out from the Creation of the World there could not be engaged a considerable number to frame a Society for the profession of it It hath died with the Person that started it and vanish'd as soon as it appeared To conclude this is it not folly for any man to deny or doubt of the being of a God to dissent from all mankind and stand in contradiction to humane Nature What is the general dictate of Nature is a certain Truth 'T is impossible that Nature can naturally and universally lie And therefore those that ascribe all to Nature and set it in the Place of God contradict themselves if they give not credit to it in that which it universally affirms â Cicero A general consent of all Nations is to be esteemed as a Law of Nature Nature cannot plant in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity for then the Laws of Nature would be destructive to the reason and minds of men How is it possible that a falsity should be a perswasion spread through all Nations engraven upon the minds of all men men of the most towring and men of the most creeping understanding that they should consent to it in all places and in those places where the Nations have not had any known commerce with the rest of the known World A Consent not settled by any Law of Man to constrain People to a belief of it And indeed 't is impossible that any Law of man can constrain the Belief of the mind Would not he deservedly be accounted a fool that should deny that to be gold which hath been tryed and examined by a great number of knowing Goldsmiths and hath past the test of all their touch-stones what excess of folly would it be for him to deny it to be true gold if it had been tryed by all that had skill in that metal in all Nations in the World Secondly 2. It hath been a constant and uninterrupted consent It hath been as Ancient as the first age of the World no man is able to mention any time from the beginning of the World wherein this Notion hath not been universally owned t is a old as man-kind and hath run along with the course of the Sun nor can the date be fixed lower than that 1. First In all the changes of the World this hath been maintained In the overturnings of the Government of States the alteration of Modes of Worship this hath stood unshaken The reasons upon which it was founded were in all Revolutions of time accounted satisfactory and convincing nor could absolute Atheism in the changes of any Laws ever gain the favour of any one Body of people to be established by a Law When the Honour of the Heathen Idols was laid in the dust this suffered no impair The being of one God was more vigorously owned when the unreasonableness of multiplicity of Gods was manifest and grew taller by the detection of counterfeits When other parts of the Law of nature have been violated by some Nations this hath maintained its standing The long series of Ages hath been so far from blotting it out that it hath more strongly confirmed it and maketh further progress in the confirmation of it Time which hath eaten out the strength of other things and blasted meer inventions hath not been able to consume this The discovery of all other Impostures never made this by any society of men to be suspected as one It will not be easy to name any Imposture that hath walked perpetually in the world without being discovered and whipped out by some Nation or other Falsities have never been so universally and constantly owned without publick controul and question And since the world hath detected many errors of the former age and learning been increased this hath been so far from being dimm'd that it hath shone out clearer with the increase of natural knowledge and received fresh and more vigorous confirmations 2. The fears and anxieties in the Consciences of men have given men sufficient occasion to root it out had it been possible for them to do it If the Notion of the Existence of God had been possible to have been dasht out of the minds of men they would have done it rather than have suffered so many troubles in their Souls upon the Commission of sin since there did not want wickedness and wit in so many corrupt ages to have attempted it and prospered in it had it been possible How comes it therefore to pass that such a multitude of profligate persons that have been in the world since the fall of man should not have rooted out this principle and dispostest the minds of men of that which gave birth to their tormenting fears How is it possible that all should agree together in a thing which created fear and an obliligation against the Interest of the Flesh if it had been free for men to discharge themselves of it No man as far as corrupt nature bears sway in him is willing to live contrould The first Man would rather be a God himself than under one * Gen. 3.5 Why should men continue this Notion in them which shackled them in their vile inclinations if it had been in their power utterly to deface it If it were an Imposture how comes it to pass that all the wicked ages of the world could never discover that to be a cheat which kept them in continual alarums Men wanted not will to shake off such apprehensions As Adam so all his Posterity are desirous to hide themselves from God upon the Commission of sin * Gen. 3.9 and by the same reason they would hide God from their Souls What is the reason they could never attain their will and their wish by all their endeavours Could they possibly have satisfied themselves that there were no God they had discarded their fears the disturbers of the repose of their lives and been unbridled in their pleasures The wickedness of the world would never have preserved that which was a perpetual molestation to it had it been possible to be rased out But since men under the turmoils and lashes of their own Consciences could never bring their hearts to a setled dissent from this Truth it evidenceth that as it took its birth at the beginning of the world it cannot expire no not in the ashes of it nor in any thing but the reduction of the Soul to that nothing from whence it sprung This conception is so perpetual that the nature of the Soul must be dissolved before it be rooted out nor can it be extinct whiles the Soul endures 3. Let it be considered also by us that own the Scripture that the Devil deems it impossible to root out this sentiment It seems to be so perpetually fixed that the Devil did not think fit to tempt man to the denial of the Existence of a Deity but perswaded him to beleive he might ascend to that Dignity and become a God himself Gen. 3.1 Hath
other things in conjunction with this the nature of God the way to Worship him the manner of the Worlds Existence his own state We may resonably suppose him to have a good stock of knowledge what is become of it It cannot be supposed that the first man should acquaint his posterity with an object of Worship and leave them ignorant of a Mode of Worship and of the end of Worship we find in Scripture his immediate posterity did the first in Sacrifices and without doubt they were not ignorant of the other how come Men to be so uncertain in all other things and so confident of this if it were only a Tradition how did debates and irreconcilable questions start up concerning other things and this remain untouch'd but by a small number whatsoever Tradition the first Man left besides this is lost and no way recoverable but by the Revelation God hath made in his Word How comes it to pass this of a God is longer liv'd than all the rest which we may suppose Man left to his immediate descendents How come men to retain the one and forget the other What was the reason this surviv'd the ruin of the rest and surmounted the uncertainties into which the other sunk Was it likely it should be handed down alone without other attendants on it at first Why did it not expire among the Americans who have lost the account of their own descent and the Stock from whence they sprung and cannot reckon above eight hundred or a thousand years at most Why was not the manner of the worship of a God transmitted as well as that of his Existence How came men to dissent in their Opinions concerning his Nature whether he was corporeal or incorporeal finite or infinite omnipresent or limited Why were not men as negligent to transmit this of his Existence as that of his Nature No reason can be rendred for the security of this above the other but that there is so clear a tincture of a Deity upon the minds of men such traces and shadows of him in the creatures such indelible instincts within and invincible arguments without to keep up this universal consent The Characters are so deep that they cannot possibly be rased out which would have been one time or other in one Nation or other had it depended only upon Tradition since one Age shakes off frequently the Sentiments of the former I cannot think of above one which may be called a Tradition which indeed was kept up among all Nations viz. Sacrifices which could not be natural but instituted What ground could they have in Nature to imagin that the blood of Beasts could expiate and wash off the guilt and stains of a rational Creature Yet they had in all places but among the Jews and some of them only lost the knowledg of the reason and end of the Institution which the Scripture acquaints us was to typifie and signifie the Redemption by the Promised Seed This Tradition hath been superannuated and laid aside in most parts of the World while this Notion of the Existence of a God hath stood firm But suppose it were a Tradition was it likely to be a meer intention and figment of the first Man Had there been no reason for it this Posterity would soon have found out the weakness of its Foundation What advantage had it been to him to transmit so great a falshood to kindle the fears or raise the hopes of his Posterity if there were no God It cannot be supposed he should be so void of that natural affection men in all ages bear to their Descendents as so grosly to deceive them and be so contrary to the simplicity and plainness which appears in all things nearest their Original 2. Neither was it by any mutual Intelligence of Governours among themselves to keep people in subjection to them If it were a political design at first it seems it met with the general nature of Mankind very ready to give it entertainment I. It is unaccountable how this should come to pass It must be either by a joynt Assembly of them or a mutual Correspondence If by an Assembly who were the persons let the name of any one be mentioned When was the time Where was the place of this appearance By what Authority did they meet together Who made the first motion and first started this great Principle of Policy By what means could they assemble from such distant parts of the World humane Histories are utterly silent in it And the Scripture the antientest History gives an account of the attempt of Babel but not a word of any design of this nature What mutual Correspondence could such have whose Interests are for the most part different and their designs contrary to one another How could they who were divided by such vast Seas have this mutual Converse How could those who were different in their Customs and Manners agree so unanimously together in one thing to gull the People If there had been such a Correspondence between the Governours of all Nations what is the reason some Nations should be unknown to the world till of late times How could the business be so secretly managed as not to take Vent and Issue in a discovery to the World Can reason suppose so many in a joynt Conspiracy and no mans Conscience in his life under sharp Afflictions or on his death bed when Conscience is most awakened constrain him to reveal openly the Cheat that beguil'd the World How came they to be so uanimous in this Notion and to differ in their Rites almost in every Country why could they not agree in one Mode of Worship throughout all the World as well as in this universal Notion If there were not a mutual intelligence it can not be conceived how in every Nation such a state-Engineer should rise up with the same trick to keep people in aw What is the reason we cannot find any Law in any one Nation to constrain men to the beleif of the Existence of a God since politick Stratagems have been often fortified by Laws Besides such men make use of Principles received to effect their Contrivances and are not so impolitick as to build designes upon Principles that have no Foundation in nature Some Heathen Law-givers have pretended a converse with their Gods to make their Laws be received by the people with a greater veneration and fix with stronger obligation the observance and perpetuity of them but this was not the introducing of a new Principle but the supposition of an old received Notion that there was a God and an application of that Principle to their present designe The pretence had been vain had not the notion of a God been ingrafted Politicians are so little possessed with a Reverence of God that the first Mighty one in the Scripture which may reasonably gain with the Atheist the credit of the Ancientest History in the World is represented without any fear of God * Gen.
consist before we can beleive any means which conduct us to him Moses begins with the Author of Creation before he treats of the Promise of Redemption Paul preached God as a Creator to a University before he preached Christ as Mediator * Acts 17.24 What influence can the Testimony of God have in his Revelation upon one that doth not firmly assent to the truth of his Being All would be in vain that is so often repeated thus saith the Lord if we do not beleive there is a Lord that speaks it There could be no aw from his Soveraignity in his Commands nor any comfortable taste of his Goodness in his Promises The more we are strengthened in this Principle the more credit we shall be able to give to divine Revelation to rest in his Promise and to reverence his Precept the Authority of all depends upon the Being of the Revealer To this purpose since we have handled this discourse by natural Arguments 1. Study God in the Creatures as well as in the Scriptures The primary use of the Creatures is to acknowledge God in them they were made to be witnesses of himself and his Goodness and Heralds of his Glory which Glory of God as Creator shall endure for ever Psal 104.31 that whole Psalm is a Lecture of Creation and Providence The World is a sacred Temple Man is introduced to contemplate it and behold with Praise the Glory of God in the pieces of his Art As Grace doth not destroy Nature so the Book of Redemption blots not out that of Creation Had he not shewn himself in his Creatures he could never have shewn himself in his Christ The order of things required it God must be read where ever he is legible The Creatures are one book wherein he hath writ a part of the excellency of his name * Psal 8.9 as many Artists do in their Works and Watches Gods Glory like the Filings of Gold is too precious to be lost where ever it drops Nothing so vile and base in the World but carries in it an instruction for Man and drives in further the Notion of a God As he said of his Cottage Enter here Sunt hic etiam Dij God disdains not this place So the least Creature speaks to Man every Shrub in the Field every Fly in the Air every Limbin a Body consider me God disdains not to appear in me he hath discovered in me his Being and a part of his Skill as well as in the highest The Creatures manifest the Being of God and part of his Perfections We have indeed a more excellent way a Revelation setting him forth in a more excellent manner a firmer Object of Dependence a brighter Object of Love raising our hearts from self confidence to a confidence in him Though the appearance of God in the one be clearer than in the other yet neither is to be neglected The Scripture directs us to Nature to view God it had been in vain else for the Apostle to make use of natural Arguments Nature is not contrary to Scripture nor Scripture to Nature unless we should think God contrary to himself who is the Author of both 2. View God in your own experiences of him There is a taste and sight of his Goodness though no sight of his Essence * Psal 34.98 By the taste of his Goodness you may know the reality of the fountain whence it springs and from whence it flows This surpasseth the greatest Capacity of a meer natural Understanding Experience of the sweetness of the ways of Christianity is a mighty preservative against Atheism Many a Man knows not how to prove Hony to be sweet by his reason but by his sense and if all the reason in the world be brought against it he will not be reasoned out of what he tasts Have not many found the delightful illappses of God into their Souls often sprinkled with his inward blessings upon their seeking of him had secret warnings in their approaches to him and gentle rebukes in their Consciences upon their swervings from him Have not many found sometimes an invisible hand raising them up when they were dejected some unexpected providence stepping in for their relief and easily perceived that it could not be a work of chance nor many times the intention of the instruments he hath used in it You have often found that he is by finding that he is a rewarder and can set to your seals that he is what he hath declared himself to be in his word Isa 43.12 I have declared and have saved therefore you are my witnesses saith the Lord that I am God The secret touches of God upon the heart and inward converses with him are a greater evidence of the Existence of a supream and infinitely good being than all nature Vse 4 4. Is it a folly to deny or doubt of the being of God T is a folly also not to worship God when we acknowledge his Existence T is our Wisdom then to Worship him As it is not indifferent whether we beleive there is a God or no So it is not indifferent whether we will give Honour to that God or no. A worship is his right as he is the Author of our being and fountain of our happiness By this only we acknowledge his Deity Tho we may profess his being yet we deny that profession in neglects of worship To deny him a Worship is as a great folly as to deny his being He that renounceth all homage to his Creator envies him the being which he cannot deprive him of The natural inclination to worship is as universal as the Notion of a God Idolatry else had never gained footing in the world The Existence of God was never owned in any Nation but a Worship of him was appointed And many people who have turned their backs upon some other parts of the Law of nature have paid a continual homage to some superior and invisible being The Jews give a Reason why Man was Created in the Evening of the Sabbath because he should begin his being with the worship of his Maker As soon as ever he found himself to be a Creature his first solemn act should be a particular respect to his Creator * Eccl. 12. To fear God and keep his Commandment is the whole of man or is * Heb. whole man he is not a man but a beast without observance of God Religion is as requisite as reason to compleat a man He were not reasonable if he were not Religious because by neglecting Religion he neglects the chiefest dictate of reason Either God framed the world with so much Order Elegancy and variety to no purpose or this was his end at least that reasonable Creatures should admire him in it and Honour him for it The Notion of God was not stampt upon men the shadows of God did not appear in the Creatures to be the Subject of an idle contemplation but the motive of a due homage to God
as well as Heathens who used the outward Ceremonies not as signs of better things but as if they did of themselves please God and render the worshippers accepted with him without any sutable frame of the inward man * Amirald in loc It is as if he had said now you must separate your selves from all carnal modes to which the service of God is now tyed and render a worship chiefly consisting in the affectionate motions of the heart and accommodated more exactly to the condition of the object who is a Spirit In Spirit and Truth * Amirald in loc The Evangelical Service now required has the advantage of the former that was a Shadow and Figure this the Body and Truth * Muscul Spirit say some is here opposed to the legal Ceremonies Truth to hypocritical services or * Chemnit rather truth is opposed to shadows and an opinion of worth in the outward action 't is principally opposed to external Rites because our Saviour saith v. 23. The hour comes and âoâ is c. Had it been opposed to Hypocrisy Christ had said no new thing For God always required Truth in the inward parts and all true Worshippers had served him with a sincere Conscience and single Heart The old Patriarks did worship God in Spirit and Truth as taken for sincerity Such a Worship was always and is perpetually due to God because he always was and eternally will be a Spirit * Musâal And it is said the Father seeks such to worship him not shall seek He always sought it it always was performed to him by one or other in the world And the Prophets had always rebuked them for resting upon their outward Solemnities Isa 58.7 and Micah 6.8 But a Worship without legal Rites was proper to an Evangelical State and the times of the Gospel God having then exhibited Christ and brought into the world the substance of those shadows and the end of those institutions There was no more need to continue them when the true reason of them was ceased All Laws do naturally expire when the true reason upon which they were first framed is changed Or by Spirit may be meant such a Worship as is kindled in the heart by the breath of the holy Ghost Since we are dead in sin a spiritual light and flame in the heart sutable to the nature of the object of our worship cannot be raised in us without the operation of a supernatural Grace And though the Fathers could not worship God without the Spirit yet in the Gospel-times there being a fuller effusion of the Spirit the Evangelical State is called the administration of the Spirit and the newness of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 in opposition to the legal Oeconomy entitled the oldness of the Letter * Rom. 7.6 The Evangelical State is more suted to the Nature of God than any other Such a Worship God must have whereby he is acknowledged to be the true Sanctifier and Quickner of the Soul The nearer God doth approach to us and the more full his manifestations are the more spiritual is the Worship we return to God The Gospel pares off the rugged parts of the Law and Heaven shall remove what is material in the Gospel and change the Ordinances of Worship into that of a Spiritual Praise In the words there is 1. A Proposition God is a Spirit The Foundation of all Religion 2. An Inference they that worship him c. As God a Worship belongs to him as a Spirit a spiritual Worship is due to him in the inference we have 1. The manner of Worship in Spirit and Truth 2. The necessity of such a Worship must The Proposition declares the Nature of God the Inference the Duty of Man The Observations lie plain Ob. 1. God is a pure spiritual Being He is a Spirit 2. The Worship due from the Creature to God must be agreeable to the Nature of God and purely spiritual 3. The Evangelical State is suted to the Nature of God For the first D. God is a pure spiritual Being 'T is the Observation of one * Episcop insti tut l. 4. c. 3. that the plain assertion of Gods being a Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible and that is in this place which may well be wondred at because God is so often described with hands feet eyes and ears in the form and figure of a Man The spiritual Nature of God is deducible from many places but not any where as I remember asserted totidem verbis but in this Text Some alledge that place 2 Cor. 3.17 the Lord is that Spirit for the proof of it but that seems to have a different sense In the Text the Nature of God is described in that place the operations of God in the Gospel * Amyrald in loc 'T is not the Ministry of Moses or that old Covenant which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of but it is the Lord Jesus and the Doctrin of the Gospel delivered by him whereby this Spirit and Liberty is dispensed to you He opposes here the Liberty of the Gospel to the Servitude of the Law 'T is from Christ that a Divine Vertue diffuseth it self by the Gospel 't is by him not by the Law that we partake of that Spirit * Suarez de Deo vol. 1. P. 9. Col. 2. The Spirituality of God is as evident as his Being If we grant that God is we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal because a Body is of an imperfect Nature It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being and Creator of all things that he should be a massy heavy Body and have Eyes and Ears Feet and hands as we have For the explication of it 1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture It signifies sometimes an aereal substance as Psal 11.6 A horrible Tempest Heb. A Spirit of Tempest Sometimes the breath which is a thin substance Gen. 6.17 All Flesh wherein is the breath of Life Heb. Spirit of Life A thin substance though it be material and corporeal is called Spirit And in the bodies of living Creatures that which is the principle of their actions is called Spirits the animal and vital Spirits And the finer parts extracted from Plants and Minerals we call Spirits Those volatile parts separated from that gross matter wherein they were immerst because they come nearest to the nature of an incorporeal substance And from this notion of the word 't is translated to signifie those substances that are purely immaterial as Angels and the Souls of Men. Angels are called Spirits Psal 104.4 who makes his Angels Spirits * Heb. 1.14 And not only good Angels are so called but evil Angels Mark 1.27 Souls of men are called Spirits Eccl. 12. And the Soul of Christ is called so John 19.30 whence God is called the God of the Spirits of all Flesh Numb 22.16 and Spirit is opposed to Flesh Isa
that we might now serve God in a more spiritual manner and with more spiritual frames 6. Proposition The Service and worship the Gospel settles is spiritual and the performance of it more spiritual Spirituality is the Genius of the Gospel as Carnality was of the Law the Gospel is therefore called Spirit We are abstracted from the imployments of Sense and brought neerer to a Heavenly State The Jews had Angels Bread poured upon them we have Angels Service prescribed to us the Praises of God Communion with God in Spirit through his Son Jesus Christ and stronger foundations for spiritual affections 'T is called a reasonable service * Rom. 12.1 t is suted to a rational nature tho it finds no friendship from the Corruption of reason It prescribes a service fit for the reasonable faculties of the Soul and advanceth them while it employs them The word reasonable may be translated word service * V. Hammond in loc as well as reasonable service an Evangelical service in opposition to a Law service All Evangelical service is reasonable and all truly reasonable service is Evangelical The matter of the worship is Spiritual it consists in love of God faith in God recourse to his goodness Meditation on him and Communion with him It lays aside the Ceremonial Spiritualizeth the moral The Commands that concerned our duty to God as well as those that concerned our duty to our Neighbour were reduced by Christ to their Spiritual intention The Motives are Spiritual t is a state of more grace as well as of more truth * John 1.17 supported by Spiritual promises beaming out in Spiritual priviledges heaven comes down in it to Earth to Spiritualize Earth for Heaven The manner of worship is more Spiritual higher flights of the Soul stronger ardours of affections sincerer aims at his glory mists are removed from our minds Cloggs from the Soul more of love than fear faith in Christ kindles the affections and works by them The assistances to Spiritual worship are greater The Spirit doth not drop but is plentifully poured out It doth not light sometimes upon but dwells in the heart Christ suted the Gospel to a Spiritual heart and the Spirit changeth a carnal heart to make it fit for a Spiritual Gospel He blows upon the Garden and causes the spices to flow forth And often makes the Soul in worship like the Chariots of Aminadab in a quick and nimble motion Our blessed Lord and Saviour by his death discovered to us the nature of God and after his ascension sent his Spirit to fit us for the worship of God and converse with him One Spiritual Evangelical believing breath is more delightful to God than millions of Altars made up of the richest pearls and smoaking with the costliest oblations because it is Spiritual And a mite of Spirit is of more worth than the greatest weight of flesh One holy Angel is more excellent than a whole world of meer bodies 7. Proposition Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to be rejected upon the account that God requires a Spiritual worship Tho we must perform the weightier duties of the Law yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter precepts Since both the Magnalia and minutula legis the greater and the lesser duties of the Law have the stamp of Divine authority upon them As God under the Ceremonial Law did not Command the worship of the body and the observation of outward rites without the engagement of the Spirit so neither doth he Command that of the Spirit without the peculiar attendance of the body The Schwelk sendians denied bodily worship And the indecent postures of many in publick attendance intimate no great care either of Composing their bodies or Spirits A morally discomposed body intimates a tainted heart Our Bodies as well as our Spirits are to be presented to God * Rom. 12.1 Our bodies in lieu of the Sacrifices of Beasts as in the Judaical institutions body for the whole man a living Sacrifice not to be slain as the Beasts were but living a new life in a holy posture with Crucified affections This is the inference the Apostle makes of the priviledges of Justification Adoption Coheirship with Christ which he had before discoursed of Priviledges conferred upon the person and not upon a part of man 1. Bodily worship is due to God He hath a right to an Adoration by our bodies as they are his by Creation his right is not diminisht but increased by the blessing of Redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 For you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your Spirits which are Gods The Body as well as the Spirit is redeemed since our Saviour suffered Crucifixion in his body as well as Agonies in his Soul Body is not taken here for the whole man as it may be in Rom. 12. But for the material part of our nature it being distinguisht from the Spirit If we are to render to God an obedience with our bodies we are to render him such Acts of worship with our bodies as they are capable of As God is the Father of Spirits so he is the God of all flesh Therefore the flesh he hath framed of the Earth as well as the noble portion he hath breathed into us cannot be denyed him without apalpable in justice The service of the body we must not deny to God unless we will deny him to be the author of it and the exercise of his providential care about it The mercies of God are renewed every day upon our bodies as well as our Souls and therefore they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty everyday * Sherman's Greek in the Temple pa. 61.62 both are from God both should be for God Man consists of Body and Soul the service of Man is the service of both The body is to be Sanctified as well as the Soul and therefore to be offered to God as well as the Soul Both are to be glorified both are to glorifie As our Saviours Divinity was manifested in his body so should our Spirituality in ours To give God the service of the body and not of the Soul is hypocrisie to give God the service of the Spirit and not of the body is sacriledge to give him neither Atheism If the only part of man that is visible were exempted from the service of God there could be no visible Testimonies of piety given upon any occasion Since not a moiety of man but the whole is Gods Creature he ought to pay a homage with the whole and not only with a moiety of himself 2. Worship in societies is due to God but this cannot be without some bodily expressions The law of nature doth as much direct men to combine together in publick societies for the acknowledgment of God as in Civil Communities for self preservation and order And the notice of a society for Religion is more Ancient than the mention of
perform â Strong of the Will The one seems to be out of weakness because of the high exactness of the Law and the other out of impudence accusing the Wisdom of God of Imperfection and controuling it in its Institutions At best it seems to be an Imputation of Human Bashfulness to the Supream Soveraign as if he had been ashamed to prescribe all that was necessary to his own Honour but had left something to the Ingenuity and Gratitude of Men. Man has ever since the foolish Conceit of his old Ancestor Adam presumed he could be as Wise as God and if he who was created upright entertain'd such Conceits much more doth Man now under a mass of Corruption so capable to foment them This hath been the continual practise of Men not so much to reject what once they had received as Divine but add something of their own Inventions to it The Heathens renounced not the Sacrificing of Beasts for the expiation of their Offences which the Old World had received by Tradition from Adam and the New World after the Deluge from Noah But they had blended that Tradition with Rites of their one and offered Creatures unclean in themselves and not fit to be offered to an Infinitely Pure Being for the distinction of Clean and Vnclean was as Ancient as Noah Gen. 8.20 yea before Gen. 7.2 So the Jews did not discard what they had received from God as Circumcision the Passover and Sacrifices but they would mix a heap of Heathenish Rites with the Ceremonies of Divine Ordination and practise things which he had not commanded as well as things which he had enjoyned them And therefore 't is observable that when God taxeth them with this Sin he doth not say They brought in those things which he had forbidden into his Worship but those things which he had not commanded and had given no order for to intimate that they were not to move a step without his Rule Jer. 7.31 They have built the high places of Tophet which I commanded them not nor came it into my heart and Levit. 10.1 Nadabs and Abihu's strange Fire was not commanded so charging them with Impudence and Rashness in adding something of their own after he had revealed to them the manner of his Service as if they were as Wise as God So loth is Man to acknowledge the Supremacy of Divine Understanding and be sensible of his own Ignorance So after the divulging of the Gospel the Corrupters of Religion did not fling off but preserved the Institutions of God but painted and patch'd them up with Pagan Ceremonies imposed their own Dreams with as much force as the Revelations of God Thus hath the Papacy turn'd the Simplicity of the Gospel into Pagan Pomp and Religion into Politicks and revived the Ceremonial Law and raked some Limbs of it out of the Grave after the Wisdom of God had rung her Knell and honourably Interr'd her and shelter'd the Heathenish Superstitions in Christian Temples after the Power of the Gospel had chas'd the Devils with all their Trumpery from their ancient Habitations Whence should this proceed but from a partial Atheisme and a mean conceit of the Divine Wisdom As though God had not Understanding enough to prescribe the Form of his own Worship and not Wisdom enough to support it witâout the Crutches of Human Prudence Human Prudence is too low to parallel Divine Wisdom 't is an incompetent Judge of what is fit for an Infinite Majesty 'T is sufficiently seen in the ridiculous and senseless Rites among the Heathens and the Cruel and Devilish ones fetch'd from them by the Jews What work will Human Wisdom make with Divine Worship when it will presume to be the Director of it as a Mate with the Wisdom of God Whence will it take its measures but from Sense Humor and Fancy As though what is grateful and comly to a depraved Reason were as beautiful to an unspotted and Infinite Mind Do not such tell the World that they were of Gods Cabinet Councel since they will take upon them to judge as well as God what is well pleasing to him Where will it have the humility to stop if it hath the presumption to add any one thing to Revealed Modes of Worsh p How did God tax the Israelites with making Idols according to their own understanding Hos 13.2 imagining their own Understandings to be of a siner make and a perfecter Mould than their Creators and that they had fetched more light from the Chaos of their own Brains than God had from Eternity in his own Nature How slight will the Excuse be God hath not forbidden this or that when God shall silence Men with the Question Where or when did I command this or that There was no Addition to be made under the Law to the meanest Instrument God had appointed in his Service The Sacred Perfume was not to have one Ingredient more put into it than what God had prescribed in the Composition nor was any Man upon pain of Death to imitate it nor would God endure that Sacrifices should be consum'd with any other Fire than that which came down from Heaven So tender is God of any Invasions of his Wisdom and Authority In all things of this Nature whatsoever voluntary humility and respect to God they may be disguised with there is a swelling of the fleshly mind against Infinite Understanding which the Apostle nauseates Coloss 2.18 Such Mixtures have not been blest by God As God never prosper'd the Mixtures of several kinds of Creatures to form and multiply a new Species as being a dissatisfaction with his Wisdom as Creator so he doth not prosper Mixtures in Worship as being a Conspiracy against his Wisdom as a Law-giver * Vaifin The Talmud takes notice that the Court of Bethany was wasted three years before Jerusalem because they preferred their own words before the words of the Law The Destruction of the Jews was judged by some of their Doctors to be for preferring Human Traditions before the Written Word which they ground on Isai 29.33 Their fear of me was taught by the Precepts of Men. The Injunctions of Men were the Rule of their Worship and not the Prescripts of my Law To conclude Such as make Alterations in Religion different from the first Institution are intolerable Busie-bodies that will not let God alone with his own Affairs Vain Man would be wiser than his Maker and be dabbling in that which is his sole Prerogative 2. In neglecting Means Instituted by God When Men have risings of heart against Gods Ordinances They reject the counsel of the Lord against themselves or in themselves Luke 7.30 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They disannull'd the Wisdom of God the Spring of his Ordinances All neglects are disregards of Divine Prescriptions as impertinent and unavailable to that End for which they were appointed as not being suted to the common dictates of Reason sometimes out of a Voluntary humility such as Peters
been handed down to them by their Predecessors which Paul * 1 Tim. 6.20 entitles a Science falsly so called either meant of the Philosophers or the Gnosticks They presum'd that they were able to measure all things by their own Reason whence when the Apostle came to preach the Doctrine of the Gospel at Athens the great School of Reason in that Age they gave him no better a Title than that of a Babler Acts 17.18 and openly mocked him verse 32. a Seed gatherer â ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã one that hath no more brain or sense than a Fellow that gathers up Seeds that are spilt in a Market or one that hath a vain and empty found without Sense or Reason like a foolish Mountebank so slightly did those Rationalists of the World think of the Wisdom of Heaven That the Son of God should veil himself in a Mortal Body and suffer a disgraceful Death in it were things above the ken of Reason Besides the World had a general disesteem of the Religion of the Jews and were prejudic'd against any thing that came from them Whence the Romans that used to incorporate the gods of other Conquer'd Nations in their Capitol never moved to have the God of Israel worshipped among them Again they might argue against it with much fleshly Reason Here is a Crucified God preached by a Company of Mean and Ignorant persons What Reason can we have to entertain this Doctrine since the Jews who as they tell us had the Prophecies of him did not acknowledge him Surely had there been such Predictions they would not have Crucified but Crowned their King and expected from him the Conquest of the Earth under their Power What reason have we to entertain him whom his own Nation among whom he lived with whom he conversed so unanimously by the Vote of the Rulers as well as the Rout rejected It was impossible to conquer Minds possessed with so many Errors and applauding themselves in their own Reason and to render them capable of receiving Revealed Truths without the influence of a Divine Power 2. It was contrary to the Customes of the World The strength of Custome in most Men surmounts the strength of Reason and Men commonly are so wedded to it that they will be sooner divorc'd from any thing than the Modes and Patterns received from their Ancestors The endeavouring to change Customes of an ancient standing hath begotten Tumults and furious Mutinies among Nations though the change would have been much for their advantage This Doctrine struck at the Root of the Religion of the World and the Ceremonies wherein they had been educated from their Infancy delivered to them from their Ancestors confirm'd by the customary Observance of many Ages rooted in their Mindss and establish'd by their Laws Acts 18.13 This Fellow perswadeth us to worship God contrary to the Law against Customes to which they ascrib'd the happiness of their States and the prosperity of their People and would put in the place of this Religion they would abolish a new one instituted by a Man whom the Jews had condemn'd and put to death upon a Cross as an Impostor Blasphemer and Seditions person It was a Doctrine that would change the Customes of the Jews who were intrusted with the Oracles of God It would bury for ever their Ceremonial Riââs delivered to them by Moses from that God who had with a mighty hand brought them out of Egypt consecrated their Law with Thunders and Lightnings from Mount Sinai at the time of its publication backt it with severe Sanctions confirm'd it by many Miracles both in the Wilderness and their Canaan and had continued it for so many Hundred years They could not but remember how they had been ravaged by other Nations and Judgments sent upon them when they neglected and slighted it and with what great success they were follow'd when they valued and observed it and how they had abhorred the Author of this new Religion who had spoken slightly of their Traditions till they put him to death with Infamy Was it an easie matter to divorce them from that Worship upon which were entail'd as they imagin'd their Peace Plenty and Glory things of the dearest regard with Mankind The Jews were no less devoted to their Ceremonial Traditions than the Heathen were to their Vain Superstitions This Doctrine of the Gospel was of that nature that the state of Religion all over the Earth must be overturned by it the Wisdom of the Greeks must vail to it the Idolatry of the People must stoop to it and the prophane Customes of Men must moulder under the weight of it Was it an easie matter for the Pride of Nature to deny a customary Wisdom to entertain a new Doctrine against the Authority of their Ancestors to inscribe Folly upon that which hath made them admir'd by the rest of the World Nothing can be of greater esteem with Men than the Credit of their Law-givers and Founders the Religion of their Fathers and Prosperity of themselves hence the Minds of Men were sharpned against it The Greeks the Wisest Nation slighted it as Foolish the Jews the Religious Nation stumbled at it as contrary to the received Interpretations of Ancient Prophecies and Carnal Conceits of an Earthly glory The dimmest Eye may behold the difficulty to change Custome a Second Nature 'T is as hard as to change a Wolf into a Lamb to level a Mountain stop the course of the Sun or change the Inhabitants of Africk into the colour of Europe Custome dips Men in as durable a Dye as Nature The difficulties of carrying it on against the Divine Religion of the Jew and rooted Customes of the Gentiles were unconquerable by any but an Almighty Power And in this the Power of God hath appeared wonderfully 3. It was contrary to the Sensuality of the World and the Lusts of the Flesh How much the Gentiles were over-grown with base and unworthy Lusts at the time of the Publication of the Gospel needs no other Memento than the Apostles Discourse Rom. 1. As there was no Error but prevail'd upon their Minds so there was no brutish Affection but was wedded to their Hearts The Doctrine proposed to them was not easie it flatter'd not the Sense but checked the Stream of Nature It thundred down those three great Engines whereby the Devil had subdued the World to himself the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the pride of Life Not only the most sordid Affections of the Flesh but the more refin'd Gratifications of the Mind It stript Nature both of Devil and Man of what was commonly esteem'd great and vertuous That which was the root of their Fame and the satisfaction of their Ambition was struck at by this Ax of the Gospel The first Article of it ordered them to deny themselves not to presume upon their own worth to lay their Understandings and Wills at the foot of the Cross and resign them up to one newly
