinful death the word only appropriates every sort of Immortality to God and excludes every Creature whether Angel or Man from a Partnership with God in this by Nature Every Creature therefore is capable of a Death in sin None is good but God and none is naturally free from change but God which excludes every Creature from the same Prerogative and certainly if one Angel sinned all might have sinned because there was the same root of Mutability in one as well as another 'T is as possible for a Creature to be Creator as for a Creature to have naturally an incommunicable property of the Creator All things whether Angels or Men are made of nothing and therefore capable of defection * Suarez Vâ—l. 2. p. 5.8 because a Creature beâ—ng made of nothing cannot be good per essentiam or essentially good but by participation from another Agaâ—n every Rational Creature being made of nothing hath a Superior which created him and governs him and is capable of a Precept and consequently capable of Disobedience as well as Obedience to the Precept to transgress it as well as obey it God cannot sin because he
can have no Superior to impose a Precept on him A Rational Creature with a liberty of Will and power of Choice cannot be made by Nature of such a mould and temper but he must be as well capable of chusing wrong as of chusing right and therefore the standing Angels and glorified Saints though they are Immutable 't is not by Nature that they are so but by Grace and the good pleasure of God for though they are in Heaven they have still in their Nature a remote power of sinning but it shall never be brought into act because God will always incline their Wills to love him and never concur with their Wills to any evil act Since therefore Mutability is essential to a Creature as a Creature this changeableness cannot properly be charged upon God as the Author of it for it was not the term of God's creating act but did necessarily result from the Nature of the Creature as unchangeableness doth result from the Essence of God The brittleness of a Glass is no blame to the Art of him that blew up the Glass into such a fashion that imperfection of brittleness is not from the Workman but the Matter So though changeableness be an Imperfection yet it is so necessary a one that no Creature can be naturally without it Besides though Angels and Men were mutable by Creation and capable to exercise their Wills yet they were not necessitated to evil and this mutability did not infer a necessity that they should fall because some Angels which had the same root of changeableness in their Natures with those that fell did not fall which they would have done if capableness of changing and necessity of changing were one and the same thing 2. Though God made the Creature mutable yet he made him not evil There could be nothing of evil in him that God created after his own Image and pronounced good Gen. 1.27 31. Man had an ability to stand as well as a capacity to fall He was created with a principle of acting freely whereby he was capable of loving God as his chief Good and moving to him as his last end there was a beam of Light in man's Understanding to know the Rule he was to conform to a harmony between his Reason and his Affections an original Righteousness So that it seem'd more easie for him to determine his Will to continue in Obedience to the Precept than to swerve from it to adhere to God as his chief Good than to listen to the Charms of Satan God created him with those advantages that he might with more facility have kept his eyes fixt upon the Divine Beauty than turn his back upon it and with greater ease have kept the Precept God gave him than have broken it The very first thought darted or impression made by God upon the Angelical or Human Nature was the knowledge of himself as their Auhtor and could be no other than such whereby both Angels and Men might be excited to a love of that adorable Being that had framed them so gloriously out of nothing And if they turned their Wills and Affections to another Object it was not by the direction of God but contrary to the impression God had made upon them or the first thought he flasht into them They turned themselves to the admiring their own Excellency or affecting an advantage distinct from that which they were to look for only from God 1 Tim. 3.6 Pride was the cause of the Condemnation of the Devil Though the Wills of Angels and Men were created mutable and so were imperfect yet they were not created evil Though they might sin yet they might not sin and therefore were not evil in their own Nature What reflection then could this Mutability of their Nature be upon God So far is it from any that he is fully cleared by storing up in the Nature of Man sufficient Provision against his departure from him God was so far from creating him evil that he fortified him with a knowledge in his Understanding and a strength in his Nature to withstand any Invasion The Knowledge was exercised by Eve in the very Moment of the Serpents assaulting her Gen. 3.3 Eve said to the Serpent God hath said ye shall not eat of it And had her thoughts been intent upon this God hath said and not diverted to the motions of the Sensitive Appetite and Liquorish Palate it had been sufficient to put by all the Passes the Devil did or could have made at her So that you see though God made the Creature Mutable yet he made him not evil This clears the Holiness of God 3. Therefore it follows That though God created man changeable yet he was not the cause of his change by his fall Though Man was created defectible yet he was not determin'd by God influencing his Will by any positive act to that change and apostacy God placed him in a free posture set life and happiness before him on the one hand misery and death on the other As he did not draw him into the Arms of perpetual Blessedness so he did not drive him into the Gulph of his Misery * Amyral Mâ—â—aâ— Tom. 1. p. 615 616. He did not incline him to Evil. It was repugnant to the Goodness of God to corrupt the Righteousness of those Faculties he had so lately beautified him with It was not likely he should deface the beauty of that Work he had compos'd with so much Wisdom and Skill Would he by any Act of his own make that had which but a little before he had acquiesced in as good Angels and Men were left to their liberty and conduct of their Natural Faculties and if God inspir'd them with any Motions they could not but be Motions to good and suted to that righteous Nature he had endued them with But it is most probable that God did not in a Supernatural way act inwardly upon the Mind of Man but left him wholly to that Power which he had in Creation furnisht him with The Scripture frees God fully from any blame in this and lays it wholly upon Satan as the Tempter and upon Man as the Determiner of his own Will Gen. 3.6 Eve took of the Fruit and did eat and Adam took from her of the Fruit and did eat And Solomon Eccl 7.29 distinguisheth God's Work in the Creation of Man upright from Man's Work in seeking out those ruining inventions God created Man in a righteous state and Man cast himself into a forlorn state As he was a Mutable Creature he was from God as he was a changed and corrupted Creature it was from the Devil seducing and his own pliableness in admitting As Silver and Gold and other Metals were created by God in such a form and figure yet capable of receiving other forms by the industrious Art of Man When the Image of a Man is put upon a piece of Metal God is not said to create that Image though he created the Substance with
torments the Person that acts it 't is black and abominable and hath not a mite of Goodness in the Nature of it If it ends in any good 't is only from that Infinite Transcendency of skill that can bring Good out of Evil as well as Light out of Darkness Therefore God did not permit it as Sin but as it was an occasion for the manifestation of his own Glory Though the Goodness of God would have appear'd in the Preservation of the World as well as it did in the Creation of it yet his Mercy could not have appear'd without the Entrance of Sin because the Object of Mercy is a Miserable Creature but Man could not be Miserable as long as he remained Innocent The Reign of Sin opened a door for the Reign and Triumph of Grace Rom. 5.21 As sin hath reigned unto death so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life Without it the Bowels of Mercy had never sounded and the ravishing Musick of Divine Grace could never have been heard by the Creature Mercy which renders God so amiable could never else have beam'd out to the World Angels and Men upon this occasion beheld the stirrings of Divine Grace and the Tenderness of Divine Nature and the glory of the Divine Persons in their several Functions about the Redemption of Man which had else been a Spring shut up and a Fountain sealed the Song of Glory to God and Good will to Men in a way of Redemption had never been Sung by them It appears in his dealings with Adam that he permitted his Fall not only to shew his Justice in punishing but principally his Mercy in rescuing since he proclaims to him first the Promise of a Redeemer to bruise the Serpents head before he setled the Punishment he should smart under in the World †Gen. 3.15 16 17. And what fairer prospect could the Creature have of the Holiness of God and his Hatred of Sin than in the edge of that Sword of Justice which punished it in the Sinner but glitter'd more in the Punishment of a Surety so near Allied to him Had not Man been Criminal he could not have been Punishable nor any been punishable for him And the Pulse of Divine Holiness could not have beaten so quick and been so visible without an exercise of his Vindicative Justice He left Mans mutable Nature to fall under Vnrighteousness that thereby he might commend the Righteousness of his own Nature * Rom. 3.7 Adams Sin in its Nature tended to the ruine of the World and God takes an occasion from it for the glory of his Grace in the Redemption of the World He brings forth thereby a new Scene of Wonders from Heaven and a surprizing Knowledge on Earth As the Sun breaks out more strongly after a Night of Darkness and Tempest As God in Creation framed a Chaos by his Power to manifest his Wisdom in bringing Order out of Disorder Light out of Darkness Beauty out of Confusion and Deformity when he was able by a Word to have made all Creatures stand up in their Beauty without the precedency of a Chaos So God permitted a Moral Chaos to manifest a greater Wisdom in the repairing a broken Image and restoring a deplorable Creature and bringing out those Perfections of his Nature which had else been wrapt up in a perpetual silence in his own bosom †But of the Wisdom of God in the permitting Sin in order to Redeâ—ption I have handled in the Attribute of Wisdom It was therefore very congruous to the Holiness of God to permit that which he could make subservient for his own glory and particularly for the manifestation of this Attribute of Holiness which seems to be in opposition to such a permission 5. