Holy-Ghost for the Apostle would never have called the Spirit of God his own Spirit but with my Spirit that is a sincere frame of heart A Carnal-worship whether under the Law or Gospel is when we are busied about external rites without an inward compliance of Soul God demands the heart * Pro. 23.26 my Son give me thy heart not give me thy tongue or thy lips or thy hands these may be given without the heart but the heart can never be bestowed without these as its attendants A heap of services can be no more welcome to God without our Spirits than all Jacobs Sons could be to Joseph without the Benjamin he desired to see God is not taken with the Cabinet but the Jewel He first respected Abels Faith and Sincerity and then his Sacrifice he disrespected Cains Infidelity and Hypocrisie and then his Offering * Moulin Sermons Decad. 4. Ser. 4. P. 80. For this cause he rejected the Offerings of the Jews the Prayers of the Pharisees and the Alms of Ananias and Sapphira because their hearts and their duties were at a distance from one another In all spiritual Sacrifices our Spirits are Gods portion Under the Law the Reins were to be consumed by the Fire on the Altar because the secret intentions of the heart were signified by them Psal 7.9 The Lord trieth the Heart and the Reins It was an ill Omen among the Heathen if a Victim wanted a heart The Widows Mites with her heart in them were more esteemed than the richer Offerings without it Not the quantity of service but the will in it is of account with this infinite Spirit All that was to be brought for the framing of the Tabernacle was to be offered willingly with the heart * Exod. 25.7 The more of Will the more of Spirituality and Acceptableness to God Psal 119.108 Accept the Free-will-offering of my lips Sincerity is the Salt which seasons every Sacrifice The heart is most like to the object of worship The heart in the body is the spring of all vital actions and a spiritual Soul is the spring of all spiritual actions How can we imagin God can delight in the meer service of the Body any more than we can delight in converse with a Carcass Without the heart 't is no worship 'T is a Stage-play an acting a part without being that person really which is acted by us A Hypocrite in the notion of the word is a Stage-player We may as well say a man may believe with his body as worship God only with his body Faith is a great ingredient in Worship and it is with the heart Man believes unto Righteousness * Rom. 10.10 We may be truly said to worship God though we want perfection but we cannot be said to worship him if we want sincerity A Statue upon a Tomb with eyes and hands lifted up offers as good and true a service it wants only a voice the gestures and postures are the same nay the service is better 't is not a mockery it represents all that it can be framed to But to worship without our Spirits is a presenting God with a Picture an Eccho Voice and nothing else a Complement a meer Lye a compassing him about with Lyes * Hos 11.12 Without the heart the tongue is a Lyar and the greatest Zeal dissembling with him To present the Spirit is to present with that which can never naturally dye to present him only the Body is to present him that which is every day crumbling to dust and will at last lye rotting in the Grave To offer him a few Raggs easily torn a Skin for a Sacrifice a thing unworthy the Majesty of God a fixed eye and elevated hands with a sleepy Heart and earthly Soul are pitiful things for an ever blessed and glorious Spirit Nay it is so far from being spiritual that it is Blasphemy To pretend to be a Jew outwardly without being so inwardly is in the Judgment of Christ to blaspheme * Revel 2.9 And is not the same title to be given with as much reason to those that pretend a worship and perform none Such a one is not a spiritual Worshipper but a blaspheming Devil in Samuel's Mantle 4. Spiritual Worship is performed with an unitedness of heart The heart is not only now and then with God but united to fear or worship his name * Psal 86.11 A spiritual duty must have the engagement of the Spirit and the thoughts tyed up to the spiritual Object The union of all the parts of the heart together with the body is the life of the body and the moral union of our hearts is the life of any duty A heart quickly flitting from God makes not God his treasure he slights the worship and therein affronts the Object of Worship All our thoughts ought to be ravished with God bound up in him as in a bundle of life But when we start from him to gaze after every feather and run after every bubble we disown a full and affecting excellency and a satisfying sweetness in him When our thoughts run from God 't is a testimony we have no spiritual affection to God Affection would stake down the thoughts to the Object affected 'T is but a Mouth-love as the Prophet phraseth it * Ezek. 33.31 But their hearts go after their Covetousness Covetous Objects pipe and the heart danceth after them and thoughts of God are shifted off to receive a multitude of other imaginations The heart and the service stayed a while together and then took leave of one another The Psalmist * Psal 39.18 still found his heart with God when he awak'd still with God in spiritual affections and fixed meditations A carnal heart is seldom with God either in or out of worship If God should knock at the heart in any duty it would be found not at home but straying abroad Our worship is spiritual when the door of the heart is shut against all Intruders as our Saviour commands in Closet-duties * Mat. 6.6 It was not his meaning to command the shutting the Closet-door and leave the Heart-door open for every thought that would be apt to haunt us Worldly affections are to be laid aside if we would have our worship spiritual This was meant by the Jewish custom of wiping or washing off the dust of their feet before their entrance into the Temple and of not bringing mony in their girdles To be spiritual in worship is to have our Souls gathered and bound up wholly in themselves and offered to God Our Loyns must be girt as the fashion was in the Eastern Countries where they wore long Garments that they might not waver with the Wind and be blown between their leggs to obstruct them in their travel Our faculties must not hang loose about us He is a carnal Worshipper that gives God but a piece of his heart as well as he that denies him the whole of it that hath
of his goodness and wisdom †Lessius Winds are fitted to purifie the Air to preserve it from Putrefaction to carry the Clouds to several parts to refresh the parched Earth and assist her Fruits And also to serve for the Commerce of one Nation with another by Navigation God in his wisdom and goodness walks upon the wings of the Wind Psal 104.3 ‖ Daille melan part 2. p. 472 473. Rivers are appointed to bathe the Ground and render it fresh and lively they fortifie Cities are the limits of Countreys serve for Commerce they are the Watring-pots of the Earth and the Vessels for Drink for the living Creatures that dwell upon the Earth God cut those Chanels for the wild Asses the Beasts of the Desart which are his Creatures as well as the rest Psal 104.10 12 13. Trees are appointed for the Habitations of Birds Shadows for the Earth Nourishment for the Creatures Materials for Building and Fuel for the relief of man against Cold. The Seasons of the Year have their use the Winter makes the Juice retire into the Earth fortifies Plants and fixes their Roots It moystens the Earth that was dried before by the heat of Summer and cleanseth and prepares it for a new fruitfulness The Spring calls out the Sap in new Leaves and Fruit The Summer consumes the superfluous moisture and produceth Nourishment for the Inhabitants of the World * Daille melang part 1. p. 477 c. The Day and Night have also their usefulness The Day gives Life to Labour and is a guide to Motion and Action Psal 104.23 The Sun ariseth man goeth forth to his labour until the Evening It warms the Air and quickens Nature without Day the World would be a Chaos an unseen Beauty The Night indeed casts a Vail upon the bravery of the Earth but it draws the Curtains from that of Heaven though it darkens below it makes us see the Beauty of the World above and discovers to us a glorious part of the Creation of God the Tapistry of Heaven and the Motion of the Stars hid from us by the eminent light of the Day It procures a Truce from Labour and refresheth the Bodies of Creatures by recruiting the Spirits which are scattered by watching It prevents the ruin of Life by a reparation of what was wasted in the Day It takes from us the sight of Flowers and Plants but it washeth their Face with Dews for a new Appearance next Morning The length of the Day and Night is not without a Mark of Wisdom were they of a greater length as the length of a Week or Month the one would too much dry and the other too much moisten and for want of Action the Members would be stupified The perpetual Succession of Day and Night is an Evidence of the Divine Wisdom in tempering the travel and rest of Creatures Hence the Psalmist tells us Psal 74.16 17. The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light of the Sun and made Summer and Winter i. e. they are of God's framing not without a wise counsel and end Hence let us ascend to the Bodies of living Creatures and we shall find every Member fitted for use What a Curiosity is there in every Member Every one fitted to a particular use in their situation form temper and mutual agreement for the good of the whole The Eye to direct the Ear to receive Directions from others the Hands to act the Feet to move Every Creature hath Members fitted for that Element wherein it resides And in the Body some parts are appointed to change the Food into Blood others to refine it and others to distribute and convey it to several parts for the maintenance of the whole The Heart to mint vital Spirits for preserving Life and the Brain to coin Animal Spirits for Life and Motion the Lungs to serve for the cooling the Heart which else would be parcht as the ground in Summer The Motion of the Members of the Body by one act of the Will and also without the Will by a natural Instinct is an admirable Evidence of Divine Skill in the Structure of the Body so that well might the Psalmist cry out Psal 139.14 I am fearfully and wonderfully made But how much more of this Divine Perfection is seen in the Soul A Nature furnisht with a Faculty of Understanding to judge of things to gather in things that are distant and to reason and draw Conclusions from one thing to another with a Memory to treasure up things that are past with a Will to apply it self so readily to what the Mind judges fit and comely and fly so speedily from what it judges ill and hurtful The whole World is a Stage every Creature in it hath a part to act and a Nature suted to that part and end 't is design'd for and all concur in a joint Language to publish the Glory of Divine Wisdom they have a Voice to proclaim the Glory of God Psal 19.1 3. And it is not the least part of God's Skill in framing the Creatures so that upon Man's Obedience they are the Chanels of his Goodness and upon Man's Disobedience they can in their Natures be the Ministers of his Justice for the punishing of offending Creatures 4. Fourthly This Wisdom is apparent in the linking all these useful parts together so that one is subordinate to the other for a common end All parts are exactly suted to one another and every part to the whole though they are of different Natures as Lines distant in themselves yet they meet in one common Center the good and the preservation of the Universe they are all joynted together as the word translated framed * Heb. 11.3 signifies knit by fit Bands and Ligaments to contribute mutual Beauty Strength and Assistance to one another like so many Links of a Chain coupled together that though there be a distance in place there is a unity in regard of connexion and end there is a consent in the whole Hosea 2.21 22. The Heavens hear the Earth and the Earth hears the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl The Heavens communicate their qualities to the Earth and the Earth conveys them to the Fruits she bears †Dalle 15. Serm. p. 17◠The Air distributes Light Wind and Rain to the Earth the Earth and the Sea render to the Air Exhalations and Vapours and all together charitably give to the Plants and Animals that which is necessary for their nourishment and refreshment The Influences of the Heavens animate the Earth and the Earth affords matter in part for the Influences it receives from the Regions above Living Creatures are maintain'd by Nourishment Nourishment is conveyed to them by the Fruits of the Earth the Fruits of the Earth are produced by means of Rain and Heat Matter for Rain and Dew is raised by the heat of the Sun and the Sun by its motion distributes heat and quickning vertue to all parts of
a bitter potion we are rather haled than run to it There is a contradiction of sin within us against our service as there was a contradiction of sinners without our Saviour against his doing the Will of God Our hearts are unweildy to any Spiritual service of God we are fain to use a violence with them sometimes Hezekiah it is said walked before the Lord with a perfect heart 2 Kings 20.9 he walked he made himself to walk Man naturally cares not for a walk with God If he hath any Communion with him t is with such a dulness and heaviness of Spirit as if he wished himself out of his Company Mans nature being contrary to holiness hath an aversion to any act of homage to God because Holiness must at least be pretended In every duty wherein we have a Communion with God Holiness is requisite Now as men are against the truth of Holiness because it is unsutable to them so they are not friends to those duties which require it and for some space divert them from the thoughts of their beloved lusts The word of the Lord is a Yoke Prayer a drudgery Obedience a strange Element We are like fish that drink up iniquity like water * Job 15.16 and come not to the bank without the force of an Angle No more willing to do service for God than a fish is of it self to do service for Man T is a constrained act to satisfie Conscience and such are servile not Son-like performances and spring from bondage more than affection If Conscience like a task Master did not scourge them to duty they would never perform it Let us appeal to our selves whether we are not more unwilling to secret Closet hearty duty to God than to joyn with others in some external service as if those inward services were a going to the rack and rather our pennance than priviledg How much service hath God in the world from the same principle that Vagrants perform their task in Bridewel How glad are many of evasions to back them in the neglect of the Commands of God of Corrupt reasonings from the flesh to way-lay an Act of obedience and a multitude of excuses to blunt the edge of the precept The very service of God shall be a pretence to deprive him of the obedience due to him Saul will not be ruled by Gods Will in the destroying the Cattle of the Amalekites but by his own and will impose upon the Will and Wisdom of God Judging God mistaken in his Command and that the Cattle God thought fittest to be meat to the fouls were fitter to be Sacrifices on the Altar * 1 Sam. 15.3.9.15.21 If we do perform any part of his Will is it not for our own ends to have some deliverance from trouble Isa 26.16 In trouble have they visited thee they poured out a Prayer when thy Chastening was upon them In affliction he shall find them kneeling in Homage and Devotion In prosperity he shall feel them kicking with contempt they can poure out a Prayer in distress and scarce drop one when they are delivered 2. There is a slightness in our service of God We are loath to come into his presence and when we do come we are loth to continue with him We pay not an Homage to him heartily as to our Lord and Governour we regard him not as our Master whose work we ought to do and whose Honour we ought to aime at 1. In regard of the matter of service When the torn the lame and the sick is offered to God * Mal. 1.13.14 so thin and lean a Sacrifice that you may have thrown it to the ground with a puff so some understand the meaning of you have snufft at it Men have naturally such slight thoughts of the Majesty and Law of God that they think any service is good enough for him and conformable to his Law The dullest and deadest times we think fittest to pay God a service in when sleep is ready to close our eyes and we are unfit to serve our selves we think it a fit time to open our hearts to God How few Morning Sacrifices hath God from many persons and Families Men leap out of their beds to their carnal pleasures or worldly employments without any thought of their Creator and Preserver or any reflection upon his Will as the rule of our dayly obedience And as many reserve the dregs of their Lives their Old-age to offer up their Souls to God So they reserve the Dreggs of the Day their sleeping time for the offering up their service to Him How many grudge to spend their best time in the serving the Will of God and reserve for him the sickly and rheumatick part of their Lives the remainder of that which the Devil and their own Lusts have fed upon Would not any Prince or Governour judge a Present half eaten up by Wild-beasts or that which died in a Ditch a contempt of his Royalty A corrupt thing is too base and vile for so great a King as God is whose Name is dreadful * Mal. 1.14 When by Age Men are weary of their own Bodies they would present them to God yet grudgingly as if a tired body were too good for him snuffing at the Command for Service God calls for our best and we give him the worst 2. In respect of Frame We think any frame will serve Gods turn which speaks our slight of God as a Ruler Man naturally performs duty with an unholy heart whereby it becomes an abomination to God Pro. 28.9 He that turns away his Ear from hearing the Law even his prayers shall be an abomination to God The Services which he commands he hates for their evil frames or corrupt ends Amos 5.21 I hate I despise your Feast-days I will not smell in your Solemn Assemblies God requires gracious services and we give him corrupt ones We do not rouze up our hearts as David called upon his Lute and Harp to awake Psal 57.8 Our hearts are not given to him we put him off with bodily exercise The heart is but Ice to what it doth not affect 1. There is not that natural vigor in the observance of God which we have in worldly business When we see a liveliness in men in other things change the Scene into a motion towards God how suddenly doth their vigoâ— shrink and their hearts freeze into sluggishness Many times we serve God as lanâ—guishingly as if we were afraid he should accept us and pray as coldly as if we were unwilling he should hear us and take away that lust by which we are Governed and which Conscience forces us to pray against as if we were afraid God should set up his own throne and Government in our hearts How fleeting are we in Divine Meditation how sleepy in Spiritual exercises but in other exercises active The Soul doth not awaken it self and excite those animal and vital Spirits which it will in bodily recreations and
