Civil associations for Politick Government Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord viz. In the time of Seth. No question but Adam had worshipped God before as well as Abel and a Family-Religion had been preserved but as mankind increased in distinct Families they knit together in Companies to solemnize the worship of God * Stillingfleet's Irenicum cap. 1. § 1. pa. 23. Hence as some think those that incorporated together for such ends were called the Sons of God Sons by profession tho not Sons by Adoption As those of Corinth were Saints by profession tho in such a Corrupted Church they could not be all so by regeneration yet Saints as being of a Christian society and calling upon the name of Christ that is worshipping God in Christ tho they might not be all Saints in Spirit and Practise So Cain and Abel met together to worship Gen 4.3 at the end of the days at a set time God setled a publick worship among the Jews instituted Synagogues for their Convening together whence call'd the Synagogues of God * Psa 74.8 The Sabbath was instituted to acknowledge God a Common Benefactor Publick worship keeps up the Memorials of God in a world prone to Atheism and a sense of God in a heart prone to forgetfulness The Angels sung in Company not singly at the Birth of Christ * Luke 2.13 and praised God not only with a simple elevation of their Spiritual nature but audibly by forming a voice in the air Affections are more lively Spirits more raised in publick than private God will Credit his own ordinance Fire increaseth by laying together many Coals on one place so is devotion inflamed by the union of many hearts and by a joynt presence Nor can the approach of the last day of Judgment or particular Judgments upon a Nation give a Writ of ease from such assemblies Heb. 10.25 Not forsaking the assembling our selves together but so much the more as you see the day approaching Whether it be understood of the day of Judgment or the day of the Jewish destruction and the Christian persecution the Apostle uses it as an argument to quicken them to the observance not to encourage them to a neglect Since therefore natural light informs us and Divine institution Commands us publickly to acknowledge our selves the Servants of God it implies the service of the body Such acknowledgments cannot be without visible Testimonies and outward exercises of devotion as well as inward affections This promotes Gods honour checks others prophaness allures men to the same expressions of duty And tho there may be hypocrisy and an outward garb without an inward frame yet better a moiety of worship than none at all better acknowledge Gods right in one than disown it in both 3. Jesus Christ the most Spiritual worshipper worshipt God with his body He Prayed orally and kneeled Father if it be thy Will c. * Luke 22.41 42. He blessed with his mouth Father I thank thee * Mat. 11.26 He lifted up his eyes as well as elevated his Spirit when he praised his Father for mercy received or begged for the blessings his Disciples wanted * John 11.41 John 12.1 The strength of the Spirit must have vent at the outward members The holy men of God have employed the body in significant expressions of worship Abraham in falling on his face Paul in kneeling employing their Tongues lifting up their hands Tho Jacob was bedrid yet he would not worship God without some devout expression of Reverence t is in one place leaning upon his staff * Heb. 11.21 in another bowing himself upon his beds head * Gen. 47.31 The reason of the diversity is in the Heb. word which without vowels may be red Mittah a bed or Matteh a staff howsoever both signifie a Testimony of adoration by a reverent gesture of the body Indeed in Angels and separated Souls a worship is performed purely by the Spirit but whiles the Soul is in conjunction with the body it can hardly perform a serious act of worship without some tincture upon the outward man and reverential composure of the body Fire cannot be in the clothes but it will be felt by the members nor flames be pent up in the Soul without bursting out in the body The heart can no more restrain it self from breaking out than Joseph could enclose his affections without expressing them in tears to his Brethren * Gen. 45.1 2. We Believe and therefore speak * 2 Cor. 4.13 To conclude God hath appointed some parts of worship which cannot be performed without the body as Sacraments we have need of them because we are not wholly spiritual and incorporeal Creatures The Religion which consists in externals only is not for an intellectual nature A worship purely intellectual is too sublime for a nature allyed to sense and depending much upon it The Christian mode of worship is proportioned to both It makes the sense to assist the mind and elevates the spirit above the sense Bodily worship helps the spiritual The members of the body reflect back upon the heart the voice bars distractions the tongue sets the heart on fire in good as well as in evil T is as much against the light of nature to serve God without external significations as to serve him only with them without the intention of the mind As the invisible God declares himself to men by visible works and signs so should we declare our invisible frames by visible expressions God hath given us a soul and body in conjunction and we are to serve him in the same manner he hath framed us 2. The second thing I am to shew is what Spiritual worship is In general the whole Spirit is to be employed The name of God is not sanctifyed but by the engagement of our Souls Worship is an Act of the understanding applying it self to the knowledge of the excellency of God and actual thoughts of his Majesty recognizing him as the supreme Lord and Governour of the world which is natural knowledge beholding the glory of his Attributes in the Redeemer which is Evangelical knowledge This is the sole act of the Spirit of Man The same reason is for all our worship as for our thanksgiving This must be done with understanding Psal 47.7 Sing ye praise with understanding with a knowledge and sense of his greatness goodness and Wisdom T is also an act of the Will whereby the Soul adores and reverenceth his Majesty is ravisht with his amiableness embraceth his goodness enters it self into an intimate Communion with this most lovely object and pitcheth all his affections upon him We must worship God understandingly t is not else a reasonable service The nature of God and the Law of God abhor a blind offering we must worship him heartily else we offer him a dead Sacrifice A reasonable service is that wherein the mind doth truly act something with God
for the neglect of its Honour 6. Information Hence it will follow There is no justification of a Sinner by any thing in himself After Sin had set foot in the World Man could present nothing to God acceptable to him or bearing any proportion to the Holiness of his Law till God set forth a Person upon whose account the Acceptation of our Persons and Services is founded Ephes 1.6 Who hath made us accepted in the Beloved The Infinite Purity of God is so glorious that it shames the Holiness of Angels as the light of the Sun dims the light of the Fire Much more will the Righteousness of Fallen Man who is Vile and drinks up Iniquity like water vanish into Nothing in his Presence With what Self-abasement and Abhorrence ought he to be possessed that comes as short of the Angels in Purity as a Dunghill doth of a Star The highest Obedience that ever was perform'd by any meer Man since Lapsed Nature cannot challenge any acceptance with God or stand before so exact an Inquisition What Person hath such a clear Innocence and unspotted Obedience in such a Perfection as in any degree to sute the Holiness of the Divine Nature Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified If God should debate the case simply with Man in his own Person without respecting the Mediator he were not able to answer one of a thousand Though we are his Servants as David was and perform a sincere Service yet there are many little Motes and Dust of Sin in the best Works that cannot lie undiscover'd from the Eye of his Holiness And if we come short in the least of what the Law requires we are guilty of all * James 2.10 So that in thy sight shall no man living be justified In the sight of thy Infinite Holiness which hates the least spot in the sight of thy Infinite Justice which punishes the least Transgression God would descend below his own Nature and vilifie both his Knowledge and Purity should he accept that for a Righteousness and Holiness which is not so in it self and nothing is so which hath the least stain upon it contrary to the Nature of God The most holy Saints in Scripture upon a prospect of his Purity have cast away all confidence in themselves every flash of the Divine Purity has struck them into a deep sense of their own Impurity and shame for it Job 42.6 Wherefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes What can the language of any Man be that lies under a sense of Infinite Holiness and his own Defilement in the least but that of the Prophet Isai 6.5 Wo is me I am undone And what is there in the World can administer any other thought than this unless God be considered in Christ reconciling the World to himself As a Holy God so righted as that he can dispense with the Condemnation of a Sinner without dispensing with his Hatred of Sin pardoning the Sin in the Criminal because it hath been punished in the Surety That Righteousness which God hath set forth for Justification is not our own but a Righteousness which is of God Phil. 3.9 10. of Gods appointing and of Gods performing appointed by the Father who is God and performed by the Son who is one with the Father A Righteousness surmounting that of all the glorious Angels since it is an Immutable one which can never fail an Everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 A Righteousness wherein the Holiness of God can acquiesce as considered in it self because it is a Righteousness of one equal with God As we therefore dishonour the Divine Majesty when we insist upon our own bemir'd Righteousness for our Justification as if a Mortal Man were as just as God and a Man as pure as his Maker Job 4.17 So we highly honour the Purity of his Nature when we charge our Selves with Folly acknowledge our selves Unclean and accept of that Righteousness which gives a full content to his Infinite Purity There can be no Justification of a Sinner by any thing in himself 7. It Inâ—orms us If Holiness be a glorious Perfection of the Divine Nature then the Deity of Christ might be argued from hence He is indeed dignified with the Title of the Holy One Acts 3.14 16. a Title often given to God in the Old Testament and he is called the Holy of Holies Dan. 9.24 but because the Angels seemed to be termed holy Ones Dan. 4.13 17. and the most Sacred place in the Temple was also called the Holy of Holies I shall not insist upon that But you find our Saviour particularly applauded by the Angels as Holy when this Perfection of the Divine Nature together with the Incommunicable Name of God are link'd together and ascrib'd to him Isai 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts and the whole Earth is full of his glory which the Apostle interprets of Christ John 12.39 41. Isaiah again He hath blinded their Eyes and hardned their Hearts that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their Hearts and be converted and I should heal them These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him He that Isaiah saw environ'd with the Seraphims in a Reverential posture before his face and praised as most Holy by them was the True and Eternal God such Acclamations belong to none but the great Jehovah God Blessed for ever But saith John It was the glory of Christ that Isaiah saw in this Vision Christ therefore is God blessed for ever of whom it was said Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts * Placeus de Deitat Chriâ—ti in locum The Evangelist had been speaking of Christ the Miracles which he wrought the obstinacy of the Jews against believing on him his Glory therefore is to be referred to the Subject he had been speaking of The Evangelist was not speaking of the Father but of the Son and cites those words out of Isaiah not to teach any thing of the Father but to shew that the Jews could not believe in Christ He speaks of Him that had wrought so many Miracles but Christ wrought those Miracles He speaks of him whom the Jews refused to believe on but Christ was the Person they would not believe on while they acknowledged God It was the Glory of this Person Isaiah saw and this Person Isaiah spake of if the Words of the Evangelist be of any credit The Angels are too holy to give Acclamations belonging to God to any but Him that is God 8. It Informs us that God is fully fit for the Government of the World The Righteousness of Gods Nature qualifies Him to be Judge of the World If he were not perfectly Righteous and Holy he were uncapable to govern and Judge the World Rom. 3.5 If there be unrighteousness with God how shall he judge the World God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgment Job
which this Book chiefly respects The meditation of his converting Grace manifested to Paul ravisht the Apostles heart but not without the triumphant consideration of his Immortality and Eternity which are the principal parts of the Doxology * 1 Tim. 1.15.16 17. Now unto the King Eternal immortal invisible only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever It could be no great transport to the Spirit to consider him glorious without considering him immortal The unconfinedness of his perfections in regard of time presents the Soul with matter of the greatest complacency The happiness of our Souls depends upon his other Attributes but the perpetuity of it upon his Eternity Is it a comfort to view his immense Wisdom his overflowing Goodness his tender Mercy his unerring Truth What comfort were there in any of those if it were a Wisdom that could be bafled a Goodness that could be dampt a Mercy that can expire and a Truth that can perish with the Subject of it Without Eternity what were all his other Perfections but as glorious yet withering Flowers a great but a decaying Beauty By a frequent meditation of Gods Eternity we should become more sensible of our own vanity and the worlds triflingness How nothing should our selves How nothing would all other things appear in our eyes How coldly should we desire them How feebly should we place any trust in them Should we not think our selves worthy of contempt to dote upon a perishing glory to expect support from an Arm of Flesh when there is an eternal Beauty to ravish us an eternal Arm to protect us Asaph when he considered God a Portion for ever thought nothing of the Glories of the Earth or the Beauties of the created Heavens worth his appetite or complacency but God * Psal 73.25 26 Besides an elevated frame of heart at the consideration of Gods Eternity would batter down the strong holds and engines of any temptation A slight temptation will not know where to find and catch hold of a Soul high and hid in a meditation of it and if it doth there will not be wanting from hence preservatives to resist and conquer it What transitory pleasures will not the thoughts of Gods Eternity stifle When this work busieth a Soul 't is too great to suffer it to descend to listen to a sleeveless errand from Hell or the World The wanton allurements of the Flesh will be put off with indignation The profers of the world will be ridiculous when they are cast into the Ballance with the Eternity of God which sticking in our thoughts we shall not be so easy a Prey for the Fowlers Ginn Let us therefore often meditate upon this but not in a bare speculation without engaging our affections and making every notion of the Divine Eternity end a in sutable impression upon our hearts This would be much like the Disciples gazing upon the Heavens at the ascension of their Master while they forgat the practice of his Orders * Acts 1.11 We may else find something of the nature of God and lose our selves not only in Eternity but to Eternity 2. And hence the second part of the Exhortation is to something which concerns us with a respect to God 1. If God be eternal How worthy is he of our choicest affections and strongest desires of communion with him Is not every thing to be valued according to the greatness of its Being How then should we love him who is not only lovely in his nature but eternally lovely having from everlasting all those perfections centred in himself which appear in time If every thing be lovely by how much the more it partakes of the nature of God who is the chief Good how much more infinitely lovely is God who is superior to all other goods and eternally so Not a God of a few minutes months years or millions of years not of the dreggs of time or the top of time but of Eternity above time unconceivably immense beyond time The loving him infinitely perpetually is an act of homage due to him for his eternal excellency We may give him the one since our Souls are immortal though we cannot the other because they are finite Since he encloseth in himself all the excellencies of Heaven and Earth for ever he should have an affection not only of time in this woâ—â—â— but of eternity in the future and if we did not owe him a love for what we are by him we owe him a love for what he is in himself and more for what he is than for what he is to us He is more worthy of our affections because he is the eternal God than because he is our Creator because he is more excellent in his nature than in his transient actions The beams of his goodness to us are to direct our thoughts and affections to him but his own eternal excellency ought to be the ground and foundation of our affections to him And truly since nothing but God is eternal nothing but God is worth the loving and we do but a just right to our love to pitch it upon that which can always possess us and be possessed by us upon an Object that cannot deceive our affection and put it out of countenance by a dissolution And if our happiness consists in being like to God we should imitate him in loving him as he loves himself and as long as he loves himself God cannot do more to himself than love himself he can make no addition to his Essence nor diminution from it What should we do less to an eternal Being than to bestow affections upon him like his own to himself since we can find nothing so durable as himself for which we should love it 2. He only is worthy of our best Service The Ancient of days is to be served before all that are younger than himself Our best obedience is due to him as a God of unconfined excellency Every thing that is excellent deserves a veneration sutable to its excellency As God is infinite he hath right to a boundless service as he is eternal he hath right to a perpetual service As Service is a debt of Justice upon the account of the excellency of his nature so a perpetual service is as much a debt of justice upon the account of his Eternity If God be infinite and eternal he merits an honour and comportment from his Creatures suted to the unlimited perfection of his Nature and the duration of his Being How worthy is the Psalmists resolution I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have any being * Psal 104.33 'T is the use he makes of the endless duration of the Glory of God and will extend to all other service as well as praise To serve other things or to serve our selves is too vast a service upon that which is nothing In devoting our selves to God we serve him that is that
new appearance the grace of God hath appeared * Tit. 1.11 6. Proposition A change of Laws by God argues no change in God when God abrogates some Laws which he had setled in the Church and enacts others I spake of this something the last day I shall only add this God commanded one thing to the Jews when the Church was in an infant state and removed those Laws when the Church came to some growth The Elements of the world were suted to the state of Children * Gal. 4.3 A Mother feeds not the Infant with the same diet as she doth when it is grown up Our Saviour acquainted not his Disciples with some things at one time which he did at another because they were not able to bear them Where was the change in Christs Will or in their growth from a state of weakness to that of strength A Physitian prescribes not the same thing to a person in health as he doth to one conflicting with a distemper nor the same thing in the beginning as he doth in the state or declination of the disease The Physicians Will and Skill are the same but the capacity and necessity of the Patient for this or that Medicine or method of proceeding are not the same VVhen God changed the Ceremonial Law there was no change in the Divine Will but an execution of his Will For when God commanded the observance of the Law he intended not the perpetuity of it nay in the Prophets he declares the cessation of it he decreed to command it but he decreed to command it only for such a time so that the abrogation of it was no less an execution of his Decree than the establishment of it for a season was The commanding of it was pursuant to his Decree for the appointing of it and the nulling of it was pursuant to his Decree of continuing it only for such a season So that in all this there was no change in the Will of God The Counsel of God stands sure what changes soever there are in the World are not in God or his Will but in the events of things and the different relations of things to God 'T is in the Creature not in the Creator The Sun alway remains of the same hue and is not discoloured in it self because it shines green through a green Glass and blew through a blew Glass the different colours come from the Glass not from the Sun The change is alway in the disposition of the Creature not in the Nature of God or his Will 5. Vse 1. For Information 1. If God be unchangeable in his Nature and Immutability be a Property of God Then Christ hath a Divine Nature This in the Psalm is applyed to Christ in the Hebrews Heb. 1.11 where he joyns the citation out of this Psalm with that out of Psalm 45.6 7. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oyl of Gladness above thy Fellows and thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth c. As the first must necessarily be meant of Christ the Mediator and therein he his distinguish'd from God as one anointed by him so the other must be meant of Christ whereby he is made one with God in regard of the Creation and Dissolution of the World in regard of Eternity and Immutability Both the Testimonies are linkt together by the Copulative and and thou Lord declaring thereby that they are both to be understood of the same Person the Son of God The design of the Chapter is to prove Christ to be God and such things are spoken of him as could not belong to any Creature no not to the most excellent of the Angels The same Person that is said to be anointed above his Fellows and is said to lay the Foundation of the Earth and Heavens is said to be the same that is the same in himself The Prerogative of sameness belongs to that Person as well as Creation of Heaven and Earth The Socinians say it is spoken of God and that God shall destroy the Heavens by Christ If so Christ is not a meer Creature not created when he was incarnate for the same Person that shall change the World did create the World If God shall change the world by him God also created the world by him He was then before the world was for how could God create the world by one that was not That was not in Being till after the Creation of the world The Heavens shall be changed but the Person who is to change the Heavens is said to be the same or unchangeable in the Creation as well as the Dissolution of of the world This sameness referrs to the whole Sentence * Placeus de deitate Christi The Psalm wherein the Text is and whence this in the Hebrews is cited is properly meant of Christ and Redemption by him and the compleating of it at the last day and not of the Babylonish captivity That captivity was not so deplorable as the state the Psalmist describes Daniel and his Companions flourished in that Captivity It could not reasonably be said of them that their days were consumed like Smoke their heart withered like Grass that they forgot to eat their Bread * as it is V. 3.4 Besides he complains of shortness of Life * V. 11. But none had any more reason to complain of that in the time of the Captivity than before and after it than at any other time Their Deliverance would contribute nothing to the natural length of their lives Besides when Sion should be built the Heathen should fear the Name of the Lord that is worship God and all the Kings of the Earth his Glory * V. 15. The rearing the second Temple after the deliverance did not proselyte the Nations nor did the Kings of the Earth worship the Glory of God nor did God appear in such Glory at the erecting the second Temple The second Temple was less glorious than the first for it wanted some of the Ornaments which were the Glory of the first But it is said of this state * Ver. 16. that when the Lord should build up Sion he should appear in his Glory his proper Glory and extraordinary Glory Now that God who shall appear in Glory and build up Sion is the Son of God the Redeemer of the World He builds up the Church he causes the Nations to fear the Lord and the Kings of the Earth his Glory He broke down the partition Wall and opened a Door for the entrance of the Gentiles He struck the Chains from off the Prisoners and loosed those that were appointed to death by the Curse of the Law * Ver. 20. And to this Person is ascribed the Creation of the World and he is pronounced to remain the same in the midst of an infinite number of changes in
Corruptions will certainly be subdued in his voluntary subjects The Covenant I will be your God implyes protection government and relief which are all grounded upon Soveraignty That therefore which is our greatest burden will be remov'd by his Soveraign power Micah 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities If the outward enemies of the Church shall not bear up against his Dominion and perpetuate their rebellions unpunisht those within his people shall as little bear up against his Throne without being destroy'd by him The billows of our own hearts and the raging waves within us are as much at his beck as those without us And his Soveraignty is more eminent in quelling the corruptions of the heart than the commotions of the World in reigning over mens Spirits by changing them or curbing them more than over mens bodies by pinching and punishing them The remainders of Satans Empire will moulder away before him since he that is in us is a greater Soveraign than he that is in the World 1 Joh. 4.4 His enemies will be laid at his feet and so neveâ— shall prevail against him when his Kingdom shall come He could not be Lord of any man as a happy creature if he did not by his power make them happy and he could not make them happy unless by his Grace he made them holy He could not be praised as a Lord of Glory if he did not make some creatures glorious to praise him And an Earthly Creature could not praise him perfectly unless he had every grain of enmity to his Glory taken out of his heart Since God is the only Soveraign he only can still the commotions in our spirits and pull down all the Ensigns of the Devil's royalty he can wast him by the powerful word of his lips 4. Hence is a strong encouragement for Prayer My King was the strong compellation David us'd in Prayer as an argument of comfort and confidence as well as that of My God Psal 5 2. Hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God To be a King is to have an Office of Government and Protection He gives us liberty to approach to him as the Judge of all Heb. 12.23 i. e. As the Governour of the World we pray to one that hath the whole Globe of Heaven and Earth in his hand and can do whatsoever he will Though he be higher than the Cherubims and transcendently above all in Majesty yet we may soar up to him with the wings of our Soul Faith and Love and lay open our cause and find him as gracious as if he were the meanest subject on Earth rather than the most soveraign God in Heaven He hath as much of tenderness as he hath of Authority and is pleased with Prayer which is an acknowledgment of his Dominion an honouring of that which he delights to honour For Prayer in the notion of it imports thus much that God is the Rector of the World that he takes notice of humane affairs that he is a careful just wise Governour a store-house of blessing a fountain of goodness to the indigent and a releif to the oppressed What have we reason to fear when the soveraign of the World gives us liberty to approach to him and lay open our case That God who is King of the whole Earth not only of a few Villages or Cities in the Earth but the whole Earth and not only King of this dreggy place of our dross but of Heaven having prepar'd or established his Throne in the most glorious place of the Creation 5. Here is comfort in afflictions As a soveraign he is the Author of Afflictions as a soveraign he can be the remover of them he can command the waters of affliction to go so far and no farther If he speaks the Word a disease shall depart as soon as a servant shall from your presence with a Nod. If we are banisht from one place he can command a shelter for us in another If he orders Moab a Nation that had no great kindness for his people to let his outcasts dwell with them they shall entertain them and afford them sanctuary Isaiah 16.4 Again God chastneth as a soveraign but teacheth as a Father Psal 99.12 The exercise of his Authority is not without an exercise of his goodness He doth not correct for his own pleasure or the Creature 's torment but for the Creature 's instruction though the rod be in the hand of a soveraign yet it is tinctur'd with the kindness of divine bowels He can order them as a soveraign to mortifie our flesh and try our Faith In the severest tempest the Lord that rais'd the Wind against us which shatter'd the ship and tore its rigging can change that contrary wind for a more happy one to drive us into the Port. 6. 'T is a comfort against the projects of the Churches adversaries in times of publick commotions The consideration of the Divine soveraignty may arm us against the threatnings of mighty ones and the menaces of persecutors God hath Authority above the Crowns of men and a Wisdom superior to the cabals of men None can move a step without him he hath a negative voice upon their Counsels a negative hand upon their motions their politick resolves must stop at the point he hath prescrib'd them Their formidable strength cannot exceed the limits he hath set them their overreaching wisdom expires at the breath of God There is no Wisdom nor Vnderstanding nor Counsel against the Lord. Prov. 21.30 Not a bullet can be discharg'd nor a Sword drawn a wall battered nor a person dispatcht out of the world without the leave of God by the mightiest in the World The instruments of Satan are no more free from his soveraign restraint than their inspirer they cannot pull the hook out of their nostrils nor cast the bridle out of their mouths This soveraign can shake the Earth rend the Heavens overthrow Mountains the most Mountainous opposers of his interest Though the Nations rush in against his people like the rushing of many waters God shall rebuke them they shall be chased as the chaff of the Mountains before the Wind and like a rolling thing before the Whirlwind Isaiah 17.13 So doth he often burst in pieces the most mischievous designs and conducts the oppressed to a happy port He often turns the severest tempests into a calm as well as the most peaceful calm into a horrible storm How often hath a well-rigg'd ship that seemed to spâ—rn the Sea under her feet and beat the waves before her to a foam been swallowed up into the bowels of that Element over whose back she rode a little before God never comes to deliver his Church as a Governour but in a wrathful posture Ezek. 20.23 Surely saith the Lord with a mighty hand and with an out stretched arm and with fury pour'd out will I rule over you not with fury poured out upon the Church but fury pour'd out upon her Enemies as the words
