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earth_n	day_n	lord_n	rest_v	6,331	5	10.2675	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62636	Several discourses upon the attributes of God viz. Concerning the perfection of God. Concerning our imitation of the divine perfections. The happiness of God. The unchangeableness of God. The knowledge of God. The wisdom, glory, and soveraignty of God. The wisdom of God, in the creation of the world. The wisdom of God, in his providence. The wisdom of God, in the redemption of mankind. The justice of God, in the distribution of rewards and punishments. The truth of God. The holiness of God. To which is annexed a spital sermon, of doing good. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. Being the sixth volume; published from the originals, by Raph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.	1699 (1699)	Wing T1264; ESTC R219315	169,861	473

the Holiness of good Men. And it is a separation from moral imperfection that is from Sin and Impurity And this is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the primary Notion of i● is Negative and signifies the absence and remotion of Sin And this appears i● those explications which the Scriptur● gives of it Thus 't is explain'd by opposition to Sin and Impurity 2 Cor 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from a●● filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness where Holiness is opposed to all filthiness Sometimes by the negation of Sin and Defilement So we find holy and without blame put together Eph. 1.4 Holy and without blemish Eph. 5.27 Holy harmless and undefiled Heb. 7.26 'T is true indeed this Negative Notion doth imply something that is Positive it doth not only signifie the absence of Sin but a contrariety to it we cannot conceive the absence of Sin without the presence of Grace as take away crookedness from a Thing and it immediately becomes straight When ever we are made Holy every Lust and Corruption in us is supplanted by the contrary Grace Now this habitual Holiness of Persons which consists in a separation from Sin is a conformity to the Holiness of God and by this we may come to understand what Holiness in God is and it signifies the peculiar eminency of the Divine Nature whereby it is separated and removed at an infinite distance from moral Imperfection and that which we call Sin that is there is no such thing as Malice or Envy or Hatred or Revenge or Impatience or Cruelty or Tyranny or Injustice or False-hood or Unfaithfulness in God or if there be any other Thing that signifies Sin and Vice and moral Imperfection Holiness signifies that the Divine Nature is at an infinite distance from all these and possest of the contrary Perfections Therefore all those Texts that remove Moral Imperfection from God and declare the repugnancy of it to the Divine Nature do set forth the Holiness of God Jam. 1.13 God cannot be tempted with evil Job 8.3 Doth God pervert Judgment or doth the Almighty pervert Justice Job 34.10 12. Far be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity Yea surely God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgment Rom. 9.14 Is there then unrighteousness with God God forbid Zeph. 3.5 The just Lord is in the midst thereof he will not do iniquity And so false-hood and unfaithfulness and inconstancy Deut. 32.4 A God of truth and without iniquity 1 Sam. 15.29 The strength of Israel will not lie Tit. 1.2 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised Heb. 6.18 That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie Therefore you shall find that Holiness is joyned with all the Moral Perfections of the Divine Nature or put for them Hos 11.9 I am the holy one in the midst of thee that is the merciful one Psal 145.17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Rom. 7.12 The commandment is holy and just and good Rev. 3.7 These things saith he that is holy he that is true Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true Psal 105.42 He remembred his holy promise holy that is in respect of the faithfulness of it Isa 55.3 The sure mercies of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy mercies of David which will not fail So that the Holiness of God is not a particular but an universal Perfection and runs through all the moral Perfections of the Divine Nature 't is the Beauty of the Divine Nature and the Perfection of all his other Perfections Take away this and you bring an universal stain and blemish upon the Divine Nature without Holiness Power would be Oppression and Wisdom Subtilty and Soveraignty Tyranny and Goodness Malice and Envy and Justice Cruelty and Mercy Foolish Pity and Truth False-hood And therefore the Scripture speaks of this as God's highest Excellency and Perfection God is said to be glorious in Holiness Ex. 15.11 Holiness is call'd God's throne Psal 47.8 He sitteth upon the throne of his holiness This is that which makes Heaven Isa 63.15 It is called The habitation of his holiness and of his glory as if this were the very Nature of God and the sum of his Perfections The Knowledge