Essence as in his Veracity and Faithfulness They are perfections belonging to his Nature But if he were not a pure Spirit he could not be immutable by Nature 7. If God were not a pure Spirit He could not be omnipresent He is in Heaven above and the Earth below * Deut. 4.39 He fills Heaven and Earth * Jer. 23.24 The Divine Essence is at once in Heaven and Earth but it is impossible a Body can be in two places at one and the same time Since God is every where he must be spiritual Had he a Body he could not penetrate all things he would be circumscribed in place He could not be every where but in parts not in the whole one member in one place and another in another for to be confined to a particlar place is the property of a Body But since he is diffused through the whole World higher than Heaven deeper than Hell longer than the Earth broader than the Sea * Job 11.8 he hath not any corporeal matter If he had a Body wherewith to fill Heaven and Earth there could be no Body besides his own 'T is the Nature of Bodies to bound one another and hinder the extending of one another Two Bodies cannot be in the same place in the same point of Earth one excludes the other And it will follow hence that we are nothing no substances meer illusions there could be no place for any Body else * Gamacheus Theol. Tom. 1. Quos 3. C. 1. If his Body were as bigg as the World as it must be if with that he filled Heaven and Earth there would not be room for him to move a hand or a foot or extend a finger for there would be no place remaining for the motion 8. If God were not a Spirit he could not be the most perfect Being The more perfect any thing is in the rank of Creatures the more spiritual and simple it is as Gold is the more pure and perfect that hath least mixture of other Metals If God were not a Spirit there would be Creatures of a more excellent Nature than God as Angels and Souls which the Scripture calls Spirits in opposition to Bodies There is more of perfection in the first notion of a Spirit than in the notion of a Body God cannot be less perfect than his Creatures and contribute an excellency of being to them which he wants himself If Angels and Souls possess such an excellency and God want that excellency he would be less than his Creatures and the excellency of the Effect would exceed the excellency of the Cause But every Creature even the highest Creature is infinitely short of the perfection of God for whatsoever excellency they have is finite and limited 't is but a spark from the Sun a drop from the Ocean but God is unboundedly perfect in the highest manner without any limitation and therefore above Spirits Angels the highest Creatures that were made by him An infinite sublimity a pure act to which nothing can be added from which nothing can be taken In him there is light and no darkness * 1 John 1.5 spirituality without any matter perfection without any shadow or taint of imperfection Light pierceth into all things preserves its own purity and admits of no mixture of any thing else with it Question It may be said If God be a Spirit and it is impossible he can be otherwise than a Spirit how comes God so often to have such Members as we have in our Bodies ascribed to him not only a Soul but particular bodily parts as heart arms hands eyes ears face and back-parts And how is it that he is never called a Spirit in plain words but in this Text by our Saviour Answ 'T is true many parts of the Body and natural affections of the human nature are reported of God in Scripture Head * Dan. 7.9 Eyes and Eye-lids * Psal 11.4 Apple of the Eye Mouth c. our Affections also Grief Joy Anger c. But it is to be considered 1. That this is in condescension to our weakness God being desirous to make himself known to Man * Loquitur lex secund ling. filiorum hominum was the H. saying whom he created for his Glory humbles as it were his own Nature to such representations as may sute and assists the capacity of the Creature Since by the condition of our nature nothing erects a notion of it self in our understanding but as it is conducted in by our sence God hath served himself of those things which are most exposed to our sence most obvious to our understandings to give us some acquaintance with his own Nature and those things which otherwise we were not capable of having any notion of As our Souls are linkt with our Bodies so our knowledge is linkt with our sence that we can scarce imagin any thing at first but under a corporeal form and figure till we come by great attention to the Object to make by the help of reason a separation of the spiritual substance from the corporeal fancy and consider it in its own nature We are not able to conceive a Spirit without some kind of resemblance to something below it nor understand the actions of a Spirit without considering the operations of a human Body in its several Members As the Glories of another Life are signified to us by the pleasures of this so the Nature of God by a gracious condescension to our capacities is signified to us by a likeness to our own The more familiar the things are to us which God uses to this purpose the more proper they are to teach us what he intends by them Answ 2. All such representations are to signifie the acts of God as they hear some likeness to those which we perform by those members he ascribes to himself So that those members ascribed to him rather note his visible operations to us than his invisible Nature and signifie that God doth some works like to those which men do by the assistance of those Organs of their Bodies * Amyral de Trin. p. 218. 219. So the wisdom of God is called his Eye because he knows that with his mind which we see with our eyes The efficiency of God is called his Hand and Arm because as we act with our hands so doth God with his Power The divine Efficacies are signified By his eyes and ears we understand his Omniscience by his face the manifestation of his Favour by his mouth the revelation of his Will by his nostrils the acceptation of our Prayers by his bowels the tenderness of his Compassion by his heart the sincerity of his Affections by his hand the strength of his Power by his feet the ubiquity of his Presence And in this he intends instruction and comfort By his eyes he signifies his watchfulness over us By his ears his readiness to hear the crys of the oppressed * Psal 34.15 By his Arm his
a Wilderness become Waters and speak a Chaos into a beautiful frame of Heaven and Earth He can act our souls with infinite more ease than our souls can act our bodies he can fix in us what motions frames inclinations he pleases he can come and settle in our hearts with all his Treasures 'T is an encouragement to confide in him when we petition him for spiritual Blessings As he is a Spirit he is possessed with spiritual Blessings * Eph. 1.3 A Spirit delights to bestow things sutable to its Nature do Bodies are to communicate what is agreeable to theirs As he is a Father of Spirits we may go to him for the Welfare of our Spirits he being a Spirit is as able to repair our Spirits as he was to create them As he is a Spirit he is indefatigable in acting The members of the body tire and flagg but whoever heard of a Soul wearied with being active Whoever heard of a weary Angel In the purest Simplicity there is the greatest Power the most efficacious Goodness the most reaching Justice to affect the Spirit that can insinuate it self every where to punish wickedness without weariness as well as to comfort goodness God is active because he is Spirit and if we be like to God the more spiritual we are the more active we shall be 6. Inference God being a Spirit is immortal His being immortal and being invisible are joyned together * 1 Tim. 1.17 Spirits are in their nature incorruptible they can only perish by that hand that framed them Every compounded thing is subject to mutation but God being a pure and simple Spirit is without corruption without any shadow of change * James 1.17 Where there is composition there is some kind of repugnancy of one part against the other and where there is repugnancy there is a capability of dissolution God in regard of his infinite spirituality hath nothing in his own nature contrary to it can have nothing in himself which is not himself The world perishes friends change and are dissolved bodies moulder because they are mutable God is a Spirit in the highest excellency and glory of Spirits nothing is beyond him nothing above him no contrariety within him This is our comfort if we devote our selves to him this God is our God this Spirit is our Spirit this is our all our immutable our incorruptible support a Spirit that cannot die and leave us 7. Inference If God be a Spirit we see how we can only converse with him by our Spirits Bodies and Spirits are not sutable to one another We can only see know embrace a Spirit with our Spirits He judges not of us by our corporeal actions nor our external devotions by our masks and disguises He fixes his eye upon the frame of the heart bends his ear to the groans of our Spirits He is not pleased with outward pomp He is not a Body therefore the beauty of Temples delicacy of Sacrifices fumes of Incense are not grateful to him by those or any external action we have no communion with him A Spirit when broken is his delightful Sacrifice * Psal 51.17 We must therefore have our Spirits fitted for him be renewed in the spirit of our minds * Eph. 4.23 that we may be in a posture to live with him and have an intercourse with him We can never be united to God but in our Spirits Bodies unite with Bodies Spirits with Spirits The more spiritual any thing is the more closely doth it unite Air hath the closest union nothing meets together sooner than that when the parts are divided by the interposition of a body 8. Inference If God be a Spirit he can only be the true satisfaction of our Spirits Spirit can only be fill'd with Spirit Content flows from likeness and sutableness As we have a resemblance to God in regard of the spiritual nature of our Soul so we can have no satisfaction but in him Spirit can no more be really satisfied with that which is corporeal than a beast can delight in the company of an Angel Corporeal things can no more fill a hungry Spirit than pure Spirit can feed an hungry Body God the highest Spirit can only reach out a full content to our spirits Man is Lord of the Creation nothing below him can be fit for his converse nothing above him offers it self to his converse but God We have no correspondence with Angels The influence they have upon us the protection they afford us is secret and undiscern'd but God the highest Spirit offers himself to us in his Son in his Ordinances is visible in every Creature presents himself to us in every providence to him we must seek in him we must rest God had no rest from the Creation till he had made Man and Man can have no rest in the Creation till he rests in God * Psal 90.1 God only is our dwelling place our Souls should only long for him our Souls should only wait upon him * Psal 63.1 The Spirit of Man never riseth to its original glory till it be carried up on the wings of Faith and Love to its original Copy The face of the Soul looks most beautiful when it is turned to the face of God the Father of Spirits when the derived Spirit is fixed upon the original Spirit drawing from it Life and Glory Spirit is only the receptacle of Spirit God as Spirit is our Principle we must therefore live upon him God as Spirit hath some resemblance to us as his Image we must therefore only satisfie our selves in him 9. Inference If God be a Spirit we should take most care of that wherein we are like to God Spirit is nobler than Body we must thererefore value our Spirits above our Bodies The Soul as Spirit partakes more of the Divine Nature and deserves more of our choycest cares If we have any love to this Spirit we should have a real affection to our own Spirits as bearing a stamp of the spiritual Divinity the chiefest of all the works of God as it is said of Behemoth Job 40.19 .. That which is most the Image of this immense Spirit should be our Darling So David calls his Soul Psal 35.17 Shall we take care of that wherein we partake not of God and not delight in the Jewel which hath his own Signature upon it God was not only the Framer of Spirits and the End of Spirits but the Copy and Exemplar of Spirits God partakes of no corporeity he is pure Spirit But how do we act as if we were only matter and body We have but little kindness for this great Spirit as well as our own if we take no care of his immediate offspring since he is not only Spirit but the Father of Spirits * Heb. 12.9 10. Inference If God be a Spirit let us take heed of those sins which are spiritual Paul distinguisheth between the filth of the Flesh and that of
the Spirit * 2 Cor. 7.1 By the one we defile the Body by the other we defile the Spirit which in regard of its Nature is of kin to the Creator To wrong one who is neer of kin to a Prince is worse than to injure an inferior Subject When we make our Spirits which are most like to God in their Nature and framed according to his Image a stage to act vain imaginations wicked desires and unclean affections we wrong God in the excellency of his Work and reflect upon the nobleness of the Patern we wrong him in that part where he hath stampt the most signal Character of his own spiritual nature we defile that whereby we have only converse with him as a Spirit which he hath ordered more immediately to represent him in this Nature than all corporeal things in the world can and make that Spirit with whom we desire to be joyned unfit for such a knot Gods Spirituality is the root of his other perfections We have already heard he could not be infinite omnipresent immutable without it Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us As grace in our Spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded Devil * Eph. 2.2 3. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes and spiritual sins devest us of the Image of God for the Image of Satan We should by no means make our Spirits a Dung-hill which bear upon them the Character of the spiritual Nature of God and were made for his residence Let us therefore behave our selves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature of God requires us A DISCOURSE OF Spiritual Worship HAVING thus dispatcht the first proposition God is a Spirit It will not be amiss to handle the inference our Saviour makes from that proposition which is the second observation propounded Doct. That the Worship due from us to God ought to be Spiritual and Spiritually performed Spirit and Truth are understood variously Either we are to Worship God 1. Not by legal ceremonies The Evangelical administration being called Spirit in opposition to the legal ordinances as carnal and Truth in opposition to them as typical As the whole Judaical service is called flesh so the whole Evangelical service is called Spirit Or Spirit may be opposed to the worship at Jerusalem as it was carnal Truth to the worship on the Mount Gerizim because it was false They had not the true object of worship nor the true Medium of worship as those at Jerusalem had Their worship should cease because it was false and the Jewish worship should cease because it was carnal There is no need of a Candle when the Sun spreads it beams in the Air no need of those Ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared They only served for Candles to instruct and direct men till the time of his coming The shadows are chased away by the displaying the substance so that they can be of no more use in the worship of God since the end for which they were instituted is expired and that discovered to us in the Gospel which the Jews sought for in vain among the baggage and stuff of their Ceremonies 2. With a Spiritual and sincere frame In Spirit i. e. with Spirit with the inward operations of all the faculties of our Souls and the cream and flower of them And the reason is because there ought to be a worship sutable to the nature of God And as the worship was to be Spiritual so the exercise of that worship ought to be in a Spiritual manner * Lingend Tom. 2. p. 777. It shall be a worship in Truth because the true God shall be adored without those vain imaginations and phantastick resemblances of him * Taylors Exemplar Preface § 30. which were common among the blind Gentiles and contrary to the glorious nature of God and unworthy ingredients in Religious services It shall be a worship in Spirit without those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on Such a posture of Soul which is the life and ornament of every service God looks for at your hands There must be some proportion between the object adored and the manner in which we adore it It must not be a meer Corporeal worship because God is not a body but it must rise from the Center of our Soul because God is a Spirit If he were a body a bodily worship might sute him Images might be fit to represent him but being a Spirit our bodily services enter us not into communion with him Being a Spirit we must banish from our minds all carnal imaginations of him and separate from our Wills all cold and dissembled affections to him We must not only have a loud voice but an elevated Soul not only a bended knee but a broken heart not only a supplicating tone but a groaning Spirit not only a ready ear for the word but a receiving heart and this shall be of greater value with him than the most costly outward services offered at Gerizim or Jerusalem Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping in Spirit only the matter of the Evangelical service as opposed to the legal administration without the manner wherein it was to be performed T is true God always sought a worship in Spirit he expected the heart of the worshipper should joyn with his instituted rights of adoration in every exercise of them But he expects such a carriage more under the Gospel administration because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it and the greater assistances conveyed by it I shall therefore 1. Lay down some general propositions 2. Shew what this Spiritual worship is 3. Why we must offer to God a Spiritual service 4. The Vse 1. Some general propositions Proposition 1. First The right exercise of worship is founded upon and riseth from the Spirituality of God * Ames medul lib. 2. cap. 4. § 20. The first ground of the worship we render to God is the infinite excellency of his nature which is not only one attribute but results from all For God as God is the object of worship and the Notion of God consists not in thinking him wise good just but all those infinitely beyond any Conception And hence it follows that God is an object infinitely to beloved and honoured His goodness is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Fear in the Scripture dialect signifies the whole worship of God Acts 10.35 But in every Nation he that fears him is accepted of him * So 2 Kings 17.32 33. If God should act towards men according to the rigors of his Justice due to them for the least of their Crimes there could be no exercise of any affection but that of despair which could not engender a worship of God which ought to be joyned with love not
that we might now serve God in a more spiritual manner and with more spiritual frames 6. Proposition The Service and worship the Gospel settles is spiritual and the performance of it more spiritual Spirituality is the Genius of the Gospel as Carnality was of the Law the Gospel is therefore called Spirit We are abstracted from the imployments of Sense and brought neerer to a Heavenly State The Jews had Angels Bread poured upon them we have Angels Service prescribed to us the Praises of God Communion with God in Spirit through his Son Jesus Christ and stronger foundations for spiritual affections 'T is called a reasonable service * Rom. 12.1 t is suted to a rational nature tho it finds no friendship from the Corruption of reason It prescribes a service fit for the reasonable faculties of the Soul and advanceth them while it employs them The word reasonable may be translated word service * V. Hammond in loc as well as reasonable service an Evangelical service in opposition to a Law service All Evangelical service is reasonable and all truly reasonable service is Evangelical The matter of the worship is Spiritual it consists in love of God faith in God recourse to his goodness Meditation on him and Communion with him It lays aside the Ceremonial Spiritualizeth the moral The Commands that concerned our duty to God as well as those that concerned our duty to our Neighbour were reduced by Christ to their Spiritual intention The Motives are Spiritual t is a state of more grace as well as of more truth * John 1.17 supported by Spiritual promises beaming out in Spiritual priviledges heaven comes down in it to Earth to Spiritualize Earth for Heaven The manner of worship is more Spiritual higher flights of the Soul stronger ardours of affections sincerer aims at his glory mists are removed from our minds Cloggs from the Soul more of love than fear faith in Christ kindles the affections and works by them The assistances to Spiritual worship are greater The Spirit doth not drop but is plentifully poured out It doth not light sometimes upon but dwells in the heart Christ suted the Gospel to a Spiritual heart and the Spirit changeth a carnal heart to make it fit for a Spiritual Gospel He blows upon the Garden and causes the spices to flow forth And often makes the Soul in worship like the Chariots of Aminadab in a quick and nimble motion Our blessed Lord and Saviour by his death discovered to us the nature of God and after his ascension sent his Spirit to fit us for the worship of God and converse with him One Spiritual Evangelical believing breath is more delightful to God than millions of Altars made up of the richest pearls and smoaking with the costliest oblations because it is Spiritual And a mite of Spirit is of more worth than the greatest weight of flesh One holy Angel is more excellent than a whole world of meer bodies 7. Proposition Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to be rejected upon the account that God requires a Spiritual worship Tho we must perform the weightier duties of the Law yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter precepts Since both the Magnalia and minutula legis the greater and the lesser duties of the Law have the stamp of Divine authority upon them As God under the Ceremonial Law did not Command the worship of the body and the observation of outward rites without the engagement of the Spirit so neither doth he Command that of the Spirit without the peculiar attendance of the body The Schwelk sendians denied bodily worship And the indecent postures of many in publick attendance intimate no great care either of Composing their bodies or Spirits A morally discomposed body intimates a tainted heart Our Bodies as well as our Spirits are to be presented to God * Rom. 12.1 Our bodies in lieu of the Sacrifices of Beasts as in the Judaical institutions body for the whole man a living Sacrifice not to be slain as the Beasts were but living a new life in a holy posture with Crucified affections This is the inference the Apostle makes of the priviledges of Justification Adoption Coheirship with Christ which he had before discoursed of Priviledges conferred upon the person and not upon a part of man 1. Bodily worship is due to God He hath a right to an Adoration by our bodies as they are his by Creation his right is not diminisht but increased by the blessing of Redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 For you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your Spirits which are Gods The Body as well as the Spirit is redeemed since our Saviour suffered Crucifixion in his body as well as Agonies in his Soul Body is not taken here for the whole man as it may be in Rom. 12. But for the material part of our nature it being distinguisht from the Spirit If we are to render to God an obedience with our bodies we are to render him such Acts of worship with our bodies as they are capable of As God is the Father of Spirits so he is the God of all flesh Therefore the flesh he hath framed of the Earth as well as the noble portion he hath breathed into us cannot be denyed him without apalpable in justice The service of the body we must not deny to God unless we will deny him to be the author of it and the exercise of his providential care about it The mercies of God are renewed every day upon our bodies as well as our Souls and therefore they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty everyday * Sherman's Greek in the Temple pa. 61.62 both are from God both should be for God Man consists of Body and Soul the service of Man is the service of both The body is to be Sanctified as well as the Soul and therefore to be offered to God as well as the Soul Both are to be glorified both are to glorifie As our Saviours Divinity was manifested in his body so should our Spirituality in ours To give God the service of the body and not of the Soul is hypocrisie to give God the service of the Spirit and not of the body is sacriledge to give him neither Atheism If the only part of man that is visible were exempted from the service of God there could be no visible Testimonies of piety given upon any occasion Since not a moiety of man but the whole is Gods Creature he ought to pay a homage with the whole and not only with a moiety of himself 2. Worship in societies is due to God but this cannot be without some bodily expressions The law of nature doth as much direct men to combine together in publick societies for the acknowledgment of God as in Civil Communities for self preservation and order And the notice of a society for Religion is more Ancient than the mention of
