by the throng and his death hath brought a defeat to his Army and deliverance to the other Party that were upon the brink of ruine Thus doth the Wisdom of God link things together according to Natural order to work out his intended preservation of a People 2. In the season of Deliverance The Timing of Affairs is a part of the Wisdom of Man and an eminent part of the Wisdom of God It is in due season he sends the former and the latter Rain when the Earth is in the greatest Indigence and when his Influences may most contribute to the bringing forth and ripening the Fruit. The dumb Creatures have their meat from him in due season * Psal 104.27 And in his due season have his darling People their Deliverance When Paul was upon his Journey to Damascus with a Persecuting Commission he is struck down for the security of the Church in that City The Nature of the Lion is changed in due season for the preservation of the Lambs from worrying The Israelites are miraculously rescued from Egypt when their Wits were at a loss when their danger to Human understanding was unavoidable when Earth and Sea refus'd protection then the Wisdom and Power of Heaven stept in to effect that which was past the skill of the Conductors of that Multitude And when the Lives of the Jews lay at the stake and their Necks were upon the Block at the mercy of their Enemies Swords by an Order from Shushan not only a Reprieve but a Triumph arrives to the Jews by the Wisdom of God guiding the Affair whereby of Persons design'd to execution they are made Conquerors and have opportunity to exercise their Revenge instead of their Patience proving Triumphers where they expected to be Sufferers †Esih 8 9. How strangely doth God by secret ways bow the hearts of Men and the nature of things to the execution of that which he designs notwithstanding all the resistance of that which would traverse the security of his People How often doth he trap the wicked in the work of their own hands make their confidence to become their ruine and ensnare them in those Nets they wrought and laid for others Psal 9.16 The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands He scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts Luke 1.51 in the height of their hopes when their designs have been laid so deep in the Foundation and knit and cemented so close in their superstructure that no Human Power or Wisdom could raze them down He hath then disappointed their Projects and befool'd their Craft How often hath he kept back the Fire when it hath been ready to devour broke the Arrows when they have been prepared in the Bow turned the Spear into the bowels of the Bearers and wounded them at the very instant they were ready to wound others 3. In suting Instruments to his purpose He either finds them sit or makes them on a suddain fit for his gracious ends If he hath a Tabernacle to build he will sit a Bezaleel and an Aholiab with the Spirit of wisdom and Understanding in all cunning workmanship Exod. 31.3 6. If he finds them crooked pieces he can like a wise Architect make them strait Beams for the rearing his House and for the honour of his Name He sometimes picks out men according to their natural Tempers and employs them in his Work Jehu a man of a furious Temper and ambitious Spirit is called out for the destruction of Ahab's House Moses a man furnisht with all Egyptian wisdom fitted by a generous Education prepared also by the Affliction he met with in his flight and one who had had the benefit of conversation with Jethro a man of more than an ordinary wisdom and goodness as appears by his prudent and religious Counsel this man is called out to be the Head and Captain of an opprest People and to rescue them from their Bondage and settle the first National Church in the World So Elijah a high spirited man of a hot and angry temper one that sl ghted the Frowns and undervalued the Favour of Princes is set up to stem the Torrent of the Israelitish Idolatry So Luther a man of the same temper is drawn out by the same Wisdom to encounter the Corruptions in the Church against such Opposition which a milder Temper would have sunâ— under The Earth in Rev. 12.16 is made an Instrument to help the woman When the Grandees of that Age transferred the Imperial Power upon Constantine who became afterwards a protecting and nursing Father to the Church a thnig end which many of his Favourers never design'd nor ever dreamt of But God by his infinite Wisdom made these several Designs like several Arrows shot at Rovers meet in one Mark to which he directed them viz. in bringing forth an Instrument to render Peace to the World and Security and Increase to his Church 3. The wisdom of God doth wonderfully appear in Redemption His wisdom in Creation ravisheth the Eye and Understanding his wisdom in Government doth no less affect a curious Observer of the Links and Concatenation of the Means but his wisdom in Redemption mounts the Mind to a greater astonishment The works of Creation are the Footsteps of his wisdom the work of Redâ—mption is the Face of his wisdom A man is better known by the Features of his Face than by the Prints of his Feet We with open face or a revealed face beholding the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Face