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by his concurrence with the Creature in the material part of a sinful Act. Some to free God from having any hand in Sin deny his concurrence to the Actions of the Creature because if he concurs to a sinful Action he concurs to the Sin also Not understanding how there can be a distinction between the Act and the Sinfulness or Viciousness of it and how God can concur to a Natural Action without being stain'd by that Moral Evil which cleaves to it For the understanding of this observe 1. There is a concurrence of God to all the acts of the Creature Acts 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being We depend upon God in our Acting as well as in our Being There is as much an efficacy of God in our Motion as in our Production as none have life without his Power in producing it so none have any operation without his Providence concurring with it In him or by him that is by his Virtue preserving and governing our Motions as well as by his Power bringing us into Being Hence Man is compared to an Ax Isai 10.15 an Instrument that hath no action without the cooperation of a Superiour Agent handling it And the Actions of the Second Causes are ascrib'd to God the Grass that is the product of the Sun Rain and Earth he is said to make to grow upon the Mountains Psal 147.8 and the Skin and Flesh which is by Natural generation he is said to cloath us with Job 10.5 in regard of his co-working with Second Causes according to their Natures As nothing can exist so nothing can operate without him let his Concurrence be removed and the Being and Action of the Creature cease Remove the Sun from the Horizon or a Candle from a Room and the Light which flowed from either of them ceaseth Without Gods preserving and concurring Power the course of Nature would sink and the Creation be in vain ‖ Suarez Metaph part 1. p. 552. All Created things depend upon God as Agents as well as Beings and are subordinate to him in a way of Action as well as in a way of Existing If God suspend his Influence from their Action they would cease to act as the Fire did from burning the Three Children as well as if God suspend his Influence from their Being they would cease to be God supports the Nature whereby Actions are wrought the Mind where Actions are consulted and the Will where Actions are determin'd and the Motive power whereby Actions are produced The Mind could not contrive nor the Hand act a Wickedness if God did not support the Power of the one in designing and the Strength of the other in executing a wicked Intention Every faculty in its Being and every faculty in its Motion hath a dependance upon the Influence of God To make the Creature Independent upon God in any thing which speaks Perfection as Action considered as Action is is to make the Creature a Soveraign Being Indeed we cannot imagine the Concurrence of God to the good Actions of Men since the Fall without granting a Concurrence of God to evil Actions because there is no Action so purely
than Men have reason to complain for the exercise of Justice in the vindication of it If God established all things in Order with Infinite Wisdom and Goodness and God silently behold for ever this Order broken would he not either charge himself with a want of Power or a want of Will to preserve the Marks of his own Goodness Would it be a kindness to himself to be careless of the breaches of his own Orders His Throne would shake yea sink from under him if Justice whereby he Sentenceth and Judgment whereby he Executes his Sentence were not the supports of it †Ps 89.14 Justice and Judgment are the habitation of thy Throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stability or Foundation of thy Throne So Psal 92.2 Man would forget his Relation to God God would be unknown to be Soveraign of the World were he careless of the breaches of his own Order * Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the Judgments which he Executes Is it not a part of his Goodness to preserve the indispensible Order between himself and his Creatures His own Soveraignty which is good and the subjection of the Creature to him as Soveraign which is also good The one would not be maintained in its due place nor the other restrained in due limits without Punishment Would it be a goodness in him to see Goodness it self trampled upon constantly without some time or other appearing for the relief of it Is it not a Goodness to secure his own Honour to prevent further Evil Is it not a Goodness to discourage Men by Judgments sometimes from a contempt and ill use of his Bounty as well as sometimes patiently to bear with them and wait upon them for a Reformation Must God be bad to himself to be kind to his Enemies And shall it be accounted an unkindness and a Mark of Evil in him not to suffer himself to be always outrag'd and defy'd The World is wrong'd by Sin as well as God is injur'd by it How could God be good to himself if he righted not his own Honour Or be a good Governour of the World if he did not sometimes witness against the Injuries it receives sometimes from the works of his hands Would he be good to himself as a God to be careless of his own Honour Or good as the Rector of the World and be regardless of the Worlds Confusion That God should give an Eternal good to that Creature that declines its Duty and despiseth his Soveraignty is not agreeable to the goodness of his Wisdom or that of his Righteousness 'T is a part of Gods Goodness to love himself Would he love his Soveraignty if he saw it dayly slighted without sometimes discovering how much he values the Honour of it Would he have any esteem for his own Goodness if he beheld it trampled upon without any will to vindicate it Doth Mercy deserve the name of Cruelty because it pleads against a Creature that hath so often abused it and hath refused to have any pity exercised towards it in a Righteous and Regular way Is Soveraignty destitute of Goodness because it preserves its Honour against one that would not have it Reign over him Would he not seem by such a regardlesness to renounce his own Essence undervalue and undermine his own Goodness if he had not an implacable aversion to whatsoever is contrary to it If Men turn Grace into Wantonness is it not more reasonable he should turn his Grace into Justice All his Attributes which are parts of his Goodness engage him to punish Sin without it his Authority would be vilified his Purity stain'd his Power derided his Truth disgraced his Justice scorn'd his Wisdom slighted He would be thought to have dissembled in his Laws and be judged according to the Rules of Reason to be void of true Goodness 4. Punishment is not the primary Intention of God 'T is his Goodness that he hath no mind to Punish and therefore he hath put a bar to Evil by his Prohibitions and Threatnings that he might prevent Sin and consequently any occasions of severity against his Creature * Zarnovecius de satisfact Part. 1. cap. 1. p. 3 4. The principal Intention of God in his Law was to encourage Goodness that he might reward it And when by the commission of Evil God is provoked to Punish and takes the Sword into his hand he doth not act against the Nature of his Goodness but against the first intention of his Goodness in his Precepts which was to Reward As a good Judge principally intendeds in the Exercise of his Office to protect good Men from Violence and maintain the honour of the Laws yet consequently to punish bad men without which the Protection of the good would not be secured nor the Honour of the Law be supported And a good Judge in the Exercise of his Office doth principally intend the incouragement of the good and wisheth there were no wickedness that might occasion Punishment and when he doth Sentence a Malefactor in order to the Execution of him he doth not act against the goodness of his Nature but pursuant to the Duty of his Place but wisheth he had no occasion for such severity Thus God seems to speak of himself †Isaiah 28.21 He calls the act of his Wrath his Strange Work his Strange Act A work not against his Nature as the Governor of the World but against his first Intention as Creator which was to manifest his Goodness Therefore he moves with a slow pace in those Acts brings out his Judgments with relentings of heart and seems to cast out his Thunderbolts with a trembling hand He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men * Lam. 3.33 And therefore he delights not in the death of a Sinner †Ezek. 33.11 Not in Death as Death in Punishment as Punishment but as it reduceth the suffering Creature to the Order of his Precept or reduceth him into order under his Power or reforms others who are Spectators of the Punishment upon a Criminal of their own Nature God only hates the Sin not the Sinner He desires only the destruction of the one * Suarez Vol. 1. de Deo lib. 3. cap. 7. p. 146. not the misery of the other The Nature of a Man doth not displease him because it is a work of his own Goodness but the Nature of the Sinner displeaseth him because it is a work of the Sinners own extravagance Divine Goodness pitcheth not its hatred primarily upon the Sinner but upon the Sin But since he cannot punish the Sin without punishing the Subject to which it cleaves the Sinner falls under his lash Who ever regards a good Judge as an Enemy to the Malefactor but as an Enemy to his Crime when he doth Sentence and Execute him 5. Judgments in the World have a goodness in them therefore they are no Impeachments of the Goodness of God 1. A Goodness in their preparations He
or Wisdom to have let Man perpetually wallow in that Sink wherein he had plung'd himself since he was Criminal by his own will and therefore Miserable by his own fault Nothing could necessitate this Reparation If Divine Goodness could not be obliged by the Angelical Dignity to repair that Nature he is further from any Obligation by the meaness of Man to repair Humane Nature There was less necessity to restore Man than to restore the fallen Angels What could Man do to oblige God to a Reparation of him since he could not render him a Recompence for his Goodness manifested in his Creation He must be much more impotent to render him a Debtor for the Redemption of him from Misery Could it be a salary for any thing we had done Alass we are so far from Meriting it that by our daily Demerits we seem ambitious to put a stop to any further Effusions of it We could not have complain'd of him if he had left us in the Misery we had courted since he was bound by no Law to bestow upon us the Recovery we wanted When the Apostle speaks of the Gospel of Redemption he giveth it the Title of the Gospel of the Blessed God †2 Tim. 1.11 It was the Gospel of a God abounding in his own Blessedness which receiv'd no addition by Mans Redemption If he had been blessed by it it had been a goodness to himself as well as to the Creature It was not an Indigent Goodness needing the receiving any thing from us but it was a pure Goodness streaming out of it self without bringing any thing into it self for the Perfection of it There was no Goodness in us to be the Motive of his Love but his Goodness was the Fountain of our Benefit 3. It was a distinct Goodness of the whole Trinity In the Creation of Man we find a general Consultation * Gen. 1.26 without those distinct Labours and Offices of each Person and without those rais'd Expressions and Marks of Joy and Triumph as at Mans Restoration In this there are distinct Functions The Grace of the Father the Merit of the Son and the Efficacy of the Spirit The Father makes the Promise of Redemption the Son Seals it with his Blood and the Spirit applies it The Father Adopts us to be his Children the Son Redeems us to be his Members and the Spirit Renews us to be his Temples In this the Father testifies himself well pleased in a Voice The Son proclaims his own delight to do the will of God and the Spirit hastens with the Wing of a Dove to fit him for his work And afterwards in his