morally carnal in the practises as the Ceremonies were materially carnal in their substance It was not their disobedience to observe them but it was a disobedience and a contempt of the end of the institution to rest upon them to be warm in them and cold in morals They fed upon the Bone and neglected the Marrow pleased themselves with the Shell and sought not for the Kernel They joyned not with them the internal Worship of God Fear of him with Faith in the promised Seed which lay vail'd under those Coverings Hos 6.6 I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice and the Knowledge of God more than burnt Offerings And therefore he seems sometimes weary of his own institutions and calls them not his own but their Sacrifices their Feasts Isa 1.11 14. They were his by appointment theirs by abuse The Institution was from his goodness and condescension therefore his the corruption of them was from the vice of their Nature therefore theirs He often blamed them for their carnality in them shew'd his dislike of placing all their Religion in them gives the Sacrificers upon that account no better a title than that of the Princes of Sodom and Gomorrah * Isa 1.10 And compares the Sacrifices themselves to the cutting off a Dog's Neck Swines Blood and the Murder of a Man * Isa 66.3 And indeed God never valued them or exprest any delight in them He despised the Feasts of the Wicked Amos 5.21 and had no esteem for the material Offerings of the Godly Psal 50.13 Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats which he speaks to his Saints and People before he comes to reprove the Wicked which he begins v. 16. But to the Wicked God said c. So slightly he esteemed them that he seems to disown them to be any part of his Command when he brought his People out of the Land of Egypt Jer. 7.21 I spake not to your Fathers nor commanded them concerning burnt Offerings and Sacrifices He did not value and regard them in comparison of that inward frame which he had required by the moral Law that being given before the Law of Ceremonies obliged them in the first place to an observance of those Precepts They seemed to be below the Nature of God and could not of themselves please him None could in reason perswade themselves that the death of a Beast was a proportionable Offering for the sin of a Man or ever was intended for the expiation of Transgression In the same rank are all our bodily services under the Gospel A loud voice without Spirit bended bulrushes without inward affections are no more delightful to God than the Sacrifices of Animals 'T is but a change of one Brute for another of a higher species a meer Brute for that part of man which hath an agreement with Brutes Such a service is a meer animal service and not spiritual 5. And therefore God never intended that sort of Worship to be durable and had often mentioned the change of it for one more spiritual It was not good or evil in it self whatsoever goodness it had was solely deriv'd to it by institution and therefore it was mutable It had no conformity with the spiritual nature of God who was to be worshipped nor with the rational nature of man who was to worship And therefore he often speaks of taking away the New-Moons and Feasts and Sacrifices and all the ceremonial Worship as things he took no pleasure in to have a Worship more suted to his excellent Nature But he never speaks of removing the Gospel Administration and the worship prescribed there as being more agreeable to the nature and perfections of God and displaying them more illustriously to the World The Apostle tells us it was to be disannul'd because of its weakness * Heb. 7.18 A determinate time was fixed for its duration till the accomplishment of the truth figured under that Pedagogy * Gal. 4.2 Some of the modes of that worship being only typical must naturally expire and be insignificant in their use upon the finishing of that by the Redeemer which they did prefigure And other parts of it though God suffered them so long because of the weakness of the Worshipper yet because it became not God to be alway worshipped in that manner he would reject them and introduce another more spiritual and elevated Incense and a pure Offering should be offered every where unto his Name * Mal. 1.11 * Pascal Pen. 142. He often told them he would make a new Covenant by the Messiah and the old should be rejected that the former things should not be remembred and the things of old no more considered when he should do a new thing in the Earth * Isa 43.18.19 Even the Ark of the Covenant the Symbol of his presence and the glory of the Lord in that Nation should not any more be remembered and visited * Jer. 3.16 That the Temple and Sacrifices should be rejected and others established That the Order of the Aaronical Priest-hood should be abolisht and that of Melchisedeck set up in the stead of it in the Person of the Messiah to endure for ever * Psal 110. That Jerusalem should be changed a new Heaven and Earth created a Worship more conformable to Heaven more advantagious to Earth God had proceeded in the removal of some parts of it before the time of taking down the whole furniture of this house The Pot of Manna was lost Vrim and Thumim ceased the glory of the Temple was diminish'd and the ignorant people wept at the sight of the one without raising their Faith and Hope in the consideration of the other which was promised to be filled with a spiritual glory And as soon as ever the Gospel was spread in the World God thundred out his judgments upon that place in which he had fixed all those legal Observances so that the Jews in the Letter and Flesh could never practise the main part of their worship since they were expelled from that place where it was only to be celebrated 'T is one thousand six hundred years since they have been deprived of their Altar which was the foundation of all the levitical-Levitical-worship and have wandred in the world without a Sacrifice a Prince or Priest an Ephod or Teraphim * Hos 3.4 And God fully put an end to it in the Command he gave to the Apostles and in them to us in the presence of Moses and Elias to hear his Son only Matth. 17.5 Behold a voice out of the Cloud which said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him And at the death of our Saviour testified it to that whole Nation and the World by the rending in twain the vail of the Temple The whole frame of that service which was carnal and by reason of the corruption of Man weakned is nulled and a spiritual worship is made known to the world
of those names were proper to insinuate Fear neither was Fear the first Principle that made the Heathens worship a God they offered Sacrifices out of Gratitude to some as well as to others out of Fear the fear of Evils in the world and the hopes of Releif and Assistance from their Gods and not a terrifying Fear of God was the principal Spring of their Worship When Calamities from the hands of Men or Judgments by the influences of Heaven were upon them they implored that which they thought a Deity It was not their Fear of him but a Hope in his Goodness and Perswasion of Remedy from him for the averting those Evils that rendred them Adorers of a God If they had not had preexistent Notions of his Being and Goodness they would never have made Addresses to him or so frequently sought to that they only apprehended as a terrifying Object * Gassend Phys sect 1. l. 4. c. 2. p. 291. 292. When you hear men calling upon God in a time of affrighting Thunder you cannot imagin that the fear of Thunder did first introduce the Notion of a God but implies that it was before apprehended by them or stampt upon them though their Fear doth at present actuate that Beleif and engage them in a present Exercise of Piety and whereas the Scripture saith the fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom or of all Religion * Pro. 9.16 Psal 111.10 't is not understood of a distracted and terrifying Fear but a reverential Fear of him because of his holiness or a worship of him a submission to him and sincere seeking of him Well then is it not a folly for an Atheist to deny that which is the reason and common Sentiment of the whole world to strip himself of humanity run counter to his own Conscience prefer a private before a universal Judgment give the lie to his own nature and reason assert things impossible to be proved nay impossible to be acted Forge irrationalities for the support of his fancy against the common perswasion of the world and against himself and so much of God as is manefest in him and every man * Rom. 1.19 Jupiter est quodcunque vides c. II. It is a folly to deny that which all Creatures or all things in the World manifest Let us view this in Scripture since we acknowledge it and after consider the arguments from natural reason The Apostle resolves it Rom. 1.19 20. The invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse They know or might know by the things that were made the Eternity and power of God their sence might take a Circuit about every object and their minds collect the being and somthing of the perfections of the Deity The first discourse of the mind upon the sight of a delicate peice of workman-ship is the Conclusion of the being of an Artificer and the admiration of his skill and industry The Apostle doth not say the invisible things of God are beleived or they have an opinion of them but they are seen and clearly seen They are like Cristal glasses which give a clear representation of the Existence of a Deity like that Mirrour reported to be in a Temple in Arcadia which represented to the Spectator not his own face but the Image of that Deity which he Worshipped The whole world is like a looking-glass which whole and entire represents the Image of God and every broken peice of it every little shred of a Creature doth the like not only the great ones Elephants and the Leviathan but Ants Flies Worms whose bodies rather then names we know The greater Cattle and the Creeping things Gen. 1.24 Not naming there any intermediate Creature to direct us to view him in the smaller Letters as well as the greater Characters of the World His name is Glorious and his Attributes are excellent in all the Earth * Psal 8.1 in every Creature as the glory of the Sun is in every beam and smaller flash he is seen in every Insect in every Spire of grass The voice of the Creator is in the most contemptible Creature * Banes in Aquin. Par. 2. Qu. 2. Artic. 2. pa. 78. Col. 2. The Apostle adds that they are so clearly seen that men are inexcusable if they have not some knowledge of God by them if they might not certainly know them they might have some excuse So that his Existence is not only probably but demonstratively proved from the things of the world Especially the Heavens declare him which God stretches out like a Curtain * Psal 104.2 or as some render the word a Skin whereby is signified that Heaven is as an open book which was Anciently made of the skins of beasts that by the knowledge of them we may be taught the knowledge of God Where Scripture was not revealed the world served for a witness of a God what ever arguments the Scripture uses to prove it are drawn from nature though indeed it doth not so much prove as suppose the Existence of a God but what Arguments it uses are from the Creatures and particularly the Heavens which are the publick Preachers of this Doctrin The breath of God sounds to all the World through those Organ-pipes His Being is visible in their Existence his Wisdom in their frame his Power in their motion his Goodness in their usefulness * For their voice goeth to the end of the Earth Psal 19.1 2. They have a voice and their voice is as intelligible as any common Language And those are so plain Heralds of a Deity that the Heathen mistook them for Deities and gave them a particular adoration which was due to that God they declared The first Idolatry seems to be of those Heavenly bodies which began probably in the time of Nimrod In Jobs time it is certain they admired the Glory of the Sun and the brightness of the Moon not without kissing their hands a sign of Adoration * Job 31.26.27 T is evident a man may as well doubt whither there be a Sun when he sees his beams guilding the Earth as doubt whither there be a God when he sees his works spread in the World The things in the World declare the Existence of a God 1. In their Production 2. Harmony 3. Preservation 4. Answering their several ends First 1. In their production The declaration of the Existence of God was the chief end for which they were Created that the Notion of a Supream and Independent Eternal Being might easier incur into the active understanding of man from the objects of sensedispersed in every corner of the World that he might pay a homage and devotion to the Lord of all Isa 40.12 13 18 19. c. Have you not understood from the foundation of the Earth t is he that sits upon the Circle
interest of the rest of the World that they should have been extinguisht for the instruction of their contemporaries and posterity The best of them had turned all Religion into a fable coyn'd a World of rites some unnatural in themselves and most of them unbecoming a rational creature to offer and a Deity to accept Yet he did not presently arm himself against them with Fire and Sword nor stopt the course of their Generations nor tare out all those reliques of natural light which were left in their minds He did not do what he might have done but he winkt at the times of that ignorance Act. 17.30 their ignorant Idolatry for that it referrs to ver 29. They thought the God-head was like to Gold or Silver or stone graven by Art and mens device 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overlooking them He demean'd himself so as if he did not take notice of them He winkt as if he did not see them and would not deal so severely with them the eye of his Justice seem'd to wink in not calling them to an account for their sin 3. His slowness to anger is manifest to the Israelites You know how often they are call'd a stiff-necked people they are said to do evil from their youth i. e. from the time wherein they were erected a Nation and Common-wealth and that the City had been a provocation of his anger and of his fury from the day that they built it even to this day i. e. the day of Jeremiah's Prophesie that he should remove it from before his face Jer. 32.31 From the dayes of Solomon say some which is too much a curtailing of the Text as though their provocations had taken date no higher than from the time of Solomon's rearing the Temple and beautifying the City whereby it seem'd to be a new Building They began more early they scarce discontinued their revolting from God they were a grief to him 40 years together in the Wilderness Psal 95.10 Yet he suffer'd their manners Act. 13.18 He bore with their ill behaviour and sawcyness towards him And no sooner was Joshua's head laid and the Elders that were their conductors gathered to their fathers but the next Generation forsook God and smutted themselves with the Idolatry of the Nations Judg. 2.7.10 11. And when he punished them by prospering the Arms of their enemies against them they were no sooner delivered upon their cry and humiliation but they began a new Scene of Idolatry And though he brought upon them the power of the Babylonian Empire and laid chains upon them to bring them to their right mind And at 70 years end he struck off their chains by altering the whole posture of affairs in that part of the World for their sakes Overturning one Empire and settling another for their Restoration to their antient City And though they did not after disown him for their God and set up Baal in his Throne yet they multiplyed foolish traditions whereby they impaired the Authority of the Law yet he sustained them with a wonderful Patience and preferred them before all other people in the first offers of the Gospel And after they had outrag'd not only his servants the Prophets but his Son the Redeemer yet he did not forsake them but employed his Apostles to sollicit them and publish among them the Doctrine of Salvation So that his treating this people might well be call'd much long suffering it being above 1500 years wherein he bore with them or mildly punished them far less than their deserts Their coming out of Egypt being about the year of the World 2450 and their final destruction as a Common-wealth not till about 40 years after the death of Christ And all this while his Patience did sometimes wholly restrain his Justice and sometimes let it fall upon them in some few drops but made no total devastation of their Country nor wrote his revenge in extraordinary bloody Characters till the Roman conquest wherein he put a period to them both as a Church and State In particular this Patience is manifest 1. In his giving warnings of Judgments before he orders them to go forth He doth not punish in a passion and hastily He speakes before he strikes and speakes that he may not strike Wrath is publisht before it is executed and that a long time An 120 years Advertisement was given to a debauch'd World before the Heavens were open'd to spout down a deluge upon them He will not be accused of coming unawares upon a people He inflicts nothing but what he foretold either immediately to the people that provoke him or anciently to them that have been their fore-runners in the same provocation Hos 7.12 I will chastise them as their Congregation hath heard Many of the leaves of the Old Testament are full of those Presages and Warnings of approaching judgment These make up a great part of the Volume of it in various Editions according to the State of the several provoking times Warnings are given to those people that are most abominable in his sight Zeph. 2.1 2. Gather your selves together yea gather together Oh Nation not desired 't is a Meiosis Oh Nation abhorr'd before the decree bring forth He sends his Heralds before he sends his Armies He summons them by the voice of his Prophets before he confounds them by the voice of his Thunders When a parley is beaten a white flagg of Peace is hung out before a black flagg of fury is set up He seldom cuts down men by his Judgments before he hath hewed them by his Prophets Hos 6.5 Not a remarkable judgment but was foretold the Floud to the Old World by Noah The Famine to Egypt by Joseph The Earthquake by Amos. Amos 1.1 The storm from Chaldea by Jeremy The Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Hosea The total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Christ himself He hath chosen the best persons in the World to give those intimations Noah the most Righteous person on the earth for the Old World And his Son the most beloved person in Heaven for the Jews in the later time And in other parts of the World and in the later times where he hath not warned by Prophets he hath supplyed it by Prodigies in the Air and Earth Histories are full of such Items from Heaven Lesser judgments are fore-warners of greater as Lightnings before Thunder are Messengers to tell us of a succeeding clap 1. He doth often give warning of Judgments He comes not to extremity till he hath often shaken the rod over Men He thunders often before he crusheth them with his Thunder-bolt He doth not till after the first and second admonition punish a rebel as he would have us reject a Heretick He speaks once yea twice Job 33.14 and man percieves it not He sends one Message after another and waits the success of many messages before he strikes Eight Prophets were order'd to acquaint the Old World with approaching judgment 2 Pet. 2.5 He saved
* Isa 44.17 They applyed a general Notion to a perticular Image The difference is in the manner and immediate object of worship not in the formal ground of worship The worship sprung from a true Principal though it was not applyed to a right object While they were rational Creatures they could not deface the Notion yet while they were corrupt Creatures it was not difficult to apply themselves to a wrong object from a true principle A blind man knows he hath a way to go as well as one of the clearest sight but because of his blindness he may miss the way and stumble into a Ditch No man would be impos'd upon to take a Bristol Stone instead of a Diamond if he did not know that there were such things as Diamonds in the World nor any man spread forth his hands to an Idol if he were altogether without the sense of a Deity Whether it be a false or a true God men apply to yet in both the natural sentiment of a God is evidenc'd all their mistakes were grafts inserted in this Stock since they would multiply gods rather than deny a Deity * Charron de la Sagesse Livr 1. Cha. 7. p. 43. 44. How should such a general submission be entered into the by all the world so as to adore things of a base alloy if the force of Religion were not such that in any fashion a man would seek the satisfaction of his natural instinct to some object of worship This great diversity confirms this consent to be a good argument for it evidenceth it not to be a Cheat combination or conspiracy to deceive or a mutual intelligence but every one finds it in his climate yea in himself * Gassend Phys § 1. lib. 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. People would never have given the Title of a God to men or Brutes had there not been a pre-existing and unquestioned perswasion that there was such a Being how else should the Notion of a God come into their minds the Notion that there is a God must be more ancient 3. Whatsoever disputes there have been in the World this of the existence of God was never the subject of contention All other things have been questioned What Jarrings were there among Philosophers about natural things into how many parties were they split with what animosities did they maintain their several judgments but we hear of no solemn Controversies about the Existence of a Supream Being this never met with any considerable contradiction no Nation that hath put other things to question would ever suffer this to be disparaged so much as by a publick doubt * Amyrant des Religion p. 50. We find among the Heathen contentions about the Nature of God and the number of gods some asserted an innumerable multitude of gods some affirmed him to be subject to birth and death some affirmed the intire World was God others fancied him to be a circle of a bright Fire others that he was a Spirit diffused through the whole World Yet they unanimously concurr'd in this as the judgment of Universal Reason that there was such a sovereign Being And those that were sceptical in every thing else and asserted that the greatest certainty was that there was nothing certain profest a certainty in this The question was not whether there was a First Cause but why it was * Gassend Phys § 1. lâ—b 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. 'T is much the same thing as the disputes about the Nature and matter of the Heavens the Sun and Planets tho there be great diversity of Judgments yet all agree that there are Heavens Sun Planets so all the Contentions among men about the Nature of God weaken not but rather confirm that there is a God since there was never a publick formal debate about his Existence Those that have been ready to pull out one anothers eyes for their dissent from their judgments sharply censured one anothers sentiments envied the births of one anothers wits alwayes shook hands with an unanimous consent in this never censured one another for being of this perswasion never called it into question as what was never controverted among men professing Christianity but acknowledged by all though contending about other things has reason to be judged a certain Truth belonging to the Christian Religion so what was never subjected to any Controversy but acknowledged by the whole World hath reason to be imbraced as a Truth without any doubt 4. This Vniversal Consent is not prejudiced by some few Dissenters History doth not reckon twenty profest Atheists in all Ages in the compass of the whole World Gassend Phys § 1. lib. 4. cap. 7. p. 282. and we have not the name of any one absolute Atheist upon Record in Scripture yet it is questioned whether any of them noted in History with that infamous name were down-right denyers of the Existence of God but rather because they disparaged the Deities commonly worshipped by the Nations where they lived as being of a clearer reason to discern that those qualities vulgarly attributed to their gods as lust and luxury wantonness and quarrels were unworthy of the nature of a God But suppose they were really what they are termed to be what are they to the multitude of men that have sprung out of the loyns of Adam not so much as one grain of ashes is to all that were ever turned into that form by any fires in your Chimnies And many more were not sufficient to weigh down the contrary consent of the whole World and bear down an universal impression Should the Laws of a Country agreed universally to by the whole Body of the People be accounted vain because a hundred men of those millions disapprove of them when not their reason but their folly and base interest perswades them to dislike them and dispute against them * Gassend ibid. p. 290. What if some men be blind shall any conclude from thence that eyes are not natural to men shall we say that the notion of the Existence of God is not natural to men because a very small number have been of a contrary opinion shall a man in a dungeon that never saw the Sun deny that there is a Sun because one or two blind men tell him there is none when thousands assure him there is Why should then the exceptions of a few not one to millions discredit that which is voted certainly true by the joynt consent of the World Add this too that if those that are reported to be Atheists had had any considerable reason to step aside from the common perswasion of the whole world 't is a wonder it met not with entertainment by great numbers of those who by reason of their notorious wickedness and inward disquiets might reasonably be thought to wish in their hearts that there were no God 'T is strange if there were any reason on their side that in so long a space of time as hath run
office We must come to some supream Judge who can Judge Conscience it self As a man can have no surer evidence that he is a being than because he thinks he is a thinking being So there is no surer evidence in nature that there is a God than that every man hath a natural principle in him which continually cites him before God and puts him in mind of him and makes him one way or other fear him and reflects upon him whether he will or no A man hath less power over his Conscience than over any other faculty He may choose whether he will exercise his understanding about or move his will to such an object but he hath no such Authority over his Conscience he cannot limit it or cause it to cease from acting and reflecting and therefore both that and the law about which it acts are settled by some supream Authority in the mind of man and this is God Fourthly IV. The evidence of a God results from the vastness of desires in man and the real dissatisfaction he hath in every thing below himself Man hath a boundless appetite after some Soveraign Good As his understanding is more capacious than any thing below so is his Appetite larger This affection of desire exceeds all other affections Love is determined to something known Fear to something apprehended but Desires approach nearer to Infiniteness and pursue not only what we know or what we have a glimps of but what we find wanting in what we already enjoy That which the desire of man is most naturally carryed after is Bonum some fully satisfying good We desire knowledge by the sole impulse of reason but we desire Good before the excitement of reason and the desire is always after Good but not always after Knowledge Now the Soul of man finds an imperfection in every thing here and cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity In the highest fruitions of worldly things t is still pursuing something else which speaks a defect in what it already hath The world may afford a felicity for our dust the body but not for the inhabitant in it t is two mean for that Is there any one Soul among the Sons of men that can upon a due enquiry say it was at rest and wanted no more that hath not sometimes had desires after an immaterial Good The Soul follows hard after such a thing and hath frequent looks after it Psal 63.8 Man desires a stable Good but no sublunary thing is so And he that doth not desire such a Good wants the rational nature of a man This is as natural as Understanding Will and Conscience Whence should the Soul of man have those desires How came it to understand that something is still wanting to make its nature more perfect if there were not in it some notion of a more perfect being which can give it rest Can such a capacity be supposed to be in it without something in being able to satisfie it If so the noblest Creature in the world is miserablest and in a worse condition than any other Other Creatures obtain their ultimate desires they are filled with good Psal 104.28 And shall man only have a vast desire without any possibility of enjoyment Nothing in man is in vain He hath objects for his affections as well as affections for objects Every Member of his body hath its end and doth attain it Every affection of his Soul hath an object and that in this World and shall there be none for his desire which comes nearest to infinite of any affection planted in him This boundless desire had not its original from man himself Nothing would render it self restless something above the bounds of this world implanted those desires after a higher Good and made him restless in every thing else And since the Soul can only rest in that which is infinite there is something infinite for it to rest in Since nothing in the world though a man had the whole can give it a satisfaction there is something above the world only capable to do it otherwise the Soul would be always without it and be more in vain than any other Creature There is therefore some infinite being that can only give a contentment to the Soul and this is God And that goodness which implanted such desires in the Soul would not do it to no purpose and mock it in giving it an infinite desire of satisfaction without intending it the pleasure of enjoyment if it doth not by its own folly deprive it self of it The felicity of human nature must needs exceed that which is allotted to other Creatures 4. And last Reason Fourth Reason As t is a folly to deny that which all Nations in the World have consented to which the frame of the world evidenceth which man in his Body Soul Operations of Conscience witnesseth to So t is a folly to deny the Being of God which is witnessed unto by extraordinary occurrences in the world 1. In extraordinary Judgments When a just revenge follows abominable crimes especially when the Judgment is suted to the sin by a strange Concatenation and succession of Providences methodized to bring such a particular punishment When the sin of a Nation or person is made legible in the inflicted Judgment which testifies that it cannot be a casual thing The Scripture gives us an account of the necessity of such Judgments to keep up the reverential thoughts of God in the World Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes the wicked is snared in the work of his own hand And Jealousy is the name of God Exod. 34.14 Whose name is Jealous He is distinguisht from false Gods by the Judgments which he sends as men are by their names Extraordinary Prodigies in many Nations have been the Heralds of extraordinary Judgments and presages of the particular Judgments which afterwards they have felt of which the Roman Histories and others are full That there are such things is undeniable and that the events have been answerable to the threatning unless we will throw away all human Testimonies and count all the Histories of the World Forgeries Such things are evidences of some invisible Power which orders those affairs And if there be invisible Powers there is also an efficacious cause which moves them A Government certainly there is among them as well as in the world and then we must come to some supream Governour which presides over them Judgments upon notorious offenders have been evident in all ages The Scripture gives many instances I shall only mention that of Herod Agrippa which Josephus mentions * Lib. 19. Antiq. Act. 12.21.22.23 He receives the flattering applause of the people and thought himself a God But by the suddain stroak upon him was forced by his torture to confess another I am God saith he in your account but a higher calls me away The will of the Heavenly Deity is to be endured The Angel