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
his own though appearing ridiculous in the place where he is he owns the Authority of the Prince whereas the omission of all respect would be a contempt of Majesty And therefore the Judgments of God have been more signal upon the Sacrilegious Contemners of worship among the Heathens than upon those that were diligent and devout in their false worship and they generally owned the blessings received to the preservation of a sense and worship of a deity among them Though such a worship be not acceptable to God and every man is bound to offer to God a devotion agreeable to his own mind yet it is commendable not as worship but as it speaks an acknowledgment of such a Being as God in his power in Creation and his beneficence in his Providence Well then omissions of worship are to be avoided Let no man execute that upon himself which God will pronounce at last as the greatest misery and bid God depart from him who will at last be loath to hear God bid him depart from him Though man hath natural sentiments that God is to be worshipped yet having an hostility in his nature he is apt to neglect or give it him in a slight manner He therefore sets a particular mark and notice of attention upon the fourth Command Remember thou keep holy the Sabath-day Corrupt nature is apt to neglect the worship of God and flagg in it This Command therefore which concerns his worship he fortifies with several reasons Nor let any neglect worship because they cannot find their hearts spiritual in it The further we are from God the more carnal shall we be No man can expect heat by a distance from the Sun beams or other means of warmth Though God commanded a circumcised heart in the Jewish services yet he did not warrant a neglect of the outward testimonies of Religion he had then appointed He expected according to his Command that they should offer the Sacrifices and practise the legal Purifications he had commanded he would have them diligently observed though he had declared that he imposed them only for a time And our Saviour ordered the practise of those positive rites as long as the law remained unrepealed as in the Case of the Leper * Mark 14.4 'T is an injustice to refuse the offering our selves to God according to the manner he hath in his Wisdom prescribed and required If spiritual worship be required by God then 2. It informs us that diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in * Daille melange des Sermon Ser. 2. Men may attend all their days on worship with a juiceless heart and unquickned frame and think to compensate the neglect of the manner with abundance of the matter of service Outward expressions are but the badges and liveries of service not the service it self As the strength of Sin lies in the inward frame of the heart so the strength of worship in the inward complexion and temper of the Soul What do a thousand services avail without cutting the throat of our carnal affections What are loud Prayers but as sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals without Divine Charity A Pharisaical diligence in outward forms without inward Spirit had no better a title vouchsafed by our Saviour than that of hypocritical God desires not Sacrifices nor delights in burnt Offerings Shadows are not to be offered instead of Substance God required the heart of man for it self but commanded outward Ceremonies as subservient to inward worship and goads and spurs unto it They were never appointed as the substance of Religion but auxiliaries to it What value had the Offering of the human nature of Christ been of if he had not had a divine nature to qualifie him to be the Priest And what is the oblation of our Bodies without a Priestly act of the Spirit in the presentation of it Could the Israelites have called themselves Worshippers of God according to his Order if they had brought a thousand Lambs that had died in a Ditch or been killed at home They were to be brought living to the Altar the blood shed at the foot of it A thousand Sacrifices killed without had not been so valuable as one brought alive to the place of Offering One sound Sacrifice is better than a thousand rotten ones As God took no pleasure in the blood of Beasts without its relation to the Antitype So he takes no pleasure in the outward rites of worship without Faith in the Redeemer To offer a Body with a sapless Spirit is a Sacriledge of the same nature with that of the Israelites when they offered dead Beasts A man without spiritual worship is dead whiles he worships though by his diligence in the externals of it he may like the Angel of the Church of Sardis have a name to live * Revel 3.1 What security can we expect from a multitude of dead services What weak shields are they against the holy eye and revenging wrath of God What man but one out of his wits would sollicite a dead man to be his Advocate or Champion Diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in Vse 2. Shall be for Examination Let us try our selves concerning the manner of our worship We are now in the end of the world and the dreggs of time wherein the Apostle predicts there may be much of a form and little of the power of Godliness * 2 Tim. 3.1 5. And therefore it stands us in hand to search into our selves whether it be not thus with us Whether there be as much reverence in our Spirits as there may be devotion in our countenances and outward carriages 1. How therefore are our hearts prepared to worship Is our diligence greater to put our hearts in an adoring posture than our bodies in a decent garb Or are we content to have a muddy Heart so we may have a drest Carcass To have a Spirit a Cage of unclean Birds while we wipe the filth from the outside of the Platter is no better than a Pharisaical devotion and deserves no better a name than that of a whited Sepulcher Do we take opportunities to excite and quicken our Spirits to the performance and cry aloud with David awake awake my glory Are not our hearts asleep when Christ knocks when we hear the voice of God seek my face Do we answer him with warm resolutions thy face Lord we will seek * Psal 27.8 Do we comply with spiritual motions and strike whiles the Iron is hot Is there not more of reluctancy than readiness Is there a quick rising of the Soul in reverence to the motion as Eglon to Ehud or a sullen hanging the head at the first approach of it Or if our hearts seem to be engaged and on fire What are the motives that quicken that fire Is it only the blast of a natural Conscience fear of Hell desires of Heaven as abstracted from God Or is it an affection to God an obedient
understandings and divide our Spirits from God Were our hearts ballanced with a love to God the world could never steal our hearts so much from his worship but his worship would draw our hearts to it It shews a base neutrality in the greatest concernments a halting between God and Baal a contrariety between Affection and Conscience when natural Conscience presses a man to duties of worship and his other affections pull him back draw him to carnal objects and make him slight that whereby he may honour God God argues the prophaness of the Jews hearts from the wickedness they brought into his house and acted there Jer. 23.11 Yea in my house that is my worship I found their wickedness saith the Lord. Carnality in worship is a kind of an Idolatrous frame when the heart is renewed Idols are cast to the Moles and the Batts Isa 2.20 3. It shews much hypocrisie to have our Spirits off from God The mouth speaks and the carriage pretends what the heart doth not think there is a dissent of the heart from the pretence of the body Instability is a sure sign of Hypocrisie Double thoughts argue a double heart The Wicked are compared to Chaff * Psal 1.4 for the uncertain and various motions of their minds by the least wind of fancy The least motion of a carnal Object diverts the Spirit from God as the scent of Carrion doth the Raven from the flight it was set upon The People of God are called Gods Spouse and God calls himself their Husband whereby is noted the most intimate union of the Soul with God and that there ought to be the highest love and affection to him and faithfulness in his worship but when the heart doth start from him in worship it is a sign of the unstedfastness of it with God and a disrelish of any communion with him It is as God complains of the Israelites a going a whoreing after our own imaginations As grace respects God as the object of worship so it looks most upon God in approaching to him Where there is a likeness and love there is a desire of converse and intimacy if there be no spiritual entwining about God in our worship it is a sign there is no likeness to him no true sense of him no renewed image of God in us Every living Image will move strongly to joyn it self with its original Copy and be glad with Jacob to sit steadily in those Chariots that shall convey him to his beloved Joseph Motion 3. Consider the danger of a carnal worship 1. We lose the comfort of worship The Soul is a great Gainer when it offers a spiritual worship and as great a loser when it is unfaithful with God Treachery and perfidiousness hinder commerce among men so doth Hypocrisie in its own nature communion with God God never promised any thing to the Carcass but to the Spirit of worship God hath no obligation upon him by any word of his to reward us with himself when we perform it not to himself When we give an outside worship we have only the outside of an ordinance We can expect no kernel when we give God only the shell He that only licks the outside of the Glass can never be refreshed with the rich Cordial enclosed within A cold and lazy formality will make God to withdraw the light of his countenance and not shine with any delightful communications upon our Souls but if we come before him with a liveliness of affections and steadiness of heart he will draw the vail and cause his glory to display it self before us An humble praying Christian and a warm affectionate Christian in worship will soon find a God who is delighted with such frames and cannot long withold himself from the Soul When our hearts are enflamed with love to him in worship 't is a preparation to some act of love on his part whereby he intends further to gratifie us When John was in the Spirit on the Lords day that is in spiritual employment and meditation and other duties he had that great Revelation of what should happen to the Church in all ages * Rev 1.10 His being in the Spirit intimates his ordinary course on that day and not any extraordinary act in him though it was followed with an extraordinary discovery of God to him When he was thus engaged he heard a voice behind him God doth not require of us spirituality in worship to advantage himself but that we might be prepared to be advantaged by him If we have a clear and well disposed eye 't is not a benefit to the Sun but fits us to receive benefits from his Beams Worship is an act that perfects our own Souls they are then most widened by spiritual frames to receive the influence of divine blessings as an eye most opened receives the fruit of the Suns light better than the eye that is shut The communications of God are more or less according as our spiritual frames are more or less in our worship God will not give his blessings to unsutable hearts What a nasty Vessel is a carnal heart for a spiritual communication The chief end of every duty enjoyned by God is to have communion with him and therefore it is called a drawing near to God 'T is impossible therefore that the outward part of any duty can answer the end of God in his institution 'T is not a bodily appearance or gesture whereby men can have communion with God but by the impressions of the heart and reflections of the heart upon God Without this all the rich streams of grace will run besides us and the growth of the Soul be hindered and impaired A diligent hand makes rich saith the wise man a diligent heart in spiritual worship brings in rich incomes to the humble and spiritual Soul 2. It renders the worship not only unacceptable but abominable to God It makes our Gold to become Dross it soyls our duties and bespotts our Souls A carnal and unsteady frame shews an indifferency of Spirit at best and luke warmness is as ungrateful to God as heavy and nauseous meat is to the stomach he spues them out of his mouth * Rev. 3.16 As our gracious God doth overlook infirmities where intentions are good and endeavours serious and strong so he loaths the services where the frames are stark naught Psal 66.118 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer Luke warm and indifferrent services stink in the Nostrils of God The heart seems to loath God when it starts from him upon every occasion when it is unwilling to employ it self about and stick close to him And can God be pleased with such a frame The more of the Heart and Spirit is in any service the more real goodness there is in it and the more savoury it is to God the less of the Heart and Spirit the less of goodness and the more nauseous to God who loves Righteousness
that Redemption to us the order of the Persons had also been inverted The Spirit then who was third in order had been second in Operation The Son would then have received of the Spirit as the Spirit doth now of Christ and shew it unto us Joh. 1.15 As the Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son so the proper Function and Operation of it was in order alter the Operations of the Father and the Son Had the Spirit been sent to redeem us and the Son sent by the Father and the Spirit to apply that Redemption to us the Son in his acts had proceeded from the Father and the Spirit the Spirit as sender had been in order before the Son whereas the Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ as sent by Christ from the Father Gal. 4.6 Joh. 15.27 But as the order of the Works so the order of the Persons is preserved in their several Operations Creation and a Law to govern the Creature precedes Redemption Nothing or that which hath no being is not capable of a redeemed being Redemption supposeth the existence and the misery of a Person redeemed As Creation precedes Redemption so Redemption precedes the application of it As Redemption supposeth the being of the Creature so application of Redemption supposeth the efficacy of Redemption According to the order of these Works is the order of the Operations of the three Persons Creation belongs to the Father the first Person Redemption the second work is the Function of the Son the second Person Application the third work is the Office of the Holy Ghost the third Person The Father orders it the Son acts it the Holy Ghost applies it He purifies our Souls to understand believe and love these Mysteries He forms Christ in the womb of the Soul as he did the Body of Christ in the womb of the Virgin As the Spirit of God moved upon the waters to garnish and adorn the World after the Matter of it was formed Gen. 1.2 so he moves upon the heart to supple it to a complyance with Christ and draws the Lineaments of the new Creation in the Soul after the Foundation is laid The Son pays the price that was due from us to God and the Spirit is the earnest of the Promises of Life and Glory purchased by the Merit of that Death * Amyraâ—t Moral Tom. 5. p. 478 479 480. 'T is to be observed that the Father under the dispensation of the Law proposed the Commands with the Promises and Threatnings to the Understandings of Men and Christ under the dispensation of Grace when he was upon the Earth proposeth the Gospel as the Means of Salvation exhorts to Faith as the Condition of salvation but it was neither the Function of the one or the other to display such an efficacy in the Understanding and Will to make men believe and obey and therefore there were such few Conversions in the time of Christ by his Miracles But this work was reserved for the fuller and brighter appearance of the Spirit whose Office it was to convince the World of the necessity of a Redeemer because of their lost Condition of the Person of the Redeemer the Son of God of the sufficiency and efficacy of Redemption because of his righteousness and acceptation by the Father The Wisdom of God is seen in preparing and presenting the Objects and then in making impression of them upon the Subjects he intends And thus is the order of the three Persons preserved 2. The second Person had the greatest congruity to this work He by whom God created the World was most conveniently imployed in restoring the defaced World Who more fit to recover it from it s lapsed state John 1.4 than he that had erected it in its primitive state Hebr. 1.2 He was the light of men in Creation and therefore it was most reasonable he should be the light of men in Redemption Who sitter to reform the Divine Image than he that first formed it Who fitter to speak for us to God than he who was the Word Joh. 1.1 Who could better intercede with the Father than he who was the only begotten and beloved Son Who so fit to redeem the forfeited Inheritance as the Heir of all things Who fitter and better to prevail for us to have the right of Children than he that possessed it by Nature We fell from being the Sons of God and who fitter to introduce us into an adopted state than the Son of God Herein was an expression of the richer Grace because the first sin was immediately against the wisdom of God by an ambitious affectation of a wisdom equal to God That that Person who was the wisdom of God should be made a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin against Wisdom 3. The wisdom of God is seen in the two Natures of Christ whereby this Redemption was accomplished The Union of the two Natures was the Foundation of the Union of God and the fallen Creature 1. The Vnion it self is admirable The Word is made Flesh Joh. 1.14 One equal with God in the form of a Servant Phil. 2.7 When the Apostle speaks of God manifested in the flesh he speaks the wisdom of God in a Mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 That which is incomprehensible to the Angels which they never imagined before it was revealed which perhaps they never knew till they beheld it I am sure under the Law the Figures of the Cherubims were placed in the Sanctuary with their faces looking towards the Propitiatory in a perpetual posture of Contemplation and Admiration Exod. 37.9 to which the Apostle alludes 1 Pet. 1.12 Mysterious is the wisdom of God to unite Finite and Infinite Almightiness and Weakness Immortality and Mortality Immutability with a Thing subject to Change to have a Nature from Eternity and yet a Nature subject to the Revolutions of Time a Nature to make a Law and a Nature to be subjected to the Law to be God blessed for ever in the bosom of his Father and an Infant exposed to Câ—lâ—mities from the Womb of his Mother Terms seeming most distant from union most uncapable of conjunction to shake hands together to be most intimately conjoyned Glory and Vileness Fulness and Emptiness Heaven and Earth the Creature with the Creator he that made all things in one Person with a Nature that is made Immanuel God and Man in one That which is most Spiritual to partake of that which is Carnal flesh and blood * Heb. 2.14 One with the Father in his Godhead one with us in his Manhood The Godhead to be in him in the fullest Perfection and the Manhood in the greatest Purity The Creature one with the Creator and the Creator one with the Creature Thus is the incomprehensible Wisdom of God declared in the Word being made Flesh 2. In the manner of this Vnion A Union of two Natures yet no Natural Union It transcends all the Unions visible among Creatures †Savana triâ—mp