there was not from Eternity any Creature under the Government of it but in regard of the foundation of it his Essence his Excellency 't is Eternal As God was from eternity Almighty but there was no exercise or manifestation of it till he began to Create Men are Kings only for a time their lives expire like a Lamp and their dominion is extinguisht with their lives they hand their Empire by Succession to others but many times it is snapt off before they are cold in their Graves How are the famous Empires of the Chaldeans Medes Persians and Greeks mouldred away and their place knows them no more And how are the wings of the Roman Eagle cut and that Empire which overspread a great part of the World hath lost most of its Feathers and is confin'd to a narrower compass The dominion of God flourisheth from one Generation to another He sits King for ever Psal 29.10 His session signifies the establishment and for ever the duration and he sits now his Soveraignty is as absolute as powerful as ever How many Lords and Princes hath this or that Kingdom had In how many Families hath the Scepter lodg'd When as God hath had an uninterrupted dominion As he hath been always the same in his Essence he hath been always glorious in his Soveraignty Among men he that is Lord to day may be stript of it to morrow the dominions in the World vary he that is a Prince may see his Royalty upon the Wings and feel himself laden with Fetters And a Prisoner may be lifted from his Dungeon to a Throne But there can be no diminution of God's Government His Throne is from Generation to Generation Lament 5.19 It cannot be shaken His Scepter like Aarons Rod is alway's green It cannot be wrested out of his hands none rais'd him to it Nâne therefore can depose him from it it bears the same splendor in all humane affairs he is an eternal an immortal King 1 Tim. 1.17 As he is eternally Mighty so he is eternally Soveraign and being an eternal King he is a King that gives not a momentary and perishing but a durable and Everlasting Life to them that obey him A durable and eternal punishment to them that resist him IIII. Wherein this Dominion and Soveraignty consists and how 't is manifested 1. The first act of Soveraignty is the making Laws This is Essential to God no Creatures Will can be the first rule to the Creature but only the Will of God He only can prescribe man his duty and establish the rule of it hence the Law is call'd the Royal Law James 2.8 It being the first and clearest manifestation of Soveraignty as the power of Legislation is of the Authority of a Prince Both are joyn'd together in Isaiah 53.22 The Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King Legislative power being the great mark of Royalty God as a King enacts Laws by his own proper Authority and his Law is a Declaration of his own Soveraignty and of mens moral subjection to him and dependance on him * Suarez de Legib. p. 23. His Soveraignty doth not appear so much in his promises as in his precepts A man's power over another is not discovered by promising For a promise doth not suppose the promiser either superior or inferior to the person to whom the promise is made 'T is not an exercising Authority over another but over a man's self No man forceth another to the acceptance of his promise but only proposeth and encourageth to an embracing of it But commanding supposeth always an Authority in the person giving the precept It obligeth the person to whom the command is directed A promise obligeth the person by whom the promise is made God by his command binds the Creature by his promise he binds himself He stoops below his Soveraignty to lay obligations upon his own Majesty By a precept he binds the Creature by a promise he encourageth the Creature to an observance of his precept What Laws God makes man is bound by vertue of his Creation to observe that respects the Soveraignty of God What promises God makes man is bound to beleive but that respects the faithfulness of God God manifested his dominion more to the Jews than to any other people in the World He was their Lawgiver both as they were a Church and a Commonwealth As a Church he gave them Ceremonial Laws for the regulating their Worship As a State he gave them Judicial Laws for the ordering their Civil Affairs and as both he gave them Moral Laws upon which both the Laws of the Church and State were founded This dominion of God in this regard will be manifest 1. In the Supremacy of it The sole power of making Laws doth originally reside in him James 4.12 There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy By his own Law he Judges of the eternal States of Men and no Law of man is obligatory but as it is agreeable to the Laws of this supream Lawgiver and pursuant to his righteous rules for the Government of the World The power that the Potentates of the World have to makes Laws is but derivative from God If their dominion be from him as it is For by him Kings Reign Prov. 8.15 Their Legislative power which is a prime flower of their Soveraignty is deriv'd from him also And the Apostle resolves it into this original when he orders us to be subject to the higher powers not only for wrath but for Conscience sake Rom. 13.5 Conscience in its operations solely respects God And therefore when it is exercised as the principle of Obedience to the Laws of Men 't is not with a respect to them singly considered but as the Majesty of God appears in their station and in their decrees This power of giving Laws was acknowledged by the Heathen to be solely in God by way of original And therefore the greatest Lawgivers among the Heathen pretended their Laws to be received from some Deity or supernatural power by special Revelation now whither they did this seriously acknowledging themselves this part of the dominion of God For it is certain that what soever just orders were issued out by Princes in the World was by the secret influence of God upon their Spirits Prov. 8.15 By me Princes Decree Justice by the secret conduct of Divine Wisdom or whither they pretended it only as a publick Engine to enforce upon people the observance of their Decrees and gain a greater credit to their Edicts yet this will result from it that the people in general entertain'd this common notion that God was the great Lawgiver of the World The first founders of their Societies could never else have so absolutely gain'd upon them by such a pretence These was always a Revelation of a Law from the mouth of God in every age The exhortation of Eliphaz to Job Job 22.22 Of receiving a Law from the mouth of God at the time before
* 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. lâb 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
of the Heaven c. How could this great heap be brought into being unless a God had framed it Every plant every Atome as well as every Star at the first meeting whispers this in our Ears I have a Creator I am witness to a Deity who ever saw Statues or Pictures but presently thinks of a Statuary and Limner Who beholds Garments Ships or Houses but understands there was a Weaver a Carpenter an Architect * Philo. ex Petav. Theolo Dog Tom 1. li. 1. cap. 1 pa. 4. somewhat changed Who can cast his eyes about the world but must think of that power that formed it and that the goodness which appears in the formation of it hath a perfect Residence in some Being those things that are good must flow from somthing perfectly good that which is chief in any kind is the cause of all of that kind Fire which is most hot is the cause of all things which are hot There is some being therefore which is the cause of all that Perfection which is in the Creature and this is God Aquin. 1 qu. 2. Artic. 3. All things that are demonstrate something from whence they are All things have a contracted perfection and what they have is Communicated to them Perfections are parcelled out among several Creatures Any thing that is imperfect cannot exist of it self We are led therefore by them to consider a fountain which bubbles up in all perfection a hand which distributes those several degrees of Being and Perfection to what we see we see that which is imperfect our minds conclude somthing perfect to exist before it our eye sees the streams but our understanding riseth to the head as the eye sees the shadow but the understanding informs us whither it he the shadow of a man or of a beast God hath given us Sense to behold the objects in the World and Understanding to reason his Existence from them the understanding cannot conceive a thing to have made it self that is against all reason * Rom. 1.20 As they are made they speak out a Maker and cannot be a trick of chance since they are made with such an immense Wisdom that is too big for the grasp of all humane understanding Those that doubt whither the Existence of God be an implanted Principle yet agree that the effects in the world lead to a supream and universal cause And that if we have not the knowledge of it rooted in our Natures yet we have it by discourse since by all Masters of reason a Processus in Infinitum must be accounted impossible in subordinate causes This will appear in several things First I. The World and every Creature had a beginning The Scripture Ascertains this to us * Gen. 1. By Faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God c. David who was not the first man gives the praise to God of his being curiously wrought c. Psal 139.14.15 God gave being to Men and Plants and Beasts before they gave being to one another He gives being to them now as the Fountain of all being though the several Modes of being are from the several natures of second causes * Heb. 11.3 T is true indeed we are ascertained that they were made by the true God that they were made by his word that they were made of nothing and not only this lower world wherein we live but according to the Jewish division the world of Men the the world of Stars and the world of Spirits and Souls We do not waver in it or doubt of it as the Heathen did in their disputes we know they are the workmanship of the true God of that God we adore not of false Gods By his Word without any instrument or engin as in earthly Sâructures of things which do not appear without any preexistent matter as all Artificial works of men are framed Yet the proof of the beginning of the world is affirmed with good reason and if it had a beginning it had also some higher cause than it self Every effect hath a cause * Daille 20. Serm. Psa 102.26 pa. 13. 14. The World was not Eternal or from Eternity The matter of the world cannot be Eternal Matter cannot subsist without form nor put on any form without the action of some cause this cause must be in being before it acted that which is not cannot act The cause of the world must necessarily exist before any matter was endued with any form that therefore cannot be Eternal before which another did subsist if it were from Eternity it would not be subject to mutation If the whole was from Eternity why not also the parts what makes the changes so visible then if Eternity would exempt it from mutability 1. Time cannot be infinite and therefore the World not Eternal * Daille ut Supra All motion hath its beginning if it were otherwise we must say the number of Heavenly revolutions of days and nights which are past to this instant is actually infinite which cannot be in nature If it were so it must needs be granted that a part is equal to the whole because infinite being equal to infinite the number of days past in all Ages to the beginning of one year being Infinite as they would be supposing the World had no beginning would by consequence be equal to the number of days which shall pass to the end of the next whereas that number of days past is indeed but a part and so a part would be equal to the whole 2. Generations of Men Animals and Plants could not be from Eternity * Petar Theo. Dogmat. tom 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pag. 15. If any Man say the world was from Eternity then there must be propagations of living Creatures in the same manner as are at this day For without this the World could not consist what we see now done must have been perpetually done if it be done by a necessity of nature But we see nothing now that doth arise but by a mutual propagation from another If the world were Eternal therefore it must be so in all Eternity take any particular species suppose a man if men were from Eternity then there were perpetual generations some were born into the World and some died Now the natural condition of generation is that a man doth not generate a man nor a Sheep a Lamb as soon as ever it self is brought into the World but get strength and vigour by degrees and must arrive to a certain stated age before they can produce the like for whilst any thing is little and below the due age it cannot increase its kind Men therefore and other Creatures did propagate their kind by the same Law not as soon as ever they were born but in the interval of some time and Children grew up by degrees in the Mothers Womb till they were fit to be brought forth If this be so then there could not be an Eternal
sense and those that have life and sense are made for those that are endued with reason When the Psalmist admiringly considers the Heavens Moon and Starrs he intimates man to be the end for which they were Created Psal 8.3 4. What is man that thou art mindful of him He expresseth more particularly the Dominion that Man hath over the beasts of the field the fowl of the Air and whatsoever passes through the paths of the Sea vers 6.7.8 and concludes from thence the excellency of Gods Name in all the Earth All things in the World one way or other Center in an usefulness for man some to feed him some to clothe him some to delight him others to instruct him some to exercise his wit and others his strength Since man did not make them he did not also order them for his own use If they conspire to serve him who never made them they direct man to acknowledge an other who is the joynt Creator both of the Lord and the Servants under his Dominion And therefore as the inferior natures are ordered by an invisible hand for the good of man so the nature of man is by the same hand ordered to acknowledge the Existence and the glory of the Creator of him This visible order man knows he did not constitute he did not settle those Creatures in subserviency to himself they were placed in that order before he had any acquaintance with them or Existence of himself which is a question God puts to Job to consider of Job 38.4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding All is ordered for Mans use the Heavens answer to the Earth as a roof to a floor both composing a delightful habitation for man vapors ascend from the Earth and the Heaven concocts them and returns them back in welcome showers for the supplying of the Earth * Jer. 10.13 The light of the Sun descends to beautifie the Earth and imploys its heat to midwife its fruits and this for the good of the community whereof Man is the head and though all Creatures have distinct natures and must act for particular ends according to the Law of their Creation yet there is a joynt combination for the good of the whole as the common end just as all the Rivers in the world from what part soever they come whether North or South fall into the Sea for the supply of that mass of waters which loudly proclaims some infinitely wise nature who made those things in so exact an harmony * Morn de verit cap. 1. pag. 7. As in a Clock the hammer which strikes the bell leads us to the next Wheel that to another the little wheel to a greater whence it derives its motion this at last to the spring which acquaints us that there was some Artist that framed them in this subordination to one another for this orderly motion 4. This order or Subserviency is regular and uniforme Every thing is determined to its peculiar nature * Amiraut The Sun and Moon make day and night months and years determine the seasons never are defective in coming back to their station and place they wander not from their Roads shock not against one another nor hinder one another in the functions assigned them From a small grain or seed a Tree springs with body root bark leaves fruit of the same shape figure smell tast that there should be as many parts in one as in all of the same kind and no more and that in the Womb of a sensitive Creature should be formed one of the same kind with all the due members and no more and the Creature that produceth it knows not how it is formed or how t is perfected If we say this is nature this nature is an intelligent being if not how can it direct all causes to such uniforme ends If it be intelligent this nature must be the same we call God Who ordered every herb to yeild seed and every fruit-Tree to yeild fruit after its kind and also every Beast and every creeping thing after its kind Gen. 11 12 24. And every thing is determined to its particular season The sap riseth from the Root at its appointed time enlivening and cloathing the branches with a new Garment at such a time of the Suns returning not wholly hindered by any accidental coldness of the weather it being often colder at its return than it was at the Suns departure All things have their Seasons of flourishing budding blossoming bringing forth fruit they ripen in their seasons cast their leaves at the same time throw off their old cloaths and in the spring appear with new Garments but still in the same fashion * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 77. The Winds and the Rain have their seasons and seem to be administred by laws for the profit of man No satisfactory cause of those things can be ascribed to the Earth the Sea to the Air or Stars Can any understand the spreading of his clouds or the noise of his Tabernacle Job 38.29 The natural reason of those things cannot be demonstrated without recourse to an infinite and intelligent being Nothing can be rendred capable of the direction of those things but a God This regularity in Plants and Animals is in all Nations The Heavens have the same motion in all parts of the world all men have the same Law of nature in their mind all Creatures are stampt with the same law of Creation In all parts the same Creatures serve for the same use and though there be different Creatures in India and Europe yet they have the same subordination the same subserviency to one another and ultimately to man which shows that there is a God and but one God who tunes all those different strings to the same notes in all places Is it nature meerly conducts these natural causes in due measures to their proper effects without interfering with one another Can meer nature be the cause of those musical proportions of time You may as well conceive a Lute to sound its own strings without the hand of an Artist a City well Governed without a Governor an Army keep its Stations without a General as imagine so exact an order without an Orderer Would any Man when he hears a Clock strike by sit intervals the hour of the day imagine this regularity in it without the direction of one that had understanding to manage it He would not only regard the motion of the Clock but commend the diligence of the Clock-Keeper 5. This order and Subserviency is constant Children change the customes and manners of their Fathers Magistrats change the Laws they have received from their Ancestors and enact new ones in their room But in the world all things consist as they were created at the beginning The Law of nature in the Creatures hath met with no change * Petav. ex Athanas Tâeol Dog tom 1. lib. 1.
of Good and Evil in the Consciences of men which is evident by those Laws which are common in all Countries for the preserving human societies the encouragment of Vertue and discouragement of Vice What Standard should they have for those Laws but a common reason The designe of those Laws was to keep men within the bounds of Goodness for mutual commerce whence the Apostle calls the Heathen Magistrate a Minister of God for Good Rom. 13.4 and the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law Rom. 2.14 Man in the first instant of the use of reason finds natural principles within himself directing and choosing them he finds a distinction between good and evil how could this be if there were not some rule in him to try and distinguish good and evil If there were not such a law and rule in man he could not sin for where there is no Law there is no transgression If man were a Law to himself and his own will his Law there could be no such thing as evil whatsoever he willed would be good and agreeable to the Law and no action could be accounted sinful The worst act would be as commendable as the best Every thing at mans appointment would be good or evil If there were no such Law how should men that are naturally inclined to evil disapprove of that which is unlovely and approve of that good which they practise not No man but inwardly thinks well of that which is good while he neglects it and thinks ill of that which is evil while he commits it Those that are vitious do praise those that practise the contrary vertues Those that are evil would seem to be good and those that are blameworthy yet will rebuke evil in others This is really to distinguish between good and evil whence doth this arise by what rule do we measure this but by some innate principle And this is universal the same in one man as in another the same in one Nation as in another they are born with every man and inseparable from his nature Prov. 27.19 As in water face answers to face so the heart of man to man Common reason supposeth that there is some hand which hath fixed this distinction in man How could it else be universally imprest No Law can be without a Law-giver no sparks but must be kindled by some other Whence should this Law then derive its original Not from man he would fain blot it out and cannot alter it when he pleases Natural generation never intended it t is setled therefore by some higher hand which as it imprinted it so it maintains it against the violences of men who were it not for this Law would make the world more than it is an Aceldema and field of blood For had there not been some supream good the measure of all other goodness in the world we could not have had such a thing as good The Scripture gives us an account that this good was distinguisht from evil before man fell they were objecta scibilia good was commanded and evil prohibited and did not depend upon man From this a man may rationally be instructed that there is a God For he may thus argue I find my self naturally obliged to do this thing and avoid that I have therfore a superior that doth oblige me I find something within me that directs me to such actions contrary to my sensitive appetite there must be something above me therefore that put this principle into mans nature If there were no superior I should be the supream Judge of good and evil Were I the Lord of that Law which doth oblige me I should find no contradiction within my self between reason and appetite 2. From the Transgression of this law of nature fears do arise in the Consciences of men Have we not known or heard of men struck by so deep a dart that could not be drawn out by the strength of men or appeased by the pleasure of the world and men crying out with horrour upon a death-bed of their past life when their fear hath come as a desolation and destruction as a whirlewind Prov. 1.27 And often in some sharp affliction the dust hath been blown off from mens Consciences which for a while hath obscured the writing of the law If men stand in awe of punishment there is then some superior to whom they are accountable If there were no God there were no punishment to fear What reason of any fear upon the dissolution of the knot between the Soul and body if there were not a God to punish and the Soul remained not in being to be punished How suddenly will Conscience work upon the appearance of an affliction rouze it self from sleep like an armed man and fly in a mans face before he is aware of it It will surprize the Hipocrites Isa. 38.14 It will bring to mind actions committed long ago and set them in order before the face as Gods deputy acting by his authority and Omniscience As God hath not left himself without a witness among the Creatures Acts 14.17 So he hath not left himself without a witness in a mans own breast 1. This operation of Conscience hath been universal No Nation hath been any more exempt from it than from reason Not a man but hath one time or other more or less smarted under the sting of it All over the world Conscience hath shot its darts It hath torn the hearts of Princes in the midst of their pleasures It hath not flattered them whom most men flatter nor feared to disturb their rest whom no man dares to provoke Judges have trembled on a Tribunal when Innocents have rejoyced in their condemnation The Iron bars upon Pharaohs Conscience were at last broke up and he acknowledged the Justice of God in all that he did Exod. 9.27 I have sinned the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked Had they been like Childish frights at the apprehension of bug-bears why hath not reason shaken them off But on the contrary the stronger reason grows the smarter those lashes are Groundless fears had been short liv'd Age and Judgement would have worn them off but they grow sharper with the growth of persons The Scripture informs us they have been of as ancient a date as the revolt of the first man Gen. 3.10 I was afraid saith Adam beecause I was naked which was an expectation of the Judgment of God All his posterity inherit his fears when God expresseth himself in any tokens of his Majesty and Providence in the world Every mans Conscience testifies that he is unlike what he ought to be according to that law engraven upon his heart In some indeed Conscience may be feared or dimmer or suppose some men may be devoid of Conscience shall it be denyed to be a thing belonging to the nature of Man Some Men have not their eyes yet the power of seeing the light is natural to Man and belongs to the
integrity of the body Who would argue that because some men are mad and hâve lost their reason by a distemper of the brain that therefore reason hath no reality but is an imaginary thing But I think it is a standing truth that every man hath been under the scourge of it one time or other in a less or greater degree For since every man is an offender it cannot be imagined Conscience which is natural to man and an active faculty should always lie idle without doing this part of its office The Apostle tells us of the thoughts accusing or excusing one another or by turns according as the actions were Nor is this truth weakned by the corruptions in the world whereby many have thought themselves bound in Conscience to adhere to a false and superstitious worship and Idolatry as much as any have thought themselves bound to adhere to a Worship commanded by God This very thing infers that all men have a reflecting principle in them it is no argument against the being of Conscience but only inferrs that it may Err in the application of what it naturally owns We can no more say that because some men walk by a false rule there is no such thing as Conscience than we can say that because men have Errors in their minds therefore they have no such faculty as an Understanding or because men will that which is evil they have no such faculty as a Will in them 2. These operations of Conscience are when the wickedness is most secret These tormenting fears of Vengeance have been frequent in men who have had no reason to fear man since their wickedness being unknown to any but themselves they could have no accuser but themselves They have been in many acts which their companions have justified them in Persons above the stroak of human laws yea such as the people have honoured as Gods have been haunted by them Conscience hath not been frighted by the power of Princes or brib'd by the pleasures of Courts David was pursued by his horrors when he was by reason of his dignity above the punishment by the Law or at least was not reacht by the Law since though the Murder of Vriah was intended by him it was not acted by him Such examples are frequent in human Records When the crime hath been above any punishment by man they have had an Accuser Judge and Executioner in their own breasts Can this be originally from a mans self He who loves and cherishes himself would fly from any thing that disturbs him T is a greater Power and Majesty from whom man cannot hide himself that holds him in those fetters What should affect their minds for that which can never bring them shame or punishment in this World if there were not some supream Judge to whom they were to give an account whose instrument Conscience is Doth it do this of it self hath it received an Authority from the man himself to sting him It is some supream power that doth direct and commission it against our Wills 3. These operations of Conscience cannot be totally shaken off by Man If there ãâã no God why do not men silence the clamors of their Consciences and scatter thââe fears that disturb their rest and pleasures How inquisitive are men after some remedy against those convulsions Sometimes they would render the charge insignificant and sing a rest to themselves though they walk in the wickedness of their own hearts * Deââ How often do men attempt to drown it by sensual pleasures and perhaps over-power it for a time but it revives reinforceth it self and Acts a revenge for its former stop It holds sin to a mans view and fixes his eyes upon it whether he will or no The wicked are like a troubled Sea and cannot rest Isa 57.20 They would wallow in sin without controul but this inward principle will not suffer it nothing can shelter men from those blows What is the reason it could never be cried down Man is an Enemy to his own disquiet what man would continue upon the rack if it were in his power to deliver himself why have all human remedies been without success and not able to extinguish those operations though all the wickedness of the heart hath been ready to assist and second the attempt It hath pursued men notwithstanding all the violence used against it and renewed its scourges with more severity as men deal with their resisting Slaves Man can as little silence those Thunders in his Soul as he can the Thunders in the Heavens He must strip himself of his humanity before he can be stript of an accusing and affrighting Conscience It sticks as close to him as his nature Since man cannot throw out the Process it makes against him t is an evidence that some higher power secures its Throne and standing Who should put this scourge into the hand of Conscience which no man in the World is able to wrest out 4. We may add the comfortable reflections of Conscience There are excusing as well as accusing reflections of Conscience when things are done as works of the law of nature Rom. 2.15 As it doth not forbear to accuse and torture when a wickedness though unknown to others is committed So when a man hath done well though he be attackt with all the calumnies the wit of man can forge yet his Conscience justifies the action and fills him with a singular contentment As there is torture in sinning so there is peace and joy in well doing Neither of those it could do if it did not understand a Soveraign Judge who punishes the Rebels and rewards the well-doer Conscience is the foundation of all Religion and the two Pillars upon which it is built are the being of God and the bounty of God to those that diligently seek him * Heb. 11.6 This proves the Existence of God If there were no God Conscience were useless the operations of it would have no foundation if there were not an eye to take notice and a hand to punish or reward the action The accusations of Conscience evidence the Omniscience and the Holiness of God The terrors of Conscience the justice of God The approbations of Conscience the Goodness of God All the order in the world owes it self next to the Providence of God to Conscience Without it the world would be a Golgotha As the Creatures witness there was a first cause that produced them so this Principle in man evidenceth it self to be set by the same hand for the good of that which it had so framed There could be no Conscience if there were no God and man could not be a rational Creature if there were no Conscience As there is a Rule in us there must be a Judge whether our actions be according to the rule And since Conscience in our corrupted state is in some particular misled there must be a power superior to Conscience to judge how it hath behaved it self in its deputed
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 Shâw 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
of Man Folly is the disturber of Families Cites Nations The disgrace of human nature First I. T is pernicious to the World 1. It would root out the foundations of Government It demolisheth all order in Nations The being of a God is the guard of the world The sense of a God is the foundation of Civil order without this there is no tye upon the Consciences of men What force would there be in Oaths for the decisions of controversies what right could there be in Appeals made to one that had no being A City of Atheists would be a heap of confusion there could be no ground of any commerce when all the sacred bands of it in the Consciences of men were snapt asunder which are torne to peices and utterly destroyed by denying the Existence of God What Magistrate could be secure in his standing what private person could be secure in his right * Lessius de Provid p. 665. Can that then be a truth that is destructive of all publick good If the Atheists sentiment that there were no God were a truth and the contrary that there were a God were a falsity It would then follow that falsity made men good and serviceable to one another That error were the foundation of all the beauty and order and outward felicity of the world the fountain of all good to man If there were no God to believe there is one would be an error and to beleive there is none would be the greatest wisdom because it would be the greatest truth And then as it is the greatest wisdom to fear God upon the apprehension of his Existence * Psal 111 1â So it would be the greatest error to fear him if there were none It would unquestionably follow that Error is the support of the world the spring of all human advantages and that every part of the world were obliged to a falsity for being a quiet habitation which is the most absur'd thing to imagine T is a thing impossible to be tolerated by any Prince without laying an Axe to the root of the Government 2. It would introduce all evil into the World If you take away God you take away Conscience and thereby all measures and rules of good and evil And how could any Laws be made when the measure and standard of them were removed All good Laws are founded upon the dictates of Conscience and reason upon common sentiments in human nature which spring from a sense of God So that if the foundation be demolisht the whole superstructure must tumble down A man might be a Thief a Murderer an Adulterer and could not in a strict sense be an offender The worst of actions could not be evil if a man were a God to himself a Law to himself Nothing but evil deserves a Censure and nothing would be evil if there were no God the Rector of the world against whom evil is properly committed No man can make that morally evil that is not so in it self As where there is a faint sense of God the heart is more strongly inclin'd to wickedness so where there is no sense of God the bars are removed the flood-gates set open for all wickedness to rush in upon mankind Religion pinions men from abominable practices and restrains them from being Slaves to their own passions An Atheists arms would be loose to do any thing * Lessius de Provid p. 664. Nothing so villanous and unjust but would be Acted if the natural fear of a Deity were extinguisht The first consequence issuing from the apprehension of the Existence of God is his Government of the world If there be no God then the natural consequence is that there is no supream Government of the world Such a Notion would cashiere all sentiments of good and be like a Trojan Horse whence all impurity tyranny and all sorts of mischeifs would break out upon mankind Corruption and abominable works in the text are the fruit of the fools perswasion that there is no God The perverting the ways of men oppression and extortion owe their rise to a forgetfulness of God Jer. 3.21 They have perverted their way and they have forgotten the Lord their God Ezek. 22.12 Thou hast greedily gained by extortion and hast forgotten me saith the Lord. The whole Earth would be filled with violence all flesh would corrupt their way as it was before the deluge when probably Atheism did abound more than Idolatry and if not a disowning the being yet denying the Providence of God by the posterity of Cain Those of the Family of Seth only calling upon the name of the Lord Gen. 6.11.12 compared which Gen. 4.26 The greatest sense of a Deity in any hath been attended with the greatest innocence of life and usefulness to others And a weaker sense hath been attended with a baser impurity * Iessius de Provid p. 665. If there were no God Blasphemy would be praise-worthy As the reproach of Idols is praise-worthy because we testifie that there is no Divinity in them What can be more contemptible than that which hath no being Sin would be only a false opinion of a violated Law and an offended Deity If such appresensions prevail what a wide door is opened to the worst of villanies If there be no God no respect is due to him all the Religion in the world is a trifle and Error and thus the Pillars of all human society and that which hath made Common-wealths to flourish are blown away Secondly 2 T is pernicious to the Atheist himself If he fear no future punishment he can never expect any future reward All his hopes must be confined to a Swinish and despicable manner of life without any imaginations of so much as a dram of reserved hapiness He is in a worse condition than the filliest animal which hath something to please it in its life Whereas an Atheist can have nothing here to give him a full content no more than any other man in the World and can have less satisfaction hereafter He deposeth the noble end of his own being which was to serve a God and have a satisfaction in him to seek a God and be rewarded by him And he that departs from his end recedes from his own nature All the content any Creature finds is in performing its end moveing according to its natural instinct As it is a joy to the Sun to run its race * Psal 19.5 In the same manner it is a satisfaction to every other Creature and its delight to observe the Law of its Creation What content can any man have that runs from his end opposeth his own nature denies a God by whom and for whom he was Created whose Image he bears which is the Glory of his nature and sinks into the very dregs of bruitishness How elegantly is it described by Bildad * Job 18.7.8 c. to the end his own Counsel shall cast him down terrors shall make him afraid on
and the dregs of that revolt is that they know not God They forget God as if there were no such being above them and indeed he that doth the works of the Devil owns the Devil to be more worthy of observance and consequently of a being than God whose nature he forgets and whose presence he abhors Proposition 4. Every sin in its own nature would render God a foolish and impure being Many Transgressors esteem their acts which are contrary to the Law of God both Wise and Good If so the Law against which they are committed must be both foolish and impure What a reflection is there then upon the Law-giver The Moral Law is not properly a meer act of Gods Will considered in it self or a Tyrannical Edict like those of whom it may well be said stat pro ratione voluntas But it commands those things which are good in their own nature and prohibits those things which are in their own nature evil and therefore is an act of his Wisdom and Righteousness the result of his wise Council and an extract of his pure nature as all the Laws of just Law-givers are not only the acts of their Will but of a Will governed by Reason and Justice and for the good of the publick whereof they are conservators If the Moral commands of God were only acts of his Will and had not an intrinsick necessity reason and goodness God might have commanded the quite contrary and made a contrary Law whereby that which we now call Vice might have been canonized for Virtue He might then have forbid any Worship of him Love to him fear of his name He might then have commanded Murders Thefts Adulteries In the first he would have untied the link of duty from the Creature and dissolved the obligations of Creatures to him which is impossible to be conceived for from the Relation of a Creature to God obligations to God and duties upon those obligations do necessarily result It had been against the rule of Goodness and Justice to have commanded the Creature not to love him and fear and obey him This had been a command against Righteousness Goodness and intrinsick obligations to Gratitude And should Murder Adulteries Rapines have been commanded instead of the contrary God would have destroyed his own Creation he would have acted against the rule of goodness and order he had been an unjust tyrannical Governor of the world Publick society would have been crackt in peices and the world become a Shambles a Brothel House a place below the common sentiments of a meer man All sin therefore being against the Law of God the Wisdom and holy rectitude of Gods Nature is denyed in every Act of disobedience And what is the consequence of this but that God is both foolish and unrighteous in commanding that which was neither an Act of Wisdom as a Governour nor an Act of goodness as a benefactor to his Creature As was said before presumptuous sins are called reproaches of God Num. 15.30 The Soul that doth ought presumptuously reproacheth the Lord. Reproaches of men are either for natural moral or intellectual defects All reproaches of God must imply a charge either of unrighteousness or ignorance If of unrighteousness t is a denial of his Holiness If of Ignorance t is a blemishing his Wisdom If Gods Laws were not wise and holy God would not enjoyn them And if they are so we deny infinite Wisdom and Holiness in God by not complying with them As when a man believes not God when he promises he makes him a lyar 1 John 5.10 So he that obeys not a wise and holy God commanding makes him guilty either of folly or unrighteousness Now suppose you knew an absolute Atheist who denyed the being of a God yet had a life free from any notorious spot or defilement would you in reason count him so bad as the other that owns a God in being yet lays by his course of action such a black imputation of folly and impurity upon the God he professeth to own an imputation which renders any man a most despicable Creature Proposition 5. Sin in its own nature endeavours to render God the most miserable being T is nothing but an opposition to the will of God The will of no Creature is so much contradicted as the Will of God is by Devils and Men And there is nothing under the Heavens that the affections of human nature stand more point blank against than against God There is a slight of him in all the faculties of Man our Souls are as unwilling to know him as our Wills are averse to follow him Rom. 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God t is not subject to the Law of God nor can be subject T is true Gods will cannot be hindered of its effect for then God would not be supremely blessed but unhappy and miserable All misery ariseth from a want of that which a nature would have and ought to have Besides if any thing could frustrate Gods Will it would be superior to him God would not be Omnipotent and so would lose the perfection of the Deity and consequently the Deity it self for that which did wholly defeat Gods Will would be more powerful than he But sin is a contradiction to the Will of Gods Revelation to the Will of his precept and therein doth naturally tend to a superiority over God and would usurp his Omnipotence and deprive him of his blessedness For if God had not an infinite power to turn the designs of it to his own glory but the will of sin could prevail God would be totally deprived of his blessedness Doth not sin endeavour to subject God to the extravagant and contrary wills of men and make him more a slave than any Creature can be For the Will of no Creature not the meanest and most despicable Creature is so much crost as the Will of God is by sin Isa 43.24 Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins Thou hast endeavoured to make a meer slave of me by sin Sin endeavors to subject the blessed God to the humour and lust of every person in the world Proposition 6. Men sometimes in some circumstances do wish the not being of God This some think to be the meaning of the Text the fool hath said in his heart there is no God that is he wishes there were no God Many tamper with their own hearts to bring them to a perswasion that there is no God And when they cannot do that they conjure up wishes that there were none Men naturally have some Conscience of sin and some notices of Justice Rom. 1.32 They know the Judgement of God and they know the demerit of sin they know the Judgment of God and that they which do such things are worthy of death What is the consequent of this but fear of punishment and what is the issue of that fear but a wishing the Judge either unwilling or unable to vindicate the Honour of his
himself is an infinite Mirror of Goodness and ravishing Loveliness He is infinitely good and so universally good and nothing but good and is therefore so agreeable to a Creature as a Creature that it is impossible that the Creature while it bears itself to God as a Creature should be guilty of this but thirst after him and cherish every motion to him As no man wishes the destruction of any Creature as a Creature but as it may conduce to something which he counts may be beneficial to himself so no man doth nor perhaps can wish the cessation of the Being of God as God for then he must wish his own Being to cease also But as he considers him clothed with some perfections which he apprehends as injurious to him as his Holiness in forbidding Sin his Justice in punishing Sin And God being judged in those perfections contrary to what the revolted Creature thinks convenient and good for himself he may wish God stript of those perfections that thereby he may be free from all fear of trouble and grief from him in his fallen State In wishing God deprived of those he wishes God deprived of his Being because God cannot retain his Deity without a love of Righteousness and Hatred of Iniquity and he could not testifie his love to the one or his loathing of the other without encouraging Goodness and witnessing his Anger against Iniquity Let us now appeal to ourselves and examin our own Consciences Did we never please our selves sometimes in the thoughts how happy we should be how free in our vain pleasures if there were no God Have we not desired to be our own Lords without controle subject to no Law but our own and be guided by no Will but that of the Flesh Did we never rage against God under his afflicting Hand Did we never wish God stript of his Holy Will to command and his Righteous Will to punish c. Thus much for the general For the proof of this many considerations will bring in Evidence Most may be reduced to these two Generals Man would set himself up First as his own Rule Secondly as his own End and Happiness 1. Man would set himself up as his own Rule instead of God This will be evidenced in this Method 1. Man naturally disowns the Rule God sets him 2. He owns any other Rule rather than that of Gods prescribing 3. These he doth in order to the setting himself up as his own Rule 4. He makes himself not only his own Rule but would make himself the Rule of God and give Laws to his Creator 1. Man naturally disowns the Rule God sets him 'T is all one to deny his Royalty and to deny his Being When we disown his Authority we disown his God-head 'T is the Right of God to be the Soveraign of his Creatures and it must be a very loose and trivial assent that such men have to Gods Superiority over them and consequently to the Excellency of his Being upon which that Authority is founded who are scarce at ease in themselves but when they are invading his Rights breaking his Bands casting away his Cords and contradicting his Will Every man naturally is a Son of Belial would be without a Yoke and leap over Gods Inclosures and in breaking out against his Soveraignity we disown his Being as God For to be God and Soveraign are inseparable He could not be God if he were not Supreme nor could he be a Creator without being a Law-giver To be God and yet inferior to another is a Contradiction To make Rational Creatures without prescribing them a Law is to make them without Holiness Wisdom and Goodness 1. There is in Man naturally an unwillingness to have any acquaintance with the Rule God sets him Psal 14.2 None that did understand and seek God The refusing Instruction and casting his Word behind the back is a part of Atheism * Psal 50 1â We are heavy in hearing the Instructions either of Law or Gospel * Heb. 5.11 12. and slow in the Apprehension of what we hear The people that God had hedged in from the Wilderness of the World for his own Garden were foolish and did not know God were sottish and had no understanding of him * Jer. 4.22 The Law of God is accounted a strange thing * Hos 8.12 a thing of a different Clymate and a far Country from the heart of Man wherewith the mind of Man had no natural acquaintance and had no desire to have any or they regarded it as a sordid thing What God accounts great and valuable they account mean and despicable Men may shew a Civility to a Stranger but scarce contract an Intimacy There can be no Amicable Agreement between the holy Will of God and the heart of a depraved Creature One is holy the other unholy one is universally good the other stark naught The purity of the Divine Rule renders it nauseous to the impurity of a carnal heart Water and Fire may as well friendly kiss each other and live together without quarrelling and hissing as the holy Will of God and the unregenerate heart of a fallen Creature The nauseating a Holy Rule is an Evidence of Atheism in the heart as the nauseating wholesome Food is of putrified Flegm in the Stomack 'T is found more or less in every Christian in the Remainders though not in a full Empire As there is a Law in his Mind whereby he delights in the Law of God so there is a Law in his Members whereby he wars against the Law of God Rom. 7.22 23 25. How predominant is this loathing of the Law of God when corrupt Nature is in its full strength without any Principle to controul it There is in the Mind of such a one a Darkness whereby it is ignorant of it and in the Will a Depravedness whereby it is repugnant to it If Man were naturally willing and able to have an intimate acquaintance with and delight in the Law of God it had not been such a signal favour for God to promise to write the Law in the heart A man may sooner engrave the Chronicle of a whole Nation or all the Records of God in the Scripture upon the hardest Marble with his bare finger than write one Syllable of the Law of God in a spiritual manner upon his heart For 1. Men are negligent in using the means for the knowledge of Gods Will. All natural men are Fools who know not how to use the price God puts into their hands * Pro. 17.16 They put not a due estimate upon opportunities and means of Grace and account that Law-Folly which is the Birth of an infinite and holy Wisdom The knowledge of God which they may glean from Creatures and is more pleasant to the natural gust of men is not improved to the Glory of God if we will believe the Indictment the Apostle brings against the Gentiles * Rom. 1.21 And most of those that have
