yet the living God can breath the spirit of life upon them and make a dead sinner become a living soul to God a dead drunkard and a dead worldling buried under a dunghil become a living soul to God t is no superstition for you that live the life of God to pray for such dead for a living husband to pray for his dead wife a living father to pray for his dead children so when God shall bring a Minister as he did the Prophet Ezekiel into a valley of dead bones of dead sinners and say unto him Prophecy O ye dead sinners hear ye the word of the Lord and while we are prophecying God should cause the breath of life bones and sinews to come upon these dry bones should we then despair of the quickening of any dead soul we are to mourn over the dead but not as men without hope of their better and more glorious life and condition the living God can yet make them live the life of God we should do therefore for sinful men as David did for his sick Child while it was living he humbled his soul laid on the ground fasted and praied for the childs recovery while there was hope he would not give over praying so while there is hope of a mans resurrection from death to life of his conversion from sin to God be not wanting in all means for in so doing you may save a soul This likewise may teach the godly in all their dead and dull tempers of heart whether to go for life and motion sc to the living God in whom as all naturally live move and have their being so the Saints in him have their spiritual being life and motion Thus David prayeth nine times in Psa 119. that God would quicken him as who should say my heart is dead my prayers are dead and lazy I have no heart to any good but thou who art the living God canst quicken me and revive me and enlarge my heart and make me to run the way of thy commandments Therefore in all your deadest frames be more frequent in prayer do not give over because thou findest not thy heart so fervent It is reported of that holy Martyr Mr. Bradford that when he went about any duty he would never give over till he found some reviving from God if he confessed his sins he would confess till he found his heart melting and mourning if he prayed for pardon he would still beg for pardon till he found his heart somewhat eased of his sins in praying for grace he would never give over till he found his heart warmed in prayer go then and do likewise in all thy dead frames importune the living God till he doth revive thy spirit Vse 5. This should comfort the godly against the fear of death and the forerunners of death ye are for the present the Sons of the living God ye are come to the City of the living God what need you to fear to dye seeing God will give you life eternal ye are the living stones of the Temple of the living God and he can raise your dead bodies when mouldered into dust and make both soul and body live gloriously and eternally when a godly man dieth eternal life swalloweth him up did ever man fear to go to bed to put on better apparel shall we be afraid to die to put on glory immortality and eternal life Vse 6. Take heed of sinning against God because he liveth to take vengeance upon stubborn Rebels he is a living God and takes exact notice what sinners do and lives for ever to torment the wicked to eternity The wicked need not fear eternal death if they did sin against a dead God but God who is life eternal will doom them to eternal death Vse 7. Here see the folly of Apostates in departing from a living God to embrace dead creatures that forsake the fountain of living waters and run to a pool that one warm day will dry up as Mephibosheth said to David proferring him kindness for Jonathan his fathers sake What is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am So do creatures say to Apostates What are we thy servants that that thou shouldest take thy heart and eye from off a living God and look upon such dead dogs as honours riches and preferments are or rather speak to them as David to Saul 1 Sam. 24. 14. after whom is the King of Israel come out aâ—ter whom dost thou pursue after a dead dog after a flea dost thou pursue after a vile and base creature and cast off a most blessed God the fountain of all glory and happiness O ye Apostates seeing you forsake a living God ye shall die the death God liveth for ever to see sore execution done upon you this shall be your dying life in Hell to bemoan your departure from the living God CHAP. VI. Vses drawn from Gods Immortality IS God an immortal God then Vse 1. hence behold the infinite love of Christ who being immortal yet would become subject to death an immortal God become a mortal man for our salvation Rom. 5. 8. 2 Seeing God is immortal hence we may see what a beam of divine perfection we lost by the fall of Adam we were made immortal but our sin makes us mortal and liable to all mortal and sore diseases we lose a double immortality because of sin the immortality of our bodies and which is worse in some sense we lose the immortality of our souls Sin brings eternal death will ye still go in sin hath it not done enough to you in making you obnoxious to death but will ye bring upon you the eternal death of your immortal souls 3. This likewise should allay the fears of death in us God being immortal we also shall be immortal these mortal bodies shall put on immortality 4. See that ye fear God more then men the wrath of God more then the rage of men because man is but mortal and their rage and fury is but mortal when their breath goeth forth their rage ceaseth but as God is immortal so is his wrath an immortal wrath as he will never cease to be so the fire of his wrath shall never be quenched FINIS
