and dispose of all his Creatures for the bringing his Purposes and his Promises to their designed perfection 6. Hence appears the necessity of a publick review of the Management of the World and of a Day of Judgment As a Day of Judgment may be inferr'd from many Attribute of God as his Soveraignty Justice Omniscience c. so among the rest from this of Wisdom How much of this Perfection will lie unvail'd and obscure if the Sins of Men be not brought to view whereby the ordering the unrighteous Actions of Men by his directing and over-ruling Hand of Providence in subserviency to his own Purposes and his Peoples good may appear in all its glory Without such a publick Review this part of Wisdom will not be clearly visible how those Actions which had a vile foundation in the Hearts and designs of Men and were formed there to gratifie some base Lust Ambition and Covetousness c. were by a secret Wisdom presiding over them conducted to amazing Ends. 'T is a part of Divine Wisdom to right it self and convince Men of the reasonableness of its Laws and the unreasonableness of their Contradictions to it The execution of the Sentence is an act of Justice but the conviction of the reasonableness of the Sentence is an act of Wisdom clearing up the Righteousness of the proceeding and this precedes and the other follows Jude 15. To convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds That Wisdom which contrived satisfaction as well as that Justice which required it is concerned in righting the Law which was enacted by it The Wisdom of a Soveraign Law-giver is engaged not to see his Law vilified and trampled on and exposed to the Lusts and Affronts of Men without being concerned in vindicating the Honour of it It would appear a Folly to enact and publish it if there were not a Resolution to right and execute it The Wisdom of God can no more associate Iniquity and Happiness together than the Justice of God can separate Iniquity from Punishment It would be defective if it did always tamely bear the Insolences of Offenders without a time of remark of their Crimes and a Justification of the Precept rebelliously spurn'd at He would be Unwise if he were Unjust Unrighteousness hath no better a Title in Scripture than that of Folly 'T is no part of Wisdom to give birth to those Laws which he will always behold ineffectual and neither vindicate his Law by a due execution of the Penalty nor right his own Authority conâ—emn'd in the violation of his Law by a just Revenge Besides What Wisdom would it be for the Soveraign Judge to lodge such a Spokesman for himself as Conscience in the Soul of Man if it should be alway found speaking and at length be found false in all that it speaks There is therefore an apparent prospect of the Day of Account from the consideration of this Perfection of the Divine Nature 7. Hence we have a ground for a mighty Reverence and Veneration of the Divine Majesty Who can contemplate the Sparklings of this Perfection in the variety of the Works of his hands and the exact Government of all his Creatures without a raised Admiration of the Excellency of his Being and a falling flat before him in a posture of Reverence to so great a Being Can we behold so great a mass of Matter digested into several Forms so exact a Harmony and Temperament in all the Creatures the proportions of Numbers and Measures and one Creature answering the Ends and Designs of another the distinct Beauties of all the perpetual Motion of all things without checking one another the variety of the Nature of things and all acting according to their Nature with an admirable Agreement and altogether like differing strings upon an Instrument emitting divers Sounds but all reduc'd to order in one delightful Lesson I say Can we behold all this without Admiring and Adoring the Divine Wisdom which appears in all And from the Consideration of this let us pass to the Consideration of his Wisdom in Redemption in reconciling divided Interests untying Hard-knots drawing one contrary out of another and we must needs acknowledge that the Wisdom of all the Men on Earth and Angels in Heaven is worse than Nothing and Vanity in comparison of this vast Ocean And as we have a greater esteem for those that invent some excellent Artificial Engines what Reverence ought we to have for him that hath stampt an unimitable Wisdom upon all his Works Nature orders us to give Honour to our Superiours in Knowledge and conside in their Counsels but none ought to be Reverenc'd as much as God since none equals him in Wisdom 8. If God be Infinitely Wise it shews us the necessity of our Address to him and Invocation of his Name We are subject to Mistakes and often overseen we are not able rightly to Counsel our selves In some cases all Creatures are too short-sighted to apprehend them and too ignorant to g ve Advice proper for them and to contrive Remedies for their ease but with the Lord there is Counsel Jer. 32.19 He is great in counsel and mighty in working great in Counsel to advise us mighty in Working to assist us We know not how to effect a design or prevent an expected Evil. We have an Infinite Wisdom to go to that is every way skilful to manage any business we desire to avert any Evil we fear to accomplish any thing we commit into his hands When we know not what to resolve he hath a Counsel to guide us Psal 73.24 He is not more Powerful to effect what is needful than Wise to direct what is fitting All Men stand in need of the Help of God as one Man stands in need of the assistance of other Men and will not do any thing without Advice and he that takes Advice deserves the Title of a Wise man as well as he that gives Advice But no Man needs so much the Advice of another Man as all Men need the Counsel and Assistance of God Neither is any mans Wit and Wisdom so far inâ—eriour to the Prudence and Ability of an Angel as the Wisdom of the wisest Man and the most sharp-sighted Angel is inferiour to the Infinite Wisdom of God We see therefore that it is best for us to go to the Fountain and not content our selves with the Streams to beg Advice from a Wisdom that is Infinite and Infallible rather than from that which is Finite and Fallible Vse II. If Wisdom be the Perfection of the Divine Majesty How prodigious is the Contempt of it in the World In General All Sin strikes at this Attribute and is in one part or other a degrading of it The first Sin directed its Venom against this As the Devils endeavoured to equal their Creator in Power so Man endeavoured to equal him in Wisdom Both indeed scorn'd to be rul'd by his Order but Man evidently exalted himself against the Wisdom
he needed not have sought without himself for his own preservation and comfort What depends upon another is not of it self and what depends upon things inferiour to it self is less of it self Since nothing can subsist of it self since we see those things upon which Man depends for his nourishment and subsistence growing and decaying starting into the world and retiring from it as well as man himself some preserving cause must be concluded upon which all depends 5. If the first Man did produce himself why did he not produce himself before It hath been already proved that he had a beginning and could not be from Eternity Why then did he not make himself before Not because he would not For having no being he could have no will he could neither be willing nor not willing If he could not then how could he afterwards if it were in his own power he could have done it he would have done it if it were not in his own power then it was in the power of some other cause and that is God How came he by that power to produce himself If the power of producing himself were communicated by another then Man could not be the cause of himself That is the cause of it which communicated that power to it But if the power of being was in and from himself and in no other nor communicated to him man would always have been in act and always have Existed no hinderance can be conceived For that which had the power of being in it self was invincible by any thing that should stand in the way of its own being We may conclude from hence the excellency of the Scripture that it is a Word not to be refused credit It gives us the most rational account of things in the 1. and 2. of Genesis which nothing in the world else is able to do Thirdly III. Proposition no Creature could make the world No Creature can create another If it creates of nothing t is then Omnipotent and so not a Creature If it makes something of matter unfit for that which is produced out of it then the inquiry will be who was the cause of the matter and so we must arrive to some uncreated being the cause of all Whatsoever gives being to any other must be the highest being and must possess all the perfections of that which it gives being to what visible Creature is there which possesses the perfections of the whole world If therefore an invisible Creature made the world the same enquiries will return whence that Creature had its being for he could not make himself If any Creature did Create the World he must do it by the strength and vertue of another which first gave him being and this is God For whatsoever hath its Existence and vertue of acting from another is not God If it hath its vertue from another t is then a second cause and so supposeth a first cause It must have some cause of it self or be Eternally Existent If Eternally Existent t is not a second cause but God if not Eternally Existent we must come to somthing at length which was the cause of it or else be bewildred without being able to give an account of any thing We must come at last to an Infinite Eternal Independent Being that was the first cause of this Structure and Fabrick