end in the Flesh Our hearts like Lute-strings are changed with every change of weather with every appearance of a Temptation scarce one motion of God in a thousand prevails with us for a setled abode 'T is a hard task to make a signature of those Truths upon our affections which will with ease pass currant with our understandings Our affections will as soon lose them as our understandings embrace them The heart of Man is unstable as water * Gen. 49.4 Jam. 1.8 Some were willing to rejoyce in Johns Light which reflected a lustre on their minds but not in his heat which would have conveyed a warmth to their hearts and the Light was pleasing to them but for a season * Joh. 5.35 while their corruptions lay as if they were dead not when they were awakened Truth may be admitted one day and the next day rejected As Austin saith of a wicked Man he loves the Truth shining but he hates the Truth reproving This is not to make God but our own humor our rule and measure 7. Many desire an acquaintance with the Law and Truth of God with a design to improve some lust by it To turn the Word of God to be a Pander to the Breach of his Law This is so far from making Gods Will our Rule that we make our own vile affections the Rule of his Law How many forced Interpretations of Scripture have been coyned to give content to the lusts of men and the Divine Rule forced to bend and be squared to mens loose and carnal apprehensions 'T is a part of the instability or falseness of the heart to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction * 2 Pet. 3.16 which they could not do if they did not first wring them to countenance some detestable Error or filthy Crime In Paradise the first Interpretation made of the first Law of God was point blank against the mind of the Law-giver and venemous to the whole Race of Mankind Paul himself feared that some might put his Doctrine of Grace to so ill a use as to be an Altar and Sanctuary to shelter their Presumption Rom. 6.1.15 shall we then continue in Sin that Grace may abound Poysonous Consequences are often drawn from the sweetest Truths As when Gods Patience is made a Topick whence to argue against his Providence * Psal 94.1 or an encouragement to commit Evil more greedily as though because he had not presently a revenging Hand he had not an all seeing Eye Or when the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is made use of to depress a holy life or Gods readiness to receive returning sinners an encouragement to defer repentance till a death bed A Lyar will hunt for shelter in the reward God gave the Midwifes that lyed to Pharaoh for the preservation of the Males of Israel and Rahabs saving the Spies by false intelligence God knows how to distinguish between grace and corruption that may lie close together or between something of moral goodness and moral evil which may be mixed We find their fidelity rewarded which was a moral good but not their lye approved which was a moral evil Nor will Christs conversing with sinners be a plea for any to thrust themselves into evil Company Christ conversed with sinners as a Physitian with diseased persons to cure them not approve them others with profligate persons to receive infection from them not to communicate holiness to them Satans Children have studied their Fathers art who wanted not perverted Scripture to second his Temptations against our Saviour * How often do carnal hearts turn Divine Revelation to carnal ends as the Sea fresh water into salt As meââââject the precepts of God to carnal interests so they subject the truths of God to ââânal fancies When men will allegorize the Word and make a humorous and crazy fancy the Interpreter of Divine oracles and not the Spirit speaking in the Word This is to enthrone our own imaginations as the rule of Gods Law and depose his Law from being the rule of our reason This is to riflle truth of its true mind and intent T is more to rob a man of his reason the essential constitutive part of man than of his estate This is to refuse an intimate acquaintance with his Will We shall never tell what is the matter of a precept or the matter of a promise if we impose a sense upon it contrary to the plain meaning of it Thereby we shall make the Law of God to have a distinct sense according to the variety of mens imaginations and so make every mans fancy a Law to himself Now that this unwillingness to have a Spiritual acquaintance with Divine Truth is a disowning God as our rule and a setting up self in his stead is evident because this unwillingness respects Truth 1. As it is most Spiritual and Holy A fleshly mind is most contrary to a Spiritual Law and particularly as it is a searching and discovering Law that would dethrone all other rules in the Soul As men love to be without a Holy God in the world so they love to be without a holy Law the transcript and image of Gods Holiness in their hearts and without holy men the lights kindled by the Father of lights As the holiness of God so the holiness of the Law most offends a carnal heart Isa 30.11 Cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us prophecy to us right things They could not endure God as a holy one Herein God places their Rebellion rejecting him as their rule ver 9. Rebellious Children that will not hear the Law of the Lord. The more pure and precious any discovery of God is the more it is disrelisht by the world As Spiritual sins are sweetest to a carnal heart so Spiritual truths are most distastful The more of the brightness of the Sun any beam conveys the more offensive it is to a distempered eye 2. As it doth most relate to or lead to God The Devil directs his fiercest batteries against those Doctrines in the Word and those Graces in the heart which most exalt God debase man and bring men to the lowest subjection to their Creator Such is the Doctrine and grace of justifying faith That men hate not knowledge as knowledge but as it directs them to choose the fear of the Lord was the determination of the Holy Ghost long ago Prov. 1.29 for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Whatsoever respects God clears up guilt witnesses mans revolt to him rouzeth up Conscience and moves to a return to God a man naturally runs from as Adam did from God and seeks a shelter in some weak bushes of error rather than appear before it Not that men are unwilling to inquire into and contemplate some Divine Truths which lie furthest from the heart and concern not themselves immediatly with the rectifying the soul They may view them with such a pleasure as
some might take in beholding the Miracles of our Saviour who could not endure his searching Doctrine The light of speculation may be pleasant but the light of conviction is grievous that which galls their Consciences and would affect them with a sense of their duty to God Is it not easy to perceive that when a man begins to be serious in the concerns of the Honour of God and the duty of his soul he feels a reluctancy within him even against the pleas of Conscience which evidenceth that some unworthy principle has got footing in the hearts of men which fights against the declarations of God without and the impressions of the Law of God within at the same time when a man 's own Conscience takes part with it which is the substance of the Apostles discourse Rom. 7.15 16 c. Close discourses of the Honour of God and our duty to him are irksome when men are upon a merry pin They are like a damp in a Mine that takes away their breath they shuffle them out as soon as they can and are as unwilling to retain the-speech of them in their mouths as the knowledge of them in their hearts Gracious speeches instead of bettering many men distemper them as sometimes sweet perfumes affect a weak head with aches 3. As t is most contrary to self Men are unwilling to acquaint themselves with any truth that leads to God because it leads from self Every part of the Will of God is more or less displeasing as it sounds harsh against some carnal interest men would set above God or as a Mate with him Man cannot desire any intimacy with that Law which he regards as a Bird of prey to pick out his right eye or gnaw off his right hand his lust dearer than himself The reason we have such hard thoughts of Gods Will is because we have such high thoughts of our selves T is a hard matter to Believe or Will that which hath no affinity with some principle in the understanding and no interest in our Will and Passions Our unwillingness to be acquainted with the Will of God ariseth from the disproportion between that and our corrupt hearts We are alienated from the life of God in our minds Eph. 41 18 19. As we live not like God so we neither think or Will as God There is an antipathy in the heart of man against that Doctrine which teaches us to deny our selves and be under the rule of another But whatsoever favours the ambition lusts and profits of men is easily entertainable Many are fond of those Sciences which may enrich their understandings and grate not upon their sensual delights Many have an admirable dexterity in finding out Philosophical reasons Mathematical demonstrations or raising observations upon the Records of History and spend much time and many serious and affectionate thoughts in the study of them In those they have not immediatly to do with God their beloved pleasures are not impaired T is a satisfaction to self without the exercise of any hostility against it But had those Sciences been against self as much as the Law and Will of God they had long since been rooted out of the World Why did the Young-man turn his back upon the Law of Christ because of his worldly self Why did the Pharisees mock at the Doctrine of our Saviour and not at their own traditions because of Covetous self Why did the Jews slight the person of our Saviour and put him to death after the reading so many Credentials of his being sent from Heaven because of ambitious self that the Romans might not come and take away their Kingdom If the Law of God were fitted to the humors of self it would be readily and cordially observed by all men Self is the measure of a world of seeming Religious actions while God seems to be the object and his Law the motive self is the rule and end Zach. 7.5 Did you fast unto me c. 2 As men discover their disowning the Will of God as a rule by unwillingness to be acquainted with it so they discover it by the contempt of it after they cannot avoid the Notions and some impressions of it The rule of God is burthensome to a sinner he flies from it as from a frightful bug-bear and unpleasant Yoke Sin against the knowledge of the Law is therefore called a going back from the Commandment of Gods lips Job 23.12 A casting Gods word behind them * Psal 50.17 as a contemptible thing fitter to be trodden in the durt than lodged in the heart Nay it is a casting it off as an abominable thing for so the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies Hos 8.3 Israel hath cast off the thing that is good an utter refusal of God Jer. 44.16 As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken In the slight of his precepts his essential perfections are slighted In disowning his Will as a Rule we disown all those attributes which flow from his Will as Goodness Righteousness and Truth As an Act of the Divine understanding is supposed to precede the Act of the Divine Will so we slight the infinite reason of God Every Law tho it proceeds from the Will of the Law-giver and doth formally consist in an Act of the Will yet it doth presuppose an act of the understanding If the Commandment be holy just and good as it is Rom. 7.12 if it be the image of Gods holiness a transcript of his righteousness and the efflux of his goodness then in every breach of it durt is cast upon those Attributes which shine in it and a slight of all the regards he hath to his own Honour and all the provisions he makes for his Creature This Atheism or contempt of God is more taken notice of by God than the matter of the sin it self As a respect to God in a weak and imperfect obedience is more than the matter of the obedience it self because it is an acknowledgment of God So a contempt of God in an act of disobedience is more than the matter of the disobedience The Creature stands in such an Act not only in a posture of distance from God but defiance of him It was not the bare act of Murder and Adultery which Nathan charged upon David but the Atheistical principle which Spirited those evil acts The despising the Commandment of the Lord was the venom of them * 2 Sam. 12. â 1â T is possible to break a Law without contempt But when men pretend to believe there is a God and that this is the Law of God it shews a contempt of his Majesty * Claud. Men naturally account Gods Laws too strict his Yoak too heavy and his limits too strait And he that liveth in a contempt of this Law curseth God in his life How can they believe there is a God who despise him as a Ruler How can they believe him to
Traditions against the Will of God are said to make his Law of none effect to strip it of all its Authority as the word signifies Mat. 15.6 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 3. We have the greatest slight of that Will of God which is most for his Honour and his greatest Pleasure 'T is the Nature of Man ever since Adam to do so Hos 6.6.7 God desired Mercy and not Sacrifice the Knowledge of Himself more than burnt Offering but they like men as Adam have transgressed the Covenant invade Gods Rights and not let him be Lord of one Tree We are more curious Observers of the Fringes of the Law than of the greater concerns of it The Jews were diligent in Sacrifices and Offerings which God did not urge upon them as Principals but as Types of other things but negligent of the Faith which was to be established by him Holiness Mercy Pity which concerned the Honour of God as Governour of the World and were imitations of the Holiness and Goodness of God they were Strangers to This is Gods Complaint Isa 1.11 12. and 16 17. We shall find our hearts most averse to the observation of those Laws which are Eternal and Essential to Righteousness such that he could not but command as he is a Righteous Governour in the observation of which we come nearest to him and express his Image more clearly As those Laws for an inward and spiritual Worship a supreme Affection to him God in regard of his Righteousness and Holiness of his Nature and the Excellency of his Being could not command the contrary to these But this part of his Will our hearts most swell against our corruption doth most snarle at whereas those Laws which are only positive and have no intrinsick Righteousness in them but depend purely upon the Will of the Law-giver and may be changed at his pleasure which the other that have an intrinsick Righteousness in them cannot we better comply with than that part of his Will that doth express more the Righteousness of his Nature * Psal 5â 6.17 19. such as the Ceremonial part of Worship and the Ceremonial Law among the Jews We are more willing to observe Order in some outward attendances and glavering devotions than discard secret affections to evil crucify inward lusts and delightful thoughts A hanging down the head like a bulrish is not difficult but the breaking the heart like a Potters vessel to shreds and dust a sacrifice God delights in whereby the excellency of God and the vileness of the Creature is owned goes against the grain To cut off an outward branch is not so hard as to hack at the root What God mosts loaths as most contrary to his Will we most love No sin did God so severely hate and no sin were the Jews more enclined unto than that of Idolatry The Heathen had not changed their God as the Jews had changed their glory Jer. 2.11 And all men are naturally tainted with this sin which is so contrary to the holy and excellent nature of God By how much the more defect there is of purity in our respects to God by so much the more respect there is to some Idol within or without us to humor custom and interest c. Never did any Law of God meet with so much opposition as Christianity which was the design of God from the first promise to the exhibiting the Redeemer and from thence to the end of the World All people drew Swords at first against it The Romans prepared Yokes for their Neighbors but provided Temples for the Idols those people Worshipped But Christianity the choicest design and most delightful part of the Will of God never met with a kind entertainment at first in any place Rome that entertained all others persecuted this with Fire and Sword tho sealed by greater Testimonies from Heaven than their own Records could report in favour of their Idols 4. In running the greatest hazards and exposing our selves to more trouble to cross the Will of God than is necessary to the observance of it T is a vain charge men bring against the Divine precepts that they are rigorous severe difficult When besides the contradiction to our Saviour who tells us his Yoke is easy and his Burthen light they thwart their own calm reason and Judgment Is there not more difficulty to be Vicious Covetous Violent Cruel than to be Vertuous Charitable Kind Doth the Will of God enjoyn that that is not conformable to right reason and secretly delightful in the exercise and issue And on the contrary what doth Satan and the world engage us in that is not full of molestation and hazard Is it a sweet and comely thing to combat continually against our own Consciences and resist our own light and commence a perpetual quarrel against our selves as we ordinarily do when we sin They in the Prophet Mich. 6.6 7 8. would be at the expence of thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyl if they could compass them yea would strip themselves of their Natural affection to their first-born to expiate the sin of their Soul rather then to do Justice love mercy and walk humbly with God things more conducible to the Honour of God the welfare of the world the security of their Souls and of a more easie practice than the offerings they wished for Do not men then disown God when they will walk in ways hedged with thorns wherein they meet with the Arrows of Conscience at every turn in their sides and slidedown to an everlasting punishment sink under an intolerable slavery to contradict the Will of God When they will prefer a sensual satisfaction with a combustion in their Consciences violation of their reasons gnawing cares and weary travels before the Honour of God the dignity of their Natures the happiness of peace and health which might be preserved at a cheaper rate than they are at to destroy them 5. In the unwillingness and awkardness of the heart when it is to pay God a service Men do evil with both hands earnestly * Mich. 7.3 but do good with one hand faintly no life in the heart nor any diligence in the hand What slight and loose thoughts of God doth this unwillingness imply T is a wrong to his providence as tho we were not under his Government and had no need of his assistance A wrong to his excellency as tho there were no aimableness in him to make his service desirable An injury to his goodness and power as if he were not able or willing to reward the Creatures obedience or careless not to take notice of it T is a sign we receive little satisfaction in him and that there is a great unsutableness between him and us 1. There is a kind of constraint in the first engagement We are rather prest to it than enter our selves Volunteers What we call service to God is done naturally much against our Wills t is not a delightful food but
temper under a storm he would submit to God and let Israel go but when the storm is ended he will not be under Gods controul and Israels slavery shall be increased The fear of Divine wrath makes many a sinner turn his back upon his sin and the love of his ruling lust makes him turn his back upon his true Lord. This is from the prevalency of sin that disputes with God for the Soveraignty When God hath sent a sharp disease as a messenger to bind men to their beds and make an interruption of their sinful pleasures their mouths are full of promises of a new life in hope to escape the just vengeance of God The sense of Hell which strikes strongly upon them makes them full of such pretended resolutions when they howl upon their beds But if God be pleased in his Patience to give them a respite to take off the Chains wherewith he seemed to be binding them for destruction and recruit their strength they are more earnest in their sins than they were in their promises of a reformation as if they had got the mastery of God and had outwitted him How often doth God charge them * Amos 4.6 to ver 11. of not returning to him after a succession of Judgments So hard it is not only to allure but to scourge men to an acknowledgement of God as their Ruler Consider then Are we not naturally inclined to disobey the known Will of God Can we say Lord for thy sake we refrain the thing to which our hearts encline Do we not allow our selves to be licentious earthly vain proud revengful tho we know it will offend him Have we not been peevishly cross to his declared Will Run Counter to him and those Laws which express most of the glory of his holiness Is not this to disown him as our Rule Did we never wish there were no Law to bind us no precept to check our Idols What is this but to wish that God would depose himself from being our Governour and leave us to our own conduct or else to wish that he were as unholy as our selves as careless of his own laws as we are that is that he were no more a God then we a God as sinful and unrighteous as our selves He whose heart riseth against the Law of God to unlaw it riseth against the Author of that Law to undeifie him He that casts contempt upon the dearest thing God hath in the world that which is the image of his holiness the delight of his Soul that which he hath given a special charge to maintain and that because it is holy just and good would not stick to rejoyce at the destruction of God himself If Gods Holiness and righteousness in the beam be despised much more will an immense goodness and holiness in the fountain be rejected He that wisheth a beam far from his eyes because it offends and scorcheth him can be no friend to the Sun from whence that beam doth issue How unworthy a Creature is man since he only a rational Creature is the sole being that withdraws it self from the rule of God in this Earth And how miserable a Creature is he also Since departing from the order of Gods goodness he falls into the order of his Justice and while he refuseth God to be the rule of his life he cannot avoid him being the Judge of his punishment T is this is the original of all sin and the fountain of all our misery This is the first thing man disowns the Rule which God sets him Secondly 2. Man naturally owns any other rule rather than that of Gods prescribing The Law of God orders one thing the heart of man desires another There is not the basest thing in the world but man would sooner submit to be guided by it rather than by the holiness of God and when any thing that God commands crosses our own Wills we value it no more than we would the advise of a poor despicable beggar How many are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God * 2 Tim. 3.4 To make something which contributes to the perfection of nature as learning wisdom moral vertues our Rule would be more tolerable But to pay that homage to a swinish pleasure which is the right of God is an inexcusable contempt of him The greatest excellency in the world is infinitely below God much more a bestial delight which is both disgraceful and below the nature of man If we made the vilest Creature on Earth our Idol t is more excusable than to be the slave of a brutish pleasure The viler the thing is that doth possess the throne in our heart the greater contempt it is of him who can only claim a right to it and is worthy of it Sin is the first object of mans election as soon as the faculty whereby he choses comes to exercise its power And it is so dear to man that it is in the estimate of our Saviour counted as the right hand and the right eye dear precious and useful members 1. The rule of Satan is owned before the rule of God The natural man would rather be under the guidance of Satan than the Yoke of his Creator Adam chose him to be his Governour in Paradice No sooner had Satan spoke of God in a way of derision Gen. 3.1 5. Yea hath God said but man follows his Counsel and approves of the scoff and the greatest part of his posterity have not been wiser by his fall but would rather ramble in the Devils Wilderness than to stay in Gods fold T is by the sin of man that the Devil is become the God of the world as if men were the Electors of him to the Government Sin is an Election of him for a Lord and a putting the Soul under his Government Those that live according to the course of the world and are loath to displease it are under the Government of the Prince of it The greatest part of the works done in the world is to enlarge the Kingdom of Satan For how many ages were the laws whereby the greatest part of the world was governed in the affairs of Religion the fruits of his usurpation and policy When Temples were erected to him Priests consecrated to his service The rites used in most of the Worship of the world were either of his own Coyning or the misapplying the Rites God had ordained to himself under the notion of a God Whence the Apostle calls all Idolatrous Feasts the table of Devils the cup of Devils Sacrifice to Devils fellowship with Devils * 1 Cor. 10.20.21 Devils being the real object of the Pagan Worship tho not formally intended by the Worshipper tho in some parts of the Indies the direct and peculiar worship is to the Devil that he might not hurt them And tho the intention of others was to offer to God and not the Devil yet since the action was contrary to the Will of God he regards
holiness and righteousness commanded God appointed it to magnifie his Justice and check the Idolatry that had been supported by that family Jehu acted it to satisfie his revenge and ambition he did it to fulfil his lust not the will of God who enjoyn'd him Jehu applauds it as zeal and God abhors it as murder and therefore would avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu Hos 1.4 Such kind of services are not paid to God for his own sake but to our selves for our lusts sake 4. This is evident in neglecting to take Gods direction upon emergent occasions This follows the Text none did seek God When we consult not with him but trust more to our own Will and Counsel we make our selves our own Governours and Lords independent upon him As though we could be our own Counsellors and manage our Concerns without his leave and assistance as though our works were in our own hands and not in the hands of God * Eccles 9.1 that we can by our own strength and sagacity direct them to a successful end without him If we must acquaint our selves with God before we decree a thing * Job 22.28 then to decree a thing without acquainting God with it is to prefer our purblind wisdom before the infinite Wisdom of God to resolve without consulting God is to depose God and deifie self our own wit and strength We would rather like Lot follow our own humor and stay in Sodom than observe the Angels order to go out of it 5. As we account the actions of others to be good or evil as they suit with or spurn against our fancies and humours Vertue is a crime and vice a vertue as it is contrary or concurrent with our humors Little Reason have many men to blame the actions of others but because they are not agreeable to what they affect and desire We would have all men take directions from us and move according to our beck Hence that common Speech in the world such an one is an honest friend why because he is of their humour and lackies according to their wills Thus we make self the measure and square of good and evil in the rest of mankind and judge of it by our own fancies and not by the will of God the proper rule of Judgment Well then let us Consider Is not this very common are we not naturally more willing to displease God than displease our selves when it comes to a point that we must do one or other Is not our own Counsel of more value with us than Conformity to the will of the Creator Do not our Judgments often run Counter to the Judgment of God Have his Laws a greater respect from us than our own humours Do we scruple the staining his honour when it comes in competition with our own Are not the Lives of most men a pleasing themselves without a repentance that ever they displeased God Is not this to undeifie God to deifie our selves and disown the propriety he hath in us by the right of Creation and Beneficence We order our own ways by our own humours as though we were the Authors of our own being and had given our selves life and understanding This is to destroy the order that God hath placed between our wills and his own and a lifting up of the foot above the head 't is the deformity of the Creature The honor of every rational Creature consists in the service of the first cause of his being as the welfare of every Creature consists in the orders and proportionable motion of its members according to the Law of it's Creation He that moves and acts according to a law of his own offers a manifest wrong to God the highest wisdom and chiefest good disturbs the order of the world nulls the design of the righteousness and holiness of God The Law of God is the rule of that order he would have observed in the world He that makes another law his rule thrusts out the order of the Creator and establishes the disorder of the Creature But this will yet be more evident in the fourth thing 4. Man would make himself the rule of God and give Laws to his Creator VVe are willing God should be our benefactor but not our ruler we are content to admire his excellency and pay him a worship provided he will walk by our rule * Decay of Christian piety p. 169. somewhat changed This commits a riot upon his nature To think him to be what we our selves would have him and wish him to be Psal 50.21 VVe would amplifie his Mercy and contract his Justice We would have his power enlarg'd to supply our wants and straightned when it goes about to revenge our crimes VVe would have him wise to defeat our enemies but not to disappoint our unworthy projects We would have him all eye to regard our indigence and blind not to discern our guilt We would have him true to his promises regardless of his precepts and false to his threatnings VVe would new mint the nature of God according to our models and shape a God according to our fancies as he made us at first according to his own Image Instead of obeying him we would have him obey us Instead of owning and admiring his perfections we would have him strip himself of his infinite excellency and cloth himself with a nature agreeable to our own This is not only to set up self as the Law of God but to make our own Imaginations the model of the nature of God Corrupted man takes a pleasure to accuse or suspect the actions of God We would not have him act conveniently to his nature but act what doth gratifie us and abstain from what distasts us Man is never well but when he is impeaching one or other perfection of Gods Nature and undermining his Glory as if all his Attributes must stand Indicted at the bar of our purblind Reason This Weed shoots up in the exercise of Grace Peter intended the refusal of our Saviours washing his feet as an act of humility but Christ understands it to be a prescribing a law to himself a correcting his love John 13.8 9. This is evidenc'd 1. In the strivings against his Law How many men imply by their Lives that they would have God depos'd from his Government and some unrighteous being step in to his Throne as if God had or should change his Laws of Holiness into Laws of Licentiousness as if he should abrogate his old Eternal Precepts and enact contrary ones in their stead What is the Language of such practices but that they would be Gods Law-givers and not his Subjects that he should deal with them according to their own wills and not according to his righteousness that they could make a more holy wise and righteous Law than the Law of God that their imaginations and not Gods righteousness should be the rule of his doing good to them Jer. 9.31 They have
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 21â '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 ãâã 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 towardâ 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
God foolishly he never spake nor thought any thing unworthy of the Majesty and righteousness of God Yet afterwards we find him warping he nicknames the affliction to be Gods oppression of him and no act of his goodness Job 10.3 Is it good for thee that thou shouldst oppress He seems to charge God with injustice for punishing him when he was not wicked for which he appeals to God thou knowest that I am not wicked v. 7. and that God acted not like a Creator v. 8. If our projects are disappointed what fretfulness against Gods management are our hearts rackt with How do uncomely passions bubble upon us interpretatively at least wishing that the arms of his power had been bound and the eye of his omniscience been hoodwinkt that we might have been left to our own liberty and designs And this oftentimes when we have more reason to bless him than repine at him The Israelites murmured more against God in the Wilderness with Manna in their mouths than they did at Pharoah in the Brickilns with their Garlike and Onyons between their Teeth Tho we repine at Instruments in our afflictions yet God counts it a reflection upon himself The Israelites speaking against Moses was in Gods interpretation a Rebellion against himself * Numb 16.41 compar'd with 17 10. And Rebellion is alwaies a desire of imposing Laws and Conditions upon those against whom the Rebellion is raised The sottish dealings of the Vine-dressers in Franconia with the Statue of St. Vrban the Protector of the Vines upon his own day is an Emblem of our dealing with God If it be a clear day and portend a prosperous Vintage they honour the Statue and drink healths to it if it be a rainy day and presage a scantiness they daub it with durt in indignation We cast out our mire and durt against God when he acts cross to our wishes and flatter him when the wind of his Providence joyns it self to the tide of our interest Men set a high price upon themselves and are angry God values them not at the same rate as if their Judgment concerning themselves were more piercing than his This is to disannul Gods Judgment and condemn him and count our selves righteous as t is Job 40.8 This is the Epidemical disease of human nature they think they deserve Caresses instead of Rods and upon crosses are more ready to tear out the heart of God than reflect humbly upon their own hearts When we accuse God we applaud our selves and make our selves his superiors intimating that we have acted more righteously to him than he to us which is the highest manner of imposing Laws upon him as that Emperor accused the Justice of God for snatching him out of the World too seen * Caelum suspiciens vitam c. Vita Titi ca. 10. What an high piece of Practical Atheism is this to desire that that infinite wisdom should be guided by our folly and asperse the righteousness of God rather than blemish our own Instead of silently submitting to his Will and adoring his Wisdom we declaim against him as an unwise and unjust Governour We would invert his order make him the Steward and our selves the proprietors of what we are and have we deny our selves to be sinners and our mercies to be forfeited 4. T is evidenced in Envying the gifts and prosperities of others Envy hath a deep tincture of practical Atheism and is a cause of Atheism * Because wicked men flourish in the world Solicitor nullos esse putare Deos. We are unwilling to leave God to be the proprietor and do what he will with his own and as a Creator to do what he pleases with his Creatures We assume a liberty to direct God what Portions when and how he should bestow upon his Creatures We would not let him chuse his own favourites and pitch upon his own instruments for his Glory As if God should have askt Counsel of us how he should dispose of his benefits We are unwilling to leave to his wisdom the management of his own Judgments to the wicked and the dispensation of his own love to our selves This temper is natural T is as ancient as the first age of the world Adam envyed God a felicity by himself and would not spare a Tree that he had reserved as a mark of his Soveraignty The passion that God had given Cain to employ against his sin he turns against his Creator He was wroth with God * Gen. 4.5 and with Abel but envy was at the root because his Brothers Sacrifice was accepted and his refused How could he envy his accepted person without reflecting upon the accepter of his offering Good men have not been free from it Job questions the goodness of God that he should shine upon the Counsel of the wicked Job 10.3 Jonah had too much of self in fearing to be counted a false Prophet when he came with absolute denunciations of wrath Jonah 4.2 And when he could not bring a volley of destroying Judgments upon the Ninevites he would shoot his fury against his Master envying those poor people the benefit and God the honour of his mercy And this after he had been sent into the Whales belly to learn humiliation which tho he exercised there yet those two great branches of self-pride and envy were not lopt off from him in the belly of hell And God was fain to take pains with him and by a Gourd scarce makes him ashamed of his peevishness Envy is not like to cease till all Atheism be Cashiered and that is in Heaven This sin is an imitation of the Devil whose first sin upon Earth was Envy as his first sin in Heaven was Pride T is a wishing that to our selves which the Devil asserted as his right to give the Kingdoms of the World to whom he pleased * Luke 4.6 T is an anger with God because he hath not given us a Patent for Government It utters the same Language in disparagement of God as Absolom did in reflection on his Father If I were King in Israel Justice should be better managed If I were Lord of the world there should be more Wisdom to discern the merits of men and more righteousness in distributing to them their several portions Thus we impose Laws upon God and would have the righteousness of his Will submit to the corruptions of ours and have him lower himself to gratifie our minds rather than fulfill his own We charge the Author of those gifts with injustice that he hath not dealt equally or with ignorance that he hath mistook his mark In the same breath that we censure him by our peevishness we would Guide him by our Wills This is an unreasonable part of Atheism If all were in the same state and condition the order of the world would be impaired Is God bound to have a care of thee and neglect all the world besides Shall the Earth be forsaken for thee *
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
and in another business but would have thrust them away with indignation Had they stept in to interrupt our worldly Affairs they would have been troublesome Intruders but while we are with God they are acceptable Guests How unwilling have our hearts been to fortifie themselves with strong and influencing considerations of God before we addrest to him Is it not too often that our lifelesness in Prayer proceeds from this Atheism a neglect of seeing what Arguments and Pleas may be drawn from the didine perfections to second our suit in hand and quicken our hearts in the service Whence are those indispositions to any spiritual duty but because we have not due thoughts of the Majesty Holiness Goodness and Excellency of God Is there any duty which leads to a more particular inquiry after him or a more clear vision of him but our hearts have been ready to rise up and call it cursed rather than blessed Are not our minds bemisted with an ignorance of him our wills drawn by aversion from him our affections rising in distast of him More willing to know any thing than his Nature and more industrious to do any thing than his Will Do we not all fall under some one or other of these considerations Is it not fit then that we should have a sense of them 'T is to be bewail'd by us that so little of God is in our hearts when so many evidences of the love of God are in the Creatures that God should be so little our end who hath been so much our Benefactor that he should be so litte in our thoughts who sparkles in every thing which presents it self to our eyes 2. Let us be sensible of it in others We ought to have a just execration of the too open iniquity in the midst of us and imitate holy David whose tears plentifully gusht out because men kept not Gods Law * Psa 119.136 And is it not a time to exercise this pious lamentation Hath the wicked Atheism of any age been greater or can you find worse in Hell than we may hear of and behold on Earth How is the excellent Majesty of God adored by the Angels in Heaven despised and reproached by men on Earth as if his name were publisht to be matter of their sport What a gasping thing is a natural sense of God among men in the World Is not the Law of God accompanied with such dreadful threatnings and curses made light of as if men would place their honour in being above or beyond any sense of that glorious Majesty How many wallow in Pleasures as if they had been made men only to turn brutes and their Souls given them only for Salt to keep their bodies from putrifying T is as well a part of Atheism not to be sensible of the abuses of Gods name and Laws by others as to violate them our selves What is the language of a stupid senselesness of them but that there is no God in the world whose glory is worth a vindication and deserves our regards That we may be sensible of the unworthiness of neglecting God as our Rule and end consider 1. The Vnreasonableness of it as it concerns God 1. First T is a high contempt of God T is an inverting the order of things a making God the highest to become the lowest and self the lowest to become the highest To be guided by every base Companion some idle vanity some carnal interest is to acknowledge an excellency abounding in them which is wanting in God An equity in their orders and none in Gods precepts A goodness in their promises and a falsity in Gods As if infinite excellency were a meer vanity and to act for God were the debasement of our reason to act for self or some pitiful Creature or sordid lust were the glory and advancement of it To prefer any one sin before the honour of God is as if that sin had been our Creator and Benefactor as if it were the original cause of our being and support Do not men pay as great a homage to that as they do to God Do not their minds eagerly pursue it Are not the revolvings of it in their fancies as delightful to them as the remembrance of God to a holy Soul Do any obey the Commands of God with more readiness than they do the orders of their base affections Did Peter leap more readily into the Sea to meet his Master than many into the jaws of Hell to meet their Dalilah's How cheerfully did the Israelites part with their Ornaments for the sake of an Idol who would not have spared a moiety for the honour of their Deliverer * Exod. 32.3 All the people brake off the golden ear-rings If to make God our end is the principal duty in nature then to make ourselves or any thing else our end is the greatest vice in the rank of evils Secondly T is a contempt of God as the most amiable object God is infinitely excellent and desirable Zach. 9.17 How great is his goodness and how great is his beauty There is nothing in him but what may ravish our affections none that knows him but finds attractives to keep them with him He hath nothing in him which can be a proper object of contempt no defects or shadow of evil there is infinite excellency to charm us and infinite goodness to allure us the Author of our beings the Benefactor of our lives Why then should Man which is his Image be so base as to slight the beautiful original which stampt it on him He is the most lovely object therefore to be studied therefore to be honoured therefore to be followed In regard of his perfection he hath the highest right to our thoughts All other beings were eminently contained in his essence and were produced by his infinite power The Creature hath nothing but what it hath from God And is it not unworthy to prefer the Copy before the original to fall in love with a Picture instead of the beauty it represents The Creature which we advance to be our rule and end can no more report to us the true amiableness of God than a few Colours mixed and suted together upon a peice of cloth can the moral and intellectual loveliness of the Soul of Man To contemn God one moment is more base than if all Creatures were contemned by us for ever because the excellency of Creatures is to God like that of a drop to the Sea or a spark to the glory of unconceivable millions of Suns As much as the excellency of God is above our conceptions so much doth the debasing of him admit of unexpressible aggravations 2. Consider the ingratitude in it That we should resist that God with our hearts who made us the work of his hands and count him as nothing from whom we derive all the good that we are or have There is no contempt of Man but steps in here to aggravate our slighting of God Because there
