other things in conjunction with this the nature of God the way to Worship him the manner of the Worlds Existence his own state We may resonably suppose him to have a good stock of knowledge what is become of it It cannot be supposed that the first man should acquaint his posterity with an object of Worship and leave them ignorant of a Mode of Worship and of the end of Worship we find in Scripture his immediate posterity did the first in Sacrifices and without doubt they were not ignorant of the other how come Men to be so uncertain in all other things and so confident of this if it were only a Tradition how did debates and irreconcilable questions start up concerning other things and this remain untouch'd but by a small number whatsoever Tradition the first Man left besides this is lost and no way recoverable but by the Revelation God hath made in his Word How comes it to pass this of a God is longer liv'd than all the rest which we may suppose Man left to his immediate descendents How come men to retain the one and forget the other What was the reason this surviv'd the ruin of the rest and surmounted the uncertainties into which the other sunk Was it likely it should be handed down alone without other attendants on it at first Why did it not expire among the Americans who have lost the account of their own descent and the Stock from whence they sprung and cannot reckon above eight hundred or a thousand years at most Why was not the manner of the worship of a God transmitted as well as that of his Existence How came men to dissent in their Opinions concerning his Nature whether he was corporeal or incorporeal finite or infinite omnipresent or limited Why were not men as negligent to transmit this of his Existence as that of his Nature No reason can be rendred for the security of this above the other but that there is so clear a tincture of a Deity upon the minds of men such traces and shadows of him in the creatures such indelible instincts within and invincible arguments without to keep up this universal consent The Characters are so deep that they cannot possibly be rased out which would have been one time or other in one Nation or other had it depended only upon Tradition since one Age shakes off frequently the Sentiments of the former I cannot think of above one which may be called a Tradition which indeed was kept up among all Nations viz. Sacrifices which could not be natural but instituted What ground could they have in Nature to imagin that the blood of Beasts could expiate and wash off the guilt and stains of a rational Creature Yet they had in all places but among the Jews and some of them only lost the knowledg of the reason and end of the Institution which the Scripture acquaints us was to typifie and signifie the Redemption by the Promised Seed This Tradition hath been superannuated and laid aside in most parts of the World while this Notion of the Existence of a God hath stood firm But suppose it were a Tradition was it likely to be a meer intention and figment of the first Man Had there been no reason for it this Posterity would soon have found out the weakness of its Foundation What advantage had it been to him to transmit so great a falshood to kindle the fears or raise the hopes of his Posterity if there were no God It cannot be supposed he should be so void of that natural affection men in all ages bear to their Descendents as so grosly to deceive them and be so contrary to the simplicity and plainness which appears in all things nearest their Original 2. Neither was it by any mutual Intelligence of Governours among themselves to keep people in subjection to them If it were a political design at first it seems it met with the general nature of Mankind very ready to give it entertainment I. It is unaccountable how this should come to pass It must be either by a joynt Assembly of them or a mutual Correspondence If by an Assembly who were the persons let the name of any one be mentioned When was the time Where was the place of this appearance By what Authority did they meet together Who made the first motion and first started this great Principle of Policy By what means could they assemble from such distant parts of the World humane Histories are utterly silent in it And the Scripture the antientest History gives an account of the attempt of Babel but not a word of any design of this nature What mutual Correspondence could such have whose Interests are for the most part different and their designs contrary to one another How could they who were divided by such vast Seas have this mutual Converse How could those who were different in their Customs and Manners agree so unanimously together in one thing to gull the People If there had been such a Correspondence between the Governours of all Nations what is the reason some Nations should be unknown to the world till of late times How could the business be so secretly managed as not to take Vent and Issue in a discovery to the World Can reason suppose so many in a joynt Conspiracy and no mans Conscience in his life under sharp Afflictions or on his death bed when Conscience is most awakened constrain him to reveal openly the Cheat that beguil'd the World How came they to be so uanimous in this Notion and to differ in their Rites almost in every Country why could they not agree in one Mode of Worship throughout all the World as well as in this universal Notion If there were not a mutual intelligence it can not be conceived how in every Nation such a state-Engineer should rise up with the same trick to keep people in aw What is the reason we cannot find any Law in any one Nation to constrain men to the beleif of the Existence of a God since politick Stratagems have been often fortified by Laws Besides such men make use of Principles received to effect their Contrivances and are not so impolitick as to build designes upon Principles that have no Foundation in nature Some Heathen Law-givers have pretended a converse with their Gods to make their Laws be received by the people with a greater veneration and fix with stronger obligation the observance and perpetuity of them but this was not the introducing of a new Principle but the supposition of an old received Notion that there was a God and an application of that Principle to their present designe The pretence had been vain had not the notion of a God been ingrafted Politicians are so little possessed with a Reverence of God that the first Mighty one in the Scripture which may reasonably gain with the Atheist the credit of the Ancientest History in the World is represented without any fear of God * Gen.
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
there but to behold the beauty of the Lord * Psal 27.4 and taste the ravishing sweetness of his presence No doubt but Elijah's desires for the enjoyment of God while he was mounting to Heaven were as fiery as the Chariot wherein he was carried Unutterable groans acted in worship are the fruit of the Spirit and certainly render it a spiritual service * Rom. 8.26 Strong appetites are agreeable to God and prepare us to eat the fruit of worship A spiritual Paul presseth forward to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and a spiritual Worshipper actually aspires in every duty to know God and the power of his Grace To desire worship as an end is carnal to desire it as a means and act desires in it for communion with God in it is spiritual and the fruit of a spiritual life 5. Thankfulness and admiration are to be exercised in spiritual services This is a worship of Spirits Praise is the adoration of the blessed Angels * Isa 6.3 and of glorified Spirits Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power And Rev. 5.13.14 they worship him ascribing Blessing Honour Glory and Power to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Other acts of worship are confined to this Life and leave us as soon as we have set our foot in Heaven There no notes but this of Praise are warbled out The Power Wisdom Love and Grace in the dispensation of the Gospel seat themselves in the thoughts and tongues of blessed Souls Can a worship on Earth be spiritual that hath no mixture of an eternal heavenly duty with it The worship of God in Innocence had been chiefly an admiration of him in the works of Creation and should not our Evangelical worship be an admiration of him in the works of Redemption which is a restoration to a better State After the petitioning for pardoning Grace * Hos 14.2 there is a rendring the Calves or Heifers of our lips alluding to the Heifers used in Eucharistical Sacrifices The Praise of God is the choicest Sacrifice and Worship under a dispensation of redeeming Grace This is the prime and eternal part of worship under the Gospel The Psalmist Psalm 149. and 150. speaking of the Gospel times spurrs on to this kind of worship Sing to the Lord a new Song Let the Children of Zion be joyful iâ—â—â—â—ir King Let the Saints be joyful in glory and sing aloud upon their beds Let the high praises of God be in their mouths He begins and ends both Psalms with praise ye the Lord. That cannot be a spiritual and evangelical worship that hath nothing of the praise of God in the heart The consideration of Gods adorable perfections discovered in the Gospel will make us come to him with more seriousness beg blessings of him with more confidence fly to him with a winged Faith and Love and more spiritually glorify him in our attendances upon him 7. Spiritual Worship is performed with delight The Evangelical worship is prophetically signified by keeping the Feast of Tabernacles * Zach. 14.16 they shall go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles Why that Feast when there were other Feasts observed by the Jews That was a Feast celebrated with the greatest joy typical of the gladness which was to be under the exhibition of the Messiah and a thankful comemmoration of the Redemption wrought by him It was to be celebrated five days after the solemn day of Atonement Levit. 