wherein we and all Creatures dwell The Scripture proclaims this aloud * Isa 45.6.7 Deut. 4.35 I am the Lord and there is none else I Form the light and I Create darkness Man the Noblest Creature cannot of himself make a man the chiefest part of the World If our Parents only without a Superior power made our Bodies or Souls they would know the frame of them as he that makes a Lock knows the Wards of it he that makes any curious peice of Arras knows how he setts the various colours together and how many threads went to each division in the Web he that makes a Watch having the Idea of the whole work in his mind knows the motions of it and the reason of those motions But both Parents and Children are equally ignorant of the nature of their Souls and Bodies and of the reason of their motions God only that had the Supream hand in forming us in whose Book all our members are written Psal 139.16 which in continuance were fashioned knows what we all are ignorant of If man hath in an ordinary course of generation his being chiefly from an higher cause than his Parents the World then certainly had its being from some infinitely wise intelligent Being which is God If it were as some fancy made by an Assembly of Atomes there must be some infinite intelligent cause that made them some cause that separated them some cause that mingled them together for the piling up so comely a structure as the world T is the most absurd thing to think they should meet togeither by hazard and rank themselves in that order we see without a higher and a wise agent So that no Creature could make the world For supposing any Creature was formed before this visible world and might have a hand in disposing things yet he must have a cause of himself and must act by the virtue and strength of another and this is God Fourthly IV. Proposition From hence it follows that there is a first cause of things which we call God There must be somthing supreme in the order of nature somthing which is greater than all which hath nothing beyond it or above it otherwise we must run in infinitum We see not a River but we conclude a Fountain a Watch but we conclude an Artificer As all number begins from unity so all the multitude of things in the world begins from some unity Oneness as the principle of it T is natural to arise from a view of those things to the conception of a nature more perfect than any As from heat mixed with cold and light mixed with darkness men conceive and arise in their understandings to an intense heat and a pure light And from a Corporeal or bodily substance joyned with an incorporeal as man is an earthly body and a Spiritual Soul we ascend to a conception of a substance purely incorporeal and Spiritual So from a multitude of things in the world Reason leads us to one choice being above all And since in all natures in the World we still find a superior nature the nature of one beast above the nature of another the nature of man above the nature of beasts and some invisible nature the worker of strange effects in the Air and Earth which cannot be ascribed to any visible cause we must suppose some nature above all those of unconceivable perfection * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 33. c. Every Sceptick one that doubts whither there be any thing real or no in the World that counts every thing an appearance must necessarily own a first cause They cannot
there but to behold the beauty of the Lord * Psal 27.4 and taste the ravishing sweetness of his presence No doubt but Elijah's desires for the enjoyment of God while he was mounting to Heaven were as fiery as the Chariot wherein he was carried Unutterable groans acted in worship are the fruit of the Spirit and certainly render it a spiritual service * Rom. 8.26 Strong appetites are agreeable to God and prepare us to eat the fruit of worship A spiritual Paul presseth forward to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and a spiritual Worshipper actually aspires in every duty to know God and the power of his Grace To desire worship as an end is carnal to desire it as a means and act desires in it for communion with God in it is spiritual and the fruit of a spiritual life 5. Thankfulness and admiration are to be exercised in spiritual services This is a worship of Spirits Praise is the adoration of the blessed Angels * Isa 6.3 and of glorified Spirits Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power And Rev. 5.13.14 they worship him ascribing Blessing Honour Glory and Power to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Other acts of worship are confined to this Life and leave us as soon as we have set our foot in Heaven There no notes but this of Praise are warbled out The Power Wisdom Love and Grace in the dispensation of the Gospel seat themselves in the thoughts and tongues of blessed Souls Can a worship on Earth be spiritual that hath no mixture of an eternal heavenly duty with it The worship of God in Innocence had been chiefly an admiration of him in the works of Creation and should not our Evangelical worship be an admiration of him in the works of Redemption which is a restoration to a better State After the petitioning for pardoning Grace * Hos 14.2 there is a rendring the Calves or Heifers of our lips alluding to the Heifers used in Eucharistical Sacrifices The Praise of God is the choicest Sacrifice and Worship under a dispensation of redeeming Grace This is the prime and eternal part of worship under the Gospel The Psalmist Psalm 149. and 150. speaking of the Gospel times spurrs on to this kind of worship Sing to the Lord a new Song Let the Children of Zion be joyful iâ—â—â—â—ir King Let the Saints be joyful in glory and sing aloud upon their beds Let the high praises of God be in their mouths He begins and ends both Psalms with praise ye the Lord. That cannot be a spiritual and evangelical worship that hath nothing of the praise of God in the heart The consideration of Gods adorable perfections discovered in the Gospel will make us come to him with more seriousness beg blessings of him with more confidence fly to him with a winged Faith and Love and more spiritually glorify him in our attendances upon him 7. Spiritual Worship is performed with delight The Evangelical worship is prophetically signified by keeping the Feast of Tabernacles * Zach. 14.16 they shall go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles Why that Feast when there were other Feasts observed by the Jews That was a Feast celebrated with the greatest joy typical of the gladness which was to be under the exhibition of the Messiah and a thankful comemmoration of the Redemption wrought by him It was to be celebrated five days after the solemn day of Atonement Levit. 23.34 compared with v. 27. wherein there was one of the solemnest types of the Sacrifice of the death of Christ In this Feast they commemorated their exchange of Egypt for Canaan the Manna wherewith they were fed the Water out of the Rock wherewith they were refresht In remembrance of this they poured water on the ground pronouncing those words in Isaiah they shall draw waters out of the Wells of Salvation which our Saviour referrs to himself John 7.37 inviting them to him to drink upon the last day the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles wherein this solemn Ceremony was observed Since we are freed by the death of the Redeemer from the Curses of the Law God requires of us a Joy in spiritual priviledges A sad frame in worship gives the lye to all Gospel-liberty to the Purchase of the Redeemers Death the Triumphs of his Resurrection 'T is a carriage as if we were under the influences of the legal Fire and Lightning and an entring a Protest against the Freedom of the Gospel The Evangelical worship is a Spiritual worship and Praise Joy and Delight are prophecied of as great ingredients in attendance on Gospel Ordinances Isa 12.3 4 5. What was occasion of terror in the worship of God under the Law is the occasion of delight in the worship of God under the Gospel The Justice and Holiness of God so terrible in the Law becomes comfortable under the Gospel since they have feasted themselves on the active and passive obedience of the Redeemer The approach is to God as gracious not to God as unpacified as a Son to a Father not as a Criminal to a Judge Under the Law God was represented as a Judge remembring their Sin in their Sacrifices and representing the punishment they had merited in the Gospel as a Father accepting the Atonement and publishing the Reconciliation wrought by the Redeemer Delight in God is a Gospel frame therefore the more joyful the more spiritual The Sabbath is to be a delight not only in regard of the Day but in regard of the Duties of it * Isa 58.13 in regard of the marvelous work he wrought on it raising up our blessed Redeemer on that day whereby a foundation was laid for the rendring our persons and services acceptable to God Psal 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce in it A lumpish frame becomes not a day and a duty that hath so noble and spiritual a mark upon it The Angels in the first act of worship after the Creation were highly joyful Job 38.7 They shouted for joy c. The Saints have particularly acted this in their Worship David would not content himself with an approach to the Altar without going to God as his exceeding joy Psal 43.4 My triumphant joy When he danced before the Ark he seems to be transformed into delight and pleasure 2 Sam. 6.14 16. He had as much delight in Worship as others had in their Harvest and Vintage And those that took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods would as joyfully attend upon the Communications of God Where there is a fullness of the Spirit there is a waking melody to God in the heart * Eph. 5.18.19 and where there is an acting of love as there is in all spiritual services the proper fruit of it is joy in a neer
