to Gods blessing and thy favour And if thou wilt needs have low thoughts of it or of the Author know that thou comest too late to be the first in order of that sort of men among whom is first and chiefest already Tho. Larkham The Contents of the First Part the chiefe Points handled therein The first ATTRIBUTE The Life of God THat the Attributes of God are either communicable or incommunicable and the Authors intent to speak only of the first page 1. Of communicable attributes something analogical is found in the creature ibid The essence of God made out by them from effects and workings ibid These attributes are not in God accidents c. ibid. Way made to the text taken out of Heb. 3.12 page 2 That an evill heart of unbelief is the fountain of all evill ibid. That faith is a divine grace that doth submit to the command of believing and doth give glory to God page 3. That a heart possest with unbeleif is an evill heart and causeth men to depart from the living God ibid. That all creatures are present with God and in what sence unbelievers depart from God ibid. There are two sorts of performances and three sorts of positive duties 4. Not to come to Christ is to depart from Christ ibid. That God is a living God and in what respect 4.5 There are three sorts of quick or living creatures ibid. That the reasonable soul doth live out of the body 7. What an Angel is ibid. What life is in God and what is understood in him thereby 8. That no words are full enough to set out the nature of God 9. Things or Properties about and of the life of God 1 Life not attributed to God and creatures univocally but analogically 2 God hath life compleate nothing is wanting to his life 3 He hath life of himselfe yea the very nature of life not onely the life of operation which creatures also have 4 No end propounded to God by another in his life 5 Every thing understood is life in God 6 Gods life infinitely transcends the life of creatures 7 Gods life is best to be known by negation 9 10 11. Uses of this doctrine of the life of God 13. Use 1. That he is worth the comming unto and keeping ib. It is here shewed what it is to draw near unto and remain with the living God 14. Use 2. That life is of pretious account with God and that it is a great sin to abuse it 15. That such abuse life as 1. Neglect to save it in regard of themselves or others 2. Such as destroy life in regard of themselves or others ibid. That men are negligent of their own life by 1. Carelessenesse to avoid dangers 2. Idlenesse and lazinesse 3. Coveteousnesse of the life of others both Corporal and Spiritual p. 16. That life is destroyed 1. By violent rushing upon dangers 2. By immoderate eating and drinking and surfetting 3. By satisfying libidinous desires 4. By wicked practices casting them into the hand of the Magistrate 5. By an unquiet restlesse spirit 6. From a principle of Idolatry or Superstition 7. By active malice 8. By over earnestnesse to avoid troubles 9. Upon disapointment of hope by grief p. 17 18 19 20. That men abuse life not onely in regard of their bodys and temporal enjoyments but in regard of their soules p. 21. That they are to be reproved that abuse the lives of others both of their bodies and souâ—◠〈…〉 this is done ibid. Vse 3. That it is a worthy thing 〈…〉 life ibid. Vse 4. To be carefull of life our owne others of the body of the soule Pag. 22. Three Motives to move hereunto Page 22. 23. The second proposition that life is a communicable Attribute and diverse Uses made of it 1. That men be thankfull and live to the glory of God p. 24. 2. Not to vex our selves with carking and caring 3. To take notice of this benefit and improve it and here are three Motives 1. It is just 2. It is necessary 3. It is profitable p. 25 26. Three wayes life improved to Gods glory 1. By shunning sin and sinfull wayes ib. 2. By setting our selves to the works of holines and righteousnesse 27 3. To provoke others to good works ibid. The third Proposition that God in this attribute of life is infinite and incomprehensible ibid. Reasons 1. His life is independent 2. It is his whole essence 3. In respect hereof he is eternal 28. Vse 1. No want in God 2. God can give life both Temporal Eternal 3. Admire Gods excellency in this Attribute of To be humble lively in service and to relie upon him p. 29 The Second Attribute Is the Perfection or natural Goodness of God THat Goodnesse is either created or increated page 30. That in God it signifies Natural goodnesse Moral goodnesse and beneficence or bounty ibid. That the Text Exod. 33.19 is meant of Gods natural goodnes 31 The dependency and interpretation of the words 32. That goodnesse as it signifies perfection is an attribute of God 33. That this Attribute comprehends all other attributes c. ibid. Two arguments used to demonstrate this attribute of God 34. Foure Reasons out of Dyonisius c. ibid. Vse 1. That God is the Author of all perfection 35. Every Creature is good By Creation By Ordination 36 The nature of sin lyeth not in the action but in the manner 37 God is the Creator and Ordainer of every action whether it be good or evill ibid. Vse 2. This truth is to be treasured up admirable effects will follow 38 He that sees Gods perfections must need run to him ibid. Vse 3. Wo to such as seek not to this perfection for