apparition in the likeness of Fiery Tongues manifests his zeal for the propagation of the Redeeming Gospel 4. The Effects of it proclaim his great Goodness 'T is by this we are deliver'd from the Corruption of our Nature the Ruine of our Happiness the deformity of our Sins and the punishment of our Transgressions He frees us from the Ignorance wherewith we were darkned and from the Slavery wherein we were fetter'd When he came to make Adams Process after his Crime instead of pronouncing the Sentence of Death he had merited he utters a Promise that Man could not have expected His Kindness swells above his provoked Justice and while he chaseth him out of Paradise he gives him hopes of regaining the same or a better Habitation and is in the whole more ready to prevent him with the Blessings of his Goodness than charge him with the horrour of his Crimes †Gen. 3.17 'T is a Goodness that pardons us more Transgressions than there are Moments in our Lives and overlooks as many Follies as there are Thoughts in our Heart He doth not only relieve our wants but restores us to our Dignity 'T is a greater Testimony of Goodness to instate a Person in the highest Honour than barely to supply his present Necessity 'T is an admirable Pity whereby he was inclin'd to Redeem us and an incomparable Affection whereby he was resolv'd to exalt us What can be desir'd more of him than his Goodness hath granted He hath sought us out when we were lost and Ransom'd us when we were Captives He hath Pardon'd us when we were Condemn'd and rais'd us when we were Dead In Creation he rear'd us from nothing in Redemption he delivers our Understanding from ignorance and vanity and our Wills from impotence and obstinacy and our whole Man from a Death worse than that nothing he drew us from by Creation 5. Hence we may consider the height of this Goodness in Redemption to exceed that in Creation He gave Man a Being in Creation but did not draw him from unexpressible Misery by that act His Liberality in the Gospel doth infinitely surpass what we admire in the Works of Nature His Goodness in the latter is more astonishing to our belief than his Goodness in Creation is visible to our Eye There is more of his Bounty exprest in that one Verse * Joh. 3.16 So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son than there is in the whole Volume of the World 'T is an incomprehensible so a so that all the Angels in Heaven cannot Analyze and few Comment upon or understand the dimensions of this so In Creation he form'd an Innocent Creature of the Dust of the Ground in Redemption he restores a Rebellious Creature by the Blood of his Son It is greater than that Goodness manifested in Creation 1. In regard of the difficulty of effecting it In Creation meer nothing was vanquisht to bring us into Being In Redemption sullen Enmity was conquer'd for the enjoyment of our Restoration In Creation he subdued a Nullity to make us Creatures In Redemption his Goodness overcomes his Omnipotent Justice to restore us to Felicity A word from the Mouth of Goodness inspir'd the Dust of Mens Bodies with a living Soul but the Blood of his Son must be shed and the Laws of Natural Affection seem to be overturn'd to lay the Foundation of our renew'd Happiness In the first Heaven did but speak and the Earth was form'd In the second Heaven it self must sink to Earth and be clothed with dusty Earth to reduce Mans Dust to its Original State 2. This Goodness is greater than that manifested in Creation in regard of its Cost This was a more expensive Goodness than what was laid out in Creation The redemption of one Soul is pretious †Psal 49.8 much more costly than the whole Fabrick of the World or as many Worlds as the understandings of Angels in their utmost extent can conceive to be Created For the effecting of this God parts with his dearest Treasure and his Son Eclipses his choicest Glory For this God must be made Man Eternity must suffer Death the Lord of Angels must weep in a Cradle and the Creator of the World must hang like a Slave he must be in a Manger in Bethlehem and die upon a Cross on
Calvary Unspotted Righteousness must be made Sin and unblemisht Blessedness be made a Curse He was at no other Expence than the Breath of his Mouth to form Man the Fruits of the Earth could have maintained Innocent Man without any other Cost but his broken Nature cannot be heal'd without the invaluable Medicine of the Blood of God View Christ in the Womb and in the Manger in his weary Steps and hungry Bowels in his Prostrations in the Garden and in his clodded drops of Bloody Sweat View his Head pierced with a Crown of Thorns and his Face besmeared with the Soldiers Slabber View him in his march to Calvary and his Elevation on the painful Cross with his Head hanged down and his Side streaming Blood View him pelted with the Scoffs of the Governours and the Derisions of the Rabble And see in all this what Cost Goodness was at for Mans Redemption In Creation his Power made the Sun to shine upon us and in Redemption his Bowels sent a Son to die for us 3. This Goodness of God in Redemption is greater than that manifested in Creation in regard of Mans desert of the contrary In the Creation as thre was nothing without him to allure him to the Expressions of his Bounty so there was nothing that did damp the Inclinations of his Goodness The nothing from whence the World was drawn could never merit nor demerit a Being because it was nothing As there was nothing to engage him so there was nothing to disoblige him As his Favour could not be merited so neither could his Anger be deserved But in this he finds ingratitude against the former Marks of his Goodness and Rebellion against the sweetness of his Soveraignty Crimes unworthy of the dews of Goodness and worthy of the sharpest stroaks of Vengeance And therefore the Scripture advanceth the honour of it above the Title of meer Goodness to that of Grace * Rom. 5.2 Tit. 2.11 because Men were not only unworthy of a Blessing but worthy of a Curse An Innocent Nothing more deserves Creation than a Culpable Creature deserves an exemption from Destruction When Man fell and gave occasion to God to repent of his Created Work his ravishing Goodness surmounted the occasions he had of repenting and the provocations he had to the destruction of his Frame 4. It was a greater Goodness than was exprest towards the Angels 1. A greater Goodness than was exprest towards the standing Angels The Son of God did no more expose his Life for the confirmation of those that stood than for the restoration of those that fell The Death of Christ was not for the holy Angels but for sinful Man They needed the Grace of God to confirm them but not the Death of Christ to restore or preserve them They had a beloved Holiness to be established by the powerful Grace of God but not any abominable Sin to be expiated and blotted out by the Blood of God They had no Debt to pay but that of Obedience but we had both a Debt of Obedience to the Precepts and a Debt of Suffering to the Penalty after the Fall Whether the holy Angels were confirm'd by Christ or no is a question some think they were from Colos 1.20 where things in Heaven are said to be reconcil'd but some think that place signifies no more than the Reconciliation of things in Heaven if meant of the Angels to things on Earth with whom they were at enmity in the Cause of their Soveraign or the Reconciliation of things in Heaven to God is meant the glorified Saints who were once in a State of Sin and whom the Death of Christ upon the Cross reached though dead long before But if Angels were confirm'd by Christ it was by him not as a slain Sacrifice but as the Soveraign head of the whole Creation appointed by God to gather all things into one which some think to be the intendment of Ephes 1.10 where all things as well those in Heaven as those in Earth are said to be gathered together in one in Christ Where is a syllable in Scripture of his being Crucified for Angels but only for Sinners Not for the Confirmation of the one but the Reconciliation of the other So that the Goodness whereby God continued those Blessed Spirits in Heaven through the effusions of his Grace is a small thing to the restoring us to our forfeited Happiness through the Streams of Divine Blood The preserving a Man in life is a little thing and a smaller benefit than the raising a Man from Death The rescuing a Man from an ignominious Punishment lays a greater obligation than barely to prevent him from committing a capital Crime The preserving a Man standing upon the top of a steep Hill is more easie than to bring a Crippled and Tissical Man from the bottom to the top The continuance God gave to the Angels is not so signal a Mark of Goodness as the deliverance he gave to us since they were not sunk into Sin nor by any Crime fallen into Misery 2. His Goodness in Redemption is greater than any Goodness expressed to the Fallen Angels 'T is the wonder of his Goodness to us that he was mindful of Fall'n Man and careless of Fall'n Angels That he should visit Man wallowing in Death and Blood with the Day-spring from on high and never turn the Aegyptian darkness of Devils into a chearful day When they Sinn'd Divine Thunder dasht them into Hell When Man Sinn'd Divine Blood wafts the Fallen Creature from his Misery The Angels wallow in their own Blood for ever while Christ is made partaker of our Blood and wallows in his Blood that we might not for ever corrupt in ours They tumbled down from Heaven and Divine Goodness would not vouchsafe to catch them Man tumbles down and Divine Goodness holds out a hand drencht in the Blood of him that was from the Foundations of the World to lift us up Heb. 2.16 He spared not those dignified Spirits when they Revolted and spared not punishing his Son for dusty Man when he offended when he might as well for ever have let Man lie in the Chains wherein he had intangled himself as them We were as fit Objects of Justice as they and they as fit Objects of Goodness as we they were not more wretched by their Fall than we and the poverty of our Nature rendred us more unable to recover our selves than the dignity of theirs did them They were his Reuben his first born they were his Might and the beginning of his Strength yet those Elder Sons he neglected to prefer the Younger They were the Prime and Golden Pieces of Creation not laden with gross Matter yet they lie under the Ruines of their Fall while Man Lead in comparison of them is refin'd for another World They seem'd to be fitter Objects of Divine Goodness in regard of the eminency of their Nature above the Humane One Angel excelled in Endowments of Mind and Spirit vastness of