and his Power is his Arm. Of his Infinite Vnderstanding I am to Discourse Doctrine God hath an Infinite Knowledg and Vnderstanding All Knowledg Omnipresence which before we spake of respects his Essence Omniscience respects his Understanding according to our manner of Conception This is clear in Scripture hence God is called a God of Knowledg 1 Sam. 2.3 The Lord is a God of Knowledg Heb. Knowledges in the Plural Number of all kind of Knowledg 't is spoken there to quell mans Pride in his own reason and parts what is the Knowledg of man but a spark to the whole Element of Fire a grain of Dust and worse than nothing in comparison of the Knowledg of God as his Essence is in comparison of the Essence of God All kind of Knowledg He knows what Angels know what Man knows and infinitely more he knows himself his own operations all his Creatures the notions and thoughts of them he is understanding above understanding mind above mind the mind of minds the light of lights this the Greek word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies in the Etimology of it of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to see to contemplate and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã scio The Names of God signify a nature viewing and piercing all things and the attribution of our senses to God in Scripture as Hearing and Seeing which are the Senses whereby Knowledg enters into us signifies Gods Knowledg 1. The Notion of Gods Knowledg of all things lies above the ruines of Nature it was not obliterated by the Fall of Man It was necessary offending man was to know that he had a Creator whom he had injured that he had a Judg to Try and Punish him since God thought fit to keep up the World it had been kept up to no purpose had not this notion been continued alive in the minds of men there would not have been any practice of his Laws no bar to the worst of Crimes If men had thought they had to deal with an Ignorant Deity there could be no practice of Religion Who would lift up his eyes or spread his hands towards Heaven if he imagin'd his Devotion were directed to a God as blind as the Heathens imagin'd Fortune To what boot would it be for them to make Heaven and Earth resound with their Cries if they had not thought God had an Eye to see them and an Ear to hear them And indeed the very notion of a God at the first blush speaks him a Being endued with Understanding no man can imagine a Creator void of one of the noblest Perfections belonging to those Creatures that are the Flower and Cream of his Works 2. Therefore all Nations acknowledg this as well as the Existence and Being of God * No Nation but had their Temples particular Ceremonies of Worship and presented their Sacrifices which they could not have been so vain as to do without an acknowledgment of this Attribute This notion of Gods Knowledg owed not its rise to Tradition but to natural implantation it was born and grew up with every rational Creature Though the several Nations and men of the World agreed not in one kind of Deity or in their Sentiments of his Nature or other Perfections some judging him Clothed with a fine and pure Body others judging him an uncompounded Spirit some fixing him to a seat in the Heavens others owning his Universal Presence in all parts of the World yet they all agreed in the Universality of his Knowledge and their own Consciences reflecting their Crimes unknown to any but themselves would keep this notion in some vigor whether they would or no. Now this being implanted in the minds of all men by nature cannot be false for nature imprints not in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity Nature would not pervert the reason and minds of men Universal notions of God are from Original not lapsed Nature Agamemnon Homer Il. 3. v 8. making a Covenant with Priam invocates the Suâ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and preserved in mankind in order to a restoration from a lapsed state The Heathens did acknowledg this in all the solemn Covenants solemniz'd with Oaths and the invocation of the Name of God this Attribute was suppos'd They confest Knowledg to be peculiar to the Deity Scientia Deorum vita saith Cicero Some called him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã mens mind pure understanding without any note ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the inspector of all As they called him Life because he was the Author of Life so they called him intellectus because he was the Author of all Knowledg and Understanding in his Creatures And one being askt Whether any man could be hid from God no saith he not so much as thinking Some call him the Eye of the World * Gamach in 1 Pa. Aqui. Q. 14. cap. 1. p. 119. Clem. Alexand. strom lib. 6. and the Egyptians represented God by an Eye on the top of a Scepter because God is all Eye and can be ignorant of nothing And the same Nation made Eyes and Ears of the most excellent Metals Consecrating them to God and hanging them up in the midst of their Temples in signification of Gods seeing and hearing all things hence they called God Light as well as the Scripture because all things are visible to him For the better understanding of this we will enquire 1. What kind of Knowledg or Vnderstanding there is in God 2. What God knows 3. How God knows things 4. The proof that God knows all things 5. The Vse of all to our selves I. What kind of Vnderstanding or Knowledg there is in God The Knowledg of God in Scripture hath various Names according to the various relations or objects of it In respect of present things 't is called Knowledg or Sight in respect of things past Remembrance in respect of things future or to come 't is called Fore-Knowledg or Prescience 1 Pet. 1.2 in regard of the Vniversality of the Objects it is called Omniscience in regard of the simple Vnderstanding of things 't is called Knowledg in regard of acting and modelling the ways of acting 't is called Wisdom and Prudence Eph. 1.8 He must have Knowledg otherwise he could not be Wise Wisdom is the Flower of Knowledg and Knowledg is the Root of Wisdom As to what this Knowledg is if we know what Knowledg is in man we may apprehend what it is in God removing all Imperfection from it and ascribing to him the most eminent way of understanding because we cannot comprehend God but as he is pleased to condescend to us in his own ways of Discovery that is under some way of similitude to his perfectest Creatures therefore we have a notion of God by his Understanding and Will Understanding whereby he conceives and apprehends things Will whereby he extends himself in acting according to his Wisdom and whereby he doth approve or disapprove Yet we must not measure his Understanding
Shall we take only here with a limitation as some that are no Friends to the Deity of Christ would and say God only knows the hearts of men from himself and by his own infinite vertue Why may we not take only in other places with a limitation and make nonsence of it as Psal 86.10 Thou art God alone Is it to be understood that God is God alone from himself but other Gods may be made by him and so there may be numberless infinites As God is God alone so that none can be God but himself so he alone knows all the hearts Of all the Children of men and none but he can know them this knowledg is from his nature Placaeus de deitate Christi The reason why God knows the hearts of men is rendered in the Scripture double because he created them and because he is present every where Psal 33.13 15. these two are by the Confession of Christians and Pagans universally received as the proper Characters of Divinity whereby the Deity is distinguish'd from all Creatures Now when Christ ascribes this to himself and that with such an Emphasis that nothing greater than that could be urg'd as he doth Rev. 2.23 we must conclude that he is of the same Essence with God one with him in his Nature as well as one with him in his Attributes God only knows the hearts of the Children of men there is the unity of God Christ searches the Hearts and Reins there is a distinction of Persons in an oneness of essence he knows the hearts of all men not only of those that were with him in the time of the Flesh that have been and shall be since his Ascension but of those that lived and died before his coming because he is to be the Judg of all that lived before his humiliation on earth as well as after his exaltation in Heaven It pertains to him as a Judg to know distinctly the merits of the Cause of which he is to Judg and this excellency of searching the hearts is mention'd by himself with relation to his judicial Proceeding I will give to every one of you according to your Works And tho' a Creature may know what is in a mans heart if it be revealed to him yet such a knowledg is a knowledg only by report not by inspection yet this latter is ascrib'd to Christ John 2.24.25 he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what was in man he looked into their hearts The Evangelist to allay the amazement of men at his relation of our Saviours knowledg of the inward falsity of those that made a splendid Profession of him doth not say the Father revealed it to him but intimates it to be an unseparable Property of his nature No covering was so thick as to bound his eye no pretence so glittering as to impose upon his understanding Those that made a Profession of him and could not be discerned by the eye of man from his faithfullest Attendants were in their inside known to him plainer than their outside was to others and therefore he committed not himself to them tho' they seemed to be perswaded to a real belief in his name because of the Power of his Miracles and were touched with an admiration of him as some great Prophet and perhaps declared him to be the Messiah ver 23. 4. He had a foreknowledg of the particular inclinations of men before those distinct inclinations were in actual Being in them This is plainly asserted John 6.64 but there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him When Christ assured them from the knowledg of the hearts of his followers that some of them were void of that Faith they profest The Evangelist to stop their amazement that Christ should have such a power and vertue adds that he knew from the beginning that he had not only a present knowledg but a foreknowledg of every ones inclination he knew not only now and then what was in the Hearts of his Disciples but from the beginning of any ones giving up their Names to him he knew whether it were a pretence or sincere he knew who should betray him and there was no mans inward affection but was foreseen by him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã From the beginning whether we understand it from the beginning of the World as when Christ saith concerning Divorces from the beginning it was not so that is from the beginning of the World from the beginning of the Law of Nature or from the beginning of their attending him as it is taken Luke 1.2 he had a certain prescience of the inward dispositions of mens hearts and their succeeding sentiments he foreknew the treacherous heart of Judas in the midst of his splendid Profession and discern'd his resolution in the root and his thought in the confus'd Chaos of his natural corruption he knew how it would spring up before it did spring up before Judas had any distinct and formal conception of it himself or before there was any actual preparation to a resolve Peters denyal was not unknown to him when Peter had a present resolution and no question spake it in the present sincerity of his Soul never to forsake him he foreknew what would be the result of that Poyson which lurkt in Peters nature before Peter himself imagin'd any thing of it he discern'd Peters Apostatizing heart when Peter resolved the contrary our Saviours Prediction was accomplisht and Peters valiant resolution languisht into Cowardice Shall we then conclude our Blessed Saviour a Creature who perfectly and only knew the Father who knew all Creatures who had all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg who knew the inward motions of mens hearts by his own Vertue and had not only a present Knowledg but a Prescience of them Inform. 2. The second Instruction from this position That God hath an infinite Knowledg and Understanding Then there is a Providence exercis'd by God in the World and that about every thing As Providence infers Omniscience as the guide of it so Omniscience infers Providence as the end of it What Exercise would there be of this Attribute but in the Government of the World To this this infinite Perfection refers Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the heart I try the Reins to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings He searches the heart to reward he rewards every man according to the rewardableness of his actions his Government therefore extends to every man in the World there is no heart but he searches therefore no heart but he governs to what purpose else would be this Knowledg of all his Creatures for a meer Contemplation of them no What pleasure can that be to God who knows himself who is infinitely more excellent than all his Creatures Doth he know them to neglect all care
foundation remains tho' it hath put on variety of forms the Body of Abel the first man that died nor the body of Adam are not to this day reduc'd to nothing Indeed the quantity and the quality of those bodies have been lost by various changes they have past through since their dissolution but the matter or substance of them remains intire and is not capable to be destroy'd by all those transforming alterations in so long a revolution of Time The body of a man in his infancy and his old Age if it were Methuselah's is the same in the foundation in those multitude of years tho' the quantity of it be alter'd the quality different tho' the colour and other things be changed in it the matter of this body remains the same among all the alterations after Death And can it be so mixed with other Natures and Creatures as that it is past finding out by an Infinite Vnderstanding Can any particle of this matter escape the eye of him that makes and beholds all those various alterations and where every mite of the substance of those bodies is particularly lodged so as that he cannot compact it together again for a habitation of that Soul that many a year before fled from it Daillè Serm. 15. p. 21. 22 23 24. Since the Knowledg of God is infinite and his Providence extensive over the least as well as the greatest parts of the World he must needs know the least as well as the greatest of his Creatures in their Beginning Progress and Dissolution all the forms through which the Bodies of all Creatures roul the particular instants of time and the particular place when and where those changes are made they are all present with him and therefore when the Revolution of time allotted by him for the re-union of Souls and Deceased Bodies is come it cannot be doubted but out of the Treasures of his Knowledg he can call forth every part of the matter of the Bodies of men from the first to the last man that expired and strip it of all those forms and figures which it shall then have to compact it to be a lodging for that Soul which before it entertain'd and tho' the Bodies of men have been devour'd by Wild Beasts in the Earth and Fish in the Sea and been lodg'd in the Stomachs of Barbarous Men-eaters the matter is not lost There is but little of the Food we take that is turned into the substance of our own bodies that which is not proper for nourishment which is the greatest part is separated and concocted and rejected whatsoever objections are made are answered by this Attribute Nothing hinders a God of Infinite Knowledg from discerning every particle of the matter wheresoever it is dispos'd and since he hath an eye to discern and a hand to recollect and unite what difficulty is there in believing this Article of the Christian Faith he that questions this reveal'd Truth of the Resurrection of the Body must question Gods Omniscience as well as his Omnipotence and Power 5. What semblance of reason is there to expect a justification in the sight of God by any thing in our selves Is there any action done by any of us but upon a scrutiny we may find flaws and deficiency in it What then shall not this Perfection of God discern them the motes that escape our eyes cannot escape his 1 John 3.20 God is greater than our hearts and knows all things so that it is in vain for any man to flatter himself with the rectitude of any work or enter into any debate with him who can bring a Thousand Articles against us out of his own Infinite Records unknown to us and unanswerable by us If Conscience a Representative or Counterpart of Gods Omniscience in our own Bosoms find nothing done by us but in a Copy short of the Original and beholds if not blurs yet Imperfections in the best actions God must much more discern them we never knew a Copy equally exact with the Original If our own Conscience be as a Thousand Witnesses the Knowledg of God is as Millions of Witnesses against us If our Corruption be so great and our Holiness so low in our own eyes how much greater must the one and how much meaner must the other appear in the eyes of God God hath an unerring Eye to see as well as an unspotted Holiness to hate and an unbribable Justice to punish he wants no more Understanding to know the shortness of our actions than he doth Holiness to enact and Power to execute his Laws Nay suppose we could recollect many actions wherein there were no spot visible to us the consideration of this Attribute should scare us from resting upon any or all of them since it is the Lord that by a piercing eye sees and judges according to the heart and not according to appearance The least crookedness of a Stick not sensible to an acute eye yet will appear when laid to the Line and the impurity of a Counterfeit Metal be manifest when applyed to the Touchstone so will the best action of any meer man in the World when it comes to be measur'd in Gods Knowledg by the strait Line of his Law Let every man therefore as Paul though he should know nothing by himself think not himself therefore justified Since it is the Lord who is of an infinite Understanding that Judgeth 1 Cor. 4.4 A man may be justified in his own sight but not any living man can be justified in the sight of God Psal 143.2 in his Sight whose eye pierceth into our unknown secrets and frames It was therefore well answered of a good man upon his Death-bed being ask't What he was afraid of I have laboured saith he with all my strength to observe the commands of God but since I am a man I am ignorant whether my works are acceptable to God since God Judges in one manner and I in another manner Let the consideration therefore of this Attribute make us join with Job in his Resolution Job 9.21 tho' we were perfect yet would we not know our own Souls I would not stand up to Plead any of my vertues before God Let us therefore look after another Righteousness wherein the exact eye of the Divine Omniscience we are sure can discern no stain or crookedness 6. What honourable and adoring Thoughts ought we to have of God for this Perfection Do we not honour a man that is able to Predict Do we not think it a great part of Wisdom Have not all Nations regarded such a faculty as a character and a mark of Divinity There is something more ravishing in the knowledg of future things both to the person that knows them and the person that hears them than there is in any other kind of knowledg whence the greatest Prophets have been accounted in the greatest veneration and men have thought it a way to glory to Divine and Predict Hence it was that the Devils
made every thing beautiful in his time As their Being was a fruit of Divine Power so their Order is a fruit of Divine wisdom All Creatures are as Members in the great Body of the World proportion'd to one another and contributing to the beauty of the whole * Amyraut moral Vol. 1. p. 257. so that if the particular forms of every thing the union of all for the Composition of the World and the Laws which are established in the Order of Nature for its conservation be considered it would ravish us with an admiration of God All the Creatures are as so many Pictures or Statues exactly fram'd by line Psal 19.4 Their Line is gone through all the Earth Their Line a measuring Line or a Carpenters Rule whereby he proportions several pieces to be exactly linkt and coupled together Their Line that is their harmonious proportion and the instruction from it is gone forth through all the Earth Upon the account of this harmony some of the ancient Heathens framed the Images of their Gods with Musical Instruments in their hands signifying thaâ God wrought all things in a due proportion â Mountag against Selden p. 281. Plutarch calls God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he saith nothing was made without musick The Heavens speak this wisdom in their Order The Revolutions of the Sun and Moon determine the Seasons of the Year and make Day and Night in an orderly Succession The Stars beautifie the Heavens and influence the Earth and keep their Courses Judges 5.20 They keep their Stations without interfering with one another and though they have rould about for so many Ages they observe their distinct Laws and in the variety of their Motions have not disturb'd one anothers Functions â Charlton Light of Nature p. 57. The Sun is set as the heart in the midst of this great Body to afford warmth to all Had it been set lower it had long since turned the Earth into flame and ashes Had it been placed higher the Earth would have wanted the nourishment and refreshment necessary for it Too much nearness had ruin'd the Earth by parching heat and too great a distance had destroy'd the Earth by starving it with cold The Sun hath also its appointed Motion had it been fixed without motion half of the Earth had been unprofitable there had been a perpetual darkness in a moiety of it nothing had been produced for nourishment and so it had been rendred uninhabitable But now by this motion it visits all the Climates of the World runs its Circuit so that nothing is hid from the heat thereof Psal 19.6 It imparts its vertue to every Corner of the World in its daily and yearly visits Had it been fixed the Fruits of the Earth under it had been parch't and destroy'd before their Maturity but all those Inconveniencies are provided against by the perpetual Motion of the Sun This Motion is orderly * Daille mâl part 1 p. 483. It makes its daily Course from East to West its yeary Motion from North to South It goes to the North till it comes to the Point God hath set it and then turns back to the South and gains some point every day It never riseth nor sets in the same place one day where it did the day before The World is never without its light some see it Rising the same moment we see its Setting The Earth also speaks the Divine wisdom 't is the Pavement of the World as the Heaven is the Ceiling of Fretwork â Amyraut ââdicâin p. 9. T is placed lowermost as being the heaviest Body and sit to receive the weightiest Matter and provided as an Habitation proper for those Creatures which derive the Matter of their Bodies from it and partake of its Earthy Nature and garnisht with other Creatures for the profit and pleasure of man The Sea also speaks the same Divine Wisdom He strengthned the Fountains of the Deep and gave the Sea a decree that it should not pass his Command Prov. 8.28 29. He hath given it certain Bounds that it should not overflow the Earth Job 28.11 It contains it self in the situation wherein God hath placed it and doth not transgress its bounds What if some part of a Country a little Spot hath been overflowed by it and groaned under its Waves yet for the main it retains the same Chanels wherein it was at first lodged All Creatures are cloathed with an outward Beauty and endowed with an inward Harmony there is an agreement in all parts of this great Body every one is beautiful and orderly but the Beauty of the World results from all of them dispos'd and linkt together 3. This Wisdom is seen in the fitness of every thing for its end and the usefulness of it Divine Wisdom is more illustrious in the fitness and usefulness of this great variety than in the Composure of their distinct parts As the Artificers Skill is more eminent in fitting the Wheels and setting them in order for their due motion than in the external Fabrick of the Materials which compose the Clock After the most diligent inspection there can be found nothing in the Creation unprofitable nothing but is capable of some Service either for the support of our Bodies recreation of our Senses or Moral Instruction of our Minds Not the least Creature but is formed and shap'd and furnish'd with Members and Parts in a due proportion for its end and service in the World nothing is superfluous nothing defective The Earth is fitted in its parts * Amyrant sur diverses Text. p. 127. the Valleys are appointed for Granaries the Mountains to shadow them from the scorching heat of the Sun the Rivers like veins carry refreshment to every Member of this Body Plants Trees thrive on the face of the Earth and Metals are ingendred in the Bowels of it for Materials for Building and other uses for the service of Man There he causes the Grass to grow for the Cattle and Herb for the Service of Man that he may bring forth food out of the Earth Psal 104.14 The Sea is fitted for use 't is a Fish-pond for the Nourishment of Man a Boundary for the dividing of Lands and several Dominions It joyns together Nations far distant A great Vessel for Commerce Psal 104.26 There goe the Ships It affords Vapours to the Clouds wherewith to water the Earth which the Sun draws up separating the finer from the salter parts that the Earth may be fruitful without being burthened with barrenness by the salt The Sea hath also its Salt its ebbs and flouds the one as Brine the other as Motion to preserve it from Putrification that it may not be Contagious to the rest of the World Showers are appointed to refresh the Bodies of living Creatures to open the Womb of the Earth and water the Ground to make it fruitful Psal 104.3 The Clouds therefore are called the Chariots of God he rides in them in the manifestation
the Earth So Colours are made for the pleasure of the Eye Sounds for the delight of the Ear Light is formed whereby the Eye may see the one and Air to convey the Species of Colours to the Eye and Sound to the Ear all things are like the Wheels of a Watch compacted And though many of the Creatures be endowed with contrary qualities yet they are joyned in a Marriage-knot for the Publick Security and Subserviency to the Preservation and Order of the Universe As the variety of Strings upon an Instrument sending forth various and distinct sounds are temper'd together for the framing excellent and delightful Airs In this universal conspiring of the Creatures together to one end is the wisdom of the Creator apparent in tuning so many Contraries as the Elements are and preserving them in their Order which if once broken the whole Frame of Nature would crack and fall in pieces all are so interwoven and inlaid together by the Divine Workmanship as to make up one intire Beauty in the whole Fabrick As every part in the Body of Man hath a distinct Comliness yet there is besides the Beauty of the whole that results from the union of divers parts exactly fashion'd to one another and linkt together By the way Use How much may we see of the Perfection of God in every thing that presents it self to our eyes And how should we be convinc'd of our unworthy neglect of ascending to him with reverent and admiring thoughts upon the prospect of the Creatures What dull Scholars are we when every Creature is our Teacher every part of the Creature a lively Instruction Those things that we tread under our feet if used by us according to the full design of their Creation would afford rich matter not only for our heads but our hearts As Grace doth not destroy Nature but elevate it so neither should the fresher and fuller discoveries of Divine Wisdom in Redemption deface all our thoughts of his Wisdom in Creation Though the greater Light of the Sun obscures the lesser sparkling of the Stars yet it gives way in the Night to the discovery of them that God may be seen known and considered in all his Works of Wonder and Miracles of Nature No part of Scripture is more spiritual than the Psalms none filled with clearer Discoveries of Christ in the Old Testament yet how often do the Penmen consider the Creation of God and find their Meditations on him to be sweet as consider'd in his Works Psal 104.34 My meditation of him shall be sweet When why after a short History of the Goodness and Wisdom of God in the Frame of the World and the Species of the Creatures 2. The wisdom of God appears in his Government of his Creatures The regular motion of the Creatures speaks for this Perfection as well as the exact Composition of them If the exquisiteness of the Frame conducts us to the skill of the Contriver the exactness of their Order according to his Will and Law speaks no less the wisdom of the Governour It cannot be thought that a rash and irrational Power presides over a World so well disposed The disposition of things hath no less characters of Skill than the Creation of them No man can hear an excellent Lesson upon a Lute but must presently reflect upon the Art of the Person that touches it The Prudence of man appears in wrapping up the Concerns of a Kingdom in his mind for the well-ordering of it and shall not the wisdom of God shine forth as he is the Director of the World I shall omit his Government of Inanimate Creatures and confine the Discourse to his Government of Man as Rational as Sinful as Restor'd 1. In his Government of man as a Rational Creature 1. In the Law he gives to man Wisdom framed it though Will enacted it The will of God is the Rule of Righteousness to us but the wisdom of God is the Foundation of that Rule of Righteousness which he prescribes us * Castellio Dialog l. 4. p. 46. The Composure of a Musician is the Rule of singing to his Scholars yet the Consent and Harmony in that Composure derives not it self from his will but from his understanding he would not be a Musician if his Composures were contrary to the Rules of true Harmony So the Laws of men are compos'd by wisdom though they are enforc'd by will and authority The Moral Law which was the Law of Nature the Law imprinted upon Adam is so framed as to secure the Rights of God as Supream and the Rights of Men in their distinctions of Superiority and Equality 'T is therefore called holy and good Rom. 7.12 holy as it prescribes our duty to God in his worship good as it regulates the offices of human life and preserves the common interest of Mankind 1. 'T is suted to the Nature of Man As God hath given a Law of Nature a fixed Order to Inanimate Creatures so he hath given a Law of Reason to Rational Creatures Other Creatures are not capable of a Law differencing good and evil because they are destitute of Faculties and Capacities to make distinction between them It had not been agreeable to the wisdom of God to propose any Moral Law to them who had neither understanding to discern nor will to chuse 'T is therefore to be observed that whilst Christ exhorted others to the embracing his Doctrine yet he exhorted not little Children though he took them in his Arms because though they had Faculties yet they were not come to such a Maturity as to be capable of a Rational Instruction But there was a necessity for some Command for the government of man since God had made him a Rational Creature it was not agreeable to his wisdom to govern him as a Brute but as a Rational Creature capable of knowing his Precepts and voluntarily walking in them and without a Law he had not been capable of any exercise of his Reason in Services respecting God He therefore gives him a Law with a Covenant annext to it whereby man is obliged to Obedience and secured of a Reward This was enforced with severe Penalties Death with all the Horrours attending it to deterr him from Transgression Gen. 2.17 wherein is implied a Promise of continuance of Life and all its Felicities to allure him to a mindfulness of his Obligation So perfect a Hedge did Divine Wisdom set about him to keep him within the bounds of that Obedience which was both his Debt and Security that wheresoever he looked he saw either something to invite him or something to drive him to the payment of his Duty and perseverance in it Thus the Law was exactly framed to the Nature of man man had twisted in him a desire of Happiness the Promise was suted to cherish this natural Desire He had also the Passion of Fear the proper Object of this was any thing destructive to his Being Nature and Felicity this the threatning met
with In the whole it was accommodated to man as rational Precepts to the Law in his mind Promises to the natural Appetite Threatnings to the most prevailing Affection and to the implanted Desires of preserving both his Being and Happiness in that Being These were rational Motives fitted to the nature of Adam which was above the life God had given Plants and the sense he had given Animals The Command given man in Innocence was suted to his strength and power God gave him not any Command but what he had ability to observe and Since we want not power to forbear an Apple in our corrupted and impotent State he wanted not strength in his state of Integrity The Wisdom of God Commanded nothing but what was very easy to be observed by him and inferior to his natural Ability It had been both unjust and unwise to have commanded him to fly up to the Sun when he had not Wings or stop the Course of the Sea when he had not strength 2. 'T is suted to the happiness and benefit of man God's Laws are not an act of meer Authority respecting his own Glory but of wisdom and goodness respecting mans Benefit They are perfective of mans Nature conferring a Wisdom upon him rejoycing his Heart enlightning his eyes Psal 19.7 8. affording him both a knowledge of God and of himself To be without a Law is for man to be as Beasts without Justice and without Religion Other things are for the good of the Body but the Laws of God for the good of the Soul the more perfect the Law the greater the benefit The Laws given to the Iews were the honour and excellency of that Nation Deut. 1.8 What Nation is there so great that hath statutes and Judgments so righteous They were made States-men in the Judicial Law Ecclesiasticks in the Ceremonial honest men in the Second Table and Divine in the First All his Laws are suted to the true satisfaction of man and the good of Human Society Had God framed a Law only for one Nation there would have been the Characters of a particular Wisdom but now an universal wisdom appears in accommodating his Law not only to this or that particular Society or Corporation of men but to the benefit of all mankind in the variety of Climates and Countries wherein they live Every thing that is disturbing to Human Society is provided agaânst nothing is enjoin'd but what is sweet rational and useful It orders us not to attempt any thing against the life of our Neighbour the honour of his Bed propriety in his Goods and the clearness of his Reputation and if well observed would alter the face of the World and make it look with another hue The World would be alter'd from a brutish to a human World It would chânge Lions and Wolves men of Lion-like and Wolvish disposition into reason and sweetness And because the whole Law is sum'd up in love it obligeth us to endeavour the preservation of one anothers Beings the favouring of one anothers Interests and increasing the Goods as much as Iustice will permit and keeping up one anothers Credits because love which is the Soul of the Law is not shewn by a cessation from action but signifies an ardor upon all occasions in doing good I say were this Law well observed the World would be another thing than it is It would become a Religious Fraternity the Voice of Enmity and the Noise of Groans and Cursings would not be heard in our Streets Peace would be in all Borders plenty of Charity in the midst of Cities and Countries Joy and singing would sound in all habitations Mans advantage was design'd in Gods Laws and doth naturally result from the observance of them God so ordered them by his Wisdom that the obedience of man should draw forth his Goodness and prevent those smarting Judgments which were necessary to reduce the Creature to order that would not voluntarily continue in the order God had appointed The Laws of men are often unjust oppressive cruel sometimes against the Law of nature But an universal wisdom and righteousness glitters in the Divine Law There is nothing in it but what is worthy of God and useful for the Creature so that we may well say with Job Who teaches like God Job 36.22 or as some render it who is a law-giver like God Who can say to him thou hast wrought iniquity or folly among men His Precepts were framed for the preservation of man in that rectitude wherein he was Created in that likeness to God wherein he was first made that there might be a correspondence between the Integrity of the Creature and the Goodness of his Creator by the Obedience of man that man might exercise his Faculties in Operations worthy of him and beneficial to the World 3. The Wisdom of God is seen in suting to Laws to the Consciences as well as the Interest of all Mankind Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law so great an affinity there is between the wise Law and the Reason of man There is a natural Beauty emerging from them and darting upon the Reasons and Consciences of men which dictates to them that this Law is worthy to be observed in it self The two main Principles of the Law the Love and worship of God and doing as we would be done by have an indelible impression in the Consciences of all men in regard of the Principle though they are not sutably exprest in the Practise Were there no Law outwardly publisht yet every mans Conscience would dictate to him that God was to be acknowledged worshipped loved as naturally as his Reason would acquaint him that there was such a Being as God This sutableness of them to the Consciences of men is manifest in that the Laws of the best governed Nations among the Heathen have had an agreement with them Nothing can be more exactly composed according to the Rules of right and exact Reason than this no man but approves of something in it yea of the whole when he exerciseth that dimm Reason which he hath Suppose any man not an absolute Atheist he cannot but acknowledge the reasonableness of worshipping God Grant him to be a Spirit and it will presently appear absurd to represent him by any Corporeal Image and derogate from his Excellency by so mean a resemblance with the same easiness he will grant a reverence due to the Name of God that we must not serve our turn of him by calling him to witness to a lye in a solemn Oath That as Worship is due to him so that some stated time is a circumstance necessary to the performance of that Worship And as to the Second Table will any man in his right reason quarrel with that Command that engageth his Inferiors to honour him that secures his Being from a violent murder and his goods from unjust rapine and though by the fury of his Lusts he break the Laws of Wedlock himself
yet he cannot but approve of that Law as it prohibits every man from doing him the like injury and disgrace The sutableness of the Law to the Consciences of men is further evidenced by those furious reflections and strong alarms of Conscience upon a transgression of it and that in all parts of the World more or less in all men So exactly hath Divine wisdom fitted the Law to the Reason and Consciences of men as one Tally to another Indeed without such an agreement no mans Conscience could have any ground for a Hue and Cry nor need any man be startled with the Records of it This manifests the wisdom of God in framing his Law so that the Reasons and consciences of all men do one time or other subscribe to it What Governour in the World is able to make any Law distinct from this revealed by God that shall reach all places all persons all Hearts We may add to this the extent of his Commands in ordering goodness at the root not only in action but affection not only in the motion of the Members but the disposition of the Soul which suting a Law to the inward frame of man is quite out of the compass of the wisdom of any Creature 4. His Wisdom is seen in the incouragements he gives for the studying and observing his will Psal 19.11 In keeping thy Commandments there is great reward The variety of them there is not any particular Genius in man but may find something sutable to win upon him in the revealed will of God There is a strain of Reason to satisfy the Rational of Eloquence to gratify the the Fanciful of Interest to allure the Selfish of Terror to startle the Obstinate As a skilful Angler stores himself with Baits according to the Appetites of the sorts of fish he intends to catch so in the Word of God there are varieties of Baits according to the varieties of the Inclinations of men Threatnings to work upon Fear Promises to work upon Love Examples of holy men set out for Imitation and those plainly neither his Threatnings nor his Promises are dark as the Heathen Oracles but peremptory as becomes a Soveraign Law giver and plain as was necessary for the understanding of a Creature As he deals graciously with men in exhorting and incouraging them so he deals wisely herein by taking away all Excuse from them if they ruine the interest of their Souls by denying Obedience to their Soveraign Again the Rewards God proposeth are accommodated not to the Brutish parts of man his Carnal Sense and Fleshly Appetite but to the Capacity of a Spiritual Soul which admits only of Spiritual Gratifications and cannot in its own Nature without a sordid subjection to the Humors of the Body be moved by Sensual Proposals God backs his Precepts with that which the Nature of Man longed for and with Spiritual Delights which can only satisfy a rational Appetite And thereby did as well gratifie the noblest Desires in man as Oblige him to the noblest Service and Work * Amytaut Indeed Vertue and Holiness being perfectly amiable ought chiefly to affect our Understandings and by them draw our Wills to the esteem and pursuit of them But since the desire of Happiness is inseparable from the Nature of Man as impossible to be dis-join'd as an Inclination to descend to be severed from heavy Bodies or an instinct to ascend from Light and A ry of Substances God serves himself of the Inclination of our Natures to happiness to engender in us an esteem and affection to the Holiness he doth require He proposeth the enjoyment of a supernatural Good and everlasting Glory as a Bait to that insatiable longing our Natures have for Happiness to receive the impression of Holiness into our Souls And besides he doth proportion Rewards according to the degrees of mens Industry Labour and Zeal for him and weighs out a Recompence not only suted to but above the service He that improves five Talents is to be ruler over five Cities that is a greater proportion of Honour and Glory than another Luke 19.17.18 As a wise Father excites the affection of his Children to things worthy of Praise by varieties of Recompenses according to their several Actions And it was the Wisdom of the Steward in the Judgment of our Saviour to give every one the portion that belonged to him Luke 12.42 There is no part of the Word wherein we meet not with the will and Wisdom of God varieties of Duties and varieties of Encouragement mingled together 5. The Wisdom of God is seen In fitting the Revelations of his will to after-times and for the preventing of the foreseen Corruptions of men The whole Revelation of the mind of God is stored with Wisdom in the words connexion sence It looks backwards to past and forwards to Ages to come A hidden wisdom lies in the bowels of it like Gold in a Mine The Old testament was so composed as to fortify the New when God should bring it to light The Foundations of the Gopel were laid in the Law The Predictions of the Prophets and figures of the Law were so wisely framed and laid down in such clear expressions as to be Proofs of the Authority of the New Testament and Convictions of Jesus his being the Messiah Luke 24.14 Things concerning Christ were written in Moses the Prophets and Psalms and do to this day stare the Jews so in the face that they are fain to invent absurd and Nonsensical Interpretations to excuse their Unbelief and continue themselves in their obstinate Blindness And in pursuance of the efficacy of those Predictions it was a part of the Wisdom of God to bring forth the Translation of the Old Testament by the means Ptolomy King of Egypt some hundreds of years before the coming of Christ into the Greek Language the Tongue then most known in the World And why to prepare the Gentiles by the reading of it for that gracious call he intended them and for the entertainment of the Gospel which some few years after was to be publisht among them that by reading the Predictions so long before made they might more readily receive the accomplishment of them in their due time The Scripture is written in such a manner as to obviate Errors foreseen by God to enter into the Church It may be wondred why the Vniversal Particle should be inserted by Christ in the giving the Cup in the Supper which was not in the distributing the Bread Mat. 26 27. Drink ye all of it Not at the distributing the Bread Eat you all of it And Mark in his Relation tels us They all drank of it Mark 11.23 The Church of Rome hath been the occasion of discovering to us the Wisdom of our Saviour in in s erting that Particle all since they were so bold to exclude the Communicants from the Cup by a trick of Concomitancy Christ foresaw the Error and therefore put in a little word to obviate a
great Invasion And the spirit of God hath particularly left upon record that Particle as we may reasonably suppose to such a purpose And so in the description of the blessed Virgin Luke 1.27 There is nothing of her Holiness mentioned which is with much diligence recorded of Elizabeth Vers 6. Righteous walking in all the commandments of God blameless Probably to prevent the superstition which God foresaw would arise in the World And we do not find more undervaluing speeches uttered by Christ to any of his Disciples in the exercise of his Office than to her except to Peter As when she acquainted him with the want of Wine at the Marriage in Cana she receives a slighting answer Woman what have I to do with thee John 2.4 And when one was admiring the blessedness of her that bare him he turns the Discourse another way to pronounce a blessedness rather belonging to them that hear the Word of God and keep it Luke 11.27 28. in a mighty Wisdom to Antidote his people against any conceit of the prevalency of the Virgin over him in Heaven in the Exercise of his Mediatory Office 2. As his Wisdom appears in his Government by his Laws so it appears in the various inclinations and conditions of Men. As there is a distinction of several Creatures and several qualities in them for the Common good of the World so among men there are several inclinations and several Abilities as Donatives from God for the Common advantage of Human Society As several Chanels cut out from the same River run several waies and refresh several Soils one Man is qualified for one Employment another marked out by God for a different Work yet all of them fruitful to bring in a Revenue of Glory to God and a harvest of Profit to the rest of Mankind How unusefull would the Body be if it had but one Member 1 Cor. 12.19 How unprovided would a House be if it had not Vessels of Dishonour as well as of Honour The Corporation of Mankind would be as much a Chaos as the Matter of the Heavens and the Earth was before it was distinguisht by several forms breathed into it at the Creation Some are inspired with a particular Genius for one Art some for another Every man hath a distinct Talent If all were Husband-men where would be the Instruments to Plow and Reap If all were Artificers where would they have Corn to nourish themselves All men are like Vessels and Parts in the Body design'd for distinct Offices and Functions for the good of the whole and mutually return an advantage to one another As the variety of Gifts in the Church is a fruit of the Wisdom of God for the preservation and increase of the Church so the variety of Inclinations and Employments in the World is a fruit of the Wisdom of God for the preservation and subsistence of the World by mutual Commerce What the Apostle largely discourseth of the former in 1 Cor. 12. may be applied to the other The various Conditions of men is also a fruit of Divine Wisdom Some are Rich and some Poor the Rich have as much need of the Poor as the Poor have of the Rich If the Poor depend upon the Rich for their livelyhood the Rich depend upon the Poor for their Conveniencies Many Arts would not be learn'd by men if Poverty did not oblige them to it and many would faint in the learning of them if they were not thereunto encouraged by the Rich. The Poor labour for the Rich as the Earth sends Vapours into the vaster and fuller Air and the Rich return advantages again to the Poor as the Clouds do the Vapours in Rain upon the Earth As Meat would not afford a nourishing Juyce without Bread and Bread without other Food would immoderately fill the Stomach and not be well digested so the Rich would be unprofitable in the Common-wealth without the Poor and the Poor would be burthensom to a Common-wealth without the Rich The Poor could not be easily govern'd without the Rich nor the Rich sufficiently and conveniently provided for without the Poor If all were Rich there would be no Objects for the exercise of a Noble part of Charity If all were Poor there were no Matter for the exercise of it Thus the Divine Wisdom planted various Inclinations and diversified the Conditions of Men for the publick advantages of the World 2. Gods Wisdom appears in the government of Men as Fallen and Sinful or in the government of Sin After the Law of God was broke and Sin invaded and conquer'd the World Divine Wisdom had another Scene to act in and other Methods of Government were necessary The Wisdom of God is then seen in ordering those Jarring Discords drawing Good out of Evil and Honour to himself out of that which in its own Nature tended to the supplanting of his Glory God being a Soveraign Good would not suffer so great an Evil to enter but to serve himsâlf of it for some greater End for all his Thoughts are full of Goodness and Wisdom Now though the Permission of Sin be an Act of his Soveraignty and the Punishment of Sin be an Act of his Justice yet the Ordination of Sin to good is an Act of his Wisdom whereby he doth dispose the Evil over-rules the Malice and orders the Events of it to his own Purposes Sin in it self is a Disorder and therefore God doth not permit Sin for it self for in its own Nature it hath nothing of Amiableness but he wills it for some Righteous End which belongs to the manifestation of his Glory which is his aim in all the Acts of his Will He wills it not as Sin but as his Wisdom can order it to some greater Good than was before in the World and make it contribute to the beauty of the Order he intends As a dark Shadow is not delightful and pleasant in it self nor is Drawn by a Painter for any Amiableness there is in the Shadow it self but as it serves to set forth that Beauty which is the main design of his Art so the glorious Effects which arise from the Entrance of Sin into the World are not from the Creatures Evil but the Depths of Divine Wisdom Particularly 1. Gods Wisdom is seen in the bounding of Sin As it is said of the Wrath of Man it shall praise him and the remainder of Wrath God doth restrain Psal 76.10 He sets limits to the boyling Corruption of the Heart as he doth to the boisterous Waves of of the Sea Hitherto shalt thou go and no further As God is the Rector of the World he doth so restrain Sin so temper and direct it as that Human Society is preserved which else would be overflown with a Deluge of Wickedness and Ruine would be brought upon all Communities The World would be a Shambles a Brothel-house if God by his Wisdom and Goodness did not set bars to that Wickedness which is in the Hearts of Men The whole Earth