other in its operations Is not this more admirable than to be the work of chance which is uncapable to settle such an order and fix particular and general ends causing an exact correspondency of all the parts with one another and every part to conspire together for one common end One thing is fitted for another The Eye is fitted for the Sun and the Sun fitted for the Eye Several sorts of food are fitted for several Creatures and those Creatures fitted with Organs for the partaking that food 1. Subserviency of Heavenly bodies * Lessius The Sun the heart of the world is not for it self but for the good of the World as the heart of man is for the good of the body How conveniently is the Sun placed at a distance from the Earth and the upper Heavens to enlighten the Stars above and enliven the Earth below If it were either higher or lower one part would want its influences T is not in the higher parts of the Heavens the Earth then which lives and fructifies by its influence would have been exposed to a perpetual Winter and chilness unable to have produced any thing for the sustenance of man or beast If seated lower the Earth had been parch'd up the world made uninhabitable and long since had been consumed to ashes by the strength of its heat Consider the motion as well as the Situation of the Sun Had it stood still one part of the World had been cherished by its beams and the other left in a desolate Widow-hood in a disconsolate darkness Besides the Earth would have had no shelter from its perpendicular beams striking perpetually and without any remission upon it The same incommodities would have followed upon its fixedness as upon its too great nearness By a constant day the beauty of the Stars had been obscured the knowledge of their motions been prevented and a considerable part of the Glorious wisdom of the Creator in those choice works of his fingers * Psal 8.3 had been vail'd from our eyes It moves in a fixed line visits all parts of the Earth scatters in the day its refreshing blessings in every creeke of the Earth and removes the mask from the other beauties of Heaven in the night which sparkle out to the glory of the Creator It spreads its Light warms the Earth cherisheth the Seeds excites the Spirit in the Earth and brings Fruit to maturity View also the Air the vast extent between Heaven and Earth which serves for a Water-course a Cistern for water to bedew the face of the Sun-burnt Earth to satisfie the desolate ground and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth * Job 38.25 27. Could Chance appoint the Clouds of the Air to interpose as fans between the scorching heat of the Sun and the faint bodies of the Creatures Can that be the Father of the Rain or beget the drops of dew * Job 38.28 Could any thing so blind settle those ordinances of Heaven for the preservation of Creatures on the Earth Can this either bring or stay the bottles of Heaven when the dust grows into hardness and the Clods cleave fast together * Job 38.37.38 2. Subserviency of the lower World the Earth and Sea which was Created to be inhabited Isa 45.18 The Sea affords water to the Rivers the Rivers like so many veins are spread through the whole body of the Earth to refresh and enable it to bring forth fruit for the sustenance of man and beast Psal 104.10.11 He sends the Springs into the Vallies which run among the Hills they give drink to every Beast of the Field the wild Asses quench their thirst He causes the Grass to grow for the Cattle and the herb for the service of man that he may bring forth food out of the Earth v. 14. The Trees are provided for shades against the extremity of heat a refuge for the panting beasts an habitation for Birds wherein to make their nests ver 17. and a Basket for their provision How are the Vallies and Mountains of the Earth disposed for the pleasure and profit of man Every year are the Feilds covered with Harvests for the nourishing the Creatures no part is Barren but beneficial to man The Mountains that are not cloathed with grass for his food are set with stones to make him an Habitation they have their peculiar services of metals and minerals for the conveniency and comfort and benefit of man Things which are not fit for his food are medicines for his cure under some painful sickness Where the Earth brings not forth Corn it brings forth Roots for the service of other Creatures Wood abounds more in those Countries where the cold is stronger than in others Can this be the result of Chance or not rather of an infinite Wisdom Consider the usefulness of the Sea for the supply of Rivers to refresh the Earth Which go up by the Mountains and down by the Vallies into the place God hath founded for them Psal 104.8 A store-house for fish for the nourishment of other Creatures a shop of Medicines for cure and Pearls for ornament The band that ties remote Nations together by giving opportunity of passage to and commerce with one another How should that natural inclination of the Sea to cover the Earth submit to this subserviency to the Creatures Who hath pounded in this fluid mass of Water in certain limits and confin'd it to its own Channel for the accommodation of such Creatures who by its common Law can only be upon the Earth Naturally the Earth was covered with the deep as with a Garment the waters stood above the Mountains Who set a bound that they might not pass over that they return not again to cover the Earth * Psa 104.6.9 Was it blind Chance or an Infinite Power that shut up the Sea with doors and made thick darkness a swadling band for it and said hitherto shall thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be staid * Job 38.8.9.11 All things are so ordered that they are not propter se but propter aliud What advantage accrues to the Sun by its unwearied rouling about the World Doth it increase the perfection of its nature by all its Circuits No but it serves the inferior world it impregnates things by its heat Not the most abject thing but hath its end and use There is a strait connexion the Earth could not bring forth fruit without the Heavens the Heavens could not water the Earth without vapours from it 3. All this Subserviency of Creatures centers in man Other Creatures are served by those things as well as our selves and they are provided for their nourishment and refreshment as well as ours * Amirald de Trinitate pa. 13. and pag. 18. yet both they and all Creatures meet in man as lines in their Centers Things that have no life or sense are made for those that have both life and
made whither stone or brass this nature therefore must have some superior by whose influx it is preserved Since therefore we see a stable order in the things of the world that they conspire together for the good and beauty of the universe that they depend upon one another There must be some principle upon which they do depend somthing to which the first link of the chain is fastened which himself depends upon no superior but wholly rests in his own essence and being T is the title of God to be the preserver of man and beast * Psa 36.6 The Psalmist elegantly describeth it Psal 104.24 c. The Earth is full of his riches all wait upon him that he may give them their meat in due season when he opens his hand he fills them with good when he hides his face they are troubled if he take away their breath they die and return to dust he sends forth his Spirit and they are Created and renews the face of the Earth the glory of the Lord shall endure for ever and the Lord shall rejoyce in his works Upon the consideration of all which the Psalmist v. 34. takes a pleasure in the Meditation of God as the cause and manager of all those things which issues into a joy in God and a praising of him And why should not the consideration of the power and wisdom of God in the Creatures produce the same effect in the hearts of us if he be our God Or as some render it my Meditation shall be sweet or acceptable to him whereby I find matter of praise in the things of the world and offer it to the Creator of it Thirdly III. Reason The third Reas. T is a folly to deny that which a mans own nature witnesseth to him The whole frame of bodies and Souls bears the impress of the infinite power and wisdom of the Creator A body framed with an admirable Architecture a Soul endowed with Understanding Will Judgment Memory Imagination Man is the Epitome of the World contains in himself the substance of all natures and the fulness of the whole universe not only in regard of the universalness of his knowledge whereby he comprehends the reasons of many things but as all the perfections of the several natures of the world are gathered and united in man for the perfection of his own in a smaller volum In his Soul he partakes of Heaven in his body of the earth There is the life of Plants the sense of beasts and the intellectual nature of Angels * Gen. 2.7 The Lord breathed into his Nostril the breath of life and man c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of lifes Not one sort of lifes but several not only an Animal but a Rational life a Soul of a Nobler extract and nature than what was given to other Creatures So that we need not step out of doors or cast our eyes any further than our selves to behold a God He shines in the capacity of our Souls and the vigour of our Members We must flie from our selves and be stript of our own humanity before we can put off the Notion of a Deity He that is ignorant of the Existence of God must be possessed with so much folly as to be ignorant of his own make and frame 1. In the parts whereof he doth consist Body and Soul First I. Take a prospect of the Body The Psalmist counts it a matter of praise and admiration Psal 139.15 16. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth in thy book all my Members were written The Scheme of man and every Member was drawn in his book All the Sinews Veins Arteries Bones like a peice of Embroidery or Tapestry were wrought by God as it were with deliberation like an Artificer that draws out the model of what he is to do in writing and sets it before him when he begins his work And indeed the Fabrick of mans Body as well as his Soul is an argument for a Divinity The artificial structure of it the Elegancy of every part the proper Situation of them their proportion one to another the fitness for their several functions drew from Galen * Lib. 3. de usu partium Petav. Theol. Dog Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 1. pa. 6. a Heathen and one that had no raised sentiments of a Deity a confession of the admirable Wisdom and Power of the Creator and that none but God could frame it 1. In the order fitness and usefulness of every part The whole model of the body is grounded upon reason Every member hath its exact proportion distinct office regular motion Every part hath a particular comliness and convenient temperament bestowed upon it according to its place in the Body The Heart is hot to enliven the whole The Eye clear to take in objects to present them to the Soul Every member is fitted for its peculiar service and action Some are for sense some for motion some for preparing and others for dispensing nourishment to the several parts They mutually depend upon and serve one another What small strings fasten the particular members together as the Earth that hangs upon nothing * Job 26.7 Take but one part away and you either destroy the whole or stamp upon it some mark of deformity All are knit together by an admirable Symmetry all orderly perform their functions as acting by a setled Law none swerving from their rule but in case of some predominant humor And none of those in so great a multitude of parts stifled in so little a Room or justling against one another to hinder their mutual actions none can be better disposed And the greatest wisdom of man could not imagine it till his eyes present them with the sight and connexion of one part and member with another 1. The Heart * Theod. de providentiâ Orat. 3. How strongly it is guarded with ribs like a Wall that it might not be easily hurt It draws blood from the Liver through a channel made for that purpose Rarifies it and makes it fit to pass through the Arteries and Veins and to carry heat and life to every part of the body And by a perpetual motion it sucks in the blood and spouts it out again which motion depends not upon the command of the Soul but is pure natural 2. The Mouth takes in the meat the teeth grind it for the stomack the stomack prepares it nature strains it through the milky veins the liver refines it and mints it into blood separates the purer from the drossy parts which go to the heart circuites through the whole body running through the Veins like Rivers through so many channels of the world for the watering of the several parts Which are framed of a thin skin for the straining the blood through for the supply of the members of the body and framed with
than a Rock can carve it self into the Statue of a man or a Serpent that is an Enemy to Man could or would raise it self to the Nobility of the humane Nature That Soul that by Nature would strip God of his Rights cannot without a Divine Power be made conformable to him and acknowledg sincerely and cordially the Rights and Glory of God 7. We may here see the reason why there can be no justification by the best and strongest works of Nature Can that which hath Atheism at the root justifie either the action or person What strength can those works have which have neither Gods Law for their Rule nor his Glory for their End that are not wrought by any spiritual strength from him nor tend with any spiritual affection to him Can these be a foundation for the most holy God to pronounce a Creature righteous They will justifie his Justice in condemning but cannot sway his Justice to an Absolution Every natural man in his works picks and chuses he owns the Will of God no further than he can wring it to sute the law of his Members and minds not the honour of God but as it justles not with his own glory and secular ends Can he be righteous that prefers his own Will and his own Honour before the Will and Honour of the Creator However mens actions may be beneficial to others what reason hath God to esteem them wherein there is no respect to him but themselves whereby they dethrone him in their thoughts while they seem to own him in their religious works Every day reproves us with something different from the Rule Thousands of wandrings offer themselves to our eyes Can Justification be expected from that which in it self is matter of despair 8. See here the cause of all the apostacy in the World Practical Atheism was never conquered in such They are still alienated from the Life of God and will not live to God as he lives to himself and his own honour * Eph. 4.17 18. They loath his Rule and distaste his Glory are loth to step out of themselves to promote the ends of another find not the satisfaction in him as they do in themselves They will be Judges of what is good for them and righteous in it self rather than admit of God to judge for them When men draw back from Truth to Error 't is to such opinions which may serve more to foment and cherish their Ambition Covetousness or some beloved Lust that dispates with God for precedency and is designed to be served before him John 12.42.43 They love the praise of men more than the praise of God A preferring man before God was the reason they would not confess Christ and God in him 9. This shews us the excellency of the Gospel and Christian Religion It sets man in his due place and gives to God what the Excellency of his Nature requires ∴ It lays man in the dust from whence he was taken and sets God upon that Throne where he ought to si◠Man by Nature would annihilate God and deisie himself the Gospel glorifies God and annihilates Man In our first revolt we would be like him in knowledge in the means he hath provided for our recovery he designs to make us like him in Grace The Gospel shews our selves to be an Object of Humiliation and God to be a glorious Object for our Imitation The Light of Nature tells us there is a God the Gospel gives us a more magnificent report of him The light of Nature condemns gross Atheism and that of the Gospel condemns and conquers spiritual Atheism in the hearts of men Use 2. Of Exhortation 1. Let us labour to be sensible of this Atheism in our Nature and be humbled for it How should we lye in the Dust and go bowing under the humbling thoughts of it all our days Shall we not be sensible of that whereby we spill the blood of our Souls and give a stabb to the heart of our own Salvation Shall we be worse than any Creature not to bewail that which tends to our destruction He that doth not lament it cannot challenge the Character of a Christian hath nothing of the divine Life and Love planted 〈◊〉 his Soul Not a man but shall one day be sensible when the Eternal God shall call him out to Examination and charge his Conscience to discover every Crime which will then own the Authority whereby it acted when the heart shall be torn open and the secrets of it brought to publick view and the World and Man himself shall see what a viperous Brood of corrupt Principles and Ends nested in his Heart Let us therefore be truly sensible of it till the consideration draw tears from our Eyes and sorrow from our Souls Let us urge the thoughts of it upon our hearts till the Core of that Pride be eaten out and our Stubborness changed into Humility Till our Heads become Waters and our Eyes Fountains of tears and be a spring of Prayer to God to change the heart and mortifie the Atheism in it and consider what a sad thing it is to be a practical Atheist And who is not so by Nature 1. Let us be sensible of it in our selves Have any of our hearts been a Soyl wherein the Fear and Reverence of God hath naturally grown Have we a desire to know him or a will to embrace him Do we delight in his Will and love the remembrance of his Name Are our respects to him as God equal to the speculative knowledge we have of his Nature Is the heart wherein he hath stampt his Image reserved for his Residence Is not the world more affected than the Creator of the world as though that could contribute to us a greater happiness than the Author of it Have not Creatures as much of our love fear trust nay more than God that framed both them and us Have we not too often relyed upon our own strength and made a Calf of our own wisdom and said of God as the Israelites of Moses As for this Moses we wot not what is become of him Exod. 32.1 and given oftener the glory of our good success to our Dragg and our Net to our Craft and our Industry than to the wisdom and blessing of God Are we then free from this sort of Atheism * Lawson body of Divinity pa. 153. 154. 'T is as impossible to have two Gods at one time in one heart as to have two Kings at one time in full power in one Kingdom Have there not been frequent neglects of God Have we not been deaf whilst he hath knocked at our doors slept when he hath sounded in our Ears as if there had been no such Being as a God in the world How many struglings have been against our approaches to him Hath not folly often been committed with vain imaginations starting up in the time of Religious Service which we would scarce vouchsafe a look to at another time
