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
a day or two but continually In whatsoever day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye but not understanding his dying that very day he should eat of it Referring day to the extensiveness of the prohibition as to time But to leave this as uncertain it may be answered that as in some threatnings a condition is implyed though not exprest as in that positive denouncing of the destruction of Niniveh Jonah 3.4 Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroy'd the condition is imply'd unless they humble themselves and repent for upon their Repentance the sentence was deferred So here in the day thou eatest thereof thou shall dye the death or certainly dye unless there be a way found for the expiation of thy crime and the righting my honour This condition in regard of the event may as well be asserted to be implyed in this threatning as that of Repentance was in the other Or rather thou shalt dye thou shalt die spiritually thou shalt loose that image of mine in thy nature that Righteousness which is as much the Life of thy Soul as thy Soul is the life of thy Body that Righteousness whereby thou art enabled to live to me and thy own happiness What the Soul is to the Body a quickning Soul that the image of God is to the Soul a quickning image Or thou shalt dye the death or certainly dye thou shalt be liable to death * Perer in loc And so it is to be understood not of an actual death of the Body but the merit of death and the necessity of death thou wilt be obnoxious to death which will be avoided if thou dost forbear to eat of the forbidden fruit thou shalt be a guilty person and so under a sentence of death that I may when I please inflict it on thee Death did come upon Adam that day because his nature was vitiated He was then also under an expectation of death he was obnoxious to it though that day it was not poured out upon him in the full bitterness and gall of it As when the Apostle saith Rom. 8.10 The Body is dead because of sin he speaks to the Living and yet tells them the body was dead because of sin he means no more than that it was under a sentence and so a necessity of dying though not actually dead So thou shalt be under the sentence of death that day as certainly as if that day thou shouldst sink into the dust And as by his Patience towards man not sending forth death upon him in all the bitter ingredients of it his Justice afterwards was more eminent upon mans surety than it would have been if it had been then employ'd in all its severe operations upon man So was his Veracity eminent also in making good this threatning in inflicting the punishment included in it upon our nature assum'd by a mighty person and upon that person in our nature who was infinitely higher than our nature 2. His justice and righteousness are not prejudiced by his patience There is a hatred of the sin in his holiness and a sentence past against the sin in his justice though the execution of that sentence be suspended and the person reprieved by patience which is implyed Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Sentence is past but a speedy execution is stopt Some of the Heathens who would not imagine God unjust and yet seeing the villanies and oppressions of men in the World remain unpunisht and frequently beholding prosperous wickedness to free him from the charge of injustice denyed his providence and actual Government of the World for if he did take notice of humane affairs and concern himself in what was done upon the Earth they could not think an infinite goodness and Justice could be so slow to punish oppressors and relieve the miserable and leave the World in that disorder under the injustice of men They judged such a patience as was exercised by him if he did govern the World was drawn out beyond the line of fit and just Is it not a presumption in men to prescribe a rule of Righteousness and conveniency to their Creator It might be demanded of such whether they never injur'd any in their lives and when certainly they have one way or other would they not think it a very unworthy if not unjust thing that a person so injur'd by them should take a speedy and severe revenge on them And if every man should do the like would there not be a speedy dispatch made of Mankind Would not the World be a shambles and men rush forwards to one anothers destruction for the wrongs they have mutually received If it be accounted a virtue in man and no unrighteousness not presently to be all on fire against an offence by what right should any question the consistency of Gods patience with his justice Do we praise the lenity of Parents to children and shall we disparage the long suffering of God to men We do not censure the righteousness of Physitians and Chirurgeons because they cut not off a corrupt member this day as well as to morrow And is it just to asperse God because he doth deferr his vengeance which man assumes to himself a right to do We never account him a bad Governour that deferrs the tryal and consequently the condemnation and execution of a notorious offender for important reasons and beneficial to the publick either to make the nature of his crime more evident or to find out the rest of his complices by his discovery A Governour indeed were unjust if he commanded that which were unrighteous and forbad that which were worthy and commendable But if he delayes the execution of a convict offender for weighty reasons either for the benefit of the state whereof he is the Ruler or for some advantage to the offender himself to make him have a sence of and a regret for his offence we account him not unjust for this God doth not by his patience dispense with the holiness of his Law nor cut off any thing from its due Authority If men do strengthen themselves by his long suffering against his Law 't is their fault not any unrighteousness in him He will take a time to vindicate the Righteousness of his own commands if men will wholly neglect the time of his patience in forbearing to pay a dutiful observance to his Precept If Justice be natural to him and he cannot but punish sin yet he is not necessitated to consume sinners as the fire doth stubble put into it which hath no command over its own qualities to restrain them from acting But God is a free agent and may choose his own time for the distribution of that punishment his nature leads him to Though he be naturally just yet it is not so natural to him as to deprive him of a dominion over his own acts and a
is true there is a guilt of the Body and Bloud of Christ contracted by a slightness in the manner of attending Is it not also contracted by a refusal and neglect What is the language of it If it speaks not the death of Christ in vain it speaks the institution of this Ordinance as a remembrance of his death to be a vanity and no mark of Divine Goodness Let us therefore put such a value upon Divine Goodness in this affair as to be willing to receive the conveyances of his love and fresh engagements of our duty the one is due from us to the kindness of our Friend and the other belongs to our duty as his Subjects 6. By this Redemption God restores us to a more excellent condition than Adam had in Innocence Christ was sent by Divine Goodness not only to restore the Life Adam's sin had stript us of but to give it more abundantly than Adam standing could have conveyed it to us * Joh. 10.10 I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly More abundantly for strength more abundantly for duration a life abounding with greater felicity and glory The substance of those better Promises of the New Covenant than what attended the old There are fuller Streams of Grace by Christ than flowed to Adam or could flow from Adam As Christ never restored any to health and strength while he was in the World but he gave them a greater measure of both than they had before so there is the same kindness no question manifested in our Spiritual condition Adam's life might have preserv'd us but Adam's death could not have rescued either Himself or his Posterity but in our Redemption we have a Redeemer who hath died to expiate our sins and so Crowned with life to save and for ever preserve our persons * Rom. 5.10 Because I live ye shall live also So that by Redeeming Goodness the life of a Believer is as perpetual as the life of the Redeemer Christ †Joh. 14.19 Adam though Innocent was under the danger of perishing a Believer though culpable is above the fears of Mutability Adam had a holiness in his Nature but capable of being lost by Christ Believers have a holiness bestowed not capable of being rifled but which will remain till it be at last fully perfected Though they have a power to change in their Nature yet they are above an actual final change by the indulgence of Divine Grace Adam stood by himself Believers stand in a Root impossible to be shaken or corrupted By this means the promise is sure to all the Sâ—ed * Rom. 4.16 Christ is a stronger person than Adam who can never break Covenant with God and the truth of God will never break Covenant with him We are united to a more excellent head than Adam Instead of a Root meerly Humane we have a Root Divine as well as Humane In him we had the Righteousness of a Creature meerly Humane In this we have a Righteousness Divine the Righteousness of God-man the stock is no longer in our own hands but in the hands of one that cannot imbezzle it or forfeit it Divine Goodness hath deposited it strongly for our security The stamp we receive by the Divine Goodness from the second Adam is more noble than that we should have received from the first had he remained in his created State Adam was formed of the Dust of the Earth and the New Man is formed by the incorruptible Seed of the word And at the Resurrection the Body of Man shall be endued with better qualities than Adam had at Creation They shall be like that glorious Body which is in Heaven in union with the person of the Son of God * Phil. 3.21 Adam at the best had but an Earthly Body but the Lord from Heaven hath a Heavenly Body the Image of which shall be born by the Redeemed Ones as they have born the Image of the Earthly * Cor. 1.15.47 48 49. Adam had the Society of Beasts Redeemed ones expect by Divine Goodness in Redemption a commerce with Angels as they are reconciled to them by his death they shall certainly come to converse with them at the consummation of their happiness As they are made of one Family so they will have a peculiar intimacy Adam had a Paradise and Redeem'd Ones a Heaven provided for them a happier place with a richer furniture 'T is much to give so compleat a Paradise to innocent Adam but more to give Heaven to an ungrateful Adam and his Rebellious Posterity It had been abundant Goodness to have restor'd us to the same condition in that Paradise from whence we were ejected but a super-abundant Goodness to bestow upon us a better habitation in Heaven which we could never have expected How great is that Goodness when by sin we were fallen to be worse than nothing that he should raise us to be more than what we were That restor'd us not to the first step of our Creation but to many degrees of elevation beyond it Not only restores us but prefers us not only striking off our Chains to set us free but cloathing us with a Robe of Righteousness to render us honourable Not only quenching our Hell but preparing a Heaven not regarnishing an earthly but providing a richer Palace His Goodness was so great that after it had rescued us it would not content it self with the old furniture but makes all new for us in another World A new Wine to drink a new Heaven to dwell in a more magnificent Structure for our Habitation Thus hath Goodness prepared for us a straiter Union a stronger Life a purer Righteousness an unshaken Standing and a fuller Glory All more excellent then was within the compass of innocent Adam's Possession 7. This Goodness in Redemption extends it self to the lower Creation It takes in not only Man but the whole Creation except the Fallen Angels and gives a participation of it to insensible Creatures upon the account of this Redemption the Sun and all kind of Creatures were preserv'd which otherwise had sunk into destruction upon the sin of Man and ceas'd from their Being as Man had utterly ceas'd from his Happiness * Colos 1.17 By him all things consist The Fall of Man brought not only a misery upon himself but a Vanity upon the Creature The Earth groaned under a Curse for his sake They were all created for the Glory of God and the support of Man in the performance of his duty who was obliged to use them for the honour of him that created them both Had Man been true to his obligations and used the Creatures for that end to which they were dedicated by the Creator As God would have then rejoiced in his Works so his Works would have rejoiced in the honour of answering so excellent an end But when Man lost his integrity the Creatures lost their Perfection the honour of them
violated Law When God is the object of such a wish t is a vertual undeifying of him Not to be able to punish is to be impotent not to be willing to punish is to be unjust Imperfections inconsistent with the Deity God cannot be supposed without an infinite Power to act and an infinite Righteousness as the Rule of acting Fear of God is natural to all men not a Fear of offending him but a Fear of being punished by him The wishing the Extinction of God has its degree in men according to the degree of their Fears of his just Vengeance And though such a Wish be not in its Meridian but in the Damned in Hell yet it hath its starts and motions in affrighted and awakened Consciences on the Earth Under this Rank of Wishers that there were no God or that God were destroyed do fall 1. Terrified Consciences that are Magor missabib see nothing but matter of fear round about As they have lived without the bounds of the Law they are affraid to fall under the stroak of his Justice Fear wishes the destruction of that which it apprehends hurtful It considers him as a God to whom Vengeance belongs as the Judge of all the Earth * Psal 94.12 The less hopes such a one hath of his Pardon the more joy he would have to hear that his Judge should be stript of his Life He would entertain with delight any reasons that might support him in the conceit that there were no God In his present State such a Doctrine would be his Security from an Account He would as much rejoyce if there were no God to enflame an Hell for him as any guilty Malefactor would if there were no Judge to order a Gibbet for him Shame may bridle mens words but the Heart will be casting about for some Arguments this way to secure it self Such as are at any time in Spira's Case would be willing to cease to be Creatures that God might cease to be Judge The Fool hath said in his heart there is no Elohim no Judge fancying God without any exercise of his judicial Authority And there is not any wicked man under anguish of Spirit but were it within the reach of his power would take away the Life of God and rid himself of his fears by destroying his Avenger 2. Debaucht Persons are not without such wishes sometimes An obstinate Servant wishes his Masters death from whom he expects Correction for his Debaucheries As Man stands in his corrupt Nature 't is impossible but one time or other most debaucht persons at least have so me kind of velleities or imperfect wishes 'T is as natural to men to abhor those things which are unsuteable and troublesome as it is to please themselves in things agreeable to their minds and humours And since Man is so deeply in love with Sin as to count it the most estimable good he cannot but wish the abolition of that Law which checks it and consequently the change of the Law-Giver which Enacted it and in wishing a change in the holy Nature of God he wishes a destruction of God who could not be God if he ceased to be immutably holy They do as certainly wish that God had not a holy Will to command them as desparing Souls wish that God had not a righteous Will to punish them and to wish Conscience extinct for the molestations they receive from it is to wish the power Conscience represents out of the world also Since the State of Sinners is a State of distance from God and the Language of Sinners to God is departed from us * Joh. 21.14 They desire as litle the continuance of his Being as they desire the knowledge of his Ways The same reason which moves them to desire Gods distance from them would move them to desire Gods not Being Since the greatest distance would be most agreeable to them the Destruction of God must be so too Because there is no greater distance from us than in not Being Men would rather have God not to be than themselves under controle that sensuality might range at pleasure He is like a Heifer sliding from the Yoke Hos 4.16 The Cursing of God in the Heart feared by Job of his Chidren intimates a wishing God despoild of his Authority that their pleasure might not be dampt by his Law Besides is there any natural man that sins against actuated knowledge but either thinks or wishes that God might not see him that God might not know his actions And is not this to wish the Destruction of God who could not be God unless he were immense and omniscient 3. Under this rank fall those who perform external Duties only out of a Principle of slavish Fear Many Men perform those Duties that the Law enjoyns with the same Sentiments that Slaves perform their Drudgery and are constrained in their Duties by no other considerations but those of the Whip and the Cudgel Since therefore they do it with reluctancy and secretly murmur while they seem to obey they would be willing that both the Command were recall'd and the Master that commands them were in another world The Spirit of Adoption makes men act towards God as a Father a Spirit of Bondage only eyes him as a Judge Those that look upon their Superiors as tyrannical will not be much concerned in their welfare and would be more glad to have their Nails pared than be under perpetual fear of them Many men regard not the infinite goodness in their service of him but consider him as cruel tyrannical injurious to their Liberty Adam's Posterity are not free from the Sentiments of their common Father till they are regenerate You know what Conceit was the Hammer whereby the Hellish Jael struck the Nail into our first Parents which conveyed Death together with the same Imagination to all their Posterity Gen. 3.5 God knows that in the day you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil Alas poor Souls God knew what he did when he forbad you that Fruit He was jealous you should be too happy It was a cruelty in him to deprive you of a Food so pleasant and delicious The apprehension of the severity of Gods Commands riseth up no less in desires that there were no God over us than Adam's apprehension of Envy in God for the restraint of one Tree mov'd him to attempt to be equal with God Fear is as powerful to produce the one in his Posterity as Pride was to produce the other in the Common-Root When we apprehend a thing hurtful to us we desire so much evil to it as may render it uncapable of doing us the hurt we fear As we wish the preservation of what we love or hope for so we are naturally apt to wish the not being of that whence we fear some hurt or trouble We must not understand this as if any man did formally wish the destruction of God as God God in
party we disaffect So the Will of God may be performed not as his Will but as it may gratifie some selfish consideration when we will please God so far as it may not displease our selves and serve him as our Master so far as his Command may be a Servant to our humor When we consider not who it is that Commands but how short it comes of displeasing that sin which Rules in our heart pick and chuse what is least burdensom to the flesh and distastful to our lusts He that doth the Will of God not out of Conscience of that Will but because it is agreeable to himself casts down the Will of God and sets his own Will in the place of it takes the Crown from the head of God and places it upon the head of self If things are done not because they are Commanded by God but desirable to us t is a disobedient obedience a conformity to Gods Will in regard of the matter a conformity to our own Will in regard of the motive either as the things done are agreeable to natural and moral self or sinful self 1. As they are agreeable to natural or moral self When men will practise some points of Religion and walk in the track of some Divine precepts not because they are Divine but because they are agreeable to their humor or constitution of nature from the sway of a natural bravery the Byas of a secular interest not from an ingenuous sense of Gods Authority or a voluntary submission to his Will As when a man will avoid excess in drinking not because it is dishonourable to God but as it is a blemish to his own reputation or an impair of the health of his body Doth this deserve the name of an observance of the Divine injunction or rather an obedience to our selves Or when a man will be liberal in the distribution of his Charity not with an eye to Gods precept but in compliance with his own natural compassion or to pleasure the generosity of his nature The one is obedience to a mans own preservation the other an obedience to the interest or impulse of a moral Vertue T is not respect to the rule of God but the Authority of self and at the best is but the performance of the material part of the Divine Rule without any concurrence of a Spiritual motive or a Spiritual manner That only is a maintaining the rights of God when we pay an observance to his rule without examining the agreeableness of it to our secular interest or consulting with the humour of flesh and blood when we will not decline his service though we find it cross and hath no affinity with the pleasure of our own nature Such an obedience as Abraham manifested in his readiness to sacrifice his Son Such an obedience as our Saviour demands in cutting off the right hand When we observe any thing of divine order upon the account of its suitableness to our natural Sentiments we shall readily divide from him when the interest of nature turns it's point against the interest of Gods honour we shall fall off from him according to the change we find in our own humours And can that be valued as a setting up the rule of God which must be depos'd upon the mutable interest of an inconstant mind Esau had no regard to God in delaying the execution of his resolution to shorten his brothers dayes though he was awed by the reverence of his Father to delay it he considered perhaps how justly he might lie under the imputation of hastening crazy Isaacs death by depriving him of a beloved Son But had the old mans head been laid neither the contrary command of God nor the nearness of a fraternal relation could have bound his hands from the act no more than they did his heart from the resolution Gen. 27.41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him and Esau said in his heart the days of mourning for my father are at hand then will I slay my brother So many Children that expect at the death of their Parents great Inheritances or Portions may be observant of them not in regard of the rule fixed by God but to their own hopes which they would not frustrate by a disobligement Whence is it that many men abstain from gross sins but in love to their reputation Wickedness may be acted privately which a mans one credit puts a bar to the open commission of The preserving his own esteem may divert him from entring into a brothell house to which he hath set his mind before against a known precept of his Creator As Pharaoh parted with the Israelites so do some men with their blemishing sins not out of a sense of Gods rule but the smart of present Judgments or fear of a future wrath Our security then and reputation is set up in the place of God This also may be and is in renewed men who have the law written in their hearts that is an habitual disposition to an agreement with the law of God when what is done is with a respect to this habitual inclination without eying the divine precept which is appointed to be their rule This also is to set up a creature as renewed self is instead of the Creator and that Law of his in his word which ought to be the rule of our actions Thus it is when men chuse a moral life not so much out of respect to the law of nature as it is the law of God but as it is a law become one with their souls and constitutions There is more of self in this than consideration of God For if it were the latter the revealed law of God would upon the same reason be received as well as his natural law From this principle of self morality comes by some to be advanced above Evangelical dictates 2. As they are agreeable to sinful self Not that the commands of God are suited to bolster up the corruptions of men no more than the law can be said to excite or revive sin * Rom. 7.8 9. But it is like a scandal taken not given an occasion taken by the tumultuousness of our depraved nature The Pharisees were devout in long Prayers not from a sense of duty or a care of Gods honour but to satisfie their ambition and rake together fuel for their covetuousness * Math. 23.14 You devour Widdows Houses and for a pretence makes long Prayers that they might have the greater esteem and richer offerings to free by their prayers the souls of deceased persons from Purgatory an opinion that some think the Jewish Synagogue had then entertain'd * Gerrard in loc since some of their Doctors have defended such a notion Men may observe some Precepts of God to have a better conveniency to break others Jehu was ordered to cut off the house of Ahab The service he undertook was in it self acceptable but corrupt nature misacted that which
morally carnal in the practises as the Ceremonies were materially carnal in their substance It was not their disobedience to observe them but it was a disobedience and a contempt of the end of the institution to rest upon them to be warm in them and cold in morals They fed upon the Bone and neglected the Marrow pleased themselves with the Shell and sought not for the Kernel They joyned not with them the internal Worship of God Fear of him with Faith in the promised Seed which lay vail'd under those Coverings Hos 6.6 I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice and the Knowledge of God more than burnt Offerings And therefore he seems sometimes weary of his own institutions and calls them not his own but their Sacrifices their Feasts Isa 1.11 14. They were his by appointment theirs by abuse The Institution was from his goodness and condescension therefore his the corruption of them was from the vice of their Nature therefore theirs He often blamed them for their carnality in them shew'd his dislike of placing all their Religion in them gives the Sacrificers upon that account no better a title than that of the Princes of Sodom and Gomorrah * Isa 1.10 And compares the Sacrifices themselves to the cutting off a Dog's Neck Swines Blood and the Murder of a Man * Isa 66.3 And indeed God never valued them or exprest any delight in them He despised the Feasts of the Wicked Amos 5.21 and had no esteem for the material Offerings of the Godly Psal 50.13 Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats which he speaks to his Saints and People before he comes to reprove the Wicked which he begins v. 16. But to the Wicked God said c. So slightly he esteemed them that he seems to disown them to be any part of his Command when he brought his People out of the Land of Egypt Jer. 7.21 I spake not to your Fathers nor commanded them concerning burnt Offerings and Sacrifices He did not value and regard them in comparison of that inward frame which he had required by the moral Law that being given before the Law of Ceremonies obliged them in the first place to an observance of those Precepts They seemed to be below the Nature of God and could not of themselves please him None could in reason perswade themselves that the death of a Beast was a proportionable Offering for the sin of a Man or ever was intended for the expiation of Transgression In the same rank are all our bodily services under the Gospel A loud voice without Spirit bended bulrushes without inward affections are no more delightful to God than the Sacrifices of Animals 'T is but a change of one Brute for another of a higher species a meer Brute for that part of man which hath an agreement with Brutes Such a service is a meer animal service and not spiritual 5. And therefore God never intended that sort of Worship to be durable and had often mentioned the change of it for one more spiritual It was not good or evil in it self whatsoever goodness it had was solely deriv'd to it by institution and therefore it was mutable It had no conformity with the spiritual nature of God who was to be worshipped nor with the rational nature of man who was to worship And therefore he often speaks of taking away the New-Moons and Feasts and Sacrifices and all the ceremonial Worship as things he took no pleasure in to have a Worship more suted to his excellent Nature But he never speaks of removing the Gospel Administration and the worship prescribed there as being more agreeable to the nature and perfections of God and displaying them more illustriously to the World The Apostle tells us it was to be disannul'd because of its weakness * Heb. 7.18 A determinate time was fixed for its duration till the accomplishment of the truth figured under that Pedagogy * Gal. 4.2 Some of the modes of that worship being only typical must naturally expire and be insignificant in their use upon the finishing of that by the Redeemer which they did prefigure And other parts of it though God suffered them so long because of the weakness of the Worshipper yet because it became not God to be alway worshipped in that manner he would reject them and introduce another more spiritual and elevated Incense and a pure Offering should be offered every where unto his Name * Mal. 1.11 * Pascal Pen. 142. He often told them he would make a new Covenant by the Messiah and the old should be rejected that the former things should not be remembred and the things of old no more considered when he should do a new thing in the Earth * Isa 43.18.19 Even the Ark of the Covenant the Symbol of his presence and the glory of the Lord in that Nation should not any more be remembered and visited * Jer. 3.16 That the Temple and Sacrifices should be rejected and others established That the Order of the Aaronical Priest-hood should be abolisht and that of Melchisedeck set up in the stead of it in the Person of the Messiah to endure for ever * Psal 110. That Jerusalem should be changed a new Heaven and Earth created a Worship more conformable to Heaven more advantagious to Earth God had proceeded in the removal of some parts of it before the time of taking down the whole furniture of this house The Pot of Manna was lost Vrim and Thumim ceased the glory of the Temple was diminish'd and the ignorant people wept at the sight of the one without raising their Faith and Hope in the consideration of the other which was promised to be filled with a spiritual glory And as soon as ever the Gospel was spread in the World God thundred out his judgments upon that place in which he had fixed all those legal Observances so that the Jews in the Letter and Flesh could never practise the main part of their worship since they were expelled from that place where it was only to be celebrated 'T is one thousand six hundred years since they have been deprived of their Altar which was the foundation of all the Levitical-worship and have wandred in the world without a Sacrifice a Prince or Priest an Ephod or Teraphim * Hos 3.4 And God fully put an end to it in the Command he gave to the Apostles and in them to us in the presence of Moses and Elias to hear his Son only Matth. 17.5 Behold a voice out of the Cloud which said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him And at the death of our Saviour testified it to that whole Nation and the World by the rending in twain the vail of the Temple The whole frame of that service which was carnal and by reason of the corruption of Man weakned is nulled and a spiritual worship is made known to the world