to mock him than worship him When we believe that we ought to be satisfied rather than God glorified we set God below our selves imagin that he should submit his own honour to our advantage We make our selves more glorious than God as though we were not made for him but he hath a Being only for us this is to have a very low esteem of the Majesty of God Whatsoever any man aims at in worship above the glory of God that he forms as an Idol to himself instead of God and sets up a Golden-Image God counts not this as a Worship The Offerings made in the Wilderness for forty years together God esteemed as not offered to him Amos 5.25 Have you offered to me Sacrifices and Offerings in the Wilderness forty years oh House of Israel They did it not to God but to themselves for their own security and the attainment of the possession of the promised Land A spiritual Worshipper performs not worship for some hopes of carnal advantage he uses ordinances as means to bring God and his Soul together to be more fitted to honour God in the world in his particular place When he hath been inflamed and humble in any address or duty he gives God the glory his heart sutes the doxology at the end of the Lords-prayer ascribes the Kingdom Power and Glory to God alone and if any viper of Pride starts out upon him he endeavours presently to shake it off That which was the first end of our framing ought to be the chief end of our acting towards God But when men have the same ends in worship as Brutes the satisfaction of a sensitive part the service is no more than brutish The acting for a sensitive end is unworthy of the Majesty of God to whom we address and unbecoming a rational Creature The acting for a sensitive end is not a rational much less can it be a spiritual service though the Act may be good in it self yet not good in the Agent because he wants a due end We are then spiritual when we have the same end in our redeemed services as God had in his redeeming love viz. his own Glory 12. Spiritual service is offered to God in the name of Christ Those are only spiritual Sacrifices that are offered up to God by Jesus Christ * 1 Pet. 2.5 that are the fruits of the Sanctification of the Spirit and offered in the mediation of the Son As the Altar sanctifies the gift so doth Christ spiritualize our services for Gods acceptation as the Fire upon the Altar separated the airy and finer parts of the sacrifice from the terrene and earthly This is the Golden Altar upon which the Prayers of the Saints are offered up before the Throne * Revel 8.3 As all that we have from God streams through his blood so all that we give to God ascends by vertue of his merits All the blessings God gave to the Israelites came out of Sion * Psal 134.3 The Lord bless thee out of Sion that is from the Gospel hid under the Law all the duties we present to God are to be presented in Sion in an evangelical manner All our worship must be bottomed on Christ God hath intended that we should honour the Son as we honour the Father As we honour the Father by offering our service only to him so we are to honour the Son by offering it only in his name In him alone God is well pleased because in him alone he finds our services spiritual and worthy of acceptation We must therefore take fast hold of him with our Spirits and the faster we hold him the more spiritual is our worship To do any thing in the name of Christ is not to believe the worship shall be accepted for it self but to have our eye fixed upon Christ for the acceptance of it and not to rest upon the work done as carnal people are apt to do The Creatures present their acknowledgments to God by Man and man can only present his by Christ It was utterly unlawful after the building of the Temple to sacrifice any where else The Temple being a type of Christ it is utterly unlawful for us to present our services in any other name than his This is the way to be spiritual If we consider God out of Christ we can have no other notions but those of horror and bondage We behold him a Spirit but environ'd with Justice and Wrath for Sinners But the consideration of him in Christ vails his Justice draws forth his Mercy represents him more a Father than a Judge In Christ the aspect of Justice is changed and by that the temper of the Creature so that in and by this Mediator we can have a spiritual boldness and access to God with confidence * Eph. 3.12 whereby the Spirit is kept from benummedness and distraction and our Souls quickned and refined The thoughts kept upon Christ in a duty of worship quickly elevates the Soul and spiritualizeth the whole service Sin makes our services black and the blood of Christ makes both our persons and services white To conclude this Head God is a Spirit infinitely happy therefore we must approach to him with cheerfulness He is a Spirit of infinite Majesty therefore we must come before him with reverence He is a Spirit infinitely high therefore we must offer up our Sacrifices with the deepest humility He is a Spirit infinitely holy therefore we must address with purity He is a Spirit infinitely glorious we must therefore acknowledge his excellency in all that we do and in our measures contribute to his glory by having the highest aims in his worship He is a Spirit infinitely provoked by us therefore we must offer up our worship in the name of a pacifying Mediator and Intercessour 3. The third general is why a spiritual worship is due to God and to be offered to him We must consider the Object of Worship and the Subject of worship the Worshipper and the Worshipped God is a spiritual Being Man is a reasonable Creature The nature of God informs us what is fit to be presented to him our own nature informs us what is fit to be presented by us Reason 1. The best we have is to be presented to God in worship For 1. Since God is the most excellent Being he is to be served by us with the most excellent thing we have and with the choicest veneration God is so incomprehensibly excellent that we cannot render him what he deserves We must render him what we are able to offer the best of our affiections the flower of our strength the Cream and Top of our Spirits By the same reason that we are bound to give to God the best worship we must offer it to him in the best manner We cannot give to God any thing too good for so blessed a Being God being a great King slight services become not his Majesty * Mal. 1.13 14. 'T is unbecoming the
less vain must it be when the Bodies of Men are presented to supply the place of their Spirits As an omission of duty is a contempt of Gods Soveraign Authority so the omission of the manner of it is a contempt of it and of his amiable excellency and that which is a contempt and mockery can lay no just claim to the title of Worship Reason 4. There is in worship an approach of God to Man It was instituted to this purpose that God might give out his blessings to Man And ought not our Spirits to be prepared and ready to receive his communications We are in such acts more peculiarly in his presence In the Israelites hearing the Law it is said God was to come among them * Exod. 19.10 11. Then men are said to stand before the Lord * Deut. 10.8 God before whom I stand that is whom I worship And therefore when Cain forsook the worship of God setled in his Fathers Family * Kings 1.17 he is said to go out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 God is essentially present in the world graciously present in his Church The name of the Evangelical City is Jehovah Shammah * Ezek. 48.35 the Lord is there God is more graciously present in the Evangelical institutions than in the Legal He loves the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob * Psal 87.2 His Evangelical Law and Worship which was to go forth from Zion as the other did from Sinai Mic. 4.2 God delights to approach to Men and converse with them in the worship instituted in the Gospel more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graciously present ought not we to be spiritually present A liveless Carcass service becomes not so high and delectable a presence as this 'T is to thrust him from us not invite him to us 'T is to practise in the Ordinances what the Prophet predicts concerning mens usage of our Saviour Isa 53.2 There is no form no comeliness nor beauty that we should desire him A slightness in worship reflects upon the excellency of the object of worship God and his worship are so linkt together that whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care esteems the other not worth his inward affection How unworthy a slight is it of God who profers the opening his Treasure the reimpressing his Image conferring his blessings admits us into his presence when he hath no need for us who hath millions of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise He that worships not God with his Spirit regards not Gods presence in his Ordinances and slights the great end of God in them and that perfection he may attain by them We can only expect what God hath promised to give when we tender to him what he hath commanded us to present If we put off God with a Shell he will put us off with a Husk How can we expect his heart when we do not give him ours or hope for the blessing needful for us when we render not the glory due to him It cannot be an advantagious worship without spiritual graces for those are uniting and Union is the ground of all Communion Reason 5. To have a spiritual worship is Gods end in the restoration of the Creature both in Redemption by his Son and Sanctification by his Spirit A fitness for spiritual