of the Lord smote him The Judgment here was suted to the sin he that would be a God is eaten up of Worms the vilest Creatures Tully Hostilius a Roman King who counted it the most unroyal thing to be Religious or own any other God but his Sword was consumed himself and his whole House by Lightning from Heaven Many things are unaccountable unless we have recourse to God The strange Revelations of Murderers that have most secretly committed their crimes The making good some dreadful imprecations which some wretches have used to confirme a lie and immediatly have been struck with that Judgement they wished The raising often unexpected persons to be instruments of Vengeance on a sinful and perfidious Nation The overturning the deepest and surest Counsels of men when they have had a succesful progress and came to the very point of execution the whole designe of mens preservation hath been beaten in peices by some unforeseen circumstance so that Judgments have broken in upon them without controul and all their subtilties been out-witted The strange crossing of some in their Estates though the most wise industrious and frugal persons and that by strange and unexpected wayes And it is observable how often every thing contributes to carry on a Judgment intended as if they rationally designed it All those loudly proclaim a God in the world If there were no God there would be no sin if no sin there would be no punishment 2. In Miracles The course of nature is uniforme and when it is put out of its course it must be by some superior power invisible to the world and by whatsoever invisible instruments they are wrought the efficacy of them must depend upon some first cause above nature Psal 72.18 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things by himself and his sole power That which cannot be the result of a natural cause must be the result of something supernatural What is beyond the reach of nature is the effect of a power superior to nature For it is quite against the order of nature and is the elevation of something to such a pitch which all nature could not advance it to Nature cannot go beyond its own limits If it be determined by another as hath been formerly proved it cannot lift it self above it self without that power that so determined it Natural agents act necessarily The Sun doth necessarily shine fire doth necessarilly burn That cannot be the result of nature which is above the Ability of nature That cannot be the work of nature which is against the order of nature Nature cannot do any thing against it self or invert its own course We must own that such things have been or we must accuse all the Records of former ages to be a pack of lies which whosoever doth destroys the greatest and best part of human knowledge The Miracles mentioned in the Scripture wrought by our Saviour are acknowledged by the Heathen by the Jews at this day though his greatest enemies There is no dispute whether such things were wrought the dead raised the blind restored to sight The Heathens have acknowledged the Miraculous Eclipse of the Sun at the Passion of Christ quite against the rule of nature the Moon being then in opposition to the Sun The propagation of Christianity contrary to the methods whereby other Religions have been propagated that in a few years the Nations of the world should be sprinkled with this Doctrine and give in a greater Catalogue of Martyrs courting the devouring flames than all the Religions of the world To this might be added the strange hand that was over the Jews the only people in the world professing the true God that should so often be befriended by their Conquerors so as to rebuild their Temple though they were looked upon as a people apt to rebel Dion and Seneca observe that whereever they were transplanted they prospered and gave laws to the Victors So that this proves also the Authority of the Scripture the truth of Christian Religion as well as the being of a God and a superior power over the world To this might be added the bridling the tumultuous passions of men for the preservation of human societies which else would run the world into unconceivable confusions Psal 65.7 Which stilleth the noise of the Sea and the tumults of the people As also the Miraculous deliverance of a person or Nation when upon the very brink of ruin The suddain answer of Prayer when God hath been sought to and the turning away a Judgment which in reason could not be expected to be averted and the raising a sunk people from a ruine which seemed inevitable by unexpected ways 3. Accomplishments of Prophecies Those things which are purely contingent and cannot be known by Natural signs and in their causes as Ecclipses and changes in Nations which may be discerned by an observation of the signs of the times such things that fall not within this compass if they be foretold and come to pass are solely from some higher hand and above the cause of Nature This in Scripture is asserted to be a notice of the true God Isa 41.23 Shâ—w the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that you are God and Isa 46.10 I am God declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my Counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure And Prophecy was consented to by all the Philosophers to be from Divine illumination That power which discovers things future which all the foresight of men cannot kenn and conjecture is above nature And to foretel them so certainly as if they did already exist or had existed long ago must be the result of a mind infinitely intelligent Because it is the highest way of knowing and a higher cannot be imagined And he that knows things future in such a manner must needs know things present and past Cyrus was Prophesied of by Esay ch 44.28 45.1 long before he was born His Victories Spoils all that should happen in Babylon his bounty to the Jews came to pass according to that Prophecy and the sight of that Prophecy which the Jews shewed him as other Historians report was that which moved him to be favourable to the Jews Alexanders sight of Daniels Prophecy concerning his Victories moved him to spare Jerusalem And are not the four Monarchies plainly deciphered in that Book before the fourth rose up in the world That power which foretells things beyond the reach of the wit of man and orders all causes to bring about those predictions must be an infinite power the same that made the world sustains it and governs all things in it according to his pleasure and to bring about his own ends And this Being is God Vse 1 1. If Atheism be a folly T is then pernicious to the World and to the Atheist himself Wisdom is the band of human societies the glory
be a guide that disdain to follow him To think we firmly believe a God without living conformable to his Law is an idle and vain imagination The true and sensible Notion of a God cannot subsist with disorder and an affected unrighteousness This contempt is seen 1. In any presumptuous breach of any part of his Law Such sins are frequently called in Scripture Rebellions which are a denial of the Allegiance we owe to him By a wilful refusal of his right in one part we root up the foundation of that rule he doth justly challenge over us His Right is as extensive to command us in one thing as in another And if it be disowned in one thing t is vertually disowned in all and the whole Statute book of God is contemned Jam. 2.10.11 Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all A willing breaking one part tho there be a willing observance of all the other points of it is a breach of the whole because the Authority of God which gives sanction to the whole is slighted The obedience to the rest is dissembled For the Love which is the root of all obedience is wanting For Love is the fulfilling the whole Law * Rom. 13. â—â— The rest are obeyed because they cross not carnal desire so much as the other and so t is an observance of himself not of God Besides the Authority of God which is not prevalent to restrain us from the breach of one point would be of as little force with us to restrain us from the breach of all the rest did the allurements of the flesh give us as strong a diversion from the one as from the other And tho the Command that is transgrest be the least in the whole Law yet the Authority which enjoyns it is the same with that which enacts the greatest And it is not so much the matter of the command as the Authority commanding which lays the obligation 2. In the natural averseness to the declarations of Gods Will and mind which way so ever they tend Since man affected to be as God he desires to be boundless he he would not have Fetters tho they be Golden ones and conduce to his happiness tho the Law of God be a strength to them yet they will not Isa 30.15 In returnning shall be your strength and you would not They would not have a bridle to restrain them from running into the pit nor be hedged in by the Law tho for their security As if they thought it too slavish and low Spirited a thing to be guided by the Will of another Hence man is compared to a Wild-Ass that loves to snuff up the wind in the Wilderness at her pleasure rather than come under the guidance of God * Jer. 2 2â— From whatsoever quarter of the Heavens you pursue her she will run to the other The Israelites could not indure what was Commanded * Heb. 12 â—â— tho in regard of the Moral part agreeable to what they found written in their own Nature And to the observance whereof they had the highest obligations of any people under Heaven since God had by many prodigies delivered them from a cruel slavery The memory of which prefac'd the Decalogue Exod. 20.2 I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of bondage They could not think of the rule of their duty but they must reflect upon the grand incentive of it in their Redemption from Aegyptian thraldome Yet this people were cross to God which way soever he moved When they were in the Brick-kilns they cryed for deliverance when they had heavenly Manna they longed for their Onions and Garlick In Num. 14.3 They repent of their deliverance from Egypt and talk of returning again to seek the Remedy of their Evils in the hands of their cruellest Enemies and would rather put themselves into the Irons whence God had delivered them than believe one word of the Promise of God for giving them a fruitful Land But when Moses tells them Gods Order that they should turn back by the way of the Red-Sea * ver 25. and that God had confirmed it by an Oath that they should not see the Land of Canaan * ver 28. They then run cross to this Command of God and instead of marching towards the Red-Sea which they had wished for before they will go up to Canaan as in spight of God and his threatning We will go to the Place which the Lord hath promised v. 40. which Moses calls a Transgressing the Comandment of the Lord v. 41. They would presume to go up notwithstanding Moses his Prohibition and are smitten by the Amalekites When God gives them a Precept with a Promise to go up to Canaan they long for Egypt when God commands them to return to the Red-Sea which was nearer to the place they longed for they will shift sides and go up to Canaan * Num. 21.4 5. Daillê Serm. 1 Cor. 10. Ser. 9 p. 234. 235. 40. And when they found they were to traverse the Solitudes of the Desart they took Pett against God and instead of thanking him for the late Victory against the Cananites they reproach him for his Conduct from Egypt and the Manna wherewith he nourished them in the Wilderness They would not go to Canaan the way God had chosen nor preserve themselves by the means God had ordained They would not be at Gods disposal but complain of the badness of the way and the lightness of Manna empty of any necessary juyce to sustain their Nature They murmuringly sollicite the Will and Power of God to change all that Order which he had resolved in his Council and take another conformable to their vain foolish desires And they signified thereby that they would invade his Conduct and that he should act according to their fancy which the Psalmist calls a tempting of God and limiting the Holy One of Israel Psal 78.41 To what point soever the Declarations of God stand the Will of Man turns the quite contrary way Is not the carriage of this Nation the best then in the world A discovery of the depth of our natural corruption how cross Man is to God And that charge God brings against them may be brought against all men by Nature that they despise his Judgements and have a rooted Abhorrency of his Statutes in their Soul Levit. 26.43 No sooner had they recovered from one Rebellion but they revolted to another So difficult a thing it is for mans nature to be rendred capable of conforming to the Will of God The carriage of this People is but a Copy of the Nature of Mankind and is written for our admonition 1 Cor. 10.11 From this temper men are said to make void the Law of God * Psal 119.126 To make it of no obligation an antiquated and moth-eaten Record And the Pharisees by setting up their
sports much less the powers of the Soul whereby t is evident we prefer the latter before any service to God Since there is a fulness of Animal Spirits why might they not be excited in holy duties as well as in other operations but that there is a reluctancy in the Soul to exercise its Supremacy in this case and perform any thing becoming a Creature in subjection to God as a Ruler 2. T is evident also in the distractions we have in his service How loth are we to serve God fixedly one hour nay a part of an hour notwithstanding all the thoughts of his Majesty and the Eternity of glory set before our eye What man is there since the fall of Adam that served God one hour without many wandrings and unsutable thoughts unfit for that service How ready are our hearts to start out and unite themselves with any worldly objects that please us 3. Weariness in it evidenceth it To be weary of our dulness signifies a desire to be weary of service signifies a discontent to be ruled by God How tired are we in the performance of Spiritual duties when in the vain triflings of time we have a perpetual motion How will many willingly revel whole nights when their hearts will flag at the Threshold of a Religious service Like Dagon * 1 Sam. 5.4 lose both our heads to think and hands to act when the Ark of God is present Some in the Prophet wished the new Moon and the Sabbath over that they might sell their Corn and be busied again in their worldly affairs * Amos 8.5 A slight and weariness of the Sabbath was a slight of the Lord of the Sabbath and of that freedom from the Yoke and rule of sin which was signified by it The design of the Sacrifices in the new Moon was to signifie a rest from the tyranny of sin and a consecration to the Spiritual service of God Servants that are quickly weary of their work are weary of the Authority of their Master that enjoyns it If our hearts had a value for God it would be with us as with the needle to the Load-stone there would be upon his beck a speedy motion to him and a fixed union with him When the Judgments and affections of the Saints shall be fully refined in glory they shall be willing to behold the face of God and be under his Government to Eternity without any weariness As the holy Angels have owned God as their Soveraign neer these six thousand years without being weary of running on his Errands But alas while the flesh clogs us there will be some Reliques of unwillingness to hear his Injunctions and weariness in performing them tho men may excuse those things by extrinsick causes yet Gods unerring Judgment calls it a weariness of himself Isa 43.22 Thou hast not called upon me oh Jacob but thou hast been weary of me ch Israel Of this he taxeth his own people when he tells them he would have the beasts of the Field The Dragons and the Owls the Gentiles that the Jews counted no better than such to honour him and acknowledge him their rule in a way of duty ver 20.21 6. This contempt is seen in a deserting the rule of God when our expectations are not answered upon our service When services are performed from carnal principles they are soon cast off when carnal ends meet not with desired satisfaction But when we own our selves Gods Servants and God our Master our eyes will wait upon him till he have mercy on us * Psal 123.2 T is one part of the duty we owe to God as our Master in Heaven to continue in Prayer Col. 4.1 2. And by the same reason in all other service and to watch in the same with thanksgiving To watch for occasions of praise to watch with chearfulness for further manifestations of his Will strength to perform it success in the performance that we may from all draw matter of praise As we are in a posture of obedience to his precepts so we should be in a posture of waiting for the blessing of it But naturally we reject the duty we owe to God if he do not speed the blessing we expect from him How many do secretly mutter the same as they in Job 21.15 What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit shall we have if we Pray to him They serve not God out of Conscience to his Commands but for some carnal profit and if God make them to wait for it they will not stay his leasure but cease solliciting him any longer Two things are exprest that God was not worthy of any Homage from them What is the Almighty that we should serve him and that the service of him would not bring them in a good Revenue or an advantage of that kind they expected Interest drives many men on to some kind of service and when they do not find an advance of that they will acknowledge God no more but like some beggers if you give them not upon their asking and calling you good Master from blessing they will turn to cursing How often do men do that secretly practically if not plainly which Jobs Wife advised him to Curse God and cast off that disguise of integrity they had assumed Job 2.9 Dost thou still retain thy integrity Curse God What a stir and puling and crying is here Cast off all thoughts of Religious service and be at Daggers drawing with that God who for all thy service of him has made thee so wretched a spectacle to men and a banquet for worms The like temper is deciphered in the Jews Mal. 3.14 T is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances that we have walked mournfully before the Lord What profit is it that we have regarded his Statutes and carryed our selves in a way of subjection to God as our Soveraign when we inherit nothing but sorrow and the Idolatrous Neighbors swim in all kind of pleasures as if it were the most miserable thing to acknowledge God If men have not the benefits they expect they think God unrighteous in himself and injurious to them in not conferring the favour they imagine they have merited And if they have not that recompence they will deny God that subjection they owe to him as Creatures Grace moves to God upon a sense of duty corrupt nature upon a sense of Interest Sincerity is encouraged by gracious returns but is not melted away by Gods delay or refusal Corrupt nature would have God at its back and steers a course of duty by hope of some carnal profit not by a sense of the Soveraignty of God 7. This contempt is seen in breaking promises with God * Reyn. One while the Conscience of a man makes vows of new obedience and perhaps binds himself with many an Oath but they prove like Jonahs Gourd withering the next day after their birth This was Pharaohs
forsaken my Law and walked after the imaginations of their own heart When an act is known to be a sin and the Law that forbids it acknowledg'd to be the Law of God and after this a we persist in that which is contrary to it we tax his wisdom as if he did not understand what was convenient for us we would teach God knowledge * Job 21◠'t is an implicite wish that God had laid aside the holiness of his nature and framed a Law to pleasure our lusts When God calls for weeping and mourning and girding with sackcloth upon approaching Judgments then the corrupt heart is for joy and gladness eating of Flesh and drinking of Wine because to morrow they should die * Isa 〈◊〉 13. As if God had mistaken himself when he ordered them so much sorrow when their lives were so near an end and had lost his understanding when he ordered such a precept Disobedience is therefore called contention Rom. 2.8 Cententious and obey not the truth Contention against God whose truth it is that they disobey a dispute with him which hath more of wisdom in it self and conveniency for them his truth or their imaginations The more the love goodness and holiness of God appears in any command the more are we naturally averse from it and cast an imputation on him as if he were foolish unjust cruel and that we could have advised and directed him better The goodness of God is eminent to us in appointing a day for his own worship wherein we might converse with him and he with us and our souls be refresht with spiritual Communications from him and we rather use it for the ease of our bodies than the advancement of our souls as if God were mistaken and injured his Creature when he urg'd the spiritual part of duty Every disobedience to the Law is an implicite giving Law to him and a charge against him that he might have provided better for his Creature 2. In disapproving the methods of Gods government of the world If the Counsels of Heaven roul not about according to their schemes instead of adoring the unsearchable depths of his judgments they call him to the bar and accuse him because they are not fitted to their narrow Vessels as if a Nut-shell could contain an Ocean As corrupt reason esteems the highest truths foolishness so it counts the most righteous ways unequal Thus we commence a suit against God as though he had not acted righteously and wisely but must give an account of his proceedings at our tribunal This is to make our selves Gods superiors and presume to instruct him better in the government of the world As though God hinder'd himself and the world in not making us of his Privy Counsel and not ordering his affairs according to the contrivances of our dim understandings Is not this manifest in our immoderate complaints of Gods dealings with his Church as though there were a coldness in Gods affections to his Church and a glowing heat toward◠it only in us Hence are those importunate desires for things which are not established by any promise as though we would over-rule and over-perswade God to comply with our humour We have an ambition to be Gods Tutors and direct him in his Counsels Who hath been his Counsellor saith the Apostle * Rom. 11.34 Who ought not to be his Counsellor saith corrupt nature Men will find fault with God in what he suffers to be done according to their own minds when they feel the bitter fruit of it When Cain had kill'd his brother and his Conscience rackt him how sawcily and discontedly doth he answer God Gen. 4.9 Am I my brothers keeper Since thou dost own thy self the Rector of the world thou shouldst have preserved his person from my fury since thou dost accept his Sacrifice before my Offering preservation was due as well as acceptance If this temper be found on earth no wonder it is lodged in hell That deplorable person under the sensible stroke of Gods Soveraign justice would oppose his Nay to Gods will Luke 16.30 And he said nay Father Abraham but if one went to them from the dead they will repent He would presume to prescribe more effectual means than Moses and the Prophets to inform men of the danger they incurr'd by their sensuality David was displeas'd it 's said 2 Sam. 6.8 When the Lord had made a breach upon Vzzah not with Vzzah who was the object of his pity but with God who was the inflicter of that punishment When any of our friends have been struck with a Rod against our Sentiments and wishes have not our hearts been apt to swell in complaints against God as though he disregarded the goodness of such a person did not see with our eyes and measure him by our esteem of him As if he should have ask'd our Counsel before he had resolved and managed himself according to our will rather than his own If he be patient to the wicked we are apt to tax his holiness and accuse him as an enemy to his own Law If he inflict severity upon the righteous we are ready to suspect his goodness and charge him to be an enemy to his affectionate Creature If he spare the Nimrods of the World we are ready to ask where is the God of Judgment * Mal 2.17 If he afflict the Pillars of the Earth we are ready to question where is the God of Mercy 'T is impossible since the depraved nature of man and the various interests and passions in the world that infinite power and wisdome can act righteously for the good of the Universe but he will shake some corrupt interest or other upon the earth so various are the inclinations of men and such a Weather-cock Judgment hath every man in himself that the divine method he applauds this day upon a change of his interest he will cavil at the next 'T is impossible for the just orders of God to please the same person many weeks scarce many minutes together God must cease to be God or to be a holy if he should manage the concerns of the world according to the fancies of men How unreasonable is it thus to impose Laws upon God Must God revoke his own orders Govern according to the dictates of his Creature Must God who hath only power and wisdom to sway the Scepter become the obedient Subject of every mans humour and manage every thing to serve the design of a simple Creature This is not to be God but to set the Creature in his Throne Though this be not formally done yet that it is interpretatively and practically done is every hours experience 3. In impatience in our particular concerns 'T is ordinary with man to charge God in his complaints in the time of affliction Therefore 't is the commendation the Holy Ghost gives to Job Job 1.22 That in all this that is in those many waves that roll'd over him he did not charge
Job 18.4 Joseph had reason to be displeased with his Brothers if they had muttered because he gave Benjamin a double portion and the rest a single It was unfit that they who had deserved no gift at all should prescribe him rules how to dispense his own doles much more unworthy it is to deal so with God yet this is too rife 5. It is evidenced in corrupt matter or ends of Prayer and praise When we are importunate for those things that we know not whither the righteousness holiness and wisdom of God can grant because he hath not discovered his Will in any promise to bestow them we would then impose such conditions on God which he never oblidged himself to grant when we pray for things not so much to glorifie God which ought to be the end of Prayer as to gratifie our selves We acknowledg indeed by the act of petitioning that there is a God but we would have him un-God himself to be at our beck and debase himself to serve our turns When we desire those things which are repugnant to those attributes whereby he doth manage the Government of the world When by some superficial services we think we have gained indulgence to sins Which seems to be the thought of the Strumpet in her paying her vows to wallowmore freely in the mire of her sensual pleasures * Pro. 7.14 I have peace offerings with me this day I have paid my vows I have made my peace with God and have entertainment for thee Or when men desire God to bless them in the Commission of some sin As when Balack and Balaam offered Sacrifices that they might prosper in the Cursing of the Israelites Numb 25.1 c. So for a Man to pray to God to save him while he neglects the means of Salvation appointed by God Or to renew him when he slights the Word the only Instrument to that purpose This is to impose Laws upon God contrary to the declared Will and wisdom of God and to desire him to slight his own institutions When we come into the presence of God with lusts reeking in our hearts and leap from sin to duty we would impose the Law of our corruption on the holiness of God While we pray the Will of God may be done self-love wishes its own will may be performed as tho God should serve our humors when we will not obey his precepts And when we make vows under any affliction what is it often but a secret conontrivance to bend and flatter him to our conditions We will serve him if he will restore us we think thereby to compound the business with him and bring him down to our terms 6. T is evidenced In positive and bold interpretations of the Judgments of God in the world To interpret the Judgments of God to the disadvantage of the sufferer unless it be an unusual Judgment and have a remarkable hand of God in it and the sin be rendred plainly legible in the affliction is a presumption of this nature When men will Judge the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with the Sacrifices greater sinners than others and themselves righteous because no drops of it were dasht upon them Or when Shimei being of the House of Saul shall Judge according to his own interest and desires Davids flight upon Absoloms rebellion to be a punishment for invading the rights of Sauls Family and depriving him of the succession in the Kingdom 2 Sam. 16.5 as if he had been of Gods Privy Counsel when he decreed such acts of Justice in the world Thus we would fasten our own Wills as a Law or motive upon God and interpret his acts according to the Motions of self Is it not too ordinary when God sends an affliction upon those that bear ill will to us to Judge it to be a righting of our cause to be a fruit of Gods concern for us in revenging our wrongs as if we had heard the secrets of God or as Eliphaz saith had turned over the records of heaven Job 15.8 This is a judgment according to self-love not a divine rule and imposeth Laws upon Heaven implying a secret wish that God would take care only of them make our concerns his own not in ways of kindness and justice but according to our fancies And this is common in the prophane World in those curses they so readily spit out upon any affront as if God were bound to draw his Arrowes and shoot them into the heart of all their offenders at their beck and pleasure 7. It is evidenc'd In mixing rules for the worship of God with those which have been ordered by him Since men are most prone to live by sense 't is no wonder that a sensible worship which affects their outward sence with some kind of amazement is dear to them and spiritual worship most loathsome Pompous rites have been the great Engine wherewith the Devil hath deceived the souls of men and wrought them to a nauseating the simplicity of divine worship as unworthy the Majesty and excellency of God * 2 Cor. 11.3 Thus the Jews would not understand the glory of the second Temple in the presence of the Messiah because it had not the pompous grandeur of that of Solomons erecting Hence in all Ages men have been forward to disfigure Gods models and dress up a brat of their own as though God had been defective in providing for his own honour in his institutions without the assistance of his Creature This hath alwayes been in the world the old World had their imaginations and the new World hath continued them The Israelites in the midst of miracles and under the memory of a famous deliverance would erect a Calf The Pharises that sate in Moses Chair would coyn new Traditions and enjoyn them to be as currant as the Law of God * Mat. 13.6 Papists will be blending the Christian appointments with Pagan Ceremonies to please the carnal fancies of the common people Altars have been multiplied under the knowledge of the Law of God * Hos 8.12 Interest is made the ballance of the conveniency of Gods injunctions Jeroboam fitted a worship to politick ends and posted up Calves to prevent his subjects revolting from his Scepter which might be occasioned by their resort to Hierusalem and converse with the body of the people from whom they were separated * 1 Kings 12.27 Men will be putting in their own dictates with Gods Laws and are unwilling he should be the sole Governour of the World without their Counsel They will not suffer him to be Lord of that which is purely and solely his concern How often hath the practice of the Primitive Church the Custom wherein we are bred the Sentiments of our Ancestors been owned as a more authentick rule in matters of Worship than the mind of God delivered in his word 'T is natural by Creation to worship God and it is as natural by corruption for man to worship him in
Friend to our lusts and then dig deep into the Scripture to find Crutches to support it and authorize our practices When men will thank God for what they have got by unlawful means Fathering the fruit of their cheating craft and the simplicity of their Chapmen upon God Crediting their Cousenage by his Name as men do brass mony with a thin plate of silver and the stamp and image of the Prince The Jews urge the Law of God for the crucifying his Son John 19.7 We have a Law and by that Law he is to dye And would make him a Party in their private Revenge * Sanaerson's S. Part. 2. P. 158. Thus often when we have faultered in some actions we wipe our mouths as if we sought God more than our own interest prostituting the sacred Name and Honour of God either to hatch or defend some unworthy lust against his Word Is not all this a high degree of Atheism 1. 'T is a vilifying God an abuse of the highest good Other sins subject the Creature and outward things to them but acting in Religious services for self subjects not only the highest concernments of mens Souls but the Creator himself to the Creature Nay to make God contribute to that which is the pleasure of the Devil A greater slight than to cast the gifts of a Prince to a Herd of nasty Swine It were more excusable to serve our selves of God upon the higher accounts such that materially conduce to his glory but it is an intolerable wrong to make Him and his Ordinances Caterers for our own bellies as they did * Hos â—8 13 Vid. Cocc in locum They sacrificed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the Offerer might eat not out of any reference to God but love to their Gluttony not to please him but feast themselves The Belly was truly made the God when God was served only in order to the Belly As though the blessed God had his Being and his Ordinances were enjoyned to pleasure their foolish and wanton Appetites As though the Work of God were only to patronize unrighteous ends and be as bad as themselves and become a Pander to their corrupt affections 2. Because it is a vilifying of God It is an undeifying or dethroning God 'T is an acting as if we were the Lords and God our Vassal A setting up those secular ends in the place of God who ought to be our ultimate end in every action to whom a glory is as due as his mercy to us is utterly unmerited by us He that thinks to cheat and put the Fool upon God by his pretences doth not heartily believe there is such a Being He could not have the Notion of a God without that of Omniscience and Justice an eye to see the cheat and an Arm to punish it The Notion of the one would direct him in the manner of his Services and the Sense of the other would scare him from the cherishing his unworthy ends He that serves God with a sole respect to himself is prepared for any Idolatry his Religion shall warp with the times and his interest he shall deny the true God for an Idol when his worldly interest shall advise him to it and pay the same Reverence to the basest Image which he pretends now to pay to God As the Israelites were as real for Idolatry under their basest Princes as they were Pretenders to the true Religion under those that were Pious Before I come to the use of this give me leave to evince this practical Atheism by two other Considerations 1. Vnworthy Imaginations of God The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God That is he is not such a God as you report him to be This is meant by their being corrupt in the 2. v. corrupt being taken for playing the Idolaters Exod. 32.7 We cannot comprehend God if we could we should cease to be finite and because we cannot comprehend him we erect strange Images of him in our fancies and affections And since guilt came upon us because we cannot root out the Notions of God we would debase the Majesty and Nature of God that we may have some ease in our Consciences and lye down with some comfort in the sparks of our own kindling This is universal in men by Nature God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 Not in any of his thoughts according to the excellency of his Nature and greatness of his Majesty As the Heathen did not glorify God as God so neither do they conceive of God as God They are all infected with some one or other ill opinion of him thinking him not so holy powerful just good as he is and as the natural force of a human understanding might arrive to VVe joyn a new Notion of God in our vain fancies and represent him not as he is but as we would have him to be fit for our own use and suted to our own pleasure VVe set that active power of imagination on work and there comes out a God a Calf whom we own for a Notion of God Adam cast him into so narrow a mould as to think that himself who had newly sprouted up by his Almighty power was fit to be his Corrival in knowledge and had vain hopes to grasp as much as infiniteness If he in his first declining begun to have such a conceit t is no doubt but we have as bad under a mass of Corruption VVhen holy Agur speaks of God he crys out that he had not the understanding of a Man nor the knowledge of the holy * Pro. 30.2.3 He did not think rationally of God as Man might by his strength at his first Creation There are as many Carved Images of God as there are minds of Men and as monstrous shapes as those Corruptions into which they would transform him Hence sprang 1. Idolatry Vain Imaginations first set afloat and kept up this in the world * Rom. 1 2â—.23 Vain Imaginations of the God whose glory they changed into the Image of corruptible Man They had set up vain Images of him in their fancy before they set up Idolatrous representations of him in their Temples The likening him to those Idols of Wood and Stone and various metals were the fruit of an Idea Erected in their own minds This is a mighty debasing the Divine nature and rendring him no better than that base and stupid matter they make the visible object of their adoration equalling him with those base Creatures they think worthy to be the representations of him Yet how far did this Crime spread it self in all Corners of the world not only among the more barbarous and Ignorant but the more polisht and Civilized Nations Judea only where God had placed the Ark of his presence being free from it in some intervals of time only after some sweeping Judgment And tho they vomited up their Idols undersome sharp scourge they licked them up again after the Heavens were