Man if he stand thy Bounty will be eminent yet there is no room for Mercy to act unless by the Commission of sin he exposeth himself to Misery and if sin enter into another World I have little hopes to be heard then if I am rejected now Worlds will be perpetually created by Goodness Wisdom and Power Sin entring into these Worlds will be perpetually punished by Justice and Mercy which is a Perfection of thy Nature will for ever be commanded silence and lye wrapt up in an eternal Darkness Take occasion now therefore to expose me to the knowledge of thy Creature since without Misery Mercy can never set foot into the World Mercy pleads if man be ruined the Creation is in vain Justice pleads if man be not sentenced the Law is in vain Truth backs Justice and Grace abets Mercy What shall be done in this seeming Contradiction Mercy is not manifested if man be not pardoned Justice will complain if man be not punished 3. An expedient is found out by the wisdom of God to answer these Demands and adjust the Differences between them The wisdom of God answers I will satisfie your Pleas. The Pleas of Justice shall be satisfied in punishing and the Pleas of Mercy shall be received in pardoning Justice shall not complain for want of Punishment nor Mercy for want of Compassion I will have an infinite Sacrifice to content Justice and the Vertue and Fruit of that Sacrifice shall delight Mercy Here shall Justice have punishment to accept and Mercy shall have Pardon to bestow The Rights of both are preserved and the Demands of both amicably accorded in punishment and pardon by transferring the punishment of our Crimes upon a Surety exacting a Recompence from his Blood by Justice and conferring life and salvation upon us by Mercy without the expence of one drop of our own Thus is Justice satisfied in its Severities and Mercy in its Indulgences The riches of Grace are twisted with the terrors of Wrath. The bowels of Mercy are wound about the flaming Sword of Justice and the Sword of Justice protects and secures the bowels of Mercy Thus is God righteous without being cruel and merciful without being unjust his Righteousness inviolable and the World recoverable Thus is a resplendent Mercy brought forth in the midst of all the Curses Confusions and Wrath threatned to the Offender This is the admirable temperament found out by the wisdom of God His Justice is honoured in the Sufferings of Man's Surety and his Mercy is honoured in the application of the Propitiation to the Offender Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Had we in our Persons been Sacrifices to Justice Mercy had for ever been unknown had we been solely fostered by Mercy Justice had for ever been secluded had we being guilty been absolved Mercy might have rejoyced and Justice might have complained had we been solely punished Justice would have triumphed and Mercy grieved But by this medium of Redemption neither hath ground of Complaint Justice hath nothing to charge when the Punishment is inflicted Mercy hath whereof to boast when the Surety is accepted The Debt of the Sinner is transferred upon the Surety that the Merit of the Surety may be conferred upon the Sinner so that God now deals with our sins in a way of consuming Justice and with our Persons in a way of relieving Mercy 'T is highly better and more glorious than if the Claim of one had been granted with the exclusion of the Demand of the other It had then been either an unrighteous Mercy or a merciless Justice 'T is now a righteous Mercy and a merciful Justice 2. The Wisdom of God appears in the Subject or Person wherein these were accorded The second Person in the blessed Trinity There was a congruity in the Sons undertaking and effecting it rather than any other Person according to the order of the Persons and the several functions of the Persons as represented in Scripture The Father after Creation is the Law-giver and presents man with the Image of his own Holiness and the way to his Creatures happiness But after the Fall man was too impotent to perform the Law and too polluted to enjoy a Felicity Redemption was then necessary not that it was necessary for God to redeem man but it was necessary for man's happiness that he should be recovered To this the second Person is appointed that by Communion with him man might derive a happiness and be brought again to God But since man was blind in his Vnderstanding and an Enemy in his will to God there must be the exerting of a Vertue to enlighten his mind and bend his Will to understand and accept of this Redemption And this work is assigned to the third Person the Holy Ghost 1. It was not congruous that the Father should assume Human Nature and suffer in it for the Redemption of man He was first in order he was the Law-giver and therefore to be the Judge As Lawgiver it was not convenient he should stand in the stead of the Law-breaker and as Judge it was as little convenient he should be reputed a Malefactor That he who had made a Law against sin denounced a Penalty upon the commission of sin and whose part it was actually to punish the sinner should become sin for the wilful Transgressor of his Law He being the Rector how could he be an Advocate and Intercessor to himself How could he be the Judge and the Sacrifice A Judge and yet a Mediator to himself If he had been the Sacrifice there must be some Person to examine the validity of it and pronounce the Sentence of acceptance Was it agreeable that the Son should sit upon a Throne of Judgment and the Father stand at the Bar and be responsible to the Son That the Son should be in the place of a Governour and the Father in the place of the Criminal That the Father should be bruised * Isa 53.10 by the Son as the Son was by the Father â Zach. 13 70. that the Son should awaken a Sword against the Father as the Father did against the Son that the Father should be sent by the Son as the Son was by the Father * Gal. 4.4 The order of the Persons in the blessed Trinity had been inverted and disturbed Had the Father been sent he had not been first in order the Sender is before the Person sent As the Father begets and the Son is begotten Joh. 1.14 so the Father sends and the Son is sent He whose order is to send cannot properly send himself 2. Nor was it congruous that the Spirit should he sent upon this Affair If the Holy Ghost had been sent to redeem us and the Son to apply
derive all good to us Had he not been Man we had had no share or part in him A Satisfaction by him had not been imputed to us If he were not God he could not communicate to us Divine Graces and Eternal Happiness he could not have had power to convey so great a good to us had he been only Man and he could not have done it according to the Rule of inflexible righteousness had he been only God As Man he is the way of Conveyance as God he is the spring of Conveyance From this Grace of Union and the Grace of Unction we find Rivers of Waters flowing to make glad the City of God Believers are his Branches and draw Sap from him as he is their Root in his Human Nature and have an endless duration of it from his Divine Had he not been Man he had not been in a state to obey the Law Had he not been God as well as Man his Obedience could not have been valuable to be imputed to us How should this Mystery be studied by us which would afford us both Admiration and Content Admiration in the incomprehensibleness of it Contentment in the fitness of the Mediator By this Wisdom of God we receive the props of our Faith and the fruits of Joy and Peace Wisdom consists in chusing fit means and conducting them in such a method as may reach with good success the variety of Marks which are aimed at Thus hath the Wisdom of God set forth a Mediator suted to our wants fitted for our supplies and ordered so the whole Affair by the union of these two Natures in the Person of the Redeemer that there could be no disappointment by all the bustle Hell and hellish Instruments could raise against it 4. The Wisdom of God is seen in this way of Redemption in vindicating the Honour and Righteousness of the Law both as to Precept and Penalty The first and irreversible design of the Law was Obedience The Penalty of the Law had only entrance upon Transgression Obedience was the design and the Penalty was added to enforce the observance of the Precept Gen. 2.17 Thou shalt not eat there is the Precept In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye There is the Penalty Obedience was our Debt to the Law as Creatures Punishment was due from the Law to us as Sinners We were bound to endure the Penalty for our first Transgression but the Penalty did not Cancel the Bond of future Obedience The Penalty had not been incurr'd without transgressing the Precept yet the Precept was not abrogated by enduring the Penalty Since Man so soon revolted and by his Revolt fell under the threatning the Justice of the Law had been honoured by Man's sufferings but the holinesse and equity of the Law had been honoured by mans Obedience The Wisdom of God finds out a Medium to satisfie both The Justice of the Law is preserved in the Execution of the Penalty and the Holiness of the Law is honoured in the observance of the Precept The Life of our Saviour is a Conformity to the Precept and his Death is a Conformity to the Penalty the Precepts are exactly performed and the Curse punctually executed by a voluntary observing the one and a voluntary undergoing the other It is obeyed as if it had not been transgrest and executed as if it had not been obeyed It became the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God as the Rector of the World to exact it Heb. 2.10 and it became the holiness of the Mediator to fulfill all the righteousness of the Law â Rom. 8.3 Matth. 3.15 And thus the Honour of the Law was vindicated in all the parts of it The Transgression of the Law was Condemned in the Flesh of the Redeemer and the Righteousness of the Law was fulfilled in his Person And both these acts of Obedience being counted as one Righteousness and imputed to the believing sinner render him a subject to the Law both in its preceptive and minatory part By Adams sinful acting we were made sinners and by Christ's righteous acting we are made righteous Rom. 5.10 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous The Law was obeyed by him that the righteousness of it might be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.4 'T is not fulfilled in us or in our actions by inherency but fulfilled in us by imputation of that righteousness which was exactly fulfilled by another As he died for us and rose again for us so he lived for us The Commands of the Law were as well observed for us as the Threatnings of the Law were endured for us This justification of a sinner with the preservation of the holiness of the Law in truth in the inward parts in sincerity of intention as well as conformity in action is the wisdom of God the Gospel-wisdom which David desires to know Psal 51.6 Thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom or as some render it the hidden things of wisdom Not an inherent wisdom in the acknowledgments of his sin which he had confest before but the wisdom of God in providing a Medicine so as to keep up the holiness of the Law in the observance of it in Truth and the averting the Judgment due to the sinner In and by this way methodiz'd by the wisdom of God all doubs and troubles are discharg'd Naturally if we take a view of the Law to behold its Holiness and Justice and then of our hearts to see the contrariety in them to the command and the pollution repugnant to its holiness and after this cast our eyes upward and behold a flaming Sword edg'd with Curses and Wrath Is there any matter but that of terrour afforded by any of these But when we behold in the life of Christ a conformity to the Mandatory part of the Law and in the Cross of Christ a sustaining the minatory part of the Law this wisdom of God gives a well-grounded and rational dismiss to all the horrours that can seize upon us 5. The wisdom of God in Redemption is visible in manifesting two contrary Affections at the same time and in one act The greatest hatred of Sin and the greatest love to the Sinner In this way he punishes the sin without ruining the sinner and repairs the ruins of the sinner without indulging the sin Here is eternal love and eternal hatred a condemning the sin to what it merited and an advancing the sinner to what he could not expect Herein is the choicest love and the deepest hatred manifested An implacableness against the sin and a placableness to the sinner His hatred of sin hath been discovered in other ways in punishing the Devil without remedy sentencing Man to an expulsion from Paradise though seduced by another in accursing the Serpent an irrational Creature though but a misguided Instrument The whole tenor of his Threatnings declare
incourage our Obedience as to illustrate his Glory We cannot conceive âhat could be done greater for the salvation of our Souls and consequently what could have been done more to enforce our observance We have a Redeemer as man to copy it to us and as God to perfect us in it It would make the heart of any to tremble to wound him that hath provided such a salve for our Sores and to make Grace a warrant for Rebellion Motives capable to form Rocks into a flexibleness Thus is the Wisdom of God seen in giving us a ground of the surest confidence and furnishing us with incentives to the greatest Obedience by the horrors of wrath death and sufferings of our Saviour 8. The Wisdom of God is apparent in the Condition he hath settled for the enjoying the fruits of Redemption and this is faith a wise and reasonable Condition And the concomitants of it 1. In that it is suted to mans lapsed state and Gods Glory Innocence is not required here that had been a Condition impossible in its own nature after the Fall The rejecting of Mercy is now only condemning where mercy is proposed Had the Condition of Perfection in Works been required it had rather been a condemnation than redemption Works are not demanded whereby the Creature might ascribe any thing to himself but a Condition which continues in man a sense of his Apostacy abates all aspiring Pride and makes the reward of Grace not of Debt A Condition whereby Mercy is owned and the Creature emptied Flesh silenc'd in the Dust and God set upon his Throne of Grace and Authority The Creature brought to the lowest debasement and Divine Glory raised to the highest pitch The Creature is brought to acknowledge Mercy and seal to Justice to own the Holiness of God in the hatred of sin the Justice of God in the Punishment of sin and the Mercy of God in the pardoning of sin A condition that despoils Nature of all its pretended excellency Beats down the glory of man at the foot of God 1 Cor. 1.29.31 It subjects the Reason and Will of man to the Wisdom and Authority of God it brings the Creature to an unreserved submission and intire resignation God is made the Soveraign Cause of all the Creature continued in his emptiness and reduced to a greater dependance upon God than by a Creation depending upon him for a constant influx for an intire happiness A Condition that renders God glorious in the Creature and the fallen creature happy in God God glorious in his Condescension to Man and Man happy in his emptiness before God Faith is made the Condition of mans recovery that the lofty looks of man might be humbled and the haughtiness of man be pulled down Isa 2.11 that every towring imagination might be levelled 2. Cor. 10.5 Man must have all from without doors he must not live upon himself but upon anothers allowance He must stand to the provision of God and be a perpetual Sutor at his Gates 2. A Condition opposite to that which was the cause of the Fall We fell from God an unbelief of the Threatning he recovers us by a belief of the Promise by Unbelief we laid the Foundation of Gods dishonour by Faith therefore God exalts the Glory of his free Grace We lost our selves by a desire of self dependence and our return is ordered by a way of self-emptiness 'T is reasonable we should be restored in a way contrary to that whereby we fell We sinned by a refusal of cleaving to God t is a part of divine Wisdom to restore us in a denial of our own righteousness and strength * Laud against Fisher p. 5. Man having sinned by Pride the Wisdom of God humbles him saith one at the very root of the Tree of Knowledge and makes him deny his own Vnderstanding and submit to Faith or else for ever to lose his desired Felicity 3. It is a Condition suted to the Common Sentiment and custome of the World There is more of belief than reason in the World All Instructers and Masters in Sciences and Arts require first a belief in their Disciples and a resignation of their Understandings and Wills to them And it is the Wisdom of God to require that of man which his own reason makes him submit to another which is his fellow Creature He therefore that quarrels with the Condition of Faith must quarrel with all the World since Belief is the beginning of all Knowledge â Bradward p. 28. yea and most of the Knowledge in the World may rather come under the title of Belief than of Knowledge For what we think we know this day we may find from others such Arguments as may stagger our Knowledge and make us doubt of that we thought our selves certain of before Nay sometimes we change our Opinions our Selves without anâ Instructor and see a reason to entertain an Opinion quite contrary to what we had before And if we found a general Judgment of others âo vote against what we think we know it would make us give the less Credit to our selves and our own Sentiments All Knowledge in the World is only a belief depending upon the testimony or arguings of others for indeed it may be said of all men as in Job 8. Job 9. We are but of yesterday and know nothing Since therefore Belief is so universal a thing in the World the Wisdom of God requires that of us which every man must count reasonable or render himself utterly ignorant of any thing It is a Condition that is common to all Religions All Religions are Founded upon a Belief Unless men did believe future things they would not hope nor fear A Belief and Resignation was required in all the Idolatries in the World so that God requires nothing but what a universal custome of the World gives its suffrage to the reasonableness of Indeed justifying Faith is not suted to the Sentiments of men but that Faith which must precede iustifying a beliefe of the Doctrine though not comprehended by Reason is common to the custome of the World * Jâneway p. 88. 'T is no less madness not to submit our Reason to Faith than not to regulate our Fancies by Reason 4. This Condition of Faith and Repentances is suted to the Conscience of Men. The Law of Nature teaches us thât we are bound to believe every revelation from God when it is made known to us And not only to assent to it as true but embrace it as good This Nature dictates that we are as much obligeâ to believe God because of his Truth as to love him because of his Goodness Every mans Reason tells him he cannot obey a Precept nor depend upon a Promise unless he believes both the one and the other No man's Conscience but will inform him upon hearing the revelation of God concerning his excellent contrivance of Redemption and the way to Enjoy it that it is very reasonable he should strip off
time to the World And the Wisdom of God in them would be amazing if we could understand the analogy between every Ceremony in the Law and the thing signified by it As it cannot buâ affect a diligent Reader to observe that little account of them we have by the Apostle Paul sprinkled in his Eipstles and more largely in that to the Hebrews As the Political Laws of the Jews flowed from the depth of the Moral Law so their Ceremonial did from the depth of Evangelical Counsels and all of them had a special relation to the honour of God and the debasing the Creature Though God formed the Mass and Matter of the World at the first creation at once yet his Wisdom took six days time for the disposing and adorning it The more illustrious truths of God are not to be comprehended on a suddain by the weakness of men Christ did not declare all Truths to his Disciples in the time of his life because they were not able at that present to bear them John 16.12 Ye cannot bear them now Some were reserved for his Resurrection others for the coming of the Spirit and the full discovery of all kept back for another World This Doctrine God figured out in the Law Oracled by the Prophets and unvail'd by Christ and his Apostles 2. The Wisdom of God appeared in using all proper means to render the belief of it easie 1. The most minute things that were to be transacted were predicted in the ancient foregoing Age long before the comeing of the Redeemer The vinegar and gall offered to him upon the Cross the parting his Garments the not breaking of his Bones the piercing of his Hands and Feet the betraying of him the slighting of him by the multitude all were exactly painted and represented in variety of Figures There was Light enough to good men not to mistake him and yet not so plain as to hinder bad men from being Serviceable to the counsels of God in the crucifying of him when he came 2. The translation of the Old Testament from the private Language of the Jews into the most publick Language of the World That Translation which we call Septuagint from Hebrew into Greeks some years before the coming of Christ that Tongue being most diffused at that time by reason of the Macedonian Empire raised by Alexander and the University of Athens to which other Nations resorted for Learning and Education This was a preparation for the Sons of Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem. By this was the entertainment of the Gospel facilitated When they compar'd the Prophecies of the Old Testament with the Declarations of the New and found things so long predicted before they were transacted in the publick view 3. By ordering concurrent Testimonies as to matter of Fact that the matter of Fact was not deniable That there was such a Person as Christ that his Miracles were stupendous that hâs Doctrine did not incline to Sedition that he affected not Worldly Applause that he did suffer at Jerusalem was acknowledged by all Not a man among the greatest Enemies of Christians was found that denied the matter of Fact And this great truth that Christ is the Messiah and Redeemer hath been with universal consent owned by all the Professors of Christianity throughout the World Whatever Bickerings there have been among them about some particular Doctrines they all centred in that Truth of Christ's being the Redeemer The first publication of this Doctrine was sealed by a thousand Miracles and so illustrious that he was an utter Stranger to the World that was ignorant of them 4. In keeping up some Principles and Opinions in the World to facilitate the belief of this or render men inexcusable for rejecting of it The Incarnation of the Son of God could not be so strange to the World if we consider the general belief of the Appearances â ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of their Gods among them that the Epicureans and others that denied any such Appearances were counted Atheists * Dionis Halicar Antiq. l. 2. p. 128. And Pythagoras was esteemed to be one not of the inferiour Genij and Lunar Daemons but one of the higher Gods who appeared in a Human Body for the curing and rectifying mortal Life â Iamblych Vit. Pythag. l. 1. cap. 6. p. 44. lib. 2. c. 19. p. 94. And himself tells Abaris the Scythian that he was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that he took the flesh of man that men might not be astonished at him and in a fright fly from his Instructions It was not therefore accounted an irrational thing among them that God should be Incarnate But indeed the great stumbling block was a crucified God But had they known the holy and righteous Nature of God the Malice of sin the universal Corruption of Human Nature the first threatning and the necessity of vindicating the honour of the Law and clearing the Justice of God the Notion of his crucifixion would not have appeared so incredible since they believed the possibility of an Incarnation Another Principle was that universal One of Sacrifices for Expiation and rendring God propitious to man and was practised among all Nations I remember not any wherein this Custom did not prevail for it did even among those People where the Jews as being no trading Nation had not any Commerce and also in America found out in these latter Ages It was not a Law of Nature no man can find any such thing written in his own heart but a Tradition from Adam Now that among the loss of so many other Doctrines that were handed down from Adam to his immediate Posterity as in particular that of the Seed of the Woman which one would think a necessary Appendix to that of Sacrificing This latter should be preserved as a Fragment of an ancient Tradition seems to be an Act of Divine Wisdom to prepare men for the entertainment of the Doctrine of the great Sacrifice for the Expiation of the sin of the World And as the Apostle forms his Argument from the Jewish Sacrifices in the Epistle to the Hebrews for the convincing them of the end of the death of Christ so did the Ancient Fathers make use of this practise of the Heathen to convince them of the same Doctrine 5. The wisdom of God appeared in the time and circumstances of the first solemn publication of the Gospel by the Apostles at Jerusalem The Relation you may read in Acts 2. from verse 1. to the 12th The Spirit was given to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost a time wherein there were multitudes of Jews from all Nations not only near but remote that heard the great things of God spoken in the several Languages of those Nations where their Habitations were fixed and that by twelve illiterate men that two or three hours before knew no Language but that of their Native Country It was the custom of the Jews that dwelt among other Nations at a
distance from Jerusalem to assemble together at Jerusalem at the Feast of Pentecost And God pitched upon this Season that there might be Witnesses of thâs Miracle in many parts of the World There were some of every Nation under Heaven verse 5. that is of that known part of the World so saith the Text. Fourteen several Nations are mentioned and Proselytes as well as Jews by Birth They are called devout men men of Conscience whose testimony would carry weight with it among their Neighbours at their return because of their Reputation by their Religious Carriage Again this was not heard and seen by some of them at one time and some at another by some one hour by others the next successively * Faucheur in loc p. 294 295. but altogether in a Solemn Assembly that the testimony of so many Witnesses at a time might be more valid and the truth of the Doctrine appear more illustrious and undeniable And it must needs be astonishing to them to hear that Person magnified in so miraculous a manner who had so lately been condemned by their Country-men as a Malefactor Wisdom consists in the timing of things And in this Circumstance doth the wisdom of God appear in furnishing the Apostles with the Spirit at such a time and bringing forth such a Miracle as the gift of Tongues on a suddain that every Nation might hear in their own Language the wonder of Redemption and as Witnesses at their returns into their own Countreys report it to others that the credit they had in their several Places might facilitate the belief and entertainment of the Gospel when the Apostles or others should arrive to those several Charges and Dioceses appointed for them to preach the Gospel in Had this Miracle been wrought in the presence only of the Inhabitants of Judea that understood only their own Language or one or two of the Neighbouring Tongues it had been counted by them rather a Madness than a Miracle Or had they understood all the Tongues which they spoke the news of it had spread no further than the limits of their own Habitations and had been confin'd within the narrow bounds of the Land of Judea But now it is carried to several remote Nations where any of those Auditors then assembled had their Residence As God chose the time of the Passeover for the Death of Christ that there might be the greatest Number of the Inhabitants of the Country as Witnesses of the Matter of Fact the Innocence and Sufferings of Christ so he chose the time of Pentecost for the first publishing the value and end of this Blood to the World Thus the Evangelical Law was given in a Confluence of People from all Parts and Nations because it was a Covenant with all Nations And the variety of Languages spoken by a Company of poor Galileans bred up at the Lake of Tiberias and in poor corners of Canaan without the Instructions of men for so great a Skil might well evidence to the hearers that God that brought the Confusion of Languages first at Babel did only work that Cure of them and combine all together at Jerusalem 3. The wisdom of God is seen in the Instruments he employed in the publishing the Gospel He did not employ Philosophers but Fishermen used not acquired Arts but infus'd wisdom and courage This Treasure was put into and preserved in Earthen Vessels that the Wisdom as well as the Power of God might be magnified The weaker the means are which attain the end the greater is the skill of the Conductor of them Wise Princes choose men of most credit Interest Wisdom and Ability to be Ministers of their Affairs and Embassadors to others But what were these that God chose for so great a Work as the publishing a new Doctrine to the World What was their quality but mean what was their Authority without Interest What was their Ability without eminent Parts for so great a Work but what Divine Grace in a special manner endowed them with Nay what was their disposition to it as dull and unweildy Witness the frequent rebukes for their slow-heartedness from their Master when he conversed in the Flesh with them And One of the greatest of them so fond of the Jewish Ceremonies and Pharisaical Principles wherein he had been more than ordinarily principled that he hated the Christian Religion to extirpation and the Professors of it to death by those ways which were out of the rode of Human wisdom and would be accompted the greatest absurdity to be practis'd by men that have a repute for Discretion did God advance his Wisdom 1 Cor. 1.25 The foolishness of God is wiser than man By this means it was indisputably evidenc'd to unbyassed Minds that the Doctrine was Divine It could not rationally be imagined that Instruments destitute of all Human Advantages should be able to vanquish the World confound Judaism overturn Heathenism chase away the Devils strip them of their Temples alienate the Minds of men from their several Religions which had been rooted in them by Education and established by a long succession It could not I say reasonably be imagined to be without a Supernatural Assistance an heavenly and efficacious working Whereas had God taken a Course agreeable to the prudence of Man and used those that had been furnished with Learning tip'd with Eloquence and armed with Human Authority the Doctrines would have been thought to have been of a Human Invention and to be some subtle Contrivance for some unworthy and ambitious end The nothingness and weakness of the Instruments manifest them to be conducted by a Divine Power and declare the Doctrine it self to be from Heaven When we see such feeble Instruments proclaiming a Doctrine repugnant to Flesh and Blood sounding forth a crucified Christ to be believed in and trusted on and declaiming against the Religion and Worship under which the Roman Empire had long flourished exhorting them to the Contempt of the World preparation for Afflictions denying themselves and their own Honours by the hopes of an unseen reward things so repugnant to Flesh and Blood And these Instruments concurring in the same Story with an admirable Harmony in all parts and sealing this Doctrine with their Blood can we upon all this ascribe this Doctrine to a Human Contrivance or fix any lower Author of it than the wisdom of Heaven 'T is the wisdom of God that carries on his own Designs in methods most sutable to his own Greatness and different from the Customes and Modes of Men that less of Humanity and more of Divinity might appear 4. The wisdom of God appears in the ways and manner as well as in the Instruments of its propagation By ways seemingly contrary You know how God had sent the Jews into Captivity in Babylon and though he struck off their Chains and restored them to their Country yet many of them had no mind to leave a Country wherein they had been born and bred The distance from the
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 â 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 * Amyââuâ Mââ âor 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
a Chain as a ravenous Lion or a furious wild Horse by the Creator and Governour of the World What remedy could be used by Man against the activity of this unseen and swift Spirit The World could not subsist under his Malice he would practise the same things upon All as he did upon Job when he had got leave from his Governour turn the Swords of Men into one anothers bowels send Fire from Heaven upon the Fruits of the Earth and the Cattle intended for the use of Man Raise Winds to shake and tear our Houses upon our Heads daub our Bodies with Scabs and Boils and let all the humors in our Blood loose upon us He that envied Adam a Paradise doth envy us the pleasure of enjoying its out-works If we were not destroyed by him we should live in a continued vexation by Spectrums and Apparitions affrighting sounds and noise as some think the Egyptians did in that three days Darkness He would be alway winnowing us as he desired to winnow Peter Luke 22.31 But God over-masters his strength that he cannot move a hairs breadth beyond his Tedder not only he is unable to touch an Upright Job but to lay his fingers upon one of the Unbelieving Gadarens forbidden and filthy Swine without special licence Mat. 8.31 When he is cast out of one place he walks through dry places seeking rest Luke 11.24 new objects for his Malicious designs but finding none till God le ts loose the reins upon him for a new employment Though Satans Power be great yet God suffers him not to tempt as much as his Diabolical appetite would but as much as Divine Wisdom thinks fit And the Divine Power tempers the others active Malice and gives the Creature victory where the Enemy intended spoil and captivity How much stronger is God than all the Legions of Hell Luke 11.22 as he that holds a strong man from effecting his purpose testifies more ability than his Adversary How doth he lock him up for a Thousand years in a Pownd which he cannot leap over Rev. 20.3 and this restraint is wrought partly by blinding the Devil in his designs partly by denying him concourse to his motion As he hindered the active quality of the Fire upon the Three Children by withdrawing his power which was necessary to the motion of it and his power is as necessary for the motion of the Devil as for that of any other Creature Sometimes he makes him to confess him against his own interest as Apollo's Oracle confest â Caeteâââ deos aeâeos esse c. Grot. âeâit reâ lib. 4. And though when the Devil was cast out of the possessed person he publickly owned Christ to be the Holy one of God Mark 1.24 to render him suspected by the People of having commerce with the Unclean Spirits yet this he could not do without the leave and permission of God that the power of Christ in stopping his mouth and imposing silence upon him might be evidenced and that it reaches to the Gates of Hell as well as to the quieting of Winds and Waves This is a part of the Strength as well as the Wisdom of God Job 12.16 that the deceived and the deceiver are his Wisdom to defeat and Power to over-rule his most Malicious designs to his own glory 2. In the restraint of the Natural Corruption of Men. Since the impetus of Original Corruption runs in the Blood conveyed down from Adam to the Veins of all his Posterity and universally diffus'd in all Mankind what wrack and havock would it make in the World if it were not supprest by this Divine Power which presides over the hearts of Men Man is so wretched by Nature that nothing but what is vile and pernicious can drop from him Man drinks Iniquity like water Job 15.16 being by Nature abominable and filthy He greedily swallows all matter for Iniquity every thing suitable to the mire and poyson in his Nature and would sprout it out with all fierceness and insolence God himself gives us the description of Mans Nature Gen. 6.5 that he hath not one good imagination at any time Rom. 3.10 c. And the Apostle from the Psalmist dilates and comments upon it There is none righteous no not one their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood c. This Corruption is equal in all natural to all 't is not more poysonous or more fierce in one Man than in another The Root of all Men is the same all the Branches therefore do equally possess the Villanous nature of the Root No Child of Adam can by Natural descent be better than Adam or have less of baseness and vileness and venom than Adam How fruitful would this loathsom Lake be in all kind of steams What unbridled Licentiousness and head-strong Fury would triumph in the World if the Power of God did not interpose it self to lock down the Floud-gates of it What rooting up of Humane society would there be how would the World be drencht in Blood the number of Malefactors be greater than that of Apprehenders and Punishers How would the prints of Natural Laws be raz'd out of the heart if God should leave Humane nature to it self Who can read the first Chapter to the Romans 24 25 26 27 28 29 Verses without acknowledging this Truth where there is a Catalogue of those Villanies which followed upon Gods pulling up the Sluces and letting the malignity of their Inward Corruption have its natural course If God did not hold back the fury of Man his Garden would be over-run his Vine rooted up the Inclinations of Men would hurry them to the worst of Wickedness How great is that Power that curbs bridles or changes as many head-strong Horses at once and every minute as there are Sons of Adam upon the Earth The floods lift up their waves Psal 93.3 4. the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many Waters yea than the mighty waves of the Sea that doth hush and pen in the turbulent Passions of Men. 3. In the ordering and framing the hearts of Men to his own ends That must be an Omnipotent hand that grasps and contains the Hearts of all Men the Heart of the Meanest person as well as of the most towring Angel and turns them as he pleases and makes them sometime ignorantly sometime knowingly concur to the accomplishment of his own purposes When the Hearts of Men are so numerous their Thoughts so various and different from one another yet he hath a Key to those Millions of Hearts and with Infinite Power guided by as Infinite Wisdom he draws them into what Chanels he pleases for the gaining his own ends Though the Jews had embrued their hands in the Blood of our Saviour and their Rage was yet reeking-hot against his Followers God bridled their Fury in the Churches Infancy till it had got some strength and cast a Terror
make them march in the same order to their Confusion as they did in their Creation Who can jumble the whole Frame together and by a Word dissolve the Pillars of the World and make the Fabrick lie in a ruinous heap 2. In effecting his Purposes by small Means In making use of the Meanest Creatures As the Power of God is seen in the creation of the smallest Creatures and assembling so many perfections in the little body of an Insect as an Ant or Spider So his Power is not less magnified in the use he makes of them As he magnifies his Wisdom by using ignorant Instruments so he exalts his Power by employing weak Instruments in his service The Meaness and Imperfection of the matter sets off the Excellency of the Workman so the weakness of the Instrument is a foyl to the Power of the principal Agent When God hath effected things by Means in the Scripture he hath usually brought about his Purposes by weak Instruments Moses a Fugitive from Egypt and Aaron a Captive in it are the Instruments of the Israelites Deliverance By the motion of Moses his Rod he works Wonders in the Court of Pharaoh and summons up his Judgments against him He brought down Pharaohs stomack for a while by a squadron of Lice and Locusts wherein Divine Power was more seen than if Moses had brought him to his own Articles by a multitude of Warlike Troops The fall of the Walls of Jericho by the sound of Rams horns was a more glorious Character of Gods Power than if Joshuah had batter'd it down with an hundred of Warlike Engines Josh 6.20 Thus the great Army of the Midianites which lay as Grasshoppers upon the ground were routed by Gideon in the head of Three hundred Men and Goliah a Giant laid level with the ground by David a Stripling by the force of a Sling A Thousand Philistines dispatcht out of the World by the Jaw Bone of an Ass in the hand of Sampson He can master a stout Nation by an Army of Locusts and render the Teeth of those little Insects as destructive as the Teeth yea the strongest Teeth the Cheek Teeth of a great Lion * Joel 1.6 7. The Thunderbolt which produceth sometimes dreadful effects is compacted of little Atoms which fly in the Air small Vapors drawn up by the Sun and mixt with other Sulphurous matter and petrifying Juice Nothing is so weak but his Strength can make victorious nothing so small but by his Power he can accomplish his great ends by it nothing so vile but his Mâght can conduct to his glory and no Nation so mighty but he can waste and enfeeble by the Meanest Creatures God is great in Power in the greatest things and not little in the smallest his Power in the minutest Creatures which he uses for his service surmounts the force of our Understanding III. The Power of God appears in Redemption As our Saviour is called the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 so he is called the Power of God The Arm of Power was lifted up as high as the designs of Wisdom were laid deep As this way of Redemption could not be contriv'd but by an Infinite Wisdom so it could not be accomplish'd but by an Infinite Power None but God could shape such a design and none but God could effect it The Divine Power in Temporal deliverances and freedom from the slavery of humane Oppressors vails to that which glitters in Redemption whereby the Devil is defeated in his designs stript of his spoils and yok'd in his strength The Power of God in Creation requires not those degrees of Admiration as in Redemption In Creation the World was erected from Nothing as there was Nothing to act so there was Nothing to oppose no victorious Devil was in that to be subdued no thundring Law to be silenced no Death to be conquer'd no Transgression to be pardoned and rooted out no Hell to be shut no Ignominious death upon the Cross to be suffered It had been in the nature of the thing an easier thing to Divine Power to have created a new World than repair'd a broken and purified a polluted one This is the most admirable Work that ever God brought forth in the World greater than all the Marks of his Power in the first Creation And this will appear 1. In the Person Redeeming 2. In the publication and propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption 3. In the application of Redemption I. In the Person Redeeming First In his Conception 1. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee Which act is exprest to be the effect of the Infinite Power of God and it expresses the supernatural manner of the forming the Humanity of our Saviour and signifies not the Divine Nature of Christ infusing it self into the Womb of the Virgin for the Angel refers it to the manner of the operation of the Holy Ghost in the producing the Humane Nature of Christ and not to the Nature assuming that Humanity into union with it self The Holy Ghost or the Third Person in the Trinity overshadowed the Virgin and by a Creative act fram'd the Humanity of Christ and united it to the Divinity It is therefore exprest by a word of the same import with that used Gen. 1.2 The Spirit moved upon the face of the face of the Waters which signifies as it were a Brooding upon the Chaos shadowing it with his Wings as Hens sit upon their Eggs to form them and hatch them into Animals or else it is an allusion to the Cloud which covered the Tent of the Congregation when the Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle * Exod. 40 34 It was not such a Creative Act as we call Immediate which is a production out of Nothing but a Mediate Creatâon such as Gods bringing things into form out of the first Matter which had nothing but an Obediential or Passive disposition to whatsoever stamp the Powerful Wisdom of God should imprint upon it So the substance of the Virgin had no active but only a passive disposition to this work The Matter of the Body was Earthy the substance of the Virgin the forming of it was Heavenly the Holy Ghost working upon that Matter And therefore when it is said Mat. 1.18 that she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost 't is to be understood of the Efficacy of the Holy Ghost not of the Substance of the Holy Ghost The matter was Natural but the manner of Conceiving was in a Supernatural way above the methods of Nature In reference to the Active Principle the Redeemer is called in the Prophecy â Isai 4.2 The Branch of the Lord in regard of the Divine hand that planted him In respect to the Passive Principle The Fruit of the Earth in regard of the Womb that bare him and therefore said to be made