23.34 compared with v. 27. wherein there was one of the solemnest types of the Sacrifice of the death of Christ In this Feast they commemorated their exchange of Egypt for Canaan the Manna wherewith they were fed the Water out of the Rock wherewith they were refresht In remembrance of this they poured water on the ground pronouncing those words in Isaiah they shall draw waters out of the Wells of Salvation which our Saviour referrs to himself John 7.37 inviting them to him to drink upon the last day the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles wherein this solemn Ceremony was observed Since we are freed by the death of the Redeemer from the Curses of the Law God requires of us a Joy in spiritual priviledges A sad frame in worship gives the lye to all Gospel-liberty to the Purchase of the Redeemers Death the Triumphs of his Resurrection 'T is a carriage as if we were under the influences of the legal Fire and Lightning and an entring a Protest against the Freedom of the Gospel The Evangelical worship is a Spiritual worship and Praise Joy and Delight are prophecied of as great ingredients in attendance on Gospel Ordinances Isa 12.3 4 5. What was occasion of terror in the worship of God under the Law is the occasion of delight in the worship of God under the Gospel The Justice and Holiness of God so terrible in the Law becomes comfortable under the Gospel since they have feasted themselves on the active and passive obedience of the Redeemer The approach is to God as gracious not to God as unpacified as a Son to a Father not as a Criminal to a Judge Under the Law God was represented as a Judge remembring their Sin in their Sacrifices and representing the punishment they had merited in the Gospel as a Father accepting the Atonement and publishing the Reconciliation wrought by the Redeemer Delight in God is a Gospel frame therefore the more joyful the more spiritual The Sabbath is to be a delight not only in regard of the Day but in regard of the Duties of it * Isa 58.13 in regard of the marvelous work he wrought on it raising up our blessed Redeemer on that day whereby a foundation was laid for the rendring our persons and services acceptable to God Psal 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce in it A lumpish frame becomes not a day and a duty that hath so noble and spiritual a mark upon it The Angels in the first act of worship after the Creation were highly joyful Job 38.7 They shouted for joy c. The Saints have particularly acted this in their Worship David would not content himself with an approach to the Altar without going to God as his exceeding joy Psal 43.4 My triumphant joy When he danced before the Ark he seems to be transformed into delight and pleasure 2 Sam. 6.14 16. He had as much delight in Worship as others had in their Harvest and Vintage And those that took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods would as joyfully attend upon the Communications of God Where there is a fullness of the Spirit there is a waking melody to God in the heart * Eph. 5.18.19 and where there is an acting of love as there is in all spiritual services the proper fruit of it is joy in a neer
He will have variety to encrease delights and eternity to perpetuate them This will be the fruit of the enjoyment of an infinite an eternal God He is not a Cistern but a Fountain wherein water is always living and never putrifies 4. If God be eternal Here is a strong ground of comfort against all the distresses of the Church and the threats of the Churches Enemies Gods abiding for ever is the Plea Jeremy makes for his return to his forsaken Church * Lament 5.19.20 Thou O Lord remainest for ever thy Throne from Generation to Generation The Church is weak created things are easily cut off What prop is there but that God that lives for ever What though Jerusalem lost its Bulwarks the Temple were defaced the Land wasted yet the God of Jerusalem sits upon an eternal Throne and from everlasting to everlasting there is no diminution of his Power The Prophet intimates in this complaint that it is not agreeable to Gods Eternity to forget his People to whom he hath from Eternity bore good will In the greatest confusions the Churches eyes are to be fixed upon the Eternity of Gods Throne where he sits as Governour of the world No Creature can take any comfort in this perfection but the Church other Creatures depend upon God but the Church is united to him The first discovery of the Name I am which signifies the Divine Eternity as well as Immutability was for the comfort of the opprest Israelites in Egypt * Exod. 3.14 15. It was then publisht from the secret place of the Almighty as the only strong Cordial to refresh them It hath not yet it shall not ever lose its vertue in any of the miseries that have or shall successively befall the Church 'T is a comfort as durable as the God whose name it is He is still I am and the same to the Church as he was then to his Israel His spiritual Israel have a greater right to the glories of it than the carnal Israel could have No oppression can be greater than theirs what was a comfort suted to that distress hath the same sutableness to every other oppression It was not a temporary name but a name for ever his memorial to all Generations * v. 15. and reacheth to the Church of the Gentiles with whom he treats as the God of Abraham ratifying that Covenant by the Messiah which he made with Abraham the Father of the Faithful The Churches enemies are not to be fear'd they may spring as the grass but soon after do wither by their own inward principles of decay or are cut down by the hand of God * Psal 92.7 8 9. They may be instruments of the anger of God but they shall be scatter'd as the workers of inquity by the hand of the Lord that is high for evermore v. 8. and is engaged by his promise to preserve a Church in the World They may threaten but their breath may vanish as soon as their threatnings are pronounc'd for they carry their breath in no surer a place than their own Nostrils upon which the eternal God can put his hand and sink them with all their rage Do the Prophets and instructors of the Church live for ever * Zach. 1.5 No. Shall then the Adversaries and Disturbers of the Church live for ever They shall vanish as a shadow their being depends upon the eternal God of the faithful and the everlasting Judge of the wicked He that inhabits Eternity is above them that inhabit Mortality and must whither they will or no say to Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister * Job 17.14 When they will act with a confidence as if they were living Gods he will not be mated but evidence himself to be a living God above them Why then should mortal men be fear'd in their frowns when an immortal God hath promised protection in his word and lives for ever to perform it 5. Hence follows another comfort since God is eternal he hath as much power as will to be as good as his word His promises are established upon his eternity and this perfection is a main ground of trust * Isa 26.4 Trust in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His name is doubled that name Iah and Jehovah which was always the strength of his people and not a single one but the strength or rock of Eternities not a failing but an eternal truth and power that as his strength is eternal so our trust in him should imitate his Eternity in its perpetuity and therefore in the despondency of his people as if God had forgot his promises and made no account of them or his word and were weary of doing good he calls them to reflect on what they had heard of his Eternity which is attended with immutability who hath an infiniteness of power to perform his will and an infiniteness of understanding to judge of the right seasons of it * Isa 40.27.28 His Wisdom Will Truth have alway's been and will to Eternity be the same He wants not life any more then love for ever to help us since his word is past he will never fail us since his life continues he can never be out of a capacity to relieve us and therefore when ever we foolishly charge him by our distrustful thoughts we forget his love which made the promise and his eternal life which can accomplish it As his word is the bottom of our trust and his truth is the assurance of his sincerity so his Eternity is the assurance of his ability to perform His word stands for ever * Isa 40.8 A man may be my friend this day and be in another world to morrow and though he be never so sincere in his word yet death snaps his life asunder and forbids the execution But as God cannot die so he cannot lie because he is the Eternity of Israel * 1 Sam. 15.29 The strength of Israel will not lie nor repent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perpetuity or eternity of Israel Eternitie implies immutability we could have no ground for our hopes if we knew him not to be longer liv'd than our selves The Psalmist beats off our hands from trust in men because their breath goes forth they return to their earth and in that day their thoughts perish * Psal 146.3 4. And if the God of Jacob were like them what happiness could we have in making him our help As his Soveraignty in giving precepts had not been a strong ground of Obedience without considering him as an eternal Law-giver who could maintain his rights So his kindness in making the promises had not been a strong ground of confidence without considering him as an Eternal promiser whose thoughts and whose life can never perish * Crellius de Deo cap. 18. p. 44. 45. And this may be one reason why
at the Presence of the Council that had their hands yet reeking with the Blood of his Master but being filled with the Holy Ghost seems to dare the Power of the Priests and Jewish Governours and is as confident in the Council Chamber as he had been cowardly in the High Priests Hall †Acts 4.9 c. the efficacy of Grace triumphing over the Fearfulness of Nature Whence should this Ardor and Zeal to propagate a Doctrine that had already born the Scars of the Peoples Fury be but from a mighty Power which changed those Hares into Lions and stript them of their Natural Cowardize â—o cloath them with a Divine Courage making them in a moment both Wise and Magnanimous alienating them from any Consultations with Flesh and Blood As soon as ever the Holy Ghost came upon them as a mighty rushing Wind they move up and down for the Interest of God as Fish after a great Clap of Thunder are rowz'd and move more nimbly on the top of the Water therefore that which did so fit them for this undertaking is called by the title of Power from on high Luke 24.49 III. The Divine Power appears in the Means whereby it was propagated 1. By Means different from the Methods of the World Not by force of Arms as some Religions have taken root in the World Mahomets Horse hath trampled upon the Heads of Men to imprint an Alcoran in their Brains and robb'd Men of their Goods to plant their Religion But the Apostles bore not this Doctrine through the World upon the Points of their Swords they presented a Bodily death where they would bestow an Immortal life They employ'd not Troops of Men in a Warlike posture which had been possible for them after the Gospel was once spread they had no Ambition to subdue Men unto themselves but to God they coveted not the Possessions of others design'd not to enrich themselves