there refers to God not to us the glory of God's wisdom is now open and no longer covered and vailed by the shadows of the Law As we behold the Light glorious as scattered in the Air before the appearance of the Sun but more gloriously in the Face of the Sun when it begins its Race in our Horizon All the wisdom of God in Creation and Government in his variety of Laws was like the light the three first days of the Creation disperst about the World but the fourth day it was more glorious when all gathered into the Body of the Sun Gen. 1.4 16. So the Light of Divine wisdom and glory was scattered about the World and so more obscure till the fourth Divine day of the World about the four thousandth year it was gathered into one Body the Sun of Righteousness and so shone out more gloriously to Men and Angels All things are weaker the thinner they are extended but stronger the more they are united and compacted in one Body and Appearance In Christ in the dispensation by him as well as in his Person were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Coloss 2.3 Some Doles of wisdom were given out in Creation but the Treasures of it opened in Redemption the highest degrees of it that ever God did exert in the World Christ is therefore called the wisdom of God as well as the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 and the Gospel is called
what God hath hid as to be careless of what God hath manifested Too great an inquisitiveness beyond our line is as much a provoking arrogance as a blockish negligence of what is revealed is a slighting ingratitude 2. Submit to God in his Precepts and Methods Since they are the results of Infinite Wisdom disputes against them are not tolerable What orders are given out by Infallible Wisdom are to be entertained with respect and reverence though the reason of them be not visible to our purblind minds Shall God have less respect from us than Earthly Princes whose Laws we observe without being able to pierce into the exact reason of them all Since we know he hath not a Will without an Understanding our observance of him must be without Repining we must not think to mend our Creators Laws and presume to judg and condemn his Righteous Statutes If the flesh rise up in opposition we must cross its motions and Silence its Murmurings his Will should be an acceptable Will to us because it is a wise Will in itself God hath no need to impose upon us and deceive us He hath just and righteous waies to attain his glory and his Creatures good To deceive us would be to dishonour himself and contradict his own nature He cannot impose false injurious Precepts or unavailable to his subjects happiness not false because of his Truth not injurious because of his Goodness not vain because of his Wisdom Submit therefore to him in his Precepts and in his Methods too The honour of his Wisdom and the interest of our Happiness calls for it Had Noah disputed with God about building an Ark and listned to the scoffs of the sensless World he had perished under the same fate and lost the honour of a Preacher and worker of righteousness Had not the Israelites been their own enemies if they had been permitted to be their own guides and returned to the Egyptian bondage and furnaces instead of a liberty and earthly felicity in Canaan Had our Saviour gratified the Jews by descending from the Cross and freeing himself from the power of his Adversaries he might have had that Faith from them which they promised him but It had been a faith to no purpose because without ground they might have believed him to be the Son of God but he could not have been the Saviour of the World His death the great ground and object of Faith had been unaccomplished they had believed a God pardoning without a content to his Iustice and such a Faith could not have rescued them from falling into eternal Misery The Precepts and Methods of Divine Wisdom must be submitted to 3. Submit to God in all Crosses and Revolutions Infinite Wisdom cannot err in any of his paths or step the least hairs bredth from the way of Righteousness There is the Understanding of God in every motion an Eye in every Wheel the Wheel that goes over us and crusheth us We are led by Fancy more than Reason We know no more what we ask or what is fit for us than the Mother of Zebedees children did when she Petitioned Christ for her sons advancement when he came into his Temporal Kingdom * Mat. 20.22 The things we desire might pleasure our Fancy or Appetite but impair our health One man complains for want of Children but knows not whither they may prove Comforts or Crosses Another for want of Health but knows not whither the health of his Body may not prove the disease of his Soul We migh◠lose in Heavenly things if we possess in Earthly things what we long for God in regard of his infinite Wisdom is fitter to carve out a condition than we our selves our Shallow reason and self-love would wish for those things that are injurious to God to our selves to the World but God alwaies chooses what is best for his Glory and what is best for his Creatures either in regard of themselves or as they stand in relation to him or to others as parts of the World We are in danger from our self-love