when he describes him in his Wrath and Fury and is Furious Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord of hot Anger God will vindicate his own Glory and have his right on his Enemies in a way of punishment if they will not give it him in a way of Obedience * Ribera in loc 'T is three times repeated to shew the certainty of the judgment And the name of Lord added to every one to intimate the Power wherewith the Judgment should be executed 'T is not a Fatherly correction of Children in a way of Mercy but an offended soveraigns destruction of his Enemies in a way of vengeance There is an anger of God with his own people which hath more of Mercy than Wrath in this his Rod is guided by his bowels There is a fury of God against his Enemies where there is sole Wrath without any tincture of Mercy when his Sword is all edge without any Balsom-drops upon it Such a fury as David deprecates Psal 6.1 Oh Lord rebuke me not in thy Anger nor chasten me in thy sore displeasure with a fury untempered with Grace and insupportable Wrath. He reserves Wrath for his Enemies He lays it up in his Treasury to be brought out and expended in a due season Wrath is supplied by our Translators and is not in the Hebrew He reserves what that which is too sharp to be exprest too great to be conceiv'd A vengeance it is And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He reserves it He that hath an infinite Wrath he reserves it that hath a strength and power to execute it VERSE 3. The Lord is slow to Anger Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of broad Nostrils The Anger of God is exprest by this word which signifies Nostrils As Job 9.13 If God will not withdraw his Anger Heb. his nostril And the Anger whereby the wicked are consum'd is called the breath of Nostrils Job 4.9 and when he is angry smoak and fire are said to go out of his Nostrils 2 Sam. 2.9 and in the 74th Psalm 1. Why doth thy anger smoak Heb. Why do thy Nostrils smoak So the rage of a Horse when he is provokt in battle is call'd the Glory of his Nostrils Job 39.20 He breaths quick fumes and neighs with fury And slowness to anger is here exprest by the phrase of long or wide Nostrils Because in a vehement anger the blood boyling about the heart exhales mens Spirits which fume up and break out in dilated Nostrils But where the passages are straiter the spirits have not so quick a vent and therefore raise more motions within Or because the wider the Nostrils are the more cool Air is drawn in to temper the heat of the heart where the angry spirits are gather'd And so the passion is allay'd and sooner calm'd God speaks of himself in Scripture often after the rate of Men Jeremy prays Jer. 15.15 That God would not take him away in his long-suffering Heb. in the length of his Nostrils i. e. Be not slow and backward in thy anger against my Persecutors as to give them time and opportunity to destroy me The Nostrils as well as other members of a humane Body are ascribed to God He is slow to anger he hath anger in his nature but is not always in the execution of it And great in Power This may referre to his Patience as the cause of it or as a barr to the abuse of it 1. He is slow to anger and great in power i. e. his power moderates his Anger he is not so impotent as to be at the command of his passions as men are He can restrain his anger under just provocations to exercise it His power over himself is the cause of his slowness to wrath As Numb 14.17 Let the power of my Lord be great saith Moses when he pleads for the Israelites pardon Men that are great in the World are quick in passions and are not so ready to forgive an injury or bear with an offender as one of a meaner rank 'T is a want of a power over a mans self that makes him do unbecoming things upon a provocation A Prince that can bridle his passion is a King over himself as well as over his Subjects God is slow to Anger because great in Power He hath no less power over himself than over his Creatures He can sustain great injuries without an immediate and quick revenge He hath a power of Patience as well as a power of Justice 2. Or thus he is slow to Anger and great in Power He is slow to Anger but not for want of Power to revenge himself his Power is as great to punish as his Patience to spare It seems thus that slowness to Anger is brought in as an objection against the revenge proclaimed What do you tell us of vengeance vengeance nothing but such repetitions of vengeance As though we were ignorant that God is slow to Anger 'T is true saith the Prophet I acknowledge it as much as you that God is slow to Anger but withall great in Power His Anger certainly succeeds his abus'd Patience he will not always bridle in his Wrath but one time or other let it march out in fury against his Adversaries The Assyrians who had captiv'd the Ten Tribes and been victorious a little against the Jews might think that the God of Israel had been conquered by their Gods as well as the People professing him had been subdued by their arms That God had lost all his power and the Jews might argue from Gods Patience to his Enemies against the credit of the Prophets denouncing revenge The Prophet answers to the terror of the one and the comfort of the other That this indulgence to his Enemies and not accounting with them for their Crimes proceeded from the greatness of his Patience and not from any debility in his power As it refers to the Assyrian it may be rendered thus You Ninivites upon your Repentance after Jonahs thundring of Judgments are Witnesses of the slowness of God to Anger and had your punishments deferr'd But falling to your old sins you shall find a real punishment and that he hath as much Power to execute his ancient threatnings as he had then compassion to recall them His Patience to you then was not for want of power to ruine you but was the effect of his goodness towards you As it refers to the Jews it may be thus paraphrased do not despise this threatning against your Enemies because of the greatness of their might the seeming stability of their Empire and the terror they posseâ—s all the Nations with round about them It may be long before it comes but assure your selves the threatning I denounce shall certainly be executed though he hath Patience to endure them a hundred thirty five years for so long it was before Nineveh was destroy'd after this threatning as * p. 359. col 1â— Ribera in loc computes from the years of the reign of the Kings of Judah
SEVERAL DISCOURSES UPON THE EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. By that late Eminent Minister of Christ Mr. STEPHEN CHARNOCKE B. D. And sometimes Fellow of New-Colledge in Oxon. LONDON Printed for D. Newman T. Cockerill Benj. Griffin T. Simmons and Benj. Alsop M DC LXXXII TO THE READER THIS long since promised and greatly expected Volume of the Reverend Authour upon the Divine Attributes being Transcribed out of his own Manuscripts by the unwearied diligence of those worthy Persons that undertook it Mr. J. Wichens Mr. Ashton is now at last come to thy hands Doubt not but thy Reading will pay for thy waiting and thy satisfaction make full compensation for thy patience In the Epistle before his Treatise of Providence it was intimated that his following Discourses would not be inferiour to that and we are perswaded that ere thou hast perused one half of this thou wilt acknowledge that it was modestly spoken Enough assure thy self thou wilt find here for thy entertainment and delight as well as profit The sublimeness variety and rareness of the Truths here handled together with the elegancy of the Composure neatness of the Style and whatever is wont to make any Book desirable will all concur in the recommendation of this What so high and noble a Subject what so fit for his Meditations or thine as the highest and noblest Being and those transcendently glorious Perfections wherewith he is clothed A meer Contemplation of the Divine Excellencies may afford much pleasure to any man that loves to exercise his Reason and is addicted to speculation But what incomparable sweetness then will holy Souls find in viewing and considering those Perfections now which they are more fully to behold hereafter and seeing what manner of God how wise and powerful how great and good and holy is he in whom the Covenant interests them and in the enjoyment of whom their happiness consists If rich men delight to sum up their vast Revenues to read over their Rentals look upon their Hoords if they bless themselves in their great Wealth or to use the Prophets words Jer. 9.23 glory in their Riches well may Believers rejoyce and glory in their knowing the Lord vers 24. and please themselves in seeing how rich they are in having an immensely full and All-sufficient God for their Inheritance Alas how little do most men know of that Deity they profess to serve and own not as their Soveraign only but their Portion To such this Author might say Acts 17.23 as Paul to the Athenians Whom you ignorantly worship him declare I unto you These Treatises Reader will inform thee who he is whom thou callest thine present thee with a view of thy chief good and make thee value thy self a thousand times more upon thy interest in God than upon all external Accomplishments and worldly Possessions Who but delights to hear well of one whom he loves God is thy Love if thou be a Believer and then it cannot but fill thee with delight and ravishment to hear so much spoken in his Praise David desired to dwell in the House of the Lord that he might there behold his beauty How much of that beauty if thou art but capable of seeing it mayest thou behold in this Volume which was our Author's main business for about three years before he died to display before his hearers True indeed the Lord's Glory as shining forth before his heavenly Courtiers above is unapproachable by mortal Men but what of it is visible in his Works Creation Providence Redemption falls under the cognizance of his Inferiour Subjects here and this is in a great measure presented to view in these Discourses and so much we may well say as may by the help of Grace be effectual to raise thy Admiration attract thy Love provoke thy Desires and enable thee to make some guess at what is yet unseen and why not likewise to clear thy Eyes and prepare them for future sight as well as turn them away from the contemptible Vanities of this present Life Whatever is glorious in this World yet as the Apostle in another case hath no glory by reason of the glory that excels 2 Cor. 3.10 This excellent Glory is the Subject of this Book to which all Created Beauty is but meer shadow and duskyness If thy Eyes be well fixed on this they will not be easily drawn to wander after other Objects If thy heart be taken with God it will be mortified to every thing that is not God But thou hast in this Book not only an excellent Subject in the general but great variety of Matter for the employment of thy Understanding as well as enlivening thy Affections and that too such as thou wilt not readily find elsewhere many excellent things which are out of the rode of ordinary Preachers and Writers and which may be grateful to the Curious no less than satisfactory to the Wise and Judicious It is not therefore a Book to be play'd with or slept over but read with the most intent and serious Mind for though it afford much pleasure for the Phancy yet much more work for the heart and hath indeed enough in it to busie all the Faculties The Dress is compt and decent yet not garish nor Theatrical the Rhetorick masculine and vigorous such as became a Pulpit and was never borrowed from the Stage the Expressions full clear apt and such as are best suted to the weightiness and spirituality of the Truths here delivered 'T is plain he was no empty Preacher but was more for sense than sound filled up his words with matter and chose rather to inform his Hearers Minds than to claw any itching Ears Yet we will not say but some little things a Word or a Phrase now and then he may have which no doubt had he lived to Transcribe his own Sermons he would have altered If in some lesser matters he differ from thee it is but in such as Godly and Learned Men do frequently and may without breach of Charity differ in among themselves in some things he may differ from us too and it may be we from each other and where are there any two Persons who have in all especially the more disputable Points of Religion exactly the same Sentiments at least express themselves altogether in the same terms But this we must say that though he treat of many of the most abstruse and mysterious Doctrines of Christianity which are the Subjects of great Debates and Controversies in the World yet we find no one material thing in which he may justly be called Heterodox unless old Heresies be of late grown Orthodox and his differing from them must make him faulty but generally delivers as in his * Treatise of Providence and of Thoughts former Pieces what is most consonant to the Faith of This and other the best Reformed Churches He was not indeed for that Modern Divinity which is so much in vogue with some who would be counted the
only sound Divines having tasted the old he did not desire the new but said the old is better Some Errours especially the Socinian he sets himself industriously against and cuts the very Sinews of them yet sometimes almost without naming them In the Doctrinal Part of several of his Discourses thou wilt find the depth of Polemical Divinity and in his Inferences from thence the sweetness of Practical some things which may exercise the profoundest Scholar and others which may instruct and edifie the weakest Christian nothing is more nervous than his Reasonings and nothing more affecting than his Applications Though he make great use of Schoolmen yet they are certainly more beholden to him than he to them he adopts their Notions but he refines them too and improves them and reforms them from the barbarousness in which they were expressed and dresseth them up in his own Language so far as the nature of the matter will permit and more clear terms are to be found and so makes them intelligible to Vulgar Capacities which in their original rudeness were obscure and strange even to Learned Heads In a word he handles the great Truths of the Gospel with that Perspicuity Gravity and Majesty which best becomes the Oracles of God and we have reason to believe that no judicious and unbiassed Reader but will acknowledge this to be incomparably the best practical Treatise the World ever saw in English upon this Subject What Dr. Jackson did to whom our Authour gave all due respect was more brief and in another way Dr. Preston did worthily upon the Attributes in his day but his Discourses likewise are more succinct when this Authours are more full and large But whatever were the mind of God in it it was not his Will that either of these two should live to finish what he had begun both being taken away when Preaching upon this Subject Happy Souls whose last breath was spent in so noble a Work * Psal 146.2 praising God while they had any being His Method is much the same in most of these Discourses both in the Doctrinal and Practical Part which will make the whole more plain and facile to ordinary Readers He rarely makes Objections and yet frequently answers them by implying them in those Propositions he lays down for the clearing up the Truths he asserts His Dexterity is admirable in the Applicatory Work where he not only brings down the highest Doctrines to the lowest Capacities but collects great varietie of proper pertinent useful and yet many times unthought of Inferences and that from those Truths which however they afford much matter for Inquisition and Speculation yet might seem unless to the most intelligent and judicious Christians to have a more remote influence upon Practice He is not like some School Writers who attenuate and rarefie the Matter they Discourse of to a degree bordering upon Annihilation at least beat it so thin that a puff of breath may blow it away spin their Thred so fine that the Cloth when made up proves useless Solidity dwindles into Niceties and what we thought we had got by their Assertions we lose by their Distinctions But if our Author have some Subtilties and superfine Notions in his Argumentations yet he condenseth them again and consolidates them into substantial and profitable Corolaries in his Applications And in them his main business is as to discipline a prophane World for its neglect of God and contempt of him in his most adorable and shining Perfections so likewise to shew how the Divine Attributes are not only infinitely excellent in themselves but a grand Foundation for all true Divine Worship and should be the great Motives to provoke men to the exercise of Faith and Love and Fear and Humility and all that holy Obedience they are called to by the Gospel And this without peradventure is the great end of all those rich Discoveries God hath in his Word made of himself to us And Reader if these elaborate Discourses of this holy Man through the Lord's blessing become a means of promoting Holiness in thee Psal 109.1 and stir thee up to love and live to the God of his praise we are well assured that his end in Preaching them is answered and so is ours in publishing them Thine in the Lord EDW. VEEL RI. ADAMS The several Discourses in this Volume VIZ. Page 1. 47. THE Existence of God and Practical Atheism from Psal 14.1 The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God c. Page 109. 129. God a Spirit and Spiritual Worship from John 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Page 179. The Eternity of God from Psal 90.2 Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World Even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Page 203. The Immutability of God From Psal 102 26 27. They shall perish but thou shalt endure Yea all of them shall wax old like a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end Page 241. The Omnipresence of God from Jer. 23.24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Page 272. God's Infinite Knowledge from Psal 147.5 Great is our Lord and of great Power His Vnderstanding is infinite Page 341. God's Infinite Wisdom from Rom. 16.27 To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen Page 417. God's Infinite Power from Job 26.14 Lo these are parts of his ways but how little a portion is heard of him But the Thunder of his Power who can understand Page 493. God's Infinite Holiness From Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods Who is like thee glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Page 577. God's Infinite Goodness from Mark 10.18 And Jesus said unto him Why callest thou me good There is none good but one that is God Page 697. The Dominion of God from Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all Page 787. God's Infinite Patience from Nahum 1.3 The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power and will not all acquit the Wicked The Lord hath his way in the Whirlwind and in the Storm and the Clouds are the Dust of his feet A DISCOURSE UPON THE Existence of God Psalm 14.1 The fool hath said in his heart there is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable Works there is none that doth good THIS Psalm is a description of the deplorable corruption by Nature of every Son of Adam since the withering of that Common Root Some restrain it to the Gentiles as a Wilderness full of Bryars and Thorns as not concerning the Jews the Garden of God planted by his Grace and watered by the Dew of Heaven
sense and those that have life and sense are made for those that are endued with reason When the Psalmist admiringly considers the Heavens Moon and Starrs he intimates man to be the end for which they were Created Psal 8.3 4. What is man that thou art mindful of him He expresseth more particularly the Dominion that Man hath over the beasts of the field the fowl of the Air and whatsoever passes through the paths of the Sea vers 6.7.8 and concludes from thence the excellency of Gods Name in all the Earth All things in the World one way or other Center in an usefulness for man some to feed him some to clothe him some to delight him others to instruct him some to exercise his wit and others his strength Since man did not make them he did not also order them for his own use If they conspire to serve him who never made them they direct man to acknowledge an other who is the joynt Creator both of the Lord and the Servants under his Dominion And therefore as the inferior natures are ordered by an invisible hand for the good of man so the nature of man is by the same hand ordered to acknowledge the Existence and the glory of the Creator of him This visible order man knows he did not constitute he did not settle those Creatures in subserviency to himself they were placed in that order before he had any acquaintance with them or Existence of himself which is a question God puts to Job to consider of Job 38.4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding All is ordered for Mans use the Heavens answer to the Earth as a roof to a floor both composing a delightful habitation for man vapors ascend from the Earth and the Heaven concocts them and returns them back in welcome showers for the supplying of the Earth * Jer. 10.13 The light of the Sun descends to beautifie the Earth and imploys its heat to midwife its fruits and this for the good of the community whereof Man is the head and though all Creatures have distinct natures and must act for particular ends according to the Law of their Creation yet there is a joynt combination for the good of the whole as the common end just as all the Rivers in the world from what part soever they come whether North or South fall into the Sea for the supply of that mass of waters which loudly proclaims some infinitely wise nature who made those things in so exact an harmony * Morn de verit cap. 1. pag. 7. As in a Clock the hammer which strikes the bell leads us to the next Wheel that to another the little wheel to a greater whence it derives its motion this at last to the spring which acquaints us that there was some Artist that framed them in this subordination to one another for this orderly motion 4. This order or Subserviency is regular and uniforme Every thing is determined to its peculiar nature * Amiraut The Sun and Moon make day and night months and years determine the seasons never are defective in coming back to their station and place they wander not from their Roads shock not against one another nor hinder one another in the functions assigned them From a small grain or seed a Tree springs with body root bark leaves fruit of the same shape figure smell tast that there should be as many parts in one as in all of the same kind and no more and that in the Womb of a sensitive Creature should be formed one of the same kind with all the due members and no more and the Creature that produceth it knows not how it is formed or how t is perfected If we say this is nature this nature is an intelligent being if not how can it direct all causes to such uniforme ends If it be intelligent this nature must be the same we call God Who ordered every herb to yeild seed and every fruit-Tree to yeild fruit after its kind and also every Beast and every creeping thing after its kind Gen. 11 12 24. And every thing is determined to its particular season The sap riseth from the Root at its appointed time enlivening and cloathing the branches with a new Garment at such a time of the Suns returning not wholly hindered by any accidental coldness of the weather it being often colder at its return than it was at the Suns departure All things have their Seasons of flourishing budding blossoming bringing forth fruit they ripen in their seasons cast their leaves at the same time throw off their old cloaths and in the spring appear with new Garments but still in the same fashion * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 77. The Winds and the Rain have their seasons and seem to be administred by laws for the profit of man No satisfactory cause of those things can be ascribed to the Earth the Sea to the Air or Stars Can any understand the spreading of his clouds or the noise of his Tabernacle Job 38.29 The natural reason of those things cannot be demonstrated without recourse to an infinite and intelligent being Nothing can be rendred capable of the direction of those things but a God This regularity in Plants and Animals is in all Nations The Heavens have the same motion in all parts of the world all men have the same Law of nature in their mind all Creatures are stampt with the same law of Creation In all parts the same Creatures serve for the same use and though there be different Creatures in India and Europe yet they have the same subordination the same subserviency to one another and ultimately to man which shows that there is a God and but one God who tunes all those different strings to the same notes in all places Is it nature meerly conducts these natural causes in due measures to their proper effects without interfering with one another Can meer nature be the cause of those musical proportions of time You may as well conceive a Lute to sound its own strings without the hand of an Artist a City well Governed without a Governor an Army keep its Stations without a General as imagine so exact an order without an Orderer Would any Man when he hears a Clock strike by sit intervals the hour of the day imagine this regularity in it without the direction of one that had understanding to manage it He would not only regard the motion of the Clock but commend the diligence of the Clock-Keeper 5. This order and Subserviency is constant Children change the customes and manners of their Fathers Magistrats change the Laws they have received from their Ancestors and enact new ones in their room But in the world all things consist as they were created at the beginning The Law of nature in the Creatures hath met with no change * Petav. ex Athanas Tâ—eol Dog tom 1. lib. 1.