'T is true Christ gave himself but by the order of Divine Goodness he that begat him pitcht upon him and call'd him to this great work †Heb. 5.5 He is therefore call'd the Lamb of God as being set apart by God to be a propitiating and appeasing Sacrifice He is the Wisdom of God since from the Father he reveals the Councel and Order of Redemption In this regard he calls God his God in the Prophet * Isaiah 49.4 and in the Evangelist †Joh. 20.17 though he was big with affection for the accomplishment yet he came not to do his own will but the will of Divine Goodness His own will it was too but not principally as being the first Wheel in Motion but subordinate to the eternal will of Divine Bounty It was by the will of God that he came and by his will he drank the dreggy Cup of Bitterness Divine Justice laid upon him the iniquity of us all but Divine Goodness intended it for our Rescue Divine Goodness singled him out and set him apart Divine Goodness invited him to it Divine Goodness commanded him to effect it and put a Law into his heart to biass him in the performing of it Divine Goodness sent him and Divine Goodness moved Justice to bruise him and after his Sacrifice Divine Goodness accepted him and caressed him for it So earnest was it for our Redemption as to give out special and irreversible Orders Death was commanded to be endured by him for us and Life commanded to be imparted by him to us * John 10.10 18. If God had not been the Mover but had received the proposal from another he might have heard it but was not bound to grant it His Soveraign Authority was not under any obligation to receive anothers Sponsion for the miserable Criminal As Christ is the head of Man so God is the head of Christ †1 Cor. 11.3 He did nothing but by his directions as he was not a Mediator but by the Constitution of Divine Goodness As a liberal Man deviseth liberal things * Isaiah 2.8 so did a bountiful God devise a bountiful act wherein his kindness and love as a Saviour appeared He was possessed with the resolutions to manifest his Goodness in Christ in the beginning of his way †Prov. 8.22 23. before he descended to the act of Creation This intention of Goodness preceded his making that Creature Man who he foresaw would fall and by his fall disjoynt and entangle the whole Frame of the World without such a provision 2. In Gods giving Christ to be our Redeemer he gave the highest gift that it was possible for Divine Goodness to bestow As there is not a greater God than himself to be conceiv'd so there is not a greater Gift for this great God to present to his Creatures Never did God go farther in any of his excellent Perfections than this 'T is such a Dole that cannot be transcended with a choicer He is as it were come to the last Mite of his Treasure And though he could Create Millions of Worlds for us he cannot give a greater Son to us He could abound in the expressions of his Power in new Creations of Worlds which have not yet been seen and in the lustre of his Wisdom in more stately Structures but if he should frame as many Worlds as there are Mites of Dust and Matter in this and make every one of them as bright and glorious as the Sun Though his Power and Wisdom would be more signalized yet his Goodness could not since he hath not a choicer Gift to bless those brighter Worlds withall than he hath conferr'd upon this Nor can Immense Goodness contrive a richer means to conduct those Worlds to Happiness than he hath both invented for this World and presented it with It cannot be imagin'd that it can extend it self farther than to give a Gift equal with himself a Gift as dear to him as himself His Wisdom had it studied millions of Eternities excuse the Expression since Eternity admits of no Millions it being an interminable duration it could have found out no more to give this Goodness could have bestow'd no more and our necessity could not have requir'd a greater offering for our relief When God intended in Redemption the manifestation of his highest Goodness it could not be without the Donation of the choicest Gift As when he would ensure our Comfort he swears by himself because he cannot swear by a greater * Heb. 6.13 So when he would ensure our Happiness he gives us his Son because he cannot give a greater being equal with himself Had the Father given himself in Person he had given one first in order but not greater in Essence and glorious Perfections It could have been no more than the life of God that should then have been laid down for us and so it was now since the Humane Nature did not subsist but in his Divine Person 1. 'T is a greater Gift than Worlds or all things purchased by him What was this Gift but the Image of his Person and the brightness of his Glory †Heb. 1.3 What was this Gift but one as rich as Eternal Blessedness could make him What was this Gift but one that possessed the fulness of Earth and the more Immense Riches of Heaven 'T is a more valuable Present than if he presented us with thousands of Worlds of Angels and inferior Creatures because his Person is incomparably greater not only than all conceivable but inconceivable Creations We are more obliged to him for it than if he had made us Angels of the highest Rank in Heaven because it is a Gift of more value than the whole Angelical Nature because he is an infinite Person and therefore infinitely transcends whatsoever is finite though of the highest Dignity The Wounds of an Almighty God for us are a greater Testimony of Goodness than if we had all the other Riches of Heaven and Earth This Perfection had not appeared in such an astonishing grandeur had it pardon'd us without so rich a satisfaction that had been pardon to our Sin not a God of our Nature God so loved the World that he pardon'd it had not sounded so great and so good as God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Est aliquid in Christo formosius Servatore There is something in Christ more Excellent and Comely than the Office of a Saviour the greatness of his Person is more Excellent than the Salvation procured by his Death It was a greater Gift than was bestow'd upon innocent Adam or the holy Angels In the Creation his Goodness gave us Creatures for our use In our Redemption his Goodness gives us what was dearest to him for our Service our Soveraign in Office to benefit us as well as in a Royalty to govern us 2. It was a greater Gift because it was his own Son Not an Angel It had been a mighty
to King Redeemer He hath revok'd the Law of works as a Covenant releas'd the penalty of it from the beleiving sinner by transferring it upon the surety who interpos'd himself by his own will and divine designation He hath establish'd another Covenant upon other promises in a higher root with greater Priviledges and easier terms Had not God had this right of Soveraignty not a man of Adam's posterity could have been blessed he and they must have lain groaning under the misery of the fall which had render'd both himself and all in his Loyns unable to observe the Terms of the first Covenant He hath as some speak dispens'd with his own Moral Law in some cases in commanding Abraham to Sacrifice his Son his only Son a Righteous Son a Son whereof he had the promise that in Isaac should his Seed be call'd yet he was commanded to Sacrifice him by the right of his absolute Soveraignty as the supream Lord of the Lives of his Creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest Worm whereby he bound his Subjects to this Law not himself Our Lives are due to him when he calls for them and they are a just forâ—â—it to him at the very moment we sin at the very moment we come into the World by reason of the venom of our nature against him and the disturbance the first sin of man whereof we are inheritors gave to his Glory Had Abraham sacrificed his Son of his own head he had sinned yea in attempting it but being Authoriz'd from Heaven his act was Obedience to the Soveraign of the World who had a power to dispense with his own Law and with this Law he had before dispens'd in the case of Cains Murder of Abel as to the immediate punishment of it with death which indeed was setled afterwards by his Authority but then omitted because of the paucity of men and for the peopling the World but setled afterwards when there was almost though not altogether the like occasion of omitting it for a time 3. His Soveraignty appears in punishing the Transgression of his Law 1. This is a branch of Gods Dominion as Lawgiver So was the vengeance God would take upon the Amalekites Exod. 17.16 The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have War The Hebrew is the hand upon the Throne of the Lord as in the margent As a Lawgiver he saves or destroyes James 4.12 He acts according to his own Law in a congruity to the sanction of his own precepts though he be an Arbitrary Lawgiver appointing what Laws he pleases yet he is not an Arbitrary Judge As he commands nothing but what he hath a right to command so he punisheth none but whom he hath a right to punish and with such punishment as the Law hath denounced All his acts of Justice and inflictions of Curses are the effects of this Soveraign Dominion Psal 29.10 He sits King upon the Flouds Upon the deluge of Waters wherewith he drown'd the World say some 'T is a right belonging to the Authority of Magistrates to pull up the infectious weeds that corrupt a Common-Wealth 'T is no less the right of God as the Lawgiver and Judge of all the Earth to subject Criminals to his vengeance after they have rendered themselves abominable in his Eyes and carried themselves unworthy Subjects of so great and glorious a King The first name whereby God is made known in Scripture is Elohim Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God Created the Heaven and Earth A name which signifies his power of judging in the opinion of some Criticks from him it is deriv'd to earthly Magistrates their Judgment is said therefore to be the Judgement of God Deut. 1.17 When Christ came he propos'd this great motive of Repentance from the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand the Kingdom of his Grace whereby to invite men the Kingdom of his Justice in the punishment of the neglecters of it whereby to terrifie men Punishments as well as Rewards belong to Royalty it issued accordingly those that believ'd and repented came under his gracious Scepter those that neglected and rejected it fell under his Iron Rod. Jerusalem was destroy'd the Temple demolish'd the Inhabitants lost their lives by the edge of the Sword or linger'ed them out in the chains of a miserable Captivity This term of Judge which signifies a Soveraign right to govern and punish Delinquents Abraham gives him when 〈◊〉 came to root out the People of Sodom and make them the examples of his veâ—geance Gen. 18.25 2. Punishing the Transgressions of his Law This is necessary branch of Dominion His Soveraignty in making Laws would be a trifle if there were not also an Authority to vindicate those Laws from Contempt and Injury he would be a Lord only spurn'd at by Rebels Soveraignty is not preserved without Justice When the Psalmist speaks of the Majesty of God's Kingdom he tells us that Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of his Throne Psal 97.1 2. These are the Engines of Divine dignity which render him glorious and majestick A Legislative power would be trampled on without executive by this the reverential apprehensions of God are preserved in the Wâ—rld He is known to be Lord of the World by the Judgements which he executes Psal 9.16 When he seems to have lost his dominion or given it up in the World he recovers it by punishment When he takes some away with a Whirlwind and in his Wrath the natural consequence men make of it is this Surely there is a God that Judgeth the Earth Psal 58.9.11 He reduceth the Creature by the lash of his judgments that would not acknowledge his Authority in his precepts Those sins which disown his Government in the Heart and Conscience as Pride inward blasphemy c. he hath reserved a time hereafter to reckon for He doth not presently shoot his arrows into the marrow of every delinquent but those sins which traduce his Government of the World and tear up the Foundations of humane converse and a publick respect to him he reckons with particularly here as well as hereafter that the Life of his Soveraignty might not always faint in the World 3. This of punishing was the second discovery of his dominion in the World His first act of Soveraignty was the giving a Law the next his appearance in the State of a judge When his orders were violated he rescues the honour of them by an execution of Justice He first judg'd the Angels punishing the evil ones for their crime the first Court he kept among them as a Governour was to give them a Law the second Court he kept was as a Judge trying the Delinquents and adjudging the Offenders to be reserved in Chains of darkness till the final Execution Jude 6. And at the same time probably he confirmed the good ones in their obedience by Grace So the first discovery of his dominion to man was the giving him a precept the next was the inflicting a punishment for the