Offerings was the end of the coming of Christ * Mal. 3.3 He should purge them as Gold and Silver by Fire a Spirit burning up their dross melting them into a holy compliance with and submission to God To what purpose That they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousnes a pure Offering from a purified Spirit He came to bring us to God * 1 Pet. 3.18 in such a Garb as that we might be fit to converse with him Can we be thus without a fixedness of our Spirits on him The offering of spiritual Sacrifices is the end of making any a spiritual Habitation and a holy Priest-hood * Pet. 2.5 We can no more be Worshippers of God without a Worshippers nature than a man can be a man without humane nature As man was at first created for the honour and worship of God so the design of restoring that Image which was defaced by Sin tends to the same end We are not brought to God by Christ nor are our services presented to him if they be without our Spirits Would any man that undertakes to bring another to a Prince introduce him in a slovenly and sordid habit such a garb that he knows hateful to him Or bring the Clothes or Skin of a Man stuft with straw instead of the Person To come with our Skins before God without our Spirits is contrary to the design of God in Redemption and Regeneration If a carnal worship would have pleased God a carnal heart would have served his turn without the expence of his Spirit in Sanctification He bestows upon man a spiritual nature that he may return to him a spiritual service He enlightens the Understanding that he may have a rational service and new moulds the Will that he may have a voluntary service As it is the Milk of the Word wherewith he feeds us so it is the service of the Word wherewith we must glorifie him So much as there is of confusedness in our understanding so much of starting and levity in our Wills so much of slipperiness and skipping in our affections so much is abated of the due qualities of the worship of God and so much we fall short of the end of Redemption and Sanctification Reason 6. A spiritual worship is to be offered to God because no worship but that can be acceptable We can never be secured of acceptance without it He being a Spirit nothing but the worship in Spirit can be sutable to him What is unsutable cannot be acceptable There must be something in us to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for an actual acceptation No service is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ but as it is a spiritual Sacrifice and offered by a spiritual heart 1 Pet. 2.5 The Sacrifice is first spiritual before it be acceptable to God by Christ When it is an offering in righteousness it is then and only then pleasant to the Lord Mal. 3.3 4. No Prince would accept a gift that is unsutable to his Majesty and below the condition of the person that presents it Would he be pleased with a bottle of water for drink from one that hath his Cellar full of wine How unacceptable must that be that is unsutable to the Divine Majesty And what can be more unsutable than a withdrawing the operations of our Souls from him in the oblation of our Bodies We as little glorifie God as God when we give him only a corporeal worship as the Heathen did when they represented him in a corporeal shape * Rom. 1.21
was so as that he never began Is to come so as that he never shall end By whom all things are what they are who hath both eternal knowledge to remember our service and eternal goodness to reward It. A DISCOURSE UPON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. Psalm 102.26 27. They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old as a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end THIS Psalm contains a Complaint of a People pressed with a great Calamity some think of the Jewish Church in Babylon others think the Psalmist doth here personate Mankind lying under a state of corruption because he wishes for the coming of the Messiah to accomplish that Redemption promised by God and needed by them Indeed the title of the Psalm is a Prayer of the Afflicted when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord Whether afflicted with the sense of corruption or with the sense of oppression And the Redemption by the Messiah which the ancient Church looked upon as the fountain of their Deliverance from a sinful or a servile Bondage is in this Psalm spoken of A set time appointed for the discovery of his mercy to Sion v. 13. An appearance in glory to build up Sion v. 16. The loosing of the Prisoner by Redemption and them that are appointed to Death v. 20. The calling of the Gentiles v. 22. And the latter part of the Psalm wherein are the verse I have read are applied to Christ Heb. 1. Whatsoever the design of the Psalm might be many things are intermingled that concern the Kingdom of the Messiah and Redemption by Christ Some make three parts of the Psalm 1. A Petition plainly delivered v. 1.2 Hear my Prayer oh Lord and let my cry come unto thee c. 2. The Petition strongly and argumentatively enforced and pleaded v. 3. from the misery of the Petitioner in himself and his reproach from his Enemies 3. An acting of Faith in the expectation of an Answer in the general Redemption promised v. 12 13. But thou oh Lord shalt endure for ever thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion The Heathen shall fear thy Name The first part is the Petition pleaded the second part is the Petition answered in an assurance that there should in time be a full deliverance * Pareus The design of the Pen-man is to confirm the Church in the truth of the Divine Promises that though the foundations of the World should be ript up and the Heavens clatter together and the whole Fabrick of them be unpinn'd and fall to pieces the firmest parts of it dissolved yet the Church should continue in its stability because it stands not upon the changeableness of Creatures but is built upon the immutable Rock of the truth God which is as little subject to change as his Essence They shall perish thou shalt change them As he had before ascribed to God the foundation of Heaven and Earth * verse 25. so he ascribes to God here the destruction of them Both the beginning and end of the World are here ascertained There is nothing indeed from the present appearance of things that can demonstrate the cessation of the world The Heaven and Earth stand firm the motions of the heavenly Bodies are the same their beautie is not decayed Individuals corrupt but the Species and Kinds remain The Successions of the Year observe their due order but the Sin of Man renders the change of the present appearance of the world necessary to accomplish the design of God for the glory of his Elect. The Heavens do not naturally perish as some fancied an old age of the world wherein it must necessarily decay as the Bodies of Animals do or that the parts of the Heavens are broken off by their rubbing one against another in their motion and falling to the Earth are the Seeds of those things that grow among us * Plin. Hist lib. 2. cap. 3. The Earth and Heavens He names here the most stable parts of the world and the most beautiful parts of the Creation those that are freest from corruptibility and change to illustrate thereby the Immutability of God that though the Heavens and Earth have a Prerogative of fixedness above other parts of the world and the Creatures that reside below the Heavens remain the same as they were created and the Center of the Earth retains its fixedness and are as beautiful and fresh in their age as they were in their youth many years ago notwithstanding the change of the Elements Fire and Water being often turned into Air so that there may remain but little of that Air which was first created by reason of the continual transmutation yet this firmness of the Earth and Heavens is not to be regarded in comparison of the unmoveableness and fixedness of the Being of God As their beauty comes short of the glory of his Being so doth their firmness come short of his stability Some by Heavens and Earth understand the Creatures which reside in the Earth and those which are in the Air which is called Heaven often in Scripture but the ruin and fall of these being seen every day had been no fit illustration of the unchangeableness of God They shall perish they shall be changed 1. They may perish say some they have it not from themselves that they do not perish but from thee who didst endue them with an incorruptible nature They shall perish if thou speakest the word Thou canst with as much ease destroy them as thou didst create them But the Psalmist speaks not of their possibility but the certainty of their perishing 2. They shall perish in their qualities and motion not in their substance say others They shall cease from that motion which is designed properly for the generation and corruption of things in the Earth but in regard of their substance and beauty they shall remain As when the strings or Wheels of a Clock or Watch are taken off the material parts remain though the motion of it and the use for discovering the time of the day ceaseth * Coccei in loc To perish doth not signify alway a falling into nothing an annihilation by which both the matter and the form are destroyed but a ceasing of the present apearance of them a ceasing to be what they now are as a man is said to perish when he dies whereas the better part of man doth not cease to be The figure of the Body moulders away and the matter of it returns to Dust but the Soul being immortal ceaseth not to act when the Body by reason of the absence of the Soul is uncapable of acting So the Heavens shall perish the appearance they now have shall vanish and a more glorious and incorruptible frame be erected by the power and goodness of God The dissolution of Heaven and Earth is meant by the