proper subsistence by it self which now it borrows from its union with the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Word but that doth not belong to the Constitution of its Nature Now let us Consider what a wonder of Power is all this The knitting a Noble Soul to a Body of Clay was not so great an exploit of Almightiness as the espousing Infinite and Finite together Man is further distant from God than Man from Nothing What a wonder is it that two Natures infinitely distant should be more intimately united than any thing in the World and yet without any confusion That the same Person should have both a Glory and a Grief an infinite Joy in the Deity and an unexpressible Sorrow in the Humanity That a God upon a Throne should be an Infant in a Cradle the Thundering Creator be a weeping Babe and a suffering Man are such expressions of mighty Power as well as condescending Love that they astonish Men upon Earth and Angels in Heaven 3. Power was evident in the progress of his life In the Miracles he wrought How often did he expel malicious and powerful Devils from their habitations hurl them from their Thrones and make them fall from Heaven like Lightning How many Wonders were wrought by his bare Word or a single Touch Sight restored to the Blind and Hearing to the Deaf Palsie Members restored to the exercise of their functions a dismiss given to many deplorable Maladies impure Leprosies chas'd from the Persons they had infected and Bodies beginning to putrifie rais'd from the Grave But the mightiest Argument of Power was his Patience That he who was in his Divine Nature elevated above the World should so long continue upon a Dung-hill endure the contradiction of Sinners against himself be patiently subject to the Reproaches and Indignities of Men without displaying that Justice which was essential to the Deity and in especial manner daily merited by their provoking Crimes The Patience of Man under great Affronts is a greater Argument of power than the Brawnyness of his Arm A Strength employ'd in the revenge of every Injury signifies a greater infirmity in the Soul than there can be ability in the Body 4. Divine Power was apparent in his Resurrection The unlocking the belly of the Whale for the deliverance of Jonas the rescue of Daniel from the Den of Lions and the restraining the Fire from burning the Three Children were signal declarations of his Power and types of the Resurrection of our Saviour But what are those to that which was represented by them That was a power over Natural causes a curbing of Beasts and restraining of Elements But in the Resurrection of Christ God exercis'd a power over himself and quencht the flames of his own Wrath hotter than Millions of Nebuchadnezzars Furnaces unlockt the Prison doors wherein the Curses of the Law had lodg'd our Saviour stronger than the Belly and Ribbs of a Leviathan In the rescue of Daniel and Jonas God overpowered Beasts and in this tore up the strength of the Old Serpent and pluckt the Scepter from the hand of the Enemy of Mankind The Work of Resurrection indeed considered in it self requires the efficacy of an Almighty Power Neither Man nor Angel can create new dispositions in a Dead Body to render it capable of lodging a Spiritual Soul nor can they restore a dislodged Soul by their own power to such a Body The restoring a Dead Body to life requires an Infinite Power as well as the Creation of the World But there was in the Resurrection of Christ something more difficult than this while he lay in the Grave he was under the Curse of the Law under the execution of that dreadful Sentence Thou shalt die the death His Resurrection was not only the re-tying âhe Marriage knot between his Soul and Body or the rouling the Stone from the Grave but a taking off an infinite weight the Sin of Mankind which lay upon him So vast a weight could not be removed without the strength of an Almighty Arm. 'T is therefore ascrib'd not to an ordinary operation but an operation with Power â Rom. 1.4 and such a Power wherein the Glory of the Father did appear Rom. 6.4 Rais'd up from the dead by the glory of the Father that is the glorious Power of God As the Eternal Generation is stupendous so is his Resurrection which is called a new begetting of him Acts 13.33 'T is a wonder of Power that the Divine and Humane Nature should be joyn'd and no less wonder that his Person should surmount and rise up from the Curse of God under which he lay The Apostle therefore adds one expression to another and heaps up a variety signifying thereby that one was not enough to represent it Eph. 1.19 Exceeding greatness of power and working of mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead It was an hyperbole of Power the excellency of the Mightiness of his Strength the loftiness of the expressions seems to come short of the apprehension he had of it in his Soul Secondly This Power appears in the Publication and Propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption The Divine Power will appear if you consider 1. The Nature of the Doctrine 2. The Instruments employed in it 3. The Means they us'd to propagate it 4. The Success they had I. The Nature of the Doctrine 1. It was contrary to the common received reason of the World The Philosophers the Masters of Knowledge among the Gentiles had Maxims of a different stamp from it Though they agreed in the Being of a God yet their Notions of his Nature were confus'd and embroil'd with many Errors the Unity of God was not commonly assented unto They had multiplied Deities acâording to the Fancies they had received from some of a more elevated Wit and refin'd Brain than others Though they had some notion of Mediators yet they placed in those Seats their publick Benefactors Men that had been useful to the World or their particular Countries in imparting to them some profitable Invention To discard those was to charge themselves with Ingratitude to them from whom they had received signal benefits and to whose Mediation Conduct or Protection they ascrib'd all the Success they had been blessed with in their several Provinces and to charge themselves with Folly for rendring an Honour and Worship to them so long Could the Doctrine of a Crucified Mediator whom they had never seen that had conquer'd no Country for them never enlarg'd their Territories brought to light no new profitable Invention for the increase of their Earthly welfare as the rest had done be thought sufficient to balance so many of their reputed Heroes How ignorant were they in the foundations of the True Religion The belief of a Providence was staggering nor had they a true prospect of the nature of Vertue and Vice Yet they had a fond Opinion of the strength of their own Reason and the Maxims that had
Understanding could not have been imputed to him as his Crime because it would have been not a voluntary but a necessary effect of his Nature had there been an error in the first Wheel the error of the next could not have been imputed to the Nature of that but to the irregular motion of the first Wheel in the Engine The sin of Men and Angels proceeded not from any natural defect in their Understandings but from Inconsideration He that was the Author of Harmony in his other Creatures could not be the Author of Disorder in the chief of his Works Other Creatures were his Footsteps but man was his Image â Gen. 1.26 27. Let us make man in our image after our likeness Which though it seems to imply no more in that place than an Image of his Dominion over the Creatures yet the Apostle raises it a peg higher and gives us a larger Interpretation of it Col. 3.10 And have put on the New-man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him making it to consist in a resemblance to his Righteousness Image say some notes the form as Man was a Spirit in regard of his Soul Likeness notes the quality implanted in his Spiritual Nature The Image of God was drawn in him both as he was a Rational and as he was a holy Creature The Creatures manifested the being of a Superiour Power as their Cause but the Righteousness of the first Man evidenced not only a Soveraign Power as the Donor of his being but a holy Power as the Patern of his Work God appeared to be a holy God in the Righteousness of his Creature as well as an Understanding God in the Reason of his Creature while he formed him with all necessary knowledge in his Mind and all necessary uprightness in his Will The Law of Love to God with his whole soul his whole mind his whole heart and strength was originally writ upon his Nature All the parts of his Nature were framed in a Moral Conformity with God to answer this Law and imitate God in his Purity which consists in a love of himself and his own Goodness and Excellency Thus doth the clearness of the Stream point us to the purer Fountain and the brightness of the Beam evidence a greater splendor in the Sun which shot it out 2. His Holiness appears in his Laws as he is a Law-giver and a Judge Since Man was bound to be subject to God as a Creature and had a capacity to be ruled by the Law as an understanding and willing Creature God gave him a Law taken from the depths of his holy Nature and suted to the Original Faculties of Man The Rules which God hath fixed in the World are not the Resolves of bare Will but result particularly from the Goodness of his Nature They are nothing else but the Transcripts of his Infinite detestation of sin as he is the unblemisht Governour of the World This being the most adorable Property of his Nature he hath imprest it upon that Law which he would have inviolably observed as a perpetual Rule for our Actions that we may every moment think of this beautiful Perfection God can command nothing but what hath some similitude with the rectitude of his own Nature All his Laws every Paragraph of them therefore scent of this and glitter with it Deut. 4.8 What Nation hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law I set before you this day and therefore they are compar'd to fine Gold that hath no speck or dross * Psal 19.10 This Purity is evident 1. In the Moral Law or Law of Nature 2. In the Ceremonial Law 3. In the Allurements annext to it for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it 4. In the Judgments inflicted for the Violation of it 1. In the Moral Law Which is therefore dignified with the title of holy twice in one Verse Rom. 7.12 Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment is holy just and good It being the express Image of God's Will as our Saviour was of his Person and bearing a resemblance to the Purity of his Nature The Tables of this Law were put into the Ark that as the Mercy Seat was to represent the Grace of God so the Law was to represent the Holiness of God â Psal 19.1 The Psalmist after he had spoken of the Glory of God in the Heavens wherein the Power of God is exposed to our view introduceth the Law wherein the Purity of God is evidenc'd to our Minds â Vers 7 8. c. perfect pure clean righteous are the titles given to it 'T is clearer in Holiness than the Sun is in brightness and more mighty in it self to command the Conscience than the Sun is to run its Race As the Holiness of the Scripture demonstrates the Divinity of its Author so the Holiness of the Law doth the Purity of the Law-giver 1. The purity of this Law is seen in the Matter of it It prescribes all that becomes a Creature towards God and all that becomes one Creature towards another of his own rank and kind The Image of God is compleat in the Holiness of the first Table and the Righteousness of the second which is intimated by the Apostle Eph. 4.24 the one being the Rule of what we owe to God the other being the Rule of what we owe to man There is no good but it enjoyns and no evil but it disowns 'T is not sickly and lame in any part of it not a good action but it gives it its due praise and not an evil action but it sets a condemning mark upon The Commands of it are frequently in Scripture call'd Judgments because they rightly judge of good and evil and are a clear light to inform the Judgment of Man in the knowledge of both By this was the Understanding of David enlightned to know every false way and to hate it * Psal 119.104 There is no Case can happen but may meet with a determination from it It teaches men the noblest manner of living a life like God himself honourably for the Law-giver and joyfully for the subject It directs us to the highest End sets us at a distance from all base and sordid Practises it proposeth Light to the Understanding and Goodness to the Will It would Tune all the Strings set right all the Orders of Mankind It censures the least Mote countenanceth not any stain in the Life Not a wanton Glance can meet with any justification from it * Mat. 5.28 not a rash Anger but it frowns upon â Mat. 5.22 As the Law-giver wants nothing as an Addition to his Blessedness so his Law wants nothing as a Supplement to its perfection Deut. 4 2. What our Saviour seems to add is not an Addition to mend any defects but a restoration of it from the corrupt Glosses wherewith the Scribes and Pharisees had eclipst the brightness of
it They had curtail'd it and diminish'd part of its Authority cutting off its empire over the least Evil and left its power only to check the grosser Practises But Christ restores it to the due extent of its Soveraignty and shews it in those dimensions in which the Holy Men of God considered it as exceeding broad Psal 119.96 reaching to all Actions all Motions all Circumstances attending them full of inexhaustible Treasures of Righteousness And though this Law since the Fall doth irritate Sin 't is no disparagement but a Testimony to the Righteousness of it which the Apostle manifests by his Wherefore Rom. 7.8 Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence and repeating the same sense verse 11. subjoyns a Wherefore verse 12. Wherefore the Law is holy The rising of Mens sinful hearts against the Law of God when it strikes with its Preceptive and Minatory parts upon their Consciences evidenceth the Holiness of the Law and the Law-giver In its own Nature it is a Directing Rule but the malignant Nature of Sin is exasperated by it as an hostile quality in a Creature will awaken it self at the appearance of its Enemy The Purity of this Beam and Transcript of God bears witness to a greater clearness and beauty in the Sun and Original Undefiled Streams manifest an untainted Fountain 2. It is seen in the manner of its Precepts As it prescribes all Good and forbids all Evil so it doth enjoyn the one and banish the other as such The Laws of Men command Vertuous things not as Vertuous in themselves but as useful for Human Society which the Magistrate is the Conservator of and the Guardian of Justice â Ames de Consc lib. 5 cap. 1. queât â The Laws of Men contain not all the Precepts of Vertue but only such as are accommodated to their Customes and are useful to preserve the Ligaments of their Government The design of them is not so much to render the Subjects good Men as good Citizens They order the Practise of those Vertues that may strengthen Civil Society and discountenance those Vices only which weaken the Sinews of it But God beâââ the Guardian of Vniversal Righteousness doth not only enact the Observance of all Righteousness but the observance of it as Righteousness He Commands that which is Just in it self enjoyns Vertues as Vertues and prohibits Vices as Vices as they are profitable or injurious to our selves as well as to Others Men command Temperance and Justice not as Vertues in themselves but as they prevent Disorder and Confusion in a Common Wealth And forbid Adultery and Theft not as Vices in themselves but as they are Intrenchments upon Property Not as hurtful to the Person that commits them but as hurtful to the Person against whose Right they are committed Upon this account perhaps Paul applauds the Holiness of the Law of God in regard of its own Nature as considered in it self more than he doth the Justice of it in regard of Man and the goodness and conveniency of it to the World Rom. 7.12 the Law is Holy twice and Just and Good but once 3. In the Spiritual extent of it The most Righteous Powers of the World do not so much regard in their Laws what the Inward Affections of their Subjects are The External Acts are only the Objects of their Decrees either to encourage them if they be useful or discourage them if they be hurtful to the Community And indeed they can do no other for they have no Power proportioned to Inward Affections since the Inward disposition falls not under their Censure and it would be foolish for any Legislative Power to make such Laws which it is impossible for it to put in Execution They can prohibit the Outward Acts of Theft and Murder but they cannot command the Love of God the Hatred of Sin the Contempt of the World they cannot prohibit Vnclean Thoughts and the Atheism of the Heart But the Law of God surmounts in Righteousness all the Laws of the best regulated Common Wealths in the World It restrains the Licentious Heart as well as the Violent Hand it damps the very first bubblings of Corrupt Nature orders a Purity in the Spring commands a clean Fountain clean Streams clean Vessels It would frame the Heart to an Inward as well as the Life to an Outward Righteousness and make the Inside purer than the Outside It forbids the first Belchings of a Murderous or Adulterous intention It obligeth Man as a Rational Creature and therefore exacts a conformity of every Rational Faculty and of whatsoever is under the Command of them It commands the Private Closet to be free from the least Cobweb as well as the Outward Porch to be clean from Mire and Dirt. It frowns upon all stains and pollutions of the most retired Thoughts Hence the Apostle calls it a Spiritual Law Rom. 7.14 as not Political but extending its force further than the Frontiers of the Man placing its Ensigns in the Metropolis of the Heart and Mind and curbing with its Scepter the Inward motions of the Spirit and commanding over the Secrets of every Mans Breast 4. In regard of the perpetuity of it The Purity and perpetuity of it are link'd together by the Psalmist Psal 19.9 The fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever the Fear of the Lord that is that Law which commands the Fear and Worship of God and is the Rule of it And indeed God values it at such a rate that rather than part with a tittle or let the honour of it lie in the Dust he would not only let Heaven and Earth pass away but expose his Son to death for the reparation of the wrong it had sustain'd So holy it is that the Holiness and Righteousness of God cannot dispence with it cannot abrogate it without despoiling himself of his own Being 'T is a Copy of the Eternal Law Can he ever abrogate the command of Love to himself without shewing some contempt of his own Excellency and very Being Before he can enjoyn a Creature not to love him he must make himself unworthy of Love and worthy of Hatred this would be the highest Vnrighteousness to order us to hate that which is only worthy of our highest Affections â Suarez So God cannot change the first Command and order us to worship many Gods this would be against the Excellency and Unity of God For God cannot constitute another God or make any thing worthy of an Honour equal with himself Those things that are good only because they are Commanded are alterable by God Those things that are intrinsically and essentially Good and therefore Commanded are unalterable as long as the Holiness and Righteousness of God stand firm The intrinsick Goodness of the Moral Law the concern God hath for it thâ perpetuity of the Precepts of the first Table and the care he hath had to imprint the Precepts of the Second upon the
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 â 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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 Inâorms 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 Chriâti 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
in its Brightness we may behold it through a colour'd Glass whereby the lustre of it is moderated without dazling our eyes The sense of it will furnish us with a greatness of mind that little things will be contemned by us Motives of a greater alloy would have little influence upon us we should have the highest Motives to every Duty and Motives of the same strain which influence âhe Angels above It would change us not only into an Angelical Nature but a Divine Nature We should act like men of another Sphere as if we had received our Original in another World and seen with Angels the ravishing Beauties of Heaven How little would the mean Imployments of the World sink us into dirt and mud How often hath the Meditation of the Courage of a Valiant Man or Acuteness and Industry of a Learned Person spur'd on some men to an imitation of them and transform'd them into the same Nature As the looking upon the Sun imprints an Image of the Sun upon our eye that we seem to behold nothing but the Sun a while after The view of the Divine Purity would fill us with a holy generosity to imitate him more than the Examples of the best men upon Earth It was a saying of a Heathen That if Vertue were visible it would kindle a noble flame of Love to it in the heart by its ravishing beauty Shall the Infinite Purity of the Author of all Vertue come short of the strength of a Creature Can we not render that visible to us by frequent Meditation which though it be invisible in his Nature is made visible in his Law in his Ways in his Son It would make us ready to obey him since we know he cannot Command any thing that is sinful but what is holy just and good It would put all our Aff ctions in their due place elevate them above the Creature and subject them to the Creator 6. It would make us patient and contented under all God's Dispensations All penal Evils are the Fruits of his Holiness as he is Judge and Governour of the World He is not an Arbitrary Judge nor doth any Sentence pronounc'd nor Warrant for Execution issue from him but what bears upon it a Stamp of the Righteousness of his Nature he doth nothing by Passion or Unrighteousness but according to the Eternal Law of his own unstained Nature which is the Rule to him in his Works the Basis and Foundation of his Throne and Soveraign Dominion Psal 89.14 Justice or Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of thy Throne upon these his Soveraign Power is established So that there can be no just Complaint or Indictââât brought against any of his Proceedings with men How doth our Saviour who had the highest Apprehensions of God's Holiness justifie God in his deepest Distresses when he cried and was not answered in the particular he desired in that Prophetick Psalm of him Psal 22.2 3. I cry day and night but thou hearest not Thou seemest to be deaf to all my Petitions afar off from the words of my roaring but thou art holy I cast no blame upon thee All thy dealings are squar'd by thy holiness this is the only Law to thee in this I acquiesce 'T is part of thy holiness to hide thy face from me to shew thereby thy detestation of sin Our Saviour adores the Divine Purity in his sharpest Agony and a like sense of it would guide us in the same steps to acknowledge and glorifie it in our greatest desertions and afflictions especially since as they are the fruit of the holiness of his Nature so they are the means to impart to us clearer stamps of holiness according to that in himself which is the original Copy * Heb. 12.10 He melts us down as Gold to fit us for the receiving a new Impression to mortifie the Affections of the Flesh and clothe us with the Graces of his Spirit The due sense of this would make us to submit to his stroke and to wait upon him for a good issue of his dealings 2. Exhortation Is holiness a Perfection of the Divine Nature Is it the glory of the Deity Then let us glorifie this holiness of God Moses glorifies it in the Text and glorifies it in a Song which was a Copy for all Ages The whole Corporation of Seraphims have their Mouths fill'd with the praises of it The Saints whither Militant on Earth or Triumphant in Heaven are to continue the same Acclamation Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts â Rev. 4.8 Neither Angels nor glorified Spirits exalt at the same rate the Power which formed them Creatures nor Goodness which preserves them in a blessed Immortality As they do holiness which they bear some beams of in their own Nature and whereby they are capacitated to stand before his Throne Upon the account of this a Debt of Praise is demanded of all Rational Creatures by the Psalmist Psal 99.3 Let them praise thy great and terrible Name for it is holy Not so much for the greatness of his Majesty or the treasures of his Justice but as they are considered in conjunction with his holiness which renders them beautiful for it is holy Grandeur and Majesty simply in themselves are not Objects of Praise nor do they merit the Acclamations of men when destitute of Righteousness This only renders every thing else adorable and this adorns the Divine Greatness with an amiableness Isa 12.6 Great is the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee and makes his Might worthy of Praise Luke 1.49 In honouring this which is the soul and spirit of all the rest we give a glory to all the Perfections which constitute and beautifie his Nature And without the glorifying this we glorifie nothing of them though we should extoll every other single Attribute a thousand times He values no other Adoration of his Creatures unless this be interested nor accepts any thing as a glory from them Levit. 10.3 I will be sanctified in them that come near me and I will be glorified As if he had said in manifesting my Name to be holy you truly you only honour me And as the Scripture seldom speaks of this Perfection without a particular Emphasis it teaches us not to think of it without a special Elevation of heart By this act only while we are on Earth can we joyn consort with the Angels in Heaven he that doth not honour it delight in it and in the meditation of it hath no resemblance of it he hath none of the Image that delights not in the Original Every thing of God is glorious but this most of all If he built the World principally for any thing it was for the communication of his Goodness and display of his Holiness He formed the Rational Creature to manifest his Holiness in that Law whereby he was to be governed Then deprive not God of the design of his own Glory We honour this Attribute 1. When we make it
said unto him Why callest thou me good There is none good but one that is God THE words are part of a Reply of our Saviour to the Young-mans Petition to him A certain Person came in haste running as being eager for satisfaction to entreat his directions what he should do to inherit Everlasting Life The Person is described only in general vers 17. There came one A certain Man But Luke describes him by his Dignity * Luke 18.18 A certain Ruler One of Authority among the Jews He desires of him an Answer to a legal Question What he should do Or as Matthew hath it What good thing shall I do that I may have Eternal Life * Mat. 19.16 He imagin'd Everlasting Felicity was to be purchased by the works of the Law He had not the least Sentiments of Faith Christ's Answer implies there was no hopes of the happiness of another World by the works of the Law unless they were perfect and answerable to every Divine Precept He doth not seem to have any ill or hypocritical intent in his Address to Christ not to tempt him but to be instructed by him He seems to come with an ardent desire to be satisfi'd in his Demand he performed a solemn act of Respect to him he kneeled to him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã prostrated himself upon the ground Besides Christ is said vers 21. to love him which had been inconsistent with the knowledge Christ had of the hearts and thoughts of Men and the abhorrence he had of Hypocrites had he been only a Counterfeit in this Question But the first Reply Christ makes to him respects the Title of Good Master which this Ruler gave him in his Salutation 1. Some think that Christ hereby would draw him to an acknowledgment of him as God You acknowledge me good How come you to salute me with so great a Title since you do not afford it to your greatest Doctors Lightfoot in loc observes that the Title of Rabbi bone is not in all the Talmud You must own me to be God since you own me to be good Goodness being a Title only due and properly belonging to the Supream Being If you take me for a Common-man with what Conscience can you salute me in a manner proper to God Since no Man is good no not one but the heart of Man is evil continually The Arrians used this place to back their denying the Deity of Christ Because say they He did not acknowledge himself good therefore he did not acknowledge himself God * Erasm in loc But he doth not here deny his Deity but reproves him for calling him Good when he had not yet confest him to be more than a Man * Augustin You behold my Flesh but you consider not the fulness of my Deity If you account me Good account me God and imagine me not to be a simple and a meer Man He disowns not his own Deity but allures the Young-man to a confession of it Why call'st thou me good since thou dost not discover any apprehensions of my being more than a Man Though thou comest with a greater Esteem to me than is commonly entertain'd of the Doctors of the Chair why dost thou own me to ãâã unless thou own me to be God If Christ had deny'd himself in this Speech to be good he had rather entertain'd this Person with a frown and sharp reproof for giving him a Title due to God alone than have received him with that courtesie and complaisance as he did * Hensius in Matth. Had he said there is none good but the Father he had excluded himself but in saying there is none good but God he comprehends himself 2. Others say that Christ had no intention to draw him to an acknowledgâ ãâã of his Deity but only asserts his Divine Authority or Mission from God * Calvin in loc For which interpretation Maldonat calls Calvin an Arrianizer He doth not here assert the Essence of his Deity but the Authority of his Doctrine As if he should have said you do without ground give me the Title of good unless you believe I have a Divine Commission for what I declare and act Many do think me an Impostor an Enemy of God and a friend to Devils you must firmly believe that I am not so as your Rulers report me but that I am sent of God and authorized by him you cannot else give me the Title of good but of wicked And the reason they give for this interpretation is because it is a question whether any of the Apostles understood him at this time to be God which seems to have no great strength in it since not only the Devil had publickly owned him to be the Holy One of God * Luke 4.34 but John the Baptist had born Record that he was the Son of God â Joh. 1.32 34. and before this time Peter had confest him openly in the hearing of the rest of the Disciples that he was the Christ the Son of the living God â Mat. 16.16 But I think Paraeus his interpretation is best which takes in both those Either you are serious or deceitful in this Address if you are serious Why do you call me good and make bold to fix so great a Title upon one you have no higher thoughts of than of a meer Man Christ takes occasion from hence to assert God to be only and Sovereignly good * Trismegist Paemand câp 2. There is none good but God God only hath the honour of absolute goodness and none but God merits the name of good â Eugubin de Peren. Philos lib. 5. cap. 9. A Heathen could say much after the same manner All other things are far from the nature of good call none else good but God for this would be a profane Errour Other things are only good in opinion but have not the true Substance of Goodness He is Good in a more excellent way than any Creature can be denominated Good 1. God is only Originally Good Good of himself All Created Goodness is a Rivulet from this Fountain but Divine Goodness hath no Spring God depends upon no other for his Goodness he hath it in and of himself Man hath no Goodness from himself God hath no Goodness from without himself His Goodness is no more derived from another than his Being If he were Good by any External thing that thing must be in being before him or after him If before him he was not then himself from Eternity If after him he was not Good in himself from Eternity The End of his Creating things then was not to confer a Goodness upon his Creatures but to partake of a Goodness from his Creatures God is Good by and in himself since all things are only Good by him and all that Goodness which is in Creatures is but the breathing of his own Goodness upon them They have all their loveliness from the same Hand they have their Being
it Good It had been inconsistent with the Supream Goodness of his Nature to have Created only Murderous Ravenous Injurious Creatures To have Created a Bedlam rather than a World A meer heap of Confusion would have been as inconsistent with his Divine Goodness as with his Divine Wisdom Again when his Goodness had moved him to make a Creature his Goodness would necessarily move him to be beneficial to his Creature not that this necessity results from any Merit in the Creature which he had framed but from the Excellency and Diffusiveness of his own Nature and his own Glory the end for which he form'd it which would have been obscure yea nothing without some degrees of his Bounty What occasion of acknowledgments and praise could the Creature have for its Being if God had given him only a miserable Being while it was innocent in action The Goodness of God would not suffer him to make a Creature without providing conveniencies for it so long as he thought good to maintain its Being and furnishing it with that which was necessary to answer that End for which he Created it And his own Nature would not suffer him to be unkind to his Rational Creature while it was Innocent It had been injustice to inflict Evil upon the Creature that had not offended and had no relation to an offending Creature The Nature of God could not have brought forth such an act â Cocceii sum Theolog. p. 91. And therefore some say that God after he had Created Man could not presently annihilate him and take away his Life and Being As a Soveraign he might do it as Almighty he was able to do it as well as Create him but in regard of his Goodness he could not Morally do it For had he annihilated Man as soon as ever he had made him he had not made Man for himself and for his own Glory to be loved worshipped sought and acknowledged by him He would not then have been the end of Man He had Created him in vain and the VVorld in vain which he assures us he did not * Isa 45.18 19. And certainly if the Gifts of God be without Repentance Man could not have been annihilated after his Creation without Repentance in God without any Cause had not Sin entred into the World If God did not say to Man after Sin had made its entrance into the World seek ye me in vain he could not because of his Goodness have said so to Man in his Innocence As God is necessarily Mind so he is necessarily Will as he is necessarily Knowing so he is necessarily Loving He could not be Blessed if he did not know Himself and his own Perfection Nor Good if he did not delight in Himself and his own Perfections And this Goodness whereby he delights in Himself is the source of his delight in his Creatures wherein he sees the footsteps of Himself If he loves Himself he cannot but love the Resemblance of Himself and the Image of his own Goodness He loves himself because he is the highest Goodness and Excellency and loves every thing as it resembles Himself because it is an efflux of his own Goodness And as he doth necessarily love Himself and his own Excellency so he doth necessarily love any thing that resembles that Excellency which is the Primary Object of his Esteem But 5. Though he be necessarily Good yet he is also freely Good The necessity of the Goodness of his Nature hinders not the liberty of his Actions The matter of his acting is not at all necessary but the manner of his acting in a good and bountiful way is necessary as well as free * Gilbert de Dei Dominio p. 6. He Created the World and Man freely because he might choose whether he would Create it but he Created them good necessarily because he was first necessarily good in his Nature before he was freely a Creator When he Created Man he freely gave him a positive Law but necessarily a Wise and Righteous Law because he was necessarily Wise and Righteous before he was freely a Lawgiver When he makes a Promise he freely lets the Word go out of his Lips but when he hath made it he is necessarily a faithful Performer because he was necessarily True and Righteous in his Nature before he was freely a Promiser God is necessarily good in his Nature but free in his Communications of it To make him necessarily to communicate his Goodness in the first Creation of the Creature would render him but impotent good without liberty and without will If the Communications of it be not free the Eternity of the VVorld must necessarily be concluded which some Anciently asserted from the Naturalness of Gods Goodness making the VVorld flow from God as Light from the Sun God indeed is necessarily good Affectivé in regard of his Nature but freely good Effectivé in regard of the Effluxes of it to this or that particular Subject he pitcheth on He is not so necessarily communicative of his Goodness as the Sun of his light or a Tree of its cooling shade that chooseth not its Objects but enlightens all indifferently without any variation or distinction This were to make God of no more Understanding than the Sun to shine not where it pleaseth but where it must He is an understanding Agent and hath a Soveraign Right to choose his own Subjects It would not be a Supream Goodness if it were not a voluntary Goodness 'T is agreeable to the Nature of the highest Good to be absolutely free to dispence his Goodness in what methods and measures he pleaseth according to the free determinations of his own VVill guided by the VVisdom of his Mind and regulated by the Holiness of his Nature He is not to give an account of any of his matters â Job 33.13 He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion * Rom. 9.15 And he will be good to whom he will be good When he doth act he cannot but act well so it 's necessary yet he may act this good or that good to this or that degree so it is free As it is the Perfection of his Nature 't is necessary as it is the communication of his Bounty 't is voluntary The Eye cannot but see if it be open yet it may glance upon this or that colour fix upon this or that object as it is conducted by the VVill. God necessarily loves Himself because he is good yet not by constraint but freedom because his affection to Himself is from a knowledge of Himself He necessarily loves his own Image because 't is his Image yet freely because not blindly but from motions of understanding and will VVhat necessity could there be upon him to resolve to communicate his Goodness It could not be to make Himself better by it for he had a Goodness uncapable of any addition He confers a goodness on his
to the Innocent and Culpable Could you account him Good if he did always with pleasure behold Evil and perpetually suffer the Oppressions of the Innocent under unpunisht Wickedness How should we know the Goodness of the Divine Nature and his Affection to the goodness of his Creature if he did not by some acts of severity witness his implacable aversion against Sin and his care to preserve the good Government of the World If corrupted Creatures should always be exempt from the effects of his Indignation he would declare himself not to be Infinitely Good because he would not be really Righteous No Man thinks it a Natural Vice in the Sun by the power of its scorching heat to dry up and consume the unwholsom Vapours of the Air nor are the demonstrations of Divine Justice any blots upon his Goodness since they are both for the defence and glory of his Holiness and for the preservation of the beauty and order of the World 2. Is it not part of the Goodness of God to make Laws and annex Threatn ngs And shall it be an impeachment of his Goodness to support them The more severe Laws are made for deterring Evil the better is that Prince accounted in making such provision for the welfare of the Community The design of Laws and the design of upholding the honour of those Laws by the punishment of Offenders is to promote Goodness and restrain Evil The Execution of those Laws must be therefore pursuant to the same design of Goodness which first setled them Would it not be contrary to Goodness to suffer that which was design'd for the support of Goodness to be scorn'd and slighted It would neither be prudence nor goodness but folly and vice to let Laws which were made to promote Vertue be broken with impunity Would not this be to weaken Vertue and give a new life and vigor to Vice Not only the Righteousness of the Law it self but the Wisdom of the Law-giver would be exposed to contempt if the Violations of it remained uncontroul'd and the Violence offer'd by Men passed unpunished None but will acknowledge the Divine Precepts to be the Image of the Righteousness of God and beneficial for the common good of the World * Rom. 7.12 The Law is holy just and good and so is every Precept of it The Law was for no other end but to keep the Creature in subjection to and dependance on God This dependance could not be preserved without a Law nor that Law be kept in Reputation without a Penalty nor would that Penalty be significant without an Execution Every Law loseth the nature of a Law without a Penalty and the Penalty loseth its vigor without the infliction of it How can those Laws attain their end if the Transgressions of them be not punished Would not the wickedness of Mens hearts be encouraged by such a kind of uncomely Goodness And all the threatnings be to no other end than to engender vain and fruitless fears in the minds of Men Is it good for the Majesty of God to suffer it self to be trampled on by his Vassals To suffer Men by their Rebellion to level his Law with the wickedness of their own hearts and by impunity slight his own Glory and incourage their Disobedience Who would give any Man any Prince any Father that should do so the name of a good Governor If it were a fruit of Divine Goodness to make Laws is it contrary to Goodness to support the honour of them 'T is every whit as rational and as good to vindicate the honour of his Laws by Justice as at first to settle them by Authority As much goodness to vindicate it from Contempt as at first to Enact it As it is as much Wisdom to preserve a Law as at first to frame it Shall his Precepts be thought by him unworthy of a support that were not thought by him unworthy to be made The same reason of Goodness that led him to enjoyn them will lead him to revenge them Did Evil appear odious to him while he Enacted his Law and would not his own Goodness as well as his Wisdom appear odious to him if he did never Execute it Would it not be a denial of his own Goodness to be led by the foolish and corrupt Judgment of his Creatures and slight his own Law because his Rebels spurn at it Since he valued it before they could actually contemn it would he not misjudge his own Law and his own Wisdom discount from the true value of them condemn his own Acts censure his Precepts as Unrighteous and therefore Evil and Injurious Remove the differences between Good and Evil look upon Vice and Virtue and Wickedness as Righteousness if he thought his Commands unworthy of a Vindication How can there be any support to the honour of his Precepts without sometimes Executing the severity of his Threatnings And as to his Threatnings of Punishment for the breach of his Laws are they not designed to discourage Wickedness as the Promises of Reward were designed to encourage Goodness Hath he not multiplied the one to scare Men from Sin as well as the other to allure Men to Obedience Is not the same Truth engaged to support the one as well as the other And how could he be abundant in Goodness if he were not abundant in Truth Both are linkt together * Exod. 34.6 If he neglected his Truth he would be out of love with his own Goodness since it cannot be manifested in performing the Promises to the Obedient if it be not also manifested in executing his Threatnings upon the Rebellious Had not God annext Threatnings to his Laws he would have had no care of his own Goodness The Order between God and the Creature wherein the declaration of his Goodness consisted might have been easily broken by his Creature Man would have freed himself from subjection to God been unaccountable to him Had this consisted with that infinite Goodness whereby he loves himself and loves his Creatures As therefore the annexing Threatnings to his Law was a part of his Goodness the Execution of them is so far from being a blemish that it is the honour of his Goodness The Rewards of Obedience and the Punishment of Disobedience refer to the same end viz. the due manifestation of the valuation of his own Law the glorifying his own Goodness which enjoyned so beneficial a Law for Man and the support of that goodness in the Creatures which by that Law he demands righteously and kindly of them 3. Hence it follows That not to punish Evil would be a want of Goodness to himself The Goodness of God is an indulgent Goodness in a way of Wisdom and Reason not a fond Goodness in a way of weakness and folly Would it not be a weakness always to bear with the Impenitent A want of expressing a goodness to Goodness it self Would not Goodness have more reason to complain for a want of Justice to rescue it