breach of it He summons Adam to the Bar indicts him for his Crime finds him guilty by his own Confession and passeth sentence on him according to the rule he had before acquainted him with 4. The means whereby he punisheth shews his dominion Sometimes he musters up Hail and Mildew sometimes he sends regiments of wild Beasts so he threatens Israel Levit. 26.22 Sometimes he sends out a party of Angels to beat up the quarters of men and make a carnage among them 2 King 19.35 Sometimes he mounts his Thundring battery and shoots forth his Ammunition from the Clouds as against the Philistines 1 Sam. 7.10 Sometimes he sends the slightest Creatures to shame the Pride and punish the sin of man as Lice Froggs Locusts as upon the Egyptians the 8 9 10. chap. of Exodus 2. This Dominion is manifested by God as a proprietor and Lord of his Creatures and his own Goods And this is evident 1. In the choice of some persons from Eternity He hath set a part some from Eternity wherein he will display the invincible efficacy of his Grace and thereby infallibly bring them to the fruition of Glory Eph. 1.4 5. According as he hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World that we should be Holy and without blame before him in Love having Predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Why doth he write some names in the Book of Life and leave out others why doth he enroll some whom he intends to make Denizons of Heaven and refuse to put others in his register The Apostle tells us 't is the pleasure of his Will You may render a reason for many of God's actions till you come to this the top and Foundadation of all and under what head of reason can man reduce this act but to that of his Royal Prerogative Why doth God save some and condemn others at last Because of the Faith of the one and unbelief of the other Why do some men beleive Because God hath not only given them the means of Grace but accompanied those means with the efficacy of his Spirit Why did God accompany those means with the efficacy of his Spirit in some and not in others Bccause he had decreed by Grace to prepare them for Glory But why did he decree or choose some and not others Into what will you resolve this but into his soveraign pleasure Salvation and Condemnation at the last upshot are acts of God as the Judge conformable to his own Law of giving life to Believers and inflicting death upon unbeleivers for those a reason may be rendered but the choice of some and preterition of others is an act of God as he is a soveraign Monarch before any Law was actually transgrest because not actually given When a Prince redeems a Rebel he acts as a Judge according to Law but when he calls some out to pardon he acts as a soveraign by a Prerogative above Law into this the Apostle resolves it Rom. 9.13.15 When he speaks of Gods loving Jacob and hating Esau and that before they had done either good or evil It is Because God will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and Compassion on whom he will have Compassion Though the first scope of the Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter was to declare the reason of God's rejecting the Jews and calling in the Gentiles had he only intended to demolish the pride of the Jews and flat their opinion of merit and aim'd no higher than that Providential act of God he might convincingly enough to the reason of men have argued from the Justice of God provoked by the obstinacy of the Jews and not have had recourse to his absolute Will but since he asserts this latter * Amyrald dissert p. 101 102. the strength of his argument seems to lie thus if God by his absolute soveraignty may resolve and fix his love upon Jacob and estrange it from Esau or any other of his Creatures before they have done good or evil and man have no ground to call his infinite Majesty to account may he not deal thus with the Jews when their demerit would be a barr to any complaints of the Creature against him If God were considered here in the quality of a Judge it had been fit to have considered the matter of Fact in the Criminal but he is considered as a Soveraign rendring no other reason of his action but his own Will whom he will he hardens ver 18. And then the Apostle concludes Ver. 20. Who art thou O Man that replyest against God If the reason drawn from Gods Soveraignty doth not satisfie in this enquiry no other reason can be found wherein to acquiesce For the last condemnation there will be sufficient reason to clear the Justice of his proceedings But in this case of Election no other reason but what is alledg'd viz. The Will of God can be thought of but what is liable to such knotty exceptions that cannot well be untyed 1. It could not be any merit in the Creature that might determine God to choose him If the decree of Election falls not under the merit of Christ's passion as the procuring cause it cannot fall under the merit of any part of the corrupted mass The decree of sending Christ did not precede but follow'd in order of nature the determination of choosing some When men were chosen as the subjects for Glory Christ was chosen as the means for the bringing them to Glory Eph. 1.4 Chosen us in him and predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ The choice was not meerly in Christ as the moving cause that the Apostle asserts to be the good pleasure of his will but in Christ as the means of conveying to the chosen Ones the fruits of their Election What could there be in any man that could invite Gpd to this act or be a cause of distinction of one branch of Adam from another Were they not all hew'd out of the same Rock and tainted with the same corruption in blood Had it been possible to invest them with a power of merit at the first had not that venom contracted in their nature degraded all of power for the future What merit was there in any but of wrathfull punishment since they were all considered as Criminals and the cursed brood of an ungrateful Rebel what dignity can there be in the nature of the purest part of clay to be made a Vessel of Honour more than in another part of Clay as pure as that which was form'd into a Vessel for mean and sordid use What had any one to move his mercy more than another since they were all Children of wrath and equally dawb'd with Original guilt and filth Had not all an equal proportion of it to provoke his Justice What merit is there in one dry bone more than another to be inspir'd with the breath
Why did he give Grace to Abel and not to Cain since they both lay in the same womb and equally deriv'd from their Parents a taint in their Nature But that he would show a standing example of his Soveraignty to the future ages of the World in the first posterity of man Why did he give Grace to Abraham and separate him from his Idolatrous Kindred to dignifie him to be the root of the Messiah Why did he confine his promise to Isaac and not extend it to Ishmael the Seed of the same Abraham by Hagar or to the Children he had by Keturah after Sarahs death What reason can be alledged for this but his Soveraign Will Why did he not give the fallen Angels a moment of Repentance after their sin but condemned them to irrevocable pains Is it not as free for him to give Grace to whom he please as Create what Worlds he please to form this corrupted clay into his own Image as to take such a parcel of dust from all the rest of the Creation whereof to compact Adam's body Hath he not as much jurisdiction over the sinful mass of his Creatures in a new Creation as he had over the Chaos in the old And what reason can be rendered of his advancing this part of matter to the nobler dignity of a Star and leaving that other part to make up the dark body of the Earth To compact one part into a glorious Sun and another part into a hard Rock but his Royal Prerogative What is the reason a Prince subjects one Malefactor to punishment and lifts up another to a place of truth and profit That Pharoah honoured the Butler with an attendance on his Person and remitted the Baker to the hands of the Executioner It was his pleasure And is not as great a right due to God as is allow'd to the worms of the Earth What is the reason he hardens a Pharoah by a denying him that Grace which should mollifie him and allows it to another 'T is because he will Rom. 9.18 Whom he will he hardens Hath not man the liberty to pull up the sluce and let the water run into what part of the ground he pleases What is the reason some have not a heart to understand the beauty of his ways Because the Lord doth not give it them Deut. 29.4 Why doth he not give all his converts an equal measure of his sanctifying Grace some have Mites and some have Treasures Why doth he give his Grace to some sooner to some later some are inspir'd in their infancy others not till a full age and after some not till they have fallen into some gross sin as Paul some betimes that they may do him service others later as the Thief upon the Cross and presently snatcheth them out of the World Some are weaker some stronger in nature some more beautiful and lovely others more uncomely and sluggish 'T is so in supernaturals What reason is there for this but his own will This is instead of all that can be assigned on the part of God He is the free disposer of his own Goods and as a Father may give a greater portion to one Child than to another And what reason of complaint is there against God may not a Toad complain that God did not make it a man and give it a portion of reason Or a Fly complain that God did not make it an Angel and give it a Garment of Light had they but any spark of understanding as well as man complain that God did not give him Grace as well as another Unless he sincerely desir'd it and then was denyed it he might complain of God though not as Soveraign yet as a promiser of Grace to them that ask it God doth not render his Soveraignty formidable he shuts not up his Throne of Grace from any that seek him he invites man his Arms are open and the Scepter stretched out and no man continues under the arrest of his Lusts but he that is unwilling to be otherwise and such a one hath no reason to complain of God 3. His Soveraignty is manifest in disposing the means of Grace to some not to all He hath caus'd the Sun to shine bright in one place while he hath left others benighted and deluded by the Devils Oracles Why do the Evangelical dews fall in this or that place and not in another Why was the Gospel publisht in Rome so soon and not in Tartary Why hath it been extinguisht in some places as soon almost as it had been kindled in them Why hath one place been honoured with the beams of it in one age and been covered with darkness the next One Country hath been made a sphear for this Star that directs to Christ to move in and afterwards it hath been taken away and placed in another Sometimes more clearly it hath shone sometimes more darkly in the same place what is the reason of this 'T is true something of it may be referred to the Justice of God but much more to the Soveraignty of God That the Gospel is publisht latter and not sooner the Apostle tell us is according to the Commandement of the Everlasting God Rom. 16.26 1. The means of Grace after the Families from Adam became distinct were never granted to all the World After that fatal breach in Adam's Family by the death of Abel and Cain's separation we read not of the means of Grace continued among Cain's Posterity it seems to be continued in Adam's sole Family and not publisht in Societies till the time of Seth. Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. It was continued in that Family till the Deluge which was 1523 years after the Creation according to some or 1656 years according to others After that when the World degenerated it was communicated to Abraham and setled in the posterity that descended from Jacob Though he left not the World without a witness of himself and some sprinklings of revelations in other parts as appears by the book of Job and the discourses of his Friends 2. The Jews had this priviledge granted them above other Nations to have a clearer Revelation of God God separated them from all the World to honour them with the depositum of his Oracles Rom. 3.2 To them were committed the Oracles of God In which regard all other Nations are said to be without God as being destitute of so great a priviledge Eph. 2.12 The Spirit blew in Canaan when the Lands about it felt not the saving breath of it He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Psal 147.20 The rest had no warnings from the Prophets no dictates from Heaven but what they had by the light of Nature the view of the works of Creation and the Administration of Providence and what remain'd among them of some ancient Traditions deriv'd from Noah which in tract of time were much defaced We read but
as he would have done those sinners in whose stead he suffer'd Without this Act of Soveraignty in God we had for ever perished For if we could suppose Christ laying down his life for us without the pleasure and order of God he could not have been said to have born our punishment What could he have undergone in his Humanity but a temporal death but more than this was due to us even the wrath of God which far exceeds the calamity of a meer bodily death The Soul being principal in the crime was to be principal in the punishment The wrath of God could not have dropt upon his Soul and render'd it so full of Agonies without the hand of God A creature is not capable to reach the Soul neither as to comfort nor terror and the Justice of God could not have made him a sufferer if it had not first consider'd him a sinner by imputation or by inhaerency and actual commission of a crime in his own person The latter was far from Christ who was holy harmless and undefiled He must be considered then in the other state of imputation which could not be without a Soveraign appointment or at least concession of God For without it he could have had no more Authority to lay down his life for us than Abraham could have had to have sacrific'd his son or any man to expose himself to death without a call Nor could any Plea have been entred in the Court of Heaven either by Christ for us or by us for our selves And though the death of so great a person had been meritorious in it self it had not been meritorious for us or accepted for us Christ is deliver'd up by him Rom. 8.32 in every part of that condition wherein he was and suffer'd and to that end that we might become the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 That we might have the Righteousness of him that was God imputed to us or that we might have a Righteousness as great and proportion'd to the Righteousness of God as God requir'd It was an act of Divine Soveraignty to account him that was Righteous a sinner in our stead and to account us who were sinners Righteous upon the merit of his death 4. This was done by the command of God by God as a Law-giver having the supream Legislative and Praeceptive Authority In which respect the whole work of Christ is said to be an answer to a Law not one given him but put into his heart as the Law of nature was in the heart of man at first Psal 40.7 8. Thy Law is within my heart This Law was not the Law of Nature or Moral Law though that was also in the heart of Christ but the command of doing those things which were necessary for our Salvation and not a command so much of doing as of dying The Moral Law in the heart of Christ would have done us no good without the Mediatory Law We had been where we were by the sole observance of the Precepts of the Moral Law without his suffering the penalty of it The Law in the heart of Christ was the Law of suffering or dying the doing that for us by his death which the blood of Sacrifices was unable to effect Legal Sacrifices thou would'st not thy Law is within my heart i. e. thy Law ordered me to be a Sacrifice It was that Law his obedience to which was principally accepted and esteem'd and that was principally his passive his obedience to death Phil. 2.8 This was the special command received from God that he should dye John 10.18 'T is not so clearly manifested when this command was given whither after the incarnation of Christ or at the point of his constitution as Mediator upon the transaction between the father and the son concerning the affair of Redemption The promise was given before the World began Tit. 1.2 Might not the Precept be given before the World began to Christ as consider'd in the quality of Mediator and Redeemer Precepts and Promises usually attend one another Every Covenant is made up of both Christ consider'd here as the Son of God in the Divine Nature was not capable of a command or promise but consider'd in the relation of Mediator between God and Man he was capable of both Promises of Assistance were made before his actual incarnation of which the Prophets are full why not Precepts for his obedience since long before his incarnation this was his speech in the Prophet thy Law is within my heart However a command a law it was which is a fruit of the Divine Soveraignty That as the Soveraignty of God was impeached and violated by the disobedience of Adam it might be own'd and vindicated by the obedience of Christ That as we fell by disloyalty to it we might rise by the highest submission to it in another head infinitely superior in his person to Adam by whom we fell 5. This Soveraignty of God appears in exalting Christ to such a Soveraign dignity as our Redeemer * Lessius de perfect divin lib. 10. p. 65. Some indeed say that this Soveraignty of Christ's Humane Nature was natural and the right of it resulted from its Union with the Divine as a Lady of mean condition when Espous'd and Marryed to a Prince hath by virtue of that a natural right to some kind of jurisdiction over the whole Kingdom because she is one with the King But to wave this the Scripture placeth wholly the conferring such an Authority upon the pleasure and will of God As Christ was a gift of God's Soveraign will to us so this was a gift of God's Soveraign will to Christ Matt. 28.28 All power is given me And he gave him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 God gave him a name above every name Phil. 2.9 And therefore his Throne he sits upon is call'd the Throne of his Father Rev. 3.21 And he committed all Judgment to the Son i. e. All Government and Dominion An Empire in Heaven and Earth Joh. 5.22 and that because he is the son of Man v. 27. which may be understood that the Father hath given him Authority to exercise that Judgment and Government as the son of man which he Originally had as the son of God or rather because he became a servant and humbled himself to death he gives him this Authority as the reward of his Obedience and Humility conformable to Phil. 2.9 This is an act of the high Soveraignty of God to obscure his own Authority in a sence and take into association with him or vicarious subordination to him the Humane Nature of Christ as united to the Divine Not only lifting it above the heads of all the Angels but giving that person in our nature an Empire over them whose nature was more excellent than ours Yea the Soveraignty of God appears in the whole management of this Kingly Office of Christ for it is managed in every part of it
Province a Rebel if he disobeys the Orders sent him by the soveraign Prince that commission'd him Rebellion against God is a crime of Princes as well as Rebellion against Princes a Crime of Subjects Saul is charg'd with it by Samuel in a high manner for an act of simple disobedience though intended for the service of God and the enriching his Country with the spoils of the Amalekites 1 Sam. 15.23 Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft like Witchcraft or Covenanting with the Divel acting as if he had received his commission not from God but from Sathan Magistrates as commission'd by God ought to act for him Doth humane authority ever give a Commission to any to rebel against it self did God ever depute any earthly soveraignty against his glory and give them leave to out-law his Laws to introduce their own No when he gave the vicarious dominion to Christ he calls upon the Kings of the Earth to be instructed and be Wise and kiss the Son Psal 2.10.12 i. e. To observe his orders and pay him homage as their Governour What a silly doltish thing is it to resist that supream Authority to which the Arch-Angels submit themselves and regulate their employments punctually by their instructions Those excellent Creatures exactly obey him in all the acts of their subordinate Government in the World those in whose hand the greatest Monarch is no more than a silly fly between the fingers of a Giant A contradiction to the interest of God hath been fatal to Kings The four Monarchies have had their wings clipt and most of them have been buried in their own ashes they have all like the imitators of Lucifers pride fallen from the Heaven of their Glory to the depth of their shame and misery All Governours are bound to be as much obedient to God as their Subjects are bound to be submissive to them Their Authority over men is limited Gods Authority over them is absolute and unbounded Though every Soul ought to be subject to the higher powers yet there is a higher power of all to which those higher powers are to subject themselves they are to be keepers of both the Tables of the Law of God and are then most soveraigns when they set in their own practice an example of obedience to God for their Subjects to write after 2. They ought to imitate God in the exercise of their soveraignty in ways of Justice and Righteousness Though God be an absolute soveraign yet his Government is not Tyrannical but managed according to the rules of Righteousness Wisdom and Goodness If God that created them as well as their Subjects doth so exercise his Government 't is a duty incumbent upon them to do the same Since they are not the Creators of their people but the conductors As Gods Government tends to the good of the World so ought theirs to the good of their Countries God committed not the government of the World to the Mediator in an unlimited way but for the good of the Church in order to the Eternal Salvation of his people Eph. 1.22 He gave him to be head over all things to the Church He had power over the Devils to