directions upon emergent occasions In counting the actions of others to be good or bad as they sute with or spurn against our fancies and humors Man would make himself the Rule of God and give laws to his Creator In striving against his Law Disapproving of his Methods of Government in the world in impatience in our particular concerns envying the gifts and prosperity of others Corrupt matter or ends of Prayer or praise Bold interpretations of the Judgments of God in the world Mixing Rules in the Worship of God with those which have been ordained by him Suting interpretations of Scripture with our own minds and humors Falling off from God after some fair compliances when his Will grates upon us and crosseth ours 2. Man would be his own end This is natural and universal This is seen in frequent self applauses and inward overweening reflections In ascribing the glory of what we do or have to our selves In desire of self pleasing Doctrines In being highly concerned in injuries done to our selves and little or not at all concerned for injuries done to God In trusting in our selves In workings for Carnal self against the light of our own Consciences this is a usurping Gods prerogative vilifying God destroying God Man would make any thing his end or happiness rather than God This appears in the fewer thoughts we have of him than of any thing else In the greedy pursuit of the world In the strong addictedness to sensual pleasures In paying a service upon any success in the world to instruments more than to God This is a debasing God in setting up a Creature But more in setting up a base lust T is a denying of God Man would make himself the end of all Creatures In pride using the Creatures contrary to the end God hath appointed This is to dishonour God And it is Diabolical Man would make himself the end of God In loving God because of some self pleasing benefits distributed by him In abstinence from some sins because they are against the interest of some other beloved Corruption In performing duties meerly for a selfish interest which is evident in unwealdiness in Religious duties where self is not concern'd In calling upon God only in a time of necessity In begging his assistance to our own projects after we have by our own Craft laid the Plot. In impatience upon a refusal of our desires In selfish aims we have in our duties This is a vilifying God a dethroning him In unworthy imaginations of God universal in Man by nature Hence spring Idolatry Superstition Presumption the common disease of the world This is a vilifying God worse than Idolatry worse than absolute Atheism Natural desires to be distant from him No desires for the remembrance of him No desires of converse with him No desires of a through return to him No desire of any close imitation of him A DISCOURSE UPON GODS BEING A SPIRIT JOHN 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth THE words are part of the Dialogue between our Saviour * Amiraut Paraph. sur Jean and the Samaritan Woman Christ intending to return from Judea to Galilee passed through the Country of Samaria a place inhabited not by Jews but a mixt Company of several Nations and some remainders of the posterity of Israel who escaped the Captivity and were returned from Assyria and being weary with his Journey arrived about the sixth hour or noon according to the Jews reckoning the time of the day at a Well that Jacob had digged which was of great account among the Inhabitants for the Antiquity of it as well as the usefulness of it in supplying their necessities He being thirsty and having none to furnish him wherewith to draw water at last comes a Woman from the City whom he desires to give him some water to drink The Woman perceiving him by his Language or Habit to be a Jew wonders at the question since the hatred the Jews bore the Samaritans was so great that they would not vouchsafe to have any Commerce with them not only in Religious but Civil affairs and Common Offices belonging to Man-kind Hence our Saviour takes occasion to publish to her the Doctrine of the Gospel and excuseth her rude Answer by her Ignorance of him And tells her that if she had askt him a greater matter even that which concern'd her Eternal Salvation he would readily have granted it notwithstanding the rooted hatred between the Jews and Samaritans and bestowed a water of a greater vertue the water of life * ver 10. Or living water The Woman is no less astonished at his reply than she was at his first demand It was strange to hear a Man speak of giving living water to one of whom he had beg'd the water of that Spring and had no Vessel to draw any to quench his own thirst She therefore demands whence he could have this water that he speaks of * ver 11. since she conceived him not greater than Jacob who had digged that Well and drunk of it Our Saviour desirous to mak a progress in that work he had begun extols the Water he spake of above this of the Well from its particular vertue fully to refresh those that drank of it and be as a Cooling and Comforting Fountain within them of more efficacy than that without * ver 13.14 The Woman conceiving a good opinion of our Saviour desires to partake of this Water to save her pains in coming dayly to the Well not apprehending the Spirituality of Christs discourse to her * ver 15. Christ finding her to take some pleasure in his Discourse partly to bring her to a sense of her sin before he did Communicate the excellency of his grace bids her return back to the City and bring her Husband with her to him * ver 16. She freely acknowledges that she had no Husband whether having some check of Conscience at present for the unclean life she led or loth to lose so much time in the gaining this water so much desired by her * ver 17. Our Saviour takes an occasion from this to lay open her sin before her and to make her sensible of her own wicked life and the prophetick excellency of himself and tells her she had had five Husbands to whom she had been false and by whom she was divorced and the person she now dwelt with was not her lawful Husband and in living with him she violated the Rights of Marriage and encreased guilt upon her Conscience * ver 18. The Woman being affected with this discourse and knowing him to be stranger that could not be certified of those things but in an extraordinary way begins to have a high esteem of him as a Prophet * 〈◊〉 19. And upon this opinion she esteems him able to decide a question which had been Canvast between them and the Jews about the place of Worship
had a body t is impossible to mould an Image of it in the true glory of that body Can the Statue of an excellent Monarch represent the Majesty and air of his Countenance tho made by the skilfullest workman in the world If God had a body in some measure suted to his excellency were it possible for Man to make an exact Image of him who cannot picture the light heat motion magnitude and dazling property of the Sun The excellency of any Corporeal nature of the least Creature the temper instinct artifice are beyond the power of a Carving tool much more is God 2. To make any Corporeal representations of God is unworthy of God 'T is a disgrace to his nature Whosoever thinks a Carnal corruptible Image to be fit for a representation of God renders God no better than a Carnal and Corporeal being 'T is a kind of debasing an Angel who is a Spiritual nature to represent him in a bodily shape who is as far removed from any fleshliness as Heaven from Earth much more to degrade the glory of the Divine nature to the lineaments of a man The whole stock of Images is but a lie of God Jer. 10 8 14. A Doctrin of vanities and falsehood It represents him in a false garb to the world and sinks his glory into that of a corruptible Creature * Rom. 1.25 It impairs the reverence of God in the minds of men and by degrees may debase mens apprehensions of God * Rom. 1.22 and be a means to make them believe he is such a one as themselves and that not being free from the figure he is not also free from the imperfections of their bodies Corporeal Images of God were the fruits of base imaginations of him and as they sprung from them so they contribute to a greater corruption of the notions of the Divine nature The Heathens begun their first representations of him by the Image of a corruptible Man then of birds till they descended not only to four footed beasts but creeping things even Serpents as the Apostle seems to intimate in his enumeration Rom. 1.23 It had been more honourable to have continued in human representations of him than have sunk so low as beasts and Serpents the baser Images tho the first had been infinitely unworthy of him he being more above a man though the noblest Creature than Man is above a Worm a Toad or the most despicable creeping thing upon the Earth To think we can make an Image of God of a piece of Marble or an Ingot of Gold is a greater debasing of him than it would be of a great Prince if you should represent him in the statue of a Frog When the Israelites represented God by a Calf 't is said they sinned a great sin Exod. 32.31 And the sin of Jeroboam who intended only a representation of God by the Calves at Dan and Bethel is called more emphatically * Hosea 10.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wickedness of your wickedness the very skum and dreggs of wickedness As men debased God by this so God debased men for this he degraded the Israelites into Captivity under the worst of their Enemies and punished the Heathens with spiritual Judgments as uncleaness through the lusts of their own hearts Rom. 1.24 which is repeated again in other expressions v. 26 27. as a meet recompence for their disgracing the spiritual nature of God Had God been like to Man they had not offended in it But I mention this to shew a probable reason of those base lusts which are in the midst of us that have scarce been exceeded by any Nation viz. the unworthy and unspiritual conceits of God which are as much a debasing of him as material Images were when they were more rife in the world and may be as well the cause of those spiritual Judgments upon men as the worshipping molten and carved Images were the cause of the same upon the Heathen 3. Yet this is natural to Man Wherein we may see the contrariety of Man to God Though God be a Spirit yet there is nothing Man is more prone to than to represent him under a corporeal form The most famous Guides of the Heathen world have fashioned him not only according to the more honourable Images of men but beastialized him in the form of a Brute The Egyptians whose Country was the School of Learning to Greece were notoriously guilty of this brutishness in worshiping an Ox for an Image of their God and the Philistines their Dagon in a figure composed of the Image of a Woman and a Fish * Daille super Cor. 1.10 Ser. 3. Such representations were ancient in the Oriental parts The Gods of Laban that he accuseth Jacob of stealing from him are supposed to be little figures of men * Gen. 31.30.34 Such was the Israelites Golden-Calf their worship was not terminated on the Image but they worshipped the true God under that representation They could not be so brutish as to call a Calf their Deliverer and give so him great a Title these be thy Gods oh Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt Exod. 32.4 or that which they knew belonged to the true God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. * Gen. 3.16 17. They knew the Calf to be formed of their Ear-rings but they had consecrated it to God as a representation of him Though they chose the form of the Egyptian Idol yet they knew that Apis Osiris and Isis the Gods the Egyptians adored in that figure had not wrought their Redemption from Bondage but would have used their force had they been possessed of any to have kept them under the Yoke rather than have freed them from it The Feast also which they celebrated before that Image is called by Aaron the Feast of the Lord Exod. 32.5 a Feast to Jehovah the incommunicable name of the Creator of the world 'T is therefore evident that both the Priest and the People pretended to serve the true God not any false Divinity of Egypt That God who had rescued them from Egypt with a mighty hand divided the Red-Sea before them destroyed their Enemies conducted them fed them by miracle spoken to them from Mount Sinai and amazed them by his Thundrings and Lightnings when he instructed them by his Law a God they could not so soon forget And with this representing God by that Image they are charged by the Psalmist Psal 106.19 20. they made a Calf in Horeb and changed their glory into the similitude of an Ox that eateth Grass They changed their glory that is God the glory of Israel so that they took this figure for the Image of the true God of Israel their own God not the God of any other Nation in the world Jeroboam intended no other by his Calves but Symbols of the presence of the true God instead of the Ark and the Propitiatory which remained among the Jews We see the inclination
knovv vvhat is contrary to it self God knovvs all Created goodness vvhich he hath planted in the Creature he knovvs then all defects from this goodness what Perfection an act is deprived of what is opposite to that goodness and that is evil As we know Sickness by Health Discord by Harmony Blindness by Sight because it is a privation of Sight whosoever knows one contrary knows the other God knows unrighteousness by the Idea which he hath of Righteousness and sees an act deprived of that rectitude and goodness which ought to be in it he knows evil because he knows the causes whence evil proceeds Cusan p 245. A Painter knows a Picture of his own framing and if any one dashes any base colour upon it shall not he also know that God by his hand Painted all Creatures imprest upon man the fair stamp and colour of his own Image the Devil defiles it man daubs it Doth not God that knows his own Work know how this Piece is become different from his Work Doth not God that knows his Creatures goodness which himself was the Fountain of know the change of this goodness Yea he knew before that the Devil would sow Tares where he had sown Wheat and therefore that Controversy of some in the Schools Whether God knew evil by its opposition to Created or Uncreated goodness is needless We may say God knows Sin as it is opposite to Created goodness yet he knows it radically by his own goodness because he knows the goodness he hath communicated to the Creature by his own Essential goodness in himself To conclude this head The knowledg of Sin doth not bespot the Holiness of Gods nature for the bare knowledg of a Crime doth not infect the mind of man with the Filth and Pollution of that Crime for then every man that knows an act of Murder committed by another would by that bare knowledg be tainted with his Sin yea and a Judg that condemns a Malefactor may as well Condemn himself if this were so The Knowledg of Sins infects not the understanding that knows them but only the Will that approves them 'T is no discredit to us to know evil in order to pass a right Judgment upon it so neither can it be to God 4. God knows all future things all things to come The differences of time cannot hinder a knowledg of all things by him who is before time above time that is not measured by hours or days or years If God did not know them the hindrance must be in himself or in the things themselves because they are things to come Not in himself If it did it must arise from some impotency in his own nature and so we render him weak or from an unwillingness to know and so we render him lazy and an Enemy to his ovvn Perfection for simply considered the knovvledg of more things is a greater Perfection than the knovvledg of a fevv and if the knovvledg of a thing includes something of Perfection the ignorance of a thing includes something of Imperfection The knovvledg of future things is a greater Perfection than not to knovv them and is accounted among men a great part of Wisdom vvhich they call fore-sight 't is then surely a greater Perfection in God to knovv â—â—ure things than to be ignorant of them And vvould God rather have something of imperfection than be possessor of all Perfection Nor doth the hindrance lye in the things themselves because their futurition depends upon his Will for as nothing can actually be without his Will giving it existence so nothing can be future without his Will designing the futurity of it Certainly if God knows all things possible which he will not do he must know all things future which he is not only able but resolved to do or resolved to permit Gods perfect knowledg of himself that is of his own infinite Power and concluding Will necessarily includes a foreknowledg of what he is able to do and what he will do Again If God doth not know future things there was a time when God was ignorant of most things in the World for before the Deluge he was more ignorant than after the more things were done in the World the more Knowledg did accrue to God and so the more Perfection then the Understanding of God was not perfect from Eternity but in Time nay is not perfect yet if he be ignorant of those things which are still to come to pass he must tarry for a Perfection he wants till those futurities come to be in act till those things which are to come cease to be future and begin to be present Either God knows them or desires to know them if he desires to know them and doth not there is something wanting to him all desire speaks an absence of the object desired and a sentiment of want in the person desiring If he doth not desire to know them nay if he doth not actually know them it destroys all Providence all his Government of Affairs for his Providence hath a concatenation of means with a prospect of something that is future As in Joseph's Case who was put into the Pit and sold to the Egyptians in order to his future advancement and the Preservation both of his Father and his envious Brethren If God did not know all the future inclinations and actions of men something might have been done by the Will of Potiphar or by the Free-will of Pharaoh whereby Joseph might have been cut short of his advancement and so God have been interrupted in the track and method of his designed Providences He that hath decreed to govern man for that end he hath design'd him knows all the means before whereby he will govern him and therefore hath a distinct and certain knowledg of all things for a confus'd knowledg is an imperfection in Government 't is in this the infiniteness of his Understanding is more seen than in knowing things past or present his eyes are a flame of fire Revel 1.14 in regard of the penetrating vertue of them into things impenetrable by any else To make it further appear that God knows all things future consider 1. First Every thing which is the object of Gods Knowledg without himself was once only future There was a moment when nothing was in Being but himself he knew nothing actually past because nothing was past nothing actually present because nothing had any existence but himself therefore only what was future and why not every thing that is future now as well as only what was future and to come to pass just at the beginning of the Creation God indeed knovvs every thing as present but the things themselves known by him were not present but future the whole Creation was once future or else it was from Eternity if it begun in time it was once future in it self else it could never have begun to be Did not God know what would be Created by him before it was Created by
English Word to express the act of the Vnderstanding as his power is co-eternal with him so is his knowledg all times past present and to come are embrac'd in the Bosom of his Understanding he fixed all things in their Seasons that nothing new comes to him nothing old passes from him Damianus What is done in a Thousand years is as actually present with his Knowledg as what is done in one day or in one Watch in the night is with ours Since a Thousand years are no more to God than a day or a Watch in the Night is to us Psal 90.4 God is in the highest degree of Being and therefore in the highest degree of Understanding Knowledg is one of the most perfect acts in any Creature God therefore hath all Actual as well as Essential and Habitual knowledg his Vnderstanding is infinite IV. The fourth general is Reasons to prove this Reas 1. God must know what any Creature knows and more than any Creature knows There is nothing done in the World but is known by some Creature or other every action is at least known by the person that acts and therefore known by the Creator vvho cannot be exceeded by any of the Creatures or all of them together and every Creature is knovvn by him since every Creature is made by him Gerhard And as God vvorks all things by an Infinite Povver so he knovvs all things by an Infinite Understanding 1. The Perfection of God requires this Gamach in 1. part Aquin. q. 14. cap. 1. p. 118. 119. All Perfections that include no Essential Defect are formally in God but knowledg includes no Essential Defect in it self therefore it is in God Knovvledg in it self is desirable and an excellency Ignorance is a defect 't is impossible that the least grain of defect can be found in the most perfect Being Since God is Wise he must be Knovving for Wisdom must have Knovvledg for the Basis of it A Creature can no more be vvise vvithout Knovvledg than he can be active vvithout Strength Novv God is only Wise Rom. 16.27 and therefore only knovving in the highest degree of Knovvledg incomprehensibly beyond all degrees of Knovvledg because infinite Again the more Spiritual any thing is the more Understanding it is The dull Body understands nothing Sense perceives but the Understanding faculty is seated in the Soul vvhich is of a spiritual nature vvhich knovvs things that are present remembers things that are past foresees many things to come What is the property of a Spiritual nature must be in a most eminent manner in the supream Spirit of the World that is in the highest degree of Spirituality and most remote from any matter Again nothing can enjoy other things but by some kind of Understanding them God hath the highest enjoyment of himself of all things he hath Created of all the Glory that accrues to him by them nothing of Perfection and Blessedness can be vvanting to him Felicity doth not consist vvith ignorance and all imperfect knovvledg is a degree of ignorance God therefore doth perfectly know himself and all things from vvhence he designs any glory to himself The most noble manner of acting must be ascribed to God as being the most noble and excellent Being to act by Knowledg is the most excellent manner of acting God hath therefore not only Knowledg but the most excellent manner of Knowledg for as it is better to know than to be ignorant so it is better to know in the most excellent manner than to have a mean and low kind of knowledg His knowledg therefore must be every way as perfect as his Essence infinite as well as that An infinite nature must have an infinite knowledg A God ignorant of any thing cannot be counted infinite for he is not infinite to whom any degree of Perfection is wanting 2. All the knowledg in any Creature is from God And you must allow God a greater and more perfect Knowledg than any Creature hath yea than all Creatures have All the drops of Knowledg any Creature hath come from God and all the knowledg in every Creature that ever was is or shall be in the whole Mass was derived from him If all those several Drops in particular Creatures were collected into one Spirit into one Creature it would be an unconceivable knowledg yet still lower than what the Author of all that knowledg hath for God cannot give more knowledg than he hath himself nor is the Creature capable of receiving so much Knowledg as God hath As the Creature is uncapable of receiving so much power as God hath for then it would be Almighty so it is uncapable of receiving so much Knowledg as God hath for then it would be God Nothing can be made by God equal to him in any thing if any thing could be made as Knowing as God it would be Eternal as God it would be the cause of all things as God The Knowledg that we poor Worms have is an Argument God uses for the asserting the greatness of his own Knowledg Psal 94.10 He that teaches man knowledg shall not he know Man hath here Knowledg ascribed to him the Author of this Knowledg is God he furnisht him with it and therefore doth in a higher manner possess it and much more than can fall under the comprehension of any Creature as the Sun enlightens all things but hath more Light in it self than it darts upon the Earth or the Heavens and shall not God eminently contain all that knowledg he imparts to the Creatures and infinitely more exact and comprehensive 3. The accusations of Conscience evidence Gods knowledg of all actions of all his Creatures Doth not Conscience check for the most secret Sins to which none are privy but a mans self the whole World beside being ignorant of his Crime do not the fears of another Judg gall the heart If a Judgment above him be fear'd an Understanding above him discerning their Secrets is confest by those fears whence can those horrors arise if there be not a Superior that understands and records the Crime What Perfection of the Divine Being can this relate unto but Omniscience What other Attribute is to be feared if God were defective in this The Condemnation of us by our own Hearts when none in the World can condemn us renders it legible that there is one greater than our hearts in respect of Knowledg who knows all things 1 John 3.20 Conscience would be a vain Principle and stingless without this it would be an easy matter to silence all its accusations and mockingly laugh in the face of its severest frowns What need any trouble themselves if none knows their Crimes but themselves Conceal'd Sins gnawing the Conscience are Arguments of Gods Omniscience of all present and past actions 4. God is the first cause of every thing every Creature is his Production Since all Creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest Worm exist by the power of God
of them this must be either out of Sloth but how incompatible is laziness to a pure and infinite activity or out of Majesty but 't is no less for the glory of his Majesty to conduct them than it was for the glory of his Power to erect them into Being he that counts nothing unworthy of his Arms to make nothing unworthy of his Understanding to know why should he count any thing unworthy of his Wisdom to govern If he knows them to neglect them it must be because he hath no Will to it or no Goodness for it either of these would be a stain upon God to want Goodness is to be Evil and to want Will is to be negligent and scornful which are inconsistent with an Infinite Active Goodness Doth a Father neglect providing for the wants of the Family which he knows or a Physician the cure of that Disease he understands God is Omniscient he therefore sees all things he is good he doth not therefore neglect any thing but conducts it to the end he appointed it There is nothing so little that can escape his Knowledg and therefore nothing so little but falls under his Providence nothing so sublime as to be above his Understanding and therefore nothing can be without the compass of his Conduct nothing can escape his Eye and therefore nothing can escape his Care nothing is known by him in vain as nothing was made by him in vain there must be acknowledg'd therefore some end of this knowledg of all his Creatures Instruct 3. Hence then will follow the certainty of a day of Judgment To what purpose can we imagine this Attribute of Omniscience so often declared and urg'd in Scripture to our consideration but in order to a government of our practise and a future Tryal Every Perfection of the Divine Nature hath sent out brighter Rays in the World than this of his Infinite Knowledg his Power hath been seen in the Being of the World and his Wisdom in the Order and Harmony of the Creatures his Grace and Mercy hath been plentifully poured out in the mission of a Redeemer and his Justice hath been elevated by the Dying-Groans of the Son of God upon the Cross But hath his Omniscience yet met with a Glory proportionable to that of his other Perfections all the Attributes of God that have appeared in some beautiful glimmerings in the World wait for a more full manifestation in Glory as the Creatures do for the manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 But especially this since it hath been less evidenced than others and as much or more abused than any it expects therefore a publick righting in the eye of the World There have been indeed some few sparks of this Perfection sensibly struck out now and then in the World in some horrors of Conscience which have made men become their own Accusers of unknown Crimes in bringing out hidden Wickedness to a publick view by various Providences This hath also been the design of sprinklings of Judgments upon several Generations as Psal 90.8 We are consumed by thy Anger and by thy Wrath we are troubled thou hast set our Iniquities before thee and our secret Sins in the light of thy Countenance The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Youth as well as secret i.e. Sins committed long ago and that with secrecy By this he hath manifested that secret Sins are not hid from his eye Tho' inward Terrors and outward Judgments have been let loose to worry men into a belief of this yet the corruptions of men would still keep a contrary notion in their minds that God hath forgotten that he hides his face from Transgression and will not regard their Impiety Psal 10.11 There must therefore be a time of Tryal for the publick demonstration of this Excellency that it may receive its due Honour by a full Testimony that no secrecy can be a shelter from it As his Justice which consists in giving every one his due could not be Glorified unless men were called to an account for their actions so neither would his Omniscience appear in its illustrious colours without such a manifestation of the secret motions of mens hearts and of Villanies done under Lock and Key when none were conscious to them but the committers of them Novv the last Judgment is the time appointed for the opening of the Books Dan. 7.10 The Book of Gods Records and Conscience the counter-part were never fully opened and read before only novv and then some some pages turn'd to in particular Judgments and out of those Books shall men be judged according to their Works Rev. 20.12 Then shall the defaced Sins be brought vvith all their circumstances to every mans memory the Counsels of mens hearts fled far from their present remembrance all the habitual knovvledg they had of their ovvn actions shall by Gods knovvledg of them be excited to an actual revievv and their vvorks not only made manifest to themselves but notorious to the World All the Words Thoughts Deeds of men shall be brought forth into the light of their ovvn minds by the infinite Light of Gods understanding reflecting on them His Knovvledg renders him an unerring Witness as vvell as his Justice a swift Witness Mal. 3.5 a svvift Witness because he shall vvithout any circuit or length of Speech convince their Consciences by an invvard illumination of them to take notice of the blackness and deformity of their hearts and vvorks In all Judgments God is somevvhat knovvn to be the searcher of hearts the time of Judgment is the time of his remembrance Hos 8.13 Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins but the great instant or now of the full glorifying it is the grand day of account This Attribute must have a time for its full Discovery and no time can be fit for it but a time of a general reckoning Justice cannot be exercis'd without Omniscience for as Justice is a giving to every one his due so there must be knowledg to discern what is due to every man the searching the heart is in order to the rewarding the works 4. This Perfection in God gives us ground to believe a Resurrection Who can think this too hard for his Power since not the least Atome of the Dust of our Bodies can escape his Knowledg An infinite Understanding comprehends every mite of a departed Carcass this will not appear impossible nor irrational to any upon a serious consideration of this excellency in God The body is perished the matter of it hath been since clothed with different forms and figures part of it hath been made the body of a Worm part of it returned to the Dust that hath been blown away by the Wind part of it hath been concocted in the Bodies of Cannibals Fish ravenous Beasts the Spirits have evaporated into Air part of the Blood melted into Water what then is the matter of the body annihilated is that wholly perished no the
