stir up in us shame and sorrow for Sin The Judgments of God may break us but the consideration of God's Mercy should rather melt and dissolve us into Tears Luke 7.47 The Woman that washed Christ's Feet with her Tears and wiped them with her Hair the account that our Saviour gives of the great Affection that she expressed to him was she Loved much because much was forgiven her and she grieved much because much was forgiven her Especially we should sorrow for those Sins which have been committed by us after God's Mercies received Mercies after Sins should touch our Hearts and make us relent It should grieve us that we should offend and provoke a God so Gracious and Merciful so slow to anger and so ready to forgive But Sin against Mercies and after we have received them is attended with one of the greatest Aggravations of Sin And as Mercy raises the guilt of our Sins so it should raise our sorrow for them No Consideration is more apt to work upon human Nature than that of kindness and the greater Mercy has been shewed to us the greater our sins and the greater cause of sorrow for them contraries do illustrate and set off one another in the great Goodness and Mercy of God to us we see the great Evil of our Sins against him Every Sin has the Nature of Rebellion and Disobedience but sins against Mercy have Ingratitude in them When ever we break the Laws of God we rebel against our Soveraign but as we sin against the Mercies of God we injure our Benefactor This makes our sin to be horrid and astonishing Isa 1.2 Hear O heavens and give ear O earth I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me All the Mercies of God are aggravations of our sins 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. And Nathan said to David thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee king over Israel and delivered thee out of the hands of Saul and I gave thee thy masters house and thy masters wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Isreal and of Judah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given thee such and such things Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight God reckons up all his Mercies and from them aggravates David's sin 1 Kings 11.9 He takes notice of all the unkind returns that we make to his Mercy and 't is the worst temper in the World not to be wrought upon by kindness not to be melted by Mercy no greater evidence of a wicked Heart than that the Mercies of God have no effect upon it Esay 26.10 Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness Vse 3. Let us imitate the merciful Nature of God This branch of God's goodness is very proper for our imitation The general Exhortation of our Saviour Matt. 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect is more particularly expressed by St. Luke Luke 6.30 Be ye therefore merciful as your Father which is in heaven is merciful Men affect to make Images and impossible Representations of God but as Seneca saith Crede Deòs cùm propitii essent fictiles fuisse We may draw this Image and likeness of God we may be gracious and merciful as he is Christ who was the express image of his Father his whole life and undertaking was a continued work of mercy he went about doing good to the Souls of Men by Preaching the Gospel to them and to the Bodies of Men in healing all manner of Diseases There is nothing that he recommends more to us in his Gospel than this Spirit and Temper Mat. 5.7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy How many Parables doth he use to set forth the mercy of God to us with a design to draw us to the imitation of it The Parable of the Prodigal of the good Samaritan of the Servant to whom he forgave 10000 Talents We should imitate God in this in being tender and compassionate to those that are in misery This is a piece of natural indispensable Religion to which positive and instituted Religion must give way Amos 6.6 I desired mercy and not sacrifice which is twice cited and used by our Saviour Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O Man what it is that the Lord thy God requires of thee to do justice and love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This is always one part of the description of a good Man that he is apt to pity the miseries and necessities of others Psal 37.26 He is ever merciful and lendeth He is far from cruelty not only to Men but even to the brute Creatures Prov. 12.10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast There is nothing more contrary to the nature of God than a cruel and savage disposition not to be affected with the miseries and sufferings of others how unlike is this to the father of mercies and the God of consolation When we can see Cruelty exercised and our Bowels not be stirred within us nor our hearts be pricked how unlike is this to God who is very pitiful and of tender mercies But to rejoyce at the miseries of others this is inhumane and barbarous Hear how God threatens Edom for rejoycing at the miseries of his Brother Jacob Obadiah 10 11 12 13 14. But to delight to make others miserable and to aggravate their sufferings this is devilish this is the temper of Hell and the very spirit of the Destroyer It becomes Man above all other Creatures to be merciful who hath had such ample and happy experience of God's mercy to him and doth still continually stand in need of mercy from God God hath been very merciful to us Had it not been for the tender Mercies of God to us we had all of us long since been miserable Now as we have receiv'd mercy from God we should shew it to others The Apostle useth this as an Argument why we should relieve those that are in misery and want because we have had such experience of the mercy and love of God to us 1 John 3.16 17. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us But whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother have need c. how dwelleth the love of God in him That Man hath no sense of the mercy of God abiding upon his Heart that is not merciful to his Brother And 't is an Argument why we should forgive one another Eph. 4.32 Be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Chap. 5.1 Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children Col. 3.12 13. Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against