Joh. 1. 4. 2. The life of grace and it is God alone that quickens men that are dead in trespasses and sins to live the life of godliness Eph. 2. 1. 3. The life of comfort Sorrow is called death Psa 116. 8. Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears c. What is the eternal death of the damned but eternal sorrow sorrow is called the vale of death Now it is the Lord that speaks peace and creates joy to disconsolate spirits Vita nihil aliud est quam actio cum delectatione as some define it and what is the life of Angels and Saints but unspeakable and endless joy in God 4. Resurrection of dead men to life God onely by his almighty power can command the graves to yeild up their dead and make each soul to possess its own body after a long divorce made by death God alone brings these two old friends together which at first were loth to part and then shall never part again but shall then live with God for ever or else dye a living death with Devils in Hell 5. A life of glory which he alone gives to all the godly Christ saith of his sheep Joh. 10. 28. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish CHAP. III. Of the Properties of the life of God with reasons to prove him to be a living God NOw I shall explicate Gods life further in the properties of it 1. It is a most perfect and blessed life because there is nothing wanting to make his life most perfect he living of himself independing 2. It is an immutable life there is no change nor alteration of his life man is up and down sometimes brought as low as death anon revived and walks again in the land of the living Gods life is always the most happy glorious and delightsom life 3. It is an immortal and eternal life it hath no beginning neither is it capable of dying God cannot cease to be Now I shall prove that God is a living God by Scripture and Reason For Scripture read Deut. 32. 40. I lift up my hand to heaven and say I live for ever This lifting up the hand was either a sign of swearing or a gesture used by such as took an oath Gen. 14. 22. as Abram said to the King of Sodom I have lifted up my hand to the Lord the most high God the possessor of heaven and earth Sometimes it was a sign to make the hearers more attentive Thus saith the Lord Behold I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people c. Isa 49. 22. Both ways it may be taken here though in the former properly for there Moses brings in God swearing I say I live for ever God speaks like a living God I say saith God None but he can say so Should creatures be so impudent as to say I say I live God will make them appear to be but dead dogs God saith I live for ever admit creatures may say we live yet herein is the living God discerned I live for ever Before the world was I lived and when the world shall have an end I live Psal 42. 2. David calls him the living God Now the Reasons of it are these Reas 1. Because whatsoever is a perfection in the creature is most eminent in God Of all natural perfection life is the principal it is better then beauty strength wisdom nothing is more dear then life Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life A living Dog is better then a dead Lion Eccles 9. 4. One living Souldier is better then an huge Army of dead Souldiers a living beggar is better then a rich Nobleman Now if life be such a perfection then surely God is living and his life is most perfect and most eminent If God were a dead God he should want the greatest perfection then many living creatures would be better then God himself he is no God if he be not a living God Reas 2. From the actions of God we may evidently argue him to be a living God he knows all things he wills all things he makes all things he is a God that heareth our prayers and granteth the very desires of our hearts giveth the very things we beg which he could not do were he not a living God What makes him the onely true God but because he is a living God The false gods the Idolls the vanities of the Gentiles have eyes and see not ears and hear not hands and work not Baal could not hear his Priests crying aloud to him O Baal hear us therefore they are no gods But God hath eyes to see all things yea the secrets of mens hearts ears to hear the desires and groans of the poor and dictressed therefore he only is the true and living God Reas 3. All our life is from him therefore he is a living God therefore Christ is called The author of life Acts 3. With thee is the fountain of life Psal 36. 9. Life natural spiritual eternal is from God as the fountain therefore he is called life not onely because he is life essentialitèr essentially but also effectivè effectually And by the Platonists he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soul of the world he quickens and governs the whole world and hath all the lives of his creatures in his hands I kill I make alive I save I destroy Deut. 32. 39. CHAP. IV. Of the Immortality of God NOw because the Immortality of God though it be a distinct Attribute falls under and in with the life of God I will annex a brief discourse of the nature of it and so make application of the life and immortallity of God together God is a living God and this life of God is not subject to death wherefore he is called immortal Now I shall give a brief description of Gods Immortality It is that perfection of God Desâ—r whereby his life cannot be separated from him by death God cannot cease to live God cannot dye 1 Tim. 1. 16. The Reasons of it are these Reas 1. Because God is most simple void of all composition of body and soul or a principle of life and life it self being the same in God his own essence is his life Only things which are compounded are subject to dissolution Man being compounded of soul and body is obnoxious to a separation by death where there is no union there is no separation where there can be no separation of parts there can be no death or mortality Quest But are not Angels and the souls of men immortal who are not subject to death therefore not God onely Sol. 1. It is true Angels and the souls of men are immortal but they are subject to annihilation which God is not Angels and souls of men may cease to be but God cannot cease to be 2. Angels and the Souls of men are immortal dependently God conserveth them in