Friend to our lusts and then dig deep into the Scripture to find Crutches to support it and authorize our practices When men will thank God for what they have got by unlawful means Fathering the fruit of their cheating craft and the simplicity of their Chapmen upon God Crediting their Cousenage by his Name as men do brass mony with a thin plate of silver and the stamp and image of the Prince The Jews urge the Law of God for the crucifying his Son John 19.7 We have a Law and by that Law he is to dye And would make him a Party in their private Revenge * Sanaerson's S. Part. 2. P. 158. Thus often when we have faultered in some actions we wipe our mouths as if we sought God more than our own interest prostituting the sacred Name and Honour of God either to hatch or defend some unworthy lust against his Word Is not all this a high degree of Atheism 1. 'T is a vilifying God an abuse of the highest good Other sins subject the Creature and outward things to them but acting in Religious services for self subjects not only the highest concernments of mens Souls but the Creator himself to the Creature Nay to make God contribute to that which is the pleasure of the Devil A greater slight than to cast the gifts of a Prince to a Herd of nasty Swine It were more excusable to serve our selves of God upon the higher accounts such that materially conduce to his glory but it is an intolerable wrong to make Him and his Ordinances Caterers for our own bellies as they did * Hos â—8 13 Vid. Cocc in locum They sacrificed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the Offerer might eat not out of any reference to God but love to their Gluttony not to please him but feast themselves The Belly was truly made the God when God was served only in order to the Belly As though the blessed God had his Being and his Ordinances were enjoyned to pleasure their foolish and wanton Appetites As though the Work of God were only to patronize unrighteous ends and be as bad as themselves and become a Pander to their corrupt affections 2. Because it is a vilifying of God It is an undeifying or dethroning God 'T is an acting as if we were the Lords and God our Vassal A setting up those secular ends in the place of God who ought to be our ultimate end in every action to whom a glory is as due as his mercy to us is utterly unmerited by us He that thinks to cheat and put the Fool upon God by his pretences doth not heartily believe there is such a Being He could not have the Notion of a God without that of Omniscience and Justice an eye to see the cheat and an Arm to punish it The Notion of the one would direct him in the manner of his Services and the Sense of the other would scare him from the cherishing his unworthy ends He that serves God with a sole respect to himself is prepared for any Idolatry his Religion shall warp with the times and his interest he shall deny the true God for an Idol when his worldly interest shall advise him to it and pay the same Reverence to the basest Image which he pretends now to pay to God As the Israelites were as real for Idolatry under their basest Princes as they were Pretenders to the true Religion under those that were Pious Before I come to the use of this give me leave to evince this practical Atheism by two other Considerations 1. Vnworthy Imaginations of God The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God That is he is not such a God as you report him to be This is meant by their being corrupt in the 2. v. corrupt being taken for playing the Idolaters Exod. 32.7 We cannot comprehend God if we could we should cease to be finite and because we cannot comprehend him we erect strange Images of him in our fancies and affections And since guilt came upon us because we cannot root out the Notions of God we would debase the Majesty and Nature of God that we may have some ease in our Consciences and lye down with some comfort in the sparks of our own kindling This is universal in men by Nature God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 Not in any of his thoughts according to the excellency of his Nature and greatness of his Majesty As the Heathen did not glorify God as God so neither do they conceive of God as God They are all infected with some one or other ill opinion of him thinking him not so holy powerful just good as he is and as the natural force of a human understanding might arrive to VVe joyn a new Notion of God in our vain fancies and represent him not as he is but as we would have him to be fit for our own use and suted to our own pleasure VVe set that active power of imagination on work and there comes out a God a Calf whom we own for a Notion of God Adam cast him into so narrow a mould as to think that himself who had newly sprouted up by his Almighty power was fit to be his Corrival in knowledge and had vain hopes to grasp as much as infiniteness If he in his first declining begun to have such a conceit t is no doubt but we have as bad under a mass of Corruption VVhen holy Agur speaks of God he crys out that he had not the understanding of a Man nor the knowledge of the holy * Pro. 30.2.3 He did not think rationally of God as Man might by his strength at his first Creation There are as many Carved Images of God as there are minds of Men and as monstrous shapes as those Corruptions into which they would transform him Hence sprang 1. Idolatry Vain Imaginations first set afloat and kept up this in the world * Rom. 1 2â—.23 Vain Imaginations of the God whose glory they changed into the Image of corruptible Man They had set up vain Images of him in their fancy before they set up Idolatrous representations of him in their Temples The likening him to those Idols of Wood and Stone and various metals were the fruit of an Idea Erected in their own minds This is a mighty debasing the Divine nature and rendring him no better than that base and stupid matter they make the visible object of their adoration equalling him with those base Creatures they think worthy to be the representations of him Yet how far did this Crime spread it self in all Corners of the world not only among the more barbarous and Ignorant but the more polisht and Civilized Nations Judea only where God had placed the Ark of his presence being free from it in some intervals of time only after some sweeping Judgment And tho they vomited up their Idols undersome sharp scourge they licked them up again after the Heavens were
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
have all the Utensils of the Sanctuary employed about his service to be holy The Inwards of the Sacrifice were to be rinsed thrice * As the Jewish Doctors observe on Lev. 1.9 The Crop and Feathers of sacrificed Doves was to be hung Eastward towards the entrance of the Temple at a distance from the Holy of Holies where the presence of God was most eminent * Lev. 1.16 When Aaron was to go into the Holy of Holies he was to sanctifie himself in an extraordinary manner * Lev. 16.4 The Priests were to be bare footed in the Temple in the exercise of their Office shoes alway were to be put off upon holy ground Look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God saith the wise man Eccles 5.1 Strip the affections the feet of the Soul of all the dirt contracted discard all earthly and base thoughts from the heart A Beast was not to touch the Mount Sinai without losing his Life Nor can we come near the Throne with brutish affections without losing the life and fruit of the worship An unholy Soul degrades himself from a Spirit to a Brute and the worship from spiritual to brutish If any unmortified sin be found in the Life as it was in the comers to the Temple It taints and pollutes the Worship * Isa 1.15 All worship is an acknowledgment of the excellency of God as he is holy * Jer. 7.9 10. Hence it is called a sanctifying Gods Name How can any person sanctifie Gods Name that hath not a holy resemblance to his Nature If he be not holy as he is holy he cannot worship him according to his excellency in Spirit and in Truth No worship is spiritual wherein we have not a communion with God But what intercourse can there be between a holy God and an impure Creature between Light and Darkness We have no fellowship with him in any service unless we walk in the Light in service and out of service as he is Light * 1 John 1.7 The Heathen thought not their Sacrifices agreeable to God without washing their hands whereby they signified the preparation of their hearts before they made the Oblation Clean hands without a pure heart signify nothing The frame of our hearts must answer the purity of the outward Symbols Psal 26.6 I will wash my hands in Innocence so will I compass thine Altar oh Lord He would observe the appointed Ceremonies but not without cleansing his heart as well as his hands Vain Man is apt to rest upon outward acts and rites of worship But this must alway be practised The words are in the present Tense I wash I compass Purity in worship ought to be our continual Care If we would perform a spiritual service wherein we would have communion with God it must be in Holiness If we would walk with Christ it must be in white * Revel 3.4 alluding to the white Garments the Priests put on when they went to perform their service As without this we cannot see God in Heaven so neither can we see the beauty of God in his own Ordinances 11. Spiritual worship is performed with spiritual ends with raised aims at the glory of God No duty can be spiritual that hath a carnal aim Where God is the sole Object he ought to be the principal End In all our actions he is to be our End as he is the principle of our Being much more in Religious Acts as he is the Object of our worship The worship of God in Scripture is exprest by the seeking of him * Heb. 11.6 Him not our selves all is to be referred to God As we are not to live to our selves that being the sign of a carnal state so we are not to worship for our selves Rom. 14.7 8. As all actions are denominated good from their end as well as their object so upon the same account they are denominated spiritual The end spiritualizeth our natural actions much more our religious Then are our faculties devoted to him when they center in him If the intention be evil there is nothing but darkness in the whole service Luke 11.34 The first institution of the Sabbath the solemn day for worship was to contemplate the glory of God in his stupendous works of Creation and render him a homage for them Revel 4.11 Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive Honour Glory and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created No worship can be returned without a glorifying of God and we cannot actually glorify him without direct aims at the promoting his honour As we have immediately to do with God so we are immediately to mind the praise of God As we are not to content our selves with habitual grace but be rich in the exercise of it in worship so we are not to acquiesce in habitual aims at the glory of God without the actual outflowings of our hearts in those aims 'T is natural for Man to worship God for self Self-righteousness is the rooted aim of Man in his worship since his revolt from God and being sensible it is not to be found in his natural actions he speaks for it in his moral and religious By the first Pride we flung God off from being our Soveraign and from being our end since a Pharisaical Spirit struts it in nature not only to do things to be seen of men but to be admired by God Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted and thou takest no knowledge This is to have God worship them instead of being worshipped by them Cain's carriage after his Sacrifice testified some base end in his worship he came not to God as a Subject to a Soveraign but as if he had been the Soveraign and God the Subject and when his design is not answered and his desire not gratified he proves more a Rebel to God and a Murderer of his Brother Such base scents will rise up in our worship from the body of death which cleaves to us and mix themselves with our services as Weeds with the Fish in the Net David therefore after his People had offered willingly to the Temple beggs of God that their hearts might be prepared to him * 1 Cron. 29.18 that their hearts might stand right to God without any squinting to self-ends Some present themselves to God as poor men offer a present to a great person not to honour him but to gain for themselves a reward richer than their gift What profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance c Mal. 3.14 Some worship him intending thereby to make him amends for the wrong they have done him wipe off their scores and satisfie their debts as though a spiritual wrong could be recompensed with a bodily service and an infinite Spirit be outwitted and appeased by a carnal flattery Self is the Spirit of Carnality To pretend a homage to God and intend only the advantage of self is rather
Majesty of God and the reason of a Creature to give him a trivial thing 'T is unworthy to bestow the best of our strength on our Lust and the worst and weakest in the service of God An infinite Spirit should have affections as near to infinite as we can As he is a Spirit without bounds so he should have a service without limits When we have given him all we cannot serve him according to the excellency of his nature * Josh 24.19 and shall we give him less than all His infinite excellency and our dependance on him as Creatures demands the choicest adoration Our Spirits being the noblest part of our nature are as due to him as the service of our bodies which are the vilest To serve him with the worst only is to diminish his honour 2. Vnder the Law God commanded the best to be offered him He would have the Males the best of the kind the fat the best of the Creature * Exod. 29.13 The inward fat not the of-fails He commanded them to offer him the Firstlings of the flock not the Firstlings of the Womb but the Firstlings of the Year The Jewish Cattle having two breeding times in the beginning of the Spring and the beginning of September The latter breed was the weaker which Jacob knew * Gen. 30. when he laid the Rods before the Cattle when they were strong in the Spring and witheld them when they were feeble in the Autumn One reason as the Jews say why God accepted not the offering of Cain was because he brought the meanest not the best of the fruit and therefore 't is said only that he brought of the fruit of the Ground Gen. 4.3 not the first of the fruit or the best of the fruit as Abel who brought the Firstling of his Flock and the Fat thereof v. 4. 3. And this the Heathen practiced by the light of Nature They for the most part offered Males as being more worthy and burnt the Male not the Female Frank incense as it is divided into those two kinds They offered the best when they offered their Children to Molock Nothing more excellent than Man and nothing dearer to Parents than their Children which are parts of themselves When the Israelites would have a Golden-Calf for a representation of God they would dedicate their Jewels and strip their Wives and Children of their richest Ornaments to shew their devotion Shall men serve their dumb Idols with the best of their substance and the strength of their Souls and shall the living God have a duller service from us than Idols had from them God requires no such hard but delightful worship from us our spirits 4. All Creatures serve Man by the providential order of God with the best they have As we by Gods appointment receive from Creatures the best they can give ought we not with a free will render to God the best we can offer The Beasts give us their best Fat the Trees their best Fruit the Sun its best Light the Fountains their best Streams Shall God order us the best from Creatures and we put him off with the worst from our selves 5. God hath given us the choicest thing he had A Redeemer that was the Power of God and the Wisdom of God The best he had in Heaven his own Son and in himself a Sacrifice for us that we might be enabled to present our selves a Sacrifice to Him And Christ offered himself for us the best he had and that with the strength of the Deity through the Eternal Spirit and shall we grudge God the best part of our selves As God would have a worship from his Creature so it must be with the best part of his Creature If we have given our selves to the Lord * 2 Cor. 8.5 we can worship with no less than our selves What is the Man without his Spirit If we are to worship God with all that we have received from him we must worship him with the best part we have received from him 'T is but a small glory we can give him with the best and shall we deprive him of his right by giving him the worst As what we are is from God so what we are ought to be for God Creation is the foundation of worship Psal 100.2 3. Serve the Lord with gladness Know ye that the Lord he is God 't is he that hath made us He hath ennobled us with spiritual affections where is it fittest for us to employ them but upon him and at what time but when we come solemnly to converse with him Is it Justice to deny him the honour of his best gift to us Our Souls are more his gift to us than any thing in the World Other things are so given that they are often taken from us but our Spirits are the most durable gift Rational faculties cannot be removed without a dissolution of nature Well then * Amyraut Mor. Tom. 2. P. 311. As he is God he is to be honoured with all the propensions and ardor that the infiniteness and excellency of such a Being requires and the incomparable obligations he hath laid upon us in this state deserve at our hands In all our worship therefore our minds ought to be filled with the highest admiration love and reverence Since our end was to glorifie God we answer not our end and honour him not unless we give him the choicest we have Reason 2. We cannot else act towards God according to the nature of rational Creatures Spiritual worship is due to God because of his nature and due from us because of our nature As we are to adore God so we are to adore him as men The nature of a rational Creature makes this impression upon him He cannot view his own nature without having this duty striking upon his mind As he knows by inspection into himself that there was a God that made him so that he is made to be in subjection to God subjection to him in his Spirit as well as his Body and ought morally to testifie this natural dependance on him His constitution informs him that he hath a capacity to converse with God that he cannot converse with him but by those inward faculties If it could be managed by his Body without his Spirit Beasts might as well converse with God as Men. It can never be a reasonable service as it ought to be * Rom. 12.1 unless the reasonable faculties be employed in the management of it It must be a worship prodigiously lame without the concurrence of the cheifest part of Man with it As we are to act conformably to the nature of the object so also to the nature of our own faculties Our faculties in the very gift of them to us were destined to be exercised about what What All other things but the Author of them 'T is a conceit cannot enter into the heart of a rational Creature that he should act as such a Creature in other things
Hills are said to leap and the Mountains to rejoyce The Creature is said to groan as the Heavens are said to declare the glory of God passively naturally not rationally 'T is not likely Angels are here meant though they cannot but desire it since they are affected with the dishonour and reproach God hath in the world they cannot but long for the restoration of his honour in the restoration of the Creature to its true end And indeed the Angels are employed to serve man in this sinful state and cannot but in holiness wish the Creature freed from his corruption Nor is it meant of the new Creatures which have the first fruits of the Spirit those he brings in afterwards groaning and waiting for the Adoption * Verse 23. where he distinguisheth the rational Creature from the Creature he had spoken of before If he had meant the believing Creature by that Creature that desired the liberty of the Sons of God what need had there been of that additional distinction and not only they but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan within our selves Whereby it seems he means some Creatures below rational Creatures since neither Angels nor blessed Souls can be said to travail in pain with that distress as a Woman in travail hath as the word signifies who perform the work joyfully which God sets them upon * Mestraezat fur Heb. 1. If the Creatures be subject to vanity by the sin of man they shall also partake of a happiness by the restoration of man The Eâ—â—â—h hath born Thorns and Thistles and venemous Beasts The Air hath had its Tempests and infectious Qualities The Water hath caused its Flouds and Deluges The Creature hath been abused to luxury and intemperance and been tyranniz'd over by Man contrary to the end of its creation 'T is convenient that some time should be allotted for the Creature 's attaining its true end and that it may partake of the peace of Man as it hath done of the fruits of his sin otherwise it would seem that sin had prevailed more than grace and would have had more power to deface than grace to restore and things into their due order 5. Again upon what account should the Psalmist exhort the Heavens to rejoyce and the Earth to be glad when God comes to judge the world with Righteousness * Psal 96.11 12 13. if they should be annihilated and sunk for ever into nothing It would seem saith Daille to be an impertinent figure if the Judge of the world brought to them a total destruction an entire ruin could not be matter of triumph to Creatures who naturally have that instinct or inclination put into them by their Creator to preserve themselves and to affect their own preservation 6. Again The Lord is to rejoyce in his works Psal 104.31 The Glory of the Lord shall endure for ever the Lord shall rejoyce in his works not hath but shall rejoyce in his works In the works of Creation which the Psalmist had enumerated and which is the whole scope of the Psalm And he intimates that it is part of the glory of the Lord which endures for ever that is his manifestative glory to rejoyce in his works The Glory of the Lord must be understood with reference to the Creation he had spoken of before How short was that joy God had in his works after he had sent them beautified out of his hand How soon did he repent not only that he had made Man but was grieved at the heart also that he made the other Creatures which Man's sin had disordered What joy can God have in them * Gen. 6.7 since the Curse upon the entrance of sin into the world remains upon them If they are to be annihilated upon the full restoration of his Holiness what time will God have to rejoyce in the other works of Creation 'T is the joy of God to see all his works in their due order every one pointing to their true end marching together in their excellency according to his first intendment in their Creation Did God create the World to perform its end only for one day scarce so much if Adam fell the very first day of his Creation What would have been their end if Adam had been confirm'd in a state of happiness as the Angels were 'T is likely will be answered and performed upon the compleat restoration of Man to that happy state from whence he fell What Artificer compiles a work by his skill but to rejoyce in it And shall God have no joy from the works of his hands Since God can only rejoyce in goodness the Creatures must have that goodness restored to them which God pronounced them to have at the first Creation and which he ordained them for before he can again rejoyce in his works The goodness of the Creatures is the glory and joy of God Inference 1. We may infer from hence what a base and vile thing Sin is which lays the foundation of the worlds change Sin brings it to a decrepit age Sin overturned the whole work of God * Gen. 3.17 so that to render it useful to its proper end there is a necessity of a kind of a new creating it This causes God to fire the Earth for a purification of it from that infection and contagion brought upon it by the apostacy and corruption of Man It hath served sinful man and therefore must undergo a purging Flame to be fit to serve the holy and righteous Creator As Sin is so riveted in the body of man that there is need of a change by death to rase it out so hath the Curse for sin got so deep into the bowels of the world that there is need of a change by fire to refine it for its Masters use Let us look upon Sin with no other notion than as the Object of Gods hatred the cause of his grief in the Creatures and the Spring of the pain and ruin of the World 2. How foolish a thing is it to set our hearts upon that which shall perish and be no more what it is now The Heavens and Earth the solidest and firmest parts of the Creation shall not continue in the posture they are they must perish and undergo a refining change How feeble and weak are the other parts of the Creation the little Creatures walking upon and fluttering about the world that are perishing and dying every day and we scarce see them clothed with life and beauty this day but they wither and are despoyl'd of all the next and are such frail things fit Objects for our everlasting Spirits and Affections Though the daily employment of the Heavens is the declaration of the glory of God * Psal 19.1 yet neither this nor their harmony order beauty amazing greatness and glory of them shall preserve them from a dissolution and melting at the presence of the Lord Though they have remained in the same posture from
ignorant of vvhat is done vvithin and vvithout no ignorance can be fastned upon him vvho hath an Universal Presence Hence by the way we may take notice of the wonderful Patience of God who bears with so many provocations not from a Principle of Ignorance for he bears with Sins that are committed near him in his sight Sins that he sees and cannot but see 5. Hence may be infer'd the Incomprehensibility of God He that fills Heaven and Earth cannot be contain'd in any thing he fills the Understandings of Men the Understandings of Angels but is comprehended by neither 't is a rashness to think to find out any bounds of God there 's no measuring of an infinite Being if it were to be measur'd it were not infinite but because it is infinite it is not to be measured God sits above the Cherubims * Ezek. 10.1 above the fulness above the brightness not only of a humane but a created understanding Nothing is more present than God yet nothing more hid he is Light and yet obscurity * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dyonisius called God his Perfections are visible yet unsearchable We know there is an infinite God but it surpasseth the compass of our minds we know there is no Number so great but another may be added to it but no man can put it in practice without losing himself in a maze of Figures What is the reason we comprehend not many nay most things in the World partly from the Excellency of the object and partly from the Imperfection of our understandings How can we then comprehend God who exceeds all and is exceeded by none contains all and is contained by none is above our understanding as well as above our sense as considered in himself infinite as consider'd in comparison with our understandings incomprehensible who can with his eye measure the breadth length and depth of the Sea and at one cast view every dimension of the Heavens God is greater and we cannot know him Job 36.26 he fills the understanding as he fills Heaven and Earth yet is above the understanding as he is above Heaven and Earth He is known by Faith enjoy'd by love but comprehended by no mind God is not contain'd in that one Syllable God by it we apprehend an excellent and unlimited nature himself only understands himself and can unveil himself 6. How wonderful is God and how nothing are Creatures Ascribe the Greatness to our God * Deut. 33.3 He is admirable in the consideration of his Power in the extent of his understanding and no less wonderful in the immensity of his Essence That as Austin saith he is in the World yet not confin'd to it he is out of the World yet not debarr'd from it he is above the World yet not elevated by it he is below the World yet not deprest by it he is above all equall'd by none he is in all not because he needs them but they stand in need of him this as well as Eternity makes a vast disproportion between God and the Creature The Creature is bounded by a little space and no space is so great as to bound the Creator By this we may take a prospect of our own nothingness as in the consideration of Gods Holiness we are minded of our own impurity and in the thoughts of his Wisdom have a view of our own folly and in the meditation of his Power have a sense of our weakness so his Immensity should make us according to our own nature appear little in our own eyes What little little little things are we to God less than an Atome in the Beams of the Sun poor drops to a God that fills Heaven and Earth and yet dare we to strut against him and dash our selves against a Rock If the consideration of our selves in comparison with others be apt to puff us up the consideration of our selves in comparison with God will be sufficient to pull us down if we consider him in the greatness of his Essence there is but little more proportion between him and us than between being and not being than between a Drop and the Ocean How should we never think of God without a Holy Admiration of his Greatness and a deep sense of our own littleness and as the Angels cover their faces before him with what awe should creeping Worms come into his Sight and since God fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence we should fill Heaven and Earth with his Glory for this end he Created Angels to Praise him in Heaven and men to Worship him on Earth that the Places he fills with his Presence may be filled with his Praise We should be swallow'd up in admirations of the Immensity of God as men are at the first sight of the Sea when they behold a mass of Waters without beholding the bounds and immense depth of it 7. How much is this Attribute of God forgotten or contemned We pretend to believe him to be present every where and yet many live as if he were present no where 1. 'T is commonly forgotten or not believ'd All the extravagancies of men may be traced to the forgetfulness of this Attribute as their Spring The first Speech Adam spake in Paradice after his fall testified his unbelief of this * Gen. 3.10 I heard thy Voyce in the Garden and I hid my self his ear understood the voice of God but his mind did not conclude the Presence of God he thought the Trees could shelter him from him whose eye was present in the minutest parts of the Earth he that thought after his Sin that he could hide himself from the Presence of his Justice thought before that he could hide himself from the Presence of his Knowledge and being deceived in the one he would try what would be the fruit of the other In both he forgets if not denies this Attribute either corrupt notions of God or a slight belief of what in general men assent unto gives Birth to every Sin In all Transgressions there is something of Atheism either denying the Being of God or a dash upon some Perfection of God a not believing his Holiness to hate it his Truth that threatens his Justice to punish it and his Presence to observe it Tho' God be not afar off in his Essence he is afar off in the apprehension of the Sinner Drexel Nicet lib. 2. cap. 10. There is no wicked man but if he be an Atheist he is a Heretick and to gratify his Lust will fancy himself to be out of the Presence of his Judge His reason tells him God is present with him his Lust presseth him to embrace the season of a sensual Pleasure he will forsake his Reason and prove a Heretick that he may be an undisturbed Sinner and Sins doubly both in the error of his mind and the vileness of his practice he will conceit God with those in Job Job 22.14 Vail'd with thick Clouds and not able to