of God is called the Knowledge of the holy one Pro. 9.10 To be made partakers of a Divine Nature and to be made partakers of God's holiness are equivalent Expressions 2 Pet. 3.4 Heb. 12.10 And because there is no Perfection of God greater therefore he is represented as swearing by this Psal 60.6 God hath spoken in his holiness Psal 89.35 Once have I sworn by my holiness The Angels and glorified Spirits they sum up the Perfections of God in this Isa 6.3 And one cryed unto another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory Rev. 4.8 And they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come There is no Attribute of God so often repeated as this in some Copies it is nine times II. I shall endeavour to prove that this Perfection belongs to God First From the Light of Nature The Philosophers in all their Discourses of God agree in this that whatever sounds like Vice and Imperfection is to be separated from the Divine Nature which is to acknowledge his Holiness Plato speaking of our likeness to God saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 4.9 King Nebuchadnezzar calls God by this Title I know that the spirit of the holy Gods is in thee In a Word whatever hath been produced to prove any of God's Moral Perfections proves his Holiness Secondly From Scripture There is no Title more frequently given to God in Scripture and so often ingeminated as this of his Holiness He is called Holiness it self Isa 63.15 Where Heaven is call'd the habitation of his Holiness that is of God His Name is said to be Holy Luke 1.49 And holy is his name He is called the holy one Isa 40.25 The holy one of Israel Isa 41.20 The holy one of Jacob. 49.23 He is said to be holy in all his Works and Promises Psal 105.42 In all his ways and works Psal 145.17 This Title is given to each of the three Persons in the Blessed Trinity To God the Father in innumerable Places To God the Son Dan. 9.24 To anoint the most holy The Devil cannot deny him this Title Luke 4.34 I know thee who thou art the holy one of God And the Spirit of God hath this Title constantly given it the holy Ghost or the holy Spirit or the Spirit of Holiness The Scripture attributes this Perfection in a peculiar manner to God 1 Sam. 2.2 There is none holy as the Lord. Rev. 15.4 For thou only art holy Holiness is a communicable Perfection but no Creature can

thousand ways they would not have been so well we ought to conclude that things are thus and not otherwise is the result of Wisdom Now the Wisdom of God in the Creation will appear by considering the Works of God Those who have studied Nature can discourse these things more exactly and particularly It would require perfect skill in Astronomy to declare the motions and order of Heavenly Bodies and in Anatomy to read Lectures of the rare contrivance of the Bodies of living Creatures But this as it is beyond my ability so it would probably be above most of your Capacities therefore I shall content my self with some general and more obvious instances of the Divine Wisdom which shine forth so clear in his Works that he that runs may read it 1. I shall take a short survey of the several parts of the World 2. Single out Man the Master-piece of the visible Creation 1. If we survey the World and travel over the several parts of it in our thoughts we shall find that all things in it are made with the greatest exactness ranged in the most beautiful order and serve the wisest and best Ends. If we look up to Heaven and take notice only there of that which is most visible the Sun you see how by the wise order and constancy of its course it makes Day and Night Winter and Summer This the Psalmist takes notice of Psal 19.1 2. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto Day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge It may easily be imagin'd many ways how the Sun might have had another Course in reference to the Earth but no Man can devise any other that should not be very much to the prejudice of the World so that this being the best it is an Argument that Wisdom had the ordering and disposing of it If we look down to the Earth we shall see God's ascending and descending I mean clear representations of Divine Wisdom in the Treasures that are hid in the Bowels of it and those Fruits that grow upon the surface of it What vast Heaps and what variety of useful Materials and Minerals are scatter'd up and down in the Earth as one would think with a careless Hand but yet so wisely disperst as is most proper for the Necessities and Uses of several Countries Look upon the surface of the Earth and you shall find it cloathed and adorned with Plants of a various and admirable Frame and Beauty and Usefulness Look upon the vast Ocean and there you may see the Wisdom of God in bridling and restraining that unruly Element I mean in sinking it below the Earth whereas the Water might have been above and cover'd the Earth and then the Earth had been in a great measure useless and incapable of those Inhabitants which now possess it Look again upon the Earth and in the Air and Sea and you shall find all these inhabited