their being they are kept by the power of God but God is immortal absolutely and independently 3. Angels and souls of men are immortal per participationem by participation God makes them partakers of his immortality 4. There is an analogical mortality in Angels and the souls of men though they cannot cease to live yet they may cease to be happy and to live miserably to eternity The damnation of the Apostate Angels is a kind of death so the damned souls suffer a kind of death Damnation is called in Scripture the second death it were better that such souls did perish as the souls of beasts and when they cease to live this natural life in the body that they did cease to be CHAP. V. Vses drawn from the life of God IF God be the living God then Vse 1. he is the onely true God to be feared of all and to be worshipped 1. To be feared because he only can kill and make alive he alone preserves men from destruction and turns men into destruction The vanities of the Gentiles can neither do good nor hurt neither save nor destroy they have hands but cannot strike a man into destruction nor pluck a man from destruction When Daniel was cast into the den of lions the living God preserved him from death when his accusers were thrown in their Idols and golden images could not preserve them but the living God destroyed them See what a good use Darius an heathen King made of it and what a charge he giveth Dan. 6. 26. I make a decree that in every dominion of my Kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel the reason followeth for he is the living God the Images whom we adore for God are dead things how doth he prove that God is a living God vers 27. he delivereth and rescueth c. therefore fear and tremble before him the gods whom we serve can neither deliver nor rescue nor work signs and wonders the like argument Christ useth to perswade us to fear God because being a living God he can destroy both body and soul 2. He is the onely true God to be worshipped because a living God and therefore can hear help and save all such as worship him in spirit and truth men shew no greater madness in the world nor do more un-man themselves then in worshiping dead stocks and stones who have carved hands but are dead hands and cannot save have carved ears but are dead and cannot hear such were the gods of the Heathen and to adore dead stocks was the fruit of their blind Religion and the Papists that pretend to know the true God are no less sottish what is their Bread-Worship Altar-Worship Crucifix-Worship but a robbing of the living God of his glory and giving it to dead senseless creatures Vse 2. Is God a living God then commit your lives to him in well-doing trust the eternal living God with your mortal lives and fear not the rage and malice of evil men for they cannot take away your lives from you unless God permit them not an hair shall fall from your head without his knowledge then much less shall a drop of your blood fall much less a limb shall be cut off from your bodies much less shall they take away your lives from you if the living God will keep them and preserve them See Davids practice in a time when his enraged Enemies consulted to take away his life from him They devised to take away my life but I trusted in thee O Lord I said thou art my God my times are in thy hand deliver me from the hand of mine enemies c. Psalm 31. 13 14 15. all our times are in the hands of the living God our time of life the continuance and length of it our time of death the manner moment and instrument of it all is in the hands of the living God thy life and death are not in thine enemies hands they cannot take away thy life at their pleasure wherefore commit thy life to God and fear not the rage of enemies Should we at any time forsake God to please men for the preservation of life and betake our selves to sinful shifts it may fall out to us as Christ foretold He that saves his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for Christs sake shall save it even this natural life or the eternal life of the immortal soul Therefore if ye will have us to dye let us not be much troubled but be ready to give up our lives into the hands of the living God and if he will have us dye we can but dye as the Leapers said at the gate of Samaria the living God can give us a better life and if the Lord will he can deliver us from death The three Children were more regardful of their duty to God then of their lives Dan. 3. 16 17 18. this was the sum whether God would deliver them or not deliver them they were not anxiously careful they were careful to serve God but careless about the saving of their lives Better it were that the fiery Furnace should consume their lives then that the fire of Hell should consume their souls Vse 3. Hence there is good ground we should place all our confidence in God and in no creatures whatsoever because they are all dead perishing vanities if we may confide in any creature then may we put confidence in Princes because they are great and powerful they are Gods on earth and can afford the best aid and help to men in distres yet consider that in Psa 146. 3 4 5. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help Princes though they are great in power yet they are the Sons of men and obnoxious to the common condition of mankind they are vain mortal they dye and perish and when they dye all their thoughts perish all the purposes plots designs and intentions of Princes to do men good dye with them and their favourites are left to shift for themselves Then the Psalmist Vers 5. breaks forth into admiration of such a man who maketh God his help his aid his confidence and hope he is a living God he cannot dye he is a great God and his greatness is a living greatnes and none of all Gods thoughts perish but they endure from one generation to another if we must not put confidence in Princes then much less are we to trust in uncertain riches in uncertain honours in in Houses and Lands for these are all dead things and more vain and less able to help then man when riches are gone and perish the living God will and can aid us all the creatures are by fits but so many dead dogs before the living God Vse 4. â—s God a living God and the fountain of all life and motion then we should not despair of any though they through corrupt lusts do even stink in the nostrils of the godly