Hills are said to leap and the Mountains to rejoyce The Creature is said to groan as the Heavens are said to declare the glory of God passively naturally not rationally 'T is not likely Angels are here meant though they cannot but desire it since they are affected with the dishonour and reproach God hath in the world they cannot but long for the restoration of his honour in the restoration of the Creature to its true end And indeed the Angels are employed to serve man in this sinful state and cannot but in holiness wish the Creature freed from his corruption Nor is it meant of the new Creatures which have the first fruits of the Spirit those he brings in afterwards groaning and waiting for the Adoption * Verse 23. where he distinguisheth the rational Creature from the Creature he had spoken of before If he had meant the believing Creature by that Creature that desired the liberty of the Sons of God what need had there been of that additional distinction and not only they but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan within our selves Whereby it seems he means some Creatures below rational Creatures since neither Angels nor blessed Souls can be said to travail in pain with that distress as a Woman in travail hath as the word signifies who perform the work joyfully which God sets them upon * Mestraezat fur Heb. 1. If the Creatures be subject to vanity by the sin of man they shall also partake of a happiness by the restoration of man The Eâ—â—â—h hath born Thorns and Thistles and venemous Beasts The Air hath had its Tempests and infectious Qualities The Water hath caused its Flouds and Deluges The Creature hath been abused to luxury and intemperance and been tyranniz'd over by Man contrary to the end of its creation 'T is convenient that some time should be allotted for the Creature 's attaining its true end and that it may partake of the peace of Man as it hath done of the fruits of his sin otherwise it would seem that sin had prevailed more than grace and would have had more power to deface than grace to restore and things into their due order 5. Again upon what account should the Psalmist exhort the Heavens to rejoyce and the Earth to be glad when God comes to judge the world with Righteousness * Psal 96.11 12 13. if they should be annihilated and sunk for ever into nothing It would seem saith Daille to be an impertinent figure if the Judge of the world brought to them a total destruction an entire ruin could not be matter of triumph to Creatures who naturally have that instinct or inclination put into them by their Creator to preserve themselves and to affect their own preservation 6. Again The Lord is to rejoyce in his works Psal 104.31 The Glory of the Lord shall endure for ever the Lord shall rejoyce in his works not hath but shall rejoyce in his works In the works of Creation which the Psalmist had enumerated and which is the whole scope of the Psalm And he intimates that it is part of the glory of the Lord which endures for ever that is his manifestative glory to rejoyce in his works The Glory of the Lord must be understood with reference to the Creation he had spoken of before How short was that joy God had in his works after he had sent them beautified out of his hand How soon did he repent not only that he had made Man but was grieved at the heart also that he made the other Creatures which Man's sin had disordered What joy can God have in them * Gen. 6.7 since the Curse upon the entrance of sin into the world remains upon them If they are to be annihilated upon the full restoration of his Holiness what time will God have to rejoyce in the other works of Creation 'T is the joy of God to see all his works in their due order every one pointing to their true end marching together in their excellency according to his first intendment in their Creation Did God create the World to perform its end only for one day scarce so much if Adam fell the very first day of his Creation What would have been their end if Adam had been confirm'd in a state of happiness as the Angels were 'T is likely will be answered and performed upon the compleat restoration of Man to that happy state from whence he fell What Artificer compiles a work by his skill but to rejoyce in it And shall God have no joy from the works of his hands Since God can only rejoyce in goodness the Creatures must have that goodness restored to them which God pronounced them to have at the first Creation and which he ordained them for before he can again rejoyce in his works The goodness of the Creatures is the glory and joy of God Inference 1. We may infer from hence what a base and vile thing Sin is which lays the foundation of the worlds change Sin brings it to a decrepit age Sin overturned the whole work of God * Gen. 3.17 so that to render it useful to its proper end there is a necessity of a kind of a new creating it This causes God to fire the Earth for a purification of it from that infection and contagion brought upon it by the apostacy and corruption of Man It hath served sinful man and therefore must undergo a purging Flame to be fit to serve the holy and righteous Creator As Sin is so riveted in the body of man that there is need of a change by death to rase it out so hath the Curse for sin got so deep into the bowels of the world that there is need of a change by fire to refine it for its Masters use Let us look upon Sin with no other notion than as the Object of Gods hatred the cause of his grief in the Creatures and the Spring of the pain and ruin of the World 2. How foolish a thing is it to set our hearts upon that which shall perish and be no more what it is now The Heavens and Earth the solidest and firmest parts of the Creation shall not continue in the posture they are they must perish and undergo a refining change How feeble and weak are the other parts of the Creation the little Creatures walking upon and fluttering about the world that are perishing and dying every day and we scarce see them clothed with life and beauty this day but they wither and are despoyl'd of all the next and are such frail things fit Objects for our everlasting Spirits and Affections Though the daily employment of the Heavens is the declaration of the glory of God * Psal 19.1 yet neither this nor their harmony order beauty amazing greatness and glory of them shall preserve them from a dissolution and melting at the presence of the Lord Though they have remained in the same posture from
into being 4. Therefore the distinction of past and future makes no change in the Knowledge of God When a thing is past God hath no more distinct knowledg of it after it is past than he had when it was to come all things were all in their Circumstances of past present and to come seen by his Understanding as they were determined by his Will * Gamch 1. pa. Aquin. Qu. 9. cap. 1. Pa. 73. Besides to know a day to be past or future is only to know the state of that day in it self and to know its relation to that which follows and that which went before This day wherein we are if we consider it in the state wherein it was yesterday it was to come it was future but if we consider it in that state wherein it will be to morrow we understand it as past This in man cannot be said to be a different knowledge of the thing it self but only of the circumstance attending a thing and the different relation of it As I see the Sun this day I know it was up yesterday I know it will be up to morrow my knowledge of the Sun is the same if there be any change it is in the Sun not in my knowledge only I apply my knowledge to such particular circumstances How much more must the knowledge of those things in God be unchangeable who knows all those states conditions and circumstances most perfectly from Eternity wherein there is no succession no past or future and therefore will know them for ever He always beholds the same thing he sees indeed succession in things and he sees a thing to be past which before was future As from Eternity he saw Adam as existing in such a time In the first time he saw that he would be in the following time he saw that he had been But this he knew from Eternity this he knew in the same manner tho there was a variation in Adam yet there was no variation in Gods knowledge of him in all his states though Adam was not present to himself yet in all his states he was present to Gods Eternity 5. Consider that the knowledge of God in regard of the manner of it as well as the objects is incomprehensible to a finite Creature So that tho we cannot arrive to a full understanding of the manner of Gods Knowledge yet we must conceive so of it as to remove all imperfection from him in it And since it is an imperfection to be changeable we must remove that from God the Knowledge of God about things past present and future must be unconceivably above ours His understanding is infinite Psal 147.5 There is no number of it it can no more be calculated or drawn into an account by us than infinite spaces which have no bounds and limits can be measured by us We can no more arrive even in Heaven to a comprehensive understanding of the manner of his Knowledge than of the infinite glory of his Essence we may as well comprehend one as the other This we must conclude that God being not a Body doth not see one thing with eyes and another thing with mind as we do but being a Spirit he sees and knows only with Mind and his Mind is himself and is as unchangeable as himself and therefore as he is not now another thing than what he was so he knows not any thing now in another manner than as he knew it from Eternity He sees all things in the Glass of his own Essence as therefore the Glass doth not vary so neither doth his Vision 3. God is unchangeable in regard of his Will and Purpose A change in Purpose is when a man determins to do that now which before he determined not to do or to do the contrary when a man hates that thing which he loved or begins to love that which he before hated When the Will is changed a man begins to will that which he willed not before and ceaseth to will that which he willed before But whatsoever God hath decreed is immutable whatsoever God hath promised shall be accomplisht The Word that goes forth of his Mouth shall not return to him void but it shall accomplish that which he pleaseth * Isa 55.11 Isa 46.11 whatsoever he purposeth he will do * Numb 23.19 His Decrees are therefore called Mountains of Brass * Zach. 6.1 Brass as having substance and solidity Mountains as being immoveable not only by any Creature but by himself because they stand upon the Basis of infallible Wisdom and are supported by uncontroulable Power From this Immutability of his Will publisht to Man there could be no release from the severity of the Law without satisfaction made by the death of a Mediator since it was the unalterable Will of God that death should be the wages of Sin and from this immutable Will it was that the length of Time from the first promise of the Redeemer to his mission and the daily provocations of men altered not his purpose for the accomplishment of it in the fullness of that time he had resolved upon Nor did the wickedness of former Ages hinder the addition of several promises as Buttresses to the first To make this out consider 1. The Will of God is the same with his Essence If God had a Will distinct from his Essence he would not be the most simple Being God hath not a faculty of Will distinct from himself As his Understanding is nothing else but Deus intelligens God understanding so his Will is nothing else but Deus volens God willing being therefore the Essence of God though it is considered according to our weakness as a faculty 't is as his Understanding and Wisdom eternal and immutable and can no more be changed than his Essence The Immutability of the Divine Counsel depends upon that of his Essence He is the Lord Jehovah therefore he is true to his Word Mal. 3.6 Isa 43.13 Yea before the Day I am He and there is none that can deliver out of my hand He is the same immutable in his Essence therefore irresistible in his Power 2. There is a concurrence of Gods Will and Vnderstanding in every thing As his Knowledge is eternal so is his Purpose Things created had not been known to be had not God resolved them to be the act of his Will the existence of any thing supposeth an Act of his Will Again as God knows all things by one simple vision of his Understanding so he wills all things by one act of volition therefore the Purpose of God in the Scripture is not exprest by Counsels in the Plural Number but Counsel shewing that all the purposes of God are not various but as one Will branching it self out into may acts towards the Creature but all knit in one Root all links of one Chain Whatsoever is eternal is immutable As his Knowledge is eternal and therefore immutable so is his Will He wills
Interpretation God repented that is he did not bring the punishment upon them according to those days the Prophet had exprest and therefore forty natural days are to be understood and if it were meant of forty years and they were destroyed at the end of that term how could God be said to repent since according to that the punishment threatned was according to the time fixed brought upon them And the destruction of it forty years after will not be easily evinced if Jonah lived in the time of Jeroboam the second King of Israel as he did * 2 Kings 14 2â— And Niniveh was destroyed in the time of Josiah King of Judah But the other Answer is plain God did not fulfil what he had threatned because they reformed what they had committed When the threatning was made they were a fit Object for Justice but when they repented they were a fit Object for a merciful Respite To threaten when sins are high is a part of Gods Justice not to execute when sins are revok'd by Repentance is a part of Gods Goodness And in the Case of Hezekiah * 2 Kings 20.1 5. Isaiah comes with a Message from God that he should set his house in order for he shall dye that is the Disease was mortal and no outward Applications could in their own nature resist the Destemper Behold * Isa 38.1 5. I will add to thy days fifteen years I will heal thee It seems to me to be one intire Message because the latter part of it was so suddenly after the other committed to Isaiah to be delivered to Hezekiah for he was not gon out of the Kings house before he was ordered to return with the news of his health by an extraordinary indulgence of God against the power of Nature and force of the Disease Behold I will add to thy Life noting it as an extraordinary thing He was in the second Court of the Kings House when this word came to him * 2 Kings 20.4 the Kings House having three Courts so that he was not gon above half way out of the Palace God might send this message of Death to prevent the Pride Hezekiah might swell with for his deliverance from Senacherib As Paul had a Messenger of Satan to buffet him to prevent his lifting up * 2 Cor. 12.7 and this good Man was subject to this sin as we find afterwards in the Case of the Babylonish Embassadors And God delayed this other part of the Message to humble him and draw out his Prayer and as soon as ever he found Hezekiah in this temper he sent Isaiah with a comfortable message of recovery So that the Will of God was to signify to him the mortality of his distemper and afterwards to relieve him by a message of an extraordinary Recovery 5. Proposition God is not changed when of loving to any Creatures he becomes angry with them or of angry he becomes appeased The change in these cases is in the Creature according to the alteration in the Creature it stands in a various relatition to God an innocent Creature is the Object of his Kindness an offending Creature is the Object of his Anger there is a change in the dispensations of God as there is a change in the Creature making himself capable of such dispensations God always acts according to the immutable nature of his Holiness and can no more change in his Affections to good and evil than he can in his Essence When the Devils now fallen stood as glorious Angels they were the Objects of Gods love because holy When they fell they were the objects of Gods hatred because impure the same reason which made him love them while they were pure made him hate them when they were criminal The reason of his various dispensations to them was the same in both as considered in God his immutable holiness but as respecting the Creature different the nature of the Creature was changed but the Divine holy nature of God remain'd the same * Psal 18.26 With the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure and with the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward He is a refreshing light to those that obey him and a consuming fire to those that resist him Tho the same Angels were not always loved yet the same reason that moved him to love them moved him to hate them It had argued a change in God if he had loved them alway in whatsoever posture they were towards him It could not be counted love but a weakness and impotent fondness the change is in the object not in the affection of God For the object loved before is not beloved now because that which was the motive of love is not now in it So that the Creature having a different state from what it had falls under a different affection or dispensation It had been a mutable affection in God to love that which was not worthy of love with the same love wherewith he loved that which had the greatest resemblance to himself Had God loved the fallen Angels in that state and for that state he had hated himself because he had loved that which was contrary to himself and the image of his own holiness which made them appear before good in his sight The Will of God is unchangeably set to love righteousness and hate iniquity and from this hatred to punish it And if a righteous Creature contracts the wrath of God or a sinful Creature hath the Communications of Gods love it must be by a change in themselves Is the Sun changed when it hardens one thing and softens another according to the disposition of the several subjects Or when the Sun makes a flower more fragrant and a dead carcass more noysome There are divers effects but the reason of that diversity is not in the Sun but in the subject the Sun is the same and produceth those different effects by the same quality of heat So if an unholy Soul approach to God God looks angrily upon him If a holy Soul come before him the same immutable perfection in God draws out his kindness towards him As some think the Sun would rather refresh than scorch us if our bodies were of the same nature and substance with that Luminary As the Will of God for Creating the world was no new but an Eternal Will tho it manifested it self in time so the Will of God for the punishment of sin or the reconciliation of the sinner was no new Will Tho his wrath in time break out in the effects of it upon sinners and his love flows out in the effects of it upon penitents Christ by his death reconciling God to man did not alter the Will of God but did what was consonant to his Eternal Will He came not to change his Will but to execute his Will Lo I come to do thy Will oh God * Heb. 10.7 And the grace of God in Christ was not a new grace but an old grace in a
good evil is present with me * Rom. 7.21 Never more present than when we have a mind to do good and never more present than when we have a mind to do the best and greatest good How hard is it to make our thoughts and affections keep their stand place them upon a good Object and they will be frisking from it as a Bird from one bough one fruit to another We vary postures according to the various objects we meet with The course of the World is a very airy thing suted to the uncertain motions of that Prince of the power of the Air which works in it * Eph. 2.2 This ought to be bewail'd by us Tho we may stand fast in the truth tho we may spin our resolutions into a firm web tho the Spirit may triumph over the flesh in our practice yet we ought to bewail it because inconstancy is our nature and what fixedness we have in good is from grace What we find practised by most men is natural to all * Lawrence of Faith p. 262. As face answers to face in a glass so doth heart to heart * Pro. 27.19 a face in the glass is not more like a natural face whose image it is than one mans heart is naturally like another 1. 'T is natural to those out of the Church Nebuchadnezzar is so affected with Daniels prophetick Spirit that he would have none accounted the true God but the God of Daniel * Dan. 2.47 How soon doth this notion slip from him and an image must be set up for all to worship upon pain of almost cruel painful death Daniels God is quite forgotten The miraculous deliverance of the three Children for not worshipping his Image makes him settle a Decree to secure the Honour of God from the reproach of his Subjects * Dan. 3.29 yet a little while after you have him strutting in his Palace as if there were no God but himself 2. 'T is natural to those in the Church The Israelites were the only Church God had in the World and a notable Example of inconstancy After the Miracles of Aegypt they murmured against God when they saw Pharaoh marching with an Army at their Heels They desired food and soon nauseated the Manna they were before fond of when they came into Canaan They sometimes worshipped God and sometimes Idols not only the Idols of one Nation but of all their Neighbours In which regard God calls this his Heritage a Speckled Bird * Jer. 12.9 a Peacock saith Hierom inconstant made up of varieties of Idolatrous colours and Ceremonies This levity of Spirit is the root of all mischeif it scatters our thoughts in the Service of God it is the cause of all revolts and Apostacies from him it makes us unfit to receive the communications of God whatsoever we hear is like words writ in sand ruffled out by the next gale whatsoever is put into us is like precious liquor in a palsie hand soon spilt It breeds distrust of God when we have an uncertain judgment of him we are not like to confide in him an uncertain judgment will be followed with a distrustful heart In fine where it is prevalent it is a certain sign of ungodliness to be driven with the wind like chaffe and to be ungodly is all one in the judgment of the Holy Ghost Psal 1.4 the ungodly are like the chaff which the wind drives away which signifies not their destruction but their disposition for their destruction is inferred from it ver 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment How contrary is this to the unchangeable God who is alwayes the same and would have us the same in our religious Promises and Resolutions for good 4. If God be immutable 't is sad news to those that are resolved in wickedness or careless of returning to that duty he requires Sinners must not expect that God will alter his will make a breach upon his nature and violate his own Word to gratifie their lusts No 't is not reasonable God should dishonour himself to secure them and cease to be God that they may continue to be wicked by changing his own nature that they may be unchanged in their vanity God is the same goodness is as amiable in his sight and Sin as abominable in his eyes now as it was at the beginning of the world Being the same God he is the same Enemy to the Wicked as the same Friend to the Righteous He is the same in Knowledge and cannot forget sinful acts He is the same in Will and cannot approve of unrighteous Practices Goodness cannot but be alway the Object of his Love and Wickedness cannot but be alway the Object of his Hatred And as his aversion to Sin is alway the same so as he hath been in his Judgments upon Sinners the same he will be still for the same perfection of Immutability belongs to his Justice for the punishment of Sin as to his Holiness for his disaffection to Sin Though the Covenant of Works was changeable by the crime of man violating it yet it was unchangeable in regard of Gods justice vindicating it which is inflexible in the punishment of the breaches of his Law The Law had a preceptive part and a minatory part When man changed the observation of the Precept the righteous nature of God could not null the execution of the threatning He could not upon the account of this perfection neglect his just word and countenance the unrighteous transgression Tho there were no more rational Creatures in being but Adam and Eve yet God subjected them to that death he had assured them of and from this immutability of his Will ariseth the necessity of the suffering of the Son of God for the relief of the apostate Creature His Will in the second Covenant is as uncâ—aâ—â—eable as that in the first only repentance is settled as the condition of the second which was not indulged in the first and without repentance the sinner must iâ—â—voâ—â—bly pâ—rish or God must change his nature There must be a change in man there can be nâ—â—â—e in God his bow is bent his arrows are ready if the wicked do not turn * Psal 7.11 There is not an Atheist an hypocrite a prophane person that ever was upon the Earth but Gods Soul abhorred him as such and the like he will abhor for ever While any therefore continue so they may sooner expect the Heavens should roul as they please the Sun stand still at their order the Stars change their course at their beck than that God should change his nature which is opposite to prophaness and vanity Who hath hardned himself against him and hath prospered * Job 9.4 Use 2. Of comfort The immutability of a good God is a strong ground of consolation Subjects wish a good Prince to live for ever as being loath to change him but care not how soon they are rid of an Oppressor