by Violent Persecutions till she was establish'd in the Faith He would not expose her to so great Combats while she was weak and feeble but gave her time to fortifie her self to be render'd more capable of bearing up under them He stifled all the motions of Passion the Idolaters might have for their Superstition till Religion was in such a condition as rather to be increased and purified than extinguish'd by Opposition Paul was sâ—cured from Neroes Chains and the Nets of his Enemies till he had broke off the Chain of the Devil from many Cities of the Gentiles and catched them by the Net of the Gospel out of the Sea of the World Thus the Wisdom of God is seen in the Seasons of Judgments and Afflictions 3. It is apparent in the gracious issue of Afflictions and Penal Evils It is a part of Wisdom to bring Good out of Evil of Punishment as well as to bring Good out of Sin The Church never was so like to Heaven as when it was most Persecuted by Hell The Storms often cleans'd it and the Lance often made it more healthful Jobs Integrity had not been so clear nor his Patience so illustrious had not the Devil been permitted to afflict him God by his Wisdom out-wits Satan when he by his Temptations intends to pollute us and buffet us God orders it to purifie us he often brings the clearest light out of the thickest darkness makes Poysons to become Medicines †Turretin Serm. p. 53. Death it self the greatest Punishment in this Life and the entrance into Hell in its own Nature he hath by his Wise contrivance made to his People the Gate of Heaven and the passage into Immortality Penal Evils in a Nation often end in in a publick Advantage Troubles and Wars among a People are many times not destroying but Medicinal and cure them of that Degeneracy Luxury and Effeminateness they contracted by a long Peace 4. This Wisdom is evident in the various Ends which God brings about by Afflictions The attainment of various Ends by one and the same Means is the fruit of the Agents Prudence By the same Affliction the Wise God corrects sometimes for some base Affection excites some sleepy Grace drives out some lurking Corruption refines the Soul and ruines the Lust discovers the greatness of a Crime the Vanity of the Creature and the Sufficiency in himself The Jews bind Paul and by the Judge he is sent to Rome whiâ— his Mouth is stopt in Judea 't is open'd in one of the greatest Cities of the World and his Enemies unwittingly contribute to the increase of the knowledge of Christ by those Chains in that City ‖ Acts 28.31 that triumphed over the Earth And his afflictive Bonds added Courage and Resolution to others Phil. 1.14 Many waxing confident by my Bonds which could not in their own Nature produce such an effect but by the order and contrivance of Divine Wisdom In their own nature they would rather make them disgust the Doctrine he suffered for and cool their Zeal in the propagating of it for fear of the same disgrace and hardship they saw him suffer * Daille sur Philip. Part 1. pag. 116 117. But the Wisdom of God changed the nature of these Fetters and conducted them to the glory of his Name the encouragement of others the increase of the Gospel and the comfort of the Apostle himself Phil. 1.12 13 18. The Sufferings of Paul at Rome confirm'd the Philippians a People at a distance from thence in the Doctrine they had already received at his hands Thus God makes Sufferings sometimes which appear like Judgments to be like the Viper on Pauls hand Acts 28.6 a means to clear up Innocence and procure favour to the Doctrine among those Barbarians How often hath he multiplied the Church by Death and Massacres and increased it by those means used to annihilate it 5. The Divine Wisdom is apparent in the Deliverances he affords to other parts of the World as well as to his Church There are delicate composures curious threds in his Webs and he works them like an Artificer A goodness wrought for them curiously wrought Psal 31.19 1. In making the Creatures subservient in their Natural order to his gracious Ends and Purposes He orders things in such a manner as not to be necessitated to put forth an extraordinary Power in things which some part of the Creation might accomplish Miraculous productions would speak his Power but the ordering the Natural course of things to occasion such effects they were never intended for is one part of the glory of his Wisdom And that his Wisdom may be seen in the course of Nature he conducts the Motions of Creatures and acts them in their own strength and doth that by various windings and turnings of them which he might do in an instant by his Power in a Supernatural way Indeed sometimes he hath made Invasions on Nature and suspended the Order of their Natural Laws for a season to shew himself the Absolute Lord and Governour of Nature Yet if frequent Alterations of this nature were made they would impede the knowledge of the Nature of things and be some bar to the discovery and glory of his Wisdom which is best seen by moving the wheels of Inferiour Creatures in an exact regularity to his own Ends. He might when his little Church in Jacobs Family was like to starve in Canaan have for their preservation turn'd the Stones of the Country into Bread but he sends them down to Egypt to procure Corn that a way might be opened for their removal into that Country the Truth of his Prediction in their Captivity accomplish'd and a way made after the declaration of his great Name Jehovah both in the fidelity of his Word and the greatness of his Power in their Deliverance from that Furnace of Affliction He might have struck Goliah the Captain of the Philistines Army with a Thunderbolt from Heaven when he Blasphemed his Name and scar'd his People but he useth the Natural strength of a Stone and the Artificial motion of a Sling by the Arm of David to confront the Giant and thereby to free Judea from the ravage of a potent Enemey He might have delivered the Jews from Babylon by as strange Miracles as he used in their Deliverance from Egypt He might have plagu'd their Enemies gather'd his People into a Body and protected them by the bulwark of a Cloud and a Pillar of Fire against the Assaults of their Enemies But he uses the differences between the Persians and those of Babylon to accomplish his Ends. How sometimes hath the veering about of the Wind on a sudden been the loss of a Navy when it hath been upon the point of Victory and driven back the Destruction upon those which intended it for others And the accidental stumbling or the Natural fierceness of a Horse flung down a General in the midst of a Battle where he hath lost his life
place of the Original of their Ancestors and their affection to the Country wherein they were born might have occasioned their embracing the Idolatrous Worship of the place Afterwads the Persecutions of Antiochus scatter'd many of the Jews for their security into other Nations yet a great part and perhaps the greatest preserved their Religion and by that were obliged to come every year to Jerusalem to Offer and so were present at the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and were witnesses of the miraculous effects of it Had they not been dispers'd by Persecution had they not resided in several Countries and been acquainted with their Languages the Gospel had not so easily been diffused into several Countreys of the World The first Persecutions also raised against the Church propagated the Gospel the scattering of the Disciples enflamed their courage and dispers'd the Doctrine ‖ Acts 8.3 ccording to the Prophecy of Daniel Dan. 12.4 Many should run to and fro and knowledge should be encreased The flights and hurryings of men should enlarge the Territories of the Gospel There was not a Tribunal but the primitive Christians were cited to not a horrible Punishment but was inflicted upon them Treated they were as the dregs and offals of Mankind as the common Enemies of the World yet the Flames of the Martyrs brightned the Doctrine and the Captivity of its Professors made way for the Throne of its Empire The imprisonment of the Ark was the downfal of Dagon Religion grew stronger by Sufferings and Christianity taller by Injuries What can this be ascribed to but the conduct of a Wisdom superiour to that of Men and Devils defeating the methods of human and hellish Policy thereby making the wisdom of the World foolishness with God 1 Cor. 3.19 Fifthly The Vse I. Of Information If wisdom be an excellency of the Divine Nature then 1. Christ's Deity may hence be asserted Wisdom is the emphatical Title of Christ in Scripture Prov. 8.12 13 31. where Wisdom is brought in speaking as a distinct Person ascribing Counsel and Understanding and the Knowledge of witty Inventions to it self He is called also the power of God and the wisdom of God * 1 Cor. 1.21 And the Ancients generally understood that place Col. 2.3 In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge as an assertion of the God-head of Christ in regard of the infiniteness of his knowledge referring wisdom to his knowledge of Divine things and knowledge to his understanding of all Human things But the natural sense of the place seems to be this that all wisdom and knowledge is displayed by Christ in the Gospel and the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refer either to Christ or the mystery of God spoken of vers 2. But the Deity of Christ in regard of infinite Wisdom may be deduc'd from his Creation of things and his Government of things both which are ascribed to him in Scripture The first ascribed to him John 1.3 All things were made by him and verse 27. Without him was not any thing made that was made The second John 5.22 The Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son and both put together Col. 2.16 17. Now since he hath the Government of the World he hath the Perfections necessary to so great a Work As the Creation of the World which is ascribed to him requires an infinite power so the Government of the World requires an infinite wisdom That he hath the knowledge of the hearts of men was proved in handling the Omniscience of God That knowledge would be to little purpose without wisdom to order the motions of mens hearts and conduct all the qualities and actions of Creatures to such an end as is answerable to a wise Government we cannot think so great an Imployment can be without an Ability necessary for it The Government of Men and Angels is a great part of the glory of God and if God should intrust the greatest part of his Glory in hands unfit for so great a trust it would be an argument of weakness in God as it is in men to pitch upon unfit Instruments for particular Charges Since God hath therefore committed to him his greatest Glory the Conduct of all things for the highest end he hath a wisdom requisite for so great an end which can be no less than infinite If then Christ were a finite Person he would not be capable of an infinite Communication he could not be a Subject wherein infinite wisdom could be lodged for the terms finite and infinite are so distant that they cannot commence one another finite can never be changed into infinite no more than infinite can into finite 2. Hence we may assert The right and fitness of God for the Government of the World as he is the wisest Being Among men those who are excellent in Judgment are accounted fittest to preside over and give orders to others the wisest in a City are most capable to govern a City or at least though ignorant men may bear the Title yet the advice of the soundest and skilfullest Heads should prevail in all publick Affairs We see in Nature that the eye guides the body and the mind directs the eye * Amyâ—â—uâ— Mâ—â— â—or 1. p. 253 259. Power and Wisdome are the two Arms of Authority Wisdom knows the end and directs the means Power executes the means design'd for such an end The more splendid and strong those are in any the more Authority results from thence for the conduct of others that are of an inferiour Orb Now God being infinitely excellent in both his ability and right to the management of the World cannot be suspected the whole World is but one Commonwealth whereof God is the Monarch Did the Government of the World depend upon the Election of Men and Angels where could they pitch or where would they find Perfections capable of so great a work but in the Supream Wisdom His Wisdom hath already been apparent in those Laws whereby he formed the World into a Civil Society and the Israelites into a Commonwealth The one suted to the Consciences and Reasons of all his Subjects and the other suted to the Genius of that particular Nation drawn out of the Righteousness of the Moral Law and applicable to all Cases that might arise among them in their Government so that Moses asserts that the wisdom apparent in their Laws enacted by God as their chief Magistrate would render them famous among other Nations in regard of their Wisdom as well as their Righteousness Deut. 4.6 7 9. Also this perfection doth evidence that God doth actually govern the World It would not be a commendable thing for a man to make a curious Piece of Clock-work and take no care for the orderly motion of it Would God display so much of his Skill in framing the Heaven and Earth and none in actual guidance of them to their particular and universal ends Did he lay the Foundation in
and dispose of all his Creatures for the bringing his Purposes and his Promises to their designed perfection 6. Hence appears the necessity of a publick review of the Management of the World and of a Day of Judgment As a Day of Judgment may be inferr'd from many Attribute of God as his Soveraignty Justice Omniscience c. so among the rest from this of Wisdom How much of this Perfection will lie unvail'd and obscure if the Sins of Men be not brought to view whereby the ordering the unrighteous Actions of Men by his directing and over-ruling Hand of Providence in subserviency to his own Purposes and his Peoples good may appear in all its glory Without such a publick Review this part of Wisdom will not be clearly visible how those Actions which had a vile foundation in the Hearts and designs of Men and were formed there to gratifie some base Lust Ambition and Covetousness c. were by a secret Wisdom presiding over them conducted to amazing Ends. 'T is a part of Divine Wisdom to right it self and convince Men of the reasonableness of its Laws and the unreasonableness of their Contradictions to it The execution of the Sentence is an act of Justice but the conviction of the reasonableness of the Sentence is an act of Wisdom clearing up the Righteousness of the proceeding and this precedes and the other follows Jude 15. To convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds That Wisdom which contrived satisfaction as well as that Justice which required it is concerned in righting the Law which was enacted by it The Wisdom of a Soveraign Law-giver is engaged not to see his Law vilified and trampled on and exposed to the Lusts and Affronts of Men without being concerned in vindicating the Honour of it It would appear a Folly to enact and publish it if there were not a Resolution to right and execute it The Wisdom of God can no more associate Iniquity and Happiness together than the Justice of God can separate Iniquity from Punishment It would be defective if it did always tamely bear the Insolences of Offenders without a time of remark of their Crimes and a Justification of the Precept rebelliously spurn'd at He would be Unwise if he were Unjust Unrighteousness hath no better a Title in Scripture than that of Folly 'T is no part of Wisdom to give birth to those Laws which he will always behold ineffectual and neither vindicate his Law by a due execution of the Penalty nor right his own Authority conâ—emn'd in the violation of his Law by a just Revenge Besides What Wisdom would it be for the Soveraign Judge to lodge such a Spokesman for himself as Conscience in the Soul of Man if it should be alway found speaking and at length be found false in all that it speaks There is therefore an apparent prospect of the Day of Account from the consideration of this Perfection of the Divine Nature 7. Hence we have a ground for a mighty Reverence and Veneration of the Divine Majesty Who can contemplate the Sparklings of this Perfection in the variety of the Works of his hands and the exact Government of all his Creatures without a raised Admiration of the Excellency of his Being and a falling flat before him in a posture of Reverence to so great a Being Can we behold so great a mass of Matter digested into several Forms so exact a Harmony and Temperament in all the Creatures the proportions of Numbers and Measures and one Creature answering the Ends and Designs of another the distinct Beauties of all the perpetual Motion of all things without checking one another the variety of the Nature of things and all acting according to their Nature with an admirable Agreement and altogether like differing strings upon an Instrument emitting divers Sounds but all reduc'd to order in one delightful Lesson I say Can we behold all this without Admiring and Adoring the Divine Wisdom which appears in all And from the Consideration of this let us pass to the Consideration of his Wisdom in Redemption in reconciling divided Interests untying Hard-knots drawing one contrary out of another and we must needs acknowledge that the Wisdom of all the Men on Earth and Angels in Heaven is worse than Nothing and Vanity in comparison of this vast Ocean And as we have a greater esteem for those that invent some excellent Artificial Engines what Reverence ought we to have for him that hath stampt an unimitable Wisdom upon all his Works Nature orders us to give Honour to our Superiours in Knowledge and conside in their Counsels but none ought to be Reverenc'd as much as God since none equals him in Wisdom 8. If God be Infinitely Wise it shews us the necessity of our Address to him and Invocation of his Name We are subject to Mistakes and often overseen we are not able rightly to Counsel our selves In some cases all Creatures are too short-sighted to apprehend them and too ignorant to g ve Advice proper for them and to contrive Remedies for their ease but with the Lord there is Counsel Jer. 32.19 He is great in counsel and mighty in working great in Counsel to advise us mighty in Working to assist us We know not how to effect a design or prevent an expected Evil. We have an Infinite Wisdom to go to that is every way skilful to manage any business we desire to avert any Evil we fear to accomplish any thing we commit into his hands When we know not what to resolve he hath a Counsel to guide us Psal 73.24 He is not more Powerful to effect what is needful than Wise to direct what is fitting All Men stand in need of the Help of God as one Man stands in need of the assistance of other Men and will not do any thing without Advice and he that takes Advice deserves the Title of a Wise man as well as he that gives Advice But no Man needs so much the Advice of another Man as all Men need the Counsel and Assistance of God Neither is any mans Wit and Wisdom so far inâ—eriour to the Prudence and Ability of an Angel as the Wisdom of the wisest Man and the most sharp-sighted Angel is inferiour to the Infinite Wisdom of God We see therefore that it is best for us to go to the Fountain and not content our selves with the Streams to beg Advice from a Wisdom that is Infinite and Infallible rather than from that which is Finite and Fallible Vse II. If Wisdom be the Perfection of the Divine Majesty How prodigious is the Contempt of it in the World In General All Sin strikes at this Attribute and is in one part or other a degrading of it The first Sin directed its Venom against this As the Devils endeavoured to equal their Creator in Power so Man endeavoured to equal him in Wisdom Both indeed scorn'd to be rul'd by his Order but Man evidently exalted himself against the Wisdom
Minds and Consciences of Men as the Author of Nature for the preservation of the World manifests the Holiness of the Law-maker and Governour 2. His Holiness appears in the Ceremonial Law In the variety of Sacrifices for Sin wherein he writ his detestation of Vnrighteousness in bloody Characters His Holiness was more constantly exprest in the continual Sacrifices than in those rarer sprinklings of Judgments now and then upon the World which often reached not the worst but the most moderate Sinners and were the occasions of the questioning of the Righteousness of his Providence both by Jews and Gentiles In Judgments his Purity was only now and then manifest By his long Patience he might be imagin'd by some reconcil'd to their Crimes or not much concern'd in them but by the Morning and Evening Sacrifice he witness'd a perpetual and uninterrupted Abhorrence of whatsoever was Evil. Besides those the occasional Washings and Sprinklings upon Ceremonial Defilements which polluted only the Body gave an evidence that every thing that had a resemblance to Evil was loathsom to him Add also the Prohibitions of eating such and such Creatures that were filthy as the Swine that wallowed in the Mire a fit Emblem for the prophane and brutish Sinner which had a Moral signification both of the loathsomness of Sin to God and the aversion themselves ought to have to every thing that was filthy 3. This Holiness appears in the Allurements annex'd to the Law for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it Both Promises and Threatnings have their Fundamental Root in the Holiness of God and are both Branches of this peculiar Perfection As they respect the Nature of God they are Declarations of his hatred of Sin and his love of Righteousness the one belong to his Threatnings the other to his Promises both joyn together to represent this Divine Perfection to the Creature and to excite to an imitation in the Creature In the one God would render Sin odious because dangerous and curb the practice of Evil which would otherwise be Licentious In the other he would commend Righteousness and excite a love of it which would otherwise be cold By these God sutes the two great Affections of Men Fear and Hope both the branches of Self-love in Man The Promises and Threatnings are both the Branches of Holiness in God The end of the Promises is the same with the Exhortation the Apostle concludes from them 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God As the end of Precepts is to direct the end of Threatnings is to deter from Iniquity so that of the Promises is to allure to Obedience Thus God breaths out his Love to Righteousness in every Promise his Hatred of Sin in every Threatning The Rewards offerd in the one are the Smiles of pleased Holiness and the Curses thundred in the other are the Sparklings of enraged Righteousness 4. His Holiness appears in the Judgments inflicted for the violation of this Law Divine Holiness is the Root of Divine Justice and Divine Justice is the Triumph of Divine Holiness Hence both are expressed in Scripture by one word of Righteousness which sometimes signifies the rectitude of the Divine Nature and sometimes the vindicative stroak of his Arm Psal 103.6 The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed So Dan. 9.7 Righteousness that is Justice belongs to thee The Vials of his Wrath are filled from his implacable aversion to Iniquity All Penal Evils showred down upon the heads of Wicked men spread their root in and branch out from this Perfection All the dreadful Storms and Tempests in the World are blown up by it Why doth he rain Snares Fire and Brimstone and a horrible Tempest because the righteous Lord loveth Righteousness Psal 11.6 7. And as was observed before when he was going about the dreadfullest Work that ever was in the World the overturning the Jewish State hardening the Hearts of that Unbelieving People and casheiring a Nation once dear to him from the honour of his Protection His Holiness as the Spring of all this is applauded by the Seraphims Isai 6.3 compared with Vers 9 10 11 c. Impunity argues the approbation of a Crime and Punishment the abhorrency of it The greatness of the Crime and the Righteousness of the Judge are the first Natural Sentiments that arise in the Minds of Men upon the appearance of Divine Judgments in the World by those that are near them †Amirant Moral Tom. 5. p. 388. As when Men see Gibbets erected Scaffolds prepared Instruments of Death and Torture provided and grievous Punishments inflicted the first reflection in the Spectators is the malignity of the Crime and the detestation the Governours are possessed with 1. How severely hath he punish'd his most Noble Creatures for it The once glorious Angels upon whom he had been at greater cost than upon other Creatures and drawn more lively Lineaments of his own Excellency upon the Transgression of his Law are thrown into the Furnace of Justice without any Mercy to pity them Jude 6. And though there were but one sort of Creatures upon the Earth that bore his Image and were only fit to publish and keep up his Honour below the Heavens yet upon their Apostacy though upon a Temptation from a subtile and insinuating Spirit the Man with all his Posterity is sentenc'd to Misery in Life and Death at last and the Woman with all her Sex have standing Punishments inflicted on them which as they begun in their Persons were to reach as far as the last Member of their successive Generations So Holy is God that he will not endure a Spot in his choicest Work Men indeed when there is a crack in an excellent piece of Work or a stain upon a rich Garment do not cast it away they value it for the remaining Excellency more than hate it for the contracted Spot But God saw no Excellency in his Creature worthy regarding after the Image of that which he most esteemed in himself was defaced 2. How detestable to him are the very Instruments of Sin For the Ill use the Serpent an Irrational Creature was put to by the Devil as an Instrument in the Fall of Man the whole brood of those Animals are Curst Gen. 3.14 Cursed above all Cattle and above every Beast of the field Not only the Devils Head is threatned to be for ever bruised and as some think render'd irrecoverable upon this further Testimony of his Malice in the Seduction of Man who perhaps without this new Act might have been admitted into the Arms of Mercy notwithstanding his first Sin though the Scripture gives us no account of this only this is the only Sentence we read of pronounc'd against the Devil which puts him into an irrecoverable state by a Mortal bruising of his Head But I say He is not only punish'd but the
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
for the neglect of its Honour 6. Information Hence it will follow There is no justification of a Sinner by any thing in himself After Sin had set foot in the World Man could present nothing to God acceptable to him or bearing any proportion to the Holiness of his Law till God set forth a Person upon whose account the Acceptation of our Persons and Services is founded Ephes 1.6 Who hath made us accepted in the Beloved The Infinite Purity of God is so glorious that it shames the Holiness of Angels as the light of the Sun dims the light of the Fire Much more will the Righteousness of Fallen Man who is Vile and drinks up Iniquity like water vanish into Nothing in his Presence With what Self-abasement and Abhorrence ought he to be possessed that comes as short of the Angels in Purity as a Dunghill doth of a Star The highest Obedience that ever was perform'd by any meer Man since Lapsed Nature cannot challenge any acceptance with God or stand before so exact an Inquisition What Person hath such a clear Innocence and unspotted Obedience in such a Perfection as in any degree to sute the Holiness of the Divine Nature Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified If God should debate the case simply with Man in his own Person without respecting the Mediator he were not able to answer one of a thousand Though we are his Servants as David was and perform a sincere Service yet there are many little Motes and Dust of Sin in the best Works that cannot lie undiscover'd from the Eye of his Holiness And if we come short in the least of what the Law requires we are guilty of all * James 2.10 So that in thy sight shall no man living be justified In the sight of thy Infinite Holiness which hates the least spot in the sight of thy Infinite Justice which punishes the least Transgression God would descend below his own Nature and vilifie both his Knowledge and Purity should he accept that for a Righteousness and Holiness which is not so in it self and nothing is so which hath the least stain upon it contrary to the Nature of God The most holy Saints in Scripture upon a prospect of his Purity have cast away all confidence in themselves every flash of the Divine Purity has struck them into a deep sense of their own Impurity and shame for it Job 42.6 Wherefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes What can the language of any Man be that lies under a sense of Infinite Holiness and his own Defilement in the least but that of the Prophet Isai 6.5 Wo is me I am undone And what is there in the World can administer any other thought than this unless God be considered in Christ reconciling the World to himself As a Holy God so righted as that he can dispense with the Condemnation of a Sinner without dispensing with his Hatred of Sin pardoning the Sin in the Criminal because it hath been punished in the Surety That Righteousness which God hath set forth for Justification is not our own but a Righteousness which is of God Phil. 3.9 10. of Gods appointing and of Gods performing appointed by the Father who is God and performed by the Son who is one with the Father A Righteousness surmounting that of all the glorious Angels since it is an Immutable one which can never fail an Everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 A Righteousness wherein the Holiness of God can acquiesce as considered in it self because it is a Righteousness of one equal with God As we therefore dishonour the Divine Majesty when we insist upon our own bemir'd Righteousness for our Justification as if a Mortal Man were as just as God and a Man as pure as his Maker Job 4.17 So we highly honour the Purity of his Nature when we charge our Selves with Folly acknowledge our selves Unclean and accept of that Righteousness which gives a full content to his Infinite Purity There can be no Justification of a Sinner by any thing in himself 7. It Inâ—orms us If Holiness be a glorious Perfection of the Divine Nature then the Deity of Christ might be argued from hence He is indeed dignified with the Title of the Holy One Acts 3.14 16. a Title often given to God in the Old Testament and he is called the Holy of Holies Dan. 9.24 but because the Angels seemed to be termed holy Ones Dan. 4.13 17. and the most Sacred place in the Temple was also called the Holy of Holies I shall not insist upon that But you find our Saviour particularly applauded by the Angels as Holy when this Perfection of the Divine Nature together with the Incommunicable Name of God are link'd together and ascrib'd to him Isai 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts and the whole Earth is full of his glory which the Apostle interprets of Christ John 12.39 41. Isaiah again He hath blinded their Eyes and hardned their Hearts that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their Hearts and be converted and I should heal them These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him He that Isaiah saw environ'd with the Seraphims in a Reverential posture before his face and praised as most Holy by them was the True and Eternal God such Acclamations belong to none but the great Jehovah God Blessed for ever But saith John It was the glory of Christ that Isaiah saw in this Vision Christ therefore is God blessed for ever of whom it was said Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts * Placeus de Deitat Chriâ—ti in locum The Evangelist had been speaking of Christ the Miracles which he wrought the obstinacy of the Jews against believing on him his Glory therefore is to be referred to the Subject he had been speaking of The Evangelist was not speaking of the Father but of the Son and cites those words out of Isaiah not to teach any thing of the Father but to shew that the Jews could not believe in Christ He speaks of Him that had wrought so many Miracles but Christ wrought those Miracles He speaks of him whom the Jews refused to believe on but Christ was the Person they would not believe on while they acknowledged God It was the Glory of this Person Isaiah saw and this Person Isaiah spake of if the Words of the Evangelist be of any credit The Angels are too holy to give Acclamations belonging to God to any but Him that is God 8. It Informs us that God is fully fit for the Government of the World The Righteousness of Gods Nature qualifies Him to be Judge of the World If he were not perfectly Righteous and Holy he were uncapable to govern and Judge the World Rom. 3.5 If there be unrighteousness with God how shall he judge the World God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgment Job