happines ib. Vse 4. Learn to build handsomely upon this ground 39 That this attribute is communicable 41 That perfection in a strict sence is that to which nothing can be added 42 Vse 1. That all things in the world are good 43 Vse 2. Let none finde fault with the works of God ibid. Vse 3. Go to God for all goodnesse and perfection 44. That God is Infinite and incomprehensible in goodnes 45 Vse 1. Take heed how ye meddle with this perfect God ibid. Vse 2. None hath done any thing for the Lord but by himself 46 Vse 3. See the folly of such as seek happines from creatures ibidem Vse 4. Comfort to such as have made perfection their portion 47. The Third Attribute The Holinesse of God THat a thing is said to be holy when it is separated from common use to the service of God Page 48. That Secondly holines signifies puritie 49. None properly can be said to be holy in this life 50. He is holy whose affections and manners agree to Gods eternall Law 51. That in both the acceptations of the word holy holines is a good ground of worshiping God 52. Three propositions spoken of touching this Attribute ibid. 1. That holines is an Attribute of God ibid. That as wise actions
quite spoild p. 132. l. 30. Perazin marg habet p. 144. l. 28. intuitive p. 147. l. 9. dependency p. 151. l. 18. one would p. 152.23 unworthy OF THE LIFE OF GOD Heb 3.12 Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbeliefe in departing from the living God IT hath pleased God in whose hands is our breath The first communicable attribute of God and life and all our wayes to put it into my mind to spend this Evening houre in giving out some glimpses of his hidden self as he shall be pleased to enable me Attributa dividuntur in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scharpius curâ—â— Theol 185 This peece of the Lords day therefore is destinated to a discourse of the Attributes of God which are either incommunicable or communicable My purpose is not at least not yet to meddle with the incommunicable Attributes of God but only with those that are communicable to the Creature I shall premise some General things First that these communicable Attributes are such as of which something anological is to be found in Creatures I do not mean that those Attributes of God are themselves communicated to other things but that the like effects are beheld in Creatures 2ly That these Attributes called communicable do make out unto us the Divine Essence from effects workings of God 3ly Essentiam divinam a posteriorâ— That all these following Attributes are to be accounted as the highest incommunicable Attributes are to be true of God most simply infinitely eternally incomprehensibly and immutably And not as in Creatures accidents diverse finite Ad nostrum tautum captum Deus haec nomina diversa sibi â—ribuit imperfect and mutable God is one most simple and infinite Essence The first that I shall speak of is of the Attribute of life which seems to be the first in order This is communicated to the sons of Men with other creatures not only the knowledg thereof and of the other Attributes communicable for so the incommunicable ones also are imparted to the sons of Men to be known and considered by them But the being of them at least analogically as hath been already shewed But that I may not preach without a Text let us make way to the words read unto you and so find out as God shall be pleased to assist the mind of the Spirit in them and so come to that one word in which this first attribute of life is held forth Know therefore that the Author of this profound Epistle having set before the eyes of these Hebrews or Jews to whom he writes the obstinacy of their Fathers doth now make application of it to them that were now alive in this Verse read unto you Which I may call a prohibitive proposition or dehortation or conclusion of the Argument formerly handled As if he should say your Fathers hardned their hearts of old and provoked God to their own destruction take heed therefore that ye do not do so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to your destruction also The word take heed or see or beware is often used in Scripture as Ephes 5.15 See then that ye walk circumspectly Collos 2.8 Beware lest any man spoile you through Philosophie Though the word do hold forth an act of the eye which is in the head yet the Apostle means the circumspection of the heart The thing or matter which he would have them take heed of is an evil heart of unbeliefe An evill heart of unbeleefe the fountaine of all evill which is indeed the fountain of all evil And then the heart is said to be evil when it hath in it unbelief unbelief in the heart makes the heart to be an evil heart What 's the reason men refuse to hear Gods Word to obey his will and in stead thereof malitiously oppose him Is is it not because they do not believe him Do not men I meane wicked men make God a lyar in all that he saith Let God say what he will whether by promises or threats yet they shew that they do not beleeve any thing of it they esteeme it as the song of fools And among all the Truths which the Spirit holds forth what is so sweet as this that God sent his Son into the world to save Mankind And now then what is the reason men be not saved by him more I mean then be because they do not