in no danger in complying with Gods Wisdom When Rachel would dye if she had no Children she had Children but Death with one of them †Gen. 30.1 Good men may conclude that whatsoever is done by God in them or with them is best and fittest for them because by the Covenant which makes over God to them as their God the conduct of his Wisdom is assured to them as well as any other Attribute And therefore as God in every transaction appears as their God so he appears as their wise Director and by this Wisdom he extracts good out of evill makes the affliction which destroys our outward Comforts consume our inward Defilements And the waves which threatned to swallow up the vessel to cast it upon the shore And when he hath occasion to manifest his Anger against his People his Wisdom directs his Wrath. In Judgment he hath a work to do upon Zion and when that work is done he punishes the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria ‖ Isa 10 1◠As in the answers of Prayer he doth give oftentimes above what we ask or think Eph. 3.20 so in outward concerns he doth above what we can expect or by our short-sightedness conclude will be done Let us therefore in all things frame our minds to the Divine Wisdom and say with the Psalmist Psal 47.4 The Lord shall chuse our inheritance and condition for us 6. Exhortation Censure not God in any of his waies Can we Understand the full scope of Divine Wisdom in Creation which is perfected before our Eyes Can we by a rational knowledge walk over the whole Surface of the Earth and wade through the Sea Can we Understand the Nature of the Heavens Are all or most or the thousandth part of the particles of Divine Skil known by us yea or any of them throughly known How can we then Understand his deeper methods in things that are but of yesterday that we have not had a time to View We should not be too quick or too rash in our Judgments of him The best that we attain to is but feeble conjectures at the designs of God As there is something hid in whatsoever is revealed in his Word so there is some thing inaccessible to us in his Works as well as in his Nature and Majesty In our Saviours act in washing his Disciples feet he checkt Peters contradiction John 13.7 What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter God were not infinitely wise if the reason of all his acts were obvious to our Shallowness He is no profound States-man whose inward intention can be sounded by vulgar Heads at the first act he starts in his designed method The wise God is in this like wisemen that have not breasts like glasses of Christal to discover all that they intend There are secrets of Wisdom above our reach * Iob 11.6 nay when
Organ whereby he blew in his Temptation is put into a worse condition than it was before Thus God hated the Spunge whereby the Devil deform'd his beautiful Image Thus God to manifest his detestation of Sin ordered the Beast whereby any Man was slain to be slain as well as the Malefactor Levit. 20.15 The Gold and Silver that had been abused to Idolatry and were the Ornaments of Images though good in themselves and uncapable of a Criminal Nature were not to be brought into their Houses but detested and abhorred by them because they were cursed and an abomination to the Lord. See with what loathing Expressions this Law is enjoyn'd to them Deut. 7.25 26. So contrary is the holy Nature of God to every Sin that it curseth every thing that is Instrumental in it 3. How detestable is every thing to him that is in the Sinners possession The very Earth which God had made Adam the Proprietor of was Cursed for his sake Gen. 3.17 18. It lost its Beauty and lies languishing to this day and notwithstanding the Redemption by Christ hath not recovered its health nor is it like to do till the compleating the Fruits of it upon the Children of God Rom. 8.20 21 22. The whole Lower Creation was made subject to Vanity and put into Pangs upon the Sin of Man by the Righteousness of God detesting his Offence How often hath his implacable Aversion from Sin been shewn not only in his Judgments upon the Offenders Person but by wrapping up in the same Judgment those which stood in a near relation to them Achan with his Children and Cattle are overwhelmed with Stones and burned together Josh 7.24 25. In the destruction of Sodom not only the grown Malefactors but the young Spawn the Infants at present uncapable of the same Wickedness and their Cattle were burned up by the same Fire from Heaven and the Place where their Habitations stood is at this day partly a heap of Ashes and partly an Infectious Lake that choaks any Fish that swim into it from Jordan and stifles as is related by its Vapor any Bird that attempts to fly over it Oh how detestable is Sin to God that causes him to turn a pleasant Land as the Garden of the Lord as it is styled Gen. 13.10 into a Lake of Sulphur to make it both in his Word and Works as a lasting Monument of his abhorrence of Evil 4. What design hath God in all these Acts of Severity and Vindictive Justice but to set off the lustre of his Holiness He testifies himself concerned for those Laws which he hath set as Hedges and Limits to the Lusts of Men and therefore when he breaths forth his fiery Indignation