invaded not the Rights of Princes nor the Liberties and Properties of the People They rifled them not of their Estates nor scar'd them into this Religion by a fear of losing their Worldly happiness The Arguments they used would naturally drive them from an entertainment of this Doctrine rather than allure them to be Proselytes to it Their design was to change their Hearts not their Government to wean them from the love of the World to a love of a Redeemer to remove that which would ruine their Souls It was not to enslave them but ransom them they had a warfare but not with Carnal weapons but such as were mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 they used no weapons but the Doctrine they preach'd Others that have not gained Conquests by the Edge of the Sword and the Stratagems of War have extended their Opinions to others by the strength of Humane Reason and the Insinuations of Eloquence But the Apostles had as little flourish in their Tongues as edge upon their Swords Their Preaching was not with the enticing words of Mans wisdom * 1 Cor. 2.4 their Presence was mean and their Discourses without varnish their Doctrine was plain a Crucified Christ a Doctrine unlac'd ungarnisht untoothsom to the World but they had the demonstration of the Spirit and a mighty Power for their Companion in the work The Doctrine they preached viz. the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are called the Powers not of this World but of the World to come †Heb. 6.5 No less than a Supernatural Power could conduct them in this Attempt with such weak Methods in Humane appearance 2. Against all the Force Power and Wit of the World The Divisions in the Eastern Empire and the feeble and consuming State of the Western contributed to Mahomets Success ‖ Dailâ—é 15. Serm. p. 57. But never was Rome in a more flourishing condition Learning Eloquence Wisdom Strength were at the highest pitch Never was there a more diligent Watch against any Innovations never was that State governed by more severe and suspicious Princes than at the time when Tiberius and Nero held the Rains No time seemed to be more unfit for the entrance of a New Doctrine than that Age wherein it begun to be first publish'd never did any Religion meet with that Opposition from Men. Idolatry hath been often setled without any Contest but this hath suffered the same Fate with the Institutor of it and endured the Contradictions of Sinners against it self And those that publish'd it were not only without any Worldly prop but expos'd themselves to the Hatred and Fury to the Racks and Tortures of the strongest Powers on Earth It never set foot in any place but the Country was in an uproar †Acts 19.28 Swords were drawn to destroy it Laws made to suppress it Prisons provided for the Professors of it Fires kindled to consume them and Executioners had a perpetual employment to stifle the progress of it Rome in its Conquest of Countries chang'd not the Religion Rites and Modes of their Worship They alter'd their Civil Government but left them to the liberty of their Religion and many times joyned with them in the Worship of their Peculiar gods and sometime imitated them at Rome instead of abolishing them in the Cities they had subdued But all their Councils were assembled and their Force was bandied against the Lord and against his Christ and that City that kindly receiv'd all manner of Superstitions hated this Doctrine with an irreconcileable hatred It met with Reproaches from the Wise and Fury from the Potentates it was derided by the one as the greatest Folly and persecuted by the other as contrary to God and Mankind the one were afraid to lose their Esteems by the Doctrine and the other to lose their Authority by a Sedition they thought a change of Religion would introduce The Romans that had been Conquerors of the Earth feared Intestine Commotions and the falling asunder the Links of their Empire Scarce any of their first Emperors but had their Swords dy'd Red in the Blood of the Christians The Flesh with all its Lusts the World with all its Flatteries the Statesmen with all their Craft and the Mighty with all their Strength joyn'd together to extirpate it Though many Members were taken off by the Fires yet the Church not only lived but flourish'd in the Furnace Converts were made by the Death of Martyrs and the Flames which consumed their Bodies were the occasion of firing Mens hearts with a Zeal for the Profession of it Instead of being extinguish'd the Doctrine shone more bright and multiplied under the Sickles that were employed to cut it down God ordered every Circumstance so both in the Persons that publish'd it the Means whereby and the Time when that nothing but his Power might appear in it without any thing to dim and darken it IV. The Divine Power was conspicuous in the great success it had under all these difficulties Multitudes were Prophecied of to
them into a frame agreeable to the nature of God * Heb. 10.1 Heb. 9.9 nor purge the Conscience from those dead and dull dispositions which were by nature in them * Heb. 9.14 Being Carnal they could not have an efficacy to purifie the Conscience of the offerer and work Spiritual effects Had they continued without the exhibition of Christ they could never have wrought any change in us or purchased any favour for us * Burges vind pa. 256. At the best they were but shadows and came unexpressibly short of the efficacy of that person and state whose shadows they were The shadow of a man is too weak to perform what the man himself can do because it wants the life Spirit and activity of the substance The whole pomp and scene was suted more to the sensitive than the intellectual nature and like pictures pleased the fancy of Children rather than improved their reason The Jewish state was a state of Child-hood * Gal. 5.2 and that administration a Pedagogy * Gal. 4.24 The Law was a Schoolmaster fitted for their weak and Childish Capacity and could no more Spiritualize the heart than the teachings in a Primer-School can enable the mind and make it fit for affairs of State And because they could not better the Spirit they were instituted only for a time as elements delivered to an infant age which naturally lives a life of sense rather than a life of reason It was also a servile state which doth rather debase than elevate the mind rather Carnalize than Spiritualize the heart Besides t is a sense of mercy that both melts and elevates the heart into a Spiritual frame * Psa 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared And they had in that state but some glimmerings of mercy in the dayly bloody intimations of Justice There was no Sacrifice for some sins but a cutting off without the least hints of pardon and in the yearly remembrance of sin there was as much to shiver them with fear as to possess than with hopes And such a state which alwayes held them under the Conscience of sin could not produce a free Spirit which was necessary for a worship of God according to his nature 3. In their use they rather hindred than furthered a Spiritual worship In their own nature they did not tend to the obstructing a Spiritual worship for then they had been contrary to the nature of Religion and the end of God who appointed them Nor did God cover the Evangelical Doctrine under the clouds of the legal administration to hinder the people of Israel from perceiving it but because they were not yet capable to bear the splendor of it had it been clearly set before them The shining of the face of Moses was too dazling for their weak eyes and therefore there was a necessity of a veil not for the things themselves but the weakness of their eyes * 2 Cor. 3.13.14 The carnal affections of that people sunk down into the things themselves stuck in the outward pomp and pierced not through the vail to the Spiritual intent of them And by the use of them without rational conceptions they besotted their minds and became senseless of those Spiritual motions required of them Hence came all their expectations of a Carnal Messiah the veil of Ceremonies was so thick and the film upon their eyes so condensed that they could not look through the veil to the Spirit of Christ They beheld not the Heavenly Canaan for the beauty of the earthly nor minded the regeneration of the Spirit while they rested upon the purifications of the flesh The prevalency of sense and sensitive affections diverted their minds from enquiring into the intent of them Sense and matter are often cloggs to the mind and sensible objects are the same often to Spiritual motions Our Souls are never more raised than when they are abstracted from the entanglements of them A pompous worship made up of many sensible objects weakens the Spirituality of Religion Those that are most zealous for outward are usually most cold and indifferent in inward observances And those that overdo in carnal modes usually underdo in Spiritual affections This was the Jewish state * Illyric de velam Mosiâ— pa. 221. c. The nature of the Ceremonies being pompous and earthly by their show and beauty meeting with their weakness and Childish affections filled their eyes with an outward lustre allured their minds and detained them from seeking things higher and more Spiritual The kernel of those rites lay concealed in a thick shell the Spiritual glory was little seen and the Spiritual sweetness little tasted Unless the Scripture be diligently searched it seems to transfer the worship of God from true faith and the Spiritual motions of the heart and stake it down to outward observances and the opus operatum Besides the voice of the Law did only declare Sacrifices and invited the Worshipper to them with a promise of the atonement of Sin turning away the wrath of God It never plainly acquainted them that those things were Types and Shadows of something future that they were only outward purifications of the Flesh It never plainly told them at the time of appointing them that those Sacrifices could not abolish Sin and reconcile them to God Indeed we see more of them since their death and dissection in that one Epistle to the Hebrews than can be discern'd in the five Books of Moses Besides Man naturally affects a carnal Life and therefore affects a carnal Worship He designs the gratifying his sense and would have a Religion of the same nature Most men have no mind to busie their reasons about the things of sense and are naturally unwilling to raise them up to those things which are allyed to the spiritual nature of God and therefore the more spiritual any Ordinance is the more averse is the heart of man to it There is a simplicity of the Gospel from which our minds are easily corrupted by things that pleasure the sense as Eve was by the curiosity of her eye and the liquorishness of her Palate * 2 Cor. 11.3 From this Principle hath sprung all the Idolatry in the world The Jews knew they had a God who had delivered them but they would have a sensible God to go before them * Exod. 32.1 And the Papacy at this day is a Witness of the truth of this natural Corruption 4. Vpon these accounts therefore God never testified himself well pleased with that kind of Worship He was not displeased with them as they were his own institution and ordained for the representing though in an obscure manner the glorious things of the Gospel nor was he offended with those peoples observance of them For since he had commanded them it was their duty to perform them and their sin to neglect them But he was displeased with them as they were practised by them with Souls as