beleeve the testimony that God gave of his Son At your leisure you may read 1 John 5 10 11 12 verses There ye may see life and salvation is to be had by Christ and indeed no other way and men have it not because they receive not the offer He that beleeveth and is Baptized shall be saved Now if men would beleeve they should be saved So that Faith is that divine Grace that doth submit to the command of Beleeving What Faith is and doth give glory to God As the Virgin Mary did when she was told she should have a Child she submitteed to it Luke 1.38 And Mary said behold the Handmaide of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word So saith God I did send my Son to dye for you and he hath been crucified for you and I am well-pleased with his all-sufficient sacrifice for you Why do ye not make application of it to your own souls surely it is an evil heart of unbeleefe which is the mother of all mischief and wickedness And here by the way ye see that a heart possest with unbeleef is an evil heart and this is that that causeth us to depart from the living God and therefore the Author of this Epistle doth earnestly warn these Hebrews to fly from unbeleefe But how can it be said that unbeleevers depart from the living God seeing they were ever from God a far off strangers Quest and aliens to the Common-wealth of Israel is it not as if I should say such a man departed from the Town who was never in it For answer hereunto I say first that all Creatures Answ as creatures are present with God For without him they cannot subsist in him they live and moove and have their being In quo etiam omnia qua non vivunt vita suâ—t Lessiac Even all things are life in him that have no life in themselves And secondly because in this sence no man can depart from the living God you must know that every man by nature is bound to serve God and to praise God and to give credit to what God saith Moral duties lye upon all men and the breach of Gods Law is sin And the Lord will pour out his vengeance upon the Nations that have not known him and upon the Families that have not called on his name And so to neglect or omit what God requires is to depart from God to depart from a command of God is to depart from God performances of two sortâ— There are two
Sublimity for he Reigneth with the highest and most absolute power Also he is great in regard of profundity because he ruleth not only bodies but hearts and ordereth the most inward thoughts and affections of all neither is there any thing so hidden or secret which the rod of his Kingdom and greatness doth not penetrate We may then understand somewhat by this word GREAT of God but must stop our mouths with the close of the Verse Psal 135.3 His greatness is unsearchable or of his greatness there is no search 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrew word doth properly signifie finding out or searching after The Septuagint there is no end of his greatness and so the vulgar latine For therefore is no finding out of the greatness of God because the end thereof neither is nor can be found for in deed it is not there is no end of his greatness And therefore in all predications wherein GOD is the subject we must know that their force is in negation and exclusion As when we say God is a Spirit we mean he is not a body when we say he is a spiritual substance we mean he is not a corporeal substance When we say he is he is a substance we mean he is not an accident For properly a substance God cannot be according to the nature of that Lative word for a substance is that that doth stand under accidents and bear them up which asserted of the essence of God is blasphemy Yet is that word substance often attributed to God but by it we mean essence according to the greek word Ousia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence or being but in God properly there is neither substance nor accident Objection But this may seem to deny God to be a living God properly and indeed to aver God to be properly neither just nor merciful nor any thing which he is said to be in scripture Solution For clearing up whereof yee must know that God is most properly Life And he is every thing that he is without a Metaphor for he is all that he is of himself He is truly all that the Scripture teacheth and the Saints conceive him to be but not in that manner or measure as men or Angels conceive of him He is all that we think him to be in our minds according to scipture Attributes and infinitely more As now to speak of this Attribute Life as life is considered in the Creature it is a principle of operation but in God all Attributes are his essence and so is his life Remember what I have said and so I shal come out of these briars that we have not words to set out God by and if there were such a language found out it would be worse then greek to us we should not have the capacity to learn it therfore with all humility let us blesse God for those discoveries of himself he hath been pleased to make and for making our ears blessed to hear and our eyes to see so much of God as we do I have but one question to answer and it is upon occasion of my close of the former discourse If it be so Question that God is so hidden that he is so above our reach that such clouds and darkness are round about him that