this World and all the Creatures in it and that they might be made in the best manner that could be his Wisdom directed his Power he hath made all things in number weight and measure so that they are admirably fitted and proportioned to one another And that there is an excellent Contrivance in all sorts of Beings and a wonderful beauty and harmony in the whole Frame of things is I think sufficiently visible to every discerning and unprejudiced mind The lowest form of Creatures I mean those which are destitute of sense do all of them contribute some way or other to the use and conveniency and comfort of the Creatures above them which being endowed with sense are capable of enjoying the benefit and delight of them which being so palpable in the greatest part of them may resonably be presumed tho'it be not so discernable concerning all the rest so that when we survey the whole Creation of God and the several parts we may well cry out with David Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hath thou made them all 'T is true indeed there are degrees of Perfection in the Creatures and God is not equally good to all of them Those Creatures which are of more Noble and Excellent Natures and to which he hath communicated more degrees of Perfection they partake more of his Goodness and are more glorious instances of it But every Creature partakes of the Divine Goodness in a certain degree and according to the Nature and Capacity of it God if he pleased could have made nothing but immortal Spirits and he could have made as many of these as there are individual Creatures of all sorts in the World but it seemed good to the wise Architect to make several ranks and orders of Beings and to display his Power and Goodness and Wisdom in all imaginable variety of Creatures all which should be good in their kind tho' far short of the Perfection of Angels and immortal Spirits He that will build a House for all the uses and purposes of which a House is capable cannot make it all foundation and great beams and pillars must not so contrive it as to make it all Rooms of state and entertainment but there must of necessity be in it meaner materials rooms and offices for several uses and purposes which however inferiour to the rest in dignity and degree do yet contribute to the beauty and advantage of the whole So in this great Frame of the World it was fit there should be variety and different degrees of Perfection in the several parts of it and this is so far from being an impeachment of the Wisdom or Goodness of him that made it that it is an Evidence of both For the meanest of all Gods Creatures is good considering the nature and rank of it and the end to which it was designed and we cannot imagine how it could have been ordered and framed better tho' we can easily tell how it might have been worse and that if this or that had been wanting or had been otherwise it had not been so good and those who have been most conversant in the contemplation of Nature and of the Works of God have been most ready to make this acknowledgment But then if we consider the Creatures of God with relation to one another and with regard to the whole Frame of things they will all appear to be very good and notwithstanding this or that kind of Creatures be much less perfect than another and there be a very great distance between the Perfection of a worm and of an Angel yet considering every thing in the rank and order which it hath in the Creation it is as good as could be considering its nature and use and the place allotted to it among the Creatures And this difference in the Works of God between the goodness of the several parts of the Creation and the excellent and perfect goodness of the whole the Scripture is very careful to express to us in the History of the Creation where you find God represented as first looking upon and considering every days work by it self and approving it and pronouncing it to be good Gen. 1.4 10 12 18 21 24. at the end of every days work it is said that God saw it and it was good but then when all was finisht and he surveyed the whole together it is said v. 31. that God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good very good that is the best the Hebrews having no other Superlative Every Creature of God by it self is good But take the whole together and they are very good the best that could be 3. The universal goodness of God further appears in the careful and continual preservation of the things which he hath made his upholding and maintaining the several Creatures in being in their natural state and order those which have life in life to the period which he hath determined and appointed for them in his preserving the whole World his managing and governing this vast Frame of things in such sort as to keep it from running into confusion and disorder This is a clear