that we might now serve God in a more spiritual manner and with more spiritual frames 6. Proposition The Service and worship the Gospel settles is spiritual and the performance of it more spiritual Spirituality is the Genius of the Gospel as Carnality was of the Law the Gospel is therefore called Spirit We are abstracted from the imployments of Sense and brought neerer to a Heavenly State The Jews had Angels Bread poured upon them we have Angels Service prescribed to us the Praises of God Communion with God in Spirit through his Son Jesus Christ and stronger foundations for spiritual affections 'T is called a reasonable service * Rom. 12.1 t is suted to a rational nature tho it finds no friendship from the Corruption of reason It prescribes a service fit for the reasonable faculties of the Soul and advanceth them while it employs them The word reasonable may be translated word service * V. Hammond in loc as well as reasonable service an Evangelical service in opposition to a Law service All Evangelical service is reasonable and all truly reasonable service is Evangelical The matter of the worship is Spiritual it consists in love of God faith in God recourse to his goodness Meditation on him and Communion with him It lays aside the Ceremonial Spiritualizeth the moral The Commands that concerned our duty to God as well as those that concerned our duty to our Neighbour were reduced by Christ to their Spiritual intention The Motives are Spiritual t is a state of more grace as well as of more truth * John 1.17 supported by Spiritual promises beaming out in Spiritual priviledges heaven comes down in it to Earth to Spiritualize Earth for Heaven The manner of worship is more Spiritual higher flights of the Soul stronger ardours of affections sincerer aims at his glory mists are removed from our minds Cloggs from the Soul more of love than fear faith in Christ kindles the affections and works by them The assistances to Spiritual worship are greater The Spirit doth not drop but is plentifully poured out It doth not light sometimes upon but dwells in the heart Christ suted the Gospel to a Spiritual heart and the Spirit changeth a carnal heart to make it fit for a Spiritual Gospel He blows upon the Garden and causes the spices to flow forth And often makes the Soul in worship like the Chariots of Aminadab in a quick and nimble motion Our blessed Lord and Saviour by his death discovered to us the nature of God and after his ascension sent his Spirit to fit us for the worship of God and converse with him One Spiritual Evangelical believing breath is more delightful to God than millions of Altars made up of the richest pearls and smoaking with the costliest oblations because it is Spiritual And a mite of Spirit is of more worth than the greatest weight of flesh One holy Angel is more excellent than a whole world of meer bodies 7. Proposition Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to be rejected upon the account that God requires a Spiritual worship Tho we must perform the weightier duties of the Law yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter precepts Since both the Magnalia and minutula legis the greater and the lesser duties of the Law have the stamp of Divine authority upon them As God under the Ceremonial Law did not Command the worship of the body and the observation of outward rites without the engagement of the Spirit so neither doth he Command that of the Spirit without the peculiar attendance of the body The Schwelk sendians denied bodily worship And the indecent postures of many in publick attendance intimate no great care either of Composing their bodies or Spirits A morally discomposed body intimates a tainted heart Our Bodies as well as our Spirits are to be presented to God * Rom. 12.1 Our bodies in lieu of the Sacrifices of Beasts as in the Judaical institutions body for the whole man a living Sacrifice not to be slain as the Beasts were but living a new life in a holy posture with Crucified affections This is the inference the Apostle makes of the priviledges of Justification Adoption Coheirship with Christ which he had before discoursed of Priviledges conferred upon the person and not upon a part of man 1. Bodily worship is due to God He hath a right to an Adoration by our bodies as they are his by Creation his right is not diminisht but increased by the blessing of Redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 For you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your Spirits which are Gods The Body as well as the Spirit is redeemed since our Saviour suffered Crucifixion in his body as well as Agonies in his Soul Body is not taken here for the whole man as it may be in Rom. 12. But for the material part of our nature it being distinguisht from the Spirit If we are to render to God an obedience with our bodies we are to render him such Acts of worship with our bodies as they are capable of As God is the Father of Spirits so he is the God of all flesh Therefore the flesh he hath framed of the Earth as well as the noble portion he hath breathed into us cannot be denyed him without apalpable in justice The service of the body we must not deny to God unless we will deny him to be the author of it and the exercise of his providential care about it The mercies of God are renewed every day upon our bodies as well as our Souls and therefore they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty everyday * Sherman's Greek in the Temple pa. 61.62 both are from God both should be for God Man consists of Body and Soul the service of Man is the service of both The body is to be Sanctified as well as the Soul and therefore to be offered to God as well as the Soul Both are to be glorified both are to glorifie As our Saviours Divinity was manifested in his body so should our Spirituality in ours To give God the service of the body and not of the Soul is hypocrisie to give God the service of the Spirit and not of the body is sacriledge to give him neither Atheism If the only part of man that is visible were exempted from the service of God there could be no visible Testimonies of piety given upon any occasion Since not a moiety of man but the whole is Gods Creature he ought to pay a homage with the whole and not only with a moiety of himself 2. Worship in societies is due to God but this cannot be without some bodily expressions The law of nature doth as much direct men to combine together in publick societies for the acknowledgment of God as in Civil Communities for self preservation and order And the notice of a society for Religion is more Ancient than the mention of
a good Concoction when there is a greater strength in the vitals of Religion a more eager desire to know God When Moses had been praying to God and prevailed with him he puts up a higher request to behold his Glory * Exod. 33.13 18. When the appetite stands strong to fuller discoveries of God it is a sign there hath been a spiritual converse with him 2. How is it especially as to humility The Pharisees worship was without dispute carnal and we find them not more humble after all their devotions but over-grown with more weeds of spiritual pride they performed them as their righteousness What men dare plead before God in his day they plead before him in their hearts in their day but this men will do at the day of Judgement we have prophesied in thy Name c. Mat. 7.21 They shew what tincture their services left upon their Spirits That which excludes them from any acceptation at the last day excludes them from any estimation of being spiritual in this day The carnal Worshippers charge God with Injustice in not rewarding them and claim an acceptation as a compensation due to them Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge A spiritual Worshipper looks upon his duties with shame as well as he doth upon his sins with confusion and implores the mercy of God for the one as well as the other In the 143 Psalm v. 2. the Prophet David after his supplications begs of God not to enter into Judgment with him and acknowledges any answer that God should give him as a fruit of his faithfulness to his promise and not the merit of his worship * Psal 143.2 In thy Faithfulness answer me c. Whatsoever springs from a gracious Principle and is the breath of the Spirit leaves a man more humble whereas that which proceeds from a stock of nature hath the true blood of nature running in the veins of it viz. that pride which is naturally derived from Acam The breathing of the Divine Spirit is in every thing to conform us to our Redeemer that being the main work of his Office is his work in every particular Christian-act influenced by him Now Jesus Christ in all his actions was an exact Pattern of Humility After the institution and celebration of the Supper a special act of worship in the Church though he had a sense of all the Authority his Father had given him yet he humbles himself to wash his Disciples feet * John 13.2 3 4 And after his sublime Prayer John 17. He humbles himself to the death and offers himself to his Murderers because of his Fathers pleasure John 18.1 When he had spoken those words he wâ—nt over the Brook Kedron into the Garden What is the end of God in appointing worship is the end of a spiritual heart in offering it not his own exaltation but Gods glory Glorifying the name of God is the fruit of that Evangelical-worship the Gentiles were in time to give to God Psal 86.9 All Nations which thou hast made shall come and worship before thee oh Lord and shall glorifie thy Name Let us examin then what debasing our selves there is in a sense of our own vileness and distance from so glorious a Spirit Self-denial is the heart of all Gospel-grace Evangelical Spiritual-worship cannot be without the ingredient of the main Evangelical Principle 3. What delight is there after