new appearance the grace of God hath appeared * Tit. 1.11 6. Proposition A change of Laws by God argues no change in God when God abrogates some Laws which he had setled in the Church and enacts others I spake of this something the last day I shall only add this God commanded one thing to the Jews when the Church was in an infant state and removed those Laws when the Church came to some growth The Elements of the world were suted to the state of Children * Gal. 4.3 A Mother feeds not the Infant with the same diet as she doth when it is grown up Our Saviour acquainted not his Disciples with some things at one time which he did at another because they were not able to bear them Where was the change in Christs Will or in their growth from a state of weakness to that of strength A Physitian prescribes not the same thing to a person in health as he doth to one conflicting with a distemper nor the same thing in the beginning as he doth in the state or declination of the disease The Physicians Will and Skill are the same but the capacity and necessity of the Patient for this or that Medicine or method of proceeding are not the same VVhen God changed the Ceremonial Law there was no change in the Divine Will but an execution of his Will For when God commanded the observance of the Law he intended not the perpetuity of it nay in the Prophets he declares the cessation of it he decreed to command it but he decreed to command it only for such a time so that the abrogation of it was no less an execution of his Decree than the establishment of it for a season was The commanding of it was pursuant to his Decree for the appointing of it and the nulling of it was pursuant to his Decree of continuing it only for such a season So that in all this there was no change in the Will of God The Counsel of God stands sure what changes soever there are in the World are not in God or his Will but in the events of things and the different relations of things to God 'T is in the Creature not in the Creator The Sun alway remains of the same hue and is not discoloured in it self because it shines green through a green Glass and blew through a blew Glass the different colours come from the Glass not from the Sun The change is alway in the disposition of the Creature not in the Nature of God or his Will 5. Vse 1. For Information 1. If God be unchangeable in his Nature and Immutability be a Property of God Then Christ hath a Divine Nature This in the Psalm is applyed to Christ in the Hebrews Heb. 1.11 where he joyns the citation out of this Psalm with that out of Psalm 45.6 7. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oyl of Gladness above thy Fellows and thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth c. As the first must necessarily be meant of Christ the Mediator and therein he his distinguish'd from God as one anointed by him so the other must be meant of Christ whereby he is made one with God in regard of the Creation and Dissolution of the World in regard of Eternity and Immutability Both the Testimonies are linkt together by the Copulative and and thou Lord declaring thereby that they are both to be understood of the same Person the Son of God The design of the Chapter is to prove Christ to be God and such things are spoken of him as could not belong to any Creature no not to the most excellent of the Angels The same Person that is said to be anointed above his Fellows and is said to lay the Foundation of the Earth and Heavens is said to be the same that is the same in himself The Prerogative of sameness belongs to that Person as well as Creation of Heaven and Earth The Socinians say it is spoken of God and that God shall destroy the Heavens by Christ If so Christ is not a meer Creature not created when he was incarnate for the same Person that shall change the World did create the World If God shall change the world by him God also created the world by him He was then before the world was for how could God create the world by one that was not That was not in Being till after the Creation of the world The Heavens shall be changed but the Person who is to change the Heavens is said to be the same or unchangeable in the Creation as well as the Dissolution of of the world This sameness referrs to the whole Sentence * Placeus de deitate Christi The Psalm wherein the Text is and whence this in the Hebrews is cited is properly meant of Christ and Redemption by him and the compleating of it at the last day and not of the Babylonish captivity That captivity was not so deplorable as the state the Psalmist describes Daniel and his Companions flourished in that Captivity It could not reasonably be said of them that their days were consumed like Smoke their heart withered like Grass that they forgot to eat their Bread * as it is V. 3.4 Besides he complains of shortness of Life * V. 11. But none had any more reason to complain of that in the time of the Captivity than before and after it than at any other time Their Deliverance would contribute nothing to the natural length of their lives Besides when Sion should be built the Heathen should fear the Name of the Lord that is worship God and all the Kings of the Earth his Glory * V. 15. The rearing the second Temple after the deliverance did not proselyte the Nations nor did the Kings of the Earth worship the Glory of God nor did God appear in such Glory at the erecting the second Temple The second Temple was less glorious than the first for it wanted some of the Ornaments which were the Glory of the first But it is said of this state * Ver. 16. that when the Lord should build up Sion he should appear in his Glory his proper Glory and extraordinary Glory Now that God who shall appear in Glory and build up Sion is the Son of God the Redeemer of the World He builds up the Church he causes the Nations to fear the Lord and the Kings of the Earth his Glory He broke down the partition Wall and opened a Door for the entrance of the Gentiles He struck the Chains from off the Prisoners and loosed those that were appointed to death by the Curse of the Law * Ver. 20. And to this Person is ascribed the Creation of the World and he is pronounced to remain the same in the midst of an infinite number of changes in
thus That he is not every where by parts as Bodies are as Air and Light are He is every where i. e. his Nature hath no bounds he is not tyed to any place as the Creature is who when he is present in one place is absent from another As no place can be without God so no place can compass and contain him 2. There is an influential Omnipresence of God 1. Vniversal with all Creatures He is present with all things by his Authority because all things are subject to him By his power because all things are sustained by him By his Knowledge because all things are naked before him He is present in the World as a King is in all parts of his Kingdom Regally present Providentially present with all since his Care extends to the meanest of his Creatures His Power reacheth all and his Knowledge pierceth all As every thing in the World was Created by God so every thing in the World is preserved by God and since Preservation is not wholly distinct from Creation 't is necessary God should be present with every thing while he preserves it as well as present with it when he Created it * Psal 36.6 Thou preservest man and Beast †Heb. 1.3 He upholds all things by the word of his Power There is a vertue sustaining every Creature that it may not fall back into that nothing from whence it was elevated by the Power of God All those natural Vertues we call the Principles of Operation are Fountains springing from his Goodness and Power all things are acted and managed by him as well as preserved by him and in this sense God is present with all Creatures for whatsoever acts another is present with that which it acts by sending forth some vertue and influence whereby it acts If free Agents do not only live but move in him and by him * Acts 17.28 much more are the motions of other natural Agents by a vertue communicated to them and upheld in them in the time of their acting This vertual presence of God is evident to our sense a presence we feel his essential presence is evident in our Reason This influential presence may be compar'd to that of the Sun which though at so great a distance from the Earth is present in the Air and Earth by its Light and within the Earth by its influence in concocting those Metals which are in the Bowels of it without being substantially either of them God is thus so intimate with every Creature that there is not the least particle of any Creature but the marks of his Power and Goodness are seen in it and his Goodness doth attend them and is more swift in its effluxes than the breakings out of Light from the Sun which yet are more swift than can be declar'd but to say he is in the World only by his Vertue is to acknowledge only the effects of his Power and Wisdom in the World That his Eye sees all his Arm supports all his Goodness nourisheth all but Himself and his Essence at a distance from them * Zanch. and so the Soul of man according to its measure would have in some kind a more excellent manner of Presence in the body than God according to the Infiniteness of his Being with his Creatures for that doth not only communicate Life to the Body but is actually present with it and spreads its whole Essence through the Body and every Member of it All grant That God is efficaciously in every Creek of the World but some say he is only substantially in Heaven 2. Limited to such Subjects that are capacitated for this or that kind of Presenâ—e Yet it is an Omnipresence because it is a Presence in all the Subjects capacitated for it thus there is a special Providential Presence of God with some in assisting them when he sets them on work as his Instruments for some special Service in the World As with Cyrus * Isa 4â— 2 I will go before thee and with Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander whom he Protected and Directed to execute his Counsels in the World such a presence Judas and others †Mat. 7.22 that shall not enjoy his glorious Presence had in the working of Miracles in the world In thy name we have done many wonderful works Besides * Cajetan in Aquin Par. 1. Qu 8 Artic. 