affection to thy Isaac is extinguish'd by the more powerful flame of affection to my Will and Command I now accept thee and count thee a meet subject of my choicest Benefits or now I know that is I have made known and manifested the Faith of Abraham to himself and to the World Thus Paul uses the word know 1 Cor. 2.2 I have determined to know nothing that is to declare and teach nothing to make known nothing but Christ Crucified or else now I know that is I have an evidence and experiment in this noble fact that thou fearest me God often condescends to our capacity in speaking of himself after the manner of men as if he had as men do known the inward affections of others by their outward actions 4. God knows all the Evils and Sins of Creatures 1. God knows all Sin This follows upon the other If he knows all the actions and thoughts of Creatures he knows also all the Sinfulness in those acts and thoughts This Zophar infers from Gods punishing men Job 11.11 for he knows vain man he sees his wickedness also he knows every man and sees the wickedness of every man He looks down from Heaven and beholds not only the filthy persons but what is filthy in them Psal 14.2 3. all Nations in the World and every man of every Nation none of their iniquity is hid from his eyes He searches Jerusalem with Candles Jer. 16.17 God follows Sinners step by step with his eye and will not leave searching out till he hath taken them a Metaphor taken from one that searches all Chinks with a Candle that nothing can be hid from him He knows it distinctly in all the parts of it how an Adulterer rises out of his Bed to commit Uncleanness what contrivances he had what steps he took every circumstance in the whole progress not only evil in the bulk but every one of the blacker spots upon it which may most aggravate it If he did not know Evil how could he permit it order it punish it or pardon it Doth he permit he knows not what Order to his own holy ends what he is ignorant of Punish or pardon that which he is uncertain whether it be a Crime or no Cleanse me saith David from my secret faults Ps 19.12 secret in regard of others secret in regard of himself how could God cleanse him from that whereof he was ignorant He knows Sins before they are committed much more when they are in act he foreknew the Idolatry and Apostacy of the Jews what Gods they would serve in what measure they would provoke him and violate his Covenant Deut. 31.20 21. he knew Judas his Sin long before Judas his actual existence foretelling it in the Psalms and Christ predicts it before he acted it He sees Sins future in his own permitting Will he sees Sins present in his own supporting act As he knows things possible to himself because he knows his own power so he knows things practicable by the Creature because he knows the Power and Principles of the Creature Fotherby Atheoma p. 132. This Sentiment of God is naturally writ in the fears of Sinners upon Lightning Thunder or some Prodigious operation of God in the World what is the Language of them but that he sees their Deeds hears their words knows the inward sinfulness of their hearts that he doth not only behold them as a meer Spectator but considers them as a just Judg. And the Poets say that the Sins of men leapt into Heaven and were writ in Parchments of Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cross Anthol dec 1. cap. 395 p. 101. scelus in terram geritur in coelo scribitur sin is acted on Earth and recorded in Heaven God indeed doth not behold Evil with the approving eye he knows it not with a practical knowledg to be the Author of it but with a speculative Knovvledg so as to understand the sinfulness of it or a knovvledg simplicis intelligentiae of simple intelligence as he permits them not positively vvills them he knovvs them not vvith a knovvledg of assent to them but dissent from them Evil pertains to a dissenting act of the mind and an aversive act of the Will and vvhat tho' evil formally taken hath no distinct Conception because it is a privation a Defect hath no Being and all knovvledg is by the apprehension of some Being vvould not this lye as strongly against our ovvn knovvledg of Sin Sin is a privation of the rectitude due to an act and vvho doubts mans knovvledg of Sin by his knovving the act he knovvs the deficiency of the act the subject of evil hath a Being and so hath a conception in the mind that vvhich hath no Being cannot be knovvn by it self or in it self but vvill it follovv that it cannot be knovvn by its contrary as vve knovv darkness to be a privation of light and folly to be a privation of vvisdom God knovvs all good by himself because he is the Soveraign good Is it strange then that he should knovv all evil since all evil is in some natural good 2. The manner of Gods knowing Evil is not so easily known And indeed as vve cannot comprehend the Essence of God tho' it is easily intelligible that there is such a Being so vve can as little comprehend the manner of Gods Knovvledg tho' vve cannot but conclude him to be an intelligent Being a pure Understanding knovving all things As God hath a higher manner of Being than his Creatures so he hath another and higher manner of knovving and vve can as little comprehend the manner of his knovving as vve can the manner of his Being But as to the manner Doth not God knovv his ovvn Lavv and shall he not knovv hovv much any action comes short of his Rule he cannot knovv his ovvn Rule vvithout knovving all the deviations from it He knovvs his ovvn Holiness and shall he not see hovv any action is contrary to the Holiness of his ovvn nature Doth not God knovv every thing that is true and is it not true that this or that is evil and shall God be ignorant of any Truth Hovv doth God knovv that he cannot lye but by knovving his ovvn Veracity Hovv doth God knovv that he cannot Dye but by knovving his ovvn Immutability and by knovving those he knovvs vvhat a Lye is he knovvs vvhat Death is so if Sin never had been if no Creature had ever been God vvould have knovvn vvhat Sin vvas because he knovvs his ovvn Holiness because he knevv vvhat Lavv vvas fit to be appointed to his Creatures if he should Create them and that that Lavv might be transgrest by them God knovvs all good all goodness in himself he therefore hath a foundation in himself to knovv all that comes short of that goodness that is opposite to that Holiness As if Light vvere capable of Understanding it vvould knovv Darkness only by knovving it self by knovving it self it vvould
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
is the object of the Divine Knowledg but not the cause of the act of Divine Knowledg and though the foreknowledg of God doth in Eternity precede the actual presence of a thing which is foreseen as future yet the future thing in regard of its futurity is as Eternal as the foreknowledg of God As the Voice is uttered before it be heard and a thing is visible before it be seen and a thing knowable before it be known But how comes it to be knowable to God it must be answered either in the Power of God as a thing possible or in the Will of God as a thing future he first Willed and then knew what he Willed he knew what he Willed to effect and he knew what he Willed to permit as he Willed the Death of Christ by a determinate Counsel and Willed the Permission of the Jews Sin and the ordering of the malice of their nature to that end Acts 2.22 God decrees to make a rational Creature and to govern him by a Law God Decrees not to hinder this rational Creature from transgressing his Law and God foresees that what he would not hinder would come to pass Man did not Sin because God foresaw him but God foresaw him to Sin because man would Sin If Adam and other men would have acted otherwise God would have foreknown that they would have acted well God foresaw our actions because they would so come to pass by the motion of our Free-Will which he would permit which he would concur with which he would order to his own holy and glorious ends for the manifestation of the Perfection of his nature If I see a man lye in a Sink no necessity is inferred upon him from my sight to lye in that filthy place but there is a necessity inferr'd by him that lies there that I should see him in that condition if I pass by and cast my eye that way 5. God did not only foreknow our actions but the manner of our actions That is he did not only know that we would do such actions but that we would do them freely he foresaw that the Will would freely determine it self to this or that the Knowledg of God takes not away the nature of things though God knows possible things yet they remain in the nature of possibility and tho' God knows contingent things yet they remain in the nature of contingencies and tho' God knows free Agents yet they remain in the nature of liberty God did not foreknow the actions of man as necessary but as free so that liberty is rather established by this foreknowledg than removed God did not foreknow that Adam had not a power to stand or that any man hath not a power to omit such a sinful action but that he would not omit it Man hath a power to do otherwise than that which God foreknows he will do Adam was not determin'd by any inward necessity to Fall nor any man by any inward necessity to commit this or that particular Sin but God foresaw that he would Fall and Fall freely for he saw the whole Circle of means and causes whereby such and such actions should be produced and can be no more ignorant of the motions of our Wills and the manner of them than an Artificer can be ignorant of the motions of his Watch and how far the Spring will let down the String in the space of an hour he sees all causes leading to such events in their whole order and how the Free-Will of man will comply with this or refuse that he changes not the manner of the Creatures operation whatsoever it be 6. But what if the foreknowledg of God and the liberty of the Will cannot be fully reconciled by man shall we therefore deny a Perfection in God to support a liberty in our selves Shall we rather fasten ignorance upon God and accuse him of blindness to maintain our liberty That God doth foreknow every thing and yet that there is liberty in the rational Creature are both certain but how fully to reconcile them may surmount the Understanding of man Some Truths the Disciples were not capable of bearing in the days of Christ and several Truths our understandings cannot reach as long as the World doth last yet in the mean time we must on the one hand take heed of conceiving God ignorant and on the other hand of imagining the Creature necessitated the one will render God imperfect and the other will seem to render him unjust in punishing man for that Sin which he could not avoid but was brought into by a fatal necessity God is sufficient to render a reason of his ovvn Proceedings and clear up all at the day of Judgment 't is a part of mans curiosity since the Fall to be prying into Gods Secrets things too high for him vvhereby he singes his ovvn Wings and confounds his ovvn Understanding 'T is a cursed affectation that runs in the Blood of Adams Posterity to know as God tho' our first Father smarted and ruin'd his Posterity in that attempt the vvays and knovvledg of God are as much above our thoughts and conceptions as the heavens are above the earth Isa 55.9 Daillá Melang part 2. p. 712. 725. and so sublime that vve cannot comprehend them in their true and just greatness his designs are so mysterious and the vvays of his conduct so profound that it is not possible to dive into them The force of our understandings is belovv his infinite Wisdom and therefore vve should adore him vvith an humble astonishment and cry out vvith the Apostle Rom. 11.33 Oh the depth of the Riches of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out When ever vve meet vvith depths that vve cannot fathom let us remember that he is God and vve his Creatures and not be guilty of so great extravagance as to think that a Subject can pierce into all the secrets of a Prince or a Work understand all the operations of the Artificer Let us only resolve not to fasten any thing on God that is unvvorthy of the Perfection of his nature and dishonourable to the Glory of his Majesty nor imagine that vve can ever step out of the rank of Creatures to the glory of the Deity to understand fully every thing in his nature So much for the second general What God knovvs III. The third is How God knows all things As it is necessary vve should conceive God to be an Understanding Being else he could not be God so vve must conceive his understanding to be infinitely more pure and perfect than ours in the act of it else vve liken him to our selves and debase him as lovv as his Foot-stool Maxim Tyriu◠Dissert 1. p. 9. 10. As among Creatures there are degrees of Being and Perfection Plants above Earth and Sand because they have a Povver of grovvth Beasts above Plants because to their Povver of grovvth there is an
Pet. 1.12 It was publish'd in Paradise but in such words as Adam did not fully understand It was both discover'd and clouded in the Smoke of Sacrifices It was wrapped up in a Vail under the Law but not open'd till the Death of the Redeemer It was then plainly said to the Cities of Judah Behold your God comes The whole Transaction of it between the Father and the Son which is the Spirit of the Gospel was from Eternity the Creation of the World was in order to the manifestation of it Let us not then regard the Gospel as a Novelty the consideration of it as one of Gods Cabinet Rarities should enhance our Estimation of it No Traditions of Men no Inventions of vain Wits that pretend to be wiser than God should have the same Credit with that which bears date from Eternity 8. Observe That Divine Truth is Mysterious According to the revelation of the mystery Christ manifested in the flesh The whole Scheme of Godliness is a Mystery No Man or Angel could imagine how two Natures so distant as the Divine and Human should be united how the same Person should be Criminal and Righteous how a Just God should have a Satisfaction and Sinful Man a Justification how the Sin should be punish'd and the Sinner saved None could imagine such a way of Justification as the Apostle in this Epistle declares It was a Mystery when hid under the Shadows of the Law and a Mystery to the Prophets when it sounded from their Mouths they searched it without being able to comprehend it †1 Pet. 1.10 11. If it be a Mystery 't is humbly to be submitted to Mysteries surmount Human Reason The study of the Gospel must not be with a yawning and careless frame Trades you call Mysteries are not learned sleeping and nodding Diligence is required we must be Disciples at Gods Feet As it had God for the Author so we must have God for the Teacher of it the Contrivance was his and the Illumination of our Minds must be from him As God only manifested the Gospel so he only can open our Eyes to see the Mysteries of Christ in it In Verse 26. we may observe 1. The Scriptures of the Old Testament verifie the substance of the New and the New doth evidence the Authority of the Old By the Scriptures of the Prophets made known The Old Testament credits the New and the New illustrates the Old The New Testament is a Comment upon the Prophetick part of the Old The Old shews the Promises and Predictions of God and the New shews the Performance What was foretold in the Old is fulfilled in the New the Predictions are cleared by the Events The Predictions of the Old are Divine because they are above the Reason of Man to foreknow None but an Infinite Knowledge could foretell them because none but an Infinite Wisdom could order all things for the accomplishment of them The Christian Religion hath then the surest Foundation since the Scriptures of the Prophets wherein it is foretold are of undoubted Antiquity and owned by the Jews and many Heathens which are and were the great Enemies of Christ The Old Testament is therefore to be read for the strengthning of our Faith Our Blessed Saviour himself draws the Streams of his Doctrine from the Old Testament He clears up the Promise of Eternal Life and the Doctrine of the Resurrection from the words of the Covenant I am the God of Abraham c. Mat. 22.32 And our Apostle clears up the Doctrine of Justification by Faith from Gods Covenant with Abraham Rom. 4. It must be read and it must be read as it is writ It was writ to a Gospel End it must be studied with a Gospel Spirit The Old Testament was writ to give Credit to the New when it should be manifested in the World It must be read by us to give strength to our Faith and establish us in the Doctrine of Christianity How many view it as a bare story an Almanack out of date and regard it as a dry Bone without sucking from it the Evangelical Marrow Christ is in Genesis Abrahams Seed in Davids Psalms and the Prophets the Messiah and Redeemer of the World 2. Observe the Antiquity of the Gospel Is made manifest by the Scriptures of the Prophets It was of as Ancient a date as any Prophesy The first Prophesy was nothing else but a Gospel Charter it was not made at the Incarnation of Christ but made manifest It then rose up to its Meridian lustre and sprung out of the Clouds wherewith it was before obscur'd The Gospel was preached to the Ancients by the Prophets as well as to the Gentiles by the Apostles Heb. 4.2 Vnto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them To them first to us after to them indeed more cloudy to us more clear but they as well as we were Evangeliz'd as the word signifies The Covenant of Grace was the same in the Writings of the Prophets and the Declarations of the Evangelists and Apostles Though by our Saviours Incarnation the Gospel Light was clearer and by his Ascension the Effusions of the Spirit fuller and stronger yet the Believers under the Old Testament saw Christ in the Swadling Bands of Legal Ceremonies and the Lattice of Prophetical Writings they could not else offer one Sacrifice or read one Prophesy with a Faith of the right stamp Abrahams Justifying Faith had Christ for its Object though it was not so Explicit as ours because the Manifestation was not so clear as ours 3. All Truth is to be drawn from Scripture The Apostle refers them here to the Gospel and the Prophets The Scripture is the Source of Divine Knowledge not the Traditions of Men nor Reason separate from Scripture Whosoever brings another Doctrine coyns another Christ nothing is to be added to what is written nothing detracted from it He doth not send us for Truth to the Puddles of Human Inventions to the Enthusiasms of our Brain not to the See of Rome no nor to the Instructions of Angels but the Writings of the Prophets as they clear up the Declarations of the Apostles The Church of Rome is not made here the Standard of Truth but the Scriptures of the Prophets are to be the Touch-stone to the Romans for the Trial of the Truth of the Gospel 4. How great is the Goodness of God The Borders of Grace are enlarged to the Gentiles and not hid under the Skirts of the Jews He that was so long the God of the Jews is now also manifest to be the God of the Gentiles The Gospel is now made known to all Nations according to the Commandment of the Everlasting God Not only in a way of Common Providence but Special Grace in Calling them to the Knowledge of himself and a Justification of them by Faith He hath brought Strangers to him to the Adoption of Children and lodged them under the Wings of the Covenant that were before alienated from
would be as bad as Hell Since the Heart of Man is a Hell of Corruption by that the Souls of all Men would be excited to the acting the worst Villanies since every thought of the heart of Man is only evil and that continually Gen. 6.5 if the Wisdom of God did not stop these Floud-gates of Evil in the Hearts of Men it would overflow the World and frustrate all the Gracious Designs he carries on among the Sons of Men. Were it not for this Wisdom every House would be filled with Violence as well as every Nature is with Sin What harm would not strong and furious Beasts do did nâ—t the Skill of Man tame and bridle them How often hath Divine Wisdom restrain'd the Viciousness of Human Nature and let it run not to that point they â—â—â—â—â—'d but to the end he purposed Labans Fury and Esaus Enmity against 〈…〉 â—ere pâ—â—t in within bounds for Jacobs safety and their Hearts over-ruled 〈…〉 intended destruction of the good Man to a perfect Amity * Gen. 31.29 Gen. 32. II. Gods Wisdom is seen in the bringing glory to himself out of Sin 1. Out of Sin it self God erects the Trophies of Honour upon that which is a Natural means to hinder and deface it His glorious Attributes are drawn out to our view upon the occasion of Sin which otherwise had lain hid in his own Being Sin is altogether black and abominable but by the Admirable Wisdom of God he hath drawn out of the dreadful darkness of Sin the saving Beams of his Mercy and displayed his Grace in the Incarnation and Passion of his Son for the Atonement of Sin Thus he permitted Adams Fall and wisely order'd it for a fuller discovery of his own Nature and a higher elevation of Mans good that as Sin reigned to death so might Grace reign through Righteousness to Eternal life by Jesus Christ Rom. 5.21 The unbounded Goodness of God could not have appeared without it His Goodness in rewarding Innocent Obedience would have been manifested but not his Mercy in pardoning Rebellious Crimes An Innocent Creature is the Object of the Rewards of Grace as the standing Angels are under the Beams of Grace but not under the Beams of Mercy because they were never Sinful and consequently never Miserable Without Sin the Creature had not been Miserable Had Man remained Innocent he had not been the Subject of Punishment and without the Creatures Misery Gods Mercy in sending his Son to save his Enemies could not have appeared The abundance of Sin is a Passive occasion for God to manifest the Abundance of his Grace The Power of God in the changing the Heart of a Rebellious Creature had not appeared had not Sin infected our Nature We had not clearly known the Vindictive Justice of God had no Crime been committed for that is the proper Object of Divine Wrath. The Goodness of God could never have permitted Justice to exercise it self upon an Innocent Creature that was not guilty either Personally or by Imputation Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth Righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Wisdom is illustrious hereby God suffered Man to fall into a Mortal Disease to shew the virtue of his own Restoratives to cure Sin which in it self is Incurable by the Art of any Creature And otherwise this Perfection whereby God draws Good out of Evil had been utterly useless and would have been destitute of an Object wherein to discover it self Again Wisdom in ordering a Rebellious head-strong World to its own ends is greater than the ordering an Innocent World exactly observant of his Precepts and complying with the End of the Creation Now without the entrance of Sin this Wisdom had wanted a Stage to act upon Thus God raised the Honour of his Wisdom while Man ruin'd the Integrity of his Nature and made use of the Creatures breach of his Divine Law to establish the Honour of it in a more signal and stable manner by the Active and Passive Obedience of the Son of his Bosom Nothing serves God so much as an occasion of glorifying himself as the entrance of Sin into the World by this occasion God communicates to us the knowledge of those Perfections of his Nature which had else been folded up from us in an Eternal Night his Justice had lain in the dark as having nothing to punish his Mercy had been obscure as having none to pardon a great part of his Wisdom had been silent as having no such Object to order 2. His Wisdom appears In making use of sinful Instruments He uses the Malice and Enmity of the Devil to bring about his own Purposes and makes the sworn Enemy of his Honour contribute to the Illustrating of it against his will This great Crafts-Master he took in his own Net and defeated the Devil by the Devils Malice by turning the Contrivances he had hatch'd and accomplish'd against Man against himself He used him as a Tempter to grapple with our Saviour in the Wilderness whereby to make him fit to succour us and as the God of this World to inspire the wicked Jews to Crucifie him whereby to render him actually the Redeemer of the World and so made him an Ignorant Instrument of that Divine Glory he design'd to ruine * Moulins Serm. Decad. 10. p. 221 232. 'T is more Skill to make a curious piece of Workmanship with Ill condition'd Tools than with Instruments naturally sitted for the work 'T is no such great wonder for a Limner to draw an exact piece with a fit Pencil and sutable Colours as to begin and perfect a beautiful work with a Straw and Water things improper for such a design This Wisdom of God is more admirable and astonishing than if a Man were able to rear a vast Palace by Fire whose nature is to consume Combustible matter not to erect a Building To make things serviceable contrary to their own Nature is a Wisdom peculiar to the Creator of Nature Gods making use of Devils for the glory of his Name and the good of his People is a more amazing piece of Wisdom than his Goodness in employing the Blessed Angels in his work To promise that the World which includes the God of the World and Death and Things present let them be as Evil as they will should be ours that is for our good and for his glory is an act of Goodness but to make them serviceable to the Honour of Christ and the good of his People is a Wisdom that may well raise our highest Admirations †1 Cor. 3.22 They are for Believers as they are for the glory of Christ and as Christ is for the glory of God To Chain up Satan wholly and frustrate his Wiles would be an Argument of Divine Goodness but to suffer him to run his risque and then improve all his Contrivances for his own glorious and gracâ—ous Ends and Purposes manifests besides his Power and Goodness his Wisdom also He uses the Sins of Evil
Wisdom that God many times makes a Sin which Meritoriously fits us for Hell a Providential occasion to fit us for Heaven when it is an occasion of a more humble Faith and believing Humility and an occasion of a through Sanctification and growth in Grace which prepares us for a state of Glory 1. He makes use of one Sin 's breaking out to discover more and so brings us to a Self-abhorrency and Indignation against Sin the first step towards Heaven Perhaps David before his gross Fall thought he had no Hypocrisie in him We often find him appealing to God for his Integrity and desiring God to try him if any guile could be found in his Heart as if he could find none himself But his Lapse into that great Wickedness makes him discern much Falseness in his Soul when he desires God to renew a right Spirit within him and speaks of Truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 10. The stirring of one Corruption makes all the Mud at the bottom appear which before a Soul did not suspect No Man would think there were so great a Cloud of Smoke contain'd in a little Stick of Wood were it not for the powerful operation of the Fire that both discovers and separates it Job that Cursed the Day of his Birth and uttered many Impatient expressions against God upon the account of his own Integrity upon his Recovery from his Affliction and Gods close application of himself was wrought to a greater Abhorrency of himself than ever we read he was exercis'd in before ‖ Job 42.6 The Hostile acts of Sin increase the Souls hatred of it and the deeper our Humiliations are for it the stronger impressions of Abhorrency are made upon us 2. He often orders it to make Conscience more tender and the Soul more watchful He that finds by his Calamity his Enemy to have more strength against him than he suspected will double his Guards and quicken his Diligence against him A being overtaken by some Sin is by the Wisdom of God dispos'd to make us more fearful of cherishing any occasion to enflame it and watchful against every motion and start of it By a Fall the Soul hath more experience of the Deceitfulness of the Heart and by observing its methods is render'd better able to watch against them 'T is our Ignorance of the Devices of Satan and our own hearts that makes us obnoxious to their Surprizes A fall into one Sin is often a prevention of more which lay in wait for us As the fall of a small Body into an Ambush prevents the design of the Enemy upon a greater As God suffers Heresies in the Church to try our Faith so he suffers Sins to remain and sometimes to break out to try our Watchfulness This advantage he brings from them to steel our Resolutions against the same Sins and quicken our Circumspection for the future against new Surprizes by a Temptation Davids Sin was ever before him Psal 51.3 and made his Conscience cry Blood Blood upon every occasion He refused the Water of the Well of Bethlehem 2 Sam 23.16 17. because it was gained with the hazard of Lives He could endure nothing that had the taste of Blood in it Our fear of a thing depends much upon a Trial of it A Child will not fear too near approaches to the Fire till he feels the smart of it Mortification doth not wholly suppress the Motions of Sin though it doth the Resolutions to commit it but that there will be a proneness in the Reliques of it to entice a Man into those Faults which upon sight of their blemishes cost him so many Tears As great Sicknesses after the Cure are more watch'd and the Body humour'd that a Man might not fall from the Craziness they have left in him which he is apt to do if Relapses are not carefully provided against A Man becomes more careful of any thing that may contribute to the resurrection of an expir'd Disease 3. God makes it an occasion of the Mortification of that Sin which was the matter of the Fall The livelyness of one Sin in a Renewed Man many times is the occasion of the death of it A wild Beast while kept close in a Den is secure in its life but when it breaks out to Rapine it makes the Master resolve to prevent any further mischief by the death of it The impetuous stirring of a humor in a Disease is sometime Critical and a Prognostick of the strength of Nature against it whereby the Disease loseth its strength by its struggling and makes room for health to take place by degrees One Sin is used by God for the destruction both of it self and others As the Flesh of a Scorpion cures the biting of it It sometimes by wounding us loseth its Sting and like the Bee renders it self uncapable of a second Revenge Peter after his gross Denial never denied his Master afterwards The Sin that lay undiscovered is by a Fall become visible and so more obvious to a mortifying stroke The Soul lays the faster hold on Christ and the Promise and goes out against that Enemy in the Name of that Lord of Hosts of which he was too negligent of before and therefore as he proves more strong so more successful He hath more strength because he hath less confidence in himself and more in God the prime strength of his Soul As it was with Christ so it is with us while the Devil was bruising his Heel he was bruising his Head and while the Devil is bruising our Heel the God of Peace and Wisdom is sometimes bruising his Head both in us and for us so that the strugglings of Sin are often as the faint groans or bitings of a Beast that is ready to expire 'T is just with a Man sometimes as with a Running Fountain that hath Mud at the bottom when it is stirred the Mud tinctures and defiles it all over yet some of that Mud hath a vent with the Streams which run from it so that when it is re-settled at the bottom 't is not so much in quantity as it was before God by his Wisdom weakens the Sin by permitting it to stir and defile 4. Sometimes Divine Wisdom makes it an occasion to promote a Sanctification in all parts of the Soul As the working of one Ill-humor in the Body is an occasion of cashiering not only that but the rest by a sound Purge As a Man that is a little Cold doth not think of the Fire but if he slips with one Foot into an Icy-puddle he hastens to the Fire whereby not only that part but all the rest receive a warmth and strength upon that occasion Or as if a Person fall into the Mire his Cloaths are washed and by that means cleansed not only from the filth at present contracted but from the former Spots that were before unregarded God by his Wisdom brings secret Sins to a discovery and thereby cleanseth the Soul of them Davids Fall