the Kingdom of Heaven 'T is very reasonable that things so great and glorious so beneficial to Men and reveal'd to them by so sound an Authority and an unerring truth should be believed The Excellency of the thing disclos'd could admit of no lower a Condition than to be believ'd and embraced There is a sort of Faith that is a Natural Condition in every thing All Religion in the World though never so false depends upon a sort of it for unless there be a belief of future things there would never be a hope of Good or a fear of Evil the two great Hinges upon which Religion moves In all kinds of Learning many things must be believed before a progress can be made Belief of one another is necessary in all acts of Humane Life without which Humane Society would be unlinkt and dissolv'd What is that Faith that God requires of us in this Covenant but a willingness of Soul to take God for our God Christ for our Mediator and the Procurer of our Happiness * Rev. 22.17 What Prince could require less upon any Promise he makes his Subjects than to be believed as true and depended on as good That they should accept his Pardon and other gracious offers and be sincere in their Allegiance to him avoiding all things that may offend him and pursuing all things that may please him Thus God by so small and reasonable a Condition as Faith le ts in the Fruits of Christs Death into our Soul and wraps us up in the fruition of all the Priviledges purchas'd by it So much he hath condescended in his Goodness that upon so slight a Condition we may plead his Promise and humbly challenge by vertue of the Covenant those good things he hath promised in his Word 'T is so reasonable a Condition that if God did not require it in the Covenant of Grace the Creature were obliged to perform it For the publishing any Truth from God naturally calls for Credit to be given it by the Creature and an entertainment of it in Practice Could you offer a more reasonable Condition your selves had it been left to your choice Should a Prince proclaim a Pardon to a profligate Wretch would not all the World cry shame of him if he did not believe it upon the highest assurances and if Ingenuity did not make him sorry for his Crimes and careful in the Duty of a Subject surely the World would cry shame of such a Person 5. 'T is a necessary Condition 1. Necessary for the honour of God A Prince is disparag'd if his Authority in his Law and if his Graciousness in his Promises be not accepted and believed What Physician would undertake a Cure if his Precepts may not be Credited 'T is the first thing in the order of Nature that the Revelation of God should be believed that the reality of his Intentions in inviting Man to the acceptance of those Methods he hath prescribed for their attaining their chief Happiness should be acknowledged 'T is a debasing Notion of God that he should give a Happiness purchased by Divine Blood to a Person that hath no value for it nor any abhorrency of those Sins that occasion'd so great a Suffering nor any will to avoid them Should he not vilifie himself to bestow a Heaven upon that Man that will not believe the offers of it nor walk in those ways that leads to it That walks so as if he would declare there was no truth in his Word nor Holiness in his Nature Would not God by such an act verifie a truth in the language of their practice viz. that he were both false and impure careless of his Word and negligent of his Holiness As God was so desirous to ensure the Consolation of Believers that if there had been a greater Being than himself to attest and for him to be Responsible to for the confirmation of his Promise he would willingly have submitted to him and have made him the Umpire * Heb. 6.19 He swore by himself because he could not swear by a greater By the same reason Had it stood with the Majesty and Wisdom of God to stoop to lower Conditions in this Covenant for the reducing of Man to his Duty and Happiness he would have done it but his Goodness could not take lower steps with the preservation of the Rights of his Majesty and the Honour of his Wisdom Would you have had him wholly submitted to the obstinate will of a Rebellious Creature and be ruled only by his terms Would you have had him receiv'd Men to Happiness after they had heightned their Crimes by a contempt of his Grace as well as of his Creating Goodness and have made them blessed under the guilt of their Crimes without an acknowledgment Should he glorifie one that will not believe what he hath reveal'd nor repent of what himself hath committed and so save a Man after a repeated unthankfulness to the most immense Grace that ever was or can be discovered and offer'd without a detestation of his ingratitude and a voluntary acceptance of his offers 'T is necessary for the honour of God that Man should accept of his terms and not give Laws to him to whom he is obnoxious as a guilty Person as well as Subject as a Creature Again it was very equitable and necessary for the honour of God that since Man fell by an unbelief of his Precept and Threatning he should not rise again without a belief of his Promise and calling himself upon his Truth in that Since he had vilified the honour of his Truth in the Threatning Since Man in his fall would lean to his own understanding against God 't is fit that in his Recovery the highest powers of his Soul his Understanding and Will should be subjected to him in an intire Resignation Now whereas Knowledge seems to have a power over its Object Faith is a full submission to that which is the Object of it Since Man intended a glorying in himself the Evangelical Covenant directs its whole battery against it that Men may glory in nothing but Divine Goodness â 1 Cor. 1.29 30 31. Had Man perform'd exact Obedience by his own Strength he had had something in himself as the Matter of his Glory And though after the fall Grace had made it self illustrious in setting him up upon a new Stock yet had the same Condition of exact Obedience been setled in the same manner Man would have had something to glory in which is strook off wholly by Faith whereby Man in every act must go out of himself for a supply to that Mediator which Divine Goodness and Grace hath appointed 2. 'T is necessary for the happiness of Man That can be no contenting Condition wherein the will of Man doth not concur He that is forced to the most delicious Diet or to wear the bravest Apparel or to be stor'd with abundance of Treasure cannot be happy in those things without an esteem of them
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a comely World If Divine Goodness respected it when it was nothing it would much more respect it
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
neither one nor other can be denied him without a sordid and disingenuous ingratitude God therefore aggravates the Rebellion of the Jews from the cares he had in the bringing them up * Isaiah 2.2 and the miraculous deliverance from Egypt â Jer. 11.7 8. implying that those Benefits were strong Obligations to an ingenuous observance of him 2. It is Establisht upon this That God can enjoin the observance of nothing but what is good He may by the Right of his Soveraign Dominion command that which is indifferent in its own Nature As in positive Laws The not eating the Fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil which had not been evil in it self set aside the Command of God to the contrary and likewise in those Ceremonial Laws he gave the Jews But in regard of the transcendent Goodness and Righteousness of his Nature he will not he cannot Command any thing that is evil in it self or repugnant to the true interest of his Creature And God never oblig'd the Creature to any thing but what was so free from damaging it that it highly conduced to its good and welfare and therefore it is said * 1 Joh. 5.3 That his Commands are not grievous Not grievous in their own Nature nor grievous to one possest with a true Reason The Command given to Adam in Paradise was not grievous in it self nor could he ever have thought it so but upon a false supposition instill'd into him by the Tempter There is a pleasure results from the Law of God to a holy Rational Nature a sweetness tasted both by the Understanding and by the Will for they both rejoice the heart and enlighten the Eyes of the Mind * Psal 19.8 God being Essentially Wisdom and Goodness cannot deviate from that Goodness in any Orders he gives the Creature whatsoever he Enacts must be agreeable to that Rule and therefore he can Will nothing but what is good and excellent and what is good for the Creature As a Heathen Maximus Tyrius Dissert 22. p. 220. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For since he hath put Originally into Man a Natural Instinct to desire that which is good He would never Enact any thing for the Creatures observance that might controul that desire imprinted by himself but what might countenance that Impression of his own hand for if God did otherwise he would contradict his own Natural Law and be a Deluder of his Creatures if he imprest upon them desires one way and order'd directions another The truth is all his Moral Precepts are Comely in themselves and they receive not their goodness from Gods positive Command but that Command supposeth their goodness If every thing were good because God loves it or because God wills it i. e. That Gods loving it or willing it made that good which was not good before then as Camero well argues somewhere Gods goodness would depend upon his loving himself He was good because he loved himself and was not good till he loved himself whereas indeed Gods loving himself doth not make him good but supposeth him good He was good in the Order of Nature before he loved himself and his being good was the ground of his loving himself because as was said before if there were any thing better than God God would love that For it is inconsistent with the Nature of God and Infinite Goodness not to love that which is good and not to love that supreamly which is the Supream Good Further to understand it you may consider If the Question be askt Why God loves himself You would think it a reasonable Answer to say Because he is good But if the Question be askt Why God is good You would think that Answer because he loves himself would be destitute of Reason but the true Answer would be Because his Nature is so and he could not be God if he were not good Therefore Gods goodness is in order of our conception before his self-love and not his self-love before his goodness So the Moral things God Commands are good in themselves before God Commands them and such that if God should Command the contrary it would openly speak him evil and unrighteous Abstract from Scripture and weigh things in your own Reason Could you conceive God good if he should Command a Creature not to love him Could you preserve the Notion of a good Nature in him if he did Command Murder Adultery Tyranny and Cutting of Throats You would wonder to what purpose he made the World and fram'd it for Society if such things were order'd that should deface all Comeliness of Society The Moral Commands given in the Word appeared of themselves very beautiful to meer Reason that had no knowledge of the Written Law they are good and because they are so his goodness had moved his Soveraign Authority strictly to enjoyn them Now this goodness whereby he cannot oblige a Creature to any thing that is evil speaks him highly worthy of our Observance and our Disobedience to his Law to be full of unconceivable Malignity That is the last thing 2. Use is a Use of Comfort He is a Good without mixture Good without weariness none good but God none good purely none good inexhaustibly but God because he is good we may upon our speaking expect his instruction * Psal 25.8 Good is the Lord therefore will he teach Sinners in his way His goodness makes him stoop to be the Tutor to those Worms that lie prostrate before him and though they are Sinners full of filth he drives them not from his School nor denies them his Medicines if they apply themselves to him as a Physician He is good in removing the Punishment due to our Crimes and good in bestowing Benefits not due to our Merits because he is good Penitent Believers may expect forgiveness * Psal 86.5 Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive He acts not according to the rigor of the Law but willingly grants his Pardon to those that flie into the Arms of the Mediator His goodness makes him more ready to forgive than our necessities make us desirous to enjoy He charged not upon Job his impatient Expressions in Cursing the day of his Birth his goodness passed that over in silence and extolls him for speaking the thing that is right right in the main * Job 42.7 when he charges his Friends for not speaking of him the thing that is right as his Servant Job had done He is so good that if we offer the least thing sincerely he will graciously receive it If we have not a Lamb to offer a Pigeon or Turtle shall be accepted upon his Altar He stands not upon Costly presents but sincerely tender'd Services All Conditions are sweeten'd by it whatsoever any in the World enjoy is from a redundancy of this goodness but whatsoever a good Man enjoys is from a propriety in this goodness 1. Here is Comfort in our Addresses to him If
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
he please and exact what he will of his Creature without promising any Rewards May he not use his own for his own honour as well as men use for their credit what they do possess by his indulgence 5. Affliction is an act of his Soveraignty By this right of Soveraignty may not God take away any man's Goods since they were his doles As he was not indebted to us when he bestow'd them so he cannot wrong us when he removes them He takes from us what is more his own than it is ours and was never ours but by his gift and that for a time only not for ever By this right he may determine our times put a period to our days when he pleases strip us of one member and lop off another Man's being was from him and why should he not have a Soveraignty to take what he had a Soveraignty to give Why should this seem strange to any of us since we our selves exercise an absolute Dominion over those things in our possession which have sense and feeling as well as over those that want it Doth not every man think he hath an absolute Authority over the Utensils of his house over his Horse his Dog to preserve or kill him to do what he please with him without rendring any other reason than 't is my own May not God do much more Doth not his dominion over the work of his hands transcend that which a man can claim over his Beast that he never gave life unto He that dares dispute against God's absolute right fancies himself as much a God as his Creator understands not the vast difference between the Divine nature and his own between the Soveraignty of God and his own which is all the theam God himself discourseth upon in those stately Chapters Job 38 39. c. Not mentioning a Word of Job's sin but only vindicating the rights of his own Authority Nor doth Job in his reply Job 40.4 speak of his sin but of his natural vileness as a Creature in the presence of his Creator By this right God unstops the Bottles of Heaven in one place and stops them in another causing it to Rain upon one City and not upon another Amos 4.7 Ordering the Clouds to move to this or that quarter where he hath a mind to be a Benefactor or a Judge 6. Vnequal dispensations are acts of his Soveraignty By this right he is patient toward those whose sins by the common voice of men deserve speedy Judgments and pours out pain upon those that are patterns of vertue to the World By this he gives sometimes the worst of men an Ocean of wealth and honor to swim in and reduceth an useful and exemplary grace to a scanty poverty By this he Rules the Kingdoms of men and sets a Crown upon the head of the basest of men Dan. 4.17 While he deposeth another that seem'd to deserve a weightier Diadem This is as he is the Lord of the Ammunition of his Thunders and the Treasures of his Bounty 7. He may inflict what torments he pleases Some say by this right of Soveraignty he may inflict what torments he pleaseth upon an innocent person which indeed will not bear the nature of a punishment as an effect of Justice without the supposal of a crime but a torment as an effect of that Soveraign right he hath over his Creature which is as absolute over his work as the Potters power is over his own Clay Jerem. 18.6 Rom. 9.21 * Lessius de perfect Divin p. 66. 67. May not the Potter after his labour either set his vessel up to adorn his House or knock it in peices and fling it upon the Dunghill separate it to some noble use or condemn it to some sordid service Is the right of God over his Creatures less than that of the Potter over his Vessel since God contributed all to his Creature but the Potter never made the Clay which is the substance of the Vessel nor the water which was necessary to make it tractable but only moulded the substance of it into such a shape The Vessel that is fram'd and the Potter that frames it differ only in Life the body of the Potter whereby he executes his Authority is of no better a mould than the Clay the matter of his Vessel shall he have so absolute a power over that which is so near him and shall not God over that which is so infinitely distant from him The Vessel perhaps might plead for its self that it was once part of the Body of a man and as good as the Potter himself whereas no Creature can plead it was part of God and as good as God himself Though there be no man in the World but deserves affliction yet the Scripture sometimes layes affliction upon the score of God's dominion without any respect to the sin of the afflicted person James 5.15 Speaking of a sick person if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him whereby is implyed that he might be struck into sickness by God without any respect to a particular sin but in a way of Tryal and that his affliction sprung not from any exercise of Divine Justice but from his absolute soveraignty And so in the case of the blind man when the Disciples askt for what sin it was whether for his own or his Parents sin he was born blind John 9.3 Neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents which speaks in its self not against the whole current of Scripture but the words import thus much that God in this blindness from the birth neither respected any sin of the mans own nor of his Parents but he did it as an absolute soveraign to manifest his own Glory in that miraculous cure which was wrought by Christ Though afflictions do not happen without the desert of the Creature yet some afflictions may ãâã sent without any particular respect to that desert meerly for the manifestation of God's Glory since the Creature was made for God himself and his honour and therefore may be used in a serviceableness to the Glory of the Creator 2. His Dominion is absolute in regard of unlimitedness by any Law without him He is an absolute Monarch that makes Laws for his Subjects but is not bound by any himself nor receives any rules and Laws from his Subjects for the management of his Government But most Governments in the World are bounded by Laws made by common consent But when Kings are not limited by the Laws of their Kingdoms yet they are bounded by the Law of Nature and by the Providence of God But God is under no Law without himself his rule is within him the rectitude and Righteousness of his own nature he is not under that Law he hath prescribed to man The Law was not made for a Righteous man 1 Tim. 1.9 Much less for a Righteous God God is his own Law his own nature is his rule as his own Glory is his end
something of its vastness but we cannot presently fathom the depth of it and understand those lower Fountains that supply that great Ocean of Waters 'T is part of God's Sovereignty as it is of the wisest Princes that he hath a Wisdom beyond the reach of his Subjects 't is not for a finite nature to understand an infinite Wisdom nor for a foolish Creature that hath lost his understanding by the fall to judge of the reason of the methods of a wise Counsellor Yet those actions that savour most of Soveraignty present men with some glances of his Wisdom Was it meer will that he suffered some Angels to fall But his Wisdom was in it for the manifestation of his Justice as it was also in the case of Pharaoh Was it meer will that he suffered sin to be committed by man was not his Wisdom in this for the discovery of his mercy which never had been known without that which should render a Creature miserable Rom. 11.32 He hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have Mercy upon all Though God had such an absolute right to have annihilated the World as soon as ever he had made it yet how had this consisted with his Wisdom to have erected a Creature after his own image one day and despis'd it so much the next as to Cashier it from Being What Wisdom had it been to make a thing only to destroy it To repent of his work as soon as ever it came out of his hands without any occasion offered by the Creature If God be suppos'd to be Creator he must be supposed to have an end in Creation what End can that be but himself and his own Glory the manifestation of the perfections of his Nature What perfection could have been discovered in so quick an annihilation but that of his power in Creating and of his Soveraignty in snatching away the Being of his Rational Creature before it had laid the methods of acting What Wisdom to make a World and a reasonable Creature for no use Not to Praise and Honour him but to be broken in pieces and destroy'd by him 2. His Soveraignty is managed according to the rule of Righteousness Worldly Princes often fancy Tyranny and Oppression to be the chief marks of Soveraignty and think their Scepters not beautiful till died in blood nor the Throne secure till established upon slain Carkasses But Justice and Judgment are the Foundation of the Throne of God Psal 89.14 Alluding perhaps to the supporters of Arms and Thrones which among Princes are the figures of Lions Emblems of Courage as Solomon had 1 Kings 10.19 But God makes not so much might as right the support of his He sits on a Throne of Holiness Psal 47.8 As he reigns over the Heathens referring to the calling of the Gentiles after the rejecting the Jews the Psalmist here praising the Righteousness of it as the Apostle had the unsearchable Wisdom of it Rom. 11.33 In all his ways he is Righteous Psal 145.17 In his ways of Terror as well as those of sweetness in those works wherein little else but that of his Soveraignty appears to us 'T is always linkt with his Holiness that he will not do by his absolute right any thing but what is conformable to it since his dominion is founded upon the excellency of his Nature he will not do any thing but what is agreeable to it and becoming his other perfections Though he be an absolute Soveraign he is not an Arbitrary Governor Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Gen. 18.25 i. e. 'T is impossible but he should act righteously in every punctilio of his Government Since his Righteousness capacitates him to be a Judge not a Tyrant of all the Earth The Heathen Poets represented their chief God Jupiter with Themis or Right sitting by him upon his Throne in all his Orders God cannot by his absolute Soveraignty command some things Because they are directly against unchangeable Righteousness as to command a Creature to hate or blaspheme the Creator not to own him nor praise him It would be a manifest unrighteousness to order the Creature not to own him upon whom he depends both in its being and well being This would be against that natural duty which is indispensably due from every rational Creature to God This would be to order him to lay aside his reason while he retains it to disown him to be the Creator while man remains his Creature This is repugnant to the Nature of God and the true nature of the Creature Or to exact any thing of man but what he had given him a capacity in his original nature to perform If any command were above our natural power it would be unrighteous as to command a man to grasp the Globe of the Earth to stride over the Sea to lave out the waters of the Ocean these things are impossible and become not the Righteousness and Wisdom of God to enjoyn There can be no obligation on man to an impossibility God had a free dominion over nullity before the Creation he could call it out into the being of man and beast But he could not do any thing in Creation foolishly because of his infinite Wisdom nor could he by the right of his absolute Soveraignty make man sinful because of his infinite purity As it is impossible for him not to be Soveraign 'T is impossible for him to deny his Deity and his purity 'T is Lawful for God to do what he will but his will being ordered by the Righteousness of his nature as infinite as his will he cannot do any thing but what is just and therefore in his dealing with men you find him in Scripture submitting the reasonableness and equity of his proceedings to the Judgment of his deprav'd Creatures and the inward dictates of their own Consciences Isaiah 5.3 And now Oh Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah Judge I pray you between me and my Vineyard Though God be the great Soveraign of the World yet he acts not in a way of absolute Soveraignty He rules by Law he is a Lawgiver as well as a King Isaiah 33.22 It had been repugnant to the nature of a rational Creature to be ruled otherwise to be govern'd as a beast this had been to frustrate those Faculties of Will and Understanding which had been given him To conclude this when we say God can do this or that or command this or that his Authority is not bounded and limited properly Who can reasonably detract from his Almightiness because he cannot do any thing which savors of weakness and what detracting is it from his Authority that he cannot do any thing unseemly for the dignity of his nature 'T is rather from the infiniteness of his Righteousness than the straitness of his Authority at most it is but a voluntary bounding his dominion by the Law of his own Holiness 3. His Soveraignty is managed according to the rule of Goodness
the Moral Law was publisht had been a vain exhortation had there been no revelation of the mind of God in all Ages 2. The dominion of God is manifest in the extent of his Laws As he is the Governour and Soveraign of the whole World so he Enacts Laws for the whole World One Prince cannot make Laws for another unless he makes him his Subject by right of conquest Spain cannot make Laws for England or England for Spain But God having the supream Government as King over all is a Lawgiver to all to irrational as well as rational Creatures The Heavens have their Ordinances Job 38.33 All Creatures have a Law imprinted on their beings Rational Creatures have Divine Statutes Copied in their heart For men it is clear Rom. 2.14 Every Son of Adam at his coming into the World brings with him a Law in his nature and when reason clears it self up from the Clouds of sence he can make some difference between Good and Evil discern something of fit and just Every man finds a Law within him that checks him if he offends it Noââ ãâã without a legal indictment and a legal Executioner within them God ãâ¦ã was the Author of this as a Soveraign Lord in establishing a Law iâ man at the same time wherein as an Almighty Creator he imparted a being This Law proceeds from God's general power of governing as he is the Author of nature and binds not barely as it is the reason of man but by the Authority of God as it is a Law engraven on his Conscience And no doubt but a Law was given to the Angels God did not Govern those intellectual Creatures as he doth brutes and in a way inferior to his rule of Man Some sinned all might have sinned in regard of the changeableness of their nature Sin cannot be but against some rule Where there is no Law there is no Transgression what that Law was is not reveal'd but certainly it must be the same in part with the Moral Law so far as it agreed with their spiritual natures a love to God a Worship of him and a love to one another in their Societies and Persons 3. The dominion of God is manifest in the reason of some Laws which seem to be nothing else than purely his own Will Some Laws there are for which a reason may be rendered from the nature of the thing enjoyned as to Love Honour and Worship God For others none but this God will have it so such was that positive Law to Adam of not eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Gen. 2.17 which was meerly an asserting his own dominion and was different from that Law of Nature God had written in his heart No other reason of this seems to us but a resolve to try mans Obedience in away of absolute Soveraignty and to manifest his right over all Creatures to reserve what he pleased to himself and permit the use of what he pleased to man and to signifie to man that he was to depend on him who was his Lord and not on his own will There was no more hurt in it self for Adam to have eaten of that than of any other in the Garden the Fruit was pleasant to the Eye and Good for Food but God would shew the right he had over his own goods and his Authority over man to reserve what he pleases of his own Creation from his touch that since man could not claim a propriety in any thing he was to meddle with nothing but by the leave of his Soveraign either discovered by a special or general License Thus God shewed himself the Lord of Man and that man was but his Steward to act by his Orders If God had forbidden man the use of more Trees in the Garden his command had been just Since as a Soveraign Lord he might dispose of his own Goods and when he had granted him the whole compass of that pleasant Garden and the whole World round about for him and his posterity it was a more tolerable exercise of his dominion to reserve this one Tree as a mark of his Soveraignty when he had left all others to the use of Adam He reserv'd nothing to himself as Lord of the Manour but this and Adam was prohibited nothing else but this one as a sign of his subjection Now for this no reason can be rendered by any man but meerly the Will of God this was meerly a fruit of his Dominion For the moral Laws a reason may be rendred to Love God hath reason to enforce it besides Gods Will viz. The Excellency of his Nature and the greatness and multitudes of his benefits To love our Neighbour hath enforcing reasons viz. the Conjunction in blood and the preservation of humane Society and the need we may stand in of their love our selves But no reason can be assign'd of this positive command about the Tree of knowledge of good and evil but meerly the pleasure of God It was a branch of his pure dominion to try mans Obedience and a mark of his Goodness to try it by so easie and light a precept when he might have extended his Authority further Had not God given this or the like order his absolute dominion had not been so conspicuous 'T is true Adam had a Law of Nature in him whereby he was obliged to perpetual Obedience and though it was a part of God's dominion to implant it in him yet his supream dominion over the Creatures had not been so visible to man but by this or a precept of the same kind What was commanded or prohibited by the Law of Nature did bespeak a comeliness in it self it appear'd Good or Evil to the reason of man but this was neither Good nor Evil in it self it receiv'd its sole Authority from the absolute Will of God and nothing could result from the fruit it self as a reason why man should not tast it but only the sole Will of God And as God's dominion was most conspicuous in this precept so man's obedience had been most eminent in observing it For in his obedience to it nothing but the sole power and Authority of God which is the proper rule of obedience could have been respected not any reason from the thing it self To this we may referre some other Commands as that of appointing the time of solemn and public Worship the seventh day though the Worship of God be a part of the Law of Nature yet the appointing a particular day wherein he would be more formally and solemnly acknowledged than on other days was grounded upon his absolute right of Legislation For there was nothing in the time it self that could render that day more Holy than another though God respected his finishing the work of Creation in his institution of that day Gen. 2.3 Such were the Ceremonial Commands of Sacrifices and Washings under the Law and the Commands of Sacraments under the Gospel The one to last till the first
Coming of Christ and his Passion the other to last till the second Coming of Christ and his Triumph Thus he made natural and unavoidable uncleannesses to be sins and the touching a dead Body to be pollution which in their own nature were not so 4. The Dominion of God appears in the Moral Law and his Majesty in publishing it As the Law of Nature was writ by his own Fingers in the Nature of man so it was Engraven by his own finger in the Tables of Stone Exod. 31.18 Which is very emphatically exprest to be a mark of God's Dominion Exodus 32.16 And the Tables were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God Engraven upon the Tables and when the first Tables were broken though he orders Moses to frame the Tables yet the writing of the Law he reserves to himself Exod. 34.1 'T is not said of any part of the Scripture that it was writ by the finger of God but only of the Decalogue herein he would have his Soveraignty eminently appear it was publish't by God in state with a numerous attendance of his heavenly Militia Deut. 32.2 And the Artillery of Heaven was shot off at the solemnity And therefore it is call'd a fiery Law coming from his right hand i. e. His Soveraign power It was publisht with all the marks of supream Majesty 5. The Dominion of God appears in the Obligation of the Law which reacheth the Conscience The Laws of every Prince are fram'd for the outward conditions of Men they do not by their Authority bind the Conscience and what obligations do result from them upon the Conscience is either from their being the same immediately with divine Laws or as they are according to the just power of the Magistrate founded on the Law of God Conscience hath a protection from the King of Kings and cannot be arrested by any humane power God hath given man but an Authority over half the man and the worst half too that which is of an Earthly original but reserved the Authority over the better and more heavenly half to himself The Dominion of earthly Princes extends only to the bodies of men they have no Authority over the Soul their punishment and rewards cannot reach it And therefore their Laws by their single Authority cannot bind it but as they are co-incident with the Law of God or as the equity of them is subservient to the preservation of humane Society a regular and Righteous thing which is the Divine end in Government and so they bind as they have a relation to God as the supream Magistrate The Conscience is only intelligible to God in its secret motions and therefore only guidable by God God only pierceth into the Conscience by his Eye And therefore only can conduct it by his Rule Man cannot tell whither we embrace this Law in our Heart and Consciences or only in appearance He only can Judge it Luke 12.3 4. And therefore he only can impose Laws upon it 't is out of the reach of humane penal Authority if their Laws be transgress'd inwardly by it Conscience is a Book in some sort as Sacred as the Scripture no addition can be lawfully made to it no substraction from it Men cannot diminish the duty of Conscience or raze out the Law God hath stampt upon it They cannot put a supersedeas to the Writ of Conscience or stop its mouth with a Noli Prosequi They can make no addition by their Authority to bind it 't is a flower in the Crown of Divine Soveraignty only 2. His Soveraignty appears in a power of dispensing with his own Laws 'T is as much a part of his Dominion to dispense with his Laws as to enjoyn them he only hath the power of relaxing his own right no Creature hath power to do it that would be to usurp a superiority over him and order above God himself Repealing or dispensing with the Law is a branch of Royal Authority 'T is true God will never dispense with those Moral Laws which have an eternal reason in themselves and their own nature as for a Creature to Fear Love and Honour God this would be to dispense with his own Holiness and the Righteousness of his Nature to fully the purity of his own Dominion it would write folly upon the first Creation of man after the Image of God by writing mutability upon himself in framing himself after the corrupted Image of man It would null and frustrate the excellency of the Creature wherein the Image of God mostly shines nay it would be to dispense with a Creatures being a Creator and make him independent upon the Soveraign of the World in Moral Obedience But God hath a right to dispense with the ordinary Laws of Nature in the inferior Creatures he hath a power to alter their course by an arrest of Miracles and make them come short or go beyond his Ordinances established for them He hath a right to make the Sun stand still or move backward to bind up the Womb of the Earth and barr the influences of the Clouds bridle in the rage of the fire and the fury of Lions make the liquid waters stand like a Wall or pull up the dam which he hath set to the Sea and command it to overflow the neighbouring Countries He can dispense with the natural Laws of the whole Creation and strain every string beyond its ordinary pitch Positive Laws he hath revers'd as the Ceremonial Law given to the Jews The very nature indeed of that Law requir'd a repeal and fell of Course when that which was intended by it was come it was of no longer significancy as before it was a useful shadow it would afterwards have been an empty one Had not God took away this Christianity had not in all likelyhood been propagated among the Gentiles This was the partition wall beetween Jews and Gentiles Eph. 2.14 Which made them a distinct Family from all the World and was the occasion of the enmity of the Gentiles against the Jews When God had by bringing in what was signified by those Rites declar'd his decree for the ceasing of them and when the Jews fond of those Divine Institutions would not allow him the right of repealing what he had the Authority of enacting he resolved for the asserting his Dominion to bury them in the ruines of the Temple and City and make them for ever uncapable of practising the main and Essential parts of them For the Temple being the pillar of the legal Service by demolishing that God hath taken away their right of sacrificing it being peculiarly annext to that place they have no Altar dignifyed with a fire from Heaven to consume their sacrifices no legal High Priest to offer them God hath by his Providence chang'd his own Law as well as by his precept Yea he hath gone higher by vertue of his Soveraignty and chang'd the whole scene and methods of his Government after the fall from King Creator
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 forââit 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 ãâã came to root out the People of Sodom and make them the examples of his veâgeance 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 Wârld 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
according to God's order Ezek. 37.24 25. David my servant shall be King over them and my servant David shall be their Prince for ever He shall be a Prince over them but my servant in that principality in the exercise and duration of it The Soveraignty of God is paramount in all that Christ hath done as a Priest or shall do as a King The VSE 1. For Instruction 1. How great is the contempt of this soveraignty of God Man naturally would be free from Gods Empire to be a slave under the Dominion of his own lust The soveraignty of God as a Law-giver is most abhorr'd by man Levit. 26.43 The Israelites the best people in the World were apt by nature not only to despise but abhorre his Statutes There is not a Law of God but the corrupt heart of man hath an abhorrency of How often do men wish that God had not enacted this or that Law that goes against the grain and in wishing so wish that he were no soveraign or not such a soveraign as he is in his own ââture but one according to their corrupt model This is the great quarrel between God and Man whither he or they shall be the soveraign Ruler He should not by the Will of Man rule in any one Village in the World Gods vote should not be predominant in any one thing There is not a Law of his but is expos'd to contempt by the perverseness of Man Prov. 1.21 Ye have set at nought all my Counsel and would have none of my reproof Septuag Ye have made all my Counsels without Authority The nature of man cannot endure one precept of God nor one rebuke from him And for this cause God is at the expence of Judgements in the World to assert his own Empire to the Teeth and Consciences of men Psal 59.13 Lord consume them in wrath and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the Earth The Dominion of God is not slighted by any Creature of this World but Man all others observe it by observing his Order whither in their natural motions or preternaral irruptions they punctually act according to their Commission Man only speaks a Dialect against the strain of the whole Creation and hath none to imitate him among all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth but only among those in Hell Man is more impatient of the yoke of God than of the yoke of Man There are not so many rebellions committed by inferiors against their superiors and fellow Creatures as are committed against God A willing and easie sinning is an equalling the Authority of God to that of Man Hos 6.7 They like men have transgrest my Covenant * Munster They have made no more account of breaking my Covenant than if they had broken some league or compact made with a meer man so slightly do they esteem the Authority of God Such a disesteem of the divine Authority is a vertual undeifying of him To slight his soveraignty is to stab his Deity Since the one cannot be preserved without the support of the other his life would expire with his Authority How base and brutish is it for vile dust and mouldring clay to lift up it self against the Majesty of God whose Throne is in the Heavens who sways his Scepter over all parts of the World A Majesty before whom the Devils shake and the highest Cherubims tremble 'T is as if the Thistle that can presently be trod down by the foot of a wild Beast should think it self a match for the Cedar of Lebanon as the phrase is 2 Kings 14.9 Let us consider this in general and also in the ordinary practise of men First In General 1. All sin in its nature is a contempt of the Divine Dominion As every act of Obedience is a confirmation of the Law and consequently a subscription to the Authority of the Lawgiver Deut 27.26 so every breach to it is a conspiracy against the soveraignty of the Law-giver setting up our Will against the Will of God is an Articling against his Authority as setting up our reason against the methods of God is an Articling against his Wisdom the intendment of every act of sin is to wrest the Scepter out of God's hand The Authority of God is the first attribute in the Deity which it directs its edge against 't is called therefore a transgression of his Law 1 John 3.4 And therefore a slight or neglect of the Majesty of God and the not keeping his Commands is call'd a forgetting God Deut. 8.11 i. e. a forgetting him to be our absolute Lord. As the first notion we have of God as a Creator is that of his Soveraignty so the first perfection that sin struck at in the violation of the Law was his soveraignty as a Lawgiver Breaking the Law is a dishonouring God Rom. 2.23 a Snatching off his Crown to obey our own Wills before the Will of God is to preferre our selves as our own Soveraigns before him Sin is a wrong and injury to God not in his Essence that is above the reach of a Creature nor in any thing profitable to him or pertaining to his own intrinsick advantage not an injury to God in himself but in his Authority in those things which pertain to his Glory a disowning his due right and not using his goods according to his will Thus the whole world may be call'd as God calls Chaldea a Land of Rebels Jer. 50.21 Go up against the Land of Merathaim or Rebels Rebels not against the Jews but against God The mighty opposition in the heart of man to the Supremacy of God is discovered Emphatically by the Apostle Rom. 8.7 in that expression The carnal mind is enmity against God i. e. against the Authority of God because it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be It refuseth not subjection to this or that part but to the whole to every mark of Divine Authority in it it will not lay down its arms against it nay it cannot but stand upon its terms against it the Law can no more be fulfill'd by a carnal mind than it can be disowned by a soveraign God God is so Holy that he cannot alter a Righteous Law and man is so averse that he cares not for nay cannot fulfil one Tittle so much doth the Nature of man swell against the Majesty of God Now an enmity to the Law which is in every sin implies a perversity against the Authority of God that enacted it 2. All sin in its nature is the despoyling God of his sole soveraignty which was probably the first thing the Devil aim'd at That pride was the sin of the Devil the Scripture gives us some account of when the Apostle adviseth not a novice or one that hath but lately embraced the Faith to be chosen a Bishop 1 Tim. 3.6 Least being lifted up with Pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Least he fall into the same sin for
concern without appointment and pattern than Moses a servant ver 5.6 It seems to be a vote of nature to referr the Original of the modes of all worship to God and therefore in all those varieties of Ceremonies among the Heathens there was scarce any but were imagin'd by them to be the Dictates and Orders of some of their pretended Deities and not the resolves of meer Humane Authority What intrusion upon God's right hath the Papacy made in regard of Officers Cardinals Patriarchs c. not known in any Divine Order In regard of Ceremonies in worship prest as necessary to obtain the favour of God Holy-water Crucifixes Altars Images Cringings reviving many of the Jewish and Pagan Ceremonies and adopting them into the Family of Christian Ordinances as if God had been too absolute and arbitrary in repealing the one and dashing in peices the other When God had by his Soveraign order fram'd a Religion for the heart men are ready to usurp an Authority to frame one for the sence to dress the Ordinances of God in new and gaudy habits to take the eye by a vain pomp thus affecting a Divine Royalty and acting a silly childishness and after this to impose the observation of those upon the Consciences of men is a bold ascent into the Throne of God To impose Laws upon the Conscience which Christ hath not imposed hath deservedly been thought the very Spirit of Antichrist It may be call'd also the Spirit of Anti-God God hath reserv'd to himself the sole Soveraignty over the Conscience and never indulg'd men any part of it he hath not given man a power over his own Conscience much less one man a power over another's Conscience Men have a power over outward things to do this or that where it is determined by the Law of God but not the least Authority to controul any dictate or determination of Conscience The sole Empire of that is appropriate to God as one of the great marks of his Royalty What an usurpation is it of God's right to make Conscience a slave to man which God hath solely as the father of Spirits subjected to himself An usurpation which though the Apostles those extraordinary Officers might better have claim'd yet they utterly disown'd any imperious dominion over the faith of others 2 Cor. 1.24 Though in this they do not seem to climb up above God yet they set themselves in the Throne of God envy him an absolute Monarchy would be sharers with him in his Legislative power and grasp one end of his Scepter in their own hands They do not pretend to take the Crown from Gods head but discover a bold ambition to shuffle their hairy Scalps under it and wear part of it upon their own that they may rule with him not under him And would be joint Lords of his Mannour with him who hath by the Apostle forbidden any to be Lords of his Heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 And therefore they cannot assume such an Authority to themselves till they can shew where God hath resign'd this part of his Authority to them If their Exposition of that place Matth. 16.18 Vpon this rock I will build my Church be granted to be true and that the person and Successors of Peter are meant by that Rock it could be no Apology for their Usurpations 't is not Peter and his Successors shall build but I will build others are instruments in building but they are to observe the directions of the grand Architect 3. The Soveraignty of God is contemned when men prefer Obedience to mens Laws before Obedience to God As God hath an undoubted right as the Law-giver and Ruler of the World to enact Laws without consulting the pleasure of men or requiring their consent to the verifying and establishing his Edicts so are men oblig'd by their Allegiance as subjects to observe the Laws of their Creator without consulting whither they be agreeable to the Laws of his revolted Creatures To consult with Flesh and Blood whither we should obey is to Authorize Flesh and Blood above the purest and most soveraign spirit When men will obey their superiors without taking in the condition the Apostle prescribes to Servants Col. 3.22 In singleness of heart fearing God and post-pone the fear of God to the fear of man 't is to render God of less power with them than the drop of a Bucket or dust of the Ballance When we out of fear of punishment will observe the Laws of Men against the Laws of God 't is like the Egyptians to Worship a ravenous Crocodile instead of a Deity when we submit to humane Laws and stagger at Divine 't is to set man upon the Throne of God and God at the footstool of man to set man above and God beneath to make him the tail and not the head as God speaks in another case of Israel Deut. 28.13 When we pay an outward observation to Divine Laws because they are backt by the Laws of Man and humane Authority is the motive of our observance we subject Gods soveraignty to Mans Authority what he hath from us is more owing to the pleasure of men than any value we have for the Empire of God When men shall commit Murders and imbrue their hands in blood by the order of a Grandee when the worst sins shall be committed by the order of Papal dispensations When the use of his Creatures which God hath granted and sanctifi'd shall be abstain'd from for so many days in the week and so many weeks in the year because of a Roman Edict the Authority of man is acknowledg'd not only equal but superior to that of God The dominion of dust and clay is preferr'd before the undoubted right of the soveraign of the World The Commands of God are made less than humane and the orders of men more authoritative than Divine and a grand Rebels usurpation of Gods right is countenanced When men are more devout in observance of uncertain Traditions or meer humane inventions than at the hearing of the unquestionable Oracles of God When men shall squeeze their countenances into a more serious figure and demean themselves in a more religious posture at the appearance of some mock Ceremony clothed in a Jewish or Pagan garb which hath unhappily made a rent in the Coat of Christ and pay a more exact reverence to that which hath no Divine but only a humane stamp upon it than to the clear and plain Word of God which is perhaps neglected with sleepy nodds or which is worse entertain'd with prophane scoffs this is to prefer the Authority of man employ'd in trifles before the Authority of the wise Law-giver of the World Besides the ridiculousness of it is as great as to adore a Glo-worm and laugh at the Sun or for a Courtier to be more exact in his cringes and starcht postures before a puppet than before his soveraign Prince In all this we make not the Will and Authority of God our rule but the