demonstration no less of the goodness than of the Wisdom and Power of God that for so many Ages all the parts of it have kept their places and performed the offices and work for which Nature designed them that the World is not in the course of so many thousand years grown old and weak and out of repair and that the Frame of things doth not dissolve and fall in pieces And the Goodness of God doth not only take care of the main and support the whole Frame of things and preserve the more noble and considerable Creatures but even the least and meanest of them The Providence of God doth not overlook any thing that he hath made nor despise any of the works of his hands so as to let them relapse and fall back into nothing through neglect and inadvertency as many as there are he takes care of them all Psal 104.27 28. where the Psalmist speaking of the innumerable multitude of Creatures upon the Earth and in the Sea These all saith he wait upon thee that thou mayst give them their meat in due season that thou givest them they gather thou openest thine hand and they are filled with good And to the same purpose Psal 145.15 16. The eyes of all wait upon thee and thou givest them their meat in due season thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing The inanimate Creatures which are without sense and the brute Creatures which tho' they have sense are without understanding and so can have no End and Design of self-preservation God preserves them no less than men who are endowed with reason and foresight to provide for themselves Psal 36.7 Thou preservest man and beast And Psal 147.9 He giveth to the beast his food and to the young Ravens when they cry And
so our Saviour declares to us the particular Providence of God towards those Creatures Matth. 6.26 Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feedeth them V. 28.29 Consider the lillies of the field how they grow they toyl not neither do they spin And yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these And tho' all the Creatures below man being without understanding can take no notice of this bounty of God to them nor make any acknowledgments to him for it yet man who is the Priest of the visible Creation and placed here in this great Temple of the World to offer up Sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God for his universal goodness to all his Creatures ought to bless God in their behalf and to sing praises to him in the name of all the inferiour Creatures which are subjected to his Dominion and Use because they are all as it were his Family his Servants and Utensils and if God should neglect any of them and suffer them to perish and miscarry 't is we that should find the inconvenience and want of them and therefore we should on their behalf celebrate the Praises of God as we find David often does in the Psalms calling upon the inanimate and the brute Creatures to praise the Lord. 4. The universal Goodness of God doth yet further appear in providing so abundantly for the Welfare and Happiness of all his Creatures so far as they are capable and sensible of it He doth not only support and preserve his Creatures in Being but takes care that they should all enjoy that happiness and pleasure which their natures are capable of The Creatures endowed with Sense and Reason which only are capable of pleasure and happiness God hath taken care to satisfie the several Appetites and Inclinations which he hath planted in them and according as Nature hath enlarged their desires and capacities so he enlargeth his Bounty towards them he openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing God doth not immediately bring Meat to the Creatures when they are hungry but it is near to them commonly in the Elements wherein they are bred or within their reach and he hath planted Inclinations in them to hunt after it and to lead and direct them to it and to encourage self-preservation and to oblige and instigate them to it and that they might not be melancholy and weary of Life he hath so ordered the nature of living Creatures that Hunger and Thirst are most implacable desires exceeding painful and even intolerable and likewise that the satisfaction of these Appetites should be a mighty pleasure to them And for those Creatures that are young and not able to provide for themselves God hath planted in all Creatures a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a natural Affection towards their young ones which will effectually put them upon seeking Provisions for them and cherishing them with that care and tenderness which their weak and helpless condition doth require and reason is not more powerful and effectual in mankind to this purpose than this natural instinct is in brute Creatures which shews what care God hath taken and what provision he hath made in the natural Frame of all his Creatures for the satisfaction of the inclinations and appetites which he hath planted in them the satisfaction whereof is their pleasure and happiness And thus I have done with the First head I proposed the universal extent of God's goodness to his Creatures let us now proceed in the II. place To consider more particularly the goodness of God to men which we are more especially concerned to take notice of and to be affected with it And we need go no further than our own observation and experience to prove the goodness of God every day of our lives we see and taste that the Lord is good all that we are and all the good that we enjoy and all that we expect and hope for is from the divine goodness every good and perfect