3. as there is an effective Presence of God with all Creatures because he produced them and preserves them so there is an objective Presence of God with rational Creatures because he offers himself to them to be known and loved by them He is near to Wicked men in the offers of his Grace * Isa 55.6 call ye upon him while he is near Besides there is a gracious Presence of God with his People in whom he dwells and makes his abode as in a Temple Consecrated to him by the Graces of the Spirit †John 14.23 We will come i. e. the Father and the Son and make our abode with him He is present with all by the Presence of his Divinity but only in his Saints by a Presence of a gracious Efficacy he walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks and hath Dignifi'd the Congregation of his People with the Title of Jehovah Sbammah * Ezek. 48.35 The Lord is there In Salem is his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Sion †Psal 76.2 As he filled the Tabernacle so he doth the Church with the Signs of his Presence this is not the Presence wherewith he fills Heaven and Earth His Spirit is not bestowed upon all to reside in their hearts enlighten their minds and bedew them with refreshing Comforts When the Apostle speaks of Gods being Above all and through all * Eph. 4.6 Above all in his Majesty Through all in his Providence he doth not appropriate that as he doth what follows and in you all in you all by a special Grace as God was specially present with Christ by the Grace of Union so he is specially present with his People by the Grace of Regeneration So there are several manifestations of his Presence he hath a Presence of Glory in Heaven whereby he Comforts the Saints a Presence of Wrath in Hell whereby he Torments the Damned in Heaven he is a God spreading his Beams of Light in Hell a God distributing his Strokes of Justice by the one he fills Heaven by the other he fills Hell by his Providence and Essence he fills both Heaven and Earth 3. There is an Essential Presence of God in the World He is not only every where by his Power upholding the Creatures by his Wisdom understanding them but by his Essence containing them That any thing is essentially present any where it hath from God God is therefore much more present every where for he cannot give that which he hath not 1. He is Essentially present in all places * Ficin 'T is as reasonable to think the
together be too hard for his Invincible Power and Strength the uniting all those parts into a Body with new dispositions to receive their several Souls be too big and bulky for that Power which never yet was acquainted with any bar Was not the Miracle of our Saviours multiplying the Loaves suppose it had not been by a new Creation but a collection of Grain from several parts very near as stupendous as this Had any one of us been the only Creatures made just before the matter of the World and beheld that inform Chaos covered with a thick darkness mentioned Gen. 1.2 would not the Report that from this dark deep next to nothing should be rais'd such a multitude of comely Creatures with such innumerable varieties of Members Voices Colours Motions and such Numbers of shining Stars a bright Sun one uniform Body of Light from this Darkness that should like a Giant rejoyce to run a race for many thousands of years together without stop or weariness Would not all these have seemed as incredible as the Collection of scattered Dust What was it that erected the innumerable Host of Heaven the glorious Angels and glittering Stars for ought we know more numerous than the Bodies of Men but an act of the Divine Will and shall the Power that wrought this sink under the Charge of gathering some dispers'd Atoms and compacting them into a Human Body †Lingend Tom. 3. p. 779 780. Can you tell how the Dust of the ground was kneaded by God into the Body of Man and changed into Flesh Skin Hair Bones Sinews Veins Arteries and Blood and fitted for so many several Activities when a Human Soul was breath'd into it Can you imagine how a Rib taken from Adam's side a lifeless Bone was formed into Head Hands Feet Eyes Why may not the matter of men which have been be restor'd as well as that which was not be first erected Is it harder to repair those things which were than to create those things which were not Is there not the same Artificer Hath any Disease or Sickliness abated his Power Is the Ancient of days grown feeble or shall the Elements and other Creatures that alway yet obeyed his Command russle against his raising Voice and refuse to disgorge those remains of Human Bodies they have swallowed up in their several Bowels Did the whole World and all the parts of it rise at his word and shall not some parts of the World the Dust of the dead stand up out of the Graves at a word of the same mighty Efficacy Do we not annually see those Marks of Power which may stun our Incredulity in this Concern Do you see in a small Acorn or little Seed any such sights as a Tree with Body Bark Branches Leaves Flowers Fruit where can you find them Do you know the invisible Corners where they lurk in that little Body And yet these you afterwards view rising up from this little Body when sown in the Ground that you could not possibly have any prospect of when you rould it in your hand or opened its Bowels And why may not all the particulars of our Bodies however dispos'd as to their distinct Natures invisibly to us remain distinct as well as if you mingle a thousand Seeds together they will come up in their distinct kinds and preserve their distinct Vertues Again Is not the Making Heaven and Earth the Union of the Divine and Human Nature Eternity and Infirmity to make a Virgin conceive a Son bear the Creator and bring forth the Redeemer to form the Blood of God of the Flesh of a Virgin a greater Work than the Calling together and Uniting the scattered parts of our Bodies which are all of one Nature and Matter And since the Power of God is manifested in pardoning innumerable sins is not the scattering our Transgressions as far as the East is from the West as the expression is Psal 103.12 and casting such numbers into the Depths of the Sea which is Gods Power over himself a greater Argument of Might than the recalling and repairing the Atoms of our Bodies from their various receptacles 'T is not hard for them to believe this of the Resurrection that have been sensible of the weight and force of their Sins and the Power of God in pardoning and vanquishing that mighty resistance which was made in their Hearts against the power of his renewing and sanctifying Grace The consideration of the Infinite Power of God is a good ground of the belief of the Resurrection 8. Since the Power of God is so great and Incomprehensible How strange is it that it should be contemned and abused by the Creatures as it is The Power of God is beaten down by some outraged by others blasphemed by many under their Sufferings The stripping God of the honour of his Creation and the glory of his Preservation of the World falls under this charge Thus do they that deny his framing the World alone or thought the first matter was not of Gods creation and such as fancied an Evil Principle the Author of all Evil as God is the Author of all good and so exempt from the Power of God that it could not be vanquisht by him These things have formerly sound Defenders in the World but they are in themselves ridiculous and vain and have no sooting in common Reason and are not worthy of debate in a Christian Auditory In General All Idolatry in the World did arise from the want of a due Notion of this Infinite Power The Heathen thought one God was was not sufficient for the managing all things in the World and therefore they feign'd several gods that had several charges As Ceres presided over the Fruits of the Earth Esculapius over the Cure of Distempers Mercury for Merchandize and Trade Mars for War and Battles Apollo and Minerva for Learning and Ingenious Arts and Fortune for Casual things Whence doth the other sort of Idolatry the adoring our Bags and Gold our dependencies on and trusting in Creatures for help arise but from Ignorance of God's Power or mean and slender Apprehensions of it First There is a Contempt of it Secondly An Abuse of it 1. 'T is contemn'd in every sin especially in obstinacy in Sin All Sin whatsoever is built upon some false Notion or monstrous Conception of one or other of Gods Perfections and in particular of this It includes a secret and lurking Imagination that we are able to grapple with Omnipotence and enter the lists with Almightiness what else can be judged of the Apostles expression 1 Cor. 10.22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he Do we think we have an Arm too powerful for that Justice we provoke and can repel that Vengeance we exasperate Do we think we are an even match for God and are able to despoil him of his Divinity To despise his Will violate his Order practise what he forbids with a severe Threatning and pawns his Power