his loathing of sin and the sprinklings of his Judgments in the World and the horrible expectations of terrified Consciences confirm it But what are all these Testimonies to the highest evidence that can possibly be given in the sheathing the Sword of his wrath in the heart of his Son If a Father should order his Son to take a mean Garb below his Dignity order him to be dragg'd to Prison seem to throw off all Affection of a Father for the severity of a Judge condemn his Son to a horrible Death be a Spectator of his bleeding Condition withhold his hand from asswaging his Misery regard it rather with Joy than Sorrow give him a bitter Cup to drink and stand by to see him drink it off to the bottom dregs and all and sâ—ash frowns in his face all the while and this not for any fault of his own but the Rebellion of some Subjects he undertook for and that the Offenders might have a pardon seal'd by the Blood of the Son the sufferer all this would evidence his detestation of the Rebellion and his affection to the Rebels his hatred to their Crime and his love to their Welfare This did God do He delivered Christ up for our Offences Rom. 8.32 the Father gave him the Cup John 18 18. the Lord bruised him with pleasure Isa 53.10 and that for sin â—e transfer'd upon the shoulders of his Son the pain we had merited that the Criminal might be restored to the place he had forfeited He hates the sin so as to condemn it for ever and wrap it up in the Curse he had threatned and loves the sinner believing and repenting so as to mount him to an expectation of a happiness exceeding the first state both in glory and perpetuity Instead of an Earthly Paradise lays the Foundation of an Heavenly Mansion brings forth a weight of Glory from a weight of Misery separates the comfortable light of the Sun from the scorching heat we had deserved at his hands Thus hath Gods hatred of sin been manifested He is at an eternal Defiance with sin yet nearer in alliance with the sinner than he was before the Revolt As if man's miserable Fall had endeared him to the Judge This is the wisdom and prudence of Grace wherein God hath abounded Eph. 1.9 A wisdom in twisting the happy restoration of the broken Amity with an everlasting Curse upon that which made the breach both upon sin the Cause and upon Satan the Seducer to it Thus is hatred and love in their highest glory manifested together Hatred to sin in the death of Christ more than if the torments of Hell had been undergone by the sinner and love to the sinner more than if he had by an absolute and simple Bounty bestowed upon him the possession of Heaven because the gift of his Son for such an end is a greater token of his boundless Affections than a reinstating Man in Paradise Thus is the wisdom of God seen in Redemption consuming the sin and recovering the sinner 6. The wisdom of God is evident in overturning the Devil's Empire by the Nature he had vanquish'd and by ways quite contrary to what that malicious Spirit could imagine The Devil indeed read his own doom in the first Promise and found his ruin resolved upon by the means of the Seed of the Woman but by what Seed was not so easily known to him * And indeed the 〈◊〉 â—â—racles managed by the Devils declared that they were not long to hold their Scepter in the World but the Hebrew Child should vanquish them And the methods whereby it was to be brought about was a Mystery kept secret from the malicious Devils since it was not discovered to the obedient Angels He might know from Isa 53. that the Redeemer was assured to divide the Spoil with the strong and rescue a part of the lost Creation out of his hands and that this was to be effected by making his Soul an offering for sin But could he imagine which way his Soul was to be made such an Offering He shrewdly suspected Christ just after his Inauguration into his Office by Bapism to be the Son of God But did he ever dream that the Messiah by dying as a reputed Malefactor should be a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin the Devil had introduced by his subtilty Did he ever imagine a Cross should dispossess him of his Crown and that dying groans should wrest the Victory out of his hands He was conquer'd by that Nature he had cast headlong into ruin A Woman by his subtilty was the occasion of our death and a Woman by the conduct of the only wise God brings forth the Author of our Life and the Conquerour of our Enemies The Flesh of the old Adam had infected us and the Flesh of the new Adam cures us 1 Cor. 15.21 By man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead We are killed by the old Adam and raised by the new As among the Israelites a fiery Serpent gave the wound and a brazen Serpent administers the Cure The Nature that was deceived bruiseth the Deceiver and razeth up the Foundations of his Kingdom Satan is defeated by the Counsels he took to secure his Possession and loses the Victory by the same means whereby he thought to preserve it His tempting the Jews to the sin of Crucifying the Son of God had a contrary success to his tempting Adam to eat of the Tree The first death he brought upon Adam ruined us and the death he brought by his Instrumâ—nts upon the second Adam restored us By a Tree if one may so say he had Triumphed over the World and by the fruit of a Tree one hanging upon a Tree he is dischâ—â—ged of his power over us Heb. 2.14 Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death And thus the Devil ruins his own Kingdom while he thinks to confirm inlarge it And is defeated by his own policy whereby he thought to continue the World under his chains and deprive the Creator of the World of his purposed honour What deeper Counsell could he resolve upon for his own security than to be instrumental in the death of him who was God the terror of the Devil himself and to bring the Redeemer of the World to expire with disgrace in the sight of a multitude of men Thus did the Wisdom of God shine forthin restoring us by methods seemingly repugnant to the end he aimed at above the suspition of a subtle Devil whom he intended to baffle Could he Imagine that we should be healed by stripes quickned by death purified by blood crowned by a cross advanced to the highest honour by the lowest humility comforted by sorrows glorified by disgrace absolved by condemnation and made rich by poverty That the sweetest hony should at once spring out of the belly of a dead Lion the Lion of the tribe of Judah and out of the bosom of the living God
all affections to sin lye down in Sorrow and bewail what he hath done amiss against so tender a God Can you expect that any man that Promises you a great honour or a rich donative should demand less of you than to trust his word bear an affection to him and return him kindness Can any less be expected by a Prince than obedience from a pardoned Subject and a redeemed Captive If you have injured any man in his Body Estate Reputation would you not count it a reasonable Condition for the partaking of his Clemency and Forgiveness to express a hearty sorrow for it and a resolution not to fall into the like Crime again Such are the Conditions of the Gospel suted to the Consciences of men 5. The Wisdom of God appears in that this condition was only likely to attain the end There are but two Common Heads appointed by God Adam and Christ By one we are made a living Soul by the other a quickning Spirit By the one we are made sinners by the other we are made righteous Adam fell as a Head and all his members his whole Issue and Posterity fell with him because they proceeded from him by natural Generation But since the second Adam can not be our Head by natural Generation there must be some other way of engrafting us in him and uniting us to him as our Head which must be Moral and Spiritual this can not rationally be conceived to be by any other way than What is sutable to a reasonable Creature and therefore must be by an act of the Will Consent and Acceptance and owning the terms setled for an Admission to that Union And this is that we properly call Faith and therefore called a receiving of him John 1.12 Now this Condition of enjoying the Fruits of Redemption could not be a bare Knowledge for that is but only an act of the Understanding and doth not in itself include the act of the Will and so would have united only one Faculty to him not the whole Soul But Faith in an act both of the Understanding and Will too and principally of the Will which doth presuppose an act of the Understanding For there cannot be a Perswasion in the Will without a Proposition from the Understanding The Understanding must be convinced of the truth and goodness of a thing before the Will can be perswaded to make any motion towards it and therefore all the Promises Invitations and Proffers are suted to the Understanding and Will To the Understanding in regard of Knowledge to the Will in regard of Appetite to the Understanding as true to the Will as good To the Understanding as practical and influencing the Will 2. Nor could it be an intire Obedience That as was said before would have made the Creature have some matter of boasting and this was not sutable to the Condition he was sunk into by the fall Besides mans Nature being corrupted was rendered uncapable to obey and unable to have one thought of a due Obedience 2 Cor. 3.5 When man turned from God and upon that was turned out of Paradise his return was impossible by any strength of his own his Nature was as much corrupted as his re-entrance into Paradise was prohibited That Covenant whereby he stood in the garden required a perfection of action and intention in the observance of all the Commands of God But his Fall had crack'd his Ability to recover happiness by the terms and condition of an intire Obedience yet man being a person governable by a Law and capable of happiness by a Covenant if God would restore him and enter into a Covenant with him we must suppose it to have some Condition as all Covenants have That Condition could not be works because mans Nature was polluted Indeed had God reduced mans Body to the dust and his Soul to nothing and framed another man he might have govern'd him by a Covenant of Works But that had not been the same man that had revolted and upon his revolt was stain'd and disabled But suppose God had by any transcendent Grace wholly purified him from the stain of his former Transgression and restored to him the strength and ability he had lost might he not as easily have rebelled again And so the Condition would never have been accomplisht the Covenant never have been performed and Happiness never have been enjoyed There must be some other Condition then in the Covenant God would make for mans Security Now Faith is the most proper for receiving the Promise of Pardon of Sin Belief of those promises is the first natural reflection that a Malefactor can make upon a pardon offered him and acceptance of it is the first consequent from that beliefe Hence is Faith entitled a perswasion of and embraceing the Promises Heb 11.13 and a receiving the atonement Rom. 5.11 Thus the Wisdom of God is apparent in annexing such a Condition to the Covenant whereby man is restored as answers the end of God for his glory the State Conscience and necessity of Man and had the greatest congruity to his recovery 9. This Wisdom of God is manifest in the manner of the publishing and propagating this Doctrine of Redemption 1. In the gradual discoveries of it Flashing a great light in the face of a suddain is amazing should the Sun glare in our Eye in all its brightness on a suddain after we have been in a thick darkness it would blind us instead of comforting us So great a work as this must have several digestions God first reveals of what Seed the Redeeming Person should be the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 Then of what Nation Gen. 26.4 then of what Tribe Gen. 49.12 of the Tribe of Judah then of what Family the family of David then what works he was to do what sufferings to undergoe The first Predictions of our Saviour were obscure Adam could not well see the Redemption in the Promise for the punishment of death which succeeded in the Threatning the Promise exercised his Faith and the Obscurity and bodily Death his Humility The Promise made to Abraham was clearer than the Revelations made before yet he could not tell how to reconcile his Redemption with his Exile God supported his Faith by the Promise and exercised his Humility by making him a Pilgrim and keeping him in a perpetual dependance upon him in all his motions The Declarations to Moses are brighter than those to Abraham The delineations of Christ by David in the Psalms more illustrious than the former And all those exceeded by the Revelations made to the Prophet Isaiah and the other Prophets according as the Age did approach wherein the Redeemer was to enter into his Office God wrapt up this Gospel in a multitude of Types and Ceremonies fitted to the Infant state of the Church Gal. 4.3 An Infant State is usually affected with sensible things yet all those Ceremonies were fitted to that great end of the Gospel which he would bring forth in
proper subsistence by it self which now it borrows from its union with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Word but that doth not belong to the Constitution of its Nature Now let us Consider what a wonder of Power is all this The knitting a Noble Soul to a Body of Clay was not so great an exploit of Almightiness as the espousing Infinite and Finite together Man is further distant from God than Man from Nothing What a wonder is it that two Natures infinitely distant should be more intimately united than any thing in the World and yet without any confusion That the same Person should have both a Glory and a Grief an infinite Joy in the Deity and an unexpressible Sorrow in the Humanity That a God upon a Throne should be an Infant in a Cradle the Thundering Creator be a weeping Babe and a suffering Man are such expressions of mighty Power as well as condescending Love that they astonish Men upon Earth and Angels in Heaven 3. Power was evident in the progress of his life In the Miracles he wrought How often did he expel malicious and powerful Devils from their habitations hurl them from their Thrones and make them fall from Heaven like Lightning How many Wonders were wrought by his bare Word or a single Touch Sight restored to the Blind and Hearing to the Deaf Palsie Members restored to the exercise of their functions a dismiss given to many deplorable Maladies impure Leprosies chas'd from the Persons they had infected and Bodies beginning to putrifie rais'd from the Grave But the mightiest Argument of Power was his Patience That he who was in his Divine Nature elevated above the World should so long continue upon a Dung-hill endure the contradiction of Sinners against himself be patiently subject to the Reproaches and Indignities of Men without displaying that Justice which was essential to the Deity and in especial manner daily merited by their provoking Crimes The Patience of Man under great Affronts is a greater Argument of power than the Brawnyness of his Arm A Strength employ'd in the revenge of every Injury signifies a greater infirmity in the Soul than there can be ability in the Body 4. Divine Power was apparent in his Resurrection The unlocking the belly of the Whale for the deliverance of Jonas the rescue of Daniel from the Den of Lions and the restraining the Fire from burning the Three Children were signal declarations of his Power and types of the Resurrection of our Saviour But what are those to that which was represented by them That was a power over Natural causes a curbing of Beasts and restraining of Elements But in the Resurrection of Christ God exercis'd a power over himself and quencht the flames of his own Wrath hotter than Millions of Nebuchadnezzars Furnaces unlockt the Prison doors wherein the Curses of the Law had lodg'd our Saviour stronger than the Belly and Ribbs of a Leviathan In the rescue of Daniel and Jonas God overpowered Beasts and in this tore up the strength of the Old Serpent and pluckt the Scepter from the hand of the Enemy of Mankind The Work of Resurrection indeed considered in it self requires the efficacy of an Almighty Power Neither Man nor Angel can create new dispositions in a Dead Body to render it capable of lodging a Spiritual Soul nor can they restore a dislodged Soul by their own power to such a Body The restoring a Dead Body to life requires an Infinite Power as well as the Creation of the World But there was in the Resurrection of Christ something more difficult than this while he lay in the Grave he was under the Curse of the Law under the execution of that dreadful Sentence Thou shalt die the death His Resurrection was not only the re-tying â—he Marriage knot between his Soul and Body or the rouling the Stone from the Grave but a taking off an infinite weight the Sin of Mankind which lay upon him So vast a weight could not be removed without the strength of an Almighty Arm. 'T is therefore ascrib'd not to an ordinary operation but an operation with Power †Rom. 1.4 and such a Power wherein the Glory of the Father did appear Rom. 6.4 Rais'd up from the dead by the glory of the Father that is the glorious Power of God As the Eternal Generation is stupendous so is his Resurrection which is called a new begetting of him Acts 13.33 'T is a wonder of Power that the Divine and Humane Nature should be joyn'd and no less wonder that his Person should surmount and rise up from the Curse of God under which he lay The Apostle therefore adds one expression to another and heaps up a variety signifying thereby that one was not enough to represent it Eph. 1.19 Exceeding greatness of power and working of mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead It was an hyperbole of Power the excellency of the Mightiness of his Strength the loftiness of the expressions seems to come short of the apprehension he had of it in his Soul Secondly This Power appears in the Publication and Propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption The Divine Power will appear if you consider 1. The Nature of the Doctrine 2. The Instruments employed in it 3. The Means they us'd to propagate it 4. The Success they had I. The Nature of the Doctrine 1. It was contrary to the common received reason of the World The Philosophers the Masters of Knowledge among the Gentiles had Maxims of a different stamp from it Though they agreed in the Being of a God yet their Notions of his Nature were confus'd and embroil'd with many Errors the Unity of God was not commonly assented unto They had multiplied Deities acâ—ording to the Fancies they had received from some of a more elevated Wit and refin'd Brain than others Though they had some notion of Mediators yet they placed in those Seats their publick Benefactors Men that had been useful to the World or their particular Countries in imparting to them some profitable Invention To discard those was to charge themselves with Ingratitude to them from whom they had received signal benefits and to whose Mediation Conduct or Protection they ascrib'd all the Success they had been blessed with in their several Provinces and to charge themselves with Folly for rendring an Honour and Worship to them so long Could the Doctrine of a Crucified Mediator whom they had never seen that had conquer'd no Country for them never enlarg'd their Territories brought to light no new profitable Invention for the increase of their Earthly welfare as the rest had done be thought sufficient to balance so many of their reputed Heroes How ignorant were they in the foundations of the True Religion The belief of a Providence was staggering nor had they a true prospect of the nature of Vertue and Vice Yet they had a fond Opinion of the strength of their own Reason and the Maxims that had
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
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
the Arms of a Redeemer by whom the Guilt is wip'd of and the filth shall be totally washed away Though he hates their sin and cannot but hate it yet he loves their Persons as being united as Members to the Mediator and Mystical Head A man may love a gangren'd Member because 't is a Member of his own Body or a Member of a dear Relation but he loaths the gangrene in it more than in those wherein he is not so much concern'd Though God's hatred of Believers Persons is removed by Faith in the Satisfactory Death of Jesus Christ yet his Antipathy against sin was not taken away by that Blood nay it was impossible it should It was never design'd nor had it any capacity to alter the unchangeable Nature of God but to manifest the unspottedness of his Will and his eternal Aversion to any thing that was contrary to the Purity of his Being and the Righteousness of his Laws 4. Perpetually This must necessarily follow upon the others He can no more cease to hate Impurity than he can cease to love Holiness If he should in the least instant approve of any thing that is filthy in that moment he would disapprove of his own Nature and Being there would be an interruption in his love of himself which is as Eternal as it is Infinite How can he love any sin which is contrary to his Nature but for one moment without hating his own Nature which is essentially contrary to sin Two Contraries cannot be loved at the same time God must first begin to hate himself before he can approve of any evil which is directly opposite to himself We indeed are changed with a Temptation sometimes bear an affection to it and sometimes testifie an indignation against it but God is always the same without any shadow of change and is angry with the wicked every day Psal 7.11 that is uninterruptedly in the nature of his Anger though not in the effects of it God indeed may be reconciled to the Sinner but never to the sin for then he should renounce himself deny his own Essence and his own Divinity if his inclinations to the love of Goodness and his aversion from Evil could be changed if he suffered the Contempt of the one and encouraged the Practise of the other 4. God is so holy that he cannot but love Holiness in others Not that he owes any thing to his Creature but from the unspeakable holiness of his Nature whence affections to all things that bear a resemblance of him do flow as Light shoots out from the Sun or any glittering Body 'T is essential to the infinite Righteousness of his Nature to love Righteousness wherever he beholds it Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness He cannot because of his Nature but love that which bears some agreement with his Nature that which is the curious Draught of his own Wisdom and Purity He cannot but be delighted with a Copy of himself He would not have a holy Nature if he did not love Holiness in every Nature His own Nature would be denied by him if he did not affect every thing that had a Stamp of his own Nature upon it There was indeed nothing without God that could invite him to manifest such Goodness to man as he did in Creation But after he had stampt that rational Nature with a Righteousness convenient for it it was impossible but that he should ardently love that Impression of himself because he loves his own Deity and consequently all things which are any Sparks and Images of it And were the Devils capable of an act of Righteousness the Holiness of his Nature would incline him to love it even in those dark and revolted Spirits 5. God is so holy that he cannot positively will or encourage sin in any How can he give any Encouragement to that which he cannot in the least approve of or look upon without loathing not only the Crime but the Criminal Light may sooner be the cause of Darkness than Holiness it self be the cause of Unholiness absolutely contrary to it 'T is a Contradiction that he that is the Fountain of Good should be the source of Evil as if the same Fountain should bubble up both sweet and bitter Streams salt and fresh * Jam. 3.11 Since whatsoever Good is in man acknowledges God for its Author it follows that men are Evil by their own fault There is no need for men to be incited to that to which the Corruption of their own Nature doth so powerfully bend them Water hath a forcible principle in its own Nature to carry it downward it needs no force to hasten the motion God tempts no man but every man is drawn away by his own Lust Jam. 1 13.14 All the preparations for glory are from God Rom. 9.23 but men are said to be fitted to destruction Verse 22. but God is not said to fit them they by their Iniquities fit themselves for ruine and he by his long suffering keeps the destruction from them for a while 1. First God cannot command any Vnrighteousness As all Vertue is summ'd up in a love to God so all Iniquity is summ'd up in an enmity to God Every wicked Work declares a man an Enemy to God Col. 1.21 Enemies in your minds by wicked Works If he could command his Creature any thing which bears an enmity in its Nature to himself he would then implicitly command the hatred of himself and he would be in some measure a hater of himself He that commands another to deprive him of his Life cannot be said to bear any love to his own Life God can never hate himself and therefore cannot command any thing that is hateful to him and tends to a hating of him and driving the Creature further from him In that very moment that God should command such a thing he would cease to be Good What can be more absur'd to imagine then that infinite Goodness should enjoyn a thing contrary to it self and contrary to the essential Duty of a Creature and order him to do any thing that bespeaks an enmity to the Nature of the Creator or a deflouring and disparaging his Works God cannot but love himself and his own Goodness he were not otherwise Good and therefore cannot order the Creature to do any thing opposite to this Goodness or any thing hurtful to the Creature it self as Unrighteousness is 2. Nor can God secretly inspire any Evil into us 'T is as much against his Nature to incline the heart to sin as it is to command it As it is impossible but that he should love himself and therefore impossible to enjoyn any thing that tends to a hatred of himself by the same reason it is as impossible that he should infuse such a Principle in the heart that might carry a man out to any act of Enmity against him To enjoyn one thing and incline to another would be an Argument of such insincerity unfaithfulness contradiction to