Power an Arm to destroy his Enemies and an Arm to relieve his People * Isa 51.9 All those are attributed to God to signifie divine actions which he doth without bodily organs as we do with them 3. Consider also that only those members which are the instruments of the noblest actions and under that consideration are used by him to represent a notion of him to our minds Whatsoever is perfect and excellent is ascribed to him but nothing that savours of imperfection * Episcop institu l. 4. § 3. c. 3 The heart is ascribed to him it being the principle of vital actions to signifie the Life that he hath in himself Watchful and discerning eys not sleepy and lazy ones A mouth to reveal his Will not to take in food To eat and sleep are never ascribed to him nor those parts that belong to the preparing or transmitting nourishment to the several parts of the body as stomach liver reins nor bowels under that consideration but as they are significant of compassion but only those parts are ascribed to him whereby we acquire knowledge as eyes and ears the Organs of learning and wisdom Or to Communicate it to others as the mouth lips tongue as they are the Instrmments of speaking not of tasting Or those parts which signifie strength and power or whereby we perform the actions of Charity for the relief of others Tast and touch senses that extend no further than to Corporeal things and are the grossest of all the senses are never ascribed to him * T is Zanchieâ— observation Tom. 2. de natura Dei lib. 1. cap. 4. Thes 9. It were worth consideration whither this describing God by the Members of an human body were so much figuratively to be understood as with respect to the incarnation of our Saviour who was to assume the human nature and all the Members of a human body Asaph speaking in the person of God Psal 78.1 I will open my mouth in Parables In regard of God it is to be understood figuratively but in regard of Christ literally to whom it is applied Matt. 13.34.35 And that Apparition Isa 6. which was the appearance of Jehovah is applied to Christ John 12.40.41 * Amiraut Meral Tâ—m 1. pa. 293. 294. After the report of the Creation and the forming of man we read of Gods speaking to him but not of Gods appearing to him in any visible shape A voice might be formed in the air to give man notice of his duty some way of infoâ—â—aâ—iâ—n he must have what positive Laws he was to observe besides that Law wâ—â—ch wâ—â—â—â—graven in his nature which we call the Law of nature And without a voice the knowledge of the Divine Will could not be so conveniently communicated to man Tho God was heard in a voice he was not seen in a shape But after the fall we several times read of his appearing in such a form Tho we read of his speaking before mans committing of sin yet not of his walking which is more Corporeal till afterwards * Gen. 3.8 Tho God would not have man believe him to be Corporeal yet he judged it expedient to give some prenotices of that Divine incarnation which he had promised * Amirald 5. Therefore we must not conceive of the visible Deity according to the letter of such expressions but the true intent of them Tho the Scripture speaks of his eyes and arm yet it denies them to be arms of flesh * Job 10.4 2 Chron. 32.8 We must not conceive of God according to the Letter but the design of the Metaphor When we hear things described by Metaphorical expressions for the clearing them up to our fancy we conceive not of them under that garb but remove the vail by an act of our reason When Christ is called a Sun a Vine Bread is any so stupid as as to conceive him to be a Vine with material branches and Clusters or be of the same nature with a Loaf But the things designed by such Metaphors are obvious to the conception of a mean understanding If we would conceive God to have a body like a man because he describes himself so we may conceit him to be like a Bird because he is mentioned with wings * Psal 36.7 or like a Lyon or Leopard because he likens himself to them in the Acts of his strength and fury * Hos 13.7.8 He is called a rock a horn fire to note his strength and wrath If any be so stupid as to think God to be really such they would make him not only a man but worse than a Monster * Maimon More Nevoc par 1. cap. 27. Onkelos the Chalde Paraphrast upon parts of the Scripture was so tender of expressing the Notion of any Corporeity in God that when he meets with any expressions of that nature he translates them according to the true intent of them as when God is said to descend Gen. 11.5 which implies a local motion a motion from one place to another he translates it and God revealed himself We should conceive of God according to the design of the expressions When we read of his eyes we should conceive his Omniscience of his hand his power of his sitting his immutability of his Throne his Majesty and conceive of him as surmounting not only the grossness of bodies but the Spiritual excellency of the most dignified Creatures something so perfect great spiritual as nothing can be conceived higher and purer * Mores conjectura cabalistica pa. 122. Christ saith one is truly Deus figuratus and for his sake was it more easily permitted to the Jews to think of God in the shape of a man Use If God be a pure Spiritual being then 1. Man is not the image of God according to his external bodily form and figure The image of God in man consisted not in what is seen but in what is not seen not in the conformation of the members but rather in the Spiritual faculties of the Soul or most of all in the holy endowments of those faculties Eph. 4.24 That ye put on the new man which after God is Created in righteousness and true holiness * Col. 3 1â— The image which is restored by redeeming grace was the image of God by Original nature The image of God cannot be in that part which is common to us with beasts but rather in that wherein we excell all living Creatures in reason understanding and an immortal Spirit God expresly saith that none saw a similitude of him Deut. 4.15 16. which had not been true if man in regard of his body had been the image and similitude of God for then a figure of God had been seen every day as often as we saw a man or beheld our selves Nor would the Apostles argument stand good Acts 17.29 That the Godhead is not like to stone graven by art if we were not the off-spring of God and bore the stamp of
effect of Divine Revelation He only knows himself and can only make himself known to us It could not be supposed that an infinite God should have no perfections but what were visible in the works of his hands and that these perfections should not be infinitely greater than as they were sensible in their present effects This had been to apprehend God a limited Being meaner than he is Now 't is impossible to honour God as we ought unless we know him as he is and we could not know him as he is without divine revelation from himself for none but God can acquaint us with his own nature And therefore the nations void of this conduct heapt up modes of worship from their own imaginations unworthy of the Majesty of God and below the nature of man A rational man would scarce have owned such for signs of honour as the Scripture mentions in the services of Baal and Dagon Much less an infinitely wise and glorious God And when God had signified his mind to his own people how unwilling were they to rest satisfied with Gods determination but would be warping to their own inventions and make Gods and wayes of worship to themselves * Amos 5.26 As in the matter of the Golden Calf as was lately spoken of 2. Tho the outward manner of worship acceptable to God could not be known without revelation and those revelations might be various yet the inward manner of worship with our Spirits was manifest by nature And not only manifest by nature to Adam in Innocence but after his fall and the scales he had brought upon his understanding by that fall When God gave him his positive institutions before the fall or whatsoever additions God should have made had he persisted in that state or when he appointed him after his fall to testifie his acknowledgment of him by Sacrifices there needed no Command to him to make those acknowledgments by those outward wayes prescribed to him with the intention and prime affection of his Spirit This nature would instruct him in without revelation For he could not possibly have any semblance of reason to think that the offering of beasts or the presenting the first fruits of the increase of the ground as an acknowledgment of Gods Soveraignty over him and his bounty to him was sufficient without devoting to him that part wherein the Image of his Creator did consist He could not but discerne by a reflection upon his own being that he was made for God as well as by God For it is a natural principle of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 11.36 For of him and through him and to him are all things c. That the whole whereof he did consist was due to God and that his Body the dreggy and dusty part of his nature was not fit to be brought alone before God without that nobler principle which he had by Creation linkt with it Nothing in the whole law of nature as it is informed of Religion was clearer next to the being of God than this manner of worshipping God with the mind and Spirit And as the Gentiles never sunk so low into the mud of Idolatry as to think the Images they worshipped were really their Gods but the representations or habitations of their Gods so they never deserted this principle in the Notion of it that God was to be honoured with the best they were and the best they had As they never denyed the being of a God in the Notion tho they did in the practise so they never rejected this principle in Notion tho they did and now most men do in the inward observation of it It was a maxime among them that God was mens animus mind and Spirit and therefore was to be honoured with the mind and Spirit That religion did not consist in the Ceremonies of the body but the work of the Soul Whence the speech of one of them * Menander Grot. de veritat relig lib. 4. § 12. Sacrifice to the Gods not so much clothed with purple garments as a pure heart And of another God regards not the multitude of the Sacrifices but the disposition of the Sacrificer T is not fit we should deny God the Cream and Flower * Jamblick and give him the flotten part and the stalks And with what Reverence and intention of mind they thought their worship was to be performed is evident by the Priests crying out often hoc age Mind this let your Spirits be intent upon it This could not but result 1. From the knowledge of our selves T is a natural principle God hath made us and not we our selves Psal 100.1 2. Man knows himself to be a rational Creature As a Creature he was to serve his Creator and as a rational Creature with the best part of that rational nature he derived from him By the same act of reason that he knows himself to be a Creature he knows himself to have a Creator That this Creator is more excellent than himself and that an honour is due from him to the Creator for framing of him and therefore this honour was to be offered to him by the most excellent part which was framed by him Man cannot consider himself as a thinking understanding being but he must know that he must give God the honour of his thoughts and worship him with those faculties whereby he Thinks Wills and Acts. * Amiraut Mor. Tom. 1. pa. 309. 310. He must know his faculties were given him to act and to act for the glory of that God who gave him his Soul and the faculties of it and he could not in reason think they must be only active in his own service and the service of the Creature and idle and unprofitable in the service of his Creator With the same Powers of our Soul whereby we contemplate God we must also worship God We cannot think of him but with our Minds nor love him but with our Will and we cannot worship him without the acts of thinking and loving and therefore cannot worship him without the exercise of our inward faculties How is it possible then for any man that knows his own nature to think that extended hands bended knees and lifted up eyes were sufficient acts of worship without a quickned and active Spirit 2 From the knowledge of God As there was a knowledge of God by nature so the same nature did dictate to Man that God was to be glorified as God The Apostle implies the inference in the charge he brings against them for neglecting it We should speak of God as he is said one * Bias. Rom. 1.21 and the same reason would inform them that they were to act towards God as he is The excellency of the Object required a worship according to the dignity of his Nature which could not be answered but by the most serious inward affection as well as outward decency and a want of this cannot but be judged to be unbecoming
some thoughts pitch'd upon God in worship and as many willingly upon the World David sought God not with a moity of his heart but with his whole heart with his intire frame * Psal 119.10 He brought not half his heart and left the other in the possession of another Master It was a good lesson Pythagoras gave his Scholars * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jamblich l. 1. c. 518. p. 87. Not to make the Observance of God a work by the by If those Guests be invited or entertained kindly or if they come unexpected the spirituality of that worship is lost the Soul kicks down what it wrought before But if they be Brow-beaten by us and our grief rather than our pleasure they divert our spiritual intention from the work in hand but hinder not Gods acceptance of it as spiritual because they are not the acts of our Will but offences to our Wills 5. Spiritual Worship is performed with a spiritual activity and sensibleness of God With an active Understanding to meditate on his excellency and an active Will to embrace him when he drops upon the Soul If we understand the amiableness of God our affections will be ravisht if we understand the immensity of his goodness our Spirits will be enlarged We are to act with the highest intention sutable to the greatness of that God with whom we have to do Psal 150.2 Praise him according to his excellent greatness Not that we can worship him equally but in some proportion the frame of the heart is to be suted to the excellency of the Object Our spiritual strength is to be put out to the utmost as Creatures that act naturally do The Sun shines and the Fire burns to the utmost of their natural power This is so necessary that David a spiritual Worshipper prays for it before he sets upon acts of adoration Psal 80.18 quicken us that we may call upon thy Name As he was loth to have a drowzy faculty he was loth to hâ—â— a drowzy instrument and would willingly have them as lively as himself Psal 57.8 Awake up my glory awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early How would this Divine Soul serue himself up to God and be turned into nothing but a holy flame Our Souls must be boyling hot when we serve the Lord * Rom. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The heart doth no less burn when it Spiritually comes to God than when God doth Spiritually approach to it * Luke 24.32 A Nabals heart one as cold as a stone cannot offer up a Spiritual service Whatsoever is enjoyned us as our duty ought to be performed with the greatest intensness of our Spirit As it is our duty to pray so it is our duty to pray with the most fervent importunity T is our duty to love God but with the purest and most sublime affections Every Command of God requires the whole strength of the Creature to be imployed in it That love to God wherein all our duty to God is summed up is to be with all our strength with all our might c. * Lady Falklands life pa. 130. Tho in the Covenant of grace he hath mitigated the severity of the Law and requires not from us such an elevation of our affections as was possible in the state of innocence yet God requires of us the utmost moral industry to raise our affections to a pitch at least equal to what they are in other things What strength of affections we naturally have ought to be as much and more excited in acts of worship than upon other occasions and our ordinary works As there was an inactivity of Soul in worship and a quickness to sin when sin had the dominion so when the Soul is Spiritualized the temper is changed there is an inactivity to sin and an ardor in duty The more the Soul is dead to sin the more it is alive to God * Rom. 6.11 and the more lively too in all that concerns God and his honour For grace being a new strength added to our natural determines the affections to new objects and excites them to a greater vigor And as the hatred of sin is more sharp the love to every thing that destroys the dominion of it is more strong And acts of worship may be reckoned as the cheifest batteries against the power of this inbred enemy When the Spirit is in the Soul like the Rivers of waters flowing out of the belly the Soul hath the activity of a River and makes hast to be swallowed up in God as the streams of the River in the Sea Christ makes his people Kings and Priests to God * Revel 1.6 first Kings then Priests Gives first a Royal temper of heart that they may offer Spiritual Sacrifices as Priests Kings and Priests to God acting with a magnificent Spirit in all their motions to him We cannot be Spiritual Priests till we be Spiritual Kings The Spirit appeared in the likeness of fire and where he resides Communicates like fire purity and activity Dulness is against the light of nature I do not remember that the Heathen ever offered a Snail to any of their false Deities nor an Ass but to Priapus their unclean Idol but the Persians Sacrificed to the Sun a Horse a swift and generous Creature God provided against those in the Law Commanding an Asses Firstling the off-spring of a sluggish Creature to be Redeemed or his neck broke but by no means to be offered to him * Exod. 13.13 God is a Spirit infinitely active and therefore frozen and benummed frames are unsutable to him He rides upon a Cherub and flies he comes upon the wings of the wind he rides upon a swift cloud * Isa 19.1 and therefore demands of us not a dull reason but an active Spirit God is a living God therefore must have a lively service Christ is life and slothful adorations are not fit to be offered up in the name of life The worship of God is called wrestling in Scripture and Paul was a striver in the service of his Master * Col. 1.29 in an agony * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angels worship God Spiritually with their wings on and when God Commands them to worship Christ the next Scripture quoted is that he makes them flames of fire * Heb. 1.7 If it be thus how may we charge our selves What Paul said of the sensual Widow * 1 Tim. 5.6 that she is dead while she lives we may say often of our Selves we are dead while we worship Our hearts are in duty as the Jews were in deliverances as those in a dream * Psa 126.1 by which unexpectedness God shewed the greatness of his care and mercy and we attend him as men in a dream whereby we discover our negligence and folly This activity doth not consist in outward acts The body may be hot and the heart may be faint but in an inward stirring
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