him through the universal Corruption of Nature Now he hath manifested himself a God of Truth mindful of his Promise in Blessing all Nations in the Seed of Abraham The Fury of Devils and the Violence of Men could not hinder the propagation of this Gospel Its Light hath been dispersed as far as that of the Sun and that Grace that sounded in the Gentiles Ears hath bent many of their Hearts to the Obedience of it 5. Observe That Libertinism and Licentiousness find no encouragement in the Gospel It was made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith The Goodness of God is publish'd that our Enmity to him may be parted with Christs Righteousness is not offered to us to be put on that we may roul more warmly in our Lusts The Doctrine of Grace commands us to give up our selves to Christ to be accepted through him and to be ruled by him Obedience is due to God as a Soveraign Lord in his Law and 't is due out of gratitude as he is a God of Grace in the Gospel The discovery of a further perfection in God weakens not the right of another nor the obligation of the Duty the former Attribute claims at our hands The Gospel frees us from the Curse but not from the Duty and Service We are delivered from the hands of our Enemies that we might serve God in Holiness and Righteousness Luke 1.74 This is the will of God in the Gospel even our Sanctification When a Prince strikes off a Malefactors Chains though he deliver him from the punishment of his Crime he frees him not from the Duty of a Subject His Pardon adds a greater obligation than his Protection did before while he was Loyal Christs Righteousness gives us a Title to Heaven but there must be a Holiness to give us a fitness for Heaven 6. Observe That Evangelical Obedience or the Obedience of Faith is only acceptable to God Obedience of Faith Genitivus speciei noting the kind of Obedience God requires an Obedience springing from Faith animated and influenced by Faith Not Obedience of Faith as though Faith were the Rule and the Law were abrogated but to the Law as a Rule and from Faith as a Principle There is no true Obedience before Faith Heb. 11.6 Without Faith it is impossible to please God and therefore without Faith impossible to obey him A good Work cannot proceed from a defil'd Mind and Conscience and without Faith every mans Mind is darkned and his Conscience polluted * Tit. 1.15 Faith is the Band of Union to Christ and Obedience is the Fruit of Union we cannot bring forth fruit without being Branches †John 15.4 5. and we cannot be Branches without Believing Legitimate Fruit follows upon Marriage to Christ not before it Rom. 7.4 That you should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead that you should bring forth fruit unto God All Fruit before Marriage is Bastard and Bastards were excluded from the Sanctuary Our Persons must be first accepted in Christ before our Services can be acceptable those Works are not acceptable where the Person is not pardoned Good Works flow from a pure Heart but the Heart cannot be pure before Faith All the Good Works reckoned up in the 11th Chapter of the Hebrews were from this Spring those Heroes first believed and then obeyed By Faith Abel was righteous before God without it his Sacrifice had been no better than Cains By Faith Enoch pleased God and had a Divine Testimony to his Obedience before his Translation By Faith Abraham offered up Isaac without which he had been no better than a Murderer All Obedience hath its Root in Faith and is not done in our own strength but in the strength and virtue of another of Christ whom God hath set forth as our Head and Root 7. Observe Faith and Obedience are distinct though inseparable The Obedience of Faith Faith indeed is Obedience to a Gospel Command which enjoyns us to believe but it is not all our Obedience Justification and Sanctification are distinct Acts of God Justification respects the Person Sanctification the Nature Justification is first in order of Nature and Sanctification follows They are distinct but inseparable every Justified Person hath a Sanctified Nature and every Sanctified Nature supposeth a Justified Person So Faith and Obedience are distinct Faith as the Principle Obedience as the Product Faith as the Cause Obedience as the Effect the Cause and the Effect are not the same By Faith we own Christ as our Lord by Obedience we regulate our selves according to his Command The acceptance of the Relation to him as a Subject precedes the performance of our Duty By Faith we receive his Law and by Obedience we fulfil it Faith makes us Gods Children Gal. 3.26 Obedience manifests us to be Christs Disciples John 15.8 Faith is the Touchstone of Obedience the Touchstone and that which is tried by it are not the same But though they are distinct yet they are inseparable Faith and Obedience are joyned together Obedience follows Faith at the heels Faith purifies the heart and a pure Heart cannot be without pure Actions Faith unites us to Christ whereby we partake of his Liâ—e and a living Branch cannot be without fruit in its season and much fruit John 15.5 and that naturally from a newness of Spirit Rom. 7.9 not constrained by the rigors of the Law but drawn forth from a sweetness of Love for Faith works by Love The Love of God is the strong Motive and Love to God is the quickning Principle as there can be no Obedience without Faith so no Faith without Obedience After all this the Apostle ends with the celebration of the Wisdom of God To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever The rich Discovery of the Gospel cannot be thought of by a gracious Soul without a return of Praise to God and Admiration of his singular Wisdom Wise God His Power before and his Wisdom here are mentioned in conjunction in which his Goodness is included as interested in his establishing Power as the ground of all the Glory and Praise God hath from his Creatures Only Wise As Christ saith Mat. 19.17 None is good but God so the Apostle saith None Wise but God As all Creatures are unclean in regard of his Purity so they are all Fools in regard of his Wisdom yea the glorious Angels themselves * Job 4.18 Wisdom is the Royalty of God the proper Dialect of all his Ways and Works No Creature can lay claim to it He is so Wise that he is Wisdom it self Be glory through Jesus Christ As God is only known in and by Christ so he must be only worshipped and celebrated in and through Christ In him we must Pray to him and in him we must Praise him As all Mercies flow from God through Christ to us so all our Duties are to be presented to God through Christ In the Greek verbatim
by Violent Persecutions till she was establish'd in the Faith He would not expose her to so great Combats while she was weak and feeble but gave her time to fortifie her self to be render'd more capable of bearing up under them He stifled all the motions of Passion the Idolaters might have for their Superstition till Religion was in such a condition as rather to be increased and purified than extinguish'd by Opposition Paul was sâ—cured from Neroes Chains and the Nets of his Enemies till he had broke off the Chain of the Devil from many Cities of the Gentiles and catched them by the Net of the Gospel out of the Sea of the World Thus the Wisdom of God is seen in the Seasons of Judgments and Afflictions 3. It is apparent in the gracious issue of Afflictions and Penal Evils It is a part of Wisdom to bring Good out of Evil of Punishment as well as to bring Good out of Sin The Church never was so like to Heaven as when it was most Persecuted by Hell The Storms often cleans'd it and the Lance often made it more healthful Jobs Integrity had not been so clear nor his Patience so illustrious had not the Devil been permitted to afflict him God by his Wisdom out-wits Satan when he by his Temptations intends to pollute us and buffet us God orders it to purifie us he often brings the clearest light out of the thickest darkness makes Poysons to become Medicines †Turretin Serm. p. 53. Death it self the greatest Punishment in this Life and the entrance into Hell in its own Nature he hath by his Wise contrivance made to his People the Gate of Heaven and the passage into Immortality Penal Evils in a Nation often end in in a publick Advantage Troubles and Wars among a People are many times not destroying but Medicinal and cure them of that Degeneracy Luxury and Effeminateness they contracted by a long Peace 4. This Wisdom is evident in the various Ends which God brings about by Afflictions The attainment of various Ends by one and the same Means is the fruit of the Agents Prudence By the same Affliction the Wise God corrects sometimes for some base Affection excites some sleepy Grace drives out some lurking Corruption refines the Soul and ruines the Lust discovers the greatness of a Crime the Vanity of the Creature and the Sufficiency in himself The Jews bind Paul and by the Judge he is sent to Rome whiâ— his Mouth is stopt in Judea 't is open'd in one of the greatest Cities of the World and his Enemies unwittingly contribute to the increase of the knowledge of Christ by those Chains in that City ‖ Acts 28.31 that triumphed over the Earth And his afflictive Bonds added Courage and Resolution to others Phil. 1.14 Many waxing confident by my Bonds which could not in their own Nature produce such an effect but by the order and contrivance of Divine Wisdom In their own nature they would rather make them disgust the Doctrine he suffered for and cool their Zeal in the propagating of it for fear of the same disgrace and hardship they saw him suffer * Daille sur Philip. Part 1. pag. 116 117. But the Wisdom of God changed the nature of these Fetters and conducted them to the glory of his Name the encouragement of others the increase of the Gospel and the comfort of the Apostle himself Phil. 1.12 13 18. The Sufferings of Paul at Rome confirm'd the Philippians a People at a distance from thence in the Doctrine they had already received at his hands Thus God makes Sufferings sometimes which appear like Judgments to be like the Viper on Pauls hand Acts 28.6 a means to clear up Innocence and procure favour to the Doctrine among those Barbarians How often hath he multiplied the Church by Death and Massacres and increased it by those means used to annihilate it 5. The Divine Wisdom is apparent in the Deliverances he affords to other parts of the World as well as to his Church There are delicate composures curious threds in his Webs and he works them like an Artificer A goodness wrought for them curiously wrought Psal 31.19 1. In making the Creatures subservient in their Natural order to his gracious Ends and Purposes He orders things in such a manner as not to be necessitated to put forth an extraordinary Power in things which some part of the Creation might accomplish Miraculous productions would speak his Power but the ordering the Natural course of things to occasion such effects they were never intended for is one part of the glory of his Wisdom And that his Wisdom may be seen in the course of Nature he conducts the Motions of Creatures and acts them in their own strength and doth that by various windings and turnings of them which he might do in an instant by his Power in a Supernatural way Indeed sometimes he hath made Invasions on Nature and suspended the Order of their Natural Laws for a season to shew himself the Absolute Lord and Governour of Nature Yet if frequent Alterations of this nature were made they would impede the knowledge of the Nature of things and be some bar to the discovery and glory of his Wisdom which is best seen by moving the wheels of Inferiour Creatures in an exact regularity to his own Ends. He might when his little Church in Jacobs Family was like to starve in Canaan have for their preservation turn'd the Stones of the Country into Bread but he sends them down to Egypt to procure Corn that a way might be opened for their removal into that Country the Truth of his Prediction in their Captivity accomplish'd and a way made after the declaration of his great Name Jehovah both in the fidelity of his Word and the greatness of his Power in their Deliverance from that Furnace of Affliction He might have struck Goliah the Captain of the Philistines Army with a Thunderbolt from Heaven when he Blasphemed his Name and scar'd his People but he useth the Natural strength of a Stone and the Artificial motion of a Sling by the Arm of David to confront the Giant and thereby to free Judea from the ravage of a potent Enemey He might have delivered the Jews from Babylon by as strange Miracles as he used in their Deliverance from Egypt He might have plagu'd their Enemies gather'd his People into a Body and protected them by the bulwark of a Cloud and a Pillar of Fire against the Assaults of their Enemies But he uses the differences between the Persians and those of Babylon to accomplish his Ends. How sometimes hath the veering about of the Wind on a sudden been the loss of a Navy when it hath been upon the point of Victory and driven back the Destruction upon those which intended it for others And the accidental stumbling or the Natural fierceness of a Horse flung down a General in the midst of a Battle where he hath lost his life
by the throng and his death hath brought a defeat to his Army and deliverance to the other Party that were upon the brink of ruine Thus doth the Wisdom of God link things together according to Natural order to work out his intended preservation of a People 2. In the season of Deliverance The Timing of Affairs is a part of the Wisdom of Man and an eminent part of the Wisdom of God It is in due season he sends the former and the latter Rain when the Earth is in the greatest Indigence and when his Influences may most contribute to the bringing forth and ripening the Fruit. The dumb Creatures have their meat from him in due season * Psal 104.27 And in his due season have his darling People their Deliverance When Paul was upon his Journey to Damascus with a Persecuting Commission he is struck down for the security of the Church in that City The Nature of the Lion is changed in due season for the preservation of the Lambs from worrying The Israelites are miraculously rescued from Egypt when their Wits were at a loss when their danger to Human understanding was unavoidable when Earth and Sea refus'd protection then the Wisdom and Power of Heaven stept in to effect that which was past the skill of the Conductors of that Multitude And when the Lives of the Jews lay at the stake and their Necks were upon the Block at the mercy of their Enemies Swords by an Order from Shushan not only a Reprieve but a Triumph arrives to the Jews by the Wisdom of God guiding the Affair whereby of Persons design'd to execution they are made Conquerors and have opportunity to exercise their Revenge instead of their Patience proving Triumphers where they expected to be Sufferers †Esih 8 9. How strangely doth God by secret ways bow the hearts of Men and the nature of things to the execution of that which he designs notwithstanding all the resistance of that which would traverse the security of his People How often doth he trap the wicked in the work of their own hands make their confidence to become their ruine and ensnare them in those Nets they wrought and laid for others Psal 9.16 The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands He scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts Luke 1.51 in the height of their hopes when their designs have been laid so deep in the Foundation and knit and cemented so close in their superstructure that no Human Power or Wisdom could raze them down He hath then disappointed their Projects and befool'd their Craft How often hath he kept back the Fire when it hath been ready to devour broke the Arrows when they have been prepared in the Bow turned the Spear into the bowels of the Bearers and wounded them at the very instant they were ready to wound others 3. In suting Instruments to his purpose He either finds them sit or makes them on a suddain fit for his gracious ends If he hath a Tabernacle to build he will sit a Bezaleel and an Aholiab with the Spirit of wisdom and Understanding in all cunning workmanship Exod. 31.3 6. If he finds them crooked pieces he can like a wise Architect make them strait Beams for the rearing his House and for the honour of his Name He sometimes picks out men according to their natural Tempers and employs them in his Work Jehu a man of a furious Temper and ambitious Spirit is called out for the destruction of Ahab's House Moses a man furnisht with all Egyptian wisdom fitted by a generous Education prepared also by the Affliction he met with in his flight and one who had had the benefit of conversation with Jethro a man of more than an ordinary wisdom and goodness as appears by his prudent and religious Counsel this man is called out to be the Head and Captain of an opprest People and to rescue them from their Bondage and settle the first National Church in the World So Elijah a high spirited man of a hot and angry temper one that sl ghted the Frowns and undervalued the Favour of Princes is set up to stem the Torrent of the Israelitish Idolatry So Luther a man of the same temper is drawn out by the same Wisdom to encounter the Corruptions in the Church against such Opposition which a milder Temper would have sunâ— under The Earth in Rev. 12.16 is made an Instrument to help the woman When the Grandees of that Age transferred the Imperial Power upon Constantine who became afterwards a protecting and nursing Father to the Church a thnig end which many of his Favourers never design'd nor ever dreamt of But God by his infinite Wisdom made these several Designs like several Arrows shot at Rovers meet in one Mark to which he directed them viz. in bringing forth an Instrument to render Peace to the World and Security and Increase to his Church 3. The wisdom of God doth wonderfully appear in Redemption His wisdom in Creation ravisheth the Eye and Understanding his wisdom in Government doth no less affect a curious Observer of the Links and Concatenation of the Means but his wisdom in Redemption mounts the Mind to a greater astonishment The works of Creation are the Footsteps of his wisdom the work of Redâ—mption is the Face of his wisdom A man is better known by the Features of his Face than by the Prints of his Feet We with open face or a revealed face beholding the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Face there refers to God not to us the glory of God's wisdom is now open and no longer covered and vailed by the shadows of the Law As we behold the Light glorious as scattered in the Air before the appearance of the Sun but more gloriously in the Face of the Sun when it begins its Race in our Horizon All the wisdom of God in Creation and Government in his variety of Laws was like the light the three first days of the Creation disperst about the World but the fourth day it was more glorious when all gathered into the Body of the Sun Gen. 1.4 16. So the Light of Divine wisdom and glory was scattered about the World and so more obscure till the fourth Divine day of the World about the four thousandth year it was gathered into one Body the Sun of Righteousness and so shone out more gloriously to Men and Angels All things are weaker the thinner they are extended but stronger the more they are united and compacted in one Body and Appearance In Christ in the dispensation by him as well as in his Person were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Coloss 2.3 Some Doles of wisdom were given out in Creation but the Treasures of it opened in Redemption the highest degrees of it that ever God did exert in the World Christ is therefore called the wisdom of God as well as the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 and the Gospel is called
inspection of his Works God hath given full Testimonies of this Perfection in the Heavenly Bodies dispersing their Light and distributing their Influences to every part of the World In framing Men into Societies giving them various Dispositions for the preservation of Governments making some Wise for Counsel others Martial for Action changing Old Empires and raising New Which way soever we cast our Eyes we shall find frequent occasions to cry out Oh the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God Rom. 11.33 To this purpose we must not only look upon the bulk and outside of his Works but consider from what Principles they were raised in what order disposed and the exact symmetry and proportion of their parts When a Man comes into a City or Temple and only considers the surface of the Buildâ—ngs they will amaze his Sense but not better his Understanding unless he considers the Methods of the Work and the Art whereby it was erected 1. This was an End for which they were created God did not make the World for Mans use only but chiefly for his own Glory for Mans use to enjoy his Creatures and for his own Glory to be acknowledged in his Creatures that we may consider his Art in framing them and his Skill in disposing them and not only gaze upon the Glass without considering the Image it represents and acquainting our selves whose Image it is The Creatures were not made for themselves but for the service of the Creator and the service of Man Man was not made for himself but for the Service of the Lord that created him He is to consider the Beauty of the Creation that he may thereby glorifie the Creator He knows in part their excellency the Creatures themselves do not If therefore Man be idle and unobservant of them he deprives God of the glory of his Wisdom which he should have by his Creatures The Inferiour Creatures themselves cannot observe it If Man regard it not what becomes of it his Glory can only be handed to him by Man The other Creatures cannot be Active Instruments of his Glory because they know not themselves and therefore cannot render him an active Praise Man is therefore bound to praise God for himself and for all his Creatures because he only knows himself and the Perfections of the Creatures and the Author both of himself and them God Created such Variety to make a Report of himself to us we are to receive the Report and to reflect it back to him To what purpose did he make so many things not necessary for the support and pleasure of our Lâ—ves but that we should behold him in them as well as in the other We cannot behold the Wisdom of God in his own Essence and Eternal Idea's but by the reflection of it in the Creatures As we cannot steadily behold the Sun with our Eye but either through a Glass or by reflection of the Image of it in the Water God would have us meditate on his Perfections he therefore chose the same Day wherein he reviewed his Work and rested from it to be celebrated by Man for the contemplation of him Gen. 2.2 3. that we should follow his Example and rejoyce as himself did in the frequent reviews of his Wisdom and Goodness in them In vain would the Creatures afford Matter for this study if they were wholly neglected God offers something to our Consideration in every Creature Shall the Beams of God shine round about us and strike our Eyes and not affect our Minds Shall we be like Ignorant Children that view the Pictures or point to the Letters in a Book without any sense and meaning How shall God have the homage due to him from his Works if Man hath no care to observe them The 148 Psalm is an Exhortation to this The view of them should often extract from us a wonder of the like nature of that of Davids Psal 104.24 Oh Lord how wonderful are thy Works in wisdom hast thou made them all The World was not Created to be forgotten nor Man created to be unobservant of it 2. If we observe not the Wisdom of God in the views of the Creatures we do no more than Brutes To look upon the Works of God in the World is no higher an act than meer Animals perform The Glories of Heaven and Beauties of the Earth are visible to the sense of Beasts and Birds A Brute beholds the motion of a Man as it may see the Wheels of a Clock but understands not the inward Springs of Motion the End for which we move or the Soul that acts us in our motion much less that Invisible Power which presides over the Creatures and conducts their motion If a Man do no more than this he goes not a step beyond a Brutish Nature and may very well acknowledge himself with Asaph a foolish and ignorant Beast before God Psal 73.22 The World is viewed by Beasts but the Author of it to be contemplated by Man Since we are in a higher rank than Beasts we owe a greater Debt than Beasts not only to enjoy the Creatures as they do but behold God in the Creatures which they cannot do The Contemplation of the Reason of God in his Works is a noble and sutable employment for a Rational Creature We have not only Sense to perceive them but Souls to mind them The Soul is not to be without its operation Where the operation of Sense ends the work of the Soul ought to begin We travel over them by our Senses as Brutes but we must pierce further by our Understandings as Men and perceive and praise him that lies Invisible in his visible Manufactures Our Senses are given us as Servants to the Soul and our Souls bestowed upon us for the knowledge and praise of their and our Common Creator 3. This would be a means to increase our Humility We should then flag our Wings and vail our Sails and acknowledge our own Wisdom to be as a drop to the Ocean and a Shadow to the Sun We should have mean thoughts of the Nothingness of our Reason when we consider the sublimity of the Divine Wisdom Who can seriously consider the Sparks of Infinite Skill in the Creature without falling down at the feet of the Divine Majesty and acknowledging himself a dark and foolish Creature Psal 8.4 5. When the Psalmist considered the Heavens the Moon and Stars and Gods ordination and disposal of them the use that results from it is What is Man that thou art mindful of him We should no more think to mate him in Prudence or set up the spark of our Reason to vye with the Sun Our Reason would more willingly submit to the Revelation when the Characters of Divine Wisdom are stampt upon it when we find his Wisdom in Creation incomprehensible to us 4. It would help us in our acknowledgments of God for his Goodness to us When we behold the Wisdom of God in Creatures below
first of Genesis in the whole Chapter unto the finishing the Work in six Days God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Name of Power and that Thirty two times in that Chapter but after the the finishing the six days Work he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which according to their notion is a Name of Goodness and Kindness * Mercer 9.7 col 1 2. His Power is first visible in framing the World before his Goodness is visible in the sustaining and preserving it It was by this Name of Power and Almighty that he was known in the first Ages of the World not by his Name Jehovah Exod. 6.3 And I appeared unto Abraham Isaack and Jacob by the name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them Not but that they were acquainted with the Name but did not experience the intent of the Name which signified his Truth in the performance of his Promises They knew him by that name as promising but they knew him not by that Name as performing He would be known by his Name Jehovah True to his Word when he was about to effect the Deliverance from Egypt a Type of the Eternal Redemption wherein the Truth of God in performing of his first Promise is gloriously magnified And hence it is that God is called Almighty more in the Book of Job than in all the Scripture besides I think about Thirty two times and Jehovah but once which is Job 12.9 unless in Job 38. when God is introduc'd speaking himself which is an Argument of Jobs living before the Deliverance from Egypt when God was known more by his Works of Creation than by the performance of his Promises before the Name Jehovah was formally publish'd Indeed this Attribute of his Eternal Power is the first thing visible and intelligible upon the first glance of the eye upon the Creatures †Rom. 1.20 Bring a man out of the Cave where he hath been Nurst without seeing any thing out of the confines of it and let him lift up his Eyes to the Heavens and take a prospect of that glorious body the Sun then cast them down to the Earth and behold the Surface of it with its Green cloathing the first Notion which will start up in his Mind from that spring of Wonders is that of Power which he will at first adore with a Religious astonishment The Wisdom of God in them is not so presently apparent till after a more exquisite consideration of his Works and Knowledge of the properties of their natures the conveniency of their situations and the usefulness of their functions and the order wherein they are linkt together for the good of the Universe 2. By this Creative Power God is often distinguisht from all the Idols and False gods in the World And by this Title he sets forth himself when he would act any great and wonderful Work in the World He is great above all gods for he hath done whatsoever he pleased in Heaven and in Earth Psal 135.5 6. Upon this is founded all the Worship he challengeth in the World as his peculiar glory Revel 4.11 Thou art worthy Oh Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast Created all things And Rev. 10.6 I have made the Earth and created Man upon it I even my hands have stretched out the Heavens and all their Host have I commanded Isai 45.12 What is the issue Verse 16. They shall be ashamed and confounded all of them that are makers of Idols And the weakness of Idols is exprest by this Title The gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth Jer. 10.11 The portion of Jacob is not like them for he is the former of all things Verse 16. What is not that God able to do that hath created so great a World How doth the Power of God appear in Creation 1. In making the World of Nothing When we say the World was made of Nothing we mean that there was no Matter existent for God to work upon but what he rais'd himself in the first act of Creation In this regard the Power of God in Creation surmounts his Power in Providence Creation supposeth nothing Providence supposeth something in Being Creation intimates a Creature making Providence speaks a thing already made and capable of Government and in Government God uses second Causes to bring about his Purposes 1. The World was made of nothing The Earth which is describ'd as the first Matter without any form or ornament without any distinction or figures was of Gods forming in the Bulk before he did adorn it with his Pensil * Gen. 1.1 2. †Suarez Vol. 3. p. 33. God in the beginning creating the Heaven and the Earth includes two things First That those were created in the beginning of time and before all other things Secondly That God begun the Creation of the World from those things Therefore before the Heavens and the Earth there was nothing absolutely created and therefore no Matter in being before an act of Creation past upon it It could not be Eternal because nothing can be Eternal but God it must therefore have a beginning If it had a beginning from it self then it was before it was If it acted in the making it self before it was made then it had a being before it had a being for that which is nothing can act nothing The action of any thing supposeth the existence of the thing which acts It being made it was not before it was made for to be made is to be brought into being It was made then by another and that Maker is God 'T is necessary that the first Original of things was from nothing When we see one thing to arise from another we must suppose an Original of the first of each kind As when we see a Tree spring up from a Seed we know that Seed came out of the bowels of another Tree it had a Parent and it had a Matter we must come to some First or else we run into an endless Maze We must come to some first Tree some first Seed that had no cause of the same kind no matter of it but was meer nothing ‖ Suarez Vol. 3. p. 6. Creation doth suppose a production â—â—â—m nothing because if you suppose a thing without any real or actual Existence 't is not capable of any other production then from nothing Nothing must be supposed before the World or we must suppose it Eternal and that is to deny it to be a Creature and make it God The Creation of spiritual Substances such as Angels and Souls evince this those things that are purely spiritual and consist not of matter cannot pretend to any Original from Matter and therefore they rose up from nothing If spiritual things arose from nothing much more may corporeal because they are of a lower nature than spiritual And he that can create a higher Nature of nothing can create an