and delight in them If they be nauseous to him the indisposition of his mind is a dead Fly in those Boxes of precious Ointment Now Faith being a sincere willingness to accept of Christ and to come to God by him and Repentance being a detestation of that which made Mans separation from God 't is impossible he could be yoluntarily happy without it Man cannot attain and enjoy a true happiness without an operation of his understanding about the Object proposed and the means appointed to enjoy it There must be a knowledge of what is offer'd and of the way of it and such a knowledge as may determine the will to affect that end and embrace those means which the will can never do till the understanding be fully perswaded of the truth of the Offerer and the goodness of the Proposal it self and the conveniency of the means for the attaining of it 'T is necessary in the nature of the thing that what is reveal'd should be believ'd to be a Divine Revelation God must be judged true in the Promising Justification and Sanctification the means of happiness and if any Man desires to be Partaker of those Promises he must desire to be Sanctified and how can he desire that which is the Matter of those Promises if he wallow in his own lusts and desire to do so a thing repugnant to the Promise it self Would you have God force Man to be happy against his will Is it not very reasonable he should demand the consent of his reasonable Creature to that Blessedness he offers him The new Covenant is a Marriage Covenant * Hos 2.16 19 20. which implies a consent on our parts as well as a consent on Gods part That is no Marriage that hath not the consent of both Parties Now Faith is our actual Consent and Repentance and sincere Obedience are the Testimonies of the truth and reality of this Consent 6. Divine Goodness is eminent in his Methods of treating with Men to embrace this Covenant They are Methods of gentleness and sweetness 'T is a wooing Go dness and a bewailing Goodness His Expressions are with strong motions of affection He carrieth not on the Gospel by force of Arms He doth not solely menace Men into it as Worldly Conquerors have done He doth not as Mahomet plunder Mens Estates and wound their Bodies to imprint a Religion on their Souls He doth not erect Gibbets and kindle Faggots to scare Men to an entring into Covenant with him What Multitudes might he have raised by his power as well as others What Legions of Angels might he have Rendezvouz'd from Heaven to have beaten Men into a profession of the Gospel Nor doth he only interpose his Soveraign Authority in the Precept of Faith but useth Rational Expostulations to move Men voluntarily to comply with his Proposals †Isaiah 1.18 Come now saith the Lord let us reason together He seems to call Heaven and Earth to be judge whether he had been wanting in any reasonable ways of Goodness to overcome the perversity of the Creature * Isaiah 1.2 Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth I have nourished and brought up Children What various encouragements doth he use agreeable to the Nature of Men endeavouring to perswade them with all tenderness not to despise their own Mercies and be Enemies to their own Happiness He would allure us by his Beauty and win us by his Mercy He uses the Arms of his own Excellency and our necessity to prevail upon us and this after the highest provocations When Adam had trampl'd upon his Creating Goodness it was not crusht and when Man had cast it from him it took the higher rebound When the Rebels provocation was fresh in his mind he sought him out with a promise in his hand though Adam fled from him out of enmity as well as fear * Gen. 3. And when the Jews had outrag'd his Son whom he loved from Eternity and made the Lord of Heaven and Earth bow down his head like a Slave on the Cross yet in that place where the most horrible wickedness had been committed must the Gospel be preached The Law must go forth out of that Sion and the Apostles must not stir from thence till they had received the promise of the Spirit and publisht the Word of Grace in that ungrateful City whose Inhabitants yet swelled with indignation against the Lord of Life and the Doctrine he had preached among them †Luke 24.47 He would overlook their indignities out of tenderness to their Souls and expose the Apostles to the peril of their Lives rather than expose his Enemies to the fury of the Devil 1. How affectionately doth he invite Men What multitudes of alluring Promises and pressing Exhortations are there every where sprinkled in the Scripture and in such a passionate manner as if God were solely concern'd in our good without a glance on his own glory How tenderly doth he woe flinty hearts and express more pity to them than they do to themselves With what affection do his Bowels rise up to his Lips in his Speech in the Prophet * Acts 1.4.5 Hearken to me O my People and give ear unto me O my Nation my People my Nation Melting Expressions of a tender God solliciting a rebellious People to make their retreat to him He never emptied his hand of his Bounty nor devested his Lips of those charitable Expressions He sent Noah to move the Wicked of the old World to an embracing of his Goodness and frequent Prophets to the provoking Jews and as the World continued and grew up to a taller stature in Sin he stoops more in the manner of his Expressions Never was the World at a higher pitch of Idolatry than at the first publishing the Gospel yet when we should have expected him to be a punishing he is a beseeching God The Apostle fears not to use the Expression for the glory of Divine Goodness †Isaiah 51.4 We are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us * 2 Cor. 5.20 The beseeching voice of God is in the voice of the Ministry as the voice of the Prince is in that of the Herald 'T is as if Divine Goodness did kneel down to a Sinner with wringed Hands and blubber'd Cheeks intreating him not to force him to re-assume a Tribunal of Justice in the nature of a Judge since he would treat with Man upon a Throne of Grace in the nature of a Father yea he seems to put himself into the posture of the Criminal that the offending Creature might not feel the punishment due to a Rebel 'T is not the condescension but the interest of a Traytor to creep upon his knees in Sackcloth to his Soveraign to beg his life But it is a Miraculous Goodness in the Soveraign to creep in the lowest posture to the Rebel to importune him not only for an amity to him but a love to his own life and
upon a higher ground of outward Prosperity vaunt it loftily above their Neighbours the common fault of those that enjoy a Worldly Sun-shine which the Apostle observes in his Direction to Timothy * 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high-mâ—nded 'T is an ill use of Divine Blessings to be fill'd by them with Pride and Wind. Also 2. When Men abuse Plenty to Ease because they have abundance spend their time in idleness and make no other use of Divine Benefits than to trifle away their time and be utterly useless to the World 3. When they also abuse Peace and other Blessings to security As they which would not believe the threatnings of Judgment and the Storm coming from a far Country because the Lord was in Sion and her King in her * Jer. 8.19 Is not the Lord in Sion is not her King in her thinking they might continue their progress in their Sin because they had the Temple the Seat of the Divine Glory Sion and the promise of an everlasting Kingdom to David abusing the Promise of God to presumption and security and turning the Grace of God into wantonness 4. Again When they abuse the Bounty of God to sensuality and luxury mis-employing the Provisions God gives them in resolving to live like Beasts when by a good improvement of them they might attain the Life of Angels Thus is the light of the Sun abus'd to conduct them and the Fruits of the Earth abus'd to enable them to their prodigious Debauchery As we do saith one * Young of Affliction p. 34. with the Thames which brings us in Provision and we soil it with our Rubbish The more God sowes his Gifts the more we sow our Cockle and Darnel Thus we make our outward Happiness the most unhappy part of of our lives and by the strength of Divine Blessings exceed all Laws of Reason and Religion too How unworthy a Carriage is this to use the Expressions of Divine Goodness as occasions of a greater outrage and affront of him When we stab his Honour by those Instruments he puts into our hands to glorifie him as if a favorite should turn that Sword into the Bowels of his Prince wherewith he Knighted him And a Servant enricht by a Lord should hire by that Wealth Murderers to take away his life How brutish is it the more God Courts us with his Blessings the more to spurn at him with our Feet Like the Mule that lifts up its Heel against the Dam as soon as ever it hath suckt her We never beat God out of our hearts but by his own Gifts He receives no blows from Men but by those Instruments he gave them to promote their Happiness While Man is an Enjoyer he makes God a Looser by his own Blessings inflames his Rebellion by those Benefits which should kindle his love and runs from him by the strength of those favours which should endear the Donor to him Do you thus requite the Lord Oh foolish People and unwise is the Expostulati n Deut. 32.6 Divine Goodness appears in the complaint of the abuse of it in giving them Titles below their Crime and complaining more of their being unfaithful to their own Interest than Enemies to his Glory Foolish and unwise in neglecting their own Happiness a Charge below the Crime which deserved to be abominable ungrateful People to a Prodigy All this Carriage towards God is as if a Man should knock the Chirurgeon on the Head as soon as he hath set and bound up his Dislocated Members So God compares the ungrateful behaviour of the