the ground of our love to God Not because he is gracious to us but holy in himself As God honours it in loving himself for it we should honour it by pitching our Affections upon him chiefly for it What renders God amiable to himself should render him lovely to all his Creatures Isa 42.21 The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sakâ— If the hatred of evil be the immediate result of a love to God then the peculiar object or term of our love to God must be that Perfection which stands in direct opposition to the hatred of evil Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil When we honour his holiness in every stamp and impression of it his Law not principally because of its usefulness to us its accommodateness to the order of the World but for its innate Purity and his People not for our interest in them so much as for bearing upon them this glittering mark of the Deity we honour then the Purity of the Law-giver and the Excellency of the Sanctifier 2. We honour it when we regard chiefly the illustrious appearance of this in his Judgments in the World In a case of Temporal Judgment Moses celebrates it in the Text In a case of Spiritual Judgments the Angels applaud it in Isaiah All his Severe proceedings are nothing but the strong breathings of this Attribute Purity is the flash of his revenging sword If he did not hate evil his Vengeance would not reach the Committers of it He is a Refiners fire in the day of his Anger * Mal. 3 â— By his separating Judgments he takes away the wicked of the earth like Dross Psal 119.119 How is his holiness honoured when we take notice of his sweeping out the rubbish of the World How he sutes punishment to sin and discovers his hatred of the matter and circumstances of the Evil in the matter and circumstances of the Judgment This Perfection is legible in every stroke of his Sword we honour it when we read the syllables of it and not by standing amaz'd only at the greatness and severity of the Blow when we read how holy he is in his most terrible Dispensations For as in them God magnifies the greatness of his Power so he sanctifies himself that is declares the Purity of his Nature as a Revenger of all Impiety Ezek. 38.22 23. And I will plead against him with Pestilence and with Blood and I will rain upon him and upon his bands and upon the people that are with him an overflowing Rain and great Hail-stones Fire and Brimstone Thus will I magnifie my self and sanctifie my self 3. We honour this Attribute when we take notice of it in every accomplishment of his Promise and every grant of a Mercy His Truth is but a branch of his Righteousness a slip from this Root He is glorious in Holiness in the account of Moses because he led forth his People whom he had redeemed Exod. 15.13 His People by a Covenant with their Fathers being the God of Moses the God of Israel and the God of their Fathers Verse 2. My God and my Fathers God I will exalt thee For what for his faithfulness to his Promise The holiness of God which Mary Luke 1.49 magnifies is summ'd up in this the help he afforded his Servant Israel in the remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our Fathers to Abraham and his Seed for ever Verse 54 55. The certainty of his Coâ—enant Mercy depends upon an unchangeableness of his holiness What are * Isa 55.3 sure mercies are holy mercies in the Septuagint and in Acts 13.34 which makes that Tr nslation Canonical His nearness to answer us when we call upon him for sucâ— Mercies is a fruit of the holiness of his Name and Nature Psal 145.17 The Lord is holy in all his works the Lord is nigh to all them that call upon him Hannah after a return of Prayer sets a particular mark upon this in her Song 1 Sam. 2.2 There is none holy as the Lord separated from all Dross firm to his Covenant and righteous in it to his Suppliants that confide in him and plead his Word When we observe the workings of this in every return of Prayer we honour it 't is a sign the Mercy is really a return of Prayer and not a Mercy of course bearing upon it only the Characters of a common Providence This was the Perfection David would bless for the Catalogue of Mercies in Psal 103.1 c Bless his holy Name Certainly one reason why sincere Prayer is so delightful to him is because it puts him upon the exercise of this his beloved Perfection which he so much delights to honour Since God acts in all those as the Governour of the World we honour him not unless we take notice of that Righteousness which sits him for a Governour and is the inward Spring of all his Motions Gen. 18.25 Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right It was his design in his pity to Israel as well as the Calamities he intended against the Heathens to be sanctified in them that is declared holy in his Merciful as well as his Judicial procedure †Ez. 36.21 â—3 Hereby God credits his Righteousness which seemed to be forgotten by the one and contemned by the other ‖ Sanct. in loc he removes by this all suspicion of any unfaithfulness in him 4. We honour this Attribute when we trust his Covenant and Promise against outward Appearances Thus our Saviour in the Prophecy of him * Psal 22 2 3.4 when God seemed to bar up the Gates of his Palace against the entry of any more Petitions This Attribute proves the support of the Redeemers Soul But thou art holy Oh thou that inhabitest the Praises of Israel As it refers to what goes before it has been twice explain'd as it refers to what follows it is a ground of trust Thou inhabitest the Praises of Israel Thou hast had the Praises of Israel for many Ages for thy holiness How Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them They honoured thy holiness by their trust and thou didst honour their Faith by a deliverance thou alwaies hadst a Purity that would not shame nor confound them I will trust in thee as thou art holy and expect the breaking out of this Attribute for my good as well as my Predecessors Our Fathers trusted in thee c. 5. We honour this Attribute when we shew a greater Affection to the marks of his holiness in times of the greatest Contempt of it As the Psalmist Psal 119.126 127. They have made void thy Law therefore I love thy Commandments above Gold While they spurn at the Purity of thy Law I will value it above the Gold they possess I 'le esteem it as Gold because others count it as Dross By their scorn of it my love to it shall be the warmer and my hatred of iniquity shall be the sharper The disdain of others
whence he could draw them No but he denies that good to them which he is able if he pleased to confer upon them If God doth not give that good to a Creature which it wants by its own demerit can he be said to wish evil to it or only to deny that goodness which the Creature hath forfeited †Camere p. 30. and which is at Gods liberty to retain or disperse Though God cannot but love his own Image where he finds it yet when this Image is lost and the Devils Image voluntarily received he may choose whether he will manifest his goodness to such a one or no. Will you not account that Man liberal that distributes his Alms to a great company though he rejects some Much more will you account him good if he rejects none that implore him but dispenseth his doles to every one upon their Petition And is he not good because he will not bestow a Farthing upon those that Address not themselves to him God is so good that he denies not the best good to those that seek him He hath promised Life and Happiness to them that do so Is he less good because he will not distribute his goodness to those that despise him Though he be Good yet his VVisdom is the Rule of dispensing his Goodness 6. The severe Punishment of Offenders and the Afflictions he inflicts upon his Servants are no violations of his Goodness The Notion of Gods Vindictive Justice is as naturally inbred and implanted in the mind of Man as that of his Goodness and those two Sentiments never shockt one another The Heathen never thought him bad because he was just nor unrighteous because he was good God being Infinitely good cannot possibly intend or act any thing but what is good Thou art good and thou dost good i. e. whatsoever thou dost is good whatsoever it be pleasant or painful to the Creature * Ps 119.68 Punishments themselves are not a Moral Evil in the Person that inflicts though they are a Natural Evil in the Person that suffers them †Boetius In ordering Punishment to the VVicked Good is added to Evil In ordering Impunity to the VVicked Evil is added to Evil. To punish VVickedness is Right therefore Good To leave men uncontroul'd in their VVickedness is Unrighteous and therefore Bad. But again Shall his Justice in some few Judgments in the VVorld impeach his Goodness more than his wonderful Patience to Sinners is able to silence the Calumnies against him Is not his hand fuller of gracious Doles than of dreadful Thunderbolts Doth he not oftner seem forgetful of his Justice when he pours out upon the guilty the Streams of his Mercy than to be forgetful of his Goodness when he sprinkles in the VVorld some drops of his VVrath First Gods Judgments in the World do not infringe his Goodness For 1. The justice of God is a part of the goodness of his Nature God himself thought so when he told Moses he would make all his Goodness pass before him * Exod. 33.19 He leaves not out in that enumeration of the parts of it his resolution by no means to clear the Guilty but to visit the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children †Exod. 34.7 'T is a property of goodness to hate evil and therefore a property of goodness to punish it 'T is no less Righteousness to give according to the deserts of a Person in a way of Punishment than to reward a Person that obeys his Precepts in a way of Recompence VVhatsoever is Righteous is Good Sin is evil and therefore whatsoever doth witness against it is good His Goodness therefore shines in his Justice for without being just he could not be good Sin is a Moral Disorder in the VVorld Every Sin is Injustice Injustice breaks Gods Order in the VVorld there is a necessity therefore of Justice to put the VVorld in order Punishment orders the Person committing the Injury who when he will not be in the order of Obedience must be in the order of suffering for Gods Honour The goodness of all things which God pronounced so consisted in their order and beneficial helpfulness to one another When this order is inverted the goodness of the Creature ceaseth If it be a bad thing to spoil this order Is it not a part of Divine Goodness to reduce them into order that they may be reduced in some measure to their goodness Do we ever account a Governor less in goodness because he is exact in Justice and punisheth that which makes a disorder in his Government And is it a diminution of the Divine Goodness to punish that which makes a Disorder in the VVorld As VVisdom without Goodness would be a Serpentine Craft and issue in destruction so Goodness without Justice would be impotent Indulgence and cast things into confusion When Abels Blood cryed out for Vengeance against Cain it spake a good thing Christs Blood speaking better things than the Blood of Abel implies that Abels Blood spake a good thing the comparative implies a positive * Heb. 12.24 If it were the goodness of that Innocent Blood to demand Justice it could not be a badness in the Sovereign of the World to execute it How can God sustain the part of a Good and Righteous Judge if he did not preserve Humane Society And how would it be preserved without manifesting himself by publick Judgments against publick Wrongs Is there not as great a necessity that Goodness should have Instruments of Judgment as that there should be Prisons Bridewels and Gibbets in a good Commonwealth Did not the Thunderbolts of God sometimes roar in the Ears of Men they would sin with a higher hand than they do fly more in the face of God make the World as much a Moral as it was at first a Natural Chaos The ingenuity of Men would be dampt if there were not something to work upon their fears to keep them in their due order Impunity of the Innocent Person is worse than any Punishment 'T is a Misery to want Medicines for the Cure of a sharp Disease and a Mark of goodness in a Prince to consult for the security of the Political Body by cutting off a Gangren'd and corrupting Member And what Prince would deserve the noble Title of Good if he did not restrain by punishment those Evils which impair the Publick Welfare Is it not necessary that the examples of Sin whereby others have been encourag'd to Wickedness should be made examples of Justice whereby the same Persons and others may be discourag'd from what before they were greedily inclin'd unto Is not a hatred of what is bad and unworthy as much a part of Divine Goodness as a love to what is Excellent and bears a Resemblance to himself Could he possibly be accounted Good that should bear the same degree of Affection to a prodigious Vice as to a sublime Virtue And should behave himself in the same manner of carriage
than Men have reason to complain for the exercise of Justice in the vindication of it If God established all things in Order with Infinite Wisdom and Goodness and God silently behold for ever this Order broken would he not either charge himself with a want of Power or a want of Will to preserve the Marks of his own Goodness Would it be a kindness to himself to be careless of the breaches of his own Orders His Throne would shake yea sink from under him if Justice whereby he Sentenceth and Judgment whereby he Executes his Sentence were not the supports of it †Ps 89.14 Justice and Judgment are the habitation of thy Throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stability or Foundation of thy Throne So Psal 92.2 Man would forget his Relation to God God would be unknown to be Soveraign of the World were he careless of the breaches of his own Order * Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the Judgments which he Executes Is it not a part of his Goodness to preserve the indispensible Order between himself and his Creatures His own Soveraignty which is good and the subjection of the Creature to him as Soveraign which is also good The one would not be maintained in its due place nor the other restrained in due limits without Punishment Would it be a goodness in him to see Goodness it self trampled upon constantly without some time or other appearing for the relief of it Is it not a Goodness to secure his own Honour to prevent further Evil Is it not a Goodness to discourage Men by Judgments sometimes from a contempt and ill use of his Bounty as well as sometimes patiently to bear with them and wait upon them for a Reformation Must God be bad to himself to be kind to his Enemies And shall it be accounted an unkindness and a Mark of Evil in him not to suffer himself to be always outrag'd and defy'd The World is wrong'd by Sin as well as God is injur'd by it How could God be good to himself if he righted not his own Honour Or be a good Governour of the World if he did not sometimes witness against the Injuries it receives sometimes from the works of his hands Would he be good to himself as a God to be careless of his own Honour Or good as the Rector of the World and be regardless of the Worlds Confusion That God should give an Eternal good to that Creature that declines its Duty and despiseth his Soveraignty is not agreeable to the goodness of his Wisdom or that of his Righteousness 'T is a part of Gods Goodness to love himself Would he love his Soveraignty if he saw it dayly slighted without sometimes discovering how much he values the Honour of it Would he have any esteem for his own Goodness if he beheld it trampled upon without any will to vindicate it Doth Mercy deserve the name of Cruelty because it pleads against a Creature that hath so often abused it and hath refused to have any pity exercised towards it in a Righteous and Regular way Is Soveraignty destitute of Goodness because it preserves its Honour against one that would not have it Reign over him Would he not seem by such a regardlesness to renounce his own Essence undervalue and undermine his own Goodness if he had not an implacable aversion to whatsoever is contrary to it If Men turn Grace into Wantonness is it not more reasonable he should turn his Grace into Justice All his Attributes which are parts of his Goodness engage him to punish Sin without it his Authority would be vilified his Purity stain'd his Power derided his Truth disgraced his Justice scorn'd his Wisdom slighted He would be thought to have dissembled in his Laws and be judged according to the Rules of Reason to be void of true Goodness 4. Punishment is not the primary Intention of God 'T is his Goodness that he hath no mind to Punish and therefore he hath put a bar to Evil by his Prohibitions and Threatnings that he might prevent Sin and consequently any occasions of severity against his Creature * Zarnovecius de satisfact Part. 1. cap. 1. p. 3 4. The principal Intention of God in his Law was to encourage Goodness that he might reward it And when by the commission of Evil God is provoked to Punish and takes the Sword into his hand he doth not act against the Nature of his Goodness but against the first intention of his Goodness in his Precepts which was to Reward As a good Judge principally intendeds in the Exercise of his Office to protect good Men from Violence and maintain the honour of the Laws yet consequently to punish bad men without which the Protection of the good would not be secured nor the Honour of the Law be supported And a good Judge in the Exercise of his Office doth principally intend the incouragement of the good and wisheth there were no wickedness that might occasion Punishment and when he doth Sentence a Malefactor in order to the Execution of him he doth not act against the goodness of his Nature but pursuant to the Duty of his Place but wisheth he had no occasion for such severity Thus God seems to speak of himself †Isaiah 28.21 He calls the act of his Wrath his Strange Work his Strange Act A work not against his Nature as the Governor of the World but against his first Intention as Creator which was to manifest his Goodness Therefore he moves with a slow pace in those Acts brings out his Judgments with relentings of heart and seems to cast out his Thunderbolts with a trembling hand He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men * Lam. 3.33 And therefore he delights not in the death of a Sinner †Ezek. 33.11 Not in Death as Death in Punishment as Punishment but as it reduceth the suffering Creature to the Order of his Precept or reduceth him into order under his Power or reforms others who are Spectators of the Punishment upon a Criminal of their own Nature God only hates the Sin not the Sinner He desires only the destruction of the one * Suarez Vol. 1. de Deo lib. 3. cap. 7. p. 146. not the misery of the other The Nature of a Man doth not displease him because it is a work of his own Goodness but the Nature of the Sinner displeaseth him because it is a work of the Sinners own extravagance Divine Goodness pitcheth not its hatred primarily upon the Sinner but upon the Sin But since he cannot punish the Sin without punishing the Subject to which it cleaves the Sinner falls under his lash Who ever regards a good Judge as an Enemy to the Malefactor but as an Enemy to his Crime when he doth Sentence and Execute him 5. Judgments in the World have a goodness in them therefore they are no Impeachments of the Goodness of God 1. A Goodness in their preparations He
sends not Judgments without giving warnings His Justice is so far from extinguishing his Goodness that his Goodness rather shines out in the preparations of his Justice He gives Men time and sends them Messengers to perswade them to another temper of mind that he may change his Hand and exercise his Liberality where he threatned his Severity When the Heathen had Presages of some Evil upon their Persons or Countreys they took them for invitations to Repentance excited themselves to many acts of Devotion implored his Favour and often Experimented it The Ninivites upon the Proclamation of the destruction of their City by Jonah fell to Petitioning him whereby they signified That they thought him good though he were just and more prone to Pity than Severity and their humble Carriage caused the Arrows he had ready against them to drop out of his hands * Jonah 3.9 10. When he brandisheth his Sword he wishes for some to stand in that Gap to mollifie his anger that he might not strike the fatal blow †Ezek 22.30 I sought for a Man among them that should make up the Hedge and stand in the Gap before me in the Land that I should not destroy it He was desirous that his Creatures might be in a capacity to receive the Marks of his Bounty * Cressel Antholog Decad. 2. p. 162. This he signified not obscurely to Moses Exod. 32.10 when he spoke to him to let him alone that his anger might wax hot against the People after they had made a Golden Calf and Worshipped it Let me alone said God Not that Moses restrained him saith Chrysostom who spake nothing to him but stood silent before him and knew nothing of the Peoples Idolatry But God would give him an occasion of praying for them that he might exercise his Mercy towards them yet in such a manner that the People being struck with a sense of their Crime and the horrour of Divine Justice they might be amended for the future when they should understand that their Death was not averted by their own Merit or Intercession but by Moses his Patronage of them and pleading for them As we see sometimes Masters and Fathers angry with their Servants and Children and preparing themselves to punish them but secretly wish some Friend to intercede for them and take them out of their hands There is a Goodness shining in the preparations of his Judgments 2. A Goodness in the Execution of them They are good as they shew God disaffected to Evil and conduce to the glory of his Holiness and deter others from presumptuous Sins †Deut. 10.3 I will be glorified in all that draw near unto me in his Judgment upon Nadab and Abihu the Sons of Aaron for Offering strange Fire By them God preserves the excellent Footsteps of his own Goodness in his Creation and his Law and curbs the Licentiousness of Men and contains them within the bounds of their Duty The Judgments are good saith the Psalmist * Psal 119. Psal 39. i. e. Thy Judicial proceedings upon the Wicked For he desires God there to turn away by some signal act the reproach the Wicked cast upon him Can there be any thing more Miserable than to live in a World full of Wickedness and void of the Marks of Divine Goodness and Justice to repress it Were there not Judgments in the World Men would forget God be insensible of his Government of the World neglect the Exercises of Natural and Christian Duties Religion would be at its last gasp and expire among them and Men would pretend to break Gods Precepts by Gods Authority Are they not good then as they restrain the Creature from further Evils Affright others from the same Crimes which they were inclinable to commit He strikes some to reform others that are Spectators As Apollonius tam'd Pigeons by beating Dogs before them Punishments are Gods gracious warnings to others not to venture upon those Crimes which they see attended with such Judgments The Censers of Corah Dathan and Abiram were to be wrought into Plates for a covering of the Altar to abide there as a Memento to others not to approach to the Exercise of the Priestly Office without an authoritative call from God * Num. 16.38 40. And those Judgments exercised in the former Ages of the World were intended by Divine Goodness for warnings even in Evangelical times Lots Wife was turned into a Pillar of Salt to prevent Men from Apostacy That use Christ himself makes of it in the exhortation against turning back †Luke 17.32 33. And * Psal 58.10 The Righteous shall wash his Feet in the Blood of the Wicked When God shall drench his Sword in the Blood of the Wicked the Righteous shall take occasion from thence to purifie themselves and reform their Ways and look to the Paths of their Feet Would not Impunity be hurtful to the World and Men receive incouragement to Sin if severities sometimes did not bridle them from the practice of their Inclinations Sometimes the Sinner himself is reform'd and sometimes removed from being an example to others Though Thunder be an affrightning noise and Lightning a scaring flash yet they have a liberal goodness in them in shattering and consuming those contagious Vapours which burden and infect the Air and thereby render it more clear and healthful Again There are few acts of Divine Justice upon a People but are in the very Execution of them attended with demonstrations of his Goodness to others He is a Protector of his own while he is a Revenger on his Enemies When he rides upon his Horses in anger against some his Chariots are Chariots of Salvation to others * Hab. 3.8 Terrour makes way for Salvation The overthrow of Pharaoh and the strength of his Nation compleated the deliverance of the Israelites Had not the Aegyptians met with their Destruction the Israelites had unavoidably met with their Ruine against all the Promises God had made to them and to the defamation of his former Justice in the former Plagues upon their Oppressors The death of Herod was the security of Peter and the rest of the Malic'd Christians The gracious deliverance of good Men is often occasion'd by some severe stroak upon some eminent Persecutor The destruction of the Oppressor is the rescue of the Innocent Again Where is there a Judgment but leaves more Criminals behind than it sweeps away that deserved to be involved in the same fate with the rest More Aegyptians were left behind to possess and enjoy the goodness of their fruitful Land than they were that were hurried into another World by the overflowing Waves Is not this a Mark of goodness as well as severity Again Is it not a goodness in him not to pour out Judgments according to the greatness of his Power To go gradually to work with those whom he might in a moment blow to destruction with one breath of his Mouth Again He sometimes exerciseth
was stain'd when they were debas'd to serve the Lusts of a Traytor instead of supporting the Duty of a Subject and employed in the defence of the Vices of Men against the Precepts and Authority of their common Soveraign This was a vilifying the Creature as it would be a vilifying the Sword of a Prince which is for the maintenance of Justice to be used for the Murder of an Innocent and a dishonouring a Royal Mansion to make it a Store-house for a Dunghil Had those things the benefit of sense they would groan under this disgrace and rise up in indignation against them that offered them this affront and turned them from their proper end When sin entred the Heavens that were made to shine upon Man and the Earth that was made to bear and nourish an innocent Creature were now subjected to serve a rebellious Creature And as Man turn'd against God so he made those instruments against God to serve his Enmity Luxury Sensuality Hence the Creatures are said to groan * Rom. 8.21 The whole Creation groans and travels in pain together until now They would really groan had they understanding to be sensible of the Outrage done them The whole Creation 'T is the pang of universal Nature the agony of the whole Creation to be alienated from the original use for which they were intended and be disjointed from their end to serve the disloyalty of a Rebel The Drunkards Cup and the Gluttons Table the Adulterers Bed and the proud Mans Purple would groan against the abuser of them But when all the fruits of Redemption shall be compleated the Goodness of God shall pour it self upon the Creatures deliver them from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God * Rom. 8.21 they shall be reduced to their true end and retun'd in their original harmony As the Creation doth passionately groan under its vanity so it doth earnestly expect and wait for its deliverance at the time of the manifestation of the Sons of God * V. 19. The manifestation of the Sons of God is the attainment of the liberty of the Creature They shall be freed from the vanity under which they are enslav'd As it entred by sin it shall vanish upon the total removal of sin What use they were design'd for in Paradise they will have afterwards except that of the nourishment of Men who shall be as Angels neither eating nor drinking The Glory of God shall be seen and contemplated in them It can hardly be thought that God made the World to be little a moment after he had reard it sullied by the Sin of Man and turn'd from its original end without thoughts of a restoration of it to its true end as well as Man to his lost happiness The World was made for Man Man hath not yet enjoyed the Creature in the first intention of them Sin made an interruption in that Fruition As Redemption restores Man to his true end so it restores the Creatures to their true use The restoration of the World to its beauty and order was the design of the Divine Goodness in the coming of Christ as it is intimated in Isaiah 11.6 7 8 9. As he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it so he came not to destroy the Creatures but to repair them To restore to God the honour and pleasure of the Creation and restore to the Creatures their felicity in restoring their Order The Fall corrupted it and the full Redemption of Men restores it The last time is called not a time of destruction but a time of restitution and that of all things * Acts 3.21 of universal nature the main part of the Creation at least All those things which were the effects of sin will be abolisht the removal of the Cause beats down the effect The disorder and unruliness of the Creature arising from the venom of Mans transgression all the fierceness of one Creature against another shall vanish The World shall be nothing but an universal smile Nature shall put on triumphant Vestments There shall be no affrighting Thunders choaking Mists venomous Vapours or poysonous Plants It would not else be a restitution of all things They are now subject to be wasted by Judgments for the sin of their Possessor but the perfection of Mans Redemptions shall free them from every misery They have an advancement at the present for they are under a more glorious head as being the possession of Christ the heavenly Adam much superiour to the first As it 's the glory of a person to be a Servant to a Prince rather than a Peasant And afterwards they shall be elevated to a better state sharing in Man's happiness as well as they did in his misery As Servants are interested in the good Fortune of their Master and better'd by his advance in his Princes favour As Man in his first Creation was mutable and liable to sin so the Creatures were liable to vanity But as Man by Grace shall be freed from the Mutability so shall the Creatures be freed from the fears of an Invasion by the vanity that sully'd them before The condition of the Servants shall be suited to that of their Lord for whom they were design'd Hence all Creatures are call'd upon to rejoice upon the Perfection of Salvation and the appearance of Christs Royal Authority in the World * Psal 96.11.12 Psal 98.7 8. If they were to be destroyed there would be no ground to invite them to triumph Thus doth Divine Goodness spread its kind Arms over the whole Creation 3. The third thing is the Goodness of God in his Government That Goodness that despised not their Creation doth not despise their conduct The same Goodness that was the head that fram'd them is the helm that guides them his Goodness hovers over the whole frame either to prevent any wild disorders unsuitable to his Creating end or to conduct them to those ends which might illustrate his Wisdom and Goodness to his Creatures His Goodness doth no less incline him to provide for them than to frame them 'T is the natural inclination of man to love what is purely the birth of his own strength or skill He is fond of preserving his own Inventions as well as laborious in inventing them 'T is the glory of a Man to preserve them as well as to produce them God loves every thing which he hath made which love could not be without a continued diffusiveness to them suitable to the end for which he made them It would be a vain Goodness if it did not interest it self in managing the World as well as erecting it Without his Government every thing in the World would justle against one another The beauty of it would be more defaced it would be an unruly Mass a confus'd Chaos rather then a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a comely World If Divine Goodness respected it when it was nothing it would much more respect it