are the foundation of a solemn Honour to be returned to him by his Creatures If a Man make a curious Engine we honour him for his Skill If another vanquish a vigorous Enemy we admire him for his Strength And shall not the efficacy of Gods Power in Creation Government Redemption enflame us with a sense of the Honour of his Name and Perfections We admire those Princes that have vast Empires numerous Armies that have a Power to conquer their Enemies and preserve their own People in peace How much more ground have we to pay a mighty Reverence to God who without Trouble and Weariness made and manages this vast Empire of the World by a Word and Beck What sensible thoughts have we of the noise of Thunder the power of the Sun the storms of the Sea These things that have no Understanding have struck Men with such a Reverence that many have ador'd them as gods What Reverence and Adoration doth this Mighty Power joyned with an Infinite Wisdom in God demand at our hands All Religion and Worship stands especially upon two Pillars Goodness and Power in God if either of these were defective all Religion would faint away We can expect no entertainment with him without Goodness nor any benefit from him without Power This God Prefaceth to the Command to Worship him the benefit his Goodness had conferr'd upon them and the Powerful manner of conveyance of it to them 2 Kings 17.36 The Lord brought you up from the Land of Egypt with great Power and an Out-stretched Arm him shall you fear and him shall you worship and to him shall you do sacrifice Because this Attribute is a main foundation of Prayer the Lords Prayer is concluded with a doxology of it For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory As he is Rich possessing all Blessings so he is Powerful to confer all Blessings on us and make them efficacious to us * Capel in 1 Tim. 1.17 The Jews repeat many times in their Prayers some say an hundred times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King of the World 't is both an Awe and an Encouragement We could not without consideration of it pray in Faith of success nay we could not pray at all if his Power were defective to help us and his Mercy too weak to relieve us Who would sollicite a Lifeless or lie a prostrate Suppliant to a feeble Arm Upon this Ability of God Our Saviour built his Petitions Heb. 5.7 He offered up strong Cries unto him that was able to save him from death Abraham's Faith hung upon the same string Rom. 4.21 and the Captiv'd Church supplicates God to act according to the greatness of his Power Psal 79.11 In all our Addresses this is to be ey'd and considered God is able to help to relieve to ease me let my Misery be never so great and my Strength never so weak Matt. 8.2 If thou wilt thou canst make me clean was the Consideration the Leper had when he came to worship Christ he was clear in his Power and therefore worshipped him though he was not equally clear in his Will All Worship is shot wrong that is not directed to and conducted by the thoughts of this Attribute whose assistance we need When we beg the Pardon of our Sins we should eye Mercy and Power when we beg his righting us in any case where we are unjustly opprest we do not eye Righteousness without Power when we plead the performance of his Promise we do not regard his Faithfulness only without the Prop of his Power As Power ushers in all the Attributes of God in their exercise and manifestation in the World so should it be the Butt our eyes should be fixed upon in all our acts of Worship As without his Power his other Attributes would be useless so without due Apprehensions of his Power our Prayers will be Faithless and Comfortless The Title in the Lords Prayer directs us to a prospect both of his Goodness and Power his Goodness in the word Father his Greatness Excellency and Power in the word Heaven The heedless Consideration of the Infiniteness of this Perfection roots up Piety in the midst of us and makes us so careless in Worship Did we more think of that Power that rais'd the World out of nothing that orders all Creatures by an an act of his Will that perform'd so great an Exploit as that of our Redemption when masterless sin had triumphed over the World we should give God the honour and adoration which so great an excellency challengeth and deserves at our hands though we our selves had not been the work of his hands or the monuments of his strength how could any Creature engross to it self that reverence from us which is due to the powerful Creator of whom it comes infinitely short in strength as well as wisdome 7. From this we have a ground for the belief of the Resurrection God aims at the glory of his Power as well as the glory of any other Attribute Moses else would not have cull'd out this as the main Argument in his pleading with God for the sheathing the Sword which he began to draw out against them in the Wilderness Numb 14.16 The Nations will say because the Lord was not able to bring these People into the Land which he sware to them c. As the finding out the particulars of the dust of our Bodies discovers the vastness of his Knowledge so to raise them will manifest the glory of his Power as much as Creation Bodies that have mouldred away into multitudes of Atoms been resolved into the Elements passed through varieties of changes been sometimes the matter to lodge the form of a Plant or been turned into the substance of a Fish or Foul or vapour'd up into a Cloud and been part of that matter which hath compacted a Thunder-bolt dispos'd of in places far distant scatter'd by the Winds swallowed and concocted by Beasts for these to be called out from their different places of abode to meet in one Body and be restored to their former Consistency in a marriage union in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.22 't is a Consideration that may justly amaze us and our shallow Understandings are too feeble to comprehend it But is it not credible since all the Disputes against it may be silenced by reflections on Infinite Power which nothing can oppose for which nothing can be esteemed too difficult to effect which doth not imply a Contradiction in it self It was no less amazing to the blessed Virgin to hear a Message that she should Conceive a Son without knowing a Man but she is quickly answered by the Angel with a Nothing is impossible to God Luke 1.34 37. The distinct parts of our Bodies cannot be hid from his All-seeing Eye where-ever they are lodged and in all the Changes they pass through as was discoursed when the Omniscience of God was handled shall then the collection of them
all mixture of Evil so Sacred with them was the Conception of God as a Holy God 2. The Absurdest Hereticks have own'd it * Petav. Theol. Dogmat. Tom. 1. lib. 6. cap. 5. p. 415. The Manichees and Marchionites that thought Evil came by Necessity yet would salve Gods being the Author of it by asserting two distinct Eternal Principles One the Original of Evil as God was the Fountain of good So rooted was the Notion of this Divine Purity that none would ever slander Goodness it self with that which was so disparaging to it 3. The Nature of God cannot rationally be conceived without it Though the Power of God be the first Rational conclusion drawn from the sight of his Works Wisdom the next from the order and connexion of his Works Purity must result from the beauty of his Works That God cannot be deform'd by Evil who hath made every thing so Beautiful in its time The Notion of a God cannot be entertain'd without separating from him whatsoever is impure and bespotting both in his Essence and Actions Though we conceive him Infinite in Majesty Infinite in Essence Eternal in Duration Mighty in Power and Wise and Immutable in his Counsels Merciful in his proceedings with Men and whatsoever other Perfections may dignifie so Soveraign a Being yet if we conceive him destitute of this excellent Perfection and imagine him possessed with the least contagion of Evil we make him but an Infinite Monster and fully all those Perfections we ascrib'd to him before we rather own him a Devil than a God 'T is a contradiction to be God and to be Darkness or to have one Mote of Darkness mixed with his Light 'T is a less Injury to him to deny his Being than to deny the Purity of it the one makes him no God the other a deform'd unlovely and a detestable God Plutarch said not amiss That he should count himself less injured by that Man that should deny that there was such a Man as Plutarch than by him that should affirm that there was such a one indeed but he was a debauch'd Fellow a loose and vicious Person 'T is a less wrong to God to discard any acknowledgments of his Being and to count him Nothing than to believe him to exist but imagine a base and unholy Deity He that saith God is not Holy speaks much worse than he that saith There is no God at all Let these two Things be considered I. If any this Attribute hath an excellency above his other Perfections There are some Attributes of God we prefer because of our Interest in them and the relation they bear to us As we esteem his Goodness before his Power and his Mercy whereby he relieves us before his Justice whereby he punisheth us As there are some we more delight in because of the goodness we receive by them so there are some that God delights to honour because of their Excellency 1. None is sounded out so loftily with such solemnity and so frequently by Angels that stand before his Throne as this Where do you find any other Attribute trebled in the Praises of it as this Isai 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory and Rev. 4.8 The four Beasts rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty c. His Power or Soveraignty as Lord of Hosts is but once mentioned but with a ternal repetition of his Holiness Do you hear in any Angelical Song any other Perfection of the Divine Nature thrice repeated Where do we read of the crying out Eternal Eternal Eternal or Faithful Faithful Faithful Lord God of Hosts Whatsoever other Attribute is left out this God would have to fill the Mouths of Angels and Blessed Spirits for ever in Heaven 2. He singles it out to swear by Psal 89.35 Once have I sworn by my Holiness that I will not lye unto David And Amos 4.2 The Lord will swear by his Holiness He twice swears by his Holiness once by his Power Isai 62.8 once by all when he swears by his Name Jer. 44.26 He lays here his Holiness to pledge for the assurance of his Promise as the Attribute most dear to him most valued by him as though no other could give an assurance parallel to it in this concern of an Everlasting Redemption which is there spoken of He that swears swears by a greater than himself God having no greater than himself swears by himself And swearing here by his Holiness seems to equal that single one to all his other Attributes as if he were more concern'd in the Honour of it than of all the rest 'T is as if he should have said since I have not a more excellent Perfection to swear by than that of my Holiness I lay this to pawn for your Security and bind my self by that which I will never part with were it possible for me to be stript of all the rest 'T is a tacit Imprecation of himself If I lye unto David let me never be counted holy or thought righteous enough to be trusted by Angels or Men. This Attribute he makes most of 3. 'T is his glory and beauty Holiness is the Honour of the Creature sanctification and honour are linkt together 1 Thess 4.4 much more is it the honour of God 't is the Image of God in the Creature * Ephes 4.24 When we take the Picture of a Man we draw the most beautiful part the Face which is a Member of the greatest excellency When God would be drawn to the Life as much as can be in the Spirit of his Creatures He is drawn in this Attribute as being the most beautiful Perfection of God and most valuable with him Power is his Hand and Arm Omniscience his Eye Mercy his Bowels Eternity his Duration his Holiness is his Beauty 2 Chron. 20 21. should praise the Beauty of Holiness In the 27 th Psalm and the 4 th Verse David desires to behold the Beauty of the Lord and enquire in his Holy Temple that is the Holiness of God manifested in his hatred of Sin in the daily Sacrifices Holiness was the Beauty of the Temple Isai 46.11 Holy and Beautiful House are joyned together much more the Beauty of God that dwelt in the Sanctuary This renders him lovely to all his Innocent Creatures though formidable to the Guilty ones * Plutarch Eugubin de Perenni Phil. lib. 6. cap. 6. A Heathen Philosopher could call it the Beauty of the Divine Essence and say That God was not so happy by an Eternity of Life as by an Excellency of Vertue And the Angels Song intimate it to be his glory Isaiah 6.3 The whole Earth is full of thy Glory that is of his Holiness in his Laws and in his Judgments against Sin that being the Attribute applauded by them before 4. 'T is his very life So it is called Ephes 4.18 Alienated from the Life of God that is from the Holiness of
of God Righteousness a Perfection as referred to others in his Actions towards them and upon them In Particular This Property of the Divine Nature is First An essential and necessary Perfection He is essentially and necessarily Holy 'T is the essential glory of his Nature His Holiness is as necessary as his Being as necessary as his Omniscience As he cannot but know what is right so he cannot but do what is just His Understanding is not as Created Understandings capable of Ignorance as well as Knowledge so his Will is not as Created Wills capable of Unrighteousness as well as Righteousness There can be no contradiction or contrariety in the Divine Nature to know what is right and to do what is wrong If so there would be a diminu ion of his Blessedness he would not be a God alway blessed Blessed for ever as he is * Rom. 9 5. He is as necessarily Holy as he is necessarily God as necessarily without Sin as without Change As he was God from Eternity so he was Holy from Eternity †Turreâ—in de Satisfact p. 28. He was Gracious Merciful Just in his own Nature and also Holy though no Creature had been framed by him to exercise his Grace Mercy Justice or Holiness upon If God had not created a World he had in his own Nature been Almighty and able to Create a World If there never had been any thing but himself yet he had been Omniscient knowing every thing that was within the verge and compass of his Infinite Power so he was Pure in his own Nature though he never had brought forth any Rational Creature whereby to manifest this Purity These Perfections are so necessary that the Nature of God could not subsist without them And the acts of those ad intra or within himself are necessary for being Omniscient in Nature there must be an act of knowledge of himself and his own Nature Being Infinitely Holy an act of Holiness in Infinitely loving himself must necessarily flow from this Perfection ‖ Ochino Predic part 3. Bodic 51. p. 347 348. As the Divine Will cannot but be perfect so it cannot be wanting to render the highest Love to it self to its Goodness to the Divine Nature which is due to him Indeed the acts of those ad extra are not necessary but upon a condition To love Righteousness without himself or to detest Sin or inflict Punishment for the committing of it could not have been had there been no Righteous Creature for him to love no Sinning Creature for him to loath and to exercise his Justice upon as the Object of Punishment Some Attributes require a Condition to make the Acts of them necessary As it is at Gods liberty whether he will create a Rational Creature or no But when he decrees to make either Angel or Man 't is necessary from the Perfection of his Nature to make them Righteous 'T is at Gods liberty whether he will speak to Man or no but if he doth 't is impossible for him to speak that which is false because of his Infinite Perfection of Veracity 'T is at his liberty whether he will permit a Creature to Sin but if he sees good to suffer it 't is impossible but that he should detest that Creature that goes cross to his Righteous Nature His Holiness is not solely an Act of his Will for then he might be Unholy as well as Holy he might love Iniquity and hate Righteousness he might then command that which is good and afterwards command that which is bad and unworthy For what is only an Act of his Will and not belonging to his Nature is indifferenr to him As the positive Law he gave to Adam of not eating the Forbidden Fruit was a pure Act of his Will he might have given him liberty to eat of it if he had pleased as well as prohibited him But what is Moral and good in its own Nature is necessarily willed by God and cannot be changed by him because of the transcendent Eminency of his Nature and Righteousness of his Will As it is impossible for God to command his Creature to hate him or to dispence with a Creature for not loving him for this would be to command a thing intrinsically Evil the highest Ingratitude the very Spirit of all Wickedness which consists in the hating God Yet though God be thus necessarily Holy he is not so by a bare and simple necessity as the Sun shines or the Fire burns but by a free necessity not compelled thereunto but inclined from the fulness of the Perfection of his own Nature and Will so as by no means he can be Unholy because he will not be Unholy 't is against his Nature to be so 2. God is only absolutely Holy There is none Holy as the Lord. 1 Sam. 2.2 'T is the peculiar glory of his Nature As there is none Good but God so none Holy but God No Creature can be essentially Holy because Mutable Holiness is the substance of God but a Quality and Accident in a Creature God is Infinitely Holy Creatures Finitely Holy He is holy from Himself Creatures are holy by derivation from him He is not only Holy but Holiness Holiness in the highest degree is his sole Prerogative As the highest Heaven is called the Heaven of Heavens because it embraceth in its Circle all the Heavens and contains the Magnitude of them and hath a greater vastness above all that it incloseth so is God the Holy of Holies He contains the Holiness of all Creatures put together and Infinitely more As all the Wisdom Excellency and Power of the Creatures if compar'd with the Wisdom Excellency and Power of God is but Folly Vileness and Weakness so the highest created Purity if set in parallel with God is but Impurity and Uncleaness Revel 15.4 Thou only art Holy 'T is like the light of a Glow-worm to that of the Sun †Job 15.15 The Heavens are not pure in his sight and his Angels he charged with folly Job 4 18. Though God hath Crowned the Angels with an unspotted Sanctity and placed them in a habitation of Glory yet as Illustrious as they are they have an Unworthiness in their own Nature to appear before the Throne of so Holy a God Their holiness grows dim and pale in his Presence 'T is but a weak shadow of that Divine Purity whose Light is so glorious that it makes them cover their faces out of weakness to behold it and cover their Feet out of shame in themselves They are not pure in his sight because though they love God which is a Principle of Holiness as much as they can yet not so much as he deserves They love him with the intensest degree according to their Power but not with the intensest degree according to his own Amiableness For they cannot infinitely love God unless they were as Infinite as God and had an understanding of his Perfections equal with himself and as immense
Organ whereby he blew in his Temptation is put into a worse condition than it was before Thus God hated the Spunge whereby the Devil deform'd his beautiful Image Thus God to manifest his detestation of Sin ordered the Beast whereby any Man was slain to be slain as well as the Malefactor Levit. 20.15 The Gold and Silver that had been abused to Idolatry and were the Ornaments of Images though good in themselves and uncapable of a Criminal Nature were not to be brought into their Houses but detested and abhorred by them because they were cursed and an abomination to the Lord. See with what loathing Expressions this Law is enjoyn'd to them Deut. 7.25 26. So contrary is the holy Nature of God to every Sin that it curseth every thing that is Instrumental in it 3. How detestable is every thing to him that is in the Sinners possession The very Earth which God had made Adam the Proprietor of was Cursed for his sake Gen. 3.17 18. It lost its Beauty and lies languishing to this day and notwithstanding the Redemption by Christ hath not recovered its health nor is it like to do till the compleating the Fruits of it upon the Children of God Rom. 8.20 21 22. The whole Lower Creation was made subject to Vanity and put into Pangs upon the Sin of Man by the Righteousness of God detesting his Offence How often hath his implacable Aversion from Sin been shewn not only in his Judgments upon the Offenders Person but by wrapping up in the same Judgment those which stood in a near relation to them Achan with his Children and Cattle are overwhelmed with Stones and burned together Josh 7.24 25. In the destruction of Sodom not only the grown Malefactors but the young Spawn the Infants at present uncapable of the same Wickedness and their Cattle were burned up by the same Fire from Heaven and the Place where their Habitations stood is at this day partly a heap of Ashes and partly an Infectious Lake that choaks any Fish that swim into it from Jordan and stifles as is related by its Vapor any Bird that attempts to fly over it Oh how detestable is Sin to God that causes him to turn a pleasant Land as the Garden of the Lord as it is styled Gen. 13.10 into a Lake of Sulphur to make it both in his Word and Works as a lasting Monument of his abhorrence of Evil 4. What design hath God in all these Acts of Severity and Vindictive Justice but to set off the lustre of his Holiness He testifies himself concerned for those Laws which he hath set as Hedges and Limits to the Lusts of Men and therefore when he breaths forth his fiery Indignation against a People he is said to get himself Honour As when he intended the Red Sea should swallow up the Egyptian Army Exod. 14.17 18. which Moses in his Triumphant Song Ecchoes back again Exod. 15.1 Thou hast triumphed gloriously gloriously in his Holiness which is the glory of his Nature as Moses himself interprets it in the Text. When Men will not own the Holiness of God in a way of Duty God will vindicate it in a way of Justice and Punishment In the destruction of Aarons Sons that were Will-worshippers and would take Strange Fire Sanctified and Glorified are coupled Lev. 10.3 He glorified himself in that Act in vindicating his Holiness before all the People declaring that he will not endure Sin and Disobedience He doth therefore in this Life more severely punish the Sins of his People when they presume upon any act of Disobedience for a Testimony that the nearness and dearness of any Person to him shall not make him unconcern'd in his Holiness or be a plea for Impurity The End of all his Judgments is to witness to the World his Abominating of Sin To Punish and Witness against Men are one and the same thing Micah 1.2 The Lord shall witness against you and it is the Witness of Gods Holiness Hos 5.5 And the Pride of Israel doth testifie to his face One renders it the Excellency of Israel and understands it of God the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here in our Translation Pride is rendred Excellency Amos 8.7 The Lord God hath sworn by his Excellency which is Interpreted Holiness Amos 4.2 The Lord God hath sworn by his Holiness What is the issue or end of this Swearing by Holiness and of his Excellency testifying against them In all those Places you will find them to be sweeping Judgments In one Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their Iniquity in another He will take them away with Hooks and their Posterity with Fish-hooks and in another He would never forget any of their works He that punisheth Wickedness in those he before used with the greatest Tenderness furnisheth the World with an undeniable Evidence of the Detestableness of it to him Were not Judgments sometimes poured out upon the World it would be believed that God were rather an Approver than an Enemy to Sin To Conclude Since God hath made a stricter Law to guide Men annex'd Promises above the merit of Obedience to allure them and Threatnings dreadful enough to affright Men from Disobedience He cannot be the Cause of Sin nor a lover of it How can he be the Author of that which he so severely forbids or love that which he delights to punish or be fondly Indulgent to any Evil when he hates the Ignorant Instruments in the Offences of his Reasonable Creatures III. The Holiness of God appears in Our Restoration 'T is in the Glass of the Gospel we behold the Glory of the Lord * 2 Cor. 3.18 that is the Glory of the Lord into whose Image we are changed but we are changed into nothing as the Image of God but into Holiness We bore not upon us by Creation nor by Regeneration the Image of any other Perfection We cannot be changed into his Omnipotence Omniscience c. but into the Image of his Righteousness This is the pleasing and glorious sight the Gospel Mirror darts in our eyes The whole Scene of Redemption is nothing else but a discovery of Judgment and Righteousness Isai 1.27 Zion shall be redeemed with Judgment and her Converts with Righteousness 1. This Holiness of God appears in the manner of our Restoration viz. by the Death of Christ. Not all the Vials of Judgments that have or shall be poured out upon the wicked World nor the flaming Furnace of a Sinners Conscience nor the Irreversible Sentence pronounc'd against the Rebellious Devils nor the Groans of the Damned Creatures give such a demonstration of Gods Hatred of Sin as the Wrath of God let loose upon his Son Never did Divine Holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our Saviours Countenance was most marr'd in the midst of his Dying Groans This himself acknowledges in that Prophetical Psalm Psal 22.1 2. when God had turned his Smiling Face from him and thrust his sharp Knife