into his heart which forced that Terrible cry from him My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he adores this Perfection of Holiness v. 3. But thou art holy Thy Holiness is the Spring of all this sharp Agony and for this thou Inhabitest and shalt for ever inhabit the Praises of all thy Israel Holiness drew the Vail between Gods Countenance and our Saviours Soul Justice indeed gave the stroke but Holiness order'd it In this his Purity did sparkle and his Irreversible Justice manifested that all those that commit Sin are worthy of death this was the perfect Index of his Righteousness †Rom 3 2◠that is of his Holiness and Truth then it was that God that is Holy was sanctified in Righteousness Isai 5.16 It appears the more if you consider 1. The Dignity of the Redeemers Person One that had been from Eternity had laid the Foundations of the World had been the Object of the Divine Delight He that was God blessed for ever becomes a Curse He who was blessed by Angels and by whom God blessed the World must be seiz'd with Horrour The Son of Eternity must bleed to death Where did ever Sin appear so irreconcileable to God Where did God ever break out so furiously in his detestation of Iniquity The Father would have the most Excellent Person one next in order to himself and Equal to him in all the glorious Perfections of his Nature * Phil 2.6 Die on a Disgraceful Cross and be exposed to the flames of Divine Wrath rather than Sin should live and his Holiness remain for ever disparaged by the Violations of his Law 2. The near Relation he stood in to the Father He was his own Son that he delivered up Rom. 8.32 His Essential Image as dearly beloved by him as himself yet he would abate nothing of his Hatred of those Sins imputed to one so dear to him and who never had done any thing contrary to his Will The strong Cries utter'd by him could not cause him to cut off the least Fringe of this Royal Garment nor part with a Thred the Robe of his Holiness was woven with The Torrent of Wrath is open'd upon him and the Fathers Heart beats not in the least notice of Tenderness to Sin in the midst of his Sons Agonies †Lingend Tom. 3. p. 699 700. God seems to lay aside the Bowels of a Father and put on the garb of an Irreconcileable Enemy Upon which account probably our Saviour in the midst of his Passion gives him the Title of God not of Father the Title he usually before Addrest to him with Math. 27.46 My God my God not My Father my Father why hast thou forsaken me He seems to hang upon the Cross like a disinherited Son while he appear'd in the garb and rank of a Sinner Then was his Head loaded with Curses when he stood under that Sentence of Cursed is every one that hangs upon a Tree Gal. 3.13 and look'd as one forlorn and rejected by the Divine Purity and Tenderness God dealt not with him as if he had been one in so near a Relation to him He left him not to the Will only of the Instruments of his Death he would have the chiefest blow himself of bruising of him Isai 53.10 It pleased the Lord to bruise him the Lord because the power of Creatures could not strike a blow strong enough to satisfie and secure the Rights of Infinite Holiness It was therefore a Cup temper'd and put into his hands by his Father a Cup given him to drink In other Judgments he lets out his Wrath against his Creatures in this he lets out his Wrath as it were against Himself against his Son One as dear to him as himself As in his making Creatures his Power over Nothing to bring it into Being appear'd but in pardoning Sin he hath power over himself so in punishing Creatures his Holiness appears in his Wrath against Creatures against Sinners by inherency But by punishing Sin in his Son his Holiness sharpens his Wrath against him who was his Equal and only a reputed Sinner As if his Affection to his own Holiness surmounted his Affection to his Son For he chose to suspend the breakings out of his Affections to his Son and see him plunged in a sharp and Ignominious Misery without giving him any visible Token of his Love rather than see his Holiness lie groaning under the Injuries of a Transgressing World 3. The Value he puts upon his Holiness appears further in the Advancement of this Redeeming Person after his Death Our Saviour was Advanc'd not barely for his Dying but for the respect he had in his Death to this Attribute of God Heb. 1.9 Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath Anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness c. By Righteousness is meant this Perfection because of the opposition of it to Iniquity Some think Therefore to be the final Cause as if this were the sense Thou art anointed with the Oil of Gladness that thou mightest love Righteousness and hate Iniquity But the Holy Ghost seeming to speak in this Chapter not only of the Godhead of Christ but of his Exaltation the Doctrine whereof he had begun in Verse 3. and prosecutes in the following Verses I would rather understand Therefore For this cause or reason hath God anointed thee not to this end Christ indeed had an Unction of Grace whereby he was fitted for his Mediatory Work He had also an Unction of Glory whereby he was rewarded for it In the first regard it was a qualifying him for his Office in the second regard it was a solemn Inaugurating him in his Royal Authority And the Reason of his being setled upon a Throne for ever and ever is because he loved Righteousness He suffered himself to be pierced to Death that Sin the Enemy of Gods Purity might be destroy'd and the Honour of the Law the Image of Gods Holiness might be repair'd and fulfilled in the Fallen Creature He restored the Credit of Divine Holiness in the World in manifesting by his Death God an irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin in abolishing the Empire of Sin so hateful to God and restoring the rectitude of Nature and new framing the Image of God in his chosen Ones And God so valued this Vindication of his Holiness that he confers upon him in his Humane Nature an Eternal Royalty and Empire over Angels and Men. Holiness was the great Attribute respected by Christ in his dying and manifested in his Death and for his Love to this God would bestow an Honour upon his Person in that Nature wherein he did vindicate the Honour of so dear a Perfection In the Death of Christ he shewed his Resolution to preserve its Rights In the Exaltation of Christ he evidenced his mighty pleasure for the Vindication of it In both the Infinite value he had for it as dear to him as his Life and Glory 4. It
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
no more in mind of the Holiness of God and the Holiness of his Law 't is a troublesom thing for us to hear of it Let him be gone from us since he will not countenance our Vices and indulge our Crimes We would rather hear there is no God than you should tell us of a Holy one We are contrary to the Law when we wish it were not so exact and therefore contrary to the Holiness of God which set the stamp of Exactness and Righteousness upon it We think him Injurious to our Liberty when by his Precept he thwarts our Pleasure we wish it of another frame more mild more sutable to our Minds 'T is the same as if we should openly blame God for consulting with his own Righteousness and not with our Humors before he setled his Law that he should not have drawn it from the depths of his Righteous Nature but squar'd it to accommodate our Corruption This being the language of such Complaints is a reproving God because he would not be Unholy that we might be Unrighteous with Impunity Had the Divine Law been suted to our Corrupt state God must have been Unholy to have complied with his Rebellious Creature To charge the Law with rigidness either in Language or Practice is the highest contempt of Gods Holiness for it is an Implicit Wish that God were as defil'd polluted disorderly as our Corrupted Selves 10 The Holiness of God is injur'd Opinionatively 1. In the Opinion of Venial sins The Romanists divide Sins into Venial and Mortal Mortal are those which deserve Eternal Death Venial the lighter sort of Sins which rather deserve to be pardon'd than punish'd or if punish'd not with an Eternal but Temporal Punishment This Opinion hath no foundation in but is contrary to Scripture How can any Sin be in its own nature Venial when the due Wages of every Sin is death Rom. 6.23 and he who continues not in every thing that the Law commands falls under a Curse Gal. 3.10 'T is a mean thought of the Holiness and Majesty of God to imagine that any Sin which is against an Infinite Majesty and as Infinite a Purity both in the Nature of God and the Law of God should not be considered as infinitely hainous All Sins are Transgressions of the Eternal Law and in every one the Infinite Holiness of God is some way slighted 2. In the Opinion of Works of Supererogation That is such Works as are not commanded by God which yet have such a dignity and worth in their own nature that the Performers of them do not only merit at Gods hands for themselves but fill up a Treasure of Merits for others that come short of fulfilling the Precepts God hath enjoyn'd 'T is such a mean thought of Gods Holiness that the Jews in all the Charges brought against them in Scripture were never guilty of And if you consider what pitiful things they are which are within the compass of such Works you have sufficient reason to bewail the Ignorance of Man and the low esteem he hath of so glorious a Perfection The Whipping themselves often in a Week extraordinary Watchings Fastings Macerating their Bodies wearing a Capuchins Habit c. are pitiful things to give content to an Infinite Purity As if the Precept of God requir'd only the Inferiour degrees of Vertue and the Counsels the more high and excellent as if the Law of God which the Psalmist counts perfect †Psal 19.7 did not command all Good and forbid all Evil as if the Holiness of God had forgotten it self in the framing the Law and made it a scanty and defective Rule and the Righteousness of a Creature were not only able to make an Eternal Righteousness but surmount it As Man would be at first as knowing as God so some of his Posterity would be more holy than God set up a Wisdom against the Wisdom of God and a Purity above the Divine Purity Adam was not so presumptuous he intended no more than an equalling God in Knowledge but those would exceed him in Righteousness and not only presume to render a Satisfaction for themselves to the Holiness they have injur'd but to make a Purse for the supply of others that are Indigent that they may stand before the Tribunal of God with a Confidence in the Imaginary Righteousness of a Creature How horrible is it for those that come short of the Law of God themselves to think that they can have enough for a Loan to their Neighbours An unworthy Opinion 2. Information It may Inform us how great is our Fall from God and how distant we are from him View the Holiness of God and take a prospect of the Nature of Man and be astonished to see a Person created in the Divine Image degenerated into the Image of the Devil We are as far fallen from the Holiness of God which consists in a Hatred of Sin as the lowest Point of the Earth is from the highest Point of the Heavens The Devil is not more fallen from the rectitude of his Nature and likeness to God than we are and that we are not in the same condition with those Apostate Spirits is not from any thing in our Nature but from the Mediation of Christ upon which account God hath indulged in us a continuance of some Remainders of that which Satan is wholly deprived of We are departed from our Original Pattern we were created to live the life of God that is a life of Holiness but now we are alienated from the life of God * Eph. 4.18 and of a beautiful piece we are become deformed daub'd over with the most defiling Mud We work uncleaness with greediness according to our ability as Creatures as God doth work Holiness with affection and ardency according to his Infiniteness as Creator More distant we are from God by reason of Sin than the vilest Creature the most deform'd Toad or poysonous Serpent is from the highest and most glorious Angel By forsaking our Innocence we departed from God as our Original Copy The Apostle might well say Rom. 3.23 that by Sin we are come short of the glory of God Interpreters trouble themselves much about that place Man is come short of the glory of God that is of the Holiness of God which is the glory of the Divine Nature and was pictur'd in the Rational Innocent Creature By the Glory of God is meant the Holiness of God As 1 Cor. 3.18 Beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord we are changed into the same Image from glory to glory that is the Glory of God in the Text into the Image of which we are changed but the Scripture speaks of no other Image of God but that of Holiness We are come short of the glory of God of the Holiness of God which is the glory of God and the Image of it which was the glory of Man By Sin which is particular in opposition to the Purity of God Man was left
the Psalmist Psal 86.2 Preserve my soul for I am holy that is I have an ardent desire to holiness Thou hast separated me from the mass of the corrupted World preserve perfect me with the Assembly of the glorified Quire The more holy any are the more communicative they are God being most holy is most communicative of that which he most esteems in himself and delights to see in his Creature He 〈◊〉 therefore more ready to impart his holiness to them that beg for it than to communicate his knowledge or his power Though he were holy yet he let Adam fall who never petition'd his Holiness to preserve him he let him fall to declare the Holiness of his own Nature which had wanted its due manifestation without it But since that cannot be declar'd in a higher manner than it hath been already in the death of the Surety that bore our Guilt there is no fear he should cast the work out of his hands since the design of the permission of man's Apostacy in the discovery of the perfections of his Nature has been fully answered The finishing the good work he hath begun hath a relation to the glory of Christ and his own glory in Christ to be manifested in the day of his Appearing * Phil. 1.6 wherein the glory both of his own holiness and the holiness of the Mediator are to receive their full manifestation As it is a part of the holiness of Christ to sanctifie his Church †Eph. 5.26 27. till not a wrinkle or spot be left so it is the part of God not to leave that work imperfect which his holiness hath attempted a second time to beautifie his Creature with He will not cease exalting this Attribute which is the Believers by the new Covenant till he utters that applauding Speech of his own work Cant. 4.7 Thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee Vse 3. Is for Exhortation Is holiness an eminent perfection of the Divine Nature then 1. Let us get and preserve right and strong apprehensions of this Divine Perfection Without a due sense of it we can never exalt God in our hearts and the more distinct Conceptions we have of this and the rest of his Attributes the more we glorifie him When Moses considered God as his strength and salvation he would exalt him ‖ Exod. 15.2 and he could never break out in so admirable a Doxology as that in the Text without a deep sense of the glory of his Purity which he speaks of with so much admiration Such a sense will be of use to us 1. In promoting genuine Convictions A deep consideration of the holiness of God cannot but be followed with a deep consideration of our impure and miserable Condition by reason of sin We cannot glance upon it without reflections upon our own Vileness Adam no sooner heard the Voice of a holy God in the Garden but he considered his own nakedness with shame and fear * Gen. 3.10 Much less can we fix our Minds upon it but we must be touched with a sense of our own uncleanness The clear beams of the Sun discover that filthiness in our Garments and Members which was not visible in the darkness of the night Impure Metals are discern'd by comparing them with that which is pure and perfect in its kind The sense of guilt is the first natural Result upon a sense of this excellent Perfection and the sense of the Imperfection of our own Righteousness is the next Who can think of it and reflect upon himself as an Object fit for Divine Love Who can have a due thought of it without regarding himself as stubble before a consuming Fire Who can without a confusion of heart and face glance upon that pure Eye which beholds with detestation the foul Motes as well as the filthier and bigger Spots When Isaiah saw his glory and heard how highly the Angels exalted God for this Perfection he was in a cold sweat ready to swoon till a Seraphim with a Coal from the Altar both purg'd and reviv'd him †Isa 6.5 6 7. They are sound and genuine Convictions which have the prospect of Divine Purity for their immediate Spring and not a foresight of our own Misery when it is not the punishment we have deserved but the holiness we have offended most grates our hearts Such Convictions are the first rude Draughts of the Divine Image in our Spirits and grateful to God because they are an acknowledgment of the glory of this Attribute and the first mark of honour given to it by the Creature Those that never had a sense of their own Vileness were alway destitute of a sense of God's holiness And by the way we may observe That those that scoff at any for hanging down the head under the Consideration and Conviction of Sin as is too usual with the World scoff at them for having deeper Apprehensions of the Purity of God than themselves and consequently make a mock of the holiness of God which is the ground of those Convictions a sense of this would prevent such a damnable reproaching 2. A sense of this will render us humble in the possession of the greatest holiness a Creature were capable of We are apt to be proud with the Pharisee when we look upon others wallowing in the Mire of base and unnatural Lusts but let any clap their Wings if they can in a vain boasting and exaltation when they view the holiness of God What Torch if it had reason would be proud and swagger in its own light if it compar'd it self with the Sun Who can stand before this holy Lord God is the just reflection of the holiest Person as it was of those 1 Sam. 6.20 that had felt the marks of his jealousie after their looking into the Ark though likely out of affection to it and triumphant joy at its return When did the Angels testifie by the covering of their Faces their weakness to bear the lustre of his Mâ—jesty but when they beheld his glory When did they signifie by their covering their feet the shame of their own Vileness but when their hearts wer fullest of the applaudings of this Perfection ‖ Isa 6.2 3. Though they found themselves without spot yet not with such a holiness that they could appear either with their faces or feet unvail'd and unmask't in the Presence of God Doth the immense splendor of this Attribute engender shaming reflections in those pure Spirits What will it â—hâ—â— should it do in us that dwell in Houses of Clay and creep up and down with that Clay upon our backs and too much of it in our hearts The Stars themselves which appear beautiful in the night are maskt at the awaking of the Sun What a dimm light is that of a Gloworm to that of the Sun The apprehensions of this made the Elders humble themselves in the midst of their glory by casting down their Crowns before his
it is a representation of the Divinity and a holy man ought to esteem himself excellent in being such in his measure as his God is and puts his principal felicity in the possession of the same purity in Truth This is the refin'd Complexion of the Angels that stand before his Throne The Devils lost their comliness when they fell from it It was the honour of the humane Nature of our Saviour not only to be united to the Deity but to be sanctified by it He was fairer than all the Children of men because he had a holiness above the Children of men Grace was poured into his lips Psal 45.2 It was the Jewel of the reasonable Nature in paradise Conformity to God was mans original happiness in his created state and what was naturally so cannot but be immutably so in its own Nature The beauty of every copyed thing consists in its likeness to the Original Every thing hath more of loveliness as it hath greater impressions of its first Pattern In this regard holiness hath more of beauty on it than the whole Creation because it partakes of a greater excellency of God than the Sun Moon and Stars No greater glory can be than to be a conspicuous and visible Image of the invisible and holy and blessed God As this is the splendor of all the Divine Attributes so it is the flower of all a Christians Graces the Crown of all Religion 'T is the glory of the Spirit In this regard the Kings Daughter is said to be all glorious within * Psal 45.13 'T is more excellent than the soul itself since the greatest soul is but a deformed piece without it A Diamond without lustre †Vaughan p. 4 5. What are the noble faculties of the Soul without it but as a curious rusty Watch a delicate heap of Disorder and confusion 'T is impossible there can be beauty where thâ—re are a multitude of spots and wrinkles that blemish a Countenance ‖ Eph. 5.27 It can never be in its true brightness but when it is perfect in Purity when it regains what it was possessed of by Creation and dispossessed of by the fall and recovers its primitive temper We are not so beautiful by being the work of God as by having a stamp of God upon us Worldly greatness may make men honourable in the sight of creeping worms Soft lives ambitious reaches luxurious pleasures and a pompous Religion render no man excellent and noble in the sight of God This is not the excellency and nobility of the Deity which we are bound to resemble Other lines of a Divine Image must be drawn in us to render us truly excellent 4. 'T is our life What is the life of God is truly the life of a rational Creature * Amirald in Heb. p. 101 102. The life of the body consists not in the perfection of its Members and the integrity of its Organs these remain when the body becomes a Carcass but in the presence of the Soul and its vigorous animation of every part to perform the distinct offices belonging to each of them The life of the Soul consists not in its being or spiritual substance or the excellency of its Faculties of understanding and will but in the moral and becoming operations of them The spirit is only life because of righteousness * Rom. 8.10 The Faculties are turned by it to acquit themselves in their functions according to the will of God the absence of this doth not only deform the Soul but in a sort annihilate it in regard of its true essence and end Grace gives a Christian being and a want of it is the want of a true being Cor. 1.15.10 When Adam devested himself of his original righteousness he came under the force of the threatning in regard of a spiritual death Every person is morally dead whiles he lives an unholy life †1. Tim. 5 6. What life is to the body that is righteousness to the Spirit and the greater measure of holiness it hath the more of life it hath because it is in a greater nearness and partakes more fully of the fountain of life Is not that the most worthy life which God makes most account of without which his life could not be a pleasant and blessed life but a life worse than death What a miserable life is that of the men of the World that are carried with greedy inclinations to all manner of unrighteousness whither their interests or their lusts invite them The most beautiful body is a Carcass and the most honorable person hath but a brutish life ‖ Psal 49.20 miserable Creatures when their life shall be extinct without a Divine rectitude when all other things will vanish as the shadows of the night at the appearance of the Sun Holiness is our life 5. 'T is this only fits us for Communion with God Since it is our beauty and our life without it what Communion can an excellent God have with deformed Creatures a living God with dead Creatures Without Holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 The Creature must be stript of his Unrighteousness or God of his Purity before they can come together Likeness is the ground of Communion and of Delight in it The opposition between God and unholy Souls is as great as that between light and darkness * 1 John 1.6 Divine fruition is not so much by a union of Presence as a union of Nature Heaven is not so much an outward as an inward life the foundation of Glory is laid in Grace a resemblance to God is our vital happiness without which the Vision of God would not be so much as a cloudy and shadowy happiness but rather a torment than a felicity unless we be of a like nature to God we cannot have a pleasing fruition of him Some Philosophers think that if our Bodies were of the same nature with the Heavens of an Ethereal Substance the nearness to the Sun would cherish not scorch us Were we partakers of a Divine nature we might enjoy God with delight whereas remaining in our unlikeness to him we cannot think of him and approach to him without terrour As soon as sin had stript man of the Image of God he was an Exile from the comfortable presence of God unworthy for God to hold any correspondence with He can no more delight in a defiled person than a man can take a Toad into intimate converse with him he would hereby discredit his own Nature and justifie our Impurity The holiness of a Creature only prepares him for an eternal conjunction with God in glory Enoch's walking with God was the cause of his being so soon wafted to the place of a full fruition of him he hath as much delight in such as in Heaven it self one is his Habitation as well as the other The one is his habitation of Glory and the other is the house of his Pleasure If he dwell in Zion it must be
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