have devout figures of the face and uncomely postures of the soul is to exclude his dominion from our spirits while we own it only over our outward man we render him an insignificant Lord not worthy of any higher adorations from us than a sensless statue We demean not our selves according to his Majestical Authority over us when we present him not with the Cream and Quintessence of our souls The greatness of God requir'd a great house and a costly Palace 1 Chron. 29.11.16 David speaks it in order to the building God a house and Temple God being a great King expects a Male the best of our flock Mal. 1.14 a Masculine and vigorous service When we present him with a sleepy sickly rheumatick service we betray our conceptions of him to be as mean as if he were some petty Lord whose dominion were of no larger extent than a Mole hill or some inconsiderable Village 6. Omission of the service he hath appointed is another contempt of his Soveraignty This is a contempt of his dominion whereby he hath a right to appoint what means and conditions he pleaseth for the enjoyment of his proffered and promised benefits 'T is an enmity to his Scepter not to accept of his terms after a long series of precepts and invitations made for the restoring us to that happiness we had lost and providing all means necessary thereunto nothing being wanting but our own concurrence with it and acceptance of it by rendring that easy homage he requires By with-holding from him the service he enjoyns we deny that we hold any thing of him As he that payes not the quit rent though it be never so small disowns the Soveraignty of the Lord of the Manour It implyes that he is a miserable poor Lord having no right or destitute of any power to dispose of any thing in the World to our advantage Job 22.17 They say unto God depart from us what can the Almighty do for them They will have no commerce with him in a way of duty because they imagine him to have no Soveraign power to do any thing for them in way of benefit as if his dominion were an empty title and as much destitute of any Authority to command a favour for them as any Idol They think themselves to have as absolute a disposal of things as God himself What can he do for us What can he confer upon us that we cannot invest our selves in As though they were Soveraigns in an equality with God Thus men live without God in the World Eph. 2.12 as if there were no supream being to pay a respect to or none fit to receive any homage at their hands With-holding from God the right of his time and the right of his service which is the just claim of his Soveraignty 7. Censuring others is a contempt of his Soveraignty When we censure mens persons or actions by a rash judgment when we will be judges of the good and evil of mens actions where the law of God is utterly silent we usurp God's place and invade his right we claim a superiority over the Law and judge God defective as the rector of the World in his prescriptions of good and evil Jam. 4.11.12 He that speaks evil of his Brother and judgeth his Brother speaks evil of the Law and judgeth the Law There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy Who art thou that judgest another Do you know what you do in judging another You take upon you the garb of a Soveraign as if he were more your servant than God's and more under your Authority than the Authority of God 't is a setting thy self in God's Tribunal and assuming his rightful power of judging thy Brother is not to be govern'd by thy fancy but by God's Law and his own Conscience 2. Information Hence it follows that God doth actually govern the World He hath not only a right to rule but he rules over all so saith the Text. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords what to let them do what they please and all that their lusts prompt them to hath God an absolute Dominion Is it good and is it wise Is it then a useless prerogative of the Divine Nature Shall so excellent a power lye idle as if God were a lifeless Image Shall we fancy God like some lazy Monarch that solaceth himself in the Gardens of his Palace or steeps himself in some charming pleasures and leaves his Lieutenants to govern the several Provinces which are all Members of his Empire according to their own humour Not to exercise this Dominion is all one as not to have it To what purpose is he invested with this Soveraignty if he were careless of what were done in the world and regarded not the oppressions of men God keeps no useless excellency by him He actually reigns over the Heathen Psal 47.8 and those as bad or worse than Heathens It had been a vanity in David to call upon the Heavens to be glad and the earth to rejoyce under the rule of a sleepy Deity 1 Chron. 16.31 No his Scepter is full of eyes as it was painted by the Egyptians He is always waking and always more than Ahashuerus reading over the records of Humane actions Not to exercise his Authority is all one as not to regard whither he keep the Crown upon his head or continue the Scepter in his hand If his Soveraignty were exempt from care it would be destitute of Justice God is more Righteous than to resign the ensigns of his Authority to blind and oppressive man to think that God hath a power and doth not use it for just and righteous ends is to imagine him an unrighteous as well as a careless Soveraign such a thing in a man renders him a base man and a worse Governor 'T is a vice that disturbs the World and overthrows the ends of Authority as to have a power and use it well is the greatest virtue of an Earthly Soveraign What an unworthy conception is it of God to acknowledge him to be possessed of a greater Authority than the greatest Monarch and yet to think that he useth it less than a petty Lord that his Crown is of no more value with him than a Feather This represents God impotent that he cannot or unrighteous and base that he will not administer the Authority he hath for the noblest and justest end But can we say that he neglects the government of the World How come things then to remain in their due order How comes the Law of nature yet to be preserved in every man's Soul How comes Conscience to check and cite and judge If God did not exercise his Authority what Authority could Conscience have to disturb man in unlawful practises and to make his sports and sweetness so unpleasant and sour to him Hath he not given frequent notices and memorials that he holds a curb over corrupt inclinations puts rubs in the way of malicious
Province a Rebel if he disobeys the Orders sent him by the soveraign Prince that commission'd him Rebellion against God is a crime of Princes as well as Rebellion against Princes a Crime of Subjects Saul is charg'd with it by Samuel in a high manner for an act of simple disobedience though intended for the service of God and the enriching his Country with the spoils of the Amalekites 1 Sam. 15.23 Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft like Witchcraft or Covenanting with the Divel acting as if he had received his commission not from God but from Sathan Magistrates as commission'd by God ought to act for him Doth humane authority ever give a Commission to any to rebel against it self did God ever depute any earthly soveraignty against his glory and give them leave to out-law his Laws to introduce their own No when he gave the vicarious dominion to Christ he calls upon the Kings of the Earth to be instructed and be Wise and kiss the Son Psal 2.10.12 i. e. To observe his orders and pay him homage as their Governour What a silly doltish thing is it to resist that supream Authority to which the Arch-Angels submit themselves and regulate their employments punctually by their instructions Those excellent Creatures exactly obey him in all the acts of their subordinate Government in the World those in whose hand the greatest Monarch is no more than a silly fly between the fingers of a Giant A contradiction to the interest of God hath been fatal to Kings The four Monarchies have had their wings clipt and most of them have been buried in their own ashes they have all like the imitators of Lucifers pride fallen from the Heaven of their Glory to the depth of their shame and misery All Governours are bound to be as much obedient to God as their Subjects are bound to be submissive to them Their Authority over men is limited Gods Authority over them is absolute and unbounded Though every Soul ought to be subject to the higher powers yet there is a higher power of all to which those higher powers are to subject themselves they are to be keepers of both the Tables of the Law of God and are then most soveraigns when they set in their own practice an example of obedience to God for their Subjects to write after 2. They ought to imitate God in the exercise of their soveraignty in ways of Justice and Righteousness Though God be an absolute soveraign yet his Government is not Tyrannical but managed according to the rules of Righteousness Wisdom and Goodness If God that created them as well as their Subjects doth so exercise his Government 't is a duty incumbent upon them to do the same Since they are not the Creators of their people but the conductors As Gods Government tends to the good of the World so ought theirs to the good of their Countries God committed not the government of the World to the Mediator in an unlimited way but for the good of the Church in order to the Eternal Salvation of his people Eph. 1.22 He gave him to be head over all things to the Church He had power over the Devils to restrain them in their temptation and malice power over the Angels to order their Ministry for the Heirs of Salvation So power is given to Magistrates for the Civil preservation of the World and of humane Society They ought therefore to consider for what ends they are placed over the rest of mankind and not exercise their Authority in a licentious way but conformable to that Justice and Righteousness wherein God doth administer his government and for the preservation of those who are committed to them 3. Magistrates must then be obey'd when they act according to Gods order and within the bounds of the divine Commission They are no friends to the soveraignty of God that are Enemies to Magistracy his Ordinance Sam was a good Governour though none of the best men and the despisers of his Government after Gods choice were the Sons of Belial 1 Sam. 10.27 Christ was no Enemy to Caesar To pull down a faithful Magistrate such an one as Zerubbabel is to pluck a Signet from the hand of God For in that capacity he accounts him Hag. 2.23 Gods servants stand or fall to their own Master How doth he check Aaron and Miriam for speaking against Moses his servant Numb 12.8 Were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses against Moses as related to you in the capacity of a Governour against Moses as related to me in the capacity of my servant To speak any thing against them as they act by Gods order is an invasion of Gods soveraign right who gave them their Commission To act against just power or the justice of an Earthly power is to act against Gods Ordinance who ordained them in the World but not any abuse or ill use of their power 2. USE How dreadful is the consideration of this doctrine to all rebels against God Can any man that hath brains in his head imagine it an inconsiderable thing to despise the soveraign of the World It was the sole crime of disobedience to that positive Law whereby God would have a visible memorial of his soveraignty preserved in the eye of Man that showered down that deluge of misery under which the World groans to this day God had given Adam a Soul whereby he might live as a rational Creature and then gives him a Law whereby he might live as a dutiful Subject For God forbidding him to eat of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil declared his own supremacy over Adam and his propriety in the pleasant World he had given him by his bounty he let him know hereby that man was not his own Lord nor was to live after his own sentiments but the directions of a superior * Chrysost in Gen. Hom. 16. As when a great Lord builds a magnificent Palace and brings in tanoher to inhabit it he reserves a small duty to himself not of an equal value with the House but for an acknowledgment of his own right that the Tenant may know he is not the Lord of it but hath his grant by the liberality of another God hereby gave Adam matter for a pure Obedience that had no foundation in his own Nature by any implanted Law he was only in it to respect the will of his soveraign and to understand that he was to live under the power of a higher than himself There was no more moral evil in the eating of this fruit as considered distinct from the command than in eating of any other fruit in the Garden Had there been no prohibition he might with as much safety have fed upon it as upon any other No Law of nature was transgrest in the act of eating of it but the soveraignty of God over him was denied by him and for this the death threatned was inflicted on him and his posterity For
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 preâârvation 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 thââ 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
any man is the more careful we are in our manner of service to him We are bound to obey God not only under the title of a Lord in regard of jurisdiction and political subjection but under the title of a true Lord and Master in regard of propriety since we are not only his subjects but servants the exactest obedience is due to God Jure servitutis Luk. 17.10 when you have done all say you are unprofitable servants because we can do nothing which we owe not to God 3. Sincere and inward Obedience As it is a part of his Soveraignty to prescribe Laws not only to man in his outward State but to his Conscience so it is a part of our subjection to receive his Laws into our will and heart The Authority of his Laws exceeds Humane Laws in the extent and riches of them and our acknowledgment of his Soveraignty cannot be right but by subjecting the faculties of our soul to the Law-giver of our souls We else acknowledge his Authority to be as limited as the Empire of man When his will not only swayes the outward action but the inward motion 't is a giving him the honour of his high Throne above the Throne of mortals The right of God ought to be preserved undamaged in affection as well as action 4. It must be sole Obedience We are order'd to serve him only Matt. 4.10 Him only shalt thou serve as the only supream Lord as being the highest Soveraign it is fit he should have the highest obedience before all Earthly Soveraigns and as being unparallell'd by any among all the Nations so none must have an obedience equal to him When God commands if the highest power on earth countermands it the Precept of God must be preferred before the countermand of the creature Act. 4.18 19. Whither it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye We must never give place to the Authority of all the Monarchs in the World to the prejudice of that obedience we owe to the Supream Monarch of Heaven and Earth this would be to place the Throne of God at the foot-stool of man and debase him below the rank of a creature Loyalty to man can never recompence for the mischief accruing from disloyalty to God All the obedience we are to give to man is to be paid in obedience to God and with an eye to his Precept therefore what servants do for their Masters they must do as to the Lord Col. 3.23 and children are to obey their Parents in the Lord Eph. 6.1 The Authority of God is to be eyed in all the services payable to man Proper and true obedience hath God solely for its principal and primary object all obedience to man that interferes with that and would justle out obedience to God is to be refus'd What obedience is due to man is but render'd as a part of obedience to God and a stooping of his Authority 5. It must be Vniversal Obedience The Laws of man are not to be Universally obey'd some may be oppressing and unjust No man hath Authority to make an unjust Law and no subject is bound to obey an unrighteous Law but God being a Righteous Soveraign there is not one of his Laws but doth necessarily oblige us to Obedience Whatsoever this supream power declares to be his will it must be our care to observe Man being his creature is bound to be subject to whatsoever Laws he doth impose to the meanest as well as to the greatest they having equally a stamp of Divine Authority upon them We are not to pick and choose among his Precepts this is to pare away part of his Authority and render him a half-soveraign It must be Universal in all places An English-man in Spain is bound to obey the Laws of that Country wherein he resides and so not responsible there for the breach of the Laws of his native Country In the same condition is a Spaniard in England But the Laws of God are to be obeyed in every part of the World wheresoever divine providence doth cast us it casts us not out of the places where he commands nor out of the compass of his own Empire He is Lord of the World and his Laws oblige in every part of the World they were order'd for a World and not for a particular Climate and Territory 6. It must be indisputable Obedience All Authority requires readiness in the Subject the Centurion had it from his Souldiers they went when he order'd them and came when he beckned to them Matt. 8.9 'T is more fit God should have the same promptness from his Subjects We are to obey his Orders though our purblind understanding may not apprehend the reason of every one of them 'T is without dispute that he is Soveraign and therefore 't is without dispute that we are bound to obey him without controuling his conduct A Master will not bear it from his slave why should God from his creature Though God admits his creatures sometimes to treat with him about the equality of his Justice and also about the reason of some commands yet sometimes he gives no other reason but his own Soveraignty Thus saith the Lord to correct the malapertness of men and exact from them an intire obedience to his unlimited and absolute Authority When Abraham was commanded to offer Isaac God acquaints him not with the reason of his demand till after Gen. 22.2 12. nor did Abraham enter any demurr to the order or expostulate with God either from his own natural affection to Isaac the hardness of the command it being as it were a ripping up his own Bowels nor the quickness of it after he had been a child of the promise and a divine donation above the course of nature Nor did Paul conferr with flesh and blood and study arguments from nature and interest to oppose the divine command when he was sent upon his Apostolical employment Galatians 1.16 The more indisputable his right is to command the stronger is our Obligation to obey without questioning the reason of his Orders 7. It must be joyful Obedience Men are commonly more cheerful in their obedience to a great Prince than to a mean Peasant because the quality of the Master renders the service more honourable 'T is a discredit to a Prince's Government when his Subjects obey him with discontent and dejectedness as though he were a hard Master and his Laws tyrannical and unrighteous When we pay obedience but with a dull and feeble pace and a sour and sad temper we blemish our great Soveraign imply his commands to be grievous void of that peace and pleasure he proclaims to be in them That he deserves no respect from us if we obey him because we must and not because we will Involuntary Obedience deserves not the Title 't is rather submission than obedience an act of the body not of the mind a Mite of Obedience with cheerfulness is better
own affections according to the holiness of his own Will As it is the effect of his power so it is an argument of his power the greatness of the effect demonstrates the fulness and sufficiency of the Cause The more feeble any man is in reason the less command he hath over his passions and he is the more heady to revenge Revenge is a sign of a Childish mind the stronger any man is in reason the more command he hath over himself Prov. 16.32 He that is slow to Anger is better than the mighty and he that rules his own Spirit than he that takes a City He that can restrain his Anger is stronger than the Coesars and Alexanders of the World that have fill'd the Earth with slain Carcasses and ruin'd Cities By the same reason God's slowness to Anger is a greater argument of his Power than the creating a World or the power of dissolving it by a Word In this he hath a Dominion over Creatures in the other over himself This is the reason he will not return to destroy because I am God and not Man Hosea 11.9 I am not so weak and impotent as man that cannot restrain his Anger This is a strength possessed only by a God wherein a Creature is no more able to parallel him than in any other So that he may be said to be the Lord of himself as it is in the verse before the Text that he is the Lord of Anger in the Hebrew instead of furious as we translate it so he is the Lord of Patience The end why God is Patient is to shew his Power Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much Long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction To shew his Wrath upon Sinners and his Power over himself in bearing such indignities and forbearing punishment so long when men were vessels of wrath fitted for destruction of whom there was no hopes of amendment Had he immediately broken in peices those Vessels his power had not so eminently appear'd as it hath done in tolerating them so long that had provoked him to take them off so often There is indeed the power of his Anger and there is the power of his Patience and his power is more seen in his Patience than in his Wrath. 'T is no wonder that he that is above all is able to crush all But it is a wonder that he that is provok't by all doth not upon the first provocation rid his hands of all This is the reason why he did bear such a weight of provocations from vessels of wrath prepar'd for ruine that he might ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã shew what he was able to do the Lordship and Royalty he had over himself The power of God is more manifest in his Patience to a multitude of Sinners than it could be in Creating Millions of Worlds out of nothing this was the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a power over himself 5. This Patience being a branch of Mercy the exercise of it is founded in the Death of Christ Without the consideration of this we can give no account why Divine Patience should extend it self to us and not to the fallen Angels The threatning extends it self to us as well as to the fallen Angels The threatning must necessarily have sunk man as well as those glorious Creatures had not Christ stept into our relief * Testaâd de natur Grat. Thes 119. Had not Christ interposed to satisfie the Justice of God man upon his sin had been actually bound over to punishment as well as the fall'n Angels were upon theirs and been fettered in chains as strong as those Spirits feel The reason why man was not hurl'd into the same deplorable condition upon his sin as they were is Christs promise of taking our nature and not theirs Had God design'd Christ's taking their nature the same Patience had been exercised towards them and the same offers would have been made to them as are made to us In regard of these fruits of this Patience Christ is said to buy the wickedest Apostates from him 1 Pet. 2.1 Denying the Lord that bought them such were bought by him as bring upon themselves just destruction and whose damnation slumbers not ver 3. he purchased the continuance of their lives and the stay of their execution that offers of Grace might be made to them This Patience must be either upon the account of the Law or the Gospel for there are no other rules whereby God governs the World a fruit of the Law it was not that spake nothing but Curses after Disobedience not a letter of Mercy was writ upon that And therefore nothing of Patience Death and Wrath was denounced no slowness to Anger intimated It must be therefore upon the account of the Gospel and a fruit of the Covenant of Grace whereof Christ was Mediator Besides this perfection being God's waiting that he might be Gracious Isaiâh 30.18 that which made way for Gods Grace made way for his waiting to manifest it God discovered not his Grace but in Christ And therefore discovered not his Patience but in Christ 't is in him he met with the satisfaction of his Justice that he might have a ground for the manifestation of his Patience And the Sacrifices of the Law wherein the Life of a beast was accepted for the sin of a man discovered the ground of his forbearance of them to be the expectation of the great sacrifice whereby sin was to be compleatly expiated Gen. 8.21 The publication of his Patience to the end of the World is presently after the sweet savor he found in Noah's sacrifice The promised and design'd coming of Christ was the cause of that Patience God exercised before in the World And his gathering the Elect together is the reason of his Patience since his death 6. The naturalness of his Veracity and Holiness and the strictness of his Justice are no barrs to the exercise of his patience 1. His Veracity In those threatnings where the punishment is exprest but not the time of inflicting it prefixt and determined in the threatning his veracity suffers no dammage by the delaying Execution so it be once done though a long time after the credit of his Truth stands unshaken As when God promises a thing without fixing the time he is at liberty to pitch upon what time he pleases for the performance of it without staining his faithfulness to his Word by not giving the thing promised presently Why should the deferring of Justice upon an offender be any more against his Veracity than his delaying an answer to the petitions of a suppliant But the difference will lie in the threatning Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death The time was there setled In that day thou shalt dye some referre day to eating not to dying and render the sentence thus I do not prohibit thee the eating this fruit for
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ah a note of grief So Hos 6.4 Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee
rushings into his presence in Worship Had they been only sins of Omission and sins of Ignorance it had been enough to have put a stand to any further operations of this perfection towards us But add to those sins of Commission sins against knowledge sins against spiritual motions sins against repeated resolutions and pressing admonitions the neglects of all the opportunities of Repentance put them all together and we can as little recount them as the sands on the sea shore But what do I only speak of particular men view the whole World and if our own iniquities render it an amazing Patience what a mighty supply will be made to it in all the numerous and weighty provocations under which he hath continued the World for so many revolutions of Years and Ages Have not all those pressed into his presence with a loud cry and demanded a sentence from Justice yet hath not the Judge been overcome by the importunity of our sins * Pont. part 1. 42. Were the Devils punished for one sin a proud thought and that not committed against the blood of Christ as we have done numberless times yet hath not God made us partakers in their punishment though we have exceeded them in the quality of their sin Oh admirable patience that would bear with me under so many while he would not bear with the sinning Angels for one 2. Consider how mean things we are who have provoked him What is man but a vile thing that a God abounding with all riches should take care of so abject a thing much more to bear so many affronts from such a drop of matter such a nothing creature That he that hath anger at his command as well as pity should endure such a detestable deformed creature by sin to fly in his face What is man that thou art mindful of him Psal 8. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã miserable incurable man derived from a word that signifies to be incurably sick Man is Adam Earth from his Earthly Original and Enosh incurable from his corruption Is it not worthy to be admired that a God of infinite Glory should wait on such Adams worms of earth and be as it were a servant and attendant to such Enoshes sickly and peevish creatures 3. Consider who it is that is thus patient He it is that with one breath could turn Heaven and Earth and all the inhabitants of both into nothing That could by one Thunderbolt have razed up the Foundations of a cursed World He that wants not instruments without to ruine us that can arm our own Consciences against us and can drown us in our own Phlegm And by taking out one pin from our bodies cause the whole frame to fall asunder Besides 't is a God that while he suffers the sinner hates the sin more than all the Holy men upon Earth or Angels in Heaven can do So that his patience for a minute transcends the patience of all creatures from the Creation to the Dissolution of the World because it is the patience of a God infinitely more sensible of the cursed quality of sin and infinitely more detesting it 4. Consider how long he hath forborn his anger A reprieve for a Week or a Month is accounted a great favour in Civil States The Civil Law enacts * Cod. Lib. 9. Titul 47 6. 20. that if the Emperour commanded a man to be condemned the Execution was to be deferred 30 dayes because in that time the Princes anger might be appeased But how great a favour is it to be reprieved 30 years for many offences every one of which deserves death more at the hands of God than any offence can at the hands of man Paul was according to the common account but about 30 years Old at his Conversion and how much doth he elevate Divine long suffering Certainly there are many who have more reason as having larger quantities of patience cut out to them who have lived to see their own gray hairs in a rebellious posture against God before Grace brought them to a surrender We were all condemn'd in the Womb our Lives were forfeited the first moment of our breath but patience hath stopt the Arrest The merciful Creditor deserves to have acknowledgment from us who hath laid by his Bond so many years without putting it in suit against us Many of your companions in sin have perhaps been surprized long ago and haled to an Eternal Prison Nothing is remaining of them but their dust and the time is not yet come for your Funeral Let it be considered that that God that would not wait upon the fallen Angels one instant after their sin nor give them a moments space of Repentance hath prolonged the Life of many a sinner in the World to innumerable moments to 420000 minutes in the space of a Year to 8 Millions and 400000 Minutes in the space of 20 Years The damned in Hell would think it a great kindness to have but a Year's Month's nay Daye 's respite as a space to Repent in 5. Consider also how many have been taken away under shorter measures of patience Some have been struck into a Hell of misery while thou remainest upon an Earth of forbearance In a Plague the destroying Angel hath hew'd down others and past by us The Arrows have flew about our heads past over us and stuck in the heart of a neighbour How many Rich men How many of our Friends and Familiars have been seiz'd by death since the beginning of the year when they least thought of it and imagin'd it far from them Have you not known some of your acquaintance snatcht away in the height of a crime Was not the same wrath due to you as well as to them And had it not been as dreadful for you to be so surprized by him as it was for them Why should he take a less sturdy sinner out of thy company and let thee remain still upon the Earth If God had dealt so with you how had you been cut off not only from the enjoyment of this Life but the hopes of a better And if God hath made such a Providence beneficial for reclaiming you how much reason have you to acknowledge him He that hath had least patience hath cause to admire but those that have more ought to exceed others in blessing him for it If God had put an end to your natural Life before you had made provision for Eternal how deplorable would your condition have been Consider also who ever have been sinners formerly of a deeper note Might not God have struck a man in the embraces of his Harlots and choaked him in the moment of his excessive and intemperate healths or on the sudden have spurted Fire and Brimstone into a blasphemers mouth What if God had snatcht you away when you had been sleeping in some great iniquity or sent you while burning in lust to the fire it merited Might he not have crackt the string that linkt your souls to your
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-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
the battle when they will rebell against the light God doth often leave them to their own course sentence him that is filthy to be filthy still â Reve. 22.11 which is a righteous act of God as he is Rector and Governor of the World Man's not receiving or not improving what God gives is the cause of Gods not giving further or taking away his own which before he had bestowed This is so far from being repugnant to the Holiness and Righteousness of God that it is rather a commendable act of his Holiness and Righteousness as the Rector of the World not to let those gifts continue in the hand of a man who abuses them contrary to his glory Who will blame a Father that after all the good Counsels he hath given his Son to reclaim him all the Corrections he hath inflicted on him for his irregular practice leaves him to his own courses and withdraws those assistances which he scoft at and turned the deaf Ear unto Or who will blame the Physician for deserting the Patient who rejects his Counsel will not follow his Prescriptions but dasheth his Physick against the Wall No man will blame him no man will say that he is the cause of the Patients death but the true cause is the fury of the Distemper and the obstinacy of the diseased Person to which the Physician left him And who can justly blame God in this case who yet never denied supplies of Grace to any that sincerely sought it at his hands and what man is there that lies under a hardness but first was guilty of very provoking sins What unholiness is it to deprive men of those assistances because of their sin and afterwards to direct those counsels and practices of theirs which he hath justly given them up unto to serve the ends of his own glory in his own methods 4. Which will appear further by considering that God is not oblig'd to continue his Grace to them It was at his liberty whither he could give any renewing Grace to Adam after his fall or to any of his Posterity He was at his own liberty to withold it or communicate it But if he were under any Obligation then surely he must be under less now since the multiplication of Sin by his Creatures But if the Obligation were none just after the fall there is no pretence now to fasten any such Obligation on God That God had no Obligation at first hath been spoken to before He is less obliged to continue his Grace after a repeated refusal and a peremptory abuse than he was bound to proffer it after the first Apostacy God cannot be charg'd with unholiness in withdrawing his Grace after we have received it unless we can make it appear that his Grace was a thing due to us as we are his Creatures and as he is Governor of the World What Prince looks upon himself as oblig'd to reside in any particular place of his Kingdom But suppose he be bound to inhabit in one particular City yet after the City rebells against him is he bound to continue his Court there spend his Revenue among Rebels endanger his own Honour and Security inlarge their Charter or maintain their Ancient Priviledges Is it not most just and righteous for him to withdraw himself and leave them to their own Tumultuousness and Sedition whereby they should eat the fruit of their own doings If there be an Obligation on God as a Governor it would rather lie on the side of Justice to leave Man to the Power of the Devil whom he courted and the prevalency of those Lusts he hath so often caressed and wrap up in a Cloud all his common Illuminations and leave him destitute of all common workings of his Spirit 8. Proposition Gods Holiness is not blemisht by his commanding those things sometimes which seem to be against Nature or thwart some other of his Precepts As when God commanded Abraham with his own hand to Sacrifice his Son * Gen. 22.2 there was nothing of Unrighteousness in it God hath a Soveraign Dominion over the lives and beings of his creatures whereby as he creates one day he might annihilate the next and by the same right that he might demand the life of Isaac as being his Creature he might demand the Obedience of Abraham in a ready return of that to him which he had so long enjoy'd by his grant 'T is true killing is unjust when it is done without cause and by a private Authority But the Authority of God surmounts all private and Publick Authority whatsoever Our lives are due to him when he calls for them and they are more than once forfeit to him by reason of Transgression But howsoever the case is God commanded him to do it for the trial of his Grace but suffered him not to do it in favour to his ready Obedience But had Isaac been actually slain and offer'd how had it been unrighteous in God who enacts Laws for the Regulation of his Creature but never intended them to the prejudice of the Rights of his Soveraignty Another Case is that of the Israelites borrowing Jewels of the Egyptians by the order of God â Exod. 11.2.3 Exod. 12.36 Is not God Lord of mans goods as well as their lives What have any they have not received that not as Proprietors independent on God but his Stewards and may not he demand a portion of his Steward to bestow upon his Favourite He that had power to dispose of the Egyptians Goods had power to order the Israelites to ask them Besides God acted the part of a just Judge in ordering them their wages for their Service in this method and making their Task-masters give them some recompence for their unjust oppression so many years It was a Command from God therefore rather for the preservation of Justice the Basis of all those Laws which link human Society than any infringement of it It was a material recompence in part though not a formal one in the intention of the Egyptians It was but in part a recompence It must needs come short of the dammage the poor Captives had sustained by the tyranny of their Masters who had inslav'd them contrary to the rules of hospitality and could not make amends for the lives of the poor Infants of Israel whom they had drowned in the River He that might for the unjust oppression of his People have taken away all their Lives destroy'd the whole Nation and put the Israelites into the possession of their Lands could without any unrighteousness dispose of part of their Goods And it was rather an act of Clemency to leave them some part who had doubly forfeited all Again the Egyptians were as ready to lend by Gods influence as the Israelites were to ask by Gods order And though it was a loan God as Soveraign of the World and Lord of the Earth and the fulness thereof alienated the property by assuming them to the use of the
Tabernacle to which service most if not all of them were afterwards dedicated God who is Lawgiver hath power to dispence with his own Law and make use of his own Goods and dispose of them as he pleases 'T is no unholiness in God to dispose of that which he hath a right unto Indeed God cannot command that which is in its own nature intrinsically evill as to command a rational Creature not to love him not to worship him to call God to witness to a Lye these are intrinsically evil but for the disposing of the Lives and Goods of his Creatures which they have from him in right and not in absolute propriety is not evil in him because there is no repugnancy in his own Nature to such acts nor is it any thing inconsistent with the natural duty of a Creature and in such casâs he may use what instruments he please The Point was That Holiness is a glorious perfection of the nature of God We have shew'd the Nature of this Holiness in God what it is and we have demonstrated it and proved that God is holy and must needs be so and also the purity of his Nature in all his acts about sin Let us now improve it by way of Vse Vse Is holiness a transcendent perfection belonging to the Nature of God The first Vse shall be of Instruction and Information 1. How great and how frequeââ is the contempt of this eminent perfection in the Deity Since the fall this attribute which renders God most amiable in himself renders him most hateful to his Apostate Creature 'T is impossible that he that loves iniquity can affect that which is irreconcileably contrary to the iniquity he loves Nothing so contrary to the sinfulness of man as the Holiness of God and nothing is thought of by the sinner with so much detestation How do Men account that which is the most glorious perfection of the divinity unworthy to to be regarded as an accomplishment of their own Souls And when they are pressed to an imitation of it and a detestation of what is contrary to it have the same sentiments in their Heart which the Devil had in his Language to Christ Why art thou come to torment us before our time What an enmity the World naturally hath to this perfection I think is visible in the practise of the Heathen who among all their Heroes which they deified elevated none to that dignity among them for this or that moral Vertue that came nearest to it but for their valour or some usefulness in the concerns of this Life Aesculapius was deified for his skill in the cure of Diseases Bacchus for the use of the grape Vulcan for his operations by Fire Hercules for his destroying of Tyrants and Monsters but none for their meer Vertue As if any thing of purity were unworthy their consideration in the frame of a Deity when it is the glory of all other Perfections So essential it is that when Men reject the imitation of this God regards it as a total rejection of himself though they own all the other attributes of his Nature Psal 81.11 Israel would none of me why because they walked not in his ways Vers 13. those ways wherein the purity of the Divine nature was most conspicuous They would own him in his Power when they stood in need of a Deliverance they would own him in his Mercy when they were plung'd in Distress but they would not imitate him in his Holiness This being the lustre of the Divine Nature the contempt of it is an obscuring all his other Perfections and a dashing a blot upon his whole Scutcheon To own all the rest and deny him this is to frame him as an unbeautiful Monster a Deformed power Indeed all sin is against this attribute all sin aims in general at the being of God but in particular at the Holiness of his Being All sin is a violence to this perfection There is not an Iniquity in the World but directs its venemous sting against the divine purity Some sins are directed against his Omniscience as secret Wickedness some against his Providence as distrust some against his Mercy as unbelief some against his Wisdom as neglecting the means instituted by him censuring his ways and actings some against his Power as trusting in means more than in God and the immoderate fear of Men more than of God some against his Truth as distrusting his Promise or not fearing his Threatning but all agree together in their enmity against this which is the peculiar glory of the Deity Every one of them is a receding from the Divine Image and the blackness of every one is the deeper by how much the distance of it from the holiness of God is the greater This contrariety to the Holiness of God is the cause of all the absolute Atheism if there be any such in the World What was the reason the Fool hath said in his heart there is no God but because the Fool is corrupt and hath done abominable works * Psal 14.1 If they believe the being of a God their own Reason will inforce them to imagine him holy Therefore rather then fancy a holy God they would fain fancy none at all In particular 1. The Holiness of God is injur'd in unworthy representations of God and imaginations of him in our own minds The Heathen fell under this guilt and ascribed to their Idols those Vices which their own Sensuality inclin'd them to unworthy of a man much more unworthy of a God that they might find a protection of their Crimes in the practice of their Idols But is this only the notion of the Heathens may there not be many among us whose love to their Lusts and desires of sinning without controul move them to slander God in their thoughts rather than reform their lives and are ready to frame by the power of their imaginative faculty a God not only winking but smiling at their Impurities I am sure God charges the Impieties of Men upon this score in that Psalm Psa 50.21 which seems to be a representation of the day of Judgment as some gather from Verse 6. When God âums up all together These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self not a detester but approver of thy crimes And the Psalmist seems to express Gods loathing of sin in such a manner as intimates it to be contrary to the Ideas and Resemblances Men make of him in their minds Psal 5.4 For thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness As we say in vindication of a man he is not such a man as you imagine him to be Thou art not such a God as the World commonly imagines Thee to be a God taking pleasure in iniquity 'T is too common for men to fancy God not as he is but as they would have him strip him of his excellency for their own security As God made man