no more in mind of the Holiness of God and the Holiness of his Law 't is a troublesom thing for us to hear of it Let him be gone from us since he will not countenance our Vices and indulge our Crimes We would rather hear there is no God than you should tell us of a Holy one We are contrary to the Law when we wish it were not so exact and therefore contrary to the Holiness of God which set the stamp of Exactness and Righteousness upon it We think him Injurious to our Liberty when by his Precept he thwarts our Pleasure we wish it of another frame more mild more sutable to our Minds 'T is the same as if we should openly blame God for consulting with his own Righteousness and not with our Humors before he setled his Law that he should not have drawn it from the depths of his Righteous Nature but squar'd it to accommodate our Corruption This being the language of such Complaints is a reproving God because he would not be Unholy that we might be Unrighteous with Impunity Had the Divine Law been suted to our Corrupt state God must have been Unholy to have complied with his Rebellious Creature To charge the Law with rigidness either in Language or Practice is the highest contempt of Gods Holiness for it is an Implicit Wish that God were as defil'd polluted disorderly as our Corrupted Selves 10 The Holiness of God is injur'd Opinionatively 1. In the Opinion of Venial sins The Romanists divide Sins into Venial and Mortal Mortal are those which deserve Eternal Death Venial the lighter sort of Sins which rather deserve to be pardon'd than punish'd or if punish'd not with an Eternal but Temporal Punishment This Opinion hath no foundation in but is contrary to Scripture How can any Sin be in its own nature Venial when the due Wages of every Sin is death Rom. 6.23 and he who continues not in every thing that the Law commands falls under a Curse Gal. 3.10 'T is a mean thought of the Holiness and Majesty of God to imagine that any Sin which is against an Infinite Majesty and as Infinite a Purity both in the Nature of God and the Law of God should not be considered as infinitely hainous All Sins are Transgressions of the Eternal Law and in every one the Infinite Holiness of God is some way slighted 2. In the Opinion of Works of Supererogation That is such Works as are not commanded by God which yet have such a dignity and worth in their own nature that the Performers of them do not only merit at Gods hands for themselves but fill up a Treasure of Merits for others that come short of fulfilling the Precepts God hath enjoyn'd 'T is such a mean thought of Gods Holiness that the Jews in all the Charges brought against them in Scripture were never guilty of And if you consider what pitiful things they are which are within the compass of such Works you have sufficient reason to bewail the Ignorance of Man and the low esteem he hath of so glorious a Perfection The Whipping themselves often in a Week extraordinary Watchings Fastings Macerating their Bodies wearing a Capuchins Habit c. are pitiful things to give content to an Infinite Purity As if the Precept of God requir'd only the Inferiour degrees of Vertue and the Counsels the more high and excellent as if the Law of God which the Psalmist counts perfect †Psal 19.7 did not command all Good and forbid all Evil as if the Holiness of God had forgotten it self in the framing the Law and made it a scanty and defective Rule and the Righteousness of a Creature were not only able to make an Eternal Righteousness but surmount it As Man would be at first as knowing as God so some of his Posterity would be more holy than God set up a Wisdom against the Wisdom of God and a Purity above the Divine Purity Adam was not so presumptuous he intended no more than an equalling God in Knowledge but those would exceed him in Righteousness and not only presume to render a Satisfaction for themselves to the Holiness they have injur'd but to make a Purse for the supply of others that are Indigent that they may stand before the Tribunal of God with a Confidence in the Imaginary Righteousness of a Creature How horrible is it for those that come short of the Law of God themselves to think that they can have enough for a Loan to their Neighbours An unworthy Opinion 2. Information It may Inform us how great is our Fall from God and how distant we are from him View the Holiness of God and take a prospect of the Nature of Man and be astonished to see a Person created in the Divine Image degenerated into the Image of the Devil We are as far fallen from the Holiness of God which consists in a Hatred of Sin as the lowest Point of the Earth is from the highest Point of the Heavens The Devil is not more fallen from the rectitude of his Nature and likeness to God than we are and that we are not in the same condition with those Apostate Spirits is not from any thing in our Nature but from the Mediation of Christ upon which account God hath indulged in us a continuance of some Remainders of that which Satan is wholly deprived of We are departed from our Original Pattern we were created to live the life of God that is a life of Holiness but now we are alienated from the life of God * Eph. 4.18 and of a beautiful piece we are become deformed daub'd over with the most defiling Mud We work uncleaness with greediness according to our ability as Creatures as God doth work Holiness with affection and ardency according to his Infiniteness as Creator More distant we are from God by reason of Sin than the vilest Creature the most deform'd Toad or poysonous Serpent is from the highest and most glorious Angel By forsaking our Innocence we departed from God as our Original Copy The Apostle might well say Rom. 3.23 that by Sin we are come short of the glory of God Interpreters trouble themselves much about that place Man is come short of the glory of God that is of the Holiness of God which is the glory of the Divine Nature and was pictur'd in the Rational Innocent Creature By the Glory of God is meant the Holiness of God As 1 Cor. 3.18 Beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord we are changed into the same Image from glory to glory that is the Glory of God in the Text into the Image of which we are changed but the Scripture speaks of no other Image of God but that of Holiness We are come short of the glory of God of the Holiness of God which is the glory of God and the Image of it which was the glory of Man By Sin which is particular in opposition to the Purity of God Man was left
a lower measure much more will he love it in a higher degree because then his Image is more illustrious and beautiful and comes nearer to the lively lineaments of his own Infinite Purity Perfection in any thing is more lovely and amiable than Imperfection in any state and the nearer any thing arrives to Perfection the further are those things separated from it which might Cool an affection to it An increase in holiness is attended with a manifestation of his love Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keeps them he it is that loves me and he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and I will manifest my self to him T is a testimony of love to God and God will not be behind hand with the Creature in kindness He loves a holy man for some resemblance to him in his Nature but when there is an abounding in Sanctified dispositions sutable to it there is an increase of savour The more we resemble the Original the more shall we enjoy the blessedness of that Original As any partake more of the Divine likeness they partake more of the Divine happiness 5. Exhortation Let us carry our selves holily in a spiritual manner in all our religious approaches to God Psal 93.5 Holiness becomes thy house O Lord for ever This Attribute should work in us a deep and reverential respect to God This is the reason rendred why we should worship at his foot-stool in the lowest posture of humility prostrate before him because he is holy †Psal 99.5 Shooes must be put off from our feet Exod. 3.5 that is Lusts from our Affections every thing that our souls are clogged and bemired with as the Shooe is with dirt He is not willing we should offer to him an impure soul mired hearts rotten carcasses putrified in vice rotten in iniquity Our Services are to be as free from prophaness as the sacrifices of the Law were to be free from sickliness or any blemish Whatsoever is contrary to his Purity is abhorred by him and unlovely in his sight and can meet with no other success at his hands but a disdainful turning away both of his eye and ear ‖ Isa 1.15 Since he is an Immense purity he will reject from his presence and from having any communion with him all that which is not conformable to him as light chases away the darkness of the night and will not mix with it If we stretch out our hands towards him we must put iniquity farr away from us * Job 11.13 14. the fruits of all Service will else drop off to nothing Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord When when the heart is purged by Christ sitting as a purifier of silver †Mal. 3.3 4. Not all the Incense of the Indies yield him so sweet a Savour as one spiritual act of worship from a heart estranged from the vileness of the World and ravisht with an affection to and a desire of imitating the Puririty of his Nature 6. Exhortation Let us address for holiness to God the fountain of it As he is the Author of bodily life in the Creature so he is the Author of his own life the life of God in the soul By his holiness he makes men holy as the Sun by his light enlightens the Air. He is not only the Holy One but our holy One ‖ Isa 43.15 The Lord that sanctifies us Levit. 20.8 As he hath mercy to pardon us so he hath holiness to purify us the excellency of being a Sun to comfort us and a Shield to protect us giving Grace and Glory * Psal 84.11 Grace whereby we may have Communion with him to our comfort and strength against our spiritual enemies for our defence Grace as our preparatory to glory and Grace growing up till it ripen in Glory He only can mould us into a Divine frame The great Original can only derive the excellency of his own Nature to us We are too low too lame to lift up our selves to it too much in love with our own Deformity to admit of this Beauty without a heavenly power inclining our desires for it our affections to it our willingness to be partakers of it He can as soon set the beauty of Holiness in a deformed heart as the beauty of Harmony in a confused mass when he made the World He can as soon cause the light of Purity to rise out of the darkness of Corruption as frame glorious spirits out of the insufficiency of nothing His beauty doth not decay he hath as much in himself now as he had in his eternity He is as ready to impart it as he was at the Creation only we must wait upon him for it and be content to have it by small measures and degrees There is no fear of our sanctification if we come to him as a God of holiness since he is a God of peace and the breach made by Adam is repaired by Christ Thes 1.5.23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly c. He restores the sanctifying spirit which was withdrawn by the Fall as he is a God pacified and his holiness righted by the Redeemer The beauty of it appears in its smiles upon a man in Christ and is as ready to impart it self to the reconcil'd Creature as before Iustice was to punish the rebellious one He loves to send forth the streams of this perfection into created Chanels more than any else He did not design the making the Creature so powerfull as he might because power is not such an excellency in its own Nature but as it is conducted and managed by some other excellency Power is indifferent and may be used well or ill according as the possessor of it is righteous or unrighteous God makes not the Creature so powerful as he might but he delights to make the Creature that waits upon him as holy as it can be beginning it in this world and ripening it in the other 'T is from him we must expect it and from him that we must begg it and draw Arguments from the holiness of his Nature to move him to work holiness in our Spirits We cannot have a stronger plea. Purity is the favourite of his own Nature and delights itself in the resemblances of it in the Creature Let us also go to God to preserve what he hath already wrought and imparted As we cannot attain it so we cannot maintain it without him God gave it Adam and he lost it When God gives it us we shall lose it without his influencing and preserving Grace The chanel will be without a Stream if the Fountain do not bubble it forth and the streams will vanish if the Fountain doth not constantly supply them Let us apply our selves to him for holiness as he is a God glorious in holiness By this we honour God and advantage our selves A DISCOURSE UPON THE Goodness of God Mark 10.18 And Jesus
upon a higher ground of outward Prosperity vaunt it loftily above their Neighbours the common fault of those that enjoy a Worldly Sun-shine which the Apostle observes in his Direction to Timothy * 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high-mâ—nded 'T is an ill use of Divine Blessings to be fill'd by them with Pride and Wind. Also 2. When Men abuse Plenty to Ease because they have abundance spend their time in idleness and make no other use of Divine Benefits than to trifle away their time and be utterly useless to the World 3. When they also abuse Peace and other Blessings to security As they which would not believe the threatnings of Judgment and the Storm coming from a far Country because the Lord was in Sion and her King in her * Jer. 8.19 Is not the Lord in Sion is not her King in her thinking they might continue their progress in their Sin because they had the Temple the Seat of the Divine Glory Sion and the promise of an everlasting Kingdom to David abusing the Promise of God to presumption and security and turning the Grace of God into wantonness 4. Again When they abuse the Bounty of God to sensuality and luxury mis-employing the Provisions God gives them in resolving to live like Beasts when by a good improvement of them they might attain the Life of Angels Thus is the light of the Sun abus'd to conduct them and the Fruits of the Earth abus'd to enable them to their prodigious Debauchery As we do saith one * Young of Affliction p. 34. with the Thames which brings us in Provision and we soil it with our Rubbish The more God sowes his Gifts the more we sow our Cockle and Darnel Thus we make our outward Happiness the most unhappy part of of our lives and by the strength of Divine Blessings exceed all Laws of Reason and Religion too How unworthy a Carriage is this to use the Expressions of Divine Goodness as occasions of a greater outrage and affront of him When we stab his Honour by those Instruments he puts into our hands to glorifie him as if a favorite should turn that Sword into the Bowels of his Prince wherewith he Knighted him And a Servant enricht by a Lord should hire by that Wealth Murderers to take away his life How brutish is it the more God Courts us with his Blessings the more to spurn at him with our Feet Like the Mule that lifts up its Heel against the Dam as soon as ever it hath suckt her We never beat God out of our hearts but by his own Gifts He receives no blows from Men but by those Instruments he gave them to promote their Happiness While Man is an Enjoyer he makes God a Looser by his own Blessings inflames his Rebellion by those Benefits which should kindle his love and runs from him by the strength of those favours which should endear the Donor to him Do you thus requite the Lord Oh foolish People and unwise is the Expostulati n Deut. 32.6 Divine Goodness appears in the complaint of the abuse of it in giving them Titles below their Crime and complaining more of their being unfaithful to their own Interest than Enemies to his Glory Foolish and unwise in neglecting their own Happiness a Charge below the Crime which deserved to be abominable ungrateful People to a Prodigy All this Carriage towards God is as if a Man should knock the Chirurgeon on the Head as soon as he hath set and bound up his Dislocated Members So God compares the ungrateful behaviour of the Israelites against him * Hos 7 1â— Though I have bound and strengthn'd their Arms yet do they imagine mischief against me A Metaphor taken from a Chirurgeon that applies Corroborating Playsters to a broken Limb. 9. We contemn the Goodness of God in ascribing our Benefits to other Causes than Divine Goodness Thus Israel ascribed her Felicity Plenty and Success to her Idols as Rewards which her lovers had given her * Hos 2.5.12 And this Charge Daniel brought home upon Belshazzâ—r †Dan. 5.23 Thou hast praised the Gods of Silver and Gold and Brass and Iron and the God in whose hand is thy breath and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorify'd The God who hath given success to the Arms of thy Ancestors and convey'd by their hands so large a Dominion to thee thou hast not honour'd in the same Rank with the sordidest of thy Idols 'T is the same case when we own him not as the Author of any success in our Affairs but by an over-weening conceit of our own Sagacity applaud and admire our selves and over-look the Hand that conducted us and brought our endeavours to a good issue We Eclipse the Glory of Divine Goodness by setting the Crown that is due to it upon the head of our own Industry A Sacriledge worse than Belshazzar's drinking of Wine with his Lords and Concubines in the Sacred Vessels pilfer'd from the Temple as in that place of Daniel This was the proud vaunt of the Assyrian Conqueror for which God threatens to punish the fruit of his stout heart * Isai 10.12.13 14. By the strength of my hand I have done it and by my Wisdom for I am prudent and I have removed the bounds of the People and have robbed their Treasures and I have put down the Inhabitants like a valiant Man Not a word of Divine Goodness and Assistance in all this but applauding his own Courage and Conduct This is a robbing of God to set up our selves and making Divine Goodness a Footstool to ascend into his Throne And as it is unjust so it is ridiculous to ascribe to our selves or Instruments the chief honour of any work As ridiculous as if a Soldier after a Victory should Erect an Altar to the honour of his Sword or an Artificer offer Sacrifices to the Tools whereby he compleated some excellent and useful Invention A practice that every Rational Man would disdain where he should see it 'T is a discarding any thoughts of the Goodness of God when we imagine that we chiefly owe any thing in this World to our own Industry or Wit to Friends or Means as though Divine Goodness did not open its hand to interest it self in our Affairs support our Ability direct our Counsels and mingle it self with any thing we do God is the principal Author of any advantage that accrues to us of any wise Resolution we fix upon or any proper way we take to compass it No Man can be wise in opposition to God act wisely or well without him His Goodness inspires Men with generous and magnificent Counsels and furnisheth them with fit and proportionable Means When he withdraws his hand Mens heads grow foolish and their hands feeble folly and weakness drops upon them as darkness upon the World upon the removal of the Sun 'T is an abuse of Divine Goodness
Holy Name And because himself and all men were insufficient to offer up a praise to God answerable to the greatness of his benefits he summons in the end of the Psalm the Angels and all Creatures to joyn in consort with him Observe 1. As man is too shallow a Creature to comprehend the excellency of God so he is too dull and scanty a Creature to offer up a due praise to God both in regard of the excellency of his nature and the multitude and greatness of his benefits 2. We are apt to forget divine benefits our Souls must therefore be often jogg'd and rous'd up All that is within me every power of my Rational and every Affection of my Sensitive part All his Faculties all his Thoughts Our Souls will hang back from God in every duty much more in this if we lay not a strict charge upon them We are so void of a pure and intire love to God that we have no mind to those duties Wants will spurr us on to Prayer but a pure love to God can only spirit us to Praise We are more ready to reach out a hand to receive his Mercies than to lift up our heart to recognize them after the receipt After the Psalmist had summoned his own Soul to this task he enumerates the Divine blessings received by him to awaken his soul by a sence of them to so noble a work He begins at the first and foundation Mercy to himself the pardon of his sin and justification of his Person the renewing of his sickly and languishing nature Verse 3. Who forgives all thy iniquities and heals all thy diseases His Redemption from death or Eternal destruction his expected glorification thereupon which he speaks of with that certainty as if it were present V. 4 Who redeems thy life from destruction who Crowns thee with loving kindness and tender Mercies He makes his progress to the mercy manifested to the Church in the protection of it against or delivery of it from oppressions Verse 6. The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed In the discovery of his Will and Law and the glory of his merciful Name to it Verse 7 8. He made known his ways unto Moses and his acts unto the Children of Israel The Lord is Merciful and Gracious slow to Anger and plenteous in Mercy Which latter words may refer also to the free and unmerited spring of the benefits he had reckoned up Viz. The Mercy of God which he mentions also verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities And then extols the perfection of Divine mercy in the pardoning of sin Ver. 11 12. The Paternal tenderness of God Verse 13. The eternity of his Mercy Verse 17. But restrains it to the proper object Verse 11.17 To them that fear him i. e. To them that beleive in him Fear being the word commonly used for Faith in the Old Testament under the legal dispensation wherein the spirit of bondage was more eminent than the spirit of Adoption and their fear more than their confidence Observe 1. All true blessings grow up from the pardon of sin ver 3. Who forgives all thine iniquities That is the first blessing the top and Crown of all other favours which draws all other blessings after it and sweetens all other blessings with it The principal intent of Christ was Expiation of sin Redemption from iniquity the purchase of other blessings was consequent upon it Pardon of sin is every blessing vertually and in the root and spring it flows from the favor of God and is such a gift as cannot be tainted with a Curse as outward things may 2. Where sin is pardoned the soul is renewed verse 3. Who heals all thy diseases Where guilt is remitted the deformity and sickness of the soul is cur'd Forgiveness is a teeming mercy it never goes single when we have an interest in Christ as bearing the chastisement of our peace we receive also a balsom from his blood to heal the wounds we feel in our nature Isaiah 53.5 The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed As there is a guilt in sin which binds us over to punishment so there is a contagion in sin which fills us with pestilent diseases when the one is removed the other is cur'd We should not know how to love the one without the other The renewing the soul is necessary for a delightful relish of the other blessings of God A condemn'd Malefactor infected with a Leprosie or any other loathsome distemper if pardon'd could take little comfort in his freedom from the Gibbet without a Cure of his Plague 3. God is the sole and soveraign author of all spiritual blessings Who forgives all thy iniquities and heals all thy diseases He refers all to God nothing to himself in his own merit and strength All not the pardon of one sin merited by me not the cure of one disease can I owe to my own power and the strength of my free will and the operations of nature He and he alone is the Prince of pardon the Physitian that restores me the Redeemer that delivers me 't is a Sacriledge to divide the praise between God and our selves God only can knock off our fetters expell our distempers and restore a deformed Soul to its decayed beauty 4. Gracious Souls will bless God as much for Sanctification as for Justification The initials of Sanctification and there are no more in this Life are worthy of solemn acknowledgement 'T is a sign of growth in Grace when our Hymns are made up of acknowledgments of Gods sanctifying as well as pardoning Grace In blessing God for the one we rather shew a love to our selves in blessing God for the other we cast out a pure beam of love to God because by purifying Grace we are fitted to the service of our maker prepared to every good work which is delightful to him by the other we are eas'd in our selves Pardon fills us with inward peace but Sanctification fills us with an activity for God Nothing is so capable of setting the soul in a heavenly tune as the consideration of God as a pardoner and as a healer 5. Where sin is pardon'd the punishment is remitted Verse 3 4. Who forgives all thy iniquities and Redeems thy Life from destruction A Malefactors pardon puts an end to his chains frees him from the stench of the Dungeon and fear of the Gibbet Pardon is nothing else but the remitting of guilt and guilt is nothing else but an obligation to punishment as a penal debt for sin A Creditors tearing a Bond frees the Debtor from payment and rigor 6. Growth in Grace is always annext to true Sanctification Verse 3. So that thy youth is renew'd like the Eagles Interpreters trouble themselves much about the manner of the Eagles renewing its youth and regaining its vigor * Amyrald in loc He speaks
majestically and by way of Authority not as the look of a bare Spectator but the look of a Governor to pass a sentence upon them as a Judge His being in the Heavens renders him capable of doing whatsoever he pleases Psal 115.3 His Throne being there he can by a word in stopping the Motions of the Heavens turn the whole Earth into confusion In this respect it is said he rides upon the Heaven in thy help Deut. 33.26 Discharges his Thunders upon men and makes the influences of it serve his peoples interest By one turn of a cock as you see in Grottos he can cause streams from several parts of the Heavens to refresh or ruine the World 6. Duration of it The Heavens are incorruptible his Throne is placed there in an incorruptible state Earthly Empires have their decayes and dissolutions The Throne of God outlives the dissolution of the World His Kingdom rules over all He hath an absolute right over all things within the Circuit of Heaven and Earth though his Throne be in Heaven as the place where his Glory is most eminent and visible his Authority most exactly obey'd yet his Kingdom extends its self to the lower parts of the Earth He doth not mufle and cloud up himself in Heaven or confine his Soveraignty to that place his Royal power extends to all visible as well as invisible things He is proprietor and possessor of all Deut. 10.14 The Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lords thy God the Earth also with all that is there He hath right to dispose of all as he pleases He doth not say his Kingdom Rules all that fear him but over all so that it is not the Kingdom of Grace he here speaks of but his natural and universal Kingdom Over Angels and Men Jews and Gentiles Animate and Inanimate things The Psalmist considers God here as a great Monarch and General and all Creatures as his Hosts and Regiments under him and takes notice principally of two things 1. The Establishment of his Throne together with the Seat of it He hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens 2. The extent of his Empire His Kingdom rules over all This Text in all the parts of it is a fit basis for a discourse upon the Dominion of God and the observation will be this Doctrine God is Soveraign Lord and King and exerciseth a Dominion over the whole World both Heaven and Earth This is so clear that nothing is more spoken of in Scripture The very name Lord imports it a name originally belonging to Gods and from them translated to others And he is frequently called the Lord of Hosts because all the Troops and Armies of Spiritual and Corporeal Creatures are in his hands and at his service This is one of his principal Titles And the Angels are called his Hosts 21. ver following the Text his Camp and Militia But more plainly 1 Kings 22.19 God is presented upon his Throne encompast with all the Host of Heaven standing on his Right hand and on his Left which can be understood of no other than of the Angels that wait for the Commands of their Soveraign and stand about not to Counsel him but to receive his Orders The Sun Moon and Starrs are called his Hosts Deut. 4.19 Appointed by him for the Government of inferior things He hath an absolute Authority over the greatest and the least Creatures over those that are most dreadful and those that are most beneficial over the good Angels that willingly obey him over the Evil Angels that seem most uncapable of Government And as he is thus Lord of Hosts he is the King of Glory or a glorious King Psal 24.10 You find him called a great King the most High Psal 92.1 The supream Monarch there being no dignity in Heaven or Earth but what is dimm before him and infinitely inferior to him yea he hath the Title of Only King 1 Tim. 6.15 The Title of Royalty truly and properly only belongs to him You may see it described very magnificently by David at the freewill offering for the Building of the Temple 1 Chron. 29.11 12. Thine O Lord is the greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty thine is the Kingdom O God and thou art exalted as Head above all Both Riches and Honour come of thee and thou Reignest over all and in thy hand is Power and Might and in thy hand it is to make Great and to give strength to all He hath an eminency of Power or Authority above all All Earthly Princes received their Diadems from him yea even those that will not acknowledge him and he hath a more absolute power over them than they can challenge over their meanest Vassals As God hath a knowledge infinitely above our knowledge so he hath a Dominion incomprehensibly above any Dominion of Man and by all the shadows drawn from the Authority of one man over another we can have but weak glimmerings of the Authority and Dominion of God There is a threefold Dominion of God 1. Natural which is absolute over all Creatures and is founded in the Nature of God as Creator 2. Spiritual or Gracious which is a Dominion over his Church as Redeemed and founded in the Covenant of Grace 3. A Glorious Kingdom at the winding up of all wherein he shall Reign over all either in the Glory of his Mercy as over the glorified Saints or in the Glory of his Justice in the condemned Devils and Men. The first Dominion is founded in Nature The second in Grace The third in regard of the blessed in Grace in regard of the damn'd in demerit in them and Justice in him He is Lord of all things and always in regard of propriety Psal 24.1 The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof the World and all that dwell therein The Earth with the Riches and Treasures in the Bowels of it the habitable World with every thing that moves upon it are his he hath the sole right and what right soever any others have is deriv'd from him In regard also of possession Gen. 14.22 The most high God possessor of Heaven and Earth In respect of whom Man is not the proprietary nor possessor but usufructuary at the Will of this Grand Lord. In thâ— prosecution of this I. I shall lay down Some general propositions for the clearing and confirming it II. I shall shew Wherein this right of Dominion is founded III. What the nature of it is IV. Wherein it consists and how 't is manifested I. Some general Propositions for the clearing and confirming of it 1. We must know the difference between the Might or Power of God and his Authority We commonly mean by the Power of God the strength of God whereby he is able to effect all his purposes By the Authority of God we mean the right he hath to act what he pleases Omnipotence is his Physical power whereby he is able to do what he will Dominion is