it What pleasure is there and what is the Object of that pleasure Is it Communion the we have had with God or a Fluency in our selves Is it something which hath touched our hearts or tickled our fancies As the strength of sin is known by the delightful thoughts of it after the commission so is the spirituality of duty by the object of our delightful remembrance after the performance It was a sign David was spiritual in the worship of God in the Tabernacle when he enjoyed it because he longed for the spiritual part of it when he was exil'd from it His desires were not only for Liberty to revisit the Tabernacle but to see the power and glory of God in the Sanctuary as he had seen it before * Psal 63.2 His desires for it could not have been so ardent if his reflection upon what had past had not been delightful nor could his Soul be poured out in him for the want of such opportunities if the remembrance of the converse he had had with God had not been accompanied with a delightful relish * Psal 42.4 Let us examin what delight we find in our spirits after worship Vse 3. Is of comfort And 't is very comfortable to consider that the smallest worship with the Heart and Spirit flowing from a principle of grace is more acceptable than the most pompous veneration yea if the oblation were as precious as the whole Circuit of Heaven and Earth without it That God that values a Cup of Cold water given to any as his Disciple will value a sincere service above a costly Sacrifice God hath his eye upon them that honour his nature He would not seek such to worship him if he did not intend to accept such a worship from them When we therefore invoke him and praise him which are the prime parts of Religion he will receive it as a sweet favour from us and overlook infirmities mixed with the graces The great matter of discomfort and that which makes us question the spirituality of worship is the many starts of our Spirits and rovings to other things For answer to which 1. 'T is to be confest that these starts are natural to us Who is free from them We bear in our own bosoms a nest of turbulent thoughts which like busie Gnatts will be buzzing about us while we are in our most inward and spiritual converses Many wild beasts lurk in a mans heart as in a close and covert wood and scarce discover themselves but at our solemn worship No duty so holy No worship so spiritual that can wholly priviledge us from them They will jogg us in our most weighty employments that as God said to Cain sin lyes at the door and enters in and makes a riot in our Souls As it is said of wicked men they cannot sleep for multitude of thoughts * Eccles 5.12 so it may be of many a good man he cannot worship for multitude of thoughts There will be starts and more in our Religious than natural imployments 't is natural to man Some therefore think the Bells tied to Aarons Garments between the Pomegranates were to warn the People and recall their fugitive minds to the present service when they heard the sound of them upon the least motion of the High priest The Sacrifice of Abraham the Father of the Faithful was not exempt from the Fouls pecking at it * Gen. 15.11 Zechariah himself was drowsie in the midst of his Visions which being more amazing might cause a heavenly intentness*
Zech. 4.1 The Angel that talked with me came again and awaked me as a man is awaked out of sleep He had been rouzed up before but he was ready to drop down again his heart was gone till the Angel jogged him We may complain of such imaginations as Jerem. doth of the Enemies of the Jews * Lam. 4.19 Our Persecutors are swifter than Eagles they light upon us with as much speed as Eagles upon a Carcass they pursue us upon the Mountain of Divine institutions and they lay wait for us in the Wilderness in our retired addresses to God And this will be so while 1. There is natural corruption in us There are in a Godly man two contrary principles Flesh and Spirit which endeavour to hinder one anothers acts and are alway stirring upon the offensive or defensive part * Gal. 5.17 There is a body of death continually exhaling its noysom vapours 'T is a body of death in our worship as well as in our natures it snaps our resolutions asunder * Rom. 7.19 it hinders us in the doing good and contradicts our wills in the stirring up evil This corruption being seated in all the faculties and a constant Domestick in them has the greater opportunity to trouble us since it is by those faculties that we spiritually transact with God and it stirs more in the time of religious exercises though it be in part mortified As a wounded Beast though tired will rage and strive to its utmost when the Enemy is about to fetch a blow at it All duties of worship tend to the wounding of corruption and it is no wonder to feel the striving of sin to defend it self and offend us when we have our Arms in our hands to mortifie it that the blow may be diverted which is directed against it The Apostles had aspiring thoughts and being perswaded of an earthly Kingdom expected a Grandeur in it And though we find some appearance of it at other times as when they were casting out Devils and gave an account of it to their Master he gives them a kind of a check * Luke 10.20 intimating that there was some kind of evil in their rejoycing upon that account Yet this never swelled so high as to break out into a quarrel who should be greatest * Luke 22.24 until they had the most solemn Ordinance the Lords Supper to quell it* Our corruption is like Lime which discovers not its fire by any smoke or heat till you cast water the Enemy of fire upon it Neither doth our natural corruption rage so much as when we are using means to quench and destroy it 2. While there is a Devil and we in his Precinct As he accuseth us to God so he disturbs us in our selves He is a bold Spirit and loves to intrude himself when we are conversing with God We read that when the Angels presented themselves before God Satan comes among them * Job 1.6 Motions from Satan will thrust themselves in with our most raised and Angelical frames He loves to take off the edge of our Spirits from God He acts but after the old rate He from the first envied God an obedience from man and envied man the felicity of communion with God He is unwilling God should have the honour of worship and that we should have the fruit of it He hath himself lost it and therefore is unwilling we should enjoy it and being subtil he knows how to make impressions upon us sutable to our inbred corruptions and assault us in the weakest part He knows all the avenues to get within us as he did in the temptation of Eve and being a Spirit he wants not a power to dart them immediatly upon our fancy And being a Spirit and therefore active and nimble he can shoot those darts faster than our weakness can beat them off He is diligent also and watcheth for his Prey and seeks to devour our services as well as our Souls and snatch our best morsels from us We know he mixed himself with our Saviours retirements in the Wilderness and endeavoured to Fly-blow his holy converse with his Father in the preparation to his mediatory work Satan is Gods Ape and imitates the Spirit in the Office of a Remembrancer As the Spirit brings good thoughts and divine promises to mind to quicken our worship so the Devil brings evil things to mind and endeavours to fasten them in our Souls to disturb us And though all the foolish starts we have in worship are not purely his issue yet being of kin to him he claps his hands and sets them on like so many Mastives to tear the service in pieces And both those distractions which arise from our own corruption and from Satan are most rise in worship when we are under some pressing affliction This seems to be David's Case Psal 86. when in v. 11. He prays God to unite his heart to fear and worship his Name he seems to be under some affliction or fear of his Enemies Oh free me from those distractions of Spirit and those passions which arise in my Soul upon considering the designs of my enemies against me and press upon me in my addresses to thee and attendances on thee Job also in his affliction complains Job 17.11 That his purposes were broken off He could not make an even thread of thoughts and resolutions they were frequently snapt saunder like rotten Yarn when one is winding it up Good Men and spiritual Worshippers have lain under this trouble Though they are a sign of weakness of grace or some obstructions in the acting of strong grace yet they are not alway evidences of a want of grace What ariseth from our own corruption is to be matter of humiliation and resistance what ariseth from Satan should edge our minds to a noble conquest of them If the Apostle did comfort himself with his disapproving of what rose from the natural spring of sin within him with his consent to the Law and dissent from his Lust and charges it not upon himself but upon the sin that dwelt in him with which he had broken off the former League and was resolved never to enter into Amity with it By the same reason we may comfort our selves if such thoughts are undelighted in and alienate not our hearts from the worship of God by all their busie intrusions to interrupt us 2. These distractions not allowed may be occasions by an holy improvement to make our hearts more spiritual after worship though they disturb us in it By answering those ends for which we may suppose God permits them to invade us And that is 1. When they are occasions to humble us 1. For our carriage in the particular worship There is nothing so dangerous as spiritual pride It deprived Devils and Men of the presence of God and will hinder us of the influence of God If we had had raised and uninterrupted motions in worship we should be apt to be lifted