and furnisht with great store of living Creatures of several kinds wonderfully made in the frame of their Bodies endowed with strong inclination to increase their kinds and with a natural Affection and Care toward their Young ones and every kind of these Creatures armed either with strength or wit to oppose their Enemy or swiftness to flie from him or strong Holds to secure themselves But the Creation is a vast Field in which we may easily lose our selves I shall therefore call home our wandring Thoughts for we need not go out of our selves for a proof of Divine Wisdom I shall therefore 2. Select the choicest piece of it Man who is the top and perfection of this visible World What is said of the Elephant or Behemoth Job 40.19 in respect of the vast bigness and strength of his Body is only absolutely true of Man that he is divini opificii caput the chief of the ways of God and upon Earth there is none like him Man is Mundi utriusque nexus the bond of both Worlds as Scaliger calls him in whom the World of Bodies and the World of Spirits do meet and unite for in respect to his Body he is related to this visible World and is of the Earth but in respect of his Soul he is allied to Heaven and descended from above We have looked above us and beneath us and about us upon the several representations of God's Wisdom and the several parts of the Creation but we have not yet consider'd the best piece of the visible World which we may speak of without flattery of our selves and to the praise of our Maker God when he had made the World he made man after his own Image When he had finished the other part of the Creation he was pleased to set up this Picture of himself in it as a Memorial of the Workman Now we shall a little more particularly consider this piece of God's Workmanship being it is better known and more familiar to us as it is more excellent than the rest and consequently a higher instance of the Divine Wisdom It is observed by some that concerning the parts of the Creation God speaks the word let there be light and let there be a firmament and there was so but when he comes to make Man he doth as it were deliberate and enter into consultation about him And God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let him have dominion Gen. 1.26 as if Man above all the rest were the Effect and Result of Divine Wisdom and the Creature of his Counsel Man may be consider'd either in himself and in respect of the Parts of which he consists Soul and Body or with relation to the Universe and other parts of the Creation 1. Consider him in himself as compounded of Soul and Body Consider Man in his outward and worse part and you shall find that to be admirable even to astonishment in respect of which the Psalmist cries out Psal 139.14 I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well The frame of our Bodies is so curiously wrought and every part of it so full of Miracle that Galen who was otherwise backward enough to the Belief of a God when he had anatomized Man's Body and carefully survey'd the frame of it viewed the fitness and usefulness of every part of it and the many several intentions of every little Vein and Bone and Muscle and the beauty of the whole he fell into a pang of Devotion and wrote a Hymn to his Creator And those excellent Books of his de usu partium of the usefulness and convenient contrivance of every part of the Body are a most exact demonstration of the Divine Wisdom which appears in the make of our Body of which Books Gassendus saith the whole work is writ with a kind of Enthusiasm The Wisdom of God in the frame of our Bodies very much appears by a curious consideration of the several parts of

in the Kingdom of God but the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into utter Darkness And however Men may bear up themselves now upon their worldly Greatness and Power certainly there is a time a coming when the greatest Persons in the World those who overturn Kingdoms and lay wast Countries and oppress and ruin Millions of Mankind for the gratifying of their own Lusts and Ambition I say there is a Day coming when even these as much nay more than others shall fear and tremble before the impartial Justice of God Rev. 6.15 And the Kings of the earth and the great Men and the rich Men and the chief Captains and the mighty Men and every Bond-man and every Free-man hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Mountains for the great Day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand The impartial Justice of God will treat the greatest and the meanest Persons alike Rev. 20.12 I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works All judged according to their Works I should next proceed to vindicate the Justice of God in the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments from those Objections which seem to impeach it But before I enter upon this it will be convenient to satisfie one question which hath occasioned great disputes in the World and that is how far Justice especially as to the Punishment of Offenders is essential to God And for the clearing of this