gift descends from above from the Father of lights Jam. 1.17 And the best and most perfect of his gifts he bestows on the Sons of men What is said of the wisdom of God Prov. 8. may be applyed to his goodness the goodness of God shines forth in all the works of Creation in the Heavens and Clouds above and in the Fountains of the great deep in the Earth and the Fields but its delight is with the Sons of men Such is the goodness of God to man that it is represented to us in Scripture under the Notion of love God is good to all his Creatures but he is only said to love the sons of men More particularly the goodness of God to man appears 1. That he hath given us such noble and excellent Beings and placed us in so high a rank and order of his Creatures We owe to him that we are and what we are we do not only partake of that effect of his goodness which is common to us with all other Creatures that we have received our being from him but we are peculiarly obliged to him for his more especial goodness that he hath made us reasonable Creatures of that Kind which we should have chosen to have been of if we could suppose that before we were it had been referr'd to us and put to our choice what part we would be of this visible World But we did not contrive and chuse this Condition for our selves we are no ways accessary to the dignity and excellency of our Beings but God chose this condition for us and made us what we are So that we may say with David Psal 100.3 4 5. 'T is he that hath made us and not we our selves O enter then into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and speak good of his name for the Lord is good The goodness of God is the Spring and Fountain of our Beings but for that we had been nothing and but for his farther goodness we might have been any thing of the lowest and meanest rank of his Creatures But the goodness of God hath been pleased to advance us to be the Top and Perfection of the visible Creation he hath been pleased to endow us with Mind and Understanding and made us capable of happiness in the knowledge and love and enjoyment of himself He hath curiously and wonderfully wrought the Frame of our Bodies so as to make them fit Habitations for reasonable Souls and immortal Spirits he hath made our very Bodies Vessels of Honour when of the very same Clay he hath made innumerable other Creatures of a much lower rank and condition so that tho' man in respect of his Body be a-kin to the Earth yet in regard of his Soul he is allied to Heaven of a divine Original and descended from above Of all the Creatures in
the desert of our sins 'T is mercy that comforts and supports us under any of those Evils that lye upon us and that rescues and delivers us from them Which way so ever we look we are encompassed with the mercies of God they compass us about on every side we are crowned with loving kindness and tender mercies 'T is mercy that feeds us and cloaths us and that preserves us But above all we should thankfully acknowledge and admire the pardoning mercy of God Ps 103.1 2 3. where David does as it were muster up the mercies of God and make a Catalogue of them he sets the pardoning mercy in the front Bless ye the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities If we look into our selves and consider our own temper and disposition how void of pity and bowels we are how cruel and hard hearted and insolent and revengeful if we look abroad into the World and see how full the earth is of the habitations of cruelty we shall admire the mercy of God more and think our selves more beholden to it How many things must concur to make our hearts tender and melt our spirits and stir our bowels to make us pitiful and compassionate We seldom pity any unless they be actually in misery nor all such neither unless the misery they lye under be very great nor then neither unless the person that suffers be nearly related and we be someways concerned in his sufferings yea many times not then neither upon a generous account but as we are someways obliged by interest and self-love and a dear regard to our selves when we have suffered the like our selves and have learnt to pity others by our own Sufferings or when in danger and probability to be in the like condition our selves so many motives and obligations are necessary to awaken and stir up this affection in us But God is merciful and pitiful to us out of the mere goodness of his Nature for few of these motives and considerations can have any place in him This affection of pity and tenderness is stirred up in God by the mere presence of the Object without any other inducement The mercy of God many times doth not stay till we be actually miserable but looks forward a great way and pities us at a great distance and prevents our misery God doth not only pity us in great Calamities but considers those lesser Evils that are upon us God is merciful to us when we have deserved all the Evils that are upon us and far greater when we are less than the least of all his mercies when we deserved all the misery that is upon us and have with violent hands pulled it upon our own heads and have been the authors and procurers of it to our selves Tho' God in respect of his Nature be at an infinite distance from us yet his mercy is near to us and he cannot possibly have any self-interest in it The Divine Nature is not liable to want or injury or suffering he is secure of his own happiness and fullness and can neither wish the inlargement nor fear the impairment of his Estate he can never stand in need of pity or relief from us or any