he might be a Rewarder and Threatens that he might not be a Punisher the one is to elevate our hope and the other to excite our fear the two Passions whereby the Nature of Man is manag'd in the World He imprints upon Man Sentiments of a Misery by Sin in his thundring Commination that he might engage him the more to embrace and be guided by the Motives of Sweetness in his gracious Promises The design of them was to preserve Man in his due bounds that God might not have occasion to blow upon him the Flames of his Justice to suppress those irregular Passions which the Nature of Man though Created without any disorder was capable of entertaining upon the appearance of suitable Objects and to keep the Waves from swelling upon any turning Wind that so Man being modest in the use of the Goodness God had allowed him might still be capable of fresh streams of Divine Bounty without ever falling under his Righteous Wrath for any Transgression What a prospect of Goodness is in this proceeding to disclose Mans Happiness to be as durable as his Innocence and set before a Rational Creature the extreamest Misery due to his Crime to affright him from neglecting his Creator and making unworthy Returns to his Goodness What could be done more by Goodness to suit that passion of fear which was implanted in the Nature of Man than to assure him he should not degenerate from the Righteousness of his Nature and violate the Authority of his Creator without falling from his own Happiness and sinking into the most deplorable Calamity 3. The Reward he promised manifests yet further his Goodness to Man It was his Goodness to intend a Reward to Man No necessity could oblige God to Reward Man had he continued obedient in his Created State For in all Rewards which are truly Merited besides some kind of equality to be consider'd between the Person doing Service and the Person Rewarding and also between the Act performed and the Reward bestow'd there must also be consider'd the condition of the Person doing the Service that he is not oblig'd to do it as a Duty but is at his own choice whether to offer it or no But Man being wholly dependent on God in his Being and Preservation having nothing of his own but what he had receiv'd from the hands of Divine Bounty †1 Cor. 4.7 his Service was due by the strongest Obligation to God But there was no natural Engagement on God to return a Reward to him for Man could return nothing of his own but that only which he had received from his Creator It must be pure Goodness that gives a gracious Reward for a due Debt to receive his own from Man and return more than he had received A Divine Reward doth far surmount the value of a Rational Service It was therefore a mighty Goodness to stipulate with Man that upon his Obedience he should enjoy an Immortality in that Nature * Amyral Dissertat p. 637 638. The Article on Mans part was Obedience which was necessarily just and founded in the Nature of Man He had been unjust ungrateful and violated all Laws of Righteousness had he committed any act unworthy of one that had been so great a Subject of Divine Liberality But the Article on Gods part of giving a perpetual Blessedness to Innocent Man was not founded upon Rules of strict Justice and Righteousness for that would have argu'd God to be a Debtor to Man but that God cannot be to the Work of his hands that had receiv'd the Materials of his Being and Acting from him as the Vessel doth from the Potter But this was founded only on the Goodness of the Divine Nature whereby he cannot but be kind to an innocent and holy Creature The Nature of God enclin'd him to it by the Rules of Goodness but the Service of Man could not claim it by the Rules of Justice without a Stipulation So that the Covenant whereby God oblig'd himself to continue the Happiness of Man upon the continuance of his Obedience in the Original of it springs from pure Goodness though the performance of it upon the fulfilling Condition requir'd in the Creature was founded upon the Rules of Righteousness and Truth after Divine Goodness had brought it forth God did Create Man for a Reward and Happiness Now Gods implanting in the Nature of Man a desire after Happiness and some higher Happiness than he had in Creation invested him in doth evidence that God did not Create Man only for his own Service but for his attaining a greater Happiness All Rational Creatures are possessed with a Principle of seeking after Good the highest Good and God did not plant in Man this Principle in vain It had not been Goodness to put this Principle in Man if he had design'd never to bestow a Happiness on Man for his Obedience This had been Repugnant to the Goodness and Wisdom of God And the Scripture doth very Emphatically express the Felicity of Man to be the design of God in the first forming him and moulding him a Creature as well as working him a new Creature †2 Cor. 5.1 2. He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God He framed this Earthly Tabernacle for a Residence in an Eternal Habitation and a better Habitation than an Earthly Paradise What we expect in the Resurrection that very same thing God did in Creation intend us for but since the Corruption of our Natures we must undergo a dissolution of our Bodies and may have just reason of a despondency since Sin hath seem'd to change the course of Gods Bounty and brought us under a Curse He hath given us the Earnest of his Spirit as an assurance that he will perform that very self same thing the conferring that Happiness upon renewed Creatures for which he first form'd Man in Creation when he compacted his Earthly Tabernacle of the dust of the Ground and rear'd it up before him 4. It was a mighty Goodness that God should give Man an Eternal Reward That an Eternity of Reward was promised is implied in the Death that was threatned upon Transgression Whatsoever you conceive the threatned Death to be either for Nature or duration upon Transgression of the same Nature and duration you must suppose the life to be which is implied upon his constancy in his Integrity As Sin would render him an Eternal Object of Gods hatred so his Obedience would render him an Eternally amiable Object to his Creator as the standing Angels are preserved and confirmed in an intire Felicity and Glory Though the threatning be only exprest by God * Gen. 2.17 yet the other is implied and might easily be concluded from it by Adam And one reason why God only exprest the Threatning and not the Promise was because man might collect some hopes and expectations of a perpetual Happiness from that Image of God which he beheld in himself and from the large
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
Goodness to have given one of the lofty Seraphims A greater Goodness to have given the whole Corporation of those glorious Spirits for us those Children of the most high But he gave that Son whom he commands all the Angels to Worship * Heb. 1.6 and all Men to adore and pay the lowest Homage to †Psal 2.12 that Son that is to be honoured by us as we honour the Father * Joh. 5.23 that Son which was his delight his delights in the Hebrew †Prov. 8.30 wherein all the delights of the Father were gathered in one as well as of the whole Creation and not simply a Son but an only begotten Son upon which Christ lays the stress with an Emphasis †Joh. 3.16 He had but one Son in Heaven or Earth one Son from an unviewable Eternity and that one Son he gave for a degenerate World this Son he Consecrated for evermore a Priest * Heb. 7 28. The word of the Oath makes the Son The peculiarity of his Sonship heightens the Goodness of the Donor It was no meaner a Person that he gave to empty himself of his glory to fulfil an obedience for us that we might be rendred happy partakers of the Divine Nature Those that know the natural affection of a Father to a Son must judge the affection of God the Father to the Son infinitely greater than the affection of an Earthly Father to the Son of his Bowels It must be an unparallell'd Goodness to give up a Son that he loved with so ardent an Affection for the Redemption of Rebels Abandon a glorious Son to a dishonourable Death for the security of those that had violated the Laws of Righteousness and endeavoured to pull the Soveraign Crown from his head Besides being an only Son all those Affections center'd in him which in Parents would have been divided among a multitude of Children So then as it was a Testimony of the highest Faith and Obedience in Abraham to offer up his only begotten Son to God * Heb. 11.17 So it was the Triumph of Divine Goodness to give so great so dear a Person for so little a thing as Man and for such a piece of nothing and vanity as a Sinful World 3. And this Son given to Rescue us by his Death It was a gift to us For our sakes he descended from his Throne and dwelt on Earth For our sakes he was made Flesh and infirm Flesh For our sakes he was made a Curse and scorcht in the Furnace of his Fathers Wrath For our sakes he went naked arm'd only with his own Strength into the Lists of that Combat with the Devils that led us Captive Had he given him to be a Leader for the conquest of some Earthly Enemies it had been a great Goodness to display his Banners and bring us under his Conduct but he sent him to lay down his Life in the bitterest and most inglorious manner and exposed him to a cursed Death for our Redemption from that dreadful Curse which would have broken us to pieces and irreparably have crusht us He gave him to us to suffer for us as a Man and Redeem us as a God to be a Sacrifice to expiate our Sin by translating the Punishment upon himself which was merited by us Thus was he made low to exalt us and debased to advance us made poor to enrich us * ◠Co◠8.9 and Eclipsed to brighten our sullied Natures and Wounded that he might be a Physician for our languishments He was ordered to taste the bitter Cup of Death that we might drink of the Rivers of Immortal Life and pleasures To submit to the frailties of the Humane Nature that we might possess the Glories of the Divine He was order'd to be a Sufferer that we might be no longer Captives and to pass through the Fire of Divine Wrath that he might purge our Nature from the dross it had contracted Thus was the Righteous given for Sin the Innocent for Criminals the Glory of Heaven for the Dregs of Earth and the Immense Riches of a Deity expended to re-stock Man 4. And a Son that was exalted for what he had done for us by the order of Divine Goodness The Exaltation of Christ was no less a signal Mark of his miraculous Goodness to us than of his Affection to him since he was obedient by Divine Goodness to die for us his advancement was for his obedience to those Orders †2 Phil. 8 9. The Name given to him above every Name was a repeated Triumph of this Perfection Since his Passion was not for himself he was wholly Innocent but for us who were Criminal His advancement was not only for himself as Redeemer but for us as Redeem'd Divine Goodness center'd in him both in his Cross and in his Crown for it was for the purging our Sins he sat down on the Right hand of the Majesty on high * Heb. 1.3 And the whole blessed Society of Principalities and Powers in Heaven admire this Goodness of God and ascribe to him Honour Glory and Power for advancing the Lamb slain †Revel 5.11 12 13. Divine Goodness did not only give him to us but gave him Power Riches Strength and Honour for manifesting this Goodness to us and opening the passages for its fuller conveyances to the Sons of Men. Had not God had thoughts of a perpetual Goodness he would not have setled him so near him to manage our Cause and testified so much Affection to him on our behalf This Goodness gave him to be debas'd for us and order'd him to be Enthron'd for us As it gave him to us Bleeding so it would give him to us Triumphing that as we have a share by Grace in the Merits of his Humiliation we might partake also of the glories of his Coronation that from first to last we may behold nothing but the Triumphs of Divine Goodness to fallen Man 5. In bestowing this Gift on us Divine Goodness gives whole God to us Whatsoever is great and excellent in the Godhead the Father gives us by giving us his Son The Creator gives himself to us in his Son Christ In giving Creatures to us he gives the Riches of Earth In giving himself to us he gives the Riches of Heaven which surmount all understanding 'T is in this Gift he becomes our God and passeth over the Title of all that he is for our use and benefit that every Attribute in the Divine Nature may be claim'd by us not to be imparted to us whereby we may be deified but employ'd for our welfare whereby we may be blessed He gave himself in Creation to us in the Image of his Holiness but in Redemption he gave himself in the Image of his Person He would not only communicate the Goodness without him but bestow upon us the infinite Goodness of his own Nature That that which was his own End and Happiness might be our End and Happiness viz.
Himself By giving his Son he hath given himself and in both Gifts he hath given all things to us The Creator of all things is eminently all things He hath given all things into the hands of his Son * Joh. 3.35 and by consequence given all things into the hands of his Redeem'd Creatures by giving them him to whom he gave all things Whatsoever we were invested in by Creation whatsoever we were depriv'd of by Corruption and more he hath deposited in safe hands for our enjoyment And what can Divine Goodness do more for us What further can it give unto us than what it hath given and in that Gift design'd for us 3. This Goodness is enhanc'd by considering the State of Man in the first Transgression and since 1. Mans first Transgression If we should rip up every Vein of that first Sin should we find any want of Wickedness to excite a just Indignation What was there but ingratitude to Divine Bounty and Rebellion against Divine Soveraignty The Royalty of God was attempted the Supremacy of Divine knowledge above Mans own knowledge envied the Riches of Goodness whereby he lived and breathed slighted There is a discontent with God upon an unreasonable Sentiment that God had denied a knowledge to him which was his right and due when there should have been an humble acknowledgment of that unmerited Goodness which had not only given him a Being above other Creatures but placed him the Governor and Lord of those that were inferior to him What alienation of his understanding was there from knowing God and of his will from loving him A Debauch of all his Faculties A Spiritual Adultery in preferring not only one of Gods Creatures but one of his desperate Enemies before him thinking him a wiser Counsellor than Infinite Wisdom and imagining him possessed with kinder affections to him than that God who had newly Created him Thus he joyns in League with Hell against Heaven with a Fallen Spirit against his Bountiful Benefactor and enters into Society with Rebels that just before commenc'd a War against his and their common Soveraign He did not only falter in but cast off the Obedience due to his Creator endeavoured to purloin his Glory and actually murder'd all those that were vertually in his Loyns * Rom. 5.12 Sin enter'd into the World by him and Death by Sin and passed upon all Men taking them off from their Subjection to God to be Slaves to the damn'd Spirits and Heirs of their Misery And after all this he adds a foul imputation on God taxing him as the Author of his Sin and thereby stains the Beauty of his Holiness But notwithstanding all this God stops not up the Floodgates of his Goodness nor doth he entertain Fiery Resolutions against Man but brings forth a healing Promise and sends not an Angel upon Commission to Reveal it to him but Preaches it himself to this Forlorn and Rebellious Creature †Gen. 3.15 2. Could there be any thing in this Fallen Creature to allure God to the Expression of his Goodness Was there any good action in all his Carriage that could plead for a readmission of him to his former State Was there one good quality left that could be an Orator to perswade Divine Goodness to such a gracious Procedure Was there any Moral Goodness in Man after this Debauch that might be an Object of Divine Love What was there in him that was not rather a provocation than an allurement Could you expect that any Perfection in God should find a Motive in this ungrateful Apostate to open a Mouth for him and be an Advocate to support him and bring him off from a just Tribunal Or after Divine Goodness had begun to pity and plead for Man is it not wonderful that it should not discontinue the Plea after it found Mans Excuse to be as black as his Crime * Gen. 3.12 and his Carriage upon his Examination to be as disobliging as his first Revolt It might well be expected that all the Perfections in the Divine Nature would have entered into an association eternally to treat this Rebel according to his deserts What attractives were there in a silly Worm much less in such compleat Wickedness inexcusable Enmity infamous Rebellion to design a Redeemer for him and such a Person as the Son of God to a Fleshy Body an Eclipse of Glory and an ignominious Cross The meaness of Man was further from alluring God to it than the dignity of Angels 3. Was there not a World of demerit in Man to animate Grace as well as Wrath against him We were so far from deserving the opening any Streams of Goodness that we had merited Floods of devouring Wrath. What were all Men but Enemies to God in a high manner Every offence was infinite as being committed against a Being of Infinite Dignity it was a stroke at the very Being of God A resistance of all his Attributes it would degrade him from the height and Perfection of his Nature it would not by its good will suffer God to be God If he that hates his Brother is a Murderer of his Brother he that hates his Creator is a Murderer of the Deity * Joh. 1.3.15 and every Carnal mind is Enmity to God †Rom. 8.7 Every Sin envies him his Authority by breaking his Precept and envies him his Goodness by defacing the Marks of it Every Sin comprehends in it more than Men or Angels can conceive That God who only hath the clear apprehensions of his own Dignity hath the sole clear apprehensions of Sins Malignity All Men were thus by Nature those that Sinned before the coming of the Redeemer had been in a State of Sin those that were to come after him would be in a State of Sin by their Birth and be Criminals as soon as ever they were Creatures All Men as well the Glorifi'd as those in the Flesh at the coming of the Redeemer and those that were to be born after were consider'd in a State of Sin by God when he bruis'd the Redeemer for them All were filthy and unworthy of the Eye of God All had employ'd the Faculties of their Souls and the Members of their Bodies which they enjoyed by his Goodness against the interest of his Glory Every Rational Creature had made himself a Slave to those Creatures over whom he had been appointed a Lord subjected himself as a Servant to his Inferior and strutted as a Superior against his Liberal Soveraign and by every Sin rendred himself more a Child of Satan and Enemy of God and more worthy of the Curses of the Law and the Torments of Hell Was it not now a mighty Goodness that would surmount those high Mountains of Demerit and elevate such Creatures by the Depression of his Son Had we been possessed of the highest Holiness a Reward had been the natural effect of Goodness It was not possible that God should be unkind to a Righteous and Innocent Creature
admirable is it for God to speak so kindly to us through the pacifying Blood of the Covenant that silenc'd the terrours of the old and setled the tenderness of the new 2. His Goodness is seen in the Nature and Tenor of the new Covenant There are in this richer Streams of Love and Pity The language of one was die if thou Sin that of the other live if thou believest †Turreti ser p. 33. The old Covenant was founded upon the obedience of Man the new is not founded upon the inconstancy of Mans Will but the firmness of Divine Love and the valuable Merit of Christ The head of the first Covenant was Humane and mutable the head of the second is Divine and immutable The Curse due to us by the breach of the first is taken off by the indulgence of the second * Rom 8.1 We are by it snatcht from the Jaws of the Law to be wrapt up in the bosom of Grace †Rom. 6.14 For you are not under the Law but under Grace from the Curse and condemnation of the Law to the sweetness and forgiveness of Grace Christ bore the one being made a Curse for us * Gal. 3.13 that we might enjoy the sweetness of the other By this we are brought from Mount Sinai the Mount of Terrour to Mount Sion the Mount of Sacrificing the Type of the great Sacrifice †Heb. 12.18 22. That Covenant brought in Death upon one offence this Covenant offers Life after many offences * Rom. 5.16 â—7 That involved us in a Curse and this enricheth us with a Blessing The breaches of that expell'd us out of Paradise and the embracing of this admits us into Heaven This Covenant demands and admits of that Repentance whereof there was no mention in the first That demanded Obedience not Repentance upon a failure and though the exercises of it had been never so deep in the fall'n Creature nothing of the Laws severity had been remitted by any vertue of it Again the first Covenant demanded exact Righteousness but conveyed no cleansing vertue upon the contracting any filth The first demands a continuance in the Righteousness conferr'd in Creation the second imprints a gracious heart in Regeneration I will pour clean Water upon you I will put a new Spirit within you was the voice of the second Covenant not of the first Again as to Pardon Adams Covenant was to punish him not to pardon him if he fell That threatned Death upon Transgression this remits it That was an Act of Divine Soveraignty declaring the will of God this is an Act of Divine Grace passing an Act of Oblivion on the Crimes of the Creature That as it demanded no Repentance upon a failure so it promised no Mercy upon guilt That convened our Sin and condemned us for it this clears our guilt and comforts us under it The first Covenant related us to God as a Judge every transgression against it forfeited his indulgence as a Father The second delivers us from God as a condemning Judge to bring us under his Wing as an affectionate Father In the one there was a dreadful frown to scare us in the other a healing Wing to cover and relieve us Again in regard of Righteousness That demanded our performance of a Righteousness in and by our selves and our own strength This demands our acceptance of a Righteousness higher than ever the standing Angels had The Righteousness of the first Covenant was the Righteousness of a Man the Righteousness of the second is the Righteousness of a God †2 Cor. 5.21 Again in regard of that Obedience it demands it exacts not of us as a necessary condition the Perfection of Obedience but the sincerity of Obedience an uprightness in our intention not an unspottedness in our action an integrity in our aims and an industry in our compliance with Divine Precepts * Gen. 17.1 Walk before me and be thou perfect i. e. sincere What is hearty in our actions is accepted and what is defective is over-looked and not charg'd upon us because of the Obedience and Righteousness of our surety The first Covenant rejected all our services after Sin the services of a Person under the sentence of Death are but dead services This accepts our imperfect services after Faith in it That administred no strength to obey but supposed it This supposeth our inability to obey and confers some strength for it †Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes Again in regard of the Promises * Heb. 8.6 The old Covenant had good but the new hath better Promises of justification after guilt and sanctification after filth and glorification at last of the whole Man In the first there was provision against guilt but none for the removal of it Provision against filth but none for the cleansing of it Promise of happiness implied but not so great a one as that Life and Immortality in Heaven brought to light by the Gospel †2 Tim. 1.10 Why said to be brought to light by the Gospel because it was not only buried upon the fall of Man under the Curses of the Law but it was not so obvious to the conceptions of Man in his Innocent State Life indeed was implied to be promised upon his standing but not so glorious an immortality disclosed to be reserved for him if he stood As it is a Covenant of better Promises so a Covenant of sweeter Comforts Comforts more choice and Comforts more durable An everlasting Consolation and a good hâ—pe are the fruits of Grace i. e. the Covenant of Grace * 2 Thes 2.16 In the whole there is such a love disclosed as cannot be exprest The Apostle leaves it to every Mans mind to conceive it if he could what manner of love the Fâ—ther hath bâ—stowed upon us that we should be call'd the Sons of God †1 Joh. 3.1 It inâ—â—ates us in such a manner of the love of God as he bears to his Son the Image of his Person * John 17 2â— That the World may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me 3. This Goodness appears in the choice gift of himsâ—lf which he hath made over in this Covenant You know how it runs in Scripture I will be their God and they shall be my People †Gen. 17.7 A propriety in the Deity is made over by it As he gave the Blood of his Son to Seal the Covenant so he gave himself as the Blessing of the Covenant He is not ashamed to be called their God * Jer. 32.38 Though he be environ'd with Millions of Angels and presides over them in an unexpressible glory he is not ashamed of his condescensions to Man and to pass over himself as the propriety of his People as well as to take them to be his 'T is a diminution of the sense of the place to understand it of
long can be referred to nothing but the same cause What is the reason the vail continues so long upon the heart of the Jews that is promised one time or other to be taken off Why doth God delay the accomplishment of those glorious predictions of the happiness and interest of that people is it because of the sin of their Ancestors a reason that cannot bear much weight If we cast it upon that account their conversion can never be expected can never be effected if for the sins of their Ancestors is it not also for their own sins Do their sins grow less in number or less venimous or provoking in quality by this delay Is not their Blasphemy of Christ as malitious their hatred of him as strong and rooted as ever Do they not as much approve of the bloody act of their Ancestors since so many ages are past as their Ancestors did applaud it at the time of the Execution Have they not the same disposition and will discovered sufficiently by the scorn of Christ and of those that profess his Name to act the same thing over again were Christ now in the same state in the world and they invested with the same power of Government If their Conversion were deferr'd one age after the death of Christ for the sins of their prâ—ceding Ancestors is it to be expected now since the present generation of the Jews in all Countries have the sins of those remote the succeeding and their more immediate Ancestors lying upon them This therefore cannot be the reason but as it was the Soveraign pleasure of God to foretell his intention to overcome the stoutness of their hearts so it is his Soveraign pleasure that it shall not be perform'd till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in Rom. 11.25 As he is Lord of his own Grace so he is Lord of the Time when to dispense it Why did God create the world in 6 days which he could have erected and beautified in a moment Because it was his pleasure so to do Why did he frame the World when he did and not many ages before Because he is Master of his own work Why did he not resolve to bring Israel to the fruition of Canaan till after four hundred years Why did he draw out their deliverance to so long time after he began to attempt it Why such a multitude of Plagues upon Pharoah to work it when he could have cut short the work by one mortal blow upon the Tyrant and his accomplices It was his Soveraign pleasure to act so though not without other reasons intelligible enough by looking into the story Why doth he not bring man to a perfection of stature in a moment after his Birth but let him continue in a tedious infancy in a semblance to beasts for want of an exercise of reason Why doth he not bring this or that man whom he intends for service to a fitness in an instant but by long tracts of Study and through many Meanders and Labyrinths VVhy doth he transplant a hopeful person in his youth to the pleasures of another VVorld and let another of an eminent Holiness continue in the misery of this and wade through many Floods of Afflictions VVhat can we chiefly referre all these things to but his Soveraign pleasure The times are determined by God Acts 17.26 3. The Dominion of God is manifested as a Governor as well as a Law-giver and Proprietor 1. In disposing of States and Kingdomes Psa l. 75.7 God is Judge he puls down one and sets up another Judge is to be taken not in the same sence that we commonly use the word for a judicial Minister in a way of tryal but for a Governour as you know the extraordinary Governours rais'd up among the Jews were call'd Judges whence one intire Book in the Old Testament is so denominated the Book of Judges God hath a Prerogative to change times and seasons Dan. 2.21 i. e. The Revolutions of Government whereby times are alter'd * Mr. Mede in one of his Letters How many Empires that have spread their wings over a great part of the world have had their Carkasses torn in peices and unheard off Nations pluckt of the wings of the Roman Eagle after it had prey'd upon many Nations of the World And the Macedonian Empire was as the dew that is dried up a short time after it falls He erected the Chaldaean Monarchy us'd Nebuchadnezzar to overthrow and punish the ungrateful Jews and by a Soveraign act gave a great parcel of Land into his hands and what he thought was his right by conquest was Gods donative to him You may read the Chartâ—r to Nebuchadnezzar whom he terms his Servant Jer. 27.6 And now I have given all those Lands the Lands are mentioned verse 3. Into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant Which Decree he pronounceth after his asserting his right of Soveraignty over the whole Earth ver 5. After that he puts a period to the Chaldaean Empire and by the same Soveraign Authority decrees Babylon to be a spoil to the Nations of the North Countrey and delivers her up as a spoil to the Persian Jer. 50.9 10. And this for the manifestation of his Soveraign Dominion that he was the Lord that made peace and created evil Isaiah 45.6 7. God afterwards overthrows that by the Grecian Alexander prophesied of under the figure of a Goat with one horn between his Eyes Dan. 8. The swift current of his Victories as swift as his motion shew'd it to be from an extraordinary hand of Heaven and not either from the policy or strength of the Macedonian His strength in the Prophet is described to be less being but one horn running against the Persian describ'd under the figure of a Ramm with two horns * Josephus And himself acknowledg'd a Divine motion exciting him to that great attempt when he saw Joddus the High Priest coming out in his Priestly Robes to meet him at his approach to Jerusalem whom he was about to Worship acknowledging that the Vision which put him upon the Persian War appear'd to him in such a garb What was the reason Israel was rent from Judah and both split into two distinct Kingdoms Because Rehoboam would not hearken to sober and sound Counsels but follow the advice of upstarts What was the reason he did not harken to sound advice since he had so advantagious an Education under his Father Solomon the wisest Prince of the World The Cause was from the Lord. 1 Kings 12.15 That he might perform what he had before spoke In this he acted according to his Royal Word but in the first resolve he acted as a Soveraign Lord that had the disposal of all Nations in the world And though Ahab had a numerous posterity Seventy Sons to inherit the Throne after him yet God by his Soveraign Authority gives them up into the hands of Jehu who strips them of their lives and hopes together not