there would be no Government no security to any Man under his own Vine and Fig-tree The World would be a Den of wild Beasts preying upon one another every one would do what seems good in his Eyes The loss of Government is a Judgment God brings upon a Nation * Hab. 1.14 when Men become as the Fishes of the Sea to devour one another because they have no Ruler over them Private Dissensions will break out into Publick Disorders and Combustions 3. The Goodness of God in the preservation of Humane Society is seen in the restraints of the Passions of Men. He sets bounds to the Passions of Men as well as to the Roulings of the Sea * Psal 65.7 He stilleth the noise of the Waves and the tumults of the People Though God hath erected a Magistracy to stop the breaking out of those Flouds of Licentiousness which swell in the hearts of Men yet if God should not hold stiff Reins on the necks of those tumultuous and foaming Passions the World would be a place of unruly confusion and Hell Triumph upon Earth A Crazy State would be quickly broke in pieces by boisterous Nature The tumults of a People could no more be quell'd by the force of Man than the rage of the Sea by a puff of breath Without Divine Goodness neither the Wisdom nor watchfulness of the Magistrates nor the industry of Officers could preserve a State The Laws of Men would be too slight to curb the Lusts of Men if the Goodness of God did not restrain them by a secret hand and interweave their Temporal security with observance of those Laws The Sons of Belial did murmur when Saul was chosen King and that they did no more was the Goodness of God for the preservation of Humane Society If God did not restrain the impetuousness of Mens Lusts they would be the entire ruine of Humane Society their Lusts would render them as bad as Beasts and change the World into a Savage Wilderness 4. The Goodness of God is seen in the preservation of Humane Society in giving various inclinations to Men for publick advantage If all Men had an inclination to one Science or Art they would all stand idle Spectators of one another but God hath bestow'd various dispositions and gifts upon Men for the promoting the common good that they may not only be useful to themselves but to Society He will have none idle none unuseful but every one acting in a due place according to their measures for the good of others 5. The Goodness of God is seen in the witness he bears against those Sins that dâ—sturb Humane Sociâ—ty In those cases he is pleased to interest himself in a more signal manner to cool those that make it their business to overturn the order he hath established for the good of the Earth He doth not so often in this World punish those faults committed immediately against his own Honour as those that put the World into a hurry and confusion As a good Governor is more Merciful to Crimes against himself than those against his Community 'T is observed that the most turbulent seditious Persons in a State come to most violent ends As Corah Adonijah Zimri Achitophel draws Absalom's Sword against David and Israel and the next is he twists a Halter for himself Absalom heads a Party against his Father and God by a goodness to Israel hangs him up and prevents not its safety by David's indulgence and a future Rebellion had life been spared by the fondness of his Father His Providence is more evident in discovering Disturbers and the Causes that move them in defeating their Enterprizes and digging the Contrivers out of their Caverns and lurking holes In such cases God doth so act and use such Methods that he silenceth any Creature from challenging any partnership with him in the discovery He doth more severely in this World correct those actions that unlink the mutual assistance between Man and Man and the charitable and kind Correspondence he would have kept up The Sins for which the Wrath of God comes upon the Children of d sobedience in this World are of this sort * Col. 3.5 6. And when Princes will be oppressing the People God will be pouring contempt on the Princes and set the pâ—or on high from affliction * Psal 107.40 41. An evidence of Gods care and kindness in the preserving Humane Society is those strange discoveries of Murders though never so clandestine and subtilly committed more than of any other Crime among Men. Divine Care never appears more than in bringing those hidden and injurious works of darkness to light and a due Punishment 6. His Goodness is seen in ordering mutual Offices to one another against the Current of Mens Passions Upon this account he ordered in his Laws for the government of the Israelites that a Man should reduce the wandring Beast of his Enemy to the hand of his rightful Proprietor though he were a provoking Enemy and also help the poor Beast that belonged to one that hated him when he saw him sink under his burden * Exod. 23.4 5. When mutual assistance was necessary he would not have Men consider'd as Enemies or consider'd as Wicked but as of the same Blood with our selves that we might be serviceable to one another for the preservation of Life and Goods 7. His Goodness is seen in remitting something of his own Right for the prâ—serving a due dependance and subjection He declines the Right he had to the Vows of a Minor or one under the power of another waving what he might challenge by the voluntary obligation of his Creature to keep up the due order between Parents and Children Husbands and Wives Superiors and Inferiors those that were under the power of another as a Child under his Parents or a Wife under her Husband if they had vowed a Vow unto the Lord which concern'd his Honour and Worship it was void without the approbation of that person under whose charge they were * Numb 30.3 4 c. Though God was the Lord of every Mans Goods and Men but his Stewards and though he might have taken to himself what another had offer'd by a Vow since whatsoever could be offer'd was Gods own though it was not the Parties own who offer'd it yet God would not have himself ador'd by his Creature to the prejudice of the necessary ties of Humane Society He lays aside what he might challenge by his Soveraign Dominion that there might not be any breach of that Regular Order which was necessary for the preservation of the World If Divine Goodness did not thus order things he would not do the part of a Rector of the World The beauty of the World would be much defac'd it would be a confus'd Mass of Men and Women or rather Beasts and Bedlams Order renders every City every Nation yea the whole Earth beautiful This is an effect of Divine Goodness 3. His Goodness is
evident in encouraging any thing of Moral Goodness in the World Though Moral Goodness cannot claim an Eternal Reward yet it hath been many times rewarded with a Temporal Happiness He hath often signally rewarded acts of honesty justice and fidelity and punisht the contrary by his Judgments to deter Man from such an unworthy practice and encourage others to what was Comely and of a general good report in the World Ahab's humiliation put a demurrer to Gods Judgments intended against him and some ascribe the great Victories and success of the Romans to that justice which was observed among themselves Baruch was but an Amanuensis to the Prophet Jeremy to write his Prophesy and very despondent of his own welfare * Jer. 45.13 God upon that account provides for his safety and rewards the industry of his service with the security of his Person He was not a States-Man to declare against the corrupt Counsels of them that sat at the Helm nor a Prophet to declare against their prophane practices but the Prophets Scribe and as he writes in Gods service the Prophesies revealed to the Prophet God writes his name in the Roll of those that were design'd for preservation in that deluge of Judgments which were to come upon that Nation Epicurus complain'd of the administration of God that the Vertuous Moralist had not sufficient smiles of Divine Favour nor the Swinish Sensualist frowns of Divine Indignation But what if they have not always that confluence of outward Wealth and Pleasures but remain in the common level Yet they have the happiness and satisfaction of a clear Reputation the esteem of Men and the secret applauses of their very Enemies besides the inward ravishments upon an exercise of Vertue and the commendatory subscription of their own hearts a dainty the Vicious Man knows not of They have an inward applause from God as a Reward of Divine Goodness instead of those Racks of Conscience upon which the Prophane are sometimes stretch'd He will not let the worst Men do him any service though they never intended in the act of service him but themselves without giving them their Wages He will not let them hit him in the teeth as if he were beholding to them If Nebuchadnezzar be the instrument of Gods Judgments against Tyrus and Israel he will not only give him that rich City but a richer Country Egypt the granary for her Neighbours a wages above his work In this is Divine Goodness eminent since in the most Moral actions as there is something beautiful so there is something mixt hateful to the infinitely exact Holiness of the Divine Nature yet he will not let that which is pleasing to him go unrewarded and defeat the expectations of Men as Men do with those they employ when for one flaw in an action they deny them the reward due for the other part God encourag'd and kept up Morality in the Cities of the Gentiles for the entertainment of a further goodness in the Doctrine of the Gospel when it should be publisht among them 4. Divine Goodness is eminent in providing a Scripture as a Rule to guide us and continuing it in the World If Man be a Rational Creature governable by a Law can it be imagin'd there should be no revelation of that Law to him Man by the light of Reason must needs confess himself to be in another condition than he was by Creation when he came first out of the hands of God and can it be thought that God should keep up the World under so many Sins against the light of Nature and bestow so many providential influences to invite Men to return to him and acquaint no Men in the World with the means of that return Would he exact an Obedience of Men as their Consciencies witness he doth and furnish them with no Rules to guide them in the darkness they cannot but acknowledge that they have contracted No Divine Goodness hath otherwise provided This Bible we have is his Word and Rule Had it been a falsity and imposture would that Goodness that watches over the World have continued it so long That Goodness that overthrew the burdensom Rites of Moses and expell'd the foolish Idolatry of the Pagans would have discover'd the imposture of this had it not been a transcript of his own Will Whatever mistakes he suffers to remain in the World what goodness had there been to suffer this anciently amongst the Jews and afterwards to open it to the whole World to abuse Men in Religion and Worship which so nearly concern'd himself and his own Honour that the World should be deceiv'd by the Devil without a remedy in the morning of its appearance It hath been honour'd and admir'd by some Heathens when they have cast their Eyes upon it and their natural Light made them behold some footsteps of a Divinity in it If this therefore be not a Divine Praescript let any that deny it bring as good Arguments for any Book else as can be brought for this Now the publishing this is an argument of Divine Goodness 'T is design'd to win the affections of beggarly Man to be espous'd to a God of Eternal Blessedness and immense Riches It speaks words in season No doubts but it resolves No Spiritual Distemper but it Cures No Condition but it hath a Comfort to suit it 'T is a Garden which the hand of Divine Bounty hath planted for us In it he condescends to shadow himself in those Expressions that render him in some manner intelligible to us Had God wrote in a loftiness of Style sutable to the greatness of his Majesty his Writing had been as little understood by us as the brightness of his Glory can be beheld by us But he draws Phrases from our affairs to express his mind to us He incarnates himself in his Word to our Minds before his Son was incarnate in the Flesh to the Eyes of Men He ascribes to himself Eyes Ears Hands that we might have from the consideration of our selves and the whole Humane Nature a conception of his Perfections He assumes to himself the Members of our Bodies to direct our Understandings in the knowledge of his Deity This is his Goodness Again Though the Scripture was written upon several occasions yet in the dictating of it the Goodness of God cast his Eye upon the last Ages of the World * 1 Cor. 10 11. They are written for our admonition upon whom the endâ— of the World are come It was given to the Israelites but Divine Goodness intended it for the future Gentiles The old Writings of the Prophets were thus design'd much more the later Writings of the Apostles Thus did Divine Goodness think of us and prepare his Records for us before we were in the World These he hath written plain for our instruction and wrapt up in them what is necessary for our Salvation 'T is clear to inform our Understanding and rich to comfort us in our Misery 'T is a Light
upon a higher ground of outward Prosperity vaunt it loftily above their Neighbours the common fault of those that enjoy a Worldly Sun-shine which the Apostle observes in his Direction to Timothy * 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high-mâ—nded 'T is an ill use of Divine Blessings to be fill'd by them with Pride and Wind. Also 2. When Men abuse Plenty to Ease because they have abundance spend their time in idleness and make no other use of Divine Benefits than to trifle away their time and be utterly useless to the World 3. When they also abuse Peace and other Blessings to security As they which would not believe the threatnings of Judgment and the Storm coming from a far Country because the Lord was in Sion and her King in her * Jer. 8.19 Is not the Lord in Sion is not her King in her thinking they might continue their progress in their Sin because they had the Temple the Seat of the Divine Glory Sion and the promise of an everlasting Kingdom to David abusing the Promise of God to presumption and security and turning the Grace of God into wantonness 4. Again When they abuse the Bounty of God to sensuality and luxury mis-employing the Provisions God gives them in resolving to live like Beasts when by a good improvement of them they might attain the Life of Angels Thus is the light of the Sun abus'd to conduct them and the Fruits of the Earth abus'd to enable them to their prodigious Debauchery As we do saith one * Young of Affliction p. 34. with the Thames which brings us in Provision and we soil it with our Rubbish The more God sowes his Gifts the more we sow our Cockle and Darnel Thus we make our outward Happiness the most unhappy part of of our lives and by the strength of Divine Blessings exceed all Laws of Reason and Religion too How unworthy a Carriage is this to use the Expressions of Divine Goodness as occasions of a greater outrage and affront of him When we stab his Honour by those Instruments he puts into our hands to glorifie him as if a favorite should turn that Sword into the Bowels of his Prince wherewith he Knighted him And a Servant enricht by a Lord should hire by that Wealth Murderers to take away his life How brutish is it the more God Courts us with his Blessings the more to spurn at him with our Feet Like the Mule that lifts up its Heel against the Dam as soon as ever it hath suckt her We never beat God out of our hearts but by his own Gifts He receives no blows from Men but by those Instruments he gave them to promote their Happiness While Man is an Enjoyer he makes God a Looser by his own Blessings inflames his Rebellion by those Benefits which should kindle his love and runs from him by the strength of those favours which should endear the Donor to him Do you thus requite the Lord Oh foolish People and unwise is the Expostulati n Deut. 32.6 Divine Goodness appears in the complaint of the abuse of it in giving them Titles below their Crime and complaining more of their being unfaithful to their own Interest than Enemies to his Glory Foolish and unwise in neglecting their own Happiness a Charge below the Crime which deserved to be abominable ungrateful People to a Prodigy All this Carriage towards God is as if a Man should knock the Chirurgeon on the Head as soon as he hath set and bound up his Dislocated Members So God compares the ungrateful behaviour of the Israelites against him * Hos 7 1â— Though I have bound and strengthn'd their Arms yet do they imagine mischief against me A Metaphor taken from a Chirurgeon that applies Corroborating Playsters to a broken Limb. 9. We contemn the Goodness of God in ascribing our Benefits to other Causes than Divine Goodness Thus Israel ascribed her Felicity Plenty and Success to her Idols as Rewards which her lovers had given her * Hos 2.5.12 And this Charge Daniel brought home upon Belshazzâ—r †Dan. 5.23 Thou hast praised the Gods of Silver and Gold and Brass and Iron and the God in whose hand is thy breath and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorify'd The God who hath given success to the Arms of thy Ancestors and convey'd by their hands so large a Dominion to thee thou hast not honour'd in the same Rank with the sordidest of thy Idols 'T is the same case when we own him not as the Author of any success in our Affairs but by an over-weening conceit of our own Sagacity applaud and admire our selves and over-look the Hand that conducted us and brought our endeavours to a good issue We Eclipse the Glory of Divine Goodness by setting the Crown that is due to it upon the head of our own Industry A Sacriledge worse than Belshazzar's drinking of Wine with his Lords and Concubines in the Sacred Vessels pilfer'd from the Temple as in that place of Daniel This was the proud vaunt of the Assyrian Conqueror for which God threatens to punish the fruit of his stout heart * Isai 10.12.13 14. By the strength of my hand I have done it and by my Wisdom for I am prudent and I have removed the bounds of the People and have robbed their Treasures and I have put down the Inhabitants like a valiant Man Not a word of Divine Goodness and Assistance in all this but applauding his own Courage and Conduct This is a robbing of God to set up our selves and making Divine Goodness a Footstool to ascend into his Throne And as it is unjust so it is ridiculous to ascribe to our selves or Instruments the chief honour of any work As ridiculous as if a Soldier after a Victory should Erect an Altar to the honour of his Sword or an Artificer offer Sacrifices to the Tools whereby he compleated some excellent and useful Invention A practice that every Rational Man would disdain where he should see it 'T is a discarding any thoughts of the Goodness of God when we imagine that we chiefly owe any thing in this World to our own Industry or Wit to Friends or Means as though Divine Goodness did not open its hand to interest it self in our Affairs support our Ability direct our Counsels and mingle it self with any thing we do God is the principal Author of any advantage that accrues to us of any wise Resolution we fix upon or any proper way we take to compass it No Man can be wise in opposition to God act wisely or well without him His Goodness inspires Men with generous and magnificent Counsels and furnisheth them with fit and proportionable Means When he withdraws his hand Mens heads grow foolish and their hands feeble folly and weakness drops upon them as darkness upon the World upon the removal of the Sun 'T is an abuse of Divine Goodness
recede from God 'T is then our own fault that we are miserable God cannot be charg'd with any injustice if we be miserable since his Goodness gave means to prevent it and afterwards added means to recover us from it but all despis'd by us The Doctrine of Divine Goodness justifies every Stone laid in the Foundation of Hell and every Spark in that burning Furnace since it is for the abuse of Infinite Goodness that it was kindled 4. The fourth Information Here is a certain Argument both for Gods fitness to govern the World and his actual Government of it 1. This renders him fit for the Government of the World and gives him a full Title to it This Perfection doth the Psalmist Celebrate throughout the 107 Psalm where he declares Gods Works of Providence vers 8 15 21 32. Power without goodness would deface instead of preserving Ruine is the fruit of rigor without kindness But God because of his infinite and immutable goodness cannot do any thing unworthy of himself and uncomely in it self or destructive to any Moral goodness in the Creature 'T is impossible he should do any thing that is base or act any thing but for the best because he is essentially and naturally and therefore necessarily good As a good Tree cannot bring forth bad Fruit so a good God cannot produce evil acts no more than a pure Beam of the Sun can engender so much as a mite of darkness or infinite Heat produce any particle of Cold. As God is so much Light that he can be no Darkness so he is so much Gâ—od that he can have no Evil and because there is no Evil in him nothing simply Evil can be produced by him Since he is good by Nature all evil is against his Nature and God can do nothing against his Nature It would be a part of impotence in him to Will that which is Evil and therefore the Misery Man feels as well as the Sin whereby he deserves that Misery are said to be from himself * Hos 13.9 Oh Israel thou hast destroy'd thy self And though God sends Judgments upon the World we have shewn these to be intended for the support and vindication of his Goodness And Hezekiah judg'd no otherewise when after the threatning of the Devastation of his House the Plundering his Treasures and Captivity of his Posterity He replies Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken * Isai 39.8 God cannot act any thing that is base and Cruel because his Goodness is as infinite as his Power and his Power acts nothing but what his Wisdom directs and his Goodness moves him to Wisdom is the Head in Government Omniscience the Eye Power the Arm and Goodness the Heart and Spirit in them that animates all 2. As Goodness renders him fit to govern the World so God doth actually govern the World Can we understand this Perfection aright and yet imagine that he is of so Morose a Disposition as to neglect the care of his Creatures That his Excellency which was display'd in framing the World should withdraw and wrap up it self in his own Bosom without looking out and darting it self out in the disposal of them Can that which moved him first to Erect a World suffer him to be unmindful of his own Work Would he design first to display it in Creation and afterwards obscure the Honour of it That cannot be Entitled an Infinite permanent Goodness which should be so indifferent as to let the Creatures tumble together as they please without any order after he had Moulded them in his hand If Goodness be diffusive and communicative of it self can it consist with the Nature of it to extend it self to the giving the Creatures Being and then withdraw and contract it self not caring what becomes of them 'T is the Nature of Goodness after it hath communicated it self to enlarge its Channels That Fountain that springs up in a little hollow part of the Earth doth in a short progress increase its Streams and widen the Passages through which it runs It would be a blemish to Divine Goodness if it did desert what it made and leave things to wild Confusions which would be if a good hand did not manage them and a good Mind preside over them This is the Lesson intended to us by all his Judgments * Dan. 4.17 That the living may know that the Most High Rules in the Kingdoms of Men. If he doth not actually govern the World he must have devolv'd it somewhere either to Men or Angels Not to Men who naturally want a goodness and Wisdom to govern themselves much more to govern others exactly And besides the misinterpretations of actions they are liable to the want of Patience to bear with the provocations of the World Since some of the best at one time in the World and in the greatest example of meekness and sweetness would have kindled a Fire in Heaven to have consumed the Samaritans for no other affront than a non Entertainment of their Master and themselves * Luke 9.54 Nor hath he committed the disposal of things to Angels either good or bad though he useth them as Instruments in his Government yet they are not the principal Pilots to Steer the World Bad Angels certainly are not they would make continual Ravages meditate Ruine never defeat their own Counsels which they manage by the Wicked as their Instruments in the World nor fill their Spirits with disquiet and restlesness when they are engaged in some Ruinous Design as often is experienc'd Nor hath he committed it to the good Angels who for ought we know are not more numerous than the evil ones are But besides we can scarcely think their Finite Nature capable of so much goodness as to bear the innumerable Debaucheries Villanies Blasphemies vented in one year one week one day one hour throughout the World Their Zeal for their Creator might well be suppos'd to move them to testifie their affection to him in a constant and speedy Righting of his injured Honour upon the heads of the Offenders The evil Angels have too much Cruelty and would have no care of Justice but take pleasure in the Blood of the most Innocent as well as the most Criminal And the good Angels have too little tenderness to suffer so many Crimes Since the World therefore continues without those flouds of Judgments which it daily merits since notwithstanding all the provocations the order of it is preserved 'T is a testimony that an Infinite Goodness holds the Helm in his hands and spreads its warm Wings over it 5. The fifth Information is this Hence we may infer the ground of all Religion 't is this Perfection of Goodness As the Goodness of God is the lustre of all his Attributes so it is the Foundation and Link of all true Religious Worship The natural Religion of the Heathens was introduc'd by the consideration of Divine Goodness in the Being he had bestow'd upon
his moral Power whereby it is lawful for him to do what he will Among men Strength and Authority are two distinct things A Subject may be a Giant and be stronger than his Prince but he hath not the same Authority as his Prince Worldly Dominion may be seated not in a brawny Arm but a sickly and infirm Body As knowledge and wisdom are distinguisht knowledge respects the matter being and nature of a thing Wisdom respects the harmony order and actual usefulness of a thing Knowledge searcheth the nature of a thing and Wisdom employs that thing to its proper use A man may have much Knowledge and little Wisdom so a man may have much Strength and little or no Authority A greater strength may be setled in the Servant but a greater Authority resides in the Master strength is the natural vigor of a Man God hath an infinite strength he hath a strength to bring to pass whatsoever he decrees he acts without fainting and weakness Isaiah 40.28 and impairs not his strength by the exercise of it As God is Lord he hath a right to Enact as he is Almighty he hath a power to Execute His strength is the executive power belonging to his Dominion In regard of his Soveraignty he hath a right to Command all Creatures In regard of his Almightiness he hath power to make his Commands be obey'd or to punish men for the violation of them His power is that whereby he subdues all Creatures under him his Dominion is that whereby he hath a right to subdue all Creatures under him This Dominion is a right of making what he pleases of possessing what he made of disposing of what he doth possess whereas his power is an ability to make what he hath a right to Create to hold what he doth possess and to execute the manner wherein he resolves to dispose of his Creatures 2. All the other Attributes of God referre to this perfection of Dominion They all bespeak him fit for it and are discovered in the exercise of it which hath been manifested in the discourses of those Attributes we have passed through hitherto His Goodness fits him for it because he can never use his Authority but for the good of the Creatures and conducting them to their true end His Wisdom can never be mistaken in the exercise of it his power can accomplish the Decrees that flow from his absolute Authority What can be more rightful than the placing Authority in such an infinite Goodness that hath Bowels to pity as well as a Scepter to sway his Subjects That hath a mind to contrive and a will to regulate his contrivances for his own Glory and his Creatures good and an arm of power to bring to pass what he Orders Without this Dominion some perfections as Justice and Mercy would lie in obscurity and much of his Wisdom would be shrouded from our sight and knowledge 3. This of Dominion as well as that of Power hath been acknowledged by all The High Priest was to wave the Offering or shake it to and fro Exod. 29.24 which the Jews say was customarily from East to West and from North to South the four quarters of the World to signifie Gods Soveraignty over all the parts of the World And some of the Heathens in their Adorations turned their Bodies to all quarters to signifie the extensive Dominion of God throughout the whole Earth That Dominion did of right pertain to the Deity was confest by the Heathen in the name Baal given to their Idols which signifies Lord and was not a name of one Idol adored for a God but common to all the Eastern Idols God hath interwoven the notion of his Soveraignty in the Nature and Constitution of Man in the noblest and most inward acts of his Soul in that faculty or act which is most necessary for him in his converse in this World either with God or Man 'T is stampt upon the Conscience of Man and flashes in his face in every act of self Judgment Conscience passes upon a Man Every reflection of Conscience implies an obligation of man to some Law written in his Heart Rom. 2.15 This Law cannot be without a Legislator nor this Legislator without a Soveraign Dominion these are but natural and easie consequences in the mind of Man from every act of Conscience The indelible Authority of Conscience in Man in the whole exercise of it bears a respect to the Soveraignty of God clearly proclaims not only a supream being but a supream Governor and points man directly to it that a man may as soon deny his having such a reflecting principle within him as deny Gods Dominion over him and consequently over the whole World of rational Creatures 4. This notion of Soveraingty is inseparable from the notion of a God To acknowledge the Existence of a God and to acknowledge him a Rewarder are linkt together Heb. 11.6 To acknowledge him a Rewarder is to acknowledge him a Governor Rewards being the marks of Dominion The very name of a God includes in it a supremacy and an actual rule He cannot be conceived as God but he must be conceived as the highest Authority in the World 'T is as possible for him not to be God as not to be supream Wherein can the exercise of his excellencies be apparent but in his Soveraign rule To fancy an infinite power without a supream Dominion is to fancy a mighty senseless Statue fit to be beheld but not fit to be obey'd as not being able or having no right to give out Orders or not caring for the exercise of it God cannot be supposed to be the cheif being but he must be supposed to give Laws to all and receive Laws from none And if we suppose him with a perfection of Justice and Righteousness which we must do unless we would make a lame and imperfect God we must suppose him to have an intire Dominion without which he could never be able to manifest his Justice And without a supream Dominion he could not manifest the supremacy and infiniteness of his Righteousness 1. We cannot suppose God a Creator without supposing a Soveraign Dominion in him No Creature can be made without some Law in its Nature if it had not Law it would be Created to no purpose to no regular end it would be utterly unbecoming an infinite Wisdom to create a lawless Creature a Creature wholly vain much less can a rational Creature be made without a Law if it had no Law it were not rational For the very notion of a rational Creature implies reason to be a Law to it and implies an acting by rule * Maccov Colleg. Theolog 10. Disput 18. p. 6 7. or thereabout If you could suppose rational Creatures without a Law you might suppose that they might blaspheme their Creator and Murder their fellow Creatures and commit the most abominable villanies destructive to humane Society without sin for where there is no Law there is no