other and yet he pities us Now if we consider the vast difference of this affection in God and us how tender his mercies are and how sensible his bowels and yet we who have so many arguments to move us to pity how hard our hearts are and how unapt to relent as if we were born of the rock and were the off-spring of the nether milstone sure when we duly consider this we cannot but admire the mercy of God How cruel are we to Creatures below us with how little remorse can we kill a Flea or tread upon a Worm partly because we are secure that they cannot hurt us nor revenge themselves upon us and partly because they are so despicable in our Eyes and so far below us that they do not fall under the consideration of our Pity Look upward proud Man and take notice of him who is above thee thou didst not make the Creatures below thee as God did there 's but a finite distance between thee and the meanest Creatures but there 's an infinite distance between thee and God Man is a Name of Dignity when we compare our selves with other Creatures but compared to God we are Worms and not Men yea we are nothing yea less than nothing and vanity How great then is the Mercy of God which regards us who are so far below him which takes into Consideration such inconsiderable nothings as we are we may say with David Ps 8.4 Lord What is man that thou art so mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him And with Job 7.17 What is Man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldst set thine Heart upon him And then how hard do we find it to forgive those who have injured us if any one have offended or provoked us how hard are we to be reconciled How mindful of an Injury How do anger and revenge boyl within us How do we upbraid Men with their faults What vile and low Submission do we require of them before we will receive them into Favour and grant them Peace And if we forgive once we think that is much but if an offence and provocation be renewed often we are inexorable Even the Disciples of our Saviour after he had so emphatically taught them Forgiveness in the Petition in the Lord's Prayer yet they had very narrow Spirits as to this Matth. 18.21 Peter comes to him and asks him How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times He thought that was much And yet we have great obligations to Pardoning and Forgiving others because we are obnoxious to God and one another we shall many times stand in need of Pardon from God and Men and it may be our own case and when it is we are too apt to be very indulgent to our selves and conceive good hopes of the Mercy of others we would have our ignorance and inadvertencies and mistakes and all occasions and temptations and provocations considered and when we have done amiss upon Submission and Acknowledgment of our Fault we would be received into Favour but God who is not at all liable to us how ready is he to Forgive If we confess our Sins to him he is merciful to Forgive he Pardons freely and such are the condescentions of his Mercy tho' he be the party offended yet he offers Pardon to us and beseeches us to be reconcil'd if we do but come towards him he runs to meet us as in the Parable of the Prodigal Luke 15.20 What reason have we then thankfully to acknowledge and admire the Mercy of God to us Vse 2. The great mercy of God to us should
sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities Nor so much as he can he doth not let loose the fierceness of his anger nor pour forth all his wrath Psal 78.38 Being full of compassion he forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not yea many a time turned he his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath 6. After he hath begun to punish and is ingaged in the work he is not hard to be taken off There is a famous instance of this 2. Sam. 24. when God had sent three days Pestilence upon Israel for David's sin in numbring the People and at the end of the third day the Angel of the Lord had stretched forth his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it upon the Prayer of David it is said that the Lord repented of the evil and said to the Angel that destroyed It is enough stay now thine hand Nay so ready is God to be taken off from this work that he sets a high value upon those who stand in the gap to turn away his wrath Numb 25.11 12 13. Phinehas the son of Eleazar hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel that I consumed them not in my jealousie wherefore behold I give unto him my covenant of peace and to his seed after him because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel That which God values in this action of Phinehas next to his zeal for him is that he turned away his wrath and made an atonement for the Children of Israel 5. and Lastly The patience of God will yet appear with further advantage if we consider some eminent and remarkable Instances of it which are so much the more considerable because they are instances not only of God's patience extended to a long time but to a great many persons The long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah upon the whole World as is probably conjectured for the space of an hundred and twenty years God bore with the People of Israel in the Wilderness after they had tempted him ten times for the space of forty Years Acts 13.18 And about the space of forty years suffered he their manners in the Wilderness And this instance of God's patience will be the more remarkable if we compare it with the great impatience of that People if they did but want Flesh or Water they were out