circumstances We honour the Majesty of God when we consider him with due reverence according to the greatness and perfection of his works and in this reverence of his Majesty doth worship chiefly consist Low thoughts of God will make low frames in us before him If we thought God an infinite glorious Spirit how would our hearts be lower than our knees in his presence How humbly how believingly pleading is the Psalmist when he considers God to be without comparison in the Heavens to whom none of the Sons of the Mighty can be likened when there was none like to him in strength or faithfulness round about * Psal 89.6 7 8. We should have also deep impressions of the Omniscience of God and remember we have to deal with a God that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins to whom the most secret temper is as visible as the loudest words are Audible that though man judges by outward expressions God judges by inward affections As the Law of God regulates the inward frames of the heart so the eye of God pitches upon the inward intentions of the Soul If God were visibly present with us should we not approach to him with strong affections summon our Spirits to attend upon him behave our selves modestly before him Let us consider he is as really present with us as if he were visible to us let us therefore preserve a strong sense of the presence of God No man but one out of his wits when he were in the presence of a Prince and making a Speech to him would break off at every Period and run after the catching of Butter-flyes Remember in all worship you are before the Lord to whom all things are open and naked Direction 4. Let us take heed of inordinate desires after the world As the world steals away a mans heart from the Word so it doth from all other worship It chokes the Word * Mat. 13.27 it stifles all the spiritual breathings after God in every duty The edge of the Soul is blunted by it and made too dull for such sublime exercises The Apostles rule in Prayer when he joyns sobriety with watching unto Prayer 1 Pet. 4.7 is of concern in all worship sobriety in the pursuite and use of all wordly things A man drunk with worldly fumes cannot watch cannot be heavenly affectionate spiritual in service There is a magnetick force in the Earth to hinder our flights to Heaven Birds when they take their first flights from the Earth have more flutterings of their wings than when they are mounted further in the Air and got more without the Sphear of the Earths attractiveness the motion of their wings is more steady that you can scarce perceive them stir they move like a Ship with a full Gale The world is a clog upon the Soul and a bar to spiritual frames 'T is as hard to elevate the heart to God in the midst of a hurry of worldly affairs as it is difficult to meditate when we are near a great noise of waters falling from a Precipice or in the midst of a Volly of Muskets Thick claiy affections bemire the heart and make it unfit for such high flights it is to take in worship Therefore get your hearts clear from worldly thoughts and desires if you would be more spiritual in worship 5. Let us be deeply sensible of our present wants and the supplies we may meet with in worship Cold affections to the things we would have will grow cooler Weakness of desire for the communications in worship will freez our hearts at the time of worship and make way for vain and foolish diversions A Begger that is ready to perish and knows he is next door to ruin will not slightly and dully began Alms and will not be diverted from his importunity by every slight call or the moving of an Atom in the Air. Is it Pardon we would have Let us apprehend the blackness of sin with the aggravations of it as it respects God Let us be deeply sensible of the want of pardon and worth of mercy and get our affections into such a frame as a condemned man would do Let us consider that as we are now at the Throne of Gods grace we shall shortly be at the Bar of Gods Justice and if the Soul should be forlorn there how fixedly and earnestly would it plead for mercy Let us endeavour to stir up the same affections now which we have seen some dying men have and which we suppose despairing Souls would have done at Gods Tribunal * Guliel Paris Rhetor. Divin cap. 26. p. 350. Col. 1. We must be sensible that the life or death of our Souls depends upon worship Would we not be ashamed to be ridiculous in our carriage while we are eating and shall we not be ashamed to be cold or garish before God when the Salvation of our Souls as well as the Honour of God is concerned If we did see the heaps of sins the eternity of punishment due to them If we did see an angry and offended Judge If we did see the riches of mercy the glorious outgoings of God in the Sanctuary the blessed Doles he gives out to men when they spiritually attend upon him both the one and the other would make us perform our duties humbly sincerely earnestly and affectionately and wait upon him with our whole Souls to have misery averted and mercy bestowed Let our sense of this be encouragâ—d by the consideration of our Saviour presenting his merits With what affection doth he present his merits his blood shed upon the Cross now in Heaven And shall our hearts be cold and frozen flitting and unsteady when his affectioâ—s are so much concerned Christ doth not present any Mans case and duties without a sense of hiâ— wants and shall we have none of our own Let me add this let us affect our hearts with a sense of what supplies we haâ—â— met with in former worship The delightful remembrance of what converâ—â— we have had with God in former worship would spiritualize our hearts for the present worship Had Peter had a view of Christs glory in the Mount fresh in his thoughts he would not so easily have turned his back upon his Master Nor would the Israelites have been at leasure for their Idolatry had they preserved the sense of the Majesty of God discovered in his late Thunders from Mount Sinai 6. If any thing intrudes that may choak the Worship cast it speedily out We cannot hinder Satan and our own Corruption from presenting Coolers to us but we may hinder the success of them We cannot hinder the Gnats from buzzing about us when we are in our business but we may prevent them from setling upon us A man that is running on a considerable Errand will shun all unnecessary discourse that may make him forget or loyter in his business What though there may be something offered that is good in it self yet if it hath a
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
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
acknowledgment of the Immensity of Divine Power Miracles are such effects as have been wrought without the assistance and cooperation of Natural Causes yea contrary and besides the ordinary course of Nature above the reach of any Created Power Miracles have been and saith Bradwardine * Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 38. To deny that ever such things were is uncivil 'T is inhuman to deny all the Histories of Jews and Christians whosoever denies Miracles must deny all possibility of Miracles and so must imagine himself fully skill'd in the extent of Divine Power How was the Sun suspended from its Motion for some hours Josh 10.13 The Dead raised from the Grave Those reduc'd from the brink of it that had been brought near to it by prevailing Diseases and this by a word speaking How were the famisht Lions bridled from exercising their rage upon Daniel Dan. 6.22 expos'd to them for a Prey The activity of the Fire curb'd for the preservation of the Three Children Dan. 3.15 Which proves a Deity more powerful than all Creatures No power upon Earth can hinder the operation of the Fire upon combustible Matter when they are united unless by quenching the Fire or removing the Matter But no created Power can restrain the Fire so long as it remains so from acting according to its Nature Exod. 3.2 This was done by God in the case of the Three Children and that of the Burning Bush It was as much miraculous that the Bush should not consume as it was natural that it should burn by the efficacy of the Fire upon it No Element is so obstinate and deaf but it hears and obeys his Voice and performs his Orders though contrary to its own Nature All the violence of the Creature is suspended as soon as it receives his Command †Damianus in Petar He that gave the original to Nature can take away the necessity of Nature He presides over Creatures but is not confin'd to those Laws he hath prescrib'd to Creatures He framed Nature and can turn the Channels of Nature according to his own pleasure Men dig into the bowels of Nature search into all the Treasures of it to find Medicines to cure a Disease and after all their Attempts it may prove Labour in vain But God by one Act of his Will one Word of his Mouth overturns the Victory of Death and rescues from the most desperate Diseases * Fauch in Acts Vol. 2. §. 56. All the Miracles which were wrought by the Apostles either speaking some Words or Touching with the Hand were not effected by any virtue inherent in their Words or in their Touches For such Virtue inherent in any created finite Subject would be created and finite it self and consequently were incapable to produce effects which required an infinite Virtue as Miracles do which are above the power of Nature So when our Saviour wrought Miracles it was not by any quality resident in his humane Nature but by the sole Power of his Divinity The Flesh could only do what was proper to the Flesh but the Deity did what was proper to the Deity God alone doth wonders Psal 136.4 Excluding every other cause from producing such things He only doth those things which are above the power of Nature and cannot be wrought by any Natural causes whatsoever He doth not hereby put his Omnipotence to any stress 'T is as easie with him to turn Nature out of its setled course as it was to place it in that station it holds and appoint it that course it runs All the Works of Nature are indeed Miracles and Testimonies of the Power of God producing them and sustaining them But Works above the Power of Nature being Novelties and unusual strike Men with a greater admiration upon their appearance because they are not the products of Nature but the convulsions of it I might also add as an Argument The Power of the Mind of Man to conceive more than hath been wrought by God in the World And God can work whatsoever Perfection the Mind of man can conceive Otherwise the reaches of a created Imagination and Fancy would be more extensive than the Power of God His Power therefore is far greater than the conception of any Intellectual Creature else the Creature would be of a greater capacity to conceive than God is to effect The Creature would have a power of Conception above Gods Power of Activity and consequently a Creature in some respect greater than himself Now whatsoever a Creature can conceive possible to be done is but finite in its own nature and if God could not produce what Being a created Understanding can conceive possible to be done he would be less than Infinite in Power nay he could not go to the extent of what is Finite But I have touched this before That God can create more than he hath created and in a more perfect way of Being as considered simply in themselves III. The Third general thing is to declare How the Power of God appears in Creation in Government in Redemption 1. In Creation With what Majestick Lines doth God set forth his Power in the giving Being and Endowments to all the Creatures in the World Job 38. All that is in Heaven and Earth is his and shews the greatness of his Power Glory Victory 1 Chro. 29.11 and Majesty The Heaven being so Magnificent a piece of work is called emphatically The Firmament of his Power * Psal 150.1 his Power being more conspicuous and unvail'd in that glorious Arch of the World Indeed God exalts by his Power †Job 36.22 that is exalts himself by his Power in all the Works of his hands in the smallest Shrub as well as the most glorious Sun All his Works of Nature are truly Miracles though we consider them not being blinded with too frequent and customary a sight of them yet in the neglect of all the rest the view of the Heavens doth more affect us with astonishment at the Might of Gods Arm These declare his Glory and the Firmament shews his handy work Psal 19.1 Psal 8.3 And the Psalmist peculiarly calls them His Heavens and the work of his Fingers These were immediately created by God whereas many other things in the World were brought into Being by the Power of God yet by the means of the influence of the Heavens 1. His Power is the first thing evident in the story of the Creation In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth Gen. 1.1 There 's no appearance of any thing in this declaratory Preface but of Power The Characters of Wisdom march after in the distinct formation of things and animating them with suitable qualities for an Universal good By Heaven and Earth is meant the whole mass of the Creatures By Heaven all the Aery Region with all the Host of it by the Earth is meant all that which makes the intire inferior Globe The Jews observe that in the