to King Redeemer He hath revok'd the Law of works as a Covenant releas'd the penalty of it from the beleiving sinner by transferring it upon the surety who interpos'd himself by his own will and divine designation He hath establish'd another Covenant upon other promises in a higher root with greater Priviledges and easier terms Had not God had this right of Soveraignty not a man of Adam's posterity could have been blessed he and they must have lain groaning under the misery of the fall which had render'd both himself and all in his Loyns unable to observe the Terms of the first Covenant He hath as some speak dispens'd with his own Moral Law in some cases in commanding Abraham to Sacrifice his Son his only Son a Righteous Son a Son whereof he had the promise that in Isaac should his Seed be call'd yet he was commanded to Sacrifice him by the right of his absolute Soveraignty as the supream Lord of the Lives of his Creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest Worm whereby he bound his Subjects to this Law not himself Our Lives are due to him when he calls for them and they are a just forâ—â—it to him at the very moment we sin at the very moment we come into the World by reason of the venom of our nature against him and the disturbance the first sin of man whereof we are inheritors gave to his Glory Had Abraham sacrificed his Son of his own head he had sinned yea in attempting it but being Authoriz'd from Heaven his act was Obedience to the Soveraign of the World who had a power to dispense with his own Law and with this Law he had before dispens'd in the case of Cains Murder of Abel as to the immediate punishment of it with death which indeed was setled afterwards by his Authority but then omitted because of the paucity of men and for the peopling the World but setled afterwards when there was almost though not altogether the like occasion of omitting it for a time 3. His Soveraignty appears in punishing the Transgression of his Law 1. This is a branch of Gods Dominion as Lawgiver So was the vengeance God would take upon the Amalekites Exod. 17.16 The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have War The Hebrew is the hand upon the Throne of the Lord as in the margent As a Lawgiver he saves or destroyes James 4.12 He acts according to his own Law in a congruity to the sanction of his own precepts though he be an Arbitrary Lawgiver appointing what Laws he pleases yet he is not an Arbitrary Judge As he commands nothing but what he hath a right to command so he punisheth none but whom he hath a right to punish and with such punishment as the Law hath denounced All his acts of Justice and inflictions of Curses are the effects of this Soveraign Dominion Psal 29.10 He sits King upon the Flouds Upon the deluge of Waters wherewith he drown'd the World say some 'T is a right belonging to the Authority of Magistrates to pull up the infectious weeds that corrupt a Common-Wealth 'T is no less the right of God as the Lawgiver and Judge of all the Earth to subject Criminals to his vengeance after they have rendered themselves abominable in his Eyes and carried themselves unworthy Subjects of so great and glorious a King The first name whereby God is made known in Scripture is Elohim Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God Created the Heaven and Earth A name which signifies his power of judging in the opinion of some Criticks from him it is deriv'd to earthly Magistrates their Judgment is said therefore to be the Judgement of God Deut. 1.17 When Christ came he propos'd this great motive of Repentance from the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand the Kingdom of his Grace whereby to invite men the Kingdom of his Justice in the punishment of the neglecters of it whereby to terrifie men Punishments as well as Rewards belong to Royalty it issued accordingly those that believ'd and repented came under his gracious Scepter those that neglected and rejected it fell under his Iron Rod. Jerusalem was destroy'd the Temple demolish'd the Inhabitants lost their lives by the edge of the Sword or linger'ed them out in the chains of a miserable Captivity This term of Judge which signifies a Soveraign right to govern and punish Delinquents Abraham gives him when 〈◊〉 came to root out the People of Sodom and make them the examples of his veâ—geance Gen. 18.25 2. Punishing the Transgressions of his Law This is necessary branch of Dominion His Soveraignty in making Laws would be a trifle if there were not also an Authority to vindicate those Laws from Contempt and Injury he would be a Lord only spurn'd at by Rebels Soveraignty is not preserved without Justice When the Psalmist speaks of the Majesty of God's Kingdom he tells us that Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of his Throne Psal 97.1 2. These are the Engines of Divine dignity which render him glorious and majestick A Legislative power would be trampled on without executive by this the reverential apprehensions of God are preserved in the Wâ—rld He is known to be Lord of the World by the Judgements which he executes Psal 9.16 When he seems to have lost his dominion or given it up in the World he recovers it by punishment When he takes some away with a Whirlwind and in his Wrath the natural consequence men make of it is this Surely there is a God that Judgeth the Earth Psal 58.9.11 He reduceth the Creature by the lash of his judgments that would not acknowledge his Authority in his precepts Those sins which disown his Government in the Heart and Conscience as Pride inward blasphemy c. he hath reserved a time hereafter to reckon for He doth not presently shoot his arrows into the marrow of every delinquent but those sins which traduce his Government of the World and tear up the Foundations of humane converse and a publick respect to him he reckons with particularly here as well as hereafter that the Life of his Soveraignty might not always faint in the World 3. This of punishing was the second discovery of his dominion in the World His first act of Soveraignty was the giving a Law the next his appearance in the State of a judge When his orders were violated he rescues the honour of them by an execution of Justice He first judg'd the Angels punishing the evil ones for their crime the first Court he kept among them as a Governour was to give them a Law the second Court he kept was as a Judge trying the Delinquents and adjudging the Offenders to be reserved in Chains of darkness till the final Execution Jude 6. And at the same time probably he confirmed the good ones in their obedience by Grace So the first discovery of his dominion to man was the giving him a precept the next was the inflicting a punishment for the
and from every Creature to the great Landlord since all are Tenants and hold by him at his Will Every Creature in Heaven and Earth under the Earth and in the Sea were heard by John to ascribe blessing honour glory and power to him that sits on the Throne Rev. 5.13 We are as much bound to the soveraignty of God for his preâ—â—rvation of us as for his Creation of us We are no less oblig'd to him that preservs our beings when exposed to dangers than we are for bestowing a being upon us when we were not capable of danger Thankfulness is due to this Soveraign for publick concerns Hath he not preserved the Ship of his Church in the midst of whistling winds and roaring waves in the midst of the combats of men and Devils and rescued it often when it hath been near ship-wrackt 3. How should we be induc'd from hence to promote the honour of this Soveraign We should advance him as supream and all our actions should concur in his honour We should return to his Glory what we have receiv'd from his Soveraignty and enjoy by his mercy He that is the superior of all ought to be the end of all This is the harmony of the Creation that which is of an inferiour nature is order'd to the service of that which is of a more excellent nature thus water and earth that have a lower being are employ'd for the honour and beauty of the plants of the earth who are more excellent in having a principle of a growing life These plants are again subservient to the beasts and birds which exceed them in a principle of sense which the others want Those beasts and birds are order'd for the good of man who is superior to them in a Principle of reason and is invested with a Dominion over them Man having God for his superior ought as much to serve the glory of God as other things are design'd to be useful to man Other Governments are intended for the good of the Community the chief end is not the good of the Governours themselves But God being every way Soveraign the Soveraign being giving being to all things the Soveraign Ruler giving order and preservation to all things is also the end of all things to whose glory and honour all things all creatures are to be subservient Rom. 11.36 For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Of him as the efficient cause through him as the preserving cause to him as the final cause All our actions and thoughts ought to be addrest to his glory our whole beings ought to be consecrated to his honour though we should have no reward but the honour of having been subservient to the end of our Creation So much doth the excellency and Majesty of God infinitely elevated above us challenge of us Subjects use to value the safety honour and satisfaction of a good Prince above their own David is accounted worth 10000 of the people and some of his Courtiers thought themselves oblig'd to venture their lives for his satisfaction in so mean a thing as a little water from the Well of Bethlehem Doth not so great so good a Soveraign as God deserve the same affection from us Do we swear saith a Heathen * Arrian in Epicter to prefer none before Caesar and have we not greater reason to prefer none before God 'T is a Justice due from us to God to maintain his Glory as it is a Justice to preserve the right and property of another As God would lay aside his Deity if he did deny himself so a creature acts irregularly and out of the rank of a creature if it doth not deny it self for God He that makes himself his own end makes himself his own Soveraign To napkin up a gift he hath bestow'd upon us or to employ what we possess solely to our own Glory to use any thing barely for our selves without respect to God is to apply it to a wrong use and to injure God in his propriety and the end of his donation What we have ought to be us'd for the honour of God He retains the Dominion and Lordship though he grants us the use We are but Stewards not Proprietors in regard of God who expects an account from us how we have employ'd his goods to his honour The Kingdom of God is to be advanced by us we are to pray that his Kingdom may come we are to endeavour that his Kingdom may come that is that God may be known to be the chief Soveraign that his Dominion which was obscur'd by Adam's fall may be more manifested that his Subjects which are supprest in the World may be supported his Laws which are violated by the rebellions of men may be more obeyed and his enemies be fully subdued by his final judgment the last evidence of his Dominion in this State of the World that the Empire of sin and the Devil may be abolish'd and the Kingdom of God be perfected that none may rule but the great and rightful Soveraign Thus while we endeavour to advance the honour of his Throne we shall not want an honour to our selves He is too gracious a Soveraign to neglect them that are mindful of his Glory those that honour him he will honour 1 Sam. 2.30 4. Fear and reverence of God in himself and in his actions is a duty incumbent on us from this Doctrine Jer. 10.7 Who would not fear thee O King of Nations The ingratitude of the World is taxt in not reverencing God as a great King who had given so many marks of his Royal Government among them The Prophet wonders there was no fear of so great a King in the World Since among all the wise men of the Nations and among all their Kings there is none like unto this No more reverence of him since none ruled so wisely nor any ruled so graciously The dominion of God is one of the first sparks that gives fire to Religion and Worship consider'd with the goodness of this Soveraign Psal 22.27.28 All the Nations shall worship before thee for the Kingdom is the Lord's and he is Governour among the Nations Epicurus who thought God careless of humane affairs leaving thâ—â— at hap-hazard to the conduct of mens wisdom and mutability of fortune yet acknowledged that God ought to be worshipped by man for the excellency of his nature and greatness of his Majesty How should we reverence that God that hath a Throne encompast with such Glorious Creatures as Angels whose faces we are not able to behold though shadow'd in assum'd bodies How should we fear the Lord of Hosts that hath so many Armies at his command in the Heavens above and in the Earth below whom he can dispose to the exact obedience of his will how should men be afraid to censure any of his actions to sit judge of their Judge and call him to an account to their Bar How should such
yet he hath also power to verifie his word and accomplish his will assure your selves he will not at all acquit the wicked He will not acquit the wicked He will not always account the criminal an innocent as he seems to do by a present sparing of them and dealing with them as if they were destitute of any provoking carriage towards him and he void of any resentment of it He will not acquit the wicked how is this who then can be saved Is there no place for remission He will not acquit the wicked i. e. He will not acquit obstinate sinners As he hath Patience for the wicked so he hath Mercy for the penitent The wicked are the subjects of his long suffering but not of his acquitting grace He doth not presently punish their sins because he is slow to anger But without their Repentance he will not blot out their sins because he is righteous in judgment If God should acquit them without Repentance for their crimes he must himself repent of his own Law and Righteous Sanction of it He will not acquit i. e. he will not go back from the thing he hath spoken and forbear at long run the punishment he hath threatned The Lord hath his way in the Whirl-wind The way of God signifies sometimes the Law of God sometimes the providential operations of God Ezek. 18.25 Is not my way equal It seems there to take in both And in the Storm and the Clouds are the dust of his feet * Tirinus in loc The Prophet describes here the fight of God with the Assyrians as if he rusht upon them with a mighty noise of an Army raising the dust with the feet of their horses and motion of their Chariots Symbolically it signifies the multitude of the Chaldean and Median forces invading besieging and storming the City It signifies 1. The rule of Providence The way of God is in every motion of the creature He rules all things Whirl-wind Storms Clouds his way is in all their walks in the whirlings and blustrings of the one in the raising and dissolving the other He blows up the Winds and compacts the Clouds to make them serviceable to his designs 2. The management of wars by God His way is in the storm As he was the Captain of the Assyrians against Samaria so he will be the Captain of the Medes against Niniveh As Israel was not so much wasted by the Assyrians as by the Lord who levied and arm'd their Forces So Niniveh shall be subverted rather by God than by the Arms of the Medes Their force is describ'd not to be so much from Humane power as Divine God is President in all the commotions of the World his way is in every Whirl-wind 3. The easiness of executing the judgment He is of so great power that he can excite Tempests in the Air and overthrow them with the Clouds which are the dust of his feet He can blind his enemies and avenge himself on them he is Lord of Clouds and can fill their womb with Hail Lightnings and Thunders to burst out upon those he kindles his anger against He is of so great force that he needs not use the strength of his Arm but the dust of his Feet to effect his destroying purpose 4. The suddenness of the judgment Whirl-winds come suddenly without any harbingers to give notice of their approach Clouds are swift in their motion Isa 60.8 Who are those that flie as a Cloud i. e. with a mighty nimbleness What God doth he shall do on the sudden come upon them before they are aware be too quick for them in his motion to over-run and over-reach them The winds are describ'd with wings in regard of the quickness of their motion 5. The terror of judgments The Lord hath his way in the Whirl-wind i. e. in great displeasure The anger of the Lord is often compar'd to a storm He shall bring Clouds of judgments upon them many and thick as terrible as when a day is turn'd into night by the mustering of the darkest clouds that interpose between the Sun and the Earth Clouds and darkness are round about him and a fire goes before him when he burns up his enemies Psal 97.2 3. The judgments shall have terror without mercy as clouds obscure the light and are dark masks before the face and glory of the Sun and cut off its refreshing Beams from the Earth Clouds note multitude and obscurity God could crush them without a Whirlwind beat them to powder with one touch but he will bring his judgments in the most surprizing and amazing manner to flesh and blood so that all their Glory shall be chang'd into nothing but terror by the noise of the bellowing winds and the clouds like ink blacking the Heavens 6. The confusion of the Offenders upon God's proceeding A Whirlwind is not only a boysterous wind that hurls and rouls every thing out of its place but by its circular motion by its winding to all points of the compass it confounds things and jumbles them together It keeps not one point but by a circumgyration toucheth upon all Clouds like dust shall be blown in their face and gumm up their eyes They shall be in a posture of confusion not know what counsels to take what motions to resolve upon Let them look to every point of Heaven and Earth they shall meet with a Whirlwind to confound them and cloudy dust to blind them 7. The irresistibleness of the judgment Winds have more than a Gyant like force a torrent of compacted Air that with an invincible wilfulness bears all before it displaceth the firmest Trees and levels the tallest Towers and pulls up bodies from their natural place Clouds also are over our heads and above our reach When God places them upon his people for defence they are an invincible security Isa 4.5 And when he moves them as his Chariot against a people they end in an irresistible destruction Thus the ruine of the wicked is describ'd Prov. 10.25 As the Whirlwind passes so is the wicked no more It blows them down sweeps them away they irrecoverably fall before the force of it What heart can endure and what hands can be strong in the days wherein God doth deal with them Ezek. 22.14 Thus is the judgment against Niniveh describ'd God hath his way in the Whirlwind to thunder down their strongest Walls which were so thick that Chariots could march a-breast upon them and batter down their mighty Towers which that City had in multitudes upon their Walls They are the first words I intend to insist upon to treat of the Patience of God describ'd in those words The Lord is slow to anger Doct. Slowness to anger or admirable Patience is the property of the divine nature As Patience signifies suffering so it is not in God The divine nature is impassible uncapable of any impair it cannot be touched by the violences of men nor the essential Glory of it be diminisht by
strong that it had been a wrong to his Justice to have restrain'd it any longer The cry was so loud that he could not be at quiet as it were on his Throne of Glory for the disturbing noise Gen. 18.20 21. Sin transgresseth the Law the Law being violated solicites Justice Justice being urg'd pleads for punishment the cry of their sins did as it were force him from Heaven to come down and examine what cause there was for that clamour Sin cries loud and long before he takes his Sword in hand Four hundred years he kept off deserved destruction from the Amorites and deferr'd making good his promise to Abraham of giving Canaan to his Posterity out of his Long-suffering to the Amorites Gen. 15.16 In the fourth Generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full Their measure was filling then but not so full as to put a stop to any further patience till four hundred years after The usual time in succeeding Generations from the denouncing of Judgments to the execution is forty years this some ground upon Ezek. 4.6 thou shalt bear the iniquity of the House of Judah forty days taking each day for a year Though Hosea lived seventy years yet from the beginning of his prophesying Judgments against Israel to the pouring them out upon that Idolatrous People it was forty years Hosea as was mentioned before prophesied against them in the days of Jeroboam the second in whose time God did wonderfully deliver Israel 2 Kings 14.26.27 From that time till the total destruction of the ten Tribes it was forty years as may easily be computed from the Story 2 Kings 15 16 17. chapters by the Reign of the succeeding Kings So forty years after the most horrid villany that ever was committed in the face of the Sun viz. The Crucifying the Son of God was Jerusalem destroyed and the inhabitants captiv'd so long did God delay a visible punishment for such an outrage Sometimes he prolongs sending a threatned judgment upon a meer shadow of humiliation so he did that denounced against Ahab He turn'd it over to his posterity and adjourn'd it to another season 1 Kings 21.29 He doth not issue out an Arrest upon one Transgression you often find him not commencing a suit against men till three and four Transgressions The first of Amos all along that chapter and the second chapter for three and four i. e. seven A certain number for an uncertain He gives not orders to his judgments to march till men be obstinate and refuse any commerce with him He stops them till there be no remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 It must be a great wickedness that gives vent to them Hos 10.15 Heb. your wickedness of wickedness He is so slow to anger and stays the punishment his enemies deserve that he may seem to have forgot his kindness to his Friends Psal 44.24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and oppression He lets his people groan under the yoke of their Enemies as if he were made up of kindness to his Enemies and anger against his Friends This delaying of punishment to evil men is visible in his suspending the terrifying acts of Conscience and supporting it only in its checking admonishing and controuling acts The patience of a Governour is seen in the patient mildness of his Deputy Davids Conscience did not terrifie him till nine months after his sin of Murder Should God set open the Mouth of this power within us not only the Earth but our own bodies and Spirits would be a burden to us 'T is long before God puts Scorpions into the hands of mens Consciences to scourge them He holds back the rod waiting for the hour of our return as if that would be a recompence for our offences and his forbearance III. His Patience is manifest in his unwillingness to execute his Judgments when he can delay no longer He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men. Lament 3.33 Hebr. He doth not afflict from his Heart He takes no pleasure in it as he is Creator The height of mens provocations and the necessity of the preserving his rights and vindicating his Laws obligeth him to it as he is the Governour of the World As a Judge may willingly condemn a Malefactor to death out of affection to the Laws and desire to preserve the order of Government but unwillingly out of Compassion to the offender himself When he resolved upon the destruction of the old World he spake it as a God grieved with an occasion of punishment Gen. 6.6 7. compared together When he came to reckon with Adam be walked he did not run with his Sword in his hand upon him as a mighty man with an eagerness to destroy him Gen. 3.8 And that in the cool of the day a time when men tired in the day are unwilling to engage in a hard employment His exercising judgment is a coming out of his place Isaiah 26.21 Micah 1.3 He comes out of his station to exercise judgment a Throne is more his place than a tribunal Every prophesie loaded with threatnings is call'd the Burden of the Lord a burden to him to execute it as well as to men to suffer it Though three Angels came to Abraham about the punishment of Sodom whereof one Abraham speaks to as to God yet but two appear'd at the destruction of Sodom as if the Governour of the World were unwilling to be present at such dreadful work Gen. 19.1 And when the Man that had the inkhorn by his side that was appointed to mark those that were to be preserved in the common destruction return'd to give an account of the performing his commission Ezek. 9.10 We read not of the return of those that were to kill as if God delighted only to hear again of his works of Mercy and had no mind to hear again of his severe proceedings * Mercer in Gen. 1.5 The Jews to shew Gods unwillingness to punish imagine that Hell was created the second day Because that days work is not pronounced good by God as all the other days works are Gen. 1.8 1. When God doth punish he doth it with some regret * Cressol Decad. 2. p. 163. When he hurles down his thunders he seems to do it with a backward hand Because with an unwilling heart He created saith Chrysostom the World in six days but was seven days in destroying one City Jericho which he had before devoted to be razed to the ground What is the reason saith he that God is so quick to build up but slow to pull down His Goodness excites his power to the One but is not earnest to perswade him to the Other When he comes to strike he doth it with a sigh or groan Isaiah 1.24 Ah I will ease me of my adversaries and avenge me on my Enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ah a note of grief So Hos 6.4 Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee
Oh Judah what shall I do unto thee 'T is an Addubitatio a figure in Rhetorick as if God were troubled that he must deal so sharply with them and give them up to their Enemies I have tried all means to reclaim you I have used all ways of kindness and nothing prevails What shall I do my Mercy invites me to spare them and their ingratitude provokes me to ruine them God had born with that people of Israel almost three hundred years from the setting up of the Calves at Dan and Bethel sent many a Prophet to warn them and spent many a rod to reform them And when he comes to execute his threatnings he doth it with a conflict in himself Hosea 11.8 How shall I give thee up Oh Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel As if there were a pull-back in his own Bowels he solemnizeth their approaching funeral with a hearty groan and takes his farewell of the dying Malefactor with a pang in himself How often in former times when he had sign'd a warrant for their Execution did he call it back Psal 78.38 Many a time turn'd he his anger away Many a time he recall'd or order'd his Anger to return again as the word signifies as if he were irresolute what to do He recall'd it as a man doth his Servant several times when he is sending him upon an unwelcome message or as a tender hearted Prince wavers and trembles when he is to sign a Writ for the death of a Rebel that hath been before his favorite as if when he had sign'd the Writ he blotted out his name again and flung away the Pen. And his method is remarkable when he came to punish Sodom though the cry of their sin had been fierce in his ears yet when he comes to make inquisition he declares his intention to Abraham as if he were desirous that Abraham should have helped him to some arguments to stop the outgoings of his judgment He gave liberty to the best person in the World to stand in the gap and enter into a treaty with him to shew saith one * Pierce sinner implead Pag. 227. how willingly his mercy would have compounded with his justice for their Redemption And Abraham interceded so long till he was ashamed for pleading the cause of patience and Mercy to the wrong of the rights of divine Justice Perhaps had Abraham had the courage to ask God would have had the compassion to grant a reprieve just at the time of Execution 2. His Patience is manifest in that when he begins to send out his judgments he doth it by degrees His Judgments are as the Morning Light which goes forth by degrees in the Hemisphere Hos 6.5 He doth not shoot all his thunders at once and bring his sharpest judgments in array at one time but gradually that a people may have time to turn to him Joel 1.4 First the Palmer-worm then the Locust then the Canker-worm then the Caterpillar What one left the other was to eat if there were not a timely return A Jewish Writer * Kimchi saith these judgments came not all in one year but one year after another The Palmer-worm and Locust might have eaten all but divine Patience set bounds to the devouring creatures God had been first as a moth to Israel Hos 5.12 Therefore will I be to the house of Ephraim as a Moth Rivet translates it I have been in the Hebr. 't is I without adding I have been or I will be and more probably I have been I was as a Moth which makes little holes in a garment and consumes it not all at once And as rottenness to the house of Judah or a worm that eats into wood by degrees Indeed this people had consum'd insensibly partly by civil combustions change of Governours Forreign Invasions yet they were as obstinate in their Idolatry as ever At last God would be no longer to them as a Moth but as a Lyon tear and go away ver 14. So Hos 2. God had disowned Israel for his Spouse ver 2. She is not my Wife neither am I her Husband yet he had not taken away her Ornaments which by the right of divorce he might have done but still expected her Reformation for that the threatning intimates ver 3. let her put away her Whoredom least I strip her naked and set her as in the day when she was born If she returned she might recover what she had lost if not she might be stript of what remained Thus God dealth with Judah Ezek. 9.3 The Glory of God goes first from the Cherub to the Thresh-hold of the house and stayes there as if he had a mind to be invited back again then it goes from the Threshold of the house and stands over the Cherubims as if upon a penitent call it would drop down again to its antient Station and Seat over which it hoverd Ezek. 10.18 And when he was not sollicited to return he departs out of the City and stood upon the Mountain which is on the East part of the City Ezek. 11.23 looking still towards and hovering about the Temple which was on the East of Jerusalem as if loath to depart and abandon the place and people He walkes so leasurely with his Rod in his hand as if he had a mind rather to fling it away than use it His Patience in not pouring out all his Vials is more remarkable than hiâ— wrath in pouring out one or two Thus hath God made his slowness to anger visible to us in the gradual punishment of us First the Pestilence on this City then Firing our Houses Consumption of Trade these have not been answered with such a carriage as God expects therefore a greater is reserved I dare prognosticate upon reasons you may gather from what hath been spoke before if I be not much mistaken the 40 yeares of his usual Patience are very near expired he hath inflicted some that he might be met with in a way of Repentance and omit with honour the inflicting the remainder 4. His Patience is manifest in moderating his judgments when he sends them Doth he empty his Quiver of his Arrows or exhaust his magazines of thunder No he could roul one Thunder-bolt successively upon all Mankind 'T is as easie with him to Create a perpetual motion of Lightning and Thunder as of the Sun and Stars and make the World as terrible by the one as it is delightful by the other He opens not all his store he sends out a light party to skirmish with men and puts not in array his whole Army He stirs not up all his wrath Psal 78.38 he doth but pinch where he might have torn asunder When he takes away much he leaves enough to support us If he had stirred up all his anger he had taken away all and our lives to boot He rakes up but a few sparks takes but one firebrand to fling upon men when he might discharge the whole Furnace upon them
to the last committed this minute The line of his patience hath run along with the duration of the World to this day and there is not any one of Adams posterity but hath been expensive to him and partaked of the riches of it 4. All these he bears when he hath a sense of them He sees every day the Roll and Catalogue of sin increasing he hath a distinct view of every one from the sin of Adam to the last fil'd up in his Omniscience and yet gives no order for the arrest of the World He knows men fitted for destruction all the instants he exerciseth long-suffering towards them which makes the Apostle call it not simply long suffering without the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much long-suffering Rom. 9.23 There is not a grain in the whole Mass of sin that he hath not a distinct knowledge of and of the quality of it He perfectly understands the greatness of his own Majesty that is vilified and the nature of the offence that doth disparage him He is sollicited by his Justice directed by his Omniscience and armed with judgments to vindicate himself but his arm is restrained by patience To conclude no indignity is hid from him no iniquity is beloved by him the hatred of their sinfulness is infinite and the knowledge of the malice is exact The subsisting of the World under such weighty provocations so numerous so long time and with his full sence of every one of them is an evidence of such a forbearance and long-suffering that the addition of Riches which the Apostle puts to it Rom. 2.4 labours with an insufficiency clearly to display it III. Why God doth exercise so much patience 1. To shew himself appeaseable God did not declare by his patience to former ages or any age that he was appeased with them or that they were in his favour but that he was appeasable that he was not an implacable Enemy but that they might find him favourable to them if they did seek after him The continuance of the World by patience and the bestowing many mercies by goodness were not a natural revelation of the manner how he would be appeased That was made known only by the Prophets and after the coming of Christ by the Apostles and had indeed been intelligible in some sort to the whole World had there been a faithfulness in Adams posterity to transmit the tradition of the first promise to succeeding Generations Had not the knowledge of that dyed by their carelesness and neglect it had been easie to tell the reason of Gods patience to be in order to the exhibition of the Seed of the woman to bruise the Serpents head They could not but naturally know themselves sinners and worthy of death they might be easie reflections upon themselves collect that they were not in that comely and harmonious posture now as they were when God first wrought them with his own finger and placed them as his Lieutenants in the World they knew they did grievously offend him this they were taught by the sprinklings of his judgments among them sometimes And since he did not utterly root up mankind his sparing patience was a prologue of some further favours or pardoning Grace to be display'd to the World by some methods of God yet unknown to them Though the Earth was something impair'd by the curse after the fall yet the main pillars of it stood the strate of the natural motions of the Creature was not chang'd the Heavens remain'd in the same posture wherein they were Created the Sun and Moon and other heavenly bodies continued their usefulness and refreshing influences to man The Heavens did still declare the Glory of God day unto day did utter speech their line is gone throughout all the Earth and their words to the end of the World Psal 19.1 2 3. 4. Which declar'd God to be willing to do good to his Creatures and were as so many legible letters or rudiments whereby they might read his patience and that a further design of favour to the World lay hid in that Patience Paul applies this to the Preaching of the Gospel Rom. 10.18 Have they not heard the word of God yes verily their sound went into all the Earth and their words unto the end of the World Redeeming grace could not be spell'd out by them in a clear notion but yet they did declare that which is the Foundation of Gospel Mercy Were not God patient there were no room for a Gospel Mercy so that the Heavens declare the Gospel not formally but fundamentally in declaring the long-suffering of God without which no Gospel had been fram'd or could have been expected They could not but read in those things favourable inclinations towards them And though they could not be ignorant that they deserved a mark of justice yet seeing themselves supported by God and beholding the regular motions of the Heavens from day to day and the Revolutions of the seasons of the year the natural conclusion they might draw from thence was that God was placable Since he behav'd himself more as a tender Friend that had no mind to be at War with them than an enraged Enemy The good things which he gave them and the patience whereby he spar'd them were no arguments of an impâ—acable disposition And therefore of a disposition willing to be appeased This is clearly the design of the Apostles arguing with the Lystrians when they would have offered Sacrifices to Paul Acts 14.17 When God suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways he did not leave himself without witness giving Rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons What were those Witnesses of Not only of the Being of a God by their readiness to sacrifice to those that were not Gods only supposed to be so in their false imaginations but witnesses to the tenderness of God that he had no mind to be severe with his Creatures But would allure them by ways of Goodness * Amyrald dissert pag. 191. 192. Had not Gods patience tended to this end to bring the World under another dispensation the Apostles arguing from it had not been sutable to his design which seems to be a hindering the sacrifices they intended for them and a drawing them to embrace the Gospel and therefore preparing the way to it by speaking of the Patience and Goodness of God to them as an unquestionable testimony of the reconcileableness of God to them by some sacrifice which was represented under the common notion of Sacrifices These things were not Witnesses of Christ or syllables whereby they could spell out the redeeming person but Witnesses that God was placable in his own nature When man abused those noble faculties God had given him and diverted them from the use and service God intended them for God might have stript man of them the first time that he mis-employed them and it would have seemed most agreeable to this wisdom and Justice not to suffer himself to be