of patience with God when Moses was in the Mount with God but forty days they presently fall to make new Gods they had not the patience of forty days and yet God bore their manners forty years God had spared Niniveh for some Ages and when his patience was even expired and he seems to have past a final Sentence upon it yet he grants a Reprieve for forty days that they might sue out their Pardon in that time and they did so they turned from their evil ways and God turned from the evil he said he would do to them and he did it not But the most remarkable instance of God's long-suffering is to the Jews if we consider it with all the circumstances of it after they had rejected the Son of God notwithstanding the purity of his Doctrine and the power of his Miracles after they had unjustly condemned and cruelly murdered the Lord of life yet the patience of God respited the ruin of that People forty Years Besides all these there are many instances of God's patience to particular Persons but it were endless to enumerate these every one of us may be an instance to our selves of God's long-suffering I shall only add as a further advantage to set off the patience of God to Sinners that his forbearance is so great that he hath been complained of for it by his own Servants Job who was so patient a Man himself thought much at it Job 21.7 8. Wherefore doth the wicked live yea become old Their seed is establisht in their sight and their posterity before their eyes Jonah challengeth God for it Ch. 4.2 Was not this that which I said when I was yet in my own country and therefore I fled before unto Tarshish because I knew thou art a gracious God and merciful slow to anger c. Jonah had observed God to be so prone to this that he was loth to be sent upon his Message least God should discredit his Prophet in not being so good shall I say so severe as his word I have done with the first thing I proposed to speak to viz. The great patience and long-suffering of God to Mankind SERMON VII Vol. VII The Patience of God 2 PET. III. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some Men count slackness but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance I Have made entrance into these words in the handling of which I propos'd to do these three things First To consider the patience and long-suffering of God as it is an Attribute and Perfection of the Divine Nature God is long suffering to us-ward Secondly To shew that the Patience of God and the delay of his Judgment is no just ground why Sinners should hope for impunity God is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness Thirdly To consider the true reason of God's patience and long-suffering towards Mankind He is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance I have already spoken to the First of these namely The patience and long-suffering of God as it is an Attribute and Perfection of the Divine Nature I proceed now to the Second thing I proposed namely To shew that the Patience of God and the delay of Judgment is no just ground why Sinners should hope for impunity God is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness that is as the Scoffers here mentioned by the Apostle did ignorantly and maliciously reason that because our Lord delayed his coming to Judgment so long therefore he would never come There was indeed some pretence for this Objection because the Christians did generally apprehend that the day of Judgment was very near and that it would immediately follow the destruction of Jerusalem and it seems the Disciples themselves were of that perswasion before our Saviour's death when our Saviour discoursing to them of the destruction of the Temple they put these two questions to him Mat. 24.3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives the disciples came unto him privately saying When shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world When shall these things be That is the things he had been speaking of immediately before viz. the destruction of Jerusalem and the dissolution of the Temple that is plainly the meaning of the first question to which they subjoined another And what shall be the sign of thy coming that is to Judgment and of the end of the
of it Psal 29.1 Give unto the Lord O ye mighty give unto the Lord glory and strength So likewise it should take Men off from relying upon their own strength which at the best is but an arm of flesh as the Scripture calls it for the weakness of it Do we not see that many times the battel is not to the strong That things are not done by might and by power but by the spirit of the Lord. When he appears against the most potent their hearts melt within them and there is no more spirit left in them as 't is said of the mighty Inhabitants of Canaan Josh 5.1 Thirdly We should make this Omnipotence of God the Object of our trust and confidence This is the most proper use we can make of this Doctrine as David does in this Psalm and this was used for a form of blessing the People in the Name of God Psal 136.3 The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee And David when he magnifies God's deliverance of his People from the multitude of their Enemies resolves it into this Our help standeth in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth Thus did the great Pattern and Example of Faith incourage and support his confidence in God in a very difficult tryal he staggered not at it because he believed God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as tho' they were therefore against hope he believed in hope c. Rom. 4.17 