Israelites against him * Hos 7 1â— Though I have bound and strengthn'd their Arms yet do they imagine mischief against me A Metaphor taken from a Chirurgeon that applies Corroborating Playsters to a broken Limb. 9. We contemn the Goodness of God in ascribing our Benefits to other Causes than Divine Goodness Thus Israel ascribed her Felicity Plenty and Success to her Idols as Rewards which her lovers had given her * Hos 2.5.12 And this Charge Daniel brought home upon Belshazzâ—r †Dan. 5.23 Thou hast praised the Gods of Silver and Gold and Brass and Iron and the God in whose hand is thy breath and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorify'd The God who hath given success to the Arms of thy Ancestors and convey'd by their hands so large a Dominion to thee thou hast not honour'd in the same Rank with the sordidest of thy Idols 'T is the same case when we own him not as the Author of any success in our Affairs but by an over-weening conceit of our own Sagacity applaud and admire our selves and over-look the Hand that conducted us and brought our endeavours to a good issue We Eclipse the Glory of Divine Goodness by setting the Crown that is due to it upon the head of our own Industry A Sacriledge worse than Belshazzar's drinking of Wine with his Lords and Concubines in the Sacred Vessels pilfer'd from the Temple as in that place of Daniel This was the proud vaunt of the Assyrian Conqueror for which God threatens to punish the fruit of his stout heart * Isai 10.12.13 14. By the strength of my hand I have done it and by my Wisdom for I am prudent and I have removed the bounds of the People and have robbed their Treasures and I have put down the Inhabitants like a valiant Man Not a word of Divine Goodness and Assistance in all this but applauding his own Courage and Conduct This is a robbing of God to set up our selves and making Divine Goodness a Footstool to ascend into his Throne And as it is unjust so it is ridiculous to ascribe to our selves or Instruments the chief honour of any work As ridiculous as if a Soldier after a Victory should Erect an Altar to the honour of his Sword or an Artificer offer Sacrifices to the Tools whereby he compleated some excellent and useful Invention A practice that every Rational Man would disdain where he should see it 'T is a discarding any thoughts of the Goodness of God when we imagine that we chiefly owe any thing in this World to our own Industry or Wit to Friends or Means as though Divine Goodness did not open its hand to interest it self in our Affairs support our Ability direct our Counsels and mingle it self with any thing we do God is the principal Author of any advantage that accrues to us of any wise Resolution we fix upon or any proper way we take to compass it No Man can be wise in opposition to God act wisely or well without him His Goodness inspires Men with generous and magnificent Counsels and furnisheth them with fit and proportionable Means When he withdraws his hand Mens heads grow foolish and their hands feeble folly and weakness drops upon them as darkness upon the World upon the removal of the Sun 'T is an abuse of Divine Goodness
and from every Creature to the great Landlord since all are Tenants and hold by him at his Will Every Creature in Heaven and Earth under the Earth and in the Sea were heard by John to ascribe blessing honour glory and power to him that sits on the Throne Rev. 5.13 We are as much bound to the soveraignty of God for his preâ—â—rvation of us as for his Creation of us We are no less oblig'd to him that preservs our beings when exposed to dangers than we are for bestowing a being upon us when we were not capable of danger Thankfulness is due to this Soveraign for publick concerns Hath he not preserved the Ship of his Church in the midst of whistling winds and roaring waves in the midst of the combats of men and Devils and rescued it often when it hath been near ship-wrackt 3. How should we be induc'd from hence to promote the honour of this Soveraign We should advance him as supream and all our actions should concur in his honour We should return to his Glory what we have receiv'd from his Soveraignty and enjoy by his mercy He that is the superior of all ought to be the end of all This is the harmony of the Creation that which is of an inferiour nature is order'd to the service of that which is of a more excellent nature thus water and earth that have a lower being are employ'd for the honour and beauty of the plants of the earth who are more excellent in having a principle of a growing life These plants are again subservient to the beasts and birds which exceed them in a principle of sense which the others want Those beasts and birds are order'd for the good of man who is superior to them in a Principle of reason and is invested with a Dominion over them Man having God for his superior ought as much to serve the glory of God as other things are design'd to be useful to man Other Governments are intended for the good of the Community the chief end is not the good of the Governours themselves But God being every way Soveraign the Soveraign being giving being to all things the Soveraign Ruler giving order and preservation to all things is also the end of all things to whose glory and honour all things all creatures are to be subservient Rom. 11.36 For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Of him as the efficient cause through him as the preserving cause to him as the final cause All our actions and thoughts ought to be addrest to his glory our whole beings ought to be consecrated to his honour though we should have no reward but the honour of having been subservient to the end of our Creation So much doth the excellency and Majesty of God infinitely elevated above us challenge of us Subjects use to value the safety honour and satisfaction of a good Prince above their own David is accounted worth 10000 of the people and some of his Courtiers thought themselves oblig'd to venture their lives for his satisfaction in so mean a thing as a little water from the Well of Bethlehem Doth not so great so good a Soveraign as God deserve the same affection from us Do we swear saith a Heathen * Arrian in Epicter to prefer none before Caesar and have we not greater reason to prefer none before God 'T is a Justice due from us to God to maintain his Glory as it is a Justice to preserve the right and property of another As God would lay aside his Deity if he did deny himself so a creature acts irregularly and out of the rank of a creature if it doth not deny it self for God He that makes himself his own end makes himself his own Soveraign To napkin up a gift he hath bestow'd upon us or to employ what we possess solely to our own Glory to use any thing barely for our selves without respect to God is to apply it to a wrong use and to injure God in his propriety and the end of his donation What we have ought to be us'd for the honour of God He retains the Dominion and Lordship though he grants us the use We are but Stewards not Proprietors in regard of God who expects an account from us how we have employ'd his goods to his honour The Kingdom of God is to be advanced by us we are to pray that his Kingdom may come we are to endeavour that his Kingdom may come that is that God may be known to be the chief Soveraign that his Dominion which was obscur'd by Adam's fall may be more manifested that his Subjects which are supprest in the World may be supported his Laws which are violated by the rebellions of men may be more obeyed and his enemies be fully subdued by his final judgment the last evidence of his Dominion in this State of the World that the Empire of sin and the Devil may be abolish'd and the Kingdom of God be perfected that none may rule but the great and rightful Soveraign Thus while we endeavour to advance the honour of his Throne we shall not want an honour to our selves He is too gracious a Soveraign to neglect them that are mindful of his Glory those that honour him he will honour 1 Sam. 2.30 4. Fear and reverence of God in himself and in his actions is a duty incumbent on us from this Doctrine Jer. 10.7 Who would not fear thee O King of Nations The ingratitude of the World is taxt in not reverencing God as a great King who had given so many marks of his Royal Government among them The Prophet wonders there was no fear of so great a King in the World Since among all the wise men of the Nations and among all their Kings there is none like unto this No more reverence of him since none ruled so wisely nor any ruled so graciously The dominion of God is one of the first sparks that gives fire to Religion and Worship consider'd with the goodness of this Soveraign Psal 22.27.28 All the Nations shall worship before thee for the Kingdom is the Lord's and he is Governour among the Nations Epicurus who thought God careless of humane affairs leaving thâ—â— at hap-hazard to the conduct of mens wisdom and mutability of fortune yet acknowledged that God ought to be worshipped by man for the excellency of his nature and greatness of his Majesty How should we reverence that God that hath a Throne encompast with such Glorious Creatures as Angels whose faces we are not able to behold though shadow'd in assum'd bodies How should we fear the Lord of Hosts that hath so many Armies at his command in the Heavens above and in the Earth below whom he can dispose to the exact obedience of his will how should men be afraid to censure any of his actions to sit judge of their Judge and call him to an account to their Bar How should such
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 * Testaâ—d 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 Isaiâ—h 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