that their corruption should be so deep and strong that so much patience could not overcome it It would certainly make a man asham'd of his nature as well as his actions 3. The consideration of his patience would make us resent more the injuries done by others to God A Patient sufferer though a deserving sufferer attracts the pity of men that have a value for any vertue though clouded with a heap of vice How much more should we have a concern for God who suffers so many abuses from others And be grieved that so admirable a patience should be slighted by men who solely live by and under the daily influence of it The impression of this would make us take Gods part as it is usual with men to take the part of good dispositions that lie under oppression 4. It would make us patient under Gods hand His slowness to Anger and his forbearance is visible in the very strokes we feel in this Life We have no reason to murmur against him who gives us so little cause and in the greatest afflictions gives us more occasion of thankfulness than of repining Did not slowness to the extreamest Anger moderate every affliction it had been a Scorpion instead of a rod. We have reason to bless him who from his long-suffering sends temporal sufferings where eternal are justly due Ezra 9.13 Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities do deserve His indulgences towards us have been more than our corrections and the length of his patience hath exceeded the sharpness of his rod Upon the account of his long-suffering our mutinies against God have as little to excuse them as our sins against him have to deserve his forbearance The consideration of this would shew us more reason to repine at our own repinings than at any of his smarter dealings And the consideration of this would make us submissive under the Judgments we expect His undeserved patience hath been more than our merited judgments can possibly be thought to be If we fear the removal of the Gospel for a season as we have reason to do we should rather bless him that by his waiting patience he hath continued it so long then murmur that he threatens to take it away so late He hath born with us many a year since the light of it was re-kindled when our Ancestors had but six years of patience between the rise of Edward the VI and the ascent of Queen Mary to the Crown 2. Exhortation is to admire and stand astonisht at his patience and bless him for it If you should have defil'd your Neighbors bed or sullyed his reputation or rifled his Goods would he have withheld his vengeance unless he had been too weak to execute it We have done worse to God then we can do to man and yet he draws not that Sword of Wrath out of the scabbard of his patience to sheath it in our hearts 'T is not so much a wonder that any Judgments are sent as that there are no more and sharper That the World shall be fired at last is not a thing so strange as that fire doth not come down every day upon some part of it Had the disciples that saw such excellent patterns of mildness from their Master and were so often urg'd to learn of him that was lowly and meek the Government of the World it had been long since turn'd into ashes since they were too forward to desire him to open his magazine of judgments and kindle a fire to consume a Samaritan Village for a slight affront in comparison of what he received from others and afterwards from themselves in their forsaking of him Luke 9.52 53 54. We should admire and praise that here which shall be prais'd in Heaven though patience shall cease as to its exercise after the consummation of the World it shall not cease from receiving the acknowledgments of what it did when it traversed the stage of this Earth If the Name of God be glorified and acknowledged in Heaven no question but this will also since long-suffering is one of his Divine Titles a letter in his name as well as Merciful and Gracious Abundant in Goodness and Truth And there is good reason to think that the patience exercised towards some before converting grace was ordered to seize upon them will bear a great part in the Anthems of Heaven The greater his long-suffering hath been to men that lay covered with their own dung a long time before they were freed by grace from their filth the more admiringly and loudly they will cry up his Mercy to them after they have past the gulf and see a deserv'd Hell at a distance from them and many in that place of torments who never had the tasts of so much forbearance If mercy will be prais'd there that which began the Alphabet of it cannot be forgot If Paul speak so highly of it in a damping World and under the pull-backs of a body of death as he doth 1 Tim. 1.16 17. For this cause I obtained mercy that Christ might shew forth all long-suffering Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the Only Wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen No doubt but he will have a higher note for it when he is surrounded with a heavenly flame and freed from all remains of dullness shall it be praised above and have we no notes for it here below Admire Christ too who sued out your repreive upon the account of his merit As mercy acts not upon any but in Christ so neither had patience born with any but in Christ The pronouncing the arrest of Judgment Gen. 8.21 was when God smell'd a sweet savour from Noahs sacrifice not from the Beasts offer'd but the Antitypical sacrifice represented That we may be raised to bless God for it let us consider 1. The multitude of our provocations Though some have blacker guilt than others and deeper stains yet let none wipe his mouth but rather imagine himself to have but little reason to bless it Are not all our offences as many as their have been minutes in our lives All the moments of our continuance in the World have been moments of his Patience and our ingratitude Adam was punished for one sin Moses excluded Canaan for a passionate unbelieving word Ananias and Saphira lost their lives for one sin against the Holy Ghost One sin sullyed the beauty of the World defaced the works of God had crackt Heaven and Earth in pieces had not infinite satisfaction been proposed to the provoked Justice by the Redeemer And not one sin committed but is of the same venemous nature How many of those contradictions against himself hath he born with Had we been only unprofitable to him his forbearance of us had been miraculous But how much doth it exceed a miracle and lift it self above the meanness of a conjunction with such an Epithet since we have been provoking Had there been no more than our impudent or careless
360 618 619 Not Instruments in the Creation of Man Pag. 443 Evil not redeemed Pag. 619 620 Angels not Governors of the world Pag. 673 674 Subject to God Pag. 717 718 Men Apostatize from God when his will crosses theirs Pag. 80 In times of Persecution Pag. 90 By reason of practical Atheism Pag. 102 103 Apostles the first Preachers of the Gospel mean and worthless men Pag. 463 464 Spirited by Divine Power for spreading of it Pag. 464 465 The Wisdom of God seen in using such Instruments Pag. 393 394 Applauding our selves v. Pride Atheism opens a Door to all manner of wickedness Pag. 2. Some spice of it in all men Pag. 2 4 The greatest folly 3 ad Pag. 39 Common in our days Pag. 3 41 Strikes at the Foundation of all Religion Pag. 3 We should establish our selves against it ibid. 'T is against the light of Natural Reason Pag. 4 Against the universal consent of all Nations Pag. 6 But few if any profest it in former Ages Pag. 8 41 Would root up the Foundations of all Government Pag. 39 Introduce all evil into the world Pag. 39 40 Pernicious to the Atheist himself Pag. 40 41 The cause of Publick Judgments Pag. 41 Mens Lusts the cause of it Pag. 43 Promoted by the Devil most since the destruction of Idolatry Pag. 44 Uncomfortable Pag. 44 45 Directions against it Pag. 45 46 All sin founded in a secret Atheism Pag. 50 Practical Atheism natural to Man Pag. 47 Natural since the Fall Pag. 48 To all men ibid. Proved by Arguments 54 ad Pag. 99 We ought to be humbled for it both in our selves and others Pag. 103 104 How great a sin it is 104 ad Pag. 106 Misery will attend it Pag. 106 We should watch against it ibid. Directions against it Pag. 106 107 Atheist can never prove there is no God Pag. 41 42 All the Creatures fight against him Pag. 42 In Afflictions suspects and fears there is one Pag. 42 43 How much pains he takes to blot out the notion of a God Pag. 43 Suppose it were an even lay that there were no God yet he is very imprudent ibid. Uses not means to enform himself ibid. Atoms the World not made by a casual concourse of them Pag. 20 Attributes of God bear a comfortable respect to believers Pag. 342 Authority how distinguisht from Power Pag. 704 B. THe Best we have ought to be given to God Pag. 155 156 Blessings Spiritual God only the Author of Pag. 698 Temporal God uses a Soveraignty in bestowing them 740 Vide Riches Body of Man how curiously wrought Pag. 30 31 350 Every Human one hath different Features Pag. 31 32 God hath none v. Spirit We must worship God with our Bodies Pag. 139 140 141 Yet not with our Bodies only Vide Soul and Worship We must not conceive of God under a Bodily shape Pag. 124 125 Bodily Members ascribed to him Vide Members Brain how curious a workmanship Pag. 30 C. THe Israelites worshipped the true God under the golden Calf Pag. 122 God fits and enclines men to several Callings Pag. 356 357 650 Appoints every mans Calling Pag. 747 There is a first Cause of all things Pag. 20 21 Which doth necessarily exist and is infinitely perfect Pag. 21 We must not Censure God in his Counsels Actions or Revelations Pag. 192 193 403 404 Or in his ways Pag. 415 416 Censuring the hearts of others is an injury to God's Omniscience Pag. 324 325 Men is a contempt of God's Soveraignty Pag. 763 Ceremonial Law abolisht to promote Spiritual Worship Pag. 135 Called Flesh ibid. Not a fit means to bring the heart into a spiritual frame Pag. 135 136 Rather hindred than further'd Spiritual Worship Pag. 136 137 God never testified himself well-pleased with it nor intended it should always last Pag. 137 138 The abrogating of it doth not argue any change in God Pag. 228 229 The Holiness of God appears in it Pag. 510 511 Men are prone to bring Ceremonies of their own into God's Worship 79 Vide Worship and Additions c. Chance the World not made nor governed by it Pag. 26 Charity men have bad ends in it Pag. 93 We should exercise it Pag. 691 692 The consideration of God's Soveraignty would promote it Pag. 774 We should be Chearful in God's worship Pag. 150 Christ his Godhead proved from his Eternity Pag. 191 192 From his Omnipresence Pag. 261 262 From his Immutability Pag. 229 230 From his Knowledge of God all Creatures the hearts of men and his prescience of their Inclinations Pag. 315 316 317 From his Omnipotence manifest in Creation Preservation and Resurrection Pag. 472 ad 476 From his Holiness Pag. 551 From his Wisdom Pag. 395 Is God-man Pag. 458 Spiritual Worship offered to God through him Pag. 154 155 The imperfectness of our Services should make us prize his Mediation Pag. 168 The only fit Person in the Trinity to assume our Nature Pag. 378 379 Fitted to be our Mediator and Saviour by his two Natures Pag. 381 382 383 Should be imitated in his Holiness and often viewed by us to that end Pag. 559 563 The greatest Gift Pag. 622 ad 625 Appointed by the Father to be our Redeemer Pag. 749 750 751 The Christian Religion its Excellency Pag. 103 Of Divine Extraction Pag. 551 Most opposed in the World Pag. 63 Vide Gospel Church God's Eternity a comfort to her in all her Distresses and Threatnings of her Enemies Pag. 193 194 Under God's special Providence Pag. 272 273 His Infinite Knowledge a comfort in all subtil contrivances of men against her Pag. 328 329 Troublers of her Peace by corrupt Doctrines no better than Devils 341 †God 's Wisdom a comfort to her in her greatest dangers Pag. 406 Hath shewn his Power in her deliverance in all Ages Pag. 180 453 454 And in the destruction of her Enemies Pag. 454 455 456 Ought to take comfort in his Power in her lowest Estate Pag. 487 488 Should not fear her Enemies v. Fear His Goodness a comfort in dangers Pag. 684 How great is God's love to her Pag. 769 820 His Soveraignty a comfort to her Pag. 771 772 He will comfort her in her â—ears and destroy her Enemies Pag. 787 788 God exercises Patience towards her Pag. 812 For her sake to the wicked also Pag. 812 813 Why her Enemies are not immediately destroyed Pag. 819 Commands of God v. Laws The Holiness of God to be relied on for Comfort Pag. 551 God gives great Comforts in or after Temptations Pag. 659 Creatures cannot Comfort us if God be angry Pag. 768 Communion with God man naturally hath no desire of Pag. 98 The advantage of Communion with him Pag. 106 107 Can only be in our Spirits Pag. 127 We should desire it Pag. 201 202 Cannot be between God and sinners Pag. 548 549 Holiness only fits us for it Pag. 562 Conceptions we cannot have adequate ones of God Pag. 123 We ought to labour after as high ones as
Gods Patience to us would promote it Pag. 822 Patience of God how admirable Pag. 99 100 263 806 807 808 His Wisdom the ground of it Pag. 396 Evidences his Power Pag. 460 789 'T is a Property of the Divine Nature Pag. 791 A part of Goodness and Mercy but differs from both Pag. 792 793 Not insensible constrained or faint-hearted Pag. 793 794 Flows from his fulness of Power over himself Pag. 794 795 Founded in the Death of Christ Pag. 795 796 His Veracity Holiness and Justice no bars to it Pag. 796 797 798 Exercis'd towards our First Parents Gentiles and Israelites Pag. 799 800 Wherein it is evidenc'd Pag. 800 ad 808 The reason of its exercise Pag. 808 ad 814 'T is abus'd and how Pag. 814 815 The abuse of it sinful and dangerous Pag. 816 817 818 Exercis'd towards Sinners and Saints Pag. 819 Comfortable to all Pag. 819 820 Especially to the Righteous ib. Should be meditated on and the advantage of so doing Pag. 821 822 We should admire and bless God for it with Motives so to do Pag. 823 824 825 Should not be presumed on Pag. 825 826 Should be imitated Pag. 826 827 Poems fewer Sacred ones good than of any other kind Pag. 86 Peace God only can speak it to troubled Souls Pag. 471 Permission of Sin what it is and that 't is no blemish to Gods Holiness Pag. 522 ad 529 Persecutions the Goodness of God seen in them Pag. 657 658 Vide Apostacy Perseverance of the Saints a Gospel Doctrine Pag. 333 Certain Pag. 235 486 487 551 Motives to labour after it Pag. 238 239 Depends on God's Power and Wisdom Pag. 333 471 Pleasures Sensual men strangely addicted to Pag. 86 We ought to take heed of them Pag. 107 Poor the Wisdom of God in making some so Pag. 356 357 Power infinite belongs to God Pag. 421 The meaning of the word Pag. 421 Absolute and ordinate Pag. 421 422 Distinct from Will and Wisdom Pag. 424 Gives life and activity to his other Perfections Pag. 425 Of a larger extent than some others ibid. Originally and essentially in the Nature of God and the same with his Essence Pag. 426 427 Incommunicable to the Creature ibid. Pag. 431 Infinite and Eternal Pag. 427 ad 432 Bounded by his Decree Pag. 432 Not infringed by the impossibility of doing some things Pag. 432 ad 435 Arguments to prove it is in God Pag. 435 ad 439 Appears in Creation Pag. 439 ad 445 In the Government of the world Pag. 445 ad 456 In Redemption Pag. 456 ad 461 In the publication and propagation of the Gospel Pag. 461 ad 467 In planting and preserving Grace and pardoning sin Pag. 467 ad 472 Ascribed to Christ Pag. 472 ad 476 And to the Holy Ghost Pag. 476 Infers his Blessedness Immutability and Providence Pag. 476 477 A ground of Worship Pag. 478 And for the belief of the Resurrection Pag. 479 Contemn'd and abused and wherein Pag. 480 ad 484 Terrible to the Wicked Pag. 484 Comfortable to the Righteous and wherein Pag. 485 ad 487 Should be meditated on Pag. 488 And trusted in and why Pag. 489 490 Should teach us humility and submission Pag. 491 And the fear of him and not of man Pag. 491 492 Praise consideration of God's Wisdom and Goodness would help us to give it to him Pag. 409 689 690 Men backward to it Pag. 697 Due to him Pag. 776 Prayer men impatient if God do not answer it Pag. 92 93 We should take the most melting opportunities for secret Prayer Pag. 178 Not unnecessary because of God's Immutability Knowledge Pag. 220 231 335 to Creatures a wrong to God's Omniscience Pag. 322 323 Omission of it a practical denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 328 'T is a comfort that the most secret ones are understood by God Pag. 331 God's Wisdom a comfort in delaying or denying an answer to them Pag. 406 For success on wicked Designs how sinful Pag. 543 God fit to be trusted in for an answer of them Pag. 551 The goodness of God in answering them Pag. 654 655 His Goodness a comfort in them Pag. 682 God's Dominion an Encouragement to and ground of it Pag. 770 771 779 Preparation we should examine our selves concerning it before worship Pag. 162 Consideration of God's Knowledge would promote it Pag. 338 †How great a sin to come into God's Presence without it Pag. 544 Presence of Men more regarded than God's Pag. 86 87 We should seek for God's special and influential Presence Pag. 270 271 Vide Omnipresence Preserve himself no Creature can Pag. 19 447 448 God only can the World Pag. 29 The Power of God seen in it Pag. 445 One foundation of God's Dominion Pag. 709 Presumption springs from vain imaginations of God Pag. 95 96 A contempt of God's Dominion Pag. 761 762 Pride how common Pag. 82 83 An exalting our selves above God Pag. 89 The thoughts of God's Eternity should abate it Pag. 197 198 199 An affront to God's Wisdom Pag. 405 Of our own Wisdom foolish Pag. 411 God's Mercies abused to it Pag. 668 A contempt of his Dominion Pag. 761 Principles better known by actions than words Pag. 49 Some kept up by God to facilitate the Reception of the Gospel Pag. 392 Propagation of Creatures the Power of God seen in it Pag. 448 449 Of Mankind one end of God's patience Pag. 811 812 Prophecies prove the Being of God Pag. 39 Promises Men break them with God Pag. 66 67 232 233 Of God shall be performed Pag. 196 486 821 We should believe them and leave God to his own season of accomplishing them Pag. 342 Distrust of them a contempt of God's Wisdom Pag. 405 The Holiness of God in the performance of them to be observ'd Pag. 557 Providenc of God proved Pag. 262 317 318 477 Vide Government of the World Especially to his Church and the meanest in it 272 273 Extends to all Creatures 646 ad 649 Distrust of it a contempt of God's Goodness 665 Punishments v. Judgments God always just in them Pag. 100 671 Of sinners Eternal Pag. 193 194 The wisdom of God seen in them Pag. 370 Necessarily follow sins Pag. 547 548 549 Do not impeach God's Goodness Pag. 598 ad 604 Not God's primary intention Pag. 601 Inflicting them a branch of God's Dominion Pag. 726 727 Necessarily follow upon it Pag. 767 Of the Wicked unavoidable and terrible Pag. 767 768 Purgatory held by the Jews Pag. 73 R. RAin an instance of God's Wisdom and Power Pag. 349 418 Reason should not be the measure of God's Revelations Pag. 413 414 Repentance how ascribed to God Pag. 224 225 2â—6 A reasonable Condition Pag. 389 The end of God's patience Pag. 810 811 The consideration of God's patience would make us frequent and serious in the practice of it Pag. 821 Reprobation consistent with God's Holiness and Justice Pag. 522 Reproof may be for evil ends Pag. 93 Reputation men more concerned for their own than Gods
Goodness of God seen in them Pag. 450 607 Spaces imaginary beyond the World God is present with Pag. 249 250 251 Spirit that God is so plainly asserted but once in Scripture Pag. 112 Various acceptations of the word Pag. 113 That God is so how to be understood ibid. God the only pure one Pag. 114 Arguments to prove God is one Pag. 115 ad 118. Objection against it answered Pag. 118 119 Spirit of God his assistance necessary to Spiritual Worship Pag. 142 Spirits of men raised up and ordered by God as be pleases Pag. 743 744 Subjection to our Superiors God remits of his own right for preserving it Pag. 651 652 Success men apt to ascribe to themselves Pag. 82 Not to be ascribed to our selves Pag. 669 670 Denied by God to some Pag. 740 Summer how necessary Pag. 350 Sun conveniently placed Pag. 22 148 Its motion useful Pag. 22 23 25 148 The Power of God seen in it Pag. 450 Lord's Supper the goodness of God in appointing it Pag. 639 Seals the Covenant of Grace Pag. 640 641 In it we have Union and Communion with Christ Pag. 641 642 The neglect of it reproved Pag. 642 Supererogation an Opinion that injures the Holiness of God Pag. 546 Superstition proceeds from vain imaginations of God Pag. 95 Swearing by any Creature an injury to God's Omniscience Pag. 323 324 T. TEmptations the Presence of God a comfort in them Pag. 266 The thoughts of it would be a Shield against them Pag. 269 The Wisdom and Power of God a comfort under them Pag. 406 486 The goodness manifested to his people under them Pag. 658 659 660 The thoughts of God's Soveraignty would arm and make us watchful against them Pag. 774 Thankfulness a necessary ingredient in Spiritual worship Pag. 148 Due to God Pag. 689 690 777 778 823 824 825 A sense of his Goodness would promote it Pag. 689 Theft an Invasion of God's Dominion Pag. 758 Thoughts should be often upon God Pag. 46 Seldom are on him Pag. 86 97 98 All known by God only Pag. 285 286 287 And by Christ Pag. 316 317 Cherishing evil ones a practical denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 327 Thoughts of God's Knowledge would make us watchful over them Pag. 338 †Threatnings the not fulfilling them sometimes argue no change in God Pag. 226 227 Are conditional ibid. The goodness of God in them Pag. 613 Go before Judgments v. Judgments Time cannot be infinite Pag. 16 Times of bestowing Mercy God orders as a Soveraign Pag. 741 Tongue how curious a Workmanship Pag. 31 Traditions old ones generally lost Pag. 11 Belief of a God not owing meerly to it ibid. Transubstantiation an absurd Doctrine Pag. 483 Trees how useful Pag. 23 350 Trust in themselves men do and not in God Pag. 83 84 We should not in the World Pag. 199 200 236 God the fit Object of it Pag. 329 386 397 489 551 552 †678 779 Means to promote it Pag. 339 †773 Should not in our own Wisdom Pag. 411 412 In our selves a contempt of God's Power and Dominion Pag. 482 759 God's Power the main ground of trusting him Pag. 489 490 And sometimes the only one Pag. 490 Should be placed in God against outward appearances Pag. 558 Goodness the first motive of it Pag. 678 More foundations of it and motives to it under the Gospel than under the Law Pag. 679 Gives God the glory of his goodness Pag. 679 680 God's Patience to the Wicked a ground for the Righteous to trust in his promise Pag. 821 Truths of God most contrary to self man most opposite to And to those that are most holy spiritual lead most to God and relate most to him Pag. 59 60 Men unconstant in the belief of them Pag. 231 232 Corrupters of them no better than Devils Pag. 541 †Evangelical shall prevail ibid. U. UBiquity of Christ's Human Nature confuted Pag. 252 Venial sins an opinion that reproaches God's Holiness Pag. 546 Vertue and Vice not Arbitrary things Pag. 51 Vnbelief the Reason of it Pag. 101 102 A contempt of Divine Power Pag. 483 And Goodness Pag. 664 665 Vnion of Soul and Body an effect of Almighty Power Pag. 33 Of two Natures in Christ made no change in his Divine Nature Pag. 224 Shews the Wisdom of God Pag. 339 ad 383 How necessary for us Pag. 381 382 383 Shews the Power of God Pag. 458 459 460 Explain'd Pag. 459 460 Vide Incarnation Vsurpations of Men an Invasion of God's Soveraignty Pag. 754 755 W. WAter an excellent Creature Pag. 588 Weakness a sensibleness of it a necessary ingredient in Spiritual Worship Pag. 148 Will of God cannot be defeated Pag. 52 Man averse to it vide Man The same with his Essence Pag. 214 Always accompanied with his Understanding ibid. Unchangeable Pag. 214 215 The unchangeableness of it doth not make things willed by him so Pag. 215 216 Free Pag. 216 How conversant about Sin Pag. 522 Will of Man not necessitated by God's Fore-knowledge Pag. 301 ad 304 Of Man subject to God Pag. 720 Winds how useful Pag. 349 Winter how useful Pag. 350 Wisdom an Attribute of God Pag. 337 What it is and wherein it consists Pag. 338 Distinct from Knowledge Pag. 338 Essential which is the same with his Essence and personal Pag. 339 In what sense God is only wise Pag. 339 ad 343 Proved to be in God Pag. 343 ad 346 Appears in Creation Pag. 346 ad 351 In government of Man as Rational Pag. 352 ad 357 As fallen and sinful Pag. 357 ad 367 As restored Pag. 367 ad 373 In Redemption Pag. 373 ad 388 In the Condition of the Covenant of Grace Pag. 388 ad 390 In the propagation of the Gospel Pag. 390 ad 395 Ascribed to Christ Pag. 395 Renders God fit to govern the World and enclines him actually to govern it Pag. 395 396 A ground of his Patience and Immutability in his Decrees Pag. 396 397 Makes him a fit Object of our Trust Pag. 397 Infers a Day of Judgment Pag. 398 Calls for a Veneration of him ibid. A ground of Prayer to him Pag. 399 Prodigiously contemn'd and wherein Pag. 399 ad 405 Comfortable to the Righteous Pag. 405 406 407 In Creation and Government should be meditated on and Motives to it Pag. 407 ad 410 In Redemption to be studied and admired Pag. 410 411 To be submitted to in his Revelations Precepts Providences Pag. 413 414 415 Not to be censured in any of his ways Pag. 415 Wisdom no Man should be proud of or trust in Pag. 411 412 Should be sought from God Pag. 412 413 World was not and could not be from Eternity Pag. 16 17 Could not make it self Pag. 17 18 19 No Creature could make it Pag. 20 Its Harmony Pag. 21 ad 27 Greedily pursued by Men Pag. 86 Inordinate desires after it a great hindrance to Spiritual Worship Pag. 177 Our Love and Confidence not to be placed in it Pag. 199 200 207 Shall not be
order and fit every Stone in the Building make all things in weight and measure to let them afterwards run at hap hazard Would he bring forth his Power to view in the Creation and let a more glorious perfection lye idle when it had so large a Field to move in Infinite wisdom is inconsistent with inactivity All Prudence doth illustrate itself in untying the hardest knots and disposing the most difficult Affairs to a happy and successful Issue All those various Arts and Inventions among men which lend their assisting hand to one another and those various Employments their several Genius's lead them to whereby they support one anothers welfare are Beams and instincts of Divine wisdom in the Government of the World He that made all things in wisdom †Psal 104.24 would not leave his works to act and move only according to their own folly and idly behold them jumble together and run counter to that end he designed them for we must not fancy a Divine Wisdom to be destitute of Activity 3. Here we may see a ground of God's patience The most impotent persons are the most impatient when un-foreseen Emergencies arise or at Events expected by them when their feeble Prudence was not a sufficient match to contest with them or prevent them But the wiser any man is the more he bears with those things which seem to cross his Intentions because he knows he grasps the whole Affair and is sure of attaining the end he proposeth to himself yet as a finite wisdom can have but a finite patience so an infinite wisdom possesses an infinite patience The wise God intends to bring glory to himself and good to some of his Creatures out of the greatest evils that can happen in the World He beholds no exorbitant Afflictions and monstrous Actions but what he can dispose to a good and glorious end even to work together for good to them that love God * Rom. 8.28 and therefore doth not presently fall foul upon the Actors till he hath wrought out that temporary Glory to himself and Good to his People which he designs The times of Ignorance God winkt at till he had brought his Son into the World and manifested his wisdom in Redemption and when this was done he presseth men to a speedy repentance †Acts 17.30 that as he forebore punishing their Crimes in order to the displaying his wisdom in the design'd Redemption so when he had effected it they must forbear any longer abusing his Patience 4. Hence appears the Immutability of God in his Decrees He is not destitute of a Power and Strength to change his own Purposes but his Infinite Perfection of Wisdom is a bar to his laying aside his Eternal Resolves and f rming new ones Isai 46.10 He resolves the end from the beginning and his couâ—sel stands stands immovable because it is Counsel 'T is an impotent Counsel that is subject to a daily thwarting it self Inconstant Persons are accounted by Men destitute of a due measure of Prudence If God change his Mind 't is either for the better or the worse if for the better he was not wise in his former Purpose if for the worse he is not wise in his present Resolve No alteration can be without a reflect on of Weakness upon the former or present determination God must either cease to be as Wise as he was before or begin to be Wiser than he was before the change which to think or imagine is to deny a Deity If any Man change his Resolution he is apprehensive of a flaw in his former Purpose and finds an Inconvenience in it which moves him to such a change which must be either for want of fore-sight in himselâ— or want of a due consideration of the object of his Counsel Neither of whicâ— can be imagined of God without a denial of the Deity No tâ—ere are no blots and blemishes in his Purposes and Promises Repentance indeed is an act of Wisdom in the Creature but it presupposeth Folly in his former Actions which is inconsistent with Infinite Perfection Men are often too rash in Promising and therefore what they promise in haste they perform at leasure or not at all They consider not before they Vow and make After-enquiries whether they had best stand to it The only wise God need not any After-game As he is Soveraignly Wise he sees no cause of râ—versing any thing and wants not expedients for his own Purpose and as he is Infinitely Powerful he hath no Superiour to hinder him from executing his Will and making his People enjoy the effects of his Wisdom If he had a recollection of Thoughts as Man hath and saw a necessity to mend them he were not Infinitely Wise in his first Decrees As in Creation he looked back upon the several Pieces of that goodly Frame he had erected and saw them so exact that he did not take up his Pensil again to mend any Particle of the first Draught so his Promises are made with such Infinite Wisdom and Judgment that what he writes is Irreversible and for Ever as the Decrees of the Medes and Persians All the words of God are Eternal because they are the Births of Righteousness and Judgment Hos 2.19 I will betroth thee to me for ever in Righteousness and Judgment He is not of a wavering and flitting Discretion If he Threatens he wisely considers what he Threatens if he Promises he wisely considers what he Promises and therefore is Immutable in both 5. Hence it follows thâ—t God is a fit Object for our Trust and Confidence For God being Infinitely Wise when he Promises any thing he sees every th ng which may hinder and every thing which may promote the execution of it so that he cannot discover any thing aftâ—rwards that may move him to take up After thougâ—ts He hath more Wisdom than to promise any thing hand over head or any thing which he knows he cannot accomplish Thougâ— God as True be the Object of our Trust yet God as Wise is the Foundation of our Trust We trust him in his Promise the Promise was made by Mercy and 't is perform d by Truth but Wisdom conducts all Means to the accomplishment of it There are many Men whose Honesty we can confide in but whose Discretion we are diffident of But there is no defect eith r of the one or the other which may scare us from a depending upon God in our concerns The words of Mans wisdom the Apostle entitles Enticing 1 Cor. 2.4 in opposition to the words of Gods wisdom which are firm stable and undeniable demonstrations As the Power of God is an encouragement of Trust because he is able to effect so the Wisdom of God comes into the rank of those Attributes which support our Faith To put a Confidence in him we must be perswaded not only that he is Ignorant of nothing in the World but that he is Wise to manage the whole course of Nature