against a People he is said to get himself Honour As when he intended the Red Sea should swallow up the Egyptian Army Exod. 14.17 18. which Moses in his Triumphant Song Ecchoes back again Exod. 15.1 Thou hast triumphed gloriously gloriously in his Holiness which is the glory of his Nature as Moses himself interprets it in the Text. When Men will not own the Holiness of God in a way of Duty God will vindicate it in a way of Justice and Punishment In the destruction of Aarons Sons that were Will-worshippers and would take Strange Fire Sanctified and Glorified are coupled Lev. 10.3 He glorified himself in that Act in vindicating his Holiness before all the People declaring that he will not endure Sin and Disobedience He doth therefore in this Life more severely punish the Sins of his People when they presume upon any act of Disobedience for a Testimony that the nearness and dearness of any Person to him shall not make him unconcern'd in his Holiness or be a plea for Impurity The End of all his Judgments is to witness to the World his Abominating of Sin To Punish and Witness against Men are one and the same thing Micah 1.2 The Lord shall witness against you and it is the Witness of Gods Holiness Hos 5.5 And the Pride of Israel doth testifie to his face One renders it the Excellency of Israel and understands it of God the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here in our Translation Pride is rendred Excellency Amos 8.7 The Lord God hath sworn by his Excellency which is Interpreted Holiness Amos 4.2 The Lord God hath sworn by his Holiness What is the issue or end of this Swearing by Holiness and of his Excellency testifying against them In all those Places you will find them to be sweeping Judgments In one Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their Iniquity in another He will take them away with Hooks and their Posterity with Fish-hooks and in another He would never forget any of their works He that punisheth Wickedness in those he before used with the greatest Tenderness furnisheth the World with an undeniable Evidence of the Detestableness of it to him Were not Judgments sometimes poured out upon the World it would be believed that God were rather an Approver than an Enemy to Sin To Conclude Since God hath made a stricter Law to guide Men annex'd Promises above the merit of Obedience to allure them and Threatnings dreadful enough to affright Men from Disobedience He cannot be the Cause of Sin nor a lover of it How can he be the Author of that which he so severely forbids or love that which he delights to punish or be fondly Indulgent to any Evil when he hates the Ignorant Instruments in the Offences of his Reasonable Creatures III. The Holiness of God appears in Our Restoration 'T is in the Glass of the Gospel we behold the Glory of the Lord * 2 Cor. 3.18 that is the Glory of the Lord into whose Image we are changed but we are changed into nothing as the Image of God but into Holiness We bore not upon us by Creation nor by Regeneration the Image of any other Perfection We cannot be changed into his Omnipotence Omniscience c. but into the Image of his Righteousness This is the pleasing and glorious sight the Gospel Mirror darts in our eyes The whole Scene of Redemption is nothing else but a discovery of Judgment and Righteousness Isai 1.27 Zion shall be redeemed with Judgment and her Converts with Righteousness 1. This Holiness of God appears in the manner of our Restoration viz. by the Death of Christ. Not all the Vials of Judgments that have or shall be poured out upon the wicked World nor the flaming Furnace of a Sinners Conscience nor the Irreversible Sentence pronounc'd against the Rebellious Devils nor the Groans of the Damned Creatures give such a demonstration of Gods Hatred of Sin as the Wrath of God let loose upon his Son Never did Divine Holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our Saviours Countenance was most marr'd in the midst of his Dying Groans This himself acknowledges in that Prophetical Psalm Psal 22.1 2. when God had turned his Smiling Face from him and thrust his sharp Knife
†Heb. 7.26 so they must be in us 2. In his Christ As the Law is the Transcript so Christ is the Image of his Holiness The glory of God is too dazling to be beheld by us The acute eye of an Angel is too weak to look upon that bright Sun without covering his Face We are much too weak to take our Measures from that Purity which is infinite in his Nature But he hath made his Son like us that by the imitation of him in that temper and shadow of human Flesh we may arrive to a resemblance of him ‖ 2 Cor. 3.18 Then there is a conformity to him when that which Christ did is drawn in lively Colours in the Soul of a Christian when as he died upon the Cross we dye to our sins as he rose from the Grave we rise from our Lusts as he ascended on high we mount our Souls thither When we express in our lives what shined in his and exemplifie in our hearts what he acted in the world and become one with him as he was separate from sinners The holiness of God in Christ is our ultimate pattern As we are not only to believe in Christ but by Christ in God * John 14.1 so we are not only to imitate Christ but the holiness of God as discovered in Christ And to enforce this upon us let us consider 1. 