breach of it He summons Adam to the Bar indicts him for his Crime finds him guilty by his own Confession and passeth sentence on him according to the rule he had before acquainted him with 4. The means whereby he punisheth shews his dominion Sometimes he musters up Hail and Mildew sometimes he sends regiments of wild Beasts so he threatens Israel Levit. 26.22 Sometimes he sends out a party of Angels to beat up the quarters of men and make a carnage among them 2 King 19.35 Sometimes he mounts his Thundring battery and shoots forth his Ammunition from the Clouds as against the Philistines 1 Sam. 7.10 Sometimes he sends the slightest Creatures to shame the Pride and punish the sin of man as Lice Froggs Locusts as upon the Egyptians the 8 9 10. chap. of Exodus 2. This Dominion is manifested by God as a proprietor and Lord of his Creatures and his own Goods And this is evident 1. In the choice of some persons from Eternity He hath set a part some from Eternity wherein he will display the invincible efficacy of his Grace and thereby infallibly bring them to the fruition of Glory Eph. 1.4 5. According as he hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World that we should be Holy and without blame before him in Love having Predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Why doth he write some names in the Book of Life and leave out others why doth he enroll some whom he intends to make Denizons of Heaven and refuse to put others in his register The Apostle tells us 't is the pleasure of his Will You may render a reason for many of God's actions till you come to this the top and Foundadation of all and under what head of reason can man reduce this act but to that of his Royal Prerogative Why doth God save some and condemn others at last Because of the Faith of the one and unbelief of the other Why do some men beleive Because God hath not only given them the means of Grace but accompanied those means with the efficacy of his Spirit Why did God accompany those means with the efficacy of his Spirit in some and not in others Bccause he had decreed by Grace to prepare them for Glory But why did he decree or choose some and not others Into what will you resolve this but into his soveraign pleasure Salvation and Condemnation at the last upshot are acts of God as the Judge conformable to his own Law of giving life to Believers and inflicting death upon unbeleivers for those a reason may be rendered but the choice of some and preterition of others is an act of God as he is a soveraign Monarch before any Law was actually transgrest because not actually given When a Prince redeems a Rebel he acts as a Judge according to Law but when he calls some out to pardon he acts as a soveraign by a Prerogative above Law into this the Apostle resolves it Rom. 9.13.15 When he speaks of Gods loving Jacob and hating Esau and that before they had done either good or evil It is Because God will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and Compassion on whom he will have Compassion Though the first scope of the Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter was to declare the reason of God's rejecting the Jews and calling in the Gentiles had he only intended to demolish the pride of the Jews and flat their opinion of merit and aim'd no higher than that Providential act of God he might convincingly enough to the reason of men have argued from the Justice of God provoked by the obstinacy of the Jews and not have had recourse to his absolute Will but since he asserts this latter * Amyrald dissert p. 101 102. the strength of his argument seems to lie thus if God by his absolute soveraignty may resolve and fix his love upon Jacob and estrange it from Esau or any other of his Creatures before they have done good or evil and man have no ground to call his infinite Majesty to account may he not deal thus with the Jews when their demerit would be a barr to any complaints of the Creature against him If God were considered here in the quality of a Judge it had been fit to have considered the matter of Fact in the Criminal but he is considered as a Soveraign rendring no other reason of his action but his own Will whom he will he hardens ver 18. And then the Apostle concludes Ver. 20. Who art thou O Man that replyest against God If the reason drawn from Gods Soveraignty doth not satisfie in this enquiry no other reason can be found wherein to acquiesce For the last condemnation there will be sufficient reason to clear the Justice of his proceedings But in this case of Election no other reason but what is alledg'd viz. The Will of God can be thought of but what is liable to such knotty exceptions that cannot well be untyed 1. It could not be any merit in the Creature that might determine God to choose him If the decree of Election falls not under the merit of Christ's passion as the procuring cause it cannot fall under the merit of any part of the corrupted mass The decree of sending Christ did not precede but follow'd in order of nature the determination of choosing some When men were chosen as the subjects for Glory Christ was chosen as the means for the bringing them to Glory Eph. 1.4 Chosen us in him and predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ The choice was not meerly in Christ as the moving cause that the Apostle asserts to be the good pleasure of his will but in Christ as the means of conveying to the chosen Ones the fruits of their Election What could there be in any man that could invite Gpd to this act or be a cause of distinction of one branch of Adam from another Were they not all hew'd out of the same Rock and tainted with the same corruption in blood Had it been possible to invest them with a power of merit at the first had not that venom contracted in their nature degraded all of power for the future What merit was there in any but of wrathfull punishment since they were all considered as Criminals and the cursed brood of an ungrateful Rebel what dignity can there be in the nature of the purest part of clay to be made a Vessel of Honour more than in another part of Clay as pure as that which was form'd into a Vessel for mean and sordid use What had any one to move his mercy more than another since they were all Children of wrath and equally dawb'd with Original guilt and filth Had not all an equal proportion of it to provoke his Justice What merit is there in one dry bone more than another to be inspir'd with the breath
subject to God not in regard of the Divine Nature wherein there is an equality and consequently no Dominion of jurisdiction nor only in his humane nature but in the Oeconomy of a Redeemer considered as one design'd and consenting to be incarnate and take our flesh so that after this agreement God had a soveraign right to dispose of him according to the Articles consented to In regard of his undertaking and the advantage he was to bring to the Elect of God upon the Earth he calls God by the solemn Title of his Lord in that prophetick Psalm of him Psal 16.2 Oh my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my Goodness extends not unto thee but unto the Saints that are in the Earth It seems to be the speech of Christ in Heaven mentioning the Saints on Earth as at a distance from him I can add nothing to the glory of thy Majesty but the whole fruit of my Mediation and Sufferings will redound to the Saints on Earth and it may be observed that God is call'd the Lord of Hosts in the Evangelical Prophets Isaiah Haggai Zachary and Malachy more in reference to this affair of Redemption and the deliverance of the Church than for any other works of his Providence in the World 1. This Soveraignty of God appears in requiring satisfaction for the sin of man Had he indulg'd man after his fall and remitted his offence without a just compensation for the injury he had received by his Rebellion his Authority had been vilified man would always have been attempting against his jurisdiction there would have been a continual succession of Rebellions on mans part and if a continual succession of indulgences on Gods part he had quite disown'd his Authority over man and stript himself of the flower of his Crown satisfaction must have been requir'd sometime or other from the person thus rebelling or some other in his stead and to require it after the first act of sin was more preservative to the right of the Divine soveraignty than to do it after a multitude of repeated revolts God must have laid aside his Authority if he had laid aside wholly the exacting punishment for the offence of man 2. This Soveraignty of God appears in appointing Christ to this work of Redemption His soveraignty was before manifest over Angels and Men by the right of Creation there was nothing wanting to declare the highest charge of it but his ordering his own Son to become a mortal Creature the Lord of all things to become lower than those Angels that had as well as all other things receiv'd their being and beauty from him and to be reckon'd in his death among the dust and refuse of the World He by whom God created all things not only became a man but a crucified man by the Will of his Father Gal. 1.4 Who gave himself for our sins according to the Will of God to which may referre that expression Prov. 8.22 of his being possessed by God in the beginning of his way Possession is the Dominion of a thing invested in the possessor he was possessed indeed as a Son by eternal Generation He was possessed also in the beginning of his way or works of Creation as a Mediator by special constitution to this the expression seems to referre if you read on to the end of verse 31. wherein Christ speaks of his rejoycing in the habitable part of his Earth the Earth of the great God who had design'd him to this special work of Redemption He was a Son by Nature but a Mediator by Divine Will in regard of which Christ is often call'd Gods servant which is a relation to God as a Lord. God being the Lord of all things the Dominion of all things inferior to him is inseparable from him and in this regard the whole of what Christ was to do and did actually do was acted by him as the Will of God and is exprest so by himself in the Prophesie Psal 40.7 Lo I come verse 8. I delight to do thy will which are put together Heb. 10.7 Lo I come to do thy Will O God The designing Christ to this work was an act of mercy but founded on his soveraignty His compassionate bowels might have pitied us without his being soveraign but without it could not have releived us It was the Counsell of his own will as well as of his Bowels None was his Counsellor or perswader to that mercy he shew'd Rom. 11.34 Who hath been his Counsellor for it refers to that Mercy in sending the deliverer out of Sion verse 26. as well as to other things the Apostle had been discoursing of As God was at liberty to create or not to create so he was at liberty to Redeem or not to Redeem and at his liberty whither to appoint Christ to this work or not to call him out to it In giving this order to his Son his soveraignty was exercised in a higher manner than in all the orders and instructions he hath given out to Men or Angels and all the employments he ever sent them upon Christ hath names which signifie an Authority over him He is called an Angel and a Messenger Mal. 3.1 An Apostle Heb. 3.1 Declaring thereby that God hath as much Authority over him as over the Angels sent upon his Messages or over the Apostles commission'd by His Authority as he was consider'd in the quality of Mediator 3. This Soveraignty of God appears in transferring our sins upon Christ The Supream Power in a Nation can only appoint or allow of a commutation of punishment 'T is a part of Soveraignty to transferr the penalty due to the crime of one upon an other and substitute a sufferer with the sufferers own consent in the place of a criminal whom he had a mind to deliver from a deserv'd punishment God transferr'd the sins of men upon Christ and inflicted on him a punishment for them He summ'd up the debts of man charg'd them upon the score of Christ imputing to him the guilt and inflicting upon him the penalty Isa 53.6 The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all He made them all to meet upon his back He hath made him to be sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made so by the Soveraign pleasure of God A punishment for sin as most understand it which could not be Righteously inflicted had not sin been first Righteously imputed by the consent of Christ and the order of the Judge of the World This imputation could be the immediate act of none but God because he was the sole Creditor A Creditor is not bound to accept of another's suretiship but it is at his liberty whither he will or no and when he doth accept of him he may challenge the Debt of him as if he were the Principal Debtor himself Christ made himself sin for us by a voluntary submission and God made him sin for us by a full imputation and treated him penally
with others so he will treat us and what relates to us as we will ourselves We would have God resign his Authority to our humors and our humors should be in the place of a God to him to direct him what was fit to do in our cause When things go not according to our vote our impatience is a wish that God were depos'd from his Throne that he would surrender his seat to some that would deal more favourably and be more punctual observers of our directions Let us look to our selves in regard of this sin which is too common and the root of much mischief This seems to be the first bubbling of Adam's will he was not content with the condition wherein God had placed him but affected another which ended in the ruine of himself and of Mankind 3. Limiting God in his way of working to our methods is another part of the contempt of his dominion When we will prescribe him methods of acting that he should deliver us in this or that way we would not suffer him to be the Lord of his own favors and have the priviledg to be his own director When we will limit him to such a time wherein to work our deliverance we would rob him of the power of times and seasons which are solely in his hand We would regulate his conduct according to our imaginations and assume a power to give Laws to our Soveraign Thus the Israelites limited the holy one of Israel Psal 78.41 They would controul his absolute dominion and of a Soveraign make him their slave Man that is God's vassal would set bounds to his Lord and cease to be a servant and commence Master when he would give not take directions from him When God had given them Manna and their fancies were weary of that delicious food they would prescribe Heaven to rain down some other sort of food for them When they wanted no sufficient provision in the Wilderness they quarrell'd with God for bringing them out of Egypt and not presently giving them a place of Seed of Figgs Vines and Pomegranates Numb 20.5 which is call'd a striving with the Lord ver 13. a contending with him for his Lordship When we tempt God and require a sign of him as a mark of his favour we circumscribe his dominion when we will not use the means he hath appointed but father our lazyness upon a trust in his providence as if we expected he should work a miracle for our relief when we censure him for what he hath done in the course of his providence when we capitulate with him and promise such a service if he will do us such a good turn according to our platform we would bring down his Soveraign pleasure to our will we invade his Throne and expect a submissive Obedience from him Man that hath not wit enough to govern himself would be governing God and those that cannot be their own Sovereigns affect a Soveraignty over Heaven 4. Pride and presumption is another invasion of his dominion When men will resolve to go to morrow to such a City to such a Fair and Market to traffick and get gain without thinking of the necessity of a Divine License as if our selves were the Lords of our time and of our lives and God were to lacquy after us James 4.13.15 Ye that say to day we will go into such a City and buy and sell whereas ye ought to say if the Lord will we shall live As if they had a free hold and were not Tenants at will to the Lord of the Manour When we presume upon our own strength or wit to get the better of our adversaries As the Germans as Tacitus relates assur'd themselves by the numerousness of their Army of a victory against the Romans and prepar'd chaines to fetter the Captives before the conquest which were found in their camp after their defeat When we are peremptory in expectations of success according to our will As Pharoah Exod. 15.9 I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoyl my lust shall be satisfied upon them I will draw my sword my hand shall destroy them He speaks more like a God than a man as if he were the Soveraign power and God only his Vicar and Lieutenant How he struts without thinking of a superiour power to curb him When men ascribe to themselves what is the sole fruit of God's Soveraign pleasure As the King of Assyria speaks a Language fit only to be spoken by God Isa 10 13 14. c. I have removed the bounds of the people my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people I have gathered all the earth which God declares to be a wrong to his Soveraignty by the title wherewith he prefaceth his threatning against him ver 16. Therefore shall the Lord the Lord of Hosts send among his fat ones leanness c. 'T is indeed a rifling if not of his Crown yet of the most glittering Jewel of it his Glory He that mocks the poor reproacheth his Maker Prov. 17.5 He never thinks that God made them poor and himself rich He owns not his riches to be dropt upon him by the divine hand Self is the great invader of God's Soveraignty doth not only spurn at it but usurp it and assume divine honorus payable only to the Universal Soveraign The Assyrian was not so modest as the Chaldean who would impute his power and victories to his Idol Hab. 1.11 whom he thought to be God though yet robbing the true God of his Authority and so much was signified by their names Nebuchadnezzar Evil-Merodach Belshazzar Nebo Merodach Bel being the Chaldean Idols and the names signifying Lord of wealth giver of riches and the like When we behave our selves proudly towards others and imagine our selves greater than our Maker ever meant us When we would give Laws to others and expect the most submissive observances from them as if God had resign'd his Authority to us and made us in his stead the rightful Monarchs of the World To disdain that any creature should be above us is to disdain God's Soveraign disposition of men and consequently his own superiority over us A proud man would govern all and would not have God his Soveraign but his Subject to over-value our selves is to under-value God 5. Slight and careless worship of God is another contempt of his Soveraignty A Prince is contemn'd not only by a neglect of those reverential postures which are due to him but in a reproachful and scornful way of paying them To behave our selves uncomely or immodestly before a Prince is a dis-esteem of Majesty Soveraignty requires aw in every address where this is wanting there is a dis-respect of Authority We contemn God's Dominion when we give him the service of the Lip the Hand the Knee and deny him that of the Heart as they in Ezekiel Ezek. 33.31 as though he were the Soveraign only of the body and not of the soul To
an earth-worm a mean animal as man be afraid to speak irreverently of so great a King among his pots and Strumpets Not to fear him not to reverence him is to pull his Throne from under him and make him of a lower Authority than our selves or any creature that we reverence more 5. Prayer to God and trust in him is inferr'd from his Soveraignty If he be the supream Soveraign holding Heaven and Earth in his hand disposing all things here below not committing every thing to the influence of the stars or the humours of men we ought then to apply our selves to him in every case implore the exercise of his Authority we hereby own his peculiar right over all things and persons He only is the supream head in all causes and over all persons Thine is the Kingdom concludes the Lord's Prayer both as a motive to pray Mat. 6.13 and a ground to expect what we want He that believes not God's Government will think it needless to call upon him will expect no refuge under him in a strait but make some creature-reed his support If we do not seek to him but rely upon the dominion we have over our own possessions or upon the Authority of any thing else we disown his Supremacy and Dominion over all things we have as good an opinion of our selves or of some creature as we ought to have of God We think our selves or some natural cause we seek to or depend upon as much Soveraigns as he and that all things which concern us are as much at the dispose of an inferior as of the great Lord. 'T is indeed to make a God of our selves or of the Creature When we seek to him upon all occasions we own this divine eminency we acknowledge that it is by him mens hearts are order'd the World govern'd all things dispos'd And God that is jealous of his glory is best pleas'd with any duty in the creature that doth acknowledge and desire the glorification of it which Prayer and dependance on him doth in a special manner Desiring the exercise of his Authority and the preservation of it in ordering the affairs of the World 6. Obedience naturally results from this Doctrine As his justice requires fear his goodness thankfulness his faithfulness trust his truth belief so his Soveraignty in the nature of it demands Obedience As it is most fit he should rule in regard of his excellency so it is most fit we should obey him in regard of his Authority He is our Lord and we his Subjects he is our Master and we his servants 't is righteous we should observe him and conform to his will He is every thing that speaks an Authority to command us and that can challenge an humility in us to obey As that is the truest Doctrine that subjects us most to God so he is the truest Christian that doth in his practice most acknowledge this subjection And as soveraignty is the first notion a Creature can have of God so obedience is the first and chief thing Conscience reflects upon the Creature Man holds all of God and therefore owes all the operations capable to be produced by those faculties to that soveraign power that endowed him with them Man had no being but from him he hath no motion without him he should therefore have no being but for him and no motion but according to him To call him Lord and not to act in subjection to him is to mock and put a scorn upon him Luk. 6.46 Why call you me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say 'T is like the Crucifying Christ under the Title of a King 'T is not by professions but by observance of the Laws of a Prince that we manifest a due respect to him By that we reverence that Authority that enacted them and the prudence that fram'd them This doctrine affords us motives to obey and directs us to the manner of Obedience 1. Motives to obey 1. 'T is Comely and Orderly Is it not a more becoming thing to be ruled by the will of our soveraign than by that of our lusts To observe a wise and gracious Authority than to set up inordinate appetites in the room of his Law Would not all men account it a disorder to be abominated to see a slave or vassal controul the just orders of his Lord and endeavour to subject his Masters will to his own Much more to expect God should serve our humour rather than we be regulated by his Will 'T is more orderly that subjects should obey their Governours than Governours their Subjects that Passion should obey Reason than Reason obey Passion When good Governours are to conform to Subjects and reason vail to passion 't is monstrous the one disturbs the order of a community and the other defaceth the beauty of the Soul Is it a comely thing for God to stoop to our meanness or for us to stoop to his greatness 2. In regard of the Divine Soveraignty 't is both honourable and advantagious to obey God 'T is indeed the glory of a Superior to be obey'd by his Inferior but where the soveraign is of transcendent excellency and dignity 't is an honour to a mean person to be under his immediate commands and enrolled in his service 'T is more honour to be Gods Subject than to be the greatest worldly Monarch his very service is an Empire and disobedience to him is a slavery * Servire deo regnare est 'T is a part of his soveraignty to reward any service done him Other Lords may be willing to recompence the service of their Subjects but are often rendred unable but nothing can stand in the way of God to hinder your reward if nothing stand in your way to hinder your obedience Levit. 18.5 If you keep my Statutes you shall live in them I am the Lord. Is there any thing in the World can recompence you for Rebellion against God and obedience to a Lust Saul cools the hearts of his Servants from running after David by Davids inability to give them Fields and Vineyards 1 Sam. 22.7 Will the Son of Jesse give every one of you Fields and Vineyards and make you Captains of thousands and Captains of hundreds that you have conspired against me But God hath a Dominion to requite as well as an Authority to command your obedience He is a great soveraign to bear you out in your observance of his precepts against all reproaches and violences of men and at last to crown you with eternal honour If he should neglect vindicating one time or other your loyalty to him he will neglect the maintaining and vindicating his own soveraignty and greatness 3. God in all his dispensations to man was careful to preserve the rights of his soveraignty in exacting obedience of his Creature The second thing he manifested his soveraignty in was that of a Law-giver to Adam after that of a Proprietor in giving him the possession of the
a reason to stifle all complaints against God but not to make us careless of preventing afflictions or emerging out of them by all just ways The Hare hath a nature to shift for it self by its winding and turning and the Bird by its flight and neither of them could be blam'd if they were able should the one scratch out the Eyes of the Hounds and the other sacrifice the Hawk to its own fury 4. 'T is a folly not to submit to him Why should we strive against him since he is an unaccountable soveraign and gives no account of any of his matters Job 33.13 Who can disannul the judgement God gives There is no appeal from the supream Court a higher Court can repeal or null the sentence of an inferior Court but the sentence of the highest stands irreversible but by it self and its own Authority 'T is better to lower our Sails than to grapple with one that can shoot us under Water To submit to that soveraign whom we cannot subdue 2. It shew's us the true nature of Patience in regard of God 'T is a submission to Gods soveraignty As the formal object of Obedience is the Authority of God enacting the Law so the formal object of patience is the Authority of God inflicting the punishment As his right of commanding is to be eyed in the one so his right of punishing is to be considered in the other This was Eli's condition when he had receiv'd a message that might put flesh and blood into a mutiny the rending the Priesthood from his Family and the ruine of his House yet this consideration 'T is the Lord calms him into submission and a willing compliance with the Divine pleasure 1 Sam. 3.18 't is the Lord Let him do what seems good in his sight Job was of the same strain Job 1.21 The Lord gives and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. He considers God as a soveraign who was not to be reproached or have any thing uncomly uttered of him for what he had done To be patient because we cannot avoid it or resist it is a violent not a Loyal Patience but to submit because it is the will of God to inflict To be silent because the soveraignty of God doth order it is a patience of a true complexion The other kind of patience is no other than that of an Enemy that will free himself as soon as he can and by any way though never so violent that offers it self This sort of patience is that of a subject acknowledging the supream Authority over him and that he ought to be ordered by the will and to the Glory of God more than by his own will and for his own ease I was dumb I opened not my mouth Psal 39.10 Not because I could not help it But because thou didst it thou who art my soveraign Lord. The greatness of God claimes an awful and inviolable respect from his Creatures in what way soever he doth dispose of them this is due to him since his Kingdom ruleth over all his Kingdom should be acknowledged by all and his Royal Authority submitted to in all that he doth A DISCOURSE UPON GODS Patience NAHUM I. Verse 3. The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power and will not at all acquit the Wicked The Lord hath his way in the Whirl-wind and in the Storm and the Clouds are the dust of his Feet THE Subject of this prophesie is Gods sentence against Niniveh the Head and Metropolis of the Assyrian Empire A City famous for its strength and thickness of its Walls and the multitude of its Towers for defence against an Enemy The Forces of this Empire did God use as a scourge against the Israelites and by their hands ruin'd Samaria the chief City of the Ten Tribes and transplanted them as Captives into another Country 2 Kin. 17.5 6. about six years after Hezekiah came to the Crown of Judah 2 Kings 18. compared with the 17 chap. v. 6. In whose time or as some think later Nahum utter'd this prophesie The Name Nahum signifies Comforter though the matter of his prophesie be dreadful to Niniveh it was comfortable to the people of God For a promise is made ver 7. The Lord is good a strong hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him And an encouragement to Judah to keep their solemn Feasts ver 15. And also in chap. 2.3 with a declaration of the misery of Niniveh and the destruction of it Observe I. In all the fears of Gods people God will have a Comforter for them Judah might well be dejected with the calamity of their Brethren not knowing but it might be their own turn shortly after They knew not where the ambition of the Assyrian would stop but God by his Prophets calms their fears of their furious Neighbour by predicting to them the ruine of their fear'd Adversary II. The destruction of the Churches Enemies is the comfort of the Church By that God is glorifyed in his Justice and the Church secur'd in its Worship III. The Victories of Persecutors secure them not from being the triumphs of others The Assyrians that conquered and captiv'd Israel were themselves to be conquered and captiv'd by the Medes The whole oppressing Empire is threatned with destruction in the ruine of their chief City accordingly it was accomplisht and the Empire extinguisht by a greater power God burns the Rod when it hath done the work he appointed it for and the wisp of straw wherewith the vessels are scour'd is flung into the fire or upon the Dunghil Nahum begins his prophesie majestically with a description of the wrath and fury of God ver 2. God is jealous and the Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and reserveth wrath for his Enemies And therefore the whole of it is called ver 1. The burden of Niniveh as those prophesies are which are composed of threatnings of judgments which lie as a mighty weight upon the heads and backs of sinners God is Jealous jealous of his Glory and Worship and jealous for his people and their security He cannot long bear the oppressions of his people and the boasts of his Enemies He is jealous for himself and is jealous for you of Judah who retain his Worship He is not forgetful of those that remember him nor of the danger of those that are desirous to maintain his honour in the World In this first expression the Prophet uses the Covenant Name God the Covenant runs I am your God or The Lord your God mostly God without Lord never Lord without God And therefore his jealousy here is meant of the care of his people and the relation that his actions against his Enemies have to his Servants He is a lover of his own and a revenger on his Enemies The Lord Revengeth and is Furious He now describes God by a name of soveraignty and Power