been handed down to them by their Predecessors which Paul * 1 Tim. 6.20 entitles a Science falsly so called either meant of the Philosophers or the Gnosticks They presum'd that they were able to measure all things by their own Reason whence when the Apostle came to preach the Doctrine of the Gospel at Athens the great School of Reason in that Age they gave him no better a Title than that of a Babler Acts 17.18 and openly mocked him verse 32. a Seed gatherer ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that hath no more brain or sense than a Fellow that gathers up Seeds that are spilt in a Market or one that hath a vain and empty found without Sense or Reason like a foolish Mountebank so slightly did those Rationalists of the World think of the Wisdom of Heaven That the Son of God should veil himself in a Mortal Body and suffer a disgraceful Death in it were things above the ken of Reason Besides the World had a general disesteem of the Religion of the Jews and were prejudic'd against any thing that came from them Whence the Romans that used to incorporate the gods of other Conquer'd Nations in their Capitol never moved to have the God of Israel worshipped among them Again they might argue against it with much fleshly Reason Here is a Crucified God preached by a Company of Mean and Ignorant persons What Reason can we have to entertain this Doctrine since the Jews who as they tell us had the Prophecies of him did not acknowledge him Surely had there been such Predictions they would not have Crucified but Crowned their King and expected from him the Conquest of the Earth under their Power What reason have we to entertain him whom his own Nation among whom he lived with whom he conversed so unanimously by the Vote of the Rulers as well as the Rout rejected It was impossible to conquer Minds possessed with so many Errors and applauding themselves in their own Reason and to render them capable of receiving Revealed Truths without the influence of a Divine Power 2. It was contrary to the Customes of the World The strength of Custome in most Men surmounts the strength of Reason and Men commonly are so wedded to it that they will be sooner divorc'd from any thing than the Modes and Patterns received from their Ancestors The endeavouring to change Customes of an ancient standing hath begotten Tumults and furious Mutinies among Nations though the change would have been much for their advantage This Doctrine struck at the Root of the Religion of the World and the Ceremonies wherein they had been educated from their Infancy delivered to them from their Ancestors confirm'd by the customary Observance of many Ages rooted in their Mindss and establish'd by their Laws Acts 18.13 This Fellow perswadeth us to worship God contrary to the Law against Customes to which they ascrib'd the happiness of their States and the prosperity of their People and would put in the place of this Religion they would abolish a new one instituted by a Man whom the Jews had condemn'd and put to death upon a Cross as an Impostor Blasphemer and Seditions person It was a Doctrine that would change the Customes of the Jews who were intrusted with the Oracles of God It would bury for ever their Ceremonial Riâ—â—s delivered to them by Moses from that God who had with a mighty hand brought them out of Egypt consecrated their Law with Thunders and Lightnings from Mount Sinai at the time of its publication backt it with severe Sanctions confirm'd it by many Miracles both in the Wilderness and their Canaan and had continued it for so many Hundred years They could not but remember how they had been ravaged by other Nations and Judgments sent upon them when they neglected and slighted it and with what great success they were follow'd when they valued and observed it and how they had abhorred the Author of this new Religion who had spoken slightly of their Traditions till they put him to death with Infamy Was it an easie matter to divorce them from that Worship upon which were entail'd as they imagin'd their Peace Plenty and Glory things of the dearest regard with Mankind The Jews were no less devoted to their Ceremonial Traditions than the Heathen were to their Vain Superstitions This Doctrine of the Gospel was of that nature that the state of Religion all over the Earth must be overturned by it the Wisdom of the Greeks must vail to it the Idolatry of the People must stoop to it and the prophane Customes of Men must moulder under the weight of it Was it an easie matter for the Pride of Nature to deny a customary Wisdom to entertain a new Doctrine against the Authority of their Ancestors to inscribe Folly upon that which hath made them admir'd by the rest of the World Nothing can be of greater esteem with Men than the Credit of their Law-givers and Founders the Religion of their Fathers and Prosperity of themselves hence the Minds of Men were sharpned against it The Greeks the Wisest Nation slighted it as Foolish the Jews the Religious Nation stumbled at it as contrary to the received Interpretations of Ancient Prophecies and Carnal Conceits of an Earthly glory The dimmest Eye may behold the difficulty to change Custome a Second Nature 'T is as hard as to change a Wolf into a Lamb to level a Mountain stop the course of the Sun or change the Inhabitants of Africk into the colour of Europe Custome dips Men in as durable a Dye as Nature The difficulties of carrying it on against the Divine Religion of the Jew and rooted Customes of the Gentiles were unconquerable by any but an Almighty Power And in this the Power of God hath appeared wonderfully 3. It was contrary to the Sensuality of the World and the Lusts of the Flesh How much the Gentiles were over-grown with base and unworthy Lusts at the time of the Publication of the Gospel needs no other Memento than the Apostles Discourse Rom. 1. As there was no Error but prevail'd upon their Minds so there was no brutish Affection but was wedded to their Hearts The Doctrine proposed to them was not easie it flatter'd not the Sense but checked the Stream of Nature It thundred down those three great Engines whereby the Devil had subdued the World to himself the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the pride of Life Not only the most sordid Affections of the Flesh but the more refin'd Gratifications of the Mind It stript Nature both of Devil and Man of what was commonly esteem'd great and vertuous That which was the root of their Fame and the satisfaction of their Ambition was struck at by this Ax of the Gospel The first Article of it ordered them to deny themselves not to presume upon their own worth to lay their Understandings and Wills at the foot of the Cross and resign them up to one newly
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
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
support our security by something which might appear more formal and solemn than a bare word By this the Divine Goodness provides against our Spiritual faintings and shews us by real Signs as well as Verbal Declarations that the Covenant sealed by the Blood of Christ is unalterable and thereby would fortifie and mount our hopes to degrees in some measure suitable to the kindness of the Covenant and the dignity of the Redeemer's Blood And it 's yet a further degree of his Goodness that he hath appointed us so often to Celebrate it whereby he shews how careful he is to keep up our tottering Faith and preserve us constant in our obedience obliging himself to the performance of his Promise and obliging uâ— to the payment of our Duty 2. His Goodness is seen in the Sacrament in giving us in it an union and communion with Christ There is not only a Commemoration of Christ dying but a Communication of Christ living The Apostle strongly asserts it by way of Interrogation * 1 Cor 1â— The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ In the Cup there is a communication of the Blood of Christ a conveyance of a Right to the Merits of his Death and the Blessedness of his Life We are not less by this made one Body with Christ than we are by Baptism †1 Cor. 12.13 And put on Christ living in this as well as in Baptism * Gal. 3.27 That as his taking our infirm Flesh was a real Incarnation so the giving us his Flesh to eat is a Mystical Incarnation in Believers whereby they become one Body with him as Crucified and one Body with him as Risen For if Christ himself be receiv'd by Faith in the Word †Colos 2.6 He is no less received by Faith in the Sacrament When the Holy Ghost is said to be receiv'd the Graces or Gifts of the Holy Ghost are receiv'd So when Christ is receiv'd the Fruits of his Death are really partaked of The Israelites that eat of the Sacrifices did partake of the Altar * 1 Cor. 10.18 i. e. had a communion with the God of Israel to whom they had been Sacrificed and those that eat of the Sacrifices offer'd to Idols had a fellowship with Devils to whom those Sacrifices were offer'd Verse 20. Those that partake of the Sacraments in a due manner have a communion with that God to whom it was Sacrificed and a communion with that