more distractions jogg us the more need we should see of going out to a Saviour by Faith One part of our Saviours Office is to stand between us and the infirmities of our worship As he is an Advocate he presents our services and pleads for them and us * 1 John 2.1 for the sins of our duties as well as for our other sins Jesus Christ is an High-priest appointed by God to take away the iniquities of our holy things which was typified by Aarons Plate upon his Mitre * Exod. 28.36 38. Were there no imperfections were there no creeping up of those Froggs into our minds we should think our worship might merit acceptance with God upon its own account But if we behold our own weakness that not a tear a groan a sigh is so pure but must have Christ to make it entertainable that there is no worship without those blemishes and upon this throw all our services into the Arms of Christ for acceptance and sollicite him to put his merits in the front to make our ciphers appear valuable 't is a spiritual act the design of God in the Gospel being to advance the honour and mediation of his Son That is a spiritual and evangelical act which answers the evangelical design The design of Satan and our own corruption is defeated when those interruptions make us run swifter and take faster hold on the High-priest who is to present our worship to God and our own Souls receive comfort thereby Christ had temptations offered to him by the Devil in his Wilderness retirement that from an experimental knowledge he might be able more compassionatly to succour us * Heb. 2.18 we have such assaults in our retir'd worship especially that we may be able more highly to value him and his mediation 3. Let us not therefore be discouraged by those interruptions and starts of our hearts 1. If we find in our selves a strong resistance of them The Flesh will be lusting that cannot be hindered yet if we do not fulfil the lusts of it rise up at its command and go about its work we may be said to walk in the Spirit * Gal. 5.16 17. We walk in the Spirit if we fulfil not the lusts of the Flesh though there be a lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit So we worship in the Spirit though there be carnal thoughts arising if we do not fulfil them though the stirring of them discovers some contrariety in us to God yet the resistance manifests that there is a principle of contrariety in us to them that as there is something of Flesh that lusts against the Spirit so there is something of Spirit in worship which lusts against the Flesh We must take heed of omitting worship because of such in-rodes and lying down in the mire of a total neglect If our Spirits are made more lively and vigorous against them If those cold vapours which have risen from our hearts make us like a Spring in the midst of the cold Earth more warm There is in this case more reason for us to bless God than to be discouraged God looks upon it as the disease not the wilfulness of our nature as the weakness of the Flesh not the willingness of the Spirit If we would shut the door upon them it seems they are unwelcome company Men do not use to lock their doors upon those they love If they break in and disturb us with their impertinencies we need not be discomforted unless we give them a share in our affections and turn our back upon God to entertain them If their presence makes us sad their flight would make us joyful 2. If we find our selves excited to a stricter watch over our hearts against them As Travellers will be careful when they come to places where they have been rob'd before that they be not so easily surprized again We should not only lament when we have had such foolish imaginations in worship breaking in upon us but also bless God that we have had no more since we have hearts so fruitful of weeds We should give God the glory when we find our hearts preserved from these intruders and not boast of our selves but return him our praise for the watch and guard he kept over us to preserve us from such Thieves Let us not be discomforted for as the greatness of our sins upon our turning to God is no hinderance to our justification because it doth not depend upon our conversion as the meritorious cause but upon the infinite value of our Saviours satisfaction which reaches the greatest sins as well as the least so the multitude of our bewail'd distractions in worship are not a hinderance to our acceptation because of the uncontroulable power of Christs intercession Vse 3. Is for exhortation Since Spiritual worship is due to God and the Father seeks such to worship him how much should we endeavour to satisfie the desire and order of God and act conformable to the Law of our Creation and the love of Redemption Our end must be the same in worship which was Gods end in Creation and Redemption to glorifie his name set forth his perfections and be rendred fit as Creatures and Redeemed ones to partake of that grace which is the fruit of worship An Evangelical dispensation requires a Spiritual homage to neglect therefore either the matter or manner of Gospel duties is to put a slight upon Gospel priviledges The manner of duty is ever of more value than the matter the Scarlet dye is more precious than the cloth tinctured with it God respects more the diposition of the Sacrificer than the multitude of the Sacrifices * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Abstinentia The Solemn feasts appointed by God were but Dung as managed by the Jews Mâ—â— 2.3 The heart is often welcome without the body but the body never graâ—â—ful without the heart The inward acts of the Spirit require nothing from without to constitute them good in themselves but the outward acts of devotion require inward acts to render them savory to God As the goodness of outward acts consists not in the acts themselves so the acceptableness of them results not from the acts themselves but from the inward frame animating and quickning those acts as blood and Spirits running through the veins of a duty to make it a living service in the sight of God Imperfections in worship hinder not Gods acceptation of it if the heart Spirited by Grace be there to make it a sweet Savour The stench of burning flesh and fat in the legal Sacrifices might render them noysome to the outward senses but God smelt a sweet savour in them as they respected Christ When the heart and Spirit are offered up to God it may be a savory duty though attended with unsavory imperfections But a thousand Sacrifices without a stamp of faith a thousand Spiritual duties with an habitual carnality are no better than stench with God The heart must
than this and Millions of Heavens greater than this Heaven he hath already Created if so he is then in unconceivable spaces beyond this World for his Essence is not less and narrower than his Power and his Power is not to be thought of a further extent than his Essence he cannot be excluded therefore from those vast spaces where his Power may fix those Worlds if he please if so 't is no wonder that he should fill this World and there is no reason to exclude God from the narrow space of this World that is not contain'd in infinite spaces beyond the World God is wheresoever he hath a Power to act but he hath a power to act every where in the World every where out of the World he is therefore every where in the World every where out of the World Before this World was made he had a Power to make it in the space where now it stands Was he not then unlimitedly where the World now is before the World received a Being by his powerful Word Why should he not then be in every part of the World now Can it be thought that God who was immense before should after he had Created the World contract himself to the limits of one of his Creatures and tie himself to a particular place of his own Creation and be less after his Creation than he was before This might also be prosecuted by an Argument from his Eternity What is eternal in duration is immense in essence the same reason which renders him eternal renders him immense That which proves him to be always will prove him to be every where The third thing is Propositions for the further clearing this Doctrine from any exceptions 1. This truth is not weakned by the expressions in Scripture where God is said to dwell in Heaven and in the Temple 1. He is indeed said to sit in heaven * Psal 2.4 and to dwell on high * Psal 113 5. but he is no where said to dwell only in the heavens as confin'd to them 'T is the Court of his Majestical presence but not the Prison of his Essence For when we are told that the heaven is his throne we are told with the same breath that the earth is his footstool Isa 66. â— He dwells on high in regard of the excellency of his nature but he is in all places in regard of the diffusion of his presence The soul is essentially in all parts of the body but it doth not exert the same operations in all the more noble discoveries of it are in the Head and Heart In the Head where it exerciseth the chiefest senses for the enriching the understanding In the Heart where it vitally resides and communicates life and motion to the rest of the body It doth not understand with the foot or toe tho' it be in all parts of the body it informs And so God may be said to dwell in Heaven in regard of the more excellent and majestick representations of himself both to the Creatures that inhabit the place as Angels and blessed spirits and also in those marks of his greatness which he hath planted there those spiritual natures which have a nobler stamp of God upon them and those excellent bodies as Sun and Stars which as so many Tapers light us to behold his glory Psal 19.1 and astonish the minds of men when they gaze upon them 'T is his Court where he hath the most solemn Worship from his Creatures all his Courtiers attending there with a pure love and glowing zeal He reigns there in a special manner without any opposition to his government 't is therefore call'd his holy dwelling-place 2 Chron 3.27 The Earth hath not that title since sin cast a stain and a ruining curse upon it The Earth is not his Throne because his government is oppos'd But Heaven is none of Satan's precinct and the Rule of God is uncontradicted by the Inhabitants of it 'T is from thence also he hath given the greatest discoveries of himself Thence he sends the Angels his Messengers his Son upon Redemption his Spirit for Sanctification From Heaven his gifts drop down upon our heads and his grace upon our hearts James 3.15 From thence the chiefest blessings of Earth descend The motions of the heavens fatten the earth and the heavenly bodies are but stewards to the earthly comforts for man by their influence Heaven is the richest vastest most stedfast and majestick part of the visible Creation 'T is there where he will at last manifest himself to his people in a full conjunction of grace and glory and be for ever open to his people in uninterrupted expressions of goodness and discoveries of his presence as a reward of their labour and service And in these respects it may peculiarly be call'd his Throne And this doth no more hinder his essential presence in all parts of the earth than it doth his gracious presence in all the hearts of his people God is in heaven in regard of the manifestation of his glory in hell by the expressions of his justice in the earth by the discoveries of his Wisdom Power Patience and Compassion in his people by the monuments of his grace and in all in regard of his substance 2. He is said also to dwell in the Ark and Temple 'T is called Psal 26.8 The habitation of his house and the place where his honour dwells and to dwell in Jerusalem as in his holy Mountain The Mountain of the Lord of Hosts Zec. 8.3 in regard of publishing his Oracles answering their prayers manifesting more of his goodness to the Israelites than to any other Nation in the world erecting his true Worship among them which was not setled in any part of the world besides and his worship is principally intended in that Psalm The Ark is the place where his honour dwells the worship of God is called the glory of God They changed the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man Rom. 1.23 i. e. they changed the worship of God into dolatry and to that also doth the place in Zechary refer Now because he is said to dwell in heaven is he essentially only there Is he not as essentially in the Temple and Ark as he is in Heaven since there are as high expressions of his habitation there as of his dwelling in heaven If he dwell only in heaven how came he to dwell in the Temple both are asserted in Scripture one as much as the other If his dwelling in heaven did not hinder his dwelling in the Ark it could as little hinder the presence of his essence on the earth To dwell in heaven and in one part of the earth at the same time is all one as to dwell in all parts of heaven and all parts of earth If he were in Heaven and in the Ark and Temple it was the same essence in both tho' not the same kind of
Heb. 4.12 As a Critick discerns every Letter Point and Stop he is more intimate with us than our Souls with our Bodies and hath more the Possession of us than we have of our selves he knows them by an inspection into the heart not by the Mediation of second causes by the looks or gestures of men as men may discern the Thoughts of one another 1. God discerns all good motions of the Mind and Will These he puts into men and needs must God know his own act he knew the Son of Jeroboam to have some good thing in him towards the Lord God of Israel 1 Kings 14.13 and the integrity of David and Hezekiah the freest motions of the Will and Affections to him Lord thou knowest that I love thee saith Peter John 21.17 Love can be no more restrain'd than the Will it self can A man may make another to grieve and desire but none can force another to Love 2. God discerns all the evil motions of the Mind and Will Every imagination of the Heart Gen. 6.5 the vanity of mens thoughts Psal 94.11 their inward darkness and deceitful disguises No wonder that God who fashion'd the heart should understand the motions of it Psal 33.13 15. He looks from Heaven and beholds all the Children of men he fashioneth their hearts alike and considers all their Works Doth any man make a Watch and yet be ignorant of its motion Did God fling away the Key to this secret Cabinet when he framed it and put off the power of unlocking it when he pleased He did not surely frame it in such a posture as that any thing in it should be hid from his Eye he did not fashion it to be Priviledged from his Government which would follow if he were ignorant of what was Minted and Coined in it He could not be a Judg to punish men if the inward frames and Principles of mens actions were concealed from him an outward action may glitter to an outward eye yet the secret spring be a desire of applause and not the Fear and Love of God If the inward frames of the heart did lye covered from him in the secret recesses of the heart those plausible acts which in regard of their Principles would merit a Punishment would meet with a Reward and God should bestow Happiness where he had denounced Misery As without the knowledg of what is just he could not be a Wise Law-giver so without the knowledg of what is inwardly committed he could not be a Righteous Judg acts that are rotten in the spring might be judged good by the fair colour and appearance This is the glory of God at the last day to manifest the secrets of all hearts 1 Cor. 4.5 and the Prophet Jeremiah links the power of Judging and the Prerogative of trying the Hearts together Jer. 11.20 but thou O Lord of Hosts that Judgest Righteously that tryest the Reins and the Heart and Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the Heart I try the Reins to what end even to give every man according to his way and according to the fruit of his doings And indeed his binding up the whole Law with that command of not coveting evidenceth that he will Judg men by the inward affections and frames of their hearts Again God sustains the mind of man in every act of thinking In him we have not only the Principle of Life but every motion the motion of our minds as vvell as of our members In him we live and move c. Acts 17.28 Since he supports the vigor of the faculty in every act can he be ignorant of those acts vvhich spring from the faculty to vvhich he doth at that instant communicate povver and ability Novv this knovvledg of the Thoughts of men is 1. An incommunicable Property belonging only to the Divine Vnderstanding Creatures indeed may knovv the thoughts of others by Divine Revelation but not by themselves no Creature hath a Key immediately to open the minds of men and see all that lodgeth there no Creature can Fathom the heart by the Line of Created Knowledge Daille serm Part 1. p. 230. Devils may have a conjectural Knowledg and may guess at them by the acquaintance they have with the Disposition and Constitution of men and the Images they behold in their Fancies and by some marks which an inward imagination may stamp upon the Brain Blood Animal Spirits Face c. But the knowing the Thougnts meerly as Thought without any Impression by it is a Royalty God appropriates to himself as the main secret of his Government and a Perfection declarative of his Deity as much as any else Jer. 17.9 10. the heart of man is desperately wicked who can know it yes there is one and but one I the Lord search the Heart I try the Reins Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks upon the Heart 1 Sam. 16.7 where God is distinguisht by this Perfection from all men whatsoever others may know by Revelation as Elisha did what was in Gehazi's heart 2 Kings 5.26 But God knows a man more than any man knows himself What person upon earth understands the windings and turnings of his own heart what reserves it will have what contrivances what inclinations all which God knows exactly 2. God acquires no new Knowledg of the thoughts and heart by the Discovery of them in the actions He would then be but equal in this part of Knowledg to his Creature no man or Angel but may thus arrive to the Knowledg of them God were then excluded from an absolute Dominion over the prime work of his lower Creation he would have made a Creature superior in this respect to himself upon whose Will to discover his knowledg of their inward intentions should depend and therefore when God is said to search the heart we must not understand it as if God were ignorant before and was fain to make an exact scrutiny and enquiry before he attained what he desired to know but God condescends to our capacity in the expression of his own Knowledg signifying that his Knowledg is as compleat as any mans Knowledg can be of the designs of others after he hath sifted them by a strict and through examination and wrung out a discovery of their intentions that he knows them as perfectly as if he had put them upon the rack and forced them to make a discovery of their secret Plottings Nor must we understand that in Gen. 22.12 where God saith after Abraham had stretched out his hand to Sacrifice his Son Now I know that thou fearest God as though God was ignorant of Abrahams gracious disposition to him did Abrahams drawing his Knife furnish God with a new Knowledg no God knew Abrahams pious inclinations before Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his Children after him c. Knowledg is sometimes taken for approbation then the sense will be now I approve this Fact as a Testimony of thy fear of me since thy
use them no better than Men do devouring Fish and untam'd Beasts with a Hook in the Nose and a Bridle in the Mouth Those States-men in Isa 29.15 thought their Contrivances too deep for God to fathom and too close for God to frustrate They seek deep to hide their Counsels from the Lord surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the Potters Clay of no more force and understanding than a Potters Vessel which understands not its own form wrought by the Artificer nor the use it is put to by the Buyer and Possessor or shall be esteemed as a Potters Vessel that can be as easily flung back into the Mass from whence it was taken as preserved in the Figure it is now endued with No secret Designer is shrowded from Gods sight or can be shelter'd from Gods Arm He understands the Venom of their Hearts better than we can feel it and discovers their inward fury more plainly than we can see the Sting or Teeth of a Viper when they are opened for mischief and to what purpose doth God know and see them but in order to deliver his People from them in his own due time I know their sorrow and am come down to deliver them * Ex. 3.7 8. The Walls of Jerusalem are continually before him he knows therefore all that would undermine and demolish them None can hurt Zion by any ignorance or inadvertency in God 'T is observable that our Saviour assuming to himself a different Title in every Epistle to the Seven Churches doth particularly ascribe to himself this of Knowledge and Wrath in that to Thyatira an Emblem or Description of the Romish State * Rev. 2 1â— And unto the Angel of the Church of Thyatira write These things saith the Son of God who hath his Eyes like to a flame of Fire and his Feet like fine Brass His Eyes like a flame of Fire are of a piercing nature insinuating themselves into all the Pores and parts of the Body they encounter with and his Feet like Brass to crush them with is explained Verse 23. I will k ll her Children with Death and all the Churches shall know that I am he which searches the Reins and the Heart and I will give to every one of you according to your works He knows every design of the Romish Party design'd by that Church of Thyatira * For the Evidence of it I refer you to Dr. More 's Exposition of the seven Churches worthy every Learned and Vnderstanding Mans reading and of every sober Romanist Jezabel there signifies a whorish Church such a Church as shall act as Jezabel Ahab's Wife who was not only a Worshipper of Idols but propagated Idolatry in Israel slew the Prophets persecuted Elijah murdered Naboth the Name whereof signifies Prophesie seiz'd upon his Possession And if it be said that Verse 19. this Church was commended for her Works Faith Patience 't is true Rome did at first strongly profess Christianity and maintain'd the interest of it but afterwards fell into the practice of Jezabel and committed Spiritual Adultery And is she to be owned for a Wife that now plays the Harlot because she was honest and modest at her first Marriage * Coc. in loc And though she shall be destroy'd yet not speedily Verse 22. I will cast her into a Bed seems to intimate the destruction of Jezabel not to be at once and speedily but in a lingring way and by degrees as Sicknes consumes a Body 2. This Perfection of God fits him to be a special Object of Trust If he were forgetful what comfort could we have in any Promise How could we depend upon him if he were ignorant of our State His Compassions to pity us his Readiness to relieve us his Power to protect and assist us would be insignificant without his Omniscience to inform his Goodness and direct the Arm of his Power This Perfection is as it were Gods Office of Intelligence As you go to your Memorandum Book to know what you are to do so doth God to his Omniscience This Perfection is Gods Eye to acquaint him with the necessities of his Church and directs all his other Attributes in their exercise for and about his People You may depend upon his Mercy that hath promised and upon his Truth to perform upon his Sufficiency to supply you and his Goodness to relieve you and his Righteousness to reward you because he hath an infinite Understanding to know you and your wants you and your services And without this knowledge of his no comfort could be drawn from any other Perfection none of them could be a sure Nail to hang our hopes and confidence upon This is that the Church alway Celebrated Psal 105.7 He hath remembred his Covenant for ever and the Word which he hath commanded to a thousand generations And Verse 42. He remembred his holy Promise and he remembred for them his Covenant * Psal 106.45 He remembers and understands his Covenant therefore his Promise to perform it and therefore our Wants to supply them 3. And the rather because God knows the Persons of all his own He hath in his infinite Understanding the exact number of all the individual Persons that belong to him 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord knows them that are his He knows all things because he hath Created them and he knows his People because he hath not only made them but also chose them He could no more choose he knew not what than he could Create he knew not what He knows them under a double Title of Creation as Creatures in the common Mass of Creation as new Creatures by a particular act of Separation He cannot be ignorant of them in time whom he fore-knew from Eternity His knowledge in time is the same he had from Eternity He fore-knew them that he intended to give the Grace of Faith unto and he knows them after they believe because he knows his own act in bestowing Grace upon them and his own Mark and Seal wherewith he hath stampt them No doubt but he that calls the Stars of Heaven by their names * Psal 147.4 knows the number of those living Stars that sparkle in the Firmament of his Church He cannot be ignorant of their Persons when he numbers the Hairs of their Heads and hath Registred their Names in the Book of Life As he only had an infinite Mercy to make the choice so he only hath an infinite Understanding to comprehend their Persons We only know the Elect of God by a Moral assurance in the Judgment of Charity when the Conversation of Men is according to the Doctrine of God We have not an infallible knowledge of them we may be often mistaken Judas a Devil may be judged by Man for a Saint till he be stript of his disguise God only hath an infallible knowledge of them he knows his own Records and the Counterparts in the hearts of his People None can counterfeit