Ver. 12. He shall gather them i. e. Those conspiring Nations as sheaves into the floor then he sounds a Trumpet to Sion Arise and thresh O Daughter of Sion for I will make thy Horn Iron and thy Hoofs Brass and thou shalt beat in pieces many people And I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord and their substance unto the Lord of the whole Earth I will make them and their Councels them and their strength the monuments and signal marks of my Empire over the whole Earth When you see the cunningest designs baffled by some small thing intervening when you see men of profound Wisdom infatuated mistake their way and grope in the noon day as in the night Job 5.14 bewildred in a plain way When you see the hopes of mighty attempters dasht into despair their triumphs turn'd into funerals and their joyful expectations into sorrowful disappointments when you see the weak devoted to destruction victorious and the most presumptuous defeated in their purposes then read the divine Dominion in the desolation of such devices How often doth God take away the Heart and Spirit of grand designs and burst a mighty wheel by snatching but one man out of the World How often doth he cut off the spirits of Princes Psal 76.12 either from the World by death or from the execution of their projects by some unforeseen interruption or from favouring those contrivances which before they cherish'd by a change of their minds How often hath confidence in God and religious Prayer edg'd the weakest and smallest number of weapons to make a carnage of the carnally confident How often hath presumption been disappointed and the contemn'd Enemy rejoyc'd in the spoils of the proud expectant of victory * Causin symb lib. 2. cap. 65. Phydias made the Image of Nemesis or revenge at Marathon of that Marble which the haughty Persians despising the weakness of the Athenian forces brought with them to erect a Trophy for an expected but an ungain'd victory Hamans neck by a sudden turn was in the Halter when the Jews necks were design'd to the block Julian design'd the overthrow of all the Christians just before his breast was peirced by an unexpected Arrow The Powder-Traytors were all ready to give fire to the Mine when the Soveraign hand of Heaven snatch'd away the match Thus the great Lord of the World cuts off men on the pinacle of their designs when they seem to threaten Heaven and Earth Puts out the Candle of the wicked which they thought to use to light them to the execution of their purposes turns their own Counsels into a curse to themselves and a blessing to their Adversaries and makes his greatest Enemies contribute to the effecting his purposes How may we take notice of Gods absolute disposal of things in private affairs when we see one man with a small measure of Prudence and little Industry have great success and others with a greater measure of Wisdom and greater toil and labour find their enterprizes melt between their fingers It was Solomons observation That the race was not to the swift nor the battle to the strong neither bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor yet favour to men of skill Eccles 9.11 Many things might interpose to stop the swift in his race and damp the courage of the most valiant Things do not happen according to mens ability but according to the over-ruling Authority of God God never yet granted man the dominion of his own way no more than to be Lord of his own time the way of man is not in himself it is not in him that walketh to direct his steps Jerem. 10.23 He hath given man a power of acting but not the soveraignty to command success He makes even those things which men intended for their security to turn to their ruine Pilate delivered up Christ to be accounted a friend to Caesar and Caesar soon after proves an Enemy to him removes him from his Government and sends him into banishment The Jews imagined by the crucifying Christ to keep the Roman Ensigns at a distance from them and this hasted their march by Gods soveraign disposal which ended in a total desolation He makes the Judges fools Job 12.17 by taking away his light from their understanding and suffering them to go on in the vanity of their own Spirits that his soveraignty in the management of things may be more apparent For then he is known to be Lord when he snares the wicked in the work of his own hands Psal 9.16 You have seen much of this doctrine in your experience and if my judgment fail me not you will yet see much more 5. The Dominion of God is manifest in sending his Judgments upon whom he please He kills and makes alive he wounds and heals whom he pleaseth His thunders are his own and he may cast them upon what subjects he thinks good He hath a right in a way of Justice to punish all men he hath his choice in a way of Soveraignty to pick out whom he please to make the examples of it Might not some Nations be as wicked as those of Sodom and Gomorrah yet have not been scorcht with the like dreadful flames Zoar was untoucht while the other Cities her Neighbours were burnt to ashes Were there never any places and persons successors in Sodoms guilt Yet those only by his Soveraign Authority are separated by him to be the examples of his Eternal vengeance Jude 7. Why are not sinners as Sodom like as those ancient ones scalded to death by the like fiery drops 't is because it is his pleasure and the same reason is to be rendered why he would in a way of Justice cut off the Jews for their sins and leave the Gentiles untoucht in the midst of their Idolatries When the Church was consumed because of her iniquities they acknowledg'd Gods Soveraignty in this Isaiah 64.7 8. We are the Clay and thou art our Potter and we all the work of thy hands thou hast a liberty either to break or preserve us Judgments move according to Gods order When the Sword hath a charge against Askelon and the Sea shoar thither it must march and touch not any other place or person as it goes though there may be demerit enough for it to punish Jer. 47.6 7. When the Prophet had spake to the Sword Oh thou Sword of the Lord how long will it be â—re thou be quiet Put up thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still The Prophet answers for the Sword how can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon there hath he appointed it If he hath appointed a judgment against London or Westminster or any other place there it shall drop there it shall peirce and in no other place without a like charge God as a Soveraign gives instructions to every Judgment when and against whom it shall march and what Cities what Persons it shall arrest
subject to God not in regard of the Divine Nature wherein there is an equality and consequently no Dominion of jurisdiction nor only in his humane nature but in the Oeconomy of a Redeemer considered as one design'd and consenting to be incarnate and take our flesh so that after this agreement God had a soveraign right to dispose of him according to the Articles consented to In regard of his undertaking and the advantage he was to bring to the Elect of God upon the Earth he calls God by the solemn Title of his Lord in that prophetick Psalm of him Psal 16.2 Oh my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my Goodness extends not unto thee but unto the Saints that are in the Earth It seems to be the speech of Christ in Heaven mentioning the Saints on Earth as at a distance from him I can add nothing to the glory of thy Majesty but the whole fruit of my Mediation and Sufferings will redound to the Saints on Earth and it may be observed that God is call'd the Lord of Hosts in the Evangelical Prophets Isaiah Haggai Zachary and Malachy more in reference to this affair of Redemption and the deliverance of the Church than for any other works of his Providence in the World 1. This Soveraignty of God appears in requiring satisfaction for the sin of man Had he indulg'd man after his fall and remitted his offence without a just compensation for the injury he had received by his Rebellion his Authority had been vilified man would always have been attempting against his jurisdiction there would have been a continual succession of Rebellions on mans part and if a continual succession of indulgences on Gods part he had quite disown'd his Authority over man and stript himself of the flower of his Crown satisfaction must have been requir'd sometime or other from the person thus rebelling or some other in his stead and to require it after the first act of sin was more preservative to the right of the Divine soveraignty than to do it after a multitude of repeated revolts God must have laid aside his Authority if he had laid aside wholly the exacting punishment for the offence of man 2. This Soveraignty of God appears in appointing Christ to this work of Redemption His soveraignty was before manifest over Angels and Men by the right of Creation there was nothing wanting to declare the highest charge of it but his ordering his own Son to become a mortal Creature the Lord of all things to become lower than those Angels that had as well as all other things receiv'd their being and beauty from him and to be reckon'd in his death among the dust and refuse of the World He by whom God created all things not only became a man but a crucified man by the Will of his Father Gal. 1.4 Who gave himself for our sins according to the Will of God to which may referre that expression Prov. 8.22 of his being possessed by God in the beginning of his way Possession is the Dominion of a thing invested in the possessor he was possessed indeed as a Son by eternal Generation He was possessed also in the beginning of his way or works of Creation as a Mediator by special constitution to this the expression seems to referre if you read on to the end of verse 31. wherein Christ speaks of his rejoycing in the habitable part of his Earth the Earth of the great God who had design'd him to this special work of Redemption He was a Son by Nature but a Mediator by Divine Will in regard of which Christ is often call'd Gods servant which is a relation to God as a Lord. God being the Lord of all things the Dominion of all things inferior to him is inseparable from him and in this regard the whole of what Christ was to do and did actually do was acted by him as the Will of God and is exprest so by himself in the Prophesie Psal 40.7 Lo I come verse 8. I delight to do thy will which are put together Heb. 10.7 Lo I come to do thy Will O God The designing Christ to this work was an act of mercy but founded on his soveraignty His compassionate bowels might have pitied us without his being soveraign but without it could not have releived us It was the Counsell of his own will as well as of his Bowels None was his Counsellor or perswader to that mercy he shew'd Rom. 11.34 Who hath been his Counsellor for it refers to that Mercy in sending the deliverer out of Sion verse 26. as well as to other things the Apostle had been discoursing of As God was at liberty to create or not to create so he was at liberty to Redeem or not to Redeem and at his liberty whither to appoint Christ to this work or not to call him out to it In giving this order to his Son his soveraignty was exercised in a higher manner than in all the orders and instructions he hath given out to Men or Angels and all the employments he ever sent them upon Christ hath names which signifie an Authority over him He is called an Angel and a Messenger Mal. 3.1 An Apostle Heb. 3.1 Declaring thereby that God hath as much Authority over him as over the Angels sent upon his Messages or over the Apostles commission'd by His Authority as he was consider'd in the quality of Mediator 3. This Soveraignty of God appears in transferring our sins upon Christ The Supream Power in a Nation can only appoint or allow of a commutation of punishment 'T is a part of Soveraignty to transferr the penalty due to the crime of one upon an other and substitute a sufferer with the sufferers own consent in the place of a criminal whom he had a mind to deliver from a deserv'd punishment God transferr'd the sins of men upon Christ and inflicted on him a punishment for them He summ'd up the debts of man charg'd them upon the score of Christ imputing to him the guilt and inflicting upon him the penalty Isa 53.6 The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all He made them all to meet upon his back He hath made him to be sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made so by the Soveraign pleasure of God A punishment for sin as most understand it which could not be Righteously inflicted had not sin been first Righteously imputed by the consent of Christ and the order of the Judge of the World This imputation could be the immediate act of none but God because he was the sole Creditor A Creditor is not bound to accept of another's suretiship but it is at his liberty whither he will or no and when he doth accept of him he may challenge the Debt of him as if he were the Principal Debtor himself Christ made himself sin for us by a voluntary submission and God made him sin for us by a full imputation and treated him penally
Oh Judah what shall I do unto thee 'T is an Addubitatio a figure in Rhetorick as if God were troubled that he must deal so sharply with them and give them up to their Enemies I have tried all means to reclaim you I have used all ways of kindness and nothing prevails What shall I do my Mercy invites me to spare them and their ingratitude provokes me to ruine them God had born with that people of Israel almost three hundred years from the setting up of the Calves at Dan and Bethel sent many a Prophet to warn them and spent many a rod to reform them And when he comes to execute his threatnings he doth it with a conflict in himself Hosea 11.8 How shall I give thee up Oh Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel As if there were a pull-back in his own Bowels he solemnizeth their approaching funeral with a hearty groan and takes his farewell of the dying Malefactor with a pang in himself How often in former times when he had sign'd a warrant for their Execution did he call it back Psal 78.38 Many a time turn'd he his anger away Many a time he recall'd or order'd his Anger to return again as the word signifies as if he were irresolute what to do He recall'd it as a man doth his Servant several times when he is sending him upon an unwelcome message or as a tender hearted Prince wavers and trembles when he is to sign a Writ for the death of a Rebel that hath been before his favorite as if when he had sign'd the Writ he blotted out his name again and flung away the Pen. And his method is remarkable when he came to punish Sodom though the cry of their sin had been fierce in his ears yet when he comes to make inquisition he declares his intention to Abraham as if he were desirous that Abraham should have helped him to some arguments to stop the outgoings of his judgment He gave liberty to the best person in the World to stand in the gap and enter into a treaty with him to shew saith one * Pierce sinner implead Pag. 227. how willingly his mercy would have compounded with his justice for their Redemption And Abraham interceded so long till he was ashamed for pleading the cause of patience and Mercy to the wrong of the rights of divine Justice Perhaps had Abraham had the courage to ask God would have had the compassion to grant a reprieve just at the time of Execution 2. His Patience is manifest in that when he begins to send out his judgments he doth it by degrees His Judgments are as the Morning Light which goes forth by degrees in the Hemisphere Hos 6.5 He doth not shoot all his thunders at once and bring his sharpest judgments in array at one time but gradually that a people may have time to turn to him Joel 1.4 First the Palmer-worm then the Locust then the Canker-worm then the Caterpillar What one left the other was to eat if there were not a timely return A Jewish Writer * Kimchi saith these judgments came not all in one year but one year after another The Palmer-worm and Locust might have eaten all but divine Patience set bounds to the devouring creatures God had been first as a moth to Israel Hos 5.12 Therefore will I be to the house of Ephraim as a Moth Rivet translates it I have been in the Hebr. 't is I without adding I have been or I will be and more probably I have been I was as a Moth which makes little holes in a garment and consumes it not all at once And as rottenness to the house of Judah or a worm that eats into wood by degrees Indeed this people had consum'd insensibly partly by civil combustions change of Governours Forreign Invasions yet they were as obstinate in their Idolatry as ever At last God would be no longer to them as a Moth but as a Lyon tear and go away ver 14. So Hos 2. God had disowned Israel for his Spouse ver 2. She is not my Wife neither am I her Husband yet he had not taken away her Ornaments which by the right of divorce he might have done but still expected her Reformation for that the threatning intimates ver 3. let her put away her Whoredom least I strip her naked and set her as in the day when she was born If she returned she might recover what she had lost if not she might be stript of what remained Thus God dealth with Judah Ezek. 9.3 The Glory of God goes first from the Cherub to the Thresh-hold of the house and stayes there as if he had a mind to be invited back again then it goes from the Threshold of the house and stands over the Cherubims as if upon a penitent call it would drop down again to its antient Station and Seat over which it hoverd Ezek. 10.18 And when he was not sollicited to return he departs out of the City and stood upon the Mountain which is on the East part of the City Ezek. 11.23 looking still towards and hovering about the Temple which was on the East of Jerusalem as if loath to depart and abandon the place and people He walkes so leasurely with his Rod in his hand as if he had a mind rather to fling it away than use it His Patience in not pouring out all his Vials is more remarkable than hiâ— wrath in pouring out one or two Thus hath God made his slowness to anger visible to us in the gradual punishment of us First the Pestilence on this City then Firing our Houses Consumption of Trade these have not been answered with such a carriage as God expects therefore a greater is reserved I dare prognosticate upon reasons you may gather from what hath been spoke before if I be not much mistaken the 40 yeares of his usual Patience are very near expired he hath inflicted some that he might be met with in a way of Repentance and omit with honour the inflicting the remainder 4. His Patience is manifest in moderating his judgments when he sends them Doth he empty his Quiver of his Arrows or exhaust his magazines of thunder No he could roul one Thunder-bolt successively upon all Mankind 'T is as easie with him to Create a perpetual motion of Lightning and Thunder as of the Sun and Stars and make the World as terrible by the one as it is delightful by the other He opens not all his store he sends out a light party to skirmish with men and puts not in array his whole Army He stirs not up all his wrath Psal 78.38 he doth but pinch where he might have torn asunder When he takes away much he leaves enough to support us If he had stirred up all his anger he had taken away all and our lives to boot He rakes up but a few sparks takes but one firebrand to fling upon men when he might discharge the whole Furnace upon them
He sends but a few drops out of the Cloud which he might make to break in the gross and fall down upon our heads to overwhelm us he abates much of what he might do When he might sweep away a whole Nation by deluges of water corruption of the Air or convulsions of the Earth or by other wayes that are not wanting at his order He picks out only some Persons some Families some Cities sends a plague into one house and not into another here is Patience to the stock of a Nation while he inflicts punishment upon some of the most notorious sinners in it Herod is suddenly snatcht away being willingly flattered into the thoughts of his being a God God singl'd out the chief in the herd for whose sake he had been affronted by the rabble Act. 12.22 23. Some find him sparing them while others feel him destroying them He arrests some when he might seize all all being his Debtors And often in great desolations brought upon a people for their sin he hath left a stump in the Earth as Daniel speakes Dan. 4.15 for a Nation to grow upon it again and arise to a stronger constitution He doth punish less than our iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 and rewards us not according to our iniquities Psal 103.10 The greatness of any punishment in this Life answers not the greatness of the crime Though there be an equity in whatsoever he doth yet there is not an equality to what we deserve Our iniquities would justifie a severer treating of us His Justice goes not here to the end of its line 't is stopped in its progress and the blows of it weakned by his Patience He did not curse the Earth after Adam's fall that it should bring forth no fruit but that it should not bring forth fruit without the wearysome toyl of man and subjected him to distempers presently but inflicted not death immediately while he punished him he supported him And while he expelled him from Paradise he did not order him not to cast his eye towards it and conceive some hopes of regaining that happy place 5. His Patience is seen in giving great mercies after provocations He is so slow to anger that he heaps many kindnesses upon a rebel instead of punishment There is a prosperous wickedness wherein the provokers strength continues firm The troubles which like Clouds drop upon others are blown away from them and they are not plagued like other men that have a more worthy demeanour towards God Psal 73.3 4 5. He doth not only continue their lives but sends out fresh beams of his goodness upon them and calls them by his Blessings that they may acknowledge their own fault and his bounty which he is not obliged to by any gratitude he meets with from them but by the richness of his own patient nature for he finds the unthank fulness of men as great as his benefits to them He doth not only continue his outward mercies while we continue our sins but sometimes gives fresh benefits after new provocations that if possible he might excite an ingenuity in men When Israel at the Red Sea flung dirt in the face of God by quarrelling with his servant Moses for bringing them out of Egypt and mis-judging God in his design of deliverance and were ready to submit themselves to their former oppressors Exod. 14.11 12. which might justly have urged God to say to them take your own course yet he is not only patient under their unjust charge but makes bare his Arm in a deliverance at the Red Sea that was to be an amazing monument to the World in all Ages and afterwards when they repiningly quarrelled with him in their wants in the Wilderness he did not only not revenge himself upon them or cast off the conduct of them but bore with them by a miraculous long suffering and supplyed them with miraculous provision Manna from Heaven and Water from a Rock Food is given to support us and Cloaths to cover us and Divine Patience makes the creatures which we turn to another use than what they were at first intended for serve us contrary to their own Genius For had they reason no question but they would complain to be subjected to the service of man who hath been so ungrateful to their Creator and groan at the abuse of God's Patience in the abuse they themselves suffer from the hands of man 6. All this is more manifest if we consider the provocations he hath Wherein his slowness to Anger infinitely transcends the Patience of any creature nay the Spirits of all the Angels and Glorified Saints in Heaven would be too narrow to bear the sins of the World for one day nay not so much as the sins of Churches which is a little spot in the whole World 't is because he is the Lord one of an infinite power over himself that not only the whole Mass of the Rebellious World but of the Sons of Jacob either considered as a Church and Nation springing from the loyns of Jacob or considered as the Regenerate part of the World sometimes called the Seed of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 A Jonah was angry with God for recalling his Anger from a sinful people Had God committed the Government of the World to the Glorified Saints who are perfect in Love and Holiness the World would have had an end long ago They would have acted that which they sue for at the hands of God and is not granted them Rev. 6.10 How long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth God hath designs of Patience above the World above the unsinning Angels and perfectly renewed Spirits in Glory The greatest Created long suffering is infinitely disproportion'd to the Divine Fire from Heaven would have been showred down before the greatest part of a day were spent if a Created Patience had the conduct of the World though that creature were possessed with the spirit of Patience extracted from all the creatures which are in Heaven or are or ever were upon the earth Methinks Moses intimates this for as soon as God had passed by proclaiming his Name gracious and long suffering As soon as ever Moses had paid his Adoration he falls a Praying that God would go with the Israelites Exod. 34.8 9. For it is a stiffneck'd people What an Argument is here for God to go along with them He might rather since he had heard him but just before say he would by no means clear the guilty desire God to stand further off from them for fear the fire of his wrath should burst out from him to burn them as he did the Sodomites But he considers that as none but God had such anger to destroy them so none but God had such a Patience to bear with them 'T is as much as if he should have said Lord if thou should'st send the most tender hearted Angel in Heaven to have the guidance of this people