c. This gives life to all our Devotion to be perswaded that God is able to do for us exceedingly above what we can ask or think and that his is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory I shall only caution two things as to our relyance on the Power of God I. Labour to be such Persons to whom God hath promised that he will engage and imploy his Omnipotence for their good If we hope for any good from the Almighty we must walk before him and be perfect as he said to Abraham Good Men have a peculiar interest in God's Power hence he is called the strength of Israel and the mighty one of Israel If we do what God requires of us we may expect that he will put forth his Power and exert his Arm for us but if we disobey we must expect he will manifest his Power against us Ez. 8.22 When we do well we may commit the keeping of our souls to him 1 Pet. 4.19 II. Our expectations from the Omnipotence of God must be with submission to his Pleasure and Goodness and Wisdom we must not expect that God will manifest his Power when we think there is occasion for it but when it seems best to him he will so imploy his Omnipotence as to manifest his Goodness and Wisdom And with these two Cautions we may rely upon him in all our Wants both Spiritual and Temporal for his Divine Power can give us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 We may trust him at all times for the Omnipotent God neither slumbereth nor sleepeth the Almighty fainteth not neither is he weary trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength SERMON XI Vol. VII· The Spirituality of the Divine Nature JOHN IV. 24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth THese are the words of our Saviour to the Woman of Samaria who was speaking to him of the difference between the Samaritans and the Jews concerning Religion v. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship Christ tells her The time was coming when the worshippers of God should neither be confined to that mountain nor to Jerusalem but men should worship the Father in spirit and in truth when this carnal and ceremonial and typical Worship of God should be exalted into a more spiritual a more real and true and substantial Religion which should not be confined to one Temple but should be universally diffused through the World Now such a Worship as this is most agreeable to the Nature of God for he is a spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth In the words we have First A Proposition laid down God is a spirit Secondly A Corollary or Inference deduced from it they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth I shall speak of the Proposition as that which concerns my present Design and afterward speak something to the Corollary or Inference deduced from it together with some other Inferences drawn from this truth by way of Application First That God is a spirit This expression is singular and not to be parallell'd again in the Scripture indeed we have often mention made in Scripture of the spirit of God and the spirit of the Lord which signifies a Divine Power and Energy and of the holy Spirit signifying the third Person in the Trinity God is call'd the God of the Spirits of all flesh Numb 16.22.27.16 much in the same Sense as he is call'd the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 that is the Creator of the Souls of Men but we no where meet with this expression or any other equivalent to it that God is a spirit but only in this place nor had it been used here but to prove that the best Worship of God that which is most proper to him is spiritual so that the thing which our Saviour here intends is not to prove the Spiritual Nature of God but that his Worship ought to be spiritual nor indeed is there any necessity that it should have been any where said in Scripture that God is a spirit it being the natural Notion of a God no more than it is necessary that it should be told us that God is good or that he is infinite and eternal and the like or that the Scripture should prove to us the Being of a God All these are manifest by the Light of Nature and if the Scripture mention them it is ex abundanti and it is usually in order to some further purpose For we are to know that the Scripture supposeth us to be Men and to partake of the common Notions of Human Nature and therefore doth not teach us Philosophy nor solicitously instruct us in those things which are born with us but supposeth the knowledge of these and makes use of these common Principles and Notions which are in us concerning God and the immortality of our Souls and the Life to come to excite us to our Duty and quicken our Endeavours after Happiness For I do not find that the Doctrine of the immortality of the Soul is any where expresly delivered in Scripture but taken for granted in like manner that the Scripture doth not solicitously instruct us in the natural Notions which we have of God but supposeth them known to us and if it mention them it is not so