he dwelleth in such eye-dazling unapproachable light why then may some say do you spend so many words about such a subject To whom I answer that if we can catch but one jot of what hath been said and make it our own why then Answ we are made forever if but the lest glimmerings of the living God be afforded to you as your God in Christ and yee are all resolved with David That it is good for you to draw near to him and so yee purpose to do and never to depart from him why then I say let men Ps 73 28 and Devils rage and do what they can yee are alive in God not only as Creatures but as new Creatures yee shal be carried as upon eagles wings yee shal lye in the bosome of Life Your life is hid with Christ in God Collos 3 ◠Wonder not then that I have been so forward to expose my self to censure and to speak of things that are not easily understood in any measure Difficilia quae pulchra There is beauty in these difficulties and something I hope wil stick All wil not I hope run over the narrow-mouth'd bottle O draw neer to this living God Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God They that do so forsake their own mercies Study this Attribute of God spend some time with prayer about it and so much for the Explication as I have been able Come we to the Application First Vses of this Doctrine The first Vse then he is worth the coming unto by those that are yet afar off and worth the keeping and holding fast by such as have him Draw neer to God therefore O yee sinners that are far from him For loe they that are far from thee shal perish saith the Psalmist Psal 73.27 O cast not the law of this living God behind your backs any longer Make not your wil your humors your lusts your Law any more Refuse not the Lord Jesus the Son of the Living God any longer lest he be angry and yee perish in the way Reject not the Ordinances of Life content not your selves with them as dead Ordinances let them be to you the Ordinances of a living God Take heed of a dead faith as all faith is without works Jam 2.17 take heed of worshipping a dead God Such as pretend to believe in God and in works deny him do in effect take away his life their faith is dead their works are dead they have not a lively hope they Worship a dead God Every bodies God is no bodies God A Traditional God every bodies God and that is no bodies God Come to Christ that yee may have God who is life And yee Saints that have him hold him fast and chuse rather to dye a thousand deaths then to forsake the living God Be circumspect take heed saith my Text we are in danger on every side watch over your hearts take heed of an evil heart that is the cause of departing from God If we have good hearts we shal never go away from God it is impossible And then in the next place mark the words that I have read in my Text an evil heart of unbelief What is that makes the heart evil Unbelief this is the cause peoples hearts be evil because they want Faith And if that be a truth that faith which comes by the hearing of the Word is increased daily by it as also by the administration of the Sacraments and prayer Then take heed of throwing away of gospel-Ordinances in these ranting times Perkins 2d principle They that depart from Ordinances depart from God For this
sorts of performances there are some which every man stands bound to perform as he is a creature and some which men stand bound to perform by positive commands Three sorts of positive duties whether the duties be moral or positive and of those that be positive whether they be ceremonial or Judicial or evangelical to whom the command comes from them is obedience due to the great and Soveraign Law-giver and not to perform it is to depart from God that is to disown God to run away from his service to say in effect we wil not be under his command They that do not cal upon God depart from God that is Not to come Christ is to depart from Christ they depart from his commands such as professing themselves to be christians and living under invitations to come to Christ do not come to him to have life by him they do depart from him in scripture phrase and all this cometh from a heart of unbeliefe O this trampling under-foot the blood of Christ is a very great sin Beloved ye do here professe your selves to be Christians what do ye make here else to day Now if ye believe not God and his word to walk answerable what do yee else but depart from the living God ye depart from this invitation to take his Son from his Commandement to beleeve to kisse the Son from his holy injunctions for which if ye repent not God wil most certainly damn you for ye are both Creatures and in name Christians and therefore take heed lest there be in any of you a heart of unbeliefe to depart from the Living God I have dispatched the manner and matter of the Exhortation I now am to speak of the description of God by the Attribute of Life God in my Text ye see called the living God In each Attribute that I shal speak of I purpose to do these three things first to shew you that such an Attribute as here Life which is the first to be spoken of is an Attribute of God secondly that it is communicable to Man-kind Reasons of the attribute of Life thirdly that God in each of them and in this of Life is infinite and incomprehensible Know then that God which all must take heed they do not depart from is a Living God for the proof of it read Dan 6 29. 