matter I shall briefly lay down these Propositions First I take this for a certain and undoubted Truth that every Perfection is essential to God and cannot be imagined to be seperated from the Divine Nature because this is the Natural Notion which Men have of God that he is a Being that hath all Perfection Secondly The actual constant exercise of those Divine Perfections the effects whereof are without himself is not essential to God For instance tho' God be essentially powerful and good yet it is not necessary that he should always exercise his Power and Goodness but at such times and in such a manner as seems best to his Wisdom and this is likewise true of his Wisdom and Justice because these are Perfections the effects whereof are terminated upon something without himself Thirdly It is essential to God to love Goodness and hate Sin wherever he sees them It is not necessary there should be a World or reasonable Creatures in it but upon supposition that God makes such Creatures it is agreable to the Divine Nature to give them good and righteous Laws to encourage them in the doing of that which is good and to discourage them from doing that which is evil which cannot be done but by Rewards and Punishments and therefore it is agreable to the Perfection of the Divine Nature to reward Goodness and to punish Sin Fourthly As for those rewards which the Gospel promiseth and the Punishments which it threatens there is some difference to be made between the rewarding and punishing justice of God 1. As for that abundant reward God is pleased to promise to good Men the promise of it is founded in his goodness and the performance of that promise in his justice for it is justice to perform what he promises tho' the promise of so great and abundant a reward was meer goodness 2. As for the punishing justice of God about which hath been the great Question whether that be essential to God or not it seems very plain that it is not necessary that God should inflict those judgments which he threatens because he hath threatned them for there is not the like obligation upon Persons to perform their threatnings that there is to perform their promises because God by his promise becomes a Debtour to those to whom he makes the promise but when he threatens he is the Creditour and we are Debtors to his Justice and as a Creditor he may remit the Punishment which he hath threatned But then if we consider God as loving goodness and hating Sin if we look upon him as Governor of the World and concerned to preserve good Order to encourage Holiness and Righteousness and to discountenance Sin under this consideration it is essential to him to punish Sin at such times and in such manner and circumstances as seems best to his Wisdom And I am not at all moved by that which is urged by some learned Men to the contrary that if punishing justice were essential to God then he must punish the Sinner immediately so soon as he hath offended and to the utmost of his Power because whatever Acts naturally Acts necessarily and to the utmost for I do not suppose such a justice essential to God as Acts necessarily but such a justice which as to the time and manner and circumstances of its Acting is regulated and determined by his Wisdom and there is the same Reason likewise of his goodness I come now to the Objections which are taken partly from the dispensations of God in this World and partly from the punishments of the other First As to the dispensations of God in this World there are these two things Objected against the justice of the Divine Providence I. The inequality of God's dealings with good and bad Men in this World II. The translation of Punishments punishing one Man's Sin upon another as the Sins of the Fathers upon the Children of the Prince upon the People I begin with the I. Objection the inequality of God's dealing with good and bad Men in this World In this life things happen promiscuously there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked if the Wicked suffer and are afflicted so are the Righteous if the Righteous sometimes flourish so do the Wicked and is not this unjust that those who are so unequal as to their Deserts should be equally dealt withal or if there be any inequality it is usually the wrong way the Wicked do many times prosper more in the World and the Righteous are frequently more afflicted This was the great Objection of old against the Providence of God which the Heathen Philosophers took so much pains to answer nay it did often shake the faith of Holy and Good Men in the old Testament Job 12.6 The tabernacles of robbers prosper and they that provoke God are secure into whose hand God bringeth abundantly and chap. 21.7 8 9. he Expostulates the same matter again and David says this was a great stumbling-Block to him Psal 73.2 3. and the like we find in the Prophets Jer. 12.1 and Hab. 1.13 This Objection I have else-where considered I shall now very briefly offer two or three Things which I hope will be sufficient to break the force of it 1. It must be granted that it is not necessary to justice to shew it self immediately