yet he hath also power to verifie his word and accomplish his will assure your selves he will not at all acquit the wicked He will not acquit the wicked He will not always account the criminal an innocent as he seems to do by a present sparing of them and dealing with them as if they were destitute of any provoking carriage towards him and he void of any resentment of it He will not acquit the wicked how is this who then can be saved Is there no place for remission He will not acquit the wicked i. e. He will not acquit obstinate sinners As he hath Patience for the wicked so he hath Mercy for the penitent The wicked are the subjects of his long suffering but not of his acquitting grace He doth not presently punish their sins because he is slow to anger But without their Repentance he will not blot out their sins because he is righteous in judgment If God should acquit them without Repentance for their crimes he must himself repent of his own Law and Righteous Sanction of it He will not acquit i. e. he will not go back from the thing he hath spoken and forbear at long run the punishment he hath threatned The Lord hath his way in the Whirl-wind The way of God signifies sometimes the Law of God sometimes the providential operations of God Ezek. 18.25 Is not my way equal It seems there to take in both And in the Storm and the Clouds are the dust of his feet * Tirinus in loc The Prophet describes here the fight of God with the Assyrians as if he rusht upon them with a mighty noise of an Army raising the dust with the feet of their horses and motion of their Chariots Symbolically it signifies the multitude of the Chaldean and Median forces invading besieging and storming the City It signifies 1. The rule of Providence The way of God is in every motion of the creature He rules all things Whirl-wind Storms Clouds his way is in all their walks in the whirlings and blustrings of the one in the raising and dissolving the other He blows up the Winds and compacts the Clouds to make them serviceable to his designs 2. The management of wars by God His way is in the storm As he was the Captain of the Assyrians against Samaria so he will be the Captain of the Medes against Niniveh As Israel was not so much wasted by the Assyrians as by the Lord who levied and arm'd their Forces So Niniveh shall be subverted rather by God than by the Arms of the Medes Their force is describ'd not to be so much from Humane power as Divine God is President in all the commotions of the World his way is in every Whirl-wind 3. The easiness of executing the judgment He is of so great power that he can excite Tempests in the Air and overthrow them with the Clouds which are the dust of his feet He can blind his enemies and avenge himself on them he is Lord of Clouds and can fill their womb with Hail Lightnings and Thunders to burst out upon those he kindles his anger against He is of so great force that he needs not use the strength of his Arm but the dust of his Feet to effect his destroying purpose 4. The suddenness of the judgment Whirl-winds come suddenly without any harbingers to give notice of their approach Clouds are swift in their motion Isa 60.8 Who are those that flie as a Cloud i. e. with a mighty nimbleness What God doth he shall do on the sudden come upon them before they are aware be too quick for them in his motion to over-run and over-reach them The winds are describ'd with wings in regard of the quickness of their motion 5. The terror of judgments The Lord hath his way in the Whirl-wind i. e. in great displeasure The anger of the Lord is often compar'd to a storm He shall bring Clouds of judgments upon them many and thick as terrible as when a day is turn'd into night by the mustering of the darkest clouds that interpose between the Sun and the Earth Clouds and darkness are round about him and a fire goes before him when he burns up his enemies Psal 97.2 3. The judgments shall have terror without mercy as clouds obscure the light and are dark masks before the face and glory of the Sun and cut off its refreshing Beams from the Earth Clouds note multitude and obscurity God could crush them without a Whirlwind beat them to powder with one touch but he will bring his judgments in the most surprizing and amazing manner to flesh and blood so that all their Glory shall be chang'd into nothing but terror by the noise of the bellowing winds and the clouds like ink blacking the Heavens 6. The confusion of the Offenders upon God's proceeding A Whirlwind is not only a boysterous wind that hurls and rouls every thing out of its place but by its circular motion by its winding to all points of the compass it confounds things and jumbles them together It keeps not one point but by a circumgyration toucheth upon all Clouds like dust shall be blown in their face and gumm up their eyes They shall be in a posture of confusion not know what counsels to take what motions to resolve upon Let them look to every point of Heaven and Earth they shall meet with a Whirlwind to confound them and cloudy dust to blind them 7. The irresistibleness of the judgment Winds have more than a Gyant like force a torrent of compacted Air that with an invincible wilfulness bears all before it displaceth the firmest Trees and levels the tallest Towers and pulls up bodies from their natural place Clouds also are over our heads and above our reach When God places them upon his people for defence they are an invincible security Isa 4.5 And when he moves them as his Chariot against a people they end in an irresistible destruction Thus the ruine of the wicked is describ'd Prov. 10.25 As the Whirlwind passes so is the wicked no more It blows them down sweeps them away they irrecoverably fall before the force of it What heart can endure and what hands can be strong in the days wherein God doth deal with them Ezek. 22.14 Thus is the judgment against Niniveh describ'd God hath his way in the Whirlwind to thunder down their strongest Walls which were so thick that Chariots could march a-breast upon them and batter down their mighty Towers which that City had in multitudes upon their Walls They are the first words I intend to insist upon to treat of the Patience of God describ'd in those words The Lord is slow to anger Doct. Slowness to anger or admirable Patience is the property of the divine nature As Patience signifies suffering so it is not in God The divine nature is impassible uncapable of any impair it cannot be touched by the violences of men nor the essential Glory of it be diminisht by
He sends but a few drops out of the Cloud which he might make to break in the gross and fall down upon our heads to overwhelm us he abates much of what he might do When he might sweep away a whole Nation by deluges of water corruption of the Air or convulsions of the Earth or by other wayes that are not wanting at his order He picks out only some Persons some Families some Cities sends a plague into one house and not into another here is Patience to the stock of a Nation while he inflicts punishment upon some of the most notorious sinners in it Herod is suddenly snatcht away being willingly flattered into the thoughts of his being a God God singl'd out the chief in the herd for whose sake he had been affronted by the rabble Act. 12.22 23. Some find him sparing them while others feel him destroying them He arrests some when he might seize all all being his Debtors And often in great desolations brought upon a people for their sin he hath left a stump in the Earth as Daniel speakes Dan. 4.15 for a Nation to grow upon it again and arise to a stronger constitution He doth punish less than our iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 and rewards us not according to our iniquities Psal 103.10 The greatness of any punishment in this Life answers not the greatness of the crime Though there be an equity in whatsoever he doth yet there is not an equality to what we deserve Our iniquities would justifie a severer treating of us His Justice goes not here to the end of its line 't is stopped in its progress and the blows of it weakned by his Patience He did not curse the Earth after Adam's fall that it should bring forth no fruit but that it should not bring forth fruit without the wearysome toyl of man and subjected him to distempers presently but inflicted not death immediately while he punished him he supported him And while he expelled him from Paradise he did not order him not to cast his eye towards it and conceive some hopes of regaining that happy place 5. His Patience is seen in giving great mercies after provocations He is so slow to anger that he heaps many kindnesses upon a rebel instead of punishment There is a prosperous wickedness wherein the provokers strength continues firm The troubles which like Clouds drop upon others are blown away from them and they are not plagued like other men that have a more worthy demeanour towards God Psal 73.3 4 5. He doth not only continue their lives but sends out fresh beams of his goodness upon them and calls them by his Blessings that they may acknowledge their own fault and his bounty which he is not obliged to by any gratitude he meets with from them but by the richness of his own patient nature for he finds the unthank fulness of men as great as his benefits to them He doth not only continue his outward mercies while we continue our sins but sometimes gives fresh benefits after new provocations that if possible he might excite an ingenuity in men When Israel at the Red Sea flung dirt in the face of God by quarrelling with his servant Moses for bringing them out of Egypt and mis-judging God in his design of deliverance and were ready to submit themselves to their former oppressors Exod. 14.11 12. which might justly have urged God to say to them take your own course yet he is not only patient under their unjust charge but makes bare his Arm in a deliverance at the Red Sea that was to be an amazing monument to the World in all Ages and afterwards when they repiningly quarrelled with him in their wants in the Wilderness he did not only not revenge himself upon them or cast off the conduct of them but bore with them by a miraculous long suffering and supplyed them with miraculous provision Manna from Heaven and Water from a Rock Food is given to support us and Cloaths to cover us and Divine Patience makes the creatures which we turn to another use than what they were at first intended for serve us contrary to their own Genius For had they reason no question but they would complain to be subjected to the service of man who hath been so ungrateful to their Creator and groan at the abuse of God's Patience in the abuse they themselves suffer from the hands of man 6. All this is more manifest if we consider the provocations he hath Wherein his slowness to Anger infinitely transcends the Patience of any creature nay the Spirits of all the Angels and Glorified Saints in Heaven would be too narrow to bear the sins of the World for one day nay not so much as the sins of Churches which is a little spot in the whole World 't is because he is the Lord one of an infinite power over himself that not only the whole Mass of the Rebellious World but of the Sons of Jacob either considered as a Church and Nation springing from the loyns of Jacob or considered as the Regenerate part of the World sometimes called the Seed of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 A Jonah was angry with God for recalling his Anger from a sinful people Had God committed the Government of the World to the Glorified Saints who are perfect in Love and Holiness the World would have had an end long ago They would have acted that which they sue for at the hands of God and is not granted them Rev. 6.10 How long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth God hath designs of Patience above the World above the unsinning Angels and perfectly renewed Spirits in Glory The greatest Created long suffering is infinitely disproportion'd to the Divine Fire from Heaven would have been showred down before the greatest part of a day were spent if a Created Patience had the conduct of the World though that creature were possessed with the spirit of Patience extracted from all the creatures which are in Heaven or are or ever were upon the earth Methinks Moses intimates this for as soon as God had passed by proclaiming his Name gracious and long suffering As soon as ever Moses had paid his Adoration he falls a Praying that God would go with the Israelites Exod. 34.8 9. For it is a stiffneck'd people What an Argument is here for God to go along with them He might rather since he had heard him but just before say he would by no means clear the guilty desire God to stand further off from them for fear the fire of his wrath should burst out from him to burn them as he did the Sodomites But he considers that as none but God had such anger to destroy them so none but God had such a Patience to bear with them 'T is as much as if he should have said Lord if thou should'st send the most tender hearted Angel in Heaven to have the guidance of this people
that their corruption should be so deep and strong that so much patience could not overcome it It would certainly make a man asham'd of his nature as well as his actions 3. The consideration of his patience would make us resent more the injuries done by others to God A Patient sufferer though a deserving sufferer attracts the pity of men that have a value for any vertue though clouded with a heap of vice How much more should we have a concern for God who suffers so many abuses from others And be grieved that so admirable a patience should be slighted by men who solely live by and under the daily influence of it The impression of this would make us take Gods part as it is usual with men to take the part of good dispositions that lie under oppression 4. It would make us patient under Gods hand His slowness to Anger and his forbearance is visible in the very strokes we feel in this Life We have no reason to murmur against him who gives us so little cause and in the greatest afflictions gives us more occasion of thankfulness than of repining Did not slowness to the extreamest Anger moderate every affliction it had been a Scorpion instead of a rod. We have reason to bless him who from his long-suffering sends temporal sufferings where eternal are justly due Ezra 9.13 Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities do deserve His indulgences towards us have been more than our corrections and the length of his patience hath exceeded the sharpness of his rod Upon the account of his long-suffering our mutinies against God have as little to excuse them as our sins against him have to deserve his forbearance The consideration of this would shew us more reason to repine at our own repinings than at any of his smarter dealings And the consideration of this would make us submissive under the Judgments we expect His undeserved patience hath been more than our merited judgments can possibly be thought to be If we fear the removal of the Gospel for a season as we have reason to do we should rather bless him that by his waiting patience he hath continued it so long then murmur that he threatens to take it away so late He hath born with us many a year since the light of it was re-kindled when our Ancestors had but six years of patience between the rise of Edward the VI and the ascent of Queen Mary to the Crown 2. Exhortation is to admire and stand astonisht at his patience and bless him for it If you should have defil'd your Neighbors bed or sullyed his reputation or rifled his Goods would he have withheld his vengeance unless he had been too weak to execute it We have done worse to God then we can do to man and yet he draws not that Sword of Wrath out of the scabbard of his patience to sheath it in our hearts 'T is not so much a wonder that any Judgments are sent as that there are no more and sharper That the World shall be fired at last is not a thing so strange as that fire doth not come down every day upon some part of it Had the disciples that saw such excellent patterns of mildness from their Master and were so often urg'd to learn of him that was lowly and meek the Government of the World it had been long since turn'd into ashes since they were too forward to desire him to open his magazine of judgments and kindle a fire to consume a Samaritan Village for a slight affront in comparison of what he received from others and afterwards from themselves in their forsaking of him Luke 9.52 53 54. We should admire and praise that here which shall be prais'd in Heaven though patience shall cease as to its exercise after the consummation of the World it shall not cease from receiving the acknowledgments of what it did when it traversed the stage of this Earth If the Name of God be glorified and acknowledged in Heaven no question but this will also since long-suffering is one of his Divine Titles a letter in his name as well as Merciful and Gracious Abundant in Goodness and Truth And there is good reason to think that the patience exercised towards some before converting grace was ordered to seize upon them will bear a great part in the Anthems of Heaven The greater his long-suffering hath been to men that lay covered with their own dung a long time before they were freed by grace from their filth the more admiringly and loudly they will cry up his Mercy to them after they have past the gulf and see a deserv'd Hell at a distance from them and many in that place of torments who never had the tasts of so much forbearance If mercy will be prais'd there that which began the Alphabet of it cannot be forgot If Paul speak so highly of it in a damping World and under the pull-backs of a body of death as he doth 1 Tim. 1.16 17. For this cause I obtained mercy that Christ might shew forth all long-suffering Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the Only Wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen No doubt but he will have a higher note for it when he is surrounded with a heavenly flame and freed from all remains of dullness shall it be praised above and have we no notes for it here below Admire Christ too who sued out your repreive upon the account of his merit As mercy acts not upon any but in Christ so neither had patience born with any but in Christ The pronouncing the arrest of Judgment Gen. 8.21 was when God smell'd a sweet savour from Noahs sacrifice not from the Beasts offer'd but the Antitypical sacrifice represented That we may be raised to bless God for it let us consider 1. The multitude of our provocations Though some have blacker guilt than others and deeper stains yet let none wipe his mouth but rather imagine himself to have but little reason to bless it Are not all our offences as many as their have been minutes in our lives All the moments of our continuance in the World have been moments of his Patience and our ingratitude Adam was punished for one sin Moses excluded Canaan for a passionate unbelieving word Ananias and Saphira lost their lives for one sin against the Holy Ghost One sin sullyed the beauty of the World defaced the works of God had crackt Heaven and Earth in pieces had not infinite satisfaction been proposed to the provoked Justice by the Redeemer And not one sin committed but is of the same venemous nature How many of those contradictions against himself hath he born with Had we been only unprofitable to him his forbearance of us had been miraculous But how much doth it exceed a miracle and lift it self above the meanness of a conjunction with such an Epithet since we have been provoking Had there been no more than our impudent or careless
any affliction from God 't is a contempt of his Soveraignty as to contemn the frown displeasure and check of a Prince is an affront to Majesty 'T is as if they did not care a straw what God did with them but dare him to do his worst There is a despising the chastning of the Almighty Job 5.17 To be unhumbled under his hand is as much or more affront to him than to be impatient under it Afflictions must be entertained as a check from Heaven as a frown from the great Monarch of the World Under the feeling of every stroke we are to acknowledge his Soveraignty and Bounty to despise it is to make light of his Authority over us As to despise his favours is to make light of his kindness to us A sense of God's Dominion would make us observe every check from him and not diminish his Authority by casting off a due sense of his correction 6. This Dominion of God would make us resign up our selves to God in every thing He that considers himself a thing made by God a vassal under his Authority would not expostulate with him and call him to an account why he hath dealt so or so with him It would stab the vitals of all pleas against him We should not then contest with him but humbly lay our cause at his feet and say with Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 'T is the Lord let him do what seems good We should not commence a suit against God when he doth not answer our Prayers presently and send the mercy we want upon the wings of the wind He is the Lord the Soveraign The consideration of this would put an end to our quarrels with God Should I expect that the Monarch of the World should wait upon me or I a poor worm wait upon him Must I take State upon me before the Throne of Heaven and expect the King of Kings should lay by his Scepter to gratifie my humour Surely Jonah thought God no more than his fellow or his vassal at that time when he told him to his face he did well to be angry as though God might not do what he pleased with so small a thing as a Gourd He speaks as if he would have sealed a lease of ejectment to exclude him from any propriety in any thing in the World 7. This Dominion of God would stop our vain curiosity When Peter was desirous to know the fate of John the Beloved Disciple Christ answereth no more than this Joh. 21.22 If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee follow thou me Consider your duty and lay aside your curiosity since it is my pleasure not to reveal it The sense of God's absolute Dominion would silence many vain disputes in the World What if God will not reveal this or that the manner and method of his resolves should humble the Creature under intruding enquiries V. USE of Exhortation 1. The Doctrine of the Dominion of God may teach us Humility We are never truly abas'd but by the consideration of the eminence and excellency of the Deity Job never thought himself so pitiful a thing so despicable a creature as after God's magnificent declamation upon the Theme of his own Soveraignty Job 42.5 6. When God's name is regarded as the most excellent and Soveraign name in all the earth then is the Soul in the fittest temper to lie low and cry out what is man that so great a Majesty should be mindful of him When Abraham considers God as the Supream Judge of all the earth he then ownes himself but dust and ashes Gen. 18.25 27. Indeed how can vile and dusty man vaunt before God when the Angels far more excellent creatures cannot stand before him but with a Vail on their faces How little a thing is man in regard of all the earth How mean a thing is the earth in regard of the vaster Heavens How poor a thing is the whole World in comparison of God How pitiful a thing is man if compar'd with so excellent a Majesty There is as great a distance between God and man as between being and not being and the more man considers the Divine Royalty the more dis-esteem he will have of himself it would make him stoop and disrobe himself and fall low before the Throne of the King of Kings throwing down before his Throne any Crown he gloryed in Rev. 4.10 1. In regard of Authority How unreasonable is pride in the presence of Majesty How foolish is it for a Country Justice of Peace to think himself as great as his Prince that Commission'd him How unreasonable is pride in the presence of the greatest Soveraignty What is humane greatness before Divine The Stars discover no light when the Sun appears but in a humble posture withdraw in their lesser Beams to give the sole Glory of enlightning the World to the Sun who is as it were the Soveraign of those Stars and imparts a light unto them The greatest Prince is infinitely less if compar'd with God than the meanest scullion in his kitchin can be before him As the Wisdom Goodness and Holiness of man is a meer mote compared to the Goodness and Holiness of God so is the Authority of man a meer trifle in regard of the soveraignty of God And who but a simple Child would be proud of a mote or trifle Let man be as great as he can and command others he is still a subject to one greater than himself Pride would then vanish like smoak at the serious consideration of this soveraignty One of the Kings of this Country did very handsomly shame the flattery of his Courtiers that cried him up as Lord of Sea and Land by ordering his chair to be set on the Sand of the Sea shoar when the Tide was coming in and commanding the waters not to touch his feet which when they did without any regard to his Authority he took occasion thereby to put his flatterers out of countenance and instruct himself in a lesson of humility See saith he how I rule all things when so mean a thing as the water will not obey me 'T is a ridiculous pride that the Turk and Persian discover in their swelling Titles What poor soveraigns are they that cannot command a Cloud give out an effectual order for a drop of Rain in a time of drought or cause the bottles of Heaven to turn their mouth another way in a time of too much moisture Yet their own Prerogatives are so much in their minds that they justle out all thoughts of the supream Prerogative of God and give thereby occasion to frequent Rebellions against him 2. In regard of Propriety And this doctrine is no less an abatement of pride in the highest as well as in the meanest it lowers pride in point of Propriety as well as in point of Authority * Raynard de Deo p. 766. Is any proud of his possessions how many Lords of those possessions have gone before
you How many are to follow you Your Dominion lasts but for a short time too short to be a cause of any pride and glory in it God by a soveraign power can take you from them or them from you when he pleaseth The Traveller refresheth himself in the heat of Summer under a shady Tree how many have done so before him the same day he knows not and how many will have the benefit after before night comes he is as much ignorant of he and the others that went before him and follow after him use it for their refreshment but none of them can say they are the Lords of it The property is invested in some other person whom perhaps they know not the propriety of all you have is in God not truly in your selves Doth not that man deserve scorn from you who will play the proud fool in gay Clothes and attire which are known to be none of his own but borrowed Is it not the same case with every proud man though he hath a property in his Goods by the Law of the Land Is any thing you have your own truly Is it not lent you by the great Lord Is it not the same vanity in any of you to be proud of what you have as Gods loan to you as for such a one to be proud of what he hath borrowed of man And do you not make your selves as ridiculous to Angels and good Men who know that though it is yours in opposition to man yet it is not yours in opposition to God they are granted you only for your use as the Collar of Esses and Sword and other Ensigns of the chief Magistrate in the City pass through many hands in regard of the use of them but the propriety remains in the Community and body of the City Or as the Silver plate of a person that invites you to a Feast is for your use during the time of the invitation What ground is there to be proud of those things you are not the absolute Lords and Proprietors of but only have the use of them granted to you during the pleasure of the soveraign of the World 2. Praise and Thank fulness results from this doctrine of the Soveraignty of God 1. He is to be praised for his royalty Psal 145.1 I will extoll thee my God Oh King The Psalmist calls upon men five times to sing praise to him as the King of all the Earth Psal 47.6 7. Sing praises to God sing praises sing praises to our King sing praises For God is the King of all the Earth sing ye praises with understanding All Creatures even the inanimate ones are called upon to praise him because of the excellency of his Name and the supremacy of his Glory in the 148. Psal throughout and ver 13. That soveraign power that gave us hearts and tongues deserves to have them employ'd in his praises especially since he hath by the same hand given us so great matter for it As he is a soveraign we owe him thankfulness he doth not deal with us in a way of absolute Dominion he might then have annihilated us Since he hath as full a Dominion to reduce us to nothing as to bring us out of nothing Consider the absoluteness of his soveraignty in it self and you must needs acknowledge that he might have multipli'd precepts enjoyned us the observance of more than he hath done he might have made our tedder much shorter he might exact obedience and promise no reward for it he might dash us against the walls as a Potter doth his Vessel and no man have any just reason to say what dost thou Or why dost thou use me so A greater right is in him to use us in such a manner as we do sensible as well as insensible things And if you consider his dominion as it is capable to be exercised in a way of unquestionable Justice and submitted to the reason and judgments of Creatures he might have dealt with us in a smarter way than he hath hitherto done instead of one affliction we might have had a thousand He might have shut his own hands from pouring out any good upon us and ordered innumerable scourges to be prepared for us but he deals not with us according to the rights of his Dominion He doth not oppress us by the greatness of his Majesty he enters into Covenant with us and allures us by the Cords of a man and shews himself as much a merciful as an absolute soveraign 2. As he is a Proprietor we owe him thank fulness He is at his own choice whither he will bestow upon us any blessings or no the more value therefore his benefits deserve from us and the Donor the more sincere returns If we have any thing from the Creature to serve our turn 't is by the order of the chief proprietor He is the spring of honour and the fountain of supplies all Creatures are but as the conduit pipes in a great City which serve several houses with water but from the great spring All things are conveyed originally from his own hand and are dispensed from his Exchequer If this great soveraign did not order them you would have no more supplies from a Creature than you could have nourishment from a chip 'T is the Divine will in every thing that doth us good every favour from Creatures is but a smile from God an evidence of his Royalty to move us to pay a respect to him as the great Lord. Some Heathens had so much respect for God as to conclude that his Will and not their own prudence was the chief conductor of their affairs His Goodness to us calls for our thankfulness but his soveraignty calls for a higher elevation of it a smile from a Prince is more valued and thought worthy of more gratitude than a present from a Peasant A small gift from a great person is more greatefully to be received than a larger from an inferior person The condescension of Royalty magnifies the gift What is man that thou so great a Majesty art mindful of him to bestow this or that favour upon him is but a due reflection upon every blessing we receive Upon every fresh blessing we should acknowledge the donor and true proprietor and give him the honour of his Dominion His property ought to be thankfully own'd in every thing we are capable of consecrating to him As David after the liberal collection he had made for the building of the Temple own 's in his dedication of it to that use the propriety of God 1 Chron. 29.14 Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort For all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee It was but a return of Gods own to him as the waters of the River are no other than the return to the Sea of what was taken from it Praise and Thankfulness is a Rent due from all mankind