to conceive something may be greater than God but it is impossible for the understanding of Men or Angels to conceive a thing may be greater than God See in what manner the Prophet prayeth to God and then tell me whether we can conceive any thing greater than he Jer. 32. 17 18 19. Ah Lord God behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched-out arm and there is nothing too hard for thee Thou shewest loving kindness to thousands c. The great the mighty God the Lord of hosts is his name Great in counsel and mighty in working For thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men to give every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings He is called the blessed and onely Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Who onely hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see to whom be honour and power everlasting Amen 1 Tim. 6. 15 16. Now these three things may fully evince that God is infinite and incomprehensible 1. Because God is absolutely and eminently perfect not so much as a negative imperfection is in God All perfections are his essence or rather his essence is all perfections all infinite power infinite mercy infinite justice infinite wisdom therefore he is called Pelagus essentiae a sea of being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We may behold great perfection in the creatures Angels are great in power great in wisdome but all the perfections that are in creatures are but as a drop of a bucket in comparison of the main Ocean they are as nothing 2. God is infinitely powerful therefore infinite in his essâ—nce that he is infinite in power witness his Creation of the world there is an act and work proper onely to infinite power witness the upholding the whole world by the word of his power 3. From his great Creatures which he hath made we may apprehend the Iâ—finiteness of God Quod efficit tale est magis tale ex pede Herculem The Earth and Water are a vast and great globe the Heaven especially the Heaven of Heavens is of a most vast and inconceiveable circumference the very Sun and but one Star in the Heavens is far greater then the World is now if God hath made such great things he must needs be infinite see what the Scripture speaks of the great creatures in comparison of God Isa 40. 10. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with a span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a ballance Behold the Nations are as a drop of a Bucket and accounted as the small dust of the ballance behold be taketh up the Isles as a very little thing All Nations before him are as nothing they are counted to him lesse then nothing and vanity ver 15. 17. CHAP. V. IF God be infinite hence you may Vse 1. learn what an evil sin is that it is an infinite evil because it is committed against an infinite God We measure sin by the act and not by the object the act is transient it passeth away an idle word a vain thought a vain thought as a vain thought is little and so we are apt to think the sin little because we measure it according to the act not by the object against whom it is committed Men make nothing of an Oath of a Lye of being drunk even such gross sins as these are bâ—cause they measure them by the act but this is but a wrong Rule to measure your actions by you must measure sin by the object against whom it is committed which is God and so every sin is an infinite evil Thy idle words are infinite evils because sinâ— against God much more thy blasphemies Words spoken against the Kâ—ng and a small wrong done to his person is Crimen laesae Majestatis is high treâ—son but worâ—s spoken against an ordinary man are not so because 't is the King against whom they are spoken makes them treasonable and brings death and destruction to him that speaks them Hence it is that God will punish every sin with an infinite punishment in respect of duration those sins of which thou makest no reckoning the infinite God will inflict wrath upon thy soul for them Thou makest no matter of thy idle words and vain thoughts oh know that God will punish thy idle words and vain thoughts with infinite wrath Psal â—0 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath Here is an Use of singular Comfort Use 2. to all broken-hearted sinners God's mercies are infinite his mercy is incomprehensible You think your sins are greater then can be pardoned yet though thy sins be great and numberless God's mercies are infinitely more infinite Thou canst not out vie God's mercies Lay down as many sins as thou canst at stâ—ke God will lay down infinite multiâ—udes of mercies Turn thou from thy wicked ways and believe and prove whether the Lord will not pour down mercies that there shall not be room enough to receive them God will abundantly pardon For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord For as the Heavens are higher then the earth so are my ways higher then your ways and my thoughts then your thoughts As if God should say your thoughts are that you are the most notorious sinners that are that your sins are unpardonable you think with your selves is it possible that such a sinner should find mercy Will God be gracious to such a vile wretch as I am Thou hast saith God too shallow thoughts concerning me my thoughts are not like thine thy thoughts of my way of mercy are but finite poor conceits but my thoughts of love and mercy to broken hearted sinners that humble themselves unfeignedly are like my self infinite I have infinite thoughts of mercy toward you I have infinite thoughts of mercy for you for as the heaven is higher then the earth so are my ways higher then your ways and my thoughts higher then your thoughts Isa 57. 7. 8. 9. When men do think their sins unpardonable what do they they but make God finite his mercies finite his mercies comprehensible 3. If God be an infinite majesty Use 3. this may serve as an use of instruction to us 1. Then it concerns us to behave our selves with all humility and reverence when we draw nigh to God by how much greater a prince is the more reverence we shew to him God is great infinite majesty therefore worthy of all fear submission and reverence the Angels in heaven cover their faces standing in His presence Isa 6. Beholding his infinite and most glorious majesty and their own nothing this is Solomon's exhortation to all that pray to consider what