his Seal nor can any raze it out * Turretin's Sermons p. 3â—2 When the Church is either scatter'd like Dust by Persecution or over-grown with Superstition and Idolatry that there is scarce any grain of true Religion appearing as in the time of Elijah who complain'd that he was left alone as if the Church had been rooted out of that corner of the World * 1 Kings 19.14 18. yet God knew that he had a number fed in a Cave and had reserved seven thousand Men that had preserved the purity of his Worship and not bow'd their knee to Baal Christ knew his Sheep as well as he is known of them yea better than they can know him * John 10.14 History acquaints us that Cyrus had so vast a memory that he knew the name of every particular Souldier in his Army which consisted of diverse Nations Shall it be too hard for an infinite Understanding to know every one of that Host that march under his Banners may he not as well know them as know the number qualities influences of those Stars which lie conceal'd from our Eye as well as those that are visible to our Sense Yes he knows them as a General to employ them as a Shepherd to preserve them He knows them in the World to guard them and he knows them when they are out of the World to gather them and cull out their Bodies though wrapped up in a Cloud of the putrified Carcases of the Wicked As he knew them from all Eternity to elect them so he knows them in time to cloth their Persons with Righteousness to protect their Persons in Calamity according to his good pleasure and at last to raise and reward them according to his Promise 4. We may take Comfort from hence That our sincerity cannot be unknown to an infinite Vnderstanding Not a way of the Righteous is conceal'd from him and therefore they shall stand in Judgment before him * Psal 1.6 The Lord knows the way of the Righteous He knows them to observe them and he knows them to Reward them How comfortable is it to appeal to this Attribute of God for our integrity with Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.3 Remember Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Christ himself is brought in in this Prophetical Psalm drawing out the Comfort of this Attribute Psal 40.9 I have not restrain'd my Lips Oh Lord thou knowest meaning his faithfulness in declaring the Righteousness of God Job follows the same steps Also now behold my Record is in Heaven and my Witness is on high * Job 16 1â— My Innocence hath the Testimony of Men but my greatest support is in the Records of God Also now or besides the Testimony of my own Heart I have another Witness in Heaven that knows the Heart and can only judge of the principles of my actions and clear me from the scorns of my Friends and the accusations of Men with a justification of my Innocence He repeats it twice to take the greater comfort in it God knows that we do that in the simplicity of our Hearts which may be judged by Men to be done for unworthy and sordid ends He knows not only the outward action but the inward affection and praises that which Men often dispraise and writes down that with an Euge Well done good and faithful Servant which Men daube with their severest Censures * Rom. 2.29 How refreshing is it to consider that God never mistakes the appearance for reality nor is lead by the judgment of Man He sits in Heaven and laughs at their follies and Censures If God had no sounder and no more piercing a Judgment than Man woe be to the sincerest Souls that are often judged Hypocrites by some What a happiness is it for Integrity to have a Judge of infinite Understanding who will one day wipe off the durt of Worldly Reproaches Again God knows the least dram of Grace and Righteousness in the Hearts of his People though but as a smoking Flax or the least bruise of a saving conviction * Mat. 12.20 and knows it so as to cherish it he knows that work he hath begun and never hath his Eye off from it to abandon it 5. The consideration of this excellent Perfection in God may comfort us in our secret Prayers sighs and works If God were not of infinite Understanding to pierce into the Heart what comfort hath a poor Creature that hath a scantiness of Expressions but a Heart in a flame If God did not understand the Heart Faith and Prayer which are internal works would be in vain How could he give that Mercy our Hearts plead for if he were ignorant of our inward Affections Hypocrites might scale Heaven by lofty Expressions and a Sincere Soul come short of the happiness he is prepared for for want of flourishing Gifts Prayer is an internal work words are but the Garment of Prayer Meditation is the Body and Affection the Soul and Life of Prayer Give Ear to my words Oh Lord consider my Meditation * Psal 5.1 Prayer is a Rational act an act of the mind not the act of a Parrot Prayer is an act of the Heart though the speaking Prayer is the work of the Tongue Now God gives Ear to the words but he considers the Meditation the frame of the Heart Consideration is a more exact notice than hearing the act only of the Ear. Were not God of an infinite Understanding and Omniscient he might take fine Clothes a heap of Garments for the Man himself and be put off by glittering words without a Spiritual Frame What matter of rejoycing is it that we call not upon a deaf and ignorant Idol but on one that listens to our secret Petitions to give them a dispatch that knows our desires afar off and from the infiniteness of his Mercy joyn'd with his Omniscience stands ready to give us a return Hath he not a Book of Remembrance for them that fear him and for their sighs and ejaculations to him as well as their discourses of him * Mal. 3.16 and not only what Prayers they utter but what gracious and holy thoughts they have of him That thought upon his Name Though millions of supplications be put up at the same time yet they have all a distinct File as I may say in an infinite Understanding which perceives and comprehends them all As he observes millions of Sins committed at the same time by a vast number of Persons to Record them in order to Punishment so he distinctly discerns an infinite number of Cries at the same moment to Register them in order to an Answer A sigh cannot scape an infinite Understanding though crowded among a mighty multitude of Cries from others or cover'd with many unwelcome distractions in our selves no more than a believing touch from the Woman that had the Bloudy Issue could be conceal'd from Christ and be undiscern'd from the press of
Body of Man should be polisht in the lower parts of the Earth as he calls the Womb verse 15. in so short a time with Members 〈◊〉 a various form and usefulness each labouring in their several functions Can any man give an exact account of the manner how the Bones do grow in the womb Eccles 11.5 'T is unknown to the Father and no less hid from the Mother and the wisest Men cannot search out the depths of it 'T is one of the Secret works of an Omnipotent Power secret in the manner though open in the effect So that we must ascribe it to God as Job doth Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about Job 10.8 Thy hands which formed Heaven have formed every Part every Member and wrought me like a Mighty workman The Heavens are said to be the work of Gods hands and Man is here said to be no less The forming and propagation of Man from that Earthy matter is no less a wonder of Power than the structure of the World from a rude and indispos'd Matter †Trismegist in Serm. Greek in the Temple p. 57. A Heathen Philosopher descants elegantly upon it Dost thou understand my Son the forming of Man in the womb who erected that noble Fabrick who carv'd the Eyes the Christal-windows of light and the conductors of the Body who bor'd the Nostrils and Ears those Loop-holes of scents and sounds who stretched out and knit the Sinews and Ligaments for the fastning of every Member who cast the hollow Veins the Channels of Blood set and strengthned the Bones the Pillars and Rafters of the Body who digg'd the Pores the sinks to expel the filth who made the Heart the repository of the Soul and formed the Lungs like a Pipe What Mother what Father wrought these things No none but the Almighty God who made all things according to his pleasure 't is He who propagates this Noble piece from a pile of Dust Who is born by his own advice who gives stature features sence wit strength speech but God 'T is no less a wonder that a little Infant can live so long in a dark Sink in the midst of filth without breathing And the eduction of it out of the Womb is no less a wonder than the forming increase nourishment of it in that Cell A wonder that the life of the Infant is not the death of the Mother or the life of the Mother the death of the Infant This little Creature when it springs up from such small beginnings by the Power of God grows up to bâ— one of the Lords of the World to have a Dominion over the Creatures and propagates its kind in the same manner All this is unaccountable without having recourse to the Power of God in the government of the Creatures And to add to this wonder Consider also what multitudes of Formations and Births there are at one time all over the World in every of which the Finger of God is at work and it will speak an unwearied Power 'T is admirable in one Man more in a Town of Men still more in a greater and larger Kingdom a vaster World there is a Birth for every Hour in this City were but 168 born in a Week though the Weekly Bills mention more What is this City to Three Kingdoms what Three Kingdoms to a populous World Eleven Thousand and eighty will make one for every Minute in the Week what is this to the Weekly propagation in all the Nations of the Universe besides the generation of all the Living Creatures in that Space which are the works of Gods fingers as well as Man What will be the result of this but the notion of an unconceivable unwearied Almightiness alway active alway operating 3. It appears in the Motions of all Creatures All things live and move in him Acts 17.28 by the same Power that Creatures have their Beings they have their Motions They have not only a Being by his powerful Command but they have their minutely Motion by his Powerful concurrence Nothing can act without the Almighty influx of God no more than it can exist without the Creative Word of God 'T is true indeed the ordering of all Motions to his Holy ends is an act of Wisdom but the motion it self whereby those Ends are attained is a work of his Power 1. God as the first Cause hath an influence into the motions of all second Causes As all the Wheels in a Clock are moved in their different motions by the force and strength of the principal and primary Wheel if there be any defect in that or if that stand still all the rest languish and stand idle the same moment All Creatures are his Instruments his Engines and have no Spirit but what he gives and what he assists Whatsoever Nature works God works in Nature Nature is the Instrument God is the Supporter Director Mover of Nature that what the Prophet saith in another case may be the language of universal Nature Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us Isai 26.12 They are our works subjectively efficiently as second causes Gods works originally concurrently The Sun moved not in the Valley of Ajalon for the space of many hours in the time of Joshua †Josh 10.13 nor did the Fire exercise its consuming quality upon the Three Children in Nebuchadnezzars Furnace ‖ Dan. 3.25 He withdrew not his supporting Power from th ir Being for then they had vanâ—shed but his influencing Power from their qualities whereby their motion ceas'd till he return'd his influential concurrence to them which evidenceth that without a perpetual derivation of Divine Power the Sun could not run one stride or inch of its race nor the Fire devour one grain of light Chaff or an inch of Straw Nothing without his sustaining Power can continue in Being nothing without his co-working Power can exercise one mite of those qualities it is possessed of All Creatures are wound up by him and his hand is constantly upon them to keep them in perpetual motion 2. Consider the variety of motions in a single Creature How many motions are there in the Vital parts of a Man or in any other Animal which a Man knows not and is unable to number The renewed motion of the Lungs the Systoles and Diastoles of the Heart the Contractions and Dilatations of the Heart whereby it spouts out and takes in Blood the power of Concoction in the Stomach the motion of the Blood in the Veins c. all which were not only setled by the Powerful hand of God but are upheld by the same preserv'd and influenc'd in every distinct motion by that Power that stampt them with that Nature To every one of those there is not only the sustaining Power of God holding up their Natures but the motive Power of God concurring to every motion for if we move in him as well as we live in him then every particle of our motion
at the Presence of the Council that had their hands yet reeking with the Blood of his Master but being filled with the Holy Ghost seems to dare the Power of the Priests and Jewish Governours and is as confident in the Council Chamber as he had been cowardly in the High Priests Hall †Acts 4.9 c. the efficacy of Grace triumphing over the Fearfulness of Nature Whence should this Ardor and Zeal to propagate a Doctrine that had already born the Scars of the Peoples Fury be but from a mighty Power which changed those Hares into Lions and stript them of their Natural Cowardize â—o cloath them with a Divine Courage making them in a moment both Wise and Magnanimous alienating them from any Consultations with Flesh and Blood As soon as ever the Holy Ghost came upon them as a mighty rushing Wind they move up and down for the Interest of God as Fish after a great Clap of Thunder are rowz'd and move more nimbly on the top of the Water therefore that which did so fit them for this undertaking is called by the title of Power from on high Luke 24.49 III. The Divine Power appears in the Means whereby it was propagated 1. By Means different from the Methods of the World Not by force of Arms as some Religions have taken root in the World Mahomets Horse hath trampled upon the Heads of Men to imprint an Alcoran in their Brains and robb'd Men of their Goods to plant their Religion But the Apostles bore not this Doctrine through the World upon the Points of their Swords they presented a Bodily death where they would bestow an Immortal life They employ'd not Troops of Men in a Warlike posture which had been possible for them after the Gospel was once spread they had no Ambition to subdue Men unto themselves but to God they coveted not the Possessions of others design'd not to enrich themselves invaded not the Rights of Princes nor the Liberties and Properties of the People They rifled them not of their Estates nor scar'd them into this Religion by a fear of losing their Worldly happiness The Arguments they used would naturally drive them from an entertainment of this Doctrine rather than allure them to be Proselytes to it Their design was to change their Hearts not their Government to wean them from the love of the World to a love of a Redeemer to remove that which would ruine their Souls It was not to enslave them but ransom them they had a warfare but not with Carnal weapons but such as were mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 they used no weapons but the Doctrine they preach'd Others that have not gained Conquests by the Edge of the Sword and the Stratagems of War have extended their Opinions to others by the strength of Humane Reason and the Insinuations of Eloquence But the Apostles had as little flourish in their Tongues as edge upon their Swords Their Preaching was not with the enticing words of Mans wisdom * 1 Cor. 2.4 their Presence was mean and their Discourses without varnish their Doctrine was plain a Crucified Christ a Doctrine unlac'd ungarnisht untoothsom to the World but they had the demonstration of the Spirit and a mighty Power for their Companion in the work The Doctrine they preached viz. the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are called the Powers not of this World but of the World to come †Heb. 6.5 No less than a Supernatural Power could conduct them in this Attempt with such weak Methods in Humane appearance 2. Against all the Force Power and Wit of the World The Divisions in the Eastern Empire and the feeble and consuming State of the Western contributed to Mahomets Success ‖ Dailâ—é 15. Serm. p. 57. But never was Rome in a more flourishing condition Learning Eloquence Wisdom Strength were at the highest pitch Never was there a more diligent Watch against any Innovations never was that State governed by more severe and suspicious Princes than at the time when Tiberius and Nero held the Rains No time seemed to be more unfit for the entrance of a New Doctrine than that Age wherein it begun to be first publish'd never did any Religion meet with that Opposition from Men. Idolatry hath been often setled without any Contest but this hath suffered the same Fate with the Institutor of it and endured the Contradictions of Sinners against it self And those that publish'd it were not only without any Worldly prop but expos'd themselves to the Hatred and Fury to the Racks and Tortures of the strongest Powers on Earth It never set foot in any place but the Country was in an uproar †Acts 19.28 Swords were drawn to destroy it Laws made to suppress it Prisons provided for the Professors of it Fires kindled to consume them and Executioners had a perpetual employment to stifle the progress of it Rome in its Conquest of Countries chang'd not the Religion Rites and Modes of their Worship They alter'd their Civil Government but left them to the liberty of their Religion and many times joyned with them in the Worship of their Peculiar gods and sometime imitated them at Rome instead of abolishing them in the Cities they had subdued But all their Councils were assembled and their Force was bandied against the Lord and against his Christ and that City that kindly receiv'd all manner of Superstitions hated this Doctrine with an irreconcileable hatred It met with Reproaches from the Wise and Fury from the Potentates it was derided by the one as the greatest Folly and persecuted by the other as contrary to God and Mankind the one were afraid to lose their Esteems by the Doctrine and the other to lose their Authority by a Sedition they thought a change of Religion would introduce The Romans that had been Conquerors of the Earth feared Intestine Commotions and the falling asunder the Links of their Empire Scarce any of their first Emperors but had their Swords dy'd Red in the Blood of the Christians The Flesh with all its Lusts the World with all its Flatteries the Statesmen with all their Craft and the Mighty with all their Strength joyn'd together to extirpate it Though many Members were taken off by the Fires yet the Church not only lived but flourish'd in the Furnace Converts were made by the Death of Martyrs and the Flames which consumed their Bodies were the occasion of firing Mens hearts with a Zeal for the Profession of it Instead of being extinguish'd the Doctrine shone more bright and multiplied under the Sickles that were employed to cut it down God ordered every Circumstance so both in the Persons that publish'd it the Means whereby and the Time when that nothing but his Power might appear in it without any thing to dim and darken it IV. The Divine Power was conspicuous in the great success it had under all these difficulties Multitudes were Prophecied of to