Body which was Sacrificed to God Not that the Substance of that Body and Blood is wrapped up in the Elements or that the Bread and Wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ but as they represent him and by vertue of the Institution are in Estimation himself his own Body and Blood by the same reason as he is call'd Christ our Passeover he may be call'd Christ our Supper †1 Cor. 5.7 For as they are so reckon'd to an unworthy Receiver as if they were the real Body and Blood of Christ because by his not discerning the Lords Body in it or making light of it as common Bread he is judged guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ guilty of treating him in as base a manner as the Jews did when they Crown'd him with Thorns * 1 Cor. 11.27.29 By the same reason they must be reckon'd to a worthy Receiver as the very Body and Blood of Christ So that as the unworthy Receiver eats and drinks Damnation the worthy Receiver eats and drinks Salvation It would be an empty Mystery and unworthy of an Institution by Divine Goodness if there were not some communion with Christ in it There would be some kind of deceit in the Precept Take Eat and Drink this is my Body and Blood a conveyance of Spiritual vital influences to our Souls For the natural End of eating and drinking is the nourishment and increase of the Body and preservation of Life by that which we eat and drink The infinite Wise gracious and true God would never give us empty Figures without accomplishing that which is signified by them and suitable to them How great is this Goodness of God he would have his Son in us one with us straitly joyn'd to us as if we were his proper Flesh and Blood In the Incarnation Divine Goodness united him to our Nature in the Sacrament it doth in a sort unite him with his purchas'd Priviledges to our Persons we have not a communion with a part or a Member of his Body or a drop of his Blood but with his whole Body and Blood represented in every part of the Elements The Angels in the Heaven enjoy not so great a priviledge They have the honour to be under him as their Head but not that of having him for their Food they behold him but they do not taste him And certainly that Goodness that hath condescended so much to our weakness would impart it to us in a very glorious manner were we capable of it But because a Man cannot behold the Light of the Sun in its full splendor by reason of the infirmities of his Eyes he must behold it by the help of a Glass and such a communication through a coloured and Opake-glass is as real from the Sun it self though not so glorious but more shrowded and obscure 'T is the same light that shines through that Medium as spreads it self gloriously in the open Air though the one be maskt and the other open-fac'd To conclude this by the way we may take notice of the neglect of this Ordinaâ—â—â— If it be a token of Divine Goodness to appoint it 't is no sign of our estimation of Divine Goodness to neglect it He that values the kindness of his friend will accept of his invitation if there be not some strong impediments in the way or so much familiarity with him that his refusal upon a light occasion would not be unkindly taken But though God put on the disposition of a Friend to us yet he looseth not the authority of a Soveraign and the humble familiarity he invites us to doth not diminish the conditiâ—n and duty of a Subject A Soveraign Prince would not take it well if a Favourite should refuse the offer'd honour of his Table The Viands of Godare not to be slighted Can we live better upon our poor pittance than upon his Dainties Did not Divine Goodness condescend in it to the weakness of our Faith and shall we conceit our Faith stronger than God thinks it If he thought fit by those Seals to make a Deed of Gift to us shall we be so unmannerly to him and such enemies to the security he offers us over and above his word as not to accept it Are we unwilling to have our Souls enflamed with love our Hearts filled with comfort and arm'd against the attempts of our Enemies 'T
the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them That in all things they shall be more than Conquerors through him that lov'd them That the most raging Malice of Hell shall not wrest them out of his hands His Goodness is not less in performing than it was in promising And as the care of his Providence extends to the least as well as the greatest so the watchfulness of his Goodness extends to us in the least as well as in the greatest Temptation 1. The Goodness of God appears in shortening Temptations None of them can go beyond their appointed times * Dan. 11.35 The strong blast Satan breaths cannot blow nor the Waves he raises rage one minute beyond the time God allows them when they have done their work and come to the period of their time God speaks the word and the Wind and Sea of Hell must obey him and retire into their Dens The more violent Temptations are the shorter time doth God allot them The assaults Christ had at the time of his Death were of the most pressing and urging nature The Powers of Darkness were all in Arms against him the Reproaches and scorns put upon him questioning his Sonship were very sharp yet a little before his Suffering he calls it but an hour * Luke 22.53 This is your hour and the Power of Darkness A short time that Men and Devils were combin'd against him and the time of Temptation that is to come upon all the World for their trial is call'd but an hour * Rev. 3.10 In all such attempts the greatness of the rage is a certain Prognostick of the shortness of the Season Revel 12.12 2. The Goodness of God appears in strengthening his People under Temptations If he doth not restrain the Arm of Satan from striking he gives us a Sword to manage the Combat and a Shield to bear off the blow * Eph. 6.16 17. If he obscures his Goodness in one part he clears and brightens it in another He either binds the strong Man that he shall not stir or gives us Armour to render us victorious If we fall it is not for want of provision from him but for want of our putting on the Armour of God * Eph. 6.11 â—3 When we have not a strength by Nature he gives it us by Grace He often quells those Passions within which would joyn hands with and second the Temptation without He either qualifies the Temptation sutably to the force we have or else supplies us with a new strength to mate the Temptation he intends to let loose against us He knows we are but Dust and his Goodness will not have us unequally matcht The Jews that in Antiochus his time were under great Temptation to Apostacy by reason of the violence of their Persecutions were out of weakness made strong for the Combat * Heb. 11.34 The Spirit came more strongly upon Sampson when the Philistines most furiously and confidently assaulted him His Spirit is sent to strengthen his People before the Devil is permitted to tempt them * Matth. 4.2 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit Then When When the Spirit had in an extraordinary manner descended upon him Matth. 3.16 Then and not before As the Angels appeared to Christ after his Temptation to Minister to him so they appear'd to him before his Passion the time of the strongest Powers of Darkness to strengthen him for it He is so Good that when he knows our Pot-sheard strength too weak he furnisheth our Recruits from his own Omnipotence * Eph. 6 1â— Be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might He doth as it were breath in something of his own Almightiness to assist us in our wrestling against Principalities and Powers and make us capable to sustain the violent Storms of the Enemies 3. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations in giving great Comforts in on after them The Israelites had a more immediate provision of Manna from Heaven when they were in the Wilderness We read not that the Father spake audibly to the Son and gave him so loud a Testimony that he was his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased till he was upon the brink of strong Temptations * Mat. 3.17 Nor sent Angels to Minister immediately to his Person till after his success * Mat. 4.11 Job never had such evidences of Divine Love till after he had felt the sharp strokes of Satans Malice he had heard of God before by the hearing of the Ear but afterwards is admitted into greater familiarity * Job 42.5 He had more choice appearances clearer illuminations and more lively instructions And though his People fall into Temptation yet after their rising they have more signal Marks of his favour than others have or themselves before they fell Peter had been the Butt of Satans rage in tempting him to deny Christ and he had shamefully comply'd with the Temptation yet to him particularly must the first news of the Redeemers Resurrection be carried by Gods order in the mouth of an Angel * Mar. 16.7 Go your ways tell his Disciples and Peter We have the greatest Communion with God after a Victory The most refreshing truths after the Devil hath done his worst God is ready to furnish us with strength in a Combat and Cordials after it 4. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations in discovering and advancing inward Grace by this means The issue of a Temptation of a Christian is often like that of Christs the manifesting a greater vigor of the Divine Nature in affections to God and enmity to Sin Spices perfume not the Air with their scent till they are invaded by the Fire the truth of Grace is evidenced by them The assault of an Enemy revives and actuates that Strength and Courage which is in a Man perhaps unknown to himself as well as others till he meets with an Adversary Many seem good not that they are so in themselves but for want of a Temptation This many times verifies a Vertue which was own'd upon trust before and discovers that we had more Grace than we thought we had The sollicitations of Josephs Mistress clear'd up his Chastity We are many times under Temptation as a Candle under the Snuffer it seems to be out but presently burns the clearer Afflictions are like those Clouds which look black and Eclips the Sun from the Earth but yet when they drop refresh that Ground they seem to threaten and multiply the Grain on the Earth to serve for our Food and so our troubles while they wet us to the Skin wash much of that dust from our Graces which in a clearer day had been blown upon us Too much rest Corrupts Exercise teacheth us to manage our Weapons The Spiritual Armour would grow rusty without opportunity to furbish it up Faith receives a new heart by every Combat and by every Victory like a Fire it spreads it self further
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