'T is this only wherein he commands our imitation of him We are not commanded to be mighty and wise as God is mighty and wise but be holy as I am holy The declarations of his power are to enforce our subjection those of his wisdom to encourage our direction by him but this only to attract our imitaâ—ion When he saith I am holy the immediate inference he makes is be yee so too which is not the proper instruction from any other Perfection †In 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man was created by Divine Power and harmoniz'd by Divine Wisdom but not after them or according to them as the true Image this was the Prerogative of Divine Holiness to be the Pattern of his Rational Creature ‖ Eph. 4.24 Col. 3 1â— Wisdom and Power were subservient to this the one as the Pensil the other as the Hand that mov'd it The condition of a Creature is too mean to have the communications of the Divine Essence the true Impressions of his Righteousness and Goodness we are only capable of 'T is only in those moral Perfections we are said to resemble God The Devils those impure and ruin'd Spâ—rits are nearer to him in strength and knowledge than we are yet in regard of that natural and intellectual Perfection never counted like him but at the greatest distance from him because at the greatest distance from his Purity God values not a natural Might nor an acute Understanding nor vouchsafes such Perfections the glorious Title of that of his Image * Eugub 〈◊〉 de perenni Philos. Lib. 6. cap 6. Plutarch saith God is angry with those that imitate his Thunder or Lightning his works of Majesty but delighted with those that imitate his Vertue In this only we can never incur any reproof from him but for falling short of him and his glory Had Adam endeavour'd after an imitation of this instead of that of Divine Knowledge he had escap'd his fall and preserv'd his standing And had Lucifer wish'd himself like God in this as well as his Dominion he had still been a glorious Angel instead of being now a ghastly Devil To reach after a Union with the Supream Being in regard of holiness is the only generous and commendable Ambition 2. This is the prime way of honouring God We do not so glorifie God by elevated Admirations or eloquent Expressions or pompous Services of him as when we aspire to a conversing with him with unstained Spirits and live to him in living like him The Angels are not called holy for applauding his Purity but conforming to it The more perfect any Creature is in the rank of Beings the more is the Creator honoured As it is more for the honour of God to create an Angel or Man than a meer Animal because there are in such clearer Characters of Divine power and goodness than in those that are Inferiour The more perfect any Creature is morally the more is God glorified by that Creature t is a real declaration that God is the best and most amiable Being that nothing besides him is valuable and worthy to be the Object of our imitation 'T is a greater honouring of him than the highest acts of Devotion and the most religious bodily Exercise or the singing this Song of Moses in the Text with a triumphant spirit As it is more the honour of a Father to be imitated in his Vertues by his Son than to have all the glavering Commendations by the Tongue or Pen of a vicious and debauch'd Child By this we honour him in that Perfection which is dearest to him and counted by him as the chiefest glory of his Nature God seems to accept the glorifying this Attribute as if it were a real addition to that holiness which is infinite in his Nature and because infinite cannot admit of any increase And therefore the word sanctified is used instead of glorified Isa 8.13 Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And Isa 29.23 They shall sanctifie the holy One of Jacob and fear the God of Israel This sanctification of God is by the fear of him which signifies in the Language of the Old Testament a reverence of him and a righteousness before him He doth not say when he would have his Power or Wisdom glorified empower me or make me wise but when he would have holiness glorified by the Creature 't is sanctifie me that is manifest the purity of my Nature by the holiness of your lives But he expresseth it in such a term as if it were an addition to this infinite Perfection so acceptable it is to him as if it were a contribution from his Creature for the inlarging an Attribute so pleasing to him and so glorious in his Eye 'T is as much as in the Creature lies a preserving the life of God since this Perfection is his Life and that he would as soon part with his Life as part with his Purity It keeps up the Reputation of God in the World and attracts others to a love of him whereas unworthy carriages defame God in the eyes of men and bring up an ill report of him as if he were such a one as those that profess him and walk unsutably to their Profession appear to be 3. This is the excellency and beauty of a creature The title of beauty is given to it in Psal 110.3 beauties in the plural number as comprehending in it all other beauties whatsoever What is a Divine excellency can not be a Creatures Deformity The natural beauty of