and have been preserved by him and cannot subsist one moment without the continued influence of the Power and Goodness which first called us out of nothing He is the Author of all the good and the Fountain of all those Blessing which for the present we enjoy and for the future hope for When he made us at first he designed us for Happiness and when we by our sin and wilful mascarriage fell short of the Happiness which he design'd us for he sent his Son into the World for our recovery and gave his life for the Ransom of our Souls He hath not only admitted us into a new Covenant wherein he hath promised pardon and eternal life to us but he hath also purchased these Blessings for us by the most endearing price the blood of his own Son and hath saved us in such a manner as may justly astonish us Upon these Considerations we should awaken our selves to the praise of God and with the holy Psalmist call up our Spirits and summon all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls to assist us in this Work Psal 103.1 2 3 4. c. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies 't is he that satisfies our Souls with good things and crowneth us with tender mercies and loving hindness that hath promised Eternal Life and Happiness to us and must confer and bestow this upon us Therefore our Souls and all that is within us should bless his holy name 2. If God be the first Cause that is orders all things that befall us and by his Providence disposeth of all our concernments this should teach us with patience and quietness to submit to all Events to all evils and afflictions that come upon us as being disposed by his wise Providence and coming from him We are apt to attribute all things to the next and immediate Agent and to look no higher than Second Causes not considering that all the motions of Natural Causes are directly subordinate to the first Cause and all the actions of free Creatures are under the Government of God's wise Providence so that nothing happens to us besides the design and intention of God And methinks this is one particular Excellency of the style of the Scripture above all other Books that the constant Phrase of the Sacred Dialect is to attribute all Events excepting sins only to God so that every one that reads it cannot but take notice that it is wrote with a more attentive consideration of God than any other Book as appears by those frequent and express acknowledgments of God as the Cause of all Events so that what in other Writers would be said to be done by this or that Person is ascribed to God Therefore it is so often said that the Lord did this and that stirr'd up such an Enemy brought such a Judgment And we shall find that holy men in Scripture make excellent use of this consideration to argue themselves into patience and contentedness in every condition So Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good So Job he did not so consider the Sabeans and Chaldeans who had carried away his Oxen and his Camels and slain his Servants nor the Wind which had thrown down his House and kill'd his Sons and his Daughters but he looks up to God the great Governour and Disposer of all these Events The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. So David Psal 39.9 I was dumb and spake not a word because thou Lord didst it So our Blessed Saviour when he was ready to suffer he did not consider the malice of the Jews which was the cause of his death but looks to a higher hand the cup which my father gives me to drink shall not I drink it He that looks upon all things as coming from second Causes and does not eye the first Cause the good and wise Governour will be apt to take offence at every cross and unwelcome accident Men are apt to be angry when one flings Water upon them as they pass in the Streets but no man is offended if he is wet by Rain from Heaven When we look upon Evils as coming only from men we are apt to be impatient and know not how to bear them but we should look upon all things as under the Government and disposal of the first Cause and the Circumstances of every condition as allotted to us by the wise Providence of God this Consideration that it is the hand of God and that he hath done it would still all the murmurings of our Spirits As when a Seditious Multitude is in an uproar the presence of a grave and venerable person will hush the noise and quell the tumult so if we would but represent God as present to all actions and governing and disposing all Events this would still and appease our Spirits when they are ready to riot and mutiny against any of his Dispensations Vse the Second If God be the last End of all let us make him our last End and refer all our Actions to his glory This is that which is due to him as he is the first Cause and therefore he does most reasonably require it of us And herein likewise the Scripture doth excel all other Books that is doth more frequently and expresly mind us of this End and calls upon us to propose it to our selves as our ultimate aim and design We should love him as our chief End Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind Thus to love God is that which in the language of the Schools is loving God as our Chief End So likewise the Apostle requires that we should refer all the Actions of our lives to this End 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye eat or drink do all to the glory of God that we should glorifie him in our souls and in our bodies which are his He is the Author of all the powers that we have and therefore we should use them for him we do all by him and therefore we should do all to him And that we may the better understand our selves as to this duty I shall endeavour to give satisfaction to a Question or two which may arise about it First Whether an actual intention of God's Glory be necessary to make every Action that we do good and acceptable to God Answ 1. It is necessary that the glory of God either Formally or Virtually should be the ultimate end and scope of our lives and all our Actions otherwise they will be defective in that which in moral Actions is most considerable and that is the End If a man should keep all