embrace it whence the Prophet Isaiah after the Prophecy of the Death of Christ Isai 53. calls upon the Church to enlarge her Tents and lengthen out her Cords to receive those Multitudes of Children that should call her Mother Isai 54.2 3. for she should break forth on the right hand and on the left and her seed should inherit the Gentiles The Idolaters and Persecutors should list their Names in the Muster-Roll of the Church Presently after the Descent of the Holy Ghost from Heaven upon the Apostles you find the hearts of Three thousand melted by a plain declaration of this Doctrine who were a little before so far from having a Favourable thought of it that some of them at least if not all had exprest their Rage against it in Voting for the Condemning and Crucifying the Author of it †Acts 2.41 42. But in a moment they were so altered that they breath out Affections instead of Fury neither the respect they had to their Rulers nor the honour they bore to their Priests not the derisions of the People nor the threatning of Punishment could stop them from owning it in the face of multitudes of Discouragements How wonderful is it that they should so soon and by such small Means pay a reverence to the Servants who had none for the Master that they should hear them with patience without the same Clamor against them as against Christ Crucifie them Crucifie them But that their hearts should so suddenly be enflam'd with Devotion to him dead whom they so much abhorred when living It had gained footing not in a Corner of the World but in the most famous Cities in Jerusalem where Christ had been Crucified in Antioch where the Name of Christians first began in Corinth a place of Ingenious Arts and Ephesus the Seat of a noted Idol In less than Twenty years there was never a Province of the Roman Empire and scarce any part of the known World but was stor'd with the Professors of it Rome that was the Metropolis of the Idolatrous World had multitudes of them sprinkled in every Corner whose Faith was spoken of throughout the World * Rom. 1.8 The Court of Nero that Monster of Mankind and the cruellest and sordid'st Tyrant that ever breathed was not empty of sincere Votaries to it there were Saints in Caesars house while Paul was under Nero's Chain ‖ Phil. 4. And it maintain'd its standing and flourish'd in spite of all the force of Hell 250 years before any Soveraign Prince espoused it The Potentates of the Earth had conquer'd the Lands of Men and subdued their Bodies these vanquisht Hearts and Wills and brought the most beloved Thoughts under the Yoke of Christ So much did this Doctrine overmaster the Consciences of its Followers that they rejoyced more at their Yoke than others at their Liberty and counted it more a glory to die for the honour of it than to live in the profession of it Thus did our Saviour Reign and gather Subjects in the midst of his Enemies in which respect in the first discovery of the Gospel he is describ'd as a Mighty Conqueror Revel 6.2 and still conquering in the greatness of his strength How great a Testimony of his Power is it that from so small a Cloud should rise so glorious a Sun that should chase before it the Darkness and Power of Hell Triumph over the Idolatry Superstition and Prophaness of the World This plain Doctrine vanquisht the Obstinacy of the Jews baffled the Understanding of the Greeks humbled the Pride of the Grandees threw the Devil not only out of Bodies but Hearts tore up the foundation of his Empire and planted the Cross where the Devil had for many Ages before established his Standard How much more than a humane Force is illustrious in this whole Conduct Nothing in any Age of the World can parallel it it being so much against the Methods of Nature the Disposition of the World and considering the Resistance against it seems to surmount even the Work of Creation Never were there in any Profession such multitudes not of Bedlams but Men of Sobriety Acuteness and Wisdom that expos'd themselves to the fury of the Flames and challenged Death in the most terrifying shapes for the Honour of this Doctrine To conclude This should be often meditated upon to form our Understandings to a full assent to the Gospel and the Truth of it the want of which Consideration of Power and the Customariness of an Education in the outward Profession of it is the ground of all the Prophaneness under it and Apostacy from it the disesteem of the Truth it declares and the neglect of the Duties it enjoyns The more we have a prospect and sense of the Impressions of Divine Power in it the more we shall have a Reverence of the Divine Precepts III. The Third thing is The Power of God appears in the application of Redemption as well as in the Person Redeeming and the publication and propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption 1. In the planting Grace 2. In the Pardon of Sin 3. In the preserving Grace 1. In the planting Grace There is no Expression which the Spirit of God hath thought fit in Scripture to resemble this Work to but argues the exerting of a Divine Power for the effecting of it When it is exprest by Light it is as much as the Power of God in creating the Sun when by Regeneration 't is as much as the Power of God in forming an Infant and fashioning all the Parts of a Man when it is called Resurrection 't is as much as the rearing of the Body again out of putrified Matter when it is called Creation 't is as much as erecting a comly World out of meer Nothing or an inform and uncomly Mass As we could not contrive the Death of Christ for our Redemption so we cannot form our Souls to the Acceptation of it the Infinite efficacy of Grace is as necessary for the one as the Infinite Wisdom of God was for laying the Platform of the other 'T is by his Power we have whatsoever pertains to Godliness as well as Life * 2 Pet. 1.3 He puts his Fingers upon the handle of the Lock and turns the Heart to what Point he pleases the Action whereby he performs this is exprest by a word of Force †Colos 1.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath snatcht us from the power of Darkness the Action whereby it is perform'd manifests it In reference to this Power it is called Creation which is a production from Nothing and Conversion is a production from something more uncapable of that state than meer Nothing is of Being There is a greater distance between the Terms of Sin and Righteousness Corruption and Grace than between the Terms of Nothing and Being The greater the distance is the more Power is requir'd to the producing any thing As in Miracles the Miracle is the greater where the Change is the greater
together be too hard for his Invincible Power and Strength the uniting all those parts into a Body with new dispositions to receive their several Souls be too big and bulky for that Power which never yet was acquainted with any bar Was not the Miracle of our Saviours multiplying the Loaves suppose it had not been by a new Creation but a collection of Grain from several parts very near as stupendous as this Had any one of us been the only Creatures made just before the matter of the World and beheld that inform Chaos covered with a thick darkness mentioned Gen. 1.2 would not the Report that from this dark deep next to nothing should be rais'd such a multitude of comely Creatures with such innumerable varieties of Members Voices Colours Motions and such Numbers of shining Stars a bright Sun one uniform Body of Light from this Darkness that should like a Giant rejoyce to run a race for many thousands of years together without stop or weariness Would not all these have seemed as incredible as the Collection of scattered Dust What was it that erected the innumerable Host of Heaven the glorious Angels and glittering Stars for ought we know more numerous than the Bodies of Men but an act of the Divine Will and shall the Power that wrought this sink under the Charge of gathering some dispers'd Atoms and compacting them into a Human Body †Lingend Tom. 3. p. 779 780. Can you tell how the Dust of the ground was kneaded by God into the Body of Man and changed into Flesh Skin Hair Bones Sinews Veins Arteries and Blood and fitted for so many several Activities when a Human Soul was breath'd into it Can you imagine how a Rib taken from Adam's side a lifeless Bone was formed into Head Hands Feet Eyes Why may not the matter of men which have been be restor'd as well as that which was not be first erected Is it harder to repair those things which were than to create those things which were not Is there not the same Artificer Hath any Disease or Sickliness abated his Power Is the Ancient of days grown feeble or shall the Elements and other Creatures that alway yet obeyed his Command russle against his raising Voice and refuse to disgorge those remains of Human Bodies they have swallowed up in their several Bowels Did the whole World and all the parts of it rise at his word and shall not some parts of the World the Dust of the dead stand up out of the Graves at a word of the same mighty Efficacy Do we not annually see those Marks of Power which may stun our Incredulity in this Concern Do you see in a small Acorn or little Seed any such sights as a Tree with Body Bark Branches Leaves Flowers Fruit where can you find them Do you know the invisible Corners where they lurk in that little Body And yet these you afterwards view rising up from this little Body when sown in the Ground that you could not possibly have any prospect of when you rould it in your hand or opened its Bowels And why may not all the particulars of our Bodies however dispos'd as to their distinct Natures invisibly to us remain distinct as well as if you mingle a thousand Seeds together they will come up in their distinct kinds and preserve their distinct Vertues Again Is not the Making Heaven and Earth the Union of the Divine and Human Nature Eternity and Infirmity to make a Virgin conceive a Son bear the Creator and bring forth the Redeemer to form the Blood of God of the Flesh of a Virgin a greater Work than the Calling together and Uniting the scattered parts of our Bodies which are all of one Nature and Matter And since the Power of God is manifested in pardoning innumerable sins is not the scattering our Transgressions as far as the East is from the West as the expression is Psal 103.12 and casting such numbers into the Depths of the Sea which is Gods Power over himself a greater Argument of Might than the recalling and repairing the Atoms of our Bodies from their various receptacles 'T is not hard for them to believe this of the Resurrection that have been sensible of the weight and force of their Sins and the Power of God in pardoning and vanquishing that mighty resistance which was made in their Hearts against the power of his renewing and sanctifying Grace The consideration of the Infinite Power of God is a good ground of the belief of the Resurrection 8. Since the Power of God is so great and Incomprehensible How strange is it that it should be contemned and abused by the Creatures as it is The Power of God is beaten down by some outraged by others blasphemed by many under their Sufferings The stripping God of the honour of his Creation and the glory of his Preservation of the World falls under this charge Thus do they that deny his framing the World alone or thought the first matter was not of Gods creation and such as fancied an Evil Principle the Author of all Evil as God is the Author of all good and so exempt from the Power of God that it could not be vanquisht by him These things have formerly sound Defenders in the World but they are in themselves ridiculous and vain and have no sooting in common Reason and are not worthy of debate in a Christian Auditory In General All Idolatry in the World did arise from the want of a due Notion of this Infinite Power The Heathen thought one God was was not sufficient for the managing all things in the World and therefore they feign'd several gods that had several charges As Ceres presided over the Fruits of the Earth Esculapius over the Cure of Distempers Mercury for Merchandize and Trade Mars for War and Battles Apollo and Minerva for Learning and Ingenious Arts and Fortune for Casual things Whence doth the other sort of Idolatry the adoring our Bags and Gold our dependencies on and trusting in Creatures for help arise but from Ignorance of God's Power or mean and slender Apprehensions of it First There is a Contempt of it Secondly An Abuse of it 1. 'T is contemn'd in every sin especially in obstinacy in Sin All Sin whatsoever is built upon some false Notion or monstrous Conception of one or other of Gods Perfections and in particular of this It includes a secret and lurking Imagination that we are able to grapple with Omnipotence and enter the lists with Almightiness what else can be judged of the Apostles expression 1 Cor. 10.22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he Do we think we have an Arm too powerful for that Justice we provoke and can repel that Vengeance we exasperate Do we think we are an even match for God and are able to despoil him of his Divinity To despise his Will violate his Order practise what he forbids with a severe Threatning and pawns his Power
them and the Provisions that were made for them Divine Bounty was the Motive to Erect Altars and present Sacrifices though they mistook the Object of their Worship and offer'd the dues of the Creator to the Instruments whereby he conveyed his Benefits to them And you find that the Religion instituted by him among the Jews was enforc'd upon them by the consideration of their miraculous deliverance from Egypt the preservation of them in the Wilderness and the infeoffing them in a Land flowing with Milk and Honey Every act of bounty and success the Heathens received moved them to appoint new Feasts and repeat their adorations of those Deities they thought the Authors and Promoters of their Victories and Welfare The Devil did not mistake the common Sentiment of the World in Divine Service when he alledg'd to God that Job did not fear him for nought i. e. worship him for nothing * Job 1.9 All acts of Devotion take their rise from Gods liberality either from what they have or from what they hope Praise speaks the Possession and Prayer the Expectation of some Benefit from his Hand Though some of the Heathens made fear to be the prime Cause of the acknowledgment and worship of a Deity yet surely something else besides and beyond this Establisht so great a thing as Religion in the World an ingenuous Religion could never have been born into the World without a Notion of Goodness and would have gaspt its last as soon as this Notion should have expir'd in the minds of Men. What encouragement can fear of Power give without sense of Goodness just as much as Thunder hath to invite a Man to the place where it is like to fall and crush him The nature of fear is to drive from and the nature of goodness to allure to the Object The Divine Thunders Prodigies and other Armies of his Justice in the World which are the Marks of his Power could conclude in nothing but a slavish Worship Fear alone would have made Men blaspheme the Deity instead of serving him they would have fretted against him they might have offer'd him a trembling Worship but they could never have in their minds thought him worthy of an Adoration they would rather have secretly complain'd of him and cursed him in their heart than inwardly have admir'd him The issue would have been the same which Job's Wife advis'd him to when God withdrew his Protection from his Goods and Body Curse God and die * Job 2.9 'T is certainly the common sentiment of Men that he that acts Cruelly and Tyrannically is not worthy of an integrity to be retain'd towards him in the hearts of his Subjects But Job fortifies himself against this Temptation from his Bosom Friend by the consideration of the good he had received from God which did more deserve a worship from him than the present evil had reason to discourage it Alass what is only fear'd is hated not ador'd Would any seek to an irreconcilable Enemy Would any person affectionately list himself in the service of a Man void of all good disposition Would any distressed person put up a Petition to that Prince who never gave any experiment of the sweetness of his Nature but always satiated himself with the Blood of the meanest Criminals All affection to service is rooted up when hopes of receiving good are extinguisht There could not be a spark of that in the World which is properly call'd Religion without a Notion of Goodness The Existence of God is the first Pillar and the Goodness of God in rewarding the next upon which coming to him which includes all acts of Devotion is established * Heb. 11.6 He that comes unto God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him If either of those Pillars be not thought to stand firm all Religion falls to the ground 'T is this as the most agreeable Motive that the Apostle James uses to encourage Mens approach to God because he gives liberally and upbraideth not * James 1.5 A Man of a kind heart and bountiful hand shall have his gate throng'd with suppliants who sometimes would be willing to lay down their lives For a good Man one would even dare to die when one of a niggardly or tyrannical temper shall be destitute of all free and affectionate applications What Eyes would be lifted up to Heaven What hands stretched out if there were not a knowledge of goodness there to enliven their hopes of speeding in their Petitions Therefore Christ orders our Prayers to be directed to God as a Father which is a Title of tenderness as well as a Father in Heaven a Mark of his greatness The one to support our confidence as well as the other to preserve our distance God could not be ingenuously ador'd and acknowledged if he were not liberal as well as powerful The Goodness of God is the foundation of all ingenuous Religion Devotion and Worship 6. The sixth Instruction The Goodness of God renders God amiable His Goodness renders him beautiful and his Beauty renders him lovely both are linkt together * Zach. 9.17 How great is his Goodness And how great is his Beauty This is the most powerful Attractive and masters the affections of the Soul 'T is goodness only supposed or real that is thought worthy to demerit our affections to any thing If there be not a reality of this or at least an opinion and estimation of it in an Object it would want a force and vigor to allure our Will This Perfection of God is the Loadstone to draw us and the Center for our Spirits to rest in 1. This renders God amiable to himself His Goodness is his Godhead * Rom. 1.20 By his Godhead is meant his Goodness If he loves his Godhead for it self he loves his Goodness for it self He would not be good if he did not love himself And if there were any thing more Excellent and had a greater goodness than himself he would not be good if he did not love that greater Goodness above himself For not only a hatred of goodness is evil but an indifferent or cold affection to goodness hath a tincture of evil in it If God were not good and yet should love himself in the highest manner he would be the greatest Evil and do the greatest evil in that act for he would set his love upon that which is not the proper Object of such an affection but the Object of a version His own Infinite Excellency and Goodness of his Nature renders him lovely and delightful to himself without this he could not love himself in a commendable and worthy way and becoming the purity of a Deity and he cannot but love himself for this For as Creatures by not loving him as the Supream Good deny him to be the choicest good so God would deny himself and his own goodness if he did not love himself and that for his