abused and the World to go contrary to its natural end But since he did not level the World with its first nothing but healed the World so favourably it was evident that his patience pointed the World to a further design of Mercy and Goodness in him To imagine that God had no other design in his long-suffering but that of vengeance had been a notion unsuitable to the Goodness and Wisdom of God He would never have pretended himself to be a Friend if he had harboured nothing but enmity in his heart against them It had been far from his Goodness to give them a cause to suspect such a design in him as his patience certainly did had he not intended it Had he preserv'd men only for punishment 't is more like he would have treated men as Princes do those they reserve for the Axe or Halter give them only things necessary to uphold their lives till the day of Execution and not have bestowed upon them so many good things to make their lives delightful to them nor have furnisht them with so many excellent means to please their senses and recreate their minds it had been a mocking of them to treat them at the rate if nothing but punishment had been intended towards them If the end of it to lead men to Repentance were easily intelligble by them as the Apostle intimates Rom. 2.4 Which is to be linkt with the former chapter a discourse of the Gentiles Not knowing saith he that the riches of his forbearance and goodness leads thee to repentance it also gives them some ground to hope for pardon For what other argument can more induce to Repentance than expectation of Mercy upon a relenting and acknowledging the crime Without a design of pardoning Grace his patience would have been in a great measure exercis'd in vain For by meer patience God is not reconcil'd to a sinner no more than a Prince to a Rebel by bearing with him Nor can a sinner conclude himself in the favour of God no more than a Rebel can conclude himself in the favour of his Prince only this he may conclude that there is some hopes he may have the grant of a pardon since he hath time to sue it out And so much did the patience of God naturally signifie that he was of a reconcilable temper and was willing men should sue out their pardon upon Repentance otherwise he might have magnified his Justice and condemned men by the Law of Works 2. He therefore exercised so much patience to wait for mens Repentance All the notices and warnings that God gives men of either publick or personal calamities is a continual invitation to Repentance This was the common interpretation the Heathens made of extraordinary Presages and Prodigies which shew'd as well the delays as the approaches of Judgments What other notion but this that those warnings of Judgments witness a slowness to Anger and a willingness to turn his arrows another way should move them to multiply sacrifices go weeping to their Temples sound out prayers to their Gods and shew all those other Testimonies of a Repentance which their blind understandings hit upon If a * Amyraldus moral Tom. 2. p. 186. Prince should sometimes in a light and gentle manner punish a criminal and then relax it and shew him much kindness and afterwards inflict upon him another kind of punishment as light as the former and less than was due to his crime what could the Malefactor suspect by such a way of proceeding but that the Prince by those gently repeated chastisements had a mind to move him to a regret for his crime And what other thoughts could men naturally have of Gods conduct that he should warn them of great judgments send light afflictions which are Testimonies rather of a Patience than of a severe wrath but that it was intended to move them to a relenting and a breaking off their sins by working Righteousness Though Divine patience doth not in the event induce men to Repentance yet the natural tendency of such a treatment is to mollifie mens Hearts to overcome their obsstinacy and no man hath any reason to judge otherwise of such a proceeding The long suffering of God is Salvation saith Peter 2 Pet. 3.15 i. e. hath a tendency to Salvation in its being a sollicitation of men to the means of it For the Apostle cites Paul for the confirmation of it Even as our beloved Brother Paul hath written unto you which must refer to Rom. 2.4 It leads to Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it conducts which is more than barely to invite it doth as it were take us by the hand and point us to the way wherein we should go and for this end it was exercised not only towards the Jews but towards the Gentiles not only towards those that are within the pale of the Church and under the dews of the Gospel but to those that are in darkness and in the shadow of death For this discourse of the Apostle was but an inference from what he had treated of in the first chapter concerning the Idolatry and ingratitude of the Gentiles since the Gentiles were to be punished for the abuse of it as well as the Jews as he intimates ver 9. 't is plain that his patience which is exercised towards the Idolatrous Gentiles was to allure them to Repentance as well as others and it was a sufficient motive in it self to perswade them to a change of their vile and gross acts to such as were morally good And there was enough in Gods dealing with them and in that light they had to engaged them to a better course than what they usually walked in And though men do abuse Gods long-suffering to encourage their impenitence and persisting in their crimes yet that they cannot reasonably imagine that to be the end of God is evident their own gripes of Conscience would acquaint them that it is otherwise They know that Conscience is a principle that God hath given them as well as Understanding and Will and other Faculties That God doth not approve of that which the voice of their own Consciences and of the Consciences of all men under natural light are utterly against And if there were really in this forbearance of God an approbation of mens crimes Conscience could not frequently and universally in all men check them for them What Authority could Conscience have to do it But this it doth in all men As the Apostle Rom. 1.22 They know the judgment of God that those that do such things which he had mentioned before are worthy of death In this thing the Consciences of all men cannot err They could not therefore conclude from hence Gods approbation of their iniquities but his desire that their Hearts should be touched with a Repentance for them The Sin of Ephraim is hid Hosea 13.12.13 i. e. God doth not presently take notice of it to order punishment he lays it in a secret place from
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
and an unreasonable thing cannot be the product of an infinite wisdom and goodness Therefore as the respecting Gods Will before the Will of man is excellent and worthy of a Creature and is an acknowledging the excellency goodness and wisdom of God So the eying the Will of man before and above the Will of God is on the contrary a denyal of all those in a lump and a preferring the wisdom goodness and power of man in his Law above all those perfections of God in his Whatsoever men do that looks like moral virtue or abstinence from vices not out of obedience to the rule God hath set but because of custome necessity example or imitation they may in the doing of it be rather said to be Apes than Christians 3. In obeying the Will of man when t is contrary to the Will of God As the Israelites willingly walked after the Commandment * Hos 5.11 Not of God but of Jeroboam in the â—ase of the Calves And made the Kings heart glad with their lies * Hos 7.3 They cheered â—im with their ready obedience to his Command for Idolatry which was a lie in iâ—self and a lie in them against the Commandment of God and the warnings of the Prophets rather than cheer the heart of God with their obedience to his worship instituted by him Nay and when God offered them to cure them their wound their iniquity breaks out a fresh they would neither have him as a Lord to rule them nor a Physitian to cure them Hos 7.1 When I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered The whole Persian Nation shrunk at once from a duty due by the light of nature to the Deity upon a decree that neither God or man should be petitioned to for thirty days but only their King * Daniel 6. One only Daniel excepted against it who preferred his homage to God above obedience to his Prince An adulterous generation is many times made the rule of mens professions as is implyed in those words of our Saviour Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this Adulterous and sinful Generation Own him among his Disciples and be ashamed of him among his enemies Thus men are said to deny God Tit. 1.16 when they attend to Jewish fables and the precepts of men rather than the word of God When the decrees or Canons of fallible men are valued at a higher rate and preferred before the writings of the holy-ghost by his Apostles As Man naturally disowns the rule God sets him and owns any other rule than that of Gods prescribing so Thirdly 3. He doth this in order to the setting himself up as his own rule As tho our own Wills and not Gods were the true square and measure of Goodness We make an Idol of our own Wills And as much as self is exalted God is deposed The more we esteem our own Wills the more we endeavour to annihilate the Will of God Account nothing of him the more we account of our selves And endeavor to render our selves his superiors by exalting our own Wills No Prince but would look upon his Authority as invaded his Royalty derided if a Subject should resolve to be a Law to himself in opposition to his known Will True piety is to hate our selves deny our selves and cleave solely to the service of God To make our selves our own rule and the object of our chiefest love is Atheism If self denyal be the greatest part of Godliness the great Letter in the Alphabet of Religion Self love is the great Letter in the Alphabet of Practical Atheism Self is the great Anti-Christ and Anti-God in the World that sets up it self above all that is called God Self love is the Captain of that black band 2 Tim. 3.2 It sits in the Temple of God and would be ador'd as God Self love begins but denying the the power of Godliness which is the same with denying the ruling power of God ends the list T is so far from bending to the righteous Will of the Creator that it would have the eternal Will of God stoop to the humor and unrighteous Will of a Creature And this is the ground of the contention between the flesh and Spirit in the heart of a renewed man Flesh Wars for the God-head of self and Spirit fights for the God-head of God The one would settle the throne of the Creator and the other maintain a Law of Covetosness Ambition Envy Lust in the stead of God The Evidence of this will appear in these propositions 1. This is natural to man as he is corrupted What was the venom of the sin of Adam is naturally derived with his nature to all his posterity It was not the eating a forbidden Apple or the pleasing his Palate that Adam aimed at or was the chief object of his desire but to live independently on his Creator and be a God to himself Gen. 3.5 You shall be as Gods That which was the matter of the Devils Temptation was the incentive of mans rebellion A likeness to God he aspired to in the Judgment of God himself an infallible interpreter of mans thoughts Behold man is become as one of us to know good and evil in regard of self sufficiency and being a rule to himself The Jews understand the ambition of man to reach no further than an equality with the Angelical nature But Jehovah here understands it in another sense God had ordered man by this prohibition not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil not to attempt the knowledge of good and evil of himself but to wait upon the dictates of God not to trust to his own Counsels but to depend wholly upon him for direction and guidance Certainly he that would not hold off his hand from so small a thing as an Apple when he had his choice of the fruit of the Garden would not have denyed himself any thing his Appetite had desired when that principle had prevailed upon him He would not have stuck at a greater matter to pleasure himself with the displeasing of God when for so small a thing he would incur the anger of his Creator Thus would he deifie his own understanding against the wisdom of God and his own appetite against the Will of God This desire of equality with God a learned man thinks the Apostle intimates Phil. 2.6 Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God The Sons being in the form of God Dr. Jackson and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God implies that the robbery of sacriledge committed by our first Parents for which the Son of God humbled himself to the death of the Cross was an attempt to be equal with God and depend no more upon Gods directions but his own conduct which could be no less than an invasion of the throne of God and endeavor to put himself into
a posture to be his Mate Other sins Adultery and Theft c. could not be committed by him at that time but he immediatly puts forth his hand to usurp the power of his Maker This Treason is the old Adam in every man The first Adam contradicted the Will of God to set up himself The second Adam humbled himself and did nothing but by the Command and Will of his Father This principle wherein the venom of the Old Adam lies must be Crucified to make way for the Throne of the humble and obedient principle of the New Adam or quickning Spirit Indeed sin in its owns nature is nothing else but a willing according to self and contrary to the Will of God Lusts are therefore called the Wills of the flesh and of the mind * Eph. 2.3 As the precepts of God are Gods Will So the violations of these precepts is mans Will And thus man usurps a God-head to himself by giving that Honour to his own Will which belongs to God appropriating the right of rule to himself and denying it to his Creator That Servant that acts according to his own Will with a neglect of his Masters refuseth the duty of a Servant and invades the right of his Master This Self-love and desire of Independency on God has been the root of all sin in the World The great controversy between God and man hath been whether he or they shall be God whether his Reason or theirs his Will or theirs shall be the guiding principle As Grace is the union of the Will of God and the Will of the Creature so sin is the opposition of the Will of self to the Will of God Leaning to our own understanding is opposed as a natural evil to trusting in the Lord * Pro. 3.5 a supernatural grace Men commonly love what is their own their own inventions their own fancies therefore the ways of a wicked man are called the ways of his own heart * Eccl. 11.9 and the ways of a superstitious man his own devices Jer. 18.11 We will walk after our own devices We will be a law to our selves And what the Psalmist saith of the tongue our tongues are our own who shall controul us is as truly the language of mens hearts our Wills are our own who shall check us 2. This is eviden in the dissatisfaction of men with their own Consciences when they contradict the desires of self Conscience is nothing but an actuated or reflex knowledg of a superior power and an equitable law a law imprest and a power above it impressing it Conscience is not the law-giver but the remembrancer to mind us of that law of nature imprinted upon our Souls and actuate the considerations of the duty and penalty to apply the rule to our acts and pass Judgment upon matter of fact T is to give the charge urge the rule enjoyn the practice of those notions of Right as part of our duty and obedience But man is much displeased with the directions of Conscience as he is out of love with the accusations and condemning sentence of this officer of God We cannot naturally endure any quick and lively practical thoughts of God and his Will and distast our own Consciences for putting us in mind of it They therefore like not to retain God in their knowledge * Rom. 1.28 that is God in their own Consciences they would blow it out as it is the Candle of the Lord in them to direct them and their acknowledgments of God to secure themselves against the practice of its principles They would stop all the avenues to any beam of light and would not suffer a sparkle of Divine knowledge to flutter in their minds in order to set up another directing rule suited to the fleshly appetite And when they cannot stop the light of it from glaring in their faces they rebel against it and cannot endure to abide in its paths * Job 24.13 He speaks not of those which had the written word or special Revelations but only a natural light or traditional handed from Adam Hence are all the endeavors to still it when it begins to speak by some carnal pleasures as Sauls evil Spirit with a fit of Musick or bribe it with some fits of a glavering devotion when it holds the Law of God in its commanding Authority before the mind They would wipe out all the impressions of it when it presses the advancement of God above self and entertain it with no better Complement than Ahab did Elijah hast thou found me O my Enemy If we are like to God in any thing of our natural fabrick t is in the superior and more Spiritual part of our Souls The resistance of that which is most like to God and instead of God in us is a disowning of the Soveraign represented by that Officer He that would be without Conscience would be without God whose Vicegerent it is and make the sensitive part which Conscience opposes his Law-giver Thus a man out of respect to sinful self quarrels with his natural self and cannot comport himself in a friendly behaviour to his internal implanted principles He hates to come under the rebukes of them as much as Adam hated to come into the presence of God after he turned Traytor against him The bad entertainment Gods deputy hath in us reflects upon that God whose cause it pleads T is upon no other account that men loath the upright Language of their own reasons in those matters and wish the eternal silence of their own Consciences but as they maintain the rights of God and would hinder the Idol of self from usurping his God-head and prerogative Tho this power be part of a mans self rooted in his nature as essential to him and inseparable from him as the best part of his being yet he quarrels with it as it is Gods Deputy and stickling for the honour of God in his Soul and quarrelling with that sinful self he would cherish above God We are not displeased with this faculty barely as it exerciseth a self-reflection but as it is Gods Vice-gerent and bears the mark of his Authority in it In some cases this self-reflecting act meets with good Entertainment when it acts not in contradiction to self but sutable to natural affections As suppose a man hath in his passion struck his Child and caused thereby some great mischeif to him the reflection of Conscience will not be unwelcome to him will work some tenderness in him because it takes the part of self and of natural affection But in the more Spiritual concerns of God it will be rated as a busy body 3. Many if not most actions materially good in the world are done more because they are agreeable to self than as they are honourable to God As the word of God may be heard not as his word * 1 Thes 2.13 but as there may be pleasing Notions in it or discourses against an opinion or
to guide us and a Cordial to refresh us 'T is a Lamp to our Feet and a Medicine for our Diseases a Purifier of our Filth and a Restorer of us in our faintings He hath by his Goodness seal'd the truth of it by his efficacy on multitudes of Men He hath made it the Word of Regeneration * Jam. 1.18 Men wilder and more monstrous than Beasts have been tam'd and chang'd by the power of it It hath rais'd multitudes of dead Men from a Grave fuller of horrour than any Earthly one Again Goodness was in all ages sending his Letters of Advice and Counsel from Heaven till the Canon of the Scripture was clos'd Sometimes he wrote to chide a froward People sometimes to chear up an oppressed and disconsolate People according to the State wherein they were as we may observe by the several Seasons wherein parts of Scripture were written It was his Goodness that he first reveal'd any thing of his Will after the Fall it was a further degree of Goodness that he would add more Cubits to its Stature before he would lay aside his Pensil it grew up to that bulk wherein we have it And his Goodness is further seen in the preserving it He hath triumphed over the powers that opposed it and shewed himself good in the Instruments that propagated it He hath maintain'd it against the blasts of Hell and spread it in all Languages against the obstructions of Men and Devils The Sun of his Word is by his kindness preserv'd in our Horizon as well as the Sun in the Heavens How admirable is Divine Goodness He hath sent his Son to die for us and his written Word to instruct us and his Spirit to edge it for an entrance into our Souls He hath open'd the Womb of the Earth to nourish us and sent down the Records of Heaven to direct us in our Pilgrimage He hath provided the Earth for our habitation while we are Travellers and sent his Word to acquaint us with a felicity at the end of our Journey and the way to attain in another World what we want in this viz. a happy Immortality 5. His Goodness in his Government is evident In Conversions of Men. Though this Work be wrought by his Power yet his Power was first sollicited by his Goodness It was his rich Goodness that he would employ his power to pierce the scales of a heart as hard as those of the Leviathan It was this that opened the Ears of Men to hear him and draws them from the hurry of Worldly cares and the Charms of Sensual Pleasures and which is the top of all the impostures and Cheats of their own hearts It is this that sends a spark of his wrath into Mens consciencies to put them to a stand in sin that he might not send down a shower of Brimstone eternally to consume their persons This it was that first shewed you the Excellency of the Redeemer and brought you to taste the sweetness of his Bloud and find your security in the Agonies of his Death 'T is his Goodness to call one man and not another to turn Paul in his course and lay hold of no other of his companions 'T is his Goodness to call any when he is not bound to call one 1. 'T is his Goodness To pitch upon mean and despicable Men in the eye of the World To call this poor Publican and over-look that proud Pharisee this Man that sits upon a Dunghil and neglect him that glisters in his Purple His Majesty is not enticed by the lofty Titles of Men nor which is more worth by the Learning and Knowledge of Men. Not many Wise not many Mighty * Cor. 1.26 27 28. not many Doctâ—rs not many Lords though some of them but his Goodness condescends to the base things of the World and things which are despised The Poor receive the Gospel * Mat. 11.5 when those that are more acute and furnisht with a more apprehensive Reason are not toucht by it 2. The worst Men. He seizeth sometimes upon Men most soyl'd and neglects others that seem more clean and less polluted He turns Men in their course in sin that by their infernal practices have seem'd to have gone to School to Hell and to have suckt in the sole instructions of the Devil He lays hold upon some when they are most under actual demerit and snatcheth them as Fire-brands out of the Fire as upon Paul when fullest of rage against him And shoots a Beam of Grace where nothing could be justly expected but a Thunder-bolt of Wrath. 'T is his Goodness to visit any when they lie putrifying in their loathsome Lusts To draw near to them who have been guilty of the greatest contempt of God and the light of Nature The murdering Manassehs persecuting Sauls Christ-crucifying Jews Persons in whom Lusts had had a peaceable possession and Empire for many years 3. His Goodness appears In converting Men possest with the greatest enmity against him while he was dealing with them All were in such a state and framing contrivances against him when Divine Goodness knockt at the door * Col. 1.21 He lookt after us when our backs were turned upon him and sought us when we slighted him and were a gain-saying People * Rom. 10.21 when we had shaken off his convictions and contended with our Maker and mustered up the Powers of Nature against the Alarms of Conscience strugled like wild Bulls in a Net and blunted those Darts which stuck in our Souls Not a Man that is turn'd to him but had lifted up the heel against his Gospel-Grace as well as made light of his Creating Goodness Yet it hath employed it self about such ungrateful Wretches to polish those knotty and rugged pieces for Heaven And so invincibly that he would not have his Goodness defeated by the fierceness and rebellion of the Flesh Though the thing was more difficult in it self if any thing may be said to have a difficulty to Omnipotency than to make a Stone live or to turn a Straw into a Marble-Pillar The Malice of the Flesh makes a Man more unfit for the one than the nature of the straw unfits it for the other 4. His Goodness appears in turning Men When they were pleased with their own misery and unable to deliver themselves When they preferr'd a Hell before him and were in love with their own Vileness when his Call was our torment and his neglect of us had been accounted our felicity Was it not a mighty Goodness to keep the Light close to our Eyes when we endeavoured to blow it out and the corrosive near to our hearts when we endeavoured to tear it off being more fond of our Disease than the Remedy We should have been scalded to death with the Sodomites had not God laid his good hand upon us and drawn us from the approaching ruine we affected and were loath to be freed from And had we been displeased with our state
yet we had been as unable Spiritually to raise our selves from Sin to Grace as to raise our selves naturally from Nothing to Being In this state we were when his Goodness triumphed over us when he put a hook into our nostrils to turn us in order to our Salvation and drew us out of the Pit which we had digged when he might left us to sink under the rigors of his Justice we had merited Now this Goodness in Conversion is greater than that in Creation as in Creation there was nothing to oppose him so there was nothing to disoblige him Creation was terminated to the good of a mutable Nature and Conversion tends to a supernatural Good God pronounced all Creatures good at first and Man among the rest but did not pronounce any of them or Man himself his Portion his Inheritance his Segullah his House his Diadem He speaks slightly of all those things which he made the noblest Heavens as well as the lowest Earth in comparison of a true Convert * Isa 66.1 2. All those things hath mine hand made and all those things have been but to this Man will I look to him that is of a contrite Spirit 'T is more goodness to give the espousing Grace of the Covenant than the compleating Glory of Heaven As it is more for a Prince to marry a Beggar than only to bring her to live deliciously in his Courts all other benefits are of a meaner strain if compar'd with this there is little less of Goodness in imparting the Holiness of his Nature than imputing the Righteousness of his Son 6. The Divine Goodness doth appear in answering Prayers He delights to be familiarly acquainted with his People and to hear them call upon him He indulgeth them a free access to him and delights in every address of an upright Man * Prov. 15.8 The wonderful efficacy of Prayet depends not upon the nature of our Petitions or the temper of our Soul but the Goodness of God to whom we address Christ establisheth it upon this bottom when he exhorts to ask in his name he tells them the Spring of all their Grants is the Fathers love * Joh. 16.26 27. I say not I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loves you And since it is of it self incredible that a Majesty exalted above the Cherubims should stoop so low as to give a miserable and rebellious Creature admittance to him and afford him a gracious hearing and a quick supply Christ ushers in the Promise of answering Prayer with a Note of great Assurance * Luk. 11.9 10. I say unto you ask and it shall be given you I that know the Mind of my Father and his good disposition assure you your Prayer shall not be in vain Perhaps you will not be so ready of your selves to imagine so great a Liberality but take it upon my word 't is true and so you will find it And his Bounty travels as it were in Birth to give the greatest Blessings upon our asking rather than the smallest * Verse 13. Your Heavenly Father shall give his Holy Spâ—rit to them that ask him Which in Mat. 7.11 is called good things Of all the good and rich things Divine Goodness hath in its Treasury he delights to give the best upon asking because God doth act so as to manifest the greatness of his Bounty and Magnificence to Men and therefore is delighted when Men by their Petitioning him own such a liberal disposition in him and put him upon the manifesting it He would rather you should ask the greatest things Heaven can afford than the trifles of this World Because his Bounty is not discovered in meaner Gifts he loves to have an opportunity to manifest his affection above the liberality and tenderness of Worldly Fathers He doth more wait to give in a way of Grace than we to beg * Isai 30.18 And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you He stands expecting your Suits and employs his Wisdom in pitching upon the fittest seasons when the manifestation of his Goodness may be most gracious in it self and the Mercy you want most welcome to you as it follows for the Lord is a God of Judgment He chooseth the time wherein his doles may be most acceptable to his Suppliants * Isai 49.8 In an acceptable time have I heard thee He often opens his hand while we are opening our Lips and his Blessings meet our Petitions at the first setting out upon their Journey to Heaven * Isai 65.24 While they are yet speaking I will hear How often do we hear a secret Voice within us while we are Praying saying Your Prayer is granted As well as hear a Voice behind us while we are Erring saying This is the way walk in it And his liberality exceeds often our desires as well as our deserts and gives out more than we had the wisdom or confidence to ask The Apostle intimates it in that Doxology * Eph 3.20 Vnto him who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think This Power would not have been so strong an Argument of comfort if it were never put in practice He is more liberal than his Creatures are craving Abraham petition'd for the life of Ishmael and God promiseth him the birth of Isaac * Gen. 17.18 19. Isaac asks for a Child and God gives him two Gen. 25.21 22. Jacob desires Food to eat and Raiment to put on God confines not his Bounty within the narrow limits of his Petition but instead of a Staff wherewith he passed Jordan makes him repass it with two Bands * Gen. 28.20 David askt life of God and he gave him Life and a Crown to boot †Psal 21.2 3 4 5. The Israelites would have been contented with a free life in Egypt they only cried to have their Chains struck off God gave them that and adopts them to be his peculiar People and raises them into a famous State 'T is a wonder that God should condescend so much that he should hear Prayers so weak so cold so wandring and gather up our sincere Petitions from the dung of our distractions and diffidence David vents his astonishment at it * Psal 31.21 22. Blessed be God for he hath shewed me marvellous kindness I said in my haste I am cut off from before thy Eyes nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication How do we wonder at the goodness of a petty Man in granting our desires how much more should we at the Humility and Goodness of the most Soveraign Majesty of Heaven and Earth 6. The Goodness of God is seen in bearing with the infirmities of his People and accepting imperfect Obedience Though Asa had many blots in his Scutcheon yet they are over-lookt and this Note set upon Record by Divine Goodness That his heart was perfect towards the Lord all his days * 1 Kings 15.14 But
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