restrain them in their temptation and malice power over the Angels to order their Ministry for the Heirs of Salvation So power is given to Magistrates for the Civil preservation of the World and of humane Society They ought therefore to consider for what ends they are placed over the rest of mankind and not exercise their Authority in a licentious way but conformable to that Justice and Righteousness wherein God doth administer his government and for the preservation of those who are committed to them 3. Magistrates must then be obey'd when they act according to Gods order and within the bounds of the divine Commission They are no friends to the soveraignty of God that are Enemies to Magistracy his Ordinance Sam was a good Governour though none of the best men and the despisers of his Government after Gods choice were the Sons of Belial 1 Sam. 10.27 Christ was no Enemy to Caesar To pull down a faithful Magistrate such an one as Zerubbabel is to pluck a Signet from the hand of God For in that capacity he accounts him Hag. 2.23 Gods servants stand or fall to their own Master How doth he check Aaron and Miriam for speaking against Moses his servant Numb 12.8 Were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses against Moses as related to you in the capacity of a Governour against Moses as related to me in the capacity of my servant To speak any thing against them as they act by Gods order is an invasion of Gods soveraign right who gave them their Commission To act against just power or the justice of an Earthly power is to act against Gods Ordinance who ordained them in the World but not any abuse or ill use of their power 2. USE How dreadful is the consideration of this doctrine to all rebels against God Can any man that hath brains in his head imagine it an inconsiderable thing to despise the soveraign of the World It was the sole crime of disobedience to that positive Law whereby God would have a visible memorial of his soveraignty preserved in the eye of Man that showered down that deluge of misery under which the World groans to this day God had given Adam a Soul whereby he might live as a rational Creature and then gives him a Law whereby he might live as a dutiful Subject For God forbidding him to eat of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil declared his own supremacy over Adam and his propriety in the pleasant World he had given him by his bounty he let him know hereby that man was not his own Lord nor was to live after his own sentiments but the directions of a superior * Chrysost in Gen. Hom. 16. As when a great Lord builds a magnificent Palace and brings in tanoher to inhabit it he reserves a small duty to himself not of an equal value with the House but for an acknowledgment of his own right that the Tenant may know he is not the Lord of it but hath his grant by the liberality of another God hereby gave Adam matter for a pure Obedience that had no foundation in his own Nature by any implanted Law he was only in it to respect the will of his soveraign and to understand that he was to live under the power of a higher than himself There was no more moral evil in the eating of this fruit as considered distinct from the command than in eating of any other fruit in the Garden Had there been no prohibition he might with as much safety have fed upon it as upon any other No Law of nature was transgrest in the act of eating of it but the soveraignty of God over him was denied by him and for this the death threatned was inflicted on him and his posterity For
though Divines take notice of other sins in the fall of Adam yet God in his tryal chargeth him with none but this and doth put upon his question an Emphasis of his own Authority Gen. 3.11 Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded ye that thou shoâ—ld'st not eat This I am displeased with that thou shouldest disown my dominion over thy self and this Garden This was the inlet to all the other sins as the acknowledgment of God's soveraignty is the first step to the practice of all the duties of a Creature so the disowning his soveraignty is the first spring of all the extravagancies of a Creature Every sin against the soveraign Law-giver is worthy of Death The Transgression of this positive command desâ—rved death and procured it to spread it self over the face of the World God's dominion cannot be despis'd without meriting the greatest punishment 1. Punishment necessarily follows upon the Doctrine of Soveraignty 'T is a faint and a feeble Soveraignty that cannot preserve it self and vindicate its own wrongs against râ—bellious subjects The height of God's dominion infers a vengeance on the contemners of it If God be an Eternal King he is an Eternal Judge Since sin unlinks the dependance between God the Soveraign and man the subject if God did not vindicate the rights of his Soveraignty and the Authority of his Law he would seem to despise his own dominion be weary of it and not act the part of a good Governour But God is tender of his prerogative and doth most bestir himself when men exalt themselves proudly against him Exod. 18.11 In the thing wherein they dealt proudly he will be above them When Pharaoh thought himself a mate for God and proudly rejected his commands as if they had been the messages of some petty Arabian Lord God rights his own Authority upon the life of his enemy by the ministry of the Red Sea He turned a great King into a beast to make him know that the most high ruled in the Kingdoms of men Dan. 4.16 17. The demand is by the word of the Holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men And that by the Petitions of the Angels who cannot endure that the Empire of God should be obscur'd and diminisht by the pride of man Besides the tender respect he hath to his own glory he is constantly presented with the sollicitations of the Angels to punish the proud ones of the earth that darken the glory of his Majesty 'T is necessary for the rescue of his honour and necessary for the satisfaction of his illustrious attendants who would think it a shame to them to serve a Lord that were always unconcern'd in the rebellions of his creatures and tamely suffer their spurns at his Throne and therefore there is a day wherein the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down the Cedars of Lebanon over-thrown and high Mountains levell'd that God may be exalted in that day Isa 2.11 12. c. Pride is a sin that immediately swells against God's Authority this shall be brought down that God may be exalted not that he should have a real exaltation as if he were actually depos'd from his Government but that he shall be manifested to be the Soveraign of the whole World 'T is necessary there should be a day to chase away those clouds that are upon his Throne that the lustre of his Majesty may break forth to the confusion of all the children of pride that vaunt against him God hath a dominion over us as a Law-giver as we are his creatures and a dominion over us in away of Justice as we are his criminals 2. This punishment is unavoidable 1. None can escape him He hath the sole Authority over Hell and Death the Keyes of both are in his hand The greatest Caesar can no more escape him than the meanest Peasant Who art thou O great Mountain before Zerubbabel Zac. 4.7 The height of Angels is no match for him much less that of the mortal grandees of the World they can no more resist him than the meanest person But are rather as the highest Steeples the fittest marks for his crushing thunder If he speaks the word the principalities of men come down and the Crown of their glory Jer. 13.18 He can take the Mighty away in a moment and that without hands i. e. without instruments Job 34.20 The strongest are like the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's Image Iron and Clay Iron to man but Clay to God to be crumbled to nothing 2. What comfort can be reapt from a creature when the Soveraign of the World arms himself with terrors and begins his visitation Isa 10.3 What will you do in the day of visitation to whom will you flie for help and where will you leave your glory The torments from a Subject may be releived by the Prince but where can there be an appeal from the Soveraign of the World Where is there any above him to controul him if he will overthrow us who is there to call him to account and say to him what dost thou He works by an uncontroulable Authority he needs not ask leave of any Isa 43.13 He works and none can let it As when he will relieve none can afflict so when he will wound none can relieve If a King appoint the punishment of a rebel the greatest Favorite in the Court cannot speak a comfortable word to him The most beloved Angel in Heaven cannot sweeten and ease the spirit of a man that the Soveraign power is set against to make the butt of his wrath The Devils lye under his sentence and wear their chains as marks of their condemnation without hope of ever having them filed off since they are laid upon them by the Authority of an unaccountable Soveraign 3. By his Soveraign Authority God can make any creature the instrument of his vengeance He hath all the creatures at his beck and can Commission any of them to be a dreadful scourge Strong winds and tempests fulfil his word Psal 148.8 The Lightnings answer him at his call and cry aloud here are we Job 38.35 By his Soveraign Authority he can render Locusts as mischievous as Lions forge the meanest creatures into Swords and Arrows and commission the most despicable to be his Executioners He can cut off joy from our spirits and make our own hearts be our tormentors our most confident friends our persecutors our nearest relations to be his avengers They are more his who is their Soveraign than ours who place a vain confidence in them Rather than Abraham shall want children he can raise up stones and adopt them into his Family And rather than not execute his vengeance he can array the stones in the streets and make them his armed subjects against us If he speak the word a hair shall drop from our heads to choak us or a vapour congeal'd into Rheum in our heads shall dropdown and putrifie our