1 Thes ◠9 Heb 9.14 in al which places he is called the living God God is called the living God for divers reasons First because he liveth of himself and that everlastingly Ps 102.64 Thy years are through all generations and ver 27. but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end God alwayes hath been and wil be for ever Never was there nor never wil there be the least point of time in which it might or shal be said God is not the living God Secondly every creature hath his life from God he is the creator of Life unto us all and all living things Act 17.28 In him we live moove and have our being He is the fountain and original of all Life Get ye up as high as ye can and suppose the world were ten thousand times older then it is yet at last there must be a stop Luke in his third Chapter carrieth along the Generation of Jesus Christ as far as ever he could possibly even unto Adam one was the son of another but at last it is said which was the Son of God there we must stop we can go no further 3. God is called the Living God because he giveth life to his promises but this is not so proper to this matter 4ly He giveth Grace to his Elect this is called the life of God Ephes 4.18 But to keep to the Attribute I am upon and to the two former Reasons of this Attribute and yet more espetially to the first It is necessary that I should first shew you what that thing is which we cal life then we shal the better understand what is meant by Life as it is attributed to God for in saying God is love or God is a consuming fire or any other analogical expression it is needful that ye know what those things are properly in the first place Life therefore is self-motion naturally that which moveth of it self from an inward cause be it what it be that is said to live or thus Life is a vital spirit by which al quick things move therefore Beasts Birds fish and creeping things are called living souls or living Creatures Gen 2.19.20 Other things that move from outward causes as clocks watches carts or coaches are not said to live because they do not move from an inward principle And elements though they move naturally yet it is only to their proper place heavy elements move downward and light elements upward And this natural motion they keep unless they be restrained as water in a Vessel There are three sorts of quick or living creatures First plants do hold the lowest degree of life they do indeed live of themselves yet neither know the end of their motion neither do they prepare for it they send forth their moares and roots to get moisture and nourishment but they know not that they do so Secondly there is a degree of life somewhat higher then this which is the life of sensitive creatures these first move of themselves therefore are said to live secondly they of themselves acquire some form by sence which is the ground or beginning of their motion but of themselves they know not the end of their motion formally neither do they propound it unto themselves distinctly but somerime break their neck when according to their instinct they move to good they move to get better feeding being led by sence but because they want reason to guide them they meet with misery often and therefore it is that men that are foolish are said to be unreasonable men and bruit Beasts because they are better like beasts then like men endued with reason yea all men in the fallen condition of Adam are said to be like the Beasts that perish Psal 49. v last Man that is in honor and understandeth not is like the Beasts that perish Sentire appetere se movere est in anima natura brutorum But yet of these bruit animals some live and move themselves more perfectly then others as they are indued with a more perfect faculty of sence to obtain to themselves sensible forms yet is their life even of the most quick of them but a life of beasts the knitting of that sensitive soul and their body together As Philosophers in general of all life define it to be the Bond or colligation of soul and body together which are parted when bloud or breath are left out of the body for when we cease breathing we cease living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and life goes out when breath goes out here the words both in Hebrew and Greek which are used for life
others For by living to Gods glory we shall gaine to our selves glory and be matter of good example worthy the imitation of others And this is praise worthy to give good examples It is commanded Math. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your father which is in heaven And 1 Pet. 2.12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that where as they speak against you as evill doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation And as it is profitable to others so also to our selves abundantly For as ye sow so shall ye reap if yee sow to righteousnes your name shall be spoken of with honour when ye are dead and gone The righteous shall be honorable both in their lives and in their death And therefore while we live let us live to the glory of God that so it may befall us that we may have honour in life a sweet name after death and that we may be good examples to them amongst whom we live that they also may glorifie God when God shall visit their soules in mercy Then will they with David blesse the Lord that gave us a life and blesse us and our good examples as he did the Lord that sent her 1 Sam 25. and her and her good councell But how should a man live to Gods glory may some say Quest Answ I Answer in the performance of these three particular duties First He that would live to Gods glory must shun all manner of sin and sinfull wayes he must forsake those contrary courses that tend to Gods dishonour you must know what God can not abide and lay that aside Pro. 8.13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evill pride and arrogancy and the evill way and the froward mouth do I hate saith wisedome there Now would you glorify God then hate evill lay aside your pride and let not arrogancy come out of your mouth and so Prov. 14.16 A wiseman feareth and departeth from evill evill courses must be forsaken yea evill men that worke wickednesse for both read Psal 141.4 Incline not my heart saith David to any evill thing to practice wicked workes with men that worke iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties both evill workes and evill workers must be shunned by such as would live to the glory and honour of the Author of their life Secondly Such must carefully set and settle themselves to the workes of holinesse and righteousnesse every one in his owne particular person dilligently endeavouring to walke holily and uprightly towards God and the world That ye may be blamlesse and harmlesse the sons of God without rebuke in the middest of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world saith the Apostle Paul Phillip 2.15 Thirdly We must labour all that we can so much as lyeth in our power to provoke others to the wayes and workes of godlinesse especially those that are any wayes allyed or related to us either in regard of kindred or acquaintance or any such like respect as in the verse following my text viz. Heb. 3.13 But exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfullnes of sinne And chap. 10.24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good workes This is a speciall way to glorifie God in our lives to exhort one another to provoke one another to love and to good workes If people instead of provoking God by their sinnes and provoking one another to wrath by speaking and doing such things as they know they cannot beare Would study this commendable kind of provocation we should have a sweet time of it In Isaiah 2.3 it is prophesied that many people should go and say come yee and let us go to the mountain of the Lord c. O that this prophesie might be more and more fulfilled among us In the use of these helpes we may some what live to Gods glory which who so doth God lives in him and he shall live with God for ever Because I live saith Christ Joh 14.19 ye shall live also The third proposition in this attribute is That God in respect of his attribute of life is infinite and incomprehensible This is evident in divers respects Doct. Reas 1 First because Gods life is independant he hath life in himself he received it not from any other The Father hath life in himselfe John 5.26 Whereas the life of creatures depends upon him Deut. 30 20. He is thy life and the length of thy daies saith Moses there And further as ye have heard already out of Acts 17.20 and 25 verses In him we live move and have our being God liveth I say of himself Reas 2 Deus est ita perse vivens ut ipse sit vita sua Zanch. Secondly Because life in God is not a part of God but his whol essence life is but apart of man the bond or tie that kniteth the two essentiall parts viz the body and soul of a man together But it is not so in God 1 John 5.10 this is the true God and eternall life Life and God is all one Reas 3 Thirdly Because God in respect of his life is eternal therefore by an excelency he is termed the living God Dan 6.26 Darius is made to confesse that he is the living God and stedfast for ever And so Nebuchadnezzar before to wit Cap. 4.34 honoureth him that live 1 Thes 1.9 Heb. 9.14 for ever c. And in this regard he is said Only to have immortality 1. Tim. 6.16 He is called a living God to distinguish him from all those other things that are said to live His life being eternall as well as his whole essence and of himselfe These are the three Reasons Vse 1 First Therefore to make some application we may learn that there is no want nor defect hereof to be found in God God hath such a life as ever was and ever will be the same How greatly then do they abuse the Majesty of God who fain God to be like the gods of the heathen A deaf a dumbe idole a thing without life as a senceless creature that understands not the ways and works of men who imagine God to be so confin'd to one place in respect of the powers of life as that he sees not nor knows not what is done afar off Job 22.13.14 And thou saist how doth God know Can he judge through the darke clouds Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of heaven Hereupon wicked men are encouraged to go on in their sinfull way Psal 10.13 Condemning God in their hearts c Thinking God ' cannot be present at all times But alwayes they are deceived Jer. 23. â—3 24 Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a far off Can