own affections according to the holiness of his own Will As it is the effect of his power so it is an argument of his power the greatness of the effect demonstrates the fulness and sufficiency of the Cause The more feeble any man is in reason the less command he hath over his passions and he is the more heady to revenge Revenge is a sign of a Childish mind the stronger any man is in reason the more command he hath over himself Prov. 16.32 He that is slow to Anger is better than the mighty and he that rules his own Spirit than he that takes a City He that can restrain his Anger is stronger than the Coesars and Alexanders of the World that have fill'd the Earth with slain Carcasses and ruin'd Cities By the same reason God's slowness to Anger is a greater argument of his Power than the creating a World or the power of dissolving it by a Word In this he hath a Dominion over Creatures in the other over himself This is the reason he will not return to destroy because I am God and not Man Hosea 11.9 I am not so weak and impotent as man that cannot restrain his Anger This is a strength possessed only by a God wherein a Creature is no more able to parallel him than in any other So that he may be said to be the Lord of himself as it is in the verse before the Text that he is the Lord of Anger in the Hebrew instead of furious as we translate it so he is the Lord of Patience The end why God is Patient is to shew his Power Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much Long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction To shew his Wrath upon Sinners and his Power over himself in bearing such indignities and forbearing punishment so long when men were vessels of wrath fitted for destruction of whom there was no hopes of amendment Had he immediately broken in peices those Vessels his power had not so eminently appear'd as it hath done in tolerating them so long that had provoked him to take them off so often There is indeed the power of his Anger and there is the power of his Patience and his power is more seen in his Patience than in his Wrath. 'T is no wonder that he that is above all is able to crush all But it is a wonder that he that is provok't by all doth not upon the first provocation rid his hands of all This is the reason why he did bear such a weight of provocations from vessels of wrath prepar'd for ruine that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew what he was able to do the Lordship and Royalty he had over himself The power of God is more manifest in his Patience to a multitude of Sinners than it could be in Creating Millions of Worlds out of nothing this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power over himself 5. This Patience being a branch of Mercy the exercise of it is founded in the Death of Christ Without the consideration of this we can give no account why Divine Patience should extend it self to us and not to the fallen Angels The threatning extends it self to us as well as to the fallen Angels The threatning must necessarily have sunk man as well as those glorious Creatures had not Christ stept into our relief * Testaâ—d de natur Grat. Thes 119. Had not Christ interposed to satisfie the Justice of God man upon his sin had been actually bound over to punishment as well as the fall'n Angels were upon theirs and been fettered in chains as strong as those Spirits feel The reason why man was not hurl'd into the same deplorable condition upon his sin as they were is Christs promise of taking our nature and not theirs Had God design'd Christ's taking their nature the same Patience had been exercised towards them and the same offers would have been made to them as are made to us In regard of these fruits of this Patience Christ is said to buy the wickedest Apostates from him 1 Pet. 2.1 Denying the Lord that bought them such were bought by him as bring upon themselves just destruction and whose damnation slumbers not ver 3. he purchased the continuance of their lives and the stay of their execution that offers of Grace might be made to them This Patience must be either upon the account of the Law or the Gospel for there are no other rules whereby God governs the World a fruit of the Law it was not that spake nothing but Curses after Disobedience not a letter of Mercy was writ upon that And therefore nothing of Patience Death and Wrath was denounced no slowness to Anger intimated It must be therefore upon the account of the Gospel and a fruit of the Covenant of Grace whereof Christ was Mediator Besides this perfection being God's waiting that he might be Gracious Isaiâ—h 30.18 that which made way for Gods Grace made way for his waiting to manifest it God discovered not his Grace but in Christ And therefore discovered not his Patience but in Christ 't is in him he met with the satisfaction of his Justice that he might have a ground for the manifestation of his Patience And the Sacrifices of the Law wherein the Life of a beast was accepted for the sin of a man discovered the ground of his forbearance of them to be the expectation of the great sacrifice whereby sin was to be compleatly expiated Gen. 8.21 The publication of his Patience to the end of the World is presently after the sweet savor he found in Noah's sacrifice The promised and design'd coming of Christ was the cause of that Patience God exercised before in the World And his gathering the Elect together is the reason of his Patience since his death 6. The naturalness of his Veracity and Holiness and the strictness of his Justice are no barrs to the exercise of his patience 1. His Veracity In those threatnings where the punishment is exprest but not the time of inflicting it prefixt and determined in the threatning his veracity suffers no dammage by the delaying Execution so it be once done though a long time after the credit of his Truth stands unshaken As when God promises a thing without fixing the time he is at liberty to pitch upon what time he pleases for the performance of it without staining his faithfulness to his Word by not giving the thing promised presently Why should the deferring of Justice upon an offender be any more against his Veracity than his delaying an answer to the petitions of a suppliant But the difference will lie in the threatning Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death The time was there setled In that day thou shalt dye some referre day to eating not to dying and render the sentence thus I do not prohibit thee the eating this fruit for
bodies in the last sickness you had And what then had become oâ— you What could have been expected to succeed your impenitent state in this World but howlings in another But he repriev'd you upon your petitions or the sollicitations of your friends and have you not broke your word with him Have your hearts been stedfast hath he not yet waited expecting when you would put your vows and resolutions into Execution What need had he to cry out to any so loud and so long Oh you fools how long will you love foolishness Prov. 1.22 when he might have ceased his crying to you and have by your death prevented your many neglects of him Did he do all this that any of us might add new sins to our old or rather that we should bless him for his forbearance comply with the end of it in reforming our lives and having recourse to his mercy 3. Exhortation therefore presume not upon his patience The exercise of it is not Eternal you are at present under his Patience yet while you are unconverted you are also under his anger Psal 7.11 God is angry with the wicked every day You know not how soon his Anger may turn his Patience aside and step before it It may be his Sword is drawn out of his Scabbard his Arrowes may be settled in his Bow and perhaps there is but a little time before you may feel the edge of the one or the point of the other and then there will be no more time for Patience in God to us or petition from us to him If we repent here he will pardon us If we deferre Repentance and dye without it he will have no longer mercy to pardon nor Patience to bear What is there in our power but the present the future time we cannot command the past time we cannot recal squander not then the present away The time will come when time shall be no more and then long-suffering shall be no more Will you neglect the time wherein patience acts and vainly hope for a time beyond the resolves of patience Will you spend that in vain which Goodness hath allotted you for other purposes What an estimate will you make of a little forbearance to respite death when you are gasping under the stroke of its Arrows How much would you value some few days of those many years you now trifle away Can any think God will be alwayes at an expence with them in vain that he will have such riches trampled under their feet and so many editions of his patience be made wast Paper Do you know how few sands are yet to run in your glass Are you sure that he that waits to day will wait as well to morrow How can you tell but that God that is slow to anger to day may be swift to it the next Jerusalem had but a day of peace and the most carelâ—â—â— sinner hath no more When their day was don they were destroyed by 〈◊〉 Pestilence or Sword or led into a doleful Captivity Did God make our lives so uncertain and the duration of his forbearance unknown to us that we should live in a lazy neglect of his Glory and our own happiness If you should have more patience in regard of your lives do you know whither you shall have the effectual offers of Grace As your lives depend upon his will so your conversion depends solely upon his Grace There have been many examples of those miserable wretches that have been left to a reprobate sence after they have a long time abus'd Divine forbearance Thoug◠〈…〉 he binds up sin Hos 13.12 The sin of Ephraim is bâ—â—â—d up as bonds are bound up by a Creditor till a fit opportunity when God comes to put the bond in suit it will be too late to wish for that patience we have so scornfully despised Consider therefore the end of Patience The Patience of God considered in it self without that which it tends to affords very little Comfort 't is but a step to pardoning Mercy and it may be without it and often is Many have been repreived that were never forgiven Hell is full of those that had Patience as well as we but not one that accepted pardoning grace went within the gates of it Patience leaves men when their sins have ripen'd them for Hell but pardoning Grace never leaves men till it hath conducted them to Heaven His Patience speaks him placable but doth not assure us that he is actually appeas'd Men may hope that long-suffering tends to a pardon but cannot be assured of a pardon but by something else above meer long-suffering Rest not then upon bare Patience but consider the end of it 't is not that any should sin more freely but repent more meltingly 't is not to spirit rebellion but give a merciful stop to it Why should any be so ambitious of their ruine as to constrain God to ruine them against the inclinations of his sweet disposition 4. The fourth Exhortation is let us imitate Gods patience in our own to others He is unlike God that is hurryed with an unruly impetus to punish others for wronging him The consideration of Divine Patience should make us square our selves according to that pattern God hath exercised a long-suffering from the fall of Adam to this minute on innumerable subjects and shall we be transported with desire of revenge upon a single injury If God were not slow to wrath a sinful World had been long ago torn up from the foundation And if Revenge should be exercised by all men against their Enemies what man should have been alive since there is not a man without an Enemy If every man were like Saul breathing out threatnings the World would not only be an Aceldama but a Desert How distant are they from the nature of God who are in a flame upon every slight provocation from a sence of some feeble and imaginary honour that must bloody their Sword for a trifle and write their revenge in wounds and death When God hath his Glory every day bespattered yet he keeps his Sword in his sheath what a wo would it be to the World if he drew it upon every affront This is to be like Brutes Dogs or Tygers that snarle bite and devour upon every slight occasion But to be Patient is to be divine and to shew our selves acquainted with the disposition of God Be you therefore perfect as your heavenly father is perfect Matth. 5.48 i. e. Be you perfect and good for he had been exhorting them to bless them that curs'd them and to do good to them that hated them and that from the example God had set them in causing his Sun to rise upon the evil as well as the good Be you therefore perfect To Conclude as Patience is Gods perfection so it is the accomplishment of the Soul And as his slowness to anger argues the greatness of his power over himself so an unwillingness to revenge is a sign of